Going, Going, Gone

     God tells us to "love not the world, neither the things in the world" and if we do then His love isn't in us. What a statement! I'm wondering if many people who call themselves His know what He has said, and if they have, have let it weigh on them at all!!!

     As I look around, I see people who call themselves His in Western christianity, loving the world. They are doing things as the world is, seeking things of the world, and, it seems basically making their lives center around the world, and embracing it's values.(being someone, having alot of impressive stuff, making outward appearance of most importance, materialism, trying to gain power, and giving the care of their children to others so that they can have more, etc.) As a result, the same statistics of the world are also those of those who call themselves His. This shouldn't be.

     I have seen and am seeing more that some who seemed to be serious about their faith, who at one time seemed to make decisions that result from true faith, now are turning and blending in with the world, even embracing it,  and finding a "doctrine" to justify it to boot.  It is so disconcerting and upsetting to me. God's witness through them is dying out, or worse, misrepresenting Him in His truth and holiness.

     Could this mean that He is removing His Lampstand from them as spoken in Rev., or that we are now in the middle of the "great falling away" from the faith that He spoke about? It seems so.

     For those of us in America that still desire to "come out from among them" and stay on the narrow road that leads to life, the path will get lonlier and lonlier as time goes by. And, insults will be hurled at us, even from "other Christians" who have left the path and joined the world in the broad path.

      Some accusations that I have heard (which have been cleverly created by satan to try and make us get off that path) is "judgemental, religious, and self-righteous." I have personally, struggled through these accusations until God showed me where they came from. The truth is that those on the narrow path appear that way to others who have strayed, and they accuse those who won't, to make themselves feel better for conforming to the world's ways. Sadly, they don't even know what they are doing, because they have been deceived by the enemy, and are now even speaking his accusations.

     I am seeing that if we don't say "no" to the ways of the world in our daily lives, then overtime, we will be sucked into it, for it is a fierce and mighty pull. Paul said that he presses on. We need to press on in our faith and stand firm in the ways of the Lord. As a salmon swims upstream, that is the way of the Christ-follower in this world. He must go against the flow of the world, and go with the flow of the Spirit, or else he will be swept away in the tsunami; there one minute, gone the next, without remedy.

     The straying person, however, is not an innocent victim. There is something in them which wants these things and agrees with these false values. Could it be that they don't love the truth really? God says He'll give them over to a great delusion, if that is the case. Or, could it be that they were not really God's in the first place, and they were just playing a game? God knows. The point is that the enemy can't ensnare us or lure us into the world, if there isn't anything in us to work with.

     The fact is that this church we call church in America is not impacting the world, but visa-versa, and we can conclude by this that maybe this church is not the one the Lord is building. His church the gates of Hell will not prevail against. His is the true church.

     I pray that those who are truly His, will hear His voice and come back to the fold, and for those who love the world more than Him, my heart and soul grieve deeply. I fear for them.