Last night our family was talking over dinner. I’m not even sure now how the conversation got started. I believe we were discussing the soul winning video we watched after church on Sunday. When confronted about her sins of lying, lusting, and stealing, the woman being “interviewed” didn’t even seem ashamed. It was unbelievable. It was as though she didn’t have a conscience! No guilt. Not even the decency to blush with embarrassment. I am reminded of Jeremiah 6:15, which says, “Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.”
I mentioned to my family that since we started street preaching in 2000, it seems that people at Central Station have become even less receptive to the Gospel. Folks just walk past the preacher as though they don’t hear the sound of his voice. People rarely even get upset with conviction. The preaching doesn’t seem to faze them. Like water off a duck’s back. It’s as though they are blind and deaf, not only spiritually, but physically as well. In just 8 years it seems that people’s hearts have become even harder, colder. Just 8 years! I asked everyone at the table what they thought, and they agreed.
Then Mom pointed out something very interesting. Perhaps it isn’t the lost around us who are getting colder and harder to spiritual things. Maybe this feeling of helplessness to reach others with the Gospel is partly us. When one travels home, the closer he is to reaching his destination, the harder and more tiring the journey seems to become. The more anxious the traveler is to reach his final resting place. Could it be that as the coming of the Lord Jesus draws nearer, we are getting more impatient to go Home? Sometimes I find myself crying out, Lord, come! Just come! I’m ready to leave! I’m ready to go Home. I’m done with this old world. There is nothing that could ever intrigue me enough to wish that You would delay Your coming.
I’ve noticed that everything around me seems to be caught in a downward spiral that’s only moving faster with each year. It seems that every week something is brought to my attention that causes me to shake my head in disbelief. I don’t see how things can get much worse before the Lord returns to catch His bride away to Heaven. Just some things that come to mind: There used to be at least some decent programs on TV; now it’s all trash and only getting worse (We’re getting rid of our TV connection, praise God! No regrets there!). The nations are becoming more anti-God, making new laws to destroy Christian rights, while the vile Sodomites receive greater privileges. The righteous are sent to prison, while murders are let free. The right to home school is being taken away. Countries are closing their borders to immigrants, making it harder for missionaries to spread the Gospel. Churches aren’t full like they used to be. When was the last time a revival swept a city? It used to happen…so very long ago. Even Christians are getting cold, tired of the race, weary in well doing. Sad.
Spurgeon wrote the following: “What is a Christian? If you compare him with a king, he adds priestly sanctity to royal dignity. The king’s royalty often lieth only in his crown, but with a Christian it is infused into his inmost nature. He is as much above his fellows through his new birth, as a man is above the beast that perisheth. Surely he ought to carry himself, in all his dealings, as one who is not of the multitude, but chosen out of the world, distinguish by sovereign grace, written among “the peculiar people” and who therefore cannot grovel in the dust as others, nor live after the manner of the world’s citizens. Let the dignity of your nature, and the brightness of your prospects, O believers in Christ, constrain you to cleave unto holiness, and to avoid the very appearance of evil.”
Read that again…three times, if need be. Meditate on it!
Having read this, and having thought about it long, my question is: What is wrong with Christians these days? Those who are claiming the name “Christian,” and therefore representing the holy name of Jesus Christ, are wearing clothing that just barely constitutes modesty, using a vocabulary that sounds identical to that of the world’s, listening and playing and performing the kind of music that’s devilish… In short, Christians are anything but Christ-like. And we talk about having standards…being separate from the world? What a joke!
As Christians we tend to point the finger at the stubborn, rebellious Israelites for their constant return to idol worship. Are we any better? Sure, we don’t go bowing down to any stone or wooden image, we just sit on the fence post, teetering back and forth, never able to decide if we’re going to be godly or worldly. How foolish we must look! Christ’s message to the church of Laodicea, the last church period before Christ’s return, is this: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” That sure sounds like the time we’re living in!
All I can say is praise God for His endless patience! Sometimes I truly don’t know how or why He puts up with us…constantly faltering, continually failing. His mercy is everlasting. For that, I am grateful. Still, I can’t help but cringe to think on that day when we will stand to face Almighty God. How will we be able to lift our heads in His holy presence? I cannot imagine. Unworthy, undeserving, and wretched am I. Even at my best state I am altogether filthy when I think on the pure righteousness of my God. And yet He loves me. He loves me! Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain unto it.
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