My god would never….! And you would be right.
They live in “Sensuality, passions, drunkenness orgies, drinking parties and lawless idolatry [and] they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery and they malign you….”
(1 Peter 4:3-4)
I love it when I hear people defend their religious beliefs with, “God would never… punish… discipline… hurt… send people to hell…” When what they are really saying is “My god…. would… or my god would not…” And that would be correct because their “god” is idolatry. Their “god” is a made up form of themselves and what they perceive they would do if they were God.
I used to deal with so many clients like this… They were so angry and abusive and so very, very condemned by their sin- but not to the point of repentance – They were wanting to be “accepted where they were.”
Yeah. Ahh. No.
“You are an abusive, lying, cruel jerk and you have children – you suck, to say the least.”
These are the people – not just those sitting on my couch – but their on Face Book now… they sit next to us in our church… they work where we work… they believe that they are Christians… and they believe with their whole, sinful, haughty, proud heart – that their perverted, self-important, egotistic view is absolute truth and say:
“This is how it must be… how you must be… how God must be… because I believe it to be true and therefore it is and if the Biblical God is not like this… then the Bible is just not true.”
I’ll take worldly philosophy for $200 Alex.
Well, I understand it. Because I was there. But that is not where God leaves you – if He has indeed called you unto His own.
“That is not the way you learned Christ! Assuming that you have heard about Him and were taught in Him as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desire, and to be renewed in the spirit of your mind and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Eph. 4:20-24).
Geeze!! Paul was a judgmental little devil, wasn’t he…
There will come a point in time where God will be revealed for who He is and all that He stands for – and He promises that it will be in the “blink of an eye,” until then, we cannot be so stupid as to “wish it all away,” or to “let people be,” or deceive ourselves into idolatry of a god that just does not exist.
That is not what God has called us to do. As a matter of fact – I believe that now more than ever He is shaking things up and revealing those warriors in Christ – and that is to do battle with evil and get things ready for His coming.
And to the others who think that they are Christians because they were baptized, or walked the isle, or repeated a prayer – they need to wake up and get ready.
“Jesus Wept.”
(Matthew 26; Mark 14; Luke 19, and John 11)
Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus that their brother had died.
Jesus’ response was to stay where He was… out of town… for a few more days…
Wow! Really?!
Well yeah.
Those people… Mary, Martha, the followers of Christ – they knew who Jesus was!
They could wait!
They watched him heal people, they travelled with him and saw with their very own eyes just EXACTLY who He was – He made lame people walk, he made blind people see –
But yet they all just got mad!
Mary didn’t even come to the tomb when Jesus got there.
Martha argued with Him and actually scolded Him for taking His sweet time.
“Jesus wept.”
How stupid is this generation of “Christians” to think that this world is any different! We cannot be tolerant to sin and the destruction of the Gospel by the watered down version being preached at the pulpit. We cannot be so dense as to believe that those sitting in the church seat next to you or preaching from their stage are the chosen!
Just like when He went to the cross, Jesus didn’t argue.
He did not state his case to Martha or the others.
He did not apologize.
He just showed them who He was by doing what He does.
He is God. He is holy.
And He is coming again – and that gate for those who are going to eternally be in paradise… just gets more and more narrow each day that I live.
All hell is about to break loose and we are all just standing at the tomb arguing with Jesus.
“And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, He has now reconciled in His body of flesh by His death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before Him, if indeed you CONTINUE in the faith, STABLE and STEADFAST, NOT shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard…”
Tolerance is not holy.
Silence is not steadfast.
Twisting scripture to fit your “god” is not above reproach.
As a matter of fact, Revelation – a book not read by many- gives a description of the end of the world that is not a pleasant experience for most people here on our little blue planet. It depicts a giant of a warrior with eyes of fire on a white horse coming to torch the earth and all its inhabitants. (Voddie Bachaum depicts this beautifully)
Throughout the Bible including the Gospels – where Jesus himself storms the temple with a cat of nine-tails that he put together as he sat on the steps of that very same temple, watching and waving to those about to go in and get their “tails whipped.”
Jesus loves His children. Make no mistake about that – but He hates evil and calls us to be warriors against anything and everything that goes against the Word of God – Ephesians 6:10-20.
And for those who choose not to:
“And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a debased mind… they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice… envy, strife, murder, deceit… they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty , boastful…
(And the list goes on)
Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.” (Rom. 2:28-32).
As we approach Easter – we need to come to grips with who Jesus really is and what it really means to be a Christian.
We must take a stand. We must grip our fellow Christians by the neck and jerk them back into service for their King. We must stop being passive and call sinners into repentance – that is to show the truest form of love – the truth of the Gospel.
“HIM we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.” (Col. 1:28).
I think of my own personal life – just to give you some application – For those of you who do not know, I was raped, beaten, abused & molested by family and friends of my family.
When I called out the abuse and lies of this family of mine who are prominent in their church and community – I was cast out of the family and rebuked.
With calls from siblings and children, “How could you say that?!”
It’s a simple answer – I love my Lord and His name will not be “taken in vain.”
The other reason is because I was not willing to simply stand by and let my family go to hell without saying something.
Yet I am the one who stands condemned – and that has revealed their true hearts.
When we are called to repentance – it’s really hard to lay it all down and admit what worthless scum we are. Especially when Jesus puts it like this:
“No one is righteous, no not one, no one understands no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” (Rom. 3:11-12; and also found in Psalms 14).
But when God almighty sees you and others protecting the abusers of His holy Son and His Holy precepts – Rather than standing up for Truth and having fear and reverence for The One who hung on the cross and took your sin…
Yeah… that’s not gonna be good.
There will be justice.
He promises.
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Holly T. Ashley 