Going to church is not about me, though I derive great benefit by being there.  Studying, weeding through and ingesting God’s Word with other believers is certainly not about me, but I am edified and strengthened in the process.  Working as a field member toward the harvest of saints is not about me, but I will receive a job well done from Christ for it as I enter His presence.  In truth, sometimes being with other believers, working through the Word and sharing each others’ burden is not easy, but it provides the greatest growth for all of us.  After all I am a bond-servant to Christ for my salvation, in slavery to His righteousness, His Purpose for my life, so that He might live this life through me.  How then may I justify staying away from church for reasons that feed my own desires?

Yes, I am struggling in relationships, because that is the nature of self, it gets in the way of peace, prosperity and agreement.  How might the Lord work out the kinks in my difficulties without providing the relational opportunities to work through those problems?  I am among them because that is where He wants me to be, not because I will always find it comfortable, pleasant and entirely self-satisfying.  In fact, it really challenges me most visits.  Either I am convicted by the expository preaching of God’s Word, or I am reminded of my limited skills or I remember how much other people’s needs should outweigh my own self-concern.  Rarely do I come home without some manner of challenge or improvement being offered by having attended church with other believers in Christ.  For God’s Word never returns void.

I will not tell you that I always agree with the practices, delivery and interpretations of the pastors or guest speakers.  Their correction or inadequacy is not my concern, for I know that the Holy Spirit resides in them too, correcting, chastening, growing them in their walk with Jesus.  I must not view them as perfect nor require them to be so.  They are humans as any of us, with sin, self-serving voices and temptation.  If any thing they require more prayer because of their position of authority, for they will also face greater expectation with Christ.  That is why we are cautioned about accepting lightly the position of teacher or pastor.  This walk within the church is about overcoming.  Overcoming our own perspectives in an effort to live in harmony as we are called.  I want them all to grow and I want them to hold my feet to the flames of my own edification and maturity.  Church is most about me using the gifts I was given by God to edify, assist, heal and encourage the saints I have been given the privilege of growing alongside.  Every time I attend, ironically and especially those times that I did not wish to attend I find that someone there truly needed my help.  That is the gift of my salvation, that I might find purpose in service to Christ and His body.

Do not give up on the attempt, please.  Yes, there will be discomfort, but I submit that if you stick with it you will find all those things that God has promised.  We were not meant to be alone, we are ambassadors of the same God who said how much we love each other will be evidence of our kinship.  Grow in your faith by hearing His Word.  Grow in your gifts by using them for the Good of His Kingdom.  Grow in love by giving love, especially when it is ill deserved, for this is the love of Christ.  None of us belonged before He welcomed us.  This is the challenge to help others feel welcomed within the body of Christ, as the world ignores, overlooks, undervalues and sacrifices them on the altars of self-service.  We are different because of whom we serve.  Embrace that difference by loving each other regardless of the challenges.  For if we could forgive every transgression we would not need Christ.  If we could love every enemy we would not need the power of the Spirit to overcome our own hatred.  Brother arm, sister foot, cousin heart, the body cannot fully function without all of its requisite parts.  We will always be hampered in disability without you.  We will never be whole without you.  I pray that you find your way home.  In the Name of Jesus Christ the King.

With the enemy the danger is always in the nuance, the twisting, morphing and contorting of what God says, improvising something divine to make it say what we wish to hear.  That is the largest danger of listening to the voice of self for in the effort to serve ourselves we twist, ignore or forget the Word of God.  This being my enemy’s intent and historical process I must remain vigilant in my effort to avoid ambiguity.  That is the true danger of the “big lie” plan currently being employed by our leadership and media.  They are not simply changing hearts and minds but they continue to chip away in their effort to “transform” or redefine our national/moral principles to allow for self-determinism.  Evidence of this ploy is found in our national repetition of the phrase, “The truth shall set you free”.  This is an idea given by God but delivered with real conditions that must be met in order for someone to be set free by truth.  John 8:32 indicates several pre-qualifications that must be met before being set free by truth, please review this material so that you might be armored against this deceptive campaign.  It also ignores that there is only one truth that will set a person free, sabotaging what God intended as Holy, supplanted by a half truth, misquote, providing false hope and opportunity for ambiguity.

How do I remain vigilant and in so doing avoid and invalidate the efficacy of God’s enemy ploys in my  life?  First and foremost is an understanding of God’s Word.  I have met thousands of Christians who have never read the Book of Revelation, yet they claim a commitment to eternity.  How can you know you want what God wants for your life if you are unwilling to learn what God says He will do prior to or when He returns?  We must know the future to be properly prepared or we risk being deceived.  Knowing God’s direction for our lives and what He says will happen will give us a logical capacity for comparison.  We will be able to review a circumstance, advice or recommendation and make decision based on its similarity to God’s intention.  Remaining in ignorance is negligence and satisfactorily frightening evidence of susceptibility to coercion.  Additionally, I cannot pick and choose the appetizing or tickling words of the Bible, ignoring the conviction or warnings for this is a violation of God’s commandments in creating a graven image of God that suits our own devices.  The greatest protection against the dangers of traps, snares, pitfalls and incarceration is awareness.

Prove to yourself that the Holy Spirit is present in your own life?  Without the power of the Holy Spirit we remain defenseless to the efforts of God’s enemies.  Without the helmet of salvation to cover my thoughts I offer myself a sacrifice to the wiles of the world and its demons.  Ask yourself, have I been transformed, renewed, molded by the hand of God into a completely new creature?  Without change their is little evidence to indicate an “Agent” of change.  Beside this notable change we should all have a insatiable desire to share the Gospel with them who have not yet been set free by Truth.  We should begin to grow in relationship and likeness to Christ.  If you don’t know Him how could you possibly hope to become like Him?  Remember God’s Word says that it is the Holy Spirit that seals us for eternity.

Finally, make yourself ready through preparation and practice.  No army goes to battle without being fully prepared for war.  In fact, the most prepared military typically wins the day upon the field.  Our armor in this battle is Christ, have we put on His salvation, righteousness, truth, faith and willingness for peace?   Have we done our best to become adept at the use of His double edge sword, the Word of God?  Are we resolute in our courage to stand upon the Rock of Ages and not be moved no matter what the enemy throws our direction?  Have we taken to heart the awesome responsibility of preparing our family for difficult times, times that Christ told us must certainly come our way?  Prepare your mind by knowing what God says is right and true.  That way when confronted by lies or attempts to twist righteousness you will be alerted to the disastrous effects of deception and be safe.

Ask God for spiritual discernment, the kind that comes with the presence of God’s Holy Spirit, such that you will see those demonic attempts to coercion and evoke the Word of God for protection.  Knowing God is our only salvation.  His Word armors us, protects us and gives us hope in the days where hope seems absent.  We may only know God through Christ, there is no other way to the Father but through the Son.  So, take the first step in your preparation for what is to come on Earth and what awaits us in eternity.  Ask Jesus Christ to come into your heart, forgiving all your sin, cleansing you of wickedness.  Ask Him to prepare you, change you and protect you for/from compulsion.  Offer your heart, mind, spirit, strength and soul to God in love as evidence of your salvation.  Finally, walk as if you believe His Word, taking to heart the duty of evangelism, repentance and preparation for eternity.  Know His Word, for without it you remain a baby, defenseless, directionless, unchanged.  I do so wish to tell you that smooth times approach us, but that is not what God’s Word says.  So, I will not do the enemy’s bidding in helping to lull you to slumber, but rather serve God in calling you to AWAKE, preparation for the “Great and Awesome Day of the Lord of Hosts”.  I pray for your courage and discernment in making those preparations to which God calls the faithful.  I pray you be found with oil in your lamp, awaiting the master’s return.  In Jesus’ Holy Name I pray.

Father, You do not need my permission, my allowance, my surrender, I need it.  Please help me to make capturing me in the belly of the leviathan awaiting my mental transformation, unnecessary.  Right where you are, those are the words You said to me when I asked you to save me from this duty, this wonderful obligation, this poem you’ve written me into.  Free me from the prison of eternally pursuing some other meaning for my life than the one You’ve given me.  This is the miracle, that I may be an active delivery system and mobile platform for Your Holy Spirit.  The fact that I may be used to provide a one to one opportunity for You to speak with everyone I meet is more glory than I will ever deserve or need.  I rejoice in where You have me and submit to where You are taking me for realization of Your Perfect Will.

Let my life become active worship, empirical evidence of a living God.  I do not know where You will take me, but I do not need to know, that is the freedom I seek.  To be okay, in peace that surpasses my circumstances knowing that the current of this wonderful life leads exactly where you wish it to flow.  Enjoying the ride is the gift, knowing that You are God and that I neither have, need nor want to fill that role.  My life will not end in pity as will those of the powers who’ve challenged Your Authority.  I get to walk this skinny path, never testing the freedom of my disobedience, never wandering naked and alone in foul weather and darkness.  I get to be exactly the man You are shaping me to be, for this day is the one I’ve been given within Your Plan.  You do not need my permission to fulfill Your Will for this life that You own, but I surrender to it.  I recognize Your Authority and ask that You continue to dispel any illusion that may present itself, an unholy thought, in my susceptible mind.  I ask that You Armor me in Christ, protecting my thoughts from compulsion, whatever the origin.

I am not what I wish to become but that is irrelevant for I am exactly where You want me to be today.  Remove the ability to self-frustrate, wanting things to be different, when they are exactly as You’ve determined them to be for Your Good Purposes.  Let me rejoice in this moment, this opportunity, this position, so that I may be free to love, consciously concentrating and praying upon Your message of Salvation and Love.  Let me be transformed by Your Word and truly live as Solomon determined in Loving Fear of God rejoicing in all that I have been given.  Praise Your Name as I bask in the gracious opportunity to be of tremendous value to God.  In Jesus’ Name.

What is so difficult to believe?  Do I have to connect in my imagination, my mind’s eye, within data points, the myriad of stepping stones leading to a logical, inescapable conclusion?  Does this in fact diminish belief at all, removing the content or quality of faith by presenting an unanimous argument, for which none may cogently disagree?  Must we become bereft of decision making, having imposed belief handed down for all to accept involuntarily?  Shall my thoughts be solely determined by a tyrant king or am I so precious to my Creator that He allows me to come to my own conclusions, and in so doing feel empowered in my faith?

Shall I simply bow down to the big lie strategy, embraced by hitler’s propagandists, just because the mantra has been repeated loud enough, long enough that it takes on what is perceived as inevitable truth?  Have I become so saturated by false argument that I have forgotten to question the seemingly obvious conclusion I have been told must be true?  What sort of life is this?  It is the false ideology being pushed upon our youth by those we have allowed control and ownership of our authorities, our leaders and our educators.  We have effectively left the devil at the helm hoping he will do anything but divide and conquer.  What else should we expect?  Aloof is a strategy that guarantees eventual failure through capitulation.

God offers Grace, accepted or declined by free will choice, breeding self-acceptance, commitment and agreement in Truth.  Certainly historic men and women have effectively attempted to hijack this perfect relationship and superimpose their own constructs leading to greater human enslavement.  Look now at some faith being spread by men intent on conquest.  This is not the will of any God that I might follow in good conscience.  This is deception perpetrated by the clever hearts of evil people, usurping direction given by a Holy and Righteous God to achieve the ego maniacal goals of would be emperors and czars.  Stirring up the desperation of miserable people, promising escape from a reality they find too hard to tolerate.  Channeling their anger, much as did hitler and turning them loose on their true enemy, those who follow Almighty God.  For they cannot hope to defeat the Creator and in this accepted impotence they are left with the only alternative to slaughter the innocent, laughing at God’s tears for those martyred.  Men cannot force their way into Heaven no matter their effort, strategy, cleverness or disregard for Holiness.  Actions always have consequence and in this case though judgment has been delayed that does not invalidate its eventual righteous, perfect and just dispensation.

Can I succeed if God does not Will that success?  Conversely, may I fail if God commands and supports my achievement?  See, these are simple concepts, understood by any child, having accepted their need and constraint by parental authority.  When we turn away from this truth we must then as Romans 1 indicates, be turned over to our own decadence.  And every one of us understands the implications of self-constructed reality.  We have all seen people who must maintain informational control on everyone within their sphere of consciousness, attempting to protect the house of cards they’ve constructed.  No child must be allowed to speak of the emperor’s nakedness or the mirrors are shattered leaving the construct swiftly imploding.  This alternative explanation for the origin of man shall not succeed for it is an invention of man.  This mankind long drive for one emperor to control the movements, wealth, thoughts and doctrine for all men shall never succeed for there has always only ever been one True King.  Man shall never solve man’s problems because man created all of them.  Only success in line with God’s Will for mankind is perpetually achievable.  Think on it, though men have convinced themselves they could conquer the world, has anyone ever done so?  They all died at some point following or during their attempt leaving chaos and destruction in their wake.  Some men may turn to powers and principalities of the air seeking to release themselves from the reality of God seeking a fulfillment of their own making, but even satan who supports them has never succeeded in preventing, avoiding, delaying or operating outside of God’s Will for humanity.  Their is no success in a world that violates the construct of its Creator.

Must I reduce my capacity to understand to a point where even the ample evidence of God is inconceivable?  No, that reduction is only temporary resolution.  For I may have a veil lowered, eclipsing my vision, but at some point reality always finds its way back into my sight.  That reality is the death that all men must face, it is the great equalizer bringing us back into line with consciousness.  All men seek to live forever, some by their own will and others by God.  It just seems plausible to me that God made us so He is the only one capable of providing the avenue by which we achieve the in-achievable.  It is simple logic to me that it is easier to put aside my rebellion and work with a God who loves me then to ignore, compete or fight against the authority of His inevitable and unavoidable Will.  That is why this generation will only be given the sign that was given to Jonah.  What was that sign, that if God has a purpose for your life, you can run, you can hide or you can become frustrated over what cannot or should not be avoided, but God will bring you to the very same place doing the very same thing He had commanded you do in the first place.  Even satan will be brought to that point of kneeling and confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord.  Some do it now some later, but all will face the same inevitable and plausible Truth of God.

Is it loving to concern myself with my needs, never taking time to call, contact or visit my Christian Brothers and Sisters to intercede in prayer, bare burdens or encourage them in their walk with Jesus?  Is it loving to remain inside the comfortable walls of my church never taking the time to ascertain the status of widows, orphans, elderly, sick and disenfranchised within the one mile radius of our church?  Is it loving to concern myself with dress-code enforcement within my church when I know that this practice will potentially keep the poor, homeless and struggling from feeling comfortable worshiping by my side?  Whom am I feeding?  To whom am I offering assistance?  With whom am I praying for God’s intervention?  Does the public consider me a nuisance or do they even know that I exist?

What have we become through our slow degradation of the intended structure as the Bride of Christ?  What should be free from evaluation, questioning or conversation of revision?  Doesn’t humility require that nothing within our scope remain inviolate?  Are we ready to repent and turn away from our sins of omission or simply those of commission?  What is the price of religion or faith that includes no action?  Is it not dead as Jesus’ Brother James preached?  And if it is dead, why do we live within an empty shell beyond resuscitation?  Remember that James also said that if a man knows what is right to do and does not do that then he is committing sin?  Shall we collectively repent as the Bride, for we are all, all Christians guilty, falling short, in need of forgiveness and repair?

Whom do you know that you could help today, if you just for five minutes considered Christ’s call upon “your” life?  How many orphans suffer from our ignorance, never knowing the love that they have been denied by circumstance?  Do you even know how many orphans there are in your state?  What if the thousands of churches decided to symbolically or realistically adopt one of those children?  I bet that there are thousands of churches in your state and many less thousands of orphaned children.  We could obediently and effectively end the existence of parentless children.  What am I and my Church family willing to do for Christ?  Certainly suffering, sacrifice and volunteerism should be at least a little bit uncomfortable, for that is the nature of self-sacrifice.  Isn’t that the bar against which we are expected measure?

If we do not break the cycle of our own disobedience as the bond servants of Christ, how then may we ever honestly and logically entertain the transformation of the lost?  If you aren’t convicted by this conversation then you are either perfect or you have quenched/ignored the voice of God’s Holy Spirit.  Or worse yet you were never sealed by the earnest of salvation for eternity.  No Holy Spirit, No Eternity.  No evidence of salvation, fruit of the Spirit, should sound out an alert in each of our lives, causing upset, concern and action.  If you do not feel compelled to spread the Word of the Gospel, then something is missing and that something ought to sponsor a quest for answers, driving each of us to our knees.  If we are not ready to repent as a Church Body then we were never a body to begin with for each of us is essential to God.  What part of the body, what part of humanity, what single person did you pass bye today, relegating your duty to God toward harvest by not stopping and planting a seed, watering a seed, weeding growth or fertilizing it for Christ?  I am willing to bet if you ignored one then you have been and will continue to ignore others.

Who am I you ask to question us?  I don’t know maybe I am a son of God, prompted by His Holy Spirit residing in my heart.  What credentials may I present?  I present to you the fruits of His Holy Spirit having first called myself to repentance for my disregard of God’s direction.  I too fall short every single day, but using my guilt to ignore this message, you do so at the peril of not only yourself but all that frequent your church body.  Do we want God’s favor in this Nation, This UNITED STATES?  Then that favor must  first begin in the fervent prayers of those who believe in God’s favor.  That favor may only begin following God’s direction and humbling ourselves, turning away from our own sins and falling to our knees, together, crying out to God so that He may hear our voices in Heaven and once again shine His Holy Face upon this once obedient nation.  If not me then whom?  If not us then why are we meeting together, calling ourselves by His Name and worshiping in the first place?

Obey God, enjoy what He gives us and leave the outcomes to Him for His Good Glory, because He has already overcome this world.  His Will Be Done.  You are the vessel of that Will, how will it be done without your participation in your own purpose?  Obedience is truth, obedience is demonstrable faith, obedience is love for God.  Do you love Him enough to do today just a little bit of what He is asking?  I love You Lord.  May I be obedient to Your perfect purpose for my life.  In Jesus’ Name.