We the People and the Pursuit of Happiness - II

WE THE PEOPLE

and the

PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

Chapter Two

Part of the problem is the apathetic and ambivalent lives of much if not most of the evangelical community. That does not mean people do not get interested and even excited about things, but mostly about other things than a sacrificial and self denying pursuit of Jesus. It seems like a colossal paradox to suggest that those who profess Christ do not seek Him in any substantial way. For the most part professing believers assign their church membership and participation as the ultimate sign that they are born again believers.

But the evangelical church that lives in America is distinctly American and pays allegiance to the country in which they live. And we have been taught such things since birth. But why is that true? The answer is simple and embarrassing and is generally two fold. First people do not scour the Scriptures to find out who Jesus is and what He teaches. They rely on preachers and the influence of the ecclesiastical community to form their belief system. Secondly people are in debt to a culture which has afforded them material gain and a comfortable lifestyle. And so they have woven America into the Biblical narrative going so far as to insist a divine beginning and a continuing divine favor for this particular country. And an unholy amalgam has been created which embraces the fallen and rejects the sacred.

Please be aware that a church’s statement of faith is meaningless these days. You can say anything and contend that you believe it. And you can embrace all the so called “cardinal” doctrines of the faith and still your focus and practices deny the entire thing. Most pastors wield earthly and organizational power while Paul said he was the offscouring of the world. The entire construct is antithetical to all Jesus taught and lived. And yet this same ecclesiastical structure claims His name. It is a monstrous deception.

To be sure the western evangelical community is empowered by “we the people” and the “pursuit of happiness”. And although these two phrases are carnal and without the Spirit, the church people do not, and cannot, see them for what they are. An enemy has come in with stealth and sown tares among the wheat of God’s Word, and now the church bears chains they believe are of God when in fact they have imprisoned the masses. It is impossible to explain the color red to a blind man, but how much more impossible when he thinks he already knows?

Happiness is a shallow word. It implies a human emotion which can come from all kinds of sources. People are happy watching a ball game or a television show or receiving a raise at work and a million other things. And the fallen heart seeks happiness. It does not seek Christ. It does not seek the spiritual welfare of others. It seeks its own happiness and when it finds it then it incorporates it into its religion. Let us be perfectly honest. Most believers look over the fence and see the unbelievers having a wonderful party and they become envious and begin to rationalize their own practices. And let us be even more honest here. Most professing believers do not really even believe in heaven or hell and therefore live their lives with a thin veneer of religion and hope they arrive in heaven if there is even such a place. But while they are on earth they desire and lust after their own happiness.

In the end there is a religion whose stated beliefs do very little to alter their lives. Sacrifice and self denial are rejected, and as long as people claim to be pro-life and anti-gay marriage they can claim to be followers of Jesus. Morality and patriotism have replaced a surrendered and crucified life. Seeking moral battles has replaced being a humble witness for Jesus. Instead of loving your enemies they can castigate them. Brokenness is weakness. Humility is compromise. But in general the religion called “Christianity” is a set of beliefs without a living sacrifice.

We the People and the Pursuit of Happiness

WE THE PEOPLE

and the

PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

Chapter One

This is a very important subject and one in which I pray everyone will give due diligence in reading and understanding. The subtleties of deception and the evil from which it emanates are extremely sophisticated and camouflaged. If you shoot a gun at a target and your aim is one degree off it will not be long before the bullet is many feet off. And so it is with deception and compromise. What begins as a small fox eventually destroys the vine itself.

The two phrases in my title come from the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. They represent a spirit which is not of Christ. In fact those same documents refer to a unnamed Creator and a nebulous force of nature but the name of Jesus is completely missing. That, my friends, was no accident. But the overall message was crystal clear. This was of the people, by the people, and for the people just as the humanistic Greeks had constructed it. And since it was people driven, it would be of no surprise that these same people desired to be free to pursue happiness. Yes, in the words of Victoria Osteen, “God wants you happy!”

Earthy freedom and democracy sound so right and logical. But in essence all forms of earthly governments are products of fallen man who cannot help but be permeated with human desires, lusts, and ambitions. Any impartial and rational person can see the greed-filled monstrosity that American democracy has created. And yet people will excuse it by saying it is still better than anywhere else. That is some tortured logic. And to believers how can that possibly be God’s will? But with every election fueled by lies and obscene amounts of money the electorate vote for the candidate they believe will help their chances at happiness which is overwhelmingly connected to their own finances.

And when you take a step back and examine the entire spectacle and see how sinful and fallen it all is you must wonder how the church ever got involved. Many of us now have repented of our own blind involvement. The evil one deceived us into championing moral issues and in so doing we thought we were representing God. But moral causes were never a New Testament crusade, and like Newton’s Law of Thermodynamics eventually those causes give way to all things economic. It is a very slippery slope.

 

The most effective and powerful deceptions are those which seem right. Who can be against earthly freedom? Who can be against being happy? But those questions as they are structured are deceptive in and of themselves. It is not that we are against those things. But we are pointing out that when they are embraced as coming from within the Kingdom of God then we have strayed from the faith. My battle has never been to convince lost people of the evil of politics or patriotism. I have attempted to correct a great deception and compromise which is embraced within the church, and my perspective is not limited to the one I now hold. I have been under that deception and I know all too well the strength that it has.

But let us return to the open and subliminal message of “We the people” and the “pursuit of happiness”. Can there be any greater expose of humanism? And even though the documents throw a bone to God in the form of some uncertain and unspecific references, they are humanistic documents which the evil one has used to confuse, distract, and profoundly deceive the church. This is not some argument over women deacons or Bible translations or most other church disputes. This issue has permeated the hearts and minds of professing believers and the church as an institution until the Christian faith as believed and practiced in America is basically an American community overlaid with some Bible words.

THE HOLY GOD

THE HOLY GOD

A pastor is a spiritual shepherd who feeds and protects the sheep. Joel and Victoria Osteen claim to be pastors but they are no such thing. But Victoria Osteen stood before the people and openly revealed the heart of the modern church. Watch this 30 second clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLWm48fhCGQ

I have rarely heard a more succinct revelation of a fallen and religious heart. And as the prophet said, “And the people love to have it so”. The entire concept is that exists for the pleasure and happiness of man, and that He feels good when we are happy. That lie is so layered it is almost impossible to fully unravel the completeness of its deception. But at the core of such a diabolical falsehood is that most of the church does not know the True and Living God.

The Apostle John would lay his head upon the chest of Jesus in love and companionship. But when that same man saw the glory of the Risen Christ he fell at His feet as though dead! The average “worship” time in an evangelical church centers around the well rehearsed music and the wonderful praise team and its leader. After fifteen minutes or so it ends with a prayer and the people sit down. So John falls at His feet as though he were dead and we sit back down as if nothing happened? But in reality nothing did happen. We feel blessed and refreshed and we are now in a good mood. Yes, we sang songs and perhaps clapped and lifted our hands but we did not meet God.

Worship has become an event. “The worship was great this morning!” “Come visit our church. We have great worship.” Now we can grade worship as if it was a contest. It is all about the music and the leader and the songs and how anointed the worship leader is. It has long since ceased to be about God. As people look around and clap and sing without being affected except feeling “happy” there are created being around God’s throne who do nothing but say, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.” And yet we can pretend to worship and quickly change to some announcements. We are not fooling anyone.

The Apostle Paul met with Jesus and he was struck blind and yet people can go the entire week without prayer and on Sunday morning they worship God? No, this is not true worship and the object of our worship is not Jesus, it is our own flesh and a god of our own making. In the Old Testament they fashioned a calf out of gold and called it god. In these dark days the church has fashioned a man out of gold and called it god. Gone is the majesty. Gone is the glory. Gone is the holiness. The priest would wear “holiness unto the Lord” on his priestly headpiece. Today men and women wear “Santa Claus” on their hearts.

It would be a monumental undertaking to fully expose the spiritual treachery that goes on in most evangelical churches. How many times after the worship music ends does the church leader say something like “God is good, isn’t He?” As flippant and meaningless as saying “God bless you” when someone sneezes. When does the man of God stand up with tears running down his face and through trembling lips and a contrite heart he says, “Oh my dear believers God is a holy God and I am undone this morning.”? I am not suggesting that must happen every time because even that can become a tradition and a form, but why does it never happen?

Holiness is not just some attribute of God that we learn in systematic theology. It is not gained by not sinning or doing good works. God IS holy. It is part of the makeup of His eternal Being itself. There are no human words that can fully reveal the Thrice Holy God. Only the Holy Spirit can illuminate a man’s heart with thoughts and impressions and revelations which pull back the veil a little more and allow him to see more of Him from whose face the worlds fled. And when we receive that astounding vision by the grace of that same God we cannot remain the same. To see the Lamb, the Lion, the Redeemer, and the Lord of Lords permeates our beings and burns within us. This is the God of all creation and He is holy.

So how can a group of people come together and worship this august and holy Being without sometimes being completely undone and filled with awe and repentance? The answer is simple. They, as Mrs. Osteen correctly pointed out, have come to feel happy. But the church has concocted a redundant spectacle which excites the flesh. For the most part people come to church for the community and not to meet with a Holy God. Just the carefully orchestrated order of service and the time allotted shows a disrespect for the Spirit and for God. Sunday after Sunday people come and go just like they did last week and like they will next week. It is a finely tuned religious pageant designed to uplift spirits and make people return. But it is not a genuine hungering and thirsting for the presence of a Holy God.

And this is also why a fallen culture as wicked as this one can not only live comfortably alongside professing believers, but it can even go to church! That is an astounding revelation. Unsaved people of all stripes sit Sunday after Sunday in church pews and even like the pastor and the music and enjoy the human fellowship. But God’s presence was not there or they would either flee or believe. Does that seem like some throwback to more archaic days when God used to manifest Himself among His people? Yes, it is. And that is deeply sad.

But let us not plead ignorance. God will not share His glory. God does not exist for man’s happiness. God is interested in man’s holiness not man’s happiness. Many sinful things make men happy. When a married couple who are millionaires and dressed to the nines stand before people and speak damnable lies it reminds me of when the antichrist will profess himself to be God. In fact it is that same spirit that speaks through false teachers like the Osteens. But it is not enough for us to point out these heretics and their lies. No, we must examine ourselves and pursue holiness. And just what does “pursue holiness” mean?

It means to pursue the Crucified and Risen Christ and until He fully apprehends you.

We Will All Laugh at Gilded Butterflies

We Will All Laugh



at Gilded Butterflies

This phrase from Shakesphere’s (I am a fan.) King Lear is a wonderful observation that can have many applications. He said this referring to his two treacherous daughters who sought to add to their own fortune by stealing his. A butterfly is a beautiful insect, and the word “gilded” indicates having an additional and unnecessary and even overdone application of gold or silver or some other attempt at beautification that makes its appearance rather gaudy. So rather than enhance its beauty, the gilding in effect renders it excessive and ostentatious.

So a monarch butterfly soars in its natural beauty. But if it were to be gilded by the hands of man, it would not only lose the majesty of its original beauty, but it would also lose its ability to fly. So in effect, the gilding would not only make that butterfly pretentious and inappropriate, but the gilding would prevent the butterfly from flight. In fact, the gilding would kill it.

I would like to make a gospel application to the phrase and its meaning. The gospel itself soars with majesty and power simply based upon the strength of its truth and its Author. It is profound in its spiritual content yet simple in its narrative. And after a while, this simple narrative becomes unappealing to the mind of fallen man. And yet the craftiness of this fallen mind does not just reject the gospel outright; it seeks to alter it in ways that seem more intellectual and more compassionate and more beautiful.

Men continue to guild the gospel with all sorts of things derived from their own imaginations. And in a daring display of hubris and vain imagination, men guild the perfect Son of God with the works of their own hands. There are several things about Calvinism that I admire even though I am decidedly not a Calvinist myself. I admire the way the reformed crowd generally and emphatically deny that men’s works have any part of salvation and that God alone must be given all the glory.

To add to or subtract from the perfect Son of God is not only dangerous, it is spiritual treason. This is no game of show and tell, this has eternal implications. The Crucified and Risen Christ needs no enhancement from the fallen creativity and self righteous contrivances of men. And when men gild the Savior with human works it not only diminishes His very being, but it renders His redemptive power as useless and without the grace necessary to save.

Just as a gilded butterfly becomes a prisoner to its artificial clothing, so do any and all projections of the Christ that have the weight of Adam’s nature as an ingredient, regardless of how polished and religious. The gilded Christ is no Christ at all, but they are all nothing more than New Testament golden calves which cannot hear, cannot speak, and cannot save. The gospel message is not only superior to all other spiritual messages, it is exclusively superior. All other messages regardless of how intellectual, how compassionate, how inclusive, or how melodic to the soul are nothing more than imposters and counterfeits that sing as the sirens of darkness.

The colossal nature of the gospel is contained in its childlike simplicity. The august brilliance of Christ’s gospel is the love that constrained Him to bow an immeasurable distance in order to rescue those who were His very enemies. That is the unfathomable depth of the simplicity that is found in Christ. Ungilded and unvarnished, the gospel message contains the redemptive power of the Creator. To add frills is to openly deny its completeness, and like sweet poison it is palatable to the flesh but death to all who partake.

Never be ashamed of the simple gospel. Never be ashamed of Bethlehem’s stable, or the dust of Nazareth, or the submission of Jordan’s baptism. Do not be ashamed of the rejection of His countrymen, or the denial of His own disciples, or the heartbreak of Gethsemane, or the chains of wicked men. Embrace the shame of the mocking of Herod, and the washing of Pilate’s hands, and the call for His murder. Wear the badge of His scourging, present your face and receive the spittle that dripped down His face, let His thorns wound your own head, and after you have clutched them all to your own bosom, privately and publicly, there is but one last thing you must do.

Espouse the cross.

Do not just identify with it doctrinally or emotionally.

Seek it, desire it, and die.

Spiritual Pedophiles

Spiritual Pedophiles

I Cor.3:1-3 - And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat, for hitherto you were not able to bear it, neither yet now are you able. For you are yet carnal.

The vast majority of evangelical church goers must be classified as babes in Christ. With little if any meat being taught in the average activity laden local assembly, topped off by a Sunday morning thespian extravaganza complete with entertaining special effects, the average Christian has no real opportunity to grow. Now only God knows who has been born again and belong to Him, but suffice to say most of those who are saved are babies in Christ. Like a giant spiritual daycare center the "leadership" plans many activities to keep the attention of these little ones because, as in the natural, their attention span is very short and they demand constant attention and entertainment. Like jingling keys in front of infants these baby believers are carnal and need a constant diet of special singers, special speakers, special days, special videos, special programs, special themes, special offerings, and all sorts of attention grabbers. So as the high priced chaperones sit in the ecclesiastical park and watch the babies play on the various swings, jungle gyms, and see saws as provided by these hirelings and paid for by the babies' own money, along comes some familiar strangers to the "park".

Now these strangers are very friendly and sociable and they readily make friends with the overseers. With promises to the daycare heads of unlimited growth, and with that increased income, the trained workers have made a treacherous alliance with these strangers. These strangers embrace an attractive policy that has been around since Eden's sanctuary and they express an outward love and affection for these babies. They don't have to secretly climb an unguarded section of the playground fence, no, they walk right through the main gate held open by the ones that have been entrusted to care for the spiritual well being of these little ones. Oh these strangers are particularly subtle and creative, they can't be recognized as Mormons, Jehovah's Witness, or other well known strangers that would have never been allowed into the playground. No, they wear a bright badge of "evangelical" and without any screening they pass right through as invited guests.

Now once inside these "guests" unfurl a vast array of bright trinkets that quickly draw enormous crowds of unsuspecting babies. With spiritual candy they entice the carnal youngsters, and soon they have made friends and followers that throw away their milk in favor of this new and effervescent, spiritual elixir that seems to satisfy what their flesh has been craving. Oh how wonderful are these new "evangelicals"! But as everyone seems to be having a great time they keep hearing cries from outside their playground.

"after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock"

"even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies"

"And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables"

"Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness"

"For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ"

"and through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you"

"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith..."

But as they heard these warnings the strangers assured them that these words came from men of old and outdated minds so pay no attention. They just want to spoil our party, the men told them, and of course they believed them. As they gained a deeper trust from these babies these men began to be embolden in their approach. The babies had been taught that Jesus had built this playground alone, but these new "evangelicals" informed them that Jesus is known by many names. Allah, Moses, Buddha, Mary, and really any other name can be used as a synonym for Jesus, it's all the same person. They changed the curriculum, redefined terms, made the Bible an elective, and rearranged the entire approach to everything. And most disturbing of all these new teachers removed what little Biblical clothing these babies had, and then behind closed doors of deception, they spiritually raped these carnal youngsters with such skill and adeptness that it was pleasurable. Yes, these monsters were spiritual pedophiles whose mission was spiritual rape all along, and now they have impregnated new generations with deeper and more profound deceptions that promise to draw larger and more captivated crowds.

One day we will stand before the Great White Throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. On that day we will witness throngs that once played in these new evangelical playgrounds who responded to all the various messages that had departed from the only message that saves as taught clearly in the Word of God. Millions upon millions of unsuspecting earth dwellers that had been assured of their eternal destiny, are now discovering they were spiritually molested and raped by the father of lies and his emissaries. They are lost forever in the second death. Please don't let the shocking metaphor obscure the central truth I am humbly but forcefully trying to present. All the new purpose, seeker, and emergent movements and all their tributaries, no matter how genuine their authors are, are part of the end time destruction of the Truth. Spiritual pedophiles that prey on baby Christians whose Spiritual overseers themselves have been deceived into being joyfully complicit and reimbursed with fame, success, numbers, accolades, and most of all money.

A colossal tragedy of immeasurable proportions.

But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived, But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

Oh the heartbreaking tragedy! The greater evangelical church continues to be molested by the lusts of men and the lies of demonic forces. It is much worse than any of us can imagine and it extends to every corner of the evangelical community. If you really desire to see the spiritual depth of the evangelical world become a fly on the wall at their homes and see prayerless and wordless and careless lives. Listen as they gossip and complain and exhibit all kinds of hedonism. And they really love their church but they just don’t love Jesus because they have completely lost sight of who Jesus is. The end surely is near but the people rise up to play.

The Narcotic of Preaching

The Narcotic of Preaching

Ti.1:3 - But God has in due times manifested His Word through preaching...
Ti.1:7 - For a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God, not self-willed...
To all of you who have never preached to a group of people who have come to hear and for the most part affirm what you say, I am going to slide the curtain back ever so gently. To speak to people in a convincing way can be somewhat of a self energizing experience, but when you portend to speak for God it goes to a much higher level. When the Word of God is preached through a humble, prayer filled, and anointed servant of the Most High God, it is a glorious and mysterious ministry of the Spirit that redounds to the glory of the Almighty. To fully reveal the sacred and accountable honor given to a called human being to handle the unchangeable Word is impossible. It may sometimes be to only a hand full of listeners, and it may sometimes deal with somewhat practical issues, and it may sometimes seem mundane and redundant, but it is still the most important event that will happen on planet earth.

When the Congress of the United States of America meets to decide whether to go to war or not, that is important. But that can never compare with a faithful man with a tattered suit, fresh from the presence of God and filled with the precious Holy Spirit, who stands to proclaim God's Holy Word to five little AIDS infected African children. The importance in the heavenlies of any man called and in obedience preaching the eternal Word is paramount, regardless of the number of listeners. I am convinced that if a preacher was shipwrecked on an island, and every Sunday morning for two years he rose and preached to himself and the ocean, that the audience of heaven would be listening and God Himself would receive glory from this faithful prophet of God, isolated in the earth but surrounded by a cloud of invisible witnesses.

God is His Word and the Word is God. Go ahead and try and capture that with human words and thoughts and we do nothing but detract and confuse the eternal mystery. A loving, redeeming, caring, sovereign, and glorious mystery, but a mystery none the less. And the oxy-moron is that the more of the mysterious essence of God's Word we perceive, the more of the Word we understand. The breath of God Himself inhabits His Word and while it is the fine china of Christ's body on earth so many today are making it the paper plates and plastic forks of man. To exhale and speak God's Word to eternal souls is the most sacred and trembling responsibility any man can claim. It is the finite proclaiming the infinite; the sinful proclaiming the Holy; the partial truth proclaiming the whole Truth. You see what I mean? Where can I find the words that can fully unfold the gracious and powerful calling of preaching God's Word? My words are poor carriers to your minds, only the Spirit of God who wrote His Words can make them alive in your spirit.

But within this calling lurks a loathsome and hideous temptation that all preachers have sometimes succumbed to unknowingly and knowingly. The chameleon like characteristic of our flesh adapts over time to appear religious and can subtly inject into us a feeling of invincible authority and unassailable justness of what we say and, yes, even who we are. There is a spiritual endorphin rush that can accompany a man preaching to a group of listeners with an acceptance that he speaks for God, and the format can easily lift up a man while even repeating Biblical verses. And when the number of listeners grow, the man can systematically add his words and ideas to the very Words of God and then they become impure and he becomes lifted up in his own eyes and in the eyes of his followers. And if it goes unchecked by Spiritual repentance and humility, the preacher starts to become addicted to the sound of his own voice and the acclamation of his people. What began as a God exalting ministry of heralding the Word of Almighty God, becomes a self aggrandizing exercise in human manipulation and the returning feeling of prideful power he receives from his agreeing listeners. None of that is of God.

What are the warning signs of this transformation? When a preacher speaks carelessly and publicly about any and all subjects, that man has himself as an idol. When men speak openly about their sex lives and give advice for men and women, he is carnal and probably has some type of imagery addiction as well as desecrating God's Word and his calling. When you hear or read a message on humility from a preacher and it seems so incongruous to the atmosphere of his overall teaching, that is a warning sign. If a preacher never weeps, his heart may be cold. When there is always an upbeat quality to a man's messages, that man is entertaining not preaching. If a preacher allows himself to become rich, he is compromised. When a preacher speaks the truth of God's Word but he is puffed up and prideful, he has been seduced by his own voice and personality. There are many more signs that only the Holy Spirit can make application to each individual man. And many times I have taken pride in an article I have offered here, disgustingly assuming that I came up with the thoughts and words, when it is all the Spirit and none of me if it is truth. And if any are not truth, let them burn on the trash heap of all the other works that were of me.

Humility to us preachers is very elusive, and many times we claim it because we know we should but not in the uncomfortable and stinging reality that obviously crucifies our flesh and makes us the off scouring of the earth. Attend a Bible conference and listen as each preacher is introduced as if he was Gabriel himself. If you hear of a conference which will have no fancy advertisement, no registration fee, no four star accommodations, no tapes or albums sold, no list of coming preachers, no frilly introductions, no workshops, and suggests three days of fasting for all who come, let me know. Boldness and humility are two siblings birthed by the same Father of Spirits, but I confess I have yet to concoct the right mixture, and if I thought I had, that would probably be a good sign I hadn't. I believe we need a revival of contrition and brokenness, led by preachers. This bellicose and caustic rhetoric that flows from blogs, pulpits, books, and on television needs a strong dose of "physician heal thyself". That doesn't mean that God will not speak a strong Word through someone, he often does and especially in these days. But where are the strong words about us? Forget about the usual and deserving whipping boys, what about us? Are we so humble and bowed before our Maker, and are we so sensitive to our own flesh, and are we so addicted to the presence of God in our prayer closets that we don't need a Word of repentance from God? We think way too much of ourselves, and when a man thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. So what does that tell you? We have tens of thousands of deceived preachers speaking their own words which they substantiate by wresting God's Word. And we have lost the definition of humility long ago, not to mention the lifestyle and example of it. Oh we can teach humility and brokenness, but who actually lives it, and the preaching ministry has long ago adapted those terms to mean what they say they mean, not what God says they mean and certainly not what the earthly life of the Lord Jesus revealed. The mirror of God's Word has become a looking glass to others, and oftentimes the branch filled eyes seem articulate about the speck filled eyes of others.

This call is to all of us.

Let us not live on the narcotic of our own preaching and creeds, however Biblical. Let us humble ourselves and pray, and turn from our wicked ways, and let us seek the very face of God Himself. And let us reject the satisfaction of anything in this world and follow hard for the Living Water of the presence of God. And if you truly enter the very presence of Jesus Christ, you will be humbled and broken. If you are not, it wasn't Him.