I’m coming to you again with thoughts of my own because of not having opportunity to write about someone else. First of all, I am thankful for ways the Lord has blessed and helped in times of my own medical procedures, and even an urgent need for hospitalization of my youngest daughter last weekend. I am thankful she is home and feeling much better. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” Psalm 34:19. I’m glad we Christians are considered “righteous,” and “saints,” and “children of the Most High God,” because of what Jesus did on the cross!
Christian, think about the things God has reserved for us who believe. Here are only a few, and His Word offers many more. First, the “inheritance reserved in Heaven” for us. (Ephesians 1:11-17; I Peter 1:3, 4) Then, from Matthew 25:34, “Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, ‘Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’” Jesus said He was going back to the Father in Heaven to “prepare a place” for us. (John 14:2) Then get excited about Romans 8:18, where Paul tells us about “the glory which shall be revealed in us.”
That brings me to the thought that we must be motivated by thoughts of eternity, instead of just mired down in this ungodly, materialistic world. How can we please God this year? I am saddened by the thought of what Jesus said, as recorded in Luke 18:8, “…when the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” The Saviour charged us in Luke 21:36, in the chapter that gave prophecy concerning the end times, “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.”
In America, He would find 60 million American souls murdered by their parents from 1973 until the present day. What can we do to bring to Him “fruits meet for repentance,” (Matthew 3:8, KJV), as John the Baptist told the Pharisees who came to him for baptism? That meant, as it is worded in the New Living Translation, “Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God.” Some of us might say, “But I didn’t have anything to do with that!” I understand, but we are all still somewhat responsible for letting this situation continue in our country for almost 50 years!
Thankfully, President Trump announced Tuesday that January 22, the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, will become National Sanctity of Human Life Day. In a proclamation given on the 47th anniversary of this awful Supreme Court ruling, he said the nation “proudly and strongly reaffirms our commitment to protect the precious gift of life at every stage, from conception to natural death.” He concluded, “I call on the American people to continue to care for women in unexpected pregnancies and to support adoption and foster care in a more meaningful way, so every child can have a loving home…And finally, I ask every citizen of this great nation to listen to the sound of silence caused by a generation lost to us, and then to raise their voices for all affected by abortion, both seen and unseen.”
Our generation would balk at the idea that we are paganistic and in any way like the heathens of ancient times, who sacrificed their babies to idols, gods made by their own hands. But the fact that 60 million American human souls have had their lives snuffed out by inhumane, painful, and grotesque methods and that they were not given the opportunity to live out the destiny that God had planned for them proves how far our country has moved from the Judeo-Christian foundation the early citizens forged for us.
Consider, as one example of this foundation, this prayer of George Washington: “I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in His holy protection, that He would incline the hearts of the Citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to Government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow Citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the Field, and finally, that He would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all, to do Justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that Charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind, which were the Characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed Religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation.”
Another example of our Christian beliefs being central even in our military in more modern times can be found as late as the 1950s in a nonfiction book I just happen to be wading through by Tom Clancy, called Shadow Warriors Inside the Special Forces. (Don’t ask me why! I just picked it up at a flea market, thinking it was a novel, but it’s interesting.). Brigadier General Bill Yarborough was developing these “Special Forces,” such as the Green Berets. The general decided he needed a prayer for the morale of the men who would be going into foxholes, where it is said there are no atheists. He wrote the following prayer, “some nondenominational words that would express and define the way Special Forces soldiers might relate to their God.” (taken from the book mentioned above, p. 76.)
Almighty God, who art the author of liberty and the champion of the oppressed, hear our prayer.
We, the men of Special Forces, acknowledge our dependence upon Thee in the preservation of human freedom.
Go with us as we seek to defend the defenseless and to free the enslaved.
May we ever remember that our nation, whose motto is “In God We Trust,” expects that we shall acquit ourselves with honor, that we may never bring shame upon our faith, our families, or our fellow men.
Grant us wisdom from Thy mind, courage from Thine heart, strength from Thine arm, and protection by Thine hand.
It is for Thee that we do battle, and to Thee belongs the victor’s crown.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen
This is a good way to end this rambling piece, urging us to return to the God of our fathers, to seek Him in humble sincere repentance, to bring this country back to, not just being “great,” but to being good and godly. May God have mercy on us all and pour out His Spirit on this nation in another “Great Awakening!”
Live for Jesus! He’s coming soon!
You may contact me at lagnesrussell@gmail.com or 601-635-3282.
