The world has come to an end…no I did not see the latest doomsday movie and think it was real. Nor is this writing about the end of human history but the end of the world as we know it. But, the world as we know it is dying each day. It changes and moves forward as we cling to the ideas and thoughts of the past, if our memory is accurate, and struggle with an uncertain future, for many. The times are indeed constantly changing. The world we knew has come to an end. Depending on your age many things you once treasured are gone for good. I am of the age when I can remember people saying, “I will walk before I pay $1 for a gallon of gas!” Of course, not many are walking today.
As each old year passes and each New Year approaches there is a place for nostalgia as well as dreams for the future but there is a better place for realism. The forecasters and trend predictors are rarely right about the future and the good old days were not always so good. We enjoy thinking of a simpler time when we remember being more religious but there was just as sin, evil and injustice. We just did not have as much access to instant information.
The struggle of good and evil has existed since Eden. It inhabits each heart. Church is not necessarily the answer. That is why attendance has been steadily declining for the past 25 years. Still we are very active as a churched society. About 100 million Americans attend sporting events each year, however although church attendance is declining over 130 million children/adults still come in contact with church each month! Don’t get too excited. Coming in contact does not mean they are spiritually changed. In fact the inverse seems to be true. We are overchurched and ineffective. People are no longer looking to the church for spiritual guidance. There is much confusion from movies, TV, recycled philosophies and cults as people seek God but are not necessarily doing so in the right place.
We will always seek God because we are made in his image. Jesus is a part of all things (John 1:4) so he makes sense of all things. But many outside the church have a negative image of the church and many in church have negative image with much of the unchurched world. Evidence of both are shown by a t-shirt “Jesus save me from some of your followers” and quote from a famous author, Mark Twain; “After spending time with good people of the church, I understand why Jesus spent time with tax collectors & sinners”
George Barna, who studies these things more than anyone says, less than 10-15% of our churches are rated Highly Effective. The Bible is unknown (1/2 who call themselves ‘born again’ read the Bible during week). 12% think Joan of Arc was married to Noah. 80% claim to be Christian but 4 of 10 are unable to name the four Gospels. I wonder if some thing Amos next to the book of Andy. Comedian Jay Leno’s Man on the Street interviews asked two college students to; "Name one of the 10 commandments"; they said, “Freedom of Speech?” They were next asked to complete, “Let he who is without sin…” to which they replied, “Have a good time?” The third question was, “Who was swallowed by a great fish in the Bible?” Pinocchio got the third big laugh of the routine but it was really a sad commentary as we continue the same pathway to confusion and separation from each other and God. The new progressive sounding truths are only old reworded confusion from the past. A famous female celebrity who many looked to for spiritual truth said, to a stadium giving rousing applause, “find your own truth.” That profundity was reminiscent, for those who read the Bible of one of the most wicked times in Old Testament history (Judges 21:25) when “every man did what was right in his own eyes”. We think we are changing and progressing but the secret is still found in connecting with God through his word.
Yet we all struggle with adjustments to change. The clinical definition of death is, “A body that does not change”. However, we are better at this change thing than we realize. You are in constant change right now. Your skin replaces itself every month (Cheek cells replace themselves 3 times a day). You have a; new stomach lining every 5 days, new Liver every 6 weeks, new skeleton every 6 weeks and 98% of the atoms in your body are replaced each year. So as you sit there with 5 pounds of dead skin flaking and flushing off right now don’t tell me you have trouble with change. It is time to make some real eternal changes. Romans 12:1-2 tells us to be different, transformed, not like the rest of the world and renew our minds.
So, what am I taking so long to say? The best place to connect with God is still in his word, the Bible. Find a copy of the scriptures that is easy to read and understand and let him speak to you in a fresh new way. Then, if you are not already there, find a group of believers that will help you correctly understand the scriptures (there is much confusion), grow, keep you accountable as you walk in the Spirit and continue to change into the image of Christ…that is the change that is eternal. Time is fleeting and too precious to waste. Isaiah 43:18-19 tells us God is in the change business. "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland."
Happy New Year!
