Good Morning, Meetpastordan Readers. What a dreary morning in St. Louis. Glenn, Cliff and I were out for a very early morning walk, and halfway through it started raining. Yuck! The wind and the rain made home a very welcome sight – and the coffee all the more pleasing. But we’re all dried off and nestled down now; me to start writing, and Cliff and Glenn are snuggled up, snoozing beside me.
To those reading this posting, it will not come as a surprise to hear that there has been a continuing conversation about removing the national motto – “In God We Trust” – from our currency. That proclamation has adorned our money since Eisenhower signed it into law in 1956. When America proudly viewed itself as a Judeo/Christian nation, it seemed like adding this motto was the right thing to do. No doubt there were other religions and religious beliefs practiced throughout our land, but the first amendment to our Constitution granted us freedom to worship however we should choose. The point is…differing religious beliefs seem to have been more tolerated a few decades ago. But unfortunately, today religious freedom has come under assault…especially Christianity and Judaism. So before I wrote the first sentence this morning, I checked myself by looking at a one dollar bill. And there it was… “In God We Trust”, still proclaiming the hope of Americans.
Since our country was founded on Judeo/Christian principles, trusting in God was the norm rather than the exception. In fact, our founding fathers spent many hours on their knees praying for guidance as they put together a brilliant document to govern our great country. But as I wrote last week, there is a pervasive “liberal progressive agenda” (LPA) that is doing its best to chip, chip, chip away at the fundamental principles on which our country was founded, including the Constitution, Judeo-Christian beliefs, the sanctity of life and the traditional family structure. Human wisdom has been elevated over Godly wisdom. (I would invite you to read my blog from last week (12/6) to get a more in-depth look at the LPA.)
We are told in James 4:10: “When you bow down before the Lord and admit your dependence on him, he will lift you up and give you honor.” Bowing down is the key, and it does not refer to a religious gesture. It refers to the humble state of our heart, like the humility our founding fathers displayed when they turned to their source of strength and courage for guidance. Humility, unfortunately, is totally lacking in the LPA, which, unfortunately again, is reflected in our leadership.
Let’s examine the motto, “In God We Trust”. To put this motto into action, it calls on us to obey God’s first two Commandments: 1. I am the Lord, your God, and 2. Thou shall bring no false idols before me. But the truth is, before someone can trust someone or something, they have to have had some positive experience with the object of trust. Just because someone says they are trustworthy, do you believe them? To accept something on face value or because someone told you it was so is “blind faith”. And that faith often time will not stand up to life’s challenges.
Using myself as an example, I was a non-believer for half a century. I fell for Satan’s lie and was my own god. I was self-sufficient; successful by worldly standards; too smart to buy into the Gospel of Grace, and I had no use for God, religion, or that musty old book called the Bible! Today I look back on that part of my life and can state categorically, my life then was based on ignorance. Not ignorance in terms of stupidity, but ignorance of the Truth.
And how did I discover the Truth? On April 21, 2000, I was at the end of my proverbial rope, and I offered up something like this non-ceremonial, rather pathetic plea: “God I don’t know if you’re there or not. But if you are, I have to stop drinking alcohol. I know I can’t do it on my own…please help me.” That was it…nothing more. But this time my heart was different. In the past I had occasionally called on God to help me “not get caught tonight”, “to help me to get ____”, to help me do ____”. It was always about getting what I wanted. (FYI…I got no answers to those prayers.) But this time it was different. This time it was a humble heart that was ready to change! Although I didn’t know it at the time, I was experiencing the Truth of James 4:10 referenced four paragraphs above.
This is an example of God meeting us “where we are”, because I was “nowhere”. But His Word tells us in numerous passages: “if you seek me you will find me”, (Jeremiah 29:13; Deuteronomy 4:29; Proverbs 8:17, etc.), and “if you abide in Me, my words will abide in you”. (John 15:7) Notice those two promises, like so many of the others, begin with the first two words, “if you”. Remember God gave us “free will”, so the initiation of this relationship has to begin with us. But let me enthusiastically tell you that the loving God I found following my feeble prayer is like the loving father in the story of the Prodigal Son. (Luke 15:11-32) He is waiting with open arms, hoping for us to return from the pigsty we created for ourselves, so he can welcome us home (or…lift us up and give us honor, as stated in James 4:10). The more we abide in God and experience the truth of His Word come alive in our hearts, the easier it is to “trust Him.” But we have to experience Him our self. I don’t believe solid trust can develop through “blind faith”.
I’ve had the opportunity to ask people on numerous occasions this very important question: “Tell me about your God.” More often than not, I get something like this. “Wow. That’s really hard to put into words. I mean God is everything to me. I know he’s out there somewhere. I just try to “let go let God”. While that might seem to be an all-encompassing answer, I doubt it will ever withstand life’s trials and tribulations.
As I have written on numerous occasions, two fundamental principles from which I believe everything else springs that is written in the Bible are: 1. “God is Love” and “God wants a relationship with us…an eternal relationship.” If these two principles are not stated that clearly and succinctly, they are interwoven in the scriptures. It’s impossible to read the Bible without encountering these truths on each page, so this is a great place to start when talking about YOUR God.
While we will never be able to wrap our head around the enormity of God’s being, it is important we realize there are two aspects to God’s nature (my feeble words right there. This is when I wish I were a poet). Every other religion in the world is about mankind reaching up to God to earn his acceptance through our works. (Unfortunately, even some Christian churches continue to highlight that endeavor.) But Christianity is founded on the belief that God reached down to save mankind from himself by offering a Savior to do for us what we proved from Creation to 2000 years ago we could not do for ourselves.
For those of us who are in Christ, we look at God as our “Abba Father”, or our daddy. (Romans 8:15) Because we have accepted God’s Gift of Grace, we are grafted into his family. We are a Child of God who is totally forgiven of our sin; who has inherited eternal life; who is now worthy and acceptable to God; who has inherited the righteousness of Christ; who is heir to all the promises in the Bible. We can relate to God on a personal level by referring to him as loving, forgiving, good, kind, faithful and full of grace. Why? Because we have experienced these qualities in our own lives.
The other aspect of God’s nature are his majestic qualities; qualities that are way outside our finite paradigm of thinking. These qualities present a huge stumbling block for the LPA. They laugh and mock them because they cannot comprehend them. But that’s no wonder, because “spiritual things can only be spiritually discerned.” (1Corinthians 2:14) Without the Holy Spirit, the human mind is incapable of grasping what we know to be the Truth. When we speak of God being Creator of the Universe; omnipotent; omniscience; omnipresent; Alpha and Omega (timeless) or Godhead of the Trinity, those truths have been revealed to us through revelation. But that revelation creates in us a healthy fear (reverence) of God and his glorious majesty. There is absolutely nothing like God! In him, through Jesus Christ, is revealed ALL wisdom, knowledge and understanding. (Colossians 2:3)
I believe the revelation of the truth in the last two paragraphs is absolutely indispensable in telling someone about YOUR God. I also believe that being able to verbalize what you believe helps create a faith and trust on which you can stand. When looking at the direction of the world and our culture today, it makes me realize how important it is to have that solid platform of faith on which we can stake our life. Our motto is – and will continue to be – “In God We Trust!” Amen.
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May God Bless Ya…
Dan Presgrave (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)
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