Get the Word out!

I have been praying about how to respond to this for about 3 weeks. It’s been three weeks since the Call took place in Nashville. On 7-7-07, 40 – 70,000 Christians (it depends on who you ask) met at LP field to pray and intercede for our nation. Those who went were of one mind and many of the attendants there had been fasting for forty days prior to arriving in Nashville. Those who led the Call said that it was to “turn the church and the nation away from immorality”.

I was there. I went up to Nashville on the fourth of July to help prepare for the Call. Some friends of mine and I were at LP field on the fourth to spread the gospel. I remember the people that I met that night. I was at LP field Thursday and Friday to help prepare the stage and the stadium for the service that took place on Saturday. I remember the people there too. I remember Pedro and Tom, who were two of the main people setting up the stage area. I remember leaving Million Dollar bills at every drive through.

Most of all, I remember Saturday. I remember getting up at 4 AM to get ready. I remember getting to the park at 7 and hearing people speak about the purpose of the day. I remember marching silently along with thousands of others, hearing the whispers of the Christian soldiers feet through the grass. I remember passing Hustler Hollywood and my heart breaking for all the men, women, and children whose lives were being destroyed by pornography. I remember thinking about the statistic that says that pornography is watched more at a higher rate during Christian conferences than at any other time. I remember having my 8 year old daughter marching silently beside me and wondering what she was thinking. I remember coming up the hill and around to LP field. I remember hearing Jeff Deyo singing “More Love, More Power”. It set the tone for the entire day!

I remember being at the field the entire day and hearing about how abortion has affected so many lives. About how many unborn children have lost their lives because they were thought of as just a lump of cells. I remember hearing one man represent the nation of America and actually stand up and be willing to accept the blame for some of the atrocities that this nation has committed. And I remember the forgiveness given to this nation by those same people.

I remember praying, dancing, shouting, singing, and weeping for the nation. Was it emotional? YES! Was it founded on emotion? NO. I remember meeting new friends there. I remember not being concerned about looks or anything else – only standing with brothers and sisters from every denomination to cry out to God so that He might heal our land. I remember the 300 trumpets sounding. I remember getting out of the stadium 12 hours later feeling totally spent and, at the same time, totally invigorated.

I write all of this because I remember seeing an article the next day in the paper. It mentioned some of the things that I’ve already written, but then I got to reading further and was stunned. I began to read the comments of some of the church leaders in Nashville and couldn’t believe what they said.

The representatives of the United Methodist Church and the Southern Baptist Association talked about the Call and it’s focus on sexual purity. They said that while they pray for fallen clergy, they didn’t think that the issue of sexual purity was “the most pressing issue for people of faith”. What? Did I miss something? Sexual purity isn’t the most pressing? When we have pastors’ daughters having abortions because they’re sexually promiscuous, and we have teens in the church getting pregnant at an alarming rate, should we turn a blind eye? Should we not be concerned? I couldn’t help but think of the gross injustice this kind of thinking fosters. If we shouldn’t focus on sexual purity, what should we focus on? (They give their opinions a few sentences down in the article). One person quoted said that she just “wasn’t persuaded that sexual perversion is the nation’s greatest sin”… It is a billions of dollars a year industry and it is watched just as much (if not more) by Christians than non-Christians. That’s not a problem????

Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because of sexual immorality. God calls sexual immorality (fornication, adultery, homosexuality) an abomination. If God calls something an abomination, and it’s found to be in the church, shouldn’t it be a pressing issue? Psalm 24 says that only those with a pure heart will ascend the holy hill of God. If there is sexual immorality in the church, are our hearts pure? Think about it for a minute. If there was no sexual immorality in the church (or the nation), what would happen? Well, God would actually be able to use the church to change the world for one. Not only that, but the root of much of the divorce and other sin in the church would be destroyed. 2 Chronicles 7:14 says that if God’s people who are called by His Name would humble themselves and pray, seek His face, and turn from their wicked ways, THEN God would hear from heaven, forgive their sin and heal their land. Many people (especially in the church) love to complain about the condition of the nation. Many of them gripe about the president, or the government, or the state of our youth. The sad thing is that none of them are willing to admit that it’s their fault, at least to some degree. Noone is willing to say that we are responsible for the state of the nation. We are unwilling to admit that we allowed these things to happen. We are unwilling to accept the fact that it’s because we dropped the ball. We are too prideful to turn from our wicked ways and seek God. That is why the nation is like it is. Those in the world, those who don’t believe in God, can’t change the world. They can try, and their efforts are commendable. But for a lasting change, it takes the people of God laying down their spiritual pride and self-righteousness long enough to admit their sin and then TURN FROM IT.

Instead, many point fingers at this group or that one. We would rather try to focus our energy on things like “caring for the poor and promoting living wages”. Caring for the poor is great and is necessary, don’t get me wrong. But when the people who should have the power to see the poor and destitute raised up are struggling themselves and aren’t even willing to admit there is a problem, how can we help the poor? Is it possible? If the love of Christ that is supposed to flow through us is hindered by the sin that we try to hide from Him and others, are we really going to be effective? Is promoting living wages what it’s going to take to bring this nation back to God? Will all the sin and moral decay of this nation just disappear if we throw money at it?

Others decided not to come because they would be exposed to “things that they weren’t used to”. If you are one of those people who neglected to come because you weren’t sure what you would be exposed to, then I’m not going to condemn you. That is a choice only you could make. I will say that it saddens me that we are so afraid of what might happen that we would rather do nothing at all. It doesn’t make sense to me. Shouldn’t we be teaching our kids and other believers to rightly divide the Word of truth? Shouldn’t we teach them what scripture actually says? Why would you be so concerned about what you might be exposed to that you would miss out on an opportunity to gather together with other believers and stand in the gap for our nation? Granted, you didn’t have to be there to take part, but that’s not the point that I’m trying to make.

I guess my question is this: When do we as the representatives of Jesus Christ begin to live our lives like He’s called us to? When do we stop playing semantic games and ignoring the fact that we have made ourselves part of the problem instead of part of the solution? When will the things of God (like sexual purity) become more important to us than money, power, fame, or image? When will the Body of Christ stand up and actually be the spotless bride that Jesus is coming back for?