There I stood, convicted and guilty. Thoughts ran wild. All I thought about was how angry God would be at churches and so-called Christians today. That holy anger, so powerful and mighty in its subtle ways, was overwhelming. God is a respecter of no man. He desires our obedience to Him. “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6).
The house of God is no longer holy, no longer truthful, and no longer passionate for Christ. Pastors preach on half-truths, all about how merciful God is, nothing about the repentance of sin and taking up of the cross. A diluted gospel is not a gospel at all. Man, out of their wits, think of ways to “save” lost souls by reaching out to the carnal flesh. There is no longer deep spiritual cleansing to salvation. This is why Christians back-sliding and turning away from the church is becoming a phenomenon. The church entices people by depicting how great the worship songs are, how good the music system is, how powerful the speaker is, and not how great our God is. There is no longer joy in the church today. Entertainment has substituted the joy. It is an embarrassment to be in the house of God today.
Where is the house of prayer that God desires? God delights in our worship and prayers. But what have we become? We have become worshippers of the world, just like the Israelites who worshipped idols. Satan is knocking at our door-steps. The Bible says that Satan is like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Have we crossed the line to open that door that pushes God away from us? There has to be a revival today.
We are called to be holy, because God is holy. We are so bothered by what the world perceives about us rather than how God looks at us. Scripture says that man looks at the outward appearance but God looks at the heart. We turn away from God because someone says we are “holy cows”, fearful that we would be unable to fit in to society. We are called to be the light of the world and salt of the earth. As a light to the world, we bring God’s glory to them through our actions and words. We are reflectors of God’s glory. Christians living in darkness, following the ways of the world, getting drunk, getting obsessed with gambling and dabbling in the occult, speaks of nothing but disgrace to the holy God.
Satan is planting evil into our lives. Hence, it is so important to seek God and safeguard our hearts. When people say “this is normal, everyone does it, it’s alright”, we ought to think twice. We have to be aware of Satan’s little tricks! We think reading the horoscope is no big deal, think again – IT IS DABBLING IN THE OCCULT! We think studying astrology is no big deal, think again – IT IS DABBLING IN THE OCCULT! And we naively think “There’s nothing wrong listening to music from this particular band”, rethink and rethink – certain music have a satanic tone to it, THAT IS DABBLING IN THE OCCULT!
We often get confused about our own desires and what God requires of us. It is written in Micah 8:6: “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God”. This is the Word of the Lord and we must obey.
Stop Satan at our doorsteps! Turn from our ways and repent, because Christ is returning, judgment is coming! And forgiveness of sin calls for a repentant heart, repentance is forsaking the old nature self and living in God’s ways.
Got it? Or, rather, done it?
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