Heard any good news lately? Well, it happened to me last night. When I arrived at church I received the news that a boy had received Christ as his Savior in Children’s church. That’s great news, but it won’t make the headlines of any newspaper. Sadly, it doesn’t even get as much attention as it deserves from us Christians. O sure, we say “Amen” and maybe even clap our hands, but you know that we don’t get as excited as we should.

What if someone just inherited a million dollars? That would sure get our attention! What if the Astros won the World Series? Well, thats a miracle we Houstonians would never stop talking about. But a child gets saved and we take a “That’s nice” approach, as though it is no big deal. You know that’s true.

Please don’t misunderstand me—I’m not placing all the blame on you. I have been just as guilty as anyone . For some reason I can’t stop thinking about this. It just goes to show how distorted our perception of what’s important can be. The greatest thing that could happen to a person is to be born again—we all agree on that, but why aren’t we more excited about it?

We could spend a lot of time talking about the reason for this problem, but for now I simply want you to think about the reality of it. If we could only see things from heaven’s point of view we would see how we fail. The truth is we can, in a small measure, see heavens view on this matter—“there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.”( Luke 15:10). Why then are we not more excited? Why should we not rejoice?

Think about this—maybe our lack of excitement over a person being saved is tied together with our failure to witness to others as we should. We simply lose sight of what is most important. It happens to all of us at times. That’s why we need to be reminded over and over again. Hopefully the next time we hear about a soul being saved we will think about this and be motivated to win others to Christ. If we’re not doing that why are we here on earth? Think about it!

I was sitting in McDonalds the other day when I noticed a sign on the adjoining gas station that said, ” Start with the inside”.Now, I’m not sure what all that meant, but it reminded me of Proverbs 4:23 “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”

Man has it all backwards. He keeps trying to fix his problems from the outside and it never works. He deals with the fruit of the problem rather than the root. If you’re going to get to the heart of the problem you have to get to the heart—“out of it are the issues of life.”

Even believers are often guilty of making this mistake. They try to solve their problems without ever dealing with the main issue. They try to mend their relationships without getting their heart right with God. Naturally they keep failing. We are not going to be right with others or at peace with ourselves until we are right with God.

There’s an old song that says, “Is thy heart right with God?” That’s a good question. Whether it is solving problems or preventing them, we must “start with the inside”. Until we do that we are majoring on minors.

More bad news—yeah I know you’re tired of it, so am I. But sometimes it does us good to think about what is happening around us. I just read that the Boy Scouts in Dundee, Scotland will now “be able to pledge allegiance to ‘Allah’ and drop the traditional oath to God and Queen.”

A spokesman for the Scout association said, “ The Scouts may have been a Christian organization originally but we have long been non-denominational and inclusive.”

I can’t help but wonder why “Christians” keep thinking they have to cater to everyone. Everywhere you turn you see examples of this. Now, I’m not really concerned about the Boy Scouts or the Girl Scouts, etc. My concern has to do with the ease in which professing Christians compromise. It’s crazy! It’s like the generic “prayers” at a political event, etc.—worthless! It’s like the “seeker friendly” churches that remove the name Baptist so as to accommodate those who despise it. Why don’t we just scotch our feet and take a stand for the truth. I would rather be hated than to compromise the truth.

This is where we get to the root of the problem. Most people today do not believe there is any such thing as absolute truth. When you adopt that view anything goes. That’s the attitude we are dealing with today.

Sadly, most people don’t understand the dangers of this. When you depart from the truth there is no stopping place, one compromise leads to another. Without the foundation of truth everything eventually falls. That’s why abortion, homosexuality, etc. have become acceptable in our society today. You just have to wonder how far it will go before the judgment of God falls.

Now as never before, Christians need to take a stand for the truth. Regardless of the pressure being exerted on us to change, we need to stick with the Word of God. We aren’t in a popularity contest. We are involved in a spiritual warfare and the truth of God’s word is our weapon—lay it aside and you lose! Think about it!

A short time ago I resolved to stop spending so much time on issues such as politics–but I almost slipped! After reading about some recent events, which I won’t name, I was sickened by it. My first thought was to write something about it, attack, denounce it, but I resisted the urge. It would have been a waste of time.

Every student of the Bible can clearly see what an awful condition our nation is in and where we are headed. It’s not a pretty picture. The good news is that, more than ever, I can see what is truly important and what is not. Trying to reform the world and save our nation are not the most important things.

As Christians we have a mandate from heaven (Matthew 28:19-20) and that’s where our focus should be. We must not let a thousand “good causes” distract us from our God given task. The work of His kingdom should take precedence over everything else. Winning souls, establishing churches, and training disciples matter more than efforts to change society. The fact is, that is the only way to change society for the better.

I’m tired of “cursing the night”–it doesn’t work. A better use of our time and energy is to bring light to this sin darkened world. As believers we should invest all we have in proclaiming the glorious gospel to those living in darkness–“it is the power of God unto salvation to every one thay believeth.”(Romans 1:16) Our time on earth is short. Let us not get side-tracked in the pursuit of things of secondary importance. We have only so much time, energy, and resources, may we spend them wisely. Think about it!