God Bless America!

December 2001

Our minds are still in shock and our hearts hurt for all those involved in the tragedies which took place in New York, Pennsylvania, and near Washington, DC, September 11th. The loss of so many lives, the grief and anguish of their families, the number of injuries, loss of security, loss to the business world, and loss to our way of life is so overwhelming that it cannot be grasped. Words cannot express our feelings.

Certainly our lives will never be the same but how much our individual lives will be affected by these events in the near and distant future remains to be seen. Will there be all out-war? Will our air strikes cause more terrorist attacks in the United States? When? Where? Will there be biochemical attacks? Are the anthrax poisonings done by terrorists or by crazy people? How much will our economy suffer? One thing we do know from our experience and the experience of the Gulf War Troops, we can predict that Twin Tower workers, some bystanders, nearby residents and rescue workers will develop sensitivities, as well as lung disease from exposure to the building dust and burning toxins. And many more may develop Candidiasis and/or sensitivities because of taking antibiotics long term to prevent or cure anthrax.

Facing the future and dealing with it will be hard for everyone. However, it has been encouraging to know that fellow Americans, charities and government agencies went to work quickly to supply the general needs of those involved in the tragedy. At Share, Care and Prayer, we have also been concerned for the welfare of our few members who live near the area. One whom I was able to reach was fine on Wednesday morning, the day after the attack. Then a wind shift in the afternoon brought the cloud of dust and smell of burning wire into her home. Later, it cleared out again. Please pray that God will protect all those living in the area who have sensitivities.

It's been both heart-warming and heart-wrenching to see "God Bless America" splashed all over the place on newspaper banners, posters, window stickers, etc. and to join in corporate prayer. In one day Americans went from criticizing Attorney General John Ashcroft for holding a pre-work-day Bible study and prayer meeting in his office to seeing prayer at sporting events and every other kind of get-together! God and prayer all of a sudden were not only permitted, but were popular! And it seems that the patriotic song of choice most often is "God Bless America." Still a far cry from "In God We Trust," it has been definitely heartwarming.

But the bubble was burst when two Christian leaders were thoroughly criticized for discussing their opinions as to a deeper cause of the attack on a Christian T.V. program--a spiritual cause. While it seems that all of America is touting God and prayer, Christians and the Word of God are still not allowed to contribute. Students of the Old Testament know that God punished Israel over and over and over and over for its wayward choices. The Bible tells us that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." But the reaction of Americans to the Christians' discussion is not new. God warned Israel about impending danger because of sinful living and rebellion against God's will through its prophets. The prophets of those days were treated terribly, too.

You've heard the expression, "What's a mother to do?" Now, every time I see the statement "God Bless America" I wonder "What's (a) God to do?" Yes, we should seek God's blessing. But it is a two-way relationship. We should consider how we are to please God as well, and we should ask God for His mercy on us individually and on our nation. Here are excerpts from Daniel's prayer in Daniel 9 as a good example:

And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession, and said "O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land. O Lord righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day--to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You.

"To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness though we have rebelled against Him. We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him. And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole heaven such as never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem.

"Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord's sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate. O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies. O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for your city and Your people are called by Your name.

In the same vein, why should God bless America, a nation which will not allow His Ten Commandments to be exhibited in public buildings? Few Americans even know what they are. (Several people from our church took a survey of people attending a fair in our town. Few could recite more than two or three of the Ten Commandments. None knew that the number one Commandment was to have no other God before God.) Why should God bless a nation which forbids prayer in its schools? Which allows Favored Nation Status to a country which forbids freedom of religion and is currently torturing imprisoned Christians? Where Planned Parenthood provided graduating high school students in Minneapolis with prom kits containing condoms, confetti, breath mints and a discount coupon to a Planned Parenthood Clinic? And two million abortions are performed every year. Give God a break!

I am proud to be an American. We fly the stars and stripes at the Share, Care and Prayer office, and I am wearing a red, white, and blue pin following the attack. I am thrilled that our school children are now going to be saying and learning the Pledge of Allegience. But I also must say "Wake up America! Hello! If you want the God of the Bible to bless you, then begin to work to deserve it. Learn about God and His Son Jesus. Come to know them through reading the Bible, prayer, and church services. Search your hearts and minds. Confess sin and repent. After all, prior American presidents have called the country to repentance during times of war and tragedy." Abraham Lincoln said this when the Civil War was raging:

...as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People?

We have been recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God.

We have forgotten the gracious hand that preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! Abraham Lincoln

Unfortunately, the honest truth is that America does not want the God of the Bible to bless us. We want our own god(s) to bless us. We want to wave flags and be patriotic and get back to worshiping our own idols as soon as possible,* just like we did after the Oklahoma bombing. And we will use the help of great agencies such as the Salvation Army and World Vision, which are Christian organizations, and the Red Cross which was started by a Christian while we condemn the intolerance of Christians. This is a little like the Arabs hating the Americans while taking millions of dollars in aid from us every year!

If you think I am being too hard on Americans, especially after the wonderful display of heroism in New York and the outpouring of monetary gifts and blood, note that chemically sensitive people witness the selfishness, self-centeredness, and impatience of Americans everyday! Just try carefully and tactfully, with facts and notes from doctors, to ask your neighbor, family member, friend, fellow worker not to use chemicals in a way which causes you to become ill, even violently ill. Of course some do not understand and some just forget. However, there are some people who will not cooperate and others deliberately use chemicals. We have even heard reports of fellow employees setting up perfume ambushes against chemically sensitive people at work! Many of our members have had to leave their homes to camp out for a few days each month because their neighbors MUST spray pesticide on their yards. Neighbors also get upset at just being asked to warn the sensitive before they spray so they can shut up their windows and stay inside. One E.I.'s neighbor persisted in putting out numerous mothballs to discourage rodents from coming into her yard and was very offended when asked not to do so.

Or, ask for help, and you will see just what a person is made of. One husband asked his sister-in-law to assist him in the care of his E.I. wife. He was told she couldn't help because she had to go play tennis and have her nails done. What about corporations whose concern for the financial bottom line is more important than the health of their employees, neighbors and product users? Also there were thousands of Gulf War troops who were exposed to obviously toxic elements who were ignored, not assisted, nor compensated.

And, while I take Americans to task, I want to take this opportunity to alert the Environmentally Ill to other problems I witness as well. Over the years I have communicated with and prayed for virtually thousands of Environmentally Ill people for healing, housing, direction, provision, etc. I certainly encourage everyone with Environmental Illness to seek God and His blessing. However, I must exhort those seeking His help to search their hearts and minds as to their lifestyle before Him. Being stretched to the limit with financial, medical and housing needs, and with emotional and physical needs, it is very easy for chronically and acutely ill people to rationalize their behavior. But we also need to evaluate our behavior. Are we doing immoral and dishonest things we would not do except for our needy circumstances? Some of the people I have discussed this with are sorry for their behavior, others deny their behavior is wrong, and I have found many who have no idea that their behavior and lifestyles would be displeasing to God. They are just living life like everyone else. "It couldn't be wrong, because everyone else is doing it."

But, again, give God a break! God can't bless us and help us with His solution to our need if we resort to immorality and/or dishonesty to provide for our own needs and He is not going to answer the prayers of those who just want His help and do not want to know Him. We need to approach God like David did in Psalm 139:23,24. "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Peter tells us to "Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you." (I Peter 5:6,7)

Claude King, author of Experiencing God, wrote the following at the top of his "List of Sins in the Bible."**

We sin against God when we:

miss the mark of His purposes for us

rebel against Him, refuse to follow Him

commit acts of evil, wickedness, or immorality

I thought it was interesting also that Claude King noted that spiritual leaders sin by not strengthening the weak, healing the sick, and binding up the injured. He took this from Ezekiel 34:4: "Those who are sickly you have not strengthened, the diseased you have not healed, the broken you have not bound up, the scattered you have not brought back, nor have you sought for the lost; but with force and severity you have dominated them." This has not changed since Ezekiel's time!

Wake up Environmentally Ill! Use your current situation and the current events of the world to search your soul and seek God. He has said that if you seek Him with all your heart, you will find Him. "I love those who love me; and those who diligently seek me will find Me." (Proverbs 8:17) God has said that if you love Him, you will keep His Commandments (John 14:15, John 15:10), and He will show loving kindness to those who love Him and keep His Commandments (Deuteronomy 5:10).

The plates of the Environmentally Ill were already full with suffering, need and fear before September 11th. I would love to be able to tell you that we will soon be back to normal and have peace in the world. However, it is important for us to accept ongoing and perhaps escalating turmoil in the world, deal with it the best we can and recognize that our peace must come from Jesus in this life and in the next. You might be surprised to learn that even Jesus said that He did not come to bring peace to the world. "Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division." (Luke 12:51)

A homeless man struck up a conversation with me while I was waiting at a fast-food place to get a hamburger for my dad. He told me that he had never had the advantages of other people. However, at one point in his life he decided to look into religion. He said he had not known he was committing sins until he read the Old Testament. He changed his ways but still no one "killed the fatted calf" for him as the father of the Prodigal Son had done when he repented and returned. Since he still had not received what he thought was due to him, he back-slid again.

Since he did not seem to grasp the basic gospel message, I told him that it sounded as if he had never really made a commitment to Jesus. And I told him that Jesus had never promised us an easy life. If we really followed Him and practiced what He told us to do, He said that we not only would be persecuted for sharing that Jesus is the only way to God the Father, but also would be hated as He was. I reminded the man that Jesus had done much more for him than providing an easy life. Jesus died in his place and took the punishment for his sins so that when he died he would go to Heaven to live for eternity. (In a sense this is the Father killing the fatted calf for us!) And if he should die now without having accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior he would live for eternity in Hell. Then he would think his life on earth had been wonderful in comparison!

I did not have an opportunity to explain further that even though life is hard for everyone and may be even harder in some ways for His followers, Jesus promised to bestow His peace on His followers. It might not be a 24-7 peace, but when experienced it will be supernatural, comforting, humbling and awe inspiring. The Bible tells us to "Be anxious for nothing....And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:7) "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you, not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful." (John 14:27)

If you have never experienced the inner peace of Jesus, seek Him and ask for guidance from a Christian pastor, Christian friend, or me.

One more assurance before I close. One of our very sensitive members, who has had great difficulties over the past year, sent me a Thanksgiving card. In it she reminded me of a Billy Graham saying: "I read the last page in the Bible and it's all going to turn out all right!"

May God bless America and the Environmentally Ill!

In Times Like These

Mrs. Ruth Caye Jones

In times like these--you need a Savior,
In times like these--you need an anchor;
Be very sure, be very sure
Your anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!

In times like these--you need the Bible,
In times like these--O be not idle;
Be very sure, be very sure
Your anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!

Refrain

This rock is Jesus, Yes, He's the One;
This Rock is Jesus, The only One!
Be very sure, be very sure
Your anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!

*A November 3, 2001, Pasadena Star-News article, "Signs of Spiritual Awakening Dimish," stated: "Worship attendance in many places has dropped nearly to levels before the attacks." And, unfortunately, "Experts who study the way people react to crisis say Borowski's [an agnostic who has become an atheist after the 9-11 tragedy] experience fits a basic pattern: Emergencies tend to intensify people's existing beliefs, not transform their faith."

**Ask us for a copy of the list of sins mentioned in the Bible by Claude King.

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