Day 2953 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Ezekiel 3:18 NIV

It's a weird thing to find yourself living within a world of woes. What do I mean by a world of woes? "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." What is woe? Woe is defined as a great sorrow or distress. Woe is misery, anguish, despair, depression, dejection, heartache, heartbreak, hopelessness.

Woe is the status quo in this world in which we now walk. Woe is what we see unfolding within the unraveling. Woe is what's being praised by many people in most places. Woe is the realization that we are in a place that both couldn't be further from God but that also cannot seem to get far enough from God.

We're in this world so filled with foolishness and folly that our fellow humans can no longer distinguish between right and wrong. It's like for a while there, it seemed as if we had a chance, a choice, an opportunity to pick our path. But of late, it's only as if the path has been chosen and it's far wider than any of us could have imagined. And the wideness, the commonness, the apparent warmness of that wide road leading to what's been sold as a funhouse filled with freedom free from limits has only encouraged many to hop on and throw caution to the wind in the process.

But now, so many people in so many places are struggling so mightily just to tread water because they're now surrounded by plenty of others telling them that it's okay to sink. That funhouse free from rules and regulations has opened the proverbial pandora's box of wicked inclinations and sinful indifference. No longer is the world teetering on the edge of disaster. They're actively trying to encourage it.

For a couple of days now we've been discussing zeal and how much of the world of faith seems to be either somewhat limited or entirely lacking in that spiritual fervor. Seems as if many who bear the title Christian are only in the game for the validation that moniker provides. To be blunt, it's becoming rather difficult to distinguish between the church and the world it's supposed to be reaching.

Why is that? Why have we allowed for this fearful hesitancy within our approach to the sharing of the Gospel? Why have some followed that fear so far as to pervert the true Gospel and instead proffer a completely pathetic imitation that's only accepted because it's free from the offense? When did we agree to replace theology based on God's Word meant to help save His people with a sickening meology based on pleasing the people, apparently unconcerned as to their eternal salvation?

When did saving ourselves from the ridicule and rebuke of the public become of greater concern than trying to help save the public from what we claim to believe we believe is coming to a world near you?

Guess it doesn't actually matter when it happened only that it's happened. And it has most certainly happened. So much has been made, in recent years at least, of not offending anyone. This fear of public dejection and rejection has spawned this wave of new religious ideologies entirely based on only pleasing itching ears by completely avoiding the truth that hurts to hear. And no matter the reason for it, the outcome of it is a world spiraling toward hell and smiling all the way.

Shouldn't be like that. It shouldn't be so convenient. Shouldn't require next to nothing from us. If we truly believe in this salvation we say we've received, then how can allow ourselves to avoid the truth that helped open our eyes to the many things from which we desperately needed saving? How can we hold this cherished promise of eternal peace within our hearts and not do whatever it takes to make everyone else aware of the fact that without repentance it's impossible?

How can we call ourselves Christians and not lay down our lives for those to whom we've been called to serve?

Maybe that's the whole problem, the idea of serving. Have we simply gotten used to equating service with the sit-down restaurant type of existence to which we're accustomed? Do we think that when God called us to serve that He expected us to cater? Could we, in our feeble minds, have managed to equate Heaven with Burger King? As preachers and teachers and pastors and shepherds, are we supposed to simply take orders and fulfill requests from our patrons?

My point is that I fear we may have mixed up who we've been called to serve and how we've been called to serve. Yes, we are in this world and called to reach out for the world, but not by becoming like the world. We are to be holy as our Father is holy, and we are to serve Him out of reverent fear for His undeniable sovereignty. We can't serve Him in the manner in which He is to be served and twist His Word just so it doesn't offend those who are living outside of His truth.

Do you see what I'm saying? How can the church continue treading so lightly, especially when presented with nearly countless examples of a kind of evil that should make us physically ill? In this world where sin is running rampant, how can we not speak against it? If we hold that sin is wrong, that sin is death, then how can we simply allow those around us to continue racing toward their death, you know, considering how we claim to know the Truth which paved the Way toward the Life?

Do we not believe what Scripture teaches us about the eternal destination of sin? Or are we simply afraid of being hated for telling the world what Scripture teaches us about the eternal destination of sin?

Look, I get it, hell doesn’t go down easy. Especially in a world that’s living like it simply doesn’t exist and that they’ll therefore never risk feeling that burn. But again, whatever the reason or excuse, it's pathetic and simply unbecoming of a person who calls themselves a Christian. For a church to remain silent when given plenty of perfect opportunity to speak up and speak out and stand upon the Word of God is simply a gross dereliction of this duty to which we've been charged.

Could it be that we've simply accepted our hope of eternal peace and are okay with doing nothing more than hoping others manage to do the same? Have we forgotten what all is on the line? Is our assurance of Heaven worth allowing others to find hell, just so we don't experience any ill-will while we’re here?

It all comes back to this topic of zeal that we've been discussing. Our faith ought to be seen as extreme, especially in this place where sin has been made to seem harmless. Our faith should win us labels and hatred and persecution from those who think wickedness is nothing more than mild amusement. The title 'Christian' ought to make the world shudder, but I'm afraid that, instead, it's become all too easy to simply shrug off.

This weakness being allowed within our hearts, our minds and our calling should not be there. It should be the last thing that we would ever willingly accept. Why? Because we know, or at least claim to know, that there's not only a big difference between right and wrong, but that that difference will cost lives and lead to a kind of misery that we're simply unable to imagine.

If we believe in the vast chasm between what the Bible says is right, righteous and appropriate and what it says is detestable, disgusting and immoral, and if we believe that all sin leads to eternal death, how can we not say something to a world throwing that filth around like candy at a parade?

Friends, I believe that this verse isn't just meant for the prophets of long ago. I think it's one for us as well. Because we too claim to know that, in the end, there is a path that leads to life and another that leads to death. And that those destinations last forever. If we sit silently outside of the world where we're not a bother and therefore not at risk of being persecuted, then that Heaven we think we've got waiting might not end up being there for us.

Because God does not call us to secure our own salvation and hope everyone else can do the same. He calls us to go into all the world and share the Gospel that teaches the Name that is and will always be above all Names, the only Name by which we all must be saved. If we believe in salvation and the Savior who bought it for us, then how can we refuse to fight against the lies and sin and darkness that is keeping so many apart from the Name by which they must be saved?

The whole point is that we have been warned about what’s coming. We have been told what awaits. We have been made well-aware of the drastic and dire difference between wickedness and righteousness. And we have been born again into a new life seeking the furthering of His Kingdom through a fearless faith that not only asks us or inspires us to tell others what we've found in Christ, it demands we do so.

But will we? Will we stand up and stand out and risk the pushback and punishment? Will we take up our crosses and walk into every day ready and willing to die upon them if that's what it takes to help the world see just how much we actually believe in Christ? Will we tell the world what the world needs to hear? Or will we stay quiet and simply hope to fly below the radar and slip peacefully into the promise that we only ever wanted for ourselves?

We Christians aren't merely the ones who get to live the rest of these worldly lives in joyful expectation of peace still to come. We have a job to do until that day arrives. We can pretend we don't. We can tread lightly and pray that appeasing people is good enough simply because they call it 'loving'. We can avoid any and all hardship and struggle and simply bide our time until Jesus returns.

But if that's all we do, then we will have failed. Not because we didn't find Christ, but because we apparently didn't care enough or believe enough or take it seriously enough to tell others. We know that death is coming for all of us, but that for anyone remaining in sin, that death will never end. If we don't tell the world that sin is death, then their deaths are on us. Because He put us in this world at this time surrounded by all the proof we need that there is a huge difference between righteousness and wickedness.

And if we simply allow the world to remain joyfully ignorant of that, then we'll have failed to uphold this calling, and we will therefore cost the eternal peace of those we could have and should have tried to help. This world is telling everyone that sin is acceptable, harmless even. If we don’t stand upon the Word of God that provides us with the truth that tells us otherwise, then we’re complicit in the destruction of those we could have helped find salvation Christ before it’s too late.

Our faith cannot be a selfish existence. It's just not made to be that way. We have job to do my friends, and it's one that carries with it a literal eternal significance. We cannot fail in this. We cannot take this lightly. We cannot remain silent, because one day every tongue will confess. And when that day comes, "when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

Will He find a faithful army fighting to gather as many as possible or just a bunch of selfish individuals sitting quietly on the sidelines waiting for Him to do the job we were called to do?

And just a little food for thought until we reconvene on the morrow, for any and all who claim to know what good is and where it is found, “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.”

#LeaveNoSoulUntold