Heart Tracks - The Counterfeit

      In America's colonial times, most currency bore the inscription, "To Counterfeit Is Death."  The reason for this is that there was no central source for currency.  Each financial institution printed its own notes and this made it easy for the lawless element to forge, counterfeit, the bank notes.  It was extremely hard for most people to tell the difference and those who were tricked tended to suffer great loss in accepting false notes.  Thus the dire warning on the face of the bills.  The counterfeit brought death.  I wonder how aware we might be of the presence of a "counterfeit gospel" in our midst today?  We're all aware of the warnings in His Word to not take away or add on, but somehow, we never seem to think that we might, consciously or not, be falling into that very habit ourselves.

    I heard one man say that we in the west have become quite fond of what he termed a "utilitarian gospel."  By this he meant that we tend to preach and seek messages that center on how we may have a better marriage, better family, kids, and life.  How Christ and His life can make our lives so much better, bringing happiness and contentment.  I remember a slogan from the 80's, "Jesus makes everything better."  We may word it differently, but the meaning remains the same.  Jesus is the great Healer, Restorer, Savior and Sanctifier....who came for ME.  As Juan Carlos Ortiz put it, "ME" has become the center of the gospel message.
   Yet, we have done this in other,  far less noticeable ways.  Outreach and soul winning are "big ticket" items in the church today.  Let me say, I very much believe in both, but I think we have gotten things misconstrued as to how we go about that.  Oswald Chambers, who founded a school for prospective missionaries, said that we are to not be "ambitious to win souls or to establish churches, or to have revivals, but being ambitious only to be "accepted of Him."  He based this on 2 Corinthians 5:9, "Wherefore we labor that...we may be accepted of Him."  He said any ambition that held greater sway than to "live facing Him," resulted in the very real chance we become spiritual "castaways."  He did not come, did not save in order that our lives might be better, or even that we might lead others to Him, but that we would KNOW Him.  He came to seek and save what was lost, and foremost, what was lost to all of us was a relationship that yielded intimate knowledge of Him.  If we're missing that, we're missing it all.  If we are preaching, following any message that doesn't first begin with that truth, we are in effect, preaching another gospel, a counterfeit.  And to counterfeit is death.

   It is not wrong to desire a better life, a better family, marriage or ministry.  It is for certain not wrong to want to see those trapped in darkness come into His light.  What we're missing is that these are not things we  need to seek Him to send down to us, but will rather flow into and out of us when we live facing Him.  This is life, and this is real.  It cannot be counterfeited, and anything that this world offers, even when cloaked in His word, brings not life, but death.  What spiritual currency have you and I been moving in?  That which has its source in Him, or that which is crafted by the lawless one?  One offers truly abundant life, and the other....just another form of death.  Which will we have?

Blessings,

Pastor O