Despondency does not occur when you’re seeing what you expected to see and experiencing what you were expecting to experience. Despondency becomes overwhelming, however, when what we have expected does not materialize, and what we are experiencing is contrary to what we were promised by men whose interest was to keep the sheep mollified, placated, appeased, and pacified.
It goes against their best
interest to have a church body that reads the Word and believes it because,
sooner or later, the church body realizes how little of the Bible is being
preached from the pulpit. The little that is being preached is so mangled and twisted
that what’s being said and what is written look nothing alike.
It used to be that men deferred
to the Word of God, and beyond all the debating and the back and forth, it was
the final authority in any matter of spiritual consequence. Nowadays, if we
don’t like what the Bible says, we shrug our shoulders and make up new doctrine
on the spot, justifying our recklessness with tropes such as it was a different
time; they didn’t understand modernity; love is love; we have to change with
the times otherwise we’ll get left behind, and countless others.
Those excuses might look good on
paper and convince those who are already biased toward believing lies because
they are harder to swallow than the truth, but sin is still sin, God is still
God, and His word is true no matter how many people insist otherwise.
Walking humbly with your God and
working out your salvation with fear and trembling might not be as exciting as
being an accredited prophet to the nations, a leader of leaders, a spiritual
life coach, or whatever made-up title people like to give themselves nowadays,
but one is biblical, and the other is not!
But brother, you don’t
understand. The Lord is doing a new thing so we can usher in the great end-time
revival. Two problems with that: first, the new thing the Lord is supposedly
doing isn’t focused on Jesus, repentance, sanctification, or holiness, and
second, if we’re trying to manufacture something God has not sanctioned or
initiated, then we can’t blame Him when it crumbles under the weight of our own
hubris. Behold the fallout and glorious ruin of man-centered movements and
celebrity preachers. As the Carpenters once crooned, we’ve only just begun, for
everything that can be shaken will be shaken, and the shaking will begin within
the church.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention
the third thing. The Bible warns of a falling away rather than an end-time
revival, but that doesn’t animate the lifeless corpses sitting in pews
half-listening to a sermon while they’re scrolling through Facebook, hoping the
preacher doesn’t go over his allotted twenty minutes, so we’ll just ignore it.
A large swath of professing
believers will go from disappointment to doubt to bitterness to all-out hatred
and rage because what men have promised them never materialized. Even though they
could have saved themselves all the heartache by reading the Word and believing
it as it was written and not as they would have liked it to be written, they
will find a way to blame God, joining the ranks of the mockers who will be
ever-present during the last days.
It’s not God’s fault that you
didn’t heed the words of Christ when He said beware that you are not deceived.
It’s not God’s fault that you didn’t heed the words of Christ when He said all
these things must come to pass, but the end has not yet arrived. You chose to
believe the whispers and the fables rather than the truth because the whispers
and the fables required nothing substantive of you. Nothing needed to change.
You could remain as you were, enjoying what you’ve always enjoyed, and for the
low price of a few bucks in an offering plate, you got fire insurance, eternal
security, and the promise of inheriting the wealth of the wicked. Just sit back
and enjoy the ride, and keep your hands inside the vehicle at all times.
We’ve gotten so used to having
it our way that we’ve come to believe God has likewise changed with the times
and must, therefore, appease us somehow. He’d better. Otherwise, we’ll leave
Him a scathing review on Yelp. If you want it your way, I’m sure there’s a
Burger King within driving distance of where you live. God is God! He doesn’t
pander, placate, or otherwise become permissive of things contrary to His
nature just because enough people have a hissy fit about it. Even if a majority
wanted something different from what God established, God is not beholden to
majority rule either.
It all boils down to obedience
and to possessing the willingness to humble ourselves and submit to His
authority. Since such things are anathema in many churches because we’d rather
have our heads filled with fairy tales about how we’re going to be movers and
shakers for the kingdom, we’ll cling to anything that we deem will make us
special in some way, even though it never really does. Just so we’re clear, and
there are no misunderstandings, neither you nor I nor any human currently
living is on equal footing with God. It doesn’t matter who it is that appears
out of nowhere and starts insisting that they are; it doesn’t matter what
parlor tricks they perform in order to try and convince you of the veracity of
their claims. They’re lying liars, and you should avoid them.
We’d rather spend years counting
down the end of the Mayan calendar as if it were some oracle or divine prophecy
than dive into the Word of God and see what it says about the last days. It
never occurred to anyone that the guy working away with a hammer and chisel
started getting hand cramps and just gave up his pet project. It has to mean
something, brother. How readily we blend the sacred and the profane when it
suits us. They are not interchangeable! Just because some gypsy guessed your
age or weight does not make her godly. Just because some sweaty guy on stage
guessed your puppy’s name does not make him a holy man of God. Godliness makes
men godly; obedience and faithfulness make men godly; steadfastness and truth
make men godly; being imbued with the righteousness of Christ makes men godly, not
the exhibition of some extra-biblical talent or ability.
We’ll overlook the absence of godliness if the show is good enough. We’ll overlook the warning signs that things aren’t what they seem and something’s a bit off if the individual is enigmatic, charismatic, charming, and well-spoken. We shouldn’t, though, because we’ve seen the wreckage of what remains after men ignored the warning claxons on their way to deception.
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea, Jr.
No comments:
Post a Comment