While popular churchmen are announcing the
next great awakening and the latest revival, I'm noticing exactly the
opposite. I'm hearing from many believers who have been to every church
in town, only to find heresy in the bookstores and church events
featuring religious fads and gimmicks. Church attendance is at an
all-time low and desperate pastors whose livelihood depends upon tithes
and offerings jump on every spiritual bandwagon to attract pew-warmers.
Truth no longer sells.
Rather than an 'awakening' the church is
asleep. Christendom is in a slump. Screaming loudly into deaf ears does
no good. Shining a light into the eyes of the blind gets no response.
Professing Christianity overall is worldly and apathetic about its own
condition.
The spirit of the age seems to be in command --
calling the shots. He (it) determines the talking points in the world
and the church. All are following his (its) lead onto the Broad Road
that leads to destruction. The slogans? "Be all that you can be!" "The
guy who dies with the most toys wins!" "The wealth of the wicked is
yours for the taking!" "Live your best life now!" ad nauseum - Jesus is
only the means to an end.
Pew sitters are being recruited, not regenerated.
I see the hand of restraint being lifted from the world. Evil is now on
the increase. The faith that was delivered to the saints 2,000 years
ago has adapted the ways of the heathen using Christian labels. It is a
repeat of how the children of Israel adopted the practices of the
idolaters of that land from whom God had taken away and given to them.
History repeating itself.
"And now you know what is restraining,
that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness
is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is
taken out of the way." - 2 Thes 2:6-7
Could this restraint
against evil be gradually removed as men harden their hearts against the
LORD and His Word? Is God saying "let the wicked be wicked still?" Does
His offer of salvation to those who repent have an expiration date?
"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day." John 6:44
Is the LORD no longer drawing men? Is He withdrawing from those who no longer call on His name?
"And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh" Gen. 6:3
As judgment on sin nears, and Jesus and the true faith are totally
outlawed in our country and abroad, will He quit striving with man?
Perhaps -- but we who are His have confidence in His mercy -- for His
lovingkindness endures forever toward us who have put our faith in Him
and Him alone.
"I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work." - John 9:4
"Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: 'Today, if you will hear His
voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of
trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw
My works forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, And
said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My
ways.’ So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ Beware,
brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in
departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is
called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness
of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning
of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: 'Today, if you
will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.'”
Heb 3: 7-15
A word of encouragement for those who have no
place to gather today to celebrate the Resurrection of the LORD some
2,000 years ago: "Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered
outside the gate. Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp,
bearing His reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek
the one to come." - Heb. 13:12-14
Our LORD Jesus was rejected
by His own people who turned Him over to the executioner. He told His
followers that in the same manner they would be despised likewise by the
world, and by implication, the religious leaders.
"Remember
the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’
If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My
word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to
you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.'"
John:15:20-21
We await our own resurrection -- also known as
the rapture. We wait for our redemption. We abide until He comes. We
weep over this fallen world. We are vexed in our souls for the
wickedness we see around us. We know God's judgment on this world is
near. We cry for our lost loved ones. We see this time as a time for
weeping as there is only evil continually. We look forward to our
celebration when our Groom catches us up.
While the world
parties, we lament. The joy of our salvation is marred by the sorrow for
the lost. While the worldly are seeking Easter eggs, we are crying out
for the restoration of the planet. We relate more to Jeremiah than to
Joel Osteen. While they are claiming the promises and saying "Peace,
peace," we are reading Lamentations and saying 'Come LORD Jesus.'
Nothing has changed much in 2,000 years. Man is still killing, going to
war, and lording it over one another. Male soldiers who used to kiss
wives and girlfriends goodbye are now kissing other men. Women too are
kissing other women on every sitcom and soap opera. Pastors and
Christian leaders are being caught in adultery and homosexual trysts and
the congregations complain about the whistle-blowers.
And the ecumenical voices of Christendom are leading their unthinking followers into the arms of the pope.
It's hard to get happy about Easter today-
"Happy Easter" or "Woe, woe, the end is near."
Forgive my lament.
"Now Jesus knew that they desired to ask Him, and He said to them, 'Are
you inquiring among yourselves about what I said, ‘A little while, and
you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’?
Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the
world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be
turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her
hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no
longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born
into the world. Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again
and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.'" -
John 16:19-22
Reading a psalm of David this morning and then reading the 7th chapter of Acts right afterwards, I noticed a striking difference in the prayer of the king and the prayer of the first Christian martyr Stephen. Both prayed for their enemies.
David's prayer reads: "Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see; And make their loins shake continually. Pour out Your indignation upon them, And let Your wrathful anger take hold of them...Add iniquity to their iniquity, And let them not come into Your righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, And not be written with the righteous." (Ps 69:23-24;27-28)
Contrast that with Stephen's prayer as he was being stoned for preaching the Gospel of Truth to the Jews:
"But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”...And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” (Acts 7:55-56;59:60)
When praying for deliverance from our enemies, we need to remember the passage that makes both these prayers applicable for our own prayer life:
"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." - Eph 6:12
David's use of imprecatory prayer is not the model for our prayers about those who hate us anymore than David's propensity to 'groinitus' is a model for Christian pastors to justify committing adultery.
However, those judgment prayers we read in the Psalms are very appropriate when we're praying against the bullies in the unseen world who are laying snares for our feet and inspiring the visible bullies. I'll pray imprecatory prayers against those principalities and powers every day of the week.
Thinking the best of people who hurt us, we need to follow the example Stephen set as he followed Jesus' example when from the cross He prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
The Bible tells us to "be angry and sin not. "Remember that "the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God." - James 1:20
Be at peace --
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you?" - Matt 5:43-46a
"When a man’s ways please the LORD, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him." - Prov 16:7
Reading about the moral failings of another
mega-pastor this week leaves me grieving over the church of Jesus
Christ. When a man is exalted above his brothers, he becomes the target
of the enemy who throws at him diverse temptations. When the pastor becomes the attraction, instead of the Word of God, the trap for his feet is set.
Those who exalt the man and make him an idol share in his elevation of
himself -- they get what they created. No more is the Bible teacher seen
as an equal but has been transformed into some fictional super-hero.
The image belies the truth behind the mask and his private life never
keeps up with his exalted public image. He is set up for a fall. Even
when such a pastor teaches from God's Word, it does not take root in
people who are there for the entertainment value. I'm reminded of this
verse: “They come to you as people come, and sit before you as
My people and hear your words, but they do not do them, for they do the
lustful desires expressed by their mouth, and their heart goes after
their gain. Indeed you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a
pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your
words, but they do not do them." Ez 33:31-32
These
mega-churches with their professional "worship" teams and concert
lighting add to the facade. Such trappings attract the sort of
congregation that wants Christianity at arm's length. Go to the show on
Sunday, and get the feel-good message to sustain a worldly life for the
rest of the week.
This is the Church of Laodicea in action. So when their leaders fall - it is no surprise. In fact, it is inevitable.
"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but
according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they
will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away
from the truth, and be turned aside to fables." - 2 Tim 4:3-4
"He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God." - Micah 6:8
