Friday, January 23, 2015

Devotional 124 - God Bless America?

"God Bless you and God bless the United States of America." President Obama - State of the Union Address - 2015

"If you fully obey the LORD your God by keeping all the commands I am giving you today, the LORD your God will exalt you above all the nations of the world....But if you refuse to listen to the LORD your God and do not obey...all these curses will come and overwhelm you."  Deuteronomy 28: 1, 15

President Obama ended his annual State of the Union Address the same way as all the presidents before him.. Ever since 2010 He has ended every State of the Union speech with "God bless you and God bless the United States America".

We have been a nation so blessed. There is no other country in the world I would rather live in. I am thankful daily for the safety and freedom I feel living in America. BUT......

It ain't goin' keep on happening. Why? Because our national policies are in direct opposition to God's word. God will not bless a nation that opposes Him.

Our legalized abortions and our legalized gay marriages make our nation ripe for a God take-down. Our national policies are in a wrestling match with Heavenly policies and we all can predict who the winner is going to be.

Please understand, I am not advocating for hateful, ungracious behavior towards sinners (of which we all are). I am advocating for boldness to call behaviors sin that our Lord calls sin, because this is loving. It is loving to direct people to Jesus, to their need for forgiveness, to the great joy of being in right relationship with the awesome and beautiful creator of the universe.

Whether you are gay, or have had an abortion, or are greedy, or a drunkard, or in an adulterous affair; whether you are hot-tempered, or a liar; whether you ignore God, take pleasure in anything more than God, doubt God; or whether you think you know how to run the world better than God; in all these things the most loving thing a person or church can do for you is call you to repent of your sin and come running back to God.

"We are made right in God's sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done." Romans 3: 22  New Living Translation

So when our nation legalizes sin and restrains righteousness by its rules and regulations, we can not say "God bless America", we can only cry out "God help us one and all!" God will abandon a nation who abandons Him.

"Instead of believing what they knew was the truth about God, they deliberately chose to believe lies. So they worshiped the things God made but not the Creator Himself, who is to be praised forever. Amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires."  Romans 1: 25, 26 New Living Translation

I don’t think it will be long–perhaps in my own lifetime–that we will have a President who fails to include the traditional “God bless America” line in his presidential speeches. In my estimation, this might, lamentably, be a more virtuous act than asking God to bless what our Union has become.  Jared C. Wellman - Pastor at Mission Dorado Baptist Church in Odessa, Texas.