Brother Rick writes and preaches the way he does because he feels so deeply about the utter demise of the body of Christ in the country called America. Certainly, there are notable exceptions. But in total, this spiritual cesspool of a place that calls itself ‘Godly’ has seduced more people than a human can count.
Lest you think we here at Walk Worthy too extreme, take a sheet of paper and make two columns. On the left, list all the “popular” phrases in the church today and how they are lived out, and on the right what the Word of God uses as most pleasing to God the Father, and how the early believers lived them out.
If you’re like me, there’s absolutely no similarity to the two lists. Keep the oil in your lamps, saints. Identify what is worldly and carnal in your life. Roust it out. Burn it like the Ephesians burned their magic paraphernalia. The tares will soon be exposed, bundled up, and cast into the fire.
Be certain you, dear one, are not in that number. Now to Rick’s stirring piece.
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Wake up all you who claim to follow Jesus. If you live in America you have been deceived regardless of how pretty and orthodox your paper doctrines may be. Watch this video of a believer from Nigeria.
While we play games with Duck Dynasty and Chick-Fil-A and boycotts there are thousands of believers who live in utter danger because they believe in Jesus and thousands of others who will die for their faith.
But the clever Americans have invented a brand of persecution which costs nothing and can be experienced in air conditioned homes while watching television and sipping on a latte. Yes, it’s that disgusting.
We know nothing of true Christianity. Nothing at all. We practice a shell, a façade, and a religious system which makes us feel self-righteous because we can wrap our moral convictions around ourselves and cast stones on sinners of all stripes. The church rallies to save a nation while brothers and sisters worship with the sound of bullets.
We build large and debt ridden buildings in order to make our “worship experience” as American as possible. We cut the ribbon provided by some secular institution and we praise God for His provision. And just what did God provide? Good credit so the world can lend you the money and thereby make money on the back of the church? Just what kind of lunacy is that?
American believers were outraged that these men might be denied a spot on a secular television station because they believed homosexuality is a sin. And wrapping ourselves in our moral phylacteries we suggested boycotting that particular station.
That is what the power of God has come to in America. Boycotts.
There are literally thousands of things we as believers should not watch or attend or support just because of their unhealthy spiritual affect, but we Americans need everyone to know we are boycotting something because we are so moral. Never mind Jesus said to not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing (do good things in secret) so we may please our Heavenly Father. We need people to see us as we parade our moral Americanism.
We must stand against the onslaught of the unsaved hordes. Oh yes, instead of living and sharing the gospel with them while looking beyond their sin and seeing their desperate need of Christ, we must speak out against them and enter the moral tug of war. And of course we might say the name of Jesus or speak His gospel to the same people who we are tugging against, but even a fool can see the unscriptural nature of such a construct.
We might want to consider the cross in all of this. It is an epic disgrace to the very cause of Christ and His gospel! The church has succumbed to the sirens of this world. We have left the prayer closet and instead of denying ourselves for His sake we have become pro-active in attempting to maintain or recreate a moral cultural climate which appeals to us. In effect, we want less sinful sinners in our own neck of the woods. How self-serving and what a fool’s errand that is.
The brand of Christianity which is now practiced in America is all wrong on many levels. From its support of war, to its patriotic spirit, to its capitalism, to its glorification of leaders, to its worldliness, to its hatred of sinners, to its Sunday “services”, and throughout the entire structure we see the handprints of man and not the desires of God. And we who are “orthodox” are every bit the participant in all of it although we remain smug because our doctrinal barns are quite full.
While we treat the Scriptures as a study book by which we can organize its truths, we actively disobey it across the board. Just the Sermon on the Mount would be sufficient evidence of our spiritual treachery. Go ahead and fool yourself if you wish but the church has been captured by the spirit of this world. Believers are shot to death while in church and speak the blood of Jesus while the bullets shatter their craniums, but in America we pray for moral laws to be passed.
We are fools and fools indeed.
But you cannot reason with most professing believers. They bristle at the very thought of any change. In fact they reject even the suggestion that they consider some change. And when you speak words like mine they run for cover back into the ecclesiastical forest of no return. I understand. To the natural man the things of God are foolishness. And yet even “moral” unbelievers and conservatives feel right at home joining with churches and believers on a variety of issues. Is that what our Lord told us? Did Jesus say that the world will love us and find us as allies? This kind of Christianity is a self-serving sham and a mockery to the very Redeemer it claims to follow.
I do not write these things in hopes of the church by and large to repent. I write to strengthen my brethren who have already been awakened to this monstrosity generally called “Christianity” and also to water the seeds that have been sown in others.
When you construct a system where leaders must protect their domain because the support for them and their families is at stake, then compromise is inevitable. And the tepid spiritual commitments of the congregations are usually unchallenged because numbers are important and the leaders do not want anyone to leave unless they are causing trouble.
This is what we have. This is what we practice. And this is what we want. We want just enough Jesus to get us into heaven but not enough to cause real sacrifice or self-denial or in many cases even inconvenience. And even in that accommodating atmosphere we still feel the need to “suffer persecution” and bellow loudly. Did you hear the tone on that Nigerian man’s voice? Was he outraged? Did he demand retribution? Was he circulating a petition?
Find a man who is living in earthly pleasures and having his needs and wants fulfilled. Have some astronomer tell that man that all he has is sitting right where an asteroid is about to fall. That man will convince himself that the information is erroneous and everyone else who is at risk will convince each other until almost no one moves.
And so it is with the American brand of Christianity. We are way too comfortable and have way too many material blessings to even consider the notion that it is all wrong. And we have our fellow professing believers to assure us that radicals like me have just become unhinged and are dwelling in the land of self-righteousness and all or nothing utopia.
I will openly admit to uncountable shortcomings and always being engaged in a battle against self-righteousness. Those things are very true. However what I have written here is also very true. And you have heard it from the lips of a bone fide nobody.
http://judahslion.blogspot.com/2014/05/twisted-american-christianity.html
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Please comment on this post right below. Feel free to write and proclaim your leadings in the Spirit in an honorable fashion.
Your friend and brother in fighting the good fight,
Marc
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Saints, we’re one day closer to Home, and Him! Love Him wholeheartedly!
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Please comment on this post right below. Feel free to write and proclaim your leadings in the Spirit in an honorable fashion.
Marc White, Director, Walk Worthy Ministries, www.WalkWorthy.org
Jo says
Hi there
I am from Australia, and Australian Christianity is similar, if not worse than you have described. You have opened up my eyes as to why the unbelievers see Christians are good-for-nothing, useless and naive – because they compromise with the world and are trying to serve mammon.
jesusislord says
Jo,
Thanks for the recap of the body in Australia. As you are too, we here are committed to finding the few who dare storm the gates of hell, and live a life of consecrated holiness in His Spirit’s power. We’re going to begin a frequent online meeting of the saints for prayer, praise, and exhortation.
Brother Marc
Dennis Gagne says
Many are called but so few are chosen. Father I pray for your help to be a true and worthy professor/confessor of the name of Jesus Christ the Lord of heaven and earth. Help me to rise above sin and temptation, to be a witness for you, help me to be real, genuine, not fleshly but spiritually empowered , In Jesus name I pray. Amen
jesusislord says
And amen, brother Dennis.
Marc