A shift has occurred in Gospel preaching. This is noticeable in the titles of the new books coming out. I hope people are still buying With Christ in the School of Prayer and My Utmost for His Highest. The newer titles have to do with how you can use the Holy Spirit to get you anything you want. Many of the new books are romantic novels, some have to do with metaphysics, and some are science fiction. It appears that these were written to earn money, not because the author has a burning passion to tell what he or she has seen with God. The prophets are into the profits. Maybe I'm wrong in this.

I think the change from God-centeredness to man-centeredness is significant. Perhaps we have been more heavily infiltrated with humanistic thinking than we realize.

The Gospel message from Matthew to Revelation is not focused on how we are to prosper in this world. Rather it is a call to repentance because of the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth at some point in the future. The Gospel of the Kingdom is a hope for the future. The person who wants to make it with Christ has to put his hopes beyond the grave. Otherwise he or she is going to cave when the going gets rough.

If the Western "Christian" nations were not so affluent it probably would be easier to preach the Kingdom. But Jesus told us that the rich have a hard time entering the Kingdom. So it is proving.

Here comes the Apostle Paul into town. "Come closer, folk, and let me tell you the good news. Christ has come to heal your marriage, to enable you to find fulfillment, to heal your body, to make you rich, to deliver you from any and every problem.

"Everyone is invited to the big rally tonight. Hear Peter's wife sing 'Christ

Became Poor So You Might Be Rich.' There's no charge for attendance. An usher will be at the door to collect your freewill offering. Keep it green, folks, your coins aren't sanctified. Ha ha."

Go into your Christian bookstore. See if you can find a current title that refers to the Glory of God other than using God's Glory to help us out in some way.

It appears we have a few years of prosperity in America. Then the axe is going to fall unless we Christians get serious with God.

Let us make the most of this time. Let us seek God fervently. Certainly God wants to help us with our daily problems. But there is a bigger scene.

Imagine the early Christians in the arena, in the catacombs. Think about the multitudes of believers who have been tortured and slain and still are being tortured and slain in the twentieth century.

A few months ago I warned the congregation about getting involved in the professional football and baseball games. Some pundit in the newspaper compared the American fascination with professional sports with the early Indian practice of throwing virgins off a cliff as a sacrifice to the gods. If the secular writers can recognize this idolatry what in the world is wrong with the Christian churches?

I'll tell you I was a speckled bird after touching that great idol. In fact I was served for lunch that very Sunday afternoon.

But not by most of the congregation. The majority are getting the message: "Be not conformed to this world but transformed by the renewing of your mind."

Watching twenty-two millionaires playing with a leather bag full of air is not my understanding of redeeming the time. It's okay for the kids. Even so it is time for the children to begin to see themselves as soldiers in the army of Christ.

Great things are afoot in the Kingdom. Let's get our mind off the vanishing concerns of the present distress and become serious with God. Why wait until we are in deep trouble before we turn to the Lord?

Have you read A Christian's Guide to Professional Football by Luke Warm?