Daily devotion – another sifting!
I spoke last Sunday that God was preparing a nation, an ungodly world, and the Church in these Last Days for the return of His Son to set up His kingdom here on earth in Jerusalem. That the events in Israel that recently ignited and are still underway have been used by God to get our attention.
Peter tells us that 1Pe 4:17 For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s household. And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God’s Good News?
1Pe 4:18 And also, “If the righteous are barely saved, what will happen to godless sinners?”
The recent Covid 19 pandemic that swept the world, that had governments force the closure of Churches, proved to be used by God to sift His Church. With a significant falling away of people from the faith, so that when Churches were allowed to reopen, many people did not return!
Now with the declaration of war in Israel and the very real posturing by nations such as Iran and ISIS rising up again, this time branded as Hamas, I believe is another refining process underway for Christ’s Church.
Many Churches had increased attendance in the past few days since the situation in Israel, but what will be the long-term effect? As the days linger and the conflict carries on in Israel and Gaza, people will go either one of two ways.
Those who have a true relationship with Jesus Christ and are eager and watchful for Christ’s soon return, will have grown in their relationship so much closer to the Lord and with a greater understanding of God’s masterplan for His Son’s return.
But for some, this will be a short-lived religious fervour, that will be like a skyrocket on Guy Fawkes night, a dazzle for a moment, then a return back to earth with a thud.
Time is a great factor in relation to one’s Christian growth and relationship with God. Someone who is truly saved will over time, grow ever closer to the Lord! But those who have been living on a religious experience alone will soon be bored and drop away back to the world that they have love and have never left. No matter what happens in Israel. It will be the classic Australian idiom “Yeh – Nah.”
1 John 2: 18 Dear children, the last hour is here. You have heard that the Antichrist is coming, and already many such antichrists have appeared. From this we know that the last hour has come. 19 These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise, they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us.
As a Pastor living and preaching in the Last Days before Christ’s return for His Church, I have never sensed nor seen Scriptures so vivid, the signs so clear, as they are now, especially with Israel at the centre of the world’s attention.
Time will reveal where you are as God allows another wave of sifting to sweep over the Church and for the people for whom He loves and died for.
What will be left will be those who were once sinners but have surrendered their lives to Christ and are living in expectancy of His return.
But for many it will be the drift back to the old ways and living without a care in the world.
Matthew 24: 36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven,but My Father only. 37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be
We shall watch and see as the war in Israel impacts Christ’s Church across the world, and here in Calvary Chapel Secret Harbour.
The news this morning from the West Australian was significant –
“The world is very much focused on the escalating situation in Gaza.
Joining The West Live on Tuesday morning was global futurist and foreign Affairs expert, Dr Keith Suter.
Dr Suter explains the reasons why Israel has yet to launch its ground offensive campaign in Gaza and why it is acting cautiously.
But he also explains how and why the war in Gaza and Israel could spiral into an Armageddon type conflict.” 17th October 2023.