September 11, 2020 Reflections

This is a perplexing day. With so many people whose lives were forever altered by the events of 9/11/01 (the world I dare say), it is a day of remembrance.

Rightly so.

For many September 11 is a day mixed with rejoicing and mourning.  REJOICING and praise to God that more were not killed on 9/11 and in those wars, and that our nation was made great by God’s instilling His precepts and love in the hearts of our founding fathers. MOURNING those thousands who have been taken from us by the ongoing actions of terrorists and the loss of countless thousands who have died making this country free.  And in 2020 that mourning includes attacks on our police, ethnic minorities, political division, and a me-first attitude that has become pervasive in our society, replacing an other-centered life mandated by the God of Creation through His Son, Jesus.

It can,  and perhaps should also be a reminder of the countless cost of all the previous wars and earlier terrorist attacks that have required the lives of men and women to keep our land truly “the land of the free and brave”.

But we are also faced with the almost daily news from the Federal court system that has been interpreted to say with a resounding NO, to the question “Can the state acknowledge God?” While the laws read that government cannot institute religion, which bans mandated Bible reading and prayer, it clearly also says not to inhibit religion but seems with the decline of prevailing moral judgment to have instead instituted a different religion in America … Atheism.

But most of all, I believe we should find sack-cloth and ashes and mourn for the loss of God in our nation, and then we should, we must, rise up and put a stop to these things and reverse that which strips America of her greatness.

I’ve quoted it before; I’ll quote again what began with a much-maligned gentle Spaniard named Christopher. Mr. Columbus in his own writings said the purpose of his trip was to “…take the Gospel of Christ to the new world“. One hundred and twenty-eight years later the Mayflower Compact was also quite emphatic in its purpose. It reads:  “In The Name of God, Amen. … Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith,….” 

Our founding fathers from William Bradford on focused their minds and hearts on and their obedience to – Christ. They laid the strong foundation upon which this nation was built. That it has lasted 400 years is incredible, unless one considers that the God who claims the Bible as His manual for man’s life, is behind it.

In the 1830’s French statesman and historian, Alex de Tocqueville wrote that “Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other.”

Sadly, that is no longer the case, and as our Federal government has carefully mandated the removal of our Judeo–Christian foundation and God from the hub of our value system and structure. The result of 50 years or more of this direction is that we’ve become a land filled with greed and immoral behaviors that have found us scorned abroad and filled with rage against one another (as is witnessed by any reading of a daily newspaper).

de Tocqueville also wrote sometime in the 1830’s “ America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.” “Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power.”  Not any other religion mind you, and not an empty Christianity, and not Atheism or Agnosticism either, but a vital living, Christ-IN-me Christianity, is what this nation was made of.

If we have not already, we are in jeopardy today of losing our goodness as never before, and while this is still the best country in the world, we’ve certainly lost ground. Farr ancestors fought for our freedom during the revolutionary war and civil war, and we served our country during two wars of the 20th Century, and my heart breaks to see our country failing in crucial arenas that could quickly see our demise. We’ve become a land needing missionaries to reach OUR hearts for Christ, along with being the land that uses its God-given resources better than anyplace else in the world to send its followers of Jesus into the rest of the world to share the gospel.

Today 9/11/20 there is no capital PU in puod, no laughter, just a reminder of our heritage, and a prayer that each of us will take up the banner of Christ, and do our part to take America back to her God-fearing roots and remain One Nation Under God.