Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Keeping first things first”
Our Bible verse for today: “But Peter and the Apostles replied, ‘We must obey God rather than men.” Acts 5:29 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “Our allegiance and obedience must be to God.”
Anyone who isn’t aware of the seismic cultural shift which has occurred in our society recently simply hasn’t been paying attention. The understanding of what is right or wrong, moral or immoral, ethical or unethical has been turned on its head. Behaviors which used to be universally recognized as wrong are now widely accepted, and those who remain faithful to long held traditional values are ridiculed as being old fashioned, intolerant, or worse.
Recently a high profile and popular candidate for President of the United States was being questioned by reporters concerning what should be done about conservative Christians who refuse to embrace the new standards of morality. This individual replied that if the faith of conservative Christians prevented them from embracing the new and enlightened understanding of sexual morality, it was time for those Christians to change their beliefs. And if they wouldn’t do so willingly, the rest of society needed to take the steps necessary to pressure them to change.
Those were chilling words from a person who aspires to the highest position of leadership in the free world. However, that is the direction our country is moving in. The time is coming, perhaps soon, when Christians who hold a Biblical worldview will be so out of step with modern cultural norms that we will be held in contempt, and we will be subject to great pressures to change our views. The opposition to our faith will come in the form of intense peer pressure and public ridicule. There will also be legal and perhaps even criminal challenges to be faced.
In those days we will need to respond in the same way that faithful Christians have always responded to such challenges – regardless of the age of history they lived in, regardless of the country they were citizens of, and regardless of what the issues were. The answer is always, “We must obey God rather than men.”
Although Christians are Biblically compelled to be the best citizens in whatever society they live in, our higher allegiance is to the Kingdom of God and to His laws. We are to obey the civil laws of our government as long as they don’t conflict with the laws of God. But when they do we must be firm in our obedience to God, even if doing so brings us into conflict with our government.
First and foremost (keeping first things first) we must obey God rather than men.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 