Congress, electoral college, fear and the call the repent

 Reading This Is the Life!: Enjoying the Blessings and Privileges of Faith in Christ

My favorite author, Warren Wiersbe, links Job 23:10, 1 Peter 4:12-13, 3:10; Tested, refined as gold, partake in Christ suffering, exceeding joy and in my mind I continued the linking: Hebrews 12:1-3, in light of Faith (Heb 11),

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,  fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

The relevance to me is yesterday, our nation went into lockdown over a conspiracy theory that elections are not the people's will. Some Trump supporters want to overthrow the government and think that will preserve democracy. I had to flip through Fox and CNN to hear each senator speak on the topic and finally went to CSPAN, where I could listen to each side and not the pundits. Seems like our world is going crazy sometimes. 

In prayer and Bible study this morning, I realized that we live in a time where our natural instinct to lie is on steroids. Genesis 20:1-2 shows a truth about people; We go somewhere people don't know us and lie about our situation. The lie is generally partly true or previously true, but it's a defense mechanism that never works because God intervenes (Gen 20:3-7). God reveals the truth to people that help guide believers onto a righteous path, yet God's people are often slow to follow and defend themselves with wrong thinking (Gen 20:13). 

All of this brought me back to Romans 1:18-32, Diagnostics of depraved psychology and consequences. We must remember this letter to the church and have that see our current national reality:

 - We are in a time of massive adultery. Jesus in Matthew 5:28 said, "anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart." and "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander. (Matthew 15:19)"

 - We are in a time of massive murder of innocents. Good resource openbible.info/topics/abortion brought me to Acts 15:28-29, "For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”