Let the Good Times Roll?

 

“And that, knowing the time, that now is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed” (Romans 13:11).

    There is an old song that was produced and sung in 1978 by the Cars.  It is entitled “Let the Good Times Roll.” Well, America was rolling in good times. She had more influence, more freedom, more stuff, more games, more concerts, more movies, more jobs, more self-absorption, more pornography, more Internet, more travel, more news, more cell phones, and more four-dollar cups of coffee than any nation in the world. Then September 11, 2001 happened!

   Somewhere between September 10th and September 11th, the stick broke, cracked, and splintered into a thousand pieces. It was on that early September morning that the world began to think. With the TV images of the planes again and again crashing into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and into the Pennsylvania field–one wonders if America will wake up from its slumber and sleep on the edge of another fateful morning.

    We are in a war and it is not time to walk out. War is a time to stay put and stay together. Wartime is a time to stay committed. Wartime is a time to forget the petty differences. War is a time to be a man and a woman of God who charges others to stand! Andrew Jackson said, “I was born for a storm and a calm does not suit me.” Paul says, “It is high time to awake!”

Similar Posts

  • Don’t Murmur

    “Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned” (James 5:14)

    For every Gospel action, there is an opposite and devious demonic reaction. All through the book of Acts there is God’s blessing upon the people, then there is Satan’s blasting upon the very people God has used.

    When the Spirit of God moved into the believer’s lives on the day of Pentecost, thousands were converted, baptized, and enfolded into the body of Christ. But Satan did not roll over. He reloaded. And he attacked with viciousness.

    We must understand that for every good action done in Jesus’ name there will be Satan’s sifting in our lives. He comes to destroy but God allows to build. Remember we are brothers and sisters in the Lord. We need each other like never before.

    Keep your hearts and eyes upon the Lord. Do not murmur against others. For when you and I do we will find ourselves in the very lap of Satan. And as you know that is not a great place to be.

     

     

  • To Boast of Your Gifts Is A Sin

    “Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you” (James 4:10).

    Satan can use spiritual things to make you proud: It could be your ability to teach or preach the Word; your prayer life; your success in witnessing; soul-winning; your talents and good works.

    A famous Christian businessman was visiting a church and was asked to give a word of greeting. He got carried away telling all that God had done for him. “I have a successful business, a large house, a lovely family, a famous name, enough money to do the things I want to do and able to give to Christian works. I have health and opportunities unnumbered. There are many people who would gladly exchange places with me. What more could God give me?” From the back of the auditorium a voice called, “A good dose of humility!”

    To boast is a sin, because God gave the gift and we cannot take credit for what God has given. Satan attacks with pride and we need to surrender immediately to the Holy Spirit and let Him in to work that He may produce humility and submission before God.

    A sign that one is not submissive to God or to one another is to willingly judge or quickly respond in a manner unbecoming of Christ. When one is continually confrontational with those of like mindedness then we can be sure we have locked God out. Sins of the flesh are bad but sins of the spirit are worse and cause more damage.

  • Is God on America’s Side?

    Are you for us, or for our adversaries? No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord” (Joshua 5:13-14).

    Is God an American?  Is He a Republican?  Is He a Democrat?  Is God King and Defender of our nation?  In Christian thought God has been often invoked for political ends, but history shows He will not be so used.

    We are not just another country, but neither are we God’s chosen people.  We should not believe that America is God’s chosen nation.  God established one chosen nation and people:  the Jews.  We are not Israel.  We are not God’s gift to the world.

    There is no doubt we drink from wells we did not dig and we eat fruit from trees we did not plant.  We will no doubt be judged nationally and individually with stricter judgment for “unto whom much is given, much is required.”  We expect blessing, but we have done plenty to expect judgment.

    Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States, was asked whether God was on his side and he replied, “I do not care whether God is on my side; the important question is whether I am on God’s side, for God is always right.

    Our greatest gift to this country is to return to biblical priorities of the church, and, more importantly, in so doing we will be pleasing to our Heavenly Father.

  • The Saints Go Sleeping One by One

     
    “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15).

    We live in a twisted society. It is perverted and twisted sexually. People no longer honor God’s plan for marriage. They no longer find fulfillment within the confines of “man and wife.” They indulge their lusts, they prize experimentation, and they treat sexual encounters as base bodily functions instead of honoring them as God-given gifts to prize.

    What once embarrassed and shamed us now does not faze us. What used to slink down back alleys, now struts in openness, and walks upon man’s hearts freely. May God have mercy on us all. May God have mercy on a people who do not blush or repent.

    This type of living produces a society that is twisted spiritually. We indulge in our wickedness long enough, and we eventually become anti-God. We glaze over the gospel good news – that Jesus’ blood really does cover our every sin. We step away from the truths of salvation, figuring we’re better off going it alone. We eye the Bible with foolhardy skepticism, finding it to be a book of fables and nothing more. We do our dead level best to get rid of God, even as our very nature cries out for Him. We waste away our days and lives, chasing counterfeit answers to God, but in the end, business and vain pleasures can do nothing to scratch the angry itch in our souls.

    The Lord Jesus said to His disciples on the side of a mountain, “You’re the salt of the earth.” God knows you’ll meet a lot of tasteless people, hear a lot of tasteless jokes, and see a lot of tasteless things, down here on planet Earth. But don’t lose heart. As you and I fulfill our mission to honor God with our lives, we’ll bring tastefulness back in style.

    One day this King will stop and step upon Earth and do away with that which defiles and decays. This earthly son of a commoner, Joseph the carpenter, raised his son in a two-bit town called Nazareth. And yet the Lord Jesus possessed more influence than any man who every walked this world. The Master empowers and shapes the lives of those who have an encounter with Him. We can be average Joes and Janes, and yet God lays His hand upon us and declares us fit to utterly change the world. The most powerful agent of change is Christ’s church, people committed to doing His will.

  • Values are Timeless, not Temporary

    “And these words , which I commanded thee this day, shall be in thine heart; and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children.” (Deuteronomy 6:6-7a).
    As parents, we need to see our kids at the age of the twenty- or thirty-year-olds they will one day become. This is not trying to grow them up before their time. But it is a vision that says to the world and to the culture that your children will not be had by them. We are talking about placing before them and within them the vision of training them into adulthood, growing them into disciples.
    One of the values of Scripture, for instance, that has always been before us is this matter of being not “yoked together with unbelievers” (2 Cor. 6:14), especially in the terms of the marriage relationship. Of course, this wasn’t an issue when they are only ten, twelve, and fourteen. But since this issue would arise in their lives in a short period of time, as Christians who love our God, we as parents place these values of the sanctity of Christian marital vows before them as they grow.
    It is imperative that Christian parents know their core values and express them along the way. Before you know it the child has grown before you in a manner that is faster than a speeding bullet. God has taught us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto His wisdom. Don’t start tomorrow. Begin today to make those choices that will change and bend the hearts of your children toward Christ and His Word.
  • Lost Boy

    “I looked on my right hand…no man cared for my soul” (Psalm 142:4).

    When it comes to witnessing for the Lord Jesus Christ, I remember while I was in college that no one every spoke to me about my soul.  As a matter of real knowledge, I do not ever recall anyone speaking to me directly about my eternal destination.  It was all so vague to me.  As a young man, a teen of maybe fifteen, I remember shutting my Bible during a worship service and saying to myself, “One day I will understand but for now I choose to wait it out.

    I did not shut my Bible in rebellion but in mild frustration.  I said “Maybe one day I will understand.”  I just didn’t get it.  I wasn’t trying to harm or hurt anyone; I, with all of the changes going on in my body, mind, and soul of a teen, just gave up and I just shut down.

    There are a lot of youth walking around the same way today.  They don’t know what the Bible, Jesus, the Church, and prayer, etc., is all about.  They are lost and headed toward a dream world that does not exist.  And there are hardly any out there who care enough to pray and prepare their own lives to tell the good news to them.

    Do you remember in the first paragraph that I remarked that no one spoke up for my soul?  Well there was one.  I was in my second year of college and I traveled to the State Fair in Raleigh, NC.  While there, minding my own business, I was walking with a girl and out of nowhere God appeared.  You say, “What?” Yep!  In just a moment in time this girl stopped out in front of us and asked ME “If I were a Christian?”  I said, “Yes,” for I was taken by surprise.  The next step, I took after giving her my answer, the Holy Spirit of God stopped me dead in my soul and in such a real way said to my lost soul, “You are lying.”  And He was right.  Never before had I been confronted in that manner.

    God used that girl to speak to me.  He was awakening my soul out of the lap of the evil one.  Later I understood the gospel!  He opened my eyes.  I have never gotten over it.  Someone cared for my soul.  She doesn’t know what she did for me.  I laughed inside when I saw her in front of me with her “Howdy Doody smile“.  But now it is me who has the smile.  I can’t wait to see her.  I don’t know exactly how it will happen, but one day I will thank her for her bravery, courage and her love for a lost college boy headed toward Hell who didn’t understand.  And one day I will thank the Lord God Almighty for using this young college girl in my life who stood up for Him!