Faith or Fear?

As I consider the state of our union here in America, there are many reasons to be concerned; but I see other indicators that delight my soul.

You can pick up any newspaper in the country and you will discover the ominous signs of decadence and decay. Drive slowly down any street, stop and talk with people and you’ll find the breakdown of our society very obvious.

It takes no genius to see the mess that has been made in our beloved nation. The signs are everywhere. A society without God is degenerate, diseased and on its way to the graveyard.

Our USA has the oldest continuous democracy surviving on the planet, yet it is only 244 years old. The nation was a thriving and safe haven for several generations. The Bible was its bedrock. God was in the limelight. The nation was in disputably a “Christian nation” at its inception.

But changes have come and much of that has been reversed. Today the debate is whether the Ten Commandments can hang in a courtroom. Today God is relegated to a short, little service on Sunday morning (occasionally).

If we have a national disaster or a threat of war, the president asks for prayer; but in the meantime, God is given a backseat, if any seat at all. The Bible is mocked and scorned, rewritten, watered down and made politically correct. The churches, so many of them, have sold out to the culture, the fads, the present hour.

But wait a minute; hold the phone; stop the presses—when the liberals, the evolutionists, the homosexuals, the humanists, the one-worlders, the multicultural “educrats” and others with blurred vision and wrong philosophy started the flushing of the country down the tube, praise the Lord, not everybody agreed to go.

All across this continent—in the U.S., Canada and Mexico—and in other nations as well, there are dear, precious, God-fearing, Christ-honoring, Bible-believing, Spirit-filled, serious Christians who planted their feet and refused to go down the river with the go-along-to-get-along crowd.

I’ve preached in hundreds of churches across the nation where the lights are still on and the fire is burning hot. Some say you can’t have standards today. Well, some of our brethren have kept having them.

Some say you can’t build a church today without compromise, but not everybody bought that line.

Some say you can’t go soul winning anymore; but I can tell you about hundreds of pastors and churches in the North, South, East and West whose ministries are solidly set (fundamental and Baptist), separated (not running with the ecumenical crowds), soul winning (big days, buses, growing, winning souls, baptizing converts) and seasoned (balanced ministries, building a church, nurturing converts, caring for the flock).

Some are running 100, some 200, some 500, some 1,000 and some even more—but all of these are excited, energized and enduring. There’s hope as long as places like that won’t give up and quit.

There’s hope as long as we have some men holding high the precious old Book. I’m talking about men who won’t flinch and who won’t sell out to the highest bidder.

Yes, there’s hope—despite the corruption in government, despite the campaign against God in education, despite Hollywood’s conniving to trash the landscape, despite the cooldown and the meltdown in so many churches; yes, indeed, there’s hope because God is still God, the Bible’s still true and soul winning still works.

So what will we have—faith or fear? The people of God are people of faith. We will travel by faith all the way to the victory. Fear is not our lot. “Fight the good fight of faith” (I Tim. 6:12). Faith is the victory.

Trust God, believe Him, step out by faith and press on!

Amen! Amen! Amen!