What have we become, having substituted God’s SON for the comforts of national pride, dead prophets and Mammon?
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying,Psalms 2:2, 12
Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.
It is completely mind-boggling for Christians to believe that they have a problem with forgiving someone. Our Lord had an encounter with his contemporaries people because he dared to say to someone “Your sins are forgiven”, yet this is what everyone expected when he came to the Tabernacle to deal with his sin.
The big problem is that we are authorized to forgive as a gateway to our own forgiveness from on high.
Everyone has a story to tell but there are things to acknowledged and expressly to be kept off the written page. Typically we resort to “It is written” and this is of little value when the thunder-spoken words are not written in our identity and experience.
And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.
Revelation of John 10:4
This episode in Revelation 10 illustrates the important difference between following the Bible carefully as learners and connecting with the Speaker.
Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
2 Corinthians 3:6
When we buy the popular mantras of religion or politics we can end up with our feet in our mouths. Our parents’ word was supreme when we were children and even the word of any elder in the community was functionally acceptable. Not any more. Who cares what the neighbour in By teenage we discard much of what they tell us, if not officially and conscientiously, at least experimentally, just to see what the other side of the tracks look like. If we are in adulthood the spitting image of our teenage and preteen personas we deserve the fate of pillars of salt. Love songs and family traditions are killing us while caring for each other slides to a cold 0°.
We cannot ignore those cultures that dig in their heels to keep intact and unchangeable everything received in their traditions from the cradle to the grave. It is common knowledge that no change, no growth is deadly. So says Malachi, Moses, and John the Baptist.
Can you imagine an Elijah who would tell you “Keep going! Everything’s gonna be alright!”? The world is on the rocks of its traditions of racial purity, exclusive religions and clubs, imperial aspirations, and false ideas about God.
Why does anyone suppose that religions are vigorously trying to shape their profile as insiders and stakeholders with the very powers that have denied what most people know about good and evil, the goodness of all creatures and the common debt to each other and God? If our attitudes to our neighbours ever include “I do not care” or “It does not matter” we are in the fridge. God does not accept a standard of love that treats people as not worth the whole universe. Law and order is a phony agent of love.
And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.
Matt. 24:12
God is really that good.
If not now, when, uncle?
Time to rise over whitewashed walls, or stay just where we are.
Luke 4:33-36
33) In the synagogue there was a man possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, 34) “Let us alone! What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are–the Holy One of God!” 35) But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him down in the midst of the people, he came out of him without doing him any harm. 36) And amazement came upon them all, and they began talking with one another saying, “What is this message? For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits and they come out.”
Did it ever dawn on anyone that people die on Sundays and Saturdays, that abominable things are said and done in church?
People are dying in church, dismissed by the cloud of noxious weeds. Bad doctrine is responsible for sleeping saints. Neither Christ nor his blood are commodities at our disposal.
29) For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. 30) For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.
1 Corinthians 11:29-30
The sleeping saints will say amen on cue. Please do not join them.
How quickly we forget how the media has contributed to hard attitudes towards the poor and people with disabilities! How can we rush to expose our fellowship to the abuses that seem to be okay on the worldwide web?
The last time I checked the church was not an arm of secular government and governments all over the globe will not hesitate to do to us what was done to our glorified leader if we say what he used to say. The assembly of the saints has turned into a circus of good boys and girls pretending to be seasoned warriors. Remember, please, how the media used a misguided 33% of the public to put a bigot and criminal business man into executive power in the United States.
I have been an advocate for genuine fellowship for a long time. It is an insult to have anyone – especially an unfamiliar person – talk to the church without an understanding that the audience is not a collection of robots who will rubber stamp every thing being said. No preacher, pastor, teacher or prophet should expect to minister apart from a vigorous participation of the “audience”.
26) What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. 27) If anyone speaks in a tongue, it should be by two or at the most three, and each in turn, and one must interpret; 28) but if there is no interpreter, he must keep silent in the church; and let him speak to himself and to God. 29) Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment. 30) But if a revelation is made to another who is seated, the first one must keep silent. 31) For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted; 32) and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets; 33) for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.
1 Corinthians 14:26-33
Just imagine what church can become and do not forget what she is.
