Bothered...

I was talking to a friend yesterday and we were talking about how alot of people struggle with music when they are trying to get somewhere spiritually. It seems that even people in the "holiness" movement have a tendency to listen to bad music, like country, "Christian" rock, etc. Brother Stephens was just at Coverts church for revival and brought out in a message that Satan was the leader of music in Heaven before he fell. In light of that, is it any wonder why people struggle with music? What other thing would the devil know more about than that of music? No wonder we are taught to be careful to what kind of music we listen to!

I have been very bothered recently by the lack of standards and the let down of holiness people everywhere. People say that if you aren't quite so strict, you'll get more people in to the church, offerings will go up, you'll be accepted more. But what is the cost of such philosophy? We are losing the fire of God, we are losing young people and older people, lost souls are still dying because we are not telling the truth to them any longer, and we ourselves are defeated. Just take time to look at pictures of the people that attend/ are in leadership of the places that we have held as Holiness places all our lives. FEW look like they did 20 years ago? 15 years ago? lets come on down to places that were still considered to be very conservative when I got to the age to understand these things. Now in some you can't hardly tell them apart from the world. I was talking to an older lady in our church for whom I have great respect, and we were talking about some Bible Schools. She said that one of them has girls in the choir who wear blush! Makeup allowed on a holiness schools campus?? Then she got talking about hairstyles. So many of the people now days are going with these funky hair dos that look like the world. Seemingly the big deal right now is to pull your hair straight back or let some of it drop down on your forehead so that from the front people can't tell if it's cut, you have bangs etc. You can go to the split skirts, long straight skirts, sandals, too low shirts, sleeves, and so on, but what about the internal problems?? Pride seems to ooze from most of our singers, our preachers, leaders, and so on. I could go on and on about the ideals of the holiness movement now days, but I need to bring this post to a close. I am not trying to be hard, but I am just so bothered by the way that we are going. I was reading about the Victorian Age in English and it was talking about, how Queen Victoria reigned for 60 years with a conservative view of things. Britain was a Bible-believing. God-fearing place for many years. Then people started becoming comfortable, and then they started getting restless and it wasn't long before Charles Darwin and Karl Marx came on the scene with Atheism and Agnosticism. The people embraced it because they had lost their principles on which they had been raised. They let the fire go out on their hearts and eventually their land. As I read that I felt stirred. How long have I sat in church services were God has been? I am becoming just as comfortable and complacent and these people did? If so, how long will it be before I embrace atheism? Yes I know people who have let down the standards do not claim to be atheists, but they may as well be. You see they obviously don't believe in God or else they would be scared to death to live without Him!!!!! Oh Jesus, Keep ME Stirred!!!!!!! I am closing this post with a chorus from the song Heritage Of Holiness.

I don't want to lose the vision,
I don't want to take for granted
The Heritage Of Holiness
that has been passed on!
I don't want to lose the fire
I don't want to lose the glory
and I long for His outpouring
all across the land!!!!!

With that thought, Keep praying for me!! I don't want to lose out spiritually!!

Holly