At The Crossroad

There comes a time and place along the path of our Christian journey when we arrive at a crossroad and are being forced to make a choice. The choice becomes whether we are willing to lay down our own lives so that we might pick up the burden of another, or to let another suffer while we go about living our daily life pretending that we are not responsible for helping them in the midst of their suffering; that they are somehow the one responsible for their own miserable condition. This is the greatest test of our faith! It is easy to walk past those who suffer, and to turn a blind eye to their suffering. But to look at the suffering of others through the loving and compassionate eyes of Christ means we are being called to die on the cross with Him in order that those who are suffering might live. And if we see Christ Himself in the suffering soul, then we are fulfilling the call of Christ by truly ministering unto Him.
~ Fr. Richard+
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James 2:15-16
If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?

You Were Created for His Love

When we begin to understand how it is that God knew each of us before we were created in our mother's womb, and how He infused our soul from out of the unseen realm into a living body that has form and substance in this realm, we can begin to see each other as having equal value and worth to Him who created us and who loves us. Christ, who was both the Eternal and the Incarnate Word, He who was both fully God and fully man, came into the world to walk through our human experience, not so He could understand our human toil and struggles (although He was acquainted with our griefs and our sorrows), but for us to come in contact with His Divine nature, which is Love, and to be made partakers of that Divine nature. He spoke in human parables about God's kingdom so that we would understand in some small way that there is an eternal existence beyond our corporeal (fleshly) existence. He demonstrated the eternal kingdom of God before our very eyes for our benefit, all so that those with eyes to see and ears to hear might have hope of the life to come and understand that Christ was showing us the way back home to the Father who loves us and created us for His Love. However, because of sin, none of us deserve to be in His presence, nor deserve His grace. Yet, so valuable to God is each life and soul which He created, that the Holy One from heaven came down and walked the earth with sinners. He sat with sinners, He dined with sinners, He healed sinners... He saved sinners. Each one of us, no matter what lot in life we've been dealt, can reach out to be touched by the Divine, and be united with the Divine, the Holy One who is not from this world, the One who sets us completely free from the things of this temporal life which bind us to the world. And once set free from the world and all the things in it, there is no thing that can keep us from fulfilling our Divine and eternal purpose for which we were created.
~ Fr. Richard+
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2 Peter 1:2-4
Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as his Divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the Divine nature (love), having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

True and False Prophets

We read in Daniel 11:32, that those who are influenced by the spirit of the antichrist will use smooth words (flattery) to draw people to themselves. The one unmistakable characteristic of every false prophet in history has been flattery. And the one unmistakable characteristic of every true prophet has been rebuke.

False prophets flatter people in order to win them to their group, or to build their own kingdoms, or to get honor, or to get money, etc. Many of these false prophets correspond faithfully with people, in order to retain their personal hold over them. Their letters will not however contain words of rebuke and/or correction (as in the letters of the Lord and of the apostles - as we read in Revelation 2 and 3 and in the epistles). Instead, they will only contain words of flattering commendation.

Smooth words will only defile your heart with pride and self-satisfaction. Words of rebuke on the other hand will cleanse your heart and make it pure. Jesus said "Those whom I love, I reprove and I discipline" (Rev.3:19). Rebuke is one mark of Divine love.

When God sends a prophet into our midst to rebuke us, that is a proof of the fact that God loves us. When God forsakes a church, it will "no longer have a prophet in its midst" (Psa.74:1,9) to rebuke it. Instead, it will have preachers who preach smooth words (2 Tim. 4:3,4). That is a sad condition for any of God's people to be in.

In Revelation 2 and 3, we see that even though five of the seven churches there were in a bad shape, yet the Lord had not forsaken them as yet. The proof of this is seen in the fact that He sent a prophet (John the apostle) to rebuke and correct them through his letters.

John had strong words even for the elders - words such as, "You have left your first love.... You are spiritually dead.... You are wretched and poor and blind and naked". If those elders and those churches did not respond to those words of rebuke, and repent, they would be forsaken.

Once the Lord "takes away the lampstand" (Rev.2:5), He will not send His prophets to rebuke that church any more. The false prophets will then take over, and smooth words will be heard regularly at the meetings, Sunday after Sunday!! This has happened in church after church, in generation after generation, throughout these twenty centuries. And it is happening all around us today.

It is at such a time, that there is a great need for those "who know God, who are strong, and who will do great exploits for Him" (v.32). Because they know God, they will fear no man.

by Zac Poonen