When Things Were Simple
A Pondering of Isaiah 5:20
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” Isaiah 5:20
Although the traditional use of this scripture in our modern world is often applied to more extreme concepts that everyone agrees with. I thought I would take the time to toss out to everyone, for pondering purposes, a few other thoughts.
1. For thousands of years, we have always known how to grow our own food, build our own homes, repair our clothes, treat sickness, and survive in hard places. Now, we stand at a point in history when most believers believe we are either in the tribulation or it is about to start.
It only took two generations to erase all those skills from humanity and make people completely dependent on the system we will be forced to live with… in the tribulation.
2. You might not realize this, but God blocks the devil's plans all the time. Is your current frustration for not moving forward because you have connected yourself to something God is blocking?
3. Young people in Charismatic circles are often pre-programmed with prophetic words that they have a “big destiny” or a “great calling.” But then we turn around and encourage them to look at the “great men and women” of God standing in front of them. Is it no wonder we are having these scandals when we have taught them to follow men and not Jesus?
4. God is a Jealous God and desires you alone, so why have pastors made Jesus just a frontman for Christianity?
5. What's more important, your heart to God or the actions of your hands?
6. Churches require membership, Jesus never required it.
7. Jesus did not die to give us a system. Man, added it as an addendum to an unspoken oral law that we all seem to follow.
8. “Your Kingdom come, your will be done…” in all the earth except in church.
9. NAR traditionally means “New Apostolic Reformation.” It can also mean “Never A real Revival.”
10. Historically, the Body of Christ grew the fastest in the first 300 years, but now our growth, by percentage, is very small. In scripture, Jesus taught much, told stories, and asked and answered questions. All in all, the amount of time dedicated to preaching was small. Yet, in the church system, we seem to have it flipped. Quite simply, we can not preach our way out of this mess we are in. Judge for yourself: was the old system better, or is the present one better?
11. The phrase "bread and circuses" (from the Latin panem et circenses) originates from ancient Rome and refers to the practice of providing the populace with food and entertainment to keep them content and distracted from political issues or social problems. It also highlights a strategy used by modern Christian leaders to maintain control over the masses by satisfying their basic needs and desires rather than addressing more serious concerns.
Hmm… could “bread and circuses” explain the condition of modern churches?
How to Ride a Dead Horse (Ministry)
The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians passed on from generation to generation, says that when you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.
In modern Church Ministries, however, a whole range of far more advanced strategies are often employed, such as:
1. Buying a stronger whip.
2. Change riders.
3. Threatening the horse with termination.
4. Appointing a committee to study the horse.
5. Visiting other churches to see how others ride dead horses.
6. Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included.
7. Re-classifying the dead horse as “living impaired.”
8. Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse.
9. Harnessing several dead horses together to increase the speed.
10. Attempting to mount multiple dead horses in hopes that one of them will spring to life.
11. Providing additional funding and/or training to increase the dead horse’s performance.
12. Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse’s performance.
13. Declaring that sense the dead horse does not need to be fed, it therefore is less costly, carries lower overhead, and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the economy of the ministry than do some other horses.
14. Re-writing the expected performance requirements for all horses.
15. Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position.
Final Thoughts
Next week, “Odds and Ends.”
That's because Satan and his principalities highjacked the mountain of " religion ". Our enemy is more organized than we've understood and incredibly clever. The good news is...the veil is being lifted and our writing will be more important than ever!