The Face Holiness Part 3

“Living the Christian Life”

 “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” (Romans 1:18-20)

Since the beginning of mankind, God has made His way known. It is not a mystery and it is not a secret. However, through the years man has chosen to follow the darkness of their foolish hearts. The words on Romans 1:18-20 should not be taken lightly; living outside of God’s holiness leads to terrible consequences. The truth is being suppressed and it is time for the fullness of the truth to be released in America.

We must be careful with what is behind the spirit of our patriotism as it refers to America. We can find ourselves worshiping a nation over God. Statements that point at America as “exceptional” deeply concern me. The Word Exceptional means: “Outstanding, excellent, brilliant, special, extraordinary and incomparable.” With these kinds of adjectives, who needs God? It is as if America has no need for repentance. Apologies around the world by our President is not what this nation needs; we as a nation stand in great need of repentance. This is not the time for laughter and this is not the time for dancing. This is a time of weeping, for our sin is great before the Lord and our pride stands as a great wall between us and the great move of God’s Spirit in the hearts of man.  Until we see how worthless we are without God, we will never embrace the need in our lives for holiness. First Corinthians 7:29-31 tells:

“What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep;¹ those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.”

I believe that we have gotten too, comfortable with God in our approach to Him and we are relying on a false mercy that requires no correction; a false mercy that tells us: “Its okay, nobody is perfect; if God wants this or that thing out of me, He can take it away from me at any time.” In the process, we are still in love with our sins and we continue in our destructive paths. My words may sound too tough, some may accuse me of being legalistic or into works; but such accusations are false. This writer is not judging or condemning you; this writer is simply fed-up with sin because I have seen first hand the devastating consequences of sin. Maybe you have lived in a little castle your whole life where everything has been cookies and flowers with no mayor issues. You always made the right decisions and everything has always been in order. If that is you; this article is not for you. However, let me warn you, your brokenness is on its way; for you are going to be useless with your perfect religiosity to serve our current fallen humanity. All-stars for the most part make terrible coaches. The average players in terms of talents are the ones that usually rise up as great coaches because they understand the struggles of the particular sport they play. Maybe you have managed to stay out of trouble; maybe you learn some things quickly; maybe it did not take all that for you to learn the tough lessons…God bless you my brother and my sister! But it was not so for many of us! Many of us have seen the devastating consequences of sin and decisions made in the flesh and perhaps there is a greater desperation in our voices that make you uncomfortable; I pray that it will not take” all that” for you to learn what we are learning the hard way. So I sound the trumpet: “Prepare the way of the Lord!”