While You Were Sleeping, by Casting Crowns

Since I am a 'boomer' and have a perspective of the then (50s) and the now, I have been mourning the widespread loss of the Christian heritage of our country. Around the world we are known as a 'Christian' nation, even though the polls here show otherwise. One product of our culture exported around the world is our entertainment-driven media. It encourages a lifestyle of sports-consuming couch-potatoes, internet and video game addicts, as well as, overfed and undernourished children who disdain a real education in favor of personal fun. In many cases this is becoming reality, as parents pursue their own interests and abdicate headship of the home, leaving children to do "whatever'! We are increasingly asleep at the wheel, unaware of the chaos this is heaping upon the vital infra-structure of our land - the family. There are still a few who uphold the true values of Jesus Christ which include modesty, morality and decency, honest business practices and a strong work ethic, enduring family ties, and compassion. There will always be a remnant as in Genesis 18: 32 when Abraham asked God if He would spare Sodom and Gomorrah if there were as few as 10 righteous people who had not bowed the knee to idols. May it be that we are like the five virgins in the parable (Matthew 25:1-10 below) who were found awake and ready!

" This is what I see in our culture. We have strong convictions in one area, but we totally contradict them in another place. And to me, someone who is passionate about saving dolphins and saving trees and then applauds someone who is killing their child--and to do it with a straight face--it just shows you how far away we are.

"To look back at Bethlehem and to look back at Jerusalem and say, "How can they have had Jesus with them face-to-face and still miss it?" I think we have even more than that. We have Jesus’ people all around us and we've got the signs. We’ve got all the scripture that they never had back then. And here we’re going to miss it again as a country.

"Paul said to Timothy, the time is going to come when people are going to surround themselves with teachers that are going to tell them what their itching ears want to hear, and what our philosophies tell you today is, “I’m OK, you’re OK, don’t believe anything that has any sort of accountability to it. Just take some from here and take some from there and just be/do whatever feels good to you."--Mark Hall of Casting Crowns

Lyrics:
Oh little town of Bethlehem
Looks like another silent night
Above your deep and dreamless sleep
A giant star lights up the sky
And while you're lying in the dark
There shines an everlasting light
For the King has left His throne
And is sleeping in a manger tonight

Oh Bethlehem, what you have missed while you were sleeping
For God became a man
And stepped into your world today
Oh Bethlehem, you will go down in history
As a city with no room for its King
While you were sleeping
While you were sleeping

Oh little town of Jerusalem
Looks like another silent night
The Father gave His only Son
The Way, the Truth, the Life had come
But there was no room for Him in the world He came to save

Jerusalem, what you have missed while you were sleeping
The Savior of the world is dying on your cross today
Jerusalem, you will go down in history
As a city with no room for its King
While you were sleeping
While you were sleeping

United States of America
Looks like another silent night
As we're sung to sleep by philosophies
That save the trees and kill the children
And while we're lying in the dark
There's a shout heard 'cross the eastern sky
For the Bridegroom has returned
And has carried His bride away in the night

America, what will we miss while we are sleeping
Will Jesus come again
And leave us slumbering where we lay
America, will we go down in history
As a nation with no room for its King
Will we be sleeping
Will we be sleeping

United States of America
Looks like another silent night

Supporting Scriptures:

"Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh. "Matthew 25:1-13

"But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ."
1 Thessalonians 5:1-9

The church is the bride of Christ (America is NOT the church, however):

"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church." Ephesians 5:25, 31-32

“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ” Colossians 2:8

"The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron... Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. " 1 Timothy 4:1-2, 16

"And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn." Luke 2:7