Water Of The Word 118 Newsletter

Presented by Free Bible Study Lessons

MESSAGE: Condition Of The World: Who Is Responsible?

"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden." Matt. 5:14

As we look around the world today darkness seems to be growing - at least on the surface. Natural and man-made disasters abound, major main-stream corporations sponsor Gay Parades [including in the US Home Depot sponsoring a children's workshop at one!], the murder of the unborn continues, courts support the freedom of sin, violence goes largely unpunished, movies/books which promote the occult are overwhelmingly successful, etc. Have you ever wondered who is responsible for all this and more?

As I assume most of my readers are Christians, I have to say, "We are." Darkness only reigns in the absence of light. If the darkness is growing stronger it can only be because the light is growing weaker. So when darkness is on the rise in Christian or formally Christian nations, it is a sign that the Church is not shining as bright as she could/should. We have to be honest and take responsibility. We have to own the problem before we own the solution.

In many ways the Church, in general [of course it is not true of all churches individually], is compromised. Often it no longer accepts the Word of God as ultimate truth. Consider how many churches: compromise the Scripture to appease the evolutionists, don't know if murdering the unborn is wrong, promote Satanic socialism, send their young to humanist-dominated public schools, ordain practicing homosexuals, fail to take a stand on pre- or extra-martial sex, and have tried to become acceptable to the world in order to win the world.

The problems of the world will never be solved, the darkness will never recede until the Church gets its act together. We must, as a unit, return to Biblical Christianity. We must be committed to the fact that the Word of God is ultimate Truth and declares the path of righteous in all areas of life. Of course, we recognize that as weak human beings we fail to live up to the standard. In Christ we already stand righteous before God - never fall in legalism - but our lives should be progressively reflecting that fact. However, we cannot compromise God's perfect standard simply because we fail to meet it. It is not prejudice or hypocritical to demand our nations seek to apply the Word of God in every area of life - they will be judged by it.

We must also be committed to loving each other. It is true genuine Christian love that will win the lost. Many are sick of their sin and want true love but what do they see when they look at the church? Do they see a compromised world imitator or do they see the True Light of the Gospel? Love is the key to winning the world, but it has to be God's love through us. It begins with learning to love each other!

In the East the condition is reversed. Many of their nations are not Christian or have not been Christian for hundreds of years. The Light is establishing itself. If things continue as they are, the West will collapse spiritually and physically and descend into heathen darkness. The East, and parts of Africa, will rise as the new Christian culture. The blood of the martyrs and the sacrifice of the Christians living there now will be rewarded in time. How much time? Only God knows, but such an investment will bring rich returns. The persecuting leaders think they are destroying the church, but in reality they are only hastening their own destruction. Must the West collapse? No, if there is nation-wide repentance then the situation can be reversed quite quickly. It has happened before. Will it happen now? God knows, we work and pray.

Even through the darkness appears to be gaining ground, there is much positive news. Christianity has advanced tremendously over the last 2,000 years. Great and encouraging things are happening on many levels. We know that the Church wins in the end...are we helping it or hindering it?

Next month we will look at an often unrecognized reason for weakness in the Western church...it stretches back about 200 years or so.

ANNOUCEMENTS

Wow! A lot of things happened last month:

We now have a Free Bible Study Lessons page on Facebook. You can follow us, like us, and/or be our friend there if you like.

We have an original poem by Mrs. Shirley Davis that you can use to encourage your pastor. You can submit your own poems on pastor appreciation, if you like.

We have just launched Rock Solid our new e-mail course. This course will guide the student through their own study of foundational Christian teachings. It builds on the style of the Feed Yourself course. Don't miss it.

We all need words of encouragement so we just launched God's Word To You as well. God's Word To You is simply a Bible verse or Scripture selection personalized and sent to you every week. No comments, just the Word of God pure and simple.

Finally, those of you who would like to advertise to our growing number of readers [10,000+ per month] now have a variety of inexpensive ways to do so from sponsoring a page to a listing in the Business Directory. Check out the details.

CALEB'S CHOICE

Check out the Caleb's Choice DVD Club for borrowing Christian and family DVDs and CDs. No point in spending hundreds of dollars for DVDs you may only watch once or twice. Borrow them instead at our low monthly membership rates. Now, if you don't want to commit yourself to a membership, you can rent the DVDs on an individual basis.

Final note: Encourage your friends and help us spread the news about Free Bible Study Lessons by recommending one of your favourite pages or courses to them. It is also simple to add a link to Facebook, Twitter, and others by clicking the link on the bottom of each page. Don't keep this a secret! Freely you have received, freely give.

God bless you,
Glenn Davis
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