I am finding it difficult to get to sleep at nights, finally succumbing to the sandman around 3-4 am. The body is ready but the mind is still in gear. Usually if I get up and go watch TV, I can fall asleep easily. (I wonder if that means my brain stops working when I’m watching TV.)
But, I’m not writing this to talk about my sleep habits. I just want to share some thoughts with my “facebook friends” about what has been racing through this busy think tank on top of my shoulders. You may do with it what you will.
I received an email the other day from a gentleman who told me he was a providentialist, which translates to the idea that this country was founded for a reason, and by Divine providence. While I would not argue that thought, it leads to the proverbial question…why are we here? As you may know there are others who share this providentialist’s view, you may be one. It has been the focus of some media personalities who have even reminded us about the nine principles and twelve values that were used as a foundation for the establishment of this great nation. As a matter of fact, the book titled “The 5000 year leap” discusses these and then some. But these principles and values can’t be something that we just utter because they are popular or sound good. They have to be who we are. If this is not who we are, then we are just astroturf.
Where did this 9-12 concept come from? Why are we being reminded of them now? Why do we have to be reminded of them? This nation was founded on principles and values, principles and values that originated in the mind of a Creator, not in the mind of the created. History shows that mankind in general is self-serving. We can be arrogant and pompous at times. We were reminded of these qualities on 9-11. It was insulting that this great nation had been attacked by a group of people, whom we thought to be inferior in respect to their abilities to pull off such a stunt, and with our own devices to boot. We were not attacked by ICBM’s or nuclear weapons shot from thousands of miles away, but with our own airplanes in our own backyard.
If our nation was founded by Divine providence, then we are here for a purpose. God’s word reveals to us that mankind was created for a purpose, and that was for the created to worship and serve the Creator. We are not the first “nation” of people set up to do this. Other “nations” have been given the same opportunities and failed, and we now only read of their existence.
Have we failed in fulfilling our purpose? If this nation was allowed to exist for the purpose of spreading christianity and giving it a place to flourish without fear, what have we done with it? Statistics that I have seen show christianity is a floundering religion in this country, with “extremist” religions quickly gaining momentum. Is it any wonder why we are experiencing a “crisis”? We have allowed “them” to intimidate us to silence. We have allowed “them” to demoralize this nation and here we sit in the aftermath, here we sit at the crossroads. For those of you who are following the same media streams that I do, these unorthodox and damaging views are infiltrating our nations government and have been taking over while we were asleep at the wheel. If you have been following the Beck specials on Fox, he is revealing some frightening facts. Have we been too involved with our lives to take the time to stand up for what is right, hoping someone else would take care of it for us? Well, they are taking care of it and I don’t like it.
Somewhere along the line, we have got to get seriously engaged, stay engaged and get on our knees and pray for God’s help in this fight. We can not do it alone and we need to be doing it for the right reasons. We can not expect to “take this country back” and handle her the same way we have done in the past and expect be successful.
My encouragement would be for us not to be self-serving in this endeavor by having motives that only affect us, but let’s remember why we are here and why we were created as a people and as a nation. I would also encourage you to take a look at Joshua 24 and read that chapter. I’m not proposing it as prophecy for us but because it is very motivating for me. Joshua is standing before the children of Israel and he reminds them of what God has done for them and what is expected of them as they go into “the promised land”. They were encouraged to serve God and “put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt.” Then the words in verse 15 that mean so much to me… “choose you this day whom ye will serve…” “but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Thank you for your time and allowing me to share just a portion of what has been on my mind. I will now humbly step down from my soapbox.
In His and your service,
Ralph
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While I think the questions are good ones, I think the most important is what have we done to Christianity. Has it become useless and powerless because we have diverted it into our own interests rather than living as Christ lived? Or have we become pharasees?
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