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"Resting on Your Robes"
The Body of Christ, the Church, has been under assault from the very moment it was born. Almost immediately, Satan set upon it, its' leaders and its' members with furious attacks designed to silence the witness of those whose lives Christ had changed. All Satan needed to do was to sense the presence of his hated enemy, God (in this case, the Holy Spirit that indwells and seals all true believers) in the new Church, and he could easily find his target.
And the attacks have not let up since that day.
Flash forward over 2,000 years later: the Church remains under attack from the forces of darkness, and her enemies are numerous. A religion that thrives on domination, control, lies and deception, Islam has infiltrated into virtually every nation and every corner of the world. It allows for no dissent, and seeks to capture the world under one rule: that of Islam. Another "religion", that of "tolerance", has infected almost every part of society and practically the whole world: it postulates that the only thing that cannot be tolerated is any sort of intolerance; this includes Christianity's exclusivity to the Truth and that it is the ONLY way to God, via Jesus Christ. Political Correctness ("PC") has crept into the lives of citizens in the US and abroad, acting as a censor upon the very words we speak, and rendering us "uncouth", "uncivilized" and "base" should we offend the conventions contained within. In fact, it is responsible for a great deal of the "hate speech" legislation that, coupled with "tolerance", threatens to silence the biblical messages against homosexuality, idol worship, adultery, and virtually every sin that is preached against in the word of God. The "Emergent Church" proclaims that "sola scriptura" and discernment are relics of the past and not for the modern church, with multitudes thronging to the new-style pastors such as Rob Bell, whom exemplify "feelings" over the word of God, "experiences" over the leading of the Holy Spirit, and "becoming" over repentance. And the "Prosperity Gospel", "Word of Faith" and "Fresh Fire" are preached by men like Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar and Todd Bentley, drawing millions into a web of false teaching, false healing, promises of material wealth and prosperity here, and ultimately, disappointment and despair.
Where has the Church been?
We are to be the salt and light as Christ has told us in scripture:
“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 5:13-16, NASB, emphasis mine)
So where was the Church?
Many were "sitting on their robes", and it is not a new thing in the church, as we see in Paul's writings:
" Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example, because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you; not because we do not have the right to this, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you, so that you would follow our example. For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either. For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to work in quiet fashion and eat their own bread. But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary of doing good." (2 Thessalonians 3:6-13, NASB, emphasis mine)
There were those that had for whatever reason, felt that they did not need to do anything but sit around and wait for the Lord's return to Earth. They literally stopped working and did pretty much as they pleased, becoming pretty much useless to anyone around them. The Greek word for work in these verses, ergazesthai, doesn't mean just to "work" but " to commit, do, labor for, minister about". In other words to do work for a certain purpose. And since they had stopped all work, they had also stopped all ministry of theirs as well, such as telling others of the Lord.
In short: they sat around waiting for the Rapture to happen, and Paul had to set them straight. Their actions were literally dragging everyone else in their church down with them, putting undue strain on them. Paul had to instruct the churches under his care that if these individuals would not do their share, they would not eat either. Why reward them for their reticence with food and comfort?
Getting back to us: what does God's word in this matter speak to us today?
9/11 served as a wake-up call for America; but there were those in the Church that were convinced that "this was it" and that Christ was about to come for his people. Many decided that God was coming for the church, and no further effort was needed. As a result, they began to hide within the church buildings, essentially barricading out the rest of the world and ensconcing themselves in a perceived "fortress". They had begun to only look for the coming of Jesus for his church, and to not minister to the lost, nor speak out against what was going on around them. We were never required to win battles with out own hands, but in the power and the strength of the Lord:
"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." (Ephesians 6:10-12, NASB, emphasis mine)
To be blunt: when the church stopped going out and preaching to people and proclaiming the word of God amongst the people, the forces of evil took root and gained ground. We seek now to burn Qurans; why was it we did not decry the religion itself that used those books when they first began to flood our shores? We seek to stop Mosques from being erected and our children taught to pray the Islamic way; but what about the hearts of those that agree that they should be? Did we as the church try to witness to them and present God's word to them? When the laws and guidelines for teaching the children were being decided, did we voice our say? Did we inquire at the Lord's throne about it, and ask what we were to do?
Another point: The spiritually hungry out there have been CRYING for nourishment, as the church turned a deaf ear We withdrew into our fortress-churches, and set the bar to enter impossibly high. What were these poor spiritually malnourished waifs supposed to eat? If you don't feed a child breakfast or lunch, they will scour around for whatever they think is good to eat, having no discernment to determine if it is good to eat or not! Can they be blamed when we find they have gorged themselves on spiritual garbage, all because we would not feed them as the Lord commanded?! We cry about those who have fallen away and those that will not come, but have they heard our words as a church?
Yes they did: what we said to them was: "we don't care".
Should we be so surprised then, that we find them apostate and backslidden, and that the social landscape is not friendly to us?
Yes, it can be said "God ordained these things to be, and they had to come to pass." And yet so they did. But just as God predicted Israel would fall into apostasy and be driven from their lands, so to have we been told that many would fall away, and now we are seeing the bitter harvest. God may have ordained it so, but it ended up coming about by the many in the Churches who, like the Thessalonians, saw no further point in doing the work given unto us, and decided instead to dwell behind closed doors and walls.
This has made the task of standing so much harder on those who HAVE come forward, and risked much to bring the Word to a dying world. Jesus himself spoke in scripture:
"And He was saying to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. " (Luke 10:2, NASB, emphasis mine)
"“Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest." (John 4:35, NASB, emphasis mine)
There is so precious little time left, and so many that need to hear the word. The hours of daylight are drawing to a close, leaving us very little light left to work with. We need to be in prayer to the lord over all of this.
This has not been an easy message to convey. I pray it falls upon the right ears.
I bid you peace.
YBIC,
-Robert
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I have noticed that when otherwise healthy people just sit around and feed and feed and feed and do not exercise, they eventually become grossly obese, their bodies begin to fail them, they are unable to do anything much for God. It occurs to me that this happens spiritually to those who just sit around in churches getting fed spiritually but do not actually do anything with what they are being nourished. Spiritual obesity is as detrimental and potentially fatal to spiritual life as physical obesity is to corporeal life
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Dear Lord, please wake up all true Christians to the lateness of the hour. Help us all to get busy and tell everyone about You. Forgive me for being lazy lately. Lord, please help us to be a living testimony for You and I pray for all those who do not know you. For our unsaved friends and family, Lord, please save them before it's too late! 
Originally Posted by king'sbloomingrose
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