I heard a minister preach on the "Last Days Haze" this weekend. I got the CD in exchange for a couple JWA CDs I had scattered in the trunk of the car. The minister's text was one I had not heard preached from in recent memory, but if ever a verse mirrored the spirit of the hour we live in, this one does.

[18] Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope:
[19] That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it!
[20] Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
[21] Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
[22] Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:
[23] Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!
[24] Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
[25] Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

It seems that every news broadcast, every newspaper we read, every word we here in this day Christianity and the word of God is being degraded, criticized, slandered, ridiculed and put down. You can have a religious observance for any belief you want in public, but if you are labeled a Christian, then you are listed as intollerant and hate-mongering.

The minister in the message I listened to spoke of a man who made a 10 minute video about Islam in Holland and there was such a violent protest the police asked him to leave the country. The producer commented on PBS that if he'd produced a 10 minute video of the "fascism of Christianity" no one would have protested, but because he spoke out against one of the most hate and fear-mongering religious systems active in the world today, they were ready to kill him.

I've seen even at my own place of employment that when a Prayer Breakfast or a National Day of Prayer get's called for, few show up...and those ministers who do, will talk of the Father, the Son of God...but you will not hear them once mention the name of Jesus or pray in his name. That name is hated of all men. As will we be hated of all men...for his name's sake.

The focus of the verses above were not on the world however. They were aimed right between the eyes of the people of God. They had come to a point in their backsliding to where they would not call things properly. It wasn't politically correct. They had been bought off by the spirit and politics of their backsliding to the point that they no longer called evil evil. The things of God were not good to them anymore.

There was a prophecy at the Azusa Street Mission in the early 1900s that there would come a day in this movement that people in our churches would praise a God they would no longer pray to. We've come to the fruition of that prophecy and a crossroads in the Spirit.

The error of praise without prayer is that we have come to a time in our movement to the point that we can walk into our churches and praise and worship...never having prayed before we came, never having touched the face of God, never having heard his voice and never having known Him intimately.

Our movement has spawned a generation that knows what our moms and dads and pastors teach and preach, but we do not know the God that our parents and pastors serve intimately in our own lives. We have not walked with Him in the cool of the day, kissed his face, felt his embrace and pursued the things God desires. Rather than letting Him be our God, we've chosen to live in the shadows of another man's altar.

How do we worship a God we will not talk to? Why do we not long to know him intimately? Why would we esteem the word of God as useless and not practical to the matters at hand as if somehow the forms and fashions of man and his rules and regulations somehow outweigh the things of God?

[5] Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?
[6] He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
[7] Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctines the commandments of men.
[8] For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.
[9] And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.

I don't want to live in vain worship. I refuse to worship a God I don't pray to. Why? Because he is life, and breath and hope. I will not offer God something that cost me nothing. I won't preach without touching his face. I won't worship without knowing him intimately. I will not even blog without he has spoken to me. Why? Because we have to be the ones to pull this generation out of their lethargy for God. The church is asleep. Who will wake her?