I have always swum a little bit against the flow. I guess it is my nature. My late Mother always called me a “cockeyed optimist.”
Perhaps it was my athletic training. At one time sports was my entire life. I lived and breathed it. Mickey Mantle, Jimmy Brown, and Jerry Lucas were the holy trinity as I was growing up.
“The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” was the drug I consumed throughout my whole life. “Take a setback and turn it into a comeback!”
I can rattle off all the sport cliches’. Competition shaped my life. It made me who I am. Tenacious. Optimistic. An overcomer.
That is why I sometimes have a hard time fitting into the “things are only going to get worse” mentality that I see in so much of Christianity. It is paralyzing. Or, as I have heard sooo many of my Christian compatriots state, “why polish the brass on a sinking ship?”
Never surrender. Don’t give up the ship! Fight till the end. Occupy until I come. That is the type of Christianity I want to be part of. Nothing frustrates me more than watching organizational Christianity walk away from a good fight.
Maybe it is just me, but I think Christians are least like Jesus when we are cowardly and fearful. Most of our pastors have thrown in the towel. The fact that evil is running rampant in America does not mean it is the “end of days.” It means it is time to fight! A time to stand up and push back against the forces of darkness.
Could it be that evil is advancing because “good men” have done nothing? Does ANTIFA love America more than the Southern Baptists? Which group seems to be fighting most for the control of the culture?
“But Coach Dave. We are supposed to preach the Gospel, not save the nation.” I hear that all the time from the yellow-bellies cowering in the safety of their prayer closets. Innocent boys and girls are having “doctrines of demons” preached to them in “public” schools where the true values of the “public” are constantly being undermined… all at Christian taxpayers’ expense.
Our culture has been seized by the Evil One and most of Christianity is looking for evacuation rather than occupation. Jesus never ran from fights…He picked them. He asked us to do likewise. It is called the Great Commission!
GO YE…not HIDE YE! “Teach them to observe all I have commanded you and Lo, I am with you always even until the end of the age.”
Perhaps I am wrong, but I don’t see Cowering Christianity anywhere in the Bible. The FEARFUL and UNBELIEVING are the first ones cast into the lake of fire. The cowardly go first!!
Christianity is not for the weak…it takes GUTS to live out a BOLD Christian life. Especially today.
The assault on innocent Children in America is like nothing ever seen in civilized history. The barbarians are at the gate. The saliva is running down the cracks of the mouths of the wolves as the Evil One and his minions set their sights on the millions of little ones created in the image of Christ. Jesus warned us that it would be better to put a millstone around our neck and jump in the lake than to mislead even one of his precious children.
Can you say public screwells? Not a peep from the pulpit or the pew. (At least they have a good marching band.) Pastors and pew-sitters fiddling while Rome burns.
God must be so ticked off…
But I have hope. I guess it goes back to that sports training. I think God’s people are about to pull a comeback. I see it everywhere I look. Finally, after 70 years of sex, drugs and rock and roll ruling the day a sleeping giant is beginning to awaken. Could the church’s finest hour be in front of us? Does that fit YOUR narrative?
The Scriptures tell us that “in the LAST days God will pour out His Spirit upon ALL flesh.” Could it be that the greatest Christian revival the world has ever seen is just over the horizon?
Here is the way I see it. Americans tend to thing in a linear fashion…1940…1950…1960…but God operates in CYCLES. Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall…God always moves from darkness to light…in the beginning the earth was void and without form…and God said “LET THERE BE LIGHT.”
So, we must ask ourselves “is the sun coming up or is the sun going down?” How you answer that question will determine whether we cower or whether we conquer.
Tough times are coming. But tough times produce tough people. Maybe a little bit of persecution will be good for Christianity. But we must face up to the reality that we are entering into a time of FIGHT or FLIGHT. How the church responds to the difficult times will determine the outcome.
The tide is beginning to turn in America. I see victory everywhere I look! Stand up and fight! Now is the time!
I choose to fight! “More than a conqueror” is what the Scriptures call Believers. There is still time on the scoreboard clock. Play hard until the end.
We had a saying we painted on our locker room door…if you think you CAN or if you think you CAN’T’ you are right. Attitude is everything.
Do you believe we can win? I do.
Real Christianity is not for cowards. I think it is time we moved from cowering to conquering.
