The Land That Once Was – By Pastor Stephan Nash
I have been a Christian for 38 years and a minister for nearly 32. Let me tell you, I have never seen this country on such a dangerous path. Normally I am an optimist by nature. The New Year has always been a time of hope, vision and excitement for me. This year brings a bit more anxiety than I am comfortable with. My anxiety is due to the continued moral, fiscal and political decline that should be grave warnings for any nation.
America needs to heed the warnings we read in Isaiah 1: “Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores…” My hope is that we can experience reformation instead of ruin, but this can only happen if we return to the values and principles that made us great in the first place.
Where are the prophets? Where are the statesmen? Where are the mothers and fathers that once made this nation great? We have lost our moral and spiritual compass and we are reaping what we have sown. Our President and his twisted ideologies are partly to blame, but it goes much deeper and further than he. We all need to do inventory on our own lives. As I said previously, we are asleep in the light while our country declines in the dark!
We have a President who continues to make decisions that are completely opposite of what should be made. He possesses a spiritual problem more than a philosophical one. His arrogance will take us all down an abyss if not stopped. There are unseen influences in his life that move him like a pond on a chessboard and he doesn’t even realize it.
What are those influences that move us? Where is our moral compass directing us? Why should God intervene on our behalf if we are found to have a “board in our own eye?” We can be right on the issues but morally and spiritually bankrupt. Remember, it was the founders who possessed a faith and convictions that have proven to be the foundation that made America great in the first place. How can we imagine we can build upon that foundation with wood, hay and stubble and expect to secure a stable society?
Remember the below? I have updated it a bit and cannot identify the original author but it deserves to read again:
I was born on July 4, 1776 and the Declaration of Independence is my birth certificate. The blood of the world runs in my veins because I offered freedom to the oppressed. I am many things and many people.
I am the United States of America!
I am 315 million living souls and the memory of millions who have lived and died for me. I am Nathan Hale, Paul Revere, George Washington, Daniel Webster and Patrick Henry I am John Paul Jones, The Green Mountain Boys and Davy Crockett. I am Independence Hall, the Monitor and the Merrimac and Gettysburg, PA. I am Lee, Grant and Stonewall Jackson. I remember the Alamo, the Maine, Pearl Harbor and September 11, 2001. When freedom called, I have answered and stayed until it was over.
I am the Brooklyn Bridge, the wheat fields of Kansas and the granite hills of Vermont. I am the coal fields of the Virginias, Kentucky and Pennsylvania, the purple mountains of the Rockies and the fertile lands of the West. I am the Golden Gate Bridge, the Grand Canyon and the sky scrapers of New York City. Ohhhh I am big, I sprawl from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Alaska to Hawaii; Five million square miles throbbing with industry, farms and city life.
I am George Washington Carver, Daniel Webster and Jonas Salk, Albert Einstein and Dr. Martin Luther King. I am more than 350,000 schools and colleges and 600,000 churches where my people worship God as they think best. I am the roar of a crowd in a stadium and the voice of a choir in a cathedral. I am Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.
Yes, I am the nation of hope and these are the things that I am. I was conceived in freedom and God willing, in freedom I will spend the rest of my days. May I possess always the integrity, the courage and the strength to keep myself unshackled, to remain a citadel of freedom and a beacon of hope for the world. I AM THE UNITED STATES of AMERICA!
Friends, there is much at stake and much to keep fighting for! I grew up with the above patriotic spirit but I cannot say my children share that same experience in their generation. We are a pivotal generation. If we don’t reestablish that same spirit and conviction of our forefathers and mothers we may become the “terminal” generation of our nation!
Someone asked me last week to offer specific ideas on how we can become more involved and a greater influence today. Following are some suggestions:
- Give or volunteer at a Crisis Pregnancy Center.
- Write, write and write some more to anyone who will listen.
- Start a “Salt & Light” ministry in your church. That is a national Christian social action ministry you can hook up with.
- Run for office.
- Join the local Tea Party (especially those who possess a “faith” component).
- Attend town meetings and voice your opinions.
- Connect with the Family Research Council in Washington, DC for opportunities to make a difference.
- Form a prayer chain/group interceding for people or issues of importance.
- Mentor a younger person. Everyone one of us should have someone under our wing!
There may arise other opportunities to influence your world. Go for it! Let’s not sit around complaining without using every ability and opportunity God gives us to make a difference. I believe if we are faithful the Creator, who raised up this nation in the first place will revive it!
