Chosen By Grace

When you look out across the landscape of our society, what do you see?

It is undeniable to acknowledge the moral deviancy, the open satanic practices through Hollywood technicolor, and the concerted targeting of the identity of our young people. The once well-sewn seams of culture, stitched through divine design, have now become an open target for demonically allegiant minions of wickedness weaponized with little scissors of deception and influence. It seems America was like a school kid with a sweater of many colors walking yesterday’s hallways in pride until the loud-mouthed bully came up behind him and pulled that one loose thread of yarn… then, the whole sweater unravels, leaving the red-faced youth naked and exposed for the whole school to laughingly mock.

God’s intention for any society is to be, “covered,” by the righteous leading, discipline, and instruction of the Church fully immersed in Christoformity (fully bearing the image of Christ). We are ordained to be the firm foundation of society:

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations [help the people to learn of Me, believe in Me, and obey My words], baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…
Matthew 28:19 AMP

I am writing you these things in case I am delayed, so that you will know how each one must conduct himself in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.
1 Timothy 3:15 BSB

The Church has had its thread pulled by the tyrant of culture and has been unraveled slowly over the course of our comatose, self-ingratiated generation. Society is now naked, embarrassed, cold, and humiliated… and it is mostly the pulpit and pew to blame. We have not obediently been the salt and light we were commanded to be. This has been a successful tactic by our adversary, mostly because believers have willingly succumbed to the seductive temptations of the flesh tantalizing them with thoughts of personal riches, emotional ego stroking, the convinced need for comfort at any cost, the deep insecurities and fears making them atrophied of heart, and incessant distractions by the shining objects of fake-news and lust for entertainment. Multiply these factors by the debt-slavery we have accepted as normal, Bible illiteracy from lack of interest in God and His Word, and the modern progressive movement to make the, “gathering together of the saints,” an old-fashioned concept that only ignorant prudes with nothing better to do still embrace… it then becomes irrationally logical to expect mothers to murder their own young as health care, and fathers to castrate their sons in the name of modern, affirming love.

This is the time for the remnant to rise.

“Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened…
Romans 11:3-7 ESV

We have been, “chosen by grace,” to be here for this moment in human history. It is essential to not allow culture to harden our hearts for what needs to be done. The church is essential.

…to the saints and faithful brethren…
Colossians 1:2 NKJV

The epistles written to the churches of Ephesians and Colossians both begin with that phrase. Out of any congregation of saints, there is always a remnant called faithful. It is true in every Christian gathering… it is true in Beloved. God is looking for those faithful and loyal to Him for the duration, not the moment. Faithfulness is a deep character trait, not a momentary action. These few words speak volumes concerning the strategy of God. God does not look for the popular masses; He is always scanning for the few. He looks for quality, not quantity. Just like the Marines, God is looking for a few good men and women.

In the Old Testament, God called the faithful few, the remnant. This was a church within a church, a gathering within a gathering, and a nation within a nation. They loved the Lord above the average others and developed hearts to serve Him no matter what the sacrifice. God was always advancing the few who would follow Him through the valley of the shadow of death and into the fire of persecution. This is the seventy disciples among the stadiums of Jesus-fans, the twelve among the seventy… and the three among the twelve.

The Lord’s eyes are now scanning the landscape of our present age. Would He see us as fans or as the holy, faithful remnant? My question is in humble sincerity, not in judgment. It is of dire importance for us to have a perspective of our own heart and life that is exactly equal to the One who formed our heart and died to give us that life. A fearful and devastating occurrence would be in someone living their life thinking they were doing it right only to find at the end it was wrong… all wrong… because it is too late. This is why I pray regularly for correction in my own journey, so that I can take confidence in knowing that I am not deceived into traveling the wrong road and justifying it through pride.

At that time those left in Israel, those who remain of the family of Jacob, will no longer rely on a foreign leader that abuses them. Instead they will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. A remnant will come back, a remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. For though your people, Israel, are as numerous as the sand on the seashore, only a remnant will come back.
Isaiah 10:20-22 NET

Come back, Beloved… come back to whatever the Lord is beckoning your heart to return to. Is it your time, your affections, and your assets that He is asking to be returned? Or maybe just for us to return to sitting at His feet in humble, quiet awe. The Great Awakening is upon us and it is time for the remnant to rise. Are you that remnant… and will you heed the calling?

I believe with my whole being your answer is a committed, full-throated, “YES!”

I adore you,
Steve