Transitions
My friend John recently posted this on Facebook, and as soon as I saw it, I asked for his permission to share it here. It is a message that the church must hear & come to terms with. So, with his blessing, I’m honored to introduce you to my very good friend, John Miltenberger:
I should probably begin by nailing down some terms. Most often, when I use the word ‘church’, I mean the multiple church congregations in the mainline churches in America, i.e.: Presbyterian, Methodist, Pentecostal, etc. When I use the word ‘Church’, I’m referring to the universal Church of God worldwide, which is composed of people from all different denominations (or not) and all different ethnic groups. And as I use it, ‘Church’ is synonymous with ‘Remnant’, those chosen by God to be His family throughout history. It is plain, at least it should be, that ‘church’ is not necessarily the same group of people that are in the ‘Church’.
Our church congregations are packed with folks that may, or may not, believe in the absolute divinity of Jesus Christ, and many of their church leaders are exactly the same. In many of the churches that are well stocked with unbelieving believers, it is an obvious case of ‘the blind leading the blind’, as Jesus said. Other congregations struggle to stay afloat in their collective faith, and it is almost like a row boat full of holes that gets patched with band-aids every Sunday.
As you can see, the lines between these groups are fuzzy and complicated, and often we think we see one group when in fact, we see wrongly. Meanwhile, God is interested in our hearts, and only He can see and evaluate them accurately – we cannot.
Throughout these differing groups, there is one book that stands alone as the one, trustworthy guideline, the Bible. But complications arise as each little offshoot denomination interprets parts of the Bible to suit themselves, and in most cases it seems that if one interpretation is indeed correct, no other interpretation can be. So what is the truth? It is no wonder that Truth has become “interpretive” in our times. And while all this has been going on for decades, God has seen to it that everything in our world seems to be in some kind of transition.
With this in mind, it seems abhorrent to me that many, probably most of the different churches in America just want the current shaking to end so they can get back to “normal”, as it used to be. It is so sad and frustrating to me that getting back to what was normal is not what God has in mind, and worse, we’d rather fight God than seek His face to find out just what exactly He wants us to transition to. Why can’t we understand that “normal” was what got us into this mess?
We have those who tell us ‘Trump and the patriots’ have all in hand, and all will be fine in the end. We have those who are having dreams and visions that darker times are coming, and we are caught in the middle, as each side seems right when we hear it. Oh, what to believe? Reading the Bible book of Revelation would seem to lend credence to it getting darker before the light comes, but again, that poor book has been studied and reinterpreted until there seems to be no clear path through it all. I personally think we are in for darker times ahead, but I have a learned friend who’s convinced the world is getting better, and I am cast in a perpetual wait-and-see mode.
If the head of a house hears that a famine has been predicted from one of his friends, while another tries to convince him it is not, would it be wiser to stock up on water pallets while they are readily available or not stock up at all? What would you do? I submit that it is always wiser to prepare for the worst while hoping for the best. The other way around is to be caught unprepared, and suffer the consequences. But it bothers me that the church at large doesn’t seem to be preparing the flock for anything other than “normal”. That, in my opinion, is criminal negligence from the pulpits.
We see exposed daily the massive, growing knowledge of corruption in high places. That’s what God is doing right now – exposure, and this exposure is going to sweep through our churches as well. God is preparing His house, and He begins by cleaning out the dirt. But many will disregard the cleansing, and will cling to the ‘dirt’. They will continue to tell us that we are okay because we are loved by God, while the real message coming forth from the throne of God is that only He is okay, and we are not, and He wants us to seek Him, reject our sins that keep us so comfortable, even in our churches, and seek Him only.
God is wanting to demonstrate Himself through His people on earth. He is going to empower His own children with incredible displays of His power and goodness in these last days, but my question is: Is He wanting to empower the ‘church’ or the ‘Church’?
If you were the father of the family, who would you empower?
John
