A Reality Check
by Pastor Charles Cooley
5/17/08

"For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look life mortal man and the birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over ..." - Romans 1:21-23

If you have wondered how a nation so rich in natural resources, both mineral and organic, could find itself facing an energy crisis, a food crisis, a family crisis, and a foreign policy crisis all at the same time, this verse explains it. Reading the therefore issues following this verse is like reading our newspapers today; depraved sexual desires, worshipping the created things rather than the creator (environmentalism), lesbianism, homosexuality, depraved minds which allow every kind of wickedness, envy, murder, deceit, malice, slanderers, liars, arrogant, disobedient to parents, senseless, faithless, heartless, and ruthless. Even though they may not personally do some of these things, they approve of those who do. This is the inevitable result of turning away from God.

I think 'foolish' and 'futile thinking' could sum up our national leadership quite accurately. We claim to be fighting terror, but we decide not to call kidnapping citizens, constant bombardment of civilian communities by rockets - terror. The Palestinians daily do this to Israeli citizens, and worse, and yet our leaders spend millions of our tax dollars aiding the Palestinians and demanding Israel give up land so the Palestinians can have a state (which will just be a safe haven for more attacks against Israel). At the same time, our leaders are spending millions more of our tax dollars to attack terrorists in two other countries and establish governments which turn around and persecute their own citizens who happen to be Christians. Our leaders laud a 'democratic' Lebanese government but stand idly by as Hezbollah, a terrorist surrogate organization of Iran, takes it over. Our response? We declare Iran will not have nuclear weapons for 10 years and we should 'dialog' with them. This response obviously overlooks the Israeli intelligence declaring Iran will have a nuclear weapon by the end of the year, intelligence that Britain's MI6 has verified.

In the face of $125 a barrel for oil and $4.00 a gallon for gasoline our present President goes to Saudi Arabia and asks for greater oil production and is promptly refused, even though we recently spent millions protecting them and their oil from Saddam Hussein's ambition. Why should we expect different? They are getting our billions anyway! Our next possible Presidents also have equally ludicrous answers to the problem, one would solve the problem with more environmentalism and the other two would solve it by adding more taxes! Maybe we should begin to thank God for the vast recourses He has endowed this nation with and begin drilling for it. This says nothing of the coal and other resources we have. If we have such a large trade imbalance with China (some say they are burying us financially), maybe we should demand more for the food stuffs they require from us, instead of allowing them to buy all our wheat on futures at cheap prices?

Leaders who are in touch with the Almighty God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would have questioned the correlation between our nation requiring Israel to give up land that God promised them and the natural disasters that have hit our nation (there is almost a one-to-one correlation). They would have questioned the fact that the same time President Bush's Roadmap for Peace was announced the American dollar began its slide in value. The American people would question why the Democratic leader of the House promised to bring down gasoline prices almost 800 days later it is at record highs! They would have questioned the age-old premise that the Democrats are for the people, but they want to tax even the retirement income of lower and middle class citizens while they vote themselves hefty raises! People who could hear from God would question the need for a supreme court that over-rules the voice of the people to allow homosexual marriages, such as they did in California.

Finally, people who had not abandoned the God of the Bible, would question how so many could call themselves Christians and yet adopt the standards of the world. They would realize something is wrong when the divorce rate in the Church is as bad as it is in the world, when as many abortions take place by those in the Church as those out of it. It is one thing to have these problems before you are a Christian and quite another to have them after you have become a Christian. They would live by the teaching of Jesus, when he said, "If you love Me, keep My commandments." The altars would be overrun by those repenting. There would by more altar calls than offerings. Weekly home fellowship groups would flourish as Church members discover what it means to be part of the 'body of Christ.' The Church should be full of those who have come to Christ having problems and have stayed having their problems forgiven and healed, to have no more!

We each have a 'heart' and it is our responsibility to make sure it is in line with God. He has given us His Word as our standard to compare our hearts with. The Scripture I began with said those who are lost did not 'glorify him as God' but, we can glorify Him as God if we chose to align our hearts with His commandments. The wonderful truth is that He will even give us to power to do this - if we chose.