Tag Archives: Idolatry

Two Important Items

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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?

BA BA BA BIG! (Trouble)

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Has anyone else noticed the size of shopping mall buildings and movie theaters?  They are absolutely gigantic. 

When did that happen?  When did it become popular to put merchandise into buildings 10 times too big?

I do remember the tiny little stores when I was a child.  But even then, if you went to the big city, you could go to Woolworths five and dime.  And Sears was no small pickens.

When it happened I guess it’s not really that important.  But the fact that stores are larger than church buildings sort of gives me a startle.  I guess it just proves what’s important in America.

Just for fun I’ll share thought.

Imagine if every piece of merchandise was taken out of every large store in America, taken to some remote place, and heaped up in a mound.  Does anybody have any idea how big that mound would be?  I would guess it wouldn’t be fair to call it a mound.  A mountain is more like it.

You could call it idolatry.  You could refer to it as a manifestation of greed.  And if you singled out all the products, I suppose every commandment of God would be broken.  But what good would it do to accuse humanity of something they will never let go of?

But I’m pretty sure this wasn’t God intent when he made Adam and Eve.  Maybe a guy might own a broom, an axe and a shovel.  A knife and hammer would be pretty handy.  The guy might own a bed and a table and chairs.  And all the fixings for farming should be included.  But what about all the other stuff?

Still man has made his temples.  He’s pretty proud of what he’s done.  And no amount of words is gonna to take it away. 

The people are happy.  The rich business owners are happy.  Industry is happy.  And every form of wickedness is happy.  (And it wouldn’t be fair to the world to leave out Christian merchandise.)  0k.  So even the Christians are happy.  Hmmm.

Wow!  We’re all just one big happy family.  The only one that’s a bit disgruntled is God.  But he doesn’t seem to matter much in the larger scheme of things, does he?

Now ain’t that just something to ponder?

Isaiah 2:6-22

By His Grace

Do you remember?

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Do you remember?  Do you remember what hopelessness feels like?  We struggle along the “Way”.  But how can the struggle be compared to endless sins?  Do you remember?

Do you remember when there was no prayer?  We look back now and have forgotten the agony of life.  Like the rest of the world, we called on things of our imagination.  We learned from others what they thought worked.   We did not know God’s Christ.  All we knew was his Holy Law. 

Let a vicious dog stand in my way, and I will find another way around.  Even if the way around takes far too long and robs me of my expectation, it is better to arrive with all my limbs.  Do you remember?

So it is with the world.  Do you remember?  They have nowhere to go but expectation of judgement.  Their soul knows it and they avert their eyes.  Do you remember?

The cold of hopeless sleep.  The necessity for sin as a distraction from what is sure to come.  The chasing after things that do not last, for what lasts does not belong to them.  Do you remember?

They cannot pray and no one prays with them.  So they worship angels and idols.  Prayer to them is the hope of gain.  What little and temporary they can gain with their hands is the sum of their prayer.  Do you remember?

Or have we begun to feel sorry for ourselves?   The way of God can be impossibly arduous if we’ve try to walk it in the flesh.  If such is the case, we have forgotten.  Remember.