But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 1 Timothy 3:1-5, 4:2-5.
Flipping through the radio stations the other day, I heard a Frank Zappa song titled, “Don’t eat the yellow snow.” While that may seem like sound advice, I am amazed at how many people especially followers of Jesus are still eating the yellow snow.
Obviously, I am not talking about real soiled snow. I am talking about how people play God and never really submit and surrender their lives to him.
I am talking about people who attend church, who claim to be followers but have no intention of ever walking away from their sins; who have no intention of ever loving Jesus back according to his definition of what it means to love him. John 14:21
I am talking about people who claim to have had a salvation experience yet live a life apart from God’s commands, counsel and wisdom.
I worked with a worship leader who approached me and I quote, “Bill, obedience is too much pressure on self. God is a God of love and his grace will forgive you for anything you do but obedience is just too much pressure on self.” Words like repentance was not in this persons vocabulary. That is a new age theology and not sound biblical doctrine. John 4:24 says, “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
There is a craving for the form or appearance of godliness in the church of Jesus Christ that flat out denies the power of God. You can’t have the presence and power of God without the desire to submit and surrender to God.
We are in a culture where people flat out refuse, ignore, and disregard sound doctrine. They filter what they hear only to listen to what their itching ears want to hear.
There is a huge movement of people in the church turning away from the truth and turning to myths instead of people turning from their sins to Jesus and His Truth!
There is a move of insecure, codependent pastors who love the cheers of the crowd more than their desire to make disciples and preach the whole counsel of God. And what they have are exactly that, crowds and not churches.
Now I am not throwing stones or talking about being perfect. The bible reminds me that all of us fall short of God’s standards. All of us have sinned but there is a difference between willful sin and falling short.
Willful sin is when you know you are sinning but do it anyway trusting God will forgive you.
Falling short is attempting to follow God but you sin and fall short in your attempt to do so and ask for his forgiveness. 1 John 1:9. I have fallen short as a pastor many times and still need his grace.
Willful sin is deliberately sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth and the Hebrews writer warns Christians that there is no sacrifice for those sins left. 10:26-39
A brother in Christ recently approached me and said he was not into going deeper with God and wanted to be around others who are more secular minded. In other words, he wanted eat the yellow snow instead of being fed the bread of life.
Recently I announced a 12 week curriculum based on 12 Anchors of Hope that will be launching in August.
The Encounter studies is not based on any steps but on anchors of hope that will transform and heal your life. It is designed to set you up to have holy encounters with the Holy Spirit as you dig deep into each anchor of hope.
There is a great reward waiting for you because God rewards those who earnestly seek Him. Hebrews 11:6
Here is the catch. You have stop eating the yellow snow and embrace grace instead of abusing grace so your sins will be washed white as snow! You have to choose to obey God and seek him personally. You have to choose to really follow and love him with all your heart, soul, and mind. No pastor can do that for you. No church can do that for you.
The choice is simple. You can eat the yellow snow or you can humble yourself and submit and surrender yourself to the Lordship and leadership of Jesus Christ. There is no in between. If He is not Lord of all He is not Lord at all.
I John 3:23-24 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
Bill Rieser
Encounter Pastor