Where is the Lord God of Elijah?

II Ki.2: - And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah?

The young prophet Elisha had been a witness to the devotion and anointing that had rested upon Elijah and his ministry, and he had requested a double portion. As he watched as a chariot of fire escorted Elijah into the very presence of Jehovah, Elisha caught the mantle of his mentor and cried out "Where is the Lord God of Elijah". He didn't desire Elijah but he hungered after the Lord that had empowered and used Elijah. Today in the midst of gimmicks, how-to books, entertaining programs, slick television presentations, and a general "feel good" gospel does anyone feel like shouting, "Where is the Lord God of Elijah?". Oh how I hunger to see God glorify Himself in the lives of His followers as He has done so often in the past. Powerful, miraculous movings of the Spirit of God that broke open earthen vessels and spread a divine fragrance throughout the church and into a lost and dark world.

Savannarola started as a monk in the Catholic church but soon felt a higher calling as he experienced the grace of God. He became totally dependent upon the ministry of the Holy Spirit and there were times where he would stay seated on Sunday mornings, refusing to preach until he was filled with God's Spirit. It is reported that once he sent word through a deacon to dismiss the Sunday congregation and he locked himself in a room and did not come out for three days. After three days the deacon sent word around the city that Savanarola was coming out and the church was packed as he preached with the power of the Holy Spirit and a local revival broke out that touched the entire city. He was murdered by the Catholic Church.

Where is the Lord God of Savanarola?

John Wesley was a Spirit filled gospel preacher who sacrificed much in order to reach the world for Christ. He and his brother sailed for three and one half months to arrive in Georgia in order to preach the gospel. In his journal he recorded three to four hours of prayer, four hours of meetings, and several hours of personal witness and ministry - every day on the ship! On one occasion as Wesley closed his three hour sermon in England, the people started leaving and there were over 1800 people on the ground overcome by the Holy Spirit's conviction of their sin.

Where is the Lord God of Wesley?

Martin Luther took his life in his hands as he followed the Spirit's leading and stood courageously for the truth of God's Word in the face of the threats of the Roman Church. And because of one young monk's obedience the continent of Europe experienced a massive reformation and revival which resulted in multitudes coming to Christ. Luther once threw an inkwell at the devil, so real was the Spiritual battle to him. The doctrine of justification by faith again was the flagship of the church's armada.

Where is the Lord God of Luther?

Charles Finney was a successful lawyer who came under the convicting power of the Holy Spirit concerning his conversion. After two sleepless nights he was born again and walked into his office and immediately resigned while stating, "I must plead the case of Jesus Christ from now on". There were times that he could not even begin his sermon as people were already crying so loudly about their Spiritual condition no one could hear him anyway. Whole towns came to Christ and the taverns were closed down with the owners offering them as places to pray.

Where is the Lord God of Finney?

Jonathan Edwards preached from notes and did not modulate his voice much with any emotion. His sermons would be considered dry and uninteresting today, but his sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" was so powerful people would grab the back of their pews and cry out for fear of slipping into hell.

Where is the Lord God of Jonathan Edwards?

George Whitefield was called to preach as a teenager. He consumed the Scriptures and became a friend of John and Charles Wesley. He preached to as many as 100,000 people in one open air meeting with 10,000 converts that night. So powerful was the anointing of Whitefield that in many meetings sinners became born again during the message rendering the invitation unnecessary. Some men who came to protest his meetings fell over dead. He was used in an incredible way throughout the colonies to further the "Great Awakening".

Where is the Lord God of Whitefield?

Charles Spurgeon became one of the greatest Biblical orators in church history. He would regularly preach to 10,000 people in the days before amplification. His church grew by the power of his delivery of the Word of God, and he started a Bible college which sent out hundreds of preachers around the world. His messages are so timeless that they are still popular around the world today.

Where is the Lord God of Spurgeon?

D. L. Moody was led to the Lord by a Godly Sunday School teacher and from that day he had a heart to serve Christ. Although Moody did not have much formal education, his preaching reached ever social level. In the middle of his ministry Moody sought a greater anointing and the Holy Spirit gave him a double portion. He later preached great crusades throughout England, and he shook two continents for Christ.

Where is the Lord God of Moody?

The apostle Peter was called from his fishing nets to give the rest of his life spreading the gospel. An unlearned and brash man, he was filled with the Spirit of God on the Day of Pentecost and preached the first gospel message. He saw three thousand people respond to the call to follow Christ that day, and he was martyred for Jesus later in Rome.

Where is the Lord God of Peter?

The apostle Paul persecuted and murdered Christians wherever he could find them but when he became a follower of Jesus Christ he spent the rest of his life preaching the gospel. He was a man of constant prayer even while in jail and on one occasion God opened the prison doors which provided an escape, but instead of running Paul took the opportunity to lead the jailor to faith in Christ. Jews and Gentiles sought to kill him but it would never curtail his zeal for Jesus. God used him to write most of the New Testament and Paul gladly gave his life for the Lord Jesus Christ in Rome.

Where is the Lord God of Paul?

I could give countless more examples of magnificent Christian lives that were used in significant ways to glorify Christ through the ages. Missionaries have sometimes toiled their entire lives with not one convert and yet through their faithfulness the next generation was reached. Believers were crucified, tortured, beheaded, fed to lions, and burned alive in a glorious sacrificial witness of devotion to the Lord Jesus. Revivals took place that shook whole countries. Believers have sold everything to follow the call from above. Jews have been completely disowned by their families after professing Christ. We live today in a contrived atmosphere of entertainment and mental commitment to Christ that results in less sacrifice than following our children's sports events. We have even changed the Word to promote God's desire for us to have it all and enjoy material blessings today and lay up treasures for tomorrow. The only torture we see is what has been done to God's Word.

But where is the power of God working through His surrendered earthen vessels? Where is the unmistakable lifestyle of His peculiar people? Where is the outward sacrifice from the Body of Christ that communicates our devotion to the Savior? Where is the panting hunger to know the Word of God? Where are the nightly prayer gatherings at house of God as believers fall on their face before God for hours and cry out for an unusual move of His Spirit? Where are the humble, loving, modest, and culturally separated lives of the salty followers of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Where is the Lord God of the Bible?
"I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground."
When will we be thirsty enough to clear out our lives and wholly give ourselves to seeking Him alone?

"Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy, break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord till He come and rain righteousness upon you". Hos.10:12

The Grace of God

Eph.1:6 - To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He has made us accepted in the beloved.

God's grace. Every definition is wanting and only "touches the hem of the garment" of what the grace of God is. Unmerited favor? Yes, but that really only puts a file drawer tab on it. The grace of God is not only the everyday earthenware of the believers experience, but it is also the fine china; not just the work clothes, but also the tuxedo; understood by a child and yet confounding the theologian.

A certain Farmer owns 200 acres of land on which he grows corn. His farm is in the middle of an area of very high unemployment, and he hires the entire city to help him with his corn. The Farmer provides food, clothing and housing for his laborers as well as paying them good salaries. The Farmer treats all his laborers very well.

Now the Farmer has one thing that means more to him than all his land, corn, equipment, or all his wealth. The Farmer has a child, a son, who he is completely devoted to and he makes his son the sole heir of his estate. All goes well for the Farmer and his farm, and every year his laborers prosper.

One year comes and the crop seems to be especially full and the harvest will yield triple the usual amount. Everyone is excited and the Farmer walks down to the laborer's dwellings and informs them that he will triple their salaries this year and he is going to build them new and beautiful houses for them and their families. All the laborers rejoice and express their deep gratitude for the Farmer.

Now after the Farmer leaves and returns to his house the laborers begin to complain among themselves. They all wonder that after they had worked the fields themselves, why they shouldn't split the entire profit. They know that the legal heir to the entire estate is the Farmer's son, and it so infuriates them that they devise a plan to kill the son. So that same night they all sneak around the Farmer's house, go into the house and tape the Farmer's son's mouth shut, tie him up, and bring him outside. They all then take turns stabbing him with knives, machetes, and pitch forks. All night long they mutilate the son's body and run back to their houses at dawn. In the morning the Farmer comes out of the house for a walk and he comes across this dead body which is so mutilated he doesn't even recognize who it is.

The Farmer runs back into his house and goes straight to his son's bedroom and sees that his son is not there. He realizes the horrible truth, his only son has been murdered. He runs down to where his laborers live and sees all of them standing together, bloodied and defiant. With a broken heart he asks them why they would do such a thing, but the laborers only mocked him. Incredibly, the Farmer refuses to press charges. Now that is mercy.

But the Farmer walks back to his house and into his bedroom. He reaches under the bed and pulls out his strongbox. As he unlocks it and lifts the lid he sees his will. The Farmer brings it over to his desk and takes out a pen. He now changes his will to include all his murderous laborers, if they wish. He takes his will and walks down to the laborers and he reads his new will to them out loud. Everyone hears.

"You see", the Farmer explained, "all of you now own this farm with me, if you will just sign this will to make it legal". Some signed immediately, some hesitated but then signed, some didn't believe the Farmer, some weren't listening, some said they could own it without him, some put it off indefinitely, and some still mocked him. The Farmer turned to walk back to his big farmhouse.

As the Farmer turned, he loudly said, "Everyone that signed my will, follow me".

"Where are we going?", asked the new heirs.

"You will now live in my house with me, always", said the Farmer.

As they reached the front door the new heirs could only cry and say, "Thank you, Mr. Farmer".

The Farmer turned around to all of them and said, "Do not call me Mr. Farmer anymore, call me - Father".

God's grace...unbelievable

Majestic Simplicity

II Cor.11:3 - But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtility, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.


There it stands. In the center of man's history and camouflaged as just another event. The cross. Surely it must include some riddle or secret code that one must uncover to see its true meaning. It must have some transmitted biological effect that changes the molecular structure of mankind. There must be some level of understanding that challenges and exalts the intellect of man.

The only door to eternal life being a dead Jew on a Roman cross so insults the intellect of man that he illegally invades its simplicity and renders it "made like to corruptible man" which is death, not life. Today the preacher Adam wants to clothe the cross with coats of his own skin, stinking of his own flesh and obscuring the holy and complete offering of God Himself. And acting as a Spiritual tour guide Adam departs from the Father's manual and describes the crucifixion in enticing words of his own wisdom. Adam doesn't believe people will understand the simplicity and trans-generational Words of the Father's description, so he develops his own human composition that is much easier to understand and much more palatable to his earthly tourists. And so many more people take the tour and respond positively that Adam is sure his way is better. After all, the other invisible tour guide seemed to rely so strictly on the Father's Word that throngs of people were turned off, even if His name was called Truth.

Now Adam had some great ideas about how to get people to come on this tour. He promised them money, health, success, and anything else they seemed to desire. Hordes of people crowded his tour bus in response to all the wonderful promises and there was something there for everyone. Now as the bus passed the cross Adam would draw their attention away from the blood and agony, and when some riders ask what is the meaning of this spectacle, Adam replies that it means you can now fully enjoy your earthly life and live it with a purpose. The bus would explode with self centered applause. In place of the "Please don't talk to the driver" sign is a "please don't talk about sin" sign.

The church, NOT THE WORLD, the church has stripped the meaning of the cross in all its redemptive simplicity. In the Redemptive Gallery is one and only one painting, the Crimson Masterpiece displayed under the perfect light of the Holy Spirit. And all who hear the Caretaker call, and stand before this vision, can never move away from it. Oh, one day as I was perusing through my own gallery of humanistic pastels, and I heard a call. It came from inside a gallery I never knew existed. That call came from within me and its voice was louder than those on the outside, and I found myself standing directly in front of the most bloody, gruesome, and yet beautiful masterpiece I had ever seen. I had seen copies, but this was the original in all its radiance and I fell to my knees under the weight of my own sin. And as I again gazed upon its repulsive beauty I desired to know and follow the artist who painted this unique Crimson Masterpiece. The same voice that had beckoned me there revealed in unspoken Words that this was a self portrait. The Figure on the cross was indeed the Author and Finisher of the Masterpiece itself with all its eternal and redemptive colors.

I know I have put my journey in a metaphoric narrative, but how many today could even understand whereof I speak much less identify with the Masterpiece that changed my eternity? Look what the King suffered for us and look what we've done to His cross. The church has become ashamed with this magnificent simplicity, and like Israel we want a king like the heathen. One that will be respected, one that we can be proud of, and one that the world will accept. Repent - repent - repent. Let us shout it loudly from the housetops that Jesus is Lord; let us preach it constantly and clearly that Jesus is Lord; Let us wear His identity as the greatest, humble honor that could ever be given us. Not just His coming again, not just His power, not just His glory. Let us wear the mantle of Embracers of the cross!

There is no way to make it relevant without tarnishing it with the dirt of this world. It stands for eternity in a Holy vacuum in all its

MAJESTIC SIMPLICITY. THE CROSS OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST!!!

Spiritual Assault

II Pet.3:12 - Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God...

The time for half-hearted commitment to Christ has long since past. Satan has unleashed the final assault on Jesus Himself with a parade of spurious and blasphemous attempts to change the Son of God into just another man. Conspiracy theories, literature techniques, and every bizarre narrative that contradicts the plain teaching of Scripture is now offered in documentaries, television shows, book stores, and any other place that will allow it to be spread. I believe the most subtle and vicious are still to come, and they come empowered by the spirit of anti-christ and appeal to the flesh.
The depth of their deception is multi-faceted, and we must as believers not allow the enemy of our souls to capture us at his game. The devil is so crafty that he has many designs combined into all of his evil strategies. For instance, the "Da Vinci Codes" are obviously evil and erroneous and any surface student of God's Word can easily see the deception and falsehoods claimed in its pages, but Lucifer will allow us to delight in our disproving of its assertion while deceiving us about our own Spiritual shortcomings. God wants us to use these attacks to springboard into a greater awakening among the followers of Jesus that the end is near and we need to "break up the fallow ground" and "press toward he mark". It IS the last times and the time for lukewarmness must end. I don't believe the Lord is just satisfied with chest pumping self-righteousness as we counter these attacks, no, He desires a refreshed and revived Bride that finds new sacrificial anointing to pray, read, live, repent, and preach the saving message of Jesus Himself to the entire earth.
Look what the world, and in large part the church, is doing to Jesus, and on our watch! Remember this sobering thought. If the church does go through the times of Jacob's trouble, the tribulation period, will we bring honor and glory to the Savior or will we also be compromised by the coming deception? The Father gave us some outward signs that are obvious today to signal His coming. Wars, disease, hatred, famine, sin, and a host of other issues graciously point us to His coming. Any day a group could detonate a nuclear device and plunge the nations into chaos and fear, but that is only the "seen" scenario. The ETERNAL destination of billions of souls precariously hang in the balance right now, and we go through some of the motions in an attempt to do God's will, but we are far from being "on fire" for God especially in the light of His coming.
The next time you see or hear about another attack from the world and the powers of darkness on Jesus, let's not just be content with responding. No, let us humble ourselves and pray that the mighty Holy Spirit of God will baptize us with a fresh and powerful wind of His boldness and sacrifice. The prophetic classes, charts, timetables, dispensations, and all the other apocalyptic interests that we have enjoyed over hundreds of years are now upon us. We generally know what will happen, but what does the Lord require of us? To just audit the class is to fail. We do not just respond to the world's challenges, we respond to the Spirit of God. When Goliath issued his challenge to the armies of God, who gave him the right to lay down those rules? No one. And yet the children of Israel cringed in fear because they could find no one equal to Goliath's stature. But God didn't lay down those guidelines, and God's people could have sought God's face on the matter. As it turned out God's grace through David won the victory. So when the devil parades one lie after another in these coming days, let us not just respond to his agenda, no, let us humble ourselves and pray, seeking the "light of the glory of God which is in the face of Jesus",
The King's horse is being readied, and the armies of heaven are bristling with anticipation. The celestial air is electric with the sense that we are coming to the marriage feast of the Lamb. Everything the Father has taught us, both plainly and with all the earthly symbolic tools, is about to be revealed. Awake, awake, thou that sleepest...shake thyself from the dust! Eternity beckons, and the mouth of hell itself widens in preparation to receive billions. It can never be melodramatic or overstated. Any attempt to exaggerate pales in the face of the reality of the coming events. And as Lucifer unashamedly steps up his assault, the church continues to play the harlot with the temporal things of this world. Changing the gospel into a streamlined sales strategy with no warning, no repentance, no sacrifice, no cross, and a Je$u$ that more closely resembles Donald Trump than the Lamb that was Slain. And millions of western believers go to weekly services to hear messages about money, health, careers, sex, and a plethora of "How to Win Friends and Influence People" advice. And we like it like that. And people like me point out the obvious but are also in need of a searing revival that changes me in direct proportion to the things God has shown me.
I pray that, like Samson, God will empower us just one more time before He comes again. Gird up your loins and prepare for battle, the battle that now rages. This war covers the world and touches every corner of the church world. Not just the Purpose message, not just the Seeker crowd, not just the Emergent church, no, the war is on your doorstep and mine. To some of us this deceptive warfare comes as pride, or money, or just a spirit of contentment with where we are Spiritually.

Jesus deserves so much more than we are giving Him! He deserves it ALL!!

The Lamb at War

As a preamble to this writing I want to address something about the different levels of realities that our minds have the capacity to experience. We can be watching a murder taking place in a movie and our minds have adapted to a storybook reality. Seeing the same murder live would generate a totally different response as our minds have shifted to a "This is real" reality. Seeing a man shot on TV live is different than seeing a man shot in a movie, which is different than seeing a man shot in person. Again, you can watch and be moved by seeing a man jump off a building live on the news, and with a press of your finger you can change the channel and laugh at Everybody Loves Raymond. Which brings me to my point. Our minds have become so adept at compartmentalizing realities that we sometimes read prophetic realities from the Word of God with a mental firewall that prevents us from fully experiencing the futuristic truth. Please read the following offering as if it will happen soon, which it might . _______________________________________________________________________

II Thess.1:7 - ...when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels...

What a revelation. The Lord Jesus, in all His glory, with all His mighty angels. The unseen Spirit world suddenly and powerfully, bursts into our three dimensional realm and we are granted the frightening spectacle of the Creator King and all His angelic hosts gathered in the heavens and ready for "vengeance"(vs.8). In Chapter 2 of II Thesselonians in verse 8 God carefully pulls back the prophetic curtain and reveals a partial yet disturbing glimpse into the power of the Lamb at war when He comes to finish the work that was begun before the worlds were made. All these many, many years God's justice has waited, but now, He waits no more. Oh my Dear God, no one can cry out for mercy, THERE IS NONE. An approaching nightmare from which no one can awake.

There will be no prisoners taken, it will be carnage on a level heretofore unknown. It is hard to envisage these events because they are so frightening and as yet intangible. In 1975 when I became a follower of the Lord Jesus, I had heard a message on TV about the return of Christ. It was the first time I can remember hearing about that event and I was somewhat shaken. I want to warn you, and me, to examine ourselves to see whether we are true followers of the Lord Jesus. This is no time to play games and trifle with what is Sacred to Almighty God. "Behold He Comes" is as much of a warning as it is a comfort.

There is a coming, personal event in all our futures. We will stand before the Lord Jesus Himself and give an account of our entire lives. I will share with you a personal testimony. I, like you, have fallen way short of being the totally surrendered follower I could have been. I have committed sins of commission as well as omission. As I some time ago laid out my sins and faults before the Lord and bemoaning the fact I could have done so much more for Him, He clearly spoke to my heart with these words that may encourage and exhort you. The Lord said to me, "Finish strong". And as I again realized my life was under His cleansing Blood, I took solace and energy from those Words. Like a runner who has fallen several times along the route, but as he rounds the last turn he still gives a final kick to the finish line. I do not know exactly where my final finish line is, but I am trying to "finish strong".

II Thess.1:10 - When He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe...in that day.

Now think about when the dust settles and Jesus now sits on a throne in Jerusalem ruling and reigning absolutely. But the fact that the war has come last gives insight into the true essence of the Lamb, love. The Invisible God has pleaded, begged, reasoned, and even provided the means for mankind to surrender and live, but largely to no avail. Only after centuries of excruciating longsuffering has God had to use the final option. He would have been justified to wipe us all out at anytime, but He has waited and called. By His grace some have heard and responded to His call of love and warning. The Lamb of God now has destroyed all His enemies and He is high and lifted up for all of us to admire and worship. Praise be to the exalted Lamb on Jerusalem's Throne! This is not some fairytale, this is a soon coming event that once begun, like an immeasurable and magnificent whirlwind, will collect all the moments of time from the past millennia down to the final microseconds, and like a monumental, time train screeching to a grinding halt -

IT IS FINISHED.

Some have lost all - Some have gained all.
The harvest of His Blood is over.

Eternal death - Eternal life. There is no middle ground.

Jesus my Lord, I deserved to be the object of your wrath, but you lovingly took the violence that was meant for me. I can never repay You, I can only forever praise You!

We Will Wonder

Acts 3:10 - And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened to him.

They were filled with wonder when they saw that God had healed the man they had seen for years at the gate to the temple called Beautiful. That my friends is an earthly taste of a coming wonder that cannot be compared with anything this side of heaven. Men have always looked into the heavens with wonder. Personally seeing your own child be born is a wonder. The great Blue Whale is a wonder. The Himalayas are a wonder. The seven wonders of the world are a wonder. There are many things and experiences that we have called wonders. But there is an experience for the follower of Jesus Christ that will cause us to enter into an eternal wonder as we cast our new and sinlessly clear eyes upon Him. We will wonder...

When we see Him...and see His wounds we will wonder how could we not have loved Him more? He allowed Himself to be bruised in such a fashion for us and that prepared, spotless body was disfigured in our place. We will gaze and we will wonder as we see the wounds we had so often heard and thought about that now are more glorious than we could have ever imagined. We will wonder why this all powerful Son - God - Christ was not only voluntarily subjected to the savagery that produced those wounds, but He DESIRED them. "For the joy that was set before Him"? What joy? Me!? And after the Creator suffered for the creation, He eternally wears those crowns in a majestic expression of His everlasting love for His bride. Oh, we will wonder...
When we see Him...and see His glory we will wonder why He cared about any of us. The Creator and Sustainer of the entire universe and yet He cared about us. Rebellious - prideful - blasphemous - selfish - completely sinful and thoroughly deserving of eternity in hell. So "what is man that thou art mindful of him?". Look at His brilliance and august glory, unlike anything ever imagined, somehow shining forth all His infinite attributes in one breathtaking spectacle. Oh, we will wonder...
When we see Him...and see His beauty we will wonder how could we have been transfixed by this present world and anything that claimed to be beautiful. His beauty is on a different level than we think of anything now called beauty. Take all the mountains, the oceans, the stars, the rainbows, and all the beauty of nature in all its forms and realize that they all came from just the spoken Word of this Beautiful Creator, then what flawless radiance must emanate from the Source? If it has not yet "entered into the heart of man what the Lord has prepared for those who love Him" we can be most sure that it has not yet entered into our hearts the abject and perfect resplendence of the Preparer Himself. Oh, we will wonder...
When we see Him...and see His power we will wonder why He ever endured the rebellion of our cursed race as long as He did. He isn't just powerful, and He isn't just the most powerful, no, He is ALL powerful. He could have destroyed His entire creation with just a Word and created another. As we look and experience the presence of His divine power we will realize that we never really knew what power was. Hurricanes? Tornados? Nuclear weapons? Saturn five rocket? The Sun? The explosions of a million super novas? Mere shadows of the only authentic power which we will see inherent in the Risen Christ. And yet in the presence of this incredible and frightening power we will be granted an eternal sense of glorious salvation and the everlasting safety of His grace. Oh, we will wonder...
When we see Him...and see His heaven we will wonder why we did not look for and desire this place more than our earthly existence. Seraphim, cherubim, the colors, the expanse, the songs, and of course the centerpiece, The Lamb and The Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Our inheritance undefiled and reserved for us, we now take possession and occupation. He could have prepared for us a place that was supreme and pristine, without sin and corruption but without His presence. An eternal paradise for which we would have been forever grateful, but no, consider this surpassing glory, we will enter the Celestial City in which is His dwelling place. The Taj Mahal - a shack. The White House - ghetto. Heaven itself with the Creator and Redeemer welcoming us forever to be with Him. Oh, we will wonder...
When we see Him...and see the Person of His Word which He is called by Himself, we will wonder how could we ever have doubted for a moment. "And His name is The Word of God". We have heard His Word; we have spoken His Word; we have read His Word; we have trusted His Word; we have studied His Word; but there His Word is - Jesus Himself. He is His Word and His Word is Him. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word WAS God". We're there, we see it, we see Him, we are now experiencing the complete power and presence of the Word, Jesus Christ the Eternal Incarnation of the Word of God. Oh, we will wonder...
When we see Him...and see His Lordship which encompasses everything from eternity past to eternity future we will wonder, just wonder, in worship and amazement. All the sermons from Edwards to Spurgeon didn't even begin to touch the hem of His garment. All the imaginations of the greatest theological minds were dark reflections of what we now wonder before. The sovereignty taught by Calvin...infinitely wanting. The grace taught by Luther...infinitely wanting. The fear of God taught by Edwards...infinitely wanting. The glory taught by Spurgeon...infinitely wanting. All the words of God's choicest servants are now broken and pale, falling hollow and insufficient before His Regal Lordship. And as we remember that Aaron's high priest wore HOLINESS TO THE LORD on his headpiece, we realize that was a small key that now has unlocked a heavenly room and drawn back the mysterious veil and has allowed us to see Him who IS Holiness, face to face. The Unique Lord. The Only Lord. The Everlasting Lord. The Sovereign Lord. The Glorious Lord. The Loving Lord. The Gracious Lord. THE LORD OF LORDS, worshipped of angels and pristinely HOLY! August, High and Lifted Up, Separate from sinners and approachable ONLY through the portal of His own Blood.

WHEN WE SEE HIM, IN THE LORDSHIP OF HIS UNSPEAKABLE GLORY...WE WILL WONDER...FOREVER!!!!!!!

The Lord's Supper

Matt.26:26-28 - And as they were eating Jesus took bread and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples and said, Take, eat, this is my body. And he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

There are three basic views of the Lord's Supper.

TRANSUBSTANTIATION - This word describes what the Roman Catholic Church teaches, that as a believer eats the bread and drinks the wine they become the real flesh and blood of Jesus Himself. They also mistakenly teach that this communion is part of a means to salvation and imparted grace which will help you get into heaven. That system of religious works is not only manmade, it is Spiritually deadly.

CONSUBSTANTIATION - This is what was taught by Martin Luther who believed that the actual body and blood of Jesus was not present in the bread and wine, but a special Spiritual presence of Jesus somehow was in the bread and wine. He did not believe that the Lord's Supper was in any way part of salvation since redemption was through grace by faith alone.

SYMBOLIC - This is the view that most evangelicals would believe. We believe that the bread and the juice(wine) symbolize the death on the cross of the final Passover Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a Sacred "refocusing" on the life giving sacrifice of our wonderful Savior. Let's look at some Biblical aspects of the Lord's Supper:

1. It is a way for self examination before God. The Scripture teaches us to examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith. Simply put, only true believers should take the Lord's Supper and each individual must examine his own heart to confirm that we are in covenant with God through Christ before we participate in the New Covenant Passover, Communion.
2. It is a good opportunity for believers to repent and receive full forgiveness before our Lord. Every believer knows what it is like to be a true child of God but not be walking right before the Lord. Before and during the Lord's Supper the Holy Spirit gives true believers an offering to return to full fellowship with the Author of the New Covenant.
3. Beside baptism which occurs once for every believer, it is the only outward ritual that Jesus ever gave to the church. It can be a powerful outward sign to unbelievers which can be used by the Spirit to draw them deeper into a conviction about their own standing before God. As the stones in the Jordan were used to get children to ask, "What meaneth these stones" so the Lord's Supper can be used to elicit a curiosity that opens a door of witness.
4. It is a means of worship. To any believer the bread and juice are obvious in their meaning, and the deep sacrifice that the Son of God made for the sins of the world is brought to a personal level as each believer eats and drinks for himself. That should propel us into a place of worship before the Risen Lamb.

Now it is clear that the early church observed the Lord's Supper every Sunday as they gathered as believers. The Old Testament Passover, which through an earthly lamb pictured both one night in Egypt and the coming Lamb of God, was observed on one day a year, the day the children of Israel were "passed over" by the Death Angel. The New Testament Lord's Supper has no earthly lamb because it is a memorial that represents the sacrifice of God's final Lamb, Jesus Christ. It observes an event, laden in a Person, as opposed to a day and therefore the early believers anticipated it every Sunday as they gathered. It was a solemn ritual that not only pictured the cross, but it recreated the actual Last Supper when our Lord changed the Passover observance into the Communion of His sacrifice just hours before He would lay down His life. That was the only time the Lord's Supper was observed before Jesus' death.

Now this sweet, deeply meaningful communion observance was a gift to the church straight from our Lord's own hands. It openly speaks of God's unspeakable love as exhibited eternally on the cross. The blood and the ripped flesh. The thirst and pain. Revealing and revolting. And so intimately our relationship of grace, that Jesus allowed us to picture His death in a way that to the natural man is absurd in its sacred symbolism. The entire story is so profoundly simple so as to be rejected by the prideful nature we inherited from our father Adam, and yet it is so utterly and truly profound it can never be understood by a million Einsteins. And this Spiritual recreation of the most sacrificial and magnificent and surpassing love ever offered anywhere in any place or time and to the most undeserving and depraved creatures has now been relegated to a once a month or once a quarter event that either finds a cramped space in the regular "service", or is conveniently enjoined with some other meeting to "kill two birds with one stone". How sad.

May I make a suggestion for anyone who is interested? How about rising a little early on Sunday morning, take some bread and juice, find a quiet place, or as a family observance, partake of this precious and incredibly symbolic communion with the Father, through the Son, and by the Spirit. You do not need any church leaders, you only need the One who first broke the bread of His body and gave the cup of His blood, our Savior Himself. He will manifest His presence to you in direct proportion to your heart of worship.

The apostle Paul, via the Holy Spirit, adds three little prophetic words included in the Lord's Supper. I Cor.11:26 - For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till He comes. A reference to another and future coming which should remind us that there are still some visible scars from the death we now show forth, and they come with the Person about Whom we now eat and drink. And in verse 34 Paul teaches that this eating is not to satisfy physical hunger, no this is to create and satisfy Spiritual hunger. The last fellowship that Jesus had with His disciples before He died was over the Lord's Supper, and He exposed Judas before the Communion so as to keep it holy. It is a unique and Sacred observance to the Lord, and we should observe it reverently, solemnly, and without haste. It should have a place of honor in the midst of the gathering. Remembering Jesus and His cross is a fragrance of the heart that should fill our inward man with a worship that sometimes is "unlawful to be uttered".

The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? I Cor.10:16

It is almost unthinkable that the Christ of God, the Spotless Lamb of Glory would allow us to enter into a Spiritual communion with the very act of grace and love that proved our guilt. What kind of love is this? What kind of Savior would desire to commune with the ones whose sin drove Him to that Roman cross? Why am I drawn to this open horror and shame? Why is He drawn to me? This is way out of my league and way past my poor earthly mind, I can only touch this glory by God's Spirit. And when I eat the bread of His body I am not repulsed but I am humbled and filled with the love of worship. And when I drink the juice of His blood that mysteriously represents the scarlet robe with which the Father covered His only Son for me, I am transformed by the vision that travels back two thousand years and by God's Spirit is brought fresh to me at that very moment. The world knows nothing of this luxurious and priceless redemption. Gather all your gold, all your silver, all your precious jewels, all your mansions, all your kings and princes, all the stars, all the galaxies, gather them all together in one colossal attempt to impress even the most wide eyed little girl - and it cannot compare -

IT CANNOT COMPARE WITH ONE SMALL DROP OF THE BLOOD OF JESUS!

Bow your head and heart, partake of the bread, drink the juice...and immerse yourself in the worship that only a redeemed child of the Living God can ever know. The depth of the simplicity will forever crown Him in the midst of all of heaven.
HALLELUIAH TO THE RISEN LAMB OF GOD WHO LOVED ME WITH A CROSS!!!!

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Why the Cross?

Phil.2:8 - And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
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.

The Heavenly Father had told Adam to eat freely of all the trees of the garden - all but one. The Tree of the knowledge of good and evil was strictly forbidden to eat from. This tree obviously represented attempting to be a judge which was, like Lucifer, trying to be God. When Adam ate of that fruit there was no chemical that cursed him with death, no, it was the act of disobedience and rebellion against God and His Word that caused Adam's Spiritual death. Adam's sin fathered a family tree of death which grew with every birth. This sin would find its way inherently and volitionally in every person and with that inheritance came a trust account of Spiritual death to be drawn upon at physical death.
Now in the midst of the gross and complete darkness of this Adamic kingdom comes the Light, the Lord Jesus the Anointed One. His end would be our beginning, His shame our honor, His death our life. But why the cross? Why not a quick and private death which still shed Hid blood for the remission of sins? People were killed in all sorts of ways, why did God choose the cross? There are caverns of revelation treasure in those two wooden beams which were cut from a tree that Jesus Himself created. This wasn't some dead Jew on a cross, and this wasn't an arbitrary form of death. This was God Himself in human form and this was the mode God chose and ordained before the foundation of the world. Why?
THE FIRST TREE: In Genesis Adam partakes of the forbidden tree and he Spiritually dies. Every child of Adam, infected by this first tree, finds Spiritual life again from this last tree, the cross. Born of Adam through the tree of sin, born again in Christ through the tree of life. Two trees. One death, one life.
THE INTERSECT POINT: The cross has one place where both beams intersect and our eyes are naturally drawn to that place. It is there that the Son of God is presented as the Savior. The horizontal beam = the first Adam. The vertical beam = the last Adam. Horizontal = human. Vertical = divine. Horizontal = earthly. Vertical = heavenly. This is the intersect point of all history. It has been a little hazy until now, but after the cross there will be only two lines - a broad one leading to hell and a narrow one leading to heaven. The cross is the only place to intersect and change destination.
THE OUTSTRETCHED HANDS: Just the position of His body on the cross is significant. How many times did Jesus in life stretch out His arms and say, for instance, "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden..."?. But here at His death it encapsulates God's heart, "Come let us reason together, saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow, though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool". The placement of His arms say, "Whosoever will may come".
THE LIFTING UP: Notice His feet don't touch the earth, He is lifted up between heaven and earth as a mediator between God and man. The only mediator (I Tim.2:5). By His own words, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me" (Jn.12:32). He is not just a man and yet not just God. He is the Son of man and the Son of God. He is suspended between both as the God-man.
THE PUBLIC SPECTACLE: Jesus will be crucified in front of everyone. Even the Romans won't be able to claim He didn't die, they'll have to make up a story about someone stealing the body. This public viewing will showcase the vileness of our sin and will be used by God the Holy Spirit throughout the years to convict millions of their sin personally. As grotesque as this sight was, it still mysteriously screams "I love you" from the very Person on this cross of shame. It isn't enough for God to have His Son brutally murdered, no, He allows Him to be openly mocked so we will know that Jesus knew how depraved we were as we ridiculed our only Hope.
THE SUFFERING: We know about physical pain and suffering, many men had been crucified. But we can never know about Spiritual pain and suffering which is beyond our limited scope of understanding. The depth of sin against the justice of God results in the suffering of the Scapegoat. Like the physical healing of the man in Mark 2 reveals His ability to forgive sins, His physical suffering reveals His Spiritual suffering as well. And just to let the Heavenly City remember how eternal His suffering on the cross was, He takes His wounds into His glorified body.
THE WOODEN ALTAR: In Genesis Abraham hears God's voice tell him to sacrifice Isaac and he takes his son and lays him on an altar of wood before God stops him and Isaac is spared. Now this cross becomes an altar of wood on which God offers His Son and there is no sparing. A vertical altar of sacrifice, magnificent and bloody, on which Abraham's ram is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus, plucked from the thicket of this cursed earth. Now the ram had horns from which the priests made shofars, the horn which called God's people to worship. As we look on this Messianic Ram let us hear God's call to worship. At this cross we are on holy ground and it should move us to brokenness, repentance, and sometimes tears of love..
THE EXALTATION: Another reason for the cross is the exaltation of God's Son, even in death. which confounds the wise and gives life to the humble. He is symbolically lifted up to be praised and worshiped as He suffers and dies voluntarily and sacrificially for every son of Adam. How many of us once knew about Jesus dying on the cross as religious folklore, but one glorious day(!!!) the Holy Spirit revealed to us what that cross really meant and our knees buckled as we fell in adoration to worship this mutilated and bloody Lion of Judah who bled, suffered, and died in my place! Oh halleluiah, I found what I didn't even know I was looking for when by faith I knelt at this wonderful horror. To say I didn't deserve it is an infinite understatement!!!
THE CONTRAST: As we see the Lamb upon he cross it offers a visual and real contrast to the tomb. The cross was full - the tomb was empty. It begs the question, Where did He go?. We saw Him in all His incredible suffering, it was open for all to see. The Romans, the Jews, the unbelievers, His mother, John, the two thieves, and anyone else who wished to pass by saw the cross was full with Jesus. The Romans, the Jews, His mother, John, and anyone else could now visit the empty tomb. They saw the cross, they see the tomb. The contrast must be reconciled in everyone's heart, something happened - what?
THE DOORPOSTS: In Exodus God told His people to slay the passover lamb and apply the blood to the wooden doorposts and the Death Angel would pass over their house. Upon the wooden doorposts of this cross would be the blood of God's own Passover Lamb by which the angel of the second death would pass over all covered in this blood. The cross represents the bloody doorposts of Egypt and the Door itself bled in the middle of the beams. Wow, there is so much intertwined truth in all this that only the Holy Spirit Himself can lead us into it and make us not only understand the symbolism, but apply it to our hearts making it part of our worship.
THE WARNING: In Deuteronomy God instructs the hanging of men from a tree as a warning to everyone of the judgment of breaking the law. The cross in two tributaries of one great river both offers and warns people simultaneously. It screams REDEMPTION and JUDGMENT. The cross warns unbelievers that this is what they face without this cross being theirs. It is either Christ judged or you. There have been times when a hand grenade has been tossed into a crowd and a brave soldier dove upon it to die as he saves others. The cross warns there is the wrath of God coming, and only Jesus has placed His own body in the path of His Father's wrath, for us. The cross says RUN...to me. We may never know until the Great White Throne judgment how much our King took in our place.
THE ROD: As Moses and the children of Israel came to the Red Sea the chariots of Pharaoh were quickly approaching. Death was overtaking them when God told Moses "lift thou up thy rod" and stretch it out over the Red Sea and the waters parted and they escaped death on dry land. The wooden rod that parts the sea of sin and provides the eternal escape from death. God holds out the wooden Rod of His cross, parts the sea which leads from eternal damnation to eternal life, and He beckons "walk through by faith".
THE WOODEN ARK OF NOAH: As the people ridiculed Noah as he built the wooden ark God had told him to they could not imagine the judgment that was coming. Why? Some believe it had never rained before so the people had no reference point, but ultimately they did not believe the Word of God. Noah preached for one hundred years with no converts, no seekers, and no baptisms. With no church members who financed the building program? God. The same God who provided the wooden ark of His cross that provided shelter to whosoever will. Judgment is coming no matter if we believe the Word of God or not and the only shelter is the cross. We better make sure we are in God's Ark, completely sealed and safe from the eternal flood of God's wrath, and not some pleasure craft of our own making.
THE MIRACLE OF ELISHA: Elisha had prophesied that a certain woman would conceive a son and she did. But after the child was grown he died and the woman went back to Elisha begging him to do something. Elisha went into the dead child and stretched himself upon the child and the child came to life. When the Son of God stretched Himself upon the cross He made an offering for everyone to come back to life. We were all once dead in trespasses and sins, but after we came to Christ He stretched Himself upon us and we came back to life.
THE AX HEAD: As the sons of the prophets were cutting down trees the ax head came off and sunk into a pool of water. They asked Elisha to help them especially because the ax head was borrowed. Elisha took a stick and threw it into the water and the ax head floated to the surface. Now we were drowning in the borrowed ax head of Adam's sin when God in His mercy placed a wooden cross in the midst of this world. And all who trust in this Holy "stick" will see the ax head of their lives come to the surface, plucked from this world of sin, and restored to become a servant of the Most High.
THE MANGER: God came into this world placed in a wooden manger and He left placed on a wooden cross. Remember He made everything at His birth, the manger, the straw, the animals, the shepherds, Mary, Joseph, Jesus made them all Himself. He made everything at His death, the cross, the nails, the soldiers, His mother, John, the hill, Jesus made them all Himself. So next time you read about the wooden manger, see the wooden cross. That is why He came anyway.
THE BRAZEN SERPENT: Jesus said, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up". The bronze serpent represented God's judgment, and all the children of Israel had to do was look and live. This symbolism is obvious. Jesus is lifted up on the cross, takes the judgment of God, and now anyone can, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved". That serpent, the Devil, has stung everyone with his poison but his judgment is sealed also on the cross. Jesus said, "...the prince of this world is judged".

There are many more symbolic representations of the cross of Christ that not only edify but teach and I suppose it would take a lifetime to exhaust them all. These are some that God renewed to me and I share them with you. In March of 1975 I don't recall how many of these I knew then, but I suddenly became aware that the cross provided a door for me that I could not provide for myself. By the grace of God the Holy Spirit quickened my understanding and I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. I did not even consider what God could do for me here, I just knew that following Him by faith meant I "would not perish but have eternal life". The honest truth before God is that when I became a believer in 1975 I could have cared less about the things of this world, I only cared about following Him. Thirty years later, after traveling along with the Church of the You Can Have it All with Jesus on the Side, I am trying to return totally to my first love. There is a place in Jesus, shadowed by the Father's wings, that remove the cares of this present world. It is a place of worship and prayer, guided and strengthened by His Word, that transcends and transfigures. To bow your head and meditate on the coming of God Himself and giving His life for you so you might have His life forever, what else matters? It is the Magnificent City of Refuge whose builder and maker is God and to which I continue to walk toward by faith. If you have already gotten there, pray for me.

Hold high His cross!

The Preeminence of the Word

I Pet.4:11 - If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God;

There is only one truth in the world, God's Word. Everything else, even if it is true, is always subject to change. Most things that are acknowledged as truth are based on man's acceptance, observation, and social metamorphosis which all have their origin and refinement in the fallen intellect of man. Let us look at morality without God's Word. Homosexuality would be perfectly acceptable without the teaching of God's Word. Think about abortion, polygamy, adultery, and all other similar behavior; all legitimate mores without any absolute guidelines. What about stealing, lying, cheating, and even murder? If there is only man's opinion then why are they wrong? As a matter of fact, who said there is any such thing as right and wrong? Without God's Word all the laws that govern man's behavior come from man's mind, and there will always be wide and varied opinions.

The most dangerous deception, therefore, is that which is true but not based on God's Word. Let me illustrate. We would approve of our children's teacher telling our kids not to lie. But what if that teacher is openly gay and his teaching about not lying is based on humanistic reasoning not God's Word. You see, the devil uses that which is true, apart from God's Word, in order to create a moral bridge and deceive our children into accepting homosexuality because the teacher is not only nice, but he has moral standards. Anything, and I mean anything, that does not have the Word of God as its foundation and source is based on the reasoning of fallen man and ultimately is a house built on sinking sand.(Jesus, circa 26 A.D.) We have enough trouble disagreeing over interpretation without creating moral bonds not wholly based on the written Word of God. This notion that anything that is based on the "Judeo-Christian" ethic(which is a man made term) is acceptable is the spirit of antichrist. If any view does not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the only way to eternal life it is a deceptive spirit, no matter what it believes about the ten commandments. The martyrs did not die over moral teachings, their blood was shed because they preached Christ and Christ alone!

From Rush Limbaugh to Dr. Phil to the most conservative politician, they may espouse certain moral issues but they do not claim the Word of God as their foundation, and God teaches us that that "every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist"(I Jn.4:3). The "moral and good" spirits are the most "familiar", and they are the hardest to discern. If you think that the war is over morality in any form, you are already deceived. The war is over the Son of God. The rest is moral deception. As an amateur astronomer I am well aware that most scientists are not believers and present truths out of their own observations, and that always changes. Our calling as followers of the Lord Jesus is to read, believe, preach, and conform to the Word of God. Period. Our cause is eternally different and distinct from all other causes on the face of the earth and cannot be compromised by any alliance with other causes, no matter how "moral". Our calling is not of this world, it is Supernatural.

God has called us to be separate from the world. One of the major causes that we as believers have lost the power that was evident both in Acts and other times in the church, is that we now have earthly alliances. Israel was forbidden to join with other groups, and when they did they backslid. If a group is pro-life, pro-family, or against gay rights it should not matter to Spirit filled believers, our calling is to "go into all the world and preach the gospel". When we champion moral causes we misrepresent to the world that we are some kind of moral sheriff. In love we should preach Christ and Him crucified to a lost and dying world. Anything else is asking a dead man to straighten his tie.

Remember, judgment must begin at the house of God. To preach morality to the world in the condition the church is in is not only hypocritical, but obviously ineffective. It is more important to God that His church be revived than our government ban gay marriage. No matter what the government does clerically about gay marriage, homosexuals are still committing sodomy in your neighborhood. And they will gleefully continue, and teach others to do it, unless they become born again followers of Jesus Christ. And the gay community, as well as the whole community, will not be significantly reached unless God sends a supernatural revival among His followers. We need reformation, the world needs regeneration!

The spreading of the seed(God's Word) under the power of God's Spirit is the ONLY answer. Oh how we need an awakening! The church in America is so powerless and assimilated culturally that we are like Samson who,"knew not that his power was gone". We shed more tears over the death of our dogs than over the lost. The early church was built by agonizing, today we organize. I personally do not have revival, I am just a voice who God has awakened to the need. You could say,"Physician heal thyself", and you would be right. Of course that is another deception of the enemy, look at someone else. Get alone somewhere and ask Jesus personally, "Lord, where am I, and where am I supposed to be?". We only have this one life to sacrifice for Him; we'll soon see Him

Without Distraction

I Cor.7:35 - ...and that you may attend upon the Lord without distraction.
I Cor.7:32 - But I would have you without carefulness.

It must, amazingly, mean something to the Creator of the Universe and the Redeemer of our souls to spend time with us. He even goes so far as to advise some to remain single so they would not be encumbered with the necessary cares that come with marriage, and they would be much more free to fellowship with Him.
The Lord Jesus, through the Spirit, in verse 32 of First Corinthians exhorts us to be "without carefulness" or without worrying about the things of this world. In verse 29 the Lord points out that "they that have wives be as though they had none". From verse 29 through verse 35 He openly indicates how strongly He desires to spend time with His children, and although God clearly instituted marriage, He warns against even letting our spouses come between Him and us. He lists other things in verse 30, emotions and possessions, as areas to guard against in our unique and paramount relationship with Him. And summing it all up He says in verse 31 not to get caught up with this world which will one day pass away.
But let us focus in on that phrase in verse 35, "that you may attend upon the Lord without distraction". How annoying is it to be speaking with someone who is obviously attentive elsewhere? How frustrating and even disrespectful is it? We've all been on either side of that scenario, but we would think it should be God Almighty that would be distracted with greater and higher issues when dealing with our insignificant lives. I mean what do we have to offer Him, and what about us could possibly capture His attention? But incredibly enough it isn't the Lord Who gets distracted with us, no. we get distracted with Him. How transparent of our utter sinfulness that we would allow ourselves to lose Spiritual focus when speaking with our sweet Savior. It is shameful! The Spirit of God calls us to "bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ". And here the Redeemer inclines His heart and ear to us and we shortchange Him.
Like the children of Israel who, just after stepping on the miraculous dry land between two mountains of piled up water in the Red Sea, immediately grow fearful and even melancholy about their previous place of slavery, so we are so often distracted by the things of this world as they steal the precious time with our Risen Savior. What has the most gracious Lord offered to us while still in this world?
To hear the Spiritual voice of the Creator Redeemer. He who said, "Let there be light" speaks to us. The voice that proclaimed, "I am the way, the truth, and the life" speaks to us. The Lamb that spoke, "It is finished" whispers to our spirit. And the Lion of the Tribe of Judah that roared, "Behold I come quickly" has time to share with us.
We are granted the privilege of "beholding the beauty of the Lord". Not with human eyes, oh no, but with Spiritual eyes that see much further and far deeper and with infinitely more definition than the human optic nerve. With a combination of the Scripturally based imagination, the guidance of the Spirit, and through the prism of the Word of God we get an unspeakable glimpse of our majestic Lord.
The everlasting contentment of eternal life. One day we will leave this earth to be with Christ but even now we have eternal life. Eternal life. Our inheritance has been reserved for us and no one can steal it or diminish its brilliance. The passing of this present world only adds to our expectation of entering the celestial city whose builder and maker is God.
The comfort that comes from the one who made us and loves us with an everlasting love. His presence like a Spiritual salve blankets our lives and removes the doubts and fears that "flesh is heir to".
In this multi-task culture let us honor the One who deserves devotional time with His children...without distraction.

The Place Called Hell

Rev.20:15 - And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Hell. Even secular writers portray it as an awful place. In scores of places in the Scriptures we are given glimpses, and Jesus Himself first used the word Gehenna to depict it. Gehhenna was the refuse dump outside Jerusalem that was kept burning day and night to keep disease from spreading. Now this place of post death fear has tortured men and women since Adam sinned. It is the message that Lucifer aggressively fights to either keep hidden or at least on the back burner of Christian presentation so as to lull people into a sense that we consider it somewhat of a fairy tale.

Hell. If it does exist as the Bible describes it, what else could take priority over avoiding it. In this candy store theological genre of today we have minimized eternal life as well as eternal damnation. I want you to think about that for a minute. The Lord Jesus Himself taught that if a person dies without Christ they go to a place of torment - FOREVER. That, brothers and sisters, is an incredibly hard reality to believe. Every one of our lives falls way short in substantiating the fact that we believe it.

Hell. Right now there are people burning in this awful place. Tormented and in pain. They are there forever and they know it. When I was about 10 years old I burned my finger on a fourth of July sparkler. I was in real pain and I thought it would never end. If someone had told me I'd have to live with that pain for the rest of my life I would have despaired. That was a finger. A FINGER! You cannot legitimately argue that the average preacher really believes in the reality of hell. Why would he not constantly beat the warning drum for every sinner to hear? Does he not care about people? I think that if we really believed in hell in a deep and profound sense, we would constantly have to reign in our emotions and people around us would certainly feel more uncomfortable than they do. When was the last time you wept openly as you considered the plight of the lost? Yea, me too.

Hell. You would think this would be the chronic warning from the church who professes to believe it. Imagine the meteorologist in New Orleans in 2005. As he teaches people what the weather will be in the coming week, he fails to mention a gigantic, counter-clockwise swirl moving north from the Caribbean. When asked about it, he replies, "Oh yes, that is hurricane Katrina". When pressed further he acknowledges that he believes that Katrina is going to come up through the Gulf of Mexico and devastate New Orleans killing hundreds. When asked why he isn't warning people he replies that people don't want to hear it, people don't like that kind of weather report, and he wants to have an upbeat program that makes people feel good about the weather. Even the world would arrest a person like that, but we in the church put up with and even lift up "preachers" who never warn anyone about hell.

Hell. Have you ever seen a person die a painful death? Imagine a man in the agonizing last moments of his death. You go into the room to say good bye and there he writhes in excruciating pain. You leave and return a month later and there he is, still in painful death. You go away and return one year later and still he pulsates with pain but he cannot die. Ten thousand years passes and still that same man, in mortal agony, cannot die. One million years and no change. The heavens and earth roll away and are replaced with a new universe, but still that man lies there dying but not dead. This is a humble picture of what God calls the "Second Death". If Jesus had warned that all lost sinners will spend a million years in unbearable torture, and then are released to heaven, that would offer a little hope. But the truth is that when a sinner is cast into hell he can never, ever, ever, ever, EVER be released. God help us. Selah.

Hell. Women boldly remove their clothes for men. Homosexuals boldly show public affection. Politicians boldly lie to their constituents. Infidels boldly blaspheme God. Muslims boldly murder Jews and Christians. Hollywood boldly makes its immoral movies. Evolutionists boldly spread their theories. But the church is almost silent concerning the greatest and most profound threat to a sinner's soul. Like a dinosaur, Jonathan Edward's sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is considered a classic that has long since died out. A museum piece, but not relevant. If you remove the cultural clap-trap that passes for preaching, you can hear an ominous Spiritual pin drop, interrupted only by the screams of hell's new arrivals.

Hell. One horrible day the lake of fire will be full. No more games, no more chances, no more extreme makeovers, and no escape. There is no seeker friendly hell. No purpose driven hell. No wealthy hell. No relevant hell. No self esteem hell. No contemplative hell. No emergent hell. No, these are just earthly vessels that are taking millions on a one way cruise to THE EVERLASTING LAKE OF FIRE. This is no game and I am not being melodramatic, this is Spiritual reality. How can we spend so much time with trifles, that at their core are nothing more than attempts to improve our hedonistic lifestyles, and call it "preaching" when eternal death awaits billions? So let us purify our message to include the "should not perish" aspect. Let's ask God to awaken a boldness in our witness that shines His light on the kingdom of darkness. Let's speak, praise, pray, worship, read, and walk in holiness and in such boldness that the world may not believe what we say, but they must believe that we believe it!!!

May the Lamb that was Slain receive the Reward of His Sufferings!!!

THROUGH OUR LIVES!!!

Babylon the Great

Rev.17:5 - And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

In approximately 600 B.C. ten of the tribes of Israel known as the northern kingdom were conquered and carried away by Assyria. This was a direct result of their sin, hedonism, and idol worship. Subsequently, God once more warned the tribes of Judah and Benjamin that they would suffer the same fate if they did not repent. They would not listen to the voice of God and in 597 B.C. the Babylonians came and carried them into captivity.
Now the Jews were an intelligent and industrious people and they made their way in the Babylonian culture. It wasn't long before they became quite comfortable and even prosperous in their new found home. They had become Babylonians. But after seventy years God called men like Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Zerubabbell, and others to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple. These men, though, could only find a remnant in Babylon that would go back to Jerusalem and rebuild. God's people had friends, homes, businesses, and roots in Babylon and several generations had been born there. They wanted no part of any Spiritual pilgrimage to rebuild any Temple that they had not even seen in the first place. Happy and prosperous they would stay in the culture they knew and now loved.
Now in Revelation chapters 17 and 18 John refers to Babylon the Great and describes this great city as a false religious system as well as a greedy, hedonistic culture. It doesn't take a doctorate in Biblical studies to see that we are living in the fulfillment of what John prophesied on that Lord's day. We now live in the most convoluted and idolatrous religious system in history, and its Siamese twin is the wealth seeking and hedonistic culture. Together they have not only taken control of the world, but modeled themselves after Biblical examples in order to complete the deception. Even self proclaimed Christian political leaders like Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and the current President Bush have deceived people into believing that spreading democracy and capitalism is the answer for the world's problems.

God is calling a remnant to rebuild the Temple today. What is the Temple?

Rev.21:22 - And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
Ps.27:4 - One thing have I desired of the Lord, that I will seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple.

The temple. The tabernacle. The house of the Lord. In the Old Testament the Lord dwelt in a temple made by Moses. In the New Testament the Lord dwells in believers who are the temple of the Lord. But look at Revelation 21, there is no temple within the Holy City because the Lord and the Lamb ARE the temple. Think about that statement, the temple IS the Lord and the Lamb. What does that teach us?
Look out, now, this is the fine china of God's Word and it must be meditated on to be consumed and understood. Paul reminds us that our lives are "hid with Christ in God" and Paul also teaches us that we have "Christ in us, the hope of glory". Now let's combine these two truths. In this world Christ is in us and in heaven we will be in Christ. Of course we are in Christ positionally now, but upon arrival in the City of God we are literally in the temple - Christ. This is an awesome thought. I cannot fully surround it with my earthly mind, and rightly so. We get the image that in heaven we will be gathered at the throne of Almighty God and the Risen Christ Himself and this is eternally true. But go a little further. We will not be worshipping in a heavenly temple as we worship at His feet, no, somehow, someway, in a majestic mystery, we will be worshipping the Lord who IS the temple. Explain it? Forget about it. We would have more success explaining physics to a dog than for us to completely understand that which God has already told us we see through a "glass darkly".
But look at Psalm 27 and notice it says to "behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple". To enquire or pray in His temple is to pray in the Spirit or pray in Him. He is the temple and He is gloriously beautiful. Beyond words. Beyond imagery. Hold on or we may get lost. How do you explain to a man born blind what the color blue looks like? You cannot even explain what color is. Now the Lord is not just beautiful to the eye, He is beautifully crowned with grace, truth, holiness, and every perfect attribute that IS Him. Those divine attributes adorn Him, uh, visually. And not just with earthly eyes, no, with perfect heavenly eyes that surpass just the light gathering phenomenon of the fleshly retina. Will we hear AND see what He says? Will we see AND hear His attributes? What am I trying to say? I am saying that our Glorious Savior, the Majestic Lord of the Universe, is, in fact, more beautiful and glorious than we can ever hope to imagine this side of our new bodies of grace created specifically to worship Him in all His Splendor! We will experience senses far beyond what we have in this three dimensional realm. Never needing a break from praise, never being distracted by our flesh, never growing weary of worship, sometimes bowing, sometimes shouting, sometimes singing, but all times fully concentrating with all our beings on the wonder of our Alpha and Omega.
So if God in all His majestic persons IS the Temple, then our calling to rebuild the Temple today has nothing to do with brick and mortar, no, it is indeed a calling to rebuild the revelation of the Person of God Himself in the church. It is a call of the Spirit to pick up stakes, leave this Babylonian culture and religious system, and preach the full counsel of Almighty God and lift His true Godhead high and glorious. None of this "sneak up on sinners" preaching that presents Christ as an appendage to a well rounded American lifestyle. To rebuild God's truth about everything which is "Yea and Amen" in the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, a return and careful adherence to the written Word of God is paramount. And a deep, searching movement of prayer within the Body of Christ, beseeching His mighty power through our repentance, must be in concert with the preaching of the August Word of God.
Can you hear the Spirit of Ezra calling again to God's people, "Let us rebuild the Temple by His Sovereign Word". Can you hear the Spirit of Nehemiah exhorting us, "It will be a battle, but not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord!". The Spiritual walls are broken down upon the carnal wisdom of pretending preachers, and the modern church gates are burned with fire, the strange fire of false teaching. But there is offered to us the opportunity of a God glorifying revival that will usher in a new reformation that separates us not from the apostate Roman Church this time, but from the apostate evangelical church. Can you feel the freedom that comes from preaching the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

May Jesus Christ be high and lifted up upon the everlasting throne of His own Word!

The Kidnapping of the Bride

II Tim.3:13 - But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
On February 4, 1974, Patty Hearst was kidnapped from her Berkeley apartment and immediately underwent a sweeping brainwashing. By April, she had embraced her captors to such a degree she was trusted to help rob a bank for which she was later convicted. Now when someone is kidnapped and subsequently joins their abductors it is called the Stockholm effect named after a famous bank robbery in Sweden in which the captives developed an affection for their captors.
In the year 1517 a young monk nailed the 95 thesis's to the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany and the Reformation was born. Now Martin Luther was very flawed as a person who sometimes had a heart for God and sometimes had an appetite for wine. He was a rabid and vitriolic anti-Semite, but just as God uses imperfect people like you and me, God chose to use Martin Luther. Although the Holy Spirit had much work to accomplish in the theology of the church in subsequent generations, the main theme of this mighty move of God was that salvation was by grace through faith alone and that all teaching must be based solely on the revealed and written Word of God. Miraculously, the Lord had revived and reestablished His church and separated her from the apostate Roman Church.
In later years the Holy Spirit weaved fabrics of revival through America, England, Wales, and other places where saints sought the Lord in prayer and a Sovereign God heard their cries and graciously sent a fresh move of His Spirit which initially brought the believers to glorious repentance, and eventually reached lost souls for the glory of God. There were always some doctrinal differences, but for the most part they were non-essentials that did not affect salvation. Christ was preached, the Word of God was held high, and salvation was by grace through faith alone. Baptists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and other denominations strove to advance the kingdom of God.
By the 20th century the Industrial Revolution had matured. With the new technologies, primarily of travel and communication, greed, avarice, competition, and capitalism took a quantum leap in Europe and the western world cultures. As the kingdom of darkness prospered, it cast its eyes on God's bride, only to find that she was gazing back over the wall of God's Word and onto the growing and attractive evil. From that point on it did not take much coaxing to allure the bride out of the protection of the Word and into the excitement of the humanistic culture. One stroll around the devil's dance floor and the bride was mesmerized while not even aware that the evil one was closing the door behind her. She had been abducted and she didn't even know it. As a matter of fact, she was enjoying her new found friends and wonderful freedom, all the while not seeing the shackles that had been placed around her legs. She was in bondage by the one who had promised her freedom.
No longer would the church have any criteria by which to test new converts for their own good. No longer would God's people have to sacrifice anything, on the contrary, they could now lay up for themselves enormous amounts of treasure on this earth and actually teach that it was God's will. Worldly leaders? Yes! Fleshly entertainment? Yes! Millionaire preachers? Yes! Mesh with the culture? Yes! Sanitize the message? Yes! Her dance card was full and she was having the time of her life dancing with Rome, Mormons, liberals, physiologists, politicians, Carnagie, Peal, universalists, and anyone else who at least believed in a god. And to soothe her conscience she changed God's Word to accommodate all her hedonistic ways.
Most egregious of all, as the bride lay in Lucifer's bed, she turned and asked if they could have a membership drive designed to attract as many sinners as possible. Lucifer not only agreed, he said that he had many great and effective ways to reach people. But most importantly he insisted that God's Word must be thoroughly camouflaged since that was what turned people away to begin with. The bride agreed. Lucifer said that there were some principles that could be used as they kicked off their campaign. What do people want; What do people like; What do people need; What makes people happy; and what parts of the Bible do people most strenuously object to - cut them out. The bride wasn't completely convinced, but Lucifer said it all was to reach as many people as possible, "After all wasn't that what God wanted?". That made sense to the bride and she quickly acquiesced and the planning began. Upon these new tactics Lucifer would hang a few token Scriptures and pronounce his theological work of art a "masterpiece". And by and large the church has entirely bought this "masterpiece" and hung it in the gallery of thousands of pulpits for all to admire.
Now this little metaphorical narrative is either the musings of a Spiritual paranoiac, or it is an accurate representation of the subtle deception that continues today throughout the church. And against the backdrop of the August Word of God it appears much, much worse than we can imagine. And like a gigantic and multi-pronged python, the deceptive tentacles of the spirits of anti-christ have wrapped themselves around the hearts of the pulpits of most evangelical churches today and have crept down into the pews and are now squeezing the truth out of the hearts of God's people. And anyone who "cries aloud" with a warning against this obvious departure are rejected as trouble makers and divisive. But in the example of Luther, even though the bride has fallen in love with her captor, should we not still attempt to rescue her? Just because her captor is upbeat and friendly should that absolve us from speaking the truth? Just because her kidnapper offers us a peace treaty, should we sign it? Just because her abductor has a much more fleshly and attractive message, should we change ours to compete?
Some of us know first hand what we are talking about. Some of us have danced on the purpose driven dance floor and being fully deceived we sincerely thought we were helping God out with our creative strategies. And by some gracious miracle, we were rescued by the Spirit of God and mercifully debriefed. So do not think we hate those still trapped in the "cotton candy" ballroom of humanism with a thin layer of "lip synched" Christianity. No, we love them and we will continue to raise the bullhorn to our mouths and loudly exhort them to "come out from among them and be ye separate, says the Lord". The only hate we have is for the one that kidnapped her in the first place. His works are evil, his message is death, his gospel is counterfeit, his words are lies, his plan is deception,

but his time is short.

Lord Jesus, send us your power to destroy the works that the Deceiver has wrought. Let your powerful Word begin unraveling this humanistic avalanche and set the captives free. Fill us with your love, make our words strong and clear, keep us ever humble, and in ALL things...

GLORIFY YOURSELF!!

Death

Jn.8:51 - ...If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.
What is death? We have come to fully embrace the world's definition of death as the cessation of the body life. But the Word of God from the mouth of the Lord Himself says that "He that believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live". Even in some of the raising of the dead miracles that Jesus did he stated that the person was only sleeping. The Scriptures declare that all unbelievers even if physically alive are "dead in trespasses and sins".
It is a deep mystery, the deepest of mysteries, that frightens all men. Have you every seen someone die? I have seen several people take their last breath, including my own mother. It is an unsettling experience when the person is not a follower of Jesus Christ, and it is a faith building experience when they are. Of course one of the tragedies and phenomenons of today is that many people who die are marginal Christians whose death evokes mixed emotions. Leaving the body is the most important time in anyone's life. It is at that moment that our eternal destination is revealed. It is serious business, and it should be considered frequently. Not in a morbid sense, but every person should examine their own mortality in the light of their relationship with Jesus Christ, and all preaching and witnessing should always have at its foundation eternity. What should it profit a man if he gains money, career, and a "blessed life" and lose eternity.
Now consider the most glorious death ever witnessed, the death of Jesus of Nazareth. Either this death was a grotesque massacre of a deluded Jew from the loins of Judah, or it was the apex of the Creator's plan to provide an escape for His doomed creation. It cannot be both, but it must be one or the other. If it is only a man's death than it needs no further inspection or consideration. It is irrelevant. But if it is indeed the sacrificial offering of the Son of God provided by the Heavenly Father Himself, and if it is the ONLY door to eternal life, then it deserves a lifetime of inspection, consideration, and adoration.
To say that Jesus of Nazareth was innocent is an infinite understatement. He was eternally and wholly pure. Beyond words or thoughts. Spotless. Holy. White. Sinless. Unselfish. Blameless. Loving. All descriptions fall short of illuminating the celestial glory that God's Son walked in. Revealed as the Son, but also the Father God Himself. As Paul says, "Great is the mystery of godliness, that God was manifested in the flesh". The Scripture uses the metaphor that Jesus was "led as a lamb to the slaughter", but that imagery can only reach so far. An earthly lamb unknowingly goes to his death, but the Lamb of God willingly goes to His slaughter. For you and me. It seems to us to be such an insignificant reward - us. But that dilutes the unimaginable love of God. To die is the truest expression of one's love, but to die for one's horrible enemy is unthinkable. The death of our Savior, God's Son, propels us to worship the Risen Lamb with all of our hearts. I sometimes cannot believe my amazing fortune, to actually know Him and receive His eternal life! To say I don't deserve it is actually false humility because it is such an understatement. You and I are vile and accursed creatures that had not only forsaken God but had enjoyed being His enemy. Not only did we deserve an eternity in the lake of fire, we actually deserved never to have been created. We even from time to time display some of those repulsive attributes today. And Jesus knew all this as He was being nailed - NAILED - to a wooden instrument of death for me, and publicly ridiculed, mocked, and murdered for us. And the creatures that had most brought shame to their Father, have now been transformed by the grace of God through the cross of Christ and now bring glory to the Risen Lord. It is an unworkable equation that can only be understood by childlike faith.
And now, Death. No more a victor against us. A defeated foe, our greatest foe, lies helpless on the top of Golgotha. So what does "death" bring a follower of Jesus Christ now? Gain!? Paul says GAIN!! God catches the evil one in his own snare and now death brings to us an eternity with the true Victor, our Lord and Savior. We cannot know the exact process, but we do know that when our hearts beat for the very last time and we close out our earthly existence, that very instant we are transported into the very throne room of the Holy Lamb of Almighty God. A new and wondrous world which human eyes cannot see and human lips cannot speak. Sure the angels - sure the seraphim - sure the gold - sure the jewels - sure the thunders - sure the throngs - sure the singing - but lift your spiritual eyes and fix them on the sight that men have longed for since Pentecost. Jesus.
What can we say? What can we give? How can we ever repay Him? We cannot repay, but we can please Him. He desires us. If you and I could receive a record of how many times over the last five years we turned on the TV, or went out to dinner, or talked on the phone, or went on a trip, or fishing, or golf, or all recreations, and over the next five years we spent time with our Lord at the same intervals and the same durations, I believe we would bless the heart of our Father. And the Spiritual benefits would be incalculable! But in order for that to happen we would have to die to ourselves. Passover. That weekend changed the universe. That weekend changed me.

May the Lamb that was slain receive the full reward of His suffering.
WORTHY IS THE LAMB THAT WAS SLAIN!!

A Chosen Generation

"A chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people"(I Pet.2:9)
A CHOSEN GENERATION - we have generation X, baby boomers, etc. and a plethora of other segments of people that we identify by the history of their earthly birth. God says here that we are not to be identified by our earthly birth, but by the graciousness of our new birth which is not a male/female natural birth but a supernatural, spiritual birth of His choice. The enigma of this incredible birth is that the moment of conception is also the moment of delivery! Furthermore, at the instant you were born you died!? Death and life completely at work together in regeneration and accomplishing the work of the Holy Spirit sent through the cross, exiting through the empty tomb, and searching out awakened hearts to gloriously give life to dead souls and reward the Lamb of God with another younger sibling who now is identified as part of this chosen generation!
A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD - not of the tribe of Levi; not even of Judah; but we are a priesthood of the Spirit. We are called to minister to our Risen Lord. In praises, in worship, in service, in prayer, and in intimate fellowship that can only come through His own blood. Take your time as you diligently seek His presence. No, not just the universal presence of an omnipresent deity, but the infinitely intimate presence of a Holy God revealed in the glorified person of the Risen Christ, who by the Spirit bids us "Come". What offering could satisfy this Lord, who not only HAS everything, but MADE everything? Kneel down before His glorious throne; reach into your bosom, pull out your heart, and as you fall on your face before His loving gaze, place your heart at His feet and by His grace say,"My blessed Savior and Lord, I give my heart to you, it is yours forever". Hear Him say,"Thank you, my child, here is your new heart that is fashioned after My own".
AN HOLY NATION - the original word is "ethnos" meaning ethnic or race. God doesn't mean a country, He means a new and separated race of followers not identified by their outward features, but by their behavior. Not worried or enticed by this present world. Holy. Why should we care about this world? We have eternal life. So as we go about anxious about our money, consumed with our houses, luxurious in our travel, marginal in our giving, drawn to entertainment, exposed in our surface relationships, hollow in our prayer, and a thousand other things that reveal our Babylonian mindset, let us hear the Spirit's call to "Come out from the Chaldeans and come rebuild Jerusalem!". Our Abraham, Jesus, is the Father of our race. We have been born of His seed, the Word of God. We are strangers and pilgrims in this world. If we love this world we are enemies of God. We have been bought with a price and we are not our own. We belong to His race, which is the only eternal race, and this loving racism proclaims that,"There is one body, and one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all".
A PECULIAR PEOPLE - The word actually means "sold". Like seeing the sign in front of a house, it identifies this house as different from the others because it has been purchased. We should have a ambiance around our lives that gives off an aroma that identifies us as different. In Acts chapter four the high priest and others interrogated Peter and John, and when they heard what they said, they,"marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus". Do people take notice that we have been with Jesus? Let us just zero in on one "particular" day, Sunday. Do you purposely and sacrificially rise early to "be with Jesus". Listen to most of the friendly banter among believers as they enter the "church" building. Your health, the weather, your car, your motorcycle, football, and a myriad of other spiritually benign topics expose the fact that most of God's people spent more time combing their hair than they did with Jesus. If all we do on Sunday is leave our houses and meet in a common edifice, sing some songs, hear a speech, and return to our home, we may as well have stayed in bed. If we're not PECULIAR on the Lord's day, when are we? I challenge you this Sunday, set your alarm and rise like you would during the week(yea, a real sacrifice!). Read a whole book(maybe Galations, Ephesians, Philipians, etc.) and pray fervently that God would move not only in your heart, but that He would manifest His presence as you gather together as worshipers. Remember, there were times in the early church that the whole place was SHAKEN by God's presence. Read Acts 4:31. One other challenge, attempt to confine your talk to the things of YOUR LORD before the worship begins. It will be difficult(because we are not in that habit), but REWARDING!!
If that's too much of a sacrifice then ...don't do it. You definitely want to guard against fanaticism - it's so unseemly!