Q A
&
continued from pg 5
... on for hours with much said and
sung about God but no mention of
Jesus. It’s as if they are embarrassed
to call His name because they do
not want to offend anyone. They
never preach about hell or the
judgement of God that is coming
upon sinners. You enter these
Churches with an expectation of
getting refilled and refreshed but
only come away hours later hyped
and empty. They are like a beautiful
building in a bitter, winter with no
heating inside. In a bitter winter,
would you not prefer to be in a
cave that is warmed by a fire than
in a palace that is ice cold? Think
about the excitement of a person
expecting a package when they
see the courier walking up to their
door. Imagine the disappointment
if the courier then announces that
they forgot the package back at
the depot. The person whose soul
longs for the living God, will be
similarly disappointed when they
attend one of these services.
“The chief danger that confronts
the coming century will be religion
without the Holy Ghost, Christianity
without Christ, forgiveness without
repentance, salvation without
regeneration, politics without
God, heaven without hell.” William
Booth
Like a lifeguard who cannot swim
but shouts instructions to someone
who is drowning rather than
getting in and rescuing them; so
is the Performance Driven Church
shouting empty words to a dying
world that they cannot rescue
because they themselves do not
know how to swim. When the
Philistines took away the Ark of the
Covenant Israel wept. Today God
has withdrawn His presence and
no one has even noticed because
we are all so busy keeping the
machinery of a Godless Church
going. “Therefore, I will surely
forget you and cast you out of my
presence…” Jeremiah 23:39
The construct of man cannot hold
the Spirit and God can only live in a
house that He built. Human activity
cannot bring forth salvation and
a person cannot be saved unless
God moves upon them. In vain
they rise early and stay up late for
“Unless the Lord builds the house,
they labor in vain who build it.”
Psalm 127:1
“Be still, and know that I am God…”
Psalm 46:10 The problem with
the Performance Driven Church
is that they lack the experiential
knowledge of God that produces
reverent stillness and assured
calmness. Their frantic rushing
about is but a sign of the fright and
panic of their disturbed souls. They
must keep their followers busy
lest they pause long enough to
discover their Spiritual poverty.
“The ox knows its master, the
donkey its owner’s manger, but
Israel does not know, my people
do not understand.” Isaiah 1:3
“My people are fools; they do not
know me…” Jeremiah 4:22 (NIV)
The Church today seems to be
experiencing the wanderings of
the faithless.
“The message ‘Christ in you,
the hope of glory,’ needs to be
restored to the Church. We must
show a new generation of nervous,
frantic, Christians that power lies at
the centre of the life. Speed and
noise are evidences of weakness,
not strength. Eternity is silent;
time is noisy. Our preoccupation
with time is sad evidence of our
basic want of faith. The desire to
be dramatically active is proof of
our religious infantilism; it is a type
of exhibitionism common to the
kindergarten.” The Root of the
Righteous – A. W. Tozer Pg 76 p
Testimony continued from pg 21
still here. That night he and his boys
stayed at the campground with us and
the next day he invited us to go back
to Gadsden, Alabama with him and we
decided to go.
We didn’t know what to expect. Over the
next few days he spoke about the Lord
a lot. It’s like the Lord was preparing
our hearts to receive Him. That Sunday,
April 3, 1994, we attended service at
the Tabernacle. When we arrived we
were an hour late and had missed the
preaching but were just in time for the
Altar call. When the Altar call was given,
Tracey, my girlfriend, asked what that
was. I said I did not know but let’s go. So
we went to the Altar and the Lord met
us there. Somebody prayed with us to
accept the Lord and He brought about
a miraculous change in us. We really
got saved that Easter Sunday, the Lord
took away the desires for drugs and the
things of the world and replaced it with
a desire for Him and a hunger to learn
His Word. That to me, is what genuine
salvation is, a death and resurrection
experience, dying to the flesh and rising
again a new creation. 2 Cor. 5:17. Three
months later, my girlfriend and I were
married and a year later our first son,
Joshua, was born. p
By Richard Burroughs - faithwriters.com/article-
details.php?id=103917
July - September 2017
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