ALIVE WORD: Escape the coming judgment – PART 1

The Richardsons

“For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?  And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” – 1 Peter 4: 17-18.

God is such a merciful God that He always gives warning before He brings judgment.  The judgment of God is in this land and the church is not exempt as 1 Peter 4: 17-18 clearly states “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?  The message Bible puts it this way “It’s judgment time for God’s own family. We’re first in line. If it starts with us, think what it’s going to be like for those who refuse God’s Message!  If good people barely make it, What’s in store for the bad?  So if you find life difficult because you’re doing what God said, take it in stride. Trust him. He knows what he’s doing, and he’ll keep on doing it.”  The church referred to is not a particular church but the Body of Christ.

God is looking for a people.
•    A people who will pray
•    A people who will be obedient
•    A people who will not compromise
•    A people who will live godly no matter what
•    A people who are loving
•    A people who are forgiving
•    A people who are filled with compassion

For judgment has begun this land and there is more to come.  Escape the coming judgment!

The word judgment in the Greek – kree’-mah meaning a decision (the function or the effect, for or against [“crime”]): – avenge, condemned, condemnation, damnation, + go to law, judgment.  The Greek word for house is oy’-kos by implication a family (more or less related, literally or figuratively): – home, house (-hold), temple.

The church in the book of Acts had all things in common.  In the body of Christ today there is so much division, so much confusion, so much competition and so much strife, so much struggle for power and control of people and things, so much manipulation and intimidation.  Sometimes you have to rely on the spirit of God to tell you who is who.  Sometimes you have to be careful what you share, when you share it and who you share it with.

God is saying that we can no longer afford to live double standards and double lives, playing church.  Some Christians live multiple lives according to where they are and who they are around:

•    They have a church life
•    A home life
•    A work life

You see them in church and it’s a show.  You know the usual, “Hi Sister, Hi Brother, How are you today?” – a fake display of love – kind of like it is the thing to do.  Put a hidden camera in their homes or on their jobs and you wonder if that is the same sister or brother that you know.  Displays of anger, unforgiveness, abuse, hiding to buy lottery tickets, controlling, manipulating, not talking to people, downright unholy actions and attitudes but then Sunday morning rolls around again and its “Oh sister God is so good.”

God is calling all pretenders to change habits, change actions, change conversations, change attitudes.  If we name the name of Christ and live like that we become stumbling blocks in the way of those who have a desire to serve the Lord.  “…but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.”  Romans 13:14b.

But God knows and hears and sees all things.  God is not fooled.  He knows our hearts and all our works will be judged.  “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”  Ecclesiastes 12:14

Exposure is coming in the church and in this land – from the pulpit to the pew.  All that was and is done is darkness will come to light.  In Hebrews 2:3 it states “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him.”

Church how can we escape?  How can we escape?  How can we escape?

I cried out to God.  God have mercy on us.  In my spirit I could hear there is:

•    Unforgiveness in the church
•    Jealousy and envy in the church
•    Selfishness in the church
•    Pride in the church
•    Bitterness in the church
•    Sexual sins in the church
•    Gossip and slander
•    Homosexuality in the church
•    Legalism and religion in the church
•    Slumber and compromise in the church
•    Jezebels and Delilahs in the church
•    Witches and Vodoo in the church
•    Adulterers and fornicators, in the church
•    Domestic violence and abuse in the church
•    Sorcery and divination in the church
•    Control and manipulation in the church

But we have people like that in the church – a smile to your face and a knife to your back.  God is not pleased.  God is saying to us as a Body today to REPENT!

“You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You’re like manicured grave plots, grass clipped and the flowers bright, but six feet down it’s all rotting bones and worm-eaten flesh. People look at you and think you’re saints, but beneath the skin you’re total frauds.”  St. Matthew 23:27-28

It is one thing to talk about what the sinner man is doing but if the Body of Christ who should be standing in the gap for this land are not in right standing with God how then can we pray for the land?

(Continued in Friday’s devotional)

Copyright 2012 Dominica News Online, DURAVISION INC. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed.

Disclaimer: The comments posted do not necessarily reflect the views of DominicaNewsOnline.com and its parent company or any individual staff member. All comments are posted subject to approval by DominicaNewsOnline.com. We never censor based on political or ideological points of view, but we do try to maintain a sensible balance between free speech and responsible moderating.

We will delete comments that:

  • contain any material which violates or infringes the rights of any person, are defamatory or harassing or are purely ad hominem attacks
  • a reasonable person would consider abusive or profane
  • contain material which violates or encourages others to violate any applicable law
  • promote prejudice or prejudicial hatred of any kind
  • refer to people arrested or charged with a crime as though they had been found guilty
  • contain links to "chain letters", pornographic or obscene movies or graphic images
  • are off-topic and/or excessively long

See our full comment/user policy/agreement.

5 Comments

  1. Agree with anonymous
    October 16, 2010

    The young preacher fro Baptist church in south east for past years now has been teaching the same things infact made much mention before all these killings started earlier this year said the way believers are living today and leaders are behaving it’s going to cause a catastrohe ” land and people of godly reverend fear ” has been transformed into all types of compromise and gluttonous acts . youths are on their own whilst many pastors and believers who claim christ are inthe coziness of their homes expecting christ to do the work for himself ( witness ) no one doing openaires today so what else we expect . Ez 33:1-7 as watch-man our duties are to be alert and one the people of judgment if we fail and they die in their sin , their blood is required on our shoulders , but if we warn them and die fail to take heed and they die in their sin then their blood is upon their own shoulders and we save ourselves . I pray for Randy , BJ , Peter R , Bill Daniel and bishop of diocese to rise up as men of God they claim and call a spade a spade , and a dog a dog with all authenticity , get out from the political circle and be what Christ was , and not what he wasn’t .

  2. Lizavier4Jesus
    October 11, 2010

    That is why I understand what Jesus meant when He said “It is written in the prophets, that they all should be taught by God. Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.” John 6: 45

    Before I read and understood that I had already received the message of God through His prophet Jeremiah at chapter 31 verses 31-34 In those verses God explained the promise (The covenant) that He would give to mankind–the ways of Love, which is Life in Spirit and Truth– by our faith in His Human Person, who is Jesus Christ.

    Verse 33-34 said: But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, said the Lord: “I will put My Law in their minds and write it on their hearts, and I will be their God and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord; for they all will know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord.”

    God started to teach people to know Him and His Ways, weeks after Jesus was ascended into Heaven, following His resurrection, when He send the power of His Holy Spirit to reign over people, from the Day of Pentecost and up until now.

    But as we read about the truths of the state of our minds–the attitude and conducts–which Pastor Richardson describes, we have to acknowledge that we do not have God’s Holy Spirit, the manner by which He puts His Laws on our minds and writes them on our hearts. For those attitude and conducts of our minds are not demonstrating knowledge of God and His Love in our lives.

    Why is that so? Because God starts to teach us His Ways and to know His Love in the Person of Jesus Christ, when we surrender to the reading and Study of His Words–The Letter of Love or the Holy Bible. But where is our Bible? Perhaps we do not even have one, or if we do, it is on a shelf piling up dust. We go to church every Sunday or other days of the week, expecting that our pastor or priest will redeem us. But he is a man, a human being who might have a greater need for redemption than we do. It is like the deaf and the blind, the latter asking the first, “do see what I hear”?

    Jesus said: “The words that I speak to you are Spirit and they are Life.” John 6: 63 Jesus is telling us that Life comes to us by faith in the words that He speaks to us. These words are God’s Love Letter to us–the Holy Bible–and our understanding and knowledge of God’s Ways through the clarity of the wisdom of His Holy Spirit, which we receive by our surrender to and faith in God, through Jesus Christ.

    It must start with a mind that is in renewal; teaching us how to allow Jesus to live in us, as we get rid of our ways by the control of our flesh. The apostle Paul advises us to know this Life as he tells us: That when we are baptised we are buried into Jesus’ death, hence we are raised with Him to walk with the newness of Life. Then he tells us that we can achieve walking in the newness of Life as we learn not to “remain conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Romans 6:4 and 12:2

    As for me, all that I can do is to strive to be a person that God has chosen for Himself. I believe that God’s chosen people are scattered but they are among the various churches. I realize that I need to be with a church family, even if that family is not the perfect Body of Jesus Christ. No one church family is a perfect body of Jesus Christ, because many people are ignorant of what Satan is doing to their minds, and others willfully surrender to his wicked works. But again, I say, God is choosing His people–the Body of His Son, Jesus Christ–that is for sure. Believers of Jesus Christ will not be judged for sins, because they believe that Jesus has cleansed them from sins; but they will be judged for their works by their demonstration of faith.

    My advise, to all people, is that you strive to live by faith and with hope that God has chosen you. You will know it, because God is Love, and He will not keep you in a doubt like that. Give Him the glory, when you know He has chosen you. Do not say my pastor prayed for my salvation, or that you did it on your own. Pastor Richardson has provoked your mind, but the choice is yours to allow God to do the rest. He knows your heart.

  3. Watcher
    October 11, 2010

    Yes very good article. It looks like this is confirmation. My Pastor was saying the same thing on Sunday. Yes the Father has not asked us to look at other sinners but we have first to examine ourselves to become better as Concerned Citizens has rightly said. We are all sinners and apt to make mistakes so we should again as CC said help a stumbling brother and stop the criticism.

    One other point, I would like to make is that those of us who are stronger, sometimes/most times, we neglect those who are weaker just because we think that we are better than others and we find them falling back on the wayside when just encouragement and pulling up would have helped..

    Yes Ministers Richardons – you have struck the nail right on the head. We all need to repent and be humble and let our light shine so others will also turn for the glory of the Father.

    According to the article the Father is looking for the following qualities:

    • A people who will pray
    • A people who will be obedient
    • A people who will not compromise
    • A people who will live godly no matter what
    • A people who are loving
    • A people who are forgiving
    • A people who are filled with compassion

    Let us strive to do as he wants us to do. Yes the temptations are there but he will strengthen us to do what he requires us to do.Tthen we do what we are supposed to do and be in right standing with our Father, then we in the gap can join together so the Father can heal our nation. Remember Nineveh and Jonah.

  4. TGIF
    October 11, 2010

    No-one can escape judgement.

  5. Concerned Citizen
    October 11, 2010

    This what Christianity entails. It is written that thousands of people came to Christ everyday while thousands left everyday. No one is perfect not even the writers. Certainly i am guilty as charged and no better than anyone. Paul once said that he is the worst of sinners even if he was considered a holy man. In spite of all this however we have a way and means of getting over this through Christ who strengthens us this is the reason why he took all our troubles and sins. So before we start hitting back when our weaknesses are viewed lets examine ourselves to become better. Lets not criticize but help a stumbling brother because its not easy to follow what God wants us to do in a fallen world where there are are so many temptations and tribulations and where the enemy is constantly planing and scheming ways and means to take us down. To tear us apart, make us bitter, break our relationships. We should humble ourselves and pray everyday.
    Amen

Post a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

:) :-D :wink: :( 8-O :lol: :-| :cry: 8) :-? :-P :-x :?: :oops: :twisted: :mrgreen: more »

 characters available