02/22/26 NOT ALWAYS SMOOTH SAILING

02/22/26 NOT ALWAYS SMOOTH SAILING

Someone may have noticed in some of my posts that my journey has not always been a typical pastoral life. For instance, I have referred to "my period of exile" or "standing against State oppression," which was actually "standing for the Lordship of Christ over His Church."

I have enjoyed a "normal" pastoral experience, including incredibly great periods of church growth, youth outreach, world missions support and involvement, Christian schooling for children and youth, Bible Ministry Institute (equipping adults for pastoral and lay ministries), spectacular musical ministries, jail and prison ministries, cross-cultural endeavors, Evangelist and Foreign Missions Conference speaker, and many other typical Chrisitan ministries, Denominational Foreign Missions Board Officer and Denominational Youth Board Officer, Short Term Foreign Missions in Mexico City, Ecuador, Colombia, Norway, Holland and England, I led an Evangelistic Outreach for entire time at Montreal Olympics.

I enjoyed the days of "Philadelphian Christianity." Those were years of long hours, hard spiritual battles with gain-sayers and wannabe church-bosses, and those who were satisfied with the status quo, and the encroachment of Statism. But evangelizing the lost, edifying the believers, supporting worldwide outreach, winning, discipling, and training future ministers (full-time workers and laymen), and multicultural outreach. During those years, I saw what a local church should be and could be. I watched believers work together as a well-tuned and Spirit-filled body.

But through the years, I have also been involved in less typical situations and ministries, which have put me at odds with social norms, Statism, and Americanized Christianity. It has been costly to remain faithful to God and His word, but well worth the cost.

I did not seek out or choose the conflicts, upheaval, or controversial path. All I wanted to do was preach, teach, and pastor God's people, leading them into a life of victory and service to God.

But as we have moved into (what appears to be) this day of Laodicean Christianity, I have encountered and engaged the powers of darkness in a way that was not typical prior to the 1980s. It has not been easy; it has not yielded the fruit I enjoyed years ago, but it has been rewarding, as well as challenging.

There came a time when Christians in America needed to realize that the tipping point had been reached, and it was time to come out from among the growing numbers of people who had a form of godliness, while denying the power of salvation. The Laodicean Period had approached slowly, but it came in like a spiritual, cultural, academic, political, and economic rogue wave, and most people continued on as if things were still the same as they had been.

America has never been the kingdom of God, but there was a time when the Christian message and morals, and influence kept America on an even keel. When it started to become evident that a major shift was taking place, most pastors and churches allowed the State to assume the headship of the Church and the family. Divine revelation was replaced with Secular Humanism and Scientism. Sanity was replaced with Sin-sanity. Faith-based living was replaced with materialism. Dignity and morality were replaced with Hedonism, and now Wokism.

It is too late to save that which has been eternally lost, but it is not too late to throw out the lifeline to those who are drowning in the sea of sin, self, Statism, and Satanic religion.