Happy Birthday America! While less than perfect, America is still the greatest nation on planet earth and I am grateful to be an American. (To my friends in other nations, I sincerely hope you feel the same about your country!)

What makes America great? Nothing, other than God’s abundant wisdom given to our founding fathers who undoubtedly staked our nation’s future and survival on Biblical principles. Anyone who chooses to refute that should simply go back and read our founding documents. The hand and voice of God are evident everywhere!

American friends, I encourage you to embrace a habit I have held for many years: take time today to read our Declaration of Independence. Here is the meat of the document:

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Read the entire document here.

It is an incredible document, clearly explaining why and how our nation was founded. While you’re at it, our Constitution is a great read as well!

There is no other Constitutional Republic on earth like the United States of America! We were given a gift, but it must be handled properly. On September 17, 1787, as Benjamin Franklin and his fellow delegates wrapped up the Constitutional Convention, he was asked, “What kind of government do we have?”

His reply: “A Republic…if you can keep it.”

The “American Experiment” has lasted 249 years, longer than most governments formed around the world. It is one based, as Abraham Lincoln said, “Of the people, by the people, and for the people,” and our Declaration ends with these words: “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.”

Without God and without our mutual pledge to uphold our sacred honor to the principles upon which our nation was built (of the people, by the people, for the people), the American Experiment will not stand.

God bless America…and may we all recommit ourselves to that mutual pledge.