We have to understand that the politics of life surround us and we can’t help but go there. We are watchmen on the wall, and we have to warn that the bridge is out. Rome is burning and we need to do something about it, and not only for our own generation. This didn’t just happen overnight – where we find ourselves as a country right now. This is a strategic plan that has been decades in the making. We should realize that much of what has to be done is like turning the Titanic – it won’t be turned on a dime.
It’s going to take a while to turn this back, but, in Jesus’ name, we’re going to do it. We have to wake up. This stuff is not coming – it’s here. But it’s not all doom and gloom. God’s still on the throne. He hasn’t vacated the throne and left the building like Elvis. He’s still here and still ruling, and he has a plan. We want to get with him on his plan, even as we cry out as watchmen on the wall, we still need to have the great hope that God wants to turn this around even more than we do.
But we have to wake up, and we have to invest in the next generation. They are our hope, and we don’t want to leave them in shambles. We want to be their launching pad – not their ceiling, but that means we have work to do and it all relates in some way to the mind wars that we fight as believers.
Proverbs 14:12 KJV
“There is a way which seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
We must be careful and know that what we think is right must end, and we instead must come into alignment with what God wants to do in our lives and culture today. We can’t just continue with our business as usual – sticking our heads in the sand, as happened in 1930s Germany. We’re in a place in our country right now where we’ve so side-lined God, and put him far away, that we’re in danger of him declaring “Ichabod” and moving on beyond us. The Bible says that God will only contend with man for so long, and then at some point, he says, “I’m out. I’m going to leave you to yourself.”
But we can make a difference in our community today. This is a battle – it’s a mind war that fleshes itself out in our lives and it has to come into the place of action – the place of activity and doing – we can’t just be hearers of the Word only – but being doers of the Word. But first, we must know the Word.
Because we’ve left God out, we’ve lost our way. We’ve compartmentalized our Christianity – relegated it to Sundays in church where it’s so easy. But, where it really matters is outside the church walls and into the other areas of our lives where we live, work, and play – where we shop – and where we do life. We’re dealing now with three areas of our lives that have to have impact:
1] Biblical foundations – what are we building on?
2] Biblical worldview – seeing life and the world through the lens of Scripture 3] Biblical cultural engagement – we are under God – he is our restraint
Biblical Foundations – Our founding fathers built this nation on a biblical foundation. Actually, our lives also need to be built on a biblical foundation – marriage, family, and work – and everything in our lives should be built on the foundation of the Word of God. George Washington said, “It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible.” That is also true for our own lives. The entire premise of the Constitution was built on the idea that we had the capacity to self-govern only as long as we are submitted to the Ultimate Governor – the King of Kings.
If we continue to leave God out of the public square and out of our lives, then we lose the ability to govern ourselves and we become dangerous. Scripture says, “Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint” (Proverbs 29:18 NIV). When we leave God out, we throw off restraint, and, right now, the culture is unrestrained – right has become wrong, and wrong is now “right”.
Our culture today will oppose with full force anyone who stands up for biblical values and perspective. Restraint has been cast off. We’ve lost our vision – we’ve lost our revelation of God. John Adams said, “We recognize no Sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus.” This is biblical foundation, so that we can indeed self-govern and have a vision that allows us to have restraint so we can stay on the road – stay the course – stay on the path.
Ephesians 2:19,20 NIV
“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.”
We must build strong foundations for our lives in the areas of faith, family, and freedom, because, if we don’t, we’ll find that we have stepped over the line of what culture deems politically correct – a list that continues to grow longer and longer – making what was right to be wrong, and what was wrong to now be right. That’s why we have to have solid biblical foundations, so our roots go down deep in the Word – in Scripture – in Jesus – and our understanding of who God is and who we are in Christ.
We are sons and daughters – saints, not sinners. When we know and understand – have a revelation of that and assimilate it into our life, there is restraint, and we can walk and live a life that honors God, but we must have a biblical foundation. Our roots have to go down deep where the water is and the nutrients are, when the winds of media and culture come at us at a hundred miles an hour – and not only at us, but at our kids.
This is nefarious and dark, and it’s a very real and defined strategy. It’s not hidden and it’s not a conspiracy theory – it’s a reality. We’re seeing it lived out on college campuses across the nation from the same groups, funded by the same money and with the same Marxist agenda.
Proverbs 9:10 NIV
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”
How do we get to know the Holy One? We bring out the Book. That’s what brought reformation and revival in Nehemiah’s and Josiah’s time. They brought the people back to God’s Word and made their foundations strong, and revival was the result. We need a revival now. What’s going on in our world is very similar to the first and second Great Awakenings. Lord, let it come. Why not here and why now?
Matthew 7:24,25 NIV
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.”
Biblical World View – seeing life and the world through the lens of Scripture, and believing that this Bible does speak to every area of our lives – government and cultural engagement. It deals with culture – paganism – and all other “isms” that infiltrate the Church. All of Paul’s corrective letters in the New Testament were designed to deal with culture, and what was happening at the time. We need to have something to say at the water cooler about current events and culture from a biblical point of view. Jesus needs to be Lord over every part of our life. His lordship covers every area of life. We have to have a biblical worldview.
“We have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious Hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.” – Abraham Lincoln
God, give us presidents like that again. Give us men like that in our homes – leading our families – coaches, and teachers like that in our schools. Even now, we have a lot of wonderful, strong, believing, and caring teachers who are being salt and light in our school system here. We need to pray for them and hold them up. It’s easy to get frustrated about what’s happening at a higher level in our education system, but we forget there are good people that God has there now being salt and light.
Genesis 1:1-3 NIV
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”
Hebrews 11:3 NIV
“By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”
A biblical worldview starts with understanding that God did it – his Word is true – and he is who he says he is. We believe that is the God we serve – that he can say anything and it will be. He can say, “Peace. Be still,” and the raging sea stops. He can shut the mouth of a king. He can shut down the government if he wants, and he can bring one up. Proverbs 21:1
says, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.” God’s waiting on us to get off the bench and get in the game and in the arena – to stand and fight and to contend for righteousness, justice, hope – and for the next generation.
Romans 12:2 NIV
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
We need to change the way we think about the world we’re in – about how we “do church” – that we can’t be the generation that didn’t say anything, and be numbered with those churches in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s that shut down and were quiet, hoping the Nazi regime and Hitler would ignore them and leave them be – but they did not. We are no different, and we’re not destined for a different course unless we stand up.
Biblical Cultural Engagement – Ronald Reagan said, “If we ever forget that we are one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.” That applies to us – if we ever forget that we are under God – that Jesus is the Lord of our life – then we will be individuals who have gone under – it will be over for us. We will be left to ourselves. We, by ourselves and alone, are dangerous without the restraint that God brings.
Matthew 5:13-16 NIV
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
If the devil doesn’t know our name, then we’re in a dangerous place. If we’re not over the target and catching some flack right now, that means we’re too quiet – we’re not engaged – we’re not actually in the game or in the race where the action is. God is in where the action is – and he’s calling us to stand up for righteousness, justice, God’s Word, and our foundations as a nation. Never apologize – that’s where the skirmish is. That’s where the goal-line stand is, and some of us are running the other way – away from the action and away from life.
God help us to not be those who run away when it gets hard or tough – when Christmas dinner gets awkward – when the subject of politics comes up. We can be gracious, kind, wise, and strategic. This isn’t about being brash, arrogant, boastful, or prideful. This is simply about being secure in the Truth.
Ephesians 4:15 NIV
“Instead, speaking the truth in [by, for, which, because of] love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.”
We’re also speaking the truth because of love. That helps us maintain the energy, intensity, force, security, and firmness of saying, “I love you so much, I have to tell you this.” We speak the Truth – not because we hate – not because we’re mad …but because we love.
Prayer
Father, in Jesus’ name, thank You for Your Word. Father, stir something in our hearts, because, without a vision – without a revelation – we cast off restraint and we perish. Lord, even now, we ask You to rest the Spirit of revelation on each one of us and reveal to us our call in this culture and in this fight – in this goal-line stand – this skirmish – this mission to take the Gospel to the nations – and to speak the Truth because of love. Father, as You reveal Who You are to us, it clarifies who we are in You – we are Your sons and daughters. Lord, give us the grace to be obedient to You and live our lives from a biblical worldview. We love You and honor You. In Jesus’ name. Amen
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on The Bridge
Featured Image by DWilliam from Pixabay
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