It’s been a great two weeks from Fire Valley State Park in Nevada to Palm Desert, CA, to Scottsdale, AZ, (more in pics to come of amazing sights of sites), but it’s left me unprepared to present the blog I wanted to on EMPs. So that will come next Saturday. Lots to read and digest to understand this threat to our nation and to the world on top of all I have already researched.
But for Christ-followers, do not be afraid. It is still Father’s world and He seems to be getting ready to tell Jesus, “Enough! Go get our people and start the final countdown to the New Heavens and New Earth.” History is not repeating itself. It is heading for a climax after 6000+ years of rebellion against the Creator, and it will be important to be ready.
In Luke 21:25-28 Jesus said, “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves,people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken…Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads,because your redemption is drawing near.”
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” Jesus, John 16:33
Yet something wicked this way comes. Not the carnival nor the Ray Bradbury book or the movie of the same name, but something much more sinister and relevant to the lives of Christ-followers in the USA and other nations influenced by America’s churches.
I am not a prophet and have no “word of the LORD” on this, but it seems to me we have passed a point of no return. The world is rapidly spinning out of control of societal norms that have been standards for hundreds of years. Even Nazi Germany from the 1930s to WW2 was mostly recognized as violating basic human rights, even as the political madness ruled from the top down by way of fear and intimidation. Many people rapidly escaped and various plots to assassinate Hitler or his henchmen were unsuccessful. But there was a keen sense in the rest of the world that Germany and Japan were on the wrong side of history.
Now we see history “rhyming.” Remember, itneverrepeats just as certainly as a man cannot step in the same river twice. Antisemitism is at levels higher and more widely spread across the globe than the 1930s. Universities that once allowed vigorous discussion of divergent ideas, years ago began shouting down unpopular views that expressed traditional values. Administrators have kowtowed to leftist and elitist abusers that they trained to resist what those of us over 40 considered normal. A student leader at Columbia, Khymani James, declares, “Zionists don’t deserve to live. Be glad — be grateful — that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.”
Aside from the Israel/Gaza storm, men pretending to be women are now invited to change in Olympic women’s dressing rooms for the next series of games. In spite of obvious physical differences, how these guys “feel” about themselves matters more than what their biology teachers told them. When girls object, they are vilified as bigoted and narrow-minded and are sexually discriminating against these “trans-women.”
The upcoming Paris Olympics are trying to balance “wokeness” with public displeasure at men competing in women’s sports by dumping the decisions of who qualifies back onto the individual governing bodies of each sport. There’s a lack of backbone for you.
“Gender-affirming” surgeries tripled in the USA from 2016 to 2019 with 12-18 year-olds accounting for 10% of permanent mutilations of naturally-born characteristics. Boys and girls, can you say “social contagion?” The governor of Arizona vetoed a state legislature bill that would have prevented confused school boys from showering with girls stating, “I will not sign legislation that attacks Arizonans.”
In April this year the German parliament overwhelmingly passed a so-called “self-identification law,” which allows people confused about their sex, including minors, to change their legal gender once per year. The government is promoting puberty blockers and hormones on its website for gender-confused children at ages when kids should be riding bicycles and playing with dolls and trucks.
Live Action’s “Meet Baby Olivia” video shares a realistic look at the development of preborn children in the womb, validated by well-qualified OB/GYN doctors. While some states are moving to require the video for sex-ed classes, an article for USA today claimed it would mislead people and stigmatize teenage girls who have an abortion when faced with an unplanned pregnancy.
The issue here is not that society is changing, but that Christ-honoring Biblical truth is being side-lined by prophets of a new age.
>How long before wearing a kippah can result in being arrested? Try last week! >Will we who believe God created distinct males and females in His image be accused of hate speech for quoting the Bible?Try a couple years agoand still fighting for free speech and to stay out of prison! >When will someone lose a job for espousing open dialogue on divisive issues? Try last week again!
>Fortunately our government will never spy on citizens going about their daily business😳. They can leave that to Google and Apple.
>Then again, maybe they will, but they will only use such surveillance against the “bad guys.”
Now, if we can just be certain we who call on the Name of YHWH or Jesus are never on the “bad guys” list! But if we insist on allowing Hebrews to wear their identity on their heads, some may want to kill us. If we label men and women as birth-assigned genders, we could be in trouble. If we feel we should be allowed to express our faith by talking openly about being Jewish or Christian we may be discretely followed or imprisoned. If we insist a human is a human as soon as he/she has all the genetic information of a human, there are voices that will call us liars and try to drown us out.
Anything worth doing is worth doing well, and for most things, these involve training. Our spiritual performance is no different. We must train ourselves for Heaven the same way we would train for a marathon or athletic performance. It is not that we will “perform” in Heaven as we would at an Olympic competition, but how we live here on earth is preparation for our eternal life.
The transformation when we leave this world, either by Jesus’ second coming or by our “graduation” when we die, will be profound. We will be changed, but only based on what we are now; we will not be changed from animals to angels; from created to uncreated; from finite to infinite; from air-breathing to carbon-monoxide-breathing; from free-willed individuals to slaves in the new world. We will still have free will!
The idea of Heaven not having temptations because of the devil’s absence is inadequate to explain the purity we will enjoy there. The two other sources of temptation will still be with us, the world and the flesh. In fact, if the new Heaven and earth is as magnificent as Randy Alcorn teaches in his book called Heaven, I suspect there will be more temptation there than in this decrepit universe with all its ugliness and filth. Add that we will still have bodies, and though “glorified” like Jesus’ resurrection body, it will still be flesh and bone. Might we need to do some “remedial training” when we reach our Home or will we be ready to judge angels? The Scripture teaches that we must be as disciplined as any athlete or soldier.
So what will be so different that we will not yield to temptation? Actually, if we remember, temptation is NOT sin, it is likely we will still “feel” temptation. The difference will be our history here, that we have been “trained in righteousness.”
Like children learning to walk, our resistance to temptation now on this earth should be training us that NOT yielding to whatever physical whim our “ids” promote is better and more rewarding than sinning. So in the new age, on a new earth, with Jesus present with us, the main reason we will not yield to temptation will be the maturity of “walking as He walked,” as “in His steps,”in service to one another and the pleasure of knowing we are without sin.
Visiting with C.M. Ward once, he spoke of the delight of traveling all around the USA. While he missed his family, the one thing he enjoyed was the crisp clean sheets every night in his hotel rooms. This was before environmental warriors convinced us we could save the planet by foregoing this travel luxury.
He noted that there was only a little fun in getting dirty, but that the higher joy came from a hot cleansing shower and crisp clean sheets in which to sleep. In the same way, once we have matured enough to enjoy CLEAN, why would we ever go back to the mud-pit of sin⁉️ The Bible even describes habitual sin as a dog eating its own vomit‼️ YUCCCK‼️ Maturing in Christ means growing up to a stature that besetting sins no longer attract us.
Are you really satisfied from the emptiness of lust and porn? Does gluttony really satisfy the hunger of your heart for good health and spiritual food? Do you enjoy eruptive anger at others; does your bitterness feed your soul or deplete it? Will lazing around in bed when there are things that need our attention make us feel more accomplished? Do we really think pilfering that extra money will make us content? Will electing “our” candidate make us less anxious, as though he/she will bring peace to the Middle East, protect out lifestyle, ensure a prosperous America and protect the vulnerable?
Socrates said, “It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.” How much worse to grow old and not discover the beauty and power of God’s Holy Spirit in one’s life! Christ-followers, it is time for us to grow up and live like Jesus. Ghandi declared once that he loved Jesus, but Christians were another matter. First called Christians in Antioch, the term was intended to be derisive of “goody-two-shoes” people that acted like “little Christs.”
Anita reminded me of when we visited some friends in Bulgaria and they were teaching Gypsy children basic life lessons: how to read time on a clock, why seasons change, how to multiply and divide. But as they arrived at the house where the lesson was to be held, the children saw their teachers coming and started calling to others, “Jesus is coming, Jesus is here!” Maybe if we could be accused of trying so hard to be like Jesus, the world would notice that we were overcoming temptations and becoming “little Christs.”
Sometimes it is still hard to believe. A man who was beaten, scourged with a whip and crucified, pierced with a spear into His left side so that water and blood flowed from His heart, buried in a tomb and left for three days and three nights… NOW, He IS ALIVE⁉️
His own apostles, the eleven who had been with Him for three years and saw the miracles: the blind could see, the deaf could hear, the lame could walk, Lazarus and others raised from the dead… did not believe at first.
“But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.” (Mark 16:11) “These words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe [the women].” (Luke 24:11)
It wasn’t until I was a teen that I realized how absurd it was to believe someone could arise from the dead, yet Jesus DIDjust that!! So what must it have been like one week after the event described in Luke 24? “Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, ‘Peace to you!’ But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?See my hands and my feet, that it is I, myself. Touch me, and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’ And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them.
“Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,and said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.’”
Imagine Jesus coming and going among the disciples for 40 days. One wonders what He was doing when He was not with them. Can you imagine the times together when He would open the Old Testament and line by line explain how He had fulfilled over 300 prophecies?! How slow they were to believe and how dull of mind we are sometimes to understand the Truth!
The apostles and all Jesus’ disciples seemed to have a hard time believing He had risen from the dead. In Matthew 28, just before the ascension of Jesus, even still some doubted. We do not know exactly who as the text does not say, but we assume that they changed their minds by the time they saw Jesus ascend, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And it leaves us wondering why doesn’t He just appear to each of us that He knows will put our faith in Him?
Everyone gets on Thomas’ case because he would not believe the ten other apostles’ claims that they had seen Jesus until he put his finger into His wounded side and saw the nail-scarred hands himself. But ALL of the apostles were just as unbelieving when the women first reported Jesus resurrection! Even after visiting the empty tomb, Peter and John would not believe until Jesus appeared to them. Thus eight days later, Jesus told them all, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29)
So that first week must have been a mind-bending one: to see their friend and mentor, having been crucified and buried, now walking and teaching them in a crash course in Old Testament theology! Yet, the disciples were still quiet and tried to avoid the High Priest and his associates, even going back to fishing in Galilee, in spite of Jesus command to wait in Jerusalem. Were they just wanting to avoid the authorities who had crucified Jesus? Were they considering going back to their old profession? Perhaps this was the meeting He had scheduled with them?
Before being too hard on the apostles, consider that such are we even after God has done amazing things for us. We have seen healings, been baptized into the Holy Spirit, watched Jesus work miracles in the lives of others. Some of us have experienced miracles… six strokes and still walking around like a “normal” person and typing blogs. And yet, at times my faith wavers. I yield to temptations. My anger flares up and moments later I have to ask forgiveness from Him, if not the person at whom I was angry. Don’t I believe He is risen!? Do you believe He is alive from the dead? Because He IS. He is risen, indeed!
The empty tomb was proof enough; the Sadducees and Pharisees could not produce a body to refute it. The Roman guards who should have been executed for failing to guard the tomb were bribed to keep the strange event quiet… if they even understood what had happened; only that they had failed to keep the tomb closed.
Now it is up to us, one week after the Resurrection to live in light of the Truth that death will not have the last word. Because He lives, any who place their faith in Him, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and confess with their lives that He is Lord, will be saved from sin’s most destructive effect: death. We who believe in and live for Jesus will also live forever.
Hallelujah, He is risen! He is risen, indeed!
Linda Holm left this world on December 30, 2023. Dallas wrote this song to say goodbye… until Forever.
I find it perennially annoying when Resurrection Sunday rolls around how Christ-folowers continue to use the pagan name, Easter (Eostre or Ashturah), for the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection. But that is for a different blog, and for cultural reference, it is easier in conversations than explaining the pagan roots of Easter bunnies and eggs being related to a goddess of fertility. (Didn’t you ever wonder what rabbits and Cadburys had to do with the Resurrection!?)
Today, I want to address another perennial annoyance, and that is the misrepresentation of the “fickle crowd” who welcomed Jesus (Matthew 21:1-11) at His entrance to Jerusalem the week He was to be crucified. Too many uninformed pastors and priests seem to think this is the same “crowd” that a few days later stood before Pilate and yelled, “Crucify Him!” (Matthew 27:15-26; Mark 15:6-15)
Jesus performed most of His teaching and miracles in Galilee and in villages around Jerusalem. The only two definite Jerusalem miracles recorded in the Gospels are the healing a lame man at the pool of Bethesda (John 5:1-9) and the healing of a servant whose ear Peter had severed in Gethsemane at Jesus’ arrest (Luke 22:47-53).
He may have done other miraculous signs in Jerusalem, but the metropolitan city was particularly jaded against ‘messiahs,’ having seen so many false ones that they had little interest. Furthermore, Jerusalem was the seat of Roman authority and the compromises of the population to accommodate Rome were significant. The Jerusalem Jews, like today’s urban-dwellers, tended to be focused on survival with little time for the religious arguments that plagued the Pharisees and Sadducees, the two major religio-political parties in Israel. Jesus did very few miracles in Nazareth because of their unbelief (Matthew 13:58). How much more so could this have applied to the Jerusalemites?
Read the Matthew 21 description of the Triumphal Entry (as it is called). Jerusalem was surrounded and infiltrated by pilgrims who had come for the Feast of Passover, one of three pilgrimage feasts in the Hebrew calendar. (Note: this is why contemporary Jews conclude the Passover meal with, “Next year in Jerusalem.”) Jerusalem, Israel’s historic capital city, would fill up and overflow with travelers from all over Israel and some from long distances.
Centrally located, Jerusalem is at most 100 miles (160 km) from the farthest points in Israel, a distance many people could traverse in a few days by foot, cart or horse. Many of these visiting crowds were people who had seen Jesus heal sick people and bless children. While Jesus had specifically discouraged many of His followers (John 6:41-66) after the incident of feeding 5000 men (not counting women and children), He still had thousands who looked to Him as a likely Messiah.
When He arrived in Jerusalem, THIS crowd was thrilled beyond measure because they expected Him to miraculously kick the Romans out and establish Jewish rulership on their historic homeland. However, most of these Jews were staying in inns or with relatives outside the crowded city.
The Jerusalem Jews, however, were the ones who were confused by Jesus arrival: “And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, ‘Who is this?’ And the crowds said, ‘This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.’” (Matthew 21:10-11) The Jerusalem Jews did not want anything to do with overthrowing the Romans for: 1) fear that a rebellion would not succeed, and 2) because it would disturb their lifestyle and “take away [their] place.” (John 11:48)
In the timeline of Jesus arrest, you find Him alone with eleven apostles in the Garden of Gethsemane. Clearly, the High Priest and Sadducees who were predominant in the Sanhedrin did not want to arrest Jesus when “His crowds” were around (Matthew 26:1-15; Luke 22:1-6).
Did you ever wonder why Jesus behaved so “mysteriously” regarding the setup of the Passover meal He would share with the apostles (Luke 22:3-13)? Consider, if He had said, “Peter and John, go to 123 Elijah Avenue and prepare the Passover for us…,” Judas could have alerted his evil benefactors, and their guards could have been there to arrest Jesus early in the evening when all His crowds were at family gatherings in and around the city! As it played out, Judas did not know where the Last Supper would be, so the betrayer had to wait for an opportunity to leave AFTER they had begun the meal. Examine the texts carefully and you will see that Jesus gave much of His discourse AFTER Judas had left to collect the “police.” (John 13:21-30) This was made possible because, from wherever the Last Supper occurred, Judas had to go to the Temple and retrieve the Temple guard under the command of the High Priest.
By the time Judas and his mob came back to where the Passover meal had been held, Jesus and the eleven disciples had gone to the Garden of Gethsemane where they prayed for three hours. An actual three sixty-minute sessions or not, it was during this time that a frustrated Judas, not to mention a menacing group of soldiers, searched from place to place in Jerusalem that would have been familiar to Jesus and His disciples. Late into the night, they finally came to the Garden and arrested Jesus.
He was taken into a bogus trial that stretched into the morning. (SeeProsecutorial Misconduct In the Trial of Christ.) Finally, taking Him to Pilate for what was probably a prearranged verdict, the priests were shocked that Pilate was no longer cooperative. They had expected a quick verdict on the previous evening, but now Pilate tried to release Jesus since He realized they were delivering Him out of jealousy, and Pilate’s wife had also warned him of her nightmares regarding Jesus (Matthew 27:18-19).
When Pilate presented Jesus to the “Jews” (John 18:33-40), this group, under the influence of the priests, chose Barabbas for release rather than Jesus. After scourging Him in an attempt to satisfy their blood-lust, he brought Jesus out again in a wimpy attempt to release Him. But stirred by the chief priests, these Jews from Jerusalem almost rioted in order to get Pilate to acquiesce to their demand (Matthew 27:24).
By the time they took Jesus to Golgotha word had begun to spread, as it was now about noon. Jewish families that had been celebrating the Passover were now moving about and discovering that the Jerusalem Jews were having Jesus crucified. Well, so much for the rebellion and kicking out the Romans. Discouraged by the “powers that be,” no one felt he or she could make a difference now that Jesus was in Roman soldiers’ hands and a verdict had been passed.
So you see, it is important to read the stories with a “sanctified imagination,” not reading anything into the texts, but like a screen-writer comparing Scripture to Scripture, come up with a complete picture of what happened the day Jesus was crucified.
The biggest news was yet to be told, of course: Three days later Jesus would shock His own disciples by rising from the dead, something none of them expected!
Oneta Hayes is a dear friend and beautiful blogger who has graduated to Heaven: our loss, Heaven’s gain. I miss her, but will see her again when we meet around our Master’s throne.
Visit her blog and read some of her thoughts from her archives while she was here on earth with us. Rich theology and cultural views.
Posted onJanuary 7, 2024 by Roger Hayes forOneta Hayes
Thank you to each of you who have followed my mother’s blog. Your interactions have been rewarding to her in so many ways. We pray that her words ministered to each of you. We know that in her heart, her intentions were always from love. So let this be a farewell since she is now dancing in Heaven with Jesus. – Roger Hayes and the Hayes Family.
What happens when God does things we do not understand?
Is God always faithful?
Our understanding is very limited.
We must be patient and trust.
Trust is the key word!
This blog was ready last night, but this morning before posting it, we went to the grocery store. While Anita was picking up some items, I was getting in a few extra steps when I suddenly felt very weak, kind of disoriented and had a hard time focusing my vision. A stroke!? I wondered as I leaned against a pole. I forced myself to focus on where I was: okay, I’m in a pet food aisle in… Oh, yeah, Kroger at Beaumont Center. Should I call out for help? No one else in that aisle; how long would it be for someone to notice me if I laid/fell down? Not long, I thought. I wished there was a chair for me to sit down, but the pole was adequate for support.
A few seconds later (or couple of minutes?) I felt a little better, no longer worried about falling down. I found Anita, but was still lethargic and weak. She drove home; we checked my blood sugar – 120; blood pressure – 130/80; just headachy and tired… like after a stroke. So I am assuming it was a TIA: Transient Ischemic Attack; like a stroke, but probably would not be found on a scan or MRI.
After an hour’s nap, I got up for some lunch and still feeling a little residual headache, polished up this blog. Nothing new in what follows, but after today’s TIA, the event just reminded me of these five principles.
__________________
In the story of Job, we find that Satan had been “going to and fro on the earth.” Of course, we know what the devil was up to; he was looking to cause problems for Father’s creation and fulfill his dream of taking the place of “the Most High.” He was doing what is in his nature since he fell from Heaven: lying, killing, destroying; i.e., anything that would deter God from accomplishing His purposes for mankind.
What I found most intriguing in this story from the first time I read it was that Satan was not paying any attention to Job since Father had a “put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side.” The devil just figured he had more ripe targets. But it was God who called attention to Job! So in the ensuing short debate, Father pulled the hedge down! He allowed the devil to attack everything Job owned, “Only against him do not stretch out your hand.”
Some time later, Satan showed up again in Heaven, and God again called attention to Job who had maintained his integrity and not blamed God. “‘Yahweh gave, and Yahweh has taken away; blessed be the name of Yahweh.’ In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.” (Job 1:21-22) After a short debate again, God released Job to even further trouble. “‘Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life.But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.’And the Yahweh said to Satan, ‘Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.'” (Job 2:4-6)
The rest of the storyis very interesting and worth an hour or two to read in your native tongue. (Biblegateway.com has a pulldown menu for various translations of the Bible; if you click on the “ALL” in the pulldown, you will find hundreds of translations in different languages from Arabic to Hindi to Chinese.)
However, for the purposes of this blog, the introduction to Job is sufficient. What happens when God does things we do not understand? Why would He have called Satan’s attention to Job? Why would He allow Satan to “prove” his argument that Job only served God for what he could get from Him? If Father knew that Job would be faithful, why put this poor mortal through such misery as He knew Satan would inflict!?
The key consideration for these question lies with whether we believe that God is always faithful, which is what the Bible teaches. “The steadfast love of Yahweh never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning;great is Your faithfulness.” This is what we must grasp when facing questions of why God protected one child from abuse but allowed another to suffer: God IS still faithful. Why did some church buildings escape calamity when hurricanes hit and others were destroyed? Why are some missionaries miraculously saved while others suffer such harm and death?
The key for the answers to these question lies in our very limited understanding of The God Who Is! We are talking here about the designer of our DNA who knows the inner workings of molecules below the level of quarks. Yet, at the same time, we are talking about the Creator of light that spangled the universe with its beams before He even put our Milky Way, Andromeda and all the galaxies’ stars in place! How can we possibly begin to understand Him… unless He reveals Himself to us!?
Since He did exactly that by coming to our world, becoming one of us, a mere baby born to a faithful Jewish virgin, we must simply be patient and wait for Him to continue to reveal Himself to us. He was fully human, yet fully GOD. Jesus was the epitome of the revelation that began when God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26)
If you do not know this Creator, this Savior, you can know Him. He is at once closer than a brother yet so magnificent that to see Him as He is made one of His closest friends faint at His appearing. He is the infinite/personal God, The God Who Is, and He has been continually revealing Himself throughout history to any who would trust Him.
Ahh, there’s that word: trust! Often translated as “faith” in the Bible, it is not just mental assent to a set of doctrines or observance of rituals. It is a matter of the “heart,” the center of your being, the focal point within you that makes all your decisions. All one needs to do is tell Him that you trust Him, and He will lead you on from faith to faith.“Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” (Job 13:15, NKJV) So just talk to Him as you would a friend or your Father; after all, that IS what He IS! And He will hear you. And if you have ears to hear, you will.
(Almost) Wordless Wednesday: Only one minute and 27 seconds in this time-lapse, but WoW‼️ The Pro-Life generation turned out HUGE in freezing temps on January 19, 2024 to celebrate the new opportunities for women and unborn children to enjoy life‼️
The 2024 March for Life | The pro-life movement is here to walk With Every Woman, For Every Child! pic.twitter.com/uHvZPJzMwj
I am not a prophet, but there are trends that anyone can see that can help us prognosticate.
“We are experiencing the largest religious shift in US history – greater than the Great Awakenings, but in the opposite direction.”The Great Dechurchingby Jim Davis, Michael Graham, and Ryan Burge
First Alliance Church in Lexington, Kentucky is at a cusp of decision as the attendance is topping 1000 almost every Sunday. Do we try to figure out how to stay in our location, add to the current three meeting times, expand with property across the street, move to a new location and new building? Hmm, some say these are “good problems” to have.
However, this seems to be unique, even in Lexington. Many legacy churches in town struggle with budgets, personnel and schedules. Nationally, attendance at evangelical churches is down as some 40 million (40,000,000) former church-going adults no longer put in an appearance. The pandemic that taught us we could “attend” online seems to have taken a toll on “in-person” attendance. Yet, the overall continuing trend in America is toward less church attendance, even “online.”
The “dechurched” grew gradually over the last few decades, but since the pandemic this shift has become a startling jolt! If the trend continues to expand, as such trends tend to do, the number of “dechurched” may soon surpass the “unchurched” – those who never attended.
A greater concern addressed in The Great Dechurching is that too many alleged Christ-followers have come to depend on the “wow” appeal of churches to win people to Jesus. The authors raise the question if we have forgotten what it means to be salt, light and yeast in the world? (Matthew 5:13-14; Matthew 13:33) Have we succumbed to the succubus of contemporary rock worship performances or flashy sermons complete with videos or textured art presentations to the loss of personally feeling responsible for our next door neighbor’s salvation?
The result of “dechurching” means that for the first time in eighty years, more adults in the USA do not attend church than those that do. This accelerating of the “dechurching” from the 1990s to now may have many factors, but probably the most influential sociological impact came from the rise of the internet. While only 20% of American homes had internet service in the late 1990s, connectivity via the web has grown exponentially. Since 2021 over 90% of homes have access.
Of course, this alone does not explain the “dechurching,” but is a major contributing factor. Increasing secularization, promoted by the web, grows in the USA as our religious foundations continue to erode. One of the most significant reverberations of 40,000,000 adding to the more than 100 million (100,000,000) who already do not attend means that less than half of the US population will be attending church services in 2024!
The predictions in the Bible (Zechariah 12:2-3, 14:2) that no nation will stand with Israel at the end of time means that even the USA will abandon our ally. Christ-followers will continue to support the tiny nation, but “dechurching” will remove the influence of orthodox doctrine that churches teach, and leave the less than half of Americans who still attend church on the outside of the political trends that will eventually lead to our demise as a world leading nation and supporter of democracies such as Israel.
More so, the declining belief in the special status of the Hebrews being God’ chosen people will result in those of us who do believe being ostracized as hateful religious radicals, dangerous to society and a menace to the “acceptable” political order. While there is currently some push back against anti-Semitism, watch for the resistance to decrease and the hatred of Jews, globally, to increase.
Are we as Christ-followers really ready to embrace Paul’s view, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain”? How enamored are we of our McMansions, our worldly comforts and secular “values?” How can we influence new adherents to commit themselves unreservedly to Jesus and His power to redeem? How can we “shine as lights” in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation as the Philippian Christians did?
Maybe the “dechurching” of America is a good thing in one way. As a black background is used by a jeweler to expose the brightness of a diamond, so the changing of America will make those of us who follow Jesus in every aspect of our lives look even more different than we have in the past few decades. We may have to lose some of the trappings of contemporary society, but it is a society that is going to hell in a handbasket. Do we really need better “production values” for our worship? Should the cult of personality dictate who we select for pastors? Maybe scale back on the investment in hi-tech sound boards and multiple LED screens and spend a little more in training and supporting evangelism and time in prayer?
What is there for us in a culture that worships Barbie, idolizes hypersexed icons, believes that we have to “learn to love ourselves,” and that humans can do anything we set our minds to do? Is there anything there that we would really want to take to Heaven with us? Is there anyone you would like to see go to Heaven with you? Have you told them of your desire?
All I want in Heaven is to see Jesus and live with Him for eternity with others who will have loved His appearing (2 Timothy 4:7-8). Happy New Year. Maybe next year in Jerusalem⁉️
“Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people;for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:10-11)
There are at least 109 prophecies of the Messiah in the Old Testament of the Bible and Jesus fulfilled every one of them! A statistician estimated the probability of one person fulfilling just 20 of the prophecies. He came up with the odds of one in one-quadrillion, one hundred and twenty-five trillion (1/1,125,000,000,000,000)! (source: Tribulation Force by Tim Lahaye/Jerry Jenkins)
For comparison, consider that the odds for winning a major lottery is roughly one in 300 million (1/300,000,000). This is to say that as unlikely as it would be to win a lottery… unless you could control the power balls… it is even less likely that One Man could fulfill 109+ prophesies… unless He was the controlling Power that made them.
Consider that with eight billion plus people (8,000,000,000) in the world, one can put a postcard in the mail to you with only a few specifics on it and you will be the only person to receive it. You eliminate much of the world by specifying the country (there are only 193 on earth). When you specify a street in a unique province or state the potential recipients is reduced to a tiny fraction of the population of that country. Further determination is made by the house or apartment number, and then with your first and last name, you will have been singled out of eight billion people! This is what the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah do! They progressively eliminate any contenders who might have claimed divine assignment so that only one person could ever have fulfilled them.
Whatever our feelings about the date of the birth or the identity of the magi or the details about the star or the manger (wood or stone?), the fact that Jesus fulfilled so many prophesies given hundreds of years before He was born by as assortment of people over several thousand years, anyone with an open mind must conclude that Jesus IS the Messiah promised to Adam and Eve when they were being expelled from the Garden of Eden. “Of your [Satan’s] offspring and her Descendant; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise Him on the heel.” (Genesis 3:15 NASB) One simply has to look at the prophecies, a herculean task if you have never opened a Bible, but one many of us have accomplished by reading the Scriptures annually. (Just four chapters a day will take you from Genesis to Revelation in less than a year.)
So take some time these next two days, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, to listen to some music that celebrates the birth of Jesus (rather than holly jolly holidays and Santa). Watch some TV specials (TBN and Redeem TV are free!) that tell the truth about how Jesus came into the world or what His effect is on those who put their trust in Him. Gather with family and avoid the politics or social animosity and focus on Him! Forgive those who offend you. Give grace to drivers and shoppers whose only thought is for themselves and pray for them. Find someone in need of a friend and be that. Prepare the Way of the Lord.
Take a break for five minutes, eleven seconds and be blessed by the Star Sisters’ “A Christmas Hallelujah” (above).
Merry Christmas to everyone reading this, and many of you are in my daily prayers. yours and His, c.a. post ____________________________________ “If you are to love the “unlovables”, you must begin to grasp how unlovable you were when Christ chose to put His love on you, and how unlovable you remain today even as you are secure in His love.” Jamie Dunlop, Love the Ones Who Drive You Crazy
It’s been a great two weeks from Fire Valley State Park in Nevada to Palm Desert, CA, to Scottsdale, AZ, (more in pics to come of amazing sights of sites), but it’s left me unprepared to present the blog I wanted to on EMPs. So that will come next Saturday. Lots to read and digest to understand this threat to our nation and to the world on top of all I have already researched.
The Spirit's Call 