OOPS!

The following is my partial list of what the modern church really means when
they “perform” these songs…in no particular order!

1. How Great is our God…from 10:30am to 11:3oam(right before we beat

the Baptists to the restaurant).
2. How Great Thou Art (referring to their celebrity pastor, his six figure
salary and the turf he’s building for himself).
3. My Jesus I love Thee… (right after I love myself, my car and fat bank
account).
4. O Come, O Come Emanuel …. (but not right now, as am having too
good of a time).
5. When I Survey the Wondrous Cross…. (“That would look good on a
14 karat gold necklace I just got from Jarrod’s)!!!....and on and on….

Western Christianity is quick becoming an abomination which could lead to the

desolation of a huge number of ‘Christians’, who sat Sunday after Sunday in
pews, thinking their “helpless estate” was the piece of real estate they couldn’t sell
on 21st Street….and not the condition of their own personal souls!

In fact, if you have that opinion, we need more than a self – examination! You
need to “PUT A HELMET ON”, as Conservative Christian Comedian Brad Stine
said at all those Promise Keepers events we used to go to ten years ago

If you’re wondering why more and more people believe “God is a loving God and
won’t send everybody, including Aunt Trish – to hell” …look no further than your
nose! Even conservative bible-teaching churches are falling down on the job of
doing what they are established to do – proclaim, prophesy and prevent!

(By the way, a New Testament prophet is just someone who proclaims the Stark
Pure and Unfiltered Truth of the Full Counsel of God to alert an asleep and
dying generation!)

ROB BELL AND BILLY GRAHAM:

People are getting these notions about Heaven and hell

from some strange and frankly, unbelievable sources!
The latest controversy over the book by Mars Hill Pastor
Rob Bell “LOVE WINS” has captured both the religious
world and those outside who monitor us. This is so,
because Bell, the 2nd most influential head of the post-
Christian Emerging Church movement (after Brian MacLaren), has questioned
the very foundation of the Biblical standard for being accepted into Eternal Life
with God!

While Bell may have some points that most non-Christians live better
Christian-LOOKING lives than those who call themselves Christians, this
does not change the fact that a person has to make an individual and committed
choice to repent, ask forgiveness, look up to the Cross for Salvation and accept
the Finished Work of Christ there!

Bell questioned whether a non-violent man like Gandhi is in hell. But he looks at
the politically peaceful looking Gandhi, not the amoral man who “worshipped” a
cult religion with many gods! However, regardless of what thinks of Rob Bell, it
was the statement on May 31, 1997 by the greatest of all modern evangelists–
William Franklin “Billy” Graham Jr. (the elder Graham) which is still
reverberating across the discernment world.

In an interview with California’s Crystal Cathedral, Dr. Billy Graham said this "I
think everybody who knows Christ, whether they're conscious of it or not,
they're members of the Body of Christ...God's purpose is to call out a people for
His name, whether they come from the Muslim world, Buddhist world, the
Christian world, or the non-believing world, they are members of the Body of
Christ, because they've been called by God. They may not even know the name
of Jesus...and I think they are saved, and that they are going to be in heaven
with us."

WOW!!

Where did Billy

get that one?!!
After the
controversy
over this
escalated, the
Billy Graham
Association
(NOT Billy
Graham with
his own voice)
released a
statement
reaffirming
Billy’s accurate
interpretation
of salvation
through Jesus
Christ alone.
However, like LOVE WINS by Rob Bell, the damage was already done. Many,
who practiced alternative lifestyles while ministering in the church as well
Cafeteria Carnal Christians immediately, jumped on this statement and others
Dr. Graham, made, to validate them to continue to live in a Romans 1 sin
environment!

These are just two of the more influential men in the Christian cultural world,
who have significant impact with their sheer words – written and spoken!

HOPE AND CHANGE:

Hope and change have become politically stained words, but in the Eternal – they
carry a huge and powerful punch! In OUR world, it is not Hope and Change, but
CHANGE AND HOPE! Why? Well, it is only because of a CHANGE in the way we
think, act and live that we can actually have HOPE!!

Romans 12:2 (Amplified Bible) says “Do not be conformed to this world (this
age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be
transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals
and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good
and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and
acceptable and perfect (in His sight for you)”.

Let’s look at a couple or so, of these for illumination purposes:

DO NOT BE CONFORMED - These days one cannot tell the difference

sometimes between the culture and the church. Because most of our last two
generations grew up in the bawdy 1960’s “free everything” movements; when the
Bible was taken out of schools, when prayer was banned and evolution promoted,
this generation of parents and young adults have no high moral standard to
attain to.
They were the ones told that Abortion was now a choice and by the way, here is a
condom and we, teachers, will show you how to use it…with anybody you wish!
“Oh, you’re in First grade? Well…I don’t care what your parents say, I am going to
read “Heather has Two mummies” or “My Two Dads” and to heck with them and
our preachers let them get away with this!!!!
Our church leaders are conforming now more than ever because they too had no
real solid biblical foundation/core to begin with, even after spending 4-7 years in
Seminary.
Also, if you wish to speak Conformity, how about talking only about the Love of
God and leaving out the JUDGMENT to come, because we don’t want to scare
people off. I actually know a pastor who said he didn’t want to have prayer
services on a regular basis, because people would walk out or won’t come!! Never
mind talk of Repentance or Holiness or Jesus is LORD!
Romans 12:2 tells us do not be conformed? It should be STOP SELLING OUT,
you knuckleheads….Judgment day is coming!
BUT BE TRANSFORMED – The Amplified Bible says “CHANGED” by the
ENTIRE renewal of your mind….The word for Transformed in the bible gives us
the modern word “MORPH”. It is the same word used to describe how Jesus
came down from Heaven, MORPHED himself into a human being from Eternal
God – The Ancient of Days – and became the God/Man.
Therefore, God is saying here, morph yourself like CHRIST did! CHANGE!!
Assume a new form for real or bust because if we’re conforming – we are just like
the other guy who is going the wrong way eternally….but if we TRANSFORM or
assume become like Paul in Galatians 2:20 NLT “My old self has been crucified
with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this
earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for
me.”

BY THE (ENTIRE) RENEWAL OF YOUR MIND – So in these three

phrases, we have the ENTIRE PROCESS of the New Paradigm – the NEW MAN
AND WOMAN IN CHRIST!
- We’re once conforming, walking with, partying down and rocking it out
with the world…even while going to church.
- We were brought so low in the spirit we had nowhere to go but look up.
- We figured out we could not get out of this on our own and called on the
God of Heaven to forgive, look on our pitiful state and deliver us!
- We know enough to know Jesus Christ is the Savior who was born on
Christmas because mom and dad take us to church once in a while.
- BUT once HE SAVED US – The Work begins! This work is INTERNAL so
we can show HIM EXTERNALLY!
- We begin morphing, changing, transforming, reconfiguring our registry
into the Person of Jesus Christ by seeking His Mind through the Word,
Worship and Works......TRANSFORMATION!!
- We then experience the ENTIRE RENEWAL OF OUR MIND, which
completes the transforming, dynamic change of attitude and begin to see
things His Way!

COULD THIS BE ANY SIMPLER??!!!

WHAT IF?

But what if a person REFUSES to go through this process?

What if a person sees this process demands his/her full attention and declares
“not now…maybe after I am settled, married and have ½ my mortgage paid off”?

What if God is trying to get a person’s attention for years, knocking on the door of
her/his heart to come and taste and see that the Lord is good…but first, I –GOD-
need to purify you by trials and tests to make you worthy of My Son and My
Heaven….but then she or he says “This is too hard…and walks away”?

What if?

What if you planned and planned and did all the Dave Ramsey Financial
University courses? What if your mom and dad planned your future so perfectly
that you graduated Magna Cum Laude and more!

However just like the young married woman who had the perfect new marriage
and job at popular bank in town, you came around the bend texting and driving,
crossed the lane and are immediately killed in the crash? What then? (True
story).

Would you have time to give out one big OOPS??!!

Would you be hoping somebody would pray you out of Hades, because you
refused to listen to the Nudge and quiet call many times to make your peace with
God?

Would you then be shocked to know they can’t pray you out
of “purgatory” because there is NO SUCH THING???!!!

MORE QUESTIONS:

Are you going to wish you had listened to that geeky young Christian in the
Cafeteria when she invited you to her church for a concert one time and you
laughed at her?

Are you going to ….and on and on…?

Is this LOVE from a LOVING GOD? YES! He gave us chance after chance after
chance and we lied, made promises upon promises and never kept them. Does
Love still win? Yes!

Scripture tells us it is appointed for a man or woman to die ONCE and then the
judgment. If you’ve ever been around the Deathbed of anyone, they know at that
time where they are heading! This is no mystery! At the point of Death, the
person knows, if conscious, if he/she is heading to hell or heaven! I can tell some
morbid stories here but would rather not.

Someone once asked a famous smiley faced preacher why he didn’t preach on sin
or hell etc. His response was “I don’t want to focus on the negative!”
I am here to say, I am positive there is a negative hell and many are going there
where OOPS would be the mildest thing they would say!

DISOBEDIENCE

“For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God's household.
And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have
never obeyed God's Good News?” 1 Peter 4:17 (NLT)
Nothing about all these bible verses, whether they are from Christ (Who spoke
more about Hell than Heaven) or Peter (who was given the keys to the kingdom)
synchronizes with ANYTHING Billy Graham said on May 31, 1997 or that ROB
BELL is writing today!!! Nothing!

Anybody who speaks anything other than that which is written PLAINLY in the
Holy Scriptures is not prophesying or proclaiming the Truth of God! In fact, a
Spirit-led and filled Peter prophesied this powerful verse above and look at what
he said (in bold) – NEVER OBEYED!!! ….Peter said they NEVER OBEYED or had
practiced DISOBEDIENCE!

This is how God dealt with DISOBEDIENCE in the Old Testament. Uzzah is a
name which symbolizes Disobedience. In 2 Samuel 6:7, we read of Uzzah
disobeying God’s command never to touch the Ark of the Covenant. Scripture
says that he reached out to hold it as it was about to fall off the cart transporting
it. The Lord Our God smote him dead!! Uzzah demonstrated a basic innate
human quality of self importance, albeit a reaction.

In the New Testament, Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5: 1-11) both lost their lives
after lying to the Apostles about the money they had obtained from the sale of
their land. Their broken promise, made under oath from God, cost their lives
immediately.

In both instance, God’s punishment was swift and decisive. Disobedience led to
death. Uzzah, Ananias and Sapphira were saved people, but their sin was so
egregious that a Holy God, who punished His Own Son for our sins, would not
tolerate it.

Imagine Judas Iscariot being interviewed by Oprah about why he betrayed the
Son of God to be killed. He might have come up with the following excuses: he
had a betrayal syndrome or the responsibility of being Disciple Treasurer was too
much for him! How about this one: the chief priests/the devil made him do it, he
felt rejected because he was not one of Jesus’ Inner Circle or when the woman
wasted the expensive Spikenard Oil on the Lord…well “that was the last straw,
Oprah!” Oprah would wipe away a tear and the crowd would applaud!
When we sin, those exact excuses are not far from the truth!! I know of a pastor
involved in sexual sin, who kept up the adultery and it was so blatant the Lord
called him home at a fairly young age! This is exactly what Paul talked about in 1
Cor. 5:5, where he says the “sinful self” must be destroyed so the man’s spirit
would survive on the Day of Wrath! Uzzah, Ananias, Sapphira and other saints
who sometimes sin grievously are all safe in the Arms of Jesus.

OBEDIENCE

Jesus’ True Disciples, unlike Judas, were the ultimate examples of OBEDIENCE.
Moses set out the Truth from God. Deut. 30:15 says “I set out before you Life and
Good, Death and Evil.”

In Matthew 16:24 (NLT), the Word says …. Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If
any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take
up your cross, and follow Me.

WHAT WAS THE CROSS? – THE VERY INSTRUMENT OF NOT JUST DEATH,
BUT ACCORDING TO REIGNING JEWISH LAW – A CURSE!! “Cursed is he
who hangs on a tree (Deut 21:23)”!

THEN, In Matthew 23:34 NLT, Jesus prophesied the Fate of not just His own
current Disciples (See Below) but everyone who dares to stand up and Proclaim
the NAME Which is Above All NAMES!! He said ““Therefore, I am sending you
prophets and wise men and teachers of religious law. But you will kill some by
crucifixion, and you will flog others with whips in your synagogues, chasing
them from city to city”.

YET! Every one of Christ’s men, whom He called to a work larger than them, died
a violent death (except the great Gospel Writer John)!! He called them and us in
Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 1:8* to OBEDIENCE!

And they obeyed!

Here is the account of what it cost each disciple:

Stephen, stoned to death in Jerusalem, 35AD

Philip, crucified in Phrygia, 54 AD.
Barnabas, burnt to death in Cyprus, 64AD.
Peter, crucified in Rome, 69 AD.
Paul, beheaded in Rome, 66 AD.
Matthew beheaded in Ethiopia, 60 AD.
Mark dragged to death, Alexandria, 64 AD.
James, clubbed to death in Jerusalem, 66 AD.
Thomas, speared to death in Calamina, 70 AD.
Andrew, crucified in Achaia, 70 AD.
Luke, hanged in Athens, 93 AD.

The only disciple to die naturally was John, the Beloved, whom the Lord used to
bring His Final Revelation.

Many are still called to pay the ultimate price today. Christians are killed,
maimed, burned out of their homes and generally persecuted all over the world,
especially the Middle East, Asia and beyond. Some like the electrician from
Wakefield, England – the 64 year old Colin Atkinson face losing all – job, home
etc, because he refuses to remove the Cross from his truck at work!

A day is coming when all will face a choice.

Do we fold like the modern pew sitter who is tuned it to his Twitter and Facebook
but cannot find the time to make peace with God…or do we stand strong like
Colin Atkinson in Great Britain?

Do we reject the pure, plain and pregnant with possibility WORD of God and
believe all this post-modern claptrap or do we search the Scriptures ourselves and
then ask God for Revelation and Discernment?

The choice is obvious! Do we choose OOPS over WOW!!

When the roll is called up yonder, will your name be counted in the above and the
thousands of saints and martyrs since?

When the roll is called up yonder, will you even be in the room at all, for your
name to be called? If the answer is no... If you have lived a life of constant sin,
unforgiveness, total disobedience without even a blink, now is the time to turn
away from these things and the cursed life of death and destruction.

Choose Life and Follow Christ….because OOPS won’t cut it

on Judgment Day!

NEW LIVING TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE: Tyndale House Foundation. Used by

permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights
reserved.

Amplified Bible (AMP)

Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation

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