"Has the wind changed, or did our boat turn?"
How is it that the one nation that could bring about the fall of the Soviet Union could so quickly embrace those very ideals and philosophies that made the Iron Curtain so repugnant to us?
We see in this year's election the results of the choices we have been making as a country. Our country will not go downhill because of this election. Our country came to this election because we have already gone downhill.
We have abandoned our dock, we have abandoned our moorings. We have abandoned our character and principles. We have abandoned our beliefs that this country was founded upon. We have abandoned our God. We have abandoned ourselves.
We have gone from "Tear down this wall!" to "Spread the wealth around," in a very short time.
Are we like ancient Israel, who having defeated a pagan nation, immediately began worshipping the gods they had just defeated?
Have we received that judgment of God where he allows that which we are victorious over to become our own downfall?
Perhaps we are simply being allowed to pursue the course we have set for ourselves.
In any case, here we are. This is not the time to give up and go home. We must continue to serve as citizens of heaven, "praying ... for all who are in authority" (I Tim 2:1-2). God's work is not hindered by who is in office, and our work as ambassadors of Christ is also unaffected. Sure, our money, our "security," our culture, and our country may all be changing, but that is all nothingness to a Christian. Let us strive forward, as foreigners to this land, as citizens of heaven, as ambassadors of Christ. The message of the gospel has not been "changed"!
How is it that the one nation that could bring about the fall of the Soviet Union could so quickly embrace those very ideals and philosophies that made the Iron Curtain so repugnant to us?
We see in this year's election the results of the choices we have been making as a country. Our country will not go downhill because of this election. Our country came to this election because we have already gone downhill.
We have abandoned our dock, we have abandoned our moorings. We have abandoned our character and principles. We have abandoned our beliefs that this country was founded upon. We have abandoned our God. We have abandoned ourselves.
"The United States stands at this time at the pinnacle of world power. It is a solemn moment for the American democracy. For with this primacy in power is also joined an awe-inspiring accountability to the future. As you look around you, you must feel not only the sense of duty done, but also you must feel anxiety lest you fall below the level of achievement. Opportunity is here now, clear and shining, for both our countries. To reject it or ignore it or fritter it away will bring upon us all the long reproaches of the aftertime."
--Winston Churchill, in his famous "Iron Curtain Speech," 1946
http://www.famousquotes.me.uk/speeches/Winston_Churchill/1.htm
"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
--Ronald Reagan, President of the United States, 1987
http://www.reaganlibrary.com/reagan/speeches/wall.asp
We have gone from "Tear down this wall!" to "Spread the wealth around," in a very short time.
Are we like ancient Israel, who having defeated a pagan nation, immediately began worshipping the gods they had just defeated?
Deuteronomy 8:20, NKJV
As the nations which the Lord destroys before you, so you shall perish, because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God.
Deuteronomy 12:29-30, NKJV
“When the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’
2 Kings 21:9, NKJV
But they paid no attention, and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel.
Have we received that judgment of God where he allows that which we are victorious over to become our own downfall?
Judges 2:12a NetBible
"They abandoned the Lord God of their ancestors who brought them out of the land of Egypt. They followed other gods—the gods of the nations who lived around them."
Perhaps we are simply being allowed to pursue the course we have set for ourselves.
Psalm 81:12 KJV
So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels.
In any case, here we are. This is not the time to give up and go home. We must continue to serve as citizens of heaven, "praying ... for all who are in authority" (I Tim 2:1-2). God's work is not hindered by who is in office, and our work as ambassadors of Christ is also unaffected. Sure, our money, our "security," our culture, and our country may all be changing, but that is all nothingness to a Christian. Let us strive forward, as foreigners to this land, as citizens of heaven, as ambassadors of Christ. The message of the gospel has not been "changed"!
"This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure."
--Winston Churchill
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/w/winston_churchill.html
"Now is not the time to put up the white flag of surrender, but to strengthen our resolve." - Bill Muehlenberg
http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2008/10/10/never-give-up/
"These are not dark days; these are great days - the greatest days our country has ever lived; and we must all thank God that we have been allowed, each of us according to our stations, to play a part in making these days memorable in the history of our race."
Winston Churchill, October 29, 1941.
http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=423
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