AMERICA, ONCE BEAUTIFUL

When I awoke this morning, I believe God placed on my heart the song "America, the Beautiful." Now, I'm just as patriotic as the next person, but I'm not one to go around with "America, the Beautiful" going through my head (I'm more of an 80s girl), so I'm just gonna go with it, and hope the Lord guides my words.

America has reached a breaking point. In fact, many believe we're past the breaking point. Our nation has long since passed the standard 200-year mark of most fallen dynasties. From the myriad number of crazy news items lately, and the amount of unrest and uncertainty that plagues our nation, I have to agree. But it's deeper than that. I believe God has lifted His hand of blessing from America, and that His judgment has begun. The Bible tells us: "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord." Our nation, founded on that principle (at least in part, I'm looking at you Freemasons), has since become a hollow shell of her once former self, and her once spiritual glory. Gone are the days where God was both feared and revered; in its place is the god of SELF (or perhaps "selfie") rules. The first Commandment says: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Not only was this the very FIRST "bullet point" on God's list of how to life a righteous, happy, fulfilled life, but as they have been come to be known, these are God's Commandments--literally carved in stone--they're not merely the 10 Suggestions. They come with the full weight of God behind them, and the consequences are grave if they are not followed. Israel herself discovered this when God allowed her temples to be completely destroyed, and her people carried away, dispersed throughout the world and hunted for 2,000 years, until 1948 when they were once again reunited in their homeland. God is not finished with them just yet, they will have to go through much more before God's word is fulfilled with the new Jerusalem! More on this further down.

The words to America the Beautiful are a haunting reminder of an America long past. Take a thoughtful look at the lyrics, and contemplate their meaning, especially the repeated refrain:

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern impassion’d stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America! God mend thine ev’ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life!
America! America! May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And ev’ry gain divine!

O Beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam,
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!

Coincidentally (or perhaps not), America the Beautiful was based, in part, on an old hymn written in 1583 called O Mother Dear, Jerusalem (Materna). Over a century later, the lyrics of a poem written in 1795 were written based on the 1583 hymn. While the music is nearly the same, the lyrics, while just as beautiful and meaningful, are sung for the new Jerusalem that will descend from Heaven to usher the Saints into the Millennial reign of Christ on earth!

O MOTHER DEAR, JESUSALEM

O mother dear, Jerusalem,

When shall I come to thee?

When shall my sorrows have an end,

Thy joys when shall I see?

O happy harbor of the saints!

O sweet and pleasant soil!

In thee no sorrow may be found,

No grief, no care, no toil.

No murky cloud o’ershadows thee,

Nor gloom, nor darksome night;

But every soul shines as the sun,

For God Himself gives light.

There lust and lucre cannot dwell,

There envy bears no sway;

There is no hunger, heat, nor cold,

But pleasure every way.

Thy walls are made of precious stones,

Thy bulwarks diamonds square;

Thy gates are of right orient pearl,

Exceeding rich and rare.

Thy turrets and thy pinnacles

With carbuncles do shine;

Thy very streets are paved with gold,

Surpassing clear and fine.

Thy gardens and thy gallant walks

Continually are green;

There grow such sweet and pleasant flow’rs,

As nowhere else are seen;

Quite through the streets, with silver sound,

The flood of life doth flow,

Upon whose banks on every side,

The wood of life doth grow.

There trees forevermore bear fruit,

And evermore do spring,

There evermore the angels sit,

And evermore do sing.

Jerusalem, my happy home,

Would God I were in thee!

Would God my woes were at an end,

Thy joys that I might see!

The similarities between America and Israel/Jerusalem cannot be overstated, and the thread of the Lord's handiwork throughout history in this regard is nothing less than astonishing:

• God made an eternal covenant with Abraham and Jacob (Israel).
• Through Israel, God's human lineage was established.
• Through this lineage, God himself, who came to earth as Jesus Christ, was revealed to the Jews, His own people.
• Rejected by the Jews, but through God's servant, Paul (a Jew), Jesus Christ was revealed to the Gentiles (non-Jews).
• Through the Gentiles, the Word of God spread into Europe, England, and the rest of the world.
• Through the Puritans of England, who sought freedom to worship Christ, the Word came to the "New World."
• Through the New World, God's used His saints--American missionaries--to "go and make disciples of all nations," bringing the word of God to every corner of the earth. 
• In the end times, Israel is once again blooming and blossoming, ready to take her place in God's perfect timeline for all eternity. Conversely, America, once the light of the world and the "city on a hill," will be, like Israel's first two temples, crushed and lost to history.

I've often contemplated precisely who will be that last nation, that last area, that last tribe, the last soul saved, that God will choose as His final "golden spike" of history? And when that day arrives, will what follows be full of wonder…or of woe? Even still, come Lord Jesus, come!