Bella Vista Church of Christ
LIFELINESS
June 26, 2002 Randall Caselman
God Bless America
No other nation has enjoyed the blessings we Americans enjoy daily. Will God continue to bless us? Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people. We don't have to be a Solomon to know that we are moving away from righteousness toward the sinful.
Note four concepts which I believe must be turned around if we expect God to continue to bless our nation.
Relativism. Existentialism is robbing America of her blessings. Existentialism maintains that there is no such thing as truth. This means that any action is appropriate and expedient under certain circumstances. This allows for justification of any act or criminal behavior. How can we continue to exist without truth? At best our laws are becoming relative.
Materialism. Prosperity-at-any-price. There is no greatness in an individual or a nation where there is no integrity. Public officials who lie freely, who sell themselves for a dollar, who rob their nation by increasing the national debt in order to support their own lavish life-style are corrupt and greedy. Now before we say Amen! too quickly, we must stop and feel our own greed pulse. Materialism rules our nation because it rules our hearts individually. You see, our national leadership only reflects their constituency. Think about it for a moment, greed is responsible for much of our personal and national unrighteousness.
Individualism. Our judicial system is obsessed with individual rights to the point that criminals are better provided for than the poor in our city. The right of the individual has become superior to the republic. The rights of one individual can remove the Bible and prayer from our Schools, but all our churches together cannot remove the lie of evolution from our classrooms. Under the guise of individual rights, the ACLU is bleeding America of her richest blessing: Democracy!
Risk-Free-Living. We must know that at its best, life is a risk. Victory demands a battle. Freedom is bought with a price. Dealing with sin, sickness, character growth, all demand certain risks. Helping others is a risk. The Good Samaritan took a risk. So many before us took risks that we might celebrate this Independence Day.
Perhaps Theodore Roosevelt said it best, "The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, and the love of soft living and the get-rich-quick theory of life." Nations can survive political, financial, and social collapse, but no nation has ever survived a moral collapse.
God bless America.
Land that I love;
Stand beside her,
and guide her,
Through the night,
with the light from above.
Amen ?... Amen!!
RANDALL CASELMAN
