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Tuesday, February 5, 2019

THE DANGER OF ORGANIZED RELIGION

            We live in perilous times for Christian’s; an understatement I know, but bear with me. In our day it would appear that our biggest danger comes from organized religion itself. If we look around we can understood why. We have entire “church” bodies dedicated to proclaiming, teaching, trying to justify, and officially endorsing the very opposite of what our Lord teaches!  What true Christian, who holds to the Word of God, can bear the abominable heresies of today’s "teachers"? Those who dismiss the Word as anything other than the verbally inspired, infallible, and inerrant Word of God have chosen their fate. They have cast their lot with the enemies of Jesus.

It Only Takes One

If we (as many have) deny even one Doctrine of Scripture – all must be denied!  What is referred to as “liberal Christianity” in our day - is no Christianity at all! But rather an anti-Christian cult, an alien philosophy at war with Scripture! It operates through deceit manipulating the hearts and minds of sincere Christians. Those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple (Romans 16). So, to the point; is there still time to proclaim the Truth, to “fulfill our ministry” - of course! The question is – do we? If not what’s our excuse? Moses had one; O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue (Exodus 4:10). Well if Moses felt that way who are we to try and tell others of our Lord?

But that’s not what our Lord is getting at! Our Lord teaches us a valuable lesson. We need to hear His Words and quit making excuses. So, the Lord said to him, Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say (Exodus 4:11-12). Well surely that settled it for Moses, he went right out and got busy right? Wrong, he said, “O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send” (Exodus 4:13). Often times we’re just like Moses when it comes to telling others of Jesus or inviting them to church or Bible class. We often seem hesitant and we console ourselves thinking it would be better for others to speak about such things. Those who are better at it or “trained”.

But again, we would be wrong. It’s not humility that leads us to this thinking but our sinful nature, our adversary’s number one ally. After all, why does our Lord leave us here after our conversion? It would seem that the best thing that could happen after our conversion would be for our Lord to call us home immediately. Get us out of this world and home where we belong. But our loving Savior leaves us here for a time to serve Him. There are many ways we can serve our Savior. However, the “best” way is by sharing the Gospel of Christ crucified for the sins of the world. Only the Gospel can change the heart! Only the Gospel can turn a creature of sin and death into a reborn believing child of God. The same precious message that someone, somewhere, shared with us. What if they hadn’t? Be grateful someone loved you enough to actually tell you about Jesus!

            Well, getting back to Moses, granted God gave him Aaron but you will notice the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses.  We will most likely not be given a companion like Aaron to speak through! More than likely we will have to speak ourselves or opportunities will be lost! Precious chances to share the Gospel; that which the Holy Spirit works through to create faith! A chance we should never let pass. Again, we are told by our loving Savior; faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Consider this; we’ve all sat and listened while people have droned on and bragged about their children and grandchildren. We’ve listened to or expounded countless meaningless stories of loved ones and their accomplishments or exploits. Why? WE can easily talk about what we love! Well surely, we love our Savior so we can talk about Him to others. Jesus is our dearest loved One of all! Therefore, we can tell others of our Savior even as we tell others of our children or grandchildren. Our enemy does his absolute best to convince us that we aren’t “qualified” and our sinful nature is quick to take hold of and use that excuse!

We often console ourselves thinking that we will pray for and contribute to missions/evangelism. We try to convince ourselves that we’ve done all we could. Have you been deceived into this foolish thinking? Has he gotten you to exchange the good for the best? Most certainly pray for and contribute to the spread of the Gospel but don’t stop there! Share the message of Christ crucified for the sins of the world!  Many try to rid themselves of this most sacred and highest calling, but who was the Lord referring to when He said, Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations? Don’t we call that the great commission? Are we not part of Christ’s Church? Yes, so GO!

If you feel uncomfortable talking about your Savior think less of yourself and more of Him who suffered hell in our place; I bet that wasn’t very comfortable. Again, I have never known anyone who couldn’t talk about the things they love. We love our Savior Jesus therefore we can talk about Him. It does not take a seminary education to witness the Gospel; it just takes Spirit worked love! The love that cares so much for someone that we are actually willing to share with them life eternal! Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear!

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