Just before I had my name removed from the membership role at the Southern Baptist church I was the monthly volunteer for cleaning. I was stunned to see how many bibles had been moved out of the sanctuary, moved to boxes and low shelves out of sight, and how much of what used to hang on the walls of the Word and the Gospel had been taken down and literally turned over. This spirit to remove the Bible and the Word even from the churches is prevalent everywhere in this day. We do not battle flesh and blood.
"On Christ the Solid Rock I stand: all other ground is sinking sand."
Jesus told us ahead of time, and confirmed the saying through Paul:
"Savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock."
Satan is no dummy. His greatest craftiness is to preach his messages from 'Christian' pulpits, through 'Christian' churches, and to disguise himself as an angel of LIGHT. Those who are more attached in their most sacred love to the social church and the praise of men, to these shallow comforters, rather than to the Body of Christ which is the Word and Spirit, will be taken captive through deceit, not willing to be led captive in the train of the Victor Through Death. The power of deception is that it appears true - yet it is always the shallow way to comfort, glossy, and by this we may recognize it: it does not comport with the Way of God, the cross of Christ our Head, despised and rejected by men, betrayed with a kiss, murdered by brethren outside the camp. Love crucified in full daylight, naked and unashamed in agony for men, is the Truth. How frequent are its imitations.
There is a great winnowing happening before our eyes, and chaff is blowing in the wind: a dust storm clouding the sun. The winnowing fork and wind lift up the whole heap, but the grain, being full of weight, falls back to the threshing floor, the Foundation, while the chaff, having no seed, blows about - it will escape the lash only to be caught in the fire. It seems right to note that this work is the last that happens in the harvest process, just before the wheat is gathered into the barns.
AMEN AND AMEN!
GRACE AND GRACE!
Mt 3:12 "His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
Mt 13:25 "but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.
Mt 13:29 "But he said, 'No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.
Mt 13:30 'Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn."'"
Lu 3:17 "His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire."
Lu 16:7 "Then he said to another, 'And how much do you owe?' So he said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.' And he said to him, 'Take your bill, and write eighty.'
Lu 22:31 And the Lord said, "Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.
Joh 12:24 "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.
(NKJV)
7 SOLAS!
"The power of deception is that it appears true - yet it is always the shallow way to comfort, glossy, and by this we may recognize it: it does not comport with the Way of God, the cross of Christ our Head, despised and rejected by men, betrayed with a kiss, murdered by brethren outside the camp. Love crucified in full daylight, naked and unashamed in agony for men, is the Truth. How frequent are its imitations."
Thank you,.30Carbine, for your post!