This is an old illustration, but maybe new to some of you who read this blog: Are we Christians all suited up in the finest of deep sea diving equipment, sitting in bathtubs that are fast filling up, frantically trying to hold down the plug?
I quote from Jonathan Cahn's excellent book, "The Harbinger" (the definition of which is: "a person who comes before to give an indication of what is coming next; a herald") : "Has America turned away from God?...Yes, it has turned and is turning. ...As with ancient Israel, America began ruling God out of its life, turning, at first subtly and now more brazenly. ....In America's greatest moments there was always sin, and in its worst moments, greatness. ...In the middle of the twentieth century America began officially removing God from its national life. It abolished prayer and scripture in its public schools. As ancient Israel had removed the Ten Commandments from its national consciousness so America has done likewise, removing the Ten Commandments from public view, banning it from its public squares, and taking it down by government decree from its walls. ... God has been progressively driven out of the nation's public life. The very mention of the Name God or Jesus in any relevant context has become more and more taboo and unwelcome unless for the purpose of mockery and attack. That which has once been revered as sacred is now increasingly treated as profanity. And as God was driven out, idols have been brought in to replace Him. ...idols of sensuality, greed, money, success, comfort, materialism, pleasure, sexual immorality, self-worship, self obsession. ...The nation has forgotten its foundations, its purpose and its calling. What was once known as immoral, is now accepted. Its culture has become increasingly corrupted.....growing more crude and vulgar. A wave of pornograpy now penetrates its media. The same nation that was once dedicated to spreading God's light to the nations now fills the world with the pornographic and the obscene. ....Some would call it tolerance. ...Yes, the same tolerance for everything opposed to God, a growing tolerance for immorality and a growing intolerance for the pure. ...Children are taught of sexual immorality in public schools while the Word of God is banned. It was tolerance that put the profane on public display and removed nativity scenes from public sight. ....a strangely intolerant tolerance."
My dear friends, this aging woman is trying to stay calm enough not to have a stroke or heart attack (which took the lives of both my grandmother and mother). That would be so unfair to my remaining children after all they have suffered from the deaths of their dad and brother. This is the verse my Father thrums through my mind daily: "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, mind your own business and work with your hands". It steadies me. Eating right, keeping my weight 'way down, walking and taking in great gobs of biblical truth and dispensing it as my Father opens doors for the Gospel, staying away from people who are lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God (lazy, welfare mentality), having a form of godliness but denying its power, has narrowed the list considerably of people I once thought I had to be around. In fact, He has specifially told me to "have nothing to do with them." I Timothy 3:1-5. Read it for yourself.
HYMN OF THE WEEK: STAND UP FOR JESUS
Stand up, stand up for Jesus! Ye soldiers of the cross;
Lift high his royal banner; it must not suffer loss
From victory unto victory, His army shall He lead
'Iil every foe is vanquished, and Christ is Lord indeed.
Love, Jo