Stand Firm

Matthew 7:24-27 (ESV)

24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

Welcome to this edition of the GodNAmerica Podcast. As always, I appreciate you for taking the time to listen in on this lesson. Please stop by our website, GodNAmerica.com and check out our articles and other teachings. We have our App in place now and I hope you will download it on your smart device.

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One of the things I want to do in this ministry is to remind you to be diligent in your walk with God. There are many who would divert you from Him. Stay strong in His power. You will make a difference.

Gustave de Beaumont (February 6, 1802-March 30, 1865) was a French historian, published his work in Paris where he documented his travels in America with Alexis de Tocqueville, May 1831-February 1832. He was commissioned by the French Government to study the American prisons, democracy, and religion. Gustave de Beaumont reported:

• Religion in America is not only a moral institution but also a political institution. All of the American constitutions exhort the citizens to practice religious worship as a safeguard both to good morals and to public liberties. In the United States, the law is never atheistic. . .

• There is no political ceremony in America that does not begin with a pious invocation. I have seen a meeting of the Senate in Washington open with a prayer, and the anniversary festival of the Declaration of Independence consists, in the United States, of an entirely religious ceremony.

• I have just indicated how the law, which recognizes neither the authority nor the existence of clergy, confirms the power of religion.

• I shall add that the religious sects, which remain strangers to party activity, are far from showing themselves indifferent to political interests and to the government of the country.

• They all take a lively interest in the maintenance of American institutions through the voice of their ministers in the sacred pulpit and even in the political assemblies. In America, Christian religion is always at the service of freedom.

• It is a principle of the United States legislature that, to be good citizen, it is necessary to be religious; and it is a no less well-established rule that, to fulfill one's duty toward God, it is necessary to be a good citizen.

Alexis de Tocqueville (July 29, 1805-April 16, 1859) was a French statesman, historian and social philosopher. As stated above, he traveled with Gustave de Beaumont on a nine month tour of the USA. He made observations about America in his work entitled, “Democracy in America.” In it he wrote things like:

• In the United States the sovereign authority is religious....There is no country in the whole world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America, and there can be no greater proof of its utility and of its conformity to human nature than that its influence is powerfully felt over the most enlightened and free nation of the earth.

• America is still the place where the Christian religion has kept the greatest real power over men's souls; and nothing better demonstrates how useful and natural it is to man, since the country where it now has the widest sway is both the most enlightened and the freest.

• They brought with them...a form of Christianity, which I cannot better describe, than by styling it a democratic and republican religion....From the earliest settlement of the emigrants, politics and religion contracted an alliance which has never been dissolved.

America started as a nation firmly established on the gospel of Jesus. Every part of American life, including the political was bible based. In fact, Christianity was so interwoven into the fabric of the nation that people were held in suspicion who were not Christian. How things have changed!