Red Heart in Hands by George Hodan
What are we Christians to do about all the distressing things going on in our country today?
Take heart. God is in control. God ordains all leaders in power, just as He positioned leaders like Obama, Pelosi, Reid, and others of all political parties in office. God never does anything without a plan. God tries us and tests us. Why? To allow us to learn that we must always do our best to affect situations and faithfully leave it to God to do the rest. That way we acknowledge that God is the One with the power and we have no power without Him. Let us really understand that it is God who actually changes the hearts of people and He is the ultimate control of any and all situations.
I heard a man say that God’s man was not elected to office in 2008. I beg to differ; God’s man was elected. Obama was God’s man and so were G.W. Bush, Clinton, G.H.W. Bush, Reagan, Carter, etc. Don’t space out on me. I did not say that Obama was a good president, nor did I say Obama is not a fool. He is not a good president and Biblically speaking, he is most definitely a fool. Proverbs 14:16, “A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident.” In other words, the fool is carless and feels confident when he is wrong. You could call this arrogance; Obama is the height of arrogance. However, God allowed him to be elected.
Is it possible that God allowed this because of the sins of America? Is this His way of bringing us back to Him? Definitely YES!!! He loved Israel but divorced her when she went a whoring (KJV) after other Gods. Before He divorced her, He gave ample warning and was longsuffering, wanting her to turn back to Him. He sent famines, pestilence, invading armies, very corrupt leaders, and all sorts of calamities to Israel so she would return to Him. Yet they kept worshiping other gods and sacrificed their children to Molech (or Moloch).
There is a comparison there for the USA. The Pilgrims, and the Puritans came to America and considered her to be the new Israel. Because of their faithfulness to Him, God blessed both of those groups. Our America came from those two groups of settlers, and not from Jamestown as the rewritten history books claim. The men at Jamestown were not godly men; they were gold-diggers, each man out for himself. They only pretended to worship God. So God allowed that settlement to fail. But He prospered the Pilgrims and Puritans. Thus our country was ordained by God.
We have sacrificed multiple millions of the unborn, and some post-birth infants to abortion—the god of lusts and self, the modern Molech. That is millions more than were sacrificed to the ancient Molech. Is God allowing these bad things to happen to America? Yes he is. His purpose is well stated by Himself in 2 Chronicles 7:14.
One more item. This country has been in similar circumstances in its history. The Civil War is the most well-known of those circumstances. Pre-Civil War America was in just as much political turmoil as it is today. The country was actually torn apart back then. Do not forget the Indian uprisings, the war of 1812, and the revolutionary war itself. Those were all desperate times. Yet our country survived those times.
There is one part of 2 Chronicles 7:14 is the one I want to address. “If my people . . .will humble themselves . . .”
We are all praying and turning from our wicked ways and seeking God’s face. But are we really humbling ourselves? I think not. We Americans are an independent lot. Rugged individualists. Is that what God really has called us to be? No, emphatically not. He has called us to be a covenant people. He has called us to covenant with one another as believers, not individualists, but members of a covenant community—the church to be exact. Our individualism keeps us separated. We go to church and act all nice, and say the obligatory “fine” when asked how we are doing. We do not want to open up to each other. We want to maintain our distance and privacy. We treat church as a Sunday and Wednesday thing. On the other weekdays, we are in our own private lives again and free from that covenant relationship God want us in.
I have tried to remedy that. I have changed my attitude. I am striving to become a member of that covenant group God wants us in. I am treating God and church as my main thing, and work and play subservient to that. I believe that if we Christians will get back into a covenant relationship with one another, God will honor that and heal our land. One Bible passage that gets to the essence of a covenant relationship is:
Jas 5:13-16 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. (14) Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: (15) And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. (16) Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Is there anything more difficult that confessing our faults to one another? No. That is because we are out of that covenant relationship God wants us to be in. What can we do? Get more involved in the body of believers inside every church and strive to regain that covenant relationship with one another. In our church we have 140+ on Sunday mornings, but there are only about 20 or 25 of us who are really in a covenant relationship with one another.
Even if God allows this country to break apart in anarchy or be taken over by a cruel dictator (which is what many leaders want to be), God is always with Christians, who are His people.
Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Rom 8:38-39 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, (39) Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This is a Spiritual battle. Only God can fight it. We must trust in the full armor of God to get us through it: truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, salvation, the sword of the Spirit, and prayer.
Eph 6:11-18 NKJV Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. (12) For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (13) Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. (14) Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, (15) and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; (16) above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. (17) And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; (18) praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.
Take heart, Christian. Your God is with you and He will never fail you, leave you, or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5), even unto death.
