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Greetings, all. With the posts that have been made in the last few weeks, ever since we began to look at the place our obedience has in our walks with God, I think it is clear that the dividing lines are coming more clearly into view. I am not talking people, but beliefs. Tenants of our faith. Foundational truths. And I will be honest, it has been eye opening to see how far the enemy has advanced, and made inroads into our minds and hearts. I am reading a good book right now, called The Awakening Church by Charles Swindoll. In it, he talks about our great need in the church to examine whether or not spiritual erosion is happening in our lives, both corporately and individually. He states that to truly get truth back as our foundation, it requires a reverence for truth above comfort... or what WE think is right. If one has to re-shape his theology to fit what God says, so be it. We can no longer fit God into our spiritual outlook by embracing certain scriptures and totally closing our eyes to others, for it is this very practice that is placing the church on the precipice of a massive falling away. He shares the same observations that I do, that at some point in the walks of many, the Bible no longer is our ultimate authority. We are. He remembers that 20 years ago, almost without fail, every Christian carried a Bible to church, and sermons were often a teaching based upon many inter-threaded verses. But over time, we have elevated the role of pastor to an unbiblical superstar level and want motovational messages that make us feel good about where we are. Sadly, we made relegated teachers of truth to a lower level, and most have become an unappreciated and unwanted person in our midst. We simply have adopted the world's "I want it all... now" attitude to our spiritual walks. Few have the patience to sit down and dig for truth. We want it now too. All positive. No negative. Warning, rebukes, corrections, instruction in righteousness..... these have all been for the most part a rarity in most of our churches. Thus, little by little, truth has eroded from under us, so slowly and subtly that we are not even aware we are drifting from God's truths. Although outwardly, we may look the same, our foundation, our unseen foundation has weakened, and to such a state that when persecution and real hardships come, and it is, and it really costs to be a follower of the Lord, many spiritual houses that look so secure and steady will fall, and the results could be catastrophic, no matter what we are being told to the opposite. We have a Christianity without a shield in place, and thus, we have little protection from the deception of the enemy. We now see teachings that state that sin is unavoidable and that because of grace, God now winks at our sins. We learn that repentance is nice but certainly not required, and that actually making effort to be fully obedience to the Spirit He has given us is actully being "sin minded" and will rob us of our peace. Multitudes of ministers now instruct the sheep in their care that anything that actually asks anything of us is legalistic and is trying to put us back under law. Somehow, giving our all to obey our Lord is “working for our salvation”. May God deliver us from our blindness. Now, with the Bible simply a source book to support OUR views, rather than our views bowing the knee to what the word of God clearly teaches, we are both shieldless and swordless. Do we really think satan is not smiling and thinking how smart he is? We arm ourselves with a few pet verses where it matters not that our understanding of them totally contradicts huge portions of the New Testament. It is time we acknowledged how far we have fallen from truth, and bow before our God seeking Him to restore to us real faith and real desire to obey Him in all things. It will amaze us when we do, for God will open our eyes to the full truth of just how deep His grace goes, if we will but submit and cooperate. This call for deep seeking of the face of God has no exceptions. I need it. You need it. The entire church needs it. We as God’s church are on the precipice of the great falling away, but here is the scary thing. Many of those that fall away will not do so from walking away from church. They will still claim Jesus as Lord. They will be totally assured that they will make heaven their home. And yet, in the end, many of these will come face to face with the truth that they truly never knew Him or really wanted to be His friend, proved by the lack in their heart desires of total devotion to obeying and following Him, no matter the cost. And the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth shall begin. Now is not the time to proceed without a real heart examination, under the guide of the whole counsel of God found in the Word of God. It is not good enough to assure ourselves that all is ok, because we believe Jesus is our savior, because if He is not Lord, we are not His friends. We are His enemies. Blessings, Gideon