Daily Devotional, Year 2 – JULY 7 (Lucifer’s Music Solo, Part 3, Continued: “It Is Not Near! Let Us Build Houses!”)
By admin On January 29th, 2021.
.
Daily Devotional, Year 2 – JULY 7
.
.
.
.
Lucifer’s Music Solo,
.
Part 3, Continued:
“It Is Not Near! Let Us Build Houses!”
To read Part 1, click here… Today’s Devotional – March 25th (Lucifer’s Music Solo)
.
.
.
.
.
“(The Men of Jerusalem) Which say,
It (the Day of the Lord) is not near;
let us build houses:”
Ezekiel 11:3
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
This above verse from Ezekiel presents a concept which encapsulates today’s church-world.
.
But it also speaks of the Laodicean Church over these past few centuries since the former persecution against the Church, throughout the Dark Ages, finally ceased.
.
Immediately after the persecution ceased, God’s people began to put the Day of the Lord far off! And they began building grand houses of worship (churches), just as God prophesied…“(the men of Jerusalem) Which say, ‘It (the Day of the Lord) is not near; let us build houses:’…” Ezekiel 11:3
.
Church Attendance – www.thebiblerevival.com – Public Domain
.
.
.
.
.
TWO BEAST POWERS RULE
.
You see, when Satan saw that his first Antichrist war-machine was about to receive its deadly wound by a sword (the sword of the Spirit, the Bible), he had a back-up plan already “waiting in the wings”, so to speak.
.
Yes, this first beast was actually Satan’s political/religious system which reigned over Europe through the Dark Ages. (Don’t forget, beasts symbolize “kings and kingdoms” – see Daniel 7)
.
And by it, he persecuted Christians via the apostate churches, for many long centuries.
.
Burned at the stake – Wikimedia – US Public Domain
.
.
.
.
.
2ND BEAST DIFFERS FROM 1ST BEAST
.
But when the newly-invented printing press began to fill Europe with Bibles, no longer could Satan hold those nations captive under a false, tyrannical religious system, through their ignorance, for lack of printed Bibles!
.
The Bible was that sword which gave the 1st Beast its deadly wound!
.
And while the first Beast employed torture, imprisonment, banishment, scarcity, and poverty against God’s people, this new improved second Beast was the mirror opposite of the first!
.
.
.
.
.
CARES & PLEASURES OF LIFE
.
Yes, this second beast employed a completely different strategy against the Church. Instead of famine and wantonness and scarcity, Satan would now begin to flood the western nations with all the things of the earth!
.
Earthly mammon of every type began to be manufactured. Thus, was fulfilled the prophecy…“And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth…” Revelation 13:11
.
Yes, the natural resources from the earth gave impetus to this second Beast! From industry and business to the high-tech electronic age, this second Beast cluttered much of the world with materialism in every form! From household goods to new inventions, to music, to entertainment, to sensual lusts of every conceivable type, Satan would attempt to sweep away Christians by all the cares and pleasures he could possibly invent!
.
And so, as long as the pendulum was going to swing away in a different direction from the stark scarcity of the Dark Ages, Satan would make sure it would swing away as far as possible in the opposite direction: over-abundance!
.
Mall Market culture – Jakarta – Wikimedia – share-alike-lic.
.
.
.
.
.
DESTROYED BY “PEACE & SAFETY”
.
And it worked! Now the world began to embrace Christians. Instead of coming after Christians with swords and spears, now the secular world came at them with spatulas and meat forks, to invite them over for a neighborhood barbecue!
.
“For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.” 1st Thessalonians 5:3
.
In this way, Satan knew he could do far more damage! Now he could merely fill up the Christian community with as many earthly pleasures and worldly aspirations as he possibly could! And by so-doing, he could drown the Church in materialism and hedonistic pleasures.
.
Barbecue – Dutch family – Wikimedia – Share-alike License
.
.
.
.
.
CHURCH FALLS ASLEEP
.
Yes, when persecution ceased, the Church began to get self-satisfied, lethargic, and sleepy-eyed. No longer did the Church maintain a watchful, vigilance. They began to, “put far off, the Day of the Lord”…
.
Listen…“Woe to them that are at ease in Zion…Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near;” Amos 6:1, 3
.
Yes, this world is a spiritual battlefield! And those Christians who forgot this truth became an easy prey for unseen foes who worked around the clock to destroy unlearned and naïve souls!
.
PS Krøyer – Hip hip hurra! Kunstnerfest på Skagen – 1888 – Wikimedia – Public Domain
.
.
.
.
.
CHURCH JOINS HANDS WITH WORLD
.
And so, by her own carelessness, the Church began to commit spiritual adultery with the world. Instead of maintaining a separation from the world, the Church bridged the gap between the holy and the mundane.
.
And among the many excesses which Satan flooded Christians with, music was used in such a way, as to flood the lives of Christians. The Church began reading in such places as Psalm 150 about all the instruments of music in the Old Testament, and took all this literally instead of spiritually as God intended!
.
And as a result, worldly-minded parishioners began to produce elaborate musical productions.
.
A great amount of time and effort was expended to hone their musical craft! And soon, pride, foolish human pride, became a great motivating force behind so much of Christian music! And before long, Christian music began to become just another idol in the hearts of many Christians.
.
.
.
.
.
.
HIGH-TECH DEVICES FURTHER DESTROY
.
And with the advent of radio, recording machines, and even the new high-tech devices, Christian music soon became as idolatrous as the music of the world. Christians were spending far too much time listening to elaborate productions, which placed great emphasis on the performance, more than on Christ. Many Christian music artists even became idolized by adoring fans!
.
And as a result, the modern-day churches began to enjoy great success when they brought in this new form of idolatry. The more worldly that a church became, the greater the audiences, who came to be entertained.
.
Church of Christ worship music – Wikipedia – Share-alike License
.
.
.
.
.
THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING…
.
There is an old expression which goes… “The proof of the pudding is in the eating thereof!” And this saying is very appropriate for today’s devotional to employ.
.
If all this extravagant music empire, which had arisen to power within the Christian community, was such a wonderful thing, then why was the Church of God in such a miserably wretched condition? Why were Christians so worldly-minded? You would think that the Church would be holy and righteous, because of all our music-listening!
.
But statistics show that the divorce-rate among Christians became phenomenal! The ignorance of the Bible among Christians was equally phenomenal! A high percentage of Christian men regularly viewed pornography. Drunkenness and immorality! Most Christian kids attended the soul-destroying, secular schools, which groomed students into atheism and sexual promiscuity!
.
And many other alarming statistics painted an equally dismal portrait of the Church-world!
.
So then, in light of these horrible statistics, we can conclude that all this music listening by Christians did not help, but probably only did much further damage. At the very least, it interfered with personal Bible study.
.
But also, the fact is, when a person listens to ‘sensual’ music, it has a corrupting influence which will undoubtedly cause problems with promiscuity… “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.” 1st Corinthians 15:33
.
Dancing woman – cropped & altered image – Wikimedia – Creative Commons License
Church music – Singers & Dancers – Wikipedia – Share-alike License
.
.
.
.
.
“COME OUT OF HER MY PEOPLE!”
.
And so, O stranger and pilgrim, we must not think that the Christian community is going to repent of all this musical idolatry.
.
Oh yes, there is hope! But true hope will only be found in one direction…
.
Listen… “And I heard another voice from Heaven, saying, Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Revelation 18:4
.
Just as the time came for the people of God to make their Exodus out of the land of Babylon, following their 70-year captivity, so too, it is now time for God’s people to make a modern-day End-time Exodus from spiritual Babylon.
.
Oh no, at this present hour we must still work and eat and live and provide for the comfort and happiness of our families. We cannot come completely out of this Babylonish world as yet. But we can come A GOOD WAY OUT!
.
James Tissot – The Flight of the Prisoners – Wikipedia – US Public Domain
.
.
.
.
.
SIMPLICITY IN FOLLOWING JESUS
.
And what we really need is to see Jesus! We must stand by Him, and sing those humble scripture songs. And we need to separate ourselves from the gaudy, overdone, and sensual musical productions which today’s Babylonish churches produce.
.
“Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;” Ephesians 5:19
.
We must get back to the simplicity and purity of the early Church, as we stand fully armored, in this extremely evil day!
.
ABOVE PICTURE – 7 Stars Constellation as the Cross (aka Big Dipper) – winter – signsofheaven.org – not for commercial uses
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
TO READ PART 4, CLICK HERE…
January 16 (Lucifer’s Music Solo, Part 4: Who Mingled the Sacred With the Common?)
ABOVE PICTURE: The False Prophet – signsofheaven.org – not for commercial uses
.
.
.
.
.
TODAY’S PRAYER…
“Dear Lord, Help me to become sober and vigilant! Let me not fall into a death-like slumber! Make me to know just how perilous the times are…
The Christian Martyrs Last Prayer – Wikipedia – US Public Domain
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
READ MORE…
To explore deeper into this subject, please read… “Vanity Fair” & The False Prophet”, or you can also read this shorter article…” March 27th (All Comfy-Cozy in Hell!)”
Question book magnify svg – Wikimedia – GNU license
.
.
.
.
.
THE END
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
TODAY’S FEATURED HEAVENLY SIGN
.
.
.
ORION, THE GOOD SHEPHERD
.
.
This star-chart from Wikipedia, has Orion sketched in by the editor of this website. With the addition of a single star, Theta Geminorum (the left hand of the Castor twin of Gemini), the sickle in Orion, the Reaper’s hand (sketch to left), now extends the blade, thus transforming that sickle into the hook of a shepherd’s rod and staff. And so now this little Gemini star becomes the tip of Orion’s Shepherd’s rod & staff. Thus with this additional star, Orion the Reaper Constellation now becomes the 5th personality of Orion: The Good Shepherd (sketch below right). Theta Geminorum is a class A3, 4th magnitude star, which means it is much fainter than either of the stars, Castor or Pollux. But faint as This little star may be, it nevertheless presents a giant concept, turning Orion’s sickle into a shepherd’s rod. And this is a very wonderful and beautiful Bible truth: namely, that Jesus is the Good Shepherd, as is written…
.
“As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out My sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.” Ezekiel 34:12
.
And so God has placed this Starry Shepherd in the winter-night heavens to remind us of His great love for a planet which has wandered away: just like sheep that wandered to where the grass looked greener.
.
Orion the reaper – Wikipedia star-chart (with the Reaper drawn over by this website)
.
.
.
.
.
READ MORE…
To explore deeper into this subject, please read… Orion, The Good Shepherd
.
.
.
.
.
.
TOMORROW…
JULY 8 (How To Get Rich In Real Estate!)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Those who are interested in using photos on this page may click on provided link below each photo, to get to Wikimedia Commons for various licensing details & tags, and all other necessary information on any particular photo. Most tall, narrow photos have been cropped or reduced by this website to make them a better fit on phone screens.