The Need

The Need

I would recommend that we straighten out a few things before we contemplate any interplanetary transportation system.  Suppose a man from Mars should suddenly appear on Earth?  I think it would be terribly embarrassing if he learned that a second-rate singer in a night club makes four thousand dollars a week, and a high-school teacher makes three thousand eight hundred and ninety dollars a year.  This and many other things should be straightened out first if we intend to maintain our dignity when planet folks start visiting us.
                                                                                                    Harry Golden

I came across the above quote and realized just how profound those words are. Our priorities as a society are royally messed up.
Take for example the Ebola epidemic in Africa. One of the reasons it can’t be contained is because very little priority was given to finding a vaccine for it. Someone noted to me the big pharmaceutical companies couldn’t make a lot of money on developing it so it took a back seat to other research.
The same is true when it comes to looking for cures particularly for rare illnesses. People are dying due to rare illnesses daily, illnesses that a cure could be found for if only there was the financial resources available.
Look at world hunger. There is enough food in the world to feed the world but politics, war and money, symbols of man’s selfishness, stop the food from getting to where it’s needed.
The group calling itself the Islamic State (ISIS) has become a major threat to the world, why? Because of political inaction. It was the problem of someone else.
Young men and women are becoming radicalized by ISIS and other groups because society particularly in the west doesn’t seem to have anything to offer them.
Over the centuries the western world in particular has fallen away from the Christian faith and for that matter faith of any kind to be replaced with Atheism and materialism
Materialism and Atheism offers little in way of true fulfilment except a few theories and platitudes.
In the middle east with the exception of Israel, Christianity has been restricted banned out right and even persecuted.  At the same time society in those countries in which Christianity has fallen out of favour seems to have become a harsher place to live.
What is needed is a firm foundation based on the love of one’s fellow man whoever he may be.
The book of Matthew records Jesus answering the following question,
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 
Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  
This is the first and greatest commandment.  
And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” 
                                                                       Matthew 22:37-40.
It is as love declines within our society be it for God, or for our neighbour that evil is taking its place.
The problem here in the west could in part, also be laid at the feet of many churches also.
    I look around North America especially in the United States and the church quite often is becoming irrelevant. Yet it has the most important message one can give to the world.
It’s becoming irrelevant because the church is not in many ways keeping up with the times. It is to quote a phrase becoming “musty and dusty, and irrelevant”.
There are some wonderful churches around where we live. They sing the old hymns, Amazing Grace, To God be the Glory, What a friend we have in Jesus. Yet I look at their congregation and find almost no teenagers.
Teenagers are our future. These are the kids that are being radicalized by terrorist groups like ISIS and others.
I look at the church my Son attends it’s a large church to be sure, and they have over a hundred teens attending, I actually think it’s closer to two hundred attending.
Not only that but history within that church shows that many of the youth that have attended they youth group over the decades have gone on to work in the church.
     Many have even gone on to be missionaries and pastors.
The reason is simple the youth attend because the message of Christ is relevant to them. Not only that it is presented in a twenty-first century package that they can relate to.
They do not sing Amazing grace. They sing music from Hillsong and other contemporary sources. They communicate through smart phones, the internet, twitter and what ever other technology they have.
These teens talk about relevant topics to the their age group. They talk about the problems they have.
Christ is presented to them in a way they can understand.
The message these young people age getting is the same Message John Newton the author of Amazing grace was giving to his congregation. It’s the same message the apostle Paul delivered in Athens. The only difference is that they can also get it on their smart phone.
As Christians we have a duty to society as a whole. We need to reach out to everyone.
We have the answer to the radicalization of our youth by terrorist and murders. That answer is Jesus Christ.
Jesus said,
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” 
                                                                                    Matthew 11:28-30.
This is a message not only for our youth but for every man, woman and child. A message that can change the world for the better.
Think about it.