Seek His Face and Earn His Grace

by Diane Rufino

"God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever." --- Thomas Jefferson


What is happening in the US? Are we turning away from God, as many claim, or are we witnessing just the opposite? Are we seeing the error of our ways and turning towards Him?

Are we, as a nation, witnessing a Christian restoration or an atheist transformation?

I think the answer is that both forces are engaged in a great struggle. The progressive nature of our courts combined with the misinterpretation of our Bill of Rights, as well as the Fourteenth Amendment, and combined with the enormous power of the liberal media have allowed the atheist movement to have greater force than it deserves. To counter that movement, Christians and Christian organizations must fight against incredible odds, most notably the courts, the "wall of separation," and the liberally-biased media. It comes as no surprise that our government and the "establishment" is harboring an increasing hostility towards faith. Yet the Christian resistance is growing.

We've taken God out of our schools and out of our seats of government. We've removed crosses and other Christian symbols from public squares and from national cemeteries. We've perverted the meaning of the First Amendment with a phrase that appears nowhere in the Constitution - the "Wall of Separation" - so that we can systematically remove important and traditional human values from society and avoid expensive lawsuits. The First Amendment was not written to protect people and their laws from religious values but rather it was written to protect those values from government and government tyranny. We've watched as a Culture of Immorality has enveloped the country starting with the counter-culture revolution of the 1960s and are suffering from its natural consequences. Yet churches are growing larger. In 1973, the Supreme Court announced that women can kill their unborn under the constitutional protection of "privacy," but 39 years later, the pro-life voice grows louder and stronger.

We have a huge segment of society benefitting from the hard work, property, and taxation of others. About 50% of Americans are being used to support the other 50% in a lifestyle that the government continues to redefine and upgrade. This is institutionalized sloth and envy -- two of the Christian mortal sins. Some say it is the new form of slavery. Indeed, every person who benefits from the effort and property of another is himself a petty tyrant and a slave master. Yet as the entitlement ranks increase, the outrage against such human decay builds and people are urging a return to the policies of ethics, morality, and personal responsibility. As long as people can embrace these values, there is the hope of earned success and human dignity.

We have a president who wants ever so strongly to have government compel religious groups to provide birth control and abortion services - services that so fundamentally offend religious principles and offend our constitutionally protected Right of Religious Conscience - to further the agenda of Women's Rights. But instead, our country realized that a line had been crossed and the president was forced to retreat from his policy. The fight of gays and lesbians for the right to marry may cause many, particularly our unprincipled youth, to argue "Why Not?" but it causes countless others to re-connect with their religious values.

So, is it possible we are witnessing a Christian revival?

Those who came to America's shores did so under an apparent covenant with God. As Governor John Winthrop pledged in 1630 on board the Arbella, which set out for America's shores:

"Thus stands the cause between God and us. We are entered into covenant with Him for this work. We have taken out a commission. The Lord hath given us leave to draw our own articles. We have professed to enterprise these and those accounts, upon these and those ends. We have hereupon besought Him of favor and blessing. Now if the Lord shall please to hear us, and bring us in peace to the place we desire, then hath He ratified this covenant and sealed our commission, and will expect a strict performance of the articles contained in it; but if we shall neglect the observation of these articles which are the ends we have propounded, and, dissembling with our God, shall fall to embrace this present world and prosecute our carnal intentions, seeking great things for ourselves and our posterity, the Lord will surely break out in wrath against us, and be revenged of such a people, and make us know the price of the breach of such a covenant.

CONTINUED:  http://forloveofgodandcountry.com/