If We're Honest: Cause & Consequence

He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  

There won't be any more death or mourning or crying or pain, 
for the old order of things has passed away. 

~Revelation 21:4

Often when difficult times come, we doubt.

Every decision that led up to our moment of difficulty and immense loss, is now like a ping-pong ball within our mind, racketing back and forth, searching for a reason, an answer to why this affliction has fallen upon us.  Our first response, is often our worst and if we're honest, the reason for this is that we answered with doubt where faith once stood.  The result is always the same when doubt visits, we question the goodness of God.

If we're honest, those of us who have been there-done that, would say we reached a point, where for a moment or moments, we failed to remember exactly why loss was embracing us.   We would share, we had forgotten all about the fall of man, in that moment, that we had forgotten that sin had entered the world and corrupted everything...even our DNA, in that moment.

If we're honest.  We would share with you how in that moment, what we "needed" most was the very ONE whom it "felt" had forgotten us.  Gone in those moments of doubt, were the bubbly emotions of "If you're happy and you know it" and praise to God from our lips.  We certainly had emotions, but they were not bubbly and they were must assuredly, not happy.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ~Philippians 4:6-7

How quickly it becomes apparent in times of loss, that without a deep understanding of our fallen condition, our emotions will betray the very commitment we profess...every single time.  How quickly it becomes apparent, that it is vital we understand what originally set suffering into motion...this in itself answers the question of "why" we are suffering. The cause can be easily pinpointed back to the disobedience of Adam and Eve and a serpent bent on destruction.

Truth is, the cause is all too easily forgotten...in the moment.  If we're not quick to redirect our thoughts and hands back to the Word of God, we will grapple with the consequences of a corrupted DNA on our own.  The once commitment to Christ we declared, is now set aside as bitterness asserts itself and takes root.  Where faith in Christ once declared commitment...the serpent has now inserted doubt.  This doubt being his ultimate objective, to divide us from the JOY of our salvation!

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. ~Ephesians 6:12

I've watched giants of the faith, grown men and women stubble and fall away from the gospel they once joyfully proclaimed...as disillusionment advanced.  Disillusionment brought about by a broken marriage, death of a loved one, loss of income, or something else, but honest to goodness LOSS in life.  However, this disillusionment was brought about, in part, to their not recognizing the cause of the pain, nor embracing the ONE who brings relief in the midst of it.

For me, relief came when I began to be able to pinpoint the enemy in my midst.  The pain was no less painful, but I remembered who was the cause of the pain and who wasn't.  I began to run toward the ONE who embraced loss for me on the cross and rose from the grave..so that I might live should I call upon the name of Jesus.  

I will close with a quote from Corrie Ten Boom, who endured great loss and pain under the occupation of the Nazi's, during WWII.  She wrote the following... "Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.".  In all our loss, in all the pain, God is our ever present hope in times of need.

Run to Jesus!

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings to closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.  ~Hebrews 12:1-3

The Cycle of History and America

What has been will be again, 

what has been done will be done again;

 there is nothing new under the sun. 

Ecclesiastes 1:9

For the last few years, I've watched as my country has  morphed under the pressures of Moral Relativism, which stands is sharp contrast to Natural Law.  I've observed this “evolution toward self-governed morality" through the lens of the history-loving geek that I am.  As a child, I was taught history was linear--a long line with random facts and tidbits that were deemed important to learn.   Though I throughly found the subject of history fascinating, unlike most of the kids in my class I might add, something about how history was taught was missing from my viewpoint.  Then someone shared with me that history is cyclical, like just about everything else on earth, and it changed the way I viewed the span of time.  As a Christian, it brought clarity to just about everything and I will explain why.  See if history is cyclical, then my observations of current events could very well have correlations with other times and events in history.  This is when my head knowledge of history and growing understanding of God's Word, aka the Bible intertwined.   King Solomon shares about the cycle of history in Ecclesiastes 1:9, where it is written, What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.  The more I read the Bible and learned from other Biblically sound Christian Apologists--emphasis on Biblical here--the more I realized moral relativism is nothing new--its just a concept given a new sparkly name and repackaged for us all to fall for.   

Which, brings us to the present.  Unless one has been living under a rock, they have no doubt heard the catchy refrain of those contending for president, whose political chorus is sung from sea to shining sea; as to how we can “Make America Great Again” or be “Stronger Together".   Each side of the political spectrum chants devotion to the one they see best fit for the task…and eerily resembles past empires and regimes as they do I might add.    Yet, without a pure change of heart, there is little hope in all this elation—its all shifting sand.  See, America isn't at a tipping point in her apostasy from all that is holy, she's already tipped off her rocker and well on her way downward and toward an abyss.  

Americans desire to see the return of a flourishing economy and national stability, while at the same time refusing to acknowledge that the lack of thereof is, in part, due to their rejection of once-treasured values; values upon which this nation was founded.  As George Washington once said, "The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal order of rules and right, which Heaven itself has ordained."  Americas once-greatness, wasn't a byproduct of any business man, career politician or community organizer, it was indeed, a blessing provided by God Almighty.  

Below are the wise words, of Alexis de Tocqueville, a French political thinker and historian who wrote the following in, Democracy in America…  "I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers--and it was not there...in her fertile fields and boundless forests and it was not there...in her rich mines an her vast world commerce--and it was not there...in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution--and it was not there.  Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power.  America is great because she is good, and if American ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great."  

Like all previous empires who worshipped gods made of clay, it will be America's moral decay that will seal her fate, as well as her willful decision to follow after and bow before the gods of self.  Yes, God is love.  He is also righteous and holy and may we not forget that.  Should America chose to continue in her folly and further embrace the rejection of checks and balances which God has ordained, she should expect to reap the whirlwind.