Patience Is No Longer A Virtue

I was driving to work this morning, listening to the radio, and on radio station there played this commercial with the tag: "Don't Wait For Tomorrow With Today Lending." I've been taking Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University, and if you know anything about Dave Ramsey, you know he is the arch-nemesis of debt and borrowing. So, partially my mind was already in this state or frame to focus in one things like this. At the same time, it's also just how I am. But this commercial, this business, is basically saying, "Why wait and save to get something? Have it now."
     Gone are the days when people took pride in what they had because of the sacrifice they put into getting it, not the sacrifice they put into paying it off. We don't realize that in America anymore. And that's truth as Dave Ramsey shows you when you take his classes. Not in the facts and figures of today, but looking at the history of our fathers, our grandfathers, and our great grandfathers--they would sacrifice not to borrow, to pay in full, in cash before they got whatever it is they wanted.   
     The same is true in the church world, our whole society. We are a microwave, we want it now, society. We can't be patient and wait on something.But that's how God is. Look up how much the Bible talks about "waiting on the Lord." In our culture today patience is no longer a virtue, it's an inconvenience. But it's still a virtue with God, it's still a good charter trait with Him, one that all of us need to learn--not just so we can move ourselves a way from the billion dollars of debt we Americans have (put on by ourselves, not the government), but also so we can put ourselves in a position to receive from God and fulfill our purpose in this life. 

The Church Today.....or yesterday actually.

       I went to a different church this past Sunday, not my usual. Actually, it was the church I used to go to, then God told me I needed to go somewhere else. As I went back to visit, I could see why the Lord moved me from that church. I'm not saying anything against this church, just that it's not where God wanted me to be. But I could see why. A wise man once told me there are two kinds of churches--1.) informational churches, and 2.) revelational churches. And you want to go to the revelational churches.
    But this past weekend I didn't. I went to an informational church. As I sat in service, with their guest speaker, apparently someone they approve of, otherwise he would not be given the ear of the entire congregation, I began to wonder if this man, who had good things to say, was even a Christian. Now why do I say that?
    He took the podium around 11:30 and not until 12:00, 12:05 did he quote his single scripture.  And that scripture was expounded on for less than seven minutes, to which he went back to talking on something else, and then closed. In this service though, the majority of what was talked about was what you'd expect at a motivational seminar or something of that sorts. He gave all sorts of statistics and psychological findings and opinions, but not until half an hour into his message did he even bring up the scriptures.
   This is what is wrong with the church today. We are too busy quoting so and so and spouting off statistics and what this and that has found instead of saying what the Word of God has to say on an issue. God is not against finding and statistics as long as the align up with the truth. But He is against those things taking precedence over the Word of God, which it did in this case. The only way that the church is going to get to where it needs to be, where God wants it to be, where we must be for the last day harvest of souls, is to put the Word of God first, to put obedience to the Holy Spirit first, and to put God first--not just in our church services, but in our everyday life.
    Now I'm sure the church I attended does not do this every week. I know they didn't when I went there every week. But it was one more opportunity that slipped through the fingers of the church to speak into the lives of those who came--some who might not come back again. And it's not statictics and psychological finds that get people saved and sets them free--it's the Word of God.