October Newsletter

Hey people of God,

I've been really struggling with a couple of scriptures lately in relation to my own heart and The Church of America. The first is hidden in Ezekiel sixteen. God is confronting Israel for her unfaithfulness and towards the end of the chapter reveals why Sodom was destroyed. In verse 49 God says, “This was this sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and the needy” (Somehow I had always assumed Sodom was judged for something else). If you have ever carefully listened to commentary by anyone from outside the United States, especially citizens of third world countries, this scripture could be word for word what they say about us. We're arrogant, gluttonous, and unconcerned with our poor. I've heard several marvel at how the richest country in the world could have any homeless or hungry at all.

In juxtaposition to this troubling scripture is the one we've talked about before in 2 Chronicles 7:13-14. God is speaking with Solomon and gives him the remedy for his nation when and if it starts to crumble. This time God says, “When I shut up the heavens so there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” After a closer look at these verses it is apparent that when a nation starts to crumble it is a commentary on the state of the believers there. God said when you start to see craziness happen in your nation Solomon, my people (believers in the only True God) need to humble themselves, repent, and pray.

Why do I mention any of this? I mention it because if there is any truth in either of these scriptures our nation is crumbling because the believers here are not what they should be. That means me. That means you. And I sense it in myself. I sense the grief of the Holy Spirit as I daily choose almost everything over My God. I am a product of church culture, and outwardly the picture of what committed Christianity in America looks like. I pray daily. I fast. I read my Bible. I attend church weekly. But as I sit before God and look at men and women of God from other nations or other eras, I am embarrassed to stand along with them. They face(d) death for the sake of Our Savior and I am concerned with how to afford more things to make my life more pleasurable and enjoyable. A friend of mine will be going back to his home country (A Muslim nation) within the next few months and will risk losing his wife, his father, his mother, and brothers and friends because he has given his life to Christ. My sacrifice for my Lord pales in comparison to that. I remember watching an interview of Bono by Bill Hybels. Bono had been doing a lot of work for the AIDS epidemic in Africa and began looking for help in his mission. He mentioned how disgusted he was with The American Church because the one organization that had this kind of work written right into its mandate from God wasn't doing anything but building its programs and facilities with barely a slight nod to foreign issues.

Here is the problem: I cannot tell what is wrong with me. Even though I sense it I cannot see it. I can see that I am the one in need of prayer but I have no clue what I would look like, or what The Church of America would look like if we were truly pleasing to God. I guess I am asking anyone who hears me to join with me as I pray and ask God to reveal to me what needs to happen next to us, as His Bride, for us to come out of this backslidden state we've fallen into so that ours is not the next nation to be destroyed by fire because the believers within were concerned with everything else but pleasing God and who were not living up to the declarations we religiously vocalized during our quick gatherings each Sunday. Heavenly Father, please deliver us from that kind of Christianity! You're the only One who can.

Sorry so glum...

N8