With all the dysfunction, corruption, endless bloviating, and petty whining going on these days across this great land of ours I think the number one question on everyone’s mind is can America ever be the country we want it to be? Can America really change? Can we reverse the loose morals of our times? We ask, are we doomed to spiral ever downward as a nation into an abyss of total moral depravity? We nostalgically want to know, will we as a people ever again see the magnificence of self-reliance as opposed to the unimaginative dullness of relying on government? We sense inside that it is the right way to live so we wonder can we stop blaming our problems on everyone else and see the grandeur of accepting responsibility for ourselves. Can each America find the courage and strength to shed the heavy cloak of victimhood we have learned to wear so well in the past few decades? Will we once again stand proud in the liberty and splendor of rugged individualism? Can we regain the brilliance of knowing that failure is the most important part of success? Are we to regain the wondrous vision that even the lowliest of hard, honest work lifts the soul high then, grasp the nobility of charity not being a lifestyle?
But most of all, I think Americans are just plain tired. They are tired of being shamed out of their pride of country by those who would exact acceptance of all viewpoints accept the traditional American viewpoint. They are tired of being intimidated out of speaking up for right and against wrong by narrow-minded cries of intolerance from those who understand tolerance the least. And right now, we are tired of being spent into poverty as a nation through the biggest Ponzi scheme ever foisted on a people. All that said what do we do about it?
As I mentioned in Part 2, complaining about our problems is also plentiful in America but does not constitute involvement or lead to solutions. It is an easy, poor substitute and gives the false impression of caring and doing something about the problems we face as a nation. Therefore, gripe sessions are not going to work. And I keep talking about how the Apostle Paul, without firing a single shot, set the stage for the downfall of the pagan Roman Empire and keep asking how he did that? The real question here is of course, how can we use his 1st Century model to change our 21st Century America? A tall order to be sure, but we can do it.
So what was his model? We already know it was not military. Neither was it political, scientific, or based on the legal system, social programs or technology. He brought down the Romans simply by knowing who he was in Christ and having the confidence to keep going no matter what dangers and turmoil he faced. Only supreme confidence in himself because he first had supreme confidence in his Commanding General, gave him the moxie to stand up over and over again to keep preaching Jesus in a hostile, deadly, pagan culture. He did it by transferring that confidence to new Christians from Jerusalem to Rome and perhaps Spain, building churches everywhere he traveled and training up his own replacements before he died a martyr’s death.
Yes, he built his strategy for changing a culture and continent by tapping the power that dwells in knowing who we are in Christ. And if he can do it, so can we. More later.
