Life is full of storms, and it is those storms that can make us stronger, and help us in the building of our character - if we choose. We choose how to respond to storms. We can grow, or become darker. Society, it seems, has chosen darkness.
As our sin-darkened world employs the same kind of activities that ultimately brought down past civilizations, we are reminded that the Founding Fathers determined that only a value driven people could keep America from going the way of Ancient Greece, or the Roman Empire.
The whole dynamic of morality has been flipped, and the world holds up as heroes people who are sexually immoral, gluttons, heavy drinkers, and reckless gamblers. Entertainers who can't keep their lives straightened out, or their marriages together, are considered to be stars, for example.
The kind of values the world craves stands in contrast to the kind of society the founders believed would enable the United States to stand the test of time, and bring light to the world. Prayer has been removed from our schools, children have been told they can't pray on the steps of the Supreme Court, and crosses are being removed from public view around the country because atheists claim they offend them. During the Revolutionary War the early Americans were on their knees asking for guidance and Divine Providence.
After Ben Franklin recommended they pray before each session of the Constitutional Convention, the delegates walked to a nearby church and prayed for wisdom. When Alexis de Tocqueville came to America he observed that in the United States the politicians prayed, and the pastors preached about politics, yet the church did not control the government, and the government did not control the church. Now, the government, and liberal part of society, is trying to relegate God into the confinement of the four walls of the church. God is no longer welcome in the public view.
John Adams stated that,
"Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
Benjamin Franklin said,
"The longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this Truth - That God governs in the affairs of men."
James Madison said,
"We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."
We are now so discouraged over the fact that it seems like the voters have turned against the Americanism that made this nation great. After a hundred years of communist influence in our schools, and heavy progressive influence in our nation's political system, in the 2012 Election, despite four years of a destructive presidency by Barack Obama, Americans voted the socialist back into office. Republicans, in an attempt to try to figure out what happened, have decided they need to moderate, that they need to become more like the opposition in order to beat the opposition.
In reality, the recipe for winning is the same for doing what is right. We need to return to the Godly principles that guided the delegates when they wrote the U.S. Constitution.
"If we lose these virtues or pursue the opposite of them, then the great cause that we know as America will be betrayed, dishonored, and finally destroyed." - James Madison.
To be the light of the world we need to turn towards the light of the Creator. We are in a dark world, and we are enduring a number of storms, but if we wish to survive we must be the light of the world, rather than just becoming yet another part of the darkness.
Israel wandered in the desert for 40 years. Their rebellion against God was characterized by dark actions, which followed grumbling, and them questioning God. The generation lost in the desert was characterized by Apostle Paul as being a "crooked and twisted generation." Moses said the same thing about that group of Israelites in Deuteronomy 32. They had rebelled against God, just as we are seeing America do today.
God has blessed this nation, made it the most prosperous nation in history, and our response to those blessings has been to grumble and complain, and then work to change the system from the one granted to us during the debates of the Constitutional Convention, to a system that welcomes an intrusive government.
How crooked and twisted must we be to turn our back on the very principles that made this nation great?
When asked, after the Constitutional Convention, what kind of government the delegates had given us, Benjamin Franklin said,
"A republic, if you can keep it."
It seems we are losing ground on the part about keeping it, which is no surprise. Thomas Jefferson said, after all, "
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground."
In fact, Jefferson believed that in order to remain free, this country would need to endure a bloody revolution every twenty years.
Like the Israelites grumbling and questioning God in the desert, shortly after God had delivered them from the Pharoah of Egypt, we have become a nation of grumbling people that are questioning God after he has delivered us from a number of enemies, and after we have been blessed as a nation for over two hundred years. We need to be careful not to commit the same mistake the Israelites did. God has delivered us from tyranny a number of times, yet rather than learning from those storms, we have now literally voted tyranny into Washington. . . twice.
As a nation it is time to quit grumbling and questioning God. In other words, the GOP, if it is to turn this nation around, doesn't need to be moderating as they are thinking about doing, but humbling themselves before God and returning to the God-given principles of the United States Constitution.
How much complaining and grumbling do we hear in today's society? Are Godly principles serving as the foundation of our lives, and our governmental system? Are our values and virtues the same as those that made this nation great? Do we understand the importance of natural law, and how that plays into the concept of a nation that operates under the rule of law? Or have we relinquished control to a bunch of complaining and grumbling people who consider themselves the ruling elite?
The Godly way to proceed is to turn away from those things that have led this nation into darkness. We must face life's uncertainties, disappointments, and conflicts as the founders did - under the understanding that without Godly principles, we are simply living under the rule of man - a system that has failed time and time again in history.
We have been the shining beacon on the hill because America has always refused to succumb to the darkness. In the storms we have searched for the light, and we have been the light. We are not perfect, but we have stood out in history as a righteous nation because we have recognized that our nation was forged largely due to Divine Providence. We have been a success as a nation because America has been good. We have been good because we have belonged to the Creator.
To carry the values and virtues of a nation that uses God as its foundational base does not make us perfect. As a nation we are far from perfect. But if we seek out the light through God, it manifests in the life of the nation. Our imperfections are covered by God's perfection. When we shun the darkness, the light reflects upon us, and it is that light that those outside this nation sees.
Such light is learned. If we don't teach the next generation, the darkness will deepen. Godliness, and the principles of the Constitution, must be passed on to the next generation.
James Madison once said, "
A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people."
Our nation has been exceptional, a sharp contrast to the other nations around us. We live in the midst of a crooked and twisted world. We stand in sharp contrast because America is good. We are the light in a dark world. It is up to us to keep the fire burning bright, so that we can navigate through the storms, and remain free after the storm passes.
