God Bless America

Scheduled Reading:
Jeremiah 27:1-29:23; Psalm 119:74-80; Proverbs 26:10-12; 1 Thessalonians 2:17-4:8

Selected Passage:
Jeremiah 29:7

There is a popular movement among Christians today away from traditional church settings and duty to country toward a more house-church setting with a disposition toward separatism from government. I must admit that the philosophy has intrigued me. I have sat up, on occasion, late into the night debating the concept with dear friends in the faith who hold tightly to the philosophy. Their arguments are very convincing.

On one hand, they long for the simpler days - when "doing church" was not so... so... complicated... so cumbersome... so bureaucratic... Their desire resonates with me. It sounds nice. But just today, JUST NOW, I realized we DO have that in the modern church! We just call it Sunday School! Our Sunday School classes come together into a common community where we worship together in mass, and we call that "church".

On the other hand, this movement is also away from loyalty to country and toward loyalty to Christ alone. This was a tenet of the philosophy that I understood the least. In my view, my loyalty to Christ is first and my loyalty to country exists only as long as my country is loyal to my Savior. I have always felt like it was my duty to impact our society (and government) to help us remain loyal to Christ as a nation. I still do.

Never have I believed that Christians should legislate maters of faith. Nor should we condemn the non-believer for not living a Spirit-filled life. But influence society - as salt influences food, as light influences a room or a path - definitely.

And today, we read in Jeremiah 29:7 - God instructed the Israelites to assimilate into their captor's godless nation, even to seek its peace and prosperity and to pray for the nation. The reasoning: if the nation is blessed and prospers, they, too, will be blessed and will prosper. So I believe we are on solid Biblical ground when we say "God Bless America."

So, what's the take away? Here it is: Go to Sunday School, stay for church and pray for America!