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RECAP NEWSLETTER - 5/24/5 Issue 38
"Where Is Your Compassion?" "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves..." Notice that the verse does not qualify that the men will be only the unrighteous ones. Even Christians will fall trap to several of the failings mentioned in this chapter. You do not need me to tell you that the world in general is getting very cold to the things of God and compassion for each other. Unfortunately, many churches are abandoning local missions work in the lower-income areas and are trying to be more "seeker-friendly" to the white, upper middle-class "market" group. One reason is that they have such a fixation on their pretty new "sanctuary" that they do not want what they perceive as dirty riff-raff drawing stares on Sunday morning. Years ago, when I lived in Philadelphia, my parents and I attended a church for several years in the deep, inner-city. You probably could not get any more inner-city into the bad parts of town than where we lived and where this church was. However, even at a young age, I could see that church getting more done for the kingdom of heaven, changing lives around, bringing people to Christ, etc. than some of the "nicer" and larger churches that I have been to or seen. What difference does compassion make? Just doing a quick search through the New Testament, you will find numerous times that Scriptures recorded Jesus being moved with compassion. Whether He was about to perform a miracle, or help someone in need, or even just teaching, many times what He did was a result after compassion. Does compassion move you to do anything for Christ? Compassion, and love from the Holy Ghost, transcends culture and skin-color. You may not speak the same language, or even look similar, but who cares?! Romans 15:26 records an early church that puts many modern churches to shame: "For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem." These people were Gentiles donating to the poor in Jerusalem. Languages and cultures were different - but someone cared. Those churches did not care about how it would look like on the front page of the Macedonia Times that they were giving money to some poor people from a completely different way of life. They did not care what the other churches were going to say about them. It is interesting that the Bible mentions the poor twice as much as it mentions the rich. Proverbs 19:17 "He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and that which he hath given will he pay him again." As far as I know, this is the only mention of lending to God, with a guarantee. Giving sacrifices and offerings were expected. Giving to the poor was extra. Forget the stock market, savings bonds, saving accounts, etc. No bank can give such a guarantee as what God gives. When we give money, food, clothing, time, medicine, etc., God takes account and guarantees that He will pay again. If you normally put some money away into savings or investing, here is a proposition: Take fifty dollars a month, and give it toward taking care of the poor. Whether you buy them food, necessities, help pay their bills, etc. - you are lending to the Lord. The Bible does not tell us we should invest in gold and silver as the choice investment, although they are wise investments - God tells us in this verse that the best investment is in people through His bank! Based on God's Word, I can guarantee you that you will be blessed! You may not get monetary amount back, but you will definitely see blessings in your life that were not there before! I can vouch for that fact in my own life as well! I hate putting money in the bank because I know I won't get much back for it (plus it is easier to spend). But, if I give it away toward helping someone less fortunate than I (especially if they will be given a clear presentation of the Gospel in Word and testimony), I get rewards and satisfaction that this cold world knows nothing of! 1 John 3:17 "But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" How can the church effectively share the message of God's incredible love if we only practice selfish love? Look for needs! Ask about needs! Visit the needy areas! Help others help others! Your desire for their well-being will not just remain physical, but grow into spiritual concern and compassion as well.
MISCELLANEOUS
I have been extremely busy the past three weeks helping out a local
ministry prepare for a recent Creation conference, so that is why the
RECAP has been a bit slow in coming. My apologies. I am trying
to work on my schedule to allow more time for writings. Please,
please, please pray that the Lord will give me the time AND the energy to
work on the website. Thank you for your prayers and emails!
CURRENT EVENT RECAP The Lord pointed out a verse today that will serve as the introduction to this RECAP. Deuteronomy 15:4-6 says, "the LORD shall greatly bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it: Only if thou carefully hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all these commandments which I command thee this day. For the LORD thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee." So many blessings, and only one qualifier: "Only if thou carefully hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God..." While America is not Israel, God does still act the same toward nations and people that serve Him. Unfortunately, America is definitely borrowing, and our 'sphere of influence' is in present danger of imploding. Seems we forgot the qualifier. God does not want us to only serve Him half-heartedly on Sundays only! He specifically states that He wants His children to carefully hearken unto Him! Christians today are barely listening! They are too busy listening to Rick Warren's "40 Ways to Get God out"! We will not have revival in our land as long as the churches refuse to wholeheartedly lay their self-esteem and materialism on the altar and beg God to forgive their sins, and diligently and carefully hearken unto what Almighty GOD says instead of some pipsqueak in Bermuda shorts!!! I have in front of me a copy of Business Week, May 23, 2005. The cover article is "Evangelical America: Big Business. Explosive Politics." They give eight full pages to "How evangelical churches are borrowing from the business playbook." Here is just one quote: "Although most hold strict religious views, they scrap staid hymns in favor of multimedia worship and tailor a panoply of services to meet all kinds of consumer needs..." They list that Willow Creek's revenues just for its coffee shop/restaurant are $2.5 million. It is sadly true that it also says that most non-churchgoers in 1996 stated that, "churches were full of hypocrites and were boring." Well, of course, if the majority of the people in your church are playing church, it will be boring. Also, if everyone in the church is playing church, but the multimedia performance makes it not boring, they will be willing to put up with the hypocrites. Leave it to the world to be able to say, "So adept at the sell are some evangelicals that it can be difficult to distinguish between their religious aims and the secular style they mimic." They are not mimicking. Also this week we saw designers incorporating religious themes into their products all for marketing. Apparently, it is cool to be religious as long as you are not staid. An article a couple of weeks ago about a court case regarding "In God We Trust" made me muse for a bit. So many people are getting heating up about "In God We Trust" being taken down in our country. Before you start labeling it as the work of the devil, consider that God probably wants His name off of our country as well. Our nation as a whole does not care about God. We have a President's wife that made several extremely risqué jokes at a dinner function, and the media worked it up to such a degree that even President Putin heard about the jokes and congratulated her on her base humor. Just this month, Judge Greer, the Schiavo murderer, was awarded a Special Justice Award for his "contributions on the bench." This award, was "like a lifetime achievement award for an actor." These are the people we are holding up in our nation?! This time of year, the beginning of the summer, seems to be the rallying and kick-off time for homosexual events during the summer. We saw numerous articles this month, too numerous to mention, about the decadence that is openly flaunted in our country. There have been several articles this month in reuters and other news outlets that were too depraved to list in the current event section. Just this week there was a big expo in New York for the sex industry. Several other public events reinforce in the world's mind the decadence and sensual pursuits of the Western world. Everywhere you look in our nation, homosexuals are pushing for open acceptance not just of them, but their lifestyle which the Bible describes as, "men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient." Romans 1:27-28. Why do you think they call it gay pride? The Bible says that they do not like to retain God in their knowledge of what is ethical and divine. Of course they want to flaunt that! While the general society in our nation and world is digesting the crafted propaganda and welcoming their lifestyle with open arms, it still has not changed the core facts! Even the FDA this month announced that they are barring gay sperm donors. Their reasoning and conclusion was that "gay men collectively pose a higher-than-average risk of carrying the AIDS virus." Satan is ruining their life under the misleading banner of being gay/happy. What an ironic misnomer. Satan is the one who is happy that they are in open rebellion against God. As Christians, we should not bash them and turn them further away from God, but pray for them and get them to repent and recognize God and His Word. First off, though, Christians need to be doing it as well. Just last week, a national sex offender registry Web site project was announced. The fact that we even have to have one should show you the decay of our society. Yet, why are people so surprised that when their communities, state, and nation promotes open acceptance of lewdness in bookstores, TV, movies, public discourse, etc., that we have rampant sex crimes occurring? Alan Keyes had an excellent article this week where he mentioned, "The more that sexual activity has become deliberately separated from procreation... Homosexuals will step forward and say, ' Well, if marriage is jsut about pleasure and personal fulfillment and the relationship of the persons involved, we can do that." Here in Pensacola, Florida, we are one week away from an annual major 'gay pride' event. I cannot help but wonder if people remember that Hurricane Ivan ravaged our area quite possibly for this reason. If you have forgotten about Hurricane Ivan, let me just say that our city and area is far from recovering from the damage. I am reminded of II Peter 2:6, "...turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly." The city of Pensacola will be a reminder for those who are paying attention. I am almost resigned to another hurricane hitting us because we have not seemed to get the message. It is also interesting that a recent poll also stated that most coastal people are not preparing or taking simple steps to protect themselves from hurricanes. What is the conclusion? Where is our nation heading? Is there hope? Will there be an end time revival? Proverbs 29:18 "Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he." I have heard this verse so many times applied for missionary work that it makes me sick. This is not talking about mission work or feeling a burden for missions. When he talks about a people lacking vision, he means they are lacking prophecy, divine communication - i.e. God's Word. The second part gives the alternative - if you want happiness in your land and life, keep God's Word! When a nation does not have a moral compass that they diligently and carefully take heed to, they will perish! If your life is on the rocks, then chances are you have not been in God's Word! When our nation does not like to retain God in their knowledge, do not expect it to do anything but perish! You can wave your little flag around all you want and sing patriotic songs till your eyes are red, but that will not heal our land! The only thing that will heal our land is for people to retain God in their mind and life. What about me and you? Are you trying to hold your life together by self-help books and 'purpose' workshops instead of getting into God's Word, meditating on what He has written to you? How long have your prayed this week? Do you have a broken spirit about the state of our land and church? Are you, like Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked? Do you see this world going full speed into a great falling away? Christ is soon returning, friend. For some, it is a joyous expectation. Have you mentally 'taken a number" and gotten in line? Or will you momentarily regret leaving your worldly pursuits? Have you showed compassion toward this world, the lost, the dying? Time is too short to decorate the hearse.
I'm going higher, yes, higher some day,
REMINDERS & PRAYER REQUESTS
Pray for the requests in PrayerList, and also in iChurches.
May God richly bless, |