Rick’s Reflections- 2/4/2018

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In view of our ongoing consideration of the Gospel of Christ and its power to change people and cultures I am reminded of a profound statement made by our greatest president, Abraham Lincoln. In a speech made in 1863, he spoke of America’s blessings and our lack of gratitude to God for them and our toxic pride in our accomplishments. As a result, the nation was paying a very high price. He said;

 

“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were  produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.”

 

Our secular culture today is an exact reenactment of those days. When will we learn that there is only one way to bring healing to our land and that is by turning to God. The gospel can and will change anyone and all who humble themselves to it’s message. May we be witnesses to that power in life and teaching. Our walk and our talk demonstrating that power.

 

Blessings,

Rick