Frank’s Concern
FAcross America, it appears that Church leaders are responding to the Enemy’s attacks as though we are dealing with sporadic grass fires.
Flames break out in one place after another, but we deal with them piecemeal. The flames rise quickly and spread rapidly, but our responses are impromptu and desperate. We appear to be “…tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming” (Eph. 4:14).
Some have begun to realize that the Enemy is making a concerted effort around the world to destroy the Church. He is encouraging everything from imprisoning and beheading Christians to reinterpreting the laws in the USA. Few realize that this may well be our last desperate struggle before the End.
Tragically, the Church is unprepared for these assaults. We are not on the attack. We are not even making a strategic withdrawal. We are in the midst of a desperate retreat.
It’s not merely a matter of philosophy or leadership. It’s the need to focus on biblical imperatives. Nor is it a matter of one self-centered pastor, or ministry executive, or seminary president keeping his program going while others collapse around him. It’s a matter of seeing the truth in God’s Word, and seeking the grace and power of the Holy Spirit to come alongside.
“The fields are white unto harvest,” and those in the world that are most hungry for truth are those who are surviving in actual war zones. Their businesses are destroyed or confiscated. They are driven from their homes — wives raped, husbands murdered, children kidnapped and brutalized. They see things in black and white, They can easily differentiate between good and evil, love and hate, life and death.
For them it’s not a matter of “business as usual,” of shifting the blame or letting someone else do what needs to be done. They are living in makeshift shelters. Many are starving, cold, wounded, and fleeing for their lives. It has come down to a simple question for them.
“What happens to us when we perish?”
Do they know the power of His resurrection, and the renewing of His Spirit? Do we? Do you?
We are supposed to have the Words of Life that they hunger for! Are we sharing them?
Don’t fool yourselves, brothers and sisters. Jesus warned that in these end times the very elect might almost be deceived. We’re not dealing in options. Your future and the futures of your children and your grandchildren are at stake.
Look around you and you will see that not only is the world infiltrating the Church, but that much of the Church is succumbing to and embracing the corruption of the world system. We are all, everyone of us, under attack, every moment. You can’t hide from it. You must face it and defeat it.
It’s time to get down on our knees and pray. It’s time to gather with friends and loved ones to pray for one another, and for:
- Christ’s Church.
- The America that once acknowledged and encouraged the things of God.
- For the world which is suffering because of our failures.
Has the Church in America, the Church that once exported truth to the rest of the world, itself become a castaway?
Jesus condemned the Laodicean Church with these words: “So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.” Christ’s values have not changed. We don’t have time for the luxury of self-pity. Talk to the Lord. Confess, repent (turn), ask for strength, courage, and wisdom, and get on with it!
And if you pray, Lord, send a revival, remember that the revival has to begin in us — individually. Me…and YOU! That’s the Church…you and me.
Will the Church survive? Jesus promised that a “remnant” would be saved. Will you and I be part of that remnant?
If we do not act now, the Church will never even achieve a strategic withdrawal. We will simply retreat into oblivion.