I believe in God....BUT

 

According to Wikipedia one-third of the world's population is Christian. A report by Pew Research broadly agrees with this figure. 

Why then, if 1 in every 3 people believe in an all-powerful, all-seeing, all-knowing deity is the world in such a mess? Particularly if as the map indicates, Christians are well represented in many of those counties that are the "major players" on the Geo-political stage.

Could the answer to that conundrum rest with the fact the we modern Christians are not really sure what believe in, and have we have lost sight of the single most important thing about our faith that sets it apart form every other "religion"?  

There are more than 30,000 different Christian "denominations" in existence today, and while there are many reasons why people breakaway from a church and start a new movement or sect, the resultant division does little to build the Body of Christ.  

Something is broken in the "Body of Christ" today, and it's not just a fractured leg that needs to heal....

There is a vital ingredient missing today from many Churches and Assemblies. 

You shall not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am Jehovah. Leviticus 19:18 MKJV

Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Matthew 22:37-38 MKJV

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength." This is the first commandment. And the second is like this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. And to love Him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love the neighbor as himself, is more than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices. Mark 12:30-31 & 33 MKJV

We are clearly warned that in the "last days" the love of many shall grow cold. "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many will become cold". Matthew 24:12 MKJV

And the love of the great body of people will grow cold because of the multiplied lawlessness and iniquity. Matthew 24:12 Amplified Bible

The original Greek word used for "grow cold" is psugēsetai, which means to breathe cold by blowing a malign or poisonous wind. This breath is very different than one might blow on hot porridge to cool it. This is no passive "failing out of love"- rather the growing cold is the direct result of the sinfulness abounding within the Body of Christ, once known and admired for the agape love of the followers of Christ.

A perfect example of this is the Snow Queen (Jadis) or the White Witch of the Narnia stories by C. S. Lewis, who entrapped the Land of Narnia in perpetual winter, as the love of Aslan (a type of Christ) had vanished from the land.

We see this "love growing cold" in the in the actions of many governments in Christian countries increasingly being driven by economic factors alone, in individuals and churches that behave like the church of Laodicea...
"And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, 'These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. "So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. "Because you say, 'I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing'; and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. Revelation 3:14-17 NKJV   

Christians bereft of Holy Spirit's all encompassing presence will find their love, such as it is, grow colder and colder in the last days. The love that these people express is not a warm love of God, His truth and their fellows, Rather it is a love of money, and self.

The Apostle Paul describes those whose love for God, Christ, and the saints is only in pretense, not in reality. They do all they do in a religious way from self-love and to selfish ends. Their aim is to gain glory and applause from men or to use religion to gain something for themselves. They do nothing for the glory of God, the honor of Christ, or the good of others.(2 Timothy 3:1-4) 

 

How can we be sure that the love we have for Christ will never grow cold?

We must begin by examining ourselves to be sure we are truly in the faith....     (2 Corinthians 13:5). If we are sure that we belong to Christ, we can be confident that we possess the (agape) love from Holy Spirit that never grows cold. Philippians 1:9–11). Then we should make every effort to increase that love:, “This is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God"