We've been told no prayer in schools, no Bible study in school (yet, Bible was part of the curriculum in a Marxist country in which I served as a missionary), Christian holidays are being assailed on every hand and now we are told the words "God" and "Jesus" can't be used in military funerals unless permission is given by the family. Everywhere we turn, we see both subtle and full frontal attacks on the very principles upon which the nation was founded. Worse, I've been told that many young adults believe that patriotic worship should not happen in the church. Worse than that, I've heard that there are Bible Schools and seminaries who are now saying we should not do patriotic worship in the church. Most cite that church and state should be completely separate. If you research history carefully, you find that Separation of Church and State was to protect the church, not the state.
A true and honest student of history will come to discover that God's providential hand was not only in the founding of America, but the keeping of America to this day. I just finished reading a well-documented, heavily researched book, Seven Miracles that Saved America. Not only is the providential hand of God evident, but the total dependence on God and prayer of leaders and American citizens is seen over and over.
If you carefully study our history you can not keep from believing that God is very involved in America. It is just wrong to say we can not celebrate and thank God in worship for our freedom in Christ, which was the basis of individual freedom and liberty. Nor can we dare come together in worship as God's people and not corporately confess before God that we have strayed from His founding principles, and then pray for His intervention and healing. What I know as a worship leader and as an American compels me to lead Patriotic Worship, especially around the celebrating of our Independence and the founding of this great nation, under God!
mjm
