Example: 3 x =
+ 9 =
It is a serious situation that many churches are mainly interested in being relevant to the culture and telling people how much God loves them, and if they will 'put Him on', their life will improve. Please think of this, folks. Is that the gospel message we see in Scripture?
The 'go along to get along' variety of Christian will give the kumbaya retort,"I think something good can come from any sort of church."
Really? Again, is this way of thinking Biblical? Did Peter go around saying that? Was Saul, before his conversion, persecuting those with the message of the gospel or those with some version of it? I say he persecuted those with the true gospel message.
Many will say they simply don't see any problem with focusing so heavily on community and relevancy. Others will admit to not really paying attention.
Many Christians today are afraid.
Christians in these feel-good, weak sermon (or sermonette), watered-down elementary level adult Sunday school class churches are afraid to face the facts. They don't want to look at what their church is really saying, which is that Christ is not enough. So, what do these people who know something is wrong do? They start teaching Sunday school instead of attending, then they volunteer more in the nursery, and they keep doing good works to make them almost rival a faithful Catholic trying to earn their way in to God's good grace (Ephesians 2:8-9 "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.) And quite simply, they are becoming anemic, and it is no laughing matter.
We can find ourselves wondering when we lost the courage to believe just what the Bible says. We remember a time when we knew their was real POWER in the Word of God, and we were not ashamed to tell people Jesus is THE way, THE truth, and THE life and no one comes to the Father but by Him (not his mother or any other sinful person--ALL the rest of humanity needs the forgiveness of the RISEN Savior in order to be reconciled to God). At some point we started to blur lines, we started to think if we just DO enough for others, that kindness will someone count as imparting the life SAVING message of the gospel in to their lives. Even though our church and our actions shirked at the truth that people must first understand they are sinners who offend God, we fooled ourselves in to thinking that LOVE CONQUERS ALL meant we could just serve, smile, and give, give, give and that would get people off the road to Hell and put their feet on the straight path to Heaven. Sadly, the COME AS YOU are message morphed in to STAY AS YOU ARE...and no one wanted to make anyone feel uncomfortable by being 'too holy'...everyone thought getting a tattoo like the world would make the world like us.
Friends, if we are liked and seen as the same, we have nothing to offer them. The world is hurting and we can't trick people in to salvation. Do we really think having a coffee bar and rock concert in church is needed nowadays? Are we so far gone as Biblicists that the Bible message by itself is uncool/outdated/irrelevant? Do we really think people are genuinely converted if we have to lead them in some canned prayer after we've talked to them for 10 minutes about Christ?
Where is the WORSHIP of Almighty God? Where is the power of the Holy Spirit? Where is the man or woman who is not afraid to look different from the world, espousing MODESTY in dress and speech; not afraid to hold to a view that marring one's body is not Christ-honoring, regardless of WHAT the message says; not afraid to say that there is music that is about Christ and music that is about us or more about glorifying the musician than God?? Why do we have churches sponsoring NAACP events? Why do we have church members more worked up about the forthcoming election than reaching a lost soul for Christ?
I hate to tell folks this, but even if Ken Cuccinelli wins the Governor race in VA, there are still going to be a LOT of dark forces trying to tear down this nation and evil is NOT curbed for eternity through elections. I love Ken, and I want him to win and I pray for him, but SOULS committed to God for eternity will vote for freedom and life. Democrats who think they are Christians don't understand what is means to follow Christ. Socialism is not biblical, hard work is though. Taking care of the poor is biblical, enabling illegitimate births through handouts isn't. Killing the unborn or CONDONING those who do, or turning a blind eye to those who do is UNBIBLICAL, it is something God abhors and that being part of the Democratic platform is why I can unabashedly say that a Democrat who thinks they are a disciple is misled. We can all call ourselves skinny, but it simply isn't true, is it?
Christian, find your voice! Do not sleep through watered-down sermons. Do not buy in to the lie that the Bible is not relevant in this culture we're living in. You know what is happening? The lost aren't being truly converted, the Christians are being converted! When a church has to advertise that their functions should not have alcohol brought to them....I'm sorry, the train is OFF THE TRACKS! Church is for the saved, to be encouraged and built up so they can individually go out and serve the Lord according to the gifts He's bestowed on each one of us (His representatives). If church has become a massive haven for the lost, who feel comfortable staying in their sin week after week, don't you think that is a red flag? The message needs to be solid enough so that people who have not been converted are convicted.
I doubt anyone will read all 1724 words of this post, but friend, if you once loved Jesus Christ and now you are uncomfortable sharing the truth with others because you are stepped in day-to-day activities with pseudo-Christians or the 'seeking', I pray you will get in the Word and take God AT His exact word. If you are more jazzed about winning the elections or helping at the battered women's shelter than standing for the purity of Scripture in whatever way God has gifted you, take time to do a self-check.
God, please strengthen Your church. Have mercy on those who love you but who have led and are continuing to lead their flocks in to a miry, weak, relevancy pool. Embolden us all. Forgive us for being afraid because we want to fit in with those around us rather than fit in with You.
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Bonhoeffer said people have a number of means of dealing with evil: (from Metaxas' book, Bonhoeffer, pg 470, direct quote)
"Reasonable people," he said, think that "with a little reason they can pull back together a structure that has come apart at the joints." Then there are the ethical 'fanatics who "believe that they can face the power of evil with the purity of their will and their principles." Men of "conscience" become overwhelmed because the "countless respectable and seductive disguises and masks in which evil approaches them make their conscience anxious and unsure until they finally content themselves with an assuaged conscience instead of a good conscience." They must "deceive their own conscience in order not to despair."Finally there are some who retreat to a "private virtuousness." He added,
Such people neither steal, nor murder, nor commit adultery, but do good according to their abilities. But...they must close their eyes and ears to the injustice around them. Only at the cost of self-deception can they keep their private blamelessness clean from the stains of responsible action in the world. In all that they do, what they fail to do will not let them rest. They will either be destroyed by this unrest, or they will become the most hypocritical of all Pharisees.
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With that I encourage us all to vote in November, for the most godly candidates running, and pray heartily for our leaders. All of them.
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1 John 4
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Testing the Spirits
4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. 4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
God Is Love
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is [a]born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 By this the love of God was manifested [b]in us, that God has sent His [c]only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
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