This is Our Time

As Charles Dickens once wrote, "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times…" In this brilliant piece of prose, Dickens captures the soul of his time and of ours. This is the best of times and the worst of times simply because it is OUR time.

Man does not choose the times into which he is born. God makes that choice. God has chosen this time for us to be born. He has chosen this as the time into which we have come of age. This is OUR time.

God has chosen us to rise to the occasion and save the greatest nation the world has ever known from itself. No nation has ever been so blessed by God. No nation has ever been such a blessing to the other nations around the world. For all of its shortcomings this is by far the greatest nation the world has ever known.

The United States now faces it greatest challenge ever. It is threatened not by foreign enemies or terrorist but by its own people. It is threatened by those who would tear it apart to satisfy their own evil desires for power, wealth and control.

These enemies of our nation, some who may even have good intentions, are being used and guided by evil forces they cannot understand because they will not even acknowledge that they exist. They have denied God His rightful place in our society, thereby placing them as the only authority who can determine right from wrong, good from evil. In modern terminology this is called moral relativism.

It is our challenge to confront this enemy. We must defeat them at every turn. We cannot give them any quarter. There is no compromise with evil. One does not take a dragon a pet for it will one day turn on you. This is the task placed before us by God.

There is not a simple, single solution to winning this battle. This battle wages on many fronts. It must be fought spiritually, politically, economically, academically and socially.

The primary battlefield is spiritual. "For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Eph 6:12 NRSV-CE."
The first step in this great battle will be for us as Christians to live the Christian life. We must divorce ourselves for the materialistic, overindulgent society into which we were born. We need to transform the American dream from owning a big house with a 2 car garage and 2.5 kids, into the dream of living at peace with God and your neighbors. We must understand that we cannot win this battle while participating with the enemy in his moral decadence.

We must be willing to become martyrs for Christ if we are to have any hope in saving our nation. There is no political solution, no economic plan which can stem the tide of evil sweeping our country. We have reached the place where like at the Battle of Lepanto, only the prayers of the faithful and divine intervention can turn the tide of battle. Only after the winds shift can we began to have political, economic, and social victory. Our battle cry should be "For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. Php 1:21. NRSV_CE."
We must, each one of us, be willing to take up the mantle of martyrdom, if we truly wish to see salvation return to our nation.

Once we as Christians unite through our sacrificial prayers, then God Himself will take up the battle for us. He will lead us out of this time of darkness in the valley and into a new time of joy, peace and prosperity.