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THE STATUS QUO EXPOSED!

“Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” (Matthew 15:7-9)

Some people may wonder what I mean about the term “status quo.” After all, it is a term I seem to use a lot and you may have noticed the slogan I have underneath the Bible Christian Outreach logo which says, “Serving the Saviour, Not the status quo!” What do I mean by “status quo?” Well, as always, much can be said about this but I will give you the main things that I define as the status quo of our day and how it irritates me in how it robs God's glory. To be honest, I am totally fed up with the carnal ritualistic machine of organized religion. For example, we think we are doing God a favor by showing up to a church building on Sunday or Sunday night and probably Wednesday night only to use it as a license to live according to the flesh the rest of the week.

Christianity is not about what you do and don't do in a church building, but what you do and don't do outside of the church doors. The average church in America is too busy glorifying themselves over their steepled religious social clubs and not bragging on the Saviour and His Word. They worship the ungodly trinities of me, myself, and I and buildings, budgets, and bazaars! They all learn the proper phrases and jargons to show the world they are “religious” but they don't realize that they are a bunch of dirty swines with the red ribbons of routine and repitition around their necks in the sight of a holy God. If they are the soldiers of Christ, then the civilians are in trouble!

Today's professing Christians are so obscure and so cold toward what God has to say in His Word. They really don't care what a preacher says in a sermon anymore just as long as he is not “long-winded.” They carry their fancy leather Bibles to the house of God and they act like it is torture and persecution when they have to open it. As a matter of fact, most people have enough dust on their Bibles to write the word “Damnation” across the cover with their finger. And do I need to mention anything about the preachers today? Especially these young punks who come out of Bible college and think the world owes them something all the time. They talk about how early in the morning they get up to read their Bibles but they have the compassion of a billy goat!

Their wives only wear polyester dresses and cullottes but they have got some iron britches on in their hearts. Let's face it! Most of the sermons you hear today all start out with a verse of Scripture or two and then the rest is what they think or what someone else they admire thinks about the subject at hand. People don't search the Scriptures daily to see if those things are so. We have all bowed down to the golden calf of Bible college education. The only thing I find in God's Word of how we learn about it is through the Comforter, not the college (Read John 14:26 and 1 John 2:27)! It's all become a religious circus of entertainment and not evangelism of the Great Commission.

Today we have sincere people who “enjoy” sermons rather than “apply” sermons to their daily lives. The preaching of God's Word is to be applied, not enjoyed (Read John 7:17 and James 1:22). Then we have the average church goer who thinks they are spiritual giants because they go to the altar in every service. I'm not opposed to that if the motive is genuine but when it is done too often it seems to be routine and not repentance. They come off of the altar thinking that God has sprinkled magic dust on their heads and their lives will change. No, that is not the case! They must decide whether they are going to change or not by how they live when they get up from the altar.

Do I also need to mention about the mentality of people who are more concerned about quantity and not quality? The first question that most people will ask about a local church is how many people you have in the service. My reply to that question is, “Well, we had people there and that's really all that matters whether it is one or a thousand!” And to sum it all up, that is what the status quo is all about. What the majority of people are doing and what they think rather than what God's Word says. If you were to look up the term “status quo” in a dictionary, it is defined as “the current state of affairs.” We must realize that the current affairs that function how we live and operate things is usually dictated by the popular opinion of many people.

We must not be afraid to question what the majority of people are doing if it seems contrary to the Word of God. It is a lack of questioning why we have cults today as well as other heresies. Exodus 23:2 says, “Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil.” We must remember that we cannot change the world if we let the world change us! So, are you going to continue to follow the status quo which seems to be going further away from the divine principles of the Saviour? If you are in it to please the crowd, then you are not serving the Saviour! Let me leave you with Galatians 1:10, “For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.”

Editor's note: If you don't understand the cover image, read The Field Machine. Here is the full size image.

- James S. Hodges

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