Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Rolling downhill FAST

The next five years are going to be the most impactful of our lifetime in many ways.

“If a wheel is rolling down the street, there’s one part you don’t want to be in and that’s the part making contact with the ground because it’s going to squash you,” says Jordan. “That’s about where we are right now.

My point is, if you get that Big Picture, instead of being afraid and destroyed by it, you’ll know how to properly handle it . . . This is it for you. If you’re young, you’re going to see the fruit of it. If you’re older, you’ll get to live through this thing and help make some of the decisions.
 
“Many are fearful of the future; others are fretful about the loss of the treasures of what once was America. But it is what it is. In every situation, we have to face the question: ‘Are we going to complain or are we going to get busy?’ I vote for the latter!

Our culture has fast become ‘first-century like.’ The under-30 population of our nation has been largely divorced from our previously ‘Christianized’ traditions to such an extent that we are no longer able to depend on those traditions to do our work for us. The church at large continues in its impotence and navel-gazing. All the while, the world has come to our shores! What an opportunity to reach the world by reaching our hometown!
 
*****

“Do you understand most Christian people have no idea what’s really going on?

“How many people think that the way of the Christian life is rules and regulations? ‘Give me rules; give me regulations. Give me a law and I’ll stop sin. Give me a rule and I’ll do what God wants.’

“And Romans 6 says it can’t be that. Romans 6 says you had to die, you’re dead to sin; you’re buried. The old man’s gone and there’s new life in Christ and you’ve got this new identity.

“You ought to take your King James Bible and look the word prudence up and see how it’s used. It’s a wonderful concept. We’re not the big shots of the world and yet God has entrusted to you and me information that the angels desired to look into and couldn’t figure out.

“And He gives you prudence. He gives you the ability to USE your life—not just to give you a nice, sweet, safe life that doesn’t have a lot of problems, but a life that has a participation in what God Himself is doing, where you can back off and you’ve got the Big Picture. And the little storms—you know where they fit. They don’t bother you so much.

“To be ‘abounding in wisdom and prudence’ (Eph.1:8) is the natural state God expects a member of the Body of Christ to be in. God’s purpose is not for you to be the dumb thump on the block like most Christians are, snared in confusion.”

*****

In a study on what to expect from the future, preacher Alex Kurz started with, “I’m going to say this, and I’m going to offend a lot of…well, you know, the father of all organized religion is Cain and Luke 11:51 says, ‘From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation’ . . . . from this untoward generation that follows in the footsteps of Cain with the attitude of religion that destroys those who are really righteous.

“Balak (Numbers 22:5) represents this institution of religion that has its genesis with Cain and is opposed to those who are righteous.

“As a hired gun, the religious system is now seeking to institutionalize the persecution against the righteous—against the people of God.

“So it isn’t just enough to be self-righteous—religion is a sophisticated, systematic, organized institution devised by Satan himself to seek to destroy God’s people, and there are hired guns, and I say that because we certainly know . . .

*****

Kurz continued, “I like reading history and there’s a great book out called ‘Founding Faith’ about this argument about whether our Founding Fathers were religious or not religious. It’s a very good read. Very balanced. You have the two extremes.

“You have the one side that says our Founding Fathers were a-religious—they were anti-God—which is absolutely ridiculous, and then you have the other extreme that says the Founding Fathers saw Christianity in every decision, and that just isn’t accurate as well.

“My point is, many of our forefathers, they believed that religion is good for society. But be very careful! Is religion good? You know what religion means, right? To bind.

“Is religion good for society, and if you really examine the question, and examine the answer, the reason religion exists isn’t just to promote . . . on the surface it appears that religion promotes moral values and ethics, and so on and so forth, right?

“But deep down, the very core of religion is to oppose God and His people. So we want to be very careful in just assuming that religion quote ‘is a good thing.’ and I know, we’re living in a day and age where . . . are there some religions you think are a threat?

“I mean, there are some religions I don’t want operating in my neighborhood because they’ll cut your head off and they’ll put it on You Tube and they’ll show you how they’ll cut your head off.

“Oh, yeah, those are just the ‘radical fundamental extremists.’ Okay, yeah, yeah. Anyway, what we have in Balaam, now . . . It isn’t just enough to establish religion and to persecute the righteous. ‘We got to justify this!’ And didn’t Israel justify the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ, and did they not use political arguments to kill God’s Son?

“Be careful. See, this whole amalgamation between religion and politics—the instituted religious system--they had political arguments to kill the guy who never harmed a fly! What did Jesus do? And it was the political machinery paid off by the institution of religion that put Him to death.
 
*****

“Remember when Paul appealed to Rome? At first it sounded like a pretty good deal, right? What did Rome ultimately do to Paul? He writes in II Timothy, ‘For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.’

“The same government that gave to Paul some rights to defend himself is the same government that put him to death. You appeal to Caesar, then you’re going to follow the law, and they killed him!

“So, my point is, Balaam is hired by a KING! I believe in separation of church and state. I don’t want to get into politics. What business does a prophet of God have to do with a political leader?!

“Listen, didn’t God say to Israel, ‘You’re going to be a kingdom of priests’?! Balaam represents this attempt to institutionalize religion and to be under the authority of politics and this is what I’m getting at . . .

“Guess who this Antichrist is? He’s a political figure, isn’t he? There will be laws enacted to justify the slaughter of the righteous. Remember what the Lord Jesus Christ said—‘They’re going to bring you before magistrates.’
“Do you think there are laws… by the way, there are countries in this world where the very laws of the land can justify your death because of your religious beliefs. Guess what’s going to happen in the 70th Week? Balaam represents all of that, okay?”

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