America the Great has become America the Great City of Sin. We worship everything but God: money, power, success, pleasure, people, youth, beauty, fame, cars, boats, airplanes, celebrities, houses, children, our mighty nation, political leaders, pastors, and food, don’t forget food!
We are so inundated with horrendous idolatry, that even the church has become stuck in the mire, with no vision for victory, or plan to escape the clutches of the overwhelming House of Satan. We are either afraid to be different, or we have lost the desire to be different. Either way, the creed for today is, “go along to get along”.
Isaiah writes, “Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey. The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice.”
What if a spiritual leader stood up and said that we were going to imitate the 1st century church and share all of our possessions in common? How many people would be left in that congregation? What if the leader required the men of the church to share in the ministry of the word? What if he asked them to seek the Lord for their spiritual gifting to share in the burden of ministry? How quickly would families head for the back door? What if the pastor started illustrating what a life of idolatry looks like in the life of a believer? What if a sincere call to repentance was made? How quickly would the offering plate be drained of folding money?
Yet, we believe that the Lord is pleased with our diluted and half-hearted worship. We think that we have trained him to be satisfied with what he can get. After all, everybody is idolatrous, so how does he expect us to become whole hearted and single minded in our devotion to him? Where are we supposed to go for a blueprint of pure worship? How are we supposed to stand alone without the support of the lukewarm church?
The depth of the repentance needed at this point is almost overwhelming to contemplate. How can we possibly climb out of the great pit that we have dug for ourselves? What difference can one repentant believer make at this point in time? With whom are we going to be friends? Maybe, those are the wrong questions. Maybe, the only legitimate question is, “Lord, what would you have me do?”
~ Brad Heilhecker
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