This is one of the saddest verses in the Bible
"Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun, I saw the tears of the oppressed- and they have no comforter; power was on the side of their oppressors - and they have no comforter." Ecc. 4:1

We are quick to warn the sinner of hell but slow to warn the Christian of the judgement seat of Christ where our apathy will be our greatest sin.

Deuteronomy 32:2

"My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass"

This is how I measure my evangelistic efforts. I always have to check myself and ask, what spirit am I projecting?

  I bought a T-shirt like this off of Amazon for twenty bucks the other day. I hope it will open up some conversations. 
Now, because some people see the worst in everything, I'll just qualify this by saying that we are commanded to love our neighbor, but that doesn't mean, nor does the shirt imply, that we approve of sin or behaviors that are immoral, it simply means, as it says, we are to love all, and if we do, maybe we will have an opportunity to share our faith. 

Here are 15 reasons the church in the U.S. is shrinking that I've observed, can you think of others? 

Now this is not a scientific study, nor do I think it is exhaustive, but merely taken from things I see, read and study.

1. Many Christian homes lack relationship with their teens and many teens say they are not 'real close' or 'close at all' with their parents. Where once parents and grandparents were sought for advice, now Google has replaced them.

2. King James Bible requires them to lean a new language in order to read and understand the Bible.

3. The largest growing sub-culture are those with addictions, or domestic violence, sexual assault, childhood abuse, teen suicide and teen pregnancy, which are never mentioned in many churches.

4. Kids are taught what "not to do" but are not engaged in charitable ventures where they learn "what to do" 'first hand and personal' to minister to the last, least and lost, as well as the addict and abuse victim.

Also in most churches adult and youth share few or no joint activities and there is Poor assimilation and participation of younger generations in the life of the body because of youth groups, so Kids connect with peers and move on with peers who have no families, familiarity or faith built up and around the adult congregation.

5. Much of todays preaching is passionless and family directed so little of it relates to teens and twenty year olds. Countless hours are spent on "End Times" theology which has replaced heroism, nobility, sacrifice and charity.

6. Many churches use hell (eternal conscious torment) as incentive to believe, and this is will be one of the first objections they will face with their peers outside the church.

7. In some churches it's taught that they don't need to read anything but the Bible and when they face well-educated people they find they can't defend their faith.

8. Sex education is very limited in many Christian homes and once they are out they are faced with unlimited temptations they are not prepared for.

9. Some Christian homes "chase the kids off to Vanity Fair by prim and proper Christians, with their lowered eyebrows and pursed lips, their motive scratching’s, their emotional stinginess", and harsh discipline without love and mercy. I hear many testimonies of cruelty in Christian homes done under the pretense of godly discipline.

10. Some Christian men require "submission" from their wives in order rule with an iron fist and to reduce the lives of Christian women to glorified slaves.

11. Some Christian homes are stiff, rigid and hateful towards the LGBT community and the young Christian faces debates where they are ill equipped to defend their position. The conversations in may homes centers around protest and lamenting over the evils of the age and do little charitable ventures to overcome evil with good.

12. Traditional Christian music and hymns, though rich in content, are completely disconnected from our culture. Even most contemporary Christian music is dated.

13. Many Christian homes are legalistic and speak in 'black and white' only. The teens are not taught to listen or debate in a loving and understanding way, so when they enter a world that is all gray, they falter.

14. Parents give their kids to the public education system and they are educated out and away from faith and tradition. They are assimilated in the thinking and practices and pressures of a pagan, secular worldview. Peers disciple them on the values, interests and actions of faithless families. Educators teach the godless principles of a godless state.

15. Faithful Artists have lost their place within the church and culture. We are still singing Christian composers in some secular arts classes in schools, the last hold our Christian past has on these institutions. If the arts are the last vestige of evangelism on a post Christian nation, maybe, just maybe it should be the first priority in reclaiming a new generation.

This was written by my son Pastor Eric

 "A retelling of Luke 1:46-55 from the world of the poor that I know. Not the ones that are in vogue to use on political platforms, fancy conference stages or in pointed editorials that pontificate piously in favor of the right kind of poor. But the real poor. The ones people make fun of, steer their carts away from in judgment. The ones that ‘good’ people demonize and disregard as they sip their lattes while scrunching their noses and lifting their eyebrows in disdain. These are the poor of the wrong color and the forgettable zip codes."

Now if you can't understand the following I recommend you get out into the streets more.

Wal-Mart Mary's Magnificent Discovery! Based on Mary's Magnificat

"Mary responded:
My heart is so freaking happy,
to think that God wants to pull me out of this hole,
hits me in the feels!

The fact that He has noticed little old dropout me,
just a part-time Wal-Mart worker,
means people will never talk down to me again,
and will finally act like I’m all that!

Such a Yuge and steller God,
has helped me, when few would.
He has convinced me that He will even
help my kids and their kids too!

God is a beast and he’s doing something that’s epic!
All the big Dogs and fat Cats are being canceled,
and everyone who thinks their all that is getting
knocked off their holier-than-thou thrones.
The nobodies, the toothless, the meth-heads,
couch potatoes, DXl's, pajama-wearing,
and the Mc.D luv’n are finally getting some cred!

He’s loaded me up with bank,
and filled my cart to overflowing,
But given all the Bling wearing,
a “No funds” msg for the first time.

God’s on my side for once,
Giving me a high five,
and lending me a hand.
He’s cut me a whole lot of slack,
and thank God,
He’s remembered all the prayers lifted,
even the ones...the Boomers prayed!"

Paul tells us to "examine ourselves to see that we're in the faith." How can I know if I'm part of the vibrant church or just "Old Wine"?  Here are questions I pose to myself - How long has it been since someone fell into my chest with shoulders heaving and eyes wringing wet with either repentance or appreciation?

How long has it been since I sat at the bedside, or curbside, with my arm around a troubled soul and have them confide in me the secrets of their heart? How long has it been since I mentored anyone? 

Do I see the repugnant with eyes of compassion and long to personally touch their life with Christ's love pulsing within me? Is my prayer closet a place of joy and tears for poor souls I'm trying to help, or is it cold and centered around myself?

Does my interest and compassion for women excel the fleeting whims of sensual desire? Do people sense my love for them and open their hearts to me? Or am I seen as unapproachable, stern and emotionally unavailable? In short, am I being changed into the likeness of Christ and am I doing and saying what He did? Or at least trying.....

The graphic symbolism of wings, representing our growth, really brings the point home.

WHAT IS DISCIPLESHIP?

We are to go into all the world making disciples, which means to me, and this is my first time trying to put it into words, so be merciful :) To share the message of Christ, represented by the cross, with it's one vertical beam pointing up, to God's merciful and sacrificial love: demonstrated by Christ's sacrifice and shedding of His blood for our sins.

And the horizontal beam representing sacrificial love for our neighbor, working by faith through love, and this is to be taught by example and words.

The cornerstone is Mark 12:30-31, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

So loving the new believer and nurturing them, as Paul describes it by "being gentle as a nursing mother, having fond affection because they become dear to us; and together with these things, the most important part of our new life is to love each other. The goal is that our hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love." Anything less than this, is legalism, and nothing more than sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

We cannot be in Christian ministry of any type in an impersonal way: that is not discipleship. This power of love is what spread over the world like wildfire!

John summarized it by this, "Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” John 13:35 Whether it's our children, our spouse, a new convert or a stranger, our message is "God is love" and He reconciles the world to Himself though our loving instruction.

  The following is a true story of childhood abuse as told to me by the victim. She has given me permission to share it to broaden the awareness of the horrors children of abuse endure; and why they often fall victim to substance abuse. 

  "For as long as I can remember, I have been afraid of the dark and I still am to this very day. That's because the worst moments of my life occurred while in the dark. My father did things to me that no child should ever experience. I learned very quickly that screaming "NO, DADDY" or to try to wiggle away from him would only get me hurt worse. I also knew no one was going to save me, or make him stop hurting me. And there was nothing I could do about it, because I was only a little girl. So each time he would force himself on me, I would squeeze my eyes shut as tight as I could and hold my breath. And I would force my mind to take me somewhere else. Somewhere happy. Somewhere peaceful. And when he finished he would tell me that he loved me and that it was our little secret. He would tell me that he wasn't wanting to hurt me but instead to make me feel good. I would look him straight in the eye, nod my head and say, "yes sir, our little secret." But I wanted to tell him, it would make me feel good if he didn't do those things to me, but I was too afraid. Even at such an early age, I knew what my father had done to me was very wrong. And I knew he had taken something from me that I could never get back. HE TOOK MY INNOCENCE." 

 

 Now the following is her graphic account of what was done to her; so if you don't want to know about horrid things and want to shield your eyes from what evil men, and women, do, stop here. 

  "When I was 3 yrs. old my father orally raped me. He roughly fondled my privates with his fingers so much so until I would bleed. But that was only one incident of sexual abuse among countless acts that my father and then my brother perpetrated on me over the course of 9 years. My mother ignored my words, my cry for help. She ignored the fact that her baby girl did not want to take a bubble bath because the bubbles burned & hurt my privates. My privates that were raw from being sexually abused almost daily. I couldn't escape the abuse. No one cared about me. I was ignored, rejected, hated, threatened, called a liar, called names, sexually & physically abused by the very ones who were suppose to love & protect me. I was isolated, separated from my family, separated from everyone including my classmates at school. I have always felt alone, unsafe, & unloved. It has been as if I am on the outside looking in. Looking in on everyone else’s lives...everyone else having family who care about them, everyone else getting the proper love and attention, everyone else laughing and having fun. I AM NOT DESERVING OF ANYTHING. My father and brother's sexual abuse....the bullying from my siblings and the rejection from my mother...all penetrated more then just my body. My very being was contaminated by the false identity it forced on me. Through their abuse, they communicated to me that I didn't have the value of other children. That I wasn't worthy of protection. That I wasn't worthy of real love. That I wasn't a real person but instead only an object useful for disgusting things and then discarded. I was trash. The abuse and ill treatment invalidated my opinions, desires, thoughts, feelings and my very life. The violation told me that I didn't matter. My cries of pain didn't deter my father nor my brother but instead only made them angrier at me. My desire to get away didn't stop either of them. My mother and siblings only reinforced my feelings and beliefs about myself. I was unworthy of attention or comfort or love or acceptance. I didn't belong anywhere...nor have I all my life. Many who I have met since then have reinforced those same feelings and  thoughts."