Wednesday, March 8, 2023

The Narrow Road Gets More Narrow

 

The Narrow Road Gets More Narrow

The American Church cannot possibly be the straight and narrow path.  To be straight means to be righteous and holy before your GOD.  The American Church however, the have said it’s okay to be transgender, homosexual, addicted to pornography, to have every sort of sin in your life.  They say God will just forgive you and you’ll go to heaven in the end.  They have maligned the way of the straight.  The Straight and Narrow Path is of course NARROW because FEW adhere to the teachings of Jesus Christ.  It is easy for the American church to say; “We will include ALL religions, ALL beliefs, no matter what you want to believe we will accept you, you are a brother…”  But that was not the teachings of Jesus.  Jesus made it clear that He was and is the WAY the LIFE AND the TRUTH!  And if you don’t want to listen to Him and OBEY Him, you don’t have life and you are not on the straight and narrow path.  The way that leads to destruction is broad, and the American church is part of that broad path that MANY are on.  Over the last 20 years however, Christianity has been on the decline; 20 years ago 90% of people in the U.S. would say that they are Christians, they go to church and they pray.  But nowadays that’s only 50% or less, that is, that say that they pray or go to church and have a relationship with God.  So, out of that 50% what percent of that 50% do we think actually are on the straight and narrow path?  Maybe 1%?  The straight and narrow path truly is straight and narrow because ONLY the righteous can walk it, only the pure of heart, only those who have put their faith 100% in their savior Jesus Christ, not religion, not the broad path, not selling out to world religions, but those who have TRULY FOUND JESUS and who bow ONLY TO HIM!  Have you bowed your knee to sin, to corruption, to the lies of the American church?  Have you bowed to the broad way? Are you walking on that broad path to HELL like the world?  Or are you one of the FEW who are on the STRAIGHT AND NARROW PATH to everlasting life?  I hope that you are.  And if you realize that you are not, I encourage you to pray and seek Jesus.  He is not far from those who want to find Him, who want to repent and who want life.  Pray to Him and say; “Lord please forgive me of my sins, I want to repent, I want truth in my heart.  Please let me be BORN AGAIN!”  If you pray to Him from the sincerity of your heart He WILL forgive you and He will accept you.  But if you reject Him for the broad path and if you deny Him, He will also reject and deny you.  May the grace of Jesus be with you. 

Monday, March 6, 2023

The Deeper Rooted Sin in America's Church

The Deeper Rooted Sin in America's Church We all know that there are obvious sins in most of the churches, sins like homosexuality, broken marriages, now transgenders, fornication, adultery. There's a lot of these obvious sins that as Christians that are very evangelical and upright who want to appear good on the outside, they will stay away from these sorts of churches. And there are churches across America who are very anti-homosexual, very anti-drugs and alcohol. They don't fill up their church pews with those sorts of people, and because of that, likely they have less people in their church. The pastors of these sorts of churches are who I want to address, and the sorts of Christians who attend these sorts of more pure in appearance churches. So, it is obvious that it's easier to preach, to the choir about these sorts of things, if you know that the people in your choir are not drug addicts, they're not transgenders, they're not homosexuals, they're very right-winged political Americans who are for the things that you agree with. It's easy to speak against abortion and homosexuality. It's easy to speak for the validity of the scripture and all those sorts of things that every right-winged Christian would stand for. However, there is a deeper and a bigger problem with the American church and the churches across the world than just these visible sins that everyone likes to pick on. And that problem is sin in general, but it's this huge disconnection between the body of Christ and Jesus Christ Himself. Remember that Jesus said, “My sheep know My voice. They follow Me, they don't follow a stranger. They will by no means listen to a stranger”. but the issue we have today is people who think that they know Jesus because they know things about Him from the bible, they think that is hearing God. They believe that maybe their King James version is the word of God to them, so they never look any deeper than the bible to hear from God. They disregard the fact that Abraham and all the early prophets did not have a bible. They did not have the New Testament that we have today. They did not have all the revelations about Jesus Christ that we have today. For example, Noah, he did not have the New Testament. He didn't know about the law and the prophets. But he had faith, and that was accredited to him as righteousness, because he lived as an upright man. He lived according to his conscience and when God spoke to him, he obeyed God in righteousness. He was God's child. And he proved it with his actions, not his theology, not because he adhered to a set of principles that a group during his time held to. But he believed God, and he demonstrated his faith with his works. This is the big problem in churches today. The church today thinks that she is pure before God because she has adequate enough theology. Christians think that they are good people because they appear to be good on the outside. They're not on drugs, they're not drinking too much, they're not sleeping around, they're not homosexual or transgenders. They're keeping all of the law as much as they know, so they must be good. They're making enough money, their house in order, so God probably will accept them into His kingdom. That's what they think. And so, these people are just looking for a good bible believing church, a good God-fearing church, they think. And when they find it, it's the "us 4 and no more", mentality. And they feel safe and secure and they believe that they're going to heaven. The problem is they are not righteous. They're not like Noah. They're not like Abraham, Isaac or Jacob. They don't hear from God and they're fine with that because they have the bible. There's a deep-rooted problem here that's been going on for years. And that is, people are disconnected from their Creator. They think that they have found life because they know the bible. It's exactly how Jesus said “you search the scriptures, for in them you think that you have life, but you refuse to come to Me that you may have life.” Christians think they found life because they have found a bible-fearing church, because they found a preacher who preaches God's word, they say. But they don't know the One, the only One who has the words of life. This is a very deep, deep problem. If you don't hear Jesus' voice, if you can't hear the voice of Truth, then you don't have life, you don't have salvation, you're not part of the body of Christ. It doesn't matter what name is on your home group, on your fellowship group, on your church group, it doesn't matter because none of that is going to get you into heaven. It matters if you know Jesus Christ, if you love Him in the depths of your heart, in the depths of your being. And it matters if you're obeying Him, living for Him every single day with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength. This is the big problem in the churches that are more evangelical, more bible-fearing. Although they appear good on the outside and are not doing the big sins that Christians see as the big sins. They have no real fear of God. They have no relationship with Him. They're not obedient to Him. They don't have any genuine faith like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, like Noah, any of those men of old that knew God, they are not like them. They don't even attempt to pattern their lives like them. Jesus is alive. That's what the church today does not know or understand. God is not stuck in bible times; God is not dead. And getting to know God certainly isn't about just submitting yourself to the supposed authorities that don't know God anyway. Jesus is alive. He is our high priest. He is our pastor, our teacher, our Lord our savior. He is our Father. And if you want to get to know Him, it does not start by going into church, trying to start a "revolution" in church. Getting to know Jesus starts with a prayer life, getting to know Him in the quiet place, surrendering your mind and your heart to Him, saying, “Lord please change me, mold me to your image. You are the potter; I am the clay.” And when we are separate from the world, separate from dead religion, when we sever ourselves from family members and friends that we don't need in our life anyway, I'm not talking about your wife or your children if God has put them in your life, I’m talking about people that have no need to be in your life, that you have allowed into your life, those people you should eliminate from your life, there are people that have tried to push their way into your own private business, maybe from a church that you've been attending, your workplace. But they are not people that God wants in your life. Following Jesus is about disconnecting from them, disconnecting from people that are trying to destroy you and your family unit. Following Jesus is not about getting into religion, getting into church, getting into a bible study. It's not about that. Getting to know the creator of life, is about you reconciling with the creator of life going to Him through prayer, surrendering your entire life to Him, and then, once you have waited for the Holy Spirit, and you have become reborn, then He will lead you on this new road of life. That's what being reborn is all about. Being reborn and being a new creation is not about church attendance, tithing, social groups. Following Jesus Christ is about receiving His Holy Spirit and being directed by the Spirit of life every single day for the rest of your life. Do you really want life? Do you want the life that Jesus Christ offers? Or are you content with the religions of this world? What will you choose? Will you choose life with Jesus? Or will you choose death with religion? May the grace of Jesus be with you