What’s Unfolding?

Lord, Your Word unfolds before our eyes. And I’m not talking about Revelation, certainly we see the times we’re in and we’re able to draw comparisons quite easily, but people have acted the same way throughout history. They are haters of God, haters of good, insolent, arrogant, boastful, slanderers, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents…this is Your word in Romans. Cain murdered his brother, Esau whom “no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau,” as told in Hebrews, the pharaoh who enslaved Your people and murdered the children, Korah who led a rebellion against Your chosen servant Moses, Abimelech killed 70 of his brothers, Saul attempted to kill David and ordered that 85 priests be slain, Menahem slaughtered the king he replaced and ripped open the wombs of pregnant women from a country that wouldn’t submit to his dominion. Solomon said there is nothing new under the sun and it’s as true then as it is today. We may have traded kingdoms for hospitals or the streets for the camera, but it’s all the same. 

Why are the godless who put their faith into nothing believing that there is no god invoke the most damning mockery of You and no other? I ask a question I know the answer to, but it’s so strange. Are we so spiritually dead now that we can’t see it or is it a refusal to acknowledge sin for what it is. In America, You have blessed us so richly with freedoms not found in any other form of government in the world yet for all of our freedoms we would gladly trade them over if something would swing our way. I believe the truth of the matter is we have freedom but it’s heavily conditional and we now see a circumvention of those parameters to accomplish what is right in the eyes of man. Your love is unconditional, but it does have its parameters. You can’t abide by sin, it must be dismissed from You yet Your desire to see us return to You is something You’ve gone to great lengths to show us. We are so bogged down with a peace and prosperity lifestyle and gospel that we don’t recognize we’re one of the most heavily oppressed nations for our faith. Sure, freedom to worship is one of the greatest parts of our culture, but it’s also led to the “speak only good things” movement. There’s no conviction. There’s no call to repentance. There’s not even grace preached anymore, it’s what man can do to fit You into our lives as long as You don’t interfere with our money, power, and pleasure. “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).

Some people, and I used to be guilty of it, say, “Well I can’t be fed at that church because of (insert any reason here)”. I was a coward. I didn’t want to admit after being a “follower” for so long that I wasn’t hungry. I had believed myself redeemed only to one day come to the realization as a peacock fluffs his feathers so do I with my faith. It would be on full display pretty and attractive, but there wasn’t anything meaningful to boast of my spirit. I wasn’t looking for truth or conviction, I was looking for confirmation and acceptance, something that would allow me to live my lifestyle and live blameless all at once. There truly is no such thing as being able to serve two masters as you’ll always serve one when trying and that one will be your favorite giving you all your comforts and desires while the true Master knocks to bring you back to a place of purpose and growth. 

Our men have become soft, our women have become bitter, our children have become anarchists, and we’ve all ignored our elders for the sake of our depravity. We so willfully cherish the oppression we face because we aren’t aware of its existence. Ignoring the changes that have happened in today’s pulpits, setting up our children as idols and catering to their every whim, having our hearts harden to what is good for the nourishment of our souls and soften for the illicit, explicit, and deranged whether it’s found in entertainment or the power in our hands, we have abandoned the beautiful and have accepted the grotesque. Do we really know You anymore? More importantly, do You even know us? 

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name?’ Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers!”, Matthew 7:21-23. God, I don’t claim to be anything more than a follower of Christ, the one whom I’ve put my eternal faith in and the Lord of all, and a repentant sinner. Anything else that is done through me that is for the good and for the edification of anyone, that’s all You. I know for sure that You know me, in Romans You tell me in chapter 10, “8 But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: 9 that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved.” That took ten seconds to read. That took ten seconds to pray. Twenty seconds, Lord, blessed me with life eternal in the presence of my Savior. Truly I live for You now and the old self has died and if I had only placed my faith in You years ago, how much more free would I feel now? Doesn’t matter, “36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36. I am free, and Your Word is alive and powerful bringing history to life and hope for the future. It is only by the hope I have found in Your Son that I can freely share Your glory with anyone who will see and hear. May I strive to remain a faithful servant to You, my Master and Lord all the days of my life until I can serve You eternally, Amen.