A New Pair Of Pants Pt.2

“And the Lord spoke unto me saying, ‘You have compassed this
mountain long enough: turn you northward” Deut.2:2-3

~Author’s preface: Generations of Christians have come and gone never fully entering into the fullness of the blessings and power Jesus purchased on Calvary. The fullness of the manifestation of the Grace of God is waiting for a surrendered people. Will we be that people or will we pass off the scene like so many before us thinking that’s all there was!! The following article is another attempt to get us to seize the day we live in and carry the baton clear to the finish line; full stride, chest out, arms extended!
May God Help Us. We’ve compassed this mountain long enough!~

Most of the history of the Christian Church has been in front of a red light. We rev up our engines, spin some tires, make a lot of noise, create a whole bunch of smoke and pretend real hard that something is actually happening; but when the smoke clears we are still sitting in the same spot. I call this Red light Christianity– It’s a really, really cheap game because all you have to do is sit still and pretend real hard that you’re actually going somewhere. Don’t feel lonely though, because most of the church is there with you providing every justification necessary to sit still and do nothing. And when people get a little restless, we can just go out and buy a new set of tires (new church programs, carpeting and what-not) and do the whole thing all over again! It’s all so exhilarating isn’t it? Before you know it years go by, we’re all a little bit older, we’ve gone through several sets of tires, a lot of gas, reams of justifications but no obvious progress! Say it with me once again, ‘red-light Christianity’. But don’t make too big of a deal about it. Protestantism has been parked there a long time! Generations have come and gone enjoying the game. After all red is one of our favorite colors, right? We have convinced ourselves that stationary is not bad at all. Just surround yourself with a lot of people doing the same thing and it doesn’t feel so bad. Yes “hold the fort-itis” has become very orthodox and so many of our pulpits and Christian leaders have become very adept at spinning a good tale around it to promote the whole thing (please don’t call it theology. It’s too embarrassing).

Israel was so proficient at this malarkey they took 80 years and a generation later to accomplish an 11 day trip across the wilderness to the promise land. That’s right! From Egypt to Canaan was about an 11 day trip. You might say they had a few problems along the way! And we look back on their history with a self-justifying grin, shaking our heads wondering how they could possibly have been so stiff-necked and foolish to mess up so badly…RIGHT? Yet, and that’s a big YET, here’s us 2000 plus years removed from the greatest opportunity God ever gave to mankind in Jesus Christ and look at us? I repeat, “look at us!” What a culture changing power house we are right? Can anyone hear the tires spinning? Can you smell the smoke?!! Breathe a little deeper. It’s rising higher and higher over so much of Christianity today polluting the spiritual atmosphere and clouding our vision. Maybe we’ll choke a bit and wake up!

~The history of Christianity could probably be condensed down to a handful of
decades or less of real progress; what has actually been done right~ LC

No my friend God is not taking His time, We Are! Do we really think that what we have become as Christ’s church represents progress? Not in light of the New Testament Amigo. Somebodies using a different book here. How (at least in the Western world) did we move from book of Acts power and truth to holding up a sign on a street corner and calling it witnessing? How did we move from the epistles of Paul to the milk-toast of today’s pulpits? How many dead have we raised in the last year?! (Hey, I’m being polite). Here’s a better one. Why does it seem that no one is asking these questions of the perpetrators of what modern day Christianity has become?? I ask the question: Is anyone troubled about this?? Paul’s words are apropos here, “having begun in the Spirit are we now made perfect by the flesh?” (Gal.3:3). Honestly, if we had done things right the New Heaven and New Earth should already be here! No I’m not being facetious. I’m being quite frank! Think About It. Can we open up to that kind of concept? Let me ask again, how many can receive that concept? We have been a part of mediocrity for so long we can’t imagine anything else! Is that “red light” in front of us really all that impressive?

The history of Christianity could probably be condensed down to a handful of decades or less of actual progress; what has actually been done right. Let’s do some subtraction here: 2000 years – a hand full of decades = centuries of vanity! Shocking isn’t it dear reader? Probably to shocking for many. Status quo has become far to orthodox and we have settled into it. Not enough hands have gone up on this. We have sat around a table with cups a fraction full for so long, no one expects anything different! So if I haven’t lost you yet, let’s say it this way; God’s long-suffering has been trying to get us past the starting line for far to long! Many times our God has mercifully stepped in, turned the light green and given us a good push only to watch us fall on our faces a few yards ahead of the starting line. There’s that smoke again! Moving on.

It was God’s will that Israel go into the promise land and conquer all the Canaanite nations there ( Ex.23:22-24; Dt.7:1-2; Dt.12:2-4; Dt.20:16-18 ), but they didn’t. And that “didn’t” brought about the history of the book of Judges, 1st and 2nd Samuel, the Kings, Chronicles, the Prophets etc. About 1250 years of wasted time and troubled lives with our loving God trying to get them back on track. It was all a spin off of Israel’s “Didn’t” to His plan given through Moses. Yet God is still at work trying to get them fully into the land he originally promised them through Abraham some 3900 years ago. That’s right, almost four millenniums ago!! (Gen.12:1). Talk about the long-suffering of God!!- And all the bull-headedness of God’s people wasting so much valuable time, Divine Grace and justifying it continually. Do we understand this? Please let this sink in! Understand dear reader most of the history of the Old Testament is not about progress. It’s about sitting in front of that “red light” dealing with disobedience and all the time involved in doing it! How much of God’s grace has been wasted putting up with disobedience rather than rewarding faithfulness, AND how much of God’s grace is being wasted on all our buffoonery today! Say it with me “buffoonery” (Look it up later). May that word settle into the pews and pulpits of the Western world and beyond and cause a shock wave to jolt us back to New Testament Christianity! Hello Paul, hello Peter. Remember us? Think about it church. From Adam all the way through book after book we read about back-stepping, side-tracking, waffling, compromising disobedience from the straight and narrow. And all the way through our New Testament time we witness much of the same regardless of all our justifications. Why should we think we are any different today? What makes us different? Pulpit platitudes? No! The seeker friendly Gospel? No! High-finance buildings and state of the art this and that? Not really. It just feels like progress doesn’t it? Hardly! Let’s not fool ourselves. Jesus died for INFINITELY more than this. While the blessings of His life and cross are exponential we have whittled them down to a basic equation of 1+1=2 and there so many of us have stopped! The sleepy will sleep on but those who want more will find it. We have got to understand this to help restore the momentum and conviction needed to move forward again! Say it with me, “Red is not pretty.” Walk up to your Christian friends and pastors and say, “Hey, red is not pretty” can we please try Green. (Calling all Reformers).

~While God’s clock so to speak has ticked a few decades ours has ticked centuries~ LC

Isaiah was one of the earliest prophets to the Southern Kingdom of Judah. He began prophesying around 742 BC approximately 150 years before the fall of Judah and Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. Note Isaiah’s words at the beginning of his ministry.

“ Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the Lord has spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, And they have rebelled against Me; The ox knows its owner And the donkey its master’s crib; But Israel does not know, My people do not consider. Alas, sinful nation, A people laden with iniquity, A brood of evildoers, Children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the Lord, They have provoked to anger The Holy One of Israel, They have turned away backward.” (Isa.1:2-4).

Ok, now think about it. 150 years before they fell and were taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, Isaiah was warning them of God’s displeasure and coming judgement due to their sinfulness against Him. 150 years of going the wrong way, needing to turn and they refused to listen. Opportunities that were lost. Blessings that were not experienced! The voice of the Lord not being heeded. How many just bought into the narrative that the pulpits of the day were preaching, that everything was alright, and settled into the “status quo” of “hold the fort-itis.” Oh yes there were a few good kings in that time period, but they had strayed nearly 150 years before that beginning with Solomon. Say it with me, Solomon had too many wives, Amen! Are you seeing the picture of the church here people! Generations of so-called Christians who have dropped the bar barely above ground level and convinced themselves and everyone around them, “Hey we’re all doing just fine.” Pastors and church leaders promoting a parallel paradigm, again barely above ground level. It is the very rare individual that questions the process and the system that results. The few who do usually face quite an uphill battle trying to convince the majority and especially the leaders that there is a problem. Their struggle is not just with an erring church system and leadership but with themselves. They often struggle with feelings of insecurity and loneliness wondering why they’re different, why they don’t fit; wanting to get along but all the while troubled by their convictions with no way to reconcile them with what they see. Welcome to a reformers life.

~Reformers are a rare breed, committing their lives and livelihood to something they
may never see in their lifetime, but will certainly eventually come to pass~ LC

~God have mercy with all our excuses packaged up into nice little theologies, pandered across all our
denominational lines and institutionalized in such impressive but pompous organizations all to keep us
perilously immobile but feeling justified~

Of course God’s requisition of prophets didn’t stop with Isaiah. There were many others who continued the call: Jeremiah, Ezekiel and several minor prophets as we call them. In the words of scripture:

“I have stretched out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, Who walk in a way that is not good, According to
their own thoughts; A people who provoke Me to anger continually to My face…”( Isa.65:2-3 ).

“And the Lord has sent to you all His servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, but you have not listened
nor inclined your ear to hear. They said, ‘Repent now everyone of his evil way and his evil doings, and dwell in the land
that the Lord has given to you and your fathers forever and ever. Do not go after other gods to serve them and
worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands; and I will not harm you.’
Yet you have not listened to Me, ”says the Lord, “that you might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands
to your own hurt.”( Jer.25:4-7 )

Consider the Kings of Judah and Israel. It absolutely was not God’s will that they have kings like the nations around them. Note this scripture.

“Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him,
‘Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge
us like all the nations.’ But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, ‘Give us a king to judge us.’
So Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Heed the voice of the peoplein all that they say to you;
for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. According
to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day
with Which they have forsaken Me and served other gods—so they are doing to you also.Now therefore, heed their voice.
However, you shall solemnly forewarn them, and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them” ( 1Sam.8:4-9 ).

This was not God’s will it was Israel’s will and that little rush to do their own thing cost them about 500 years of problems which included a divided kingdom, loss of freedom, high taxes, idolatry, rebellions, hostilities, wars and the judgement of God. Now isn’t that wonderful. Hey, the smoke is getting thicker! Just think they would have missed all these wonderful things had they obeyed God. It just makes you want to sit back and enjoy the warm and fuzzies! Is it any wonder Jesus said to them,

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!
How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings,
but you were not willing!” ( Matt.23:37 ).

Their restoration could have happened long ago had they simply obeyed. Again I say, what about us? How much have we missed sitting in front of “red-light Christianity” enjoying the noise and the smoke?! Do We Really Want To Continue Like This?! Are We Willing To Make A Difference?!

Let’s add another ‘profundus insightis’ to this. Consider the high places. It’s commonly understood that the high places were a constant source of trouble and apostasy for God’s people in the Old Testament. God specifically commanded their removal once they got into the promise land ( Nu.33:52; Deut.12:1-6 ). Nevertheless we read over and over again how they failed to remove them ( 1Ki.3:2-3; 1Ki.15:14; 1 Ki.22:43 ). It took nearly 500 years for His people to finally remove most of the high places. 500 years of wasted time. Untold possibilities and blessings from God missed by generations. Think about it. We are right in the middle of these kinds of goings on today and so, so few have the eyes or the guts to see it. So we go on in our spiritual mediocrity right at home with millions before us playing games with the grace of God and calling it “Jesus.” Batter up! Let’s move on.

Now we come to the New Testament. What did they have that we don’t have? I’ll pretend you didn’t ask that question.

~The New Testament Church made more progress in its first 60 years than the church has made
in all the centuries since that glorious beginning~ LC

God set up the pattern and we have been largely ignoring it ever since. Hey, it’s not wall-friendly. Think about it my friend. We are almost 2000 years beyond the New Testament Church period and we are hardly foot deep in the fullness of what they had. I don’t have to make this up; it is a matter of record. All we have to do is read the pages of the New Testament to see the immense difference. So how do we typically cope with that in all our ‘Hi-tech this and church-growth that’ expertise. Simple! We just write it off as a New Testament phenomena unique to their time; that it’s not for today or we try to claim we have the same thing and put on a real good show that is about 98% hype and 2% real, give or take. Yes you can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time. And by the way, you can’t fool God anytime! He “searches the heart and tests the mind to give to each person according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds” ( Jer.17:10 ). Sorry people, we look more like a fat man on a small bike than Mr. Burley on a Harley!

~Seriously, we could probably flip through a thousand of our pulpits today, personally interview a sampling
of church leaders and instructors across the land and not come up with a paragraphs worth
of true cutting edge biblical insight comparable to a few paragraphs of anyone of the apostle Paul’s concepts~

Paul had more revelation under his finger nails than we can dig up in almost all our so-called Bible Schools and Seminaries of today. Not bad for first century primitives right? I mean after all we are 2000+ years removed from them, it only stands to reason we are in a far more enlightened and progressive era of the church?? After all you can’t expect a 21st century people to get too serious about 1st century thinking, right? Hmm. Smell the smoke? By the way, their thinking didn’t originate in the 1st century. It originated in heaven!

Seriously, we could probably flip through a thousand of our pulpits today, personally interview a sampling of church leaders and instructors across the land and not come up with a paragraphs worth of true cutting edge biblical insight comparable to a few sentences of anyone of the apostle Paul’s concepts. Sound outrageous? That’s unfortunate. I have been in so many of these circles through the years and have left time and time again empty and more troubled than I was when I went in. Where is true cutting edge biblically based thinking and revelation today? Charisma and eloquence are not it. The fragrance of heaven-sent revelatory insight comes from broken vessels not stuffy ecclesiastics. I fully realize these are strong words but necessary in light of the tens of millions of souls that have lost their way both in and out of the church these days. We have got to provide them with a way back. Please, please hear the call. We need reformers!

The New Testament church started getting off almost from the get-go but held its orthodox head above the waters of apostasy until they left the regime of the apostolic and entered the regime of the chaotic ( or should I say ‘Catholic’ ). From the 2nd century on man began to take over and the Holy Spirit said ‘TTFN’ ta-ta for now. Paul warned of this during his last years in his address to the elders of the Ephesian Church,

“For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from
among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.
Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone
night and day with tears” ( Acts 20:29-31 ).

This departure from the wealth of Christ cost the church about 1400 years of debacle after debacle, going underground, persecutions, the dark ages, the inquisition, the rise of Roman Catholicism, loads of false doctrine etc., etc. It really wasn’t until Martin Luther stepped up in 1517 that some substantial above ground return began with the existing church. Think about it? 1400 years of generations rising and falling before a “red light” waiting for the smoke to clear again. Do you feel the tears my friend? This is crying material. Do you feel the anger at the devil ripping-off generations of God’s people? Are we really going to allow this to happen again? Do we care?

The dead can’t do anything about this. It is too late for them. God will deal with them in His kindness. This is for the living. Will we make a difference or not? Will we step out of the spiritual welfare line and get into the victory line. A new direction is currently being revealed from heaven for all who are willing to meet Jesus outside the gate.

“Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate.
Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach” ( Heb.13:12-13 ).

Let’s get out of the smoke! We need reformation.

Luther Canon
Sola Scriptura