What Have We Become?

What have we become!?

We complain about divorce rates being higher than ever before, crime being rampant, society being inundated with immorality. But WHAT HAVE WE DONE? What of us!? We look at ourselves – the church – and then complain about the same things; divorce rates are high, crime and immorality are at an all-time high. We’ve become just like the world, and just like the world, we are dead. We are not a sick church that might be nursed back to health….would to God that was so! But the church is DEAD. So dead, and we don’t even realize it. There are a few, ever so few and oh so far between, that urgently rush through the field of Christendom, examining the bodies strewn about, desperately trying to find one that is still alive, but to no avail. One corpse will moan, and the survivor will rush over in hopes that he’s found someone else still alive, but it’s dead; another will twitch, and the searcher will shout with joy and run to its side, but it’s not alive. One church wears a t-shirt that says “I’m ALIVE,” but it’s just as cold as the rest; some are lying down; some sit up, propped up against others; some even still stand, but as a tottering mannequin, and not as a living soul. The survivor still looks, but as far as he can see, there is little hope. How can there be any hope in such a situation as this?

God, we need a miracle. You’re the only one who can raise the dead. I can’t love the church even a tenth as much as you – you’ve got to do something! If we have not because we ask not, then Lord I’m asking. We need revival so badly. No. we need YOU. You are the breath of life; You are the living word; You alone are life. Only if we are in You can we ever be revived. We need your Holy Spirit; we need Your rivers of living water to flood this place; we need to You to raise the dead.

The wages of sin is death. And oh, how we’ve earned it! We make excuse for sin yesterday, today, and all the tomorrows to come. We preach that actual holiness is not required to see God. We teach that sin is an inevitable part of even a Christian’s life. We say that God overlooks our constant and ongoing sin. We have a hundred thousand reasons why we can’t possibly be righteous. And so we find that we practice what we preach. Sin. But sin must NOT be allowed. Sin is NOT okay. Sin is NOT acceptable nor excusable, nor can it have ANY place with godliness. Sin is the cause of death. There isn't any other reason for death -- spiritual death especially. How can the church possibly be alive if it's not obedient, if it's not righteous, if it's not holy; how can the church be alive if it's sinful? Of all the things that it might be – it might be warm, friendly, casual, open, or any other positive adjective we might care to use, if the church is sinful, the one thing it can't possibly be is alive.

We have GOT to change. You, friend, have got to change. If we go on as we are, we shall surely taste brimstone, just as Sodom did.

God, we must have revival. We must have revival or judgment. But Lord have mercy, for we cannot stand in judgment; we would stand wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. Let us come to buy gold from You, to procure white clothes, to find a little eye salve so we might see.

Let us be zealous and REPENT! We MUST have life, and it MUST come from God. Let’s go to Him, and perhaps it is not too late; perhaps He might still yet let us taste of His holy waters; perhaps He might be merciful. But we must go to Him, we must, and we dare not delay.

Walking in Love and Truth

If we live in the Spirit of the Lord
Then let’s walk according to His Word
You and I can walk in love and truth

Live so they see
Our words and deeds agree

If we live in the Spirit of the Lord
Then let’s walk according to His Word
You and I can walk in love and truth

Walk in the light
‘Cause He is in the light

If we live in the Spirit of the Lord
Then let’s walk according to His Word
You and I can walk in love and truth

You say you do
Does your life prove you’re true?

For Those Who Think We Cannot

For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.

See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; in that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.

But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:


Deuteronomy 30:11-19
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Here, the Lord tells the children of Israel what he requires of them. He has laid out his commandments, and He has explained in graphic detail the consequences of forsaking those commandments. Now, these things were written for our examples – that we should not lust after evil things, as they did – so let us take care to pay attention to what we read. In giving the commandments of this covenant, as weak and unprofitable as it was, as burdensome a yoke (that neither they nor their children were able to bear, says Peter), what does the Lord say? He says there is nothing about these commands that is difficult: they are not hidden requirements that we might break them unwittingly, they are not far off, idealistic and unrealistic; they are not up in heaven that we need some prophet to bring them to us, nor are they in some far away country, that we need a hero to retrieve them for us. No, the Lord says, they are right here, near you – in fact, they are in your mouth – in your heart. Simply do them and live. It is not a difficult choice, people.

Now, if that is what our Lord provided for His people in the former covenant, what greater provision and power must there be in His new covenant? For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God…by so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament…wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are call might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

The new covenant being established on better promises than the old, we may say that through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, grace and peace are multiplied unto us according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness – through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue – and by him are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these we might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Thus, in the Spirit and power of the Lord, we may live, not in fear, nor in sin, but in wholehearted obedience and love, and that not as though it were difficult, but easily and naturally, for our Lord says “my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

“By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” (I John 5:2-4)

Looking the Part

"I once saw a man at a golf course step out of his cart and approach the first tee. He looked immaculate -- expensive set of clubs, sharp looking clothes, confidence all over his face. He looked every inch the pro...until he tried to play golf. He was simply not very good. He might have looked the part, but he should have just hung around the clubhouse where he was a convincing golfer instead of demonstrating his true abilities by actually attempting to play."
--Benny Perez

"We are a generation of cheap Christians going to heaven as inexpensively as possible; religious hobos and spiritual deadbeats living on milk instead of meat, crusts of bread instead of manna, as though we were on a cut-rate excursion."
--Vance Havner
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Are we dressed for the part of living for Christ -- but unable to actually live it out, as the golfer was? Do we have the form of godliness without the power of God? Are we truly living victoriously, using and showing the power of Christ....or would it be better if we just hung around in our "clubhouse", where we can look convincingly spiritual? If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit -- for if we live after the flesh, we shall die: but if we through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, we shall live; for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

If He has given us strength that is according to His glory (which He has), and if Christ dwells in our hearts by faith (which He does)-- we must live our lives out according to His glory, and according to the love in which we are rooted and grounded. If we do not...we are in serious trouble!

Faith...

"Socially irrelevant, even if privately engaging."

God, no! If my faith can be described this way, what is it worth? If this is true, faith is nothing more than a personal thing, with as much real importance as my collection of Hot Wheels. If Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, and He has commanded us to go into ALL THE WORLD and tell everyone so, I have absolutely NO business whatsoever living by a faith that is merely privately engaging.


"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."

"What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works?"

Angry Young Men

Angry Young Men
By Randy Stonehill

“He wants some angry young men
Ones who can't be bought
Ones who will not run from a fight
Ones who speak the truth whether it's popular or not
Ones who'd give up anything to walk in His light

Chorus:
Rest assured when Jesus comes again
He'll be looking for some angry young men

He wants some angry young men
With fire in their eyes
Ones who understand what Jesus gave
Ones who have grown weary of the world and all its lies
Ones who won't forget they've been delivered from the grave

Rest assured when Jesus comes again
He'll come back for the angry young men

Yes He will

Bridge:
They say if you don't laugh you cry
I say if you don't live you die
Well, well, the road to hell is paved with some impressive alibis
But unless you thirst for Jesus first
Man, heaven will pass you by (uh huh)
Heaven will pass you by

You'll be tempted, tried and tested
There'll be wars the devil wins
But God's love is not a license to lie there in your sins
He understands the human heart
His mercy is complete
But His grace was not intended
As a place to wipe your feet

Rest assured when Jesus comes again
He'll be looking for some angry, angry men

He wants some angry young men
Who love the Lord they serve
Ones who'll do much more than make a speech
Ones who'll act their faith out with the passion it deserves
'Cause if we cannot live it – tell me, who are we to preach?

Rest assured when Jesus comes again
He'll come back for the angry young men

Rest assured when Jesus comes again
He'll be looking for the angry young men
He'll be looking for the angry young men

Where’s the angry men?

Yes He will,
He’ll be lookin’

Yes He will

Hey!
Where’s the angry men?”
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An “angry young man.” Yes, this is what I want to be. In fact, I’ll ask you – am I:

One who can't be bought?
One who will not run from a fight?
One who’ll speak the truth whether it's popular or not?
One who'd give up anything to walk in His light?
One with fire in my eyes?
One who understands what Jesus gave?
One who has grown weary of the world and all its lies?
One who won't forget he’s been delivered from the grave?
One who thirsts for Jesus first?
One who loves the Lord he serves?
One who'll do much more than make a speech?
One who'll act his faith out with the passion it deserves?
One who lives it?


Tell me – am I one to preach?

…...Are you?