The Lord has never failed providing His Church with all the necessary Light and Guidance, with His Grace and Patience and Love and Chastisement and Rebuke and Discipline. He has also provided His timely warnings. Read the Prophets of the Old Testament and see how many times and how persistently the Lord warned Israel before their manifold catastrophes and tragedies. And see how many times (if any) the children of Israel listened to Him, that is to say, to His Prophets? Can you enumerate them? And the chief reason for not listening to them could be counted as UNBELIEF AND IDOLATRY!
Why do we believe that the Church is better than Israel? On what Scriptural basis should we believe that? Do you truly believe that the Church is free from unbelief or idolatry? The Protestants always pointed their finger at Catholics and their sanctuaries filled with statues and pictures and other paraphernalia. But the Lord has been pointing His finger also at the Protestants and at their idols which are not so much as hanging in their sanctuaries as they are “hanging” in their own souls. They do not worship statues or the image of Baal (2Ki. 10:19-28), but THEY DO WORSHIP THEIR OWN IMAGES, THEIR MINISTRIES, WORKS FOR THE LORD, ACHIEVEMENTS AND OTHER IDOLS! There is no part of the Church which is free from idolatry as there is no believer truly free from pride! And it is always THE LEADERSHIP WHICH IS THE MOST PRIDEFUL PART OF THE CHURCH. Why? Well, the state of any organization, institution, congregation or other entity in this world always depends on its leadership! Satan knows it also; so, could you guess what he is aiming at? When he deceives leaders he deceives their organizations, institutions, the whole entities and everyone, who depends on them. Is this not the most clever and efficient way?
Is it not shocking that the MOST PRIDEFUL PERSONS IN THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF ISRAEL WERE THEIR RELIGIOUS LEADERS? THEY DID NOT RECOGNIZE THEIR OWN MESSIAH! THEIR PRIDE, REASONING AND JUDGMENTS KILLED THEIR MESSIAH! Their vast mental knowledge of Torah did not help them one bit, except to make them children of hell and to condemn them to hell! (Mt. 23:15,33) It was not an angry mob of pagans or Roman soldiers, who crucified Jesus. NO! THE RELIGIOUS LEADERS OF ISRAEL KILLED HIM. They also incited their people to cry “crucify Him”. Is this something we can easily explain away? Is it just a story from the Old Testament that does not have any spiritual meaning for us today? Can we register or fathom in our soul or conscience this terrible SPIRITUAL TRAGEDY? NO! Leaders should be the most humble and meek ones, they should be shepherds and not vipers, they should be trustworthy and not hypocrites, they should represent the Lord and not their religious organizations and they should know the Lord Himself and not just have a lot of information about Him.
THE LORD JESUS CHRIST SAYS that even today many religious leaders do not recognize Him, their Messiah, even when He speaks to them or writes to them through His (very few) prophets and servants. Their pride, reasoning and judgments are even today “killing” the Son of God, which is to say, “separating” Him –The Truth– from His people! They also incite people against Him by forbidding people to read or hear His Truth. They are not entering the Kingdom of Heaven, yet they shut it up against all those that desire to enter in. And today many are also appearing beautiful and saintly outwardly and worthy of following, but within they are equally full of dead men’s bones and uncleanness! (Mt. 23:13,27) How many of them are like that? Those leaders that can SEE the above truth do not belong into the count. All the rest do… because they don’t see their self, their soul, their heart (Jer. 17:9,10) and what is in it, what is the ability and capacity of their soul to sin, to depart from their Messiah, their Saviour and do their own will rather than His Will. Even today they truly do not know what they are doing. (Lk. 23:33,34)
The Lord desires to show us yet another extraordinary example which we should diligently consider in our soul and spirit. It shall show us that the above paragraphs are not far fetched and unbelievable at all. Rather, they are facts and to be expected in the natural life of any human being with no respect to persons.
Many believers know the story of King Solomon, how he was chosen by the Lord to be the King of Israel, how he received a great wisdom and understanding and riches and fame from the Lord, how Solomon loved the Lord and also how the Lord loved Solomon. (1Ki. 3:3// 2Sam. 12:24) He also lifted up his hands being on his knees praising the Lord, vowing to keep all His Commandments and Statutes and declaring that the LORD IS GOD and that there is none else. (1Ki. 8:54-60) The Lord, his God, was with him and magnified him exceedingly. (2Chr. 1:1) But as he grew older he departed from all his vows and from the Lord and started to do evil in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel, Who had appeared to him twice! (1Ki. 11:4-9)
Even those believers and theologians that may have a detailed knowledge of the life and deeds of Solomon may not have drawn from that knowledge its spiritual meaning and consequences for their own Christian life and ministry. There are two facts to be considered here:
1) We may start our Christian life and also our ministry in the most blessed way. We may love the Lord and He may love us and be with us. He may bless us even exceedingly in various ways. But that is no guarantee that we will continue on that road and that the Lord will be with us all the way!! We may start departing from our way of blessings and of His Presence with us without being aware of it and our deception will grow according to the increase of our spiritual pride. Our ministry will start losing its former life and trueness and will become mechanical, religious and dead. The larger the ministry we build, the more people and fame it attracts, the greater the danger of the spiritual pride and the departure from the Lord. Our success shall blind our eyes and blur our spiritual vision which we may have had in the beginning. We may start doing evil in the sight of Our Lord (not in our own sight – Pr. 16:2) and He may become angry with us… and we may not consider it at all! We dwell in our (glorious) past not realizing that in the present we would not stand the testing of the Lord and would fall. All the knowledge and wisdom of Solomon did not help him one bit to preserve the original blessings and the Presence of the Lord. Our increased knowledge and wisdom may fail us exactly in the same way! Is this not a true TRAGEDY?
2) What may cause our heart to depart from the Lord and become religious are not only “strange women”, but innumerable other lusts and desires and goals in our heart. When we love our denomination or religious organization or sect, we love a “strange woman”. Women represent religious entities; Israel-Church are represented by a Woman, (Rev. 12:1) so is Babylon, (Rev. 17:3-6,9,18) and the seven churches of the Book of Revelation (Is. 4:1). When we love our ministry, our preaching, teaching, healing, even publishing ministry, etc., that we “do for the Lord”, they may become our idols; we may have lost the sight of and the love for the Lord Himself. We are quite able and prone to glean more glory from our religious works “for the Lord” than our Lord can glean from our works “for Him”. Our life and ministry are the fruit of our heart and it always “betrays us”; it shows our “true” relationship with the Lord and His Presence in or absence from our ministry. We should be able to see it, if we have eyes to see. The fact that we may be faithful and diligent ministers “living and working for the Lord” does not mean that we are “altogether acceptable” in His eyes. Faithful and diligent servants may also be spiritually foolish, proud, inconsiderate, independent, closed to any advice, deaf to the voice of the Lord. They resist the Lord in making them perfect and fruitful. Can you SEE this fact? It is not easy to see, yet, it is true. The Lord knows.
Religion is not the tool of the Lord, it is the tool of Satan… to deceive and destroy being undetected and hidden under the “robe of religion”. Religion is man’s idea about God and it is always FALSE! Proud believers are never conscious of the fact that they are proud and that the Lord is not with them. Pride is blind and stupid, it breeds unbelief and idolatry and other “fruit” of flesh. Furthermore, pride is a very strong force in our soul and it shall not depart from our soul by our wish or prayer or a one-time deliverance.
PRIDE, UNBELIEF AND IDOLATRY REIGN IN THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST. THEIR FRUIT IS
SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS AND MISERY.
Even these lines will not be read by many leaders though these lines will be sent to them. And if some of them would come this far and read these lines, they shall not believe what they read. Their image will not allow them to see and believe that these lines may indeed come from their own Messiah, Who, despite resisting them, (Jam. 4:6// 1Pet. 5:5) may be yet warning them.
IT IS NOT ANY MAN, IT IS THE LORD JESUS CHRIST THAT WRITES TO THEM EVEN THESE LINES AND WARNS THEM! THE MAN IS JUST AN INSTRUMENT CALLED BY THE LORD FOR THIS PURPOSE! AND TODAY THERE ARE JUST FEW SUCH MEN THROUGH WHOM THE LORD SPEAKS TRUTH TO HIS CHURCH!
WHY CAN THEY NOT BELIEVE? THE SINGLE REASON IS THAT THE CROSS OF CHRIST MIGHT BE IN THEIR NOTES AND SERMONS BUT IT IS NOT FOUND IN THEIR SOUL! THEY MIGHT APPEAR TO WALK WITH THE LORD, BUT THEY ARE THE ENEMIES OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST MINDING EARTHLY THINGS. (PHIL. 3:18,19) AND THEIR OWN CROSS (Mt. 16:24) MAY HAVE NEVER EVEN BEEN IN THEIR NOTES, LET ALONE IN THEIR LIFE! THEY CONSIDER ME PROUD BECAUSE I WRITE THIS TRUTH.
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To be continued next week in chapter 8 – part 4
brother Hanola
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