The Last Days Of The Church LII

 There is a caveat to continuing in the things we have learned, and that is making sure what we learned are not the opinions of men but the Holy Scriptures. Paul was aware of what Timothy had learned, knew the source, knew the purity of it, and so was confident in admonishing him to continue in them. But how do we know that what we have learned is the Holy Scripture? You have a Bible, don’t you? If you don’t, send me your address, and I’ll ship you one free of charge. If all you’ve ever consumed were the opinions of men without ever looking into the Word to see if they aligned, today is a good day to start making it a daily practice.

Never take anything for granted or assume that someone who held to the truth yesterday will also do so tomorrow. We are warned that some wander from the truth, giving heed to deceiving spirits. Never assume; always verify. That goes for yours truly as well because were I to insist that you place your trust in me rather than the Word, and blindly so, it should raise alarms with every last one of you.

Every true man and woman of God is beholden to the Word of God. It has the final authority every time, without fail, no matter how much we as individuals would rather that it say something different. Am I overly excited about the prospect of persecution or martyrdom? No, I am not. I’ve never been a fan of pain, never felt the need to cut myself or punch myself in the nose to see how it feels. Yet, the Word of God says I must prepare for the eventuality of one or both of these things, so every day, I have to allow for that possibility and live out my life accordingly.

That’s the whole point of the exercise when it comes to submitting to His will and not our own. Most often, what we are submitting to is not something the flesh is enthusiastic about. On the contrary, it’s likely something the flesh would rather not do. We do it anyway because He is the Lord of our lives. That’s what Paul means when he says we are not our own but were bought with a price.

The enemy is cunning and patient. He will bide his time and wait for you to let down your guard on the off chance that you will hear something and fail to compare it to scripture to see if it’s rooted therein, and if that occurs, he will send people your way that will confirm the thing you heard, attempting to draw you ever further from the light.

Scripture is an all-purpose weed killer. If the Word of God is ever present in your heart and mind, whatever lie or deception comes in contact with it will die a quick death. Abiding in the Word of God is the one surefire way to continually remain in the truth and the light.

Psalm 119:11, “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.”

The absence of God’s word in men’s hearts is what facilitates their being deceived. It’s what makes wandering from the truth possible because if the heart of man is not seeded with the truth, it will surely be seeded with something else. A man’s heart cannot remain hollow. It is filled with either the truth of Scripture or with the lies of the enemy, and he will act according to what is in his heart.

What’s inside you will come out of you, and as Jesus said, it’s not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man but what comes out of the mouth because what proceeds from the mouth comes from the heart, and they defile a man. If the word of God is in your heart, it will show forth in what comes out of your mouth. If anger, bitterness, or evil are in your heart, they, too, will make their way to the fore and be evident.

It’s not a mystery why the church has strayed in these last days; it’s not a Rubix cube of a conundrum wherein one sits and ponders endlessly as to what could have brought it to this decrepit condition. It stopped preaching, teaching, obeying, and declaring the unadulterated Word; therefore, something other than Scripture filled their time, minds, and hearts.

Everyone seems to be searching for something new, something more, but whether it’s portals, aliens, interdimensional stargates, transcendental meditation, Mayan prophecies, codexes, enchantments, gold dust, soaking techniques, or the identity of the man of lawlessness, it’s not Christ and Him crucified. Distractions serve to distract. That’s their entire purpose, and given all that we’ve seen of late, it’s not surprising that there is neither power nor authority present within most churches today.

The only fix to the madness is what the modern-day church has rejected offhand. There is no second option; there is no other path; the only way to begin repairing the damage is to return to the basic principles of the gospel, to begin preaching it and living it. That’s it. Complicated? No, it’s not, but it’s not exciting enough. There isn’t anything we can monetize to create a cottage industry around if we return to the fundamentals of scripture and begin to faithfully obey the tenets thereof.

We’ve gone from having one body, one voice, one purpose, and one Lord to vying for market share and ensuring that our slice of the pie is protected at all costs. There is no gladness of heart when God uses another, as though we were not one body any longer, but instead of gladness, there is bitterness and resentment and that feeling that God chose wrong. Doesn’t He know how special I am? Doesn’t He know what I could do on behalf of the kingdom, given half the chance? And that’s why God chose another. Because it’s not about you, or me, or any one individual, and whenever we insist the spotlight shines in our doe-like eyes, we are robbing God of His glory.

A general is tasked with protecting the kingdom and defending his King. His duty is not to break off a piece of the kingdom and make it his own or attempt to usurp his King in order to replace Him. History has a name for those who would attempt to usurp their king, and they are called traitors. It’s the same word Paul uses when discussing what the last days' church will have to contend with, and it is a fitting definition of those who would use God as a vehicle to achieve their own desires or aspirations. God is not a means to an end. He is not a placeholder or someone we feign to submit to until something better comes along. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the One who spoke the universe into being, who is worthy of our honor, worship, and obedience.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.