Set
up road signs, put up guideposts.
Take
note of the highway, the road
that
you take.
Jeremiah 31:21 NIV
The words road signs in the NIV and
translated waymarks in the KJV mean exactly what they say. The Lord is instructing
Jeremiah to inform God’s people that they are going into exile and on the way
out they need to set up stones, raised pillars, road signs in order to mark
their way home when exile is over.
This weekend, as I have looked over photos
and videos of our military grave markers, I have been reminded that those
markers are road signs for Americans. As a nation, we have turned our back on
God. Our WWI Veterans are deceased and in 2012 our WWII Veterans were dying at
a rate of 670 per day. Korea, Vietnam and all the wars and battles since 1945
have continued to take a toll on the emotional and spiritual well being of our
nation.
Today, I challenge you to look back across
the history of this great nation. Think about the lives lost from the beginning
as we struggled for freedom from those who would keep us in bondage—even across
the Atlantic. Think about the battle of brother against brother and father
against son during the Civil War. Think about the tombstones, marked and
unmarked, which are set as road signs across our nation and across the sea.
If we once again fall into bondage, it
will be of our own choosing. For just as the Israelites chose to ignore the
prophet Jeremiah who spoke the warning issued by God to the Israelites, many of
God’s people in America have become comfortable and lazy—choosing to ignore the
neon warning signs now flashing across our land.
We prefer sermons on grace, love and mercy
over calls to repentance, holiness and obedience. In this entertain me age, we
have limited our pastors to twenty minute sermons and taken the blood out of
much of the new music. Many of us are no longer fit for duty. We are soldiers
in name only.
I challenge you and myself to stop and
think! Look at the spiritual life of our great nation. Compare where we are
spiritually against where we need to be. Remember the grave stones set as road
signs against the landscape of America.
Our freedom has been won and maintained
because of the Hand of God. Today, let us choose to raise high the cross of
Christ as we turn our hearts back to the God of our Fathers:
God of our fathers, whose almighty hand
Leads forth in beauty all the starry band
Of shining worlds in splendor through the skies
Our grateful songs before Thy throne arise.
Thy love divine hath led us in the past,
In this free land by Thee our lot is cast,
Be Thou our Ruler, Guardian, Guide and Stay,
Thy Word our law, Thy paths our chosen way.
From war’s alarms, from deadly pestilence,
Be Thy strong arm our ever sure defense;
Thy true religion in our hearts increase,
Thy bounteous goodness nourish us in peace.
Refresh Thy people on their toilsome way,
Lead us from night to never ending day;
Fill all our lives with love and grace divine,
And glory, laud, and praise be ever Thine.
(George Warren, 1888)
© Joyce Powell
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