**Reposted from my ["other" blog]**

As I fumble around here in the pre-dawn, rainy-morning hours trying to make sense out of the last of my pre-sleep "to-do's", I'm seeing more and more people's threads and posts and blogs and bulletins about supposedly "Biblical" stuff, but it bears very little resemblance to the actual Biblical stuff.

One guy's thing earlier said something like "I don't see why all these people get jazzed about heaven when the Bible says people can live forever in perfect conditions right here on earth." I was like, "Really? Where's THAT in the Bible?" Of course, he couldn't hear me, and even if he could he wouldn't be able to point it out to me, because it ain't there. There will be a thousand-year period on earth where Jesus is ruling and reigning over the kingdoms of the earth, and Eden-like conditions will be restored, but like most things, that will come to an end...and I could explain for way longer than you'd probably care to read, so I'll leave it at that for now.

I'm not just talking about silly misunderstandings like that either. So yeah, some guy got mixed up between "forever" and "a thousand years"...big whoop, right? I agree, simple misunderstanding. Got it. But what about the people who are talking about important things, not just "theologically" as in minute details that you have to spend 20 years in a seminary to even see, let alone understand...no, I'm talking about people who talk about how they can't decide whether to be Agnostic (since they have "serious" doubts about God...aka are lacking relationship with God) or a Protestant Christian, so they'll just be a "Gnostic Christian" because they heard the term somewhere and it sounds and looks like it would be a logical combination of the two? I can tell already, some of you are like "You mean it isn't?" :)

Gnosticism was a very destructive minority group in the early centuries AD, and while I wouldn't really say they were "of the Church", the non-believing world would probably classify them as "under the Christian umbrella". On the surface they look ok, but as soon as you start asking serious questions, especially in relation to who Jesus was and whether He actually lived in abody of flesh and blood, things get hairy in a hurry. It might not have been the best example, but it was one that stuck in my head all night.

What about the many who not only really have no clue regarding many "basic" Christian tenets such as Communion and Baptism, but don't really even have much desire to learn? I'm glad I have my crazy beloved brothers and sisters at WFJF and MyChurch to keep me from feeling like the whole Net-world has completely lost touch (and desire for touch) with the Lord and His Word. I'm very aware that people can "still be Christian" and not go to church or read the Bible often, but I also know that a Christian not fellowshipping with other Christians and not reading God's love letter to them is a Christian who is going to be weak, unarmed, unprotected, and unready for the spiritual warfare that every believer experiences (whether they're conscious of it or not).

Why are so many content to lead lives that have Jesus added as a footnote or tagline, relegated to a back corner of their life where He is only allowed to come out at certain approved "politically-correct" times or whenever it is "comfy" for the person to drag Him out?
Why are so many content to simply squeak by with their spiritual fuel-tank on empty everyday when a heart and a prayer for a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit is just that close -- just moments away?
Why are so many so content to just "go with the flow", offering little or no resistance to the flood of carnal, worldly influence that is stripping away their integrity and character with every passing day?

The old song proclaimed: "You've got to stand for something, or you'll fall for anything." Never was that line more appropriate than it is today in regards to His Church. If the Church doesn't stand for the most important "somethings" it takes so for granted, it will fall -- just as it has been falling -- for anything.

As I've been typing this, the raindrops have gotten bigger, have been coming down harder. As cheesy and "warm-fuzzy-movie" as it might be, maybe it's a small way the Lord is saying "Yeah, that breaks my heart too." I understand tonight what the Bible means -- though certainly not to the same depths -- when it records the statement: "And Jesus had compassion on them, as they were like sheep without a shepherd."

So many believers just wandering aimlessly through life, doing their "thing", earning their paychecks, paying on their credit cards, striving to fulfill every materialistic dream that Madison Avenue ever inflated their brains with......it's painful. Almost physically painful, but certainly spiritually and emotionally so.

Lord, please send under-shepherds to Your people, that they might be taught the Word, that they might learn how to rightly divide it, that they might spend time with You in it daily and be eager to hear from You in that quiet time with You and Your Word, that they would become trained up for the work of the ministry...Lord, please work on all of our hearts that we would be sensitive to serve in the areas You want us to, so that we can operate as one Body, all contributing and supplying what every other part needs.

It's a new year, brothers and sisters, and a fresh opportunity to let last year's failures and shortcomings go and press forward for the call God has for each of us. As Paul says in Philippians 3, "forgetting what is behind and pressing forward to what is ahead, I press toward the mark of the prize of the high call of God in Christ Jesus."

Here we are Lord...send US!!

In His service, and yours,
jason†