Many won’t like this, and I’m ok with that. GOD isn’t GOD based on any number of likes or retweets; HE’s sovereign regardless of how we feel or what we think of HIM (note: surely HE saw social media before we did, and if he responded like us, perhaps HE threw up in HIS mouth, a bit). There are too many things present-day, that we’ve been and are still unwilling to admit. “C’mon, we know too much scripture, we’ve studied too much and we’ve traveled abroad, we’ve seen too much, and times,” we say, “have changed.” “We’re merely doing what our church-age hero, the Apostle Paul, stated so eloquently that he himself did in becoming all things to all men (1 Cor.9:22); we just have a better revelation of this technique of outreach, today, because again, the times are different (wait: the Bible says there’s no new thing under the sun (Ecc.1:9)??? Can we skip that for now? Thanks…). I mean, how can we reach them if we’re not like them; smuggled in and mingled amongst, quietly inserted and minding our own business and intentionally engaging no one? Aren’t we supposed to live peaceably among them? Aren’t we really the same?? Don’t we deal with the same issues??? Everybody’s dealing with something right? Do we have to go over the top to point out sin??? I mean, isn’t “sin” really relative, today?? Shouldn’t the WORD of GOD be more progressive and understanding??? Shouldn’t our churches and our music reflect that??? I mean, right???? You feel me???” The world might, but GOD doesn’t.
By removing the need to say what JESUS said, to do what JESUS did, to live as JESUS did, to point others to HIM, to give the glory and credit to HIM, to make sure our reflection is an accurate depiction of HIM; by preaching messages of hope without HIM, by singing songs about HIM without mentioning HIM, by deploying a “do-it-yourself-gospel” that does not recognize its AUTHOR, we, effectively, are killing JESUS. Again. Today.
Let’s keep the body of this simple. Among many others, there are two things, in particular, that are breaking GOD’s heart, today: people who’s names have gained notoriety because of JESUS now denying JESUS, and the people who have been saved by JESUS who’ve become more loyal to these people than to the GOD that delivered them (or at least tried to). When your favorite artist comes out and says they’re not making gospel music anymore, and YOU still pursue their next offering because you just “love their voice,” among other things, there’s a problem. When your favorite “preacher” comes out and says he considers himself more of a motivational speaker, and you still walk-in, fly-in, tune-in? Problem. When your other favorite “preacher” begins remaking secular movies and comes out with a book that they, themselves, CLEARLY state is not a faith-based book, not written for Believers, and you STILL by it, quote it, and try to apply it to your life? Problem. If we’ve truly gotten to the place where we feel we can turn JESUS of and on like a setting or preference (more JESUS today, less JESUS tomorrow, none on Friday), then we’ve fallen away in a manner that is as swift as it is slow to manifest. Can we effectively live for JESUS if we don’t (won’t) talk about HIM? Specifically?? Before you resound with your “yes!”, neck roll and all, let me ask you this: we know WHO wrote the Bible you’re reading, but who wrote the one you’re LIVING??? How can I, confessed, professed, filled and on fire, advise someone with the intentional absence of the WORD of GOD, the ultimate solution??? Shouldn’t it be pointless to advertise a “found” or “rescued” state, without pointing others to WHO found me and how??? Individuals who’ve found these new ways of denying CHRIST under the guise of “infiltration” are exposing the uncircumcised areas of their hearts in a most dier way; areas of leaven GOD would have rather kept covered until etched out, now welcomed to take front and center.
We live in a culture where GOD is cool (or the idea of HIM, and for too many, the idea of “a”), and JESUS is not. Why has the enemy been so vehemently attacking this vernacular?. Because he knows this: if you have the SON, you have the FATHER, also (1 John.2:23). Conversely, when you sent the SON, yiure not only in denial, but you, in turn, are denied. LORD knows this flesh wants to be cool. Wants to be liked. Wants to be inviting. Wants to seem relevant. The flesh wants us to believe that there’s another way to draw men to JESUS other than lifting HIM up (John 12:32). Shouldn’t it be enough of a red flag that what we’re doing goes AGAINST scripture??? If you’re someone who believes that your public life and your private life are separable, that what you do, and how you do it, have no bearing on who you are, you’ve bought in the the one thing David asked GOD to keep him from in Psa. 19:13: presumptuous sin. We take too much on ourselves. Keep it simple. Keep it JESUS.
Make no bones about it: this has already reached epidemic proportions. And with many divorcing the CHRISTian platforms that the Body of CHRIST helped them to build, you really have to wonder where individuals’ hearts have gone, and if ours isn’t there, then we need to fear and tremble each day, all the more. A lot of folks didn’t start here, but it’s the things they didn’t part with in their process, things they didn’t take care of, that are coming back to take care of them. So sad that the JESUS WHO saved their lives and kept their lights on and homes together, is no longer as important now that they have a name, and some money, and a following. And as the sermons and songs continue to follow this mold, we find a world around us even more annoyed by us; not because we preach the WORD, but because we’re not sure whether or not, and to what extent, we should LIVE IT. When secular artists speak more about JESUS than their CHRISTian counterparts, go back to their “roots” and drop an album more CHRIST explicit than those who claim to live for HIM everyday? Problem.
The Bible tells us that when we sin, when we purposely and intentionally go against what we know the TRUTH to be, when we fall back into the patterns that existed pre-Salvation, we crucify the SON of GOD afresh (Heb.6:6). We’ve taken HIS name out of our songs. We’ve stripped HIS name from our prayer. We’ve hidden HIS name in our messages and we’ve removed HIS name off our lives, when HE’s supposed to BE our life (Col.3:4)!
I remember GOD dealing with me a while back, and letting me know that the “great falling away” the Bible speaks of will not be some huge event in which individuals get up and walk out of churches, denounce their faith in JESUS in the same manner that some homosexuals announce their bedroom preference, but it will occur in the slow, methodical, unintentional, and then intentional process that has been afforded at the hands of compromise. It will happen. It IS happening.
Look Ma, my favorite CHRISTian just killed JESUS. We’re more guilty now than the pharisees and the willfully ignorant back then. We have what they didn’t: the knowledge. They had what we dont: the fear. Repent.
Please post your comments and/or thoughts below. Let’s build. KD