A TIME OF SORROW

    "I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart."  (Romans 9: 1-2)

   When President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, this nation wept, from coast to coast and for several days, as people were shocked and stunned that our own President had been shot in cold blood on a street in Dallas, Texas.  An eerie silence filled the land because the hearts of people had been broken.
   I was sixteen years old in 1963, and that was the last time I have seen this nation weeping, now fifty-three years ago.  That was also the last time the heart of this nation has been broken, as well as the last time I have seen this nation experience a time of sorrow. 
   My heart hurts for my country and for the people across this land since there are now but a remnant of true believers in Christ living in the land.
   Today, the United States has become a nation of Paganism, the worship of people in various religions with all of the mixtures of a god, gods and goddesses, and good luck charms.
   The United States has become a land like unto ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, or ancient Rome, alienated from God and void of the knowledge of God; for even in ancient Egypt the Pharoah considered himself to be god and the people believed likewise. 
   As it was in ancient Egypt, so it is in the United States today as many Americans are among the greatest of educated people throughout the world, yet they kneel and pray to idols and images of gods, to men in priestly garments, as if they are gods, and to whom they confess their sins and receive absolution, thereafter believing their sins are gone.  Is this the same belief as the Pagans of ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, or ancient Rome?  Of course it is, but people today are believing that their brand of religious idolatry is something new, when, in fact, it is the same menu---transported to them from thousands of years ago.
   Even the Pagan belief of a place called Purgatory is a lie, for if people could go to a "holding cell" to wait their turn to be prayed out or paid out by Pagan priests, what do they need God for?  This is a method of dark deception, for they are believing they can get to a place called Heaven without God's permission!
      "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time."  (1st Timothy 2: 5-6)
   Oh, how I would like to see the people of the United States experience the power of Christ's salvation for their souls, and that they would come to understand God as God as allowed me to understand Him!
   How I would like to see the people of all nations come to know Christ as I have come to know Him!
   And how I would like to see the people I know, such as friends and family members, come to believe in Christ as I have come to believe in Him!
   Knowing that they do not, this has produced a time of sorrow in my own heart, for I now know all that they are missing by not knowing the King of kings and the Lord of lords, as I also know that people will miss Heaven if they miss Christ, the Son of God.
   For I know, too, that people will not believe in Christ until they receive a visit by the Holy Spirit of God, who will convict them that they are sinners and also convince them that they need salvation for their souls, which they can only receive through Christ the Lord:  for people must be persuaded that they are sinners before they will believe they must be saved.
   But did you know you do not need to be in a church building to be saved from your sins?
   Did you also know you can ask God to save you through Christ, even now, and even as you read this post today?
   As it is written,
      "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."  (Romans 10: 9)
   Once people come to know Christ and look at the world through the eyes of the Bible, then will they come to understand a time of sorrow:  when they see people, going to and fro, and not knowing the danger from not knowing God; when they see people in the foolishness of worshipping idols while their lives are not improving; and knowing that people will miss Heaven because they have rejected the One who can save their souls, Christ Jesus our Lord.  For as people give their lives to the worship of religious idols, they will lose their souls to the devil.
      "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?  Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul."  (Mark 8: 36-37)