A Blessed Nation

Tuesday, July 4, we celebrate the birth of a novus ordo seclorum – a “new order of the ages,” the
American Era. God has blessed our nation with resources, power, beauty and the rule of law.
We have so much to be grateful for. But these are gifts. They can be misused. They can be lost. In
coming years, we’ll face more and more serious challenges to religious liberty in our country. This
is why the Fortnight for Freedom has been so very important. And yet, the political and legal
effort to defend religious liberty – as vital as it is – belongs to a much greater struggle to master
and convert our own hearts, and to live for God completely, without alibis or self- delusion. The
only question that finally matters is this one: Will we live wholeheartedly for Jesus Christ? If so,
then we can be a source of freedom for the world. If not, nothing else will do.
God’s warned Ezekiel (and all of us here today) in these words: “Son of man, I have appointed
you as a sentinel. If I say to the wicked, ‘you will surely die’ – and you do not warn them
or speak out to dissuade them . . . I will hold you responsible for their blood.” Here’s what that
means for each of us: We live in a time that calls for sentinels and public witness. Every
Christian in every era faces the same task. But you and I are responsible for this moment.
Today. Now. We need to “speak out,” not only for religious liberty and the ideals of the nation
we love, but for the sacredness of life and the dignity of the human person – in other words, for
the truth of what it means to be made in the image and likeness of God.