Heart of the Matter

 I know that in times like these everyone wants to go to church and hear the most encouraging messages. We want to hear things like "Hold on help is on the way" and the "weirdos" find some way of turning it into an opportunity for you to "sow your seed!"  But the reality is, that God has had enough of this country and especially American commercialized Christianity. At some point we have to examine ourselves and our hearts toward him. 

We have exchanged the truth of God's word for inspirational seeker sensitive messages. We have asked God to leave not only our country but we have also asked Him to leave our churches, homes and personal lives. America is the greatest country of all, wether you are Democrat or Republican or whatever political criminal entity you support. The bottom line is America was founded on the bible! We have abandoned God and therefore God has finally abandoned us! In the bible Israel was constantly chasing after other gods, and God being merciful was so good to them that in hopes of the goodness they would turn to Him. Yet they continued to pursue others. Finally God would get fed up and say "okay have them all." "But the blessing and the provisions came with me and they are leaving with me. (paraphrase)"

 Before you know it the country would be in shambles and be pilfered by outsiders. How come no one can see that, that is what is going on in our country today? We have been pilfered! Even in our churches, our pastors have abandoned the pulpits to be popular! Man we as a people need to come back to God and cleanse our hearts 1 Corinthians11:8 . Divorce is in the heart, perversion is in the heart, greed is in the heart, lust is in the heart, pride is in the heart, wickedness is in the heart! Read (Genesis 8:21, Jeremiah 17:9-10 Matthew 13:35)  The bible clearly says "rend your heart and not your garments" Joel 2:12-14 

 In your own life today; take a glimpse with the word as the lamp and search your heart. Are there some things that have hindered the blessing of God in your life? Give all the offering you want, purchase all the prayer rags you want! Give every number the preacher says to give. Listen to all the encouraging messages you want. The bottom line is that Jesus clearly gave His life for us, not so that we can live to ourselves and how we want. Extracting certain parts of the word and watering down the parts that are not palatable. He died so that we might be reconciled unto God. So that we might have the abundant life. Not the life of compromise. Our country needs God because it was founded on Him! Our pastors need to quit trying to be popular and acting like a bunch of Tony Robbins disciples and start telling the truth! 

 Anything that I have said, I have experienced! God blessed me so much and yet my heart had gotten far from him. I ended up in the "hog's pen" of life. Finally I came to my senses. I have turned my heart towards Him once again. Like Joel 2:14 "who knows maybe he will not turn and relent And leave a blessing behind Him."  I am in no way being cynical towards encouraging messages because I give them all the time. I think people should go to church and be encouraged when they leave. But we should not encourage our people and our country all the way to hell to either. Leading them to believe that we can live how we want and all we have to do is give a certain amount and God will bless us. There has to be a balance. 

 I will leave you with this. It all goes back to the heart. It is the heart of the matter. Proverbs 4:23 "watch over your heart with all diligence"   Whenever the children of Israel came back to God with a whole heart, he always restored every other part of the country. Economy and so forth. It's in the bible READ IT!

 My friends it is time to get back to the heart of the matter. It's time to examine ourselves and ask God as the psalmist did to search our hearts. When we can be real like that. God can begin to move on our behalf and bring back the blessing to our marriages, families, neighborhoods and countries. It's all right there in the bible. It's all right there in our hearts.