Woe to the world

By Mike Wendland
In Matthew 23, Jesus denounces religions indifference and hypocrisy by pronouncing woe on the leaders of the culture.
The message seems to be clear: A nation that rejects God is doomed to disaster.
The word woe means, literally, ruinous trouble.
That’s the fate, says Jesus, of those who reject him… be they individuals… or nations.
I don’t have to tell you that this country has strayed far from the principles it was founded on. The U.S., and Canada, too, is indeed rejecting Jesus Christ. We’ve kicked all mention of Him out of our schools, our governmental agencies and national policies and the workplace. We call the murder of babies a woman’s “right” ignoring the crystal clear teaching of God that we are all created in God’s image and God considers life, born and unborn, as sacred.
We celebrate wicked lifestyles. Hollywood and the dreadful entertainment industry pumps God-mocking, violent, profane and obscene material into our homes. And our churches, the great majority of our churches, sit back and tolerate it all.
Woe is you, says Jesus.
All the truth of history and the Bible show us a clear pattern. No nation that rejects God, or relegates him to irrelevancy, survives.
No nation. None.
I look at today’s headlines… hoof and mouth disease and mad cow disease bringing massive economic ills first on Britain and now across Europe and threatening the same to us…. The collapsing U.S. and world financial markets… growing tensions in the Middle East, the Balkans, with China and Russia… increasing polarization of the U.S. political system and I shudder at what’s ahead.
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” said Jesus of his Holy City. “You who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you. How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.”
“America, America,” he could say to us just as easily.
For we have not been willing to accept his love, either.
“Look,” said Jesus, prophesizing the future for them and… surely… us too if we continue on our God-rejecting path. “Your house is left to you desolate.”
Is it too late for us? I honestly don’t know. Perhaps for a godless nation… it is.
But… for you and me… those who hear these words… it is time, like never before… to truly love Him, to make him our priority, the Lord of our Life, and to love others and reach out for them.
If we don’t… if we don’t… Woe are we.

Article Source: http://www.christiannotepad.com

Mike Wendland is a pastor from a large Bible-believing church in the Midwest. He is the publisher of the Online Christian Shopper (www.onlinechristianshopper.com), which specializes in selling Christian T-shirts, clothing and jewelry. He also runs the MyTestimonySpace (www.mytestimonyspace.com) Christian directory.