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I have spoken on this topic quite a bit. Yet as I prayed today, this same burden is present. It appears to me that the history of the Christian Church for the most part consists of well meaning Christians working diligently at what they believe to be God’s will. They are attempting to build the Kingdom of God. But far too often, I believe, these builders do not wait until they hear from Christ.

(3/22/2009) As I read through the Old Testament I notice the attention that is paid to detail. For example, in the seventh chapter of the Book of Numbers we find the leaders of Israel bringing offerings for the dedication of the Altar of Burnt Offering. It might have been sufficient to give the total, as set forth toward the end of the chapter. Instead each of the twelve leaders and his offering is listed, even though the offerings were identical. This is just one example of the multitude of details provided in many chapter of the Old Testament.

As far as I know, we do not find any such attention to God-given details in the work of the Gospel in our day. It appears to be left up to human beings to fill in the details, and sometimes to plan the whole program.

In short, most of the time we are not hearing from Christ. Yet, Christ said He would be the One to build His Church

I notice that today in America there are references in the media to various aspects of religion. One recent magazine mentioned the return to a neo-Calvinism. Right here is the problem. The living Jesus is ignored. We have people commenting on what other people are doing. It is a useless exercise in ignorance.

What is Jesus saying today in America? Is He saying that our government is in confusion because of the sins of the American people? Is He saying if all the Christians will repent He will straighten out the government and the economy? Is He saying we should keep our hands off in the hope that things will get so bad that church people will turn to God in large numbers?

We don’t always know what Christ is saying. We often are guessing. If I am hearing the Lord correctly He is saying that a major reason for the deterioration of the strength of America is the practice of abortion-on demand.
Is He telling me to try to stop the national abortions? I don’t think so, although I certainly would be in favour of that.

What then is He saying to me? He is telling me to preach that the Christians in America need to get as close to Jesus as they can, confessing and renouncing their own sins as the Spirit of God points them out. Why are they to do this? They are to prepare themselves and their loved ones for the severity of the Divine judgment that is beginning to be experienced in America. America has left God, and now God is leaving America. To paraphrase C. S. Lewis, "America has asked for Tash, and now Tash has come."

The need today is for God’s people to confess their sins. This is the spiritual fulfilment of the Jewish Day of Atonement. It is judgment on God’s people, the reconciling of them to God. The Day of Atonement follows the feast of Pentecost.

We must press on through the Day of Atonement until we come to the spiritual fulfilment of the feast of Tabernacle. To experience the fulfilment of the feast of Tabernacles is to live by the Life of the Lord Jesus, and God in Him.
The Christian religion is not intended to be an end in itself. Its purpose is to bring us to the living Lord Jesus, not to the Lord Jesus of history, but to the Lord Jesus who is here now, waiting for us to look to Him.

You know, it must be terribly disappointing for the Lord to keep showing His love to us, and then have us ignore Him while we engage in the practices of our religion. What is it going to take for us to open the door of our personality and dine with Him on His body and blood?

He is here waiting, in the days of Laodicea (the rights of people). He is knocking at the door of each Christian personality. Who among us will cease talking about the Lord and busying ourselves with our religious practices, and look to Him for every decision, every aspect of our life?

Should we do this? Should we do that? What is the answer to this? What is the answer to that? How often do we go to the Lord with our decisions and questions and receive His directions, instead of trying to work things out for ourselves?
I have been a disciple of the Lord for over sixty years. I have come to some conclusions about life and people. One of the major conclusions is that mankind is bent on living apart from God. This is almost as true for Christians (and the members of other religions) as it is for the people of the world who have little or no interest in religion.

We just do not want God interfering in our life! Think about it.

Today’s motivations behind the emphasis on the doctrine of evolution is to eliminate God from human thinking. The idea that civilization as we know it evolved without the application of a Divine intelligence defies a thoughtful appraisal of that our eyes and our intelligence insist on. The doctrine (which has become dogma in American public education )of evolution is ridiculous on the face of it.

But it makes it possible for people to live their lives apart from Christ.
I was not raised in a Christian home. I became a Christian at the age of eighteen, and was supernaturally called to the ministry a year later.
When I first became a Christian I determined to find out if there was anything to it. Kind of, "If it works I will continue with it." That was more than half a century ago.

I am reasonably well educated, holding the degree of Doctor of Education from the University of Rochester in New York. The conclusions I have reached about life and people are without bias, I think. I really have nothing to prove. I would leave the ministry in a minute if I discovered that I have been misled all these years. I am more interested in truth, and especially as I near the end of my life.

What I have found by experience is this: God is good. God will bring us to eternal love, joy, and peace if we will do what He says. He has the power to do this with any person who decides to trust Him. I have seen also that the results of ignoring God and choosing our own way are hatred, misery, and unrest, for the most part.

The state of America today is an excellent example of people trying to live in the world apart from the Presence and will of God.

The end of salvation, however, is more than acquiring love, joy, and peace. It is to become an integral part of God through Jesus Christ. This is the "rest," emphasized in the Book of Hebrews. It is the union with God and other people through Christ described in the seventeenth chapter of the Gospel of John.
It is Christ’s desire that we seek Him until we are thinking His thoughts; speaking His words; and performing His actions. This is how He lives with respect to His Father. This is why He could say, "He who has seen me has seen the Father."

Since the time of the Reformation the Christian Church has been making its way back to the revelation given to the Apostles of the first century. "The righteous shall live by faith" leads ultimately to our becoming an integral part of God’s Person through the Lord Jesus. The path from the Reformers to the fullness of God has been marked by violent, bitter persecution. This is because the religious establishment is threatened when people turn away from the institution and look to the Lord Jesus, as was true of the Pharisees.

I think in the last days the religions of the world will become one. The Book of Revelation refers to this man-made attempt to reach Heaven as "Babylon." Babylon, the self-driven religious system, shall compete with the Antichrist self-driven political system until finally the Antichrist system will "eat her flesh and burn her with fire."

While this is going on, the Spirit of God will bring Divine Glory to the true saints, to those who live by the Life of Jesus. They shall become one in Christ in God. When this takes place, Christ will return and bring this army of saints up to Himself in the air. Then He shall return with them and establish His Kingdom on the earth.

For each one of us, our future welfare depends on our seeking Christ continually until we are living by His Life at all times, in every situation. By so doing we will be able to stand during the coming fiery judgment on America, and help others to stand.

Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. (John 6:57)



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