With what shall I come to the LORD and bow myself before the God on high?  Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, with yearling calves?  Does teh LORD take delight in thousands of rams, in ten thousand rivers of oil?  shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

Micah 6:6-7 

I love to read books and watch movies like The Lord of the Rings.  The good guys fight evil against incredible odds and, coming to the very brink of destruction, they win the battle.

  

I grew up in the church – from a tiny baby until now.  More so than any other time in my life I feel that there is a great battle raging in the churches of America and across the world.  There is in our churches a sense of dry worship and defiance against the very God we claim to worship.  Most of our church people attend church because it is the thing to do.  It is what spiritual Christians do.  The problem is that this is exactly what the enemy of our souls desires.  Dead, lifeless, fake, unaware Christians who think that we are worshipping God when in fact the noise of our lips does not get past the church rafters.

 

So many of us have been deceived into thinking we are worshipping and serving God.  Pastors get so wrapped up in the ministry that they forget what the goal of ministry and life is.  Parishioners are so wrapped up in their own lives that they have no clue what life is about.  It is past time that we as Believers in Christ take back the ground that we have given to the enemy.  It is time that we fall on our faces in repentance before God for our dispassionate service, our empty worship, and our utter failure to recognize God for Who He truly is – the Supreme Sovereign and Almighty King of our hearts and souls.

 

It is for His glory and His glory alone that we have been created.  It is for His glory and His glory alone that we have been called out of darkness into His marvelous light.  It is for His glory that we live and breathe and have our being.  There is no higher purpose, no higher calling in life than to live it utterly and completely for the glory of God.  We must abandon all the pretense of church and embrace with utter abandon the glory of God.  Our lives must become holy.  It is our purpose, our calling to be holy.  It is our responsibility to be holy.  It is His demand.

 

So much of our energy as Christians is wasted battling each other to proclaim who is the most spiritual.  So much of what we in our churches is pointless when we seek to lift up ourselves to the podium of God.  We have become idol worshipers in our churches.  We have placed God in a sterile box and lifted up our own thoughts of who He is and how He operates.  We have usurped God’s authority because of our insecurities.

 

The battle in our churches is directed toward the wrong enemy.  The heroes of the battles on Middle Earth overcame because they knew who the enemy was.  It is time that those of us in the church recognize the enemy and call on God to bring down the enemy.  Satan has disguised himself as an angel of light and disrupted the unity of too many churches.  Too much false teaching has crept into the church, masquerading as right.  Too many eyes have been blinded.  Too much time has been lost.

 

The battle rages.  Let it be waged with courage, honor, and dignity – for the glory of God.  Let the battle be waged by comrades in arms, not enemies across the aisle.  There is much work that must be done in our world today.  It is past time we stop shooting our wounded! Bind their wounds.  Take up your weapons to fight against the true enemy!  Let the battle cry be – To the Glory of God!

 

 mrc