Hope

We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teachings about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. - Hebrews 5:11-14

I received some interesting reactions to my posting "Legislating Morality" and for similar statements I made elsewhere; some I was expecting, others I was not. The dissenting voices were at least kind enough, for the most part, to keep their reactions within private emails, rather than flaming me here, for which I'm grateful. But I did get judged harshly on several levels. I was called judgmental, hypocritical, self-righteous, proud and even a spoiled brat who was merely disappointed about my candidate not winning and was using the bible to justify my temper tantrum. Nice. I won't even dignify that last one with a response. I was easily able to deflect these criticisms, because the judgment wasn't mine. The hypocrisy also isn't mine, for I'm doing my best to live my faith in every regard, not just on Sunday mornings and at funerals, which is the sort of "faith" I grew up around, and used to practice myself. Self-righteous and proud? Molested as a child, raped as a teen, abused in every way as a young adult, rejected as a defective and social outcast throughout much of my life, upon what have I ever had anything to grow pride? Shame permeated the majority of my life, and only by walking alongside my Lord and Savior am I even able to hold my head up with dignity. That dignity, and righteousness, is borrowed from Him alone, for His grace- which I did not deserve and can not earn- is what allows me to be called a Daughter of the King.

Moving on.

I had one other type of criticism for my posting, one that DID surprise me... Several people felt that I should have been laying out a balm of healing with talk about hope, rather than giving the message I did. I respect those who said this to me, but must respectfully disagree. Firstly, the verse heading that posting was given to me during my prayer time, and it was not one about hope. It was, however, a warning that could be used to bring hope and healing, if we heed it. I didn't even remember it being in Revelation, until I looked it up in my concordance. I admit that my heart pounded when I realized where that verse came from, as I wondered if the time spoken of in Revelation could in fact be so close. But lest anyone call me a false prophet, as one critic unjustly did, let me remind you that I never said that it WAS that time. I DO believe that the "birth pangs" referenced in Matthew 24:4-8 and elsewhere have not only begun, but are intensifying. Anyone really looking at the events of the world with eyes wide open will likely think the same. Yet I know God's patience is infinitely greater than mine, so even if we have neared the end of the "birth pangs", it could still be some time before He actually begins the judgments described in Revelation. Only He knows. What does seem clear to me, however, is that He is calling for His church to wake up to the growing apostasy that plagues her. The Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night (1 Thessalonians 5:2), and we should not be spiritually asleep when it does! (1 Th 5:6)

Unfortunately, we are very drowsy right now, if not downright asleep, when our church can be so nearly split down the middle over an election. Christians on both sides of the election debate claim that they've made their choices after prayerfully seeking God's will, yet this cannot be, for He would not give conflicting guidance! At least half the church, and probably more, is being deceived, either because they have let down their guard, or they aren't mature in the faith, or because they never had it in the first place and they're justifying their own desires as being God's will. This brings me to my second point of disagreement about whether I should have been spreading a message of hope: Our hope lies in the Lord, and in order to have a hope-filled relationship with Him, we must first repent! Without repentance, there is no hope, for we turn our backs on Him while seeking the self or the world! A lot of us have that hope, and yes, for those of us who do, we need to hang onto that and not grow discouraged. But lest you get too comfortable in that thought, consider Ephesians 2:11-12: "Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called "uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "the circumcision" (that done in the body by the hands of men) - remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world." Don't forget that there are people out there, many of them calling themselves our brothers and sisters in Christ, even though no one has taught them how salvation works that they might avail themselves of this gift, are without hope. Remember how it was with you, before you accepted salvation. Still more of them, while they have accepted salvation, aren't maturing in the faith, because we're not teaching them. And yet more have matured some, but seem to have stalled along the way somewhere, because we haven't corrected them for fear of offending them. We can't lay all the blame on those who are being deceived. We've been leaving them all vulnerable to the enemy that is prowling like a lion, and he's pounced on them. Yes, there's hope to be found, but we have to go out there and let the Lord use us to lead the lost in the right direction. Wake up, brothers and sisters!

Father, we thank you for warning us to wake up. We repent of our parts in allowing our younger brothers and sisters to wander untrained, and our elders to drift uncorrected and leaving them all vulnerable to the enemy. Strengthen our resolve to accept the task of being teachers, to shed the light on apostasy, to guide the church back to You. Open the hearts of the deceived, Lord, that they might have eyes to see and ears to hear when we bring Your message to them. Help us to rid ourselves of the apostasy that has weakened the church. Help us all to grow in maturity that we might bear fruit for You, both individually and as a church, once more. Lead us all to true hope, which can only be found in You. In Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen.