A Wonderful Church

http://www.tscnyc.org/

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Waiting Too Late

The Lord is longsuffering with us, and oh how I'm grateful. Yet there comes a time when all of His warnings will be past and His judgment will come. As you look all throughout the Word of God at the promises of the soon coming of our Savior, and the examples of those who will be caught unprepared to meet Him, it made me think of all the times in His Word we see people that simply waited too late.
Remember Israel after the twelve spies were sent into Canaan? Ten came back with a terrible report of insurmountable odds. They pretty much said, "Yes the land looks great but the enemy is too big so don't even think about it." But when judgment was pronounced upon them they changed their 'tune.' They were ready then to fight, only it was too late, they had made their choice and God was no longer going to fight on their side.
What about later in Israel's history when we find Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah and so many others foretell of their imminent doom? Time and again they would not heed the warning of the Lord and faced the prophesied judgment to come. Only then to realize they should have listened sooner.
There are so many we could list. What about the Roman Centurion at Jesus' crucifixion? He was there through the mocking, the scourging, the buffeting and the gambling of His clothes with all of the humiliation, yet it was after our Savior's death that he declared, "Truly, this was the Son of God."
Is it possible for us to break the trend and actually learn applicable truths from history instead of allowing it to simply repeat itself? Can we look at these examples and say, "Not me!" This needs to be a declaration on our part. We need to realize that the Lord is not slack concerning His promise (2 Peter 3:9).
Let us not be at ease in Zion or declare peace and safety when sudden destruction is looming around the corner (Amos 6:1 & 1 Thes 5:3). Let us declare that we are thankful for the ability to hear what the Spirit is saying unto the churches (Rev. 2-3). Because we can hear His voice we will heed His warnings and cling to the victory He secured on Calvary and through the Resurrection!
We declare today that we will not be lulled to sleep by an enemy bent on stealing our soul. We declare as Joshua, "Jos 24:15- And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
God bless you and keep you as you go forward with Him!

A Plea for Repentance

Do you remember the prophet Amos? He is in the Old Testament and you will find his book directly following Joel. Amos had the difficult task, as many prophets did and do, of prophesying of God's upcoming judgment upon a nation. At this time, Israel was at its peek. They had the most land they had ever had, they were in political peace and their nation was prosperous, but spiritually and morally they were corrupt.
Amos began to prophesy to them God's plan of action. He let them know of His judgment that would soon be given, and His wrath that would be poured out. God's wrath would be poured out on the nations of Israel & Judah, and many others.
But looking into chapter 4, we see that God had already sent calamities and disasters to them. He had sent drought, famine and pestilence; all to try to bring them to the realization that they had forsaken the God of their fathers. You see, God loves His children so much that even when we travel down the wrong path He will send things our way to bring us back to the place we need to be. But the key is, we must be willing to respond to His convicting power and REPENT!
Israel was not! Time after time in this chapter we read the words that must have been painful for Amos to write and even more painful for our Lord to inspire, "yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord." Oh what a horrible site. God's loving arms reaching out, His loving warnings, rebukes and chastisments going out, but they are all met with rejection! Remember Jesus when He said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!" (Luke 13:34).
How does this apply to our life? Well, individually we need to always be striving for a closer walk with God. Every day the Lord will draw us closer to Him if we allow Him to do the work in us necessary. But as a nation, we need to understand that God doesn't have to send anymore prophets, He has already given us His Word! I live in the United States of America which at one time was a Christian nation. We are now a nation that is doing its best to remove the name of God out of any and everything. We are killing mass amounts of precious babies each and every day. We have almost totally abandoned God and everything He stands for.
Proverbs 9:17 says, "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." We are there. God's judgment will come upon this nation. There is no other way to see it. God is just! He will not hold one nation to one standard and have a different standard completely for another. God help us realize that we need to repent!
I urge you, don't reject the call of God to repentance. Don't ignore the conviction of the Holy Ghost when He moves upon you. Pray for our nation, pray for yourselves and pray for God's mercy to be upon us. Just Pray!