Be There
My husband likes to say, “I am not afraid of dying, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”
As I have been reading article after article about what is happening in our nation, I feel much the same way.
The articles are on a range of issues, including the refugee crisis, the vaccine mandate crisis, the abortion crisis (as we go from surgical to medicine abortions), and critical race theory being taught in our schools.
It is downright scary how sinful we are as a nation. However, I know that we are being prepared for a new (to us) way of doing things. God is judging us as He is revealing our idols: our money, our educational system, our comforts, our state welfare programs, our health, and many other things that put Him and His Law out of the picture.
My problem (and I think there are others who feel this way), is that I want clarification about what is to come. I think that if I knew what was coming, I could get prepared for it.
I “feel” all of this while I “know” that God is sovereign and will work out every detail for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes (Romans 8:28). The truth is that like my husband with death, I am not afraid of the results of what God is doing. I just don’t want to face the discomfort of whatever it takes to get there.
There is a blessing in maintaining a long-term generational view of history. Christianity is record after record of brave people who stood up for what was right, even when the “majority” thought they were wrong. Sadly, our long-tern view has shifted from biblical truth to worldly desires. True for the church as well as the culture.
Putting our hope in made-made “progress” is proving to have been harmful. God is showing us the harm of putting our faith in the state to educate our children and take care of the needy in our midst. We have slowly but surely left our responsibility to give to those who do not have and care for the widows and orphans. We are more likely to hear about the needs of a foreign nation than we are of our immediate neighbors. No worries, they live in America where the government will take care of them.
Yet government assistance is a major part of the demise of God’s plan for the family. It pulls families apart. We have made the murder of babies in the womb convenient and “legal.” We no longer think a couple is responsible for the rearing of their children from conception.
On an individual level, many cower in fear, afraid to speak up or act. People are being lost in a world of welfare that has no real concern for the individual. They do not need God as their provider, they have food stamps! Our children are being taught to hate and our babies are not surviving the place that should be the safest on earth.
As Christians, this is to our (my) shame. As we study the Word of God, He clearly assigns these issues to the family (Deuteronomy 6: 7, Matthew 25:34-40, Mark 7:6-13) and then to the church.
Look around. It is apparent: we have work to do. Change is coming and people are going to need the hope that comes only from faith in the One True God, not any government or social welfare system.
I look forward to the changes God will make. I do not look forward to the battles we face as Christians, for what is good and right according to the law of God. The battle is necessary. God will not leave us nor forsake us through it. In fact, He promises we will be victorious, we just do not know when that victory will come and what exactly it will look like.
In spite of the fear and uncertainty, are we willing to trust His plan? It appears that He has decided it will be our generation who will live through this.
As the blessing in death is on the other side of the pain, so is the blessing of the battle. Will we be there for it?