And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
SUBJECT GOD BLESS AMERICA?? DON'T COUNT ON IT!!
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God bless America, land that I love. Stand beside her, and guide her, through the night with the Light from above. From the mountains, through the prairies, to the oceans, white with foam, God bless America, my home sweet home. God bless America, my home sweet home.
This song, which has a very special meaning to many in this country, is known for its short, and to the point message, which calls on God, to bless this entire nation, and everyone in it, no matter where they are, or on what economic level they find themselves.
Look at the words, and you will see, there is no call to bless any particular segment of this nation, but rather, to bless all of us. For truly, any one that names the name of Christ, would not be selfish in calling on God, for blessing, just them. As a preacher once said, in an example of a selfish prayer,
'Lord, bless me, my wife, my 2 kids, us 4, and no more!' The reason being, if, one of us is blessed, and others are in need, then we may find ourselves, and rightly so, having to share our blessings with those that are not as blessed as we are.
If the entire land were blessed, everyone in it would be on the same level, and there would be no envy, hatred, or any other conflict that is usually labeled, 'us vs. them.'
That my friends is a nice way of thinking, and beseeching God for that, is a good thing.
The only problems would be people, who are not satisfied being equal with everybody else, but want to be above.
However, in all of this, there is one thing that most of us[I am using 'us' generically, because I have long since, changed my way of thinking] have failed to consider. And that one thing, is the very thing, that will keep this nation from being the fulfillment of the vision that we would want it to be, and that is blessed.
Is God capable of giving us what we ask for in this song??
Most definitely, Yes!!
Will He do it??
Not as long as things stay the way they are.
You see, God is most definitely, willing and able to fulfill His part, in blessing this nation,
but, He will only do it, if we meet His, prerequisites, conditions or requirements. And, herein, lies the problem.
If you will look, at the subject scripture, most of you recognize it as being the prophecy, that an Angel of the Lord, gave Mary, as pertaining to the Child, that she was to give birth to.
He was going to be the saviour of His people.
The first thing I want you to notice is this.
He did not come to save the world, but rather, His people. There is a big difference, in what we want to believe about the mission of Christ, and what His mission, and that of the Church, today, is.
True, Christ did come, so that every single solitary person, that walks the face of the earth, could be saved from the punishment of sin. However, the only way for that to occur, is if they, become, His followers [saved].
Now, look at the subject verse again. Do you see that little four lettered word, that is underlined?? That word, as insignificant as it may seem, is the single biggest problem this nation has, as to why we will never see God blessing this nation, the way we ask Him to.
The reason He won't do it, is because we want Him to bless us, while we are still
'in' our sins. However, in order for Him to save, and bless us, He has to separate us,
'from' our sins.
You see, this nation, which has been blessed abundantly by God, is in serious trouble. The reason being, it has slipped away from the position it was in, back some 50, and more years ago.
At that time, even though it was not perfect, it was making strides to acknowledge God, and His commandments. It strove to be all that God wants it to be. And God, in return, supplied the blessings that made us, the greatest nation on earth. It's like, we would take one step towards Godliness, and He would take two steps towards blessing us.
However, as time marched on, things started happening, that slowed that progress, then stopped it, and then started reversing it, as the people began to rebel against the laws of the land, that acknowledged [God]Christ.
Just like the children of Israel, after all the blessings God gave them, especially after He delivered them from Egypt, they got out in the wilderness,
headed for the promised land, and what happened??
When God gave Moses the laws, and commandments they were to live by, before they crossed over in to the promised land, and he told the people, they rebelled.
Mind you now, these were the same people, who cried and moaned and pleaded to God for nearly 400 years while in bondage. These are the same people that witnessed the plagues that God sent on Egypt, especially the death of the first born. These are the same people that saw God split the Red Sea, so that they could go over, on dry land. Yet, the minute God gives them rules to live by, they had a fit. I mean, they turned on Moses, and wanted to kill him.
They began to say, they wished they were back in Egypt, where there was plenty of food, for them to eat. I mean, they got downright rebellious. And though their anger was directed at Moses, the fact that Moses, was God's anointed, and was following His direction, God viewed this as an attack on Him[God].
Well, what was the result??
They suffered, and died, in the wilderness. Every last one of them, that had rebelled against God, died before the remnant of those that were delivered from Egypt, that followed God's directions, through Moses, and the 'new' generation, the children that were born in the wilderness, to the parents, that had been disobedient and rebellious to God, were able to go in to the promised land.
That situation, is being played over, again, right here in this nation.
We have a bunch of people, that want to experience the 'promised land' blessings, but, they don't like the Rules.
There are people in this country, that fled from their own country, because of bad conditions, [dictatorships, poverty, famine, hopelessness, misery, disease and whatever], to come to America, the land that God, had blessed, abundantly, because we were founded on the principles of His Word, putting our faith, in Christ.
These other people, hearing about the land of opportunity[promised land], did whatever they had to do, to get here. And after they got here, and started to get their lives turned around, and started prospering, then, they started to murmur and complain about some of our laws,
[usually those that reflected this nation's Christian heritage] that they felt offended by and began to fight against those laws, so they could pursue their own religious belief, from their own homeland.
Now, I want you to think about this. And I mean no disrespect to you, but,
if the god that you served in your home country, wasn't doing anything for you, except letting you suffer, and die, then why would you want to come over here, to get away from that suffering, then, want to return back to him, in rebellion to the God of this nation, that has blessed you??
Do you see how foolish that is??
However, it gets worse. Because, people in this nation, that were born here, and have enjoyed God's blessings, all their lives, want to join these people, and take up their cause, and even worship their god, as well. Some, don't even want to acknowledge God, at all. They want to deny that He even exists. And, as their numbers grew, they began to pass laws that essentially,
reflected their rebellion against Him.
Well, what do you think God did, about this?? Did He sit idly by and do nothing?? Of course not!! He began to withhold His blessings on those that rebelled against Him.
As I look at the absolute foolishness, that passes for intelligence, in the things some people do, in this nation, it reminds me of these scriptures,
Prv 14:12, 16:25 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
1Cor 1:19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
1Cor 1:20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
The smarter we think we are getting, the dumber we are actually becoming. Anytime a nation, can come up with some of the ludicrous notions that it does, in spite of the facts, which it refuses to look at, then, that nation is on the fast track to destruction.
Let me give you the most glaring example of this foolishness, that I am talking about.
Abortion.
Here we have the miracle of birth, being turned in to an inconvenience, which can be arbitrarily done away with, because, it is nothing more than a tumor, or some parasite, that needs to be gotten rid of. Never mind what God says about it. Never mind what the ultrasound images show. Never mind what millions of women, that have had the procedure, experienced afterwards. The guilt, the sense of loss, the depression, and other things.
Our response is, ignore God's Word, don't look at the images, and to keep women from feeling of guilt, depression, and the rest of what comes with it, isolate them from having to be made to feel guilty.
Notice. What they are endeavoring to do, is stay with this abomination, that is destroying their lives, and this nation, while at the same time, singing
'God Bless America!!!'
Think about it from this standpoint.
Almost everyday, the news gives us a running count, of how many of our military personnel have been killed in the wars we are fighting. As of this writing, I believe it is somewhere near 5000. I could be wrong. And, they talk about how tragic that is.
Compare that number with, 56 million. That is the number of abortions, that have occurred in this nation, since 1972 [1.5 million/year, and counting]. If the news media dared announce that every day, they would probably be sued, or shut down.
Well, God is keeping track of the numbers, and He is doing something about it. His response is,
'Since you refuse to acknowledge this 'abomination', and are killing these babies, that you say aren't human, I will not protect [bless]those children of yours, that you have with you.'
The end result is, your kids are killing each other, dying of diseases that usually happen to old people. They are killing themselves[suicide], dying in accidents, and you name it. More
next month.
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