In a world gone insane, it is good to know that God is still good.  His word is still true, His character ever reliable.  I am so thankful that in spite of all the facelifts American preachers have tried to give Jesus, He is still the same!  He isn’t less manly, He isn’t less Godly, He isn’t less powerful, or loving.  I came out of a drug obsessed narcissistic lifestyle in 1997 and little did I realize what I was in for.  The nation that I have grown to love and appreciate, is fast leaving it’s anchors of principle for a floating morality.  Every wind that blows brings in a new “normal”.
Take the following promise from Jesus’ mouth “in this world you will have tribulation”.  That isn’t exactly a promise we pull out of our promise box and meditate on.  But indeed it is a guarantee.  What is crazy to me is that it seems as though we are inflicting trouble on ourselves!  We are to be prepared to suffer for the name of Christ, in being a bold witness for Him no matter the cost.  If we are honest, most of us have perfected the art of disobedience to the gospel.  We won’t witness to the glory of Christ, we won’t stand for truth, we twist grace with the pig slop of false religion like a swirly cone at Dairy Queen.
Yes, the trouble we face as a nation is a result of our own negligence.  Maybe we couldn’t stop the madness, but we do have  a voice, and we have allowed it to be silenced!  Jesus was not silent about truth.  Jesus was not silent about corruption.  Jesus was not silent about abuse of power.

Joshua 24:15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

God has given us the power of choice.  I see two incorrect extremes in today’s Christian commentary on world affairs and the state of the church.

There is some truth to both extremes, but we have to find the middle ground to really understand how to respond as believers.

1st.  The burning anger of God is kindled and ready to pour out upon the earth!  God is anxious and eager to punish you.  You are at war with God and He has the nukes, you got a nerf gun.

First, we are living in a time of the patience of God (2pet 3:15 Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation).  The bible clearly states in Ezekiel that God does not delight in the death of the wicked.  He doesn’t delight in the destruction of something He created for His glory.  Mankind was created to share in God’s glory.

The Father poured out His wrath upon His only begotten son, Jesus Christ.  God almighty chose to release the full measure of His wrath for our sin upon Jesus.  Does that mean He has no wrath left?  God is still Holy right?  Yes, He is still holy, and perfect, and just.  The wrath of God does remain a part of His nature.  I would have to believe that there is still a measure of wrath that is meted out upon earth today, but it is not unleashed with the intent to destroy people.

Remember there was a day before “God so loved the world, that He sent His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life”.  We live in the day after He sent His son.

The Goal of Father God is to restore, save, reconcile, not steal, kill and destroy.  Jesus clearly told us that was the enemy, Satan’s nature.  We cannot make the mistake of exchanging the nature of God for Satan’s!

There is still wrath that works in disobedience and reprobate minds.  Romans makes that clear, as well as most of the new testament scripture.  The anger of God is revealed as a wake up call to us!

God can and will forgive any sin committed in this life, except one.  If you reject the gift He gave, Jesus Christ, you cannot find any place with God.  If you believe there is more than one way to have a right relationship with God outside of Jesus Christ, you have made a fatal mistake with eternal irreversible consequences.

The full anger and wrath of God will be released upon those who reject the incredible offer of salvation through Jesus Christ.  It is abundantly clear through scripture and observing life that God is reserving the full demonstration of His wrath for Satan and the fallen angels, along with a Christ rejecting Humanity.  That day will come, even among the living at some point, terribly soon I fear.

I have seen terribly evil people enjoy wealth, status, friends, all the joys of this world.  And sure, I believe there is an emptiness inside of them, because they are spiritually dead.  I have seen cruel, evil people do terrible things and get away with it!

When Katrina devastated our gulf coast, there were men of stature in the church that called it the judgment of God.  Isn’t it funny that the French quarter stood intact, and you could still get a drink and a hooker, but churches were under water?  If God were truly judging wickedness, you would think He could wipe out the darkest parts of a city right?  Was God indeed involved in the destruction in Louisiana?  I would say He at least would desire us to wake up from an event like that!

God wants us to have a good life, but that does depend on our willingness to live a good life, in the grace of God that empowers us to live Godly before Him.  While God is certainly aware of what is happening in this world, His desire is that we wake up and follow the call of God no matter the cost!

I am not trying to open up every can of theological worms here, but I desperately want to see the people of God wake up!

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Here is the 2nd school of thought…

God doesn’t do anything that we could even misinterpret as evil.  God is so loving and gracious that we can just “rest” in His goodness and live life however it suits us.

It doesn’t matter how we live, it doesn’t matter what we do, He will forgive us, so go ahead and have fun, just don’t hurt anyone.

Also, while your at it, don’t warn anyone about hell, and don’t worry, God knows our hearts, and he has called us to peace.  Don’t like your spouse?  No worries, just divorce.  Don’t like church?  No worries, just watch tv preachers.  Don’t like the word of God?  Don’t worry, God loves you and He knows you hate His word, but that is ok with him.

Can’t lift a finger for the Kingdom of God?  No worries, excuses abound here.  Just come up with a good one, or try.  We as pastors and leaders in the body will be nice!  Are you bitter?  We will counsel you for decades.  Living with or sleeping with someone?  Don’t worry, it is just a piece of paper! You have needs!

God, a judge?  No way, you got it all wrong.  His words are soft and fluffy and you have nothing to worry about!   Standards?  What standards? Where?  I didn’t find any!

God would never send anyone to hell.  God would never, never never….

What I believe is this:

We reap what we sow, individually and collectively as a nation, and globally as humanity.  God has placed laws in this earth naturally and spiritually.  Gravity can be devastating if you violate the principle.  As we are seeing now on a global scale, greed and rejecting basic economic principles such as living within your means, or not rushing to obtain wealth by questionable means is handing us the butt kicking of historical proportions.  The end is not near either!

Is God judging us, or have we just left the principles He placed in our hands to guide us?

I believe that one way that God judges us is by allowing the penalty of our wrongdoing to be felt.  That is not evil, it is done out of love.  We cannot expect to violate every principle in the word of God and do well in this world.

We cannot expect to be a blessed nation while we kill babies like they are roaches or ants.

We cannot expect to have peace when we will not punish evildoers.

We cannot expect to have peace while we don’t enforce our own laws.

We cannot expect to have  a strong church while being indifferent to the word of God.

We cannot expect to have supernatural results when we won’t even be a witness to the Cross and resurrection of Christ.

We cannot expect to have revival in the church when we are hungry for the worlds approval.

We cannot expect to do well without regard to what Jesus said!

Christianity is about Jesus!  It is about who He was, who He represented, who He is now, and how that affects our life!

Jesus!  Jesus!  Jesus!