Righteousness Exalts A Nation

Is it possible for America to become a great nation once again? Only if it become righteous and righteousness must begin with the church first and then our communities will be changed. Christians pray for revival in America, pray that revival will come to our civic leaders and they know not what they are praying.

Revival is a reviving of Christians not lost civic leaders. If you are praying for revival in Congress and the White House very little effect is going to happen with what we have at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and on Capitol Hill. There are not enough Christians at those locations for revival to have the effect that is needed.

Salvation must come to those locations! Those who are lost in their sins must repent and come to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. At our church we’ve just begun a Sunday school Bible study by Dr. Jerry Vines on the Book of Romans and two verses from chapter 2 shows the issue with not only our elected leaders, but also and more importantly the church.

    “Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God…” (Romans 2:4-5)

Paul is teaching us that God’s judgment remains righteous even if we despise God’s judgment; even if we reject it. The Greek translated despise literally means, “to look down on,” “to think little of.” We as a nation stare down our noses at God’s goodness and patience toward us. Even so, God’s judgment stands.

Many Christians love to quote King Solomon:

    “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” (Proverbs 14:34)

We shake our heads in agreement and shout “Amen!” any time the preacher quotes this verse and it has no effect on our lives.

We still covet, we continue to steal from God, and we continue to disobey Jesus’ command to us to witness about Him, all the while wringing our hands over the condition of our nation.

We complain of the oppressive nature of our government and yet we have exactly the government we deserve. There is an awakening in America but if it is only fiscal and not spiritual it will be short-lived. Listen to the Prophet Isaiah:

    “In righteousness you shall be established; you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near you.” (Isaiah 54:14)

Have you ever seen in America a time where people are actually terrified of what is happening more so than now?

Beloved we have brought this on ourselves; evil has come to America because we have kicked God out and not just out of government and school, but most importantly out of our churches.

Historical revisionists like to minimize or outright lie about the effect Christianity had on our founding as a nation. There is good reason for that; they desire the present state of America. That is part of their plan to change America from a republic to an oligarchy; and the plan is working brilliantly.

One Founding Father that the revisionists like to minimize is Ben Franklin. Many call him an atheist and some call him a deist. Whichever is true, oh would that the American Church be as devout as ol’ Ben! I leave you with his words:

    “In the beginning of the contest with Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayers in this room for Divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending Providence in our favor. . . . And have we now forgotten this powerful Friend? Or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance? I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth: ‘that God governs in the affairs of man.’ And if a sparrow cannot fail to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this. I also believe that, without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel; we shall be divided by our little partial local interest; our projects will be confounded; and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a byword down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter, from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing government by human wisdom and leave it to chance, war, or conquest. I therefore beg leave to move that, henceforth, prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven and its blessing on our deliberation be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business.”

In Christ
Dave
Ps. 37:4

If you’re receiving these devotionals for the first time and would like to receive them on a regular basis, please click here and use “Please add to Devotional List” as the subject.”

    Copyright © 2010 David Jeffers

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,