Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes.
Romans 12:2 TPT
Our current culture offers a plethora of differing opinions and intimidating ideas. These are very loud voices seeking lots of attention. We must listen closely and ask ourselves, “Are these the voices of the majority or simply a select few?” Most importantly, as Christians, we must evaluate what we hear with the Word of God to determine if it is “The Good News” or fake news. Are we fact checking with the Word of God or just believing everything we hear?
Don’t suppress the Spirit, and don’t stifle those who have a word from the Master. On the other hand, don’t be gullible. Check out everything, and keep only what’s good. Throw out anything tainted with evil. 1 Thessalonians 5:21 MSG
When a person believes something, whether true or not, that belief system begins a process and takes root in their heart. The belief system starts to subtly affect, then permeate the decisions and actions of the person. When that person believes there is no God, their heart becomes callused to God, and drifts away from what God created them to be. Eventually, after walking away from God, the person becomes bitter, blaming a God they do not believe exists. A heart without God is a dark place. Evil grows in darkness.
We have allowed the culture to dim our light in the world. We are like the story about the frog in the water. The frog will sit in the water on the stove allowing the heat to rise until it is too late. He’s cooked! We, the church, has been sitting around allowing hell to turn up the heat on our culture and things are beginning to boil over. The church has abdicated its position in the culture buying into the separation of church and state philosophy. We have grown quite content allowing the state, and certain media, to assume the role of arbitrator and identifier of justice and compassion.
And yet, it is getting worse now. Why are people hating on each other? Why are people openly killing one another with little to no consequences? Why is freedom of speech reserved for one half of the story? Why are our police officers told to stand down and not protect our people? Why are we not allowed to defend our properties from the mob? In fact, you can be legally charged for defending your property!
Most of us were not born with a silver spoon in our mouths. We kept our heads down and just kept plugging along. Most successful people worked their cans off to achieve their level of success! That’s what is great about America, it is the land of opportunity! We may have started poor, but we did not have to stay poor. Why is this now considered a bad idea?
Our founding did not guarantee success for everyone, only opportunity. Yes, all of our founders were imperfect, just like us! Together, we formed a more perfect union, where all men, and women, were created equal. No, it did not start out perfect, it was an experiment, but working together has brought much improvement to all peoples.
The answer seems obvious, we have allowed evil, fake news, and an antichrist belief system to take root in our country. This provokes another question, what are we going to do about it?
This spiritual erosion has happened over a long period of time. In 1947 U.S. Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall said this, “The choice before us is plain: Christ or chaos, conviction or compromise, discipline or disintegration. I am rather tired of hearing about our rights and privileges as American citizens. The time is come-it now is-when we ought to hear about the duties and responsibilities of our citizenship. America’s future depends upon her accepting and demonstrating God’s government.”
Why are we allowing people to redefine American citizenship? Why are we allowing others to bully and shame us into submission? Why are we allowing the “real enemy” to have the only voice? We must become courageous Christians, or the enemy will take us over. We need a shut down, but it’s the one that puts the enemy in his place.
We should be advancing, not retreating, making disciples, not hiding in isolation. Now is not the time to hide, it is the time for boldness! Get off the couch, put a smile on your face, and get out there among the people. The world is waiting to hear God’s hope and truth, not another Little Sir Echo!
Matthew 5:13-16 reminds us about our responsibility, “Your lives are like salt among the people. But if you, like salt, become bland, how can your ‘saltiness’ be restored? Flavorless salt is good for nothing and will be thrown out and trampled on by others. Your lives light up the world. Let others see your light from a distance, for how can you hide a city that stands on a hilltop? And who would light a lamp and then hide it in an obscure place? Instead, it’s placed where everyone in the house can benefit from its light. So don’t hide your light! Let it shine brightly before others, so that the commendable things you do will shine as light upon them, and then they will give their praise to your Father in heaven.”
Before a session of the 80th Congress, July 3rd, 1947, Peter Marshall prayed: “God of our Fathers…may it be ever understood that our liberty is under God and…to the extent that America honors thee, wilt Thou bless America.”
For the time being, the choice is ours.