I Regret.....

I regret….. to say that the world I live in this second decade of the 21^st century has digressed from the one I grew up in. In a world where children are kidnapped daily, parents are terrified to let their kids out of their sight for even a moment. We train our kids to be unfriendly and beware of EVERYONE, because some kidnappers have even been police.

In the world I grew up in (born in 1952) I would bolt out of the house in the morning with a quick, “Bye Mom” while she hollered, “don’t be out after dark.” My friends and I would be all over town before the day was over and our parents never worried about where we were. I regret that has changed so much.

I regret….. that the church today has forgotten that “preach the Gospel” means win souls. News flash…your church isn’t the only one that’s going to heaven. If it was, there would be a lot of room left. John said, “Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God.” Just because someone else didn’t “get it like we got it” doesn’t mean they aren’t saved, so quit spending 90% of the pulpit time reinforcing your stinking doctrine. Quit fighting each other and join together to fight the Devil. He’s the enemy…not the church across the street.

I remember a day when all the churches in town would get together and hold a week of meetings. Each Pastor would have a night to preach and nobody worried about losing members to another church. Now, if one visits another church, the Pastor has a stroke. And for sure don’t go to Brother So-n-so’s revival at the church across town. You might just like it better over there and not come back.

I regret….. that we’ve become obsessed with the “End Times” and quit preparing people for the kingdomof God. Didn’t Jesus say “Seek ye first?” The church is so obsessed with anyone that teaches a new message on what’s going on and how it relates to prophecy that teaching the basics of Christianity has taken a back seat.

The worst problem is Pastors that don’t check out what is being taught to their sheep by the wolves he’s let in. There are many things being taught as fact to Christians that have been proven to be a hoax. The recent pictures of archeologists finding bones of supposed giants in Saudi Arabia is a good example. The pictures were the winner of a 2004 contest held by Worth 1000 in the category of “Archeological Hoaxes” done with Photoshop. Yet, Christians still forward the e-mails and teach it as proof that Biblical giants existed. Why not just believe?

I regret….. that the Christian values that this country was founded on are no longer “in vogue.” Faith in God (we are told) has no place in public anymore. Didn’t the Declaration of Independence say, “…all men are endowed by their CREATOR…?” The men and women that founded this great country believed that the absence of God in the workings of government would cause the nation to stumble and fall. They were right…

The first amendment to the Constitution says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” That means there is no reason I can’t preach in the city park if I want to, or put up a cross, or nativity, or the Ten Commandments. It just means the Buddhist and Islamist has the same rights that I do. If I offend you, leave, but don’t infringe on my Constitutional right to practice my religion….by the way, the Supreme Court Judges sure reads a lot into the Constitution that isn’t there, don’t they? I regret that…

Most of all, I regret….. that 90% of the people that read this will not care one way or another about any of these things. That’s why it has happened in the first place…nobody cared….I regret that most of all.