The Christian life enjoys many distinctives.  Paul inventories several of Christianity’s characteristics:

• A faith common to God’s chosen people
• A body of truth originating in and radiating from God’s personality
• An attribute of life eternal in duration

God has chosen a common people to possess an uncommon trust in His holy Christ.  You have received a faith of the same class and usefulness as the apostles (II Pe. 1:1).  Your responsibility is to grow in the grace and knowledge of God’s truth (II Pe. 3:18).

God’s truth possesses a godly character thereby leading to godliness.  You know you are a Christian when godliness becomes your primary characteristic.  As you mature in your trust, you become godlier because you more fully resemble Christ.  

The Fall in the Garden of Eden was the most ruinous event in the history of mankind.  It was worse than Hiroshima and the Nazi death chambers, for Adam’s fall affected every person who has ever lived and shall ever live.  

God promised eternal life long ages ago.  Christians live eternally due solely to the relationship they have with God through their Lord Jesus Christ.  If you are a Christian, your eternity has already begun and you do not want anything to spoil the eternity you are going to enjoy with your holy God.  God’s chosen people refuse all enticements to live like unchosen people.  You know that you have as many gods as you do lusts.  Therefore, you hold fast to Peter’s admonition: “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul.  Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles” (I Pe. 2:11f.).  

Examine yourself closely – test yourself to see if you are in the faith (II Cor. 13:5).  You can be torn in your old Adam desire to hold fast to the world and your last Adam desire to be transformed from glory to glory into Christlikeness (II Cor. 3:18).  You can be convicted of sin without being converted to righteousness.  You can be merely hearing the word of God and yet deceive yourself into believing you are keeping the word of God.  

Cherish the trust you have in common with God’s people.  Grow in your knowledge of God’s godly truth.  Live your life now approximating the way you are going to live when you are absent from the body and at home with the Lord (II Cor. 5:8).

“According to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.  Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless” (II Pe. 3:13f.).

The Persian government issued a law that removed its racial discrimination against the Jews.  One of the results of the Jews being treated fairly was that many of the people wanted to become Jews.  What happens when a government begins to pass laws that reverse the unrighteousness of perverse statutes and promotes the righteousness of God?  People are drawn to the people-group that initiated the righteous legislation.

What people-group in your nation fosters righteous laws?  What people-group battles legislation that promotes unrighteousness?  What people-group is willing to place its resources and reputation in the public square in order to lift high the cause of rightness instead of wrongness?

God said through the prophet Amos, “Seek good and not evil….  Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the gate!” (Am. 5:14).  Are you aligned with a people-group that seeks good and not evil?  Does your lifestyle and stewardship of your personal resources provide evidence of a person committed to establishing justice in the gates of his city and nation?

If the response of the Persians is any indication, many of the peoples of your nation would want to take upon themselves the faith you practice if the laws of your nation would exhibit the righteousness of God that alone exalts a nation.  Would it not appear most biblical (and therefore most logical!) that a people-group desiring the salvation of those perishing would avail themselves of every means to make their faith attractive to those outside their faith?

Scores of churchmen are sitting idly by as they glance upon the closing struggles of a once Christian nation.  They are refusing the most obvious of engagements.  You must not join the legion of Pilate who delivered over truth to be crucified and yet perceive yourself innocent of its blood (Mt. 27:24).  You must go public with your Christianity (Neh. 5:7; Mt. 23; Acts 17).

Numerous righteous, God-fearing Americans are surrendering too much attention to the cry of the more vocal unrighteous who bellow for the crucifixion of truth.  Bowing to the philosophy and pleasure of an unholy mob is not God’s way.  The sin of quietness in the deployment of one’s public energy (when the energy to influence policy has been purchased by the sacrificial blood of those who have gone before) is shameful.  When will you refuse to be merely Nicodemus at night?

Make Christianity fashionable by representing Christ in the public square in the same manner as the prophets and apostles represented Christ.  Take on the likeness of Esther and Mordecai.  Your Christian community will join you in the battle, but you must become the prime mover by both casting the vision and sacrificing for the vision.  Make public your garment of Ephesians 4:17-24.  

Your culture has a fixation upon sensuality, moral perversion, pleasure, comfort and the pride of power.  Nonetheless, you know a man “who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us out of this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father” (Gal. 1:4).  Jesus came to deliver you from the Western way of life to the biblical way of life.

Men with Christian character can change the course of nations. Never have so many been enabled and ennobled by so great a salvation to accomplish so much is no brief a time with such lasting effects.  God commands you to make a culture that is Christian (Mt. 28:18-20).  This western mindset of overthrowing the Reformation address to life that birthed this nation is a sham.  Why pursue the darkness when you can have the light?  In Christ you have been raised from the dead, brought out of the tomb and the stone has been rolled away, so you must not continue living as though the grave clothes are your only clothing!

Your society is defined by its laws, movies, music, electronic and print media, families and schools.  You must address these primary influencers of your society.  Your society is the manifestation of what its people believe.  They will believe the least challenging and most immediately gratifying unless you unveil the true way of righteousness.  

Your Christianity is tried, proven, historic and relevant.  It is the most powerful force for good this universe has ever known.  It holds fast to the coming of the Ancient of Days.  Modern society actually dehumanizes humanity by making your more like man and animals than like Christ.  Christians are responsible for rehumanizing humanity.  

You live in the morass of a moral and civil Armageddon.  The pillars of righteousness are being rapidly removed.  Though your societal educators declare their abhorrence for the “Dark Ages,” their policies are advancing another age just as dark.

The silence of Christ’s lambs is thunderous.  Your Christianity was birthed in a conflict that required the prophets and apostles to go into harm’s way.  They had to personally stand in the societal gap and trust God to perform the work that only He could perform.

This is a holy war tolerating no bystanders, no neutrality.  Determine your operational resources and exercise them.  You must view yourself as a Christian more than an American or a Baptist or a professional in the marketplace.  You will be most secure, successful and significant to the extent of your yieldedness to Christ.

God-appointed watchmen must not quail – you cannot afford to blink.  Remain unflinchingly biblical in the face of unrighteous men and unholy demons.  The Christian life is lived in the milieu of war, so commit to remove all obstructions and distractions to the cause of Christ.  Eliminate competitors to Christian living and ignore criticism of your single-minded pursuit of righteousness.  Everything that is non-Christian dissipates your Christianity.  Purpose a societal transformation via intentional sacrifice in strategic areas.  

Your life must be noticeable and compellingly different from non-Christians’ lives.  The philosophies and policies that have been accessed to navigate your nation in its present unholy direction must be aborted.  The land that you love needs a quantum change.  You are obliged to offer a revolutionary sacrifice.

Those willing to sacrifice quickly and deeply accomplish major transformations.  Refuse mere crumbs from the societal table.  You are an heir to the King!  True Christians are positive, increasing in likeness to Christ and confident in Christ that He will accomplish what He has begun.  They should be aggressive in their advance.  They introduce new verbiage and attitudes in their marketplaces, social halls and homes.  This world should be becoming better because your God has gifted you with your first and second births.

Will you enter into the public fray so that you might be God’s tutor to a commonwealth that owes Him so much?  Will you take into every conflict a prayer-filled mind, knowledge of God’s Bible and a commitment to refuse every entreaty to retreat?  Will you refuse to bow your knee to the Baal of fallen public opinion, financial advancement and social acceptability?

Four characteristics distinguish Christians from mere worldlings.  Their mouths are filled with the law of God’s truth.  Though they do stand upon the word of God, they are more appropriately defined as standing under the word of God.  

Unrighteousness is not found on their lips because they know that their vocabulary identifies their Lord.  Christians are graceful in their speech because their Lord Christ is graceful.  They are committed to letting their speech always be with grace, seasoned, as it were, with salt, so that they may know how they should respond to each person (Col. 4:6).

Christians walk with their God in peace and uprightness.  Their lives are conducted pursuant to God’s law.  They are averse to every perversion of truth because untruth disrupts peace.  They conduct themselves with wisdom toward unbelievers, making the most of every opportunity (Col. 4:5).  

The upright set their hearts to study the law of the Lord, to practice it and to teach His statutes and ordinances to His people (Ezra 7:10).  Their hearts are so affixed to eternal matters that they know a constancy of close communion with the Lord through His Spirit (Gen. 5:22).  They are going to reach the Promised Land through God’s grace enabling them to be upright in all matters.

How many Christians do you know who are willing to become so involved in the lives of God’s children that they turn others back from iniquity?  Do you do this?  The western culture appears to continue deproving from an immoral society to an amoral society.  God’s people must not be contributors to this darkness (Dan. 12:3).  You speak for the One with whom you walk, the One with whom you talk, the One who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

God will not validate what man violates.  He will not wink at sin.  His ambassadors turn many back from the ways of the world because He has commanded them to so act and become contributors to right cultures.

“Look to the rock from which you were hewn” (Isaiah 51:1).

Scores of years ago, man’s Father brought forth on this continent a new nation conceived in biblical liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men stand before the face of their Creator-God.  Nonetheless, the leaders of these United States of America have entered into uncharted territory by harloting in a spiritual hemorrhage.  They have forgotten the Rock from whence this nation was hewn.  

America is being driven by the gods of:
1.    Affluence and the accumulation of wealth
2.    Comfort
3.    Recreation
4.    Glorification of materialism
5.    Personal peace at all costs
6.    Radical individualism
7.    Tolerance of all but righteousness
8.    Mistaken progress
9.    Looking to man for answers rather than the Bible
10.  Striving for retirement rather than handing down to the next generation an eternal labor

Humanism, a value system rooted in the belief that man is his own autonomous measure, is influencing every area of American life.  It fosters the rejection of absolute truth.  If Americans continue along this implosive path, they will deprove to a sub-human depravity where they can no longer disagree with Cain’s killing of Able, Hitler and Stalin’s annihilation of the Jews or the racial genocide occurring this very day on the continents of Africa and Asia.

A secularistic/humanistic value system lurches a nation toward self-destruction.  Your Bible was not made in the USA, but the God of your Bible did gift your commonwealth to this fallen world that it might be a city set upon a hill.  From whence have you come and where are you to go?  Muse upon the spiritual moorings of a new Israel founded upon the Decalogue and the two foremost commandments (Mark 12:28-31).

PRE-1776

America commenced as an idea and an ideal.  It was the fruition of the terra firma of Augustine, the liberty of Luther and the capitalism of Calvin.  It was the culmination of the immigration of the English Puritans, Scots Covenanters, French Huguenots, Dutch Calvinists and the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians of Ulster.  

The history of your United States is bespangled with those brave souls who believe that the kingdom of God can truly be realized in their lifetimes.  Nevertheless, to realize that gift, men must live for the Christ rather than for worldly kingdoms.  Christopher Columbus knew the cost of this new kingdom and on every island he set foot during his journey to American shores, he had his men erect a large wooden cross “as a token of Jesus Christ our Lord, and in honor of the Christian faith.”

On June 8th, 1630, John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts, set before his shipmates on the flagship Arabella the true task of statecraft.  He borrowed from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount when He declared:

“We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies, when He shall make us a praise and glory, that men of succeeding plantations shall say, ‘The Lord made it like that of New England.’  For we must consider that we shall be as a City set upon a Hill….” 

John Winthrop and those of his ilk battled against their city on a hill becoming a tower of Babel.  A tower of Babel is a site where men build for themselves a city and make for themselves a name (Genesis 11:4).  Babels are where independence becomes the consummate virtue at the expense of dependence upon the Holy Spirit (Jeremiah 8:5ff.; Judges 21:25).  As your American Puritan brethren opined:

• “Religion begat prosperity, and the daughter devoured the mother.”  – Cotton Mather
• “Prosperity is too fulsome a diet for any man… unless seasoned with some grains of adversity.” – Judge Sewall
• “Better is it that Israel be saved and prosperity lost, than that prosperity be saved and Israel lost.” – John Danforth

There can be little question concerning one of the primary purposes of the early settlers coming to America.  The Massachusetts’ State Seal depicts an American Indian chief with the inscription of the famous request from the Macedonian in Acts 16:9, “Come over… and help us.”  In addition, the Charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony declares in part:

“To win and incite the natives of that country to the knowledge and obedience of the only true God and Saviour of mankind and the Christian Faith, [is] in our royal intention and the adventurers’ free profession, the principal end of the  plantation.”

Those early settlers of your beloved nation founded Harvard College in 1636 because they feared leaving “an illiterate ministry to the churches.”  In 1693, Anglicans of Virginia established the College of William and Mary “for the breeding of good ministers.”  The Congregationalists originated Yale in 1701 after Harvard had liberalized its position concerning the Lord Christ and His truth.

Christianity was the acknowledged faith of the colonists.  On the cusp of your declaration of independence from England, one of Great Britain’s Crown-appointed governors wrote to the Board of Trade in England: “If you ask an American, ‘Who is your master?’  He will tell you, ‘None, nor any governor, but Jesus Christ.’”

1776

Thomas Paine wrote, “These are the times that try men’s souls.  The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country.  What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value.  Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods.”  Wars try men’s souls because in the season of war, allegiances are defined and declared.

Patrick Henry’s “Liberty or Death” speech was delivered in the year before the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  Mr. Henry (1736-1799) was a member of the First Continental Congress and was the first governor of the State of Virginia.  His address was delivered at the Virginia Convention, St. John’s Church, Richmond, Virginia, March 23rd, 1775. This excerpt from the speech rivets your attention upon the strength of your founder’s trust in the Almighty God of Scripture:

“Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of the means which the God of nature hath placed in our power.  Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us.  Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone.  There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise friends to fight our battles for us.  The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone, it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.  Besides, sir, we have no election.  If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to return from the contest.  There is no retreat but in submission and slavery!  Our chains are forged!  Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston!  The war is inevitable – and let it come!  I repeat it, sir, let it come!

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter.  Gentlemen may cry, peace, peace! – but there is no peace ….  Our brethren are already in the field!  Why stand we here idle?  What is it that gentlemen wish?  What would they have?  Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?  Forbid it, Almighty God!  I know not what course others may take, but as for me: Give me liberty, or give me death!”

Governments cannot be neutral toward religion.  Secularism is a religion.  When the policies of a government are divorced from Christianity the state is ceded to an anti-Christian ideology.  Neutrality is a myth.  

The members of the Continental Congress forged upon the anvil of Christianity a document rivaled only by the Magna Charta.  With the signing of this august manuscript the United States of America was birthed as a desire with only a war to be fought in order to bring the concept to fruition.  This Declaration of Independence leaves no doubt as to Whom allegiance is due:

“When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.  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….We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by authority of the good people of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states.

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.”

Many have contended that George Washington was a deist.  However his own writings rivet one’s attention upon Christ.  William Johnson wrote a book titled George Washington, the Christian, wherein a number of revealing prayers written out in General Washington’s own hand are reproduced.  Two of these prayers may be helpful to read in order to appreciate the significance of your first President’s relationship with your Savior.

• “Direct my thoughts, words and work, wash away my sins in the immaculate Blood of the Lamb, and purge my heart by Thy Holy Spirit… daily frame me more and more into the likeness of Thy Son Jesus Christ.”
• “Thou gavest Thy Son to die for me; and hast given me assurance of salvation, upon my repentance and sincerely endeavoring to conform my life to His holy precepts and example.”

The United States of America is not a mosaic – it is one nation under God whether the people acknowledge God or not.  God addresses nations on a corporate basis throughout Scripture.  Why would anyone expect God to have a different attitude toward these United States?

Your government should be governed by the principles of historic Protestantism while at the same time giving full religious freedom to those of differing beliefs.  That has been the position of your courts until recent years when secularism reared its venomous serpentine head.

DEMOCRACY – A  REPUBLICAN  FORM  OF  GOVERNMENT

The American form of government cannot succeed except in a milieu pervaded with Christianity.  An effective democracy requires a voluntary surrender of rights, lifestyles and agenda.  A true social contract between the individual units within a nation requires a covenant relationship with Christ.  

Benjamin Franklin, who declared that he was not a Christian, wrote to the French in 1778 stating, “He who shall introduce into public affairs the principles of Christianity will change the face of the world.”  Mr. Franklin knew the truth even if he did not trust the Truth.

The Constitution of these United States of America embodies much of Christian political thought.  The system of checks and balances between the three branches of government works because it recognizes that man’s motives are impure and he always forever is totally depraved in nature and judgment.  If the framers of the Constitution had forged this document under the assumption that man is good, there would be no union of states today.  

Two years after the American Revolution the French revolted and attempted to found a democratic government.  Nonetheless, theirs was unsuccessful because it was founded upon the poison of the Enlightenment.  Alexis de Tocqueville, a French political thinker and diplomat, toured the United States and was impressed by the position Americans took in regard to the indispensability of Christianity as the undergirding of democracy.  He placed his political and spiritual finger upon the heart of the matter when he said, “There is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America.”  

Subsequent to Mr. de Tocqueville’s visit to America in 1831, he wrote back to his French governors, declaring:

“I sought for the greatness of the United States in her commodious harbors, her ample rivers, her fertile fields, and boundless forests – and it was not there.  I sought for it in her rich mines, her vast world commerce, her public school system, and in her institutions of higher learning – and it was not there.  I looked for it in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution – and it was not there.  Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power.  America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

How would you describe your United States in the light of Mr. de Tocqueville’s splendid declaration?

SEPARATING  GOD  FROM  MAN

The Constitution of the United States prohibits Congress from establishing a national church, but the framers had no intentions of forbidding the government from all involvement with religion, and particularly the Christian religion. On the very day following the First Congress’ passage of the First Amendment they set aside a national day of prayer and thanksgiving!
Though the efforts of the anti-Christians are strong, God is still God.  He yet superintends the lives of His beloved.  He has allowed this American people much encouragement throughout the history of American jurisprudence.  The United States Supreme Court in Abington Township v. Schempp (1963), wrote:
“The state may not establish a ‘religion of secularism’ in the sense of affirmatively opposing or showing hostility to religion, thus, ‘preferring those who believe in no religion over those who do believe.’ …Refusal to permit religious exercise thus is seen, not as the realization of state neutrality, but rather as the establishment of a religion of secularism.”

Historic revisionists are stealing America’s ancient paths from the soul of this nation.  They are robbing you of your models, your heroes and the ethos of a truly Christian culture.  Christianity must prevail in every arena of life in these United States – in government, the family, business, education, science, the arts, media, technology, and the list goes on.

EPILOGUE

The most significant unreached people group in the world is American leadership.  No people group exerts as much influence on this universe as the American leaders in industry, commerce, government, education, media, science, the arts and technology.  Your leadership has traded your birthright for a bowl of porridge.  Your forefathers knew nothing of a United States without a Christ Jesus.

Why should America bless God?

National sins demand national punishments.  When a nation blessed with the light of the American Puritans, the courageous founders and the wise sustainers refuse the light of Christ, they can only expect God to remove His lampstand.  Death is hurrying – the pale horse with the brimstone breastplate is galloping toward your beloved country.  The arrow of death is fitted to the string, readied for its release.  Your responsibility is clear: “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf: for in its welfare you will have welfare” (Jeremiah 29:7).

How can America bless God?

Even as British Colonialists became Americans, so must you pledge allegiance to the King of kings.  You must experience and live a transfer of citizenship because your “citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20).  You know the means to bless Christ:

• “And My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (II Chronicles 7:14).
• “Righteousness exalts a nation” (Proverbs 14:34).
• “If that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it” (Jeremiah 18:8).

The greatest generation this nation has known required graves and crosses in order to battle the onslaught of an evil empire.  Could we be on the cusp of more crosses and graves?

PRAYER  OF  NATIONAL  SUPPLICATION

God, we are in a political, societal, communal Dark Age where we are journeying through uncharted territory.  We have been hijacked by indifference to tolerance and tolerance of the intolerant.  Our society is “out of order,” our innocence has been stolen (or forfeited) and we are without passion, prayer and action.  Our Christianity has become so private that we cannot even identify it ourselves.

Our governments, and sadly many of our churches, are, through their actions and inactions, assuring us of a culture of death.  For some hellish reason we have come to believe that the number of people either voting or shouting in protest determines “right.”  

Our conversations are shallow, our society is without a rudder and we are hemorrhaging.  We cannot navigate our streets at night, the programming of the electronic media is shockingly dreadful and those who should be our shepherds have traded their souls for a bowl of porridge.  Other shepherds have absented themselves from the public square and no longer engage in the arena of civil debate believing that Your Bible has no place in the political and social affairs of men.  We have few sons of Issachar who are willing to lead us to the meadows of Runnymede on the bank of the Thames where we may forge once again a Magna Charta of liberty.

God, we do not seek to turn the clock back, but we do desire a radical transforming change because we have forfeited our moral compass, and His name is Jesus.  You owe this generation nothing, for we are but a race of sinners, but we need you.  We pray in tears trusting that the object of our tears will not perish.  We pray in the name of Jesus for the coming of the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ – that He will reign forever and ever.

SOLI  DEO  GLORIA!

“Look among the nations!  Observe!  Be astonished!  Wonder!
Because I am doing something in your days – you would not believe if you were told…” (Habakkuk 1:5)

Twenty-three decades ago a continental congress declared this gathering of colonies a nation of people independent from all others except “the Supreme Judge of the world.”  In their declaration of independence, they left no doubt that one God created them and these united states located in America.  In their sober fervor to exercise the task of statecraft, they declared, “With a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”

You are most familiar with the fourth verse of Francis Scott Key’s The Star Spangled Banner wherein all the glory for this nation is attributed to the Lord:

Oh! Thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand between their loved homes
and war’s desolation! Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued
land praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just, and this be our motto:
‘In God is our trust.’ And the star spangled banner in triumph shall
wave o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

But what has occurred over the past two hundred and thirty-two years?  “Has a nation changed gods, when they were not gods?” (Jer. 2:11).  If so, why?  If so, does the magna charta of this national congregation need revisiting so that we can be brought to remembrance of the cornerstone of American liberty?  

Neither people nor their governments can be neutral toward religion – secularism is a religion.  When a government of the people separate the people from their moorings (the Bible), an implosion is birthed, for neutrality is a myth spewing from the mouth of Hell.  John Wycliffe (1330-84) said, “This Bible is for the government of the people, by the people and for the people.”  God says, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ” (Col. 2:8).  

How do you know when a people have “exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever?” (Ro. 1:25).

• When the lawful are fearful of navigating their streets at night
• When shamelessness is publicized, and yet few are ashamed
• When social discourse recedes from addressing eternal issues
• When divorce becomes accepted, families no longer seek reconciliation and aberrant lifestyles are endorsed
• When churches are more concerned with societal acceptance and niceness than righteousness
• When society fails to produce true heroes

Americans’ refusal to address the marrow of their delinquency is perpetuating a race of humanity refusing to advance beyond puberty.  Americans are so enamored with the allure of youthfulness and the Peter Pan theology of never growing up that they have brought upon themselves and their progeny a perpetual puberty.  

Many churchmen are watching the last struggles of a once Christian people, a once Christian church or a once Christian family, and yet are taking no action.  They are as Pilate at Matthew 27:24 delivering over Truth to be crucified though they perceive themselves innocent of its blood.  The sin of quietness is inexcusable in those who have the vigor and yet not the courage to influence policy.  

Today’s America is producing men without chests, without passion and without excuse, “because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them” (Ro. 1:19).  Where are the sons of freedom called by God to become His architects of a present reformation?  Why are sons of Glory refusing to move with singleness of purpose?  Do they not know that Christianity is America’s most effective social program?

Samuel Francis Smith wrote of the hand of God upon this America. Though many remember the opening verse of America (My country ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing), far fewer remember the fourth verse of that hymn:

Our fathers’ God, to Thee, Author of liberty, to Thee we sing;
long may our land be bright with freedom’s holy light, protect
us by Thy might, Great God, our King.

God’s people are equipped as patriots for godliness.  In a letter to the French in 1778, Benjamin Franklin said, “He who shall introduce into public affairs the principles of Christianity will change the face of the world.”  America’s populace is religious – it always has been and shall forever be.  Therefore, when revisionists attempt to re-write America’s history in order to deprive generations of the Christian influence upon this nation and societal engineers attempt to keep religion out of the public square, they shall discover a nation fraught with psychological disorder.

This land was founded by those with holy vision in their minds, Bibles in their hearts and psalms upon their lips.  Their commitment to Christ assured that their lines did fall upon them in pleasant places and their heritage has been beautiful (Ps. 16:6).  Their God has not dealt with them according to their national sins, for if He had the heavens would be brass and the earth would have swallowed them up.  

So what does your God expect of you?  “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Lk. 20:25).  Victor Hugo said that Columbus’ glory lay not in his arrival, but in weighing anchor.  Have you weighed anchor?

Your America is in a moral plummet because it is in need of another spiritual and cultural reformation.  These United States are no longer united.  Americans are becoming more fractured by ethnicity, economics and ego.  They need tutors to instruct their commonwealth in thinking theocentrically (God-centered) rather than anthropocentrically (man-centered).  They need leadership/statesmanship no longer covetous to accumulate wealth and power, but willing to sacrifice all in the cause of righteousness.  

God-appointed watchmen access the Holy Spirit to discern appropriate advances.  They baptize every thought in the word of God and their prayerful minds seek to capture the mind of Christ.  Christians will not quail, because they refuse to bow their knees to fallen public opinion, societal acceptability and cultural conformity.  Retreat is no option for God’s beloved, for they have nowhere to flee except the bosom of Christ.  They shall remain unflinchingly biblical regardless of the ugliness of men and the assaults of demons.

Men with Christian character can change the course of nations. Never in the history of these states united have so few been enabled and ennobled by so great a salvation to accomplish so much in so brief a time period with such lasting effects.  Christian fifes and drums must pulsate for an American renaissance wherein “righteousness exalts a nation” (Prov. 14:34).

Return to 1776 and reflect upon the conflict that birthed this nation.  Read again the four Gospels and you will be reminded that Christianity itself was birthed in conflict.  The Washingtons, Madisons, Hales and Henrys were willing to go into harm’s way for a cause greater than themselves.  America is again in travail and calls you to labor at her bedside.  Holy patriots are needed to address the assailants battering their homeland (Isa. 1:26).

Patrick Henry (1736-1799) was a member of the First Continental Congress and the first governor of Virginia.  In an address delivered at the Virginia Convention, St. John’s Church, Richmond, Virginia, on March 23rd, 1775, he said,

“Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of the means which the God of nature hath placed in our power.  Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us.  Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone.  There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise friends to fight our battles for us.  The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone, it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.  Besides, sir, we have no election.  If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to return from the contest.  There is no retreat but in submission and slavery!  Our chains are forged!  Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston!  The war is inevitable – and let it come!  I repeat it, sir, let it come!  
“It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter.  Gentlemen may cry, peace, peace! – but there is no peace ….  Our brethren are already in the field!  Why stand we here idle?  What is it that gentlemen wish?  What would they have? Is life
so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?  Forbid it, Almighty God!  I know not what course others may take, but as for me: Give me liberty, or give me death!”

God has gifted you with birth so that you would lead His people.  Cowards cannot be effective Christians. Christians must again dare to be Christian.  

Was not this nation founded upon the teaching of Jonathan Edwards, the courage of George Washington and the Christianity of Jesus Christ!  The courageous one unsheathes the scriptural sword of naked unvarnished truth; he refuses to trim his sails or reduce the meat of the doctrines of grace to tickle the ears – He speaks and lives as though seeing Him who is invisible – He pursues lions into their dens of iniquity so that the Holy Spirit through him might restore all that the locusts have eaten.  

Perhaps the most appropriate closing for this writing is captured in a familiar song. Katharine Lee Bates’ America The Beautiful expresses America’s dependence upon God in all four verses. She captures the heart of your nation’s indebtedness to the true Sovereign with such phrases as:

• “God shed His grace on thee, and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea”
• “God mend thine every flaw, confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law”
• “May God thy gold refine, till all success be nobleness, and every gain divine”

When Paul was in Athens, “his spirit was being provoked within him as he was beholding the city full of idols” (Acts 17:16).  Is your spirit not provoked by a nation filled with idols?   Engage the public square.  Come to know the joy of being invested in the eternal cause of Christ.  Aim at God’s glory and you shall become the vehicle of the Lord to reform a society and redeem a culture.

If you were on your deathbed, what charge would you give to your child?  David charges Solomon to make it his life’s work to know David’s God and to serve the God of his fathers.  The most cherished teacher a son can have is his own father.  Fathers teach their sons in ways neither the father nor the son realizes.  He teaches via morning devotions, untailored conversations as well as the attitude he displays in times of crisis.

Your child cannot drift into a knowledge of God.  Knowing God is the fulfillment of an intentional pursuit on the part of all the child’s family members.

David charged his son to not only know God; Solomon was responsible for serving God.  One of the methods your forefathers used to teach their children about God was to ask them questions to which the children already had memorized the answers.  One of the vehicles employed in this question and answer form of teaching is called The Larger Catechism (1648).

The first question in The Larger Catechism is “What is the chief and highest end of man?”  The answer is “Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever.”

Your children cannot glorify God or enjoy Him unless they serve Him with a “whole heart.”  God never wants a divided heart.  If your heart is halved, you have misapplied your knowledge and aborted your service.

David places his kingly finger on the quintessence of the undertaking when he challenges his son to serve the Lord with a “willing mind.”  Why must your child embrace an undivided heart and a settled willingness of mind?  Because the Lord God “searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts.”

When Solomon’s father was a younger man, he cried out to the God of his fathers praying, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me an know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way” (Ps. 139:23f.).  Have you ever cried out to God?  Did you ask Him to search your heart?

David’s closing exhortation is for Solomon to seek God.  Your son will not know how to seek your God unless you model what it means to be a seeker of the living God.  Jesus says, “Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these” (Mk. 10:14).   

Your example will permit your child’s seeking Christ.  God’s kingdom belongs in the hearts of God’s children.  Does your example propellingly permit your child’s search for your God?

Christianity is sacred company.  Everyone becoming intimate with Christianity will prosper from Christian influence.  Yet many flee from Christianity because they perceive that they will forfeit life’s pleasures as a result of the association. Scores flirt with Christianity yet never close with Christ because they are concerned that living the Christian life will rob them of life’s fun.

Could following the Lamb of God deprive a follower of life’s fullness?  Is it possible that God designed Christianity so that Christians would have less joy than non-Christians?  Would God Himself create a “religion” preventing happiness?

Those taking up residence in and near the heart of God shall be blessed even as “the house of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him, on account of the ark of God” was blessed (II Sam. 6:12).   Spiritual disciplines benefit the sons of God.  The practice of Christianity rewards its practitioners and those with whom they associate.

The benefits coming to Christians do not include freedom from the hurts of the world.  The advantages do not include being insulated from the wickedness of evil men.  But the gains far exceed all costs, for Jesus says, “Truly I say to you, there is not one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he shall receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life” (Mk. 10:29f.).  

If you follow the King of kings you shall travel with a peculiar people.  They will come from every point on the globe, yet they shall walk with quite similar steps.  They all feed on the hidden manna, they drink of the water that flows from the rock and they look for the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.  

These people called Christians pursue the glory of the Lord God whether it leads them into life’s wildernesses or into the courtrooms and boardrooms of the leaders in business and industry.  They are seeking a land beyond this land for the place they seek is described as flowing with milk and honey.  

Do you live in the comfort of the Holy Spirit?  Is heaven your home?  Have you answered the call of God to place your trust completely in the Lord Jesus Christ?

“But you have come to Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel” (Heb. 12:22-24).

What are the characteristics of social Christianity?  What are the characteristics of biblical Christianity?  What characteristics describe your Christianity?

Scores of professing Christians are timid in their expression of Christianity.  You should expect timidity from mere professors and those lacking in the fruit of the Holy Spirit.  The spirit of timidity is a spirit of imprisoning fear – it is the spirit of the prince of darkness grim.  God gifts no Christian with cowardice.  

Paul knew Timothy’s inclination to fearful timidity (I Cor. 16:10).  Every saint must battle his fearful leaning toward timidity in the matters of eternity.  God in Christ makes men fearless in the face of the gravest challenges.   

The gospel of God’s Scripture, when applied and lived to the full, medicines the Christian’s natural temperaments so that what may have been a birth defect is converted into an excellency.  The Spirit of Christ makes the crooked straight and the rough smooth.  Christians are no longer reeds shaken by the wind, for they have become pillars of righteousness serving as the foundations for the construction of a new society, a New Canaan.  

David did not enter the Valley of Elah in his flesh.  The anointed of the Lord addressed the uncircumcised Philistine in the name of the Lord of hosts, declaring, “The Lord does not deliver by sword or spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and He will give you into our hands” (I Sam. 17:47).  Sin slays a man’s spirit, and Goliath would be slain.  

The Holy Spirit is the saint’s encourager.  He enables you to lean upon the Divine Warrior.  Paul wrote, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25).  

Christianity is distinguished by power, love and a disciplined life.  The timid consistently yield to the ways of the world and have little confidence in their ability to resist societal conformity.  But power is characteristic of Spirit-led Christianity (Lk. 4:14; Acts 1:8; Ro. 15:13, 19; Eph. 3:16).  God’s Spirit makes you adequate for the task (II Cor. 3:5; 12:9f.).  Even the demons are subject to you in the name of Christ (Lk. 10:20).

The love of the Spirit for the cause of Christ is the first evidence of the Holy Spirit dwelling in you (Gal. 5:22).  This Christian love is intelligent, passionate and purposeful.  Biblical love expresses the character of the Eternal Lover.  When you are enveloped in and moved by the love of Christ, you discover the loss of all timidity because, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love” (I Jn. 4:18).  

Christians exercise self-discipline.  They are sober in their address to life.  Saints are temperate so that they rest in the Holy Spirit to bridle their appetites and affections.  There is a healthy orderliness to the Christian life.  Is your life marked by power, love and sound judgment?

God offers an inventory of promises deep in the riches of His wisdom, knowledge and compassion.  Nevertheless, His three promises are contingent upon the prayerful humility of a repentant people seeking His face.  God describes those possessing these qualities as “My people who are called by My name.”  So, the two consequential questions you should ask are: “Who are God’s people?” and “Am I one of them?”  The answer to the first will provoke your heart to the second.

God’s people are sinners born into sin, and yet they have been graced with new natures.  They are not only reconciled to God; they are also ambassadors of Christ to their world (II Cor. 5:19f.).  God’s people call on His name because they have been called by Him and are being sanctified in Christ (I Cor. 1:2).  They identify with the eternal cause of Christ, so they strive to be gatekeepers of the theater of action where their God places them.  The saints of God are peculiar people with eyes aching to see His purity.  They know Christ has entrusted them with His reputation because they have the treasure of His preciousness in earthen vessels of humanity (II Cor. 4:7).  Their pulses quicken when Jesus’ name is mentioned, for they love Him unconditionally and they hold to His truth regardless of the consequences.

Though God’s people are but a remnant in this world, they are as salt and light upon their society, ever seasoning it and making it more delectable to God.  They know that their God is forming a citizenship of saints in this world for this world and for the next.  In this world, many Christians are hidden by the humbleness of their occupation and positions, their non-notoriety, their modesty of disposition and even their righteous unconformity.  

God’s beloved were once at home in this world but now they are more heavenlings and more Christian than worldlings.  Though no natural difference exists between worldlings and heavenlings, there are supernatural peculiarities. Heavenlings know that the beloved of the Lord are presently situated in Jesus’ New Jerusalem, either spiritually or by promise.  The largest number of heavenlings is in the New Jerusalem today in spirit though their bodies remain in the grave.  Some of these have even entered their Promised Land since you began reading this writing.

God’s people display every facet of His glory (though in less degree than He Himself displays it).  His name is upon His creation.  How well does His name read in you and from your life?  Has He not made you a visible display of the riches of His royal glory and the splendor of His unsearchable majesty?

God’s people surrender all of their todays to Christ’s righteousness so that others can enjoy eternal tomorrows.  They are separated to God for God and as such are burnt offerings in their appropriation of His holiness, their imitation of His purity and their resemblance of His Son.

God’s command is for you to keep yourself and those you love “unstained by the world” (Js. 1:27, 5:19f.).  The vocabulary of the Christian life is so evident that the blind see and the deaf hear the Christian’s refusal to trim his sails or reduce the meat of the doctrines of grace so as to tickle the eyes and ears of the unbelieving.  Christians speak and live as though seeing Him who is invisible.  They pursue lions and lionesses into their dens of iniquity because they are drawn to sacred activity.

God’s people are unashamed of Jesus and His words in this adulterous and sinful generation (Mk. 8:38).  Are you unashamed of the person of Christ and the words of Christ as He is presented in the holy Scriptures?  If you express shame concerning Jesus’ person and His words in this life, you shall discover that the Son of Man will also be ashamed of you “when He comes in the glory of His father with the holy angels.”

Parents, friends, teachers, ministers and the church should be permitters of children coming to the Lord. The most excellent J. C. Ryle addresses several means to assist children in their approach to the kingdom of God:
♦    Consider your child’s soul above his amusements, education and employments
♦    Train him in the knowledge of Scripture
♦    Encourage him to pray for small items
♦    Discipline them to diligence concerning their attendance in Sunday school and worship services
♦    Exhibit your trust in Christ as their model
♦    Make sure they redeem their time even in apparently inconsequential matters
♦    Discourage immediate gratification, hedonism, materialism and the idolatries of youth
♦    Prune them early, often and with increasing precision
♦    Tutor them in being servers rather than expecting to be served
♦    Instruct them to remember the power and consequences of sin

The under-shepherds in Christ’s Church take seriously the charge God Himself has given to train and instruct children in the ways of the Lord (Proverbs 22:6).  Christ’s Churchians trust God’s sovereignty understanding that God alone chooses, transforms and deploys surrendered hearts for His glory and eternal purposes (Psalm 51:10,17; Isaiah 64:8; Ephesians 1:4f.).  Mature saints are intentional in every aspect of ministry to children.  They rely upon the Holy Spirit’s leading in teaching the full counsel of God and exercising His grace though the teaching while reinforcing biblical behaviors that touch every aspect of daily living. Godly churchmen trust in their Holy Father to bring a renewed and sacred respect in their lives to honor Him as well as those in their families and their brethren throughout the world.

The language of the world is full of lies, promoting self-interest and the lusts of the flesh.  The language of Canaan is the truth, thereby bringing joy and peace to all who hear and obey (Isaiah 55:11f.).  The children of Christ’s true Church shall be taught the language of Canaan. Boys will be referred to as gentlemen and girls as ladies.  Courteous and courtly behavior will include the basics of greeting others; gentlemen seating the ladies and speaking to adults and others when they are addressed.  Jesus’ curriculum shall come from the Holy Scriptures.  Developmentally appropriate activities and exercises will rivet the children and the parents’ attention upon maturing in biblical knowledge and displaying the nature of God in the child’s conduct toward others.  Elders and Church leaders pray that every child will develop an intimate relationship with his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and pray daily, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way” (Psalm 139:23f.).

When the Apostle John was most advanced in age, He said, “I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth” (III Jn. 4). God’s calling does not come without sacrifice and a determination to “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14).  Self-examination by parents, children and the body of believers within the Church is vital to identifying the worldly habits, tendencies and sins that must be plucked from the hearts of the saints (Psalm 51:10f.).