“See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, "Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens." - Hebrews 12:25–29
Many of the devotionals I've been receiving, or even the bible verses that God has brought to my focus lately, have been ones concerning foolishness and the fools who call such behavior righteousness.....myself included, since I have been indeed foolish a time or too.
Too much of what is taught in the Church today is all about receiving blessings, avoiding health issues, and enough prosperity of the green kind that will dispel the disquiet among evangelicals that Christ is indeed coming and we, as a community, are not ready. More and more, the 'herd' is being thinned as the weaker of our brethren are falling to the apostasy of false doctrines in an effort to fill in that deep hole of undelivered purpose. According to Carolyn Baker's devotional today, "The words "once more" indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain."
God is cleaning house; both on the creation He made and in the Heavenly realms. He is removing the chaff from the wheat, keeping all that is right and good within His Kingdom and clearing the fields of the bristles and thorns here on earth. He is calling those who speak His name and do works in His name to do the same in their lives. That is where the prosperity, total health, and filling of the deep hole are. Subjecting ourselves to God's word, will, and way.
He is bringing an accounting and we all are lacking a full slate.
A theological degree that seems to transfer upon the bearer a right to form new theological thought, complexifying a simple theology of "Jesus said it, I believe it, and that's it." Looking for loopholes in a theology that allows none. Instead, we have leaders who are humanizing the gospel message, co-opting the truth with sweet, thinly veiled apostasy. The further from God's truth such theology goes, the more complex it becomes in its effort to justify itself in evangelical circles.
The Gospel is the only theology that hasn't undergone a revision since God used man to write it down.
"Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him." Proverbs 26:12 (NIV)
Man will find himself lacking in everything God has to give until he reaches the point where he realizes that he cannot justify himself before God, cannot ignore God, and cannot be God. Until there is a uniting of Christ and man, through relationship facilitated by the Holy Spirit, we are doomed to continue down the slope of human 'translation' to the point of destruction. We expect grace for the claiming of Christ's salvation, why shouldn't we expect condemnation for rejecting Christ's words?
God calls us to speak the Good News, to draw nearer to Him, and to not fear the coming persecutions because we do so. Our bodies tell us otherwise.
The body is dying, God is eternal. Who will you believe?
"God's dealing with men under the gospel, in a way of grace, assures us, that he will deal with the despisers of the gospel, in a way of judgment. We cannot worship God acceptably, unless we worship him with reverence and godly fear. Only the grace of God enables us to worship God right. God is the same just and righteous God under the gospel as under the law. The inheritance of believers is secured to them; and all things pertaining to salvation are freely given in answer to prayer. Let us seek for grace that we may serve God with reverence and godly fear." Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary.
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