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“Addicted to lust and allergic to God”
This is how the Message Bible reads in 2Timothy 3. Ouch. Paul is talking here about the perilous times approaching in the last days, where men will be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Let’s be sure we understand. This searing indictment is not talking about those in the world. It is about multitudes of people in church every Sunday. Note here that they did not ‘not love God’. Not at all. They just loved their self-ruled life more. These were those that Paul said ‘had a form of Godliness but denied the power thereof.’ Listen. Their words might not deny it. But their lives did.
We as His church have become hard of hearing, a people with itching ears, wanting teachers to tell us ‘nice things’ about a conveniently twisted grace that can forgive us, and asks nothing of us but our salvation prayer, but has no power to set us free indeed from the power of sin that rules over us, or to change us and make us holy and fruitful, as the Word clearly promises us.
Is this not the exact condition we see found in Laodecia in Revelation 3, where contentment without godliness ruled? The lukewarm Laodecian were not cold as they nodded to one another and assured themselves, saying “At least I am not like those sinners in the world!” They sought just enough grace to get them into Heaven but with little if any hunger for a grace that could We have met the lukewarm, and they are us.....instruct them in the HOW of walking pleasing to Him as strangers and pilgrims, holy and without blame in an increasingly wicked world.
Have we forgotten that as the Master potter, our God has promised to do more than to forgive us? Has He not promised to transform us by setting us free from the power of darkness and changing us from old-natured men and women into a people with brand new natures that He then fills with glorious fruits? We have been taught time is the key missing ingredient so why sweat it. We have been taught wrong.
And why has this transformation not happened? It is easy. We simply do not believe it is possible, because we mistakenly think it is up to us to change ourselves. But you see, that is not our job. Our job is to yield ourselves to Him, with nothing held back, hungering and thirsting for righteousness..... and believe that when we do, God will show Himself strong on our behalf and do exactly what He said He would do, give us victory over the world, the flesh and the devil, and cause us to walk as overcomers, not as the forgiven overcome.
God tells us clearly:
“Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.”
It is time we stopped wanting to have our ears tickled, keeping us miserably comfortable as we clutch our pardons in our decorated prison cells and started to beseech our God to give us what we need, rather than what we want. May God open our eyes by breaking the hardness that has formed over our hearts by our continuing in our old natures, and cause us to cry out to Him as wretched men, to come deliver us, trusting that He will indeed not only forgive us, but also deliverer and cleanse us from the old natures that rule over us. Total victory awaits. The question is...do we want it more than our next breath?
God has more for us..... MUCH more, but it will not simply fall down from Heaven as we walk contentedly forward with self as our real ruler, thinking we have need of nothing. The hard-to-hear truth is, we are those who are poor and blind and lame and naked. Our new nature lays unworn on our shelves, our spiritual armor gathers dust, and our shields of faith have no sign of spiritual battles we have waged and won. We are not similar in a few ways to the Laodecian. We ARE them. Sadly, the shame of our nakedness that is so very plain to those in the world eludes us. We are like the empower prancing around in his new clothes. That is all about to change....
Blessings,
Gideon
This is how the Message Bible reads in 2Timothy 3. Ouch. Paul is talking here about the perilous times approaching in the last days, where men will be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Let’s be sure we understand. This searing indictment is not talking about those in the world. It is about multitudes of people in church every Sunday. Note here that they did not ‘not love God’. Not at all. They just loved their self-ruled life more. These were those that Paul said ‘had a form of Godliness but denied the power thereof.’ Listen. Their words might not deny it. But their lives did.
We as His church have become hard of hearing, a people with itching ears, wanting teachers to tell us ‘nice things’ about a conveniently twisted grace that can forgive us, and asks nothing of us but our salvation prayer, but has no power to set us free indeed from the power of sin that rules over us, or to change us and make us holy and fruitful, as the Word clearly promises us.
Is this not the exact condition we see found in Laodecia in Revelation 3, where contentment without godliness ruled? The lukewarm Laodecian were not cold as they nodded to one another and assured themselves, saying “At least I am not like those sinners in the world!” They sought just enough grace to get them into Heaven but with little if any hunger for a grace that could We have met the lukewarm, and they are us.....instruct them in the HOW of walking pleasing to Him as strangers and pilgrims, holy and without blame in an increasingly wicked world.
Have we forgotten that as the Master potter, our God has promised to do more than to forgive us? Has He not promised to transform us by setting us free from the power of darkness and changing us from old-natured men and women into a people with brand new natures that He then fills with glorious fruits? We have been taught time is the key missing ingredient so why sweat it. We have been taught wrong.
And why has this transformation not happened? It is easy. We simply do not believe it is possible, because we mistakenly think it is up to us to change ourselves. But you see, that is not our job. Our job is to yield ourselves to Him, with nothing held back, hungering and thirsting for righteousness..... and believe that when we do, God will show Himself strong on our behalf and do exactly what He said He would do, give us victory over the world, the flesh and the devil, and cause us to walk as overcomers, not as the forgiven overcome.
God tells us clearly:
“Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.”
It is time we stopped wanting to have our ears tickled, keeping us miserably comfortable as we clutch our pardons in our decorated prison cells and started to beseech our God to give us what we need, rather than what we want. May God open our eyes by breaking the hardness that has formed over our hearts by our continuing in our old natures, and cause us to cry out to Him as wretched men, to come deliver us, trusting that He will indeed not only forgive us, but also deliverer and cleanse us from the old natures that rule over us. Total victory awaits. The question is...do we want it more than our next breath?
God has more for us..... MUCH more, but it will not simply fall down from Heaven as we walk contentedly forward with self as our real ruler, thinking we have need of nothing. The hard-to-hear truth is, we are those who are poor and blind and lame and naked. Our new nature lays unworn on our shelves, our spiritual armor gathers dust, and our shields of faith have no sign of spiritual battles we have waged and won. We are not similar in a few ways to the Laodecian. We ARE them. Sadly, the shame of our nakedness that is so very plain to those in the world eludes us. We are like the empower prancing around in his new clothes. That is all about to change....
Blessings,
Gideon
