My Lament...

I am sitting here before this glowing screen, contemplating what is in all likelihood the end of what was at one time a truly amazing country.  Trying to make some sense of it all.  This was a country that used to believe that liberty was among the highest and noblest of things we could strive and fight for.  A country which believed that very freedom, coupled with a deep sense of moral responsibility, would provide the greatest opportunity for the greatest number of people, and those people who did achieve great things would be able to bless others and expand opportunity for others.  We witnessed this this first hand as our country became the most prosperous in the history of the world and one of the greatest forces for freedom and good throughout the world.  Not that we were without faults, but the success of this experiment in liberty and limited government undeniably brought unprecedented results. 

Instead, we now move further and further down the path to big government dependency, with our lives ever more in the hands of a precious few who will dictate to us how we should live.  I still can not grasp why would anyone believe that those select few individuals would be better suited to fight and advocate for our best interests than an individual, or even local institutions and municipalities, would.  Why would so many willingly choose a false sense of security over the lure of great opportunity that comes from freedom, though admittedly mixed with some degree of risk?  Is it because the people of this great country became so risk averse that they would willingly subjugate themselves to the highest bidder, as long as they had promised to "provide" for them?

So then I thought, well yes, this is exactly what people naturally seem to do when they have lived under prosperity and freedom for so long.  When the people have no other perspective upon which to judge their lives, they fall prey to the thinking that this is simply the way that life has always been, so this is how it will always be.  They don't cherish freedom and prosperity because they have never had to fight for it.  As Thomas Paine had said: "What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value."  It has been all too easy in this nation for our people to reap the rewards of those who came before.  This steady decline was predicted, and warned against, by so many of our founding fathers (and early American observers like Alexis de Tocqueville) and I suspect they knew that even if they were successful in their venture, that the Republic would always exist on a razors edge. 

Human beings have too often traded the higher things for lesser things that seemed more secure.  This was a pattern repeated often in the Old Testament.  God had warned the people of Israel not to take a king or they would be under oppressive tyranny, having their goods and their loved ones taken from them (1 Samuel chapter 8).  God wanted His people to rely on Him, not on the apparent security of a king.  However, they rejected His call and did as they wanted, ultimately paying dearly for their choice.  1 Sam 8:18 "And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the LORD will not answer you in that day."

Now, I don't want to act as if I have some special insight as to what God may be trying to tell us now, in our day.  However, I do know that He remains the same from age to age and from kingdom to kingdom.  His principles stand, even when His people reject them.  I am convinced that this country was founded on a Biblical understanding of mankind and our need for reliance upon God, and it has been our abdication of His sovereign hand that will lead (or is already is leading) to our desolation.  Although I don't pretend to be His prophet, I do know it would be very foolish to think that we can abandon His principles and not face judgement.  I don't want to get into all the myriad ways we have turned away from God, but as a small sampling our turn can be seen in the absolute breakdown in the family (divorce, single parenthood, cohabitation, same sex marriage, etc), the widespread loose morals (gambling, pornography, violence, and so on), and the unbelievable abortion holocaust; these issues simply scratch the surface and do not even speak of the ways that the Church of God has rejected its role to be salt and light in this world.  

Even as I pray for an overwhelming revival among God fearing people in this land, it is my fear that it will not come.  There are times when the people harden their hearts, plug their ears, and shut their eyes to what is going on all around them.  It is my belief we live in one of those times.  God will not be mocked indefinitely, and although He continues to offer a way of salvation, and is ever patient with a rebellious people, His offer is often given with the foreknowledge that the message may be ignored and that judgement will someday come. 

I will conclude with this verse from the prophet Isaiah, which should serve as a sobering warning to all those willing to hear it.  Now understand, these words were not written to the USA in 2012, but the principle of rejecting God's word and His standards still applies.  Since God still sits upon His throne and He will bring down those who reject His ways, we may get a glimpse into the judgement of God, and we should tremble before the One who truly holds kings and kingdoms in His hand. 

Isaiah 6:9-12  "...“Go and tell this people: ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving, Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes.

Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” Then I said, “For how long, O Lord?” And he answered: “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the Lord has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken."

-- Jamey