Look Up!
Not since the Civil War has the United States been at a crossroad such as it is today. There are ominous clouds gathering with increasing intensity, and as it is with the weather, so it is with these clouds: the best of human strategies and schemes are totally useless in the face of the gathering storm.
This nation is drowning in debt incurred by loose fiscal policy that caters to a culture of consumerism and greed expressing itself through a warped sense of entitlement. An ever-widening gulf is developing in the political arena with such hostility and invective that hope of opposing political forces cooperating for the good of the country has all but disappeared. We are truly a house divided.
Advocates of competing ideologies are becoming more and more radical to the extent that violent revolution no longer seems far-fetched. The days of innocence are but a fond memory.
Added to all of this is the dark portent of a looming economic global collapse that will plunge the world into an abyss never before experienced. Being bombarded with the news of these impending crises has caused fear, frustration, anger and despair to sweep over the people. But as followers of Jesus Christ, ours should be a different response.
Jesus describes similar conditions in Luke 24, but gives a word of encouragement saying, "But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."
As disciples of Jesus Christ, we should respond differently than those whose hope rests on the government of this world. The coming of his kingdom to earth should be greeted with expectation and joy even though the clash of these kingdoms, God's and the world's, results in chaos, turmoil and upheaval.
If I'm being torn by fear and frustration, tormented by worry and depression because of national and world events, it's likely that I'm not seeing from the Lord's perspective, bu my own fleshly perspective. It is the ensuing end of the old in the face of the arrival and penetration of the new. The old creation is giving way to the new creation. What has been prayed countless times over the centuries since Jesus first uttered these words is now coming to pass: "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."
We should immerse ourselves in Psalm 46. It is a psalm for just such a time as this.
Sorry for the late entry Carm!
There was a time that I probably thought that every Republican had to have had a relationship with Jesus. The GOP espouses and falls in line with much of our Judeo-Christian heritage. So many years have passed now and it appears to me that we are so deeply divided that we may even return to our Civil War days. The reality of all of this to me is that we are a nation that has lost its way and cannot find a clear path out of this horrendous situation. Politicians on both sides are scrambling to convince the masses of their idealogical solutions. it's not working. The mis-trust is deep. Politicans have lost all credibility in both parties. That leaves the people of our nation with a perplexing situation especially if they believe that politics is the answer.
The main stream church is political as well and so neither the govermnent or the church are coming up with the answers. It looks like the perfect atmosphere for an uprisng and revolution. It's also an incubator for the birth of Spritual revival like we have never seen. Thy Kingdom, Thy will be done is the only snswer to the human race. It's obvious that we cannot fix ourselves.
Look up!
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