When My Church Prays...

God answers.

Oh I realize He answers the prayers of other churches, too, but I want this to be personal, because it is. How dare I barely stop and notice when God does His miracles in response to my prayers and the prayers of my church family. How dare I not take a moment to ponder the reality that I routinely see miraculous things happen as a direct answer to prayer. How dare I not even notice when the God who flung the stars into space stops to listen… and to answer my prayers… and the prayers of my church.

Three recent examples:

1.) We brought a man named Francisco from Colombia to help us plant a Hispanic church. He came legally, of course, but when it was time to renew (or really change) his visa, we began to run into problems and mostly a very long delay. As time marched on, it began to look more and more like he may be forced to return home and leave his work unfinished. Indeed, we had to get special permission for him to stay a little bit longer while the paperwork was being processed. If he had been forced to go home, it would have been horribly sad for many reasons, not least for his small congregation who love him, and not least for his wife and children who love it here and have settled into this place where God led them, by faith. But we prayed and we prayed hard. For many months we prayed our guts out on this issue. And late last night, I got a text from my dear friend. He had received his approval letter from the office of immigration. His visa is approved and he can stay and work legally for the foreseeable future. When my church prays, God answers.

2.) Church members brought a prayer request, not for anyone in our church, but for the son of their postal carrier. [By the way, that tells me a whole lot of good about this couple’s effort to reach out. Proud pastor, here.] The boy had a brain tumor and it didn’t look good. So we prayed. Today I received the report that after the surgery, the doctors spoke of the results as nothing short of miraculous. In fact, there is no sign of the cancer and the boy is operating normally (despite dire warnings about him losing his speech, etc. from the surgery). He has been miraculously healed and doesn’t even need to go back for a check up for a year. When my church prays, God answers.

3.) I had been out Jeeping with a friend and church member last Saturday. After we finished tearing through the snow and were enjoying a hard-earned burger, he mentioned that he was about to be a grandpa. He said his oldest daughter was set to give birth any time. A few days later, I received word that he and his wife were on the way to the hospital across the state. Sadly, their grandbaby had been stillborn… but machine’s were keeping him alive temporarily. This precious newborn’s heart had stopped for eight minutes and his lungs were filled with blood. The doctor told the mother that the baby would probably not live. Quickly, we put the word out to our prayer team, and I called my staff into my office. We prayed. I choked out a prayer through tears but I was able to pray with faith. We didn’t pray for comfort. We prayed for healing. We prayed that God would save this baby, even though it looked pretty hopeless at that point. We prayed for a miracle. Now, the baby’s lungs are clear and he is breathing on his own. All indications are that he is going to be okay. We will keep praying. When my church prays, God answers.

So there you have it. Three examples inside of a week. God answers prayer. I really should keep a lifelong list. My soul magnifies the Lord.

Now, do we always get the result we ask for? Of course not. God is still God and we do not control Him. But my goodness, isn’t it enough that many times God does exactly what we ask? Does it have to be EVERY time for us to have faith and believe prayer makes a difference? Does the answer always have to be yes, for us to keep asking? That would just be illogical and silly.

Think about it. When you were a kid, did you stop asking your parents for what you wanted, just because they didn’t ALWAYS say yes? No, in fact, one yes in a hundred no’s was enough to keep asking… especially if what you wanted was right there in front of you. Remember asking for candy in the aisle at the grocery store? Did you ever stop asking? No, because at least every once in awhile the answer was yes. Well, this week we got three yes answers from God, and I feel like a kid again, because, yes… God gave me what I wanted and EXACTLY what I asked for. And guess what that means. It means, just like a kid, I’m going to be asking more than ever! But the difference between parents and God is that He actually wants us to keep on asking. As Jesus put it,

Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. “You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him. Matthew 7:7-10 (NLT)

So, church family, what are you asking God for these days? Are you asking for Him to make our church all it can be? Are you asking for Him to lead people to the Cross through our ministry? Are you asking for salvations and baptisms and spiritual growth to occur? I hope so. Because, when my church prays, God answers.

Weakness Training

Most people today are familiar with strength training, wherein one works out with weights and does stretches in order to burn fat, tone up, and generally become a stronger person. Those who have read the best seller titled: “The Daniel Plan” by Rick Warren et al, might even be thinking of the phrase “Daniel Strong,” a good goal for us all. Truth be told, I’ve always thought of myself as that kind of strong, and in recent years have done things to try to stay that way… especially as I get older (ugh).

In fact, I have spent several seasons of my life committed to strength training, and had just taken it back up again over the last couple of months, due to the fact that a hip injury had forced me to stop running. I thought, well, since I can’t run I’ll start doing some weights at the gym while I wait for this to heal. However, looking back today I realized that my life of late has been much more about weakness training than strength training.

I think this season of weakness training may have started about a year ago, when I finally laid down my pride, publicly admitted my hearing loss (something I tried to hide for years), and purchased hearing aids. I am only forty-five. In case you don’t know, forty-five-year-olds don’t often get hearing aids, but this one did, and they do help me hear better, but that’s not all they do. They humble me. I used to be really cool. Now, not so much. And if you don’t think wearing hearing aids makes people think you’re old and a lot less cool, I dare you to try it.

So… I started running… and I was really getting into it and, eh hem, kind of proud to have run several half marathons, and was hoping to run a full marathon perhaps in the Fall, but then a few months ago I hurt my hip, mountain biking. In denial, I proceeded to run another half marathon through the pain. After that, my hip got so bad I had to stop running to let it heal, but nothing seemed to make it better. Always before I was that guy who healed ridiculously fast, but this time… no progress at all. What I thought would get better in a couple of weeks is really not much better after three months… and it is debilitating. (Yes moms, I have had x-rays, etc., and have tried one type of doctor and am seeing a different type of doctor starting next week).

So with the injury continuing to cramp my style, the next thing I knew it was time for our annual mission trip to Nicaragua which includes physical work such as building houses. Every other year I’ve been able to impress (myself) as a “hard worker,” putting my physical stamina and strength on display (heh heh). I would be the one to go get the wheel borough full of cement every time (as if anyone noticed), but this time I couldn’t do anything impressive at all, and in fact, felt so crummy that for the first two days, I just wanted to go home. What was my problem? Well things weren’t the same as usual, spiritually (people were less responsive and opportunities were less abundant this year, another blog perhaps) and meanwhile I couldn’t do very much physically either so I just felt completely useless.

To make matters worse, my physical limitation was a hip problem… just like my dear Dad… who is wonderful, but old (just kidding, Dad). But really, everyone misunderstanding the situation (an injury) and talking to me about hip surgery (Dad’s had two), basically made me face that I’m not thirty anymore and to accept the fact that it all gets worse (physically) from here. Some of you know that’s a pretty painful reality check. So here I am trying to convince myself that this is not going to be a problem for me until the day I die, and meanwhile unable to do the work I normally do or to portray the image I normally portray (yes, I know how this sounds), I did what I could, but even what little I did was apparently too much, because there were two nights when I lay in agony, moaning and groaning in pain and not sleeping at all, which led to some really bad days when I couldn’t even think straight. I then made the “mistake” of telling people on our team how much pain I was experiencing, which led to me feeling even more like a total wimp, even as sweet, loving people wanted to fuss over me (and I did appreciate it, but it’s also humbling). Everyone was very caring. Superman (in my own mind) was down. The leader could not lead. He simply was not capable. He was emotionally spent and physically he might as well have been eighty-five. WEAKNESS. I hate it. Ouch.

But that wasn’t the end of the week’s lessons for me. Stomach problems hit next and I spent the week feeling miserable in the gut, but then a sore throat signaled what would become a terrible head cold to go along with my lower end problems. All of this turned into a nightmare on the very long journey home through three airports and six takeoffs and landings. I thought my head would explode… or maybe something else. Everyone felt sorry for me… just what I wanted (not). This terrible trip (from 3 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday) lead to the first time in twenty-five years that I have missed a Sunday service for illness. Yes, I was absolutely keeping track and was quite proud of my flawless twenty-five-year record, now history. I stayed home sick Sunday (in defeat) and three days later I’m just starting to feel well enough to type this blog.

So, I wonder if there is a lesson in all of this for me? DUH!!! As the Apostle Paul put it in 2^nd Corinthians 12, God is saying: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” And Paul went on to say, “Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

I must decrease. He must increase. Amen.

We could also insert here any of the many verses about humility and how God is opposed to the proud but lifts up the humble, right? So I say to myself, “Hello, are you listening? What is God trying to teach you, dummy?” And, of course it is obvious isn’t it? I’ve had a dose of weakness training, and the Lord knows I needed it. Mr. Healthy and Mr. Strong is now Mr. Sick and Mr. Weak. And so I say also with Paul, “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25a).

Who knew I needed weakness training? God did. And for all of you who are reading this and thinking, “Yeah, we knew you needed it too…” well look out brother, because you may be next. And in case I haven’t been clear, you are not going to like it, because with weakness training, it really is “No pain, no gain.”

So, it has been a rough few months, physically speaking, but now I am understanding more what God is doing, and I have hope for the answer to another of Paul’s prayers in my life, “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man” (Eph. 3:16). Let it be true, Lord. Let it be true.

I surrender.

Immigration: A Dissenting View

I am conservative to the core. I am conservative on the social issues and the economic issues. I want to return to the Limited Government of our Founding Fathers. But I disagree with the rhetoric of most conservatives when it comes to immigration. Why? Because I am a principled man, and my principles are based on the Bible. My views on abortion, gay marriage, the role of government, and everything else are based on Scripture. You could say I’m on the Christian right. Haters, I’m your target.

But how exactly is it a “Christian Right” position to be hateful toward illegal immigrants? “Oh, we aren’t hateful,” might be your response. Really? Because I’ve had emails forwarded to me by Christians that sound pretty hateful (and fearful and selfish and ignorant). Thank God other countries don’t treat Americans the same way or we wouldn’t be able to have missionaries all over the world. And what if they said to our missionaries, “You have to learn our language first before you are welcome here?” Ridiculous, selfish and sad, not to mention a long way from Christ-like. Good grief, they learn English by being here for awhile. They all do.

Let me get a couple of “straw men” out of the way before I go on. 1) Felons who aren’t citizens should be put into prison. 2) Sanctuary cities are a bad idea. 3) I am not for amnesty or open borders. 4) I realize I don’t have all the answers to this extremely complicated problem.

With those caveats stated, let me get back to the reason I am not happy with the way most conservative Christians are coming across on this issue. The Bible is not silent regarding immigration and immigrants. One of the many passages of Scripture that I believe applies very well is Leviticus 19:33-34, which says,

“When a foreigner lives with you in your land, you must not oppress him. You must regard the foreigner who lives with you as the native-born among you. You are to love him as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt; behold I am Yahweh your God.”

And I can hear someone saying, “Well that’s Leviticus; it doesn’t count now,” or “We aren’t Israel and we weren’t in Egypt.” And you would have a point. The ceremonial/civil law no longer applies to us in a literal sense, and we were never slaves in Egypt. However, anyone who isn’t trying so hard not to listen, can surely see that there is a principle here that is deeper and timeless. This is not even a law, for that matter. This is a “way to be” as a follower and representative of Yahweh. Read it again.

So what am I saying? Stop the hatred. Stop lumping them all together as if they were common criminals here to take something that is yours. Oh how selfish can we be? Part of the problem is that most people talking hatefully don’t know the people they are talking about. They don’t see the beautiful families they casually call “illegals,” with the underlying point being that these people have no rights and should be treated as if they were thugs deserving of prison. Well, I do know some of them and they tend to be wonderful people with a better value system than many Americans. These are real people… good people… trying to provide for their families. They should not be criminalized simply because they don’t have the right papers. This is not a Christian attitude.

Are you aware of the reason most immigrants are technically here illegally? They are here illegally because it is virtually IMPOSSIBLE for them to be here legally. Our system simply does not work. I have first-hand knowledge of this fact. Newsflash: Most didn’t swim across the river. Over half of them came here legally, and have simply overstayed their visas. What happened? Why couldn’t they get their visas renewed? They came to study or to work with our compliments. We gave them a visa that said, “Y’all come.” So they came and they established themselves and their families here and their children learned English and made friends, but then at some point the government said, “Your visa is up. Go back home or we will handcuff you and ship you back like FedEx packages sent to the wrong place.”

See it isn’t that hard to get into our country for a little while, but when it is time to renew that visa or to try for a more permanent status, that’s when you face the impossibility of the tangled up bureaucracy that is our American government. Conservatives love to rail against the broken system, only to expect immigrants to work with it. Well, they can’t. There is virtually no path to a long-term visa, much less citizenship, unless you have years to wait and lots of money to spend on a lawyer to try to get it through. Meanwhile, even if someone is so noble as to try to get through the system legally, during those months or years when the government can’t seem to get it done, they are considered “illegal.” It is true that most eventually give up on the paperwork and buy themselves a fake social security card for about 50 bucks so they can keep on working rather than to live on handouts or pack up their children and head back to third-world poverty. Have you really tried putting yourself in their shoes? Really? REALLY?

So what do I think needs to happen? We absolutely need to secure our borders and know who is entering and leaving our country. We need to keep felons and terrorists out, and if they get in and commit crime, I say we deal with them ourselves and lock them up so they can’t just keep sneaking back across our border. We do need to stop immigrants from coming in illegally as best we can, probably including better fences or walls or whatever it takes to develop a system where we can monitor who is coming, but I also believe we should help those who are already here gain extended visas or citizenship (which currently is virtually impossible). I say that if they are here to work and to contribute, and especially if they came legally in the first place, we should create a reasonable pathway for them to become legal and for them to stay long term and raise their families here. And yet, every time someone tries to suggest a reasonable way for illegals to become legal, the Republican party starts crying “No amnesty for the criminals!” It is ridiculous and heartless. A reasonable path to legal status is not amnesty.

As Christians, our attitude ought to be compassion, not self-righteous exclusionism and even racially-biased hatred. It makes no sense. We are all for giving and helping and going on mission trips to help the poor people in the world, but if any of them dare figure out a way to come live here, we want them all (men, women and children) shipped back and dumped at the border. Can someone tell me how that squares with anything in the Bible, not to mention a Christian Worldview?

For the most part, these are wonderful people who love our country and want to work here and live here. They are good examples for many Americans. They could be a nice addition to our nation. They could be a blessing if we would stop making them out to be criminals because of our own completely broken system that offers them no real shot at legal status. There comes a point when government gets so huge and unmanageable that we all could be called criminals. Christians might want to remember that we could be next in being labeled criminals for failing to meticulously follow the freedom-squelching requirements of our ever-more-controlling government. 

But what about the money!! Oh the tax dollars! The pundits tell us these people are costing us billions. That is mostly ridiculous. Why? Because the problem is with the welfare system, not immigration. Stop giving people free stuff if you want to spend less on welfare. Stop giving it out if that’s what you’re worried about. Personally, I’d end the whole welfare system and put the responsibility back on churches and communities to help the poor. That’s a whole different issue. The point is that we don’t have to deport people to stop giving money to them. Hello? Did you catch that? Most Hispanics don’t need government assistance anyway, because I’ve yet to meet a first generation Hispanic person who doesn’t work. They are here to work! Most of them can’t even attend the church we’ve planted for them, because they work fourteen hour days, often seven days per week. And if you think they are taking jobs away from Americans, think again. How many Americans do you know who are willing to bend their backs to pick berries all day for pennies? Give me a break.

Let me close with this admonition to my fellow Christians: If you are going to base all your other political beliefs on Scripture, maybe you should think a little bit more about what the Bible says in regard to how we treat foreigners living in our land. At the very least, watch your attitude. Do you really think God wants us to reject and criminalize those of other nationalities who wish to live and work among us? I don’t think so. I think God is bringing the mission field to us. Remember the second greatest commandment? Love your neighbor as yourself. I think maybe we should start doing that.

Preaching It Real

I am a preacher. Every Sunday, I get up and preach a 30-40 minute message from the Word of God. The amount of thought and research that go into my sermons is pretty substantial. I try to share things that have the potential to promote radical life change, should someone choose to apply what they are hearing. I take risks in my preaching. I risk offending people. Sometimes I offend those who are more worldly and sometimes I offend those who consider themselves more godly, and sometimes I offend just about everyone in the room, including myself. I do not preach safe sermons. I preach real, hopefully eye-opening, definitely eye-brow-raising sermons. I’m pretty sure that’s what Jesus did.

There will always be those pharisaical Christians who meet the slightest bit of open-minded thought with condemnation. There will always be those souls who simply want to hear the things they have always heard presented in the same way they’ve always heard them presented. They will not be happy with my preaching.

There will also always be those who want to hear the latest pop-psychology, feel-good, all-encouraging, ear-tickling nonsense, rather than the exposition of God’s ancient, unchanging truth. They will not be happy with my preaching either.

I am starting to realize how surprising it is that people keep coming back to listen to me preach… and more all the time. Is it because I am real? I am that, if nothing else. Is it because most of them have heard enough safe sermons? My sermons are seldom safe. Almost every week I expect that someone will probably take issue with something I have said. 

I was thinking today about the fact that I am a person of very strong conviction who is also still open minded. Strange as that may sound, it is true. [Right in the middle of writing this blog, I received an email from our Associate Pastor complimenting me for being willing to tweak my doctrinal position based on a discussion we have been having.] The fact is that I consider myself in a state of flux on many of my beliefs. I am still learning. I have absolutely changed my view on several issues over the last twenty-five years of ministry. How can someone of such strong conviction, still also be a person who can change his positions? I don’t think this is a coincidence.

My convictions are strong because I continue to feed them, and because I know that if they are proven wrong, they can still be changed. I am still listening and I’m still convincing myself and I’m still open to the fact that I could have been wrong about some things MY WHOLE LIFE. I believe this actually makes me stronger.

[I’m feeling very me, me, me with this blog… talking about myself so much, but oh well, it is MY blog.]

In many cases, those issues I am strongest on are the ones I have struggled with the most. In other words, since it is possible that I can change my mind, even on many important issues, I feel the need to convince myself repeatedly. So yes, even many of my strongest convictions still include a sliver of open-mindedness. Now that scares people.

People don’t want  a pastor who might change his mind. That could lead to speaking in tongues. Sorry…. And yet they do want a pastor who is real. The problem is that those two desires are incongruent. One cannot be closed-minded and real at the same time. Why? Because if it is impossible that I could be persuaded to change my position, regardless of the evidence, then I have made an a priori decision to fake myself out at all costs. I have decided to keep the wool pulled over my eyes and to close my ears and to say “la la la la la” to whomever or whatever would try to convince me otherwise, and there is nothing real about that. A real person doesn’t fool himself. A real person knows he surely isn’t right about everything and therefore he keeps open the possibility that he could change his mind about any particular thing. Can I ask less of myself than I would ask of the audience I seek to persuade, about one thing or another, every week?

People have said that I can be persuasive. My wife jokingly says I should have been a lawyer. My daughter-in-law recently said, “Just do that thing you do, and everyone will change their minds in like fifteen minutes.” She’s such a sweetheart. But I think that if I am no longer persuadable, I will no longer be persuasive. And someone will probably say I don’t need to be persuasive, to which I respond, “Oh please.” Even the Apostle Paul was out to persuade as many as possible (Acts 26:28, 2 Corinthians 5:11).

Now, keeping it real… there are some topics about which I am closed-minded. There are those areas where I feel I have completely exhausted the argument. You’ll never convince me that abortion is okay. Sorry. You’ll never convince me that Jesus didn’t die on the Cross and rise again. I no longer spend any time wrestling with those issues. These are things that I know at a whole other level. However, if I were to tell you the list of things that I could potentially change my mind about, well then I’d have church members really concerned. The truth is that many of the things I feel strongest about are areas where I struggle to believe what I believe.

Why am I so uber-committed to a supernatural, six-day creation that did not take place billions of years ago? Because I am so constantly challenged by the other side that I wear myself out arguing against it. Does that mean I could change my mind on this issue. Yes. I’m not going to change my mind, but yes, theoretically I could (heh heh). I continue to research this issue regularly. I wrestle with it. I think. And there are SO MANY areas like this in my life, wherein I can argue both sides, and yet I land strongly on one side or the other. That’s just who I am… and it is part of why I preach the way I preach.

I never was the preacher boy with all of his positions charted out, perfectly confident in the absolute truth of his own systematic theology. No not at all. I have too much respect for the unfathomability of God and my own ant-like place in the world. That doesn’t mean I don’t think I know anything. In truth, I think I know a lot. It’s just that I also know that what I think I know, I may not really know and, oh yes, there is also that too-true-truth that I don’t know what I don’t know. So do I know anything? Yes. I know Jesus.

Maybe I’ll just close out my rambling by quoting the words of someone my wife says I’m a lot like in many ways. The Apostle Paul said,

And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory.... 1 Corinthians 2:1-7 (NASB)

Concerned Citizen (Part Two)

So now what? Part One did not offer much hope, because without an act of mental discipline, I do not feel much hope. I just don’t feel it. I’m sad. Sorry, that is the truth. However, my feelings do not define reality. And I refuse to stay mired in these sad feelings. I will listen to what God is saying. When I hear from God, there is always hope. There is.

I have given the ultimate answer to all of our current conundrum repeatedly in past blogs and sermons. The ultimate answer is spiritual awakening, which will come when the church is truly revived. See 2 Chronicles 7:14. However, I want to go in another direction this time. I want to think about this a little bit more in terms of what has happened to my country… the nation where I am a natural-born citizen, and to which I am loyal. I want to talk about what has been lost and what can be regained, because as Christians, we need to figure out what battle we are fighting.

I am not so sure we can ever get our country back in the ways that we would like. In fact, I do not believe we can. I do not believe it is likely that America will ever be considered a Christian nation again. Mr. Obama was actually half right when he said that we are not a Christian nation (He was wrong to say we never were, but that’s another topic). Truth is, I would not want the world to think our nation currently represents Christianity. The world mostly sees our media and our leaders, and folks, that ain’t Christian.

Now, I have to insert a paragraph here to say what I am not saying in this blog. I am not saying Christians should throw up their hands, that we should not vote or be active in the political process. I am not saying I won’t be VERY interested in what happens with our next presidential election. I can carry on a political conversation with the best of them, and I’m very up on things, because I care. I can even have a little bit of hope that maybe we can slow the tide of secular humanism to some degree through the political process. Rest assured, I will be voting and I am not afraid to say what I believe about the issues in the appropriate setting.

Having said that, notice I said I can only hope to slow down our negative progression, not stop it. I am a realist. My hope is not that we will return to 1950’s America. Folks, it is not going to happen. Look at history. All governments get bigger and freedom always erodes. In virtually any group of people (even ancient Israel), the true God is eventually rejected by the majority and morality declines. Historically, the only way any of this predictable negative progression ends is through the death of the original nation and the birth of a new one. Considering the pain and destruction involved in that whole process, there is not much hope there.

No hope. But that is because I have been talking about the America of today returning to the America of yesterday, and I honestly do not believe there is any realistic hope of that happening. But before I get to the place where I do find hope (they say suspense is a good thing in writing), think about what would happen if many or most of the best American Christians made the restoration of our previous national identity or a return to Christianity-driven cultural norms… what they are all about? What if American Christians were mostly a bunch of people who are angry about how bad things have gotten to be? What if we became, mostly, just a bunch of cry babies hollering about how much better things once were? And worse, what if the thing we are hoping for is not even the will of God? What if His present goals have nothing to do with returning America to its former glory? What if He has decided to let us come to the end of ourselves as a nation?

I realize the people who loved my last blog are beginning to hate this one. That includes me. I don’t like what I’m writing at this present moment. I’d rather shout on about how mad and disappointed I am and figure out some way to arm twist the nation back to its Christian roots. I'd at least like to hear myself rant about the fact that we DO HAVE Christian roots! We all want to hear SOMEBODY say the things I said in my last blog. We are all sick and tired of nobody speaking the truth. We’re angry. We have reason to be angry. But where can we find hope?

In part one of this blog, I listed eight core principles that have been rejected by the new majority of Americans, particularly those who are the America of tomorrow. I do not believe we can hope the majority is going to change its mind. I am sorry. Again, I am a realist. If a return to those principles is the thing I am hoping for, I am left without hope. I am left arguing on social media or perhaps boycotting practically every single business in existence to try to make a point. I’m left with nothing to eat but Chik-Fil-A and nowhere to shop but Hobby Lobby. If changing the opinions of this culture is where my hope is, I’ll spend my time ranting about the media and politicians, when my real problem is with the majority of my fellow Americans who I don’t want to believe exist.

Sometimes I still hear this idea that if we would just come together as Christians, we could take back this country. In fact, I have been hearing that all my life. There may have been a point where it was true, but I do not believe it is true any longer. The so-called silent majority is no longer a majority. In my city of around 50,000 people, maybe 3,000-4,000 folks are in church on a given Sunday. Maybe. Probably a third of those do not really believe the Bible. When are we going to wake up and realize most people are not like us? Committed Christians whose worldview is founded in Scripture are now the minority in America, by quite a wide margin. We need to deal with reality.

So where the heck is the hope?

My hope is in the book of Acts! My hope is in the first three centuries of Christianity in the Roman Empire! My hope is in what is happening today in China! We are not the first Christians to find themselves a minority. We are not the first to be persecuted, and make no mistake persecution is coming to American Christians. It has already begun, and it is going to get much worse. Wait, and that brings me hope? Yes, my friend, it absolutely does.

Listen to me, American Christians! Our hope is in evangelism and prayer, not picket signs and boycotts! Did the early Christians make changing the Roman Government their mission in life? Did they try to change the established “church” (Judaism)? Not really. They faced incredible odds as a tiny minority with almost no public voice. They were persecuted, tortured and killed. They were squelched. Their freedoms were taken. They were a tiny island in an ocean of those whose worldview was completely opposed to their own. (Sound familiar?) And yet, surely you know what happened. They changed the world. Truth is, everything was going great until they got the government on their side, about three centuries after they started.

Things are going to change. Make no mistake, I am profoundly sad about it. Churches will probably decline in numbers… maybe a lot for awhile. The decline in church membership and attendance in recent years across the nation has been staggering. We will be hated. We will not be popular. We will be misunderstood. We will be slandered. Where in the Bible does it say ANY of that should be our concern?

But again, where is the hope? My hope is in the fact that the church of Jesus Christ has always thrived when it is persecuted. My hope is in the fact that things are about to get very real when it comes to following Jesus. My hope is not in a nation (though I love my country). My hope is in a kingdom... the Kingdom of God and of His Christ.

Consider this: What did you always think was the most amazing thing a Christian could decide to do? I was always so inspired when someone was called to be a missionary. If someone decided to move to a foreign land, some place almost always less Christian than America, they were simply heroic. Their sacrifice inspired me. Still, by far, most of us… didn’t go. While the chosen few were willing to leave this great country and go someplace worse… to actually live in a foreign land for the express purpose of leading people to Christ… the rest of us stayed right here. We did not go to that difficult place to live… that challenging place to raise a family, and to serve. We did not go to that land. Instead, it came to us. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the foreign mission field. Welcome to America.

What do international missionaries do? Do they try to change the government where they serve? Do they try to change the culture? Do they try to change the schools or get everyone to think like they think or believe what they believe about every issue? No. What do they do? They evangelize. They try to lead one person at a time to Christ. And when that person comes to Christ, does he or she immediately agree about every economic or social issue? Does that person immediately change his or her entire worldview? Of course not. Sometimes, as they grow in Christ, their views can change, but it takes time, and sometimes, some of those views never change. Every missionary knows you don’t try to change the culture, you just try to reach people for Jesus, and let Him do whatever changing He thinks needs done… one person at a time.

What if American Christians began to think more like missionaries, called to America? What if we stopped expecting our work to already be done!? What if we began to see opportunity instead of disappointment? What if you and I have been called to witness for Christ in a foreign land where Christianity is hated? What if that land is America? What if our hope is simply found in one more person coming to know Jesus Christ?

Concerned Citizen (Part One)

That description of myself is quite an understatement. I am more than concerned for the country in which I find citizenship. I am closer to terrified. Why? Because the things that made America so special are almost completely lost. Overstated? Oh I don’t think so. Not in light of historical timeframes. Give it a decade or two. Where do you honestly think we’ll be?

The majority of us are drugged (literally and figuratively). The nation, as a whole, is staggering about, having forgotten from whence it came and we are completely clueless about where we are going. We are leaderless. We are visionless. And most people under the age of forty are completely ignorant of the most important aspects of our history. 

It is this last concern that is perhaps, most concerning. History is what builds a nation. America was built upon the decisions and sacrifices of our forefathers, but we deny who they were and what they did. What we cannot deny, we simply do not teach. Most everything that matters about our history is revised or ignored, until teenagers today do not even know what many of our forefathers died to give us. Freedom is underrated and misunderstood. No one cares about those who died to earn and keep it for the rest of us. Most teenagers can’t imagine what would be worth fighting a war over. Too much time has passed. We have forgotten who we are.

Christianity? Censored. Limited Government? Expanded. Free Enterprise? Poisoned. Capitalism? Demonized. Free Speech? Categorized. Freedom of Religion? Squelched. American Exceptionalism? Denied. The Constitution? Demeaned.

They say it takes a village to raise a child. I do not agree in principle, but to some degree, like it or not, the village does raise the child. We cannot entirely shield our children from the village. What kind of child is the typical American village raising these days? In what direction are the adults of tomorrow being indoctrinated?

Indoctrinated? Yes, every society is indoctrinated. Even our grandparents were indoctrinated. The village indoctrinates. Schools, in particular, indoctrinate. Today, people are in some kind of school from age three, maybe even to age thirty. Schools have always indoctrinated and they always will. The only question is the source and the aim of that indoctrination.

What kind of indoctrination are the children of America receiving? Excluding those children whose parents actively work against the system or those children who, for one reason or another, reject the mainstream, what is the next generation of Americans being manipulated to believe? The following is a reasonable summary:

1. God did not create people or the world.

2. The Bible is mythology.

3. People are animals, evolved from apes.

4. The most important issues of our time are environmental.

5. Spanking is child abuse.

6. America has not been and is not exceptional in any way.

7. Truth is relative.

8. Immoral behavior should be celebrated.

The really not funny thing is that most young adults reading those eight principles will wonder what my problem is with most or all of them. The majority, and oh yes I mean majority of the younger generation would be willing to sign their names to these eight maxims as a manifesto. They do not even realize that they have been indoctrinated to believe the opposite of their grandparents and the opposite of the vast majority of Americans during the first 150 plus years of our history.

They have been indoctrinated. So have I. The difference between me and them is that I realize my ideas came from others, and I greatly respect those from whom my ideas came. My ideas came from the people who built this once great nation, or rather, in many cases from the same place where they got most of those ideas (The Bible). Oh yes, I was indoctrinated as well… to believe the following:

1. God created everything that exists out of nothing.

2. The Bible is true.

3. People were created in the image of God, distinct from animals.

4. The most important issues have to do with eternity.

5. When you spare the rod, you spoil the child.

6. America is quite possibly the most amazing nation to ever exist.

7. Truth is absolute.

8. Immoral behavior should be condemned.

Even as I write down those principles, I am aware of the venom and the vitriol they will inspire in a large swath of our now-persuaded-otherwise society. What cannot be debated is the fact that these beliefs were once held by nearly every American, certainly including our founders, who risked so much to create the first free nation of its kind.

Ideas have consequences. What happens when the old folks who understand all of this are gone? What happens when that half, or so, of my own generation who still hold to these truths, are gone? Some readers may think, “Well, then we’ll finally be rid of you nut jobs.” But you must admit that you will also be rid of every principle this nation was built upon. “So what?” you say. Well, I guess you will find out.

I have a hard time believing anything like the America I have known will continue to exist, and that makes me very sad. Considering the way history is being revised, I fear the next generation won’t even know what they’ve missed.

To be continued….