The following is only a few weeks old....and I bring it back as a Lord's Day post. Most of us will enter a church tomorrow where there will be no warnings to speak of....not personal as to salvation....nor corporate as to the church....nor temporal as to America. Is it too harsh to bring this up? In most cases....probably....as the men in our pulpits are no different than those of us in the pews....for we are all susceptible to the environment and culture around us. If the Lord's return is near.....which as I have written before....all indications in His Word seem to proclaim it to be....then one should be more vigilant than ever....but we are not vigilant. We have chosen those verses in the Bible that tell us to be at peace.....to the exclusion of those verses that precipitated the need to be told to be at peace....therefore we are in effect choosing more of a peace that the world gives....than that of a Savior and a Captain that will guide us through this storm.
2 Peter 1:12, 13...."Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth being present in you. I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder."
How does one not warn....at least friends and loved ones....when one discerns danger....and one's friends and loved ones do not? I guess that the most obvious example of one person 'warning' another would be age and youth....where the parent warns the child....and the older person warns the younger person. The one has lived longer......and has experienced more. It's therefore natural to warn those who cannot know what consequences might be ahead....but Peter wasn't basing his knowledge on his age....even though he knew that he was nearing the end of his life. How can a pastor who throws the word 'beloved' around with abandon....not plead and warn and remind as Peter did?
A young child can warn a grandparent whose eyesight is failing....of a puddle of water....a student can warn a teacher that he's giving the wrong date for a test....a Christian in the pew can warn the pastor in the pulpit that he is reading the wrong verse....and a janitor can warn a CEO that he does not look well. It's knowledge and observation here that is more valuable than experience and authority.
The Christian has been given a trove of knowledge that he/she did not have before God regenerated his/her heart...restored his/her vision and hearing....and renewed his/her mind. That is the fact of the matter friends. That's what can make a dishwasher more knowledgeable than a professor....and a citizen more discerning than a president....but more importantly even than the collapse of one's nation....that is what one family member may know that another family member is in need of knowing....that they have been deceived by the world....and the world's church....that they must be be 'born again'....or perish in the judgment. The parent may indeed have more love for their own child....but the Christian friend or loved one may know more of what that child needs the most....the gospel of the cross of Jesus Christ.
I posted the following earlier this year..."I have lived sixty-eight years and some odd months. I was able to partake in the America of our heritage.....before that America began to succumb to the same temptations that ancient Israel succumbed to before they were judged by God. I remember our heritage as a nation....and weep at what we have replaced it with. I have given nothing to stop the downward spiral....in fact I added to it. I am but one person....one of many....who God for some unknown reason had mercy upon. Even my warnings are tinged with pride and arrogance....but I continue to warn....for if Jesus felt it to our benefit to warn us....and if Peter felt it necessary to 'remind' again and again....and if Paul warned us....and John warned us....and Christians ministers such as Billy Graham.....just to name one.....of whom I have would have had no right to even stand beside....if they felt....and feel it necessary to warn those that God gave them to minister to.....then we all also have no choice but to at least warn our friends and loved ones....which in reality is all that these posts are....words to hopefully friends....wherever they may live....and loved ones!"
2 Peter 1:12, 13...."Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth being present in you. I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder."
How does one not warn....at least friends and loved ones....when one discerns danger....and one's friends and loved ones do not? I guess that the most obvious example of one person 'warning' another would be age and youth....where the parent warns the child....and the older person warns the younger person. The one has lived longer......and has experienced more. It's therefore natural to warn those who cannot know what consequences might be ahead....but Peter wasn't basing his knowledge on his age....even though he knew that he was nearing the end of his life. How can a pastor who throws the word 'beloved' around with abandon....not plead and warn and remind as Peter did?
A young child can warn a grandparent whose eyesight is failing....of a puddle of water....a student can warn a teacher that he's giving the wrong date for a test....a Christian in the pew can warn the pastor in the pulpit that he is reading the wrong verse....and a janitor can warn a CEO that he does not look well. It's knowledge and observation here that is more valuable than experience and authority.
The Christian has been given a trove of knowledge that he/she did not have before God regenerated his/her heart...restored his/her vision and hearing....and renewed his/her mind. That is the fact of the matter friends. That's what can make a dishwasher more knowledgeable than a professor....and a citizen more discerning than a president....but more importantly even than the collapse of one's nation....that is what one family member may know that another family member is in need of knowing....that they have been deceived by the world....and the world's church....that they must be be 'born again'....or perish in the judgment. The parent may indeed have more love for their own child....but the Christian friend or loved one may know more of what that child needs the most....the gospel of the cross of Jesus Christ.
I posted the following earlier this year..."I have lived sixty-eight years and some odd months. I was able to partake in the America of our heritage.....before that America began to succumb to the same temptations that ancient Israel succumbed to before they were judged by God. I remember our heritage as a nation....and weep at what we have replaced it with. I have given nothing to stop the downward spiral....in fact I added to it. I am but one person....one of many....who God for some unknown reason had mercy upon. Even my warnings are tinged with pride and arrogance....but I continue to warn....for if Jesus felt it to our benefit to warn us....and if Peter felt it necessary to 'remind' again and again....and if Paul warned us....and John warned us....and Christians ministers such as Billy Graham.....just to name one.....of whom I have would have had no right to even stand beside....if they felt....and feel it necessary to warn those that God gave them to minister to.....then we all also have no choice but to at least warn our friends and loved ones....which in reality is all that these posts are....words to hopefully friends....wherever they may live....and loved ones!"
