It is not enough just to go to church on Sunday's! Everyday should be worship for us.
It is sad to me to listen to any news these days. It is almost like the world has gone mad... I praise God that I don't have the fear that I used to have but I do feel the sadness.
It seems to be flashing across the TV screen to often that a Christian leader? A Pastor, has caused harm to a child!!! Is this what the church in AMERICA has become known for?
Revelation 18: 4-5;
Then I heard another voice from heaven say:
"Come out of her, my people,
so that you will not share in her sins,
so that you will not receive any of her plagues;
5; for her sins are piled up to heaven,
and God remembered her crimes....................
The people of Babylon had lived in luxury and pleasures. We as Americans have lived in luxury and pleasures. We as Americans have felt secure and in control so much that we have allowed God to be removed from our schools, from our court-houses from everything. Being a "Christian" has even become offensive to others so much that we have lost our boldness and have become light-hearted in our walks.
We are taught in the Bible to avoid Babylon's sins. We have been blessed as a nation for many years to the point we have taken things for granted and become self-sufficient and self-reliant. We as a nation no longer need a Savior! Money, greed and power have become our objectives. Our judgement is here and it is harsh......and it is only the beginning!
NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS; WE MUST REMEMBER THAT GOD IS IN CHARGE!!!!!
God over-rules all the plans and intrigues of the evil one.....and God's plan will happen just as he says. Doesn't that make you want to shout GLORY!!!! This earth is not our home. One day we will lay down all our burdens; there will be no more sickness, no more death, no more hunger etc....Although God does allow evil to permeate this present world, the new earth will never no sin!!!! Praise God...
What am I known for? What are you known for? The longer will live in this world the more COMFORTABLE we become and the more vulnerable we are to receiving her plagues....
As my pastor preached on this a couple of weeks ago, I sat in church weeping uncontrollably. Once or twice even Amy gave me a look like what is wrong with you...lol ( The pastor knows that Amy and I are nurses. I often wonder when he sees Amy and I having an ugly cry if he thinks maybe they killed someone at work...lol ) just kidding... But I sat there thinking as he said those words... COME OUT OF HER MY PEOPLE, SO THAT YOU DO NOT SHARE IN HER SINS.... God is saying this to us right now; Come out or else you will be destroyed.
I have asked myself and God, how? How do I need to live my life so that it is pleasing to you? How do I lay the masks down? How do I draw nearer to you with the craziness of my life? How do I tell old friends that I don't enjoy their company anymore? Or is that wrong?
They have never tasted the living waters. They have never felt the power of the Holy Spirit flow through them. And most of all they don't want to at this point. Do I stay a their friend? Do I try to be an influence in their lives that God wants us to be in this lost and dying world....??
When I listen closely enough I will hear the father say to me in gentle whisper; Robbie you are not strong enough, you put me on the back burner just like others. You are busy, busy with your life. You haven't turned from your idols to serve the one true, living God... You are not known by your old friends as making a radical change yet... Yes they can see you are not the same, but radical? NO; not yet.... You are holding back from me. And Fear you think that you don't have that anymore? Well guess what it is still there! You haven't let go.. You have yet to surrender fully to me. You have one foot on the side of the fence in the world and the other foot in the spiritual realm. You are straddling the fence!!!! You have tasted the living water but you have yet to drink from it!
So as I sit here writing this my heart is sad because once again God has confirmed it, I have changed! But radically? No... How about you? What have you turned from that makes people talk? Has your reputation radically changed at some point in your life? To the point that people are talking about you because they think you are weird? Strange? What is your identity wrapped up in? Your children? Your spouse? Your house? Your church? Friends? etc....
Our radical change has to be more than going to church on Sundays and doing good church activities. I am talking about something so much deeper. Deeper with God.. The kind of relationship where you will dive into the deepest part of the ocean with him, where the unknown is. Don't you want to know him? Don't you want to know his characteristics? Don't you want your character to be changed forever? Are you at a place in your relationships where you don't care what anybody thinks of you anymore? Because you have found the living true God? Living out the kind of radical change that SEPARATES you from this world......Paul preached many times on how important it was to TURN not just acknowledge your evil ways... You have to become invested in God...by picking up your cross and following him.. Not just Sunday worship but everyday worship!!!! This is the one true way we can thank God for reaching down and saving us from the power of darkness... No matter how bad it gets God is coming back...
working on keeping enduring hope of his return... Jesus is coming...
Robbie
