This post was originally written on September 2, 2005, before I had ever heard about Torah. I have revised a few places, to be sure that I am explaining Scripture clearly.
I know it’s late on Friday night here in the states, but I finally have a quiet moment and thought I’d write a Bible study. I’ve been looking at these verses now for almost two weeks, and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, I keep thinking about this passage more and more. I’m sorry if this goes a little long.
I was 11 years old when my father felt God’s call to become a missionary. However, God didn’t ask him to go to a foreign country. Rather, we went to the state of Florida. It felt rather silly to us, since we cold Michiganders were heading to “tropical” Florida to start a church. 🙂 It also felt strange to arrive in our new town and find quite a few churches. Sadly, it was almost impossible to find a church there that preached the gospel. In the mid 80’s, retirees and others were flocking to Florida’s milder climate, so it was difficult for churches to keep up with the demand of folks needing to hear about the Lord.
In 1999, my husband and I looked into moving our family to France to be missionaries. We heard stories of the unbelief and cold hearts of Europe, and when we visited at Christmas time we saw it for ourselves. We saw immorality on the streets, a nation with sky-rocketing depression rates, and teenagers with no hope for the future.
But on our return flight to America, we had a stopover in New York City. As we sat in the airport, we saw exactly the same problems there that we had seen in France. In fact, we even saw an identical billboard advertising promiscuity. It was at that moment that Kraig and I looked at each and realized how badly America herself needed missionaries. At least here, we could already speak English and wouldn’t need to attend language school!
Then three years ago, God led us to the Navajo nation in Arizona. My husband worked with incredibly needy teenagers at a public high school, helping desperate Native American families who were hours from any conventional social services. One incident sticks out in my mind: This last spring, the night before the prom, my husband took home 5 teenagers who had volunteered to help decorate the gymnasium. He invited me to go along. I was shocked to see the homes that these average-looking teenagers lived in. None had a friendly face to welcome him home. All were fearful of the alcoholic, drug-filled, abusive relatives they would encounter in their tiny, run-down shacks. All crept in without lights, hoping to get a few hours sleep before escaping with their buddies in the morning.
Now we’re living in Iowa. Corn country. Pleasant farms and pretty, old homes. Caring communities. Water towers and grain mills. Cows. Seems it should be idyllic, doesn’t it? (And we’re loving it here…) School started Monday morning. My husband is now working as a guidance counselor. His first couple days were basically boring, but as he lingered in the halls and got acquainted with students, he noticed so many of the same tendencies we saw in the “foreign country” of the Navajo nation. He saw kids waiting for him to pass so they could deal drugs. (He’s trained to recognize those things… I wouldn’t….) He saw girls repeatedly breaking dress code in creative ways. He talked to kids who wouldn’t have any parents waiting when they arrived home that night. in “idyllic” farm country, we still find alcohol, drug and abuse problems.
And now our attention has been drawn south, to the historic city of New Orleans. I’ve never been there, and I’ve never paid much attention. But I hear the rumors of rampant alcohol, voodoo and witchcraft, and homosexuality.
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them” (Rom. 1:18-19).
Where do people need the gospel? Why does our country, a land founded upon biblical principles, need missionaries? Of all places, don’t people here believe in God?
When I was a child, I think most people did know about God. But so much of that common moral literacy has disappeared. I cannot tell you how many teenagers and children I’ve talked to who have truly never heard the name of Jesus used other than as a swear word. Hardly any have heard the name His mother gave Him, Yeshua.
“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead…” (Rom. 1:20).
In Arizona, the majesty of God’s creation was unmistakable. One Sunday morning, I took a small group of teenage girls out in our van for Sunday School. We drove about 10 miles away from Pinon, down an incredibly bumpy road, and sat by the side of a massive mesa for our lesson. We discussed creation, and how an eternal and omnipotent (all-powerful) God had made the very things we were looking at. As insects buzzed among the wildflowers, we talked about the love and care shown by our creator God. We ended our lesson by listening to a song on CD. The words said:
Lord of all creation
Of water, earth and sky
The heavens are Your tabernacle
Glory to the Lord on high
God of wonders beyond our galaxy
You are holy, holy
The universe declares Your Majesty
(Precious Lord, reveal Your heart to me)
You are holy, holy
Lord of heaven and earth
Lord of heaven and earth (source)
As we drove back to town, the girls prayed. It was amazing to me how their response in prayer was to commit their lives in purity and holiness to God. The awesomeness of Creation should inspire holy lives.
” …so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened” (Rom. 1:20-21).
Americans have stopped giving glory to God. During the last century, they began to ridicule the Word of God, laughing at the foolish ideas of “inspiration” and “inerrancy” (no errors) in the Bible. They wrote volumes to explain away miracles, Creation, the Flood, prophecy, sin, the virgin birth of Christ, and even the resurrection. The Law of God is ridiculed as something that has “passed away.” A curtain has come down over our country. Now a new generation is here, and they do not know God. They don’t understand what holiness means.
“Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man-and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things” (Rom. 1:22-23).
In school this week, my children and I have been studying the origins of the Aztec culture in Mexico. We learned how they probably once had a knowledge of God, since their legends contain flood accounts and creation stories, yet they foolishly invented hundreds of gods and worshiped all manner of animals, planets, and demons. They even offered themselves and their children willingly as human sacrifices, as many as 50,000 each year. (This reminds me of the human sacrifices of abortion and euthanasia taking place in our culture today….) Yet Spanish “missionaries” came to this culture in the 1500s. Why did the Spanish rob the Aztecs of their gold instead of telling them of the One True God and the way to eternal life?
“Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due” (Rom. 1:24-27).
I’m worried about the state of the family in our world today. When people turn away from the knowledge of God so evident in creation, the family immediately suffers. What is the number one problem seen in our churches today? Divorce and remarriage. What problem does my husband deal with continuously in the high schools in which he’s worked (in Florida, Missouri, Arizona and now Iowa, all equally)? Homosexuality among teenagers. Since 1998, I have counseled pregnant teenagers as young as 13—too many times! What is the number one reason that people visit my website and e-mail me privately? For help with their marriages.
Romans 1:25 says that they have “exchanged the truth of God for the lie.” This is a conscious decision by mankind, to leave God’s holy truth and to exchange God’s best for “the penalty of their error,” which is death.
“Who knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them” (Rom. 1:32).
And so my heart aches for more missionaries tonight. My heart aches for the city of New Orleans, obviously known for its wickedness but whose innocent little children are hurting and dying. My heart aches for the broken lives on the Navajo Nation, where the only comfort to be found is in an idolatrous sweat lodge or in a ceremony filled with demons, ghost walkers, and the chants of medicine men. My heart aches for quiet little Midwestern towns, where bored teenagers drive around the town square, showing off their sports cars and dealing methamphetamine.
“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful…” (Rom. 1:28-31).
Is it only in New Orleans that we see sexual immorality? No, I’m afraid it is common and well-accepted in even America’s churches. And covetousness? If I spend too much time watching Home and Garden Television, even I will easily fall prey. Maliciousness? Just let my neighbor say one bad thing about me! Envy, murder, strife, deceit and evil-mindedness show up in rage-filled drivers on our highways. (Sometimes I think it or even speak evil of others as I drive.)
We whisper about others, rather than dealing with problems in a biblical way. We backbite, getting even with those who knowingly or unknowingly offend us. We’re lovers of God when things are good and haters of God when times are hard. Our children are born violent, preferring to hit or bite. We are proud of all we do, boasting arrogantly of our power, money, prestige, might. We invent evil, as if we don’t come by it naturally enough. Disobedient to parents? Let’s not go there!
And the list goes on, showing the guilt of each and every one of us.
Which headline is worse? The real one? “Lesbian Star Ellen DeGeneres Pledges $1.5 Million in Aid to New Orleans.”
Or the one happening in too many homes? “Christian Homeschooling Mom Loses Her Temper For the Umpteenth Time Today.”
Hmmm… And who needs a missionary? I do. You do. We need more than a missionary. We need a Savior!
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture in this blog post taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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