God bless us?

(This devotion occurred on July 4, 2008.)

God bless us? How often it seems I’m my own worst enemy. Usually it results from cutting corners. I laid some carpeting a number of years ago prior to installing molding around a closet door. When I later cut the molding, I cut it to fit the opening without regard for the height of the carpeting already in place. It really didn’t seem to matter at the time since the molding could be easily forced down over the carpeting. The problem, however, was when I decided to remove the carpeting recently. I pulled on the carpet trapped under the molding and it began unraveling. If I hadn’t cut corners in the first place, the carpeting would have fared much better in the end.

Many today believe that America is a nation in great trouble. Could it be that cutting corners has put us there?

Here’s a story: Thomas Babington Macaulay ranks among the most eloquent of all authors on liberty. Macaulay's essays and History of England had an enormous sale during the nineteenth century. His work was even more popular in America than in England. It was translated into nine languages. In 1857 he wrote these words to an American friend: “Your Republic will be as fearfully plundered and laid waste by barbarians in the twentieth century as the Roman Empire was in the fifth, with this difference, that the Huns and Vandals who ravaged the Roman Empire came from without, and that your Huns and Vandals will have been engendered within your own country by your own institutions.” (Macartney’s Illustrations, page 18)

Despite having the strongest military in the world and one of the staunchest economies, why are so many Americans today pessimistic about their country? A Gallup Poll taken in 2000 notes that over 78% of Americans polled, were negative about America’s ability to survive in the 21st Century. When asked what they feared was the greatest factor affecting that survival, the vast majority, over 65%, listed internal as opposed to external factors–to put it bluntly, a rot from within and not a force from without. Could it be that, as a country, we’ve been “cutting corners;” trying as we will to prosper without God? If so, it’s only a matter of time until the Piper must be “paid.” God bless America!

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34) www.thispassingday.com

God bless us?

(This devotion occurred on July 4, 2008.)

God bless us? How often it seems I’m my own worst enemy. Usually it results from cutting corners. I laid some carpeting a number of years ago prior to installing molding around a closet door. When I later cut the molding, I cut it to fit the opening without regard for the height of the carpeting already in place. It really didn’t seem to matter at the time since the molding could be easily forced down over the carpeting. The problem, however, was when I decided to remove the carpeting recently. I pulled on the carpet trapped under the molding and it began unraveling. If I hadn’t cut corners in the first place, the carpeting would have fared much better in the end.

Many today believe that America is a nation in great trouble. Could it be that cutting corners has put us there?

Here’s a story: Thomas Babington Macaulay ranks among the most eloquent of all authors on liberty. Macaulay's essays and History of England had an enormous sale during the nineteenth century. His work was even more popular in America than in England. It was translated into nine languages. In 1857 he wrote these words to an American friend: “Your Republic will be as fearfully plundered and laid waste by barbarians in the twentieth century as the Roman Empire was in the fifth, with this difference, that the Huns and Vandals who ravaged the Roman Empire came from without, and that your Huns and Vandals will have been engendered within your own country by your own institutions.” (Macartney’s Illustrations, page 18)

Despite having the strongest military in the world and one of the staunchest economies, why are so many Americans today pessimistic about their country? A Gallup Poll taken in 2000 notes that over 78% of Americans polled, were negative about America’s ability to survive in the 21st Century. When asked what they feared was the greatest factor affecting that survival, the vast majority, over 65%, listed internal as opposed to external factors–to put it bluntly, a rot from within and not a force from without. Could it be that, as a country, we’ve been “cutting corners;” trying as we will to prosper without God? If so, it’s only a matter of time until the Piper must be “paid.” God bless America!

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34) www.thispassingday.com