If faith without works is dead, then certainly education and training without action is worthless. Often the most difficult step to take is any that moves us away from our established pattern of behavior. If we have not been involved, or if we have been involved in an unproductive – or even unbiblical – way, it is not easy to change our course. This is where the rubber meets the road, however and will determine both the level and the duration of influence. We have categorized the action into three areas:

• Pray, Fast and Repent
• Serve the Community
• Raise the Standard of Righteousness

We know that the most important “action” to change our own hearts, our families, our churches, our nation and our world is sincere and dedicated prayer. We are called to be intercessors as our Lord intercedes on our behalf before the Father and if we attempt to “fix” any of the aforementioned arenas on our own knowledge, wisdom and strength…we know what the results will be. Corporate repentance is a forgotten virtue that our forefathers understood very clearly. On Monday, March 30, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a Proclamation appointing a National Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer:

“Whereas, it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history: that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord…”¹

We also earn the right to speak into peoples lives by our Matthew 24:34-45 service to our “neighbors”. Often our calls for morality in the culture are diluted by an apparent lack of Christ-like love for the hurting and needy around us. If we serve the community FIRST with right hearts, the message of righteousness will not sound like clanging brass.

THEN we raise the standard of righteousness by engaging the culture, speaking against immorality and promoting a Biblical standard of morality and virtue into the culture and government. This section provides some practical applications to facilitate all three “actions” that if applied effectively have always led to true and lasting societal transformation.

¹William Federer, American Quotations