Save America Ministries

Guest (Male): This is Viewpoint with attorney and author Chuck Crismier. Viewpoint is a one-hour talk show confronting the issues of America's heart and home. And now, for today's edition of Viewpoint, here is Chuck Crismier.

Chuck Crismier: An article appeared recently entitled, "Generation Z isn't losing faith, they're losing confidence." Generation Z isn't losing faith, they're losing confidence. What's the difference? What's the difference? Is there a difference between continuing confidence or faith? I want to take a look at that here today on Viewpoint, and I'm glad that you've joined us. It's conversation as always with ever-increasing conviction, talk that transforms.

Generation Z. Z, that's the last letter in the alphabet. We had X, we had Y, and now we have Z. The generation before X was the Baby Boomer generation. That was the generation that was born from 1946 onward for about 12 to 15 years. Then after that came the children of the Baby Boomer generation, which was called the Baby Buster generation, or X, Generation X.

They were the generation that in one sense were kind of Xed out. They had been born as a result of the sexual revolution coming out of the Baby Boomer generation. So, they had a very different view of what it meant to follow Jesus. Then came the next generation, Y. Generation Y had an even different view of what it meant to follow Jesus, diminished by what they'd experienced from Generation X and from the Baby Boomer generation, their grandparents.

Then came Generation Z, the current generation, the young people who are now ranging upwards in their mid-20s. Generation Z, and it is said that this is the largest generation in American history. Before that, it was the Baby Boomer generation that was the largest generation in American history. That was the generation that followed World War II. Now we have a generation, Generation Z at the end of the alphabet, one knows where it's going from there, that isn't losing faith, they're just losing confidence.

And yet it has been said that Generation Z is the most faithless generation in American history. Their great-great-grandparents in the Baby Boomer generation basically were part of the hippie generation and they hipped out on Jesus until they had the Jesus Revolution in the midst of the hippie generation. The Jesus Revolution was actually a revolution right in the midst of the sexual revolution.

So, the Jesus Revolution actually was sort of a blending of what was happening in the great rebellion of the Baby Boomer generation, the rebellion against authority, the rebellion against not only God's authority but parental authority, governmental authority, and so on. So, the sexual revolution raged whole hog in the Baby Boomer generation. It was out of that came a generation of instructors, professors in America's colleges and universities that did not share the gospel, the truth once delivered to the saints, but had a very strange amalgamation of that gospel that became part of what was called the church growth movement of the 1970s.

The "God is Love" movement. During the 1970s, and you've heard me say this before but it bears worth saying again because it helps us to understand. If you haven't lived during that period of time, you have no clue why things are the way they are. To understand why things are the way they are helps us to understand what has to happen if there is to be any change that we can truly believe in. That's why we're talking about this.

So, in the church growth movement, it was an effort to try to grow big churches so as to somehow redeem the hippie movement, to bring about some recovery of the faith. So, the idea was to bring in as many people as possible into our churches that were unchurched, that had rebelled against God, that had rebelled against their parents, that had rebelled against all authority. And so, they were brought in.

They were brought in under the aegis or precept of God is love. Not God is truth, not God is justice and judgment, not the God who said that sin, while universal, will bring about death unless you're redeemed. They didn't want to be confronted with that. No, God is love. So, He's going to wrap His arms around me in my rebellion and in my revolution, in my sexual revolution, in all of the things that I am doing and the way that I think, and that's the God I'm going to serve.

Well, that's what happened and that was the beginning. The "God of Love" movement, and it raged in our country for about 15, 20 years from the early 1970s up until the 1990s. In the 1990s came another movement called the seeker sensitive movement. The seeker sensitive movement was, shall we say, the church growth movement on steroids. And so, what the church growth movement did was diminish the Word of God and its power and its authority.

And even such Bible versions came out that were diminishing the authority of God and His Word to try to make it more comfortable, to try to make it easier, to try to make it sweeter, like the New International Version and then the New Living Bible. The Living Bible came out, which wasn't even a translation, but those were the Bibles that choreographed the Baby Boomer generation and their children.

Now we have two generations beyond that, Generation Z, that they're saying they're not losing faith, they're just losing confidence. Well, what faith did they have that they're losing confidence in? And if they're losing confidence, are they not losing faith? So, we want to talk about it here on the program today, and you may think it's not relevant. It's highly relevant. In fact, it's more relevant than you can possibly imagine because it reveals that we're not overcoming, friends.

We're being overcome. We're not overcoming, we're actually being overcome. And we're not being overcome because we don't have the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony and loving not our lives unto death as the Scripture says, but we are being overcome because we don't have that confidence. We don't have the confidence to press forward. We don't have the confidence to endure to the end. Why? We need to talk about that here on Viewpoint today. Why Generation Z isn't losing faith supposedly, just losing confidence. So, my question for you is, are you losing confidence? Maybe you're not in Generation Z, but you're losing confidence anyway. We'll be right back.

Guest (Male): Once upon a time, children could pray and read their Bibles in school. Divorces were practically unknown, as was child abuse. In our once great America, virginity and chastity were popular virtues and homosexuality was an abomination. So what happened in just one generation? Hi, I'm Chuck Crismier, and I urge you to join me daily on Viewpoint where we discuss the most challenging issues touching our hearts and homes. Could America's moral slide relate to the Fourth Commandment? Listen to Viewpoint on this radio station or anytime at saveus.org.

Chuck Crismier: Back in the 1970s, there was a group that came from Sweden called the Samuelson Brothers. It's possible that you heard them, that is if you were alive then, and they came from Sweden and they were dressed in the garb of that day, which was basically a hippie kind of a garb, very avant-garde and so on. And they sang a song called "I've Got Confidence." It went like this: I've got confidence, God is going to see me through. No matter what the case may be, I know He's going to fix it for me, because I've got confidence. That was it. I've got confidence. God's going to see me through.

But what if it doesn't seem like He's seeing me through? How long does it take for me to wait for God to see me through? And what does it mean for God to see me through? Therein lies the problem with not only Generation Z purportedly not losing faith but losing confidence. So, as the article goes on, it says we hear a lot about Generation Z walking away from faith. That isn't the whole story, and the part we're missing may be more important than the part we're keeping repeating.

Young adults are showing up. They're serving, joining small groups, bringing friends, talking about Jesus more than the generations ahead of them. Lifeway Research State of Discipleship study released in June of 2026 found that Generation Z churchgoers share their faith stories more than any other generation surveyed. In previous six months, the average Generation Z churchgoer had told someone their faith story nearly seven times. For churchgoers 61 and older, it was closer to three times. So, Generation Z is not silent about Jesus.

Now, this is an interesting point. Generation Z is not silent about Jesus, while the previous generations were pretty silent about Jesus. Generation X, Generation Y. And then came Generation Z. So, we have people in Generation Z, young people who purportedly are flocking back to church and we hear of stories of revival in Wheaton College and several other places where there appeared to be revival. But what happened? They were revived from something, but what were they revived to?

You see, revival is not just coming alive, but it's coming alive for a purpose. It's coming alive for a reason. Coming alive for what, to what, and for how long? How long will those revived stay revived? And why aren't they staying revived? So, the same study found something very troubling. Generation Z trailed every other generation in two of its eight signposts of spiritual maturity: exercising faith and living unashamed. On living unashamed, they scored 46 out of 100 against 67 for Boomers and older, the widest generation gap in the study.

They also reported lower agreement with several core theological beliefs. Nearly half of Generation Z said they typically doubt God is involved when something happens that they can't explain. And nearly half said that during difficult seasons, they sometimes question whether God loves them or will provide for them. Now, I'm sure that every person, if you live in the flesh on terra firma, that is on this globe, you have had times when you might say, where was God in this? Or where is God now when I'm going through this crisis, when I'm having this situation, and so on?

That's a natural question. David, right there called a man after God's own heart, had those kinds of questions continually. He says it's like I'm being overcome, overwhelmed. Lord, how are they gathered against me? How are they that rise up in the many are they that rise up against my soul and say there's no help for him in God? But then he resolved it: But You, oh Lord, are a shield for me, my glory and the lifter of my head.

How could David do that? Because he was deeply rooted in his conviction of who God was and that he was God's follower in spirit and in truth, and it didn't depend on what was happening at a given moment as to whether or not his trust was in God. I hope you heard what I just said because the reality is our trust in God is the issue. What does it mean to trust God? You can believe in God, but the devil believes in God and trembles.

He does, the Bible says so. The demons believed in Jesus. In fact, they were able to identify who Jesus was when the religious leaders of the day couldn't identify Jesus as the Messiah, but the demons did. They identified Him and said, why are You come against us, thou Jesus of Nazareth? So, the issue is not whether we can identify God, it's whether we trust Him.

Years ago, I wrote in a book dealing with this matter of God and trusting in God in our country, and I said belief in God is killing America. Now, that may sound like a very strange thing to say, but let me explain. God didn't call us to believe in Him, He called us to believe Him. Notice the difference? God did not call us to believe in Him, He wants us to believe Him. That's the ultimate goal. So, you can believe in God for a period of time and still not believe Him.

And then you fall away and you're overcome and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the lust of other things along with the spirit of the world, the culture, the dynamics of the culture, the draw of the culture and your own flesh and even the seduction of the devil, they all conspire, seem to conspire against you to overcome. That, my friends, is why we need the power to overcome.

And we're right here on the near edge of the Second Coming. How long that is we can't say, but I'm convinced that we're in the latter part of the last days just before the Second Coming. Whether that's a period of five years from now or 25 years from now isn't the issue. The issue is that it's an increasingly short time and we need to be ready. If we're not prepared to endure these things, we're not prepared at all. Because Jesus said, only those who endure to the end shall be saved.

Now, there are a lot of people who argue with that and say, well, Jesus may have said that but my pastor said that I confessed Christ as my Savior 20 years ago and I'm saved. Well, you take issue with Jesus then. You take issue with Jesus. So, Jesus said and Paul said, if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you and your house shall be saved. Notice it doesn't say are saved, it says shall be saved. Why? Because we need to persist in, shall we say, the confidence and belief of that salvation. In other words, our life needs to conform to what we say we believe.

And if it does not, we're being overcome. To some extent, we're being overcome and we don't want that to happen. Now you say, but aren't all sinners? Yes, all are sinners and come short of the glory of God, including yours truly. That's why we need to keep short accounts with God. We don't want to be overcome by the world, the flesh, and the devil. So, when the Holy Spirit convicts us and we're in the midst of the crisis or the temptation or whatever it is, we say it is written. Just like Jesus did, it is written.

And we trust the authority of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit who is convicting us, doing a wonderful thing to convict us so as to lead us and keep us on the path of righteousness for His name's sake. So, for some reason I've got this horrible tickle that is trying to overcome my voice. And so, this becomes a huge thing for us. We need to be prepared to endure, to press forward as the Apostle Paul said in Philippians Chapter 2: I forget those things that are behind.

Why? Because he couldn't do anything about them. He was a murderer. He had helped in the killing and oversaw the killing of the first martyr of the church, Stephen. He was a zealot for Judaism. He was a Jew of the Jews. But when God knocked him off his high horse there on the road to Damascus, everything changed. He had to see the light and he had to see the light so bright that it shook him to the core. He had to be blinded for a while so that he could see straight.

Some of us need to be blinded for a while so we can see straight. But because we say that we see, our blindness remains. That's what Jesus said to the religious leaders of his day. Because we say that we see, our blindness remains. So, spiritual pride is a killer. It leads to being overcome. Now, Generation Z doesn't have that problem because they never inherited that kind of a situation.

But they're coming in as fledgling believers whose parents, for the most part, were not strong believers. They came up in the church growth movement and then also the seeker sensitive movement, so they had very weak faith. Very weak faith. Their confidence in the Word of God was weak and minimal and they had been participants in the deception of the culture of the world, in the deception of the flesh, and that's why pornography had taken over and in the deception and lure of Satan himself.

So, here comes Generation Z and they're in deep trouble. They report lower agreement with basic theological beliefs because they don't know them. They typically doubt God is involved when something happens that they can't explain. And nearly half said that during difficult times, they question whether God loves them or will provide for them. Do you? You see, this isn't just a message for Generation Z, this actually is a test for all of us.

A test for all of us. Young believers are willing to talk about Jesus, but many are still learning what it means to trust Him when their life gets hard. That, my friends, is where the rubber meets the road for all of us. Recently, I heard of a young lady who had walked away from the Lord. She had been raised to a certain extent in the ways of the Lord, like Generation X or Y, and then had supposedly made a commitment back to the Lord to walk with Him and was rejoicing and then made a prayer and asked the Lord for something in particular and it didn't happen for six weeks.

And so, she said, God doesn't hear me, I'm turning from Him and now she's back doing everything that she was doing before. No confidence, no trust. She thought God was a genie or Santa Claus. This is our problem, friends. We just do not have the kind of confidence in the God of the Bible, in Jesus Christ as Savior, that is required to press on and endure to the end. Just don't have it. And that's why we need training and equipping to do that.

One of the purposes of this program is to disciple for destiny, to equip God's people to be able to stand in the evil day and having done all to stand, to stand. But apparently, Generation Z is losing confidence and therefore losing their spiritual balance and many are turning away. Now, in order to help us with this, as you know, I have written a book called *The Power to Overcome: How to Triumph in Troubled Times*. *The Power to Overcome: How to Triumph in Troubled Times*. You see, you and I carry the treasure of God's plans and promises in these earthen vessels.

Guest (Male): We're told that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, that we're not our own, that we're bought with a price, and therefore we must glorify God in our bodies and our spirit which are God's. So then how do we understand sexual promiscuity in the church? How do we understand this? How do we understand premarital sex being normative in America and even in the church? How do we understand pornography among men and women in the church? Find so much more about Chuck Crismier and Save America Ministries on our website, saveus.org. For example, under the marriage section, God has marriage on His mind. Chuck has some great resources to strengthen your marriage. First off, a fact sheet on the state of the marital union, a fact sheet on the state of ministry, marriage, and morals. saveus.org. Marriage, divorce, and remarriage. What does the Bible really teach about this? Find all of this at saveus.org. Also, a letter to pastors, the Hosea Project, saveus.org and many more resources to strengthen your marriage. It's all on Chuck's website, saveus.org. Again, you can listen to Chuck's Viewpoint broadcast live and archived, Save America Ministries website at saveus.org.

Chuck Crismier: Again, I welcome you back to Viewpoint. I'm Chuck Crismier. It's conversation as always with ever-increasing conviction, talk that transforms. We started in opening the program today with the headline from an article, "Generation Z isn't losing faith, they're losing confidence." Now, these are our children and grandchildren, friends. These are dear people who may very well experience the Lord's return.

And when the Lord returns, He's not coming back for a bride with spot, wrinkle, or any such thing. If we believe what the Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians Chapter 5, we know that that is true. Jesus as the only begotten Son of God full of grace and truth came to demonstrate obedience. He obeyed the Father unlike Adam, and so He became the last Adam, and so in Christ all are to be made alive.

In what way? We receive Christ's salvation through His obedience. He became obedient even to the death on the cross, wherefore God highly exalted Him and gave Him a name above every name, that at the name of Yeshua, Jesus, every knee should bow both in heaven and earth. So, the reason Jesus was given the authority to become the Savior of the world is because He was obedient even to death. Then He said, now you follow me.

As the Father sent me, even so I send you. And that's a tall order. We can't be saved by our works because there's no work that we can do that saves us. On the other hand, it's the grace of God or the mercy of God that extends to us the opportunity of repentance so that we can embrace the salvation that Christ offers because of His obedience and perfect work. And therefore He says, now I know that you hold this treasure in earthen vessels because you're born of both man and woman, but I still expect you to obey.

I still expect you to do my will. So, Jesus says in Matthew Chapter 7, not everyone who says unto me, "Lord, Lord," is going to inherit the kingdom of God, only those who do the will of my Father. What about that don't we understand? It's very simple. It's very simple. When you have children and you as a parent give them instructions, depending on how old they are and how mature they should be held responsible to be, you expect them to do what you ask them to do.

And then if you ask them and they don't do it, then you tell them, right? Didn't I tell you? And then you expect them to do what you asked them to do. Jesus expects the same thing. It doesn't earn His love, but it demonstrates that they're part of His family. You see the problem? We're not demonstrating that we're part of His family because we don't do what He asks us to do. Our life doesn't conform to His word, His will, and His ways.

And so we are overcome. We're overcome not by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony and loving not our lives unto death, but we're overcome by the world, the flesh, and the devil. And that's why I wrote the book, *The Power to Overcome: How to Triumph in Troubled Times*. Get a copy. It's $25 on our website, saveus.org, saveus.org. You can give us a call at 1-800-SAVE-USA, that's 1-800-SAVE-USA. Write to us at Save America Ministries, P.O. Box 70879, Richmond, Virginia, 23255.

Writing a check, add $6 for postage and handling. Just yesterday, someone called up and said, you know what, I want five copies of that book. The day before someone ordered 12 copies of the book. The day before that, someone ordered 10 copies of the book. Why? Because they know and they see how valuable this message is to minister and prepare people for the times that we're in. If you don't see that, there's a problem. Maybe you're like Generation Z. Maybe you're not seeing straight spiritually.

Maybe you just don't understand the seriousness of the moment that we live in. We should be happy, but we're called to be holy. And if we're not walking in holiness, there's no way we can possibly be happy in the long run. No way. So, if you're pursuing happiness, you're going to be betrayed. You will ultimately be overcome because you can't be happy from a world standpoint and not be overcome. Because the world defines what it means to be happy.

God defines what it means to be holy, and then if we walk in that pattern, He says you'll be blessed. I want to be blessed. I want to pursue what God asks me to do and I want to do it from a happy heart, with a joyful heart. I don't want to do it because I have to, I'm going to do it because I want to. So, we have to change our want-tos. Just like children in our homes, they must change their want-tos. So, the same is true with us.

God wants us to change our want-tos. He wants us to desire the things that He desires. He wants us to desire the same things that Jesus desired and that the apostles desired and were willing to give their lives for. I hope this conversation is beginning to make some sense for us. Now, the person who wrote this article about Generation Z went on to say as I was sharing with you before the break, when a prayer hasn't been answered and things haven't changed, then Generation Z begins wondering whether God is really paying attention or whether God even exists.

So in other words, they have no enduring faith, which means they have no real confidence. Their confidence is very temporal. If I don't get what I want today or tomorrow, then I'm going to go somewhere else. Now friends, that is an expression of the entitlement mentality, isn't it? We use that phrase in the context of politics: entitlement. Generation Z, together with their parents, the millennial generation, are renowned for their entitlement expectations. Believing everything should be done for them, that they're entitled.

So they don't show up for work. They hire on and they don't show up timely for work or don't show up at all. Why? Because they feel entitled. They have no sense of responsibility. And for a Christian, you see, we must understand that we have responsibility before God. And we're going to be held for that responsibility. God defines what it is. We're to live a righteous and holy life because without holiness, no man will ever see the Lord. Hebrews Chapter 12.

Now as I went on with this article, some say that this is just age, that this is just defining the younger people in Generation Z up to their mid to late 20s. But the writer says, I also think about the culture they grew up in. That is their parents of Generation X or Y and their grandparents Generation X and their great-grandparents the Baby Boomer generation. This Generation Z has heard repeatedly that truth is personal, live your own truth, find what works for you, don't tell someone else what's true for them.

And then they meet Jesus, who claims to be the truth for everyone. So, for someone raised to distrust absolutes, it makes sense that they might talk boldly about Jesus one day and then wonder the next day whether they really had the right to. You see, their faith is not true and genuine faith. It's knowledge about God, it's knowledge about Jesus, but it's not knowing Him. The Apostle Paul wrote that he pursued not just the knowledge of Christ, but the hope of His resurrection.

He wanted to be completely consumed by the Lord Jesus Christ, His message, and that his life would conform to it precisely. He said I'm not batting my hands around here wildly like I'm boxing against some artificial opponent. No, he said I realize that I'm in a warfare here and I'm so running that I may obtain. I'm really pressing forward. I'm forgetting those things that are behind, I can't do anything about those, but I'm going to press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

You want to know how to overcome? You have to press toward the mark. And you have to do it with perfect perseverance. You can't keep holding onto the past, you can't say but my parents did it, you can't say but the devil made me do it, you can't say but the culture made me do it. No, you forget those things that are behind. You know those things have been there, but now you're pressing on, putting your full faith and confidence and trust in the Lord.

Now, this isn't just Generation Z that has this problem, is it? Obviously, Generation Z has this problem because their parents and grandparents had this problem and it's just amplified in Generation Z. So, for someone raised to distrust absolutes, it makes sense that they might talk boldly about Jesus one day and wonder the next day whether they really had the right to do so. This person is a young person writing this, says I've been thinking about that gap because I lived in it too.

At 17, I left home and started living in my own terms. I could have told you exactly what I believed had you asked me on Sunday, even while making choices I knew that didn't honor the Lord for His word. I would still get dressed after a night of partying and go to church, and you would never have known what the night before looked like because I was there sitting in church. Now, that's the pretense of faith, friends. That's not real faith, that's the pretense of faith. When your life knowingly does not conform to the word, will, and ways of the Lord, you're living a life of total hypocrisy and pretense. That's not only lacking confidence, that's lacking faith itself. It's something else. You believe in God, you just don't believe Him. You don't trust Him. And trust is what God is really after. Can you understand that? We'll talk more about this when we get back. Stay tuned. The Power to Overcome.

Guest (Male): Have you ever considered what the early church was like? Many people are developing a heart longing for a greater fulfillment in our practices as Christians. A recent study showed 53,000 people a week are leaving the back door of America's churches in frustration. What is going on? Why has there not been even a 1% gain among followers of Christ in the last 25 years? Could it be that God is seeking to restore first-century Christianity for the 21st century? Jesus said, "I'll build my church." Is Christ by His Spirit stirring to prepare the church for the 21st century? The early church prayed together and broke bread from house to house. They were family and it was said by all who observed, "Behold how they love one another." Incredible, but the same can be found right now. Go to saveus.org and click cell church. We can revive first-century Christianity for the 21st century. It's about people, not programs. It's about a body, not a building. That's saveus.org. Click cell church.

Chuck Crismier: All right, today on Viewpoint, we're talking about in practical ways what it means to walk with an overcoming mind and heart. The foundation for being an overcomer is genuine trust in the Lord. Now there are three words that we've talked about before here on this program in the past. They all come from the same root word in the Greek. One is the word believe, the other is the word trust, and the other is the word faith.

All three of those words are facets of the same thing: faith, trust, and believe. You can say you believe, but that doesn't mean you have faith. You can say you have faith, but you don't trust. How do we know you don't trust? Because you don't obey. You see, the problem is we really have not linked the meaning of these words together and so there's a sense in which much of our teaching has been deceptive. Not intentionally deceptive, but just deceptive because it didn't present the whole truth.

What God is looking for is not that we believe in Him, but that we believe Him. Because as I said, the devil believes and trembles. The demons believe and tremble. Christians don't even tremble. The demons tremble at the Word of God, but we the people in America don't. Why? Because we just don't see God as God. We made up a God in our own image, a custom-made God.

That's what Time Magazine told us on April 5, 1993, there on its front cover, the generation that forgot God. They said Americans are flocking back to church, church will never be the same. Why? Because Americans are worshipping a custom-made God, one made in their own image. Fascinating, isn't it? And that came out of the church growth movement of the 1970s, moving into the mid-1980s.

And by then, the seeker sensitive movement took over so that by 1993, even a liberal Time Magazine could see that we had completely changed the faith once delivered to the saints and Americans were looking for a custom-made God, one made in our own image. We had already become the generation that forgot God. So now we see 23 years later an article coming out about Generation Z saying they're not losing faith, they're losing confidence. No, we have presented the faith to them incorrectly.

We have not presented the faith to them correctly, because if we had, we would have told them from the get-go what it means to follow Jesus. We would have told them that it means to commit your whole life. It doesn't mean to believe in Jesus, it means to commit your life to Him, to follow in His word, His will, and His ways, come what may with absolute commitment and confidence. And then having made that commitment, to trust Him through every life endeavor and challenge and crisis, so that we can learn over and over again by testing and trials what it truly means to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

When we do that, we're walking in the power to overcome. When we don't do that, we're forfeiting the power to overcome and leading ourselves to be overcome. You're either going to be an overcomer or you're going to be overcome. It's simple as that. There are no neutral zones. No neutral zones. We call this spiritual warfare, and if it's spiritual warfare, there's no DMZ in spiritual warfare. That is demilitarized zone. None. You're either in the enemy's camp in whole or in part, or you're in God's camp in whole.

You can't be in God's camp partway. You can't straddle the fence. There's no fence straddling for a Christian. You're either completely committed or not. Now that may sound harsh, it may sound like some people might think it sounds legalistic. It's not legalistic, friends. It's about our attitude. It's about whether we truly love Jesus. We sing the song "O How I Love Jesus". Really? What does that mean? Jesus said if you love me, you'll keep my commandments.

If you don't love me, you won't. But if you do love me and keep my commandments and do my will, I and my Father will manifest ourselves to you. It's right there in John Chapter 14. So, the writer of this article says, you know, I started living on my own terms when I was 17. So I'd go and party at night and go to church on Sunday. So I'd party on Saturday and pray on Sunday. Really? And you want to look down your nose at the hypocrites in the Bible, the Pharisees? You're one of them.

So, the writer goes on to say, I found myself ultimately sitting in a jail cell at 22. Then I started asking whether the truth existed outside of me. In other words, whether I was the incarnation of the truth or whether there was another truth that I had been unwilling to embrace. She said truth wasn't something I could create or change according to what felt right to me at the moment. Truth was found in Jesus, and that's why John 14:6 meant so much to me: I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but through me.

He didn't say there were many possible truths and ways, He said He is the truth. But in that very same passage He said, if you love me, you're going to obey me. If you don't love me, you won't. But if you do love me and obey me, it's going to be proof positive that you're part of this family, the family of God, and I and the Father are going to manifest ourselves to you. So in our home, we have a plaque that we got oh, like 35, 40 years ago at a Monmouth plantation there in, I think it was Mississippi.

It's a very famous plantation, and in their little store there they had this plaque. It said: If you don't feel close to God, guess who moved? If you don't feel close to God, guess who moved? If God says, "I will always be with you," and you don't feel close to God, then maybe there's a problem. Maybe the problem isn't with God, it's with you. Now that's hard for us to admit in this day and age because we think I am who I am and I'm a pretty good person and how could it possibly be a problem with me? I go to church on Saturday or Sunday or whenever and I have a Bible and I believe in Jesus and I believe in God.

So does the devil. The Bible says so. That's not what God is looking for. So, this person goes on to say, that's why I don't look at a young person who loves Jesus and talks about him and still wrestles with doubt and assume something is wrong with her faith. Okay, why would that? Just because a person is not walking with the Lord doesn't mean there's something wrong with their faith. Of course there's something wrong with their faith because faith and belief and trust go hand in hand. They're all corollaries of the very same truth.

Without faith, it's impossible to please God. And faith requires not only belief but trust, and trust requires obedience. Are you beginning to see how this works? Now, we have a situation in the Scriptures where a father comes to Jesus desperate for his son to be healed. And he tells Jesus that he believes and then immediately asks Jesus to help his unbelief. So, we see faith and doubt showing up in the same sentence and Jesus doesn't send him away. I understand that.

Jesus knows he was an infant in belief. So, there's nothing wrong, friends, with saying, I believe, help my unbelief. That's why it requires spiritual maturity for us. But if we don't require of our children and of those who are coming into faith in Christ, if we don't require of them to be doers of the word and not just hearers, we're actually enabling them to be deceivers of their own selves and they will be overcome. We think we're being nice and sweet and loving by not providing those requirements, but that's not true.

We know that they're infants in the faith, and so we understand that we must lead them along to do what? To trust and obey. To trust and obey. And it's a process. It's a journey. But the journey is not to talk about how I feel, I feel, I feel like I trust Jesus. No, it's not about that. It's about faith, not feelings. It's about faith. The feelings will come from time to time. But that's not the authority of our faith. It's not even the measure of our faith.

Wrestling with questions is not the same thing as falling away or walking away. That's true. It's how you resolve those questions that determines whether you're walking away or falling away. It's not whether you're wrestling with the question, it's how you resolve the question. So, if you read the Psalms, you will find that David, which the Scriptures call a man after God's own heart, wrestled with issues. All kinds of issues, including warfare, actual warfare against him, even within his own family.

His own son, Absalom, sought to kill him. He had conspiracy right in his own home. Did it cause him to fall away from his trust in the Lord? No. The fact that he had people in Israel that were against him as king and wanted to see him deposed. Did that cause him to fall away from his faith? No, because he wasn't trusting those things for his faith. He was trusting God.

So when he says, many are those that rise up against me, many are those that say of my soul, there's no help for him in God, he responds by saying, but You, oh Lord, are a shield for me. You are the lifter of my head. Over and over and over again, every time David responds with affirmation of his trust in the Lord. And I believe that's a lot of the reason why God described him as a man after his own heart. Not because he was perfect, but because he resolved all of those tests, all of those trials, with an affirmation of his trust, not whining and complaining and bellyaching about why God didn't do this or that. That, my friends, is childish.

So this person in writing the article is trying to provide some answers. She says the answer isn't another program or a better strategy. It's knowing God's Word, not a few verses and not whatever we absorbed on Sunday, but learning it well enough that it starts shaping how we think and stays hidden in our hearts for the moments we need it. And that's true. Absolutely true. Now, I hope you'll get a copy of the book *The Power to Overcome: How to Triumph in Troubled Times*.

It is so desperately needed today, friends. More than ever, more than you can possibly imagine. $25 will put it in your hands. It's on our website, saveus.org, saveus.org. Call us 1-800-SAVE-USA or write to us at Save America Ministries, P.O. Box 70879, Richmond, Virginia, 23255. Writing a check, add $6 for postage and handling. Become a partner, friends. Help us to get the message out, broader and broader as the day goes by. God bless and be a blessing. God gives you the power to overcome. Will you exercise it?

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Viewpoint with Chuck Crismier. Viewpoint is supported by the faithful gifts of our listeners. Let me urge you to become a partner with Chuck as a voice to the church declaring vision for the nation. Join us again next time on Viewpoint as we confront the issues of America's heart and home.