“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and placed you, in order that you might go and bear fruit…..” (John 15:16).
God’s law is written in more than words; it is written deep into all life and what it says is that everything must bring forth after its kind. This is especially true of the gatherings of those called by God; it is not the Word only that determines the quality of the Christian convert; it also depends very much on the character of the witness.
Where that witness is the Holy Spirit of God then there is pointed out to the convert a pathway that leads to life. Where the witness is the church, then it can do no more than transplant itself. We have seen this in those countries in Africa and Eastern Europe where western missionaries went out and reproduced the same shallow powerless Christianity that they practiced at home.
This is the amazing thing; that Christian groups that have long ago lost any trace of moral fibre and spiritual power still continue to grow at home and reproduce themselves abroad. This is the great end-times harvest of lawlessness at work!
This western model of Christianity that is being reproduced around the world is tragically in contempt of what the Word of God describes as the body of Christ on earth; it wears the garments of worldliness; the tenor of the gatherings is social not spiritual; what is called worship is indistinguishable from what the world calls entertainment; the activities are organized and carried out using the methods of commercial businesses; the literature it produces would be laughable were it not so tragic and the music is sacrilegious.
Where is the fruit that would draw the world’s attention to the truth? Where is the glory of the Lord? Where is the power of the Spirit? Alas, as for Israel, so for the church; “The glory is departed”! (1 Samuel 4:21).
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