Saturday, October 22, 2011 "Christian Nation" Part II

Saturday, October 22, 2011

"Christian Nation" Part II

First From Julie's Keyboard:


"...Choose you this day whom ye will serve; ...as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."  Joshua 24:15


Most of us, if we're familiar with the Christian Faith at all, have heard the above portion of Scripture quoted or seen  it mounted on someone's wall in their home.  Indeed, it is a powerful declaration of commitment to our God.  However, one might ad that it's easier in the "saying" than often in the "doing."


We notice from this text that the whole concept of successfully serving God comes right down to a matter of "choice."  We can say what we will.  We can testify of His saving grace and how He's made us "new creatures" in Him, and all of this is true.  But, whether or not we honor Him with a life of obedience is a matter of our own choosing.


He's made us free will agents in this world.  Yet, He has fully equipped us, if we belong to Him through His saving grace in Christ Jesus, with a new way of thinking and the power to make the right choice.  He said we simply need to let the "mind of Christ" be within us.  We must adopt His way of thinking and action.


There's a walk to take in Christ.  We do this in a manner called "walking in the Spirit."  We do this to avoid the ways of "walking in the flesh."  The ways of the flesh never lead to satisfaction.  There are only temporary pleasures from this path, and not only this, but often the result is anything but peace.  The walk in His Spirit is a "way of pleasantness and a path of peace."  


He's prepared the way for us to make this walk successfully through all He gave us through Christ. He's endowed us with the power of His Spirit to lead, guide and give direction and comfort.  Yet, we have the choice available to rely on this leading, moment by moment, or yield to the dictates of our self life.


My friends, how are we walking today?  Have we yielded our choices to the paths of righteousness, or are we too often struggling with the flesh desires of this life in its stead?  He's faithful to help if we'll but honor our relationship with Him.


I pray your choices ( and mine) be made wisely in the days to come.


Scripture References:


Joshua 24:15
"And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."


Philippians 2:5 "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:"


Galatians 5:16,17 "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would."


Have a Blessed Week,


Julie




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"Christian Nation" Part II

Working from the definition of a Christian Nation established by the United States Supreme Court in 1892 as discussed in the last weeks post "Christian Nation"
http://spiritualheritage.blogspot.com/2011/10/christian-nation.html we continue to review that evidence sighted in that court decision.  


Moving on from Christopher Columbus to the American Colonies we find yet another step in the foundation of our religious heritage.  To explore this next step we will need to consult the reasoning behind those involved.


In speaking to the colony of Virginia we ask; what was the motivations of the colonists who came to America from your perspective?

"To make habitation . . . and to deduce a colony of sundry of our people into the part of America commonly called Virginia . . . in propagating of Christian religion to such people as yet live in darkness." - - - - Historical Collections: consisting of State papers and other Authentic documents: Intended as materials for an History of the United States of America, Ebenezer hazard, editor (Philadelphia: T. Dobson, 1792), Vol. I, pp. 50-51.


"The Principal effect which we can desire or expect of this action is the conversion . . . of the people in those parts unto the true worship of God and Christian religion." - - - - Hazard's historical collections, vol. I, p. 72.


In speaking to the Pilgrims of the Mayflower, we would ask the same question?

"Having undertaken for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith . . . we combine ourselves together into a civil body politic for . . . furtherance of the ends aforesaid." - - - - Hazard's Historical Collections, Vol. I, p. 119.


In speaking to one of their leaders Mr. William Bradford, I would ask; Mr. Bradford, how would you explain the reasoning for coming to America?


" . . . a great hope and inward zeal they had of laying some good foundation, or at least to make some way thereunto, for the propagating and advancing the Gospel of the Kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world." - - - - William Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1856), p. 24.


In speaking to Mr. John Winthrop who along with the Puritans would arrive some 10 years later, I would ask; Mr. Winthrop, how would you view the colonization of America and your perceived purpose for coming here?

"We are a company professing ourselves fellow members of Christ . . . knit together by this bond of  love. . . . We are entered into covenant with Him [God] for this work. . . . For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us; so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through the world." - - - - John Winthrop, The winthrop Papers, Stewart Mitchell, editor (Massachusetts historical Society, 1931), Vol II, pp. 292-295, "A Model of Christian charity," 1630.


In speaking to the people of Massachusetts I would ask; What is your principal end and purpose here in America?


"Our said people . . . be so religiously, peaceably, and civilly governed that their good life and orderly conversation may win and incite the natives of . . . that country to the knowledge and obedience of the only true God and Savior of mankind, and the Christian faith, which . . . is the principle end of this plantation [colony]." - - - - Hazard's Historical Collections, Vol. I, p. 252.


In speaking with the people of North Carolina I would ask as well; What is your principal end and purpose here in America?


[We are] "Excited with a laudable and pious zeal for the propagation of the Christian faith . . . in the parts of America not yet cultivated or planted, and only inhabited by . . . people who have no knowledge of Almighty God." - - - - North Carolina History, Hugh Talmage lefler, editor (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1934, 1956), p. 16.


To the people of Rhode Island I would ask; What is your intended purpose in settling and establishing a presence here in American?


"Pursuing with peace and loyal minds, their sober, serious and religious intentions of Godly edifying themselves and one another in the holy Christian faith, . . . a most flourishing civil state may stand and best be maintained . . . with a full liberty in religious concernments."  - - - - Hazard's Historical Collections, Vol. II, p. 612.


To the people of Pennsylvania I would ask; to what purpose do you see your presence here in America?

"William Penn . . . out of a commendable desire to . . . convert the savage natives by gentle and just manners to the love of civil society and Christian religion, hath humbly besought leave of us to transport an ample colony unto a certain country . . . in the parts of America not yet cultivated and planted." - - - - A Collection of Charters and Other Public Acts Relating to the province of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: B. Franklin, 1740), p. 1.


In speaking with the people of New Hampshire and New Jersey I received a virtual restatement of the Christian goals reflected above.


In seeing and hearing the purpose and intent that resided in the hearts of the people who came to America, I am beginning to understand the term "Christian Nation" as applied to the United States purely based upon content.  


It was not ordered or dictated by some government mandate or conquest upon an people unwilling, it was simply contained within the people themselves.  The Christian values and institutions of learning, American law and society itself, was birthed and came forth out of the heart of a people that gave a Nation the character of what would be called "Christian Nation."


As we continue to travel across the expanse of history, we will discover perhaps if this term "Christian Nation" has been maintained by the heart of the people.  In American society, if it came forth out of the heart of the people, must it not be maintained, in the heart of the people?


May God bless each of you,


David