Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Death By A Thousand Compromises


The church is dying. For long and long it has been on life support but even with the artificial devices pumping air into its lungs, it is beginning to look and smell like the ambulatory corpse it has become. You can’t hide decomposition for too long. You can spray paint it, coat it in makeup, pour gallons of perfume one it, but there will always be that lingering smell of something not quite right, not quite healthy, and not quite living.

We talked ourselves into believing compromise was a viable option and that is where we stepped off the path. The more compromises we allowed in our lives, in our families, in our churches and in our pulpits the more the world seemed to love us and embrace us and fawn over us. We reveled in the world’s fawning. We reveled in the world’s acceptance, disinterested and indifferent as to whether or not God was likewise accepting of us.

We preferred the world over the God we purported to serve, and that was mistake number two.

The third mistake we made, a mistake which came on the heels of the first and second, is believing that once compromise with sin and the world began it could somehow be stopped.

We believed the lies of men when they assured us compromise was like a controlled burn rather than the raging wildfire it is. Some saw the train wreck coming. They tried to pump the breaks and sound the alarm, but it was already too late, and the train and its passengers continued to barrel toward the inevitable.

I hear the words of respected and even revered men in our day and age and I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry. The thought that we can dictate terms to God and have Him bend His will to suit our own seems to have enveloped young and old alike, from every denomination, and every corner of the earth. We think that if we throw a big enough tantrum, if we throw a big enough hissy fit, then God will go back on His word and no longer call sin what it is.

It is our compromises that have weakened us. It is our compromises that have brought us to the edge of the abyss, because with every compromise we made we took yet another step farther from truth and the will of God.

One can either journey toward the light or the darkness. One can either choose life or choose death. One can either submit to the authority and will of God in all things or cherry pick the things they like and fashion for themselves an idol they call their god. Since such individuals are the creators of their own god, they can and oftentimes do decide what their god is perfectly fine with, and what their god finds offensive, sinful or abominable.

Because of our fallen state, because of the compromise coursing through our veins, because it has been so long since we’ve contemplated the very notion of obedience and submission that we’ve forgotten what they mean, we comfort each other with the illusion that if enough of us deem something as lawful and just God will have no choice but to acquiesce.

God will not be bullied, pressured, or harassed into changing His will, especially when that which is asked of Him contradicts His very nature, a nature rooted in holiness and righteousness.

It isn’t one large wound that is become the death of us, it is a thousand little ones. A thousand little compromises causing us to bleed out and grow anemic, and wandering about in a daze asking ourselves where it all went wrong.

The sifting is upon us. Soon, sooner than some would like to believe, brother will turn against brother, mother against daughter, and father against son, because the Word of God has a way of coming to pass when we least expect it.

The shaking must come, the separation must take place, because the tares are choking out the wheat, and soon there will be no life left to speak of. One thing few realize is that the wheat and the tares were growing in the same field, side by side, in the same soil.

It’s not the world that’s choking off the church, it is the pretend Christians within the church, the compromised, duplicitous, hypocritical, self-serving souls paying God lip service who are choking off the true believers at the great glee and merriment of the world and the devil alike.  

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

2 comments:

Ryan said...

Hi Michael,

As this is so very true, those who have allowed the Holy Spirit to minister to them day and night know this already....and are preparing their hearts.

Just finished reading a scripture in Romans that a brother shared and a scripture jumped out at me...

Romans 12
9 Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.

This is a big part of the problem. So many in the "Church" say they love one another but do so thinking that gain is godliness. Those who have truly separated themselves unto the Lord, allow the Holy Spirit to lead into all truth because they know 1) this is the only way to get all truth and 2) the so called ministers of our day have bloodied the sheep and have tried to lord over God's inheritance for too long.

I guess the only reason I chimed in here is because it saddens me greatly that so many have missed the simple truth that Jesus sent the Comforter so that fellowship could be restored with the Father. Most of the leaders in the churces today have left that so far behind that the people in their congregations have grown so weary from drinking muddy waters.

I earnestly pray that those who frequent your blog would realize that the darkness is looming overhead and that God will not be satisfied until He has our full undivided attention.

a brother in Christ,
Ryan

A Sister in Washington said...

This particular article gave me chills. I've seen this happen in my own family, all supposedly Christians. I've learned to keep my mouth shut with certain people about my opinion that some of them are "tares" vs. "wheat." I bounce back and forth between grief and anger. These are people who have been given and shown the truth, but prefer the darkness, while claiming to be in the light. I'm so glad I'm not the final Judge. Part of me just wants to nuke them all. And I'm sure I'd take some of the wheat out in the process. Praise God for His wisdom and long suffering. But, oh, I am so looking forward to Heaven!