Daily Devotional for Wednesday March 12, 2014
The Spiritual State of Our Nation - Part 3 of 5
(Matthew 5:14-16)
***ASK BILL: Pastor Bill, in today's society, there are homosexual men who were molested by men for most of their lives. A recent TV segment featured a man who was dumped in downtown Chicago at age 9 by his own mother who didn't want him any more. He was taken home by a "friendly" man who promised to take care of him and molested him from age 9 through his teenage years. So the homosexual lifestyle was all he knew. Possibly this happens to women also. Your comments please.
ANSWER: There is no doubt a person's initial sexual experience plays a huge role in their sexuality as an adult, or at least shapes their sexual thoughts. This is why yesterday I was so firm about the breakdown of marriage and the family and its' destructiveness. A large percentage of men and women who choose to engage in perverted sex with people of the same-sex, did encounter via molestation or experimentation, sex with people of the same sex as their first sexual experiences. Having said that, it does NOT change the FACT it is still a CHOICE, a sinful choice, and these people like anyone damaged at an early age need lots of love and people who will be honest to guide them to God's Truth and how God created us to live and experience sex. Instead, most sadly have no such people of faith in their life, are not in church, and their only guide is the lies of this world that look to keep them in bondage!
PART THREE OF FIVE THE SPIRITUAL STATE OF OUR NATION
In speaking about the spiritual state of our nation, we MUST be honest and acknowledge that the main reason our nation is in spiritual freefall is because of the failure of the church! The Church of Jesus Christ was created to change the culture around it. Instead, over the past 50 years in this nation, it is the culture that has changed the church!
Fifty years ago, if you wanted to preach the Gospel on TV or radio, if you wanted to create Christian music, if you wanted to write a Christian book, if you wanted to make a film with a Christian message, you did so through the existing media outlets of the day that everyone else used. There was no such thing as Christian TV or radio, Christian record labels, Christian publishers, or Christian film companies. There was simply the existing media vehicles that everyone used to reach the people of the day.
Sadly, over these past 50 years we have created a Christian subculture of TV stations and networks, radio stations and networks, record labels, publishers, and film studios. Regardless of what their stated goals are, the reality is that those in the Christian subculture market to and target people who are already Christians. Preaching to the choir has become a several billion dollar a year industry, void most of the backlash of the fallen world around it as long as they leave everyone else alone. The allure of big money has caused those who have the message this lost and hurting world desperately needs, to simply package, market, and sell that message to those who already are part of the family of God.
The effect of this has been that the "salt" and the "light" have been removed from the marketplace, and we have left the lost masses to be devoured by satan. It is like what sadly happens in many major metropolitan areas where a church that has been in the inner city for decades decides to move to the suburbs where more affluent people live, build a new million dollar building, and abandon the very people that need that church the most. The void left by that church leaving is quickly filled by the drug dealers, the pimps, the scam artists, and those who can now operate without any competition from God to destroy the lives of the people in that area.
My friend, unless I am not reading my Bible correctly, the Great Commission doesn't say to "separate yourself from the world and preach to each other," but it says to go out into the world and make disciples of ALL men! Jesus didn't take His disciples and keep to themselves, He went TO the people of His day who were hurting and looking for hope and sent His disciples out to spread the Good News. Paul didn't help start churches and then sit back and simply preach to those who were saved, but he continued to go out and preach the Gospel to the lost of the world of his day.
Over these past 5 decades, the church has gone from a place where the Truth of God's Word was preached without compromise, to a watered-down, ear-tickling motivational message designed not to "offend" anyone by candy-coating the Truth! The church was a place where the lost could find faith in Christ, grow in their faith, be trained and equipped to do the work of the Lord. Now, you rarely hear an invitation to accept Christ, and the training and equipping of the saints has been replaced by Christian entertainment.
God's church in the Bible grew through converting people to faith in Christ and adding to the family of God. Today? We have slick, man-made marketing plans like seeker/purpose driven/emerging church/prosperity gospel that are not designed to fill the church with saved souls, but warm bodies who come each Sunday to "feel good" for an hour and create mega-churches that are really not churches as much as they are religious themed social centers!!! The church of today has lost ALL vision and passion for evangelism, for souls, and have replaced that vision and passion for creating ways to generate millions of dollars of revenues to build their own kingdom!
Jesus said, "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 5:14-16 KJV)
Jesus said, ""Then the master told his servant, 'Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full." (Luke 14:23 NIV)
Now more than ever this world needs to hear the TRUTH of God's Word. Now more than ever this world needs the people of God to be the "salt" and "light" God has called us to be. Now more than ever this lost and hurting world needs the one and only answer there is . . . JESUS CHRIST! If we, the people who know Christ as our Savior, won't take His hope and love to this world that needs Him so desperately, WHO WILL???
I love you and care about you so much. It is the church that is to bear the brunt of the blame for the dismal spiritual state of our nation. We have extracted the "salt" and "light" from the marketplace, leaving the lost and hurting masses to the wolves of satan to devour. You actually have so-called churches today that support, promote, and glorify gross sins like homosexuality and abortion. The Truth has been watered down to blend into the popular new age lie from hell that "all good people will get to heaven!"
That is why I am convinced the start of a true national revival will NOT come through the church initially, if at all! The church is too political, weak, apathetic, compromised, fragmented, lost in its' own agenda, and building their own kingdoms to even care about building God's Kingdom or about the lost and hurting masses right outside of their very doors!
No my friend, this revival is going to come through people who this very moment are drunk, high, in prison, and lost in the lies of the cults, false religions, and new age movement. It will come through people in bed this very moment with someone who is not their spouse, those looking to cheat their neighbor out of money, as well as those who have never given God a thought in their life. These are the people who will have their hearts softened to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who won't be bound by the shackles of the churchworld, who will be innocently on fire to tell everyone they know and those they don't about how Jesus changed their life and can change theirs too!
Sadly, the church is the main reason for the spiritual freefall our nation is in, and won't play much of a role in helping to turn the nation back to God and His Truth initially, even though it is STILL God's chief agent of change in this world. I see a day as this nation gets back to Biblical Truth that the churches using man-made cleverness instead of the preaching of the Bible, focused more on their kingdom than God's, operating in complete rebellion to God and His Truth, existing as little more than religious entertainment facilities, will be gone and replaced by the true Church of Jesus Christ that He is calling His bride to be in these final days!!!
LOOK FOR PART FOUR OF THIS FIVE PART SERIES TOMORROW!
In His love and service,
Your friend and brother in Christ.
Bill Keller