We've welcomed the wolves

We are all familiar with the childhood story of Little Red Riding Hood and of the Three Little Pigs. Both of these stories contain a big, bad wolf that's out to capture his prey, either the girl in riding hood or the pigs. In the one, the wolf consumes the poorly grandmother and assumes her place in bed to await the arrival of the granddaughter with her delicious basket of goodies. In the other, the wolf goes from place to place in an attempt to get the pig in his mediocre dwelling. 

These stories may be just that, stories that we remember from our childhood. Some of us may have even acted them out in a play. However, I fear that we are living out these stories in our everyday lives in a spiritual context. Please keep reading to see what I mean. 

In our society, we see these massive stadium tours for popular musical groups, regardless of the genre of music. When I was growing up, only the rock-'n'-roll crowds were this large. But today, you have headliners of their own merit joining together to make a massive show to draw the larger crowds. Or you have lesser knowns, especially in the southern gospel genres, traveling from church to church. It doesn't matter the church as long as they have a platform to perform. In similar fashion, we also see well known preachers traveling from this church or that church to preach the gospel. 

I won't call out any particular group or ministry because that's not my intent in writing this. What I will do is generically speak on what I have seen posted recently via social media accounts. One particular group was scheduled to sing for a Sunday morning service recently in a Baptist congregation. Once that engagement was over, they took to social media to say that three people had received salvation that morning, oh and they would be at such-and-such Methodist for the evening service if anyone was local. Again, postings of certain ministers who would be at such-and-such Worship Center for a revival meeting this week and at Blank Assembly for another meeting. 

My question becomes this: how is there a continuity of a gospel message being presented? Baptist, Methodist, Church of Christ, Church of God, Assembly of God, non-denominational, none of them have a like plan for salvation. Once saved, always saved, baptism necessary for salvation and if you sin then you're not saved anymore, just believe on Jesus and you'll be saved, etc. 

Going back to our childhood stories for a moment, when little Red arrived at grandmother's house, she knew that who she saw looking at her from under the covers was not her grandmother. Yet, she let herself get close enough to the danger to see the eyes, the ears and the teeth before she knew she was in trouble. How have we allowed ourselves to get so close to these wolves parading themselves as messengers of the gospel? When did we fail to recognize the lie that was before us? In the end, as little Red ran through the forest away from the wolf, a woodsman came to her rescue. He captured the wolf and killed him. Who do you think our WOODSMAN is?

In like manner, we have the three little pigs. Each one built themselves a house from what they thought was sufficient material to keep anything and everything at bay. The first built from straw, the second sticks and the third from bricks. So many of us have built our own houses from the straw and sticks. They'll provide a sufficient shelter until the storms come. We have to build our homes from brick. The brick is Jesus Christ. No more fru-fru gospel. No more listening to wolves leading you astray. 

The gospel message is this: “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

King James Version (KJV)

If any singer or minister tries to give you any other way, be wary. We've welcomed the wolves and didn't even know it.