I honestly think we are in trouble in America.
America has been going in a bad direction for years and this is a spiritual issue first and foremost. The people of America do not see it and do not care first and foremost because the churches in America do not see it and do not care.
I do not stand out as the one living the solution. I am guilty by association and I am likely guilty by falling for the same lies of the devil as the rest of American Christianity. At the very least I seem to be more and more unfruitful getting caught up in the affairs of this life.
Here is what I think is part of the problem, if not the main issue. America is just like Israel of the Old Testament. God was not being a bully when He commanded the nation of Israel to “kill them all”. Meaning, God wanted no impurities, no compromise and no sin in the camp corrupting the chosen people and the chosen line to eventually bring salvation to the entire world through Jesus Christ.
Over and over, God said to get rid of everything and everyone. God initially did that with the flood in Genesis. And later God wanted the nation of Israel to purge out the heathen practices and wickedness. This meant destroying the heathen along with their practices. It sounds harsh, but to leave these people were like leaving cancer alone and unchecked. It is like leaving weeds in the garden because some weeds seemed harmless and some even seemed pleasing to the eye.
Even when God seems unreasonable, we still need to obey. The problem is when his commands seem to harsh or we think we can merge the two populations, and we only obey part of the way. In the new testament, Jesus came to save sinners. His purpose has always been to save that which was lost, but initially God was trying to purify the people who God was preserving to bring forth the Messiah. A whole nation bent on hell would experience mercy because the innocent, the children, would escape that destiny. This world is not all there is. A heathen nation left to itself would produce damned children who would produce damned children and so on. Destroying that population in that time period allowed many to still get to heaven because they were killed before the age of accountability. Now God is commanding the church to in a spiritual sense destroy all the idols and heathen practices in our hearts and protect our offspring. And give the lost heathen a beacon of light and something different that they can see and touch. They mock our God because our lives do not give much hint we live any different than them. We say one thing but live just like them, we just pick from our list of acceptable idols and they pick from theirs.
In the Old Testament God said:
Numbers 33:52 Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places:
Deuteronomy 7:2 And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:
Deuteronomy 12:2-3, 17 Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree: And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place. But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee:
We act like Saul though and think we can keep the nice things of the world. The best is different for each Christian and each church. In general, we have a list of bad sins that we don’t do, and we think we are spiritual because we don’t. We look at others who practice them and shudder. Things like pornography, drinking, smoking, drugs, homosexuality and going to movie theaters are wicked. Things like fornication (as long as they eventually get married), gluttony, pro sports addictions, watching movies at home (just nothing R rated), and sugar addictions are fine.
1st Samuel 15:9 says But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.
The Bible wants a people in love with Jesus whole heartedly. We love him but we love the good things in this world just as much.
1John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
James 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
(KJV)
The cares of this world and the pleasures are why we don’t care about the things of God. We say we care but our actions prove otherwise.
Mark 4:19 And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.
Lu 8:14 And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.
Lu 21:34 And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.
So Ebola may be our last hope.
Matthew 24:7 says For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
Luke 21:11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
Ebola may keep spreading. The government may quarantine us all and put us in FEMA camps before we know it. And what will happen is in 2 or 3 weeks the American church will suddenly be in withdrawal from all the things of this world. We may be in position to really desire God.
All our American idols just might get purged out of us simply because we won’t be able to get our fix and once a period of withdrawal happens the world just may be purged out of us!
When that happens God can shine through. And then the heathen will experience the same withdrawal, and they soon just may have a thirst for God.
We just may be in position to offer the lost world of America the drink of that living water because we finally will be drinking it ourselves. Instead of just telling them about it.