Are you sure?

Here is an old poem that represents our culture and how its values have changed us all. Our culture is not the one that our parents and grandparents remember and for that matter the church which has been changed by the culture is not the church that our parents and grandparents attended.

I think that you will agree that the author of this poem, written many decades ago, somehow saw into the future and addressed the sorry state of the church today.


Said the Robin to the Sparrow,

“I should really like to know,

Why these anxious human beings

Rush about and worry so.”

Said the Sparrow to the Robin,

“Friend, I think that it must be,

That they have no heavenly Father,

Such as cares for you and me.”


I believe the Robin and the Sparrow must have been sitting in a tree in front of the average American church today.

Why is it that our nation has become a moral wasteland at the same time that a recent poll found that eighty-five per cent of all Americans consider themselves Christians?

These same folks who identify themselves as Christians have abortions, vote for pro-abortion candidates, embrace the homosexual lifestyle, do not keep their marriage vows, and live together in adulterous relationships.

I am wondering if these folks have been deceived into believing that they are Christians.

The churches teach that all one must do to become a Christian is to say a little prayer something like this, “Jesus I ask you to come into my heart and become my Savior.” After mouthing these words, they are quickly told, “Now you are a Christian and you will spend eternity in Heaven with Jesus.”

Now that they have said these words they qualify to become members of a club we call church. Once they join, they qualify to receive all the benefits of the church plus they are usually told that now that they are Christians, they can’t lose their salvation no matter what they do. In other words, you can keep on living your old lifestyle and still receive all the benefits of the church and you get Heaven as a bonus.

The Bible has different expectations from the followers of Jesus. The teachings of Jesus expect us to give our very lives for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. Today’s church teaches that Jesus gave His life so that we could be the masters of our own kingdom and have the best life possible here on Earth.

We all love to talk and sing about following Jesus as long as we don’t have to go where He is leading and that is to the Cross where are told to take up OUR cross and follow Him. That cross represents death to our agendas.

We see that the life styles of most church people are no different than those who make no pretense about being a Christian.

The Bible is clear in that it states that once a person becomes a Christian, they are a “New Creature.” They do not indulge in the same sinful activities that they once did.

There is a teaching of Jesus’ in Mathew chapter 13 concerning the wheat and the weeds. The problem here is that they look so much alike that it is difficult to tell them apart. The weeds look like Christians, they sing like Christians, they talk the talk of Christians, but they are not Christians. Reality strikes home at the end of this parable when at the harvest the wheat is gathered into Heaven’s storehouse and the weeds are burned in the furnace.

Jesus has some very sobering words in Mathew chapter 7 concerning this issue. “Not everyone who calls me Lord shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but He who does the will of my Father in Heaven. Many will say to me on the day of judgment, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in You name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many miracles in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.”

I think that the upshot of what Jesus is saying here is that maybe we are asking the wrong question. Instead of asking,”Do you know Jesus,” they should be asked, “Does Jesus know you?”