Revelation 1:7 Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of Him. Even so. Amen.
Life: John 10:10 I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. -Jesus
Liberty: 2 Corinthians 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
Happiness: Psalm 144:15:Happy are the people whose God is the Lord.
This country is a gift. Let us not forget our founding fathers and our inheritance.
The following was released from the White House earlier this week. It is The Founders Museum. Enclosed are 27 short biographies of our founders. They are approximately 1 to 2 minutes in length.
Step into history like never before. Watch America’s Founding Fathers, Ladies of the Revolution and Events that paved the way for Independence come to life.
The Declaration of Independence is our country’s statement of freedom from the tyranny of Great Britain’s King George III.
There are many who debate whether or not the Declaration is a Christian document. That is not the intent of this post.
The point is the founding fathers of the United States of America all recognized God. The concepts are apparent and documented in the Declaration of Independence.
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them…
Jeremiah 31:35 This is what the LORD says, He who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar, The LORD of armies is His name:
Psalm 74:17 You set all the boundaries of the earth; You made the summer and winter.
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We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Creator… Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Life… Genesis 1:30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.
Liberty…Leviticus 25:10a And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants.
Pursuit of Happiness…Galatians 5:13 For you were called to freedom/liberty, brothers. Only do not use your freedom/liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
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We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions…
Acts 17:31 For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.
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And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Isaiah 46:10 …declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose…
Psalm 103:19 “The Lord has established His throne in heaven, And His kingdom rules over all.”
Isaiah 14:24 The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying, “Surely, as I have thought, so it shall come to pass, and as I have purposed, so it shall stand.”
“Suppose a nation in some distant Region should take the Bible for their only law Book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! Every member would be obliged in conscience, to temperance, frugality, and industry; to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and to piety, love, and reverence toward Almighty God… What a Eutopia, what a Paradise would this region be.” -John Adams
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I think it is time we get back to the basics of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. I think it would be even better if we get back to the basics of the Bible.
We can start with…
John 1:1-5 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
That “Word” is Jesus Christ.
Genesis 1:27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Leviticus 25:10 And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan.
Our foundation as a country in the United States draws its concept of freedom and liberty from Leviticus 25:10. The verse is written on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. Abolitionists during the Civil War turned to the Liberty Bell and the verse from Leviticus 25 as a reason to end slavery. Cultures and societies can change when people take God’s word to heart and decide to follow His statutes.
The State House bell became a herald of liberty in the 19th century. “Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants thereof,” the bell’s inscription, provided a rallying cry for abolitionists wishing to end slavery. The Anti-Slavery Record, an abolitionist publication, first referred to the bell as the Liberty Bell in 1835, but that name was not widely adopted until years later. Millions of Americans became familiar with the bell in popular culture through George Lippard’s 1847 fictional story “Ring, Grandfather, Ring”, when the bell came to symbolize pride in a new nation. Beginning in the late 1800s, the Liberty Bell traveled across the country for display at expositions and fairs, stopping in towns small and large along the way. For a nation recovering from wounds of the Civil War, the bell served to remind Americans of a time when they fought together for independence. Movements from Women’s Suffrage to Civil Rights embraced the Liberty Bell for both protest and celebration. Pennsylvania suffragists commissioned a replica of the Liberty Bell. Their “Justice Bell” traveled across Pennsylvania in 1915 to encourage support for women’s voting rights legislation. It then sat chained in silence until the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920. Now a worldwide symbol, the bell’s message of liberty remains just as relevant and powerful today: “Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants thereof”
Can you believe it? The ideas of freedom and liberty come from the Old Testament Mosaic Law!
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This passage and context in Leviticus 25 are loaded with prophetic implications regarding Christ’s first and second coming. Click on the link below if interested in the prophecy related to the concept of Jubilee.
Isaiah 61:1-2 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor; He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn…
The concepts of freedom and liberty are captured by the prophet Isaiah as it is reflected in the Mosaic Law and the Jubilee. All three persons of the Trinity are involved in this communication. The “Me” is the Son. The Spirit is upon Him (the Son). The Father is represented by the title Lord GOD or Adonai Yahweh in the original Hebrew.
Jesus read and spoke these words in the synagogue of His home town Nazareth (Luke 4:16). Jesus is reading from Isaiah 61:1-2a. He reads verse 1 completely.
Jesus then stops reading in the middle of Isaiah 61:2. By reading these words, He was claiming to be the Messiah. In other words, “Here I am!!” Jesus is also arguably proclaiming a Jubilee year. This has significant prophetic implications in regards to the timing of His second coming.
Take a look at Isaiah 61:2. To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD (Jesus stops here.) and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn…
The stoppage of reading in the verse has lasted close to 2,000 years. At His first coming, Jesus was a suffering servant who died for our sins. His sacrificial death on the cross freed humanity from the bondage of sin.
Christ did not come in vengeance and judgment the first time, hence the pause. And we wait for the remainder of Isaiah 61:2b-11. It describes the future conditions of the nation Israel under the leadership of the Messiah, Jesus.
Jesus returns the second time in wrath and judgment to set the stage for an everlasting peace…
As a reminder, the United States of America was founded on a principle of freedom of religion. These religious freedoms continue to be under attack with increasing frequency as the days pass. Granted, we need to continue to debate a sincere, moral application of this freedom.
Our American Founding Fathers thought so much of our religious freedoms, look at the first thing mentioned in the United States Constitution.
First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Translation, no government sanctioned religion. And big brother, get out of the people’s right to exercise their freedom of the religion they choose.
As a sidebar, it is the Second Amendment that enforces the First.
Second Amendment: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
“Nothing is more dreaded than the national government meddling with religion.” John Adams, letter to Benjamin Rush, 1812.
2 Corinthians 2:12 For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you.
“While we are contending for our own liberty, we should be very cautious not to violate the conscience of others, ever considering that God alone is the judge of the hearts of men, and to Him only in this case are they answerable.” —George Washington, letter to Benedict Arnold.
James 4:12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, He who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
Psalm 96:13 Before the LORD, for He is coming, For He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in His faithfulness.
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Generally speaking, I understand liberal politicians, atheists, liberal academia, anti-Christ, anti-God and other like minded individuals reject the notion of God, Biblical morality, spiritual beings and their interaction with our world in the here and now. This crew would like to remove “religion” from our culture and world. They think “religion” is the problem.
The irony is these folks utilize political and legal freedom to impose their will upon others for “the greater good”. They are also the same people who will remove a multitude of freedoms from society if they obtain political power and authority as they see fit.
The end result is secular humanism. Often simply called humanism, is a philosophy, belief system or life stance that embraces human reason, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, and superstition as the basis of morality and decision making. -Wikipedia
Look around the globe where God has been kicked out of culture. Every place the Triune God of the Bible is removed, a vacuum is created by the absence of Judeo Christian values. Something is going to take its place. To the critic, like it or not, humanity is created to worship.
Be careful what you ask for…
Matt 12:43-45 “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.”
Happy Birthday America!!! It is our 245th Independence Day. Today we find ourselves at a crossroads. We are divided politically, socially, and morally. What direction is this country going to take?
I am going to leave it to the talking heads and pundits to discuss politically and socially.
What does God’s word say about freedom? I promise you it is not what you see and hear in today’s media.
At the core of American, western culture is a “me first” attitude. People are out to get theirs and often at the expense of others. The media glorifies and worships these champions of success.
As you read these verses, think about the cultural stance on the following issues.
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Sexual immorality: The culture says, “If it feels good, do it!”… among many other things.
1 Corinthians 6:12-13 “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food” and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
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Neighbors: Do we even know our neighbors any more? God’s word is calling us to put the needs of others above our needs.
1 Corinthians 10:23-24 “All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.
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Do Good and Respect Authority
1 Peter 2:16-17 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
Unfortunately, those who are acting out in violence against authority and others garner a significant portion of attention in the news. Yes, they are free to act this way. But this does not mean they are free from the consequences of their actions. Who are they serving? Are they honorable? Their actions are hardly loving.
There will be plenty of who disagree with what God has to say. Take it up with Him. He will listen. He is a big boy, He can handle it.
God’s word calls for a society where we look after others as a priority instead of ourselves. Respect, serve, love others… even the one’s we disagree with.
Do not underestimate the power of good…
1 Peter 2:15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.
Luke 12:4 I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. -Jesus
If you can… save a place within your heart for the tired souls of war and conflict.
If you can… take one last backward glance at the places they can no longer go.
If you can… remember what they have taught you. Take their knowledge and wisdom with you. Their deaths were not in vain. One day we all look back and realize what they sacrificed.
If you can… take a moment to embrace in your heart all those gentle heroes that were left behind on the battlefields fighting for their country.
If you can… let them know that you have always loved them even though you may not have. Forever save a place in your hearts for them.
A young soldier once remarked, “We did not go because we are soldiers. We went because we are AMERICANS.”
