There is a wall being built in our culture. It is a wall that is separating people from God. There are many that cry, “The problem is our courts who pass or uphold unjust and immoral laws.” Others shout, “The problem is our politicians who support self-interests and refuse to stand for right.” Even more shout, “The problem is our government as a whole that works against the truth.”
But while these things may be true, it is not these things that are building the wall. The cry is to vote to change things, and while I agree that we should cast our votes through a moral base of a Christian worldview, I also believe that we will never have the votes to truly change the course.
Jesus Himself reminded us that the narrow road of truth that leads to life will be found by few (Matthew 7:13f). Many more will follow the broader road to destruction and they will more often carry the day when the votes are tallied. We are outnumbered. But more importantly we are not seeing the problem clearly.
You see this wall is not being built by politicians, or courts, or governments. This wall is being built by the hearts in each individual that have been turned to stone by their acceptance of personal sin. It is the hardening of our hearts that is building this wall. Hearts willing to accept that the murder of unborn children is a matter of personal “choice” adds stones to this wall. Hearts that reject God’s authority in family and marriage continue to add stones to the wall. Hearts that seek to please themselves and the world rather than the Creator, one by one add stones to the wall.
This wall is being built by those willing to walk the broad road to destruction. It is our sins that are building this wall (Isaiah 59:2) not the courts or our politicians. So what do we do to change this wall? How do we stop the construction? One stony heart at a time. If we are going to tear down this wall, people must remove the stone that they have placed in it themselves. No one else can do it for them.
We cannot remove someone else’s stone from the wall. We cannot legislate it. We expect it to be removed by bemoaning the problem on Facebook and Twitter. We must, each of us, teach someone we know about the love of Christ and the truth of God’s word. We have to care enough about our neighbors to help them soften their hearts and take back their own stone from the wall.
The church is to be the pillar and support of the truth (1 Timothy 3:15) and we are to teach that truth to others with great patience and instruction (2 Timothy 4:2). If we are going to take down this wall, we are going to have to do it changing hearts – one stony heart at a time. And if we change people’s heart, they will change their votes. If they change their votes they will change the government. They will change the road they are walking and they will change the hearts of others.
Today before you get on Facebook or Twitter to complain about the direction our country is headed, make sure that you have removed your stone from the wall. And then make sure that you are an active part of helping someone you know, turn and soften their heart to God. Help them take their stone back from the wall – and bit by bit, stone by stone, heart by heart the wall will come down.
Michael Hite