Jesus is the Way - to God.

There is a great deal of hand-wringing nowadays about the state of the American church. I am not talking about one particular denomination, but about the church as a whole, young and old, coastal or Midwestern, the great body of believers who profess the name of Jesus Christ. The general consensus is that the church is in decline. It is failing to do its job (evangelization) while neglecting sound biblical teaching and discipleship for its attendees. How true this is depends, of course, upon what your local church is up to. If the Christians you know are witnessing to their neighbors, and you are involved in a supportive Bible study/small group, the concerns about the church as a whole might appear to be exaggerated.

There is one (at least) erroneous teaching that seems to be making the rounds of churches, books, and TV, and that is the idea that God guarantees a person success in every endeavor. Certainly Christians should not walk around with hang-dog expressions, crying woe is me. We are to walk in the Spirit in victory. We have overcome the world! Our search for success, however, needs to be in the area of walking with God. God calls us to die to ourselves daily. What does that mean? Simply put, it means that when God says "Do this" we do it, whether we want to or not. And that is hard. We want our own way, especially in the land of the free. Individual rights are highly prized in our culture. The freedom to make our own choices is sacrosanct. But as Christians, we are called to surrender our wills, our lives, our choices, to God. We must turn away from seeking worldly success and pleasures. That doesn't mean we won't or can't have those things, but it does mean that we must not pursue them. Our pursuit should be of God and making sure that we are doing His will. If we seek first the kingdom of God, all these things shall be added as well. But our hearts must be right first.