April 6th, 2020 - As I was driving into the church this morning I received something from the Lord that hit me like a ton of bricks. I felt personally convicted about what I heard but I felt it was a message not just for me but for the church in general. The nature of the message gives me great pain to share, as it is not flowery or uplifting in any perceivable sense. However, It underscores what Pastor Brian has been voicing recently about making good use of this time by pressing into God. It surely calls on the reader to DO SOMETHING. Here is what I believe the Lord said to me:
You pride-stricken people. You ask where is God in all of this, I say where are you? You sat idle when babies were aborted, when prayer and faithfulness were called "superstition," and when the institutions of this land methodically pushed me away. Where were you when atheism and intellectualism became fashionable?
You were to remain watchful, yet you slumber. You were to give thanks in all circumstances yet now I hear your grumbling and complaints.
Has the clay wisdom over the potter?
The sun rose this morning, did you see it? Or were you asleep? Are you near to me or far from me? This question will define you and it will define this nation. It's no one else's fault. Stop pointing your finger. Judgment begins with the house of God.
For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? 1ST PETER 4:17 - NKJV
Repent of your wicked ways and sober up from your overdose of grace. Repentance is the key that will open the door to restoration, not grace after grace after grace.
You have distorted and mismanaged my grace, and in so doing you've blasphemed me.
I'm not the God of your circumstances, I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob...
I'm not the God of pleasantries and comfort, I'm the God of the harvest. But what's reaped in harvest time? Good fruit and grain ripe for picking or wishful thinking and compromise?
Put away your cheap gospel and rehearsed scripts and return to me while there is still time, while I can still be found. Let this be a wake up call. Set your alarms. Return. Pray. Seek me. Remember your first love and Him who loved you first. The nation hangs in the balance.
The question that requires reckoning if this is the Lord is how are we going to respond? I cannot answer this for anyone but myself. In a time when I've found myself quite unsure what exactly is going on and what God is saying, I must commit to pray and fast. There is no other way I know how to get an answer. I also need to search my heart and examine my ways to make sure I'm with him and not against him in a time of great confusion and division. To what degree am I responsible for the church's faults or failures? I don't know, but rather than pass the buck I should repent and pray. If this word convicts you, rings true to you, or brings you to a place of severity and sobriety, will you join me?
- Joe D'Orsie - Communications Director - PCC