Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!”  1 Kings 18:39

Recommended Reading:  I CORINTHIANS 14:22-25  “²² Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe.²³ If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad?²⁴ But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all:²⁵ And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.”

COMMENTS: Discerning good from evil is obvious at it’s extremes but may not be so obvious at times in less black and white circumstances.  Evidence of God’s creative hand is obvious everywhere if we take time to notice.  Unfortunately, much of God’s creation has been tarnished by satan’s corruption.  Yet, the miracle of how the earth orbits around the sun at just the right distance, the way plants create oxygen for us to breath and animals create carbon dioxide for plants to breathe.  The way gravity holds on earth with just the right force.  The beauty of flowers, the sun and sky with all their colors.  The uniqueness of every human being and animal with all their body complexity and reliability to live long lives with little understanding of how they work.  All this and far more shout God’s creative hand and authority and involvement in the world and universe.  Yet satan has and continues to reign death and disease and pain into God’s creation generation after generation.   God doesn’t desire that pain and death and diseaseto continue but allows it because He gives us freedom of choice while administering consequences to discourage those choices and encouraging us to repent and turn back to Him.   He offers redemption and eternal freedom from sin and pain and death but even that choice is ours to make.  We are free to make choices but consequences of poor choices and blessings from wise choices are in God’s hands alone.

Truth is, God’s goal is to bring unity and fellowship with Himself to all human beings.  So, anything that brings disunity and pulls them from having a close relationship with Him is not of God, not matter how good it may appear to be.   Such is going on in every church denomination as well.  Efforts to build harmony and tolerance between church factions may appear to be God’s will until such efforts also result in ignoring or restating or even rewriting what scripture calls sin on order to redefine sin as being good, and both creating deeper division and separation from God.  We are told in scripture that in the latter days good will be judged as evil and evil as good.  Christ came to provide a path to forgiveness and redemption.  A path back to God and a pure life.  A path from death from sin to life free from sin.  The church is to be a place and people to empower and encourage that to take place.  When we condone or tolerate sinful behavior in order to accept those who embrace unrepented sinful lifestyles, we do not help them but hurt ourselves. 

So how do we welcome and invite others without doing just that.  By standing firm to the standard God has set in scripture, are we being self-righteous and judgmental? Where is the defining line of difference?  The answer does not lie with us but in the Holy Spirit’s council He offers to us.  The answers lie in scripture, but we need the Holy Spirit to guide us as we read and seek those answers in scripture.

But truth is, our lives need to first reflect the life Christ is offering so others will see our integrity and joy and conduct but also our sincere love, and long for that difference too.  We can and should love sincerely in the meantime too.  But without condoning nor adopting sinful lifestyles.  Then when others come seeing to change and to join us, the stand God requires of repentance will tear down barrier or division.  I am in the process of discovering what this means and how it needs to be implemented in our own community and church.  I am disappointed I am not seeing such seeking by the leadership in my own denomination, nor in most of the mainline denominations. Yet I also see sincere faithful followers in many local churches striving to be true to scripture and to God’s Will and obey God’s call. 

In contrast, where I see congregations embracing compromise without holding to biblical standards, the result is freefall in moral limits.  Sin is no longer viewed as sin but valid alternate life styles equally good.  Without such standards, there is no basis to judge good from evil nor any restraints to allowing evil to infiltrate and corrupt congregations as well as church doctrine and leadership.

I believe God will hold those in authority accountable, and us as well, for allowing or encouraging or supporting the sinister ways satan is infiltrating and corrupting and deceiving the world and our communities and even our families. 

So, what must we do to counter this downward spiral and how do we overcome that spiral in our own lives and families?  Well, not all of us are called to be Elijahs who faced 450 Baal priests alone to stop the pagan influence and turn the people back to God.  Not all of us are in a position to guide our church denominations back to God either.  But every one of us is in a position to go to God directly with a repentant heart seeking God’s mercy and direction.  Every one of us is in a position to change and begin following the Holy Spirit’s lead to influence our own families, friends, neighbors, local church.  Revival starts with one who surrenders to God and encourages others by example and words to do so too but stops when one is unrepentant and influences others to be unrepentant too.

We may very well be at a critical crossroads, when our choices will decide if end time prophecies will be set in motion resulting in God’s judgment reigning on us very soon and His return to judge and destroy satan’s followers and bind satan to be imminent.  I believe God has delayed such and brought revival many times in past when His people repented and turned back to Him.  Countless examples of such are recorded in Israel’s past in scripture.  Ours is being written now.  How and when will it end?   That very well may still be up to us, but one day God will say enough, and Christ will return to take His people home and to judge the world and bind satan.   I long for His return but still grief for family and friends who still don’t know Him.  I’m sure you do too. 

100 years from now, will it matter how full our churches are or how many of our family and friends are in heaven with us? So instead of following our own wisdom and reasoning abilities, let ‘s start following God’s council, but let’s get quiet and open our hearts and listen and wait on Him first.  OK?

The more you study the Bible, the more evidence you will have that God can meet every need. Let Him prove Himself to you (Malachi 3:10).

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