May God Have Mercy on me - and on the United States of America

            I recently read an article on facebook that God used greatly in my life to bring about an awakening of sorts.  The article is entitled, “Enjoy your transgender bathrooms.  We just lost America.”  Below is a link to the article.  (I do need to warn you that the author uses one curse word in a description of our elected leaders – so please be aware of this in advance)
 
http://newbostonpost.com/blogs/enjoy-your-transgender-bathrooms-we-just-lost-america/
 
            The author of this article does a good job and is very eloquent at identifying some of the problems in our nation.  There is only one thing I noticed as I finished the article.  I didn’t really see a whole lot of answers being offered – except to shut off the TV and the myriad of screens in our homes and enjoy the innocence of the writer’s little child.  These are good things – but not enough to honestly see any change in the things that the author was seeing in our nation.
 
            In all candor, there honestly will be no real unity in our country until we realize just what we are "unifying" under in the area of our worldview. The division comes because we (and I include myself) are selfish, self-centered, and sinful. That will NOT change until the hearts of men and women are confronted by the Gospel for the purpose of being changed by that same Gospel.  Then the gospel will facilitate and empower us to turn from self to God.  Then God will change our hearts so that we will live for the glory of God and not the glory of our own self-love. HOW DO WE GET THAT TO HAPPEN!?
 
            It begins when I repent of MY sin - MY selfishness - MY self-centered living - MY lack of love for God - MY coldness and indifference to the glory and honor of God and to the fact that I am not living FOR HIM! It continues as I am broken - I return to Him with all my heart and all my soul - and then expend all my strength for His purposes once again. It grows as I then get right with MY wife - MY children - MY brothers and sisters in Christ - MY neighbors - and even with MY enemies (whom I should be loving and praying for - more than protesting against and being infuriated with for their practices, politics, and public ungodliness). This is not so that I can just sit and let society degrade and dissolve - but so that I can be in a position to actually DO something about the plight of our society and world.
 
            Real change will begin first and foremost with me being right with God,  right with my family, and right with my brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ!  The church has not been salt to preserve our world - or light to illumine it of its need of God (and by the way – we are the only real hope of either of those two things happening). The emptiness of our spiritual lives is what is killing our nation. It is not the emptiness of the wicked - but the emptiness that I MYSELF have and am promoting.  I am promoting it by not being filled with the Holy Spirit.  I am promoting it by lacking an impassioned love for my Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.  I am promoting it by not loving God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength – and evidencing that love by being obedience to God.  I am promoting it by not having my chief desire to be seeing Him honored and glorified by the proclamation of the gospel that will bring people into a right relationship with Him. This gospel is the ONLY thing that can truly alter people’s hearts and turn them to a pursuit of godliness out of a fear and love for God.
 
            Here is what I see - and it lets me know that things may not change very soon (but oh how I hope they do by the working and power of God).  I personally pastor a small to medium church. Our prayer meetings - especially the one set on Wednesday night that is most convenient for people to attend - are empty for the most part. There is no great concern being poured out by the saints who should be the most concerned about these things. The other prayer times - most of which are in the mornings at 6 a.m. are for the most part empty as well. That speaks volumes to me - and to God as well.  We may be concerned enough to post an article on facebook - or even comment or press LIKE when reading that article - but we are, as of yet, not moved enough by our circumstances to seek out a unity in prayer with our brothers and sisters in Christ.  We are not moved enough yet to cry out to God for His work of revival in our own hearts and in the church (which I truly believe is the only hope for us in our nation). I am not lifting myself up in this - because I've been delinquent in making the choice to go to bed early enough to make the early morning prayer meetings for about 2 weeks now (and for that I am currently ashamed of the coldness and hardness of my heart evidenced by my lack of commitment to pray together with a few brothers). I truly intend to change that immediately and ask for your prayers that my cold, indifferent heart would be revived and changed so that, as a pastor and supposed spiritual leader, I won’t continue to be part of the problem. 
 
            The state of the church leads me to make the following prediction, which I believe to be in accord with what we see in Scripture.  God will continue to allow things to fall apart further and with greater consequence until we are moved by how bad it gets - to finally turn to Him in personal - and then corporate prayer.  He said in Matthew 5:13 that if the salt has lost its savor/flavor - it is good for nothing except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. Historically that has meant that the government of the nation in which the church finds itself will become more and more totalitarian and anti-Christian so that persecution will motivate us to turn to Him and seek Him once again. Please forgive me for sounding too adamant about all this.  If you will grant me mercy, which I need desperately, I need to be the first one to read what I've written.  I need to repent - and lead the way by example once again, and to do so by crying out to God for a personal revival, a revival among the men in our church, and then a revival in the whole church.  And maybe, if God is merciful to the extreme, maybe a spiritual awakening in our land. But . . . even if He does not choose to do that in our nation, there should be no lack of revival in my own heart as I return to Him in repentance and a passionate pursuit of knowing, loving, and serving Him with all my heart.  I am committed to doing this immediately.  For you see – the falling of America is not due to a bathroom issue – a marriage issue – or a “ungodliness among the masses” issue.  The fall of America has been due to a spiritually impotent church.  The spiritual impotence of the church has been due to cold and hardened hearts among her pastors and leaders.  Unless these things are FIRST addressed – there is little hope for our nation.

May God have mercy on me - and on the United States of America.

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