I Look to the Mountains (10 months later)

Dear Reader, 

About six weeks ago I posted what I had written ten months previously about the turn our country was taking. I had expected to write again within a few days. I apologize for keeping you waiting. Please forgive me. More has happened in the past ten months to destroy the United States and its reputation throughout the world than at any other time in our history.  As he sat in the Oval Office signing Executive Order after Executive Order, arrogantly destroying everything we had accomplished in the previous four years to make this country great once again, he smiled. And why? Because Donald Trump had done all those things that made people start to feel good about their lives again. The left hates President Trump with a passion, even now, ten months into Joe Biden's administration. He or Speaker Pelosi or most on the left (RINOs included) cannot talk about anything without invoking Donald Trump into it. 

I admit I was very surprised at the election results. How could this happen? Why would this happen? Because as I mentioned in my last post, the devil comes only to kill, steal, and destroy. The first thing Mr. Biden did was to fire 40,000+ men and women working on the pipeline. Just like that! And one thing after another got signed, destroying our country more with each stroke of the pen. 

As was happening to many of us I got very caught up in what was going on. I was constantly reading the news and hearing of the outrageous policies that were taking effect. I believed that the great land of liberty was being destroyed from within, more and more each day that passed. Darkness was filling the land, and evil seemed to be laughing in the face of the saints. As days turned into weeks and weeks into months of never ending disappointments, I could feel my hope waning. I became so consumed with how our country was no longer the land of the free and the home of the brave. Politics and those in authority took advantage of every opportunity to repress us and condemn us, and the future was going to be even worse. What is evil is called good, and what is good is called evil. Everything is blamed on covid, a weapon from hell itself to conquer those who God loves.

My heart was broken, my soul was battered, and I felt so helpless, as many of you did. I understand it's not just here, but all around the world. Over the months the landscape became as twilight, still light, but mostly dark, a time that makes it difficult to see clearly the details of what is in front of us. And there is a lot in front of us.

I came to realize that my life was miserable because of the lies and destruction that was bearing down on us all every single day. I realized that I had replaced what used to consume me, my love for Jesus, with worldly worries. So many times Jesus told us to fear not, that He would never leave nor forsake us. I had forgotten what it felt like to sit at His feet and drink from His cup. Lately I asked for mercy to hold me together and it did. I asked for grace to rain upon me, and it does. I saw where going off the path had led me, into a place of death and horror, a place with no hope. That, dear Reader, is not a place we as born again Believers should ever be. I had begged God to come and get me, and He reminded me that He was already here, had never left. It was I who turned and walked away. Not deliberately, but with each complaint that came from my mouth, with each terrible thought that ran through my mind, I journeyed farther and father away from my safe place and my Savior.

I truly believe that a Great Awakening has in many ways already begun.  The lies are being exposed, and the truth is that the United States of America is a great country, a place where people want to come, because it holds for them a promise of something good. This is not a racist country, we welcome all who want to come and live according to our laws. My own grandparents crossed the great Atlantic from Austria and Ireland for a new life here. They became citizens and learned the language and contributed to their communities by working hard. 

Millenia ago God chose Israel as His own. They didn't ask, He chose. But on 29 April 1607, Robert Hunt, a minister who sailed to the shores of Virginia from England with 104 other men, led them up a windswept dune at a place they named Cape Henry, in honor of the king's elder son. There they planted a seven-foot, rough-hewn oak cross, which they had brought with them from England. At that spot, Hunt prophetically declared, "From these very shores, the Gospel shall go forth to not only this New World, but the entire world.*" So Robert Hunt and the men who arrived with him, dedicated this land to God. In other words, we chose Him. It is my belief that God very much honors this. Because of this, the devil wants nothing more than to totally destroy this country; and he knows his time is getting short. 

Reader, you and I were born for such a time as this. Why? Why are we here now? Why not 100 years ago or in 100 years to come? Because God has a purpose for this land we love, and He has decided that it is you and I who will fulfill His desire. What is it that He wants us to do? What is the greatest commandment? "Love the Lord your God with every passion of your heart, with all the energy of your being, and with every thought that is within you." (Matthew 22:37 Passion Translation). But He didn't stop there; verses 38-39 in the NKJV tell us, "And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Remember we "don't wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Eph 6:12. 

I am running back to the arms of my Savior. I have been trapped in this dirty world for too long. I strayed. I lost my way. But as I run up that dusty road, there is a light, a light so bright it almost blinds me. It is the glory of God that has been in front of me all the time just waiting for my return. Yes, Lord, open my eyes that I may see! The twilight hour for me has passed. It is the dawn of a new era, where we don't walk alone, but are surrounded by heavenly angels and Jesus Himself is our guide. So try to not let the news overwhelm you. God has given us the authority over the hosts of hell. The battle is ours, but the victory is His! These times too shall pass. Have a grateful heart because we are being tested. We won't fail because we don't fight alone. And love your neighbor, help them find the light too. In these times we need to be with others. We need to help where we can, and pray always.

Remember the story of when Jesus fell asleep in the boat and a storm came out of nowhere? Here these veteran seamen were terrified (as we can get, I did) about what would happen to them in the midst of the biggest storm of their life. They trembled, they must have worried about their future, and the only thing they could think of doing, was to wake Jesus up and cry out in anguish that they were going to die. And remember what He did? He stood up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, 'Peace, be still!' And the wind ceased and there was a great calm." Rebuke this storm that may be consuming you. You have the authority to do that! And decree, "Peace, be still!" Let your faith and your trust in God rule your life. He is the one who created us, and He is the one who holds our lives in His hand. Worship Him, come back to Him if you have been away. These things that have us angry, confused, disappointed, and afraid will surely pass away. We will, if we open our heart and our eyes, see Him working through all this. The devil doesn't stand a chance. He is the eternal loser (I read that in Tim Sheets' book, Angel Armies on Assignment.) I love the name, don't you? 

We are here to witness God's glory in the land of the living with our own eyes. Who says we are not a chosen generation? God bless you my brothers and sisters. We'll be fine. How can we fail? We have the King of kings on our side!

* from The Light and the Glory 1492-1793, by Peter Marshall and David Manuel, 1977, 2009