Zeal for YOUR House will consume ME! – John 2,17

It is no surprise to me to see how small the response and reaction has been to the question asked in my previous post: “Is a relationship with Jesus apart from His Church an unhealthy one?”.  It is a very delicate and personal subject and many are scared to declare what they truly believe about it, because much is at stake if they position themselves one way or another. I do however agree with the comment left by Larry.  It all boils down to what it is Jesus meant when he spoke of His Church, His Bride.

I recently read an article in Newsweek written by Andrew Sullivan (“Christianity in Crisis” -http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/04/01/andrew-sullivan-christianity-in-crisis.html ) and there is one statement in it which for me captures much of what is wrong with our understanding of what The Church of Jesus Christ really is and what it truly isn’t.  He says: “What is politics if not a dangerous temptation toward controlling others rather than reforming oneself?”

Those who are defenders of the Church System rely for their survival, credibility and following on such Church Politics, but again this system is not the spiritual body of believers Jesus spoke of and as sure as Jesus lives on, this system like an old tired dinosaur fighting extinction relies on its own fleshly efforts and not in the spirit that gave it life in the first place.  As the skin a snake sheds to give birth to the new one, so will the Church System eventually die to allow the uncontrollable Spirit of God to be THE ONLY THING at the heart of everything His people breathe, eat, say and do.

Substance addiction slowly kills the body but addiction to spiritual highs quickly destroys the soul.

I recently read a post in Darrell Creswell’s Blog entitled “Disease within the Church – Spiritual Narcissism” which I found very timely, accurate and most certainly discussing one of the reasons why I stopped going to church and being the member of one.

You can read Darrell’s post here: http://darrellcreswell.wordpress.com/2012/02/23/disease-within-the-church-spiritual-narcissism/

I became acquainted with Darrell’s blog because he left a comment on my last post about the death of Whitney Houston, and this tragic fact together with the content of his post left me meditating on the issue of addiction and seeking God for some answers.  It was not long before God laid in my heart the link between both Whitney’s death and Darrel’s post on Disease in the Church.  The more I pondered on the tragedy of Whitney’s ongoing addiction to drugs and her inability to overcome it, the more I heard the Spirit of God whisper in my ear: “The Church lays all her focus on the physical addictions of those outside its walls as if the issue of addiction was a rare and terrible disease which will not affect those who frequently visit the pews.  Mercedes, Which addiction is worse: the one that slowly kills the body or that one which is rampant in my churches today and quickly destroys a man’s soul and mars the path I had set out for him or her: the addiction to spiritual highs as a quick fix for a lack of rending and drawing nearer to ME in the monotony and discouragement of everyday life?”

I was once addicted to these spiritual highs myself and like with any other addiction I found it hard to give it up because I refused to admit there was a problem.  I was in denial. Everybody else around me, many of the other members of the church with whom I had contact craved for the same highs and went through the motions of spiritual highs and lows, always seeking after the next fix brought about by the latest cry in leadership techniques, the latest prophetic utterance delivered during a slick conference attended by thousands, the ultimate high at the hands of a well orchestrated worship event which by the sheer scale, volume, and sophistication of its members and instruments was delivered in such a way that one couldn’t but feel carried away by the atmosphere, the expectation in the air and often the mass bordering hysteria which we all love to be sucked into and deceivingly declare as the Holy Spirit in our midst.

When I was at the height of my addiction I was blinded to believe that God very rarely showed up in the small church gathering, in the monotony of my daily living and of Sunday after Sunday going through the motions, in the weariness of bringing up my children, of leading them up the right path, in the discouragement of a marriage filled with challenges and the daily call of laying my wishes down, my priorities down, in the cries echoing in my ears from those in need outside the church walls.

And yet, no sooner was there mention at church or by one of my brothers or sisters about an oncoming Spiritual event, there was automatically an assumption, an expectation, an obligation for God to comply and show up, for us to put one mask down and pick up the other, to put down our faithless and discouraged mask, and pick up our faith-full and joyful mask.  The moment any of these events were announced, recruiting takers was of the utmost importance and the subtle pressure put upon members to drop all and attend was considerable and undeniable.  Even today, as I am no longer a member of a church and many are aware of my views on the church system and its short-sightedness, I get existing members still asking me whether I would come along to some of these events as if there I would find the magic pill to sustain my faith and to fix me up with the fruits of the Spirit til the next event.

I recently had a person come up to me to tell me that they had just returned form one of these “fixes” and how they felt absolutely on top of the world, on a massive spiritual high, how God had spoken to them about their purpose in life, and how great they felt for it.  Euphoric is a word I would use to describe the state of this person’s mind at the time.  Interestingly, at any other time this person often looks downcast, discouraged, hurting, searching, restless, vulnerable and transparent (some of the best attributes in a genuine Christian and fertile ground for others to grow and mature their seeds of faith in).  Whilst I rejoiced with this person for their momentary happiness and elation at the closeness of God during those short-lived moments, in my heart I sobbed at the thought of how long would it take for the ecstasy to wear off and for the desperate crave for a new fix to take place in this person’s soul? Having shared how great they felt, this person went on to ask me whether I or my husband had anything to shout about that God was currently doing in our life, to which I was left speechless and pondering within:  God does not need to do anything in my life for me to brag and shout about it, because God IS and He lives in me and that is all I need and all I need to know. I have to learn to live everyday of my life in that knowledge, even in those days which tend to be the majority of a person’s life when life is a challenge, tiresome, discouraging and dull.

Like I said, I have been there, done that, got the T-shirt so I do not sit here in judgement of that person or any other, but simply recognising myself in them and praying that they are released from the enslaving habit in many Christians’ life that is basing their faith not on what God has already done for them through Jesus Christ on the cross, but on what He still must do for them next.  The problem with that. to mention one of many, is that the next fix always has to be bigger and better, and until we trust that God is in the small, seemingly insignificant details of our life, in the boredom, the pain, the discouragement, the doubts, the fear, the weakness and our failure, we will miss Him and what He is trying to do with our time here on this earth, where he is taking us and others through us, and that is a gigantically significant thing to miss for one who calls themselves an active, practising, devout, passionate follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, or one who aspires to become such.

The Church today has an insatiable appetite for these spiritual fixes to the point where one is often regarded as not being serious about following Christ unless they are committed to attending every single event going, every single worship conference going, or every mass prayer event going. Whatever the in-Christian circles are talking about, that is where one must be to be counted.  And God forbid you decide to raise the issue that perhaps their time and the church’s money would be better spent in practical acts of compassion and being doers of the word as opposed to just hearers.

The words of Jesus ring in my ears loud and clear.  Come to me all those who are tired and weary for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.  Again, traditionally and conveniently understood as referring to the burden of sin, addiction, and evil at large.  And yet Jesus constantly confronted the Pharisees and other religious hypocrites who got caught up in the legalism of unfounded principles and false obligations used to control and feel superior to others, used to create authority and power which was not theirs to have.  Jeus did not spend much time talking about physical addiction of any kind, but He sure invested time and energy declaring the malady in believers of his time who set up rules and regulations, and missed the very One they claimed to revere and worship by placing their focus time and time again on those who in their eyes did not comply with the rights and wrongs of what it meant to be a true believer, by placing their focus and energy on the wrong place, on the next best thing.

I have now spent almost a year in rehab getting over my addiction to spiritual highs and to having my ego stroked by others who like me base their faith and understand spirituality as the ability to use spiritual jargon with ease, as their knowledge of their latest church trend and the latest teaching by those considered and branded true men and women of God of the day. I won’t lie to you. the withdrawal symptoms have nearly got the better of me on many occasions and at times it was just easier to think about going back to church, to the old system, than to wean myself off what was familiar, convenient, pleasurable and simply easier than having to face the rest of my life interacting with the Spirit of God in a private fashion with no hype, no background noise, no clamour, no fanfare, and most certainly no men’s constrictive ways which dictate that living as a Christian must be filled with conferences, worship events, concerts, public prayer meetings, seminars, spiritual retreats and all the other resource-wasting, money spinning enterprises that our flesh in its weakness has masqueraded as the be all and end all of how to get close to God, and how to make it big in the Christian world, how to even be a man or woman after God’s own heart when in truth we are after pretty much anything but God’s own heart.

The road to cleansing and ridding my soul from all that clatter and noise has been an arduous, lonely and dreary one, but as a result I now know that the faith that I now have is pure, unadulterated, and a simple faith which is resting in God’s daily assurance that the price was paid on that cross and I need to add nothing to that but simply rest in his love, grace and provision one day at a time.

God doesn’t always show up when I expect Him to these days and my mind is finally void of the spiritual rhetoric I once excelled at and impressed others with.  In fact, He often does not show up at all.  AND YET I would not exchange the sporadic glimmers I see of His goodness, His love, His grace and mercy upon me and upon others in my daily living as a simple human being who believes in God beyond what so many churches have made of Him, I would not exchange that for a million spiritual highs experienced at the mercy of peer pressure, human expectation, spiritual pride, falsehood, deception and even make-believe.

For what good is it for a man to gain the whole world, if he loses his soul?

ARE YOU IN BITTERNESS OF SOUL?

Though I have been put on the shelf by God for a while, my heart still beats hard and robustly to the drum of the Holy Spirit calling his church to repentance, to an act of renewal and rebirth.  The article below written by the wonderful David Wilkerson, who is no longer amongst us but whose spirit lives on, has touched me deeply and filled me with hope.  I hope it does that for you too.

GOD’s POWERFUL ARMY -by David Wilkerson.

Something very powerful and awesome is going on in the world today —something beyond human comprehension—something that will affect the whole world in these last days.

God is preparing a small but powerful army of Christians, the most dedicated army on the face of the earth. The Lord will come forth to command them to do exploits; He is going to close out the ages with a pure, devoted, fearless remnant.

All my life I have heard stories about our godly forefathers who hated sin. These men and women knew God’s voice and spent hours, even days, in fasting and prayer. They prayed unceasingly and had the power and ability to successfully stand up against immorality in their day.

These forefathers have long since passed on. But God is in the process of raising up another army and this time His warriors will not be made up only of elderly, gray-haired fathers and mothers of Zion. This new army will be composed of both new and seasoned believers, both young and old, ordinary Christians who lay hold of God! A whole new realm of ministry is about to come forth!

The denominational church system appears to be in the throes of death. It has almost no influence in the secular world, no mighty power in Christ. Some accuse me of being “hard” on pastors. But I am in touch with many godly pastors who grieve as I do over the backsliding in the ministry today. There is a holy remnant of godly pastors in the land, and I thank God for every one of them. Yet, it is still a fact that more and more ministers are racing down the road of compromise.

The Bible warns that we are not to fret! God has a plan and it is being manifested. It is put forth plainly in Scripture, mostly in the first four chapters of First Samuel.

The prophet Samuel is a type of God’s last-days remnant. The Lord chose him amid the worst of times and hid him away in training until it was time to bring forth His new thing. God told Samuel, “Behold, I will do something in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle” (1 Samuel 3:11). What would so amaze and startle all who heard it? It was the judgment of God on the backslidden religious system and the raising up, training and anointing of a new, holy remnant!

What God did in Samuel’s day, He does in every generation. Indeed, in every generation there has been a remnant, a praying people after His own heart.

BIRTH OF the LAST-DAYS REMNANT

The prophet Samuel is a type of the last-days holy remnant—a prepared body of believers that rises out of the ruins of the old, decadent church.

Hannah, Samuel’s mother, birthed her son through bitter tears and much prayer. “And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the Lord and wept in anguish” (1 Samuel 1:10).

Try to imagine the scene: Hannah was at the temple every day, on her knees before the altar, crushed and broken because she was childless. As she wept, her adversary—her husband’s other wife— made fun of her. “And her rival also provoked her severely, to make her miserable, because the Lord had closed her womb” (1 Samuel 1:6).

There are three important things I want to point out from this passage:

    * First, the remnant that Samuel represents is born in grief and intercession.     * Second, those who pray and grieve after God’s heart will be provoked by adversaries.     * And third, God’s remnant is always going to be misunderstood!

Note what happened to Hannah as she prayed: “And it happened, as she continued praying before the Lord, that Eli watched her mouth. Now Hannah spoke in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought she was drunk. So Eli said to her, ‘How long will you be drunk? Put your wine away from you!’” (1 Samuel 1:12-14). Eli and his sons represent the dying, corrupt church that has forsaken the Lord’s way. Eli was so out of touch—so dead in his spirit—he thought Hannah was drunk!

When Hannah was praying, she was filled with grief, burdened for the birth of a son. All she could do was move her lips because of her groaning in the Spirit. She prayed, “If You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and . . . will give Your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life” (1 Samuel 1:11).

Here are two distinguishing marks of God’s holy remnant:

    * They pray like Hannah. Their burden is deep and their heart is stirred because of the wickedness in God’s house.     * Like Hannah, they give themselves to prayer every day of their lives.

God wants to make you like that. He wants you to be able to touch Him and hear from Him. He wants to give you a ministry to others who will come to you with their burdens and trials. And as you pray for them, His Word will come forth!

West Coast Disaster. Will we listen?

You may recall a while ago I published a post called “Will California shake beyond recognition?” (http://anewcreation33.wordpress.com/2011/09/08/will-california-shake-again/)

This morning reading through some of the websites on my blogroll I discovered a prophetic word recently given by Rick Joyner which you can find on the link below.  I think it is fair to say there are far too many of us getting a burden, dreams and visions about the shaking that is coming to California for the world to ignore it.  Please pray for that part of the United States and for repentance to come to that land before it is too late, pray for God’s mercy and for a great harvest to be reaped as God’s will come to pass.

Thank you and God bless you.

Here is the link.  Please take the time to reflect on this, to pray about it and to seek God. The majority of us discard these kinds of warnings, because we know from a scientific point of view and from history that indeed the West Coast of America is one of the most prone areas in the world to suffer earthquakes, so what’s new, right? That granted, I still feel God would not burden so many of us with warnings about this, unless He intended to bring His people to repentance, and for none to perish before it is too late.

Our Heavenly Father is a Compassionate, Fair and Merciful God, but ultimately He is also Just, Holy, All-knowing, Omnipotent and Sovereign.

http://www.morningstarministries.org/Articles/1000116498/MorningStar_Ministries/Media/Word_for_the/2011/West_Coast_Disaster.aspx#.TthTu-ChkHk.facebook

Is it time to close our churches? For the most part, I’d say so!

Is It Time To Close Our Churches?

by Bill Muehlenberg (http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/)

OK, now that I have got your attention, let me explain. I was again having a great conversation with a godly brother about the state of the church and related matters. I mentioned the sad state of so much of Australian – and Western – Christianity, and what might be done about it.

We were talking about how basically all churches and denominations have some amount of the traditions of men. Most would claim to be merely biblical, but perhaps none are entirely so. We all have various traditions we tack on to our faith, thinking everything we do is all gospel truth.

I mentioned, as an example, how in so many of the churches it seems almost mandatory to have worship conducted in what can only be described as a disco: black walls, strobe lights, smoke machines, etc. There is not one bit of biblical warrant for any of this, but so many churches seem to think that without all this they would somehow be quite deficient.

I have written before about such matters: www.billmuehlenberg.com/2010/08/31/christian-atheism/

And here: www.billmuehlenberg.com/2009/11/29/david%E2%80%99s-mighty-men-godly-discontentment/

My brother fully agreed with me, but said that they would argue they need such things to draw in the young people or make it relevant. To which I replied, “What’s wrong with the Holy Spirit? Is he not sufficient to draw in both young and old?” The Holy Ghost was all the early church had. They had no gimmicks, no techniques, no marketing strategies, no advertising, and so on.

But they did have a growing and thriving church. They did not need or want manmade mechanisms to grow a church. They knew God alone would suffice. My friend, again agreeing, and again playing devil’s advocate, asked how we will keep people, especially our youth, coming to church. They need some sort of draw card.

I said we don’t really need entertainment and celebrities to draw people. If that was all we needed, then we should go the whole hog and have free pizzas, door prizes, and other appealing things 24/7. That would certainly bring in the crowds.

The trouble is, if the only way we can get people into our churches is through gimmicks, entertainment and worldly lures, then that will be what they come to expect for their entire Christian life. If their Christian journey is not fun, entertaining, feel-good and me-centred, they will go elsewhere for better and cheaper thrills.

We cannot start  believers off on the wrong foot and then expect they will continue on the right foot. A false initiation to the Christian faith will always disappoint in the end. Such shallow gospel gimmickry can only result in shallow Christians.

The entertainment and celebrity culture (by which I mean not just the songs but the sermons and the whole feel-good experience), needs to be radically rethought. Indeed, I would suggest that we can probably dispense with most of it, and start asking ourselves how God in fact builds a church. One thought which has exercised my spirit for some time now I will throw out here.

If it results in even more believers thinking I am a bit of a strange duck, well, that may be the price I have to pay. I try not to worry too much about what people think, but I do endeavour to take seriously what God thinks. (Of course I am fully aware that God speaks through his people. So I do actually take all criticisms on board, and try to treat them like a fish dinner: take the meat while leaving the bones behind.)

So let me offer a real hardcore suggestion here. My recommendation is this: it may well be the best thing in many cases to simply shut our church doors and post a big sign on each entry with words something like this:

“Dear friends, sorry but our church is now closed for repairs. It will be closed for perhaps a few days, perhaps a few weeks, and maybe even longer, until a full and thorough renovation has taken place. These doors will remain shut for as long as it takes. We will notify you when the doors will reopen. In fact, there will be no need to notify you, because it will be apparent to everyone when the renewal work is completed. Thank you for your patience.”

Am I being facetious here? Not really – at least not too much. I do believe that sometimes the very best thing we could do for some of our churches is shut them down for a spell. When the church is shut down, God’s people and their leaders can then spend as much time on their faces before God as possible, beginning with some serious repentance.

The list of things to repent of would be extensive. We could repent of our worldliness, our compromise, our disobedience, our laziness, our lukewarmness, our apathy, our carnality, our waywardness, our sloth, our cowardice, our sinfulness, and our fleshliness. And that’s just for starters.

We could repent of relying on man-made techniques, pagan gimmicks, carnal entertainment, worldly celebrity status, and whoring after money, fame and fortune. Above all we could repent of thinking that the Holy Spirit is somehow just an optional extra, and that having lots of entertainment and things to do will somehow compensate for his absence.

We must take very seriously the words of Christ: “These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (Matthew 15:8). Until our hearts are broken and malleable and contrite and soft, we will never be able to do much good for God. That is the clear teaching of Scripture:

“A broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17)

“For this is what the high and exalted One says— he who lives forever, whose name is holy: ‘I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite’.” (Isaiah 57:15)

“These are the ones I look on with favor: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word.” (Isaiah 66:2)

And we should stay on our faces before God in an attitude of contrition, repentance and humility for as long as it takes. When, by God’s grace, the garbage in our churches and in our lives is weeded out, and we are at a place of brokenness before him, where we are willing to say, “Lord, whatever it takes,” and God then gloriously and wonderfully meets us and renews us and fills us afresh, then we can reopen the doors.

In other words, until the Lord meets us with a new, deep and serious work of God, breaking forth into a transforming revival, we should maybe take a break from all our busyness. When God-breathed revival breaks forth, we will not need to waste our time on entertainment and fleshly gimmicks and cheap tricks to keep the crowds amused.

We will be too busy falling before the holy and living God. We will have to think about how to deal with the overflowing crowds. That will be a much nicer problem to have. Remember, Jesus never left as his parting commandment, “Go into all the world and make megachurches, draw big crowds, and entertain the masses”.

He said “Go into all the world and make disciples.” That is an altogether different matter. And the only real way that can be done is by the power of the Spirit. Instead of so much relying on every method under the sun, we need to more fully embrace the only true means Christ has prescribed for us: the Holy Spirit.

As usual, A.W. Tozer had it exactly right: “If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95 percent of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference.”

Postscript

OK, let me offer a much-needed afterword for all those ready to tar and feather me and run me out of town. Are there a lot of great churches, Christians, and church leaders doing great things? You bet. Is God ever so gracious and merciful to us that he shows up week after week even though we have so much carnality and fleshliness in our gatherings? Yep.

It is the overwhelming grace of God that he so often uses us frail, weak and often selfish servants. My point is simply that instead of relying on so many gimmicks and techniques, maybe we just need to go back to basics and invite God back and ask him how he would like things to be done.

And my proposal is not all that radical. Pastors will often take a sabbatical; church leaders will often do a weekend retreat; and lay people will often go to a week-long church camp for spiritual renewal and refocusing. So my suggestion is simply a bit more of the same.

I thank God for all the faithful Christians, faithful churches, and faithful leaders who are sold out to Jesus and are intent on glorifying him. May their tents increase and may there be many more of them.

The Church as a Boy’s Club by Bill Muehlenberg – Well worth a read!!

The Church as Boy’s Club     

by Bill Muehlenberg (http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/)

Thomas Sowell once said that “The biggest myth about labor unions is that unions are for the workers. Unions are for unions, just as corporations are for corporations and politicians are for politicians.” And I might add, sadly, some churches are for churches, and some church leaders are for church leaders – not necessarily the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We kid ourselves if we think some believers and Christian leaders are in the church for only pure spiritual motives. There are all sorts of reasons why some people covet leadership positions in churches. The same desire for fame, fortune, glory, power, self-aggrandisement and empire building we find in the world can also readily be found in our churches.

Many church leaders exist simply to protect their own turf, their own livelihood, and their own ego. They especially thrive on the praises and adulation of men. Indeed, while the Bible clearly warns about men pleasers, they are by no means absent in much of the church today.

Sure, one can see why believers can so easily fall into such traps. No one wants to be unpopular, disliked, unloved, and not respected. That is a very human characteristic. But Christians are not supposed to be simply catering to human desires and whims.

We are to be seeking to please God above all else. Indeed, I would rather be accepted by God and spurned by men than be loved by men and spurned by God. At the end of the day the only thing that really matters is what God thinks of us, not what man thinks of us.

I am reminded of a story concerning Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. A clergyman had assured him that God was on the North’s side of the conflict. Lincoln replied to him, “I know that the Lord is always on the side of right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord’s side.”

Quite so. I don’t want to be simply ‘right’. I don’t want to be popular. I don’t want to be successful. I only want to be pleasing in all things to God. I want to one day hear those words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” And if that means falling out of favour with man, then so be it.

That is a very small price indeed to pay to be pleasing to God. Yet we seem to find so few leaders today who put God’s pleasure above everything else. They seem more intent on heaping upon themselves the praises of men. They want to be surrounded by admirers, fans, and groupies. They bask in the limelight of human praise, but seem less concerned about heavenly approbation.

And too often such folks find great comfort in the company of other like-minded folks. Thus too often the church becomes a closed shop, a little men’s club, a mutual pat-yourself-on-the back club, where they simply become yes men to one another. It becomes just like any other closed club where any outside assessments, questions or criticisms are verboten, and they remain above any searching evaluation.

They exist simply to exist. It is a self-perpetuating kingdom where existence is paramount. Just as so many politicians will put staying in power above all else, so too many church leaders have ensconced positions of power, where they feed on the praises of men and the adoration of the crowds.

I have seen this first hand too often, and it is not a pretty sight. These folks would rather bask in the applause of men than spend time in the shadow of the almighty. They would rather parade around the world and receive the praises of men than spend time on their faces before the crucified Lord.

They do not believe in the offense of the gospel, or recognise a rejected saviour. They only know glory, power, fame and fortune. Their Christ is only a triumphant conquering king, not a messiah crowned with a headpiece of thorns. Because of this gross imbalance, their Jesus is not the Christ of Scripture, but the stuff of fiction.

And so many believers are so very happy to hop on board such a triumphant and prosperous faith. At such venues the gospel message is usually mangled beyond comprehension. Banished forever are words and concepts like sin, mortification, self-denial, holiness, repentance, sacrifice, and the wrath of God.

Instead, the words are always so warm and fuzzy and reassuring and accepting. It is all about you, and how you can feel better about yourself, and how you can prosper and lose weight and succeed in your business and be wealthy and free of illness, trouble, trials, or suffering.

It is a man-centred gospel preached by man-centred preachers. And for all that, there is only applause and cheers. The offence of the cross has been well and truly disposed of. Jesus is the buddy of mankind, not the righteous judge of the universe whose eyes flash with fire and whose sword drips with blood.

This domesticated Jesus is to everyone’s liking. The masses love him and the false prophets love to proclaim him. His message is so easy and so me-centred. Who wouldn’t want to follow such a figure? But as Leonard Ravenhill rightly warned, “If Jesus had preached the same message that ministers preach today, He would never have been crucified.”

Indeed, Joseph Sobran was quite incisive when he said this several decades ago: “The church is hated more for her virtues than for her weaknesses. Nobody hates Zeus or Thor or the Buddha, because nobody feels deeply rebuked by their standard of morality. We can look back on them benignly, because they are remote from us and pose no threat to our self respect. Christ is different. He is not out-of-date because he was never up-to-date. He was immediately loved and hated by his contemporaries, most of whom rejected him because his teachings were too hard. As G.K. Chesterton said, his morality was poorly adapted to his time: That is why he was crucified. Anyone who teaches his morality today can expect to be attacked too.”

William Booth said this over 100 years ago, and it is spot on: “I consider that the chief dangers which confront the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell.”

This perfectly describes the modern day church. And I am not just talking about the obvious liberal mainstream denominations, but about so many of our supposedly Bible-believing evangelical and charismatic churches today. This describes to a T the situation in so many of our churches.

As is so often the case, A.W. Tozer hit the nail on the head when he said, “The desire to please may be commendable enough under certain circumstances, but when pleasing men means displeasing God it is an unqualified evil and should have no place in the Christian’s heart. To be right with God has often meant to be in trouble with men.”

Let me offer you one more quote which is one of my very real favourites: “Controversy for the sake of controversy is a sin: controversy for the sake of truth is a Divine command” (Dr Walter Martin). I for one absolutely hate controversy and conflict. I would much rather sit in a corner and read books all day.

So why in the world I do what I do is a good question. But there is only one right answer: it is because my saviour did not just sit in a corner and read books, but gave up everything so that I might be made right with him. How can I do any less in return?

If standing with him against the gates of hell and the hatred of men toward us is part of the cost, then so be it. I am not in the least bit interested in living a life of ease and comfort. Sure, I can get that and more if I simply go with the crowd and seek to please men. But if I do this, I am crucifying my Lord afresh.

We have sold out the gospel to please men and be acceptable. This is the great scandal of the modern-day church. I for one do not want to be part of this scandalous situation. I want to be with the Lamb who was slain, who now deserves all praise and honour and glory. Forget the lousy praise and honour of men.  Who needs it? It is time to seek His praise, and His alone.

On the brink of Global Economic Collapse

This morning I found the article below in my inbox.  Its content relates pretty well to the subject discussed on my blog yesterday.  If you have not done so already, read my previous post please.

The world’s economic balance is hanging by a very fine thread, and we are still finding big, powerful and influential churches occupied with feeble pursuits such as helping its congregation to lose weight.  Never has the following verse of the Bible been more relevant than today, as the economic wheel that makes the world spin round truly hangs in the balance:

This economic turmoil will bring with it like never before big waves of casualties affected by poverty, hunger, unemployment, violence and illness and at a time when the church should be getting ready to be the light and the salt to the world, at a time when thousands of Christians should have been trained, equipped, taught and well rehearsed on how to minister to others who will present such challenging and dramatic needs, we continue to be self-absorbed and self-focused, we continue to be lukewarm and indifferent about the world perishing around us because our time, gifting, resources and most importantly our leadership has lost its North and its compass.  They have put their attention and focus in all the wrong places, in misplaced and misjudged ends and goals.

Tell me, what kind of military leader lets its troops fall into slumber and complacency at the very moment when there is a looming warning of battle and grave danger in the horizon, when there is knowledge about dramatic events threatening the stability, balance, safety and health of the territory those troops are responsible for defending with all they’ve got? And yet despite the numerous warnings in God’s word about how Christians must prepare for “battle”, and the millions of dollars and pounds invested on training the Christian Leaders of today, the acts of The Western Church spoken off today do not resemble in any way those spoken about in the Bible.  Perhaps the one similarity we could speak of is the quick increase in church attendance and membership in certain places but not as a result of a “Damascus” encounter where the individual personally meets with Christ, but as a result of the holiness of Christ being taken out of the equation and being replaced by worldly pursuits little to do with the cross. Somehow I don’t think Saddleback and Rick Warren would have made the New York Times’ Headlines had it not been for the very lack of reverence, holiness and shocking misplacement of loyalties and priorities at the very foundation of this church’s understanding of what defines people after God’s own heart.

“NEW RECESSION THREATENS the GLOBE”

-Ambrose Evans-Pritchard (Nov 10).

The OECD’s index of leading indicators for China, India, Brazil, Canada, Britain and the eurozone have all tipped below the warning line of 100, with the pace of the decline in Europe exceeding the onset of the Great Contraction in early 2008. Professor Simon Johnson, a former chief economist at the IMF, rattled nerves earlier this week by warning the world is “looking straight into the face of a great depression”.  The grim data is coming thick and fast. Japan’s machinery orders fell 8.2pc in September as the post-Fukushima rebound lost steam and the delayed effects of the super-strong yen began to bite.  Export orders have been declining for eight months.  “Outright contraction is possible in the quarters ahead,” said Mark Cliffe from ING.  Exports in the Philippines dropped 27pc in September, the sharpest fall in two years. Korea’s exports have showed sharply, caused by a 20pc slide in shipments to Europe. Manufacturing has been contracting for the past three months.  Christine Lagarde, the IMF’s chief, warned in Asia that “there are dark clouds gathering in the global economy. Countries need to prepare for any storm that might reach their shores”. She said “adverse feedback loops” are at work as financial stress and economic woes feed on each other.  China’s carefully managed soft landing has turned uncomfortably hard, with ripple effects through the commodity markets.  Spot iron-ore prices have dropped 30pc since July to $126 a tonne.  Copper prices have fallen 20pc since August.  Barclays Capital said the risks of contagion to China has become serious. The bank is monitoring the country’s “key high frequency data” for early warning signs of the sort of sudden crash in metals demand seen during the Lehman crisis…

“The credit spigot has been turned off in the US,” said Chris Whelan from Institutional Risk Analytics… Fiscal and monetary stimulus has disguised the underlying sickness in the debt-laden economies of the West over the past two years.  This heavy make-up has at last faded away, exposing the awful visage beneath.

It is a delicate moment. The risk of a synchronised slump in Europe, the US and East Asia is bad enough. What is chilling is to face such a possibility with the monetary pedal already pushed to the floor in the US, UK and Japan.  Worse yet is to do so with Europe spiralling into institutional self-destruction…

Fancy losing weight? Forget the gym and go to church instead

Well, I have to say that I think I have now heard it all: a church which has started a weight-loss campaign by means of putting in place accountability partners through small groups.  Please somebody tell me this is the plot of the latest Hollywood Comedy and not a genuine enterprise taken on by one of the most influential and well-known leaders in today’s Western Church?  Though on a first read this is truly comical, as I dig deeper, my heart really aches and my spirit is grieved, truly grieved.  The reasons for my heartache on this occasion are just far too obvious so at the risk of being patronising, I ask you to please read this article and see for yourselves.

Would love to hear your thoughts and comments! Do you think these slimmer individuals may be the new wineskins Jesus spoke of?  Somehow I very much doubt it. This is in my opinion a mockery of the sanctification Christians are called to and of Christ’s redemptive power too.

I was disturbed by this article and the lengths Christian leaders go to to be contemporary, popular,  trendy and being seen to move with the times, or as some of the readers of the New York Times article have put it, to act “outside the box”.  Please somebody explain to me what weight loss has to do with Christ’s commission to his followers and disciples.  I thought the idea of accountability and fellowship were primarily for the sole purpose of building each other up towards sanctification, repentance, humility and ultimately the desire to become more Christ-like. and to inspire others to do the same.

This whole thing is yet another mockery of what The Church should be doing at this hour and rather than leading by example we are truly losing all credibility as God’s own people. As the powers of hell intensify in the world today, those wih suppossedly Godly authority and power to fight back are taking their eyes off the MAIN thing and letting their guard down.  Come to church to lose weight.  Someone out there must be cheering and having a good laugh and I don’t think it is God.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/10/at-a-big-church-a-small-group-health-solution/

1000 Churches and 4000 Homeless. Sound familiar?

Jesus said that the poor would always be with us.  He did not say however that just because they will always be around, we were to neglect them and their needs and put religion above love.  And yet that is exactly what the Western Church is doing. The piece below is written by a pastor who lives in Nashville, Tennessee.  It was sent to me by a website I have subscribed to and as I read it, I immediately felt the stirring of the Holy Spirit to echo in this space the travesty that this person is trying to put an end to by getting off the fence and by calling and recognising things for what they truly are.  Though he speaks of the situation in Nashville, Tennessee, I a pretty certain this is a reality which is also common in many other North American cities and States as it is in many European countries.  Indeed, I have witnessed this in the UK where I live.

My spirit totally resonates with what this person is saying.  It has done so for years but even today, despite the thousands of prophetic voices and secular voices who are shouting out: STOP PUSHING RELIGION OVER JESUS!, the Western church is blindly marching on to a beat that has nothing to do with the heart of Jesus Christ, and the watchmen and women who have been called to blow the trumpet are cast out to the sidelines as man’s pride determines that the kingdom of God no longer needs them on their ranks.

Expenses incurred by flashier technology, communications and stage setting, substantial salaries paid to people who are to shine like a lighthouse for those lost but who instead use that power, potential, gifting and resources to promote themselves and their campaigns, to gradually climb up the ladder of la creme de la creme of church hierarchy (and please note I am not talking here about the Catholic Church hierarchy, but a much more ferocious, deceiving monster disguised as an angel of light which operates by pulling the strings of the prideful puppets who are driving the Western Church today).

Most Christians I know are in love with the idea of being the Church of Jesus Christ to the world rather than being in love with Christ himself and His Church.  The problem is that what many Christians understand as what it means to be The Church falls way too short from what Christ intended it to be, and though many leaders know this deep down, they would rather live through the next best thing than push for authenticity and the foundational principles and core elements of the Christian faith.  Christian leadership is in my opinion for the most part gutless today.  There is a deeply rooted fear of alienating their following by getting down to the nitty-gritty of what it truly means to be a Christian.  Instead churches have become auditoriums, fountains of theoretical knowledge with little if any hands-on acts of grace, mercy, compassion and selflessness.   Show me a church that is intent in casting out a new vision for a concise, clear and to the point mandate that was given thousands of years ago by Jesus Christ, and what you truly have is a group of people who strive to define new ways and come up with new formulas to continue doing the same old, same old about Christ’s command to look after the orphans, the widows, the poor, the lost, those in prison, the broken-hearted, those tormented by demons, those in despair.  Oh no!  It is much easier to keep talking about it and to keep learning different ways to tackle all these ministries without actually doing any of it, or doing simply enough to be able to pat ourselves on the back, but not really giving our all to any of it as a church.   Just enough to make the church’s “resume” look like it is that of a church, but only just.

There are two of my posts which are by far the most read daily on my blog.  To me this is illustrative of what is going on in people’s minds today. These are:

“Why did I stop going to church? Because I was looking for Jesus and I could not find him there” (http://anewcreation33.wordpress.com/2011/04/05/you-are-always-on-their-lips-but-far-from-their-hearts/) and

“You are the only Bible most people will ever read” (http://anewcreation33.wordpress.com/2010/06/23/you-are-the-only-bible-most-people-will-ever-read-ouch-2/).

The world is hanging from a very delicate balance at the moment and men and women all over the world are beginning to truly see their own vulnerability and God’s supremacy above all that there is and ever was.  And as they do, the acts of The Church are scrutinized and closely followed and questioned.  The Spirit of Christ lives on but it is certainly not to be found amongst folk who are happy to part with their money, time and resources so that Sunday worship is more contemporary, slick and so that better venues can be hired, state of the ark equipment can be bought and the latest leadership trends can be taught in top-notch premises by the most charismatic, trendy and entertaining of speakers.

The name of Jesus is far too Holy and precious to be used as the banner that condones, promotes and fattens up the calf we call Church today.  As in Moses’ time many are once again ceasing the worship of such idol and instead turning their ears to the voice of their Shepherd Jesus Christ as He leads them to further the kingdom in fresh and unique ways away from a religious system which seeks to control, manoeuver and own what is freely given and should be freely shared and ultimately belongs to God alone.  Those who are intent on worshipping a golden calf which relies on its own discernment, wealth, power and authority will miss the spirit of Christ which lives on away from man-made enterprises that behave, operate and do without the spirit of God just as the rest of the world we fail to lead by example does.

Many will reject this message as coming from a person who in their eyes is intent on tearing down The Church as we know it, but in my heart I know that before I knew Christ and God’s word I did not have this message burning deep in my heart and now I cannot but shout it out to the four corners of the earth.  I will never tire from doing so and will only stop when that flame that burns within me is extinguished.   Many will say that it is more Christ-like to love than to criticize and judge, but what person who claims to love would let another continue living in error and deception? What kind of love for Christ is it that turns a blind eye to the shambles that today’s Western church really is?  Does God not tell us that wounds from a friend can be trusted? I may note be your friend but our faith in Christ sure makes us spiritual brothers and sisters, and God knows the bond birthed out of being part of the same family goes way deeper than any friendship. It is my absolute conviction that when it comes to Christianity and the role of The Church in the world at this hour, tearing down is exactly what is needed in order to allow good fruit the chance to flourish and abound.  There is nothing else for it.  We keep re-inventing the wheel, but the truth is it was never man’s job, responsibility or even calling to dictate how to follow the Holy Spirit, how to be a follower of Jesus Christ or how to even be the church.  One discovers how to do all these things by simply seeking and abiding in Christ himself.  It is all in the book and the truth is we have drifted so far from the simplicity of Christ’s heart that we can no longer discern where Christ ends and man begins.

I used to regularly read the blog of a Nashville Pastor, a very charismatic and likeable individual, a good man no doubt.  One day he shared in his blog that him and hundreds of other pastors in the States would meet for a spiritual retreat/conference on board of a cruise ship.  I left a comment on his site to challenge the audacity and blindness of hundreds of Christians leaders who had turned a blind day to the fact that they openly and publicly declared and identified themselves daily as having been given authority from above and as leaders of the Christian faith, and yet were clueless and blind enough to think that Jesus would approve of resources and blessings destined for spreading the Kingdom of God to be lavished upon the very ones called to lead by example in humility, meekness and sacrificial lives.  I was astounded at the level of deception that has gone into the deepest layers of the Western Church.  This pastor replied to my comment half agreeing that yes God’s blessings should be used wisely and in the same sentence defending that pastors have a very tough time of it and deserve to be refreshed and nourished spiritually as they need to be in fellowship with other pastors and be pastored themselves.  To the idea that pastors need to go on retreats and be nourished and refreshed, I have to say, don’t we all? We all have extremely busy lives full of responsibility, concern and things to do and places to be at.   As a mother, a wife and a person holding a job, and specially as a Christian sometimes I feel suffocated, desperately trying to come to the surface for a gasp of air to help me breath.  I spend most of my time looking after the needs of another, and I have to be honest, there are times when that kind of sacrificial giving just proves too much and I want to throw the towel in and be refreshed and nourished myself, but something deep inside as I am down on my knees ready to give up always gives me that wake up call that if I am to truly follow Christ, I am here for others and not myself and that the only refreshing and nourishment I  need is that of my spirit and that MUST come from Christ himself and no one or nothing else.

If the millions of secular Christians who have full-time jobs, families, and ministries manage to find time to nourish and refresh their spiritual life, then why can’t those remunerated Christian leaders do the same without rewarding themselves as the world would do for what is meant to be sacrificial?  How are they then different from the world? I do agree that pastors need to be pastored themselves, but that links us to the same principle that they need to go to the source and not hang out with others who are in as much desperate need to have their hunger and thirst quenched by the spirit of Christ as they themselves are.  The Spirit breaths more of the Spirit, the flesh will simply feed the flesh.

This pastor also told me that I should not knock down all these different conferences and retreats as a negative in the Christian world and put them all in the same basket, because he himself gave his life to Christ during one of this conferences.  God in his grace and mercy will give us ample opportunities to seek Him and to find Him, and yes He will use any place, time and circumstance to reach out to us and draw us to Himself, but what percentage of people attending these conferences and retreats do you think have not given their life to Christ already?  I can assure you, having attended a few of these things myself years ago, the majority have been a Christian for years already and are there for self-gratification and for fellowship which in many instances does not mean to pray and to lead sacrificial lives together, but simply to hang out with people who are of the same mind and will never challenge them or rub them up the wrong way, in other words with those who will tickle their ears.

There is a need for Christian teachers and shepherds to be out there teaching and shepherding, of course there is, but it is the thousands outside the church walls who have not heard it all before who are perishing in front of our very eyes not having known salvation, redemption and forgiveness, and not the millions who mechanically and lawfully march to the churches on a Sunday and walk out pretty much in the same way they went in: unchallenged, uninspired, and above all not having encountered God.  How could they? Jesus was never found amongst those who had it all, those who had need for nothing, those who were confident in their own ability and strength, or those who thought they knew it all already and had the magic formula to spirituality and to how to get into God’s good book so that in turn many blessings and prosperity would follow. My, my how far the mighty have fallen.

Below is that piece from the Nashville Pastor, whom by the way is not the same guy with whom I had a few exchanges in his blog.

1000 CHURCHES and 4000 HOMELESS??

-by ’Beres’.

I live in Nashville where more Bibles are printed than
anywhere else in the world. We have more Christian publishing houses in
Nashville than anywhere else on the face of the earth – more churches per
square mile – and, outside the Vatican, a greater percentage of bodies in
buildings on Sunday morning than anywhere else on earth. So we in Nashville
have a better chance to get it right, wouldn’t you say??

We have 1000 churches and 4000 homeless people living and
dying under bridges and in culverts. I know because I have prayed with them and
lain with them as they died, and every week I feed and pastor them. We can’t
even get it right enough for every church to reach out to 4 homeless people.
And yes, that includes children as young as they get.

Nashville is the headquarters for a swag of church
denominations, and para church organizations like the Gideons, and from this
buckle on the Bible belt of the richest nation on earth, missions go out all
round the globe. Those missions are funded with .01 percent of all monies
collected in North American churches.

That’s right! For every $1000 collected by North American
churches, ONE Dollar is sent to evangelize those who have never heard the name
“Jesus” – but from the latest stats, are probably well aware of the name “Coca
Cola”.

And frankly, whereas I once despaired of these manifest
failures of the church, now I say, Bring it on! Let the world see forever the
rich failures of putting religion before Jesus, ritual before relationship,
rules before lives and liturgy before love.

When the world at large finally see that the emperor has
no clothes, so also will the light of the real gospel of grace and peace shine
the brighter. For where sin abounded, grace did much more abound!

Let it get darker, our Jesus will shine brighter.

The Structure of the Church must change!

I wanted to share with you a prophetic word which I found in someone else’s site which I regularly read. It spoke right into my heart and gave me hope as well as confirmation of what I too have been hearing for years now in the secret place.  THANK YOU lord JESUS!

“THE STRUCTURE OF THE CHURCH MUST CHANGE” by
Stephen Hanson

“Can you hear the sound of my spirit speaking to you? Can you hear the sounds

of the waves beating across the shoreline? From season unto season those waves

carry the debris and deposit them upon the shoreline. The waves of the ocean echo

the timeless seasons that have been poured out upon the earth. At the tops of each
of those waves you will hear my spirit speaking to you.

In ancient times I warned the earth through my servant Noah and I sent a flood because of the wickedness of mankind. And now once again, man has reached a pinnacle of wickedness, but this time I will not send a flood.

The church has drifted far from my original plan. Many have flooded to great centers of learning. Here the writings of theologians and scholars would dictate how they would read my word. But I tell you that there are the young who know more than these men. For they would train you how to become a pastor. You will learn how to become a good speaker. You will be able to baptize. You will then be able to officiate at weddings and funerals—but will this enable you to hear from my spirit?

But I tell you that I will change the structure of the church.
For I will seek out with my own hand those who would minister in my churches.
For gone will be the days of the one-man-show.

And I will send my torch of fire across this nation. For those who have been displaced, those who have been sent out of the churches, will be given this torch. And the embers and the fires of this torch will be spread across this nation. It will be a pioneering effort; and those who are famous or well-known will be taken by surprise. In my time I will hasten it. My true church will be resurrected once again; and my spirit will enable these things to be done.

For the organization is not a living organism. As long as there is a man-made structure it will not rise to my highest level of fulfillment.

And I will speak to the young who are coming upon the scene, and they will speak forth my oracles. You haven’t seen miracles yet. You haven’t seen my provision fully extended. You have so far just seen a flash-in-the-pan.

These are the days of my warriors. These are the days of my true prophets. For they won’t speak what man wants to hear. They will only speak what I give unto them.

It is time for the old wine skins to be taken away. It is time for the scholars who have studied at the universities to leave. You need to step to the back of the room.

The generation of Saul has ended. It is now time for my Davids’ to come upon the scene.”

Stephen Hanson