WHAT NOW CHURCH??

What Do We Do Now Church

"And when He was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.  For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.  And He went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought; Saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves."
Luke 19:41 - 46

This passage of Scripture speaks to me as the warning and the answer to our question, 'What do we do now church'.  For found within these verses is the direct speaking of Christ our Lord to the children of the covenant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  They had the law of Moses; they had the Holy One Who had been as a fiery cloud by day and night; they had the glory Shekinah upon the mercy seat of the ark; they had men who knew God and walked with God as David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and all the prophets.  But in all this rich history, events, teachings, warning, sermons, pleadings, they would not 'take heed'.  And now, here is Christ giving the edict of prophecy upon them for not 'taking heed'.

Woe unto them that do not 'take heed' to the Word of the Lord.  'When He was come near, He beheld the city. . . '  Isn't He always drawing near?  He sent His angels before Him even to Sodom and Gomorrah to see if their wickedness was so true.  He came down upon Jerusalem when the temple was consecrated by Solomon and His glory was manifested.  He came again in power upon the city where the 120 were gathered together in prayer and adoration of Him.  He draws nigh even now to us, to His people.  Waiting, beholding, desiring to fulfill all His power and majesty upn the ones or the one who will give place to Him and take heed.  'I sought for a man'; 'My eyes run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Myself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect, toward Me'.  But when He comes near, what does He find?

'And God wondered that there was none that sought Him.'  He condemns them here that 'they knew not the day of their visitation'.  And when He beholds us in our churches, in our communities, in our secret closets are we at One with Him and in Him? 

And He wept over the city - I can not tell you how many times in reference to this phrase, my heart has bee smote within me;   When did I last weep over the city? Do I see the sin and evil and lostness as Jesus sees it and saw it there?  When did I last weep over my only folly and sin that grieves Him so?  Is there not compassion in our hearts and lives to understand that eternity is coming and hell has enlarged its mouth to accommodate the masses going into it?  Do we not know the reality of that Biblical truth, 'the broad and wide path leads to destruction, to hell. . '  and how many are going therein?  "MANY' there be that go in thereat."  Oh, 'the harvest is past, the summer is ended and we are not yet saved'.  How awful Lord!  Oh, God forgive us for dry eyes at the lostness of humanity today.  My family, your family; my community, your community; my city, your city; my nation, your nation;  all perishing and heading full steam into eternity without Christ. 

Keith Green wrote the song, which is the motto of the church today in worship services and prayer meetings: "My Eyes are Dry".  Why?  Becasue we do not see the city as Jesus sees, as He saw it here in this passage.  Our prayer ought to be, 'Let me see as You see, Lord'.  The old hymn says it true, 'Open the eyes of my heart Lord'.  You tell me, the last time you was in prayer, in a prayer meeting that eternity was opened up, the lostness was comprehended, hell was envisioned and the tears flowed in earnestness over it.   If Jesus wept, then why don't we.  God forgive us for dry eyes.

"If you had known. . . but you did not know the time of thy visitation" - Ah! the greatest condemnation on the church today is found by Christ Own words here - 'you did not know'!  Why did they not know?  'Having eyes to see, they could not see; having ears to hear they could not hear; having hearts to perceive they could not discern.'  And is it any different for the church today?  No.  A thousand times, No!  As Ravenhill said it, the church in North America today has more schools, seminaries, bible courses, tapes, videos, dvd's, conferences, seminars, video feeds, podcasts, churches, teachers, on and on it goes. And with all this stuff about the kingdom, are we any better off, or deeper with Christ?  Are we any richer in our walk and faith in comparison to those old saints that all they had was the Bible, prayer, fellowship and intimacy with Christ?  All they had was the rudiments of the faith in Christ in Him.  And brothers, and sisters, He is sufficient enough. 

But we don't know Him.  You can't find a church, or individuals that can take a 8 1/2 X 11 piece of blank paper and fill it up with what they know about God.  The majority of these churches and pew sitters can only fill up 1/2 a page, or less about God.  That is in complete opposite fashion of what Christ prayed in John 17, 'that they may know You Father'.  It is the greatest shame that we don't know who God is.  We don't His Word which teaches us and reveals Himself to us.  The same God of the Bible is the same God for us today!  Malachi 3 is the same for us today, "I am the Lord, I change not"  God is immutable, unchanging in His ways, attributes and abilities. 

And here in this passage is the condemnation that they did not know Him, the Son of God, the Messiah that they was supposed to be waiting for.  They did not know the importance of His Divine visitation.  And oh, will it not be revealed to us in eternity the same way.  That God will say to us, 'I was nigh unto You, but you was so busy, so preoccupied, so ignorant of Me, that you missed My Divine visitation.'  I believe it will be revealed to us in heaven at the judgment seat of how many times, we was so close to God pouring out His Spirit, but because we did not know the time, we missed it and quenched and grieved His Holy Spirit. 

And so here we see the issue at hand - He beholds us, He weeps over us, because we do not Know Him and we have missed His Divine visitations upon us.  This is the reason why there has been no real revival in the United States for so long. 

Why all this is happening? 
"My house is the house of prayer:  but you have made it a den of thieves"
The absence of prayer is set before us as the means of our destruction.  It is recorded throughout Scripture and the 2000 years of history for the church, that when God's people prayed, God was faithful.  And when God's people don't pray (or prayer rightly), then God is absent and refuses to hear the prayers. 

First, the church is supposed to be a house of prayer.  But go to church Sunday, look in your own church brethren, is it a house of prayer?   It is said that over 80% of the churches in North America have no prayer ministry what so ever in the church.  What do they have?  They have ball games, movie night, suppers, plays/dramas, singing, services - BUT NO PRAYER.  If there is no prayer, then it is not a house of prayer.  We have changed GOD'S House to OUR House. 

When there is no prayer, there is no fellowship or drawing near unto Him.  Proper praying draws the mind, heart and people after God.  Improper praying makes it about us and circumstances.  Praying rightly is a hard thing to find today in the midst of the body of Christ.  But oh, when it is found it is a wonderful time of intiamcy with Christ.  Too  many do not make time to learn to pray or make time to be in prayer.  The lack of private, secret closet prayer is only reflected by the pastors and churches in their lack of knowledge of Him.  Be honest about it, if they don't take time to pray on their own in their every day life, why in the world will they pray when gathered together at church.  The coporate prayer meeting of the church is directly related to the personal prayer life of the Christian. 
No private prayers = no public prayers

So Christ is laying out here the problem for Jerusalem and the children of Israel:
1. the city was surrendered to sin, and He wept over it;
2. they did not know Him, nor the Divine visitation;
3. there was the absence of proper praying;

And He is saying the same thing to the church today in NOrth America.

Now we are left with a choice.  We can acknowledge this and repent of it.  We can labor in His Presence for restoration and begin again to do it His way.  Or we can miss the moment of Divine visitation and our end is certain, just as it was for Jerusalem.  Because in 70 AD, less than 40 years after Christ said these words, the Romans came in and fulfilled His word.  Our destruction is as certain.  We cannot continue to go on doing things our way, there must be a fresh surrender to the things of Him and His way.  Can you hear the Spirit saying, "This is the way, now walk in it"? 

This is a Divine moment when God is speaking to His church by saying, 'Seek My face'; 'Call upon Me'; 'Draw nigh unto Me'; 'Return unto Me'.  Obey brethren the word of the Lord, lest we see the destruction foretold to those that disobey and refuse to hear. 

I have attached and posted the following youtube videos of the series, 'Seven Levels of Judgment'.  Our nation stands on the brink of destruction because our disobedience.  We are seeing great judgments on our government, the church, the land and the people.  A great catastrophe of catacylsmic proportions is on the horizon unless the church responds.  There is no time for delay, but urgency should press us, even now. 

'Seven Levels of Judgment'
Level #1 'Sin' part 1- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2p9_uXutcE&feature=plcp
part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jkFcTJFISE&feature=plcp
Level #2 - 'God's Respnse to Sin' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z4Rjm0-8BY&feature=plcp
Level #3 - 'Judgment on the Land' - part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5NkfhECPYk&feature=plcp
part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIMU2oNOlKo&feature=plcp
part 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2prEMHjcA8&feature=plcp

Level #7 - 'Catacylsmic/Catastrophe'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBfKclc2O_k&feature=plcp
Improper Response by the Church to Judgment
part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQMFmUZnTrQ&feature=plcp
part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=objrEdR5WgM&feature=plcp
part 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vgb9UKYfAXY&feature=plcp
Proper REsponse by the Church to Judgment
part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18250UOsc_Q&feature=plcp
part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ2TJCoKILA&feature=plcp
part 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2prEMHjcA8&feature=plcp


Having prayed that you take time to give place to these things and that together we responde rightly unto Him.  Lest we know that it was all because we did not 'take heed' to His Spirit.

Thank you for giving attention and time to these most crucial things to our present day.

I would be glad to discuss, pray, hear from you on these things.

until,
dan biser
rdibser@live.com