The Modern Leadership Crisis: We Have No King but Caesar!
All over the world tonight there seems to be a HUGE leadership vacuum that is building toward some sort of emerging crisis. In Europe, for example, the recent flood of unwanted immigrants from the Middle East, the growth of Islamic terrorism and a variety of unsolved political and economic problems with the European Union have created a great cry for new and decisive leadership. Few seem to have a clue about how to solve these growing problems and the failure to address them has spawned a variety of reactionary groups from ultranationalists to neo Nazis. Europe is in a deep leadership crisis it hasn't seen since the 1920's and 30's before World War II.Here in America, the race for the White House in 2016 has created the most polarizing political dialogue in memory. A variety of polls seem to say that a majority of Americans are angry, fed up and desperately searching for strong leadership to fill the vacuum of failed government leadership created by both Democrats and Republicans. Like Europe, America is in the midst of a political crisis that is demanding some sort of strong and clear leadership to reverse the growth of progressivism, the malaise of political correctness and a sense that the establishment is corrupt and broken.
The central problem facing all of us today is how you establish truth. If truth ultimately depends on the individual and our "feelings" or personal experiences of "faith," you can see we have a problem. That, of course, is what is going on today. Our society has made the self a "god," with each person deciding what is right or wrong in their own eyes like the days of Judges 21:25. Perhaps that is why many Christians are unwilling to engage the world with the fact that Jesus is the truth and Lord of all. The Church knows our message is not well received and people fear rejection. Now when the Church loses its' confidence in sharing the truth, Christianity just becomes another special interest group like playing football or quilting. It is almost as if Pontius Pilate had been resurrected and is putting every Christian on trial again with his infamous question to our Lord in John 18:38, "What is truth?"
The greatest, single objection to the Christian Faith is its' exclusivity. That exclusivity is best defined by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in John 14:6, where our Lord says, "I am the way, and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me." That verse is either greatly misunderstood to mean a variety of things OR it means that Jesus is the only Savior and way to Heaven. There really are no other options. IF Jesus is the only Savior of the world, then all other faiths and belief systems are false and cannot save their followers in this life or the next.
Every January the President has given the traditional "State of the Union" message to the Nation. Historically speaking, it is a chance to look back over the past year and offer inspiring reflections of where the Nation has been and where it is going in the New Year. Instead of carefully reviewing the President's speech, as the media has done this week, it be might be a good time to reflect on the "State of the World" from the Lord's perspective. Have you recently asked yourself how things are going from the Lord's viewpoint? Can anyone really know?
One of the most interesting movies ever made was One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. It premiered in 1975, starring Jack Nicholson, and won 5 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The movie is a story about power, truth and control over people's lives. The movie is set in a mental institution and features a battle between the staff and patients over who is really "crazy." In the end, Jack Nicholson's character is deemed too "mentally ill" and given a lobotomy by the staff, thereby ending his functioning life and the threat he posed to the leadership. The movie leaves you with deep sadness over how power can be used and abused by those in authority.
As soon as Wall Street began its' New Year on Monday, January 4, the market fell about 450 points due to fears that stemmed from economic troubles in China. This opening day market loss cost the world's five richest people to lose 8.7 billion dollars of net worth in one day. The markets eventually "settled down," but the rapid rise and fall of the Stock Market in a day shows the vulnerability we are facing right now as we head into a New Year. Few seem to remember the most famous crash of the markets on October 29, 1929... known as "Black Tuesday" that triggered what is referred to as the Great Depression. Sadly, we are moving toward the same sort of economic unwinding of the country and few seem to have a clue and even fewer are doing much about it.
As another New Year dawns, the Bible would say there isn't really anything new about it. Sure, some different things will happen, but they are not really "new" things. No, if you stop and think about it, everything that will happen in 2016 has already happened before. All of our politics, all of our news items and top stories, already happened at some other time in history. The problem for many people today is that few seem to realize that life has been going on exactly the same way it has been from the beginning, long before we arrived on the scene. This replay of the past, under the label of "new," inspired King Solomon to write in Ecclesiastes 1:10, "Is there anything of which one can say, 'Look! This is something new'? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time."
It's hard to think that some event might upstage Christmas this year, but it appears to have happened for some. There seems to be an amazing amount of "hype" out there today about the opening of the latest "Star Wars" movie, a week before Christmas. Hollywood has long used the Christmas season as a great time to get an audience out to the theatres. This year seems to be no exception.
If there is one area of our lives under attack today it is our sexuality. Our politically correct culture, media, government and progressive "churches" are working hard to destroy any concept of "male" and "female" and any attempt to define sexuality and marriage. If any pastor, parishioner, pundit, or member of the general public raises any clear Biblical standards about these issues you end up with a large target on your back. Of course at a deeper level, we see this battle as a continued war against the Lord and His Image in the world, as seen through "male" and "female" from Genesis 1:26-27.
Its' been hard getting into the Christmas spirit these days when there is an Islamic terrorist event going on almost every week like we saw in the San Bernardino, California and Paris massacres. It's difficult to focus on what gifts to get my loved ones when people are turning our wonderful country and world into a Jihad Zone for their religious extremism.
I was out driving the other day and saw an interesting billboard on the highway that said, "Keep Christ in Christmas." As Christmas draws near this year, there are groups of Christians that are deeply concerned with the increased secularization going on in America that has removed the Lord Jesus Christ from Christmas and turned it into some sort of winter holiday about who knows what. All of this is because there seems to be a quiet and maybe not so quiet war going on today against our Lord and His Church. These days it is getting harder for some to even say "Merry Christmas," let alone, "Jesus is the Savior of the World."
The Carlson Report sends our love and prayers to each of you on this Thanksgiving weekend. May it be your best ever. How thankful to know the Lord of the Bible and live in a wonderful Nation like America that has a rich, Christian heritage of godly people. It was President Abraham Lincoln that made Thanksgiving a National Holiday on October 3, 1863, at the height of the Civil War. Lincoln knew that whatever our trials, it was right and good to stop as individuals and a Nation to seek and thank the Lord. Lincoln wrote:
I barely finished writing about the Islamic terrorist attacks in Paris last week, when yet another scene of Islamic violence took place in Mali today, murdering at least 20. As this mayhem continues to grow daily, the entire world is increasingly on edge with news stories that seem to run 24/7. Recently, King Abdullah of Jordan was quoted as saying that he believes this escalating violence and terror has brought us to what will eventually turn into World War III. The King, himself a Muslim, is uniquely positioned inside the Islamic world to see where this violence is going to lead us in the near future. The only world leader that doesn’t seem to have any clarity about the seriousness of the hour appears to be President Obama.
Have you ever been bored going to church? I hate to admit it, but even pastors get bored at church on occasion. What bores me the most is when things seem too routine, too mechanical, too ordinary…..just going through the motions. When the Church gets taken over with programs and potlucks, there is a tendency for us to miss the excitement the Lord built into the Christian life. It can also become weary and even boring to hear yet another sermon on “How to Love Your Neighbor More.” Sure, we can all learn to love our neighbors more. What else is new? Is that it? My former preaching professor in seminary told our class that it is a terrible thing to bore people with the Gospel. He was right.
By now, most of us have heard the terrible news of the Islamic terrorist attacks in Paris that murdered over 120 civilians. Some of the eyewitnesses on the scene said the murder, blood and carnage looked “apocalyptic.” The Nation of France declared a “State of Emergency” and returned the City to a fear not seen since World War II and the Nazi occupation. Nations around the world, particularly in Europe and the USA, wonder where and when these groups will strike next. Most experts are agreed in their belief that these attacks are only going to grow and get worse in the future.
In the last few years, there has been a growing fear of the future by many. People are worried about nuclear wars, terrorists, extremist governments, natural disasters, worldwide debt, and a hundred other things. As conditions seem to get worse, a few people are in a state of preparation to weather the possible coming storms. Some are buying guns, gold, silver and storing away food and survival supplies. As a matter of fact, there is even a show on the National Geographic Channel now called “Doomsday Preppers” that addresses these very issues.
According to a just published religious poll from the Pew Research Center, people in the USA are becoming “less religious”….whatever that means. The article stated the number of people that are absolutely certain God exists fell to only 63%. This same article went on to say that only about 50% of kids born from 1990 to 1996 are absolutely sure that God even exists. That statistic is as shocking as it is sad.
“For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
It was headlines all over the news this week. Did you see it? This RARE news item, which finally came out, was the overt and outrageous bias and manipulation of the Republican President Debates by the Moderators of the mainstream media outlet, CNBC. It was shocking! It was so bad that by the end of the debates, the Republican Candidates began to fire back at the Moderators who had pretended during the event to be impartial “journalists.”
Over the years I have come to realize that finding a real friend is not easy. Surely a real friend is more than just being on someone’s Facebook page at the click of a mouse. A friend is a lot more than a casual acquaintance you see at school or work. It is much more than being around someone you work with or walk past at school in the hallways between classes. It is much more than living in the same neighborhood. Finding real friends can be challenging at times.
As we continue to watch the recent deadly tensions in Israel between the Israelis and the Palestinians over the Land and control of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, most people fail to see the profound issues that are under way. From Presidents to Popes, no one seems to have found any lasting answer about what to do. Finding a lasting peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis has turned into the most vexing political and spiritual problem in history.