November 26 Show: No Lectionary Needed

Emergent Methodist Tony Jones is frustrated during the holiday season due to the required topics set in the Methodist Lectionary. For those unfamiliar with denominational verbage, a lectionary is publication that gives pastors specific subjects to preach on during the calendar year. It includes things like prayers, scriptures, meditations, stories and sermon notes to incorporate into their messages.

Tony Jones wrote on his blog: "This Sunday marks the beginning of Year A in the The Revised Common Lectionary.  So here we go again.  We get texts from Isaiah and the Gospels, about John the Baptist and the Second Coming.  And once again we’ve got to preach the immanent advent of the Christ.  “He’s Coming!” we preach, pray, and sing. But is he?…  What I am asking is, How long will people believe us? We preach the advent of Christ every Advent, and I just wonder how long until the parishioners start thinking that we’re the Preachers Who Cried Wolf."

This attitude of ridicule against the teaching of the Christian's expectancy of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ has become the predominant attitude in the visible church during this unprecedented time of apostasy. The emergent church that has caved in to the pressure of the culture to be worldly and relevant lead the pack of scoffers saying, where is His coming?

"Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation."- 2 Peter 3:3-4

The apostasy in the church coincides with the moral decline of the entire world. Jesus told us that the times of His return would be like the days of Noah and of Lot when mankind had turned his back on God. In Noah's day, the corruption was global and so was the judgment. In Lot's day, the corruption was localized and so the judgment was local. In these last days when God is about to judge the entire world and pour out His wrath on the sons of disobedience, the corruption must again be world-wide. And as He did for Noah and Lot, He first gets His own out of the way before pouring out His wrath. The cup of His wrath is almost full.

The most important question God asks us is "wither thou goest?" What direction are you headed in? Are your feet planted firmly on this terra firma, like Lot's wife who looked back and turned into a pillar of salt? Or are you looking up waiting for your Savior from heaven? The attitude of our hearts will determine whether or not we escape the time of His wrath.

Luke 17:2 " Remember Lot's wife."