Tuesday, December 09,
2014, 7:45 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind this song:
You Are my All in All / Dennis Jernigan
You are my strength when I am weak
You are the treasure that I seek
You are my all in all
Seeking you as a precious jewel
Lord to give up I'd be a fool
You are my all in all
Taking my sin my cross my shame
Rising again I bless your name
You are my all in all
When I fall down you pick me up
When I run dry you fill my cup
You are my all in all
Jesus, precious Lamb of God
Worthy is your name…
Speak, Lord, your words to my heart. I read Revelation 18 (quoting vv. 1-5 ESV).
The Fall
After
this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and
the earth was made bright with his glory. And he called out with a mighty
voice,
“Fallen,
fallen is Babylon the great!
She has become a dwelling place for demons,
a
haunt for every unclean spirit,
a haunt for every unclean bird,
a haunt for every unclean and detestable
beast.
For
all nations have drunk
the wine of the passion of her sexual
immorality,
and
the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her,
and the merchants of the earth have grown
rich from the power of her luxurious living.”
When Adam and Eve sinned against God in the Garden of Eden
by eating of the tree of which God had instructed them that they must not eat,
they fell from their pure relationship they had had with Almighty God. This is
why this incident is called “The fall of man.” Because they sinned, sin entered
into the world and spread through all humans (See: Ro. 5:12). So, when we are
born, we are born with a sin nature, i.e. with the propensity to sin against
God and with the curse of sin over us, which is death (eternal separation from
God). Scripture teaches us, thus, that all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God (See Ro. 3:23). To fall short of his glory means to be lacking in
or to suffer need of God and of his righteousness and holiness – his very
essence – his lifeblood in our lives. So, we are all born with this God-vacuum
that only He can fill. Yet, by his grace, we can now be restored. Amen! Jesus
Christ paid the price for our sins so we can be set free of the power of sin.
Babylon
So, in essence, Babylon fell long before she fell in the
sense of God’s judgment on her in bringing her to destruction. So, who is this
Babylon the Great? Depending upon who you ask, you will get a myriad of
responses. Certainly she represents the ultimate in giving herself over to evil,
sin and worldliness. She sits in a position of rule over people and nations, so
she has some type of authority over people and nations. She is filled with all
kinds of evil. She has had some kind of dealings or partnerships with other
nations and/or with their rulers. She is very wealthy, and other nations have
grown rich from the power of her luxurious living. She has brought much
suffering on other nations by force, and she is responsible for killing
(murdering) followers of Christ throughout the world.
In the years that I have been studying the book of
Revelation in my quiet times with the Lord Jesus, he has consistently and often
given me a picture of Babylon as America, but more specifically the
institutional church in bed with the US government, basically. If you have followed
the news over the past 13 years, in particular, who is it that has gone into
Iraq, Afghanistan and all these other nations with military force either under
the guise of humanitarian aid or under the guise of going after terrorists and thus
protecting America’s freedoms? Who is the great conqueror? From what is visible,
it is the US. We are the wealthy who sit as queen thinking we can go around the
world bullying, destroying, conquering, raping, manipulating, controlling, and subjugating
peoples and nations.
Yet, she rides the beast, which is this New World Order of
the Elite and wealthy of this world from whom she takes orders. And, the beast
is just using her to do his dirty work, and then he will, and I believe has
already begun the process of taking her down one piece at a time, because the
New World Order Beast must now sit as king over the earth, so the American
Empire must collapse. The old order of things must die so that the new world
order can thrive, which means the destruction of all of us “dinosaurs,” i.e.
all that has not bowed and will not bow to the beast, most especially those who
hold to the testimony of Jesus, who will not deny his name, and who keep the
commandments (the word) of God/Christ.
Come Out of Her
Then
I heard another voice from heaven saying,
“Come
out of her, my people,
lest you take part in her sins,
lest
you share in her plagues;
for
her sins are heaped high as heaven,
and God has remembered her iniquities.
And, yet, all God’s people are commanded to come out of her
so that we do not share in her sins and in her punishment. So, there is an
element of this prostitute (Babylon) that represents the whole world of evil
and most especially, I believe, that which has infiltrated today’s modern
church in America, and perhaps in other nations, too.
The church is an organism, not an organization of humans. It
is the Body of Christ, not a corporation underneath the federal government of
the USA or under any human government. Christ is the head of his true church,
not the government. The Holy Spirit is the one who directs the affairs of the
church, not corporations of humans. The things taught in the church should be from
the word of God, not from the philosophies of worldly humans. Worship should
not be turned into entertaining the world. And, the list goes on.
I believe, thus, that God is calling his people to come out
of the worldly church which has sold itself to the devil by following after the
ways of humans rather than the ways of God; by allowing humans to guide the
direction of the church instead of the Spirit of God.
Although they call themselves “church” these corporations
and businesses of humans are not the Body of Christ! So, we shouldn’t treat
them as though they are. When scripture gives us the command to not forsake the
assembling of ourselves together, this is not meaning at all that we should
become members of human institutions run by humans and run just like any other
worldly business. Just because some of the true church might attend these
meetings of these corporations called “church” does not mean these meetings are
gatherings of the true church in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe God is
calling to his true church to come out of these institutions of humans which
are in partnership with the world.
On a more personal level, scripture teaches that we must
come out and be separate from the ways of this sinful world, for there is no
fellowship between light and darkness. We should not partake in the sinful ways
of this world, either through directly involving ourselves in sinful
activities, or by allowing ourselves to be entertained by the sinful behaviors
of others as acted out on TV and in movies, or in music, in comedy, in plays,
on the internet, on social media sites and/or in the playing of certain video
games, and the like. This is not a suggestion. It is a command of God. We are
to be holy as he is holy. To be holy means to be like God because different
from (unlike) the world; to be set apart from the world and to be set apart to
God and to his service. We need to take this seriously.
The Response
If you have never trusted in Jesus Christ as your Savior and
Lord, and thus you still have this God-vacuum in your life, I pray today that
you will answer his call to accept his great salvation, and that by his grace,
through the faith he gives you, you will turn from your lifestyle of living for
sin and self and that you will allow the Spirit of God to transform you in heart
and mind, and that you will thus be given a new life in Christ to be lived out
in his holiness and righteousness – all in the power and working of the Spirit
within you.
Or, if you have trusted Christ to be your Lord and Savior,
but you have since fallen back into the ways of your sinful flesh and you are
following after the ways of the world instead of the ways of God, I pray you
will humble yourself before God today, repent of your sin, and believe that he
loves you and that he will be there to pick you up and to put you back on the
right path again. Been there, done that! So, I know! Choose to forsake sin
(worldly ways) and to follow Christ Jesus wherever he leads you from this day
forward.
Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer
Thomas O. Chisholm /
W. J. Kirkpatrick
Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s
treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.
O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy
love;
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit me for life and Heaven above.
Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like
Thee,
Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy
fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.
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