Author: John Page 15 of 156

Psalm 33:12 “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.”

Psalm 20:7 “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.”

Romans 13:1 “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.”

As described in last week’s post, we have been endowed by our Creator with the rights that we enjoy. As stated in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

There are two important ramifications of this powerful statement of God-given rights that me must never forget.

First, we must remember the superiority of God in everything in our lives and our society, including His preeminence in the blessed provision of our rights. The famous French Historian and political philosopher Alexis De Tocqueville wrote the following in the 1830s: “It is religion which has given birth to Anglo-American societies: one must never lose sight of that; in the United States, religion is thus intimately linked to all national habits and all the emotions which one’s native country arouses; that gives it a particular strength.” When we rely on a false foundation for our rights and our strength, trusting in anything other than the Lord, it produces a fragile freedom.

Second, we must never lose sight of the line in the Declaration of Independence that immediately follows the sentence listed above: “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Government is not the source of our rights, it is only charged with securing the rights that we already have been given. Rabbi Sacks (mentioned last week) boldly stated this poignant truth: “when human beings arrogate supreme power to themselves, politics losses its soul securing the defense of freedom.”

Our rights hinge on these two critical truths!

PLEASE PRAY FOR AMERICAN CHRISTIANS TO STRONGLY CONTEND FOR OUR GOD-GIVEN RIGHTS BY NEVER ALLOWING GOVERNMENT TO SUPERSEDE GOD’S PROPER PLACEMENT IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF OUR LIBERTIES. May we never arrogate God’s rightful position in the establishment of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Galatians 5:1 “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”

Romans 13:1 “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.”

The Declaration of Independence brilliantly describes the true and ultimate source of our rights: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

We have been endowed by our Creator with rights that must not be taken away from us. They are unalienable!

He gave us life, he gave us liberty, and he gave us the opportunity to pursue happiness. We must never rob the Lord of the appreciation fully due to Him for these blessings in our lives. Once we lose sight of the source of these rights, we quickly drift away from liberty and towards bondage.

Rabbi Sacks, the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth from 1991 to 2013 reminds us that America’s “source of inspiration was the Hebrew Bible.” He goes on to say that “the tree of liberty has religious roots. Don’t believe you can sever these roots and have the tree of liberty survive.” President Thomas Jefferson echoed these thoughts by words engraved on the walls of the Jefferson Memorial: “God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?”

John Winthrop was the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. During his long voyage to the New World in 1630, he wrote “A Model of Christian Charity.” In it, he provides a stark warning for all: “For we must consider that we shall be as a City upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword throughout the world.”

If America loses sight of the Christ-centered source of our rights, then we risk becoming the cautionary tale of a nation that has been abandoned because we first did the abandoning.

PLEASE PRAY FOR AMERICAN CHRISTIANS TO RECOGNIZE AND RETURN TO THE TRUE SOURCE OF OUR RIGHTS. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness hang in the balance.

Genesis 1:27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

II Timothy 4:7 “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”

I Corinthians 12:4-7 “Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.”

John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”

The Declaration of Independence powerfully and profoundly states the following: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Yes, we are CREATED as the previous post reminded us, but God’s plan is far better than even that. We are created EQUAL! We have been crafted and formed by our Glorious Maker in the image of God Himself.

None of this means that we are cookie-cutter, assembly-line-formed robotic outputs of creation. Such equity would mandate a mundane milieu for humanity. Instead, we have been formed in equality. Yet, all of us amazingly have our own courses, walk our own paths, embody a diversity of gifts, and yield complementary elements of impact.

All the while we can rest in the all-consuming truth that God loves us equally. The same God worketh in each of us. He has provided us a faith to follow in our own contexts and circumstances. He has also yielded His Son for salvation and His Spirit for steadfastness. Finally, he punctuates His stunning plan of equality with a supernatural dash of undeserved equity for those who trust in Him – an eternity in heaven through the shed blood of His Son.

PLEASE PRAY FOR AMERICAN CHRISTIANS TO EMBRACE THE POWERFUL EQUALITY OF CREATION AND LOVE THAT ARE PART OF GOD’S PLAN FOR HUMANITY AND A KEY ELEMENT OF OUR NATIONAL FOUNDATION. We must celebrate the wonders of equality!

ADMIN: My next PLUS post will be on July 22^nd. Yet, please don’t take a break in praying for our nation and our leaders.

Psalm 139:13-14 “For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderful made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.”

Psalm 119:73 “Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments.”

Mark 10:6 “But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.”

Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”

II Timothy 1:9 “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began”

Likely the most powerful sentence ever conceived by human minds and written by human hands is the following from our Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Because of its profound nature, it is worth lingering a bit in this series on some of the society-changing and life-altering truths contained in this simple 35-word sentence. And, it is worth starting with the essential truth that we are CREATED.

We are not an accident! We have not been formed by odds-defeating cosmic chance. We are not amoral creatures void of purpose because we are unformed and unremarkable. We are not the result of a preposterous process of vectorless mutations, ruthless selections, and soulless instincts.

Instead, we have been carefully created by a loving, all-knowing, purpose-providing God. We are fearfully and wonderfully made, carefully knit together as preborn babies. The Creator has formed and fashioned each one of us. Our lives have inherent structure, purpose, meaning, value and worth.

Our creation is the basis for society and the foundation of our liberty!

PLEASE PRAY FOR AMERICAN CHRISTIANS TO EMPHASIZE THE ELEMENT OF CREATION AS THE CORE OF OUR INDEPENDENCE CELEBRATION. We were created!

Romans 13:1 “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.”

Psalm 20:7 “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.”

Psalm 33:12 “Blessed in the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people who he hath chosen for his own inheritance.”

Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”

In the first year of the PLUS ministry, I posted a series on the Declaration of Independence. In the intervening ten years, much has changed in the culture and the climate of our great nation. As a result, it is time for a refresher on the truths of our founding, the power of our founding principles, and the God-given wisdom of our founders.

Let me start this series with some provocative and powerful thoughts from Frederick Douglass, an amazing 19th Century American orator, abolitionist, and woman’s suffragist. He was one of the greatest minds and speakers in American history. And as an escaped slave, he offers a particularly unique view of the American experiment.

Douglass stated the following hard truth (1860):

“The American people, likewise, have made void their law by their traditions; they have trampled upon their own constitution, stepped beyond the limits set for themselves, and, in their ever-abounding iniquity, established a constitution of action outside of the fundamental law of the land. While the one is good, the other is evil; while the one is for liberty, the other is in favour of slavery; the practice of the American government is one thing, and the character of the constitution of the government is quite another and different thing.”

There is an important nuance to be noted. When it came to slavery and other shortcomings in our society, there was a major application problem with our founding principles and not an underlying systemic problem. In fact, Douglass said that “the Constitution is a GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT” (emphasis provided by Douglass). He called our founders “great men” and “brave men.” He stated that “the fathers are entitled to the profound gratitude of mankind.”

None of these thoughts overlook their sins, their tragic errors, and their serious shortcomings. Those are plain for all to see. But for Douglass and for us today, we must recognize the stunning brilliance of a government formed on an acknowledgement of the higher powers that are ordained of God. The Constitution and the Declaration of Independence can be considered GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENTS because they are formed on a Biblical bedrock – the ultimate GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT.

PLEASE PRAY FOR AMERICAN CHRISTIANS TO BE SUBJECT TO HIGHER POWERS AS THE FOUNDATION OF OUR PERSONAL AND NATIONAL BLESSINGS.