OUR COUNTRY

 

Our Country

Let’s talk about the good old US of A. As the Jewish people call Israel their promised land I like to call the USA our promised land. Our ancestors all originally came here for the same reason, seeking freedom to live life free from the oppression of their countries of origin. I believe our ancestors brought some of that same thinking with them when they came here because that was all they knew and felt comfortable with. Yes it was a hard life for the first few years but I think they could have had better success if they had approached life with a different perspective. One of the primary reasons for coming to a new land was to pursue religious freedom but they seem to have quickly forgotten the Golden rule of, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” Matthew 7:12 and the second greatest commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” Matthew 22:39. Anyway the past is the past and we today cannot change what happened then, but we can insure that it doesn’t happen today or in the future. Reparations cannot right those wrongs because the original peoples that were wronged are long past and so are the people that committed those wrongs. Why should the present generation collect resources from the current generation. The original persecuted generation cannot benefit from those resources and the current generation being collected from didn’t commit that persecution. Does that make common sense? Lasting, genuine reconciliation does not take the form of cash or material things.

Many things happened in our past 250 years that were not right or fair or just but time moves on in a continuous cycle of beginnings and endings and time does not stop for anyone or anything. And we move along with it at the same speed. We cannot live or dwell in the past. Read Philippians 3:13 about past vs future. Time does not pass us by. As we move through time opportunities appear along the way and they are not moving in time as we are. They are stationary. We either pass opportunities by or we can take advantage of them as they appear, or not. They usually are lost in the past if we don’t take them as they appear and they usually don’t come around again, at least not in the same configuration and definitely not usually at the most opportune time related to a persons age. God presents these opportunity's for us and his timing is always perfect but He also gives us the free will choice to decide what we want to do. Of course His path for our life is always the best, but will we accept His guidance?

I don’t know exactly when this country started to reverse course, and by this I mean when did we start leaving God out of the our thoughts and decisions and almost every aspect of our life? When did mankind decide they could direct their life better than their Creator? God has a plan and a purpose for every one of us as stated in Jeremiah 29:11-13. This is the plan in which we walk in the gifting and identity He created us with. It is always the best plan and it requires a 24/7 committment. I am almost 80 years old and I can remember as far back as President Eisenhower, but I believe this country started failing long before that. We began to drift away from God’s plan when money, success, power, position and prestige, among other things began to take precedence in our life. Nothing else seemed to matter except what we ourselves could say, do or accumulate in this short life we all have to live. The reason being God had blessed this country with a covering of favor and blessing, which can be lost as quickly as we received it. No thought is given to our eternal future and what God has to say about it.

We think 250 years is a long time but it is not when compared to the many other centuries old nations throughout the world. Like many of the other countries that have come and gone due to a variety of reasons, we also could have a short or long lifespan. It all depends on who we allow to lead, guide and direct us. Thankfully, as a free Democratic Republic we have the right to decide who our leaders will be. At least for the time being. I believe we are in a period of time when that right is being challenged and all you have to do is pay attention to what is happening in this country right now to understand. Of course we need to keep an open mind to truth and evidence based facts to see this. We must investigate events and opinions ourselves and seek the real truth. Blindly supporting and following a leader and making up excuses for their bad decisions, behavior and actions will one day require a price to be paid by those followers, and we can’t go back and change what we did or said. At that time pride, arrogance, or reasons and excuses won’t make any difference or save anyone. There has always been opposition to current leadership in this country and we have always had the freedom to peacefully express our opposition but the extreme opposition we experience today only fosters extreme division making unity among American citizens almost impossible. What Jesus said in Matthew 12:25 “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand,” is something we should pay close attention to. Our nations enemy's are not our next door neighbors.

This nation started out originally as a nation that believed in the higher power of God to direct our path. Over the decades and centuries we have declined into a nation that has become spoiled, complacent and apathetic. A people who don’t regularly exercise their privilege to vote and have come to think they deserve all the benefits this country can provide without any contribution. A people who want our leaders to protect us, lead us and save us from all harm. We just want to be safe and be able to enjoy all the benefits this great nation can provide without lifting a finger in service of any kind. We have become a nation that can’t exist without our entitlements. At our present rate if we don’t reverse course and accept responsibility and become more accountable we may cease to exist in the not so distant future. Yes we must continually move forward in the pursuit of advanced technology and science but we must also not forget what brought us to this point in history to begin with. We must remember what the founders of this great nation wrote and the One they consulted to arrive at the writing of our Declaration Of Independence and Constitution. We must honor our Creator God, defer to His leadership and serve Him and this great nation unconditionally.

Love and Peace, Amen

Pastor Walter C. Scott