Posted on 11/10/2018 11:44:07 AM PST by HiTech RedNeck
For years and years I've watched the political climate go downhill in America.
Even Donald Trump hasn't been a cure, only a figurative Dutch boy with his finger in the dike. A large and bulging segment of society has gone frankly profligate and has just pushed the House of Representatives over the line. "Liberal" (though that is what the profligacy movement sounds like) has been left behind. Profligacy is illiberal. Liberals of old would have engaged in reasoned discourse with the conservatives of old. The new ones scream and throw tantrums.
We've been for a long time under the assumption that the political system itself is a shelter against wrong. And more and more that assumption is failing.
I wish to reassert to all who will listen that our ultimate and best shelter is found not even in politics but in God. It is only He who can put His hand upon a cursed situation, extract the devil from it, and turn it into a blessing. Mere human powered political activity cannot do this. And this won't happen in the context of the inaction of His people. Prayers and thanksgivings must take place. When God is glorified, more of His glory follows. When God is given short attention, less of His glory follows.
It looks to me from some recent events that God is leading Donald Trump himself down that path; though he began as nominal at best from a lukewarm mainline church following, those gathering around him have been insisting on more in God's name. This is the place where we should always repair to at the end of the day. We can discuss human machinations all night and day till we are tired, but the Lord is head of it all and we ourselves are part of that. We don't get to be spectators in this sport. Do we have a burden for the country? Then let's not merely criticize. Let's call on the Lord, Who is above all criticism, for His grace and blessing in this trying situation, on the basis of His promises.
What we’ve fallen into is the general course of sin. That does not surprise God, nor does it constitute anything that is unforgivable or unrepentable.
God is reaching out for us. Will we reach out to Him? He knows that some people are so resolute that they won’t. But that’s their issue — it doesn’t need to be our issue.
One of the few times in church that I fell, inexplicably at the time, into weeping, was when a song repeated the refrain of the Psalm that God’s thoughts towards me are countless. Something deep and fundamental in my soul answered to that. I welcomed that like I welcomed a long awaited homecoming. Oh dear God! You care! And yet evil spirits try to get me to be cynical even about this, God forgive me if I yield. Oh, God is just playing you. But isn’t that a piece with the lie of the serpent in the Garden that “oh, God’s just jealous of you, and you won’t die” as though we could have an existence independent of God and His grace?
True! Because He already understood that His love, with all the power of God’s own love, would set captives free. Not all evil government powers immediately toppled. Martyrdoms happened. Paul was sentenced by Nero to beheading, but to Paul he was already sure that “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” Nero eventually passed from his evil throne.
Satan goes and bops us on the head to try to keep us and our message down. Here’s where banding together is so much more effective than going it alone. When one brother or sister is attacked, other brothers and sisters lift him or her up. Concerted prayer is going to be more and more necessary as the lever of Christ’s power upsets Satan’s applecart, at which we know Satan will rage.
Yes, but if you read the description of the great whore, it is pretty descriptive of us. There have been many civilizations that sound like the description, but they weren’t in the right timeframe. It’s just an interesting idea to me, that I would like to explore. We are awfully proud of ourselves.
We’re the latest possibility down the block.
Our question is what shall we do, seeing ourselves looking like that in the mirror.
We can’t speak to all ages — God has no grandchildren — but by the grace of God we may still be able to speak to our own age, and stave off the situation. Perhaps the ultimate age of the Whore will be when there isn’t any more significant Christian presence to buck the turning of this rich land into that profligate Whore. Maybe the Whore is a worldwide, collective phenomenon and to pin it on just one country isn’t even fair.
Again I believe the existence of the warning is to prod the children of God into action in obedience to the Lord. When the Lord lets the Whore crash, she will, whatever it is. Perhaps (peradventure as the KJV puts it) our obedience here will still stave that off. But if not, He will still keep His promises to us.
We’re the latest possibility down the block.
Our question is what shall we do, seeing ourselves looking like that in the mirror.
We can’t speak to all ages — God has no grandchildren — but by the grace of God we may still be able to speak to our own age, and stave off the situation. Perhaps the ultimate age of the Whore will be when there isn’t any more significant Christian presence to buck the turning of this rich land into that profligate Whore. Maybe the Whore is a worldwide, collective phenomenon and to pin it on just one country isn’t even fair.
Again I believe the existence of the warning is to prod the children of God into action in obedience to the Lord. When the Lord lets the Whore crash, she will, whatever it is. Perhaps (peradventure as the KJV puts it) our obedience here will still stave that off. But if not, He will still keep His promises to us.
I know we have barely scratched the surface of how God sees us and feels about us. I’ve heard of people catching just a glimpse, and being totally overwhelmed with sudden understanding, of just a tiny bit of His love. He loves our enemies! He loves every muslim, even while they’re killing His believers! I believe He loves and reaches out to every unbelieving human being, right up to their last breath.
Amen.
And I speak again of today. God wants us to act while it is still today and we are still in position to do so. Another age will come when scoffing will take over. I’ve been oppressed by scoffing spirits. I’ve not always turned in a great performance when I have been thus oppressed, other than just hanging in there and looking personally to the Lord, laying low and resting. But even the Elijahs of the world had times of fainting after great exertions, and that is where the mercy of the Lord was shown.
Sometimes Paul-like situations happen, where a murderous soul will be caught short by the Holy Spirit and they turn around and repent.
In the past I have imagined being part of an answer to questions like this, like putting up a worldwide shortwave transmitter to preach gospel to Arabic speaking peoples.
But then again it hits me. I CANNOT DO A THING WITHOUT CHRIST. I’ve seen outreach for Christ attempted running ahead of Christ, and the result was a humiliating bust. Infinitely better to linger with Him on His time scale, and then to move when He says move. That kind of move will see blessing when attempts to get hopping prematurely will run into an impassable wall of demonic opposition before a more modest redirection of one’s life. As a practical measure as part of a successful movement, prayer in sufficient volumes by an agreed body of believers seems to me to be an indispensable part. Yet even that I can’t just whip together by fleshly efforts. The all-wise Spirit has to be ready to do it.
“I’ve never been much for the bearing of soul
In the presence of any man
I’d rather keep to myself all safe and secure
In the arms of a sinner I am”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ET0187keHsw
That was a pretty good post. Thanks - and Amen.
Christ was counted sin on our behalf, so that’s not the best way to put it. But we aren’t safe and secure apart from the grace of God.
Let all God’s children try to stop abortion and God may just answer their prayers.
That’s the entire point of the song.
Amen!
Bless you. May you be flooded with grace!
God bless you! Hope your baptism is very meaningful and wonderful!
I see... It could give theologians heartburn however without scare quoting “sinner.” I try to be as accurate as possible without being pedantic.
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