"In God we trust", "one nation under God", opening the senate with
prayer, "all men created equal", what IS all this? To the untrained eye
America looks like a religious state founded on godly principles by a
religious people.
The Supreme Court has in the last 2 decades rejected the
supposition that America is a state in which religious convictions are
the underpinning of our constitution. The National Education Association
is committed to giving every child a nonreligious education. They don't
see that in the process they have embraced the religion of Secular
Humanism. Some people dream of a completely secular America some day
soon.
Almost from its beginning the movie industry has chafed at the
ideas of the nation's puritanical forebears.
Art, and particularly art
that is entertaining, has great power to influence teenagers and those in
their twenties.
A view of the world has been portrayed and a lifestyle
has been purveyed that has little to do with the noble ideals of the
godly patriots who founded this nation.
All of the above and more has
produced a generation of Americans who, like their contemporaries
mentioned in the Bible, have grown up not knowing the Lord.
America is at
a crossroads. The enticements of departing from its roots and becoming a
wholeheartedly secular state are beckoning us. Israel's general Joshua
challenged his nation:
"Choose today Whom you will serve, but as for me
and my house we'll serve the Lord."
We need to make up our minds too.
Throw into the mix that our nation's historians are ardently
rewriting its history to make those ancient days conform to a secular
humanism influenced world-view. All this calls the American people to
become a temporal people trying to throw off the duties and restraints of
their religious heritage. "Going with the flow" is a choice too!
At the edge of this debate stands the hand wringing, politically
pouting, but morally divided, modern church. There was a time in our
first 200 years when the teachings from America's pulpits and the daily
Bible reading in her homes shaped the laws and conduct of her citizens.
John Wesley, who preached on these shores before returning to England to
lead one of Britain's greatest revivals said: "The pulpit has been so
frequently prostituted to servile ends, that it is now no longer capable
of serving them." If the homes go astray, blame the pulpit. If the
government goes wrong blame the pulpit.
The church has been marginalized and most American clergy don't
like it that way. I submit that if the trend in this nation is away from
its roots towards secularism then the removal of the church's heretofore
privileged position is a good thing! No seriously - it is.
If the American church is glowing with spiritual health it will
find new ways to speak prophet-like to the feet of those in D.C. and the
state capitals who are going astray in a sheep-like fashion. We don't
need government money or a parliamentary nod to speak for God in this or
any other nation.
If the church in this land is spiritually bankrupt, and
many think it is, all the more reason for American politicians to stop
pretending to be religious. A dead church has no contribution to make to
a struggling nation.
Its time for the organization that bears Christ's Name on these
shores to repent. Let the church turn back from organization to organism.
Let that which bears Christ's name once more also bear her Master's life
and image.
If you call yourself a Christian, but do not live in a daily,
vibrant relationship with the Spirit of Jesus - you my fellow citizen are
part of the problem.
A lukewarm Christianity lulls its bearer into false
security, causes the onlookers to suspect hypocrisy, and worst of all
makes Jesus sick enough to vomit.
No, that's not writer's liberty, that's
what Jesus in the last book of the Bible says how He feels about
comfortable, compromising Christianity.
Get back on fire for Christ.
America needs it and Jesus wants it.
You require it and evil hates it.
Make up your mind.
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