Who's To Blame

As millions of people search for an answer to the phenomenon of violence that is gripping our nation, many are still asking themselves; Why are America's children killing one another? How can the United States Supreme Court put aside our most fundamental human rights and religious freedoms and call it JUSTICE!! Why are so many people suffering from disease, addicted to drugs, alcohol, pornography, suicide, and the internet?

In a desperate attempt to find and answer, we often find ourselves shifting the blame. Some blame the media, television, the rock and roll era, rappers, and once again, the internet.

"Sin and moral depravity dominate our society because the church has no gospel." If we must lay an indictment, one writer says we must lay it at the base of a powerless pulpit. "Why?" Because "as the preacher goes; so goes the church: as the church goes; so goes the nation: as the nation goes; so goes the world."

Why then are we blaming the preachers? We are not. We are merely attempting to get people to understand the temptations and pressures preachers face so that we will be better equipped to support and pray diligently for the leaders (preachers) God has allowed to enter in our lives.

Apart from a few devout Christian leaders, much of what we hear on television are programs designed to make us a quick success. They teach us to look deep within ourselves to become people of great influence when the scripture declares that there is nothing good within us. Matthew 15:19 declares, "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adultery, fornication… In short, there is nothing good within us.

In order to stop the violence, we must change the heart. (Romans 12:2 - paraphrased) If there is something good in us, God put it there. Far too many leaders are searching for measures to remove the guilt caused by sin without challenging the sinner.

We live in a society filled with bad news. The bad news is that we are stained by the guilt of sin and must accept the responsibility as sinners. The good news is that a Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world who has emancipated us (yes we are set free, the Son has set us free).

In order to resurrect our nation from its present deterioration, we must deliver the uncompromised Word of God with anointing conviction, and a lifestyle to match. All evil influence must yield to the divine force of righteousness, thus the Christ within.

So how do we get this freedom Christ spoke about? Will someone willingly render it to us?

"Freedom is not volunteered by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed." Therefore, it is time for God's people; his leaders to stand up and preach! A preacher has been defined by one writer as a "voice through which the heart of God delivers the purpose of His infinite into the realm of the finite with all the power proper to its need."

How can they hear without a preacher? We are pleading for the blood washed leaders to stand up and declare to a dying world that God is the only answer to the world's problems, not the internet, genetics, secular humanism or idolatry. Stop today and examine yourselves. Allow God to deliver a message to the dying world and let's not render them helpless victims of a powerless pulpit.