It is vitally important that we, as the Church, understand the issues that we are facing in America, as well as within the Church. How can we overcome the mounting issues if we never address the issues at hand? Be encouraged as you see and witness this very conversation happening between many shepherds in the Church, and so much more. Also shared in this segment: government, discrimination, unity, logic, truth, Presidential Election, platforms, racism, division, healing, and Great Awakening. Greg and Steve shared in this segment.

LISTEN NOW! WATCH FULL PROGRAM! [Part 1 of 2] As we continue this important conversation about the realities taking place within America, we again visit the response that George Wood, Superintendent of the Assemblies of God, makes about how there is a discrimination taking place against the Church. He asks this question, “What do you do when you’ve got a systemic discrimination taking place where a faculty will not employ someone who is intellectually capable of any academic trait, but because they have certain views, they are no longer acceptable.” He continues to detail, “So, they are characterized. They are marginalized. They are discriminated against and they are persecuted.”

Ravi Zacharias responds to Wood’s comments by highlighting the importance of his point. “It stymies me that there are evangelical voices today who don’t see how critical this matter is for the future of the unborn and of those who are already in life, whose values and voices are going to be shut down.” It is no difficulty to recognize that we are experiencing times of difficulty and division, but what we must recognize is that we must come together in these times of difficulty and division.

As President of the Southern Baptist Church, Ronnie Floyd, highlights on this very important matter. “What I find is, that those of us that come together, it’s just like Psalm 133 says, there is a mighty, mighty anointing when the unity of the Sprit is present among the brothers. We cannot do this apart from one another.” He continues to express, “It’s not about personalities; it’s about platform. That’s it. It’s not about parties. It’s about platform; and platform should be built on truth.” While many are focusing on political answers and political hopes, this cannot be the focus of the Church. “While we’re active in the processes, we’ve got to understand that the greatest need in America is the next Great Awakening.”

When Pastor E.W. Jackson, Founder and President of S.T.A.N.D., responded to the conversation, he brought up the need for a new vocabulary. More specifically, he said, “Maybe we need a new vocabulary for speaking to the American people and the Body of Christ that is neither left nor right, but uniquely Biblical and American.” He continues to express the reasoning for this when we use the terms and ideas that are currently used. “We as the Body of Christ have bought into the left-right paradigm, and we automatically lop off half of the population when we talk that way.”

As an even deeper issue, Pastor Jackson carries this point in order to address the issue of racial division in America. “It breaks my heart that members of the Body of Christ seem to find, in many instances, their primary identity in their race, in their skin color.” As an outset, he continues to express, “You end up teaching, instead of Christianity…, you end up teaching a racial ideology that becomes the cloak, in which the Church is draped, rather than it being draped in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

With wisdom, Ravi Zacharias responds to these comments as he expresses his own beginnings being born within the divided nation of India. Now, after being in America for 40 years, he witnesses the same division, but expresses these words; “It is not what we look like that will ultimately win people, it is the soulishness that we truly convey to people.” He continues to express, “My identity is not in my color, nor in my degrees…my identity is in the worth that God has given me…We are not reflecting the splendor of our race. We are reflecting the splendor of the Living God.”

What we also must remind ourselves regarding the days that we are living in, is that Jesus told us they would come. Pastor Harry Jackson points to the words of Jesus in Matthew 24:7, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.” With this understanding, Pastor Jackson reminds us that “nobody can fix America but the Church.” As a word of encouragement, he highlights, “I believe that God is looking to raise up Martin Luther King Jr’s with his mantle to heal the racial problem. But, they’re not just going to be black people. I believe, in this generation, they are going to be whites, that they are going to be Hispanics…”

We are called to reach every race and color. We have to be focused on everyone in America, in all socio economic realities. God loves everyone and so should we. It is the love of God that will truly unite people.

George Barna’s new book, Americaat the Crossroads, reveals this very important reality in the Church. So much has changed in the recent years, Barna only researched as far back as 10 years. His research reveals the rapid changes within the Church. At the onset, ”90% Nine out of ten adults believe in “God””, but as we look closer and closer, we will see this is far from the actually reality within the Church. “Fewer than half of all Americans (45%) contend that Jesus Christ is actually alive today.”

We have to become Biblical aware of what is so that we can clearly identify what does not align with, and what contradicts what the Bible teaches. “Most people lean toward believing that the Bible, Koran, and Book of Mormon are simply different expressions of the same spiritual truths.” While at the same time, “Only 1 out of 8 adults consider themselves to be “highly knowledgeable” about the content of the Bible.”

By taking the time to have a lifestyle that incorporates the teachings and ways of the Bible, it significantly effects how we look at the world. This would be classified as having a “Biblical worldview”. Barna writes, “Those who have a Biblical world view are:

12x LESS LIKELY to engage in extramarital sex

9x MORE LIKELY to avoid adult-only material on the internet

8x LESS LIKELY to gamble

5x MORE LIKELY to believe that satan is real, not just a symbol of  evil

5x LESS LIKELY to believe the Bible, the koran and the Book of Mormon are simply different expressions of the same truth

4x MORE LIKELY to reject the idea that a person can reach Heaven through personal goodness or doing good works

3x MORE LIKELY to affirm the holiness of Jesus Christ

3X MORE LIKELY to pray for the President

It is vitally important that we, as the Church, understand the issues that we are facing in America, as well as within the Church. How can we overcome the mounting issues if we never address the issues at hand? Be encouraged as you see and witness this very conversation happening between many shepherds in the Church, and so much more. Also shared in this segment: government, discrimination, unity, logic, truth, Presidential Election, platforms, racism, division, healing, and Great Awakening. Greg and Steve shared in this segment.
screen capture from lifetoday.org

LISTEN NOW! WATCH FULL PROGRAM! [Part 2 of 2]  Right now, there are those all across America that are looking across the horizon of our culture and asking themselves ‘what is going on?’ This is not a wrong question to be asking nor is someone wrong for asking it. Take a look at just a handful of statements that our current President has said. First off, he states, “…we are no longer a Christian Nation…” When speaking at the United Nations in 2012, he stated, “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam”. And now, most recently he shared these words when speaking at the DemocraticNational Convention, “Our power doesn’t come from some self-declared Savior promising that He alone can restore order as long as we do things His way. We don’t look to be ruled”. This is our present leader. While presently, one that does want to be our next leader, Hillary Clinton expressed, “Deep seated cultural codes, religious beliefs, and structural biases have to be changed”. We, as the Church must ask this question, “what do we do about it?” There are so many words of lies being said. Where is the truth?

When Ravi Zacharias recently spoke on Life Today, he shared how he has encountered many youth asking this very same question. He asks his own question, and as we enter yet another Presidential election, his answer is that which we need the most. “What is the most valuable thing in the world?” Quoting Winston Churchill, he states, “The most valuable thing in the world is the truth. In fact, it is so valuable, it is often hidden by a bodyguard of lies.” Considering the many topics and subjects that the two Presidential nominees’ platforms are based upon, how much truth do they contain? He continues, “And now, as Christians, the time has come to ask of the political leadership, truth. Because without truth, we lose the most powerful weapon. Without truth, we lose the most valuable thing, and we live that by example in our own lives.”

Zacharias highlights the importance of identity. “You must be able to identify what it is you’re talking about or you cannot speak anything about that thing.” With this in mind, he applies this principle to the present realities within America; “If we, as a nation, cannot even identify those who are seeking to destroy us, then we’ve not only violated the fundamental law of ethics: truth, we’ve now violated the fundamental law of reason: the law of identity, is that which demands of us what it is we’re really talking about.”

As George Wood, Superintendent of the Assemblies of God, shares about how to navigate these days leading up to the Presidential elections, he expresses these words; “If you are a practicing Evangelical…someone who holds to the authority of Scripture, if you are a practicing Catholic…you cannot be appointed, currently, to the Supreme Court; you cannot be appointed to an Appellate bench.” Wood continues to describe why this is true. “Because, your views on sexuality, on the beginning of life, on the end of life, are absolutely unacceptable…” What is most important, as Wood shares, is how we arrived at this reality. “I think, as Evangelicals, we’ve been sound asleep, and not sufficiently aware, and our people are not sufficiently aware that there is a discrimination that is taking place…”

In all that was discussed in this important conversation, the most important is love. We need to return to our first love, Jesus Christ. There are many pastors and leaders in the Church that are trying to be faithful to the call that God has placed on their lives, while also trying to address the many events happening around our nation. Simply put, they are burned out. What we must all be doing, above all other things, is taking time each day with the Lord, abiding with Him. Be stirred in your awareness of what is taking place throughout America, but also how to respond, and so much more. Also shared in this segment: James Robinson, morality, logic, truth, righteousness, and reality. Greg and Steve shared in this segment. 
screen capture from lifetoday.org