Calamity

“I am planning disaster against this people from which you cannot save yourselves.

You will no longer walk proudly, for it will be a time of calamity.

I am disciplining my house. Judgement begins in the house of the Lord.

They have elevated man’s thinking over my truth.

As a child is corrected. I will bring correction to my house.

Their people devise schemes for wealth. They vow and do not pay. They plot and speak ill against their brothers and sisters.

They have defiled my name and my house.

I will come in like a flood. I will cleanse and wash my house.

It is I who created the Blacksmith. I will cause calamity so that my people will repent.

I will knock down the idols in my house: the idol of greed! the idol of money! of influence! self worship! self-importance!

Do you hear the sound of breaking??? Do you hear the sound of rock falling? Down! Down they go! Rubble!!!! Ruin. Only the remnant who are righteous will remain.”

---

This is a hard word to type. Having grown up in church, I have seen many things. Many hard things. And what has become God’s house today? I don’t know, other than taking God at his word, and watching and praying and searching through the scriptures about what God sees and what God says.

We have seen the turning over of man-made idols in the church already, as pastors who have been elevated have toppled from their status amongst their congregations. Were they worshipped? I don’t know. How can I know a person’s hearth? But I grew up in churches where people of status were overlooked in their wrongdoing simply because they had a certain # of 0s behind their name. I’ve watched as child as deacons inappropriately touched women who were not their wives. I’ve witnessed staff in the church stealing money from missions funds. And I’ve seen servants of the Lord who faithfully stayed through it all. Those who kept their posts as watchmen over their areas and the ministries they were appointed to serve. Those who wept as they lost friends, as divisions were created and church splits became a mud-slinging of “you’re with us or them!”

Ive seen people leave over anger, over perceived rejection. I’ve felt the rejection myself, having been the daughter of an Iranian christian in a small, predominantly white, baptist church who prefered the status quo over reaching the minorities and homeless. I’ve asked the Lord, “Where are you in this?” “Show me where you are in the modern “church” today!” “I want to see you here!” He’s working in the unseen places. Through those who are unnamed but faithful.

4 years ago he told me he was at the front door asking to be let back into his house. Today, his words are not the asking for an invitation. They are words spoken from the ONE who is righteous and holy. The one who sees the secret and hidden things. Beyond human vision. Beyond human comprehension. Light dwells with him, so how can anything remain hidden? Only that which is truly hidden from our vision.

Lord, please correct our vision. Please convict our hearts to return to you from the depths of our heart. We want nothing but YOU. Lord, if you must send correction, we yield our hearts to you. Excise what doesn’t belong. Let it be us who hands you the scalpel. We lay ourselves on the altar, that you would consume us. That what is left that is you would be all that remains. May we become undone before you. Show us our shame and our nakedness. Test our faith so that we may refined as pure gold- complete and lacking nothing on the day of your return.

We are broken, miserable, and blind without you. We accept your correction, Lord. You are just and merciful and your lovingkindness leads us to repentance. Thank you for being our father and correcting us. No matter what you bring, we will keep our gaze fixed on you, our hearts made clean in the cleansing.

We submit. We submit to your correction, Lord. Cleanse your house. Cleanse your bride.

In Jesus Name, Amen.

The church of the God will not be destroyed, but it will be purified once again.

Have your way, Lord. For your glory.