Our next big holiday is almost upon us.  We do enjoy our fourth of July celebrations.  Chances are there are more people on vacation over these next two weeks than at any other time of the year.  Some head to sunny destinations such as the beach.  My thought was to get away from the heat during these summer months.  The summer we spent in New Mexico was great.  Nothing beats the heat like having to pull on a sweatshirt in the evening.  It would seem that I am in the minority.  Anyway, this holiday is much like any other in that we tend to forget its original meaning.  One would think that reason for celebrating would stand out given our recent Supreme Court decisions.  We as believers are going to come to grips with new realities in our country. 

We can debate whether or not our nation was conceived as a Christian nation.  History would say that God played a huge role in all of our early days.  It may be that not all of our founding fathers were the types of Christian we would recognize today.  What you cannot escape from seeing is that the vast majority did indeed look to God as their source.  Some would write and talk about His providence to shape our land.  Others were more like us in faith and practice.  There would be a few who might be outside those labels but even they would view God as critical to a healthy nation. 

Now we live at a time it is easy to conclude we are no longer a Christian nation.  Please do not misunderstand me on this.  Our history remains intact.  We do have more churches than most any other country.  Freedom still exists to worship or share our faith as we feel led.  But our court made it obvious over the last few weeks that the earth is moving beneath our feet.  Believers or people in general with those old fashioned values are in the minority now at least in terms of the values that are growing daily.  Odds are decent that it gets worse before or if it ever gets better.  So what are we going to do about it?

Let me make a long story short since we spent so much time introducing the basic idea.  My thought is we love people while growing in faith so lives can be changed.  Sounds like basic evangelism doesn't it?  Here is what I mean.  We cannot spend so much energy talking about what is wrong with others to the point we forget to love those who sin mightily.  We could spend a whole lot less time just moving stuff around in church because we are afraid of a pagan world.  We get so consumed by fixing the church that we neglect to be the church.  I have a weird idea about such things.  I still think the shape of the church is to be determined by who we are when touching the lives of others.  Most times we think the church should look like us.  I may be totally wrong but I would still disagree. 

The way back to being a Christian nation is by making more Christians.  That is how Jesus changed His world so many years ago.  It takes little more than a willingness to try.  We do have all of the tools.  But do we have the heart?

Bro. Trey