We Confess! The Civil War, the South, and the Church – Q&A 5

Why now? Why do you think God gave you this message now?

We’re in the midst of the 150th anniversary of the four-year Civil War. The year the tide turned in the war was 1863. So this year, 2013, marks the 150th anniversary of that turning point. I believe this anniversary provides a crucial window for a different kind of turning – a turning, and a returning, of the church.

Whenever God brings something to light, he also pours out “a spirit of grace and supplication” on those he wants to respond.

In this time, God is giving his people grace to see what we haven’t wanted to see so that, at last, we can become who we truly are. In this time, God is giving us courage to break free from destructive patterns that have kept generations in bondage, crippled the US church and sabotaged spiritual awakening for a century-and-a-half.

Always when God gives grace, he also gives us freedom to accept or reject it. If we accept that grace? If we dare to confess from our hearts? Let me summarize the outcome with one more quotation from We Confess:

At last we realize: The uncomfortable, the difficult, the devastating aspects of confessing and repenting aren’t a plot to do us in. They’re God’s way of removing the veil so we can see and reflect his glory—splendor we cannot imagine or describe.

Photo courtesy of Bettina Schwehn at www.uniqraphy.de