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Jeremiah 2: 13
"For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water."
John 4: 14
" But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."
Apostasy
". . . that day shall not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition." 2 Thessalonians 2: 3
Where are we, church? Where are we, America? Where are we as individuals? With tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat, I can say it is not good. I am in sorrow for my country. I care deeply for the church of the Living God, of which I am a part. We have strayed far but we still have time to turn around. However, it starts with an individual decision to follow the Lord Jesus Christ and him alone. That commitment starts at the cross but it does not end at the cross because we must take up our cross daily and follow Jesus. We cannot not look around to see what others are doing or they will lead us astray in this day of great falling away from the truth. Your walk with the Lord Jesus is an individual thing.
The world in which we live is flooded with information. There is so much information even in the church that it is literally blocking out the pure word of the Lord to the individual. We have DVDs, books, records, radio, television, and the internet. There are plenty of seminars covering any subject that you may want to know about. We have the ability to go anywhere and hear anything. Mixed in with all of the good information available is clever marketing designed to sell a product. In some cases unfortunately this “product” is a gospel that doesn’t look anything like the “Old Rugged Cross”. Can we as individuals tell the difference?
Consider these verses from the Bible about this very thing:
“For the time shall come when they shall not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”
2 Timothy 4: 3-4
“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily (secretly) shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make MERCHANDISE of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.” 2 Peter 2: 1-3
We see in the verses above a disastrous group of many churchgoers. Mixed with an atmosphere of information overload, we have a toxic combination of people. An insatiable hunger and thirst for spiritual things creates a willingness to accept anyone who offers them food and drink, regardless of the spiritual additives thrown into the mixture to keep it fresh. Then we have those among the believers who give everyone what they want and keep doing so because they can see that this harvest is a very profitable one.
Near the waterfall picture above, a verse in Jeremiah is written for us all to ponder. Jeremiah prophesied to the children of Israel and warned them about their forsaking the Lord. In forsaking the Lord, they still needed spiritual water so they hewed out their own cisterns (wells) to create their own container fashioned their own way.
In these last days we live in a time of broken cisterns. If these were living waters, we would be refreshed. Instead, we have built elaborate containers and filled them with many kinds of bottled water loaded with additives to keep it fresh. We have teachers galore, great church programs for all, and now we even have many who claim to be God's prophets and apostles prophesying wonderful things. What more could we ask for? What could possibly be wrong? I should feel blessed. America should be turning its back on sin by now and our laws should reflect that. There should be great blessings everywhere as a result because the land is living in righteousness. “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord...” Psalm 33: 12.
Instead there is a seductive slippery slope as we leave the simple message of the cross and cling to new ideas put into these new cisterns with all of the new trappings. After all, don’t we need to appeal to the masses? Shouldn’t the gospel be changed to reflect the times? Aren’t these cisterns okay even if the contents are slightly different? Is the wonderful message of the cross still important?
In John 4 Jesus said: "But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."
I fear the church (of which I am a part) has turned away from the important yet simple message of the cross. The cross is hidden in a myriad of ideas lost in space only to be pulled out in an old song or "story". It seems to be the cross plus everything else to some or else it is removed completely as offensive and divisive by others in an age of reasoning and compromise. If this truly is what we have done, the Lord is not pleased. He gave His only begotten Son. Can we add anything more to that truth in order to save us?
It is time to put aside all of the extra spiritual goodies that have taken our eyes off of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We need to fall on our knees and repent of our falling away from Him. It is crucial that we go back to our foundation of Jesus Christ: “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” The Bible clearly states that in 1 Corinthians 3: 11. Building upon that foundation laid, we can begin to become equipped to handle anything in the hard days ahead. We do not need self-proclaimed prophets and apostles telling us what to do and laying their hands on us because we cannot hear from the Lord on our own. The Bible tells us to pray for one another in James 5: 16. We minister to one another and bear one another's burdens but we walk with Christ as individuals. The Foundation laid for us at the cross is fortified by reading the Word of God: reading it as not just words but as if our very life blood depended on it because it does. It is in listening to the Holy Spirit speak to us by the quickening of that Word in our daily lives, that we truly begin to become strong in the Lord. In fighting with Satan during the temptation in the wilderness, Jesus left us His example by not fighting with carnal manmade weapons but by saying “It is written.” Can we do no less and still stand? If we do not know the word of God, we will not know what is true and what is false on this vast information highway. We cannot fight Satan when we do not recognize him. We will not even be able to discern the spirit of Antichrist, who is already at work in the world and among us, because he looks an awful lot like the Lord. Time is running out.
For far too long we believers have depended upon the words of others instead of developing further that personal relationship that began at the cross. He is calling all of us back to only Him.
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MY CRY
O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee:
my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for
thee in a dry and thirsy land, where no water is;
To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen
thee in the sanctuary." Psalm 63: 1-2
HIS ANSWER
"Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and
learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye
shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and
my burden is light." Matthew 11: 28-30