Isaiah 26.18 describes, we, too, writhe in agony, but nothing comes of our suffering. We have not given salvation to the earth, nor brought life into the world.

This observation recorded more than 3000 years ago is a perfect description of the Church in the Western Hemisphere and possibly beyond.

God promised Christians would both suffer and prosper along with the pagans as He sends both rain and sun on the world (Mt 5.45). Christians limit the amount of their suffering through obedience to God’s commands since His ways lead to health and blessing whereas disobedience leads to difficulty and suffering.

For example, God commands that a man should work and to work as if serving God Himself. Working this way causes a man to show up, put up and shut up which almost always leads to going up. Slothfulness leads to termination, poverty and difficulty.

By obeying God, Christians prove the wisdom of God and generally live better than the disobedient. However, Christians are God’s ambassadors, responsible for making God known in the world and bringing about the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.

Christians have increasingly failed to obey the Great Commission. Most Christians are not developing relationships with pre-Christians. Most Christians are not helping people come to Jesus as Savior. As a result, an increasing number of people are disobedient to God who are in positions of authority in government, media and commerce so that we all experience a culture in chaos.

This is the current climate the American Church finds itself. The only long term solution to moral decay is obedience to Jesus which comes from a relationship with Him motivated by love and gratitude towards Him for all He has done for us. Until Christians start engaging the work of winning pre-Christians to Jesus the world is not going to become a better place.

Likewise, Christians are to bring about justice on the earth. In the verse today we are accused of not having brought forth life into the world.

A long time ago, Christians were the most pro-life people on the planet as expressed by their large families. They understood God had commanded Christians to be fruitful and multiply on the earth because He considered children a blessing. Today the Church has bought the cultural myth that children are expensive and an inconvenience to personal fulfillment.

Furthermore, the Church still accepts a society where the murder of unborn children is legal and even a part of commerce from the selling of their dismembered parts. The horror of this evil should penetrate the heart of the Church as it must the heart of the Father Who will one day judge all of us for this terror. When we judge the German people for allowing concentration camps in the 1940’s we point fingers at ourselves for our allowance of abortuaries in the 21st century.

We all want a better world to live in. Christians are the means to this end but they must obey God fully, completely, intentionally and consistently.