On Financial Licentiousness and What Happened 230 Years Ago Today

My fellow church member, Tommy Vestal, writes about the inspiring account of faithful men responding in a Godly way to the crisis of their day. Their example is a poignant and encouraging light in the midst of our own dark days.

“Men inflamed by the power of God, stoked by the preaching of Whitefield that swept a continent, and convicted by conscience that power and authority were given for duty by the providence of God, led our nation through the trials, terrors and seemingly endless everyday hardships of the Revolutionary War. Today, 230 years ago, March 20, 1779, the Continental Congress confessed publicly our deficiencies and sins as a nation before God and resolved to set aside a day for fasting, Thanksgiving humiliation and prayer to Almighty God. They professed that the destructive calamities of war were just punishment for the "manifold transgressions" of the nation. They also praised such calamities. Why? Because "too few have been sufficiently awakened to a sense of their guilt, or [have had their bosoms warmed] with gratitude, or taught to amend their lives and turn from their sins, that He might turn from His wrath."

Pray that our elected leaders will fall on their knees in conviction before the living God just as many of our founding fathers. Pray that our nation, through the graceful wrath of God, will turn from wickedness and sin. Pray that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit will be mighty and sweep our nation as in those years prior to our nation's founding to produce a Godly generation that will reclaim the culture for the glory of Jesus Christ.

You can read the proclamation here and see a copy of the original here.”