To the Leaders

To The Leaders

6/30/19

Leadership is everyone’s responsibility no matter what level of work is required.  Blame comes from all levels when things are not completed properly in one’s eyes but who actually allows these leaders to be placed in positions of authority and is there ever a time when God takes over time when leaders are chosen?  The viability of all human life is substantiated through such leadership presentation, skill, determination, and follow through, in other words, it is our responsibility to select quality leadership so that God does not have to remind us of which path we are on.  In a land where division represents its own definitive wall there will never be an opportunity for unity no matter how high and clear the call may resound for division comes from the world and not from the One who has the authority to heal such wounds.  Will we continue to be worldly and lustfully sinful while we knish at each other on our path of destruction or will we actually learn from our selfish ways and turn to God for the correct life-giving answers all of us need?

It is hard to imagine that it has almost been twenty years since the series “Band of Brothers” was released publicly.  Many of you have watched this series and have expressed opinions for and against its making.  The series brought out a huge chunk of information about the boys and men who stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day and then followed them through until the end of World War II.  If you have not watched the series I strongly recommend that you do for it details a bit of our combat history which gives us a picture of how to adequately fight for what is right for humanity.  A shortage of time should not dictate such precedence for a large campaign with all levels of command pointing in one direction, but as the old adage goes it only takes one bad apple and when it comes to the war for freedom this slip up could mean a reversal of the projected fight and thus create a harder environment after the battle is lost.  Bad leaders may have some initial luck but in order to sustain and win the battles that are still to come one needs a leader who understands exactly what the overall plan of the war is about, knows what the strategy of the enemy is and knows how to plan for attacks for and against, and plans for all encounters thereof through the building up of their troops.  Looking good in a battle and performing well in a battle are two totally different conditions and usually means life or death in the end.

As each episode began and before the actual footage commenced, they had a few of the soldiers talk about their personal experiences that related to the upcoming episode topic.  One of the episodes dealt with how the selected leaders held their command, operated during combat initiatives and executed the battle plan from divisional command centers to their troops.  A person that was chosen who looked the part of a leader not always panned out to be a good leader and it became quite clear to the men under this person that if they followed their lead and orders their lives would be further engulfed in danger, more than  “normal” battlefield hazards would present.  While most of the leaders of this horrific time were of good quality and men would follow their leadership anywhere, it was made clear that some leaders had not the trust of their men which at some point in their near futures, this failure was demonstrated.  Through the deaths of these poor and scripted leaders came about, or sadly needless deaths of soldiers occurred, it did not matter excessive loss of life entailed and set back the course of freedom’s advancement a few more days.

For quite some time now, we have had plenty of examples of churches and church representatives (Christians) demonstrating how not to be witnesses to those who need God and salvation through His Son Jesus Christ.  When you ask these individuals, groups, or organizations if they believe that their actions warrant those of Jesus, I can almost guarantee that all representatives will respond with a “yes”.  This is a puzzling yet frightening response and belief because it goes totally contrary to the actions and words used by our Savior.  Somehow we have brought into our custody that this type of behavior is acceptable to use as a means of testimonial witnessing to people that now have no intentions of accepting Jesus as their Savior because of these antics.  It is this type of false leadership qualities that cannot be ignored as the ones bad military commanders have in the story above, while some may see the Truth through this type of embellishment most will only provide ugliness and further deepening wounds when the day is said and done.

What and where is the proof of this failure you ask?  First off, the people that we are supposed to be witnessing to and telling them about the Truth of their eternity will go back to their homes, businesses, families, etc. and report their encounters with “Christians” as one with hostilities and hatred for the way they believe.  This is a justifiable comment and takeaway since all that resulted in such instance was yelling and screaming at each other.  Secondly, Christians will go back and report to their congregations, pastors, etc. that no one was willing to listen to what they had to say and that their voices were drowned out with arguments and persecution, basically creating for them a verbal martyrdom scenario in which further blindness to how to defend God and the faith that they have in Him correctly and adequately.  So, when all things are said and done, the only winner in this setting and presentation is Satan and his kingdom for God did not show up and work miracles in peoples’ lives nor did any good come from the yelling matches between people who should do their best to work together on issues that divide our lifestyles.  Witnessing to others is a delicate matter but one that is necessary in order for people to understand that God loves them and that there is a different choice other than the world; resulting in an all-inclusive lie to those who need God.

One can argue the fact that the issues that the modern Church is facing today strictly comes from the leaders of the Church and not the congregational members of such body.  But there is ample Scripture that supports the Truth that we are all responsible for these atrocities and it is time we stand up and take the necessary steps to rid not only ourselves of such sin but also the leadership roles who have committed these identical acts of shame and abomination.  Shouting at others who differ from the Truth of God does not constitute the justification of such actions and words, if fact, the only time Jesus was really upset and allowed His feelings of hurt be portrayed was towards the leaders of the religious sect NOT the people who He came to die for.  It is a great defeat of God when we as leaders of the Church act in such a manner for it only further strengthens the ties to the world that others are freely volunteering.  It is here that we reach the passage of Scripture God wants us to study for this article and it comes from Matthew 21:18-20 and is as follows: “Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered.  And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away.  And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away!”

Now, some people say that this example is pointed directly at Israel and her refusal to accept that Jesus is their Messiah, and while this may be part of the Truth it does not represent all of the Truth when it comes to the hearts of the people and the leaders of the Church.  Yes, it was a very long time before Israel became a fitted nation again for they had personally misled themselves away from God.  But we know that God’s Definition and Word is for everyone and when we place this Truth into that context we cannot ignore the fact that Jesus’ words here represent all leaders who produce a good picture but have a blackened heart that cannot produce any spiritual fruit for others.  One could also argue the fact that when Jesus saw the fig tree that others had already picked the fruit from those leaves but that is also not a fact for if Jesus would have saw that someone else had eaten from it He would have done such a feat.  For if He did, then He would have vanquished a fruitful tree for no reason and thus nullified His presence and reason for His presence on the earth; in other words, making Himself out to be a hypocrite in which was what the leaders of the religious were acting and producing of the time.

From afar off, Jesus saw the fig tree giving off the physical appearance, according to its life cycle, that it should have had figs on its vines.  But when Jesus came close He noticed that no figs were present, no figs had been taken from the tree, thus rendered it useless as a vital and life-giving plant thus spewed it from His mouth.  When Jesus examined its vitality and reason for life, the fig tree had none and from what His eyes saw it was not in the making process of new fruit either, this tree was hanging out for looks lonely and was anemic to what it was created to do.  Now, we are getting to a touchy spot here because it is this point where we need to keep in mind that our lives were Created to complete one task and from what our world looks like today we are simply just hanging around like that barren fig tree.  God is not in the habit of praising anything, including us, that do not produce fruit (life).  God is Life and represents Life on all levels and through this eternal Truth of His Definition He cannot waiver or differ from such action.  Jesus was just providing an example to the disciples of how important it is to always be in the completeness of God and for our hearts to be willing to produce good fruit to those who need eternal nourishment.

For many today, this teaching is difficult to accept for many believe that God accepts them where they are at life and then leaves them there.  Our hearts have become darkened enough to believe that we can be friends with the world and till consider ourselves to under Covenant and in God’s Will.  Satan ABSOLUTELY LOVES this lie we believe because since he is the father of all lies it does not matter that we are living under his rule and authority instead.  The Church has never been larger or stronger in her history than what she is today.  She ignores the infrastructure of her heart in order to promote her outward appearance and presentation to those who ears can be tickled.  No longer are there fire and brimstone sermons being preached and no one has the guts enough to stand up and say that the popular worldly trends and beliefs are wrong and that they will send one to hell.  What is so devastating is that through this passage we can see that Jesus told it straight and demands even the plants to live according to their creative motions, so what makes us believe that He shall not know us when the day of our judgment arrives for He cares less about what our appearance looks like He is only interested in the conditions of our heart and if we have obeyed Hs commands of eternal separation.  If Jesus did not mind the fig tree not bearing fruit as it should He would have followed in the footsteps of His Father in doing so, but God did not allow non-productive people live under these false pretenses in the Old Testament so why would we believe that God would not mind people saying they are Christians or followers of Christ yet living in continual sinful lives?  Who are the ones praising these types of worldly actions?  It is the ones who are the leaders of the church denominations who want to be friendly with the world and not of God.  Even before God destroyed individuals, groups, armies, and nations He could not warrant accepting sin on any level but through His mercy, He gave humans every opportunity to change their hearts before He had to act.

How many fig trees (leaders and churches) would Jesus curse publicly in your communities or towns if He walked by today?  A frightening question that many of us would be shocked to hear the answer to but it is a question that we need to ask ourselves every moment of each day.  There would be no question that the glamour that Jesus would see from a distance could not deny but what He would see when He examined our leadership skills would call for the eternal death sentence and a table-turning that would make the verse in the New Testament covering this pattern seem like a playground.  Through this type of leadership examples it would be easy to just place blame them for such atrocities against God and to those who hunger for eternal Truth, but we are just as guilty as they for we have not studied the Bible well enough to realize and understand what lies have been taught.  Jesus saw the issues from the religious leaders and saw the infiltrations that their form of leadership and teaching presented, this is the fruit that He was referring to when He scolded the priests for making the Temple a house of thieves and vipers.  We cannot help but ascertain the truth about what is being produced by the messages and teachings from the leaders of the Church, and as stated a few times in this article this includes everyone who considers themselves to be a Christian.

The fig tree was supposed to go into all the world and preach the gospel which is what Jesus saw when He looked closely at that tree, but what He saw was a beautiful plant with no meat and no fruit.  It is this type of category that Jesus cursed the fig tree and it quickly withered.  The disciples were amazed at how quickly the tree withered for they saw the effects of Jesus’ words towards the Truth versus what the fig tree produced, or not produced.  What is striking about this passage is that there are only a few people that recognize this withering process of the fig tree (Church) while so many others see its death sentence as a progressive deployment into the world and its acceptance within her walls.  It is this truth that will end our nation and it shall end the Church as we know it for unless we quickly realize our state of affairs we shall not have any hope in producing fruit according to the Great Commission that Jesus commanded us to complete.  The governmentally controlled church is heresy at best for it places subject on fallible people instead of the one True Infallible Creator.  It was just a few decades later that the Temple was completely destroyed and since that time has not been rebuilt and if we do not heed this important story in Matthew the life that we know today shall also be taken away and crumbled.

A detail here to keep in mind, Jesus saw the fig tree from a distance and He saw what looked like a tree that was ripe for harvest.  This presentation of the fig tree and its appearance to His eyes did not occur overnight it was a process that took place over time.  It grew its leaves and appearance but did not have any fruit to bear its name for its life cycle.  The fig tree had plenty of time for it to grow fruit and complete what it was created to do, but it did not and was then subject to scrutiny and judgment from its Creator.  This should open our eyes to see how we have responded to what we have been commanded to do and serve as the foundational question about our fruitful productions.  Have we produced fruit so that others may know God and the True Love He has for our lives or are we just showboating and putting on an act that looks good to the distant eye but hides the real motives of our hearts?  Another detail here is that I find it very intriguing that this passage of Scripture references the same items that Adam and Eve used to cover up their bodies in Genesis 3:7, and look how that turned out.

This nation and the current state of the Church believes that it has the best to offer the world and at one point in our history both were correct.  But not any longer for we have filled our own hearts with the belief that we are the best and that everything we produce is of solid gold and cannot be touched by any other hand.  Folks, we shall fall and we shall fall harder than any other nation has fallen simply because we fail to recognize that God was the Founder of this nation and that He did so for a very specific reason.  The Light that He gave us we have placed a rainbow light bulb in and replaced God with the pride of the world; furthermore, Church you have done the exact same thing by allowing Satan to dwell inside our walls and take up residence as the proprietor of services.  We cannot deny this Church, for every move we make, is disorganized, selfish, and sinful due to the belief we can mix the two kingdoms that are vying for our lives.  Hear God when He says that life cannot cohabitate with death, period!  If you represent death in ANY manner then you cannot be with God for God’s own definition is eternal Life alone.  If you are presenting yourself as a beautiful and healthy fig tree without fruit in season then you are the opposite of life.

DLB