JESUS CAME DOWN--THE HOPE FOR AMERICA

By Ada Brownell

      I stood before George Washington’s burial site in a beautiful garden at Mount Vernon. Chills crept over me as I read the inscription in the inner tomb—Jesus’ words: “I am the resurrection and the life, He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.”

Later thinking about our first president and controversies surrounding his faith, I wasn’t sure I’d  sit down and talk to George “over there.” But who knows except God?

The truth is, there is scripture all over Washington, D.C.’s memorial sites. Whether our country’s forefathers lived exemplary Christian lives, documents and much of what they left is filled with references to God and Bible quotes.

I thought about how different the legacies our nation might leave today for the next generation. In our public schools, students are taught they appeared on earth without a Designer, and they are no more than animals. The Ten Commandments are banned, but filthy books assigned. No wonder we have mass killings, millions of babies aborted, thousands of teens infected by sexually transmitted diseases every year, drug and alcohol addiction, suicides, cheaters among students, half the people unable to make a marriage work, and a good percentage of children growing up without two parents.

Instead of teaching children moral values and that they are loved by the God who designed their DNA, Christianity is treated as the nation’s biggest enemy, and the name of Jesus can’t even be mentioned with respect at the same colleges like Yale and Harvard—started by Christian organizations.

Other nations are becoming serious threats to the United States and our economy is in serious danger of collapsing. But instead of falling to our knees in repentance and asking for God’s mercy to heal our land, we saturate our minds with amusements to make us forget. We live for today and forget tomorrow.

In contrast to the foreboding darkness obscuring our future, I think of Easter sunrise services I’ve attended when the church ventures out in the cool morning before daylight and watches the sun rise as it did near a garden more than 2,000 years ago.  We recall the words of the angel who appeared: “He is risen!”

A couple of weeks ago a scripture jumped out at me: “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me…. And this is the will of him who sent me, that everyone who sees the son and believes in him may have everlasting life” (John 6: 38, 40).

That’s good news! He has come down from heaven to give abundant and eternal life.  The sun still rises over America, and it has risen since the day we joined the Indians on this wonderful continent. I believe there is hope for those who want it.

-Ada Brownell, a retired reporter for The Pueblo Chieftain, is the author of the book, Swallowed By Life: Mysteries of Death, Resurrection and the Eternal.

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© Ada Brownell