By Paul Hutchens

When clouds of sorrow sweep across my sky of brilliant hue,
When gray and somber, warlike, fierce, they hide away the blue,
I am not bidden to despair or mope with clouded brow;
God’s Word comes shining–’tis His Sun, my courage to endow–
“In every thing give thanks!”

When faced with dire calamity, when driven to despair,
When tempted to cry out, “My God! Thy dealings are unfair!”
He shows me One whose awful grief made Heaven hide its face;
And then His Word comes shining through to give sustaining grace–
“In every thing give thanks!”

When bounties rich and plentiful are lavished from His hand,
When all our needs are met by Him on whom our lives depend,
‘Tis then of all times we are tempted to forget His love,
Forget to offer praise to Him, to lift our eyes above
And “in every thing give thanks!”

God grant that I may learn to walk so humbly with my Lord,
So keep in fellowship with Him, abiding in His Word,
That not one day, but every day, may be Thanksgiving Day,
That life and lips and all I am–may all of me, always,
“In everything give thanks!”

How different it must be today than it was when the Pilgrims first gave thanks to God for their survival! Would they see any similarity to the spirit of present day observance with the way it was back then?

Modern day thanksgiving is hardly about survival, but more about feasting, family, and football. It is not about people clinging to and nurturing one another, for the most part, but often about people temporarily laying aside their petty differences and ‘sacrificing’ their own plans to get together and get along for a few hours at best. I’m sure each of you could relate experiences that you know of that tell the story of how different our thanksgiving holiday is now, from the way it was in the beginning.

From God’s point of view, Thanksgiving Day, no doubt, is quite different now than it was with the Pilgrims. Then, God heard utterances from the depths of human hearts, who had lost many friends and family members due to the rigors of their pilgrim life, but who were profoundly grateful for God’s providence and care in having spared them. They felt they owed God everything. Today, while there are some who lift up praises to God, there may be many or more who regard not God.

God has a message for those lifting up their hearts and voices to Him today: “Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High: And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.” Psalm 50:14-15  As we see so much changing around us, so much indifference to God, God’s challenge to us is to remain unchanged and to rather draw closer unto Him. “PAY THY VOWS UNTO HIM.” Every Christian can remember the awakenings and impressions of God’s Word, compelling them to take up their cross and follow Him, by faith in God’s will and way. But have any let these things slip unto going one’s own will and way? To abandon God’s call, will result in God not answering our call. DO NOT ERR!

God is still Sovereign over all the universe! He is still the God of His Word, the God of righteousness and the God of judgment. Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess to Him! God also has a message for those who acknowledge Him not: “But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee. These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.” Psalm 50:16,17,21

Are you prepared to meet God? It is not a question of “if,” but just a question of “when.” “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found.”

“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.” 2 Corinthians 6:17

When a church becomes more concerned about pleasing man rather than pleasing God, it undergoes a psychological revolution. People’s thinking flip-flops on every issue of doctrinal truth. Looming over a pastor’s mind is the cloud that if I start calling sin, sin, then a large number of the congregation will have little problem finding a church down the road that will accept them just as they are. People reason that since few will “endure” sound doctrine, that it becomes more trouble than it is worth. Many agree that rather than a stand on what is right with God, that it is best to figure out what will fly with the approval of man. Thus, the mindset becomes “the church with the most doctrinal restrictions will lose their spiritual shirt.”

Where carnality has the upper hand, people worry more about people’s feelings than they respect Godly standards. As a result, standing on sound doctrine is resented and modification of positions is deemed most apporpriate.

Bowing to the pressure of carnal mindedness, religious leaders have abandoned the scriptural rule that requires “all scripture” to be applied to determine sound doctrine (2 Timothy 3:16-17). In its place, they are incorrectly applying the term “we’re not under the law” to allow for people to do what is right in their own eyes in following carnal fads and fashions.

“…I had not known sin, but by the law…Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” (Romans 7:7,12) All over our society, situation ethics is now the adopted philosophy. We hear politicians cry, “the will of the people should prevail.” So, rather than respect and follow the rule of law, the trend is now “do what you want”, and then overturn the law, following the mandate that the will of the people should prevail. This practice is now the new political science. But it has been the adopted spiritual science of many churches for some time, who have forsaken the rule of “all scripture”, unto adopting the “no scripture” position, under the guise “we’re not under the law”.

Under the “no scripture” policy, churches have abandoned true doctrine on the Lord’s Supper, scriptural baptism, scriptural qualifications for leaders, scriptural authority in worship, scriptural morals, scriptural identity, repentance, separation, etc., etc.

True, God looks upon the heart. But just as true is the fact that what one does is the manifestation of what is in their heart. Rather than Christianize carnality, let’s glorify God!

By Norman H. Wells

Religion has gotten popular! It’s sweeping the country!! Juke boxes grind out the latest popular hymns! Movie magazines carry news of religious activities of the movie stars! More money is coming into religious treasures than ever before. Great new church buildings are being built. A greater percentage of folks belong to churches than ever before in history! Tremendous evangelistic campaigns are regularly held and thousands are in attendance and great numbers of decisions are recorded.

Quite regularly the current bestseller is a book on religion. The newspapers and magazines carry regular columns by religious writers. The radio and television carry religious programs! Religious Universities, Colleges, High Schools and Elementary Schools are growing by leaps and bounds!

Religion is booming! The cry of “Revival” is heard over and over!! Religion is back by popular demand! The tragedy is that it has been diluted, streamlined, whopped up, condensed, smoothed out, made palatable enough to meet what the public demands in a religion. Instead of meeting the demands of God, religion has been changed to meet the demands of the public!!

In the haste to get everybody aboard the “bandwagon”, a “carnival” spirit has developed. The bands are playing, the flags are flying and everyone is invited to a hayride of happiness—a religious romp! Popcorn, peanuts and paper hats! It reminds me of the first time I took my youngest boy, David, to the Cincinnati Zoo. He was about four years old at the time. It was on this trip that he got his first glimpse of “cotton candy”. We stopped and he watched with great delight as the man behind the counter very skillfully spun the large, beautifully colored sticks full of this wonderful stuff. After watching with envy the others who were receiving this delicious looking delight, he turned, pleading eyes to me, and the purchase was made. I never will forget the look of delight that came on his face as he held the huge, colored concoction and took his first bite. As the cotton candy dissolved into nothing in his mouth, a look of amazement and disappointment took the place of delight.

Appearances had been deceiving. Thus it is with our modern “cotton candy” boom in religion! It’s big and beautiful unto you really try to get your teeth into it, and it dissolves into nothing.

It could also be compared to “bubble gum”—it makes a fine showing unto it breaks and leaves behind a sticky mess!!

The popularity that religion enjoys has been purchased at a terrific price. The desire to please man has supplanted the desire to please God. Today’s religion is designed to satisfy the carnal appetites of carnal Christians and the unregenerate. “What do I get out of it” is the approach made to this religion. When the services are entertaining and make the participants “feel good”, they are stamped as successful. The world’s methods and manners are as in the business world. Finances and figures have been made the test. A lot of people and a lot of money are interpreted as the sure blessing of God. It is considered sacrilege to question the doctrine or the ethics of anyone who has been successful in gathering a large crowd and abundant cash!

In view of the seeming boom in religion, it would be well to consider what has happened to the gospel!! What little gospel is preached is of such a shallow, frothy nature that it would bring a snort of disgust from such an one as the Apostle Paul. The strong message of the gospel has been so diluted as hardly to be recognizable. Sickeningly cheap, sentimental appeals are made for sickeningly cheap, sentimental decisions! What has happened to the sledge hammer messages concerning the hideous corruption of sin?

Has the day of identifying the sinner past? Today it is advertised so that no one will be offended at the preaching of the gospel!! What a change! What a come down!! The gospel has always offended! It offends Satan! It offends the guilty sinner and either brings him to repentance or hardens his heart! It offends the carnal Christian!! It offends the false teachers and their followers! It offends the promoters of sin and sinful pleasure! In today’s gospel, the question of sin is dealt with in such generalities that it is almost impossible to determine who is guilty!

Repentance has become a forgotten doctrine confined to the yellowing pages of neglected articles of faith. What used to mean “Godly Sorrow”, doesn’t even involve mild embarrassment today! The crowds have never responded very well to true repentance, so modern religion by popular demand has discarded it. Faith has been reduced to a mere head consent, a hand shake, and a card signed.

Today’s gospel has been watered down so thin it has lost the miracle working power of regeneration and is producing a shallow, casual, unregenerate religion.

Contrary to the popular idea that we are in the midst of revival, stand some undeniable facts that show we are in the midst of a time of apostasy!!! There is a great “falling away”!

First of all, consider the moral condition of our country. The figures have been published so many times they do not need to be reprinted here. Crime is at an all-time high!! Juvenile delinquency increases every year!! Divorce rates climb every year. Jail houses, penitentiaries and detention homes are packed to overflowing!!

Drunkenness and dope addicts mount with each passing day! Illegitimate births and abortions increase every year. Murder, rape, suicide, robbery, scream the headlines of our papers!! Sex-mad and whiskey-soaked, the nation reels down the path of the pursuit of Pleasure!! Check the material in the popular books, songs, radio and television shows, movies, etc. and get a glimpse of what appeals to America. True revival will check the flood tides of sin!! This has not happened in today’s so-called revival!!

It is not producing hatred for sin and love of righteousness! It does not demand that Christians live a separate dedicated life to God.

Second, consider the rapid rise and growth of a multitude of cults and false religions. This is not revival!!

Real revival brings men and women a love for the truth. The entire revealed truth of God is not declared in the Gospel of today, so the “converts” wander off after whatever religion suits their particular fancy. The keynote today is compromise. Everybody is to forget their “petty doctrinal differences” and join hands in a “great compromise”. In the midst of this kind of atmosphere, false cults and religions are booming! Modernism marches on!!!

Third, consider the shallow carnal Christian today’s so called “revival” produces, indeed, if it produces any Christians. May God help us to return to a gospel that glorifies God, antagonizes Satan, squelches sin, convicts sinners, produces repentance, routs false teachers, abolishes false religions, promotes sound doctrine, and brings about the miracle of regeneration that makes a hell bound sinner into a new creature in Christ Jesus.

(The only kind of true worship there is.)

“Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.” Ecclesiates 5:1-2

THE BENEFIT OF REVERENT WORSHIP: “be more ready to hear” = hearing. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17) A person can have ears to hear, and yet not be hearing God’s Word. Reverent worship calls for both regarding and making the response that God’s Word calls for.

THE PERSONAL DISCIPLINE REQUIRED FOR WORSHIP: “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God”, v1. God requires the individual to hold themselves responsible to have Christian conduct, yea, zeal and interest in themselves, to promote the reverent worship of God.

THE VIOLATIONS (VIOLATORS) OF WORSHIP: “…for they consider not that they do evil”, v1. Those who violate the sanctity of worship or fail to involve themselves, don’t see that they have a problem. They consider the “difference” between themselves and what is going on, just to be the hang-up of others. Many fail (care not) to perceive that what may be permissible conduct in secular gatherings, falls way short of the reverence, carefulness, attentiveness and holiness involved in the worship of God in spirit and in truth.

THE OPPONENTS OF WORSHIP: “Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God”, v2. The attainment to reverent worship can be completely frustrated by the lack of depth, preparation and/or self-restraint. There needs to be prayer, study, forethought, and discrimination, so as to eliminate ramblings, confusion, error and imprudence. We are to diginify God, rather than just be given over to fitful impulse.

THE ATTAINMENT OF WORSHIP: “…for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth”, v2. The object of worship is to be in communion with God; to walk on holy ground; to partake of spiritual meat; to divest ourselves of all of our preoccupations and assumptions; to come to an open heart and mind to seek and receive what God has to convey.

REVERNT WORSHIP is so fundamental to the faith of Christianity, that we must not allow ourselves to become weak-kneed about it. DON’T let your kids develop habits of sleeping in church. WAKE THEM UP and keep them awake. Teach them to worship God in church. To be a spiritual dead head in church is to let everything spiritual pass you by.