Dear Neighbor, There will be no need for me to site references for the information that I am about to tell you; it can easily be researched thanks to the internet. In the history of civilization, no other nation has been as blessed as America. No other nation has done as much in Christian evangelism. And yet our nation is now in an extreme state of moral decay. Washington looks like Sodom and Gomorrah. Straight out lying from our politicians is now a natural thing. No one seems to have a problem with it. When they get caught breaking the very laws that they make, they just make new laws to make what laws they broke legal or they just simply refuse to enforce the laws that they don’t like. I could fill up pages pointing out our mess and then still have much more to say. You are more than aware of what is doing on. Such as the removing of Bibles and prayer from our schools. The results; our schools are now war zones. Our children are being taught that there is no god. They are being taught socialism. They are told that working hard and becoming successful is unfair to others. Our teenagers are now killing themselves because they can’t deal with life. Every day that you send your kids to school you don’t know if they will come home alive. The family unit is nearly gone. Fathers are either neglecting their responsibilities or are not there at all. The evil sinful ways of American life seems to have no end. I am blaming the Christian church in America for most of our problems. We have remained silent. We have sat back and watched all this happen. We have shut ourselves out of the issues. Everyone is well aware of the constant division of the church. It has been going on for hundreds of years. We have many denominations. There is probably a denomination for everyone’s “feeling” about what a “true” church should be. We have so many different opinions of what we think a church should be that it seems like there is a different church on every street corner in America. If you were to read the doctrine or statement of beliefs of these churches you will find that they are all nearly identical. If they all appear to believe the same basic doctrine of Christian faith, then why such division in the body of Christ? We have so many churches in America and yet they are nearly all empty. Their membership is constantly dropping. Their leadership seems to be clueless as to why. Researchers Kirk Hadaway and Penny Marler found that only 20.4% of church members actually attend church regularly. In 2006 there were 217 different denominations listed. The largest is the Roman Catholic Church with 67 million. Southern Baptist Convention 16 million. Protestant 8 million. (America has nearly 313 million people.) Our churches now have professional ministers. In order to become a minister one must attend the “right” seminary. They must spend tens of thousands of dollars, nearly as much as a lawyer or other such professional before the secular and religious institutions declare them qualified to teach you what God says in the Bible. Only those that have the highest degree seem to be able to get “hired” as a minister with a salary large enough to pay off their educational debt. Ministry has now become a profession with a great many of the ministers that don’t even believe what they preach. But their becoming a pastor in a church is no sure thing. Most all churches are self-destructing. They have allowed a few members so much power in the church that those few with their “self -righteousness” are destroying the very church that they profess to be protecting. Because of their own pride and that of the religious institutions our churches remain ineffective. The Southern Baptist Convention has a record of terminating 1,392 pastors annually. The number one reason that pastors are leaving the ministry is that they believe God wants them to move in one direction but the people are not willing to change with them. Some information from Schaeffer Institute: 4,000 new churches begin every year and 7,000 close. Only 25% of pastors report being happy and content. 70% of pastors feel grossly underpaid. 50% of ministers starting out will not last 5 years. 80% of pastors feel left out and under-appreciated. Here are a couple more facts to think about. 1,300 pastors are terminated by the local church EACH MONTH, many without cause. Over 3,500 people A DAY leave the church. Life Action Ministries reports that only 7% of those who commit their lives to Christ can be found in any church within 7 years. Am I saying that the function or structure of the church is bad, ABSOLUTELY NOT! God instituted the church. But unfortunately the majority of time, man and his own ideas are to blame for its problems. There are many great ministries in the world. We must remember, there is no such thing as a perfect church. WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH ME??? So what does all this have to do with you? Why am I bothering to point out what everyone seems to already know?? Most everyone in America has had some contact with a Christian or a church. So this concerns all of us. Today if you seek help from a church you are quickly turned away. You are sent to some governmental agency. If you have family problems, most often you have to schedule an appointment with the pastor and most always you are sent to a Christian counselor that wants to charge you money that you probably don’t have. If it is on spiritual issues you are most always, and I mean always, you are encouraged to visit their church on Sunday, join a Sunday school class. You may be given some literature to read or a cheap bible to have. If they do talk to you about spiritual things, most often, whether you realize it or not, they are saying what they think you “want” to hear. They avoid “TRUTH” because they are afraid that they might offend you in some way. They want to please your feelings. If you are given the “TRUTH” you most often are offended and leave feeling hurt. (Truth sometimes does hurt but it is good for you.) If you weren’t a Christian and they do lead you to Christ, “saved,” you are most always left on your own from that point forward. They are excited for you, you are then encouraged to be baptized and join the church. IF you are one that is considered by others “a spiritual person, or giant in the faith” but don’t have all the education and seminary training they believe you should have, they don’t ever want to hear what you have to say. These leaders act as though they have all the answers and there is nothing you have to teach them. The leaders will nearly never accept any criticism from you even though they publicly state that they are open to it. They publicly state that they are not perfect and need your prays, but don’t you dare question them. OBSERVATION People are truly hungry for something in their spirit. They want more then what they are getting in their local church. They know that there is more, they just aren’t sure how to find it. If this wasn’t so, then why are we having the constant migration of people from church to church trying to find the “right” one. We have mega churches because people “feel” that that must be where “IT” is. The “IT” is what they are looking for. At first the large church seems to have what they are looking for, but in time they either drop out of church or just attend from time to time. What they are searching for is most often not found in these mega churches. The majority of time when I ask a Christian about their spiritual life I find these common issues: 1. They don’t really know the Bible. 2. They don’t pray or read their Bible regularly or at all. 3. If they do pray or read their Bible it isn’t the first thing that they do in their day. 4. They don’t really know what they believe or what their church believes 5. They feel discouraged more often than encouraged. 6. They question their salvation. 7. They just can’t seem to find the right church. Or if they have, they are not actively involved in ministry of any sort. They just attend. 8. They don’t know how to pray. 9. They don’t really understand what they are reading when they do read their bible. 10. They have and incorrect understanding of basic biblical truths. 11. They don’t understand what worship is or what the importance of praising God is. For the non-Christian, many have been turned off by the church and what they think they know about it based on what they have seen and know about its involvement in history. Their understanding of who God is, is so far off from the truth, that it isn’t surprising that they are not interested in knowing more. WARNING!!! One important thing to know and remember. Satanist are in the church; they hide themselves as church leaders, pastors, and youth leaders. This is an absolute fact. It is not difficult to discern them and remove them from your church. (Matt 7:15) “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” Our church members are so afraid of offending a church leader or other members that they wouldn’t dare to ask them important questions about their spiritual condition. Blindly Christians are easily lead astray. They have been so well programed by TV, radio, schools, etc. that Christians are not supposed to ever have a conflict with anyone. They use the phrase “What would Jesus do?” without truly understanding what they have just said. Another important point is this, God will give up on those who refuse to accept the truth of His Word after having been told. (Rom. 1:25) “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator” (verses 28:29) “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without natural understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.” This is the current state of America and sadly it can also be found in our churches and our own homes. There is almost no reasoning with those people who have refused to accept God. Our responsibility is to continue to intercede in prayer for them and hope that they will repent. Even Christians struggle with completely submitting their life to God’s control. They want to be in control. And most often their ways have only lead to destruction. Who is man that he thinks he knows more than God. Who is man that he thinks that he can do a better job at spiritual matters than God. Our wisest scientists and doctor still can’t understand the human brain or for that matter even simpler body parts. A virus so small that it can’t be seen by the human eye can easily destroy and kill a man. (Rom. 1:22) “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.” WHAT IS THE SOLUTION??? Whether you are a professing Christian or not, this applies to all of us. The very first step is the beginning of everything. All understanding of doctrine, spiritual life, church membership and growth, everything hinges on this basic step of your life. There is a great summary of this on this website gotquestions.org/crucified-with-Christ.html Paul says in (Gal. 2:20) “I am crucified with Christ:” You must completely, totally surrender your own “self- will” and your “life” over to Christ. Although you didn’t literally hang on the cross with Christ, you can mentally imagine yourself climbing up on the cross so that you too can once and for all die to yourself. You have to hand your life over to God to allow Him to do with you as He sees fit. Being 100% honest with yourself you can agree with Paul when he said “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing:” (Rom. 7:20). You know yourself that you constantly do things that you know are wrong. If you don’t have this knowledge of yourself then fear should so grip your heart for fear that God has already turned you over to a reprobate mind, web definition says a reprobate is “A mind that has become so ingrained in evil that it is not able to stop – even in its own best interest.” All peoples of the earth regardless of where they live know that there IS a God-a Supreme Being- somewhere. And God says that “they are without excuse.” Romans 1:20. For those that refuse to acknowledge this (Rom.1:21) “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” I pray that this doesn’t describe your heart. You see, God knows everything about you. He said “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee:” (Jer.1:5) The English Standard Version nicely phrases Psalm 139:13-16 “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mothers womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” So I ask you this, who do you think you are that you think you know more than God? Whether you are a professing Christian or not, this question applies to us all. I can’t begin to tell you how often I hear professing Christians repeat this very principle that I have just laid out for you and yet not apply it to their life. What I have just said is no new revelation. Yet, very very very few Christians truly have this understanding deep in the core of their being. Those that don’t have an understanding of this most important principle of “dying to self” or do understand but aren’t applying it to their life are easy to identify. (Matt. 7:16) “Ye shall know them by their fruits.” Please understand, I am in no way condemning or judging anyone. I too am a sinner. I constantly make mistakes and knowingly sin against God. I want you to understand this, and this is very important. Because I care so very much for you is why I have taken the time to write this letter. My heart’s desire is that you will submit your life to Jesus Christ and live a victorious life. I want you to experience the great joy of knowing God. I don’t wish that any should suffer because they don’t know God. If what I just relayed to you in this letter was such an easy thing to do, then our churches would not be in the condition that they are in. Our churches wouldn’t be shipwrecking people’s faith. Our ministers wouldn’t have the difficulties that they are having in filling their churches. Once this first step is taken, then the list of my eleven observations can easily be tackled. A Christian needs to apply certain principles to his walk with God. Yes, they are taught in most churches. We have great churches and some very godly men to learn from. There is wonderful material readily available to help you in your Christian walk with God. Radio and television programs can make learning about God easy. So why then have I written this letter if there is such an abundance of Christian material available to you? Because I have been watching the decay and decline of our churches for over 30 years now. My heart is breaking because of what I am seeing. God said (2 Chron. 7:14) “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” I do believe that things can improve in our churches. I know without a doubt that your spiritual life can be completely transformed and that you can experience that “deeper walk in the spirit” that many of you so desire but can’t seem to find your way there. Please trust me when I tell you that you MUST stop resisting God and let Him have complete, absolute control of your life. This is what must take place. Then everything else can begin to be worked on. There is so much more to explain and share with you. However, this letter is already much longer than I had planned it to be. There are definite steps that each one of us must take every single day and steps to be taken all through the day that will take us into what I like to call “the deeper walk in the spirit.” But as I said, the first step begins with you giving all of yourself to Jesus Christ. I was given the name “Preacher” in 1992 by those who knew me, you are welcome to call me if you would like to hear more of what I have to say about a “deeper walk in the spirit” (336) 524-4588
Posted on: Sun, 17 Nov 2013 18:01:29 +0000
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