There is, in fact, nothing normal about this moment in our history or the world’s. This is the time of the end. There is more warfare, spiritual and physical, happening around the world than ever before. Satan’s time is limited and so he is making the most of it. I don’t need to list all of his activities. Look at the news and you will see his handiwork. In fact, many of those who write, not report but write, the news are part of that very handiwork. Natural catastrophes, diseases, wars, pestilence, all that stuff Jesus mentioned in the Book of Matthew are more and more a part of the so called normalcy of our lives. That brothers and sisters is the rub. As long as the heat is being turned up gradually, we tend to accommodate the chaos and evil and it becomes a part of life. We say that’s just the way things are.

We get no more upset by the murder of innocent people, men, women, girls and boys than we would be by the death of an insect. In fact, some may be more upset by the death of an animal than that of a person. Children are not the blessings God intended them to be. In many lives they are inconveniences or embarrassments taken care of by the morning after pill or by a surgeon who sticks a hole in the base of a full term baby’s skull and sucks out his or her brains. Wait! We are Christians. WE DON’T ACT THAT WAY!

We shouldn’t feel and act that way and certainly there are many who do not, but statistics indicate that Christian abortions are on a par with those who do not confess Jesus as Lord. In fact, there is little difference between the Christian population in America with respect to abortion, divorce, and pornography and the rest of the population. We are supposed to be salt and light yet the Bible says if the salt has lost it’s savor, it should be tossed out and trodden under foot.

While it is true that God has moved wonderfully in recent years and many have responded to God’s call, it is not the time to be complacent or nonchalant. Indeed when God moves and things seem good it is time to double our efforts and take advantage of the momentum of the Spirit God has provided. Just because Satan is no match for God and what He is doing for the moment does not prevent Satan from orchestrating the death of you, your family, or any number of other people, because we became lax and complacent and ease up on the enemy.

To coin a phrase brethren, we at War. If you pray, pray harder, longer, louder, and with more holiness. Destroy those enemies that you have power over. Completely, decimate and obliterate every demon, sin, habit, attitude, and behavior that comes between you and God. God telling you to do something? Move out soldier. Take that ground. God not telling you to do something? Then turn the TV off and start listening. Perhaps He is not calling you to the Leper Colony in Japan. But God is speaking and directing.

Jesus said if you love me, obey my commandments. Do you love the Lord with all your strength, mind, body and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself? To do the first you must demonstrate the second. How does God know you love Him? He knows because you love your neighbor as yourself and you obey God’s commandments.

You know when you look at America today and examine it in light of the reasons God toasted Sodom and Gomorrah, we ought to be scared to our knees in repentance and contrition. God said these cities were 1. full of pride 2. had too much time on their hands, 3. had too much to eat, 4. did not care for the poor and needy (orphans, widows, and refugees) and 5. they were haughty (thumbed their nose at God) and performed abominable acts before God (if you don’t know what God considers abominable acts you really need to turn the TV off and read your Bible).

Despite God’s efforts among us in recent years, the description above is truer of America today, at least in the media, than it was 10 years ago. I read an article recently that said that the incident that set off Iran years ago against the U.S. was the opening of an R rated movie. People were so outraged that they were supposedly committed to die to prevent that kind of thing in their country. The only problem with that spirit is that it is willing to kill others as well.

So here we are in a world that is a time bomb waiting to explode, in a country that is not safe from anything yet we go about our daily lives as if God’s hand of protection was on us as it has been from the beginning. Our borders are not safe. Our government continues to strip away the resources we need to protect our own soil. We continually elect those who promise us what they cannot deliver, at a price we can no longer afford, in part because we have killed a whole generation of those upon whom our own future should have been secured. Our leaders make laws contrary to Gods Laws and yet we expect God to put His rubber stamp of approval upon our insanity.

So what do we do? There is a place in the Bible that speaks of a time in a nation where no matter who intercedes for it the land will not be spared only the intercessor. Are we there?  Perhaps. At any rate God is merciful and He has spared many a people when they turned from their sin and turned back to God. You know the verse. If my people, who are called by name, will humble themselves and pray, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land. It may be that some judgments are unavoidable. Pray! Pray! Pray!

This is not the time for being passive. Pray! Read the Word! Get close to God! Demonstrate the love of Christ to the world around you! Throw off those sins that so easily beset you. God is a God of war. These are days of war. Want to prevent many from dying and going to hell or just from going to heaven early? Then turn off the TV, break out the manual and learn to fight!