July 4, 2025, marks 249 years of American independence. The United States is a nation unlike any other in the history of the world. It is a transformative nation. A nation uniquely used by God to accomplish His will. A perfect nation? No. A nation who always does what is right? No. A God-fearing nation? No. But a God-ordained nation? Yes.
The development and industrialization of the Americas and ultimately, the founding of our United States serves as a transformational occurrence in world history. Here, in this New World, the Old World met its rival. This began in the late 1400's and early 1500's with the first-of-their-kind seafaring expeditions by European powers such as Portugal, Spain, France and England and was, in significant ways, fueled by both the secular Renaissance and the Reformation of the church, each of which took place in 1500's Europe.
In truth, essentially all of the meaningful content of world history can be explored up to about the year 1500 without giving any consideration to the happenings within the Western Hemisphere. But in terms of world impact in recent centuries, the New World has burst onto the scene in a way that cannot be ignored. What does this mean? Why did God wait until this time in history to give such power to this land? What does He intend to do with us from here? I'm interested to know the answers to these questions...but they are yet to be discovered. One thing that is certain, though, is that God has established and developed the United States of America and given it its influence for such a time as this.
And I'm not ashamed of it! I'm proud of it!
I'm proud of William Bradford and those Mayflower-ers. I'm proud of that tea party we once held in Boston. I'm proud of the Minutemen and those Midnight Riders. I'm proud of the indomitable spirit of those gents at Valley Forge. I'm proud of our tide-turning victories at Saratoga. I'm proud of the siege we mounted against Cornwallis at Yorktown. I'm proud of the Constitutional Republic we constructed after we won our independence. I'm proud of Thomas Jefferson's 1803 purchase. I'm proud of Meriweather Lewis and William Clark. I'm proud that we took a little trip with Colonel Jackson in 1814. I'm proud of both Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee and I don't mind saying so. I'm proud of the Doughboys who won WWI. I'm proud of those selfless boys on D-Day and proud of the pilots of the Enola Gay. And today I'm proud...yes, proud...to be the friend of another nation favored by God, Israel.
And I'm thankful for all the helping hands God sent to us along the way, without which this feeble nation never would have been able to stand. For folks like Massasoit, Baron von Steuben, Comte de Rochambeau and Marquis de Lafayette, Napoleon Bonaparte, Sacagawea and countless others.
And I love our rocky northern Atlantic coast, our green mountains of the northeast, our Great Lakes, our dairy land, our Badlands, our Big Sky country, our purple mountain's majesties, our northwest rainforests, our central valley of the Pacific, our painted desert, our southwest cattle country, our paper-flat farm and grasslands, our mighty Mississip, our Smoky Mountains, our southern bayous, our fertile delta, our coastal marshlands, and most of all I love the hills and rivers and them old cotton fields back home ;)
And this is my prayer for this God-ordained nation, a great nation, my nation -
"God, bless America, land that I love. Stand beside her and guide her through the night with a light from above. From the mountains to the prairies to the oceans white with foam.
God, bless America, my home sweet home."
U.S.A., U.S.A., U.S.A.
Pastor Jeremy
