I was disturbed by a question put to me by one of our neighborhood children a few days ago. On one of his many visits to our house, where we enjoy playing foosball in our rec room, he asked, "Are you and Chris ever going to get married?" Understand that Chris is my wife of 20 years. I presume the question came from the perspective of an innocent one growing up in a society in which "live-in" relationships are the rule and stable marriages are the exception. It brought home to me again the uncertain times in which we live.
We have in America what some might call a robust economy, the greatest material prosperity of any civilization in history and yet we see lawlessness in our streets and even in our schools. We see half of every marriage ending in divorce. We see one of every three babies aborted. We see television sitcoms flaunting immoral life styles as the norm. We see a gross materialism, self-absorption and downright selfishness unparalleled in recent history. We see Truth become a relative concept, a negotiable commodity among our little white pathological lies and deceptions.
Nothing I am saying here has not already been said before. But here is the kicker. According to polls, 45% of the population in the U.S. claim to be born again Christians, and over 95% say they believe in God. That such a huge population of "God's people" exist and yet our society is going down the toilet is a dirty, rotten shame. Are we so pitifully weak, we who are to be the "salt of the earth" and the "light of the world?" Do we make so little impact on our generation? It must make God absolutely sick. At least in the city of Sodom there was only one righteous family. We can hardly blame Lot for not making more of an impact on his generation. He was grossly outnumbered. But what can we say for ourselves?
It all boils down to this. Too many of us today who call ourselves Christians live a life of compromise with the worldly system. Our so-called faith in Jesus seems not to have much impact on how we conduct our lives. For example, the typical marriage between Christians ends in tragic child-wrenching divorce statistically just as often as any other. I don't pretend to know all the reasons for divorce, but I know one really common reason is that people are just too darned selfish!
I can hear the words of the apostle echoing down the centuries, shouting to us, "Awake, America!! Awake to Righteousness, and Sin Not." I can hear Jesus saying to us as to the church at Sardis, "Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God. Remember therefore what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. If therefore you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come upon you."
I can hear Him saying to us as to the Laodiceans, "So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. Because you say, 'I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,' and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked..."
Each of us must draw a line in the sand and say, "No Further! This is where it stops! No longer will I compromise what I believe and know to be truth for the sake of fitting in, for the sake of being accepted by my peers, for the sake of my own self-centered desires. No longer will I allow my family to sit and watch wretched filth come into our living room in the name of entertainment."
Jesus said, "Not everyone who comes to me saying 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom. But he who does the will of my Father... And everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and it fell, and great was its fall."
@ copyright 1999 by Scott H. Northrup. All rights reserved.