I am sitting at my desk reading an article from March 20, 2009, about which state produces the most toxic air in the United States. California may come to mind first since it is the locale of half of the dirtiest cities in the U.S. The Los Angeles metropolitan area has an area that is designated “the diesel death zone” due to the amount of vehicle and industrial emissions.
You may be surprised to know though that the state I reside in made first place, Ohio. My dad died two days after the March 20 article was published. Every time my dad coughed, he blew parts of his lungs into the air as they deteriorated each day. Also as my son grew up we would have to check the air quality report each day to make a plan on how to control his asthma.
As much as the man made pollution affects our health, have you considered how man made sin affects our spiritual health? What alert rating would God give to the spiritual condition of the U.S? What can we do to live in a society polluted with such a sin condition?
Declining Spiritual Health
Where do you start to look for the spiritual downfall that we have experienced as a nation? Every second the U.S. population is spending $3,000 on pornographic materials. 40 million Americans watch porn on a regular basis. Sadly the average age of being exposed to porn is at 11 years old.
Some hope may be found in the decline of the divorce rate which has dropped from 50% to 40%. However, contributing to this figure is the fact that the couples cohabiting together has increased tenfold! Also, the marriage rate has dropped by 25%
Another aspect to look at is the abortion rate. Over the last 30 years doctors have performed over 1 million abortions per year. 80% of these abortions are to unmarried women. Sexual immorality is ramped in our world.
The bottom line is, this nation is committing an alarming amount of sin, and I am afraid Christians have become desensitized to it.
God’s Spiritual Alert
God’s rating for our condition is found in First Corinthians 16:13. “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong.” We need to be on guard each day resisting temptations and thwarting the devils schemes. Just as it is impossible to see most levels of pollution in the air, if we are not on guard we will not see the coming disaster of sin creeping into our lives.
This condition was evident in the life of David, the man after God’s own heart. God used David to defeat many of his and Israel’s foes. David defeated the Philistine giant, whole nations of ungodly people, and those who threatened his kingship. David though was not on guard for the temptation of lust that was about to come his way.
Second Samuel chapter 11 shows how David gave into this temptation. David saw the beauty of Bathsheba and sent messengers to get her. David committed adultery resulting in the pregnancy of Urriah’s wife. Instead of pursuing God’s heart, David pursued trying to cover his sin. David tried to trick Urriah into sleeping with Bathsheba to make Urriah think he fathered David’s child. If David had succeeded, I wonder how he would have explained why Urriah’s son looked like the King of Israel. But ultimately David sent Urriah into the heat of the battle to die defending David’s kingdom. David was then standing on guard trying to hide what God was to expose through the prophet Nathan.
Living In Our Polluted Society
To survive in this world we must live by faith. Hebrews 11 verse 1, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” We must have faith so we can see the world through God’s eyes, not ours. As men, we need to call sin for what it is! We need to focus on the redeeming sacrifice that Jesus made to allow us to live by faith in Him. Just as the sun burns off the fog in the morning, we need the light of Jesus to shine in this polluted sinful world.
Men, we need to hold on to the words of Philippians 4:8. “Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.” We need to fix our minds on the savior Jesus Christ.
Finally watch for future blog posts to help us be better men. These posts will encourage us to be better servants of God, better husbands and better fathers.