Living Journey

BEIRUT (AFP) - Six leading opposition figures jailed in
Syria warned on Tuesday that the “repressive climate” in their country was worsening and called for the release of all political prisoners.

“Our situation as prisoners of conscience is part … of the crisis of public freedoms and human rights in Syria, which started with the state of emergency imposed 44 years ago,” they said in a joint letter from Adra prison near Damascus.

“The crisis has reached its climax today, with increased repression and suppression of freedoms,” they wrote in the letter published in Lebanon’s leading An-Nahar newspaper. @Yahoo

Calling Rick Warren…

Calling Rick Warren…

Please report to the Damage Control Sector. Please enter through the Back Channel found at the Council of Foreign Affairs to be briefed on the New New World Order.

Thank you

A few days ago I posted my notes on a sermon by Jacob J Prasch called ‘Attack on the Remnant - Part Two. In that post I spoke about ‘Worldly Churches’ and how they are judged according to worldly standards concerning their success, they are not judged by ‘God’s Economy’ but rather by ‘Worldly Economy’.

What do I mean by that? Is there a difference? What is success in God’s eyes? The following is what I have said about ‘Worldly Churches’.

Worldly Churches will always judge their success the way the world does, because they are of the world. Money, land, numbers and methods are shown to the world and are judged according to worldly standards as the world recognises worldly success, this is not God’s economy but worldly economy. The worldly church says it needs more money, but what it really needs is more Jesus. They say…. God is with us because look what we have:

Rev 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art the wretched one and miserable and poor and blind and naked:

They think the same way as the world does, they measure their standards the same way the world measures, not by God’s economy, because they are of the world not set apart from it.

This is called ‘Pragmatism’ which means if a method or system works, then it must be true. I was emailed this excerpt from a sermon the other day and I thought was fitting as it further illustrates the point made in my last post about God’s economy being completely different from mans.

PRAGMATISM

By Paris Reidhead from his sermon “Ten Shekels and a Shirt” (from Judges 17 & 1

 

Would I be out of line if I were to talk to you for a little while about utilitarian religion and expedient Christianity? And a youthful God? I would like to call attention to the fact that our day is a day which the ruling philosophy is pragmatism. You understand what I mean by pragmatism, pragmatism means if it works it’s true. If it succeeds it’s good. And the test of all practices, all principles, all truth, so called all teaching, is do they work? Do they work? Now -according to pragmatism, the greatest failures of the ages have been some of the men God has honored most.

 

For instance, whereas Noah was a mighty good ship builder, his main occupation wasn’t ship building, it was preaching. He was a terrible failure as a preacher. His wife and three children and their wives are all he had. Seven converts in 120 years, you wouldn’t call that particularly effective.

 

And then we come down across the years to another man by the name of Jeremiah. He was a mighty effective preacher, but ineffective as far as results were concerned. If you were to measure statistically how successful Jeremiah was, he would probably get a large cipher. For we find that he lost out with the people, he lost out with royalty, even the ministerial association voted against him and wouldn’t have anything to do with him. He had everything fail. The only one he seemed able to please was…. God, but otherwise he was a distinct failure.

 

And then we come to another well known person, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was a failure from judging all the standards. He never succeeded in organizing a church or denomination. He wasn’t able to build a school. He didn’t succeed in getting a mission board established. He never had a book printed.

 

The question comes then to this, “what is the standard of success and by what are we going to judge our lives and our ministry?” And the question that you are going to ask yourself, “Is God an end or is He a means?” Our generation is prepared to honor successful choices. As long as a person can get things done or get the job done then our generation is prepared to say well done.

 

And so we’ve got to ask ourselves at the very outset of our ministry, and our pilgrimage, and our walk, “Are we going to be Levites who serve God for ten shekels and a shirt?” (Judges 17:7-11), serve men perhaps in the name of God, rather than God. For though he was a Levite and performed religious activities, he was looking for a place, which would give him recognition, a place which would give him acceptance, a place which would give him security, a place where he could shine in terms of those values which were important to him. His whole business was serving in religious activities, so it had to be a religious job. He was very happy when he found that Micah had an opening. But he had decided that he was worth ten shekels and a shirt, and he was prepared to sell himself to anyone that would give that much. If somebody came along and gave more, he would sell himself to them (Judges 18:18-20). But he put a value upon himself and he figured then his religious service and his activities were just a means to an end, and by the same token, God was a means to an end. Let’s be done, once and for all, with utilitarian Christianity that makes God a means, instead of the glorious END that He is. Let’s resign, let’s tell Micah we’re through. We’re no longer going to be his priests serving for ten shekels and a shirt. And let’s come and cast ourselves at the feet of the nail pierced Son of God and tell Him that we’re going to obey Him, and love Him, and serve Him, as long as we live BECAUSE HE IS WORTHY!