June 18, 2007 8:23 PM The Truth About Divorce
|
September 2001Ezra 8:22b “The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek Him; but his power and His wrath is against all them that forsake Him.” How Can God Bless America? by Joseph Webb In the early hours of September 11, 2001, in New York City, we Americans experienced an unprecedented horror heretofore considered unthinkable. Moslem zealots, after years of planning, used our own fuel filled, 300,000 lb. commercial airliners in the skies of New York City, to level the two World Trade Center towers. The total number who lost their lives in this attack is yet to be determined, but is expected to be in the multiple thousands. Those who died were not soldiers, but mothers and dads and young people trying to earn a living and be responsible citizens of this country; leaving thousands of children orphaned. As this horrendous act was being perpetrated, we as Americans stared, screamed, and cried, in utter disbelief. Then something else happened: Americans began to pray! Americans began to sing, “God bless America.” People began to go to church again; many who haven’t been there in years. Next we began to hear television preachers tell us why it was happening and how secular America had it coming because of their wickedness. Let me say first of all that our beloved America is, and has been for some time, morally at a historic low. Yes, pornography is polluting our land under the guise of “freedom of speech, and our innocent unborn are being methodically slaughtered by the millions in our medical facilities, with the approval of our judicial system. Yes, our country is overrun with drugs and alcohol addiction, and our schools have provided the means for our children in school, to enjoy, “safe sex.” These same schools, in response to our Supreme Court rulings, have been increasingly diligent to protect those same students from their possible exposure to any form of “religious training”or prayer. Yes, our courts have outlawed any Christian symbols on any government property and there is a move underway to have “In God we trust” removed from our American currency. “It is for this reason,” say some preachers, that God is removing His hand of protection from the U.S.A. May I suggest to you that that is not the reason at all. The worldly element of this nation is only doing what comes naturally; acting like spiritually unenlightened, lost human beings. They are only doing what, to them, comes naturally; to deny and reject God and His righteousness. It is for these people that God called out His redeemed Church, to be a light and salt to those who walk in darkness and are alienated from God. It was to these that Jesus referred, when he said, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.” I am of the conviction that the reason the Lord has allowed this to happen is because of His Church. I know that by saying this, that there will be an outcry of nay sayers elucidating all the reasons why we are in the midst of a mighty revival with God’s special blessing. Many of them would say we are on the brink of taking over the world governments and getting ready to invite the King of Kings back onto His throne in Jerusalem, where they will have already participated in the rebuilding of the temple. Regardless of what others may say, there is much evidence that the present day Church makes God sick. Like the Laodiceans, much of the present day institutions which are called churches say, “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; to whom Jesus replied, and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” Remember with me, if you will, the story in Matthew 19, where Jesus parted the leaves of the fig tree looking for fruit. When He found none, he cursed the tree. I wonder what Jesus would find if he went looking for fruit in His Church today. Look with me again, if you will, at a few recent findings that I hope will stir your heart to prayer and repentance like it has mine. First: Since World War II, many of our American denominational churches, having been influenced by German theology called, Neo orthodoxy, liberalism, and situation ethics, have moved from believing in the “innerrancy of scripture,” down to the “authority of scripture,” and on down until today many are saying, “God couldn’t mean that.” In many churches today, when holiness is mentioned, (Hebrews 12:14b Without which, no man shall see the Lord.”) we hear cries of, “legalism, judgementalism, condemnation, bondage, and the law, instead of grace.” We have gone from a time in the early 60's when it was said that only one in fifty couples who prayed together got divorced, to where a recent Barna report shows that today, the divorce & remarriage rate among “born again” believers is 7% higher than in the “unchurched world.” An interesting additional point in his study showed that amongst “Charismatic and Pentecostal” churches the percentage is even higher. This same study showed that the divorce and remarriage rate amongst evangelical pastors is now equal to the unchurched world Again; I attended a national Sunday school convention a few years ago, and in one of the teaching sessions, a speaker from a national ministry announced that during the previous year, one major protestant denomination in the U.S. had to remove over twelve hundred pastors from pulpits because of moral problems. Again: Several years ago, my daughter attended a national youth leader’s conference on the West coast, where it was announced at the end of the conference, that the hotel in which the delagates were staying had kept records of the sale of pornographic movies during that conference and it was almost 7% higher than during regular secular business conferences. Again: A recent newsletter by David Wilkerson stated that in a recent report made by a hotel that specialized in conventions “the greatest number ever, of in-room, pay per view pornographic movies were requested during a religious convention. In fact, more porn movies were piped into rooms during that church convention than during all other types of conventions held there. Again: World Magazine, May 5, 2001 stated that the Zogby poll results found that 20% of American adults have patronized porngraphic websites. In comparison, a recent survey of pastors by Leadership Journal notes that half of the pastors surveyed (51%) say internet pornography is a possible temptation for them, while 37% admit it is a current struggle. Pastors who admit to having visited a pornographic website? 43%. Again: The Church of Jesus Christ is supposed to be “light & salt,” in a dark and decomposing society; yet it is these same churches who have ceased to ask, “what does the word of God say?” and have modeled their moral and social standards according to social and political expediency. Never, in the history of the Church has there been a question about what the word ofGod has to say about sexual perversion or murder. Today, however, many churches teach and promote both of these in the acceptance of infanticide and Sodomy. I recently was given a full page newspaper ad that listed, in very small print, the names of hundreds of church members of a traditionally strict, fellowship, pleading with their church leaders to open it’s doors to their “Christian sodomite brothers and sisters in Christ.” Again: The Scriptures tell us iln Hebrews 10:25: “ NOT forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another: and SO MUCH The MORE as ye see THE DAY approaching,” Yet, today, you must be diligent to find an evangelical church open on Wednesday or Sunday nights, because, “they just won’t come out.” Again: A study in 1996 stated that of Americans who profess to be Christian: They believe in and/or practice the following occult (demon inspired) practices.
By now you are probably asking, “What is this man doing? Is he trying to trash the Church? Is he a pessimist? doomsayer? enemy? Not at all. I am attempting to show you that although the Church is supposed to be converting the World, the World is conforming the Church to it’s standards and practices.. Please be assurred that I love the Lord Jesus Christ with all my heart and am grieved and burdened over what I see happening to His Church. I am also an American patriot. When I was in the third grade during WW II, I collected so much scrap metal for the war effort, that I was written up in the local newspaper, in Fremont, NE as; “Mister Joe Webb/ Mister Joe America.”. I have always been thankful to God for allowing me to be born in a nation where the Word of God was freely preached and I could serve Him in freedom. I have always felt the need to pray for our country and it’s leadership that we might, “live peaceable lives.” I have also served my Lord for over fifty years, and although I still have not “arrived,” I still, “press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” My great concern and burden, during this time of crisis for our country, is that I perceive that the Church of Jesus Christ has been deceived by the enemy into thinking just about anything and everything is alright and acceptable to do because we “are saved by grace.”. Since September 11, 2001 I have been hearing so many church goers saying, “We are united, with the American spirit, and as one we shall go out and, as in the past, and destroy the enemy.” May I suggest that it was not the unanimity of purpose nor our patriotism that allowed us to win the World War II, but rather, God’s divine intervention and protection. We were a God fearing country with laws based upon God’s word and a citizenry of God fearing people possessing Christian standards of integrity and honesty; people of Godly character, whose word was their bond. We had saints who “prayed through” and churches that knew how to bombard the throne of God in behalf of our country and it’s leaders. If America comes out of this conflict unscathed it will only be because our God has again had mercy upon us because of a “few righteous,” or because we, as a nation, still protect and honor Israel. It will not be our weaponry or military skills. David said in Psalm 33:17-19 “The horse (and we can say the tank, the planes, missiles, guns, satellites, hydrogen bombs, etc.) Is a vainthing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his (or their) great strength. Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy; To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive...”God said, in II Chronicles 7:14, not to the government, but to the people; “If MYPEOPLE, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and TURN FROM THEIR WICKED WAYS; THEN, THEN, THEN, ONLY THEN, will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will HEAL THEIR LAND.” Today, I see the Church, hearing the cry, like Sampson of old, who had just had his hair cut in the devil’s barber shop, “The Philistines be upon thee.” The Bible says he jumped up and said, “I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. AND WIST NOT THAT THE LORD WAS DEPARTED FROM HIM.” God says to the Church, “If you regard iniquity in your heart, I WILL NOT hear your prayers.” Brothers & Sister, is it possible that many so called successful churches, because of compromise, may be having numerical and financial success, but, “wist not that the Lord has departed from them?” If we, as Christ’s Church hope to be effective in influencing the outcome of the coming war by crying out to God, we need to quit blaming the infidels and agnostics, and seriously repent. Genuinely repent! Like Jeremiah, in Lamentations 3:42 when he cried: “We havetransgressed and rebelled.” Or Nehemiah 9:33 “thou art just in all that is brought upon us; forthou hast done right, but we have done wickedly.” Or Joel 2:15-18; “Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly;...sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders,...Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathenshould rule over them; wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? Then will the Lord be jealous for his land , and pity his people.” We, like the Church of Ephesus, need to; “Remember...from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; OR ELSE I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, EXCEPT THOU REPENT.” America is a “ cut flower generation.” We, as a nation, today, are living and seeing the resulting financial blooms and blossoms that were willed to us by our godly forefathers in the past. Powerful centers of higher learning, originally founded by godly men and women and dedicated to the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, are today citadels of ammorality and unbelief. We might look beautiful, blessed and prosperous from man’s perspective, but our spiritual roots have been cut off, and we are dying spiritually as a nation. Our Godly foundations have been distorted, rationalized and legislated away from us. We may look good, but we need to reconnect with our godly roots and repent if we are to expect to have our God, “hear from heaven and forgive their sins, and heal our land.”. Those who would say, “God would never let America be destroyed,” should read the book of Habakkuk again. The whole thrust of his message was, how could the God of Israel destroy His own people. This is not a time to point fingers at those outside of the Church to find a reason for what has happened. It is a time for introspection for the Church, because Peter tells us in I Peter 4:17, “For the time is come that judgement must begin at the house of God.” We as believers must search our own hearts, not to find out who is at fault for what happened in New York City, but to find out what we need to do, to be assured that God will deliver and protect us in the days ahead. We must be willing to repent of anything and everything that displeases Him and purify our hearts. We must remember that the only reason Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed was not for it’s wickedness, (and it was wicked), but because God could not find ten righteous people within it’s walls. What America needs is a Holy Spirit directed, life changing, sin exposing and renouncing revival within the true Church of Jesus Christ. We need to go back to demanding and expecting godly leaders whose own families are whole and in proper spiritual order, who can lead their flocks as “examples in all manner of living.” This is so vital because of sin’s “ripple effect,” as described in an old proverb: “If the preacher sneezes, the congregation will get pneumonia.” We need to demand that our Christian schools of higher learning return again to teaching the innerrancy of God’s word, and our churches again practice Church discipline instead of allowing anyone who makes a shadow in the doorway and says “I believe” to join and become one of us. We must remember that even the devil believes and trembles” but won’t be in heaven. We must again preach what Paul declared in Acts 20:21 “Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD, and FAITH in our Lord Jesus Christ.” The “repentance” aspect of the Gospel has been virtually eliminated, and the believing stressed almost to exclusivity. We hear many Americans today complain about our borders being so open that anyone can come in, even our enemies. May I suggest it is time for the Church to check Her borders and rebuild Her walls.Now that we, as a nation, are entering into a war with a very determined and invisible enemy, will there be enough righteous citizens in our great nation to cause our God to fight for us? Let’s pray that the Church will be the Church again, so our God can bless America. This is a wake up call. Will we heed it while God, in compassion, gives us this warning, or will He have to send in the Chaldeans, who will show no mercy (II Chronicles 36)? May God help His Church to have ears to hear, eyes to see, and a heart to respond in genuine humility and repentance in this time of crisis. May God help us to refuse, by His grace, not to be a part of the group Paul describes to Timothy, in II Timothy 3:1-5 “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy. Without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a FORM OF GODLINESS, but denying the power thereof:” May the Church be what Jesus Christ intended it to be, so that our land can be protected and healed. We must always remind ourselves that Jesus Christ has called His Church to set a standard; not to gain a following: If in setting that standard the Church does gain a following, all the better. If, however, the Church fails to set the standard and then gains a following, it will be to Her DETRIMENT. Can God Bless and Protect America? Only His Church can answer that. If we are not as close to God today as we were yesterday, guess who moved. Saints of God, there has never been a more urgent need for intercessory prayer in behalf of our nation by God fearing people who can touch the heart of God for genuine revival in America. The Lord set the requirements when He said, “If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; (That is nothing short of repentance.) Then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin,and will heal their land.” We do not need more education, more military might, more human tolerance: We need a God sent revival to turn this nation from the brink of extinction. May God send repentance to His Church, so our nation can be once again be blessed, and a blessing! AMEN! LET’S WEAKEN THE VOW! David & Tim Bayly, in an article in the July issue of World Magazine tell how Miss Manners has taken Protestant ministers to task for failing to uphold the sacredness of the marriage ceremony. Novelties added:
Subtractions:
Why? Pastors don’t relish the bannes because of the nightmare of dealing with issues such as fornication, divorce, promises of committed love made to extract physical favors. Three Traditional Purposes of Marriage:
Sex is now considered a recreational activity and children a financial liability: thus the increased use of birth control. Exchanging of Vows: (The heart of the ceremony.) The wedding ceremony is no time for romantic creativity: Rather: a time when the couple should submit to the eternal word of God, and walk in lockstep with their forefathers in faith. Bayly said of this; “Their sentiments are woefully inadequate to keep the home fires burning through years of living with an alcoholic husband or a wife who has Alzheimer’s. At such times, the meaning of the words “for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health...till death us do part” become clear and nothing else will do.” Bayly continues, and I quote: “But perhaps the most egregious, if least obvious alteration of the traditional vows in today’s typical wedding is the failure of the bride to promise the one thing that, more than any other, scripture requires of her in her relationship to her husband, namely, that she “love, honor and obey (submit to)him. When pastors fail to discuss the obligations of husbands and wives, it’s no wonder that confusion reigns.... The wedding ceremony does not belong to the bide or groom, nor is it the pastor’s to trifle with. In its broad strokes, it belongs to the ages. Wedding ceremonies today need to be reformed backwards toward the Bible-based model that served well for centuries, with the goal that every part of the service aim at honoring and pleasing God–not man, or more likely, the mother of the bride.”Webb Ministries Response: Thank God for voices like these who are calling our nation back to sanity. Again we must repeat: “Jesus Christ called His Church to set a standard, not to gain a following. If in setting that standard She gain a following, all the better. But if She gains a following and fails to set that standard, it will be to her detriment.” |
|||
