God bless America… HAPPY 4TH OF JULY
“For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us…” Deuteronomy 4:7
This year we celebrate the 246th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, founding of the United States.
I am in Massachusetts visiting our newest grandson and family, about 40 miles from where the first shot of the American Revolution was fired. As I walked around what can be described as a quintessential American village, my mind went to a few thoughts about then and now.
Back then our nation was founded, in part, as a result of three forces:
1. The force of Dissatisfaction. People were dissatisfied with their lives, lives ruled by tyranny. The Founders knew the tyranny of the state, they knew the tyranny of the church, and they also knew the tyranny which rules the human heart.
2. The force of a Belief and Vision. The Founders believed lives ruled under God, living in a society structured such that no singular human institution, especially the government or church, could become more powerful than the collective will of the people, might just work. It has been a 246-year experiment.
Disconnecting the power of the institutional church was one structural step. Dividing the governmental functions into three branches was another.
Yet underpinning this balance of “under God” and yet not requiring it vis-a-vie a State Church, was a Vision that relies upon the Almighty—One Nation Under God. James Madison perhaps stated it clearly when he wrote that “unless these people are governed by a higher moral authority, these freedoms will be their undoing.”
3. The force of Action. For individuals to be organized around the Vision certainly required that they be called to collective action. Leadership is a must. Yet without the first two forces, the amount of energy needed to overcome human inertia is huge—leadership without the other two forces will not mobilize a large group.
Which is why I am so thankful for Jesus.
1. You and I know what it is like to live under the tyranny of sin. We want all to be free. We are restless, you might say, dissatisfied with the current state of America and the world.
2. You and I know, belief, our only hope for America and the world, is if people individually obtain the full and true freedom that only comes in and through Jesus Christ.
3. You and I, through The Pocket Testament League, are organized collectively for action. We know that no human structure, be it the government, or the church, can will a human heart to repentance. Only God’s Holy Spirit can do that work. Which is why we are organized for action that seeks to plant in every human heart the powerful seed, the powerful living Word of God.
We know that if we fail to do so in America, then Madison’s axiom will prevail – it why Reaching America is so critical.