ment of God? The evidence is compelling: Moral chaos. Violence
everywhere. The mocking of God. Filth in the media. Injustice.
Schools and churches unsafe. If we are not being judged, we are over-
due. Based on what we read about similar situations in the Bible, we
know that when God finally responds, the answer is more disturbing
than the silence. At some point He says, “Enough.”
If God judged Israel, why would He not judge us? The sobering
aspect for the Christian is that judgment begins with the household
of God, and before it comes on the church, it comes on those of us
who teach the Word of God to the church. James said, “Let not many
of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we shall
incur a stricter judgment” (3:1, NASB). I tremble for certain preachers
and teachers. I know they love Christ, but they have caved in on
important matters. I do not want to be arrogant or high-minded—I
know how quickly I can cave in. We all have presumptuous sins and
hidden faults. The Enemy is subtle. But we are the leaders and we
must understand our challenge and wake up.
Breaking through the dark fog, though, is a shining light of hope:
When judgment comes, there is a group of people God will bless, a
remnant. The entire world can be crumbling down, but He will put
His hand on those following Him with their whole heart. That is
where I want to be. I challenge you to be there, too. I want to be one
of the remnant. What will that require?
REBUILDING THEFOUNDATION
The church has a leadership crisis. We are desperate today for godly
leaders. We need leaders with strong hearts who also have discern-
ment, men like the sons of Issachar, who understand our time. It isn’t
1955 anymore. It’s not even 1990 anymore. If someone had walked up
to you ten years ago and said “www.com,” you would have thought,
Who let this guy out of the home?
The leadership deficit is a huge problem in our churches. I once
did some research and found 165 definitions of leadership. But the
best one—no surprise—came from master communicator Howard
Hendricks: “A leader is someone who leads.” Don’t miss the profound
212 BUILDINGSTRONGFAMILIES