Reasons Why I Didn't March on January 21

                         Is anything too hard for the LORD?  Genesis 18: 14

If you are like me, you are probably amazed by the way things appear to have turned around in our country in the last week. I am cautiously optimistic, but don't want to put my confidence in any man, only in the Lord. Yet I pray for our new President, that God would grant him wisdom and surround him with good counsel. Our nation deserves judgment but perhaps God has granted us another respite from it, though we certainly don't deserve it.

Yet I was dismayed by this big woman's march on DC. I believe that women are equal to men, but are different than men because God made us different. And that is OK. And I also believe that God made man both male and female, but not something in between. That is still my right to think so.

I had no interest in marching and I don't feel threatened by the new administration. I didn't like the old one but didn't protest against it either. Why? For it is God who

 ... changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise And knowledge to those who have understanding. Dan 2:21 NKJV

 I am in this world, but according to the Word of God, I am not of it. So I don't need to fight for my so called lack of rights.

Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here." John 18:36 (emphasis mine)

My citizenship is in heaven, and from that country I am awaiting with anticipation for Savior to come again and receive me to Himself.

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, [Phl 3:20 NKJV] who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself. [Phl 3:21 NKJV]

In II Timothy we're informed that if we belong to Christ we should put our interest in Him and not  be consumed with this world:  

 You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. [2Ti 2:3 NKJV] No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. [2Ti 2:4 NKJV emphasis mine] 

Finally, my real life isn't what I see all around me. This raging in the nations, confusion and madness was all predicted by Jesus to come in the days before He returns to this planet. 

"And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near." Luke 21: 25-28

Don't those verses describe out world?  This is an unprecedented time, but if we are the Lord's we must look to Him. 

 The confusion of this world is not my life, but Christ is my life.

For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3;3

But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Galatians  6:14 (emphasis mine)

Instead of marching for our rights, wouldn't it would be better instead to lift up our heads?  Our Redemption is drawing nigh. 

If you are not sure you are a child of God, you can believe that Jesus Christ paid the penalty for your sin debt on the cross, and that God was so pleased with His sacrifice that He raised Him from the dead.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

"For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

"He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. John 3: 16-18

My Endless Thanksgiving Portion

"Still,
our eyes
failed us,
watching
vainly
for our
help;
In our
watching
we watched
For a nation
that could
not save
us."

Lamentations 4:17

I read these words this morning, as if it were for the first time. The words resonated within my spirit, for I feel that I am also like Jeremiah, watching his beloved nation falling from the Lord's favor and into judgment.

I used to think I would always be safe in America. I read about all the terrible things that happened in World Wars I and II and inwardly breathed a sigh of relief at least to know that warfare had not come to our own shores, even if, sadly, we lost hundreds of thousands of brave men and women across the seas. The security I felt is no more. Each day seems to get crazier, with some of the headlines we see. The America I was proud of is really not the same America anymore.

I have had freedom and plenty for all of my years, yet deep within our nation I sense we are lacking the one thing we need to keep our country together: the fear of God. The fear of God is lost to the church and society in general. I do not fear God or thank Him nearly enough for all His blessings to me. Having so much at my disposal has caused me to be careless in my attitude towards God. I am not running for my life (yet) nor have I been imprisoned. But we see the signs all around us. Our freedoms are being whittled away. Just like Nero fiddling while Rome burned, I sit in front of the computer or TV and do not take full advantage of the opportunity that freedom has afforded me.

And yet God still longs to be gracious to someone like me. Where else do I have to go but to Him? I try to find happiness like the rest of the world seems to be striving after, but every single day there is a longing for something more meaningful that keeps tugging at my heart. I am probably way past the halfway mark of my life. I do not know when my time of opportunity to get to know God on this side of eternity could suddenly end.

Carpe diem. Seize the day, the very moment I am in right now, I try to remind myself. For the same writer of the above verse, Jeremiah, in the same book tells us a most gracious promise. Right in the middle of his bitter complaint, Jeremiah remembers something that will turn his eyes off his situation and back onto the Only Helper, the Lord Jesus Himself.

"Remember my affliction and roaming,
The wormwood and the gall.
My soul still remembers
And sinks within me.
This I recall to mind,
Therefore I have hope.

Through the Lord's mercies
we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
'The LORD is my portion,'
says my soul,
Therefore I hope in Him!"

Jeremiah 3: 19-24

Tomorrow, I can truly be thankful not only for a plateful of food but for His portion given to me as a free and unmerited gift. He will ever remain faithful, no matter whatever dark clouds we see looming on the horizon. And our life is but a moment on the line of eternity.

I thank Him for my problems, for they keep me depending on Him. I thank Him for sustaining me in life every single day. Let me thank Him even for my breath. Without Him, I have nothing, but with Him I have all things. Can you join me this Thanksgiving with your own portion full? If not, you can believe on Jesus Christ today and truly have something to be grateful for tomorrow.

3 "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus..." I Timothy 2:3-5