An Eroding Culture (Still Eroding)

1. Hayden 4-24-16, revised 7-28-20

Last night, in a fit of prayer, I felt led to crack open an old favorite book of mine, Chuck Swindoll’s text “The Church Awakening: An Urgent Call For Renewal.” In a nation that continues to drift further and further away from the moral moorings that were considered at one time common sense, the Church is in desperate need for spiritual renewal. On the back cover of Swindoll’s book, we read this quote, “Postmodernism (there is no absolute truth or reality) began in the academic community, oozed into leadership, then morphed into Congress, public schools, and our homes. Sadly, the slumbering evangelical church has also now slid into the murky waters of a post-Christian swamp.” This is often the result of a church that, rather than seek to draw closer in a holy relationship with God, settles for a shallow, religious form having no power. A church that is more interested in being accepted, and better yet, liked by our politically correct world, escaping the persecution that Jesus said all who live Godly in Christ Jesus would suffer (2 Timothy 3:12).

Some feel that we are in the process of the great “falling away” in the church, spoken of in the Scriptures, as we see denomination after denomination buckle to the pressures of the world to accept more and more behaviors, lifestyles, and faiths as acceptable alternatives to Biblical truths held by the church for the last 20 centuries. Could this be the great falling away linked to the revealing of the anti-Christ spoken of in the Bible? In 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3 we read, “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;” There has always been societies filled with eroded morality (maybe every society). But now many sectors of the church, after holding to standards of Biblical holiness and truth, are voting (and have voted) to not only affirm alternative faiths and lifestyles as acceptable to God but actually plotting to weave these changes into the church. We need to continue to pray that the church will be renewed in the Holy Spirit, be salt and light for the world, leading people to repentance and forgiveness in Christ rather than allow the world to lead the church into a politically correct social club based on good feelings rather than God’s Word. It is time for the Church to rise up, be bold in Christ, speak truth to counter the deception out to destroy our world, call the church to revival and preach repentance and faith in Jesus to a lost world.

Be blessed even more!!

Pastor Chris         

What’s the Answer?

C. Hayden 6-10-20

                Jesus said in John 16:33, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” Well country singer Lynn Anderson recorded a song most of us probably remember entitled “Rose Garden.”  While you may not remember it at first, I bet you will recall it the moment I state the first line of the song’s chorus.  The tune echo’s the sentiment that things will not always be fun and games. The chorus of the song goes like this:  “I beg your pardon I never promised you a rose garden.  Along with the sunshine there’s gotta be a little rain some time…”

Well I think most of us would agree, that even though we have had a few years of sunshine, we are in a rainy season now as our country has been facing one difficult situation after another.  With struggling through the pandemic and now protests crossing our nation, the question has surface, what’s next? Well I am still waiting for the killer hornets to make an appearance? 

                So what can we do?  First let me just say, we will never be able to stop problems from happening.  Tribulation will come.  We are not going to be able to solve all our problems by:

1. Money – Throwing more money at things never seems to work

2. Education – The more we know the more we realize we don’t know

3. Uniting – Unity is great but without God it is folly (remember the tower of Babel?)

4. Politics – I think we all realize that no matter who is in office, no one is ever satisfied

5. Begging – Appealing to everyone’s good nature?! Good luck with that

So what is the answer?  Two things I know. We will always have problems, and secondly, we will never be able to solve all of our problems in our own flesh.  We need Jesus and we need the power of the Holy Spirit!  We live in a broken world with broken people living in it.  No amount of community organizing will ever fix that.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not against the community working together to make a broken world continue to run, but only God Himself will be able to put Humpty Dumpty back together every time he falls.  Zechariah 4:6 says that it is not by our might or our power, but it is by His Spirit. Only through Him the world can ever hope to be fixed.  We must turn back to God as a nation.  Only then can true progress take place.  We will have more on this subject in two weeks.

Be blessed even more,

Pastor Chris