New Release! America, can you hear God now? We humans have a strange habit. When times are good, when things are going swell, we tend to forget about God. I trust you'll agree. It’s sad but true. Now riddle me this: Does our moral behavior trend upward or downward when we forget about the LORD? Stop and think about that for a second. When we push God into the background, how does that impact our behavior? How do we treat our fellow citizens when we’re no longer focused on God and His golden rules?
Allow me to share a couple of quotes you’ll find in the book. Our first is from the 19th century philosopher, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He states, “If a man is not rising upward to be an angel, depend on it, he is sinking downward to be a devil.” What can be said of a man can also be said of a nation. Life is never static; we're not just marking time. As a nation we’re either marching toward higher ground or we’re yielding to our baser passions. And if you’ve been checking out the news for the last decade, I think you’ll find it hard to support the notion that we’re striving upward toward angelic excellence.
In this 340-page guide, I assert America is sinking downward. I show from our daily headlines how human behavior has been trending downward for a long time. Granted, in some respects, America has seen economic growth and expansion. However, in spite of gaining a veneer of material prosperity, our core (human nature) has not changed (Jeremiah 17:9). Man’s inhumanity to man is on full display every day. In other words, when we forget about God, we don't play well with others.
Here’s another quote in the book from Christian writer C.S. Lewis: “We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to our conscience, but SHOUTS in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a dead world.”
Did you know God uses pain to focus our attention? He does indeed! Pain, in its various forms, is the blunt instrument Yahweh uses to make us mind our p's and q's. When God has our undivided attention, our behavior trends upward toward the angels. But if we forget about the LORD, our behavior trends downward.
Another point I develop in the book is if we forget God and discount His authority, we cast off restraint and run amok (I cover this in chapter 10). Whenever that happens, a merciful God uses pain like a megaphone to rouse our attention. Using another metaphor, pain is God’s rod of correction. When we don't play well with others, He takes us to the woodshed! However, in the midst of our pain we must remember our heavenly Father is good, and He has a purpose behind the pain. According to Psalm 119:67, and Revelations 3:19, and 2 Chronicles 7:13-14, - and as stated in my subtitle - God uses pain to prepare us for revival.
Sadly, there are times in life when we drift away from God. As we drift from God, we mistreat our fellowman. This displeases the Lord, and He uses the megaphone of pain to revive a spiritually tone-deaf nation. America, can you hear God now?
We hear a lot about the need to pray during this time of stress and uncertainty. Even our president declared March 15th as a national day of prayer. But let me ask: Can we pray away this virus? Can we “name it and claim it” regarding this pandemic? I think not! I write in chapter two of the book, “whenever super-natural disasters strike a nation (droughts, a plague of locusts, an outbreak or epidemic), when the populace is gripped by distress and anxiety, or when it seems like Satan is winning the day,” - God's Word gives us an action plan and a reason to keep looking up.
Prayer is just one step in God’s four-step plan for spiritual revival. He requires that we do more than just pray. If we only complete one step in His divine four-step plan for victory, can we honestly have a realistic expectation of success? Can we blame God for "letting us down" if we finish only 25% of His action plan? This new book outlines the complete four-step biblical solution to our current dilemma. Available @ Amazon.com
As the coronavirus wreaks havoc across our nation with over 10,000 deaths so far, I ask that you help spread the flames of revival. Please share this message with at least five of your friends. Nothing is too hard for the LORD! God has a remedy for our dire situation, but we must follow His divine plan if we desire His divine results.
Grace, Peace and Jahspeed!
Note: The title of this work has been changed to The Spiritual Awakening of America. Click on title to order today!