Saturday, August 04, 2007 "American way of life" Part I

Saturday, August 04, 2007

"American way of life" Part I

From Julie's Keyboard:

When those oppose....

What a time in which we live. Such a great day of abounding wisdom and understanding with the knowledge in such teeming measures to produce such strides of accomplishment in our world. Yet with this greatness of technology and mass production have come the ills of opposition.

It always happens. We were promised it in God's Word. It was inevitable to avoid. How do we deal with it? How do we combat the stress that comes with the opposition of our day, especially from the sources of its origin? Families and friends find themselves all too often on the opposite sides of an issue, not even to mention those of opposing faiths.

One can become swiftly entangled in the web of this world by barely doing more than minding one's own business. Then again, this poses the question, "What is our business?" If we belong to Christ the Lord, it isn't really our business anyway. Is it? We are supposed to be about His business. True disciples are followers of their Master and in every way determined to be like the Master.

In the book of Matthew chapter 10, Jesus sends His disciples out into the world on His purpose. The things He told them indicated that they weren't headed for what we might term as "the life of riley." No indeed, they had a thing called persecution coming their way, and right away.
He made a reference to them as "sheep in the midst of wolves." Wow, let's apply some of this to our modern day society in which we must function. I think we can make many relevant likenesses to these desciptions.

If we would deal with oppostion in our lives as His followers with any measure of success, I'm sure we'll have to find that to be only through the things He did teach us. We must lose any self will and carnal attitude towards those that would offend or oppose. Remember, we are supposed to be dead to our old nature and ways and alive very much with His nature and love. Someone once said, "Dead men feel no pain." Does that describe us today? Or, do we seem pained and irritated by every hint of opposition to the life we have in Him?

Yes, it's a big Gospel to preach, but He said it would work. Lord, we believe. Please help our unbelief.

Have a blessed week as you meditate on these Words.
Julie

Matthew 10:32-42"Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.
But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.
He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall findl it.
He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.
He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward.
And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward."

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"The American way of life"

In 1953, effort to have “under God” added to the Pledge of Allegiance began. Fifteen resolutions were offered in Congress but all failed.

However, all this stonewalling changed in 1954 when Rev. George Docherty at New Presbyterian Church in Washington D.C. preached a Sunday morning sermon on February 4th of that year.

Sitting on the front pew during that sermon was President Dwight D. Eisenhower, he told Docherty that he agree with his sentiments and the sermon became national news and within a few weeks a bill to add “under God” to the Pledge was sponsored by Senator Homer Ferguson. It was approved as a Joint Resolution on June 8, 1954. President Eisenhower signed it into law on Flag Day, June 14.

In his statement, President Eisenhower said: “From this day forward, the millions of our school children will daily proclaim in every city and town, every village and rural school house, the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty.”

It is the subject of this sermon that I want to share with you, it is a sermon that as I read still stirred my heart as it did hearts on that February 4th day of 1954. It’s truth, it’s accurate description of American life, and the foundation it lays for our hope are eternal.
How many times could it be said, “The hand of a sermon was laid upon the wheel of this great Nation, and turned it in the direction of destiny.”

Rev. George Docherty,
February 4th, 1954

Freedom is a subject everyone seems to be talking about without seemingly stopping to ask the rather basic question, “What do we mean by freedom?” In this matter, apparently, we are all experts. . . .

Lincoln, in his day, saw this country as a nation that “was conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” And the question he asks is the timeless, and timely, one, “whether that Nation, or any Nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”

I recall once discussing the “American way of life,” with a newspaper editor. He had been using the phrase rather freely. When asked to define the phrase “the American way of life,” he became very wordy and verbose. “It is to live and let live; it is being free to act,” and other such platitudes.

Let me tell you what “the American way of life” is. It is going to the ball game and eating popcorn, and drinking Coca Cola, and rooting for the Senators. It is shopping in Sears, Roebuck. It is loseing heart and hat on a roller coaster. It is driving on the right side of the road and putting up at motels on a long journey.

It is being bored with television commercials. It is setting off firecrackers with your children on the fourth of July. It is sitting for seven hours to see the pageantry of the Presidential Inauguration.

But, it is deeper than that. . . .

And where did all this come from?

It has been with us so long, we have to recall it was brought here by people who laid stress on fundamentals . . .

These fundamental concepts of life had been given to the world from Sinai, where the moral law was graven upon tables of stone, symbolizing the universal application to all men; and they came from the New Testament, where they heard in the words of Jesus of Nazareth the living Word of God for the world. . . . (Sermon and sermon information derived from "The Pledge One Nation Under God" by William J. Murray)

Because of time and space I must stop here with the sermon for now, let us ponder these words from our history for the time. Let us weigh them upon the scales of our Nation and see the magnitude of there influence, the power of their purpose and their ability to guide us into the future.

May God bless each of you,
David