Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Some parting thoughts on Independence Day

This is my last 4th of July post ... I promise. But this is too good not to share.

Sunday morning, our pastor started a sermon series based on the book of Jeremiah entitled "LOST: The Church in Post-Christian America". It was good. It was powerful. It was a little scary. But, it was the TRUTH.

The gist: America is no longer a christian nation. How can our nation emerge from the downward cycle we are currently in? The answer is not a certain president or a certain political party or reform. The answer is JESUS CHRIST!

What can I do?
(1) Come back to Christ ... overflow with the purposes of God.
(2) Teach my children the way of Christ.
(3) Understand that I am a missionary to my culture ... church is wherever I am.

I challenge you to do the same.

We also sang the 4th verse of the Star-Spangled Banner during our praise and worship time. I didn't even know there was a fourth verse. The words were very powerful and I wanted to repeat them here.

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
-Francis Scott Key, 1814

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