America at 250

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Meditate

Our nation marks 250 years since the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. July 4, 1776, became one of the most significant dates in world history. But if we are not careful, we can celebrate independence and forget our need for dependence. We can celebrate freedom and forget the God who is the source of true freedom. We can celebrate rights and forget the Creator who gives us those rights.

Our hope is not in America. Our Savior is not America. Our gospel is not American freedom. Our Savior is Jesus Christ, and our gospel is His death, burial, and resurrection. However...

M.I.P.
America was born clearly acknowledging a deep dependence on God. At 250 years, the Church must lead the way back to that deep dependence on God.

America was not founded on the idea that truth is whatever we want it to be. America was not founded on the idea that government creates our rights. America was founded on the conviction that there is a Creator God, that God has given moral truth, that all human beings have unalienable rights, and that government is accountable to recognize and protect those God-given rights.

The Declaration itself appeals to "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God," and then says that all men are "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights." That is a theological statement. These rights are not created by government. They come from the God who created us.

The founders rejected the idea of a government-run church, and we should be thankful for that. They rejected forced religion by the government, and we should be thankful for that. But they did not believe public life could be, or should be, stripped of God or God's moral truth. Unfortunately, the rise of Progressive Socialism replaces God as the higher source with the state as the higher source. That is the opposite of the foundation woven into the creation of this nation.

Jeremiah was speaking to a nation that had once known God, once followed God, once loved God, but had drifted far from God. Now, we are not taking the covenant promises given specifically to Israel and applying them directly to America, but the spiritual principle is clear: any nation, any people who forget God are in serious danger.

That is what every culture does when it says, "We do not need God anymore." We abandon the fountain, and then we start digging cracked cisterns. We dig political cisterns, financial cisterns, entertainment cisterns, sexual freedom cisterns, self-help cisterns, and government-savior cisterns, which is what Socialism is. And after all that digging, we are still thirsty, because cracked cisterns cannot hold living water.

Apply

The answer to a nation drifting from God is not louder arguments. The answer is repentance. The answer is not to rewrite the truths this nation was founded on with Progressive Socialism. The answer is to return to God.

1. Remember the true source of freedom.
   Freedom needs a foundation higher than itself. Liberty needs a moral framework higher than itself. Unalienable rights need a source higher than human government. That higher source is God.
2. Have courage to speak the truth in love.
   A nation cannot reject God and keep the blessings that come from God. A culture cannot deny the Creator and still preserve the dignity of every human life. A government cannot redefine truth and still protect freedom. A people cannot abandon the fountain and then wonder why the cisterns are dry.
3. Let the return begin with the people of God.
   In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln said, "We have forgotten God." He called the nation to humility, confession, and prayer. If Lincoln could say that in 1863, how much more can we say it in 2026? But the answer is not first for Washington, schools, courts, media, or culture to get right. The answer begins with the people of God falling before the Lord and saying, "Lord, begin with us."

That is the heart of God. Come home. You have wandered. You have sinned. You have exchanged the fountain of life for cracked cisterns. But come home. God does not expose sin to destroy us. God exposes sin to heal us. God calls us to repentance because He loves us.

So at 250 years, we thank God for every good thing He has allowed us to receive. We thank Him for freedom, for the ability to gather openly, for the Bible in our hands, for the gospel we are free to preach, and for those who have sacrificed for our freedom. Then we humble ourselves.

The strongest thing the Church can do is worship and bow down. We need the courage of people who are willing to stand for truth and fall before God. We need the courage of people who can love their nation without worshiping their nation. We need the courage to say, "America has been blessed by God, but America desperately needs to return to God."

Respond

This does not begin out there. It begins in here. It begins with each of us asking the Lord to search our hearts.

• Where have I abandoned the fountain of life?
• Where have I dug cracked cisterns?
• Where have I wanted God's blessing without God's Lordship?
• Where have I wanted freedom without surrender?
• Where have I wanted rights without responsibility?
• Where have I wanted revival but resisted repentance?

America does not need a louder religious argument as much as it needs a living witness of people who truly depend on God. People who pray. People who repent. People who love truth. People who love their neighbors. People who proclaim Jesus.

Only in the Lord our God will we ever find salvation. And salvation has a name. His name is Jesus.