That which threatens us most of all

Just a few days short of a month ago the missions organization that I chair held a convention in the town of St.Stephen. It had been 10 years since our last one and God said it was time to reinstae this time of renewal. These conventions are a time to get together and worship God in a manner that focuses on world missions. And for three days and five services that is exactly what we did. The highlite of these sevices is of course the preaching of God's Word, the Bible. And what preaching we heard delivered to us by Dr. O. George Kutty the keynote speaker and his wife Kamala who delivered a wonderful message from the Word on Saturday morning. Dr. Kutty's mission field is the world with a focus especially to India. Dr. Kutty is a preacher's preacher. When Judy and I visited with them in their home only two days ago in R.I. he was preparing a dissertation for his second doctorate degree in theology. He is second to none and he preached our convention, a powerful exposition on the infilling of the Spirit of God the first night, given to us to be His witnesses and finalizing with a message called "Hallelujah! the key to revival and spiritual breakthrough" and what a message it was. It was a wonderful weekend and everyone that I talked with agreed that this was a wonderful convention. But so many people did not take advantage of this refreshing time of fellowship. We sent out many invitations to various churches and pastors, many of them said yes they would be there. However for various reasons of which I am not aware they did not make it. And for their sake I feel sorry. As I said I am sure that they all had their reasons, and I respect that. I remember a time when world communism for instance threatened our security similar to terrorism does today, false teaching was also a threat and still is. We had a pastor who warned us that there could come a time when the authorities might come and put a lock on the church house door and we would not be able to worship in freedom any longer and it stirred us and motivated us to fall on our knees before God and pray. However, I believe that the thing that is the greatest threat to our churches, that which threatens us most of all, that threatens to shut us down is not any outside force, but rather it comes from within and it is this lack of passion for the things of God and it is called "apathy". The Bible clearly speaks of a great falling away just before the coming of Christ back to this earth, in fact Jesus Himself asked the question, " nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith in the earth?" Do we have to settle for this question that Jesus asks? Throughout the Bible we see that God postponed judgement when His people repented. There is a great promise found in the book of 2nd. Chronicles 7:14, "If My people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." The next verse goes on, " Now My eyes shall be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place." The word "apathy" means an absence of passion, emotion or excitement. It is a lack of interest in things that others found moving or exciting. Do not misinterpret what I am saying here, I don't know nor am I professing to know why many did not come to the missions convention, they could all have a good reason. I do know that there were many who wanted to be there but it was not possible to come. I think of some ladies from Montreal who wanted to come but could not make it. There were others whose health prevented them from being there. I am not accusing anyone of complacency but I am convinced that it is our greatest threat to our churches existence today and all you have to do is look around the next time you are in church. God is calling us to prayer. There is an old song that says, "do not despair for the Lord still answers prayer, for those who endure the vict'ry is sure, keep praising the Lord."I believe it!