GPS MALFUNCTION/DYSFUNCTION

From My Perspective - - - 

What is GPS? An excerpt from a long description in Wikipedia states: “The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a space-based satellite navigation system that provides location and time information in all weather conditions, anywhere on or near the Earth where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites. The system provides critical capabilities to military, civil and commercial users around the world. It is maintained by the United States government and is freely accessible to anyone with a GPS Receiver. The GPS project was developed in 1973 to overcome the limitations of previous navigation systems, integrating ideas from several predecessors, including a number of classified engineering design studies from the 1960s. GPS was created and realized by the United States Department of Defense (DoD) and was originally run with 24 satellites. It became fully operational in 1995. Bradford Parkinson, Roger L. Easton and Ivan A Getting are credited with inventing it.”

If one applies GPS to the Moral Compass for life, it would become very clear that there is a malfunction/dysfunction occurring. In his brief book, “Where Do We Go From Here” Erwin Lutzer states in the forward: “It’s gone. Some of you will remember when the Christian philosopher Francis Schaeffer told us back in the 1970s that someday we would wake up and find out that the America we once knew was gone. That day is here. We have crossed an invisible line, and there are no signs that we are capable of turning back. Like a boat caught in the mighty torrent of the Niagara River, we are being swept along with powerful cultural currents that just might put us over the brink. Seemingly irrevocable trends put in motion forty years ago continue to gather greater momentum and speed. Our Judeo-Christian heritage that gave us the freedoms we have enjoyed is for the most part gone, and in its place is an intolerant form of humanism that can boast of one victory after another. The “cultural war” we used to speak about appears to be over, and we have lost. Daily, perhaps hourly, we are losing the war for America’s heart and mind. We must understand the direction and speed of this cultural river that has spilled over and engulfed our land. We must also ask: what should we be doing at this critical hour?”

Yesterday, the following was posted on Facebook: “As you come to church today, if Jesus was there, would he see you as Dead or Alive? If He placed His stethoscope on your heart and on your church, would he declare that you and it are alive or dead? The Williams Translation of Revelation 3:1-2 reads: "To the messenger of the church at Sardis write: The One who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars speaks as follows: I know what you are doing; you have the reputation of being alive, but in reality you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what is left, although it is on the very point of dying..." Jesus clearly said to the church at Sardis: “You have a REPUTATION of being alive, but IN REALITY you are DEAD..."  He went on to observe and say: Wake up, and strengthen what is left, although it is on the very point of dying…” Jesus Christ was correct in His assessment and observation regarding The Church in Revelation 2 and 3 and His assessment of The Church today would be similar.

Part of the issue is: Do we actually take a serious God seriously? Is the church today functioning on the basis of a developed Reputation or on the basis of Truth and Reality? There are all kinds of churches dotting the landscape that exist for no other reason than history and tradition. For years, they have been drifting sideways or downward. They struggle too survive and to do so have drifted toward the least common denominator of what it means to be a Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. On March 3, 2009, Dr. Chuck Kelley (President of New Orleans Baptist Seminary) gave his analysis of the Church: “…89 percent of our churches that have either stopped growing or are in decline.” Like other churches, he added: “…that great denomination (UMC) lost its zeal and is now in serious free-fall, declining in numbers of members at the fastest pace in the history of the American church. Southern Baptists are following in their footsteps…” It is a clear indication that the spiritual GPS is experiencing Malfunction/Dysfunction. Consider these things with me!