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http://www.mbcpathway.com/2012/09/oct-7-could-be-historic-for-missouri-our-nation/
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Oct. 7 could be historic for Missouri, our nation

By DON HINKLE / editor



“The prayers of God’s saints are the capital stock in heaven by which Christ carries on His great work upon the earth. … The earth is changed, revolutionized; … and God’s policy is shaped when the prayers of His people are more numerous and more efficient.”
– E.M. Bounds on Prayer

Oct. 7 may go down in history as a key moment for our troubled state and nation. That is the day two significant things will happen in churches across Missouri and America. That day Missouri Baptists will gather to worship the one true God and pray to Him in behalf of America for a spiritual awakening to occur. Pastors will also rise to their pulpits to reaffirm their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion by participating in Pulpit Freedom Sunday, an observance organized by the Alliance Defending Freedom, formerly the Alliance Defense Fund. We should be in prayer for both efforts.

Please make a special point of praying for our pastors to preach the whole counsel of God’s Word, even in the face of threats to themselves, their families and the churches to which God has called them to minister. If America is to experience spiritual renewal, it will begin with prayer. Many of the sermons we will hear in coming weeks – and especially on Oct. 7 – will point us to God’s truth and with it a call to faithfulness in our actions as the Nov. 6 elections approach.

The deterioration of American society has been underway for quite some time and unfortunately too much of the Church has been persuaded that separation of church and state means Christians cannot discuss or participate in public policy matters. This evil myth has proven costly, too often causing the Church to lose its “saltiness.” The results have been devastating.

• Abortion was legalized in a 7-2 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973 and the Church said or did nothing. Since then 40 million innocent lives have been killed. What did the Church do? Nothing, when there should have been riots in the street and God’s Word should have thundered from the pulpits.

• The Supreme Court also ruled that public schools must no longer allow classes to pray to God. Nothing but silence from the Church. Look at our schools, infested with drugs, guns, teen-age pregnancies and a growing homosexual influence.

• No-fault divorce and “free sex” has destroyed the American family. When states changed their divorce laws in the 1970s, it made it easier for married people to separate with, what they thought would be, little to no repercussions. The result has been exploding divorce, out-of-wedlock births and children with only one parent, in direct contrast to what God established. The family unit has been so weakened that it has become vulnerable to the specter of homosexual “marriage” and a redefining of “family” in direct contradiction to what God ordained. The reason a younger generation, ravaged by divorce, is indifferent to homosexual “marriage” is because they had no example of what a solid marriage looks like.

Why has the Church lost its saltiness? We have gone soft on sin. We want to be perceived as being culturally relevant and politically correct. This has impacted the language we utilize, our views on sexual morality and our embrace of cultural icons. We are losing our Christian distinctiveness. We too often compromise on the truth, like pastors who never preach repentance or lay leaders who look the other way when sin infects the congregation.

The late Chuck Colson reminded us how the early church grew explosively, not because it played along with the current cultural values, but rather attracted people by refusing to bow to Caesar and by declaring Jesus is Lord. Early Christians did not embrace the culture, they scandalized it (I suspect even if they booed God). Their opponents spread rumors that they were cannibals, who ate the flesh and drank the blood of their Savior. Of course this was a pathetic distortion of the Lord’s Supper, but it at least meant that they were not being ignored. Their bold witness demanded attention.

“The church will regain its power not when it is applauded for being progressive and politically correct,” Colson wrote in 1992, “but when it is bold enough to invite slander. When, like the church under communism, we recognize clearly who our enemy is. And when we declare a truth so bold and vibrant that it makes our competition pale in comparison.”

Pray for our nation Oct. 7. Pray for our pastors to be bold in their pulpits and – when they do – go hug them and tell them how much you love them and that you will continually pray for them and their families. Tell them that you will stand with them no matter the cost. May we be found faithful to the glory of God the Father.



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Zechariah 12:3,9:
And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people; And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.


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