Monday, June 9, 2014

How We Got Here


Some are in shock, others are in denial, and others still are in mourning. Of the three, perhaps the mourning is most fitting for what this nation has become, and how quickly it has become it, but other than the jubilant forces of darkness that seem to be winning one battle after the other, most everyone else is asking themselves how we got here.

Even those banging the ‘it can’t get any worse’ and ‘we know how the story ends’ drums like crack addicted monkeys seem to have calmed down, realizing that it can, and has, and will get worse, and though we know how the story ends, we have to get to the end with our faith intact, and without falling into the pit of compromise so many seem to be head diving into.

I am a realist by nature. When you grow up poor and are uncertain as to where your next meal will come from most nights, optimism soon takes flight, and all that is left is the reality of hunger. I don’t speak of my early childhood often, because it’s something my family got through, something that made us all the stronger for it, and something that knit a bond of love and certainty as to the others’ willingness to step in and help out if the need arose.

But I digress. Today’s post is supposed to be about something else altogether, and it is important enough wherein I will save the childhood stories, and trips down memory lane for another time.

Those who choose not to acknowledge their own complicity in regards to this nation’s descent into darkness will be quick to point to the changing times, the entertainment industry,  mass media, or another of a hundred convenient little scapegoats.

Did these things have a hand to play in how we got here? Most definitively, but by a large percentage, far ahead of any one thing, blame must be laid at the feet of the church, who fell asleep at the wheel, and refused to wake up thereafter for whatever reason.

The moment the words sin, repentance, hell, and righteousness stopped being trumpeted from the pulpits of America, we began our descent, and we haven’t stopped descending since.

The wolves in suits make quick work of the Bible, butchering it mercilessly as though it were some fattened hog ready to be meted out rather than the inerrant, absolute Word of the Most High God. For some unexplained reason the widow of Zarephath gets more contemplation, sermons, and exegesis on ‘Christian’ television than Christ’s Sermon on the Mount ever will, while sin and depravity are treated with kid gloves as though they were not cancers in the Body of Christ. All this, to the cheers and adulation of those who love their sin more than they will ever love God, and who just want some sort of numbing agent to rub on their burdened consciences.

It is the church’s compromise that has led to this, it is the church’s compromise that began all this, and it is the church that God will judge first, with the fierceness of His righteous anger.

Rather than identify the cancer growing our midst, rather than attempt to remove it, and excise it from the Body, we’re busy calling each other names, playing the ‘my ministry’s better than your ministry’ game, and actually debating whether Paul the Apostle was the antichrist, and if we should rip the Pauline Epistles out of the Bible altogether.

A more cynical person would say we’re looking to pick these foolish fights, and focus on tertiary issues just because we don’t have the stomach for the real fight, and don’t want to confront the darkness that threatens to swallow us whole. A more cynical person would say that the church has become nothing more than an amalgam of sleek and fattened cowards who would betray even their deepest held convictions for the sake of retaining their positions and possessions. A more cynical person would say these things, but then again so would a realist, I fear.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Church was busy, busy chasing after the Amrican Dream and that keft little time for the much more inportant things.The foolish virgins busy with their vain pursuits will soon be shaken awake but it wilk be too late, the door wilk be shut as they race to find oil, something the American dream never could provideIt never had the oil and now those who chased after it instead of God will partake of the American nightnare unless they reoent if their
idolatry, their love of this world and lip service to God.
'in prosperity the destroyer shall come' Job 15:21
Marcel

Anonymous said...

Absolutely, judgment upon the US and the American church is overdue .... but I really wonder how it will play out .... if the lukewarm church is going to persecute the real church, then they can't get wiped out, can they? What will it look like for the lukewarm American church to be judged, as opposed to judgment for America itself in its rebellion and unbelief??

Mondo Frazier said...

Michael,

Well said.

Sad, but well said.

Anonymous said...

Was just reading Ezekiel 44 "and you have not kept charge of My sacred offerings; but you have appointed foreigners to act for you in keeping My charge in My sanctuary." Is that what the current church has done - appointed foreigners as church leaders? God was not happy with that then and I doubt is happy with it now.

Thea said...

brother Mike-
Again I totally agree with your prophetic commentary on the church system and the compromised (wolves) leading the sheep over the cliff. This seems to be excelerating at warp speed. Sins are now issues and repentence.is relaced with self centeredness. But God does have a bride, a remnant who here what the Spirit is saying. The true body of Christ. The path is narrow. God Bless and thank you. Colossians 1:18 & ICorinthians2:2
In Him,
Thea

Thea said...

brother Mike-
The church system and the world are hurling downword at warp speed. Yet as I speak to some Christians, they don't see it. All the false, compromised gospels.What's missing is the preaching of a Christ centered gospel, the blood of His New Covenant and the preeminence of Jesus Christ. I believe the church organizations are already beginning to apostasize-bu there is a remnant, the true bride of Christ who here and obey the Spirit.I sense that some major things are going to happen this year that will be prophetic and intense. We must all be prayful.
Thank you for your clear prophetic insight.
Colossians 1:18; ICorinth. 2:2
In Him,
Thea

Anonymous said...

AMEN! I myself, though I study my Bible daily and purpose in all things to obey the Lord, realized just a few weeks ago that I was in chronic disobedience to Jesus Christ in a particular, and very important, area of my life. It took three obscure but honest online preachers expounding the truth of a few scriptures I had already read many times to finally convict me and turn me around. Since forsaking that sin (one which is commonly invalidated by today's Christians, having to do with divorce and remarriage), a heavy spiritual oppression has lifted off of me, especially noticeable at bedtime when I lay my head on the pillow. There had been a vague sense of doom, of condemnation, even terror, which troubled me greatly while I was lying still and quiet in bed in the darkness, trying to go to sleep. I wanted with all my heart to obey God, so I was perplexed that my heart seemed to be condemning me.

But now, after recognizing the culprit sin and repenting of it with a broken and contrite heart, my sleep is peaceful and sweet and refreshing. Dear Brothers and Sisters, we can't be too careful about examining our own lives in the light of God's Word. Also, we must heed those sometimes uncomfortable nudgings of His Spirit that are trying to tell us something.

It's often much easier to see shortcomings in others than in ourselves. Maybe it's good to check our eye frequently and make absolutely sure there's not a 'board' stuck in there. Thank you, Brother Michael for being another of those rather obscure preachers who has no fear of proclaiming God's truth. That's why I keep reading this blog year after year.

Praying for a safe delivery for baby and mother, and calm nerves for the father-to-be,

A Faithful Reader