Claim your faith in a sin-filled world

“That you may prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.”  -Philippians 2:15

  Several weeks ago I was headed to church early one Sunday morning. It was the first Sunday of the month so our men were meeting for breakfast. While I was headed down the road, I decided to listen to a little bit of my Leonard Skynard cd. Their song “Simple Man” came on. Most people will recognize it as being the theme song for the tv show, “Mountain Men”. The song and the show are both favorites of mine. As I was listening to the song it reminded me of how those men live on the show. They don’t go to the grocery store, rarely ever go to town and aren’t affected by much of what we have to deal with on a daily basis. They don’t see littered roads. Those men don’t worry about being shot while they are eating at a restaurant or at the movie.  They don’t have to look at curse words painted under bridges, on the back of street signs, or sexually suggestive stickers on cars. I thought to myself, “Those mountain guys have it made; that is the life to live”.   I had myself convinced that they are living a life that most people, including myself only dreamed of. Then I heard the Lord tell me something as clearly as He has ever spoken to me. He said, “This isn’t time for Christians to isolate themselves from the world’s problems. It is time for the church to act like the church and make an impact in society.”  Well, as usual, God is right. Right now, the world needs Christians to act and live like Christians more than ever before. We have stopped being salt and light in our world. Way too many Christians have hidden their faith. We are allowing the world to shape us. God expects the opposite to be true. Christians are the ones that are supposed to be standing up for what is right and calling sin what it is, sin.
The Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit knew what the church at Philippi and then church in 2018 would be dealing with.  He knew that we would be facing a sin filled world. He knew that lives would be filled with every kind of depravity known to man. He also knew that they church sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ was the only hope that this world had.   Billy Graham once said, “Our chaotic, confused world has no greater need than to hear the Gospel truth”.
 I want to end this column with a challenge. May each of us as Christians be faithful witnesses in our society to the Good News of Jesus Christ. May each Church regardless of denomination, proclaim publically that there is hope in this lost and dying world, and that hopes name is Jesus Christ.  We live in a crooked and perverse generation, may we as God’s children be salt and light in it. Church, don’t give up.