Bridging The Gap

Greetings, Everyone!

It's 2007. That's 21 years after 1988. Does anyone out there remember the book entitled "88 Reasons Why the Rapture Could Be in 1988"?

Honestly, I am expecting the Lord to come just anytime, but is not advisable to stake anything of any great value on your understanding of Bible prophecy when it comes to personal preparedness for the coming of the Lord. It is also not advisable to try to scare people into repentance by making unfounded claims regarding knowledge of the date of Christ's return or other upcoming significant events in prophecy. It is even less advisable to seek to make a name for one's self by making tabloid predictions, claiming as one's source the Holy Ghost and Bible scripture, yet that is exactly one of the practices that has been part of the foundation of some of our era's most financially successful and most respected ministries.

Any man or woman of God can succumb to the temptation to speak things that sound great in the name of the Lord. A few years ago, a dear friend of ours preached a message about 1999 being 6661 upside down, and claimed that 1999 was the first year of the antichrist. Well, he could still be right, I suppose, if the man who will become known as the antichrist happened to be born in 1999. But it's been almost eight years since then, so if he was saying that 1999 was the first year of the dominion of the antichrist as a one world ruler, he definitely missed. But it sounded so good (at least to most of the people in attendance, and drew a lot of enthusiastic support from the pews. I often wonder why some saints get so excited when the minister gets on thin ice scripturally.... To me, it seems that there are enough well-founded themes that have never been adequately expounded.

Well, it's 2007. Happy New Year, everyone; we're seven years past Y2K. Seven years ago, I stood in the pulpit, preaching at a dear friend Pastor's Church in the Dallas area. I was just as worried then about moving into the second millenium since the birth of Christ as I am now: not worried whatsoever. It is not the number of the date on the calendar that should concern us so much as the number of SOULS that are still without a SAVIOR in their daily life. Are you living a life that gives Him glory, to the end that the unsaved might find Him through YOU, or are you keeping your own agenda, doing what YOU want to do, building your own little kingdom in the name of Jesus Christ, and practicing a buddy-buddy-pat-on-the-back Christianity for profit and prestige? Are you getting on people's nerves with your witness while at the same time being careful not to let your faith interfere with your duties as a workman? Are the demon-possessed being drawn your way for the relief they need, relief that was once freely given YOU, or are you in a maintenance mode only holding pattern, slowly degenerating into a state of hoping that you're just barely going to make it?

In case you can't tell by now, these songs we sing are not just something that we put together to try to make people accept that we are Christians, or something we recorded so that we could have a means of generating more revenue by selling CDs when we go out to minister, but rather they reflect the very heartbeat of a group of people who are trying to take as many others to heaven with us as possible. We have our ups and our downs, and we are not always on top of the mountain; in fact, we are hardly ever all up at the same time, for we are PEOPLE; but as the head of this family, I can state confidently that we know Who is in charge, and we have a good general idea of what He wants to do. Waiting on one's ministry can be the most difficult thing you will ever do in your walk with God, but just remember, the ministers who try to get famous are the ones who most consistently make a big thud when they hit the ground. Not too many people will extol your name for all of the wonderful things you did BEFORE you fell. What's the first thing you think of when I say Jim Baker? Or Jimmy Swaggart?  How about Oral Roberts even? Remember that first million dollars that "God told him" he'd die without? I don't think I really WANT to be famous.

A few years back (Father's Day, 1999, to be exact), I ran into a man with lots of gold on his fingers who prophesied that I was going to minister to a very rich man who was going to give me a million dollars. He said I was going to receive two houses, a Mercedes, and six thousand dollars a month as a starting salary to preach on nationwide television and radio. He had the resources to make it happen. So why am I still out on the road working for a living, suffering under a mountain of debt that has vastly grown since that day, and preaching primarily for Churches that can't make me wealthy when I could be speaking in front of all that high-end television equipment, within just a few miles of my home? He and a woman who was not his wife were living in the Church building where I would have been preaching. That was reason enough.

So, when you hear that Bro. Bridges is kind of a hard cookie, or if you hear someone say this or that about the Bridges family, consider the source, and ask yourself if you think THEY would have made a similar choice, if the opportunity had come THEIR way.

God bless you all, and Happy New Year!