July 4th - America is a most blessed place to have been raised. As I contemplate all the places in history, or all the places in the world to have been born, I marvel that I am here, and now.
July 4th is a day of celebration. We celebrate the founding of our country, the Declaration of Independence, and words like freedom, the pursuit of happiness, self-government, self-determination, human rights, civil liberties, free will, and liberty.
These are wonderful things. They are, and I am most pleased to live in a land where we can openly talk of such things.
However, I fear that a great deal of our inhabitants are actually under the spell of Libertine, and not Liberty.
Libertine is an unrepentant philanderer, a seductress, a playboy, a lecher, a womanizer, an adulterer, ladykiller, fornicator, Don Juan, Casanova, a debauchee.
Perhaps America is at a crossroad. Will we be seduced by lady Libertine, and give away our precious liberties to this temptress? Or, will we cherish our liberty, but again come to the realization that liberty is bought with individual responsibility.
Oh America, come to your senses. We are in danger of destruction under the spell of the Libertine. Seek wisdom, fight hard for what is right, love your neighbor as yourself, seek God with all your might, and pray that He, in His great mercy, might more fully shine the great light of His grace upon our land.
My son, be attentive to my wisdom;
incline your ear to my understanding,
2 that you may keep discretion,
and your lips may guard knowledge.
3 For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey,
and her speech is smoother than oil,
4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
sharp as a two-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death;
her steps follow the path to Sheol;
6 she does not ponder the path of life;
her ways wander, and she does not know it.
7 And now, O sons, listen to me,
and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
8 Keep your way far from her,
and do not go near the door of her house,
9 lest you give your honor to others
and your years to the merciless,
10 lest strangers take their fill of your strength,
and your labors go to the house of a foreigner,
11 and at the end of your life you groan,
when your flesh and body are consumed,
12 and you say, “How I hated discipline,
and my heart despised reproof!
13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers
or incline my ear to my instructors.
14 I am at the brink of utter ruin
in the assembled congregation.”
So, let's eat our hot dogs, let us sing our songs, let's watch our parades, and let us celebrate the wonder that is America. But let us also, individually purpose, from this day forward, to pay strict attention to our personal responsibilities, while enjoying our individual liberties.
Otherwise, at some distant dreaded day in the future, we might find ourselves under the rule of the Libertine.
