God's blessing?

There's a verse in 1 Peter that I hadn't really noticed before. It's funny how that keeps happening to me...books and chapters I've read many times, on pages with underlining or notes, but all of a sudden I read a verse that I've somehow missed. This time it was while we were studying at church Sunday morning:

"For the time for judgment has come,
and it is beginning with the household of God.
If it is starting with us,
what will happen to those who have rejected God’s good news?"
(1 Peter 4:17)

I've been listening to Pastor Allen Jackson a lot lately. I highly recommend that you do the same, but I'll warn you first--he's probably going to step on your toes. One thing he has been pointing out a lot lately? We as professed Christians can't blame the decay in our nation on "them". Our nation is in free-fall because we--those who claim to be followers of Jesus--have failed. We have let a nation founded on biblical truth and biblical ideals fall apart because we have refused to stand for those truths.

It is almost July 4th, so here in the United States that means we're about to celebrate Independence Day. For almost 250 years now, that has always included the words "God Bless America!" I saw those words on a church sign on my way to work this morning, and I have to tell you that I immediately found myself shaking my head.

It isn't that I don't want God's blessings. I fully believe that the wealth, prosperity, generosity, and peace that defined our nation for so long were results of God's blessing. Right now, though, our nation has no right to ask for His blessing.

 Instead, we should be falling flat on our faces before a holy and just God, begging for His forgiveness and mercy. We should be thanking Him for the blessings He has poured out on us despite all our failings, and we should be begging Him to show us how to turn back to His plan. We should be coming to God in humility, apologizing to Him for all the times we have failed to stand for Him, begging Him to give us the strength to stand for Him now.

And then, we should get up from the dust, wipe the tears off our faces, and get to work. We should stand up and speak up. We should be the salt and light we are called to be in a broken, dark, hopeless world.

"Elections are important, they have consequences. We need to participate, we need to be aware... all of those things. But at the end of the day, we've gotta stop waiting for the elections to fix us. If we will have a heart change, God will engage the elections. If we don't have a heart change, the deterioration will continue." ~Pastor Jackson

We may be too late to keep our nation from falling into the pit, but we are never too late to lead people down the narrow path that leads to eternal life.

For some final words of challenge, from the One we claim to follow:

“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
and do not do what I say?"
(Luke 6:46)