PRODIGAL SUN

                        SEPTEMBER 2022

Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)

 

I was reading several passages a week or two ago and as I read “many are called but few are chosen” the Spirit spoke to me saying few are chosen because they will not submit to My shaping of them.” Jeremiah was sent to the potters house (Jeremiah 18:1-10) to be taught that lesson. Although in the Jeremiah passage it was in reference to the nation of Judah the principle remains. God’s principles, His standards, remain the same whether national or individual. Obedience to God’s word/directions is mandatory for true victory and peace in all areas of life. There is an often spoken fear in some individuals of ‘going back under the law’. Obedience to God’s ways which reveal His very character insure our peace. Consider Psalm 119:42-45 “...For I trust in Your word. 43 And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, For I have hoped in Your ordinances. 44 So shall I keep Your law continually, Forever and ever. 45 And I will walk at liberty For I seek Your precepts. True liberty, and peace I will add, only comes through aligning yourself with His standards. We CANNOT EARN salvation through the keeping of the ten commandments or any good deeds. Salvation comes ONLY through the work Jesus did on the cross sacrificing His life so that we may live eternally with Him. The realization of that causes one to accept His righteousness as our own and permit Him to place us on the Potter’s wheel. The Holy Spirit will do the shaping if we permit.

 

Just as the clay was crushed to be reshaped we too will experience periods that are very uncomfortable to the natural man/woman. We don’t like pain and will go to extreme measures to avoid it whether physical, mental, or emotional. In Acts 9:15 we read an account of the Lord sending Ananias, a disciple of Jesus, to Saul (later also called Paul). He did not want to go as Saul was well known for the persecution he was inflicting on the followers of Jesus. Consider what Ananias was told. But the Lord said to him, “Go for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.” Had to be quite a test for Ananias to be obedient, but how much more so for Saul as he was to be shown things he was about to suffer for the Name of Jesus.

 

We in the west have been shown for many years what was coming, but have been seduced into a false sense of security believing it could never happen to us in America. Yes, it is so in China, Myanmar, North Korea, Sudan. The true churches of Jesus Christ have been forced underground. House churches are the norm even though punishable by imprisonment and even death. The true church stays faithful to Christ in all conditions. The true church is not a building, but an individual/individuals who position themselves to worship and honor the One true God. He can never be represented by a statue, an image, some religious relic, denomination, or human being given some celebrated spiritual status by other human beings. A true representation of Jesus is anyone who walks in God’s ways, being led by the Holy Spirit, reflecting His light in the growing darkness of this wicked world. As the frog in the boiling pot of water did not recognize the danger until it was too late, the majority of people in this world do not see the terrible peril they are in.

 

Psalm 119:49 reads “Remember the word to Your servant, Upon which You have caused me to hope.” What is the word that He has given you about anything? In this most critical time for the Church God is speaking to any who will listen even those who won’t because of His great love for all of mankind- His most precious creation. Does what He spoke to you line up with scripture or principles found in them? If it is contrary to the Word it was not God. If He has not spoken anything to you dig in the scriptures until they come alive to you. Without the guidance of God’s Holy Word you will be like a car without an engine, or a ship without a rudder. There are no exceptions to the statement that God is right about everything ALL of the time. 

 

There is a term, forbearance, found in the Bible, two passages in Romans (2-4 and 3:25) which in a legal sense means setting aside for a period the sentence. In our system today it would be comparable to one being found guilty in court but the sentence not being declared until a later date.

 

Our nation, all inclusive, was set up under God’s principles. Many of our leaders over the years did not fulfill God’s designed order for which they will give account to God one day and bear the consequences for. When the Bible says “For ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God it truly means ALL. (Romans 3:23) For those who repented and turned to, or back to, Christ there will be eternal amnesty. For all others there will be eternal damnation in an unquenchable fire.

 

We should not find it strange that diseases, plagues, illnesses of all types are flooding our land and the world. For us it is only fitting as you look at the intentional releasing of diseases into the native Indian population. We, through our selected leaders, murdered people God loved just to take their land.

 

We have broken every treaty ever made with various tribes. Is it any wonder that our word, our many governmental treaties have little or no credibility?

 

Indian lands were taken over gold. Is it any wonder that our gold and other riches have found their way into other countries. We stole and under God’s justice system thieves repay multiple times more than what was stolen.

 

For these causes alone our nation’s wealth is cursed. Because God’s mercies are truly new every morning we have not, as a nation, fallen completely in the natural.

 

When we permitted the Bible to be taken from the schools system we gave God’s space to Satan and have deprived generations of children from early exposure to their Creator. Did they then receive it at home?

 

Now, as a nation, we don’t even care if they are born or not, live or die. States are rebelling over the overturning of Roe verses Wade. There is no respect for the highest court of the land when it stands for God’s standards. Walmart, the largest retailer in the world (I think) is including in their insurance money for those who have to travel out of state for abortions. Rebellion is as witchcraft. Who is next?

 

Most people appear, if not satisfied now, to be hoping for the next election to kiss our boo boos and make it all better. Donald Trump was quoted as saying, “America does not need me, it needs Jesus Christ.” Whether we like the man or not, that is the absolute truth.

For those who commit to Christ and the Potter’s Wheel awesome days are ahead regardless of the chaos and physical difficulties we may have to endure. YOU must choose, He only recruits volunteers.

 

kenhayesfleming9@gmail.com                                                    Kenneth H. Fleming

w.w.w.wbcis.com                                                                          502 Market Street

(814) 687-3707                                                                              Fallentimber, Pa. 16639