Strange Days in America

Lots of people feel that. They talk about it.  They confess their unease to their friends, their confidantes.

I do, too.  Certain dear friends feel deeply that some in America, have gone awry.  That our churches have gone awry.  That ministers are following a different drummer.  That the rhythm and beat of Jesus' Biblical call is too stark, too straight, too uncomfortable to be heard as Good News by the people of our time.

They see success coming to the "young, hip, and aware."  They want the church to remind people of the world they are in.  They want church to look like a movie theater.  They want music to be loud, for the young.

Dr. Billy Graham's daughter, Anne Graham Lotz, has written a book called, "Just Give Me Jesus."  That's where a lot of us older folks are.  We're near the end of the trail.  It has been a long walk.  We have heard Jesus' challenging words, His seemingly impossible call to leave everything - "follow Me."  We hear our Lord calling us to be highwaymen of the heart.  To be out on the hustings, telling "the old, old story of Jesus and His love."

He wants us to go confessionally to the world, saying "yes, we know we are sinners.  And we know Who saves us sinners, and how He does that, and we want to just lay before you that naked truth of Jesus and His love.

He tells us it can  be done.  There are those who have told the story, the beloved gospel story.

My friend thinks it has been told even in this privileged town we love.  That when the chips were down, and the world was turning away, a Christian company called Colonial Church wasn't.  It was hearing direct, hard, loving words from their young preacher, and then dared to listen and to hear in that preaching, God's call to them, to tell it, to run it out, to proclaim it.

And Judd, the young researcher, is saying "it really was proclaimed here, that 'STRANGE CALL' of Jesus, and that company heard."  It heard marching orders, and then began to go out, in Jesus' name, to the poor, to the inner city, to the movements for justice, and they made a difference.  They reached the young, the druggies, the lonely, the lost.  And gave them hope.

It actually happened.  And they worked to stand where the message could be heard.  They dared to be the proclaimers.

It's still what the world needs to hear.  And young Judd says, "Here is one place where it was happening.  It's a message needing to be heard again."

We're in a strange time, where that strange call can be heard.  And can be answered.

It can happen in our time.  It's not too late to RISE up and FOLLOW.