The End Seems Near

I returned Thursday afternoon from a wonderful week of vacation with our family and began to immediately be struck by the sorry state our country and the world is in. For almost a week I had been disconnected from the news and I must say "ignorance is bliss." Upon returning I heard more about the tragedy in Benghazi, the dereliction of duty by the current administration who knew about the attacks and yet decided to adopt a "wait and see" attitude and continue prioritizing campaign stops. I was reminded that this tragic foreign policy failure is also a matter of deception of the highest order as the administration perpetrated a pack of lies that were fed to the American people about a "spontaneous riot that occurred as a result of an offensive video." I am so deeply distraught over the irresponsibility and incompetence of our President, then Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, and the entire administration. This was a failure of monumental proportions that resulted in the loss of 4 people's lives. Not only was nothing done to come to the aid and defense of our people on the ground, but actual orders were given that denied the deployment of people to come to the aid of those under attack. Then the cover-up began that consisted of blatant, bold, and repeated lies to the American public about what happened. Any honest thinking person must recognize that if we have been lied to about the matter of Benghazi then how can we trust anything that we are being told. Then I began to hear about the IRS scandal of targeting "Conservative Groups" for harassment. Facts reveal that politically conservative and evangelical Christian groups were specifically targeted by the IRS in a discriminatory way. The resigning IRS commissioner Steven Miller has admitted to the failure of the IRS to remain impartial and has himself been found to have withheld knowledge of such targeting from Congress when he did in fact know it was taking place. The IRS is viewed with disdain and distrust already and these violations and prejudices do nothing to remove these stereotypes. Again we have scandal,distrust, dishonesty, injustice, inequity, and cover-up swirling. All evidence of the erosion of moral excellence in our society. And there is the issue of Herbert Gosnell and the mass murder mill that he operated in Pennsylvania performing late term abortions and the barbaric taking of the lives of innocent children who survived them. While a jury ruled that he was guilty of murder it remains to be seen whether this case will serve as a platform for reversing the collective conscience regarding the horrors of abortion in the U.S. I could continue to list events, injustices, prejudices, world events that reveal a troubling trend. It truly appears that we are much closer to the time that Peter mentions in 1Peter 1:7 when he stated, "The end of all things is at hand; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer." As I read this yesterday it struck me that in light of the difficulties, increased hostilities towards Christians, eroding moral values, and decadence of society that we are living in the last days and must be alert to the realities-- "be of sound judgment and sober spirit." We are to see things for what they are. There is a moral vacuum in this country and the response of believers ought to be PRAYER. So join me in praying for repentance,revival, for redeeming of lost people, for readiness to suffer for the Gospel.