God Bless America

The Psalmist said, “Blessed [is] the nation whose God [is] the LORD...”
Do these words of the Psalmist still hold true for nations such as the United States in our day?  July 4, Independence Day, is very special to all those who have been blessed and privileged to have the U. S. as the land of their birth and heritage. No matter how far they may roam, those who love the land of the free and the home of the brave usually pause to thank God and celebrate this special day..
As people at home and abroad do so, it would be good to stop for a moment and take stock of the blessings of freedom God has given to the land and to remember the sacrifices of those who purchased these with their blood.  

God has richly blessed America with a beautiful country; rich in abundant natural resources. God has provided a great constitution and a good system of government based upon a Judeo-Christian heritage. It can truly be said America’s citizens enjoy freedoms and privileges that most of the citizens of the world can only dream about. This is confirmed each year by the thousands who seek to immigrate legally to her shores and even by the tens of thousand who illegally seek the same privileges.  There are no concentration camps in America. People are not executed for seeking to flee the land.  There are no dreaded knocks on doors in the middle of the night. There are no mass graves filled with the bodies or those who have been killed by despotic dictators and godless regimes. At least theoretically, every person in the nation has a free voice and a free vote.

In governmental matters, the voice of the people can reflect the way and will of God. Freedom of speech still prevails. Freedom of religion has not yet been lost. Pastors can still proclaim the truth from their pulpits and Christians can still worship according to the dictates of their hearts. There is yet no laws that can muzzle those who would comment about sin in the land or criticize the powers that be.  The truth can be told, no matter how critical, about those occupying the highest positions in government.  Mark Twain once said, “…a Christian’s first duty is to God. It then follows, as a matter of course, that it is his duty to carry his Christian code of morals to the polls and vote them. … If the Christians .... could be persuaded to vote God and a clean ticket, it would bring about a moral revolution that would be incalculably beneficent. It would save the country — a country whose Christians have betrayed it and are destroying it ... Christianity ... is on trial now. And nothing important is on trial except Christianity.” He said this a century and one-half ago. How much greater are the weight of his words today!

Henry Blackaby wrote in Fresh Encounter: “Christians should not be surprised by the spiritual
darkness around us. That is all it can be. Darkness is dark. The greater problem is not with the
darkness. The problem is with the light. When light shines, it dispels darkness. We face a growing
spiritual darkness in our land because the light is not shining brightly.”
On this Independence Day, let us praise God for His past blessings upon this great nation and
pray He will continue to bless it. But at the same time let us remember that if we are to expect His
continuing blessings upon a nation, its citizens must recognize the need for Him in their national life.
They must be willing to meet His conditions for such continuing national blessings. Conditions that
are made crystal clear in His word: “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.” (II Chronicles 7:14) Yes, America still needs God’s blessings today. It sometimes seems the secularists have tried everything else in recent years. Political parties have come and gone. New political movements blossom and flourish and then fade into history. New financial fads appear and then pass away. New social schemes come and go. Secular humanism, relativism and permissiveness have led to the pursuit of pleasure as a national preoccupation. It seems the nation has gone off the gold standard and abandoned God’s standards. Hundreds of books on New Age Religions of ancient origin are increasingly replacing Christian books on the shelves of our retail bookstores.  The nation needs those who recognize God in government. Christians need to not only pray for righteous leaders in the land, but be willing to speak up and act out their convictions. They need to be ready to stand against and oppose those who are philosophically and religiously opposed to God and His righteousness.  Godliness is needed in the homes and the institutions of any great nation. Great nations do not need leaders who advocate perverted lifestyles or accept and promote the destruction of traditional family institutions that are so clearly taught in the Word of God and have been the basis of civilized societies for millennia.

What can we who love this great land do to insure His future blessings upon it? We can live for Christ and be salt and light in this world of corruption and darkness. We can pray and work to place Godly leaders at the helm of the ship of state. We can pray for a true revival of righteousness in the land. We can always remember the Lord our God is the true source the spiritual courage and power that is needed to preserve the great land of our birth and heritage! Again, we can take seriously the promise of God to a people who will turn away from evil and back to a loving and merciful God! “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.” (II Chronicles 7:14) .- Pastor John G. White

Independence Day

Our friends compatriots in America celebrate Independence Day on July 4th this week. Following is an article I published earlier in honor of Patriots who have given their lives for our freedoms: May this day be a time for remembering the great things God has done for America. For over two centuries the nation’s sons and daughters have fought and fallen in faraway fields and forests for FREEDOM’S cause. Their blood has stained the dry deserts of North Africa, soaked the beaches of Normandy and saturated the sands of Iwo Jima. Their bodies have lain among the hedge rows of Europe, on the jagged hills of China and in the frozen wastes of North Korea. Today they still fall in near and faraway places for the same great cause of freedom. There’s scarcely a land, ocean or a sea on this planet that has not been hallowed by the supreme sacrifice of our nation’s heroes as they have answered freedom’s call.

Who were these patriots? They were mostly just simple folk. Citizen soldiers, some were called.  They rallied to freedom’s flag from the farms, villages and towns of our nation’s heartland. They came from the boroughs and suburbs of our great cities. These ordinary people came from all across our great land.  They were not professional warriors or skilled combatants. But they were inspired by the clarion call of liberty and moved by the sublime cause of defending their country, their homeland, the land of their birth. Who were these men who willingly laid down their lives at a time of their country’s greatest peril? They were those who became familiar with the strident sound of the bugle rising at reveille and soulful sound of taps reverently played at the setting of the sun. These are they who marched into battle and heard the awful whine of a ricocheting bullet, the rattling roar of a machine gun and the threatening thunder of a mortar shell; and then the heart-rending cry of a fallen comrade.  Who were these who suffered the pangs of loneliness and pining of homesickness as they faced the hunger, thirst, relentless heat, torrential rains, and bitter cold of the field of battle? These are those brave souls who trudged onward , 'till the day they fell mortally wounded. 

Who grew old in youth; burning out the candle of life in moments; sacrificing all that life owed them in their future tranquil years.  Who are these men that lie buried beneath 639,455 white crosses around the world? Who rest in places like  Arlington, Pearl Harbor, Philippines, Anzio, Flanders Fields, the Argonne, and a  thousand hillside cemeteries all over America? These are our fellow soldiers, patriots of this free country, who believed that freedom for our children must be preserved, whatever the cost.  On this day when we celebrate the birth of liberty, let us remember as well, with deep gratitude and humble thanksgiving , those men and women who survived the battles and who are gathered together around the world to celebrate the blessings of freedom.  Let us give thanks too for the families who have given their sons, fathers, and brothers to the call of their country. And while we are remembering, let us never forget what one of the founding fathers said, “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance”

What Is Freedom’s Price?

On this weekend as Americans honor those who paid the supreme price for their freedoms, it is appropriate to remember that freedom never comes cheaply.  Perhaps we should remember some of the immortal words spoken by patriots on the subject. One said, “Give me liberty, or give me death” Another said, “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.” Someone else stated. “It is better to die a free man on your feet, than to live as a slave on your knees.” Mann said, “No man escapes when freedom fails, the best men rot in filthy jails, and those who cried, ‘Appease!  Appease!’ are killed by those they tried to please.”

I read a time back that over 200,000 Christian clergymen were killed for their faith in the former Soviet Union between 1917 and 1988. In addition, tens of millions of simple Christians died during this era as well. Let us never forget our forefathers who paid the ultimate price that we might be free of such religious repression and persecution. Let us also remember there is a continuing price to be paid in each generation if these precious freedoms  purchased at such a high price are to be maintained and passed on.  But there is another sort of freedom that is even more precious and costly. It is the freedom our Savior spoke of when He said, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free - If the Son makes you free, you are free indeed.”

The price of this freedom has already been paid. It was purchased by the Father and Son at the most terrible cost. The ultimate sacrifice 2 The Weekly Australian Baptist Bulletin made by the Father and Son to procure our spiritual freedom is beyond the comprehension of the mortal mind. Yet, this incomprehensible freedom is offered to mankind absolutely free. Paul said: “For the wages of sin is death, but the GIFT of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  The spiritual freedom God offers to those who will repent and believe upon His Son is more than momentary and historical. It is eternal.  When we are born again of His Spirit and become new creatures in Christ Jesus, we are justified by faith.  We are saved from: The penalty of sin The power of sin The presence of sin We are given eternal freedom from sin. We are immediately saved from the penalty of sin. Daily we are being freed from the power of sin in our lives. When we are ushered into His presence eternally, we will be freed forever from the very presence of sin!  What does such spiritual liberty mean in a practical sense? God enjoined His Old Testament people to, “Proclaim liberty throughout the land.”  Paul said to God’s New Testament people, “Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free...” And, “For brethren, ye have been called to liberty; only use not that liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.”