What are we doing wrong? Part 1

The body of Christ is a beautiful thing. I am awed at how Christ molds us together to be used for His glory. We are instruments in the hands of the master each with individualized skills and gifts designed for a specific purpose capable of the super natural. Nothing is lacking in ability only availability on our part. I am so grateful for it. There are a couple of things, however, that are imperative  we as a body need to do better, not only as an individual church or denomination, but world wide and as individuals. People are lost and dying all around us, our society world-wide is spiraling into a depth of degradation I never dreamed I would see in my lifetime. The church has become mute in providing the moral compass for the world. We have become afraid of the pushback from the secular world as if the secular has become stronger than us. What are we afraid of?  Here are the two messages we must convey.

 

First, we must attack the enemy without attacking his captives. Most people do not make life decisions for the purpose of angering God. They are not setting out to self destruct their lives, they truly feel they are making the very best decision for themselves. The enemy has deceived all of us at some point. We are inexperienced tenderfoots in the crosshairs of Satan. The only wisdom we have comes from Christ. Without Him we are helpless at the hands of the enemy. We must have a heart of caring for the defenseless. We must realize and convey to others that the only thing that differentiates us from the lost is Christ. Without Him, we are no better than the vilest offender. "For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of ALL." James 2:10. We who are saved by grace often feel we have been forgiven of those sins we consider "forgivable." The gossiping, the occasional lie, being selfish, and occasionally prideful, because we haven't been so bad, right? Many seem to feel it did not take as much of Christ's precious blood to save us. James, the brother of Jesus, lets us know that we all are just as vile as the next. The selfish prideful and haughty are just as perverse as the homosexual-murderer-child molester. We are guilty of it all. We must not be deceived to think our sin is more forgivable than those of others. When we are humbled by our position before Christ we see others with empathy who have also been deceived by the enemy. We are to hate the evil and the enemy but must not demonstrate hate for his captives. "Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another;" Romans 12:9-10. We deliver a devastating blow to Satan, the captor, by speaking the truth to his captives in love. Truth is what sets them free. "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:32. That is our purpose, to be instruments used by God to set the captives free. We have been freed. Therefore, there is no greater calling than, having experienced freedom ourselves, to share that freedom with others. We too were once deceived and bound by the enemy. We must be sure of who our enemy, Satan, is and set our sights on him, knowing he is using his hostages as a shield.

 

The second message we must convey is, our opinion of right and wrong, good and evil is completely irrelevant. God Almighty and Most High, is the only one who has the authority to determine what is righteous or perverse, what is virtuous and what is corrupt. He established it all when He created the universe and His word is final. We cannot add to it or take away from it. Even our questioning of it does not alter or affect it. It is complete and everlasting. How foolish would it be to think that even though God created us to be and have intelligence that the intelligence given to us by Him could alter Him or what He has established in any way. And thank you Lord that it does not! God does not change even though circumstances do. When we speak truth it is not "our" truth. It is God's and it is not ours to explain why. We are simply to proclaim the truth and know that Christ's great love for us is at the root of all instruction. His love for us is so great we cannot even comprehend the depth of it. "For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him." Romans 5:7-9. We do not speak truth because we hate the one who does not know it. That would be ridiculous. We speak truth because we are compelled to speak it, because we abhor evil, and out of love we want others to know what the truth is.

The enemy wants us to keep silent. He has trained and deceived his captives to lash out in anger when truth is spoken because he knows truth is what will free them. We should not be surprised by the venom spewed when we stand on God's word and are faithful to spread His message. The truth terrifies the enemy. We have nothing to fear and must not keep us silent. There are too many captives who depend on us. We must however remember these two things. Our crosshairs must be squarely leveled on Satan and not his hostages. Our goal is to free them. We also need to step out of the argument by expressing what we believe to be true. Our acceptance of truth does not validate truth. It is God's truth and it is up to the individual as to whether or not they accept it. Truth is not subject to time, circumstances, or popularity. It is not graded on importance by percentage of acceptance or rationalization. It is truth, it is Christ, and in order to accept it you must first accept Him. We must not be mute out of fear of persecution. People's eternity is at stake and as we move closer to Christ we must share so others can also.