“4 Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. 2 For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. 7 For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. 8 Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you. 9 Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, 10 for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, 11 and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, 12 so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. The Coming of the Lord 13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.” (1 Th 4:1–18 ESV)

“I go to church”.  “I don’t go to church”. All notions of salvation by faith in Christ aside, the question of church membership is not the same thing as the question of whether someone is saved. Sure, we are admonished not to “neglect to meet together”, but that needn’t be in a church. Really, the New Testament does not require weekly attendance, other than the fascination with willing gatherings among new believers in Acts, and the Old Testament: the king must appear three times a year in the church worship service. Who knows for those not themselves “The king”.

Coaching prowess, headstrong Mandate, Principle nerved up and steeled: all “getting too personal” of “are you saved by the Blood?” meets the Call because of two worlds colliding, to Fast, to go lowly of spirit, of heart, to be Humbled by how cavalier and careless we might have been becoming. Because the two worlds… one has the structure of “have you come to a saving knowledge of Christ” and the other has the rejoinder, perhaps, of “Sure, if you like, but let me ask you: does one have to attend church to be saved?”.

Coached prowess means throttling two worlds that collide, and adopting genuine Fear of the Lord, while others in cute fashion or in not-innocent guile, say, “God is All-Powerful; His Christ can fix anything I’ve broken”; others in this fashion carve out for themselves a Real Hell. All of us, then, reflect on Hell being real, and in Fear of the Lord, in Holy Fear, we answer, “Yes, Christ can magically wave His hand and Cure… cure the scene, fix the trespass, heal the rude or violating missive, but also Christ needs all the help He can get”. More, when He thus waves His hand… who are we to dictate how that outcome will look or whether we ourselves… would we gladly “go to Hell”, become “suicides”, lose our earthly estate, to “make one believer”? Most likely not. Nor does the Bible thus instruct us to be so cavalier, rather, you shall know them by their fruits. You shall know the gifts and callings of God are irrevocable. Once saved, always saved.

Because salvation is by faith alone, through Christ alone, by Gift alone, yet life experience causes us to Know: I am genuinely of Worried Status as to my salvation (“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”); sure, at day’s end I’ve “gotten used to” (to quote theologian Gerard Forde) being saved minus any works on my part… but I also know this rapscallion world, and really I do Appreciate, give sincere Thanks, to God the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, for counting me Worthy of Salvation.

But meditate again, on the Structure as inaugurated with than too personal query, “Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior”, and really Hate on “those evangelicals” who bully and confront too aggressively, while also Appreciating that there are Two Worlds colliding right now, and we at day’s end have Adopted this Holy Fear of the unknown, this Mystery as to whether our personal Christ has the potency to Save us from the coming War and Judgment Day. Yes, the answer is, Yes, He Does. But after pinching ourselves to see we aren’t Dreaming, we bandy up and go route Fear, go route Fasted, go route Conciliatory and Loving of our newfound Perch as “Sinners Saved by Grace”. Because so many have never had the ecstatic Experience of repentance, for having gone off the reservation a bit, for having unbridled some lust or passion that wasn’t quite kosher or Biblical. For the mind games of being under “Severe attack”, under “serious protection”, where we go mental and panicky and want just to spill our guts into some writing but Don’t, or want to Cope with the Mental Game with a routine, with deep personal Reassurance, Hey, You Got This. You aren’t unfit, to lead you aren’t unfit. But under attack: yes, and so many of our nearest friends are thus even more Under Attack, and lancing out in whatever way Makes Sense to them. We hold these truths inside of us.

To return to the coaching of prowess, the Spirit spoke a word to us, perhaps: confront these two or three, hey, you are like Judas… and then don’t obsess, but coach these other ones or twos, we are Rooting for you. We are voting you onto the island, into the casino, up to the Gig. To save lives. To instantiate a Portal replicable and for All People. To get the lives saved and the coming togethers made. Indeed, all this is reason to say “bless”, because Satan wants to wait until the cipher has gone overdone, gone boring, gone Compromised. Strike first, while the iron is hot, while the knife is sharp. Strike Now, and grab the first Bus! To Tipperary. To Plattsburg. To your city here.