Why the Mourning Matters

Trump won another primary, another caucus.  He is winning even amidst the Bible toters, those that profess Christ.  These voters seem to not care that Trump has declared he has no need of God's forgiveness.  Voters are clamoring to usher in a narcissistic President who has blatantly said he has no need of God.  My head spins, but I'm not shocked.  God continues to give us over to a depraved mind; the proof is in the pudding.  We can no longer think with a sound mind.

My hope rises like cream:  we could repent; God could relent.

But, the downward spiral overtakes my hope.  I turn on the news and see how good is evil and evil is good.  If men feel that they harbor a female's soul, they can enter a woman's restroom.  Who is to stop a pedophile from stating he has a woman's soul and entering a girl's bathroom?  We have called ourselves gods and made our own laws.  We are truly a sick people in desperate need of a truth rescuing Healer.

In the book of Hosea, there was no knowledge of God in the land.  The people were destroyed for their lack of knowledge.  The knowledge fled when they rejected the truth.  God won't have to destroy us, we will destroy ourselves.  Without a vision, the people perish.  Perhaps God's judgment will simply be to let us continue down the spiral. 

Even in severe mercy, intervene, Lord.  We nee You to step down.

Mourning our sin filled land matters.  God is pleased with tears that fall for the loss of a righteous country. 

"We should be weeping.  We should be appalled, disgusted, shocked, and grieved in the depths of our hearts over our sin.  All our sin is treason against God.  Not just the prideful, lying, stealing, and lusting sins but sins of the tongue, sins of anxiousness, sins of bitterness, sins of partiality, sins of complacency, sins of jealously, sins of impatience, and sins of arrogance. We should grieve over them all."  Jared Mulvilhill

In Ezekiel 9, right after God showed the prophet all of the nation's sins, God tells a man to set a mark on the foreheads of the men that sigh and cry for all the abominations that have occurred in their land.  Those that had grieved over the detestable state of their country were marked and set apart.

"These pious few had witnessed against those abominations and had done what they could in their places to suppress them, but, finding all their attempts for the reformation of matters fruitless, they sat down, and sighted, and cried, wept in secret, and complained to God, because of the dishonor done to his name by their wickedness and the ruin it was bringing upon their church and nation."  Matthew Henry

Those that mourned were marked and spared.  The rest were slain.

I know that we as new covenant believers are marked by the blood of Jesus.  It is sufficient, praise God!  Such wondrous comfort we splash in, knowing we are marked and sealed as His.  That said, I wonder if God is still pleased when we mourn our sin and the sin of our land.  The Beatitudes would imply He is.  "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."  The sorrow we have for our own sin and the sin of our beloved country brings about the promise of comfort, because we know the Holy Spirit sees our mourning and wraps us up in His affectionate arms.  The heart anguish that rises to our good Father declares us as blessed, "makarioi," characterized by the quality of God.

We are like our blessed Savior when we weep over sin.  And there in no higher blessing than being like Christ. 

{A mourner's prayer:  Great and gracious God, beauty emanates from your pores and mercy highlights your eyes.  We have transgressed your ways.  We have called good evil and evil good.  Our tears fall endlessly; we can hardly see while driving.  Our hearts feel like someone threw a million pounds of thick mortar onto them.  We cast our burden for our nation onto Your shoulders.  You are Big enough.  You are Strong enough.  You are Gracious enough.  You are simply Enough for our sin-sick land.  We praise You for marking us and setting us apart.  We are the Remnant and one day, all the sorrow will fade.  Thank you for giving us hearts that break when Your heart breaks. Come quickly, King Jesus. We would love to see Enough manifest before our very eyes.}