While I can certainly agree that there is much about America to bring grief to the heart of our Lord, I also know that any American who has the Lord’s heart is also grieved as well and is doing all he can to pray for its leaders and for true revival.
Abraham fully knew that Sodom was sinful, deserving of being wiped off the face of the earth. Yet he knew something more important: there was also a righteous few that lived there. He asked God, “Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?”
Perhaps we need to examine two things: America, of all the nations on earth, has been at the forefront of all nations with its compassionate giving to the hurting, the downtrodden, the unfortunant masses. Beginning with WWII, our country poured forth resources and manpower to rebuild those nations which were devastated by war—a war we did not start, but reluctantly sent a generation of our finest men to sacrifice their lives upon foreign soil to free the oppressed and destroy the oppressor. We sacrificed the life blood of our own children for European and Asian peoples who could not defend themselves. Many who today sit proudly in the leather chairs of foreign corporations got there because the blood of some American soldier stained the sand of his country’s shoreline to set his country free, and because millions of its people gave and gave again to clear the rubble of its bombed-out cities and restore its economy.
How quickly it is all forgotten…
But that was not all. Aside from the aid of armies and government, untold billions was freely given by righteous American believers who wanted to help churches, orphanages, to build schools and support the work of the Lord in every corner of the globe. Bibles, missionaries, Christian aid to the poor was given, not by the American government, but by its people who had no interest in doing so except for the love of God “shed abroad in their hearts”. Overwhelmingly, America was at the forefront of missionary activity then, and continues today.
Most who criticize America judge it by what they see and read on CNN, or listen to the rhetoric of disgruntled and selfish individuals with no interest in helping anyone other than themselves. The American government pumps billions of aid money into countries. But few take into account what takes place with its hundreds of thousands of organizations, churches, both big and small, who give voluntarily and sacrificially and without expectation of any reward other than heavenly. Their dollar amounts far exceed that of Washington’s. You don’t see those figures reported in the Wall Street Journal.
Let’s examine the second: A true Christian does not covet nor does he rejoice when his enemy stumbles. A true Christian prays for his enemies, imagined or otherwise. Sin is not exclusively American…it is in every corner of every nation on earth. The incest, the adultery, the fornication, the blasphemy, the thievery, the murder, the rape, the wickedness of mankind is not confined to America.
None of us has any right to sit as judgmental prophets of doom unless our own house is in order. A true prophet will fast, intercede and weep at heaven’s door for mercy to God’s righteous and remember to be grateful for the love and sacrifice of that people which they have so easily ignored and forgotten.
“He that is without sin, cast the first stone...”
MARY E. ADAMS