Make no mistake. We live in strange times. Good and morality are laughed at. Evil, which was once shunned, decried or at least hidden far away and out of sight, is now paraded openly and applauded as wonderful. Surely, O Lord, the righteous perish and no one notices.
The abominations continue to mount: the wickedness of in utero infanticide and the calloused reduction of human to a mere collection of useful tissue; the brazen display of increased immorality of all persuasion and the wholesale bent of government to aid the punishment of those who would disagree.
More folks are starting to push back and vocalize their displeasure and their opposition to such a radical change of the fabric of our society. And that is good. Our society was left to drift and careen wildly out of control when the churches and their members bought into the lie that said there was a vast divide between sacred and secular life, between religious and public dealings. Religion must inform how we live and thus how we vote and form opinions about everything—including politics.
Being politically informed and expressing well-informed political & social comments is very important. And within the constraints of our democracy working to inform public opinion is good too.
But, I fear that it will do nothing if that is all that good people do.
If we only try to change by exerting political force or gentle protests or internet HashTag_campaigns, we are going to lose. We must understand the opponent in order to engage correctly. The opponent is not this political party or that one. The opponent is not Left™ vs Right®. No, the opponent is the very world-view and underlying philosophy, the zeitgeist, of this age. It is the very force of darkness, the "god of this age," and our puny, human strength and ingenuity will utterly fail against its vastly superior firepower.
We need to understand that. It bears repeating.
Human against Darkness will lose!
Am I throwing in the towel?
Not at all. We have a greater force than all of the hosts of Evil and Darkness. But we must remember that God is not just a *force* that we can direct to satisfy our every whim as a divine shopping cart. God is fundamentally and foremost in the business of making sure His creation unfolds to His highest and most perfect end. If the chief and highest end of a human is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever, then we could reason that God's chief and highest purpose to His Glory and His honor.
"I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images."
Isa. 42:8
His glory and His honor. Are we thinking of that? Are we considering how offended God is with all this sin and rampant wickedness? Or are we merely cultural warriors in search of a trophy and another feather to stick in our cap? (Look at me! My meme was shared 42 times today! I *MUST* be making a difference in this world!)
I say that partly humorously because obviously we post things and we share things, but what is our fundamental, deep-seated, driving impetus behind what we do?
We need to start over. Maybe not politically start over, but at least spiritually. We need to start with God. And the only way to approach God is to start with confession. Isaiah was a good man; he was already a prophet and had been used by God; but when Isaiah saw God (Isa. 6), he immediately saw how wicked and sinful he was. The Apostle John, who had been one of Jesus' closest friends and disciples, saw the risen Lord and fell at His feet as though dead. (Rev. 1)
We need to see God. We need to be filled with God, with His Spirit (Eph. 5:18), who is called the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord (Isa. 11:2), and we know that the fear of the Lord is to keep you from sinning. (Ex. 20:20)
So I think this whole political mess and our response to it must be addressed at a far different level than most political junkies have even thought about. Spiritual. We need the Holy Spirit. He is called the "Holy" Spirit because He is Holy. Sin problems are dealt with only when He comes and convicts. Wickedness is put away only when He shines the light of His Law in a human heart and gives repentance.
Our political and societal problems are too great. We need GOD! We need a revival.
We can't be Cessationists and say that all of that was something back in Bible times. That's garbage. That's putting God into your own tidy little box and deciding for Him that doing something miraculous would be rather inconvenient for you. It is basing your theology upon your limited experience. It is the equivalent of someone living in the arid lands of central Nevada and deciding that no one could ever swim in an ocean because it's impossible for that much water to exist in any one location!
To say that God cannot (and does not) start revivals any more is to ignore history of the church. There are many, many credible and well-documented accounts of revivals: the Welsh revival, the many revivals on the Isle of Lewis, Asbury College, Kentucky. (Among many others!)
But I am not talking about self-termed meeting where a preacher or evangelist decides that they're going to hold a revival. I am talking about the Sovereign act of the Holy God who shows up and moves in people's hearts and there is confession of sin and forsaking of sin. Powerfully.
You want to solve the nation's moral collapse? Pray that God will send a national repentance.
During the Welsh revival, police were unneeded because crime had almost completely stopped.
(Read this link, especially the last several paragraphs)
Consider how gracious God is. He is more willing to bless than we are to reach out for that blessing. He will not give the blessing, though, unless we follow His proscribed path. There are specific conditions attached to every blessing He has promised.
- "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 Chr. 7:14) There MUST be humility, prayer, seeking of God and turning from sins. Then He will bless.
- "Open wide you mouth and I will fill it." (Ps. 81:10) We must ask and ask large. Large petition with you bring for you are coming to a Great King!
Any draw backs? Yes. "Self" is not in control. God is. "Self" does not get to do whatever "Self" wants. Suddenly "Self" only wants God.
But isn't that best? We were created to fellowship with God. Sin destroyed that perfect fellowship; but God, in His matchless, wonderful, gracious ways, restores that fellowship. Revival brings heaven closer to earth and allows frail human mortals to taste of the divine in a more powerful way.
I can only imagine. But I want it. I see what the world is offering and it is looking increasingly bad.
Shouldn't all of us Christians who love our Lord be praying that revival happen? Locally where we each live and attend church; but also across our states and nation too. And why limit God only to just the bounds of one nation?
Pray!
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