No Fear

   My father was, by all human standards, an enormous man, standing 6'4" and weighing in at around 260 lbs. He was very much "old school," as we like to say. He spent a good amount of his adult life working as a bartender, and during that time had bounced a good number of angry men out of them.

   The one thing that everyone who knew him well would say is that, when his temper flared up, the best thing anyone could do would be to simply get out of his way. He was one of those men who, once he decided it was time to put somebody in their place, there would be no stopping him.

   I understood this about him for as long as I can remember. I can recall being just 5 years old, looking at this monster of a man towering over me, and knowing full well that if he wanted to remove me from this planet, there would be nothing I could do to stop him from doing so.

   From my perspective, the thing that balanced out this very real fear of him was the knowledge that he loved me, as well as the love I had for him. There were a number of times within an angry episode that I truly believed he was very close to running over me like a freight train, but he never did. He was completely capable of doing so, and there were times when he would've had every right to, given my behavior at the time, but he stopped himself. Why did he stop? It was because of 2 reasons........love and grace. It's not that he wasn't extremely angry, or that my actions weren't deserving of severe punishment. It was that, somewhere deep inside of him, he loved me enough to show the kind of restraint that he would never show a grown man who was acting the fool in a bar where he was working. I was his son, so I was shown mercy and grace in the midst of my failures.

   With all of that being said, I never felt as though it would be wise to rub that in his face. I never once felt the urge to question his authority or ignore his warnings. Why didn't I? It was entirely due to the fear I had of what he was capable of doing to me had he chosen to act upon his anger. I knew that openly rebelling against him would lead to my rapid demise, and whether I agreed with him or not, I knew that my wisest course of action would be to show him the respect he deserved as my father.

   There are countless bible verses that refer to God as our Father, and while it may seem impossible to compare my imperfect father with our heavenly Father, the relationship itself is very much the same. That being taken into consideration, I look around the world these days and I'm finding myself increasingly terrified by what I'm seeing.

   God is still God, but just as a foolish, rebellious son would step into the face of his father with an immature sense of arrogance and a belief that he has far more control over the situation than he really does, I see a great number of people in this country and across the globe who are shaking their fists in the face of God, almost daring him to act. I see God being openly mocked in the media, on social networks, and in the public squares. I see sinful lifestyles being not only accepted, but also being celebrated as something worthy of respect and admiration.

   I'm hearing no talk of sin, guilt, or repentance.

   I'm hearing no talk of how God is a God who is to be loved, respected, honored and feared. Yes......feared.

   We, as a nation, have decided that God has no place in our schools, in our courthouses, in our government, or in our laws. There are those who will even go as far as to boldly proclaim that there is no God, and that those who believe that he exists are uneducated, bigoted, ignorant believers of fairy tales.

   But God is still God.

   This may be something that causes some of you to become very angry, but I'm compelled to speak the truth. If any of you believe for one second that God is either incapable or uninterested in bringing this country to it's knees in judgment due to our arrogance toward him and our continual and consistent disrespect of his laws, think again. Even the most basic review of the history of Israel will show you a very different truth.

   Am I saying that I believe that God may be on the very brink of bringing this nation to it's knees? As I look around, I believe that he's already begun to do so. Our economy is in shambles, our schools are failing miserably, our children are becoming increasingly disrespectful, our families are falling apart, our reputation in the eyes of the rest of the world is at it's lowest point in the past 100 years, and every generation of political leaders we're given the choice of electing is more inept and corrupt than the preceding one.

   So, what is the answer? There is only one.

   ^".......... if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14

   Many of us have heard that promise, and we've found great comfort in that, but what is rarely taught are the verses that follow:

   “But if you turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot Israel from my land, which I have given them, and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. I will make it a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. This temple will become a heap of rubble. All who pass by will be appalled and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’  People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why he brought all this disaster on them.’”

   If we read on about what actually occurred in the history of Israel following these writings, we will find that they turned away from God and yes, he completely destroyed them as a nation. Yes, he loved them, but this God we like to see as being our buddy, our pal, and our friend is also a Most Holy God who demands our respect. His mercy and grace can never be seen as weakness or indifference toward our sins. He is the creator of all things, and the sustainer of all things. He will not be mocked, and if he has allowed us to exist as the greatest, wealthiest, most powerful country in the history of the world, he has done so because it was his will to do so. But at any given moment, if his mercy and grace toward us reaches it's limit, we're done, and there will be nothing we can do to stop it.

   So I have to ask, where do we see this nation going? Are we a nation that's willing and able to humble ourselves and pray? I surely hope so.