Whenever I hear the phrase about “getting right with God”, I have an image of a Clint Eastwood-type cowboy/farmer character with a shotgun and threatening a young fella’ that got his daughter pregnant by saying, “Son, you gonna git yourself right with me and the Lord and marry the girl or I’m gonna send you to heaven right now”.
The boy had an obvious need to “get right”, but what about us as preppers? I often hear the admonition that we need to “get right with God” before the SHTF because it will be too late then. We don’t have a shotgun threatening us, so what’s the fuss? And what is it that we’ve got wrong that we need to get right?
What is wrong is that we are separated from God because of what we did. We were stuck with paying the penalty, except that God made a deal and got us right with him by having Jesus Christ pay the penalty with His life instead of ours. There is no getting right with God any other way; it just isn’t going to happen. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6) He was saying He is the only way.
Job of the Old Testament expresses perfectly our need for a way: “…but how should man be just with God? If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand… For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment. Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both.” (Job 9:2,3,32-33) God fixed that problem: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5)
There are those that think it is ludicrous that man could have a mediation with God, and yet these same people don’t have a problem believing that blues legend Robert Johnson achieved rapid mastery of the guitar by going down to the crossroads and making a deal with the devil– a spirit being who appeared to him in human form. If you believe that one, you have no reason to deny the other. If there is a devil, there is a God. If you can mediate with the devil, you can most certainly mediate with God.
So where are the crossroads for us where we can cash in on this deal that God made so that we might achieve rapid mastery over our own life? Lucky for us the details of this deal is recorded quite thoroughly in the book of Romans. You get to sign on to this covenant with God if you simply “… confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation”. (Romans 10:9-10)
It’s a whole new ballgame now, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.“ (2 Corinthians 5:17) This is where our new life begins; this is where we do our spiritual preparation. We’ve been storing what we eat, and we eat what we store. However, we cannot live by bread alone; we also store up spiritual bread and live by it. This spiritual bread comes by hearing, and that hearing is of the Word of God. (from Romans 10:17)
So, is that it? Are we “right with God” now? As you would expect, there’s more to it than that. When we are admonished as preppers to “get right with God”, that means to get our lives to line up with the mind of Christ; after all, if Christ died and rose from the grave to redeem us from our sins, why would we continue to live in them? “…let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”. (Hebrews 12:1-2)
Where do we start? How about asking ourselves: is there is anything in our lives that hinders, entangles us, that keeps us from running with endurance? How about pornography? Drug or excessive alcohol use? Does gambling, cheating, lying, cussing, gossiping help or hurt us? Is overindulgence a positive attribute to cultivate as a prepper? How about that TV video crew from “Cheaters” that’s been following you around, what’s that all about? Are there any deleterious practices of yours that would be helpful in a SHTF scenario? If not, why not cut them loose now? None of us will ever attain perfection, but why not build upon our habits and skills that are beneficial and let go of those that aren’t?
I just can’t find the words to say what I want to say any better than the way it is said here: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”. (Ephesians 6:10-12)