Evening Prayer 2-1-11

Reading:

2 Timothy 4:1-18

Preach the word, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching.  These words from St. Paul ring so true.  This is the work of the Church and specifically the Pastors of Christ's holy Church.  However, so many have desired to not address sins as sin any longer.  They follow after the newest fad in regards to religion.  They preach a new Gospel that does not involve sacrifice, does not involve suffering.  Somehow they seem to have forgotten what it looked like for our Lord as He was beaten, spit upon, and nailed to the Cross.  They may have forgotten what that looks like because there is no corpus (body) on the cross to remind us what great lengths He went through to save us.

They seem to think that whatever the people want to hear is what they should be saying.  They present the faith like a buffet line and you can pick and choose which parts of the faith you like.  However, they neglect the fact that the faith was once delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3) and this is what we are to earnestly contend for.  They forgot that St. Paul had just commended Timothy that he was to guard that "good deposit entrusted to him."  (2 Timothy 1:14)  But t it is not you who protects the faith but the Holy Spirit who has enlightened you with His gifts.  He is the one that gives you the understanding and removes the scales from your eyes so that you can see Jesus Christ as the author and perfecter of your faith (Hebrews 12:2). 

Do not be deceived into following Pastors that only want to say what you want to hear.  I started First Communion lessons this evening with my son and the lesson had a drama about a girl with 3 mirrors and all of the mirrors told her what she wanted to hear.  She finally realized that she could not trust them.  If a Pastor is not calling sin out for what it is sin and the wages of sin being death, but the gift of God is free salvation in Jesus Christ, you need to depart from them, he can not be trusted.  They are not being honest with you and your soul is in peril staying there.  They are robbing you of the chance to repent and to have forgiveness and amendment of life.   Realize that you are a sinner, cling to the cross, cling to Jesus  for this is the only hope that you have.  This is the faith that the gates of hell will never prevail against.