There is indeed a Remnant, decreed by God. They have been held firm by iron and by trial. They have been tested in the desert. They have had the bread of adversity and the waters of affliction for their teachers. The days of their weeping do not last forever. There is a narrow path through the gross darkness and we know that this is the way and we must walk in it. Joseph’s feet were hurt by fetters and the iron of his enemies held him firm. Yet God’s will for his life would be fulfilled and even in his dungeon the favor of the Lord was upon him.

Paul and Silas with many stripes upon their backs and feet held firmly in the stocks, in the darkest hour of the day, found favor in the eyes of God and they sang out His praises and down came His glory. Daniel taken into captivity and then thrown in to complete darkness surrounded by savage beasts found favor in the den and when the light of day shone through, that favor was evident to all the world. Men and women of God grow mighty in the places that were designed to destroy them. For when you are persecuted saint, remember that you are not forsaken. When you have been knocked down in life you are not destroyed. When you seem to have trouble on every side and it threatens to consume you know that God Himself will give you strength.

For we have this treasure in our earthly vessels. There is glory in us that if we are broken it pours forth. When we are broken bread and poured out wine then God’s glory is revealed and the power of God shall come forth. For God has commanded that light would shine forth out of darkness. He said that His glory would cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. And the glory that pours forth from our broken hearts gives the light of the knowledge of the glory of God and that light is Jesus. We who are outwardly perishing, we who willingly take up our crosses and die daily to Him do so that the life of the Lord Jesus may be manifest in us. A people willing to die, a people willing to suffer, a people willing to endure, a people who will stand fast in the power and the glory of God.

Last of all, the Lord Jesus knows what it means to suffer affliction. He knows the cruel trials of mocking and scourges. He has walked through the desert and was tested. And then He was held firm by iron, by three nails He was held in that place that the Father had asked Him to be. And there He stayed and endured it all, broken Bread and poured out wine. Yet the cross was not the end it was His victory, right there He overcame. You to saint, this is where the victory lies. For from our brokenness the life and the light and the glory of God shines through, this is truly light shining forth from the darkness. No matter your circumstances this day brother or sister, let your light shine through your brokenness and the glory of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

So as I watch yet another debacle unfold in the realms of politics but also the continuing fall of Rome, only this time it is the fall of the West, I am reminded of the madness of a bygone age. In the dark ages of Britain, if one were accused of being a witch, two events would then unfold. You would be taken to the river and thrown in. If you did not drown this was considered to be an absolute sign of your guilt whereby you were then taken and burned at the stake. Think about that for moment. The moment the accusation was made, there was no possibility of you proving your innocence, for how can one prove they are not a witch?

There was only, will you drown or will you burn. How could a man prove he did not do something 35 years ago? There is no evidence that could be mustered, there is to time, no date, no physical evidence at all. All there is is the accusation. Now that we live in days of madness that is all you need. Where will all the hysteria end? Will the lunatics take over the asylum? They already have. The statesmen are long gone, a very definite sign of judgment. I told the story the other day of the man in Britain accused of multiply raping a woman. He was then remanded to a woman’s prison because he self identified as a woman. There he raped several more women. The same hysterical lunatics that we see today on our tvs are the very people who would send a rapist to a woman’s prison.

Jezebel walks among us screaming ” I will murder your babies.” She taunts them who still have their minds by pointing to the ever growing mass of hysterical lunatics and telling them ” they are coming for you next.” And they are. Dark are the days brothers and sisters. Hell and all its depths are loosed. Those not standing upon the firm foundation of God will simply be swept away by a hurricane of madness and lunacy. And the thing is, these are just the outer bands of a storm that will engulf the whole world. Is their oil in your vessel?

The Holy Spirit is calling to His people to lift up their eyes. See, that although the gross darkness is almost upon us, right behind it comes the Lord Himself hence the reason for the monumental battle that is unfolding. This is the enemies last stand and he is not going down without a fight. Yet greater is He that is in us than he that is in the midst of the crazed masses.

We have been called to comfort others with the comfort we ourselves have been comforted with. In ever great trial there is great comfort from the Lord but we have to go deep. This is like pure gold to the poor man although we often have to experience what it means to be poor to appreciate His gold. It is like light to one who is drowning in darkness although we often have to touch that very darkness to know what it means to cry out to the Light. It is like an oasis to the man who finds himself in the midst of the desert although we often have to stumble, parched and dying in the desert to know how magnificent and glorious His oasis is. He is like an anchor indeed in the great storms of life although we often have to come to the point of it seeming like the storm will simply blow us away to appreciate that He holds us fast. All that treasure, all that light, all those living waters and sure anchor are to be shared with others. He comforts us with His presence because He loves us and that very comfort He asks us to share with others. This is how the Lord is glorified in our infirmities and in the midst of our sufferings.

The most important crisis facing the Body of Christ is the Sunday morning service. It really helps to know a little bit about the history of the early church and what it looked like. For the most part it would be in houses or for special occasions if there was more than one house gathering in a town or city, they would come together in an open field, especially if someone like Paul was coming. The gathering was just that, and there was a meal. Breaking bread meant just that, it did not mean a communion wafer and a ritualized affair. People were actually together, hanging out, singing hymns, sharing, giving testimony, asking for prayer. This thing called “the church service,” is something that morphed out of that. Bottom line, it really was not that complicated, the most important aspect of the gathering was that the Holy Spirit was there, Jesus was preeminent.

Can this be changed? Not in any meaningful way. I do believe however that the time is coming soon when the enemy will tear down every religious building in the world that will not bow down to him, only then I believe will the Body of Christ return to its roots, by necessity. If we were to take the pastor out of the average church in America, the congregation would be at a total loss. For centuries they have taken on the role of spectator and not participant and this has rendered them, for the most part, impotent and reliant upon “the guy at the front,” and not the Holy Spirit.

Oh how I would love the problem that the Corinthian church had in their midst and Paul had to correct. Everybody had a tongue or a word or a spiritual song or a prophecy. Paul wrote and told them to limit it to two or three of this and two or three of that and let there be order in all of it. You can take a wild man, full of life, and tone down his behavior, but what can you do with a dead man? What would your church service look like if there were two or three tongues and then interpretations. Then two or three prophecies, then two or three songs initiated not by a “worship leader,” as part of a practiced program but by the Holy Spirit Himself through the vessels of His choice. I think I am safe in assuming it may not look like anything you have ever seen, but there it is, laid out, in the Scriptures, directions from God how to conduct our Sunday gatherings.

Part of the problem is that the vast majority of churches not only do not practice the gifts but do not even believe in them, so there would be no chance of a reverting to 1 Cor 14. The very service itself for the most part, has a design that would make it impossible for most congregations to gather in a Biblical fashion ( 1 Cor 14) even if they wanted to. So we are talking about something very radical here, very primitive, something that would counter endless centuries of the traditions of man. It now seems like if we were to return to the order of worship that was first laid down for us, it would take a revolution to bring it to pass.

But lets suppose we do have a willing congregation. What would that look like? Well, some of us may remember the different kinds of professors at college. Some were great teachers and many were not. They all had qualifications, but clearly there were teachers that you could tell were called to their profession. The best professors always included the whole class. They elicited questions on whatever the subject at hand was and through those questions and the response of the class, we were taught. These classes were always invigorating and these teachers had a great skill at keeping the class on topic because in every class there were always left fielders who would ask unrelated questions. To me, this would be the gifting of an elder or teacher in a 1 Cor 14 setting, gifted by the Holy Spirit to do what secular institutions do all the time.

We have fleshed this out. We had a series of meetings in Missouri a few years ago. People came from all over the country. There were many pastors there. We had three days of meetings without any agenda at all. We would start around 8 or 9am, gathered around in a large circle and someone would open with a prayer and a Scripture. 12 hours later we would finish. Throughout the course of a day there would be singing, praying, sharing, testimony, laying on of hands and none of it was scheduled, the Holy Spirit was our leader. Now, if a group of men and woman from varying backgrounds, mostly pastors ( who can be the most difficult to deal with because they are used to being in charge) can yield and follow the leading of the Lord through His Holy Spirit for 12 hours, how easy would it be to have this kind of service on a Sunday morning for a few hours or however long it lasted? Not difficult. It is not about the degree of difficulty, it is about yielding and surrendering to the Holy Spirit and having Jesus preeminent in the meeting. Ultimately it is about obedience. Scripture is out touchstone, it is from Scripture that we stand or fall. How does your Sunday morning service compare to 1 Cor 14. Not at all? Why not?