We are living in a time when "everyone does what is right in their own eyes and few will listen to sound doctrine.
2 Timothy 4:2-4 "…2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and encourage with every form of patient instruction.
3For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires.
4 So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.…"
Many Christian now are turning from the Word of God to political desires. They entertain themselves with all manor of political hype and filthy details of what wicked people are doing, spending more time on this than they think about Christ.
Isaiah 5:21 "Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!"
I am struck every day by the fact that there are more pretenders in the apostate church today than authentically born-again believers.
We can see that even authentic Christians are being drawn away from the worship of God and intimacy with Him, by politics and world events.
While is it wonderful to see how prophecy is playing out from what the Bible says, it's quite another thing to allow those politics and filthy corrupt events of the world to dominate our thinking.
When I am in a group of Christians in conversation and all I hear during the entire conversation is the world events, frustration, and anger over it all I have to wonder if those expressing their conservative views ever think about God in all of it.
Personally, I am excited that we are living out prophecy, I have no desire to stop God's plan from going forward. The devil loves to make people think they are responsible to do something when God told us to trust Him and leave it to Him.
Often conservatism takes priority over Christ. Many people are deeply dedicated to saving their country so they can live freely the way they have always lived. They really live in fear of losing what was God's gift, now ready to be taken away because of our prideful and willful neglect of Him.
There is a worship of self, worship of freedom, and worship of pride, sort of like a person at their high school ball game holding their figure up to show that "we are number one." This is the mentality of most people in our country. The country in which there is wealth everywhere we look.
Most "Christians" today do not express the grief they have brought to God's heart through their focus on self-expression.
Revelation 2:1-7 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:
The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks [a]among the seven golden lampstands, says this:
2 ‘I know your deeds and your labor and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil people, and you have put those who call themselves apostles to the test, and they are not, and you found them to be false;
3 and you have perseverance and have endured on account of My name, and have not become weary.
4 But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. "
The churches of America for the most part speak more about political injustice and personal freedom than they do about Christ. Just like the church in Ephesus, the American church gets on all the right political bandwagons, the problem is that they elevate their personal comfort and desires above Christ.
Christ never promised a born-again believer would have freedom, comfort, and happiness, He did promise trials, rejection, and continual backlash from speaking the truth. We will be accused of all manner of things that are not true, merely to silence the message that brings conviction. Gossip abounds among those who cannot tolerate the truth.
2 Corinthians 11:23-29
"23 Are they servants of Christ?—I am speaking as if insane—I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death.
24 Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes.
25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent adrift at sea.
26 I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers among false brothers;
27 I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
28 Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches.
29 Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern?"
I do not see the churches, at least in our region being persecuted for their intense stand for Christ and His Word the Bible. Just the opposite, they are capitulating to the ways of the world to be accepted by the world.
The topic of conversation in most churches today is conservative politics, sadly interpreting the Bible according to their politics. Living in a free country is far more important to the average "Christian" today than proclaiming the gospel.
What is the gospel that is being neglected:
We are sinners estranged from God in need of someone to save us. Christ came to die on the cross, shedding every last drop of blood to offer Himself on behalf of our sins. All we have to do is confess our sinfulness and desire to be changed into a new creation by Him.
Christ will not come to dwell in anyone who does not want to be changed by Him. He will not bring salvation to anyone who wants to save themselves.
It's so simple but the pride of the people having been raised on "freedom at all costs" in our country cannot bring themselves to submit to anyone even Christ.
We have been led to believe all we have to do is "say" we are a Christian and we are accepted into heaven. I tell you words are never enough to prove anything.
Did you know that only 3% of communication is words, and 97% is other forms of communication? God looks into the heart and determines if our desire is to be changed by Him or if our desire is to have a puppet who does their bidding when they need something.
It is a very big clue when we see Christians who are embarrassed to speak of Christ, even hostile toward His Word when it is presented in the correction of wrong thinking.
God is looking at the heart, when He lives in us He is working through us to bring about His will in our lives. Those who lack the fruit of the Spirit continually cannot be born-again.
There ought to be Spiritual and emotional maturity in those who have been Christians for a long time. When we see prominent preachers who have been preaching for many years suddenly turn back from truth to defend political lies, we can say definitively that they were deceived because they were never born again. Many preachers are not born-again, but because they have learned how to manipulate and intimidate the pew people they are revered to the point that the pew people no longer think for themselves. They let their pulpit person speak for them. Christ is not in the mix at all.
Matthew 7:15-20
You Will Know Them by Their Fruits
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?
17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them."
Galatians 5:22-23
"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."
