Join the Journey

Somewhere along life’s journey, God drew us to Himself, moving us from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of His Beloved Son. As the Bible states, we are born again as new creations in Christ and now have the Holy Spirit living in us.

Most of us long to move forward in knowing Jesus more each day and are joyfully abandoned to this journey. I am deeply grateful for those of you who take the time to read these reflections and share them with others, but we know there can be danger in taking in our Lord’s truth each day without implementing it in our daily living.

I am convinced the American Church is retreating because we think we can choose to obey or not obey God’s spoken Word depending on what it costs us.

I have talked to you before about postponed obedience. This comes into play when we give up that which we desire most as God’s children for that which we think is of utmost importance now. This puts us in the mindset of doing what will make us most happy or fulfilled today at the expense of honoring God.

It is a daily fight of faith to obey God and to trust Him to give us our longings and desires as we honor Jesus in all circumstances.

I believe our Heavenly Father is no longer whispering to His people—the Church. He is shouting at us to flee our passivity to boldly go public with our faith for His name's sake and the sake of the gospel. The passivity and lack of courage to tell others about the redeeming love of Christ Jesus has put the American Church in a tailspin, losing the next generation as our nation moves into a post-Christian mentality.

May this public journey begin with those of us who believe in God’s Word as we make it our driving agenda to please the Lord.

What if we began praying, “Lord, you tell me what to do and say because, today, I yield to you”?

Remember Abraham, Samuel, and Moses when God spoke to them? Their response was simply “Here I am, Lord.” They submitted their lives to God, and He used them for His glory.

The facts seem to be shouting at the American Church that we are losing ground because we are not raising up new disciples. Take a look at a few of the most recent surveys and their comments:

• The number of evangelical young people who have walked away from Christianity is on the rise.
• Barna estimates that four out of five young evangelicals will disengage from the church by age 29.
• The percentage of Americans who give at all is estimated to continue declining.
• Only 13% of evangelical Christians say they tithe, and most give less than 1% of their income for a tithe.

As the Scriptures say, “‘If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand (Mark 3:25).’” 

“The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.” -Proverbs 27:12

So brothers and sisters, we must trade up and have sober judgment as we join God’s journey. We must be willing to think outside the box while living inside the Book.

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