I
Cor.6: 19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple
of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your
own?
20 For ye are bought with a price:
therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
All of
us who have been born again and have the Spirit illuminate us can look back to
a former, hollow and self serving and in many cases a destructive life. When we
were in charge of our lives we made a real mess even if we succeeded as the
world defines success. But when Christ came into our lives we could clearly see
just how worthless our former lives were when this world was all we had.
So much
of the church has emphasized Jesus as a ticket to heaven. The refuse to press
the issues of cross bearing and self denial and walking in the Spirit and the
cost of true discipleship. And so you have millions upon millions of church
members whose lives tell an unsettling tale. Can anyone who is a genuine
student of the life and teachings of Jesus seriously suggest the institutional
church is filled with disciples? The word “disciple” itself has fallen out of favor
in the modern church. People are much more likely to use the words evangelical
or Christian or even conservative.
But we
have been bought with a price unless you are illegitimate. Not only are we not
in charge of our own lives, but they are literally not our lives at all
anymore. Why is that not taught over and over again? Could it be because most
of the pulpits are filled by men who believe they not only own their own lives
but that they own their church as well? We have lost what it means to be a
disciple. The way Jesus spoke about being a disciple is an extremely difficult
path bordering on impossible. In fact Jesus sometimes presented such a graphic
depiction of what it means to be His disciple that many left the pews and never
returned.
But
there is a incredible and supernatural paradox in all of this. The disciple’s
path is very challenging and requires complete surrender, but that same path
brings a freedom in the Spirit that cannot be experienced in any other way. The
bondslave is more free than any man. The servant is served. The last is first.
The least is the greatest. The humble is exalted. It is a miracle within the
Spirit that the earthly mores are rendered useless. All the cultural rules are
broken. All human logic is foolishness. What a glorious life to which we have
been called.
What
can pressure do when your life is His? How should we worry when He owns us? How
can we be offended when we have no reputation but His? What place does ego have
when all is His? If we truly desire to hear the Spirit’s guidance we will
understand the glory of His life lived through us. Be committed. Be
surrendered. Be faithful. But most of all be dead.
****
Men and
women who are running for political office will present their church affiliation
as proof they are Christians. And yet they will spew incredible disparages about
their opponents while inflating both their records and the promises they are
able to make and keep. And some even desire to send more young men and women
overseas to defend the indefensible. And yet they claim to be…well…a Christian.
How can these things be?
Sometimes
a person can be a Christian and yet not be a disciple. He can be a member of a
religion but not a member of Christ’s body. We live in very dark days indeed.
****
It is
when I see myself as the most worthless and undeserving sinner is when the
Spirit leads me closer to Him. When I am impressed by myself in any way the
gates of heaven turn to stone.
****
Ex.12: 12 For
I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the
firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of
Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord.
13 And the blood shall be to you for a
token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over
you…
This event was the first Passover and was it not aptly named? The death
angle only respected the blood. You could adorn the doorposts with gold and
silver and your Jewish pedigree but that would not suffice. You could have
written all your good works and how you helped the poor and nailed it to the
doorposts but the death angel would have visited your house. The blood of the
lamb would be the protection against the wrath of God.
This was a symbol, a type, and a foreshadowing of what would later be the
final Passover. This time the Lamb would be God’s only begotten Son. And it
would be His shed blood in which all sinners must find redemption or suffer the
eternal consequences. All your good works multiplied by millions could not
forgive one seemingly insignificant sin. But one drop of Christ’s blood applied
to a lost heart can transform a sinner into a saint. Who was once an enemy of
God can be not only a friend of God’s, but His child. This what Passover taught
us.
The blood is rarely preached in these man centered days. But without the
shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Does that seem archaic and brutal?
So you have given yourself the authority to decide truth? God must discuss with
you His gospel and find out what you think? No, God alone has already set in
motion His eternal plan for mankind. Could He have done more than suffer and
die for us?
As the Lamb of God was bleeding upon that cross the evil one remembers
back to Egypt. Now he knows his doom is sealed. Even the angels looked upon the
scene in wonder and horror. Jesus said He could have called thousands of angels
to rescue Him and they stood ready at His command. But no, He thought of us and
not Himself. If you corral your mind and make it sit down and meditate deeply
for more than a passing moment you will have to admit that the entire spectacle
at Golgotha is supernatural in every way. God is a man? God suffers? God
bleeds? God dies? Who can really know such a thing? The words flow oh so freely
from our lips and yet there is truth at Calvary which is unfathomable and
bottomless.
And when a sinner embraces Christ as Savior and Lord that sinner is not
just forgiven. He is transformed. He is forgiven forever and transformed
forever. He has become a true child of God not just through human reproduction
that reflects divine creation. That is fleshly. But that sinner has become a
child of God through the power of the Spirit and because of the blood of the
Lamb. There is no other way. None.
Calvary is the one and only portal to life eternal. But the church
preaches and lives and loves this life and rarely draws men into the eternal
realm. Somehow and someway God required blood to forgive sins. And only God
could provide that blood. And He did.
So when we take the Lord’s Supper we are remembering His sacrifice. And
remember the only reason the death angel, the second death angel, will not
visit your soul is because God said “When I see the blood I will pass over
you”. But allow me to more accurately depict what has happened in this New
Covenant. In the Old Covenant God called believers His “people”. And He would
pass over them when He saw the blood upon the door posts. But here in the New
and Better Covenant God does not just pass over us without condemning us. And
we are not just His people. We are His children and part of His very family.
And God does not have to pass over our house anymore. Why? Because if we are
true disciples God Himself lives inside our house. Go ahead and allow that to
marinate in your minds and hearts. What a God we serve!
****
Matt.24:
13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall
be saved.
14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be
preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the
end come.
Ominous
words from our Lord’s lips. Could there be any part of the world which has not
heard the gospel witness? I do not know. But the thirteenth verse is also an
ominous warning. While preachers by the tens of thousands lavish their
listeners with all kinds of assurance concerning their salvation Jesus warns us
to endure. I realize verses like this confront many church doctrines and men
must explain them away. But I will admit these kinds of warnings must be taken
very seriously regardless of how it might mess up our pretty doctrines.
What
are you saying, Rick? I am not presenting any theology here except that Jesus’
words are deeply unsettling and should be presented to church members without
human varnish. Do we have the right to make the words of Jesus fit into our
theologies or should we make His words our very theology? In times past I have
given people assurances about which I could not know. And in so doing we make
room for spiritual laziness and even sometimes give assurance to lost church
people.
You see,
the most disturbing words Jesus spoke in these two verses are “…and then shall
the end come”.
****
Matt.9:
20 And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an
issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his
garment:
21 For she said within herself, If I may
but touch his garment, I shall be whole.
22 But Jesus turned him about, and when he
saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole.
And the woman was made whole from that hour.
If can
even reach a point where you are broken and desperate you can find the path
which leads to Jesus. This woman suffered for twelve years and being
embarrassed was no longer relevant. She was broken. She was desperate. But many
times good circumstances keep us from being broken and desperate. When things
seem to be good who needs to be broken? Who needs to be desperate? We will
“seek” Jesus Sunday mornings for a few minutes of indeed that can honestly be
called seeking.
But
what if you circumstances do not lend themselves to being desperate? What if
you have not suffered for twelve years? Well that is how most people see being
desperate. But are we desperate to know Him and the fellowship of His
sufferings and the power of His resurrection even if our earthly situations are
acceptable? Does our heart pant after Christ like a deer pants after water? Is
it possible to have all your earthly needs met and a loving family surrounding
you and yet deep inside you are still desperate to know Him deeper and with
much more intimacy? That should be every disciple’s desire.
You see
when people are desperate they lose all inhibitions. They will pay any price.
They will act with abandoned relentlessness. They feel as though they have
nothing to lose and everything to gain. And many times they find strength they
never thought they had. It does not matter if she bumps people lining the
street gawking at Jesus. It did not matter if people pointed a mocked. She
desired more than just a glimpse. She pressed through and touched the hem of
His garment. In retrospect that was some touch. She touched Him and He then
touched her.
People
want heaven and they will use Jesus to get it. But do they want to touch Him?
Will they push through the church crowd in order to touch Him? Will they
sacrifice time and energy in order to touch Him? Will they suffer rolled eyes
by others in order to touch Him? Will they allow their hearts to become
desperate and broken enough to pursue Him in ways generally unknown to this
modern day church?
But the
absolutely amazing truth is that we no longer have to touch the hem of His
garment. We can, by the power of His Spirit and through the depth of His
written revelation touch Him. And that is an ongoing life changing event.
****
II
Cor.9: 15 Thanks be unto God for his
unspeakable gift.
I Pet.1: 8 Whom
having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye
rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
The word
unspeakable indicates an inability for human words to completely define and
communicate something. In this case it speaks of our salvation in Jesus Christ
which is unspeakable indeed. There are three New Testament Scriptures that use
that word. Here is the third:
II Cor.12: 3 And
I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God
knoweth;)
4 How that he was caught up into
paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to
utter.
The
Apostle Paul was brought into heaven and returned to earth. While he was
“caught up” he heard things that were unspeakable. Can you imagine such a
thing? They were even unlawful to be uttered by a man. They were so sacred, so
holy, and so unlike anything heard upon this earth that they either should not
or could not or both be repeated. This is truly holy ground upon which we walk.
And
even though they could not be uttered the Spirit graciously chose to make us
aware they exist and just how supernatural and separate they are from all who
know this side of heaven. It should bring chills to our spirits when we even
entertain the thought of heaven and all the sights and sounds. Paul heard
things about which he had no words and was not allowed to even try. But place
that against the backdrop of what we do know by the Spirit.
Rev.4: 5 And
out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there
were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits
of God.
6 And before the throne there was a sea
of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the
throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.
7 And the first beast was like a lion,
and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and
the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.
8 And the four beasts had each of them
six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day
and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord
God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.
This is
a revelation from the Spirit of God. Look at the sights and sounds that
surround His throne. Listen to the angelic beings as they say over and over
again “Holy, holy, holy, Lord
God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.” Now stop and think for a
moment. Paul is actually hearing angelic voices saying that phrase while they
hover around God’s throne. What? I mean what do their voices sound like and do
their lips move and how loud is it?
As powerful and awesome was Paul’s
heavenly visitation, John’s was even greater. And John shared a vision which
eclipses the vision of angels and gates of pearl and streets of gold and all
the surroundings. John shared an incredible vision of the Risen Christ with the
only words he knew.
Rev.1: 13 And in
the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with
a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.
14 His head and his hairs were white like
wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;
15 And his feet like unto fine brass, as
if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.
16 And he had in his right hand seven
stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance
was as the sun shineth in his strength.
Do you
really think human words can be arranged to fully capture His glory? Even the
word “glory” is intended for human understanding but cannot fully enter into
the full weight of His eternal majesty. Oh how could such a Perfect Being every
love such imperfect being such as we? We will have an eternity to love Him for
it. John sees His vision and falls down at His feet as though dead. This
disciple who often laid his head upon the chest of Jesus now is rendered broken
before Him. What a Savior! What a King! What a Lord! To think He desired me and
you to be with Him for all eternity. Who among us can really understand that
kind of love?
This is
our Risen Lord. He is our eternal reward. There is no other. Please, Holy
Spirit, keep our hearts and minds stayed upon Him. Thanks be to the Unspeakable
Savior for His unspeakable gift!
****
Let us
say you were introduced to someone as a candidate for you to date. But you
looked her up on the internet and your uncle was in law enforcement and looked
her up as well. You found out she was a liar, a thief, a child molester, a drug
dealer, a prostitute, a murderer, and has been massively unfaithful in every
single relationship she has had. Could you really love someone like that if you
knew those things to be true? Would you try and woo her to be your wife?
Read
Jn.3:16 again. God knew all those thing about the human race and yet He loved
us and sought us to be His bride. Go ahead and try and explain that. It will
take you literally a life time, and the moment you lay your new eyes upon the
Risen Redeemer you realize your words were almost an affront to Who He is and
what He has done. God so loved the world…simply amazing.
****
Pet.2: 18 For
when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts
of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them
who live in error.
19 While they promise them liberty, they
themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of
the same is he brought in bondage.
20 For if after they have escaped the
pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse
with them than the beginning.
These are ominous words indeed. They do not refer to disciples who stumble
and are imperfect. We all are that. This refers to false teachers who have
twisted God’s Word in order to accommodate a lifestyle that is displeasing to
God and at odds with the life and teachings of Jesus. The phrase “live in
error” is very descriptive.
There is freedom in walking in the truth which is THE Truth. When Jesus
walks with and in and through us there is nothing that can compare. And that
brings up the other side of the discernment coin. I have hear men who
accurately discern error in Joel Osteen and Rick Warren and Rob Bell and all
the usual suspects. Their presentation is well researched and documented. And
many who have come out from some of those can say a loud amen. And others who
have recognized their error can also say amen.
But we must never rest in our discernment laurels. It is not enough to
identify error. We must be humble conduits of the truth. I do not refer to
doctrinal truth. The homeless guy and the prostitute and the drug addict do not
know any doctrine nor is that what they need. They need Jesus. They need
someone to be and share Jesus to them. Sharing Jesus without being Jesus is a
technique and not a disciple’s path. The gospel has hands and legs as well as
mouths. And contrary to these pompous false teachers humility, extreme and
excruciating, is foundational.
And if that is foundational, then how many are really on the path of
discipleship? Let us continue to seek a humility which denies ourselves every
single day. To be sure that is no easy task. Yes, it takes a cross.
****
Lk.16: 11 If
therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit
to your trust the true riches?
12 And if ye have not been faithful in
that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?
13 No servant can serve two masters: for
either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the
one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
To me,
this is a foundational admonition for all who wish to be His disciples,
especially in a money obsessed culture. I would suggest this: I we were taken
to a deserted island with just a Bible and left there for three entire years do
you think our view of discipleship and money would change? In other words do
you think the culture has in some way has found its way into our thought
processes? Of course it has.
But where
do we begin to unravel the layers of mammon attachment and begin to allow the
Spirit to reform our thinking and our hearts? Let us back track even further.
Where can we find the passion and profound desire to have the Spirit do that at
all? Anyone can be open to a few painless alterations, but who lies down upon
the threshingfloor and says, “Do what pleases you, Lord.”? Who opens their
hearts completely and invites the Spirit to do extensive surgery with no
compartments withheld?
Is it
not way past time they we as the church realize just how much we have been
affected and infected by the mammon of this world? Until we truly realize the
serious compromises that have emanated from this fallen culture we will not be
able to proceed any further in Christ. And just what is holding you back from a
thorough assessment fueled by a spirit of repentance? Is it your affection for
a certain pastor? Is it a saved family member who you love and respect? Is it a
fear of fanaticism? Is just plain old laziness? Or is it a subtle fear of what
the Spirit may show you and then you will be faced with a difficult decision?
The
love of money runs wide and deep within the church. So often we think the love
of money is defined by Donald Trump or Bill Gates or other profoundly rich men
and women. But that is not the case. A poor person can be imprisoned by the
love of money. I remember sitting in on a committee meeting which was to decide
then pastor’s salary next year. The pastor told the committee what he could
make in the secular world and that they should adjust his salary to reflect
that. That man had the love of money.
What
concerns us? Lost souls or rising gas prices? Lost wages or the wages of sin? A
broken air conditioner or a broken prayer life? I rising interest rate or a rising
exhibition of sin? A compromised credit score or a compromised church? If we
examine what concerns us generally will we find much of it, if not most of it,
is connected to money? This is what separates the believers from the disciples.
Anyone can say they believe, but to be a disciple takes observable features.
Perhaps the most glaring feature would be carrying a cross and denying one’s
self.
There
are a multitude of believers who do not even know what that means much less
living it. And that is an unsettling prospect as it pertains to the separating
of the sheep and the goats. If, in the end, God requires more than just become
a church member to reveal saving faith how many who see themselves as sheep
will be shocked?
****
Sinners
are looking for someone who truly loves with no agenda. They can sense when you
are doing your duty or when you are representing a certain local church or when
you are using techniques. But when you are willing to share Jesus with humility
and compassion, and when you truly love sinners then the Spirit can use you.
The world needs to see a love which can never be found in this world. That is
only God’s love. Everything else has man’s agenda attached to it.
So I am
standing in line waiting at the auto tag and tax building to open and the woman
behind me is smoking a cigarette and wearing a winter coat – in Florida. So I
strike up a conversation with her. It seems she has just moved to Florida and
needs an auto tag. She has recently gotten out of jail (drugs) and she works at
a strip club now in Tampa and is a prostitute as well. So for the next twenty
minutes I got to share Jesus with her. Her cigarette smoke did not bother me in
the least. I never asked for her name so just pray for her God knows who she
is. She told me some “church ladies” come by every month and bring them nail
polish and snacks (bless them). The sad thing is that because of crack cocaine
her eyes looked hollow and unresponsive, but the Spirit can break through that.
****
Lk.12: 22 And
he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your
life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on.
23 The life is more than meat, and the
body is more than raiment.
24 Consider the ravens: for they neither
sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how
much more are ye better than the fowls?
25 And which of you with taking thought
can add to his stature one cubit?
26 If ye then be not able to do that thing
which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?
“What to eat…what to wear”. Our culture is dedicated to these things. A
restaurant on every corner and clothing stores galore including online. And
people’s minds are drawn to both. If you have the resources you can dine and
pay a couple of hundred dollars for a dinner for two. And you can purchase some
shoes for one thousand dollars. How much time do we spend picking out a wedding
dress and lining up the caterer? If we seek to be spiritually honest, and if we
are willing to step off the treadmill temporarily, we can see with the Spirit’s
help how Jesus’ words are so applicable.
The overarching theme to these verses pertains to our obsession with the
things of this world. In verse 34 Jesus says that where our treasure is that is
where our heart is too. That is some principle and yet so called ministers by
the tens of thousands teach people how to get “what they want”. Denying self
has been replaced by Your Best Life Now. And it can all be traced back to not
knowing Jesus at all.
That statement is not doctrinal hyperbole. It is a shocking and tragic
fact. Think about the ingenious nature of such a strong deception. Here you
have people who say they believe the Bible. Sometimes that nebulous
generalization does nothing but soothe people’s conscience. But can you believe
the Bible and not believe and follow the true Jesus? That, my friends, is an
impossibility. You can be religious, and you can be moral, and you can be
active at church, and you can even read that which is colloquially called “the
Bible” and still not know or follow Jesus. Can there be any more powerful
deception than that?
And within that deception are many deceptive tributaries. That which Jesus
warned against has become that which people seek in a capitalist culture.
Again, is that not an amazing feat of spiritual skullduggery? Jesus warns us
about “giving thought” to food and clothing and yet the church teaches that God
desires to shower you with all kinds of material gifts which are the very
things Jesus warned us about. And earthly and carnal preachers tell willing
ears “You can have all sorts of these things as long as they don’t have you”.
And anyone who has lived knows that again is a misnomer. Whatever we acquire in
some ways enters our hearts and has a voice within us.
It would have been one thing for Jesus to say “Do not think about gold and
silver and precious jewels” and He did in other places of Scripture. But here
He refers to food and clothing. Even those things which we need must be guarded
so that they do not consume our thoughts. And when we worry or fret we reveal a
lack of trust for God. And when we allow our thoughts to go to these things it
reveals self centeredness. As we watch the decadence of this culture we tend to
think more highly of ourselves than we ought. But when Jesus speaks of clothing
and food then we have no place to hide. We have been found out by the Spirit.
So continue to present yourself to the Refiner’s fire and with food and
clothing be content…in Him.
Once your eyes are opened and you gaze
into eternity then nothing on this earth makes any real sense. You can enjoy
some things, but this fallen world becomes both your enemy and your mission.
****
Hector of Troy:
“All my life I've
lived by a code and the code is simple: honor the gods, love your woman and
defend your country. Troy is mother to us all. Fight for her!”
Doesn’t that sound very familiar?
****
Lk.14: 12 Then
said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call
not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich
neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee.
13 But when thou makest a feast, call the
poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind:
14 And thou shalt be blessed; for they
cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of
the just.
Many times we have been guilty of lavishing church picnics and suppers and
banquets upon ourselves while a multitude of “others” live all around us. We
have been processed to look out for number one and to make humanitarian outreach
a separate ministry within the church and not the Siamese twin whose heart
beats simultaneously with the gospel. If we spent as much money and effort and
planning ministering to the down and out as we do to the membership we might
reach many more lost hearts. How have we made the church resemble and Eli
Whitney invention and not a cauldron on intense ministry which stretches forth
to the helpless with His arms covered in flesh.
Do we really understand just how far the so called church has strayed? Can
we even imagine the impact money and capitalism has had on the institutional
church? Look at what Jesus said. He called us to go out of our way to minister
to the needs of the poor who can never repay us. And we are willing to pay
handsome sums to youth ministers because we expect them to help grow our
children. Yes, we expect a recompense. So what can we define as a sacrifice? If
we supply things to the needy who have no substance with which to repay would
that be considered a sacrifice? And just where is that in the church? Oh yes,
it must be an organized ministry headed up by someone which opens it
humanitarian doors at special times.
But if the pulpits exhort people that ministering to the poor is not
relegated to someone just so we can avoid the inconvenience of finding them and
supplying them would we feel so wonderful about dropping off some unneeded
clothing or food stuffs? You see, I hope, what I am driving at here. Read the
Book of Acts and the life and teachings of Jesus and you will find humanitarian
compassion interwoven in all of it. Salvation is by grace alone but the earthly
acts which draw attention to the gospel of grace as well as reveal a
cornerstone of the disciple’s path have everything to do with the poor and
rejected and even sinners repulsed by the ecclesiastical Bourgeoisie.
God
does not measure a disciple by his church membership or the cut of his
doctrinal jib or even how many tracks he passes out. Over and over again the
Scriptures make clear just how God sees the unfortunate and the sick and the
poor and the very sinful. And one way we pick up our cross is to minister to
others who hate us or who are in desperate situation or who are hated by
others. Can you not see His cross doing just that? The church was never meant
to be introverted and organized to pile up spiritual knowledge within itself.
If you believe you have gone deeper in the knowledge of Jesus and yet your
heart has not been enlarged to the down and out class then you have only gone
deeper in yourself.
But
when you deny yourself and fully surrender to Him you find the unction of the
Spirit calling you to go outside the camp bearing His reproach and laying down
your life for others. You see this Christian thing has nothing to do with being
a 501(c)(3). The church is not a building nor a collection of earthly
memberships. The church is His mouth and His eyes and His hands and His feet
and all of it given life with the blood of His heart.
****
I love
Christian quotes from men and women of God which provide insight, conviction,
and a revelation of Jesus Christ. My dear brother/pastor Chuck posts one every
day and I like 99.9 % of them. Most of you can guess which ones I am not so
effervescent about! But we must never see spiritual things through the eyes of
another. Allow wonderful quotes to become your own through the power of the
Spirit.
****
Lk.12: 4 And
I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after
that have no more that they can do.
5 But I will forewarn you whom ye shall
fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I
say unto you, Fear him.
Chilling
words. Even when they are spoken behind a pulpit they are usually couched in
terms so that ever baptized church member believes he is safe. We will have to
wait and see on that one. These words seem out of character for the caricature
of Jesus we have created. This business about eternal life or eternal death is
no game. It is way beyond serious. There are several general reasons why few
take them seriously including the church.
All of
them can be traced to unbelief. Yes the cares of this world choke out the Word
but that leads to unbelief. In other words people don’t really believe in
heaven or hell. They believe in a human imagery of heaven but not in the true
heaven. They believe in a manmade picture of hell where serial killers go but
not most people especially when you have church membership credentials. It is
all so self serving and manipulated by the evil one.
This
was a very disturbing warning from the lips of our Lord. When will take His
words as truth and pray and act accordingly? In forty years of being a believer
there were times I walked in the flesh and was not concerned with such things.
We must repent of such a mindset which honors the world with its presence but
dishonors God through an empty prayer closet. If we believed what Jesus said
with all our beings would it not change our behavior? Would it change our
prayer lives? Would we fast for some lost loved one or lost people who are
being ministered by missionaries?
The
church has lost all semblance of the fear of God. In fact most preachers
whittle its potency down by insisting it means a holy reverence and not a fear
as we define the word. The Scriptures beg to differ. Along with a holy
reverence is a holy fear. If a sinner dies without Christ he will be cast into
the eternal lake of fire. When was the last time you heard that sentence from a
pulpit, and if you do hear it it was probably once a year…perhaps. This is mind
blowing. One day it will be revealed we were playing some glorified Dungeons
and Dragons game which can be picked up from time to time.
The
pulpits are cold. The pews are cold. The church is cold. But the fires of this
world are raging and how many believers are warming their hearts and lives
around that fire? Most will never have ears to hear until it is too late. Watch
and pray and fear.
****
Matt.18:
3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be
converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom
of heaven.
4 Whosoever therefore shall humble
himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
So
where did this so called “warrior spirit” come from?
****
Oh Lord
let my heart be a sanctuary where You are not just welcomed, but You are
pursued and hungered after. Let my heart be a place that is always Yours. A
place where You are exalted and worshiped and adored. Let my heart break open
so that I can be drained out and You can fill it completely.
****
Matt:25
- 34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right
hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from
the foundation of the world:
35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me
meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick,
and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
How
very interesting. Hidden within the original Greek must be “Because you voted
conservatively and because you were pro-life and because you attended a local
church and because you stood up for America”. That seems to have been lost in
the translation. Oh how the modern church has refused to walk in His steps and
instead beat a path filled with man’s steps.
I have
heard many a preacher place these verses within his own context in an effort to
avoid a works centered salvation. But in so doing the reduce and redefine what
it means to be a disciple. There is only one work that is exclusive in its
redemptive power and that was finished at Calvary. But after one has been born
again the path leads to ministry to other human beings and especially the poor
the hated the sick the disenfranchised the weak the different and many times
the rejected of this world.
And if
that is the core element of being a disciple why is it not the core element of
the church? You see we are His hands which reach out with earthly ministry so
that the Spirit can lead them to the Reason we do such things. But much of the
church is in deep debt and surrounded by material things which require much time
and money just to keep them in good working order. And the organization called
the church also is heavily weighted by debt or upkeep and maintenance or
salaries.
Have I
ever mentioned how strongly the culture has imprisoned the institutional
church? I believe I have mentioned it. We do not need some serious renovation
in order to return to Christ. We need a revolution. The entire ecclesiastical
culture must be dismantled and destroyed and His Spirit allowed in to replace
it. However even in that scenario given the depth of the spiritual departure it
would take years for the Spirit to bring the church back to Christ in belief
and practice.
But
each individual believer cannot abrogate his spiritual calling just because the
church is a wild ass kicking and sniffing at the earthly air and jumping the
fence to graze in greener pastures rather than the table of the Lord. But we
owe a debt we could never repay to our Risen Lamb. But could we not read and
heed His words as a testimony and a tribute to His glorious gospel? We could
not labor to attain salvation, but now we are His laborers in the whited
fields. Let us gird up our loins and be about our Father’s business and our
Savior’s commission.
****
Eph.3: 17 That
Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in
love,
18 May be able to comprehend with all
saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
19 And to know the love of Christ, which
passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
There
are two things which really reach out and grab me about this portion of
Scripture. One is the phrase “that you might be filled with all the fullness of
God”. That in and of itself is something so dramatic and so massive that it
really cannot be encompassed by one thought or even one mind. The other is that
thought about the fullness of God is in the context of God’s love.
If we
take John 3:16 as a foundation for God’s love we must return yet again to the
cross. It was there where God opened up His eternal heart and displayed a love
so breathtaking and shocking that it takes a lifetime of meditation and prayer
and visitation to glean from that act this thing we so glibly call “love”. No
doctrinal voyeurism will suffice. No jewelry or steeple ornament nor fish
bumper sticker adds anything to this glorious sacrifice and probably in most
cases it diminishes the cross in people’s minds.
You see
we have so symbolized the cross that when it is mentioned people think of a
symbol rather than His followers. Do you understand the tragic implications of
what I just said? The faith called “Christianity” was supposed to be all about
Jesus and His earthen vessel disciples showcasing Him and His gospel. But
instead we have buildings and preachers and holidays and moral causes and slick
phrases and symbols galore. That was never meant to be. We were supposed to be
His building. We were supposed to be His servants. We were supposed to be His
cause. We were supposed to be His symbol, or better yet His life.
It was
never supposed to be like this. We should have been continually challenged to
be filled with all the fullness of God. Instead we were exhorted to be good
patriots and conservative Republicans and prolifers and faithful givers to the
local church. The entire “concept” of the Christian faith was seriously altered
until it could not be recognized through a New Testament lens. But who really
was using the unvarnished truth of the New Testament as the brick and mortar
with which to build up the body of Christ?
But as
I read the above verses I saw more clearly that it all was tied into God’s
love. Not a syrupy and saccharine kind of Teddy bear love. No, this love is
tangible, visceral, and completely out of the context of human experience. Even
the Scriptures uses a mother’s love as a metaphor but that is for our learning.
The greatest love any mother has ever had pales in comparison to God’s eternal
love. All the fullness of God is contained in that love.
It is
easy to look at the heavens on a clear, dark night and as you wonder at
creation you can sometimes get the wrong impression that God is a cosmic
scientist who is aloof and august and without feeling. But God’s love which is
His essence cannot be measured or even understood through comparison. Yes we
can see Jesus heal people and forgive the adulterous woman and feed people and
we hear His words exhorting us to lend ourselves to our fellow human beings.
That gives us a glimpse into God’s love. And that glimpse is wonderful and
exhorting.
But it
isn’t until you reach the cross that the entire length and breadth of God’s
Love is taken out from behind the veil and revealed in all its fullness.
It is
at Golgotha that God’s love was fully made a spectacle. A glorious spectacle. A
majestic spectacle. An excruciating spectacle. A bloody, bloody spectacle.
Covered in wounds and thorns and spit and nails and blood, that was God saying,
no screaming, I love you! This cross was all the fullness of God on a riveting
and repulsive and yet alluring display. The moment you can shake your head and
admit to yourself you have only scratched the surface is the moment you can
proceed further into the wonder of His cross. We so minimize the incarnation.
We so minimize man’s depravity. And with those two dilutions we so minimize the
cross.
God suffered
and died for you. Behold, all the fullness of God. Be ye filled with it.
****
I have
visited men in prison and shared the gospel. I have heard testimonies of
salvation behind prison walls. But the two most moving testimonies to me have
been Karla Faye Tucker and David Berkowitz. With those two people you can sense
the Spirit in their demeanor and their voices and humility.
****
Jn.10: 9 I
am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and
out, and find pasture.
10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal,
and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they
might have it more abundantly.
“Your Best Life Now”, a book and philosophy of Joel
Osteen and people like him, is humanism and vanity at its zenith. The culture
has redefined happiness and contentment and the church has dined sumptuously at
that table. Who considers communion with Jesus the abundant life anymore? We measure
the quality of life with material things, earthly success, and with a
comparison with others. It all comes down to the definition of the word “life”.
If we understand it within the context of the temporal that it is a
free-for-all. Anyone’s definition is valid. But if we define it within the
confines of New Testament Scripture then we are confined to certain borders of
spiritual truth.
People are searching and some are not. Some are embracing
what hirelings are telling them while others wander about unfulfilled still
seeking contentment. They believe the abundant life can be found in the right
set of earthly circumstances. They have absolutely no clue at to what the word
“life” represents in the realm of the Spirit. You see there is a place, a life,
within Jesus the Lord God which will bring contentment and fulfillment in
immeasurable abundance.
But please understand the distinct and profound
difference between this temporal life and the life in the Spirit. The temporal
life demands ease and comfort and prosperity, but the life in the Spirit can
find ease and comfort and prosperity while being chained to a prison wall. Can
you understand such a truth? And if you understand my words can you actually
embrace that truth? And if you embrace that truth are you willing to forsake
all to find it?
Actually the life in the Spirit cannot be defined and
comprehended through human words. It is not of this world at all. In fact it
goes against everything, and I mean everything, that the world defines as life.
But for all who have never entered into
that life how can we explain it? We cannot. All we can do is create a thirst in
others and allow the Spirit to take our limited words and reach hearts. We are
not trying to elevate some personal experience. We are trying to share a life
by comparing our experience with Scripture. Only the Holy Spirit can reach a
human heart with the reality of such a life.
But this is the earthly reality which
men like Osteen live in and preach. Heaven isn’t even mentioned to say nothing
of Jesus and the cross. And church members by the millions embrace and even
love their earthly lives. They have no concept of the things of the Spirit. And
preachers feed their carnal nature. I fear for their eternal destiny. Not
because they embrace that fallen existence but because many have embraced a
false Christ.ollowers of Jesus must never see people as liberal
or conservative, or black or white, or prochoice or prolife, or American or
Russian. We must see people as saved, lost, or unsure which. But God just sees
people as saved or lost because He knows with a certainty. The Lord knows those
that are His.
****
The church expends much money and energy of marriages.
There are seminars and workbooks and retreats and guest speakers aimed at
strengthening marriages. That can be a form of self serving narcissism. I have
a great way to strengthen marriages.
Have both partners begin to passionately pursue Christ
individually and together. I also can suggest a woprkbook for that.
****
The Book of Revelation is a prophetic narrative of end
times history. It contains shocking imagery and violence and judgment. The
messages to the churches are observably different than the messages spoken by
pulpiteers today. The stark descriptions of Satan are unnerving, or at least
they should be.
But the book is called The Revelation of Jesus Christ.
How can we change people’s minds about the caricatures about Christ they cling
to? Sadly the visible church is promoting a golden calf and calling it Jesus.
****
Lk.19: 10 For the
Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
It
seems like almost every person and every church has some kind of agenda. Well
Jesus summed up His agenda in this one sentence. So if we are to seek and
follow and be like Jesus then we will be conduits for reaching the lost. It is
a miracle of deception that so much of the church has redefined the mission of
Jesus. Instead of laboring in prayer and the Word in order to be transformed
and thereby reach others with the gospel most of the sermons are about elevating
our earthly lives as if they were to go on forever.
****
Could there by anything more worthless and more hollow
and more warping to the mind than the hot air lying done at political debates?
Yes there is one thing that rivals that nonsense.
Elections.
****
Ps.142: 4 I
looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me:
refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.
This
verse could be speaking rhetorically through a lost person. I have watched
Christian television for forty years and I have never seen a preacher weep
uncontrollably over the plight of the lost. Even the ones which shamelessly
show starving African children lived in large and expensive homes. When was the
last time you sat in a pew and the Spirit of God descended upon the
congregation and en masse you were broken over lost souls and everyone was
crying. If indeed such a visitation occurred I suggest people would not be
sharing about wonderful the worship service was and how the presence of God
gave them goose bumps.
Let
us all come clean before God. None of us do all we could or should in reaching
lost souls. We have wasted money over worthless things. We have neglected the
prayer closet. We have walking years with no tears for the lost people we rub
shoulders with every day. We have spent countless hours being interested in
politics and yet have we shown the same concern for the gospel cause? Where did
the church lose its heart for lost souls? When it became obsessed with itself
and this earthly life evangelism became a side issue.
We
say, we proclaim, and even write it in our statements of faith that we believe
every single person who dies without being born again spends eternity separated
from God in a place of much torture. And then most of us say we believe Jesus
died for every soul and offers eternal life for every single sinner. That is
what we say we believe, but I have often felt we are the greatest hypocrites of
all. Have we allowed the Spirit to change our hearts? Do we seek to feel the
heartbeat of God as it pertains to souls? Can we even suggest that our lives
and even our hearts line up with our so called theology?
And
have we become so calloused that we cannot, or will not, see the shameful
discrepancy? The cross of course is a complete and utter denial of self. But it
is also the very heart of God as it pertains to the plight of deserving hell
bound sinners. It is grace painted in blood. It is love expressed by thorns. It
is mercy shown by gaping wounds. The person in Psalms can say “No man cares for
my soul” and be somewhat accurate but he cannot say no God cares for my soul.
Calvary is the eternal proof that God cares and cares with His own life.
It
is not enough to believe in the cross. We must seek to die upon it ourselves
and invite the heart of God to be our heart. That, my friends, is a monumental
challenge but that is true Christianity.
****
Rev.1: 7 Behold,
he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced
him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.
In
reality this world is just marking time until the Creator returns. So many seem
to be concerned with signs but not concerned about Him. But on that day Jesus
comes back it will not be as men envisioned it. It will be spectacular in its
violence. It will be shocking in its vengeance. It will make every movie script
seem timid. This entrance will not come via Bethlehem. This is when as the
lightening can be seen from the east to the west so will His terrible return
come.
Do
I sound like an alarmist? I am just repeating what the Scriptures teach and we
must sound the alarm near and far. Behold He is coming and who will stand
before His holy power? There is only one safe place and that is within the
redemption He Himself purchased. All others will face immeasurable judgment far
worse than anything ever seen upon this earth. His judgment will sound eternal
thunder and His eyes will be a penetrating fire. Adam was sentenced to death
for one seemingly minor infraction so what will happen to those whose resume of
transgressions is almost endless?
The
battle between sin and divine holiness has been raging since Adam fell. Without
holiness no man will see Christ and since we have no holiness of our own we
must repent and run into the sacred holiness that is found in Jesus. There is
no other shelter from what is coming. The church desires to hear good things
and it recoils at such truth. Religious man will defend at all costs his own
sphere of life against almost all inconvenience to say nothing of hardship. And
he will conform his theology to accommodate his desires. That is exactly what
the church has done.
Imagine
a speeding train is heading for a cliff and the engineer says he is aware of
it. But on his train people are laughing and drinking and being entertained and
enjoying sleep. No one goes back and tells them to buckled their seat belts and
prepare for what is coming. But as the train barrels toward catastrophe the
engineer walks back to the passenger cars and tells people uplifting stories
and informs them that there is nothing at all about which to worry. What kind
of an engineer would that be? He would be a blind and ignorant engineer. And
that is exactly what we have leading the churches today.
And
this gives us a greater revelation to just how unbiblical the Jesus is which is
sung to and preached on Sunday mornings. People worry about gas prices and the
economy and ISIS and illegal immigration and all kinds of things. But who is
worried over lost and dying souls? And who worries about the unsaved souls
which are alive when He comes in great power? Who really even stops to think
about things like that in this self centered religious system where God is
treated like a servant who helps us get what we want? Time is now a great enemy
and yet where are the watchmen?
The
engineer is not asleep at the switch. He is throwing a party and he presents
God as the party host. He is coming with clouds. Soon…
****
Think about a place where colors can be heard. Where
sounds can be seen. Where hands can smell. Where spoken words are light. I am
just attempting to wrest your minds from the prison of this temporal existence.
The place commonly called “heaven” is unlike anything we can ever imagine. It
is not a much better earth. It is not better than anything. It is august and
unique and filled with God’s glory. Who can know it? But that is our
destination because Jesus desires our presence. Let that truth marinate in your
soul.
But the “place” where God dwells is not a place like we
understand a place here. It has no boundaries and no floor etc.. I truly
believe the place is God. Think about that. I cannot explain it and I do not
argue about it. But what if heaven really was a place within God Himself? What
if the Risen Christ was that place and the theological term “in Christ” was now
a shocking and glorious reality? I really do not know how to understand it and
perhaps I am wrong, but one thing I do know for a certainty.
Our awe for our Redeemer will exclipse any awe we have
about that place.
****
Providence: God conceived as the power sustaining and
guiding human destiny.
(Websters)
In this generation of human labor and human achievement
the providence of God has all but vanished in the church and in the minds of
professing believers. We can no longer accept disease or hardship or ridicule
or any financial setback as coming from the hand of God’s providence. We want
answers. We need answers. We demand answers. You see we have been taught a
false god for so many years that we refuse to see with the eyes of faith
anything that is unpleasant or even inconvenient. And yet believers all over
the world endure great hardships and yet trust God and His loving providence.
After the Industrial Revolution this
capitalistic and competitive culture presented all kinds of opportunities and
people began to set their hearts upon such opportunities. And that atmosphere
has dome great harm to the faith of Jesus. If we sing “We are warriors!” we can
praise God. But which worship leader sings a song which says “It was good that
I was afflicted!” and then all praise Him? Paul sought the Lord to remove his
thorn in the flesh but God said “No.”. Paul was being taught that His strength
is made perfect in Paul’s weakness. And Paul gloried in his affliction.
Do we receive personal affronts with grace? Do
we receive financial setbacks with grace? Do we embrace our physical
afflictions with grace? Do we understand everything through the prism of our
Loving Father’s providence? We must cleanse our hearts and minds from a “I can
do it” spirit and recline under the shadow of His mighty wings. Providence is a
theological term but it just means that God is always in charge. It does not
mean God is directly causing everything, but it does mean that God is weaving
every thread of your life into a quilt which honors Him. And that is what we
must infuse our unruly minds with every day.
****
Mk.5: And they came over unto the other side of
the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.
2 And when he was come out of the ship,
immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,
3 Who had his dwelling among the tombs;
and no man could bind him, no, not with chains:
4 Because that he had been often bound
with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and
the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him.
5 And always, night and day, he was in
the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.
6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran
and worshipped him,
7 And cried with a loud voice, and said,
What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure
thee by God, that thou torment me not.
8 For he said unto him, Come out of the
man, thou unclean spirit.
9 And he asked him, What is thy name? And
he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.
10 And he besought him much that he would
not send them away out of the country.
11 Now there was there nigh unto the
mountains a great herd of swine feeding.
12 And all the devils besought him,
saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.
13 And forthwith Jesus gave them leave.
And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran
violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and
were choked in the sea.
14 And they that fed the swine fled, and
told it in the city, and in the country. And they went out to see what it was
that was done.
15 And they come to Jesus, and see him
that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed,
and in his right mind: and they were afraid.
16 And they that saw it told them how it
befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine.
17 And they began to pray him to depart
out of their coasts.
Here we have an
incredible narrative. Jesus has cast out devils before and after this event.
The possessed man was delivered from a legion of demons. And Jesus sends the
demons into the pigs and they commit suicide. But I want to draw your attention
to an astounding element of this story.
In verse 6 we see
the demon possessed man ran and worshipped Jesus. But in verse 17 we see the
pig farmers wanted Jesus to leave. Think about that paradox.
You see demons
know who Jesus is more than some church members. And what was the reason these
men asked Jesus to get away from them? It was money. They could care less about
the demon possessed man now being in his right mind. There swine were gone and
they blamed Jesus. This is a great lesson for all of us. What is money compared
to the presence of Jesus? And in a clever and nefarious way the modern church
now teaches Jesus wants you to have a large herd of swine and that His presence
almost guarantees it.
But I will ask you
this: Do you think the man who was delivered from demons cared about the swine?
Do you think he followed Jesus or set about to get more swine? Think about it.
****
Seven
Steps to a Successful Life
1.
Jesus is Lord
2.
Jesus is Lord
3.
Jesus is Lord
4.
Jesus is Lord
5.
Jesus is Lord
6.
Jesus is Lord
7.
Jesus is Lord
This study
comes with a 66 section guide.
****
I
Cor.1: 18 For the preaching of the
cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the
power of God.
Notice the words
“but unto us which are saved”. This is spoken to the church. So often in these
days men and women believe that the cross is not relevant to a saved disciple.
They think after you get saved you can leave the cross and move on to deeper
and more relevant issues. The cross is merely a symbol for jewelry and church
steeples. But notice also the words “it is the power of God”.
This is a great
mystery. People can understand the blood sacrifice but how many understand the
spiritual power inherent within the cross? How many realize that the same
divine power which saved your soul emanates from that cross in order to
transform your life? This cross of Calvary where God suffered and died was not
here today and gone tomorrow. It was eternal from before time unto all
eternity. This was the portal through which God rolled up His sleeve and
revealed His strength through the most unlikely of demonstrations. And the
awesome and unequalled power in that cross still roams the world and in the
lives of His true disciples. The power of life birthed through death.
So when the church
goes a-whoring after other earthly issues that divine power is gone. We then
need lights, camera, action as a substitute for God’s power. You see the cross
really has no place in a fallen culture which deals in self esteem, human
intellect, and success through human labor. Who needs the cross within that
kind of atmosphere except as a talisman? Who can afford to waste time
meditating on the cross? I mean we have heard that story many times. It is time
to move on and address the needs of man. That is what wets the carnal appetite.
But even though
the power of the cross is without measure it will not force itself upon anyone.
It stands before you if you have eyes to see and ears to hear. By the Spirit it
calls softly but distinctly. But when it is rejected and marginalized that
calling becomes very faint and almost imperceptible.
Here is a man who
takes the stage and flexes and poses to show off his physique. The crowd
applauds loudly and they are impressed. But a man walk into the room wearing
glasses and as he looks upon the stage he sees a malnourished and emaciated man
flexing. He asks the person next to him why the crowd is applauding. The person
says because of his great muscles and build. The man shares his glasses with
that person and he then sees things as they. The flexing man is but skin and
bones.
So it is with this
crossless church. Through carnal eyes people see great and swelling messages
that excite and fill the room with enthusiasm. But through the eyes of the
Spirit we see an emaciated gathering which parades itself with all kinds of
human machinations and appears vibrant and alive and yet it is a show of death.
And parched corpses applaud marionettes adorned with grave clothes.
Without the
preaching of the cross there can be no life and there can be no church. Without
the preaching of the cross there can be no disciples and there can be no
Spirit. Without the preaching of the cross all you have is blah-blah-blah and
yada-yada-yada and the enticing words of men’s wisdom. You may draw large
crowds but the Spirit will not be there. And if the Spirit’s ministry is not
present then we labor in vain. Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow, or today,
we die.
There is only one
walk of death about which God approves. It is the walk of the cross.
****
Jer.33:
2 Thus saith the Lord
the maker thereof, the Lord that
formed it, to establish it; the Lord
is his name;
3 Call unto me, and I will answer thee,
and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.
Jeremiah was attacked by his own brothers and beaten and
placed in stocks and in prison. He is known as the weeping prophet. But in the
midst of all this God’s message was “They surely will attack you but they
surely cannot overcome you”. Here he was still confined to the courts of the
guards and betrayed on all sides.
But he receives a Word from God. God does not show him
how to escape, nor does He promise to get Jeremiah out of his persecution. But
the Lord exhorts Jeremiah to prayer and promises He will show Him things which
Jeremiah still does not know. Well, what are these things and how can they help
Jeremiah’s situation? I mean the Lord does not say “Call unto me and I will
open the prison doors and break your chains”. So what lesson can be gleaned
from this?
Jeremiah is recognized as a prophet who seemed to emphasize
a personal relationship with God. And this is an Old Testament revelation which
will find its greater fulfillment under the New Covenant. You see the Spirit
shows spiritual truth and revelations of Jesus to those who hunger and thirst for
them and are willing to labor in prayer. Which is the greater blessing, to be
set free from prison without any deeper revelation from God or to remain in an
earthly prison and be saturated with untold revelations of the Holy One?
You see in today’s mindset we demand a pleasant place. We
need a place of flowers and not thorns. We want uplifting experiences not life
challenges. And so often we do not see unpleasant situations as spiritual
cauldrons which God desires to use to make us seek Him not just because we want
a way out but because we need more of Him. Can we recline and rest in a very
difficult situation and allow the Spirit to illuminate us with more of Christ
Jesus? Have we ever considered that in times of trouble we may be able to
understand the cross just a little bit better that we can in times of plenty?
Spiritual truth is not just knowledge if it is received
as a revelation through the Spirit. It is a life force which can fill a being
with divine life even in the most trying of circumstances. It is not a
“rah-rah” type of you can do it. It is not even an earthly encouragement. It is
a spiritual enlightenment which spreads throughout our lives and not only
provides nourishment for our souls but lifts us into the realm of the eternal.
So throughout the centuries disciples have been cast into prisons and tortured
and chained to walls and as the guards peer into that prison to make sure their
prisoner is still there they see a human figure but many of them are not really
there. They have been transported into the eternal realm and the chains meant
to bind them have become wings which caused them to soar high above their dire
circumstances.
Let us all learn from them.
****
Hab.1: The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did
see.
2 O Lord,
how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of
violence, and thou wilt not save!
3 Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and
cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and
there are that raise up strife and contention.
4 Therefore the law is slacked, and
judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous;
therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.
5 Behold ye among the heathen, and
regard, and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work in your days which ye
will not believe, though it be told you.
6 For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that
bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to
possess the dwellingplaces that are not their's.
The
prophet Habakkuk sees the Chaldeans descending upon Israel and wreaking havoc.
He does not understand why the Lord is not protecting them against this heathen
onslaught. The Lord tells him that if and when He tells Habakkuk he will not
even believe it. So with Habakkuk’s attention the Lord reveals that it is He
that is raising up the Chaldeans to chasten His own people.
Can you
imagine such a thing? Do we not understand that God will chasten His own
people? Look at what has happened to the visible church. The heathen have taken
over and hiding behind church membership and great music and ordination papers
and even the word “evangelical” they have swooped down and ravaged the entire
ecclesiastical community and structure. The discipleship bar has not been
lowered…it has been removed altogether. In fact the word disciple is rarely
used at all.
Not one
of us can stand publicly and exhort everyone to follow us because our
discipleship is impeccable. No, God forbid. But when we remove the ancient
landmarks and just feel our way along the inevitable happens. The spiritual
essence of the church dwindles away until most of the church is little more
than a mirror of the heathen with a veneer of Scripture and a Jesus who bows to
the culture and is our cheerleader but not our Lord. And people by the millions
can sit and listen to the most egregious error and nonsense and yet nod and
clap and shout even as the Chaldeans are ravaging their souls.
Habakkuk
realized the heathen were committing violence in their midst but today’s church
not only is ignorant of such violence but it embraces the ways of the heathen.
I just wonder how long God’s patience will hold out before Jesus returns and
reveals a wrath about which we are ignorant in this cotton candy community of
faith. The Chaldeans are now the singers and the elders and the preachers. They
have not taken over through physical force. No, by smooth sounding words and
well dressed orators and moving music they have subtly elevated themselves and
now they are in complete control.
This is
a day of great spiritual peril. This is a day where each individual believer
must seek Christ and His Word with passion. This is a day where we must be
fervently testing the spirits. Perhaps it would have been much easier in the
1700s attending a small local church without the onslaught of secular media,
but we do not live back then. The challenge is great, but so is our Lord.
Deepen the stakes and lengthen the cords of your spiritual tent. Behold He is
coming and no man can withstand His power. No man…
****
I am an
outspoken advocate for showing Christ’s love to everyone. I do not join moral
crusades about anything. I take no political stands. But within the church, the
body of Christ, we need to understand some things about which we will not fly a
public flag. Gay marriage is one of these things.
You
cannot endorse gay marriage as being Biblical unless you feel the Scriptures
are malleable and ever changing. That does not mean we tip our hand to the
curious and the fallen public at large. Ministers give way too many interviews
and as this article shows the public is interested in controversy not Christ.
Preachers have now become famous and just like the world give interviews.
And
when you have a large and growing church the tendency will always be to
accommodate sin in a lot of areas. When tens of thousands of people attend your
weekly services what accountability is there? And in an effort to open your
already bulging doors you begin to soften you stand, not just your tone, on any
number of issues. The pastor of Hillsong Church is a prosperity preacher who
peddles in falsehoods. Now he is sliding on the issue of gay marriage. It will
not be long before gay marriages are being performed regularly in evangelical
churches across America.
****
Do we
just sit and watch God’s wrath approaching and say nothing? Do we not want to
be seen as negative and even fanatical? Should we close our mouths and just
watch it like we are watching some sporting event? And if we remain silent will
we give an account to Almighty God some day? Are we afraid of our own family’s
scorn? Are we afraid of being seen as some religious monster? Do we shy away
from being labeled as unbalanced? Do we bow to doubt or do we speak those
things the Spirit has shown us? What do we do?
I must
speak that which I believe is truth. The Lord is coming and he will bring
judgment. How can I sit life a fool and say nothing? I realize most will not
believe my words. But I know I will answer to Him one day. Behold He comes!
Repent and believe the gospel. The time grows ever shorter.
****
II
Chron.36: 15 And the Lord
God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and
sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place:
16 But they mocked the messengers of God,
and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till
there was no remedy.
I do
not believe there is a remedy for the visible church. It has gone way too far.
What pathway leads out of such deep apostasy and back to Christ? Perhaps there
is a path of repentance however I personally doubt it. Sorry. The visible
church is a spiritual whore. There is no remedy.
****
Matt.26:
6 Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon
the leper,
7 There came unto him a woman having an
alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat
at meat.
8 But when his disciples saw it, they had
indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste?
9 For this ointment might have been sold
for much, and given to the poor.
10 When Jesus understood it, he said unto
them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me.
11 For ye have the poor always with you;
but me ye have not always.
12 For in that she hath poured this
ointment on my body, she did it for my burial.
13 Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this
gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this
woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.
There is much debate about who Simon the Leper was. I
find it quite curious that he was known as a leper and yet here was Jesus
eating inside his home. It surely reflects the love and nature of our Lord. But
in the midst a woman appears carrying a box of expensive ointment. Now women
are not allowed to make such a bold move in the presence of men. But boldly she
comes without shame.
She pours the expensive ointment upon the head of Jesus.
At this time no one really knew who Jesus was and what His mission from heaven
was all about. But this woman sensed something special. And empowered by that
sense she anointed the head of Jesus with very precious ointment. Had she been
saving this ointment for something else or some future occasion? No one knows,
but we do know whatever she was saving it for was not as important as lavishing
it upon Jesus.
And those who claimed to be His disciples called this act
of love a “waste”. Obviously they had a more limited knowledge of who Jesus was
than did this woman. What a scene. But I was intrigued by the words of Jesus
when He said, “She hath wrought a good work upon me”. Think about that
statement. This was a selfless act which did not feed the poor. It healed no
one. It did not bless enemies. But Jesus said her act would be preached all
over the world. Why? I believe this reveals something very special about true
worship.
Worship, true worship, is a special “work” in God’s eyes,
especially that which costs something. How easy is it to raise your hands and
sing loudly on Sunday morning? But if you have given a sacrificial gift to
foreign missions about which no one knows does that make raising your hands any
different? I do not mean something you did or money you gave expecting a return
to your own bank account. I mean something you gave which was a financial
sacrifice and you do not expect anything this side of heaven.
You see, this woman did not expect anything in return and
neither should you. Extravagant worship is all to His glory and is never a
waste. It is an offering of love which needs no return at all.
****
Worship is not music. It is not a great and energetic
crowd. It is not a conference. It does not take place in a building. It is not
dependent on overhead projectors. It does not need a human leader.
True worship takes place in the heart of a broken
believer who is seeking God from an altar of sacrificial humility.
****
There is a vast difference between the presence of God
and the music fueled energy of the congregation.
****
In response to the wanton corruption in American politics
former President Jimmy Carter said:
“It
violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political
system. Now it’s just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the
essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the president.”
His
first sentence is wrong but his second sentence is right on. An oligarchy is a
government which is controlled by a small group of people. You see the country
known as America has never been nor will it ever be great in God’s eyes. In
fact God could care less about America. America is in the same boat as all
other nations. They are just a collection of people who happen to live in the
same geographical area and call themselves by that country’s name. The real
problem is that the western church itself has become an oligarchy when it
should have always been a Monarchy.
****
****
I Sam.16:
6 And it came to pass, when they were come, that he
looked on Eliab, and said, Surely the Lord's
anointed is before him.
7 But the Lord
said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature;
because I have refused him: for the Lord
seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.
Jesse had proudly presented all of his sons before
Samuel…all of them except one who was the runt of the litter and still outside
attending to sheep. Jesse’s sons were impressive but God spoke to Samuel about
the danger of relying upon the outward appearance. Samuel asks Jesse if these
are all is sons and Jesse told him of his youngest. So David was brought before
Samuel and in a moment the little shepherd boy, stinking of sheep, feels oil
running down his head and he hears men speaking of a king.
Oh how holy and righteous are the ways of God! God will
not use a self righteous man. Neither will He bow before the schemes and
religious machinations of the church. God is not only not impressed by our
outward appearance or our oratorical prowess, He rejects it all. He who exalts
himself will be abased and he who humbles himself will be used of God. David,
flawed without question, was a man after God’s own heart. Would to God that
would be said about us.
The name of David is the one most frequently used in the
New Testament when referring to Jesus. Look at his beginning. Guarding and
feeding the sheep this little boy was chosen by the Most High God to be a king
over His people. God gets glory from humility and brokenness and repentance and
by someone who actively and sincerely shies away from any personal praise. God
uses earthen vessels who adamantly point to Christ and away from themselves.
The true man of God knows the anointing of God and knows just how quickly it
can leave. He treats God’s blessing upon him as a sacred and undeserved gift of
grace.
The true many or woman of God sees themselves as a
conduit through which Jesus can live and share His gospel. Men are just
spiritual instruments who have no incandescence of their own. All the light
belongs to God and if we extinguish our own earthly wicks He will light within
us His own wick that burns with the light of Christ! And what, pray tell, can
be more glorious than that? Never hold any man’s person in admiration and think
he is something when he is nothing. He who loves the praise of men is a
strutting peacock having the plumage of fallen humanity. But he who refuses
applause and who never seeks human adulation can indeed be used of God.
Keep ministering to God’s sheep and seeking the souls of
goats, and if God chooses to lift you up to greater responsibility be careful
and quick to humble yourself and remember the oil is His, the Word is His, the
anointing is His, and the Savior is Him alone.
****
When you realize that the foolish virgins missed the
banquet of the Bridegroom not because they weren't virgins, but because they
were foolish, that's when your
Christianity wakes up. And when you give more than a mental consent to the
truth that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom is when you begin to
truly prosper spiritually. UP.
Jam.3: 15 This
wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
The mindset of most of the evangelical community is
earthly, sensual, and devilish. This verse is in the context of strife and
bitterness but the concept of being earthly, sensual, and devilish can apply to
almost all situations and even as a pervasive mindset and atmosphere. That
mindset is not devil worship as we normally would associate with the term. It
is not a scene taken from the Exorcist movie.
No, it indicates a mindset where we see and understand
everything through earthly prisms. It is a fallen view of things of this world.
All of us can be susceptible to it from time to time. But much of the church
has adopted that mindset as their ears and eyes and in so doing they are deaf
to God’s Word and the voice of the Spirit. They live fully within the temporal
and sacrifice the eternal on the altar of the here and now. This is no minor
point of doctrine. This kind of mindset undermines the essence of the faith and
remolds the teachings of Jesus and presents them in nice packages with temporal
ribbons and bows.
When we see things with earthly eyes and minds we soothe
and harden our consciences. We cannot feel any real pathos for lost souls. We
cannot embrace the cross other than in sentimentality and doctrine. We cannot
see the hand and purposes of God. We belong to a community of faith which has
all but lost the eyes and ears of the Spirit and is contented to be so.
Be aware, though, it is extremely difficult to walk in an
eternal perspective. Everything and everyone all around us is pulling our minds
away from the spiritual and into the earthly. It does not mean that everything
that pulls at us is sin in and of itself. But even good things can become sin
if they become stumbling blocks which keep us from Him and the mind of Christ.
I realize this makes no sense to most of the church membership. Almost twenty
five years ago it would have meant nothing to me as well. But by God’s grace I
have had my eyes and ears opened to things about which I was ignorant. Yes, I
do not always walk in an eternal perspective however I k=now know what an
eternal perspective is and I now can repent and run back to the Shelter.
But the problem with earthly religion is that it is never
stagnant. It has an earthly life which seeps into everything upon this earth.
It demands the minds and hearts of people, and with the help of earthly
preachers it reinforces the ground it has already taken. It refuses to give an
inch and it always desires more and more. Like junk food it gets people
addicted and welcomes them back for more. Eventually you are left with a
powerless and hollow religion which hangs its hat on certain morals and earthly
allegiances and even fallen legislative processes.
The mind is an unruly power. It is influenced by many
things among them other people, family members, preachers, books, news
programs, radio programs, and all kinds of moral philosophies. The mind must be
forced, yes I said forced, to submit fully to God’s Word and the guidance of
the Spirit. This is only done through a passionate and consistent hunger for
God’s Word, intermittent fasting, and a surrendered desire to be corrected by
the Spirit. We must be open and ready for repentance. Not a legalistic prison
but a life giving repentance which forgives our sin and leads us into greener
pastures.
Repentance should be the joy of a disciple. But until we
repent of an earthly mindset we will never understand that we need repentance
or what we should be repenting of. The days are well spent and the time grows ever
shorter. If ever we are going to pursue Him with all of our hearts it must be
soon…or today.
****
The church tosses around the word “holy” as if we know
all about it. We use it in our doctrines and theologies. We even have some
pitiful definitions. But until we see the Holy Lamb of God we are doctrinal
blind men playing pin the tail on the theological donkey. We really have no
clue and the sooner we confess that the closer we can draw near to Him who
alone is holy.
****
I am convinced that when we sense the unusual presence of
God either in private or corporate worship it does not mean God's presence is
any more real. It means we are more humble, broken, and repentant. You see the
cleansing of the receptacles is what is always needed.
****
Jam.2: 26 For
as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
The significance
of this statement should not be minimized. And if it is important than what are
the “works” the Spirit identifies here? Just what are works that substantiate
our profession of faith. Does that not seem to be of great importance? Forget
about your baptism or church membership or your senseless seed faith gifts.
These works are those which reflect the life and ministry of Jesus.
And is the church
consumed with ever learning about the life and ministry of Jesus? Why not? If
His works must be our works you might think preachers would harp on them
continually. But so much of the church has created their own earthly theology
and in so doing they have left Jesus altogether. You can be very wealthy and
not be doing His works. You can be very successful and not be doing His works.
You can be on television preaching and not be doing His works. You can be very
conservative and not be doing His works. You can be pro-life and not be doing His
works. You can voice solid support for Israel and not be doing His works. You
can be against gay marriage and not be doing His works.
Let us be honest
and open here. Jesus never mentioned supporting Israel. He never mentioned the
gay community. He never mentioned politics. He never mentioned allegiance to
any country. He never mentioned abortion. That does not mean that we should not
have any stance on some of these issues. But what it clearly reveals is a
divine set of priorities. Are not the teachings of Jesus are template? Are they
not our statement of faith? Are they not our doctrine?
So what did Jesus
speak about? He spoke about helping the poor and loving sinners and showing
mercy and being humble and denying yourself and rejecting hypocrisy and unconditional
forgiveness and a pure heart and being salt and light and blessing your enemies
and hundreds of other avenues of divine characteristics. Where are those not
family values? Why are they not considered morality? Why are they not viewed as
conservative? Those are the works to which we have been called and taught by
our Wonderful Master.
They are a steep
ladder to climb and we are completely dependent upon the Spirit to give us
wisdom and strength. But when you tear things about which Jesus never taught as
the core of our faith you have changed the nature of the faith. Think about the
tragic implications of that.
****
After many months
debris from a plane which disappeared washed up onshore. One day all your sins,
some of which you may have forgotten, will be brought up before you. Your only
hope will be in your sins are buried forever in the wounds of the Sin Bearer.
****
There is no
greater act of selflessness than the cross. It cannot be compared with anything
in human or angelic history. It stands alone and radiates the glory of God.
Just the incarnation was selflessness in its purest form. But the cross goes
beyond even the angelic mind to comprehend the profound implications of such an
act. He, Jesus, He, God, He, the Spotless Lamb willingly went to suffer and
die. Do we still tremble sometimes as we understand a little more of that
glory?
Well keep
trembling because we have been called to live and die upon that cross. Tremble
indeed…
****
Bruce Jenner won a
gold medal in perhaps the most challenging event called the decathlon. I
watched him do it on television. But inside he lived with a great battle.
Eventually he changed his name and now lives as a woman. He was awarded by ESPN
for his courage.
I do not make
light of anyone’s struggles due to the ravages of sin. That may be courage to
the world and I guess it did take some worldly courage to expect ridicule and
rejection. But that is not my definition of true courage. There are three
people with whom I associate spiritual courage and whose life and testimony has
challenged me for forty years.
Joni Erickson Tada
became a paraplegic due to a diving accident. But she allowed God to transform
her life and became a shining light for Jesus Christ. She has spoken all over
the world and shared the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is true courage.
Jim Elliot heard
the Spirit’s call to reach the unreached tribe in the middle of Ecuadorian
jungles. He was murdered by the people he was trying to reach. But his legacy
lives on and many have responded to the gospel because of his legacy. That is
true courage.
Corrie Ten Boom
endured unbelievable hatred and torture from with a Nazi concentration camp.
She saw part of her family die because of that hatred. But when she was freed
she became an incandescent witness for Jesus Christ around the world. And she
openly forgave her captors. That is true courage.
These are three
who I look to as examples of surrendered and humble courage. They received no
earthly awards. But they will be given an eternal gaze upon the Risen Lamb.
There is no reward greater than that.
****
Tests the spirits.
Most error being
taught is man centered. It revolves around man, It gives promises to man. The
hearer holds a man in admiration and therefore will believe whatever he tells
them. And they hold themselves in high esteem. That is a deadly combination
which continues to lead many to shipwreck.
So many today have
taken the word “anointed” and used it to elevate themselves. If a preacher can
convince his listeners he is anointed by God they will believe God is speaking
through him. The Word of God is no longer relevant. And someone can pull out a
verse and concoct some message filled with greed and success and all kinds of
spiritual error and the pew dweller who has come to hear from God embraces what
he hears.
How many true
believers actually know how to study and rightly divide the Word of God? I do
not suggest we walk around with a spirit of cynicism. But we must not eat from
every table without discernment. We live in a day of great apostasy and even the
most orthodox among us can be compromised by religious spirits and the mores of
the culture. We must do more than just know about the Word. We must know the
Word on paper, in Spirit, and the Word Himself.
Emotions can be
used for all kinds of deception. There is nothing wrong than having emotions
which spring from truth and the love of our Savior. But we can never be guided
by emotions. It is literally astounding what passes today for Bible preaching.
Men and women can share philosophy and self help and self esteem and promises
of money and people will flock to hear them. Just the fact that large
convention centers will be filled with paying customers just to hear some
famous preacher is a sign of the times.
When was the last
time you heard a preacher strongly tell you that you must die? That message is
still in Scripture but it has fallen completely out of vogue in this man
centered religious business.
****
Jam.1: 26 If
any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but
deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.
There are two
levels of spirituality as it pertains to the tongue. The lower level is to
bridle that tongue so that no unwholesome words come forth from it. In other
words do not say what you are thinking.
The second level
is to bridle your mind and bring every thought into the captivity of Christ.
This is the deeper level since your tongue will speak words of the Spirit that
proceed from your mind. If your mind is unruly and not filled with God’s Word
eventually your tongue will speak things which it ought not.
****
We have grown up
in an era of decadence. Webster defines decadence as “having low morals and a great love of pleasure,
money, fame, etc.”. And the culture in which we live is rife with all those trademarks.
In fact many of those sins have found their way into what we would call the
normal life of American citizens. They have crept in unawares and camouflaged
by the extreme versions but they are still part and parcel of the culture on
all levels.
And
in an astounding revelation many of those attributes are embraced by the
average citizen although he would not label them as such.
Everything
is relative. Everything can be compared with a worldwide vision. And ultimately
everything will be compared with the Word of God. So what seems to be measured
and normal can indeed be seen as extravagant and excessive if God’s Word is the
standard. When those who are barbaric and wild are the measuring stick than
indeed we can hide and redefine what we do. Normal, as it is within a fallen
culture, is completely at odds with God’s Word.
And
what would be seen as decadent according to God’s Word is now seen as God’s
blessing. I want to go further into territory which may seem shocking and
offensive to most professing believers. You can turn on the television and
watch male preachers dressed in expensive suits and women who look like whores
and yet there they are speaking the name of Jesus. They have succumbed to the
ways of the world and fashioned themselves likewise and feel absolutely no
conviction. In fact many of them suggest and teach others that this is God’s
will.
I
Pet.1: 13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be
sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the
revelation of Jesus Christ;
14 As obedient children, not fashioning
yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:
15 But as he which hath called you is
holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;
This concept is not a practical suggestion. This comes from the lips of
the Spirit and we are bound to strive to obey it. And it is a spiritual
principle that should never be diluted by any culture. If we take God’s Word
and understand it as holy and absolute apart from any cultural understanding
then how would we embrace and practice it? If someone surrendered to God’s Word
completely and with any shred of compromise at all or any vestige of cultural
influence would he blend in with today’s local church? Perhaps he would be
considered unbalanced and a nut.
The mere fact that we can blend in with so many is not just a clue to our
compromise. It is an open indictment. I will get into specifics later but for
now let us receive the enlightenment and correction of the Spirit. We have come
a long way but in the wrong direction.
****
Lk.23: 27 And
there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed
and lamented him.
These people were
weeping because of sentimentality. They did not know who Jesus was nor could
they know why He was headed for Golgotha. But among those who do know now, and
who should have an understanding, where are the tears? I do not mean tears of
sentimentality. I mean do we ever come before Him in prayer or hear a song or
hymn of the cross, and do our hearts break because we do know why He came to
Golgotha? Is it ever so personal that we weep because we know just how unworthy
we were are are? Do we ever allow the Spirit to reveal a little bit more of His
sufferings and do we see our sins within those wounds, those gasps, that blood
filled sweat?
I do not claim to
be the perfect example by any stretch but I can still weep before Him because I
do know who He was and what He did and who I am without Him. The entire specter
of that spiritual knowledge breaks me and allows me to worship Him with the
same tears as did that sinful woman. Because I too know how much I have been
forgiven. It is almost endless and there is nothing in any of it which would
engender such love. God did not see some good in me and decided to grasp hold
of that and suffer for that little glimpse of goodness. There was no good thing
found in me and knowing that Jesus still went willingly to the slaughter for
such an one as me.
You see, if that
does not make you weep sometimes you have a deeply flawed view of the cross.
But, you say, I am not like that. Go to Golgotha armed with the knowledge of
your sinful depravity and behold the man. And if you allow the Spirit to
illuminate God’s bloody sacrifice to you will become something you are not like
in the natural. Any believer who cannot ever weep needs to be broken by the
Spirit of God.
****
In 2014 Japan
experienced an earthquake of 9 on the Richter scale. What made that earthquake
even more horrific is that it lasted for a full six minutes. It ruined the
nuclear power plant at Fukushima and the cleanup will take fifty years. In fact
the technology for the cleanup is not known yet. The event came very close to
making Tokyo uninhabitable. But the reason for such a breakdown was due to
careless safety regulations and in general human hubris. This will not be the
last of such events.
****
Jn.19: 5 - Behold
the man.
When you live and
breathe within a fast paced and all consuming culture there is little time to
“behold” anything really. The word implies more than just a casual glance or eve
a good look. I would suggest that to really behold Jesus takes time. It takes a
relentless spirit and a true spirit of worship. You cannot behold Jesus only
through a twenty minute music session on Sunday mornings. To behold is to
invite His Person and His presence into your very being. That even by
definition is a sacred and monumental experience which requires a level of
surrender, brokenness, and commitment rarely seen in this jingle-jangle western
church.
Behold the man.
Behold the God. Behold the Redeemer. Behold His cross. The narrative we call
the Passion Week cannot be completely captured by the human mind. Who among us
know all the mysteries of the incarnation? Gethsemane? Gogotha? The empty tomb?
Who is so filled with self righteousness that he could suggest his theology and
doctrine explains it all and uncovers all the mysteries? Only a fool would say
such a thing. To see with the eyes of faith the whips and the thorns and the
punches and the robe and the plucking and the lashes and the mocking and the
nails and all the rest is life changing if we really see it and absorb its
boundless truth. But when and if we, surrounded by all those things, bow and
behold the man at the very center of it all then we must be undone and made
whole simultaneously. Again a great mystery.
But when you
behold Jesus clothed in humility and with a Spirit given knowledge of who is
was and is something happens to you. Yes, it is a deep and profound experience
however most earthly experiences soon fade into a memory file. But this
experience sears itself, sears Himself, into your innermost being. It is
difficult to explain with temporal words what happens when you truly behold Him
in faith and love and complete surrendered awe. He is glorious beyond words.
And when we think that what we know of His glory transfixes our hearts and yet
we touch just the hem of His garment?
Today we see with
the eyes of faith. Tomorrow we see Him face to face and we behold Him as He is.
So many make much of heaven and to be sure it is a place of great glory. But to
be in His very presence and behold His glory and be allowed the unspeakable
privilege to worship His holinesss is beyond our weak minds to fully
comprehend. Perhaps that why there was silence for about a half an hour in
heaven. Perhaps we will be so overtaken and immobilized by His glory we will
not be able to speak at all and then we will raise our spiritual voices in a
worship which may not need any music nor overheads.
This will not be
beholding Jesus as a shepherd as some have painted Him. This will be the God of
all eternity unveiled without any obstruction. And we will be there…
****
Jn.19: 2 And
the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on
him a purple robe,
3 And said, Hail, King of the Jews! and
they smote him with their hands.
How many today
sing “Hail Jesus!” and yet smite Him with their hearts and lives?
****
Humans are the
only species that purposely terminates a pregnancy. It reveals the level of
depravity that courses through our veins. And if that is not shocking enough,
mothers will actually pay someone to invade their body and violently bring the
unborn baby death by human hands. And let me reject any logic or sense of
morality on my part concerning being pro-life. The only reason I am pro-life is
because the Spirit of Life dwells within me and has taught me the will of God.
Without Christ I would be staunchly pro-choice so all the glory is His.
****
Jn.1: 10 He
was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
11 He came unto his own, and his own
received him not.
12 But as many as received him, to them
gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
The world was made
by Him. So many professing believers forgot the totality of the Person called
Jesus. He has all power and to those who believe on Him He saves them to the
uttermost.
Before we can even
begin to understand the nature and scope of redemption we must first understand
we are in cieshow to articulate it or even how to make sense of it in your own
mind but the drawing is unmistakable, relentless, and irresistible if you have
ears to hear.
The sad irony is
that His “own” still do not know Him. I had a dream last night where one of the
television preachers was holding a rally and doing flips on a trampoline to
the4 sheer delight of the crowd. They are being thoroughly entertained. I did
not need an interpretation…I knew what is represented.
But for those
whose hearts have been transformed by the power of Christ let us carry the Ark
with sacred care. The Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament was a gilded
box. The Ark of the Covenant in the New Testament is Christ Himself. And we
carry that Ark in earthen vessels so that the glory is all His forever.
****
There are only two
overarching divine covenants which apply to all men. One was limited and
temporal while the other is unlimited and eternal. One was cut with the blood
of animals while the other was cut with the blood of God’s Dear Son. One
forgave sins for one year at a time while the other offers sin forgiven
forever. One was a foreshadowing of another while the other was a fulfillment
of the other. One has passed away fulfilling its purpose while the other will
remain forever.
****
Matt.7: 12 Therefore
all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to
them: for this is the law and the prophets.
In one sentence
Jesus sums up the entire Old Testament as it pertains to the path of a follower
of His. This is an amazing statement from the lips of our Lord. You who desire
the law read these words carefully. Nowhere in the Old Covenant do these words
or even this sentiment appear and yet Jesus says all the law and the prophets
are contained in that one sentence. It quite the revelation and 2without the
guidance and illumination of the Spirit you would surely miss the profound
implications of this verse. That is why most professing believers do miss it
completely.
Let us be honest
here. This sentence, this revelation, this exhortation is literally an
impossible task as is so much of our Master’s teachings. The church has either
ignored or declawed His teachings so that every pew dweller who is not doing
heroin or actively committing adultery believes he or she is obeying Jesus
generally. Nothing could be further from the truth. Just this one sentence
destroys the comfortable doctrinal oasis we have created for ourselves. Come
on, we are supposed to do to others what we desire done to us? Who are we
kidding?
So why do we not
hear humble yet powerful pulpit voices presenting this truth before us on a
consistent basis?
Jesus walked this
earth for over 33 years and you know there were people committing adultery all
over the place and gay behavior and many others sins which He had to know were
going on. And yet the only time He was forced to confront some woman caught in
the very act of adultery He forgave her. You know this Jesus, His life and
teachings, has been repackaged by the church and His teachings have been
retooled so as to make them much, much easier to read. In fact most of the
church does not even attempt to reach the diluted version much less the pure
revelations.
We have heard this
teaching before presented like “Do unto others as you…blah, blah, blah.” We
receive it generally as a good thought. But when has the church embraced it the
colossal command it really is? If indeed church members suddenly were awakened
by the Spirit to the purity and meaning and implications of just this one verse
would not the altar be filled with weeping and repentance this coming Sunday
morning? Perhaps even before the so called service even began? As it is in
reality what happened last Sunday morning will be the template for what will
happen this Sunday morning and the following Sunday and on and on it goes.
It is one thing
though to try and do good unto others in the same way you desire to have good
done unto you, but it is on a higher level to have your heart changed so that
the golden rule is a driving force in your life. That is a supreme challenge
and in reality John the Baptist summed it up perfectly when he said “he must
increase and I must decrease”. To be Jesus in this world is monumental. But so
often the church has drawn up its own spiritual guidelines instead of His. And
even church membership subtly and not so subtly anoints people as saved and
disciples in good standing.
The entire
ecclesiastical structure and practice resembles man and not Christ.
****
Matt.13: 22 He
also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the
care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he
becometh unfruitful.
Rom.12: 2 And
be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of
God.
I Cor.3: 18 Let
no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world,
let him become a fool, that he may be wise.
19 For the wisdom of this world is
foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own
craftiness.
Jam.1: 27 Pure
religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the
fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from
the world.
Please understand
that the word “world” can be interchanged with the word “culture”. In another
words all human cultures, regardless of how interesting and quaint are enemies
of the Spirit. They are all at odds with the kingdom of God. It is not wrong to
observe some things or even travel to other countries and observe the different
traditions of each culture. But the believer must never submit or love any
culture. If any man love the culture the love of the Father is not in him.
You see the world
and all that is in the world is not innocuous nor benign. Even the good lends
itself to humanism and self righteousness. The church has lost the understand
of just deep and profound and diabolical evil really is. Evil is everywhere and
has tainted everything. There is nothing that has not been infected by evil.
For example feeding the poor is a good thing in this world. But feeding the
poor in your own name or in the name of some organization or nation is evil
since it does not lead to Christ. Can you have ears to hear such a thing? Does
that not make sense to you? If so then you have been affected by the spirit of
this world and you fail to realize the preeminence and soaring majesty of the
Lord Jesus. I understand that in this compromised church atmosphere words like
that seem harsh and fanatical. But the nature of evil which lives and moves and
has its being within this world is unfathomable.
The church has
embraced the wisdom of this world and in so doing its members have become foolish.
The pulpits deal in worldly issues and ignore the cross. Preachers pay homage
to America and resist the denial of self. Retributive violence against enemies
is approved of and championed by most evangelical churches. Politics is not
just a distraction but has become a driving force. All of these things are part
of a fallen culture and yet the church frolics passionately within the culture.
That is loving the world if the phrase means anything at all. It is extremely
difficult to remain apart from the world while being in it, but it is
impossible if we do not see things as they are in the Spirit.
But the
evangelical assembly line is still in full force. It is an easy line which
produces church members by the hoards but few disciples. In order for the church
as an institution to become what God has always desired the situation, as it
stands, demands a complete dismantling of everything empowered by a full
throated repentance. Do you see that anytime soon? As is human nature the
things of this world work in orchestration to avoid at all costs any genuine
introspection so as to cement the current beliefs and practices. Family
members, likeable pastors, past financial investments, close friends, your
children’s fondness and stability, and the pieces of God’s truth taught from
the pulpit all conspire against even the slightest comparison with God’s Word
to say nothing of a passionate pursuit of ecclesiastical truth.
So after many
decades and centuries the surrounding culture sits in church pews and claps and
smiles and gives but also brings in its own poisoned fruit. And eventually,
shocking and almost unbelievable in its depth and scope, the church teaches and
practices things openly at odds with New Testament truth and the narrative of
Jesus’ life. And yet all seems right and our doctrinal statements are finely
polished and grammatically correct. And so there is no need for inspection
especially for the very foundations of it all. Let the ornery and the negative
and the self righteous speak things like this but please turn down volume on
the alarm clock. It bothers us and rocks our contented worlds.
Loving the world
is actually the spirit of antichrist. Try that one at the next business
meeting. But can we face spiritual reality regardless of where it might lead
and what verbiage it may engender? We are scared of Iran but show no fear
whatsoever of Almighty God. We fight against the gay agenda while we embrace a
worldly agenda of our own. We are playing tidily-winks while the evil one plays
with a vast arsenal designed to damn souls. And we who claim to know Him
embrace a culture which is designed in every way against Christ and His
kingdom. How can these things be? Am I a misguided voice who is wrapped up in
some kind of Dungeons and Dragons fantasy? Until we see the earthly culture as
an enemy, and until we see the culture as part of a fallen world, we will still
enjoy our local clubs which do not impose on our cultural lives at all. In fact
they promote it. You see instead of prayer and fasting and repentance we can
have our overheads and our staff and our church gymnasiums and our statements
of faith.
And really, isn’t
that all we want anyway? After all I am a voting member.
****
Gal.6: 14 But
God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by
whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
Once again Paul
speaks to believers in Galatia and presents the cross of Jesus Christ as the
source for all glory. This is not an evangelistic statement. This brings forth
the true disciple’s heart. This brings forth the true church’s heart. Here is a
great sports enthusiast. He has a favorite team for which he constantly roots.
He wears the team’s shirt. He has their bumper sticker. He wears their logo on
his hat. He reads about them almost every day. He speaks about them with
others. He watches them on television.
Now I ask you,
does that man ever grow tired of learning about his team? Does he grow weary of
the year after year redundant cheerleading? Does he eventually believe his support
is for new supporters but more mature supporters move on? I mean how much can
he hear about this same old team? It must get old after a while, right? Wrong!
The overwhelming majority of sports enthusiasts who have a favorite team stick
with that team for life and never grow tired of watching them and discussing
them. Some have even made that team an obsession.
So let us
understand the place that the cross of Christ has in the life of the church and
of each individual believer. First of all there would be no church and no
believers were it not for the cross. Not one sin could ever be forgiven without
the cross. Without the cross there would be only powerless and humanistic
religions. The cross is the centerpiece and the foundation for everything that
calls itself “Christian”. Everything else is a fraud. The cross is not a
beginner’s guide to the faith. It is the beginning and the end and everywhere
in between.
Most believers
assume that learning about the cross is just reexamining the same facts over
and over again. They grow tired of hearing the same old things. Outside of
church I have rarely heard a believer speak of the cross with passion and
intimacy. Even within church walls I have rarely heard that kind of discussion.
In fact, buckle your seat belts, I have heard church members speak about the
local sports team many, many times and I have rarely heard them speak about the
cross. That, my friends, is a shocking tragedy.
The cross of Jesus
Christ gave to us eternal life. But it continues to give life to those who
meditate upon it and take it up and follow Jesus. It should be the cornerstone
of our lives. We should speak of it often. We should speak of it to God daily.
We should remember it at the Lord’s Supper. We should remember it when we look
upon the lost for whom we sprung. We should remember it when we think about
heaven. We should think about it when we pray. Jesus Christ is our life, and
that life was purchased on that cross…forever.
And in that alone
we glory.
****
Heb.4: 12 For
the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and
marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Notice the word
“sharper”. In these days of arrogance and self awareness men have made the Word
of God a blunt instrument. What they preach under the guise of Holy Scripture
is not quick nor powerful and certainly not sharp. The thoughts and intents of
the heart? Who are we kidding? They are sweet sounding self help messages which
activate the fleshly senses and are counter productive to any authentic
spiritual growth. And in a stunning display of humanism many exhort their
listeners to repent of having a spirit of poverty. I am not sure I have ever
met anyone with that spirit in America. The rich want to be richer and the poor
just want to be rich.
Jesus said, My
words are spirit and they are life”. You see God’s Word is not just ink on a
paper which are good or even insightful thoughts. They hole a spiritual power
that no other words can hold. They have the power to save. They can enter a
human being and illuminate his mind and change his heart. It is a great
mystery. The power of God’s Sword transcends different languages. A person can
read a sentence and by the Spirit’s enlightenment his whole life can be changed
forever. People have picked up a Gideon Bible in a motel and flipped around and
read something and in that room they were saved.
Some believers
make a huge deal over which translation to use and there are a few that have
problems. But the Spirit is not bound by translations. And it is the height of
self righteousness to proudly proclaim how orthodox you are and how you believe
every word is inerrant and all the rest. God is not interested in what you
believe about the Bible. He is interested in how much you believe and how much
of it you obey. And when your souls has been saved through the believing in the
Truth, who is Jesus and who is the Word of God, then God’s Word becomes your
way of life.
This isn’t a case
where you can receive eternal life and then live according to your own word.
No, you are now bought with a price and you are not your own. And now God’s
Word is a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path. He who does not love
God’s Word cannot love Jesus either. The two are one in the same. Another
glorious mystery. Most professing believers do not read God’s Word at all. Most
who do still only understand and receive it in a surface way. But blessed is
the believer who seeks God’s Word as if they are the words of life and embrace
their wounds as love from God as He seeks to conform us to the image of His
Dear Son.
****
The way of the
cross is not as esoteric nor ethereal as some might suggest. It demands arms
and legs as well as mouths.
****
It is on days like
today in which I see my own shortcomings so clearly and I am ashamed at my own
ignorance and rejection of His teachings. I stand before Him without excuse.
But it is on days like today when I submerge myself in His grace and against all
evidence I am strengthened. How can I think such a Savior? How can I express my
love for One so gracious? And with what words can I convey my heart without
receiving any credit for a semblance of humility? It is on days like today when
I relive my conversion over and over and over again. And I fall in love with
Jesus over and over and over again.
****
So many
evangelicals allow fundamentalists of all stripes dictate what they
"must" believe. And that creates a very grave situation. I used to be
a fundamentalist and I was very proud of it. Just attend one of their
conventions and you will be bathed in an atmosphere of self righteousness. And
they shield their self righteousness under a cover of doctrinal self depravity.
Just because you say you believe in salvation through faith alone does not mean
you are free from self righteousness. In fact many times that doctrinal
profession seems to be used as the basis for self righteousness. Self
righteousness is a very slippery fellow. It can hide behind truth. It often hides
behind moral or doctrinal truth.
Humility has been
so redefined and diluted and marginalized that we no longer even know what it
looks like anymore. But how can we even suggest we are followers of Jesus
without humility? He who left the glories of heaven and wore the robes of
humanity carved out our path and yet have we followed in His steps? Does the
western church even know His steps anymore? We have embraced human doctrine
over divine truth. But the tide is turning for some. For some the times they
are a changin’. We can no longer embrace what we have been force fed. We must
embrace what He said.
For almost twenty
years I have tried to convey the truth of God even in the face of evangelical
tradition. The Spirit has been able to reach open hearts and but some hearts
have hardened and labeled me. I gladly wear His reproach. They have called me a
liberal or a compromiser or a gay lover or many other things. But I am what God
calls me. I am a servant of the most high. I am a member of a peculiar people and
a holy nation and a chosen generation. I am still strongly resisting the
temptation to defend my reputation especially when the castigations against me
are inaccurate and spurious and lies. I have had a struggle laying them down at
the feet of Him who ignored His own immaculate reputation and submitted Himself
to that cross.
You want
fundamentalism? Well then you must embrace then cross as did He. And that, my
friends, will take a lifetime.
****
Matt.5: 43 Ye
have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate
thine enemy.
44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies,
bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them
which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
45 That ye may be the children of your
Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the
good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
46 For if ye love them which love you,
what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
47 And if ye salute your brethren only,
what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your
Father which is in heaven is perfect.
This portion of
Scripture is taken from the most famous sermon spoken by our Lord. It is
commonly called the Sermon on the Mount. It is this message which should form
the basis for the faith we call by His name. How many preachers have held high
the Bible and declared proudly they believe it to be God’s inerrant Word? And
yet when faced with words like this directly from our Lords lips they run to
shelters of common sense, reason, and patriotic necessities. But has never been
able to change these inerrant words they profess to believe. If we allow any
earthly reason to make exceptions to God’s Word than we allow almost anything.
Once the dike is breached error can come in like a flood. The same people who
make exceptions for these verses recoil when gay people make exceptions for
other verses. You see, you cannot embrace your own exceptions and castigate
exceptions by others.
Once you embrace
“what ifs” and “How abouts” and the long list of “Buts” you now are creating
man’s word and not God’s. If God’s Word is not unreasonable and extremely
difficult and supremely inconvenient then it is not His Word. If it does not go
against the culture in ALL aspects than it is a culturally homogenized version
that blends nicely with earthly thoughts. And you are left with a doctrine
which says one thing and does another. Why call Me Lord and do not do the
things that I say?
Do you think it
was easy to come to the place where you take these kinds of teachings as
absolute? When you have had men and women of God who have taught you otherwise
is it easy to pursue a different path? But let it be known that once the Spirit
opens your heart and fill it with light you had not seen it does not matter if
Spurgeon himself taught something. You must either repent and seek or reject
and stay put. As I have said many times before it is easy to be against
abortion. But let us see you love your enemies. That, my friends, divides the
followers from the professors.
None of us can
claim to follow Jesus and all He taught with perfection. None of us. But if we
move the goal posts a little closer we can never please God. To remove the
purity of God’s Word and interject the poison of man’s reason makes the Word of
God “of none effect”. I have not loved my enemies like Jesus taught, but I
refuse to make an excuse by suggesting certain situations are immune to His
teachings. And allow me to interject something very important here. This
teaching in Matter five is part of the foundation for the entire faith. Did you
understand what I just said? To deny this teaching or to marginalize it with
earthly situations that seem unreasonable is to change the faith itself.
Jesus said there
are two commandments upon which everything rests. Love the Lord with all your
heart and love your neighbor as yourself. Well Jesus included your enemies as
your neighbors. There is nowhere to hide. There are no arguments that can alter
His words. We must either believe and obey them or change them which is
unbelief. Those are the only two choices. You must choose one. Be advised
though bombing your enemies cannot be seen as loving them.
****
You can find all
sorts of people who have been born again and changed. Child molesters. Racists.
Murderers. Hedonists. I have known racists who hated black people but now love
them. I have known violent people who are now peacemakers. I have known people
whose life was money but now live without greed. Jesus does things in people’s
hearts that no amount of psychology could ever do.
****
Col.3: 3 For
ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
4 When Christ, who is our life, shall
appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
When we bury someone
people often say the laid him to rest. When we reckon ourselves dead to this
world and alive only to Christ we can find untold rest. While the world frets
over everything the believer whose mind is stayed upon Christ can walk in an
inward rest unknown to this world. Notice Paul says Christ does not just give
us life but He IS our life. What a glorious and transcendent truth!
Without Christ we
have nothing and we are nothing. This is not some transcendental mind trick.
No, this is a soaring and eternal truth which was purchased for us at
Golgotha’s bloody sacrifice. Is it not an affront to your intellect to wonder
at such an eternal gift and yet to understand it happened through something so
grotesque and offensive and barbaric? We desire some lofty principle which
requires our genius to figure out so we can claim some of the glory.
But the glory of
the cross is shared with no man…ever. It stands alone as a testimony to the
Lamb of God, and within those wounds are revealed the love and mercy and grace
and power of Almighty God. It should make us tremble. And when a poor sinner
looks upon that cross with the opened eyes of faith, that sinner dies. And a
new life is born which is hid and secured and protected within that same Lamb
forever.
But think on this:
The majesty is His. The labor is His. The light is His. The redemption is His.
And the glory is all His. But Paul says we shall appear with Him in glory. We
shall be with Him in His glory. It is difficult to fully imagine because we
have so distilled the concept of heaven. We speak glibly of pearly gates and
streets of gold and chit chatting with loved ones. Oh my dear friends have we
no shame? Do we even know Him at all? We treat heaven like some kind of
glorified pot luck dinner and in so doing we turn our backs on who will be the
very center and heartbeat of that dwelling place we call heaven.
There we will be
basking in His glory. Paul speaks of the glory that shall be revealed in us.
And just what glory will that be? It will be Christ Himself who now lives
within us. Like the Moon which only reflects the Sun’s light we have no glory
of ourselves. The only glory associated with us is His reflected glory. On that
day all remembrance of our sins, which were many indeed, will be gone. They
aren’t just erased from our memories. No, they are gone from the history books
forever. It is part of the miracle of grace. Our Wonderful Redeemer spared no
expense and lavished His love upon us in so many ways.
Why should I
desire to hold onto this corrupted life when a life incorruptible is reserved
for me with Him. Oh Lord let me die that I may live forever. The temporal,
earthly life is but a march toward death, but the life which bears His name is
eternal in the heavens and saturated with His glory. And this God who made this
universe so complex and so vast that the most brilliant among us are but
babblers before His creation, this God about whom the word intellect has no
meaning, this God is all knowledge. And this God, high and august and separate
from sinners, this Holy God purchased redemption through His sufferings and His
death. No man can boast of anything.
It is Him…and Him
alone…forever. Selah.
****
Heb.11: 26 Esteeming
the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had
respect unto the recompence of the reward.
Sadly, today
American believers want the reward now and they react viscerally if criticized
and they have made Egypt their friend.
****
Heb.11: Now faith
is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
The phrase “hoped
for” is a little misleading in the English. It would be better translated
“waited for”. I am both heartbroken and angry over what the church has done to
faith. Men and women now teach fait as a force which can be wielded to get
earthly things from God. No longer is a patient trust in Christ our Redeemer.
It is now another human tool.
But life in the
Spirit is one which looks at the unseen and embraces that kingdom and its King.
The things of this world may be utilitarian and some of them necessary, but if
you lay open our hearts they are not there. Today men decree and pronounce and
prophecy and no longer to professing believers say, “Be it unto me according to
Thy Word O Lord.” Today substance means things that can be touched. But the
true substance cannot be touched by hands but by hearts.
Have we not lived
long enough and made enough mistakes and sought earthly rewards sometimes that
we now understand the fleeting satisfaction this world has to offer? Just by
experience we should be at a place of true surrender. Christ, who is our life,
says Paul. Yes and amen. We have no other God before us. This world is forever
attempting to tear us away from our Blessed Savior. But in the end to whom
shall e go, Lord, for Thou hast the Words of eternal life.
****
Most people think
of life as a heart beating and lungs breathing. But true life is a soul that
knows the Giver of all life…Jesus. I have done a lot of things in my earthly
life. But I never knew life before Christ and now I have been given eternal
life. Tell me, what is better than that? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
****
Rev.3: 22 He
that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
Oh how the church
loves to speak. It loves to preach and prophecy and teach and sing. But do we
have ears to hear the Spirit and what He is saying? Do we even close our mouths
and minds long enough to hear His voice? What would happen if people filed in
on Sunday morning awaiting the latest version of what we call a “service” and
the pastor stepped behind the pulpit and said God wanted us to spend the next
hour or so praying and listening to the voice of the Spirit? Could we even
abide such a thing in this fast paced, filled with noise culture?
All night prayer
vigils? Museum artifacts. Solemn assemblies? What? Fastings often? Let us not
lie. We have our heads filled with Biblical and religious knowledge. Our
auditoriums are bursting with people and excitement. We love our churches. We
love our preachers. We can hear the preacher and the talk show host and the conservative
politician and the celebrities and the President and we embrace the voice of
our own minds. But is the voice of God’s Spirit familiar to us through hours of
listening? We are quite adept and polished talkers but are we skilled
listeners?
The Spirit of God
is still speaking to God’s church but who is listening? Listening to the voice
of the Spirit requires a knowledge of God’s Word, and time of separation from
the cares of this world, and a season of being silent before Him as you bring
your mind into His captivity.
****
One of the most
disgusting things I have witnesses in my lifetime occurred in 2003. While
thousands of graves were still warm with American lives, and while one hundred
thousand graces were still warm with civilian Iraqi lives, and while thousands
of men and women lay in great distress in hospitals, President Bush walked the
deck of the Abraham Lincoln under a banner which proclaimed “Mission
Accomplished”. This man who avoided active service himself was dressed in
fighter pilot garb and gave a self righteous speech which reveled in war. Like
a scene from Gladiator this spectacle made my soul sick.
But what was just
as sickening was the victorious spirit promoted in church gatherings. I was
about five years from leaving patriotism and politics and war and I saw with
greater clarity just how deep idolatry had entrenched itself within the hearts
and lives of church members. Do not think I am singling President Bush out
because every president in my lifetime was a hawk on some level including
President Obama. But we have not learned that from Jesus. In fact we have
learned the exact opposite.
****
I Pet.2: 9 But
ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar
people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of
darkness into his marvellous light;
10 Which in time past were not a people,
but are now the people of God:
God’s chosen people under the Old Covenant were the Jews. That does not
mean every Jew was a part of it. There were many infidels among Israel (God’s
people). But God’s chosen people today are those who have believed on His only
begotten Son. We are called His church but just as in the Old Covenant not all
who call themselves the church are God’s people. We are now His nation. Jew or
Gentile, male or female, free or under an earthly regime, if you are in Christ
you are part of God’s chosen people. And we are called to show for His praises
to every creature.
In the Old Covenant God called His people out of the physical country called
Egypt. Today God calls His people out of spiritual Egypt which is the darkness
of this world. In the Old Covenant God led His people into a physical land
which flowed with milk and honey. Today God leads His people into His marvelous
light which is found in Jesus Christ our Lord. In the Old Covenant God met His
people’s needs in a physical wilderness. Today God meets His people’s need in a
spiritual wilderness called the world. In the Old Covenant God’s people found a
home in a physical place called Canaan. Today we have no enduring city here on
this earth. We look for a city whose builder and maker is God. Today God’s
people will only find a home one day when we reach His dwelling place called
heaven.
But no Jew nor Gentile, no black nor white, no male nor female, no one
will see that Celestial City who never believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and
was born again.
****
We think of
immorality as confined to sexual sins. But greed is also immoral. We live in an
age where sin is accepted. I am a proponent of forgiveness and grace to the
extreme, however we must be vigilant about condoning sin of any kind. Picture
the evangelical church 50 years from now. And the practice of becoming pregnant
has not only become widespread but it accepted and applauded within the church.
No one even sees anything wrong with it. I am not speaking about tacitly being
against it but accepting its reality like the church does with divorce and
remarriage. I mean supposed the church defended unmarried sex and pregnancy?
Preposterous, you
say? Well if I had told the evangelical church 100 years ago that the day would
come when the church would not only accept greed and avarice as part of a
Christian lifestyle, but that the church would consider almost any raise, any
new car, any new house, any new clothes, any unexpected money, and approved
loan, anything having to do with some monetary gain as a direct blessing from
God they would have been as shocked as you are when I suggest the church would
embrace premarital relations.
There is a saying
which goes “Time heals all wounds”. Allow me to tweak that and say, “Time makes
sin less sinful and eventually not sin at all”.
****
And Mary said,
Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.
What a vessel of
the Lord. I am sure she did not realize the eternal implications of the angel’s
message, but she still submitted herself to God’s will. I mean just the sheer
shock of such a message should have given some real concern and even pause, but
not Mary. She had kept herself pure and yet here was something that would
change her life forever. Did she know many would not believe her story? And
what about Joseph? I cannot begin to imagine how she could digest such a thing
and offer an immediate reply of submission to God’s Word.
Mary is one of my
Biblical heroes. She gets dragged out once a year during a man made feel good
carnival but she deserves much better. What a woman of strong faith and perhaps
strong physically as well. She seemed to fare well travelling all over the
Middle East while she was pregnant as well as caring for a toddler. And of
course she was there at the cross.
Mary stood and
watched Jesus on the cross. Think upon that for a moment. Think about that all
you mothers. I believe she knew by then generally who He was and what was
happening, but not in all it fullness. And Jesus, while dying for the sins of
the world, tells John to look out for mother. It gives me chills. Mary helped
prepare the body for burial and anoint it with spices. Mary was there as they
told the disciples that He had risen. And Mary was in the upper room when the
Holy Spirit was given and the church was birthed in earnest.
Oh what
faithfulness. Mary gave her entire earthly existence to Jesus. When they came
to her at a marriage feast because they had run out of wine she told them “Do
whatever He says”. Oh my…oh my. In these days of political correctness and the
blurring of genders Mary has always been to me a shining light of humble
obedience. She was a servant of the Most High God. She was a handmaiden of the
Lord. She was His mother. She was His disciple. I truly love her and I am
challenged by her walk of faith.
I am often
offended these days when I see how the church and the world uses a caricature
during a false holiday and reduces her to sentimentality and even some sects
worship her. But if we were to be transported into heaven and we could scan the
blood washed throng we would see Mary. She now is a worshiper. She has taken
her place within the redeemed and wears a robe of white and bow before her
Lord. The former narrative has been washed away. But I choose to think of when
Christ gives out rewards. And Mary’s name is called. I can hardly write. And as
she is given untold rewards she bends over and places them at the feet of, not
her son, but her Risen Lord. And I hear her words once again, “Be it unto me
according to your Word.” Selah…selah.
****
II Pet.3: 18 But
grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
This is one of the
most succinct and profound statements of true discipleship. There is no deeper
life than that which seeks to know Jesus more and more and more. He that has
that continuing thirst pleases God and is an example to the church. There is so
much in Jesus which awaits our genuine pursuit. Just Bethlehem presents
countless vaults of precious jewels of truth. A baby. Born of a peasant. Born
to a virgin. Born amidst cattle breath. Laid in a feeding trough for animals.
This was God. This was the Creator. Have you fully exhausted those truths? Have
you wrapped your mind, and your heart, around those sacred revelations? Until
you reach the point where you understand you have only scratched the surface
you will remain outside the gate which guards the entrance to His truth. If you
can be satisfied with doctrinal crumbs you will be.
The knowledge of
Jesus far exceeds mind knowledge. Anyone who can read can recite His biography
taken from the gospel narratives. But revelation comes only through the Spirit.
And when it does you immediately realize how little you really knew and
understood. The light has been turned on and you see things that were hidden
before. And at the center of these revelations is Jesus the Christ. All the
promises and all the truths are found in Him.
The more you learn
of Jesus the more you learn of grace. I submit to you that until we see the
Risen Lamb adorned in all His glory will can never know fully the grace of God.
If it were not for our new, spiritual bodies we would perish as we gazed upon
the Creator Lamb. By the way preachers preach you would think they have
exhausted describing Jesus and His redemptive work. It seems like gospel
revelations are mere child’s play and the appetite in the pew desires topics of
interest which lend themselves to our own well being and earthly success. So learning
of Jesus is rendered to the elementary department. Adults have move on to more
relevant subjects.
How sad. How
carnal. How utterly shocking to think that He who paid everything for us is not
the center of our church gatherings. Even the worship music is about being an
overcomer and having power over demons. But even the ones that mention Jesus
seem to elicit excitement rather than sacred brokenness and humble worship. And
in that atmosphere the concept of divine grace gets lost. Paul says that to grow
in grace we must learn of Jesus. And learning of Jesus grows us in His grace.
And I can testify that when the Spirit brings grace to you in a wider and
deeper and more Jesus centered way you are moved emotionally and spiritually.
It affects and infects you entire being.
Grace is not an
excuse to sin. It is the power to resist. And within that grace there is a
revelation of Jesus Himself. There is no greater experience than seeing more of
Jesus. It is life changing. It builds upon the first time you believed. It
cannot be communicated by human words. If you have never been ushered into a
clearer and fuller revelation of the Redeemer than you might think my words are
mysticism. They are not. This thing we call revelation is a gift of the Spirit.
It takes the invisible and shows it to the human heart. Most times it does not
appear as that which human eyes could see. Most times it impresses visions and
truths upon hearts which have no human eyes but which see things in the Spirit.
Oh dear brother or
sister if you cannot understand then I implore you to pray and fast and pray
some more and fast some more and like Jacob tell the Lord you will not let Him
go until He reveals His immeasurable presence to your being. Once you have had
such an experience you can be blessed by other things but you will always
hunger for more revelation. Men like me may exhort you but you must seek Him
yourself. Jesus is no respecter of persons. He will reveal Himself to every
seeking heart. And in these days of self elevation the Spirit seeks those who
truly seek Christ. He awaits your knock. He will answer.
****
I Pet.1: 3 Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant
mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead,
4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and
undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
5 Who are kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now
for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
7 That the trial of your faith, being
much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire,
might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus
Christ:
We live in perilous times. It is
going to get worse…much worse. Everything is rapidly coming together in these
last days. Violence is rampant; perversion is widespread; infidelity is
commonplace; hatred is increasing; rumors of wars abound; and the faith that
follows Jesus Christ has been highjacked so that now it follows man.
But in the midst of great and
growing darkness the light of His gospel can shine more brilliantly through His
disciples. We have an opportunity to be luminescent conduits who walk after the
Spirit and not the flesh. This world is not our home. It never has been. We
should pray, yea beg, God to separate us more and more beginning with our
hearts. We live in a fallen world of death. All around us is death even
sometimes dressed up as life.
There is no more room for
ambivalence. No more space for a benign faith whose most prominent feature is a
round trip on Sunday mornings. All that is worthless and eternally dangerous.
All true believers will soon see His face. These are the days many of us have
learned about. The Scriptures are clear and sometimes very specific. It will
get worse but the beginning is over. We are squarely in the midst of a coming
apocalypse. That does not mean we should store up dry foods or dig bomb
shelters in our back yards. It does mean we must live with a vivid expectation
of His coming and a vivid spiritual life which seeks Him with passion.
Everything is vanity. But our faith
is more precious than gold, and our inheritance, purchased by His sufferings,
are safe and reserved for us in heaven. Do we believe that? Then why do we
chase green paper or cars or houses or things that glitter here on earth? Take
hold of your heart and point it toward heaven. In these final days the Spirit desires
to pry us more and more away from this present world. Jesus is all we have.
That reality must be seared into our beings every single day. All of our hope
must be in Him. Do not despair our King is coming. All that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh and eyes and the pride of life, has never been of Him.
The spirits of antichrist roam with seeming impunity.
Oh but the glory which shall be
revealed in us will eclipse by far anything evil on this earth. We have this
treasure in earthen vessels and the glory has always been His and not ours. But
here we stand. Redeemed by His blood by faith alone. In the midst of great
darkness we are recipients of God’s eternal grace. We still do not deserve it
but we embrace it nonetheless. Throw out a gospel net as the world consumes
itself and perhaps some will be saved. But keep looking up because our
redemption is nearer than when we first believed! Halleluiah!
****
The deepest sadness ever known met
the deepest glory ever known at a place called Golgotha. And in the midst of
the deepest emotions ever known as well as the deepest sufferings ever known
life was given at a place called Golgotha. The deepest expression of hate met
the deepest expression of love at a place called Golgotha. The deepest
revelation of man met the deepest revelation of God at a place called Golgotha.
The deepest reality of sin met the deepest reality of holiness at a place
called Golgotha. In six temporal hours eternity was loosed at a place called
Golgotha.
And for over two thousand years one
sinner at a time has found redemption, cleansing, and eternal life at this
place called Golgotha. It was just another hill. Just another place. It was
even outside the walls of Jerusalem. Insignificant. Common. And completely
nondescript. But it was there where the Lamb of God which takes away the sins
of the world accomplished what He alone could. And because of Christ and His
shed blood that place called Golgotha was sanctified forever.
There have been millions of
tourists who have come to this place called Golgotha. But if you desire
forgiveness and the gift of eternal life you cannot find it as a tourist. You
must come as a broken and needy and repentant pilgrim. And you can never be a
tourist again.
****
Matt.16: 15 He
saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
Peter confesses
with his mouth that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of the Living God. But then
Peter rebukes Jesus for suggesting He must go to the cross. Do you see how easy
it is for our mouths to say something and then our flesh takes that same mouth
and openly denies what we said we believed. Our faith must never rely on how we
feel or how we think or even what we think we know. It must stand upon God’s
Word even when nothing makes any human sense at all. That is the supreme fire
which will test our faith and if we remain weak in our own understanding and
strong in His Word then our faith will come forth as gold.
But Jesus also made
this observation about some:
Matt.15: 8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth,
and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
Lips
often walk a sooth path but hearts are called to the threshingfloor. Lips tell
but lives show. Doctrinal tests pale in comparison to life tests. If
professions were actions the entire world would be evangelized. The easiest
phrase to say is “Jesus is Lord”. The more difficult and observable phrase is
“Jesus is my Lord”. Both phrases can be said by anyone with a mouth. But the
latter phrase must be proven and tested daily.
****
Have you ever been
dressed up and had to open the car hood and check your oil or something and you
do your level best not to get any dirt on your clothes or hands and yet you
cannot help it? Somehow and someway dirt found you.
That is how I feel
about self righteousness. If we are taking a stand for righteousness or for
salvation by grace through faith or for God’s Word or for the gospel and Jesus
Himself if we are not careful self righteousness seems to creep in uninvited.
You think you are free from pride and yet there it is. You feel good about
yourself which is the definition of self righteousness. There is only one way
to came against self righteousness. Know it is always lurking and finds its way
through many portals.
Then visit the
cross. I mean really visit the cross and gaze at Him. Watch Him writhe in pain.
Watch His breathing becoming labored. Look at the wounds and all that blood.
Look at it fully and see the spotless Lamb suffer greatly. And then know you
did that to Him. I am sure self righteousness cannot stand being in a heart
that embraces that.
****
No one can
recapture time. No one can live yesterday again. Time slows for no man. It is
the unstoppable force. It never speeds up and it never slows down. As each
piece of sand hits the bottom of the hourglass it will never again be seen at
the top. It is impossible for us to define time. We just know what it is. It is
the past, the present and the future all in one moment…of…time. The Spirit
exhorts us to redeem the time which is another way of saying make good use of
our time.
Meditate upon Him.
Tell people about Him. Pray to Him. Help others tell people about Him. Yes have
fun, and yes be entertained, and yes embrace your family, and yes enjoy some
down time. But remember time is God’s gift. All of us have wasted God’s time.
Shame on us. Let us endeavor to do better for Him. The time is His; the life is
His; and eternity is His. There will come a day when time as we know it will
cease. No one can witness to anyone anymore. No missionaries can be sent. No
more praying. No more giving. In that day there will be no more darkness
because He will be heaven’s brilliant light.
And all who walked
in darkness will be banished…forever. Does it seem like we are overly
concerned? The church is playing the harlot and is concerned with numbers and
budgets and activities and good music and political issues and many other
things. But time still passes away with predicable regularity. And with each
piece of sand that falls souls fall with it. Does it seem like we are overly
concerned? But, you say, I don’t want to get obsessed and become some kind of
fanatic.
Don’t worry…you
won’t.
****
It is easy to be
pro-life. It is easy to be pro-traditional marriage. It is easy to be a Bible
believer. It is easy to believe in the virgin birth. It is easy to believe in
salvation by grace through faith. It is easy to believe in non-violence. It is
easy to be non-political.
It is very
difficult to be like Jesus.
****
Is.6: In the year
that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord
sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one
had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his
feet, and with twain he did fly.
3 And one cried unto another, and said,
Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of
hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.
4 And the posts of the door moved at the
voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am
undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a
people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
This is worship. This was a true encounter with the Living God. No music,
no lights, no worship leader, only God’s powerful presence. It is
astounding just how creative the fallen flesh is as it creates elaborate
carnivals and calls it "worship" as if worship is an entity all to
itself. "What a worship service we had this morning!" can be heard at
many restaurants at about 1:00 o'clock Sunday mornings. I submit to you that
more often than not if we actually found ourselves in God's literal presence,
like Isaiah, we might not be so quick to go to a restaurant. In fact many times
we would not be hungry for anything but Him.
But here we
have a revelation from the Spirit and not some slick advertisement about some
worship service. And there is something very striking about Isaiah’s worship.
When the presence of God surrounded him Isaiah was broken over his own sin and
the sinful culture in which he lived. He had been given a vision of Almighty
God. But do not treat Isaiah’s experience as special and relegate it as just an
historical event. We who live in the New Covenant and who are indwelt by the
Spirit of God and who have the written revelation of Jesus Christ have been
given a more complete vision of the Christ God than Isaiah ever dreamed of.
What? Isaiah did not have the complete revelation that we have in our Lord
Jesus Christ and by the power of God’s Spirit. But even with an incomplete
revelation Isaiah was undone. He melted under the weight of God’s majesty and
glory. Do you believe Isaiah went out to eat right after this vision? Do you
believe Isaiah felt wonderful about himself and thought that the God he saw was
his servant? Did Isaiah hurry to plant a gold seed faith gift so he could get a
new set of clothes?
We need to go
deeper…much deeper if we desire to truly worship the glorified and risen
Christ. If at some point you are not broken before Him then He is not there.
And what was the Lord’s request of Isaiah or anyone else?
Is.6: 8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord,
saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send
me.
You see, true worship will always
lead to true service. Worship, true spiritual worship, creates legs. And those
legs will take us to where we can serve the One who we worship. They are His
legs and by His power we are called and strengthened to serve our Wonderful
Master. Service is not worship, but worship demands service. Oh please jesus
reveal things to us that we know not so we may see You more clearly and serve
You more faithfully.
****
II Sam.23: 15 And
David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me drink of the water of the well
of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!
16 And the three mighty men brake through
the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, that
was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David: nevertheless he would
not drink thereof, but poured it out unto the Lord.
17 And he said, Be it far from me, O Lord, that I should do this: is not this
the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives? therefore he would
not drink it. These things did these three mighty men.
What a man of honor! Today lying men and women live off the offerings of
older and poor people because they have promised them heretical lies. But David
would not even drink the water that his men had so sacrificed to bring to him.
Again I ask all of us, what do we sacrifice in our lives? Can we point to
something that from time to time we resist even though we could enjoy it or we
could spend that money on ourselves?
There are men and women who labor in whited fields all over the world.
They have given up the comforts we take for granted so they might be used to
bring living water to parched and dying souls. They receive no applause and no
accolades nor do they desire them. Do we pray earnestly for such as these? Do
we faithfully send them support in Jesus’ name? Or do we enjoy all the
accoutrements of western life with very little thought of our fellow servants
in Christ?
This is the same David who refused a free offering from someone but
insisted on buying it because he said he would not offer unto God that which
cost him nothing. Think about the many millions of people who occupy a pew on
Sunday and sing and raise their hands and are offering unto Christ that which
cost them nothing. But God has not only called us to sacrifice, He has called
us to be a living sacrifice. And that means everything. Perhaps if God had just
said “Poof!” and forgave our sins He would have no place to exhort us to
sacrifice. But when we realize the eternal sacrifice of the cross and just what
Jesus sacrificed for us collectively and personally, well, God has every right
to call us to sacrifice as well.
****
So much of the western church loves to identify enemies. They point to
liberals and to Muslims and to Russia and to China and to gays and to atheists
and to socialists and to Mexicans and to many others. But I am convinced beyond
any doubt my greatest enemy is none those at all. It is me. And that enemy I
call “me” is relentless and seemingly tireless and clever and cunning and loves
it when I point to the devil or anything or anyone else and create some false
excuse. Me will gladly agree and soothe my conscience and tell me how good I am
and that my motives are sincere and all sorts of self flattery. I used to fall
for it way more often than I do now.
I know me’s voice because it sounds so much like mine. And when I hear it
I shut it out because me never, and I mean NEVER, seeks my spiritual welfare.
He seeks to make to make me feel superior or intellectual or anything which
makes room for self righteousness. Me is a deadly poison. Yes there are enemies
of the gospel and there are demonic forces, but the most powerful enemy I have
ever encountered is “me”. I hate him.
****
Matt.19: 30 But
many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.
Whenever I need to
be appreciated and recognized and stroked and respected and praised and honored
and elevated in the eyes of man, and I have, I know that is me and never Him. I
must repent and until I do the Spirit is far from me.
****
II Cor.5: 21 For
he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him.
It is very
difficult to put this in a spiritual context since it rises above the mundane
doctrinal recitations. Many define it with utilitarian words, clean and neat.
Jesus died for our sins and we are now made righteous before Him. That is truth
indeed, but this verse as well as the entire chapter digs much deeper and
reveals a spiritual truth which should render us as broken vessels beseeching
Him to fill us with His Spirit so we may understand such a soaring revelation.
We can hardly understand divine righteousness, and we have sterilized the
concept of sin so how can we understand the eternal transfer accomplished upon
that Roman cross?
There is a vast
difference between a mental ascent which understands doctrinal logic and having
your inner man soaked with a truth until your mind admits its spiritual poverty
so the mind of the Spirit can infuse your being with…Him. And in Him is where
the entire library of truth resides. To know Him and to learn of Him and to
seek Him and to lay prostrate before Him are the vehicles by which God’s Spirit
infuses His life into us. And therein is truth, THE Truth, made alive within
us. Head knowledge is self righteousness on some level. But to be enlightened
in a way which astounds your sensibilities and literally changes you reveals
head knowledge as a place for spiritual curiosity rather than a sacred
threshingfloor. If you can still cling to the chaff then you have checked out
that truth only to return it later. But if it seared into your being you cannot
escape it. So here we have the Spirit telling us that Jesus became sin. Such a
simple statement and yet it boggles the mind. How can a man become sin? How can
a sinless Lamb become sin? I mean we are body, soul, and spirit so can any of
us become wholly sin? It seems illogical and impossible.
But this man was
God in the flesh. Paul says “He who knew no sin…”. Jesus never sinned. I think
most of us can understand that. But when the Spirit speaks of Jesus becoming sin,
well now we are standing like beggars at a door that shuts us out unless the
Spirit opens it unto us. It is impossible to fully comprehend the holiness of
God. Jesus the Christ was completely holy. I do not pretend to know just how
the incarnation worked. Was His humanity meshed with His divinity? I doubt it.
But I have often in forty years been confounded when I try and even define
holiness much less understand its depth as it pertains to Christ Jesus.
I have tried to come up with one of
my illustrations that reveals what happened and to no avail. I thought about a
white dress being splattered with feces or a sterile operating room being
invaded by cock roaches but they did not come close to the sinless Son of God
becoming sin. These kinds of truth must be taught by the Spirit because we have
no object lessons that can help. They might only detract.
But the other side of the coin is
that fallen criminals like us are made righteous through His sacrifice. Another
great mystery of grace. The word righteous does not just mean forgiven of our
sins. It isn’t that we stand before God as a blank slate and therefore are
benignly guiltless. No, we have been made the righteousness of Christ. How can
we even begin to fully grasp that? The filthy become not just the clean but the
sterile? The criminal becomes the honorable? The thief becomes the
philanthropist? The liar becomes the truth teller? This goes way beyond
theology. This is deep within the sacred heart of God. This is untold, eternal
treasure. This…this is love fully revealed and fully proven and fully sealed
forever.
****
II Tim.4: 7 I
have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
What does it mean
to keep the faith? I would suggest that first you must have the true faith
before you can keep it. And then we must keep it and not be moved. That is not
easy. It will require a fight. It will require going through discouragement. It
will require going through trials. It will require battling depression. In the
temporal realm there will be ups and downs, sickness and health, abundance and
lack. And in the spiritual realm there are demonic forces that are smarter and
more clever than you ever hope to be. But we must keep the faith.
We might waver. We
might lose strength. We might feel alone. We might have doubts. We might even
despair. But we must keep the faith. I have found an important principle in my
forty years of knowing Jesus. Regardless of how low I get and how defeated I
feel and how dire the circumstances seem…tomorrow is a brand new day. His
mercies are new every morning. I have gone to sleep at night feeling a deep
despair and feeling none of the Spirit and when I awoke the next morning I was
able to get up and seek the Lord once again and sometimes by the evening I am
filled with faith and joy. That, my friends, is the power of our faithful Lord!
****
This morning something came to me.
In America we see church services on television and almost without exception
there is applause and even shouting in each one. I mean watch T. D. Jakes or
Rod Parsley and they strut their one man thespian shows and people will clap
and hoot and holler and if they say something that did not get the response
they desired they will either widen their eyes and look out at the congregation
or they might say, “You didn’t hear what I said” which is designed to get more
clapping etc..
But if you really think about it
that atmosphere is all American. It mirrors a sports event or an Amway
convention or a music concert. You will never see people weeping over their sin
nor will you see people being deeply moved by Christ’s cross because His cross
is never part of the message. The entire spectacle is choreographed in order to
create great excitement and that excitement is many times how they feel about
themselves. Can you even imagine such a thing? Did Paul preach so as to make
people feel good about themselves?
What we are witnessing in America
is not the faith which believes in or follows Jesus. We are seeing an American
flavored gathering that just happens to take place on Sunday but which props up
and presents another Jesus and another gospel. And tens of millions of people
embrace it. What does that say about their eternity. Only God knows that but it
should make us tremble.
****
Matt.16: 15 He
saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
It continues to be a phenomenon
within evangelical Christianity which blurs the gospel and rejects the power of
the Spirit and embraces the power of argument, reason, and political power. It
is so ingrained that most professing believers will not even entertain the
suggestion that it is wrong. And this phenomenon imprisons the church and
resists the Spirit of God. It has shredded the gospel of Jesus and has deeply
misrepresented the teachings of Jesus. I cannot over emphasize what I have just
said.
This phenomenon is generally called
nationalism. It suggests that God allows and even support allegiances to
earthly nation as a subset to showing allegiance to Christ. And the allegiance
to America is the most grievous example of this since most American believers
consider America to be a divine creation of God. This is no small issue. In
fact this an issue which deceives more believers than Rob Bell or even Joel
Osteen. In fact Rob Ball and Joel Osteen and Rick Warren and Kenneth Copeland all
agree that America is a divine creation of God. That should be revealing in and
of itself.
It is quite astounding that men can
turn the Lordship of Jesus into an earthly amalgam. What then is exclusive? If
acknowledging Jesus as Lord is not paramount and exclusive then what is? And I
truly believe the entire American construct which purports to be His bride
grieves the heart of God and is a fraud. I do not claim perfection or anything
close to it. But what I am suggesting is the mark to which we should be
pressing has been changed and dilute and leads to something far from Christ and
His kingdom.
But it is very difficult to
communicate that position to most people much less to see them investigate it
with passion and a Scriptural adherence. So many read our stance as prideful or
hateful or just trying to be different. But that is very far from the truth.
Nationalism has killed the church in many, many ways. And this come from one
who was inside that very poison. You cannot understand the spiritual revelation
and freedom which comes from walking away and being completely released. It is
almost like being born again again. Why? Because nationalism and patriotism is
a massive idol which is against everything Jesus lived and taught. It is
earthly, fleshly, carnal, and it invades every area of a believer’s mind,
heart, and life.
Nationalism stifles spiritual air.
It breeds self righteousness. It lends itself to hatred. There is nothing
redeeming about it. But it is a pervasive hindrance throughout the American evangelical
church. To be sure it is not the only problem but it is unquestionably a major
problem. You cannot have a passion for Christ and His cross and embrace
something so earthly and lend your heart to it. But this deception is very
clever. While it encourages an earthly allegiance to a fallen nation it makes
room for a perfunctory allegiance to Christ. This is not some hobby horse. This
is a sincere plea to all who are still imprisoned by these spirits. And this
comes from one who has been on both sides of those prison bars and I must
testify that freedom is eternally better.
Pray, and pray, and consume Gods
Word and listen for His voice.
****
II Cor.3: 18 But
we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are
changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the
Lord.
II Cor.3: 18 And
we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being
transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the
Lord, who is the Spirit. (NIV)
Here once again we
have the fine china of spiritual truth. But like so many other spiritual truths
ones like this go largely unnoticed and surely unpracticed. Most evangelicals
are not eager to hear “don’t do this” or “do this”. And they consider this kind
of truth rather esoteric and intangible. How does beholding Christ’s glory help
me at work or in my bank account? How can that make me happy? Most will never
understand because most will never seek much less with passion.
What usually
passes for discipleship is when the church purchases some manual like “40 Days
of Purpose” or something similar and many of the people do the homework and at
the end feel a sense of accomplishment. But that is not discipleship. That is
just following a man’s book and placing more money in his pockets. But if we
truly desire to follow Jesus we must yearn to know more and more of Him. Notice
I did not say about Him. I said we must know more of Him. And we must seek Him
with a relentless spirit which says with Jacob “I will not let You go until You
reveal more of yourself to me”.
It is only through
this sacred spiritual process that we can be changed by the Spirit. Two hours
in broken prayer is worth more than reading any one Christian book. In fact one
small glimpse of His infinite glory will not only change you but it will create
a hunger for more. Most of us can remember when we were saved and we desired to
love and serve Jesus and to an extent we did. But we also can remember when a
veil was lifted and we suddenly realized there was more…much more. And as that
veil was lifted we began to see a light we had not seen before. It came from
Christ and its glory was unmistakable. It thrilled us and led us into
repentance and contrition.
And the NIV uses
the word “contemplate” or meditate. How many professing believers meditate upon
Jesus throughout the day or ever? But oh what a glorious privilege to cast our
hearts upon Him and allow the Spirit to paint a spiritual picture and impress
it upon our hearts. That is truly life itself.
****
I Jn.3: Behold,
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called
the sons of God:
Can we even
embrace the fullness of such a truth? The holy and majestic Creator now calls
us sons. It does not seem possible. But what is impossible in the natural
became a reality through the unsearchable sufferings upon Golgotha’s place of
eternal glory. It was there where the temporal met the soaring glory of the
eternal. It was there human works were no longer required of those who could
never provide them. It was there were sin’s awful price was paid in full and
awaited an eight year old little girl’s faith to transform her soul into a
child of the Living God. It was there simplicity became the only pathway to
eternity. It was there where extreme violence was meted out upon the Sinless
Lamb and through that horrific scene peace was made with a holy and righteous
God.
What manner of
love is this? All the complex and fancy theologies merely touch the edges of
such an unfathomable love. The word love itself is a poor descriptor which
could never provide a revelation into the deep and profound motive exposed
through Calvary’s bloody sacrifice. The lamb who writhes upon those Roman
planks does not just project an incomprehensible love, but He is love. But rest
assured only God’s Spirit can reveal that to a human spirit. Without the
illumination of the Spirit we are left with an injustice or a martyr or an
example but without the essence of what actually took place just outside
Jerusalem’s walls. How can someone “pay” for even one sin? Tell me what good
deed or what sacrifice could eradicate one sin from our resume? How many good
deeds exonerate us from one small sin?
But in the unseen
world of the Spirit in which the Holy God reigns only the cross can remove the
awful stain and present us as righteous before Him. It is a miracle of grace
which is another word bandied about like some topic for a thesaurus. You want
grace? You desire God’s grace? You cannot have it without it being covered in
suffering and blood. A bloodless faith is humanism indeed.
Call it archaic.
Call it barbaric. Call it nonintellectual. Call it Neanderthal. Call it a
religion that has not kept up with the times. But I call it the Truth of God
forever.
****
The only time Jesus showed anger
was when He scourged the temple because men were making money inside the house
of God. I wonder how Jesus feels about what goes on in today’s visible church.
Take it a step further. The temple of God in the New Covenant is found within
the heart of every true believer. So what does Jesus think about it when we are
given to money? When our hearts are driven to make money and store it up and
our thoughts are how to make more and more. I have heard television heretics
tell people that God will give them divine ideas for great businesses and the
Spirit will show them how to gain great wealth.
Can you imagine the power of a
deception which purports to speak for Jesus and then literally tells people
things that are diametrically opposed to all He taught? And people, with Bibles
upon their laps, nod and smile and clap and even stand to their feet in
exuberance even though what is being said are diabolical lies. Never discount
the power and creativity of deception. And deception is many faceted and
behaves like a multi-level marketing scheme. It employs many people to spread
its product, and like an Amway meeting it gets people excited to go out and
bring others into the fold.
Excitement has replaced the Spirit
and has become the ecclesiastical opiate among the pew dwellers. Promises of
success and power over demons and wealth are part of the pulpit narcotic and it
mesmerizes the hearers. You see they hear what man is telling them and not
God’s Word by the power of the Spirit. It is designed to be upbeat and positive
and to elicit appreciative applause but it is void of the engrafted Word. What
a spectacle of death even amidst much fanfare and revelry!
But again I must insist you look at
what has been done to the preaching of the cross. It is nonexistent in most
churches and certainly it is a stranger to “Christian” television. And when the
cross is minimized, to say nothing of completely ignored, then all is vanity
and vexation of spirit. Let us not be timid about the nature of such crossless
gatherings. They are demonic exhibitions of the flesh. There is no other way to
describe the frivolity which calls itself “church” but shies away from Golgotha
as if that were a symbol of defeat. Yes, it is horrific, sacrilege and indeed demonic.
I Cor.2: And I,
brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom,
declaring unto you the testimony of God.
2 For I determined not to know any thing
among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
3 And I was with you in weakness, and in
fear, and in much trembling.
This was no open air meeting that was
evangelistic in nature. Paul was ministering to the saints. And yet Paul says
the cross of Jesus Christ was his message to them. Do you understand what that
means juxtaposed upon the modern relevant pulpit oratory? Where is the
weakness? Where is the fear? Where is the trembling? Finney used to wonder how
a preacher could speak about the fear of God and judgment and then glad hand
everyone at the door as they left as it he had just finished a performance.
Without the preaching of the cross all you have is a Dr. Phil talk show with
some religious icing.
Do not our hearts grieve within us
when we hear how the cross is treated as some bygone relic which has lost its
relevancy? To think how He suffered for us and all He asked us was to believe
and then to spread the gospel, and yet we could not abide even that? Shame on
all who preach another gospel which hides the cross. Away with those who strut
and speak self help messages which cannot save the lost nor edify the saved. Be
gone all you false conduits who excite men’s flesh and do despite unto the
Spirit of God.
But let us cling to that old rugged
cross as if it were our lives…because…it is and always will be.
****
You have a daughter. She gets
pregnant and she and her husband are very excited as are you. The birth goes
smooth and a healthy baby comes into your life. But something tragic happens.
When the child is less than one year old he is kidnapped by Muslims. Everyone searches
for clues but to no avail. You are devastated. One year goes by and then two
and three. Two decades go by and there is still a whole in your heart.
Then one day you turn on the
television and you see several Muslims shouting words of hatred. But one face
stands out among the rest. You squint your eyes and you believe that is the boy
that was kidnapped twenty years ago. His features are unmistakable. You call
your daughter and she agrees through tears. That young man is her son. He has
been raised by Muslims and brainwashed. You feel absolutely no feeling of hate
or disgust. You only feel love for this young man who is spewing hatred.
You begin to pray fervently and you
do everything you can to reach out to him. Even when your efforts see many dead
ends, and even though you are many times rebuffed, you are not deterred. Why?
Because he is yours and you love him and it wasn’t his fault he was
brainwashed. Well all Muslims were babies and grew up being brainwashed so why
do we not see them with the same love through which we would see our own child?
Oh my dear friends we have a long way to go, haven’t we?
****
I Jn.: 3 And
every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not
of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it
should come; and even now already is it in the world.
4 Ye are of God, little children, and
have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in
the world.
By His power we have overcome the
spirits of antichrist. Oh my…
****
I Jn.2: 6 He
that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
I Pet.2: 21 For
even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us
an example, that ye should follow his steps:
I Jn.4: 17 Herein
is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment:
because as he is, so are we in this world. Tinge
Please read those
four verses again. I was led to them by the similarity of their messages. And
after reading them several times I was overwhelmed at their message. The
phrases “even as He walked” and “that ye should follow His steps” and “as He is
so are we in this world” are not just lofty goals but they are seemingly
impossible and way out of our reach. And when I pause to soak in the essence of
their teaching I am convicted greatly. In fact the Spirit revealed to me just
how many times I have set good and wholesome goals which are above the average
evangelical goals and yet I have not placed these before me.
And armed with
diminished goals I can skip the light fandango and feel like I am being a good
disciple. Do you understand what has happened when I have done that? I am
comparing myself with other and not with Him. I will openly and humbly and even
sheepishly admit it is a daunting task to juxtapose His life against ours. Oh
we can nod in agreement and then shake our heads in some false humility and
admit how far short we fall. But there is a prerequisite which must be pursued or
any desire we have is futile. In order to walk in His steps we must seek to
uncover and understand and learn of His steps.
But please allow
me to draw your attention to something important and indispensible if we desire
to seek Him in that way. I have in forty years studied the Scriptures
especially the New Testament even with a semi-working knowledge of the original
language. I have outlined entire books and memorized chunks of books. And that
is a good thing. But if we are to embrace the verses I have shared we must read
the gospels and the epistles and be cognizant that we are searching for truth
and searching for revelations of Jesus with a surrendered heart which is ready
to crucify the flesh and obey what we read and what the Spirit teaches us.
Otherwise we are reading a history book with an interest which quickly fades as
we go about our earthly lives.
Every single day
all of us are faced with opportunities to be Jesus and walk in His steps in
many different circumstances. And there again we must walk in the Spirit and be
ready to bring all disobedience, even thoughts, to the cross immediately.
II Cor.10: 5 Casting
down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the
knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of
Christ;
And therein lies
the distinct and disarming difference between Biblical knowledge and being a
true disciple. Believe me I have been both at times. But I have seen something
new and fresh which has caused me pain as well as rejoicing. I welcome the
Spirit’s correction because I know God does it in love and because I
desperately need it. I must unfurl my sails much higher and catch the wind if
the Spirit and not just my good intentions which are mixed with self serving
comparisons. Have I ever felt a tinge of satisfaction or pride as I spoke truth
about Joel Osteen’s heresies? Or Christian television? Or the western church in
general? And have I walked in the plush carpet of discernment and avoided the
threshingfloor of God’s Spirit? Oh my dear friend yes I have far too many times
regardless of how I try to present my good motivations and the words of truth
the Spirit gave me as mitigating factors?
This morning I am
inside that threshingfloor without Osteen and Warren and Copeland to point to.
All I can see is Him and me and sometimes it is not a pretty picture. I am not
trying to enjoy a bit of self flagellation which sometimes is couched in a
false humility which can feel very good. No, I am speaking from my heart and
with all the transparency and humility that the Spirit’s grace can give to me.
To be Jesus in this world. Not just to spread His Word or embrace His name but
to be Him. What a great mystery the Spirit lays out before us. I may revisit
this again and soon, but until then I have seen His steps with blurred vision.
I have walked along the path which is more narrow than what is preached but not
as narrow as He walked. I have been a good me in this world and not Him.
May the Spirit
illuminate my heart and empower my life and lead me to a fruitful repentance.
****
When
you juxtapose reality with our western lifestyles we live in a fantasy. And yet
Jesus spoke often and passionately about the poor. Just what are we doing? Just
who are we? Just who is He? Just who is our neighbor? Don’t worry we will
travel in our air conditioned cars and sit and be entertained and return to a
life which for the most part ignores the words of Jesus. But we have an
orthodox statement of faith. Let’s hope its fire proof.
****
If we just pause
and examine the sufferings of Jesus in the natural considering He was an
innocent man we should tremble. But when we consider who He was and what He
suffered it should…well…it should reduce us to an undeserving pile of humanity
which seeks to worship His majesty. And if that be so then we are positioned
for His use and glory.
****
There is a genie
called sin. He calls and reasons from with his bottle and all of us have
thought that if we let him out for a spin we could control him and he would go
quietly back into his bottle when we wanted him to. But when that genie emerges
from his bottle he comes with much more than he had said. And he is a demanding
genie. And when you realize you made a mistake he will not return to his bottle
quickly or quietly. He is not only out and wishes to stay out, but he goes and
lets his friends out of their bottle as well.
Now you have quite
a mess. In fact you have invited a hit squad who seek your life.
****
If Jesus is not
everything then He is nothing. Although all of us are still imperfect disciples
that does not mean we can make Jesus a spiritual smorgasbord where we can take
what we like and leave the rest. That is why we all need a fellowship where the
calling of God is on a pastor or preacher and the Spirit strongly challenges us
to a greater level of pursuit.
To lower the bar
and hop over it only impresses you.
II Tim.3: 12 Yea,
and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse
and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
14 But continue thou in the things which
thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned
them;
I sincerely
believe times will become worse than we could ever imagine. I do not pretend to
know the dates or the specifics, however the clouds of evil cover the earth.
Even those things which seem to be good are vacuous distractions used of the
evil one. And when the gatherings we call church become havens for greed and
avarice and compromise and pleasure and the enticing word’s of men’s wisdom
then you can rest assure sin will abound.
Evil men and
seducers are legion all around the world. It isn’t just confined to America and
the west. You can find mega centers of heresy in South Korea and the
Philippines and Australia and their impact covers the globe. But make no
mistake America is fertile ground for all sorts of heresies and money centered
churches.
We must deepen the
stakes of our spiritual tents. These are not only the times which try men’s
souls, but they are the times which will damn men’s souls. You make think that
men like me are redundant in our rebuke of what is being presented as spiritual
truth but perhaps we are too reticent to speak louder and with more of an
emotion of crisis. This is no game. This is not about oil prices and stock
markets and real estate. They will go up and down as fallen men watch and hope
in them. This about the wrapping up of the gospel age. And when that happens
there remains no hope at all.
What does a man
think and feel when he suddenly realizes the kingdoms of this world have never
offered the slightest sliver of hope and all hope must be found in Christ and
His gospel…and then he realizes it is over? The gospel is not offered anymore
to anyone. That man realizes there is no hope at all. There was hope but he
ignored it and now he has no hope. He is not in hell yet but there is nothing
at all that can prevent his journey from ending up there. Usually when a person
arrives at a place with no hope they may take their own lives or even kill
others. Think about the violent chaos which will cover the earth when hope is
gone and billions have awakened to that awful truth.
Keep your life
well inside Christ. Be not troubled when you see these things come to pass.
What does it take nowadays to shock us? Nine church people are butchered in
Sunday School and in a day or two we move on. We don’t understand that event
and others as part of a coming holocaust. Perhaps men will be shocked when that
kind of wanton violence comes to the street in which they live. Until then men
will rest with their locks and their guns and their savings accounts and their
Social Security and they will comb their hair, go to church, and be told sweet
sounding and even interesting stories.
Sleep on church.
But let it be known the alarm has been sounding for many, many years. But if
the Spirit has awakened your heart you are called to two main things. Pursue
Christ with all your heart with prayer and fasting and devouring His Word, and
witness Christ and support foreign mission. In reality the end is not coming…it
is here.
****
We live in a
culture which exhibits and encourages pride in many, many ways. This culture
holds award ceremonies in order to award themselves. Politicians sing their own
praises. Resumes are created to elevate some person. Even titles are given
which wreak of pride.
Sadly the church
has followed suit. Who could have ever predicted the church would hold award
ceremonies just like the world and in direct violation of God’s Word? Who would
have thought that pastors and preachers would embrace worldly titles like “Dr.”
before their names when Paul called himself the least of all saints? Preachers
are introduced as “anointed” or “gifted” or “powerful” and yet our calling is
we must decrease and He must increase? The entire spectacle flies in the face
of all Jesus taught.
Humility is an
elusive trait. And to be clothed in humility is an incredible challenge. It is
impossible in the flesh and when the ecclesiastical construct mirrors the world
then it is altogether impossible. When the church walks in and perpetuates its
own reputation then we are walking in ourselves and not in Christ. We are
nothing and He is everything. Keep seeking to die tom yourself and rejoice when
you are slighted and maligned and ignored and not given the credit for
something you might deserve.
There is coming a
true award ceremony which measures justly. But even though our names may be
called when the award is given the name upon it will say “Jesus”. Halleluiah!
****
One important
principle which is foundational to rightly dividing the Word is that we must
make the New Testament the cornerstone of our faith. Yes the Old Testament is
part of God’s Word but when men inaccurately make a doctrinal garment by sewing
the New with the Old you can come up with many errors. Even Jesus said “You
have heard but I say” which reveals the level; of importance. The Old Testament
must be supportive and not competitive, but the New Covenant is where we live.
There are many things in the Old Testament which are mysteries and which do not
seem congruent with the teachings of Jesus. But we must leave them with God. So
many of the false teachers take come story from the Old Testament and make up
force feed it upon people usually to elicit some money. But we have not learned
that from Jesus. Start with Jesus and end with Jesus in your book of truth.
That IS truth.
****
Lk.4: 16 And
he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he
went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
17 And there was delivered unto him the
book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place
where it was written,
18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me
to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and
recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
19 To preach the acceptable year of the
Lord.
Every church
should be built upon, and preach, and live the gospel. Anything else is
humanism.
****
Until you are born
again and until the Holy Spirit enters your being you can only believe what you
have been told.
****
So a man leads
another man who happens to be blind and stands him before a wall. He asks the
blind man to tell him what color is the wall. The blind man does not know. The
man grows impatient with the blind man and raises his voice. Still the blind
man does not know about the wall color. The man gathers a crowd of sighted
people and they all shout at the blind man to identify the color. He cannot, so
the crowd looks at each other and labels the man a liberal.
That is an
illustration of the church demanding dead people see morality as do we.
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