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Dear Church Family:
Tomorrow our nation will celebrate its 250th birthday. July 4, 2026 ... 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence; 250 years of living as a basically free society; 250 years of seeing what God can do through the manifold gifts which He has bestowed upon mankind, what it can look like, and what it can accomplish, when allowed to flourish in physical freedom.
As we pen this letter to you, “tall ships” ... massive sailed frigates of a bygone era ... are winding their way up the intercoastal waterway along the Eastern seaboard of the United States on their way to the huge parade in the waters near Washington, D.C., tomorrow afternoon. Others are sailing down the Hudson River in New York City heading for the same destination. Documentaries on the various networks are talking about the record number of fireworks that will be set off tomorrow night as our nation, or at least most of it, joins in the wondrous celebration of freedom.
I still remember the words that my grandfather, Leonardo Politano, wrote back to my grandmother in Italy when he told her he was saving up money to book her passage from Naples to New York City to join him in America. He had come a few years before because he had heard that the streets in the United States were “paved with gold”. He had taken that literally. He intended to come here, pick up some of the gold, and go back home. However, in his letter to my grandmother my grandfather said this: “Theresa, I have discovered something in this country more valuable than gold ... ‘libertà’ (freedom).” My grandmother kept that letter until her dying day. My father did as well.
Although I never heard him say it himself, my father often quoted something else that my grandfather, Leonardo, said. He told his son (my dad) one day: “Franceso, I feel very sorry for you and your children.” When asked by my father why he felt sorry for him, my grandfather replied: “When the Fascists come for you here in this country, you will have no America to escape to.”
While we see on the political horizon more and more of the fear my grandfather had of the tyranny of Fascism and Communism rearing its head in our land, I think it is important for us as believers in Christ to maintain a Biblical, heavenly, and eternal perspective on our nation in this day. It is Almighty God who establishes nations, and it is Almighty God who brings them down (Job 12:23; Psalm 22:8). Our nation in the first instance was founded by God, not by men, and if it is to last, or if it is to end, it will be in accordance with God’s timing, God’s plan, and God’s sovereign purposes.
We must also remember that when it comes to freedom, it is spiritual freedom that is the most priceless commodity of all, and our spiritual freedoms will never end. God’s word says explicitly: “For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2). Let us never forget, that just like the freedoms we enjoy in this wonderful land of ours which we celebrate this weekend, our freedom in Christ is not the freedom to do whatever we want, but it is the freedom to do what is right.
So let’s rejoice in the freedoms with which God has blessed us in this land for the last 250 years tomorrow; let’s shoot off fireworks, sing God Bless America, and root for our favorite baseball team; let us enjoy watermelon, lemonade, sweet tea, and homemade ice cream; enjoy the barbecue, the fireworks, the speeches, the military demonstrations, the parades, the softball tournaments, the World Cup, and the little children running around with their sparklers. And let us thank our God that, because of His mercy in Christ Jesus, the “cup” of our real world, that which is eternal, truly runneth over, and, get this, the best is still yet to come. Soli Deo Gloria!
ENCOURAGEMENT
As we celebrate our nation’s 250th birthday tomorrow, and while it is good to remember so many of the good things that the Lord has chosen to do in and through our country, let us not be unmindful of the desperate need we have for a spiritual revival in our land. For that reason I thought Robert J. Morgan’s chapter on II Chronicles 7:14, specifically chapter 43 in his book, One Hundred Bible Verses Everyone Should Know by Heart, would be most appropriate for our consideration this very special Independence Day Weekend. Here is Morgan’s account.
If my people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from Heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land (II Chron. 7:14).
In the Bible the definitive book about revival is II Chronicles, and this is the key verse. It’s addressed to those called by God’s name, and it presents a 4/3 formula for revival.
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR REVIVAL
1. Humble yourselves. Pride is a beaver’s dam that holds back the currents of personal and corporate revival.
2. Pray. History’s great revivals have been prayed down by burdened souls.
3. Seek His face. Get serious about your relationship with Christ and the spiritual habits that draw us closer to Him.
4. Turn from our wicked ways. If we are doing anything careless, immoral, or disobedient, we must confess it and reestablish obedience in that area of life.
THE PROMISES OF REVIVAL
1. I will hear from Heaven. God will listen to our prayers as carefully as He listened to Solomon’s in II Chronicles 6.
2. I will forgive their sin. God specializes in forgiveness. There is not a sin on earth He will not instantly and permanently forgive when sincerely confessed and placed under the blood of the cross.
3. I will heal their land. Has any land needed healing more urgently than ours? Has any generation needed revival more than this one?
As a young man, George Mueller was spiraling downward, in and out of prison. A friend invited him to a Bible study, and that proved to be the turning point. Mueller went on to establish missionary enterprises and mercy ministries, all of them operated by faith and prayer. When he published an account of his answers to prayer, copies made it to Ireland.
In January 1857, James McQuilkin, moved by Mueller’s book, started a prayer group of his own. Within two years, a spirit of revival broke out in a nearby church as McQuilkin preached. Excited Christians carried the fire to other places, and a revival blazed through Ireland. It’s estimated that as many as a thousand people a day gave themselves to Christ. Business came to a standstill as people could do nothing else until they got right with God. Men were unable to sleep at night; they were under such conviction they wept and prayed through the night in their homes. Churches were packed at all hours. Divisions and conflicts evaporated. The jails were empty. The churches were filled. The people became concerned for the poor and the nation became almost like a new land. It’s known today as the Irish Revival of 1859.
Morgan then ends his chapter with the following quote from Wesley Duewel:
God at his own initiative voluntarily gave us, his people, the covenant of revival in II Chronicles 7:14. He must be true to His covenant word, and He wants for us to fulfill our part.
Morgan’s account ends there, but not the command. May we follow, individually and sincerely, the above-referenced four-fold requirements for revival ... humble ourselves, pray, seek God’s will and obedience to His word in every area of life, quickly forsake, repent of, confess, and resolve never to return to our sin, and let’s see what God does at the start of the next 250 years perhaps of this great experiment in freedom known as America.
How fitting that the very first day of the next chapter in our nation’s life is going to be a Sunday. Soli Deo Gloria!
Love,
John & Terri
II Chron. 7:14
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