As I was contemplating my “GRIP Thoughts” for this week, I was drawn to 1 Kings 9 where God appears to Solomon after the dedication of the Temple. In short, God accepts the Temple and reaffirms His promises to bless Israel and Solomon so long as they continue to follow and obey God. But God also outlines what will happen if they turn away from Him.
Specifically, God outlines that if they don’t heed Him, the people will be exiled from the land and He will reject the Temple. At that point, Israel will become of no consequence, and the temple will be reduced to rubble.
And of course that is exactly what happened. (1 and 2 Kings is thought to have been written over the course of the exile long after the destruction of the Temple, perhaps as yet another reminder to Israel of what they need to do and not do if they should ever be allowed to return home.)
But what was of particular note to me as I read it this time is what else God said to Solomon about what would happen if the people turned away from Him. In verse eight God indicates that the consequences will be so significant that other people will be appalled and scoff at how far things have gone off the rails for Israel.
In reading that, I couldn’t help but be reminded of our neighbors to the south. The States were founded as One Nation Under God and in God they placed their trust. And they became a great nation, not dissimilar to Israel in Solomon’s time. But their stature is quickly waning and today, as you watch the news, the international ridicule for America is mounting (especially in light of one of their Presidential candidates).
Whether or not the U.S. is about to collapse remains to be seen, but it begs the question of how is it that a nation can fall from greatness to mediocrity and perhaps further?
The answer is not that complicated. It is the people. The people turn from God and the rest follows suit.
What is even more sobering: Canada is, at the very least, on the same path as America, if not further ahead.
The question then becomes, what do we do now?
The simple answer is that people need to turn back to God. But obviously those that don’t acknowledge God aren’t going to all of a sudden adopt that response. So what this really means is that those of us that claim to follow God need to make sure we are living up to that claim.
We need to examine ourselves to see how well we are obeying Him. We need to ask God to search us and point out where we are out of line with Him. And we need to pray that He will use us to introduce others to Him.
That is why I am so pumped about FBC. We are growing in our obedience to God as people and as a church and God is using us to help others find Him. This gives me hope that rather than being at the brink of collapse, we are on the cusp of seeing God do amazing things!
-Doug Baynton
(Lead Pastor)