Month: June 2020

A COUNTRY IN NEED OF HEALING

What a year 2020 has been, and it is only half over.  It seems as if there is a new crisis every week.  Let’s just set the virus aside for a moment because I would like to look at our other issues.  If only the coronavirus were our only problem!   There is a revolution that is happening right under our noses.   Shootings, mass murders, vandalism, and riots are almost routine events now.  There are those among us who are destroying our monuments, desecrating our flag, and taking over our cities.  Our national anthem may be replaced.  And our police forces, the people who are there to protect us, now have targets on their backs.  What was formerly seen as evil is know declared good and acceptable; and what we many of us knew as good is now seen as bad.  The ends justify the means.  There is no longer polite discourse.  If I disagree with you that means I hate you.  Our presidential election is now upon us, and it is the most rancorous and divisive I can ever remember.  And there are some who don’t like either of our choices, but are just trying to decide which is the lesser evil.  We are a nation on fire.

 

With our world in chaos it is tempting to ask, “God, where are you?”  As I was wrestling with these thoughts this morning, I felt the Lord say, “Be still.  Come to Me.  Listen and be encouraged.”  He reminds me that He is still on His throne and is still sovereign over the universe.  We may go to our polling places and mark our ballots, but it will be God who decides this election.

 

He controls the course of world events; he removes kings and sets up other kings.  Dan. 2:21a NLT.

 

God may decide to use the next election to bring America (and maybe the world) into repentance and right relationship with Him.  And I’m not saying I have any inside knowledge about how He would do that.  He is sovereign; He could use either candidate to accomplish His will.  As mere mortals, and as citizens, we can only try to make an informed choice and pray for the best.

 

But God could also decide that we should get the government we deserve.  Perhaps America is on a fast track to destruction.  Other nations have risen and fallen.  We may also.  I am reminded of the history of ancient Israel.  God set them up as a nation and gave them a land.  He promised to bless them if they would be obedient to His instructions.  For many years Israel prospered, although she was never fully obedient.

 

God’s plan for Israel was a theocracy.  God would be their ruler and protector.  But the people of Israel looked around at the other nations who had kings and asked for a king for themselves.  I Samuel 8:6-9 tells the story:

 

Samuel was displeased with their request and went to the Lord for guidance. “Do everything they say to you,” the Lord replied, “for they are rejecting me, not you. They don’t want me to be their king any longer. Ever since I brought them from Egypt they have continually abandoned me and followed other gods. And now they are giving you the same treatment. Do as they ask, but solemnly warn them about the way a king will reign over them.”

 

Although we have never been a theocracy, America was founded on Judeo-Christian principles.  Our oldest institutes of higher learning once proclaimed Biblical truths, but now they indoctrinate students in secular humanism (and charge a pretty penny to do so).  Like Israel, we have rejected God.  We think we are so much wiser.  And like Israel, we think we can make the best decision about who governs us.  However, God continues to remind us that His ways are higher than ours.  Oh America, I hope it is not too late for us.  I pray that we will repent and return to God.  But in any case, God’s plan will not be thwarted.  He is doing something in the world and He will accomplish His will.  Our job is to pray and trust.

 

Thank you, Lord for allowing us to live in this great land.  We acknowledge that we do not deserve your favor.  You have blessed us abundantly and we have turned our back on you as a nation.  We ask that you bring us back into right relationship with you.  Forgive our sins and bring revival.  And let it begin with me.

OPPOSITE DAY

While I was having my quiet time this morning, a memory from years ago popped into my mind.  It was the memory of Opposite Day, a day my children would designate as a day when nothing was as it was expected.  A no-means-yes-and-yes-means-no day.  And that part of the day alone could trip up a conscientious mother into giving consent to something unintended.  Opposite Day might mean pajamas for day wear and pancakes for dinner.  It was a day to wear your shoes on the wrong feet.  On Opposite Day the only thing you could expect was the unexpected.  At this point you might be scratching your head and wondering why I would think about these things during my quiet time.  The simple explanation is that sometimes my mind is like a runaway train!  But I think I can offer a better explanation of how I got here.

A few days ago I was listening to evangelist Lance Wallnau speak about the trials we are enduring in 2020.  (Disclaimer: I really don’t know much about Wallnau or his theology but I thought this particular message was powerful.)  The year is not even half over, and already we have had a plague of biblical proportions, a global shutdown, economic free-fall, chaos on our streets, and the threat of flying creatures called murder hornets.  And now we have a tropical storm/hurricane bearing down on the gulf coast.  It makes me wonder how people could simultaneously quarantine and evacuate.  One particular point Wallnau made reached out and grabbed me, and has stayed with me.  He was speaking about the church coming out of quarantine when he said, “What if out of containment comes enlargement?” 

Those words eloquently expressed some thoughts I have been having on my own.  What if God has allowed us as believers to go through this time of isolation to prepare us for something big He is going to do?  That idea seems to me to be consistent with what I know about God.  He does the unexpected.  He acts in ways that are contrary to the ways we would expect because his ways are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:9).  A primary example of this would be in the way Jesus came to earth.  People expected a conquering king, but instead God sent a helpless baby born into humble circumstances.  

So what if God is preparing His church for something new, something big?  What if out of this time of isolation we experience a unity and togetherness like the early church described in Acts.  What if out of these economic hardships we discover riches we have taken for granted?  What if out of confusion comes understanding, out of pain comes rebirth, out of lockdown comes opportunity, and out of a time of quiet comes a Great Awakening?  What if the church becomes THE CHURCH?!  What if we see a new fulfillment of this promise from Isaiah 43:19:

For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.

Wallnau went on to issue these exhortations for believers during this time: we must seek His face, hear His voice, understand His will, and be his witnesses.  I don’t think I could say it any better.  This is our time.  Prepare to see God do something new.

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