Is There Hope For America's Future?

I give you this charge:  Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.  But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. 

2 Timothy 3:-5. (NIV)

             Today our courts at law are not allowed to display the Ten Commandments.  Instead of freedom of religion, we have freedom from religion.  The very tenants that gave us our laws and brought our forebears to our shores now are hidden; not displayed, not taught, and thereby not followed by most of our citizens.

            Prayer has been forbidden in all public places and the great old hymns of the Republic can not be sung or performed if they honor Christ, or Christians, as it might offend someone.

            Marriage is being defined as not only a relationship between a man and a woman, but also between two men or two women.  Children now openly have two mommies or two daddies. That is, if there are two grownups in a home any more.  Most children now in our country are not being raised by two traditional parents.  The home has dis-

integrated.  No wonder children are bewildered, confused, untaught, and undisciplined!  Imagine how lost inside they must feel. Most people say they believe in the Bible, but they cannot answer the simplest questions about it, because they never read it.

            More children have been killed by abortion in our country in the last forty years than the casualties of all our wars to date.  More than 55,000,000 babies have been aborted since the Roe vs. Wade court decision.  It has skewed our work force and changed our economy as well as our spiritual well being. 

            Alcohol and drug addiction are common and have filled our prisons and emptied our wallets. Church attendance is on the decline. Our ministers are being harassed by preaching the whole Bible.  When they preach about certain sins like homosexuality, they often get death threats and are subject to ridicule and fear of prosecution.  Sin is unpopular.  Most of us live by the religion of "Taking Care of Number One!"  What can I do?  What is my personal obligation?  Does God really care?  Do I? A Christian is called to share the good news of Jesus Christ, to preach God's Word, and to set an example of purity and integrity.

But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 1 Peter 3:15. (NIV)

Pat Eppler