Cities burn. Rioters and anarchists seek to 'tear down the system,' in the name of 'social justice.'

Hatred and anger and tensions spill into downtown streets and into suburbs. 

A streaming service airs a show that sexualizes children. Children.

Cancel that service (Netflix) by the way, and let them know why. 

Police officers are now being targeted (and some are fighting for their lives as of this writing), simply because they are law enforcement officers. 

Recent research shows that nearly 20% of Millennials, Gen Z believe JEWS caused the Holocaust, almost 60% did not know that six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, and some 30% believe the number of Jews who died in the Holocaust is exaggerated. 

We are destroying history and as a result cannot remember it nor learn from it. We are destined to....repeat it. 

Cries of 'racist' fill the air and our streets, (among many other chants that are inappropriate to write about). People do not trust one another.

Somehow 'peaceful protests' also involve body armor, bats with spikes and shields as groups of people shut down freeways, block access to hospitals and rampage through sections of cities both large and small.

This is not to deny that racism exists. Racism is real and it is evil. Racism is hating and seeking to oppress or harm someone or a group, because of their ethnicity. 

The reality is, there are racist people in every ethnic group. Ever since our first parents fell, this hatred of others has been a terrible stain on the human soul. We have seen horrible things take place throughout history due to racism, whether it was the Holocaust, or the 100 days of ethnic cleansing in Rwanda, as Hutus slaughtered Tutsi's. It is estimated that over 800,000 people were slaughtered in the most barbaric of ways, while the world simply...monitored. The long-standing hatred of the Tutsi's by the Hutu majority finally reached the tipping point. Once the killing began, it would not stop for 100 days. That was 1994.

Or it could be the 1992 Serbian Genocide when Servian and Bosnian Serbs sought to exterminate Bosniaks. 

It could be the KKK or a Neo-Nazi group. It could be La Raza or Nation of Islam or radical elements of any extremists group. 

It could be the neighbor next door who simply hates his neighbor because of his or her skin color.

Racism is not the domain of any one particular ethnic group. It is a terrible stain on the human heart and that sin can take root in anyone's life, no matter the color of their melanin.

The desire to destroy, to burn down, to demean and to defy God's designs for marriage, family, human sexuality, gender and  the dignity of each person as well as  the sanctity of life, not to mention the growing desire, among some, to abandon protecting the most vulnerable among us-children, is quite dark. 

These are evil days.

I would like to tell you 'things will get better,' but I do not want to offer false hope. 

No party, no politician, no person, and no political system or group of activists can change the human heart nor fix the growing depravity in the heart of men and women.  

Meaning: while the election is important on many levels, no matter who is elected, our national soul sickness will remain. It's not going to get better, and it has all of the markings of God's judgment (God handing us over to our desires) that we see in Romans 1.

I'm not a 'doom and gloom' person, I am looking at the culture and Scripture and being honest with you.

Would you prefer a lie? It will all get better soon if you just elect the right person or if you just go about your business and stay out of things?

No. It won't. And, so many people today who have been just 'minding their own business' have been caught in the crossfires of this season of hate and destruction.

If you are a Christian, let me tell you what we must do, who we must be. First, we must return to the Lord our God wholeheartedly. We must repent of our cultural Christianity, for in that we were neither hot nor cold. We were the salt that lost its saltiness, the light hidden under a bushel. We were ambassadors for Christ who went undercover and represented OUR interest (self-preservation and self-advancement) and not our King's. 

We must repent and return to Him.

Second, we must cry out for mercy and for boldness, specifically to speak the Truth boldly and in love.

'But that might get me in trouble.'

Yep. Jesus said as much, and He also said, 'deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow Me,' along with, 'if they persecuted Me, they'll persecute you.' 

We must engage. For too long Christians have sat back and demanded to be entertained and coddled and comforted, never inconvenienced, and in that, we have become a very weak, spiritually anemic bunch. 

It's so much easier to complain about the darkness and try to 'lay low' to avoid any problems than it is to take up your cross and follow Him.

It seems that way of course, but in reality, over the long-haul, it is not. It creates more problems.

Christ is the Only Hope for our nation. Period. He is the only One that changes hearts and systems and people and we need Him. 

Desperately. 

We are all made in His Image. Jesus died for people from every 'nation, tribe and tongue.' All are precious to Him.

He loves the little children. He formed them in the mother's womb. These precious image bearers need our protection, not to be exploited, and not to be killed in the womb.

Weep for America. Weep and cry out to God for mercy. Stop complaining and stop making excuses, because He has placed each of us here for 'such a time as this.' 

We have a mission. We were saved for this purpose. 

May we return to Him wholeheartedly, and may we show a broken and dying culture that is plunging into darkness, the True Light of the world. 

Even if it costs us. 

This nation needs Christ. If you are His follower, you have a role in these days. We all do. 

May we run this race well, and may the God Above All Creation have mercy on this land.

Grace to You,

Pastor