Signs of the times

Another earthquake today! I've lost track of how many earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and other numerous disasters we've had lately. Jesus said that we would see these sorts of things begin to increase as the day of His return approached. I think it is very exciting, and sad, to see all this happening in our time. Exciting, because those of us that call ourselves Christians will soon get to see Jesus face to face. Sad, because more and more people are dismissing God and His Son Jesus as fiction. It is getting harder to get people to believe that God, and Jesus, are real. Not to mention Heaven and Hell. They'll believe in angels, and demons, just like they believe in aliens or ghosts. For some, it will take waking up in Hell to make true believers out of them. Of course, then it will be too late.

We can't put all the blame on the media, Hollywood, or whoever else we want to blame. Part of the blame goes to the church. We as Christians have blown it when it comes to getting it right. We spend so much time playing church, we forget what it means to BE the church. We're more concerned about our programs, and how many people we can get on the attendance rolls. We need to be concerned about how many people are getting saved and baptized. Forget about what color the carpet should be, or how many movie screens we have in the sanctuary. None of this, in the long run, is going to matter. We have lost our first love, and we need to get it back.

God has led Carolyn and I to visit churches for the time being. I'm beginning to see part of the reason for this new journey. I have begun to see a pattern in our churches today. We have so much technology at our fingertips, the ability to reach so many new people, and we haven't got a clue. We need to be plastering the Gospel message everywhere we can. We need to make sure people can find our churches, and make sure we let them know what time our services are. The information that is on the Internet for our local churches, is spotty at best. Outdated information can be just enough to keep some people from trying to find a good, Bible-believing church. We're losing the lost, because we've gotten lazy. As long as WE know what's going on in our church, I guess that's all that matters.

I know I sound mad, angry, disgusted, whatever. Maybe I am. I'm so sick of just playing church. I would love to see our churches get back to the basics, and concentrate on winning the lost to Jesus, and making disciples of them. There are some, but there needs to be more. It's not God's intention that any should be lost, but that ALL should come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. That should be OUR intention as well.