This is a day when people are looking for quick fixes and easy, pain-free ways of resolving the issues of life. Make no mistake about it…trials are sure to come. Without any trials, there would not be a way of authenticating faith, and producing the quality of faith that must be directed towards the right object. What we are experiencing is the trying of our faith, and what resides within us is now manifesting through us. We don’t know ourselves as well as we think we do, but it is in these trying times that we discover who we really are. This is by God’s design and through His unique way of drawing those who would be drawn and causing others to count the cost of true discipleship. God would not allow those who are seriously seeking to know Jesus Christ to remain under influence of deceptive practices. Today, He draws the line between what has become culturally relevant and Christo-centric living. The challenges were necessary even though, in the natural, they were difficult to understand. Nothing happens outside of God’s knowledge, and He uses all things for the good of His own people.

One would wonder why worship would be restricted when worship pleases God. We are not permitted to worship as we wish and there are those who do not wish to worship as they ought. Unfortunately, the technology and duality of modern science provides conveniences that would spare individuals of any sacrifice. If it is not an offering unto the Lord among those whose sole intent is to please Him, is it really worship? If our faith is self-serving and the messages received and embraced merely contribute to our thinking of our own greatness and indulgences, are we really being prepared as a habitation as a dwelling-place for the Lord?  God is bringing correction to those things that are out of order. This is the temporary judgement of the Lord that had to begin in His own House prior to the judgement of the world. He is making known to church attendees that Pop Culture religion is not enough. While it does appeal to a greater number of people and provoke a mass response to the granted invitation, but they are merely responding to a pseudo-Christian appeal that further hardens their hearts to the authentic Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jeremiah 6:14 states that “They have also healed the hurt of My people slightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ when there is no peace (Jeremiah 6:14; 8”11). What is offered is a pacifier that provides a false sense of security rather than true conversion and the preparation of the heart to be instructed in the ways of the Lord.

Today there is an insatiable hunger and thirst for entertainment as opposed to a hunger and thirst for righteousness. Righteousness is the standard that God desires for us to pursue. Our ministers ought not to be comedians or so cloaked with eloquence that he/she lacks the anointing that should produce deep conviction. When we hear the message, more questions should rise within the heart pertaining to action—“what must we do?” Only then will we grow in grace as we grow in knowledge of Jesus Christ. My heart yearns for you to experience the authentic. My desire is for you to be with those of us who are being saved and prepared for a forever union with the One who died for our sins and is currently sitting on the right hand of the Father. Only a new passion produced within the heart by way of the Holy Spirit can posture all to seek for the right thing. Left to yourselves and void of spiritual understanding, too many will think that they have arrived while they are sinking deeper into a quagmire of sinful lusts in pursuit of having their own way.