- Jun 26, 2015
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I am not sure how many of you have watched the Netflix movie “Birdbox”. It really doesn’t matter. But in this movie, something happens to life as we know it and people start committing suicide simply by looking at something. The world is peaceful one day and the next it is holy hell. The main character with her two young children must go on a harrowing journey...... blindfolded.
I just read an Oped on the movie, and it hit the nail on the head as to why it has broken all Netflix records and did so in its first week. Here is what the author said...
“..... because we’re living under a shadow threatening to shred the thin safety net of stability that stands between polite if troubled society and annihilating strife and anarchy. That any moment it’s all going to come apart.”
Is this not the truth? Overpopulation, wars and fears of THE war, global warming, polluted water, trade wars, fears of stock market collapse, mass immigration problems, evil ever increasing in frequency and intensity, the shrinking middle class, the exponentially growing hatred in our politics, mass shootings, senseless violence. It is hard to block out. Almost impossible. Yet, we as the church are doing a darned good job trying.
Sunday after Sunday, we go to church and smile and nod, get emotionally lifted from the din we call this world for 90 minutes, but instead to drawing nearer to our Lord in these disintegrating times, instead of embracing the truth that this world is not our home, and acting accordingly, we put on our smiles, get innoculated with just enough of the truth to make us comfortable in our prison cells of our socially acceptable sins, our pleasures and our ever-present love of self and return home to watch football, or a soap opera, or a nice trip to the mall. remaining oblivious to the fact that we indeed are in the last days.
To the naysayers, who want you to believe that men have always said that we are in the final days upon earth and that life always goes on, they are right. Men have always said such things. But unless one has a blindfold on, wanting desperately to ignore what is becoming increasingly obvious to even those in the world such as the author above, we are all headed for a cataclysmic next 30 years.... and that is being overly optimistic.
Consider. The population of the earth as it stands is almost 8 billion. That is far more than all the lives that have been lived in the last 6000 years. In thirty years. Double that. 16 billion. All wanting the good life. A car. A nice house. Safety. Plenty of food on the table. Available land will decrease significantly, heat will become intolerable, just as Revelations tells us. I will go no further. My point is not to depress you. It is to wake you up to where we are, so that we can do something about it. And what is that. Awaking to WHO we are.
You see, we all want peace and safety for ourselves, for our loved ones. But it will not be found on this earth. And any preacher who tells you you can have it now are leading you on a path that will not end well. At all. The blind leading the blind.
So what is the answer for us as believers? Is there one? Oh, yes! Praise God, yes! But we have to do something.
We have to take off our blindfolds.
And just like in the movie, we have to stare at what we perceive as the danger we all so desperately want to avoid, and we have to, by choice of will, commit spiritual suicide. We have to die to self. If we are to walk on the path that leads to life, we have no choice but to do so. How do I know this? Because Jesus himself told us.
“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”
Matthew 16:24-25
Brothers and sisters, it is time we awoke to the truth of who we are. If we are truly born again, we are not of this world. We are not old natures beings which by their very nature will love pleasure, safety, and our own self-interests. We have been made new creatures, and when we finally embrace that, everything changes. It is the mother of all paradigm shifts. But until we do, we may be saved, but we are far from SAFE.
Our citizenship is in Heaven. But we have all lost sight of that. We want to cling to the notion we can have our cake and eat it too. The problem is, we have relegated the life to be our primary residence, and most have simply uttered a prayer thinking it safeguards them for the next as well. It does not, for unless a man or woman HATES their life as an old natured being, they CANNOT be His disciples.
So what do we need desperately to awake to? With the truth firmly in mind that our death to self has already been accomplished and our resurrection to newness of life in Him has been accomplished as well, we must finally, by an act of faith, actually embrace that as our truth, hating our old life as He told us we MUST. Unless we do, we will be swept away in the avalanche of darkness that is about to come upon the earth, just as surely as Lot’s wife could not part with her life in Sodom and was turned into a pillar of salt.
Church, Jesus tells us that we.... His people..... are the salt of the world. We are to be the preservative that keeps weeds from overtaking the lives of those around us. We are to be the spice that displays to others that living in Him makes our life here sweet, meaningful and palatable even in the darkest of days.
But listen, I pray you and listen closely. We as His people have lost our savour. We have a name that we live, but inside we are dead. We fight tooth and nail against one another, defending our “doctrines” as the only correct ones. But doctrines are simply the skeleton that is to give life its correct shape. And skeletons do not possess life. They are just dry bones.
We have left our first love. We have lost the joy of our salvation. We are hot towards the things in the world, but at best lukewarm towards that things of God. He is simply a safety net, a place to run to when things go badly in the world. We are using God while wanting the best in this life for US rather than to live for Him as His joy-filled servants.
There is an answer to our grave condition. But until we finally admit our pitiful state, and stop defending our actions, our lack of love, our worldliness, our making a fair show in the flesh as the best God can do trying to convince the world that what we call Christianity is “normal” Christianity, the dark cloud on the horizon will get ever closer, and the danger to us will grow ever larger.
Jesus told the parable about His people in the latter days who were told that their master cometh, yet with one accord began to make excuses as to why things in this life were more pressing. I am telling you now, as clearly as I can.
Our Master cometh. Soon.
Will we be like those who made excuses to their continuing to feed the old fleshly nature? Know this. Those who did so did so to their own destruction. I pray all who read these words let them deep inside your hearts. God has something for us in these last days that will blow our minds. Walking in the new man cannot be described. It must be experienced. But first we must tell God that we hunger and thirst for Him..... AND His righteousness..... more than we want US. At ANY cost. ALL your pearls. I promise you, the pearl of great price will stagger us in it’s worth.... in this life and the next.
Live, bones, live
Blessings,
Gideon
I just read an Oped on the movie, and it hit the nail on the head as to why it has broken all Netflix records and did so in its first week. Here is what the author said...
“..... because we’re living under a shadow threatening to shred the thin safety net of stability that stands between polite if troubled society and annihilating strife and anarchy. That any moment it’s all going to come apart.”
Is this not the truth? Overpopulation, wars and fears of THE war, global warming, polluted water, trade wars, fears of stock market collapse, mass immigration problems, evil ever increasing in frequency and intensity, the shrinking middle class, the exponentially growing hatred in our politics, mass shootings, senseless violence. It is hard to block out. Almost impossible. Yet, we as the church are doing a darned good job trying.
Sunday after Sunday, we go to church and smile and nod, get emotionally lifted from the din we call this world for 90 minutes, but instead to drawing nearer to our Lord in these disintegrating times, instead of embracing the truth that this world is not our home, and acting accordingly, we put on our smiles, get innoculated with just enough of the truth to make us comfortable in our prison cells of our socially acceptable sins, our pleasures and our ever-present love of self and return home to watch football, or a soap opera, or a nice trip to the mall. remaining oblivious to the fact that we indeed are in the last days.
To the naysayers, who want you to believe that men have always said that we are in the final days upon earth and that life always goes on, they are right. Men have always said such things. But unless one has a blindfold on, wanting desperately to ignore what is becoming increasingly obvious to even those in the world such as the author above, we are all headed for a cataclysmic next 30 years.... and that is being overly optimistic.
Consider. The population of the earth as it stands is almost 8 billion. That is far more than all the lives that have been lived in the last 6000 years. In thirty years. Double that. 16 billion. All wanting the good life. A car. A nice house. Safety. Plenty of food on the table. Available land will decrease significantly, heat will become intolerable, just as Revelations tells us. I will go no further. My point is not to depress you. It is to wake you up to where we are, so that we can do something about it. And what is that. Awaking to WHO we are.
You see, we all want peace and safety for ourselves, for our loved ones. But it will not be found on this earth. And any preacher who tells you you can have it now are leading you on a path that will not end well. At all. The blind leading the blind.
So what is the answer for us as believers? Is there one? Oh, yes! Praise God, yes! But we have to do something.
We have to take off our blindfolds.
And just like in the movie, we have to stare at what we perceive as the danger we all so desperately want to avoid, and we have to, by choice of will, commit spiritual suicide. We have to die to self. If we are to walk on the path that leads to life, we have no choice but to do so. How do I know this? Because Jesus himself told us.
“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”
Matthew 16:24-25
Brothers and sisters, it is time we awoke to the truth of who we are. If we are truly born again, we are not of this world. We are not old natures beings which by their very nature will love pleasure, safety, and our own self-interests. We have been made new creatures, and when we finally embrace that, everything changes. It is the mother of all paradigm shifts. But until we do, we may be saved, but we are far from SAFE.
Our citizenship is in Heaven. But we have all lost sight of that. We want to cling to the notion we can have our cake and eat it too. The problem is, we have relegated the life to be our primary residence, and most have simply uttered a prayer thinking it safeguards them for the next as well. It does not, for unless a man or woman HATES their life as an old natured being, they CANNOT be His disciples.
So what do we need desperately to awake to? With the truth firmly in mind that our death to self has already been accomplished and our resurrection to newness of life in Him has been accomplished as well, we must finally, by an act of faith, actually embrace that as our truth, hating our old life as He told us we MUST. Unless we do, we will be swept away in the avalanche of darkness that is about to come upon the earth, just as surely as Lot’s wife could not part with her life in Sodom and was turned into a pillar of salt.
Church, Jesus tells us that we.... His people..... are the salt of the world. We are to be the preservative that keeps weeds from overtaking the lives of those around us. We are to be the spice that displays to others that living in Him makes our life here sweet, meaningful and palatable even in the darkest of days.
But listen, I pray you and listen closely. We as His people have lost our savour. We have a name that we live, but inside we are dead. We fight tooth and nail against one another, defending our “doctrines” as the only correct ones. But doctrines are simply the skeleton that is to give life its correct shape. And skeletons do not possess life. They are just dry bones.
We have left our first love. We have lost the joy of our salvation. We are hot towards the things in the world, but at best lukewarm towards that things of God. He is simply a safety net, a place to run to when things go badly in the world. We are using God while wanting the best in this life for US rather than to live for Him as His joy-filled servants.
There is an answer to our grave condition. But until we finally admit our pitiful state, and stop defending our actions, our lack of love, our worldliness, our making a fair show in the flesh as the best God can do trying to convince the world that what we call Christianity is “normal” Christianity, the dark cloud on the horizon will get ever closer, and the danger to us will grow ever larger.
Jesus told the parable about His people in the latter days who were told that their master cometh, yet with one accord began to make excuses as to why things in this life were more pressing. I am telling you now, as clearly as I can.
Our Master cometh. Soon.
Will we be like those who made excuses to their continuing to feed the old fleshly nature? Know this. Those who did so did so to their own destruction. I pray all who read these words let them deep inside your hearts. God has something for us in these last days that will blow our minds. Walking in the new man cannot be described. It must be experienced. But first we must tell God that we hunger and thirst for Him..... AND His righteousness..... more than we want US. At ANY cost. ALL your pearls. I promise you, the pearl of great price will stagger us in it’s worth.... in this life and the next.
Live, bones, live
Blessings,
Gideon
