March 28, 2024

On strong leadership

February has been known as the month of the presidents. Presidents with birthdays in February: George Washington, William Henry Harrison, Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan. February could be also be considered the month of leadership.

In recent years, there has been a sharp drop off in leadership at all levels: government, business, education, and sadly the leadership in churches. One part of this drop off has been the collapsing of ethics, moral values, and honestly/integrity. This is not a new problem in the history of the world.

Dr.John Oswald Sanders(October 17, 1902—October 24, 1992) was a general director of Overseas Missionary Fellowship in the 1950s and 1960s. He authored more than forty books on the Christian life. He wrote: “A great deal more failure is the result of an excess of caution than of bold experimentation with new ideas. The frontiers of the Kingdom of God were never advanced by men and women of caution.”

In 2 Kings 22 and 23 tell of a very corrupt time with values being turned aside. King Manasseh and his son, King Amon ruled over Judah for about 40 years. Biblical scholars describe their rule as deplorable.

They allowed worship of idols, foreign cults, and persecution of prophets. King Manasseh took part in scarifies of young children. Both kings allowed the decline of religious practices and King Amon allowed the burning of the holy book (the first five books in the Old Testament) that contained the law given to Moses. They both failed to observe the holy days or holy times.

The reign finally came to end, when King Amon was killed by his slaves because of his corruption and actions breaking morality.

Then 2 Kings 22- 23 turn our attention to a young King Josiah. King Josiah whose goodness shined brighter because it came after so much wickedness, which he had the honor to reform.

2 Kings demonstrates the general character King Josiah. He showed respect

To God’s house, which he repaired.

To God’s book, which impacted him from reading it.

To God’s messengers, that he would consulted.

Upon which he set about that glorious work of reformation which we have an account of in the next chapter.

2 Kings 22 and 23 shows that King Josiah was given credit in reforming his era. One thing he did was rebuilding the temple. While rebuilding the temple lead the workers to find the Book of the Law (Torah) from the hand of Moses.

King Josiah would bring back the traditions of their religion. It was forbidden to worship idols. Worship of God was encouraged by the King. He resumed the Passover celebrations. Judah moved back to the worship of God (Yahweh) under the leadership of King Josiah. As it turns out this was a peaceful time in Judah.

Many church leaders today see the need to move back forward to the values found in the teaching of the Old Testament and with the word from Jesus. It is time that Christian people stop sitting by and not wanting to interfere with the “accept way of the world”. Values and ethics are not old or outdated.

The corruption of our time has grown stronger. While I may not put a time when the decline began, I can point to the failure of our time to hold strong to the values and morality. One example I will share with you.

It is my belief that the Christian community has sit too long and been quite about the changing words we hear in music, radio and TV. We have a government department (FCC) that is supposed to oversee our protection on the air waves. We have controls on the air waves which are to be controlled with seven-second delayorprofanity delay

Today we have allowed this 7 second delay to be ignored as Christian people. Our failure has allowed the radio, TV, music, and shows to be filled with profanity. We have just accepted it like the people did under the corruption by King Manasseh and his son King Amon.

Reform (like King Josiah) can start with us. We can demand that our society not be paint with derogatory words and language that degrade people. Nothing will happen until we demand a change.

I repeat the quote from the beginning of my thought: “A great deal more failure is the result of an excess of caution than of bold experimentation with new ideas. The frontiers of the Kingdom of God were never advanced by men and women of caution.” We must become bold and daring to bring back our Christian traditions.