Reshaping The Culture - Malachi 4:5-6

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”- Malachi 4:5-6

    One need only pick up a newspaper or turn on the news to see what a deplorable city, state, nation, and world we live in. I have neither the fortitude nor stomach to recount the gross examples of iniquity I see around me every single day. Things that would never have been tolerated just a few years ago are now not only tolerated but validated, advocated, endorsed and accepted by large sections of the population. I have even heard people who are secularists and without any religion whatsoever ask, “Where are we headed?”
    I can say without hesitation that I have never seen as much outright hatred displayed in the world today. Not that this should come as a surprise. Christ Himself detailed the conditions we will face as the day of the Lord draws near.“And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.” - Matthew 24:12.
    Perhaps one of the most haunting situations today is this seemingly pestilent hatred between the generations. Sure, I remember when I was young and still “wet behind the ears,” thinking that my parents were old fashioned buffoons, but I didn’t remain that way, at least not for long. I grew to understand their concerns, their priorities, and what they revered. And soon those concerns and priorities became my concerns and priorities and what they revered became what I revered. God, family, and country became three non-negotiables. And to the very day they passed from this earth we shared a deep and binding love for one another. “Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may be well with you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.” - Deuteronomy 5:16.
    I remember as a child watching the tv with my parents and enjoying the programs they enjoyed. These were times when the family tv set was the purveyor of the popular culture; today it remains so; however, the culture is much changed since I was a child growing up and our innocence is long gone. I implore you all as parents to take note of what you allow to influence your children. Whether it be unsupervised time on the phone, internet, in front of the tv, or the very company you allow them to keep. The world doesn’t care about your rights as a parent nor does it care about your children, and it will be their undoing . . . if it is left unchecked. The modern world would just as soon see parents and children at odds with one another; it allows the culture (and the social scientists) to become the unquestioned influence in a child’s life! “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”- Proverbs 22:6.
    As Christian parents, we live in a culture by one of two means: consent or assent. I could show you examples of the luridness of our present day culture and I can assure you, you would never deliberately consent to allow such a culture to corrupt your lives or those of your children. So for most Christians, we live in this sewer culture by assent. We yield to whatever the culture says is popular. Whether it is dressing like tramps or allowing our young girls to do so, we meet the culture with a shrug of our shoulders rather than rounding them with our fists up. As the old adage goes, “Silence is assent!”
    Yet we can still have a positive effect on our children, and they, upon their own children but we need God, “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. ‘You shall have no other gods before Me.” - Deuteronomy 5:6-7. We need  family, “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up”- Deuteronomy 6:6-7. And we need our country, “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” - 1Timothy 2:1-4. These three things must be the bedrock upon which we reshape the current culture of hate into the Christian culture of love.
    As it happens, we have no one in the public forum to lead us in the way that is right. No one! But we do have a sure place to find our way - “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” - 2 Timothy 3:16-17.
    We must let God’s word work deeply into our hearts as men and women, parents and children, young and old. If we return to God we can and will reshape the culture. Without God, we are left with the alternative, and the depths of its sinfulness are unfathomable!