I pledge allegiance to.... God.

So this morning I went church shopping, yeah... church shopping. I went to one church and didn't get the right vibe, and as I was driving back home I passed another church and saw that the service hadn't started yet so I stopped in. I won't get into what I didn't much like about the first one yet, because I haven't yet decided completely. But about the second....


So as everyone knows its the Fourth of July weekend, and many churches will be or have been saying prayers for our soilders, our leaders, and our country as a whole. I love this, I think its important to pray for those around us, and as citizens of the same country we are most definately neighbors. I do not however think that a whole entire service should be dedicated to talking about how great our Nation is, about how great a symbol of freedom our flag is, or singing "hymns" about our country... we go to church to praise and worship God, not a country!

Lets start out with the later, hymns. I looked up the definition of hymns on dictionary.com, and this is what it says....

hymn -noun
1.a song or ode in praise or honor of God, a deity, a nation, etc.

Ok, so it says nation... but why oh why are their songs that praise a nation in our baptist hymnals at church... why am I singing an ode to a nation instead of praising the lord and savior at church this week? As everyone was singing The Star Spangled Banner, I decided to inspect the lyrics.... you can do so for yourself, but I won't post them here because it is too long, http://www.usa-flag-site.org/song-lyrics/star-spangled-banner.shtml. I read lots about rockets and ramparts, shores and foes... but no where did I see anything worshiping the Lord... there is only one line in the whole song that even mentions God, and that is this....

And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."

And thats great, but who's that talking about? Us or him.... Are we boasting that we're the only country that holds to these values? I look around and see that not even we, who claim to pu tour trust in God... do so. Anyways, that isn't really the biggest problem.

I heard a lot preached about how great this nation is, because we're free, because it's God's blessed land, and so on and so forth as if the U.S.A. were some sort of Holy Land... but I don't recall ever reading about it in the bible, I don't recall anyone talking about any sort of new revelation, and Jesus walking among only U.S. citizens. Yes, we're free, and I thank God that we are free to worship the diety of our choosing... but we are not the only country that can do so, and even in countries that aren't Free there are still people doing just that. The only true freedom comes from Christ alone, and the cross is the only real symbol of that freedom, not some flag. It was His sacrifice that set us free, and no one elses.

I think sometimes, the church forgets that we are not of this world... not of this nation, town, city... we are only here for the time being, and everything that we do here should be for the greater good of what's ahead. Remember God in all things, remember that without him there wouldn't be a United States of America, a Flag, a hymn. Some of us only spend one day worshipping him, so don't waste that one day paying hommage to a peice of land that isn't going to matter sooner than you think. God bless America, and God bless the world as a whole...

John 15:19 - "If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you."