Last
week I heard a talk show host make this statement: “People have blind faith in
their political leaders but not in their Savior. It should be the other way
around.”
We
recently saw a new Pope elected. People were climbing over each other in
Vatican City to see the smoke. The television networks were all there waiting to
get a glimpse of the next leader of billions of Catholics. Billions of people
put their blind faith in this man, elected from his peers, to lead the Catholic
Church into the future. But he is not the Savior. Jesus Christ is Lord!
It
seems we are stuck in this cycle where the government is slowly taking over
every part of our life and we do not like it. Many have put blind faith in the
President as the Messiah, the Promised One. Now many feel he is not delivering
on what they expected. And as much as the media wants to spin the truth, one
thing is for sure. Jesus Christ is Lord!
Like most Christians, we find ourselves saying
that we believe God is all powerful, merciful, bountiful and good. But then in
some strange way, we live like He’s not. We act like we need to
help Him out sometimes, like He can’t handle anything Himself.
In
the Foreword of the book “Kingdom
Matrix” by Jeff Christopherson, Ed Stetzer writes: “To the world, we
are like children playing with our imaginary friends. And the devil is content
to allow that impression to persist.”
When
will we get serious about Jesus command to go and make disciples? What will it
take for us to bring the Good news of Jesus death, burial, and resurrection to
a world that exalts a man for becoming leader of the Catholic Church? Jesus Christ
is Lord and His command was clear and direct. “GO.”
In John
8:44 Jesus declares that Satan is the Father of lies. And we swallowed every
lie Satan has. God, however, will not be satisfied until all His children are
gathered in heaven with Him through the Name Jesus Christ alone.
Why
is this important? Check out what Peter said in his warning to the church: “In the past there were false prophets among God’s people. [Divide] It
is the same now. You will have some false teachers in your group. [Distract] They
will teach things that are wrong—ideas that will cause people to be lost. And
they will teach in a way that will be hard for you to see that they are wrong. [Deceive]They
will even refuse to follow the Master who bought their freedom. And so they
will quickly destroy themselves.” (2 Peter 2:1)
Is this true today? You tell me. It should not
come as a surprise that the Bible warns us that there are going to be many
false teachers and false religions in the world. “They
will have no love for others and will refuse to forgive anyone. They will talk
about others to hurt them and will have no self-control. They will be cruel and
hate what is good.” (2 Timothy 3:3)
Jesus warned, “Many false prophets will
come and cause many people to believe things that are wrong.” (Matthew
24:11)
The Apostle John said, “My dear
children, the end is near! You have heard that the enemy of Christ is coming.
And now many enemies of Christ are already here. So we know that the end is
near.” (1 John 2:18)
The world ridicules Jesus Christ and
Christians for obedience to God. We are content to let the world go ahead with
it. When will we stop, as Stetzer so correctly points out, “playing with
our imaginary friends?” When will the
Name of Jesus be lifted up and exalted above all other names? Satan wants us to
think that telling people about Jesus someone else’s job. And many of us think
that’s okay.
Sad,
very sad.
“So God raised him up to the most important place and gave him
the name that is greater than any other name. God did this so that every person
will bow down to honor the name of Jesus. Everyone in heaven, on earth,
and under the earth will bow. They will all confess, “Jesus Christ is Lord,”
and this will bring glory to God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)
Our faith and trust is in the finished work
of Jesus Christ on the cross alone. Only when we fully understand this, “Then
we will no longer be like babies. We will not be people who are always changing
like a ship that the waves carry one way and then another. We will not be
influenced by every new teaching we hear from people who are trying to deceive
us—those who make clever plans and use every kind of trick to fool others into
following the wrong way. No, we will speak the truth with love. We will
grow to be like Christ in every way.” (Ephesians 4:14-15)
That’s the way it should be.
