I understand that this is not an easy Word. No one wants to take a serious look within. Realize too that apostasy does not generally come into your church wearing a big neon sign that says, "apostasy." It starts with something very small and seemingly harmless. Compromise always starts that way. The devil is very subtle in his attacks. There will always be a very convincing argument for why the leaven is ok. The argument will have plenty of logic and human wisdom. People will seemingly be helped by the leaven too. But at the end of the day it is still leaven. It is still not of God. Dressing it up in a Sunday bonnet does not make it holy. Saying Jesus right after explaining it does not make it holy. That seemingly innocent compromise will lead to another and then another. Soon they will grow and then something truly offensive might be found and we will ask ourselves how we got here? We got here because we were not faithful in the little things. We compromised where we should not have. We failed to discern what is of God and what is of this world:
Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. -- Romans 12: 2 (NLT)
For those who would object -- this is the Word of God. I did not write it -- I simply try to follow it. It says here that we are supposed to change the way we think. We are to take on a God perspective on things. Jesus commanded us to take the Gospel into the world not to allow the world into the church. I understand that some will say that I take this too seriously. I would rather be accused of that than taking it too flippantly. Because the sad reality is that true biblical discernment is on life support in the church. We have willingly invited the devil into our churches. We have allowed him to commune with our families. We have based our metrics and success upon his terms. We have sought his solutions. If we do not stop soon and revive our discernment, we will reap his harvest.
Reverend Anthony Wade -- August 13, 2012
