My Musings – “We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.” (President Abraham Lincoln). “You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children’s children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done.” (President Ronald Reagan).
I fear that I am seeing more clearly as each days passes our “rendezvous with destiny” as a nation slipping away. That we are “meanly” losing this “last best hope of man on earth.” Maybe we have been this “hope,” and maybe we never were. For man’s best, at the last, would never have been enough or lasting. And, of course, man’s best is never perfect. Goodness knows that America has had, and continues to have, its faults.
There is indeed a thousand years coming. A thousand years of light, not darkness. But it will not be America that ushers it in. But before that, there will be darkness. Darker than even now. Three and a half to seven years of it. Maybe God has used America as His “last best hope” to delay the darkness, and maybe not. But in any event, why the delay? “Do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:8–9, NIV 1984).
Whether or not we are able (rather if God allows us) to “preserve [this delay] for our children,” should “we fail, let our children [there may be no children’s children] say of us we justified our brief moment here,” and that “we did all that could be done.”
One final question. Why the darkness before the light? “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. Then one of the elders asked me, ‘These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?’ I answered, ‘Sir, you know.’ And he said, ‘These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’ ” (Revelation 7:9, 13–14, NIV 1984). God will use the darkness to bring a “great multitude” into the light. Even in His wrath there is grace.
My Advice – Have you ever wondered what the first century Church might have to say about the last century Church? If it so happens that we are among those of the last century Church, may they say that we “did all that could be done.” What are you doing? Let’s do all that we can to help “nobly save” as many as we can. God continues to grant us a delay. Let’s make the most of it.
The Brew Is A Musing 