A GPS for Uncertain Times

By:  Dale Weckbacher

John 14:1-4

"Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.  2 In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.   3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.  4 And where I go you know, and the way you know." 

NKJV

These words, spoken by Jesus almost 2000 years ago have most likely been a great source of comfort throughout the years for those suffering during uncertain times.  We live in an uncertain world and as a believer in Christ, I often just sit and shake my head wondering what people and even our leaders are thinking.  However, we can find hope in knowing that our Lord has gone before us and is preparing our eternal destination.  In effect, when we accept Jesus Christ as our savior, he programs our GPS with our eternal destination, heaven, and eternity with Him.

However, for a GPS to work properly, it must also know its current location.  If the GPS in our car loses contact with the satellite and no longer knows its current location, it cannot help us arrive at our destination.  Romans 3:23 tells us we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  Everyone on earth has lost touch with the GPS satellite signal due to Adam and Eve’s fall in the Garden.  However, there is a way to reestablish the connection with our GPS signal and that way is a relationship with Jesus Christ (John 14:6).

I therefore encourage everyone to reestablish this connection by following the instructions in Romans 10:9-10, which says, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  (NKJV)

There are also times when our GPS that once had acquired its signal, loses it due to interference such as a thick cloud cover blocking the signal.  Hard times, struggles, and trials come into all of our lives, even if we are believers in Christ.  These times can act as a cloud cover causing us to lose the GPS signal in our lives.  However, just as Christ stilled the storm on the sea of Galilee, He can still these trials in our lives, reconnecting us with the GPS signal that leads our lives. 

It is also important to follow the instructions a GPS gives us.  I remember the first time I used a GPS.  My family and I were on vacation in San Diego.  The GPS told me to move into the right lane but I continued to go down the road in the left lane.  The GPS then told me to turn right and of course being in the left lane, I could not make the necessary right turn.  After going on down the road looking for a place to turn around the GPS finally told me to make a U-turn as soon as possible and head back to my missed turn.  When we live for Christ and do not spend time listening to His instructions contained in His Word, we can miss turns in our lives and may even need to make a U-turn to get back to our missed turn.  

Nations can also lose connection with their GPS signal and when they do, the results can be disastrous.  In the Declaration of Independence, the founders of the United States stated their desire to create a nation where all men were created equal and that rights come from God.  Unfortunately, as the years have passed, the cloud of liberalism and progressivism has caused our nation to lose connection with its GPS signal. 

No longer does the government believe that rights come from God and instead promise that the next government program will create equality and grant us more rights.  The result, ballooning deficits as government creates new program after new program promising that this program will be the one that makes everything equal.  Obamacare is such a program promising to make health care less expensive and available to all only to have it increase premiums and lead to the retirement of many healthcare professionals, thus making health care less available. 

Government is so busy formulating expensive and inefficient programs, it is failing in its primary duty, keeping citizens safe.  Our nation’s borders are wide-open so dangerous diseases like Ebola or terrorists can cross to inflict harm on innocent citizens.  Instead of protecting citizens, the priority of government seems to be legalizing gay marriage, something not supported by a majority of citizens, and evidenced by several states passing amendments to their state constitutions establishing marriage as between a man and woman. 

Our nation has lost connection with its GPS signal and has reached a point where the only solution is a U-turn.  This U-turn begins with conservative control of both houses of Congress after the 2014 elections.  We then need to elect the first true conservative to office since Ronald Reagan in 2016.  This will slow down the creep of liberalism and progressivism, beginning the U-turn.  However, to complete the U-turn, we also need to take conservative control of four-fifths of state houses so that we have the option of a convention of the states as outlined in Article 5 of the U.S. Constitution since it seems impossible for Washington to limit its own power. 

Just as an individual can make a U-turn and turn their life around, a nation can also make a U-turn.  However, it is possible to go so far, a U-turn is impossible.  We therefore must act fast, starting with this election.