Sunday, December 03, 2006 "In God We Trust" (Does it even matter?)

Sunday, December 03, 2006

"In God We Trust" (Does it even matter?)

From Julie's Keyboard:


"Rest" in a time of "stress"......

As this special season of celebration approaches which we all hold so dear, we must recognize that for many it is a time of sadness and heartache.

Life has dealt so many blows to people in so many forms that special family appointed occasions can prompt levels of stress and depression in the hearts and minds of precious people all over the world. Such things as: "I lost a love one during the holiday season. My family is in turmoil, fussing and fighting all the time. My marriage is on the brink of divorce or I no longer love my spouse. I'm afraid my child is on drugs or is going to be. My job is in jeopardy. (or maybe) So many people are counting on me to help them meet their needs and find the answers to their problems.".......

Does any of this sound familiar? Is there hope for the hopeless? Can these find joy in this most blissful holiday season?

I submit to you today, based on the God's Word, that "Yes, you can!" When Jesus Christ paid the one time, ultimate sacrifice for our redemption, He finished the work! How much we decide to understand about this is entirely up to us. He gave us the very keys to a life worth living and made provision for it in every aspect of life. He gave us the authority to use His Name to change what needs be changed and live with total faith and confidence in Him and the work He has finished. We tend to fret and worry over things that He has already taken care of. All He asks is that we love and trust Him and with hearts of thanksgiving take our cares to Him. I'm speaking of a place of "rest" in Him.

What if I took the time I would spend worrying or crying out to Him over some issue that challenges my life and replaced it with an attitude for gratitude and a heart of praise for the answer that He has so graciously provided to my need? He tells us to enter this place of living.

Hebrews 4:9-16
"There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
For he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His.

Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any many fall after the same example of unbelief.

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.

For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."
Have a blessed week!

Julie

Personal Note: Well, this has been a busy weekend, I’m having to fight the temptation to rush my thoughts and cut this weeks post short! I am faced with the feeling at the moment that my country and our world is spiraling out of control and there’s nothing I can do!

I of course confront this feeling with my faith and trust that God is my source of hope and refuge in times of trouble. It does seem strange to be talking about times of trouble when we are a nation more prosperous than any nation on earth. My life is so much easier and blessed than those of my parents, we have so much made available to us today, things they never even dreamed of.

Yet we are troubled on very side, our values are vanishing right before our eyes and no one seems to even notice or even care! I told my Sunday School class today that they were growing up in a different America than I grew up in. When I was their age there was no need to go to town on Sunday, there was nothing open!

That didn’t necessarily mean the owners were Christian, it was just a part of our Society and a general respect that pervaded our country. I don’t remember my grandparents going to Church, yet they would not do business on Sunday, it was just wrong and that was enough for them. Moral conviction just pervaded throughout our everyday lives because it was a part of our culture.

This is not true in this America today, and I see no natural way to ever return, thus the frustration I feel! Even so, my faith gives me my joy and hope and sustains my life, it calls me to do what I can to make myself a better citizen and to make life better in some small way for every man.

We are reasoning ourselves into oblivion, I listened to Justice Stephen Brayer on Fox News Sunday this evening, he was talking about the Constitution and kept referring to the purpose behind the purpose behind the purpose behind the purpose. He took a simple moral issue and turned it into a most complicated discussion with almost no absolute solution. Without our moral compass we will not be able to govern ourselves in clarity.

I discover this week that in the last election, the 5th congressional district of Minnesota elected Keith Ellison. He will be America’s first Muslim Congressman and has announced that he wants to be sworn in using the Koran. Now I have read through the Constitution this evening and there’s nothing in there that says he can’t do so. The Founders felt it was not the place of the Federal Government to dictate the types of oaths that were given, that was left up the individual States.

The Tennessee State Constitution of 1796 states "no person who denies the being of God, or a future state of rewards and punishments, shall hold any office in the civil department of this State." Most stated similarly, I didn’t read them all. This qualifies his request as well.

So I suppose it will be done, the problem I have with it is simply this, what does the Koran have to do with the United States of America? Our laws and culture are rooted in and foundation lies upon the Judeo Christian belief, thus the use of the Bible in oaths of office.

It is the essence of formation of our society and the substance of our History, the Koran has no influence, connection, or substance in our society. It’s values doesn’t reflect our culture or the substance of our society, but in many cases the contrary. Yet one of our representatives is requesting its use as the foundation to swear his allegiance to uphold and protect the Constitution of which it has no ties. Is this the America that we hold dear? Is our values and spiritual heritage of so little value? It appears so!

The next question I must as is “does it really matter?” Below is an article written by Justice Roy Moore concerning our national motto “In God We Trust” Is this motto really important to us? If so, we must soon decide in which god we trust. Can a nation trust in one god while its representatives swear allegiance to another?

I don’t mean to be so pessimistic, really, I love this country more than I can possible put into words, but we sure seem to have let a wonderful experience get in a mess! We must take a moment to recognize our dilemma in order to awaken ourselves and react positively.

We have lived in a relatively peaceful nation, but the chaos that pervades around the world is knocking at our door. Don’t be deceived, if we desert the foundation of our faith, our society is left to the foolish reasoning’s man. The results of which is obvious chaos, rioting, sectional fighting and partisan hatred within our government itself. We watched this week as government leaders in Mexico broke out into fist fights and chair throwing, if we are not careful, we will be watching it in Washington!

May God bless each of you,

David & Julie

Judge Roy Moore:

The motto matters
Posted: November 29, 20061:00 a.m. Eastern

The bombardment was relentless. On the morning of Sept. 13, 1814, after ransacking Washington, D.C., British vessels began shelling Fort McHenry in Maryland in an effort to take the city of Baltimore. The shelling continued throughout the day and into the night, the big guns resounding like peals of thunder across the bay.

Aboard one of the British ships a 35-year-old patriot lawyer named Francis Scott Key, there to negotiate the release of a friend from captivity by the British, anxiously observed the attack. On the morning of the 14th, the sun broke the horizon and the thick clouds of smoke in the bay started to clear. In the distance, Key saw the American flag still billowing in the breeze high above the fort. America had withstood the attack, and Key was inspired to write what would become our national anthem, "The Star Spangled Banner," which reads in part:

Blest with vict'ry and peace may the heav'n rescued land

Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation!

Then conquer we must when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto – "In God is our Trust."

Years later, as the country was embroiled in a civil war, Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase – at the suggestion of a Pennsylvania minister – ordered the director of the U.S. Mint to come up with a proposal for a motto to place on coins, observing, "No nation can be strong except in the strength of God, or safe except in His defense. The trust of our people in God should be declared on our national coins." Two years later, "In God We Trust" was selected as the fitting inscription.

In 1956, Congress passed a Joint Resolution declaring "In God We Trust" to be the national motto of the United States. At the time, Rep. Charles Bennett succinctly explained the purpose behind the Resolution:

As long as this country trusts in God, it will prevail. To serve as a constant reminder of this truth, it is highly desirable that our currency and coins should bear these inspiring words: "In God We Trust."

The motto has been displayed in the corridors of government power and on the currency of the country ever since.

The guiding principle that has undergirded this nation from its beginning has been an abiding reliance on the providence of God. In 1776, our Founding Fathers pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor "with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence." Upon the "Laws of Nature and Nature's God" they declared the country's independence from Great Britain and established an enduring form of government.

Every president has invoked the favor and guidance of God in his inaugural address. On March 4, 1805, Thomas Jefferson asked for "favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our fathers, as Israel of old."

On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln observed that, "Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land" would guide the nation through its "present difficulty."

During World War II, Franklin D. Roosevelt declared, "We do not retreat. ... As Americans, we go forward ... by the will of God."

Similarly, John F. Kennedy in 1961 pledged to go forth "to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help." These are only a few examples of presidents who trusted in God to lead our nation and survive such evils as foreign imperialism, civil war and Nazism.

Congress, too, has implored God's favor, from asking President Washington to declare a national day of thanksgiving to God at the inception of our first Congress in 1789 to members assembling on the front steps of the Capitol to sing "God Bless America" following the attack on the World Trade Center. Is it any wonder, then, that this nation's motto boldly proclaims, "In God We Trust"?

Yet, a disgruntled few offended by the motto want it excised from our law and removed from our money, and they have the audacity to misuse the Constitution to get their way. Michael Newdow – the same atheist who crusaded to have "under God" erased from the Pledge of Allegiance – has challenged the constitutionality of "In God We Trust," our national motto, claiming that it violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. This week the Foundation for Moral Law will file a legal brief opposing Mr. Newdow's claim showing that the First Amendment was never intended to prevent our country from acknowledging a reliance upon God and His providence.

Much like the day when Francis Scott Key stood on the deck of the British ship and watched the continuous shelling of Fort McHenry, our nation is under an attack that threatens our survival. This time an enemy from within seeks to destroy America's godly heritage and force us to surrender our public faith in God. We must withstand this bombardment by realizing that the shells of atheism lack the powder of truth and will not enjoy success if we stand together and fight! Then, when the smoke clears, the flag of our faith will be seen as a beacon to the rest of the world and our national motto as a testament to our trust in God.

Judge Roy Moore is the chairman of the Foundation for Moral Law in Montgomery, Ala., and the author of "So Help Me God." He is the former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court who was removed from office in 2003 for refusing to remove a Ten Commandments monument he had placed in the Alabama Judicial Building to acknowledge God.