You can either be the problem or the solution, the choice is youre.
Can you look at yourself in the mirror and say: "I myself am partly responsible for our government, for our culture, for the miserable world I live in. The unawareness, weakness, resentment, self-indulgence and just plain selfishness that have made up the fabric of most of my life is no different -- except perhaps in degree -- from the self-seeking, uncaring, power-hungry spirit that animates spineless congressmen, bullying IRS agents and corrupt judges"?
Even if you're a good bloke now, in your earlier, more foolish days, you hurt and corrupted people, you were impatient with people, you were selfish -- weren't you? Then you were part of the problem you see reflected in all of our institutions today. It's all made of the same stuff -- sin.
OK. How many people at this point think I'm defending tyrannical government, just because I'm saying, "Don't hate it"? If you raised your hand, you're part of the problem.
Just as Ghandi told his followers he wanted to wake up their adversaries, not kill them for faults we all possess, I say that the day we all can look in the mirror and say, "I barely know what love really is," that's the day we'll be close to real freedom. We're talking about real love here -- such as Jesus showed on the cross when he was tortured and killed and yet said, through his pain, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
The day we can recognize that we barely have a glimmer of what real love is about -- and believe me, that's the stuff that will transform this nation, not all of our frustration and rage and anger -- we will truly be on a sure path toward national redemption.
The reality of our situation, dear readers, is that there are many battles that must be fought before good people can take back the culture and institutions of this nation.
It's going to start with the self-awakening of individual Americans in whose hearts the fire of goodness, repentance and renewal has begun to burn. And then, motivated by grace, they move, act and create another world within this world. Just as the seamy subculture of yesteryear has crept out of the pit and become the dominant American culture today, tomorrow's subculture of goodness must grow to the point that it becomes -- again -- the dominant culture.
I agree with this message. I guess we did'nt take 1 Peter 5:8 seriously enough as a warning. "Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." What can we do to change this situation around? For a start the Bible says, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and seek my face I will heal their land. Maybe someone can give me that verse reference of this promise. I think this is where to start.
