Independence Day

Here we are, another Independence Day.  

Honestly this far into the Obama Administration's rule, I'd have thought that by now this day would be outlawed and we'd have police driving up and down streets in armored vehicles arresting those of us that fly our flags proudly and celebrate American independence from England's tyrannical rule.  Instead, we continue embracing our God-given rights we have as Americans. We still have the power of the Constitution watching our backs, and we stand on those words in the Constitution, words penned by men a few hundred years ago, as rebuttals to government authorities that lurk around us in the shadows of dark hallways of Congress and fly over our communities in drones, combing through our e-mails and listening in on phone calls seeking key words, watching us, spying on us, trying desperately to turn us into just another third world country, eliminating American excellence and independence.  Today, we are faced with the very possible reality of another tyrannical rule staring us right in the face, far worse than the one that our earliest settlers sailed from.  One from our very own government, one that smiles to our faces and glares daggers at our backs.  One that shoves phones and entitlements at us with one hand, while snatching away dreams and possibilities from us with the other hand.  We have a president that calls the Constitution a "document of negative liberties".  In other words, the very words that protect US are the same words that restrict HIM from doing exactly as he wants: Ruling with an iron fist, with his pen and cell phone, bypassing Congress, and making this country a direct reflection of what HE thinks this country should be, and not what our founding fathers wanted this country to be.

Daily I see on Facebook people ranting and raving about our government, throwing around words like militia, revolt, and martial law, making impotent little threats of "I'm going to do ___________ (fill in the blank) and they never seem to get around to whatever they were going to do.  As if being vocally active is going to do anything.  They try to encourage and, at times, incite, those they know into turning on our government in a bloody row and taking back this beloved country of ours.  I see words like, "I feel", "I think", "I', "me", "we".    I'm sorry to tell you folks, but it is that VERY mindset, that VERY attitude that has brought us to the brink of losing everything we hold dear in this country.  After a while, man thought he had all the answers and when man thinks that, that's when the questions change by the powers that be and we find ourselves knowing NOTHING.

We live in a country with rights coming from God.  Beginning in the 1950's, people began thinking God was no longer needed.  Prayer was taken out of schools.  Where once teachers read the scriptures to their classes before the school day began, that's no longer allowed.  Children that take their Bibles to school to read during private reading time are being told they can't bring the Bible to school.  You can read stories about Bobby having two mommies or Steven and his two daddies, but our kids can't read the Bible in school.  In 1963 Madalyn Murray O'Hair filed a lawsuit, Murray v. Curlett, which banned compulsory prayer in public schools.  Today, your daughter can get an abortion without your permission, but your kids can't be led in prayer in that same classroom your daughter who just had the abortion learns in. 

Women began working outside the home and after that first taste of financial independence landed on their tongues, they soon found themselves questioning the need for husbands and traditional marriage.  I've just finished up six past seasons of Mad Men, a period piece that is brilliantly written and staged.  The story of Mad Men first began in 1960 when women were forging roads into the man's world of corporate life and these girls were willing to do any and everything they could to taste the teeniest bit of power and financial freedom that men had been enjoying for decades before that.  As time and decades marched on, morals were shoved out the door faster than hemlines rose and before long God was being buried under drugs, free love, multiple partners, swinging, divorce, and cohabitation.  The early '70's brought us Roe v. Wade, the legalization of abortion.  Decades later 56 million babies have been mercilessly sucked out of their mother's wombs in the name of sexual freedom and choice.   Two states now have legalized casual use of marijuana.  The sanctity of marriage is being usurped by couples that find it just fine to live with someone without the benefit of marriage. In 1969, the Stonewall riots took place wherein the gay community protested and fought against local police and the gay and lesbian movement was brought front and center to our lives.  Today, state after state is falling in lockstep with gay marriage.  If you're a Christian and own a wedding business, saying "no" to a gay couple that asks to hire you for their "wedding" is a surefire death sentence for you and your family.  You're supposed to encourage and applaud THEIR choice to live the gay lifestyle, but you're destroyed financially, emotionally, mentally, and sometimes physically, if you stand up with YOUR choice to say no to them.  

In short, we have chased God our of our lives and out of our country like a starving dog chases a steak.  Snarling and frothing at the mouth, the name of God has absolutely NO place in our schools, in our courthouses, sometimes in our own homes. Cities attack residents that hold church meetings in their houses, citing city ordinances for parking violations to keep members and believers from gathering in private homes to worship the Lord.  Churches are the last safe haven for God and his believers and I fear it won't be much longer before churches are being monitored, if they aren't already, for those "judgmental, hateful, pious, holier-than-thou, Christians".  We can't have people that believe in God gathering for prayer and encouragement of each other to stand strong against the freedom loving and moral squashing humanistic beliefs that are prevalent in today's society.

Today, we keep looking for a man to save this country.  For the next great candidate, councilman, mailman, SOME man, ANY man, to save us.  We think that standing up to our government is going to right the ship that's going under.  We think that MAN and man alone can save this country.  And that is where the biggest lie and mistake is found.

MAN cannot fix this.  NO man can.  NO election is going to bring about the answers we need.  Running to the poling place ISN'T going to solve our giant myriad of problems.  What will?

Falling to our knees and repenting.  Praying.  2 Chronicles 7:14:  ¹⁴ If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Repentance.  Bowing our heads in humility and turning our faces to God, acknowledging that without Him, we are nothing, we accomplish nothing, we HAVE nothing. Repentance also means that you completely turn from your abominable acts and pursue the righteousness of the Lord. Anything else is just being an unconverted convert.  Asking forgiveness for everything we have kicked under the bus that is right and righteous, acknowledging Him as the head of our households and the foundation of our country.  God has all the power we keep trying to foist off onto a man or possibly a group of men.  But we have asked God to leave.  No....we have TOLD God to leave.  And to paraphrase Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of the great Billy Graham, "God is a gentleman.  If he's asked to leave, he's not going to overstay his welcome."

So, now we are at a crossroads.  Our country teeters precipitously on the edge of destruction and we have one of two ways we can go.  We can keep allowing the darkness of man to drag us into assured destruction, or we can raise our hands to the heavens, ask Him to forgive us of our trespasses, allow Him back into this country that He gave us (and do not confuse this--God GAVE us this country to be a shining beacon to the world, to show the world how great a nation can be when you live by godly principles).  Is this going to happen?  Honestly?  Likely not.  Man's arrogance has become suffocating.  Man is convinced he doesn't need God and can do this on his own.

Sadly, the realization that that thought process isn't true will probably come too late for us to right this ship.  That doesn't mean that there aren't those of us that seek His face every day and seek his wisdom and guidance for every event and decision in our lives.  John Adams said it best.  "This nation and this Constitution are meant for a god-fearing and moral people.  Anything less will be simply inadequate and the nation will fall into ruin."  There are PLENTY of believers, but it's very, very lonely at the top.  

So while you're watching firewords and gorging yourselves on hotdogs and hamburgers in the name of Independence Day, remember, independence from God isn't going to do anything to save our country.  DEPENDENCE on Him will.  Independence from God means the destruction of man, and satan stands at the gate, grinning his evil grin, waiting and watching as human after human ends its journey on the highway to hell, fully consumed with their power, and shunning God's righteous power.  

Happy Independence Day.  What choice will YOU make?