We are drifting. Drifting as a nation further from God. We are drifting along with the masses in a current of immorality and indifference to the laws of God. We drift ever deeper into the sewage of sin without realizing what we are doing.
I saw something the other day where a lady was looking at a house to buy and walked into standing water throughout the house. She took her shoes to walk barefoot through the house so as not to ruin her new shoes. She was sickened to learn that she was actually wading in backed up sewage water. She actually stood in feces and urine. It sickened her as she ran out of the house looking for a water hose to rinse her feet off.
That is a clear picture of what is happening in the average American home. We have drifted so far from God we stand in the sewage of sin and welcome it to our homes never blinking an eye. We do it through the avenue of Satan's never ending assault on the mind through television. I challenge you take an hour or two hours and watch your programs through the lenses of God's eyes and God's word. Make a list of everything you see on television and commercials that offends God. Scrutinize all you see and then at the end of the that time take a look and ask yourself, "Have these things offended me like they offend God? Have I become increasingly comfortable with sin?" If you have the courage to do this it will change your viewing habits. If you have the courage to face this sobering truth. The path of least resistance is to resist this as the ramblings of a mad man.
I want to increasingly become comfortable being uncomfortable with life in America. I want the courage Noah had when he walked with God when his whole culture lived in wickedness continually. He swam upstream against the moral current of his generation. O how I plead with God for that kind of courage in fathers, mothers, teenagers, and children again.
Where bullying is no longer tolerated at any level of society. It happens by more church going kids to other kids than you want to know. Where bosses bully employees. Where some parents even bully their own prodigy.
Today we would label those who take serious the things of God as "holier than thou" types. Radicals. Troublemakers. Old fashioned. Out of step with the times. Well, I for one want to get comfortable with those labels for my God has been insulted and His laws assaulted. I cannot take it anymore.
I am increasingly becoming uncomfortable. I cannot enjoy going to a movie with my family. Sin abounds and my God is insulted. I am offended by most television programming because the behavior which reflects the behavior of our nation is offensive to God. I do find a little solace in the Andy Griffith show. I sat in a Christian concert in a church recently and wept because people stand in line to get into a concert but God and His word cannot draw a crowd in most churches on most Sunday mornings unless there is a dog and pony show.
When I hear things like how one father and mother recently spent $15,000 on their kids playing select sports in one year and did this for several years we are a nation drifting. These parents claim Christ as their Savior but think nothing of "not keeping the Sabbath holy" as they play ball. Sports has become an idol and it used to bring me such joy as I watched my boys. Now I sit in the stands more agonizing as I watch people drift further and further from God. Even my own children. I recently had to call one of my boys out during a game for "showboating" on a play. In this house we play for God's glory or we will not play.
I have seen and heard those who sit in church on Sundays singing God's praises cursing profusely at games when things do not go their way. I have witnessed the cut throat attitudes of parents jealous of one another's kids and all the backstabbing that takes place. I have witnessed when people acted like fools at games hollering, screaming, ranting, and defaming coaches. All for a game. It is no longer a game. It is an idol. We have bowed at the shrine of sports and few have the guts to destroy that idol and place God alone solely on the throne of our hearts, families, churches, and this country. How many tithes are being robbed and spent on select sports and travel expenses? How many children are living with inflated egos but are living offensive to God and are lost headed for damnation. Parents seem oblivious. When other "Christian" parents are compromising the same way with their children it makes it a lot easier to justify sin.
I do not see this same passion and devotion in training children to be righteous. In fact I wonder how many parents spend anytime in devotions and teaching children to follow God. Parents to do not blink at spending thousands of dollars on their kid for private sports lessons but get offended when church camp costs $300 and all the money is not raised. We are drifting.
Sex outside of marriage is no big deal in this society. Homosexuality no longer shocks or offends. What used to outrage Christians is now simply accepted as just being a sign of the times. The times insult a holy God and there will be a day of accounting at some point.
I was not shocked when a young woman came to tell me she was pregnant years ago when her and her boyfriend spent the night in a tent on her parents front yard. The parents gave consent to this but actually acted shocked when their daughter became pregnant. ARE YOU KIDDING? Sex is on television everywhere. Casual sex. Last night one couple said on a sitcom, "You do not have to be married to have sex." I was offended. When is enough going to be enough. These messages get in the hearts of impressionable men, women, teenagers and children. God is offended and insulted and yet we laugh it off as no big deal.
We are drifting when grown adolescents live in the fantasy world of video games locked away all hours of the night and day in a make believe world. The same can be said of pornography as sexual fantasies are played out on a video screen or television screen. We are drifting when young men and women do not know a work ethic and cannot understand responsibility. Parents are drifting when they enable their sons and daughters to continue to live this way by financing this lifestyle.
We are drifting when the church listens to sermon after sermon dry eyed, cold hearted, and never one time in the course of the year going to the altar to do business with God. When truth is expounded but not heeded the church drifts further from what God intended.
O God, please come rescue our souls, our families, our churches, our community and our country. How much longer will you tolerate the sin of a wicked and defiant nation? How long will you be patient as we drift further into the sewage of sin? Lord, I plead with you to start working in individual hearts as you call us all to genuine repentance. I ask you to call us back to the standard of your word, "holiness in all our behavior" and to "avoid every appearance of evil". I plead for you to break our hearts in conviction and contrition. Lord I beg you to open our eyes to see how far we have drifted from you personally and as families. I pray you breakthrough our rock hard hearts that have heard and rejected living out the truth of your word for decades.
Lord, I plead for you to do a work in pastors all over this nation. I pray they can no longer to be content to live and minister in prayerless lifestyles. I plead for you to call pastors back to the prayer closet to seek you in the secret place. I ask you to reward those pastors with revival in the public arena. I ask you to call your church to more than lip service about prayer. I pray for those pastors to have the courage to preach boldly under the power of your anointing not with persuasive words of human wisdom but in a demonstration of your spirit and power.
Please wake us up from our spiritual slumber. I beg of you to shake your smugly satisfied sleeping church. I plead with you to make us all uncomfortable again. Please stop the drifting now. In Jesus name.
I saw something the other day where a lady was looking at a house to buy and walked into standing water throughout the house. She took her shoes to walk barefoot through the house so as not to ruin her new shoes. She was sickened to learn that she was actually wading in backed up sewage water. She actually stood in feces and urine. It sickened her as she ran out of the house looking for a water hose to rinse her feet off.
That is a clear picture of what is happening in the average American home. We have drifted so far from God we stand in the sewage of sin and welcome it to our homes never blinking an eye. We do it through the avenue of Satan's never ending assault on the mind through television. I challenge you take an hour or two hours and watch your programs through the lenses of God's eyes and God's word. Make a list of everything you see on television and commercials that offends God. Scrutinize all you see and then at the end of the that time take a look and ask yourself, "Have these things offended me like they offend God? Have I become increasingly comfortable with sin?" If you have the courage to do this it will change your viewing habits. If you have the courage to face this sobering truth. The path of least resistance is to resist this as the ramblings of a mad man.
I want to increasingly become comfortable being uncomfortable with life in America. I want the courage Noah had when he walked with God when his whole culture lived in wickedness continually. He swam upstream against the moral current of his generation. O how I plead with God for that kind of courage in fathers, mothers, teenagers, and children again.
Where bullying is no longer tolerated at any level of society. It happens by more church going kids to other kids than you want to know. Where bosses bully employees. Where some parents even bully their own prodigy.
Today we would label those who take serious the things of God as "holier than thou" types. Radicals. Troublemakers. Old fashioned. Out of step with the times. Well, I for one want to get comfortable with those labels for my God has been insulted and His laws assaulted. I cannot take it anymore.
I am increasingly becoming uncomfortable. I cannot enjoy going to a movie with my family. Sin abounds and my God is insulted. I am offended by most television programming because the behavior which reflects the behavior of our nation is offensive to God. I do find a little solace in the Andy Griffith show. I sat in a Christian concert in a church recently and wept because people stand in line to get into a concert but God and His word cannot draw a crowd in most churches on most Sunday mornings unless there is a dog and pony show.
When I hear things like how one father and mother recently spent $15,000 on their kids playing select sports in one year and did this for several years we are a nation drifting. These parents claim Christ as their Savior but think nothing of "not keeping the Sabbath holy" as they play ball. Sports has become an idol and it used to bring me such joy as I watched my boys. Now I sit in the stands more agonizing as I watch people drift further and further from God. Even my own children. I recently had to call one of my boys out during a game for "showboating" on a play. In this house we play for God's glory or we will not play.
I have seen and heard those who sit in church on Sundays singing God's praises cursing profusely at games when things do not go their way. I have witnessed the cut throat attitudes of parents jealous of one another's kids and all the backstabbing that takes place. I have witnessed when people acted like fools at games hollering, screaming, ranting, and defaming coaches. All for a game. It is no longer a game. It is an idol. We have bowed at the shrine of sports and few have the guts to destroy that idol and place God alone solely on the throne of our hearts, families, churches, and this country. How many tithes are being robbed and spent on select sports and travel expenses? How many children are living with inflated egos but are living offensive to God and are lost headed for damnation. Parents seem oblivious. When other "Christian" parents are compromising the same way with their children it makes it a lot easier to justify sin.
I do not see this same passion and devotion in training children to be righteous. In fact I wonder how many parents spend anytime in devotions and teaching children to follow God. Parents to do not blink at spending thousands of dollars on their kid for private sports lessons but get offended when church camp costs $300 and all the money is not raised. We are drifting.
Sex outside of marriage is no big deal in this society. Homosexuality no longer shocks or offends. What used to outrage Christians is now simply accepted as just being a sign of the times. The times insult a holy God and there will be a day of accounting at some point.
I was not shocked when a young woman came to tell me she was pregnant years ago when her and her boyfriend spent the night in a tent on her parents front yard. The parents gave consent to this but actually acted shocked when their daughter became pregnant. ARE YOU KIDDING? Sex is on television everywhere. Casual sex. Last night one couple said on a sitcom, "You do not have to be married to have sex." I was offended. When is enough going to be enough. These messages get in the hearts of impressionable men, women, teenagers and children. God is offended and insulted and yet we laugh it off as no big deal.
We are drifting when grown adolescents live in the fantasy world of video games locked away all hours of the night and day in a make believe world. The same can be said of pornography as sexual fantasies are played out on a video screen or television screen. We are drifting when young men and women do not know a work ethic and cannot understand responsibility. Parents are drifting when they enable their sons and daughters to continue to live this way by financing this lifestyle.
We are drifting when the church listens to sermon after sermon dry eyed, cold hearted, and never one time in the course of the year going to the altar to do business with God. When truth is expounded but not heeded the church drifts further from what God intended.
O God, please come rescue our souls, our families, our churches, our community and our country. How much longer will you tolerate the sin of a wicked and defiant nation? How long will you be patient as we drift further into the sewage of sin? Lord, I plead with you to start working in individual hearts as you call us all to genuine repentance. I ask you to call us back to the standard of your word, "holiness in all our behavior" and to "avoid every appearance of evil". I plead for you to break our hearts in conviction and contrition. Lord I beg you to open our eyes to see how far we have drifted from you personally and as families. I pray you breakthrough our rock hard hearts that have heard and rejected living out the truth of your word for decades.
Lord, I plead for you to do a work in pastors all over this nation. I pray they can no longer to be content to live and minister in prayerless lifestyles. I plead for you to call pastors back to the prayer closet to seek you in the secret place. I ask you to reward those pastors with revival in the public arena. I ask you to call your church to more than lip service about prayer. I pray for those pastors to have the courage to preach boldly under the power of your anointing not with persuasive words of human wisdom but in a demonstration of your spirit and power.
Please wake us up from our spiritual slumber. I beg of you to shake your smugly satisfied sleeping church. I plead with you to make us all uncomfortable again. Please stop the drifting now. In Jesus name.
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