While you were Sleeping
09/08/09 22:56
Jesus spoke a parable
about it and St. Paul exhorted us about it -sleeping
while we should be awake! Jesus’ parable is
about ten virgins that were sleeping when the
“midnight cry” was given; Paul’s
exhortation goes like this, “Wake up, O sleeper, rise
from the dead and Christ will shine on
you.” For some reason, God must have
thought it important to warn us that some of the
Church was definitely sleeping just prior to His
return.
Do you remember the story of Rip Van Winkle? Written by Washington Irving in 1819, the story is set at the base of the Catskill Mountains just before and just after the Revolutionary War. It seems that everyone loved ole’ Rip with his nonchalant, I’d-rather-be-sleeping demeanor. That is, everyone but his wife. She was a cantankerous old thing and wouldn’t give Rip a moments peace. Well, it just so happened that Rip got to hide away for a little snooze –that lasted twenty years! When he awakened, so much had happened, so much had changed.
So I thought I would tell you folks out there in the world wide web, some of the changes you may be noticing if you just happen to be waking up right about now. For instance, the United States is on the verge of a socialistic take-over. Big Brother is here and he is pushing his agenda down the throats of every American citizen –except himself. I heard that by the year 2010 the United States government will have its hands in (some way or other) about 40% of the private sector. And this, I am told, is for our own good.
Soon everybody in the country will have health care, what kind of care that will be is yet to be seen. The Government has already ousted execs from the car industry. I wonder what will happen to doctors that don’t get on board with the national health care? We are still aborting babies… No, let me rephrase that, we are still murdering our children and calling it women’s rights. We are now marrying men to men and women to women. We call it same-sex marriages. I call it sin and an abomination that God will surely punish. We are even ordaining homosexuals and lesbians in the ministry of God’s Word. Go figure! The same Word that condemns such behavior is now being applauded, practiced, and promoted by these folks.
Jesus would be turning over in His grave if He were still in it! BUT HE’S NOT! Which brings me to the next things I would like to tell you about. A survey dating back as far as 1961 revealed that 54% of ministers polled did not believe in the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ; 56% didn’t believe in the virgin birth; 71% didn’t believe in a literal heaven and hell; 89% didn’t believe in the deity of Jesus Christ and a whopping 99% didn’t believe in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
We no longer preach about the Blood. These days it’s more like: try to be a good person, and maybe God will let you have what you want. I could go on and on but I don’t want to nag you to death with all of this lovely news. I would be afraid that you might wander off somewhere and fall asleep again. And we certainly don’t want you doing that again. I have an idea. Let’s (All us Christians) wake up so that Christ will shine upon us while we hold out the Imperishable Word of God that can save our loved ones and friends –“before night cometh, when no man can work.”
Have a God blessed week!
Pastor Jim
Do you remember the story of Rip Van Winkle? Written by Washington Irving in 1819, the story is set at the base of the Catskill Mountains just before and just after the Revolutionary War. It seems that everyone loved ole’ Rip with his nonchalant, I’d-rather-be-sleeping demeanor. That is, everyone but his wife. She was a cantankerous old thing and wouldn’t give Rip a moments peace. Well, it just so happened that Rip got to hide away for a little snooze –that lasted twenty years! When he awakened, so much had happened, so much had changed.
So I thought I would tell you folks out there in the world wide web, some of the changes you may be noticing if you just happen to be waking up right about now. For instance, the United States is on the verge of a socialistic take-over. Big Brother is here and he is pushing his agenda down the throats of every American citizen –except himself. I heard that by the year 2010 the United States government will have its hands in (some way or other) about 40% of the private sector. And this, I am told, is for our own good.
Soon everybody in the country will have health care, what kind of care that will be is yet to be seen. The Government has already ousted execs from the car industry. I wonder what will happen to doctors that don’t get on board with the national health care? We are still aborting babies… No, let me rephrase that, we are still murdering our children and calling it women’s rights. We are now marrying men to men and women to women. We call it same-sex marriages. I call it sin and an abomination that God will surely punish. We are even ordaining homosexuals and lesbians in the ministry of God’s Word. Go figure! The same Word that condemns such behavior is now being applauded, practiced, and promoted by these folks.
Jesus would be turning over in His grave if He were still in it! BUT HE’S NOT! Which brings me to the next things I would like to tell you about. A survey dating back as far as 1961 revealed that 54% of ministers polled did not believe in the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ; 56% didn’t believe in the virgin birth; 71% didn’t believe in a literal heaven and hell; 89% didn’t believe in the deity of Jesus Christ and a whopping 99% didn’t believe in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
We no longer preach about the Blood. These days it’s more like: try to be a good person, and maybe God will let you have what you want. I could go on and on but I don’t want to nag you to death with all of this lovely news. I would be afraid that you might wander off somewhere and fall asleep again. And we certainly don’t want you doing that again. I have an idea. Let’s (All us Christians) wake up so that Christ will shine upon us while we hold out the Imperishable Word of God that can save our loved ones and friends –“before night cometh, when no man can work.”
Have a God blessed week!
Pastor Jim
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