America is changing. Society is changing. Of course, change can be good or bad depending on what is changing and the impact that those changes are having on America’s security, her families, and her future on the world stage. I came upon some statistics the other day that shocked me. Barna is a Christian-based research group that compiles statistics on the church in America. Here’s a link to its website. The sobering statistics below relate to men.
· From 1990 to 2003, church attendance on the part of men dropped from 40percent to 28 percent. · Since 1991, all indictators of spiritual maturity in men have declined. Those indicators include church attendance, Bible reading, participation in missions, and giving. · Only 1 in 12 men in the church are involved in active discipleship. · Less than 10 percent of churches offer anything to help men grow in their spiritual lives. · Couples are divorcing at the same rates as nonbelievers. · Most men know only enough about God to be disappointed in Him · 90 percent of men will have their children leave church before they graduate from high school. · 50 percent of men will have a significant problem with pornography. · 40 percent will get divorces, affecting one million children a year. · Only 10 percent will have a Biblical worldview (Meaning thinking like Jesus thinks.)
These statistics paint a glum picture. The church in America today is under assault by a barrage of forces from outside the church including political correctness, the secularized media, rampant materialism, Hollywood movies and music glorifying immorality, and a persuasive American nihilistic culture bent on abolishing the laws of God that have guided us for more than 200 years. There is also a concerted effort from heretics within the church walls to ignore, water down, or change the Word of God, place entertainment of the congregants above sound Biblical teaching, and to place building projects at a higher priority than helping the poor and needy.
Many in America today are simply abandoning the church. Some don’t see church attendance as having any relevance to their lives. Others are so busy with their lives that church just doesn’t make it on their schedules anymore. Many know that church attendance, Bible study, and other spiritual endeavours are good for them yet other priorities simply strangle out the time needed to get to know God better.
I believe that America needs God more than ever! When the Lord came into my heart 23 years ago, He changed everything about me. Before my conversion experience, I was depressed, after, I was joyful. Before, I had no purpose in life except to look for ways to have fun. After turning my life over to the Lord, my purpose was to please God and tell others about Him. Before becoming a Christian, I had no idea what would happen to me when I died, after coming to the Lord, I am convinced I will spend eternity with Him in heaven. Before my conversion, my life was craziness and chaos, afterward, I received a peace that transcends any human understanding.
Are some leaving the church because the church has problems? Sure. The church is full of imperfect people who make mistakes. Some cite the hypocrisy in the church while others don’t like to hear a pastor ask for donations and still others simply are uncomfortable hearing messages from the Bible that make them feel guilty. For as many reasons somebody can list for not going to church, I want to offer a short list of positive aspects of church attendance.
Six Reasons to Attend Church
1. Church attendance gives you a chance to learn more about God. 2. Church attendance can lead you to a life full of joy, peace and purpose. 3. Being involved with a group of believers can help you grow spiritually and encourage you when life turns tough. 4. Getting involved with an organization that helps people winds up helping you too. 5. You will get to know others who can commit to pray for you and support you and your family. 6. If you have children, you can be a positive influence on them by teaching them about their Creator. Ultimately, you are responsible for teaching your children right from wrong and there is no better place to do that then church.
One of the biggest problems I see today on the spiritual landscape across America is the loss of understanding of who God is and how He blesses His people. The Barna report makes it clear that the majority of men across America do not understand who God really is and why church attendance is critical to their emotional, physical, and spiritual health. Hosea 4:6 makes all of this clear.
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.”
America’s decreasing lack of knowledge of God is directly related to America’s increasing social problems and ills. If we want God’s blessings, we must get to know Him better and then obey Him in our lives. The problems are also present in Evangelical Churches too. Barna reports that…
- 40 percent of those in Evangelical churches believed that the Bible was not totally accurate. - 37 percent believed that Jesus committed sins when He lived on the earth - 62 percent thought the Holy Spirit is a symbol of God’s presence and not a living entity. - 40 percent believed there are some sins that God will not forgive. - 51 percent mistakenly believe that if a person does enough good deeds, he will earn a place in heaven. - 57 percent believed that the Devil isn’t a living being, but rather a symbol of evil. - When asked what goals have they set for their lives, not one stated a spiritual goal. - Only 8 percent tithe and 16 percent give nothing.
I hope and pray that I am wrong. I hope these numbers turn around. I pray that our country will turn from the cultural relativism that’s clogging the spiritual veins of our great republic and return to the Bible. Will it happen? Only God knows. I do know this: God wants to see America turn back to Him and He will be waiting with open arms as in the story of the prodigal son. Right now though, the son seems to be drifting far away from his daddy. I hope that son sees how much better he had it at home!
A week doesn’t go by when somebody doesn’t ask me why God allows all of the evil in the world. A reader of my Facebook page just sent this question to me. He was wasn’t trying to pick an argument or question the existence of God. He simply could not understand why “God would allow little children to be hurt so terribly by rapists, murderers and the likes.”
First, it breaks the heart of God to see such evil in the world. You may wonder why, if He is all powerful and all-seeing, He wouldn’t stop this from happening. It’s a good question that I hope I can try and answer in a way that reveals the nature of God, the nature of good and evil, and the purpose behind our existence on this earth in the first place.
I want to start with the definition of love. By its very nature, love is a choice we make. For many of my readers, you are married and are raising a family. You chose your spouse. You were not (at least I hope not!) forced to marry the individual that shares your home with you. By your free will, you chose to marry them and commit your life to them through thick and thin. Your choice to love is yours alone, and your choice to not love is yours alone. You cannot force another to love you because love is a choice.
When God created mankind, His desire was to create spiritual beings in human bodies who could have a relationship with Him. This separates mankind from the rest of the animal kingdom. We have a spirit and soul that have the ability to determine right and wrong. In other words, human beings were made “in the image of God.”
God’s plan was to create a race that had the ability to love Him and communicate withHim. God is a relational Being who desires fellowship and love. Since love can’t be forced on another individual, God had to create a system on earth that offered choices for His creation. If Adam and Eve chose God, it would then be a free-will decision to offer themselves to Him by the choice they made. Hence, God placed a tree in the Garden of Eden. This tree was placed there to test the allegiance of His creation and provide them with the choice to obey Him and show their love and devotion toward Him, or to disobey Him and show their lack of love.
If God had not placed the tree in the midst of paradise, He would not have given them the choice that love commands. He didn’t want a bunch of mind-numbed robots worshipping Him because they had to; but rather, He wanted a species of creatures worshipping Him and loving Him because they chose to.
Unfortunately, Adam and Eve made a very bad choice by disobeying their Creator. Because of their disobedience, God disciplined them by removing them from paradise and sending them out into a harsh world to till the land and live life far removed from the ease and bliss of Eden. Their poor choice was the opening salvo of a spiritual war that has consumed the planet since the beginning of time. Their decision allowed evil into the world that will not disappear until Jesus Christ comes for His Second Coming.
I know that this may sound like religious mumbo-jumbo to those who have never read the Bible or believed the words inside it. I understand! Yet, I know of no other story that offers mankind a more rational explanation for the world that we have inherited.
Why is evil is so prevalent? Evil is a choice that mankind makes just as love is. Without the choice to follow a road of good or evil, we have essentially become creatures forced into a relationship with their Creator. Forced love is not love at all but rather a kind of slavery to another, be it a man or a God.
Over the years of ministry, I have encountered hundreds of individuals who have testified that God allowed whatever evil that occurred in their lives to occur to bring them to a point in their lives where they turned their hearts over to Him. In short, a holy, perfect God allows much of the evil around us to bring us to a point where we turn to Him. If we lived in a perfect world, I doubt most of us, including myself, would turn to Him to bring us the peace and joy that He alone can provide on a consistent basis. In other words, He can take the evil of the world and turn it on its head, changing it to good for those who place their faith and trust in Him.
I have ministered to victims of various crimes who attest that God made them stronger individuals through the tragedy. Many of these people go on to minister to others who have experienced the same type of tragedies in their lives. We have not been placed on this earth to simply pursue pleasure for ourselves, but rather we have been strategically placed it to make a simple choice. Love God and honor Him with our lives and serve Him and others through acts of love a service, or to choose to live our lives the way we want and focus on our own wants and desires. Life is a test. God is testing us to see whom we will serve, Him or ourselves. Good and evil are choices we make each day in our lives. Without that foundational choice, the test from above couldn’t exist.
The Bible teaches that if anybody causes a child to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone wrapped around their necks and be tossed into the sea. God takes sin and evil seriously, and He will, in His time and place, judge every deed of mankind. God’s justice may seem nonexistent to the finite mind of man. His justice may be delayed but it is coming. Why is He waiting? Because the Bible teaches that He wishes not a soul perish, no not one. His patience may be interpreted by some as a lack of love or caring, yet I believe His patience is long suffering because of His deep love for each of us, even those who commit unspeakable crimes. God’s greatest desire is to see as many people as possible with Him one day in heaven. However, according to the Bible, we must choose Him to make that happen!
A month doesn’t go by without another story accusing a politician of some form of corruption. It seems that more and more leaders are risking their political careers by doing things that are either unethical or illegal. Both political parties have their villains. Through the years, Democrats and Republicans have seen their share of men and women who have fallen from grace.
The purpose of this blog is to try and figure out what goes wrong. How could otherwise fine men and women with decades of public service fall so quick and so hard? Do they think that they wouldn’t get caught? Often, money and power are the contributing factors to this mess.
The tragedy here goes beyond the life and career of a few individuals. It extends to their immediate families who may be visiting them in jail for years to come. It tarnishes the image of the United States of America and forces many Americans to be suspicious of their leaders. This leads to division in a time when national unity is so very needed. It sends the unmistakable image to many that politicians are all corrupt and are only in it for themselves. With the political rhetoric on both sides of the aisle boiling over in Washington, is our country turning into the same type of machine that rules countries like Nigeria?
Happily, I believe the answer is a resounding “NO!” In Nigeria, many of the politicians are corrupt and they get away with it. I visited Nigeria in March. I was shocked by the level of bribery and corruption at every level of society. I asked my host why the trash piles along the roadside hadn’t been picked up.
He tried to force a smile but instead shook his head. “The government pays the trash service of Nigeria to clean up this mess but it doesn’t get done,” he began.
I stared out the window of our car. “Then why doesn’t it get picked up?” I asked.
“Because the government official who doles out the money to the contractor keeps half of it for himself, and the other half goes to the contractor,” he explained with a casual indifference.
“Can’t the contractor at least get part of the job done?” I wondered as a burned up car passed my view.
“The contractor takes the money, yes,” he began, “but then he decides to not do the work. It’s a racquet. Since they are all in bed together, nobody turns in the other person.”
“What about the courts and judges, can’t they do something about it?” I wondered.
He shook his head. “They are in on it! All of them!”
When the darkness of political corruption comes into the light, there are still enough good men and women who desire justice to do something about it. For the most part, our court system and media have the power and the will to call the powerful on the carpet when bribery or extortion is suspected. Americans still demand justice. Lady Liberty is blindfolded for a reason. There is nobody, from the President of the United States down to the State Delegate who is above the law.
The Good Book teaches that “pride comes before the fall.” Pride is an insidious serpent to the hearts of men. No, you can’t legislate a law against pride, yet pride and arrogance is at the root of political corruption, but most of the sins that we commit. Pride tells us that we deserve it. Pride whispers to us that we won’t get caught, that everybody does it. Pride often shouts to us that we are so important that the infraction that we are ready to commit is no big deal. Pride leads us down a slippery slope of deceit that can land us in jail here on earth, and much worse in the afterlife.
The Bible teaches that Satan, the great deceiver and enemy of our souls, was once the most beautiful and powerful angel that God created. Over time, Satan, who was created like mankind with a free will to love God or discard Him, chose to ditch His Creator. Once pride entered the Devil’s heart, he decided that he wanted to be like God. He desired the worship and prestige that only God deserves. He figured, being the most beautiful and most powerful of the created spirits, that he was uniquely qualified to challenge God’s authority. Pride did this and it resulted in a war in heaven! Of course, God won the war and quickly kicked out Satan and the one-third of angels that followed his lead. Today, we call those angels demons, and they are active on earth today warring for the minds and souls of men and women across planet earth.
His most subtle temptation is pride. The book of Psalms 10:4 beautifully states, “In his pride the wicked man does not seek Him; in all of his thoughts there is no room for God.” A few years ago, wristbands began to pop up all across the country with the initials, “W.W.J.D.” What would Jesus do? Pride takes that question and throws it to the curb. Pride erases God from the equation and replaces it with selfish ambition and vain living. Pride takes our God-given conscience and turns it off.
Is there “room for God” in your life? The Lord has a unique way of humbling man when he steps outside the boundaries of His moral law. He doesn’t do it because He is mean and vicious and is trying to get even, but rather to get our attention and lead us to a point in our lives where we begin to make room for Him in our lives. Godly discipline is meant to restore our souls and bring us life. Too many today have no room for God in their lives. America is inching closer to corruption on God’s moral compass.
Yet, I still believe there is hope for the future. I am praying for a revival in America. God wants the best for us and will do what is necessary (no matter how difficult it might seem to us at the time) to restore America to the place she once possessed. God is a God of second chances. I pray that we as Americans will make room for Him in our lives and take that chance the Lord is offering us. Time is running out.
I must admit, I don’t do resolutions. I think they are silly. And I don’t think they work. Why am I being so harsh? Because when I was a younger man, I tried them and discovered I was weak and didn’t have the willpower to last more than a day or two. So, I quit them in my 20s and have not attempted them since. Now that I am older, (and I hope little wiser), I do believe there is a place for resolutions if they are realistic and attainable.
I know some of you are going to try to lose weight, and others are going to try to find more time for family. Many of you married folk with kids will try to carve out more date nights, while some will attempt to give up some bad habit. Some will try to bring more peace and joy in their lives. I can imagine there are more than a few out there who want more purpose in their lives; a reason for living. Fear and depression could be taunting you and you want to get rid of that beast.
This is a link to the United States Government website for the top 10 resolutions that Americans are making. I like all of those things. They are worthy endeavors that can bring a higher quality of life. But what if I told you there is a resolution that you could make that would help you knock out much of the entire list? Did you ever consider asking God to help you tackle some of these monsters? Do you think He would listen? Do you think He cares? Do you believe He can do it? Do you think He wants to help? The Bible teaches that He has the hair on our heads numbered. It teaches that He cares for and watches over the sparrow. God desires to help but He limits Himself and the power that He will display by our faith. Faith in Him and His power is the key that unlocks a Pandora of power from the Creator of the world.
Think about it this way. You are driving toward the City Park in Newport News. It’s that time of year again when the Newport News City Park Festival of Lights is ready to go. You pull up to the entrance of the park and everything is dark. As you go through the park, you realize somebody forgot to plug in the hundreds of thousands of lights that dazzle the eyes. This is life without faith. This is life without the power of God intimately working in your heart.
Do you want the power? Do you want the dazzle? Do you want to see God move? Get the faith and the light of God will explode around you!
Now, back to the resolutions. Have you considered making some time for God? You may wonder what that would look like? It’s rather simple. I learned 20 years ago that the time I spend with God is THE most important time of my day. I challenge my readers, religious and non-religious, to take a test and prove me wrong…or hopefully right.
Carve out 30 minutes of your day and dedicate it to getting to know God better. What would this look like? First, find a peaceful place in your house away from the craziness. For me, that would probably be up the ladder in the attic. Second, choose a time of day when you will not be interrupted by others. Third, clear your heart and mind and focus on God and not yourself.
At this point you have some choices to make. Do you want to talk to God or have Him talk to you? I recommend a little of both. Some days it might be you doing most of the talking (this is called prayer). Other days you may need God to do most of the talking (this is called Bible reading). This is where the rubber meets the road. Prayer and Bible study are the single most important things you can do to grow spiritually. This is why Christians call their walk with God a relationship. Communication is the key to any successful relationship. When you stop talking, you grow apart, and you lose touch with one another.
I believe that many in America today and right here on the Peninsula we have slowly grown away from God. To be honest with you, it’s difficult not to grow away from God in our materialistic society. We don’t communicate much anymore except in those desperate times when we cry out to Him for emergency assistance. God doesn’t want to be our “genie in the sky” but rather a close confidante and friend. I have learned from many years in the ministry that the most important thing God wants from me is my heart. He wants me. He doesn’t want me to go through the motions of my religion but rather to have a deep, intimate fellowship with Him through our communication on a daily basis.
My New Year’s Resolution is to spend more time with God. I will spend more time in the Bible learning about Him. I will spend more time in prayer talking to Him. Yes, I probably do some complaining; don’t we all. But I want to spend more time thanking Him for all the blessings in life that I take for granted. I will absolutely allow Him to speak to my heart through the reading of the Bible. The Bible says in John 1:1 that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
A friend of mine many years ago told me that when I open the Bible and read it, it’s as if the Lord were sitting down beside me and talking to me. That’s what the above verse means. I figure that the more time I give Him, the better that I will get to know Him. As I get to know Him better, more of those lights are going to pop on. I love Christmas lights, especially when I don’t have to put them up!
So let’s create a loftier goal as we head into 2011. Let’s not just focus on one or two things in our lives, but every aspect of our being. Let’s begin to search the spiritual side of our existence and begin to consider that the unseen world of God is real and vibrant and just waiting to be discovered.
As we diligently seek God and His ways and truths, I bet a funny thing will happen. Many of those resolutions that you have been focusing upon will be forgotten as you get to know your Creator a little better. And a very peculiar, unforeseen result of your time with God will unfold in your life. Some of those resolutions that you have been dodging you for years will suddenly be kept. But it will not be you doing it, but rather the power of God working through you. This is faith. Learn it…live it…love it!
