The World in Which We Live

Scripture: Judges 21:25

In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Insights: Yesterday was the first Sunday of the New Year.  It gives us hope for new imaginations, new prospects, and new opportunities.  We have a chance for renewed faith.  We have possibilities for strengthened character.  We live in such a time that we are desperate for fresh faith and bold character.  We only have to be reminded of James MacDonalds’ statistics from his book Vertical Church to realize the truth of this desperate time.  Six thousand churches close their doors every year.  Thirty-five hundred people walk away from the church every day.  Only one out of ten pastors will make it to the “retirement” years of life still in the ministry.   If we turn to a secular look we see the average American family has nine thousand dollars worth of credit card debt alone.  Our national debt has risen seven trillion dollars in just the past five years.  We have comedian and actress Wanda Sykes doing public service announcements during Saturday morning kids programming defending and supporting the homosexual community.  In essence, she is saying it is perfectly natural to be gay.  In a five minute span of time I flipped to ABC, CBS, FOX and 55.1 and on all four of those networks there was a scene that depicted sex outside the confines of marriage as okay and natural.  On January 4^th, the Barna research group released new findings regarding the changing shape of temptations in America.  One of interesting statistics was that sixty percent of Americans claim to procrastinate in all areas of their lives.  Consequently, sixty percent of Americans are also consumed with worry and anxiety.  Why are over half the Americans filled with such feelings? The answer is because they were not doing what they knew they ought to be doing and now they fear getting caught.  Beloved, we are living in the days of Judges 21:25.  We as a people do what is right in our own eyes.  As a result, we have a faithless and characterless society.  There is hope even in the midst of such information.  Over the next many weeks we are going to be studying the book of Nehemiah and we are going to build a wall of faith with bricks of character.  We are going to allow God to transform us and mold us into the people we were created to be.  Let us give all of our hearts for such an endeavor.

Questions:

1. Have you come to recognize the desperateness of the hour for the things of God?
2. Do you desire to be a person of faith and character?

Prayer: Father, I live in a wicked world that is filled with a void regarding faith and character.  I do not wish for my life to be represented by those characteristics.  Do what must be done to make me a person of faith and character.  Amen.