The Last Days Of The Church XXXVIII

 When the Bible gives specific instructions on how we should resolve an issue, any other means by which we might pursue said resolution is unsanctioned and something we’ve attempted in contravention of the Word of God. However fanciful, well thought out, or reasonable in our minds the approach might be, it will miss the mark and have no positive outcome because we chose to go our own way rather than His way and attempted to solve a problem in a manner not harmonious with Scripture.

God knows best. Always, every time, without fail. The sooner we learn this indispensable lesson, the easier it will be for us in the long run. That we’ll be doing a lot less kicking against the goads throughout our journey is an added benefit and one that can spare us much pain.

Never once in my life have I regretted doing something God’s way. Never once have I looked back and concluded that my way might have been better or the resolution to a particular problem would have been more beneficial had I disregarded the Word and tried to find a different path to my destination. The more we walk in obedience to God’s word, the more we see its beauty. The more we submit to the authority of Scripture and do as it prescribes, the more the wisdom thereof blossoms and becomes evident.  

Do what He says, live as He wills, love Him, worship Him, obey and follow after Him, and everything else will seem less complicated, fractious, and uncertain. When we begin to think that there are other ways of doing something than that which God established in His Word, we needlessly complicate our existence and allow for heartache and confusion to make a grand entrance, upturning what would have otherwise been a peacefully harmonious life.

Every act of rebellion, disobedience, or refusal to defer to the Word on how we should deal with the issues in our lives is like a pebble being thrown into a still pond. The impact itself is just the beginning. It’s the ripples that we will have to contend with over time, as each concentric circle is bigger than the last. For the more stiffnecked among us, what should have taken forty days to accomplish ends up taking forty years, not because God couldn’t make it happen, but because we didn’t do what He commanded.

If the first step to protecting oneself from the perilous time that will be emblematic of the last days of the church, a period of spiritual decline and apostasy, is to turn away from those who’ve chosen to pursue a path other than that of righteousness, the second step is to be wise in choosing one’s heroes, and who we look to as examples.

The Word itself harkens back to those who came before as examples, both positive and negative, instructing us in what we must do in order to grow in godliness and what not to do if we desire to spare ourselves untold heartache and pain.

The entirety of Hebrews 11 is a reminder of those who came before, in this case highlighting their faith and what was accomplished through them by faith. There is nothing wrong or untoward in looking at the lives of those who came before and seeing what they did to experience God more thoroughly and walk in His authority more boldly. It’s not idolatry, as some have proffered, because we’re not worshipping the individual by seeing their examples; we’re worshipping the God who worked through these individuals, just as they did. Some people just aren’t satisfied until there’s some point of contention they can take an opposing position on, but if the Bible references the lives lived by those who came before as examples, then Biblically speaking, they don’t have a leg to stand on.

2 Timothy 3:10-11 “But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra – what persecutions I endured. And out of them all, the Lord delivered me.”

Biblical examples serve to focus the Biblically minded and encourage them to pursue the deeper things of God even when the voices around them insist that this can no longer be so. Whenever someone pipes up insisting God doesn’t do that, we can point to the Bible and say He already did, and if He’s done it once, then there is nothing stopping Him from doing it again.

The roadblock isn’t that God can’t, won’t, or doesn’t do something or another anymore. It’s that the hearts of men have grown cold, and their desire is focused on something other than the fullness of God in their lives or a state of complete spiritual maturity and understanding. What’s stopping God is men’s faithlessness and their failure to ask that it may be given to them and believe wholeheartedly that God can empower, embolden, and equip them for battle against the darkness.

God still speaks to His children because He always Has. God still has fellowship with His children because He always has. It’s odd that the modern-day church is focusing on things for which there is no precedent in the Bible while wholly ignoring those things for which there is. We’re enamored with gold dust and eagle feathers, fawning over imbecilic assertions such as pet dinosaurs and body part rooms in heaven while wholly dismissing the things the Word explicitly says we should desire. When it comes to godliness, that’s a harder sell because it requires self-denial and a single-minded pursuit of righteousness. I’d rather dwell on what I’ll be naming my pet dinosaur once I get beyond the pearly gates; thank you very much.

We’d rather daydream about sitting on God’s lap and braiding His beard than actively humble ourselves, get alone with Him, and have true, meaningful, and long-lasting fellowship. Those who came before us understood the importance of spending time with God and growing daily in Him. Paul points to himself as an example of faithfulness, and this example is not for those of the world but those of the household of faith.

The duty of every believer, no matter their station in life or within the body, is to be a living testimony of the power of God to transform, renew, and make clean. God took our brokenness and made us whole, not so we might glory in ourselves, but glory in Him. He replaced our hopelessness, bitterness, anger, and futility with hope, joy, peace, and purpose, not so that we might return to the prison of our own making but to be free in word and deed.

We cannot look to the godless as examples of godliness. It’s akin to looking at an earthworm as an example of a lion. The two can never be reconciled, and if we pursue the ways of the world to grow the work of God, by the end of it, we will either fail absolutely or succeed in the eyes of the world with not a trace of godliness to be had.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.