Happy Independence Day! Well, the King of England didn’t see it that way. He viewed it as treason. Our founders were willing to give everything, up to their very lives and means to form this nation of ours. Men like Thomas Paine and his book Common Sense got us fired up about independence from the crown. As the writer of the Constitution Thomas Jefferson began by saying, We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. But first there was the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.
The Declaration of Independence was a unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America during the Second Continental Congress business of the day. These men knew full well that the King would be out for them. Nonetheless they declared…When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
But, what does our future hold as a Christian people? Let’s see what the Smart Book has to say about that;
Psalm 48 Amplified Bible
The Beauty and Glory of Zion.
A Song; a Psalm of the sons of Korah.
48 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised,
In the city of our God, His holy mountain.2
Fair and beautiful in elevation, the joy of all the earth,
Is Mount Zion [the City of David] in the far north,
The city of the great King.3
God, in her palaces,
Has made Himself known as a stronghold.4
For, lo, the kings assembled themselves,
They [came and] passed by together.5
They saw it, then they were amazed;
They were stricken with terror, they fled in alarm.6
Panic seized them there,
And pain, as that of a woman in childbirth.7
With the east wind
You shattered the ships of Tarshish.8
As we have heard, so have we seen
In the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God:
God will establish her forever. Selah.9
We have thought of Your lovingkindness, O God,
In the midst of Your temple.10
As is Your name, O God,
So is Your praise to the ends of the earth;
Your right hand is full of righteousness (rightness, justice).11
Let Mount Zion be glad,
Let the daughters of Judah rejoice
Because of Your [righteous] judgments.12
Walk about Zion, go all around her;
Count her towers,13
Consider her ramparts,
Go through her palaces,
That you may tell the next generation [about her glory].14
For this is God,
Our God forever and ever;
He will be our guide even until death.
One day the Kings of the earth will go by Jerusalem and be amazed. They will also flee in terror. But, later when the Lord shall come down with the New Jerusalem, it will be established as the city of God forever. His praise will go out to the ends of the earth. You will see the strength of the city and feel safe. God us will guide us there and He will rule forever and ever. We will finally have a just Government for the people. We will be safe and happy. Until then, He will be our guide in life even until our death. If that is the case we will rise again and come with Him and the New Jerusalem as it comes down on a newly refined earth.
Pray for our nation on this Independence Day. Pray that we remember where we came from. Pray that we again do as our founders desired for us to do, to be able to have Life, Liberty, and the ability to pursue Happiness. Pray that we will never be subjects of Tyranny again. Most of all pray for the return of our Lord and savior Yeshua (Jesus) Christ, where we can live in true peace!
God bless and keep you, His face shine upon you,
Chaplain Loehne