Sundays at 9:30 am, 10:45 am & 5:00 pm  |  Wednesdays at 1:00 pm for prayer meeting

1407 E. Reed Rd. | Greenville, Mississippi 38703

Pastor's Desk

An Open Letter to Our Nation

by Jack Manor | Thursday, October 20, 2022

Did you enjoy your last worship experience at Cornerstone?
Tell us what you thought . . .

Dear friends,


Allow me to extend an urgent, heartfelt plea to fast and pray for our beloved nation. Fasting will take our focus off of ourselves where it tends to dwell, and praying will put our focus where it belongs, upon God. Our United States, founded by a majority of Christian men and women who loved Jesus Christ and fled the tyranny of governmental overreach to establish a nation under God where people are free to worship their Creator by the dictates of their own conscience and live in their God-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness while enacting and sustaining government that is of the people, by the people, and for the people, has reached a critical tipping point that puts her in dire jeopardy. There is just no denying the fact that our America, the beautiful, needs our prayers and action at this critical moment in history.


We have failed and forgotten to demand from men and women we elect to public office that they be people of utmost virtuous character and that they care more for the people they represent and serve and the nation they swear to honor and protect than for themselves. Furthermore, we have failed to remember and perpetuate the truth that our forefathers, under the inspiration and direction of Divine Providence, established a bastion of laws rooted in and reflective of God’s Laws, that are meant for our enduring good, lasting protection, imposing strength, and abiding peace.


Finally, we now have several generations of adults who were not from childhood raised in the love and admonition of the Lord. They are not guided by the principles of God’s word and grounded in the character that is indelibly marked by the time-tested virtues of courage, temperance, humility, respect, wisdom, loyalty, selflessness, generosity, honest, modesty, gratitude, justice, courtesy, friendliness, compassion, magnanimity, sincerity, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and perseverance. Almost gone, consequently, are the days when selfless, ethical, and honorable citizenship was cherished and passed on to the next generation. We should long for a return to humble respect for the rights, privileges, duties, obligations, and functions that accompany being good citizens.


Now, regrettably, the halls of the People’s House in Washington, courtrooms of our nation, and board rooms of our city governments are being trampled by not all but certainly too many salacious, dishonest, evil-minded people who have their hearts set on solidifying permanent power, accumulating exorbitant wealth, and seizing absolute control rather than protecting citizens, promoting morality, propagating civility, respecting the law, and enforcing the rule of law. For the first time in our nation’s history, U. S. military forces, previously known as the strongest, fiercest armed forces on earth, are filled with generals and other commanding officers who are more concerned with transgender etiquette, gay rights, and woke ideology than with training warriors to win wars and protect the homeland.


We have government leaders at the highest level whose gross corruption incites them to accept multiplied millions of dollars in pay-to-play schemes from countries who are hostile to us. We have an open southern border that offers no restriction and even beckons foreigners to cross in violation of our laws filling our streets with dangerous drugs that are killing our citizens at the rate of 300 per day. We have leftist, socialist governors and mayors who are satisfied to watch the streets of our nation melt under the fire of thuggish lawlessness at the hands of criminals who have no fear of arrest and punishment for their crimes, because they see leftist, activist judges releasing criminals back to the streets. According to whistleblower testimony of active agents, our Federal Bureau of Investigation, once the premiere, respected law enforcement organization in the world, is now littered with liars and traitors at senior command level who have covered up corruption and cannot be trusted to fight crime and arrest criminals.


As if all of that is not enough to cause us to cry out to God, the classrooms of our public schools are now filled with activist teachers who blindly follow the mandated dictates of leftist, socialist, communists in Washington bent on fundamentally changing our country and doing so by indoctrinating our youth and small children in their vile, interlaced ideology of critical race theory, intersectionality, LGBTQ activism, gay-marriage, transgender brainwashing, and gender-mutilation. Sexual grooming of our children, even those not old enough to start school, is being done in our public parks and libraries with drag queens putting on shows and inviting the children to participate in their sick sexual depravity. The sins represented by this evil ideology are an abomination to our Holy God and a reproach on any people. Nevertheless, these indoctrination tactics are being pursued with twisted passion and, already, are promoting racism, bringing division, and doing irreparable damage to people who were created in the image of God for great purpose. All of this has happened, not suddenly, but over a progression of years, while Christians have remained mostly silent and unengaged in the matters that matter most for establishing and sustaining a virtuous nation and people.


Can there really be any doubt that in our prosperity and arrogance we have forgotten our God and are racing toward self-destruction? Lest we continue along this path, the Bible reminds us, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; the people whom He has chosen for his own inheritance" (Psalm 33:12). Before it is too late, let us remember that “righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people" (Proverbs 14:34). As quickly as possible, let us recapture the spirit of the timeless hymn sung by the people of God: “Thy love divine hath led us in the past / in this free land by Thee our lot is cast / be Thou our Ruler, Guardian, Guide and Stay / Thy Word our law; Thy paths our chosen way / refresh Thy people on their toilsome way / lead us from night to never-ending day / fill all our lives with love and grace Divine / and glory, laud and praise be ever Thine!” (“God of our Fathers”). God has indeed blessed America; therefore, in this crucial moment, it is high time that America honors and reverences God.


With great fear for the consequences of our sin and the judgment of Almighty God, let us admit and mourn our present reality. Surely, our national condition is no different that the prophet Isaiah’s summation of Israel’s state in the Eighth Century BC, when he said, “Your rulers are rebels, partners with thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts,” and true “justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter” (Isaiah 1:23; 59:14). We should immediately recognize the urgency of the debacle we are in, pour out our hearts to God in repentance of sin, and seek revival of our personal lives, homes, churches, communities, states, and nation.


Our present need is for all virtuous men and women to pray up, speak up, and stand up. Before we next exercise our God-given right to participatory government, and vote to elect the individuals who will govern on our behalf, let us take to heart God’s revealed intention for government leaders: “There is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God … for it (government) is a minister of God to you for good … an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil” (Romans 13:1, 4). Let us determine to elect only those people who will serve and work tirelessly to return America to her traditional moorings. We must have leaders who will reignite America’s reputation as a shining light on a hill, respect and follow her constitution, restore the sovereignty of her borders, obey her laws, maintain law and order, utilize her vast resources, seek the prosperity of our nation, promote capitalism, unleash the private sector to build businesses and create jobs, shrink government, limit government regulation, stand for righteousness, protect our God-given and constitutional rights, build and maintain the fiercest, highest skilled military in the world, and respect the exportation of the Christian message to all of our homeland and to the rest of the world.


God has most assuredly warned us of the harsh, decisive judgment that is due to any nation and people who turn away from Him to have their own way and plod their own path into wickedness while pronouncing all that is good to be evil and all that is evil to be good. Yes, God certainly promised through the pen of the Psalmist, “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God” (Psalm 9:17). Let us, furthermore, face the reality that, even though America is undoubtedly the most blessed and prosperous nation to ever exist, our future is not guaranteed and our endurance until the time that God is pleased to bring history to its consummation is not mandatory.


Yet, we are not without help from on high. God has given us the answer to our perilous circumstance: “If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14). We must rise up in steadfast assurance that our God “is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20). We live and have our being only at the pleasure and discretion of our Holy and Almighty God. Therefore, we must, once again, recognize His authority over us, and honor Him in all facets of our lives.


Never in history has there been a nation like America that took the rule and authority of God over all nations, the damnation that sin deserves, and the eternal salvation that God offers through faith in Jesus Christ so seriously. Never has there ever been a nation of people who cared about the education, physical well-being, struggles, suffering, and, yes, the spiritual well-being of people around the world like America. We who are Christians have the divine honor to be citizens of heaven while, temporarily, being citizens of the greatest nation God ever birthed. What a privilege this honor is, but, oh, the magnitude of the responsibility it brings. The past reminds us that the rise of Adolf Hitler to power in Germany in 1933 and his communist takeover that led to the destruction of Germany and the extermination of millions of lives in only twelve short years occurred while the majority of God's people sat quietly and said nothing. One Christian pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, would not be silenced. Before Hitler had him murdered by hanging at the break of dawn on April 9, 1945, Bonhoeffer wrote, "Silence in the face of evil is itself evil; God will not hold us guiltless."


The esteemed patriotic hymn, “Eternal Father, Strong to Save,” should be our fervent prayer: “Eternal Father, strong to save / whose arm does bind the restless wave / who bids the mighty ocean deep / its own appointed limits keep / O hear us when we cry to Thee / for those in peril on the sea / O Trinity of love and power / your children shield in danger’s hour / from rock and tempest, fire and foe / protect them wheresoever they go / thus, evermore shall rise to Thee / glad hymns of praise from land and sea.” Now is the time. Let’s do this together. Let's not remain silent or still. Let's fast, pray, and act for the glory of God.



With sincere regards,


Jack