We can talk about these issues all day long and we certainly can write about them in our blog posts, and we probably should, but, we could also become consumed and overwhelmed by the amount of evil that we see around us. We could talk about these situations the whole time we are awake until we go to bed. But is there a solution? Or better yet, is there some kind of preventive measure we can take that will help stop this evil momentum from continuing?
In David Wilkerson's book, The Cross And The Switchblade, Wilkerson talks about a situation he found himself in when he was new to New York City. As he was becoming acquainted with the gang members (whom they fondly called Wilkerson, Davey), he was realizing how serious the problem of heroin was becoming. When a person is addicted to heroin, it is hard to break that addiction and it will cost that person his or her life, at some point. Wilkerson studied the situation and learned the growing statistics of heroin addiction in New York City, and became overwhelmed and was ready to give up the call to 'help those boys' who were in the gangs on the streets of New York City and Brooklyn. But the Holy Spirit reminded him of an incident that happened when he was a young boy.
There was a boy named 'Chuck' who was a bully. Wilkerson's family just moved into this town and the kids warned him of this bully named Chuck. Chuck was especially fond of picking on new kids in town and preacher's kids, of which Wilkerson was both. Wilkerson pondered this potential problem in his mind, and the verse 'Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts'. Well, the day came when the encounter with Chuck the bully met Wilkerson. Chuck poked fun at Wilkerson, and for a moment, Wilkerson forgot all about the Bible verse. After a couple of minutes of picking on Wilkerson, the verse came to his memory again. Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord of hosts. So, as the bully started in with bodily force, Wilkerson repeated the verse to himself. He continually reminded himself of what the Bible said. The bully then punched him but it didn't hurt. Then something really strange happened. The bully gave up and walked away. Not only that, but whatever happened from the bully's perspective, the bully looked at Wilkerson as some kind of fighter. In reality, God did the fighting for him.
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| The Cross And The Switchblade - David Wilkerson |
God will do the fighting for us. We have to follow His principles and it is of utmost importance, that we are filled with the Holy Spirit. We have to use the spiritual weapons as discussed in Ephesians 6 and other parts of Scripture.
The reason we are in this situation with our country, to begin with, is that we dropped the ball when it comes to holding the things of God as precious. We began that process when we allowed a woman to go to the Supreme Court in the 1960s to take prayer out of our schools. Then the false idea of 'separation of church and state' came in as meaning that any governmental facility or association could not have Bibles or religious content in them. This is definitely not what our forefathers had in mind! As a result of all this, people are not familiar with the word of God. Americans today do not understand that the God who created us is holy and has standards. We don't know what His standards are because they have not been taught to us. Some of us older people know, but many do not treasure God's word and have not stored it in their hearts, and as a result, it never got passed down to the next generation.
I think we have a weak view of who God is, in our churches today. Could that be the reason why only 2% of those who are members of Christian churches do the work of evangelism? If we genuinely had an encounter with the true and living God, would we still continue to live self-centered lives like so many of us do today? If we understood the grace of God, and what a debt we owe because of our sin, would we be indifferent about sharing the Gospel message with others?
The Gospel will bring light to a darkened world. God is light. The god of this world is Satan. He masquerades as an 'angel of light' but is really and angel of death and works in deception. Could it be that if we preach the Gospel message, people will be reconciled to God, will have a new heart, and will help society to experience more light, and with this light, expel much of the darkness that is here?
Can we bring back the 'fear of the Lord' again? Can we bring to people the knowledge that, the works they do in secret will be known by God? God will expose everything, one day. But if we know God is watching and keeping record, maybe we will think twice about our actions and the decisions that we make every day. Maybe we will be able to look at our selfish hearts and exchange them for a new heart that loves God and people. Maybe society will look different and people will be able to see God for the first time. Maybe many will come to know the Lord and experience healing here, and eternal life forever.
(For a good course in learning to do evangelism, please go to the link for the Proclaim Course - http://www.proclaim.typepad.com/proclaim/
Also, Living Waters has some excellent videos, audios, courses and tracts. Visit them at http://www.livingwaters.com).
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