Friday, August 7, 2009

Certainly Not!

"This man dealt treacherously with our people, and oppressed our forefathers, making them expose their babies, so that they might not live..."

The tyrant spoken of here in Acts 7 by the soon to be martyred Stephen, is Pharaoh, but he lives on in the persons of tyrants today. One that I know of kills all that oppose him, including their children. If he could he would wage war with the world and bring all under his dominion. In fact there is a man coming who will attempt to do just that.

In the parable of the vinedresser, Luke 20, Jesus says that the Judge of all will one day consume those who have dared to oppose His work. His audience, smug Jews who felt God could never oppose them, gasp, "Certainly not!"

Today equally smug Christians of the West hear of the tribulation that is coming to the entire planet, and fantasize, some through a carefully worked-out theology, that it can "never happen here." That the "poor believers over there" could become the one they see in the mirror every day is incredibly unbelievable to them. "Certainly not!" they would cry.

But it will come on all flesh, including believers'. The persecution, the suffering, homelessness, joblessness, pain, torture and death. It will come. Will this Western church survive it?

I hear of churches having "teaching" sessions built around a book written by some rock-and-rollers. I think, what if the church of my childhood would have had a small group meeting based on the life of Frank Sinatra? He claimed to have some religion after all. And Elvis! Why, he had whole albums of Christian music. Why was he not held up to us as a model? Will this sort of methodology change our world and prepare it for the test?

I see a parade in a town near here this summer. Three Christian floats. The first one, a band is playing rock music. No words. No message. Only rock. The hint: Come to our church, it's cool! Another one , more rock music. People singing words this time. But as is the norm with this kind of music, one couldn't make out what was being said. A third display was some simple children's tunes. All 3 had a chance to share the love of Jesus. They could have even had a short testimony of the saving power of the Lord. The people lining the street only saw the music wars, and the churches promoting themselves.

That sort of religion won't make it when antichrist rises. In the first round of terror, those groups will shut down and never be heard of again.

What about your church? What about you? What about me? Do we have the sort of community and personal walk with God that will walk us through the fire that is coming, unscathed?

They say that North Korean believers pray for us. It does seem that we are in the greater danger, doesn't it?

http://chosunhouse.com is a website I put together a few months back to get the word out to believers that they need to pray for North Korea. Just about every day I'm writing a blog featuring some news, a book, or a story of North Korea. There's a live news feed on the site, lists of resources, picture essays, and ways to respond to the overwhelming need in North Korea. Let's love Chosun together!

And who am I? A man found of God over 50 years ago, called to the ministry, serving the Lord as needed in my world. Married, member of a local church in the Chicago area, with full time work in public education. Who are you? Would love to fellowship with believers who respond on my site.

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