Open Letter to American Churches: Have We Broken God’s Heart?

 PDF Version: Open Letter to American Churches

Special Note: Since I wrote this article, I no longer believe that The Harbinger is sound doctrine. I don’t believe that God is pouring out judgment on America through calamities and disasters. I do, however, believe, as I share in this article, that there are those in the Church who have been unfaithful to God and His Word. On Judgment Day they will have to give an account for their apostasy and spiritual adultery–and unfortunately, just as in ages past, the world will suffer because of their unfaithfulness. 

If Jonathan Cahn is correct and God has sent “harbingers”[1] of judgment, and if America is “imploding”[2] as Joel Rosenberg claims, or if, perhaps, God is just giving us over, as described in Romans 1–what have we done wrong?  Why is God upset with us? The American church has been praying for revival for decades, yet God hasn’t seemed to hear us. America has only declined further and further. WHY?

      Most Christians point to abortion and homosexuality as the great sins of America, but these aren’t sins that prevail in the church; these are the sins of the world. Churches don’t have abortion clinics and gay bars attached to their sanctuaries—they generally oppose them both and speak out against them. But 2 Chronicles 7:14 says that God’s people need to turn away from their sins in order for Him to heal their land. So, what are the sins of the church? If God is removing his hand of blessing and protection from America, even though the church has been praying for revival, why is He doing it?  How has the American church sinned?  

     Unfortunately, the American church has committed the same sin as the ancient Israelites. They have committed SPIRITUAL ADULTERY.  In 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 God explains, “If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”  If we read further down in verse 19 we discover that the great sin of Israel was that they didn’t obey God’s statues and commandments and they were willing to “serve other gods and worship them.” They broke the first commandment: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:2)  God’s anger and jealousy would be kindled by their idolatry. The same is true for today’s church. We haven’t been faithful to God . We’ve broken His heart–just like the ancient Israelites broke God’s heart through their idolatry. (Ezekiel 6:9)

     We may ask: “How can this be? We love God! We’ve dedicated our lives to him! We’re not unfaithful!” Yet this was the same cry of the Israelites in the prophet Hosea’s day. God had Hosea marry an unfaithful wife as a picture of Israel’s unfaithfulness to Him. The charge of God against them was that a “. . . a spirit of harlotry has led them astray, and they have played the harlot, departing from their God” (Hosea 4:12), and yet the Israelites never stopped worshipping God! They only ADDED the worship of other gods to their worship of the true God. Israel didn’t understand God’s anger and lamented!  “My God, we of Israel know you!” (Hosea 8:2)  But in frustration God cried out, “. . . How long will they be incapable of purity? (Hosea 8:5) Israel had become polluted with the sin of idolatry. They were no longer pure. They were in a covenant relationship with God (a marriage), yet God considered their willingness to seek other gods, such as Baal, to be the same thing as having an affair. They worshiped idols while still continuing the worship of God. This was a form of adultery in God’s eyes! It was similar to a wife who stays married to her husband while having an affair on the side.

     This was also the complaint of Jeremiah. Israel was going after other lovers: “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there.” (Jeremiah 3:6)  And yet they denied their sin, saying, “. . . I am not defiled, I have not gone after the Baals . . .” (Jeremiah 2:23) Ezekiel would also describe how God’s heart was broken by Israel. He described how God had made Israel beautiful and prospered her, but she would betray Him: “You adulteress wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband! (Ezekiel 16:32)

     This wasn’t only a concern in the Old Testament. Paul also warned the New Testament church against unholy relationships with those who worship other gods. He explained: “Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has he who believes with an infidel? And what agreement has the Temple of the Living God with idols?” (2 Corinthians 7:14-16a)  Paul would use the same language to describe the relationship between God and the Church as the Old Testament prophets used to describe the relationship between God and Israel — that of a man and a woman who are betrothed in marriage. “For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.” (2 Cor. 11:2-3)

     So how is the American church being seduced? How are we being unfaithful? According to Paul, it is by allowing our minds to be “led astray” from “the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.” He goes on to say that this is how the Corinthian church had easily accepted another Jesus and another gospel. (2 Cor. 11:4) The word “simple” is defined as: “Having or composed of one thing or part only; not combined or compound.” In other words, whenever we ADD something to the gospel we are no longer keeping it simple. We’re causing it to be made up of two parts. Something has been added to it! Just as the ancient Israelites, we can ADD something to our relationship with God. (Adultery = ADDultery.) We may not bow down to Asherah poles, but to God, adding something to the gospel is a form of adultery. When we ADD to the gospel it changes the composition. It’s no longer pure. One of the reasons why Jesus was upset with the Pharisees was because they had added “tradition” to the Word. (Mark 7:6-8) But the gospel must remain whole, simple, and pure. IT’S HOLY. According to Proverbs 30:5-6: “Every Word of God is pure: He is a shield unto them who put their trust in Him. Add thou not unto His Words, lest He reprove you, and you be found a liar.” Jesus prayed in John 17:17: “Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth.” But when something is added to it, it is no longer the truth; it actually becomes a lie!

     The American church is committing spiritual adultery by adding to the gospel—changing its composition and creating another gospel and another Jesus! The following words may seem harsh, but please take heed and have an “ear to hear.” (Revelation 3:22) After all, don’t you desire, with all your heart, to please God? Don’t you long to hear the words, “Well done, good and FAITHFUL servant?” (Matthew 25:21,23)  

1.      It’s SPIRITUAL ADULTERY when we accept other ideologies, philosophies, or beliefs and ADD them to the gospel, creating a lukewarm, defiled, unholy blend. Think about the American church of the last decades. We’ve blended biblical truth with psychology, science, business principles, greed, philosophy, tradition, new revelations, dreams and visions, fiction (such as The Shack),[3] other religions, environmentalism, politics, Old Testament law, and on and on. This list is NOT exhaustive. Paul said, in 1 Corinthians 2:1: “And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” Colossians 2:4 says not to let any man “beguile you with enticing words . . .  lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” We must keep the Word of God holy, pure, and unadulterated with other “truths.” We are commanded to “cast down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.”(2 Corinthians 10:5) Instead of obeying this command, we embrace anything and everything that seems reasonable to us, thinking that the world will find Christianity more palatable if we show them how accommodating it is to their views. But Paul said these other beliefs were forms of seduction, and if we ADD them to the gospel we are adulterers who have polluted the Word of God – as much as a woman who has an affair pollutes and defiles her marriage bed. James warned against the adulterous temptation to accommodate and befriend the world: “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?” (James 4:4-5)
2.      It’s SPIRITUAL ADULTERY to join with other religions in order to bring about peace, prosperity, and the transformation of society or culture. This was the root of the sin of ancient Israel – they assimilated with the Canaanite tribes and worshiped the fertility god, Baal, along with Jehovah. Baal promised new life, prosperity, and security to his worshipers, so the Israelites joined in. They never denied Jehovah – they just ADDED Baal. When the American church is willing to join themselves with false religions to bring about peace, prosperity, a restoration of America, or the “renewal” of the planet, they are adulterers. After all, what is the source of peace and prosperity? Is it the work of our own hands in unity with others (the tower of Babel), or is it God’s provision and blessing? This was the point Ezekiel tried to make in chapter 16 when he pointed out how God had made Israel so beautiful, and she just used her beauty and prosperity to chase after other lovers! God is our source! Yet Rick Warren says his P.E.A.C.E. plan can be implemented with any man or woman of peace, even if they are of a different religion.[4]  David Barton is joining with a Mormon, Glenn Beck, to restore America.[5] James Robison is joining with Jay Richards,[6] a Catholic, and Glenn Beck,[7] in order transform and restore America. But isn’t this kind of yoking precisely what is causing the peace and prosperity of America to be removed? Mormons add the revelations of Joseph Smith to the gospel. Catholics add tradition and philosophy to the gospel. And yet, for the sake of our own peace and safety, we would join ourselves to them. These are unholy alliances. It was for this sin that God became so upset with his people that he gave up on them, “Ephraim is joined to idols. Leave him alone.” (Hosea 4:17) Perhaps this is why America is in decline and God seems nowhere to be found. For how many years have we attempted to forge a union between Catholicism and Protestantism in order to develop political strength? “Evangelicals and Catholics Together,[8]” “The Manhattan Declaration,[9]” and even “The Truth Project[10]” are some examples of this adulterous union, but God tells us in Jeremiah 17:5: “Thus says the Lord, ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the Lord.’” Political power is not the source of our prosperity. The only source is the blessing of the Lord. PEACE will never be restored until Jesus, the Prince of Peace, returns. Utopian attempts to bring about a restoration of Eden (PEACE or SHALOM[11]) in our own strength through false unity are adultery! 
3.      It’s SPIRITUAL ADULTERY when we ADD mystical experiences to the blood of Christ. How dare we try to enter into God’s presence through Jesus AND contemplative prayers, soaking prayers, labyrinths, centering prayers, breath prayers, and other forms of pagan religious exercises that have been “Christianized!” Is it any coincidence that spiritual formation and disciplines have led us away from grace, away from rest, and into works? Jesus taught us how to pray—and it was with simple words—not mantras, repetitive phrases (no matter how Christian the words are), or through the “silence.” There is only one pathway to God and it is the narrow way called Jesus Christ. Why would the American church (Tim Keller[12] is the latest to go along) even consider going the way of Teresa of Avila or Ignatius Loyola when they both opposed the purity and holiness of the gospel? Both of them worked in the Counter-Reformation to oppose the Reformation principles of “scripture alone, faith alone, and grace alone.” These are well-known historical facts, yet why is the modern American church so fascinated with Willard, Nouwen, Foster, Merton, and Keating when they are all clearly encouraging unbiblical mystical experiences (Teresa of Avila levitated!) to be ADDED to biblical grace? Hebrews 10:19-22 says: “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He has consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an high priest over the House of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” The only “consecrated” (defined as: “to make, declare, or set apart as sacred”) way to enter into the presence of God is through the blood of Jesus! Regardless of what Gary Thomas[13] and Rick Warren[14] say, no other pathway is “sacred.” In fact, Jesus warned us against using vain repetitions when we pray, saying we aren’t to pray like the heathen! (Matthew 6:7) Mystical, experiential religion based on the attempt to clear the mind through ascetic efforts is exactly what Jesus was forbidding, and yet the church has gone full steam ahead into disobedience, saying they are pursuing “ancient pathways.” But these ancient pathways aren’t the blood of Jesus; they’re the ascetic efforts of the Catholic mystics and “desert fathers” whose attempts at “divine union” didn’t lead them to sound doctrine and truth; they led them to spiritual adultery (the defense of the adulterous Catholic Church)! Furthermore, the attempt to attain “divine union” is even out of order, since the marriage supper of the Lamb hasn’t happened yet! We are still the BRIDE of Christ. The Bridegroom has yet to come for us. The church is playing with strange fire. They’re adding their own efforts to God’s instructions just as the sons of Aaron (Nadab and Abihu) did when they ADDED incense to the fire although God hadn’t commanded it. (Leviticus 10) The Hebrew word for “strange” here in Leviticus 10:1 is “zuwr.”[15] It means “to turn aside, to be a foreigner, strange, profane, and to commit adultery.” When Nadab and Abihu added incense to the fire, they burned a different kind of fire before the Lord than He had commanded and they were guilty of spiritual adultery! This was the same sin as Cain. He offered up a vegetable sacrifice that wasn’t acceptable to God — because it wasn’t the blood of a lamb. (Genesis 4:4-5, Hebrews 11:4)  When the church adds vain repetitions and mystical experiences to the precious blood of Christ in order to draw near to God, they are committing spiritual adultery! 
4.      It’s SPIRITUAL ADULTERY when the church listens to false prophets! There’s a whole slew of “prophets” who have never heard a single word from God! The New Apostolic Reformation is made up of these self-anointed and self-appointed, false religious leaders who promote false dreams and false visions like Rick Joyner’s Final Quest.[16] They promote false revivals (Kansas City, Lakeland, Brownsville, and Toronto) and false miracles such as the split podium promoted by Tommy Tenney.[17] All of these false dreams, visions, and miracles are ADDITIONS to the settled Word of God. This is why Jesus said “a wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign.” (Matthew 12:38-39) The Pharisees (and Herod) claimed they needed a titillating miracle to convince them that Jesus was of God . . . even though the scriptures spoke of Him! The Word of God wasn’t enough – they needed an ADDITION. Because of their desire for an extra-biblical sign, Jesus said they were adulterous. The scripture warns us against going “beyond what is written” (1 Corinthians 4:6) because it causes one religious leader to be puffed up over another, so rather than leading to humility, it leads to spiritual pride.  I’ve seen the American church literally run to get into meetings where they think they will see a miraculous sign, and yet Jesus calls this adultery! Is it any surprise that these leaders (Mike Bickle of the Internationl House of Prayer, for example[18]) are now promoting adulterous, mystical experiences in the manner of such people as Teresa of Avila? All the spiritual insight and power of these false prophets has only led them to adulterous methods of relating to God! 

     As a result of these adulteries, the sheep have been scattered, looking for a source of water that hasn’t been muddied. This little flock has been persecuted by being brought before church councils, rejected, cast out, cast aside, shut up, and ridiculed. They are wandering around in the wilderness looking for a faithful shepherd, to no avail. They were once pillars (teachers, elders, deacons, worship leaders, etc . . .), but now they’ve been told that they’re no longer valuable; they’re only “holding things up.”[19] But God isn’t deceived. He sees everything . . . and he has declared once before that the shepherds were his enemies! “Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel concerning the shepherds who are tending my people: “You have scattered my flock and driven them away, and have not attended to them; behold, I am about to attend to you for the evil of your deeds,” declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 23:1-2) The unfaithfulness of the shepherds is why so many Christians have heeded the call to “Come out of her, my people, and partake not of her sins. . .” (Revelation 18:4) Just as in Jeremiah’s time, “. . . both prophet and priest are polluted; even in my house I have found their wickedness,” declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 23:11)But there is a remnant who won’t join with false religions to create peace and prosperity through a false unity. They’re waiting for a city whose “architect and builder is God.” (Hebrews 11:10) They believe that “pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” (James 1:27) They will not abandon the great truths and doctrines of the Word of God in order to blend in with false religions to do good deeds. If Jesus wanted the purpose of the church to be that of feeding the hungry, He would have turned the stones to bread when being tempted by Satan, but Jesus overcame that temptation and said, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'” (Matthew 4:4) It isn’t the elimination of poverty and hunger that God is pleased with (Jesus said in Matthew 26:11 that “the poor will always be with you. . . ”), it’s adherence to the scriptures. Jesus didn’t compromise and bow down to Satan in order to do good deeds and neither should we! Good deeds are a fruit of the gospel, not the purpose of the gospel. In other words, to Jesus, creeds ARE more important than deeds, regardless of what Rick Warren says![20]Jesus was pleased with Mary, who was learning His Word, not with Martha, who was busy serving. Jesus said “one thing was needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part . . . “(Luke 10:42)

     They also refuse to accept the lie that the scriptures should be abandoned or forsaken because previous generations who had abandoned or forsaken the scriptures left behind a legacy of failure and abuse. If the church and the Bible are responsible for the Inquisition, then why did it take the Protestant church, led by Martin Luther, who restored the Bible’s authority, to end the Inquisition? If the church and the Bible are responsible for slavery, then why did it take abolitionists who were Christians, such as William Wilberforce, John Newton, Frederick Douglass, Theodore Dwight Weld, and William Lloyd Garrison, to oppose slavery–on the basis of scriptural authority? If the church and the Bible are responsible for Nazism, then why was the Confessing Church, under Martin Niemoller, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Karl Barth, who proclaimed in the Barmen Declaration:[21] “We reject the false doctrine, as though the church could and would have to acknowledge as a source of its proclamation, apart from and besides this one Word of God, still other events and powers, figures and truths, as God’s revelation,” the only organized opposition to Nazism? They oppose those, such as Brian McLaren, author of the book, A Generous Orthodoxy: Why I am a Missional, Evangelical, Post/Protestant, Liberal/Conservative, Mystical/Poetic, Biblical, Charismatic/Contemplative, Fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Green, Incarnational, Depressed- Yet Hopeful, Emergent, Unfinished Christian, who accuse the scriptures of causing atrocities, saying, “For us to be naïve about the “eye of the beholder” regarding the Bible renders us vulnerable to repeating yesterday’s atrocities in the future. Slavery, anti-Semitism, colonialism, genocide, chauvinism, homophobia, environmental plunder, the Inquisition, witch burning, apartheid—aren’t those worth taking care to avoid, for God’s sake?”[22] These atrocities were committed by an apostate and adulterous church! For example, the Inquisition was instituted by the medieval Catholic Church who had blended philosophy and tradition in with the gospel. Slaveholders had blended their perverted understanding of Old Testament law and scientific racism (polygenism) in with the gospel. The German Church had blended historical criticism, philosophy, and Nazism in with the gospel—placing swastikas on their altars! They all kept God and ADDED their false ideologies to the Word. And the world suffered greatly as a result. Millions died!  Adulterers!

     Those who stood on the Word of God alone, on the other hand, were the greatest force for good the world has ever known. They were the HEROES of history. They were faithful even unto death. They caused the fall of empires and tyrants. They blessed the world with medical and scientific advances. They rid the world of cannibalism and infanticide. They began charitable organizations. They were the salt and light of the world. But they did it by standing on the Word of God, not by compromising the Word, while those who compromised the scriptures by blending them with other sources of truth became the SCOURGES of history.

     There are many in the Church who are calling for a second Reformation. Rick Warren says the next Reformation will be based on “deeds, rather than creeds.[23]” The New Apostolic Reformation (N.A.R.) says that we need a return to the apostolic ministry which includes signs, wonders, and a global effort to “effectively accelerate the advancement of the Kingdom of God on earth.”[24]The emergent church is also calling for a “new kind of Christianity,”[25] and Phyliss Tickle, who believes we are in the midst of a “Great Emergence”[26] has even called Brian McLaren a “new Martin Luther!”[27] But I say the Reformation we need is a return to the first Reformation. It was a move of God based on faithfulness and purity. Their theme: “scripture alone, faith alone, and grace alone” must become the rallying cry of the church again. Luther wasn’t perfect, but he tried to be as faithful as he could to the scriptures. When standing before the Inquisition, at the Diet of Worms, he declared the necessity of placing his trust in the authority of the Bible, saying, “Unless I am convinced by scripture or by clear reason—for I do not trust the Pope or church councils, since everyone knows that they can make mistakes and contradict themselves—I am bound by the scriptures I have quoted. My conscience is held captive by the Word of God.”[28] Luther was faithful.  But if the Church chooses the adulterous reformations advocated by Warren, the N.A.R., or the “post-modern” emergents,[29] I believe the world will suffer again, as the adulterous church continues to compromise and empower the one-world church, Babylon, that great prostitute who will give her support to the antichrist.

      Are you a part of a compromised, adulterated church, or a part of the faithful church that has been washed in the blood of the Lamb alone? Have you been unfaithful? If you have, then repent of your spiritual adultery and stand on the Word of God alone. Jesus has cleansed us by the Word, and He’s coming back for a church that is pure! “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” (Ephesians 4:25-27) This is the Church that Jesus desires! And if we go astray he gives this warning: “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” (Revelation 2:4-5) As this scripture reveals, if you don’t repent, you may become part of the “falling away,” the “apostasy,” or another way of saying it might be “the adultery.”  To adulterate something means “to debase or make impure by adding inferior materials or elements, mixture.” In the Latin it means to add (ad) and alter (ulter)–to change. When a person commits adultery, they add another person to their relationship, making it impure and unholy. In the Hebrew, adultery is “na’aph.”[30] It means “to commit adultery, to apostatize, a woman that breaketh wedlock.” In the Greek, the word for adultery is “moicheuo.”[31] It comes from “moichos,”[32] which means “a male paramour, apostate, and adulterer.” Apostates and spiritual adulters are the same thing to God!  2 Thessalonians 2:3 says: “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there came a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.” The Greek word for “falling away” is “apostasia”[33] which means “defection from truth, apostasy, falling away, forsake.” When we commit spiritual adultery by ADDING to the Word, we defect from the truth and fall away. When the prophet Amos cried out, “Fallen is virgin Israel!” (Amos 5:2) he was speaking of an adulterous and apostate Israel. Isn’t this the same condition of much of the American Church?

     The only reason God allows for divorce is adultery (Matthew 5:31,32; 19:9). God divorced Israel at one time for her adultery. (Jeremiah 3:8, Hosea 2:2-4) Unfortunately, the Greek word for “divorce” is “apostasion,”[34] which means “something separative, divorce, to cut off.” If your husband or wife is unfaithful and unrepentant about it, do you have an obligation to stay with them? Does God have an obligation to stay with those who are unfaithful and unrepentant? Please heed this warning! According to the Greek, the word for fool is “moros.”[35] It means “dull, stupid, heedless . . .” Don’t be a fool! Remember, the Israelites were not able to enter into the Promised Land, even though they all drank of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4). Paul says this was written as an example to the Church! (1 Corinthians 10:11)  And then he said, “Take heed, lest you fall.” (1 Corinthians 10:12)

     Pastors, won’t you be like King Josiah, who pleased God when he cleansed the temple. (2 Kings 23:25) BE HOLY. One day you will have to present your flock to God. Paul said this to the Ephesian elders: “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to feed the Church of God, which He has purchased with his own blood.  For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.” (Acts 20:28-31) Will you be wise, and tenderly care for the sheep of your flock, feeding them and watching over them, keeping them safe from predators, or will you merely be a hireling who lets the sheep become a prey to the wolves? (John 10) If you want to keep your little flock safe, you must keep them pure and holy by keeping them faithful to the cleansing Word.  2 Corinthians 6:14 tells us: “Wherefore, come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord almighty.”

     Finally, we can’t think that just because we go to church and worship and sing and give and pray that we are pleasing to God. The ancient Israelites also worshipped God, but they had become so unfaithful by adding the worship of idols alongside their worship of God that He didn’t even want to hear their worship anymore. It was hypocritical. “Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps.” (Amos 5:23).  An unfaithful woman can say all the sweet things she wants to a man, but if he knows she’s sleeping with another man, how long will he believe what she’s saying? All of our passion and praise means nothing unless we are true worshippers and worship the Father in spirit [the Holy Spirit!] and truth. (John 4:24)

     I leave you with the words of the prophetess, Huldah, spoken to King Josiah, who pleased God by cleansing the temple and land of idols: “Because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against its inhabitants, and because you humbled yourself before me, tore your clothes and wept before me, I truly have heard you…” (II Chron. 34:27)

     If you have been unfaithful, won’t you be tenderhearted and turn back to God?  If you love Him, won’t restoring your relationship with Him be the most important thing you can do–even MORE important than healing our land? Do you love Him and care about His heart?

Sincerely standing only on the authority of the Word of God and in Christ alone,

Diana Lesperance

July, 28, 2012

P.S. If you would like to share this with the churches in your community, please use painter’s tape to tape it on their doors so that it doesn’t damage any property.    

 

 

1. [35] Ibid., Greek #3474.