Calling out to Dry Bones

Calling out to Dry Bones

‘AWord from the Pastor’ By Clayton Adams

Calling weary and dry bones! The stress of everyday life is at an all time high and we try to kill that stress through alcohol, drugs, pornography, gambling, entertainment or other distractions.

Americans filled 4.3 billion prescriptions and doled out nearly $374 billion on medicine in 2014, according to new data from the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics (April 14, 2015, on-line Time Magazine article). We are killing emotional and physical pain in record fashion.

According to data from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (2012) the average American spends 1 percent of his or her income annually on alcohol. This is more than $50 billion spent annually on alcohol.

We have more entertainment available to us in our cell phones than all the radio, television and movies have produced in the past 100 years and still we have an insatiable appetite for entertainment.

Our pets are better cared for than most people of the world as we spent more than 60 billion dollars on our pets, pet supplies and pet care in America in 2015!

Terror attacks have increased and despite our “war on terror” we are no safer now than we were the night before September 11, 2001.

The United States is increasingly becoming a more diverse nation and continues to be divided by language and cultures. Instead of being the great “melting pot” of the world we have become a boiling pot of anger and cruelty and it will worsen.

Politicians, academia and other leaders say they have the answers. Vote for this party or that party, this person or that person and yet we all know it won't change, it can't change unless we the people change. But how do we change ourselves?

The change is found in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ who is calling out to men and women who are full of dry and weary bones. Lauren Daigle and Michael Farren co-wrote and sing a song titled “Calling Out (Dry Bones)” and it encapsulates the feelings of, I believe, the majority of people in our country. Give it a view on YouTube.

The answers will not be found in politician's promises. Security cannot come from money, no matter how much one has. Lasting joy cannot come from any vice or entertainment. Wisdom does not come from books and education. Health and healing in this world is temporary.

What matters in the end? “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14) Can what ever is wrong and sick in our nation be healed? Yes!

This Sunday, September 18 is National Back to Church Sunday in America. The National Back to Church Sunday effort is supported by a wide range of Christian denominations and already has about 30,000 churches participating in this national effort to encourage people to begin attending or return to church on a regular basis.

Know that whatever church you choose to attend will have its problems and issues but church is about being with other people who are learning to live for God, strengthening faith in Jesus, learning to live humbly and helping one another overcome temptations and failures.

I encourage you to attend church this Sunday. A good church will focus attention on Jesus Christ. The church may be big or small, in a city or in the country, regardless of denomination, if they have music or not what really matters is does that church preach and teach Jesus Christ.

No church is no perfect so don't expect to be a part of a perfect church. The church I am part of is not perfect because of me. I struggle with the same things the apostle Paul spoke of in Romans chapter seven. Paul wrote of his personal struggle; “I don't know why I do the things I know I shouldn't do and the things I know I should do, I don't do, I know nothing good lives in me! But thanks to God, Jesus Christ has set me free from the law of sin through the law of the Spirit of life.” (Romans 7 and 8:2) Don't give up on finding a church that can help you fight through this life and build your faith and encourage you to keep moving forward to God through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Don't give up on God! He loves you and He has a plan and purpose for you. Go to church this Sunday and see what God may do in your life.

Clayton Adams is pastor at Earle First Assembly of God. You can e- mail him at cpalaa@ yahoo. com, or find Earle First Assembly on Facebook.