WHERE TEH CROSS MEETS THE CROSSROAD

WHERE THE CROSS MEETS THE CROSSROAD



                As happens so many times I woke this morning at 3:35 from a dream where I was teaching a group of people on the subject of where the cross meets the crossroad. In my dream I was likening life to a crossword puzzle in which two roads cross at a junction where the cross and the crossroad meet.



                That is all there was to the dream and so here I am at my computer waiting on the Lord for what He will give me on the subject.



                We all know that our life is made up of many crossroads. We know where we have made wrong turns. We know where the flesh has urged us to turn left when the Spirit was urging us to turn right. In our foolishness and greed for self-will we have often sought to silence the inner voice that was taking us in the opposite way than the flesh wanted to go. This is basically known as temptation and so our life is a picture of which voice we listened to when we came to these crossroads.



                Our life is mostly a wilderness journey as we circle Sinai over and over again until we get it in our heads that the only way out of this wilderness cycle is to follow the pillar of cloud and of fire.



                Yesterday was a big day at our church. It was a celebration of the 25^th year of faithful and self-abnegating service and love by our Pastors Curtis and Alice Akers. The church was full of people from the community, the mayor, members of the police force and people who have been touched by their ministry both inside and outside the church.



                The speaker was one of the overseers of the Church of God who has been serving the Lord for 60 years and in fact he was the one who had assigned Curtis and Alice to this very church 25 years ago. There was a bit of reminiscing and memory making and such, but when the overseer launched into his sermon, it was one of the most powerful sermons I have ever heard. In essence it He was reassuring both us and the community that the Church of God is going to remain true to the Word of God and we are going to live by every word that comes from the mouth of God and we are not going to follow any of the paths of compromise that are being urged upon churches these days.



                I was stirred by the power and conviction with which this 80 year old church leader delivered his message. We are going to stay the course and we are not going to adopt any of the deviant pathways that are being offered to churches these days. We are going to live by the Spirit of God and the Word of God no matter the cost… and the cost is going to be high.



                All of Christianity is poised at the crossroads right now and many pastors and denominational leaders are not giving the kind of sermons that we heard yesterday. And isn’t it interesting that for convenience sake, certain road taking subjects are no longer being discussed? Isn’t it interesting that across the board many churches don’t even want to hear about Bible prophecy or where we might be headed in these momentous times?



                We are in the midst of a great falling away from the faith of the Bible right now and yet many pastors do not want to stand up with a clear message on which way to turn. Many church leaders are more interested in numbers and not rocking the boat. Many are actually embracing doctrines of demons, following the road to Sodom, weakening on all of the issues that matter even as they preach their little sermons and anecdotes more akin to Oprah Winfrey than Elijah.



                The overseer warned us that a Pastor should preach every sermon as if it is the last sermon they will ever preach and the last sermon their church will ever hear and I thought. “Yup, that’s Pastor Akers alright. He pours every ounce of power and passion into every sermon and he preaches the Word with everything that is in him and if our church is not growing as fast as he or we would like it is because most people these days are looking for an easy way out of the coming conflagration. They have come to that point where the cross meets the crossroad and they are making a left turn for convenience sake. They don’t want to be counted among the “deplorables” or the “expendables” or whatever labels the world is pinning on us these days.



                My son Zach and I were discussing what a prophet is, on our Saturday morning walk along the river. Our definition of a prophet has been way too narrow. We have narrowed it down to those who predict the future and they are accepted as a prophet when what they predicted comes true. Well… yes… there is that, but most of the Bible prophets were not predicting the future. They were rather warning Israel that if they made a left turn away from the word of God, then the inevitable would happen. They would be removing themselves from the protection of God Almighty and trusting their future to gods that wanted them dead. Prophecy is pattern and it is always true and always applicable.



                In 1 Chron. 12:32 mention is made of the sons of Issachar, “Men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do…”  Also mentioned in David’s Cadre was Zadok, a mighty man of valor and it is interesting that His name “Zadok is related to the name Melchi-Zadok and it is said that during the coming millennial reign of Christ only the priests of the sons of Zadok will be allowed to minister in the Most Holy Place for they were the only priests that didn’t go after other gods like the Levites did.



                In Hebrew the word for understanding bee-nah has a root which also means discernment, wisdom, perception and knowledge. It seems that much of the church today needs more of the understanding of the times in which we live.



                Prophecy is pattern… (not fortune telling)  and we understand the future because we understand the past and all future prophecy is built on the patterns established in Israel as the word of God was being forged out in the lives of those who had been called out to bring to us the Word of God and the Son of God. (See 1 Cor. 10:11) “Now these things happened to them as examples and they were written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”



                The Body of Christ needs more men of valor like our overseer and our Pastor, who will stand up and boldly announce that we will stay the course. We will live according to God’s Word no matter the cost. We are not going to make any of the left turns that are being made these days… and it is high time for us to understand what a prophet is because there are many prophets today offering party favors and prophecies of smooth sailing ahead, when in fact we are at a major crossroad right now and our future will be determined by what course we take. .



                So… do you want to hear from a so called prophet that will call you out from the audience with a “word from the Lord on this or that great ministry that you are going to have, or would you rather hear from one like the sons of Issachar who understood the times and knew what Israel should do? Do you want a preacher to stand up and say that customs and taboos have changed over the years so that things that God once called an abomination are no longer abominations… or things that God once called murder are no longer murder or things that god once called “Holy” are no longer holy, or would you rather have someone in a leadership position to stand up and rightly discern the times and to tell the church which way to turn?



                That is true prophecy and we need a prophetic view right now. We need to rightly discern the times. For instance in our class yesterday we were studying the life of Job and do you know what it was that got Job through his time of tribulation? It was his prophetic view of life and its purposes for in Job 19:25-27 he said: “And as for me I know that my Redeemer lives and at the last day He will take His stand on the earth. Even after my skin worms destroy, yet in my flesh I shall see God; whom I myself shall behold, and whom my eyes shall see and not another.”



                How did Job know all of that? Not even the Old Testament had been written yet and yet he knew about the future return of Christ and the bodily resurrection. And it is this same hope that will get us through our storms today too and it is this hope that will prevent us from taking left turns when the pressures of the world come against us.

                After Bonnie and I had been attending this church that God led us to when we came to Tennessee, for a time, our Pastor invited us to join and I said that there was one thing I wanted to know concerning the leadership of the church: Were they going to remain faithful to God’s Word or were they going to compromise with the world like so many churches are doing. Well, Pastor Akers assured me that the leadership of the church had convened a few years back and had established with all fervor that the Church of God would not deviate from the Word of God and they were going to stay the course in faithfulness and holy living no matter the cost.



                That was the answer I was hoping for and once again it was confirmed by this godly overseer who preached an unflinching sermon of power and conviction concerning the Word of God.



                We are at a crossroad in which we must decide if we will remain true to the Word of God or if we will surrender to the forces that would take us on an uncharted path away from God’s eternal truths. For this we need to learn like never before how to hear God’s voice and to live by His Holy Spirit and His Word.

                We need to come to that living fountain and find life for our souls for only the Holy Spirit of Christ can give us true rest… and it is this same Holy Spirit who guides us into all truth so that we will not be making left turns when we should be making right turns. We are at a crossroads and it is those who are led by the Spirit of God that are the sons of God. Romans 8:14



                Please understand that I am not pushing a denomination here or bragging about my church. God led us here and here we are fulfilling our destiny by His Holy Spirit. But what I am saying is that no matter where you attend, if you want to be in the true Body of Christ then you must make sure they are sticking with the Word of God and living by the Holy Spirit of God. If they are embracing the world’s philosophies then you must flee from that place and find a place that is being true to God and His Word.