- Strickland Auditorium, St. Simons Island, Georgia -
"Perhaps prevenient grace is summed up best by the famous interruption to a missionary who was lecturing in Africa about how the missionaries brought the Gospel to Africa. The African believer interrupted and said, 'The missionaries did not bring the Gospel to Africa; God brought the missionaries to Africa.' This insightful comment shifts the emphasis to God’s prior agency and the great missio dei (mission of God) whereby God is always the first actor in the great drama of redemption." Dr. Tim Tennent, President: Asbury Theological Seminary
I took this picture a few weeks ago. Nobody needs to tell you the Cross of Jesus Christ towers high above the flag. Get perspective. The flag is proximate; the Cross is preeminent. The flag flies high; the Cross soars higher.
Get perspective: GOD acts first.
GOD brought America her Founding Fathers and they signed a Declaration that said as much:
"... all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
GOD brought America her Founding Fathers and they believed the righteousness of America's cause was God's to judge.
“We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions,..."
GOD brought America her Founding Fathers and they declared their utter dependence on GOD, as well as their total commitment to each other:
“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”
Commonsense is increasingly uncommon, but it's reasonable to assume those declaring their nation is blessed by GOD, judged by GOD and dependent on GOD will behave differently than people convinced GOD depends on their nation.
What are people capable of doing if they believe their nation has superiority and preeminence over GOD. What might religious people do with their own sovereignty?
America's Founding Fathers knew GOD is always the first mover. GOD is first in causality: GOD initiates redemption and restoration, though GOD is not moved by any prior action or any prior cause. In supremacy, ascendancy and incomparable authority, GOD is high above the nations.
We're not likely to become a godless nation. I suspect we're more inclined to trend toward the spirituality of the Samaritans who lived 1,300 years ago. They knew how to worship GOD but they worshipped other gods too and "made gods of their own (2 Kings 17:28-29)." Those people actually "burned their own children on the altars of their gods.(2 Kings 17:31)" I tremble at the prospect of becoming a nation filled with the gods of our own making.
In his book, SOUL KEEPING, John Ortberg recently wrote, "We are not lost because we are going to wind up in the wrong place. We are going to end up in the wrong place because we are lost."
Do you have perspective on this?
The gods we make cannot save us.
Jeremiah 10:5 - There stands their god like a helpless scarecrow in a garden! It cannot speak, and it must be carried, for it cannot walk. Don’t be afraid of such a god, for it can neither harm nor help nor do you any good.
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