“Living the Christian Life”
The message of the greatest prophet that ever walked on this earth was “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is near.” John the Baptist surely did not hold back in proclaiming the need for repentance. However, it seems like many of us have become such “Cheese-balls” that we are willing to preach a different Gospel for the sake of not offending the world. We have indeed become friends of the world at the cost of assisting people on their way to hell and standing as enemies of God (James 4:4). To make matters worst, we refuse to confront the sin in our own camp; why? Because we are afraid we will loose members in our churches. We are afraid that our numbers will decrease and therefore the money also.
As the world is filled with political correctness; the church is filling with people that refuse to call sin, “Sin;” people that, under the umbrella of “God loves you;” are befriending the world. Prophets such as G. Craig Lewis have been sounding the alarms for years with his DVD series “The Truth Behind Hip-Hop” concerning the wickedness that we are allowing in our churches. (http://gcraige.blogspot.com) But we, in the spirit of, “Being Nice,” are allowing the devil to take over our youth’s minds. We want to apply grace without truth and mercy without correction. In the process we are opening doors of great confusion and heresy in our local churches.
When are we going to understand that holiness is offensive to people that do not want to change? The truth of God’s Word will always cause the sinner or the Christian in sin to feel very uncomfortable. That is the reason why many stands as cowers as they rather be “Nice” than to teach and preach about the purity of holiness. Persecution only comes when we want to be holy; people that love sin and are comfortable with sin will not experience such persecution. 2 Timothy 3:12 tells us:
“In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted…”
Rev. Gerald Cruse in his teachings about holiness points out that “the reason we in America are not experiencing the persecution that other brothers and sisters are experiencing in other parts of the world is because we are not even trying to be holy.” Help us Jesus! We have become, indeed, “cheese-balls” and cower for Christ. We are constantly turning our backs on the Apostles’ teachings. Titus 2:11-16 tells us:
“For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.”
Oh, but we dare to tell anybody to stop doing this or stop doing that. See beloved, “Holiness” is the greatest threat against “Self.” We can teach about prosperity, we can teach about church government, we can teach about the end-time prophesies, the rapture, speaking in tongues, winning the lost, etc. and even as all of these topics are very important; without these teachings, responsibilities and commissions flowing out of holiness we find ourselves on dangerous grounds. But, when we are face-to-face with God’s holiness and His demand for us to be holy, we find ourselves directly facing our mess. It is then that we are face-to-face with the reality that there are things we are doing that we must stop doing immediately. It is here that holiness makes us very uncomfortable; it is here that the world and folk in church that are walking in disobedience manifest their hate towards us. It is all an inner-war of “Self” fighting against the Spirit of God.
To be continued…
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