Driving a Parked Car - News With Views

By Coach Dave Daubenmire

August 16, 2024

I find myself more and more isolated today in my optimistic belief that good things are on the horizon.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe a good butt-whipping is in the future for once-Christian America. You know, that country that still has the motto IN GOD WE TRUST written on the dollar bill. It is not so much that we cannot trust God, but rather, WHICH God do Americans put our trust in?

“GOD” is pretty much a generic term. The term “god” can refer to many different things. Webster defined GOD as “A prince; a ruler; a magistrate or judge; an angel. Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people.” Some people think it is LeBron James…or Taylor Swift.

Just what “prince, ruler, magistrate, judge, or angel” are they referring to when they declare IN GOD WE TRUST. It matters, you know. There is only ONE who ever claimed to be KING OF KINGS. Is that the GOD that all Americans are trusting in? JESUS? Or is HE just one of many gods…ooops…perhaps it is She…not He…in whom they trust.

Is that the reason why America seems to be in the midst of such a horrible identity crisis. We no longer believe, nor trust, in the same God.

Let’s face it. America is a post-Christian nation. Every semblance of the honoring of Christ has been stripped from the public forum. Christ is now KING over the INDIVIDUAL but He is no longer KING over all. That is the message being preached in YOUR church…if you still go to one…but He clearly is not KING over the Government…or your schools…or any “secular” institution.

Just ask your pastor. He/she/It/They is probably more afraid of the IRS or the local newspaper than they are of Satan and his wicked works. They certainly have lost the FEAR of God…which is the beginning of all wisdom. Did YOUR pastor shut down your church in cowardly obedience to some made up flu bug?

Most of what passes as Christianity today is nothing more that self-help therapy masquerading as Bible preaching. Maga Churches are the worst. The larger the crowd, the softer the message. Soft preaching draws a crowd while hard preaching thins out the crowd. (I sometimes feel like the Jack Kervokian of church growth…)

I host a daily podcast at www.CoachDaveLive.com where I do my best to expose the soft messages emanating out of the soft mouth of soft preachers. America is in a mess not because the world got darker but because the light got dimmer. The greatest spiritual battle since the beginning of time is raging around us and most of Christianity is hiding the light under the bushel. Something our Savior spoke directly against.

The church has become the bushel. The impact of the local church on the local community is almost non-existent. Ask yourself this question…if the church you attend went out of business would anyone in town notice? Does YOUR light ever reach outside the 4 walls?

As one of my friends once told me…the church has become some worldly and the world so churchy, it is hard to tell them apart. Please stay with me.

On yesterday’s daily podcast I asked a heart piercing question. You should make time to listen to it here. It is free. Here is the question.

What has your church ever done PUBLICLY as a collective to oppose evil in your community?

The silence was deafening. Oh, they could all give answers to the “mercy ministry” things the had done…feeding the poor…clothing the homeless…school supplies at the start of school…

But they could not give an answer to what THEIR CHURCH had done AS A GROUP to oppose darkness in their midst. Go to a school board meeting…stop a drag show at the local library…witness outside an abortuary…stop a porn shop from opening…

But yet, they all thought that they went to a “good church” that “did good things” with a pastor who was “nice” and people they “loved.” Yet when they were called upon to mention ONE thing that their church had done to OPPOSE evil OUTSIDE the BUSHEL basket that they were “worshipping” in laryngitis suddenly struck.

My Christian friends, do we understand that worship is something we do OUTSIDE of the safe confines of the church? It is sooo much more than the opening 10 minutes of your church “service.” Service? Service to whom? Yourself? Your family? Your friends? Your pastor?

Service is defined as “labor of body or of body and mind, performed at the command of a superior, or the pursuance of duty, or for the benefit of another.” Jesus said GO! The modern church says COME!

As I plow through my 71^st year of life I shake my head at the evil that is engulfing America and the unwillingness of THE CHURCH to get involved in the “cultural war.”

Thirty percent of Christians do not even vote, and nearly half of those who do vote for a party that is in favor of homosex, abortion, and child-sexual mutilation. Shake My Freakin Head…

Psalm 12 tells us The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted. How do America’s pastors think evil is going to be conquered if we will not confront it?

The 20^th Century Christian martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer stated “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”

Plato is quoted as saying “Silence is consent.” Everything going on in this fallen nation is happening with the consent of the American church.

“God is in control” the passive, cowardly Christian pulpit tells us. Yep. God is in control all right. But even Jesus cannot drive a parked car…

Get engaged! Fight! Contend for the faith. It is time to quit hiding the light.

Turn up the heat on your pastor. I dare you to share this with him!!

E-Mail Dave Daubenmire: ptsalt@gmail.com