Having just received a prayer request I added it to my “prayer list”. Then I began reading through the list and was overwhelmed! I was struck by the ever-growing number first of all. Even with three columns front and back I have run out of room, and scribbled as many names as possible in the margins. I need to start a new list, but who do I leave off? Or do I start printing a “prayer booklet”, rather than a “prayer list”? Will that lead to a “prayer book”? See what I mean? Eventually we would have a “prayer library”! And all this from just one small congregation. Think about this on a world-wide scale. Obviously we live in a needy world.   Secondly, I was deeply moved by the varity and seriousness of the needs on my prayer list—needs of salvation, restoration, healing, comfort, jobs, finances, encouragement, and that mysterious category called “unspoken request”. I think of all these things and realize that there is no human help in sight. Regardless of how much I might want to help, these needs are beyond my ability.   Every name on my prayer list has a story behind it. In some cases I know a lot of details. In other cases I only know the name and the need. In no case do I fully understand what the person is actually going through. I simply cannot sense the fear and feel the pain as they do. I can only pray! I can pray. I must pray. I will pray! But, I cannot solve the problems.   Now, here’s the thing that impressed me most. As I read my prayer list, I was suddenly overwhelmed by the thought of God’s greatness! God knows every person on my list, and on your list also. He not only knows each person, He knows every minute detail of their life—every hidden fear, every tear that falls, every pain they feel, every enemy they face, every need they have. Not only does God know, He cares! No person is unimportant to God. He knows. He cares. And He can help! He has all power in heaven and earth. With Him all things are possible. There is not a question He cannot answer. There is not an enemy He cannot defeat. There is not a need He cannot meet. There is not a problem He cannot solve. He is God and there is no other!   If you keep a prayer list, and I hope you do, get it out and read it. Think about all the many people in need of prayer. Think about the severity of the problems they face. But, most of all think about God--He knows, He cares, and He can help. Think about it!

I preached this morning on the subject–“Hating Hyprocrisy”. It’s late in the day and I still can’t get it off my mind. Untold damage has been done to the cause of Christ by professing Christians who live contrary to what the Bible teaches. John Piper said,”When I read about prosperity-preaching churches, my response is:’If I were not on the inside of Christianity, I wouldn’t want in.’ In other words, if this is the message of Jesus, no thank you.”

I agree, but the picture could be enlarged to cover a number of other things. Not only am I sickened by the religious huskesters, who deceive people to line their own pockets, but by hyprocrisy in general. I’ve often said, I’m glad I got saved when I did, because seeing what I see today I’m not sure I would ever want to be a Christian. That might be a poor way to make the point, but I’m guilty. I understand that salvation is of the Lord and He can save people regardless of how sinful those around us are, but the fact remains that many have made Christianity repulsive by their rotten behavior.

Remember the old saying,”You are the only Bible some people will ever read.” Well, it’s true. Many judge Christ by what they see in His followers. May God help us to not give them the wrong impression. As Paul said,”–Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”(2 Timothy 2:19). Think about it!

Sorry that I haven’t written anything on the blog lately–been “under the weather” with knee surgery. Here is an article posted on “Crosswalk” that every American ought to read. It is written by Lee Wishing of the “Cener for Vision & Values”:

“Based upon our observations of American soldiers and their officers captured in this war, the following facts are evidenced,” a foreign intelligence officer wrote. “There is little knowledge or understanding, even among United States university graduates, of American political history and philosophy … of safeguards to freedom; and of how these things supposedly operate within their own system.”

 

Believe it or not those words weren’t written by an Al Qaeda operative. They were written during the Korean War (1950-1953) by the chief intelligence officer of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army in North Korea. In a 1957 response to these remarks, Russell Kirk wrote, “Many Americans are badly prepared for their task of defending their own convictions … against the grim threat of armed ideology…. And in our age, good-natured ignorance is a luxury none of us can afford.”

 

As we pause this Memorial Day to honor those who died to preserve our freedom, it’s a good time to take stock of the threats to our nation. I believe that the greatest threat is internal decay that results from a lack of knowledge of those things that make America great.

The Chinese officer’s gloating inspired Kirk to write a primer on American political, economic and civil principles titled “The American Cause.” Kirk defined the American cause as “the defense of the principles of a true civilization. This defense is conducted by renewing people’s consciousness of true moral and political and economic principle …” He continued, “The American cause is not to stamp out of existence all rivals, but simply to keep alive the principles and institutions which have made the American nation great.”

 

America’s modern enemies might have rejoiced in data released last fall by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute demonstrating that 71 percent of Americans in its survey failed a basic civic literacy test with an average score of 49 percent. Incredibly, the average elected official in the sample scored just 44 percent.

Last Saturday, I heard a stirring commencement address by Judge Alice Batchelder of the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals advocating the form of education that Kirk supported-education that will turn back the wave of national civic ignorance and strengthen our country. Following that address, an attorney and I discussed the deplorable treatment of the U.S. Constitution by the executive and congressional branches of the federal government that led to the approval of a 2009 budget deficit of $1.84 trillion. “Grotesque,” lamented the attorney. We talked about how many of the world’s countries have had multiple constitutions while America has had just one. We concluded that America operates from a new unwritten or “parallel constitution” that allows the government to spend whatever amount it desires without restraint by constitutional, moral or economic principle. This new constitution, birthed by civic illiteracy, is fostering the decay of a great nation-$60 trillion in deficits and unfunded liabilities, a failing educational system, breathtaking federal government interference in business, an out of control Federal Reserve that is putting the American dollar and the world’s economic system at great risk, and social programs that promote family breakdown and dependence on government. And we have governments in Washington, D.C. and in many of our state capitals that want even more.

Kirk’s book was written as an intellectual bulwark against the foreign threat of Soviet communism. He was concerned that we could not defend ourselves from foreign enemies unless we understood what we were defending. “Our danger at home is that a great part of the American people may forget that enduring principles exist,” he said, foreshadowing today’s striking civic illiteracy. “Our danger abroad is that the false principles of revolutionary fanaticism may gain such an influence as to wound us terribly.”

I wonder where Kirk would think the greatest immediate threat to America lies today. Is it Al Qaeda or is it a domestic menace in the form of elected officials and bureaucrats whose actions demonstrate they know or care very little about the American cause? I think it is the latter. A country that has lost touch with its core principles is threatened more by Constitutional decay than by foreign radicals flying airplanes into skyscrapers. And, unfortunately, the domestic threat of civic illiteracy makes foreign threats more potent.

There is hope, of course. But it will require work. The task that Kirk assigns us is “to keep alive the principles and institutions which have made the American nation great.” Principles like religious, political and economic liberty. And institutions like limited constitutional government and strong churches and families. The educational institutions that give me the most hope today are the private Christian schools, classical Christian schools, the home schooling movement, and private colleges that have a hefty Western civilization curriculum viewed through the lens of Scripture. There is hope in America because a vigorous remnant of institutions is working to preserve our core principles. We should enlist in their work.

 

As we prepare to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country this Memorial Day weekend, let us fulfill our duty to the American cause. Kirk says, “We do not need to invent some new theory of human nature and politics; but we do need, urgently, to recall to our minds the sound convictions that have sustained our civilization and our nation. Our enemies, no matter what resources they may have, cannot defeat us if we are strong in our own principles.” THINK ABOUT IT!