|
Original Christian artwork: Patriotic image
showing a young boy with his dog, waving the American flag and
shouting Hooray for America!. The backboard on
a public bench reads: God Bless America.
I think it is human nature to love our mom, to respect our dad,
and to be proud of our country. I certainly hope that
people in every nation are as proud of their national heritage
as we Americans are of the United States of America.
Our political parties differ in many ways, our cities are filled
with people of many colors and cultural backgrounds, we often
get into heated debates about certain ideals and ideas. We
have many problems facing us, problems often caused by our own
short-sighted thinking and behavior. We are a free people
and as a free people we must endeavor in each generation to
preserve our liberties, to improve our treatment of citizens, to
behave as worthy participants in world affairs, and to better
understand our obligations to family, to country and to God, our
Creator and Keeper.
Our freedom is not given to us by a president, by an act of
congress, by the news media, or by any long-standing law.
We take up our rights as free citizens every day. We are
free because today we choose to be free. We exist as one
people, one nation under God, because we choose to be united in
our views of liberty and justice for all. We do not always
achieve every objective. But we try our best to learn from
our mistakes. As a free people, we pool our ideas and
resources, our abilities, our understanding of human life and
liberty and we do our best to make things work.
If any one idea, one person, or one law is responsible for our
existence as a free country, that one great cause is God
Himself. Long before Englanders and other Europeans began
to arrive on our shores to establish new colonies, the Lord had
already been working in many human lives, enabling them to
hammer out good and better ideas of life as a free and
self-governing people. Our forefathers did not have to
begin from scratch to develop the ideas on which our freedom and
Constitution are based. Such ideas had already been
growing and had even been tested across the sea.
It is God who brought men, women and children to the shores of
this land, enabling them to arrive safely. It is God who
allowed the earliest settlers to survive harsh conditions and
learn how to make this land provide for their needs. It is
God who enabled colonies to be built and to prosper. The
Lord Himself gave courage to men of action and sharp thinking to
not only agree but act with courage in forming and signing a
bold Declaration of Independence. During the first years
of the Revolutionary War, it is God who kept the fire alive in
enough men and women to carry the dream forward. It is God
who gave us, against all odds, a victory over England. And
it is God who has kept us in every generation to this day.
God has truly showered us with grace and kindness, and whose
mercy keeps us alive as a free people. We cannot and will
not long survive if ever we truly turn our backs on the Lord.
In recent decades we have moved closer and closer to utter self
destruction. If God punished Israel, His own chosen
people, He will certainly correct us. And while we are a
stubborn and freedom-loving nation, we must learn to obey the
love of God that calls us to repentance and life. For the
sake of our children and all that we hold dear, we must learn to
walk humbly with our God.
In His hands and with His help, we will remain strong. By
His grace we will turn aside from evil and stupid choices.
With His leadership, we will shine as a light of hope and safe
harbor to all other nations. God has done a great thing in
raising up this nation. May He continue to do great things
in each of our hearts, our homes, and in the lives of our
children and our children's children, forever. Amen.
The above graphic may be used by Christian believers in various kinds of
personal witness, for church programs, and other Christian
activities. There is no charge for this use, so long as
the copyright/credit info is included with the image or a link
back to this site is provided.
To use the graphics on this site,
right click the image (Mac users hover the mouse cursor over the
image) and select the "Save As" or "Save Image As" and save the
file on your computer's hard drive. Images not saved to
your computer will not work properly (especially animated GIF
files), or will likely suffer broken links in a short time.
|