Maintenance Required

We all likely have a vehicle that has two ominous yellow lights on our instrument panel that give us the creeps. One of those lights is the “Check Engine,” light, which may have different names but generally indicates that there is a potential danger with the spacecraft, Will Robinson. This is the light that usually forces one into an unscheduled pit stop to have necessary repairs performed, otherwise, they will likely build a new relationship with a tow-truck driver at the painfully high price of about $15 per mile of torturous regret. Of all the sinking feelings in a man’s gut, there are few that compare to seeing this little glowing demon expose his rotten amber tooth in a menacing sneer.

If your vehicle is operating as intended, just before you get the dreaded, “ugh light,” you will get the less ominous, but similarly colored, light known by its domesticated name of, “Maintenance.” This light is a helpful and, “happy,” reminder that you should tootle on over to your friendly neighborhood shop (like our own Elite Automotive) and have a professional do some needful and necessary upkeep. This more friendly dash-flash is equivalently unwanted, but much less hated because the sincere purpose is to help the owner prevent excessive repair costs by preemptively notifying them of potential problems. If one is wise, and we are wise people, Beloved, they will schedule a time to complete these necessary maintenance processes. It is annoying and no one ever is excited about the financial aspect, but, as grown-ups, we know that preventative maintenance is a thousand times cheaper than an explosive breakdown… and for the gals among us, a thousand times safer than being stranded on the side of the lonely road at 11:17p on a moonless night.

Moral of the story: the cost and effort to maintain your assets is infinitely more valuable than the consequences of a total and complete breakdown.

America has had the maintenance light on for generations and I think the “Service Required” light is flashing an emergency signal so frantically that it is about to burn itself out.

Today is July 5TH, the “day after” our celebration of the nation’s 247th birthday. Last light, we had gleaming faces lit up by the colorful explosions of the fireworks whose original intention was to commemorate the bloody sacrifice necessary to birth freedom. That cost was blood and war. This is true in two realms at the same time.

America’s Founders were men and women of exceptional character and Christian virtue who counted the personal forfeiture of fortune, public popularity, and even their own blood as a worthy offering for the opportunity to produce and secure liberty for generations yet unborn. The blood of the patriot was mingled with the dust of the earth in the infant nation where freedom was birthed in the “land of the free and the home of the brave.” This was mostly inspired by the imaginative ideals of preachers inflamed with the Gospel message of equality, liberty, and restrictive self-government maintained by Biblical-based morality guiding the heart of We The People. Blood… death… war… and then, freedom, peace, and prosperity.

The debate on whether this was the “right” way to the objective still rages on today after 247 years, but there are few who do not express gratitude for what the outcome was. “A new nation, conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men were created equal.” This message actually started on a hill called Golgotha, which means, “skull,” at an old, rugged cross dripping with blood.

The Founder of authentic Christianity was a man, a God, Who was of perfect character and Divine virtue Who considered His life to be a sacrificial offering for the future of the human race, EVERY unborn generation. He initiated a cosmic war with the original tyrant sycophant who seethed in rage for the drinking of innocent blood. He willingly allowed His blood to be mingled with the filthy dust of this sinful earth so a new kind of human could grow from the redeemed soil and multiply themselves in fruitfulness like the first Adam was directed in the Garden of Eden. This incarnation of Jesus, the First Son of Liberty, led to a war with the oppressor (satan) that cost the terrible expense of the priceless blood of God being emptied out in death. But, that was not the finality of the story… there was a resurrection, there was a New Birth given to the people who believed in this Good News, there was a new nation formed called the “Ekklesia,” there was a new liberty granted to mankind who was imprisoned in slavery to sin and a new way of life that was mystically described as, “Everlasting Life.” A quality and quantity of life on a divine scale never before conceived by man.

Both stories had a devastating war, both had the unconscionable cost of precious blood, and both outcomes produced a unique freedom… both have to be maintained through arduous effort.

Both the vehicles of America and of Christianity have sputtered into the emergency lane of a deserted highway where there is no cell signal and the haze of dusk is rapidly encroaching with the dark storm clouds rumbling with the thunder of propagandistic media.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be encumbered once more by a yoke of slavery.
Galatians 5:1

Notice the commanded response for those who believe and humbly submit to the liberation of Christ: “stand firm then… do not be encumbered… by a yoke of slavery…” or, maintenance required.

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We must always be vigilant, lest we lose it.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” 
– Thomas Jefferson

Maintenance required.. it is built into our national freedom and our Kingdom’s freedom.

You know that over-quoted verse, “Be still, and know that I am God”?

Welp… it is a partial verse that has a much bigger context that most are unaware of. Let us look together so that we can KNOW our God the way He wants to be known.

Come, behold the works of the LORD, how he has brought desolations on the earth.
He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire.
“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”
Psalm 46:8-10 ESV

A few points of interest for us sincere citizens of Heaven to submit to:

• Jesus came to bring, “desolation,” to the systems of the broken earth. Remember Egypt, Babylon, and Rome were humiliatingly defeated when they assaulted God’s Chosen Generation. Similarly, Jesus did this through love, mercy, grace, and truth carried on His own back through a wooden weapon of war that we now wear around our necks. That cross became ground zero for the eternal victory of right over wrong, light over dark, holiness over wickedness, and life over death.
• “He makes wars cease,” by becoming the eternal Victor of the war to end all wars. Just before His triumphant ascension, Jesus commanded His disciples to, “occupy,” until He returns. If one calls themselves a disciple, we should be MAINTAINING His victory against the sore losers trying to start unlawful riots against the rightful peacekeepers.
• Jesus breaks their primitive weapons of war with His universe-sized and infinitely powered conquest. The destroyed devil foolishly brought a knife to a “nuclear war” fight and found out the hard way not to mess with the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Talk about fireworks… boom-boom satan!
• NOW, “be still and know,” is brought into the narrative. And notice, it is followed with nation-orientated language that most modern believers just ignore in the self-focused orientation of their egocentric spiritual journey, oblivious to the, “Maintenance,” and, “Check Engine,” lights that are screaming from the dash of our culture.
• Jesus is going to be exalted… this is a non-negotiable stance of the omnipotent and omniscient Most High God. The question then is will my life exalt Him or dilute and minimize Him through normality and a return to sinful bondage?

I passionately desire that our life, fruit, beliefs, and character today (the day after the red-white-and-blue birthday party) are reflective of a well-maintained performance vehicle that carries the most important VIP to ever graciously encounter us. I pray we, “Let Freedom Reign,” in our hearts and our nation once again in a Great Awakening. We are the remnant with the right tools to do it, Beloved.

No more shade-tree mechanics, get out the toolbox, Bubba, we got some wrenchin’ to do…

See ya under the hood on Sunday.

Great love to you!
Greasemonkey Steve

P.S. – After looking around the undercarriage of progressive American church-i-anity, I think we might need a bigger hammer…