This Is God's Country

A man can be a Christian or a patriot, but he can't legally be a Christian and a patriot -- except in the usual way: one of the two with the mouth, the other with the heart. - Mark Twain's Notebook

The history of the US is a history of war and of lies and deceit. For an interesting walk through US history from the Prophecy Podcast blog click here. It is not pretty. Even "the good war" was based on deceit. The main argument I often hear is that the other countries are worse. Maybe. 

As Paul said in Galatians 6:

4-5 Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.

We are each responsible for our own lives. This is true in a national sense as well. Unfortunately we as members of a nation state will suffer along with everyone else. Saying we are better than others, even if "true," keeps us individually and nationally from doing better. We can do better. We must do better. 

There is a certain irony in the modern Christian Nationalism. For if it is correct in the implicit comparisons to ancient Israel, and I often make such comparisons myself, then we are headed for a judgment. 

7-8 Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.

Or as the more poetic KJV says, "God is not mocked. What a man sows, that he also reaps." This is also true for nations. 

What does the Gardener do with weeds?