Playing Church

The Church's one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord. She is His new creation by water and the word. From Heaven He came and sought her to be His holy bride; With His own blood He bought her and for her life He died. The church, the bride of Christ, in my lifetime, has gone through an evolution which our forefathers would hardly recognize. Instead of the Church changing the world, the world has changed the Church. From the apparel, conversation, music and even rhetoric coming from the pulpit, the Church differs little from the local civic club.

At the University Cathedral in Los Angeles, children are permitted in the church only when they reach 12 years of age. Until 12, they have special programs designed for them. After 12, they can accompany their parents to the worship service but are required to sit with their parents until married. This, I agree with, because teaching (the red meat of doctrine, not pablum for infants) cannot be understood by small children and many times, advanced theological sermons have a tendency to turn young people away from the gospel, not toward the gospel.

The old Quaker church, which I attended as a child, would be a mystery to today's “drums and drama, bells and smells”. Modernistic congregation who come to church in flip flops and shorts. The sincere Quakers, Baptists, Presbyterians, etc., attended the worship service in their “Sunday best”. Not only did they dress-up in their Sunday best but their decorum, their Sanctuary voice was in keeping with the charismatic devoted commitment of real Disciples redeemed and committed to the belief of their doctrine, not dressing down, not talking and acting like the world, and the activity of a nightclub. I believe that Faith is a verb, action, based on belief, sustained by confidence. Those who have the confidence of their foundation are there to worship with conviction, remembrance, and with the spirit of truth. Today, the tares have taken over the church, unbelievers in the pulpit and the pews.

In this era of the purpose driven church where the watchman has gone to sleep, and the enemy has taken over, (you will find a record of this in Isaiah) the Joel Osteen's and other technology wizards, of the wicked use our blessed Lords message to entertain. Amid the laughing and clapping, the joking and jockeying for prestige and ratings, the sacredness of the separation of Christ's disdain from his distractors becomes a mockery, leading 75% of all college graduates (reared in church-going homes) to the golf course instead of gospel study.

Perhaps there is no better example of the Paradigm of todays activity than the church activity of Acts 3, where a man disabled, lame from birth, was taken each day outside the temple at the gate called Beautiful where he begged from the temple-goers (evidently religious people entering the temple for worship). Peter and John, when asked for contributions from the disabled man instead of giving him money, was miraculously healed and as would probably be the case in today's church activity, the church goers were greatly surprised that this man begging for 40 years was jumping for joy and clinging to those who had delivered him from such a prison of total defeat (only one who is totally disabled, particularly for 40 years, knowing the embarrassment and harassment of passers by, knowing the torture of physical abuse could possibly understand). Like today's church members, they are willing to put a little change in the collection plate believing this is their only benevolence toward the goodness of God.

We are certainly told, in no uncertain words, that much more is required by Gods justice and Gods redemption. Pleasure is a matter of the physical, joy is a matter of the soul. This writer, who for 40 years, had known the rejection of disability, knew the absolute joy of physical redemption. I'm thankful everyday of my life, that I know the absolutes of right and wrong and that I know the difference of joy and pleasure. The average church member, playing church, thinks their signing a card, adding their name to a church role perhaps even going through the initial ordinance of Baptism gives them some ETHICAL claim on the mercy of God's sovereignty.

Christ, looked at the white wash mausoleum and rightly described them as full of dead men's bones. Have you ever looked around your congregation, singing “Of how I love Jesus” and think, “Dead people can sing” (“God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” - Roman 6: 2. “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” - 1 Peter 2: 24)

The servant attitude, both from the pulpit and the pew is largely responsible for today's lost church. You will know you have a servant attitude when others treat you like a servant. The tithe is the Lord's whether you give it or not. God expects you to glorify Him. If the Spirit of Christ possesses you, you are a living epistle. Remember, Christ told us that many would hear, “I never knew you.” (Matthew 7:23)

Too Good to be True

On Christmas Day in 1974, having spent Christmas Eve at a hotel in Bethlehem, I went through a very small opening in the front door of the Church of the Nativity. The great doors to the church had been boarded up many years previously because the Muslim hoards, so despising the infidels, rode their horses into the cathedral, forever scarring the edifice built over the cave where our Blessed Lord was born. As I went down some steps to the small cave in the side of the hill and stood at the place where the greatest event in the history of the world had taken place, the onrushing thought came over me, which I now share with you, “IT IS JUST TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE.”

This thought because, in my opinion, belief in Christ takes a supernatural thought process, and most people, even those who are church-going pretenders, just do not have the mental capacity to comprehend it. It is almost beyond the comprehension of the average mind that the very majestic God of Glory, the one who threw the millions of stars into space (Genesis 1:16), the one who can hold the oceans of the Earth in His very hands, on whose hands the names of those He has chosen to believe in Him are written, the One who can measure the height of the Himalayas with His fingers, Who can put His toes into the Marianas Trench of the Pacific, Who has designed every snowflake that has ever fallen, designed every life that has ever lived, even to the sound of the voice, even to the iridial flex in the iris of every human eye (Psalm 1:39), the God of Glory who numbers every hair on your head, who knows your every thought, who keeps perfect score of every plus and every minus in your existence, who selected a 14 year-old girl to bear His only Son, putting on a tent of human flesh to dwell among us and give us a perfect example of living, to atone for all the sins and diseases of mankind on a cruel cross, total redemption for the world of sin, despair, depression and disease, who rose from the dead (the second greatest event in the history of the world), went back to the Father and will come again for His own...for which His own patiently awaits (Revelation 22:20).

When I have heard the atheist college professor ridicule Christian faith, I think of the mosquito on the railroad track shouting at the approaching locomotive, “I don't believe in you!” When I have heard the “Doubting Thomas” preachers and television evangelists barking out pre-contrived sociables, a prosperity gospel, a feel good-be good, everything is love, “there are many paths to the same destination”, theology (mostly towards the selling of books or the asking for “ministry” help), I think of the difference between the external and the internal convictions of belief. Those who think that faith is expressed only in magnificent buildings with beautiful interiors contrasted with beautiful compassionate, convicted and convinced lives.

In my lifetime, I have seen the world of science opened up through the discovery of DNA in 1953, “supposed” travel to the moon, a takeover of the media by the state, and the despising of Christianity on every level. I have seen a watered down gospel preached, pedophile priests, gay preachers, homosexual bishops playing church by many denominations, taking sin's ruin and Christ redemption, the blood atonement, the spirituality of the Trinity, hundreds of new denominations hatched in order to put forth some new dogma or doctrine.

About 200 yards down the road from the country church where I was raised (church built in 1874 by the great grandparents of both my mother and father), Mrs. Eliza lived. Every Sunday morning, rain or shine, cold or hot, you would see her walking down the road to the church in her Sunday dress and her Sunday hat. I don't believe she ever had anything to say inside the church other than greeting everyone, but she was always there moving her lips in prayer as the preacher preached and the people sang.

Her husband's funeral was the first funeral I can remember as a small child. It was all so strange to me; an open grave, a gray coffin, wreaths of flowers. Mrs. Eliza's daughter was my mother's best friend. Long after he had died, long after my mother's friend had died, she told my mother just how mean her husband had been to her. At that time in the life of this state, a man's property went to his children. At best, the widow usually got a child's share. So, all the property went to her surviving children but they did allow her to stay in the family house. She survived on a few dollars a month (this was before the time of social security or government help of any kind) derived from selling chickens and the gifts of friends. She told my mother, “what I go through on this earth is nothing, I just want to see the face of my Blessed Savior.” Her faith was real, an attitude impossible with men, too good to be true.

When God created man, He breathed into him a living soul. In the Original Sin involving free will, you do not have to train a child to be evil, it comes very naturally. Psychologists have tried to renounce the truths of the Bible by saying that all people are good, but nature and history tells us otherwise. You see, we believe in life after death, we believe in Heaven and Hell. There is more in the Bible (Answer Book) about Hell than Heaven. We know that no sin will enter Heaven, Christ is the propitiation for every sin. Through His cleansing we start living the eternal life before our clinical death. This is real Christianity. The truth that God forgives sin through the blessed atonement of His only begotten Son, born in a lowly place, prophesied 700 years before birth (Isaiah 53), fulfilling every prophecy and promise made by the Creator of the Universe (John 1) to His creation, you and I. As believers we are called, we are elected, we are conformed, we are justified, we are glorified (Romans 8:28-33).

It is just too good to be true, that in Him we have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10). It is just too good to be true that unlike the unbelievers, deceived by Satan, the “religions” of the world, depending on idols and other man-made fakery, we have within our very being the Holy Spirit of the One Who created us, Who created everything around us, Who offered His only begotten Son for our priceless redemption as a joint-heir in life now and in eternity. The puny, midget mind of man just cannot understand or comprehend the goodness and greatness of God. “Rejoice in the Lord always: [and] again I say, Rejoice” (Philippians 4:4). It is a gift! “To know him, the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering” (Philippians 3:10).

Sink Holes

Jay Leno, as a part of his famous television program, presented a walking all-stars segment in which he asked people on the street questions about politics, government or life in general. It was amazing the answers he received. During the last National election, this type of programming was used to establish the fact that very few voters knew anything about candidates or issues. I never cease to be amazed at how few people know about these things. As one of the regular members of my baptist church said one time, “I don't understand why one of our fine Southern Baptist preachers has not been selected for Pope”. This is just one of the “sink holes” afflicting our democracy...a dumbing down of the public through the “brainwashing” of “idol worship”...that monster in your living room called the television set.

A few days ago on a busy street in this town my driver said, “A large sink hole just opened in the street”. Of course, almost immediately a car was partially engulfed and on the news was the almost routine announcement of another sink hole. On the main super highway artery here, that goes from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, just finished in the past twenty years, this is a constant problem. It is strange to me that with today's technology, these sink holes cannot be determined when the highway construction is going on. Earlier roads in this country were not so affected. “Sink holes” are well known in North and South Carolina because of the thin crust underneath the topsoil. As Mary Poppins said about the pie crust, “easily made, easily broken”. The Castle Hayne aquifer and the many large sumps, particularly in the swamp areas, hardly noticed before the time of airplanes and like the Carolina Bay lakes (White Lake, Jones Lake, etc.) often are as much as 7 miles in diameter. We don't know how they were formed, speculation, meteors, but, like the sink holes they must be dealt with almost on a daily basis. However, they do make nice oval clear water lakes. Most are so caustic that fish have trouble surviving. In some parts of the world, sink holes are so large, buildings have been engulfed, automobiles lost.

Think of the “sink holes” affecting your life, the “sink hole” of national debt. Trillions of dollars, which it is impossible to repay. With retirement benefits for military and government employees, social security, we are now $50 trillion dollars in debt. If one of my ancestors, from the time he first put his foot on American soil in 1620, had been give $1 million dollars a second his entire life, each of descendents from then until now, every second for their entire life, even today, my family with all these millions given every second through many generations, would not be able to pay the national debt. Much of your taxes are just interest paid on the debt. Since Obama took over, the national debt has increased over one trillion. There has been $750 billion in bail outs, which we were assured would bring more employment but unemployment has increased by 2.7 million. Around 600,000 new jobs, all in government. Interest rates are down to zero for those of you depending on living off your savings, Lehman Brothers owes $2.4 billion, which they can never repay. CIT filed for bankruptcy this week, one of the five largest bankruptcies in history, the company owes $10 billion more than it is worth.

In the beginning of the American experiment, American bank notes were used. Now, Federal bank notes are used, made up of thin air, no backing of any kind except the ability of the treasury to tax the American people and following the ten rules of Marxism. The Federal Reserve, not Federal and no reserves, are just putting American citizens into further slavery...an inescapable “sink hole”.

Since Obama, the government has approached every conglomerate, automobile, financial services, bank, insurance company, all with wheelbarrows full of money. Of course, no one is going to turn down free money. Like the people who bought houses they could not afford with mortgages they could not pay and now the same people are offered $8,000 to buy another house. Like the people who could not afford their cars but then were offered money for their clunkers which they still cannot afford, all are in “sink holes”.

In the health care debate, which takes up 1/7^th of the entire American economy, the word “alternative” care has never been mentioned, nor has any provision for supplements, which usually are more effective for the health of the human body than toxic chemicals. Just one company in the pharmaceutical industry spends $400 million on advertising attempting to excite both doctors and patients about certain drugs. The drug business, whether legal or illegal, is a “sink hole” which closely resembles a grave.

A “sink hole” of which most people are not aware: Every time you use your search engine and google up any type of information, it is all recorded in a giant database. The perverts or sex offenders find this out at trial when information is presented about the number of times they have watched porno. The government knows more about your online activity than you do. The government knows more about your business than you do. With the enforced digital information on your television, the infrared equipment to inspect your house, every other infringement on your privacy, you have provided the matches, with your votes for representation in Washington, that has exploded a “sink hole” from which few, if any, will escape. A chip has been put in your television with that sticky label saying that if you take it off to investigate the chip, the warranty is no longer any good.

I'm often asked why a high school girl in Richmond, California is raped for 2.5 hours by 10 men while 20 other are onlookers, why one house in Cleveland, Ohio contained the bodies of 11 raped and decomposing black women, why a Muslim Army psychiatrist can shoot 13 of his fellow soldiers and wound over 30 others without anyone at a medical facility recognizing his obvious mental problem. Where were the parents of these men during their lives? A school child cannot draw a gun on a piece of paper but a field grade medical Army officer can walk into a facility dressed in Muslim burial robes and attempt to kill other soldiers. Don't tell me, that someone had not discovered his Mohammed addiction and his hatred for the government which he was paid to defend. We have been so casual in our effort to be politically correct that we have overlooked the “sink holes” of Muslim terrorist cells operating across the country.

The “sink hole” of addiction, sex, drugs, alcohol and even the love of money, is one of the most difficult to disentangle yourself and crawl out of the hole. Just saying “no” is often not enough. Until one looks up at this serpent on the rod, as Moses lifted up the serpent for healing in the desert, chances of your redemption from the slavery of addiction are very remote. The sinking sand in the “sink hole” of addiction, whether chemical or one of your senses (pornography, alcohol, tickling ears, sexual perversion) will lead you from your hell on Earth to an eternal hell.

The greatest “sink hole” in the world is being mired up with unbelievers (in church as well as outside of church) when, as a believer, you know you should free yourself, climb out and be the creation the Creator intended for your life. The world, the flesh and the devil will keep you mired in the “sink hole” of sin's ruin without the redemption of Christ. Wake up and live! You are a vertical, as well, as a horizontal creature. The train only goes around the track one time. Free yourself from the “sink holes”, get aboard, and live in the liberty God has provided for you.