The Times We Live In
Many times I have tried to explain the degradation of these days and more often than not the phrase I hear in response is, “Times change”. Yes, times do change but people do not.
Our deep-seated needs always remain the same and when we are deprived of the nurturing and rearing that we need,our lives, in a fashion, starve.
When this happens, Satan will fill this void with distraction. We are living in a time where too many children have no idea of what a loving and nurturing family feels like whether both parents are present or only one. Smart phones, social media, YouTube, tablets, computers, and video games consume the lives of our young people and become the full time babysitters for their parents.
Families don’t eat together, and don’t spend time talking and discussing their lives, joys, or problems. Parents and children have become disconnected, and it’s not just parents, but because of parents not assuming the proper responsibilities of their position, these young ones are in turn disconnected with their grandparents, also.
These children have little means of learning life lessons gained through the experience of their elders, and they don’t even know that they should care about that.
They are and have been so completely distracted, they have no comprehension of what is being stolen from them.
We are witnessing a coming generation that doesn’t even have close friendships among their peers—these young people are not doing anything with their friends, with the exception of online video games and maybe the occasional fantasy role-playing game.
These children are being born to adult children that were raised on addictive video games, little upbringing, and working parents.
My generation produced what was known as latchkey kids. Moms and dads worked 40+ hour weeks and children came home to empty homes, with no one there to supervise that homework was done, to ask them about their day or assist with areas they were having trouble in, no after school snack or happiness after their day of learning.
So the devil introduced even more advanced video games—the electronic babysitter—and children quickly were snared. Those parents both working full weeks stopped going to Church and in turn the children ceased to receive moral guidance, the video games became more violent and our youth became desensitized to crime, violence, morality, and worst of all, desensitized to God!
In Colossians 3 we are told to “set our minds on things above, not on things on the earth.” Proverbs 22:6 says “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
These young folks now have no reference to fall back on, or return to as they grow older, no morality and sense of right and wrong, no understanding of God, Christ Jesus, Heaven or Hell.
They can’t go ask their electronic babysitters, and today’s parents have shown them that they don’t know or don’t have time. Is there any wonder we are seeing this world crumble before our eyes?
I remember seeing and hearing the process that Satan initiated through Madalyn Murray O’Hare and her minions to remove prayer from schools, and because of the silence and apathy of the Christian community, evil was successful.
I also remember shortly after the debate for abortion that again, because of the apathy of the Christian community, Roe vs. Wade passed and became the law of the land.
The free love drug-using hippies that were in their late teens and twenties who supported these ungodly rules are now in positions of power in our government.
But all this cannot be placed on the shoulders of the generations of the 60s, 70s, or 80s parents, it actually began as we know it with my grandparents generation.
The generation we affectionately call the “greatest generation”. It seems that the most difficult thing for mankind to accomplish is to learn from the past and act accordingly.
I was recently speaking with a missionary about the evil in the world and I stated that the one thing that is a constant is that Evil is continually Evil, without exception!
Let me share with you a truism: “Difficult times make hard men, Hard men make easy times, Easy times make weak men, Weak men make difficult times”.
It has been this way since the beginnings of documented history.
The Bible is full of stories of nations, cities, and peoples becoming affluent and comfortable only to separate themselves from God, and then to reap the consequences.
We really do reap what we sow. Oh, it’s certainly not just our country, and it is a disease that spreads so fast we can’t even comprehend.
Sin is a disease and it is a compounding illness. Once it is allowed to infect, it attracts more infections, weakening its host through a false sense of wellness “pleasure or self-absorption” until it ultimately destroys its host entirely!
There is a cure for sin and a solution for this evil running rampant in the world we see today, if we Christians would only unite in heart and mind.
The cure for the disease of sin is the Salvation provided to all of us through the shedding of blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
This is the news we as followers of Christ Jesus we must spread to the world.
The solution to the prevalent evil consuming this world is found in 2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven, and forgive their sin and heal their land.”
The cure has been given to us, we don’t have to make a trip to the doctor’s office or take a series of pills, have some surgery, or get a shot.
What we have to do is turn to the Lord God in humbleness, surrendering ourselves fully, and pray fervently without ceasing for the healing of our land and the world.
This mess that this world is in today is the responsibility of generations of weak Christians that have served themselves more than they served God. Many will tell you that they know Jesus as their Savior but are dumbfounded about the concept of knowing Him as Lord!
Without knowing Jesus as Lord, there is no sense of service. If Jesus is not your Lord, then there is no sense of debt for His ultimate sacrifice and nothing gets done on Earth for the spreading of the Word.
The world sees no image of Christ Jesus in His followers, and there is no service initiated by those of us that are called by His name.
We are told to not be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, we must set our eyes on things above and not on this world, and store up our treasures in Heaven!
The bottom line is this: The responsibility rests on the shoulders of Christians to right the wrongs, defeat the evil, and be seen pleasing in the eyes of our Lord!
I ask you this, do you know Jesus as your Lord as well as your Savior?