Council Grove Christian Church

3 July in the Year of our Lord, 2025

Servants of God,

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,

a people for his own possession,

that you may proclaim the excellencies of him

who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

-1 Peter 2:9,10

God willing, Marcia and I will celebrate the fourth of July at a gathering of our children and grandchildren. She and I both want to communicate to our grandchildren that our nation has afforded our family manifold blessings. Of course, those blessings are from God but they have come to us because we live in a great free republic. I am sure many of you will spend time with friends and loved ones too. My prayer for all of us is that we will bless the Lord and not forget His benefits that have come to us as Americans. We should use the context of our families to promote humble thanksgiving to God and to tell the rising generations of the blessings of God. We should also use every opportunity to reflect on how God has used our nation to bring human flourishing and freedom to the far reaches of the globe.

Have you thought about how you might exalt Jesus and promote righteousness and justice during the time our nation celebrates its “Independence Day”? Will you try to help younger Americans understand the blessings of liberty and the part Christians have played in our nation’s history? Will you highlight all the opportunities America affords to freely spread the gospel of Jesus Christ? If you were to be asked “What is so great about America”? How would you answer?

There is a lot of sentiment that America’s greatness has waned or even passed. Certainly, morally and sexually, America is headed in the wrong direction—away from the authority of the living God. Donald Trump is urging Americans to make the nation “great again” but what does that mean? Christians must know that economic and political power does not necessarily make for true righteousness.

Does the Declaration of Independence still have relevance? Why get all lathered up about celebrating the 4th of July? These and other similar questions have gained a rather important amount of attention in our nation—particularly since the election of Barack Obama.

Obama came on the scene representing himself as a breath of fresh political air. He campaigned about the need for “hope and change” and promised to “fundamentally transform America.” Many guilt-ridden Americans thought that electing a Black man president would once and for all

put to bed the charges that America is a racists society. Most Americans did not know that Obama’s upbringing was soaked in the influence of family and friends who were strongly anti-American. One of the strongest influences in Barack Obama’s life was the communist and pornographer Frank Marshall Davis.

With Obama’s subtle, but unmistakable influence, the fires of racial strife were restoked during his presidency. He worked at selling the narrative that Black men faced horrible racial bias and thus little opportunity to rise socially and economically. Never mind he rose from a penniless mixed-race child to attend Harvard Law and become President of the United States. When he left the office, the nation was significantly more divided along racial lines than when he arrived. Obama and his ilk were and remain convinced that America is fundamentally unfair and they think they know best how to right all the wrongs.

We, like many of the people in the Bible narratives, live in times when the knowledge of God has faded and obedience to God has become old fashioned. The prophets were God’s spokesmen to ancient Israel who sounded the alarm. They often reminded Israel that they were a covenant people with a special mission and that failing to live up to their calling would bring destruction and exile from the great and good blessings of God. No political nation today holds the status of ancient Israel, but certainly Christians (Jew and Gentile), are the rightful extension of the chosen people (1 Peter 2). As American citizens, the best service we can render to our nation is to live spirit-filled lives that model righteousness, exalt Jesus and call others to trust and obey Him.

Blessings,

Pastor John

Coram Deo