Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
6 21 2023
Spiritual Starvation in America
The crisis of spiritual starvation affects our souls, not our bodies. We see this prophesied in the book of Amos and other scriptures. But what does that mean for the last days? What does it mean for our lives right now?
In reality, our hearts are easily drawn away from God in his word. Human beings have a terrible habit of losing their appetite for God’s word.
Dr. D. A. Carson wrote: apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance. We drift towards disobedience and call it Freedom: We drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation: we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism: we slide towards godliness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.
The scriptures are filled with reminders of the importance of having a spiritual hunger for God Psalm 27:4, Psalm 42:1–2 or 63:1-2
Sherwood Elliot Wirt’s Book “A Thirst for God”, is a commentary on Psalm 142. He said one of the problems we have when we talk about spiritual hunger is we think, spiritual hunger and physical hunger are exactly alike, but they are not.
Spiritual hunger… works just opposite from physical hunger. When we are physically hungry, we eat and satisfy our appetites and cease to be hungry. But when we are spiritually undernourished, and are then given a feast of good spiritual food, it makes us hungrier than ever. Thus the more we learn about God’s love, the more we want to know: we can’t get enough.
The reverse is also true. When we are physically hungry and miss a meal, our appetite becomes ravenous. But if time passes, and we receive no spiritual food, we may lose our appetite for it. Malnutrition sets in, and we cease to care.
Dr. David Jeremiah Gibson says: “The ways in our culture are under threat from spiritual malnourishment”.
Our heritage is being lost. The psalmist in Psalm 61:5 says, “You’ve given me the heritage of those who fear your name”. It’s not just our knowledge of the Bible that’s being lost but revisionist historians have removed every shadow of wholesome biblical influence from the records of America and Europe, and have filled our textbooks with the questionable contributions of everyone else.
How many schoolchildren know that George Washington, after taking the oath of office, stooped down and kissed the Bible?
How many know that the Liberty Bell is encircled by the words of Leviticus 25:10?
Or that the top of the Washington Monument is capped with an explanation of praise to God?
How many children in Sunday school and church know anything about the 2000 years of Christian history?
Where are the missionary stories? What happened to the heroes and martyrs?
How many grow up knowing the 23rd Psalm or The Lord’s Prayer? And what happened to our classic hymns? Our spiritual heritage is slipping away
Our theology is being weakened
Barna’s research says American Christians are undergoing a post-Christian reformation and that many people from evangelical churches are adopting unbiblical beliefs. They used to believe the Bible is the infallible, inerrant word of God. Now, however, 52% do not believe in objective moral truth.
Many evangelical churches, in trying to reach a resistant audience, go too far in compromising biblical truth.
Popular speakers, advocate, processing God’s word to cultural filters, rather than the other way around. Remember, we don’t stand in judgment on the Bible. It stands in judgment on us. When we turn our backs on God‘s word, God may turn his back on us. The book of Romans speaks of God, giving people over to their sinful wills 1:18–32.
Our Bibles are being overlooked.
Mark Twain defines a literary classic as, a book that people praise and don’t read.
Research states the average American household has from 3 to 10 Bibles, but 42% of American Christians are too busy to read them. History has already proven a society without the moral compass of scripture will self-destruct from moral decay and decadence.
Our appetite is being ruined.
A child will gorge themselves on junk food and candy in the afternoon and won’t have much of an appetite for meat and potatoes at supper. In these last days, it seems as if Satan has unleashed an invisible spiritual virus, that robs people of their appetite for God‘s word. But it’s worse than that because it’s not just a loss of appetite. It’s a total distaste for the Bible. When some cite the bible to others, they dub it hate speech and attack those who speak up.
Often, God will respond to our lack of spiritual appetite with silence. He doesn’t force his words in our ears. God’s silence may be hardly noticeable at first. If you realize you are in a drought, immediately seek God and ask him what adjustment your life requires so that you can once again enjoy fellowship with him. Repentance is the real path to freedom.
By His Grace, we can stay healthy even during a large-scale, spiritual famine. Paul told us to “be nourished in the words of faith… and of good doctrine” 1 Timothy 4:6
The Psalmist describes scripture, As sweeter than honey Psalm 19:10 and the prophet Jeremiah said, “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your word was to me, the joy and rejoicing of my heart”. Jeremiah, 15;16.
We are in a war. Everything about the Bible is special. It’s God’s gift to the human race – bread for the soul, honey, for the heart, nourishment for the nerves, and wisdom for the mind. Every syllable represents God’s own thoughts conveyed, through inspired human writers, who recorded the infallible message for the world. In this way, the Lord gave us a book containing everything we really need for life and eternity. It’s simple and perfect for children. And it’s deep, engaging the lifetimes of earth’s greatest scholars. And it’s yours! Jesus said in Matthew 4:4 “People, do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”.
Do something different today…this week…Read about God…
Get to know him again or better…He is waiting for you.
Casting Crowns Only Jesus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eQd3K2Fxp4&list=PL3oW2tjiIxvTstLS9GlgaT_mqONT0WVDw&index=18
Excerpts are taken from Dr. David Jeremiah’s Book. Where do we go from here?
Chapter 8 pg 164- 170
