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Doctor Luke's Cure
America is deathly sick. The nightly network TV news
has become a parade for competing drug companies. Both
in news content and advertising we are informed of new
drugs that will help in the fight against an onslaught
of diseases from breast, to ovarian, to prostate cancer,
to heart disease. The problem is that most of these
new breakthroughs tend to have side effects that sound
as bad as the disease.
Add to this news items telling us of invading killer
bees, killer mosquitoes, child killers, killer tornados,
kids who kill kids, kids who kill parents, unprecedented
droughts, out-of-control fires, horrific murder suicides,
corporate fraud, massive lay offs, and falling stocks,
and much, much more, and it is no exaggeration to say
that America is sick, from sea to shining sea.
Those who know their Bibles suspect that there's more
here than meets the eye. It's not just a case of bad
global warming. They have studied the promised repercussions
for the nation of Israel if they didn't abide by certain
God-given principles. They then look at the United States
and see striking parallels between America and what
happened to Israel. For example, Deuteronomy 28 tells
us that if they forsook the Ten Commandments (see Deuteronomy
27), certain terrible things would happen. They would
have disease on the land. Their children would be struck
with disease. They would be plagued with mildew (mold),
terrible drought, horrific and incurable diseases, irrational
fears, marriage breakdown, repossession and bankruptcy.
Their children would be taken from them, the crops would
be diseased, and aliens would invade their borders.
These were parallels I noticed right through the 1990's.
Almost everything lined up--everything that is except
an invasion by enemies. Deuteronomy warned of that,
but it was obvious that that threat was one that was
peculiar to the nation of Israel. It couldn't apply
to this country. America was the one and only superpower
of the world. No weapon that was formed against us could
prosper. Great oceans protected us from any enemy attack…that
is, up until September 11th, 2001.
Sadly, when the enemy struck our nation few said that
the incident had anything to do with God. We had forsaken
the Ten Commandments, sanctioned millions of abortions,
loved violence, adultery, pornography, etc., etc., but
it was unthinkable that America's sins called for God's
chastening hand.
The conscience of our nation failed to do its duty.
In recent years the Church as a whole has been deathly
silent when it comes to having a clear evangelistic
voice. According to Bill Bright, the founder of Campus
Crusade for Christ, only 2% of Christians actively share
their faith. That means (for some reason) 98% don’t.
But more than that. Even many of the 2% who share their
faith fail to use the Ten Commandments in the sphere
of their influence. This was the way Jesus presented
the Gospel (Luke 18:18), but most didn't follow His
example. They instead followed the traditions of modern
evangelism, and therefore stripped the gospel of its
power. If we discard the bow we shouldn't wonder why
the arrow has no thrust.
Consequently the Church's light is snuffed in the darkness
of the hour in which we live. Its savor has been lost.
It has become good for nothing but to be trampled under
foot by men.
The Gospel of Luke diagnoses the nation's disease and
thankfully gives us the certain cure. Luke 10:2 tells
us what it is. There is a lack of laborers--laborers
who have been raised up by God.
We have been obeying the admonition to pray for laborers,
and you are the answer to our prayers. You are the needed
salt and light. We would be bold enough to say one big
step in the right direction is for you to get "The
Way of the Master*" video series. It has been
designed to train you for the job. View it for yourself
and see how God is using it to equip and enthuse the
most lukewarm of Christians. You may even be stirred
enough to have a seminar and screen the series to those
who have the unction to show up.
Then again, if we want to reach the lost we should
ask ourselves how much do we want true revival. Would
our churches be radical enough to change the order of
our Sunday morning service and show the series to the
church? Perhaps that's asking too much. The order of
service is a tradition. To change it and equip the saints
is a little too radical…and that may bring about
what we profess to be praying for--genuine God-ordained
revival.
______________________________
*This link was updated in December of 2003 to point
to "The Way of the Master Foundation Course"
a newer item.
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