A Call To Arms
The reason that I share these stories with all of you is to encourage and inspire you. I am sure that everyone is noticing the rapid demise of our American culture as we turn in the direction of Sodom and Gomorrah. When I say that, I am not just talking about sexual immorality, which is rampant in America, but I am also talking about our treatment of people and tolerance of sin.
Remember that Jesus predicted that certain societies will be worse than Sodom and Gomorrah, and it includes societies that fail to heed the Word of God. And that is exactly what we are seeing happen in America and Europe. People love to tell me that there are lost people all over the world, in every country, and I concur with this.
With that said, I have a real problem with making this statement without revealing the etiology of the ‘lost’ state of people in various societies and countries. When one makes a statement that there are ‘lost people all over the world,' they are inferring that all who are lost lie in a bin of equality as to why they are lost. Nothing could be further from the truth. One cannot compare America or Western Europe with countless developing countries in such a discussion.
Why are people lost?
Yes, people are lost in both situations, but why are they lost? People in America, Europe, and other developed countries, are lost because they want to be. In other words, these societies have actively rejected God. There are Bibles freely available, churches on every corner, Christian leaders and counselors available, and freedom of religion. What is our excuse?
Compare this to many developing countries where people are lost, not because they have rejected God, but rather because they have never heard the gospel, never hear about Jesus, and have a wrong view of God. Being ‘lost’ because you reject Christ is a very different thing than being lost because no one has brought the gospel to the people of the respective society.
Jesus supports this in Matthew 10:14-15 as he instructs his disciples before sending them out to share the truth of the kingdom of heaven with various towns. “If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.”
"If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town." - Matthew 10:14
Jesus is saying that if a place has access to the truth of the gospel and rejects it, Sodom and Gomorrah will be looked at with more mercy then that place. I’m afraid to say that America is rapidly becoming such a place. Sodom was surely destroyed secondary to its rampant sexual sin, which America is definitively sharing in now. But let’s not forget Sodom’s other sins that earned its destruction. These other sins are laid out for us in Ezekiel 16:49-50. After reading this, Americans should shudder at how perfectly this describes the current state of affairs in our own country.
“This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty, and did abominable things before me; therefore I removed them when I saw it.” - Ezekiel 16:49-50
Wake up
We need to wake up and see that there is a starving world around us, and I am not only referring to physical hunger. In Haiti, there is a real hunger to hear the word of God, and many of the people that I speak to in the mountains have never had the gospel brought to them. When they hear it, many are saved. There are countless people in the world waiting for one of us to show up and release them from Satanic bondage through sharing the truth of the gospel with them.
Remember, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” (Romans 10:17) Understand that we, in America, are the privileged, the wealthy, the educated, and the blessed. Our passports are good anywhere in the world. We can afford to fly anywhere in the world. We can afford to bring Bibles into countries. We can afford to plant churches. We have medicine to share with the world. We have more food than we know what to do with, but over 50,000 people a day die in this world from starvation.
I will make a bold statement here, but I feel that it is consistent with the heart of God. We, as Christian Americans (not American Christians), secondary to the extreme level of blessing that God has poured out upon us, have a definite responsibility to the world to share Christ. This is consistent with Biblical truth as Luke 12:48b states, “For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required."
We, as Christian Americans (not American Christians), have a definite responsibility to the world to share Christ.
Don’t waste your life as a deceived Christian sitting in comfort, filling your belly with food every day, and building up your little kingdom on this earth. Meanwhile, countless people die with no knowledge of their Creator, and no knowledge of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross that paid their sin debt and offers forgiveness and salvation. If we truly believe in heaven, how can we be okay with making sure that we get there, but don’t have any sense of urgency for others to hear the truth that will give them hope?
How bad do you have to hate someone not to care that they may spend eternity in hell without the knowledge of the truth that you have in your mouth to tell them? So I write these stories for you to read to show you that this isn’t hard. You don’t need a degree in theology or a seminary education to do this. God has commanded the great commission. Why we feel that we need an additional commissioning from a man-made institution is beyond me.
All that is required is salvation, which produces a great love of Jesus that saturates your every action. This will undoubtedly lead to an insatiable love for Scripture. As you read Scripture, consume it and make it part of you. As you sit and read the Word of God, ask the Holy Spirit to teach you what you need for your anointing, for the “works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)
All that is required is salvation, which produces a great love of Jesus that saturates your every action.
Remember that the world will reject God, the anti-Christ will enter the world, and this world will perish just as God ordained in Scripture. So why do we hold so tightly to this world, our country, our lives, and our desires. Die to yourself, die to this world, and only then can Christ effectively live in you.