Preacher’s Point
By Pastor Timothy Johnson
America needs healing, and that healing can only come from the Great Physician — Jesus Christ. The channel that Christ uses to heal a nation is His people. 2 Chronicles 7:14 says, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
God is a God of order. He establishes physical law and spiritual law. Physical law is often a picture of how spiritual law works. For example — there is no harvest without a planting season. In other words, you reap what you sow. The same is true spiritually. The more godliness you place in your heart, the more godliness that comes out in your life.
In the verse above, forgiveness and healing of the land are reaped. Humility, prayer, seeking God’s face, and turning from sin are planted to acquire that harvest. We now have a spiritual law. Humility, prayer, seeking God’s face, and turning from sin are how everything is healed. A person’s life, a marriage, a family, a community, a church, a nation, everything.
Before we can even get to humility, there are things the American church needs to take to heart.
First — Mark 3:25, which says, “And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.”
Last year we went on vacation. As my practice, wherever we are, wherever we go, we attend church on Sunday. We were in an adult Sunday School class, about 25 people; we all sat in a circle. The teacher read a passage of scripture. He then asked anyone who had a different Bible version to read what their Bible said. Seven other people, including myself, read from their Bibles.
How are we not divided if 25 are reading from seven different books? The Bible, among other things, is a legal book. We may have thrown it out in American courts, but it is what God uses to establish the moral compass of life and the regulations for eternal life. As Christians, it is what we should be using to share Jesus with everyone and develop the philosophies of our lives. Yet, as a group, we are not on the same page. American Christians need to return to God’s Word for English-speaking people — the King James Bible.
Second — Luke 16:15 says, “And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.”
God wants His people to have a heart like His. This is how God’s heart is toward sin. He hates sin, but He does tolerate it. Here is how we know God tolerates sin — look in the mirror. You are a sinner, and you are still here. Sometime in the past, you did something you should not have done. There was no lightning bolt from the heavens, and God allowed you to continue to live. God loves the sinner. He died as the sacrificial Lamb of God to wash your sins away. He hates sin and loves you so much that He died to remove sin.
However, just because God tolerates sin does not mean He approves of it. Here is where the church has gone wrong. Instead of fleeing from sin, we have embraced it. The church has accepted the world’s standards as the verse above says; in many cases, we have justified sin. Instead of hating the sin, then humbly, prayerfully, turning from sin, we have embraced it (see 2 Chronicles 7:14 above).
Third — James 1:26 says, “If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth, not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.”
There was a day when society only used certain language in the company of men. Now the “f-word” is on t-shirts, flags, yard signs, and chanted at sporting events by tens of thousands of people. The word is in all forms of entertainment and is the most used word in many people’s vocabulary. Sadly, this is true of many who call themselves Christian.
Our religion is vain, worthless, and without value if we cannot bridle our tongue. Bridling the tongue is a lot more than cuss words; gossip, backbiting, words of hate, and downgrading someone else are all included.
I will stop at three because space does not permit me to speak of Christian’s attitude toward church attendance, using prayer as an Aladdin’s lamp instead of pleading for the souls of our neighbors and our unwillingness to humble ourselves.
The disregard for human life, as evidenced by the number of abortions and mass shootings and the craziness in our nation’s schools, is all because the Holy Spirit no longer has much of an influence. Why is that? Christians, as a whole, stopped humbling themselves, praying, seeking God’s face, and turning from their wicked ways.
If we had not stopped, God would not need healing. That is His promise.
We reap what we sow.
Preacher Johnson is Pastor of Countryside Baptist Church in northern Parke County, Indiana. Webpage: www.preacherspoint.wordpress.com; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Timothy-Preacher-Johnson-101171088326638email: [email protected]; address: 410 S. Jefferson St. Rockville IN 47872. All Bible references KJV. The Daily Advocate does not endorse these viewpoints nor the independent activities of the author.
