PLUS

Psalm 81:10-16 “I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.  But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me.  So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels.  Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!  I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries.  The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever.  He should have fed them also with the finest of wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.”

Israel had the great opportunity to follow the Lord and be blessed with supernatural protection and provision.  They had followed God in the past, and had seen the great rewards that resulted from their faithfulness.  By hearkening unto the Lord, they again would have experienced the richest of God’s blessings.   Instead, Israel had gotten to the point where they had done more than just ignore God; they rejected Him.  As a result, the Lord removed His hand of blessing and they were turned over to their own counsel.  The results were drastically different than if God had been a part.

America has had the great opportunity to follow the Lord and be blessed with supernatural protection and provision.  We have followed God in the past, and have seen the great rewards that resulted from our faithfulness.  By hearkening unto the Lord again, we would have the opportunity to experience the richest of God’s blessings.  Instead, we have gotten to the point where we have done more than just ignore God; we have rejected Him.  As a result, the Lord has removed His hand of blessing and we have been turned over to our own counsel.  The results are drastically different than if God had been a part.

What are some of the manifestations of following our own counsel apart from the Lord?  We compromise on moral issues and refuse to compromise on practical issues.  Our political leaders do the same.  We take the trivial seriously and consider the serious trivial.  Our political leaders do the same.  We discount the eternal and cling to the temporal.  Our political leaders do the same.  We scoff at the righteous and adore the unrighteous.  Our political leaders do the same.  We elevate the value of entertainment and discount the value of the meaningful.  Our political leaders do the same.  All the while, we fail to consider that there is a strong correlation between our rejection of God and the loss of our national blessings.

PLEASE PRAY THAT WE AS A NATION WOULD ONCE AGAIN HEARKEN UNTO THE LORD.  Our own counsel and the lusts of our hearts are leading us in a direction away from God’s protection and provision.  The ruinous results are all around us.

Genesis 32:24-26 “And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of day.  And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thing was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.  And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh.  And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.”

Jacob wrestled with the Lord figuratively and literally.  He refused to give up until he saw his faithfulness bear fruit.  He refused to give up throughout the dark of night until he saw success at day break.

American Christians have forgotten how to wrestle.  We have failed to wrestle our nation back to its Christian foundation.  We have failed to wrestle with the Lord to beg for large-scale revival.  We have failed to wrestle with those who would invite ungodliness into our schools.  We have failed to wrestle against liberal doctrine.  We have failed to wrestle against anti-Christian influences in our government.

We have failed to wrestle in the voting booths.  We have failed to wrestle in the school board meetings.  We have failed to wrestle during campaigns.  We have failed to wrestle during conversations with the unsaved.  We have failed to wrestle in our prayer closets.  We have failed to wrestle in our parenting.  We have failed to wrestle as Christian Citizens.  It is as if we have given up, content to be pinned against the mat of compromise and resignation.

As a leadership primer and an encouragement for PLUS, I was recently given a touching book by a friend about recent Columbian history.  No Lost Causes details the tenure of President Alvaro Uribe Velez from an autobiographical perspective.  Regarding the impending failure of his country, President Velez boldly states:

“We live in a cynical era, one in which many people around the world have lost faith in the ability of their leaders, and their governments, to change their lives for the better.  Maybe I was an incorrigible romantic; maybe all those bullets and bombs had made me stubborn.  But I refused to accept that Columbia was a lost cause.  I passionately believed in the power of leadership to solve any problem, no matter how dire.  I believed that, if we set our sights on an audacious vision and worked tirelessly toward it, we could indeed take back our country.  With the dedication and teamwork of our ministers, military and police commanders, and thousands of other dedicated public servants, we would show our teeth to the violent ones and overcome them, without compromising our values.  This was always the purpose of our administration:  We would bring security, prosperity, and the rule of law to Columbia, while strengthening our democracy and human rights.  None of this would be easy—there would be many failures, and much heartbreak, during our journey.  But our government would spare no effort, and I was willing to do absolutely anything—big or small—to bring Columbia back from the brink.”

President Velez wrestled his country back from the brink of national failure.  He had a strong passion and translated it into action.  American Christians should learn from him.  We must wrestle our country back from the brink of national failure.  We must develop passion and translate it into action.  We must trust in the power of God’s leadership to solve any problem while refusing to accept that America is a lost cause.  PLEASE PRAY THAT AS AMERICAN CHRISTIANS WE WOULD WRESTLE OUR NATION BACK FROM THE BRINK.

John 19:28-30 “After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.  Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth.  When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished:  and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.”

Jesus refused to give up until he was finished.  Only once He knew that “all things were now accomplished that the scripture might be fulfilled” did He relent to death confident that He had fully completed His earthly role.

Christians relent far too easily to the ungodly forces around us.  We passively allow our nation to slip away from its Christian heritage.  We yield to worldly influences.  We surrender to secularism.  We capitulate to calls for compromise.  We succumb to fears of being labeled fundamental. We acquiesce to arguments that oppose our biblical foundation.  We resign to relativism.  We concede to moral collapse.  We fold in the face of national failure.

The greater the fight, the more we cower in the corner.  Instead, we need to stand up and refuse to relent until we give our last ounce of energy to our role as Christian citizens.  In fact, the greater the challenge the more resolute we should become.  One of the best examples of such resolution came from the mouth of Winston Churchill in a speech to the House of Commons in the midst of the relentless German bombing of 1940:

“Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.”

He later went on to say “This is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never – in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.  Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”

We have yielded.  We have given in.  We have stopped fighting, counting the costs too great.  We have finished before we have accomplished all that God intends for us.  PLEASE PRAY THAT AS AMERICAN CHRISTIANS WE WOULD NEVER SURRENDER IN OUR STAND FOR CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES IN OUR LAND.  Never, never, never, never!

Luke 19:10 “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Luke 19:45 “And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought; Saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves.”

It is no accident that Luke 9:41, the subject of my previous post, is bracketed by two verses with clear action on the part of our Saviour.  Emotion and burden were not separated from His action.   Indeed, true emotion and burden should prompt action.  Additionally, action should prompt greater emotion and burden.  They complement one another as mutually supportive and reinforcing.

Not only must Christian citizens be burdened for our country, but that emotion should prompt action.  It should make us more resolute.  It should make us more determined.  It should make us more convicted.  It should make us more courageous.  It should make us more faithful.  It should make us more humble.  It should make us more committed.  It should make us more willing to follow the Lord wherever He leads.  PLEASE PRAY THAT A DEEP BURDEN FOR OUR NATION WOULD PROMPT OUR GODLY ACTION.  Absent our action, we should question whether we truly care at all.

Luke 19:41 “And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it”

Psalm 126:5 “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.  He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to travel to Washington DC for the first time since beginning PLUS.  While I enjoyed several opportunities to pray for my country in our nation’s capital during that week, the one most poignant was during the first night.  The Lord had specifically tendered my heart for this occasion, and I had blocked off late-night time to go to the Lincoln Memorial for a period of reflection and prayer.  I began my time by reading the inspirational words of the Gettysburg Address and Lincoln’s Second Inaugural carved on the memorial walls.  Both flowed with the powerful emotion of a nation engulfed in a trying military conflict that would determine its continued existence.

I then sat down on a cold marble slab, enjoying the warm and cloudless night and the inspirational view down the National Mall towards the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building, flanked by the White House and the Jefferson Memorial.  It was a striking location from which to pray for our nation.  And so I prayed … and wept.  I had never wept for my country before, but emotions swept over me as I considered a nation currently engulfed in a trying spiritual conflict that will determine its continued existence.  I wept because I love my country, and I love my God, and I love a nation under God.  I wept because I have failed to serve my country and my God as faithfully as I should.  I wept because I sensed the failure of other Christians to do the same.  I wept because our collective failure has enabled a conflict of secession, as forces continue to separate our nation from the Lord.  I wept because I was deeply burdened by such truths.

I wept because I had never previously wept for my country.  I had complained.  I had been angered.  I had felt anxiety.  I had sensed a national departure from the Lord.  Yet, I had never been so burdened that I had wept.

PLEASE PRAY THAT YOU WOULD BE DEEPLY BURDENED BY OUR NATION’S DEPARTURE FROM THE LORD.  It is only through a burdened Christian citizenry that we should expect a national reconciliation with the Lord.  Our nation is worth being wept over.