“If you are renewed by grace, and were to meet your old self, I am sure you would be very anxious to get out of his company.”
― Charles H. Spurgeon
Yesterday I sat alone watching the championship game. This game would decide one of the two Superbowl teams. Though I was alone, every time a touchdown was scored, in my mind, I could hear rooms full of people cheering, yelling, making manly grunting noises. It made me sad. Fans of the Seattle team even have their own name, the 12th man. I hear all this talk about unity in the church and how we are to achieve it and then church lets out and unity is achieved in thousands of homes in front of a TV screen as they cheer for their team. There is unity in sports. People wear the team colors, even painting their nails and hair. Why can't we have this in the church. We all gather by the thousands causing blackouts and water issues at halftime cause we are all running to the bathroom at the same time. They even measure the "Fakequake" the fans cause with their cheering when there is a touchdown, but when a soul is saved and announced in church, we often resort to the "golf clap"
This is what I call a false unity. It will be over when the season ends. Even 9/11 caused a unity in this country, but I believe it was a false unity because it died off rather quickly. I come as a fairly new believer and there are things I just don't understand. In order for something to grow, it needs roots. Where are the roots of Christianity in this country? Where are the elders? Who do we go to with our questions? Aren't we supposed to have teachers? Also, aren't the teachers supposed to learn from their students. Instead I see teachers turning on their students, because they do not agree with their teachers, and actually question their teaching. Where is that in the Bible? All we get is a shoulder shrug. I hear these churches trying to draw in unbelievers. Where is that in the bible? Isn't the Church supposed to go out and meet them where they are at? I hear it being preached that Jesus meets us where we are at. Well, I am at the grocery store, at my job, walking down the street, etc. etc. I don't see you followers of Jesus.
I talked to God about this the other day. I believe the picture I saw was from Him. Men were calling out to people, "Come over here" and there were flashing lights and other things to draw customers in. When I asked God what He was showing me I heard the word carnival. Games, food and rides. They all represent the Church. There are the rides that are a thrill and then they are over. There is the food that is not nutritious, only good for our taste buds and there are the games that only take our money. The people at each station are yelling out for us to come to them, for the most fun. If you want to win, come to my booth, we believe the Sabbath is on Saturday. No, no, come over here, we only teach grace, cause that is all that matters. We have the booths, rides, food trailers, each representing the different focuses in the church buildings We teach through the King James, we don't believe in hell, we speak in tongues, we don't. Everybody is trying to draw in the unbeliever, yet do they even talk to them to see why they don't go to church? Maybe they don't like carnivals? Maybe they have been lied to all their lives and don't want to play anymore. Maybe they have PTSD and hate crowds. Maybe they hate hearing about grace and then getting yelled at to repent when they tell the truth. Maybe they are waiting for someone to care enough to find them where they are at. Maybe they want the truth that is written in the Holy Bible even if it hurts.
Where does the bible speak of being comfortable? Where does it talk about Jesus gathering up comfortable couches and serving cold drinks, before speaking to a crowd? Where does it say, Jesus ordered them to build a huge building and draw people in? Where does it say, we don't discipline our brothers and sisters, we just give grace and continue allowing them to influence the people? Jesus spoke Truth. He walked around the country from town to town and people who had heard of Him came to hear. Where did they hear about Him? On the street? Or did they meander into a big building and ask what was going on?
Last night I looked up four words in the Concordance and was surprised how many times those words were spoken by Jesus. He only says what the Father says. Love, loves, loved, etc was spoken 70 times by Jesus in the Bible. Forgive in all it's forms was spoken by Him 37 times and repent was 27. The first word I looked up that surprised me the most was the word "Grace" It was spoken one time. My grace is sufficient. If this is any kind of scale as to how we should be teaching we are in big trouble.
Maybe there are things I don't see or understand but these are the things the Lord is speaking to me and as a somewhat new believer this is my most honest truth about what I see. I do know people and hear stories of them speaking to people in the marketplace. Those people don't brag about how many chairs they filled last Sunday, but they do brag about how awesome their God is. It's embarrassing to see the individual churches look more like a billboard than a safe place. We offer classes, coffee and comfort. Really? How about Truth, which booth do I have to go to in order to find Truth. Even if it hurts, I want it. Teach me to hear God and then I will tell you if He wants me sprinkled or dunked. Stop giving me the "Do as I say, not as I do" crap I got growing up. People in the world who have never entered a church can read "Fake" a lot easier than most of the people who have been sitting there for years. If the pastor disappeared, would they know how to feed themselves.
Maybe there are so many denominations and beliefs because God never intended the Church to be a building and so He won't give one church all the truth. Maybe the one with the truth is the one pounding the pavement for the Lord. So as we argue about beliefs and then go home to drink a beer and watch the game, I have to ask, what is with all this disagreement and why is it so huge? Because as long as we are focused on this little stuff, we are not united. We are not focusing on the real battle. How many unbelievers died blocks from us while we were cheering on our team? Would we have left the game to talk with them or scheduled an appointment for after the game or even better yet, for Monday.
Another thing the Lord and I have been talking about is the state of the nation. We all sit around talking about how the enemy is taking over this country, this world and how the times are getting so bad. The state the world is in is the responsibility of the Church. We are talking about our own failure. If you want to meet for a weekend service, how often do we take the time to pray for this nation, for the leaders, for the world? We have authority to bind the enemies hands. We focus on each person, each unbeliever, each play in the game, when this is a much bigger deal. This is war.
The other day as I was wrestling with doubt, the Lord reminded me of dreams He gave me over three years ago. I had a dream that a megachurch pastor was being run over by a blue Ford pickup. It was over two years that He explained the details of the dream. The pastor represented the Church and he was being run over by a demon driving a blue pickup. The blue was the color of the high priest. So, the church is under attack by it's own leaders. When I doubted that dream I asked for another with the same meaning. I had forgotten about that dream until the other day when doubt was attacking again. The second dream was the cast from Happy Days. They were laughing and dancing while in the woods behind them, I saw dark shadows moving about. The part of the dream that I never understood until just now was the mom from Happy Days was leaning against a big rock. Mom's in my dreams usually represent the pastor. She was leaning on the rock, not standing on it. She was glaring at me and she was not happy. Why? Because I am telling people that the enemy has infiltrated the church. Even when a bad church collapses those wounded people and their hurt and their demons are spread to many other churches. Who walks them through healing? Instead we cheer them on while they build new churches that are rooted in their wounds.
We are focusing on the symptoms and not the real issues. The pastor is too busy focusing on addiction and divorce and things the enemy has done instead of showing us how to bind him. Is this because it is what he is dealing with in private? We would not allow a drunk (on alcohol) pastor to preach, would we? Would we cover it up? Drunkenness is noticeable, but what if he is lusting, judging, or hating while he preaches? Teaching us how to hear, heal, and cast out demons would sound more like teaching us to be like Jesus than focusing on grace when we mess up. Aren't we supposed to be renewed by grace? Grace doesn't mean to stay in your crap and know you are still saved. Not only are you healed and forgiven, but pick up your mat, clean up your mess and get out there. People are dying and yes, they are going to hell. What are we supposed to do Pastor when our friends die and we know they do not believe? How do we comfort their families? Do we tell them the truth? Who told us the truth? I even heard it said at a funeral a while back that God was probably standing there waiting for this man with a beer for him. Really? The man loved his beer, dedicated more of his life to beer than Jesus and they really believe God is standing there with a beer for him? Where did they hear their truth?
The Church in America is so focused on keeping their rose colored glasses clean that they don't hear the cries of those who are dying and being packed off by demons. We just medicate the sick and dying so we don't have to hear their screams instead of healing them through our hands and through the name of Jesus. If the Church was teaching us our identity in Christ, our TRUE identity those sins, addictions, etc. would fall away. I am angry. It is a righteous anger. In the dream that I had when the pickup ran over the Church, I was standing amongst a group of people on their cell phones texting and talking. The Lord told me, He is sending the message, but nobody is listening. The demonic was driving the high priest, the lead pastor running over the Church and the people God was telling were saying things like, "It'll be okay" and "It will die anyway."
Matthew 11:20 (NASB)
20 Then He began to denounce the cities in which most of His [a]miracles were done, because they did not repent.
Call me a troublemaker, upsetter of the peace, whatever you will, but know this, if I don't speak out, the death, the sin is on my head and not the sinner. The game is not a game at all. It's a war. While so many people are coloring their hair and nails crazy colors, the jerseys in this war are replaced by robes and the colors are black or white.
“Repentance must dig the foundations, but holiness shall erect the structure, and bring forth the top-stone. Repentance is the clearing away of the rubbish of the past temple of sin; holiness builds the new temple which the Lord our God shall inherit. Repentance and desires after holiness never can be separated.”
― Charles H. Spurgeon
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