Sunday Afternoon Tea - Ponderings on the unusual way God works

Let's hope that today's blog post does not go "poof"!  This kind of thing happened all the time in 2006 and a couple years after that when I first started blogging.  It has been a long time since I saved a post and went back to proofread it and found only a blank page. It was too late to rewrite the blog post yesterday but I will use it as a basis for next Saturday.  

(Whew!  I just turned it on after saving for a few hours and so far, so good!) 

My ponderings this week may seem political but I hope you can see that it is not about politics but about the consequences of policies and discernment.  It is something I have been thinking of all week and wondering if I should write about it.  I am taking a risk and I hope not to offend any of my long time blog friends for it is not my intention.

I heard a Bible teacher on TV talk about how we are living with the largest generation gap the world has ever known.  There is a generation coming up now in high school and college who will never know what it is like to grow up with the values people older than him were raised with.

The Bible teacher wasn't talking only about people older than sixty, even young people in their thirties were raised in a different world environment and they already tended to be far more liberal in their politics and religion (if they have an interest in religion at all) than their parents and grandparents.  But they do not tend to share the more socialist opinions of their much younger peers.

His interview got me to thinking about how much the world has changed, especially since 2001.  That time period covers two Republican administrations and two Democratic administrations so no administration is completely free of making a bad decision here and there that brought us to this time.

I remember during the last election, I told my husband that I was not convinced Trump would experience a second administration.  He couldn't understand how I could believe that given the large number of people who supported him in the country, especially those in the South and Midwest.  

Even as one who appreciated Trump's policies that made this country strong, I wondered if too many Christians had come to trust in Trump instead of in God without realizing it. We have to be careful about putting any human on a pedestal. Our trust is to be in God and not a person.

We live in a time in history where we must ask God daily for discernment.  We were told in His Word that as we near the return of His second coming, there would be great delusion and that even the elect would be fooled if it were possible.  

I wonder if what keeps His people from being completely deceived is the Holy Spirit within us and the study of His Word.  Have you ever heard someone make a statement and it just doesn't settle as truth?  It reminds me of old time robots on kid's cartoon shows that say "Does not compute, does not compute".

I can assure you that I don't often understand how God works.  Sometimes it is obvious but He has a way of using people and situations that are hard to wrap my head around.  The most amazing is Him using everything I have been through and my weaknesses to bring you these ponderings

At first, Trump didn't make sense to my way of looking at the best person for God to use.  After all, there were at least a few people we knew as Christians who would be more logical choices.  But when you look at the Word, He has a way of using unlikely people for His purposes... like Paul and Peter.

I obviously do not know Trump personally and only God knows a person's heart. But I do believe he was the right person at the right time and this country was stronger than it had been in many years under his administration.  It was as if God was telling us that He was giving us more time to get our houses in order and for the Church to preach Christ.   

I often say that if we have breath, God has us here for a purpose.  I truly believe there is a destiny we all travel, even though for most of us those reasons for walking this planet remain in obscurity.  God is weaving His-story together and it is going to result in a beautiful tapestry but sometimes in the process it looks... messy.

It turns out that one of the two Bibles Trump put his hand on during the Inauguration belonged to his mother.  She had given it to him when he was nine years old and it was given to her by her two elderly aunts, who are credited for praying in the Hebrides revival in Scotland.  Her youngest child, Donald Trump, is named after her cousin, who was a young man at the time ministering in the revival.

I am including a link below to a website that shares this information (although I heard the story in many other ministries).  It also has a video by a preacher who also believes that Trump's administration would give us a short window of time to prepare for His coming before the world further changed.

If you have not heard this story, I'm not surprised.  For one thing, there is a reason I have not trusted the mainstream media since the 1980s, when Christians first became involved in politics.  

My husband was very involved with the Christian Coalition in politics at that time and we saw just how much the state and national media tweaked news stories to change the truth.  No longer do they tweak a story, sometimes it seems they do not tell the truth at all.

Just about every national news story about Trump was told to make him look not only bad but evil.  Today just about every news story told about the current administration is positive.  Although it has become almost humorous to see how they get around the worst inflation in decades (since the Carter years), the highest gas prices now in history (surpassing the Obama era),  the absolute horrific pulling out of Afghanistan, etc.

We hear nothing from the national media which draws the very obvious line between Biden shutting down the American pipeline his first day in office and then giving Putin the okay for the Russian pipeline to expand.  That action ruined our energy independence and put billions in Putin's economy that helps pay for his military expansion.

There are so many other areas where anyone with discernment sees what is going on in this country and the world.  My friends, if the Bible is true then it is only going to be harder to discern truth as the years go by unless we know Jesus as Savior.

I have mentioned before my favorite scene from the original Left Behind movie when the Kurt Cameron character was told by his Christian friends that he would fall prey to deception if he didn't accept Christ as savior as he left to meet with the man they knew was the Antichrist.

There is a scene where he realizes everything his friends had told him regarding prophecy was coming true and he is so shocked, he heads to the restroom where he talks to God and asks Jesus to save him.  Soon after that, he attends a meeting with all the world leaders (he was there as the only journalist) where the Antichrist kills two men but everyone else "saw" one of the men kill the other and then commit suicide.

Whatever your eschatology, that original Left Behind movie gives one a glimpse into possibilities of Bible prophecy.  (I believe there was a later movie that was made by people other than those of faith that I did not watch.)

Please do not look at this blog post as pro-Republican and anti-Democrat for I do have good friends who are very involved in the Democratic party.  We just stay away from talking politics.  There are plenty of other subjects we agree upon.  

No, what I want us to see is that we do live in an age where we need to be aware of what is going on and discern truth from what is being told us from a national media.  

Unfortunately, we are also being taught heresy by some in pulpits around America and the world.  We have seen first hand as relatives of my husband have made bad decisions because their denomination not only defends homosexuality but these days seems to promote it.

God tells us in the Book of James that if we ask for wisdom, He will give it to us.  He will help us discern what is right and wrong, true and false, and as we stay close to Him and His Word... we will not be deceived.

We are still here for a purpose, not the least of which is part of a remnant of believers who can pray for our family and friends.  We all need to be covered with prayer as we have moved into this strange new world that is unlike anything we have seen before. The closest to it is definitely the time period leading up to WWII.

When I spend too much time looking at the news or watching YouTube videos, no matter how truthful they are, and not enough time paying attention to God... my natural tendency is to fear.

When I spend more time reading beautiful books and watching interesting movies than I do looking toward the Word... I am more prone to fear because they do not feed my spirit like God's Word does. Not that reading and watching such media is wrong, I've had a tendency in the past to put them first.

When my mind is on the Lord and God's Word... I not only feel fear leaving but I feel faith building.  I no longer have very much physical strength but spiritually I am stronger than at any time in my life thanks to the trials He has allowed.  That was their purpose.  Faith muscle building.

I find talking to friends who are strong in the Lord definitely helps keep my faith strong.  It seems we are in a time of such sudden changes that it is essential to keep our eyes Due North and our anchor in His Word. People who are strong in their faith and in their knowledge of the Word bring life to us.

We can be a person that helps faith build in others. Perhaps we can keep a couple easy to read Bibles, a few good Bible studies, and books on hand to give to those with questions about what is going on in the world. 

Praying.  Giving.  Standing firm in God when others fear.  These are just a few of the reasons He still has us breathing and walking on this road called life.

Note:  I haven't had time to look into other ways to build links but last week I went through a link previously set up on a friend's blog to place an order and it seemed to work to take me to Amazon with her Associate's link.  So, past links should still work.  Sigh... 

Added:  Here is that link I promised.  Trump's Bible article... here.