Posted on 11/26/2011 6:39:04 AM PST by NYer
the Scriptures clearly teach there will be a falling away from the Faith right before the end.
we are witnessing this apostosy today.
in my opinion, the Church has lost its first love and would rather please the world rather than the Lord.
for the faithful Christian, today is indeed a time of great tribulation.
one example illustrates what i am saying better than anything:
JP II brought all the world’s “religions” together at Assisi to “pray”.
so we had the specticle of hindus, buddists, muslims, witch doctors, and every other pagan being put on par with Jesus Christ.
did JP II preach Jesus Christ as the way, the truth and the life? HE DID NOT.
Jesus Christ is surely at the door, look up, He is coming soon!
In my opinion, most Catholic worship is such an individual, quiet, private affair that it is hard to read the Catholic faithful. Teens are not that discerning. We need to do a better job of showing our youth that we’re on fire with the love of Christ. If we, as a group of worshippers, show them that, they will be able to imagine themselves living that way also.
We must pray very hard for them. It’s such a tough time to be Catholic for young people. The attacks from the popular culture are endless, a small portion of Church leadership has very publicly and hypocritically let them down, and the devil is doing his best to tempt them away.
May God bless those who are still here! May He strengthen and inspire us to lovingly rescue the lambs who are lost.
Really? Is it natural? Perhaps we should question this assumption. Perhaps it is merely a symptom of cultural pathology. Why?
Answer: Because 95% of homeschoolers from active and believing evangelical homes remain faithful in their religious practice 2 years after graduating from high school. In contrast, 85% of children from highly active and believing evangelical homes who attend godless and socialist government K-12 schools do not.
Are there any documented examples of human cultures segregating their children into prison-like buildings for a major part of their day for 13 years of their life? Our human ancestors of more than 150,000 of earthly experience would laugh or cry that we do this to our children.
Another thing we must do to help our young people remain faithful is give them the tools they need to reason their faith out.
We need to instruct them in the trite old methods other Christians will use to try to discourage them in their faith. We need to show them what the answers are to all the incorrect statements other people will make about what they think the Church is. We need to arm them with the Truth of our faith, the facts, and the Scripture that refutes all the nonsense. We need to train them in the art of debate, for someday they may have to debate their faith with members of their own family.
Most of all, we need to be good role models in doing this— and in living our faith.
Pray for them and then send them out to play with snakes? Let me explain.
Three years ago our minister at the beginning of the school year asked the members to pray for the youth in our congregation. I promptly wrote him a letter.
Why would we deliberately send our congregation's children into godless schools? Once there they must think and reason godlessly merely to cooperate with the classroom and the curriculum. This is tempting God. It is praying for God's protection over our children and then giving them poisonous snakes as toys.
Conversely, if I walk into a church with older people, I mince no words. I tell them we are in the end times, our economy is collapsing, and the next depression will make the last one look like a Sunday church picnic and that most in the room will not survive it.
I tell them it is time to get right with God and get serious because we don’t know if America will be here, how bad it will be before the tribulation is officially considered to start, or exactly when the rapture will happen.
And you should see the eyes glaze over.
They don’t want to hear it, because we’ve had 60 years of prosperity and they’ve gotten complacent. It’s easy to sit and preach and judge and sing the old hymns and do the old ways over and over and over. But no matter how pious and righteous they are, the bottom line is we in this country haven’t been CHALLENGED since anyone alive can remember. And whether they want to admit it to themselves or not, THEY AREN’T READY.
This is why a great deal of young people are turned off by the church. They know it’s not real and it’s not ready. Just a bunch of old people being patriarchal and ossified. But there’s no heart there. There is no spark, no gathering of sheep, no concept of going out into the world and bringing in the lost.
Reverence and respect is great, being dressed respectfully is great, structure is great, but you can have all that and still be calcified and impotent. It’s not just about what goes on in the church walls, it’s also about what goes on the other 6 1/2 days a week. And they young people are a good test because if they sense there’s real life there they will stay if they are truly wanting something real.
>>>I see and understand your point. I will try to teach my son that church is not a place that you “have” to go, it’s a place that you “get” to go.>>>
Agree however as long as he’s in my house, he will both “gets to go” and “has to go”.....as I heard a black preacher say here in Dallas on the radio this week, Yes, my “drugged” me.....she “drug me to church and thank God she did.”
>>I will teach him that Jesus loves all of us, no matter how we dress.>>>
Agree again. And I will also teach him about what Jesus said. That he who has been forgiven most, loves most. And this can be manifest in how we respond including our approach to worship. A serious matter.
>>>I will teach him that church is not supposed to be boring and if it is, someone is doing it wrong.>>>
Amen. If the congregation is asleep, the Pastor needs to be woken up. And there is nothing boring about the stories in the Bible. What are boring are stories Pastors tell about themselves. Billy Graham was never boring. Spurgeon was never boring. Wesley was never boring. I don’t think Paul was boring. I find Joel Osteen incredibly boring.
>>>I will teach him to listen for that still, small voice for that is the Holy Spirit directing him, counseling him when his Dad is no longer here.>>>
Amen to that. And also, to remember the spirit never goes against the word. In fact, the word is how we test the spirit because many people confuse the “spirit” with their feelings and emotions. As a Protestant, the Bible, the word is the final test. Thus saith the Lord.
>>Most of all I will teach him to love everyone, no matter their religious bent. That if he loves them, as Jesus commanded he will share his faith with them and not pick and choose who gets to come to his Lord based on how they dress or what song they sing.>>
Well, not sure about “most of all to love everyone” because I don’t believe in salvation by works. My child’s soul is not dependent on how much he loves someone because the Bible says our works are never good enough. Loving others is the fruitage of our salvation, not the root.
So “most of all” for me is that Christ died for his or her sins. That’s why the cross is the symbol of Christianity. On that cross, the Lord took his, her, my sin to cover for those days I don’t Love everyone good enough, to cover for those days I don’t have perfect love, perfect patience, perfect tolerance, perfect anything.
Luther figured out NOTHING he could do could make God love him anymore than what God had already done on the cross.
And so when a person gets this gospel of grace in his heart, how much God paid so I could live, ......the response? The fruit? Will be Love and maybe even dressing up for church.
Love is the “fruit” of salvation, not the “root.” The root of our salvation is What Christ did for me, not what I do for him. That is the difference between a Protestant and Catholic and you won’t find 5% of Christians today who understand this because we have become a theologically ignorant society. Unlike the Reformers and people of old.
“Is it natural?”
uh...the prodigal son?
However!
You ARE Correct!
I made no attempt to propose a solution.
Parents must make their values “the children’s own”.
Teach self-respect and consequences.
The value of NOT going wild.
Delayed gratification, etc.
Politics regard one religion as the same as the next and the Catholic Church has gone along with this. Sin is not sin. Teaching is dumbed down. And people ‘want to get something out of it’ for today’s me ethos.
I think one(certainly not the only) reason is that people over 50 are generally closer to death than those under 50 and are more likely to consider what condition they want their soul to be in when they meet their Maker. Many folks in their 20s and 30s still think they are invincible and don’t think about such things.
IMO, the Church has become too secularized. There is no religious feeling in many of the churches and even when the kids do show up, they get nothing out of it. In my own family, my husband and I attended Mass faithfully every Sunday with our 4 children. The rule in our house was if you don’t go to Mass, then you go nowhere. No movies, no parties, no football games, nothing. As they grew into adults, most of my children continued attending for a while, but slowly they have all stopped going. If I didn’t take my two oldest granddaughters to Mass, they would never go. And even then they only go when they’re home with their Mom, my daughter. When they spend the weekends with their Dad, they just don’t go. And when they do go, they are bored to tears.
I have tried to instill in them the beauty of the Mass, and its true meaning. But I can tell it’s going in one ear and out the other.
“Billy Graham was never boring. Spurgeon was never boring. Wesley was never boring. I don’t think Paul was boring. I find Joel Osteen incredibly boring.”
I like all of those except for Osteen. I’ve never watched or listened to him.
The Apostles James and John were known as the Sons of Thunder. I imagine that “boring” never entered into the equation.
bttt
>>The Apostles James and John were known as the Sons of Thunder. I imagine that “boring” never entered into the equation.>>
Amen. And imagine John the Baptist, of whom the Bible says of a woman, there was none greater born. The cousin of Christ, I can only wonder how awesome it was to watch him baptist Christ.
And as great as he was, he wasn’t fit to tie the shoes of our Lord. Thanks. :)
The church is not about entertainment or a Chucky Cheese, the movies, or a theme park.
I am not saying either that it is supposed to be boring, but if you’re going there expecting a movie theatre and wearing a poncho because you’re sitting in the first three rows and expect to get wet, you’re not going to church with the right mindset in the first place.
It’s about prayer. It’s about coming to worship God, with the focus for the whole service being about God. Through singing, readings, the sermon, creeds, communion, make an offering, reflection about what you’ve done that week and asking for forgiveness, and later talk with friends, see if there’s anything we can help out with there, leave the guilt and pain with God, get refreshed for the next week, etc.
The whole problem is that we have not trained kids to understand that there’s a reason why church is church and is a solemn and holy place, different from all other places. It is the House of God. It should earn our respect and reverence and it’s not there to entertain us like little kids. It’s not a video game. It’s not a rock concert. It’s not a dance club. It’s not the rec room in the basement. It’s not the gym. It’s not a locker room.
Church is church and if we don’t give it the respect and treat it as a special place, and explain that to our kids they won’t get it. They will get it if we do and we walk the walk in terms of treating it that way.
BTW college is where the major disconnect occurs for most.
It’s because Osteen is ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.
He only preaches the prosperity gospel.
Was thier dad a church going Catholic,or not? I assuming that you two are seperated/divorced.
Unfortunately you are correct.
Amen.
I agree with you that the church is to be a holy and dignified place. At times I’ve seen kids playing in the sanctuary between services and put a stop to it since their parents wouldn’t.
Then again, during a service I prefer to see kids dancing and singing before the Lord rather than not being there at all.
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