Good morning, friends.
Our verse for today comes from Acts 7:42, “Then God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the sun, moon, and stars.”
I certainly am not a history buff, as much as I find fascinating the stories of people and events that have shaped our country and our world. But I think it is near impossible to argue against the fact that our nation was started as a Christian civilization. In fact, some of the documents of those early settlers and our founding fathers are so expressive of the role of God in their endeavor and the aim for glorifying His greatness, that one might wonder how they ever had the courage to grant any authority whatsoever in any mere man. But grant that authority they did, and thus began the journey from the Mayflower through the American Revolutionary War to where we are today. Again, not knowing my history as so many others do, I still might say that our story has reflected most every other nation that has been before us in that our moral and social spiral has been mostly down and away from God. But as real as that is, the more critical and relevant issue at hand is your own particular spiral. As you live and breathe amidst the spiraling society around you, what is the posture that God has before you, and you before Him? We know from scripture that when God saw His people turn their hearts away from Him and towards things that will one day turn to nothing, He turned from them and gave them over to live out the conclusion of their ways. His posture was such that He let the people shape their destiny, and it ended in ruin and captivity and misery. All that they once knew and enjoyed and represented was gone.
On a personal level, God is much more interested in the posture of your heart than the supposed posture of a nation. Arbitrary borders and designations won’t exist in heaven, but the ones whose hearts stayed after Christ will, regardless of the society they lived in and endured. And the double blessing is that when enough hearts stay after Christ, then a church, a town, a state, and a nation can stay before the face of God to enjoy His fellowship and blessings. But don’t expect your neighbor to help turn the ship around if your closets are not clean. The problem isn’t “them” or “that.” Keep your heart turned toward God, and He will take care of what happens next.
As we seek Him today, be a part of fixing whatever is broken by concentrating on you and Jesus.
Have an outstanding Wednesday.
#4 Rich Holt
Dad of Ripken, Koy, TrishaJean, Samantha, Kakie Holiday and Raleigh
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them.
