Good Morning, Meetpastordan Readers…What a beautiful St. Louis weekend! We picnicked; we visited the wineries; and we enjoyed the hot-rod for what is sure to be one of its last excursions before winter sets in; and I topped it off by attending an intercessory prayer meeting at Grace Church-St. Louis last night. What a powerful experience! The purpose of that meeting is to lift up our country and our culture in prayer, and to pray for hope in the face of a multitude of uncertainties. But the unshakable truth is, for those of us in Christ, there is nothing to fear if we stand on the truth of 2 Timothy 1:7: “God didn’t give us a spirit of fear and timidity, but one of power, love and a sound mind.” And with our sound mind, we can stand on our platform of faith, and know without a shadow of a doubt we are standing on His Truth! And that truth is…He is a Sovereign God who tells us to be “strong and courageous…for I will never leave you or forsake you.” (Deuteronomy 31:6) Romans 8:31 reinforces that: “If God is with me, who can be against me!”
I want to use the moniker of my webpage as a springboard to what I want to write about today. Jeremiah 29:11 tells us, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” And the hope I am referencing is the hope found in the truth of Deuteronomy 31:6 listed in the paragraph above. We have to put our hope in a Sovereign God who told us in Ephesians 1 that he had a plan even before the creation of the world or man, and that plan was always in Jesus Christ. He went on to tell us in verse 1:10 that “at just the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ – everything in heaven and on earth.”
We can never forget that we are living in a fallen world that is still under the authority of satan. That is explained in no uncertain terms in Ephesians 2:1-3 when Apostle Paul was explaining the reality of the world to new believers in Ephesus: “Once you were dead, doomed forever because of your many sins. You used to live just like the rest of the world, full of sin, obeying satan, the mighty prince of the power of the air. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. “All of us used to live that way (note: this is past tense), following the passions and desires of our evil nature.” This is the reality of the world and our relation to it before being in Christ.
But here is the hope and truth about who we are today. “But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so very much, that even while we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. And he raised us from the dead along with Christ,..because we are one with Christ Jesus.” As His followers, we are called to be “in” this world, but not “of” this world”, and we have been given the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit to ensure we can rise to that calling. This gift is from a loving God who wants us to succeed at becoming the person he created us to be.
The reality is, we do live in a fallen world and we are affected by this fallen world whether we want to be or not. “And how did this become a fallen world”, you might ask? Well…it became a fallen world when “sin” entered the world. And that “sin” was man turning his back on God and putting the focus on himself. For everyone who is not in Christ, they are still their own god with the focus on “self”, and therefore are still “living in sin.” So if you want to see what that looks like, just look around you at the cesspool in which we live. There’s no denying it…this is not paradise! But it was at creation…before sin reared its ugly head! What you see today is the result of fallen man’s best effort.
So what do I and other Christ-followers see when we look at the world around us? We see a culture that is spiritually and morally bankrupt. We see a culture that has sold out the fundamental principles that made our country great: freedom of speech, freedom of religion; the traditional family structure; the sanctity of life; the values of honor and integrity; mutual respect and racial equality; respect for law and order; and the belief that one can be all they are capable of becoming if they commit themselves to this dream and work hard to achieve it.
“But how could this happen”, you might ask? “Those values seem fundamental to a free society”. And I would have to say, “how right you are!” But the truth is…the problems we are facing right now as a country and as a culture are nothing new historically speaking. If you lay an ancient history book and a Bible side by side, you can trace the same rise and fall of cultures, but one explains them in secular terms (greed and the desire for wealth, power and control) and the other explains them in Biblical terms (sin-nature). In both instances, God is expunged by those in control.
At this time in our history, we have the opportunity to exercise one of our rights as a (still) free nation. We have the right to vote for what we believe in because many devoted soldiers fought and died so we could maintain that privilege. And no doubt this is a critical time in our voting history, because just the power to replace as many as four supreme justices in the next four years alone can shape our country for decades to come.
No doubt the media has kept this political race a personality contest, and I’m sure we all would agree that probably neither candidate would be our first choice. But I implore you, please do not chose to” sit this one out”, because we all have the responsibility to voice our opinion concerning the direction of our country, and the platform of the two parties could not be more different. Don’t vote for the personality; vote for the platform. I am re-posting both parties platform from last week’s blog. I got this from the Billy Graham Ministries website and I’m including a statement from Franklin Graham, Billy’s son.
https://billygraham.org/story/2016-party-platforms/
“As Franklin Graham travels to all 50 states on the Decision America Tour, he’s urging Christians to boldly live out their faith—at home, in public and at the ballot box. Many decisions are made at the president’s desk, but the major political party to which he or she belongs wields significant power over which domestic and international policies are advanced and what becomes law. Here is a summary of theDemocratic and Republican party positions on some of the vital issues facing the country. As Franklin Graham has stated clearly many times, we are not endorsing any candidate or party.”
Clearly our country is in the shape it is in because we have exalted the teachings of man over the teachings of God. The Bible is resplendent of examples of countries being in line with God’s will, and they are blessed. When they are out of line with God’s will, these things dominated the culture: sexual immorality, impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, idolatry, participation in demonic activities, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions – the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your group, envy, hatred, lying, cheating, stealing, despair and hopelessness. Does any of this sound familiar??
I learned this principle in my recovery group: a problem cannot be solved by the same mind-set that created the problem. Therefore I want to close with two truths taken from Jonathan Cahn’s, “The Harbinger”
“America was founded on prayer. Therefore the removal of prayer from its public life was a central part of its fall from God. A nation that turns away from prayer will ultimately find itself in desperate need of it.”
“As God was expunged from American life, idols came in to fill the void; idols of sensuality, idols of greed, of money, of success, comfort, materialism, pleasure, sexual immorality, self-worship, self-obsession. The sacred increasingly disappeared, and the profane took its place.”
And here is our hope.
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
This IS the time for every Christ-follower and every Church to pray for the future of our country!
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May God Bless Ya…
Dan Presgrave (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)
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