Recently, I ran into the following chart. It shows the debt burdens of the major nations. The bottom section in red shows those with the highest debt levels. The US is at the bottom, meaning their debt level is the worst, the UK has the second highest debt level, followed by France and Japan.
When I saw the order of the bottom 4, the US, UK, France, and Japan, it hit me that I’d seen that same order in another survey:
While there are other factors involved, what this means is that our financial deficits are a consequence and reflection of our moral bankruptcy. Sexual sin rots the individual and the nation. Many of the issues that are provoking strife and division can be traced back to sex, such as abortion, same sex attraction, and questions of gender identity. Instant gratification of self and what it wants, now, is king, regardless of the cost or consequences. It’s not uncommon for an individual who is binging on porn or some other form of sexual sin to max out their credit cards, putting their marriage and family in financial jeopardy.
In such a nation, postponing pleasure for the right context (such as marriage) becomes counter-cultural and is even demonized.
“By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.”
Hebrews 11:24-25
A pleasure-driven nation spends and borrows so they can have what they want, now. The bill will come later, so why worry? Savings accounts evaporate. Many Americans don’t have the savings to be able to handle a $1000.00 expense when it hits. Not all of this is due to sexual sin, some of it is a result of the economic reality of our times. The principle here is that sexual sin corrupts and affects every area of society.
Including the church.
To our shame, the US is the number 1 consumer and producer of pornography in the world. We are also the country with the largest number of churches. The church is supposed to be the salt that preserves a nation, but when the church becomes corrupted with sexual sin and refuses to deal with or even acknowledge the problem, the virus of sexual sin metastasizes quickly, just as it has been doing for the past 50 years. Half of Christians see no problem with sex outside of marriage and as Barna’s surveys continue to show, massive numbers of believers are okay with and are viewing pornography.
All of this should be a bright red, flashing warning light to every church that sexual issues must be faced and openly discussed.
“To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you. To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you.”
Daniel 9:7-8
“Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away.”
Luke 14:34-35
You will rarely, if ever, hear any of this in most churches. If we’re not going to take up Jesus’ mandate to make disciples, which means we must equip people in these issues, we must examine our “why” for church.
“Every church needs to be able to answer two questions: First, what is our plan for making disciples (not mere converts). And second, does our plan work?”
– Dallas Willard
So our first step is a call to prayer; seeking God’s face and crying out for mercy. In Jonah’s day, when one of the most fantastic revivals in all of history took place, all they had was repentance and prayer. No churches, sermons, worship bands, Youtube videos, or even Bibles. We’re at the point where we either have a massive revival, which means repentance, or plumb new depths of the sewer.
So we offer you following:
Our next night of prayer is next Friday, November 22, from 6:00pm-10:00pm, US Central time, by zoom. (Please note the new time with the recent time change). Angela Chavez, who is a gifted prayer warrior and intercessor, will be facilitating. I encourage you to come and participate. Scripture reading, waiting in silence, and worship will be a part of our time together. Any person from any country who speaks English and has a heart for prayer is welcome. You’re welcome to participate as long as you like; stay for an hour, or the whole four hours. My plan is to participate for the entire four hours. If you want to come and pray silently instead of out loud, this is fine.
As before, we will pray for each other, that the walls of pride, fear, and arrogance that blind the church from facing its sin, especially sexual sin, would come down; for conviction and repentance, rescue and healing for those in bondage in sin, especially sexual sin, marriages and youth, and more.
Please contact us for the zoom link to the night of prayer.
We also have 4 other prayer meetings that are held every week:
* Wednesdays at 9:00am US CT: Zoom prayer call for all – men and women.
Facilitator – Tim Peterson
* Wednesdays at 5:00pm US CT: wives prayer meeting by phone conference call.
Facilitator – Carmen
* Wednesdays at 6:30pm US Mountain time: Intercessors prayer meeting. This is for intercession for Blazing Grace, the projects we have going, and other areas.
Facilitator – Angela
* Thursday, 1:30pm US CT: Zoom prayer call for all – men and women.
Facilitator – Arwel, United Kingdom
Please contact us if you’d like to get plugged into any of these prayer meetings.
My friends, if I was pastoring a church I would run prayer meetings 7 days a week. It doesn’t matter if 2 or 20 show up; 2 praying together is enough to make an impact. If our small ministry can run 4 prayer meetings a week (and we actually have more I haven’t shown here), then why can’t every church??
Every believer should be consistently meeting for prayer with other believers.
This is the way of the Rogue Christian.
“Does the Bible ever say anywhere from Genesis to Revelation, “My house shall be called a house of preaching”? Does it ever say, “My house shall be called a house of music”? Of course not. The Bible does say, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations”. Preaching, music, the reading of the Word – these things are fine; I believe in and practice all of them. But they must never override prayer as the defining mark of God’s dwelling. The honest truth is that I have seen God do more in people’s lives during ten minutes of real prayer than in ten of my sermons.”
-Jim Cymbala, senior pastor, Brooklyn Tabernacle
“Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned”
Colossians 4:2-3
