a declaration for today...

"As evangelical Christians committed to the Lord Jesus Christ and the full authority of the Word of God, we affirm that God lays total claim upon the lives of His people. We cannot, therefore, separate our lives in Christ from the situation in which God has placed us in the United States and the world.

We confess that we have not acknowledged the complete claims of God on our lives.

We acknowledge that God requires Love. But we have not demonstrated the love of God to those suffering social abuses.

We acknowledge that God requires justice. But we have not proclaimed or demonstrated his justice to an unjust American society. Although the Lord calls us to defend the social and economic rights of the poor and the oppressed, we have mostly remained silent. We deplore the historic involvement of the church in America with racism and the conspicuous responsibility of the evangelical community for perpetuating the personal attitudes and institutional structures that have divided the body of Christ...

We must attack the materialism of our culture and the maldistribution of the nation's wealth and services. We recognize that as a nation we play a crucial role in the imbalance and injustice of international trade and development. Before God, and a billion hungry neighbors, we must rethink our values...

We acknowledge our Christian responsibilities of citizenship. Therefore we must challenge the misplaced trust of the nation in economic might. ...We must resist the temptation to make the nation and its institutions objects of near-religious loyalty. ...

We proclaim no new gospel, but the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, through the power of the Holy Spirit, frees people from all kinds of sin so that they might praise God through works of righteousness.

By this declaration, we endorse no political ideology or party, but call our nation's leaders and people to that righteousness which exalts a nation.

We make this declaration in the Biblical hope that Christ is coming to consumate the Kingdom. And We accept His claim on our total discipleship until He comes."



while reading for one of my seminary classes, specifically Church History, i came across the "Chicago Declaration," stated by a group of evangelical Christian leaders and other individuals that were concerned with the path the United States was taking...in 1973

i believe that this can speak to where we are currently as a "nation of faith"...as we can all see, there are many changes happening around us...Christianity has taken a very different turn from what it used to be...now if someone isn't a Jew or Moslem or athiest, he is automatically deemed "Christian"...we live in a country where those who go to church are automatically labeled followers of Christ (yet we should know by now that sitting in a church pew doesn't make one a Christian any more than sitting in a garage makes one a car)

the other day i saw a lady wearing a t-shirt that said, "i'm not perfect, i'm forgiven"...then she was yelling at and hitting her child who was crying...i wondered if she had ever read the many verses in the Bible that talk about a Christian's standards for living being Higher standards than the rest of the world...forgiveness entails repentence, and repentence means changing one's ways...not perfection, but striving to live holy, to live a life that is worthy of the one we call the King of Forgiveness

if you're a Christian, as i am addressing Christians in this blogpost, where are you at in all of this?

daily life is now uncertain...good families are continually being broken apart, people are struggling financially just to make it, and those who were once feeling secure are not quite so secure now...but in Christ, there is Hope...His is the only true and lasting hope, safety, and security

where are you placing your trust, hope, your security, your future??? are you placing it in material things, money, things that you have one minute and may not have the next? are you placing it in the government, the leadership of others who are still only human? do you know where you will be tomorrow?

none of us know where we will be tomorrow...we are told that life is but a vapor...yet in Christ, there is profound assurance that no matter what may happen, HE is our Mighty Fortress, and our Everlasting Hope