This morning in devotions, the Word fell open first to the verse below: Mark 4:18-19, by no mistake [but by the direct effort of the Holy Spirit who caused it to come up quickly].

We had been talking about how difficult it is to get any people together long enough to have a real success in a Church.

Of course we know that the Church is not the building, but the people themselves. But how do you get these people together anywhere long enough to really have a strong assembly or church body?

“….. The ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries and cares of the world [the distractions of this age with its worldly pleasures], and the deceitfulness [and the false security or glamour] of wealth [or fame], and the passionate desires for all the other things creep in and choke out the word, and it becomes unfruitful,” Mark 4:18-19.

After many years of working as a pastor in churches, I have discovered that things are really falling down worse every day when it comes to having a real church.

I know the answer:

The cares of the world are namely this:

The distraction [so many things becoming more important to people than the things of God] that you cannot get hardly any people to bond with the idea of meeting to worship God.

It is so bad because of worldly pleasures which do almost totally consume many today. And, there is one who does constantly place these worldly [choices] pleasures in the pathway to hinder…. The devil himself!

The fact is: there is no shortage today of worldly pleasures. If you were to start naming them the list would go off this blog in length.

So many choices of things to make today is leading men and women off the road into the gutter that it is apparently appalling to the place of sickening!

Many people are blaming the pastor for the failure of the Church, but let me say, even if Jesus Christ Himself, assumed the role of pastor….

….. He would find more people going away… than coming!

I believe that if the distractions [of this age] of worldly pleasure continue at the present rate…

We will have no longer…

Any visible church and most communities of the world will wonder where they went.

Already in most places, you see more amusements [places to entertain the people] than you see steeples.

A pastor could have a successful church meeting, if, he could catch up with his congregation as they run around having fun and diving into the cares and amusements of this world.

Just saying….

A few years ago I went to India and found it refreshing by the fact that a notice of a meeting could be announced and there would be hundreds of people show up.

I saw it with my own eyes. The first night 700 people came to the meeting [and those people did not even have chairs to sit on, so they had to stand up or sit on the ground for the entire 3 hour meeting].

The second night of the meeting the number of people… Doubled!

The third night of the meeting the number of people tripled! And so it was every night.

By the end of the week there were over 10,000 people standing in an open field, just to hear a preacher preach from the Bible!

I must add that the huge open area where the meeting was held had been a trash dump before it was leveled, and the ground was green and stunk like rotten tomatoes.

The smell of the ground was sickening, and so bad, how could any one possibly enjoy standing or sitting down on it?

I have asked myself the question: Why is it so different in India than in the USA, when having a meeting?

I think I know the answer, at least in part…

In India, the people do not have the distractions nor the money to own them, that Americans have. They are so limited they can see clearly their need for the LORD.

In America, it is all but impossible to get anyone’s attention away from their worldly things long enough to even witness to them any more.

I can remember a time when I first started out as Pastor back in the early days [I am 74 years old now] that, I could go knock doors and find many people open to invite me into their homes to talk.

But today, if you go knock doors, most likely you will not even find people home.

You will walk all day, knocking on doors, only to be bitten on the leg by a dog!

No people. Where are the people? They are all gone into the world to make money, seek amusements, things etc that the homes are empty.

If you wait at the door long enough, someone will come home, most likely late at night, one at a time.

The woman, then the children, [spaced out in between] then finally the man. They go in and go and sit down in front of the TV, then drift off to bed to sleep, only to arise and leave the house [spaced out… One at a time].

If you try to stop them to talk they will tell you sorry, but I do not have time to talk to you now. Or… Sorry I could care less….

The man works sometimes several jobs. The wife works. The children well… They do what ever they want… Some go to school, and some go to school to just meet other young people.

Today, if you call a meeting [preaching the word of God] nobody will come.

But if you announce your going to give away a new car….. A Raffle!…. Tickets!… to all who come… there will be thousands come.

If people are sick, they go to the Dr. The doctor gives them some pills. Not once do they stop to think “PRAYER!”

Why is this?

The reason is, in America everyone has got to have so many things that all they can do is work to get these things and work even harder to keep them.

All for the sake of worldly pleasure.

I took note that in India, people were living in all sorts of houses. Mostly junk houses, made out of trash.

I saw cardboard houses. I saw cow dung houses. I saw plain old wooden boxes, large enough for a family to crowd into, sitting on the side of the busy road.

In the daytime they opened one side of the wooden box, sat on it and sold something to get just enough money to buy a handful of rice or something to eat.

There was want and starvation in India and it was appalling and upsetting to look at… but in India, when you called a meeting, thousands came.

Pray that America does not have to get to that place before the people will come to God!

“………………. The ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries and cares of the world [the distractions of this age with its worldly pleasures], and the deceitfulness [and the false security or glamour] of wealth [or fame], and the passionate desires for all the other things creep in and choke out the word, and it becomes unfruitful,” Mark 4:18.

 

~ Desert Prophet Ken Dewey
The light will shine in His glory… In the desert.

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Evangelist/ Prophet/ Pastor Ken Dewey is the founder of “OUT OF THE DESERT MINISTRIES“ in Belen, New Mexico, USA. He writes on this Web Site, many Prophetic words, Sermons and teachings while leading people into true church settings and preaching in an End Time Gospel Ministry.
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