Monday, November 19,
2012, 2:00 a.m. – the Lord woke me with the song “Seek the Lord” playing in my mind. So, I spent some time in
prayer, inquiring of the Lord if he had something he wanted to say to me or if
he had something he wanted me to do or to write, and then he said: “Write:
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” Speak, Lord, for your servant
is listening. I read Matthew 23
(quoting vv. 33-39 NIV 1984):
“You
snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and
teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your
synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has
been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah
son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.
I tell you the truth, all this will come
upon this generation.
“O
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you,
how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her
chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your
house is left to you desolate. For I tell
you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord.’”
Today’s
Church
You
shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces…
The Pharisees and teachers of the law of
Jesus’ day shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces through legalistic
teaching that taught strict adherence to external requirements of the law over
and above mercy, love, and compassion for their fellow man. They taught the way
to God was through following a set of external rules and regulations, religious
rites and rituals, and/or through following the traditions of men. Their
religion was self-glorifying, because it was based off fleshly works and forms
of religion that were external only, in order to give off the appearance of
being righteous. They tried to earn their way to heaven through doing what they
chose to do, supposedly for God, yet they failed to acknowledge Jesus Christ as
their Messiah and Lord, they failed to bow to God in humility and repentance,
and they failed to hear God’s voice speaking, and to obey it.
Much of today’s church is right where many of
the Jews and religious leaders were in Jesus’ day, only perhaps on the other
end of the spectrum, yet with the same result. Legalism used to be a major
force in Christianity back in the 1950’s, when I was a child, yet today the
pendulum has swung the other direction, though not entirely devoid of
carryovers of legalism and/or traditionalism, either. The biggest threat to the
true gospel of Jesus Christ today, I believe, is not legalism but liberalism.
There is a movement that has swept across evangelical Christianity in America,
where I live, which teaches, either by omission or commission, that repentance
and obedience to Christ are not required for salvation. That is a false gospel
which gives people a false hope of salvation, and thus today’s church is indeed
shutting the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces.
You
clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside…
Through this same movement that has swept
across evangelical Christianity here in America has also come a huge
concentration and focus on how things appear outwardly. The “stage production”
on Sunday mornings in the auditoriums of many of our institutional churches is
often front and center in the ministry and budget of the church. There is a
great focus on entertainment and on doing what will draw in large crowds of
people to the church, often using worldly methods to attract worldly people,
but is that what the church is supposed to be? Is not the church the Body of
Christ, which is supposed to come out and be separate from the world? And, are
we not to go out to the world to make disciples of all nations? Is not the
purpose of the gatherings of Christ’s body to be for the mutual edification and
encouragement of the saints of God, not for the purposes of entertaining the
world?
We have this so backwards in so many of our
local congregations. We are not supposed to attract the world into our
meetings. We are to gather believers in Christ Jesus together for the teaching
of the word, prayer, fellowship, the breaking of the bread, and encouragement
and edification of the saints of God through the use of our spiritual (of the
Spirit of God) gifts, as opposed to natural talents. God does not usually set
as his criteria to choose the most talented, or the most likely to “draw in
large crowds of people,” or the most physically attractive or influential
people by the world’s standards to carry out his work. He often chooses the
lowly, the despised, the rejected, the humble, and the weak to carry out his
work, because then the glory goes to him, not to man. He is not looking for our
abilities (what is outward). He is looking for our obedience (resulting from
changed hearts).
We
would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets…
It is so easy to look back at what people did
throughout history, including Biblical history, or to even observe the actions
of others and to think to ourselves, “I would never do that.” Yet, we may
indeed be guilty of doing just that and may not even realize it, or we may
realize it and we may just not care.
Jesus said that whatever we do “to the least
of these” we do to him. How we treat others is a reflection of how we treat
Christ, and/or Christ Jesus considers it the same as us treating him thus. The
Bible also says that we are not to say to a part of the body “We have no need
of you,” yet that is being done much in today’s church. Since today’s
institutional church is, for the most part, being run like big business, utilizing
big business plans, marketing schemes and the like, which have appeared to
replace the word of God in most of our churches in teaching us how we should
grow Christ’s church, and how we should conduct our meetings, those who have
been gifted of the Holy Spirit to give messages to the church, to call the
church to repentance and obedience to Christ, are often rejected and discarded.
They are discarded because the church finds them an offense, and a blight on
the plans of men, and on the future growth of these man-made organizations
called “church.”
Yet, God has sent and is still sending his
messengers to the church to call the church to repentance and obedience to
Christ. In America, we may not kill them (yet) by shedding their physical
blood, yet we may kill them by silencing their voices, by ostracizing them from
the fellowship of the believers, and/or by spreading lies about them in order
to try to dissuade our “sheep” from listening to them.
Imagine with me, if you will, today’s church
here in America, primarily driven by men and man-made business plans and
marketing schemes. They use worldly methods to attract the world into their
meetings. This means they often also dilute the gospel of Jesus Christ in order
to make it more palatable and appealing to the “itching ears” of their
congregants. Then, the Lord Jesus sends them one of his messengers telling them
they need to repent of their sins and that they need to obey Jesus Christ; that
they need to cease teaching a false gospel of men, and they need to begin
teaching the true gospel of Jesus Christ. So, they find a way to silence this
messenger of God by getting rid of him or her so that she or he can no longer
be a blight, i.e. to have a ruinous, damaging or spoiling effect on the plans
of men. This, my brothers and sisters, is happening much in today’s church, and
God notices!
O
Jerusalem, Jerusalem
The church, the Body of Christ, is the new
(heavenly) Jerusalem, the City of God, so this is speaking to the church today.
God is speaking to the church which has chosen to turn a deaf ear to God’s
calls to repentance and obedience, and which has decided, instead, to follow
the ways of men, even to the exclusion and rejection of God’s chosen messengers
and his servants. He is saying to the church of today, I believe, the same as
he said to the Jerusalem of Jesus’ day. He longs to gather you in his arms, as
a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you are not willing. You are ok
with attending church meetings, with singing in the praise team, serving in the
nursery, teaching a small group fellowship, serving on a planning committee, and/or
going on short-term mission trips, and the like, but you are unwilling to
humbly submit and surrender your all to God/Jesus, as his servants (slaves),
repentant and obedient, willing to do whatever HE asks you to do.
This passage from Isaiah 55, upon which the
following song is based, is an urgent call to come to or to return to the Lord
and to be restored to a right relationship with God. The people of God at that
time, evidently, were complacent and settled in their worldliness and
wickedness, like some of us may be today. So, God asks us why we waste our
money and energies on what will never satisfy us. He counsels us to come to
him, and to receive his living water welling up in us unto eternal life, i.e.
the Spirit of God, or else to receive spiritual refreshment and renewal. The
call is urgent, because we never know if we have tomorrow. We must turn from
our sins, and turn to God via faith in Jesus Christ. God’s word will be
fulfilled. He will pardon our sins when we turn from our wickedness, and we
experience his grace and mercy. Then he will restore us and will bless us with
great spiritual blessings. The return to God will be accompanied by much joy
and peace, and will produce much spiritual fruitfulness to the glory of God.
Then we will say,
“Blessed
is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”
Seek
the Lord / An Original Work / July 20, 2012
Based off
Isaiah 55
“Come
to Me all you who thirst; come to waters.
Listen
to Me, and eat what’s good today,
And
your soul will delight in richest of fare.
Give
ear to Me, and you will live.
I
have made an eternal covenant with you.
Wash
in the blood of the Lamb.”
Seek
the Lord while He may be found; call on Him.
Let
the wicked forsake his way, in truth.
Let
him turn to the Lord, and he will receive mercy.
Freely,
God pardons him.
“For
My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor
are your ways My ways,”
declares
the Lord, our God.
“My
word that goes out of My mouth is truthful.
It
will not return to Me unfulfilled.
My
word will accomplish all that I desire,
And
achieve the goal I intend.
You
will go in joy, and be led forth in peace.
The
mountains will burst into song… before you,
And
all of the trees clap their hands.”
Song lyrics @ Public Domain
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