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I was invited to teach Bible prophecy to a couple of dozen Bible teachers living several hundred miles from here. While discussing how the church should be separate from the world, one of those worthies pipes up with, "Our church has a Buddhist bongo player."
Trying not to laugh, I ask, "And how did that come about?"
"Well, our church’s band needed a bongo player and this Buddhist was the only one they could find so they hired him."
With my jaw down to my chest in disbelief, I ask, "and how is that working out for you?"
"Well, this guy sits in the lotus position in the foyer before the service and does his "oh-mad-ne-pad-ne-hum" thing, or whatever, he then joins the band during the service."
"Unbelievable, and why is your church permitting it?"
"They claim they are ‘discipling’ him."
Now I can’t help myself and I’m cracking up. Knowing this particular teacher to be a sound brother who believes every word of the Bible, I just had to ask him, "What in the world are you doing in that church?"
"I’m there as a missionary!"
The rest of the Bible teaches were nodding their heads in agreement and one said, "We’re all in our churches as missionaries. In fact, we don’t know of a single major Bible believing church in our city."
So what’s new? The leaders of the "church" during Jesus’ time, the Pharisees, were also in apostasy so God sent John the Baptist to warn the Jewish people of the coming of His Son, an event called in Malachi, "the great and terrible day of the Lord." And what was John’s message to the people? It wasn’t, "lovey-dovey, we’ll all be raptured out." Instread, John taught a baptism of repentance.
I’m now 85 years old, a WW II vet who during his lifetime has pretty much seen it all. It’s been a pretty good life despite my many failings, but now, as I watch our country fall, I’m overcome by an oppressive sense of foreboding that I’m unable to shake – and I’m not alone! Many fellow Christians feel the same way. The final "hour of trial" is upon us, beginning probably with the total collapse of the world’s economic systems, followed by anarchy . . .
Ezekiel 14:13-14 "Son of man, if a country sins against Me by committing unfaithfulness, and I stretch out My hand against it, destroy its supply of bread, send famine against it and cut off from it both man and beast, even though these three men, Noah, Daniel and Job were in its midst, by their own righteousness they could only deliver themselves,' declares the Lord GOD."
Isn’t the above true today, as we see natural disasters increasing everywhere? Not only in our land, but around the world? We were once the richest country on Earth, but not anymore. Are not the next few verses also about us, and are not these days here as well?
James 5:1-3 (NASB) "Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure! Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter."
For many years I lived just like the above, caring little about anyone but myself. Now I anguish over the wimpy social clubs our churches have become. I weep as I see our children led astray by an immoral media, godless teachers and false religions. I agonize over how spiritually blind we as a people have become. America was once the Christian lighthouse of the world, but that’s all over. In 535 B.C., a Bible prophet saw the following . . .
Zechariah 11:16 "For behold, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for the perishing, seek the scattered, heal the broken, or sustain the one standing (godless leadership), but will devour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hoofs . . ."
Because the spiritual hoofs have been torn off our people by self-serving church leaders who know not God, we no longer know how to walk the Christian walk.
It wasn’t always that way. Many Christian brethren died at Bunker Hill. Two thousand more, freezing, ill clothed and starving, died at Valley Forge. Untold numbers died in the Civil war, the Spanish-American war, in both World Wars, in Korea, in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan . . . and for what? They died for what we used to be, not for what we have become. We are not worthy of their deaths. Instead of repenting, we worry about how to protect our assets when the dollar goes belly up or the stock market crashes, as they surely will. Just before the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., the godly sighed and groaned over the abominations committed in their midst, but do we?
Ezekiel 9:4 "The LORD said to him, ‘Go through the midst of the city. . . and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst.’ And to the others (angels) he said in mine hearing, ‘Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary.’ Then they began at the ancient men (the church leaders) which were before the house" (of the Lord, i.e., the Church).
Do you believe sovereign God, Creator of the Universe, is going to act differently now, just because you go to your spiritually dying church on Sunday, know the four spiritual laws, and say the sinners prayer? As He did in Israel so long ago, the Lord is once again putting His mark on His remnant. If you have that mark, you know it, because you recognize the lateness of the hour. How late? It’s almost time to obey . . .
Isaiah 26:20-27:1 (NAS) " Come, my people, enter into your rooms and close your doors behind you; Hide for a little while until indignation runs its course. For behold, the LORD is about to come out from His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; and the earth will reveal her bloodshed and will no longer cover her slain. In that day the LORD will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, with His fierce and great and mighty sword (the word of God), Even Leviathan the twisted serpent; and He will kill the dragon (Satan) who lives in the sea (of people)."
Several years ago, a godly old pastor told me with a sigh, "I don’t see the Holy Spirit working in the hearts of the unsaved like I used to."
"And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man." Genesis 6:3
It’s not going to be easy for us from here on out . . .
Amos 5:18-20 "Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD (comes during a time of spiritual) darkness, and not light. As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. Shall not the day of the LORD (come during a time of spiritual) darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?"
Night no longer cometh when no man can work, it is here. John 9:4
If you’re not crying inside, you should be. I certainly am.
Trying not to laugh, I ask, "And how did that come about?"
"Well, our church’s band needed a bongo player and this Buddhist was the only one they could find so they hired him."
With my jaw down to my chest in disbelief, I ask, "and how is that working out for you?"
"Well, this guy sits in the lotus position in the foyer before the service and does his "oh-mad-ne-pad-ne-hum" thing, or whatever, he then joins the band during the service."
"Unbelievable, and why is your church permitting it?"
"They claim they are ‘discipling’ him."
Now I can’t help myself and I’m cracking up. Knowing this particular teacher to be a sound brother who believes every word of the Bible, I just had to ask him, "What in the world are you doing in that church?"
"I’m there as a missionary!"
The rest of the Bible teaches were nodding their heads in agreement and one said, "We’re all in our churches as missionaries. In fact, we don’t know of a single major Bible believing church in our city."
So what’s new? The leaders of the "church" during Jesus’ time, the Pharisees, were also in apostasy so God sent John the Baptist to warn the Jewish people of the coming of His Son, an event called in Malachi, "the great and terrible day of the Lord." And what was John’s message to the people? It wasn’t, "lovey-dovey, we’ll all be raptured out." Instread, John taught a baptism of repentance.
I’m now 85 years old, a WW II vet who during his lifetime has pretty much seen it all. It’s been a pretty good life despite my many failings, but now, as I watch our country fall, I’m overcome by an oppressive sense of foreboding that I’m unable to shake – and I’m not alone! Many fellow Christians feel the same way. The final "hour of trial" is upon us, beginning probably with the total collapse of the world’s economic systems, followed by anarchy . . .
Ezekiel 14:13-14 "Son of man, if a country sins against Me by committing unfaithfulness, and I stretch out My hand against it, destroy its supply of bread, send famine against it and cut off from it both man and beast, even though these three men, Noah, Daniel and Job were in its midst, by their own righteousness they could only deliver themselves,' declares the Lord GOD."
Isn’t the above true today, as we see natural disasters increasing everywhere? Not only in our land, but around the world? We were once the richest country on Earth, but not anymore. Are not the next few verses also about us, and are not these days here as well?
James 5:1-3 (NASB) "Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure! Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter."
For many years I lived just like the above, caring little about anyone but myself. Now I anguish over the wimpy social clubs our churches have become. I weep as I see our children led astray by an immoral media, godless teachers and false religions. I agonize over how spiritually blind we as a people have become. America was once the Christian lighthouse of the world, but that’s all over. In 535 B.C., a Bible prophet saw the following . . .
Zechariah 11:16 "For behold, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for the perishing, seek the scattered, heal the broken, or sustain the one standing (godless leadership), but will devour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hoofs . . ."
Because the spiritual hoofs have been torn off our people by self-serving church leaders who know not God, we no longer know how to walk the Christian walk.
It wasn’t always that way. Many Christian brethren died at Bunker Hill. Two thousand more, freezing, ill clothed and starving, died at Valley Forge. Untold numbers died in the Civil war, the Spanish-American war, in both World Wars, in Korea, in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan . . . and for what? They died for what we used to be, not for what we have become. We are not worthy of their deaths. Instead of repenting, we worry about how to protect our assets when the dollar goes belly up or the stock market crashes, as they surely will. Just before the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., the godly sighed and groaned over the abominations committed in their midst, but do we?
Ezekiel 9:4 "The LORD said to him, ‘Go through the midst of the city. . . and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst.’ And to the others (angels) he said in mine hearing, ‘Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary.’ Then they began at the ancient men (the church leaders) which were before the house" (of the Lord, i.e., the Church).
Do you believe sovereign God, Creator of the Universe, is going to act differently now, just because you go to your spiritually dying church on Sunday, know the four spiritual laws, and say the sinners prayer? As He did in Israel so long ago, the Lord is once again putting His mark on His remnant. If you have that mark, you know it, because you recognize the lateness of the hour. How late? It’s almost time to obey . . .
Isaiah 26:20-27:1 (NAS) " Come, my people, enter into your rooms and close your doors behind you; Hide for a little while until indignation runs its course. For behold, the LORD is about to come out from His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; and the earth will reveal her bloodshed and will no longer cover her slain. In that day the LORD will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, with His fierce and great and mighty sword (the word of God), Even Leviathan the twisted serpent; and He will kill the dragon (Satan) who lives in the sea (of people)."
Several years ago, a godly old pastor told me with a sigh, "I don’t see the Holy Spirit working in the hearts of the unsaved like I used to."
"And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man." Genesis 6:3
It’s not going to be easy for us from here on out . . .
Amos 5:18-20 "Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD (comes during a time of spiritual) darkness, and not light. As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. Shall not the day of the LORD (come during a time of spiritual) darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?"
Night no longer cometh when no man can work, it is here. John 9:4
If you’re not crying inside, you should be. I certainly am.
