Tears of Conviction Lead to Cleansing

Back in the '70's when we were much younger, we thought we were going to make things right in this country by changing laws.

We marched, stood in front of stores for hours getting signatures on petitions, wrote letters, protested, worked on political campaigns and everything else we could to stem the tide of evil.

But to no avail, things never got better they got worse. We were baby Christians in those days, having been raised on "fighting for our rights" we actually believed if we made laws to stop sin, life would get better. How wrong we were.

Once in a while we would pass out tracts containing the "four spiritual laws", as though we were sharing the gospel. We didn't speak openly to people, we merely handed the people the tract, as friendly as possible and hoped that they would like Jesus because they like us. This was the instruction we received from Sunday school classes and sermons at church. The whole modern church mentality of never upsetting anyone was obviously not effective. Every sin has been multiplied and defended by the masses.

When we do things our own way to be humanly "effective", we are not empowered by the Holy Spirit, He will let us muddle through in our ineptitude.

The solution was not to make laws to force people, it was not to get people to like us. The solutions was to preach a strong and bold gospel message of sin, repentance and submission to Christ. Showing people that their sin was paid for, all they have to do is trust what Christ did for us and He would change them into a new creation.

When it comes to things like abortion and the Jewish holocaust, we must stand up for the helpless, that is another matter of course, we must speak out against murder of the Innocents. This would apply to abortion as much as it applied to the holocaust during world war 2.

The problem is when we speak out about the sin without mentioning why it is sin. The gospel message must accompany any dialogue with the unbeliever. Stopping the sin without informing the people of their lost condition, is of little value.

Proverbs 24:11 "Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter."

None of our human methods had lasting value, they merely enticed non-believers to enter the church buildings equipped with a gospel of good works and a gravy train mentality. We now have more pretenders than true believers, in the church than ever before.

In days past, those who did not want to submit to Christ didn't stay with the believers, they ran from them. Now they seek out the churches to take care of their physical needs, without any fear that they will be convicted of sin.

Proverbs 28:1 "The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion."

1 John 2:19 "They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us."

The non-believers who have learned the lingo of the church, are now in leadership positions, quenching the voice of those who proclaim the truth of the Bible, even running them out of the church to protect the flock from truth.

I once attended a church many years ago that had preached against homosexuality, even having a recovery program for homosexuals, same sex marriage wasn't in anyone's mind at that time. Because of their preaching within the walls of their building, the homosexuals organized a march against the church on a Sunday morning.

The pastor of that church instructed the congregation to remain silent while the march was going on. The pastor put out cookies and coffee served by volunteers, to serve to the homosexuals and placed guards around the march so that no church member would speak to the marchers, to avoid a riot.

I was incensed by this mandate to remain silent and just give them goodies, so I went to the marchers and began giving them the gospel. One of the guards took my arm in an attempt to prevent me from speaking to the marchers about the gospel. I turned to her, looked her in the eye and said, "get thee behind me satan." The guard released my arm and I proceeded to get in the march and spoke to the homosexuals about the Lord.

The Lord silenced all those around me in the picketing, and I was able to reach the head lady carrying the banner that promoted their position. This woman began to cry as I shared with her. I never saw her come to the Lord, but I know God sent me to speak to her and others around me heard too.

Had I listened to the "leaders of the church", that woman and others around her, would never have heard the gospel message. I thought that the pastor should have moved church outside during the march to preach a clear and hard hitting gospel.

As it was, these lost people were made to feel comfortable and victorious in their sin. Shame, shame on those church leaders and their drone like underlings! They had an opportunity and wasted it.

Thankfully there were others who were sharing too, but only a few in comparison to the numbers that attended there.

Does anyone venture a guess what will probably happen when homosexuals want to get married in these churches? Get ready to see the abominations that will go on in the apostate church, no one will be able to stop it.

Friendliness is not the answer, we are never to be unkind, but we are to be bold and tell the whole truth no matter what it brings.

Many people were angry with Christ, He made no attempt to soften the truth so they would like Him. The Gospel has the power to reach into the soul, getting someone to like us by dumbing down the Gospel, only serves to make others feel good about themselves.

Our mission is to tell the truth and when we do that, people will feel bad, how else are they to come to Christ in brokenness over their sin. I wept when I became born again, there was no anger at anyone for making me feel bad. When I got over the feeling of shame over my sin, I began to feel excited and empowered that I was a different person and could go on now sharing what was shared with me, a life changing Gospel that convicts and brings people to repentance.

Christ is not interested in our "good feelings", He is interested in saving us from hell and cleaning us up, that we might bring glory to Him.

Have you been broken over your sinfulness? Have you experienced the spiritual freedom that comes from being forgiven, while going on to grow in holiness?