Healthy Reminders in Evil Times

2 Peter 3:1-2 “Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you.  I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking.  I want you to recall the words spoken by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.”

            Lord, thank You for the beauty of the seasons.  Each one is resplendent and unique reminders that You are the creator and sustainer of our very being.  Thank You for Your written word that reminds me every day what Your thoughts are and what You command.  Thank You for putting on the heart of our Pastor to send us little “reminders” from You every week in an email to stimulate me to wholesome thinking.

            We all need reminders.  I leave notes to myself every day.  It is much easier today to spread the written Word today with all that is at our disposal.  But even with texting, cell phones, email, blogs, computers, Ebooks, electronic calendars, and even TV we still need reminders of the important, not the mundane; of God’s word, not of when to record a TV show; of the holy prophets, not what’s on Facebook.

            Lord, we Christians are under attack here in our little city of Lynchburg, and evil has crept in seemingly undetected and unchallenged right around Your Liberty University where You have sent thousands in their tender formative years to learn of You as they learn their major.

It started timidly with a tattoo and body piercing establishment right at the base of the mountain.  Then a bar was added.  In the past year or so, an “Adult” and intimate apparel store that sells pornography moved in right up the highway in Campbell County.   Then yesterday, I saw a huge billboard at the end of Chandler’s Mountain Rd. advertising that the Chip and Dale male stripteze group is coming and was urging the “ladies” to get their tickets before they ran out.

There is a large contingent on campus who see no evil in the new wave of fictional witchcraft offerings and the fascination again with werewolves and Zombies.  In fact there was a zombie walk downtown this weekend!  We have Wiccans in town and a ghoulish Halloween store right across the street from the grade and high school and university.

            Lord, Your people need a guard over their hearts and minds that only You can provide.  Lord, You have commanded that we are to be in the world and not of it.  We, I, need to be diligent in my study, and also in my prayer life for this town and Your people.  We need revival in Lynchburg!