Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.  All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts.  Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.  But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

• Ephesians 2:1-5

“I am reminded of a period when all the agonies that afflict modern minds were felt by another generation, the young people who lived during the first century after Christ.  They too sought change, but they directed their efforts at individuals, not at the Roman Empire, not at City Hall.  And eventually the whole social and political structure felt their impact.  In short, those renewed men and women became filled with a unique dynamic force.  Today this same force is available to all people.  Over the centuries it has worked in the lives of millions.  I personally have seen thousands of people changed.  Jesus called it ‘a new birth.’  The Scripture tells us that you need not continue as you are.  You can become a new person.  Whatever your hang-up: guilt, anxiety, fear, hatred – God can handle it.”

• Billy Graham, Day by Day with Billy Graham (November 4)

I have lamented over the election results enough.  Many Christians did not vote in the election because they hated the caustic atmosphere around Trump, even though he did not cause most of it, and they could not in good conscience vote for a candidate that supports abortion, among many abominable issues in Dem party’s platform.  The results, if they ever get decided for certain, will leave a nation in turmoil instead of the promised “unity,” always wondering about unproven voter fraud.

No, I am going back to my usual answer whenever politics comes up.  If Billy Graham’s thought of a national revival, in a devotional published in 1965, were to come to pass today, the law makers would have to pay attention or be out of office.  I like Billy Graham’s humble words in saying that he had witnessed thousands change their lives.  Just before his passing, one of his last ‘crusades’ was a crusade of Hope distributed electronically through DVD and booklets and over his website.  In the packet of materials, it showed the estimates of those who had come to Christ through his previous crusades, in the millions.  Then again, he had been doing it for a long time by 1965 and beyond a standard work life after.

National revival, as Billy Graham stated is not done at the national level or at first in the political sphere, but at the individual level, one on one.  We each much be reborn, or if already reborn, revived, filled with the Spirit, whatever it takes to put our faith into action.  When you love a loving Savior and you show that love toward others, it is contagious.  And as the crowds grow, the surrounding society will take notice.

And if the society does not take notice, look over your shoulder.  Do you see the parting in the clouds?  When the Christian message cannot make that effect on society, can Jesus be far from His return?

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.