HOW GREAT is THAT DARKNESS

Sobering, but very true word for today's church, may the Lord help us to get back to the TRUE Gospel and it's central and most important message - the CROSS! (emphasis in the article made by this blogger)

HOW GREAT is THAT DARKNESS
-by Coach Dave Daubenmire

“But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If
therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that
darkness" -Matthew 6:23

Okay Lord, I’ll write it. But I really don’t understand why you give
me these dirty jobs. Why haven’t you anointed me to write about
the evil Democrats, or say, those God-haters who want to take
Manger Scenes off of the courthouse steps? Why can’t I be like
Ann Coulter and just expose liberals? Why do I always have to
write things about folks who are supposed to be on my side? The
liberals hate me enough…why do I have to keep poking
“conservatives” in the eye?

It won’t be long before I won’t be welcome anywhere in Christian
circles. But I promised you years ago that I would be faithful to
write and speak what you put in my spirit. As President John
Adams famously said, “Duty is ours. The results belong to God.”

So, I’ll lay it out there and trust you have a reason for putting the
words in my heart.

Most Christians are not. Not really disciples of Jesus that is. As I
go about my work, I have become more and more convinced of
that truth. The American Experience is in trouble because those
who claim to be followers of Jesus really don’t follow Him.

Oh, don’t get me wrong, they “go to church,” and most “believe in
God,” but they are not followers of Jesus. They don’t even know
what that means...to follow Jesus…even though they are
“Christians.” In fact, I doubt whether the Apostle Paul, or any of
the first-century believers, would even recognize the “religion” that
we call “Christianity” today. Just wondering….was Jesus a “Christian?”

Jesus hated religion. It was the “religious” folks that He tried to
free us from. “But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for
ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are
entering to go in."

Read Mathew 23 to understand better what He had to say to
“religious” leaders. He stated it better than I can.

Look. Christianity is not a religion, it is not “going to church”, it is
not a set of rules and regulations after which you pattern your life,
it is not a crutch for the weak, it is not an answer on the US
Census, and it is not a home business designed to increase one’s
earthly possessions.

Christianity is the life of Jesus living through you. It is an exchange
of your life for His, a living out of His nature instead of yours, a
“putting on” of the life of Jesus, not a process where you “accept”
Him, or “receive” Him, or “come” to Him. It is a death process…a
dying of you and your old nature…a transformation really…out of
an old life to a new one. “Christ IN you, the hope of Glory.”

Most folks who identify as Christians claim to know Jesus as
Savior. Very few know Him as Lord.

That’s why Christianity is so shallow in America. We love the
“Savior” part of Jesus, but aren’t quite ready to bow to that “Lord”
thingee. Most are interested in having “their Savior” bless their
endeavors, but few are willing to “lay down their lives” for Him.

Everyone wants to “follow Jesus” until they find out where He is
going…He is heading to a Cross…and He asks you to take up
yours and follow Him. This flies in the face of popular Christianity
and its “felt needs”…

The hearts of Americans are hard to pierce. Stephen called folks
like us “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye
do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.”

How did the religious folks receive Stephen and his honest rebuke?
“Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and
ran upon him with one accord, And cast him out of the city, and
stoned him…”

Here is what I am getting at. Most “Christians” are not open to the
true Gospel because they already think they have it. They have
learned to compartmentalize it, to compromise it, to hang it on the
coat rack. But they have heard a different Gospel. They have been
taught to follow Christianity, not Jesus.

“For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of
old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace
of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God,
and our Lord Jesus Christ.” -Jude

Do yourself a favor. Take the time to read the book of Acts. It is a
record of the “Gospel” being lived out by those who were most
familiar with the Savior. You will look long and hard, far and wide,
to find anything even remotely resembling the modern-day
Humanistic, self-serving, Jesus-wants-me-to-be-happy-and-rich-
Gospel belching out of the pulpits today. Would they invite Paul,
the greatest evangelist the world has ever known, to appear on
TBN? Would Rick Warren and Joel Osteen allow him to stand in
their pulpits? Can you picture him “dancing with the stars?”

Americans are following a “different” Gospel, which is "no Gospel at all."

“Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and
have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and
miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:”

Permit me to state it more succinctly so that there can be no
misunderstanding of the point I am trying to make. Most
church-goers are not followers of Jesus. They are merely members
of a social club called “Christianity”. “Membership has its advantages….”

How do you heal someone who doesn’t know he is sick? How do
you save someone who doesn’t think he is lost?

“If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that
darkness…”

Americanized Christianity has everything backwards. Somewhere
along the line the life-denying-Gospel has morphed into a
life-enhancement Gospel. Instead of us giving ourselves for the
advancement of the Kingdom we have been fooled into believing
that Jesus gave Himself so we could be masters of our own kingdom.

The idea of sacrifice and suffering is anathema to modern,
Americanized Christianity. How else can you possibly explain the
calloused attitude that most “Christians” have towards the
“increase of His government and peace.”

Read Mathew 13. It is here that we read of the wheat and the tares
which GROW UP TOGETHER. That’s right. When you go to
“church” on Sunday it would behoove you to look around. Many of
those sitting beside you are destined for the bon-fire. They look
like Christians, the sing like Christians, and they speak the
Christian “language”, but they are not children of the Lord.

“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils?
and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I
profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work
iniquity.” -Mathew 7

Could it be that many are getting the wrong answer because they
are being asked the wrong question? It is not “do you know Jesus”,
but rather, “does Jesus know You?”

In recent polls eight-five per cent of all Americans self-identify as
Christians, yet this nation has become a moral wasteland.
“Christians” complain about others “shoving Christianity down our
throats.” “Christians” declare that “religion” is a “private matter”
while atheistic teachings swamp their children in “public schools.”
“Christians” have abortions and vote for “pro-abortion” candidates.
“Christians” embrace homosexuality. “Christians” fail to keep their
marriage vows. “Christians” ignore the precepts that Jesus taught.

How do you rescue someone who doesn’t think he needs rescued?
How do you bring sight to one who thinks he sees? How do you
bring knowledge to one who thinks he knows? How do you bring
truth to one who doesn’t know he is deceived? How do you bring
light to one who doesn’t know it is dark?

America is the most “Gospelized” nation in the world, but my
dealings with Americanized “Christians” have convinced me that
the greatest mission field in the world is inside the four walls of
most American churches.

The darkness thinks it is light.

“And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I
know; but who are ye?”

“Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils
also believe, and tremble.”

Most “Christians” don’t know enough about Jesus to tremble.

How great is that darkness…