Pastor's Corner

30 Sep
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Mid-Week. Challenge

In Matthew 10:16 Jesus makes the famous charge to Believers, “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.” Make no mistake, there is a war going on now, in fact, the war has been going on since the time when Jesus gave that charge.  It seems more obvious in the hostile environment we are living in today.  We read about the continued attack on the church in many states through the COVID lockdown.  It has become obvious that government leaders in some of these areas are using the crisis as a way to silence the Church and subdue the free expression of Christians.  We see the double standard attacks on people of faith who find their way into the public eye.  Criminals are being set free and those who defend themselves under the law are being locked up.   With such an obvious assault on the principles of the Christian faith, how does a Believer respond?  Some Christian leaders in California are rising up and refusing to submit to authorities any longer.  These individuals face fines, jail time and removal of their licenses.  Some of them have lawyers working on their side, but the vast majorities are on their own.  I see these things happening and read about them online and my soul hurts for what has been lost.  The words of Jesus should have served as a warning to us, if we had only taken them seriously.  https://www.christianheadlines.com/columnists/shane-idleman/churches-must-fight-or-theyll-fade-away.html

The Bible makes it clear that we have always been at war, but not a war in the traditional sense (at least not yet).  Paul told the Ephesian Church, “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places” (6:12).  One of the reasons we are where we are is because we have not taken this battle seriously.  We have passively allowed those with differing views and faulty theology come into power.  We have the “innocent as doves” part down, but we have failed at the “shrewd as serpents” part.  The only way out is to admit that the war is ongoing and adopt the instruction of Paul in Ephesians 6:11- Put on the full armor of God, so that you can make your stand against the devil’s schemes.

With so many battle references in the New Testament I don’t know how we missed it.  Maybe we were just complacent or simply too lazy to care, but we don’t have that luxury of ignoring it any longer.  The enemy has played his hand; he is coming for the Church, one person at a time if necessary.  The battle is now in your front yard, are you ready?  

Join me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. A soldier refrains from entangling himself in civilian affairs, in order to please the one who enlisted him.  2 Timothy 2:3-4

Serving the Savior,

Bro. Jonathan

 

By: Dr. Jonathan Richerson

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