The Missing Link

Easter Sunday 3-27-16   La Lucila, Buenos Aires.

Scripture reading:  Judges 1 - 3    1 Cor 12

S.  Judg 2:10 When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the LORD nor the work which He had done for Israel.  Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals; (Then the Lord raised up Othniel, Caleb’s brother)

Judg 3:11-12  Then Othniel the son of Kenaz died.  And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD.  (And the Lord raised up Ehud.)

Judg 4:1 When Ehud was dead, the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD.  NKJV

O.  Obviously a pattern is developing here.  The Israelites did not destroy the people and culture of the land they conquered.  They had conquered the land, but they themselves were conquered by the evil culture that surrounded them.  Something was missing.  The Israelites failed to instill their history into their children.  They knew nothing of the great deeds of the true, invisible God.  So their children fell into all the sins of those that they had conquered.  Over and again the Israelites found themselves in bondage and cried out to God.  He always raised up another great leader, but when that leader died and a new generation of Israelites grew into adults they fell again into the sins and idolatry of these nations.  There was a missing link.  Parents did not “pass it on” to their children.

A.  Can we learn something here?  Why is our new generation in the USA abandoning the truths that created a great country with leaders of integrity?  Our history is one of dependence upon the God of our fathers.  George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and many others prayed diligently and regularly for this blossoming nation.  Today their histories as men of religious fervor and integrity has been deliberately erased from our history books.  It is no wonder that our once Bible-based culture is fading from view.  If our individual families do not pass on our Christian based culture our ‘America the Beautiful’ will soon become more rotten than many other pagan lands.

P.  Lord, I dare to pray for our broken, fallen people.  They have believed a lie.  They have never known their true heritage.  Our ‘Christian culture’ has faded from view.  Sunday Schools have disappeared.  Family devotionals have succumbed to TV.  You are being left out of the picture.  This Easter Day I dare to ask You for a resurrection of Your Truth among us.  You are the giver of Life.  Raise us from this tomb of unbelief and skepticism.  Breathe Your breath of Life upon us once more.  God, I pray... send us a Holy Spirit charged revival.  Amen.

Ralph