Here are 50 Prayer Requests that I would like to make for this next year. Please consider writing down a few of these requests and pray over them. Thank you for your help. Prayer changes everything. Prayer is powerful. God answers prayers. He has answered them in the past, and he answers them today.
1. Pray that the message of Jesus Christ would reach the lost in unreached people groups in western civilization. Pray specifically for the lost in the United States.
2. Pray for those unreached people groups in the 10-40 window.
3. Pray for God to raise up principled, uncompromising Christian patriots to lead in our local, state, and Federal legislatures.
4. Pray God will orchestrate events to put a godly man or woman in the White House.
5. Pray for the truth to shine through the lies of the mainstream media.
6. Pray for grassroots organizations to grow in strength to take on the corrupt Washington D.C. system.
7. Pray for luke-warm Christians to be set on fire for God.
8. Pray for sound doctrine within the churches.
9. Pray for Christians who will stand up for their faith.
10. Pray for religious liberty.
11. Pray for the Salvation Army and her leadership.
12. Pray for atheists, that they would know Jesus Christ as their savior.
13. Pray for young people who are exposed to so much depravity and sin in this world, that they would be able to stand and resist every temptation and that they would know God.
14. Pray for public schools, and for the lies, and for the truth to be taught.
15. Pray for God's power to end the scourge of human abortion forever in this world.
16. Pray for the Christian message to reach out into all sectors of media and popular culture, including television, radio, the news media, movies, documentaries, history, and the sciences.
17. Pray the Lord's kingdom come in the area in which you live.
18. Pray for a great awakening in the United States.
19. Pray for Godly men to be raised up, who refuse to be shamed by the current culture, who live as men ought to live, and stand firmly as leaders and warriors of truth.
20. Pray for women, who have been so deceived by our culture to stand for morality, for truth, and for justice. Help women to stand as beacons of wisdom, truth, grace, and humility.
21. Pray for young adults to seek after Jesus Christ as he truly is, and not as we would have him be.
22. Pray for Christians to get involved in politics in meaningful ways, given Romans 13's requirement for us to obey the authorities, which means participating in our democracy style government.
23. Pray for persecuted Christians in the middle east who are being beheaded for their faith.
24. Pray for persecuted Christians in Iran, including Pastor Saeed.
25. Pray for persecuted Christians in China and North Korea.
26. Pray for wise Christian leadership who refuse to be caught up in sex scandals or immoral controversies. We have a great vacuum of good leadership in evangelicalism.
27. Pray Gospel for Asia's leader K.P. Yohannan to repent from his new agenda of centralized leadership, and to return to a grassroots effort of raising up churches. (Read more on Patheos).
28. Pray for many of the televangelists who do not endure good doctrine and who pervert the word of truth. And pray that if they do not repent, that the Lord would remove them from the airways.
29. Pray for a new conservative media.
30. Pray for the leaders of Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and other massive banking institutions. Pray for their leaders to be wise, godly, and to turn from corruption.
31. Pray for the owners of fortune 500 companies like Starbucks, Wal Mart, Costco, and others. Pray they would know Christ and be charitable and generous with their wealth.
32. Pray for the end of corporate cronyism and corporate welfare.
33. Pray for ISIS to be brought to saving faith in Jesus Christ, and also pray that they would be defeated, to prevent the murder of innocent people in the Middle East, Europe, and the United States.
34. Pray for the victims of mass shootings and for the healing of their families.
35. Pray for those who are suffering from cancer, pray they would be healed and restored to health.
36. Pray for the LGBTQ community, pray they would receive the gospel and turn from their past ways and live in rightness with God.
37. Pray the church of God would spend more time in the word of God.
38. Pray that churches, organizations, and groups would promote healthy eating and help stem the tide of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes in our nation.
39. Pray that the body of Christ would spend more time in prayer.
40. Pray that young people within the body of Christ would take the Bible's teachings on sexuality seriously including the issues of masturbation, pornography, and pre-marital sex.
41. Pray for the church to help end the horror of child sex slavery.
42. Pray that believers would be better stewards of their money, and would learn better ways to manage their finances.
43. Pray that Christians in the world would have a closer walk with Jesus Christ.
44. Pray for cutting edge media, movies, and music to help transform the culture.
45. Pray for those addicted to drugs, pray they would seek recovery and know Christ.
46. Pray for alcoholics and for recovery and faith in Christ.
47. Pray for those addicted to cigarettes, that they would have the power to quit and stay quit.
48. Pray for children who are led astray by the sexualized culture.
49. Pray for sex addicts and relationship addicts to experience recovery and hope.
50. Pray for prostitutes to be freed from their captivity, pray for Christians to help them be set free.
Praise the Lord for how good he is to have set us free in Jesus Christ! God willing 2016 will be a year of growth, transformation, and spiritual awakening. In Jesus name, Amen.
Related Posts:
- The Great American Culture War: Religious Liberty, Gay Rights, Naturalism & the Christian Faith
- Christianity in the Public Square: The Apologetics & Philosophy Renaissance
- Christian Activism: Can Christianity survive the new cultural attitudes?
- Gay Marriage, LGBTQ Issues, and the Christian Worldview
- A Rational Inquiry of the Bible: Is it reliable? Is it the word of God?
- On the Fourth of July: Freedom of Speech & the New Intolerance
- The Supreme Court, Same Sex Marriage, Religious Liberties
- Ten Great Minds, Ten Controversial Presentations
- What is the Truth about Abortion? Fact, Fiction, Christianity, & Humanism
- Faith in the 21st Century: The Seven Key aspects of Faith
Happy New Year everyone, may this be a year for you and for I, in which
we grow closer and closer to God, and that in his radiant presence we
find the numerous shackles of sin tumbling from our limbs as our eyes
lay be-fixed on the giver of life, the redeemer of man, our blessed,
resurrected and glorified Lord Jesus Christ.
It's all about Jesus.
Merry Christmas! May the Lord Jesus Christ be at the center of your celebrations this holiday season. Truly truly Christmas is all about Jesus Christ.
Does the date really matter? Not really. Are some of the Christmas traditions rooted in paganism? Yes they are. Yet despite those concerns, this Christmas can and is all about Jesus Christ in my heart. It should be the same for you. Set new traditions and new standards within your home, to make Jesus Christ the center of your Christmas celebration. There is nothing wrong with that. There is nothing pagan about that.
In the Bible God taught us to observe days of thanksgiving to remind ourselves how God has shown us love and mercy. Feast dates were instituted by the nation of Israel to remind them of the moments in history when God had helped them, like the exodus from Egypt. There isn't anything wrong with using the calendar year to keep our hearts and minds centered on Christ.
Christ is great. Christ is the real deal. We need to make sure we never forget, and always focus deeply on Jesus Christ. We humans are people of habit. When we get in the habit of recalling Jesus in this time, we can keep him front and center.
God came into human history. He suited up in the form of a person, Jesus Christ, to save his people. He went on a rescue mission to save humanity.
There was no hope before Jesus Christ, there was only sin and the rule of evil. Evil has destroyed our planet. It's given birth to every horror imaginable: child sex slavery, starvation, diseases, abortion, genocides perpetrated by secular dictators, divorce, broken families, wars of greed and wealth, racism, sexism, violence against those with differing views, and even the horror of the genocide of entire races of people. Think of the Jews during World War II, the people of Cambodia during the genocide, and millions of Africans during the Rwandan civil war.
Many get so upset when Christians say that the world is an evil place. They seem to think there is no evidence. Yet there is so much evidence all around us! Have they not lived in the terrible 20th century? They have, but they are blind. They have their secular humanist glasses on. Many today can't see past the borders of the United State's wealth and affluence. Despite their own propensity to bash and mock the American way of life, they live in a cocoon of safety provided by it. Despite the rhetoric, the problem of sin and evil is obvious.
God didn't make those things. We did those things. God gives us the choice. He lets us choose how to live. Do we do good or do evil? Most today choose passive selfishness. And apathy is the same thing as doing nothing. It's not helpful. Some choose good though. They're the ones constantly mocked on television, internet, and newspapers. They're labeled as crazies for standing for things like religious freedom, conscientious objection, faith lived in public life, or standing for Christian sexual ethics. They're even mocked for praying.
Jesus Christ came into the world to save people like us, lost, self-destructive, addictive, selfish, consumerist, and given to random sexual encounters at bars on Friday night. We've prostituted ourselves at bars, at parties with friends, to people we hardly know, just for the fun of it. How deep is our moral confusion, how inexhaustible is it? Yet Jesus came for people like us. He came to save us who go from divorce to divorce, for us who give ourselves to every stranger we catch feelings for. He even came to save the LGBTQ activists celebrating their sinful behavior in a parade, who spat on a Christian minister who accidentally walked too close to the procession. I saw a graphic describing the evolution of gay rights, it said: 1990 - we want tolerance. 2000 - we want equality. 2015 - bake the cake bigot! And the graphic showed a rainbow colored gun pointed to the head of the baker. Oh how the oppressed have become the oppressors. Yet Jesus came to save us who oppress the innocent. Jesus came to save us who abused and mocked the gay community. Jesus came to save those lost within the gay community. He came for us all, and we would only turn to him.
He came to save a culture that considers ministers less than scum, and Caitlyn Jenner as heroic. He came to save those who were actively in rebellion against everything he stood for. Jesus came to save us, the ones lost in sin.
The message of Jesus Christ is that it's never too late. You're never too far gone. You're still completely open to the chance of calling out to Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of all sin, to turn from your old ways and embrace the way of holiness.
Sin has destroyed our world. Sin has destroyed us in many ways, some more than others. Yet the most terrible situation of sin is that whenever we do evil and live in these awful ways, we sin against God himself. God understands perfectly, right from wrong. He knows all the right ways to live. And he's told us those ways. Yet we didn't listen. We mocked the Bible, despite how history had hung around it. We mocked the Christian faith, despite how our country was founded on it's precepts. I've done those things personally. I was once the chief mocker of the Christian view. But now I'm an advocate. I sinned against God himself, the creator of the universe. Have you done the same? Have you contributed to the evil state of our world?
If so, it's not over for you. It doesn't matter what you've done. Have you had an abortion? Jesus will remove that sin. Have you engaged in homosexuality? Jesus will remove that sin. Have you hurt your family? Jesus will remove that sin. Have you stolen from others? Jesus will remove it. Have you been lazy and selfish all your life? Jesus will free you from that. Have you raped someone? Jesus will remove that sin. Have you been hateful? Jesus will remove that too. Have you killed someone? Jesus will remove that sin too. Have you hated God and mocked his name? Jesus will forgive that sin too. He will make you white as snow, gifted in his righteousness, and set you on a new path of repentance from all evil. He will change you into a person who lives in holiness. He will wash away all your sins and give you new birth into a living hope.
This incredible sage began about 2,000 years ago in a little town in the middle east. A baby boy was born in a manger because there wasn't any room at the motel. Isn't it ironic that the one who made the world from nothing couldn't find a hotel room? Much less a hospital for a safe birthing procedure!
We've all heard of the wise guys who showed up right? I imagine they were quite perplexed for some time. Maybe they had dreams about the birth of a special person who would change the world. I've often had strange dreams that leave me wondering for days. Maybe they dismissed those dreams as simply the odd clamorings of a human mind. Until one of them noticed a bright star. Perhaps he had seen it in a dream. And he started to follow. And the others followed. There they found the new born Jesus Christ.
Could they have comprehended the mystery? I doubt they understood fully. They probably looked down on the baby and thought: "I wonder what this could mean?" Yet I bet there was also an incredible sense of awe, though they didn't quite understand the awe, they were compelled within to worship this child as their Lord. Amazing, isn't it?
It isn't always easy to fully comprehend. I still have my doubts at times. I think about the Bible, the life of Jesus Christ and the current state of the world... and I wonder to myself: What is all this? Does it really make sense? How can the birth of one man, God, and his life, death, and resurrection free me from sin? How can it give me eternal life? Why this way? Why not another formula? Jesus Christ took my place? God's wrath for me fell on Christ? Isn't that a bit intense? Why would God want to slaughter me, and send me to hell if he's good and loving? I still ponder those questions. But there is something else too: Today I'm willing to admit that I don't fully comprehend all of it. I'm willing to be humbled by life and circumstances to the point that I can receive it, and see it working in my life. I'm willing to leave the door open to further thought, while confidently trusting in Christ.
I'm a human person, I'm not God. I can't see every angle. In fact family and friends have more than once called me out on areas of my life that need to change. And they were right. I can't see certain things because of my own prejudice. It's the same way when I look at the cross of Jesus Christ. I can't perceive the full meaning and majesty of it. Often when I look upon it my gut reaction is to look with my old eyes and see an anachronism. But in the Spirit, I can see the iceberg beneath the surface of the meaning of it. I can't see all of it. But I can see more, in the Spirit.
My questions remain, but so does my faith. I've put my trust in Jesus Christ. He is my savior. Do I understand every verse and every passage? No I don't. Do I see the work of Jesus Christ in my life? You bet I do. Do I feel the connection to him? Yes I do. Do I sense a greater implication in the mystery of his life, death, and resurrection? Yes, yes, yes I do.
I don't understand all the Bible. But I trust every word of it. And I'm willing to put the Bible above my own opinions. The Bible is right and if I disagree with something in the Bible guess whose wrong? I am. You are. God's word is true, time will show it to be true.
The mystery of Jesus Christ changed the world forever. If I can't perceive the fullness of it, that's a Justin problem, that's not God's problem and I don't need every single detail to make an informed decision for reasonable faith in a reasonable God who has reasonably saved me from a just penalty for my own iniquity.
God came into human history. Emmanuel means "God with us." God came. He lived a perfect life. He went to the cross for us. He died for us. He was bodily resurrected for our salvation. He came to perfect us. Jesus declared victory over death when he bodily resurrected. Jesus Christ is alive today, resurrected and glorified seated in authority at the right hand of God the Father.
And in the future he will present us to God the Father in perfect holiness, and present to us a perfect reality. A reality with no more sin, death, and misery. No more death! I've been working in nursing homes for months now serving there, and I've seen the horror of death. And something about it seems wrong. Death is wrong, death should not be.
Death is a disease and Jesus Christ is the cure.
So God the Father will remake reality itself a mystery called the coming of the Kingdom of God. He will build a new Earth and a new universe freed from the plagues of death and sin. There we will live with God forever in peace, joy, and unending life. Is it really so unbelievable? I don't think so. God made the universe. We messed it up. He's given us a chance for redemption. We receive it, stand as pillars of it in this temporal universe and then when we pass through the shadow of death (physical death) we will live eternally is a recreated universe where death has no place. That works for me.
I hope it works for you too. It's the truth about everything. It's the hidden formula of life, behind all the piffy doctrines of humanism, naturalism, and the false realities of this world. None of them make sense, they don't add up, and they don't adequately interpret the observable universe. Christianity does in fact adequately explain all facets of life: origin of life, meaning of life, morality of life, and the destiny of humanity and the universe. Origin, meaning, morality and destiny. Test and observe. Naturalism can't touch that. It's garbage, half-baked presuppositions based on false beliefs.
Despite the secular revolution in our country, Christians are pushing back. They are appealing to heaven, to God, to change our nation. God is answering those prayers. Jesus Christ is the center of life. He is the center of all we do as Christians. I urge you to use this holiday time to delve a few steps closer to the mystery of his life and his gift to us, his chosen people.
Focus on Jesus Christ this Christmas, he is truly the savior of the world. We don't seem to fully understand how much he's done for us, but that's OK, we can praise him and worship him anyway. Over time we will grow closer and closer to the wonderful savior. Amen.
Related Posts:
- Origin, Meaning, Morality, & Destiny: An atheist and a Christian on discuss Worldview
- Seven Objections to the Bible and Seven Reasonable Responses
- Quick Fact Sheet: Four Points to Consider
- 10 Answers to Common Questions Raised by Skeptics
- Believing in the Miraculous: The Work of Jesus Christ on the Cross
- Can you see through the illusion?
- Philosophy, Science, Logic, and History: Presentations on the Truth of Christianity from Multiple Disciplines
- No Evidence for God?
- Declaration of Worldview (What we Believe)
- Reasonable Evidence for Christianity
The divine overarching story of humanity and the universe itself is playing out right before our eyes. It's happening everyday. It's all around us. You can feel it. It's all encompassing!
It's like a song in the backdrop. It's like a quiet melody on the wind. You can feel it when you stare down an empty road in the midst of night. You can sense it as you stand alone in a wooded forest, listening to the timbers creaking. You feel the enchantment of it, staring up into the star filled sky. On the way to work it's happening. These are the moments of life itself. Maybe we'll talk about them in the next life. Maybe it'll just be written down somewhere, and we'll never think of it again.
As I watch a group of pigeons fluttering about on the pavement, I'm amazed. Deep down I know something so complex couldn't arise from disorder and nothingness. Such harmonious complexity takes a divine personality. God is at work, now and especially when I'm not noticing.
The beauty of these wind swept moments are breathtaking, but just as prescient is the sorrow of the darkness of this world. By darkness I mean struggle. I can feel that so powerfully. I have a mind where it takes off, and I can slide down into it, contemplating the incredible scope of the deceptions in this world. They are massive, entrenched, and powerful. Over such a short period of time the truth seems to have been entirely swept aside and every manner of filth, depravity, sin, and corruption have taken it's place. So quickly it seems, so quickly. One can build such good, and it can be circumvented so totally, so quickly.
I am the future generation, the millennials, generation Y. Yeah, it's interesting. It surely is interesting. We've grown up, at least I've grown up hearing in the backdrop of my daily life, adults whispering: "I feel sorry for the next generation." Or "I'm glad I'll be gone because the future is bleak."
And then there's my generation... well. They drink and drug and party quite a bit. They think they're brilliant artistic anti-establishment. But a lot of them are dumb, brainwashed pleasure junkies who parrot whatever the media tells them to believe. They puke out liberal sentiments programmed into them by the television. They go all out on party, wealth, selfishness, and sex. They are so assured there will be no consequences and they live in denial when the consequences crash down upon them. It's such a lost generation. And nothing I can say changes it, at all. I could weep for them day and night. It wouldn't change anything. Many of them are nothing more than dead walking. I once was the same.
In sexual encounters at random, in drug highs, in drunken bashes, the trick was this: We thought we were taking. But it was taking from us. It's very simple, but profound. Every single time, every high, every sexual blitz, every crazy night out, we were losing something. And so many of us have ended up hollowed out. This world took something precious from us. It took the sacred from us. The sacred is like a soft wind, a soft calm, a sort of blanket over the moment. Warm and fuzzy. Why? Because it's true, it's moral, it's right. It's a peacefulness, a closeness with God. It's a sense of living in a state of rightness; of being good. And being good feels so good. It feels so great.
With all the sinful depravity of this life, we stripped ourselves of the sacred for the sake of trite pleasures and those pleasures, appearing like sugary treats turned out to be meat hooks that dug into our flesh and turned us into slaves to desires we could never truly satisfy. There is no end to the need for depraved encounters, sex addicts and porn addicts will tell you they need more and more depraved and twisted imagery to keep themselves sufficiently titillated. You will hear much the same from the drug addict. More and more. It's never enough.
We thought we were so wise to turn from all the foundations, to write our own faustian story. But it wasn't the real story. It was a lie.
And thank God that I discovered the real story. The story has to be true to change the world. It has to be true to change me. That story is the saga outlined in the divine revelation known as the book. The book changes the world. Yet it's so hard for us to accept. It was for me. Why? Because it tells me the unvarnished truth about myself. It tells me all the things I don't want to hear. It tells me about how I'm the problem. It won't let me play it off on government, big business, banks, poverty, conditions, or anything else. It forces me to realize something very simple: What's wrong with the world is me. I'm the problem. And I've got a just reward in front of me because of my own selfish choices: total disconnection from God. That drives people crazy, how could God send me away from him? How could he send me to "hell"? Well, I suppose God doesn't want evil people around him. And to be honest, we aren't the victims of a mean God, we're the ones who have gone astray. Our choices have set us on this course, and we all know it deep down.
A former drug addict like me knows it quite acutely.
Do you think there's something good about people? Do you think people are good? I'll quote the famed atheist scholar John Gray who wrote in his book Straw Dogs, and I quote: "Humanists think there is something good about humanity? Why don't you try reading a newspaper?"
Taking a look at the Fox News website (I'm a millennial I don't have a physical copy) the current top story on Fox News is the ongoing investigation into the San Bernardino terrorist attack. One could pick up a newspaper on any given day and find the truth about humanity.
The truth about humanity is that we need a savior. Thank God that we have a savior. This is the truth about life: I need to reconnect to the divine architect of the universe. I need God to change me. The right state of me as a human, is to be in total connectedness to God the creator of life. I'm meant to enjoy closeness with the Heavenly Father and the enjoyment of his universe. I'm meant to connect to eternal truths beyond this world. The very meaning of life itself is to live in permanent relationship with God. Can you perceive it? Can you sense it? Can you feel it? Can you philosophically conceive of it? Can you scientifically see the patterns in supposed chaos? Can you understand the love of God? And the most important question: Can you humble yourself, to that of a child, to receive this kingdom that is coming into the wreckage of this world?
It is a divine mystery, the coming of this kingdom.
Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.” -Luke 17:20-21.
The kingdom of God is within you. The kingdom of God is coming into this world. Can you see it?
Sometimes when I'm standing there, in the darkness at night, examining the streets, watching the roads, listening to the wind and the air.. I can feel it. I can feel the anticipation. I can sense the divine poetry of the moment. I can sense the poetic mystery playing like a song no one can learn. It's beauty knows no depths, and it sings out, it shouts from every corner of the land, the buildings, the concrete, the trees, the grass, and the waters of the lakes and rivers. It aches bitterly for the revealing of the sons of God and the final perfection of the universe for the coming of the King of Kings. I can see it. I can sense it within, the bitter aching for the rightness of the kingdom of God.
For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. -Romans 8:19-23
Yet this life is so fearful. There are so many giant mountains in the distance. Just like Atreyu faced on his journey. Just like Luke Skywalker faced when he hung by a beam at Cloud City. Just like Frodo examining the gates of Mordor. Just like Jesus at the garden of Gethsemane. Fear is a deadly enemy to those of making for home. It captures me at times, and I can't help but feel weaked by it. Yet the story continues, the saga goes on. After all, we have narrative minds. We're drawn to the story. We're drawn to the heroic, the great leader, the great hero on his journey to save that which as been lost. Our own cinema and books often reflect the divine overarching meta-saga of paradise lost, humanity lost in the dark wilderness, and the redemption of mankind through the God-man Jesus Christ. And the future eternal reign of the King of Kings. It's beautiful. It's epic. It's the truth about life. It doesn't change. It's not one of many truths, it's the only truth.
The stakes are exceedingly high, so high, so high, the souls of mankind hang in the balance everyday. So many are led astray. So many evil forces and terrifying strongholds exist. It makes me want to shutter in fear, and shut down completely!
"Do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." -Matthew 10:26-31
Jesus said, "Don't be afraid, I'm with you." He says the same to you and I today: "Don't be afraid, I'm with you."
Jesus Christ changed everything in my life. He took me from the king of clowns, a drug addict with serious mental issues, to putting me on the front lines of an intense spiritual battle for the hearts and minds of the people of the world. I found it a bleak situation. The forces of light are not winning, in fact we're thoroughly losing on just about every front.
I entered former strongholds of light and the power of the Spirit to find the systems of defense crumbling. I found the guards on the walls were elderly, and no young men had come to take the places of the aged and infirmed. I found women lost in sex, drunkenness, and selfishness. I saw beautiful women, with wisdom in their eyes, and zeal for changing the world, I saw them lost, broken, addicted, driven mad by the half baked philosophy of this world, run amok, turned into sex toys for depraved men and destroyed completely. And I can only think why Lord, I can see the goodness in them, yet they are addicted, lost, emotionally destroyed, and so far gone. Is there any hope I wondered? I found the old women passing out of this world, leaving no legacy, because their children had all turned from the faith of the old. I found broken lines, crusted entrenchments, empty, all the enthusiasm gone, all the zeal collapsed, and I found in-fighting, despairing, and crumbling of the foundations of the hope of humanity, the Christian faith itself!
Yet I realized something. God is still at work. He hasn't gone anywhere. And even if I see so few young people, so few millennials willing to take up the call... I realized. I took up the call. I'm standing here. I've taken up my spiritual armor, I've taken up the sword of the Spirit. I've taken up the cause of Jesus Christ in this world, to share the gospel, to be preservation and moral goodness to this world. Even if no one else does, I'm here. And I'll keep fighting. God is at work in the world. He came to my mutilated remains on the fields of darkness of addiction, and post-modernism and this farce of a culture addicted to television, fine cuisine, self indulgence, and consumerism. My mind ripped apart by it. My soul crushed. And he carried my remains to Jesus Christ who poured his own life into mine, and suddenly from death itself, from total spiritual decay and physical collapse, I stood anew redeemed out of the world by the precious gift of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, his blood for my blood. He changed everything. He woke me from the dead.
The story of humanity itself is that of a wayward people fleeing their creator, and of the pursuit of God toward his people, and the coming of God into the nightmare of his own people. Jesus Christ appeared in the haze of the evil planet Earth, bringing redemption. That is the saga of humanity. Every leader has to understand this over-arching narrative, this story. But it's not just a story, it's not just a narrative. It's the truth about life. It's the history and personality of humanity. It's the full description of the universe around us. It exists and so do we. So does God. And we need God. Jesus Christ brings us home to God. In Jesus Christ we can change the world. But when we try to build a peaceful paradise outside of Jesus Christ, it crumbles in our hands. So many in this world want peace, but they don't want the prince of peace. And there can be no peace without the prince of peace Jesus Christ.
The time is now friends. This is our great moment. We millennials have been so led astray by the liberal media, by secular universities in this country, we've been led astray by philosophical lies, we've been led astray by arrogance. We've been led astray by drugs, alcohol, by the sex revolution, and by the selfish consumer society. But it's not too late! It's not too late! It's not too late! We can stand here. Now. We can change the world. But we can't do it alone. If and when we choose to place the Christian faith, Jesus Christ at the center of our efforts to change this world, then we will bring about the greatness we wish to see.
We want change. We want to help people. This is the mission. This is the message. Millennials must humble themselves and come to Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness we wish we didn't need. But we do need it. Call upon Jesus Christ. Take up the banner of the truth! Start a movement. Start a revolution!
The hour is late friends. The forces of darkness are moving in all directions. Our own defenses have been corrupted and crippled. Our generation has slipped into many traps and deadly snares. But it's not too late. If you can believe that Jesus Christ really is who he claimed to be. Then there is a chance. Can you believe? Can you really believe? Can you accept it? Can you accept that and receive Jesus Christ the son of God, the redeemer of humanity as your own personal Lord, comforter, and savior?
Can you perceive it? Can you sense it? Can you see it in every moment? Can you read it in the pages of the book? Can you live it? Will you repent of your old ways? Will you turn to Jesus Christ? Will you take up your spiritual armor and fight against the lusts of your own desires? Will you build boundary walls in your mind? Will you fight your sinful desires which fuel the self destruction of the human race? Will you receive the son of God as your redemption, your righteousness, the remover of your sins? Are you ready for a new life? Are you ready to be born again? Are you prepared to know the deepest truths in the universe? Are you prepared to encounter God himself?
Today is the day.
There is still hope.
The light shines in the darkness.
And my generation, young people will come to know it.
Because my generation deserves to know, like our parents and our grandparents came to know, that they are designed creatures, created beings, designed and crafted by the beautiful, enchanting artist, an architect, a quiet being lingering in the backdrop, listening, loving, and caring for us... the God who made the universe itself. Can you understand the full weight of that? Can you perceive the expansive meaning behind that? God is real. You should be free to know him. Like I've been made free to know. By calling out to Jesus Christ for help, like I called out to Jesus Christ for help.
I write this because I want you know in the most sincere way the meaning I had ached for so desperately that I almost died several times filled to the brim with pills, drink, and drug. Jesus Christ is the truth. He is the answer. In him is the real truth of life. It's not a game. It's not an old superstition. It's really real.
I want you to know so badly, because it's so hard to see behind all the televangelist nonsense, the megachurches, the false teachers, and the way Christianity is portrayed in the media as a sort of backward superstition of the foolish. But I found something very different.
I encountered God himself. He's real. You can be with him through his son Jesus Christ. You don't have to like it, but it's the truth. Please receive it. Please trust in him. Please call out to him. We have much work to do, the hour is late in these spiritual battles. We need you now. Join the resistance, join the revolution.
May the grace and peace of Jesus Christ be yours, always, amen.
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