A Nation That Knows Better

Jesus had some pretty stern words for a few cities in which He did miracles and taught yet they still did not receive Him as Lord and Messiah. He implied that they were without excuse because they new better than to continue in unbelief because of the great works He did in their streets and marketplaces.  It makes me wonder about our own nation and the lack of excuse that we have for our society today. We allow blatant sin, sin of the most perverse types.  Rebellion and rioting are becoming all to common in our streets. The violence and crime in our cities only seems to grow and intensify each day. Our politicians are corrupt, and weak because they operate from a philosophical foundation that tries to be morally neutral.  No such philosophy exists and moral relativism and "political correctness" fills the void created by such an attempt. Our marriages are ending in divorce and families are broken and in disarray.  The very foundations of what make us America are breaking and being threatened with crumbling, as we continue to sin our freedoms away in the sight of God.

The heartbreak is that we know better.  Our nation was founded on a worldview that was firmly grounded in the Christian faith and the Bible. The thirteen colonies at one time were in similar conditions as we are today. There was much sin and corruption all along the east coast as the colonies were taking hold in this new land. Drunkenness was a major problem, as was sexual immorality. Prostitution was common and as a result STD's were afflicting many who descended into that lifestyle. There was crime and violence all along the coast, and things were looking very bad for those who had settled here. But God had mercy and through the preaching of Jonathan Edwards, and George Whitfield and others, a great religious revival began to break out. People were gripped with the realization of their sins against the Almighty, and a wave of Holy Spirit repentance swept through the colonies. Drunkenness dried up, the prostitutes disappeared, crime went way down and peoples lives were impacted into a new standard of holiness and view of reality. But most significant was that this revival and christian world view created the atmosphere and mindset that allowed our founding fathers to conceive of and cultivate the principles that would soon form the Declaration of Independence, and the principles that would become the American form of government, and our Constitution.   This revival is the background, the soil out of which our nation grew. We know better than to do what we are doing now.

People say we are in a post-christian age, and perhaps to some degree we are. But we are not totally ignorant of the gospel and of our christian roots. The culture in which we live still witnesses to what God has done for us. Our hospitals, charitable works, the way we responded in the wake of recent hurricanes to help our neighbor, all bear witness to our beginnings as a christian nation. Even today the smallest of towns has at least 2-3 churches and larger towns have several so that people can worship in their chosen denominations. Bookstores, television programs, radio, internet,  all are used by God to remind people of the source of our life and the blessings we have witnessed and received.
Yet, we are like the cities Jesus sternly warned. We  know better. We are a nation that has gone backward, and we know better, but do it anyway. It doesn't have to be. Let's you and I begin today to turn our heats back to God. Perhaps God who saves by many or by few, will again have mercy and pour out His Spirit of repentance and heal a nation that knows better than to be this way and to do what we do.

Then, Now, And Always

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations."  This is how God introduced Himself to the prophet Jeremiah, as He called him to his prophetic ministry. It was very sinful and confused time in the history of Israel, his beloved nation.  Jeremiah faced very difficult circumstances for most if not all of his time as prophet. Yet this dramatic encounter with God, and the very nature of God's foreknowledge of the prophet was to serve as the basis for Jeremiah's faithfulness. He was confident enough to obey God in the most dire of situations because he was convinced by this initial encounter that God knew all things.  God knew the condition of his mission field, the condition of the nation, as well as the individual hearts of the people. 
The entire nation was so given over to idolatry, that the values, priorities, political scene, all cultural standards were reflecting the error of that sin.   Confusion and loss of national identity was the result.  Israel wanted falsehood not truth. They preferred gods of their own inventions rather than the true God, and falsehood naturally was reflected in their leaders, their policies and in the everyday business of life. Now that Gods call had come to Jeremiah, He assures the prophet that He will be with him in all circumstances.  He  assures Jeremiah that He knew him consecrating him to this task before he was even born.  This speaks of the character of God in a way that will help us stand for truth in our confused times.  
One of the titles of our Lord Jesus Christ is the "Alpha and Omega," meaning the beginning and the end. It reminds us that in our own confused times, there is one who is with us and who knows all about us including the circumstances to which He has called us.  Our days are very similar to the days in which Jeremiah lived and served. We also seem to want falsehood over truth, little gods of our own making rather than the infinite God revealed in Scripture. This has resulted in a loss of human dignity because of the devastation sin brings and its willful practice by so many. We endorse sin, we "legalize" it as if by being allowable by a civil court makes it acceptable and nullifies the  harmful consequences to people and to our nation as a whole.  It is into this type of culture we are called to speak the truth of the Gospel.  What will be our confidence and our determination to stay strong like Jeremiah stayed strong? It is the same all knowing and faithful God Who has known us and knows the days in which we live. He knew us also before we were formed, he set us apart for this time this place,  this unique calling and opportunity.  We could have been born two hundred or a hundred years ago, but we weren't. We were born for today. We could have been born in a country far away, but we weren't.  We are here, now, for this time and these people. To fulfill our calling we can take much encouragement to realize that our Lord Jesus knew, knows, and can see all about us and the times to which He has called us. His knowledge comes from His excellent person and character.  We are reminded that His nature will triumph over anything that a foolish and misguided culture can do to itself, or the discouraging thoughts that we as faithful servants may do to ourselves.   He knows us then, now and always.