Many pious prelates refused to acknowledge the attack on God as a viable threat to
the belief structure. Rather than stand
up for the God of old, the God of our salvation, God is redefined to make him
relevant in our modern society. The old testament was no longer looked upon as
the beginning of the story that defines man’s purpose, or the chronicles of
God’s interaction with man, and how the new testament addresses the solution to
resolve the problems man has created. Rather
the old testament and new testament are
mixed together to form a hydrogenated and polluted form of the Gospel that is
neither supported by God nor is it fully believed by many. We are like Peter, we want to listen to Moses,
Elias and Jesus Christ.
Another for instance moment, 2 Chronicles
7:14, If my people, which are called by
my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from
their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin,
and will heal their land. A serious question must be asked here. Who was
talking and who was he talking to? In
the context of the old testament, “who was my people which are called by my
name?” My people is used throughout the
old testament and it always reference the children of Israel, not the
church. As in Exodus 3:7 And the LORD said, I have surely seen the
affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason
of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;
In the old testament God’s plan was to lead the children of Isreal to a
land of plenty. They rejected God’s plan and Jesus pronounced
judgement upon the whole world.
Thus began the trivialization of God. The reshaping of the Word of God by taking scriptures
out of context. Imagine reading a
History books without any thought of who is talking and who is being spoken
to. Context is cast aside and if God
spoke to Moses, he is speaking to us.
When Jesus said “go tell that fox who was he talking to?” We have failed to keep one of the greatest
commands of the Bible in that it asked us in 2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a
workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
As I said earlier, worship services have
become a platform of entertainment, Hollywood styled minister, choirs, praise
teams and dance groups all performing to the big beat. What once was confined to the nightclubs can
now be found in the church. Crossover
music has become the wave of the future.
The Church, schools and the workplace once had a dress code, now the
church says come as you are. Not to be critical
of the changes in our worship, service but there seems to be a strange
correlation with Moses coming down from the mountain and finding the children Israel is
playing loud music and dancing around their newly created idol with what we find in the church
today. God was not pleased and the
question we should ask ourself is God pleased about the things we do in and out
of the church today. The children of
Isreal even referred to the Idol that they had just created as the God that
delivered them out of the land of Egypt. Have we created a God and is giving him
credit for performing trivial acts.
Prayer, once referred to by Jesus as a
private thing, a secret conservation between a father and his children, it is
now a public thing, an in your face type message of I know how to talk to the
father. True, the Bible states that man
should always pray, to many this means walking around publicly stating I am
praying for you. To Jesus it meant
entering into your secret place. Praying,
praising and thanking God have been trivialized and used in settings that are
not related to or even conducive to
serving God. Today the use of the word
prayer, getting my praise on and thanking God seems to invoke a plea of the
scripture whereas it said, do not take the Lord’s name in vain. The power of prayer is diminished when it is
callously used and the result is often not seen. In essence, the condition of the World is not getting better. To compensate for the lack of an answer and
to supposedly build faith the response is, “He might not come when we want
him to come, but he is always on time.” The
use of this cliché has caused lots of praise to be offered up to God, while
many waiting for a miracle watch their love ones draw their last breath and wondering
if God had forsaken them. We somehow
have constructed a God that answers all prayers and a God that never changes
his mind. Yet there are instances in the
Bible where Moses talked God out of destroying the children of Isreal. Exodus 32:12
Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring
them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of
the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy
people. In the ancient days when a miracle was preformed it was done in such a manner
that only God could receive the glory.
Sitting in church the Sunday after a
family member had died, the church members were testifying about how blessed
they were to be alive. Being alive was
even acquainted with being the greatest blessing available from God. The pastor even preached a message on how
bless we were to be above ground. In
the church, that institution that is supposed to teach us to embrace life after
death, is caught up in teaching us how to get our blessings here on Earth. In the military we were taught not to fear
death, when we went out on a mission we were aware that some of us might not
make it back. We did not go running to
our superior officer begging to be relieved of duty. We should be willing to fight with the same
resolve and intensity of a good soldier the battle that is before us.
In conclusion of part one , Hebrews
2:1-3 Therefore we ought to give the
more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should
let them slip. For if the word spoken by
angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just
recompense of reward; How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation;
which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by
them that heard him.
It is necessary for us to seek recurrent
nourishment from the Word of God, and it is available only through an enduring
relationship with the Creator. This spiritual relationship, like any human
relationship, is multifaceted. Yet, quite simply, we as individuals and as a
body if we neglect our relationship with God, the result is confusion, division
and scattering of the sheep.
The world's spiritual junk food gradually
became the source of our spiritual nourishment. It invaded our attitudes and
behaviors, systematically weakening us as it produced the spiritual disease we
call Laodiceanism. (Lay-on-dih-SEE-uhnz) Jesus alluded to this condition in Revelation 3:14-17 And unto the angel of
the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful
and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold
nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and
neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I
am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not
that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: The Devil deceives us because we are led to
believe that Jesus is speaking of a natural condition. He deceived us because we outwardly appeared
to be in good health. We judged that we were spiritually rich and God is doing
all of these for us. We testify of our
favors, increased with goods and have need of nothing. However, the reality is,
a spiritual cancer is eroding our spiritual health. He who looks on the heart
saw that the Laodiceans were wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. When
the test came in the form of false doctrine, He found them lacking in spiritual
strength and scattered them.
We can reduce this process to the common
sense principle found in Matthew 6:24, where we are reminded that it is
impossible to serve two masters equally well. As time has shown, many are serving
the Flesh rather than God. In the book of Revelation God revealed
our spiritual weaknesses, and how they have greatly diminished us. It's really a matter of common sense.
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