LUKEWARM CHRISTIAN

 

The winter of 1777–1778 was bitterly cold, and the success of American independence looked impossible.  Washington’s men were so poorly dressed that some of them froze to death. When he moved the troops, you could see trails of blood left in the snow from those who marched without shoes.

Contrary to the picture most people have of the Revolutionary War, Americans were split right down the middle about whether or not they should be fighting for their freedom from Britain. Many locals would not aid General Washington when he asked for their help, and he had to constantly beg the Continental Congress for money and supplies.

In one instance, some of Washington’s soldiers braved a blizzard and walked for miles to beg a farmer to sell them some of his crops, in order to prevent the army from starving. The farmer refused. He told them the British were willing to pay double what the American soldiers could offer.

I see no difference between those farmers and today’s lukewarm Christians.  I see no difference between today’s compromised preachers and those who would turn away freedom fighters in a snowstorm.

Lukewarm Christian singers and ‘influencers’ refuse to take stands against immorality and perversion because the world rewards them with accolades. “My, what a ‘woke’ Christian you are! You are so intelligent, tolerant, and inclusive.”

Lukewarm Christian, you have no idea the harm you are doing to America.

To be sure, the world rewards you for your silence and for your tacit acceptance of homosexuality. They will flatter you. BUT IT’S A TRAP.  How true were the words of Spurgeon when he said, “It is a very ill omen to hear a wicked world clap its hands and shout, “Well done” to the Christian man. He may begin to look to his character, and wonder whether he has not been doing wrong, when the unrighteous give him their approbation.” In plain words, Spurgeon is saying, “If the world likes you, there’s something wrong with you.”

Jesus said, “If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you. Remember that I told you, “A servant is not greater than his master.” If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you…” (John 15:19-20a)

If they hated Jesus, how will they not also hate you? And what on earth are you doing, thinking it is good to be liked by everyone?

It took guts, vision and foresight to oppose English tyranny. Many of the early colonists were simply willing to be dominated in exchange for the comforts of their oppressors.  In the same way, because the world rewards preachers with temporary success, they will abandon their brothers who are risking everything to expose the growing tide of evil in America.

Thomas Paine addressed the folly of those Americans who opened their homes to British soldiers in hopes of rewards after a British victory. He reminded them that those who easily surrendered their homes would be the most dominated if England won.

And what do you suppose you’ll gain, oh lukewarm Christian, by being a friend to leftists? Your reward will be to have the most controlled home in the neighborhood.

This is no time to be silent! It is a time to rage against the dying of the Light! Each day that you remain silent is one day closer to a hellish world for your children and grandchildren.

The Left has not held back a single item in their agenda to remake America. They mean it when they say that our freedoms must be removed in order for their brave new world to be born.

The pathetic heresy sweeping America known as the ‘Daddy-God’ myth that drives your lukewarmness is nowhere to be found in the Word of God. The sad truth is that the Laodicean rebuke is more fitting for America’s modern materialistic church:

14 “And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: 15 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. 17 Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— 18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. 19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.”

It all comes down to this: Jesus is trying to get back inside His church in America.  The next verse confirms it:   20 “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”

America is not yet irretrievably lost, but it will not be won by the tepid crop of make-believers that shuttle in and out of our churches. The knock on the door is Jesus.  He wants to talk about your training, over dinner—your golden transformation from tepid faith to fire and glory. He means to make you into Satan’s worst nightmare.

Those shivering freedom fighters at Valley Forge had no idea that a miracle was coming in the Spring that would transform rag tag troops into immortals. Neither can you imagine the mighty army that the Holy Spirit is training, equipping, and empowering to transform America.  Will you join us?

 

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My greatest shock

It is the greatest shock of my life that the American church has remained dormant. What atrocity must the Democrat Party commit before the American Church rises in appropriate outrage and rises to do her duty? By now, any other generation of Christians would be galvanized and unified in holy outrage.  Any other generation of preachers would be thundering from pulpits shaking drowsy believers awake.

The Democrats have rabies—and their bite will destroy our nation. Don’t believe me?  Take a look at what they did just today.

–Today Democrats have shifted from legal immigration to open defiance of Federal Law. It was brewing, but now it is being finalized. They do not want to fix immigration, and are determined to break the law.

Jonathan S. Tobin reports:

“But it is quite another for Democratic leadership to declare, with near unanimity, as is the case with the party’s presidential candidates, that they wish to decriminalize entering the country without permission and to grant those who do so government-paid health care. The same goes with states now offering paid college tuition and driver’s licenses to people who crossed into the country illegally.

“Such positions are a neon “welcome” sign on the border that tells those who want to come here without following the rules that there will be no negative consequences for doing so. While liberals say Trump’s claim that they support “open borders” is a lie, there’s no other way to describe the net effects of such policies. Democrats now support treating entering the country illegally as the moral equivalent of jaywalking or spitting on the sidewalk.”

When will you see that we are being invaded? Our way of life, our faith, our very existence.

-Today Democrats voted to impeach President Trump.  They have zero grounds to impeach Trump and are doing it simply out of hatred for the man. This is rogue government, pure and simple. The fact that the vote failed does not change the outrage of how vulgar and out of control the Democrat House is.

-Today Elizabeth Warren hired a pro Hamas Aide to cement her hatred of Israel. “Adam Kredo at the Washington Free Beacon reported that Warren recently hired anti-Israel radical Max Berger, who helped to found the IfNotNow organization, a group that has devoted itself to damaging Israel’s reputation in America under the guise of seeking an end to Israel’s “occupation” of Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem.

“In doing so, IfNotNow routinely ignores Palestinian terrorism against Jews, promotes the “scholarship” of noted terrorist spokespersons, and even harasses young Jews attending Birthright trips.”

https://thefederalist.com/2019/07/17/hiring-pro-hamas-aide-completes-elizabeth-warrens-anti-israel-pivot/

Today, the Democrats declared that anyone who disagrees with them is a racist.

That’s just today.

You already know that they support banning the Bible, Christian T-Shirts, prayer, and sermons they deem homophobic or Islamophobic.  They believe in killing babies even after they are born. They are in lockstep with Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Google, and Twitter to control information and blackout any content that supports Trump’s reelection.

Not only this, but there is also their concerted attack on the Founding Fathers, which is their pretext for altering the American Constitution and decertifying the Declaration of Independence.  The absolute worst mixture is ignorance with arrogance. Democrats are held hostage by voices that at any other time in history would be silenced in a heartbeat.

All of this begs several very big questions:

How can the church still be silent?

How is it possible that some pastors will still advise their people to vote for Democrat candidates?

If our faith is not about stopping this, then what is it for?

Why are some still teaching a tired falsehood—the lie that Jesus doesn’t want us to choose sides in such a blatant case of good versus evil? 

And the last question: What is the American Church waiting for?

 

American Christians do not know their duty because they do not know the Bible.  Of course Satan planned it this way. While he was moving the Democrat Party to the extreme left, he was moving the church toward marshmallow faith.

Democrats are not a political party anymore—they are a criminal enterprise that is mobilizing to remove your rights, ban Christianity, and legislate immorality.

Tragically, many modern American Christians have proven that they can stomach the vileness. This is especially sad, because that seems to be the only real strength they have—a tolerance for immorality. And do the preachers of this era have any inkling of how history will judge their deafening silence?

Democrats will create chaos and tyranny. Ignoring this will condemn your children and grandchildren to live in a world that is too horrible to describe. Worst of all, you won’t be there for them.  Maybe you don’t feel great outrage over what you consider a ‘secular’ subject, such as politics…but dear God, what will become of your children?

Nehemiah exhorts us from across the ages: Nehemiah 4:14, “And I looked, and arose and said to the nobles, to the leaders, and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, great and awesome, and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses.””

It is at this point that I wish to offer you some comfort.  You may remember in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, when Scrooge is terrified when confronted by the ghost of his former partner, Jacob Marley, in the dank, dark bedroom of Scrooge’s London home.

Cowering in fear, Scrooge cries out, “Jacob! Old Jacob Marley, tell me more! Speak comfort to me, Jacob!” With that the ghost candidly replies, “I have none to give. Such comfort comes from other regions, Ebenezer Scrooge, and is conveyed by other ministers, to other kinds of men.”

I reach deep down inside, and struggle to find what words of comfort I can offer—but I cannot lie—I cannot find any. Often, like Marley, I have no comfort to give.  The truth and comfort collide. I wonder.

I pray to God that the concept of “comfort conveyed by other ministers, to other kinds of men” does not apply to the American church. Is the lukewarm American church disqualified from the comfort and the moral awakening it must have, because those things belong to other kinds of preachers, who preached other kinds of sermons to other kinds of Christians?

Arise, church of God!  Take up the weapons of your warfare, and fight for your nation and your families— and fight the evil that threatens us all, in the Name of Jesus!

 

Still thinks its a game

The Democrats have made it plain: free healthcare for illegals paid for by you. They are not hiding anything. They want the right to kill newborns. They will force the church to stop teaching God’s word on sexual immorality. They will remake America. We see their true colors. They couldn’t be any clearer.

What I don’t get, is how the American church can still think this is all a game.

Because of man, and nature—planet Earth is ready to explode—not from global warming but from moral cooling.  Matthew 24:12 “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.”

Meanwhile, the church—like passengers partying on the deck of the Titanic—pats herself on the back for what she considers her ‘big events.’

Nothing has stopped America’s headlong depravity. Nothing has even slowed it down. We have spent more money, more time, and more talent than ever—yet the church never asks, “Why do we keep doing things that don’t work?” Why can’t we impact culture?”

When the church:           

-Feeds a powerless Gospel to a sick nation, a Gospel that does not deliver us from evil, but even worse, makes those who have already been converted still weaker, the church must think it is a game.

-When the church no longer views the works of Satan as the enemy, but believes the worst thing that can happen is to have an unsuccessful life—the church is just playing a game.  The only solution is a return to the Bible.  The Bible needs to set fire to our sermons.

Sadly, even many of my Spirit-filled acquaintances are also playing games.  Facebook is like a Petri dish for Pentecostals.  In one compressed medium you witness the banal bacteria that excite Charismatics today.

Witness the games:

-Titles like Prophet, Bishop, and Apostle are flung around indiscriminately.  Every garish emotional experience is hawked as being from God.  One “prophet” says he went back in time and visited Moses.  Who of us has not scratched our heads at preachers in ill-fitting jeans, live-streaming from a near-empty church, telling us that they are the ‘vessel of the hour’?

– Conferences promise that you will get “a word from God” if you pay a fee…as if the Holy Spirit was some kind of On Demand Movie Channel.  Or they offer formulas to “activate” blessings.  This is New Age philosophy.  God is not a force to be manipulated—He is an awesome person to be adored and obeyed.  God is not your shield and butler! Gifts arrive, as the Spirit wills, to those whose hearts are broken and those who are emptied of self. His gifts are for the lost, the poor, and the forsaken.

-Everything seems based on angelic visitations, dreams, visions, and trips to heaven.  Most of our time is spent on these ‘experiences’ rather than on rock-solid instruction from the Word of God.

I believe in dreams, prophecy, healing, angels, and visions—but if they are from God, they will drive us to the front line of the culture war, and not into emotionally comfortable safe-zones.

“The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty to the tearing down of strongholds.” (2 Corinthians 10:4)

We are nowhere near tearing down any kind of strongholds—because we think it’s a game. We insulate the supernatural from the ones who need it most. We are role playing. We are doing our own version of dungeons and dragons. 

Beloved, this is not a game.  When Christians toy with materialism, celebrity, alcohol, compromise, and carnality—it spells doom for America.   Right now, giant media sources such as Google, Facebook, Apple, YouTube, and the rest of Silicon Valley, are threatening to pull the plug on Christians, Christian Schools, and churches.  Pinterest has already been caught deleting posts containing scripture. Every day they inch closer to full censorship.  Will your zany videos matter, when they are immediately taken down and no one can see them?

Our preaching ricochets off a culture careening into indescribable debauchery.  Soon it will be illegal to preach the doctrines you are now ignoring.  What a horror!  Pastor, you will wake up one day feeling remorse over the truths you ignored, because now it’s too late—they have been banned.

I am often asked, “Mario is there any hope?”

The answer is, “Yes! Because my hope is founded on God’s fierce love for America!  He will not let this nation go, without a fierce fight.  My hope is also in some of the last people you would expect.

My hope is in the discouraged preacher.  They are the honest-to-God preachers, who feel like fools when they see the runaway success of those who have compromised their ministries.

Psalm 73:12 “Behold, these are the ungodly who are always at ease; they increase in riches. 13 Surely, I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence. 14 For all day long I have been plagued, and chastened every morning.”

My hope is in those who chose to fail honestly, rather than succeed artificially.

Are you struggling with decreasing numbers and falling finances, even as you present Christ-centered, Bible-based-truth from your pulpit?   God sees you! Hold on just a little longer.  Fire is coming that will cause such a stampede that you won’t know where to put the crowds.

My hope is in the Christian nobodies.  Have you failed?  Did man take away your pulpit?  Get ready…your brokenness is a key to the fire of God in this hour.  A nationwide hunger for reality is about to make shallowness obsolete.

Are you a teacher, business person, police officer, or stay at home mom?  Do you burn with a passion for your community?

Get ready for vision and anointing! They are about to break out, right where you live!

The hour is so dangerous that God must bring down religious empires, while promoting others to great power and influence.  Satan is also playing games.

I believe that God is not playing games. Using the last people we would expect, He is about to teach Satan what war really looks like!

 

THE TWO BIGGEST REASONS AMERICA IS SO MISERABLE

The two biggest reasons America is miserable

 

The Left told America to turn her back on God. Everyone who obeyed that disastrous advice inherited acute loneliness, emptiness, and despair.  Or do you really think it is a coincidence that these miseries have increased to the same degree that faith in God has decreased?

Intellectuals told America there are many pathways to the truth.  But, instead of enlightenment, it brought deeper darkness, deeper questions, and a growing inability to know truth. 2 Timothy 3: 7 says, “7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

Few Americans can make it through a day without alcohol, a toke of marijuana, a pill, powder, or a needle. Our children are taking their own lives over shoes, pictures on Instagram, and bullies at school. Is this what happens when you tell God to leave?

Just released by Gallup Poll: Americans are among the most stressed people in the world.  “Even as their economy roared, more Americans were stressed, angry and worried last year than they have been at most points during the past decade. Asked about their feelings the previous day, the majority of Americans (55%) in 2018 said they had experienced stress during a lot of the day, nearly half (45%) said they felt worried a lot and more than one in five (22%) said they felt anger a lot.”

Billy Graham’s daughter, was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her “How could God let something like this happen?” (regarding the attacks on Sept, 11, hurricanes and earthquakes). Anne Graham Lotz gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said “I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we’ve been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And, being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?”

The Left doesn’t want to own up to their responsibility for the misery of the inner cities that they have controlled for 50 years. The Left chants, “keep taking government money, and it will give you a future. Keep believing you are a victim, and you’ll stop being a victim.”

The Left says America is evil for not opening their borders. Wait. What?! America is the most welcoming nation on earth. The overwhelming majority of the people on earth believe in strong borders. Most nations have much stricter border policies. But the lie must live on because Democrats need new voters.

We are a nation at each other’s throats, and the Left loves it that way.  ‘Mobs, not jobs’ is a totally justified accusation against the left.

Above all, there are two things making America miserable: The Left has a firm grip on a lie and the church has a loose grip on the truth.

Celebrity Christian speakers add to America’s misery by delaying revival.  They distract by saying there are many ways to win a generation to God. We no longer need repentance, Bible preaching, or reliance on the Holy Spirit.

No matter what they boast, the fact remains, they didn’t win lost souls so much as they moved gullible Christians away from Godly pastors into the shallows. Instead of making disciples they provide quarter for those who want a faith without works.

They dread the power gifts of the Holy Spirit. They omit the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.  And so, our nation pays the price for their lukewarm faith.

America became miserable in part, because some preachers told us not to judge. We ended up not being able to discern! Millions of so-called Christians voted for abortion and same sex marriage. We were powerless in America’s hour of need—too disoriented and morally ambivalent to push back on immoral laws. The Great Commission was plowed under the priority of church growth.

Both the Left and the Lukewarm have this in common: They promised happiness, but instead brought misery.

Stuck in the middle between the radical Left and the lukewarm church are tens of millions of Americans who just want truth. They are paying taxes, raising kids, obeying laws, and they still love America. They are vulnerable to the raw power of the Gospel.

Also, stuck between the radical Left and the lukewarm church is the remnant of God. These are pastors, and regular Christians who are praying to go deeper. They are busy saying to each other, “the sideshow is not God, there’s more! No way can Satan win if we take our stand on the authority of the Cross!”

 

They are ready to deliver that raw power of the Gospel.

Woe unto you God haters and lukewarmers. Two radically wonderful groups are about to meet each other in the midst of this misery. God will see to it that the Americans who want deliverance and a life worth living will collide with the holy core of God, whose only wish is to obey the Holy Spirit.

A company of God’s people with a firm grip on the truth will loose many from the power of Satan. Daniel 11:32  “Those who do wickedly against the covenant he shall corrupt with flattery; but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.”

Let us rise up, shake off the lukewarmness, and decide to become the people God intended us to be!

 

 

CHRISTIANS WHO DON’T CARE

Millions now attending churches in America need a stern warning that their freedom to worship God will soon be gone. They need to know that the massive effort underway to make the Bible incompatible with “American values” will be followed by making our beliefs illegal.

Mayor Pete says he is gay and Christian – and anyone who disagrees has a quarrel with God. Chelsea Clinton says that abortion is Christian.  This is a new attack. You must understand, they don’t want to do away with church, they want to divorce Christians from the Bible.

The mayor, Chelsea, those who ban Chick-fil-A, just to name a few, do not admit the Bible is their target.  Not yet. They know that would backfire. But, the current trend will soon make it acceptable.

Before the next election, the Left will be forced to be openly anti-Bible.  Since Trump has made America stronger and more prosperous, they can’t defeat him unless they can create a false narrative about his “ties to Bible believing Christians.”

The Left is in a frenzy and they don’t really know why. They don’t know it, but Satan is using them like puppets. Satan needs to destroy America.   It’s his grand prize.  The need consumes him.  He fantasizes about it.  He pursues the destruction of the U.S. with extreme prejudice and unrelenting patience.

America is a firewall that prevents the one event Satan craves most: Global anarchy.    Internationally, he has fooled Marxists and Radical Islamists into craving chaos. Both of these groups believe civil order must be destroyed and then a new world will magically appear.  But Satan knows anarchy is the only thing that will make the world embrace worldwide dictatorship. The perfect entrée for the Anti-Christ.

However, none of this moves millions of American believers. Let’s call it for what it is…they don’t care if America is destroyed.

However, there is great hope.  God continues to rally a remnant that is ready to let God use them in a way that can literally turn America around. But I can’t tell you more until after I rattle your cage.   Before there can be a great awakening there must be a rude awakening.

The rude awakening is this: you must realize there are Christians who simply do not care if America goes down. They are physically present in church but absent from the Lord. They are unavailable to do His work. They are oblivious to disaster at our door. Here is what they look like.

The preaching they enjoy teaches them to think of themselves first.  To them self-denial is a denial of God’s goodness. They measure their relationship to Christ not by how much they give up but by how much they get to keep.  They are attracted to flattery and convenience.

They believe soul-winning is offensive: Nothing explains the condition of America more than the almost complete abandonment of evangelism. We lost to gay marriage, abortion, and every other moral failure due to the simple fact that we did not win souls.

Since the Word of God is absent from the sermons they hear they actually believe it is a bad thing to share one’s faith with the un-churched. A testament to this is the shock that pastors relate to us in our tent when outsiders come and get born again. They are not just blessed…they are shocked.

Training to win souls is extinct. Organized outreach hardly ever happens.  This is why ministries such as ours find it nearly impossible to motivate churches to win the lost.

What draws crowds in church today is a great indictment. For years now the Christian concert has dominated attendance. Many believe that is a good thing. However, when mass soul winning crusades drew the largest crowds the impact was felt in the nation. Our government feared legislating immorality when holy evangelists filled stadiums.

There is something terribly wrong with a mindset that can feel good about itself over an event that does nothing to reverse the destructive course of America.  Far from success–that is denial.

They don’t want to get involved in politics.  With high-sounding words they excuse themselves from something that no child of God can excuse themselves from any longer. The Left is directly targeting church, the Bible, and freedom of religion.  Late term abortion is pagan ritual human sacrifice.  These wispy believers still believe being nice will make The Left stop trying to destroy us.

They have joined the deluded crowd in rejecting everything Trump does. They refuse to see the disaster they are aiding and abetting.

Do you care what happens to America? Do you believe there is still hope? To you, the true heroes of this hour, I humbly present this plan.

Separate yourself from the crowd that claims Christ but has no desire to save our nation. Being around them can drain your fervor, dull your vision and finally deceive you.  Paul was emphatic about this.  “Having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!” 2 Timothy 3:5

Find that church that has a true presence of God, Bible based preaching, and that wants to win the lost.  Forget about size, prestige or the coffee bar. What you must do is huddle with the emerging army of supernatural power. Trust me they are forming.  Quit being a part of symbolic prayer that asks all the right things but never gets around to deliberate soul-winning.  It offends God to ask for something to happen and then oppose the actual happening.

Prepare for supernatural signs and wonders and intimacy with God on a level we have not imagined.  You are supposed to see signs and wonders. You are not supposed to get proud. You are being watched. The eyes of God seek a core that will give Christ all the glory when wheelchairs are emptied and cancers vanish.

Prepare for a full-on declaration of truth in America. You can have a tongue of fire.  You can seek God and know Him in a way you never thought possible.

When we are in heaven and this hour of darkness is recalled—those who sought escape and comfort—who had no passion to save their nation will bear the greatest shame.  But those who ignored the impossibility, the shame, the ridicule and the lukewarm believers, will shine like the sun.

 

 

 

A LOVING REBUKE

A thick blanket of the Holy Spirit covers the crowd as I start my appeal to come to Jesus.  A phenomenon no one but God can explain ensues.  Chains begin falling off of God haters, the homeless, addicts and just plain people who need Jesus.  Souls that would have nothing to do with each other on the street flow together forming a river of humanity forging its way forward to be set free. That happened under the tent tonight.

But I saw something tonight that truly makes me angry with what the devil has done to the American church.

Tonight I saw a group of people who truly want God. Tonight I saw pastors who love one another. Tonight I saw something we used to see before we lost so much. No frills, no perks, just a raw love for God. These twin miracles truly convicted me of what America needs right now.

These believers in Marysville are not just beautiful in Jesus, their pure motive serves as a great rebuke to so much of the attitude of modern church. These soldiers of Jesus want to serve and reach out. What a contrast to the complacent and lukewarm spirit that is so widespread and damaging.

These true Christians did just lay hands on one another, they fought for healing and God rewarded them with many miracles.

More than ever I know Lucifer wanted the spirit-filled army of God missing when America needed her most. It worked…we were missing. It wasn’t because we believed a lie but because we abused truth.

When you hear a spirit-filled Christian say “it’s all in God’s hands and it will all turn out as He wants” it’s a comforting thought that is hard to debate, but it is not what we need now. How can anyone take up the weapons of God in faith if they believe their choices don’t matter? Why try to change the world if you believe it’s solely God’s job?

Grace, a glorious truth that should make us broken with gratitude, and drive us to please God with all our heart became an excuse for some to run wild. Steve Hill heard one of them say, “’You guys are old-fashioned ‘holiness,’ we are modern day ‘grace.’ You live in bondage while we can do anything we want.” They see no point to repentance or sacrifice. How can anyone be an effective weapon with this attitude?

Gloom and doom preaching does the same thing. While it rightly warns of dark days some take it to the point of thinking everything is supposed to get worse. In fact, by attempting to have a moral awakening, you are opposing God’s plan.

This keeps the church on the defensive by telling them to take cover.  Fear sells books, conspiracy theories sell survival, not revival.  Gloom and doom prophets—like good democrats—must cheer on global domination, global warming and global disasters to keep Christians buying.  They do not equip you to confront and conquer evil because they don’t believe it’s possible.

Many are playing games.  Facebook is like a playground for giddy believers.  In one compressed medium, you witness the banal bacteria that excites immature believers today. Witness the games:

Titles like Prophet and Apostle are flung around indiscriminately.  Every garish emotional experience is hawked as being from God.

Conferences promise that you will get “a word from God” for a fee… as if the Holy Spirit was On Demand.  Or they offer formulas to “activate” blessings, using terminology dangerously close to new age.

God is not a force to manipulate—He is an awesome person to be adored and obeyed.  Gifts come as the Spirit wills, to hearts broken—emptied of self—for the lost, the poor, and the forsaken.

Good messages made us passive. But everywhere you look in the Bible it is against passivity and advocates action: “fight the good fight of faith…” “Endure hardness as a good soldier…” “Resist the devil…” “Take the sword of the Spirit…”

God has chosen to act in answer to prayer.  He waits until His people rise and take their rightful place in the arena of battle.  Young David saw the stalemate.  No one challenged Goliath.  David couldn’t stand it. He offered himself to God.  God is looking for someone like that today—someone who can’t live with evil, who can’t stomach the perversion, and is enraged to see God dishonored.  Someone God can use to turn the tide of America.

There’s a miracle growing in Marysville. I am filled with wonder and fear about what will happen next.