The need today in America is for the saints to grow. Most of the believers are babies, it appears. They do not have their senses exercised to judge good and evil nor the willingness and strength to choose the good and reject the evil. Therefore they choke on the meat of the Word.

The Lord Jesus Christ is our model. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil. But, as He said, the miracles were the proof of His Divine origin not an attempt to lift the curse from the world. His mission was and is to turn men away from sin and to enable them to walk righteously. Only then can the world be healed.

The Lord Jesus came to deliver the oppressed so they might become oaks of righteousness. As soon as the believers become oaks of righteousness they will be able to rebuild the desolations caused by sin and rebellion against God.

We notice the Lord at the Pool of Bethesda. He could have healed every individual who was waiting for the troubling of water. Why just one person? Because that is how the Father directed Him.

God has not commissioned us to empty the hospitals. Our task is to follow the Lord closely in all we do. The end result will be a Church without spot, wrinkle, or any such thing. This is God's goal and the momentary relieving of the human condition in the present hour must give way before the grand design.

God's intention is to bring all saved people to the fullness of joy. But the path that leads to fullness of joy is often very thorny. Suffering and transformation into the moral image of Christ are necessary. Otherwise we could not keep Paradise were it given to us again. First Christ and His righteousness must be formed in the saints. Then He and they will return and bring righteousness, peace, and joy to the saved nations of the earth.

In the meantime, while the Christians are being brought to spiritual maturity, maturity as measured against the full stature of Christ, the churches are to bear witness to the world. We are to bear witness by performing good works of righteousness. In so doing we point toward the true and living God and also convict the world of sin. We are not of the world and therefore the world will hate us. We must be a continual reproof to the wicked ways of the world.

Yes, the churches must be hospitals. In America great numbers of people are emotionally dysfunctional and therefore unable to take up their cross and follow Jesus. It appears that a great number of the women of the churches were molested as children. This experience takes its toll on their emotions in later life making fervent discipleship difficult.

We must, as God enables, bring healing to the wounded. But we must never forget that our purpose in bringing the believers to health is to make them oaks of righteousness who can bring justice and peace to the world. For the hope of lifting the misery from our planet lies in the maturing of the saints and only in the maturing of the saints.

They say that when you are up to your neck in alligators it is easy to forget you were sent to drain the swamp. As we look out and see the human ruin occurring because of the moral breakdown in America, let us not forget that the churches are to be lampstands revealing to society the Person, soon-coming Kingdom, will, way, and eternal purpose of God in Jesus Christ. These lampstands will burn brightly when the gifts and ministries of the Holy Spirit are employed to bring the saints to the fullness of maturity in Christ Jesus the Lord.

Let us not spend our life on the symptoms but go after the root of the problem, which is the sin in the churches and the immaturity of God's people.

God didn't send us to fight Sanballat and Tobiah but to build the wall against sin.

Continue to fight off the alligators. But remember, once the swamp is drained you won't have to worry too much longer about alligators.

Keep first things first!