Our Country is about to celebrate our 250th Anniversary as a Nation. On July 4th 1776 (the date it was actually signed was July 2nd), the Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence. Yet it wasn’t until  September 3, 1783, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris, by representatives from both Great Britain and the United States, that the thirteen colonies were recognized as a free and sovereign nation. It was a long, hard fought, war. But one that was necessary to free us from the tyranny of the British Empire.  On October 11th, 1798, with possible War threatening from France, President John Adams addressed the Officers of the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Militia of Massachusetts. With great insight and acumen, President Adams rightly, and almost prophetically, made the following observation: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”  French sociologist and political theorist Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) traveled to the United States in 1831 to study its prisons and returned with a wealth of broader observations that he codified in “Democracy in America” (1835), one of the most influential books of the 19th century. He, like President Adams, makes quite a “prophetic” observation when he wrote: “America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.” As students of history, and observers of contemporary culture/society, we regrettably are painfully aware, that our culture is neither a “moral” nor “religious” (read Christian) one, nor have we continued to be “good”. The result of our collective “waxing” into the amoral abyss, has been the need to legislate more and more laws. The purpose of these additional laws has been to confront the increase of wickedness and evil perpetrated by amoral (not good) and irreligious man. As we celebrate, and celebrate we should, our 250th Anniversary of independence from the Crown, my expectation for our lives is that we are going to have to continue to fight an ongoing spiritual battle with unseen adversaries who are constantly waging war against us. If you have not already, I assure you, that you too will have to take an uncomfortable, yet God honoring stance against the modern-day empire of the destroyer of souls. That empire will want you to bow down, give it honor, and deference, in service to its wicked demands. You may be laughed at, mocked, or even punished… if you do not give your approval to its upside down and backwards value system. Perhaps some of us have already felt the uneasy scowl or biter words of derision for daring to not celebrate, much less accept the redefinition of marriage and the family, human sexuality and gender. Or perhaps it has come from speaking the truth about crime and poverty, it’s true causes and the socialist/Marxist influencers who seek to poison young minds and hearts. Maybe you have felt the pressure exhorted by others to take up the latest crazed cause against law and order, God and Country, faith and freedom? Perhaps for some of us… we have experienced these trials… and then some! But if we have, and we have remained faithful… in the small, almost seemingly insignificant day to day and mundane opportunities to do right, to speak truth, to be obedient and therefore honor and glorify our True King… we have found already, His Kingdom is forever. For others, maybe even some reading this article, they have found the converse is equally true.  A little compromise here… a little faithlessness there, a little going along to get along, and all of a sudden, we have no idea how we have drifted so far, for so long… finding ourselves completely assimilated into the empire of our day? On this occasion of the celebration of our freedom form one Empire, let us not find ourselves enslaved to another, even more oppressive, more tyrannical, and more enslaving one!  BY GOD’S GRACE… just like our forefathers, let’s rebel against the enemy of our souls and his evil empire! Let us stand tall, firm and steadfast! C.S. Lewis… in his Novel, Into the Wardrobe, mused in such a way that only he could do with such vivid allegory: “We are half-hearted creatures like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased”… with the things… of the empire. My prayer is that you, as well as I, will not make compromises with the enemies (self, sin, Satan and the kosmos or world-system) of our souls. That we too, will not be “too easily pleased” with what the world offers, it’s counterfeits to true freedom and happiness. Let us only bow our heads or kneel to the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, the One who has died for our sins and the sins of all God’s chosen people; our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. A Blessed Independence Day to you and yours, God Bless America.  
Pastor Scott/The Chaplain