^5' This is what the LORD says:
   “What fault did your ancestors find in me,
   that they strayed so far from me?
They followed worthless idols
   and became worthless themselves.
⁶ They did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD,
   who brought us up out of Egypt
and led us through the barren wilderness,
   through a land of deserts and ravines,
a land of drought and utter darkness,
   a land where no one travels and no one lives?’
⁷ I brought you into a fertile land
   to eat its fruit and rich produce.
But you came and defiled my land
   and made my inheritance detestable.
⁸ The priests did not ask,
   ‘Where is the LORD?’
Those who deal with the law did not know me;
   the leaders rebelled against me.
The prophets prophesied by Baal,
   following worthless idols.'
- Jeremiah 2:5-8

Sound like another country we know?  I think we all know where I'm going with this but first I'll give you some background.  God is speaking to Jeremiah here about the land of Israel, they've fallen away and He's trying to draw them back in. 

I'm going to be embarrassingly honest with you, I was reading this chapter while trying to walk the treadmill.  I only got through to the eighth verse before I stopped reading and began to pray, cry, and run as hard as I could.  I've made a lot of comments lately, in fact there are few people dear to my heart that I've not discussed with what I think is coming to America.  If you know me at all you know being serious about anything is not my thing, my favorite motto is if it won't matter in a year it shouldn't matter right now.  The problem with that is what I see coming to America in the next year is a second Great Depression, that's going to matter in a year, in ten years, my generations grandchildren will come home from school and ask us about it for their history papers.  So I've gotten serious about the state of our country and when I read this scripture each line was like salt in the wound.  There's a reason it was so painful, here comes the embarrassingly honest part.

When I finished reading I began to cry out to God to save this country.  I began to beg Him not to destroy it, recounting the story of Sodom and Gomorrah where He promised not to destroy the towns if there was even 5 good people living there.  I heard my answer immediately, and as usual He didn't candy coat anything, here's the way the convo went.

Me: God please don't destroy this country, there are way more than 5 Godly people here.
God: I'm not destroying it, the people are.
Me: What can I do God, move in me I'll go where you want me to go.
God: Make a change.
Me: God I can't make a change big enough to move the people of this country there are millions of them.
God: No, not them, you.  Make a change, come up higher.

At this point y'all my flesh was screaming.  I've been making changes, huge, painful, devastating changes in myself at God's prodding (if you haven't heard the story about 4 months ago God began to call me to come up higher, it's been an interesting 4 months).  My flesh was ready to give up, my flesh thought I was a pretty darn good person already, but inside of me, in my soul, the Ten Commandments began to play one at a time over and over again. 

1. Have no other god's before me.  (Does anyone else see a fat hundred dollar bill when they read the first commandment because I do.  I also see a giant portrait of myself, I am the god I put before God.  I am who I worship when I selfishly do what I want instead of what His word tells me to do.)
2. Make no engraven image to worship. (I'm not going to lie to you this one doesn't effect me as much, LOL)
3. Do not take the Lord's name in vein. (Now I'm not much of a cursor, but I did say oh my God, and OMG all the time.  I understand now that the Lord's name is holy, reverent, and shouldn't be used unless we're speaking directly about Him.  Remember if I say the B word while speaking about a female dog I'm not saying a bad word but when I take it out of it's context all the sudden it becomes a huge insult.  There are many Jewish people out there that have so much respect for God's name they blank it out when writing it like this G-d.)
4. Remember the Sabbath day, keep it holy, don't WORK.  (As a person I usually do absolutely nothing on Sunday's, as a nation we have folded our hand here.  People working on Sunday isn't breaking a commandment anymore it's just them doing what they have to do.  We have to get away from that type of thinking, it's us taking our trust away from God, assuming that His commandments aren't in our best interest, and putting that trust in our own, massively incapable hands.)
5. Honor your father and mother.  (My father was an alcoholic and I honor him but not touching alcohol.  My mother abused hard drugs until I was 14, I honor her but not doing drugs.  Sometimes the most important way we can honor our parents is by learning from their mistakes.)
6. Do not kill folks. (Jesus expands on this is Matthew 5:21-22 and says if you continue to be angry at your brother or sister you're held just as responsible.  Why?  Because forgiveness is important to God, freely we received so freely we should give.  If you don't the consequences are yours to contend with.)
7. Do not commit adultery.  (Jesus expands on this one too, if you think about another person in a lustful way you've committed adultery already in your heart.  Watch your thoughts, they matter to, where the mind goes the man follows.)
8. You shall not steal.  (Don't think about stealing either, that's called coveting and it's a commandment too!)
9. You shall not give false witness against your neighbor.  (This means don't lie about other people.  Ever been caught in a He said She said situation?  Even little white lies are still lies, don't do it.  It's a trap of the enemy.)
10.  Do not covet.  (When you want what someone else has it's like saying straight to God, 'What you've given me isn't enough, I don't want what your plan for my life I want your plan for her life'.  Once again it boils down to trust, do we trust God that what He's given us is enough?  He who is faithful with little will be given much.)

With these, along with the scriptures from Jeremiah, my concern for America, and my own personal sins that I keep neatly hidden from most people rolling through my head I began to feel uncomfortable.  Anxious.  That still soft voice began to say over and over again 'run it out'.  I pushed the button to make the treadmill go faster (3.5) and the conversation got more intense. 

Me: God I know I've got all these problems to fix, I can't fix them on my own.  I can't do anything on my own, I need you.
God: I'm here.
Me: If I fix them will you save America?
God: You worry about fixing you.
(4.5)
Me: If I fix them will you use me to save America.
No answer.  Panic. 
God: Run it out.
(6.0)
I ran until I couldn't think, I couldn't ask any questions, I couldn't think about the fear, all I could do is listen.  The scriptures I love, the scriptures I trust, began to run through my head.

All things are possible with Christ who strengthens us.

For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you not to harm you.  Plans for a future and hope.

The one who began a good work in you will see it through. 

Have I not commanded you be strong and courageous.  Do not be discouraged, do not be terrified for the Lord your God is with you.

When I couldn't take it anymore, I heard 'Stop'. So I stopped. Then, that still, soft voice said this to me.  'Be prepared.' 

I cried, I got down on my hands and knees and I cried.  I wish I could say I'm not a proud person, but I am.  I don't like to cry, even worse than that I don't like to admit it to people.  But humility is a beautiful thing and I will humbly tell you right now that when I felt in my heart what God was asking me to do I cried.  Live an upright blameless life, be holy for your father in heaven is holy.  We've let to many little things slip between the cracks.  For as many amazing excuses as we have as Christians for the way we behave, there is not one good reason. 

There are two more commandments that Christ gives us.  Love your God with all your heart, and love your neighbor like yourself.  That, He said, was the greatest of commandments.  Love.  I've done a lot of blogging, a lot of talking, and a lot of thinking about love.  I saw a sign in a short video the other day that some protesters were holding in a town halfway across the world, they were protesting the Jewish nation and the signs read 'The gas chambers are ready again.'  There is so much hate.  Not just across the world but everywhere.  We have, as Christians, tolerated our Ten Commandments being ignored, how long before we tolerate the hate?  Are we already tolerating it?  Or worse, are we joining in?  God has called me to renew and restore myself like never before.  He has called me with great urgency for four months now to make the drastic changes in myself that I've felt were unnecessary all these years. 

We have been born, as Americans, in the promise land.  This is the greatest country in the world, it use to be one nation under God, but what is it becoming?  God doesn't belong just in a church, He belongs in every hallway, every doorway, every walkway, every street, and every home, and every heart.  Separation of church and state was designed to keep the state from interfering with what the church did, not to keep God's commandments out of court houses.  If you take Him out of the streets, out of the homes, out of the hearts of politicians and leaders, and try to put Him in the box of a church building then what protection does this country have?

When it's the darkest out light shines the brightest.  It's time for us to shine, it's time for us to renew ourselves, to restore ourselves back to the people God intended us to be.  Don't back down, don't give up, live upright and blameless lives.  Renew, restore, love.  Together we can bring this nation back to it's former glory.

I wrote those Ten Commandments down and posted them on our fridge.  It's a daily reminder that God has higher standerds for His people than the world does.