The Last Day

The Last Day
Today is the last day of 2014. Another end of a season. Another time comes to its fullness. The fruit of another season about to be brought forth. And the date of the year ends.
The program of God continues. A purpose ends to give way to new ones. The past is gone,  to be stored in the books of history. Most experiences would be forgotten as they should while the learnings from them grow our extensions to reach into what the future holds.

Baggages of past mistakes, pains, hurts, sacrifices and tearful sowings of precious seeds are left behind and the basket to harvest the good and the rewards taken instead in hope and faith for the journey ahead.
The plowman will not plow for ever, and seedtime will not be eternal, if there had been the seedtime, there also would be the harvest time. If precious seeds has been borne into plowed empty lands, there also must be the sheaves being brought out of the harvested fields. The seed time being in the past and the harvest time as from tomorrow. If we have borne the image of corruption we must also bear the image of incorruption, one in the past, the other in the future.

We hope for the fruit of the new season. We look out for the purposes of another time period. We expect the time related doors to open on their own accord. We hope for light to shine out of darkness. We may have been ridden over by men, we may have passed through fire and water but the everlasting doors of the broad and wealthy places are opening unto us. We may have passed through this point just with a rod and the stones may have been for pillows but now we come in bands ready to take the promised possessions. We may have passed through the valley of the shadow of death but God has been with us and without fear we come out of the tunnels. The gates and the everlasting doors are lifting their heads because the appointed time has come.

Now we come closer to our redemption than when we first believed. Patience is having its perfect work and now we step into our perfection, being entire, wanting nothing. Now the prayers answered will have their manifestations, the purposes would be fulfilled, the prophecies will have have their mates and the promises will be sure to all.
The last day will give way to the new and another day will be born with the assurance that it is a better one.

What will you do with the new day? What can you do with the former? Take your learnings from the experiences of the past and move on into the new day. Let what should have been done that was left undone yesterday be done now. Leave the guilt and the failures. Let not the success of the last year tie you down there. The new day hopes to be better. But you can't afford to go in there in old coverings and mentality. Let today be the last day of the old years. Burst into the newness of the season so that the fruits of the new season can come.
Then the fruits of the years eaten by the locusts can be restored and the new year can sprout out of the death of the past.

Let the new chapter of the book written of you be open, let the seal be broken and let the will of God be done. Let nothing outside the prophecies be done, let none of those things not promised come to pass.
Stone shall not be given for bread, nor serpent for fish, neither scorpions for eggs, only the good things expected shall not be cut off. We shall see evil no more, only things exceeding and abundant far above our desires and imaginations are waiting at the other side and tonight, we cross over leaving behind the slavery, the oppression and the afflictions of the past into a new dawn of great grace and excelling glory.

But we must not quickly forget that as the past goes into oblivion in the physical so also the spiritual end of the world draws closer. The wise knows and gets ready, the fool sees nothing and goes on until he is punished. The harvest of the world is near. And all the prophecies are coming to pass. And as we draw nearer, the world obeys the prophecies of it's end but it's inhabitants hardly take it to heart.

We try to save the world but do not care about our own salvation. If we see the need for the salvation of nature why is it hard to see the need for our own salvation since both came from the same prophecies?
The last day will witness men loving themselves and loving pleasures more than God. The last days will be perilous times when it'll be difficult to be Christ-like, children being disobedient to parents and getting away with it, people becoming more and more selfish and untrustworthy and it has become lots easier to do evil and be justified in iniquity...these are the last days...and you are welcome.

Just as today being the last day of a year and so surely another year rolls in within the next few hours so assuredly shall this end times give way to eternal judgment. If these prophecies have come to identify the last days for us, so also they point to the events that shall soon come after so that we can prepare.

Here is the ark. The Christ was born a few days before the end of time...as an ark for man's salvation and transportation to the new day beyond the last day here. How shall we escape if we neglect the salvation so freely provided. If we allow the spirit of the last days to fill us with surfeiting and drunkenness in utter disregard for the coming judgments how shall the day not come upon us as the thief in the night unawares? If we look back as Lot's wife, if we forget Noah's ark and become carried away in marrying and giving in marriage, putting up powerful events, common place things of both the end of the year and the end of time.. how shall we escape?

These are the last days...the world is rounding off and we, upon whom the end of the world has come must go for the ark and maintain our places in grace...it's time to do a review and make the changes required before the Master shows up, before the last day of these last days!
Good Morning and enjoy the last days so we can both say Happy New Year at the other sides...together!

Cuddling the Spirit of Grace!

Cuddling the Spirit of Grace

What does the Spirit of grace say? It says man is made to be dependent. Man can only grow and reach his potential by depending on his Creator and those things created for him. Man was not made to be independent. But the subject of his dependence must not be another man who himself should be dependent.
Yes, we help each other, but that can only be through the help we have received first.
We can only be channels of blessings and we can be extremely faithful as channels but we can never be the source. We can only give what we already received of our Creator.

The Spirit of grace teaches us also that the differences we have in our different make ups are deliberate and powerful for the accomplishment of purpose. The one made to be super intelligent is not better than the one made to be at the lower rungs of the intelligence ladder. Same goes for every ladder and perking order we have made for ourselves in our evil bid to create social classes. Each is made and none dictated how he should be made, none made itself too. But none is an accident, each is made for a discoverable reason.

I remember the day 'philae' landed on a comet, some spokesman of the project cynically attributed the accomplishment to the brains and brawn of men and not something that 'fell from the skies'. He forgot that man had only discovered that he exists and hasn't fully discovered yet what prompted his existence through his hi-tech.
Whatever prompted his existence had only coded into him his mental and physical capacity with which he could do whatever he has done and would ever do.

In fact, the program of development and growth of the human race both technologically, in arts and in humanities and in whatever other genre of knowledge that may be has been by the Creator of this system.
He owns His universe and handles the movements. The Power that makes all things exist can not be out of existence, He is still the major player moving things in the resultant direction He desires.

But man has always believed in his personal accomplishment. He loves to be independent. He loves to give the glory and the kudos to himself. He loves to do despite to the Spirit of grace. He loves to give credits to himself even of those things he met here and much more of those things the Spirit of grace did through him. He would even build things he believes whoever the Creator is would frown at, only to prove that he is God. He forgot that the Creator could have deprived him also of the abilities to make independent choices which he in turn uses against his Creator.

What have we that we have not received? How are we really different from each other, when our accomplishments were only what the Creator did through whoever he wills? How do we thumb our chests for what we couldn't have done without the Creator and so rate others as failures for not accomplishing same?
When we do that we do despite to the Spirit of grace. We deliberately reckoned him out of our successes and make ourselves the prime movers of our own development erroneously.

Yes, we may have maximized our given potential and by that better our lots but we must always remember that everything made was made out of things that we cannot see including our destinies and life's opportunities.

If we desire to make more happen, then we must cuddle the Spirit of grace and be faithful to the system that created us in the first place. We must give the glory to Him who made us since we are sure we didn't make ourselves. We must not share His glory or think we did things without Him. We must be thankful.

But if we continue to see our accomplishment as of personal prowess and wisdom, something we deserved and not of God's grace, we risk an eventual head-on-collision with the Judge of all the earth which may be devastating.
No man can receive anything except it is given him from above...May God give us understanding. Good Morning!

[My Offline Bible] Hebrews 10
29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?

[My Offline Bible] 1 Corinthians 4
5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God. 6 And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another. 7 For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?

[My Offline Bible] Hebrews 11
3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

[My Offline Bible] Psalms 139
16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

[My Offline Bible] Isaiah 42
8 I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.

[My Offline Bible] John 3
27 John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.

[My Offline Bible] Jeremiah 18
4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. 6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.

[My Offline Bible] Romans 1
21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

[My Offline Bible] Luke 12
20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? 21 So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

He Forgives! He Forgets!

He Forgives! He Forgets!
Remembering and forgetting are hardly what we can always control. We often forget what we wish we remember and remember what we wish to forget. At some point the ability to recall is seen as a positive trait and at other times that can be very detrimental and being able to forget would seem a great virtue.

When we think of God, we often put Him in the three compartmental box of the omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent and it's ok. What we don't always see is His ability to forget which balances His omniscience with His omnipotence. Otherwise, His omnipotence would have been a weakness to Him.

I'm glad He forgets. Because when it comes to my sins and iniquities, He knows I'll love Him to forget.
[My Offline Bible] Jeremiah 31 34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

Not only does He forgives, He forgets also. Where men would research your past and use it to deal with your present, God on the other hand sees your future and forgets your past. Condemnation is a tool of control in the hands of man, but not with God. When we have confessed our sins, His faithfulness and justice demands of Him to forgive, cleanse and forget. This is the height of grace. He does this so that we can do it towards one another.

There we learn and conform to who He wants us to be. It's really very easy to accept that He forgives. To accept that He forgets is the hard part. We find it hard to forgive ourselves and forget because we believe He has put our sin always before Him and at His right hand. And if He hasn't forgotten how dare we forget? If He is still out for a revenge, how dare we walk away as if there is nothing at stake? So we desire to atone for the sin and punish ourselves comfortlessly without end with disregard for the blood of Jesus we so much profess to believe in.

We have a problem with forgiving ourselves and forgetting it. This perspective isn't a way of being careless or being irresponsible or unaccountable for our deeds. It is a way of moving on to greater things God has in store. We weren't created to commit sin and so we shouldn't permit our sins either in the act or in the guilt, to stop us from doing what God has sent us to do.

No Christian would be proud of going into error. If anyone is still enjoying sin then such isn't a Christian yet. When we sin, God would want to come around, pick us up from the fall, wash the mud off us and keep us back in the race expecting that we forget that and move on.

Another reason for our difficulty in forgetting is that people around hardly forget. And not would they not forget, they even remind others and it gets to us. Once we allow that get to us, we get back into the past and get stuck if not careful. We allow the errors of the past to control our present emotions and productivity. The truth is that we all have our past. We can only grow by dealing with that past through repentance and change, forgetting it and moving on. God would want us to do that irrespective of who remembers or who don't.

To those who would rather dig into your past and bring your sins into remembrance, it is their weakness not to forget. It must not affect your present day commitment and resolutions about God and service towards Him. And it's time we too forget what others did in times past. That maybe tough if we had suffered them directly but we must remember that God forgives and forgets so that we too can learn how to forgive and forget.

Even when it's tough to forget, make sure you forgive, if that's done properly even when you remember, the bitterness won't be there and we all can live in freedom to forge ahead and live today and tomorrow. Good Morning!

[My Offline Bible] Romans 8 1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

[My Offline Bible] Hebrews 8 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: 11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

[My Offline Bible] Matthew 18 32 Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: 33 Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee? 34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. 35 So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

[My Offline Bible] Micah 7 19 He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

[My Offline Bible] Psalms 103 11 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. 12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

We Grow Up!

We Grow up!

We are products of growth. We grew here. At the beginning we were seeds loaded with potentials. We may be small but all we could be was packaged in that unit of life travelling from generation gone by into the future. When we got planted within favorable conditions, we broke dormancy and died. In resurrection, we came out new. We came blank, armed with the growth tools to become all we were coded to be. We engaged the spirit of growth and changes commenced, both permanent and temporary. Physically we grow, mentally we grow and spiritually too.
When we got born again, with God's own seed within, growth must now be for transformation. Growth in grace and in knowledge as released and received from God.
I wish to speak of knowledge as concerning growth. Becoming like God through Christ is the goal of growth. Knowing God in truth and in sincerity is important in growth. Knowing God on different platforms forms the standard for our growth. We can always compare and contrast to know how we are faring and adjust through our control on the growth factors.
We 'know' God in our recreated human spirit and the nature of God within. The codes in the DNA we share with God come with all the information of God that our conformity with God requires. The laws of God are written on the tablet of our hearts which is the very image of God. So within us we know Him but unconsciously. [My Offline Bible] Jeremiah 31
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
We know God through the Holy Ghost who has been given us. He is the embodiment of God's knowledge. He is the living library of God. [My Offline Bible] 1 Corinthians 2
11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
So we have the knowledge of God through the Holy Spirit, given to us, who lives and works with us.
We know God through His word. The abundance of God's heart were poured out as holy men spake as they were moved by God's Spirit. [My Offline Bible] 2 Peter 1
20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. 21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
God breathed, and His being became words written in scripture through which we know Him. The Bible is God's word in print.
We know God in Jesus. As the word became flesh and dwelled amongst us we behold His glory so that we can know God. [My Offline Bible] John 1
14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. Jesus is our example in whose footsteps we must follow. [My Offline Bible] 1 Peter 2
21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:
We know God also as we practice the word of God. Our experiences and exercises in God's word as we fellowship and walk with God daily bring to us a deep revelation of who God is, as we experience His attributes first hand by reason of practice. [My Offline Bible] Hebrews 5
14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Of course we also know God as we fellowship with other believers and their gifts in teaching, preaching and prophesying and in the manifestations of the Holy Spirit through people.

While knowing God is a major factor in growth because it provides us with a template and standard to work with, it will also require knowing oneself to make a difference. Every believer who wants to become like Christ must always do sincere self-assessments. We must never assume where we are in God otherwise it's easy to think we are standing even when we are already fallen, dead and buried! This is the first step in the practicality of spiritual growth.
Where am I? Should be a constant question with a growing Christian. A question that must be answered at all times with sincerity. The truth is that, who we should be is a revelation in our spirit. No human knows who we should be like our spirit, who we should be was also coded into our spirit 1Corinthians 2:11. Who we are aside from who we should be which is in our spirit, is a conditioned situation with most of us. It is like a smell we are used to, it's there, others can smell it but we can't.
The process of tests, trials and our responses becomes the way of revelations of who we are. God knows us without testing us. He is omniscient and residentially so, except if He deliberately would be ignorant of a thing. He won't need a test or trial to know who we are. [My Offline Bible] Psalms 139
1 O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. 2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. 4 For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.
God knows us but that knowledge is too high for us. So we are tested and tried for us to know ourselves. Peter wouldn't know his capacity to deny Jesus but Jesus knew and he had to go through that trial to know. We go through that daily.
Here is growth! When we compare the knowledge of our state as revealed in the results of our trials and tests with what we know of God we repent and change and we grow.
It sounds so simple but we often limit our growth with our attitudes to knowing God. We can't know Him fully until we see Him but we must do all to know Him on a daily basis as He reveals Himself to us through the avenues we have discussed. We must consistently seek to know who we are per time. Assumption of a position we are yet to attain deprives us of ever getting there. If we have nothing to repent of then we remain at our position of self acclaimed perfection and we get stuck, not being able to become more like God.
If we desire to become more and more like God, we must be ready to keep renewing our minds daily as we discover more and more of the depth in God. We must be ready to throw off the things we have learnt that are alien to God's knowledge. We must be ready and willing to change at the slightest discovery of our being at variance with God. In so doing we create space for the manifestation of the coded traits within us and daily we conform to God's image and show forth His glory. Good morning!
[My Offline Bible] 2 Peter 3
18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

Nobility with the Truth

Nobility with the Truth
[My Offline Bible] Acts 17
10 And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. 12 Therefore many of them believed; also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few.

Apostles Paul and Silas got to Berea and went straight to preach at the Jewish synagogue. They noticed that these people were different from those at Thesalonia, these paid attention and listened to what they had to say. They won't argue or dispute what was being said. But if the preachers took that as being naive and gullible they were to be shocked. They took all in but not to swallow rather to go check if they were true. The result was clear, they got more believers among them and they were commended for their process of dealing with the word.
They were compared with those in Thessalonica and found to be more noble than the Thessalonians.
When your read the epistles to the Thessalonians, you'll notice the kind of Christians that were produced under such a culture. Paul had to explain again and again to them about the second coming of Christ in order not to go haywire. At Thessalonica Paul had to engage in secular businesses to sustain as an example to them to be diligent and productive, they were known to be busybodies and carefree. Flaky Christians who would need to be spoonfed often.
I see this same traits in many of today's Christians. Many would need others read and study their bibles for them, many would need others pray for them and hear from God for them. And such just as the Thessalonians are open to heresies and un-christian doctrines and practices. Whatever anybody says or does from the pulpit is accepted as christian afterall they know no better. They can't check by themselves from the Bible to know if what is been done or preached is within the corpus of the doctrines of Christ.
To many the allegiance is to the person and not to the word of God or to God. The Bereans never saw things that way. The very Apostles Paul and Silas preached and you still have the temerity to doubt it? A great man of God such as Paul shouldn't speak and anybody would still have to go check if it's true! That's what we call loyalty today. But such is not recommended by scriptures and the result is that unstable and ignoble christians are being produced generation after generation and so makes the future more fearful.
This lack of nobility does not only affect the pews but also the pulpit. Preachers and ministers are 'freer' to say what they like and practice all sorts that suit them since no one will go back to search the scriptures if those things were true. Many won't bother cross-checking their thoughts, once it sounds good and acceptable, it doesn't matter anymore if it's really true.
Those in the congregation who care about what is being preached would rather keep quiet because is is now the norm that if you ask too many questions you become a question mark yourself. We have come round to a culture where heresies aren't any issues, every doctrine preached is seen as relatively true depending on how you view it particularly if it suits our religious pride on one side and our lusts on the other.
Here is the call! A call back to nobility. A call back to checking out for the veracity and the truth of whatever is being dished out from our pulpit. It is a call to being more committed to God's word and the truth therein. A call to preachers and teachers to become more meticulous in their doctrines and practices.
Meanwhile it is not a call to being judgmental or to become segregationists in religious pride. That wasn't the nobility that produced the believers in Berea. It's not noble to see and treat others who don't know what we know as if they know nothing. Knowledge puffs up but love edifies. Every puff will be deflated but edification builds lasting structures. Nobility is ever gentle with the ignorant and patient till faith is birthed in the unstable.
As we open up for all sorts of messages today both in church, on radio or t.v., let's have our minds on nobility ready to hear and also ready to check if the good sounds we hear are true. God confirms the word and not the preacher and nobility recognises the difference. Remain blessed. Good morning!

The Pastoral Covenant

The Pastoral Covenant
[My Offline Bible] Hebrews 13
17 Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.

[My Offline Bible] Hebrews 10
25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

[My Offline Bible] Hebrews 3
13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

The ultimate reason why we congregate and commit to the membership of a local assemby is not that we can't worship, pray or evangelize by ourselves but for a purposeful fellowship and discipleship. The end of that fellowship and discipleship is to help our efforts towards being conformed I the image of Christ and to get to heaven afterwards.
Since that is so, it had occurred to me for a long time now, which also we had advocated in our various teachings and trainings to pastors and leaders that there is a need for a pastoral covenant or agreement.
The bible says, can two walk together except they be agreed? Amos 3:3. Lack of prior agreement on basic issues is a major hindrance to achieving purpose in any relationship, and the pastoral ministry relationship is not an exception.
If the purpose of discipleship conformity to the Master, Christ is to be achieved then both the ministers in charge and the individuals must agree to it and to the process required to making it happen.
We must agree about the purposes of our relationship as in pastor/member relationship. We must agree to wanting to be conformed to Christ's image and to get to heaven at all cost. We must agree that our being together is to help both of us fulfil God's plan for our lives, conform to the image of Christ, prepare for heaven and serve each other in this same purposes.
We must agree to contribute and receive all that the other is equipped to do to achieve these goals. We must agree that nothing that is not in conformity to these purposes be permitted from each other no matter how pleasing to the flesh. We must agree that whatever is beneficial to this cause must never be deprived or withdrawn from any of the parties involved. We must agree that whatever discipline necessary to get there would be received from both sides.
What I also know is that doing this is a formality that encapsulates what's generally and unconsciously been done. Even if your pastor or your people haven't given you such an agreement to sign, you are still bound to that unspoken and unwritten agreement under God. It is fundamental that pastors will give account to God over their members and individuals too will give account of his or her own service before God, so the written form of the covenant is actually to help and focus us on what's right.
It follows therefore that every congregant deserves to be given a platform where all such a person needs to become all that God wants is provided for, both in words and in exemplary deeds by the grace and the power of God.
If your aim is to be the Christian God wants you to be and you attach yourself to a group of people in the name of a church whose goals are different from that, then you are in a wrong place. If you are comfortably committing sin, and no one in your local assembly from the pulpit to the pews either by word of mouth or by the move of the Holy Spirit is there to check you, consciously and unconsciously, then you are in a boat sailing away from the path of salvation.
A church that's committed to this purposes would not mind whatever smear its reputation receives from people who aren't ready to go with them. Such a church though would desire to go to heaven with as many as possible won't bother if some decide to jump ship. Jesus's job was to come preach, if He hadn't, we would have had no sin, but that He has done His part, we have no cloak for our sin, John 15:22. That should be the attitude of those assemblies committed to conformity to Christ's image. Do your part and let people make their choices. The control churches have is to make sure that the best in word and in practice capable of helping people make heaven is made available both secretly and openly. Aside that control, it amounts to manipulation to control or force people to do God's will.
If you are a Christian know that we have but a short time. We have to be true to ourselves about our convictions to christ and His cause. It's time to fight for your own soul and take personal responsibility of your eternity. Christ has died and risen, ascended and seated at the right hand of God, the work is finished, it is left to us not to take that grace in vain, it is left to us to make sure that all that He did count in our lives. It is time to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Don't be part of evil either in church or outside church. Be bold to stand for truth and for righteousness. Don't follow a bandwagon into hell. It is your life and you are responsible. If what you are submitting to isn't deeply seated in God you aren't submitting to God. If you are in a covenant that has locked you away from divine order such agreement isn't of God, let your original covenant with God take pre-eminence. Take personal responsibility of your eternal home. Make up your mind that whatever will deny you your place in God must leave your life, either a person, system, character or habit. If your relationships aren't exhorting you daily towards the day of judgment and in spite of such relationships you are being hardened by the deceifulness of sin, then that covenant is militating against your covenant with God, deal with it and protect your walk with God. Heaven is home, preserve your journey! Good morning!

Maintaining The Stance
Being a Christian is not a permanent spiritual position. It can only be permanent as a religious status and not as a spiritual state. Being a Christian requires moment by moment maintenance of position by living like Christ in intent and in deeds. A church can not also be so called from the standpoint of the tag, it is only a church to the level to which people are gathered in line with Christ's authority per time and not as a static position.You may be a Christian in a moment and be another person the next moment because it all depends on the maintenance of your position in God. That's why not everyone who calls Jesus Christ, Lord, Lord, will make it at the end of the day. Not every church will enjoy divine approval, as long as not every church has departed from iniquity even if they name the name of Christ. Christ must be Lord, not only on our lips and not only at some convenient times but in all things and at all times. Our sentiments and selfishness are not qualified to determine whatever is approved of God, We need to  submit them to God totally, and embrace anew the en-grafted word of God which is able to save our souls. It is the experience and the consequent conviction from God's word that are able to help us follow God in our day to day walk and the moment by moment decisions we make that either make us Christ-like or otherwise, either as a church or as a person. This is where Christianity is determined either with an individual or a group. We can not afford to see divine approval from the spectacle of what is convenient to us or those things that serve our selfishness. Such lives are not submissive to Christ beyond mere religion. Following Christ can't be at our terms, Christianity is not what suits us or what is popular but what God says in His word.Once we leave the preaching and the practice of what's in the Bible, taught by Christ and His apostles and we begin to practice all sorts under certain 'licences', we erode the authority of scriptures and we can't categorically say we are followers of Christ or that our gathering is one of His body. Meanwhile by reason of lots of selfish motivations, we practice all sorts in the name of the Lord or as 'led' by the Holy Spirit in our claims. These times are the times for Christians and churches to do a review of their beliefs and practices with the Word of God as revealed in the Bible in Christ and His apostles and to depart from things unequal. We don't have to sacrifice divine approval on the altar of our selfish ambitions, insecurities, unbridled worldliness and appetite for significance and authority.

Mt 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
 Mt 18:20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
2Ti 2:19 Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
Ro 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
 2Ti 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
 2Pe 1:20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. 21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
 2Ti 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
 1Th 5:21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. 22 Abstain from all appearance of evil.

The Sacrifice in Receiving!

The Sacrifice in Receiving! It is more blessed to give than to receive. Man is a very complex being. I'm sure God deliberately made him so partly for His humor and personal excitement. Man is so complex to his own hurt, he is so complex that though he understands so much around him, he hardly can figure out who he is. Yet, in his conceit believes he is ever on top of all situations, not minding the obvious inability to conquer himself as he conquers the universe. The complexity of man blinds him to self consciousness and the subsequent self unconsciousness projects his weaknesses which he flaunts in pride. Such is the issue of giving. To man, selfishness is a key to survival. The philosophy of the survival of the fittest bothers on self preservation and propagation through as much as you can get from scarce resources. Man believes resources are scarce and so would still be gathering even when he has gotten more than enough and so deprive others of what God has provided them through nature. He doesn't see it as deprivation though. He sees it as a means of self perpetuation due to his fear of the unknown future. The more he can store up from the reach of others the more he believes he can survive. He believes out of his fears that his survival and perpetuation depend on himself even if he still finds it difficult to understand how he finds himself on the earth. He didn't create himself yet he can't leave his preservation to the Forces that brought him to being. So he gathers and keep gathering of the scarce resources with all the opportunities and strength he has, he works for no other, his gatherings are powered by the cravings of his appetite and fear. And whatever he gathers he protects against all odds with his life. He doesn't mind losing soldiers, young men and women of his own loins even the unborn to preserve what he has. He won't mind using religion and whatever sentiments to be in charge of world resources through self-justified violence in order protect what he has gathered and is still gathering. Of the uncountable stored up oil and grains not a drop or a grain must fall to the hands of another man...it would be better if it even falls to the birds to eat than for another man to use. But he doesn't mind trading with the excess to fuel other appetites of his. He uses what excess he has to gain control and significance. He can even permit his body to be burnt just to fuel other appetites of his. The only thing He won't willingly do is die for others though he daily urges those in his control to die for him. But he won't mind trading what else he has to gain control of others and of whatever things those ones have. Trading most times are covered over in the packaging of benevolence. It has to, in order to have access to more important things in the life of the recipients. World exchange of aids has become the international routes for modern-day slave trade and neo colonisation. You wonder why the powers that be would keep prices of their imported commodities at the very lowest only to give aids back to the impoverished farmers who produce the commodities. Why not just pay more for the oil and cocoa instead of giving aids? Mostly, therefore it isn't the one who gives the material things that suffers, it is the receiver who is pained. Yet the pain is hard to define because what is lost is more than meet the eye. That's why it is more blessed to give than to receive. That is why in divine jurisdiction giving doesn't bring spiritual profit no matter how religiously it is covered, even if it is with burnt body, except it is done in love. Solomon said, when the rich's excess is brought before you, put a knife to your own neck if you are one given to appetite, for he tells you eat and drink yet his heart is not with you, for as he thinks in his heart so is he and not as generous his presentation looks. When we have Christ in us and leave carnality behind, we walk less as mere men described above, we walk as God would and profit from our giving in love. We give in simplicity and are more concern with what good others do to us than remaining attached to what we said we have done for others. We separate trading from giving, motivated by the needs of others of whatever opportunities we have gotten from God, not motivated by our self preservation or fear of the future unknown but by purity of conscience and sincerity of purpose with all cleaness of empathetic thoughts and of good and large heart of generousity without guile. This that I've described of giving in love comes only from a heart atuned to God and His Christ by faith in the possibility of such. It helps to receive from men without fear of being traded in and helps to give without looking back so long needs are met by that which has been done even if the recipients have no opportunities of saying thanks audibly! Make it less painful for people to receive what God has sent through you, then you have rewards from the Universal giver, God and not from the often powerless recipients. Good morning!