My word of assent to the few, the brave, who will speak boldly for righteousness

I wrote to a Christian leader recently to thank him for having the courage to stand and be counted for Jesus and for righteousness on a regular basis.  There are other men and women who also daily speak the truth, and I am thankful, to God, for them too.  I want to stand and publicize this 'thank you' for my fellow warriors in Jesus's army.  We are certainly few and far between, but we are united in the Holy Spirit.


THANK YOU fellow few, fellow brave: THE REMNANT! 

In an age when most men will not stand and be counted for anything at all (except to be counted as a fan of some TEAM or other), you who are strong in the LORD and are of good courage to speak the truth into the darkness, yes, you are a shining light for the LORD Jesus. 

I have tried to awaken the church-goin' folk that I come into contact with, to no avail.  They often lament the state of the church, but can't see that staying part of it just make them a party to the crime.  And what is the crime?  It's now the same as it was in Jesus's day.  The religious establishment, the system WAS the problem then, as now.  That is why John the Baptist worked out in the pastures, in the countrysides.  He had no reason to call the supposed 'righteous' temple goers to repentance; nor did he waste time trying to 'warn' the Pharisees and Scribes of the 'judgment to come.'  When Jesus did go to temple, it was to scathingly correct those religious hypocrites who were ruining everything and devouring widow's houses for a pretense and turning aside the right of the poor to his wages.

I wonder, does anyone understand my meaning?  Does anyone see the striking similarities here?

And what of these leaders, the scribes, the pharisees?  Today's pastors sure do love their 501(c)3 status, don't they.  They will defend that to the death, until it becomes the death of them.   They refuse to see that the organization itself (that of the modern day church-under the state) is exactly what is wrong.  And it is Nicolaitanism at its finest.  Power over the laity (lay-person).  These same preachers likely don't like the Catholic 'priest' system which puts an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy between us and our Saviour, but they will not see themselves as for what they are.  No, we must be under some priest--eh, hem, I mean, some 'pastor' if we want to honor God and obey Him.  I don't know about you, but I can see no reason at all why the only way we can assemble as Christians is in a 501(c)3 non-profit building!  Whatever happened to fellowship in your own home on a regular basis?  When did this suddenly become evil?  It's like the King of England getting upset that the Pilgrims dared to worship in their own homes instead of going to HIS church and paying HIS temple tax.  It's so inane.  Jesus never built a building and taxed His followers for it!

Yes, unfortunately we are too dumb to comprehend the Bible for ourselves, so we must heap up preachers, teachers, administrators unto ourselves, who have made merchandise out of us (turned church into a money making career where the shepherds live off the sheep instead of laying down their lives for the sheep).  

Why exactly do I need to PAY some un-spiritually aware man to read the WORD of GOD to me?  Do I not have the Holy Spirit to teach me? Have I not been created an intelligent being in the very image of God? 

I actually believe that we are, each one of us, intelligently designed by God to understand His simple Words to us.  I'm sorry that you don't know how to earn an honest living and that you need to rely on forced donations from hard working Christians in order to feed yourselves. It is really very disheartening indeed.  Perhaps people should learn how to grow their own food, or how to do actual work in order to pay their own bills instead of being professional solicitors of contributions from others.  Don't we have enough NON-profitable non-profits out there?  Do we really need more? It's almost as bad as the government--in fact it is worse, because widow's houses are devoured for the pretense of doing 'God's' work. That's worse than the evil Uncle Sam.  At least he's some no name uncle we never knew we were related to, and we are on our guard for his wiles.  We know he's a wolf in sheep's clothing.

I have even been castigated in my own home by one local preacher (after he had a full meal at my hand of course-literally a home-grown, home cooked meal) for being too upfront about what is lacking in the pulpit and for the preachers' corporate guilt in the decay of the church. I essentially presented your very arguments to the man here in my home, quoting Ezekiel 34 (reading it to him actually, which I could tell he hated), and many other Scriptures to him.  I wasn't even telling him that I thought he, personally, was the problem, since I barely knew anything about him.  I was merely stating that 'America didn't decay in a day,' and that 'somewhere along the line, the church at large, including all its lay people, dropped the ball.' 

All I got was one excuse after another.  Plenty of, "well, you have to understand...." arguments.  I tired of it after a half an hour or so, and said that 'I don't accept that apologetic'--that those excuses do not fly according to what Jesus has called us to be: "salt and light."  That just lit a fire in him of course--but not a fire to defend the Scripture.  NO.  A fire to defend the fact that he has bills to pay, and he them tried to take me to school and explain the finer points of running an organization and of appealing to the masses in order to not offend new converts, blah, blah, blah.

I was even lambasted by letter from him later (several pages worth-which did not include any Scriptural references for his repeated rebukes), and my husband was told that it was wrong to have a woman (me) being the 'spiritual leader' in the home (he said I dominated the conversation: this was his way to deride me for daring to try to have equal time on the 'debate' floor at my own dinner table-because I dared to correct him and not submit to his many defenses of why the pastors today can't speak the blatant truth anymore). He spoke of his precious light bill, and how he needed to make sure not to offend new/shallow believers, etc. It was quite surprising to me, and sickening, literally.  I had no idea that he was that kind of pastor.  But to tell the truth, it's good to know it after 3 weeks so that I didn't waste any more time going to HIS church.  People love to say that it takes a year or two to really get to know a church--you have to give it time-they say.  Bullocks, I say.  You can find out right quick if you only ask the correct questions and take the time to be closely observant.

I mean really, I went to his house (his church) three weeks in a row and did not interrupt him while he preached his sermons.  But in my own home he needed to drive and dominate the conversation as well.  And none of what he wanted to talk about pertained to anything spiritual!  Unbelievable!  The only time the topic turned to the spiritual state of this country and our nation was when I shifted the conversation that way.  

Why in God's precious name do pastors think that anything they do is not somehow spiritual?  They so badly want to live a secular life, take vacations, enjoy themselves to the fullest.  How can that be the driving force in a pastor's existence?  Aren't they supposed to possess the greatest zeal for God of all humanity?  Is it really wrong to expect a man of 'God' or a man of the 'cloth' to speak mostly about spiritual matters?  I don't know, it just seems so weird to me; I cannot wrap my head around it at all.

He quoted NO Scripture to me; while I spoke over and over in Biblical texts to try to get through to him. I was literally blown away, because I actually thought that maybe he was a true believer in the cause of Christ when I agreed to have him come over for dinner--I was looking forward to a spiritually deep conversation. After listening to him make excuses and whine about the poor estate of the church and their powerlessness to change anything, I realized that it is a lack of the Holy Spirit of God that is the problem.  They teach traditions of men as the commandments of God, and having a form of godliness, they deny the true power thereof.

They have no fiery zeal for the house of the LORD as Jesus did. They defend man and not God.  They defend themselves and make no apologetic for their FAITH in Jesus.  They have all but neutered themselves, and they have neutered most of the 'Christian' men in their pews. When a woman stands up and tells them it's time to suit up and start fighting for righteousness and to resist every form of evil, they cry "FOUL" and quote the "women must be silent" verses! 

If the men would 'man up' maybe the women wouldn't have to shame them by 'standing up' in the gap and sounding the trumpet alarm for them. The watchmen have flown the coop; the shepherds have prepared the sheep for the great culling by fattening them up on high-fructose corn syrup messages and keeping them in their little stalls (which they call pews). 

Meanwhile, anyone who's got their battle armor on and knows how to use the Word and their Shield is enemy number one.  If we dare to discern the times as Jesus commanded us to, we are some kind of heretic with a martyr complex! I don't know, but I thought 'martyr' meant 'witness' in Greek.  If that's the case, then I guess we should all be martyrs of a sort-giving up our lives (our comforts at least) as Jesus's witnesses.  Anyone who seeks to save his life will lose it.  If he gives up his life for the sake of Jesus, he will gain eternal life in Jesus Christ.

May God Almighty help us in Jesus's name! 
What lay ahead for the 'church' in America is fearful indeed.