Tears of the Prophets

What does it sound like when a nation weeps? Why does a nation weep? Why SHOULD we weep for our nation?

Tears are falling for this nation. A great evil has taken over our land and our warriors are few. Our people are deceived, so many are lost…are we broken beyond repair? Our torch is going out on our watch. Can we ignite it once again and cause it to shine brighter than in generations before?

A Lament for the People

“The joy of our heart has ceased; our dance has turned into mourning. The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!” -Lamentations 5:15-16

“…We have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments.” -Daniel 9:5

Lately I’ve started to better understand the hearts of the prophets of Israel. The laments written through the books of the prophets became more than just depressing words to me as I began to feel the weight of the grief in their hearts. As the hearts of the prophets broke for the nation of Israel, my heart is breaking for my people and my nation. As they wept tears for a stiff-necked nation, I weep for a nation that has hardened its heart to the Lord and truth.

We are not much different than Israel, and we, too, had people who lamented for the future of our nation and warned us of danger if we were to stray from our God:

“If we and our posterity reject religious instruction and authority, violate the rules of eternal justice, trifle with the injunctions of morality, and recklessly destroy the political constitution which holds us together, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us that shall bury all our glory in profound obscurity.” – Daniel Webster, from “The Dignity and Importance of History,” February 23, 1852

“Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them or by a power without them; either by the Word of God or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible or by the bayonet.” – Robert Winthrop, “Addresses and Speeches on Various Occasions”, 1852

“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” – Thomas Paine, “The American Crisis”

Why Weep for America?

Whether you like it or not, this country WAS founded on God and Scripture and was meant to be a light to the world and stand out as different.

“The general principles, on which the Fathers achieved independence, were the only Principles in which that beautiful Assembly of young Gentlemen could Unite, and these Principles only could be intended by them in their address, or by me in my answer. And what were these general Principles? I answer, the general Principles of Christianity, in which all these Sects were United: And the general Principles of English and American Liberty…” – John Adams, Letter to Thomas Jefferson, 1813

“May this Almighty Being (God) graciously preside in all our councils! May He direct us to such measures as He Himself shall approve and be pleased to bless! May we ever be a people favored of God! May our land be a land of liberty, the seat of virtue, the asylum of the oppressed, a name and a praise in the whole earth, until the last shock of time shall bury the empires of the world in one common undistinguished ruin!” – Joseph Warren, Constitutional Liberty and Arbitrary Power

“We have staked the whole future of our new nation, not upon the power of government; far from it. We have staked the future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments of God.” – James Madison

We were to be a nation that reflected the light of God to the world and raised its children to follow His Word:

“We profess to be republicans, and yet we neglect the only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government, that is, the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by the means of the Bible. For this Divine Book, above all others, favors that equality among mankind, that respect for just laws, and those sober and frugal virtues, which constitute the soul of republicanism.” – Benjamin Rush, “Essays, Literary, Moral and Philosophical”, 1806

“Our liberty depends on our education, our laws, and habits . . . it is founded on morals and religion, whose authority reigns in the heart, and on the influence all these produce on public opinion before that opinion governs rulers.” – Fisher Ames, “An Oration on the Sublime Virtues of General George Washington”

We were once a nation that its people and rulers were proud of. Today our children and young people are being taught to hate our country and its history, and our nation’s leaders are APPOLOGIZING to other countries for existing and having the lineage we do.

We were once a nation that was self sufficient and could support itself. Today we look to other countries for our things. China makes all our household goods, clothes, electronics and even our FLAG. Instead of getting oil from our own American soil, we are looking to Russia.

We were once a nation that came to the aid of those in need. Today we pull out of Afghanistan, leaving our allies and fellow Americans to fend for themselves and betray them to the Talaban.

We were once a nation that our enemies feared and our allies were loyal to. Today our enemies are laughing at us and our allies want nothing to do with us.

We were once a nation that took pride in administering justice and upholding the law. Today we have criminals running our country, un convicted. People who blatantly broke the law for everyone to see (whether you wished to or not) have evaded justice and are making a mockery of this country.

We have so blurred the lines that we have given the wrong things to the wrong people:

“It is impossible that any people of government should ever prosper, where men render not unto God, that which is God’s, as well as to Caesar, that which is Caesar’s.” – William Penn, “Fundamental Constitutions of Pennsylvania”, 1682

Why weep for America? Because we have left our first love, who we once were…and have traded it in for a lawless society and decisions made off of emotions instead of fact and the Word of God.

A Call to Return!

After all the laments and warnings comes the call. A call to repent and turn back to God. Return to our first love and the One Who blessed our land.

“Turn us back to You, O LORD, and we will be restored; renew our days as of old, unless You have utterly rejected us, and are very angry with us!” -Lamentations 5:21-22

“‘Now, therefore,’ ” says the LORD, ‘Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.’ So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm.” – Joel 2:12-13

“Seek good and not evil, that you may live; so the LORD God of hosts will be with you, as you have spoken. Hate evil, love good; establish justice in the gate.” – Amos 5:14-15a

“Let us search out and examine our ways, and turn back to the LORD; let us lift our hearts and hands to God in heaven. We have transgressed and rebelled; You have not pardoned.” -Lamentations 3:40-42

This call is not just for the wicked or those who commit, condone or create the evil acts that our God hates. This call for repentance is not just for the unbeliever…we the church need to turn and repent.

• We have forgotten who we are and where we came from.
• We failed in our duty to raise up a generation that lives out its beliefs in every area of life. We are more concerned about getting the salvation numbers up, digging as deep into theology as we can, or just checking off the right boxes.
• We failed to encourage godly men and women to get involved in our government, and instead told them it was not their place.
• We have isolated ourselves and put limits on where our light and influence should go so as to allow the wicked to take over.
• We have ignored the attacks made on liberty, family, the law, and truth…shoving them aside in the name of having an “eternal perspective”, and “God is sovereign, that’s not my place.”

“If immorality prevails in the land, the fault is ours in a great degree. If there is a decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the public press lacks moral discrimination, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the church is degenerate and worldly, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the world loses its interest in religion, the pulpit is responsible for it. If Satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it. If our politics become so corrupt that the very foundations of our government are ready to fall away, the pulpit is responsible for it. Let us not ignore this fact, my dear brethren; but let us lay it to heart, and be thoroughly awake to our responsibility in respect to the morals of this nation.” – Charles Finney, “The Decay of Conscience”, 1873

It is time for the Church of America to turn, repent and change our ways. It is time for us to take back our job and fight evil in EVERY corner of this country.

“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