I'm teaching the principles of healthy marriage on Wednesday nights. Apparently a lot of pastors are, based on feedback I'm getting. The response here has been very strong.
Last week we looked at the divorce rate here in the USA. One source says it's just about 50% for first-time marriages; 67% for second marriages; 74 % for third marriages. Does the problem lie in the attitudes we bring to marriage, or do we simply pick our spouses in the worst possible way?
In India, nearly all marriages are arranged by a young person's parents and family, based on family traditions, education, economics, geographical region, etc. etc. And in sharp contrast to what happens here in America, the divorce rate in India is 1%. That's right! I've confirmed that only 11 of 1,000 marriages end in divorce in India!
A friend commented, "That's true, but many of those marriages are very unhappy!" I can imagine that's very true. But if you look at the rate of divorce for 2nd and 3rd marriages here, you discover that we're not making ourselves happier here as we rebound again and again.
Postponing marriage has become a popular alternative here in the States. Is this making people happier? I haven't see a reliable statistic on that, but anecdotal evidence is not encouraging. Small claims courts are jammed with young people trying to recover financial losses at the hands of people they trusted enough to live with, but didn't trust enough to marry.
I fear this is a national crisis, but not one the President or Congress can fix. Stricter divorce laws are probably not the answer. Giving birth to kids whose parents aren't legally married is not the answer either. Maybe I'm prejudiced, but I have come to believe that God is the only answer here. We need God to share some of his spiritual wisdom and build up our national character.
Of course, they will happen one life at a time. So like many other people, I've just added one more item to my list of "Why we should be praying fervently for a spiritual awakening in the church." Think about it. On second thought, pray about it.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Irreligious America
This morning as I drove to work, the breaking news on a local radio talk show was all about the decline of Christianity in the USA. One of the hosts was surprised by a new survey which finds 15% of all Americans identify with no church or any religion. Among Americans aged 18 - 28, the number of unaffiliated people rises to 22%.
"If those numbers grow among the next generation, that will be a huge worry," one host commented. The other replied that only religious leaders will worry because most Americans have lost their faith in "organized religion" (that is, the church.)
There's no doubt that agnosticism and bad behavior are fashionable in these United States. And I strongly suspect the percentages in that survey are accurate. But is this the Beginning of the End for Christianity in America? Is the Church of Jesus Christ on its way out?
You might be surprised that on other occasions in American history, the problem has been worse. Dr. J Edwin Orr has documented that just after the Revolutionary War, Christianity was already on the skids in the American states. Bars and taverns dramatically outnumbered churches. Profanity and violence were widespread, drunkenness was epidemic, and women were afraid to go out at night because of the rising level of crime and violence. Pregnancy outside of marriage was a serious problem. And churches were rapidly losing ground. The typical church had seen no young people join in decades. One year they couldn't find a single Christian at Harvard, and only two could be found at Princeton. And both those schools had been established by churches to train Christian pastors!
Not surprisingly, many congregations were shutting their doors, clergymen were finding other jobs, denominations were shrinking. Thomas Paine commented that the church would be gone in thirty years, and many religious leaders agreed.
Things came to a head in 1794 when a Baptist pastor named Isaac Backus sent an urgent appeal to pastors of every denomination, pleading for orchestrated, fervent prayer among the people of God. Many of those pastors must have seen the writing on the wall, because they responded and desperately called their churches to pray for revival. Many congregations set aside the first Monday of every month and began to pray for a mighty wind of the Spirit to sweep American churches.
What finally happened is known today as the Second Great Awakening. It scorched the nation from the coasts to the plains, and New Testament faith was firmly reestablished in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. God breathed his holy breath into the dying embers of faith across the land, and churches caught fire once again.
The Christian Faith has always advanced in cycles. We're in a downturn at the moment, a serious problem. But when enough of us recognize the signs of the times and begin to pray through tears to a God who wants to send a spiritual awakening, He will do just that. Are you praying yet?
Note: Dr. Orr's complete message can be found at http://www.pastornet.net.au/renewal/journal1/orr.html
"If those numbers grow among the next generation, that will be a huge worry," one host commented. The other replied that only religious leaders will worry because most Americans have lost their faith in "organized religion" (that is, the church.)
There's no doubt that agnosticism and bad behavior are fashionable in these United States. And I strongly suspect the percentages in that survey are accurate. But is this the Beginning of the End for Christianity in America? Is the Church of Jesus Christ on its way out?
You might be surprised that on other occasions in American history, the problem has been worse. Dr. J Edwin Orr has documented that just after the Revolutionary War, Christianity was already on the skids in the American states. Bars and taverns dramatically outnumbered churches. Profanity and violence were widespread, drunkenness was epidemic, and women were afraid to go out at night because of the rising level of crime and violence. Pregnancy outside of marriage was a serious problem. And churches were rapidly losing ground. The typical church had seen no young people join in decades. One year they couldn't find a single Christian at Harvard, and only two could be found at Princeton. And both those schools had been established by churches to train Christian pastors!
Not surprisingly, many congregations were shutting their doors, clergymen were finding other jobs, denominations were shrinking. Thomas Paine commented that the church would be gone in thirty years, and many religious leaders agreed.
Things came to a head in 1794 when a Baptist pastor named Isaac Backus sent an urgent appeal to pastors of every denomination, pleading for orchestrated, fervent prayer among the people of God. Many of those pastors must have seen the writing on the wall, because they responded and desperately called their churches to pray for revival. Many congregations set aside the first Monday of every month and began to pray for a mighty wind of the Spirit to sweep American churches.
What finally happened is known today as the Second Great Awakening. It scorched the nation from the coasts to the plains, and New Testament faith was firmly reestablished in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. God breathed his holy breath into the dying embers of faith across the land, and churches caught fire once again.
The Christian Faith has always advanced in cycles. We're in a downturn at the moment, a serious problem. But when enough of us recognize the signs of the times and begin to pray through tears to a God who wants to send a spiritual awakening, He will do just that. Are you praying yet?
Note: Dr. Orr's complete message can be found at http://www.pastornet.net.au/renewal/journal1/orr.html
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Embracing the Mystery of Life
I've been spending some of my devotional time in the Book of Job these last few weeks. Like you, I've read this story many times before, but it seems to have taken on a new life this time. Maybe it's just because I'm older and wiser, but it has caused to to think about ideas and insights that I've never before associated with Job.
His three friends are extremely devoted. When they receive news of their neighbor's grave afflictions, they immediately converge on the scene where they spend seven days simply sitting in silence with the hurting man of God. That's a wonderful first step. Then they begin to talk, and in only a few hours, they unravel everything they've accomplished in their first week!
You know this part of the story: Job's friends all assume he is being punished by God. One by one, they insist he has done something terribly wrong. Otherwise, God would not be working against him! When Job insists he has not done anything to defy God, his friends insist even more vehemently that he needs to repent! Of course, everything they say makes a lot of sense.
The only problem is that they are wrong. God is not punishing Job. To the contrary, Satan is buffeting Job precisely because he has been such a towering figure of faith. In his profound despair, the man of God is not merely suffering the slings and arrows that fall on every human being who sins. Rather, he suffers precisely because his faith has been so exemplary. The problems being experienced by Job are not "business as usual."
I think it's easy for you and me to make this same mistake when life becomes painful and complex for our friends. We look at a few superficial facts and we draw some conventional conclusion: there is something you can do to fix this. We assume there is a sin, a flaw, a failure of judgment. We offer precriptions and platitudes. We reduce the situation to the lowest common denominator. We forget that life is full of mystery and that God is beyond our understanding. Sometimes it's hard to know exactly what's happening in another person's life even when we know all the facts- and we almost never know all the facts.
Sometimes the best thing a friend can do is sit there in silence and offer the gift of presence. I don't know the reason why this is happening to you. Maybe it's the consequence of a sinful choice. Maybe it's God building character in your life. Maybe it's actually Satan buffeting you because your faith is so strong. Or maybe this is a divine strategy so brilliant and so complex that I will never be able to discern until we look back from the future to see what God has done.
As your brother in Christ, it's not my job to offer you prescriptions and platitudes. It's just my job to be there for you and pray that God will give you strength and insight. Life is not a game. It's a story still being written by God. And sometimes the story is a mystery.
His three friends are extremely devoted. When they receive news of their neighbor's grave afflictions, they immediately converge on the scene where they spend seven days simply sitting in silence with the hurting man of God. That's a wonderful first step. Then they begin to talk, and in only a few hours, they unravel everything they've accomplished in their first week!
You know this part of the story: Job's friends all assume he is being punished by God. One by one, they insist he has done something terribly wrong. Otherwise, God would not be working against him! When Job insists he has not done anything to defy God, his friends insist even more vehemently that he needs to repent! Of course, everything they say makes a lot of sense.
The only problem is that they are wrong. God is not punishing Job. To the contrary, Satan is buffeting Job precisely because he has been such a towering figure of faith. In his profound despair, the man of God is not merely suffering the slings and arrows that fall on every human being who sins. Rather, he suffers precisely because his faith has been so exemplary. The problems being experienced by Job are not "business as usual."
I think it's easy for you and me to make this same mistake when life becomes painful and complex for our friends. We look at a few superficial facts and we draw some conventional conclusion: there is something you can do to fix this. We assume there is a sin, a flaw, a failure of judgment. We offer precriptions and platitudes. We reduce the situation to the lowest common denominator. We forget that life is full of mystery and that God is beyond our understanding. Sometimes it's hard to know exactly what's happening in another person's life even when we know all the facts- and we almost never know all the facts.
Sometimes the best thing a friend can do is sit there in silence and offer the gift of presence. I don't know the reason why this is happening to you. Maybe it's the consequence of a sinful choice. Maybe it's God building character in your life. Maybe it's actually Satan buffeting you because your faith is so strong. Or maybe this is a divine strategy so brilliant and so complex that I will never be able to discern until we look back from the future to see what God has done.
As your brother in Christ, it's not my job to offer you prescriptions and platitudes. It's just my job to be there for you and pray that God will give you strength and insight. Life is not a game. It's a story still being written by God. And sometimes the story is a mystery.
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