It is a strange time in which to be living\u2014in these last days.\u00a0 The Christian has known that such a time would come, but talking about it or predicting it and living it are different things.\u00a0 I know the coming of the Lord may be years away (or it may be momentary) but the Scripture teaches that the world will get worse and not better as we get closer to His coming.\u00a0 2 Timothy 3:1-2 is enough as it describes \u201cperilous times\u201d and the fact that men will be \u201clovers of themselves\u201d and therefore are \u201cunthankful\u201d and \u201cunholy.\u201d\u00a0 And there are many more passages that describe the days in which we live in such terms.<\/p>\n
Still, it has been our great privilege as believers to live in this blessed country.\u00a0 Since Thanksgiving is an American tradition, as a believer I can join with all its citizens and be thankful for God\u2019s blessings.\u00a0 I only wish that all citizens truly were thankful to their Creator for what He has done in this land of ours.\u00a0 King David, centuries ago, left us a universal principle that has been applied many times in various circumstances,<\/p>\n
Why\u00a0 do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?\u00a0 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.\u00a0 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision. <\/i>\u00a0(Psalm 2:1-4)\u00a0 This principle, that has been repeated through the ages, will ultimately be fulfilled when the Lord returns and sets up His millennial reign, as the following verses reveal,\u00a0 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.\u00a0 Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion.\u00a0 I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou are my Son; this day have I begotten thee.\u00a0 Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost part of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter\u2019s vessel.\u00a0 <\/i>(Psalm 2:5-9)<\/p>\n
The kings of the earth are working hard at casting away God\u2019s hold on them.\u00a0 Yet in the midst of such anarchy toward the Creator, believers in the Lord have both reason to be saddened and to rejoice.\u00a0 The throwing away of our heritage is sad, but the blessings of God in the past, in the present, and certainly in the future, all cause us to enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise.<\/i> (Psalm 100:4)<\/p>\n
Thankful for a safe country<\/span><\/p>\n I was born in 1950.\u00a0 I doubt there has ever been 67 years\u00a0 with more change than this generation has seen.\u00a0 Though I grew up in the country in Ohio, I visited my grandparents in Springfield, MO every summer along with my brothers and sister.\u00a0 Can you imagine today doing what we as kids did all alone in those days?\u00a0 My older brother rode the bus from Ohio to Springfield all by himself when he was about 12 years old.\u00a0 In the city we would take the bus downtown, walk around, and then come home on the same bus.\u00a0 We weren\u2019t delinquent; our parents knew where we were going and what we were doing.\u00a0 Sometimes we were with neighborhood kids yet there was no smoking, drinking, drugs, or even foul language.\u00a0 We were just having fun.\u00a0 Policemen were our friends and we would stop and talk to them every chance we got.\u00a0 I really don\u2019t think anyone I knew ever considered vandalizing someone\u2019s property or even being disrespectful.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not just walking down memory lane, I\u2019m describing a country with security.\u00a0 We went to church on Sunday and Christian camp every summer.\u00a0 We would go to the county fair grounds for the summer tent revival and sit on wooden chairs set up over sawdust on the ground.\u00a0 Some of the older kids would sing in the volunteer choir.\u00a0 Because there wasn\u2019t a lot else for kids to do, these things were our activities, along with kick-the-can, hide-and-seek, and various other evening neighborhood games.<\/p>\n Our country today is less safe.\u00a0 I have traveled to a number of unsafe countries around the world mostly while working with missionaries.\u00a0 Coming and going in those countries was a struggle for an American who is so used to common, everyday freedoms.\u00a0 I remember being stuck in the Moscow airport in 1992 and having to wait hours and hours for a flight out.\u00a0 Finally, as the plane was going down the runway and the tires lifted off the tarmac, the entire plane broke out into cheering!\u00a0 America has to guard its borders because of those who would come in; most other countries guard their borders because of those who would go out.<\/p>\n Thankful for a Christian country<\/span><\/p>\n Some would think me an alarmist if I said that we are seeing the Christian part of our country disappearing, but I am sure I am right.\u00a0 I can\u2019t understand how anyone can read just a few books of America\u2019s beginning, or read speeches by the first American presidents, or walk the halls and monuments of Washington, and not understand our Christian founding.\u00a0 I am not saying that all of those early patriots and politicians were born again, but only that they realized that our country has a uniquely Christian foundation.\u00a0 Sure, there has been freedom for anyone of another religion who can abide by our laws and love our religious freedom, but America was born a Christian nation.<\/p>\n Religious freedom has its price.\u00a0 The first is the price of those who suffered to give us true religious freedom and not some nationalistic religion.\u00a0 The government cannot intrude upon my or your freedom to worship by our own conscience.\u00a0 The second price has been paid by sons and daughters of our citizens who have defended this country both home and abroad, from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli.\u00a0 I mean both military personnel and law enforcement agents.\u00a0 As I write, a terrorist has just driven a truck over innocent citizens in New York City.\u00a0 Though the mayor and governor of that state have often criticized their own law enforcement officers, I now see them surrounded by those very officers in such a time of danger and alarm.<\/p>\n A third price is paid by Christian Americans who have faithfully spread the gospel of Jesus Christ here and around the world.\u00a0 There is no better citizen of any country than a born again citizen.\u00a0 You\u2019ll never see them driving trucks over people, or shooting them from a hotel window, or disrespecting the \u201chigher powers\u201d that God has ordained.\u00a0 America has spent her money, sent her children, and offered her prayers to send the gospel around the world.\u00a0 This has to be the biggest reason God is still patient with us.<\/p>\n However, we will all pay a price if we lose our Christian basis for being a country.\u00a0 Freedom for true religion also means freedom for false religion.\u00a0 Freedom for law-abiding citizens also means freedom for would-be\u00a0 terrorists.\u00a0 Freedom for good also means freedom for bad.\u00a0 Christianity understands and teaches the fallen nature of mankind and therefore the need for rule of law, for moral education, for religious instruction.\u00a0 We cannot continue to outlaw the very thing that gave us our freedom, while allowing false religions and anti-religious types to have carte blanche in our schools, governments, and entertainments.\u00a0 Our uncivil society is witness to its results.<\/p>\n Thankful for a free country<\/span><\/p>\n A free country is a place where families can live.\u00a0 I married a girl, Ann, whose father grew up in Ukraine under the Soviet Union.\u00a0 He was not free to do these things I took for granted as a boy.\u00a0 In fact, his family had to flee to S. America as WWII began.\u00a0 When they all finally arrived in the U.S., they loved this country and never criticized its founding, its freedoms, or its flag.\u00a0 I remember \u201cdad\u201d one time stopping at a rest area along the interstate highway and as he returned to the car saying, \u201cwhat a great country!\u201d\u00a0 We are so guilty of taking our freedoms for granted that we don\u2019t even think of such things.<\/p>\n At 67 years old, I\u2019m not so worried about my own freedom in the years to come.\u00a0 I\u2019m worried for my kids and grandkids, and their children.\u00a0 What a shame it would be if my own grandkids never knew an America like I knew growing up.\u00a0 Already they cannot do many of the things I took for granted as a boy.\u00a0 They cannot walk alone in the city, they cannot wait for their grandfather at the flight gate at the airport, they cannot attend public school without warning of multiple dangers.\u00a0 Now, they cannot use amazing electronic devices without warnings that no child should have to be exposed to.<\/p>\n America has been sheltered from world wars and most terrorism by God and the ocean borders He gave us.\u00a0 But now we see terrorism coming to our own shores.\u00a0 The event of 9-11-01 changed our country.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have the freedom or the security we once had.\u00a0 Now individual terrorist attacks, the great majority of which come from a political movement claiming to be a religion, have made us all live with a fear our forefathers did not need to know.\u00a0 And in the midst of it, a free country must allow ungrateful citizens to protest against the very things that brought about their freedom to protest.<\/p>\n We have a Korean Marine veteran in our church who has a purple heart and who led over 40 combat missions during that war.\u00a0 When the \u201cconflict\u201d ended, he stood with other fellow marines and soldiers, watching the trucks go by loaded with the bodies of dead Americans.\u00a0 The man next to him turned and said, \u201cFreedom isn\u2019t free, is it?\u201d\u00a0 No, and we must always be thankful for those who paid such a price.<\/p>\n Thankful for a failing country<\/span><\/p>\n How can I be thankful for a country that is faltering and failing in such ways?\u00a0 I can for the best of reasons.\u00a0 True, I am not thankful for ungrateful people who disdain our country and who work tirelessly to fundamentally change it.\u00a0 I am not thankful for those who exploit freedom with pornography, drug addiction, nakedness, and atheism.\u00a0 But I know why they do it.\u00a0 The reason is called sin.\u00a0 And when I think of a country that is failing because of sin, I rejoice that there is a cure called the righteousness of Christ in salvation.<\/p>\n Individual freedom<\/span>.\u00a0 I do not know if God will grant America a revival of its lost faith.\u00a0 But I know that any individual can find peace and rest in this life through Jesus Christ, and then eternally as well.\u00a0 Christians have lived in every situation imaginable for the last 2000 years.\u00a0 The reason is that faith in Christ is offered to you individually, not to a country wholesale.\u00a0 Those believers could endure anything because of their faith. Jesus Christ came first to His own people the Jews.\u00a0 John records, He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.\u00a0 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.\u00a0 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name<\/i> (John 1:10-12).<\/p>\n National freedom<\/span>.\u00a0 A country can enjoy God\u2019s blessings if it will honor Him.\u00a0 It may not be the millennial kingdom or the new Jerusalem, but America once knew the blessing of giving such honor and reverence to God.\u00a0 Daniel the prophet prepared his heart to speak before king Nebuchadnezzar in behalf of his captive people.\u00a0 He said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his: and he changeth the times and seasons: he removeth kings and he setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom to the wise and knowledge to them that hath understanding: he revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him<\/i> (Daniel 2:20-22).\u00a0 America is not a chosen people as Israel was and is, but king Solomon said, righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people<\/i> (Prov. 14:34).<\/p>\n God has worked out His will in every nation, sometimes to blessing and sometimes to judgment.\u00a0 God used the ungodly nations of Assyria and Babylon to punish Israel that they might turn back to Him.\u00a0 He even called Babylon the \u201csword of the Lord\u201d (Isa. 34:6, Jer. 12:12) because He can use a nation in any way He wishes.\u00a0 Yet He eventually blessed Israel and punished Babylon for their sins.\u00a0 In the last days, in which we seem to be living, God will also use unbelieving nations to punish other sinful nations.\u00a0 The nations aligned with Antichrist will be used of God to bring judgment on end-time Babyon, For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled<\/i> (Rev. 17:17).<\/p>\n Eternal freedom<\/span>.\u00a0 I can be thankful for whatever comes my way in this life because I know that eternal life with Jesus Christ in the presence of God the Father will last for eternity.\u00a0 Christianity is only partly for this life, though it makes our joy full.\u00a0 Christianity is for eternity because there is a heaven and a hell just as sure as there is a devil and a true God.\u00a0 Heaven is the home of the saint.\u00a0 His life may be one of toil and persecution, but his reward awaits in heaven.\u00a0 Paul confessed, If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable<\/i> (1 Cor. 15:19).\u00a0 Though he was the greatest missionary and Christian in history, his was a life of trouble, yet he looked for a different country.<\/p>\n The kingdoms of this world will continue to fail until Jesus returns and sets up His own kingdom for a thousand years on the earth, ruling from Jerusalem with Israel restored around Him in their own land.\u00a0 This thousand year reign (Rev. 20:1-7) of Christ will be partly populated by the ransomed church of God, the Lamb\u2019s wife, resurrected, married, and ascended to the earth with Him.\u00a0 As John says, and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful<\/i> (Rev. 17:14).\u00a0 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready<\/i> (Rev. 19:7).\u00a0 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean<\/i> (Rev. 19:14).\u00a0 And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years<\/i> (Rev. 20:4).<\/p>\n I can be thankful for that!\u00a0 I would also like to see my own beloved U.S.A. turn again to God and be ready for His coming, and I pray that it will.\u00a0 But until then I will be thankful, even in a failing country, because I know a sovereign God is in control of the past, the present, and the future.<\/p>\n And so . . .<\/b><\/p>\n Thankful?\u00a0 Yes!\u00a0 Paul said, In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you<\/i> (1 Thes. 5:18).\u00a0 I have often said that Christmas and Easter are the church\u2019s holidays though the world has left them alone or changed them into something they never were.\u00a0 But I think that Thanksgiving should be the church\u2019s holiday as well.\u00a0 It is right of us to thank God for the free and safe country in which we live.\u00a0 It is right to remember the price that was paid for us to have these blessings.\u00a0 But in the end it is God Who has given us all things and Jesus Christ Who upholds all things by the Word of His power.<\/p>\n My children and grandchildren are scattered all over the country, but they are all serving God.\u00a0 There is no safer and freer place to be than in God\u2019s will.\u00a0 That transcends terrorist attacks, immoral leaders, apostate religions, and pain and suffering.<\/p>\n For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself<\/i> (Phil. 4:20-21).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is a strange time in which to be living\u2014in these last days.\u00a0 The Christian has known that such a time would come, but talking about it or predicting it and living it are different things.\u00a0 I know the coming of the Lord may be years away (or it may be momentary) but the Scripture 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