Thursday, March 30, 2006
Monday, March 27, 2006
Curse of Comfort
Comfort makes you complacent and forget who you are and why you're here.
Newsweek 'warns' of how India and China (and South Korean and Singapore) are extremely driven and only getting started in their economic escalation, especially technologically. Contrast the United States where people are so use to being first and having the best, compounded with a general unawareness of shifts in the world; there is a lack of drive to grow or innovate. Though we have the best universities and best resources, our students lag behind in international rankings for math and science. Newsweek writes, while our students are playing video games, their counterparts in China are studying their forth books. The frontiers of future innovation will not be the U.S. unless we change.
More eternally affecting the U.S. is the oppressive spiritual complacency. Contrast this with India and China. In India, Hindus in conjunction with local police daily threaten Christians, imprison them, threaten their lives, destroy their churches; and children are disowned by their parents. In China the government-sanctioned "Three-Self Churches" was started by a Communist party member who claimed to be a Christian but did not believe Jesus did any miracles. When the Three-Self system was set up, all house churches were deemed illegal gatherings. Because so many Christians refuse to register with the Three-Self churches, refuse to stop gathering, and refuse to stop sharing the message of the Cross; they are continually persecuted, publically humiliated, imprisoned repeatedly, and tortured. Such trials have managed to keep those Christians sharp and remind them that their citizenship is not here but heaven. And in these nations, the kingdom of God is rapidly advancing as thousands turn from lives of sin, trust in Christ, train and go out themselves to reach the lost.
The United States has the most freedom of religion, Bibles coming out of our pores, the best seminaries, and a glut of great books and sermons; but what is that to us. We do not care about the souls of our neighbors or our own personal growth. I say this as admonishment to myself too.
What has happened to us in the U.S.? Do we still believe God acts? Or are our blinders on to God; as to our education/economy. Do we no longer hunger and thirst for righteousness, but instead just superficially live to enjoy this life?
Do we still believe God will one day call us to account for how we used the time He gave us? It scares me, and you?
Comfort makes you complacent and forget who you are and why you're here.
Newsweek 'warns' of how India and China (and South Korean and Singapore) are extremely driven and only getting started in their economic escalation, especially technologically. Contrast the United States where people are so use to being first and having the best, compounded with a general unawareness of shifts in the world; there is a lack of drive to grow or innovate. Though we have the best universities and best resources, our students lag behind in international rankings for math and science. Newsweek writes, while our students are playing video games, their counterparts in China are studying their forth books. The frontiers of future innovation will not be the U.S. unless we change.
More eternally affecting the U.S. is the oppressive spiritual complacency. Contrast this with India and China. In India, Hindus in conjunction with local police daily threaten Christians, imprison them, threaten their lives, destroy their churches; and children are disowned by their parents. In China the government-sanctioned "Three-Self Churches" was started by a Communist party member who claimed to be a Christian but did not believe Jesus did any miracles. When the Three-Self system was set up, all house churches were deemed illegal gatherings. Because so many Christians refuse to register with the Three-Self churches, refuse to stop gathering, and refuse to stop sharing the message of the Cross; they are continually persecuted, publically humiliated, imprisoned repeatedly, and tortured. Such trials have managed to keep those Christians sharp and remind them that their citizenship is not here but heaven. And in these nations, the kingdom of God is rapidly advancing as thousands turn from lives of sin, trust in Christ, train and go out themselves to reach the lost.
The United States has the most freedom of religion, Bibles coming out of our pores, the best seminaries, and a glut of great books and sermons; but what is that to us. We do not care about the souls of our neighbors or our own personal growth. I say this as admonishment to myself too.
What has happened to us in the U.S.? Do we still believe God acts? Or are our blinders on to God; as to our education/economy. Do we no longer hunger and thirst for righteousness, but instead just superficially live to enjoy this life?
Do we still believe God will one day call us to account for how we used the time He gave us? It scares me, and you?
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