Can't see the fires for all the daisies

In today's Church we have closed the door to grace and taken the spirit away from the Holy Ghost. We have diluted the word of God so much that conviction isn't felt beyond the stain glass doors.We don't we want to offend anyone nor do we like to see people hurt. So we take the sting out of words and feed people happiness on a spoon paid for by the blood of Christ. We don't want to see them hunger so we feed them watered down dribble to keep them content, like a well fed baby. Just enough to make them think they are okay but not enough to upset their personal lives.

This reminds me of an article I read about newborns being given sugar water which used to be a old wives practice and somewhat still used today. Research has shown that this isn't a good practice at all and can cause serious problems such as water intoxication and blocking nutrient absorption. Magnified even more in a newborn if the practice is abused. This is the same thing with the church. If we continue to feed God's sheep sugar water we are not doing them any good but only condemning them to a life of hollow hopes, empty labors and eternity in Hell.

All around us people in our church are living and dying in a world of sin. They try to fit into society by feeding on fleshly desires and sharing fleshly desires. Lying, cheating, stealing, adulterers being blasphemous and shameful to their family in a fallen world. Yet we look to God to provide our needs to heal our sick and pay our bills when we can't even pray over dinner as a family. Our sons are off playing at a friends house who do nothing good but encourage rebellion. Our precious daughters worry about their weight and rather starve than face her friends as school tomorrow with a little baby fat on her thighs and yet she's only 11.

We are falling away from Christ as a church, as a family, as individuals.

Wake UP!

We have got to stop painting Christ in pastel colors surrounded by daisies. If we are not truly Christian by the righteous judgement of Christ we will bear the wrath of an angry God! Woe to those who have to face the wrath of the lamb. Christ alone took all the wrath for the sins we repented of. A wrath that will still fall upon all who are ashamed of and deny Christ.

Understand we must give Jesus Christ the Glory He so richly deserves. Christ alone deserves all our praise, all our devotion, all our works. When the day comes when we have to face God everything we have ever done is going to be laid out and examined. It will not be negotiable or debatable. There will be no lawyers to defend you. Jesus Christ says..

Matthew 7:21-23 (New International Version)

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

The late Pastor Paris Reidhead said it best and we must have this same drive.

“Lord Jesus, I’m going to obey you and love you and serve you and do what you want me to do, as long as I live even if I go to Hell at the end of the road,... simply because you are worthy to be loved and obeyed and served, and I’m not trying to make a deal with you.”

We must learn to follow Christ giving everything to God but expecting nothing.

My sons are on this trip to where if you ask them to do something they want something in return. They loose so much when they propose this transaction than if they would have just done what I told them to do. Do not look to God to make a wager! You have already received your reward through the precious grace of Christ. Life everlasting. But the reward is only good as long as you are repenting daily because we all sin daily. Turn away from sin and have faith in Jesus Christ. Do not be ashamed to be a light in the darkness. Be bold and turn over the tables and spill out the sugar water. Burn bright for Christ.

As Paul said..I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Modern Microwave Church

Recently the media went big with news that say microwave popcorn increases the risk of certain cancers. Hit Google up and search out Microwave Popcorn cancer. I mean, it was so easy to make, take the plastic wrapper off, toss it in the microwave and hit the popcorn button. Convenient! Now we find out people have been dying with cancer from this so-called "healthy" snack. Yea that stinks. This study has been going on for nearly 10 years too. So they knew something was amiss along time before the general public knew. When was the last time you took an ounce of good old peanut oil put it in a deep sauce pan with a few old school corn kernels and let her pop away? It really puts that microwave junk in the gutter for flavor and texture and it's so much cheaper. This is leading somewhere.

Recently in my old church the pastor "preached" a message that was, in my opinion, rather confusing and very disorganized. It was like watching a 6 year old trying to juggle watermelons. So he tries to save it by bringing it together with a "touching" video he found on Internet. A few people were moved by this video and a few people got up and left.

Welcome to the Microwave Church

Easy, convenient, quick, and umm...healthy?

Those who were moved were enticed by the microwave church and I pray God opens your eyes to what I am going to say.

The microwave church is the "modern church" with all the bells and whistles. Bam! Preaching from the hip. Got to have the new music and throw it at the congregation like rice at wedding. So let's all sit back and watch the birds kill over as their stomachs explode. Got to have the latest books for group study and there's no need to bring your Bible because we'll have everything on the wide screen hi-def projector. Yea we had to move the Holy Cross over to the side for the screen but that's okay since it's for the best. Oh, if you don't know the words to the songs they will also be displayed on the projectors for you to lip sync to since you don't know the music.

I find that projectors work best in low light conditions and I'm going to say it...you can put that projector where the sun don't shine.

I'm telling you the truth. People don't even need a Bible at church so why should they have one at home? It's all reprinted on copy machines and displayed on cloth hung from the walls. Read your bible they say but not everyone has a projector at home. Come to the altar to pray for your soul they plead. They are off to the sides since it wasn't convenient having them in front of the pulpit.

The church ends up being a country club of self righteous people starving for truth but can't find it because they have been lead astray by the microwave atmosphere. Soon they all start to leave to find something new and filling. That fullness lies with the Father in the basic strengths of Christianity we have so long forgotten. We trim our services down to let out the same time as applebees opens. We don't hold sunday night services and we don't cater to anyone over 30. But if you're a teenager beg mom and dad for some offering money because we'll need it. Just tell them their not invited unless they want to help struggle with hyperactive microwaved kids.

3000 years ago my Lord and Saviour suffered on a cross and he was wrapped in cloth and laid in a grave and 3 days later rose again. 3000 years ago disciples facing death and persecution wrote down the gospels on papyrus paper and it survived being transcribed over and over again against all tyrants and uncountable odds to this very day. And now our church devalues it to the point it's only a short lived image on the wall where the cross used to hang.

Read what Jesus Christ said and see if I am wrong.

Matthew 23

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: "The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

"Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them 'Rabbi.'

"But you are not to be called 'Rabbi,' for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth 'father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called 'teacher,' for you have one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.

"Woe to you, blind guides! You say, 'If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.' You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred?

You also say, 'If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.' You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven swears by God's throne and by the one who sits on it.

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!

"You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation.

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.' "

Mark my word - Your church is going to fall into dust if you continue to abandon the word of God and push aside the Holy for a modern microwave church.

Speaking of touching videos - here's one my brother sent me that was chain mailed to him. Oddly enough it fits exactly what I said.

Stones for God

Luke Chapter 9 verse 57

As they were walking along the road, a man said to him (Jesus), "I will follow you wherever you go."

Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."

He said to another man, "Follow me."
But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father."

Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God."

Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family."

Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."

It pains me to see people paid to do things in the service of God when right here we are told "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."

Of course the pastor needs to be paid. The pastors family must be clothed, sheltered, fed, and given money to further the works of God. Money has to be spent on materials to further education. There are times when something is beyond a persons financial ability and they need help with giving their services to God. For example, a Sunday school teacher is financially burdened weekly and can't afford juice drinks and small snacks and projects for her toddlers.

But understand, Jesus chased the money dealers and vendors out of the church because of their money making schemes. In this very day there are churches paying people to play the piano. Yes the piano that little Cindy has been practicing for years. While God has poured out blessings on many of his children with the gift of playing the piano and none of them will adore him with it.

We pay businesses to come fix leaky faucets and mow lawns. We pay people to run a vacuum around the pews. We pay people to wash windows and take out the trash. All from the money we put into the offering plate.

Who dare sell their soul to the devil in order to serve God?

Wake up, because it's being done every single day in nearly every single church.

Why would I mention all this and that Bible passage?

Because people need to understand if you can't put the greed of this world behind you to serve, then you can't serve God the Father. You ask to be paid for your service when Christ's very precious blood poured from his wounds to cleans your soul. He paid for your sins to set you free from the iron grip of death and eternal damnation. And you want what?

So you pay your tithes. Yet you have so much more to give and you know you owe it and you know you can never repay it. Because Jesus Christ gave it freely to you - for you and all you have to do it accept it and repent. Priceless Love.

Every single person on the face of this planet should be singing for joy for the love the Father has shown.

Every gifted person who can play an instrument should be playing a song for Christ.

Every single person that can cook should be preparing loaves for the thousands who serve him.

Every single person that has love for children should be showing the compassion and understand Christ did and teach them of our Saviour.

Everyone has something they can give with great joy back to God.

Everyone everywhere should thank God for his righteousness, compassion, grace, mercy, love, patience, peace, justice, his understanding, and even his wrath against his enemies.

Acknowledge and understand his awesome power and strength and that he created Heaven and Earth.

Yet here we are...

offering stones to God.

Wake up. It's a honor and a blessing to serve God. To bruse knees from pulling weeds and not from carrying the cross. To sweat nothing more than water and not blood from flesh torn. To get a scrape from trimming a rose bush and not a crown of thorns. To cry tears from a smashed thumb and not from the pain of mankinds bitter hatred.

So put away those stones and offer yourself for once and be that light unto others.