A Few Thoughts After The 4TH
By Ed Crumley
Once again we are at a time in our country where serious thought needs to be given as to where we are and where we need to go from here.Even though our country was never completely Christian, it once had a Christian consensus. It was a cultural agreement to live by certain standards that were spelled out in a handbook for living called the Bible. Our culture began changing a few decades ago when a new spirit, a new way of thinking, entered our land.
First it changed how we thought. Then we changed how we acted. Instead of holding the line, and pointing the way back, the church began to accommodate it. This resulted in social chaos which no society can tolerate along with the threat of anarchy looming. But nature abhors a vacuum and into this vacuum, devoid of the authority of God and the Bible, moved the authority of the state. This is where we find ourselves today.
To bring it down to where we live, when human beings allow their Creator to mold them into His design for them, they develop self-control through the power of the Holy Spirit and can experience freedom within the parameters of God’s loving direction and grace.
Let’s make it even more mundane. We are physically designed to live on Earth, not Mars, or even the Moon which is very close to us. We are made for this world and no other. Only the earth has the right environment: the right air for us to breathe, and water for us to drink.
It’s the same in the spiritual realm. We were designed to live as spiritual beings in a certain way, and when we reject that, we die spiritually. The fabric of a spiritually dead culture unravels when God is no longer allowed to hold it together. An unregenerate man comes in with his own devices to try to do the work that only God can do and the result is the loss of individual freedom. It was with mathematical certainty that this would happen. It has happened in our country.
This loss of freedom expresses itself in many aspects of our lives including financial and physical. For example: the state overtaxes us to provide things we should provide for ourselves and others. Next, we can lose our physical freedom by destructive lifestyle habits which ruin our health and overburden our healthcare system.
Where is the answer to our problem? It’s not where many think: another election, another revolution. It’s not complicated. The big picture solution comes down to one. Christians must begin to live Christianly again. Before we roll our eyes, let’s point to specifics.
(1) Spend time in the word of God every day. The Holy Spirit will bring it to life and God will speak to your specific need. (2) Talk to God through prayer. Ask God to search your heart for areas you haven’t completely committed to him. Keep short accounts of your sins by quick confesssion. (3) Live your life as an example so that when the opportunity comes to tell others about Christ, you won’t be ashamed. (4) Become a part of a Bible-believing, Christ-preaching church for true worship and fellowship.
When Christians are fully engaged in those four specifics, God the Holy Spirit will infiltrate and direct their entire lives: their family relationships, their jobs, and relationships with their fellow countrymen. 2 Chronicles 16:9 says: “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong on the behalf of the one whose heart is perfect toward Him”.
The picture is complete in 2 Chronicles 7:14 which states: “ If My people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and forgive their sin and heal their land.”
