Dear Editor,
Its time for the Christian to quit being distracted by all the smokescreens.
So what are the smokescreens you ask? Abortion, homosexuality, same-sex marriage, pornography, evolution, lack of prayer in school, taking down the Ten Commandments, adultery, fornication, gun violence, economic struggles, gambling, drug and alcohol abuse, the brokenness of families, prophecy, Israel and many others.
Why would I call all these important issues smokescreens? It is because all of these very important issues are diverting the Church from her original mission.
We, the Church, have been called to take Christ to a lost world of people who do not know Him. We have not been called to save the world from all of its sinfulness.
Let me try to explain something. We, who are in the Church, for some reason believe that if we stop a person from sinning we have made them a Christian. So we fight against the sins of this world not realizing that sinfulness is the natural outworking of a sinful being. So, to try and eliminate sin, as the way to change a persons heart, is a waste of time.
We must change the heart of a person before sin will no longer be attractive to them. According to Scripture this only happens when a person is led to Christ for their salvation from sin. So, what we need to be doing is leading the sinner to Christ. The outworking of this action will be a person who leaves sin behind for the holiness of their Lord and God.
If we were to eliminate all the sinful activity in this world, which would be impossible, we would have never converted a single person to Christ. The people would still be lost in their sin even though they are not participating in the sin activity that the world has to offer.
The activity of sinfulness is not what bothers me. What bothers me is how many people are chasing after the sins of this world. What this should be revealing to us is that our problem is not the availability of sin but that our fellow human beings desire it.
Let me say it this way. If human beings did not desire the sins of this world they would slowly be eliminated from our communities.
So the problem is not what is available to the human but what the human heart desires. We must lead people to Christ for there to be a change in the sinful environment that surrounds us.
So, lets quit being detoured by all the smokescreens and get back to the mission of the church which is reaching people with the message of salvation that is and through Jesus Christ.
Pastor Thomas R. Swain
First Church of God
Great Bend