But if you don’t want to serve the LORD, then choose today whom you will serve. Even if you choose the gods your ancestors served on the other side of the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live, my family and I will still serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15)
Many will pass judgment on another individual or group today based on their looks, their dress and other situations they may be in. Yet Jesus said to show grace, mercy and love, judge not lest ye be judged. Wisdom would testify that in following the teaching of Jesus here can be a tough decision, one that will find you facing much opposition as it will cause one to walk down a narrow path that few choose to take.
Sadly the “many” are not even including those outside the Church but rather those who sit in the Church week after week. Religion has done it job, it has separated the believer from truth and interwoven the philosophies of this world and labeled them wisdom, yet true wisdom comes from the Father and it never contradicts the Son. You see, wisdom never says the message of Jesus has changed, it never says that what was once considered sin by the Father has now become acceptable. But it also has never said that we pass judgment first and then if needed show love, it clearly stands on the teachings of Christ not to judge and to show LOVE above all else.
But you, beloved brothers and sisters, are not living in the dark, allowing that day to creep up on you like a thief coming to steal. For you are all children of the light and children of the day. We don’t belong to the night nor to darkness. This is why we must not fall asleep, as the rest do, but keep wide awake and clearheaded. For those who are asleep sleep the night away, and drunkards get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, we must stay alert and clearheaded by placing the breastplate of faith and love over our hearts, and a helmet of the hope of salvation over our thoughts (1 Thes 5:4-8).
The ways of this world, the thinking, the philosophies and such have been bombarding the Church from the beginning and much has over taking the Church in that the Church has succumbed to its teachings over that of the Lords. After all these are different times, times have changed and situations people find themselves in have changed thus the Gospel must bend and adhere to these times that we find ourselves in, right?
Wrong, a thousand times wrong. You see in the first Church they held to the teachings of Christ even if it caused them their lives, and for many it did. Yet they turned the world upside down. Whereas today the world has turned the Church inside out so that it looks more like the world than the Body of Christ. It has morphed into an entertainment industry for big money.
Not the whole Church is this way, for indeed there is a Remnant in our day who still holds the torch of truth and refuses to bend knee to the modern teachings that have striped the power of truth in exchange for feel-good doctrines. That inspires the emotions but does not transform the individual, enlightens ones mind but does not produce Christ-like hearts. This present day message draws in the people and uses them to by the numbers to validate ones ego then spits them out just as fast when they begin to see the cracks in this false Lamb, leaving them often times in more of a state of lost ness than when they first entered, for they were drawn with a hope of a Messiah but were met with a man and his program.
Never restrain or put out the fire of the Holy Spirit. And don’t be one who scorns prophecies, but be faithful to examine them by putting them to the test, and afterward hold tightly to what has proven to be right. Avoid every appearance of evil. (1 Thes 5:19-22)
Today, more than ever we must hold to the pure teachings of Christ and His Apostles and never trade them in for a lighter message. Paul said of such that ther would come a double curse upon their lives (Gal 3:10). Grace is powerful when taught in Truth and the Gospel Message found in the Word has not lost one once of its power and ability to impact cultures and peoples. It is time to bring the teaching of fasting & prayer back, the truth of the communion table back, the teachings of obedience and the reward of following Jesus. It is time to cut ties with those who seek to change the Gospel message, to seperate ourselves from those who wish to inject the ways of the world as means of reaching the people. It is time once again to turn and follow Jesus with surrendered hearts and lives. The narrow road is bordered by legalism on one side and compromise on the other.
The World is in desperate need of the true sons & daughters of the Lord Most High to manifest in this hour. We need men and women who will follow the teachings of Christ regardless of the cost and having counted it they dive into His ways with everything they have. Those that fully trust the Words of the Master, He said lay hands on the sick and they do it, He said to love the unlovable and they do it, He said to lay down our lives and they do it. For indeed He is a worthy King and just the reward of being called His friend, brother and sister is world far more than anything this world has to offer.
~Dr. Russ Welch, Th.D.
Radical Disciples - A Remnant Revolution 