For a Moral and Religious People

Each Tuesday I send an email to my primary newsletter (not on Substack). This email contains a devotion, my favorite things, and a section called “Thinking Biblically About…” I use this section to address trending topics without building our entire ministry around the latest hot topic. We’ve taken a break from this section while I was under deadline writing for Lifeway, but we are bringing it back! Coming up: the SBC decision, doomscrolling, spicy books, AI, and Candace Owens.

These emails are exclusively for my newsletter list so if you’d like to receive those (no cost) you can sign up here. You’ll see this same email come through tomorrow followed by a special “Inside my Hometown” on Friday!

Today, you get a little glimpse of what I do over there… here!

Quitting coffee during Lent taught me I can’t depend on caffeine to make it through a day, but after Fourth of July fireworks, you can bet I’m longing for coffee #3! Celebrating America’s 250th was a joy. As I shared in last week’s newsletter, I’m deeply grateful for the freedom to publish Christian resources in this country. I am grateful I get to partner with the Lord to create jobs in the USA (Every Woman a Theologian exclusively prints in the United States; it’s one of our values). I’m grateful for the principles of Christian truth that guided the founding of this country – principles that preserved our nation from becoming a church-run state or dictatorship. Someone recently wrote that America is unique because we have a clear date for our founding. Not every country knows the date on which it was born.

One of my favorite hobbies is researching the American Revolution, so this year has given me more cause for study than ever before. My favorite founding father is John Adams, one of the genuine believers among the signers of the Declaration. Adams wrote, “our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.”

This is a powerful statement; shocking, even. Adams is saying that only a people who believes in objective morality will submit to the boundaries of the American constitution long term. When people believe they are above the law – a law unto themselves – they will no longer be governable by the principles our founding fathers wrote and — in rebelling against these principles — will cease to reap the benefits of a truly free society.

Interesting, isn’t it? Freedom can only exist as long as boundaries exist. True freedom has fences.

Not all the founding fathers were Christians (looking at you, Jeffy and Franklin) and they did not seek to establish a Christian nation; America is not a theocracy a la Old Testament Israel. But any nation that recognizes the truth of God will reap the goodness of God in its midst. The book of Proverbs talks about this when it discusses “the way of wisdom”. Even unbelievers experience the goodness of God, sometimes called “common grace”, when they align themselves with righteousness.

Proverbs 6:16-19 says there are seven things the Lord hates:

There are six things the Lord hates,

seven that are detestable to him:

haughty eyes,

a lying tongue,

hands that shed innocent blood,

a heart that devises wicked schemes,

feet that are quick to rush into evil,

a false witness who pours out lies

and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

But when we choose the opposite of these things…

• A humble countenance

• An honest tongue

• Hands that do justice

• A heart that chooses what is objectively true

• Feet that are quick to rush to righteousness

• An honest witness who tells the truth

• Being a person who brings unity to a community

…we experience the “common grace” of peace, joy, love and other fruits of God’s Spirit in our land. These fruits are available in any country where people choose to follow the way of Jesus. America is not particularly favored above other nations; to the contrary, I think she is headed for judgment if she does not repent of her idolatry, murder, greed, and sexual immorality. Speaking out about these things is important. But speaking alone does not change a nation. We lead the way by how we live.

To my American readers: Perhaps what we take away from this 250th birthday of ours is the opportunity to reverse the “Proverbs 6 curse” in which our nation is participating. All it takes is one person to choose seven things the Lord loves instead of the seven that He hates. Are you with me?

Here you’ll find articles, books, videos and podcasts I enjoyed related to the weekly newsletter topic.

America’s Mythic Stories [and why she needs to remember them] by Hannah St. Clair

Living Books for America’s 250 by Laura Oliver

The American Revolution: A History by Gordon S. Wood (book)

The John Adams mini-series by HBO (this is my 5th watch through!)

The 4th of July is a high holiday here in northern Michigan, and even though the weekend events are over (our city block party, two parades, a cookout, a wiffleball game and fireworks – whew!) I’m still enjoying the fruit of my labor for the weekend. Below are some of my personal favorites for the Fourth and beyond.

• These strawberry chocolate chip cookies are great, but don’t be a dummy like me and use frozen berries. They will melt and destroy your cookies. Use fresh berries and they’ll turn out the way they should!

• This berry crisp can be made with just strawberries or for the full red/white/blue experience, use blueberries too and top with vanilla ice cream. I made this Friday night during our kids’ first experience of the movie National Treasure. They enjoyed seeing the sites they experienced in D.C. on the “silver screen”!

• This striped maxi dress (below) is from the EWAT retreat to Italy a few years ago and is my favorite for patriotic events (or just all summer). It’s not being made anymore, but here is a similar one (I don’t make money off links to clothing. I just try to find similar options!).

  

Thank you for reading, and happy belated Fourth of July!