Liberating the Bride

The battle lines have been drawn. The dust and corn husks blow in the Illinois wind. The enemies are now staring each other down with squinty eyes of steely resolve. It reminds me of some scene out of Tombstone where Wyatt has his hand resting on Peacemaker, his companion six-shooter. The flint-faced preacher has his hand on a leather-bound Bible, facing down the tyrannical bad guy spewing vile threats while backed-up by a Naziesque bureaucracy of villains. The country parson stands against the socialist machine embodied by the regime of Illinois governor J. B. Pritzker. The richest politician in America, who also holds a law degree and is protected by “executive power”, faces a regular guy who was not yet consistently paid his $500 salary backed by his wife and forty faithful church members. David, with his five rocks and few bleating sheep, clad in his Carhartt shepherd’s cloak, confronts the well-dressed billionaire governor Goliath, who has the national guard standing behind him while he thunders in fearmongering press conferences, preaching death to the masses for noncompliance to his ever-changing will. In terrorized solidarity, the complete state government opposes an unknown nobody with no connections, no friends in high (or low) places, no money, no lawyers, and no public support.

Worse yet, nearly all the other churches in America were complying with the mandates, making us look like fringe or cult weirdos. The legal odds were bleak no matter what the perspective. There was an advantage that we had, though, just like David in the famous battle. We had a covenant with God and a covenant with our Founding Fathers declared in a nearly 250-year-old piece of parchment paper that stood in our defense, called the Bill of Rights. I know that you do not know me personally, but those around me know that I do not go around saying, “God told me … God said to me …” very often. Overly using statements like that has the potential of maligning God’s character, and that is something I pray I never do. Yet in this case, I had diligently sought the Lord and His will in the matter. I was fully convinced that it was our divine mission to fight, to the bitter end, with whatever we had in our hand. As Thomas Paine said in inspiration to the soldiers of the American Revolution, “give me liberty or give me death!”

The necessary conviction and resolve were solidly fixed. Patriots and martyrs of the past were composing a great cloud of witnesses surrounding me with exhortations of cannon and camaraderie, righteous motivations to take a stand even if it seemed lonely, because I was not alone in spirit.

Another tangible advantage tipping the scales to our favor was that I had a deep revelation of God’s faithfulness. He has never let anyone down. “Never” is a “God word,” and so I use it very cautiously. But describing the character of God requires “God words” for proper accuracy. This deep understanding of faithfulness permeated my own character so thoroughly that it has become one of my greatest personal goals to fully apprehend. Even more invigorating, I was fighting for the Bride of Christ, the Church of the Lord Jesus. How many people get the humble opportunity to fight for the most beautiful and precious bride ever?

To build a divine opportunity for victory, and to become truly faithful, there is a patient process that cannot be usurped. That is frustrating to our microwave, fast-food, self-centered culture. To authentically accept a heavenly calling and be ready to fully embrace what will be necessary to that calling, it is required of that servant to be continuously faithful. “Faithful” is an adjective that can be applied only to a person who has spent years (maybe decades) in humility and submission toward God and the people He has placed around him or her. God is raising up these people today as we go into THE Great Awakening. Let this book inspire you to be a part of that generation who accepts the Holy Cause of Liberty for our neighbors and the Church.