It’s Time to Settle Up!

“‘If you do not listen, and if you do not set your heart to honor my name,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘ I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not set your heart to honor me.'”  —  Malachi 2:2

Many are the cries of “Peace, peace!” Our corrupt and evil government is the sponsor of these cries, but they are not alone. Godless preachers and pastors have taken up the call as well. The social gospel that dominates the belief and practice of many churches and seminaries is choking out the true gospel of repentance toward God and faith towards Jesus Christ.

There is a storm coming! Those who escape the wind will feel the lightnings’ strike. God will not be mocked! We in America are already beginning to reap what we have sown! We have sown to our flesh and we can only expect to reap destruction…unless we repent. (Galatians 6:7)

Rachel’s Tears

“The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that the might have life, and might have it abundantly.” – John 10:10

The nature of Satan is pure evil. He only knows the lie in his communication. He only knows theft in his relationships. He only knows murder in giving. He only knows destruction in his promise.

Rachel’s tears are being shed across our nation this week for what has transpired in an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. An unexplainable tragedy touching 19 children, 2 adults, and more. Rachel, (Matthew 2:16-18), was inconsolable concerning her children and so are we.

This shooting is not an isolated incident in that it is happening all over our country. Murder rates in our country are up by 30%. Our cities have become war zones. Senseless acts of aggression occur daily. What is the motivating obsession for all this carnage? Is it guns? No. America has always had guns. I remember when it was not uncommon to drive by my high school campus and see rifles in pickup trucks during deer season. Is it the disintegration of the American family. No. Murderers and murder touch all strata of society. Is it the proliferation of drugs? No. Drug use and addiction are a symptom and gateway to a deeper issue.

The problem in its simplest identification is spiritual. As America has swept its halls and rooms clean of the acknowledgment and honor of God, a replacement has rushed in like a flood. Satan and his minions have launch an all-out assault on the soul of our country.

He first began by filling our hearts and heads with lies. At present, the majority of our nation calls good evil and evil good. We have minimized morality and idolized immorality. We refuse to allow preachers in our schools but will allow drag queens to read stories about debauchery to our elementary students. We have elected men and women who are pathological liars. They have minimized life in the womb and urged the elderly to the tomb (through doctor assisted suicide). The promotion of “valueless life” on the part of our leaders has translated to valueless life on our streets. Why not kill?

Our problem is not mental illness but demonic possession! By opening ourselves to Satan’s lies, our nation has opened itself to Satan’s leadership! As a result of our dilemma, the downward spiral of destruction is evident and almost unavoidable. Unexplainable rage fills the lives of the populace. We cannot even drive without rage! The chaos is almost unrecoverable.

Almost. But there is hope. There is a cure. Repentance. 2 Chronicles 7:14 says, “If my people, which are called by my Name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and heal their land.”

We must:

1. Humble ourselves
2. Pray
3. Seek God’s face
4. Turn from our wicked ways.

It is up to Christians to change the narrative in our day. We must become the restraining force against evil. We must stand against Satan and his devices and deliver the demonic from their prisons. Only a repentant people can hope to see God’s favor in healing our land. There is not much time. What we do, we must do quickly. Night is coming!

When Selfishness Trumps Righteousness

“And I searched for a man among them who should build up the wall ands stand in the gap before Me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none.” (Ezekiel 22:30)

I just attended a retreat of pastors and wives, 326 in total. It took place at a luxury hotel in a very popular vacation destination. The stated purpose of this retreat was to “pamper ministry partners for all the hard work that they are doing.” No expense was spared, no amenity denied.

Instead of preparing warriors for these last days, the hosts were pampering wimps for the slaughter! Selfishness and narcissism were on parade. The scene was reminiscent of an old saying my mentor in the ministry taught me as a young man:

“Get all you can, can all you get, sit on the can, and poison the rest.”

I saw pastors struggling to be first in the food line, filling their plates with no concern whether there would be food left for those who would come after. They sought the best seats, associating with “those of their own kind,” talking over each other and listening to no one. All I could think of was: “their poor people!” Paul would quickly indict these with the words, “For they all seek their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus.”(Philippians 2:21)

The most heartbreaking of all was the lack of spiritual food. It was as though the whole crowd was on vacation from Jesus and Christianity! The plenary sessions included singing but no Scripture. None of those 160+ couples brought Bibles (except us)! There seemed to be a conscious effort to distance everyone from the Word of God. Only in the final session was a verse mentioned and a two minute motivational thought given.

For the sake of full disclosure, when I first began to attend this retreat years ago, there was worship, there was preaching, and most of all there was prayer, prayer, prayer….. People went away from these events with changed hearts and committed lives. Relationships were formed and bonds where created that were lasting.

In these Last Days when worship, witness and warriors are so needed, the Church can only claim “absence.” Destruction is coming on our nation, and rightfully so. Unless the spiritual leaders in our country fall on their knees in repentance and get back the Holy Fire that once filled our pulpits, the sheep will be slaughtered and the nation will be destroyed! Unless righteousness replaces selfishness, we face a certain night of dark terrors!

Resurrection Time!

 

 

“Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast. Shout aloud! Don’t be timid. Tell my people Israel of their sins! Yet they act so pious! They come to the Temple every day and seem delighted to learn all about me. They act like a righteous nation that would never abandon the laws of its God. They ask me to take action on their behalf, pretending they want to be near me.”  (Isaiah 58:1-2)

 

For a long time now, I have abandoned this blog site. It seems that the Lord has led me back at such a time as this to begin again to lift my voice as a trumpet concerning the sins of our nation and the Church. I have no popularity; no public platform, per se, but I do have a Savior who merits my all!

In a day when “people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear…” (2 Timothy 4:3), I will call out sin and call His people back to Him.

The life of America has paralleled the life of Israel as a nation. It is no surprise that God’s blessings and judgments on Israel have also come the way of our nation, the United States of America. The insincerity of our actions in seeking God and our pretense of wanting to be near Him, have brought on a blight and curse for this nation that will ultimately lead to God’s abandonment and our destruction.

There is still hope for the Church in America, but the window of opportunity is closing rapidly. Prayer, repentance and obedience must come quickly. These are the only remedies for the spiritual cancer that is devouring the Church and our country.

The relative “peace and safety” (1 Thessalonians 5:3) that we are experiencing now is about to be shattered. Our economic prowess and military might will face a withering implosion, the likes of which only our wildest imaginations could describe.

I am not a prophet, neither the son of a prophet, but it really does not take a prophet to see clearly what the Scriptures are saying and the times we are in. The foundations are being shaken so as to force God’s people to remove their heads from the sand! The trumpet of warning will precede the trumpet of winnowing. Jesus is coming soon! Get right or get left!

 

Do Not Hold Back

“Cry loudly, do not hold back; raise your voice like a trumpet, and declare to My people their transgression and to the house of Jacob their sins.”  —  Isaiah 58:1

For some time now, I have been seeking to give direction to God’s people about walking in holiness in these unholy days. The Church of the Living God has been in need of encouragement and instruction because the cunning and wickedness of the enemy have weakened the witness of many.

The scope, severity and growth of evil in our nation over the past several month has brought me to the realization that I must raise my voice in condemnation before God raises His hand in judgment! Our accommodation of evil has left the very foundations of our society in peril.

The major violations of God’s Law that we are guilty of are:

the acceptance of homosexuality as a lifestyle

the murdering of millions of innocent babies by abortion each and every year

increased armament build up due to the fact that we have forgotten that our real security is in God

the glorification of entertainment to the neglect of accomplishment

the conscious effort to rid our society of any reference or remembrance of God

and the development of a government system that is based on bribes and corruption.

Every nation that has committed the atrocities that America is guilty of has experienced the downward spiral of judgment found in the Scriptures. First comes suffering, then comes servitude and finally supernatural destruction. These are what we have to look forward to if we do not REPENT!

God is already bringing plagues on our country… unexplainable weather patterns, natural disasters, proliferation of drug and alcohol abuse, increasing violence and crime rates, and new strains of disease and infection that are unexplainable in the eyes of our health care community. The physical, social, spiritual and economical suffering will intensify in the days ahead. Because of our moral bankruptcy, this suffering will bring on even greater frustration and violence.

The combination of these pestilences will bring us very quickly into a bondage we have never known. Freedom has been turned over to hospice care in this country and is simply “waiting to die.” Our bondage to other nations will first come through our economic situation. Foreign nations, like China and India will own us! No, they already do!

Economic slavery will only be the beginning. Cultural and ideological slavery will soon follow. The influence of international law will become the “dictate of international law.” Sheri-ah law may closely follow our bondage. The Constitution of the United States is soon to be an outdated document if we do not REPENT!

Supernatural destruction is coming! God will not hold His holy and righteous indignation forever. The Bible says, “the wicked will return to Sheol, Even all the nations who forget God” (Psalm 9:17). There is a Bible in almost every home in America and a church on many street corners. Sodom was destroyed in a moment and Sodom had no Bibles!

What I have expressed here is often spoken of by pastors in private but very rarely voiced in public. I challenge every Christ-follower to stand up, speak out and not hold back! We will face the ire and castigation of our culture for what we believe but we must be faithful to sound the alarm. The blood of our country will be on our own hands if we do not speak now!

Difficult Times Have Come!

“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather  than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”  —  2 Timothy 3:1-7

In seeking to understand the times we are living in and the people who I live around, I felt that I needed to study what Paul had written to Timothy about the last days. In studying this passage, I believe I have identified twenty-one distinct characteristics of the people of my generation.

In order to avoid verbosity, I’ll just list the characteristics of our last days culture:

1. Unexcusable focus. (“lovers of their own selves”)

2. Unfulfilling pursuits. (“covetous- lovers of money”)

3. Untruthful estimations. (“boasters”)

4. Unbridled arrogance. (“proud”)

5. Unfearing disrespect. (“blasphemers”)

6. Ungrateful losers. (“disobedient to parents”)

7. Unthankful lips. (“unthankful”)

8. Unholy lives. (“unholy”)

9. Unnatural love. (“without natural affection – unloving”)

10. Unfaithful words. (“trucebreakers – irreconcilable”)

11. Unreliable witnesses. (“false accusers – malicious gossips”)

12. Uncontrollable desires. (“incontinent – without self-control”)

13. Uncivil motivations. (“fierce – brutal”)

14. Unscrupulous morals. (“despisers of those that are good”)

15. Unloyal actions. (“traitors”)

16. Unproductive attitudes. (“heady – reckless”)

17. Unrealistic expectations. (“highminded”)

18. Unheavenly affections. (“lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God”)

19. Unjustified hypocrisy. (“having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof”)

20. Ungodly influencers. (“lead captive silly women laden with sins”)

21. Unpossessing fools. (“always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth”)

Many will say, “Well, brother, we have always had these kind of people in our societies. That’s just the way of the world.” I agree. But now these are the PREDOMINATE characteristics of our culture.

Paul’s counsel to Timothy in light of all this was two-fold: live the Word (2 Tim. 3:10-17), and preach the Word (2 Tim. 4:1-5). As in Paul’s day, our culture needs to be confronted with both life and lips. Its time for some sanctified “show and tell.”

Church, Where is Your Heart?

“Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure. But nothing is pure to those who are corrupt and unbelieving, because their minds and consciences are corrupt. Such people claim they know God, but they deny him by the way they live. They are detestable and disobedient, worthless for doing anything good.”  —  Titus 1:15-16

I live in a part of the country where it is almost impossible to find someone who will admit that they don’t know God. In south Alabama, the response is always, “Sure I’m a Christian. I know God. I’ve been going to church all my life.” You would think I live in the most wholesome place in the world. Wrong!

Hypocrisy and false profession are nothing new in our world. Titus was warned by Paul that he would run into people like that. It is amazing, though, how thin the veil of separation has become between the church and the world. Many who profess to know God are living such godless lives that they make demons blush.

I am once again reminded that it is not a person’s profession but their possession that determines their authenticity. Anyone can say they are a Christian but where is the fruit of a Christian life? We flee from those who emphasize the importance of fruit…but then again so did the Pharisees when it came to John the Baptist’s preaching.

There will be no fruit where there is no root. Ultimately, our authenticity comes back to the issue of the heart. It takes a transformed heart to evidence a truly transformed life. Paul told Titus that a transformed (or pure) heart would interject purity or transformation into every facet of a person’s life.

Conversely, Paul told Titus that a heart that had not been transformed by the power of God was only capable of corrupting everything in a person’s life. Whether it be attitudes or actions, everything would be characterize by corruption and unbelief.

Church, how can we look like the world, act like the world, talk like the world, walk like the world, and ever expect to be transformational? In order to make a difference, we must be different! We must lay aside the things of the flesh and put on the Lord Jesus Christ. We must “cleanse our hands and purify our hearts” (James 4:8), if we ever expect God’s presence and blessing.

It is time for the Church to answer God’s call to holiness…it’s time for the Church to get a heart!

Shepherds with No Senses

“The shepherds of my people have lost their senses. They no longer seek wisdom from the Lord. Therefore, they fail completely, and their flocks are scattered.”  —  Jeremiah 10:21

The words of Jeremiah are hauntingly relevant in our day. They paint a picture that is too accurate to keep us from blushing. They indict the modern-day pulpit as never before.

There is a creeping darkness in our land today and I believe it is because of the lack of light from our church’s pulpits. Many a preacher is “treading water” in the pulpit on Sunday, just biding time until Monday when they can pursue their own personal interests and hobbies.

This is the day of the “microwave message.” Instead of spending hours in prayer and the word, sermons are “got” from the internet and every other conceivable source…and gotten quickly. Illustrations that are not personal and anecdotes that ring emptily, line the average sermon and leave the sheep week and anemic. Messages are no longer blood-filled but instead leave a “good feel.”

The so-called shepherds of our day “no longer seek wisdom from the Lord,” and the sheep show it to be so. Discernment is almost a lost jewel in the church today. The ability to identify truth and error is almost gone. Pews may be full, but hearts are empty. The slightest blow of the enemy brings many casualties in the church. Failure has become commonplace among the converts of these miserable ministers.

What can be done for the “shepherds that have lost their senses?” I found as a boy that the senses in my knees were intensified when a few layers of skin were peeled back. The flesh exposed became highly sensitive  to everything it came in contact with once the outer layers were taken away.

Drastic times call for drastic actions. It is time for the outer layers of hypocrisy and sin to be peeled back in the lives of those who call themselves shepherds. Let this happen and there would be a mass defection from the ministry. Pulpits would be emptied by two-thirds; that’s because many “good men” are not “God’s men!”

Judah was being warned by Jeremiah of coming destruction. America is facing destruction under the mighty hand of God. Jeremiah responded by praying:

“I know, Lord, that our lives are not our own. We are not able to plan our own course. So correct me, Lord, but please be gentle. Do not correct me in anger, for I would die. Pour out your wrath on the nations that refuse to acknowledge you–on the peoples that do not call upon your name…”  — Jeremiah 10:23-25

Shepherds, come to your senses! Pray! Seek the face of God before it is too late! Stop dabbling and babbling and repent with your whole heart! Realize that your life is not your own! Realize that you don’t have all the answers…you don’t even know all the questions! Humble yourself before the mighty hand of God and He will lift you up!

These “Times”

 

“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come…”  –2 Timothy 3:1

 

At the end of most years, I often take time to reflect on what type of year it has been in terms of biblical perspective and prophecy. Since this is the last year of the decade, I think it is all the more important for us to ponder what has occurred and what type of forecast we have for the new decade.

The new millennium began with a sigh of relief as fears of a Y2K computer bug proved to be a false alarm. In 2000, we had the bombing of the USS Cole and the disputed presidential election between George Bush and Al Gore. Since every year has its share of bad news, there was no need for pessimism.

What turned the decade decidedly sour was the terrorist attack on September 11th, 2001. More than half of people surveyed named the attack as the biggest event of the decade. Gone are the days when all you needed was a boarding pass to get on an airplane. Today, going from Dallas to New York is like going from West Germany to East Germany during the height of the Cold War.

The past decade was also marked by scandals, schemes, and financial meltdowns. Time Magazine has recently declared the 2000s the “Decade from Hell.” Time then predicted that the twenty-teens would be a period of sunnier days.

A majority of Americans share this negative view of the 2000s. According to a Pew Research Center poll, fifty percent of those surveyed expressed a negative view of the past decade, compared to 27 percent who viewed it positively, with 21 percent holding neither a positive nor negative view, and 2 percent undecided.

People at the close of 1929 looked hopefully at 1930s for relief. Little did they know the economic hardship was only at the beginning of the downward slope.

I see the last decade as one of squandered time. One writer called it the decade of “oughts,” because so much that ought to have been done wasn’t:

Control entitlement spending
Rein in Islamic terrorists
Solve our long-term energy needs
Invest in food production
Stop the spread of nuke technology
Combat the moral decline of our society

The writers and editors of Time Magazine better keep their “Decade from Hell’ label handy because they may soon find themselves needing to cut and paste it onto the new decade. After the ball drops on Times Square, all the problems of the previous decade will still be with us.

A lot of the blame for missed opportunity rests at the feet of the church. If America had its moral house in order, the economic, social, and political issues would eventually right themselves. The Bible calls believers the salt of the earth. Our job is to be the nation’s moral compass. During the past decade, we’ve collectively been going along with the ride.

I’m absolutely ashamed at what passes today as “Christian” television. I’d rather watch back-to-back hours of Obama speeches than listen to some of these top-rated preachers. While the feel-good message plays on, the forces of darkness have taken over our nation.

It may have been a bad decade for the secular world, but it wasn’t for the kingdom of God. The gospel message has made huge inroads in the past decade. We have to be very near the point of fulfilling a key prediction made by Jesus, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come” (Matthew 24:14).

It is time for American Christians to “get their heads out of the sand” and pray for revival in our nation. We are on our deathbed. Drastic times call for drastic actions…to prayer my brothers and sisters!

The Truth About Our Times

The Antichrist spirit is alive and well. No big surprise, right? But the demonstrable fact that it is alive and well at this very moment within so-called Christian church organizations across America is a staggering reality to consider. Here’s what John the apostle, through divine inspiration, had to say two thousand years ago:

 

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” (1 John 4:1–3)

 

The Laodicean church is symbolized as the church that will at the very end of the Church Age (Age of Grace) literally make the God of all creation sick at His stomach. The Lord describes through John that organization’s true character, and why He is sickened: “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” (Revelation 3:17)

 

Jesus spoke to the very things that mark the Laodicean church in foretelling the end of the age. The prophecy is prominent—is, as a matter of fact, the very first characteristic Jesus lists in His Olivet Discourse for the time just before His return: And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, “Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the [age]? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.” (Matthew 24:3-5)

 

 Only one who denies that God’s Word is truth can miss the importance of the Lord’s words here. Jesus is speaking to the deception that will be tied up in false teachings and false prophesying at the time just before He returns. Please understand that I’m not meaning next that all large, even mega-churches, are evil. Some still adhere to Bible truth in their preaching and teaching. However, the “if-we-can’t-beat-’em-we-will-join-’em” false religionists of recent years have expropriated the church’s personnel and presented a compromised message before the senses of the glitz-mad American public. The tactic has worked.

 

The mega-church super-complexes under whose roofs the masses continue to swell mark this generation, almost certainly, as the Laodicean church. I believe these church entities are organizations or multiple level of organizations filled not with the Holy Spirit, but with the spirit of antichrist. A primary tactic chosen by most of these organizations to draw the masses is to give people an entertainment spectacle every time they sit in the plush theater pews. There’s nothing wrong with being physically comfortable while sitting, but to be always spiritually comfortable sitting under preaching and teaching that should point to the more abundant life conviction of the Holy Spirit is devastating to the soul.

 

The compromise is in the “Let’s talk about it,” feel-good, do-good message of “God loves you, and would never condemn you to a hell, which in any case, doesn’t exist.” God DOES love us—so much so that He sent His only Son, Jesus the Christ, to die as the once-and-for-all sacrifice for the sin in which we are otherwise lost forever. The thesis-antithesis-synthesis psychobabble theologizing—“Let’s talk about it” compromise—is proof that these organizations of religiosity deny that Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation—to reconciliation with God the Father. They are of the Antichrist spirit. These believe they are indeed “rich, and increased with goods, and think they have need of nothing; and know not that they are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked,” in God’s holy view.

 

Troubling as these unredeemed type of churches are in these fleeting days of this age, the overt, deliberate ignorance of things of God’s prophetic Word in those true Christian churches who still adhere to Jesus as the only Way must be heart-wrenching to the Lord of heaven. Most Christians are without any understanding of the times in which we find ourselves.

 

To those who study the times in light of Bible prophecy, the seminaries, pastors, teachers, and Christians in the pews of America are observably, for the most part, happily ignorant of the astonishing fact that Israel is being put in the position of Zechariah 12:1-3—that the Jewish state is being forced toward a peace from which will come Antichrist and the Tribulation. Christians by and large have no idea that the European Union is shaping to be the matrix out of which Antichrist will come, that the Russian/Iranian/Turkey/other nation alignment is configuring for the Gog-Magog war of Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39.

 

 Today’s church can’t discern that powerful spiritual as well as geopolitical dynamics are forcing the economies of America and the world into a one-world mold that will eventuate in the ten-kingdom rearrangement of Revelation 17:12-13. They don’t see that we are in the “perilous times” of Paul’s forewarning in 2 Timothy, chapter 3. They don’t understand that this nation and the world are filled with the spirit of Antichrist, and that God’s judgment and wrath must be near.

 

As they go through their routines of life, Christians today are doing anything and everything except heeding the words of forewarning of our Lord: “And what I say unto one, I say unto all, watch” (Mark 13:37). He said also: “For when you see all these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your head, for your redemption draweth near” (Luke 21:28). Jesus said one thing more. He forewarned that a great many believers will be caught by surprise at the time of His return in the Rapture: “Be ye also ready, for in an hour ye think not, the Son of mancometh” (Matthew 24:44).

 

Seems to me we are in such a “think not” time at present.