First Things First
The world has changed drastically in the past 100 years. We have progressed in almost every field imaginable. In many ways the progress has been very beneficial to us. We have more comfort with air-conditioning, cotton clothes, pain medicines, etc. We have less physical work with machines that can do much of the work for us. We have more time to enjoy our leisure with shorter workdays and retirement plans.
But has progress been beneficial to us? We certainly can point to an increased lifespan and say it has been good. We can point to the wealth of our nation and see that it has been good. We can look at our possessions and see that it has been good. But what about how progress has affected our nation, our families, our religions or our mindset of life in general.
People always speak of the good old days. Your parents probably spoke about them. What were the good old days? The times when people had less, worked harder and often died at younger ages in painful deaths. So what was so good about them? People remember when family was more important than the individual, when going to church was an expectation rather than a question, when neighbors looked out for each other, and when our nation was One Nation Under God.
There is nothing wrong with progress, but throughout history we have seen that when mankind creates more he seems to need God less. We now live in a nation that is far from godly. Statistics show that less than 50% of Americans are members of any church. Of those, less than 50% attend church at least once per year. So less than 25% of Americans attend church, but only about 12% attend church at least once per month. Billy Graham made a statement several decades ago that I believe is still true today. He said that 50% of those sitting in our churches every Sunday are lost and going to Hell. So where does that leave us? Statistically we could say that less than 6% of Americans are Christians. Is it any wonder that our President would stand before leaders of another country and announce that the United States is not a Christian nation?
Why is Christianity failing to reach the hearts of our nation? Because we have become a nation of idols. We worship sports, we worship success, we worship beauty, we worship money, we worship power, we worship traditions, we worship politics, we worship comfort, we worship self, we worship children and grandchildren, we worship anything and everything that can be imagined. But we no longer love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.
I am in the worship ministry. Every week I try to prepare groups and individuals to help lead others into worship. And I must admit that it saddens me to read comments on facebook or overhear people talking in church and realize that most of our church gets more excited about the dinner that is cooking, the big game that is coming up, a concert or movie they attended or what the government is doing, than they are about what God has done, is doing and will be doing in their lives and the lives of others. We even talk more about the aches and pains that we have then we do about the suffering that Jesus went through so that we could have eternal life with Him.
I want to challenge each of us to make a concerted effort this week to put aside all other gods, put aside all of our own desires and plans, and share with others around us how good God is to us. Let them know that God is first and foremost in your life and that you desire to see them come to that point as well. Just imagine what changes we could see if the Christians in America gave up their idols and worshipped only God.
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