CHALLENGES OF THE 21ST CENTURY continued

Romans 5:3-5 “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;  perseverance, character; and character, hope.”

In these next few chapters I would like to concentrate upon one of the important things that we will be faced with in the 21st century and that is: men/women of character. We are born with a personality, but not character. Character is something that is developed on how we respond to life situations that come our way daily. I would like to mention a few things that different people over the years have said about the importance of character.

“THE WORLD NEEDS MEN AND WOMEN…who can’t be bought; who keep their promises; who value character over riches; with an opinion and a will; who value inner greatness over visible career; who readily take steps of faith; who retain their identity in a crowd; who do not compromise themselves with falsehood; whose personal ambitions are not limited to personal gain; who do not say, ‘We do it because the others do it;’ who remain loyal to their friends through success and failure; who believe that tricks, calculation and cunning are not the only keys to success who are not afraid of standing up for the truth, even if it is unpopular; who can decisively say ‘no’ in the face of a world saying ‘yes.’” (Source: Dr. Elijah Morgan &Peter Riederer (http://www.yell.ch) in “Schweizer Arbeitgeber,” 14/2002) ”Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson

”Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” –Abraham Lincoln

”Integrity is its own reward.” –Laura Schlessinger

”Character is doing what’s right when nobody’s looking.” –J.C. Watts

”It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them.” –Mark Twain

“Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.’” –General H. Norman Schwartzkopf

”Outside show is a poor substitute for inner worth.” –Aesop

”You must look into people, as well as at them.” –Lord Chesterfield

“Characters do not change. Opinions alter, but characters are only developed.” –Benjamin Disraeli

”Of all the properties which belong to honorable men, not one is so highly prized as that of character.” –Henry Clay

”Man’s character is his fate.” –Heraclitus

Oswald Chambers said: “No man is born with character; we make our own character. When a man is born from above a new disposition is given to him, but not a new character; neither naturally nor supernaturally are we born with character. Character is what a man makes out of his disposition as it comes in contact with external things. A man’s character cannot be summed up by what he does in spots, but only by what he is in the main trend of his existence. When we describe a man we fix on the exceptional things, but it is the steady trend of a man’s life that tells. Character is that which steadily prevails, not something that occasionally manifests itself.”

We see what people down through the ages have to say about character. The person that God uses is a man/woman of character. With all of our getting; get character.

Looking back over the history of the expansion of the Kingdom of God 2000 years ago from that little obscure village in Israel, now we can see many challenges that the kingdom of God faced. Moving into the 21st century I would like to outline some of the things that we are now faced with and will be facing.

In Romans 12 we are told that we should “not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind.” One of the main battles in the days ahead will be with the mind, being able to think through issues, ideologies, etc. with a Biblical mindset or Biblical worldview.

A Biblical worldview is defined as a firm belief that absolute moral truths exist: the sinless life of the Lord Jesus Christ, God is all powerful and all knowing and is still running the universe, Satan is real and that salvation is a gift from God and cannot be earned. We, the church, have an obligation to live in the light of the revealed Word of God. The Word of God needs to be brought in to everything we do in life. This will affect our choices in life style as well as our way of thinking. It will be seen in our views on worship, family, business, morality, recreation, personal autonomy, personal possessions, etc. It will bring a complete re-working over of who we are and how we live and what we do.

A pastor remarked that the mission of the church is to prepare for Christ’s return in five ways. He went on to define these five ways: prayer, Bible study, fellowship, worship and evangelism. These five things are essential, but we can never overlook our responsibility to redeem our culture. God has not called us to let this world go to hell in a handbasket. Generally speaking we define our faith strictly in terms of personal salvation, instead we need to keep in mind that we are not only saved from SIN, but saved to the task of cultivating God’s creation.

We are not only saved from sin, but we are saved to tear down the structures of sin that have created these seven global challenges: orphans or children of the world, abused women, HIV/AIDs that have decimated whole populations, poverty, lack of water, environment and protecting the unborn.

We read in  the first chapter of Genesis that in six days God created everything and in the creation of man turned over to us the task of cultivating what He created. This is called the “CULTURAL MANDATE” and is as binding on us as the “GREAT COMMISSION.”

Our faith must encompass every part of life, every sphere of work, every aspect of the world. It must be the lens on how we see reality. If God is sovereign over everything, as we confess He is, then everything finds its identity and meaning in relationship to Him not only in our spiritual life, but in our work, profession, politics, science, education, entertainment and the arts.

Since God made the world He has also put in place God-given norms that govern all that He has created – both morally and physically and just as we would not go against the physical laws (like gravity) so also with His moral laws. Like Chuck Colson said: “Moral laws tell us how to govern our behavior. Laws of logic tell us how to think clearly. Norms of justice tell us how to run a government. Aesthetic norms guide the creation of beauty and the arts. If we don’t know the norms God has ordained for every area of life, then we’re living blindly and are bound to make wrong choices – hurting ourselves and others. We’re like a person who walks into a room blindfolded and bumps his shins against the furniture.”

We need to be aware of truth and fallacy. Like A.W. Tozer said: “Truth and error travel the same highway.” In this world of moral ambiguity we need to be able to discern what is true and what is false. This will be a real battle in the days ahead.

When the original thirteen states adopted their new Constitution in 1787, this is what Alexander Tyler, professor at the University of Edinburgh, said about the fall of the Athenian Republic 2000 years earlier:

“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.

From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to lose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.

The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years.

During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence: 1. From bondage to spiritual faith; 2. From spiritual faith to great courage; 3. From courage to liberty; 4. From liberty to abundance; 5. From abundance to complacency; 6 . From complacency to apathy; 7. From apathy to dependence; 8. From dependence back into bondage

When we look at the Western world today we need to ask ourselves: Where do we stand at the moment? I personally believe that in the USA, we are some place between the complacency and apathy stage. What happens in the next few years might move us into the apathy to dependence stage. Western Europe is in the apathy to dependence stage.

In October of 1798 John Adams wrote the following: “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice (greed, covetousness, materialism), ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

We will either move towards radical egalitarianism or radical individualism. The first leads to tyranny or dictatorship and the latter leads to anarchy (where everybody does what he thinks is right in his own mind).

Morality comes from a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. This is why our founding fathers were adamant about Judeo-Christian worldview being evident in all that we do in politics, business, education, media, entertainment and our judicial system.

Listen to what some of our founding fathers said: “We Recognize no Sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus!” [April 18, 1775]

“The general principles upon which the Fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity… I will avow that I believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.”

“July 4^th ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.” (Quote from John Adams)

Samuel Adams in a speech at the State house in 1776 of August said this: “He who made all men hath made the truths necessary to human happiness obvious to all…Our forefathers opened the Bible to all.”

US Senator Jim Demint made the statement that the architects, when building the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington DC, had left out “In God We Trust,” which Congress in 1956 established as the national motto. Instead, they put “E plurisbus unum” (out of many – one) as the motto. Senator Demint said: “There seems to be a trend of whitewashing God out of our history.” Praise God for this senator who put a hold on the bill and not letting the Center open until they had installed the correct motto.

But we see that the battle lines are being drawn that we are going to be faced with in seeing the expansion of the Kingdom of God in the 21st century and how, we, the church should be involved.

CENTURY OF GENOCIDE 1850-2000

Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. John 14:6

This is something that I wrote several years ago, but it highlights what we are faced with today in the 21st century.

Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammad said, “The transformation of Britain into an Islamic state could come in two ways: if an Islamic state arises and invades, we will be its army and its soldiers from within. But if no such Islamic state arises Bakri said that Muslims would convert the West to Islam through ideological invasion without war and killing.” This is exactly what is happening in the West today. As one Muslim cleric said, “We do not need an army with swords, but an army of Islamic preachers.”

Sheikh Abu Hamza Al-Masri said, “Allah is the only one that must be worshiped on earth, and the only way to guarantee this is to control all the land masses, air, and sea and get Islam the proper channel to be heard by the people.” In other words, this is why Muslims must fight so that Islam can be heard by all the people.

Robert Spencer in his book Religion of Peace says, “Maududi, who is called one of the greatest revivalists of Islam in the 20th century said, ‘The truth is that Islam is not the name of a religion, nor is Muslim the title of the nation. In reality Islam is a revolutionary ideology and program which seeks to alter the social order of the whole world and rebuild it in conformity with its own tenets and ideals. Muslim is the title of that international Revolutionary party organized by Islam to carry into effect its revolutionary program. And Jihad refers to that revolutionary struggle and utmost exertion which the Islamic party brings into play to achieve this objective.’”

He goes on to say, “Islam requires that the earth – not just the portion, but the whole planet – should benefit from Islam which is the program of well-being for all humanity.” In the Islamist way of thinking, orders or commands that come from man are men sharing in the powers and the authority of God. And this, to them, is the root of all evil in the universe.

This is the reason democracy is abhorrent to them. This is interesting because we see a worldview that has been developed here. A worldview is how we screen everything that comes our way and the way we will respond to the world around us. A worldview must answer three questions.

First, where did we get the universe, all the complexity, etc? The Islamist would say God created it all and they would be right. The second question they must answer is: Why are we in such a mess? And according to what has just been said above, is that any orders or commands that come from man are tantamount to man sharing the powers and the authority of God, which to them is the root of all evil in the universe. In other words, this is why we are in such a mess. The third question would be: What is the solution? This has already been answered in what has been written, that Islam must take over every aspect of life here on planet Earth and to  instigate Sharia law.

A Biblical worldview answers these three questions by the following answers:

First, there is a God who has created all things and man has been made in His likeness and His image. Secondly, the reason man as well as the world are in a mess is because we have “suppressed the truth.” We have gone our own way and done our own thing. Thirdly, the solution is that God has given us His law in order that we might recognize what sin is, and that we have all sinned and have come under the judgment of God. However, because God loves us and in order to fulfill His justice and His mercy, He took upon Himself the form of a man (we know Him as Jesus), who lived among us, and tasted death for all men that we, through Him (Jesus), might live.

Those who advocate a moral equivalency between Islam and Christianity need to have a closer look at the difference in their worldviews. How we think is how we respond to the world around us.

TRUTH MATTERS

CENTURY OF GENOCIDE 1850-2000 AD

In my almost sixty years of being involved in the Lord’s work in 100 different countries of the world (and some of these countries have been some of the most difficult) the Lord has shown me several things.

First, there is a need for us to always be on the offensive. I think of the words of Alfred the Great: “Give me men that can build, men that can pray and men that can fight and I will go out and build Western civilization.”

We read in Matthew 11:12: “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.”

The forceful men/women that Alfred The Great said that he needed are men who can build, pray and fight for what’s right. However, we need to keep in mind that we are not fighting flesh and blood, but principalities, spiritual wickedness in high places, etc. We also need to understand that our weapons are not carnal, but spiritual: prayer, the Word of God, using our faith like a shield against the devil’s arrows; all activated by the Holy Spirit dwelling in us.

God is calling us to shake the world system. How do we go about doing this? We must start with the truth. It was truth that launched American anti-slavery. The truth was simple: slavery is sin. Truth matters. Truth has the power to change people. When truth is recognized – the terms of debate change completely. We need to be able to powerfully and convincingly articulate the truth. Where we often fail is the inability to articulate the truth powerfully and convincingly.

Truth will lead to conflict and conflict will sort out our friends as well as enemies. The truth has enemies. Starting with the truth and speaking the truth is crucial. We must understand that we speak the truth in love. These two go together just like a hand and glove.

Have you ever noticed that here in the Western world you can talk about “God,” but as soon as you mention “Jesus Christ” (other than in a flippant or blaspheming way) people get so irritated? Why? Jesus is the way and the truth and the life. (John 14:6) No one comes to the Father except through Him.

“The truth,” Jesus said, “will set you free.” When a society is deeply enslaved to sin it will take the crucible of suffering to set it free. Freedom may come, but not without the cross of suffering for it.

In every society we have what is known as a “structure of sin.” Some would refer to it as “institutional sin” and often that can be confusing because people, not institutions are the sinners. However, we see that institutions play a large part in shaping the way we think which keeps us from breaking free. The institutions consist of laws, habits, customs, etc. that keep a society in the “structure of sin” that has been established. This is also one of the reasons why we are told to ‘occupy’ by bringing ‘the truth’ into these different institutions.

We are faced with seven global challenges: The sad state of children in many parts of the world, women who are abused and taken advantage of, poverty and the system that keeps them in this state, HIV/Aids (killer diseases) that has decimated whole populations in some countries in Africa, protecting the unborn, the need for clean water and our environment.

I come back to the statement that Alfred the Great made that he wanted men who could pray, build and fight. I would also like to add one more thing to this list and that is men/women who have ‘staying power.’ We need people who are in it for the long haul. We need to see that we are not in a 100 yard or 100 meter dash, but in a marathon with a finish line. If we are going to be successful in meeting the seven global challenges listed above then we are going to need people with staying power.

Discouragement and burnout are real factors in anything that we do in seeking to make a difference in this world and see the Kingdom of God advancing. This is why staying power is so important. Staying power is not passive or fatalistic, but rather hopeful and energetic.

Other than learning to pace ourselves we also need several other things. We need to learn to live a day at a time. And we need a supportive community. It takes time and effort to build good relationships, but they are a must if we want to be ‘shakers for God.’

Another important ingredient is ‘sustaining faith.’ In all that we do we need to cultivate prayer, worship, study the Word of God and learn to celebrate. Faith brings staying power.

God is constantly working in us to bring about a sustaining faith. In 1 Peter 1:6-8 Peter said, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that your faith — of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire — may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” We need to be running the race until we hear the final gong.