they did not stop

I never consciously realized it, but I guess I’ve always had this idea that if Christians work hard enough, we can reform, if not the whole world, then at least part of it. I had a sobering realization this morning: immorality and evil are just a thing we’ll deal with until the end of time. It may be that our work isn’t saving the world, but carrying the message. 

Here’s why I say that: Revelation 9:20-21: “The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.”

After a five-month scourge of horse-like locusts who stung like scorpions, a massive army of 200 million horsemen of death (10,000 times 10,000 times two) swept over the land. These calamities spared the ones marked as God’s, but not the rest. Even so, people clung to their sin.

God’s church can’t and won’t do anything like that, so why do I think we can change this country? Why do I act as though it’s up to us? Why do I believe there is anything humans can do that will purify our cultural immorality? Only God can change hearts, and only God can bless a nation with revival.

This realization just drives home to me how critical that first Christmas was. Without Jesus and without the cross, there would be none of us with the mark of God on our foreheads. We’d all be in the same place: unrepentant murders and idolaters who worship demons and idols. None of us would have a chance.

That doesn’t mean there’s nothing for me to do. I think my role is to pray and to praise, and to tell anyone and everyone who will listen how good God has been to me. God’s call on his people is to help put his mark on more foreheads.