Times Are Shifting

We tend to think of our time in 24 hours in a day. We define our workweeks by the number of hours that we work. We have a list of things to do and only so much time to get everything done.

We should number our days as Psalm 90 says. Our time on earth is so brief, and we want to be good stewards of the time that we have to glorify God.

Time in the Bible is called chronos and kairos. Both are Greek words which mean

time, but they imply different things. Chronos refers to minutes and seconds. It refers to time as a measurable resource. Kairos is the word used for time in Ephesians 5:16 and it means an appointed time, or a due season.

Ephesians 5:15-16 “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.”

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Times are shifting in the world…

France’s G-7 invitation of Iranian Foreign Minister underscores U.S., European divisions on Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Top Iranian officials made an unexpected visit Sunday to the Group of Seven Summit at the invitation of France, a brazen end run around Washington that underscores the deep divide between the U.S. and its key European allies over how to deal with Iran’s nuclear ambitions, which is destabilization the Middle East with its recent attempted attacks on Israel.

The Iranian Foreign Minister arrived at the gathering in France, just hours after the State Department condemned a new “threat” from Iran against a U.S. think tank and a day after Israel said it foiled a “killer drone” attack that Iran planned to launch from an air base in Syria.

The Iranian Foreign Minister's arrival seemed to have caught the White House by surprise, and French officials confirmed they did not clear the invitation with President Trump or any other G-7 stakeholders. “We operate on our own terms,” a French official told The Associated Press.

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Times are shifting in the world…

Times are shifting in America…

'The Bible stays': Mike Pence blasts 'politically correct' efforts undertaken by Obama

VA hospitals will not be 'religion-free zones' vice president says.

The Washington Times - Wednesday, August 28, 2019 spoke to the 101st American Legion national convention in Indianapolis, in defiance of what he termed efforts to be “politically correct”. Vice President Mike Pence said “You might’ve heard even today that there’s a lawsuit to remove a Bible that was carried in World War II from a Missing Man Table at a VA hospital in New Hampshire.” “It’s really no surprise because, under the last administration, VA hospitals were removing Bibles and even banning Christmas carols in an effort to be politically correct.”

Mr. Pence said, VA hospitals will not be 'religion-free zones'. “And my message to the New Hampshire VA hospital is: "The Bible stays.” The audience responded with whoops of applause.

Earlier this year, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and a veteran of the Air Force sued the VA in New Hampshire alleging a violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause of Religion for the display of a Bible at a POW/MIA table in the lobby. On Monday in an interview with The Washington Times, VA Secretary Robert Wilkie said the lawsuit — following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in American Legion v. American Humanist, which upheld the constitutionality of a memorial cross on public lands in Maryland — was all but “moot.”

The VA Secretary noted that as a boy growing up in a military family in North Carolina, he used to sing Christmas carols to hospitalized veterans. Mr. Wilkie also decried efforts by the previous administration of stripping religious items and limiting the ability of chaplains.

The VA employs nearly 800 chaplains across its hospital system.

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Times are shifting in the world…

Times are shifting in America…

Times are shifting in the church…

Pastor HB Charles Jr warns 'entertainment-driven worship is idolatrous'

H.B. Charles Jr., the pastor of Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida, is highlighting the dangers of today's "idolatrous" celebrity pastor culture, warning that "in leaning over to reach the world, the Church is falling in.” Charles said, “There is the temptation for the Church to be influenced by the world and not the other way around,” “As a result, entertainment-driven worship can infiltrate the local church. And entertainment-driven worship has a byproduct of producing celebrities in those who sing and those who teach and those who lead. The infiltration of wrong values can cause us to exalt people or things. This is idolatrous because they rival Christ in our affections.”

The Western Church has enjoyed “privileges” that have made it “slothful". "I feel like the Lord is waking us up during this period to take our faith more seriously and to take our witness more seriously.” Western Christians, would do well to learn from the persecuted Church.

"They understand that they cannot be married to culture."

"They know there's a clear line between the Church and the world."

“They are under no illusion that what they represent as followers of Jesus Christ is

opposed and that they are to be witnesses for Him no matter what.”

Here’s the problem: in order to reach the culture, the Church in America is tempted to try to fit in. In some instances, in leaning over to reach the world, the Church is falling in.”

Every aspect of corporate worship should be a means of “making disciples of Jesus Christ,”

“Faithful shepherds are needed to oversee the worship of the Church and to keep the Church focused on the Word of God." “Every element of a worship service must be geared around the Word of God so that we sing the Scriptures, read the Scriptures, pray the Scriptures, and

preach the Scriptures. We need to build safeguards around the Church so that the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ are central.

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Ravi Zacharias: Many mainstream churches lost the real Gospel, focus on feel-good moments

Ravi Zacharias said the reason many mainstream churches across the U.S. have experienced a decline in numbers is that they have “lost the real Gospel” and focused too much on “feel-good moments.”

“Some of the mainliners have lost numbers and they should’ve lost numbers because they lost the message." “If you’ve lost the real Gospel, people are going to say, ‘Why am I coming here?"

"Some of the churches that are most packed are those where the Gospel message of Jesus Christ is being given to the young and to those who are even thinking seriously about what life is all about."

He also weighed in on the advancement of technology and its impact on the younger generations, saying “we have progressed immensely in our capacity to communicate,” we are also “living in front of a screen and missing out in relationships.”

“So the questions are getting larger and larger and the soul is getting emptier and emptier,” he said, adding that when he began his ministry decades ago, apologetics heavily focused on debates regarding God’s existence. Now, he said, the questions “are more about why we exist." All the questions you ask can only be answered after you have found the answer to the first question: Why you actually exist. And when you find that relationship with God through Jesus Christ, then all the other questions are answered.

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Zacharias’ comments come on the heels of a recent survey that found that the youngest generation in America, Generation Z, ranks spirituality as their lowest value. The survey explains that a trend that sets this generation apart is the way they consume media.

Additionally, an April survey from Gallup found that in 2018 an average of 50% of Americans said they belong or are members of a church representing a 20% decline in church membership over the past 20 years. In contrast, an earlier Gallup polling chart showed that weekly church attendance among Protestants has remained steady at around 45 to 46% (in polling data compiled over 34 years between 1983 and 2017).

In recent months, a number of leading pastors and church leaders have urged the church community to focus less on entertainment and more on biblical discipleship.

David Jeremiah, founder of Turning Point Radio and Television Ministries, told The Christian Post. “The Church is coming under attack; it’s forgotten what the Church is supposed to be.”

“We’re not an entertainment service; we’re not here to see how close we can get to what the world does. But there’s so much of the world in the Church that we can’t tell a difference.

Jeremiah said, “We have to hold to the truth. We have to get nourished. If it’s not happening, then you’re a social organization and not a church.”

Barna Group found that 67% of millennials prefer a “classic” church over a “trendy” one.

“Here in California, we see interest on the part of millennials and younger for the Bible and for truth,” the pastor said. “Most of the time, we see statistics about how people are leaving the Church, but in many respects, young people are demanding more truth, more teaching, and less entertainment. They’re not interested in shallow expressions of religion.”

Lee Strobel the author of The Case for Christ, recently launched a center for evangelism and apologetics with Colorado Christian University, He also stressed the need for greater doctrinal teaching in churches today. "We need in our churches a strong apologetics ministry so that we can help people understand it’s not just an emotional faith, but based on a solid foundation of historical truth and evidence." "We need to teach people these truths so that they can pursue answers."

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Times are shifting in the world…

Times are shifting in America…

Times are shifting in the church…