SWORD OF THE SPIRIT                                                                                               1405

“Poison Fruit”

Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit. – Deuteronomy 29:18

This weekend, the 250^th anniversary of our nation, let us celebrate the greatest country on earth.

Let us not neglect to thank God for our founding fathers who acted courageously, and through faith in God and at His Divine inspiration, penned our Declaration of Independence appealing to the “Supreme Judge of the world” to vouch for the “rectitude of our intentions” to form a new nation, the United Colonies that became the foundation for our nation, the United States of America.

God reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne; He makes nations great, and he destroys them; he enlarges nations, and leads them away; He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding; – Psalm 47:8; Job 12:23; Daniel 2:21

Let us also thank God for in His wisdom and plan He placed us here as citizens of this great nation. We are here for a purpose: His purpose and plan. Are we the salt and light He asks us to be?

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters; You have set my feet in a broad place. – Psalm 23:1-4; 31:8

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? … You are the light of the world… Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. – Matthew 5:13-16

Today, we look back to our nation’s successes and we praise God. But, on a more somber note, as we look forward, we see a shadowy future. Our nation has turned away from the Lord our God and we are now reaping poisonous fruit as our reference Scripture warns us. Paul asked the Galatian church a pointed question and I imagine that our country’s founding fathers would ask us the same.

You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? – Galatians 5:7

We Backed Away From God: According to the Pew research, from the 1960’s to the 1990’s America experienced transformations that marked a distinct turning away from Biblical Christian values.

Religious affiliations rapidly declined as people loved the world more than they loved God and America began to back away from a relationship with God.

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. – 1 John 2:15

School prayer was removed in 1962 as was School Bible readings in 1963. Abortion was legalized in 1973. Without prayer and the Truth of the Word of God, America began to lose its moral compass and our moral decline is accelerating.

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness; Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. – 2 Timothy 3:16; Colossians 4:2

We experienced a sexual revolution in the 1960’s decoupling sex from traditional marriage and embracing immoral sexual behavior.

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened… Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves… For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. – Romans 1:21-28

There is Death in the Pot: In the early 1900’s our nation was referred to as a ‘Melting Pot’ implying that individual cultures that legally came to America for a better way of life worked to integrate themselves into a single, monocultural mainstream as Americans. This diversity of cultures that sought to become American worked synergistically to make us a great nation – one nation, under God.

But what happens when one or more of the diverse cultures that come to America attempt to recreate here the culture that they escaped from? We have foreign cultures here legally and illegally that are attempting to use our nation’s freedoms to supplant American rule of law and replace it with their own. As a melting pot nation are we now faced with ‘death in the pot’ as the prophets and Elisha were because of wild gourds and bad water?

But while they were eating of the stew, they cried out, O man of God, there is death in the pot! Behold, the situation of this city is pleasant…but the water is bad, and the land is unfruitful. – 2 Kings 4:39-40;19-21

Elisha put flour in the poisonous stew and salt from a new bowl into the poisonous waters of Jericho to bring healing.

Jesus is the Bread of Life and as the fine flour miraculously healed the poisonous stew, Jesus is the answer to healing our nation. Jesus is also the salt in a new bowl as the new, unblemished vessel by which God’s purifying power established the new covenant of grace unto salvation for all who will repent and believe in Him.

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. – John 6:35

To The Christian in America – Are you salt and light? Is there enough evidence by your actions to attest that you are a Christ Follower? Do you vote? Do you vote guided by a Christian moral compass?

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. – 2 Chronicles 7:14

To The Christian Church in America – Have you left your first love and compromised the Truth of the Word of God with the corrupt culture of the times?

I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the works you did at first. – Revelation 2:1-7

The Next 250 Years for America: Yes, we should celebrate our past but the next 250 years depend upon this generation’s repentance and return to the Lord.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage! – Psalm 33:12

For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; those nations shall be utterly laid waste. – Isaiah 60:12

May God Bless America and May America Bless God!