Carpenters Corner: Repent, read, pray

The light from several para­pet mounted 210” flat screen smart televisions flickered and pulsed images of twirling ac­robats, motocross riders as on-stage fire pots exploded violently into the air. The spectators jumped to their feet screaming for more as musicians ran across the stage sadistically shaking their heads to the primeval beat.

“The music is so loud that it almost knocks you down” screamed a young teenage boy close to where the automated boom-microphone rolled along in front of the audience. Four strategically located television cameras caught the whole riot­ous act live and broadcast the images around the world via the world-wide web.

Dancers dressed in costumes followed their choreographed steps in undulating synchronized fashion as flashing lights, drum beats and fire flash-pods exploded in front of them. Adrenalin pumped through ev­eryone’s veins as the crowd an­ticipated the crescendo. Finally, while dripping with perspira­tion, a casually dressed young man with styled hair, ear bud monitor coil hanging from his ear jumped, twirled and raced around with a wireless mike then quickly paused and mo­tioned everyone to be quiet bow their heads in prayer.

Surprised? So this word pic­ture is an amalgam of antics that have been caught on cam­era at church services around the world. You don’t believe me? Well, good now go and search the internet and discover how the church, in her divine wis­dom, has brought the spirit of Jezebel into our churches as we insist on being entertained.

Some churches, the ecclesia or “called out ones”, have turned to the world to find ways to in­troduce un-churched people to their Creator. Instead of us go­ing out into the world, salt and light to a flavorless and dark world, we are inviting the world into our churches. The spirit of Jezebel is mingling with the saints.

Sardis was one of seven churches Jesus condemned in the seven letters to the seven churches found in the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ chapter three. He warned them “I know your works, that you have a name and that you are alive, but you are dead.”

The church at Sardis repre­sented the church age between 1517 and 1800 or the reformation period. Jezebel was the se­ductress used by Jesus Christ to describe the evil perpetrated during the Dark Ages, the pe­riod represented by the church of Thyatira. It was a dark time when people were burned as her­etics, witches and property con­fiscated in the name of God but the truth is God had nothing to do with any of it!

Now Jesus describes the church at Sardis as being dead. He reassures them that they have His name written on their foreheads, that they are alive and breathing but they are spiritually dead. “There is nothing new under the sun” quipped the wise king Solomon so we only need to look back to the prophet Ezekiel chapter thirty-three to discover that people were do­ing the same things back in his days.

“As for you, son of man, the children of your people are talk­ing about you beside the walls and in the doors of the houses; and they speak to one another, everyone saying to his brother, ‘Please come and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord.’ So they come to you as people do, they sit before you as My people, and they hear your words, but they do not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their hearts pur­sue their own gain. Indeed you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instru­ment; for they hear your words, but they do not do them. And when this comes to pass-surely it will come then they will know that a prophet has been among them.”

The people came to hear what God was saying through the prophets but they did not do what God was asking them to do which was to repent and follow Him. The southern kingdom of Judah would soon be conquered by the Babylonians and carried off in chains to Babylon. The Is­raelites would realize that what the prophet had spoken was true as they lived out seventy years of exile in a foreign land.

The church at Sardis was in the same boat as many of us are today. We have been saved, through faith in receiving the forgiveness that God offers us through the death and resurrec­tion of His only Son, but while we attend church and listen we don’t do as God instructs us to do. Jesus is warning us to repent while there is time. He wants His bride to be cleansed from all ungodliness.  He encourages us to strengthen the things that remain. So Repent, Read