Sometimes the Bible gets accused of being out-of-date, old-fashioned (who measures anything in cubits today anyway?), and generally just not relevant. Well, in recently reading the New Testament, I can tell you that I felt like this book was written in this very decade.

For instance Paul was writing his letter to the Roman Christians of the first century, but doesn’t this sound familiar: “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator”(Romans 1:25). “They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.” (Romans 1:29-31).

Those verses could have been written today by Paul as he was checking out the New York Times–or even the Peoria Journal Star. Yes, even though the church has been around for 2000 years we seem to be dealing with the same issues just played out a little differently.

I know it seems today like things are as bad as they have ever been, but in many ways there are similarities to the first century world that Jesus and His apostles lived in. It seems as if all we as Christians believe in is collapsing around us and that the world is becoming more and more hostile to our beliefs.

Now, here is the good news: The world was a harsh, harsh place for the first century Christians. They had no church buildings to meet in officially, they were persecuted brutally for not worshipping Caesar above Jesus. They were beaten, imprisoned, stoned, and sometimes even killed for their beliefs. BUT, they stayed faithful to Jesus! They knew because they had either seen the risen Lord themselves or heard from the direct eyewitnesses that Jesus rose from the dead! And because of that, they kept the faith despite living in a world where sexual immorality was all around them as well as countless idols. This group changed the world because in a couple hundred years, Rome itself would make Christianity its official religion because they saw the power of the Holy Spirit working in so many men and women. However, the next 1700 years saw the church gain and wane in power over cycles. There were always revivals just when it seemed like the church had lost its relevancy among the people.

The church seems to grow more and be at its most powerful when they are not the “in crowd” or “the power brokers of culture”. Is this because power corrupts and speaks to our fallen nature?

We, as Christians in this generation are at our critical juncture–what we will do? Will we join in the ways of the world, will we be silenced by the growing critical mass, or will we rise up and be faithful to Jesus and be the disciple-makers He called us to be?

The church has always risen out of the rubble of difficult times. Many faithful men and women have given their all to His cause. Will we be the next change agents in this world? Will we rise “for such a time as this”? We were not born into this era by accident, so let’s live with purpose.

More to come…
Jeremy