Monday, February 18, 2008

Presidents Day

Whenever we celebrate Presidents Day or Independence Day, I always think of how blessed this country is. One major blessing is the wisdom and foresight of the founders. I believe they took the best of the Enlightenment and combined those with biblical principles, forming a unique country and form of government. Being of English heritage helped, because of their history of the rule of law and personal freedoms going back to the Magna Charta.

At just the right time, God provided us with leaders of uncommon courage and wisdom, such as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Think of it – Washington turned down a suggestion that he become the first king of the US! Who else would turn down such an offer?

The founders carefully thought out and wrote the Declaration of Independence and later established the Constitution. The Declaration is the Constitution’s foundational and guiding document, containing its underlying principles. It is up to us to continue in the spirit of those two documents, so that this nation, under God, which is of the people, by the people and for the people, will not perish.

This nation is, I believe, following paths to destruction. We have abandoned the God of our ancestors and we are disregarding their principles and values, substituting for them revisionist interpretations of what the Constitution says. We have confused license for liberty. Let us, therefore, heed what God says in 2 Chronicles 7:14 (NRSV): “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

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