I noticed a young woman reading her Bible at the Panera where I was studying. After getting my coffee refilled, I stopped by her table and told her how it encouraging it was, especially these days, to see someone privately reading the Word of God in a public place. She smiled, said “Thanks” and then gave me a wave later when she left. I see this godly activity a lot in places where coffee is served and people meet.That anonymous young lady represents everything gospel going on in our country. Hope is alive, tastefully dressed, and drinking a vanilla latte. This is how we should estimate how well we are doing in the Culture War.
Sure, the barbarians have pushed past the gate and are now running wild and crazy (emphasis on crazy) all over the landscape. They are killing babies, stealing money, blaspheming God, calling good evil and evil good, and viciously attacking any semblance of decency. America is a pagan nation now. All of U.S. are living in a post-Christian demonocracy; but the Church is alive and still here.
There are faithful Christian colleges, tens of thousands of Christian homeschoolers, tons of great Christian books, a grand variety of ministries, worldview camps, study centers, and Christian schools along with thousands of faithful churches in our country. We have a significant presence.
We are writing books, preaching sermons, composing music, gathering for feasts, hosting Bible studies, surrounding abortion clinics, forming small groups, fighting unjust laws, adopting children, sending missionaries, evangelizing neighbors, supporting rescue missions, creating podcasts, loving our enemies and hating God’s foes.
We are the Church Militant and we are dug in and advancing. That’s what we do. That is what we are called to do. Never mind all those sissy-churches for there is no light or fight in them. Their impotence is even more apparent when we “play the man” and live obedient to the Word revealed.
We need to keep each other focused. The daily news is always sensational, depressing, and never, no never, the whole truth. Back in the 60’s the press stated that God Is Dead and now they act as though He doesn’t exist or that He is whatever you believe that He is. But that is only a problem for them—not for us—for we know the truth through the Word. The True Truth is that Jesus is Lord of the universe and that is the way of viewing all of life.
Sure, our country was once much better than it is right now but anything truly good in the past was due to righteousness and not, simply, opportunity and wealth. Everything that will be good in our country in the future will be because of a return to righteousness.
That starts and is maintained as all of us live the Life. It’s a pastor preaching the gospel, a mother smiling as she schools her kids. It’s a teenager valiantly entering a conversation and it is, of course, a young woman opening her Bible at the local coffee shop.
