Happy Independence Day

Today is Saturday, July 3rd.

Tomorrow is one of our most cherished national holidays, Independence Day ... and there will be ceremonies, cook-outs, family reunions, parades, and, of course, an untold number of fireworks displays all across our beloved country this weekend.

Most people will start their freedom festivities TODAY.

Are you feeling the same anticipation, and jubilation, as you’ve felt in previous years? Or ... is there a certain foreboding beginning to cloud what was once an unbridled national patriotism that we used to celebrate with abandon.

There are quite a few major annoyances we’ll have to overlook this year if we’re to enjoy the kind of joyous 4th of July that is our nation's tradition.

All of us in the, ahem, so-called "working class" are seeing our standard of living come under duress ... as many staples that contribute directly to our quality of life have become less affordable.

Focus is on a "double-dipping" recession everywhere we turn, and most predictions reflect an outlook without improvement.

To irritate the matter further, we've found the White House administration apparently siding with dictatorial regimes that have long been recognized as enemies of the United States and our American way of life.

At a time when much of the world’s former "socialist nations" have been trying to dig themselves out of the blight of their ruinous ideology ... many in the U.S. are panting to adopt it!

Let’s nationalize EVERYTHING ... the oil industry, transportation, education, health care, energy ... you name it.

There is now encroachment of authoritative agencies into aspects of life, and business, once thought to operate solely on principles of the free market and the private sector.

The way things are headed, given the makeup of current legislative bodies, hardly any enterprise (or any activity imaginable) will escape the purview of federal regulation.

It’s obvious the worst fears of our nation's founders are beginning to play out.

And if you’ve been able to stand the news analysis and debate programs, you’re aware that many aspects of our present situation are self-inflicted!

Our children and grandchildren will inherit our debt ... and they will also look back at the irresponsible lives we've lead and, with puzzled wonder, fail to understand how we could allow the debacle that altered the country’s identity.

On our watch.

We don't even understand how we've let it happen.

The identity shift being perpetrated upon our unsuspecting and complacent/distracted populace was visited upon Christianity long ago, and remains to this day.

The laws of God which were the bedrock of life ancient Israel, and in the early (pre-Constantine) Christian church have long since been discarded in favor of a religious identity that empowers clergymen with authority that supercedes even the Ten Commandments.

The Bible ... God’s own word ... has been subjugated to the whims of deeply flawed Church leaders decked out in religious garb.

It is not hard to realize that all roads lead to Rome.

What we’ve seen happen to the application of clear biblical language in mainstream Christianity is now happening to the clear language of another document believed to be the result of divine inspiration.

At least our founders thought so, and said so.

But we live in the age of social, and financial, planners who have better ideas.

Just as those in control of Rome so long ago believed their need for unquestioned authority trumped scripture ... our political leaders seem to believe their presumably noble intentions trump the healthy constraints of the U.S. Constitution, and the ancient wisdom of the Declaration of Independence.

While contemplating the peace and freedoms we still get to enjoy this weekend ... along with the celebrations, cook-outs and family gatherings ... we should contemplate the personal sacrifices, and the divine intervention, that gave us the greatest, and most basic, blessing/right EVER offered any nation or people.

And THAT is the right ... granted not by men, but by God ... of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The beauty of that concept, and all that it entails, has been defended by all the grit and strength our fathers, grandfathers and forefathers could muster ... and, in countless cases, to their deaths.

May we honor them and the peace, prosperity and freedom we have enjoyed due to their resolve.

We must also soberly contemplate what’s happening in our domestic society and around this troubled world, and realize that God’s favor will surely be our best hope amid the troubles to come.

And they surely are coming.

Our country needs to turn to God ... not only for help with so many of these nightmarish developments ... but to help get rid of these arrogant anti-God, anti-American politicians who are busily strutting their vain righteousness and wrecking what He has provided!

This quote from Abraham Lincoln sums up our current national economic and political situation ...

“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown; but we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own…”

As we celebrate Independence Day this year, 2010, we ought to bear in mind the words and warnings of our founders, and hope (PRAY) it’s not too late to turn this pile of mess around.

We still have a tremendous amount to be thankful for, and to celebrate.

Please don’t let this little tirade of mine spoil it ... I’m hoping you won’t read it until the Monday, the fifth!

God Bless America!