The deceptive simplicity of faith.....

The deceptive simplicity of faith? How so?

As we in the church struggle for answers as to how to walk victoriously in this present evil world, amd search for a secret to restore the church out of the wilderness of religion and into the promised land of relationship, how we have combed thru the debris left by our broken and defeated lives to seek for an answer. Surely, Jesus could not have intended the church that was started with a roar in the book of Acts to go out with a 1000 whimpers of churches built on every corner yet with none walking in victory. Could he?

Is the answer more diligence? Speaking in tongues? Renouncing worldliness? Turning off our TV's? Bible study? Fasting? Prayer? Unity? Foot washing? Hail Marys... or possibly a combination of all of the above?

We have been left exhausted in our search and remain empty handed. Many have resigned themselves to eeking out a living, holding onto a feeble belief in the Christian faith, and convinced that this is all there is to the Christian walk, and that God must have had a great marketing company, because for all the hoopla, Christianity is really, after all, just another religion of self effort.

Others, the stubborn seeking ones, press on, convinced in their heart there is more and determined to find it. It is hiding somewhere, and so they weave together exotic theories using obscure scriptures, taking words out of contect to support their particular theory as to how to walk in victory.

Saints, today, we in the church have been like worn-out, bedraggled gold miners, holes in our pants, shoes rotted from panning day after day in the wet mud of the riverbeds to try to find a speck of gold here, a miniscule nugget there, and every day we climb over a field of boulders to pan once more for truth in the river of God.

We need to stop, stop our search and look closely, very closely at what we have become, and ask ourselves deep inside if the God we serve would make the walk so impossibly hard that literally no one can walk it? If "it is the Father's good pleasure to give us the kingdom", is this all there is? Church services, dry as day old toast, defeat instead of victory, prayer closets that echo they are so silent of God's voice? Christian lives that from outward appearance look not one iota different from those who know not the savior? Is this what He died for? Is this the church He envisioned as He was nailed to that tree?

No, the answer from my lips will be 1000 times... NO! There is more, and MUCH more. Brothers, we are fixing to enter dark days, the times that try the souls of men, and we need for more than we possess today to endure what is coming our way. To hide from this truth, to deny our laodecian state, may buy us a few more days of ignorant bliss, but in the end, it will cost many their very souls for it is, lest we forget, "he that endureth to the end that shall be saved.

So we grab our pans and start searching again, all to no avail. Look closely, brothers in the Lord, sisters in the Lord. The boulders we have climbed over to do our measley panning for small nuggets of truth are boulders...of solid gold.

Do you remember the story of Naamun? Respected soldier, used to people doing as he ordered, no questions asked. Yet Naamun had a problem....leprosy. He had a disease for which there was no cure. All His authority did nothing to prevent the onslaught of this disease. He was told there was a prophet used mightily by God who could heal him, and as he was down to his last hope, he took his man-servant and went to see the prophet.

He arrived at the dwelling and instead of an audience with the prophet of God, he was simply instructed through Elijah's servant to go dip in the Jordan 7 times and he would be healed. Naamun was wroth, humiliated, that first of all, the prophet Elijah would not even honor him by seeing him face to face, and secondly, that he had the nerve to give him such a ridiculous cure. The Jordan was a filthy, muddy river, and Naamum was no one to be trifled with.

But Naamuns man-servant was wise and told him "Master, if the prophet of God had told you something hard to accomplish, would you not have done anyting in your power to do it so that you might be healed? Yet, he has made a very simple request of you. What have you got to lose?

Naamun, swallowing his pride, humbled himself and went to the river, took off His robe and entered the muddy waters, dipping once....twice...feeling more ridiculous each time he went under the water, each time looking at his white infected flesh as he came out of the water again....until that last dip. When He came up out of the water, Naamun was whole and his disease and death sentence was gone.

How much we are like this Naamun! Filled with pride, yet infected with the leprosy of sin that continues to flow like a fountain out of our hearts, we come to the Father for instructions. Shall we fast 40 days? Shall we give all we own to the poor? Shall we memorize the entire new testament and even read through the entire book of Leviticus without falling asleep? :)

What has God asked us to do to rid ourselves of the disease of sin, to free us to serve God in holiness and true righteousness? He has asked us one thing, and one thing only. Humble ourselves, yield all to him and believe His amazing promises to us.

God has told us "You are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God."

God has promised "Sin shall not have dominion over you."

God has promised that "the shield of faith shall quench ALL the fiery darts fo the wicked one"

God has promised us that "with every temptation, He would make a way of escape."

These nuggets of truth, nay, BOULDERS of truth have laids in our path for years, decades, centuries, and in these last days, He is awakening His people to the truth that can set us free. We need to realize that these simple truths of God were not just meant for plaques to adorn our homes, but to be engraved on the walls of our hearts.

Let us not be like those who continue to think they can do it on their own if they just try a little harder, and say " We shall run with the swift", for God answers "Therefore those that pursue you shall be swift."

Let us be those that in humility, admit we have missed the mark of walking victorious over the world, the flesh and the devil, and as obedient children and with child-like faith, humbly begin dipping in the muddy waters of the Jordan for complete healing, for His promises are yea and amen and we have a God who cannot lie.

Jesus, set us free indeed!