A Matter of Wine Skins...

We all want a lot! The problem has become that no one wants to work for anything anymore! We have become such an entitlement oriented society! A bunch of exceedingly spoiled, demanding, petulant brats! Who really believe that we deserve freedom and prosperity that we are not willing to work for!!!

We have lost sight of the harsh reality that nothing of significance was ever built in a day! Not Rome! Not any empire! Not any Character or any Business! Nothing!

And that, furthermore, nothing was built without a lot of hard work and sacrifice on someone's part! So why do we, even as “Christian” people, seem to think otherwise? We must have come to another conclusion to get so bloody despondent when our petitions are not immediately answered, and our dreams do not appear in magical, Disney-like, micro-wave timing!?

This dissociation of fact and fantasy is indicative of a thought pattern that is pathologically illogical. However, it is unfortunately not unthinkable! It has, in fact, become the pattern of American thought – even in Christianity. Too many dream the impossible dream – only to die with its apparent demise! The cause of death, of which dream, being a lack of work! The absence of Effort! Missing Action! Doing nothing = getting nothing! But for some reason we utterly, stubbornly, refuse to grasp this reality!

That is why, to be such a large constituency, called the “Evangelical Majority”, we have had the least cultural effect on society - of all people groups alive! That is why - despite the millions of dollars spent; as well as the almost ceaseless activity within the individual “hives” of the religious/spiritual, Judeo-Christian oriented “communities” in this nation – we have epically failed to influence this nation's culture or world view toward the Kingdom of God! At all!

We have – instead – tragically - driven them in rampaging droves straight into the waiting snares of the world, the flesh and the devil! Our nation is, by and large, going to a very real hell in a proverbial Church woven hand-basket! This conveyance having been primarily fashioned of religious falsehood, tedious ritual, and blatant idolatry – a twisted trinity of sub-par religiosity and gross profanity, which has been nonetheless presented in the Name of all that is Holy!

This hypocrisy, from the religious systems in this nation, has left large holes from rusting ineffective religious intellectualism - in this proud vessel – which once stalwart government – like the owners of the Titanic – have been foolish enough to invoke God's name, and provoke His anger with a mocking challenge of His Authority! We have – in actuality – challenged God and invoked His judgment upon this place – and then WE want to blame the “Gender Confused”, or the Homosexual community?! Or the Planned Parenthood people?! Lame.

God's Word is very clear – as I have been faithful to the point of redundancy to point out – that Judgment comes first, and most pointedly, to the house of God! And it is HIS people that are currently being jerked up, as it were, by the nap of their overly indulged necks, concerning the state of this nation! As I have said, It is NOT the folks that have come out of the closets that have aroused His ire! It is the people loudly brandishing His name who are protecting their own sin in the closets of religious pride and hypocrisy that have brought this destruction – of which “gender confusion”, abortion and other abominations are merely, entirely curable - though potentially deadly, symptoms!

So what is the answer!? An old, cherished Hymn sums it up perfectly - “Work! For the night is coming!”

When Jerusalem was in shambles – one of the first times that destruction due to rebellion happened – and Nehemiah was called of the Spirit to beseech the King of that time on its behalf – did they resurrect her from her ashes in a night? A week? A couple of months?

No. The answer is no. They were diligent, wise and courageous for as long as it took! They handled their immense challenge with alacrity, zeal and enthusiasm! They took on their enemies with quiet, unshakable determination. They worked with the sword in one hand and the trowel in the other! They dispatched the garbage and destruction, while rebuilding the devastated walls – readily and steadily and relentlessly.

There are several areas of responsibility that we have forfeit – due to our complete misunderstanding of the American Dream. And in forfeiting those areas of responsibility we've allowed our power to be usurped by, in fact, we readily gave it away to, those who've claimed to be “experts” in those areas! Instead of trusting God to make US the experts we needed to be!

I am saying “we”, because in some areas we have all fallen prey to this design of the enemy. And none of us have, as yet, overcome in all of these areas , and regained our lost Authority/Responsibility. We, as Americans have completely lost sight of the unalterable Truth that Responsibility and Authority/Power are – or should be - inseparably entwined! The Church has long attempted to separate them – giving all authority to the men, and all responsibility to the women! And then accusing women of having a Jezebel Spirit, when the responsibility which THEY gave us produced a greater Authority in US than THEY carried! What a bunch of ignoramuses!

We – as a whole - have sought to avoid responsibility, have shucked our health care off on the medical system, the discipleship of ourselves and our children off on the religious systems, and the education of ourselves and our children off on the educational systems! And then, we have the unmitigated gall to grouse about, and lead a bunch of rebel-rousers to protest, our loss of power and authority! We have fallen prey to the illogical ideologies that would suggest to us that we can have “rights” and “freedoms” without exercising our privilege to make responsible decisions, and to follow them up with corresponding behavior patterns!

We are, at the moment, therefore, quite insane and illogical on many fronts! One has only to take in a days worth of “News” to confirm that unfortunate reality! But that is because sanity – moral strength and direction – Right & Wrong – and any other real standard must have a foundation on which to stand, and an origin from which to proceed! Like the dollar must have at its foundation a reserve of Gold to give it solid worth – so must our standards have something more solid than mere, wildly vacillating, social ideology to support it! And that foundation is the Word of the Living God! All other standards emanate from mere men, and change course with any strong wind! We can not expect to build anything on the ever shifting sands of popular opinion! Especially from a people who no longer know to what gender, age or ethnic group they belong! The world has lost its moorings and have gone utterly mad!

Those of us who were responsible for upholding that standard – those who call ourselves “The Church” - have pitifully failed in homes, pulpits – and then – by mere necessity – in our communities, States and National government – to uphold any standard of righteousness! Divorce is as high in our communities as it is in the world. Unfaithfulness abounds! What right, therefore, do we have to judge any other sexual act as inappropriate?! What standard are we using? We have allowed THE standard to be warped, marred and watered down until it is unrecognizable!

It has been humorously noted, not too unrealistically I think, that if there are Four Rabbis present in a discussion there will be Five opinions! I extrapolate on that idea to state - that if there are Four Christians present in a discussion it is likely to quickly heat up to an international incident! We can not seem to reach an agreement on anything! And since “Agreement” is what brings the aid of the Anointed ONE – then it should not be too surprising that Anointing – necessary to break yokes, set captives free, loose people from sin, and heal the sick – is sadly lacking among us!

The term which currently defines the “Church” most aptly at the moment is “Division”! We rarely agree on anything – and yet we expect the world to listen to anything we have to say! ? Why would they - when we can't amiably listen to each other? When we can't even disagree with any level of decency and maturity?! The world is tired to the bone of our squabbling hypocrisy!

So – when it comes to our current political situation - that is the main reason that I say “Bah! Humbug” on the likes of the squeaky clean evangelical “Right wing” choices! And that is why I continually restate my position that – if that Wretched hive of white-washed hypocrisy could have won the day we would never have gotten here! It has FAILED! So it either needs to be completely revisited, renovated and reintroduced with some power/anointing and responsibility attached – OR – it needs to be shelved – so that something real can emerge in its place!

I personally think that this is the day of new wine-skins! The old one is definitely cracked and coming apart at the seams! It isn't going to hold anything worthwhile! It has been leaking and wreaking vinegar for years!!!! Get that mess out of here!!!

Perhaps this underground, micro-church movement – which is rumbling just beneath the Seven Mountain movement – is the new wine-skin coming into existence? Perhaps it will be ushered in by a Philistine?! Who knows? The King to which Nehemiah presented his plan to restore Jerusalem was not exactly God's Man for the Hour! Not by Jewish standards and realities! He was their captor!

And yet – he was moved on by God to sponsor their return to their land, and to fund the rebuilding of their temple! We dare not try to use former paradigms to “discern the times” people! We need a fresh wind of the Ruach blowing! We need a fresh grace of Teshuvah to cleanse out the rubble of our failed religious attempts at creating a righteous nation.

Just as happened in Israel in that time of history in which Nehemiah became a reconstructive entity – so it is here – God has judged us, allowed the enemy to smash us, and NOW – because of the faithful teshuvah of many of His people - may be considering raising up a”king” who would allow us to rebuild? The question is whether we will have the sense to join His renovation efforts or if we will stubbornly cling to our past religious comfort zones until destruction is inevitable! If we want new wine, then we'd better become flexible enough to contain it. Our ways won't accommodate HIS plans!

We need to pray, fast, praise, and seek God – until we know who HE wants to put in this office for “such a time as this”! The season of Jubilee is here – which crops do we want to reap!? Jubilee is a time that multiplies whatever is sown – for good OR evil! That fact alone is enough to make me hit my face in repentance for stuff I didn't even personally do! Also, coincidentally or not, the season of Purim is upon us! The time when the Jewish people, and those who love Israel, celebrate one of Israel's greatest victories over the forces of evil antisemitic Israel-haters of that day! May God grant us victory over our many enemies – insidiously distributed among us, though they may be!

But this social fabric won't be rebuilt in a day people. It is time to get to work! Work SIX days – rest ONE! That is the order of things. If we want back our rights and power, then we'd best be taking back our responsibility from the “experts”, and let them find a way to make an honest living for a change! New wine will never come from those annoying Kudzu vines...however fast they may grow...

Selah!

Comments

[obat diabetes]

Thankfulness post helped remind me of my ability to evaluate while others do not take advantage of this gift