Bonnie Alba
"We the people" called to pray
By Bonnie Alba
President Bush has issued a Proclamation declaring National Prayer Day on May 1, 2008. He included this year's Prayer Theme taken from Psalm 28, "The Lord is my strength and my shield, my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped." This is the response of a man who knows God answers prayers.
It is a cry from one who has asked God to "Hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help, as I lift up my hands toward Your Most Holy Place." It is a plea to God to deliver an individual or a people (nation) from "...those who do evil, who speak cordially with their neighbors (nations) but harbor malice in their hearts."
This week millions of Americans will attend public breakfasts and luncheons across America to honor God. It is ironic that, at the same time, our Christian spiritual heritage is being chipped away, little by little, to be remembered no more.
Were we ever a Christian nation?
Many modernists and scholars argue that America was never a Christian nation and was totally secular from the beginning. This is the lie being perpetuated by history revisionists and taught in our public schools today. Those of us who still remember and have studied historic writings know the truth, but our children and grandchildren are taught a revised history. This curriculum does not include God and His providence for our early nation, nor the historical spiritual expression of the founders.
In 1831, a French statesman-historian, Alexis de Tocqueville, toured America and wrote what is still described as "the most comprehensive and penetrating analysis of the relationship between character and society in America..." A few of his observations:
** "Religion (Christian) in America...must be regarded as the foremost of the political institutions of that country...."
** "...each (Christian) sect adores the Deity in its own peculiar manner, but all sects preach the same moral law in the name of God..."
** "In the United States the sovereign authority is religious,...there is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America...."
In post-modern, so-called enlightened America, there is a distinct movement to disinherit our Christian heritage, separating religion from our American character, our national soul. Organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union have effectively influenced the courts, judiciary and citizens to eliminate God from the public arena. They have forced God into a closet, only to be quietly exhibited on Sabbath days.
The direct and indirect results are obvious in the disintegration of morality and knowledge of God's absolute right and wrong. We have only to read our newspapers, watch TV, movies, marketing and ads to see the depths of depravity to which this country has sunk. The rising, invasive tsunami of immorality spreads across our nation threatening our liberty, our freedom, our security, and our national soul.
On American patriotism, Tocqueville noted: "Americans combine the notions of Christianity and liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other....Christianity is the companion of liberty in all its conflicts — the cradle of its infancy, and the divine source of its claims."
History writers may revise history, atheists may drive Christians into the closet, and people may choose to ignore God. The result will be the obliteration of the once-strong ties of Christianity and liberty that bound the early settlers, the founding fathers, the people and their reliance on God, which aided the establishment and rise of a great nation. Parents and churches are the keepers of America's spiritual heritage and will pass it on to future generations.
Was our nation Christian from the beginning?
Perhaps we should recall the Pilgrims' first act in reaching the Eastern shore. In his recounting of the treacherous journey to this land (Of Plymouth Plantation), William Bradford wrote:
"Being thus arrived in a good harbor, and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their proper element."
When we stray from our "strength and our shield" — we deny history. We deny God.
As we eat together, may our focus be on God, His providence and His continued blessings on our nation.
Pray for America!
© Bonnie Alba
President Bush has issued a Proclamation declaring National Prayer Day on May 1, 2008. He included this year's Prayer Theme taken from Psalm 28, "The Lord is my strength and my shield, my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped." This is the response of a man who knows God answers prayers.
It is a cry from one who has asked God to "Hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help, as I lift up my hands toward Your Most Holy Place." It is a plea to God to deliver an individual or a people (nation) from "...those who do evil, who speak cordially with their neighbors (nations) but harbor malice in their hearts."
This week millions of Americans will attend public breakfasts and luncheons across America to honor God. It is ironic that, at the same time, our Christian spiritual heritage is being chipped away, little by little, to be remembered no more.
Were we ever a Christian nation?
Many modernists and scholars argue that America was never a Christian nation and was totally secular from the beginning. This is the lie being perpetuated by history revisionists and taught in our public schools today. Those of us who still remember and have studied historic writings know the truth, but our children and grandchildren are taught a revised history. This curriculum does not include God and His providence for our early nation, nor the historical spiritual expression of the founders.
In 1831, a French statesman-historian, Alexis de Tocqueville, toured America and wrote what is still described as "the most comprehensive and penetrating analysis of the relationship between character and society in America..." A few of his observations:
** "Religion (Christian) in America...must be regarded as the foremost of the political institutions of that country...."
** "...each (Christian) sect adores the Deity in its own peculiar manner, but all sects preach the same moral law in the name of God..."
** "In the United States the sovereign authority is religious,...there is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America...."
In post-modern, so-called enlightened America, there is a distinct movement to disinherit our Christian heritage, separating religion from our American character, our national soul. Organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union have effectively influenced the courts, judiciary and citizens to eliminate God from the public arena. They have forced God into a closet, only to be quietly exhibited on Sabbath days.
The direct and indirect results are obvious in the disintegration of morality and knowledge of God's absolute right and wrong. We have only to read our newspapers, watch TV, movies, marketing and ads to see the depths of depravity to which this country has sunk. The rising, invasive tsunami of immorality spreads across our nation threatening our liberty, our freedom, our security, and our national soul.
On American patriotism, Tocqueville noted: "Americans combine the notions of Christianity and liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other....Christianity is the companion of liberty in all its conflicts — the cradle of its infancy, and the divine source of its claims."
History writers may revise history, atheists may drive Christians into the closet, and people may choose to ignore God. The result will be the obliteration of the once-strong ties of Christianity and liberty that bound the early settlers, the founding fathers, the people and their reliance on God, which aided the establishment and rise of a great nation. Parents and churches are the keepers of America's spiritual heritage and will pass it on to future generations.
Was our nation Christian from the beginning?
Perhaps we should recall the Pilgrims' first act in reaching the Eastern shore. In his recounting of the treacherous journey to this land (Of Plymouth Plantation), William Bradford wrote:
"Being thus arrived in a good harbor, and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their proper element."
When we stray from our "strength and our shield" — we deny history. We deny God.
As we eat together, may our focus be on God, His providence and His continued blessings on our nation.
Pray for America!
© Bonnie Alba
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