“… for their sin has not yet reached its full measure.”     Genesis 15:16

(Prologue from early manuscript, Edge of Eternity, by Elizabeth Noyes)

Each day we hear of atrocities committed against innocents. Journalists present these graphic, horrifying images under the guise of journalism in their search for even more heinous crimes to sensationalize. But the horrors pass. The people become inured, which prompts the newshounds to greater heights. Or depths.

As if man’s capacity for cruelty wasn’t enough, the weather seems to have turned on us as well. Natural disasters wreak havoc across the world. Massive earthquakes. Volcanos. Floods. Hurricanes. Tsunamis. Tornados. Freak storms. Mudslides. Wildfires.

In many places, temperatures soar past century levels. Lake levels plummet. Water supplies dry up. Records highs are recorded only to be surpassed again and again. Droughts give birth to famines that decimate the population. Disease follows. Epidemics rampage. Millions succumb to heat, starvation; illness; and escalating hostilities. In many places, survival has become a raw, basic need.

And in the background, never before seen cosmic events fill the sky.

Tensions between countries are stretched to the breaking point. Strife reigns. Smaller nations withdraw into self-imposed isolation and brace for an unknown future. Armies double and triple in size as the world powers grow uneasy about the military posturing of their foes. The world appears ripe for a global pandemic … or another world war.

Back here in the most favored nation on earth, we go about our abundant lives without a care, but we aren’t immune from the misfortunes of the world. Some of us begin to worry.

Illegal immigrants flood our nation. Terrorists infiltrate our land. Insanity seems to be the order of the day as senseless killings become commonplace events. Heinous crimes multiply in our copycat culture. Nothing seems too outrageous or evil. We acclaim monsters while reviling the innocent; applaud narcissism while disparaging true heroes. All the while, the economy falters and the national debt spirals out of control.

Americans have grown soft, complacent, and yes, wicked. We abandoned the Christian foundation established by our forefathers and now, instead of truth and justice, we pursue wealth, fame, and depravity. Respect for life is a luxury only the powerful can afford.

The government grows larger and more inefficient every year, requiring its citizens to feed an insatiable hunger. Its branches pierce deep into personal lives with controls over housing, food, payroll, healthcare, purchasing, taxes, and education. They have supplanted parental rights over children enrolled in public schools. They prescribe medications to keep the kids controllable, promote sexual promiscuity, require acquiescence to foreign religions, ban all things Christian, and require teaching of a rewritten history that is the antithesis of truth.

Legislative mandates renounce Christianity, labeling much of its doctrine as “hate” speech and punishing anyone who dares express an opposing view.

The American populace has been cowed, coaxed into personal cocoons of isolation for fear of retribution. Exceptions are the rule. Minorities have usurped the power of the people in a classic case of the “tail wagging the dog.”

The United States of America is a country in circular transformation. When oppression and bondage once motivated our ancestors to search for a new home, the taste of freedom gave them the faith and courage to demand freedom. Liberty under a free market always leads to
abundance. Unfortunately, history tells us abundance will inevitably lead to complacency, and complacency to apathy. Apathetic Indifference will succumb to dependency, and we all know what happens when we rely on another for everything. We find ourselves back in bondage.

Lazy or unknowing, the good people of these great United States have embraced the promise of the government to take care of them. We’ve taught a whole generation of our children to look for a handout. The redistribution of money from wealthier citizens – money hard earned under a free market capitalist society – is no longer theirs to spend as they want. Our politicians make blatant, outrageous promises they never intend to keep, but big money carries a lot of weight and special interest groups use their financial clout to elect and keep in office those “career” senators, representatives, and governors they can manipulate.

Track records mean nothing. Promises are everything. The American citizen wants so badly to believe in a higher road again … so they believe. What other choice is there?  And after awhile we stop being disappointed.

Apathy is already here. Dependence is underway. Slavery lurks around the corner. Lessons of the past had not been heeded again. The United States is coming full circle, as all great democracies throughout history have done when they abandon the sovereign God.

And all the while, our enemies sit and wait, slavering like jackals.

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Took the “grands” to deliver food to the Southeast Gwinnett Food Co-op earlier this week. Wanted them to see how blessed we are and how they can help others. 7yo Reid took a long time studying everything before whispering to Grampy, “This store doesn’t have much to buy.” The kind volunteer working that day squatted down next to my little guy and explained how it wasn’t a store; rather it was a place where people who don’t have enough money to feed their family can get food for them. You should have seen the frown on Reid’s face as he thought about this.

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Remove the Giblets, Wash, Stuff, and Baste, Baste, Baste!

 (Or How to Become a Savory Christian)

Never one to question whether I can do something or not, I’ve always taken the bull by the horns and plunged in. Mostly it works out in my favor, but once upon a time a frozen turkey, with a top secret “surprise” tucked inside, defeated me completely. To this day I’ve never attempted to cook another turkey. Kroger does a fine job. Honey Baked Ham, too.

It strikes me the Thanksgiving turkey tradition is a great deal like the process of becoming a Christian. Let’s start with the basic turkey. The fowl, not the person.

Turkeys are plucked clean and washed, after which they’re packaged, up and shipped off to the local supermarket, ready to be seasoned and cooked.

We bring the turkey home, remove the wrappings, and reveal the bird in all its glory. Or do we see everything? If we look deeper, what might we find? Aha! A hidden treasure. Stuck up inside the dark cavity where many never look are the – giblets! Yuck. What are giblets anyway?

You have two choices at this point: Throw the packet away (or feed them to the dog) or transform them into something delicious. We’ll save that thought for later.

Next, you wash and rinse the turkey – inside and out to get rid of all the remaining yukky stuff that clings to every surface. Then you gently pat it dry. Now it’s ready for the real promise. Remember that wonderful smell of roasting turkey done just right?

You generously sprinkle the turkey with salt and pepper, add the stuffing, and baste with butter– lots of butter. Place the bird in the over for a time determined by its weight and—voila! A Thanksgiving bird that makes your mouth water.

Don’t people arrive in this world much the same way? Bare, needing a bath, swaddled, and ready to be seasoned for a lifetime? Don’t we come ready-made with our own hidden secrets? Sins that would surprise our family and friends? Some of those sins can be  pretty yucky.

But when Christ, who chose from before the beginning of time, picks us up from the supermarket of life and takes us home, he cleans us inside and out, pats us dry, and sprinkles us with His own seasonings—love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. He replaces the yucky stuff with His Word and bastes us continuously in His mercy and grace while we cook in life’s oven.

The Christian turkey won’t finish cooking in this life, but we can be ever so aromatic, a savory draw for others who could become like us. A pleasing aroma for Jesus.

Oh yeah, about those giblets…chop fine, add a LOT of seasoning, and cook until tender and quite tasty. So too can our sins can be transformed into something finer – a reflection of God.

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“…for their sin has not yet reached its full measure.” 

─ Genesis 15:16

 The United States of America—home of the free, land of the brave, global economic leader, military superpower, land of opportunity—walks a razor’s edge.Having already forsaken many of the Christian tenets on which her forefathers founded this great nation, she abandons all religious constraints without regret. Lady Liberty stares blithely into the future. Her cup of iniquity overflows, spilling faster and faster, unstoppable in the downward spiral toward ruin. Destruction does not come right away, but the course is set. Judgment has been rendered, and a mighty and terrible woe approaches.

For now though, dawn breaks with languorous effort, in red and gold smudges that strain against the purple bonds of night. The colors intensify on the horizon heralding a newborn morning sun that ascends into an endless sky. It is the recurring promise of a new day, a glorious day.

Weather patterns turn erratic. Natural disasters abound. Violent crime disturbs even the most jaded. But we become inured and our outrage eases. Despite all the privilege and plenty granted to Americans, the generations have grown soft. Wickedness finds a foothold as the current populace turns their backs on our heritage.

The American government, already immense,  reaches monstrous proportions. It becomes more inefficient and corrupt with each passing year, requiring the citizens to feed its insatiable hunger for more power. The many branches delve deep into personal lives to control housing, food, payroll, retirement savings, healthcare, and education. Legislative mandates take away parental rights and force Christian organizations to close their doors. The Gospel is considered hate speech, while radical Islam is idealized.

The cowed people withdraw into cocoons of isolation, caring only for their own circumstances, fearful of losing their islands of comfort and ease.

The United States is a country in circular transformation.

America’s founding fathers would be appalled. Our ancestors fought against bondage and oppression. Their faith and courage led them to demand liberty, but freedom commands a price and the cost is always paid in blood. Liberty under a free market advances abundance, which must be judiciously and individually guarded, for overabundance leads to an inevitable complacency, which quickly turns to apathy. Apathy transmutes into dependency and—well, everyone knows where dependency leads. Today, a new form of bondage looms on our horizon.

What one generation tolerates, the next generation condones, and the generation after that embraces. The good people of these great United States have abdicated their right to decide what is best for them and their families. They look instead to the government to provide every need, dictate every move, and manage their lives. Taxes are raised again and again. The country teeters, continually on the brink of recession. The proud nation that once cried, “Give me your tire, your…” is now tired and poor herself.

Politicians make blatant promises they never intend to keep. Track records mean nothing. Truth is ridiculed by a corrupt judicial system and debased by the media. Laws in force since the days of our founding fathers are flagrantly bent or even broken without repercussion. The people of the U.S. grow more jaded with each election. They want so much to hope, to believe in the change promised, so they do. What other choice do they have? After awhile, they stop being disappointed and just…accept. Apathy arrives, dependence approaches, and slavery lurks around the corner.

But the U.S is not the only nation in trouble. Mother Nature is in a fury. She unleashes her wrath over the entire planet. In South America, volcanoes roar to life. Floods in India sweep entire towns away. Trails of devastation follow in the wake of Caribbean hurricanes. Mudslides bury entire villages in Central America. Raging forest fires threaten the American est. Massive snow storms immobilize Russia where people freeze to death in their homes.  Massive earthquakes wrack Asia. Mammoth sea storms plague the European coast, spawning monstrous waves that capsize oceangoing freighters.

The natural disasters are indiscriminate in the carnage they bring, but it is the lack of rain around the world that takes the greatest toll. This year alone, millions of people will die—some from starvation, some from disease that always follows such events. But the highest price will be paid the innocents caught between opposing forces. Weakness draws the hungry wolves. Hostilities always feed off endemic hardship.

The world’s armies double and triple in size because ruling governments grow uneasy about their neighbors’ military posturing. Sabers rattle and armaments proliferate. Terrible weapons, already in the making, are no longer measured in the tons of destruction energy they emit. Instead, they are gauged by their kill radius, by how far the devastation will extend.

Tempers flare between world powers until the smaller nations withdraw into self-imposed isolation, fearing for their very existence. At some point they know a decision will be required, a side chosen. They cannot stand alone indefinitely. The price is too high.

All of these catastrophes and world unrest were described by the prophets thousands of years ago. Many of the signs foretold in the Bible have already come to pass, so we watch and wait for the remaining prophecies to unveil. The United States, once unshakable in her Christian beliefs, has turned its back on God. She rejects His favor and now falters on the threshold of eternity. America is coming full circle, just as all great democracies have done throughout the history.The lessons of the past are not heeded again. The world around us erupts in chaos, ripe for global pandemic, primed for another world war.

We are left with a terrible question to ponder: What is America’s role in the future? More to the point, what will our personal role be in the times to come?

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