Danger Zone: Falling from Within

By Casey Johnson

Christians often focus on the attacks that are being waged from outside their churches, while things that happen within the body of Christ that can damage our churches are forgotten. You have heard the expression, The best way to destroy a country is from within. This same principle also applies to the church.

In Danger Zone: Falling from Within, author and evangelist Casey Johnson discusses the subtle but dangerous trends that harm the church. He issues a wakeup call for Christians to open their eyes and notice the subtle dangers within the Church. Johnson considers five areas of danger: changing the character of God, reducing the depth of preaching, minimizing the Gospel, choosing the wrong church leaders, and stealing the Great Commission.

If there ever was a time for the church to rise up, it is now. Christians cannot become so self-centered that they try to make every part of church about themselves. If the local church continues to practice many of these dangers, it can slowly become a place where we worship ourselves instead of God.

You can only lead in the direction you are going.
-Hunter Johnson

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Dec 9, 2015
• ISBN: 9781512700824

Casey Johnson

Casey Johnson is a author, evangelist and missionary. He is the founder and President of Exit 416 Ministries. He currently resides in Crowville, Louisiana with his wife, DeeDee, and their children, Hunter, Grace, Abby and Emma.

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Copyright © 2015 Casey Johnson.

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Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible ® Copyright © 2003, 2002, 2000, 1999 by Holman Bible Publishers. All rights reserved.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-0081-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-0083-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-0082-4 (e)

WestBow Press rev. date: 12/09/2015

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 Changing the Character of God

Chapter 2 Reducing the Depth of Preaching

Chapter 3 Minimizing the Gospel

Chapter 4 Choosing Poor Leadership

Chapter 5 Stealing the Great Commission

Chapter 6 Regaining Perspective

Daily Devotions

Day One: To know Him

Day Two: Take up your cross

Day Three: Reconciliation

Day Four: Propitiation

Day Five: Mercies of God

Day Six: Jars of clay

Day Seven: Treasures in heaven

Day Eight: Having a bad day

Day Nine: God’s grace

Day Ten: God’s hand upon us

I would like to

dedicate this book to my late grandmother, Altha Wiggins. Little did I know that listening to her sing Amazing Grace on that old wood swing would have such an impact on my life. To God be the glory for her unshakable faith.

Introduction

A friend recently had the opportunity to go on a once-in-a- lifetime hunt for an exotic animal. As I talked with him on the phone about the adventure, I could hear the excitement in his voice. I asked him several questions to better understand where he was going and what he was hunting. As he began to explain the terrain, I was caught by surprise at something he said. He would be hunting on a military base, and certain areas had to be avoided because of land mines.

I immediately imagined the worst possible scenario. What if someone traveled across the line into the danger zone? He assured me that these areas were marked off well enough that if visitors crossed the line it would be their own fault. Thankfully, he managed to return home from the journey without entering the danger zone.

As I think about my friend’s hunting trip, I am reminded of the many churches that have crossed into the danger zone in the way they are representing Christ to this world. Many churches have begun to move away from the things of God to satisfy themselves. The Bible is clear that in the last days men will become lovers of themselves and fall away from the truth. We are seeing the effects of that in our churches today.

This process is generally hard to spot because it happens gradually over time. Therefore we need to watch for the warning signs and act before the land mines explode. Once they begin to explode, they could trigger a chain reaction of events that threaten to destroy the local church. Join me as we discover some of the danger zones that we must avoid at all cost to prevent the church’s collapse from within.

Danger One

CHANGING THE CHARACTER OF GOD

It is no secret that we live in a complex culture. Political parties cannot seem to work together for the good of the people, and wars are being fought left and right. People struggle to make ends meet, and political correctness governs the political, personal, and cultural arenas.

We live in a world that forbids us to use the word terrorist to describe a man who shouts out his fidelity to a false god as he is shooting people. This makes the average human being’s everyday struggles even more difficult. The saddest part is that this politically correct mentality has slowly crept into the body of Christ. The result is the effort to minimize the parts of God that we don’t like and elevate the parts that we love.

The danger in doing this is that we will begin to teach people about a god who does not exist—a god who looks, thinks, and acts just like them. I call this practice changing the character of God. The question is, Has changing the character of God started changing the character of our churches?

I cannot definitively say that this mentality has affected every church, but it has affected many. Those churches are heading down a road that leads away from God, not toward Him. The attempt to change the character of God is dangerous and can destroy our churches.

Has changing the character of God