October 9, 2018 - One cannot turn on the television, or listen to the radio, or read the newspaper without seeing evidence of all the hate and turmoil in our world today. Everyday, without exception, I hear others saying; “Oh what is wrong with us, why is America in such turmoil.”
This is no secret except for the ignorance of the teachings of Gods Word for as we shall see within the next few lines of print, there are answers to our questions, solutions to the problems of society today, just as there have been for generations.
“What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” (James 4:1-4)
Pretty plain spoken words from James the brother of Jesus Christ our Lord.
We have all these troubles because, as a people, we have turned from the Lord; turned to the world and its passions.
As long as we continue to ignore God and do as we please we will continue to have these problems and they will continue to increase in both strength and duration. Get ready people for the worst is yet to come for those who continue in the world and away from God.
And you say, “I want out of this mess I find myself in, help me to get out of it.” Ok, let us look more at Gods Word for the solution to our problems.
“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” (James 4:8-10)
Now, let us look at just what the Lord has told us through James. He says first, “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.” Yes, God waits for every person on earth to come to him asking for help, for forgiveness of sin. He wishes that not one of us should perish in hell but that all would be saved by his grace, but we must first come to him.
He next says to cleanse our hands and purify our hearts. We cannot do either of these on our own, the only solution for cleansing and purifying us lies in our total acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ as our Sovereign Lord.
Thirdly, we must repent of our sinful lives, we must realize what we have done by living in sin. We must be truly remorseful of our sins which is what he means by being wretched, and mourning and weeping. We must first realize the error of our ways and be truly repentant of that past life and accept the new life of living in righteousness if we are to be lifted from the pit of destruction and into the light of salvation. As the scripture says; “Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.” (James 4:10)
“Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts; I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.” (Isaiah 44:6)
“There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy.” (James 4:12)
Do you truly want to see an end to the carnage in American everyday life? Then here is the way, we must repent of our sins, turn to God and humble ourselves before him and do his will every day and not the will of the world or mankind. Then and only then will he hear our pleas, forgive our sins, and heal our land. May his grace be upon you…
