After
finishing one of three sermons I was scheduled to preach this past Sunday, a
brother came up to me and as we were talking he said he’d heard something the
idiocy of which was so astounding that at first I had to chuckle.
During
the six hour drive back to Wisconsin the next day, I had time to dwell on what
he’d said, and with each passing mile I grew angrier and angrier.
What
the brother said he’d heard a pastor say is that God did not punish Sodom and
Gomorrah for the sin of sodomy, He punished Sodom and Gomorrah because they
were inhospitable.
To
hear him tell the tale, one would readily conclude it wasn’t the fact that they
attempted to break down Lot’s door to have their way with the messenger of the
Lord that angered God, it was that they didn’t bring a bunt cake along.
The
reason I grew progressively angrier and I continue to be angry to this moment,
is because the church is doing everything in its power to validate and justify
the perversions of the world – twisting
Scripture to the point that one doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry – so long
as they don’t have to call sin, sin.
The
men speaking these nonsensical idiocies are those whom we look up to as our
spiritual authorities, and those whose only mandate is to lead us to all truth
in Christ Jesus. They are failing at their singular duty, and failing
miserably.
It
doesn’t take genius IQ to read the word of God and see why God judged Sodom and
Gomorrah. It doesn’t take a diploma in expository exegesis or hermeneutics to
come to the realization that two plus two equals four, and if the intent of the
Sodomites were honorable in any way, first, Lot would not have offered up his
daughter in the messenger’s stead, and second, the messenger of the Lord would
not have blinded the entire city.
I
for one am angry and I think you should be too. The Bible is okay with anger. It
even tells us to be angry and sin not, but that really isn’t telling us
anything is it?
Are
we just supposed to sit here and fume as I’ve been doing for the past few days?
Are we supposed to go and lift weights until our back starts to spasm, or run
until we realize we’re so far from home we need to call a taxi?
I
believe there is an answer as to what we can do, and I believe it is the only
thing that will work. No, it’s not calling these men on the carpet for the
heresies they are teaching, because they lost their ability to blush long ago,
and their conscience has likewise been seared.
The
answer is to simply stop!
Stop
attending their churches, stop giving them your hard earned money, stop buying
their books, just stop.
‘Here
we go Martha, now he’s going to tell us to support his ministry instead. I knew
there was a catch.’
Actually,
although we do good, noble, Biblical work and feed orphans, widows, and the
poor, just so you don’t think I have a vested interest, I will not ask you to
support my ministry.
You
can however take the money you would have put in the plate, and go buy ten large pizzas, find the
poorest most desperate section of your city, and go give the pizzas to those
who are hungry.
There
are countless things you can do, wherever you happen to live, that will
exemplify Christ far more profoundly than giving in to the pressure of being
told you must sow an extra special seed this month, because last month’s extra
special seed didn’t quite cover the cost of all the time the pastor put in to his heretical
reinterpretation of God’s Holy Word.
Be
the hands of Christ yourself. Be the feet of Christ yourself. Be the heart of
Christ yourself. You will never know how good it feels to give – even if what
you’re giving is something seemingly insignificant to you – until you actually
do it yourself.
If
you can’t find a place that feeds you spiritually, make your home the place
where you get fed. Get together with your spouse, pray, read the Word, pray
again, and you will be amazed at the revelation God begins to pour into your
heart.
The
reason so many understand so little is because there is an epidemic lack of
sincerity in the hearts of most individuals calling themselves believers today.
They
don’t want to know the will of God…they just want their current lifestyle and
peccadillos to be validated and rubberstamped by God. And so, they would rather
live off of platitudes and affirmations and declarations, and looking in the
mirror telling themselves how capable and lovable they are, just as long as no
one challenges them or highlights their need for repentance.
If
in freedom the best the modern day church can muster is a duplicitous,
lukewarm, halfhearted imitation of true worship, what pray tell will the
selfsame church do when persecution descends upon it?
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
