America, 24 Years Later

This morning I shared the following on social media:
Cain killed Abel because he didn’t rule over the sin that was at his door (Gen. 4:1-8).

Today is the anniversary of 9/11, it is the day after Charlie Kirk was assassinated. I saw a comment on a friend’s post that said, while violence should never be condoned, he understood while people didn’t have sympathy for Charlie, because Charlie hurt people.

Charlie had respectful conversation with everyone. You may disagree with him, policies you wanted may have been stopped from his efforts, but he actually never hurt anyone. He tried steering the polarized sides together through conversation and he was taken out because of it.

You don’t have sympathy for Charlie? What about his wife and two little kids? This person said violence wasn’t the answer, but goes on to basically give justification for violence.

For a few weeks after September 11, 2001 America was united, at least that’s the way it seemed. Rs and Ds stood hand in hand singing God Bless America.

As I look at the reaction from yesterday, I’m sad. One liberal news network the moment after he was shot called him a divisive figure?!?

My heart breaks for America. My heart hurts for anyone who could in their mind justify the murder of a guy they politically and religiously disagreed with.

That is not normal, it is demonic. School shootings are demonic, there is a spirit running rampant in this country of hate, division, lies and murder.

We can’t turn a blind eye to the devil anymore, we can’t continue to ignore spiritual warfare, we can’t just act like this is typical human depravity.

On this anniversary of 9/11 I cannot bring myself to talk about national unity because our nation doesn’t want it. Well, we are getting what we want and the only thing that will stop the madness is the church crying out to God, sharing the gospel, and seeing hearts changed one person at a time.

Father, I ask for mercy on this nation, that we would turn and repent, that we would seek You and love one another. We ask that those given over to evil would be found before they commit terrible acts. Lord heal this nation. Comfort Charlie’s family and friends and the victims of the school shooting. Lord help us in Jesus’s name.

We say Never Forget in regards to 9/11. The truth is, we have forgotten. The assassination of Charlie Kirk is proof that the unity of democrats and republicans singing God Bless America is gone. The fact that people are justifying why someone would take him out shows just where much of this country is. School shootings have become the norm, yet Christian leaders hold worship events around the country, have one-day events at the capital, and proclaim revival as the nation continues to descend further and further downward and farther from God.

It’s time for the Church to wake up, these celebrity Christian events accomplish nothing for the Kingdom, they simply line the pockets of the grifters.

Every year on this day, I talk about unity; I can’t today. This country doesn’t want unity; both sides want to hate each other, and I’m talking about the voters. We like podcasters trading jabs and going after one another. Exposure podcasts in the Church are calling people away from toxic leadership, all while trying to draw those people to themselves. The Church has been a business for a long time; it crosses denominational and theological lines. We’ve got to have conferences, headliners, and book deals. If all the fame, the sales, likes, and shares went away, ask yourself, would my favorite still do ministry?

A few years ago, a guy I watched on YouTube said he needed to raise a certain amount of money to keep his channel going. The next day, he announced that he’d only raised $25 and took most of his content down. Later on, he put all the content back up and is making videos again, but it bothered me because this guy constantly talked about having multiple streams of income to fund the ministry. Huh.

My heart breaks for how I have been led around by my nose by ministries, so many of us have and still are to some extent. I truly want to know: we’ve been doing Save America events for decades now, so why hasn’t anything changed? Surely we have enough faith? Maybe we haven’t been consistent? Or maybe we have been, it’s just that the leaders of this supposed revival movement are frauds. Some have been found out to be in recent months.

We are in the time of Elul, let us hear the sound of the shofar and break the bands of celebrity ministries that bind us, grab our Bibles, and follow Jesus. Fellowship with people you know, resist the spirit of drama and entanglement. Let us each repent of individual and corporate sin. Let’s humble ourselves and ask God to heal our land. Only God, not a movement, can bring healing.