BY CHARLENE SHELMIRE
God is patient, slow to anger, and rich in mercy, but He grants grace for repentance. However, He will eventually execute judgment as He did on Sodom and Gomorrah in the Old Testament.
Both the unrepentant sinner and the unregenerate Christian are in danger of God's wrath if their pride and rebellion persists.
Some Christians merely "straddle the fence" by engaging in withcraft, gossip, jealousy, competition, pride, greed, stealing, unforgiveness, power trips, slander, irreverence, blasphemy, etc.,
But the Word of the Lord states this warning:
"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto white sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness." "Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity."
Matthew 23:27-28
As the Bible states, the love of many has waxed cold due to the increase of wickedness, and a cloud of deception is rampant. There's a display of holiness on the outside, but the inside is full of wickedness, bitterness, and hatred.
But, we must remember we are a body of believers—the body of Christ.
The interconnection of different parts of the body of Christ is crucial to working correctly. Just like our arms and legs cannot move without proper brain function, the church needs all its parts to work together.
If "a house divided against itself can't stand," unity disappears, and chaos erupts.
This malfunction of the church is the major cause of strife and mass confusion, and God is not the author of confusion. If this toxicity cesspool continues, the church's mission will be aborted, and its growth will become stagnated.
Worst of all, the commission of making disciples and reaching the lost is placed on the back burner because the body of Christ is busy fighting one another.
There is a last-day deception flooding the churches that makes people comfortable wallowing in their sins, yet oblivious to their devastating consequences.
God is growing weary of the hypocrisy, "playing church," and the blatant disregard for obeying His holy commandment that's found in the gospel of St. John 13:34-35, which states,
"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another."
Warning Comes Before Destruction!
Prayer: Dear Father God, forgive us, "the church" for not honoring your holy commandments and for wallowing in immorality. Help us to focus on the mission of the church whic