The more I listen to the talk of current American society, the more my heart grieves at what I hear. But I know that no matter what men may say, there is no less truth to anything our God has already said. It's a certainty that those who promote values and beliefs inconsistent with our Creator's will one day regret their insolent and willful ignorance of the truth with a grief so deep that its bottom cannot be found ...
But for those of us who know and recognize what's happening, where does the inspiration to be silent in this moment come from? What foul atrocities will it take in the coming days for true believers, those who demonstrate their belief with their lives - the warriors of our God, to find their knees in greater number? What will it take to put us as one body on our faces in earnest before the God whose voice shakes the mountains and take our place of strength? After all, it's not our strength or wisdom that moves nations or peoples, but the strength and wisdom of our Father in Heaven - and we desperately need them both.
There's a line being drawn clear and deep in the spiritual sand. Sides are being taken both by election and also by passivity and those standing passively in the middle will be the first to fall prey to one side or the other. Uncircumcised hearts won't see it and won't hear the warnings and those among us found sleeping in the middle may find themselves in a place where they would rather He did not see them when reckoning comes to call. But He will see them. He will find them compromising His wisdom and instruction to suit their own will and failing to uphold His unchanging values.
A small example of the strategy of our enemy is revealed in his attack on our God's own institutions. For example in our increasingly secular society, marriage is being redefined to accommodate "detestable sin" and the very principle of monogamy is more frequently being questioned and even reasoned by some to be a failure and a mistake. One by one the tenets of our faith and the Godly principals imparted to us from our wise and loving Father are gradually being compromised and set aside in front of us in favor of the poison of sin's carnal alluring reasoning.
But we know that the spreading cancer of sin has a price and it's not one that's only paid in final judgment. We see its effects all around us and in the news every day. They're revealed in the healthiness of our bodies, the soundness of our minds and the goodness of our hearts. The march to remove the positive influence of our God's values and teachings are having an effect on our nation. That effect is producing increasing pounds of attention-getting fodder daily for the five o'clock news while simultaneously eroding the very foundational pillars that our nation was built on ... and it's beginning to tilt.
Slowly, we with our God are increasingly being villainized by a society and a government that once believed as we do. I can tell you with reasonable certainty that it will not be long before some of the healthy and positive life producing tenets of our faith will eventually be declared outright illegal if the continuing challenge is met with passivity - because our enemy is tirelessly aggressive. If the growing momentum of desecration and degradation is allowed to progress unchecked, it may not be long before our very belief in Jesus becomes considered hateful and illegal. It's not outside the scope of real possibility in the coming future and we need to wake up to it. We need to put on our big-boy-believer pants and live like we truly believe what we claim and also to make time to wear some holes in the knees while we seek His face.
If these things passing are the will of our Lord to allow, then I believe we are seeing the end of days as our Savior Himself described them. On the other hand, if it is not yet that time, then we may just be witnessing our own passive surrender to unholiness and an unwillingness to take our place in the battle. Even if end prophecy is found to be the current case, our faithfulness to serve our King should never be suspended, nor our belief in what He's said is right be set aside for even a moment lest we be found to have abandoned our assignment while the battle still rages. He sees all and He hears all - even the hidden and unspoken. We need to get serious about what we believe and live accordingly. In reality, what we live out demonstrates the truth of what we believe ... and what we believe is known to Him regardless of what we may claim.
The blood of our brothers and sisters cries out to us from the dusty ground in the battle in other parts of the world. They are meeting the challenge to their faith with their very lives and their lives are being taken in testimony of their unshakable belief. But what are we doing? The goals of our enemy are not limited by geography, nationality or culture and the groundwork for that battle that may seem distant now, is being laid quietly and slowly in our midst. If we truly believe our God, then their fight is also ours, because we are one body in Christ. They are truly our brothers and sisters as much as anyone can be because we are all part of the very same family with the same Father and are tied more closely together than by blood - we are bound together by His Spirit. We are altogether one body regardless of the distance between us and we have one common enemy to fight.
Our greatest weapons are not the worldly weapons of war. They are calloused knees and rendered, broken hearts seeking the face of the immortal and omnipotent God who yields all power and all authority over everything that exists. They are lives that are lived in an effort to continually demonstrate better the values and truth of our Lord's teachings, character, spirit and plan. They are lives actively submitted in obedience to whatever His will and calling might be. But more likely than not, the beginning importation of that direction will become active while we are in our greatest position of strength - submissively postured on our knees.
The real war - the war behind the wars, is not fought with man made utensils, but with and through the spirit of our Lord. Every act of selflessness and compassion, every hand reaching for another in pure love, every dispensation of forgiveness, these are also our weapons. Jesus gave us every example of the character that He shares with us through His spirit that has the power to change a world. Men of war face each other with fierce mechanized weaponry - Jesus came in divine, selfless humility and the effects of His power are still affecting the world over two thousand years later ...
My family in Christ, Comprecor Dei Gratia, Nobiscum Deus! (I pray God's grace, God with us!)
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