America.....Bless God

From the first day I started writing this blog, I promised myself that I would never ever write a political posting. I see many who, day after day, fill their blogs with rants and raves against the powers that be, attacking the character and person of anyone who holds office. I believe that Scripture warns us against doing such things. I think it falls under the heading of "authorities" placed over us by God, and submission to that authority.Of course our allegiance is always to God first.

While this posting today may have a political tint to it, I wish that you receive it in the spirit it was intended to carry. You see, it doesn't matter what country you may live in.
Great Britain......Canada.....Germany......Australia....our hope does not lie in government and its ability to solve all our problems and meet all our needs.. Our hope does not lie in who may or may not hold office in that land. Our hope lies in God himself.

Contrary to popular belief....In this country, many believe that the Republican party is the Christian party, while the Democratic party is Satan's tool to destroy this country. I think there are probably strong, true believers in each party. Imagine trying to be a part of the government in Washington D.C. and you are a strong Christan in your beliefs and in the walk you have with Jesus. It would have to be the most frustrating of times for such a man or woman who holds an office in our government. Excuse me...I digress.

I guess what I truly want to convey this morning is that God is the only hope for this country and this world. Not any one leader or form of government. When things are wrong in our nation, we want to vote whoever is in leadership out and replace them. Usually what happens is the next person is just that.............the next person. So they come into office and bring reform and change and we are still not satisfied. There will be no satisfaction until we turn to God. There will never be true reform until we repent and turn from our sins (I'm talking to believers here....see II Chronicles 7:14 if you don't believe this is the focus we should be taking).  It is not the spirit of man who will lift us out of this spiritual darkness.............it is the Spirit of God responding to a people who are broken and contrite of heart.

I have seen things over the past 10 years that I never thought would happen in my lifetime. Events and situations in this world that are driving us toward exactly what the Bible proclaims. Economic collapse.....disputes and wars......yet, the people continue to look to government for the answers. "IF we only elect this man...or this man....or this woman or that woman......they will lead us into a new era of hope and change." How foolish. We have turned our backs on God, as a nation, and by doing so, why should we not expect God to take His hand off of us? I think He has.

Is it too late?
I confess that I don't know. I still cling to the words of II Chronicles 7:13-14 which reads: "If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
You see, what we need around the world is an awakening.
A revival of such immense proportions that every revival every recorded would pale in comparison.
Foolish to think such?
I don't think so....
My wife and I have begun to pray that God would once again pour out His Spirit to awaken us before we slide over the precipice into the abyss of history.

In my own country of the United States of America, we have shrugged off the hand of God from our nation and the term "Christian" has become a word of hatred. Believers are mocked and made fun of, and might I add that the behavior of some is part of this reason for the hatred that is being directed toward the church. It seems to me that everyone knows what the church is against....but no one knows what the church stands for.....all that's ever seen are rallies and proclamations of what we fighting against. Maybe it's time we get on our knees and pray and then love as Jesus loves. I'm not talking about a syrupy....we forgive everything you ever did--kind of love. I'm talking about radical love that draws people away from the darkness into the Kingdom of Light. Maybe it's time for the "real-deal" church to come out into the open and be the body of Christ we are called to be.

I think that if my country continues on the path it is following, it will mean more of the judgments of God. We have no one to blame for what is happening in our nation but ourselves. I want to close with a portion of a speech given by Abraham Lincoln on March 30, 1863.

“And, insomuch as we know that by His Divine Law nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!”


God's blessing be upon you today......
mb