I am sorry for the delay in this blog. Both Monday and Tuesday the Word program on my laptop crashed as I was finishing the blog. Even though I had saved it as I went along, I still lost it all. This time I got it all in, but it is time to take the laptop in to the Geek Squad and let them play with it, Anyway, getting back to the topic of a couple of weeks ago, we have a tendency to understand things based on our own experience. We do this with everything. As an example, let’s look at cremation. When someone dies, there is a disposition. Essentially, a disposal of the body. There are primarily three methods for this action. Burial of the deceased in the ground, burial at sea and cremation. Burial at sea is the least common. The area most of you live in here in Indiana, traditional burial in a cemetery accounts for right around 85% of all dispositions. So, you would say, based on your personal experience, that most dispositions are done this way. However, nationally speaking, cremation stands right around 50% of all dispositions and, in the area Marsha and I come from, it is closer to 60%. Some of you, as you read this, might not believe that this is true. But, according to the Cremation Association of North America (the organization that certifies and licenses crematories and cremationists in this country) these numbers are accurate. At the funeral home/crematory I worked at in Ohio, we regularly cremated 500 people a year. The reasons are many. Better for the ecology, less expensive, you can keep your loved one, you can scatter the cremated remains of your loved one……the list goes on. Just because something is beyond our personal experience does not mean it is not so.

The Bible is another example. The Bible was not written to be understood in 21^st century standards. It was written to be understood in God’s standard. A conversation with a gentleman, which I did not start, concerning whether or not homosexuality was a sin. He started out by saying that a loving God would not condemn something that is an expression of love. “Now,” he said, “I know what the Bible says, but I am not buying it.” What was I supposed to do with that? He was saying that God felt one way but the Bible said something else, so therefore he didn’t believe the Bible was God’s Word. I am sure he would have said that it is God’s Word, but by saying he doesn’t care what the Bible says, he’s not buying it, he is saying it can’t be God’s Word. A lot of people have a problem with God telling Moses to destroy all the people in Canaan, which would include women and children. How could a loving God be so cruel? Surely that cannot be God’s Word! But, that is 21^st century American thinking. God knew things that no one else knew. The seven different groups of people in Canaan were not wiped out. They became the Arab people, who eventually became the Muslim people, followers of Islam. In time they overran Asian and European and African territories, enslaving great multitudes of people, killing millions and making life unbearable for their subjects. Convert or die. The great unrest in the world today is caused by Muslims. How many of our sons and daughters from this country have died since 09/11/2001 fighting in our armed forces as they tried to protect their nation from further attacks? Al Qaeda, ISIS and a host of other Islamic groups that have made it their business to terrorize the world and cowardly kill innocents would not even exist today if God’s Word had been followed. If one of your kin was one of the ones who have died since 09/11/2001, you might well think that the people of that time should have heeded the command of God.

            Again, just because it is beyond our personal experience doesn’t really mean that the whole world is just like us. 

            This is true of Christianity, as well.

            The county our last church in Ohio was in was called Lake County. Lake County has that name because it sits right on Lake Erie. It is the smallest county, in land area, in the entire state, but it has a population of 228,614 people. With a land area of only 227 square miles, that means there are 1,007 people per square mile. Contrast to the county I now live in, Wabash County. There are 412 square but the population in the county is only 31,762, for 80 people per square mile. So, Lake County is roughly half the size of Wabash County but has tight around seven times as many people as Wabash County. There was some cultural shock when we moved here, but if someone from here, who had lived here all their lives, moved to Lake County, the change would be very hard to deal with. The pace of life is far greater, the traffic is more complex, the attitude of the people is different. There are good things and there are bad things. It is a very different place. One of the things that would jump out at you is the attitude on religion. With nearly a quarter of a million people you would assume Lake County had a lot of churches. According county records, there are 167 Christian based churches in Lake County. That may seem like a lot, but Wabash County, with a population seven times smaller, has 80 Christian based churches. (A Christian based church is a church that professes Jesus Christ as Savior. That may not be taught in the actual teachings of the church, but it is part of who they are. It does not include worship places dedicated to the Jewish or Islamic or any other type faith system. I don’t know if Wabash County has any such worship center, but Lake County has a few.) It is easy to see that Wabash County is pretty rich is churches compared to Lake County and, for that matter, much of the rest of the country. Just as an interesting sidelight, there is not a single Brethren church in Lake County. Drive down any back road in Wabash County and you will one sooner or later.

            It is hard to believe for someone who is from Wabash County that there are places where the teaching of the Word of God is not prominent. In Lake County, according to the last census, only 55,712 people claim any church affiliation. That is less than one fourth of the population. For someone from Wabash County, based on their own personal experience, that seems hard to believe. To not even claim any church affiliation; unimaginable. As one Wabash County pastor said to me a while back, “Oh, you’re from heathen land.” It does seem that way, doesn’t it? To make matters worse, those 55,712 people who claim church affiliation don’t really go to church. If they did go to church, each church would have 334 in attendance each Sunday. I can guarantee you, from personal knowledge, that the figure is closer to 50-75 on average.

            So, the folks in Wabash County, Indiana can take great joy in the fact that they live here in God’s country, right? Again, this is the fallacy of assuming your personal experience is just the way it is for everyone. We tend to be drawn to people like ourselves. That is normal. That being said, if we go to church and our friends go to church, and if we believe in Christ as Savior and our friends believe in Christ as Savior, everyone must. But, reality isn’t dependent on our personal experience. In Wabash County, of the 31,762 residents, only 13,765 claim any church affiliation. That is less than one third of the population. Remember, heathenistic Lake County is just under one fourth of their population, so Wabash isn’t that much better. And, if all those 13,765 people who claim church affiliation actually went to church, each church in the county would have 172 in attendance every week. We know that is not the case.

            What is the point here? In Lake County there are 172,902 people who have no church affiliation. In all likelihood, all they know of Jesus Christ is that He has something to do with Christmas and Easter and Santa and the Easter bunny. In Wabash County there are 18,000 people who have no church affiliation. In all likelihood, all they know of Jesus Christ is that He has something to do with Christmas and Easter and Santa and the Easter bunny. Now, here is the big question: Is this their own fault? In the New Testament the ‘preacher’ is the Greek word ‘kerusso.’ It means to be a herald, to be someone who speaks, or shares, the divine Word. What I attempt to do on Sunday mornings is a form of preaching. But anytime one of us shares the Gospel, we are preaching in a Biblical sense. Romans 10:8-14 says this; But what does it say? "The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the Word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, "Everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame." For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing great blessings on all who call on Him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

            One might say, ”I don’t know anyone who doesn’t go to church and who doesn’t know about the Lord.” But, of course, you do know such people. You don’t know them well, maybe, but you do know them. You just haven’t engaged them in conversation about Spiritual things.

            Sunday nights at 6 PM at our church we are working on a path to sharing. It is offered. I can’t make you come, but it is offered to you and is presented in such a way as to make you comfortable in the sharing. If you are reading this and you are a long way from Wabash County, e-mail me at oldirishguy51@yahoo.com and we will talk about it.

            You are the ‘preacher’ someone needs to show them the way to Christ, and it is your job.

            Blessings.