God Bless America, Please!
By Bruce Cannon
Mitchell County
We have all heard the expression, “Christmas In July.” With July fast approaching (and may already be here when you read this), I want to use a Christmas theme for this article. I want to use a Christmas song sung by the group Casting Crowns. The song, “While You Were Sleeping,” has a tremendous message! It expresses the fact that while the Jewish nation was sleeping the Savior of the world was born. While they were sleeping (spiritually) He became man but they, like so many today, had no room for Him. While they were asleep, He lived a life of love and light among them for years and they missed it completely! And they crucified Him! How could they have been so blind? So deceived?
Read the words of this song please and see if it doesn’t have a very appropriate message for the days in which we live:
“Oh, little town of Bethlehem Looks like another silent night
Above your deep and dreamless sleep A giant star lights up the sky
And while you’re lying in the dark There shines an everlasting light
For the King has left His throne And is sleeping in a manger tonight, tonight
Oh, Bethlehem, what you have missed While you were sleeping
For God became a man And stepped into your world today
Oh Bethlehem, you will go down in history As a city with no room for its King
While you were sleeping While you were sleeping
Oh, little town of Jerusalem Looks like another silent night
The Father gave His only Son The way, the truth, the life had come
But there was no room for Him in the world He came to save
Jerusalem, what you have missed While you were sleeping?
The Savior of the world Is dying on your cross today
Jerusalem, you will go down in history As a city with no room for its King
While you were sleeping While you were sleeping
United States of America Looks like another silent night
As you were sung to sleep by philosophies That save the trees and kill the children
And while we’re lying in the dark Theres a shout heard across the eastern sky
For the Bridegroom has returned And has carried His bride away in the night, in the night
America, what will we miss While we are sleeping
Will Jesus come again And leave us slumbering where we lay
America, will we go down in history As a nation with no room for its King
Will we be sleeping? Will we be sleeping?
United States of America Looks like another silent night”
As I write this article in mid-June several very troubling news stories have broken:
- North Carolina legislators are considering H. B. 512 which would legalize video gaming machines across the state. This is a very dangerous piece of legislation that most assuredly will lead to gambling addiction and huge amounts of debt on the part of the players.
- North Carolina legislators are considering expanding the legalization of the sale of medical marijuana. Loosening restraints on this “beast” will lead to increased opportunities for addiction.
- Young children are being counseled without parental consent or knowledge regarding their changing their gender.
- Professors, teachers, and others are losing their jobs for using the wrong pronouns to address persons who have changed gender.
- Public schools are being used to indoctrinate children to support the LGBTQ? Community.
- Our borders remain open allowing many to come into the U.S. illegally. It has been proven that many of those entering illegally are criminals in the country from which they left.
How can this, and so many more very troubling things, happen? The answer is: we have been sleeping as a nation and as the Church. We have failed to take note of our spiritual condition and have not begged our God for mercy, grace, forgiveness, and help. Check out these words to “While You Were Sleeping” again and see if they are not a commentary on our condition:
With all the lawlessness pervading America today, with the “civil war” between the races, with America so divided over transgender and LGBT!? Issues, and sin abounding unlike any of us have ever seen, and more people are talking about the coming of the Lord today than in the recent past. They are using Scriptures such as Matthew 24:7,8 to ask, “Is this the beginning of sorrows Jesus spoke of in the Olivet Discourse?” Are we seeing the precursor to the Great Tribulation period? Are we so close to the coming of the Lord for His bride that wedding music is beginning to be played in Heaven?
As we have our birthday this July the 4th pray with me that somehow, someway America can wake up, confess her sins, and that God in His wonderful mercy and grace will be able to turn back this tremendous onslaught of evil that has risen in our midst today. “God Bless America, the land that I love,” PLEASE LORD. In Jesus’ Name, we pray! Amen!
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Bruce Cannon is the retired pastor of Bear Creek Baptist Church in Bakersville. Formerly he served as Director of Missions for the Bladen Baptist Association and has served on the General Board of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.
Read more Christian news from Bruce here.
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