THIS IS AN EMERGENTCY.

Originally Posted: Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 12:24pm

We live in a consumer world. We live very comfortably. All of our days circle around the fact of how comfortable we can make the circumstances around us in whatever situation God has us in. Note, I am including myself in this. I am the master of comfort.

This is a consumer world that modern America has adapted and pulled into the modern church.

We as a nation have raised up and accepted this into our churches by allowing people to shape the good news of Jesus Christ and make it one of appeal.

Anyone who has been in church for a while and has any spiritual discernment and realizes that there is a disconnect between what is in the bible and what we live out in our lives knows this to be true. There is a massive gap, created by us, one that is known in the deepest part of our souls; that part that yearns for more, searches the world for something new, something that works for us.

This search for something different, when we realize the disconnect, is exactly what these people play off of. You know these people as pastors, some even as spiritual powerhouses in the modern church. They spin and warp God's word, using their own understanding, their own knowledge, taking all that they have accumulated throughout their life, bringing all of their intellectual discussions with all of their intellectual friends into consideration, finding loopholes and open cracks in the scriptures and spiritual truths, and they introduce to us a new form of appeal. A new wave of a new movement of a new interpretation of a new theology of an OLD gospel.

This is great for those of you who want little growth, and are fine with living the comfortable christian life. Keep searching out those new churches with their new leaders. Label me as conservative, that is fine. Although I would never label myself as one, anyone who reads God's word and hears His truths should be labeled as conservative. Because I am pretty sure that when God created the world with us living in perfect harmony with Him, He did not intend for us to be living comfortably as non radical christians in a sinful and oppressed nation, if you know His word of truth and righteousness, and deny the conservation of it, accepting liberality and openness to the world, you might as well deny God, or Christ, whichever have you. (Hopefully you have read about the struggles of the Holy nation of Israel, God's nation that He set apart to be an example to the rest of the nations, and the dangers of bringing in outside influences.)

"There is nothing new under the sun." This is why God's word is so powerful! You can not take God's word, the one things He holds in higher regard than His own name, the one thing that will never fail and will stand the test of time for all of eternity, the one thing He promises that we can place all of hope into, and that builds our faith; You can not take it, and expound upon it. You can not take Christ the cornerstone, the foundation that has already been set and find a new foundation to build from. It is already there. There is nothing new, His word and the message has always been the same, and there will never be something more effective that cuts straight to the heart than the simple truth.

If every single thing in the bible was NOT true, then God would be a liar, which He is not. He definitely would not be consistent, which He is. So therefore, it is a simple conclusion, that everything in His word is true. It can be held in the highest regard. We can put all of our faith in it. We can go all in with every hand dealt to us, because He never fails, and His word doesn't either.

This consumer nation is always trying to one up what we already have. God teaches the exact opposite way of living, and unfortunately we have heavily carried this way of consumer thinking into our church. It is so easy to get caught up in it all, because it is so easy to get comfortable. We are constantly looking for approval, validation, security. We hide behind these churches because they offer a covering over us, a label, that we are only as good as the church we go to, as good as our pastors. Not so, God wants for us to find our approval, validation, and security in Him and Him alone.

To truly follow Jesus we have to first, have a desire; second, die to ourselves and OUR desires; and then thirdly, pick up our crosses and follow Him. I think the current church state stops at desire. This is why it is so easy to get caught up in the comfortable christian living. They are one third of the way there. This is why it is so easy to see, very obviously, the gap and disconnect between what is preached and what is lived out. This is why it is so easy to be herded around and manipulated by intellectualism and conformed to the world by what we find right in our own minds rather than transformed by the reading of the truth and renewing of our minds.

Mark 8:15 "And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod." The Pharisees were a group in Jesus' day who convinced themselves and everyone else that they were more spiritual than they actually were. The same goes for Herod and his political standing at that time. Leaven is the stuff in bread that makes it puff up. It takes a little leaven to leaven the whole loaf. Jesus says, "beware of the leaven of the Pharisees." Watch out for the puffed up false information and knowledge that comes from the self proclaimed people who appear more spiritual than they actually are. I believe the same warning stands for us today.