This next "quote" is from remembrance only, and I do not even know who to attribute it to. Perhaps one of the readers is familier with it and can inform me. But with that disclaimer firmly stated, the truth of its point can clearly be a deep insight into the actual condition of our hearts.

Here is the background for this amzingly revealing quote.

There was a man, an unsaved man, who had lived an exceedingly wicked and selfish life, filled with earthly pleasures rather than seeking God and His will...His forgiveness.

He eventually became ill and was dying and called for the preacher to come and pray for him, that he might find repentance. The preacher came, but it was obvious he had other things to do, and his heart was not in it, and his prayers were dry, lifeless and formal.

The man stopped him in the middle of his prayers, and asked him if he truly believed in heaven and hell. The preacher said indeed he did. The man continued "and you believe that hell is a place of eternal tormant, filled with pain and suffering and seperation from God forever and ever?"

The preacher said he did indeed believe as the man had stated.

The man, shaking in his pain and confusion, and in his frustration at the preacher who so calmly seemed to be ushering him into the next life fully unprepared for what was waiting for him, then said:

"If hell is real, as you say you believe it to be, and the pain and misery beyond what we can even imagine, and the length of hell is forever, without end, without hope, with no reprieve, tho all of England was strewn with shards of broken glass, if I believed as you say you do, I would crawl across it on my hands and knees, just to be able to save even one sould from entering therein."

Dear brothers and sisters, this quote should indeed be a wakeup call for us as to how things are really going in our walk with God. Ultimately, the church has one purpose, the sharing of the good news of the gospel of Christ with the lost. If we have left our first love, we also are found to be lacking heart for his will, that we be the vessels that spread that good news.

This "test" is not shared to condemn, not in the least. It is a wake-up call for us to thoroughly examine our walks in light of the truth that we are indeed in the last days, and many of us have even members of our own families...spouses, children, parents, friends and relatives, who will be bound for an eternity without God unless someone intervene on theor behalf. The hour is late, the need is great. I pray we lay down foolish things that occupy our lives but leave our hearts empty, and run our race as if there is but one prize, and we are determined to be the one to win it.

May God bless you in your hunger for more of Him. He indeed has what we are searching for.

Gideon

Without the Promises, What Do We Have to Offer Those Bound By Sin?

I say this in love, even though it is blunt truth. I fear that the gospel as commonly preached in our churches has nothing to offer the drug addict, the prostitute, the sex addict, or the soul addicted to alcohol. NOTHING. We cannot offer them deliverance, for if we have not been delivered ourselves from the sin in our own lives, we have nothing to give, for the principle of God is still "Such as I have, give I thee."

We cannot even truly offer them friendship or Christian fellowship, even if they say the sinner's prayer, even if they repent of their sin. They will still, after all, remain bound to their sins as we are to ours, yet most of ours are "socially acceptable"...whereas theirs are not. Be honest here. If a saved former addict struggles with his sin like we struggle with ours, and if they show up one Sundays unbathed, high and wasted, falling again into the sin that binds them, do you really think they will remain welcome in our midst? I doubt it sincerely. Their sins are simply not "acceptable ones" as ours are.If we ourselves do not serve a God who can set free from sin in our own lives and our sins are "small", what hope do we have to give someone who needs an answer and needs it yesterday to a sin that is decimating their lives?

Is stopping sinning simply a choice? If it is, then what is our excuse for continuing on in our own pet sins? And if it is not, we best be on our knees seeking the answer, and not falling into a contentment without godliness. That, friends, is dangerous ground indeed.If we believe that holiness is simply a matter of choosing to obey, then we simply do not understand the power of sin and the weakness of the flesh of man. Choice is not enough. The power of God must be on display.

Simply put, it takes God Himself to break the chains wrapped tightly around a man's soul. How I long for us to see this, holiness, as our greatest need, and His even greater supply. God help us to become a church full of delivered saints, who can testify openly, proudly and loudly, that Jesus is able to "save to the uttermost them that come to the Father by Him".We all have our religious form, our doctriones of belief, but it is a scary thing to think we may be those He had in mind when He said that there would be those in the last days who would have a form of godliness but yet in our actions, deny the power of it in our lives. Do we serve a God able to deliver us from us, or one simply able to forgive? How strong is our God? Fellow believers, please do not take this as a putdown, for it is not. It is but a loving call for us to examine our very foundations of what we believe about Jesus and His purpose in our lives. The early church was not made up primarily of "religious folk", but social outcasts and vile sinners who found a loving God who delighted in setting people free from their sins that bound them. Delivered saints are excited saints, and this excitement spread the gospel around the known world like wildfire. Saints who have been forgiven much love much.

Could this be the reason why we seem to have such little true love for our Lord, becasue we do not see ourselves as needing much forgiveness...just enough to cover our "little sins"? Perhaps this explains why we see the church basically shifting members much like musical chairs, with plenty of new members, but they are just replacing those that moved in due to boredom themselves. I am afraid we have plenty of smoke, but no fire.God has not changed, nor has His purpose for us. he wantsot change us into the image of His son. he wants to make us holy...in thought and in action.Thus we have a huge decision to make. It falls on our shoulders to either walk on in an acceptance of defeat, an acceptance that we are "just human" and to tell God in effect, "I am not hungry for real liberty, for I am satisfied in simply being forgiven and going to church".... or to cry out to God in a loud unified voice to deliver us from the sins that bind us, large and small, and to show us the secret to tapping into the power of godliness.

Make no mistake. God still takes great delight in delivering us from our fleshly nature, and by doing so, setting us free from the sins that so easily beset us. Our God has promised us freedom from that old nature, freedom to abide in Him in victory all day, every day. He offers us a "new creation" whereby He sups with us daily, and through the abiding experience, causes us to walk in His statutes, giving us not only the desire to be holy, but the power to be as well.If we are to offer hope to the lost, shackled and chained to their sins, we must first ask our Lord to remove the shackles from our own souls, and believe that it is God's will that we walk in the free indeed that Christ offers us. May our faith rise to apprehand that for which we were apprehended.

THE LONELY WALK OF FAITH

The walk of faith can be a lonely walk. Few it seems, seek it out or hunger for real righteousness.I do not know why some seem destined for this type of walk, other than God is calling them to pray for His church. Perhaps you can identify with Paul like I seem to, where he said he has continual heaviness in his heart for his countrymen, the Jews.

In my humble opinion, we are in the time spoken of by the prophets where "the meat and drink offering has been cut off, yea even joy and gladness from the house of the Lord."

Especially in western churches, we seem to fit the description of the Laodecian church spoken of in Revelation. Many may debate whether we are Laodecia or not, but does it really matter, if by our actions and attitudes, we are still just like them?I have seen something however, that I have not seen for the past four decades. I see more and more, His people, here a little, there a little, becoming dissatisfied with "the religion of Christianity", church denominations, church activities, nice tidy doctrines, nice Sunday services, a walk with God without cost, hearts that act like they are satisifed but are starving spiritually on the inside. I believe we are in the time of the parable of the virgins where all the virgins slept, wheat and tares alike. And the faint echoes of "The bridegroom cometh" can be heard faintly if we are listen closely enough...and the cry is getting louder.

More and more, I see various saints questioning "Is this all there is? Get saved? Be good? Go to church? Is that all there really is to being a Christian? More and more, I see people hungering for the bridegroom Himself, longing for him, hating the sin that has bound them and the unbelief in His delivering power from it.

To those who identify with what I describe here, I pray that you do not lose heart in this lonely time, for it is coming to an end. Seek out those who are being roused from the slumber that has caused all of us to "walk as in a dream", as opposed to realizing that as people called by His name, we are called to be part of God's army fighting the "good fight of faith", and that it is the fight of our lives, and, in truth, our one purpose on earth... to reflect the glory of God so that others may too come to the light.

At stake are the souls of our children, our parents, our spouses, our friends and the millions who have been deceived by the enemy. As well, at stake our our own eternal souls, for many will come in that day convinced that they are right with God but who have lived to themselves and their pleasures and not realized that we are not our own, we have been bought with a price.

To say Jesus is Lord is to acknowledge Him as full owner, with total authority over our hearts, our minds, our lives. Paul told us "The night is far spent, the day is at hand." Now it is high time that we wake out of sleep and put on the armour of light, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.

Our Lord is coming...and coming soon. He is not coming for a half asleep bride who cares not that she is still laden with sins, with worldliness, with lack of care for the souls of those around her. He is coming for a bride without spot or wrinkle and that is what He will find.

To those who would scoff at this admonition and defend their lifestyle choices that refelct their hopes, their dreams, their goals, their choices, and have not sought Gdo alone as their reward, let us fear...truly fear... that we do not become like the man with the one talent spoken of in Luke 19. This man lived for himself, not for the glory of God and made no increase with the gift of sonship he had been given. Make no mistake here. That man lost what He had clearly been given by the good master.

Let us not be like those that draw back from God, that rebuild what He destroyed, our old selfish nature. To those who have been taught that they can reap the benefits of heaven and yet love their own life and not lose it for His sake, I counsel you to read the last verse of the parable of the talents:

"And bring those, mine enemies, before Me who would not have me to reign over them and slay them before me."

The sobering weight of this scripture flies in the face of the modern gospel of a god that seemingly winks at sin, but there will be a day we will face the truth of its veracity whether we like it or not.

As the scripture admonishes us:

"Behold therefore the goodness and the severity of God. On them which fell, severity, but towards thou goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise thou also shalt be cut off."

Bruce