Daily Devotional For Thursday, July 4, 2024

Happy 4^th of July folks. It is the day we declared our independence from England some 248 years ago. It would take 4 years of fighting a war to officially get it but we did. And because of that we secured for us five of the top fundamental rights very few countries have today. The first one our Founding Fathers gave us was freedom of religion. This means first our government cannot tell us how to worship, who to worship, when to worship and etc. It means second that our government cannot prohibit or restrict the free exercise of any religion. 

In 1620 when the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock, they were evangelicals fleeing persecution coming to America where in England there was a State church — the Church of England. They came to America for only one reason — the freedom to worship Jesus Christ without any government interference or persecution. This is why this freedom was primary to our Founding Fathers. Then they gave us four more fundamental rights we still enjoy today: freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom for the right of assembly and the freedom to question our own government if we think it is doing something wrong.

Though we have a clause that is often misused and abused, “the separation of church and state,” it is vital we have this. America is not a theodicy, but a democracy. An example of a theodicy was Israel under Moses, Joshua, Saul, David and Solomon. The freedom of religion we so blessed to have and enjoy has to be there for all others of different faiths as well. Yet, for America to survive as a nation we as Christians must do the following:

1. As Christians we must prioritize prayer. We are living in some great times and some dark times. 2 Chronicles 7:14 says, “If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (NIV). God was giving a warning to Solomon about keeping the nation of Israel faithful to God. 

Verse 14 is God’s response to a prayer from Solomon. In the following verses God warns Solomon that if he fails at this, God Himself will cause the destruction of the nation. When any president or senator or representative is sworn into office, the last line they swear to do is this: “So help me God.” They are making a promise to the America people to rely upon God to guide them in office. This is why we must be people of prayer for our elected leaders and country. So, when we pray for our nation, how should we pray:

1. We need to pray with passion. Look at James 5:16b, “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results” (NLT). “Righteous” — it is the Greek word [di÷kaioß, dikaios. It means “holy, pure, to be in accordance with God’s standards.” In 2 Chronicles 7:14 above the word prayer is used. This is the Hebrew word [וְיִֽתְפַּֽלְלוּ֙, yitpal] and it means “to pray with passion, to fervently plead.” The Septuagint, the Greek version of the Hebrew text uses the Greek word [zealoo] — it is where we get our English word “zeal.” It means “red hot, to boil, to glow.” Probably the last time I saw our nation do this was when September 11, 2001 happened — during the terrorists attacks. We need to be people who pray passionately for our country, our leaders and the moral fiber of our nation.
2. We need to pray with persistence. That is the point of 2 Chronicles 7:14. We don’t do this faithfully. Why? It is a whole lot easier to picket. It is a whole lot easier to boycott. It is a whole lot easier to demonstrate. I am not saying that we shouldn’t do those things but doing them void of prayer of passion and persistency, is useless. God will not bless such prayers. I want to do what God will bless it. Prayer is powerful.

“Back in June of 1787 our young nation was facing a huge crisis. The Constitutional Convention had come together in Philadelphia. There were representatives from the 13 colonies. They had reached an impasse. It looked like a solution was impossible. It was so bad that history records that some of the representatives said they should just dismiss, go home and come back at a later time. But others refused to do that because they knew that the divide was so great that if they went home that day without an agreement, this nation would never become a nation of United States. During that impasse when they could not make up their minds as to what to do, an elder statesman stood and addressed them. He reminded them of their nation’s short history. He reminded that that the Continental Congress had met in that exact place to declare their independence from England. he reminded them that they feared they could never defeat such a massive army as England’s army. And what they did was to go out and ask Americans to pray to God for victory and how God did intervene and give them the victory. That elder statesman offered a solution to their problem — Benjamin Franklin called on them to pray and folks — it worked. From that came our Constitution and the ratification of it. I love how Benjamin Franklin concluded his appeal to his fellow representatives. Do you know what he did? he quoted from the Bible — Psalm 127:1 —“Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain” (NIV).” It worked and they wrote and adopted the Constitution of the United States and then got it ratified. 

We need to be people who make passionate prayer a priority and we need to pray with persistence. Can you imagine if millions of Christians prayed persistently and passionately for our nation? We talk about prayer. We teach and preach about prayer. We do Bible studies on prayer, but we simply do not pray. We tend to see prayer like a drive-through at at fast food place. You go to the first window and place your order and drive to the second window and pick it up. It’s quick and inconvenient. Yet, so we believe Jesus’ words in Mark 10:27, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God” (NIV)?

2. As Christians we must repent of our sins. We are living in some great times and some dark times. 2 Chronicles 7:14 says, “If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (NIV). We don’t hear much about sin in the church. Listen to me: God HATES sin. He HATES it. We tend to play down our sin because we are always comparing our sin to someone else such as the pedophile, the murderer, the rapist and etc. They are not the measuring stick — Jesus Christ is. If you want to know how much Jesus Christ hate sin simply look at the cross. 

We get mad because they take down the Ten Commandments, but do we know them and second, do we will them ourselves? We complain they have taken devotionals out of schools, but do you have them as a family? We talk about how there needs to be a revival in our country — well, there needs to be a revival in the church first. Humility is the attitude of admitting and taking responsibility for one’s sin. For God to hear our prayers, we must come with an attitude of humility. We care more about our favorite sport teams than we do our faith. We get more excited about out sports teams than we do worshipping Jesus Christ. We go through the motions of worship but our hearts are far from God. Before our nation can change, we personally have to change first. 

3.  As Christians we must pleasingly obey Jesus Christ . We are living in some great times and some dark times. This means first:

4.  We need to have a bold determination to serve the Lord. Look at 1 Peter 2:11-12, Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. (12 ) Live such good lives among the pagans that, though` they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us” (NIV). This is not our home. We are exiles living here until Jesus Christ takes us home. Look at 1 John 2:15-17, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. (16) For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. (17) The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever” (NIV).

Just before Joshua was to die after leading the people of Israel into the Promise Land, he said this to them in Joshua 24:14-15, “Now fear the LORD and serve Him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. (15) But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living . . . But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD” (NIV). 

2. We need a persevering discipline to come to the Lord.. Look Psalm 34:8, “Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him” (NIV2011). The average American watches on average 5 hours of TV per day. This means we have a preserving discipline to watch TV, but how much time to you preserve time to memorize Scripture?
3. We need a public demonstration before others of our allegiance to Jesus Christ. When it comes to issues such as abortion, homosexuality, transgenderism, gay marriage and etc., we must publicly take a stand. According to polls, evangelical Christians vote the least. That is sad. 

In 2013 Philadelphia prosecuted Dr. Kermit Gosnell for killing 3 babies who were born alive after in his abortion clinic. He was found guilty of murder of these 3 babies. When Nancy Pelosi was asked by a reporter what is the difference in killing a 30 week old baby outside the wound when the mother went to Gosnell for an elective abortion verses someone simply killing a 30 week old premature born baby. Nancy Pelosi said, "As a practicing and respectful Catholic, this is sacred ground to me when we talk about this. This shouldn't have anything to do with politics” (Source:  http://news.yahoo.com/pelosi-lashes-reporters-morality-term-abortions-172922169.html). Folks that is a lie. She is not a practicing Roman Catholic because the official position of the Roman Catholic Church is it is against abortion. She slammed the reporter for asking the question. She said, “As a practicing Catholic how dare you bring that issue into politics. The question of abortion needs to stay out of politics.” We need to affirm and demonstrate that the emblem of our faith is not a donkey or an elephant. It is the cross of Jesus Christ. 

Earlier I mentioned that the phrase “separation of church and state and how this is often misused and abused. Let me tell you the origin and context of it. There is no phrase in our U.S. Constitution. That phrase does not exists at all in our Constitution. This phrase comes from a letter that Thomas Jefferson, who was President of our United States, wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association about whether or not Congress would be establishing a State Church. Jefferson said, “Absolutely not” (Source: http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9806/danpost.html). Do you know that one of the very first actions the U.S. Senate did after the U.S. Constitution was ratified? They elected Samuel Provost as the Chaplain for the U.S. Senate and that has continued until today with Barry Black as being the Chaplain for the U.S. Senate. Do you know that after the new U.S. Capitol was completed that on December 4, 1800 — Congress — Congress approved its use as church building. This was done to protect what had already been going on in Washington, D.C. since 1793. Newspapers ran a section informing the American public of worship services at the U.S. Capitol that would be every Sunday morning at 11:00. The reason Congress did this is because there were no churches in D.C. at the time and our Founding Fathers along with other politicians wanted to go to worship on Sundays — especially while in D.C. Thomas Jefferson as Vice President and then President attended worship in the U.S. Capitol. In fact most of our U.S. Presidents from Thomas Jefferson to Abraham Lincoln attended church that was held in the U.S. Capitol. Out Founding Fathers knew exactly what they were doing. They did not want a state governing the church, but they sure wanted the church governing the state. I can give you quote after quote from our Founding Fathers on this.

James 2:17 states, “Faith without works is dead” (NIV). Every super-power prior to us fell and so will we.  We have been given the freedom of speech — so what will we say? We have been given the freedom of the press — so what will we publish? We have been given the freedom to worship — how often do we participate in it? We have been given the freedom to vote — will we exercise that constitution right according to God? It is time for the church to stop being a passive, silent majority. It is time the church ask God for forgiveness for itself, for our nation and ask the Lord to send a mighty revival here. If we do not do this, then the long term consequences are unthinkable. Before revival can come to America it has to come to God’s people first. Read the following passages:

• Psalm 33:12a, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD . . .” (NIV).
• Isaiah 60:12, “For the nation or kingdom that will not serve You will perish; it will be utterly ruined” (NIV).
• Proverbs 14:34, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people” (NIV).
• Joel 2:12-14a, “The LORD says, `Turn to Me now, while there is time. Give Me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning. (13)Don’t tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead.’ Return to the LORD your God, for He is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and not punish. (14) Who knows? Perhaps He will give you a reprieve, sending you a blessing instead of this curse” (NLT).

Questions To Consider

1. Is prayer a priority in your life? Do you pray with persistence and passion? Why or why not?
2. Do you consistently humble yourself and confess your sins to God or do you at times ignore them, rationalize them, excuse them, overlook them or justify them? What God calls sin in your life, do you call it sin? Why or why not?
3. Is your life a demonstration of pleasing the Lord Jesus Christ through obedience? Do you have a bold determination to the serve the Lord no matter the costs? Are you discipline each day to give God some of your time alone with Him? Are you public with your faith on moral issues that our culture accepts as normal or are you quiet and reserve? Why or why not?
4. How do you think the four verses above (i.e., Psalm 33:12a, Isaiah 60:12, Proverbs 14:34, and Joel 2:12-14a) relate to America today and why?

Scripture To Meditate On: Matthew 10:33-35, Jesus said, “But everyone who denies Me here on earth, I will also deny before My Father in heaven. (34)  “Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! I came not to bring peace, but a sword. (35)  ‘I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law” (NLT).

Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, for revival to take place in America and in the church, it first has to take place in me. Please forgive me taking so many other things as more important than You and my relationship to You. I want to be more than just “a hearer of the word.” I want to be “a doer of the word.’ I recommit my life to You and promise to stand for You no matter the costs. In Jesus name, Amen!”

I love you Southside!—Pastor Kelly