Stain

What happens when you get a stain on your clothing and it just won't come out? You work and work on it, but it is still there. You then try something stronger to remove it, but it is really defiant against the attempt to clean it. It seems like my white shirts are an easy target for stains, so I can see the stain easier and I can fix it before it becomes permanent. A colored article of clothing might hide the stain, but it is there.

In the modern-day church, there seem to be some stains, and a spiritual spray and wash is needed to deal with the stains of letting marketplace worship and compromised truth be let in. Jesus dealt with the temple worship that was taking place in Jerusalem by knocking over the tables selling goods for religious articles. Jesus got right to the point and spoke the following words, Luke 19: ⁴⁶ He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.

It might be easy to 'miss' the opening line in that verse where He says, ““The Scriptures declare", but those are very important words. Jesus wanted the temple to be doing what scripture says to do, and nothing more!! This is just not an example of those in charge making up their own church practices, but the scriptures for what church is to be were being ignored, or how it happens in our world, "they did their own thing!" The stain was noticeable to the Son of God, but those relgious leaders couldn't see what they had made of the Lord's church, and they could care less. Their lives had become like colored clothes that blended the stain in with the color of the day, and so they ignored the need to "clean house!"

This brings us to the modern-day church, and the stain that is keeping it from being all that Jesus wants. A church that is doing the right things will be like a white shirt, and the stain will be noticeable, and it will be so obvious, that change needs to take place to remove the stain. But even the white shirt church that seems to be doing everything perfect can miss the obvious because of putting a "first love for Jesus" as a secondary prioirity. Jesus' letter to the church at Ephesus emphasizes the point in Revelation 2: ^2: “I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don’t tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars. ³ You have patiently suffered for me without quitting. ⁴ “But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! ⁵ Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches. ⁶ But this is in your favor: You hate the evil deeds of the Nicolaitans, just as I do. ⁷ “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give fruit from the tree of life in the paradise of God.

Everything seemed to be going well, but was it really? No! They needed revival to get back to what the real church should be doing. We need revival to get back to what we should be doing. I am all about church growth, but church growth without a real "God-centered" direction is just more people going the wrong way. I believe Jesus is showing us where the stains are in the super Godly groups and the different colored groups alike, and there is a major stain that is showing we are missing the mark!!

I wonder how many weeks will go by in a church where no one comes to the altar to get right with God? How many week-after-week services where there is little or no movement are seen in churches? If someone comes to the altar, they are making church what Jesus intended it to be: a house of prayer where a person is coming back to their first love, Jesus, and they will never be the same. REVIVAL!!! Stain gone!! Why don't we have revival services anymore? Because we have let the stain blend in with the modern-day faith we live, and we can't see a need to clean it anymore. We need true revival, and the result will be a sleeping giant waking up to the "real" church, a church on fire!!

Are you open to repentance? No? Then maybe there is a stain you cannot see because you have blended your faith with the world so much, it is not noticeable to you anymore. Time for change for us all.

The Pilgrimage Continues,

David Warren