Showing posts with label PRAYER. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PRAYER. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

OH LORD, HOW LONG?

Until 9/11 America seemed impregnable. No longer. 

Who could have imagined that Islamic Jihadists huddled in an Afghan cave, could have been so successful at shattering our sense of safety, and challenging our world-class military complex? 

Peggy Noonan writes in today’s Wall Street Journal, “It marked the end of ‘we are protected,’ and the beginning of something else.”

It was a wake-up call that should have driven our nation to her knees in prayer to the God of our Fathers—but tolerance, now our foremost virtue, demanded we pray to the God of the Bible, and to the Great Spirit, and to the deities of the Hindus, and to the god’s of our own making, and even to Allah—the God who supposedly ordered this attack. Church attendance climbed for a few weeks after the attack, but it wasn’t long until football, fun-times, and family outings, were again our Sunday priorities.

It was a wake-up call that should have awakened us to our moral deficits—but we are more concerned with fiscal woes and government spending deficits. Immorality and irresponsibility are expensive. We must somehow find the funds to continue the party.

When a few ministers suggested that America’s immorality—abortion, sodomy, the breakup of the family, and unbridled greed—had lifted God’s hand of protection from our nation, they were quickly scorned into retractions.

It was a wake-up call that should have strengthened the resolve of America’s 350,000 ministers to call our nation to repentance, moral rectitude, and Biblical truth—but tragically there are fewer Men of God, who will prophetically and unapologetically stand for Scriptural holiness and righteousness. On a per capita basis there are fewer than at any other time in our nation’s history. (Barna)

It was a wake-up call that should have, and could have, been the beginning of a national revival of Scriptural Christianity, but it was not.

The attack of 9/11 was not a wake up call. But that’s not all!
The hurricanes were not.
The earthquakes were not.
The sunamis were not.
The tornadoes were not.
The fires were not.
The epidemics were not.
The great recession was not.
It seems that nothing will drive us to repent.

How long then should we continue to preach the truth of God’s Word?

How long then should we persist in our efforts to reach the lost of this nation?

How long then should we open the doors of our churches for services? (If they will not come should we keep opening the doors, turning on the lights, and preaching to empty pews?)

It was a question that Isaiah asked in His day. And the answer God gave him is our answer to the question.
“Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, And the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.” Isaiah 6:11,12.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

OUR CALLING TO FULFILL

The mission of our church is specific:
...To proclaim God's Truth (revealed without error in the Bible),
...To evangelize the lost,
...To be faithful disciples--followers of Jesus Christ,
...To example Christ-like love for God and for one another,
...To promote Scriptural holiness of heart and life, and
...To advance Christian virtue in the public square.

In recent months we have become increasingly aware of this fact: It is much easier to state a mission, than it is to fulfill a mission!

To fulfill the mission God has given us, will require specific commitments by God's people.

1. IF THERE IS WARMTH THERE MUST BE LOVE!
If our services are to be noted for spiritual warmth, there must be that "going the extra mile," self-less, hospitable, caring, sacrificial, loyal love.

2. IF THERE IS OUTREACH THERE MUST BE REACH-OUT!
It is not enough to pray that God will send in the lost, we must go to them. Jesus said, "Go ye therefore and teach all nations." (Matthew 28:19ff)

3. IF THERE IS POWER THERE MUST BE PRAYER!
Powerlessness is the inevitable consequence of prayerlessness. Our prayer life must be faithful, consistent, insistent, and persistent!

4. IF THERE IS WORSHIP THERE MUST BE SACRIFICE!
The English word from which we derive "worship" is "worth-ship." It is only when we consider the presence of God greater worth than the fleeting pleasures and treasures of earth, that we can experience true worship. Paying the price of holy discipline, giving our voices and our attention and involvement in worship are vital to experiencing the presense of God.

Those who see the cross, will with Isaac Watts testify, "all the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood," and then know the joy and wonder of worship.

5. IF THERE IS CONVICTION THERE MUST BE TRUTH!
The tragedy of our times is that too many preachers fear to tell the truth, and too many in the pews do not want to hear the truth. It is no wonder that there is so little conviction in our services.

6. IF THERE IS PEACE, THERE MUST BE WAR!
Churches that have surrendered to the spirit of the age, to the world, the flesh, and the devil, will never know the peace of God that passes understanding. Only those who have declared war on the enemies of man's soul will know peace.

7. IF THERE IS VICTORY, THERE MUST BE SURRENDER!
Not surrender to the enemy, rather an unconditional surrender to do the whole will of God. Those who testify, "All to Jesus I Surrender" will testify with the songwriter, "Gone is the battle that once raged within, I have peace."

In conclusion we would note that for every soul, and for every church, IF THERE IS HEAVEN THERE MUST BE HOLINESS. The Scripture declares, "Pursue peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord." "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God." This holiness is not imputed, rather it is imparted by the Spirit of Holiness to all who "hunger and thirst after righteousness."

May God enable His Church to rise up in this late hour, to declare the whole counsel of god, and to be the Church He has called us to be in this generation. Charles Wesley's testimony is our prayer:

A charge to keep I have,
A God to glorify
A never-dying soul to save,
And fit it for the skies.

To serve this present age,
My calling to fulfill,
Oh may it all my powers engage,
To do my Master's will.

Arm me with jealous care,
As in thy sight to live,
And O thy servant Lord prepare
A strict account to give.

Help me to watch and pray,
And on thyself rely,
Assured if I my trust betray,
I shall forever die.