PLUS

I Peter 5:6-7 “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:  Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.”

The Declaration of Independence ends with the following sentence:

“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor.”

The Founding Fathers recognized that if they were going to be part of something as miraculous as the birth of a new nation like the United States of America, then they needed to firmly rely upon the Lord.  They humbled themselves and cast all their care upon Him.  The result was an exalted nation.

If American Christians today are going to be part of something as miraculous as the rebirth of our nation through widespread revival, then we need to firmly rely upon the Lord.  We must humble ourselves and cast all our care upon Him.  The nation will never be exalted once again unless we do so.

If you are like me, you yearn to be part of something miraculous in this land.  Such a transformation won’t come from the magnificent works of our hands, but by the heavenly reliance of our hearts.  PLEASE PRAY THAT AMERICAN CHRISTIANS WOULD EMBRACE THE SAME FORMULA FOR NATIONAL EXALTATION AS DID OUR FOREFATHERS.

Joshua 4:6-7 “That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones?  Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off:  and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel forever.”

Hebrews 12:1 “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”

Though it is often overshadowed by its proximity on the calendar to Independence Day, the Battle of Gettysburg is one of the most pivotal events in our nation’s history.  During the first few days of July in 1863, Union and Confederate forces faced one another in a bloody battle whose outcome likely determined the fate of the American Union.  Several months later, Abraham Lincoln memorialized that battle with the following words that we know as the Gettysburg Address:

“Four score and seven 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 battlefield 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.”

President Lincoln used the motivational tool of past successful sacrifices to motivate those in the present.  He recognized that if the nation were to endure through its perilous struggles, then its people needed to harness the memory of past victories.  The passages in Hebrews and Joshua do the same.

Now like them, it is up to the living to be dedicated to the unfinished work of the past, so nobly advanced by our Christian forefathers.  The task ahead of us is great, and we must resolve that the sacrificial efforts of previous generations of Christian citizens would not be in vain.  We must dedicate ourselves to a new birth of freedom in this nation so that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

PLEASE PRAY THAT THE SUCCESSFUL SACRIFICES OF OUR CHRISTIAN FOREFATHERS WOULD MOTIVATE TODAY’S AMERICAN CHRISTIANS TO COURAGEOUSLY STAND FOR CHRIST.

Psalm 127:1 “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it; except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.”

In the speech referenced in the previous post, Dr. Ben Franklin went on to say:

“I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth – that God Governs in the affairs of men.  And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?  We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that ‘except the Lord build the House they labour in vain that build it.’  I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better, than the Builders of Babel:  We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages.  And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing Governments by Human wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest.

I therefore beg leave to move – that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the Clergy of this City be requested to officiate in that Service.”

Whatever we attempt to build or keep will be in vain unless we relinquish control unto the Lord.  Ben Franklin specifically applied this truth to the political realm in the attempt to create and sustain the United States of America.  How did Dr. Franklin recommend that the Founding Fathers put this truth into action?  His recommendation was a simple one, to pray daily for our nation while imploring the assistance of Heaven.

May we take this advice and apply his recommendation today as our Founding Fathers readily did during late June of 1787.  For them, it created an environment that mended their divisions and yielded a Heavenly wisdom that formed our founding document.  For us, may it mend our divisions and yield a Heavenly wisdom that returns us to the truths contained in that founding document.

PLEASE PRAY DAILY, IMPLORING THE ASSISTANCE OF HEAVEN TO REDIRECT OUR ERRANT NATION.  God does govern the affairs of men and our efforts are in vain without Him.

Isaiah 59:10 “We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes; we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.”

Job 12:25 “They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man.”

As the end of June approached in 1787 and the temperatures rose in Philadelphia, so did the tempers at the Constitutional Convention.  After several weeks of debate and deliberation, the men that were assembled there faced several impasses that threatened to derail the new nation before it even began.  Recognizing the precariousness of the situation, the elder statesman Dr. Benjamin Franklin rose to his feet to state the following:

“In this situation of this Assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understandings?  In the beginning of the Contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection.  Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered.  All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending providence in our favor.

To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity.  And have we now forgotten that powerful friend?  Or do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance?”

Ben Franklin, a man not known for a religious fervency, recognized the fruitlessness of continuing on in the absence of daily prayer for our nation.  What sense did it make to grope about in darkness when the light was readily available?  What sense did it make for them to imagine that they no longer needed the Lord’s assistance?  What sense did it make to depart from the proven instances of superintending providence in their favor?  Apart from God, the loose collection of states had no hope of joining into a viable nation.  Apart from God, they were destined to stumble at noonday as in the night.

The same is true today.  Apart from God, we are destined to stumble at noonday as in the night.  Apart from God, we have little hope of remaining a viable nation.  What sense does it make to grope about in darkness when the light is readily available? What sense does it make for us to imagine that we no longer need the Lord’s assistance?  What sense does it make to depart from the proven instances of superintending providence in our nation’s favor?  The answer to these rhetorical questions is the same as in Dr. Franklin’s time; it makes no sense.

PLEASE PRAY THAT AMERICAN CHRISTIANS WOULD RECOGNIZE THE FRUITLESSNESS OF CONTINUING ON IN OUR NATION IN THE ABSENCE OF DAILY PRAYER.

Romans 1:22 “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.”

In the Wall Street Journal article referenced in my previous post, the most interesting finding regards the intentional ignorance about the compelling research that uplifts the Bible-based family as the preferred alternative to all others.  The authors state the following:

“Yet in the current discussions about increased inequality, few researchers, fewer reporters, and no one in the executive branch of government directly addresses what seems to be the strongest statistical correlate of inequality in the United States: the rise of single-parent families during the past half century.”

They go on to say the following about the primary professional organizations engaged in inequality research:

“In the past four years, our two academic professional organizations—the American Political Science Association and the American Educational Research Association—have each dedicated annual meetings to inequality, with numerous papers and speeches denouncing free markets, the decline of unions, and ‘neoliberalism’ generally as exacerbating economic inequality. Yet our searches of the groups’ conference websites fail to turn up a single paper or panel addressing the effects of family change on inequality.”

Though the world ignores the viewpoint on this issue that does not coincide with their political agenda, it doesn’t make the truth any less true.  In fact, the more adamant they are in claiming a prominent role of second-order factors in American inequality, the more they reveal themselves as politically and not practically motivated.  The more they claim wisdom apart from the Bible (and compelling research), the more they reveal themselves as fools.

PLEASE PRAY THAT AMERICAN CHRISTIANS WOULD NOT BE AFRAID TO SPEAK THE TRUTH ON BIBLE-BASED ISSUES.  No matter how loud the world trumpets their viewpoints, the Biblical viewpoint is the one that our nation must hear and heed.  Our spiritual and practical well-being are at stake, regardless of what the ‘wise’ among us would have us to believe.