Have we forgotten the master of the house

Have we forgotten the Master of the house?

If a person stood on a corner and handed out the keys to your house to people you did not know and the people then came and entered into your house and started using your stuff without even getting to know you, you would not be very happy would you? Even worse would be if these people broke into your house and started using your stuff and ignored you.

Strangely enough this is exactly what is happening in the church of Australia today.

The people are those who are coming to the church or believe they are part of the church.

The keys to the house is Salvation in Christ Jesus. Please don’t get me wrong as you read this. Salvation in Christ Jesus is one of the most important pillars of the church and I would never lower its value.

The people who broke into the house are those that believe they can get into heaven without acknowledging Christ.

Another way of saying this is the church of Australia has become like a bride that goes to her wedding without knowing the groom and then never gets to know the groom.

We treat going to church and getting salvation as being the destination when in fact it is just the doorway. We need to understand why Christ came. Christ came to remove the barrier of sin between mankind and God and restore all things. Because of Christ we have the opportunity to have the same relationship with God that Adam had. This will surprise many but there are now no barriers between us and God yet we get salvation, go to church and then go no further. We sing the songs, listen to the sermons but we have little relationship with God.

So what is my evidence of this.

If a person spends a lot of time with another person both people pick up character traits from one another (Good and Bad). If one of the individuals is zealous for something, the other person can pick up the zeal also. Even their language changes and they start using similar words. The church is not transforming to be like God but is in fact transforming to become like the rest of the world.

The church of Australia is not zealous for the things of God. They might be zealous for the Sunday service but this is not the same. A person who is zealous for God wants to be obedient to God and spend as much time as physically possible with God. Obedience is not displayed in the church of Australia because the church is doing the same things that the rest of the world is doing. In fact, some churches are zealous for sin. The church does not spend time with God in prayer. The bible says that we should pray without ceasing. That means that we should be able to be in prayer with God anywhere and at any time.

Another sign we do not know our God is in our dealings with the enemy. We see so many Goliaths in our nation that stand and mock us and our God. We sit and tremble and say what can we do, it is too hard to deal with this yet it is in prayer that these Goliaths are slain.

Mathew 7:21-23 states “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

When the church of Australia begins to pray we will begin the path to revival. It is in prayer that we will get to know our God. It is in prayer that God will open the cupboards that are locked so we have the tools we need. It is in prayer that we will deal with our sin and righteousness will flood those who are in Christ.

After all who would want to spend eternity with someone who won’t talk to them. Let us start praying today and forevermore. Let us get to know our Father that is in heaven so that we know how to talk with him while we are in His house and also how to talk with Him in heaven.

Stuart

Slough of Despond

Slough of Despond, deep bog into which Christian falls on the way from the City of Destruction and from which Help saves him in the allegory Pilgrim's Progress (1678) by John Bunyan
I had a dream two days ago,in which these words came to me Slough of despond or sloth of despond.  I thought of the story of Pilgrims Progress.
In the dream I was on a journey,at one point I was doing fine even running ahead then darkness began to fall,and as it grew darker I began to have difficulties identifying the right way to take,things became indistinct,and I ended up on a path that was a dead end. I had to turn around,the path was very narrow and very high up.sheer drops on either side,it was terrifyingly high
strangely there was a house on the side and I could see through the windows  a lady,I knocked on the door and she called out that her husband would come and help me.I had the feeling this happened often.
The man came to the door to help me,he recognised me and asked  why have you come this way again?
I told him because of my fear and terror I had to sit down and close my eyes,he understood.
I had the sense, despite my terror that he would help me and that  I would be able to continue my journey. I still had a long way to go.
my interpretation was that this could apply on many levels, as we pray for Nations,The Church,Individuals and in my own life.
have we let fear cause us to go into a sloth of despond and so stop us from continuing on our journey ,our calling ?,
as a nation are we looking  at fear and terror and closing our eyes ,as I did in the dream,lets sit and grow still when terror strikes other nations.
The Church ,are we not raising our voices, closing our eyes because we are afraid? hope the rapture comes,it is dark and we are finding it  hard to distinguish the path,our journey is long,it is growing harder to distinguish The  Way.
in the dream I knew help was at hand ,even in a very tight spot.
so should we be praying for help for those who are  lost, or having a hard time taking the right path?
those who are fearful and bogged down in the slough of despond? or the sloth of despond because we do nothing when afraid,
we have been that way before,why do we need to go back there?
blessings
Gerrie