Ice hockey is a fast paced contact sport that was developed in Canada in
the 19th century. In short, ice hockey has two teams of six skaters,
who attempt to drive a small solid rubber disk (the puck) into the
opposing goal with a stick that has a hooked or angled end used to move
the puck along the ice and for making goals. The sport has not changed
much except today it is played in an ice rink. One of the things that I
remember when at a ice hockey rink watching a game, was when the goalie,
(a player who guards his teams net to prevent the opposing team from
scoring a goal) would block a shot from an opposing team player from
entering the goal net. When this happened, the screen on the score board
which hung from the ceiling of the rink above the players in the center
of the rink would have big flashing letters that said, "DENIED."
In my travels in ministry, as well as reading various media by Christian
authors and viewing online videos of various ministries concerning the
church today, has cause me to grieve at what is going on in the church,
what the church has accepted as truth (which isn't), the twisting of God's Word
with liberal New Age influence interpretations of scripture and what it
refuses to do concerning building the church up spiritually. I not only
believe, but I also see the very thing that General William Booth, the
founder of the Salvation Army said over 100 years in full swing today in
the church. I quote, “I consider that the chief dangers which confront the coming century (meaning the 20th century, we are now in the 21st century) will
be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ,
forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics
without God, and heaven without hell.” Let's not be naive. This
statement is true in most sectors of the church whether Catholic or
Protestant. This should grieve every believer and should move us to
change.
The fact is, we are being "denied" or actually denying ourselves of the
wonderful blessings, gifts and callings that the Lord has given to the
church. Let us not be deceived with large numbers in congregation
thinking that God is somehow blessing us when the spiritual maturity of
the church is that of carnal Christianity. (1 Corinthians 3:1-4) Let us
not be taken by our large congregations when we are not building
according to God's Word and being led by the Holy Spirit. There are
numerous organizations with large numbers of people who are anti-Christ
and anti-church.
One of the things that should grieve us most is our lack of love for one
another especially when Jesus, our LORD, commanded us to "love one
another." In reality, the early church also had its share of problems,
but it had leaders that were willing to confront the issues with God's Word and
the leading of the Holy Spirit, not the opinions, thoughts and
intellect of man. For instance, Acts 15 reveals a situation between the
Jew and Gentile believers that arose and could have split the church
completely apart. The issue was over the necessity of the Gentile
believers as to whether they should be circumcised or not. However, the
outcome came down to who had the preeminence in the church, the apostles
and elders or the Holy Spirit? In making this crucial decision we need
to notice the order of things, "For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us..." (Acts 15:28) It seemed good to
the Holy Spirit above the opinions, thoughts and intellect of these
mighty men of God. They submitted to the Apostle James' answer because
they recognized the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking through him. If it
was only James' word, they would not have been in agreement. But they
submitted to the Holy Spirit speaking through James and submitted to one
another.
Let's be honest, if church leaders are truly being led by the Word of
God and what the Holy Spirit is speaking, there will be no division in
the church, only submission to one another in the Lord, as it should be.
However, this will not be accomplished without "...Faith working through love."
(Galatians 5:6) which begs another question. Are church leaders truly
letting faith work through love? Without faith working through love the
church will be denying itself of all the blessings that are for her
through Jesus Christ.
I believe one of the reasons why the church has lost much of its glory,
power and influence which we have not experienced as a whole for nearly
1700 years is due to its lack of dependency on God's Word and
the Holy Spirit. This has led the church into the "Dark Ages" for 1000
years which brought on what is called the "Protestant Reformation."
Though the protestant reformation which started in 1571 by Martin Luther
with his work entitled, "The Ninety-Five Theses" was meant to bring
reformation and restoration to the church, it also caused division and
disunity from those who refused to return to the Word of God and the
voice of the Holy Spirit. But even now, especially among the Protestant
churches the division and disunity continues to spread. I am not trying
to paint an ugly picture of the Body of Christ, but to bring us to the
reality of where we are. Until we are able to admit our faults to one
another and turn away from them, have a true love for Christ, His church
(all believers), God's Word and to be led by the Holy Spirit, we limit ourselves in bringing hope to a lost world.
However, there is good news. No matter where we find ourselves, the LORD is always at work in His church, even if it is a remnant that is willing to be a new wine skin to receive the new wine, the continuous working of the Holy Spirit. I also believe that the Body of Christ in
many sectors will begin experience the supernatural things of the LORD that have not been
seen since the inception of the church. PTL
Monday, January 23, 2023
Let's Not Be Denied
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