It Was Forty Years Ago Today.....

Has it really been 40 years since Neil Armstrong and the Apollo 11 flight first set foot on the moon? Today being the anniversary, I think back to that Sunday evening when everything stopped in this country and people sat in their living rooms to watch this epic adventure unfold.

The 60's had been the decade for man to flex his muscle and show what he was capable of. The human ability to overcome obstacles and solve problems was never so evident as with the NASA program. The future was ours! Society and mankind would forge a new frontier and life would become better here on planet earth. Nothing was farther from the truth than this idea of new era and a sort of utopia. Lets see what happened.

1.)Viet Nam continued to rage on eventually with our pulling out and the fall of South Viet Nam.

2.) Our president was embroiled in a scandal that would eventually lead to his resignation in disgrace.

3.) The economy sky rocketed as the price of oil went up to record numbers. This, in turn, brought double digit interest rates and double digit inflation.

4.) More war. Grenada, Panama, Kuwait and Iraq not to mention being tied up in Afghanistan.

5.) riots and death in the streets of American Cities as gangs show up to claim turf.

All of this is a far cry from the visionary view we had coming from this moon landing. Things have gotten worse, as Scripture said it would. Yet in all of this darkness, God continues to call unto himself a people. A people who fall in love with him and his word. A people who love God and each other as they love themselves. A people who expend themselves on ministering or serving others for Jesus' sake and name. A people who are grounded in the day but whose hearts and hope lie in the return of Jesus. As James Ryles puts it so eloquently, "We sing about the Sweet By an By but we live in the nasty here and now.

Man cannot nor will he be capable of solving the problems that we face here on earth. Why? Because the Bible says that the heart of man is wicked above all things. There is a deception that runs throughout society and without the power of the Holy Spirit to guide and direct, mankind will rely upon his own strength and intellect to address issues. We have cast God to one side in order to create our own TOWER OF BABLE. Look what we can do! There is nothing beyond our reach! Or so we think. There is a time of accountability that we are currently entering into and the things that man has placed his heart and love upon are going to crumble and lie shattered on the ground. The only thing that will remain are the eternal things of God. That you can take to the bank. "Michael, you sound like a prophet of doom." Well, I'm not. IF I am anything, I want to be known as a voice of hope. A voice that points to Jesus Christ as the only solution. "Sure of yourself aren't you?" No, I'm not. I just know that over the past few years these are the things I keep running into. Jesus is the answer. You might not like the answer. You might not want to hear about the answer. But none the less, He is the answer. Denying it won't make Him go away.

Search for yourselves.

Ask God to show you the truth.

May God richly bless you.

mb