Reflecting on the Great Flood, Charles Spurgeon says this:
“How marvellous the general apathy! They were all eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, till the awful morning dawned.”
Of any moment, place or identity of Man is just this way. What meager number of this day will refuse to be one of the apathetic? God will know who they are. We all either know or can guess the rest of the story.
I wake to consider the things of the Living God’s Holy Son. No matter where I look among the things of God’s Holy wisdom, I find no fault. Yet why should this amaze me?
To the things of man I look, and I find no righteous faithfulness. And isn’t this the cause of my amazement?
Consistency abides in the Living God, toward life and all things good. Consistency abides in the camp of Man’s horror, toward rebellion and all things wicked.
What has God done but we should despise him so? What has Man accomplished that we should revere him in fear?
How is it that the people who call themselves Christians suppress the beauty of the One who offers them life; those who give God praise in secret yet seal their mouth when they walk among the dead.
“I have riches”, they say. The faithfulness of God in his promise is that sure, yes. But don’t the rocks along the Way of Glory also have the blessing of God to lay unmolested? There they are lay, prepared to do his will. And surely if the people had not given praise to the Living God’s Holy Son, the rocks themselves would have cried out the words. Are we no better than rocks strewn along the path of life? Are we like rocks which adorn a valley of death, fruitless and simply a nuisance ( dressings which mark the barren land).
“If God will touch us, we will serve him. If God will drive back the wicked we will speak and walk among them. If he will drive them back beyond a stone’s throw, we will proclaim the words of life. As long as there is no threat we will be brave. Yet if he will not cause the wicked to recede, we will continue to praise him in secret. I will leave the fearsome work to those who desire to die.” Is this what we say by our actions? Will not God protect those the march ahead in faith?
But clean yourself. Primp and prune your feathers. Lining every hair in its proper place. let every thread of clothing be presentable and immaculate. Let your life be dressed with all the things that cause Man to nod in appreciation. If you hide the Light of Christ, you are no different than the rocks along the Way.
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Is it too much to ask?
Is it unjust to require us to join Jesus in his suffering?
Is the shame of righteousness too much to bear?
Is the Cross of Christ too heavy to share?
Then what can possibly be our lot?
When we appear before He by whose Blood we are bought?
I have heard people complain that God is not just. They say, “He put us in this place. He lets us do evil. And then he condemns us to hell.” Because of this, they have even grown strong to say there is no God.
Their answer comes back to them: “You exist as an answer to he who first accused God of being unjust. So this place was made to test the hearts of those who cannot see the Glory of God; that there will be many who love him despite the evil of this place.
Then to seal the answer, God has sent His Holy Son as a sacrifice for everyone who will believe that God is love, true, faithful, righteous, and merciful.
God asks the question of every man, woman and child: “Are you bold enough to believe Me?”
I don’t know that Christianity has ever witnessed a greater coldness, within its ranks, than today’s “so called church”. I can’t say with absolute certainty, for I am not privy to the entirety of history. But from what I see and read, I find it hard to imagine a more rebellious time.
From the beginning, Christianity has been unpopular. But as the unpopularity and attacks against the Church increased, so did the number of those who believed. But now? Now I see, witness, and hear many lives that bear almost no resemblance to Christ’s intent for His people. The world is far colder to the Gospel than ever before. And this desire to replace the Gospel’s intent with ANYTHING ELSE, is not diminishing, it is exploding; replaced by a willing ignorance en mass!
I’ve asked before, as have hundreds others, “What time is it?”
If you’re going to miss your flight, a good friend will certainly remind you of the time. And his reminders will increase in urgency of delivery.
Those who go to bed late, will wake up less refreshed than they ought to have been.
If you know the family eats at 6 pm, it’s foolish to purposely stay out till 9 pm.
Waiting to accomplish, till you know it’s long past time to prepare and do, is selfish idiocy. Love does not act like that. But The Bible promises that just such things will happen to Spiritual (Eternal) things. I would gladly even extend that to morality itself.
Many, (I don’t think that word does justice to the actuality of the number or percentage) will determine to withdraw from The Faith. The term the Apostle Paul uses is “a great falling away”.
“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a great falling away first. . .”. (2 Thessalonians 2:3) That’s not just a few, that’s a great majority. Jesus alluded to this by saying, “Nevertheless when the Son of man comes, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18: 8)
The Lord uses the simple word “faith”. I have come to call it “The Faith”. But the use of the word “faith” implies an even greater horror than does the use of a more poignant title.
One other aspect to this vein of thought, is that the “falling away” indicates that one must first have had something to fall away from. This doesn’t necessarily exclude the world, but it more speaks of Christianity. The sad part of this is, that those who are falling away won’t even be able to identify this stage of creation, as they will perceive the nature of things from the perspective of self-righteousness. To them, all things are as they should be! Wow! What a horrifying seal to those who allow the world to draw them off from Christ.
And look what Peter said about this:
3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 4 and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: 6 thereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 7 but the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved to fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3)
With what tool shall anyone awaken the sleep that has come to cover the souls of today? How will the Holy Spirit contend with the flesh driven rebellion that covers the earth like a putrid mold? With all their perceptions anointed with the things of this world, humanity now enters into that blindness which will cause them to dance in the streets, send gifts to one another, and celebrate with great abandon, the death of God’s two prophets.
How greatly we warn. But who even cares that such words still exist?
I’m done writing this post, but for one question:
What about you, what about me?
I saw a man sitting on the ground holding a straw and pushing two rocks back and forth. I just had to ask.
“What are you doing?” he stopped and looked up at me with sort of a silly smile. “I’m trying to prove God wrong.”
“Well are you having any success?”
“None that I can see.”
“If you don’t mind my asking, how does pushing two rocks around with a straw prove God wrong?”
“He told me that playing games has no value at all, but doing everything I should and spending time with him was eternally priceless. I’m pretty sure he’s right. I’m absolutely no better off than when I started to push these rocks.”
“Well that’s not exactly true sir.”
“Okay I’m listening.”
“You’ve learned that you can’t prove God wrong.”
“Well said.”
And with that, I turned to go and do what I should.
By His Grace
It is good to remember, we have not received Christianity as if from a cracked egg 30 years ago. The blood of hundreds of thousands delivered the message to us.
It is our turn. Will we be found having delivered The Faith?
By His Grace
We: Live, Die, Face Judgment. Jesus or die twice.
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