REND YOUR HEARTS SUNDAY - JAN 4 2015

In America, Churches buildings are a dime a dozen. Seems like there is one on every street corner, yet the many people in their own neighborhoods go untouched by the Gospel Message. Why? Are they not Evangelizing? Or have the people grown so cold that they just are not concerned about the lost anymore? Living busy lives, preoccupied with the things of this world, Christians seem to lose sight of what Christ called them to do, reach the lost.

The Church has strayed from it's roots, it has the appearance of Christianity, but lacks the power of the Holy Spirit.  How can you tell the difference between a Church that has fire, and one that does not? Look for the signs (people getting saved, lives changing, real passion and love for God, a desire to see many saved, the Pastor is a man of vision, etc.). Ask yourself, Is God at work here or not? In not, get out and find a Church where God is at work.

Men of God used to preach sermons that made people squirm and shake in their seats, where are these men today? Multitudes of Church-goers could be found at the altar weeping in repentance before God. Where is this is today's modern Churches? Preachers of old had the fire of God in them, they preached great sermons that stirred men to action, to obey God's Word. Where are there preachers today?

Where is the brokenness in the hearts of the people? Where is the concern for the lost? Where is the love for God, and for our neighbor?  Why are our pulpits silent on the subject of entrenched evil in the culture?

We need REVIVAL is the American Church!

It starts with a season of humility, brokenness, and repentance before God

Joel 2:13 - Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.

Join with Pastors and Churches all across the nation, see the event on facebook!  https://www.facebook.com/events/756660214370123/

The Christian Response to Islam and ISIS

The violence and hatred of Islamic Terrorists known as ISIS is mind-blowing at best. The scenes of them cutting the heads of off hostages, sends a cold chill down our backs, and causes us to express anger towards these men who would do such things to another human being.  ISIS is now the object of much hate as we want them destroyed before they can do any more evil, but if we were honest with ourselves as a nation, we would realize that we destroy thousands of people everyday in America, we just do it behind closed doors, in little white rooms where very few know what is taking place.

One of the latest pictures to come along on Facebook shows an Islamic cleric stomping a little baby boy to death. This child was taken from his Christian parents arms, thrown on the ground, and stomped to death. There is no respect for human life within Islam, but we live in a nation that also has little respect for human life.

Christians are taught from the Word of the Living God to 'Love God, and Hate Sin'. We are instructed to hate what is evil, but also to overcome evil with good. All too often we try and overcome evil with evil, violence with violence, etc.  We are not to take part in what is evil, but to expose it so that everyone can see the evil, and know who is perpetrating it.  When light shines in on the darkness it dissipates, and is no more. Those who enjoy living in the darkness are not always so happy when the light shines in on their evil doing, but nevertheless it is our duty as Christians to do so.

How should the Christian respond towards those who full of hate, and committing evil acts?  Jesus said that we are too love our enemies, and do good to them that hate us. How do we do good to these Islamic butchers? The answer is that we are too pray for them, that God will speak to their hard hearts, and allow the too hear the Gospel, repent of their sin, and be saved.

Also we should be praying for our fellow believers in Christ who are suffering at the hand of these Islamic Barbarians. Pray that they may be strengthened in their faith, that God will give them the Holy Boldness to be fruitful witnesses to their killers, that their testimonies might speak for themselves.

Yes it is heart-wrenching to see the violence against these believers in Christ, and to hear about the atrocities being done to little children in the name of the false god of Islam, but the One True of Living God is merciful to accept them into his arms where they will suffer no more. It is said that the Blood of the Saints is the seed of the Church, and that has been proven all down through history as Christians have suffered as much, if not more that Jews have under tyrannical socialistic Governments, and leaders.

Whether is be a Communist Government as in China, or a ruthless dictator such as Nero, Christians have carried the testimony concerning Jesus Christ boldly as they went to their deaths. Persecution always makes the Church grow, and it also helps to clean out the false converts and Judases weighing her down. Only true believers, those truly born-again stick it out when things get ugly, but that is God's way of purifying His Church. So Christ say's to us 'fear not little flock, remember that I have overcome the world, and having done that you have also overcome the world."

The Question is how to make ourselves do what is right v.s. what our humanness is screaming at us to do. It is easy to hate those who hate us, and do evil things, it is far more difficult to love them as God commanded us too. Loving our enemies does not mean that we do not take action against this evil empire, for to sit back and do nothing to aid our brothers and sisters would not be right either.  We are justified as a nation to do what we can to put a stop to there blood-thirsty killers, realizing that we are commanded as Christians to Rescue those being taken away to death (Prov. 24:11-12).

There are plenty to Muslims right here is America that we can pray for, and attempt to evangelize. If we believe in the Name of Jesus, that it is powerful enough to tear down the walls Satan has built up against us, surely we would see God move in power and many Muslims would repent and turn to Jesus for Salvation.

There is a difference between knowing what the Word of God say's, and actually obeying it. We are too be doers of the Word of the Lord, not hearers only. If there was ever a time for the Church to be the Church that time is now!

Pray mightily in the Holy Spirit for these last days are going too be perilous, and our faith is going to tested to the hilt. Many will undoubtedly fall away from the faith, and people will  feeling rather hopeless which will provide us with fertile fields to work with, so pray to the Lord of the Harvest to raise us workers, that we might reap a harvest in these last day's.

The God of Love, and the Prince of Peace be with you!

Related articles

• Do we dare pray for ISIS?
• How Are We To Love the Soldiers of ISIS?
• When Evil Appears To Have The Upper-Hand . . . .
• Matthew 5, Part II
• Why American Christians Need To Stop Hating Muslims
• The World Hates Jesus
• Do You Hate Your Enemies Enough To Love Them?
• Destroying churches part of 'Islamic doctrine'
• ISIS Orders All Christian Business Assets Over To Islamic State, Turns Christian Homes Into Bomb Factories

Why the Christian Church Should Make Abolishing Abortion it's #1 Social Concern

ABORTION 

Many evils plague American society, but one of the most evil of all is legalized abortion. Since 1973 when Roe v.s. Wade led to the legalization of the barbaric practice, over 54 million unborn children have been sacrificed too Satan in America's abortuaries. This number is a conservative figure, but it adds up too almost three thousand murders of the unborn daily in this country.

The home of the free and the brave we are called, yet the most innocent and helpless among us still the victim of the horrible act of abortion. Our founding fathers wrote that we as Americans had certain inalienable rights, that among them were Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, but some people saw fit to deny those rights to the unborn in order to allow them to carry out their blood thirsty agenda.

All it take is for the courts to decide that a particular group of people can be viewed legally as less than human, and then they have no rights, and no legal protection under the law. They did it too the black Africans allowing many in the south to keep slaves, and they treated them as animals, not people. In the same way the unborn have been dehumanized by the left in order to allow them to be murdered by abortion, then their body parts sold and used for all sorts of research, and even used in commercial products we ourselves use, and never realize it.

No wonder they want abortion to remain a so-called woman's right, it's a multi-billion dollar racket, and the ungodly are profiting of the suffering of the innocent. We American sheep are too stupid to realize how we are aiding this by using certain companies products, thereby creating even more of a market for the dead bodies of aborted babies. This should make even non-Christians sick too their stomach!

The dehumanization of the unborn alone violates everything the Scripture teaches us. How can we sit idly by why this continues to take place in our society. We go and worship God week after week, ignoring the fact that within miles of our air-conditioned, comfortable church buildings, there are horrific acts of violence taking place, and we think that somehow God will excuse our indifference.
Who are we kidding! How can anyone be a true follower of Jesus Christ and not do something to stop this barbarianism that is taking place in our culture? The Bible clearly teaches us that we are set the captives free, and to bind up the broken hearted, etc. We are also taught that God knows every child why it is still in it's mothers womb, and that God has a plan for every life.

I know how it is, how easy it is too be complacent, and in your mind justify your inaction. Seriously! It is time for every Christian to stand up and become abolitionists, and actively work to make abortion a thing of the past. NO TRUE follower of Jesus Christ can justify supporting abortion, under any circumstances, and if you do, then you should be checking yourself too see if your truly belong to Christ or not!

The Abortion issue is the foundation of all of the evil leftist agendas in this country. If it were to fall, every other evil agenda such as gay marriage would crumble also. Liberalism as we know it would take such a heavy hit, it would be difficult for the radical socialists to revive it. The socialist movement in American hinges on legalized abortion. It is what they are based upon, and without it they lose the bulk of their political power.
We need every believer in the trenches fighting this evil! No one should be standing in the background expecting someone else too do it, you have to do it! The abortion abolition movement is driven by the Gospel of Jesus! It is our goal not only to put an stop to abortion, but to share the life changing message of Jesus with anyone we can.

Education is accomplished through agitation, which is going out and holding signs that get peoples attention, so we can strike up a conversation about the fact that we are abolitionists out to end abortion. This is NOT popular with many people, and some will be very upset and say nasty things, but we must realize that they are inhabited by the God of this world, the devil, and don't know any better. It is up to us too attempt to educate them as too why they should not support abortion.

Blogging, using Face-book, and other social media sites to share the message is a good thing to do, and we encourage people to take a stand, but mere words, or voting pro-life is not enough, we need everyone to come out of their comfort zones, and engage the enemy.

The blood of 55 Million unborn children is crying out to us, those of us that call ourselves Christians, who go by day to day knowing that babies are being aborted not far from where we live, and we do nothing about it. Do we honestly expect that God will be proud of us for doing nothing? I would think that God rather would be ashamed of us, because we were to scared to take a public stand for him.

I'm not asking anyone to break the law by blocking doors to the clinics, or anything like that. We do demonstrate at clinics, but it is done peacefully, within the limits of the law. What we need in America is a moral and spiritual awakening which must come through the Church. We are too be Salt and Light in this world, and we are warned of the consequences of losing our saltiness. The future of our nation is at critical mass with heathen leaders that have no respect for our nation, and do not respect life, but want to further the evil act of abortion through forced taxation, and funding of pro-murder organizations.

Church of Christ! Your silence is acceptance of abortion, and everything that goes with it. Abortion is the Satanic sacrifice of the unborn, and your helping the enemy by not boldly taking a physical stand. Lay down whatever you have too and make time to take part in the abolition of abortion, we need all of you, not just a few.

Related articles

• Legalizing Abortion was Never About the Good of the Woman
• In Wake of Gosnell Scandal, Delaware Is Free of Surgical Abortions For Now
• Bishops say proposed abortion law 'morally unacceptable'

OBEY GOD RATHER THAN MAN

The Government of the United States, and the current regime in power do NOT have the right to tell us, the American people that we cannot bend our knees before God in front of the White House. The White House belongs to us, the people, not to Obama, and we have the right to pray where ever we want too. If MLK were alive today he would be kneeling as well. If We the People will not stand up for our rights now, we will awake to find we no longer have any rights at all! 

Pray for those that will physically take this stand, on there knees, and will be arrested for doing so! The time has come for us to no longer merely give our faith and values lip service, but put them into action, why we still can.

Pray to the Lord, tear your hearts and not your garments my brothers and sisters! Repent before God and return to him now! This nation is coming under severe judgment, unless we turn back as a nation now! The Lord will hear us if we humble ourselves before him! This is a Christian Nation, we were founding on the precepts of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, anyone who say's different is a liar, call them what they are too their face, their liars!

Let us stand firm in this evil day, and having done all stand firm (Eph. 6:13).

Let us each put on the full armor of God, and put in on daily, so that we are fit for battle with the real enemy, the Devil. (Eph. 6:14-18 ) - Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

(Eph 6:18) - Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.

We are exhorted to stand firm, dressed from head to toe in Holy armor. We are to be ever diligent in prayer, alert and persistent! I fear that most Christians today are not dressed in their armor, but have removed it because it weighs them down from enjoying the world, instead of remaining faithful to God. 

There ought to be thousands gathering in front of "OUR HOUSE" on Pennsylvania Ave. to kneel and pray, not just a small handful of people who dare to stand against the worlds system that wants to silence us, and keep us out of the way. They passed a federal law that prohibits kneeling and praying in front of the White House. You can stand there, wave your arms, carry signs, scratch you butt, take a picture. You cannot kneel and pray there they say, but our founding documents say different, and our Bible's tell us different!

It took many people to break the chains of racism in America, to give black Americans the freedom to vote. To have the freedom to ride the public bus and sit anywhere they like. To be able to drink from the same water fountain as everyone else. To be able to use the same restrooms as other people do. MLK led be example! He was not afraid to be arrested for what doing what was morally right, and we today should not be afraid to stand for what is right also!

We are all facing the imposing chains of Socialism! The Communist's are in power! We are afraid for our own lives, so we huddle in our homes, and our church buildings. We talk about how terrible things are, but we won't act to stop it before it becomes impossible to deal with? Jesus told us that if we lose our lives for his sake, or die to ourselves, we would find life. But if we keep our lives, stay to ourselves, in our safe Christian communities, while society falls into oblivion. Why do those of us who know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior fear the actions of men? In other nations accepting Christ means a death sentence, and they are all too happy to embrace to torture, and death for Christ's sake. But we in North America live our lives in such luxury compared to the third world, and Arab world, that we take for granted the blessings God has bestowed upon us.

Do you not realize that Christ has called you out of your own life, out from behind those stained glass windows, to be sheep among wolves? A little persecution and we are all up on arms, but a little persecution is what the Church is North American needs to be honest! We should not fear death, we should not fear men, we should not fear anything for that matter, and this because of Christ who has freed us from the chains of sin and death, and restored us to a right relationship with God the Father, and commanded us to go out into the world and preach the good news of Salvation to every creature!

Why do we fear? Could it be that we have so much that we are full of pride? Could it be we are just to comfortable, and way too entertained by the mass media of our culture? It is true then that fifty percent of the people sitting in the church pews every week are not really saved, and do not truly belong to Christ! The religious lost who have no spiritual fervor, no passion for God, and no desire to do anything but grow fatter and lazier while our nation is dragged down into Hell.

To those who feel the quickening of the Spirit of God to do more than just talk about it, more than just pray about it, who would dare to be like the Prophet Daniel who knelled and prayed three times a day, Obeying God rather than man, and found himself in the lions den. I am reminded of three strong young Hebrew men that would not bow to the kings stature when the music played, and found themselves tossed into a fiery furnace. These men were delivered from death by the hand of Lord, but many others were went joyfully into the arena to be eaten alive by hungry lions. Others were impaled by Nero to light his gardens at night.

Today in Egypt they are crucifying Coptic Christians for sport. There is NO guarantee that God will deliver his children every time. Sometimes God chooses to allow his Children to pay a price for what they believe, so that God may be glorified in our suffering.

Matt. 10:28 - "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell."

They are slowly taking away our liberty's, one by one they pass laws that restrict our God given rights, that they have no right to restrict, and unless we come together as Americans, and put our faith into action, we will soon lose everything we hold dear. This is happening NOW! They have been using abortion, and birth control as means to undermine the Christian Church, and they have been doing it for many years, and only a handful on people dared to take their opposition into the street. It is easy to man-handle a small group of people, but they cannot man-handle thousands, or millions of Christians, and other Americans who dare to talk a massive stand against evil!

So what's stopping you from stepping out? You know you want to do something radical for God and Country, so do it! Why just sit around and talk about it, put it in action for crying out loud! Surely no one in there right mind really wants to be enslaved to a Socialist Government? Surely we all want to be free and enjoy the liberty that God gave too us here in America. But liberty and freedom without the moral compass of the Bible, and without reverence for God, becomes unbridled anarchy. We must stand firm and hold fast to the source of our liberty, our Christian faith and heritage as a nation. Let us pray to the Almighty that He might have mercy on us, and spare us there chains.

Our Founding Fathers left their homeland because of tyranny, and religious oppression. They sailed to a new land which they founded specifically so that they would be free to worship God according to the dictates of their consciouses. Men fought against the British, many lost their lives to secure our liberty, how dare we take this for granted! How dare we allow tyrants to usurp our liberties! How dare we not stand up and fight as our forefathers did, to gain freedom for future generations! How dare we allow evil men to place chains upon us and make us slaves to a would-be dictator! How dare we!

Galatians 5:1 - "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."

Let us lay aside the things that distract us, the things of this world that keep us from God. Let us stand firm in our Christian faith. Let us not fear man, but instead fear God.

SELAH 

Praying for Rain

It's been a very hot and dry month with temps reaching to ninety degree mark, even topping One Hundred degrees once or twice. There has been a high risk of fire, and local fire departments have been extra busy putting them out. The Fourth of July was of special concern seeing people were lighting off fireworks, and some were not as careful as others were.

The farmers are getting concerned as the corn which was coming up so nice, is now starting to curl up for because of the lack of rain, and the weatherman is giving us very little chance over the next two weeks for any substantial rain. The storms that developed to our South West disappeared over the big lake as they moved this way, a big disappointment indeed.

There is nothing we can do to make it rain, except pray and ask God to send some our way. I wonder how many people actually consider asking God for things like rain? It makes sense that the one who created rain, would be able to create some for us if we ask in faith, believing that he will do what we ask him too. Isn't that what we are told in the Scripture anyway? Too ask in faith believing, and not to doubt?

The Lord knows we are in a drought, and it is dangerous to our economy, in that the damage to crops could cause food prices to climb. So what would he allow such things as to happen knowing that it causes hardship for us? Well how many of us have even thought of at least speaking with the Lord about the situation? Truthfully many don't!

Seems that most people today turn and curse God when things get rough instead of turning too Him, and humbly asking God for help when they need it. That is the problem with our American society, we have turned our backs on God, and even go as far as openly defying him. Then why on earth should God help us when we are experiencing trouble? Why shouldn't God turn a blind eye why our crops rot in the fields, and our land is consumed by fire?

Let's be honest with one another. We have a much larger drought in this land, a spiritual drought that has causes the faith of many to wither up, and die. Others are just rebellious towards God altogether, and see no need for a Savior to set them free. We are living in a post Christian culture, in a nation that was originally founded on the Gospel of Christ Jesus, but now rejects it.

The greater problem in this nation is that people no longer fear God. They no longer have reverence for things that are sacred, or Holy in nature. God is viewed as being a great slave driver in the sky that wants to enslave them, when in fact he is a God of mercy that holds out his arms beckoning them to repent, and be saved.

We need to pray for rain, both physical, and spiritual!

Revival must start in the church, it must start with God's people, but it can only happen after God's people repent! Christian do you not realize that judgment begins in the House of God? So why then would repentance and revival not start there also.

If we desire this nation to turn back to God, the church must do it first! Some who call themselves Christians, are not true followers of Jesus, and many churches and denominations have fallen into apostasy, and the Spirit of God has departed from them. There remains a true remnant, the bride of Christ who has remained faithful to the end. These are not any one church or denomination, but all those who have come to true repentance, and received the free gift of Salvation God offers to every person who asks in faith.

Let us then humble ourselves before God in repentance, confessing our personal and national sins. Turning our back on them, and yielding ourselves to God. As the Church goes my friends, so goes the nation.

Let us then pray for rain, that God might have mercy on us one more time.

PFR- Pray for Rain

The Desert Song - Hillsong

So you said a little prayer?

Was there a time in your life where you said the 'sinners' prayer? Did you mean it? Were you sincere when you prayed to ask Jesus into your heart? Did you approach God with the right motivation? Did you make serious, heart felt repentance before God?

These are some very important questions that need to be asked, because right now there are countless thousands of people who also prayed the 'sinners' prayer, or made a public profession of faith before their local church body, that are in Hell!

Are you shocked by that statement? What I am saying here may offend you, but don't stop reading, your eternity may depend on it. Hold on before you brand me a heretic, or something, and consider what I am telling you. The truth is that churches in North America are chocked full of false converts. People who believe in Jesus, and have prayed the 'sinners' prayer, but for the wrong reasons, let me explain.

These day's many preachers are using 'modernized evangelism'. This produces false converts by the scores because it causes people to respond to the Gospel for the wrong reasons. The Preacher will say something like “There is a God shaped hole inside of you that only God can fill. Come up to the front and pray this simple prayer”. What is wrong with this picture? There is NO mention of the need for repentance, and without repentance there is NO Salvation.

Some promise the individual that when they accept Christ, their life will improve, and get much better, when the truth is that life gets harder than it was before. The Devil could care less about those who are lost in their sins, he has them right where he wants them, their his trophies. When someone truly receives the Lord, that is when the Devil goes to work to screw up their lives so that they will not have the victory that Christ wants them to have.

When sharing my faith with someone, I walk them through the Law of God, known to most as the Ten Commandments. The Apostle Paul told us that the Law is what shows us that we have sinned, and it also shuts the mouths of people trying to justify their sin. Without exposure to the Law, people cannot understand the Gospel of Grace.

Repentance is agreeing with God that you have broken his laws, or commandments, and because of that you are guilty before him, and deserve God's wrath in Hell. Without Repentance, no one is saved from the wrath of God. The Bible tells us to repent and be baptized in order to have our sins forgiven. It's not the baptism that saves, but repentance that saves a person.

No where in Scripture will you find anything that says pray this prayer to receive Jesus as your Savior. What you will find is located in Roman's 10: 9-10, that instructs us that we must confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in our heart that God raised Jesus from the dead. Somewhere along the line somebody decided to compartmentalize this into a simple prayer. While the prayer itself is nothing bad, in fact it's very good, but is widely misused by many, and even misunderstood by others.

How is the prayer misused by so many? They call people to pray the prayer without fully explaining the seriousness of it, or they invite people to pray it leaving out the need for true heartfelt repentance. Even the Heidelberg Catechism mentions the need for there to be heartfelt repentance, but most churches that teach this way do not call people to true repentance before God, and many people making a public profession of faith do so out of shear religious duty.

Every individual must cry out of God in repentance in from the depths of their own hearts, it must be done in their own words. Too many times someone has said “here repeat after me”they did, some were saved, many were not. It must come from the sinners own heart, the desire to humbly come before God in true repentance, confessing Jesus in Lord, that he came in the flesh and gave his life on the cross for them. They must ask to receive he pardon God has on hold for them, this is the free gift of eternal life.

It's not my aim to judge the intentions of anyone else's profession of faith, but rather to make people think, and consider whether they are truly in the faith, or not. How do we know if someone is truly saved or not? We look at the fruit they bear? There is rotten fruit, and good fruit.

Rotten fruit is the works of the flesh that is described in Galatians 5:19-21. They are as follows: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division,
http://www.wordsoftruth.net/worksoftheflesh122292002.htm



The Fruit of the Spirit is described to us in Galatians 5:22. They are as follows: Love, Joy, Peace, Longuffering, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control
http://www.bible-knowledge.com/fruits-of-the-holy-spirit/



2 Corinthians 13:5 says, "Examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith."
http://www.poweredbychrist.com/files/treasures/Examine_Yourself.htm



Here is a sermon by Paul Washer that has angered many, many people. It's called “Examine Yourself”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky8dTyPpiAo&feature=colike



So you said a little prayer to receive Jesus as your Savior, but it wasn't as simple as you thought was, was it? My prayer is that many will examine themselves before God according to His Holy Word, and that many will come to true repentance and be saved.

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• The Dangers of the Sinners Prayer

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Broken Before God

Feeling Broken inside? The truth is that God cannot effectively use us the way he wants too unless we are first broken before him. The problem is that when we yield ourselves to him in this way, asking to be broke by God, we don't really realize what were asking for. Being broke by God is a painful and difficult process where the Holy Spirit begins too clean all the crap out of our lives that is holding us back from living in a real relationship to God. 

We as Christians tend to lose our spiritual sensitivity over time as we are bombarded by the garbage the world keeps hurling at us, at break neck speed. It's often to late when we realize that we forgot to put on the amour of God that protects us from the fiery darts of Satan, and here we stand unprotected, and vulnerable. How easy we are taken down and dragged away when we let our guard down. 

How easily we fall victim to the ploys and distractions of the world. Remember my friend that all that glitters isn't gold, sometimes it's actually rubbish. Like the young man who demanded his share of his fathers inheritance, then went out and lived the wild life only to wind up eating and sleeping with the pigs, we too often fall into the same trap.

I am so glad that God is in the business of fixing broken people. He takes the ashes and creates wonders from it that blow our human minds. Now we know that at the end of our trials and tribulations we have something to look forward too that far exceeds the glammer this world has to offer. Until we get there however we may have to walk through some nasty stuff on the way. Sometimes God allows us to experience unpleasant things in order to make something beautiful out of our lives.

God tells us in His Word that he disciplines his sons because he loves us so much, and if God is not discipling you then your not his child. So the first step is to be sure that you are actually a child of God, that you've been Born-Again as Jesus said to be. Are you a true son or daughter of God? Did you come to a point in your life where you realized you had a problem called 'Sin', and needed a Savior? It takes true repentance to become a child of God, without that you can't claim Salvation.

God wants his Children to be broken before him, so that he can use them to bring him glory, so that God can use us to touch other peoples lives. I think about believers in other countries around the world where becoming a Christian is a death sentence to them, and they are more than happy to face severe persecution, and even death in order to follow Jesus Christ. What about in America? Who in this nation has really faced the direct possibility of being murdered because they accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior? I'm guess nobody has since we have freedom of religion here in America.

Freedom of speech, and of religion is a great thing, but on the other hand our western style of Christianity is weak and watered down, because of the amazing liberty we have had in America. Our great wealth, and prosperity has caused us to take our faith for granted, why other brothers and sisters around the world are being burned to death as they worship God in their church buildings. Kind of sobering isn't it? 

We in American should be weeping for them! We should be praying for those who are perpetrating these terrible acts of violence upon innocent Christians as they gather for worship. Yet our hearts are callused, and cold. We say to ourselves, That's a shame that those people died like that, 'blankety-blank' those Muslims for doing that to them'.  News of this sort does not really shake us up as it should, something is wrong with us people!

What we need is to be softened up by the Holy Spirit. What we need is too allow God to break us up, as painful as it can be, the church in American needs to be softened up. Once this happens, God will be able to move in His Church again in North America, because those that comprise the church are now usable for His glory. Of course I am talking about things on a nation level, what about on a personal level?

Do you really want to be used of God? Do you long for His touch? How desperate are you for God? Is there a burning fire inside of you that burns so hot you can't refuse it? That's called passion! Most Christians today don't experience this because they are too full of themselves, just like the rest of American society. This is the garbage that need to clean out by God before he can truly use His child that way He wants too use them.

We all claim to love God yet we don't love all of the brethren the way we ought too. Most of us have someone in our local church that we do not like, or even hate for some reason, and this is why God say's that his truth is not in us. We are liars if we say we love God, but we hate our brother in Christ! Then were does that leave us? On the outside looking in still. Time to search your heart and soul to be sure your in the faith, or at least repent of your sin and let God restore you.

I think that there is a distinct possibility that the Church in American is going to go through a time of breaking , and softening, so that it will again be a powerhouse for God instead of a country club! I urge my brothers and sisters in Christ in American to carefully think about the true state of the Church, and the nation at large. Consider for yourself the cost of following Christ to be sure it is a price you are willing to pay, and then if your are willing, follow Christ at all costs realizing that the day may be coming when those who call Jesus Lord may have to pay with their lives for doing so.

God wants his Church, His people broken and humble before him, so that they may be clean vessels that are usable to reach a lost and dying world before he comes again. He does this because he loves us so much and desires for us to live in vital communion with him. Are you willing to be broken? Have you been broken by God? Are you ready to serve him with everything you are?

The only way to become a beautiful masterpiece in the eye's of God is to let him break you. He is the master potter that takes a lump of clay and molds it into something worthwhile, and he is the only one that can do so.