Yesterday I received a email from a friend that was forwarded from prayerandprophesy.wordpress.com. It was titled, The Question that Changed My Life, by David Ryser. I want to quote from the article; “Christianity started as a fellowship; moved to Greece and became a philosophy; it moved to Italy and became an institution; it moved to Europe and became a culture’ it came to America and became an enterprise.”
Like the young student in the class, I respond with the statement that the church was to be the living body of Christ and Americans have turned it into a business and therefore, a prostitute. It has long been my complaint that The Church in America has created a “Big Business” attitude towards church membership, book sales and bean counting. But this is nothing new. In the Middle Ages, the Church of Rome and later, he Church of England also made a practice of Salvation by the Dollar. I grew up when TV evangelism was still new but Radio Evangelism was long going and the like of Rev. Ike and Beebe Patton where selling salvation like candy. And even before them, there were tent revivals that conned people out of millions of dollars with fake healings and promises of prosperity.
Many of us came to Christ because we recognized that we were sinners and unworthy of anything good. we came to believe that Jesus redeemed us and gave us worth. But somewhere along the way we started to expect Christ to become our servant rather than being the faithful spouse of Redemption. We sold ourselves out for the pleasures of the World and brought sin back into the house of the Lord, our souls. This may be the reason you are starved for the understanding of God. The Lord told Amos, “I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread or water but of hearing the words of the LORD.” There is a true lack of the Love of Christ in our lives, as a people of God and as a nation of Truth.
Listen
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (ESV)
Listen
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust [1] destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! (ESV)
Footnotes
[1] 6:19 Or worm; also verse 20
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