How to Make a Difference in American Culture

Here’s a quick history lesson on the influence of Hollywood on American culture. The pushing of the moral envelope started in what was called the Roaring 1920s, when Hollywood had a free hand. But that hand was radically restricted in the 1930s when the Hays Code censored sexual and blasphemous content in movies. When the Hays Code was removed in the early 1960s, it helped fuel what was called the “sexual revolution” of the ’60s. And from there America went downhill.

Today, all restraint is gone. The analogy of a frog slowly being boiled in water is no longer applicable. The frog has been exploded in the microwave. Check the box if you think we’re winning the battle on abortion, homosexuality, adultery, fornication, murder, theft, pornography, racism, blasphemy, and general lawlessness. What started as a wave of sin 100 years ago has slowly grown to a massive tsunami of filth that is killing humanity. Most Bible scholars believe that these are signs of the closing hours of time, which gives us a sense of consolation that what is happening hasn’t taken God by surprise.

So how can you and I hold back this tsunami? We can’t. But God can. And He does it through the power of the gospel. Therefore, I propose that you make a resolution to regularly go on short-term mission trips. I go on short term-mission trips twice a day. I go to a local college to share the gospel with students, film it (with their permission), and put the interaction on YouTube.

Effective Mission Trips

When my daughter was 17, she went on a short-term missionary trip to India. She said that a group of trainee missionaries were taken to a hill above a major city, and there they prayed over it. She couldn’t believe that she had gone all that way to do something she could’ve done in her home in California. There’s a reason that Jesus told us to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. It’s because the gospel is the power of God to salvation (Romans 1:16).

A.W. Tozer said:

“Have you noticed how much praying for revival has been going on of late—and how little revival has resulted? I believe the problem is that we have been trying to substitute praying for obeying, and it simply will not work. To pray for revival while ignoring the plain precept laid down in Scripture is to waste a lot of words and get nothing for our trouble. Prayer will become effective when we stop using it as a substitute for obedience.”

Someone once said that it is far easier to talk to God about men than to talk to men about God. It sure is easier to pray over a city than to preach in it. But sharing the gospel is what we are called to do. So, I would suggest that you find yourself a good fishing hole and go there regularly. A good fishing hole is simply a place where people gather. Fish don’t come to you. You have to go to them.

Jesus said to His disciples, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). He could have said, “Follow Me, and you will see the blind see and the deaf hear. You’ll see people raised from the dead. You’ll even see me walk on water and speak to a storm, and the wind and the sea will obey Me.” Instead, He chose to state the ultimate reason for His birth. He came to seek and save that which was lost (Luke 19:10). He came to fish for men, and if we are following Him, that should be our number one priority.