We live in a time of great
deception within our governments, within the church, within our families, and
coming from the media. There is so much fakery going on these days that it is
often difficult to separate truth from fiction; reality from fantasy. So many
people are trapped in sinful addictions, too, including within the church, and
within church leadership, so that it begs the question, “Where are the godly
among us? Are they no more?”
Who can you trust? Can you
truly trust any other human being? Do you even really know the people with whom
you have the closest relationships? Are they who they proclaim to be, or do
they just play act? Where are the faithful, the holy, the godly, the righteous,
the pure in heart, the moral, and the trustworthy? Is everyone corrupt? Surely
not! But, it often seems as though the godly are very few in number these days.
Sin abounds, even within the church, with large numbers of pastors living in
sexual immorality.
Be Not Silent
Psalm 83:1-8 ESV
O God, do not keep silence;
do not hold
your peace or be still, O God!
For behold, your enemies make an uproar;
those who
hate you have raised their heads.
They lay crafty plans against your people;
they consult
together against your treasured ones.
They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation;
let the name
of Israel be remembered no more!”
For they conspire with one accord;
against you
they make a covenant—
the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
Moab and the
Hagrites,
Gebal and Ammon and Amalek,
Philistia
with the inhabitants of Tyre;
Asshur also has joined them;
they are the
strong arm of the children of Lot. Selah
We serve a loving God who is
gracious, compassionate and slow to anger. He is very patient with us, not
willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And, so
he delays his wrath, for a time. But, there will come a time when he will delay
no longer, but he will judge his wicked people who have betrayed him and who
have gone off to follow after the gods of this world, and he will judge those
nations which have come against his saints to persecute and to kill them.
So, this is a prayer to God
to no longer be silent about all the evil which is going on in the world, and
within our nations, especially that which is being perpetrated in his name,
particularly within the gatherings of the church and among its leadership. It
is a cry to God to do something which will get the people’s attention, which
will open blinded eyes and will turn them from darkness to light and from the
power of Satan to God, that they may receive true forgiveness of sins and a
place among those sanctified by faith in Jesus Christ (See: Acts 26:16-18).
God’s enemies are not just
the people of the world, but they are within the gatherings of the church, too,
and they are working their evil crafts within the church to destroy God’s
church and his gospel of salvation. And, they have been very successful at
doing so, too. They have turned light for darkness and darkness for light to
confuse naïve minds so that they now follow after the lies rather than the
truth, for the lies give them permission to continue living in sin while
promising them heaven when they die.
Yet, they not only have all
but destroyed the truth of the gospel, but they have come against God’s
servants and messengers, too – his saints; his followers. And, they are
plotting all kinds of evil against them, slandering them, opposing their
messages, and playing tricks on them to try to confuse them, etc. Their goal is
to destroy them, too, in any way that they can, either through false
accusations, via fierce persecution, or through death.
Do to Them
Psalm 83:9-12 ESV
Do to them as you did to Midian,
as to Sisera
and Jabin at the river Kishon,
who were destroyed at En-dor,
who became
dung for the ground.
Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb,
all their
princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
who said, “Let us take possession for ourselves
of the
pastures of God.”
There are many people within
our governments and within the gatherings of the church who are saying, “Let us
take possession for ourselves of the pastures of God.” And, they are doing just
that, too. False shepherds of the people have infiltrated the church in order
to destroy her and to deceive her. They have turned the church into big
business and are marketing it as such, too. They have turned the house of the
Lord into a marketplace, and God is going to one day cleanse his temple once
more of all these masqueraders.
As well, many who call
themselves “Christians” now serve in positions of public office and wield
enormous influence over God’s people; his church. And, they are leading the
church, through trickery, to join with them in uniting the church with the
world and with other religions all in the name of unity and of peace and of
harmony among people of all walks of life.
So, through trickery and
false flag operations and fake news (mainstream media) and a diluted half-truth
gospel, they are leading the professors of faith in Jesus Christ toward a
one-world religion and toward a one-world totalitarian government of the beast
of Revelation. For, they have convinced them that the gospel, as taught by
Jesus and his NT apostles, is works-based salvation and that true grace gives
them liberty to continue in their sinful addictions without guilt.
So, the call here to God is
for him to judge them, to chastise them in some way so that they may seek his
name (See v. 16).
Fill with Shame
Psalm 83:13-18 ESV
O my God, make them like whirling dust,
like chaff
before the wind.
As fire consumes the forest,
as the flame
sets the mountains ablaze,
so may you pursue them with your tempest
and terrify
them with your hurricane!
Fill their faces with shame,
that they
may seek your name, O Lord.
Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever;
let them
perish in disgrace,
that they may know that you alone,
whose name
is the Lord,
are the Most
High over all the earth.
One of the ways in which
these enemies of God have taken possession of the pastures of God, i.e. his
sheep, is to convince them to believe in a false grace gospel and to reject the
true gospel, so that they will continue in their sinful addictions, and so they
will believe that they do not have to turn away from their sin or obey God or
submit to his will for their lives.
Thus, they feel no shame for
their sins, because they believe God no longer judges them for their sin, and,
in fact, that he doesn’t even see when they sin against him. They have been
convinced that all that God sees when he looks at them is Jesus and his
righteousness, and thus they can continue in gross willful and disgusting
rebellion against God and believe God’s grace covers it all. And, if they begin
to feel shame or guilt, then they are told to just claim who they are in
Christ, and believe that God delights in them even when they are vegging out on
porn, so they have no reason to ever feel the need to repent or to turn from
their idols.
Because they feel no guilt or
shame, because they have had the blessings of the church to console themselves
in their sin, their hearts have become hardened toward the voice of the Holy
Spirit, and they feel they can keep sinning and still have the hope of heaven.
And, since they feel no need to repent, they don’t. And, thus the church is
filled with people who are living in sinful addiction, with the false grace
gospel giving them permission to do so.
So, this is a prayer for God
to intervene on behalf of his church to fill their faces with shame so that
they will repent of their sins, and so they will turn their hearts back to God,
forsaking their idols, and now walk in the Spirit and no longer live to gratify
the sinful cravings of the flesh. This, in essence, is a call for revival
within the church, and for God to act in bringing his church to their knees, so
that they will seek his name, and so they will know that God alone is the Most
High God over all the earth.
For Our Nation
An Original Work / September
11, 2012
Bombs are bursting. Night is
falling.
Jesus Christ is gently
calling
You to follow Him in all
ways.
Trust Him with your life
today.
Make Him your Lord and your
Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow
Jesus.
He will forgive you of your
sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new
within.
Men betraying: Our trust
fraying.
On our knees to God we’re
praying,
Seeking God to give us
answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all
things.
Nothing from His mind
escaping.
He has all things under His
command,
And will work all for good.
Jesus Christ is gently
calling
You to follow Him in all
ways.
Men deceiving: we’re
believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our
future.
For our wounds He offers
suture.
He is all we need for this
life.
Trust Him with your life
today.
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