Perishing -- E-day minus ten

There is a fairly large sector of this country that has the overall attitude that nothing bad could ever happen to us. After all, we are the United States. We’re smart. We’re rich. We’re powerful. We’re safe.

And then we have another sector that mournfully declares that we’re wicked, weak, and deserving of every evil known to man.

We’re all wrong, too.

The truth is that there are many, many people in this country who love God and do everything they know to do to show it. Folks who give their lives to rescuing those who are perishing; others who give thousands and thousands of dollars to assist them in their mission. So when you suggest that America is wicked and deserving of judgment, are you talking about these folks? Are you talking about yourself?

When the people do not have a vision, they perish. They go down, down, down. They lose hope; they lose direction; they have no intention; they have no purpose. And before long, they do have a vision: it’s a vision of perishing. And if those who have no vision perish, how much more will they perish who have a vision of perishing?

But if you have a vision to save those who are perishing, everything changes. While Florence Nightingale was tending to the wounded on the battlefield, I can guarantee you there were other women who were cowering in their homes not far away, terrified that they might be destroyed. Florence had no time to waste on that. She was too busy saving lives. She was free.

That same choice is available to each of us. I’ve been hearing for nearly twenty-five years that the sky was about to fall. Meanwhile, every year I see improvement in my finances. Like the Red Cross, those who have their mind set on tending to the wounded are not bound by the same rules everyone else must live by. A thousand may fall at my side, but that just increases my opportunity for effectiveness; it doesn’t mean that I will fall. What happens to someone else is by no means an indicator of what will happen to me.

We have wasted enough years, basing our decisions and our attitudes on the news that is reported to us, and to what purpose? What have we ever gained by it? We don’t need the vision that "they" (whoever "they" may be) put in front of us. We need a vision from God. We need a word from the Lord. For too long we have allowed ourselves to be influenced by even our well­meaning Christian friends, until we find ourselves in the same boat with the rest of the world—floating downstream, too apathetic to do anything but forward the latest bad-news email.

I’ve had that vision of perishing, and I think it’s even worse to envision perishing, than to be dead. So shake it off! Get with God and get His mind. He wants to deliver those who are perishing.

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