Thoughts… Post Butler

Just some thoughts a week or so after the assassination attempt. A few things I believe we need to keep in mind.

Obviously, everyone has seen the changing narratives. As is typical, the media rushes into stories with whatever they can get their hands on, be it fact, fable, rumor, or speculation. They all try to be first out of the gate with their story, hoping to spin things per their narrative. They start immediately crafting the story to be beneficial to their agenda. But as we know, these things develop, and so much of what's originally reported ends up not being true and very incomplete.

That's what we're seeing now.

Everything from drones being flown to multiple shooters and everything in between. As is typical with anything that's government/political, or anything that has to do with a shooting, it seems we never really get the whole story. There's never a definitive report that comes from the authorities, the FBI and other 3-letter bureaucracies, that makes any sense. One that we can look at and say, “okay, yeah, that makes sense. That explains everything.”

We just never see that.

From JFK to 9-11, we don't know. They don't tell us the truth. And so, speculation and conspiracy theories abound, and that's a good thing. That's how it's supposed to be. I'm not going to get into all the details. You guys probably have seen it all. I would caution though, to be a careful about things that are too crazy. Stick with things that are at least within the realm of possibility until the crazy fringe stuff starts to materialize in a way where it becomes possible. Not to say that we don't look at everything, and not to say that we don't doubt the authorities, because we should. But just don't get too carried away with fringe things and propagate them until there's more behind it. There's a lot of people out there that are just coming up with ideas on their own with really nothing but their own speculation. And there's a lot of people that are just posting all kinds of crazy stuff that they just made up. They get off on creating stories and seeing how many people will “like” them and share them.

As we must live now through this time of uncertainty, there's some things that we need to keep top of mind.

First, we may never know exactly what happened. But we do know a few things. We know that God has providentially been protecting President Trump for a long time now. There's not a person in political life, especially on the right, that could survive all the attacks that have been levied. I'm not going to list them all here. You know what they are. Now at the point of assassination, God's providence in Trump turning his head just that fraction of an inch to let everything unfold the way it did, was a miracle. And God has his reasons for Corey that was taken, and the other two that were wounded. Corey's reward will be great in heaven. We pray that the other two patriots heal quickly.

We may never know everything that happened, but we know enough.

We need to pray that God would be pleased to reveal all truth and that all the evil that's behind this, and all its depths, will be dragged into the light. That it is revealed and exposed, and that all people would be enabled to see it.

Second, we must prepare for what may be coming. If Trump was assassinated, or is down the road, even if Biden were assassinated or anyone that's from either party that is coming into power or of significance, there's going to be social chaos on the map. If Trump would have been assassinated, things would have broken loose. And if Trump gets elected, the left is going to burn the cities down. It's going to make BLM look like Vacation Bible School. Trump's going to have to send in the National Guard. The governors are going to have to send in the National Guard. And you know there's some states that won't do it because they want this kind of stuff to go on. But he's going to have to do something. And when he does, voila, that makes him look like the dictator that they've been accusing him of being. But he's going to have to do it. He's just not going to be able to allow the cities to be burned to the ground. But this time I think the people will be on his side, because the people that suffered all the loss from those previous riots aren't going to tolerate it again. They're not going to want to lose everything they own, again. And you know when the left riots, they burn down all the minority’s stuff, all the black businesses. It's the poor people and the minorities that suffer the losses at the hands of their own “brothers.” It's just insanity. So, we need to be praying about that.

Third, we need to be doing some prepping. If you don't have supplies in your house to weather supply chain shortages, just remember COVID. It didn't take very long before the shelves were empty. No one carries inventory anymore. Everything is done just in time. When supply chains start to be affected, it affects the shelves quickly. Make sure you have a few weeks of supplies to deal with whatever kind of social chaos may ensue.

Fourth, this really boils down to our country's soul.

Civilizations and nations start to die when the moral fabric is destroyed, which then affects the family, which then affects everything else. And that's where we're at. When we talk about “Making America Great Again,” that sounds fabulous. But the reality is we can't just make America great again by willing it and doing political things. Greatness follows out of something. And that something is goodness.

We need to make America good again.

And by good, I mean moral. And by moral, I mean Christian values and virtues. That is what this country used to have as its foundation, along with a constitution and a system of law and justice that worked. If we don't have those foundations of what I'm calling goodness, we will not be great. And whatever greatness we manufacture will not last. We need to make America good again if we want to make her great again. The greatness will follow from the goodness. Tocqueville spoke of this a long time ago when he visited the churches of the early republic.

So, what does this mean? It means a national repentance of sin. But that must start with each one of us individually. We need to be examining our lives, whether you're Christian or not, by asking “what does the way I'm living, the things I do, the things I say, and the things I propagate out to my children, my friends, and my community, what does that look like?” “Where is there evil in what I'm doing?” “Where is there sin?” “What are the things that I'm justifying as ‘okay,’ but really, if put before God, would be condemned?”

We need to be good people.

We need to return to the fruits of the Spirit, and this is stuff that even non-Christians can embrace. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These things we need! We need to look at our lives and admit where we fall and fail! What are the fruits of my spirit? What am I producing? What do I do with my time? What are my thoughts? These are the things God's looking at, and our nation needs to repent. If it does, we will be on the right side of the Lord's “big covenant” of blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. And that's why, if our country is moral, Christianly moral, that blessing overflows to everyone. It's common grace. So even the unbeliever, even the hardcore atheist will benefit from a civilization, a nation, that is good. Even the atheist would like to not have to worry about locking their doors or leaving Amazon deliveries on their porch.

Lastly, we must keep calm.

We cannot take the bait. We cannot become violent. We need to fight with prayer, because God is our warrior. He is the one that's the warrior. He is the one who wins the battle. So, to all my conservative brethren out there, you're not a Christian simply because you're conservative. Be careful. There's a lot of conservatives that love to chant “Trump, Trump, Trump” and “USA, USA, USA,” wave banners and flags, go to rallies, and wear all the gear and the garb. That doesn't make you a conservative, and it certainly doesn't make you a Christian. You need to be careful. We don't worship any man, mantra, or movement. We need to check ourselves and make sure we're not becoming a cult. Government is something God gave us to maintain civil order in a fallen world, but He gives us the government we deserve. So, we better start deserving a good one, or we're going to continue to get bad ones in judgment.

For all you BarrelBuddy supporters, we love you. We pray for you. We wish you the absolute best in these days, and we look forward to seeing our republic restored to goodness and then greatness.

Carry on.

“Wrong breeds decay and ruin, but the true and the good have a vitality which ages can’t diminish” – C.H. Spurgeon