Proverbs 14:3 "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people."
Onward Christian soldiers with the full armor of God into this war against the Kingdom of Heaven. As Bible teacher Michael Low says: Casual Christians are casualties along the wide road to destruction. The highway to Hell is broad and narrow is the gate to Salvation which few find. Quit entertaining yourself and quit playing games with Christianity; look up the word “fun” in the Bible and you’ll find that the word is not in there at all. We need to quit focusing making friends or being friends and “GO” make disciples with the true gospel of God for repentance of sin, unto forgiveness of sin, for “born again”, regenerating transformation unto salvation.
A preacher friend of mine, Jack Stewart, once said: if you put a suit on a pig, then you have a pig with a suit on”. The late Pastor Chuck Smith of Calgary Chapel related and added that this pig with a suit still wants to jump back in the pigsty to waller in the mud. The point is that the same thing happens when you dress up a sinner. As Jesus said: “you must be born again - born from above by the Holy Spirit - a metamorphosis from the inside out - a regeneration of the dead spirit with the “new man” with a new heart. That is the revival needed and required today. That is what is missing in the cultural mandate of Christ of teaching the God-rejecting secular humanist world everything that Jesus taught in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, which is missed in the “social” ministry that will not called sin, a sin. God forbid we offend sinners; they might get convicted. Do we fear man, but not God. What is our goal?
Are we valuing friends on earth, popularity and personal followers over loving God and the children of God and making Followers of Jesus, increasing brothers and sisters in the kingdom of Heaven? Are we trying to play both sides of the fence and have it both ways, when being on the fence is really rejecting God in Heaven, because having two masters is believing the lie and siding with Satan. Bring friends with the World (the God-rejecting world-system) is working against His commands, His Plan, His Perfect Word, His sovereign Will, and His holy Way. Choose this day who you will follow. Eternal lives matters.
I’ve been a bit riled up at statements that some pastors make. It is so easy to get caught up in the trends and social media as a way of life, where “friends” & “followers” (aka interpersonal relationships) take too high a priority. They refuse to discuss controversial Bible issues as Creation vs. Evolution, End times, Satan, Hell and specific sin issues. Conviction and repentance take a backseat to freedom in Christ. Sin is the problem, not freedom. Loving people is important but leaving them in their sin gets nowhere and the problem, not the solution. The Greatest Commandment has seemingly been flipped. It’s now wrong to offend your neighbor by mentioning sin, but okay to offend our just and holy Creator God by not. Have we lost the Great Commission and Cultural Mandate by our Lord Jesus? What it just a Great Suggestion or a commandment? The Lord Jesus said this and that truth is seen daily. The great Commission is clearly commanded by Christ the Lord and was not the “great suggestion”.
I had a Church friend, Tim Chambers, that, many years ago, confronted his stepson because they discovered that he had a pornography addiction. The stepson told him that he didn’t feel that looking a porn on the internet and dvds was wrong because his pastor never says that pornography is a sin. That is the problem. It frustrates me. My old mentor always said that you must know that you are a sinner against a just and holy God. That the wages of sin must be realized first in order for conviction of sin that leads us to repentance at the foot of the Cross because, truly, we are already condemned and cannot save ourselves. We deserve Hell because it is the wages of Sin. Therefore, you must know what you have been save “from” (our Sin) before you can know what you have been saved “to” (Redemption, Forgiveness and Salvation from Sin). The world needs to hear and understand the “full gospel”, Who do we really obey and follow?
Philippians 2:15-16"that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain."
Bible teacher Don Ferm wrote me that Peter Marshall, a chaplin to the US Senate, once said, “The choice before us is plain. Christ or chaos, conviction od sin or compromise, disciple in the Word of God or disintegration.” Mr. Ferm added, “ While Satan has always been at the doorstep, it seems that for many today, he is being invited in as a welcome guest. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how many followers on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter that I have. It matters how many Followers Jesus has. The bottom line is “eternal lives matter”; that’s gospel ministry that this world needs.
In Christ, Brian`
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