We
are destroying everything associated with Him (except nature – we worship
that), and then we call ourselves progressive.
But
you know what I think about it all?
I
think that God is letting it happen because He’s drawing lines in the sand. Through all these divisive issues, God is
saying “Pick a side! I am forcing you to decide which side you want to be on ... because I am coming back soon to take My people out of here. So I need you all to decide: Me or the world? Which do you choose?"
At least I hope that's why He's allowing all this breakdown to happen, all this conflict and divisiveness. Because if He's not - if He's not coming back soon - then God help those of us who choose to be faithful to Him. We're gonna need it!
(I updated this post with the following and reposted it next month, too!)
Let me ask a question: If there really is a God who created the world, who created people, who wrote the Bible through the hands of men, and who holds all things in His hand ... if there really is a God, who gets the right to make the rules: You or Him?
Either there is no God of the Bible or there is.
If there isn't then nothing matters anyway and you're essentially free to live by your own set of rules and so is everyone else around you. Because in the end, there is no true right or wrong, no one to answer to, and no one to dish out ultimate justice anyway.
But if there is a God ... then He has the right to make the rules, even if you don't like them. And even if you don't want to live by them and don't think they should be rules to begin with, if there is a God then no amount of disagreeing with His rules is going to change His rules. And we will all answer to Him someday for breaking His rules.
I think our society's bold disregard for God's rules and God's ways shows just how godless we have become, even if we give lip service to the idea that there is a God. But if we are allowed to make up our own rules and we don't have to answer to Him, then what kind of a "god" would he be?
Someday, we'll find out what kind of God He really is ... when we stand before Him and give an account for how we lived and what we believed.
Are you really willing to take the chance that you're wrong ... just because you want to live by your own rules for a little while?
"The Lord says:
'These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.
Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.
Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their work in darkness and think, 'Who sees us? Who will know?'
You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'He did not make me'? Can the pot say of the potter, 'He knows nothing'?
Once more the humble will rejoice in the Lord; the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
The ruthless will vanish, the mockers will disappear, and all who have an eye for evil will be cut down ..."
(Isaiah 29:13-16, 19-20)
Do you really think it's possible to get away with mocking God, changing His rules, kicking Him out of everything, and climbing up onto His throne?
I'll be honest, I've been praying a lot lately that He comes back again. I can't bear to see the direction our country - our world - is going. I fear that we have crossed a point we can't get back from - that we have so lost our morals, our sensitivity to God, and our desire to pass on any godly things to the next generation that we are beyond hope.
I really do think these are the last days. Romans 11:25 refers to the hardness of Israel which continues until the full number of Gentiles has come in. I think the time of the Gentiles (the church age) will continue until basically no additional people are coming to Christ, when the final bulk of those who are going to come to Him have come to Him. And when we reach the time that people stop coming to Him, that we slide into mass rebellion, He will rapture out the true believers and turn His attention back to Israel.
Are we not living in those times right now!?! When more people reject Him than seek Him? When they teach their children to reject Him instead of revere Him?
The church has grown throughout the course of history ... until now. More people are rejecting Him than seeking Him. And I think a huge part of this is the immoral age we are living in, the desire for pleasure and to be our own gods, to live without rules, responsibility, or accountability. (Thank you, 1960s, for starting this moral decay!)
And this is seen most clearly in the debate about homosexual marriage and other issues relating to sexuality. This issue has become a huge line in the sand dividing us into two groups: those tiny few who will abide by the Word and those huge masses of people who won't. And it's one of the biggest issues to turn people against Christianity, to draw people away from Christ and from true faith.
I think that from here on out, we will see less and less people coming to Christ because they want the "religion" that the world offers. They want "gods" of their own imagination who let them live however they want to.
2 Timothy 4: 3-4: “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”
I think the full number of Gentiles has come in. And there is no reason for God to delay any longer. We have become so debased, so rebellious, that I don't see much chance of us ever returning to Him. Not without Him sending a huge wake-up call, such as instantaneously taking out millions of believers all over the world.
And so this has been my prayer:
Lord, please come back again. Just come back. It's time, and You know it. The people here want nothing to do with You anymore. They are turning their backs on You in masses and in every possible way.
They don't want to hear Your truths anymore. They are trying to kick You out of everything, trying to remove every reference to You that they come across. They are even using the schools to deliberately spread godlessness to children. They don't want to even allow Christians to live by Your truth or stand by Your truth in their own lives. Almost no one wants to pass on any knowledge of You to the next generation. They want to live rebellious lives and they are passing their rebellious spirit onto others. They just want You out of their lives and their world.
Lord ... give them what they want. Remove Your Holy Spirit and Your church - the true believers - from this world. Hand the world over to them. A world without You. Just like they want. Only then will they realize how wrong they are, how real You are, how horrible it is without Your presence, how terrifying it is to be handed over to the hardness of their own hearts, how dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:31).
It's time, Lord. Time to show Yourself strong to them by removing Yourself from them. Time to hold them accountable for their rebellion and self-worship and flagrant disregard for You, for "stoning the prophets" and persecuting those who belong to You, for corrupting others, for leading the next generation astray.
Back in the day, there was another generation that was extremely rebellious and wicked, with no hope of change. And You decided that the only answer then was to wipe out everyone with a flood ... except Noah and his family.
We are at this point now, where the righteous are very few. Where the majority wants nothing to do with You and they won't raise up their children to know You, fear You, or obey You. They are totally disregarding one of the main responsibilities You gave us in having families - the responsibility to raise up godly generations. If no one will do that anymore then there is no reason to prolong the end - not when an ungodly generation deliberately and consciously raises another ungodly generation.
Don't let that happen, Lord. Return now, before we lose more people, more generations, to godlessness. Return now to wake people up from their spiritual rebellion and lost-ness. Return now to take out the faithful people, those of us who want You in our lives. In Your mercy, spare us from the wickedness around us, the persecution that comes as a society and a world grow increasingly godless.
You promised in Your Word to come back again - to gather Your people up to You and to hold an evil world accountable for their wickedness. It's time, Lord! Unless there is a revival, it's not going to get better here. Only worse. It's time! And I'm humbly pleading with You to fulfill Your promise. Return now and begin the process of destroying all evil, making all things right again, and taking Your rightful place on the Throne, as Lord and as Judge.
"Amen. Come, Lord Jesus." (Revelation 22:20)
Christians, join me in this prayer. It's time!
At least I hope that's why He's allowing all this breakdown to happen, all this conflict and divisiveness. Because if He's not - if He's not coming back soon - then God help those of us who choose to be faithful to Him. We're gonna need it!
(I updated this post with the following and reposted it next month, too!)
Let me ask a question: If there really is a God who created the world, who created people, who wrote the Bible through the hands of men, and who holds all things in His hand ... if there really is a God, who gets the right to make the rules: You or Him?
Either there is no God of the Bible or there is.
If there isn't then nothing matters anyway and you're essentially free to live by your own set of rules and so is everyone else around you. Because in the end, there is no true right or wrong, no one to answer to, and no one to dish out ultimate justice anyway.
But if there is a God ... then He has the right to make the rules, even if you don't like them. And even if you don't want to live by them and don't think they should be rules to begin with, if there is a God then no amount of disagreeing with His rules is going to change His rules. And we will all answer to Him someday for breaking His rules.
I think our society's bold disregard for God's rules and God's ways shows just how godless we have become, even if we give lip service to the idea that there is a God. But if we are allowed to make up our own rules and we don't have to answer to Him, then what kind of a "god" would he be?
Someday, we'll find out what kind of God He really is ... when we stand before Him and give an account for how we lived and what we believed.
Are you really willing to take the chance that you're wrong ... just because you want to live by your own rules for a little while?
"The Lord says:
'These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.
Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.
Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their work in darkness and think, 'Who sees us? Who will know?'
You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'He did not make me'? Can the pot say of the potter, 'He knows nothing'?
Once more the humble will rejoice in the Lord; the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
The ruthless will vanish, the mockers will disappear, and all who have an eye for evil will be cut down ..."
(Isaiah 29:13-16, 19-20)
Do you really think it's possible to get away with mocking God, changing His rules, kicking Him out of everything, and climbing up onto His throne?
I'll be honest, I've been praying a lot lately that He comes back again. I can't bear to see the direction our country - our world - is going. I fear that we have crossed a point we can't get back from - that we have so lost our morals, our sensitivity to God, and our desire to pass on any godly things to the next generation that we are beyond hope.
I really do think these are the last days. Romans 11:25 refers to the hardness of Israel which continues until the full number of Gentiles has come in. I think the time of the Gentiles (the church age) will continue until basically no additional people are coming to Christ, when the final bulk of those who are going to come to Him have come to Him. And when we reach the time that people stop coming to Him, that we slide into mass rebellion, He will rapture out the true believers and turn His attention back to Israel.
Are we not living in those times right now!?! When more people reject Him than seek Him? When they teach their children to reject Him instead of revere Him?
The church has grown throughout the course of history ... until now. More people are rejecting Him than seeking Him. And I think a huge part of this is the immoral age we are living in, the desire for pleasure and to be our own gods, to live without rules, responsibility, or accountability. (Thank you, 1960s, for starting this moral decay!)
And this is seen most clearly in the debate about homosexual marriage and other issues relating to sexuality. This issue has become a huge line in the sand dividing us into two groups: those tiny few who will abide by the Word and those huge masses of people who won't. And it's one of the biggest issues to turn people against Christianity, to draw people away from Christ and from true faith.
I think that from here on out, we will see less and less people coming to Christ because they want the "religion" that the world offers. They want "gods" of their own imagination who let them live however they want to.
2 Timothy 4: 3-4: “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”
I think the full number of Gentiles has come in. And there is no reason for God to delay any longer. We have become so debased, so rebellious, that I don't see much chance of us ever returning to Him. Not without Him sending a huge wake-up call, such as instantaneously taking out millions of believers all over the world.
And so this has been my prayer:
Lord, please come back again. Just come back. It's time, and You know it. The people here want nothing to do with You anymore. They are turning their backs on You in masses and in every possible way.
They don't want to hear Your truths anymore. They are trying to kick You out of everything, trying to remove every reference to You that they come across. They are even using the schools to deliberately spread godlessness to children. They don't want to even allow Christians to live by Your truth or stand by Your truth in their own lives. Almost no one wants to pass on any knowledge of You to the next generation. They want to live rebellious lives and they are passing their rebellious spirit onto others. They just want You out of their lives and their world.
Lord ... give them what they want. Remove Your Holy Spirit and Your church - the true believers - from this world. Hand the world over to them. A world without You. Just like they want. Only then will they realize how wrong they are, how real You are, how horrible it is without Your presence, how terrifying it is to be handed over to the hardness of their own hearts, how dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:31).
It's time, Lord. Time to show Yourself strong to them by removing Yourself from them. Time to hold them accountable for their rebellion and self-worship and flagrant disregard for You, for "stoning the prophets" and persecuting those who belong to You, for corrupting others, for leading the next generation astray.
Back in the day, there was another generation that was extremely rebellious and wicked, with no hope of change. And You decided that the only answer then was to wipe out everyone with a flood ... except Noah and his family.
We are at this point now, where the righteous are very few. Where the majority wants nothing to do with You and they won't raise up their children to know You, fear You, or obey You. They are totally disregarding one of the main responsibilities You gave us in having families - the responsibility to raise up godly generations. If no one will do that anymore then there is no reason to prolong the end - not when an ungodly generation deliberately and consciously raises another ungodly generation.
Don't let that happen, Lord. Return now, before we lose more people, more generations, to godlessness. Return now to wake people up from their spiritual rebellion and lost-ness. Return now to take out the faithful people, those of us who want You in our lives. In Your mercy, spare us from the wickedness around us, the persecution that comes as a society and a world grow increasingly godless.
You promised in Your Word to come back again - to gather Your people up to You and to hold an evil world accountable for their wickedness. It's time, Lord! Unless there is a revival, it's not going to get better here. Only worse. It's time! And I'm humbly pleading with You to fulfill Your promise. Return now and begin the process of destroying all evil, making all things right again, and taking Your rightful place on the Throne, as Lord and as Judge.
"Amen. Come, Lord Jesus." (Revelation 22:20)
Christians, join me in this prayer. It's time!
To all faithful believers, for some fun and encouragement, I dedicate these songs: "Radically Saved" and "No Way, We Are Not Ashamed" and "We Believe" (say it loud and say it proud). (I wish the second one had a good video to go with it, but ... Oh, well.)
And to everyone else, I dedicate "The Champion" and "Secret Ambition".
