Recently while in a local retail store, two employees walked by my daughter and me while conversing. As they did, we could not help but hear their conversation. It was laced with the most vulgar and crude language. They showed no concern that my daughter or I heard what they were saying. A few weeks ago, a parent at my wife’s school met with his child’s teachers. During the meeting, he used crude and horribly offensive language within earshot of his children. Apparently, he saw nothing inappropriate about this. It seems everyone s cussing these days. A few years ago, The Hill published an article, “Why lawmakers are cursing more now more than ever.” It once would have been politically disastrous for a politician to be heard cursing in public and career-ending to use such language in any official capacity. But in the last few years, everyone from city hall to the White House seems to be using R-rated language. There have even been a few pastors who gained notoriety (infamy) for using curse words in their sermons. Something has dramatically changed.

When I mention the growing ubiquity and common usage of swear words, my children often respond with an eye-roll and say something along the lines of “this is the world we live in.” It is the world they have grown up in, but I remember when it was not so. This is not to say that cussing is a new phenomenon, for it has always been part of a fallen world. Part of the sinful rebellion of man is to use the glorious God-given ability to communicate and express ourselves with words and pervert it with curses and crude words. The phrase “cuss like a sailor” has a long history. In 1699 Cotton Mather said of sailors in a sermon about the fear of God, “Is not the sin of profane swearing and cursing, become too notorious among our sailors? Filthy speaking, bawdy speaking, unclean and obscene ribaldry is too commonly heard in the mouths of sailors.” The difference between the days of the puritans, my own childhood, and the present is that in the past, such “obscene ribaldry” was understood to be obscene and actively hidden from polite society.

There is a part of me that is sad to acknowledge the dearth of biblical literacy today. Biblical literacy has historically influenced our politics, public speech, education, poetry, and music. Without a general knowledge of the Bible, much of the writings of previous generations will not be fully understood. Phrases like “let justice roll down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream” in Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech lose their authority and power when they are divorced from the prophet Amos and become just another line in a great speech. Without an awareness of biblical themes, the opening words of the Gettysburg address just seem like a strange way to reference time.

Finding the right church is not easy. Unfortunately, too many see this as a consumer driven process rather than a spiritual act of obedience. Few go beyond the superficial of music style of the services or speaking ability of the pastor. In an interview for The Blue Mountain Review my fiend Clifford Brooks asked me how someone should go about finding a church. My response was five suggestions that I think are critical to making this decision.

You can test the water but—at some point—you must jump in. I appreciate that many come with questions and want to investigate the gospel first, but faith comes not by proximity but by intentionality. The claims of scripture are radical. The Bible teaches that God created everything; God demands righteousness; Jesus is the eternal God who came in the flesh; that he was born of a virgin; that He lived among us without sin; that He died as a sacrifice for our sin so that we might be saved; that Jesus physically died and was buried; and that He physically rose from the dead and ascended to heaven. You can investigate these claims. You can read the biblical witness of these claims. You can ponder and think on these things but, again—at some point—you must choose to believe or reject the testimony of scripture. It is an all or nothing proposition.

The New Testament church was not persecuted because the world they lived in was anti-religion. They were persecuted because the gospel they preached was exclusive. The Romans who so viciously mistreated the early Christians were not opposed to adding a new god to the list but would not stand for the testimony of Jesus claiming to be the one true God and the only way to heaven. That same dynamic is true today. Our culture loves religion as long as that religion makes no absolute truth claims. And that is the problem with Christianity – it makes absolute truth claims.

There is a moment in the evening just before dark when everything changes. It can catch you off guard if you are not careful. I am thinking of the moment when dusk turns to night. Walking through the woods in the afternoon sun is a beautiful experience. And, even after the sun sets over the horizon, there are those last rays of the sun that paint the air with beautiful tones. If you walk deep in the woods, enjoying the last moments of the day, you will find (before you are aware) something happens to change everything.