Can God Bless America?

After the re-election of Obama, I emotionally checked out of this country.  If the majority of this country actually wants to continue down this destructive, immoral, and Godless path, then I want no part of it!  I have come to realize that all the wicked laws are not what is going to bring God's judgment on our country, but rather we accept all the wicked laws because we have rejected God.  Fighting political battles is not going to change hearts and save lives and change our country's destructive course.  There is only One Way to save this country, but this country, as a whole, has rejected Him.

I had recently changed the purpose of my blog.  Oh, my purpose was always to share the truth, but I was originally more politically based.  Then I came to realize if people just knew the real Truth, if they truly sought the Lord their God with all their hearts, He would show them the Truth and the Way, and give them wisdom.  There is absolutely no wisdom apart from God, and it is so apparent when you see the insanity of what goes on in this country.  Evil is called good, and good is evil, just as the Bible says it would be.  It is so ridiculous that it is almost laughable that we are so foolish except that it really is so incredibly sad.  For the most part, I just share the Word of God and my study of it in my blog now.  Occasionally, I can't help but note how it plays in our present culture, hoping someone might see and investigate for themselves.  That is how I came to be really saved and born-again.  It began with my soon-to-be husband scaring me with Biblical prophecy.  I remember running around the block, crying, truly scared of what I did not know.  I then decided I would read and study my Bible and find out for myself the truth.  I truly began to search God's Word; I was seeking Him with all my heart and as He said, He would be found if I did that.  So that is my wish for others, that they might seek Him in His Word, and they will come to see the Truth, too.  I guess I appear to place more importance on the Word of God first because that is tangible black and white proof of what God said.  Of course, prayer and a relationship with our Lord and Savior is essential, but without knowing exactly what God said, people can be led astray by deceiving spirits, because the Bible tells us that even Satan can appear as an angel of light.  We have to know what God said so that if some charming preacher or dream or feeling tells us something that seems right, we know if it really lines up with what God says is right.  So often people will talk about what their God would do or not do, but there is only One God and He is true only to Himself and not to what we think is right!  We know by reading Biblical prophecy, that there will come a time when the majority of the people will be deceived by the anti-Christ, and I can't help but believe that time is quickly approaching, so we must be armed with the Truth so we won't be deceived.

I came to realize I had to change the icon of the title banner of my blog.  It said, "God Bless America".  It had a vintage look, and I do believe that God has blessed America immensely since its founding.  It's because the founders looked to God to form the greatest nation in history.  However, over the years, our nation has turned from God.  We decided there was no place for Him in our schools.  We decided He might be offensive to others in the public square and we must get rid of every symbol of Him.  We've allowed ourselves to believe there must be a separation of church and state.  How else could we allow ourselves to believe it is okay to murder millions of babies, the very most innocent human life?  How else could we take something God called an abomination and hail it as "marriage equality"?  How else could we support a man who was the worst of the worst on life issues and even went so far to vote three times to kill (by intentional neglect) born alive babies who had the misfortune of surviving botched abortions?  How else could we support that same man who went further than any other president ever has to elevate homosexual "rights", to the point of ignoring our laws, the very laws he has sworn to uphold?  How else could we believe it was okay that this man had to cover up a symbol of Christ before he could speak on the same stage?  How else could we vote for the party who rejected God and Israel and wanted them out of their party platform?  How could we actually support such open and blatant Godlessness?  The only way is to ignore God and pretend that we can still be good Christians in our private lives while supporting Godless acts in our public lives. When we try to do that, we are attempting to make a little god in our own image and place him in a little box and put him in his own place, and we are following a false god, because that is not the One True God of the Bible!

I have to admit I am beginning to no longer believe that God can bless America.  I want to believe that 2 Chronicles 7:14 which says, "If my people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land," means that Christians are the only responsible parties and that if we were to change our wicked ways, God could bless this country again, with or without the Godless people.  However, I just can't see God blessing a country that kills millions of babies and celebrates such an immoral culture.  It's not that I don't believe something God said.  Perhaps a part of Christians' evil ways is that they have completely missed the boat in sharing the news of Jesus Christ and changing lives.  I know God will continue to bless His people who follow Him and He will continue to draw His lost sheep to Him, even in the midst of a fallen country, and He can heal those personal lands, but I just can't believe that He will truly bless America again until America changes her wicked ways.  Once again, it is probably the fault of Christians and churches not doing their jobs that has led to this country's state and that is what must change, but for the time being, I just can't continue to display the banner, "God Bless America".

Because this blog is now about the study of God's Word, and because I have a love for the vintage, I looked for images of studying the Bible in old paintings.  I found many beautiful old images.  The one used in my banner above is from a painting by Hermann Kaulbach (1846-1909), entitled "Reading the Bible".  The image at the top of the right column is from "The Orphans, Reading the Bible", 1845, by Hughes Merle.  Below is Vincent Van Gogh's "Still Life with Open Bible," 1885:

This is "Old Woman Reading a Bible", 1630, by Gerrit Dou:

Another painting I found while I was searching is one I will not show here, but I found it very interesting.  It was the posting of a man whose wife had found a painting on eBay called "Proof Reader", depicting the devil reading the Bible, by Todd Hamilton.  Although I have no idea what the artist's intentions were, I found what I saw depicted in the painting to be very true.  The devil knows the Bible quite well, as evident in the way he quoted scripture to Jesus when he tempted Him:

And he (Satan) brought Him (Jesus) to Jerusalem, and set Him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, cast Yourself down from here, for it is written: 'He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you,' and, 'In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.'"  And Jesus answering said to him, "It is said, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.'". - Luke 4:9-12

We have to know the entire Word of God in context to know when Satan tries to deceive us with scripture out of context.  I realize we can never know everything about the nature of God or everything in His Word with 100% accuracy, but if we truly seek Him, He will guide us in His Word and by His Holy Spirit, and with the very Author guiding us, we will come as close as we humanly can in this world!

What Is the Answer to Every Problem Today?

Isn't it wonderful that there is truly just one answer to every problem? How simple it makes it for us! In a time when life seems so very complicated, it is quite comforting to know that the answer is, always has been, and always will be the same! We need our Lord Jesus Christ! That's it! The god of this world, Satan, has twisted and complicated the issue since the dawn of man, deceiving people away from their one true answer and help, but his actions will never change the truth. God's laws are as absolute and true as gravity, and our beliefs about that will never change it.

My advice for anyone going through anything is simply to READ YOUR BIBLE! That's it! No matter what the problem, I know that God will lead anyone to the truth through His Word. I don't have all the answers, but I know the One Who does! He holds the truth about everything that was; everything that is going on now, and that includes the world, culture, and our own personal relationships; and everything that will be in the future. And His Holy Spirit is alive and well and actively working in the hearts of people on earth right now to do His will. He says that if anyone actively seeks Him with all his or her heart and soul, they will find Him!

But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the LORD your God and obey His voice (for the LORD your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them. - Deuteronomy 4:29-31

When you are in distress, even in the last days, no matter what you have done in the past, when you turn to Him and obey Him, He will be there for you! What a wonderful promise! Often, when we are in distress and at rock-bottom, that is when we finally turn to God in prayer. While an ongoing relationship with God may be the most important relationship we have, I believe it needs to be more than just prayer. That is because we have an active enemy constantly trying to deceive us and lead us away from God's truth. Satan himself can appear as an angel and deceive us!

And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. - 2 Corinthians 11:14

Imagine! If an angel of light were to appear to you and teach you "words of wisdom", you might very willingly be caught up in it all! That is, unless you knew that what the angel was saying was not exactly true. Maybe it sounded good at first, but you knew that it was a lie designed to be enticing, but one that would lead to destruction. There is only one way to really know that, and that is to know the Word of God! That is why my answer to everything is, "Read your Bible."

The real answer for all people is that they need Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and that He is the only way to God because He alone is the perfect sacrifice for our sins. He is the only way that we can come to the almighty God of the universe when we are but filthy rags! But there is a purposeful deception being taught in the world today that all paths lead to God. If all we did was to go to church and pray to the god taught by many churches, we could be worshiping a false god, and be eternally lost. That is why Jesus said there would be people who would call Him Lord, who would believe they had prophesied in His name, who would believe they had cast out demons, and had done wonderful good things, but He would turn them away and they would not enter heaven.

Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!' - Matthew 7:21-23

The only people who will enter the kingdom of heaven are those who do the will of God in Heaven, Jesus's Father in Heaven, to be exact! How can we know that will, if there are those who constantly purposely seek to deceive us? We can read God's Word in the Bible! God said He would never forsake us; He would never desert us with no means of knowing what we truly needed in order to have eternal life in Heaven. That is why my advice is always to read your Bible first! The answer to eternal life is found in the Bible. But maybe you don't even know that you need Jesus Christ. Maybe you don't even know enough to care about eternity. Maybe you are more concerned about your daily troubles. The answer is still the same. The Bible holds God's wisdom for living here on earth, and truly living eternally with Him. He will lead you to what you truly need.

Maybe you are a Christian who knows Jesus as Lord, but has lost his or her way because of all the deceptions in the world today. Maybe things seem so difficult today. The answer is the same. Read your Bible! God knows what you need, even when you don't! He is the Creator, the One who knew you before you were born! He knows where you have been and where you will be years from now. He knows your heart when no one else does! He alone can help you! I believe He can and will save people even without their reading of His Word. He can reach His lost sheep by any means, but life could be a lot simpler if they know His will. He has left us a manual for living, so why not use it? If we truly believed that it really did hold the answer to all our problems, I don't think we'd hesitate to use it. Well, it DOES!