Still Secure

Uneasy Yet Still Secure

There is a growing unease in me over the state of the church and its readiness for Jesus return for us. I shudder to think how much of the church is actually saved and how much will be lost because of false or bad leadership and teaching. No wonder there is a whole chapter, Ezekiel 34, devoted to warning shepherds and leaders of their responsibilities and the price of abuse or failure.

I am uneasy about the Western church’s falling standards in preaching the gospel, healing the sick, and casting out demons – fulfilling the great commission. I have said many times that the incidence of preaching the Gospel is getting less and less. This is because it is about turning away from sin and repenting. Nowadays it is deemed sufficient to preach an easy gospel that is easy on the ears and even easier to swallow. The Gospel is becoming an ‘ear ticklers’ gospel.

I am uneasy about the decline of God’s Word as our ‘final arbiter’.

Where is the Biblical teaching on marriage being between one man and one woman and not between two of the same sex? Genesis 2:23-25 (KJV) “And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”

Where is the Biblical teaching that life begins at conception?

Isaiah 49:1  “Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name.”

Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

My unease in the present Church’s teachings on all of this is always tempered by the certain knowledge that God is in control and His promises are true right up to that moment when Jesus returns. I always like to remind myself of Philippians 2:9-11 "Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

There is a sense that says that it doesn’t matter what the world is doing, which way it leads, what its values are. It doesn’t matter that powerful men are plotting and scheming to take control of nearly everything we can think of. It doesn’t matter that evil is reigning supreme.

None of these things matter because the day is coming, quite soon I believe, when every knee will bow to Jesus and every tongue will confess that He is Lord, and all to the Glory of our Father God. The day is coming when the true Church will realise its folly; it will realise its sin; it will realise these things and will repent and turn back to God in fear and trembling. And not a moment too soon either.

As someone we know used to say to Jesus, “Are You coming back today, Lord? I’m tired of all this.”