Friday, 31 July 2009
A Golden Opportunity
What a world we live in !! What a desperate state of affairs we are building for our children to inherit. What a failure for us – what a victory for Satan !! People throughout the world are turning to look at the great faiths of the world – desperate to see something better than they see in the world at the moment.
We are living in an increasingly desperate world - a world desperate for something better - a world desperate to hear from God. Amos 8:11 "The days are coming," declares the Sovereign LORD, “when I will send a famine through the land - not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.”
The world is getting ever more desperate for ‘something better’. They have looked at the world – particularly their own world – and they have seen how shallow, how false so much of it really is. People are beginning to realise that they must seek out that ‘something better’ – whatever it is.
The time that the prophet Amos spoke of is here – now. It is a present reality. We are now living in the days of desperation so eloquently spoken about by Amos. So what on earth is the Church doing about it ?
How the devil must laugh as we preach the world rather than preaching the Gospel or teaching from the Word. Jesus said "Feed My Sheep". Who are His sheep? I think that every human being can be one of His sheep – but we are feeding only those sheep already inside the sheep-fold. We are not spreading the Gospel outside the comfort of our sheep-fold.
And what Gospel do we preach in these days of such desperation? Have we watered down the Gospel? We don’t hear much about sin, about grace, about repenting and dying daily to self so He can be seen more clearly through us – at least not in most churches and most pulpits. If there's no gospel message of sin, grace, repentance, and salvation there is nothing at all and we fail those who need to hear the Gospel message.
We hear much about the prosperity Gospel. The prosperity gospel is, in my opinion, really "the ear-ticklers gospel" (2 Tim 4:3-4 ) - it’s what the audience wants to hear rather than what’s truthful. The Prosperity Gospel is also false, worldly teaching by those who would twist Gods Word to their own ends and profit via emotional blackmail.
Oh - As we sit in our smug self-satisfied 'sanctified' complacency the Lord must weep over our luke-warmness. Send us a fresh injection Your Holy Spirit and Fire Lord. The Lord weeps over our lack of faith and our lack of belief in His Word. Not theology, nor liturgy, nor what we think the Word of God says – but what it actually says – in context and as it is supposed to apply to our lives. The trouble is that, not only have we watered down the Gospel, we have also seen fit to omit huge important chunks of it from our teaching. We think that an hour spent listening to a preacher talk about Jesus followed by two minutes spent saying the so-called ‘Sinners Prayer, and that’s it – we’re saved. Where is the life change? Where is the broken, true repentance? Where is the full gospel message of sin, grace, repentance, and salvation?
Brothers and Sisters, we are living at a time when God in His great mercy and love has given us a golden opportunity to spread His real Gospel throughout the world. We’ve had one (poor) model already – at Lakeland, Florida in 2008. That we wasted most of that opportunity was down to our own sin alone. Ignore what happened among the leadership – look at the effects around the world during that time of revival. We had the technology and we used it. Media, TV, Internet – all combined to take news of what was happening in Lakeland right round the world – to virtually every nation – as it was happening. The anointing in the meetings was transmitted over the airwaves and through our computers and TV sets into every home open to watch what was happening.
If we could only learn. People this is what it’s all about - LESS of us, more of HIM. If we would only stand back, let go, and let God do things through us, despite us and because of us - because He loves us so much. Whatever we think, His way is ALWAYS best and we must learn to let Him do things. This is the Golden Opportunity for us to make ourselves available to God the Holy Spirit so that He can use us to present the Gospel His way. He leads us into ALL truth so let Him lead us into sharing His wonderful and glorious gospel – the ransomed, healed, restored, and forgiven Gospel. NOT the “sign here and you’re saved” Gospel but His saving, redeeming gospel of Salvation through the glorious Blood of Jesus Christ.
AMEN?
CGB 31 July 2009
