Sunday, November 22, 2009
Unconditional Salvation?
American church, you have lost your way! You are a ship, adrift at sea, cut loose from your moorings. Great storms are coming, yet you have been rocked to sleep and are drifting unaware into the eye of the hurricane.
You call your prophets alarmists, and in your hearts you mock the messages God sends to you. You shun words of correction, but chase after those who will flatter you and say what you want to hear. You adore those who tell you that you can live as you wish and still inherit the kingdom of God. (In this case, who is the God, and who is the servant? By living this way, you exalt yourself to be God and relegate God to the position of a genie who grants your wishes whenever you rub his bottle in prayer!) You pick and choose what to believe, casting aside whatever doesn't suit you.
Some of you have 'chosen God' as a means to wealth, power, unlimited blessings, unending grace and supernatural protection. I'm not just speaking to the leaders! Most of you see Christianity as the way to a blessed life here on Earth. What will you do if He takes it all away? If He strips you to your bare skin and all you have left is His outstretched hand and His invitation to walk with Him?
God is fully able to keep those who want to walk with Him. He will guide them so that they stay on the path, and help them up when they stumble. But, unlike the adversary, God holds no man against his will.
When you, who are Christians, choose to live in sin, you abuse the generosity of God and insult his gift of grace. If you continue to live that way, His anger will burn hot against you. You were chosen to be a cleansing, preserving salt, and a light of wisdom and hope to the world around you. Many of you are neither. Of what use are you then to God? Step aside and let another take your place, lest He sweep you away in His anger!
You have been given the choicest meats, the finest grain, the most fertile and beautiful lands, yet you take it all for granted! Many of you even think you deserve it. On what grounds? What makes you any better than the man in India who will never sleep one night in a bed? Or the filthy little orphan children who dig their food out of a garbage dump, and are never rocked to sleep in the arms of a loving parent?
Don't you know you are balanced on the head of a pin? All that you hold dear was given you by the grace of God--yet how many of you even remember to thank Him? If a little breeze should blow, you would topple to the ground! God chooses who to humble, and who to exalt. Don't make the mistake of thinking your position is secure!!
Do not practice sin, it will not release you from its grip. Make no mistake, it is 'him who endures to the end' who shall be saved. If, after knowing Christ, you resume a life of sin--there is no sacrifice left that will cover your sins!
Examine your heart and your motives! Do you really love God, or merely the gifts He gives His children? At dusk, He will come and take His children by the hand. They will gather up their toys and take them from you, then they will head for home. All that will be left for you is silence, and the vision of their backs as they walk away intothe deepening night.
If you have let your zeal for God grow cold, if you are living a life of sin, BEWARE! You are standing on the edge of the abyss! You are in very real danger of eternal damnation!
It is not that God cannot forgive your sin, it is that you may soon be unable to repent--unable to feel sorrow, shame or regret, or to even summon the motivation to seek forgiveness!
Sin deceives you, sears your conscience, takes away all shame and modesty, hardens your heart and mind, and closes your ears to the invitation of God to return to Him! You don't know which stab of guilt will be the last you feel--which will be your final call to repent, before sorrow can no longer penetrate the hardness of your heart, and ceases to strive with you, leaving you to practice your sin unbothered.
Don't be deceived, God is not mocked--a man reaps what he sows.
Labels:
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