Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Wisdom from Proverbs”
Our Bible verse for today: “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.” Proverbs 14:34 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “Thank God for our Christian heritage.”
As I write this it is the morning of July 4th, 2017. Today as a nation we are celebrating 241 years of independence. In a previous devotional message in this series from Proverbs I shared a quote with you often attributed to the French writer Alexis de Tocqueville from the early 1800s: “America is great because America is good. Should America ever cease to be good, America will cease to be great.”
In that same devotional message I made the case that the source of America’s goodness is our Biblical roots. Most of the Founding Fathers were practicing Christians. Some of them were deists (they believed that there is a God but their faith went no deeper than that), and others were agnostics (they weren’t sure if there is a God or not and they weren’t particularly concerned about it). But all of them recognized the wisdom of the Bible – especially for ordering the affairs of mankind. Therefore the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and later, The Constitution, were based upon and laced with Biblical principles. Here are a couple of quotes which help to illustrate the faith of the Founders and their use of the Bible in developing our system of government.
“The rights to freedom being the gift of God Almighty … the rights of the colonists as Christians may be best understood by reading and carefully studying the institutes of the great Law Giver which are to be found clearly written and promulgated in the New Testament.” – Samuel Adams
“The first and almost only book deserving of universal attention is the Bible. The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principle of Christianity.” – John Quincy Adams
“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religions but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” – Patrick Henry
“Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of a Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.” – John Jay, first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
“Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teaching of the Redeemer of Mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian.” – The Supreme Court of the United States in an 1892 ruling, after citing 87 precedents.
On this 4th of July, as we celebrate our nation’s birthday, let’s remember to thank God for our heritage and for the way He has blessed our country.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 