It's Our Fault

 I was recently reading through a study in Romans.  It reminded me of some confusion I've had regarding several things.

I've been in church my entire life and often struggled with the concept of "missions".

Just the idea of going into a foreign country thinking we could be the deliverer of the news they so desperately needed to hear didn't seem logical if we weren't a knowledgable part of their society.

I also wondered how "fair" it was that some have never heard.

But reading through these passages in Romans again reminded me that we each will be held accountable for what we do with the amount of knowledge we have of our Savior.

It served as a reminder that those of us with MUCH knowledge and opportunity to hear and respond to the teachings of the Lord will be held to a higher level of accountability.  As a comfortable American I catch myself satisfied and not constantly troubled by a lost world that God expects me to deliver the message of salvation to.   ME!  Privilege always increases responsibility.

"In times of persecution and distress the followers of Christ have given striking evidence of His transforming power and sustaining grace, but under more favorable conditions they tend to become worldly, selfish and complacent.  God has commanded saved human beings to be the messengers of the Gospel, and we have failed."  Richard W. DeHaan

My prayer today is that God will create a burning in my soul for the lost that I cannot resist!

thankfulness and reaching the lost

We've just come through a wonderful Thanksgiving season during which we got to love on our children and grandchildren as well as extended family!

We ate...a lot!

All together and very, very thankful!

We played games...

We decorated Grandmas home for Christmas and hugged reindeer!

Adults were too stuffed to play!

Precious grand-baby playing with great grandmas decorations!

I'm more thankful than ever before in my life for my family and my precious friends, and my heart is burdened like never before for the lost in our community.

Recently, wherever I go I wonder who around me is without a savior?  I wonder what Christmas means to them...more debt?  disappointments?  loved-ones that no longer visit?  missing peace? Without Jesus I can't imagine going through the holidays.  Let's all pray right now for the Lord to show us who we should bring with us to Christmas at Crossroads!

A tiny Christmas baby came, He is the missing peace so many people are still searching for!

the lost

Recently, perhaps due to a more focused time of prayer with our 21 Days of Prayer & Fasting, I've had an overwhelming burden for the lost.

The thing that keeps coming to my mind is that I hold the cure for everything that makes them hopeless, and still I hesitate to share at times.

I have talked recently to several young adults who are completely hopeless in the pursuit of allowing selfish self-satisfying pornography into their lives, after being raised in amazing Christian homes! The feelings and desires that God gave us to cause us to pursue satisfaction in the context of marriage and daily living our lives properly - have been turned into unsatisfied addiction.

The physical pleasures God taught us to enjoy are the very things destroying their marriages because we do not allow His influence and teachings to form and control them. 

The claims that Chrisianity is too controlling, just a bunch of rules & foolish beliefs for the weak could not be more opposite from the truth!

The ONLY thing available to mankind to brings true freedom and complete peace is faith in Jesus Christ!

THEY instead are the ones in complete bondage when they take good things and turn them into addiction.

Their supposed freedom offers the life-long pursuit of wealth and endless competition - which offers no satisfaction (just look at Hollywood and our prominent business leaders).  Their supposed freedom offers marriages that don't satisfy because they aren't following the Lord together and in many cases are involved in pornography which no human-being can compete with.  I've watched some friends fall into the hidden at-home addiction of having to have a drink thinking a nightcap is harmless. Their supposed freedom includes deceptive friends who offer a good-time "just try it once" drugs that change their lives into complete dependance on substances that need more and more to be satisfied.  And there's that new addiction to electronic devises and phones that never disconnect and Social Media daily criticism that drives teens to suicide.  Everything their supposed freedom offers leads only to complete hopelessness and deep loneliness as the endless search for more and more continues.

Our society is falling apart due to turning their backs on a belief in the Lord.  We MUST tell them of our freedom and hope in HIM!

Easter is a time when people who haven't been to church in years will consider coming.  It's almost like they really believe if they go once a year they're covered.  I heard the other day that if a child doesn't accept the Lord by age 13, they have less than a 4% chance of ever knowing Him!  It's not enough to occasionally bring their kids to church, kids have to see how it affects and changes their lives and how committed they could be as a family!

We know the Savior that offers complete satisfaction, hope and the only way to survive the crushing culture we have around us!

This is a challenge to myself as well to reach out to my neighbors - who knows what struggles go on behind the walls of their homes.  I've traveled around the world to reach others with the Good News of Jesus, but struggle to tell the same story to those around me.  It makes no sense...

May God challenge our hearts and give us resolve to reach others around us with the only Freedom known to mankind!  The news that Jesus not only gave His life for us - but rose again!