What If we are...

(artistsforchrist.net)

           

What if we are in the midst of a revolution? We are. We are? Change has been coming. The Kingdom is here. Justice awaits. It is near. There is no going back, and it is glorious. God is moving. People are rising up and monuments to evil are being destroyed, all for God's glory. 

The change is happening as we listen. As we stop with our pleas, and open up our ears.  Our words cease, and we see what God has been doing. He allowed a tyrant to be raised up, to set the tone in our country to show us ourselves, and by us I mean those who professed to be a part of the evangelical church. The evangelical right elected this man, much to the chagrin of a large majority who were begging them not to...not to make it so that we couldn't call ourselves evangelical anymore... but it happened. And here we are. 

And we weren't sinless either, are not guiltless now just because we didn't bleed blue at voting box. History is fierce with reality and cold hard facts, and more than a few of us have had to backpeddle. 

People will say our country has made adequate progress in regard to civil rights because we had a black president. To that I say "Don't kid yourself! Look who we elected to be the black man's successor. Thou doth protest too much, and it doesn't make you NOT a racist." -Shakesphere & MeginLea

But what if, WHAT IF God allowed all of this to set the stage... to begin the revolution, for the people, for the CHURCH to rise up, to BIRTH justice and mercy. What if God were doing something in our days we wouldn't believe even if we were told (Habakkuk 1). Unfathomable. The monster rose to power, and now people who hid are forced to face their reflections in the mirror... One-by-one, straw men are falling, faulty foundations are flailing in the wind of change. Investigations are being launched- civil rights inquiries, and the church is no longer silent. What if this is it? What if the tides are turning? As people admit they were wrong, and LISTEN. Wouldn't that be glorious? Wouldn't that bring GLORY TO GOD? For God's people to REPENT, to stop screaming at the homosexuals and baby-killers to repent and to start repenting THEMSELVES. We can't catch people for Christ when we are stinking full of rot. So let the revival start with God's people... and what if it is? 

I heard a pastor say earlier tonight, everyone is for social justice. We all are. No one actually wants something socially irreparable to happen. No one desires to see something incredibly unfair unfold. Who would force a child to eat lead? That is just WRONG! And we all know right from wrong. The problem is that we won't quit talking about ourselves long enough to listen and be reasonable. We have to keep qualifying why we deserve to have what we have and how everyone's pain is equal. BUT. JUST. STOP. The black man and the black woman have been kept down in this country, held back, for a long time. THAT IS JUST FACT. It's not YOUR FAULT. But it WILL BE your fault if you don't RECOGNIZE the facts and give them the space to catch up. Black people have not been given equal footing. Perhaps there has been PROGRESS, but not nearly enough if the atmosphere is such that black men are still getting lynched in the street. It's happening. WE CAN STOP IT. WE SHOULD STOP IT. WE CAN MOURN IT. JUST MOURN IT. STOP SAYING YOU HAVE PROBLEMS THAT ARE JUST AS BAD. NO YOU DON'T. YOU AREN'T GETTING LYNCHED IN THE STREET RIGHT NOW, ARE YOU? JUST STOP AND CRY OUT. 

This is not a fair life, and don't tell me that's just how it is. THAT'S NOT TRUE. WE CAN MAKE LIFE FAIR. You don't believe that? THEN YOU DON'T BELIEVE IN THE GOSPEL! Because the Gospel is all together the most unfair idea making life fair- Jesus Christ, TAKING the penalty for OUR sin. YOUR sin. US having Christ's RIGHTNESS IMPUTED to us? The last becoming first and the first becoming last! The people who work from sun up till sun down being paid the same as the people who work the last hours of the day? YES. In Christ, there is neither slave nor free, Jew nor Greek. But all one in Christ. It's obvious. Let's stop and get on the same page, all of us. 

This does not mean your pain does not matter. It just means for a moment let the black man or the black woman catch up from all the pain we've inflicted upon them. And now, once we are all together, let's get going, hands together, WITH JESUS. Pursue black health, and you will find health for yourself! Seek to save your life, and you will lose it, but lose your life in obedience to God, and you will save it, (Luke 17:33). 

What if this is it? Thy Kingdom come; thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven... what if we are in the midst of the revolution, redemption tarries no more, and all is made new. What if we are...