“But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this?  Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.  We are aliens and strangers in your sight, as were all our forefathers.  Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.  O Lord our God, as for all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name, it comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you.  I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity.  All these things have I given willingly and with honest intent.  And now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you.  O Lord, God of our fathers Abraham, Issac and Israel, keep this desire in the hearts of your people forever, and keep their hearts loyal to you.  And give my son Solomon the wholehearted devotion to keep your commands, requirements and decrees and to do everything to build the palatial structure for which I have provided.”  Then David said to the whole assembly, “Praise the Lord your God.”  So they all praised the Lord, the God of their fathers, they bowed low and fell prostrate before the Lord and the king.  1 Chronicles 29:10

How do I understand God’s awesomeness by looking in to the words and deeds of David?  Re-read, if you would please the passage above and see a man, not a god or demigod.  A man who had done his best to live his life for God, knowing fully well that he had failed but in that failure found humility.  A man who is said to be after God’s heart, who is himself apparently amazed that God would find any pleasure in being given, as homage, objects we deem treasure in order to demonstrate our willingness to honor his name.  Then we see God’s true awesomeness in David’s prayer to keep our hearts faithful to the Almighty and that his son would be faithful in fulfillment of his duties to build the temple for God.

I see in this moment the precarious nature of this life, its glory and its folly.  That we humans can for instants shine in our likeness to God and then quickly depart from that attention to once again fall into disloyalty, false pride and idle workings.  How can we maintain such understanding and as David live to a good old age ever mindful of God’s generosity, kindness and love?  It is all his and he gives to us freely for the asking, if we will only believe.  He even provides for the unbeliever, not just the ones who will eventual seek truth, but for those who have no intention of choosing righteousness.  This is the God that we serve, the lover of all and sustainer of life.  Lest we forget his holiness and our feet fall on insubstantial ground, let us remember David’s last words to the whole assembly, “Praise the Lord your God.”  David may have doubted his people but he still had faith, faith that the Lord our God would deliver us even from our own misgivings into lives of righteousness and subsequent works of Spirit and Truth.

Lord, with all that you have given me, even to this life, I praise you.  Come Lord Jesus, come.  Amen

Do not despair, now may not be the time for play but we shall frolic in the hereafter.  There is work to be done and although neither of us feel the energy, commitment nor inclination, this is our purpose, to lay the groundwork for the coming King.  If we shirk our work then others will be employed, perhaps even the rocks, trees and sky will sing of His glory if we neglect it.  We have always doubted if we had the gumption to stand up when it meant losing something or maybe everything.  Isn’t it great that we get to find out the truth?

I was not born to give into whimsical torture or threats against my person or property.  I see now that I have been trained so that when the opportunity arises I will be given the choice to declare the name of Jesus, perhaps for last time or cower in frailty accepting my worldly citizenship.  We both know that there is no thought more distasteful then the silence of my tongue when given opportunity to shout for the King of Everything.  How have we become so palsied, prideful and dispassionate?  We chase blossom with no bouquet, feast without flavor, treasure with no taste.  Just a hand full of cloud we are left empty after each sexual encounter, counted coin or vanquished competitor.  Our story amounts to nothing but myth told to eighth graders hoping to somehow justify lifetimes lost.  There is no substance without eternity.  We are left in the dirt our lives turned-out pockets with not but lint memories, soon forgotten as one less mouth to feed or one more competitor with which to contend.

But that is not the hope of Christians, the Bride of Christ, betrothed to the Lord of Glory for for eternal marriage.  Does it seem odd to think of the fulfillment of service to a righteous King?  That is the death throw of the sinful nature, writhing, attempting escape, wanting nothing to do with anything but self-service.  I am tired of self, does it not bother you as well?  A nest-bound baby bird with a ravenous appetite for salaciousness that never matures, never leaves, never stands alone or takes care of others, existing only to feed, feed and feed again then sleep.  I yearn to yearn no more.

I will find rest in You my Lord.  I await You and humbly ask Your forgiveness for my painfully slow maturation.  Thank You for Your Patience.  It is such an oddity to me that the only reason I deserve Your mercy is because You find some worth in what You have created.  Praise be to God, I am thankful that You find my faith in You acceptable offering because I have naught else to give but the love that You first gave me.  In Jesus’ Holy and Precious Name.

http://youtu.be/iIMaj944cqc There is no avoiding the common sense of a man guided by the Holy Spirit of God.

“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 prairies, and it was not there; in her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there. Not until I went to 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 America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

— Alexis de Tocqueville, quoted in The Spirit of America

I am greatful to have lived in this period of American history.  We have seen the evil and the good and know that something tangible has been lost.  America of the 20th and 21st Centuries has been a case study of how a blessed nation of people loses God’s hand of grace by turning their faces away from the Lord toward “other” interests.  You see God is jealous for our fealty and worship and considers these alternate interests as other gods.

Since 1859, when Darwin released his theories of alternate explanation for our origin, we have been grasping at those postulates as hopeful proof of an escape route from coming judgment.  It is no rare coincidence that De Tocqueville died that same year, proclaiming that what made us great is the goodness and righteousness preached from American pulpits.  With all our power and might we’ve proclaimed evolution, truth and proceeded down the dangerous path leading away from God’s sovereignty and protection.  Living in this nation where people have “progressively” gone from enlightened truth to veiled ignorance has been an awesome challenge in remaining on the narrow path to God.

What awaits us on our present course?  We like to say that we don’t know and in our best fatalist/naturalist understanding we say something whitty about “survival of the fittest” or predict some kharmic enlightenment of mankind.  When the exact reason we resolve to these ill-fated attempts at prognostication is that we have exchanged the only real truth for a lie and thus been turned over to our decadence as reward.  If in fact the fittest survive then we should expect something akin to Hitler’s determination to do the world a favor and root out the weak through genocide.  Isn’t that what is coming with our new attempt at health care, an effective culling of the sick and weak by declaring it fiscally imprudent to provide them care in a timely manner?  Let us not allow evil’s mask to obfuscate the founding principles of wickedness which are to corrupt, conceal and consume.  It is easy to challenge the nobility of this widesweeping power grab by asking, will it affect the wealthy in any way?  Of course not, they will simply continue to pay for good care, that is why they may opt out in the grand new plan, because they never needed it in the first place.  Those who will suffer will be the weak, sick, elderly, infant and poor and of course who ever challenges the emperor’s authority.

I will not challenge the authority because it has been God Himself who has set the crown upon the heads of current kings.  This movement is not beyond God’s sovereign authority but rather, exactly that which God is allowing to happen as result of exercising our free will.  We have turned away from Grace, forgotten goodness, left the churches or turned them into social clubs delivering tickled-ear preaching, killed over fifty million innocent fetuses in the interest of self-service, sent men to war without God’s lead or blessing, spent our great grand-childrens inheritance, entertained every violent notion, ravenously pursued the dark sexual oddities of our imaginations and left nothing Holy, sacred or innocent.  This is the obvious outcome of our national practices.  Our only hope was God, without Him we have none.  For those who refuse to seek the Bible’s historical lessons we now see them repeated for us to learn experientially.

This was a great nation because it embraced goodness as its guide to prosperity in perpetuity.  No program, no waiting patience, renewed vigor or sacrifice will staunch its ebbing wound.  Our only salvation is to be found through humility, repentence and return to God’s saving grace and healing.  I do not see us bowing in humility but rather shouting louder in our prideful ignorance that we shall rebuild, overcome, solve our problems by programs, passion or financial manipulation.  These have all been tried and the results are firmly recorded in history that none of them will deliver us from the resounding peril of eventual collapse.  God is the only answer, His forgiveness the only key to unlock the chains of our self created captivity.  That forgiveness may only be found through Jesus Christ in repentence, faith and obedience to God’s Will.  I just don’t see it happening, but that is the wonderful thing about faith in God is that He alone can do the impossible as an answer to our prayers for this nation.  So I will continue to embrace the hope He has given me by asking Him to save this nation for His good pleasure.  I pray, that we Christians humble ourselves before God and ask His forgiveness for our transgressions, then repent of our practices.  I hope that He may hear our cries for mercy and turn His face back to us in favor, healing this land and returning us to the goodness we once held dear.

Praise the Lord God for all His Works.  Lord, Jesus, intervene in our plight and heal this land.

Can you see the Lord at work?  Only if you are aware of the signs and look closely.  Have you studied what must soon come to pass?  Only if you have dispelled fear and sought the truth of prophecy in God’s Word.  Do you know how important it is that we are currently discussing nuclear issues with Iran?  Only if you have read the prophecies of Ezekiel and Isaiah that tell of Persia’s importance on the unfurling scrolls of prophecy.  Can you explain why Syria and Egypt are presently embroiled in turmoil from which it appears that will not arise?  Only if you know what must happen to these two ancients foes when Israel’s sovereignty is threatened.  Do you see Russia and China rising to preeminence on the global political stage?  Only if you understand that these things must come to pass as they will be drawn by the Lord to battle in the valley of Armageddon.

Can you see the Lord at work?  Only if you have sought Him and learned the truth which has prepared you for all that must quickly come to pass.  Do you know what will happen in the years leading up to the return of Christ?  Only if you have studied Daniel, Isaiah and garnered the special blessing to those who have listened to Revelation and kept its commands.  Do you know where you will be on the day Christ returns, seated upon white horse or scattered seeking refuge from the wrath of the Lamb?  Does prophecy speak of the United States?  If it doesn’t do you know what this portends for American believers and the lost?

Can you see the Lord at work?  If you cannot, there is great cause for concern.  Praise God there are Pastors and Teachers around who can lead you to the Cross and the saving knowledge of Grace.  Then they can show you what the Lord says must surely and quickly come to pass.  If you don’t see the Lord at work, and you want to know why not please reach out to me or one of my Brothers and Sisters, as this is the most important information you would ever wish to learn.  Praise God in His Glory and Might.  Jesus Come Soon, Please.