I Have Set Before You An Open Door! Part 2

Revelation 3:8, “I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it...”

The Body of Christ cannot continue today with business as usual! God has opened a temporary window for the Church to call upon His Name and return to Theocratic rule. God is calling us back to His leadership as the collective Body of Christ. Jesus commissioned the Church to preach the Gospel Message. In Matthew 28:19 Go...and teach all nations...20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you...” Christs’ command was to adhere to all that He had commanded them.

Jude felt it necessary to write to the Church in the 1^st Century and encourage them to earnestly contend for the faith. That faith being the Truth of God as spoken and exemplified in the life of Jesus Christ. Jude 1:3, “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. 4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ...11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. 12 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; 13 Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.”

Cain, because of his rejection of God’s provision positioned himself against God’s will and leadership. Balaam was a hired prophet who used deceit to further his own personal agenda. Korah rebelled against the Godly authority. All these were an issue in the 1^st Century Church and Paul warned of the same conditions in the last days. 2Timothy 3:1, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. 6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, 7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. 9 But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.” Jude observed these conditions inside the Church and Paul prophesied that these conditions would manifest themselves inside the Church in the last days.

Somewhere along the path to finish the commission given to us, the Church began to depart from the faith which was once delivered to the saints. Every pastor, leader and congregation has been pressed by the will of a worldly society to include all men in the Church regardless of their relationship with Jesus Christ. However, to be a follower of Christ, one must be a disciple of Christ. To be a disciple of Christ is to accept His Truth and reflect that Truth in one’s life as a reflection of Christ. Only then is one acceptable to Christ. That is what is meant by a person accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Until such a time, one’s life is preserved solely by the mercy and grace of God. (to be continued)