Lukewarm and Under Persecution

| December 7, 2012

The great question in churches today should be, “When are we going to wake up?” Christianity is persecuted around the world and illegal in many countries. In America we are also losing our right to practice our religion unimpeded, but we continue to sit in our comfortable pews on the day of worship and adapt to the world the rest of the week.

Why is this becoming a greater problem every year? Because we are exhibiting the rampant sin of apathy.

When Christian students are told that they cannot use Jesus as the topic of a “The Person I Admire the Most” writing assignment, or when a worker is called to his or her boss’s office for asking someone to attend worship, we just look the other way. Or worse, we may comment that “They should have known not to do that.”

When an Islamic nation arrests Christians and imprisons them, we fail to protest our government’s failure to censure that action. Why? Apparently because we just don’t care.  It’s time to reread Ezekiel 33 (the whole chapter).

We are called to speak the truth in love; to stand for Christ. When we remain silent as our religious rights are removed and as even our children’s history classes are changed to remove the Christian motives for the establishment of this nation, we fail to stand for Christ.

If our children lose their faith, and by the end of their college years reject their Savior as irrelevant or even non-existent, we will have nothing to blame except our own apathy.

We must stand now, or we may lose the right to stand at all.

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Category: Cultural Commission, Discernment, Discipleship

About the Author ()

Sue Wilson Native of Michigan (Traverse City); transplanted temporarily to San Diego area for husband's deployment to Vietnam; then off to Arkansas for thirteen years and then to Des Moines, IA where they have lived for most of the last seventeen years. Sue majored in Bible and History at Central Baptist College in Conway, AR. Among my 130 hours or so, she has several semesters of Greek and Hebrew. Her favorite area--Old Testament history and theology. After a position as a tech writer for a local manufacturer disappeared in January of 2009, she decided to settle down and pursue freelance writing. She has served on staff for the Iowa District West – LMCS (Lutheran Church Missouri Synod) offices as a writer and editor; also served on staff as a Director of Christian Education at a church in West Des Moines, IA and as a communications assistant to a pastor in Arkansas. Sue is politically conservative, socially conservative, culturally conservative--at least according to current definitions. She is a Lutheran Christian committed to the Lordship of Christ. Fan of Deitrich Bonhoeffer and Ravi Zacharias. Jesus calls us to a personal relationship with Him, and the Holy Spirit is working within us to make that possible. She has written weekly devotions for Iowa District West of the LCMS for ten years; she teaches adult Bible studies and always writes her own materials; I write two blogs which are basically verse by verse Old and New Testament commentaries (she’s currently on break from these and plans to reevaluate in September); She also writes devotions for Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Urbandale, IA and has rewritten (with author's permission) a course called "Divorce Care" to better fit some Lutheran doctrinal differences. Sue is married with two adult children and four grandchildren, and a beagle that rules their lives. She is working diligently right now on her family history and getting their historical photography scanned and distributed to cousins; she also enjoys nature photography, golf, shooting, computer gaming, hiking, reading, biking, working out, and driving (as odd as that may sound). Someday she would really like to get organized.
  • Johnson

    “In America we are also losing our right to practice our religion unimpeded, but we continue to sit in our comfortable pews on the day of worship and adapt to the world the rest of the week.”

    Simply wrong. No-one in America is preventing you from practising your religion, at all.

    • sue wilson

      I would cite the government’s demand that Catholic institutions provide abortion coverage as just one example.

      • Johnson

        If that’s your example, then I would say that you are wrong. It doesn’t impede your ability to pray or believe what you want, at all.

  • http://twitter.com/BishopSPope Bishop S.Pope, Sr

    Christian commentators fail to realize that the church cannot hear us in their sleep. “When will they wake?” We have an ‘Into All the World’ commitment to fulfill. #PJNET #tcot