Friday; August 21

 

One of the questions that we are facing in modern times is about the survivability of Christianity.  If we listen to many of the doomsayers we would be led to expect that Christianity will go the way of the leisure suit and mullet haircut.  We are being told by some that because it doesn’t tolerate anything and everything that is should be done away with.  Others, who would like to hold on to the way we have done things in the past, lament the lack of support for their ways, so they predict that we are heading into oblivion. 

While I am not overly optimistic that our churches are going to fill to overflowing in the next few years, I do not believe that Christianity is doomed.  Much of what we are seeing today is a social honesty that we haven’t had in the past (in other words, those who don’t want to have anything to do with Christianity are truthful about their feelings rather than masking it with a religious façade).  Yet, there is another, more important reason I believe in the future of the church – because the Lord promised it.  When Jesus acknowledged Peter’s confession of His true nature He affirmed the continuation of the church by saying, “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.” (Matthew 16:17).  Jesus inferred that the church was built on such a rock-solid foundation that nothing could kill it.  Within a short period of time they would learn that not even the murder of the Head of the church could stop it from growing and that lesson extends to us, today.  If the intense power of satan 2000 years ago couldn’t kill the church, the lackadaisical approach of a modern society has no chance to smother the flame.

Let’s make sure we do what we can to promote the growth of the Lord’s church, but let’s remain confident that nothing this world can throw at the church will shut it down.  Its job is way too important and its God is way too powerful!

Think About It!

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