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The title of this entry has been borrowed from two sources. It is the title of an article written in Voice Magazine, July/August 2008 (the publication of the IFCA, The Independent Fundamental Churches of America) and was written by W.W. McEad. In turn, he borrowed the title from a line in President Ronald Reagan’s second inaugural address who stated that he had asked his staff these questions concerning his mission to return America to greatness; “If not us, who? And if not now, when?” The article from Voice magazine is an excellent one and also very convicting.
For the brief time that I have been a pastor and blogger I have continually attempted to sound warnings concerning the “downgrade” that is taking place within the Church. It is a downgrade that is caused by and feeding the moral and cultural downgrade taking place in Western civilization. Unfortunately too many times the response of the Church is to withdraw from the arena of ideas and hide away behind the walls of our church buildings. In such cases the culture is left to continue an unimpeded slide into moral morass. On the other side of the coin many churches have decided to adopt much of the swill being produced by the culture in order to somehow reach the culture. In that case both the culture and the church together slide unimpeded into the mishmash of religious confusion and moral decline.
Instead of taking a lot of space to address this issue on my own, I would like to share with you some of what Mr. McEad wrote in his piece for Voice. In this article, Mr. McEad addresses what the need of the hour is for both the Church and the culture.
In America today we must not quake before the enemy and circle the wagons, gathering together within the walls of church buildings, acting as a beleaguered fighting force bereft of its will for battle. We must stop the practice of praying for the Lord’s soon return in hopes that we will no longer have to be offended by the sights and smells of the growing corruption of our society. The church cannot continue to carry on with what has become “business as usual” because “business as usual” is not accomplishing our “business” in this nation. America is in critical need of a Church that will come out from behind the sanctuary walls and mobilize for a great spiritual offensive aimed at claiming new territory, establishing beachheads in new communities, and branching out from those communities into even further reaches, wherever people are in need of spiritual deliverance and liberation from bondage. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
If there be any hope for America, if there be any salvation for our society as a whole, there must be a deliberate, effective and immediate move to reverse the tide. It is time for another awakening in America. This awakening must be driven by fanning the flickering flame of Great Commission activity in the Church in America.
Although we should and must continue to look up in hope of Christ’s return we must not, we cannot cease to labor in His name and power. We must be like Noah who when commanded by God to build the ark that would save him, his family and many of God’s creatures, took the slings and arrows of those who most assuredly derided him for building a ship in the middle of an arid land. It is not hard to imagine Noah proclaiming the coming judgment of God in an attempt to warn those with whom he came in contact. Both temporal and eternal punishment are coming by the hand of God. We must be about the Father’s business of gathering people to the ark of safety found only in the person of His only begotten son, Jesus Christ. And we must do so by the proclamation of the one true Gospel. We must give both sides of the story, for there is no good news without bad news. We are separated from His Creator by our sin. We are dead in our sins and unable by any means to save ourselves. And we are “by nature children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3) simply waiting for an eternity of punishment in a real place called Hell (Revelation 20:11-15). But God did not abandon us to that state. Instead He sent His son Jesus the Messiah Who lived a perfect life and died as the perfect payment for our sins. Jesus died in our place; “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21); “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him” (Romans 5:8-9). This is the message that leads the lost to saving faith in the One Man who is also God, Jesus the Messiah. And believing in Jesus Christ as the Son of God who is able to save is the only way of salvation.
God bless. I pray this helps.
They Call Me Pastor 