Is Christianity a set of doctrinal beliefs? Is it a
lifestyle based upon a set of truths? Is it the path to heaven? Or is it a path
which begins on earth and ultimately leads to heaven? Granted, the word “Christianity”
is a label used for all kinds of religious expressions which include Jesus. It
is a colloquialism. But I use it in this setting to refer to the genuine faith
of the Scriptures. What really is the Christian faith?
Matt.16: 24 Then
said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose
his life for my sake shall find it. 26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his
own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
the kingly majesty which
belongs to him as supreme ruler, majesty in the sense of the absolute perfection
of the deity
a thing belonging to
Christ
the kingly majesty of
the Messiah
the absolutely perfect inward
or personal excellency of Christ; the majesty
of the angels
as apparent in their
exterior brightness
a most glorious
condition, most exalted state
of that condition with
God the Father in heaven to which Christ was raised after he had achieved his
work on earth
the glorious condition
of blessedness into which is appointed and promised that true Christians shall
enter after their Savior's return from heaven
When I used the word “limited”
I meant it. As you can see the word glory is used to accentuate something great
and powerful and beautiful. It is used for the stars and for the mountains and
even for the wonder of life itself. But when the word is attached in any way to
God it takes on an entire new depth and scope. And from our vantage point and
understanding it has a very special meaning when it is applied to Christ Jesus.
Who really can know it in all its fullness?
To understand or
comprehend the absolute glory of the Risen Christ is only afforded to us in
part in this present life. However even that part is breathtaking and life
altering. We can throw around the words majesty and brightness and excellency
and exalted and still we come up way short in our attempt to reveal or
visualize the glory of Jesus. The glory of God exists in a reality completely
detached from our own time and space. And even though God can and does visit us
with glimpses through the illumination of the Spirit, we still remain ever the
paupers when it comes to fully apprehending the glory of the Lamb of God.
The Book of the
Revelation supplies us with some future imagery but human words are cloudy
conduits when it comes to heavenly things. And when it pertains to the Lion of
the Tribe of Judah those words really only whet our spiritual appetites. They
can do no more. In fact, what actually captures our spirits and changes our
lives is the surpassing knowledge of Christ accompanying with the knowledge we
have only a small revelation of that glory. Think about it. We have been moved
to tears and brokenness just because of our profoundly limited understanding of
the glory of the Redeemer. And none of us have as yet laid eyes and minds upon
the Risen Christ in all His glory and splendor. It is like taking a 200 piece
concert orchestra and only letting one violin play and still be overwhelmed by
its symphonic majesty and even recognizing that the other 199 pieces have yet
to play. This is the power of God’s eternal glory even when given and
understood in a very small way. Beyond words…completely beyond words.
But if we are to attempt
to fully understand the length and breadth of Christ’s redemption we must
proceed further. You see, this glory has been hidden in every true believer.
This glory is embedded in the Person of Christ Himself and He now lives and
resides within His people. How can we explain such a thing? I realize we have
our precious doctrines which so often are used to quench any further pursuit
and to prove our Scriptural orthodoxy, but if we choose to be satisfied with
that we lose any chance at finding the eternal treasure this side of heaven.
The clearer and deeper we see the Person of Jesus the more we allow the rays of
His glory to enter into our souls. This is no spiritual game. In fact, this
should be the lifelong pursuit of every true disciple of Jesus.
But the Apostle Paul
tells us through the Spirit that this glory, this Christ, will one day be
revealed in every true follower of Jesus Christ. Can you even pretend to
imagine such a thing? I mean we have never deserved heaven, but now not only are
we ushered into the dwelling place of Christ but He Himself will be revealed in
us. How can I even know that? How can I understand that? What words or
doctrines can really bring that into a reality in my being? It would have been
glorious if Christ had redeemed us but kept His distance so as not to identify with
us too closely. I could completely understand that. But to redeem us and then
to come and live within us is far beyond my ability to understand and make any
earthly sense of so great a salvation.
Oh the majesty of such a reality! Oh the eternal splendor
of such a redemption! Oh what a Savior indeed!That God would allow us to walk with His glory cannot be known. The
Scriptures reveal that God is a spirit. Alright then, tell me just what is a
spirit? Go ahead and mumble some ethereal words that make us look intelligent but
all you have done is show yourself a fool. In these temporal bodies with our
compromised minds all we have is what has been given to us through Scripture.
And since God is a spirit we humans have no way yet to understand even the
eternal DNA ( if you will) of the eternal being we call “God” which is the
Anglo-Saxon word for “good”. Do you see? Even the word “God” is human.
So if we cannot even define a spirit, and if we use our
own human words for Jehovah, then how are we supposed to comprehend the glory
of His Being? We do not even have a comprehensive understanding of the word “glory”
to say nothing of the glory which radiates from His eternal Being. But that
should just spur us on to pursue and uncover and enter into the treasures contained
in His Eternal Person. Meditate upon this: God is not a man and yet He came in
the likeness of a man. And even that has provided for us some sphere of reference
which accommodates our understandings but must still be seen as wholly insufficient.
So here we are consumed with ourselves and with an
ecclesiastical construct which ministers to us and not our Lord and with that
we are content and satisfied. Who really pursues Him anymore in this fast paced
culture with all its daily worries and cares and the constraints of time
largely absorbed into our temporal pursuits? Who has taken two months and
fasted and prayed and for two short months has eschewed television or
entertainment or going out to eat and immersed himself in prayer and the Word
in every spare moment? Just two months? And yet we expect to understand the
glory of our Risen Redeemer? Or worse yet we do not really care if we see His
glory or not because we await heaven. Who then are we really following?
The Industrial Revolution brought about colossal changes
in our culture. And with great leaps and bounds our time has been swallowed up
in earthly pursuits and caring for the material things we already have or we
desire to have. Any lengthy and deep times in prayer and fastings are now
relegated to church history books and stories of revivals in days gone by. And
oh what we have missed by being part of the cultural pursuits and not part of
the pursuit that seeks Him with our whole hearts. The church has fed us its
doctrines and has ensnared us with its activities and visions of growth and
buildings and in so doing it has robbed the body of the eternal treasures
hidden but available in Christ.
Col.2:
2 That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in
love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the
acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;
3 In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
II
Cor.4: 6 For God,
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the
power may be of God, and not of us.
And there it is! The treasures of Christ which is Christ
Jesus Himself dwells within us! Have we been digging to uncover this mystery
and to let is shine forth to those who know not our Blessed Redeemer? Have we
been thirsty for the water of this unfathomable glory within us? Do we actually
believe in eternal life anymore or is it just another doctrine of the church?
How can a person claim to believe in eternal life and yet spend so little time
with Christ and so much time with the temporal? And the generation that will
come after us will surely use our example to spiral further downward into the
abyss of this fallen world.
The glorious treasure of Christ Jesus which is deep
without a bottom has given way to the pursuit of earthly success and delicacies.
The church house is dark throughout the week and the homes burn with the fire
of television. The professing people of God no longer hunger and thirst after
the righteousness that can only be found in Christ Jesus our Lord. In fact we
have taken a few moral issues, stripped them from Christ, and made them our
god.
But like someone who has inherited millions but instead of claiming his inheritance he is searching for pennies in the crevices of his couch, so are we as we run after that which cannot satisfy or be sustained at the expense of eternal treasure. What a sad and humiliating spectacle! The church now seeks everything but Jesus and now feasts at the table of God's enemies. The name of Jesus is now used to comport our Christianity but the disciplines of spiritual pursuit cannot be found. Ten minutes in a devotional book makes us feel better and with that we go about our more important business.
But there is hope! There is that Blessed Hope! We need
not depend upon a church. We surely must not depend upon any country. We have
this treasure in our earthly vessel and the Spirit beckons us to Come and dine!”
Can you hear His call and His invitation? Let us awaken to the Spirit and cast
off the bondwoman of this present culture and be set free. Perhaps the Lord
Jesus will come tomorrow, but we still have today to seek and pursue and love Him
with all of our hearts. I do not present some form of legalism which sets a
timer to our prayers and devotions. But what I do present is a broken and
contrite heart which cannot be made whole without a daily encounter with the
Living and Reigning Christ. Let His glory shine in and through us, and let us take
after Him as a chick takes after its mother.
The glory of God…the treasure of God…all of it awaits
those who truly deny self and seek Him with their whole hearts. You will have to
sacrifice some earthly success or recognition, however that which you will
apprehend will surpass anything this world could ever hope to offer. In fact
all the sufferings or the blessings of this present world cannot compare with
the glory and treasure that can only be found in Christ Jesus our Lord. Selah.
Mark 12:28 And one
of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving
that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of
all?
29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O
Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first
commandment.
31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
Lk.6: 27 But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do
good to them which hate you,
28 Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. 29 And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and
him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also.
30 Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy
goods ask them not again. 31 And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.
A 17 year old
teenager lay dead from a bullet to his chest. Just moments ago he had been
walking home from the convenience store and now he was gone. And almost before
his body was cold the conversation began around the nation. Stand your ground,
self defense, justifiable homicide, and law And order were mixed in with many
of the discussions. The sides were drawn, and many took up their position on
both sides. And, yes, somewhere in all the verbiage and excusing and accusing
was the funeral pyre that signaled the death of the Christian church.
And after the smoke
died down it became obvious that the church had lost the essence of Christ and
was now a cultural phenomenon that could walk and talk and build and organize,
but like the tin man of old it had no heart. But unlike that tin man the
Redeemer had given her a heart but she had given it away in order to become a
player in the fallen machinations of these world. The most compassionate thing
most believers could say was that this “case” was a “tragedy”. How self serving
and tepid. As we go about our own business we throw a few verbal morsels out in
order to reveal a level of compassion and insulate ourselves from judgment?
Yes, that is the best we can muster these days.
The eternal is
relinquished in order to join in with the clamor of fallen men. Earthly laws and
order and gun rights muscle out any authentic attempt to show the heart of
Jesus. And when Jesus is involved there are no sides. He is the side. The death
of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida should present to us a vivid picture of
the falleness of man as the monstrous, grotesque, and revolting picture it
always is. But instead it once again provided for the church a platform to
parade its own brand of heartless verbiage. A boy is dead and his lifeless
corpse is the catalyst for all kinds of positions to be battled out on talk
shows and news programs and in the homes and churches across this nation. And
so it continues.
But lets continue to
fool ourselves since we cannot fool God. The church which professes Jesus on
some doctrinal level has lost its heart and soul and now can so seamlessly
embrace constitutional rights and legal issues along with the fallen and blind
world. Who is right? Who is legally culpable? Was Zimmerman a racist? Was
Martin a bad seed? Those kinds of questions are what the church has become, and
any mourning through the prism of the teachings of Jesus have long since been
neatly packed away in the doctrinal cupboard only to be used to prove our “orthodoxy”.
But should not the
church have been the most demonstrative in its grieving for the entire episode?
Should not the world have seen our tears and our broken hearts over this dead
young man regardless of any legal justifications?
Without a heart the
church is merely a club or an organization which deals in religion. Go ahead
and be a conservative or a liberal or a patriotic American but do not expect
Jesus to come along. The truth is that most professing believers do not care if
Jesus comes along or not. The stage is set and the conversation is heated and
most can find their self worth somewhere in all of that. Words, words, and more
words. But without a heart words are nothing more than manipulated air driven
over the vocal chords and allowed to escape through the mouth. Yes, it is that
antiseptic and meaningless.
I truly believe
that without some sovereign move of the Spirit that rises profoundly above
excitement and numbers the western church has gone way too far. It is not
coming back. She has found refuge in this earthly wilderness and with a number
of religious decorations she has made this wilderness her home and even her
god. And the church will defend and promote this wilderness as if it was God’s
own dwelling place. The heartless and soulless journey continues. The
conferences still organize with great vigor. The building programs still raise
money with great skill. The music programs still excite the emotions. The
messages still point the way to earthly success. The Spirit is now recognized
by conservative positions.
Rom.12: I beseech
you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing
of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect,
will of God.
How many of us sat under preachers that railed against
smoking and drinking and dancing and they used those verses as their foundation?
How tragic it is that so many believers
have an earthly perspective on things which is often the same perspective as
unbelievers have. Although it may be that George Zimmerman did not break any of
man’s laws, is that what we derive comfort from as followers of Jesus? A
teenage boy raised in a domestic mess is now dead and he was doing nothing
wrong. Go ahead and embrace all your law and order mantras if that is what
gives you solace, but I feel a real sense of tragedy.
What if Zimmerman was a believer?
What if he carried a taser instead of a gun? What if did not call that boy an
expletive? What if as a believer Zimmerman had asked the boy if he needed a
ride to wherever he was going? And how deeply tragic it is to see believers and
unbelievers alike pounce on the fact that Trayvon Martin had traces of
marijuana in his blood. If that was the criteria for being deserving of death I
should have been shot forty years ago. I sold drugs to high school kids. But I have used this tragedy in order to convict us on a higher spiritual issue.
You see, the “What would Jesus do?”
church phrase seems to end at the barrel of s gun. Our calling as His followers
is not to beat the law and order drums. Those who do that are already legion.
Our calling is redemption. And sometimes that means we are going to be
vulnerable. But so often the world supplies the narrative and the parameters
and the church participates on the world’s terms. This case should once again
wake us up to see just how fallen the world is and just how incongruous our
faith is with what the world practices.
But the Zimmerman issue represents
a deeper and more profound issue about which most of the church is willingly
and pleasantly ignorant. The winds of this world’s perspectives blow with
incredible strength. They are both open and clandestine and carry an influential
weight that captures the mind and heart with partial truths and earthly logic.
The evil force behind these winds is incredibly clever and uses all kinds of
leverages in order to draw people into embracing the fallen perspectives of
this world. The church has been called to a life which is not of this world,
and yet so often we have distilled it down to the avoiding of cigarettes and
beer and profane language.
And if you are against abortion and
gay marriage you are comparatively a mature and surrendered follower of Jesus.
That, of course, is measured by comparing ourselves with ourselves but it has
no Scriptural or spiritual validity. People are influenced and even controlled
by imagery and information. And in these days of multiple televisions with
hundreds of channels with 24 hour programming, and with the incredible spread
of all the many social media technologies, the average person’s mind can be
altered and controlled simply by the amount of disinformation to which he
exposes himself. And not only does he expose himself to fraudulent information
streams, but most enjoy and are even addicted to it. This includes those who
profess Christ.
This issue of affecting and
infecting the hearts and minds through the senses cannot be overstated. And it
isn’t just embracing what the world says is “conservative” and rejecting what
the world says is “liberal”. It goes far deeper than those safe monikers. Truth
as understood through the Scriptures is sacred and yet it cannot be just
printed upon a Hallmark card and used to prove our orthodox spirituality. The
church has come to love its doctrinal statements and has long since given up
any sacrificial pursuit as it pertains to applications of those truths.
The life in the Spirit which not
only follows Jesus but allows He Himself to live through us as divine conduits
is not sedentary and stagnant. It must continue to grow in the grace and the
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is not just some innocuous phrase
which is meant to elicit “amens” from the pews or fit neatly into a clean and
organized systematic theology. When John the Baptist declared, “He must
increase but I must decrease” he was uttering a statement which profoundly
captures the very essence of our lives. And if we truly examine the life and
ministry of Jesus we must see just how He lived and spoke with such a
distinctiveness that was at odds with what even religious people had come to
believe. And His teachings were incompatible with the ways of the world.
But today the church has learned to
embrace both the teachings of Jesus and the teachings of the world. And since
they are at odds with each other then just what is the church embracing? In
essence the church is embracing itself and not Jesus. And given that we all
wear western glasses and we see and understand things with a western bias, the
Scriptures have been taught through that same bias. But the tension between
what we believe and practice and live as opposed to what Jesus actually taught
would be unbearable. So the church has slowly but surely changed the
interpretation of the message of Jesus in order to alleviate any spiritual
tension. And so what we have today is the Christianity of man and not the
Christianity of Christ and it feels oh so good.
Oh how it must grieve the Spirit of
God when He sees what has become of the entity that still calls itself “the
church”. He is called the Spirit of Christ and He knows with eternal knowledge
and experience who is the Son of God. It was He who impregnated the virgin with
the incarnate Christ in Nazareth. And yet now He finds a church consumed with
itself and walking in the ways of the heathen. And even worse He hears a church
teach lies and claim they come from Him and the Redeemer.
But where is that transforming
power which frees the mind and the heart from the teachings and even the
perspectives of this fallen world? Where is that powerful renewing of the mind
which takes the written revelation of Jesus and empowers the new man to see
things as He sees them? How can we be a friend to the ways of the world and a
friend to Jesus as well? This life that follows Jesus is not just so we can
find a voice that directs the moral compass of a fallen culture. No, this is a life
which crucifies our former lives in all their fallen glory and allows a new
creation to burst forth which has no relation to the former. And permeating
everything within this new life is Jesus and His gospel redemption. Everything
else must be residual.
Who carries a cross anymore? Who
endures persecution with patience and even rejoicing? Who allows the world to
battle out their own wars while we quietly and with humility go about our
Father’s business? These are the issues which must define us as believers or
they openly indict us. There cannot be two masters. In Christ there cannot be
any competitors nor can there be a ameliorating between the fallen and the
sacred.
It is time we seek and pursue a
fresh revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. It would not be so we can enlarge our volume on Christology. This kind of seeking requires a
sacrifice and a self denial which is foreign to the western mindset and the
western church. It will bring affliction as well as great glory. It will lead
to repentance as it leads to a greater freedom in Christ. It will open our eyes
as to this present world and open our eyes to eternity. It will establish the
Lordship of Christ in our hearts and minds, and this kind of revelation will
change us forever. This is what we need. This is what the Spirit calls out for
us. This is not just to give us some life adjustments. He must be our life.
I Cor.1: 30 But
of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
31 That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the
Lord.
Eph.1: 7 In whom we have
redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of his grace;
8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
Heb.9: 11 But Christ
being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;
12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. 13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer
sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit
offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God?
We sometimes treat the word
“redemption” as a cousin to “redeeming” grocery store coupons. The depth, the
scope, the power, the quality, the eternity, the cost, the suffering, the
mystery, and the grace inherent within the redemption of Christ is past
knowing. Only on the day we enter into His dwelling place and are overwhelmed
by the sheer weight of His glory and holiness will we understand how
significantly we shortchanged what the Savior accomplished for us.
But let us do what the overwhelming
body of the visible church rarely if ever does. The church believes that
watching an Easter Pageant and feeling warm and appreciative and then going out
for some ice cream is worshiping and glorifying the Eternal Redeemer. How we
have taken the sufferings of our Great Savior and trampled them under our
cultural feet which are swift to accommodate our own lusts. It is confounding
just how the church has taken the Redeemer and His cross and made then into a
western talisman rather than a life changing power which results in self denial
and sacrifice that ministers to our Great God. All across the evangelical
landscape God has become a self help force and redemption is little more than a
reserved seat in heaven while we go about our earthly pleasures.
The simple definition of the word
“redeemed” is to buy back and that is the foundational construct of spiritual
redemption through Jesus Christ. However we cannot, we must not, just let it go
at that without a searching of the cost and meaning in that eternal
transaction. To make it some impersonal doctrine is to offend the Spirit
through which we cannot know anything of Christ. This redemption is an
unfathomable treasure filled with pain and suffering, a miracle birth, a love
which surpasses knowledge, and a horrific scene of blood, and a never ending
stream of profound glory. This is no flannel graph presentation. This is the
glorious mystery that will redound forever to the glory of the Creator God who
revealed Himself in the Person of Jesus Christ.
We as humans are so bound to the
visual. Our eyes have become to discerners of truth, and therefore anything we
cannot see we either doubt or ignore. Things of the Spirit are relegated to
subordinate status because we cannot see them. Even the beauty and majesty of
creation does not drive us to seek the Creator. In fact only the Spirit can
reveal to us the things of the Spirit. And even in the church that which is
material and temporal are the things which are sought. The things of this earth
consume the church while the gospel of redemption and all the priceless
treasure therein have long since required way too much time and effort to seek.
Our earthly lives demand earthly answers and the church supplies those answers
packed in some thin veneer of Bible language. Redemption has become a children’s
story. We know all about Bethlehem and Calvary and the empty tomb. What else
can there be?
But all that is obviously ignorant
of the utter darkness with which we were once imprisoned. We willfully see sin
as some kind of mistake which has scant consequences unless it is illegal and we
get caught. But to understand redemption we must see sin for what is really is.
It is a monstrous betrayal to the Creator God. Just one act of disobedience
sent the entire world into spiritual darkness and brought death upon men’s
souls. Can you imagine such a thing? One insignificant sin and death, both
physical and eternal, enters the world. Billions of souls are born with the
eternal sentence of sin inherent in their souls. It is in this situation where
redemption cries out in a stable in Bethlehem.
The entire world lies in the wicked
one until Bethlehem. But men had taken God’s futuristic metaphors contained in
the sacrificial system of the law and made them a redemption of works. They
failed to understand the spiritual nature of that spilled blood. It was never
about bulls and goats. It was always about the Son of God and His blood which
was to come. Yes, the revelation first felt by Mary and first announced by
Gabriel and first seen in a manger was the personification of the redemption
illustrated by the blood of animals. But human sacrifice was pagan and
forbidden to God’s people.
But this was no ordinary human, and
God’s plan was a mystery. That is why so many Jews missed it, and that is why
church people by the literal millions are missing it as well. Let’s face it. A
suffering Jew on a Roman cross is not exactly what excites the intellect of
man. And after 2000 years the story has not only become stale, but it has now
acquired an almost mythical quality. People will embrace “Jesus” but have
little stomach for searching the cross of redemption. It is quite
unsophisticated and even barbaric in these enlightened times. The entire
emergent movement sets out to eviscerate the cross and present redemption as a
sort of spiritual humanitarianism.
But nothing can change God’s truth.
This glorious redemption purchased at such a high cost is completely free to
whosoever believes upon the Redeemer Jesus. And just what does God require of a
sinner before that sinner can be redeemed? He must believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ because on some level that sinner recognizes his need for forgiveness
from the Almighty. No, he cannot understand the depth of his own depravity nor
the gravity of his rebellion toward God. But as he hears the Spirit’s
illumination of Christ he acts upon his need and believes on Jesus as his only
Savior.
Now which sins must be completely
forsaken before God will grant him the grace of redemption? None. In fact, he cannot
know God’s moral commands and he does not have the power to leave his sins. So
in reality the miracle we call redemption is all of God and none of us. All we
do is believe. That is the complete definition as well as the manifestation of
grace. We wake up one morning as an enemy of God walking in the kingdom of
darkness, and in a moment of faith we have been translated into the kingdom of
light and we are now a child of God. There can be no greater miracle.
But somehow along the way the
evangelical community got caught up in political games and moral crusades and
in so doing it changed how we see and understand the gospel. We adopted the
moral rules of the unsaved conservatives and made them litmus tests for a lost
sinner. We attacked certain sinners and embraced others. So when the
conservative sinner who lies and cheats and verbally eviscerates his or her
opponent we applaud them because they are pro-life and anti-gay. But if a
sinner is gay he is an abomination to God and to us and we demand he change way
before he can believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And if per chance a gay person does
believe in Jesus we may grant him a short amount of time to completely
understand his sin and completely abandon his behavior. We may allow him a
certain amount of struggle, but if that struggle creates some wiggle room for
his sinful behavior he is dismissed as unsaved. And that creates an interesting
dilemma. I continue to see open greed, prayerlessness, hedonism, idolatry,
spiritual lethargy, debt, and divorce and remarriage rampant in the evangelical
church. And yet those sins are considered part of the sanctification process
and in fact many are not even considered sins. All kinds of money sins which
are part and parcel of a capitalist culture are now part and parcel of an
evangelical lifestyle. They are even considered God’s blessings.
And so the question becomes can
these kind of evangelicals really be saved? After all they live lives out of
Biblical order, and they are completely blind about some of their sins, and
they even embrace some sins as coming from God, and yet they claim to be
followers of Jesus. Millions love a fallen nation, and hate liberals with a
passion, and millions listen to the caustic vitriol of self righteous talk show
hosts almost every day while neglecting God’s Word. How can they be saved
especially if we are going to pronounce a person as “unsaved” if he or she is
blind to the sin of same sex relationships?
The real question deals with the
essence of redemption. Is it completely by faith or is it by faith at the
beginning with an agreement for works in the future? And if redemption is by
faith and works then it is a works salvation. And many people believe that, but
most of the evangelical world believes that salvation is by faith alone, except
when it comes to gay people. And here is a penetrating question. Can an
abortion doctor be redeemed and have his life changed where he reads his Bible
and prays and is active in an evangelical church and even supports overseas
missions but he still performs abortions? Can he be saved but still believes
life begins at birth?
Now if you say that doctor cannot
possibly be saved then you have a works salvation. Let me ask you this: Can a
person have all the right moral positions and be an evangelical church member
and still be unsaved? The answer of course is yes.
II Tim.2: 19 Nevertheless
the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them
that are his. And, let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from
iniquity.
There
it is. Only the Lord knows for sure who are His, and yes, those who are
following Jesus should forsake sin. That is a constant theme in the New
Testament. But look at the following verses.
20 But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but
also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour.
21 If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto
honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good
work.
And there is God’s grace revealed in all its glory! There
will be saints who have not lived in surrender but who were genuinely born
again and will lose rewards but who will spend eternity with Christ for no other
reason but that by faith they truly trusted His finished work. Does that not exclude
all works? Yes there will be those whose conversion was illegitimate and who
will be revealed as religious but not born again. But there will also be those
whose lives were unfortunately not fully committed but whose souls were saved
by fire. This should never give false assurance to those who are living in sin,
but it also should keep us from passing authoritative judgment on any who
profess Christ but have succumbed to sinful struggles. Only God knows those
that are truly His.
We have self righteously limited God’s redemption while
others have unwisely expanded it to include almost all sinners. There exists a
fine line which must be navigated with humility as well as Biblical direction.
And if all the hedonistic American believers can be children of God by faith,
well then so can others whose sin is of a different variety. We must hold high
the cross of Christ and His gospel, but we cannot exclude certain sinners just
because their sin is outside our own struggles. Rebuke in love. Correct in
humility. Teach with Biblical authority. Intercede in prayer. Reach out in
loving truth. And above all count yourself as nothing and Christ as everything.
Resist the temptation to join hands with the fallen morality of those whose
self righteousness is self evident. Be clothed in humility and die to yourself
every day. The gospel is for the immoral.
Ti.3:
2 To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle,
shewing all meekness unto all men.
3 For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived,
serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and
hating one another. 4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man
appeared,
Yes, we did not pull ourselves up by our own boot straps.
We were rescued by grace and by grace we still stand and it is that same grace
which must define our lives. It is grace which permeates God redemption and
without grace it is nothing more than a moral high jump which can never clear
the bar. God did not come to call the righteous to salvation. Why? Because
there are no righteous outside of Christ.
Here is a classic example of what I
have pointed out in many posts of which I receive comments and e-mails both
supportive and strongly otherwise. This couple is firmly entrenched in this
fallen culture and are both embraced by and to that same fallen culture. In
fact, by implication they consider their way of life a walk of “holiness” just
because they are heterosexual.
I watched this clever video where a
couple spoke of their gut wrenching confusion when their 12 year old son told
them he was gay. They were professing believers and they made many mistakes but
eventually their son spiraled downward into hard drugs because he believed God
hated him. He overdosed and died. But the parents seemed to now wish they had
embraced his same sex attractions.
Oh the blindness of the church
which has become so American it cannot understand just how blind we all have
become. The issue they share about having a gay son or daughter while being a
professing believer is an extremely complex one. Not as to what God’s Word
teaches, but as to how we should react and how the gospel itself applies itself
to that situation. The western church is filled with all kinds of sin and
hedonistic practices. In fact it is a microcosm of the fallen culture which
includes self affirmation, self pleasure, self actualization, profound hedonism,
and even heterosexual adultery both in practice and in the mind.
Thursday the 4th of July
was revered and celebrated as believers by the literal millions show their love
and allegiance to what God hates. Most call it patriotism but God calls it
idolatry. That is one well spring of all kinds of elicit attractions that may
not be sexual but are every bit as diabolical and sinful. And that is the
foundation of my ongoing journey to seek Christ in all His ways and fullness
without presenting a Christ who is at odds with His own words. And it also
identifies my supposition that the gay issue is an ongoing deception that lends
affirmation to a heterosexual community of faith which continues to live as if
God was a capitalist American but decidedly not gay.
I was moved by this couple’s story.
But the obvious unspoken answer to their family dilemma was that their love for
their son has somehow become the exegetical prism through which they see and
know God. And although I abhor the ranting and chanting evangelical hordes
which demand condemnation and even legislation to flex their doctrinal muscles
abut same sex attractions, I cannot reconcile a condoning of behavior which
embraces and manifests those attractions. I do not have all the answers.
But one thing I do know for a
metaphysical certainty. If the Starbucks and the snowboarding and the expensive
vacation crowd can claim to be following Jesus, and if that same crowd can be
saved by grace through faith alone, then so can a gay believer who is blind to
his sin. Seeing an expansive view of Christ’s redemption in that way does not
condone sin. God forbid. But it covers sin through His shed blood. And perhaps
the greatest sin of all and which results in all kinds of viciousness is the
sin of self righteousness.
So when the evangelical pastor
stands behind the pulpit and lambasts the degenerate culture as evidenced by
the growing gay thing, and when the pew dwellers nod and say amen and even
applaud his bold stand for Biblical morality, I believe that climate is fertile
ground for an incredible harvest of self righteousness. And I also believe that
the evangelical community does not have a clue, nor do they desire one, about
what self righteousness is and how it permeates the soul and renders our faith
as little more than a string of moral pontifications.
And just to throw out some red meat
for the voracious appetites of the evangelical masses, and just to shield
myself from those who would throw stones my way labeled compromise, I still
believe that acting on same sex attractions is sinful. Almost as sinful as my
own self righteousness. It’s that last bit of red meat, my own, which drives me
to so often be a doctrinal vegan.
Here is a man, a professing
believer, who strives to be a financial success and in so doing spends very
little time with his children and his wife. In fact, he begins a relationship
with his secretary and his marriage begins to deteriorate. Within months they
speak of divorce. It happens. And the next year this man marries his secretary
and begins a new life. He is still financially successful and he sees his
children infrequently. But this man does not believe God hates him. He is not
depressed, and his sin is not continually trumpeted from evangelical pulpits.
In fact he and his new wife join a large evangelical church and are welcomed
into the fold. No questions asked.
This man experiences no struggles
and he is affirmed by his new church family. In fact, when the preacher comes
down hard on homosexual marriage and the liberal mindset this man and his wife
nod and smile in approval. You think my story is some kind of fairy tale? Not
only do I know personally people in this kind of narrative, but I know
preachers who fit this mold. Here is man who is a pawn broker. He charges 25%
PER MONTH interest for pawned items which are usually desperate and poor
people. He believes he provides a service and he is willfully blind to the
Biblical teaching on usury. But he a church member in good standing and his
third wife sings in the choir. He does not feel condemned by God nor does he
sense God hates him. You see, his sin is not an abomination.
Prov.6: 16 These
six things doth the Lord hate:
yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running
to mischief,
19 A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among
brethren.
Where oh where are the gays in this list? The depth of
self righteousness is astonishing. All sin is an abomination before God. But if
serves our self righteous purpose to call the sin of same sex relationships an
abomination. Please provide me with all the New Testament verses about the sin
of homosexual behavior and I will provide you with the verses about greed and
heterosexual sin. Sin is sin and the cross is the cross and the gospel is the
gospel and Jesus is the Redeemer for whosoever will. And no amount of
conservative legislation or evangelical condemnation can ever minimize the fact
that Jesus loves sinners and died for us all. But that does not seem to
dissuade many people from trying.
And so on and on it goes. That which is casually called
“Christianity” continues to be an innocuous segment of a fallen culture. And
within a house with no mirrors there is a moral telescope. As long as you are
not gay you are walking in holiness. But the larger question is why is there
this obsession with the gay issue when the New Testament is literally filled
with admonitions about money and greed? Why can the church submit and gladly
participate in a sin which is so clear but get hypertension about all things
gay?
The answer is simple. It is self righteousness plain and
simple. Self righteousness is basically exalting man over God. It is speaking
for God things that He never said while changing or even ignoring things He did
say. In fact it is a form of unbelief even while still using His name. The
church has never had a prayerful conversation about these issues, in fact what
the modern church has is a monologue which tickles the ears and soothes the
conscience. And reclining in a place of moral hubris, the church looks down on
the cultural serfs and passes judgment. It is a great show and creates an
atmosphere of self affirmation but it is void of the messy and bloody business
of redemption. And you cannot be on the Lord’s “team” without a proper uniform.
I
Pet.5…5 Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be
clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the
humble.
The
church no longer desires a conversation, a seeking on the subject of the
redemption of Christ. We have our statements of faith and do not need any
challenges. Even if we establish the exclusivity of Christ the church still has
little appetite for a deep and prayerful exploration of God’s eternal Word as
it pertains to the gospel and its implication and application to all sorts of
sinners. We are “literalists” and we are bound to what we have been told we
believe. It is such a comfortable place.
Humility?
Tears? Fastings often? All night prayer vigils? Seasons of repentance? Who are
we kidding? No one and surely not God. We have become an unwieldy monolith
which has lost its heart and goes to bed each night exhausted by the energy it
takes to run the race laid out for us by the fallen culture. When was the last
time just the thought of eternity stopped us in our tracks and shook our very
being as we considered the plight of the lost? It seems everything has been
distilled down into cute little doctrines which are presented as orthodox and
conservative credentials rather than life changing truths which impact us every
single day.
Moral
politics is such an easy game. It soothes the conscience and affirms the flesh.
It disembowels the gospel and makes earthly issues the cause of Christ. And
this kind of earthly alliances with the heathen has made the church a
collection of people who meet periodically in buildings paid for with bank
loans and with many care takers. But as far as power that can be compared with
the Book of Acts let us not lie. We are religious zombies who find much pleasure
in this world while doing our religious duty once or twice a week. Is it that
bad, you ask? Have you ever heard of the word apostasy?
But if you dislike that word you can just believe this
post is about homosexuality.
That should help.
(Part two of this post will be a genuine conversation and exploration of Christ and His redemption.)
Eph.5: 14 Wherefore he
saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give
thee light.
15 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, 16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Matt.24: 7 For
nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall
be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
We see how the world is coming
apart. It has always been fallen and full of sin and unrighteousness. But go to
some Bible school or seminary and you will find an abundance of classes and
books on how to build a church or eschatology or a long list of “ologies”. The
Bible will be “studied” and test will be given as to your Bible “knowledge”.
And men and women are granted degrees simply because they passed most of the
knowledge tests. In fact if they get a little more college loan money and do a
little more Bible quiz work they will be granted a master’s degree.
In evangelical circles many men and
women are granted an unearned doctorate so they may place it in front of their
name. And many of the larger churches when searching for a pastor look for that
“Dr.” in front of the candidate’s name. But where did the church get such a
system? Where did the church learn to seek such titles and book knowledge? Of
course they learned it from the world’s systems and copied it. And now, sadly,
you have an evangelical system which copies the systems of the world with a
little Jesus fluff.
Where are the colleges which teach
a three year course on prayer? Where are the courses on fasting 101, 102, and
103? Where are the yearlong studies on being clothed with humility? Where are
the Bible schools which teach students how to live without debt and live in
abject moderation? How many classes are entitled “Forsaking All 101”? These
Bible schools claim to be raising “champions for Christ” or Warriors in the
Spirit” or some other self serving monikers when in fact they should be training
and nurturing humble servants of the Lord Jesus. When will being filled with
the Spirit be a power that is unmistakably observed in a life rather than a
written doctrine or a onetime experience?
Let us be painfully honest and quit
parsing words. We have lost the faith. Our religious institutions are producing
Christian leaders who know very little about Jesus except what they read in
books. Many are sincere and nice, and many are hard working, but how many have
forsaken all? The divine anointing is now measured by people in pews, land and
buildings, and weekly offerings.. And of course certain letters before a
person’s name mean he is a special representative of Christ. It is all so
tragic and sad. This is surely not the faith that led the martyrs to the
gallows, or led men like Livingston to give his life to reach African natives,
or led Jim Elliot to give his life for some unknown tribe.
What we have now is a system which
has become a religious beast which feasts upon the culture and knows not the
Lord Jesus nor the power of the Spirit nor the call of the everlasting gospel.
This beast has a voracious appetite for more of what people want to fulfill
their own lusts. Sacrifice and self denial are relics of days gone by. And this
system, this beast, continues to fare sumptuously on the culture while
maintaining a paper thin veneer of Christianity through some familiar words and
a few outward ceremonial practices.
But, you say, “I respectfully
disagree”. Yes, I know.
Hos.10: 12 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.
13 Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the
fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy
mighty men.
When will we hear the Spirit’s call for repentance? This
is not a time where the church is just hard of hearing and remains spiritually
stagnant. This is a time when the visible church is running with great relish
to receive and consume that which God abhors. All around us men run away from
God and unto a god of their own creation. And churches fill their pews with
people living fully entrenched in a fallen culture and loving to have it so.
The pulpits are hollow; the music is fleshly; the debts are offensive; the
message is worldly; the teachings are selfish; the fellowship is earthly; the
prayer closets are empty; and yet the people rejoice? The church should be on their faces weeping.
We as believers experience a literal
plethora of emotions. We are joyful and we are melancholy. We are bold and
sometimes we afraid. We are rather confident and we are rather unsure. We are
at peace and yet sometimes we are in turmoil. Yes, we are within Christ and yes
we have that eternal assurance, but we still live in a temporal body which is
subject to all the temptations known to mankind.
But we who love and follow Jesus
also feel a great sense of sadness at times when we think of the colossal price
our Savior paid and how He is rejected and mistreated even today. We live in a
culture steeped in hedonism and pleasure. All around this nation there are
water fountains which spout clean water simply to supply a visual ambiance and
to the aesthetic nature of man. And at the same time people in many parts of
the world die without clean drinking water. And on top of this obvious
disparity, people in this culture actually throw money into these fountains and
make some sort of wish. This the world in which we live and if we truly follow
Jesus we must feel sad about the selfishness of man.
The blindness even among believers
is astounding. I once shared the plight of the people in Darfur with a godly
woman who reads and prays and loves Jesus. After hearing about the wretched
conditions and the starving children she remarked, “But we don’t live there.”
That pretty much sums up the attitude of the evangelical church in America.
People will save up money making some sacrifices and with great energy in the
planning and go for an experience of a lifetime to visit the Holy Land. And
just in case you cannot go to Israel you can pay $45.00 to visit the Holy land
Experience in Orlando. It goes beyond the absurd and is actually sinful on a
grand scale.
But even though we feel some sense
of anger and righteous indignation we also feel a profound sense of sadness
concerning what is happening all over the world and what the western church has
done to the faith. Do you desire a holy experience?
Then go into your prayer closet and seek His face and His holy presence. There
is nothing like it on this earth.
But instead of seeking the presence
of the Holy One people have created a church where the desires and wishes of
man reign supreme. People ask others, “How was church?” which usually means was
it exciting and were you blessed or was the preacher’s message something you
liked. But just the question openly indicates just how self centered and even
humanistic the church has become. People now gather to be motivated and to
learn how to achieve a greater level of earthly success. And in tens of
thousands of local church financial prosperity IS the gospel. The faith once
delivered unto the saints has now become a product that is advertised and sold
as a necessary commodity for a well rounded western life.
And we should feel a real sense of
sadness as we see what should be the glorious and humble bride of Christ turn
into an adulteress who seeks everything but her Bridegroom. In an ingenious and
diabolical metamorphosis the cares of this world have become the core of the faith
called Christianity. If we really know the Christ and accept His Scriptural
mandates for His own church then it should be profoundly distressing as we
watch what has and continues to happen. This is not the faith of the
Scriptures. This is not the blood bought church of Jesus Christ. This is a man
made concoction created to accommodate the concerns and desires of man and not
the commands and the heart of Almighty God.
And at the very core of this
unfathomable rebellion is the disparaging and the minimizing and indeed the
very rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ. None of us can honestly claim to be a
completely surrendered follower of Jesus, but when another Jesus has been
created and held up as our pursuit then we are resigned to a literal apostasy.
Can you read that word “apostasy” and not feel an overwhelming tsunami of
emotions run through your being? If so than you are a prisoner of that very
apostasy. This is not some doctrinal game of chess where someone moves and then
his opponent moves and on and on it goes. This is life and death…eternal life
and death. In these perilous times the Spirit is calling people to come out
from among them and forsake all. But the church remains uninterested in the
sincere milk of God’s Word and instead has become weaned to the dictates of the
fallen heart of man.
And even among so called “orthodox”
assemblies there is scant heartbreak that would result in a sacrificial return
to prayer and fasting and a voracious appetite for the Word of God. This is not
just about having our doctrinal ducks in a pretty little row. This is not just
about being able to pin the tail on the apostates. This call of the Spirit is
to us and it is profoundly serious. God’s holy power is still available by His
grace to whoever will take up their cross and follow Him. We have been called
to expose false teachers and apostates, but our message must still be Jesus and
His gospel and our lives must be crucified vessels which openly and
dramatically shine His very Person.
I know… words, words, and just some
more words. Our ears have become dull of hearing and our eyes have become blind
and our hearts have been temples of stone. We no longer even understand what
God desires of us to say nothing of pursuing it. The local churches operate as
businesses with ebbs and flows but with a redundancy which keeps the people
coming. Some believer gives up smoking and we receive it as a miracle. Our
expectations of personal change and commitment are now so low that we accept
coming to church as a colossal sign of a true disciple. And if you took 100
church members and lined them up with 100 moral unbelievers from the same
community there would be almost no difference.
In centuries past the evil one has
used the stake and the gallows to do battle against the Lord’s people. But in
these last days, especially in the more industrialized nations, he has changed
his tactics and now employs a more clandestine and sophisticated method of
injecting compromise. Instead of threatening death he now offers the church the
pleasures of this life. And this strategy continues to work with incredible
effectiveness.
We have constructed our own evangelical
tower of Babel which in the end leads nowhere. We have mixed the holy with the
profane. We have become a wild ass, running and frolicking without any
restraint. We have jumped the fences of the Lord and we are grazing in the
pastures of the heathen. We dine at Hollywood's trough on Saturday night
and lift up dirty hands on Sunday. Our church buildings are our glory and our
prayer closets are our shame. We worry about the economy but sleep well while
souls perish. We make celebrities of preachers and show disdain for praying
grandmothers. We openly herald politicians but refuse to preach Christ
on the street. We criticize lost sinners but speak well of the harlot church.
We have become prisoners of America's hedonism and yet we proclaim we are free.
Where is the sadness; where is the
shame? We gather on Sundays with the same smile we had last week and we
fellowship with each other as if it was a class reunion. But all the while we
are powerless. Do our gatherings make the devil tremble and the world take
note? Imagine a city where their dikes had burst and the water was rushing in.
It has already washed out major parts of the outlying areas and it is moving
toward the center of the city. And all the inhabitants of the city are aware of
what has happened and what is continuing to happen. But they still are
flamboyant and content in their situation and they do not seem very anxious at
all.
What kind of people are these? Who
sees oncoming peril that has already destroyed much of the city but whose
demeanor has not been seriously impacted by the crisis? And they do not seem to
care about the lives of those now being destroyed or the lives of those around
them which are in peril. What kind of people are these?
There is a call from the Spirit for
personal brokenness. The fallow ground which needs to be broken up is within
us. Should we not feel deeply saddened by the coldness of our own hearts? Like
quicksand this culture both secular and religious pulls us with great force and
seeks to imprison us.
But there is living water in all of
this for those who will dig deep enough to find it. It cannot be found in this
world and it cannot be found in the religious institutions that fill the globe.
This water comes from the Lord Jesus and His Spirit. It alone can satisfy a
soul and bring forth life everlasting. In the midst of our sadness, we still
can have a living hope. This is an everlasting well which both satisfies and
transforms the soul from an enemy of God into one of His own children. How can
God’s children drink from the cesspool from which we were rescued? Does the
cross mean that little to us? Do His sufferings only evoke some Easter emotions
but no spiritual commitment to endure hardships ourselves and follow Him along
that same blood soaked path?
Our heritage is one of great glory
through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The church exploded on the Day of
Pentecost and believers fresh from the City of Peace were sent to the far flung
regions of the world. The gospel was preached with great power, souls were
saved, and lives were so dramatically changed that governments sat up and
became threatened. The ashes of the martyrs cry out “Worthy is the Lamb that
was slain!” Hundreds of thousands of believers gladly went to their reward
through death at the hands of wicked men. The light that was lit could never be
extinguished and the Spirit of God gave believers great courage even before the
New Testament had been penned.
And down through the centuries
humble men and women of God served the Lord Christ with such sacrifice that
sinners were drawn to their Savior. Through tears and trials they were found
faithful and they left us a legacy which should have been our path as well. Is
it not time to stir up the gift that lives within us? Can we not break up the
fallow ground which suffocated the Spirit’s voice? Is Jesus worth denying
ourselves and following hard after Him? Is eternal life not enough and must we
have everything this world gives us?
Additional communications to me may be e-mailed to spcrick@msn.com. Any negative e-mails will be deleted without response, however sincere questions will be answered. I seek edification and deeper knowledge of Christ and His truth not a destructive and meaningless religious chatter. May God's Spirit open all of our hearts to Him.
I am an ordained Baptist minister but more importantly I am a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. I was saved in 1975 watching Billy Graham on television after having lived a wicked and Christless life. I graduated with a three year degree from Trinity Bible College in Dunedin, Florida. I have three children, two grandsons, and one granddaughter. I not only see the obvious falling away of the present day church, but I humbly acknowledge that we all are in desperate need of a massive revival. I hope this blog ministers to you, and may Jesus Himself receive all the preeminence!
spcrick@msn.com
WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY?
Posts
