From My Facebook Posts

An astronaut climbs into the replica spaceship and goes through all the procedures. He does that again and again and again until he knows exactly what to do. The simulator has taught him what he needs to know. Then the day of blast-off comes and the real spaceship is ready to go. But the astronaut demands that the simulator and the real spaceship are joined together for the trip into space.

The NASA officials inform him that the simulator cannot fly and every time he climbed into that simulator he was learning about the real spaceship. There is no need for that simulator, and in fact its usefulness and mission are now over.
Some believers are like that astronaut. They want to reach back into the Old Testament and attach it to the New Testament. The Old Testament was just a simulator in which sinners practiced the blood atonement but that was only until the Lamb of God came and shed His blood. There is now no need for the Old Covenant because it has fulfilled its mission which was to teach sinners about the blood atonement. And they rehearsed it again and again and again. But when the real and eternal blood was shed the rehearsal is not necessary.

The simulation is over. The Lamb of God has died.

 

Redeemer, Creator, Jehovah Rophe,

The Strong and Mighty Tower, the Author of faith.
Lilly of the Valley, Bright Morning Star,
Blessed Hope, that’s what You are.

Chosen One of Israel, God’s Holy Son,

The Christ and Messiah, Anointed One.
The Living Word of God, Faithful and True,
Jesus, Savior are You.

You save me, delivered me and called me Your own.

You now are preparing my eternal home.
You said you’d be with me both now and always,
Jesus, You’re worthy of praise.

 

One true glimpse of the cross, unimpeded by religion and human dilution and empowered by the Spirit, will break a sinner and remake him in Christ’s image.

 

We have such a fallen view of God sometimes. This marks the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing which killed 168 innocent people. Did you read what I just wrote? I said “innocent people”. There are no innocent people in God’s eyes and in truth all are guilty. How could anyone be so cruel and evil as to destroy the lives of these people?

Well one day Christ will come and destroy the entire planet and most of its inhabitants. You see, all things must be seen through a divine prism which is the Word of God. We do not rejoice in murder, but we who are His understand things through His truth and not the fallen compassion even God’s enemies can show. True compassion begins and ends with the cross. All others are fallen.

 

I Pet.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.

⁶ Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:

We have been so desensitized to the things of the Spirit through this fallen culture that we are blind to much truth. The fallen nature of men refuses humility and loves human exaltation. Many things we deem innocuous are in fact poison to our spirits. Things like competitive sports train us to win, win, win and to be champions and let all the world know it. That seems so benign and yet it subtly and openly trains our hearts in ways that remove any true humility in the Spirit.

But we are exhorted to be clothed with humility which seems like an enormous spiritual task. But how many of us truly seek that kind of abject humility so that we are hidden in His likeness and not ours? How many of us really understand what true humility actually is? And if a believer is walking in spiritual humility will he get offended at all about anything, especially any insult or slight to himself?
And the Scripture clearly tells us that God will give more of His grace to those that are clothed in humility. But we live in a culture which has shifted our thought patterns and has sown seeds of fallen fruit. And much of it has become so familiar to us that we no longer investigate many things to see if they are of God because we are numb to all of it. We have been instructed to live completely in moderation, but does that have any effect upon what we buy or we wear or what we eat or where we live? But all that must begin in the heart.
When our hearts are completely surrendered to Him, and when we have purposefully put our flesh to a certain death, then and only then can we please Him. The mindset and heart attitude we call humility pleases God and is a necessary component of worship and all things spiritual. This humility is not confined to how we feel when we understand our redemption although that is at the core. This kind of humility is spiritual power disguised as timidity and graciousness and meekness. It affects every area of our lives because it resides in our hearts and wields God’s power in and through us.
And oh how many infinite reasons we have for being truly humble people. I can truthfully say before God and the Holy Spirit I have absolutely nothing of myself whereof I can offer the slightest boast. Without Christ I am not just worthless, but I am an aggressive enemy who would strut my sinfulness and mock the holiness of my Creator. So here I stand. Washed in the royal blood of God and made a child of the Living Father God. I am a broken man who is so proud many times it pains my heart before Him. Oh Precious Father, help us to see what we cannot see. Help us to understand that which we cannot understand. Teach us, our Father, what it means to walk in the humility which led Christ to walk as a man. Oh my…oh my. How we love you Jesus and how we are in desperate need of Your Spirit to do more of His work and ministry within us. This is no task…it is our living joy.

 

No amount of scholastic attainment, or exquisite understanding of Biblical theology, or able and profound exposition of brilliant and stirring eloquence, can atone for the absence of a deep impassioned sympathetic love for human souls.

 

Rev.13: ⁸ And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

⁹ If any man have an ear, let him hear.

Before God said “Let there be light” God knew the cross was waiting. Can you even imagine such a love? It soars way past our feeble definitions of love. No sentimentality or saccharine here. This is a love about which man has never known. None of us would do something we knew would end up causing us great suffering and death. And if we knew it would be for our enemies we would shun the slightest inconvenience.

But God spoke into existence the creation He knew would one day demand His Son. We tend to dismiss some of it because after all He is God. And in the back of our minds we know He knew Christ would resurrect. And with that kind of thinking we render the gospel a divine play. But even the slightest hint of that kind of thinking removes the eternal pathos embedded within the cross. You could search and seek and seek and search for all eternity and still you would not understand all of the divine love exhibited in the cross. It is a colossal mystery.
And yet God saw it coming and created us anyway. And Jesus, God manifested in the flesh, came knowing the cross was His destiny. “Oh yes,” you say, “But He knew He would rise again!” You do not have a clue, and until we understand we do not have a clue, we can never touch the hem of the cross garment. It is an impossibility to over emphasize the cross of Jesus Christ. It is an unfathomable treasure of all the mysteries of God’s kingdom. It is the purest expression of God’s love. It is the open revelation of the Divine Being. It is the mystery in which all other mysteries live. It stands apart from created time. Its power is past finding out. It is the place of eternal birth.
But the price was unthinkable. To say the price was high is to diminish the price that was paid. It was there, on Golgotha’s hill, which was created by God Himself, that God Himself suffered and died at the hands of His created enemies. The nails, the hammer, the fists, the thorns, the spit, the spear, the planks, the voices, the eyes, were all created by that writhing Lamb. Can you even dare to ponder it? Can you stop and gaze with your heart’s eye and look upon it? Dare you enter into it looking to understand its life changing love?
Before the worlds were ever made the Lamb created Bethlehem, Nazareth, Galilee, Jericho, Bethsaida, Jerusalem, and yes, Calvary. And then He came and walked among His creation disguised as one of us. And with His face set like a flint He went to Jerusalem seeking and embracing His own death. What is man that Thou art mindful of Him? Golgotha was no surprise. In fact it was the final scene of redemption’s plan. This was in God’s heart before Adam was ever made. Who can know it? Who among us dare to insist we understand all its fullness?
The most wonderful thing the cross can do for us is to break us completely. And when we no longer have any strength of our own, perhaps then we can understand the first portion of an eternal crucifixion whose glory will shine forever and forever. Amen.

 

Prayerlessness denies the existence of God.

 I truly believe the most despicable sin I have committed since I became a believer is when I have not prayed. That shames me to my very core.

 Gal.6: ¹⁷ From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.

Paul states that he has scars in His service for the Lord Jesus. And given that Paul grows weary of disputes about the law which minimizes the cross. So those scars, received by beatings, remind Paul of whose servant he is and what his calling will always be. The word translated “marks” is “stigma” in the Greek. Those who truly follow Jesus must live with His stigma.

We should be kind and loving and humanitarian, but there are unbelievers who are also those things. Jesus must be openly our Lord and that Lordship must be communicated through life actions as well as words. You are in no danger of having His stigma if others do not know Jesus is your Lord. I do not speak of being aggressive and irritating, but we should lovingly communicate Christ to others. How shall they believe in whom they have not heard?
There are things about which we should not get into disputes. I have my own list of things that I consider counterproductive to the gospel. Yes, we should confront serious error, but certain arguments do not promote Christ and His gospel. You will not hear me argue about the rapture or the creation day or many other incidentals. They seem to promote clashes which most times lead nowhere.
But Paul refers to the Lordship of Christ and how his service to his Master has had consequences even in his own body. Paul lives with the stigma of Christ. But please know that having that kind of stigma takes more than just a church membership or a baptism certificate or taking certain moral stands. It even takes more than just lip service or handing out tracts. To walk in His shadow and with His stigma takes much prayer…much prayer. It means you are walking in the Spirit and your heart and mind are being controlled by that Spirit.
That path is not easy. It does not open up just because we desire it to be open. In fact we can be kind and polite and generous and yet not be walking in the Spirit and therefore His stigma is absent. This is the fine china of a spiritual life. This must be our hunger, our pursuit, and our unquenchable thirst daily. It must be our very life. And we can never know His stigma while we are still alive. We must die. We must die. We must die. And He then must rise up from our death and live through us. That is no small task and few there be that seek it and fewer still there be that find it.

 

Jn.19: Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him.

² And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe,
³ And said, Hail, King of the Jews! and they smote him with their hands.

This was the Creator of the Universe. There He is…shamed and mocked and scorned like some pitiful fool. Like some pitiful fool. And yet it was for pitiful fools like you and like me He stands there and takes, no embraces, the beating and the insults and the mock laughter. And the Spirit is there recording it so all can see it forever. And He, the Lamb of God, knows it will be recorded forever.

They punched Him. The spit upon that wondrous face. They plucked His beard. They whipped Him. They dressed Him as a mock king. It was unfair. It was inhuman. It was tragic beyond words even in the natural. And yet in the spirit realm the angels looked with horror! They can never really understand the depth of what happened here, and without the Spirit neither can we. But when that Spirit enters your being and makes you a child of God you become more and more aware of what happened and who it was for which Christ endured such things.
And yet this can never be completely surrounded by a human mind. And it is that very mystery which enlightens our hearts again and again and again. The sufferings of Christ must never get stale and relegated to dust filled doctrines. His sufferings must penetrate our hearts again and again and again. It is those wounds and that mocking which have our names written all over them. I can see just how wicked I was when I see just how punished He was. And somehow the Spirit feeds me another sliver of illumination about His love. It is a glorious journey to point your heart toward Christ and understand again and again and again just how He suffered and bled and died. That is our redemption. That is our life. That is His glory…forever. Selah and amen.

 Of what use is preaching by men whose consuming purpose is to gain fame and prosperity and to make and keep disciples of their own? Much of western Christianity is a multi-level marketing scheme no different than Amway or Herbalife. But many churches are more successful than some of these secular companies.

 

Rom.10: ¹³ For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

¹⁴ How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
¹⁵ And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

How can sinners be saved under the preaching of another Jesus and another gospel? There is more to this modern day compromise than just an earthly deception. Men like Joel Osteen and thousands like him are drawing men to a false gospel headed by a false Christ and in so doing men’s souls will be damned. Paul calls them “false apostles, deceitful workers” and the Spirit says:

Gal.1: ⁸ But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
⁹ As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
This is very strong language in the Greek. It indicates God reserves a special damnation for false preachers of a false gospel. I have no human words to convey to you the severity about which the Spirit speaks of these men and their self serving gospel. We show love to sinners, but to men and women of this ilk we rebuke soundly and with the harshest of terms. A sinner can only be saved through faith, but when that faith is placed upon sinking sand that sinner will perish as will the person to whom he listened. We are seeing a literal sea of people who are believing a false gospel and following ministers of Satan. Of Satan, you ask?
II Cor.11: ¹³ For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
¹⁴ And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
¹⁵ Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
This, my dear friends, is no difference of opinion or some minor doctrinal squabble. This cuts to the very core of redemption and its consequences are eternal. The Spirit Himself calls these men and women “ministers of Satan”. Can there be any more serious accusation? He does not say compromisers or double minded or worldly. No, He calls them the very ministers of Satan. And they operate with smiles and positive speeches and messages that uplift the human condition and they insist that within every person there is a great reservoir of goodness. It is a lie from the very pit of hell and it deceives men’s hearts and damns their souls. Is that too harsh for your sensibilities? Well then you must take it up with Paul, or better yet question the wisdom of the Spirit. I think you dare not enter into those dangerous waters.

And so we have church building bursting at the seams. And we have membership rolls growing exponentially. And we have large and accomplished church staffs. And we have professional music ministries. And we have polished oratorical thespians. And we have local banks thankful for the billions they hold in church loans. And we have pew dwellers who love their church and their country. It is all so wonderful to the natural and religious man.

But when we uncover all the fluff and activity and earthly power we will find another Jesus and another gospel. Can it really be possible that Satan has come and sown so many tares among the wheat? Can it be possible that Satan has manipulated the entire western ecclesiastical construct to this extent? Can it be possible that men’s hearts have been so deceived that they desire the things of this world and still believe they are following Jesus? Can it be possible that so many nice and charming men and women are workers of iniquity?
Well there is only one way to evaluate those questions. Hold up the mirror of the Word – all of it – and see if the western church is even attempting to adhere to it. Do not read their statement of faith and be satisfied with things they know will please those who are looking for such things. Listen to their words and look at their lifestyles. Remember, when a man speaks from both sides of his mouth in truth he is only speaking from one side. His and not God’s.
 

Once you have seen His beautiful face, and once you have been touched by His wondrous grace, your heart may be prone to wander sometimes, and the cares of this world may choke your spiritual air sometimes, and the flames of your fire may become embers sometimes, but if you have seen Him and have been changed by Him you…can…never…forget.

 

I Cor.1: ¹⁷ For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.

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.
¹⁹ For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
²⁰ Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
²¹ For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

The preaching of the cross has become blasé in today’s fast paced – church growth atmosphere. It may find a spot amidst the statement of faith, but is it the core of the pulpit? You see, the cross demands the believer to slow down and leave this world and meditate and envision and gaze and embrace that event and the Figure which is central to it. The cross never elicits a desire for money and material things and individual human power and that is why it continues tom drift silently into the background of the church as a whole.

Watch the secular television shows have some famous preacher and they will discuss gay marriage and abortion and President Obama and Israel but the cross remains uninteresting and without discussion. It is a downer for today’s upbeat culture which thrives on dreams and positive thinking and human achievement. And the Sunday gatherings are designed to uplift the human spirit and make people want to come back because they feel good as they leave. Introspection? Contrition? Repentance? Or a deep and heart rendering vision of the Messiah as He writhed in pain for our sins?
You may as well resign yourself that if you desire the Spirit to do that kind of ministry in your heart you must seek it personally or through other outlets than church. Sad, but true.

Baking a Cake

BAKING A CAKE FOR SINNERS

A bakery owned by professing believers refused to bake a cake for a gay couple. The cake, I believe, was going to be used at their wedding. There was much discussion about this. Let me add my perspective by this narrative.
A man walks into your bakery and orders a cake. But you have just been informed that tomorrow this man would publicly deny Jesus using foul language. Would you still bake his cake and sell it to him?
Well Jesus did not bake that man a cake. He washed his feet.

Communion

COMMUNION

Last night I led a Communion observance online on Facebook. Can you even imagine such a thing? Several years ago when David, my youngest son, signed me up for Facebook I thought it was kinda like a dating site. But I have found believers read and post there and in a few years I have found fellowship there. And in the past month I felt led of the Spirit to lead a Communion service online there.
I had never heard of an online Lord's Supper but I went by faith knowing that with the Spirit there is no time or space which can hinder Him. And so it was a glorious time in Christ. We will be observing it again on the last Saturday in April. Everyone brings their own juice or wine and bread and you just go to me timeline on Facebook. I post some worship music in order to prepare our hearts and then I post a devotional concerning Communion. Then I post about the bread along with a worship song, and then a devotional about the blood along with a worship song, and then a final prayer with a hymn.
There are prayers throughout and we wait for everyone. It was a genuine miracle. I invite you to join us at the end of April. My FB name is of course Rick Frueh. E-mail me at spcrick@msn.com with a friend request. Below are some of my devotionals.

Before we remember our Lord Jesus in the elements please allow me the undeserved privilege of sharing a devotional concerning Jesus and the glory of His cross. What tongue can do it justice? What mind can ascend to its holiness? The world is unconcerned and religion clings to Cain’s works and most of the church practices a self serving form without the substance. But this is Jesus. There is nothing within the elements themselves, but there is the presence of God Himself in this observance. Baptism happens but once, but our Lord gave us a gift which we can experience as often as we desire.

The cross itself is a great mystery. And within that mystery are other mysteries. The Incarnation, the love of God, the grace of God, and other mysteries are all unfurled in the cross. The unregenerate man sees nothing and the religious man see jewelry. Place yourself at the scene. Blood and seat and odor and moaning and wounds. There is nothing that would draw fondness or even curiosity. In fact it is repulsive in the extreme. And when we realize Who it is that is being tortured and mocked and slain we are shocked and repulsed as well we should be. This is man’s worst in full display as well as God’s best in full display. The schemes of men can never defeat the purposes of God and the acts of men have provided redemption for multitudes.

Do not deceive yourself. This was not just for thieves and murderers and adulterers and vicious criminals. This was for vicious criminals like you and like me who hid behind self righteous cloaks while dead men’s bones rattled inside our own hearts. Yes, this bloody sacrifice was provided and offered for deep and unworthy sinners like us. And who can really know such a thing in all its glory and wonder? That a Holy God would come in the likeness of one of us and then die at all, much less die upon the cross and in public for all to see and for some to mock is the highest of mysteries.

The millions of gallons of blood drawn for the veins of goats and lambs and bulls could never wash away one sin forever. But the blood of this Scapegoat can make sinners like you and like me clean forever. Who can know such a thing? But he who has been plunged beneath its cleansing flood is not only awakened to its power, but he must sing its praises forever. Golgotha. There is our place of redemption. There was the blood applied. There we were raised from death to life everlasting. This is no religious talisman. This is the place that our eternity was changed and our redemption was sealed.

So as we begin this Communion service let us not discount its importance and the presence of the Precious Holy Spirit. We do not approach it with religious superstition, nor do we see it as adding to our eternal redemption. No, this is a spiritual feast, instituted by Christ the Lamb, and is fed to our hearts. This is another gift of grace where we can remember Jesus. Should we not stop from our busy earthly lives often and remember Him? But this is a special time unlike any other. This is worship at its zenith if we take our eyes off ourselves and off the world and we mentally and spiritually drown ourselves in His remembrance and His presence.

This is not a celebration of Passover. This is a celebration of Jesus who IS our Passover. Can you fully understand such an incredible love God has for His people? Not only has Christ suffered and died for us, and not only has the Holy Spirit drawn us the Jesus, and not only have we been born again in the Spirit and made partakers of this holy sacrifice, but Jesus Himself ordained an observance whereby we can remember Him and His cross. Even though others may misuse Communion let us never discount its sacred mission. Through it let us remember Him, and that, my friends, is the highest though ever allowed a human heart.

“Oh Dear Lord Jesus we enter into Your presence with hearts of faith and gratefulness. We bow before You majesty and we humbly thank You for Your redemption for our souls. May You receive the praise of our hearts as we partake of elements which represent Your body and blood. And we submit to the Spirit for only He can make us one regardless of distance between us as believers in Your name. Amen.”

 

I Cor.11: ²³ For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:

²⁴ And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

 

Here we see Jesus breaking the bread with His own hands. What a spectacle of amazement. This bread represents His body which is the Bread of Life come down from heaven and yet He Himself is breaking it for His followers. Jesus had said no man takes His life but He Himself lays it down. This, when understood, should present to us a sacred foreshadowing when He did it and a sacred remembrance today.

Oh how easy it was to tear a loaf apart, but oh what suffering there will be when His body is torn apart…for us. The giving of His body upon the cross is not just emotional sentimentality however it is filled with emotional sentimentality. The clearer we see the truth, and the clearer we see ourselves in that cross, the more we rejoice, the more we remember Him, and the more we experience a holy emotion. This sinless Lamb was not giving His body for His followers. No, that would come later. He was allowing His body to be shredded and tortured and murdered for miscreants and sinners who desired no part of Him.

And in His eternal plan God in the Person of the Holy Spirit would draw uncaring rebels like you and like me so that we could see with spirit eyes who He was and what He has done. So as we partake of the bread let us deeply remember everything about this sacrifice, and above all let us remember Him.

Let us pray: Lord we come to you without one plea. Without your sacrifice we would be condemned forever and yet here we are your very children. It is a miracle more wonderful than words could ever fully reveal. This bread represents your batter and bruised and torn body which you willingly gave for us. We bow in worship and glory and as we eat this bread our hearts are partaking of Your precious body. This we do in remembrance of You.

Now partake of that which represents His body…

 

I Cor.11: ²⁵ After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.

²⁶ For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.

 

Here we have a heart rendering scene. Jesus shares what He calls the “cup” to His disciples. This will not be a cup of blessing for Him, but it will be a cup of eternal blessing for all who drink of it. This will be a cup of suffering and anguish for the spotless Lamb of God. And this man, this God, will drink fully from it. The Scriptures speak of the “blood of God” and surely it is that. That God would come as a man is beyond us altogether, but that God would submit Himself to the fists and spittle and mocking of spiritual criminals cannot be understood by any natural mind.

And then we see the blood. Before the cross sinful men drew from the veins of God the crimson flood which carried in it eternal redemption. By the time the Lamb of God reached Golgotha He was a scarlet massacre. Who can even fathom such a sight! Who among us would not have the urge to hide our eyes, and yet because we have been cleansed by that sea of red we gaze at it will eyes full of tears and hearts full of love. What unregenerate man can understand those who see a man being tortured beyond recognition and yet bow in love and gratefulness? It is past knowing to the natural man.

And instead of leaving that vision forever the Lord Himself beckons us to remember. And His words say “Remember Me” and happy and eager we are to do so. The world can never understand the power of the blood, but to we who have been washed and made alive by its power we will never forget. It is to us the life force of all eternity, and He alone is our Savior.

Let us pray: Once again we are at You Supper which You gave to us. We are ever mindful of what this juice means. We can never fully fathom a love which drew the blood from Emmanuel’s veins. But what we do know humbles us and draws our hearts to worship You the Lamb which takes away our sins. You shed Your blood, Jesus, and as we drink of this symbol our hearts remember the blood You shed for us.

Let us drink of the juice which represents His blood…

Chinese Church

This is what it truly means to gather in His name.

The American church service is a scam and a fraud,

 

http://christianvideotv.com/this-rare-footage-of-illegal-chinese-house-churches-will-mess-with-your-idea-of-what-it-means-to-love-god/

Brothers and Sisters

I post regularly on Facebook and sometimes I will post here.

Rick Frueh

Going to Church???

CAN YOU WALK WITH GOD

AND NOT "GO TO CHURCH"?

 

The phrase “going to church” is a misnomer and misleading. The word “church” itself has become a colloquialism for all sorts of things which in truth are not the church. In the Old Testament words and phrases like Tabernacle and Sanctuary and tent of meeting were used. They more accurately described what that building was used for. But today we call a building a “church” which not only is inaccurate but has over the years completely changed the meaning of the word church.

In the New Testament the Greek word “ecclesia” is translated “church” and it depicts a gathering, a group, or the called out ones. It has absolutely nothing to do with a building. In fact large buildings came into existence during the time of that carnal and wicked emperor Constantine. He built buildings for Christians as well as other pagan religions and believers adopted his self serving offering. Since then buildings have been built all over the world including large and ornate edifices that are now called a church. And so here we are.

The more correct question would be can a believer not interact and fellowship with other believers and still walk with Christ? To that I would say no. But there are many shut ins who derive their meat from the Scripture and perhaps a few visitors. The visitation from pastors to shut ins has become a lost practice but decades ago it was part of a pastor’s ministry. And if the religious organization (church) is large then good luck with having the pastor visit you for any reason. They have a staff member assigned for those mundane irritants.

But I do believe reading or hearing Biblical messages by a man of God must be a mainstay in a believer’s spiritual life. That can be done through the internet these days. I would strongly advise against Christian television. Most “churches” do not have any corporate prayer of any significance so you are not missing that. But now there are blogs and websites and FaceBook where you can interact and fellowship with other like minded believers. You see, many if not most of the “churches” in your area are man made constructs and follow the spirit of this world. They are patriotic and moralistic and money dependent as well as war supporting institutions which really have very little to do with Christ.

So the ultimate question is would God desire His people to gather in a local institution which is built and operates in the strength of man? Can that possibly be the will of the Spirit just so you can “punch your ticket” and say you “went to church”? I know scores of people who have grown spiritually because they left the institution commonly called church. They no longer sit under utilitarian messages designed to make you successful. They no longer have to endure 4^th of July services filled with idolatry. They no longer have to be in the midst of pastor idolization. And many have found it a great blessing to use their money for missions and the ministry to the poor and not have it go to buildings and large staff. They feel like they have been set free.

But there is a responsibility that comes with leaving the institution known as church. You must feed your spirit. You must be in the Word. You must deepen your prayer life. You must fellowship with other believers somehow. And you must not allow your distaste for the system you left to puff you up. You must allow the Spirit to strip you of any pride or self righteousness. And any spiritual progress you make must make you grateful and more humble. And when you interact on the internet you will find those with whom you must break fellowship because some are self righteous and caustic, but the Spirit will also teach you that no one will completely agree with you. And when a believer has a different perspective about something, even something about which you feel strongly, if the brother or sister is humble and seems to love Jesus then you can overlook other things.

You are the church, or at least part of it. In these last days there are many ways to interact with other true yokefellow and to benefit spiritually from other’s gifts. But we must be diligent in our seeking of Christ. I personally have benefitted greatly from internet fellowship with other believers. I have written extensively about the compromises of the local “church” constructs” elsewhere so I will not belabor the point. But what good can it possibly be to sit in a pew and feel nothing but uncomfortable? What good can it be to hear ear tickling messages? When you go Sunday after Sunday only to revisit the same redundant construct you did the Sunday before is that of the Spirit? When no one weeps with repentance and the service is designed to be “uplifting” so people will return…is that of the Spirit?

I suggest all of pray without ceasing and allow the Spirit to use these internet forums to edify, convict, and exhort us as we continue in His Word and watch the power of the Word break us and remake us into His image.

Retouching the Cross

RETOUCHING THE CROSS

Matt.27: ²⁸ And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe.

²⁹ And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!
³⁰ And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head.
³¹ And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him.

Jn.19: Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him.

² And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe,
³ And said, Hail, King of the Jews! and they smote him with their hands.
⁴ Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him.
⁵ Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man!

There have been millions of crucifixions, but no one crucifixion has been so detailed as the crucifixion of Jesus the Christ. We have a detailed narrative which begins at His arrest and follows Him all the way until His death on the cross. And in the natural it is a very gruesome scenario. And just in the natural we are aware that He was innocent of any charges to say nothing of the death penalty. But in order to understand and attempt embrace the totality of what we are witnessing through the written word we must be aware that this was God in the flesh. And this God man was completely holy and without sin so it is an understatement to say He deserved no punishment.

Jesus had washed the disciple’s feet a few days ago, and the night before He was arrested He instituted what we now call the Lord’s Supper or communion. That supper would present a redemptive picture for what He would endure and what He would pay for in His own body.
But now He willingly submitted Himself to the hands of wicked men. And these men spared nothing and showed no mercy. They stripped Him of His clothes and wrapped Him in a purple robe in order to mock Him as a king. They made a ring of very sharp thorns and crushed it down upon His head, and they put a reed in His right hand and bowed down and mocked Him. Now in the natural this was humiliation at is zenith, but to understand that Jesus was the Son of God then this humiliation becomes mind boggling. And to further understand that Jesus would soon give His life for the same men who were mocking Him is beyond anything we can understand.
It is difficult to imagine what a human figure would look like after such a beating and such savagery. The Scriptures declare He did not even resemble a human being. But His sufferings were far from just physical. It is my personal belief that the first slap or punch or mocking is where His redemptive sufferings began. In fact, it was when He sweat great drops of blood in the garden which began His redemptive sufferings. And they lasted until the last breath escaped from His lips. And within each slap and punch, or with the thorns or when they plucked out His beard, or when they lashed His back, within all of the abuse our sins were being placed upon Him. He was the sin bearer, the scapegoat, the bronze serpent, and He was the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world.
And then after a world of savage torture He was laid down upon two Roman planks. It is fitting and metaphorical that it was carried out by Roman soldiers. This was an earthly kingdom that was consumed with power and violence and money and was pagan at its core. The Roman religion was practical and their gods in their view helped them and their country. Does it not have a modern day ring to it? Yes, you say, but we believe in one God? Do we? Visit a thousand Christian churches across America and you may well hear several hundred different gods being preached even though they all call them Jesus. And all those churches believe their god helps them achieve their own dreams. You see, we live in a modern day Roman Empire.
So they laid Him down and stretched out his arms. And they drove a nail through each hand or wrist. And they placed one foot on top of the other and drove a spike through them both. He was now impaled on a Roman cross just as many thousands of criminals had been before Him. He was now contemptible…a scourge and an object to be mocked. They raised up the cross which bore the Lamb and they placed it in the hole already dug with a thud! There He is. Earth has rejected Him and He is now temporarily separated from heaven as well. He alone must bear the awful pain and punishment for sins He never committed. And for six hours He would hang there. What a scene! What a spectacle! This is human brutality at its finest. And like hangings of old a crowd would gather and watch a human being bear an agony known only to those who experience it and about which none lived to tell. Beside all the wounds and the awful pain of the nails it was almost impossible to breathe. One would have to press hard on the nail which pierced the feet and lift up one’s body weight in order to gasp a short breath. It was an excruciating process.
But the pain of the flesh can never compare with the pain of sin. The crowd saw a Jew but God saw a Lamb. Who among us can know the pain of sin? We all can testify of the results of sin and how we paid on earth somehow because we had sinned, but to experience the pain of eternal divine judgment we cannot tell. But only the Spirit can illuminate a human understanding as to who this Jew was. Before we are born again we see a good teacher and a kind man and a victim of injustice. But when the Spirit of God reveals to your heart who Jesus is, was, and always will be then the eyes of your understanding are opened for the very first time. And please allow me to say from experience you will never, you can never, be the same again. To the world it is foolishness, but to us who are redeemed it is the power of God.
As is our custom we try and make anything uncomfortable smoother and more palatable. When we say Jesus died for our sins we seem to minimize two features of His sacrifice. We seem to gloss over His sufferings, and we seem to gloss over the depth of our sin. The way and extent of His sufferings are past finding out. He suffered eternal punishment for the sins of the world. Oh how that sounds like hyperbole and yet it is true for all eternity. I cannot fully understand how person can suffer for sins at all much less the sins of the entire world. He bore our pain. He bore our curse. He bore our guilt. He bore our blame. He bore our disgrace. He bore our punishment. He bore the eternal sentence about which we so richly deserved. And the word “bore” means a profound and indescribably suffering.
When a redeemed person looks at the cross he or she is filled with awe and wonder and gratefulness and pain and worship and a hundred other emotions and enlightenments. For forty years I have heard about the cross, I have read about the cross, and I have preached about the cross and yet I still am overwhelmed by its beauty and wonder and the redemption I have found in it. The sufferings were far above what is common to man. They can only be truly understood by the One who endured them, but we are graciously called to embrace and seek them in all their glory.
But is so many ways we say the word “sin” with a layer of safety. It is a catch all word, but let us unpack it a little and reveal the vileness of sin and what our Blessed Savior took upon Himself. Sometimes we like to equate sin with lying or stealing or cursing or even some sexual infidelity, and yes all those fall under that heading. But that is not all of what Jesus took upon Himself. Think about infant rape. Think about child murder. Think about beheading. Think about ripping a child from its mother’s womb. Think about purposely infecting a person with a deadly disease. Think about killing one hundred thousand people with one bomb. These and other more heinous sins were all placed upon the Scapegoat.
But please do not minimize your own sins just because you deem the sin of others greater. Your sins and mine are worthy of eternal punishment. The most commendable unregenerate sinner is vile beyond words when revealed in the light of a Holy God’s glory. Can you now just shake your head in awe and wonder when you think that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son”? This event, this cross, is a selfless act of such magnitude that it stands alone not only as the only path to God, but what act of compassion can compare? That which we call the Incarnation represents that God came in the form of a man. That is a divine miracle worthy of our awe and worship.
I have presented all that and I hope you have been edified as I have in writing it. But I want to return to the title of my post. There are many, many, many, and many more preachers and teachers who have retouched the cross to make it more pleasant to the human taste and sensibilities. They wish to remove the blood or at least sanitize it. They will not reveal the gruesomeness of the cross. They much prefer it as jewelry than they do as a bloody vision filled with the smell of pain and sweat and fresh blood mingling with dried blood. That should not be articulated in mixed company. You can speak of success and prosperity and fulfilling your dreams but the cross needs some retouching lest it offends us. Just what kind of manmade religion is that which the church now embraces?
Yes there are heretics which deny that Jesus was wounded for our transgressions, but I speak of the modern church which loves it professional praise and worship times but never hears about the viciousness of the cross. And if they do hear some of it then Easter is the “appropriate” time. That way we can spray fake blood on a man and let it entertain us before we leave church and fill our bellies once more. But a steady diet of the cross? Please, we have bigger fish to fry.
The word “cross” can be used as some redemptive talisman but to describe it with some morbid detail does not minister to the flesh. To the natural man it just relives history instead of looking forward to a prosperous earthly life. And that is why the colors need to be pastels, and the sounds need to be muffled, and the darkness needs to lifted, and the sin needs to be theological, and the entire event needs to be stuffed and placed upon the wall of doctrinal taxidermy. That way we can say we are orthodox without any personal introspection and without entering into the fellowship of His sufferings.
But the very worst and most sacrilegious thing the church can ever do is to soften the preaching of the cross. The word is commonplace but the vision is sacred. It is now served on a platter of humanism and theological hubris but without the spiritual pungency which can pierce the spirit and lead men to repentance and worship. The cross when preached in all its glory can set the captive free and bring the prodigal back home. It is our shelter and our refuge. It is where we see Jesus most clearly. It breaks the prideful heart and mends the broken heart. It is not just the symbol of our faith. It is the very center of our faith for if there was no cross there can never be eternal life.
But let us never avert our eyes form the startling reality of His sufferings and death. The wounds and the thorns and the blood and the death are used of the Spirit to make us whole. But if we retouch that sacred cross in order to pacify and buffer and protect us from the visceral realities of true spirituality then all we have left is human reasoning with Jesus pasted on top. And that, my friends, is spiritual death.

Victory at Golgotha

VICTORY AT GOLGOTHA

Jn.19:16-18 - Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led Him away. And He bearing His cross went forth into a pace called the place of the skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha. Where they crucified Him, and two other with Him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.
I Sam.17:54 - And David took the head of the Philistine, and brought it to Jerusalem.
God. Jehovah. Jesus. All the attributes of God are interconnected and are inseparable and exist as one. But if there is one central revelation of the nature and fullness of Almighty God that more wholly unveils who God is to man it is the cross. If you could take all sixty-six books of the Holy Scriptures and follow each verse and each sentence like a divine path to its source and intended destination they would all gather at the cross. It is this magnificent act of sacrifice, death, and victory that defies human understanding and without the personal apocalypse of the Holy Spirit it is foolishness. Justice and injustice; death and life; angels and demons; beautiful and grotesque; eternally planned but captured in 360 minutes; lamb and lion; goat and ram; common and royal; Roman and Hebrew; and God and man.

And the Savior Himself told us that the Old Testament Scriptures that the Jews studied, recited, and even wore as jewelry spoke of Him. If you took a verse from Chronicles that only listed three men in a genealogy and as such seemed insignificant and unrevealing, and if you distilled it down by the power and guidance of God’s Spirit using the context in history, and the lives of the men listed, and other interconnections of the Spirit you would still find the cross. And with that understanding, the following story of David and Goliath is an historical and Scriptural alabaster box that when broken fills the heart of the spiritually minded believer with another glorious glimpse of the cross.

Even the little four year old vacation Bible school child has heard the story of how David defeated Goliath with just one God empowered stone to the center of Goliath’s forehead. It is a true story of God’s great and miraculous power over evil that can be revealed through any surrendered vessel and with the weapons of God’s own choosing. God sends His prophet Samuel into the house of Jesse and He instructs Samuel to anoint the future king inside this humble house. Now Jesse brought seven of his sons before Samuel being sure that the king would come from one of these. But Samuel did not have the witness of the Spirit about any of those seven and after inquiring about any other sons Jesse sends for his youngest, David. And David comes into the house stinking of sheep and in a blur he feels oils running down his face and hears Samuel talk of the King of Israel. The Word tells us at that very day the Spirit came upon David.

Not too many days later the Philistines were locked in battle against the children of Israel and they sent out a giant named Goliath to challenge anyone from the Israeli camp to fight him and decide the war. All the Jews were afraid and they did not know what to do so they did nothing. As it happened in God’s providence Jesse sent David with some food for his brothers and when he arrived at the camp he heard Goliath defying the army of the children of God. So David, anointed by God’s Spirit, asks, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the Living God?”.

They eventually let David face Goliath and with one providential stone Goliath is hit in the head, falls to the ground, and dies. So David runs to the corpse of Goliath, picks up Goliath's own sword, and severs his head off of his body, and upon seeing this the Philistines fled and the victory was won. Why did David cut off Goliath’s head? Well it represented a visual display of total victory and was proof that the enemy was completely defeated. But now follow as we go further through this historical account that will lead us to, yes, the cross.

Many times after a battle in Old Testament times the victorious army would behead the vanquished army or its ruler using that bloody act to symbolize how great their victory had been. In those days it was also a common practice for armies to display their victory by placing the heads of the slain rulers or military leaders upon stakes so other would be adversaries would take notice and fear. In Judges chapter seven and II Kings chapter ten and elsewhere are examples of the heads of the defeated being used for emblems of victory.

But I draw your attention to I Samuel 17:54 - And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem; and he put his armor in his tent.
There are at least two things that are peculiar to this verse. Why did David take the head of Goliath to Jerusalem? And also it should be noted that the city of Jerusalem did not as yet exist. It would be founded by David at a later date but it seems that the Holy Spirit was proclaiming it prophetically as "Jerusalem" for a reason. The practice of placing the heads of defeated enemies upon wooden stakes also served to warn travelers of the power that was in the city because many times the heads were staked high outside the city. Of course after many days the weather and the birds would strip the heads of all their flesh and eventually all that was left was a skull attached to the top of a wooden stake.

So when David took the bloody head to the future city of Jerusalem he would have placed it high on a stake to warn others of God’s power and to proclaim this great victory over the Philistines and that this city belonged to the Most High God. Several years later David would take over the city from the Jebusites and name it Jerusalem, the city of peace.

Rom.16:20 - And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet.
Fast forward approximately one thousand years and journey to a place just outside Jerusalem. Look, there is the place of a skull, Golgotha. Close to four thousand years earlier God had prophesied this day by telling Eve that her seed, the Lord Jesus, would bruise the head of the serpent. (Gen.3:15) Oh yes, there was something significant and symbolic about the head of Goliath.

More than any other identification in the New Testament Jesus is referred to as the son of David. In Matt.1:1 it is the first description in the New Testament of the Lord Jesus as “the son of David”. And in the very last chapter of Revelation Jesus refers to Himself as “the offspring of David”. So from the beginning of the New Testament all the way through to the end Jesus is named the son of David. The greatest Patriarch, the greatest king of Israel, the greatest warrior, and the most compassionate and intimate servant of Jehovah was David. And of course he was just a shadow of the coming Son of the Living God. But Jesus, at the place of a skull, annihilated the enemy and won the victory over sin, death, and Satan himself. This was the prophetic fulfillment of the victory David had won over Goliath when he had placed his severed head at Jerusalem as a sign that loudly spoke of a coming victory at Golgotha.

Through all those centuries the skull itself was now gone but because the event was so significant people had referred to this place as the place of a skull. It was at this very place that King Jesus, still wearing human appearance, slew the giant and forever severed his head and held it up openly throughout the world and for all eternity. And just as the skull was placed upon a wooden stake to display the victory, the Lord Jesus, Moses’ serpent, was placed high upon a wooden beam just outside of the city of Jerusalem to warn and woo the whole world to the everlasting victory.

And everyone who looks and believes in true faith that this sacrifice is the complete and only way into the Celestial City of Peace, the heavenly Jerusalem, will be allowed into the Great City and more importantly the very presence of the Risen Christ, the Son of David. And the Scriptures declare that one day the Lord Jesus will actually rule and reign for one thousand years sitting upon the throne of his father, King David.

Remember, this magnificent and everlasting victory was once pictured in the story of a little shepherd boy who defeated the enemy with one stone and the anointing of God. Every Word that God has spoken is intertwined with all His Words and they are sewn together with one scarlet thread that winds around and through the victory that was won at Golgotha, the place of a skull.

Bethlehem, David, the valley of Elah, a stone, victory, a head, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Jesus, Nazareth, Passover, Jerusalem, Gethsemane, Ciaphas, Pilate, Herod, thirty-nine stripes, a robe, thorns, mocking, a sentence, a street, a walk, a skull, two thieves, soldiers, Mary, John, nails, a spear,

blood, blood, blood, blood, blood, blood,

blood, blood, blood, blood, blood, blood,

blood, blood, blood, blood, blood,

death
******Victory******

What does it Mean to be a Christian?

 WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A CHRISTIAN?

Lk.14: ¹² Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee.

¹³ But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind:
¹⁴ And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.

Lk.14: ²⁵ And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them,

²⁶ If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

Lk.14: ³³ So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.

The word “Christian” is a moniker given to early believers. It indicated that certain people reminded the lost community that they were followers of Jesus and their behavior reminded lost people of Jesus. Over the many years the word has become a catch all and has lost any real significance. If a person is not a Muslim and is an American he is considered a Christian in many circles. Even the term “born again” has fallen on hard times and is no longer used within the wider evangelical community.

But let us use the word Christian in the accepted and colloquial sense just for a reference point. No one can be considered a Christian without being born again by God’s Spirit. No amount of theology, and no amount of doctrinal degrees, and no amount of original language credentials can make a person a Christian. No amount of catechism, and no amount of Biblical morality, and no amount of denominational acceptance can make a person a Christian. There is nothing a person can do that can transform his soul and make him a Christian. Only God’s grace empowered by God’s Spirit can lead a sinner to Christ and have that sinner truly believe that life changing gospel. There are many millions who actually believe the gospel with their religious and moral minds who have not really been born again. They are as lost as the heroin dealer and the gay atheist.
So when a sinner truly believes in Jesus and his heart and life is changed and the Spirit comes to live inside his being, now what? What should we expect of that sinner now? What changes should we see being made in his heart and life? It is here that even those who preach and believe the born again experience begin to deviate from the Scriptures they claim to embrace as literal and inerrant. It is here where the church has followed earthly mores rather than the New Testament teachings of Jesus. In the basic sense when you are born again you are a new creature in Christ and you know are commanded and certainly you now desire to follow Jesus. I mean that should be elementary however it has become blurred in these last days until almost all that is left is Jesus the Savior and not Jesus the Lord.
“I don’t have abortions and I do not do drugs and I am not homosexual and therefore Jesus is my Lord.” Really? Jesus actually did not deal with any of those sins. Yes, I said sins. But the church has created its own fig leaf aprons consisting of a few moral leaves and now it claims to be following Jesus. And millions upon millions of people who embrace those kinds of moral issues consider themselves Christians because they have believed and they have been baptized and they are church members and they take stands against a very small set of moral sins. But it goes much deeper than that.
I would like to use a certain Alabama judge who happens to be a Baptist as an example of what I am attempting to communicate. The judge’s name is Roy Moore and he is a Vietnam vet as well as a judge. You can read about him HERE.

He is representative of millions of evangelical Americans who have blended earthly allegiances and conservative morals with Christianity. This is no small issue and in reality it cuts to the very core of what it means to be a Christian. So many people believe a Christian is conservative on moral and financial issues, and he holds to the accepted list of orthodox doctrines that have been spoon fed by a man who knows more Bible than do they. And almost without exception they believe that a Christian is a patriot and supports America. That is regularly reinforced from the pulpit as well as testimonies from men and women of the military who also consider themselves as Christian. And in many cases the allegiance to America trumps the allegiance to Jesus as can be witnessed by the “American Sniper” man who could find humor and glee in killing and use all kinds of profanity and yet is considered a Christian based solely upon his patriotism toward America as well as his hatred for Muslims.

But the standard checklist of moral issues never includes war. Most evangelical will say they do not like war but it is sometimes necessary. There are so many things wrong with that statement the foundational error would be no New Testament support as well as the belief system of the early Christians. But let us assume there is a country in which citizenship was only offered to born again believers. Let us assume that all the usual moral issues seemed to be aligned with Scripture. Then those who would take up arms to defend it might be understandable even though still not Scripturally defensible. But that is not the case here.
We live in a fallen world. And the country known as America is part of this fallen world. It is consumed with money and earthly success and makes its rock stars and Hollywood actors and sports heroes millionaires. And it legalizes abortions and marries same sex partners. It has a history of racism and it was birthed by a war over taxes. To suggest that America is a Christian nation or that is was founded as a Christian nation is both absurd and a damnable lie meant to elevate America into a divine favored status. And yet this lie is not only perpetrated among those who call themselves Christians it is celebrated.
And what has happened is that the faith commonly called “Christian” has become part of an earthly culture and has thereby been compromised, diluted, and morphed into a religious phenomenon which bears little resemblance to the words and teachings of Jesus. Does the judge in the article I linked to believe that posting the Ten Commandments on public walls will have some redemptive effect upon this fallen culture? No, he does not. His belief system is a self righteous and moralistic attempt to preserve an idol he calls America and the “good old” days he longs for.
But is that what it means to be a Christian? Think about that for a moment. How self centered and narcissistic is that? Millions of evangelical are not worried about the earthly state nor the spiritual state of billions around the world. How much money goes to the poor? How many prayers are sent for the poor? How many tears are shed form those who are one heartbeat away from a lost eternity? And yet these same “Christians” would energetically go to war in order to protect “their way of life” which means earthly life. How can you not see the utter paradox in such a position as it pertains to following Jesus and forsaking all? There is no common ground here. None.
Patriotism is a form of apostasy plain and simple. It deceives the mind. It divides the heart. It compromises the faith. And in the end it changes everything about what it truly means to be a Christian. And as I said for this article we will understand the label “Christian” as meaning a born again follower of Jesus. It breeds hatred. It breeds self righteousness. It breeds greed. And there is nothing holy or sacred or humble about any of it. It is in its entirety antithetical to all Jesus lived and taught. So the question is how did we get to such a place?
Of course it all began with taxes and the Revolutionary War and an increasing spirit of American exceptionalism. Even President John Adams disavowed the word “Christian” as it pertained to America when Muslim countries were wary of trading with America. But after the Industrial Revolution that Christian narrative became a part of the curriculum taught to children. And became ingrained and unquestioned in the psyche of each successive generation. But as America prospered greatly and the average man began to lust for money and things, and as America became a world military power, the Christ nation narrative did not have to change, but what it meant to be a Christian had to endure a facelift with the culture as the scalpel.
But when the love of money and wielding violence as a determent became an acceptable part of being a Christian because to suggest otherwise would go against the now established culture, something else must take its place in order to maintain a level of boldness which would soothe the conscience. And so a few moral issues and a few doctrinal issues were called front and center. They became the measuring rod of what it meant to be a Christian. Feeding the poor and loving your enemies and being clothed with humility and being content with food and clothing were residual and parts of a heart warming sermon. They were no longer the absolutes of what it meant to follow Jesus.
And in an incredible display of self righteous duplicity preachers would hold up a Bible and declare they believed it was literal and the orthodox crowd would applaud or say “Amen!” or nod in agreement. And yet all the while this same orthodox crowd ignored what Jesus lived and said. Most of us were caught up in that scenario. It was a great time and many of us would come away from some conference walking on air as we headed for the restaurant and with fresh tapes and books in our cars. And being filled with nationalism and moralism and sense of doctrinal pride we lived to face another day ignorant of the Spirit and of the Master we claimed to follow. And when someone mumbled a repeated prayer we could shower him with all kinds of assurance that heaven was now his home even though a few minutes ago he was a stranger.
But back to the question contained in the title of this post. What does it mean to be a Christian? The short answer is a born again follower of Jesus. But to follow Jesus is to know what He taught and then obey it by the power of the Spirit. I suggest you read the words of Jesus for many moths over and over again. I suggest you pray over them. I suggest you beseech the Spirit to open the eyes of your understanding. I have been on a post journey entitled, The teachings of Jesus” and I suggest you read all of them. This is serious business if indeed we wish to follow our Savior in word and deed. And if we truly desire to be a Christian in the truest sense then we must cast off the old wineskins and drink from the new wineskins filled with His Spirit and His words.

Teachings of Jesus - Part XI

THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS - PART XI

 

Jn.9: ³⁹ And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.

⁴⁰ And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
⁴¹ Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

There are many teachings of Jesus about which people refuse to do any personal research to find the essence of their truth. These verses are among them. Ask the average pew dweller to define what Jesus is teaching here and you will hear varying interpretations as well as many who will at least tell the truth and admit they do not know. The sad thing is that most cannot be curious enough to find out, to say nothing of being diligent. And among those who may even be able to exegete these verses how many will observe a self denying obedience to their words?

But if we distill these words and pour them out as one pure revelation we will understand that we are called to a humility which rises way above the earthly definition. Sometimes we get the idea that when an Oscar winner stands and acts humble that is what the Spirit is saying here to us. It is far from that. Man’s humility is mostly pride dressed up as humility.

I Pet.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 Spirit exhorts us to be clothed with humility. We are not just supposed to show humility but we are to be covered and clothed with humility. As I take in these words I am not sure I have ever been clothed with humility. And when I think of the Scripture which says we should “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” and it goes on to compare it with Christ leaving the glory of heaven and coming down in the likeness of a man, well I am overwhelmed. I am a man with unclean lips who dwells among a people with unclean lips. Oh how we have lost the sense, to say nothing of the desire, for the kind of humility which resembles our Master.

Watch as pompous showmen strut on stage as if they were an actor which in most cases they are. Listen to their words as they lift up man and lower God. Listen as they create in their listeners a longing for prestige and material goods. There is no humility in them at all, and in fact there is no Jesus in them either. The majority of the American church is American but not Christian. In the verses I first shared Jesus addresses those who lift themselves up and claim to be all knowing. People sit on the edge of their seats and clap and nod as if they were listening to a god, and in many cases they are. Watch as they jump to their feet and applaud and scream wildly in approval of that man’s performance. No tears, no repentance, no sacred awe. It is all thespian in nature and void of the Spirit.
These men and women claim they see things in the Spirit that the average person cannot see, Some liars even claim to have been to heaven itself and people by the millions believe them. Jesus says that those who say they see are rejected and those who say they do not are embraced. The teaching is clear. Jesus is using a Hebrewism to teach the humility to the proud. It confronts and dismantles the struts of the modern peacock preachers and gives grace to the humble. But let us not just compare ourselves with these false teachers and self absorbed Americans. That is low hanging fruit.
The humility of which Jesus and the Spirit are speaking is a great challenge to us. When was the last time you were offended? That is a sign. When was the last time you felt smart? Or better than someone? Those are all bad signs. But those are only signs of a surface problem. Remove your shoes and let us tip toe further into the Spirit of truth.

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.

Our Savior humbled Himself and became obedient to the cross. Oh my. Oh my. It was be a humility about which we know nothing just to understand that God became a man. That tests the human mind and finds it completely unable to process such abject humility. But to understand that God submitted Himself and became “obedient” to death, even the public and excruciating death of crucifixion is humility in its unimaginable and purest form. We are called to a depth of humility that experiences our own death and replaces it with His life. It is not enough to just imitate Jesus as we believe He is and was. We must die. And often we treat that as some kind of metaphor which just means we should not do or speak what we desire.

That may reveal some of it but that only touches the surface. Unsaved people can watch their tongue and even direct their fallen hearts to have compassion for others. Gandhi was a professed unbeliever and yet he showed uncommon humility on the outside which was indeed much more than most professing believers in Jesus. But our calling, our mandate, it to die to ourselves and to allow the Spirit to resurrect the Lord Jesus within us. Oh does that not sound so metaphysical and out of touch with reality? Well, because the church no longer teaches nor endorses it then it might sound like so much mercurial philosophy. But in the Spirit it is a glorious reality.
I exhort you to read the Book of Martyrs with a prayerful and contrite heart and you will see believers walking to their death clothed in humility and full of Christ. There are many moving and convicting narratives in there. But there is one account of a believer who told his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ that he would glorify His Savior while being burned at the stake. He told them that he would wait until the flames were climbing all around him and then he would raise up his hand with his finger pointing toward heaven. Crowds would gather around these horrific spectacles just as they used to watch hangings. Many of these martyrs sang on their way to the gallows or the stake.
The man was strapped to the stake and the faggots were set on fire all around his feet. People watched and his brethren waited for his hand to rise. But soon the flames became very hot and even covered his face until his brethren despaired because they thought he had died too quickly to lift his hand or even remember his promise. But from within those flames a scorched and blacked hand lifted up and pointed to heaven for two seconds and fell back down in death. It may not have seemed like much to others but to those who knew Jesus it was a miracle to the glory of God. I would have rather seen that blackened hand for two seconds the most of the sermons I have ever heard.
That, my friends, flies in the face of what passes for the faith in these self centered modern times. Oh that the Spirit would lead us all to our own place of death, and after we die men would see a nail scarred hand rise up and live in our place. The greatest enemy we face is when we try and live for Him without dying and allowing Him to live for us. But be aware, my dear brethren, that will take a cross.
***** 

Jn.8: ³¹ Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;

³² And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Every year a fallen nation celebrates what is commonly called “freedom”. That celebration remembers how America was released from British rule through a violent revolution. Many thousands died from wounds or infection from both sides including the Germans. That war was over unfair taxation. That war is now celebrated in America and July 4^th is recognized as the day of independence.

But millions upon millions of Americans who also profess Jesus see nothing wrong with embracing Jesus as well as the Revolutionary War. They have been raised from birth to embrace war and that America is not only on the right side of wars, but that God birthed America as His own. And in that convoluted thinking the line between earthly freedom and redemptive freedom become blurred and in many cases they are looked upon as one and the same.
But all that, and I mean all of it, compromises the price that was paid at Calvary and obscures the image of the Redeemer. It is probably impossible to overstate the damage that has been done to the faith because professing believers who happen to live in America have not only fallen in love with this fallen country, but have even woven a divine quality within it which they say began with its creation. This is no small issues and it has severely compromised the faith until the dilution has become grievous and in many cases a mortal wound.
But true freedom, eternal freedom is found only in Jesus. This must be our bedrock confession and the foundation of our faith. To celebrate earthly freedom is to make it a cousin, even a lesser cousin, to the freedom which was purchased at such a high price at Calvary. We are believers and followers of the one true Redeemer who paid the ransom in His own body and who has with an unsearchable loved granted us that ransom through grace and faith alone. Can you not feel the Spirit well up in you as you read these words? Remember, the same Spirit that was present at Calvary lives in you and me. He was there. He heard the groans. He saw the wounds. He saw the lashes. He saw the blood. He heard the last breath. And while human men saw a crucifixion that was common to men, the Spirit knew the price that was being paid. He existed with the Word now made flesh from eternity past. They and the father were part of the mystery of the Godhead. So when we speak of His sufferings the Spirit within us imparts knowledge and emotion and spiritual truth which we could not know in our own strength.
Let us never forget the bondage from which we came. Those of us who were saved as a teenager or an adult can remember vividly just how sin had imprisoned our hearts and minds, and how to this very day it beckons to imprison us once again. But the King had triumphed where we had so emphatically failed. Our father Adam had fallen just like we would have if it were us in that garden. And just so there was no mistake about that all of us born with Adam’s curse enthusiastically built upon his legacy with uncountable deeds of our own. I still feel the shame of it all.
But then He came. Born among animals. Born in our likeness. Fed from a fallen women’s own body and yet without sin. Who can know such a thing, and yet the Spirit enlightens us to that sacred knowledge. And He walks among us for over thirty years, and then in the space of hours he suffers and bleeds with a divine power the blood of animals could never know. God dies in our place. Oh my…what human mind deserves such knowledge? What human soul earns such a ransom? And in one small but genuine act of faith we were set free forever and forever. This is not some religion or spiritual philosophy. This is the everlasting gospel and it has set men free from the Day of Pentecost even unto this very day. Somewhere in the world today souls are being set free.
It may be in a church building. It may be on the street. It may be in a thatched hut. It may be in a hospital. It may be in Canada. It may be in Russia. It may be in Brazil. It may be in Nigeria. It may be a businessman. It may be a young mother. It may be a little child. It may be an old man. It may be someone dying of AIDs. It may be a gay person. It may be an adulterer. But the power of the gospel still lives around the world, and devout sinners like me are hearing the Spirit’s voice and responding. It is the miracle of all miracles. And who the Son sets free is free indeed! Halleluiah!
There should a word that is a greater and more revealing word for freedom. The freedom we have in Christ is unfathomable and without comparison. It is beyond our mental ability to comprehend a freedom from sin and all the fires of hell. That is freedom about which the world knows nothing. Millions of church members travel every Sunday to sit in church pews who know nothing of that freedom. Only God knows who are His but it is obvious that church members are consumed with money and politics and the economy and sports and employment and even the nation in which providence has placed them. But how many walk with the heart filling knowledge of the freedom in Christ we have? Until we get serious about the Word, and until we seek revelation knowledge about our salvation, it will all be so much religion and moral standards.
One day we will receive the fullness of our redemption. And we will understand in the eternal realm what the temporal realm never could. We were ransomed from eternal death and set free. But we weren’t just released from prison and sent to roam without direction. We were set free and we were placed into Christ by the Spirit of God. Rejoice all you who are in Him through no efforts of your own. Rejoice all you who deserved eternal damnation but received eternal life! Rejoice all you who were rescued from the penalty of death you so richly deserved! Rejoice all you prisoners of sin for you have been set free forever! So follow Him and His Word and do not return to bondage. Eat of His goodness and the milk and honey of His Person and beckon others to follow. This is the legacy of the redeemed.

And you are now free…free indeed!

*****

 

Mk.9: ³⁵ And he sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.
³⁶ And he took a child, and set him in the midst of them: and when he had taken him in his arms, he said unto them,
³⁷ Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name, receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me.

Matt.20: ²⁵ But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them.

²⁶ But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;
²⁷ And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:
²⁸ Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

This teaching goes deep into the heart of the western culture and mindset. The entire culture is about power. Money and success and knowledge and material wealth and prestige are all interwoven with the hunger and thirst for power. And what is power in this fallen world? It is power over others. That is the essence of what is called power. That is why the cross of Christ is so widely rejected or minimized because it does not align itself with the human definition of power. In fact those that crucified Jesus are the ones who wielded power in the earthly realm. And much of the church subtly and openly aligns itself with the crucifiers rather than the Crucified.

We have to ask ourselves some very serious questions if we are to ever be released from this fallen culture. Please recognize that our upbringing within this culture has shaped, and warped, our mindset. And most of that has impacted how we understand the teachings of Jesus. Unless we understand that we will not and cannot receive and understand the teachings of Jesus as taught by the Spirit. Confronting a problem is first recognizing that problem before it can be overcome. And until the church as a whole or individual believers recognize what has happened to us we will never be able to enter into the glorious truths spoken and lived by Christ.
This culture lusts after power. It demands power. It teaches power. It is built upon power. Political power; financial power; physical power; military power; media power; gender power; conservative power; liberal power; the entire culture seethes with power and the desire for more power. And that spirit has permeated every area of our lives including and perhaps most prominently our hearts and minds. And once that spirit has unpacked and made itself at home within our hearts and minds it is most difficult to evict it. Partly because it is cloaked in religion and reason and common sense, and partly because it hides among many peers and its voice is reinforced by others, and partly because it has sunk its teeth deep within our minds and hearts. And it then subtly affects how we perceive things. And even after we recognize on some level that it lies and must go that is no small task. It is not an overnight challenge.
When you speak of spiritual power you must reject earthly power. The two can never be partners. And the template will always be the cross. The church has used the cross for salvation purposes and then cast it off as a doctrinal relic that his no bearing on our earthly lives. Jesus speaks about taking up our cross. What does that mean? Is the church passionately on a quest to discover what that means? Why not? Living the cross of Jesus is a great and glorious mystery which can only be realized if we hunger and thirst for it. There is power in that death. And that power can only released when we die. But unless we seek more than interesting metaphors we still will be caught in an earthly labyrinth of human power.
Walking in newness of life and walking in the power of His resurrection requires our own death. Again, an interesting and striking metaphor which has absolutely no power until it is implanted in the heart and thereby controls the life. Few implant it, and then it needs water and more water and much water. There is power in relinquishing all earthly power and resting in the power of death…His and yours. But the flesh is very strong and has been made immensely stronger by the nourishment it has received by the culture. It is a miracle of grace that we can even see just how power hungry we really are. And then to see where Jesus desires to take us is another miracle of grace. But when those two perspectives meet it requires much more than just an accurate perception.
When you begin to watch for power struggles and desires in your life you are amazed at just how much you like and reach out for power regardless of how small it is. Power makes us feel strong and significant. Power helps us win arguments. Power makes us right. Power strokes our egos. Power helps us win in comparisons with others. Power gives us some contentment. And sometimes in an ingenuous element of the flesh power allows us to forgive or show mercy as long as we retain that power buffer lest we let others feel superior to us. Oh how the flesh is so diabolical!
But Jesus talks of servanthood and in verse 28 He once again turns to the cross as the standard. Now think about that for just an unguarded moment. Can there be any greater example of servanthood and the rejection of power even when He had all power? The cross undermines every vestige of earthly power and it points us to a power the world knows not. The cross was a once in history event but its power will last forever. And to anyone who truly meditates upon that cross it becomes obvious that earthly power and divine power are unequal enemies. The power that comes from the earth is sensual, carnal, self centered, and evil. But the power which flows from God denies self, is spiritual, is clothed in humility, and embraces the selfless death on the cross as its template and mandate.
So while others must be addressed as “sir”; and while church leaders have “Dr.” in front of their name; and while some set themselves as Biblical scholars; and while many receive the applause of men; the calling of the Spirit will always be to a hill just outside of Jerusalem where death met life and life won through death. And those who walk through that mystery by faith come out of that tomb as servants. And that is the highest calling of all.
*****

 

Matt.15: ⁸ This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.

⁹ But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
¹⁰ And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand:
¹¹ Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.
¹² Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying?
¹³ But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.
¹⁴ Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
¹⁵ Then answered Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable.
¹⁶ And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding?
¹⁷ Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught?
¹⁸ But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.
¹⁹ For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
²⁰ These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.

There are many applications here as well as a few different streams of thought. This is another attack on legalism and the outward appearance as opposed to the intents of the heart. It is light years easier to outwardly march to rules and laws than it is to allow the Spirit to create a clean heart within us. Even the unbeliever can obey rules, but only a surrendered believer can have his heart sanctified and pleasing the only One who can see it.

So Jesus is clearly and unequivocally revealing how God sees things as opposed to how man sees them. Man looks upon the outward appearance while God sees the heart. Jesus is dealing with manmade religious traditions so this does not mean that things which go into your eyes and mind cannot be detrimental to your spiritual walk. We know that to be untrue. But to seek and maintain a clean heart is a labor of the Spirit. How many professing believers live every day with a view toward a clean heart? How many even know what that means? How many even care?
In spiritual terms your heart is you. Our lips can be such liars which create protections for some of our inward flaws. “As a man thinketh so is he”. The only way to cultivate a pure heart is through God’s Word and prayer, and I believe that is most powerfully measured in private. It is easier to lie to others and ourselves than it is to lie to God. Man looks upon the outward appearance but God ponders the heart. Sports and Hollywood and politics and even much of the organized church is fueled by the outward appearance and the power of human lips and the power of performance.
But the secret place of the heart is where the Spirit truly works. In the Old Testament God’s presence dwelt in the Holy of Holy upon the Ark of the Covenant between two angels. And only the High Priest was allowed to enter into that place and he only once a year on the Day of Atonement. But after Jesus died and rose again He sent the Spirit Who dwells within the heart of every true believer. And that makes a believer’s heart the Holy of Holies and we have access to that place every single moment of every single day. The blood of Jesus has been applied and the presence of God through the Holy Spirit abides within us. So what we say can only be authenticated by the Spirit for it is God Alone who lives in and tests our hearts.

It is a glorious miracle as well as a great responsibility.