Your Worst Nightmare

Everyone has in their mind a worse case scenario. One that would evolve into what might be called 'your worst nightmare'. Such an event would be when everything seems to be rapidly going in the same, wrong direction. Then these occurrences swoosh coterminously, causing a perfect storm for your life.

One overcast morning, way back in the day when I was a commodities trader sitting in the ivory towers of the CME in Chicago, I considered a trade in the platinum market. I was studying the charts on what we would now call an antique computer. A another trader came over and observed the buy/sell action lighting up the screen. "Looks good to me,'" he said. So we got on the phone and called in the trade to New York to buy some contracts. But before he even got done with the call, we watched in horror as the bottom fell out of that market. It was our worse nightmare. The price of platinum was in a free-fall, and we were holding unenviable long positions to buy. After the carnage settled, we discovered that at the very same moment we put in the buy orders, the Ford Motor Company announced that they would no longer be using platinum in their catalytic converters. Demand for that precious metal evaporated in an instant. Bad timing, bad news, bad trade, and we quickly found ourselves in financial Armageddon.

There can be a multitude of things which could materialize and become your worst nightmare. For instance, one scenario might be having Hillary 'What difference does it make?' Clinton, in the White House in 2016. As the drama unfolds, we see she has selected her husband by convenience to be VP. But he never seems to be around. Nancy Pelosi is chosen to write egalitarian legislation for all Facebook users to have at least five-hundred friends. She is currently putting the finishing touches on the ten-thousand page bill to be read after it is passed. Hanger-on Joe Biden leverages himself into position as White House spokesman. Geithner is preparing the Clinton taxes, and Holder decides to study law. Well, you get the Instagram.

Perhaps another scenario that might be your worst nightmare is me. On the surface, what you get is just a poor country preacher. Yet, upon closer examination, you find that in one hand I am holding a trophy to the 2nd Amen-dment, heat, a weapon of choice. In the other hand, a Holy Bible. This supernatural, historically correct book, is an incredible force as described in Hebrews 4:12 (KJV) For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

What is up with the poor country preacher and the tools from his toolbox? Is he simply planning an excursion to the mountains of Pennsylvania, or is there something much more ghastly afoot? Actually, neither.

To the 2nd Amen-dment, the right to bear arms. We need to understand why the first Ten Amendments came to be. At the nascent stages of our country's birth there was great opposition from several colonies to the ratification of our Constitution. They were concerned about the Federal Government having too much power. Sound familiar? Thus, in order to provide another firewall of protection from the Federal Government, the Ten Amendments were added. These Ten Amendments became our Bill of Rights.

The Founding Father's put it all on the line for you and for me. They placed their lives and their fortunes in the destiny of the Supreme Being, towards an experiment in representative government. That experiment was bathed in the Judeo-Christian principles of the Bible. The Founding Father's did so, in order that they, and their offspring to follow, might live in freedom. Just like the Christian story, the tale of America emerges out of much, toil, blood, and sacrifice.

So today, I conceal-carry a gun to honor the vision, the faith, the sacrifice, and the victory of those brave souls who came before me, and left a path of freedom and righteousness for me to follow. I also carry a gun to be able to protect others, in the event of encountering  someone with nefarious intentions to cause harm to others. The right to bear arms is a right that did not come easily, and it is a right that I will not give up.

In the other hand I carry the very word of God. It is our guidebook for this life and the eternal life to come. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

There is another reason that I carry the Holy Bible. Within it's binding it gives us the only way to avoid that which is truly our common worst nightmare. I submit to you, that your worst nightmare is to meet your date with death - to die, without being covered in the blood of Jesus.

One day, soon, God will judge sin in the world. Yet because He loves you so much, He provided a way for you to avoid due punishment altogether. That is what the gospel of John 3:16 means when it says, For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

To die in your sins would be your worst nightmare. But the Good News is you do not have to. You just need to make a choice to ask Jesus to be your Savior. The funny thing about death, it stalks everyone, and eventually gets it mark. We can run be we cannot hide from our earthily mortality, Botox or not. Please don't delay. Turn to Jesus, and He will turn to you. Jesus wants to have a relationship with you right now.