It Is Time To Seek The Lord
By Pastor Steve Bradshaw The Covenant News ~ January 12, 2001
As I was praying about the emphasis God wanted for this time, He spoke to me out of Hosea 10:12. Specifically, He highlighted the portion above.
I believe our country is heading toward a major crisis. The political crisis we have witnessed the last several months is indicative of a much deeper crisis within the very heart and fabric of our culture. We see an extreme polarization of our citizenry that is tearing our country apart. And in spite of the many reassurances from the political pundits on both sides, it's not going to smooth over once the political dust settles. How can it?
What do I see when I scope the landscape of our country? I see unconsciousable pollution within major portions of God's professing church. Many segments of the church are ordaining homosexuals and giving them the right to represent God to their constituents. We see other segments sanctioning and performing same sex marriages thus authenticating their deviant behavior and undermining its biblical and moral authority to speak righteously against sin. I see a country without a moral conscious. We protect whales and kill unborn babies. Major portions of our population think such values are “normal” and “moral.” That's a scary thought!
And what's worse: there is no indication that our country is turning in any noticeable measure from these bankrupt morals and values. And where is the prophetic voice that should be speaking to the ills of our society? Unfortunately many churches have no voice because they are ordaining homosexuals and allowing same sex marriages.
Instead of working to righteously change society, it is “blessing” the ills by adopting their ways. Professing Christians from both the “left” and “right” side of the political spectrum within the church are looking to worldly powers using worldly means to do what the church is not doing – righteously changing our society. Having lost its “salt” and diluted its “light” the church partners with the world to affect its will. It has lost its way. How sad! How tragic!
God rebuked Israel in Hosea 10:13 because they had “depended on (their) own strength, and on (their) many warriors.” They operated in and related to their world based purely upon the world's ways. They had forsaken their God.
What was God's counsel spoken through His prophet? “It is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers righteousness on you” (v. 12). If ever I've seen a time where we are in need of God's righteousness it is now. I don't believe we are aware of just how perilous the conditions are in our world.
God's prescription, His remedy, is not for us to elect a new president (as important as that is), but to “sow for yourselves righteousness…and break up your unplowed ground” (v. 12). In effect He says, in order to enjoy the fruit of a culture different from the one we live in today, we must sow seeds of appropriate moral conduct by fighting for those things that are true, just and equitable in everything and for everyone while also removing the barriers to His presence that we have purposely, or innocently, erected in our lives.
Folks, it is time to seek the Lord! It is time to both reaffirm and recommit to what we know is biblically right. We need God and our world needs God! Let's seek the Lord until He showers His righteousness upon our nation and us. He will, if we will!
Pastor Steve Bradshaw
New Covenant Church
Thomasville, Georgia