The blockbuster movie Titanic will be re-released in the theaters on April 6th, four days before the 100th anniversary of the real ship’s departure on April 10th, 1912. Once again in explosive, horrific, heartbreaking details the world will witness the unthinkable – the sinking of the unsinkable. Some in our present day seem foolish enough to think that this great nation whose pledge acknowledges we are “under God” while recognizing providential authority and protection may also be too powerful to go under. Yet consider President Reagan’s statement, “If America ever ceases to be a nation under God, we will simply become a nation gone under.” I am firmly convinced that without a major course correction for our ship of state, we will witness our nation’s tragic collapse in graphic, three-dimensional detail – and it need not and should not happen.
Continual decline is not inevitable, but we must make a hard turn soon. The worldview that minimizes the importance of God as our Creator, Father and the Almighty must be set straight by a people who stand tall, shine brightly, and demonstrate His Kingdom power. Those who have committed their steps to the straight and narrow must point the way to abundant and eternal life.
The wise recognize that we have a reliable biblical standard that reveals absolute truth and sound principles upon which we must build our individual and national life. We must not attempt to move the standard, but move toward it whenever, however, and whomever misses it. There are no perfect citizens or believers, but the standard remains perfect, as it was established by God to correct, direct, and bless us so that we can bless the people and nations of the world. When we allow God’s truth to correct us and establish our lives and futures on the only unshakable foundation of His truth, He supernaturally restores us, strengthens us and pours out upon us and through us indescribable blessings which we can joyfully share.
Even as we watch the present challenging, exasperating, and sometimes frustratingly annoying process in an attempt to find the best possible political candidates, we should do so on our knees. May God help those who run for office to see straight and think straight and may He give voters the discernment to make the necessary wise choices. There are no perfect candidates. Everyone has failed and missed the mark. The question is: Do people recognize the reliable standard – God’s truth and the principles our Founders so clearly understood and the importance of the foundation they provided through God’s guidance?
As I pray, it comes to mind that some day in the future Kingdom of God “the lion will lie down with the lamb.” I am asking God to help me inspire and perhaps have enough influence to get the elephant to lie down with the donkey. Isn’t that a refreshing thought? I also pray for people of faith to join hands and hearts including Protestants and Catholics who claim to believe in the importance of faith, family, and freedom to come together for the sake of our nation’s future. Surely we can agree on the absolute importance of marriage, family, protecting innocence and the innocent which certainly includes the unborn, insisting the federal government be brought under control and learn to live within its means. We must revamp the failing tax system that is too stinking complicated and is as dysfunctional as many of the unnecessary bureaucratic agencies and programs that have been put in place.
May God help us teach people that the Lord is our hope and source – not Washington, D.C. While understanding the importance of people returning to basic biblical morality, can we not as Christians be totally committed personally and as the family of faith to God, His Word, and what is best for our nation?
Consider prayerfully the progression revealed in Romans chapter one and see if this is not the perilous direction our present day Titanic ship of state is headed: “When they knew God they did not glorify Him as God and they became vain in their thinking.” On another occasion Paul said, the people actually “glory in their shame” meaning that they were boasting about things they should have been ashamed of. Romans continues revealing that while “professing themselves to be wise, they prove to be fools. They changed the truth of God into a lie. They began to worship what God created rather than the Creator. People were given over to lustful desires and appetites and were controlled by unnatural affections and practices.” In our day we see the unnatural sexual attraction; we see addiction to drugs and many physically, emotionally and mentally damaging practices. People are “bound by the cords of their own iniquities.” They became depraved in their thinking, truly a reprobate mind, unable to determine right from wrong, good from evil, night from day. They reached the point that they actually take pleasure not only in such debauchery, but also in those who commit ungodly acts. The apostle Peter closed his second letter warning, “…the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness.”
In the face of this reality, God is offering direction and guidance to our national leadership and to all of us affected by the present day course our nation has taken. It is the same invitation Jesus extended to Jerusalem in the face of coming desolation. He invites us to come to the shelter and shadow of the Almighty to be led by the Shepherd who will restore us body and soul, including all nations who honor Him and make Him Lord. Remember the message I wrote in June in light of an election year: it is what, not who. What must we do? What are the principles that must be restored, the corrections that must be made, and the direction we should take? We can never find the right candidate or insist on an appropriate direction if we do not understand what it looks like. My suggestion to pastors, priests, and ministers during an election year can be found in my commentary “Preachers and Politics.”
This is why I have spent the last eighteen months praying, studying, seeking God’s will, meeting with many spiritual leaders while also working with Jay Richards writing the book INDIVISIBLE. We present the truths and insights necessary to help effectively address our national concerns in order to correct our present perilous course. INDIVISIBLE will be in bookstores the week of February 20. It can be preordered even now on amazon.com or other outlets.