The Best of Times, the Worst of Times

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The Best of Times, the Worst of Times

Isaiah 55:6

August 23, 2024

“Seek the LORD while He may be found, call you upon Him while He is near.”

— Isaiah 55:6

“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” These familiar words open Charles Dickens’ great novel, A Tale of Two Cities, which was set in Paris in 1789, just at the beginning of the French Revolution. It was a time of great turmoil in that country. As we consider where our nation is spiritually, I think Dickens’ description is apt.

America was unquestionably founded as a Christian nation, as the Supreme Court once admitted, “This is a religious people. This is a Christian nation.” Well, that’s the way it started. The people in New England, when they got together in the early days of this country, signed the New England Confederation, in which they said, “We all came into these parts of America for one and the same end and aim.” Do you remember what that was? They said that one single aim was “to advance the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

I am sure that many people would be just shocked to hear that, and yet that is where we started. Unfortunately, because we have failed to share the Gospel consistently and frequently, there have been a growing number of people who have not known Christ, who know nothing about His kingdom, have never entered in, and wouldn’t even know how. Consequently, the number of unbelievers in this country has grown tremendously, while the percentage of believers has declined.

Let us pray for revival!

Lord of history, we have seen how You have guided nations as well as individuals. We pray for our nation, which started so well. Bring us back to Yourself and give us the gift of repentance…

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, EMPIRES RISE AND FALL.

Turning the World Right Side Up

August 31, 2024

“These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also.” — Acts 17:6 The apostle Paul and Silas had been preaching in Philippi (in modern day Turkey) where many people had been converted. There was a great tumult and they were cast into prison. Finally released, they went on to Thessalonica (in Greece), where they went into the synagogue and preached the Gospel with great power. Numbers of the Jews were converted to Christ. A great multitude of devout Greeks also were converted, as well as a number of the notable women, so that some of the Jews, being moved with envy gathered together some lewd fellows of the baser sort. They gathered a company and they came to the house of Jason, where Paul and Silas had been. They were going to drag them out, but they could not lay their hands on them. They took Jason and some of the brethren and brought them before the rulers of the people and they said: “These who have turned the world upside down have come here also.” I love that description. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have inscribed on your tombstone: “Here lies one who turned the world upside down.” That is what Christianity does. As we see it from the proper perspective, the world is already turned upside down. What we are trying to do is turn it right side up. It was the pagan conception of turning the world upside down. Certainly we live in a world that desperately needs to be turned right side up in our time—and the Gospel of Jesus is the answer. Lord Jesus, thank You for coming into this world to turn it right side up. As Your followers we ask for strength to work on this task with You. Help us to have a positive influence on the world around us… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, THE WORLD CAN BE TURNED RIGHT SIDE UP.

Does the Bible Teach Socialism?

August 30, 2024

“All the believers were of one heart and one soul, and no one said that what he possessed was his own. But to them all things were in common.” — Acts 4:32 Some people like to say that early in the book of Acts we see an early form of socialism. The early Christians shared what they had, in some cases even by selling their houses and sharing the proceeds so no one had need. But I believe a close look at that passage will reveal that it is in fact antithetical to socialism. A husband and wife team, Ananias and Sapphira, decided to sell their property, but they kept back a part of the price, told the disciples that they had sold it for more, and then “brought a part of it and placed it at the apostles’ feet.” “Then Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to deceive the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, was it not your own? [There you have an apostolic confirmation of the right of private property.] And when it was sold, was it not under your http://authority?...you did not lie to men, but to God’” (Acts 5:2-4). Both husband and wife dropped dead because of their sin of lying. Not only the property and the means of production, but the results of that production were in the couple’s power, not in the power or the hands of the state. Furthermore, you will notice, that this action was voluntary. And where was the money given? To the church—why that’s enough to give Karl Marx apoplexy! Socialism may sound Christian, but in reality it is anything but. Lord Jesus, You who are the Giver of all good gifts. Thank You for what You have given me and help me to be generous in sharing, especially with Your people. Help us to be honest in all our dealings with money and to give freely… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN BE GENEROUS.

A Bankrupt Future If We Don’t Repent

August 29, 2024

“The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.” — Proverbs 22:7 We have given up the free enterprise economy the founders of this nation gave to us. We have followed the socialists, albeit a number of paces behind them, down that disastrous road. We are suffering the consequences right now. But we haven’t even begun to see the consequences that will be coming one day. Our politicians are recklessly spending money like there is no tomorrow. The federal government spends regularly more than we take in. But if we just took the figure of $1.4 trillion (which is smaller than the amount of our federal spending) and you stacked it up in dollars, it would reach 88,000 miles—one-third of the distance to the moon. This is incredibly selfish because the government has no money of its own. Author Rus Walton put it very well when he said: “Government is not a producer; it is a taker, a taxer, and a spender. Every dollar spent by the public sector is a dollar the government must take from the private sector, from the workers and earners and investors. The dollar taken by government cannot be spent or invested by that productive private sector.” What is happening is that too many Americans are living off of the public trough—they are living off of the sweat and labor of their fellow Americans. And who will pay for all this? Our children and our children’s children. Because we have turned our back on God, our national greed is destroying the future. Pray for revival. Dear God, help us to get our national house in order and to stop spending money we don’t have. Thank You for what You have given us and help us to be good stewards of that which You have entrusted to us… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WRONGS CAN BE RIGHTED.