I have been a Christian for over 50 years and grew up in one of the most crises-filled decades in American history: the 60s. The Cuban Missile Crisis almost led us into World War III and the daily threat of nuclear destruction was continually in the news. We managed to assassinate a president and the leader of the civil rights movement.
Black people were beaten, hung, and brutalized while many of our major cities were burning to the ground. The National Guard shot and killed four college students who were protesting one of the most hated wars of all time. The culture survived the sexual revolution and Woodstock, rocked with the Beatles, and topped the decade off by landing on the moon.
However, the pace of negative change I have been witnessing over the last twenty years is far more devastating than anything I experienced in the 1960s. In the midst of all the sheer insanity of that dark time, there was still a majority of people that embraced a Judeo-Christian ethic.
That is no longer true today, America is both post-modern and post-christian. The culture believes there is no absolute truth and there are many paths to God. We have reached a divine tipping point and things could get even worse before they get better.
To move forward we have to accept the truth that things will never be the same. The old normal for you personally and professionally is gone. However, with the grace of God, the new normal can absolutely be better.
If you are waiting on someone or something to create this new desired normal for you, then you will continue to live with fear and anxiety every day. This is something that you living in the power of the Holy Spirit are going to have to live out every day in the church scattered.
To maintain your spiritual margin, you must cut out right now as much as possible all the lies that are being told by the culture through the media. Don’t fill your mind with all the drama that daily attacks the biblical values we hold as Christians.
Fill your mind with as much truth as possible, which means we are way beyond a “quiet time” for 15 minutes in the morning. I am blocking at least two thirty minutes to an hour times a day to read scripture, watch sermons, listen to podcasts and most importantly pray all during the day.
This will not answer all your questions about the future or solve all your problems. However, it will give you the hope and faith you desperately need to put into perspective all the Father is doing in the world.
He is sovereignly working to create His “New Normal” by redeeming and restoring all that was lost in the fall. I will remind you that no suffering of this present time is worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed to us.
Welcome to Christianity in the 21st century !!!