Gallup has released its latest poll on Church Membership, revealing that the number of Americans who hold a church membership is tanking rapidly, plummeting, and has now dipped below 50%... to 47%, actually.
One message of this blog in the past few years has been that the Lord of all authority and power and grace and mercy and blessing is not blessing...not blessing the organized and institutionalized church.
This is the day your church calendar people call Easter. It's your day that celebrates the power of Jesus over death itself.
And, with the release of the Gallup poll, in 2021, it's a time to face the reality that institutionalized religion in America is entirely disconnected from the grace and mercy and power and blessing of God.
As I've written this type of post over the years, I've wanted to scream, I TOLD YOU SO!, and, I don't think that I ever have done that.
To say that would be to gloat. It would be the fruit of some sort of happiness, perhaps even perverse happiness.
I'm tempted to scream at you institutionalists, but, in truth, it's not happiness, even perverse happiness that I feel. I'm profoundly sad.
My training is in the history of the Kingdom, specifically what is often called the History of Revivalism. My focus is on those times when the God of all authority and power and grace and mercy and blessing, blessed.
The truth of this day that is special in the institutionalized church only because the creators of the unbiblical church calendar say it's special is that, while the order of the day is the celebration of Christ's power, honesty demands that today be a day to repent in the acknowledgement that you have divorced yourself from His power.
This is a day when...
...THE GOD OF ALL AUTHORITY AND POWER AND GRACE AND MERCY AND BLESSING IS NOT BLESSING.
He has not lost His power. He has not stopped loving His John 3:16 love.
He has not turned from you. You have created your own traditions and have devoted yourselves to them rather than to Him.
YOU have turned. From HIM!
The time has long since passed for you to repent and turn back to Him.
He is, truly, the God of all authority and power and grace and mercy and blessing.
Die to your empty and dead traditions.
Repent. Confess your sin to Him to each other, and trust Him to show mercy and to pour out His power on you, as He has done in the past.
He has risen. You are dying.
Repent. Turn.
