2 Chronicles 30:8 Now be ye not stiffnecked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the LORD, and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath sanctified for ever: and serve the LORD your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you.
There can be little doubt that this has been one of the hottest summers on record. Scientists have myriad excuses for the searing sun and devastating drought, but few solutions to the problem. Young and old alike are dropping in this blistering weather like wheat before the reaper.
Food prices are on the rise. If you don’t believe me, run down to the local Winn Dixie with five bucks to buy something for dinner, then get back to me on what you were able to purchase. I know last year about this time, I could buy a pound and a half of hamburger and if I was really frugal about it, hop across the street to the bread store and also buy a pack of buns. Hey. It’s not Mc Donald’s or anything, but it’ll do. You try that right now… and you’ll be scraping spare change out of your center car console to cover the tax… and that’s if you’re lucky.
Murder and theft are on the rise and people are basically in an uproar. It seems the hotter it gets, the more violent it gets. You need only turn on the news to see it.
Last year about this time, a lady was beaten half to death at an attorney’s office right around the corner from where I work. My boss was so upset about it that we had to institute a "locked door" policy and all clientele had to bang on the entrance to gain access.
Security at the government centers has doubled and people are begging door-to-door for scraps of food, or a few dollars to pay for another night at the Salvation Army in order to stay out of the heat.
The truth is, that the United States we live in is the not the same one born here on this soil. The original child who lived in this house was wholesome and kind, sometimes giving even to a fault and dedicated to serving the other children of the world. That first American child believed in God with all its sweet little heart and would never let anyone take that away from them. That child lived in a beautiful house full of love, and blessed with food and green lands a plenty.
The adult it has grown into has become a hardened soul, honoring the spirit of self and living in a condo that it pays someone else to maintain.
In the pimple years, the age of reason dawned upon it and the naivety of youth became spilled upon the ground in pools of crimson, hemorrhaged from the very veins of our own people.
In its adult years it seemed that if anyone were to plead a case with enough seduction and points of reason, they could have their way despite the ground rules laid down by the founding fathers.
Who WERE those old guys anyway?
Isn’t being a youngster in the world all about rebellion?
(Better watch that… they say that Satan is the father of rebellion, and the Bible says in Isaiah 15: 23, that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.)
I mean sure, you could be living in another country without the freedoms we take for granted with every breath we take, so it could be worse… but is this what our country was built for? Are we truly honoring the spiritual foundation our country was based upon? Nope.
If you were to ask a soldier who has been to a third world country, if he thinks those people have the same freedom as you and I, he would tell you they certainly do not. But will he tell you that they believe in God, in love, in hope? Yes. He most likely will.
In Shakespeare’s 29th sonnet, he says:
"with that which I love most (I am) contented least."
If you are what you covet, then America is the devil.
If money is the root of all evil, then we’re all on a one way roller coaster ride to hell looking for it. If that weren’t true, people wouldn’t do such insanely immoral things to obtain it.
Ever heard the adage: "the proof is in the pudding?"
Here’s some spiritual pudding for you:
Leviticus 26:2-12 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD. If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land. And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you. And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new. And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people. [KJV]
Do you think it’s some cosmic accident that the seasons have forgotten where they’re supposed to land? Much of what we grow is going over seas to help people. While that’s a good thing, with the Southern drought these past years, and the Mid-west and Northern flooding, crops are having a hard time surviving. Our increase is in jeopardy because the rain hasn’t fallen in due season and the ground is drying up.
When’s the last time you really felt safe? I don’t mean; "It’s okay, I can always call 9-1-1" safe… I mean the… "No worries, mate God’s got it.", kind of safe.
Remember that whole "Pearl Harbor" thing? That happened to us back in the Andy Griffith days, when the sheriff came to the door for lemonade on a hot afternoon, and most people in the community went to the same church. The Pastor came for dinner or when people were sick, and folks waved to you as you passed on the street, and basically took care of their "fellow man". Locking the door was unheard of, and there was no boogey man out there that your faithful old dog couldn’t most likely take care of. Nobody locked their cars, because people weren’t interested in taking your stereo or joyriding in your vehicle.
That Pearl Harbor attack was the first time since we became a nation unto ourselves that a common foe brought their fight over here and the "sword ran through our land".
Wanna hear the interesting part? We won that war.
I hope you don’t think that we have more people living here than in Japan… certainly not back then. We were outnumbered about a hundred to five, really.
At that time, your babies were praying in school and had teachers who not only talked the talk but who walked it, and often taught Sunday School as well. Our leaders held prayer in public and spoke of God in their speeches and addresses. Families wouldn’t dream of having a meal at the table together without saying grace, and fathers knew what the word "dad" meant. Mothers took their role in raising children to be an honor, not a speed bump on the road to success.
You try getting your family to the table at one time in today’s hullabaloo, and most likely you’ll be pulling your hair out by the second course.
Needless to say, America grew into its rebellious years, drinking, partying, staying out late. Parents became vacillating remnants of their former selves, concerned only with self-indulgence and success while their children were left to their own devices in a country that had taken on the early signs of Alzheimer’s disease and forgot who it really was.
Enter the catalyst.
He reasoned with us, taught us his own brand of "fairness". He taught men to "judge cleverly", "take no responsibility unless lawfully necessary". People began thinking they were tired of living the same old way. In their rebellion thought…
"Who’s business is it anyway what I do with my own body, my own life?"
"Who’s gonna know? Right?"
In our judicial system, you’re innocent until proven guilty, so you can pretty much do whatever you want to do, so long as you don’t get caught doing it. Right?
Wrong. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
For a very long time, truth was my failing. I couldn’t tell you what it was if it walked up and slapped me in the face. I was more interested entertaining people than actually being honest with them… and that’s wrong. Sure, people liked me, enjoyed being around me and in fact were even drawn to me, but I’m that I’m not proud of it.
Right now, the truth is that America is suffering for the crimes of its last few generations and things aren’t looking too bright for the next few.
Remember that passage from Leviticus? Here’s what it had to say about the country that defies God, and does not follow His divine laws and statues…
Leviticus 26: 14-22
But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant: I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you. And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass: And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits. And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins. I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate. [KJV]
Let’s think about that for a minute…
He will appoint terror. Isn’t that what this whole war on "terrorism" is all about? "Consumption" and "burning ague" are references to inflammatory or burning fever. Do we not have diseases with this side effect that have baffled scientists? Were we not slain before our enemies in 9/11, the time when the sword ran through our country yet again? Are we not planting and sowing in vain with this drought?
Knowing that God will reward the country the serves Him, and punish the country that opposes Him, how can we continue to deny what we know in our hearts is true? He lives and He loves us. Our country was founded upon those very laws and statutes that He stamped upon our hearts to make us unto Him a people and Him unto us a God.
If you need some confirmation of God’s promise to bless those who follow him, check out Deuteronomy, chapters 28 and 29. They basically expound upon the verse in Leviticus. It says that God will "set thee on high above all nations of the earth", that we shall be blessed in the cities and in the fields. He says He will bless the fruit of our bodies (our children), and the fruit of our fields, our livestock. (Personally, I’m sick of the whole "mad cow" thing). It says He will bless us in all that we set our hands to.
I used to think it would be hard to serve God because I thought I’d have to give up a bunch of stuff. All I had to do was believe…accept the Lord Jesus Christ as my savior and beg him for forgiveness. A funny thing happened… I got saved and I haven’t missed anything. I don’t sit around all day going… "Hey. I miss hanging out in bars all night and singing to a bunch of drunks." Or "Wow, look at all those drugs I could be doing". (These are examples here folks. I never did drugs.)
Whoever dreamed up that commercial that says: "No child ever says they want to grow up to be a drug dealer" was a genius. In the background you hear these children saying, "I want to be a doctor", "I want to save animals", "I want to be a ballet dancer", "I want to be a super hero", "I want to be the president".
Still it makes me wonder what those children will turn into as adults. I wonder if someone were to interview them fifteen years from now if they would have accomplished their dreams. It’s hard to say. If they grow up the same way America did, they will most likely turn into an over-indulgent, gay/lesbian individual with self-loathing sycophantic issues and a wishy-washy disposition.
We have GOT to step out of this vapor and attempt to see the world a little clearer. Right now, that consort of shadow, the devil, is preying upon our young, our weak, our tired, and our minds. He’s seeping into modern culture with words of logic and reason coupled with the "I’m okay-you’re okay" approach and it’s choking the spiritual life out of our country.
They’ve taken the prayer out of schools, and Biblical doctrine that the country is founded upon out of our courtrooms. Looking back at that sentence, I realize I have used the word "They’ve" too loosely. WE’VE done these things. In our silence we’ve allowed it, even condoned it. If we’re Christian, God is our GREATEST line of defense, not our last, so if we believe, then the responsibility to take action falls on us.
I know how hard that is. I’m a working mother. There is SO much I want to do for God… that I can’t do. There is SO MUCH I want to do for the people of this world, but I am one person with limited means and zero resources… but God is omnipotent. I can do one thing without fear, without regret, without pain. I can kneel, and I can pray, and so can you.
Let’s put God’s laws first, His ideals ahead of our own. Let us work together as brothers and sisters and pray for one another, and for our country. Let us not forget that our currency says: "In God We Trust", and that in our pledge we admit "One Nation Under God" is indivisible.
Let us be a praying nation so that God, our Father will walk among us once more and make our country safer for our children and grandchildren, make our country strong again so that we can stand up for those who can not… make us truly a nation of liberty and justice.
Let us pray for one another, for our children, our families, our country, for our soldiers who defend it. Let us pray together as one nation under God. Let us help repair the damage that has been done to our country by living as Christian sojourns in a country of despair and let God repair what has been done.
You know He can, and I know He will because he says so in Leviticus 26 : 44-45
"And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God. But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD." [KJV]
I’m going to close with this excerpt from the Gettysburg Address and as you read, try to think of the war he speaks of as a spiritual battle, and as the battle against terrorism. These words ring every bit as clear today as they did back then:
Four score and twenty years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
