Greetings!
We observe today not a victory of fulfilling the mandates of 2019 but the celebrations of our continuous freedom in Christ Jesus. On this day we see an end as well as a beginning – signifying renewal, reunion, and reaffirming change in Christ. As a leader within Christ’s global Church, I commit to you and the Almighty God the same allegiance our Church forefathers prescribed by laying down their lives for the Gospel.
The world is diametrically different today.
Our forefathers would not recognize the state of our Lord’s Church. If it wasn’t for their present position of being seated at the right hand of the Father, their glimpse into our world would deflate the purpose of their sacrifice. For man selfishly holds to the presumption of assumed power – power that cements itself in revolutionary beliefs that rise up against the Father. Our forefather’s interests and mission would be nullified by our post-truth culture. They would be perplexed by the world’s self-governed ideologies of “rights of man.” Our founding fathers would be considered heretics by the self-imposed standards of our Post-Truth church.
We dare not forget today that we are heirs of our Church fathers. We are their legacy. Our commitment to the Word and authentic salvation must go forth from this time and place, no matter our ethnicity to nations and social groupings. We, the authentic Church, have been given the torch that has been mandated to be passed from generation to generation. Today, we are the new generation of indwelt Christians – born-again in His certainty, called to war against the enemy of the Gospel. We have been discipled and disciplined by our Lord’s investment for the common cause of leading a lost world to Him as we march forward bearing the torch of our ancient heritage. We must be unmovable in undoing human rights as we press the doctrines of Truth – eagerly proclaiming the rights of Jesus Christ.
He pledged His life. We must pledge His death, burial, and resurrection.
As to our old allies and enemies whose present culture and spiritual origins refute His Word, we should pledge loyalty to the King of kings. Unite with authentic believers that refute a blending of culture and Holiness. We must never entertain cooperative ventures with unbelievers. We must urgently embrace our Holy challenge at odds and split asunder from those resisting our mission.
To those new indwelt believers
whom we welcome to the Kingdom of God, we pledge our commitment in Christ that a “new kind of Christianity” shall not wash away our heritage and be replaced by pluralistic beliefs. We shall not always expect to find support in our vintage beliefs. But we shall always hope and pray for unity in the Body of Christ, which shall purpose itself to lead all authentic indwelt believers to our Lord’s beliefs. As Body members, we shall share in our mutual freedom in Christ – encouraging and exhorting each other in the Word of Truth.
To those precious souls who live in huts and villages of remote struggling to break free from the bonds of ungodly tyrants, we pledge our lives in Christ to help each through global missions. We shall give the authentic Gospel of Jesus Christ. We shall preach His life, death, burial, and resurrection – proclaiming our mutual inheritance in Christ. We shall disciple all in, and through the indwelling Life of Jesus. We shall teach new, and old, believers the organic principles of Christ-as-Life – not because it is an outreach, but because we are compelled to complete the Great Commission.
To our fellow Bridal members in Christ,
we commit to offering a special pledge – to convert our words into deeds, to reveal a refreshed reunion and alliance for furthering the indwelling Gospel. We will work at delivering practical methods of advancing lives in Christ. We shall teach established believers in assisting others to release His Life to minister to the poor in spirit, the persecuted Saints, and to equip willing workers of the Cross to better advance the Life of Christ. While we know this new kind of reformation of change cannot become a reality without a revival of the Holy Spirit, we stand willing and waiting for such a global movement. As our enemies unite in aggression or subversion, we agree to stand together in the perfect bond of unity – offering hope to a hopeless world. Christ’s character shall be our mainstay.
To the assembly of authentic global churches, our last best hope in an organism where the Gospel of Jesus Christ has far outpaced the emergent churches, we renew our commitment of support – to assist in preventing the Church from melting into the post-truth culture.
Finally, to those religious groups
who would make themselves the Chruch’s adversary, we offer not a commitment but a request: that both sides begin anew the quest for respecting differing beliefs, before the dark powers of a depraved society brings destruction unleashed causing unnecessary harm to the innocent.
So let us begin anew in 2020 – remembering what our Lord stated in Hebrews 12:14,
“Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.
” It is in this pursuit that we can assist others in not coming up short of the grace of God, that no root of bitterness by way of culture, nations or its people springs up and causes trouble. It is in bitterness that we find defilement. It is defilement that holds back the blessings of God.
All of what I speak and hope
will not be finished in 2020. Nor will it be finished in the following year, nor even perhaps in our lifetime. But let us begin today. As a wise mentor once said, “Put your right foot forward and the left will follow.” No truer words.
In the hands of the Body of Christ, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure in our individualized obedience of fulfilling the Lord’s Great Commission. Since the authentic Church was founded on the day of Pentecost, each generation of indwelt believers has been summoned to give testimony to its potency and transforming attributes in Christ. The graves of those lost to Christ should be our warning. But those alive can escape the demise and consequences of resisting the great call of salvation. This must be our forthright mission.
Soon the trumpet will summons us home
– not as a call but as an announcement. Our beloved Savior will come
quickly, rewards in hand, and ready to render to every man according to what he has done
– good or bad. Jesus will keep His word in testifying to the churches with these magnificent things. He will release the authentic believers to life eternal. He will bind up the rebellious, packaged with our greatest enemy and send them to the place He has established for all those who refuted His Words and warnings. But until that day, we must release the grace of the Lord Jesus to be with all.
We cannot forge against these things. No measurement of global or worldly alliance can assure a more fruitful life for mankind outside of Jesus living within all those who become born-again - His Bride. Nothing can bring the world peace outside of giving Jesus Christ to a troubled soul. Nothing can rescue us from the domain of hatred, bigotry and strive outside of Jesus. Nothing, nor anyone, can save us from the Judgement predestined by our Lord outside of being transferred into the Life of Christ. Nothing can ignite our needed reformation outside of releasing Christ to a troubled world. Outside of Christ, nothing is possible
. “With people, it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.”
(Mark 10:27)
As brothers and sisters in Christ,
we need a reunion. We need to join forces with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit in igniting a fire and fan the flames of a new reformation. Fellow citizens of the Kingdom of God must refrain from introspection and cast our gaze upon the finality of redemption. The authentic Church may not be able to unite the world but we certainly can unite the Body of Christ. This will require every member to join hands and hearts in fulfilling the Great Commission. We must love our neighbor as ourselves. We, the people of God, must refrain from judgment and hatred – default to God is Love while extending forgiveness to all.
Finally, whether you are an ignorant believer or a proactive born-again Christian,
let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
(Hebrews 12:1-2)
Our refined mission for 2020
is
Eternal Ethnicity in Christ.
“After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."
(Revelation 7:9-10) Come. Join the possibilities available in Christ. After all, we are one in Christ Jesus.
