America is deathly sick. The nightly network TV news has become a parade for competing drug companies. Both in news content and advertising we are informed of new drugs that will help in the fight against an onslaught of diseases from breast, to ovarian, to prostate cancer, to heart disease. The problem is that most of these new breakthroughs tend to have side effects that sound as bad as the disease.
Add to this news items telling us of invading killer bees, killer mosquitoes, child killers, killer tornados, kids who kill kids, kids who kill parents, unprecedented droughts, out-of-control fires, horrific murder suicides, corporate fraud, massive lay offs, and falling stocks, and much, much more, and it is no exaggeration to say that America is sick, from sea to shining sea.
Those who know their Bibles suspect that there's more here than meets the eye. It's not just a case of bad global warming. They have studied the promised repercussions for the nation of Israel if they didn't abide by certain God-given principles. They then look at the United States and see striking parallels between America and what happened to Israel. For example, Deuteronomy 28 tells us that if they forsook the Ten Commandments (see Deuteronomy 27), certain terrible things would happen. They would have disease on the land. Their children would be struck with disease. They would be plagued with mildew (mold), terrible drought, horrific and incurable diseases, irrational fears, marriage breakdown, repossession and bankruptcy. Their children would be taken from them, the crops would be diseased, and aliens would invade their borders.
These were parallels I noticed right through the 1990's. Almost everything lined up--everything that is except an invasion by enemies. Deuteronomy warned of that, but it was obvious that that threat was one that was peculiar to the nation of Israel. It couldn't apply to this country. America was the one and only superpower of the world. No weapon that was formed against us could prosper. Great oceans protected us from any enemy attack…that is, up until September 11th, 2001.
Sadly, when the enemy struck our nation few said that the incident had anything to do with God. We had forsaken the Ten Commandments, sanctioned millions of abortions, loved violence, adultery, pornography, etc., etc., but it was unthinkable that America's sins called for God's chastening hand.
The conscience of our nation failed to do its duty. In recent years the Church as a whole has been deathly silent when it comes to having a clear evangelistic voice. According to Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, only 2% of Christians actively share their faith. That means (for some reason) 98% don’t. But more than that. Even many of the 2% who share their faith fail to use the Ten Commandments in the sphere of their influence. This was the way Jesus presented the Gospel (Luke 18:18), but most didn't follow His example. They instead followed the traditions of modern evangelism, and therefore stripped the gospel of its power. If we discard the bow we shouldn't wonder why the arrow has no thrust.
Consequently the Church's light is snuffed in the darkness of the hour in which we live. Its savor has been lost. It has become good for nothing but to be trampled under foot by men.
The Gospel of Luke diagnoses the nation's disease and thankfully gives us the certain cure. Luke 10:2 tells us what it is. There is a lack of laborers--laborers who have been raised up by God.
We have been obeying the admonition to pray for laborers, and you are the answer to our prayers. You are the needed salt and light. We would be bold enough to say one big step in the right direction is for you to get "The Way of the Master*" video series. It has been designed to train you for the job. View it for yourself and see how God is using it to equip and enthuse the most lukewarm of Christians. You may even be stirred enough to have a seminar and screen the series to those who have the unction to show up.
Then again, if we want to reach the lost we should ask ourselves how much do we want true revival. Would our churches be radical enough to change the order of our Sunday morning service and show the series to the church? Perhaps that's asking too much. The order of service is a tradition. To change it and equip the saints is a little too radical…and that may bring about what we profess to be praying for--genuine God-ordained revival.
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