Having grown up near Lake Superior, I am familiar with the sound and fury of the waves breaking on the shores of the great lake.  Ps. 93 reminds us that God is “robed in majesty and is armed with strength.  The world stands firm and cannot be shaken” (v.1).  The Psalmist seems to describe his experience, “The floods have risen up, O Lord.  The floods have roared like thunder; the floods have lifted their pounding waves” v.2).  But he can confidently declares, “But mightier than the violent raging of the seas, mightier than the breakers on the shore – the Lord above is mightier than these!” (v. 4).

One way to describe the state of our nation is that of flood waters breaking in all upon us.  It can be typified by the chaos and confusion that is felt due to the completing voices speaking loudly for our attention and allegiance.  The sheer noise of conflicting opinions will only increase. It seems that the storm of discontent, misfortune, and misinformation has suddenly crashed in upon our shores.  The storm has been a long time in coming. It causes fear, anger and resignation in the hearts of many.  It almost seems like there is a spiritual component orchestrating the chaos and confusion.  I am afraid that social media will only keep creating even more of a storm.  

What are followers of Jesus to do?  We certainly cannot go and hide from the sounds of “bad news.”  We must keep engaged by announcing in both word and deed the “good news” of Jesus and his kingdom.  While staying engaged we also have a hiding place from the storm. We read in Psalm 32:6 -7, “Therefore, let all the godly pray to you while there is still time, that they may not drown in the floodwaters of judgment.  For you are my hiding place; you protect me from trouble.  You surround me with songs of victory.”

Men, the floodwaters of judgment could very well be ever increasing amidst the continual negative rhetoric being voiced by opposing voices.  Where in the chaos can one possibly hear “good news? Could it be in our present cultural condition, we are drifting further from the Lord, while worshiping the gods of our own making?  The confusion and uncertainty could be God’s warning,  allowing us to experience our own rebellion.  The Psalmist encourages us to “pray while there is still time.”  In other words, turn our hearts to the Lord and cry out for mercy.  The focus on the noise should not be our first concern.

In the midst of the present storm bearing down on our nation, the Psalmist offers us a lifeline.  The Lord is a “hiding place” able to protect us from trouble.  Not only a safe place, but also the assurance that we are surrounded with “songs of victory.”  The NET puts it this way:  “You surround me with shouts of joy from those celebrating deliverance.”  The Message is rather blunt.  “When all hell breaks loose and the dam burst, we’ll be on high ground, untouched.”  Men, we need to run for higher ground to be with others celebrating God’s victory in spite of the raising waters.

Later in the Psalm, the Message puts the advice of the Psalmist in blunt words. “Let me give you some good advice; I’m looking you in the eye and giving it to you straight: Don’t be ornery like a horse or mule that needs bit and bridle to stay on the track” (vs. 8-9).  Our loving Father is heaven looks us straight in the eye, warning us not to respond like an ornery horse or mule.  

“America and the West stand at a civilizational inflection point.”  These are the opening words in a guest article by Dr. John Seel at Aaron Renn’s blog.  “We are amid a 500-year historical geo-political inflection point,” observes Seel, “in which a Negative World is becoming an outright hostile world.”  

There are four primary shifts believers face;   Shift One: Christian to Post-Christian.  Our world is divorced from any reference to the sacred.  “We have shifted from societies based on fate and faith to one based on fiction.” What is distinctive today “is that it is a negation against all sacred orders and the verticals in authority that mediate the sacred to society….[this means] we cannot simply return to older approaches as they are no longer relevant to our cultural situation.”

Shift Two: Classical Liberalism to Nietzschean Nihilism ( Individual Rights to State Power).  “Social solidarity requires shared social beliefs.  When these are abandoned….. then politics naturally defaults and devolves to the will-to-power in a world where the leadership class believes in nothing…..This is the experiential definition of nihilism.”

Shift Three: Global West to Global East.  “The combined reality of these first two shifts is the growing global awareness of the spiritual and political demise of the West….The West is no longer seen as a desired model for the rest of the world.” The West has become the spiritual problem not the spiritual solution. “We are amid a global realignment that is lost on the State Department because it is blinded by our own Western spiritual corruption.

Shift Four. Enlightenment Rationalism to Post-Enlightenment Enchantment.  “We are rejecting forms of Enlightenment rationalism in favor of a more enchanted form of spirituality.”  There has been a rebirth of older and new forms of enchantment, such as neo-paganism and the occult.  Seel warns, “If we react to the rise of the occult with more rationalism, more courses of apologetics and worldview, more abstract dogmatism, we will miss an opportunity and be further marginalized culturally.”   

These changes in our world will soon change our lives.  Seel give three reasons.  Reason One: These realities are going to be  the context of discipleship for our children.   “We may be dead before the full weight of these shifts are felt culturally, but they will be the lived reality for our children and grandchildren.”

Reason Two: Our entire approach toward missions is going to have to change.  “The West represents the most strident global unreached people group……..Almost every ministry organization is going to have to learn to reframe, explore, and network their missional strategy.”  

Reason Three: These changes will greatly challenge our collective sense of identity.  We are going to experience tension between our political geographic citizenship and our spiritual citizenship in heaven.  “We’re going to have to develop a greater sensitivity to our Western and Enlightenment accomodation to the gospel.”  We need to have the orientation of being missionaries. 

Dr. Seel give this challenge: “We are as a Western Christian church at an historic inflection point.  We are at a point of decision.  To meet our moment, we will need the courage to face these realities, the humility to see God’s leading, and the discernment to balance innovation with historic orthodoxy.

Personally, I believe Dr. Seel is “spot on.”  Here is my challenge to men.  Reset your perspective on our nation.  Biblical beliefs are irrelevant,  in a culture where the last word is with the elites.  The West is the spiritual problem.  Yet there is a deep hunger for God.  Therefore, we must be motivated for the sake of our families.  Our nation is a mission field and we are now missionaries in a foreign land.