The Coming Crisis and The Future

If there has been a particular area in which I have neglected a call that God put on me long ago, it is the matter of writing. Through the years I have written numerous articles and book contributions that have been published. But mostly I have not given either time, energy or obedience to the pursuit of this God called endeavor. My wife, several staff, and many of you, have for years urged me to put on paper much of what God has burdened me with and put on my heart.

To that task I have hesitated because writing, to the writer, is more than just finding an interesting or popular topic. I firmly believe that the best writing is writing that overflows from a desire to inform and, in my case because of my calling as a spiritual shepherd, to equip and prepare the people of God. Over the years, and during my annual “sabbaticals” I have outlined several writing projects, but have yet to engage them. Not because they are not worthy of my effort, but because I have not sensed the timing was right. It might surprise some to know that many of the books on the market by today’s most popular pastors were simply edited versions of their sermon series’. I’ve certainly entertained doing so with some of the series that I have researched, prepared, and presented to you over the years (1000’s of pages)—it still may happen in the future. But for now, I have a greater burden regarding the matters of what I believe is the forthcoming Crisis and The Future. Hey, that may become a sermon series itself!

I say all that by way of introduction to say, in the weeks ahead I will be writing about the coming crisis in this column with this caveat…I reserve the right to interrupt or even discontinue the subject as the Lord may lead. Certainly, the subject matter will not be as in-depth as it would be were it a sermon or chapter in a book, but hopefully it will be insightful and spiritually sobering.

So, why am I writing to you on this subject? I am not a prophet, nor pretending to be one, but there are at least five reasons to speak to The Coming Crisis, particularly for America and American Christianity.

• I believe that the hour in which we are living is late. Very late! John writes in I John 2:18, “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.”
• I believe that as your Shepherd, I will be accountable to God if I do not alert you to what’s ahead. Ezekiel records, “But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand. (Ezekiel 33:6)
• I believe that I am not only accountable, but I am responsible to declare the warning of God to the people under my watch. Ezekiel further records in verse 7, “So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.”
• I believe that there is great ignorance about these things in much of the modern church. Most pulpits in America are not addressing these things. Hosea writes, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.” (4:6)
• I believe that Biblical information is the key to Spiritual preparation. As the Psalmist said, “The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.” (Psalm 119:130)

So, keep reading in the days ahead!

And remember, God is always trying to take you someplace new. I love being your Pastor.

For God’s Glory Alone,
Pastor Ray