Heed the warning! This is an urgent message for all local fellowships around the world. "The axe is already at the root of the trees."
Come on! There is no more fooling around at playing church. Stop meeting just to be a religious social club! Quit building religious fortresses to keep the world out! You have been saved out of the world only to be sent back into the world for a purpose. It is the purpose of God, to seek and save the lost.
When John the Baptist was baptizing in the River Jordan, religious leaders came to spie on him. When he saw them he called them a "brood of vipers;" and then warned them about the coming judgment to fall upon the House of Israel. They would not even be able to claim birth rights into God's kingdom. John said, "And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.'"
"The axe is already at the root of the trees." Many churches are just as guilty as many of the Jewish religious movements of Jesus' day. They had lost their first love and put their faith and trust in man made religion; which boiled down to nothing more than sets of rules and regulations, and empty traditions.
Jesus said of the church,
"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men." (Matthew 5:13)
The local church is much like the human life. We live until our bodies become worn out, and then we die. The church becomes old and worn out when it stops feeding upon that which gives it life - Jesus Christ. He makes us a living, breathing organism. He breathes life into His church.
But like human life, the life of the church is not without purpose. We are born into being solely to serve God. Communities need the local church or God would not have planted us in our respective locations. We are the preservation of the world, but once we lose our ability to preserve, "We are no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men."
God does give each local church some ability to sustain its life in Him. This is possible only through serving His purpose. So may God find us alive and active in His holy purpose of spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Blessings,
-Leo
