I love meeting new people and spending time with the elderly. They are never short on stories of “the way things once were.” My former pastor, Gary Buchman, used to tell me stories about reciting the 23rd Psalm in public school every morning. Prayer in schools in America was common for decades and wasn’t just something that the religious right endorsed.
It’s been 12 years since I surrendered my life to Jesus as a teenager. I was 17 when God gave me “eyes to see and ears to hear.” Over time I began to develop a Christian worldview and have seen the secularization of America increase ever since. From businesses requiring their employees to say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas,” to the countless debates and attempts by the ACLU to remove the 10 commandments from courthouses, surely “because lawlessness abounds, the love of many [has] grown cold.“ (Matthew 24:12)
Recently I came across this
article on msnbc which highlights Alaska Airlines decision to discontinue prayer cards that they had previously served for 30 years with their meals. The cards, each containing a verse from a Psalm, were referred to by the writer as “controversial.” On the website for the article, there is a poll. It asks: “Would you be offended by a prayer card?” As of today, 20754 people have voted, and 80% have said “no” they would not be offended. 20% said “yes.”
Regarding the Last Days, Paul wrote to Timothy: But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness by denying its power. And from such people turn away! (1 Tim. 3:1-4)
At YouthHOPE, we believe in global youth ministry. Reaching out to youth matters in America, and the other ~200 countries in the world. While American corporate executives and proponents of tolerance find more ways to take God and Jesus out of America, there are teenagers all throughout India who have never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There are youth in Cambodia who will be sold in to sex slavery today. There are teens in Sub Saharan Africa that will die of starvation before the sun goes down tonight. There are youth in SE Asia that will drop out of school today and join a Buddhist monastery. Do us all a favor, read the above verses again in light of these facts. And pray, please pray, that God would sends laborers out in to the harvest, for the workers are few, but the harvest is great.
About Justin
