inoculated 2

Ok, so this preacher is killing me. Not literally, but REALLY making me think. (love that, by the way. I want my thinking challenged not placated.)

So, not 10 min later in the same sermon where inoculated thoughts got stirred, he begins talking about an old preacher named Barnhouse. He was a pioneer in radio preaching in his day. In one of his sermons, he asked the question, “what would America look like if the devil took over?”
His answer was that there would be no swearing, all the children would say yes mam and no sir, all the bars would close, pornography would be banished and the churches would be full every Sunday where Christ IS NOT preached.
What is scary about that is that most of us would be satisfied if our lives and cities looked just like this. Jesus or no Jesus we just want to be safe. Jesus or no Jesus, we just want our kids to turn out okay. Jesus or no Jesus we want our marriages to be easy. Jesus or no Jesus we want our churches full. Is it really about wanting Jesus or wanting life to be what we want?
For wanting Jesus does not include safe, okay, easy or full churches.

Though we would never say it out loud, most of us would say we are more concerned with our kids turning out okay, our marriages being simple, our churches being full and the bars being closed, than we are with Jesus. So a world in which the devil has taken over is simply a world where we can have what we want, but without Jesus. The question remains, is that really what we want? Do we really want what we WANT, regardless of whether we get Jesus or not? Or do we want Jesus regardless?

Wow, this has sparked conviction in my own heart. Are we willing to give up Jesus so that our marriages will be easy and our children okay and our churches full? Wouldn’t that be the way the enemy works? To gain the whole world, but forfeit our soul? We can have the easy life, but without Jesus? It would be like entering the Promised land without God.
Isn’t that what God told Moses? You can go in, but without me. And Moses’ response was what good is a promised land without you. If you don’t go, we don’t go!

Wouldn’t it be just like the enemy to convince us that we know better and can achieve better without God. Wasn’t that what happened in the garden with Eve? Are we not just as deceived?
Is our concern that people, family, friends and ourselves GET JESUS and LIVE JESUS and LOVE JESUS-or that Jesus or no Jesus life happens the way we want?

Isn’t the enemies goal to merely convince us that this life is better than all that Jesus could offer us? To make us love the world and forfeit our soul? To convince us to live for now instead of eternity? To cause us to want the creature comforts of this world over the lovingkindness of a Savior? To get us to a place where Jesus or no Jesus it is all about achieving life as we want it?

What if the goal is to just get us NOT to preach or teach Christ. To not make Him first and only? What if the enemies goal is not to make us wicked as we so often think, but to make us separated from Jesus? What if the enemies goal is to slyly and deceptively cause us to love the good things of this life and to cling to them, so that we don’t even care if Jesus is in them or not?

What if the enemy let life be SO good, so that we don’t care if Jesus is a part of it or not? What if we began to understand that following Jesus is a life of suffering, persecution and hardship, while NOT following is easy, safe and comfortable?
Oh wait…that is what the enemy is doing. Man…
Just thinking…
ALL FOR YOU