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If We Bow Down and Honor God, He Will Raise Us Up
.
DAVID LANE
AMERICAN
RENEWAL PROJECT
To the watching world, Americans hold
God's name in contempt.
Our official motto, "In God We
Trust," testifies of a piety we no longer practice.
Secularism, a strange god of lifeless
lips and unkept promises, expedited the collapse of the vision and mission of
America's Christian Founders.
God now calls out, "Come
let us reason together," moving us to think about our past, present
and future.
How did we, a nation
founded "For the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian
faith," arrive at this moment?
Certainly, God does
not need an entourage of supporters, carrying Him around shouting, "You
da champ, You da champ," in order for Him to deliver a knock-out blow
to secularism.
He will act decisively and in a timely
fashion, but "timely" is a matter of His own wisdom and plans.
As one Bible teacher
puts it: "If any carrying is to be done, He will carry us. Many think
it's useful to have God on their side. In a way they want to honor God. They
will go to church. They will say prayers. They will ask a pastor to bless a
marriage or their home. The kind of God they want is simply a God who will help
them get their own way and win their own battles. They want God to be a servant
to help them get things done, but at the same time they want to have their own
views and live their own lives."
"He is waiting
for us to be holy as He is holy” (1 Peter 1:16).
“So instead of
blaming the church for being anemic, lethargic and irrelevant, perhaps we
should blame ourselves."
Unfortunately, in
American Christianity, "We want our God to be casual and easygoing. He
is 'the man upstairs' rather than the Lord of Hosts, chummy rather than holy.
We want God to be the co-pilot, and we get worried when He wants to fly the
plane. But God wants us to bow before His holiness with respect and reverence.
God's power deserves our great awe. There is a danger in being in the presence
of the Lord of Hosts, especially when we come into His presence with arrogance
or apathy. We must come before His presence with quiet humility and
brokenness."
Our nation has never been
"exceptional" in and of itself.
All blessing flow
from God alone, the One who Daniel described as: "It is He who changes
the times and the seasons; He removes kings and sets up kings; He
gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who know understanding"
(Daniel
2:21).
And we should note, Daniel wrote those
words as an exile during the Babylonian captivity, a time when God allowed His
people to be ripped from their homeland for 70 years.
Tough times call for greater faith in
God, not nationalistic sloganeering.
The wonder of biblical Christianity is
that God can be known personally.
The essence of
biblical faith is to believe in the One who identifies as: "I AM, the
only self-existent, noncontingent being in the universe."
And He promises to deliver us from our
enemies.
Yes, secularism is
our enemy, but we can be thankful His Word guarantees, "Certainly, the
hand of the Lord is not so short that it cannot save, nor is His
ear so dull that it cannot hear" (Isaiah 59:1).
Our rallying cry to restore America to
her Judeo-Christian heritage and re-establish a biblically based culture is not
hopeless.
Since God promises that His arm is not
too short to save, what could be possibly holding up His deliverance from pagan
secularism in America?
Why are Christians powerless in the
civil government arena?
It has to be that His
"promises are being prevented from being kept by one thing only:
flagrant sin."
Franklin Graham wrote a powerful
reminder of the power of God over all earthly kingdoms and rulers. Do we still
believe this theology? We should. No, we must.
"2500 years ago,
Iraq was in the 'headlines.' It was known as the Babylonian empire and had the
largest military in the world at that time. Its king, Belshazzar, was having a
big party drinking and boasting [about Babylonian Exceptionalism] with his
wives, his mistresses, and his nobles. While they were partying, the hand of
God appeared and wrote a message on the wall, terrifying everyone including
King Belshazzar. His face grew pale and his knees went weak. Daniel is called
in to interpret the handwriting which says three things: 'Mene: God has
numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. Tekel: You have been
weighed on the scales and found wanting. Peres: Your kingdom is divided and
given to the Medes and Persians.
“Daniel warns
Belshazzar that he is guilty of worshiping false gods. He said, ‘you did not
honor the God who holds in his hand your life’(Daniel 5:23).
“That very night the
king was slain and the kingdom was lost to their enemies."
“What's the writing
on the wall for America? As a nation we are found lacking because of sin and
disobedience to God's Holy Word. We have not honored Him. If we don't turn back
to God, I fear that our end will be near."
Then they will put in motion the Word
to advance from the pulpit, to the pews and to the public square.
Here's a promise for
those willing to stand, "For the eyes of the Lord move about
on all the earth to strengthen the heart that is completely toward Him" (2 Chronicles 16:9).
Two examples should suffice.
EXHIBIT #1: The Idaho
legislature and the Hollister, Missouri, students are leading the way! Idaho Legislature
Passes Bill Allowing Bible in Public Schools
We simply need a Gideon or Rahab to
stand.
David
Lane is the founder of American Renewal Project.
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