Looking out across the landscapes and seas of humanity, we hear through the various "news outlets" only the evil, the depressing, the negative and hopelessness through the words of so-called "reporters." Even the "Christian" news outlets are on the same bandwagon of gloom and doom for America and the West, offering little to no hope in spite of the fact that God is in control of everything, which includes much of the preaching from pulpits. Realistically, they should all be called "Social Engineers" like so many of the public school teachers who have given themselves over to glamorizing evil and sin. The constant feeding of only the negative, with hope and God's control over all, remaining in the trunk of the social car, heard only occasionally thumping on the frame of the car, demanding release.
As followers of Christ, we who have studied Eschatology already know of these days. Many of us were sounding the alarms from the ramparts of the walls decades ago about the wokeness of modern culture to come, and is now here. Jesus HImself said:
Matthew 24:37 "But as the days of Noah [were], so also will the coming of the Son of Man be."
Genesis 6:5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man [was] great in the earth, and [that] every intent of the thoughts of his heart [was] only evil continually.
Therefore, given that I personally refuse to be a conveyor of depressive and soul-crushing speech that only elevates Satan to a higher place than he deserves in the power structure of Heaven and all creation, read the following verses, and let them sink into your thoughts, your heart, and calm the storms of your thoughts.
Matthew 10:28, 31
28 "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. ...
31 "Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
Hebrews 13:6 So we may boldly say: "The LORD [is] my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?"
Many who read the latter in Hebrews tend to elevate what the evil people out there can do to them...elevating their efforts above the Power of God, and that's tragic. The writer of Hebrews was/is where we ALL need to be in our faith in the staying and upholding power of the Most High in all our lives who are His. Jesus even asked:
Luke 11:11 "If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if [he asks] for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?
Transliterate that into: "If a true believer asks for strength from our Heavenly Father, will He give him weakness? Or if a true believer asks for greater faith, will he give him ignorance, fear and doubts instead of insight, courage and uplifting?"
Do you see? Jesus was trying to speak in terms that are like where the rubber meets the road, to try and break through the horrid blockages of religious thought to try and get them to see that the Father's practicality is very much like a loving father of children here on earth, although the Lord is far above the things of this earth...He still created within man some of the very characteristics of Himself, meaning that He's not so lofty and far removed from us that His ways and His thoughts are beyond the realities He created within us and His own creation.
1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
This verse in 1 John is very striking, because it is a strong scolding of anyone who allows fear to take hold. Perfection in love is the power against fear. The gloom and doom tools of Satan who vomit constantly their imbalanced messages, they need to stop spewing their vile and deceptive hopelessness, and start speaking more life, love and hope into their listeners.
Fixation only upon the sin and evil in the mind and heart of modern culture needs a tremendous tempering to take place; tempering that happens only when the blacksmith dips the red-hot iron of life into the quenching vat of perfected love, which alone instantly quenches the heat of fear and faithlessness so that it may make the iron stronger and worthy of usefulness.
Besides, we all know that the unbelieving world is full of people whose hearts are fixated upon evil continually. The community of faith doesn't need the constant reminders of those evils that we are surrounded by each and every day out there. If a congregation is so lost and clueless, lacking in perfected love, then that's the mark of a minister who knows he's a failure, and therefore not worthy of that pulpit, or the following of his channel, or the sale of his books, or the blog where he kills the life in others, never helping them to seek and find the perfection in love, which comes only from above!
Lift up your eyes, dear Church, and look to Him who is the Perfecter of love. Speak to one another the things of perfect love, and therefore offering the mutual edification we should all extend to one another.
MM
As followers of Christ, we who have studied Eschatology already know of these days. Many of us were sounding the alarms from the ramparts of the walls decades ago about the wokeness of modern culture to come, and is now here. Jesus HImself said:
Matthew 24:37 "But as the days of Noah [were], so also will the coming of the Son of Man be."
Genesis 6:5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man [was] great in the earth, and [that] every intent of the thoughts of his heart [was] only evil continually.
Therefore, given that I personally refuse to be a conveyor of depressive and soul-crushing speech that only elevates Satan to a higher place than he deserves in the power structure of Heaven and all creation, read the following verses, and let them sink into your thoughts, your heart, and calm the storms of your thoughts.
Matthew 10:28, 31
28 "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. ...
31 "Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
Hebrews 13:6 So we may boldly say: "The LORD [is] my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?"
Many who read the latter in Hebrews tend to elevate what the evil people out there can do to them...elevating their efforts above the Power of God, and that's tragic. The writer of Hebrews was/is where we ALL need to be in our faith in the staying and upholding power of the Most High in all our lives who are His. Jesus even asked:
Luke 11:11 "If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if [he asks] for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?
Transliterate that into: "If a true believer asks for strength from our Heavenly Father, will He give him weakness? Or if a true believer asks for greater faith, will he give him ignorance, fear and doubts instead of insight, courage and uplifting?"
Do you see? Jesus was trying to speak in terms that are like where the rubber meets the road, to try and break through the horrid blockages of religious thought to try and get them to see that the Father's practicality is very much like a loving father of children here on earth, although the Lord is far above the things of this earth...He still created within man some of the very characteristics of Himself, meaning that He's not so lofty and far removed from us that His ways and His thoughts are beyond the realities He created within us and His own creation.
1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
This verse in 1 John is very striking, because it is a strong scolding of anyone who allows fear to take hold. Perfection in love is the power against fear. The gloom and doom tools of Satan who vomit constantly their imbalanced messages, they need to stop spewing their vile and deceptive hopelessness, and start speaking more life, love and hope into their listeners.
Fixation only upon the sin and evil in the mind and heart of modern culture needs a tremendous tempering to take place; tempering that happens only when the blacksmith dips the red-hot iron of life into the quenching vat of perfected love, which alone instantly quenches the heat of fear and faithlessness so that it may make the iron stronger and worthy of usefulness.
Besides, we all know that the unbelieving world is full of people whose hearts are fixated upon evil continually. The community of faith doesn't need the constant reminders of those evils that we are surrounded by each and every day out there. If a congregation is so lost and clueless, lacking in perfected love, then that's the mark of a minister who knows he's a failure, and therefore not worthy of that pulpit, or the following of his channel, or the sale of his books, or the blog where he kills the life in others, never helping them to seek and find the perfection in love, which comes only from above!
Lift up your eyes, dear Church, and look to Him who is the Perfecter of love. Speak to one another the things of perfect love, and therefore offering the mutual edification we should all extend to one another.
MM
