Am I concerned?

Things in America are changing rapidly. Many Christians are concerned...wondering what the future will hold for us and our children. Anxiety can quickly set in. Or what if you are one of my many friends in South Korea right now...tensions are rising between South and North Korea. What does the future hold? How do we pray? 

Yes, we need to pray for our respective governments, for wisdom and for Godly guidance. But things may not change. In fact, they may get worse. But this shouldn't worry us when we remind ourselves that God is in complete control. So what do we pray for? I believe one of our overriding prayers, as Christians, in all the change around us should be that the Church in America and South Korea and throughout the prosperous parts of the world will wake up to the spiritual warfare that is being waged around her. We have been lulled to a peacetime mentality for too long by the prosperity of our countries. But Jesus and Paul and others said time and again that we are at war! (2 Tim 4:7, 1 Tim 6:12, Eph 6:15, 1 Thes 3:5, 2 Cor 10:3-5, 1 Tim 1:18, 2 Tim 2:4, Eph 6:12-18)

We are in a global war much worse than WWII and it stretches to every town, village and home. Its casualties don't just lose an arm or leg but their very souls to eternal damnation! May we wake up, out of our peacetime living, and wage this warfare on behalf of our Lord and Savior (and I'm talking about missions...esp overseas to the least reached people groups). 

Christians used to be aware of and wholeheartedly join in the battle for man's souls. Look at the hymnals of old (Onward Christian Soldiers, etc). We sent missionaries by the boatful and lived a life of meeting basic needs rather than wanting more and more! I'm ashamed as I look at just the wealth that Jeff and I have accumulated at the expense of sending more of the money God has blessed us with overseas, where souls are being won or lost for Christ. How many people's lives could have been touched for just the cost of the pretty statues I have sitting on my shelves? 

America and South Korea and other prosperous nations have become like the third soil in Jesus' parable of the soils. Jesus sows His urgent seed (the Word of God). But instead of taking it up as our sword (or bearing fruit), we "are those who hear the Word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the Word, and it proves unfruitful" (Mark 4:18-19)

Yes, changes in our countries are starting to light some fires under Christians. But shouldn't fires have been lit already when we saw the atrocities Satan has undertaken in this world, time and again, over the past few decades (AIDS, Rwanda, Dem Republic of the Congo, Intifada in Israel, China's Tienamen Square, Mao, etc). 

So, my number one prayer, more than anything else, is that God would use the rapid changes in this world to get Christians on their knees. And I suspect, that as Christians pray fervently, their prayers will change from: Lord, preserve the prosperity and richness of this nation and my lifestyle to: Lord, may Your will be done. Break my heart for what breaks Yours. May the Gospel be preached to the ends of the earth to glorify your name and save people, just like me, from Hell. 

Yes...I am concerned. But it's for the soul of the Church. May we turn our hearts, minds and pocketbooks over to the Lord. May we be willing to tithe/fast the "American Dream" for the thousands of unreached people groups in the 10/40 Window, the Muslims who have less than 5 missionaries per million Muslims, the AIDS orphans, the women and young girls sold into sexual slavery... May concern for the glory of Christ and love for his people change America and South Korea (and any other home country of my readers) back to a country with God as our foundation, truly! 

You, my friends reading this blog, are the prayer warriors whose prayers will help bring this to pass!