How Does God See the Church Today?

Is It This?

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot.  I wish you were either one or the other!  So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.  You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’  But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.  I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.  Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline.  So be earnest, and repent.”  Revelation 3:15-18 (NIV)

Or This?

“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine.  Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.  They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”  2 Timothy 4:3

Or This?

“These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.” Isaiah 29:13

Or This?

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.  Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.  All the believers were together and had everything in common.” Acts 2:42-44 

Is This How God Sees America?

“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.” 

“Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.  They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised.  Amen.”

“Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.  Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.  In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.  Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.”

“Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.  They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity.  They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice.  They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.  Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”  Romans 1: 21-32 (NIV)

A Call for Fasting and Prayer

“Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly.  Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the LORD.” 

Joel 1:14 (NIV)

“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven.  We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity.  We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown.  But we have forgotten God.  We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.  Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!  It behooves us, then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”

April 30, 1863

President Abraham Lincoln’s Proclamation

For a National Day of Fasting and Prayer

When God Visited America--Part Two

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.”  Psalm 33:12 (NIV)

In order for something to be revived, it must be dead, or close to it.  Revival is a temporary state—it can only be sustained by a spirit of repentance and a desire to see God’s glory.  Eventually, people are lulled back to sleep.  So it was in the early 1800’s.  The brutality of the Revolutionary War and the energy it took to establish a new country, had taken its toll.  Consumption of alcohol had increased substantially (about 4-5 times what it is today) and moral decay had set in. Hardly a church could be found in the new territories that were being settled.  Many feared that America could not survive. Once again, God came down, as His people began to wake up and cry out to Him.  The Second Great Awakening came in waves, from 1800-1850, and the effects were far-reaching.  Not only were people returning to God in astounding numbers, schools were started (no public education existed), colleges and universities founded, hospitals were built, as well as shelters for the poor, and foreign missionary societies were begun.  Several men were instrumental in waking America from its slumber—Francis Asbury and Charles Finney are well known, but Timothy Dwight’s story caught my attention because it is so applicable to today.  As President of Yale College, he brought waves of revival to that campus, at a time when almost all students mocked Christianity and its values. The revival spread to Dartmouth and Princeton Colleges, as well. The largest revival came 14 years after his death in 1831.  I encourage you to read about these astounding events and the people who cooperated with God to bring them about.  As hopeless as our world seems today, nothing is impossible for God!

When God Visited America

“Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.  You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways.” Isaiah 64:4-5 (NIV)

It began in the year 1734.  The Puritan’s longing for a place to establish a society built on Christian ideals had not materialized. By the early 1700’s, drunkenness, immorality, and every vice imaginable had taken over the American colonies. Public officials were corrupt and churches were weak and ineffective. Jonathan Edwards, a powerful preacher who was used mightily by God, notes that two young people in his town died suddenly, causing many to wonder about their eternal destiny.  In addition to this, a young woman, described as one of the greatest “company keepers” in town was dramatically saved.  Her changed life had a profound effect on the community.  Add to these events the fervent prayer of a few faithful pastors and church people and you have a recipe for revival.  God visited America in a series of revivals that transformed our nation.  He used men like Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and Charles and John Wesley to carry His message of repentance to the people. During the peak of the Awakening, 1740-1742, between 25,000-50,000 people were converted out of a population of 300,000!  Nothing is too difficult for God!

God of the Second Chance

“Turn to me now, while there is time.  Give me your hearts.  Come with fasting, weeping and mourning.  Don’t tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead.  Return to the LORD your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.  He is eager to relent and not punish.”  Joel 2:12-13 (NLT)

We have an amazing God.  No matter how disobedient Israel was, no matter how many times they turned from Him to worship other gods, no matter how evil and corrupt their leaders were, God still called out to them to return to Him, even as he was about to send calamity on the nation.  The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the very God we call “Father” today.  Pray that we will not take His mercy and compassion for granted.  Just as with Israel, there will be consequences if we do not return to Him in sincere repentance.  Verse 14 says, “Who knows?  Perhaps he will give you a reprieve, sending you a blessing instead of this curse.”

The Future

“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”  2Timothy 3:1-4 (NIV)

What does the future hold for our children and grandchildren if there is no revival?  The verses from 2 Timothy are a description of what it will be like in the days before Jesus’ return.  It sounds like today. If Jesus comes back tomorrow, are we ready?  Are our families ready? Can God bring revival to His people one more time?  I believe the answer is yes.  But we must do our part every day, realizing that the time is short:

• Humble ourselves
• Pray
• Seek God’s face
• Turn from our wicked ways

Are you willing?