Until recently, I lived in a society, a culture, a nation that thrived on diversity, respect, and appreciation. But I really don’t recognize the current state of the union. America is divided more than we have ever been since the Civil War. We are at a critical juncture where each citizen must decide on where he or she stands. No one can have it both ways. We must choose for ourselves this day whom we will serve.

After the hard-fought acquisition of the promised land of Israel by God’s chosen people, their leader, Joshua, made a profound proclamation. He charged the holy nation to, “…choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, …but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Now in our day, God has given us Americans the greatest nation in the history of mankind. Its formation and development have been nothing short of miraculous. Its victories, bought by the blood of thousands of brave men and women, were phenomenal and won only with the hand of God.

We are now experiencing a civil-war-like divide as a movement across the nation seeks to aggressively oppose our heritage, our morals, and our freedoms. It is a movement driven by external influences and void of godly perspective. The loudest and most persuasive voices of this movement are those who aspire to the objectives of foreign religions and and governments. They are bent on making America what it has never been and was never meant to be. They want to change almost everything that made us the great nation God intended.

America has persevered through many divisive issues since its founding–the level of independence, geographic expansion, geographic separation, dependence on slavery, financial crisis, social change, and other challenges that could have torn us apart. Instead, we came together to preserve a mutual way of life more important than our individual positions. However, today, we face a different challenge that is arguably the worst yet.

Seemingly, half of our nation is siding with a domestic force that will, if successful, lead us away from almost every influence that has made ours the greatest country on earth. America is being pulled toward socialism, atheism, relativism, and globalism. Who could have imagined that one of our main two political parties would be embracing the government-centric, socialist philosophy. Who would have thought that over half of Americans who no longer consider themselves religious have excluded prayer from public entities, supported abortions, outlawed crosses, and coddled foreign gods. Who ever thought that our law enforcement and courts would be focused more on situational ethics than on biblical principles. Who foresaw the day that much of America would be kowtowing to the United Nations and advocating unlimited immigration.

Unlike other times in our history, I do not believe saner minds will prevail in our present divide. Those who would take us further from our foundational beliefs and principles will not relent. We are in an era when our conversation, our financial support, our prayers, and our votes must reflect the faith and objectives of our nation’s founders. We must not depend on compromise. We must now, “…choose for ourselves this day whom we will serve. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”