by
Lois J Crawford
The year is 2016
These thoughts were written in December of 2006 w
hile thinking of the meaning of Christmas....while thinking of the New Year to come. At that time I was concerned with the state of humanity worldwide but particularly with the problems within my own country. Now December 2011 my thoughts seem even more appropriate than five years ago.But my focus at that time was on the Christian world and thinking that December comes bringing with it the Celebration of the Birth of One we know as "Jesus" Who brought the Promise of Peace ...as well as the Demonstration of personal Christness...so much that is moral and good came to us again through this Beloved 'Jesus'. He came to us from High Places, adopted a human form in order to bring us the Message of both Universal as well as individual Christness, showing us how that Christness is supposed to be put to work at the level of the physical being.....how God and man should be working together to bring the Peace that passes understanding to this earth..
Prophecy foretold His birth in Bethlehem of a Virgin Mother, of the line of David.
It was not only prophecy but it was a Sacred Promise fulfilled by the One whose Birthday we celebrate in December who not only fulfilled the Prophecy of His Birth....but fulfilled God's Sacred Promise of the Soul's Reconciliation with God. while leaving us, by means of His public Ascension, the Demonstration of our Soul's Reconnection with our own 'I AM' Presence.
But now looking forward to the New Year, People of the United States of America, I address these thoughts to you for I see situations ahead that I believe can only be overcome by the application of enough Christ Energy which must be developed within each one as the answer to current unrest on this Earth.
The United States of America continues to be faced in this year of 2011,with a demonic energy pledged to the ultimate destruction of our Birthright....the Freedoms given into the hands of the early Founders. There are many in America who don't understand this....many who have become complacent with the easy life, much of it provided by government doles and controls and mandates.
Many are afraid to challenge, to stand up to a physical enemy who has declared our destruction or subjugation. Many believe we live in the most difficult days the nation has faced. Yet Decembers past have seen American Patriots keep promises during many dark and trying times. Is it possible that people of our time will stand up and face dark and trying times....and if so, do we have the Faith and Fortitude to survive and to move the Cause of Freedom forward for generations to come? For Freedom of the individual is the issue and the question is will we have the courage to face the storm?
From Mark Alexander of the PatriotPost comes these words:
Surely, for American troops arrayed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and those supporting them on the home front, their straits are not as severe as those pressing General George Washington during the early years of the Revolutionary War. As his Continental Army troops left bloody footprints along the path to Valley Forge, the good General fell to his knees for prayer in the snow, beseeching God’s guidance as to how he might persevere to victory.
Victory did come in the Christmas Campaign successes of 1776 at Trenton and Princeton, about which Washington presciently wrote,
“If every nerve is not strained to recruit the New Army with all possible Expedition I think the game is pretty near up... No Man I believe ever had a greater choice of difficulties & less the means of extricating himself than I have—However under a full persuasion of the justice of our Cause I cannot but think the prospect will brighten.”
A year later, however, came the aforementioned retreat to Valley Forge. Even with Christmas approaching, Washington’s discouragement was evident in his writing of “A character to lose—an estate to forfeit—the inestimable blessing of liberty at stake—and a life devoted, must be my excuse,” and about how “it was much easier to draw up remonstrances in a comfortable room by a good fire-side, than to occupy a cold bleak hill, and sleep under frost and snow, without clothes or blankets.”
However, on 17 December, Washington issued general orders: “Tomorrow being the day set apart by the Honorable Congress for public Thanksgiving and Praise; and duty calling us devoutly to express our grateful acknowledgements to God for the manifold blessings he has granted us, the General directs that the army remain in its present quarters, and that the Chaplains perform divine service with their several Corps and Brigades. And earnestly exhorts, all officers and soldiers, whose absence is not indispensably necessary, to attend with reverence the solemnities of the day.”
Lt. Col. Henry Dearborn’s diary entry of 18 December read, “This is Thanksgiving Day. God knows we have very little to keep it with, this being the third day we have been without flour or bread, and are living on a high, uncultivated hill, in huts and tents, lying on the cold ground. Upon the whole I think all we have to be thankful for is that we are alive and not in the grave with many of our friends.”
As Surgeon Albigence Waldo observed of that encampment,
“Mankind is never truly thankful for the benefits of life, until they have experienced the want of them.”
The United States of America began as a nation of great promise and great Promises—the sheer force of which compelled our Founding Fathers to persevere. Clearly, these mortal men believed human Liberty to be the Gift of the Creator.
And they captured this Belief in our nation’s seminal document: “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.”
In 1833, Justice Joseph Story wrote,
“Let the American youth never forget, that they possess a noble inheritance, bought by the toils, and sufferings, and blood of their ancestors; and capacity, if wisely improved, and faithfully guarded, of transmitting to their latest posterity all the substantial blessings of life, the peaceful enjoyment of liberty, property, religion, and independence.”
Today, 174 years hence, additional generations and countless American Patriots have left to us “a noble inheritance, bought by their toils, and sufferings, and blood...” They did so in defense of a sacred trust—American liberty—which is uniquely ours. That trust’s Founders wrote eloquently about the necessary qualifications of their posterity, those charged with extending liberty to the next generation.
On each generation’s obligation to the next, Thomas Jefferson wrote,
“Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us.”
Of our national character, Samuel Adams insisted,
“[N]either the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.” Thomas Jefferson added, “It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution.”
Understanding that each generation would face its trials, Thomas Paine wrote,
“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.”
Knowing that Liberty would not survive any generation which turned away from its Creator, James Madison wrote,
“The Belief in a God All Powerful wise and good, is so essential to the moral order of the world and to the happiness of man, that arguments which enforce it cannot be drawn from too many sources nor adapted with too much solicitude to the different characters and capacities impressed with it.”
Thomas Jefferson queried,
“Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath?
Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever.”
Regarding Liberty in the context of our Constitutional Republic, James Wilson said,
“Without Liberty, law loses its nature and its name, and becomes oppression. Without Law, liberty also loses its nature and its name, and becomes licentiousness.”
On Liberty beyond our Republic’s borders, George Washington wrote,
“It should be the highest ambition of every American to extend his views beyond himself, and to bear in mind that his conduct will not only affect himself, his country, and his immediate posterity; but that its influence may be co-extensive with the world, and stamp political happiness or misery on ages yet unborn.”
Our Founders had promises to keep.
Today all who love America and the Promise of Freedom that is the implicit in the God-Idea that is the United States of America.not only have Promises to honor but work to do.
At the top of the list is to strive to understand the Reason
for the Coming of the Christ Child. The Purpose for sending a 'Christ' to Earth two thousand years ago was to open the Door to Greater Understanding of ourselves, Body and Soul.It was to teach us to expect those 'Greater Things' promised by the One Who so faithfully fulfilled the Prophecy, the Promise of His Time.
Our Sacred Obligation today is to fulfill the Promise of our time which I believe is to protect and promote Freedom for all mankind. There are powerful reasons that speak to the human need for freedom, But even more importantly and speaking from a Spiritual point of view of the Soul, Freedom guarantees that the embodied Soul will have the opportunity to express and expand its individual creativity leading It to more evolved Levels of Life. Protecting the Liberty that guarantees personal Freedom is each one's Privilege and Responsibility.
May we commemorate that Liberty, that Freedom with our Remembrance of the meaning of the Christmas Star. And during the Holy Weeks of Christmas this year and every year and during every day of the coming years, let us pour out God’s Blessings of Peace and Freedom to God's people everywhere. Let that be the Desire of every Heart.
