CLC and Thee

by   Judy Jackson                                                                                                                                                                            Vol. X, No. 5, May 1997

[Note:  The Christian Life Commission has been renamed.  It is now the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.]

The Lord recently led our family to Faith Baptist Church, a conservative Southern Baptist Church in Winchester, Virginia. Over twenty years ago, I made a conscious decision to leave the Southern Baptists. The church was "too conservative" for me back then. Later on after having children, my resolve remained, but the reason changed: the church had become "too liberal" for me. The birth of one's children certainly has a way of rearranging priorities. Deciding not to attend church is sort of like deciding to drink; there's always a convenient reason.

Time passed and now I am the mother of four teenagers. My husband and I are attempting to raise good kids in a world which seems determined to devour our children before our watchful eyes. Sometimes the schools seem more like an Orwellian novel, and the movie theaters and television set can no longer be considered innocent recreation. Society either openly embraces or nonchalantly ignores blatant attacks on American moral values and freedoms heretofore taken for granted. Today we seriously debate "issues" which would have been disregarded as simply too ridiculous for discussion just a few years ago. We are constantly bombarded with the message that "everything is OK", when it so obviously — from a statistical as well as a common sense point of view — is not. The kids are not the only ones being "dumbed down".

Our culture is under attack, and the attacks are generally presented to us by the mainstream media as acceptable, even somewhat quaint. Wow. We are the culture. The Holy Spirit lives in us, and it is not too hard to figure out exactly Who is under attack.

This is one good reason for the existence of The Christian Life Commission. As Ron Collymore, Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies at Taylor University, recently pointed out at the CLC convention in Louisville, Ky., "What we live is what we truly believe; everything else is just so much talk." The question is, what do we truly believe? It is one we must ask ourselves every time we see an attack on our culture. Failure to act will be seen as apathetic acceptance. There is no apathy in Jesus.

The Christian Life Commission is an organization designed to help Christians "walk the walk" with the Lord; not just to sit in serene contemplation on the mountaintop but to truly live as Christ would have us live, to "fight the good fight" while holding fast to His principles in our hearts, minds, and deeds. The CLC is designed to educate and equip believers with the tools to be effective voices for our Lord Jesus in His world. We are disciples, and we serve our risen Lord. As armies are organized, so should be the faithful servants of Christ. We are and must always remember we are the voice of Jesus. We can watch helplessly as our government, our schools and even some of our churches fall prey to the deceit of moral relativism, or in the words of Dr. Al Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, we can be "...a cognitive minority standing against the majority of decadence". We are to shine the light of Christ in a world growing ever more dim.

What can one person do? If your church has a Christian Life Committee, prayerfully support its efforts. If your church does not have such a committee, pray about forming one. Remember that our Lord taught us to pray: "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."