Canvassing door to door as a young preacher launching a new church, I interrupted a finely dressed gentleman one morning just as he was about to leave for work. As I introduced myself, he politely but firmly interrupted me. “Look, Reverend, I thank you for the invitation,” he said, “but I’m really not interested. I live a good life. Everything is going well. Frankly, Mr. Scott, I don’t need God.” Pausing for just a moment, I said, “Mr., I suggest that within fifty years you will see things differently.” “Not at all,” he responded, “I won’t be here fifty years from now.” “Precisely!” I said and walked away.
America has likewise dismissed Jesus Christ as a religious figure that has little relevance to the day in which we live. The principles He taught, we are told, are no longer valid for twentieth-century America. That is America’s choice, and the further we get away from God, the more popular and accepted will be that evil segment of our society determined to destroy the American way of life. No longer satisfied with a secular mind-set, they have now turned their sights on our Constitution, our national heroes, and our institutions of law and order. Wake up, America!
I am well aware the warnings proffered by the Christian community come across as fear-mongering and taken as just so much hot air. But the Bible says, “Be not deceived, God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction.” One can turn a blind eye to what is taking place for only so long; sooner or later, there will be hell to pay.
I have no clue whether the Covid-19 pandemic is of divine origin. The present crisis has shown, however, we have no warrant to blame the Almighty for the fix we are in. The pandemic is something we have done to ourselves, and one can only imagine what lies ahead. But we have opted God out of our national life and have no recourse but to face the future alone and without divine help.
I cannot imagine facing the future without my faith in God. And it is not a faith based on tradition or belief inherited from my family. It is a faith supported by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, proof positive that He was, indeed, the Son of God. His perspective on life and my eternal destiny is one on which I can rest, confident that however difficult life becomes here on earth, there is a light at the end of my tunnel. In Jesus’ words, “Let not your heart be troubled. … I go to prepare a place for you … that where I am, there you may be also.” And Mr. … it doesn’t get any better than that!
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