Another week and we have witnessed another horrific
and logically foolish tragedy. In an
effort to prove that the lives of black people matter, domestic terrorists
murdered five police officers. As I
listen to the rhetoric from both sides of the political spectrum, I would
occasionally catch a glimmer of hope, but it was only an echo bouncing off the
walls of our cities. I heard from the
left the warning that violence only begets violence and that non-violence is
the only path for real change. That is
true. From the right I heard the lament
that the break down of society began with the break down of the home. Again it is hard to argue against that
conclusion.
What I did not hear was a single word about
repentance, about the need for our nation to apologize to God for the sins that,
having now been born, are bringing about death, both spiritually, literally and
figuratively. I heard about the need to
learn to understand others; I didn’t hear a word about understanding that we
are sinners both in corrupted nature and individual acts. I heard about controlling guns and the police,
but never a hint about the complete inability of a spiritual dead man to
control his sinful nature.
America was intended to be a theocracy, but she was
conceived and born with and into a Christian world-view. Not all of the founders were orthodox
Christians, but from the core of her being to the surface of her daily life,
America thought in terms of right and wrong as defined by the Scriptures. Over the last 70 years or so, we have
actively removed that Christian core from our soul. Now the veneer of a civil society based on
Biblical tolerance, love for enemy, and value of all those created in God’s
image is cracking. Beneath that veneer
we see a society of hate, injustice, greed, violence, and rampant
selfishness.
A few weeks ago I told a friend, “This nation is
coming apart at the seams.” It seems
that I have, this week, more evidence to support my predictions. Furthermore, no one in the public square has
offered any real solutions. This rush to
self-destruction will not be averted by another conference, study, dialogue or
election. Neither Clinton nor Trump can
implement solutions that will help us avert our demise. As we choke to death on the forbidden fruit
of sin there is no solution by which we can perform a self-rescue.
A century and a half ago two nations, both driven by
greed, pride and a lust for power, engaged in a fratricidal war that claimed between
620,000 an 850,000 lives. In the south,
25% of men between the ages of 18-44 died in that war. This week I have heard rumblings of a call
for another war. In terms of percentage
of population, a similar war today would claim about seven million lives. There
is but one solution: pray for revival of the church of our nation and of our
lives. To quote a prayer request from
that earlier war:
Knowing that intercessory prayer
is our mightiest weapon and the supreme call for all Christians today, I
pleadingly urge our people everywhere to pray.
Believing that prayer is the greatest contribution that our people can
make in this critical hour, I humbly urge that we take time to pray- to really
pray.
Let there be prayer at sunup, at
noonday, at sundown, at midnight – all through the day. Let us pray for our children, our youth, our
aged, our pastors, our homes. Let us
pray for our churches.
Let
us pray for ourselves, that we may not lose the word “concern” out of our
Christian vocabulary. Let us pray for
our nation. Let us pray for those who
have never known Jesus Christ and redeeming love, for moral forces everywhere,
for our national leaders. Let prayer be
our passion. Let prayer be our practice.
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