Word to the Church Today.
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PDF Download: Full "Return to the Lord" message
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“Return to the Lord”
Excerpts from the Full message below:
Many today are speaking of these times being a precursor of a Great Global Revival, but I believe God is actually preparing His Church for a "Return to the Lord", and that out of the Church’s "Return to the Lord" will come a Last Harvest:
“For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God:
and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?”
1 Peter 4:17
and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?”
1 Peter 4:17
But until the Church “Return’s to the Lord” how will the world even see God: “Strive for . . . holiness without which no one will see the Lord,”Hebrews 12:14. This “Return to the Lord” by the Church will not come without a price, and that price will be defined and refined by “Discipline”:
“For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant,
but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
Hebrews 12:6-11
It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant,
but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
Hebrews 12:6-11
Therefore, we must begin to live out those Holy Lives that God has not just spoken, but created us for. Choosing Holiness in the Mundane, not because one day is greater than another, but because God “Choose” one day to be greater than another as it pertains to every area of our lives, for example:
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And each one of these Holy “Choices”, according to God’s Choices (Ways), should be our passionate life Choices, at which time the world can SEE God, in contrast to mans “Choices” and “Ways”, in worship, celebrations, living, relationships, investments, ethics, and pledges, at which God cannot be SEEN. We too, like the Israelites, have the opportunity today to quietly separate ourselves through the “Red Sea”, by victoriously separating the livelihood of this world to live the life where God speaks, and allow Him to lead us into His Promises, and promise of Eternal Life.
Malachi 1:6-14
The Priests' Polluted Offerings
10 Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! . . . 13 But you say, ‘What a weariness this is,’ and you snort at it, says the Lord of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering!
The Priests' Polluted Offerings
10 Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! . . . 13 But you say, ‘What a weariness this is,’ and you snort at it, says the Lord of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering!
