America's future and the future of the church within her lies where it always has...in the hands of Providence and in the hearts of the people...God's followers will play a pivotal role in the future of this nation, for conviction,repentance and judgment must begin at the house of God or it will occur no where else; but alas, the church is fast asleep, as she has been for well over a generation.
I believe that the American dream is real, but only so much as it is linked to or based upon the foundation of God's vision for this nation. After all, the Almighty does rule in the affairs of men...Our greatest sin was articulated most succinctly by Alexander Solzhenitsyn: 'When asked what was the greatest problem of modernity, he responded, "Men have forgotten God."
I believe he was and is correct and I believe the church is the greatest sinner of all, because she, after all, should know Him best. God help us to rise from our slumber, and begin again, to storm the gates of hell. In light of the promise of God that the portals of damnation shall not prevail against her, the church should be ever charging, ever striving, to destroy the very foundations of falsehood and the father of lies, unafraid and unrelenting in her zeal.
Yet, if we are honest, we confess that in our generation, it has not been the case. The church has been unproductive and ineffectual in her witness and her work. She has been impotent despite the fact that the very power that raised Christ from the dead resides in her. This paradox can only be explained by realizing that the commands of the Lord have been ignored and disobeyed. Faithfulness has waned and rebellion has waxed.
Jesus Christ has told His followers for two thousand years, that in order to be filled and imbued with power and have that strength flow out to impact the world, one must be completely emptied of self. Self must be seen as crucified and dead and the new life now one in which Christ alone must live and labor in His eternal might.
The Christian is only strong when he is weak, when he recognizes that in himself dwells no good thing, no strong thing, no productive thing, no effective thing, no righteous thing. Nothing we have and nothing we are is of value unless we see it as dead in itself and then regenerated by Christ.
The powerful life of the true Christian is never lived in the temporal regions of mortality, but in eternity, on the far side of the cross and of the tomb. It is in the risen Christ that we look to see the invisible come into focus, where the glorious an immutable light reveals to us that immortality and power is moving from the mists and infusing the souls of men with power from on high.
Oh, that the church would simply look to the source of such might and believe the promises of eternity again. It is not our lives or words in which power resides. The Word of God alone is alive and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, able to cut to the innermost part of man.
Oh, that we, the disciples of Christ, would consume it completely and taste of both the bitter and the sweet. Oh that we would feel it work in us and that we might be filled to overflowing with it and it alone. Only then will Christ have full sway and reside unashamedly and most powerfully within us. It is then and only then, friend, when the church of Jesus Christ, when the children of God, will be prepared to march out to fulfill her destiny and win the victory in Christ alone.
The future of this nation and the future of the church in America are inextricably linked. This has always been the case. America and the principles of freedom and equality for all men are bound to the principles of Christianity as mighty cables, as mystic cords, as anchor chains securing safety and stability. The humanistic storms of the ancients and the progressively strong tempests of modernity have come and have battered the port and strained the lines unto breaking.
In the process and over time, the straining has caused a loosening, a loosening of the standards of truth and the vessels of liberty are about to slip from their moorings and drift toward a distant and chaotic place.
Oh, may the stalwart stevedores and deckhands of freedom rise to see the danger, heed the call of their Captain unto action, and let His mighty hands of Omnipotence be theirs. Only then will the storms be weathered unto abatement and the peace and tranquility of freedom and truth be restored to the harbor again.
I believe that the American dream is real, but only so much as it is linked to or based upon the foundation of God's vision for this nation. After all, the Almighty does rule in the affairs of men...Our greatest sin was articulated most succinctly by Alexander Solzhenitsyn: 'When asked what was the greatest problem of modernity, he responded, "Men have forgotten God."
I believe he was and is correct and I believe the church is the greatest sinner of all, because she, after all, should know Him best. God help us to rise from our slumber, and begin again, to storm the gates of hell. In light of the promise of God that the portals of damnation shall not prevail against her, the church should be ever charging, ever striving, to destroy the very foundations of falsehood and the father of lies, unafraid and unrelenting in her zeal.
Yet, if we are honest, we confess that in our generation, it has not been the case. The church has been unproductive and ineffectual in her witness and her work. She has been impotent despite the fact that the very power that raised Christ from the dead resides in her. This paradox can only be explained by realizing that the commands of the Lord have been ignored and disobeyed. Faithfulness has waned and rebellion has waxed.
Jesus Christ has told His followers for two thousand years, that in order to be filled and imbued with power and have that strength flow out to impact the world, one must be completely emptied of self. Self must be seen as crucified and dead and the new life now one in which Christ alone must live and labor in His eternal might.
The Christian is only strong when he is weak, when he recognizes that in himself dwells no good thing, no strong thing, no productive thing, no effective thing, no righteous thing. Nothing we have and nothing we are is of value unless we see it as dead in itself and then regenerated by Christ.
The powerful life of the true Christian is never lived in the temporal regions of mortality, but in eternity, on the far side of the cross and of the tomb. It is in the risen Christ that we look to see the invisible come into focus, where the glorious an immutable light reveals to us that immortality and power is moving from the mists and infusing the souls of men with power from on high.
Oh, that the church would simply look to the source of such might and believe the promises of eternity again. It is not our lives or words in which power resides. The Word of God alone is alive and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, able to cut to the innermost part of man.
Oh, that we, the disciples of Christ, would consume it completely and taste of both the bitter and the sweet. Oh that we would feel it work in us and that we might be filled to overflowing with it and it alone. Only then will Christ have full sway and reside unashamedly and most powerfully within us. It is then and only then, friend, when the church of Jesus Christ, when the children of God, will be prepared to march out to fulfill her destiny and win the victory in Christ alone.
The future of this nation and the future of the church in America are inextricably linked. This has always been the case. America and the principles of freedom and equality for all men are bound to the principles of Christianity as mighty cables, as mystic cords, as anchor chains securing safety and stability. The humanistic storms of the ancients and the progressively strong tempests of modernity have come and have battered the port and strained the lines unto breaking.
In the process and over time, the straining has caused a loosening, a loosening of the standards of truth and the vessels of liberty are about to slip from their moorings and drift toward a distant and chaotic place.
Oh, may the stalwart stevedores and deckhands of freedom rise to see the danger, heed the call of their Captain unto action, and let His mighty hands of Omnipotence be theirs. Only then will the storms be weathered unto abatement and the peace and tranquility of freedom and truth be restored to the harbor again.
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