A SERIOUS INSPECTION OF GOD-INSPIRED SCRIPTURE
BY:
JAMES FARRELL FISHER
INTRODUCTION
ON JUNE 12,2019, I WILL CELEBRATE MY 83RD BIRTHDAY! AMAZING TO ME SINCE BOTH MY GRAND-FATHER & MY FATHER DIED AT AGE 78! THE LORD HAS EXTENDED MY LIFE FOR AN ETERNAL PURPOSE.AFTER COLLEGE AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY IN WACO, TEXAS, ENROLLING THERE WITH A FOOTBALL SCHOLARSHIP AS A ‘RUNNING BACK’ FOR THE “BEARS”, GRADUATING, THEN SEMINARY AT SOUTHWESTERN SEMINARY, THEN PASTORING FOR ABOUT 22 YEARS, THEN THE LORD LED ME INTO MISSION WORK OVERSEAS EVANGELIZING THROUGH LARGE CRUSADES ACROSS INDIA MOSTLY, BUT IN ABOUT FIVE NATIONS IN AFRICA AT TIMES, & BRAZIL, PLUS THE ‘MAJOR RESPONSIBILITY’ OF TEACHING CHURCHES & PASTORS IN “WORD OF GOD MINISTRY” FOR ABOUT THIRTY YEARS, TRIPS ABOUT 5-6 TIMES A YEAR, FOR PERIODS OF 3 WEEKS TO 3 MONTHS, BACK & FORTH ON AIRLINES!AFTER THOSE STRENUOUS TRAVELS FOR YEARS & YEARS, WHEN I CAME HOME, ALL I’D DO WAS REST, READ THE BIBLE, & REFRESH MY SOUL & SPIRIT, BUT ALSO OVER THE YEARS WRITING ABOUT 25 BOOKS FOR PUBLICATION AND CIRCULATION. THIS NEW BOOK WILL BE THE FIRST IN A NUMBER OF YEARS! I PRAY THAT IT BLESSES YOU, ENCOURAGES YOU,INSPIRES YOU,CHALLENGES YOU TO GET OUT IN THE “TRENCHES” ON YOUR STREET, CITIES, STATES, YOUR NATION, &,YES, EVEN NATIONS ACROSS THE WORLD THAT NEED YOUR “WITNESS”! AMEN?
COPYRIGHT, 2019
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED FOR:JAMES FARRELL FISHER & WIFE, SUSAN M.FISHER!
CONTENTS:
CHAPTER ONE: A SERIOUS INSPECTION OF INSPIRED SCRIPTURE!
CHAPTER TWO: THE DECEPTION OF FALLEN WORLD-CULTURES OR THE TRUTH: “GOD LOVES ME”?
CHAPTER THREE: REMAINING FLAWED OR ‘FAITHING’ THE FINISHED WORK OF CHRIST?
CHAPTER FOUR: ILLOGICAL DEBATE OR CONVINCED, CONVERTED, CONSECRATED, & CONFIRMED ‘LIFE IN CHRIST’?
CHAPTER FIVE: BRINGING FALSE RELIGIONS TO GOD’S TRUE FAITH!
CHAPTER SIX: STRANGERS IN A ‘GOD-BLESSED LAND’ OR “CITIZENS OF HIS ETERNAL KINGDOM?”
CHAPTER SEVEN: “PUMPING SELFISH FLESH OR PRAISING THE SUPREME FATHER?”
CHAPTER EIGHT: MENTAL MISTAKES OF MISGUIDED MEN
CHAPTER NINE: VICTIMIZED LIVING OR A VICTORIUS LIFE?
CHAPTER TEN: SPIRITUAL INSANITY OR SPIRITUAL REALITY?
CHAPTER ELEVEN: LESS & LESS OR MORE & MORE?
CHAPTER TWELVE:FALLEN HUMANITY OR THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD’S COMPASSION?
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: DEATH? THE DOOR TO HELL’S WORST OR THE DOOR TO GOD’S ETERNAL COMPASSION?
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: ACTIVE RELIGION – INACTIVE RELATIONSHIP?
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: SMALL SEED –GREAT FRUIT!
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: THE HOLY TRUTH OF CHRIST’S RESURRECTION LIFE!
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: SURE TESTS FOR BLOOD-REDEEMED LIVES “IN Christ”!
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: A CHURCH’S,A PASTOR’S,A DISCIPLE’S MINISTRY TO A LOST, NEEDY, SINFUL WORLD!
CHAPTER NINETEEN: THE JOY OF A HOLY HOPE!
CHAPTER TWENTY: CARE OF THE CARNAL MIND OR CARE OF THE SPIRITUAL SOUL?
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: A CRAVING,FLESHLY HEART OR A NEW-CREATION MIRACLE?
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: RAISING SPIRITUAL SONS
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: ABANDONING HOPE OR ABIDING IN HOPE?
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: BLANDSOME, HANDSOME,OR AWESOMELY TRANSFORMED?
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: BRINK-LIVING OR BREAK-THROUGH LIBERTY?
TWENTY-SIX: ASININE CHOICES OR FLESHLY DEVOTION TO CHRIST?
TWENTY-SEVEN: BRINGING FALSE RELIGIONS TO GOD’S TRUE FAITH!
TWENTY-EIGHT: CRIMINALIZED FOR STANDING FOR THE TRUTH!
TWENTY-NINE: GOD DWELLS WHERE THE THRONE IS!
THIRTY: ‘AWAKENINGS’ NECESSITY!
THIRTY-ONE: ADAPTABLE CHURCHES OR APOSTOLIC ASSEMBLIES?
THIRTY-TWO:AUTHENTIC SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP
THIRTY-THREE: CAPTURING THE VISION
THIRTY-FOUR: MARVELOUS MERCY & MATCHLESS GRACE!
THIRTY-FIVE: KINGDOM LIVING – KINGDOM BLESSINGS!
THIRTY-SIX: FACING NEW DAYS CONFIDENTLY!
CHAPTER ONE
A SERIOUS INSPECTION OF INSPIRED SCRIPTURE
THE GREAT HISTORICAL FIGURE OF THE PAST, JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, ONCE SAID, “SO GREAT IS MY VENERATION FOR THE BIBLE THAT THE EARLIER MY CHILDREN BEGIN TO READ IT, THE MORE CONFIDENT WILL BE MY HOPE THAT THEY WILL PROVE USEFUL CITIZENS TO THEIR COUNTRY, AND RESPECTABLE MEMBERS OF SOCIETY.”
I OFTEN WONDER HOW MUCH OR HOW LITTLE PARENTS MAKE OF THE IMPORTANCE OF THE WORD OF GOD THEMSELVES AND FOR “THEIR CHILDREN”! ARE PARENTS SERIOUS ABOUT THE HOLY WORD OF GOD? ARE PARENTS COMMITTED TO INSTILLING WITHIN THE CHILDREN THEY RAISE, YES, A LOVE FOR AND FAITHFULNESS TO DAILY STUDY OF THE WORD OF GOD AS USUALLY AS THEY FAITHFULLY PREPARE THREE PHYSICAL MEALS A DAY FOR THEM?
IN 2 CORINTHIANS 12:14-15 PAUL WROTE: “BEHOLD, THE THIRD TIME I AM COME TO YOU; AND I WILL NOT BE BURDENSOME TO YOU: FOR I SEEK NOT YOUR’S, BUT YOU; FOR THE CHILDREN OUGHT NOT TO LAY UP FOR THE PARENTS, BUT THE PARENTS FOR THE CHILDREN. AND I WILL VERY GLADLY SPEND AND BE SPENT FOR YOU; THOUGH THE MORE ABUNDANTLY I LOVE YOU, THE LESS I BE LOVED.” WHAT A STRANGE ‘TWIST’! PAUL WAS SEEING HIS INTERST IN MINISTERING TO THEM WAS NOT TO TAKE WHAT THEY HAD BUT TO GIVE THEM WHAT THEY NEEDED, THE GIFT OF FAITH AND TRUST IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST; BUT THEN HE SAW, THAT THOUGH HE GAVE FREELY THE RICHNESS OF GOD’S GRACE & MERCY, FROM THEM HE RECEIVED NO BLESSING, AFFIRMATION, OR ENCOURAGEMENT AT ALL-HE SENSED AND WAS MADE AWARE OF “LESS LOVE” FROM “BLESSED OF GOD SOULS HE BROUGHT TO SAVING FAITH IN CHRIST”! WELL, SINCE REDEEMED BY THE BLOOD OF CHRIST, BORN AGAIN, BREATHED UPON BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, COMMISSIONED BY CHRIST, COMMITTED TO A LOST, UNBELIEVING WORLD AROUND YOU, BECAUSE OF “YOUR” “SERIOUS INSPECTION OF THE WORD OF GOD”, HOW MOTIVATED ARE YOU IN SHARING YOUR LIFE, YOUR TESTIMONY, YOUR WITNESS TO A SPIRITUALLY NEEDY, HUNGRY, DARKENED LIFE AROUND YOU WHO ALSO NEED TO KNOW “HOW” TO BE BORN AGAIN, RECONCILED TO GOD BY YOUR WITNESS?
IN EZEKIAL 34:18 WE READ, “DOES IT SEEM A SMALL THING UNTO YOU TO HAVE EATEN UP THE GOOD PASTURE, BUT YOU MUST TREAD DOWN WITH YOUR FEET THE RESIDUE OF YOUR PASTURES? AND TO HAVE DRUNK OF THE DEEP WATERS, BUT YOU MUST FOUL THE RESIDUE WITH YOUR FEET?” SPIRITUALIZE THAT FOR ME, PLEASE! AND, I PRAY, FOR A GREAT AWAKENING IN YOU CONCERNING YOUR ‘OMISSION’ OF A DISCIPLE’S MISSION, OR THE COMMISSION OF IT, LED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT WHO “INSPIRES US” TO SHARE CHRIST!IS THIS WHY KING JESUS SPOKE THESE WORDS IN MATTHEW 16:25? “FOR WHOSOEVER WILL SAVE HIS LIFE (FOR HIMSELF WITHOUT ANY CONSIDERATION OF OTHERS?) SHALL LOSE IT, AND WHOSOEVER WILL LOSE “HIS” LIFE FOR MY SAKE SHALL FIND IT.” BEFORE HOLY GOD’S THRONE RIGHT NOW: “WILL HOLY GOD SEE YOU AS ‘SAVING YOUR LIFE FOR YOURSELF’ OR, YES, SACRIFING YOUR LIFE, LAYING DOWN YOUR LIFE, TESTIFYING TO BIBLICAL TRUTH, EVEN IF IT COSTS YOU YOUR PHYSICAL LIFE, BUT YOUR “SPIRIT-LIFE” THO’ MARTYRED, (MAYBE), IS RAISED UP TO “GLORY-LAND” TO BOW AT THE THRONE OF JESUS AS HIS “FOOT-WASHER”?”
A SERIOUS INSPECTION OF INSPIRED SCRIPTURE? ST.THOMAS AQUINAS, IN HIS WRITING “SUMMA THEOLOGICA 1”, WROTE: “THERE CAN BE NO FALSEHOOD ANYWHERE IN THE LITERAL SENSE OF HOLY SCRIPTURE.” THE HOLY WORD OF GOD, IN THE BIBLE YOU OWN OR OUGHT TO OWN, HAS WORDS FROM THE APOSTLE PAUL THAT SAYS IN ROMANS 15:4, “FOR WHATSOEVER THINGS WERE WRITTEN AFORETIME WERE WRITTEN FOR OUR “LEARNING” THAT WE THROUGH PATIENCE,AND COMFORT OF THE SCRIPTURES, MIGHT HAVE HOPE.”
IN 1 JOHN 5:13 THE BELOVED JOHN WROTE: “THESE THINGS I HAVE WRITTEN UNTO YOU THAT BELIEVE ON THE NAME OF THE SON OF GOD; THAT YOU MAY KNOW THAT YOU HAVE ETERNAL LIFE, AND THAT YOU MAY BELIEVE (OR “TRUST) ON OR IN THE NAME OF THE SON OF GOD.” SERIOUSLY, IS JESUS THE SAVIOR & LORD & MASTER & RECONCILER & REDEEMER, YOUR “BREAD OF LIFE”, “YOUR HEAVENLY MEAT”, “YOUR GRACED ‘HONEY’”, THE “ANOINTED ONE” WHO WILLFULLY SHED HIS OWN BLOOD FOR REGENERATING YOU, ASSIGNING YOU AS HIS MESSENGER? ARE “YOU” AN “AMBASSADOR OF CHRIST” WILLFULLY REPRESENTING HIM, INTRODUCING HIM & HIS DESIRES TO “RECONCILE OTHERS THROUGH YOU TO HIMSELF”?
IN HEBREWS 10:35-36 WE READ, “CAST NOT AWAY THEREFORE YOUR CONFIDENCE, WHICH HAS GREAT RECOMPENCE OF REWARD. FOR YOU HAVE NEED OF STEADFASTNESS,THAT,AFTER YOU HAVE DONE THE WILL OF GOD, YOU MIGHT RECEIVE HIS PROMISE.” INTERESTING VERSES IN EPHESIANS 3:1-12!! PAUL TELLS US: “FOR THIS CAUSE I PAUL, THE PRISONER OF JESUS CHRIST FOR YOU GENTILES, IF YOU HAVE HEARD OF THE DISPENSATION OF THE GRACE OF GOD WHICH IS GIVEN ME TO YOU-WARD: HOW THAT BY REVELATION (OR UNVEILING) GOD MADE KNOWN UNTO ME THE MYSTERY; (AS I WROTE AFORE IN FEW WORDS,WHEREBY, WHEN YOU READ, YOU MAY UNDERSTAND MY KNOWLEDGE IN THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST), WHICH IN OTHER AGES WAS NOT MADE KNOWN UNTO THE SONS OF MEN, AS IT IS NOW REVEALED UNTO HIS HOLY APOSTLES AND PROPHETS BY THE SPIRIT;
THAT THE GENTILES SHOULD BE FELLOWHEIRS, AND OF THE SAME BODY, AND PARTAKERS OF HIS PROMISE IN CHRIST BY THE GOSPEL:WHEREOF I WAS MADE A MINISTER,ACCORDING TO THE GIFT OF THE GRACE OF GOD GIVEN UNTO ME BY THE EFFECTUAL WORKING OF HIS POWER. UNTO ME, WHO AM LESS THAN THE LEAST OF ALL SAINTS, IS THIS GRACE GIVEN, THAT I SHOULD PREACH AMONG THE GENTILES THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF CHRIST;
AND TO MAKE ALL MEN SEE WHAT IS THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE MYSTERY, WHICH FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD HAS BEEN HID IN GOD, WHO CREATED ALL THINGS BY JESUS CHRIST:
TO THE INTENT THAT NOW UNTO THE PRINCIPALITIES, AND POWERS, IN HEAVENLY PLACES MIGHT BE KNOWN BY THE CHURCH THE MANIFOLD WISDOM OF GOD, ACCORDING TO THE ETERNAL GOSPEL WHICH HE PURPOSED IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD.” AS A RESULT?
HAVING BEEN REDEEMED, WASHED IN CHRIST’S BLOOD, FILLED WITH RESURRECTION LIFE, POWER, AND HOPE, VERSES 16-21 DECLARES:
JESUS “IS” THE “BRANCH” OF GOD’S TREE OF LIFE THAT WAVES HIS “branches” (you&me!)AROUND US! JESUS IS THE “BELOVED SON”, HE’S THE “CORNERSTONE” OF OUR HOUSE OF FAITH, HE’S THE “MASTER” OVER THE WINDS AND THE WAVES OF YOUR LIFE AS YOUR ‘SHIP OF FAITH’ LAUNCHES, & OH, HE’S THE “BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR”, WHILE YOUR WORLD, YOUR SIN-NATURE, AND SATAN TRIES TO ‘DIM’ HIS “ETERNAL LIGHTING”!
CHRIST JESUS IS THE “TRUE VINE”, COMING, CALLING, KNOCKING ON MEN’S HEARTS’ DOORS, ENTERING, ASSUMING HIS MASTERFUL LEADERSHIP ROLE LIKE THE “CAPTAIN” ON A SHIP SAILING A STORMY SEA!
“A SERIOUS INSPECTION OF INSPIRED SCRIPTURE?” WHAT ABOUT EPHESIANS 3:21? “UNTO HIM BE GLORY IN THE CHURCH BY CHRIST JESUS THROUGHOUT ALL AGES WORLD WITHOUT END.AMEN.” “UNTO HIM”? IS THERE IN YOU THE “EXTENSION” OF HIS GLORY TO THE WORLD AROUND YOU THAT CANNOT, WILL NOT BE EXTINGUISHED BECAUSE THE “FIRE” OF THE SPIRIT, THE “FIERY FURNACE OF HIS LIVING WORD & MISSION NEVER DIES”, JESUS SAYING, “WORLD WITHOUT END”?
I MOVE ON WITH SECOND PETER,FOLLOWED BY A CHALLENGING HYMN, 2 PETER 1:19-21, “WE HAVE ALSO A MORE SURE WORD OF PROPHECY; WHEREUNTO YOU DO WELL THAT YOU TAKE HEED, AS UNTO A LIGHT THAT SHINES IN A DARK PLACE, UNTIL THE DAY DAWN, AND THE DAY STAR ARISE IN YOUR HEARTS:
KNOWING THIS FIRST, THAT NO PROPHECY IS OF ANY PRIVATE INTERPRETATION. FOR THE PROPHECY CAME NOT IN OLD TIME BY THE WILL OF MAN; BUT HOLY MEN OF GOD SPOKE AS THEY WERE MOVED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT.”
ARE “YOU” BEING MOVED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT? ARE “YOU” CONVICTED & CONVINCED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT THAT HE DESIRES TO FRESHLY ANOINT YOU TO WITNESS TO “LOST MEN” AROUND YOU? ARE YOU AWARE, THAT IN, UNDER, AND THROUGH HIS ANOINTING, YOU HAVE NO NEED TO FEAR, BUT BE BOLD TO HONOR CHRIST IN YOUR WITNESS TO THE UNSAVED AROUND YOU?
AS “YOU” OPEN YOUR MIND, YOUR HEART, AND YOUR WILL TO BE A “WITNESSING DISCIPLE”, DIDN’T JESUS SAY, “CALL- AND I WILL COME,PRAY-AND I’LL ANSWER, REST- AND I WILL CONVICT, CONVERT, AND CONSECRATE YOU AS A TEMPLE IN WHICH I DWELL & MINISTER THROUGH YOU”? DO YOU PRAY? IN THE AMERICAN HYMNAL,1933, PUBLISHED BY BROADMAN PRESS, NASHVILLE, TENN,P.510, IS A HYMN BY CHARLOTTE G.HOMER & CHARLES H.GABRIEL ENTITLED, “DRAW NIGH, IMMANUEL”: (I CLOSE WITH WORDS FROM THIS HYMN.):
“DRAW NIGH TO US, O GOD OF HOSTS, AND FILL US TO THE UTTERMOST WITH ZEAL TO WORK FOR YOU TODAY, IN YOUR ALL-WISE APPOINTED WAY; REVEAL YOUR WILL IN US, AND SHOW YOUR HAND DIVINE, THAT WE MAY KNOW WE ARE YOUR CHILDREN, & YOU ARE OUR GUIDE AND HIDING PLACE, WHATE’ER BETIDE.
“DRAW NIGH TO US, O MIGHTY ONE! OUR SHELTER BE FROM SUN TO SUN; OUR ALPHA AND OMEGA THOU BEFORE WHOM EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW; DELIVER US FROM EVERY SIN;IN US A MIGHTY WORK BEGIN; INCREASE OUR FAITH, OUR STRENGTH RENEW, FIT US “IN YOU” A MIGHTY WORK TO DO.
“DRAW NIGH TO US,IMMANUEL, MIGHTY GOD OF ISRAEL! ONCE MORE FROM SINAI’S FLAMING HEIGHT SPEAK, THAT WE MAY BE LED ARIGHT; ALMIGHTY, EVERLASTING KING OF KINGS! WITH CONTRITE HEARTS WE SING, THE RIGHTEOUS MAJESTY AND LOVE OF HIM WHO BUILT THE HEAVENS ABOVE.
DRAW NIGH, DRAW NIGH,IMMANUEL, IN GRANDEUR AND MAJESTY REVEAL YOURSELF TODAY; REJOICE, REJOICE, O ISRAEL, YOUR GOD OMNIPOTENT SHALL REIGN WITH UNIVERSAL SWAY; IN GRANDEUR AND IN MAJESTY REVEAL YOURSELF TODAY, YES, GOD OMNIPOTENT SHALL REIGN WITH UNIVERSAL SWAY!” AMEN?
CHAPTER TWO
THE DECEPTION OF FALLEN WORLD-CULTURES OR THE TRUTH: ‘GOD LOVES ME’?
IN THE DOCTOR’S OFFICE FOR AN APPOINTMENT TODAY, AS I WAITED I BEGAN TO READ A CURRENT “SPORTS ILLUSTRATED” MAGAZINE. THERE WAS AN ARTICLE ENTITLED “DONTE’S EPIC” WITH AN EARLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISEMENT CALLED “WRANGLER” WITH A STATEMENT: “STAY IN YOUR ELEMENT: EVERYDAY VERSATILITY, OUTDOOR CREDIBILITY”.
I WAS STARTLED,DISTURBED,AGITATED, ‘BECAUSE’, I WONDERED,WHAT DOES ‘EVERYDAY VERSATILITY OR OUTDOOR CREDIBILITY’ HAVE TO DO WITH “RECONCILED TO GOD”,BY BIBLICAL REPENTANCE AND TRUE FAITH, WHERE ONE FINDS “RECONCILED” TO GOD BY THE CONVICTION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE HOLY SPIRIT GUIDING US INTO ALL TRUTH, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT SEEING TO IT THAT OUR HEARTS HAVE BECOME FERTILE GROUND OF THE FRUIT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE RESURRECTED CHRIST, AND THE THRONE OF GOD ERECTED IN THE TRUE DISCIPLE’S HEART!
HOW EASY, YET STRONGLY POISONOUS IN THE HUMAN HEART AND MIND IT IS TO LIVE WITHOUT GOD’S LOVE, GRACE, AND MERCY, OR THE TREE OF DIVINE LIFE SURELY PLANTED, THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT NOT BEING PRODUCED IN THE CONVICTED HEART, PLUS FAILING TO ALLOW THE INDWELLING GUIDANCE OF GOD HIMSELF TEACHING US BECAUSE, THERE IS NO FERTILE SPIRITUAL SOIL FOR THE SCHEDULED ERUPTION OF THE SEED PLANTED!?! “FLESH”, ONE’S OLD SIN NATURE IS UTTERLY UNABLE TO ‘PRODUCE’ THE LIFE OF GOD WITHIN APART FROM BIRTHED,MATURED, &GUIDED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT!
I’M SURE IT’S EASY IN DECEIVED MINDS AND HEARTS TO RELY UPON ONE’S ‘INNER SOCIAL AGENDA’ – TRYING TO BE THE FRIEND OF GOD WITHOUT “TRUSTING”, RELYING UPON A SOCIAL INNER SPIRITUAL ADVENTURE WITHOUT GOD ENLIGHTENING A TRUE REPENTANT, TRUSTING HEART! “BEST EFFORT” IS MAN’S ‘SICK THEOLOGY’ WHILE GOD’S DIVINE CONVICTION, GRACIOUS “GIFT”, AND, HAVING TRULY REPENTED, TO THEN KNOW THAT HE,GOD,OPENED THE DOOR OF ONE’S HEART, AND THEN THEY HEAR JESUS SAY: “I’LL COME IN!”
I’M NOT OPPOSED TO ‘OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES’, BUT ‘EPIC’ LIVING APART FROM “RECONCILED TO GOD”? NO DOUBT MILLIONS AND MILLIONS ACROSS THE WORLD, INCLUDING AMERICA,ARE FLOUNDERING, DROWNING, IN SOCIAL,PHYSICAL,& SELFISH SATISFACTION, WITHOUT BEING CONVICTED,CONVERTED,COMPOSED, FULLY AWARE OF CHRIST’S PRESENCE WITHIN THE HEART AS HIS NEW TABERNACLE OF “PRESENCE” AFTER OPENLY REPENTING& TRUSTING IN A HEART, MIND, & SOUL,
WHO WANTS “RECONCILED TO GOD” BY HOLY SPIRIT CONVICTION, “RE-BORN” BIRTHED BY THE SPIRIT, NURTURED, MATURED, & REVEALING CHRIST IN THE “NEW-BORN LIFE”, & IN EVERY “NEW-BORN LIFE”,REVEALING WHAT THEIR CALLING, MISSION, & MINISTRY IS IN HONORING THE “RESURRECTED CHRIST” WITHIN THEM!
IN HEBEWS 12:28 WE READ: “WHEREFORE WE RECEIVING A KINGDOM WHICH CANNOT BE MOVED, LET US HAVE GRACE, WHEREBY WE MAY SERVE GOD ACCEPTABLY WITH REVERENCE & GODLY FEAR!” THIS REMINDS ME OF SOLOMON, IN 1 KINGS 3:5-15! IT SAYS: “IN GIBEON THE LORD APPEARED TO SOLOMON IN A DREAM BY NIGHT: & GOD SAID, ‘ASK WHAT I SHALL GIVE YOU.’ AND SOLOMON SAID, “YOU HAVE SHOWN UNTO YOUR SERVANT DAVID,MY FATHER, GREAT MERCY,
ACCORDING AS HE WALKED BEFORE YOU IN TRUTH,&IN RIGHTEOUSNESS,&IN UPRIGHTNESS OF HEART WITH YOU; &YOU HAVE KEPT FOR HIM THIS GREAT KINDNESS,
THAT YOU HAVE GIVEN HIM A SON TO SIT ON HIS THRONE,AS IT IS THIS DAY.AND NOW,O LORD MY GOD,YOU HAVE MADE YOUR SERVANT KING INSTEAD OF DAVID MY FATHER;& I AM BUT A LITTLE CHILD:I KNOW NOT HOW TO GO OUT OR COME IN. AND YOUR SERVANT IS IN THE MIDST OF YOUR PEOPLE WHICH YOU HAVE CHOSEN, A GREAT PEOPLE,THAT CANNOT BE NUMBERED NOR COUNTED FOR MULTITUDE.
GIVE THEREFORE YOUR SERVANT AN UNDERSTANDING HEART TO JUDGE YOUR PEOPLE, THAT I MAY DISCERN BETWEEN GOOD & BAD: FOR WHO IS ABLE TO JUDGE THIS YOUR SO GREAT A PEOPLE? AND THE SPEECH PLEASED THE LORD, THAT SOLOMON HAD ASKED THIS THING. AND GOD SAID UNTO HIM, BECAUSE YOU HAVE ASKED THIS THING, & YOU HAVE NOT ASKED FOR YOURSELF LONG LIFE;NEITHER HAVE ASKED RICHES FOR YOURSELF, NOR HAVE ASKED THE LIFE OF YOUR ENEMIES;BUT HAVE ASKED FOR YOURSELF UNDERSTANDING TO DISCERN JUDGMENT; BEHOLD,I HAVE DONE ACCORDING TO YOUR WORDS; &LO, I HAVE GIVEN YOU A WISE AND AN UNDERSTANDING HEART; SO THAT THERE WAS NONE LIKE YOU BEFORE YOU, NEITHER AFTER YOU SHALL ANY ARISE LIKE UNTO YOU.
AND I HAVE ALSO GIVEN YOU THAT WHICH YOU HAVE NOT ASKED, BOTH RICHES & HONOR:SO THAT THERE SHALL NOT BE ANY AMONG THE KINGS LIKE UNTO YOU ALL YOUR DAYS. AND IF YOU WILL WALK IN MY WAYS, TO KEEP MY STATUTES & MY COMMANDMENTS, AS YOUR FATHER DAVID DID WALK, THEN I WILL LENGTHEN YOUR DAYS!” OH,! WHAT A WORD OF CONVICTION, CONVERSION, CONSECRATION, COMFORT&CHALLENGE! AND “YOU” MUST REMEMBER 2 TIMOTHY 3:15-17 AS PAUL CHALLENGED A YOUNG SPIRITUAL SON & US!! HE SAID: “AND THAT FROM A CHILD YOU HAVE KNOWN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES,WHICH ARE ABLE TO MAKE YOU WISE UNTO SALVATION THROUGH FAITH “WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS”.ALL SCRIPTURE IS GIVEN BY INSPIRATION OF GOD, & IS PROFITABLE FOR DOCTRINE, FOR REPROOF, FOR CORRECTION, FOR INSTRUCTION IN RIGHTEOUSNESS: THAT THE MAN OF GOD MAY BE PERFECT, THOROUGHLY FURNISHED UNTO ALL GOOD WORKS.”
ARE “YOU” LIVING IN THE DECEPTION OF A FALLEN WORLD?” OR DO YOU KNOW THAT HOLY GOD “KNOCKS” ON YOUR HEART’S DOOR & MIND &WILL, TO SAY TO YOU, “OPEN THE DOOR & I WILL COME IN & I WILL GUIDE YOU INTO ALL BIBLICAL TRUTH!”?? I WROTE WORDS OF POETRY RECENTLY THAT SAYS: “STRANGERS IN A GOD-BLESSED LAND,SELFISHLY LIVE AS ‘SLAVES’ TO A WORLD, A DEVIL, & A ‘FLESHLY’ BAND;IGNORING GOD & SINGING THEIR OWN SONG, ‘OFF-KEY’, THEY’RE LOUD & SINFULLY STRONG.
STRANGERS TO “TRUTH” & ALL THINGS “RIGHT”, THEY WANDER ON EARTH IN THEIR ‘SOULISH NIGHT’ IGNORING THE GOD OF LOVE & LIGHT, DANCING &PRANCING & JUMPING IN THEIR SIN, THEY EASILY TURN AWAY FROM “GOD’S MIGHT HAVE BEEN”.
“NEW LIFE IN CHRIST” IS TO THEM A ‘BORE’, BECAUSE LIFE ON THEIR OWN IN SINFUL PLEASURE, VOID OF GOD IS THE SIN-NATURE’S ‘LEISURE’:SO DAY BY DAY IN THEIR SELFISH WAY, THEY WILLFULLY LIVE BLINDED TO GOD’S “BEST DAY”; THE DAY OF REDEMPTION FOR SOULS IN SIN, BUT MANY WILLFULLY CHOOSE WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN!”
ARE “YOU” LIVING IN “THE DECEPTION OF A FALLEN WORLD-CULTURE OR “LIVING IN” THE TRUTH: “GOD LOVES ME & SO WANTS TO REDEEM ME,RECONCILE ME,& RE-TRAIN ME ABOUT “TRUE DISCIPLESHIP”, SO THAT I,YOU, THE “BODY OF CHRIST” IN EVERY CONTINENT & NATION, STATE & CITY, MAY TRULY BE HIS “ROYAL AMBASSADORS” EXTENDING THE KING’S MINISTRY!!!
“GOD LOVES ME, THIS I KNOW, FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO; LITTLE ONES TO HIM BELONG, THEY ARE WEAK, BUT HE IS STRONG! YES, JESUS LOVES ME,YES, JESUS LOVES ME; YES, JESUS LOVES ME – THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO!” IN THE OLD “THE AMERICAN HYMNAL”PUBLISHED IN 1933 BY ‘THE BROADMAN PRESS’, NASHVILLE,TENN.,IS A HYMN ENTITLED, “O COULD I SPEAK”,(P.11), THAT SAYS: “O COULD I SPEAK THE MATCHLESS WORTH, O COULD I SOUND THE GLORIES FORTH WHICH IN MY SAVIOR SHINE, I’D SOAR, &TOUCH THE HEAVENLY STRINGS, AND VIE WITH GABRIEL AS HE SINGS IN NOTES ALMOST DIVINE, IN NOTES ALMOST DIVINE.
I’D SING THE PRECIOUS BLOOD JESUS SPILT, MY RANSOM FROM THE DREADFUL GUILT OF SIN, & WRATH DIVINE: I’D SING HIS GLORIOUS RIGHTEOUSNESS, IN WHICH ALL-PERFECT, HEAVENLY DRESS MY SOUL SHALL EVER SHINE, MY SOUL SHALL EVER SHINE.
I’D SING THE CHARACTERS HE BEARS, & ALL THE FORMS OF LOVE HE WEARS, EXALTED ON HIS THRONE:IN LOFTIEST SONGS OF SWEETEST PRAISE, I WOULD TO EVERLASTING DAYS MAKE ALL HIS GLORIES KNOWN, MAKE ALL HIS GLORIES KNOWN.
WELL,THE DELIGHTFUL DAY WILL COME WHEN MY DEAR LORD WILL BRING ME HOME, AND I SHALL SEE HIS FACE; THEN WITH MY SAVIOR, BROTHER, FRIEND, A BLEST ETERNITY I’LL SPEND, TRIUMPHANT IN HIS GRACE, TRIUMPHANT IN HIS GRACE.”
FOR YOU,YOUR CHOICE! SELF OR THE SAVIOR,LUST OR HIS LOVE, MY WORLD OR HIS KINGDOM, MY FLESHLY PLEASURES OR HIS ETERNAL PEACE, MY DARKNESS OR HIS LIGHT, MY ‘TRYING’ OR HIS WORD OF “TRUST”, MY SELF-EFFORT OR HIS SAVIOR’S LOVE EXCELLING, MY NATURAL BREATH OR HIS BREATH OF THE LOVING SPIRIT, MY ‘SPOTS’ AS SATAN’S MARKING OF SIN-CAPTURED LIVING OR GOD’S “SPECIAL GRACE” OF ‘NEVER-FAILING’ PRESENCE & POWER TO LIVE AS “MORE THAN CONQUERORS, BUT ETERNAL VICTORS” BECAUSE OF HIS BLOOD, HIS DEATH, HIS RESURRECTION, HIS ASCENSION, & HIS ETERNAL EYE ON YOU TO MAKE SURE YOU WALK IN HIS VICTORIOUS CONQUEST OVER SATAN, OVER SIN, & OVER PHYSICAL DEATH! CAN “YOU SAY, ‘HALLELUJAH! GLORY TO THE NAME OF KING JESUS!”
CHAPTER THREE
“REMAINING FLAWED OR “FAITHING”
THE FINISHED WORK OF CHRIST”
- Sinners, willing to remain as they are, but pleased to ‘acknowledge’ Jesus Christ, profess ‘faith’, and join a ‘church’ ARE ‘flawed professing disciples’ asserting their ‘completion’ "in Christ", when HE, the Resurrected, Reigning King of kings and Lord of lords, ‘knocked’, but wasn’t allowed to enter with the gifts of a "new heart" and "new Spirit" with the ‘professors of faith’ continuing on deceiving and being deceived! "Christ (alone) in you IS the.hope of glory", but, IN truly "Repentant minds and hearts", willing to indeed be dead to themselves daily, IS His Resurrection Life manifested in mortal flesh!!
I’m sure you’ve heard it said: "Oh, I ‘believe’ in Jesus, as long as He allows ME to be myself. I want to be with Jesus, but if I must die to myself, to my old sin nature, and to my devotion to my world philosophies, and even enjoy it at times, and yes, my devotion to Satan’s false assertions, and to the desires of fleshly demons in me to remain themselves, I guess I’ll just have to pay the price for a stubborn heart, mind, will, and life, and say: ‘good-by, Jesus’!"
Sinners, willing to be believers remaining as they are, but pleased to acknowledge Jesus, ‘profess faith’, and join a ‘church’, ARE ‘flawed disciples’ asserting their ‘completion in Christ’ when He is not around to "bless and claim as His own the ‘pretenders111 !
Are you aware that there are ‘pretenders’ who are not "servants in and through and by Christ Jesus"? Are you aware of many who ‘join a church’ yet never died to the old ‘self nature’ that His Resurrection Life might find a ‘temple’ or ‘tabernacle’, but live ‘professing’ apart from being possessed by Christ Himself through His "blood purchase" at the Cross?
There is such a vast difference between ‘world-followers’, deceived by the powers of darkness and, yet "religious believers", who’ve declared allegiance to a ‘pretending savior’ but know nothing of the "Prince of Peace who, yes, sacrificed His divine life that fallen men could be reconciled to Holy God through His shed blood, merciless death, then burial, but resurrected on the third day as reigning Lord over sin and death and separation from Holy God, ascending to Heaven’s Throne where He still reigns!" But ‘pretenders’ know nothing about "taking the sentence of death daily to themselves (knowing crucified with Christ)", that Jesus’ Resurrection Life could, would, was, is, after true repentance and "rest-filled faith", reconciling them to Him with, in, and through His Resurrection Life, Resurrection Hope, and Resurrection Power, and His Life then expressed daily in the life now ‘dead to self, dead to their old sin-nature, dead to the unbelieving world around them, and dead to Satan’s impotent armies of fleshly deceit, fleshly expression, and fleshly control, living only to, yes, please the Lord in a daily ‘laid-down-life’ to LET HIM BE JESUS IN THEM AND THROUGH THEM!’
In Matthew 10:1, Verses 7-8, 16-20, 22-26, 28-34, 36-40, we read about "sent ones loyal to the Savior and Lord"! Matthew 10:1 says, "And when He had called unto Himself His twelve disciples, He gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.
Verses 7-8 says, And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons; freely you have received, freely give.
Verses 16-20 follows, Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be you therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues;
And you shall be brought before governors and kings for My sake, for a testimony against them, and the (unbelieving Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what you shall speak; for it shall be given you in that same hour what you shall speak, For it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaks in you.
Verses 22-26, "And you shall be hated of all men for My name’s sake; but he that endures to the end shall be saved. But when they persecute you in this city, flee you into another: for verily I say unto you, You shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come. (His Resurrection Presence!!
Glory!!).
Verses 28-34 then says, "And fear them not them, which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him, which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without the Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Fear you not therefore; you are of more Value than many sparrows. Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess before My Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to send peace on the earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword.
Verses 36-40 then says, And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. He that loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he that loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he that takes not his cross, and follows after Me, is not worthy of Me. He that finds his life shall lose it; and he that loses his life for My sake shall find it.
He that receives you receives Me, and he that receives Me receives Him that sent Me."
What an awesome, challenging, enriching ‘Life-changing Word’ for every repentant heart and soul, but, yes, a scary, ‘fear-full Word’ for every unbeliever, every pretender, and, yes, every ‘kingdom’ of man’s building that wants no part of Holy God and His merciful Savior and Lord!!
‘World-followers’, ‘imitating, pretending, church followers’, possessors of ‘fervent lips but divided hearts’, willing to ‘hear the Word of God without obeying’, even making long prayers, but according to 2 Timothy 3:5 have ‘a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof; from such turn away’, because You will be in danger of ‘getting scorched’!
"Remaining ‘flawed’ though ‘professing faith"? How ‘strange’ that some disciples are seen as ‘professing faith in Christ’ yet holding on to a past life of the world, the flesh, and Satan himself, sadly, with no desire to be ‘sanctified ‘wholly’ rather than fully freed in Christ’s Indwelling Life’ victorious over the powers of darkness!
I was so impressed recently when reading Oswald Chambers’ book entitled "My Utmost For His Highest " :, (which I read regularly with the Word, yes, over and over again and again – a ‘wise, Spirit-anointed preacher!’ from England a long time ago’!),majoring on a disciple’s ‘fleshly exhaustion’ by quoting Isaiah 40:28, "The everlasting God…faints not, nor ever grows weary," saying, (p.29), "Has the way in which you have been serving God betrayed you into exhaustion? If so, then rally your affections. Where did you start the service from? From your own sympathy OR from the basis of the Redemption of Jesus Christ? CONTINUALLY go back to the foundation of your affections and recollect where the source of power is. You have no right to say’ "O Lord, I am so exhausted." He saved and sanctified you in order to EXHAUST YOUR JOY IN YOURSELF. Be exhausted ‘for God’, but remember that your supply comes from (and "in Him"!), "All my fresh springs shall be in You." Amen?
The continuing, disappointing, ‘falling-short’ philosophy, of many ‘trying-disciples’ is, "Do your best"! NO!! Ten thousand times, NO!!" True disciples DAILY "take the sentence of death daily that the Resurrection Life of Christ may be manifested in them and through them as they yield to the Holy Spirit to continually guide and express "Jesus Only"" through them!!"
Self-assertiveness in a ‘professing disciple’ is a big nail that gets stronger and stronger in place of their "hope of glory"! One "in Christ" doesn’t need the ‘nails of devotion to his/her old flesh-
nature’, but the "new-life" only in and through His Resurrection Presence, being Himself eternally the same, even in opposition to the demons and Satan himself who hang around!
Tell me! "Why do some ‘professing believers’, crucified WITH Christ, still ‘think’ that they are ‘the ones able’ WHEN He nailed their ‘sinfulness and able-ness to His Cross’ thousands of years ago?
‘Self-consciousness’ and ‘self-awareness’, living as ‘professing disciples as servants of Christ but in, of, and for themselves, ignoring His Resurrection Presence if truly ‘born-again’, ‘think’ that their ‘self-absorbed- life’ that they hold onto can adequately unveiled Christ’s presence, when all it does is ‘shame’ Christ’s completed work through the Cross and His empty tomb!
‘Self-consciousness’ professing Christ is a curse, not a blessing! ‘Self-consciousness’ is a ‘noose around the neck’; not the "new creation reality of His indwelling Presence"! ‘Self consciousness’ of ‘professing believers’ never gives ‘confidence’ in a compromised believer’s walk, but only a ‘leaking life of limited expression’ of the True Christ! Again, "Christ IN YOU IS the Hope of Glory!"
If Christ Jesus "gives ‘rest’", why do so many "try-ers" live unfulfilling lives as ‘professing disciples’, yes, unaware ‘possessed disciples’ ARE viewers of God’s amazing grace as Jesus is Himself in them and through them even conscious that it’s Him, not them that honors God the Father?
Again, Isaiah 40:31 says: "But they that wait upon the Lord, (letting Him be Himself in them and through them!), shall renew their strength (which IS their faith in His bodily presence and bodily participation THROUGH THEM, not by them at all!); they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."
WHAT AN AMAZING TRANSITION FROM ‘SELF CONSCIOUSNESS’ INTO "CHRIST-AWARENESS, AVAILABILITY, AND HEAVENLY ACTION" THROUGH "CHRIST-RELEASE OF HIS RESURRECTION -PRESENCE THROUGH YOU"! I Are YOU the
"poor in spirit" who know HOW to let, "Jesus, BE Jesus in me, no longer me but Thee, Resurrection Power fill me this hour, Jesus, be Jesus in me"?
The promised ‘life in Christ’ was never intended to be the new believer trying and trying! No! Every day, as your days begin "in Christ", must be days when the "It is finished" proclamation includes "finished with myself so Christ Jesus can be, is, and forever will be, "my ALL IN ALL"!!
"REMAINING FLAWED" OR, "FAITHING THE FINISHED WORK"
BY CHRIST JESUS ALONE! Are YOU "crucified with Christ", and the life in Him you now live is the daily dedication of ‘death to self’ that His Resurrection Presence might be expressed through you?
It was P.P. Bliss, in the old "Broadman Hymnal", that wrote the words to the hymn, "That Will Be Glory For Me". It says:
"I know not the hour when my Lord will come To take me away to His own dear home; But I know that His presence lightens my gloom, And that will be glory for me.
I know not the song that the angels sing, I know not the sound of the harp’s glad ring; But I know there’ll be praises to Jesus our King, And that will be glory for me.
I know not the form of my mansion fair, I know not the name that I then shall bear; But I know that my Savior will welcome me there, And that will be glory for me.
And that will be glory for me, Oh, that will be glory for me; When I stand in His presence, and like Him shall be, Oh, that will be glory for me." In Luke 24:32, as the true disciples had been with Jesus, and then He was gone, say: "Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures?"
Question! Do YOU live with a "burning heart" in you because of His Abiding Presence that never leaves you? Are YOU ‘professing Him’ but living without expressing His promise, "I’ll never leave you nor forsake you?" "Burning hearts"? Is that the testimony of your earthly existence as a redeemed disciple of King Jesus? Sadly, many live countless lives of unawareness, not "shining lights" rejoicing in His abiding presence! Again, Oswald Chambers, in his book "My Utmost For His Highest" wrote: (pps. 58-59), "Much of our distress as Christians comes not because of sin, but because we are ignorant of the laws of our own (spiritual) nature. For instance, the only test as to whether we allow an emotion to have its way is to see what the outcome of the emotion will be. Push it to its logical conclusion, and if the outcome is something God would condemn, allow it no more way. But if it be an emotion kindled by the Spirit of God and you do not let that emotion have its right issue in your life, it will react on a lower level.
That is the way sentimentalists are made. The higher the emotion, the deeper the degradation will be, if it is not worked out on its proper level. If the Spirit of God has stirred you, make as many things inevitable as possible, let the consequences be what they will. We cannot stay on the mount of transfiguration, but we must obey the light we received there; we must act it out."
SO…. When the temptation, the ‘testing’, the ‘trial’, comes by the demons, LET THE KINDLING SPIRIT OF THE HOLY GHOST be
loosed in you to ward off any satanic, worldly, OR fleshly desire! CHOOSE DAILY TO HONOR KING JESUS!! AMEN?
CHAPTER FOUR
“ILLOGICAL DEBATE OR CONVINCED, CONVERTED, CONSECRATED, AND CONFIRMED LIFE IN CHRIST”
THE PSALMIST, IN PSALM 111, WAS,(YES), INSPIRED TO WRITE, VERSE 5, "GOD HAS GIVEN MEAT UNTO THEM THAT FEAR HIM: HE WILL EVER BE MINDFUL OF HIS COVENANT." BUT ‘ILLOGICAL DEBATERS’, STRONGLY ‘POISONED’ BY ‘GOD-RESENTERS’ ACCEPT ‘LESSONS’ (?) FROM THE ‘FLESH OR SIN-NATURED’ MEN OR WOMEN, WHO RATHER THAN "TRUST GOD" WHO BIRTHED MANKIND WITH THE CHOICE FOR THEIR LIFE’S JOURNEY TURN INWARD & AROUND BUT NOT TO GOD, WHO,YES,EVEN THOUGH HE "KNOCKS", AND THEY REFUSE TO OPEN THE HEART’S DOOR BECAUSE THEY
‘LOVE’ "FLESH" NOT SPIRIT I LOVING A "LOST
WORLD’S RESENTMENT OF DEVOTION TO GOD",SO, "GUIDED BY ‘HEART-DEAD, MIND BLINDED’, AND WARPED WILLS DECEIVED BY SATAN HIMSELF", THERE WILL BE THOSE WHO FOOLISHLY CHOOSE TO REMAIN SEPARATED FROM GOD, UNDER SATAN’S DOMINATION, BLINDED BY·’ A FOOLISH LOST-WORLD MENTALITY’, UNAWARE THEY’VE CHOSEN ‘ILLOGICAL, NATURAL,DEMONIC,AND ‘HELLISH’ INSIGHT THAT LEAVES MERCIFUL, LOVING, GRACIOUS, CARING GOD & HIS WILL, WORD, & WAYS OUT OF THEIR LIVES, SO THEY "CHOOSE" THE WORLD’S GODLESS SPIRIT, THE SIN NATURE’S DEPRAVITY, AND SATAN’S BLINDNESS II
"ILLOGICAL DEBATERS" ARE OFTEN BLINDED BY AN INNER ‘ATTITUDE’, STRONG BUT WEAK AND DEFENSELESS, THAT, "UNABLE TO DO ANYTHING BUT SIN", THEY LIVE HOLDING ONTO, ‘IN SOME’, A "WILDER-LESS", "WONDER-LESS", "WISDOM-LESS", "WITNESS LESS" ATTITUDE THAT EVEN ‘BELIEVERS’ (?)
WHO CALL THEMSELVES ‘DISCIPLES OF CHRIST’, CAN’T DO ANYTHING BUT SIN SINCE ‘BEING SAVED'(?), THOUGH JESUS TOLD HIS THE MAN IN THE TEMPLE THAT HE HEALED, JOHN 5:14, "BEHOLD, YOU ARE MADE WHOLE:SIN NO MORE, LEST A WORSE THING COME UPON YOU."
"ILLOGICAL DEBATERS"? IN TITUS 3:2-11 PAUL STOUTLY AND WISELY WROTE: "TO SPEAK EVIL OF NO MAN, TO BE NO BRAWLERS, BUT GENT.LE, SHOWING ALL MEEKNESS UNTO ALL MEN.
FOR WE OURSELVES ALSO WERE SOMETIMES FOOLISH, DISOBEDIENT,DECEIVED,SERVING DIVERS LUSTS AND PLEASURES, LIVING IN MALICE AND ENW, HATEFUL, AND HATING ONE ANOTHER. BUT AFTER THAT THE KINDNESS AND LOVE OF GOD OUR SAVIOR TOWARD MAN APPEARED, NOT BY WORKS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH WE HAVE DONE, BUT ACCORDING TO HIS MERCY HE SAVED US, BY THE WASHING OF REGENERATION, AND RENEWING OF THE HOLY GHOST;
WHICH HE SHED ON US ABUNDANTLY THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR SAVIOR; THAT BEING JUSTIFIED BY HIS GRACE (JUSTIFIED? "JUST-AS-IF-WE’D-NEVER-SINNED!"), WE SHOULD BE MADE HEIRS ACCORDING TO THE HOPE OF ETERNAL LIFE.
THICH IS A FAITHFUL SAYING, AND THESE THINGS I WILL THAT YOU AFFIRM CONSTANTLY, THAT THEY WHICH HAVE BELIEVED IN GOD MIGHT BE CAREFUL TO MAINTAIN GOOD WORKS, THESE THINGS ARE GOOD AND PROFITABLEUNTO MEN. BUT AVOID FOOLISH QUESTIONS, AND GENEALOGIES, AND CONTENTIONS, AND STRIVINGS ABOUT THE LAW; FOR THEY ARE UNPROFITABLE AND VAIN.
A MAN THAT IS A HERETIC AFTER THE FIRST AND SECOND ADMONITION REJECT; KNOWING THAT HE THAT IS SUCH SUBVERTED, AND SINS, BEING CONDEMNED OF HIMSELF." WHAT A POWERFUL, ENLIGHTENING, CONVICTING REVELATION OF THE HOLY WORDI!
"ILLOGICAL DEBATERS" ARE DESCRIBED IN PSALM 2:1-41 THE PSALMIST ASKS, "WHY DO THE HEATHEN RAGE, AND THE PEOPLE IMAGINE A VAIN THING? THE KINGS OF THE EARTH SET THEMSELVES, AND THE RULERS TAKE COUNSEL TOGETHER, AGAINST THE LORD, AND AGAINST HIS ANOINTED, SAYING ‘LET US BREAK THEIR BANDS ASUNDER, AND CAST AWAY THEIR CORDS FROM US. HE THAT SITS IN THE HEAVENS SHALL LAUGH; THE LORD SHALL HAVE THEM IN DERISION. ( THAT WORD ‘DERISION’ MEANS, ‘RIDICULE’ OR ‘MOCKERY’!)
PLUS, IT’S SATAN HIMSELF & HIS DEMONIC WARRIORS THAT "PUT CORDS & BANDS" ON THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF ALL BIRTHED MANKIND WHO MUST RECEIVE CHRIST’S BLOOD REDEMPTION FOR THEM TO BE FREE FROM SATANIC BONDAGE!
BUT, IN THIS MOMENT, THIS TIME PERIOD OF YOUR LIFE, ARE YOU AN "ILLOGICAL DEBATER" OR ARE "YOU" A "CONVINCED,CONVERTED, CONSECRATED, CONFIRMED TRUE DISCIPLE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST"? A VERY ENLIGHTENING VERSE IS FOUND IN HEBREWS 11:4! "BY FAITH ABEL OFFERED UNTO GOD A
EXCELLENT SACRIFICE THAN CAIN, BY WHICH HE OBTAINED WITNESS THAT HE WAS RIGHTEOUS, GOD TESTIFYING OF HIS GIFTS; AND BY IT BEING DEAD YET SPEAKS." (A WITNESS THAT ‘CONTINUES’, EVEN AFTER ‘YOU’ DIED? "AMAZING GRACE"!I).
ARE "YOU" CONVINCED? AND "CONVINCED", DO "YOU" ALLOW THE HOLY SPIRIT TO "CONVINCE" OTHERS THROUGH YOU? IN MATTHEW 10:19-20, JESUS TELLS US: "BUT WHEN THEY DELIVER YOU UP, TAKE NO THOUGHT HOW OR WHAT YOU SHALL SPEAK: FOR IT SHALL BE GIVING YOU IN THAT SAME HOUR WHAT YOU SHALL SPEAK. FOR IT IS NOT YOU THAT SPEAKS, BUT THE SPIRIT OF YOUR FATHER WHICH SPEAKS IN YOU (AND "THROUGH YOU"I)."
"CONVINCED" BECAUSE YOU "WERE CONVERTED"? IS THAT "BORN AGAIN", GRACE FILLED, SPIRIT-BIRTHED, SPIRIT-ENLIGHTENED, SPIRIT-CONFIRMED,SPIRIT-ANOINTED, SPIRIT GUIDED, TO TOUCH YOUR WORLD WITH THE ETERNAL GOSPEL STORY OF GOD’S POWER TO SAVE OTHERS THROUGH YOU AS YOU LIFT UP THE MESSAGE OF "BLOOD REDEMPTION, RECONCILIATION, AND REACHING OUT THROUGH YOU WITH HIS AMAZING GRACE TO OTHERS?"
"CONVINCED", "CONVERTED", BUT ARE YOU "CONSECRATED"? IS THAT "SET APART", AS ONE DISTINCTIVELY DIFFERENT BY THE GRACE AND MERCY OF GOD, "BORN AGAIN", A "NEW CREATION" NO LONGER ONLY UNTO ONE’S SELF, BUT "CAPTURED, CONVERTED, CONSECRATED, ONE BECOMES CHRIST’S "ROYAL AMBASSADOR", COMMISSIONED BY CHRIST TO BE HIS WITNESS TO A WORLD THAT NEEDS TO BE RECONCILED TO GOD, REPENTING OF SIN AND SEPARATION FROM HIM, BUT THEN "SET APART" FOR THE UNVEILING OF THE GLORY, GRACE, AND MERCY OF GOD THROUGH YOU BECAUE OF THE RESURRECTED, REIGNING CHRIST WITHIN YOU!!
"CONVINCED,CONVERTED, CONSECRATED" – GOOD, EXCELLENT, GRACE-GIVEN -AND – "CONFIRMED" BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, EVIDENCED BY THE "FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT" MULTIPLYING IN YOU AND THROUGH YOU!
MARCUS M.WELLS, IN "THE AMERICAN HYMNAL", PUBLISHED IN 1933, BY THE BROADMAN PRESS OF NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, (P.188),WROTE THE HYMN, "HOLY SPIRIT, FAITHFUL GUIDE". IT SAYS: "HOLY SPIRIT, FAITHFUL GUIDE, EVER NEAR THE CHRISTIAN’S
SIDE; GENTLY LEAD US BY THE HAND, PILGRIMS IN A DESERT LAND;
EVER PRESENT, TRUEST FRIEND, EVER NEAR YOUR AID TO LEND, LEAVE US NOT TO DOUBT AND FEAR, GROPING ON IN DARKNESS DREAR.
WHEN OUR DAYS OF TOILSHALL CEASE, WAITING STILL FOR SWEET RELEASE, NOTHING LEFT BUT HEAVEN AND PRAYER, WONDERING IF OUR NAMES WERE THERE.
THEN JESUS SPEAKS! WHISPERING SOFTLY, ‘WANDERER, COMEI FOLLOW ME, I’ll GUIDE YOU HOME!
WEARY SOULS FOREVER REJOICE, WHILE THEY HEAR THAT SWEETEST VOICE, WHEN THE STORMS ARE RAGING SORE, HEARTS GROW FAINT, AND HOPES GIVE O’ER,WADING DEEP THE DISMAL FLOOD, PLEADING NAUGHT BUT JESUS’ BLOOD, THE SPIRIT SPEAKS, WHISPERING SOFTLY, "WAN DERER, COME! FOLLOW ME, I’llGUIDE YOU HOME!"IS THE WORD, THE "TRUTH", THE HOLY SPIRIT, YOUR GUIDE TO VICTORY OR IN "BEST EFFORT",
"FLESH-SPIRIT"I "SATAN-DECEIVED" ATTEMPTS
TO BE ‘CHRIST-LIKE’, HAVE YOU "FALLEN AWAY" FROM THE FULLNESS OF THE BLESSING OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST?
HE IS THE "FULLNESS", BUT YOU "TRIED" RATHER THAN "TRUSTED"? "ATTEMPTED" RATHER THAN "ATONED"? "SELF-EFFORT" RATHER THAN "BOUGHT WITH A PRICE", ‘PAID FOR’ REDEMPTION BY THE SHED BLOOD OF THE LAMB OF GOD BECAUSE "GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD"? IN WHOM WILL "YOU" STAND WITH BEFORE HOLY GOD AT HIS ETERNAL JUDGMENT SEAT WHEN YOUR DAY OF DEATH COMES?!?
CHAPTER FIVE
“FEAR-FILLED OR FEARLESS IN THE FAITH OF CHRIST JESUS?”
Highly, highly interesting Scriptures in Philippians 2:12-13 where Paul the Apostle said: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, WORK OUT YOUR OWN SALVATION IN FEAR AND TREMBLING; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”
“His good pleasure”, to “work in you”, “BOTH to will AND to do for His good pleasure”? And as He “works in you” according to His good pleasure”, you think any ‘believer’ professing Christ has the ‘right’ and the ‘privilege’ to ‘work out his/her salvation on his/her terms without any consideration to what pleases God Himself who, yes, laid down the life of His Son in your place’?
BUT!!!… If we understand God “worked out” His terms of our salvation, “both to will and to do (in us!) what IS His good pleasure”, being “set free from the law of sin and death, thus, that gives us the right to live our lives, then, on our terms”? Give me a break! From ‘fleshly’ but ‘still retaining a ‘right’ to do as one pleases’? How easily is it to be warped concerning “revelation-Truth”!! Jesus Himself clearly said in Luke 6:46 that one doesn’t obey in order to be saved, but because he/she has been saved, therefore, they thus, yield to Christ’s Lordship in their “walk of faith”, which IS obedience TO the Master! “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’, and not do the things which I say?”
Jesus had just spoken on good men AND evil men when in Luke 6:44-45, He said: “For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. For EVERY tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush.”
Is it possible that ‘pretenders to obedience’, professing Christ, ARE, as Jesus described them in Luke 6:41-42?, “Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the plank that is in your own eye? Hypocrite! (“Play-actor!”). First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your own eye.” Is that clear to you? Or are YOU determined to ‘gather grapes from the bramble bush of a sin-infested, worldly programmed, devilish influence’?
Many religious pretenders are BOUND in the strong bonds of spiritual pretense without even one fruit of God’s Spirit produced only by His Presence within them, yet still seek to see themselves as ‘Jesus-disciples’, though void of true repentance and, yes, Biblical Faith, that IS “trust and obedience”! Faith or obedience in the one that at least ‘professes it’ but doesn’t ‘stand on the sure foundation’ is certain to falter into more spiritual frailty, more spiritual feebleness, and losing any crippled confidence he or she had been able to muster in, yes, their ‘counterfeit state of allegiance’ rather than having been “second-born by the Holy Spirit”!
When the Lord Jesus said, “Come unto Me”, it was not for a spiritual badge to wear on one’s everyday outer clothing, but coming to Him, willfully dying daily to one’s old sin-nature-identity, and “resting” in His abiding, Resurrection Presence in the true heart of the now “born-again believer”!
In Luke 18:1-30 we read a solemn, serious, saving Word from King Jesus! He spoke a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint: Saying (That’s Jesus speaking!), There was in a city a judge, who had no fear of God, neither regarded any man; And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of my adversary.
And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man, Yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she wearies me. And the Lord said,
Hear what the unjust judge said. ‘And shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though He bears long with them’? And He spoke this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, yet despised others: “Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.
The Pharisee stood up and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess’. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, ‘God be merciful to me the sinner’. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for every one that exalts himself shall be abased; he that humbles himself (before God) shall be exalted”..
And they brought unto Him also infants, that He would touch them: but when His disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them unto Himself, and said, “Suffer little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein to God’s Kingdom!”
And a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? None is good, save one, that is, God. You know the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not Kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and your mother." And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up. When Jesus heard these things, He said unto him,
“Yet you lack one thing: sell all that you have, and distribute unto the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven: and come, follow Me.” When the ruler heard this, he was very sorrowful; for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, He said: “How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God? For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”
And they that heard it said, “Who then can be saved?” And Jesus said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” Then Peter said, “Lo, we have left all, and followed You.” And Jesus said unto them, “Verily I say unto you, There is no man that has left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God’s sake, Who shall not but receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting.”
What an awesome chapter in the Word of God! And yet many are not even moved one inch toward Holy God in their ‘self-determined’, mind-analyzed, ‘world-system’ allegiance, or the ‘deceived-by-Satan-mentality’, doing ‘religious allegiance’ “My way”!! All around you are individuals who are personally, morally, spiritually,‘bankrupt-souls’, blinded to the love, mercy, and grace of God, fully content to live a ‘religious’ but godless life, indulging their ‘flesh-nature’, corrupted by an army of deceitful devils, and a ‘Satan-inspired lifestyle of even ‘religious indifference’ to the good, acceptable, and perfect Will of Holy God’!
I’m thoroughly convinced that, beside the inspired Word of Holy God, IS the “faith-walk of a regenerated, re-born, Spirit-led Life, obedient to every Word of God, and IS the still-revealed- Resurrection-Presence of the King of kings and Lord of lords”! In Oswald Chambers’ book, “My Utmost For His Highest”, Chambers wrote a convicting, powerful, Truth-filled word! He said: (p.242), building on John 17:4, Jesus saying, “I have finished the work which You, Father-God, gave Me to do.” He wrote:
“The Death of Jesus Christ is the performance in history of the very Mind of God. There IS NO ROOM FOR LOOKING ON JESUS CHRIST AS A MARTYR; His death was not something that happened to Him which might have been prevented: His death was the very reason why He came…
Never build your preaching on forgiveness on the fact that God is our Father and He will forgive us because He loves us. It is untrue to Jesus Christ’s revelation (or unveiling) of God; it makes the Cross unnecessary, and the Redemption “much ado about nothing.” If God does forgive sin, it is because of the Death of Christ. God could forgive men in no other way than by the death of His Son, and Jesus is exalted to be Savior because of His death. “We see Jesus…because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor.” The greatest note of triumph that ever sounded in the ears of a startled universe was that sounded on the Cross of Christ – “IT IS FINISHED.” That is the last word in the redemption of man…
Anything that belittles or obliterates the holiness of God by a false view of the love of God, is untrue to the revelation given by Jesus Christ. Never allow the thought that Jesus Christ stands with us against God out of pity and compassion; that He became a curse for us out of sympathy with us. Jesus Christ BECAME A CURSE FOR US BY DIVINE DECREE. Our portion of realizing the terrific meaning of the curse is conviction of sin, the gift of shame and penitence is given us – this is the mercy of God. Jesus Christ hates the wrong in man, and Calvary is the estimate (or unveiling) of His hatred.” So powerfully convicting, liberating, and life-changing eternally by, yes, the grace, the love, and the mercy for us in “the crucified, dead, buried, but resurrected King of kings and Lord of lords”!!
And, when that sinks in to your mind, heart, and will, with Paul, (1 Corinthians 10:31), “Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do ALL to the glory of God.” Is THAT Scriptural awe and shock, or not?
In Malachi 3:10b the prophet heard Holy, merciful, loving God, saying: “…prove Me now herewith, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open to you the windows of heaven, and pour YOU out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” (Do YOU “live” IN “the open windows of heaven” with the overflow from you being, yes, the extension of Christ’s Life through you, the expression of His faithful, loving nature through you, and the living proof of His still awesome power to resurrect the dead, yes, Him through YOU?).
“Fear-filled OR Fearless in the Faith of Christ Jesus”? In Matthew 5:1-16 we read: And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain; and when He was set, His disciples came unto Him. AND He opened His mouth, and taught them, saying, “Blessed are the poor (the poverty-stricken in themselves!) in spirit, for their’s is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek (the teachable!), for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they WHICH DO HUNGER AND THIRST after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for their’s IS the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” HEAR ME!
You (”In Christ”) are the salt of the earth; but, if the salt has lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is henceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under the foot of men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.(Are you SET on Calvary’s hill and Christ’s empty tomb?) Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a basket (a church building?), but on a candlestick; and it gives light unto all that are in the house (of human civilization?). Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
Dare I tell you? Believe I will!! “The ‘Eternal Morning Light” never has a day it doesn’t dawn – bright or cloudy or stormy or rainy – Jesus, the Eternal Morning Light still shines – Are YOU in the ‘darkness’ or do you and yours ‘Radiate’ the Eternal Light WHO IS CHRIST JESUS?
Are YOU “Fear-filled OR Fearless in the Faith?”
CHAPTER SIX
“STRANGERS IN A GOD-BLESSED LAND OR CITIZENS OF HIS ETERNAL KINGDOM”
IN THE LAST FEW WEEKS, IT’S BEEN AMAZING TO ME AT GOD’S INSPIRATION IN ME IN WRITING, I PRAY, BLESSED TEACHINGS THAT WILL TEACH & REACH MANY FOR TRUE SALVATION IN THE SAVIOR’S NAME BY CONVICTION, CONVERSION, CONSECRATION, AND THEN,COMMISSIONING OF CHILDREN OF FAITH AS HIS MESSENGERS, AMBASSADORS, SERVANTS, PASTORS & TEACHERS & EVEN AS MISSIONARIES! AS WELL AS TEACHINGS, OUR LORD HAS EVEN INSPIRED POETRY IN ME EVERY NOW & THEN! HERE’S A SAMPLE: "STRANGERS IN A GOD-BLESSED LAND, SELFISHLY LIVING AS ‘SLAVES’ TO A WORLD, A DEVIL, & A ‘FLESHLY’ BAND; IGNORING GOD & SINGING THEIR OWN SONG, ‘OFF-KEY", THEY’RE LOUD & SINFULLY STRONG.
STRANGERS TO "TRUTH" & ALL THINGS RIGHT, THEY WANDER ON EARTH IN THEIR ‘SOULISH NIGHT’, IGNORING THE GOD OF LOVE & LIGHT, DANCING & PRANCING & JUMPING IN THEIR SIN, THEY EASILY TURN AWAY FROM "GOD’S: MIGHT HAVE BEENI"
"NEW LIFE IN CHRIST" IS TO THEM A ‘BORE’, BECAUSE LIFE ON THEIR OWN IS IN INDULGENT & SINFUL TREASURE, BUT VOID OF GOD, IT’S SIN-NATURE’S ‘PLEASURE'(?).
SO DAY BY DAY IN THEIR SELFISH WAY, THEY WILLFULLY LIVE BLINDED TO GOD’S "BEST & BETTER DAY"; THAT’S THE DAY OF REDEMPTION FOR SOULS IN SIN, BUT THEY WILLFULLY IGNORE WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN.”
"STRANGERS IN A GOD-BLESSED LAND"? IN THE LAST PART OF HEBREWS 11:13,THERE IS A PHRASE DESCRIBING HEBREW BELIEVERS BEFORE THEY FOUND, YES, BY GOD’S MERCY & GRACE, THE TRUE PATH OF BLOOD REDEMPTION: PAUL WROTE, THAT MANY WERE: "STRANGERS & PILGRIMS ON THE EARTH", AT LEAST FOR AWHILE, THEN’HEARING GOD’S PROMISE’, WERE PERSUADED TO HOLD ON FROM THAT DAY FORWARD TO THEIR COMING CROWNING IN THE BLESSING OF SPIRITUAL FREEDOM THROUGH FAITH IN CHRIST’S GOSPEL FOREVER & EVER EVEN AFTER THEIR EARTHLY PHYSICAL DEATH TO LIVE ETERNALLY WITH CHRIST IN HEAVEN, NOT HELL, STILL FAITHFULLY READY TO "WASH THE MASTER’S FEET THERE AS THEY DID HERE!"
IN "THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGIOUS QUOTATIONS", WILLIAM COWPER AUTHORED WORDS HE ENTITLED "LIGHT SHINING OUT OF DARKNESS", SAYING: "BLIND UNBELIEF IS SURE TO ERR, AND SCAN GOD’S WORK IN VAIN; GOD IS HIS OWN INTERPRETER, AND HE WILL MAKE IT PLAIN."
BUT, STRANGERS IN A GOD-BLESSED LAND? STRANGERS TO GOD HIMSELF? STRANGERS TO HIS SON, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST? STRANGERS TO HIS HOLY SPIRIT? STRANGERS TO HIS ETERNAL WORD, HIS "MILK", HIS "BREAD", HIS "FRUIT", HIS "PATHWAY", HIS "GUIDING LIGHT" & STRANGERS TO HIS"GRACIOUS MAP OF BLOOD REDEMPTION & RECONCILIATION WITH THE HOLY FATHER FOR ALL MANKIND", THRU TRUST IN CHRIST’S SHED BLOOD, HIS DEATH, HIS RESURRECTION, HIS ASCENSION, CROWNED IN GLORY, SEATED ON GOD’S THRONE & INTERCEDING FOR YOU IN PARTICULAR AS IF YOU WERE THE ONLY ONE THE LORD JESUS WAS CRUCIFIED FOR?
HE TOOK WITH HIM TO THE CROSS YOUR OLD SIN-NATURE & MINE. WHEN JESUS ALLOWED HIS CRUCIFIXION, HE KNEW "YOU" HAD TO BE "CRUCIFIED WITH HIM", YOUR ‘OLD MAN’ YOUR ‘OLD SIN-NATURE, YOUR ‘OLD LIFE DECEIVED BY SATAN HIMSELF’! HOW CAN I SHARE THIS TRUTH WITHOUT ITS FOUNDATION IN GENESIS 2:1-14?
THUS THE HEAVENS & THE EARTH WERE FINISHED, AND ALL THE HOST OF THEM. AND ON THE SEVENTH DAY GOD ENDED HIS WORK WHICH HE HAD MADE; AND GOD BLESSED THE SEVENTH DAY, & SANCTIFIED IT (OR "SET IT APART"); AND HE RESTED ON THE SEVENTH DAY FROM ALL HIS WORK WHICH HE HAD MADE.
THESE ARE THE GENERATIONS OF THE HEAVENS & THE EARTH WHEN THEY WERE CREATED, IN THE DAY THAT THE LORD GOD MADE THE EARTH & THE HEAVENS. AND EVERY PLANT OF THE FIELD BEFORE IT WAS IN THE EARTH, AND EVERY HERB OF THE FIELD BEFORE IT GREW; FOR THE LORD GOD HAD NOT CAUSED ITTO RAIN UPON THE EARTH, AND THERE WAS NOT A MAN TO TILL THE GROUND.
BUT THERE WENT UP A MIST FROM THE EARTH, & WATERED THE WHOLE FACE OF THE GROUND. AND THE LORD FORMED MAN OF THE DUST OF THE GROUND, & BREATHED INTO HIS NOSTRILS THE BREATH OF LIFE; AND MAN BECAME A LIVING SOUL. {BUT ONLY A LIVING SOUL, BECAUSE, AS YET, NOT "NEW-BORN" CITIZENS OF GOD’S ETERNAL KINGDOM & HIS SPIRITUAL FAMILY!).
VERSE 8 &FOLLOWING: AND THE LORD GOD PLANTED A GARDEN EASTWARD IN EDEN; AND THERE HE PUT THE MAN WHOM HE HAD FORMED. AND OUT OF THE GROUND MADE THE LORD GOD TO GROW EVERY TREE THAT IS PLEASANT TO YOUR SIGHT, AND GOOD FOR FOOD; THE TREE OF LIFE ALSO IN THE MIDST OF THE GARDEN, & THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD & EVIL.
AND A RIVER WENT OUT OF EDEN TO WATER THE GARDEN; AND FROM THERE IT WAS PARTED, & BECAME INTO FOUR HEADS. THE NAME OF THE FIRST IS PISON; THAT IS IT WHICH COMPASSES THE WHOLE LAND OF HAVILAH, WHERE THERE IS GOLD; [INTERESTING WORD,HAVILAH; EXODUS 15:22 SPEAKS OF THOSE WHO "WENT OUT INTO THE WILDERNESS OF SHUR…". IT WAS SW OF PALESTINE I OH, "WHERE THERE IS GOLD"I]
LITERALLY,PHYSICAL GOLD CAN CAPTURE A MAN TO THE POINT HE’S SO ENRAPTURED WITH FINDING "GOLD" THAT HE/SHE MISSES GOD!
VERSE 12 SAYS," AND THE GOLD OF THAT LAND IS GOOD; THERE IS BDELLIUM & THE ONXY STONE." BUT YOU UNDERSTAND, MANY ARE ‘ENSLAVED’ TOWARD, LITERALLY, ‘GOLD’ BUT RESISTANT TO THE GIFT OF GOD OF ‘SPIRITUAL GOLD’, TO THE POINT, MANY ‘PROFESSORS OF FAITH’ LIVE BANKRUPT, PENNILESS LIVES OF FAITH, IGNORING WHAT THE TRUE INHERITANCE OF "BORN-AGAIN SAINTS ARE",& LIVING A SPIRITUALLY ‘POVERTY-WALK’, LIKE A ‘BEGGAR’ ON A STREET CORNER, ‘SIN-NATURE RICH,BUT SPIRITUALLY IMPOVERISHED’, POOR & BABKRUPT AS "HELL" IS ITSELF UNDER SATAN’S FOREVER IMPRISONMENT!!!
BUT IN 1 PETER 2:9 THE APOSTLE SAID, "BUT YOU, (DISCIPLE OF CHRIST!), ARE A CHOSEN GENERATION, A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PECULIAR PEOPLE, THAT "YOU" SHOULD SHOW FORTH THE PRAISES OF HIM WHO HAS CALLED YOU OUT OF (YOUR) DARKNESS INTO "HIS" MARVELOUS LIGHT"!
REALLY? "STRANGERS IN A GOD-BLESSED
LAND?" OR: "BORN-AGAIN CITIZENS OF HIS ETERNAL KINGDOM?"
ARE "YOU" A BORN-AGAIN CITIZEN OF HIS ETERNAL KINGDOM?" ARE "YOU" LIVING FOR THE "LEAST" THE WORLD AROUND YOU OFFERS, OR DO YOU PASSIONATELY PURSUE ALL GOD SAYS YOU ARE "IN CHRIST"?
I AFFIRM THIS TEACHING WITH THE WORDS OF PAUL IN EPHESIANS 2:13-22! "BUT NOW ‘IN CHRIST JESUS’ YOU WHO SOMETIMES WERE
FAR OFF ARE MADE NIGH BY THE BLOOD OF CHRIST. FOR HE IS OUR PEACE, WHO HAS MADE BOTH ONE (THE HOLY SAVIOR & THE SANCTIFIED " SAI NT11 !), AND HAD BROKEN DOWN THE MIDDLE WALL OF PARTITION BETWEEN US;
HAVING ABOLISHED IN HIS ‘FLESHLY BODY’ THE ENMITY, EVEN THE LAW OF COMMANDMENTS CONTAINED IN ORDINANCES; FOR TO MAKE IN HIMSELF OF TWAIN ONE NEW MAN, SO MAKING PEACE; AND THAT HE MIGHT RECONCILE BOTH UNTO GOD IN ONE BODY BY THE CROSS, HAVING SLAIN THE ENMITY THEREBY:
AND CAME & PREACHED PEACE TO YOU WHICH WERE AFAR OFF, & TO THEM THAT ARE NEAR.
(IS THAT ‘NEAR’ BUT NOT " RE-B ORN11,‘NEAR’ BUT NOT "SPIRIT-BIRTHED & SPIRI T-FILLED11 ?).
FOR THROUGH CHRIST JESUS, WE BOTH HAVE ACCESS BY ONE SPIRIT UNTO THE FATHER. "NOW" THEREFORE YOU ARE NO MORE STRANGERS & FOREIGNERS, BUT FELLOW CITIZENS WITH THE SAINTS, & OF THE HOUSEHOLD OF GOD.
AND ARE BUILT UPON THE FOUNDATION OF THE APOSTLES & PROPHETS, JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF BEING THE CHIEF CORNER STONE; IN WHOM ALL THE BUILDING FITLY FRAMED TOGETHER GROWS UNTO AN HOLY TEMPLE IN THE LAND: IN WHOM YOU ALSO ARE BUILT TOGETHER FOR AN HABITATION OF GOD THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT." (CAN YOU SAY, "AMEN"?).
THERE IS A HYMN OF GREAT IMPORTANCE, A HYMN FROM THE "BROADMAN HYMNAL",(PUBLISHED BY THE BROADMAN
PRESS, NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE,IN THE YEAR, 19401}. THE TITLE? "THERE IS A LAND OF PURE DELIGHT"(P.216)1( WHERE HAVE YOU CHOSEN, OR, BEEN CHOSEN, TO DWELL?}
"THERE IS A LAND OF PURE DELIGHT, WHERE SAINTS IMMORTAL REIGN; ETERNAL DAY EXCLUDES THE NIGHT, & PLEASURES BANISH PAIN.THERE EVERLASTING SPRING ABIDES, & NEVER WITHERING FLOWERS; DEATH, LIKE A NARROW SEA, DIVIDES THIS HEAVENLY LAND FROM OURS.
SWEET FIELDS BEYOND THE SWELLING FLOOD STAND DRESSED IN LIVING GREEN; SO TO THE JEWS OLD CANAAN STOOD, WHILE JORDAN ROLLED BETWEEN. BUT TIMOROUS MORTALS START & SHRINK TO CROSS THE NARROW SEA, AND LINGER,SHIVERING, ON THE BRINK, & FEAR TO LAUNCH AWAY.
OH, COULD WE MAKE OUR DOUBTS REMOVE, THOSE GLOOMY DOUBTS THAT RISE, AND SEE THE CANAAN THAT WE LOVE WITH UNBECLOUDED EYES! COULD WE BUT CLIMB WHERE MOSES STOOD, AND VIEW THE LANDSCAPE O’ER, NOT JORDAN’S STREAM NOR DEATH’S COLD FLOOD SHOULD FRIGHT US FROM THE SHORE."
ARE "YOU" IN THE "LAND OF PURE DELIGHT" OR ARE YOU STILL WALKING IN "THE LAND OF SELF, FLESH, FALLEN WORLD WITH SATAN’S DELIGHT & YOUR DECEPTIVE REWARD?" IN OUR CHURCH WORSHIP THIS MORNING AT "NORTHWOODS CHURCH" IN KELLER, TEXAS, I HEARD A SONG l’D NEVER HEARD BEFORE –IT’S FAIRLY NEW, ENTITLED, "JESUS CHRIST, MY LIVING HOPE", (BETHEL MUSIC; ADORANDO PUBLISHING HOUSE) I CLOSE THIS MESSAGE WITH THE WORDS
"HOW GREAT THE CHASM THAT LAY BETWEEN US, HOW HIGH THE MOUNTAIN I COULD NOT CLIMB. IN DESPERATION I TURNED TO HEAVEN AND SPOKE "YOUR NAME" INTO THE NIGHT.
THEN THRU’ THE DARKNESS YOUR LOVING KINDNESS {GOD’S!) TORE THRU’ THE SHADOWS OF MY SOUL.
THE WORK IS FINISHED THE END IS WRITTEN, JESUS CHRIST MY LIVING HOPE.
WHO COULD IMAGINE SO GREAT A MERCY, WHAT COULD FATHOM SUCH BOUNDLESS GRACE? THE GOD OF AGES STEPPED DOWN FROM GLORY TO WEAR MY SIN AND BEAR MY SHAME.
THE CROSS HAS SPOKEN –I AM FORGIVEN – THE KING OF KINGS CALLS ME HIS OWN. BEAUTIFUL SAVIOR, l’MYOURS FOREVER, JESUS CHRIST MY LIVING HOPE.
HALLELUJAH! PRAISE THE ONE WHO SET ME FREE, HALLELUJAH! DEATH HAS LOST ITS GRIP ON ME! YOU HAVE BROKEN EVERY CHAIN, THERE’S SALVATION IN YOUR NAME, JESUS CHRIST, MY LIVING HOPE
THEN CAME THE MORNING THAT SEALED THE PROMISE YOUR BURIED BODY BEGAN TO BREATHE; OUT OF THE SILENCE THE ROARING LION DECLARED THE GRACE HAS NO CLAIM ON ME. "JESUS YOURS IS THE VICTORY."
HALLELUJAH, PRAISE THE ONE WHO SET ME FREE, HALLELUJAH, DEATH HAS LOST ITS GRIP ON ME. YOU HAVE BROKEN EVERY CHAIN THERE’S SALVATION IN YOUR NAME-JESUS CHRIST MY LIVING HOPE SHOW LESS OF ME AND MORE OF THEE." CAN YOU SAY: "HALLELUJAH! GLORY!TO HIS NAME"? WITH OPEN-ARMS-JESUS SAYS, "COME TO ME!"
CHAPTER SEVEN
“PUMPING SELFISH FLESH OR PRAISING THE SUPREME FATHER?”
“FALLEN-AWAY MANKIND FROM GOD’S BIRTHING OF THEM WITH A RIGHT TO CHOOSE”, NATURAL MEN CHOSE & STILL CHOOSE ‘FLESHLY FATE’ & IGNORES GOD’S GRACIOUS GIFT OF SAVING FAITH! FLESHLY FATE IS THE ‘SELFISH RULING’ IN A MAN’S HEART & MIND INDEPENDENT OF GOD & HIS LOVE, GRACE, & MERCY! SPIRITUAL NOBILITY IS IGNORED & RADICAL SPIRITUAL NUMBNESS REIGNS! UNBELIEF IGNORES EVERY MIRACLE OF GOD THAT ABOUNDS AROUND MANKIND LIKE THE OCEANS OF THE WORLD SURROUND ‘DRY LAND’!
IN “THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGIOUS QUOTATIONS”,(P.457), I READ A STATEMENT BY JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL IN HIS WRITING ENTITLED “BIBLIOLATRIES”. HE SAID: “GOD IS NOT DUMB, THAT HE SHOULD SPEAK NO MORE; IF YOU HAVE WANDERINGS IN THE WILDERNESS AND DON’T FIND SINAI, IT’S YOUR SOUL& YOUR HEART (& YOUR SELF-CENTERED WILL) THAT IS POOR.” TODAY AS I READ THAT WISE STATEMENT I THOUGHT, “THE SELFISH PUMPERS OF FLESH”, IN LOVE WITH THEIR OLD SIN-NATURES, IGNORE ‘SINAI’ BUT ALSO “THE SAVIOR”, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST!- IS TODAY,2019, DIFFERENT FROM ALL ‘HUMAN HISTORY’ THAT IGNORED OR IGNORES GOD’S “KNOCK” ON THEIR HEARTS’ DOORS?
IN JOHN 12 I WANT YOU TO SEE THE LORD JESUS’S CLEAR UNDERSTANDING OF “PUMPING FLESH” OR “PRAISING THE SUPREME FATHER”! JOHN 12:23-28a, tells us, Jesus speaking, “The hour is come, that the ‘Son of Man’ should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of fall into the ground and die, it abides alone:but if it die, it brings forth much fruit.
He that loves his life shall lose it; and he that hates his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve Me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be: if any man serve Me, him will My Father honor. Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour?But for this cause came I unto this hour. Verse 28a, “Father, glorify Your name.”
There was no spirit in Christ Jesus of “Pumping Flesh”,but living His life fully and faithfully to honor the Father’s will and purpose for His life as the Son of God – and if it meant the Cross, “So be it”!,,, without a doubt or fear!!
In the world around you are, sadly, lives lived unaware of the will of God – and for many, even though they know the will of God, they will not say “Yes” to Him! Sadly, many live, countless lives, of unawareness of their becoming and being,through saving faith in His beloved Son, Christ Jesus,“shining lights”, who are to live lives rejoicing in His abiding presence within them, and the “Light” in them shining through them to enlighten the unsaved, unredeemed, ‘away from God people living for self’!
Oswald Chambers, in his book “My Utmost For His Highest” wrote: (pps.58-59), “Much of our distress as Christians comes not because of sin,but because we are ignorant of the laws of our own spiritual nature. For instance, the only test as to whether we allow an emotion to have its way is to see what the outcome of the emotion will be. Push it to its logical conclusion, and if the outcome is something God would condemn, allow it no more way. But if it be an emotion kindled by the Spirit of God and you do not let that emotion have its right issue in your life, it will react on a lower level.”
Where have your “life choices” left you? The “low level” of self-choice, self-will, self-pleasure, self-satisfaction, even if it means continual, eternal separation from the God who made you, lost you, but paid a price through the shed blood of His Son on the Cross to redeem you & reconcile you to Holy God?
Or has it been, will it be, the “Eternal Life Choice” by repentance to God and faith in the finished work of Jesus on the Cross, His precious blood to bring you forgiveness from the very heart of God, elevated out of spiritual death into “Eternal Life”, and by God’s grace and mercy then commissioning you as “disciples of Christ” and “faithful witnesses” of His blood redemption to labor to needy souls surrounding you that they might find Christ Jesus?
Again, in John 12,following the Father’s voice, after Jesus had said, “Father, glorify Your Name,” in Verses 28-29, we read:then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. The people therefore,that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said,An angel spoke to Him.
Verses 30-32, Jesus answered & said, “This voice came not because of Me, but for your sakes. Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” OH; THEN,IN VERSES 35&36,JESUS SAID UNTO THEM, “YET A LITTLE WHILE IS THE LIGHT WITH YOU. WALK YOU WHILE YOU HAVE THE LIGHT, LEST DARKNESS COMES UPON YOU; FOR HE THAT WALKS IN DARKNESS DOESN’T KNOW WHERE HE GOES.” OH, SO, WHERE IS YOUR ‘LIFE PATH’? IS IT ‘SPIRITUAL DARKNESS’ OR DO YOU “WALK IN THE LIGHT OF THE ‘ETERNAL SONSHINE’ OF CHRIST JESUS”?
AGAIN, JOHN 12, VERSES 42-50! NEVERTHELESS AMONG THE CHIEF RULERS (EVEN A MODERN-DAY PRESIDENT & SENATE OR HOUSE CONGRESSMEN?),ALSO BELIEVED ON “CHRIST”; BUT BECAUSE OF THE PHARISEES THEY DID NOT (‘PUBLICLY’) CONFESS HIM. LEST THEY SHOULD BE PUT OUT OF THE SYNAGOGUE: FOR THEY LOVED THE PRAISE OF MEN MORE THAN THE PRAISE OF GOD.
JESUS CRIED AND SAID, “HE THAT BELIEVES ON (TRUSTS IN, RELIES UPON, ADHERES TO!) ME, BELIEVES NOT ON ME, BUT ON HIM THAT SENT ME. AND HE THAT SEES ME SEES HIM THAT SENT ME.I AM COME A LIGHT INTO THE WORLD, THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVES ON ME (TRUSTS, RELIES UPON,YIELDS TO, ABANDONS THE OLD ‘CRUCIFIED LIFE’, TO BE BLESSED WITH THE “NEW LIFE” OF THE TRUE SAVIOR & LORD & MASTER & RULER OVER ALL – OVER ALL?THIS WORLD INFILTRATED BY SATAN & HIS KINGDOM, SATAN’S DOMAIN- OR THE SAVIOR’S SOVEREIGN RULE OVER HIM & HIS, YOU & YOUR LIFE OF UNBELIEF & DISOBEDIENCE OR HIS MASTER-FULL RULE OVER YOU & YOURS?), AGAIN, BUT TRUSTING CHRIST,, RELYING UPON, YIELDED TO, HAVING ACCEPTED JESUS’ ATONEMENT & ‘THE END’ OF YOUR FLESHLY, SINFUL, WORLDLY, DEVIL-DOMINATED EXISTENCE, YOU COME TO LIVE,BREATHE,& SHARE WITH OTHERS THE “VERY LIFE, BREATH, FULLNESS, & POWER & PURPOSE OF ‘CHRIST IN YOU THE HOPE OF GLORY’!!
BACK TO JOHN 12:47-50! “AND IF ANY HEARS MY WORDS, & BELIEVES NOT, I JUDGE HIM NOT: FOR I CAME NOT TO JUDGE THE WORLD, BUT TO SAVE THE WORLD. HE THAT REJECTS ME, AND RECEIVES NOT MY WORDS, HAS ONE THAT JUDGES HIM: THE WORD THAT I HAVE SPOKEN, THE SAME SHALL JUDGE HIM IN THE LAST DAY.(THAT’S THE MAN OR WOMAN,OLD OR YOUNG!).
FOR I HAVE NOT SPOKEN OF MYSELF; BUT THE FATHER WHICH SENT ME, HE GAVE ME A COMMANDMENT, WHAT I SHOULD SAY, AND WHAT I SHOULD SPEAK. AND I KNOW THAT HIS COMMANDMENT IS LIFE EVERLASTING; WHATSOEVER I SPEAK THEREFORE, EVEN AS THE FATHER SAID TO ME, SO I SPEAK.”
BUT “HEAR ME!” IN THE WORLDWIDE CULTURES, EVEN ‘RELIGIOUS CULTURES’, LIKE THE ‘RELIGIOUS JEWS (?)’ OF JESUS’S DAY WHO WANTED NO PART OF HIM SINCE THEY WERE ‘SO RELIGIOUS ALREADY’, THEY THEN BELIEVED, ‘WHO NEEDS A SAVIOR IF YOU’RE RELIGIOUS?’ AND IN ACTS 4:18-20, THE ‘RELIGIOUS JEWS’,IN JERUSALEM, CONFRONTED BY “EVANGELISTIC CRUSADERS”, HAD NO PATIENCE AT ALL WITH HEAVEN’S “BORN-AGAIN SONS OF SAVING FAITH”, WITH THE “BELOVED LUKE’S WORDS”,
“AND THEY (JEWISH RELIGIOUS LEADERS) CALLED THEM (JESUS’S “BORN-AGAIN DISCIPLES”!), AND COMMANDED THEM NOT TO SPEAK AT ALL NOR TEACH IN THE NAME OF JESUS. (ANOTHER PAUSE! ARE YOU FULLY AWARE OF 21ST CENTURY AMERICA WHERE, YES, PUBLIC PROCLAMATION OF THE WORD OF GOD IS BECOMING INTOLERANT TO “STUPID POLITICAL LEADERS, BRAIN-DEAD PROFESSORS, & DECEIVED MASS-GATHERINGS OF OPPOSERS TO GOD, HIS SON, HIS SPIRIT, & HIS WORD”?). ACTS 4:19-20, BUT PETER & JOHN ANSWERED AND SAID UNTO THEM, “WHETHER IT BE RIGHT IN THE SIGHT OF GOD TO HEARKEN UNTO YOU MORE THAN UNTO GOD, JUDGE YOU. FOR WE CANNOT BUT SPEAK THE THINGS WHICH WE HAVE SEEN & HEARD.”
ALWAYS REMEMBER, AS A TRUE FOLLOWER OF KING JESUS, YOUR SAVIOR & LORD, & APPOINTED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT TO BE “CHRIST’S WITNESSES”, THAT LIKE PETER & JOHN IN ACTS 4:29-31, YOU’LL FIND “GREAT ASSURANCES” AS YOU CHOOSE TO BE HIS WITNESS IN THE MIDST OF CULTURAL OPPOSITION! THE WORD SAYS: “AND NOW, LORD, BEHOLD THEIR THREATENINGS: AND GRANT UNTO YOUR SERVANTS, THAT WITH ALL BOLDNESS THEY MAY SPEAK YOUR WORD,
BY STRETCHING FORTH YOUR HAND TO HEAL; AND THAT SIGNS & WONDERS MAY BE DONE BY THE NAME OF YOUR HOLY CHILD JESUS. BUT WHEN THEY HAD PRAYED THE PLACE WAS SHAKEN WHERE THEY WERE ASSEMBLED TOGETHER; AND THEY WERE ALL FILLED WITH THE HOLY GHOST, AND THEY SPOKE THE WORD OF GOD WITH BOLDNESS.”
HOW MANY ARE YOU AWARE OF IN CHURCHES ACROSS AMERICA WHO LIVE SERVING CHRIST, SUPPOSEDLY, BUT HAVE NEVER “CROSSED THE LINE” TO UNSAVED SOULS TO SHARE “REDEMPTIONS’ STORY OF “NEW-BORN IN CHRIST ALONE”? ‘BEST EFFORT’ DOESN’T BIRTH DISCIPLES OF CHRIST, ‘BOGUS APPEARANCE’ DOESN’T SEE MIRACLES OF GRACE, ‘PHONY-BOLOGNA’ DOESN’T FEED THE SICK IN SIN EXCEPT BY “THE TOUCH OF THE MASTER’S HANDS ON THE MIND, HEART, & SOUL OF UNBELIEVERS”!
ROMANS 1:20-28 IS GOD’S EXPOSURE THROUGH PAUL OF UNBELIEVERS & PRETENDERS! “FOR THE INVISIBLE THINGS (OF GOD) FROM THE CREATION OF THE WORLD ARE CLEARLY SEEN, BEING UNDERSTOOD BY THE THINGS THAT ARE MADE, EVEN HIS ETERNAL POWER & GODHEAD; SO THAT THEY ARE WITHOUT EXCUSE: BECAUSE THAT, WHEN THEY KNEW GOD, THEY GLORIFIED HIM NOT AS GOD, NEITHER WERE THANKFUL; BUT BECAME VAIN IN THEIR IMAGINATIONS, AND THEIR FOOLISH HEART WAS DARKENED.
PROFESSING THEMSELVES TO BE WISE, THEY BECAME FOOLS,AND CHANGED THE GLORY OF THE INCORRUPTIBLE GOD INTO AN IMAGE MADE LIKE TO CORRUPTIBLRE MAN, & TO BIRDS,&FOUR-FOOTED BEASTS, AND CREEPING THINGS. WHEREFORE GOD ALSO GAVE THEM UP TO UNCLEANNESS THROUGH THE LUSTS OF THEIR OWN HEARTS, TO DISHONOR THEIR OWN BODIES BETWEEN THEMSELVES:
WHO CHANGED THE TRUTH OF GOD INTO A LIE, & WORSHIPPED & SERVED THE CREATURE MORE THAN THE “CREATOR” WHO IS BLESSED FOREVER. AMEN. FOR THIS CAUSE GOD GAVE THEM UP UNTO VILE AFFECTIONS: FOR EVEN THEIR WOMEN DID CHANGE THE NATURAL USE INTO THAT WHICH IS AGAINST NATURE: & LIKEWISE ALSO THE MEN, LEAVING THE NATURAL USE OF THE WOMAN ( AND THAT’S IN MARRIAGE ONLY!!!), BURNED IN THEIR LUST ONE TOWARD ANOTHER; MEN WITH MEN WORKING THAT WHICH IS UNSEEMLY, & RECEIVING IN THEMSELVES THAT RECOMPENCE OF THEIR ERROR WHICH WAS MEET. (OR MET IN ONE’S LOST ESTATE OF SIN & DEATH,SEPARATED FROM HOLY GOD UNTIL THEY OPEN THE HEART’S DOOR & A WILLFUL MIND TO CONFESS THEIR SIN & THEIR NEED OF “THE SAVIOR & LORD” TO BE IN, OVER, & AROUND THEIR EVERY STEP THROUGH THE REMAINING EARTHLY TIME!). VERSE 28,
AND EVEN AS THEY DID NOT LIKE TO RETAIN GOD IN THEIR KNOWLEDGE, GOD GAVE THEM OVER TO A REPROBATE MIND, TO DO THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE NOT CONVENIENT!’
ARE “YOU” ‘OK’ WITH YOUR REPROBATE MIND? OR WOULD YOU HEAR, ACCEPT, & RECEIVE GOD’S “GIFT” OF A “NEW HEART, NEW MIND, & NEW WILL” OUT TO PLEASE THE LORD OF GLORY & MERCY & LOVE? I CLOSE THIS MESSAGE WITH AN OLD HYMN IN THE BROADMAN HYMNAL PUBLISHED IN 1940 BY THE BROADMAN PRESS, NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, WRITTEN BY FANNY J.CROSBY & W.H.DOANE. IT SAYS: “PASS ME NOT, O GENTLE SAVIOR, HEAR MY HUMBLE CRY; WHILE ON OTHERS YOU ARE CALLING, DO NOT PASS ME BY.
LET ME AT A THRONE OF MERCY FIND A SWEET RELIEF; KNEELING THERE IN DEEP CONTRITION, HELP MY UNBELIEF.
TRUSTING ONLY IN YOUR MERIT, WOULD I SEEK YOUR FACE; HEAL MY WOUNDED, BROKEN SPIRIT, SAVE ME BY YOUR GRACE.
YOU THE “SPRING” OF ALL MY COMFORT, MORE THAN LIFE TO ME, WHOM HAVE I ON EARTH BESIE YOU? WHOM IN HEAVEN BUT YOU?
SAVIOR, SAVIOR, HEAR MY HUMBLE CRY; WHILE ON OTHERS YOU ARE CALLING, (PLEASE) DO NOT PASS ME BY.” COULD THESE WORDS OF A GREAT OLD HYMN STIR YOUR HEART ENOUGH FOR “YOU” TO CRY OUT: “LORD, JESUS, PLEASE, DON’T PASS BY ME! NO MAN ON EARTH NEEDS YOU MORE THAN ME.”
WHY NOT, RIGHT NOW, “RUSH” TO THE THRONE OF CHRIST WHERE HE SITS IN THE SEAT OF MERCY, GRACE, & LOVE, LONG-WAITING ON YOU TO CALL ON HIM!
AMEN?
CHAPTER EIGHT
“MENTAL MISTAKES OF MISGUIDED MEN”
I don’t know how anyone can read Paul’s message in Romans 1 and not understand the “mental mistakes of misguided men”! Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote in Verses 16-26, and Verse 28, the following:
Romans 1:16-26,28 says: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every who believes (or trusts in!); to the Jew first, and also to the Greek (or the African, the Arminian, the European, the American, the South American, the Asian, any man on any continent of the entire world!!);
For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith (or “trust”)’. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
Because that which may be known of God IS MANIFEST IN THEM; for God shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they (all mankind then and now!) are without excuse: BECAUSE THAT, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were they thankful; but became vain in their imaginations (or ‘speculations’), and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore GOD ALSO GAVE THEM UP to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves:
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this cause GOD GAVE THEM UP unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
Verse 28, And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, GOD GAVE THEM OVER TO A REPROBATE MIND, to do those things which are not convenient..”! AND THEY GOT FILLED UP! LOOK AT VERSES 28b-32!
“…and God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful; Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”
OH!! Then in Romans 2:4-16 Paul tells us about the “captured by Christ” or the “contentious ones opposed to repentance and faith in Christ alone”, saying, “Or do you despise the riches of God’s goodness and forbearance or longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leads you TO REPENTANCE? But after your hardness and impenitent heart treasures up unto yourself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life:
BUT unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation, and wrath, Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that does evil, of the Jew first, and also the Gentile; BUT glory, honor, and peace, to every man that works good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile; BUT glory, honor, and peace to every man that works good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentiles; (Every man working good? Honoring, yielded to, surrendered to the King of kings and Lord of lords, being the “temple” in which the eternal Christ dwells to extend His Kingdom, express His love, and prove His power, THROUGH YOU?).
For there is no respect of persons with God. (Although many feel God ought to respect them concerning their “best effort”, even when it has nothing to do with “True Faith”?). For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law; and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the DOERS of the law shall be justified.
For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.”
The mental, yes, and the ‘blinded, darkened, unbelieving heart’ explain, expose, and uncover the personal, religious, and, for many, the national indifference to Divine Revelation and Unveiling of the One and Only Savior and Lord, Christ Jesus! BUT, the “captured by Christ” no longer live under the bondage of unbelief, religious pretense, or religious ‘best-effort’ mentality! They accept “crucified with Christ” and “raised up in the newness of His resurrected, reigning ministry”, daily taking the sentence of death to the “old man”, yielding daily to His Indwelling Presence in the “new man”, again, extending His Kingdom, proving His power, and expressing His love, THROUGH THE TRUE, REPENTANT, YIELDED BELIEVER TO HIS EVER ABIDING PRESENCE IN YOU, HIS “NEW TEMPLE”, having repented, and willfully choosing to allow Jesus, yes, to be Himself through you!!!
MERCY is the measure of the very heart of God told to all of fallen humanity, but not all of fallen humanity even know, care, or are out to find God’s mercy – they say,“In our best effort we’re OK”! REALLY? But this is why the Holy Word says, in Hebrews 4:15-16, “For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let US therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, THAT WE MAY OBTAIN MERCY, AND FIND GRACE TO HELP IN TIME OF NEED.”
To be without Christ Jesus, abiding within, ruling and reigning, expressing Himself as “the Light of the world” in you and around you and through you, is willfully choosing to be your own lord, striving to overcome only what is overcome through the blood of the Lamb of God, infecting your world more and more with the radical consequences of a ‘sin-loving’ but ‘religious, empty, self-serving life’, convinced by deceived religious thinkers that “best effort” is all Holy God is concerned about, never considering His “Temple Presence” in true repentant, yielded choice of “Christ in me, for me, through me”, extending His eternal Presence, in the avenue and street of the “born-again believers”, those believers willing to choose death daily to their old self , that His Resurrected Life in you might be, not simply prominent for a world to witness but preeminent in HIS SELF EXPRESSION IN YOU AND THROUGH YOU DAILY!!!
Do YOU really know the “cost of true faith”, the “cost of true religion”, the “cost of true abandonment of the best of fleshly effort”? In Luke 14:25-27 we read, And there went great multitudes with Him: and He turned, and said unto them, “If any man come to Me, and hate not his father; and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whosoever does not bear His cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple.” How clear is that for you?
Christ Jesus comes! Receive Revelation 3:19-22!! “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous therefore and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hears My voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and him with Me. To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne. He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches.”
Christ Jesus comes! And as He comes, through the witness of the Holy Spirit and His awesome Word, He exposes the unrestrained sinfulness of men AND unveils the unrestrained love of God!
Christ Jesus still abides in the repentant heart and trusting mind that says “No” to the world, one’s old sin nature, and even to Satan himself, but true believers say “Yes” to the resurrected, reigning Christ! In 2 Corinthians 1:19-24 Paul enlightens us even more, saying, “For all the promises of God in Christ are ‘yes’, and in Him ‘Amen’, unto the glory of God through repentant, trusting believers;
Who Now He which establishes us with you in Christ, (establish means “makes to stand”), AND ‘anointed’ us is God Himself; who has also ‘sealed us’ and given the earnest of the Spirit (the guarantee, the abiding treasure, the never-ending pledge) of the Spirit in our hearts.
Moreover I call God for a record upon my soul, that to spare you I came not as yet unto Corinth. Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy; for by faith you stand.”
Dare I ask you? Do you believe? Are you trusting in Him, His Word, His ever abiding Presence? Is it by Faith in Him you stand, walk, live, unveiling His Resurrected Presence in your daily journey through life wherever it carries you?
In the old “Broadman Hymnal”, published in 1940 by The Broadman Press of Nashville, Tennessee. It says: “O come, all you faithful, joyful and triumphant, O come you, O come to Bethlehem; Come and behold Him born the King of angels;
Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation, O sing, all you bright hosts of heaven above; Glory to God, all glory in the highest;
Yes, Lord, we greet You, born this happy morning, Jesus, to You be all glory given; Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing;
O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him, Christ, the Lord.”
This Easter Sunday! Is it your declaration of submission to His earthly reign through His abiding presence in you? Or do you need to open the door of your heart, maybe for the first time, saying, “Christ, be Jesus in me; No longer me but Thee; Resurrection Power, fill me this hour; Jesus, be Jesus in me”? Can you say right now: “Make ME this day another earthly residence where you reign as King of my heart and life”?
CHAPTER NINE
“VICTIMIZED LIVING OR A VICTORIOUS LIFE?”
The Random House Collegiate Dictionary, Revised Edition, 1975, by Random House, Inc., says ‘victimized’ means, “to make a victim of, to dupe, swindle, or cheat; to slay as or like a sacrificial victim.”
And “victimized living by the masses of unbelievers in Christ’s Blood Atonement” live, yes, like many ‘church folk’, deceived, demeaned, distressed, yes, led astray from the victorious Truth of “crucified with Christ”, and following repentance toward God and a vibrant faith and trust in the Blood Atonement, those of true repentant, trusting minds and hearts are “New Born” by the Holy Spirit into Heaven’s gracious gifting of “everlasting life”!
BUT “Victimized living” is deception accepted from the world around you that easily blinded even Adam and Eve from the ‘flesh’ that deceives you and keeps the door of one’s heart and mind opened to the world, the flesh, and Demonic, Devil-constant temptation, so wanting to keep those doors opened, so one loses sight of the fullness of the blessing of Christ as their deceit, the gift of Satan himself, leading them on in yielding to devilish deceit while professing allegiance to Christ’s revealed Truth! It was John Wesley who once said: “All the works of our evil nature are the work of the devil,” but some ‘professing believers’ live their ‘faith-walk’ consenting, yielding, and for a time enjoying their satanic deception!
It was William Shakespeare, in his writing “Twelfth Night”, (Act 111, sc.4,l.108), who wrote: “What, man! Defy the devil: consider he’s an enemy to mankind.” But far too many keep their doors open to Satanic invitations blinded by his hellish ways!
What was it Paul wrote in Ephesians 6:10-13? “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”
Yet, many ‘believers’(?) professing Christ have no mature, scriptural understanding that Satan’s aim is to deceive true disciples, seeking, yes, daily, to ruin your witness, your testimony, and your surrender faithfully to Christ’s Lordship, leading YOU down the pathway of his “darkness”!! If you’ve ever read St. Augustine’s “The City of God”, XV, remember, he said: “The Devil often transforms himself into an angel to tempt men, some for their instruction and some for their ruin.” He IS a “master deceiver” out to hold captivity captive under “the wiles of the devil”!
Oh, have you ever read Alexander Brome’s writing called “New Montebank”? Brome wrote: “The devil’s ever kind to his own.” So, there are multitudes of worldly folk who “know the kindness (?) of Satan” as he leads them, deceives them, distracts them from the “true salvation in and through Christ only”, even substituting ‘fleshly best’ for the fullness and fruit of the Holy Spirit! And, dare I say it? Believe I will! “Every temptation of Satan to citizens of God’s world of divine opportunity are temptations DOWNWARD, not to turn you TO God, but away from Him!”
Satan IS “the birther of lies, the author of deception, and the Hollywood-imitator of a sincere ‘religious’ soul”, as he leads you down the pathways of self-indulgence rather than knowing you were crucified with Christ, that your old man, yes, deserved death but Christ Jesus took your old man to Calvary so that no longer he (or YOU) could be manipulated by Satan’s powers of darkness, disbelief, and distraction away from God’s gracious pull on your heart, mind, and spirit. Satan loves, adores, appreciates “falling stars” who were birthed “in Christ”!!
Are YOU aware how Satan so easily sways people, serving them devilish consequences rather than divine rewards? It’s a sad, sad day when one is blinded to his, yes, gentle, calm, but corruptive ways! An old Dutch Proverb said: “Never was hood so holy but the Devil could get his head in it;” and, sadly, far too many ‘religious folk’ are blinded to his occupation in them and around them through their wide-open acceptance of all Christ Jesus died for, Satan wanting to maintain his deceitful and misleading occupation around them, even for some ‘in them’ with his dark presence trying to dim the Light of Christ and His Word!
“Victimized living”? Satan BINDS, Satan BLINDS, he BRUISES, he BELITTLES, he ‘BLESSES’ with his ‘happy, self-satisfying bits and tastes of diseased honey,’ he BETRAYS promising one thing that seems so ‘blissful’ but is BEDABBLED with the ‘paint’ of his satanic artistry, he BEFOULS, he BITTERS every word and every promise of God assuring his enchained that it was God who BOUND them over to Satanic care! Really?
It was Cotton Mather, in his “A Discourse on the Wonders of the Invisible World”, who wrote: “That there is a Devil is a thing doubted by none but such as are under the influences of the Devil. For any to deny the being of a Devil must be from an ignorance or profaneness worse than diabolical.” WOW!
What about what Shakespeare wrote in “Troilus and Cressida”, (Act 111, sc.4,l.108)? “Sometimes we are devils to ourselves When we will tempt the frailty of our powers, Presuming on their changeful potency,” no doubt understanding that, yes, true believers can “play-act”, willfully betraying the Christ within to indulge the old crucified life in fleshly, demonic, worldly desires and unfulfilling fantasies that cannot, will not honor the divine within!! Satan’s portrait of a life professing both faith in Christ and a consistency with hell’s intentions is a life that loves being blessed by God, but quietly, privately, indulges darkness not knowing their ‘dance partner’ is Satan himself or one of his assigned demons to ultimately take you down again to his dark domain!
“Victimized living”? Can true believers, at times, be overtaken by spiritual carelessness, even being unconcerned about demonic activity? In 2 Peter 5:6-11, the beloved disciple of Christ wrote: “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time; Casting all your care upon him; for He cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
But the God of all grace, who has called us unto eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. To Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. OR “SO BE IT, LORD”, as you daily take the sentence of death daily to your old self that Christ in you, for you, and through you, wages war against Satan for Christ’s honor through you as Christ’s servant, not Satan’s slave!!!
Jessie Brown Pounds wrote a hymn entitled “A Place in the Ranks for Me”, in the old “American Hymnal” of 1933! It says: “Listen! The trumpet of God is sounding, Is sounding from sea to sea; On the field where the brave are falling, There’s a place in the ranks for me.
See, the army of God advances, In strength of His holy might; See the flash of the moving lances, And the glitter of helmets bright.
Like the trumpet of God is sounding, Is sounding for victory; I must go, for the brave are falling, And the Captain has need of me.
There’s a place in the ranks for me! A place in the ranks for me! On the field where the brave are falling, There’s a place in the ranks for me.”
Whether YOU are aware of it or not, Satan is alive, he is active, and he so longs to reinstate demonic bondage! He comes as a thief in the night to steal every rich blessing Christ has promised, given, and will protect if we give Him His rightful place as Lord, Savior, Master, Conqueror over every evil we face including Satan and his demon forces that are just as active today as they were in the days of our Lord and Savior thousands of years ago!
In Luke 22:31-32 the Lord Jesus said, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for you that your faith fail not; and when you are converted, strengthen your brothers.”
There is a “strong-arm commander-in-chief” of the forces of darkness, desirous that God’s created world should be a kingdom of darkness, even challenging Jesus as he does us, so desirous of leading us astray from loyalty to our Lord and Savior to a supposedly sanctified life of good AND evil, of the Savior and Satan, and of Heaven’s best and Hell’s imitations! Luke 4:1-13 is an insightful Word of preparation for all believers! It says:
“And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost (Do YOU understand for Christ to be in You is also for YOU to live in the fullness of the Holy Spirit?) returned from Jordan, AND was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. And the devil said unto Him, If You be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.
And Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, Man shall not live on bread alone, but by every word of God.” And the devil, taking Him up into a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And Satan said unto Him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”
And the devil, taking Him up into a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, All this power will I give to you and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me (by every birthed man, woman, or child? It doesn’t take long for every birthed baby to instantly ‘cry’ for what they want!); and to whomsoever I will I give it. If You (Jesus) therefore will worship me, all shall be Yours.
And Jesus answered and said unto Satan, Get behind Me, Satan: for it is written, You shall worship the Lord God, and Him only shall you serve. [What about YOU? Are YOU still “serving” the world, the old sin-nature, AND Satan? OR are YOU fully submitted to the King of kings and Lord of lords?].
And he brought Jesus to Jerusalem, and set Him on a pinnacle of the Temple, and said to Him, “If You be the Son of God, cast yourself down from here. For it is written, He shall give His angels charge over You, to keep You. And in their hands they shall bear You up, lest at any time You dash Your foot against a stone.” And Jesus answering said, “It is said, You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” And when the devil had ended all temptations, he departed from Him for a season.
How illumined are you in your mind, your spirit, and your walk, as YOU LEARN that YOU are a prime target of Satan, understanding he’s out to turn YOU away from ALL JESUS IS for you, in you, through you, substituting fleshly failure for full obedience, or momentary pleasures for eternal obedience, or “ONLY ONE LITTLE FALLING AWAY”, when the demonic activity can be fatal to faith, obedience, and love of the Savior, because obedience to Satan introduces again that fatal darkness?
Again, receive Peter’s incisive, illumining, liberating words! 1 Peter 5:6-11 we read: “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time: casting all your care upon Him; for He cares for you. Be sober, (serious minded!), be vigilant; because YOUR adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brothers (of faith) that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who has called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever.”
I have to share Shakespeare’s words in “Comedy of Errors”, (Act IV, sc.3,l.65), “He must have a long spoon that shall eat with the devil.” Oh, and Martin Luther’s words in “Table Talk”? Satan has two manner of shapes, as he disguises himself: the shape of a serpent, to affright and kill; or else in the form of a silly sheep, to lie and deceive; these are his two court colors.”
Satan IS the world’s principle author and boastful egotist as he lies about himself, lays traps for all, ‘hires’ the brain-dead, the self-fulfillers, and the ‘flesh –world’, bound by his chains of darkness, immorality, and self-pleasure in sensual fulfillment that ‘smells’, self-idolatry that ‘binds’ and ‘ruins’ even some ‘professors’ of religious faith! In his writing, “Handbook of Proverbs”, Henry George Bohn wrote: “The Devil entangles youth with beauty, the miser with gold, the ambitious with power, the learned with false doctrine.” Is it possible that you, a ‘professor of faith in Christ’, having been blinded to victory over Satan because, for you, his ‘poisonous delights, worldly pleasures, and self-indulging, was just too delightful to turn from, that you refused “Christ’s knock”, and kept on being deceived in “Satan’s lock” though broken by Christ Jesus on the Cross, through the Cross, for the glory of His Name, not Satan’s fame?
What was it Elizabeth Barrett Browning said in “Aurora Leigh”? “The devil’s most devilish when respectable.” Are you still “respecting” Satan as he leads you joyfully in his deceits and lies and imitation-spiritual-skills? There IS a hell to gain and a heaven to lose if you choose to play with him on his terms, willfully choosing to shut God’s door to His never-ending, freeing, yes, emancipating, liberating, disengaging ministry of, yes, His victory and conquest over Satan’s devilish, demeaning, destructive, disuniting activity, but you ‘think’ it’s OK to ‘play’ around with Satan and his army, like children with their birthday play-toys, but Satan is not a ‘play-toy’ – he’s an enemy of God, of the Holy Spirit, of Christ Jesus, including the ‘church’ Christ Jesus births and keeps on birthing! Satan ‘loves’ to disguise himself and his hellish co-laborers called ‘demons’ because he’s out to literally crucify Christ but to nail His ‘children of faith’ to the same cross of cruel suffering!
But Jesus Christ IS our “more than conqueror” – He’s our Victorious Liberator over sin, over Satan, over death itself! William F. Sherwin wrote the song, “Sound the Battle Cry” found in The American Hymnal of 1933! It says:
Sound the battle cry! See, the foe is nigh; Raise the standard high For the Lord; Gird your armor on, Stand firm, every one; Rest your cause upon His holy word.
Strong to meet the foe, Marching on we go, While our cause we know, must prevail; Shield and banner bright, Gleaming in the light; Battling for the right We never can fail.
O! You God of all, Hear us when we call, help us one and all by Your grace; When the battle’s done, And the victory’s won, May we wear the crown Before Your face.
Rouse, then soldiers, rally round the banner, Ready, steady, pass the word along: Onward, forward, shout a loud Hosanna! Christ is Captain of the mighty throng.”
Are YOU strong in the grace of God? AND – Are YOU “a soldier of the Cross of Christ, yes, His spiritual army fighting the good fight of faith, and knowing your field of spiritual warfare,ready to daily show up warring against Christ’s enemies in the spiritual realm with the armor of the Word and the lead of the Holy Spirit ? Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:3-15 the following words of encouragement saying,
“You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please Him who enlisted him as a soldier. And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. The hard-working farmer must be first to partake of the crops. Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things.
Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel, for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains; but the word of God is not chained. Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. This IS a faithful saying: For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him. If we endure, we shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us. If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself. (So, Paul warns “the wages of sin IS death”, even if you’re a consenting disciple in sinful participation!).
Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
Were YOU crucified with Christ? Have YOU repented and turned from your sin nature and its practices? Were you “enlisted” by the Spirit as a soldier in the Lord’s spiritual army? Tell me: Just how faithful does your heavenly report card reveal about your honorable walk as representative of the King of kings and Lord of lords? Are YOU “duty-ready”, having died with Christ, raised by the Holy Spirit, equipped by the Word and the Spirit, and, yes, daily fighting the good fight of faith in uplifting Him, honoring Him and His Word, His purpose for your life, and His desire to use YOU to free “the prisoners of sin, of Satan, of a dark world”, igniting in YOU the Light of His Glory?
CHAPTER TEN
“SPIRITUAL INSANITY OR SPIRITUAL REALITY?”
In Proverbs 16:9 we find man’s deceptive insanity and God’s eternal Truth. It says: “A man’s heart devises his way; but the Lord directs his steps.”
You do understand that there is eternal difference between self-educated men and men who “rest” in the revelation of the Word of God!?!
In Jeremiah 9:23-24 we read, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, says the Lord.” Is Holy God “delighted” in your ‘self-allegiance’ over “trusting and resting in the finished work of Christ at Calvary’s Cross and the Empty Tomb”, more delighted in self-determination than the Savior’s declaration and Heaven’s determination of Christ’s “blood sacrifice” over fallen humanity’s “best effort”??
Are you aware of how deep, wide, and broad spiritual insanity is in a large number of mankind’s deceived minds and hearts as to Biblical Truth? The wise man, again in Proverbs 9:10, wrote, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” Really? ‘The fear of the Lord?’ Many say without embarrassment, “I don’t fear God – I adore Him”, while they live in spiritual insanity doing as they ‘fleshly please’, unaware of spiritual consequences for their ‘religious, fleshly, worldly indulgences with no guilt, embarrassment, or conviction’ about the “holy life within” as they profess to follow while recklessly hold on to their ‘spiritual profession’, with no “fear of the Lord in hating evil”! (Proverbs 8:13).
I absolutely love the words of Proverbs 10:30 where the “wise man” wrote, “The righteous shall never be removed; but the wicked shall not inhabit the earth.” Are you truly aware that God has an eternal plan of His Kingdom on earth being eternally established? I grew up in a church who sang regularly, faithfully, and in full conviction, “As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end, Amen, Amen!” Righteous never removed, but the wicked not inhabiting? The righteous never removed from the earth, (because Christ’s Kingdom is established in their hearts, while unbelievers ‘choose’ the world’s, the flesh’s, the devil’s eternal kingdom of separation from God and His chosen people?).
Joseph Parker once wrote (The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations, Fleming H. Revell Company, p.183), “Have no fear for the unsettlement or the disturbance of the Kingdom of heaven. It began in eternity, it will go on through everlasting; there is no panic in the divine personality. God IS peace, God gives peace, God gives rest.”
You do understand that there are kingdoms of self-centered men and self-centered, worldly establishments, that want a “fleshly paradise”, but only God’s Kingdom on earth becomes faithfully His “Paradise”!
I don’t know who wrote it, but I remember growing up singing in my “home church” the hymn that says: “His kingdom is coming: Oh, tell me the story! God’s banner exalted shall be; The earth shall be filled with His wonder and glory, As waters that cover the sea.”
The heart, mind, will, purpose of God is that your earthly life would become, by repentance and by redemptive faith, God’s eternal Paradise on earth, yes, eternally! Your eternal life “in Christ” is His eternal Kingdom being established on, in earth, as it is in Heaven? “In Christ” one is through Him bringing Heaven to earth with His ever, abiding Presence??!!
It was Phillips Brooks who once wrote: “Be such a man, and live such a life, That if every man were such as you, And every man a life like yours, This earth would be God’s Paradise.” Is your life an extension, expression, an interpretation of God’s Paradise?
Do you remember the Lord teaching His new disciples to pray in Matthew 6:7-13? Christ Jesus said: “But when you pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not you therefore like unto them: for your Father knows what things you have need of before you ask Him.
After this manner therefore pray: ‘Our Father Who Is In Heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptations, but deliver us from evil; for Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.” The kingdom, the power, the glory forever? On earth? Several Truths You Must “Rest in”!!
FIRST, CHRIST ONLY IS YOUR EVERLASTING PROMISE OF A BLESSED LIFE! How necessary is the prophetic Word to your life in Christ?!? In Jeremiah 17:5-7 we read, “Thus says the Lord: Cursed is the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good comes; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusts in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.”
In the old “Broadman Hymnal” of 1940, is a hymn written by Edward Mote and William Bradbury that says: “My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
When darkness seems to hide His face, I rest on His unchanging grace; In every high and stormy gale, My anchor holds within the vale. His oath, His covenant, His blood, Support me in the whelming flood; when all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay.
When He shall come with trumpet sound, Oh, may I then in Him be found; Dressed in His righteousness alone, Faultless to stand before His throne.
On Christ, the solid Rock I stand; All other ground is sinking sand, All other ground is sinking sand.” Your life on the Solid Rock of Christ or is it on ‘sinking sand’?
SECOND, CHRIST ONLY IS YOUR SOVEREIGN HEAD! In Colossians 2:9-10 the Holy Word tells us: “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are COMPLETE IN HIM, which is the head of all principality and power…”!.
But YOU are simply satisfied with God’s forgiveness through Christ, but unavailable to prove His love, express His power, and extend HIS KINGDOM, because, forgiven, you’re now thankful you can continue in the life of yours that He carried with Him to the Cross, so you hold onto ‘self’ as your sovereign ruler? Where is that in the Word of God?
Is your spiritual walk paths you interpret for yourself or do you “live” by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God? In Matthew 4:4 we read, “But Jesus answered and said, ‘It is written, Man shall not LIVE by physical bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”
THIRD, CHRIST ONLY IS YOUR ETERNAL HEART! In Proverbs 28:26 we read, “He that trusts in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walks wisely, he shall be delivered.” We know the Word is so clear and convicting and convincing when we read in Verse 13, “He that covers his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy.”
Merit-minded men, intent on doing their own thing, even religiously, while still thinking they can’t do anything but sin even as a disciple of Christ, are men void of understanding of “Christ in you your only hope of glory.” In Romans 5 and 6 we learn that the grace of God is not fleshly grease allowing men to slide into heaven in their earthly, fleshly, demonic and satanic leanings, but the grace of God birthing “new lives” in and through the eternal heart of the crucified but resurrected Christ reigning NOW in His eternal spiritual Kingdom! Romans 5:1 2 tells us, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God THROUGH our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, AND REJOICE IN HOPE OF THE GLORY OF GOD.” And Romans 5:10? “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be (being) saved by His (resurrected, reigning) life.” GLORY!!
Oh, but glory in God even more because in Romans 6:17-18 we also are trained, informed, inspired, and, yes, amazed at our calling! “But God be thanked, that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was (and presently IS) delivered to you. Being then MADE FREE FROM SIN, YOU BECAME THE SERVANTS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
And understanding that “Christ only IS your eternal heart”, you daily take the sentence of death to the “old self” that the resurrection life of Christ may literally, daily, be yielded to His Indwelling Presence!
FOURTH, CHRIST ONLY IS OUR STRONG HELP! I don’t know how any ‘believer’ can read Psalm 42 and not rejoice in continual Hallelujahs! David wrote, Psalm 42:5, 8, and 11, the following words: Psalm 42:5, “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance.
Verse 8, Yet the Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.
Verse 11, Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.” Dare I ask? “How is the health of your countenance?” “IS CHRIST ONLY YOUR STRONG HELP?”
FIFTH, CHRIST ONLY IS THE HERALD OF LIFE’S BLESSING! Christ-less-ness is a curse, but “in Christ” is eternal blessing. Didn’t Jesus say, John 10:10, “I am come that you may have life, and that you may have it more abundantly”?
How about “the river of God’s abundant pleasures”, Psalm 36:8? Or, beyond abundant life and pleasure, how about “the bank of God’s abundant grace”, 2 Corinthians 2:8, “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that YOU, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work,” OR, “the reservoir of God’s abundant power, His ample supply, and His amazing entrance into His eternal Kingdom?
Ephesians 3:20 says, “Now unto Him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us”? OR,
The open door to amazing supplies that never run dry? Philippians 4:19, “But my God shall supply all you need according to His riches in glory by or in Christ Jesus”?
OR, His abundant entrance? 2 Peter 1:11, “For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
SIXTH, CHRIST ONLY IS OUR PERPETUAL HAPPINESS AND JOY! Oh, how clear is Nehemiah 8:10? “The joy of the Lord is your strength”? Or Psalm 16:11? “In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures for evermore.”
Do YOU walk in perpetual happiness and joy? Do YOU walk in a state of ‘fleshly bliss’ or “Sovereign Blessing”? Is it ‘happiness attained in the best of human effort’ or is it the “Holy Estate of Heavenly Presence in the repentant rest of true Biblical Faith” that reveals Christ in you as your hope of glory?
Examine carefully Romans 4:1-5! “What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh has found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he has whereof to glory: BUT NOT BEFORE GOD. For what does the Holy Scriptures tell us?
Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto Him for righteousness. Now to him that works at it is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt? But to him that works not, but believes in, trusts in, relies upon, Him that JUSTIFIES the ungodly, that one’s faith is counted for righteousness.” That, my friend, is “Amazing Grace”!!
SEVENTH, CHRIST IN YOU IS THE ONLY DOOR INTO LIVING IN, BY, FOR THE GLORY OF GOD’S ABIDING PRESENCE! Follow carefully Colossians 2:6-10 and then Colossians 1:19-29!
Colossians 2:6-10 says, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.: Rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are COMPLETE IN CHRIST.” What IS that “completeness in Christ”? Colossians 1:19-29 is so inspired, so informative, so liberating. It says:
“For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell; And having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
And you, that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now has He reconciled In the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight:
If you continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not removed from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;
Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body’s sake, which is the church: Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God;
Even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; WHICH IS ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory:
Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: Whereunto I also labor, striving according to His working, which works in me mightily.” IS JESUS AT WORK IN YOU MIGHTILY?
EIGHTH, BECAUSE OF THE BIBLICAL FOUNDATION OF YOUR ONENESS IN CHRIST, IS THE HISTORY OF YOUR ONENESS IN CHRIST THE RECOGNITION OF HISTORICALLY, PERSONALLY, INSPIRATIONALLY, DAILY CHOOSING DEATH TO YOUR OLD SELF SO THAT CHRIST IN YOUR NEW-BORN HEART IS ABLE TO EXTEND HIS LIFE, EXPRESS HIS LOVE, AND THROUGH YOU PROVE HIS POWER, TOUCHING THE WORLD THROUGH YOU WITH HIS NEVER-ENDING PRESENCE?
This walk in redemptive faith is not ‘trying’ but “trusting”, not ‘attempting’ but “allowing Him to be Himself in you and through you”, not ‘determining’ rationally what you choose to do as a disciple of Christ, but “depending upon Christ in you, Christ through you, Christ for you touching your world around you with His atoning power and amazing purpose!
For YOU, what is it? Spiritual insanity in “the best of human effort”, or is it the “spiritual reality of the new-born Life in Christ”? You do have a choice! “Choose you this day whom you will serve”, making yourself available to His Resurrected Presence! Amen?
I’ve paraphrased the old hymn “Saviour, Again” found in the old hymnal of Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, (1940). It says: “Savior, again to Your dear name we raise With one accord our parting hymn of praise; Once more we bless You ere our worship cease, Then, lowly kneeling, wait Your word of peace. (Is that “welcome to the Throne of Christ as your, truly, Lord and Savior”?).
A cloud of witnesses around Hold you in full survey; Forget the steps already trod, And onward urge God’s way, And onward urge God’s way.
It’s God’s all animating voice That calls you from on high; It’s His own hand presents the prize To your aspiring eye, To your aspiring eye.
Blest Savior, introduced by God, Have I my race begun; And, crowned with victory, (eternally!), at Your feet I’ll lay my honors down, I’ll lay my honors down.”
Examine Matthew 25:31-46! The day is coming when the King of glory, the Son of man, shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He shall sit upon the throne of His glory:
And before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.
Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, (That’s the King of Heaven AND Earth!!): Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
For I was hungered, and you gave Me meat; I was thirsty, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in: Naked and you clothed me; I was sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came unto me.
Then shall the righteous (the sheep but not the goats!) answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we you hungry, and fed you? Or thirsty, and gave you drink? When saw we you a stranger, and took you in? or naked, and clothed you? Or when saw we you sick, or in prison, and came unto you? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these me brethren, you have done it unto me.
Then shall he say unto them on the left hand (the goats), Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels; For I was hungry, and you gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink:
I was a stranger, and you took me not in; naked, and you clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and you visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we you hungry, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto you? Then Jesus answered them, saying, Verily, I say unto you, Inasmuch as you did not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal.”
Dare I ask? “Where are YOU headed? In whom or what have YOU “rested”? Finished with your old sin nature or finalized forever through repentance and faith in Him alone, “complete in Christ lacking nothing”?
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“LESS & LESS OR MORE & MORE?”
ARE YOU AWARE OF THE ‘LESS AND LESS’ OF FALLEN HUMANITY WITHOUT FULL, SERIOUS, COMPLETE EXAMINATION OF GOD’S “MORE AND MORE”? THE ONE THING THE WORD OF GOD DECLARES WITHOUT WAVERING IS FOUND IN JOSHUA 24:15 WHEN JOSHUA SAID: “And if it seems evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you shall serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorities, in whose land you dwell; BUT AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD.”
In Deuteronomy 30:19-20a, Moses declared, “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; choose life, that both you and your seed may live (and that’s in the Abiding Presence of Christ, before the Throne of God, filled with the Holy Spirit who birthed your life through true repentance and faith!), that both you and your seed may live; That you (and yours!) may love the Lord your God, AND that you may obey His voice, and that you may cleave unto Him (Is that “holding fast?), for He is your life, and the length of your earthly days…!” But! Look at the “Christ-less life” as it chooses ‘self’ over the “Savior”, ‘sin’ over the “Righteousness of God in Christ Jesus”, ‘worldly pleasure, wandering from God pursuits’ over the Lord’s freedom-gift of “His Eternal Life & Presence”!
“LESS & LESS?” IN JOB 2:7-10 WE READ, “SO WENT SATAN FORTH FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD, SMOTE JOB WITH SORE BOILS FROM THE SOLE OF HIS FOOT UNTO THE CROWN. AND HE TOOK WITH HIM A POTSHARD TO SCRAPE HIMSELF ALL OVER; AND HE SAT DOWN WITH THE ASHES.
THEN SAID HIS WIFE UNTO HIM, “DO YOU STILL RETAIN YOUR INTEGRITY? CURSE GOD AND DIE.” BUT JOB SAID TO HIS WIFE, “YOU SPEAK AS ONE OF THE FOOLISH WOMEN SPEAKS. WHAT? SHALL WE RECEIVE GOOD AT THE HAND OF THE GOD, AND SHALL WE NOT RECEIVE EVIL? IN ALL THIS JOB DID NOT SIN WITH HIS LIPS.
“LESS &LESS OR MORE &MORE?” IN JOB 19:23-27 ARE FOUND MORE INSPIRING WORDS ABOUT THE “LESS & LESS OR THE MORE & MORE”: JOB SAID, “OH THAT MY WORDS WERE NOW WRITTEN! OH THAT THEY WERE PRINTED IN A BOOK! THAT THEY WERE GRAVEN WITH AN IRON PEN AND LEAD IN THE ROCK FOR EVER!
FOR I KNOW THAT MY REDEEMER LIVES, AND THAT HE SHALL STAND AT THE LATTER DAY UPON THE EARTH; (AND KEEP ON STANDING THERE?): AND THOUGH AFTER MY SKIN WORMS DESTROY MY BODY, YET IN MY FLESH SHALL I SEE GOD.”
“LESS & LESS?” MANKIND WAS BIRTHED BY GOD IN HUMAN FORM, YES, WITH THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE! ADAM’S NATURE OR GOD’S NATURE? FLESH OR SPIRIT? WRONG OR RIGHT OR WRONG MINGLED IN WITH A TASTE OF RIGHT? SELF-EMPTINESS OR SOVEREIGN FULLNESS? A HELLISH, DEVILISH, DEMONIC WORLD’S BEST OR: “HEAVEN CAME DOWN AND GLORY FILLED YOUR SOUL”?
A GREAT OLD HYMN OF THE 1940’S IN THE OLD BROADMAN HYMNAL (P.357) SAYS: “ARE YOU TIRED OF THE LIFE YOU’RE NOW LIVING? ARE YOU WEARY OF SIN AND ITS SNARES? ARE YOU SEEKING FOR THAT WHICH IS LASTING? LOOK TO JESUS; YOU’LL FIND THAT HE CARES.
ARE YOU LONGING TO KNOW HIS FORGIVENESS? DO YOU YEARN TO BE FREE FROM ALL SIN? DOES YOUR LONELY HEART LEAP WHEN YOU WITNESS GOD’S WONDERFUL LOVE FOR ALL MEN?
LOOK TO JESUS THE BLESSED REDEEMER, GIVE YOUR HEART, AND YOUR ALL TO THE LORD; TO HIS OPEN ARMS RUN FOR SALVATION, HE HAS PROMISED IT ALL IN HIS WORD.
HE IS WATCHING, HE IS WAITING, HE IS LONGING YOUR SOUL TO SET FREE; WEARY ONE, GIVE YOUR HEART TO THE SAVIOR, LIVE WITH HIM THROUGH ALL ETERNITY.”
DO YOU KNOW, DO YOU UNDERSTAND, DO YOU COMPREHEND, THAT LIFE AFTER DEATH IS EITHER HELL OR HEAVEN, CONTINUING ‘FLESH-BONDAGE UNDER SATAN’S CONTROL’ OR “ETERNAL FREEDOM FROM THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH”, BECAUSE YOU ARE, WERE, WILL NOW FOREVER BE FREE FROM THAT LAW OF SIN AND DEATH BECAUSE OF THE SHED BLOOD OF THE LAMB OF GOD? LIFE NOW & LIFE AFTER DEATH IS EITHER ‘FLESH’ OR SPIRIT, HUMAN NATURE OR DIVINE NATURE FOREVER FLOWING THROUGH YOUR VEINS, MIND, AND HEART, WRONG NATURE OR RIGHT NATURE, SELF-EMPTINESS OR SOVEREIGN FULLNESS. AND YOU? YOUR ALL IN ALL OR CHRIST IN YOU YOUR ONLY HOPE OF ETERNAL LIFE, ETERNAL BLESSING, ETERNAL PRESENCE, YES, ETERNAL BEFORE THE THRONE OF CHRIST JESUS WILLING TO DAILY BE HIS “FOOT-WASHER”?!!!?
AGAIN, IN JOSHUA 24:25-28, WE FIND POWERFULLY CONVICTING WORDS: “SO JOSHUA MADE A COVENANT WITH THE PEOPLE THAT DAY, AND SET THEM A STATUTE AND AN ORDINANCE IN SHECHEM. AND JOSHUA WROTE THESE WORDS IN “THE BOOK OF THE LAW OF GOD”, AND TOOK A GREAT STONE, AND SET IT UP THERE UNDER AN OAK, THAT WAS BY THE SANCTUARY OF THE LORD. SO JOSHUA SAID UNTO ALL THE PEOPLE, BEHOLD, THIS STONE SHALL BE A WITNESS UNTO US; FOR IT HAS HEARD ALL THE WORDS OF THE LORD WHICH HE SPOKE UNTO US; IT SHALL BE THEREFORE A WITNESS UNTO YOU, UNLESS YOU DENY YOUR GOD. SO JOSHUA LET THE PEOPLE DEPART, EVERY MAN UNTO HIS INHERITANCE.”
“EVERY MAN UNTO HIS INHERITANCE”?“THIS STONE A WITNESS UNTO YOU”? GOD’S WORD CUT INTO A LARGE NATURAL STONE WRITTEN FOR MEN TO READ? AND YOUR INHERITANCE? SOME READ, SOME TRUSTED, SOME OBEYED, AND EXTENDED THE KINGDOM OF GOD THEN! BUT DO YOU KNOW GOD DECLARES IN HIS WORDS THE “NEW STONE” FOR MEN TO READ? IN LUKE 20:9-13 JESUS TELLS US ABOUT A MAN PLANTING A VINEYARD:
THEN BEGAN JESUS TO SPEAK TO THE PEOPLE THIS PARABLE: “A CERTAIN MAN PLANTED A VINEYARD, AND LET IT FORTH TO HUSBAND-MEN, AND WENT FORTH INTO A FAR COUNTRY FOR A LONG TIME. AND AT THE SEASON HE SENT A SERVANT TO HIS HUSBANDMEN, AND WENT INTO A FAR COUNTRY FOR A LONG TIME.
AND AT THE SEASON HE SENT A SERVANT TO THE HUSBANDMEN, THAT THEY SHOULD GIVE HIM OF THE FRUIT OF THE VINEYARD; BUT THE HUSBANDMEN BEAT HIM, AND SENT HIM AWAY EMPTY. AND AGAIN HE SENT ANOTHER SERVANT; AND THEY BEAT HIM ALSO, AND ENTREATED HIM SHAMEFULLY, AND SENT HIM AWAY EMPTY.
AND AGAIN HE SENT ANOTHER SERVANT; AND THEY BEAT HIM ALSO, AND ENTREATED HIM SHAMEFULLY, AND SENT HIM AWAY EMPTY. AND AGAIN HE SENT A THIRD; AND THEY WOUNDED HIM ALSO, AND CAST HIM OUT. THEN SAID THE LORD OF THE VINEYARD, WHAT SHALL I DO? I WILL SEND MY BELOVED SON; IT MAY BE THEY WILL REVERENCE HIM WHEN THEY SEE HIM.” DARE I ASK? WHO IS THE LORD OF THE VINEYARD? THAT’S ALMIGHTY, HOLY, PASSIONATE GOD OVERSEEING HIS WORLD OF LOST MANKIND, DEAD-FRUIT, WILLFUL SINNERS – AND BECAUSE HE’S THE GOD OF LOVE, MERCY, AND GRACE, WITH A FORGIVING HEART, HE SENDS HIS OWN SON TO BE THE SACRIFICE FOR YOUR SIN, THE SAVIOR FROM YOUR MISGUIDED, DECEIVED, SIN-BOUND, SATANIC-CONTROLLED MIND, BLACKENED HEART, AND A WORLDLY PERCEPTION AND DETERMINATION TO DO AS “FLESH, THE WORLD AROUND YOU, AND SATAN PROGRAMS YOU INTO!!!”
SATAN’S INTENT? SATAN’S INITIATIVE? DESTROY THE HEIRS OF FAITH! DESTROY THEIR SAVIOR AND LORD! DESTROY THE HOPE OF ETERNAL PURPOSE, OF HEAVENLY PLEASURE, OF THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH PASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING, BUT OVERFLOWS YOUR MIND AND HEART WITH THE REALITY OF CHRIST’S RESURRECTION-PRESENCE!! DESTROY ANY HOPE OF AN OVERCOMING LIFE OF THE WORLD, YOUR OLD SIN-NATURE, OR SATAN AND DEMONIC PRESENCE AND ACTIVITY! SATAN SAYS, “YOU’RE MINE TO DO IN YOUR FLESH WHAT HELL INTENDS, NOT HEAVEN OR WHAT A SO-CALLED ‘LORD AND SAVIOR’ SAYS!”
DARE I SAY IT? I BELIEVE I WILL! “YOU DON’T HAVE TO LIVE UNDER THE CLOUD OF SATANIC DECEPTION ANY LONGER!!” THERE IS THE REALITY, THE ETERNAL TRUTH, THE BLESSED ASSURANCE, THAT IN CHRIST JESUS YOU CAN BE “MORE THAN A CONQUEROR” OVER THE WORLD-SPIRIT, OVER THE SIN-NATURE DISEASE, AND THE ‘DIS-EASE’ OF WORLDLINESS, OF A SIN-BOUND MIND AND HEART, AND SATANIC-PRETENSE!
IN ROMANS 8:8-14 WE READ, “SO THEN THEY THAT ARE IN THE FLESH CANNOT PLEASE GOD. BUT YOU ARE NOT IN THE FLESH, BUT IN THE SPIRIT, IF SO BE THAT THE SPIRIT OF GOD DWELLS IN YOU. NOW IF ANY MAN DOES NOT HAVE THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST, HE IS NONE OF HIS. AND IF CHRIST BE IN YOU, THE BODY IS DEAD, BECAUSE OF SIN; BUT THE SPIRIT IS LIFE BECAUSE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. (IF THE SPIRIT IS LIFE IN YOU BECAUSE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, DOES THAT MEAN AS A NEW, TRUE BELIEVER IT’S “OK!” IF I SIN NOW AND THEN AS I PLEASE?).
BUT IF THE SPIRIT OF HIM THAT RAISED UP JESUS FROM THE DEAD DWELL IN YOU, HE THAT RAISED UP CHRIST FROM THE DEAD SHALL ALSO QUICKEN (MAKE ALIVE HIMSELF IN YOU!) YOUR MORTAL BODIES BY HIS SPIRIT THAT DWELLS IN YOU. THEREFORE, BRETHREN, WE ARE DEBTORS, NOT TO THE FLESH (YOUR OLD SIN-NATURE!), TO LIVE AFTER THE FLESH.
FOR IF YOU LIVE AFTER THE FLESH, YOU SHALL DIE; BUT IF YOU THROUGH THE SPIRIT DO MORTIFY THE DEEDS OF THE BODY, YOU SHALL LIVE. FOR AS MANY AS ARE LED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD, THEY ARE THE SONS OF GOD.”
LESS & LESS OR MORE & MORE? IT IS A CHOICE YOU MAKE! “BEST EFFORT OR SOVEREIGN BLESSING?” THE INTELLECTUAL MIND-SET OF SELF-DETERMINATION OR THE HEART AND MIND WASHED CLEAN THROUGH THE SHED BLOOD OF THE LAMB OF GOD BY THE CONVICTION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE BIRTH IN THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND THE EMPOWERMENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN GUIDING YOU INTO THE REALITY OF THE GIFT OF ABIDING TRUTH, EVEN CHRIST JESUS EXPRESSING HIMSELF IN SPIRITUAL WARFARE AGAINST SATAN AND HIS DEMON FORCES THROUGH YOU AS YOU REJOICE WITNESSING JESUS BEING JESUS, SAVIOR AND LORD, AND KING AND SOVEREIGN OVER SATAN, YOUR OLD WORLD ALLEGIANCE, AND YOUR WARPED, GODLESS ALLEGIANCE TO YOUR “CHURCH” THAT MOSTLY ‘PRETENDS’, EVEN UPSET IF YOU ASSERT LOYALTY TO THE INDWELLING CHRIST BUT NOT LOYALTY TO THEIR ‘CHURCH OF IMITATION’!
IN REVELATION 7:9-17 WE READ ABOUT THE “SEALED SERVANTS OF GOD’’! “AFTER THIS I BEHELD, AND, LO, A GREAT MULTITUDE, WHICH NO MAN COULD NUMBER, OF ALL NATIONS, AND KINDREDS, AND PEOPLE, AND TONGUES, STOOD BEFORE THE THRONE, AND BEFORE THE LAMB, CLOTHED WITH WHITE ROBES, AND PALMS IN THEIR HANDS;
AND CRIED WITH A LOUD VOICE, SAYING, SALVATION TO OUR GOD WHO SITS UPON THE THRONE, AND UNTO THE LAMB. AND ALL THE ANGELS STOOD ROUND ABOUT THE THRONE, AND ABOUT THE ELDERS AND THE FOUR BEASTS, AND FELL BEFORE THE THRONE ON THEIR FACES, AND WORSHIPPED GOD. SAYING, AMEN: BLESSING, AND GLORY, AND WISDOM, AND THANKSGIVING, AND HONOR, AND POWER, AND MIGHT, BE UNTO OUR GOD FOR EVER AND EVER. AMEN. AND ONE OF THE ELDERS ANSWERED, SAYING UNTO ME, WHAT ARE THESE WHICH ARE ARRAYED IN WHITE ROBES? AND WHERE DID THEY COME FROM?
AND I SAID UNTO HIM, SIR, YOU KNOW. AND HE SAID TO ME, THESE ARE THEY WHICH CAME OUT OF GREAT TRIBULATION, AND HAVE WASHED THEIR ROBES, AND MADE THEM WHITE IN & THROUGH THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB. THEREFORE ARE THEY BEFORE THE THRONE OF GOD, AND SERVE HIM DAY AND NIGHT IN HIS TEMPLE: AND HE THAT SITS ON THE THRONE SHALL DWELL AMONG THEM.
THEY SHALL HUNGER NO MORE, NEITHER THIRST ANY MORE; NEITHER SHALL THE SUN LIGHT ON THEM, NOR ANY HEAT. FOR THE LAMB WHICH IS IN THE MIDST OF THE THRONE SHALL FEED THEM, AND SHALL LEAD THEM UNTO LIVING FOUNTAINS OF WATERS; AND GOD SHALL WIPE AWAY ALL TEARS FROM THEIR LIVES.”
“LESS AND LESS OR MORE AND MORE?” DO YOU WALK ‘LESS AND LESS’ IN WILLFUL CONDEMNATION AND SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS BECAUSE YOU’VE ASSURED YOURSELF THAT HOLY GOD WILL BE PLEASED WITH YOUR “BEST EFFORT” OR THAT YOU “JOINED A CHURCH” OR THAT YOU ‘TRY HARD TO DO THE RIGHT THING’?
PLEASE COME WITH ME TO ROMANS 8 EXAMINING CAREFULLY VERSES 1-10! “THERE IS THEREFORE NOW NO CONDEMNATION TO THEM WHO ARE IN CHRIST JESUS, WHO WALK NOT AFTER THE FLESH (THAT MEANS “STILL IN LOVE WITH YOUR OLD SIN-NATURE!”), BUT YOU WALK IN AND AFTER THE HOLY SPIRIT. FOR THE LAW OF “THE SPIRIT OF LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS” HAS MADE ME FREE FROM THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH. FOR WHAT THE LAW COULD NOT DO, IN THAT IT WAS WEAK THROUGH THE FLESH, GOD SENDING HIS OWN SON IN THE LIKENESS OF SINFUL FLESH, AND FOR SIN, CONDEMNED SIN IN THE FLESH ( THE FLESH? IS THAT THE OLD MAN BIRTHED INTO PHYSICAL LIFE WITH THE CHOICE OF SELF-ALLEGIANCE OR THE CHOICE OF THE NEED OF GOD IN THEM?);
THAT THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE LAW MIGHT BE FULFILLED IN US, WHO WALK NOT AFTER THE ‘FLESH’ (OR ALLEGIANCE AND DEVOTION IN SATISFYING THE CONDEMNED ‘SIN NATURE’!), BUT THEY WALK AFTER, IN, BY, GUIDED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT! FOR THEY THAT ARE AFTER THE FLESH DO MIND (ATTEND TO) THE THINGS OF THE FLESH; BUT THEY THAT ARE AFTER THE SPIRIT THE THINGS OF THE SPIRIT. FOR TO BE CARNALLY MINDED IS DEATH; BUT TO BE SPIRITUALLY MINDED IS LIFE AND PEACE. BECAUSE THE CARNAL MIND IS ENMITY AGAINST GOD; FOR IT IS NOT SUBJECT TO THE LAW OF GOD, NEITHER INDEED CAN BE. SO THEN THEY THAT ARE IN THE FLESH CANNOT PLEASE GOD. BUT YOU ARE NOT IN THE FLESH, BUT IN THE SPIRIT, IF SO BE THAT THE HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD DWELLS IN YOU. NOW IF ANY MAN DOES NOT HAVE THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST, HE IS NONE OF HIS CHILDREN. AND IF CHRIST BE IN YOU, THE BODY IS DEAD, BECAUSE OF SIN; BUT THE SPIRIT IS LIFE BECAUSE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
FROM THE “BREAKFRONT DAILY” FROM THE COLSON CENTER, THERE WAS A WRITING ON “ACADEMIC AND CORPORATE ‘WOKENESS’: THE REAL THREAT TO RELIGIOUS FREEDOM.” (IT WAS RECORDED BY JOHN STONESTREET WITH ROBERTA RIVERA.) IN IT THEY WROTE THE FOLLOWING: (A PORTION ONLY!) “THE SOUND YOU HEAR IS DOORS OF OPPORTUNITY FOR STUDENTS SLAMMING SHUT EVERYWHERE. BASICALLY, ANY ORGANIZATION THAT RUNS AFOUL OF THE NEW SEXUAL ORTHODOXY THAT’S DRIVING THIS NEW POLICY WILL FIND IT MUCH MORE DIFFICULT TO RECRUIT YALE LAW SCHOOL GRADS; AND THOSE GRADS WHOSE MOTIVATIONS RUN TOWARD NON-PROFIT OR PUBLIC SERVICE WILL FIND THEIR CHOICES SIGNIFICANTLY NARROWED.
YALES’ BLATANT DISCRIMINATION AGAINST PEOPLE WITH TRADITIONAL RELIGIOUS BELIEFS IS AN IMPORTANT REMINDER OF WHERE THE GREATEST CHALLENGE TO RELIGIOUS FREEDOM CURRENTLY LIES IN OUR CULTURE. AS DAVID FRENCH WROTE AT NATIONAL REVIEW, ONE OF ‘THE PRIME SOURCES OF [CULTURE WAR] CONFLICT IS THE INCREASING TENDENCY TO USE THE FINANCIAL AND CULTURAL POWER OF PROGRESSIVE INSTITUTIONS TO FORCE SOCIAL CHANGE REGARDLESS OF THE UNDERLYING MISSION OF THE INSTITUTION.”
AND I SAY TO YOU, “UNLESS THERE IS A SECOND, A THIRD, A FORTH, A FIFTH, “GREAT AWAKENING”, MAYBE EVEN MORE, OUR NATION WILL BECOME MORE AND MORE, MAYBE, FINANCIALLY RICHER, BUT PROBABLY BARREN OF THE LOVE, GRACE, AND MERCY OF HOLY GOD! SHUT THE DOOR ON GOD? AND HE’LL SHUT THE DOOR ON YOU!!” BUT, IN JOHN 7:37, JESUS SAID, “IF ANYONE THIRSTS (FOR GOD?), LET HIM COME TO ME AND DRINK.”(NKJV EDITION).
LET ME SHARE THIS MESSAGE FROM PSALM 97 EXALTING THE MAJESTY OF GOD’S REIGN IN THE HUMAN HEART ADVANCING HIS KINGDOM THROUGH THEM: “THE LORD REIGNS: LET THE MULTITUDE OF ISLES BE GLAD THEREOF (BECAUSE OF IT!). CLOUDS AND DARKNESS ARE ROUND ABOUT HIM: RIGHTEOUSNESS AND JUDGMENT ARE THE HABITATION OF HIS THRONE.
A FIRE GOES BEFORE HIM, AND BURNS UP HIS ENEMIES ROUND ABOUT. HIS LIGHTNINGS ENLIGHTENED THE WORLD: THE EARTH SAW, AND TREMBLED. THE HILLS MELTED LIKE WAX AT THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD OF THE WHOLE EARTH. THE HEAVENS DECLARE HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND ALL THE PEOPLE SEE HIS GLORY. CONFOUNDED BE ALL THEY THAT SERVE GRAVEN IMAGES, THAT BOAST THEMSELVES OF IDOLS: WORSHIP HIM, ALL YOU GODS.
ZION HEARD, AND WAS GLAD; AND THE DAUGHTERS OF JUDAH REJOICED BECAUSE OF YOUR JUDGMENTS, O LORD. FOR YOU, LORD, ARE HIGH ABOVE ALL THE EARTH: YOU ARE EXALTED FAR ABOVE ALL GODS. YOU THAT LOVE THE LORD, HATE EVIL; HE PRESERVES THE SOULS OF HIS SAINTS (THE “SET-APART ONES”?); HE DELIVERS THEM OUT OF THE HAND OF THE WICKED. LIGHT IS SOWN FOR THE RIGHTEOUS, AND GLADNESS FOR THE UPRIGHT IN HEART. REJOICE IN THE LORD, YOU RIGHTEOUS ONES; AND GIVE THANKS AT THE REMEMBRANCE OF HIS HOLINESS.” WHEN I COME TO HEBREWS 9:14, I REJOICE IN THE “HALLELUJAH TRUTH”! “HOW MUCH MORE SHALL THE BLOOD OF CHRIST, WHO THROUGH THE ETERNAL SPIRIT OFFERED HIMSELF WITHOUT SPOT TO GOD (JESUS WAS YOUR SIN OFFERING!!), PURGING YOUR CONSCIENCE FROM ‘DEAD WORKS’ TO SERVE THE LIVING GOD.”
ARE “YOU” RE-BORN? HAVE YOU BEEN TRANSFORMED FROM A CHILD OF DARKNESS TO THE CHILD OF ETERNAL LIGHT BECAUSE OF YOUR REPENTANCE, YOUR SAVING FAITH, AND YOUR DESIRE TO DAILY HONOR HIM WHEREVER YOU GO AND IN WHATEVER YOU DO? HEAR ME! CHRIST JESUS “IS” RESURRECTION PRESENCE, RESURRECTION POWER, RESURRECTION PRIVILEGE, ARRIVING, ABIDING, ASKING, EVEN PLEADING: “OPEN YOUR HEART’S DOOR, AND I WILL COME IN.”
CHRIST BLED – SO HE PLEADS, HE KNOCKS ON YOUR HEARTS’ DOORS, COMPASSIONATELY SAYING, “SIN NO LONGER IS TO BE YOUR MASTER ANYMORE. MY BLOOD I’VE SHED, YOUR BOOK OF LIFE I’VE READ – AND MY SACRIFICE FOR YOUR SIN?” FOR CHRIST JESUS, IT’S AS IF YOUR SIN HAD NEVER BEEN!! (ARE YOU A REJOICING, THANKFUL, CELEBRATING SON AND DAUGHTER OF GOD, OR ARE YOU “TUNED IN” TO ALL THE WORLD, YOUR OLD SIN-NATURE, AND SATAN HIMSELF HAS TO DECEIVE YOU? WHY NOT, RIGHT NOW, ACCEPT YOUR CRUCIFIXION WITH CHRIST TO DO AWAY WITH YOUR OLD SELF, BEING “RAISED UP IN THE NEWNESS OF HIS EVERLASTING LIFE AND PRESENCE” TO LEAD YOU THROUGH THE DARK SHADOWS OF EARTHLY EXISTENCE INTO THE PRESENT FULLNESS OF HIS FOREVER REIGN? YOUR DAY – GOD’S TIME?
CHAPTER TWELVE
“FALLEN HUMANITY’S FAILURE OR THE FAITHFULNESS OF COMPASSIONATE GOD?”
THE AMAZING “CREATION OF GOD” OF BOTH THE BEAUTIFUL WORLD,PLANETS,STARS,PLUS BIRTHING OF FLESHLY HUMANITY WITH “FREE WILL” TO CHOOSE WHETHER TO SERVE GOD OR NOT, IS TRULY, BOTH SAD AND GLAD – SAD, BECAUSE SOME “FREE-WILL MEN AND WOMEN” CHOSE THE PATH OF “ME, MY, AND MIND” RATHER THAN THE PERFECT, PERFECTING, PRECIOUS PRIVILEGE OF THE WINSOMENESS, THE WILL, THE “WORD”, AND THE WAYS OF HOLY GOD!
FALLEN HUMANITY’S FAILURE, IN CHOOSING SELF-WILL FOR SELF-PLEASURE, (FROM A NATURAL MIND AND NATURAL HEART!), WERE “BIRTHED”- ‘BRAIN-DEAD’, ‘FLESH-DEFILED’,‘HEART-DARKENED’,AND WILLFULLY ‘DELIRIOUS’, WITH THE ENEMY OF MANKIND, SATAN, ‘DEMONSTRABLY ACTIVE’ IN ‘DECEIVING MANKIND’, SAYING, “IF YOU SIN, DISOBEY, OR DEFY GOD, YOU WON’T DIE”, WHILE THE SPIRIT OF HOLY GOD SPEAKS TO YOU, CONVICTS YOU, SAYING, IN JOSHUA 24:15,“AND IF IT SEEMS EVIL UNTO YOU TO SERVE THE LORD,CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY WHOM YOU WILL SERVE; WHETHER THE ‘gods’ WHICH YOUR FATHERS SERVED,OR THE ‘gods of self-willed peoples’, IN WHOSE LAND YOU DWELL;BUT AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD.” (AND THE REWARD ‘of self-willed peoples’? ROMANS 6:23, “FOR THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH” –NATURALLY & ETERNALLY, IF THERE’S NO REPENTANCE, BELIEF, TRUST, & YIELDEDNESS TO THE KING OF KINGS & LORD OF LORDS!).
NATURAL MANKIND BIRTHS NATURAL CHILDREN, AND WHETHER NATURAL MANKIND OR NATURAL CHILDREN, BOTH MUST KNOW TRUE REPENTANCE BEFORE HOLY GOD, AND FULLY AWARE THAT REPENTANCE WITH TRUE BIBLICAL FAITH, GIVES BIRTH WITHIN TO PURE HEARTS WASHED CLEAN BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB, AND THEN THE ETERNAL BLESSING OF HIS PRESENCE, (CHRIST JESUS!), ENTERING THEIR HEARTS, MAKING THE HEART THE TABERNACLE OF HIS ETERNAL DWELLING, HIS ABIDING,EARTHLY RESIDENCE,AND,YES,THE “THRONE” BEING YOUR HEART AND LIFE THROUGH WHICH YOU ALLOW KING JESUS TO AGAIN GRANT EARTHLY PRESENCE, SOVEREIGN RULE, AND MERCIFUL OUTREACH TO YOU & THROUGH YOU TO OTHERS WHO NEED “BLOOD REDEMPTION” & “RECONCILIATION” WITH HOLY GOD, THEIR, YES, LOVING FATHER! AND UPON CONVERSION, FROM THAT DEATH FORWARD, ALL BELIEVERS ARE TO BE HIS “WITNESSING ARMY” TO SHARE “HIS TRUTH OF THE REALITY OF NEW BIRTH” TO ANY EARTHLY RESIDENT AROUND YOU!
(BUT THE SAD TRUTH? MOST CHURCHES AND PREACHERS AROUND YOU ARE ‘DEVOTED TO GOOD SUNDAY MORNING CLASSES & MESSAGES’ WITHOUT A PENNY’S WORTH OF CONCERN OR COMPASSION FOR THE LOST CITIZENS LOCALLY OR NATIONALLY OR NATIONS THAT SURROUND THEIR BORDERS, OR NATIONS OVERSEAS!)
MY GREATEST CONCERN TODAY, JUST A FEW WEEKS BEFORE MY 83RD BIRTHDAY ON JUNE 12, 2019? THAT TOO MANY CHURCHES, TOO MANY PASTORS, TOO MANY MEMBERS, TOO MANY DENOMINATIONAL LEADERS, ARE GROWING “SO FAT” ON CHRISTIAN NEWS OF SATISFIED ‘TO BE CHURCH MEMBERS’, THAT THEY WILLFULLY BLIND THEMSELVES OF BEING TOOLS IN GOD’S HANDS TO EXTEND HIS KINGDOM, EXPRESS HIS LOVE, OR PROVE HIS POWER!
THE PSALMIST,KING DAVID, IN PSALM 8:4-9, WROTE: “WHAT IS MAN, THAT YOU, GOD, ARE MINDFUL OF HIM?AND THE SON OF MAN,(KING JESUS), THAT YOU VISIT HIM? BUT YOU BIRTHED “HIM” A LITTLE LOWER THAN THE ANGELS, AND HAVE CROWNED HIM WITH GLORY AND HONOR.YOU,GOD, MADE HIM (CHRIST JESUS!) TO HAVE DOMINION OVER THE WORKS OF YOUR HANDS; YOU PUT ALL THINGS UNDER HIS FEET:ALL SHEEP AND OXEN,YES,AND THE BEASTS OF THE FIELD; THE FOWL OF THE AIR, AND THE FISH OF THE SEA, AND WHATSOEVER PASSES THROUGH THE PATHS OF THE SEAS. O LORD OUR LORD, HOW EXCELLENT IS YOUR NAME IN ALL THE EARTH.”
‘FALLEN HUMANITY’S FAILURE?’ ‘FALLEN HUMANITY’S SIRITUAL BLINDNESS? FALLEN HUMANITY’S SHAME OF SELF-WILL OR SELF-GOVERNMENT? FALLEN HUMANITY’S HARDNESS OF HEART BECAUSE OF THE DECEITFULNESS OF SIN?FALLEN HUMANITY’S STUPIDITY IN BOWING TO THE FOREFATHERS WHO SOUGHT ONLY TO BE SELF-RELIANT AS THEIR OWN SELF-INSTITUED ‘master’, ‘ruler,’ and ‘savior’ lifestyle and explanation of ‘good living’ rather than “GOD-BIRTHED, GOD-BLESSED, GOD-ANOINTED LIFE-IN-CHRIST JESUS”?
ACROSS THE ‘CHRISTIAN WORLD’,YES, WORLDWIDE, MY GREATEST CONCERN TODAY FOR THE DAYS BEFORE US? DAYS THAT SHOULD BE DAYS THROUGH US WHICH GOD THE FATHER USES TO EXTEND HIS KINGDOM, EXPRESS HIS LOVE, AND PROVE HIS POWER, BUT,”SADLY” MUCH OF ‘PROFESSING CHRISTIANITY, PROFESSING CHURCHES, PROFESSING LEADERS’, LIVE UNDER, SERVE UNDER, PLAN UNDER, PROVIDE UNDER, PERFORM UNDER, ‘RELIGIOUS PLANS’ RATHER THAN “HOLY-SPIRIT-POWER AND ANOINTING AND INSPIRING” THE, YES, SPIRITUAL PLANTING, TENDING, AND HARVESTING OF THE FRUIT OF MEN’S LOST, SEPARATED SOULS, TO BECOME SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF TRUE FAITH EXPERIENCING DIVINE, DRAMATIC CONVERSIONS THAT SIT TO EAT AROUND HIS TABLE (HIS HOLY WORD!), AND SERVE IN HIS FIELDS FOR NEEDY, SIN-SICK, SATAN-DELUDED SOULS”!
FALLEN HUMANITY’S FAILURES? LOOKING IN, THEY ONLY SEE THE NATURAL, THE EARTHLY, THE FLESHLY, THE ‘LESS OF WHAT THEY ‘WANT’ AND NOT WHAT LOVING GOD PLANNED’, THE SHALLOWNESS OF WHAT ‘SIN-NATURE’ WANTS AND NOT THE “DEEP WATERS” OF GOD’S GRACE, MERCY, AND LOVE, THE ‘SOULISH’ SATISFACTION OF ‘SELF-INDULGENCE’ THAT DROWNS THEM IN THE SHALLOW WATERS OF FLESHLY INDULGENCES, WORLDLY,WILD PLEASURES, AND SATANIC & DEMONIC, HELL-BOUND SCHEMES AND ‘WILD DREAMS’!
FALLEN HUMANITY’S FAILURES? “CROWN ‘YOU’ (ME,US- THE ONLY ONES WHO NEED TO REIGN!” “BE ‘FALLEN WORLD’S PARTNER’ UNITING WITH WHATEVER BLINDS YOU SPIRITUALLY WHEN YOU WALK ‘HERE’! BE ‘NOBLE’ IN THE WORLD “YOU” CHOOSE; AND YOU DON’T HAVE TO KNEEL BEFORE A ‘god’ TO SUCCEED–you’re your own man!”
FALLEN HUMANITY’S FAILURES? “SATISFIED WITH SOULISH LIVING, SATISFIED WITH SELF-WILL, SATISFIED WITH EARTHLY,MAN-INSPIRED EDUCATION APART FROM HOLY GOD’S INSPIRATION,SATISFIED IN THIS FLESH-LIFE AND MY SELF-INDEPENDENT-DETERMINATION TO MAKE IT HERE WITHOUT ‘YOUR GOD’S HELP’; ‘I, MY PERSONAL, MY ‘GLORIFED’,STOIC SELF, DO NOT NEED YOUR SAVIOR!”THAT’S LIKE A STATEMENT I READ SIMILAR OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN IN “THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGIOUS QUOTATIONS”,(P.396, PUBLISHED BY FLEMING H.REVELL COMPANY, WESTWOOD,NJ),THAT SAID: “GOD HELPS THOSE THAT HELP THEMSELVES.” A THOUSAND TIMES, “NO!” GOD HELPS THOSE FINISHED WITH THEMSELVES, BECAUSE THE “OLD MAN” CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST ON THE CROSS, IS NOT TO HAVE EVEN A FRACTION OF AN INCH IN THEM OF “TRYING” TO BE SAVED, BUT, YES, “RESTING IN CHRIST’S FINISHED WORK ON THE TOMB OF THE HISTORIC CROSS, AND THOUGH DEAD IN A TOMB THREE DAYS, GOD RAISED HIM!”
AND GOD “RAISES YOU” IF YOU REPENT! GOD “RAISES YOU” IF YOU ‘REST’! GOD “RAISES” YOU WHEN YOU’RE FINISHED WITH YOUR OLD MAN AND OLD NATURE AND SATANIC DECEPTION! FINISHED IF YOU’RE “FINISHED” WITH MAN-INSPIRED DREAMS AND VISIONS, AND “READY” FOR THE CHRIST IN YOU TO CONTINUE HIS ETERNAL EARTH-JOURNEY TO TOUCH OTHERS WITH HIS PROMISES AND HIS ETERNAL WORK BY HIS PRESENCE IN YOUR HEART & LIFE LITERALLY!! “CHRIST IN YOU THE HOPE OF GLORY”!!!!****
HAVE “YOU” CLOSED THE DOOR ON FALLEN HUMANITY’S FLESHLY DREAMS AND “RESTED” IN “THE FAITHFULNESS OF COMPASSIONATE GOD?”
I CHALLENGE YOU THIS VERY MOMENT AS YOU READ: “REST IN”, “WILLFULLY RELAX”, “WISELY REPENT”, AND IN “HOLY SPIRIT CONVICTED HEART, MIND, AND WILL OF GOD”, WHY NOT, YES, SIMPLY “TRUST AND OBEY”? IN JAMES 1 THE BROTHER OF JESUS WAS INSPIRED TO WRITE BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, VERSE 18, (GET READY! DON’T BE DECEIVED!!), “OF HIS OWN WILL GOD BIRTHED US WITH THE WORD OF TRUTH…”, WITH SIMON PETER TELLING US IN 1 PETER 1:2-5, “ELECT ACCORDING TO THE FOREKNOWLEDGE OF GOD THE FATHER, ( PAUSE! DID IT SAY: “FOREKNOWLEDGE”? YOU MEAN BEFORE HUMANITY EVER EXISTED, GOD KNEW WHO, HOW MANY, HE THEN “YES”, SOVEREIGNLY CHOSE THEM TO BE HIS HEAVENLY FAMILY OF SONS AND DAUGHTERS THROUGH THEIR GIFT OF FAITH IN THE FINISHED WORK OF CHRIST AT CALVARY AND THROUGH HIS EMPTY-TOMB RESURRECTION, HIS ASCENSION, AND HIS HEAVENLY REIGN! BEFORE CREATION GOD THE FATHER, SON, AND HOLY SPIRIT CHOSE THE “FAMILY OF FAITH” AND SAW TO IT THAT THEY WERE, ARE, AND WILL BE “BORN AGAIN”, ADOPTED INTO THE HOLY FAMILY, HAVING BEEN “RECONCILED THROUGH THE BLOOD OF THE CROSS AND HIS RESURRECTION, ASCENDING TO THE RIGHT HAND THRONE OF GOD TO WATCH AFTER GOD’S PRE-ORDAINED, ETERNALLY PROGRAMED SPIRITUAL BIRTHS, AND AFTER A LIFE OF EARTHLY SERVICE, UPON THEIR SPIRITUAL DEATHS, HE “CALLS THEM HOME” TO THE THRONE-ROOM, WHERE AT THE THRONE THEY’RE WELCOMED BY KING JESUS, AND, YES, GIVES ALL SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF “BORN-AGAIN FAITH” TO BE HIS FOOTWASHERS, SERVANTS, TABERNACLE-TENDERS, CHOIR SINGERS – A BLESSED, ETERNAL, THRILLED FAMILY OF NEVER-DYING, NEVER-ENDING MINISTRY TO THE “LORD OF GLORY”!
OH, BACK TO 1 PETER 1, VERSE 2A, “ELECT…”, BUT NOTICE ALSO 2B, THERE’S “SANCTIFICATION OF THE SPIRIT (THE HOLY SPIRIT) UNTO OBEDIENCE, AND SPRINKLING OF THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST”..FOR GRACE THROUGH YOU TO BE MULTIPLIED!!”
Verse 3 EXPLAINS: “BLESSED BE THE GOD AND FATHER OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, WHICH ACCORDING TO HIS ABUNDANT MERCY HAS BEGOTTEN US AGAIN UNTO A LIVING HOPE BY THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST FROM THE DEAD, VERSE 4, TO AN INHERITANCE, INCORRUPTIBLE, AND UNDEFILED, AND THAT FADES NOT AWAY, RESERVED IN HEAVEN FOR YOU, VERSE 5,‘WHO ARE KEPT BY THE POWER OF GOD THROUGH FAITH (OR TRUST) UNTO SALVATION, READY TO BE REVEALED IN THE LAST DAYS.”
IF CHRIST JESUS SAID ON THE CROSS RIGHT BEFORE HE DIED: “IT IS FINISHED!”, I TELL YOU, SUMMED UP IN THE STATEMENT OF JESUS IS THE DETERMINATION OF THE ‘WHO’ WILL BE SAVED, AND THE GUARANTEE THAT HIS WORK “FOR THEM” IS OVER! ON THE CROSS, BEFORE, IN HIS EARTHLY MINISTRY, BEFORE MANKIND WAS EVER CREATED, JESUS KNEW WHO, WHERE, AND WHEN THEY’D BE BORN, THEN RE-BIRTHED SPIRITUALLY THROUGH HIS MERCY AND LOVE, SERVED HIM FAITHFULLY, AND THEN, UPON EARTHLY DEATH, READY TO BE RAISED CELEBRATING HIM AND HIS ETERNAL “KINGDOM OF GOD REIGN” IN HEAVEN AS HE DID ON EARTH!
“THE FAITHFULNESS OF COMPASSIONATE GOD?” THAT’S WHO GOD IS;THAT’S WHAT FLOWS IN YOU AND AROUND YOU; IT’S WHAT “HE DOES” IN CHOOSING YOU, AND IN CALLING YOU, AND IN CONVERTING YOU, AND COMPASSIONATELY INDWELLING YOU; AND BECAUSE YOU RESPOND TO HIS PRESENCE, YOU CHOOSE DAILY TO YOUR ‘OLD MAN’, YOUR ‘OLD SIN-NATURE’, DEATH TO IT & YOURSELF, THAT THE RESURRECTION LIFE AND SPIRIT OF CHRIST MAY HIMSELF FLOW FREELY, FULLY, AND FAITHFULLY THROUGH YOU DAILY! & YOU LIVE SINGING:
“EVERY DAY I LIVE IN HIS GLORY, EVERY DAY I SHARE HIS STORY: ‘GOD REDEEMS BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB’, NEW CREATIONS REJOICE AS A CHOIR, LOUDLY SINGING: ‘IT’S IN ME CHRIST JESUS’ HOUR; PURCHASED BY HIS BLOOD, RE-BORN IN HIS FLOOD, A REPENTANT MEN NOW SHARES HIS LIFE & HIS MISSION, FULLY FORGIVEN, AMAZINGLY ASSURED: CHRIST MY SAVIOR IS NOW MY LORD”.
WALK IN OBEDIENCE YOUR LORD TO PLEASE, KNOWING LIFE IN HIM IS NO LONGER YOUR DISEASE, BUT A LIFE OF PEACE FREED FROM DISTRESS, BECAUSE IN JESUS YOU SHARE IN HIS ETERNAL REST; NO LONGER SHAMED IN SIN AND UNBELIEF, BY FAITH IN CHRIST’S SACRIFICE, I’VE BECOME HIS DELIGHT! “CHRIST IN ME MY HOPE OF GLORY, CHRIST THROUGH ME MY WORLD’S REDEMPTION STORY. POWERED BY THE SPIRIT AND AWAKENED TO MEN’S “LOST”, I GLADLY SHARE JESUS AT ANY COST.
IN CHRIST OUR “NEW LIFE” GLOWS, AND FREED IN THE SPIRIT GOD’S WORD NOW FLOWS! IT’S THE SEED OF HIS WORD PRODUCING FRUIT, EVEN “NEW-BORN LIVES” AS HIS GREAT DELIGHT! FROM THE GRAVE OF SIN AND DEATH, FROM THE LIES OF RICHES IN ‘FLESH’S WEALTH’, THE TRUTH OF GOD’S MERCY AND GRACE FULLY ABIDE, AS A REPENTANT HEART FAITHS ONLY: “I WANT TO BE ON GOD’S SIDE!”
SO I DIE TO MY SIN, I REST IN HIS GRACE, AND AMAZINGLY SEE, “I’M NOW PART OF HEAVEN’S RACE, EXTENDING HIS LIFE, EXPRESSING HIS LOVE, UNVEILING HIS PRESENCE, I’M LIKE A HEAVENLY DOVE!” I REJOICE IN MY SAVIOR, I REST IN HIS LOVE; I’VE BEEN RAISED UP, SEATED ABOVE! ABOVE SIN AND DEATH, I GLOW IN HIS GLORY, AS LOVINGLY I SHARE REDEMPTION’S STORY; “I AM HIS, AND HE IS MINE, AND IN HIS ABIDING I SHINE.”
IN MATTHEW 16:24 JESUS SAID: “IF ANY MAN WILL COME AFTER ME, LET HIM TAKE UP HIS CROSS, AND FOLLOW ME!” ARE “YOU” FOLLOWING? ARE “YOU” SHARING REDEMPTION’S STORY? DOES YOUR LIFE “GLOW” WITH HEAVEN’S GLORY? I TELL YOU: “SELF-DENIAL” TO SHARE GOD’S GLORY IS NOT AN INCLINATION BUT THE “REVELATION” AND INSPIRATION OF DISCIPLESHIP DUTY, OVERFLOWING FROM THE REALITY OF CRUCIFIXION WITH CHRIST TO THE REVELATION OF RESURRECTION LIFE IN CHRIST, RAISED UP, IN-FILLED, AND OVERFLOWING WITH HIS HOLY PRESENCE TO BE HIMSELF, TOUCHING MEN AROUND YOU WITH HIS “GREATER LOVE”, HIS “HEAVENLY GLORY”, AND A “NEW LIFE” WILLING TO SHARE HIS STORY! ARE YOU “NEW IN CHRIST WITH THE GREATER LOVE WHICH SHARES HIS STORY”? THAT’S HEAVEN’S LOVE FOR LOST MEN’S EARTHLY NOTHINGNESS THAT HONORS GOD IN THEM, EXCEPT “CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST, BURIED IN HIS TOMB, BUT RAISED IN 3 DAYS IN ETERNAL GLORY”! IS THAT “YOUR STORY”?
FALLEN HUMANITY’S FAILURE OR “THE FAITHFULNESS OF COMPASSIONATE GOD?”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“DEATH? THE DOOR TO HELL’S WORST OR THE DOOR TO GOD’S ETERNAL GOODNESS?”
IT WAS AN ANONYMOUS WRITER THAT YEARS AND YEARS AGO WROTE THE FOLLOWING: “SOME DAY THE BELL WILL SOUND, SOME DAY MY HEART WILL BOUND, AS WITH A SHOUT THAT SCHOOL IS OUT AND LESSONS DONE, I HOMEWARD RUN.” WHEN I READ THAT COMMENT, I HAD TO ASK, “HOMEWARD BOUND TO WHERE? TO ‘NO-MAN’S LAND’?” TO SOME FLESHLY DREAM-WORLD, AFTER LIFE IS OVER THAT ONE ENVISIONS FOR HIMSELF, OR TO AN UNCERTAIN DESTINATION, OR THE CERTAIN DESTINATION OF A GRAVE-SIGHT, AND THERE IS NO MORE”?
ANOTHER STATEMENT I READ ONCE SOMEWHERE, WRITING DOWN ONLY THE WORDS, BUT WHAT I READ STIRRED SOMETHING IN MY HEART AND MIND TO TRULY EXAMINE ‘DEATH’S REALITY’! THOSE WORDS? “SOME DIE WITHOUT HAVING REALLY LIVED, WHILE OTHERS CONTINUE TO LIVE, IN SPITE OF THE FACT THAT THEY HAVE DIED.”
GODLESS LIVING,WHETHER THE DECEPTION OF AN ATHEISTIC MIND OR THE DESIRE AND MIND AND HEART OF SELF-WILL, SELF-PLEASURE, AND SELF-GOVERNING,LIKE PSALM 14 THAT DAVID SANG ABOUT: “THE FOOL HAS SAID IN HIS HEART, ‘THERE IS NO GOD’. THEY ARE CORRUPT, THEY HAVE DONE ABOMINABLE WORKS, THERE IS NONE THAT DOES GOOD, (WHICH I’M SURE IS GOD’S ANOINTING OF DAVID IN EXPOSING THE FUTILITY OF ‘SELF-DETERMINATION’, ASSERTING, “WHO NEEDS GOD?”) CONTINUING DAVID SANG:
THE LORD LOOKED DOWN FROM HEAVEN UPON THE CHILDREN OF MEN, TO SEE IF THERE WERE ANY THAT DID UNDERSTAND, AND SEEK GOD. (BUT),VERSE 3, “THEY ARE ALL GONE ASIDE, THEY ARE ALL TOGETHER BECOME FILTHY: THERE IS NONE THAT DOES GOOD, NO, NOT ONE. VERSE 4, HAVE ALL THE WORKERS OF INIQUITY NO KNOWLEDGE? WHO EAT UP MY PEOPLE AS THEY EAT BREAD, AND CALL NOT UPON THE LORD?”
NOTICE THAT DAVID SANG PUBLICLY, ANOINTED OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, SAYING, “WORKERS OF INIQUITY WITH NO KNOWLEDGE”? WHAT DOES PAUL DECLARE, ALSO ANOINTED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, WHEN IN ROMANS 3:23, HE SAID, “FOR ALL HAVE SINNED AND FALL SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD.” SIN, THE SIN-NATURE, SIN, THE DEVILISH DECEIT OF SATAN HIMSELF, SIN, THE BIRTHING IN GODLESS HEARTS OF ALIENATION AND SEPARATION FROM HOLY GOD, SIN, THE CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT OF SELF-WILL, SELF-PLEASURE, SELF-DETERMINATION “WITHOUT GOD’S INTERFERENCE IN MY SELF-SERVING LIFE”, HUMANITY’S ‘DEATH-NAIL’; AND THOUGH HUMANITY LIVES ON PHYSICALLY ALIVE BUT SPIRITUALLY DEAD, “GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD”, HE DESIGNED ONE’S DELIVERANCE FROM SPIRITUAL DEATH THROUGH THE SHED BLOOD OF JESUS, THE SACRIFICIAL “LAMB OF GOD”!
AND DEATH, SPIRITUAL DEATH,HOW DID PAUL EXPLAIN THIS IN 2 CORINTHIANS 5:14-21? “FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST CONSTRAINS US; BECAUSE WE THUS JUDGE, THAT IF ONE DIED FOR ALL, THEN WERE ALL DEAD: AND THAT HE DIED FOR ALL, THAT THEY WHICH LIVE “SHOULD NOT HENCEFORTH LIVE UNTO THEMSELVES, BUT UNTO “HIM” WHICH DIED FOR THEM, AND ROSE AGAIN”.
WHETHER HENCEFORTH KNOW WE NO MAN AFTER THE FLESH: YES, THOUGH WE HAVE KNOWN CHRIST AFTER THE FLESH, YET NOW HENCEFORTH KNOW WE HIM NO MORE. THEREFORE IF ANY MAN BE IN CHRIST, HE IS A NEW CREATION; AND THINGS ARE PASSED AWAY; BEHOLD, ALL THINGS ARE BECOME NEW. AND ALL THINGS ARE OF GOD, WHO HAS RECONCILED US TO HIMSELF BY JESUS CHRIST, AND HAS GIVEN TO US THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION;
TO WIT, THAT GOD WAS IN CHRIST, RECONCILING THE WORLD UNTO HIMSELF, NOT IMPUTING THEIR TRESPASSES UNTO THEM; AND HAS COMMITTED UNTO US THE WORD OF RECONCILIATION. NOW THEN WE ARE AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST, AS THOUGH GOD DID BESEECH YOU BY US: WE PRAY YOU IN CHRIST’S STEAD, BE YOU RECONCILED TO GOD. FOR HE HAS MADE HIM TO BE SIN FOR US, WHO KNEW NO SIN, THAT WE MIGHT BE MADE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS IN HIM.”
ARE YOU AWARE OF THAT? DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT? EXAMINE CAREFULLY 1 JOHN 3:7-10! HOLY GOD’S WORD SAYS, (THOUGH ‘MODERN-DAY’, ‘ILL-INFORMED’ DISCIPLES FOOLISHLY SAY:”WE CANNOT DO ANYTHING BUT SIN UNTIL WE GET TO HEAVEN?” PHONY-BOLOGNA!), “LITTLE CHILDREN, LET NO MAN DECEIVE YOU: HE THAT DOES RIGHTEOUSNESS IS RIGHTEOUS, EVEN AS CHRIST IS RIGHTEOUS. HE THAT COMMITS (PRESENT TENSE) SIN IS OF THE DEVIL; FOR THE DEVIL SINNED FROM THE BEGINNING. FOR THIS PURPOSE THE SON OF GOD WAS MANIFESTED THAT HE MIGHT DESTROY THE WORKS OF THE DEVIL.
WHOSOEVER IS BORN OF GOD DOES NOT COMMIT SIN (PRESENT TENSE GREEK, “COMMITS-AND-KEEPS-ON-COMMITTING SIN” AS A ‘WAY OF LIFE’!”); FOR GOD’S SEED REMAINS IN HIM: AND HE CANNOT SIN, BECAUSE HE/SHE IS BORN OF GOD. IN THIS THE CHILDREN OF GOD ARE MANIFEST (UNVEILED), AND THE CHILDREN OF THE DEVIL; WHOSOEVER DOES NOT RIGHTEOUSNESS IS NOT OF GOD, NEITHER HE THAT LOVES NOT HIS BROTHER.”
“DEATH? THE DOOR TO HELL’S WORST AS ONE LIVES IN SELF-SATISFACTION THAT THE SIN-NATURE REMAINS, EVEN AS A BELIEVER,(“ENJOY IT”!), “OR”, AS PAUL EDUCATES US IN 2 CORINTHIANS 1:8-12, “FOR WE WOULD NOT, BRETHREN, HAVE YOU IGNORANT OF OUR TROUBLE WHICH CAME TO US IN ASIA, THAT WE WERE PRESSED OUT OF MEASURE, ABOVE STRENGTH, INSOMUCH THAT WE DESPAIRED EVEN OF LIFE: “BUT” WE HAD ‘THE SENTENCE OF DEATH IN OURSELVES (DAILY)’, THAT WE SHOULD NOT TRUST IN OURSELVES, BUT IN GOD, WHO RAISES THE DEAD: WHO DELIVERED US FROM SO GREAT A DEATH, AND STILL DELIVERS; IN WHOM WE TRUST THAT HE WILL YET DELIVER US; YOU ALSO HELPING TOGETHER BY PRAYER FOR US, THAT FOR THE GIFT BESTOWED UPON US BY THE MEANS OF MANY PERSONS THANKS MAY BE GIVEN BY MANY ON OUR BEHALF.
FOR OUR REJOICING IS THIS, THE TESTIMONY OF OUR CONSCIENCE, THAT IN SIMPLICITY AND GODLY SINCERITY, NOT WITH FLESHLY WISDOM, BUT BY THE GRACE OF GOD, WE HAVE HAD OUR CONVERSATION IN THE WORLD, AND MORE ABUNDANTLY TO YOU.”
‘DEATH’ IN YOUR PRESENT LIFE NOW AS A BELIEVER? 2 CORINTHIANS 5:21 DECLARES, “FOR GOD HAS MADE JESUS TO BE SIN FOR US, CHRIST WHO KNEW NO SIN (IN HIMSELF), THAT WE MIGHT (THROUGH HIS DEATH, RESURRECTION AND REIGNING PRESENCE WITHIN YOU) BE (BEING) MADE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN HIM!”
DO YOU REMEMBER THAT “THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH”? IN 2 PETER 3:9-11, SAYS, “THE LORD IS NOT SLACK CONCERNING HIS PROMISE, AS SOME MEN COUNT SLACKNESS; BUT IS LONGSUFFERING TOWARD US, NOT WILLING THAT ANY SHOULD PERISH, BUT THAT ALL SHOULD COME TO REPENTANCE.
BUT THE DAY OF THE LORD WILL COME AS A THIEF IN THE NIGHT; IN THE WHICH THE HEAVENS SHALL PASS AWAY WITH A GREAT NOISE, AND THE ELEMENTS SHALL MELT WITH FERVENT HEAT, THE EARTH ALSO AND THE WORKS THAT ARE THEREIN SHALL BE BURNED UP. SEEING THEN THAT ALL THESE THINGS SHALL BE DISSOLVED, WHAT MANNER OF PERSONS OUGHT YOU TO BE IN ALL HOLY CONVERSATION AND GODLINESS”
OH! DON’T FORGET 2 PETER 2 VERSES 19 & 22!. “WHILE THEY PROMISE THEM LIBERTY, THEY THEMSELVES ARE THE SERVANTS OF CORRUPTION; FOR OF WHOM A MAN IS OVERCOME, OF THE SAME IS HE BROUGHT INTO BONDAGE. VERSE 22,BUT IT IS HAPPENED UNTO THEM ACCORDING TO THE TRUE PROVERB, ‘THE DOG IS TURNED TO HIS OWN VOMIT AGAIN; AND THE SOW THAT WAS WASHED TO HER WALLOWING IN THE MIRE.”
ARE THERE ‘DISCIPLES’ TODAY WHO,AT TIMES, BETRAY THE LORD WITHIN, AND WILLFULLY CHOOSE TO PLAY AGAIN IN THEIR ‘POOLS OF SIN-VOMIT’? THERE ARE SOME WHO ARE TOTALLY UNAWARE OF SPIRITUAL DILIGENCE, AND IN THEIR CHILDISH STATE OF FAITH STILL, AT TIMES, WILL INDULGE IN THE ‘DIRT’ OF GODLESSNESS, YES, DECEIVED BY THE DEMONS, THE WORLD, AND THEIR OLD SIN-NATURE!
DO YOU AS A BELIEVER NOT UNDERSTAND THAT THE DIVINE, HOLY SPIRIT WITHIN YOU IS THERE, NOT TO EXTINGUISH YOUR “NEW LIFE IN CHRIST”, BUT TO INTERCEDE IN YOU TO “TAKE THE SENTENCE OF DEATH DAILY TO YOUR OLD SIN-NATURE, YOUR OLD LIFE THAT THE RESURRECTION LIFE OF CHRIST MAY BE CONTINUALLY MANIFESTED IN YOUR MORTAL FLESH?
IN “THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGIOUS QUOTATIONS”, (BY EDITOR, FRANK S. MEAD, PUBLISHED BY FLEMING H. REVELL COM., WESTWOOD, NEW JERSEY),ARE WORDS WRITTEN BY EDMUND VANCE COOKE ENTITLED “HOW DID YOU DIE?”, SAYING, “DEATH COMES WITH A CRAWL, OR COMES WITH A POUNCE. AND WHETHER HE’S SLOW OR SPRY, IT ISN’T THE FACT THAT YOU’RE DEAD COUNTS, BUT ONLY, HOW DID YOU DIE?”
“HOW WILL YOU DIE?”UNAWARE OF ETERNAL REALITIES-FLESH OR SPIRIT, HELL OR HEAVEN, SATAN’S WELCOME OR KING JESUS WITH OPEN ARMS?
I MUST SHARE THIS MESSAGE FROM ROMANS 8:1-14!! PAUL SAID: “THERE IS THEREFORE NOW NO CONDEMNATION TO THEM WHO ARE IN CHRIST JESUS, ‘WHO WALK NOT AFTER THE FLESH (OR OLD SIN-NATURE!)’, BUT AFTER THE HOLY SPIRIT. FOR THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE ‘IN CHRIST JESUS’ HAS MADE ME FREE FROM THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH.
FOR WHAT THE LAW COULD NOT DO, IN THAT IT WAS WEAK THROUGH THE FLESH, GOD SENDING HIS OWN SON IN THE LIKENESS OF SINFUL FLESH, AND FOR SIN, CONDEMNED SIN IN THE FLESH: THAT THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE LAW MIGHT BE FULFILLED IN US, WHO WALK NOT AFTER THE FLESH, BUT AFTER THE SPIRIT.
FOR THEY THAT ARE AFTER FLESH (CELEBRATING THEIR OLD SIN-NATURES!) DO MIND THE THINGS OF THE FLESH; BUT THEY THAT ARE AFTER THE SPIRIT THE THINGS OF THE SPIRIT. FOR TO BE CARNALLY (FLESHLY) MINDED IS DEATH; BUT TO BE SPIRITUALLY MINDED IS LIFE AND PEACE. BECAUSE THE CARNAL MIND IS ENMITY AGAINST GOD: FOR IT IS NOT SUBJECT TO THE LAW OF GOD, NEITHER INDEED CAN BE. SO THAT THEY THAT ARE IN THE FLESH CANNOT PLEASE GOD.
BUT YOU ARE NOT IN THE FLESH, BUT IN THE SPIRIT, IF SO BE IT THAT THE SPIRIT OF GOD DWELLS IN YOU. NOW IF ANY MAN DOES NOT HAVE THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST, HE IS NONE OF HIS. AND IF CHRIST BE IN YOU, THE BODY IS DEAD BECAUSE OF SIN; BUT THE SPIRIT IS LIFE BECAUSE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. VERSES 11-15 FOLLOW, HEAR IT!!
BUT IF THE SPIRIT OF HIM THAT RAISED UP JESUS FROM THE DEAD DWELLS IN YOU, HE THAT RAISED UP CHRICT FROM THE DEAD SHALL ALSO QUICKEN YOUR MORTAL BODIES BY HIS SPIRIT THAT DWELLS IN YOU. THEREFORE, BRETHREN,WE ARE DEBTORS, NOT TO THE FLESH (OR YOUR OLD SIN-NATURE!), TO LIVE FOR IT.
FOR IF YOU LIVE AFTER THE FLESH, YOU SHALL DIE; BUT IF YOU THROUGH THE SPIRIT DO MORTIFY THE DEEDS OF THE BODY, YOU SHALL LIVE. FOR AS MANY AS ARE LED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD, THEY ARE THE SONS OF GOD. FOR YOU HAVE NOT RECEIVED THE SPIRIT OF BONDAGE AGAIN TO FEAR; BUT YOU HAVE RECEIVED THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION, WHEREBY WE CRY, ‘ABBA,FATHER’.”
I CLOSE WITH HYMN WORDS WRITTEN BY ISAAC WATTS THAT SAYS: “ALAS! AND DID MY SAVIOR BLEED? AND DID MY SOVEREIGN DIE? WOULD HE DEVOTE THAT SACRED HEAD FOR SUCH A WORM AS I?
WAS IT FOR CRIMES THAT I HAD DONE THAT HE GROANED UPON THE TREE? AMAZING PITY! GRACE UNKNOWN! AND LOVE BEYOND DEGREE!
WELL MIGHT THE SUN IN DARKNESS HIDE, AND SHUT HIS GLORIES IN, WHEN CHRIST, THE MIGHTY MAKER DIED FOR MAN THE CREATURE’S SIN.
BUT DROPS OF GRIEF CAN NEVER REPAY THE DEBT OF LOVE I OWE; HERE, LORD, I GIVE MYSELF AWAY, IT’S ALL THAT I CAN DO.”
DO YOU ACCEPT, LIVE IN, AND SHARE WITH OTHERS OUR LORD’S VICTORY OVER THEIR SIN AND DEATH IN ORDER TO “SET THE CAPTIVES FREE”? IN ISAIAH 12:2-3 THE PROPHET SAID: “BEHOLD, GOD IS MY SALVATION; I WILL TRUST HIM, AND NOT BE AFRAID; FOR THE LORD JEHOVAH IS MY STRENGTH AND MY SONG; HE HAS BECOME MY SALVATION. THEREFORE WITH JOY SHALL YOU DRAW WATER OUT OF THE WELLS OF SALVATION”. HAVE YOU “TRUSTED THE LORD”?
VERSES 4-6 FOLLOW SAYING, “AND IN THAT DAY SHALL YOU SAY, (IS THAT SAYING TO OTHERS AROUND YOU?), PRAISE THE LORD, CALL UPON HIS NAME, DECLARE HIS DOINGS AMONG THE PEOPLE, MAKE MENTION THAT HIS NAME IS EXALTED.SING UNTO THE LORD; FOR HE HAS DONE EXCELLENT THINGS; THIS IS KNOWN IN ALL THE EARTH. CRY OUT AND SHOUT, YOU INHABITANTS OF ZION; FOR GREAT IS THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL THAT IS IN YOUR MIDST.” – CAN YOU SAY,RIGHT NOW: “I AM NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST: FOR IT IS THE POWER OF GOD UNTO SALVATION TO EVERY ONE WHO BELIEVES.” BUT HOW CAN THEY BELIEVE IF THEY NEVER HEARD, AND IF YOU AS CHRIST’S SERVANT AND ASSIGNED MESSENGER NEVER SHARE THE GOOD NEWS? DO YOU SEE THAT YOU “IN CHRIST” ARE A DEBTOR TO THE LOST WORLD AROUND YOU AND THAT WHAT YOU HOLD AND POSSESS OUT OF GOD’S LOVE, WAS GIVEN FREELY TO YOU TO JOYFULLY SHARE WITH OTHERS? “RISE UP, O MEN OF GOD!BE DONE WITH THE FOOLISH”!
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
ACTIVE RELIGION – INACTIVE RELATIONSHIP?
I HAVE A BOOK l’VE HAD FOR YEARS PUBLISHED IN 1972 ENTITLED "SIDE-SADDLE on the GOLDEN CALF" WHICH I READ & WAS CHALLENGED BY. BUT TODAY, AS THE LORD MOVED ON MY HEART &MIND RELATED TO A NEW TEACHING, I WONDERED . IF, MAYBE, THE MESSAGE HE WAS BIRTHING IN ME SHOULD BE ENTITLED, "SIDE-SADDLE on the golden goat"!
BUT THEN HE CLEARLY SAID: ‘ACTIVE RELIGION – INACTIVE RELATIONSHIP’,AND ,"IS" A CLEAR DESCRIPTION OF FALLEN, SIN-INFESTED, UNBELIEVING,REBELS IN HEART, WHO MAY BE ‘RELIGIOUS’ BUT NOT RE-BORN THROUGH REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD & FAITH IN CHRIST’S "FINISHED WORK AT THE CROSS" & THE REALITY OF HIS EMPTY TOMB, AS HE MINISTERED FOR FORTY DAYS BEFORE HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN ENTHRONED NEXT TO GOD HIS FATHER I "ACTIVE RELIGION –INACTIVE RELATIONSHIP?"
THERE ARE (I} "IMPOSSIBILITIES" IN ‘RELIGIOUS TRYING’, BECAUSE TRUE BIBLICAL FAITH IS TRUSTING, ALLOWING GOD TO BE HIMSELF IN YOU & THROUGH YOUI OF COURSE, THERE ‘IS’ THE FATALITY OF A RELIGIOUS MAN ATTEMPTING BUT NOT "ATONED FOR",BECAUSE HE/SHE IS SO INDIFFERENT TO THE REVELATION OF HOLY SCRIPTURE I
YOU’LL HEAR MANY ‘RELIGIOUS ,OPINIONATED’, EVEN ‘SORELY CONCEITED INDIVIDUALS’ ‘VERY MUCH IN LOVE WITH THEIR RELIGIOUS SELVES’, THAT THEY ‘STRUT’ IN CHURCHES & THEIR NEIGHBORLY ACTIVITY OF TRYING TO "SAVE OTHERS" WHEN IN THE MIND & HEART & SPIRIT KNOW NOTHING ABOUT "BLOOD ATONEMENT", OR "CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST", OR THE OLD SINFUL
SELF GONE, WITHOUT EVER TAKING "THE SENTENCE OF DEATH TO SELF DAILY THAT THE RESURRECTION LIFE OF CHRIST MAY BE MANIFESTED IN & THROUGH THEIR MORTAL FLESH"!!!
"ACTIVE RELIGION?" ARE YOU AWARE THAT IN ALL NATURAL MEN & WOMEN, CHILDREN OR YOUTH, THERE IS AN INWARD STRONG URGE TO BE ACCEPTED, TO BE ‘SOMETHING’ SOMEBODY LIKES; OR, LIKE ‘RELIGIOUS ATTENDANCE’IMPERSONATING BUT NOT RELEASING CHRIST JESUS TO BE HIMSELF THROUGH THEM, BECAUSE ITS THEIR PRETENSE NOT HIS PRESENCE T-HROUGH THEM!
"ACTIVE RELIGION?" "FEELING RELIGIOUSLY ACCEPTABLE",BUT NOT KNOWING: "CHRIST IN ME MY HOPE OF GLORY"! SUNDAY APPEARANCES APART FROM EVERY MOMENT OF EVERY DAY WATCHING CHRIST BE HIMSELF IN YOU & THROUGH YOU, EXTENDING HIS LIFE, EXPRESSING HIS LOVE, & PROVING HIS POWER? MAN’S
INVOLVEMENT IN ‘RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES’ IS NOT AN EXTENSION OF CHRIST’S LIFE, AN EXPRESSION OF HIS LOVE, OR THE PROOF OF HIS POWER-THAT ONLY OCCURS IN "BORN-AGAIN BELIEVERS WHO ARE ,TRULY,MENTALLY, SPIRITUALLY & HISTORICALLY PRESENTABLE, AS THOSE WHO WERE "CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST", & IN HIS
RESURRECTION-PRESENCE, HE COMES IN TO "ABIDE, BEING HIMSELF", AS "YOU" AS A NEW CHILD OF GOD, "TAKE THE SENTENCE OF DEATH DAILY THAT THE RESURRECTION LIFE OF CHRIST MAY BE MANIFESTED THROUGH YOUR MORTAL FLESH!"
"ACTIVE RELIGION? ‘TRYING’ OR "TRUSTING"? SELF DETERMINED OR SAVIOR-GRACED? ‘ATTEMPTING’ OR "ATONED THROUGH THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB", NEW-BORN, & SOVEREIGNLY,WILLINGLY,LIVING IN YOUR HEART AS HEAVEN’S KINGDOM-RULER IN REPENTANT, OBEDIENT HEARTS, GUIDED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT WHO GLORIFIES CHRIST IN YOU AGAIN & AGAIN & AGAIN II IN WATCHMAN NEE’S BOOK, "THE SPIRITUAL MAN", (PUBLISHED BY CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP PUBLISHERS,INC., NEW YORK,1968) ON PAGE 43 NEE WROTE: "THE MAN GOD FASHIONED WAS NOTABLY DIFFERENT FROM ALL OTHER CREATED BEINGS. MAN POSSESSED A SPIRIT SIMILAR TO THAT OF THE ANGELS & AT THE SAME TIME HAD A SOUL RESEMBLING THAT OF THE LOWER ANIMALS. WHEN GOD CREATED MAN HE GAVE HIM A PERFECT FREEDOM. HE DID NOT MAKE MAN AN AUTOMATON, CONTROLLED AUTOMATICALLY BY GOD’S WILL. THIS IS EVIDENT IN GENESIS 2 AT THE TIME GOD INSTRUCTED THE ORIGINAL MAN WHAT FRUIT HE COULD EAT &WHAT NOT. THE MAN GOD CREATED ‘WAS NOT’ A MACHINE RUN BY GOD:INSTEAD HE HAD PERFECT FREEDOM OF CHOICE. IF HE CHOSE TO OBEY GOD, HE COULD; IF HE DECIDED TO REBEL AGAINST GOD, HE COULD DO THAT TOO. MAN HAD IN HIS POSSESSION A SOVEREIGNTY BY WHICH HE COULD EXERCISE HIS VOLITION IN CHOOSING TO OBEY OR DISOBEY. THIS IS A MOST IMPORTANT POINT, FOR WE MUST REALIZE THAT IN OUR SPIRITUAL LIFE
GOD NEVER DEPRIVES US OF OUR FREEDOM. UNLESS WE ACTIVELY COOPERATE, GOD WILL NOT UNDERTAKE ANYTHING FOR US. NEITHER GOD NOR THE DEVIL CAN DO ANY WORK WITHOUT FIRST OBTAINING OUR CONSENT, FOR MAN’S WILL IS FREE." WOW! DOUBLE-WOW!" AND, "FREE TO CHOOSE", HISTORIC MAN CHOSE ‘HIS WORLD, HIS FLESH-SIN-NATURE, HIS DECEIVED MIND, "THANKS TO SATAN", AND FELL AWAY FROM HOLY GOD, THEN IN NEED OF RECONCILIATION THROUGH THE "LAMB’S BLOOD ATONEMENT", BIRTHED UPON REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD & FAITH IN CHRIST’S FINISHED WORK AT THE CROSS,&, HE/SHE IS THEN BORN-AGAIN, INFILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT, & LED ON THE PATH OF TRUE RIGHTEOUSNESS TO HONOR THE SAVIOR & LORD!!
"ACTIVE RELIGION –INACTIVE RELATIONSHIP?" SADLY IN MANY ‘RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES’ THERE IS THE FATALITY OF ‘FAITHLESS MEN’S INDIFFERENT ATTITUDE & MIND-SET’ TOWARD HOLY GOD &ALSO TOWARD THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, BELIEVING WITH THEIR MINDS, BUT VOID OF "CALVARY,BLOOD – BOUGHT-HEARTS"I ‘RELIGIOUS MIND-SETS’,AWARE OF THEIR ‘WEAKNESSES’, TRY TO IMPROVE WHAT HOLY GOD CRUCIFIED AS CHRIST JESUS, ON THE CROSS, SUFFERING & DYING, CARRIED MAN’S SIN NATURE, TO WASH IT AWAY BY HIS OWN BLOOD, DYING, BUT BEING RESURRECTED BY HOLY FATHER TO GIVE REPENTANT SONS & DAUGHTERS NEW IDENTITIES !!
‘ANTSY RELIGIOUS PARTICIPANTS BIRTH ITCHY MINDS & FLESHLY WILLS IN THEIR STRONGEST DECEPTIVE,BLINDING, EMBARASSING IDEAS’ OF "DOING MY BEST FOR GOD", AS THEY YIELD COLD, ICY, DEAD MINDS & HEARTS, WILLFULLY ‘PERFORMING’ BUT NOT IN "GRACED LIVING OF LIVES" THAT ARE "TEMPLES" WHERE THE LORD HIMSELF RESIDES TO BE HIMSELF THROUGH ONE’S AVAILABILITY FOR HIM, NOT THEM, WHO THEN WILLFULLY WATCH AS THE LORD MANIFESTS HIS PRESENCE AS THE "LIGHT" THAT OPENS ‘DARKENED HEARTS, MINDS, LIVING SOULISHLY’!I
CHARLES CALEB COLTON, IN HIS WRITING "LACON",(Vol.1,25),WROTE: "MEN WILL WRANGLE FOR RELIGION; WRITE FOR IT; FIGHT FOR IT; DIE FOR IT; ANYTHING BUT- LIVE FOR IT." TRUE FAITH IS NOT ‘RELIGIOUS EXPRESSION’, BUT "REDEMPTIVE FAITH" IS WHAT ONE IS ASSURED OF BY THE "RESIDENT JESUS", PRESENT,PRESIDING, PRESENTING, & PERFECTING THE TRULY REPENTANT, TRUSTING SOUL THAT LONGS FOR THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST IN THEM, FOR THEM, & BEING HIMSELF THROUGH THEM I (ARE YOU "RESTING" IN REDEMPTIVE FAITH IN THE "BLESSED ASSURANCE OF CHRIST"?
IN MY OLD "AMERICAN HYMNAL"( PUBLISHED IN 1933 BY BROADMAN PRESS, NASHVILLE,TEN-N.) IS A HYMN ENTITLED "BLESSED ASSURANCE". IT SAYS:
"BLESSED ASSURANCE, JESUS IS MINE! OH,WHAT A FORETASTE OF GLORY DIVINE! HEIR OF SALVATION, PURCHASE OF GOD, BORN OF HIS SPIRIT,WASHED IN HIS BLOOD.
PERFECT SUBMISSION, PERFECT DELIGHT, VISIONS OF RAPTURE NOW BURST ON MY SIGHT; ANGELS DESCENDING,BRING FROM ABOVE ECHOES OF MERCY,WHISPERS OF LOVE.
PERFECT SUBMISSION, ALL IS AT REST, I IN MY SAVIOR AM HAPPY &BLEST; WATCHING & WAITING, LOOKING (WITHIN), FILLED WITH HIS GOODNESS, LOST IN HIS LOVE.
THIS IS MY STORY,THIS IS MY SONG,PRAISING MY SAVIOR ALL THE DAY LONG;THIS IS MY STORY, THIS IS MY SONG, PRAISING MY SAVIOR ALL THE DAY LONG."
MEN WITH ‘RELIGION’ DO SO IN TH-E ABSENCE OF THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD THAT UNVEILS THEIR ‘RELIGIOUS PRETENSE’, WHILE MEN WITH A HOLY SPIRIT-BIRTHED RELATIONSHIP LIVE AVOWING & AFFIRMING "THANKSGIVING" FOR THE CHRIST "IN THEM" THAT ETERALLY ABIDES, THANKING HIM FOR BEING HIMSELF THROUGH THEM DAILY,YES, EVEN MOMENT BY MOMENTI
AGAIN, SAME "THE AMERICAN HYMNAL",(P.43),IS A HYMN BY MAY WHITTLE MOODY ENTITLED "MOMENT BY MOMENT". IT SAYS: "DYING WITH JESUS, BY DEATH RECKONED MINE; LIVING WITH JESUS, A NEW LIFE DIVINE; LOOKING TO JESUS TILL GLORY SHINES, MOMENT BY MOMENT, 0 LORD, I AM THINE.
NEVER A TRIAL THAT HE IS NOT THERE, NEVER A BURDEN THAT HE DOES NOT BEAR; NEVER A SORROW THAT HE DOES NOT SHARE, MOMENT BY MOMENT, I’MUNDER HIS CARE.
NEVER A HEARTACHE, & NEVER A GROAN, NEVER A TEAR-DROP & NEVER A MOAN; NEVER A DANGER, BUT THERE ON THE THRONE, MOMENT BY MOMENT HE THINKS OF HIS OWN. NEVER A WEAKNESS THAT HE DOES NOT FEEL, NEVER A SICKNESS THAT HE CANNOT HEAL; MOMENT BY MOMENT, IN WOE OR IN WEAL, JESUS, MY SAVIOR,ABIDES WITH ME STILL.
MOMENT BY MOMENT I’M KEPT IN HIS LOVE; MOMENT BY MOMENT I’VE LIFE FROM ABOVE; LOOKING TO JESUS TILL GLORY DOES SHINE; MOMENT BY MOMENT, 0 LORD, I AM THINE."
AND YOU "LOOK WITHIN" -NOT OUT & UP, HOPING YOU CAN BREAK THROUGH CLOUDS & DARKNESS & OPPOSITION TO FINALLY "SEE HIM" "NO!" "CHRIST IN YOU THE HOPE OF GLORY!" "CHRIST THROUGH YOU CONFRONTING ANY ENEMY OF HIS THAT WOULD WANT TO BRING YOU & HIM DOWN!" JESUS IS "VICTOR" OVER THE LAWS OF SIN & DEATH I JESUS IS "VICTOR" OVER SATAN & HIS DEMON ARMIES!
IN ROMANS 8:29-39,THERE IS TEACHING WITH A REVELATION SO ENRICHING & INSPIRING TRUE SERVANTS OF CHRIST. PAUL SAYS: "FOR WHOM GOD FOREKNEW, HE ALSO PREDESTINED OR PREDETERMINED TO BE CONFORMED TO THE IMAGE (EXACT LIKENESS!) OF HIS SON, THAT HE MIGHT BE THE FIRSTBORN AMONG MANY BRETHREN.
MOREOVER WHOM HE PREDESTINED, THEM HE ALSO CALLED:& WHOM HE CALLED,THEM HE ALSO JUSTIFIED ("JUST-AS-IF-THEY’D-NEVER-SINNED"!):& WHOM HE JUSTIFIED, THEM HE ALSO GLORIFIED.
WHAT SHALL WE SAY THEN TO THESE THINGS? IF GOD BE FOR US, WHO CAN BE AGAINST US? HE THAT SPARED NOT HIS OWN SON, BUT DELIVERED HIM UP FOR US ALL, HOW SHALL HE NOT WITH HIM ALSO FREELY GIVE US ALL THINGS?
WHO SHALL LAY ANY THING TO THE CHARGE OF GOD’S ELECT? IT IS GOD THAT JUSTIFIES. WHO IS HE THAT CONDEMNS ?IT IS CHRIST THAT DIED,YEA RATHER, THAT IS RISEN AGAIN, WHO IS EVEN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, WHO ALSO MAKES INTERCESSION FOR US. WHO SHALL SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF CHRIST? SHALL TRIBULATION, OR DISTRESS, OR PERSECUTION, ORFAMINE OR NAKEDNESS, OR PERIL, OR SWORD? NO, IN ALL THESE THINGS WE "ARE" MORE THAN CONQUERORS THROUG H HIM THAT LOVED US.
FOR I AM PERSUADED, THAT NEITHER DEATH, NOR LIFE, NOR ANGELS, NOR PRINCIPALITIES, NOR POWERS, NOR THINGS PRESENT, NOR THINGS TO COME, NOR HEIG HT, NOR DEPTH, NOR ANY OTHER CREATURE, SHALL BE ABLE TO SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD, WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD." I CLOSE WITH ANOTHER HYMN THAT SAYS:
HAIL TO THE BRIGHTNESS OF ZION’S GLAD MORNING! JOY TO THE LANDS THAT IN DARKNESS HAVE LAIN! HUSHED BE THE ACCENTS OF SORROW & MOURNING; ZION IN TRIUMPH BEGINS HER GLAD REIGN.
HAIL TO THE BRIGHTNESS OF ZION’S GLAD MORNING! LONG BY THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL FORETOLD! HAIL TO THE MILLIONS FROM BONDAGE RETURNING, GENTILES & JEWS THE BLEST VISION BEHOLD!
LO! IN THE DESERT RICH FLOWERS ARE SPRINGING, STREAMS EVER COPIOUS ARE GLIDING ALONG; LOUD FROM THE MOUNTAIN-TOPS ECHOES ARE RINGING, WASTES RISE IN VERD UE & MINGLE IN SONG.
SEE, FROM ALL LANDS- FROM THE ISLES OF THE OCEAN,-PRAISE TO JEHOVAH ASCENDING ON HIGH; FALLEN ARE THE ENGINES OF WAR &COMMOTION, SHOUTS OF SALVATION ARE RENDING THE SKY."
IN "THE ‘SKY’ OF YOUR LIFE-ARE THERE GLORIES TO GOD"? IS IT FOR YOU: "ACTIVE RELIGION – INACTIVE RELATIONSHIP"? OR, IN YOU, IS IT: "ATONING FAITH THROUGH THE SHED BLOOD OF CHRIST BIRTHING HIS ETERNAL LIFE IN YOU, & GIFTED BY GOD WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT, IS THE HOLY SPIRIT GLORIFYING CHRIST THROUGH YOU"?
DON’T YOU WONDER AT TIMES? "IN THE ABSENCE OF TRUE FAITH, ARE MEN STILL ESTABLISHING ‘RELIGIONS’, & AFTER A PERIOD OF TIME REALIZE: "THIS ISN’T ‘GOD’S GARDEN OF TRUE FAITH! I’M IN A ‘GORILLA CAGE’?" AND THAT’S NOT GOOD!" WHY NOT FORSAKE YOUR ‘GORILLA CAGE’ & THROUGH TRUE REPENTANCE & FAITH ALLOW JESUS HIS ESTABLISHMENT OF YOUR LIFE AS HIS HOLY TEMPLE WHERE HE ABIDES, REACHING OUT THROUGH YOU TO TOUCH YOUR WORLD WITH HIS "AMAZING GRACE"?
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“SMALL SEED – GREAT FRUIT”
HOW MANY PEOPLE DO YOU KNOW WHO SEE THEIR LIFE AS NOTHING MORE THAN A “RIDDLE OF EXISTENCE”? THEY REALLY DON’T KNOW WHO THEY ARE AND WHY THEY’RE HERE IN THIS AWESOME WORLD? A MEANINGLESS EXISTENCE DOESN’T HAVE TO BE “BIRTHED OR IMAGINED” BECAUSE DOUBT ABOUT LIFE’S MEANING, AT LEAST FOR THEM, HAS DUG THE GRAVE ON BIBLICAL FAITH,MERCY,AND THE LOVE OF GOD,WITH A SIN-NATURE,A SATANIC BLINDING,AND A “LOST WORLD’S DISPOSITION” OF OPPOSING GOD IF THEY AT LEAST ADMIT HE IS AROUND AND ‘MAY’ HAVE CREATED THE WORLD!
AND IF ‘YOU’ HAVEN’T FIGURED IT OUT YET,AT LEAST, BE ASSURED THAT YOU’RE NOT ALONE IN YOUR DOUBTS AND FEARS, BECAUSE NATURAL MEN WHO BAR THE DOOR TO SPIRITUAL TRUTH AND ITS REALITY ARE ACCOMPLICES OF TYRANNY IN OPPOSITION TO THE GOD THEY DON’T EVEN KNOW! THEY ARE “SEED” WITHOUT ANY “SUBSTANCE” OR UNDERSTANDING ABOUT EVEN WHY GOD WOULD BIRTH A FALLEN PEOPLE!THE TRUTH IS THAT HIS DESIRE FOR HIS SPIRITUAL KINGDOM WAS THAT, AS HE CREATED NATURAL KINGDOMS AND MASSES OF PEOPLE, HE WANTED “ALL” TO HAVE A CHOICE OF A GOD-RELATIONSHIP OR NOT! HE DIDN’T WANT ‘PUPPETS’ ON A STRING MEETING HIS EVERY DESIRE! HE WANTED PEOPLE WHOM HE CALLED TO HIMSELF WHO WOULD BE PEOPLE ALIGNING WITH HIM ON HIS TERMS! IN FACT, HOLY GOD PLANTED IN ALL OF FALLEN MAN’S EXISTENCE THE REALITY OF LIFESTYLE CHOICES: “FLESH OR SPIRITUAL”, “NATURAL OR SUPERNATURAL”, “EARTHLY OR HEAVENLY”, “BEST EFFORT” OR “BLESSED REST” IN A SAVIOR’S FINISHED WORK ON THE CROSS”, ‘WILLFUL MINDFULNESS’ OR “SOVEREIGN MERCY”, ‘MAN’S MAN-MADE BROAD HIGHWAYS’ OR “GOD’S NARROW WAY OF LIFE IN CHRIST ALONE”, ‘ACCEPTABLE RELIGIONS’ OR “SPIRITUAL FREEDOM IN THE TABERNACLE OF GOD’S MERCY & GRACE”!
IT WAS BY AN ANONYMOUS WRITER BUT I LOVED IT. IT WAS IN “THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGIOUS QUOTATIONS”,P.107, THAT SAYS: “GOD MADE BEES, AND BEES MADE HONEY; GOD MADE MAN, AND MAN MADE MONEY, PRIDE MADE THE DEVIL, AND THE DEVIL MADE SIN; SO GOD MADE A COAL-PIT TO PUT THE DEVIL IN.” LIFE’S CHOICES? A BLACKENED COAL PIT WITH SATAN, OR HEAVEN ON EARTH IN THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST?
“SMALL SEED –GREAT FRUIT!” IN HEBREWS 11:17-19 we read, “BY FAITH ABRAHAM, WHEN HE WAS TRIED (TESTED), OFFERED UP ISAAC: AND HE THAT HAD RECEIVED THE PROMISES OFFERED UP HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, OF WHOM IT WAS SAID, ‘THAT IN ISAAC SHALL YOUR SEED BE BLESSED; ACCOUNTING THAT GOD WAS ABLE TO RAISE HIM UP,EVEN FROM THE DEAD;FROM WHENCE ALSO HE RECEIVED HIM IN A FIGURE.” YOU UNDERSTAND –‘TESTING’ TO PLEASE GOD IS NOT MAN OFFERING THEIR SIN-NATURED SONS TO DIE, ‘THINKING’ SURELY GOD CAN RAISE THEM, BUT SONS WITH A ‘SIGN’ OF AN OPEN, YIELDING TO ‘SIN’, EVEN IF THEY DID GRASP ‘REPENTANCE’, ARE NOT, WERE NOT, WILL NOT BE BIRTHED IN THE ‘FLESH’ WITH A ‘SINLESS NATURE’ BUT ‘FLESHLY BIRTHED’ TO CARRY ON ‘SIN-NATIONALITY’, UNLESS CONVICTED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, GUIDED INTO “TRUTH”, BIRTHED AGAIN THROUGH THE “SHED BLOOD OF CHRIST ON CALVARY’S CROSS”,
THE GUILTY THO’ RELIGIOUS’LIKE MOST OF THE JEWS OF JESUS’S “DAY” ARE NOT “BORN AGAIN” EXCEPT THROUGH CALVARY’S STORY, CHRIST’S RESURRECTION, CHRIST’S KNOCKING ON THEIR HEART’S DOOR TO TRULY AWAKEN THEM! WHEN HE CAUGHT THEIR ATTENTION, JESUS SAID, “REPENT, FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND!”
FOLLOW ME IN 2 PETER 1:1-12!! SIMON PETER, A SERVANT AND AN APOSTLE OF JESUS CHRIST, TO THEM THAT HAVE OBTAINED ‘LIKE PRECIOUS FAITH’ WITH US “THROUGH THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD AND OUR SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST: (SAVED FROM WHAT? UNRIGHTEOUSNESS? DISOBEDIENCE TO HOLY TRUTH? WORLD DEVOTION BLINDED TO THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD WITH FEEBLE ATTEMPTS & FAILING ATTEMPTS THROUGH ‘RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES’ RATHER THAN JESUS TELLING THEM & US, “YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN”, DYING TO YOUR WORLD, YOUR SIN-NATURE, AND ALLEGIANCE TO THE SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS OF SATAN HIMSELF?)
VERSE 2 & FOLLOWING: “GRACE AND PEACE BE MULTIPLIED UNTO YOU THROUGH “THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD AND OUR SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST: ACCORDING AS HIS DIVINE POWER HAS GIVEN UNTO US ALL THINGS THAT PERTAIN UNTO LIFE AND GODLINESS, THROUGH THE KNOWLEDGE OF “HIM” THAT HAS CALLED US TO GLORY & VIRTUE; WHEREBY ARE GIVEN UNTO US EXCEEDING GREAT & PRECIOUS PROMISES:THAT BY THESE YOU MIGHT PARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE, HAVING ESCAPED THE CORRUPTION THAT IS IN THE WORLD THROUGH LUST.
VERSE 5 & FOLLOWING: AND BESIDE THIS, GIVING ALL DILIGENCE, ADD TO YOUR FAITH VIRTUE; AND TO VIRTUE KNOWLEDGE; AND TO KNOWLEDGE TEMPERANCE; AND TO TEMPERANCE PATIENCE; AND TO PATIENCE GODLINESS; AND TO GODLINESS BROTHERLY KINDNESS; AND TO BROTHERLY KINDNESS CHARITY.
VERSE 8 &FOLLOWING: FOR IF THESE THINHS BE IN YOU, AND ABOUND,THEY MAKE YOU THAT YOU SHALL NEITHER BE BARREN OR UNFRUITFUL IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. BUT HE THAT LACKS THESE THINGS IS BLIND, AND CANNOT SEE AFAR OFF, AND HAS FORGOTTEN THAT HE WAS PURGED FROM HIS OLD SINS. WHEREFORE THE RATHER, BRETHREN, GIVE DILIGENCE TO “MAKE YOUR CALLING AND ELECTION SURE”; FOR IF YOU DO THESE THINGS, YOU SHALL NEVER FALL; FOR SO AN ENTRANCE SHALL BE MINISTERED UNTO YOU ABUNDANTLY INTO THE EVERLASTING KINGHDOM OF OUR LORD & SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST.
WHEREFORE I WILL NOT BE NEGLIGENT TO PUT YOU ALWAYS IN REMEMBRANCE OF THESE THINGS, THOUGH YOU KNOW THEM, AND BE “ESTABLISHED” (OR “MADE TO STAND”!) IN THE PRESENT TRUTH.”
THE PRESENT TRUTH? THAT “YOU” WERE CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST, &THE OLD LIFE THAT DIED ON THE CROSS WAS BURIED IN THE ‘SEA OF GOD’S FORGETFULNESS’, THAT HOLY GOD THEN “RAISED YOU UP IN THE “NEWNESS OF LIFE”, COMMISSIONED YOU AS A SERVANT WHO ALLOWS ONE’S SELF TO BE THE “TABERNACLE” WHERE CHRIST DWELLS, AND CHOOSES TO DO “THROUGH YOU” ALL THE FATHER TELLS YOU TO DO – YOU THEN EXTEND HIS LIFE, EXPRESS LOVE TO HIM MOMENT BY MOMENT, AND HE PROVES HIS RESURRECTION POWER THROUGH YOU AS YOU “REST IN HIM” & ALLOW HIM TO BE HIMSELF THROUGH YOU!!
“SMALL SEED”? BUT GREAT POTENTIAL WHEN “SEED PLANTED BY GOD, WATERED & FERTILIZED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, WITH THE ‘SONSHINE’ OF GOD’S MERCY BLAZING ON IT, PRODUCES CONTINUING, GREAT “FRUIT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT” REVEALING THE MERCY, GRACE, AND LOVE OF GOD THROUGH HEAVEN-BORN “TREES OF FAITH & TRUST” IN GOD’S ABILITY TO RAISE THE “DEAD” TO “NEW-LIFE IN & THROUGH THE BLOOD REDEMPTION OF CHRIST’S CROSS, HIS DEATH, & HIS RESURRECTION”!!
I CLOSE THIS MESSAGE WITH WORDS OF JAMES, THE BROTHER OF JESUS, IN JAMES 5:10-20, AS HE WROTE INSPIRED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT: VERSE 10-20, “TAKE, MY BRETHREN, THE PROPHETS, WHO HAVE SPOKEN IN THE NAME OF THE LORD, FOR AN EXAMPLE OF SUFFERING AFFLICTION, AND OF PATIENCE (OR STEDFASTNESS). BEHOLD, WE COUNT THEM HAPPY WHICH ENDURE. YOU HAVE HEARD OF THE PATIENCE OF JOB, AND HAVE SEEN THE END OF THE LORD; THAT THE LORD IS VERY PITIFUL, & OF TENDER MERCY.
BUT ABOVE ALL THINGS, MY BRETHREN,SWEAR NOT,NEITHER BY HEAVEN,NEITHER BY THE EARTH,NEITHER BY ANY OTHER OATH:BUT LET YOUR YES BE YES; AND YOUR NO,NO; LEST YOU FALL INTO CONDEMNATION. IS ANY AMONG YOU AFFLICTED?LET HIM PRAY.ISANY MERRY?LET HIM SING PSALMS. IS ANY SICK AMONG YOU?LET HIM CALL FOR THE ELDERS OF THE CHURCH; AND LET THEM PRAY OVER HIM,ANOINTING HIM WITH OIL IN THE NAME OF THE LORTD: AND THE PRAYER OF FAITH SHALL SAVE THE SICK, AND THE LORD SHALL RAISE HIM UP; AND IF HE HAS COMMITTED SINS, THEY SHALL BE FORGIVEN HIM.
CONFESS YOUR FAULTS ONE TO ANOTHER, AND PRAY ONE FOR ANOTHER, THAT YOU MAY BE HEALED. THE EFFECTUAL FERVENT PRAYER OF A RIGHTEOUS MAN AVAILS MUCH. ELIAS (OR ELIJAH) WAS A MAN SUBJECT TO LIKE PASSIONS AS WE ARE, AND HE PRAYED EARNESTLY THAT IT MIGHT NOT RAIN:
AND IT RAINED NOT ON THE EARTH BY THE SPACE OF 3 YEARS & 6 MONTHS. AND HE PRAYED AGAIN, & THE HEAVEN GAVE RAIN, & THE EARTH BROUGHT FORTH HER FRUIT. BRETHREN,IF ANY OF YOU DO ERR FROM THE TRUTH, AND ONE CONVERT HIM; LET HIM KNOW, THAT HE WHICH CONVERTS THE SINNER FROM THE ERROR OF HIS WAY SHALL SAVE A SOUL FROM DEATH, & SHALL HIDE A MULTITUDE OF SINS.”
“SMALL SEED-GREAT FRUIT”? WHAT IS HOLY GOD DOING THRU’ YOUR LIFE? ‘NO SEED-NO FRUIT’? OR “SMALL SEED-GREAT FRUIT”? IT IS AN ETERNAL LIFE CHOICE!!
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“THE HOLY TRUTH OF CHRIST’S RESURRECTION-LIFE!”
RESURRECTION POWER, RESURRECTION PRESENCE, RESURRECTION PRIVILEGE, ARRIVING, ABIDING, ASKING, EVEN PLEADING,CHRIST JESUS, RESURRECTED AND REIGNING, SAYS: “OPEN YOUR HEART’S DOOR, AND I, JESUS, WILL COME IN.” CHRIST BLED, CHRIST PLEADS, CHRIST KNOCKS ON YOUR HEART’S DOOR”, COMPASSIONATELY SAYING, “SIN NO LONGER YOUR MASTER ANYMORE. MY BLOOD I’VE SHED, YOUR BOOK OF LIFE I’VE READ – AND MY SACRIFICE FOR YOUR SIN? IT’S FOR ME AS IF YOUR SIN NEVER HAD BEEN!”
THOUGH SIN IS ONE’S DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE FROM GOD, PRODUCING THE “GRAVE OF LIFE” IN WHICH ONE DWELLS, THE SAVIOR COMES SAYING, “THE GLOOM IS GONE, YOUR TOMB IS NOW EMPTY; MY RESURRECTION IS YOUR LIFE OF PLENTY!
MY PLENTY IS YOUR GIFT OF GRACE, MY INTERCESSION IS YOUR GIFT OF A NEW PLACE! MY PLAN IS ‘IMMORTAL HOPE THAT DISPELS THE GLOOM, WITH MANY ANGELS MAKING SURE OF YOUR ROOM’!
EARTH MAY STILL REMAIN EARTH, ASHES WILL HOLD ON AS ASHES, DUST WILL BE DUST – BUT IN RESURRECTION LIFE, WE LIVE OVERCOMING STRIFE, THE GRAVE, AND THE DUST HAS LOST ITS STING – WE ONLY HEAR THE ANGELS SING!
CHRIST IS WELCOMED AS DEPARTED SAINTS SING, AND WE WHO FOLLOW WILL MAKE THE HEAVENS RING! YES, JOY TO OUR WORLD NEVER TO SUBSIDE, BECAUSE JESUS OUR LORD FOREVER ABIDES!
NEVER TO LEAVE US, NEVER TO FORSAKE US, NEVER TO SAY TO US, “THIS IS NOT YOUR PLACE! THOUGH EARTHLY TIME IS REAL, ETERNAL LIFE REMAINS, AND HEAVEN ON EARTH WILL NEVER BE RESTRAINED!
ABIDE IN ME, AND I IN YOU –MARRIED IN MERCY, GRACE, AND LOVE, YOU UNDERSTAND THAT THOUGH I DIED ON A CROSS, BURIED IN A TOMB, THREE DAYS LATER I ROSE AGAIN, SO YOU WILL TASTE DEATH BUT CELEBRATE MORE IN RESURRECTION LIFE ETERNALLY; THAT’S HEAVENLY PRESENCE IN SHARED IMMORTALITY.
THE ‘SON-DIAL’ IS SET, THE SON AND MOON NEVER FALL, BECAUSE CHRIST JESUS IS LORD OVER ALL! REJOICE YOU SAINTS; IN YOUR SAVIOR ABIDE, BECAUSE JESUS OUR LORD NEVER HIDES! HE’S EVER-PRESENT YOUR LIFE TO WATCH OVER, WHEN SATAN IN DARKNESS SEEKS YOU TO CLOSE, JESUS SINGS, BECAUSE HE AROSE!
AND OVER YOUR LIFE OF FAITH AND OBEDIENCE AND SERVICE IN THE KING’S NAME, KING JESUS REJOICES AND REVEALS YOUR FAME – MADE FAMOUS IN CHRIST BECAUSE OF THE BLOOD THAT HE SHED, CONTINUALLY PRAISING BECAUSE OF THE FAITH YOU HAVE READ.
TRUSTING HIS WORD, PROVIDENTIALLY IN FAITH WE’RE FULLY BLESSED, CONFIDING IN ‘PROVIDENCE’, WE SURELY “REST”! THOUGH TESTED AND PRESSED AND HEMMED IN ON EVERY SIDE, CHRIST JESUS IS LORD AND SAVIOR REIGNING OVER YOU UNTIL HIS ETERNAL LIGHT SHINES THROUGH.
IN CHRIST YOU’RE VICTORIOUS, THOUGH IT SEEMS YOU OUGHT TO FROWN, BUT BECAUSE OF HIS RESURRECTION PRESENSE IN YOU, ALL SATAN CAN DO IS ACT LIKE A CLOWN. YOU ARE THE WINNER BECAUSE “IN CHRIST” YOU ABIDE, KNOWING JESUS STANDS WITH YOU, BEHIND YOU, AND BY YOUR SIDE.TOUGH, ROUGH, FIERCE TIMES MAY COME YOUR WAY, LIKE A SPARROW THAT SUDDENLY FALLS TO THE GROUND, BUT THE RESURRECTED SAVIOR WILL SURELY BE FOUND, KEEPING WATCH OVER HIS CHILDREN AS THE FATHER OF THEIR FAITH; STRONG IN HIS WORD, SOUND IN HIS WILL – WHEN HIS CHILDREN ARE TESTED, HE DOESN’T REMAIN STILL!
THE “PURE IN HEART” ARE THOSE WHO SEE GOD, WHILE THE SPIRITUALLY BLIND ARE THOSE WITHOUT HOPE WHO SPEAK IN FLESHLY ELOQUENCE WHILE THEIR CHAINS GROW TIGHTER, BUT THE CHILDREN OF FAITH AND OBEDIENCE ARE TRUE SAINTS WITH NO DESIRE OF ANY TAINTS! KNOWING GOD LOVES THE “PURE IN HEART”, A MAN OF TRUE FAITH NEVER LETS ‘RUST’ REMAIN, BUT EVERY DAY HE TAKES THE SENTENCE OF DEATH THAT HE MIGHT CONTINUALLY REJOICE IN HEAVEN’S DOMAIN! THE “PURE IN HEART” NEVER CONSIDER FORSAKING THE WORD’S BIBLICAL STANDARDS, BUT DAILY TAKE THE SENTENCE OF DEATH TO THE OLD MAN THAT THE NEW MAN “IN CHRIST” MAY UNCEASINGLY REJOICE, SECURELY RESTING ON HIS FAITHFUL PROMISES, MIRRORS OF HIS ABIDING PRESENCE!
“IN CHRIST” ONE’S HEART IS TO BE TRANSPARENT AS PURE CRYSTAL; “IN CHRIST” ONE’S MIND IS THE SOUL’S NEW IMAGE, EVEN FIGHTING TO BE BOLD TO KEEP IT PURE! “CHRIST IN YOU IS YOUR HOPE OF GLORY”, HIM FAITHFULLY STANDING TO FIGHT YOUR FIGHT OF FAITH WHEN THE ‘STORM CLOUDS’ RISE, SATAN SURE THAT HE AND HIS DEMONS CAN TAKE YOU DOWN HOPING YOU NEVER RISE TO RESIST THEIR FLOOD; SO IN FAITH PLEAD THE BLOOD!!“THE HOLY TRUTH OF CHRIST’S RESURRECTED LIFE HAS NEVER LOST ITS POWER”! SO IN JESUS, IN THIS HOUR OF EARTHLY TESTINGS, RELAX IN THE WORD, THE SPIRIT, AND THE PROMISES, WATCHING JESUS FIGHT FOR YOU AS GOD’S VICTOR! HE’S MORE THAN CONQUEROR – HE’S ETERNAL VICTOR, OVER THE WORLD, THE FLESH, AND SATAN!”
THAT’S THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN A VESSEL (ME,YOU!),THAT SO DESIRES HOLY GOD TO RELEASE,UNVEIL, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST’S PRESENCE, SAVIOR OF THE WORLD, HAVING HIS WAY “IN ME,IN YOU AS WE HEAR OR READ HIS MESSAGE”! ARE YOU FAMILIAR AT ALL WITH THE POWERFUL UNVEILING OF CHRIST JESUS IN JOHN ONE? THAT’S WHERE THE APOSTLE JOHN WAS INSPIRED TO WRITE THE FOLLOWING:
JOHN 1:1-5,”IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD, AND THE WORD WAS WITH GOD, AND THE WORD WAS GOD.(IS THAT JESUS, “THE RESURRECTED, REIGNING, ‘RICH IN LOVE, GRACE, AND MERCY’, THE SOVEREIGN MERCIFUL SAVIOR AND LORD?”)
THE SAME WAS IN THE BEGINNING WITH GOD. ALL THINGS WERE MADE BY HIM; AND WITHOUT HIM WAS NOT ANY THING MADE THAT WAS MADE. IN HIM WAS LIFE,(LITERALLY, “IN THE HOLY SPIRIT’S BIRTHING, AND WITH THE “CREATOR’S ETERNAL BLESSING”,JESUS PROMISING “I’LL NEVER LEAVE YOU NOR FORSAKE YOU!”); AND THE LIFE WAS THE LIGHT OF MEN. (BUT) THE “LIGHT” SHINES IN DARKNESS; AND THE DARKNESS COMPREHENDED IT NOT.”
UNBELIEVERS, IN THEIR DARKNESS, HAVE TO HAVE A WITNESS THAT, YES, THERE IS “THE LIGHT OF CHRIST” THAT CAN TAKE ONE OUT OF THE EMPTINESS OF A SPIRITUALLY DARKENED, SIN-FILLED,SATANICALLY DEVISED,SELF-RULING EXISTENCE TO BRING ONE INTO “THE FULLNESS OF THE BLESSING OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST!”
LET THE HOLY SPIRIT GUIDE “YOU” OUT OF SPIRITUAL DARKNESS INTO HIS MARVELOUS LIGHT UNVEILING FOR YOU THE HEAVENLY,ETERNALLY, LIFE-GIVING SAVIOR AND LORD WHO FOREVER REIGNS VICTORIOUSLY THROUGH REPENTANT, “TRUSTING” HEARTS AND SOULS, WHO “TAKE UP THE CROSS, CHOOSING TO FOLLOW JESUS”!
NOTICE,JOHN 1:6-7, “THERE WAS A MAN SENT FROMGOD, WHOSE NAMES WAS JOHN. THE SAME CAME FOR A WITNESS, TO BEAR WITNESS OF THE LIGHT, THAT ALL MEN MIGHT BELIEVE (OR TRUST, SURRENDER, YIELD!).” WHY? BECAUSE RELYING UPON ONE’S INNER,SOCIAL,SELF-ACCEPTED RIGHT TO RULE WITHOUT THE HEAVENLY FATHER’S, YES, INNER SPIRIT AGENDA IN A REPENTANT, TRUSTING HEART, THAT, YES, CHOOSES “DYING DAILY TO ‘THAT’ SELF SO THAT RESURRECTED JESUS IS GIVEN HIS RIGHTFUL PLACE TO LIVE IN YOU AND REIGN THROUGH YOU, TOUCHING YOUR WORLD WITH HIS LOVE, GRACE, AND MERCY, WITH YOU AS HIS “WISE, REPENTING, TRUSTING, YIELDED SERVANT,OBEYING TO ‘GO INTO ALL YOUR WORLD PREACHING THE GOSPEL, WITNESSING OF HIS ETERNAL ‘MASTER-WORK’ IN BIRTHING DEAD SPIRITUAL LIVES INTO TEMPLES OF THE INDWELLING LORD AND SAVIOR, HIS HOLY SPIRIT, AND HIS ETERNAL VISION OF WORLD REDEMPTION, THROUGH “YOU” IN FAITHFUL MINISTRY OF INTRODUCING THOSE AROUND YOU WITH THE “GOOD NEWS” OF CHRIST JESUS’S BLOOD SACRIFICE, RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD, AND REIGNING ETERNALLY IN REPENTANT MINDS AND HEARTS, ALLOWING, “JESUS, BE JESUS, IN ME – NO LONGER ME, BUT THEE; RESURRECTION POWER, FILL ME THIS HOUR, JESUS, BE JESUS IN ME!”
ALSO, IN JOHN 1, NOTICE VERSES 8-16! “JOHN WAS NOT THAT LIGHT, BUT WAS SENT TO “BEAR WITNESS” OF THAT LIGHT. THAT WAS THE TRUE LIGHT, JESUS, WHICH LIGHTS EVERY MAN THAT COMES INTO THE WORLD. (THAT, MY FRIENDS, IS AN AMAZING UNVEILING OF EVERY MAN IN ANY NATION – HOLY GOD HAS BORNER ‘WITNESS’ UNTO THEM WHETHER THEY RECEIVE IT OR NOT!!!). JOHN CONTINUES, VERSES 10-16,
JESUS WAS IN THE WORLD, AND THE WORLD WAS MADE BY HIM, AND THE WORLD KNEW HIM NOT. HE CAME UNTO HIS OWN (HIS JEWISH HERITAGE, HIS EARTHLY RELATIVES!), HIS OWN RECEIVED HIM NOT. “BUT” AS MANY AS RECEIVED HIM, TO THEM HE GAVE POWER TO BECOME SONS OF GOD, EVEN TO THEM THAT BELIEVE (OR “TRUST”) ON HIS NAME:
WHICH WERE BORN, NOT OF BLOOD, NOR OF THE WILL OF THE ‘FLESH’ (OR OLD SIN-NATURE’), NOR OF THE WILL OF MAN, BUT OF GOD. AND THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH, AND DWELT AMONG US, (AND WE BEHELD HIS GLORY, THE GLORY AS OF THE ONLY BEGOTTEN OF FATHER-GOD!DID “YOU”?), FULL OF GRACE AND TRUTH.JOHN BORE (&BARES) WITNESS OF HIM, CRYING OUT, SAYING, THIS WAS “HE” OF WHOM I SPOKE, ‘HE THAT COMES AFTER ME IS PREFERRED BEFORE ME; FOR HE WAS BEFORE ME. AND OF HIS FULLNESS HAVE ALL WE RECEIVED, AND GRACE FOR GRACE.”
GRACE FOR GRACE? GRACE GIVEN-GRACE SHARED! GRACE WORKING IN ME – GRACE WORKING THROUGH ME! GRACE FOR THE LOST – GRACE FOR THE FOUND! GRACE TO EXPOUND-GRACE TO ENLIGHTEN OTHERS! GRACE TO GROUND ONE ON THE TRUE FOUNDATION OF VICTORIOUS LIVING – GRACE TO TRANSPORT US THROUGH THE GRAVE UNTO OUR EARTHLY MINISTRIES THEN UNTO OUR ETERNAL HOME AROUND CHRIST’S THRONE, GOD GRACIOUSLY ALLOWING US TO ETERNALLY BE CHRIST’S “FOOT-WASHERS” AS SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF THE KING OF GLORY!
DEATH IS AND HAS NO “STING” –IT’S THE OPENING OF THE DOOR TO UNENDING SERVICE TO THE RESURRECTED SAVIOR AND LORD ON HIS THRONE! RESURRECTION LIFE! RESURRECTION POWER! RESURRECTION GLORY AND GRACE AND GLOW!
IN THE OLD BROADMAN HYMNAL PUBLISHED BY BROADMAN PRESS, NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, COPYRIGHTED IN 1940, IS THE OLD HYMN “PEACE!BE STILL!”, WRITTEN BY MARY BAKER AND H.R.PALMER. IT SAYS:
“MASTER, THE TEMPEST IS RAGING! THE BILLOWS ARE TOSSING HIGH! THE SKY IS O’ER-SHADOWED WITH BLACKNESS, NO SHELTER OR HELP IS NIGH: “CAREST YOU NOT THAT WE PERISH?” HOW CAN YOU LIE ASLEEP? WHEN EACH MOMENT SO MADLY IS THREATENING A GRACE IN THE ANGRY DEEP?
MASTER, WITH ANGUISH OF SPIRIT I BOW IN MY GRIEF TODAY; THE DEPTHS OF MY SAD HEART ARE TROUBLED; O WAKEN AND SAVE, I PRAY! TORRENTS OF SIN AND OF ANGUISH SWEEP O’ER MY SINKING SOUL! AND I PERISH! I PERISH, DEAR MASTER; O HASTEN, AND TAKE CONTROL!
MASTER, THE TERROR IS OVER, THE ELEMENTS SWEETLY REST; EARTH’S SUN IN THE CALM LAKE IS MIRRORED, AND HEAVEN’S WITHIN MY BREAST. LINGER, O BLESSED REDEEMER, LEAVE ME ALONE NO MORE; AND WITH JOY I SHALL MAKE THE BLEST HARBOR, AND REST ON THE BLISSFUL SHORE.
“THE WINDS AND THE WAVES SHALL OBEY GOD’S WILL, PEACE, BE STILL!” WHETHER THE WRATH OF A STORM-TOSSED SEA, OR DEMONS, OR MEN, OR WHATEVER IT BE, NO WATER CAN SWALLOW THE SHIP WHERE LIES “THE MASTER” OF OCEAN AND EARTH AND SKIES; THEY ALL SHALL SWEETLY OBEY MY WILL; PEACE, BE STILL!” ARE “YOU”AT PEACE WITH HOLY GOD, BY CHRIST JESUS, CONVICTED, CONVINCED, CONSECRATED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT?
IN EXODUS 14:8, PHARAOH KING OF EGYPT, LIKE SATAN OVER HELL, HAD HIS HEART HARDENED, AND HE CONTINUED PURSUING THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, LIKE SATAN TODAY STILL PURSUES THE SONS OF FAITH, THE CHILDREN OF GOD, THE JOINT-HEIRS AND ANOINTED AMBASSADORS OF CHRIST JESUS,BUT IN VERSES 13-14 WE READ: AND MOSES SAID UNTO THE PEOPLE, “FEAR YOU NOT, STAND STILL, AND SEE THE SALVATION OF THE LORD, WHICH HE SHALL SHEW TO YOU TODAY; FOR THE EGYPTIANS (THEN, BUT THE WORLD, YOUR OLD SIN-NATURE, AND SATAN NOW!) WHOM YOU HAVE SEEN TODAY, YOU SHALL SEE THEM AGAIN NO MORE FOR EVER. THE LORD SHALL FIGHT FOR YOU, AND YOU SHALL HOLD YOUR PEACE.”
“THE HOLY TRUTH OF CHRIST’S RESURRECTION LIFE?” THAT’S INHERITING THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST IN YOU AS YOU DAILY DIE TO YOUR OLD SELF THAT THE “NEW MAN” IN CHRIST MAY BE MANIFESTED THROUGH YOUR MORTAL FLESH! AND YOU KNOW IT’S REALITY BY THE INDWELLING HOLY SPIRIT OF CHRIST WHO ESTABLISHES THE KINGDOM OF GOD WITHIN AND BEARS FRUIT! GALATIANS 5:22-25 SAYS, “BUT THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS LOVE, JOY, PEACE, LONGSUFFERING, GENTLENESS, GOODNESS, FAITH, MEEKNESS (TEMPERANCE OR SELF CONTROL!); AGAINST SUCH THERE IS NO LAW. (AS A RESULT) VERSE 24 SAYS, AND THEY THAT “ARE CHRIST’S” HAVE CRUCIFIED THE FLESH (DAILY!?!) WITH ITS AFFECTIONS AND LUSTS. VERSE 25! “IF WE LIVE ‘IN THE SPIRIT’, LET US ALSO “WALK IN THE SPIRIT”!
TELL ME ABOUT YOUR JOURNEY OF FAITH IN THE CHURCH, YOUR COMMUNITY, YOUR NATION, AND THE WORLD! ARE YOU THE “FAITHFUL AMBASSADOR OF CHRIST THE LORD”? IN A BOOK I HAD PUBLISHED IN OCTOBER, 2006, ENTITLED “OUR GRACIOUS GOD”, ON PPS.90-91, I WROTE: “I CAME ACROSS A STORY THAT SO EASILY COULD HAVE BEEN MY LIFE. LOCATION –BELLE CHASE, LOUISIANA. A COUPLE WAS OUT ON A ROMANTIC DRIVE THROUGH A WOODED SECTION. ONE OF THEM GLANCED ASIDE TO SEE A SHIMMERING, WHITE GLOW THAT CAUGHT THE EYES. THEY DECIDED TO INVESTIGATE AND FOUND A DEAD TEENAGER HANGING FROM A TREE LIMB WITH A BED-SHEET WRAPPED AROUND HIS NECK. HE LEFT A NOTE ADDRESSED TO “MOM AND DAD.” IT SAID:
“I NEVER DID DEVELOP INTO A REAL PERSON AND I CANNOT TOLERATE THE FALSE AND EMPTY EXISTENCE I HAD CREATED. WHAT FRUSTRATED ME MOST IN THE LAST YEAR WAS THAT I HAD BUILT NO TIES TO FAMILY OR FRIENDS. THERE WAS NOTHING OF LASTING WORTH AND VALUE. I LED A DETACHED EXISTENCE. I AM A BOMB OF FRUSTRATION AND SHOULD NEVER MARRY OR HAVE CHILDREN. IT IS SAFEST TO DEFUSE THE BOMB HARMLESSLY NOW, SIMPLY CREMATE ME AS JOHN DOE.” I WENT ON CLOSING OUT THAT CHAPTER, WRITING: “NO ONE EVER CLAIMED HIM OR TO HAVE KNOWN HIM. HE TRULY DIED ‘alone’,(a lonely, godless, unbelieving ‘child’!).THAT SO EASILY COULD HAVE BEEN THE STORY OF MY LIFE. COMING OUT OF A FAMILY OF A BROKEN MARRIAGE, I WAS THREE YEARS OF AGE, TAKEN TO LIVE WITH MY GRANDPARENTS –AND EVEN THOUGH THEY LOVED ME, THERE WAS THAT GNAWING EMPTINESS OF UNIMPORTANCE TO ANYBODY. ALL THROUGH THE YEARS OF MY LIFE (EVEN COLLEGE & SEMINARY!!!) UNTIL MY LATE THIRTIES SUICIDE WAS A POSSIBILITY – BUT SOMETHING HELD ME BACK UNTIL I WAS BORN AGAIN IN FEBRUARY, 1974!! IT WAS THE LOVE OF MY WIFE, SUE, MY CHILDREN, THE LOVE OF FAMILY, AND YES THE LOVE OF THE BODY OF CHRIST, THEIR LOVE FOR HIM SHINING THE LIGHT THAT GOD HIMSELF ALWAYS LOVED ME AND WANTED TO BE MY SAVIOR, MY SHIELD, AND MY PROTECTOR AND PROVIDER AND PROVISION OF “CHRIST IN ME, MY HOPE OF GLORY”, YES, MY GUARANTEE OF “MORE THAN A CONQUEROR THROUGH CHRIST WHO LOVED ME AND GAVE HIMSELF FOR ME.
TELL ME! WHAT ABOUT YOU NOW, THROUGH DEATH’S DOOR, ENTERING AN EVERLASTING HOME: “IN CHRIST”, HEAVEN! APART FROM HIM, “AN ETERNAL HELL WITH SATAN, THE WORLD, AND UNREDEEMED LIVES”! CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY!!
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“SURE TESTS FOR BLOOD-REDEEMED LIVES ‘IN CHRIST’!
SEVERAL VERSES TO LAY THE FOUNDATION FOR THIS MESSAGE ARE FOUND, FIRST, IN LUKE 10:38, WHERE THE CONVERTED PHYSICIAN SAID, “HOW GOD ANOINTED JESUS OF NAZARETH WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT AND WITH POWER, WHO WENT ABOUT DOING GOOD AND HEALING ALL WHO WERE OPPRESSED BY THE DEVIL, FOR GOD WAS WITH HIM.”
THEN WE READ IN ACTS 19:11, “NOW GOD WORKED UNUSUAL (OR “EXTRAORDINARY”) MIRACLES BY THE HANDS OF PAUL.” BUT ARE YOU AWARE THAT OVER THE CENTURIES THE “GOOD NEWS” WAS SO ‘WATERED’ DOWN THAT ‘BELIEVERS’ COULDN’T SEE CHRIST WANTED TO BE HIMSELF “IN THEM” SO THAT THROUGH THEM HE COULD EXTEND & EXPRESS & UNVEIL “THE GOD OF SIGNS AND WONDERS”?
ARE THE “PROMISES” AND MULTIPLE “ASSURANCES” IGNORED, OR WILLFULLY BLINDED TO, OR WIPED OUT THROUGH ONE’S ‘SELF-ASSURANCE THAT I’M FORGIVEN, AND THAT’S ALL THAT I’M CONCERNED ABOUT?’, WHEN ONE, A MAN OR WOMAN, BOY OR GIRL, IS,YES,(ROMANS 3:24) “BEING JUSTIFIED FREELY BY GOD’S GRACE THROUGH THE REDEMPTION THAT IS IN CHRIST JESUS,” WE, THEN, ARE FREE TO ENJOY OUR ETERNAL BLESSINGS WITH NO CONCERN FOR THOSE AROUND US WHO DON’T KNOW ABOUT “GOD’S SAVING GRACE & MERCY THROUGH CHRIST JESUS”?
RECONCILIATION TO HOLY GOD, BUT NO REACHING OUT TO THOSE WHO NEED HIS RECONCILIATION PROMISE? “RE-BIRTH” THROUGH REPENTANCE AND FAITH, BUT NO CONCERN OF EXTENDING THE FAMILY OF FAITH? THE DOOR OPENED BY CHRIST TO HIS ETERNAL KINGDOM YOU WERE WELCOMED INTO, BUT BLINDED TO OTHERS WHO NEED THE SAME GRACE, MERCY, AND LOVE? YOU, “CLOTHED IN HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS”, BUT “you”HAVE NO DESIRE TO CLOTHE OTHERS IN “CHRIST’S MINISTRY” TO BIRTHED, NATURAL SEEDED BABIES, DESPERATELY NEEDING TO BE RAISED OUT OF SPIRITUAL DEATH INTO THE EVERLASTING REALMS OF ETERNAL LIFE & CLOTHED, YES, AS THE HOLY WORD SAYS IN REVELATION 16:15b, “BLESSED IS HE THAT WATCHES, AND KEEPS HIS GARMENTS, LEST YOU WALK NAKED, AND THEY SEE YOUR SHAME??” EXAMINE CAREFULLY 2 CORINTHIANS 5:4 WHERE PAUL SAID: “FOR WE THAT ARE IN THIS (PHYSICAL) TABERNACLE DO GROAN, BEING BURDENED; NOT FOR THAT WE WOULD BE UNCLOTHED (ANY LONGER!), BUT CLOTHED UPON, THAT MORTALITY WOULD BE SWALLOWED UP OF LIFE”, WHICH MEANS MORTAL BEINGS WHO REPENT AND FAITH CHRIST WILL BE CLOTHED IN THE “GARMENTS OF HIS SALVATION” PLUS THE FRUITS OF HIS HOLY SPIRIT ‘JUICING US UP’ TO THE GLORY OF GOD!!
“IN CHRIST” ARE YOU “A VESSEL UNTO HONOR, SANCTIFIED, AND MEET (OR PREPARED, EQUIPPED, DRESSED) FOR THE MASTER’S USE?” ARE YOU “CLOTHED IN CHRIST’S GARMENTS” OF HIS “GRACED PRESENCE WITHIN”,“GRACE GIFTS”, “GRACE CALLINGS & ORDERS”, PLUS, “GRACE EXPOSURES WHEN THE REDEEMED DISCIPLES THINK THEIR ‘EFFORTS ARE SURELY ACCEPTABLE WHEN’, (IF THEY WERE CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST), EVEN THEIR BEST EFFORTS BECOME POOR SUBSTITUTIONS FOR JESUS’ RESURRECTED, REIGNING, RULING,AND JESUS WILL REACH THROUGH THE STUNNED PRETENSE OF ‘THE GIVE-IT-YOUR-BEST ATTITUDE’, ‘OR DOES A DISCIPLE’S GRIT, HIS BEST EFFORT, AND HIS MENTAL ABILITIES’ CARRY HIM/HER ON LIFE’S HIGHWAY, BUT SHAMING CHRIST BECAUSE HE/SHE WALKS NAKED, NOT CLOTHED IN THE FULLNESS OF HIS HOLY PRESENCE IN SPIRIT-ABIDING WITHIN, AND CERTAINLY NOT IN “HIS ARMOR” TO PROTECT ONE WHO GOES OUT INTO DARKNESS TO SHARE THE “LIGHT”, UNVEILING THE ‘SINNERS’ DARKNESS’ AND HOPING “CHRIST IN YOU & THROUGH YOU” IS ALIVE AND WELL & THAT HE WILL BE IN YOU, YES, “AS YOU TRIED SHINING HIS “LIGHT” BUT THOSE BEFORE YOU WHO “MUST BE BORN AGAIN” NEED THE RESURRECTED CHRIST, NOT A ‘BEST-EFFORT DISCIPLE’ WITH ‘NATURAL LIGHT’ BUT NOT “SPIRIT-ANOINTING” TESTIFYING THROUGH TRUE VESSELS, THAT ARE “VESSELS”,BUT HIS PRESENSE WITHIN YOU, YES, ISN’T SPEAKING TO THE NEEDY THROUGH YOU BECAUSE ‘YOU’ “TRY” BUT AREN’T “TRUSTING” TO BE HIMSELF THROUGH YOU?
“SURE TESTS FOR THE BLOOD-REDEEMED ‘IN CHRIST’?” IN MATTHEW 9:31 JESUS SPOKE TO HIS DISCIPLES, [LET ME PAUSE BEFORE I READ]: (IF “YOU” ARE A TRUE DISCIPLE OF CHRIST, DO “YOU” HEAR HIM SPEAK TO “YOU” THROUGH HIS WORD, HIS HOLY SPIRIT WHO “GUIDES YOU INTO ALL TRUTH”, AND THROUGH “YOUR” SCRIPTURAL AND “YOUR” MIND AND HEART-UNDERSTANDING THAT, HAVING REDEEMED YOU BY HIS OWN BLOOD, BOUGHT & FREED YOU FROM SATANIC BONDAGE, POURED INTO YOU HIS HOLY SPIRIT, AND COMMISSIONED YOU TO BE HIS WITNESSES, HIS MESSENGERS TO THE ‘UNSAVED’, YOU ONLY SEE THAT, AS A ‘CHURCH MEMBER’, IT’S THE RESPONSIBILITY OF PREACHERS, EVANGELISTS, AND MISSIONARIES, BUT NOT “YOU”?)
MATTHEW 9:31? “BUT THEY, WHEN THEY WERE DEPARTED, SPREAD ABROAD HIS FAME IN ALL THAT COUNTRY.” OH, BUT THEN LOOK AT MATTHEW 9:35-38, “AND JESUS WENT ABOUT ALL THE CITIES AND VILLAGES, TEACHING IN THEIR SYNAGOGUES, AND PREACHING THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM, AND HEALING EVERY SICKNESS AND EVERY DISEASE AMONG THE PEOPLE. (PAUSE! QUESTION: “DO YOU THINK ‘DISEASE’ INCLUDES “DIS-EASE”, OR TROUBLED, BLINDED, DARKENED BY SIN, CAPTURED BY THE LOVE OF THE WORLD, THE ‘FLESH’, OR DEVILISH, DEMONIC ACTIVITIES?”).VERSES36-38,”BUT WHEN HE SAW THE MULTITUDES, ‘HE’ (JESUS) WAS MOVED WITH COMPASSION ON THEM, BECAUSE THEY FAINTED, AND WERE SCATTERED ABROAD, AS SHEEP HAVING NO SHEPHERD.
THEN SAID JESUS UNTO HIS DISCIPLES, “THE HARVEST IS TRULY PLENTEOUS, BUT THE LABORERS ARE FEW; PRAY YOU THEREFORE THE LORD OF THE HARVEST THAT HE WILL SEND LABOURERS INTO HIS HARVEST.”
“SURE TESTS FOR THE BLOOD-REDEEMED IN CHRIST?”
1! “ARE THE BLOOD-REDEEMED IN CHRIST FAITHUL WITNESSES COMMISSIONED BY CHRIST?” IN MATTHEW 28:18-20, JESUS CAME (AND HE STILL COMES!!), SAYING, “ALL POWER IS GIVEN UNTO ME IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH. GO YOU THEREFORE, AND TEACH ALL NATIONS, BAPTIZING THEM IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, & OF THE SON, & OF THE HOLY GHOST: TEACHING THEM TO OBSERVE ALL THINGS, WHATSOEVER I HAVE COMMANDED YOU; AND, LO, I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS, EVEN UNTO THE END OF THE WORLD.”
2! “ARE THE BLOOD-REDEEMED ‘OBEDIENT’ SONS AND DAUGHTERS, FOLLOWING THE LORD’S GREAT COMMISSION?” IN ACTS 22, UPON SAUL’S CONVERSION BY CHRIST “SEEING (THE “LIGHT”!), WHO BECAME PAUL, WROTE: VERSES 10-15, SAYING, AND SAUL SAID,”WHAT SHALL I DO, LORD?” AND THE LORD SAID, “I AM JESUS OF NAZARETH, WHOM YOU JEWS PERSECUTE.” AND THEY THAT WERE WITH ME SAW INDEED THE LIGHT, AND WERE AFRAID; BUT THEY HEARD NOT THE VOICE OF HIM THAT SPOKE TO ME.
AND I SAID, “WHAT SHALL I DO, LORD?” AND THE LORD SAID TO ME, “ARISE, AND GO INTO DAMASCUS; AND THERE IS SHALL BE TOLD YOU OF ALL THINGS WHICH ARE APPOINTED FOR YOU TO DO.”- (HAVE “YOU” RECEIVED “YOUR DIVINE APPOINTMENT”?). AND WHEN I COULD NOT SEE FOR THE GLORY OF THAT LIGHT, BEING LED BY THE HAND OF THEM THAT WERE WITH ME, I CAME INTO DAMASCUS.
AND ONE, ANANIAS, A DEVOUT MAN ACCORDING TO THE LAW, HAVING A GOOD REPORT OF ALL THE JEWS WHICH DWELT THERE, CAME UNTO ME, AND STOOD, AND SAID UNTO ME, BROTHER SAUL, RECEIVE YOUR SIGHT. AND THE SAME HOUR I LOOKED UP UPON HIM. AND HE SAID, “THE GOD OF OUR FATHERS HAS CHOSEN YOU, THAT YOU SHOULD KNOW HIS WILL, AND SEE THAT “JUST ONE”, AND SHOULD HEAR THE VOICE OF HIS MOUTH. FOR “YOU” SHALL BE “HIS” WITNESS UNTO ALL MEN OF WHAT YOU HAVE SEEN & HEARD.”
ARE “YOU”, HAVING BEEN SAVED, A “PROCLAIMER OF TRUTH”? WERE “YOU” COMMISSONED BY CHRIST? ARE “YOU”, ACCORDING TO 2 TIMOTHY 2:15, “STUDYING TO SHOW YOURSELF APPROVED UNTO GOD, A WORKMAN THAT NEEDS NOT TO BE ASHAMED, BUT RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH”?
“SURE TESTS FOR THE BLOOD-REDEEMED ‘IN CHRIST’?”
3! “ARE THE BLOOD-REDEEMED “IN CHRIST” THOSE WHO FAITHFULLY ‘PROTECT & PERFECT’ THEIR TESTIMONY OF ‘FAITH IN CHRIST’?” HEAR 2 PETER 3:13-14!! “NEVERTHELESS WE, ACCORDING TO “HIS” PROMISE, LOOK FOR NEW HEAVENS AND A NEW EARTH WHEREIN DWELLS RIGHTEOUSNESS. WHEREFORE, BELOVED, BRETHREN, SEEING THAT YOU LOOK FOR SUCH THINGS, BE DILIGENT THAT YOU MAY BE FOUND OF HIM IN PEACE, WITHOUT SPOT OR BLEMISH.”
DO “YOU” WALK IN PARTIAL PURITY SINCE CONVERSION, OR IN THE PURITY OF CHRIST? DO “YOU” WALK IN PARTIAL OBEDIENCE SOME OF THE TIME, OR SOLD OUT TO BE AN OBEDIENT SERVANT OF THE KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS?
4) “ARE THE BLOOD-REDEEMED “IN CHRIST” THOSE WHO,YES, WALK IN CONFIDENCE & BLESSED ASSURANCE”? IN HEBREWS 3:1 & 6-14 WE FIND CHALLENGING WORDS: 3:1 “WHEREFORE, HOLY BRETHREN, PARTAKERS OF THE HEAVENLY CALLING, CONSIDER THE “APOSTLE AND HIGH PRIEST” OF OUR ‘PROFESSION’, CHRIST JESUS.”, FOLLOWED BY VERSES 6-14! “CHRIST AS A SON OVER “HIS” OWN HOUSE;WHOSE HOUSE ARE WE “IF” WE HOLD FAST THE CONFIDENCE AND THE REJOICING OF THE HOPE FIRM TO THE END. WHEREFOR (AS THE HOLY SPIRIT SAYS, ‘TODAY IF YOU WILL HEAR HIS VOICE,
HARDEN NOT YOUR HEARTS, AS IN THE PROVOCATION, IN THE DAY OF TEMPTATION IN THE WILDERNESS: WHEN YOUR FATHERS TEMPTED ME, AND SAW MY WORKS FORTY YEARS. WHEREFORE I WAS GRIEVED WITH THAT GENERATION, AND SAID, ‘THEY DO ALWAYS ERR IN THEIR HEART; AND THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN “MY”WAYS. SO I SWORE IN MY WRATH, “THEY SHALL NOT ENTER INTO MY WRATH, THEY SHALL NOT ENTER INTO MY REST.)
TAKE HEED,BRETHREN, LEST THERE BE IN ANY OF YOU AN EVIL HEART OF UNBELIEF, IN DEPARTING FROM THE LIVING GOD. BUT EXHORT ONE ANOTHER DAILY, WHILE IT IS CALLED “TODAY”; LEST ANY OF YOU (BELIEVERS) BE HARDENED THROUGH THE DECEITFULNESS OF SIN. FOR WE ARE MADE PARTAKERS OF CHRIST, IF WE HOLD THE BEGINNING OF OUR CONFIDENCE STEDFAST UNTO THE END.”
IN THE OLD “AMERICAN HYMNAL”, PUBLISHED IN 1933, (BY BROADMAN PRESS, NASHVILLE, TENN.),P.21, IS A HYMN ENTITLED, “HAIL, JESUS ONCE DESPISED”,SAYING, “HAIL, YOU ONCE DESPISED JESUS! HAIL, YOU GALILEAN KING! YOU SUFFERED TO RELEASE US; YOU DID FREE SALVATION BRING.
HAIL, YOU AGONIZING SAVIOR, BEARER OF OUR SIN AND SHAME! BY YOUR MERITS WE FIND FAVOR; LIFE IS GIVEN THRO’ YOUR NAME.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“A CHURCH’S, A PASTOR’S, A DISCIPLE’S MINISTRY TO A LOST, NEEDY, SINFUL WORLD”
VERY ‘WEIGHTY,CONVICTING VERSES’ RESIDES IN JAMES I:26-27 WHERE THE BROTHER OF JESUS, JAMES, WROTE: “IF ANY MAN AMONG YOU,SEEM TO BE RELIGIOUS, AND BRIDLES NOT HIS TONGUE, BUT DECEIVES HIS OWN HEART, THIS MAN’S RELIGION IS VAIN. PURE RELIGION AND UNDEFILED BEFORE GOD AND THE FATHER IS THIS,..
TO VISIT THE FATHERLESS AND WIDOWS IN THEIR AFFLICTION, AND TO KEEP HIMSELF UNSPOTTED FROM THE WORLD.” THE BROTHER OF JESUS SAW A GREAT NEED, ‘THE FATHERLESS AND WIDOWS IN THEIR AFFLICTION.’ THANK GOD FOR JAMES BECAUSE “HE SAW” A GREAT NEED AND INSTRUCTED DISCIPLES AROUND HIM TO MEET THAT NEED! BUT IS THAT ALL THAT A CHURCH, A PASTOR, OR A DISCIPLE IS CALLED TO DO? “I DON’T THINK SO! I KNOW IT’S NOT ALL! DID JAMES REALLY SAY: “TRUE DISCIPLES ARE TO KEEP THEMSELVES UNSPOTTED FROM THE WORLD”?
BUT MULTITUDES ACROSS AMERICA AND THE REST OF THE WORLD WILL IGNORE “BLOOD ATONEMENT THRU’ CHRIST’S CRUCIFIXION, IGNORE HIS RESURRECTION, DENY HIS PROMISE, “OPEN THE DOOR OF YOUR HEART AND I WILL COME IN!” BUT RATHER THAN REPENTING, INVITING JESUS IN, LETTING THE “HISTORIC CHRIST” BE HIMSELF IN YOU AND THROUGH YOU, MOST PROFESSORS OF FAITH IN CHRIST ‘PROFESS’ BUT THEY WANT ‘CHURCH MEMBERSHIP’ APART FROM “NEW BIRTH”!
IN 2 TIMOTHY 3:16-17 PAUL WROTE: “ALL SCRIPTURE IS GIVEN BY INSPIRATION OF GOD, AND IS PROFITABLE FOR DOCTRINE, FOR REPROOF, FOR CORRECTION, FOR INSTRUCTION IN RIGHTEOUSNESS: THAT THE MAN OF GOD MAY BE MADE PERFECT, THOROUGHLY FURNISHED IN ALL GOOD WORKS.” WHAT POWERFUL, CONVICTING, INSTRUCTIVE WORDS OF GOD TO EVERY DISCIPLE!
THE CONVERTED, POWERFUL, NATURAL FISHERMAN AND SPIRITUAL FISHERMAN,SIMON PETER, WROTE IN 2 PETER 1,FIRST,VERSES 3-4, “ACCORDING AS HIS DIVINE POWER HAS GIVEN UNTO US ALL THINGS THAT PERTAIN UNTO LIFE AND GODLINESS, “THROUGH” THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST WHO HAS CALLED US TO GLORY AND VIRTUE: AND, WHEREBY ARE GIVEN UNTO US EXCEEDING GREAT AND PRECIOUS PROMISES: THAT BY THESE YOU MIGHT “BE” PARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE, HAVING ESCAPED THE CORRUPTION THAT IS IN THE WORLD THROUGH LUST”!
READ IN YOUR OWN BIBLE VERSES 5-7 BEFORE YOU CONTINUE READING THE FOLLOWING, VERSES 8-11, WHEN PETER,YES, ALSO INSPIRED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, WROTE: “FOR IF THESE THINGS BE IN YOU, AND ABOUND,THEY MAKE YOU THAT YOU SHALL NEITHER BE BARREN NOR UNFRUITFUL IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. BUT HE THAT LACKS THESE THINGS IS BLIND, AND CANNOT SEE AFAR OFF, AND HAS FORGOTTEN THAT HE WAS PURGED FROM HIS OLD SINS.
WHEREFORE THE RATHER,BRETHREN,GIVE DILIGENCE,TO MAKE YOUR CALLING AND ELECTION SURE; FOR IF YOU DO THESE THINGS, YOU SHALL NEVER FALL; FOR SO AN ENTRANCE SHALL BE MINISTERED UNTO YOU ABUNDANTLY INTO THE EVERLASTING KINGDOM OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST.”
I’M SORRY IF IT ‘BOTHERS’ YOU THAT I SHARE SO MUCH SCRIPTURE WITH YOU, BUT I’M FULLY CONVINCED THAT YOU NEED GOD’S TRUTH MORE THAN MY THOUGHTS!
WHAT YOU’RE GOING TO READ IS GOD’S HOLY CALLING TO FAITHFUL DISCIPLES TO, YES, BE MISSION-MINDED MEN AND WOMEN IN LOVE WITH THE WORLD LITERALLY AND FAITHFULLY LAYING DOWN YOUR LIFE IF NECESSARY TO SHARE THE EVANGELISTIC TRUTH OF GOD’S LOVE FOR THE WORLD THROUGH HIS SACRIFICE OF HIS SON! AND YOU?
SO…IN 1 CORINTHIANS 1:17-31 WE READ EVERY TRUE DISCIPLE’S CALLING AND LIFE-IN-CHRIST’S MISSION AND MINISTRY!! IT SAYS: “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 NO EFFECT. FOR THE PREACHING OF THE CROSS IS TO THEM THAT PERISH FOOLISHNESS; BUT UNTO US WHO ARE ‘BEING’ SAVED IT IS THE POWER OF GOD.
FOR IT IS WRITTEN, I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE, AND WILL BRING TO NOTHING THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE PRUDENT. WHERE IS THE WISE?WHERE IS THE SCRIBE?WHERE IS THE DISPUTER OF THIS WORLD?HAS NOT GOD MADE FOOLISH THE WISDOM OF THIS WORLD?” (‘THE DISPUTER OF THIS WORLD’? THAT’S MEN WHO BELIEVE THE WORLD WAS MADE ‘FOR THEM’, NOT FOR THE GLORY OF GOD ALONE!).
VERSES 21-31 FOLLOWS: “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. FOR THE JEWS REQUIRE A SIGN, AND THE GREEKS SEEK AFTER WISDOM:(LET ME PAUSE &SAY,“FOOLISH AMERICANS, ASIANS,AFRICANS,EUROPEANS”?),VERSES 23-31!BUT WE PREACH CHRIST CRUCIFIED, UNTO THE JEWS A STUMBLING BLOCK, AND UNTO THE GREEKS FOOLISHNESS; BUT UNTO THEM WHICH ‘ARE CALLED’, BOTH JEWS AND GREEKS, CHRIST,THE POWER OF GOD,AND THE WISDOM OF GOD.
BECAUSE THE FOOLISHNESS OF GOD IS WISER THAN MEN; AND THE WEAKNESS OF GOD IS STRONGER THAN MEN. FOR YOU SEE YOUR CALLING,BRETHREN,HOW THAT NOT MANY WISE MEN AFTER THE FLESH, NOT MANY MIGHTY, NOT MANY NOBLE, ARE CALLED;
BUT GOD HAS CHOSEN THE FOOLISH THINGS OF THE WORLD TO CONFOUND THE WISE; AND GOD HAS CHOSEN THE WEAK THINGS OF THE WORLD TO CONFOUND THE THINGS WHICH ARE MIGHTY; AND BASE THINGS OF THE WORLD, AND THINGS WHICH ARE DESPISED, HAS GOD CHOSEN,YES, AND THINGS WHICH ARE NOT, TO BRING TO NOTHING THINGS THAT ARE:THAT NO FLESH (OR OLD ‘SIN NATURE’) SHOULD GLORY IN HIS PRESENCE. (YOU’RE AWARE,MAYBE,THAT EVERY BELIEVING MAN OR WOMAN,AND EVERY UNBELIEVING MAN OR WOMAN, WILL STAND BEFORE THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF HOLY GOD TO EXPLAIN TO HIM ONE’S LACK OF FAITH OR ONE’S FULL TRUST IN THE BLOOD REDEMPTION SACRIFICE OF KING JESUS!!).
VERSES 30-31, “BUT OF HIM ARE “YOU” IN CHRIST JESUS, WHO OF GOD (GET READY FOR THE FOLLOWING!!), “YOU IN CHRIST JESUS, WHO OF GOD IS MADE UNTO US (HIS) WISDOM, AND (HIS) RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND (HIS)SANCTIFICATION, AND (HIS) REDEMPTION: THAT, ACCORDING AS IT IS WRITTEN, “HE THAT GLORIES (IN LIFE’S JOURNEY), LET HIM/HER GLORY IN THE LORD”!!!
B.B.MCKINNEY,IN THE OLD “BROADMAN HYMNAL” OF 1940 (COPYRIGHTED BY BROADMAN PRESS IN NASHVILLE,TENN.)WROTE THE HYMN “HE LIVES ON HIGH”(P.336) THAT SAYS: “CHRIST THE SAVIOR CAME FROM HEAVEN’S GLORY,TO REDEEM THE LOST FROM SIN AND SHAME; ON HIS BROW HE WORE THE THORN-CROWN GORY, AND UPON CALVARY HE TOOK MY BLAME.
HE AROSE FROM DEATH AND ALL ITS SORROW, TO DWELL IN THAT ‘LAND OF JOY AND LOVE’; HE IS COMING BACK SOME GLAD TOMORROW, AND HE’LL TAKE ALL HIS CHILDREN HOME ABOVE.
WEARY SOUL, TO JESUS COME CONFESSING, REDEMPTION FROM SIN HE OFFERS THEE; LOOK TO JESUS AND (SURRENDER?) AND RECEIVE A BLESSING, THERE IS LIFE, THERE IS JOY AND VICTORY .”
DO “YOU” UNDERSTAND THAT THERE IS “VICTORY IN JESUS” OVER THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH, A GOD-ORDAINED LAW? DOESN’T ROMANS 3:23 TELL US:”FOR ALL HAVE SINNED, AND FALL SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD”? DARE I SAY IT? BELIEVE I WILL! “ARE YOU AWARE THAT SOME ‘PROFESSING BELIEVERS IN CHRIST, CHURCH MEMBERS’, SINCERELY BELIEVE THEY CAN’T DO ANYTHING BUT SIN UNTIL JESUS COMES THE SECOND TIME?” JESUS “CAME” AND HE STAYS IN THE HEARTS OF TRUE BELIEVERS, EXPRESSING HIMSELF,EXTENDING HIS LOVE, & PROVING HIS POWER – AND HE DOES IT, BY THE HOLY SPIRIT WHO IS, CONVICTING, CONVERTING, TRANSFORMING,ESTABLISHING ANOTHER “TEMPLE” IN WHICH HE RESIDES, REMAINS, AND REACHES OUT THROUGH THEM TO EXTEND HIS KINGDOM RULE IN MANY MORE HEARTS AND LIVES!
OH, THEN IN ROMANS 5:5 PAUL WROTE: “HOPE MAKES YOU NOT ASHAMED (ANY LONGER!MY TWO WORDS!); BECAUSE THE LOVE OF GOD IS SHED ABROAD IN OUR HEARTS BY THE HOLY SPIRIT WHO IS GOD’S GIFT TO ALL TRUE BELIEVERS!!”
BUT YOU ARE AWARE OUR KNOWN WORLD IS ALSO FILLED WITH “RELIGIOUS SUBSTITUTIONS”, ‘THAT’ IN AND THROUGH WHICH RELIGIOUSLY DECEIVED MINDS WILL EXERCISE THEIR ‘REIGIOUS FEELINGS’ APART FROM CONVICTED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, APART FROM CONVERTED TO “NEW LIFE IN CHRIST” AND UPON CONVERSION, IN-FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND COMMISSIONED AS HIS “ROYAL AMBASSADORS”!
SO MANY CHOOSE NOTHING BUT “ME, MY, AND MINE”,OR SOME WILL ‘UNITE’ WITH, ‘LIAR-OLOGY’, ‘MYTH-OLOGY’, ‘FLESH-OLOGY’, ‘WORLD-RELIGIONS’ THEOLOGIES, ‘SELF-ORDAINED THEOLOGY’ – CHOOSING ‘MY CHOICE IS BETTER THAN GOD’S CHOICE, YOUR CHURCH’S CHOICE, OR THE FALSE CHOICES OF OTHER WORLD RELIGIONS’! “AS FOR ME? I’LL TRY TO BE THE BEST RELIGION-PARTICIPANT I CAN BE!” REALLY?
BUT IN 2 CORINTHIANS 12:7-12 PAUL ENLIGHTENS US EVEN MORE AS HE WROTE: “AND LEST I SHOULD BE EXALTED ABOVE MEASURE, THROUGH THE ABUNDANCE OF “REVELATIONS GIVEN TO ME”, THERE WAS GIVEN TO ME A THORN IN THE FLESH, THE MESSENGER OF SATAN TO BUFFET ME, LEST I SHOULD BE EXALTED ABOVE MEASURE. FOR THIS THING, I BESOUGHT THE LORD THRICE, THAT IT MIGHT DEPART FROM ME. AND HE SAID UNTO ME, “MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR YOU: FOR MY STRENGTH IS MADE PERFECT IN WEAKNESS.
MOST GLADLY THEREFORE WILL I RATHER GLORY IN MY INFIRMITIES, THAT THE POWER OF CHRIST MAY REST UPON ME. THEREFORE I TAKE PLEASURE IN INFIRMITIES, IN REPROACHES, IN NECESSITIES, IN PERSECUTIONS, IN DISTRESSES FOR CHRIST’S SAKE: FOR WHEN I AM WEAK, THEN AM I STRONG.” WHY? BECAUSE HE DOESN’T PROFESS THROUGH “BEST EFFORT” BUT “RESTS” IN JESUS’S BEST, & BECAUSE YOU “DIE DAILY THAT THE RESURRECTION LIFE OF CHRIST MAY BE MANIFESTED THROUGH YOUR MORTAL FLESH.”
IT’S TIME FOR YOU AS A ‘PROFESSING DISCIPLE’ TO ALLOW JESUS TO POSSESS YOUR BODY, HEART, AND MIND THROUGH WHICH HE LIVES OUT HIMSELF THROUGH YOU TO TOUCH THE WORLD AROUND YOU WITH HIS MERCY, GRACE, AND LOVE.
I CLOSE THIS MESSAGE FROM ANOTHER HYMN OUT OF THE BROADMAN HYMNAL, THE HYMNAL I QUOTED FROM EARLIER, BUT HERE IT’S A HYMN (P340)BY P.P.BLISS THAT SAYS:
“FREE FROM THE LAW (THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH?),O HAPPY CONDITION, JESUS HAS BLED, AND THERE IS REMISSION; CURSED BY THE LAW AND BRUISED BY THE FLL, GRACE HAS REDEEMED US ONCE FOR ALL.
NOW ARE WE FREE – THERE’S NO CONDEMNATION, JESUS PROVIDES A PERFECT SALVATION; “COME UNTO ME”, O HEAR HIS SWEET CALL, COME, AND HE SAVES US ONCE FOR ALL.
“CHILDREN OF GOD”, O glorious calling, surely his grace will keep us from Falling; passing from death to life at his call, blessed salvation once for all.
Once for all, O sinner, receive it; once for all,O brother, believe it; cling to the cross, the burden will fall, Christ has redeemed us once for all.”
AT THE ETERNAL THRONE OF JUDGMENT AS GOD EXAMINES “YOU”, WILL IT BE, “I TRIED MY BEST”, OR: “I TRULY, WHOLE-HEARTEDILY, ONCE FOR HIM ONLY DO I “REST” THROUGH CHRIST’S DEATH, RESURRECTION, ASCENSION, HIS REIGN IN ME, REJOICING DAILY IN HOPE!
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“THE JOY OF A HOLY HOPE!”
It’s so interesting, convicting, and illuminating to read the Book of Job, seeing the extremes of serious doubts and unbeliefs, but then to see a man coming into the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! There was a time period of doubts, fears, and unbelief, but by the grace and mercy and love of God Job became an overcomer, victorious through God’s faithful pursuit of his soul! In Job 42:5 we read Job saying to the Lord, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear: but now my eye sees You!” Verse 10 says, “And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends; also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.”
In Job 31 Job highlighted the fatal, false steps of unbelievers who choose the ‘flesh walk’ totally void of the Spirit’s blessing, hearts ‘deceived’ and ending up experiencing ‘the consuming fire’, inheriting a consuming destruction, and rewarding one with spiritual bankruptcy eternally! I don’t know who said it, but I read in the “Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations”, (p.231), the following statement: “Life with Christ is an endless hope, without Him a hopeless end.” So very, very true! But there are many who refuse to answer God’s knock at their hearts’ doors, willfully, ignorantly slamming the heart’s doors when the Savior knocks!
“The Joy of The Holy Hope” but you choose a ‘faithless life’ that without Christ dissipates into a coveted state of eternal captivity under the control of the demons of Hell and Satan accepting you as their and his forever slave in darkness forever, separated from King Jesus and the Holy Father and the Holy Spirit who so desired to “guide you in all eternal Truth”? One never comes into the blessed state of life who never truly trusts in the eternal redemptive hope found in Christ’s crucifixion, His resurrection, and His ascension to the eternal throne of God patiently waiting for the full increase of redeeming grace manifested in the minds and hearts of all born-again-‘faithers’!!
As I write this truth I do so just a few weeks AFTER!! I’m sure if you’ve attended any churches you found some singing, “O Little Town of Bethlehem, The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight” – And that’s about the celebration of the birth of Christ who came to “set the captives free” through His sacrificial death, His Resurrection, His present reign at the right-hand throne of God, and ‘His resting men and women’ who, yes, let Christ in them BE their hope of eternal glory!
Dare I say it? Believe I will! “Lost eternal hope is the fainting, falling, faithless life that “play-acts” life’s purpose as he, she refuses to answer Christ’s “knock” at their heart’s door!”
Are you aware that there are, sadly, multitudes world-wide who, yes, choose to live in a darkened, gray, indeterminate world of spiritual unbelief, no mindful consideration of revealed truth, no “fix” on eternal spiritual Truth, and, for them, absolutely no consideration of anything the Holy Spirit, God the Father, or Christ Jesus has to say, and certainly, for many, no consideration of anything Christians or churches have to say?!?
“Christ in you the hope of glory”? Yet multitudes live their lives independent of Holy God and His “Holy Hope”, living lives in “false hopes”, not lives established on the eternal Truths spoken by God! Multitudes ignore God’s holy knock on their hearts’ doors, certain in themselves but uncertain about heavenly help! Are YOU living your life on uncertain foundations? Consider several uncertainties!
One, consider the uncertainty of one’s trust in his/her conception of true beauty! Psalm 39:11 says, “When you with rebukes correct a man for iniquity, you make his beauty to consume away like a moth; surely every man (without God in Christ as his/her Savior and Lord) IS VANITY!”
Two, consider the shallowness of fleshly trust in men! Psalm 146:3 clearly says, “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help,” but put your trust only in God’s promises! How clear to you is 2 Corinthians 1:20? “All the promises of God in Christ Jesus are ‘yes’, and in Him “AMEN”, unto the glory of God.”
Three, consider the ‘fleshly pride’ in one’s self-allegiance that has no room for “trust in the finished work of Christ alone at Calvary”! In 2 Corinthians 1:9 Paul the Apostle said, “But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God, who raises the dead.” Men who are ‘fleshly alive’ and ‘preeminently alive’ in themselves exchange a false identity God never desired for them to be deceived in, and even for the ‘fool’, he says, “There is no God”, when forever and ever the Resurrected Lord and Savior reigns and keeps on reigning to the Father’s glory, honor, and praise!
Four, examine the reality of the troubling tombs of godless lives, yes, men/women, boys and girls, with “darkened hearts, warped wits, and worldly wills”, because there is eternal difference between ‘fleshly darkness’ and Christ Jesus God’s “Eternal Spiritual Light”!
Fifth, in 1 Thessalonians 2, Verses 4-13 we learn about our “calling” by Christ into His eternal Kingdom! Paul wrote: “But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which tries our hearts. Foe neither at any time used we flattering words, as you know, nor a cloke of covetousness; God is witness: Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, whom we might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ.
But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherishes her children: So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because you were dear to us.
For you remember, brethren, our labor and travail; for laboring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe:
As you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father does his children, That you would walk worthy of God, who has called you unto His kingdom and His glory. For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when you received the word of God which you heard of us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually works also in you that believe.”
Dare I say it? Simply mental belief apart from full surrender to the Lordship of Christ with His “gift” of resurrection presence, eternal forgiveness, and new life, new purpose, new power, and new privilege, IS ‘head knowledge’ absent of a “new heart”! And that end result? Religious activities with open doors to Satan’s realm of deception rather than “kingdom allegiance” under the Banner of the Resurrected, Reigning, Royal King of kings and Lord of lords!
But because of grace that leads one to faith, as Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1:13-15, we “gird up the loins of our minds, being sober (eternally seriously minded!!), and hoping to the end for the grace that is to be brought to us as Christ is revealed in us, As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in our ignorance; But as He which called us IS HOLY, so you be holy in all manner of conversation or your walk through the journey of your earthly pilgrimage with Christ as your Lord, your Savior, and your guardian presence with Christ in you!!
Do YOU truly have the spiritual understanding of reconciliation to Holy God in and through the blood sacrifice of Christ and His victorious resurrection, now continuing to reign at the right hand Throne of Holy God, yet telling us He also makes the redeemed heart His place of earthly residence? Do you daily take the sentence of death to your old man in order for the Resurrected, Reigning Christ to be Himself in you and through you?
Hear me! Living without “Christ in you” as Savior and Lord is to be a life residing in abiding, hellish darkness, not freed into the “Light” of Resurrection Presence!
I truly love what John Wesley wrote in his writing entitled “Christian Perfection”! Wesley said, “The holiest of men still need Christ as their Prophet, as “the light of the world.” For He does not give them light but from moment to moment; the instant He withdraws, all is darkness. They still need Christ as their King, for God does not give them a stock of holiness. But unless they receive a supply every moment, nothing but unholiness would remain. They still need Christ as their Priest, to make atonement for their holy things. Even perfect holiness is acceptable to God only through Jesus Christ.”
Much of modern-day ‘Christianity’ is based upon misdirected curiosity but with limited inquiry totally short of, yes, the divine revelation! Reject the mystery of Christ’s existence, or look upon Him as only a historic person and riddle of a past life short-lived for only about 33 years, and the mixed mess of examining Christ Jesus sadly surfaces for some as only an “inexplicable riddle”!
SO…what does one do with John 3:16? “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes (or Trusts) in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Blaise Pascal once said, “Jesus Christ is God to whom we can approach without pride, and before whom we may abase ourselves without despair.” Why? How? Because we understand through the revelation of God’s Holy Word that “all sinners were crucified with Christ on His Cross, buried with Him in His grave, but raised with Him through God’s power, released in us by, yes, our God-given faith and heart-led repentance, new-born, then filled with the Holy Spirit, and commissioned as His royal ambassadors! YES! We willfully crown Him in our hearts as “Lord of all”, you and me included because He called us, convicted us, converted us, anointed us, and declared us as His chosen, adoptive children in the Holy Family of God!!
Is it any wonder to you that “in Christ”, through the gifts of repentance and faith, that guided by the Holy Spirit you live royally blessed with the whole treasury that flows out of God’s heart, through His throne, through His Son, and, yes, through His born-again, new-birthed sons and daughters as the richness of His grace abounds, His graciousness embraces the true child of faith, and continues from one’s spiritual birth, to enrich their lives of faith with Heaven’s treasures??
Hear me! The Christian faith is not an intellectual theory or a self-centered speculation – it IS Christ’s Resurrection Presence living in the repentant heart and life resting in His promises! I grew up from early childhood of my home church in Cleveland, Tennessee, singing from the very old “American Hymnal” the hymn by R. Kelso Carter entitled “Standing On the Promises”, but you do know that far too many ‘professing Christians’ just “Sit On The Premises”, mindless of Christ’s intent of a repentant heart and faith-captured life becoming the Temple of His Holy Presence, yes, Christ in you, through you, as you daily take the sentence of death to yourself so that He might reign through you, extending His life, expressing His love, and proving His power! The Hymn?
“Standing on the promises of Christ my King, Thro’ eternal ages let His praises ring; Glory in the highest, I will shout and sing, Standing on the promises of God.
Standing on the promises that cannot fail, When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail, By the living Word of God I shall prevail, Standing on the promises of God.
Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord, Bound to Him eternally by love’s strong cord, Overcoming daily with the Spirit’s sword, Standing on the promises of God.
Standing on the promises I cannot fall, Listening every moment to the Spirit’s call, Resting in my Savior, as my all in all, standing on the promises of God.”
ARE YOU STANDING ON THE PROMISES OF GOD? The “Promises” are Merciful God’s “Creative Providence” in action, in you, for all around you to discover the Christ in you which can be their hope of eternal life, eternal rest, and eternal “Victory In Jesus”!! AMEN?
Once an outcast – but in Christ NOW a son or daughter in His redeemed, blood-bought family! Once living in darkness – but NOW living in the “Light” of His abiding Presence!
Once separated from God – but Christ’s coming, Christ’s Cross, Christ’s empty tomb, Christ’s “faithful knocking” at the hearts doors of all redeemed sons and daughters, Christ’s abiding presence and His constant, personal persuasion, blessedly favors us not to rest in “best effort, human trying” but trusting His Word: “I’ll never leave you nor forsake you”!!
In the old “American Hymnal” published in 1933 by the editor, Robert H. Colman, written by Fanny J. Crosby and W.H. Doane, is the hymn “Safe In The Arms of Jesus.” It says: “Safe in the arms of Jesus, There by His love overshadowed, Sweetly my soul shall rest. Hark! It’s the voice of angels, Borne in a song to me, Over the fields of glory, Over the jasper sea…Safe in the arms of Jesus, Safe on His gentle breast, There by His love overshadowed, Sweetly my soul shall rest.” Amen? Are YOU “Safe In The Arms of Jesus”? Proverbs 29:25 states, “The fear of man brings a snare; but whoso puts his trust in the Lord shall be safe,” followed by Verse 26 which says, “Many seek the ruler’s favor; but every man’s judgment comes from the Lord.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“CARE OF THE CARNAL MIND OR CARE OF THE SPIRITUAL SOUL?”
Is a ‘carnal mind’ the merely human effort of one’s ‘best’ at discerning for himself/herself what one is looking for in life because there is in ‘fallen flesh’ no desire to know what Holy God is up to concerning one’s earthly purpose? I don’t think there is any doubt about that!
Many of the lives birthed in our modern world are strictly ‘fleshly’ in orientation without any consideration of God’s eternal purpose of men willfully choosing their lives as “vessels” of His divine Presence and extensions through them to amazingly touch the world around them with His mercy, grace, and love! They’re “busy” about the “care of the carnal mind” and all it supposes or proposes or imposes!
If there are great, spiritual events in one’s ‘carnal mind’, “it’s all ‘circumstantial’, not providential”, they think! And if anything “great” occurs, it’s from the ‘heart-spring’ of personal initiative not Holy intent! If “dark doors” are before them, carnal minded men ‘might’ say, “Well, that must come from lower powers out of hell”, never sensing ‘godlessness’ is fertile ground for demonic activity without God’s protection against the powers of darkness because they have no intent of being dependent upon Holy God for anything in their fleshly nature since they’re perfectly capable of taking care of themselves!
Natural-minded men are blinded concerning “the lusts of the flesh, the lies of Satan, or the blinded deceits of a world population”! How many ‘natural men’ do you know who discern Holy God as the Author, Creator, and Celebrator of His world, its purpose ordained in Him, and His power and love seeing it come to full fruition in His timing? “God’s on His throne, and all is right in His world?” How many do you know who discern THAT for themselves?
How much of the comprehension of, at least, the care of the carnal mind relates to ‘fleshly comfort’, ‘earthly success’, or a ‘worldly dream or ambition’, imprinted by only ‘self-relevance’ independent of Holy God? Do you even think the masses of earthly-minded men controlled by ‘self-intent’ even care about what Holy God thinks? Personal pride “in my potential” is the ‘self-strutting peacock’ more proud of his ‘feathers’ than his Creator!
Oh, but then, there are the ‘religiously proud’ through the ages, like William Warburton, Bishop of Glouchester, that Charles Churchill wrote about in his article entitled “Independence”: “He was so proud that should he meet the Twelve Apostles in the street he’d turn his nose up at them all and shove his Savior from the wall.” I’d call that “The pride that captured Satan and shamed the ‘fallen angels’!
The cultivation of the mind void of the desire and intent of Holy God is like an automobile without an engine, or birds without wings, or, yes, human populations void of the awareness that the Creator-God came, birthed by the Virgin Mary, sacrificed His own Life on the Cross in “Blood Redemption”, but they continue ignoring Biblical History, just blindly trying to find their way without any consideration why Holy God sent His Son or why, under the Sovereign Administration of Holy God, “Why am I here?”!!
Is it possible that “the care of the carnal mind” rules over many because its finiteness has its own self-imposed limits, and one in that phase of existence only has no interest in God’s boundless, limitless, exceedingly great and unending infinite mercy and grace, especially if it costs them their independence, “if your God expects ME to obey Him”? And, is it possible, that to the extreme, there are those human beings, to the extreme point of pain, troubles, heartaches, despair, troubles, unhappiness, loneliness in the ‘inner man’, strongly twisted together to the point they come to the place to say to themselves, “Not even God cares about me”?
“Care of the carnal mind”? Could such devotion to ‘flesh’, to the ‘temporary’, to the ‘world scene’, to ‘human achievement’ without any need or even a ‘thought’ about God, or a ‘thought’ about the Savior, or a ‘thought’ about ETERNITY and one’s role in it, become so dominate one ends up ‘poverty stricken’ rather than “rich” in the Savior’s love? It’s not an accountant’s ‘ledger’ that will reveal what has the human heart, mind, and soul, because the “kingdom of God’ is not based on men’s bank accounts, investments, stock dividends, royalties, but the eternal reality of ONENESS with the Savior, Master, and True Lord of life that blesses and blesses and blesses, and keeps on blessing ! The richest man in the whole world, past, present, and future, is not the man with huge stocks, bonds, or bank accounts, but the man rich in redemptive faith, the recipient of a transformed life and new heart, and the man entrusted with Heaven’s Good News”, the Gospel, gain, and grip of King Jesus on his heart and mind, and HE’S NOT ASHAMED OF IT!
Will Carleton, in “The Ancient Miner’s Story”, wrote: “But I have learned a thing or two; I know as sure as fate, When we lock up our lives for wealth, the gold key comes too late.” One wonders if the ‘ancient miner’ ever knew or had any inkling at all about “true wealth” that only comes, lastingly, in one’s oneness in Christ alone as Lord, Savior, and the Master of, yes, Eternal Life!
Paul wrote challenging, enlightening words in 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:5, so ‘eternal-life-instructing’! He said: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
“Temporary”? Does that mean not permanent to you or those around you? Does temporary mean I don’t have to be serious about my ‘present’, though my ‘present’ may be the key to what Door or door I walk through as ‘eternity’ calls my name? Some have never even considered that the ‘temporary’ IS only a stepping stone toward the ‘eternal’, blessed or unblessed, good or bad, fleshly or spiritual, Satanic or Master-Jesus oriented – it seldom enters some minds, though they see themselves as a very ‘profound person’. “I operate on ‘common sense’, not like those Christians who talk about ‘spiritual sensitivity’ to the things of God and obedience to what He reveals – not me!”
“Temporary”? “The sower sows the word.” That’s Christ Jesus speaking in Mark 4:13-20, and He’s explaining “cares of the carnal minds” AND “the care of the Spiritually-Re-born Soul in oneness with Christ”! Jesus said: “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear Satan COMES IMMEDIATELY and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts.
These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; and they have NO ROOT IN THEMSELVES, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble.
Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. BUT these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit; some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”
Is the word of God being sown by the wayside of the earthly population on any and every continent of our world? It’s happening! But is it received by every citizen of all nations? Of course not! “Few there be who find it,” Jesus said, but, yes, there are those who hear, receive, repent, and obey, yielding themselves to the Lordship of Christ!
And, receiving Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior of some lives in some countries has cost them their lives – having traveled to India and other countries in Asia, I knew those who became ‘martyrs for the faith’! But, with Paul, (Acts 20:21), they were willing “to testify…repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ”, even if persecuted or killed!
There was a particular time when in Madras, India, I was preaching on the streets before my conference there started, when two young men confronted me, threatening me that if I came back tomorrow, they would come and kill me. I told them of the time and place where I would be preaching the next day. When the time came, our church musicians were singing, but my translator, Pastor Anand, came and said, “If you’re going to preach, you better do it now, because there are ten to twelve men close by headed this way, each one carrying a machete. I preached, prayed, extended an invitation to trust Christ, and when I finished my prayer, I saw the two ‘mob leaders’ on their knees before me. They prayed to receive Christ, and were baptized by Pastor Anand and became a part of his local church!
Yes, there are those who hear the word, accept it, repent, are baptized, and begin to bear the fruit of the Indwelling Christ! And there MUST BE “the care of spiritual souls”! In Matthew 18:2-5 Jesus said: Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.”
And, in the care of spiritual souls, I’m sure there are those who endorse ‘sinning’ as THE option every believer has, even if Christ Jesus Himself said: “Go and sin no more”! What does Matthew 18:6 tell us, again, Jesus speaking? “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea!”
The evidence that a man or woman, boy or girl, has been delivered FROM SIN is their sorrowful heart over what their sin nature cost Christ on the cruel Cross! And they have no desire to shame the “Blood Atonement” but to live only the overcoming life in and through Christ’s Resurrected Presence within them – they die daily to themselves and the old sin nature that Christ may be honored through them! In 1 John 1:7 the beloved John wrote: “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ God’s Son cleanses us from all sin.”
In his book “My Utmost For His Highest,” Oswald chambers wrote: “If I walk in the light as God is in the light, not in the light of my conscience, but in the light of God – if I walk there, with nothing folded up, then there comes the amazing revelation, the blood of Jesus cleanses me from all sin so that God Almighty can see nothing to censure in me. In my consciousness it works with a keen poignant knowledge of what sin is. The love of God at work in me makes me hate with the hatred of the Holy Ghost all that is not in keeping with God’s holiness. To walk in the light means that everything that is of the darkness drives me closer into the center of the light.”
Do you believe Jesus when He said, “And, lo, I am with you always…”, and because of His promise one can sin if he/she chooses? Walking with Him in one’s spiritual pilgrimage day by day, feeding daily on His Word, relying upon the Holy Spirit to guide us only in the way that honors Christ, does not open a door of ‘fleshly choices’ to do as I please, even sinning if I can’t help it. Where does that come from? What “strange gospel” is it that grants “do as you please if you since a desire to sin – Jesus understands.” No! He doesn’t understand ‘flesh’ ever choosing consenting to sin if He’s Captain of one’s Ship of Faith and Obedience! He’s given you the Holy Spirit to “guide you into all truth”, not to concur with your desire to do as you please!
In “The Pastor’s Guide to Effective Ministry”, (Edited by William H. Willimon, Beacon Hill Press, 2002), there’s a powerful word from the Puritan Thomas Watson. He said: “The first fruit of love is the musing of the mind upon God. He who is in love, his thoughts are ever upon the object. He who loves God is ravished and transported with the contemplation of God. “When I awake, I am still with Thee” (Psalm 139:18). The thoughts are as travelers in the mind. David’s thoughts kept heaven-road. “I am still with Thee.” God is the treasure, and where the treasure is, there is the heart. By this way we may test our love of God. What are our thoughts most upon? Can we say we are ravished with delight when we think upon God? Have our thoughts got wings? Are they fled aloft? Do we contemplate Christ and glory?…A sinner crowds God out of his thoughts. He never thinks of God, unless with horror, as the prisoner (guilty prisoner) thinks of the judge.”
Revelation 5 speaks of “The Worthy Lamb of God”, with Revelation 5:12 and Verse 13 saying: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing” with Verse 13 following: “Blessing and honor and glory and power Be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!”
Would YOU dare say that’s your hymn of praise to the Reigning Christ in your life because your “Life-Walk” IS testimony He has inspired to “the caring of your redeemed soul” honoring Him daily?
Rev.E.A.Hoffman and Rev.J.H.Stockton, in the “American Hymnal” of the early 1930’s wrote a hymn entitled “Glory To His Name.” It says: “Down at the cross where my Savior died, Down where for cleansing from sin I cried, There to my heart was the blood applied; Glory to His Name.
I am so wondrously saved from sin, Jesus so sweetly abides within, There at the cross where He took me in; Glory to His name.
Oh, precious fountain that saves from sin, I am so glad I have entered in; There Jesus saves me and keeps me clean; Glory to His name.
Come to this fountain so rich and sweet; Cast your poor soul at the Savior’s feet; Plunge in today, and be made complete; Glory to His name.
Glory to His name, Glory to His name; There to my heart was the blood applied; Glory to His name.”
Do YOU sing the “Glory Song” to Jesus because He applied His shed Calvary blood to redeem you from your bondage in sin? It’s time – there is no promise of ‘tomorrow’! Romans 15:13 declares: “NOW may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” ARE YOU A SPIRIT-FILLED DISCIPLE ABOUNDING IN ETERNAL HOPE IN JESUS?
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
‘PLAYED FOR THE FOOL’ OR “PURCHASED BY GOD”?
Beyond the shadow of any fleshly doubt is the reality that there is not a man or woman who has ever lived without an awareness of the presence of God, even if it’s only the acknowledgement He HAS KNOCKED ON THEIR HEART’S DOOR! AND, IF HOLY GOD BIRTHED MANKIND WITH AN AWARENESS OF HIM, what is it that blinds one to what he/she already knows? Would you be bold enough, truthful enough, to admit, though now you deny Him, that you have been possessed and over-run by a strong spirit of “natural individuality” that says, “For me, NO NEED OF GOD”? Could it be ‘deceived by Satan’?
“No need of God?” Psalm 14:1 clearly declares, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” But, at least for true believers, understanding spiritual identity as ‘new-born sons and daughters of God’, one is aware of the warfare that does exist in the unbeliever’s heart as one truly ‘deceived by the powers of darkness’! Most unbelievers being ‘played by the powers of darkness’ as “fools” are blinded to, yes, the grace and mercy and love of God as “new-born sons and daughters by the Holy Spirit”, having been “crucified with Christ”, old sin-natures done away with, with Satan and his demons telling folks, “That’s just impossible – natural sin-natures done away with and Resurrection Life manifested in you? Impossible! Be satisfied with your sin-nature; God will still love you.” Really?
In Galatians 2:17-21 Paul illumines the “crucified life” that has now been “justified” by Christ’s death on the Cross. He wrote: But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not! For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but CHRIST LIVES IN ME; and the life which I now live in the flesh (the old man!) I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.” WHAT AN AWESOME, LIBERATING, CHRIST-HONORING WORD!
Yet the fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ Really? In Exodus 5:1-2 the Word tells us, Afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh (of Egypt), “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.’
And Pharaoh said, ‘Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go.” He bought his personal ticket to the eternal Hell, choosing separation from Him as his personal choice.
Yet how many unbelievers do you know who live casually, comfortably, supposedly convinced “life without your God and His Son is a life I choose that is superior and more satisfying than your walk as a disciple of Christ”! There is a spiritual war related to the true saving of souls in and through Christ only, but the spirit of a darkened world, the independence of a self-sufficient soul, and the vainness of a proud ‘self-made man’ pumped up by Satan and his demons deceives the minds of many of “no need of faith in your ‘saving’ God – we’re sufficient in ourselves”!
But in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 the Apostle Paul wrote: “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” Know anyone exalting himself/herself against the knowledge of God?
Yes, many are “played for the fool” by Satan, demonic forces, the world spirit, and a strong, self-independent, soul existing life, they think, with no need of merciful God! Yes, though many are “played for the fool” by Satan, at the same time there ARE multitudes who understand that “in Christ” one no longer has to be enslaved to the old sin nature because, by His “blood-purchase” Jesus set us free from the law of sin and death, freed us from the world’s deceitful bondage and slavery, and, yes, freed us from the chains of fleshly death into the ‘Kingdom-Crown of liberty, freedom, and the peace that passes all understanding – through the “Lamb’s Blood” we were washed, birthed, and indwelt with the fullness of the blessing of His Resurrection Life, Resurrection Hope, and Resurrection Power!
Through His “blood purchase” we were delivered from bondage to WALK IN THE NEWNESS OF LIFE, to WALK IN OUR NEW IDENTITY, and to WALK EMPOWERED BY THE MIGHTY HOLY SPIRIT AND OUR TRUST AND OBEDIENCE TO HIS ETERNAL WORD! YES, “IN CHRIST” WE “BRING EVERY THOUGHT INTO CAPTIVITY TO THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST”! WE “quit trying” and learned “to trust His ever faithful Word and His abiding Presence in us being Himself through us to honor, glorify, and BE the LIFE” THAT HONORS MERCIFUL, LOVING, COMPASSIONATE, ENABLING GOD!!
Yet, still, many ‘believers’, many ‘followers of Christ’, many ‘disciples’, have those ‘lapse moments’, having, yes, sinned then doubted whether they can ever again see themselves as sons or daughters of Holy God, living in immense frustration with the ‘old self’ blinding, clouding out, or thinking they’ve lost their identity as a true servant of Christ Jesus! Dare I tell you? Believe I will!
IF GOD BIRTHED YOU INTO HIS KINGDOM, IF ONE ‘STEPS AWAY’ IN A MOMENT OF SELF-INDULGENCE, DOES “FATHER-GOD” DISOWN A CHILD OF FAITH, BECAUSE IN A MOMENT OF IMMATURE, CHILDISH ABANDONMENT, HOLY GOD WRITES THEM OFF AS UNWORTHY, NOT TRUST-WORTHY ENOUGH TO BE CALLED HIS SON OR DAUGHTER ANY LONGER? SATAN WILL TELL YOU THAT – BUT NOT YOUR LOVING FATHER!
There was a time in Paul the Apostle’s life when in the ‘present tense’ he called himself ‘a miserable man’, and that was a time period in his life as merciful God was pouring the Word through him, yet he KNEW those ‘moments’ he’d strayed away – but he learned, “God wouldn’t let me go where I foolishly had chosen to walk for a time, but held on to me, and wouldn’t let me go”!
Holy God uses ‘life-walk-failures-as-disciples’ TO BE MOMENTS OF ETERNAL EDUCATION IN THE MERCY, LOVE, AND GRACE OF GOD! Receive Paul’s inspired testimony in Romans 7:21-8:14!! “I find then a law, that evil is present with me, THE ONE WHO WILLS TO DO GOOD. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I THANK GOD – THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
Romans 8:1-14 follows: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (New Covenant!) has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors –not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” How SPIRITUALLY CLEAR IS THAT TO YOU?
“Led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God?” Sons of God, birthed by the Spirit, led by the Spirit, guided by the Spirit, gifted by the Spirit, are blessed with “the glorious liberty of the children of God”, no longer pawns of the powers of darkness! It’s so interesting to read in Jeremiah 17:10, God speaking, “I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS WAYS, according to the fruit of his doings.” A difference between ‘the fruit of a man’s doings’ OR is there an opportunistic way of things that please and honor Holy God blessed by the Holy Spirit in a yielded vessel’s life?
In Galatians 5:22-25 Paul wrote: “But the FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. AND those who are Christ’s HAVE CRUCIFIED THE FLESH (DAILY!) WITH ITS PASSIONS AND DESIRES. (SO…) IF we live in the Spirit, LET US ALSO WALK IN THE SPIRIT.”
‘Best effort’? OR “SPIRIT-BLESSED”? ‘Trying’ OR “TRUSTING THE SPIRIT TO HONOR CHRIST THROUGH YOU AS YOU DAILY CHOOSE TO LIVE THE LIFE HONORING CHRIST JESUS BY THE BLESSED FRUIT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT ALLOWED TO BE HIMSELF IN YOU AND THROUGH YOU?
The third verse of the old hymn published by The Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, in 1940, says: “Come, Holy Comforter, Your sacred witness bear In this glad hour: You who Almighty ART, NOW RULE IN EVERY HEART, and ne’er from us depart, Spirit of power.”
I.H.Meredith in the same hymnal wrote “Seal Us, O Holy Spirit.”
“Seal us, O Holy Spirit, Grant us Your impress, we pray; We would be more like the Savior, Stamped with His image today.
Seal us, O Holy Spirit, Help us Your likeness to show; Then from our lives unto others Streams of rich blessings shall flow.
Seal us, O Holy Spirit, Make Us Your own this hour; Let us be useful, dear Master, Seal us with witnessing power.
Seal us, seal us, Seal us just now, we pray; Seal us, O Holy Spirit, Seal us for service today.”
Concerning YOU in your present path of ‘faith’, as if misguided, diluted, or truthfully a lack of faith, choosing for yourself again the mortal sphere of misguided men, OR have you willfully stepped over into the immortal sphere of the redeemed, the “blood-bought”, the “new-born”, indwelt by the Spirit of the Resurrection Life of Christ, anointed by the Holy Spirit sensing more and more every day of, yes, the “fruit of the Spirit” as God’s Holy Word verifies it? Does “the tree of your life of saving faith” flourish with the “Fresh Fruit of the Holy Spirit”?
Chapter 22RAISING SPIRITUAL SONS
Nowhere in my earthly dreams or spiritual visions did I ever consider myself a “spiritual father.” I’ve looked UP to many men in my forty-two years of ministry as strong spiritual guides and encouragers – and even at 68 years of age I still look for them and warmly receive them.
But my November, 2004, trip to India confirmed some things in me that I genuinely had not realized. Though a lot of the India pastors call me “Papa,” I’m definitely appreciative of their love – but when they say, “Papa Farrell, you are to me my spiritual father and I love you for the example you’ve been to me,” IT IS VERY HUMBLING!!
There is an awesome responsibility that is so real, so needy in mentoring, training, and equipping young men TO WALK WITH CHRIST AS A MATURING DISCIPLE AND A WINNING WITNESS.
It is filled with heartaches and disappointments as well as great joys and distinct pleasures. There are days and weeks and months that oftentimes it is so dark and cloudy because of choices some of your spiritual sons make – decisions that blot their witness but crush your heart! Then the sun shines brightly because one son begins to look like Jesus more and more, and you rejoice.
Physically I’m the father of three sons and a daughter and I look upon them as spiritual sons and a spiritual daughter. How I pray and long that they’ve picked up the best from Sue and me – not our worst! I came into physical and spiritual parenting with a lot of baggage; a lot of unresolved conflicts; and even more basic, a lack of my true identity in Christ. And in all four, Scott, Susan, Stan, and Steve, no father could be as proud as I am of all of them. THEY DO LOVE JESUS!
Spiritually God has blessed me beyond measure. He has put into my sphere of influence even guys I didn’t know I was influencing! But then there are those that I’ve walked with, worked with, wept with – blessed a hundred-fold!
November, 2004, Coimbatore. Young university students and graduates who were thankful for the ministry of the Word then commented, “We look to you as our spiritual father.” Mumbai, engineer-pastor, bi-vocational, “Since the first time I heard you teach eight years ago, I’ve looked to you as my spiritual father. The anointing, the Word, your spirit in Christ captured me heart.” Mumbai, a New Life senior pastor – “
Papa Farrell, I’ll always look to you as my spiritual father; a lot of India pastors feel the same way.”
I want no glory, no honor, no praise – if there is any, “Let It Go To Calvary.” But it has awakened some new and wonderful things in me. I sense a weighty, weighty responsibility on me the the “sentence of death” on me is a daily reality so “The RESURRECTION LIFE OF JESUS IS MANIFESTED IN MY MORTAL FLESH>“ I sense that passion for Christ to be all He wants to be through me. I sense a call to greater humility, greater dependance, greater hunger, more wisdom, more power than a lowly disciple could ever try to muster up on his own. I love what Paul said to the Philippians about himself – “apprehended of God” – and for God’s purposes; “apprehended of God” – and for His people; “apprehended of Go” – and for His pleasure.
It was certainly the intent of Christ Jesus in spiritual fathering. There’s the twelve He drew to Himself. There was that inner circle with such quality time with their teacher. And I do know it is WHAT He taught, but also what they “CAUGHT” from Him in those years together, and what He “WROUGHT” into their lives by Word, deed, and Holy Presence.
I remember those two disciples on the road to Emmaeus as their “hearts burned within them” as Jesus opened the Word and Spirit.
That deep bond between Paul and the Ephesian elders speaks so loud to us as we see that history of time, teaching etc., “holding back nothing that was necessary” for their spiritual health.
Does early Acts speak to you? They were together, had all things common – and they CONTINUED STEDFASTLY IN THE APOSTLES’ DOCTRINE AND FELLOWSHIP. Does that say anything about fathering “spiritual sons and daughters?”
From the Old Testament I’m reminded of the prophets and…”the sons of the prophets.” I see a Naomi and a Ruth. What about Elijah and tha “mantle of Elijah” that Elisha “picked up?” I look at an Eli encouraging a young Samuel, “When you hear the voice again, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’ “ And Samuel is raised up, prepared to serve God in a powerful way.
What was the role of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednigo in equipping “wise men” to look for the “Star?” And hundreds of years later the “teaching” is still going on and “wise men” from the East show up at Jesus’ birthplace to bless the newborn King!
Zacharias’ son John gets a prophetic word through his father that he’ll PREPARE THE WAY OF THE LORD and even be a servant of God turning the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
In 2 Timothy 2:1-2, Paul speaks: “You therefore, MY SON, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus…AND THE THINGS YOU HAVE LEARNED FROM ME AMONG MANY WITNESSES, COMMIT THESE TO FAITHFUL MEN WHO WILL BE ABLE TO TEACH OTHERS ALSO.” What a revelation and inspiration to training, mentoring, discipline!!
I saw in MalachI I as I was flying back from India verse 6 when God said, “a son honors his father,” yet today in far too many corners of our globe ‘sons’ (and I use that reservedly) use their fathers, accuse and abuse, ignore, circumvent his leadership, blessing and birthright, and with the Korahs, Dathans and Abirims go out on their own insisting “all are holy” and they don’t need, don’t want, and could care less about a “father’s blessing.”
I believe Jesus was very clear when in Luke 16:12, He said: “And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, WHO WILL GIVE YOU WHAT IS YOUR OWN?” There are those ‘sons’ who KNOW NOTHING ABOUT FAITHFULNESS TO THAT WHICH IS ‘ANOTHER MAN’S…and they really never know the blessing that COULD HAVE BEEN THEIR OWN. Oh…they believe they have it!
I remember a young evangelist about twenty-five years ago who used to preach on “You may get what YOU WANT, but not want what you get!” That is so on target! Even Jesus Himself said, “You are of your father the Devil, for his works you do.” And how disappointed Jesus must have been with the eloquent professors who never possessed one ounce of earnestness of faith and obedience to the “SPIRIT of OUR FATHER!”
You may not know the name Frederick Faber, but he was a discouraged Anglican minister who had left that church to become a part of Roman Catholism.And there he found an emptiness of strong hymns of faith and the joy of singing, so he began to write “new songs.” He was so fearful of “new religious movements” and new attitudes of ‘discipleship’ that looked only at the experience of the moment, immediacy of the moment, that left a void of devotion to relationships. One of his hymns says:
“Faith of our fathers! Living still In spite of dungeon, fire and sword; O how our hearts beat high with joy When’er we hear that glorious word!….Faith of our fathers, HOLY FAITH! We will be true to You till death.”
And I wondered if Faber had been in the role of “spiritual fatherhood” and had his heart broken over ‘immediacy,’ ‘all are holy,’ ‘I do it my way,’ ‘I have things I want to accomplish’ – leaving a father in despair as wayward sons manufacture self-appointed ‘ministries’ and begin to build their own little kingdoms.
In the matter of “spiritual fathers” and sons in training there are certain principles of RELATIONSHIP, RIGORS IN TRAINING, AND, YES, RELEASE – but far too many ‘sons’ want relationship without the rigors of training and certainly not ‘RELEASE’ because that interferes with the ‘me, my, mine’ philosophy. It’s why Steve Farrar wrote in “Finishing Strong,” (p39), “…the qualification for having a public ministry is not ‘giftedness.’ The qualification for ministry is PROVEN CHARACTER.” And Jesus told some that they ought to make friends for yourself who have ‘deep pockets,’ because when you fail they can take care of you, inferring He’s not going to. Why? No faithfulness in little things, no faithfulness in handling money in a godly fashion, and no faithfulness to the nurturing father!! That’s Luke 16 if you need it!! And sometimes you wonder, “Who will be true till death” in relationships?
I want us to examine as thoroughly as possible “RAISING SPIRITUAL SONS” from a biblical perspective:
Let’s look FIRST at THE FATHERS AND THE PRODIGALS: And what God’s Word is telling us is that some sons are intent on leaving the father’s presence and living a self-centered, self-willed, self-indulgent life. And try as the father may some are ‘hell-bent’ on ‘me, my, my way, my choices, my decisions,’ and they end up wasting so much of their lives, potential, and possessions with prodigal living. Life choices like that brings one to a “spent all” style of living with a loss of not only any possessions but any small degree of ‘family heritage’ he may have possessed.
It always leaves these sons of personal choice beginning to be in want! He stoops to swine-slop and no one seems to care. But in Luke 15:17 God’s Word tells us, “when he came to himself.” That is so very good. And we all rejoice because finally he decides, “I will arise and go to my father’s house.”
But in the midst of all this I’m wondering, “What’s going on with the Father?” And I begin to say, “Father, as you’ve given us roles and ministries to fulfill as earthly fathers and spiritual fathers, how do we relate to WAYWARD SONS?” And I learn several things:
One, God has built into us all the will of self-determination. He has not, will not, violate the free will of man in choosing his destiny over the will of the Father. The loving Father is not interested in ‘puppets on a string’ or electronic robots, but sons desperate for the father’s love, the father’s blessing, and the father’s intent.
Secondly, even the son who stayed, ‘the elder brother,’ missed the ‘spirit’ of the father. Close proximity is no guarantee of the spirit of a father’s heart. Sometimes the need is never sensed until one FINDS himself at the end of the road.
Third, the father’s heart never changes. He’s “the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Sorrowful, but wise as to the need of one discovering who he is and what he needs. Able, but unwilling to force the issue. Loving, whether the son stays or oes into the “wild, black yonder.” Forgiving because He understand illumined sons have greater potential than blinded sons.
Fourth, a loving father’s eyes are never off “the road of return and restoration.” Compassionately he waits, energetically he prays, with vision he plans, with anticipation he prepares for “the party.”
Fifth, He did not run after the son – he patiently waited because “the ball is in the court” of the son, not in the court of the father!!
Secondly, look at the spiritual fathers and the ‘John Marks’ as the ‘fathers’ relate to the sons’ fears, frustrations, failures and fallabilities.
And the one thing I want you to grasp is, that whether it’s sons or disciples, our walk RELATES TO THE CROSS – our Lord’s cross and our own. In Matthew 16:24, Jesus says, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”
In Mark 14:51-52 I believe our Lord is giving us insight into the pattern a lot of sons set for their lives. We see this picture of John Mark’s early steps, however fault-ridden, into the beginning of his ‘becoming.’ And I believe later in life John Mark is telling about himself!!
“Now a certain young man followed Him, having a linen cloth thrown around his naked body. And the young men laid hold of him…and he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked.” When the ‘cross’ is omitted in a son’s life it always leaves him in a state of ‘spiritual nakedness.’
But something is going on in John Mark’s life. Don’t know about his natural father, but we learn in Acts 12 that Peter came to a certain house after the iron gate of the prison was opened and Peter was freed. What house did he come to?
Acts 12:12, “…he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying.” John Mark had a powerful witness from a praying mother and a grandmother!
Verse 25 of that same chapter says, “Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their mission, taking along with them John, who was also called Mark.”
A spirirtual father, Paul the apostle, is now in the strong circle of influence of John Mark. Acts 13:5 says that as Barnabas and Saul are sent out on a new mission that they have a “helper” named John Mark! Then verse 13 of Acts 13, please see it, “John left them and returned to Jerusalem.” Is fear a reason? Is faithlessness a guiding factor? Is human fallability rather than divine identity a controlling influence? Does frustration capture a son because he wants a greater role and believes he has a better vision?
It was so very, very serious that the spiritual father, Paul, does not want John Mark on another ministry with him – the mission is too vital! In Acts 15:37-38, “And Barnabas was desirous of taking John, called Mark, along with them…But Paul kept insisting that they should not take him along who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work.”
In fact, verse 39, says: “there arose such a sharp disagreement that Barnabas and Paul separated from one another…” And Barnabas took John Mark with him.
How wrong was Paul? He wasn’t wrong at all! The mission was too vital, the call was too clear, the danger too imminent to have to be consumed with one who could walk away again! But, thank God, for “sons of encouragement” who are willing to “diaper-rize” spiritually infant sons who ought to be spiritual, vibrant sons already.
But then look at 2 Timothy 4:11!! He’s writing Timothy and says, “Only Luke is with me. Get MARK and bring him with you, FOR HE IS USEFUL TO ME FOR MINISTRY.”
The ministry was and always is uppermost in a spiritual father’s life and plans. And sometimes someone else has the role of spiritual encourager to bring a ‘son’ along.
And get this – the day came when John Mark ‘probably’ penned the first Gospel. Thank God, for team effort that brings us all along where the Father truly wants us to be!!
Third, look at the spiritual fathers and their relationship to ‘sons’ who struggle with opposition, persecution, and doubts. Who might that be? Do you think maybe Paul and Timothy?
My New King James Bible opens 2 Timothy with a statement: “Prison is the last place from which to expect a letter of encouragement,” but that’s what it is because Paul somehow has learned the plight or position his young spiritual son finds himself in. Paul’s in prison, the opposition is very intense, persecution abounds all around him, and Timothy is wondering, “Is this walk of faith worth it?” He’s even been weeping about it!
Without a doubt I believe Timothy was on the verge of walking away! Remember Peter? “I’m going back to fishing.” I don’t know what Timothy might have done if Paul, his spiritual father, had not sent him that letter of encouragement. [ I remember calling the home of a “fallen son” and he never returned my call. And I don’t know his spiritual health to this day. Heartbreaking. I did hear he trashed me all over his area for ‘interfering.’]
I was flabbergasted when I read Farrar’s book “Finishing Strong” and he told about John Bisagno’s future father-in-law telling him that it had been his observation “that just one out of ten who start in full-time service for the Lord at 21 are still on track by the age of 65.” He said, “they’re shot down morally, they’re shot down with discouragement, they’re shot down with liberal theology, they get obscessed with making money….but for one reason or another NINE OUT OF TEN FALL OUT.” (p6)
No wonder Paul wrote to the Ephesians (4:1-2), :I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called…with all lowliness and gentlness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love.”
When you read 2 Timothy 1:8 you realize the battle that Timothy was in as he must have been wrestling as to whether or not devotion to Christ was really worth it. Paul said, “..do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God.”
And then Paul hit’s a homerun when in verse 9 he reminds Timothy that God “has SAVED US and CALLED US WITH A HOLY CASLLING, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was GIVEN TO US IN CHRIST JESUS BEFORE TIME BEGAN!!!”
That is so awesome! And how it needs to be spoken by spiritual fathers to struggling, unsure sons – “You’re SAVED, Washed In The Blood Of The Lamb, Called Of God to a distinct ministry and gifting, GIVEN TO US Before Time Had Even Begun, THE CHOSEN AND ELECT OF GOD, …AND YOU CAN’T WALK AWAY!!!”
Encouragement from spiritual fathers? Paul reminds Timothy he’s “a good soldier” of Jesus Christ; he reminds him he’s “a strong athlete” with a gold medal awaiting him; and he reminds him as a “profitable farmer” he gets to enjoy the abundance of the harvest!
Encouragement from spiritual fathers? “Defeat, Timothy, is not a stumbling block – it’s a stepping stone. Doubt, Timothy? It’s the door to certainty and confidence; Fear, Timothy? It’s a step away from the greatness and ableness of God!!”
Henry Ward Beecher put it like this: “It is defeat that turns bone to flint, and gristle to muscle, and makes people invincible, and forms those heroic natures that are now in ascendancy in the world. Do not, then, be afraid of defeat. You are never so near to victory as when defeated in a good cause.”
Fourthly, look at spiritual fathers who give their sons lofty and significant goals for their lives and not a sense of shortsightedness. Come to Colossians 4:17 where Paul challenges Archippus, “Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it.”
Two things to note here: One, ministry received “in the Lord.” I have no doubts that some men are shoved into places they should never be by thoughtless and unspiritual men. But true ministry is ‘in the Lord.’ It’s not an option I have – it’s a conviction God holds for one’s life.
And, two, ministry is to be fulfilled! What did Paul say in 2 Timothy 4:7-8? “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith…Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.”
What greater example than Christ Himself? In John 17:4, He said to the Father, “…I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.” Pressing in, laying hold, finishing the work is a Call we cannot run from! Break the tape, cross the line, then….rest in the arms of Jesus! Not now will I stop short; not now will I slow down in the race; not now will I R & R in the time of the battle of the ages. Not now – WE’RE GOING ON, WE’RE GOING IN!!
Fifth, consider Jesus and Judas! There is BETRAYAL; there is DENIAL; and there is REFUSAL TO TAKE A BIBLICAL PATH TO RESTORATION. In spiritual parenting there is always the path of brokenness, deep sorrow, and fearfulness over one you relate to who turns on you, betrays your trust, out for what the ‘son’ can get on his own. He’ll even publicly kiss you and then put a knife right into your heart. Because his consideration is, “What can I gain?’ rather than “What can I give?”
Judas’ want to hold the purse strings. Judas’ want the majority vote. Judas’ have “legitimate” explanations for betrayal and denial – and even if it dawns on them they’ve been wrong, a noose is better than the Good News of repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ. They go it alone and abandon even their fellow disciples and choose Pharisees. Judas’ are down on spiritual extranagance like the woman with the expensive perfume pouring it all over Jesus, washing His feet with her tears and drying them with her hair. Judas’ are guided by, “That doesn’t sell,” as if discipleship and ministry are marketable products. “God, help us. Where have we come to in the American church?”
No wonder James Boren said, “It’s hard to look up to a leader who keeps his ear to the ground.” Judas’ are political poll watchers who put their finger up in the air to see which way the wind is blowing rather than “Follow Me.” Judas’ measure their devotion by the visible not the invisible and they never become a part of seeing the impossible accomplished. They are “nickles and dimes” folk and not ministry or servant hood focused.
Remember Judas’ approach to Jesus? He’s going to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver by way of a ‘kiss.’ But Jesus said to him, “Friend, why have you come here?” HOW AWESOME! Do you doubt Jesus knew what was about to happen? But He still called him, “Friend…”
I’m ith Peter – ‘let’s cut off some ears,” but thank God that Jesus says, “Put your sword in its place!” Yes, Lord; but I sure would like to tanny some fanny! Yes, Lord; but will those faithless sons pay? Yes, Lord; but can I call down a little fire and brimstone? And ‘In His Time’ there is an accounting of one’s stewardship of trust in the “purse strings” of responsibility and relationship – and the FATHER will work it out.
The only problem I see in spiritual fathers and “sons” relationship is what is going on in a son’s heart? It was John Ruskin who said: “When a man is wrapped up in himself, he makes a pretty small package.” Big God Himself has a major problem getting even into “small packages.”
It’s why Josiah Gilbert Holland cried out: God give us men. A time like this demands strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands.
Men whom the lust of office does not kill, men whom the spoils of office cannot buy, men who possess opinions and a will, men who love honor, men who will not lie.”
Whether a spiritual father or a growing, maturing spiritual son, Paul has inspired advice when truthfully he said in Philippians 3:12-14, (TLB),
“I don’t mean to say I am perfect. I haven’t learned all I should even yet, but I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ saved me for and wants me to be…..
No, dear brothers, I am still not at all I should be but I am bringing all my energies to bear on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God is calling us up to heaven because of what Christ Jesus did for us.”
That is my passionate heart-cry for myself and for anyone our Lord has put in my path to influence, inspire, encourage – whatever; so that we all might come into the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Rise up, fathers! Rise up, sons! BE ALL CHRIST SAVED YOU TO BE! Hold on, fathers, to that high and holy calling of nurturing, mentoring, and training! Hold on, sons, until the ‘father’s release!’
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
“ABANDONING HOPE OR ABIDING IN HOPE?”
In the Random House Collegiate Dictionary the word “hope” is described as follows: “The feeling that what is desired is also possible, or that events may turn out for the best..; to look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence..; that something desired may happen..; trust, rely.” And no doubt, redeemed or not, there are people gripped in their minds with a “hope” that what they put their faith in may happen or it may not happen. But ‘fleshly hope’ is nowhere near Biblical hope! Some, both out of or in the church “hope things turn out for the ‘best’,” or like others they live, they strive, they ‘try’, but live in a state of mind AND heart : “I hope against hope,” which IS a sad state of mental, physical, and spiritual levels of living! Why not ABIDE IN BIBLICAL HOPE without being swayed by the world, the flesh, or the devil?
In John 15:4-11 the Lord Jesus tells us: Jesus says, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit, for without Me you can do nothing.
If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, AND My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”
As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.”
Would you say that Jesus was extremely clear when He said that if you and I as believers “abide in Him” that we will be strongly held in the arms of Him whose arms cannot be broken? Did He also say that only in and through Him does Sovereign fruitfulness become a reality? And in that “rest” in Him only, did He also say that abiding in Him supernaturally allows divine fruitfulness, to bud and produce, yes, the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of Christ, the fruit of God?
But, notice John 15:2! “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit the Father takes away, and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” And in the branch should one, yes, be concerned about minimum or maximum ‘fruit-production’? Is the “fruit” that the Word declares the evidence of one’s “new birth experience” or an unredeemed life that just “hopes for the best”, but hoping for the best is not the same as “resting in the hope Christ has promised” which is “His best” revealed in His full surrender to God the Father’s “Before Creation, but settled in His Mind, His Heart, and His Will: “My Son will be the “hope of all repentant, trusting hearts, in reconciliation to My eternal purpose for created, sin-bound men who are only set free from godlessness and led by Christ into the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Do you remember Jesus saying thousands of years after Abraham’s birth, life, and death that “Abraham rejoiced to see My day and he was glad?” Father-God knew that in the reality of men’s birthing on earth He didn’t want “spiritual zombies” as sons and daughters but people free to choose whether they wanted to be independent of God or dependent upon Him for mercy and grace! And, yes, Abraham and many Old Testament citizens learned of the Coming Messiah who would be the “blood sacrifice” in behalf of repentant hearts and souls.
But, sadly, multitudes abandoned hope from God holding on to “best effort” human genius! That’s like Pharaoh of Egypt, confronted in Exodus 5 by Moses and Aaron on a mission from God, telling Pharaoh that Holy God said to “Let My people go” from their Egyptian bondage and slavery with Pharaoh saying in Exodus 5:2, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go.”
Even though Sovereign God determined the Savior of the world would come as “Emmanuel” or “God in flesh”, and that He would come being born of the Virgin Mary, only true, God-trusting Old Testament believers of Israel put their faith in the Savior their physical eyes would never see, indicating certainly “spiritual vision” far outweighs being able to see with only physical eyes! Yes, “Abraham (having never seen) rejoiced to see My day, and he was glad!”
Most of Israel abandoned hope although they were devoted to religious observances! Most of the world today doesn’t even look back to the Cross of Christ as most of Israel in the Old Testament didn’t look forward to His coming! They were satisfied with their religious observances even as they practiced, yes, a godless lifestyle, heavily reinforced with religious activities, never sensing the Voice of Christ or the Holy Spirit’s unveiling of Christ to them. Why? “Who needs a Savior when we’re capable of doing whatever our natural or religious minds determine! We’re able to be religiously devoted!”
And there are still those even today who “take up stones to throw at Christ”! To them it was justified because they didn’t see the great “I AM” Jesus as worthy of anything but stoning! But, I urge you, reflect upon Saul’s attitude toward the prophet Samuel who had just learned from God, “Saul doesn’t follow Me”, and Holy God instructed Samuel to tell Saul, as well as all unbelievers today, 1 Samuel 15:22-23, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king.”
Of course, we don’t have to be concerned in the church today about being called ‘kings’, or do we? In Revelation 5:9-10, “the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. And they sang a new song, saying: (Speaking to the Lamb of God, King Jesus!), “You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and nation, (GET READY!!!), and have MADE US KINGS AND PRIESTS TO OUR GOD; AND WE SHALL REIGN ON THE EARTH.”
That’s not when you die and go to heaven, but when on earth you choose the sentence of death unto yourself that the Resurrection Life of Christ may be manifested in you as He anoints YOU IN HIM to reign upon the earth!
But around you daily you cross paths with people who “abandon hope” and refuse to even consider “abiding in hope” because some tell them, “If you even rang God’s heavenly doorbell, He wouldn’t answer you because even God can’t help the hopeless,” which is so foreign to the mind, heart, and will of God. I tell you, God is able to save, heal, deliver the worst sinner on the face of the earth if he/she, in true repentance and faith calls out for God’s mercy and grace!
But I tell you also, there is a huge difference between a ‘religious hope fabricated by men’ and redemptive hope written forever by the shed blood of the Lamb of God who still says: “Come unto Me, and I will give you rest.” I don’t know who wrote it, but I came across an anonymous statement: “There is more hope for a self-convicted sinner than there is for a self-conceited saint,” and to that I say, “Amen!”
I wrote a few words I pray will enlighten you, bless you, and encourage you – no title yet, just a few, I hope, challenging words!!
“Lord Jesus, Son of God, Savior of repentant, faith-believing minds and hearts, Open our understanding of all Your gracious deeds as, by Your Spirit, we examine our heart-felt needs!
That’s the need to abandon hopelessness and be swept up in the sea of Your abiding hope! Our wanderings without you birthed a life of a world of grief because, we as your children, rested in ourselves as thieves.
In ourselves, no hope; in ourselves, no cure; in ourselves, no help; becoming hopeless and helpless, blinded by ‘flesh’, deceived by Satan, fooled by the world, we dance the death that will not die, even blinding ourselves to God’s open eye!
There are dark clouds for men without God, but gracious God, in amazing love, placed His Son on our very sod; hope is His gift, mercy His song, His invitation to Him belong!
“Come to Me and I’ll give you rest, find your place in Heaven’s nest – no longer the sad song of life’s frustration, but washed in His blood, indwelt in your body, you see your heart as My destination.”
There is for your life, though clouds may come, the starlight of heaven shining on your home. Circumstances may arise with Satan’s intent to discourage your walk, but never give in to his empty talk.
Christ Jesus has spoken, and His received Word need never be broken! He ever abides to stand by your side, that you in His glory may continue to abide. His sunset of hope, like an anchor to hold, is never swept away but continually abides to stand by your side, His promise that cannot be denied!” Amen?
“Abandoning Hope Or Abiding in Hope?” I pray you’ll join me in “Abiding in Hope”! Let’s look first at “God’s Amazing Promise”! In Hebrews 6:9-20 we read: “But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, ‘Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.’ And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. [A forty year wait!].
For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. Thus God, DETERMINED TO SHOW MORE ABUNDANTLY TO THE HEIRS OF PROMISE THE IMMUTABILITY OF HIS COUNSEL, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. [Did Abraham ‘lay hold of the hope’ AFTER HE HAD PATIENTLY ENDURED? Again, there is ‘birth’, ‘infancy’, ‘youth’, ‘young adult’, and the ‘senior fully matured in the faith’!].
Hebrews 6:19-20 continues: “This hope we have AS AN ANCHOR OF THE SOUL, BOTH SURE AND STEADFAST, and which enters the “Presence” behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” Are YOU “standing on our Lord’s promises and resting in the sure Word of God that never fades away or changes?
SECOND, ABIDING IN HOPE IS BEING ENRICHED BY THE ANOINTED WORD OF GOD! Don’t ever forget or overlook in ‘discipleship training’ the words of Jesus in Matthew 4:4 as Jesus responded to Satan’s temptations! He said: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Tell me, first, about your physical dieting! Do you at least try to eat three square meals a day? BUT, is there the necessity of ‘spiritual feeding’ of the redeemed soul? If you eat three square meals a day to maintain your physical body, what about maintaining the ‘spiritual life’ that MUST BE NOURISHED IN THE BREAD, MEAT, AND VEGETABLES AND HONEY OF GOD’S SPIRIT-WORD?
In John 6:63-64 Jesus said: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” How many ‘believers’ and ‘church folk’ have crossed your path who insist there is no need of discipline in the Word “after” one had been born again?
Very interesting Verse in Psalm 49:20! “A man who is in honor, yet does not understand, is like the beasts that perish.” And, I thought: How many honorable men in the church or outside the church are esteemed but couldn’t give you one word about himself as a student of God’s Holy Word feeding on it daily? Are you “being enriched” by the living and abiding Word of God?
THIRD, ABIDING IN HOPE IS BEING SUSTAINED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT! In Romans 8: 1-2 Paul wrote: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh (one’s old sin nature), but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”
Abandoning hope is the determination to choose to live by one’s best effort without any need of “God’s interference” with one proving he/she can do it on one’s own determination! But Holy God just happens to be smarter than fallen mankind’s assessment of himself, God fully aware ‘in the flesh’ fallen mankind cannot, does not, will not live the overcoming life against the world, one’s old sin nature, or Satan’s interference; therefore merciful God sustains us by the Holy Spirit in divine conviction, divine conversion, and divine consecration – the Holy Spirit sustains true believers!
In Romans 8:8-11 Paul continued laying the foundation for a true believer “abiding in hope”! He wrote: “So then those who are in the flesh (living under the control of their old sin nature) cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And IF Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Holy Spirit who dwells in you.”
But there are those ‘professing believers’, ‘active church members’, even ‘preachers’, who say, “Oh, someday, in the sweet by and by, we’ll finally experiencing what it means to live in Christ’s fullness!” Yet Paul wrote in Romans 15:29, “But I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.” Really? In the here and now? That’s the true gospel! And “in Christ” you can “live with joy by the will of God,” “daily refreshed in His resurrection life, resurrection power, and resurrection hope”! I say to you: NEVER FORGET Martin Luther’s words in his famous hymn that says: “A mighty fortress is our God, A bulwark never failing; Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing. For still our ancient foe Does seek to work us woe; His craft and power are great, And, armed with cruel hate, On earth is not his equal.
Did we in our own strength confide, Our striving would be losing, Were not the right Man on our side, The Man of God’s own choosing. Do you ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He; Lord Sabaoth is His name, From age to age the same, And He must win the battle.
And tho’ this world, with devils filled, Should threaten to undo us, We will not fear, For God has willed His truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim – We tremble not for him; His rage we can endure, For lo! His doom is sure: One little world shall fell him.
That word above all earthly powers – No thanks to them – abideth; The Spirit and the gifts are ours Through Him who with us sideth. Let goods and kindred go, This mortal life also; The body they may kill; God’s truth abideth still, His kingdom is forever.” Can YOU say AMEN to the grace, mercy, and love of God as YOUR ABIDING HOPE, or do you presently walk on “the sinking sands” of fleshly suffocation?
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“BLAND-SOME, HANDSOME, OR AWESOMELY TRANSFORMED?”
It was really interesting when I read casually a statement written anonymously but included in a major book called “The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations.” The encyclopedia was a Fleming H. Revell Company publication. The statement? “Beware of no man more than yourself.” And I’m sure without hesitation that there ought to be at times the necessity of looking to ourselves, examining ourselves, and determining if we’re responsible and accountable to God about our ‘present state’, mentally, emotionally, health-wise, and certainly spiritual evaluation about ourselves, whether under our own control or moving daily through life under God’s agenda and not our fleshly anticipation!
It was Alexander Maclaren who once said, “All along the Christian course, there must be set up altars to God on which you sacrifice yourself, or you will never advance a step.” So true!
When there is no inward analysis about where we presently are in the inner man, it is so easy in making turns more and more away from God but centering and surrendering and classifying ourselves as our own ‘man’ able to determine one’s own spiritual destiny or as an ‘asserting believer sure of one’s ‘salvation’ because they attend ‘church’ regularly yet bear “no fruit” of a redeemed, Spirit-led walk of true discipleship!
Shockingly I read where Benjamin Franklin once said, “God helps those who help themselves.” NO! A THOUSAND TIMES, NO! God helps those who empty themselves of self-control, choosing death daily to our ‘old man’ and being filled with and controlled by the Holy Presence of Christ and His “guiding” Holy Spirit, by the reality of Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope!
A paraphrased statement of Charles Caleb Colton says: “Heroism, magnanimity, and self-denial, in which they do not spring from the foundational truth of “death to self and pure life only in Christ’s Resurrection Presence within”, may be religious in their tendencies, but are only on the ‘personal altar’ of sacrifice of one kind of self-love to another kind of self-love,’ with no glory to God and no honor to the pretender,” but just promotes attention to ‘self-gratification”!”
Have you ever heard people in religious circles encouraging those in their circles having a hard time adjusting to their ‘profession of faith’, “You must TRY HARDER”! And the true disciple understands that it’s not a matter of ‘trying harder’ but “trusting more and more”, like we read through Paul’s teaching, led by the Holy Spirit, “Take the sentence of death daily that the Resurrection Life of Christ may be manifested in your mortal flesh”!
Daily denial of the “old self” willfully explodes”(!*) in the reality of the heart’s open door to the “Master-ing” of Christ Himself through you! Holy God longs and looks for those who willfully deny themselves and are filled and over-flowing with the Holy Presence of the Resurrected Christ, yes, Him reigning as the Victorious King in one’s humble heart, daily dead to self and the old man but living in “the fullness of the blessing” of His moment by moment “reign in victory” over your life, even over all your trials, temptations, and troubles! Sadly, in much of modern-day Christianity, many know nothing of “the joy of the Lord”!
Modern-day ‘humanity’, the general public, the national or international make-up of men, includes often rulers with no allegiance to “King Jesus”, business owners and some of their employees, State leaders with some having NO allegiance to the will of God, even universities or local school employees or state governments who’ve decided the “Sacred Scriptures” have no place in their communities, even doctors, nurses, and hospitals who have no desire or place for the ministry of the Great Physician! And even more sad is when some churches are ‘ruled’ by some pastors and elders who major more on their personal philosophies than they do “Preaching and Teaching the Word of God”, yes, excellent in its history but void and empty of its message to “go into all the world and preach the Gospel”, or validating His Presence in them by witnessing, evangelizing, loving and caring for the lost community that surrounds the local gathering and ‘smart’ preacher (?)!
Let’s examine “The Bland-some”! In “The Random House Collegiate Dictionary”, Revised Edition of 1975 by Random House Inc., the word “bland” is described as follows: “pleasantly gentle or agreeable, (and I have to ask, “With anything and everything”?), non-irritating,lacking in interest (of what doesn’t fit their mind or heart-set?,lacking liveliness, lacking loveliness in what miraculously blesses it?),unemotional, indifferent, casual, possessing either a softness, or harshness, or irritating.”
The bland-some? That’s individuals being consumed in their self-awareness that they do not like, but indifferent to the “knock” at their hearts’ doors to a caring, merciful, able God, Savior, and Lord, able to do exceedingly above All that one might consider or think, even miraculously producing a “new man”!
The bland-some, un-governed, have no desire to be governed by Another who IS the Master of an individual’s destiny! The bland-some, though within their minds and hearts are often encouraged by even a human touch or a fleshly encouragement, are strongly minded against anything Holy God has to say about them! That’s why Jesus said about the rulers over the religious Pharisees, in John 12:43, fearful of being put out of the synagogue, “for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God”!
Even from the time of beginning, by God, of man’s earthly residency, many of natural mankind had an aversion to God! And because of, and even being created “in the image or likeness of God”, and really for His glory only(!), some of natural mankind had and has no desire to be birthed again (in the Spirit!) and see their ‘seed’ becoming “servants of God”! And buried in the recesses of their minds and darkened hearts was and is, by some, was and is, resistance to obedience to God’s will or purpose for their lives! That attitude is still paramount across our known world! (That’s why true believers are called by Christ to be “witnesses to their world” of saving grace, love, power, and purpose!).
The bland-some? Have you ever read through early Exodus about Moses’ encounter with the Pharaoh of Egypt? Holy God sent faithful Moses as a witness, but Pharaoh’s heart was “hardened by God” because of his resistance to divine truth, the divine Way, and the divine purpose, exactly the ‘spiritual disease’ of the bland-some!
In 1 Samuel 8 we find the historical record of ‘bland-some’ folk who have no desire to even know what God thinks about the purpose of their existence! Follow carefully the historical record, beginning at Verse 4 through Verse 9! It says: “Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, “Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” [Please consider!! What would happen worldwide if nations declared allegiance to Jesus’ saving grace and Jesus’ eternal purpose for lives, homes, cities, states, and nations?].
But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” So Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, THAT I SHOULD NOT REIGN OVER THEM. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day – with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods – so they are doing to you also. Now therefore, heed there voice. However, you shall solemnly forewarn them, and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them.” [Tell me of the present result in your life of the results of the “bland-some king of flesh” ruling in you, through you, for his hellish ‘academy award’ of deceit reigning over you presently!].
OH, BUT THEN, BEYOND THE BLAND-SOME, LET’S EXAMINE THE HANDSOME, THE ‘HOLLYWOOD’ PRODUCTION OF SELF-BEAUTIFIED, SELF-GLORIFIED, SELF- CELEBRATING!!
In, yes, the context of human existence, beyond the ‘bland-some’, there are the ‘handsome’ who truly are ‘successful’ in what most consider to be “successes, academy award winners of the best efforts of ‘flesh’, best efforts of godless men, best efforts of human achievements.” And the world around them celebrate, rejoice, and are giddy about their achievements – but GOD LAUGHS and opens the door to Hell’s celebration of their self-centered, godless existence!
Are you familiar with Pharoah of Egypt’s handsomeness, his impressiveness in ascending to national leadership, and his allegiance to his ‘handsome way’ of leadership(?)? He had ‘the peacock-pride’ of self-will, self-rule, self-preeminence! He was ruler, he was ‘master’ over slaves, he owned Egypt (he thought), and lived a self-centered, wealthy, prosperous life-style while his citizens hungered! Some consider ‘pride’ as the beginning of sin, when in reality it is only the bad fruit of what is already there, thus reigning ‘in sin’ as he ruled over his people! What are You ‘reigning’ in as you live, yes, independently of the Indwelling Christ as He makes a man’s redeemed life the center of His Earthly Throne and His Heavenly Presence?
The ‘handsome back-slappers’ have no awareness of the sin of pride, of hypocrisy, and of, yes, their vain-glory! The ‘fallen’ are spiritually blind and need the miracle of God’s saving grace to “open their eyes” to see eternal opportunity!! I was reading somewhere, not sure where or even by whom, but I wrote down a reference to the words of Charles Churchill in his writing “Independence” about William Warburton, Bishop of Glouchester, in England, many, many years ago. The statement? Speaking about the Bishop:
“He was so proud that should he meet the Twelve Apostles in the street he’d turn his nose up at them all and shove his Savior from the wall.” Wow! What an illuminating statement! Can YOU believe that even some national church leaders have been ‘pretenders’, imitators, comical ‘showboats’, shaming their profession of Christ without an ounce of possession of “the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ”? Was it pride that shamed some angels even before human creation?
Do you even grasp the absurdity of ‘fallen’, ‘professing’, ‘religious’, ‘pretending’, supposedly ‘righteous men’, celebrating their ‘religious faith’ (?), but they hold out, yield to a ‘heaven-inspired’ (?) of their ‘salvation’ when the historical, living testimony, is a Christless life never yielding to the Christ who desires to indwell them, but they profess that on their terms! YOUR “BEST” IS NOT HIS BLESSED PRESENCE!!!
You don’t seek to understand so that you may believe, you TRUST what Jesus says He’s already accomplished through His death, His Resurrection, and His Throne-Reigning in Heaven, graciously granting His Holy Spirit’s residence in you to “guide you into all truth” in “the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ”!
Valiant, blessed, fulfilled, rejoicing individuals, though having “embraced the darkness of their old sin natures” COME TO THE LIGHT OF CHRIST IN AND THROUGH And BY HIS GRACE AND MERCY THEY ARE ETERNALLY CHANGED INTO SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF A TRUE, LIVING, TRANSFORMING FAITH – It’s “JESUS ONLY”! THIS BRINGS US TO:
THE DIVINE REALITY, THE HEAVENLY MIRACLE OF GRACE OF AWESOME TRANSFORMED LIVES THROUGH THE SHED BLOOD OF CHRIST!! In John 1:14, 16 we read: “And the Word (that’s Jesus!) became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth”, with Verse 16 telling us, “And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.” Are you trying to live the Christian walk by ‘grit’ or by God’s grace?
Patiently read and follow with me Ephesians 1:15-2:10!! It says: “Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God (and Father!) of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, they eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, ACCORDING TO THE WORKING OF HIS MIGHTY POWER WHICH HE WORKED IN CHRIST WHEN HE RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD AND SEATED HIM AT HIS RIGHT HAND IN THE HEAVENLY PLACES, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And God put all things under Christ Jesus’ feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Ephesians 2:1-10, “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Can you say, “Glory, Hallelujah”?
Do you know and understand what Paul was saying in Ephesians 3:19? He was praying for Ephesian believers and us in the 21st Century in America and the world over that we should “know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Oh, and then in Ephesians 5:17-21 we read:
“Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.” Is there a continuous song of praise in your heart, spirit, and mind, even when it may be the darkest moment of your life, walk, and journey of faith and trust?
I AM TRULY ALWAYS AWED WHEN I READ PAUL’S ANOINTED ASSETMENT OF THE “PREEMINENCE OF CHRIST JESUS” IN COLOSSIANS 1:9-18! It says: For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, FULLY PLEASING HIM, being fruitful in every good work and INCREASING IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who HAS QUALIFIED US TO BE PARTAKERS OF THE INHERITANCE OF THE SAINTS IN THE LIGHT.
He has “delivered us from the power of darkness” and “conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love”, in whom “we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins”. He (Christ Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have preeminence.”
Question! “If Christ Jesus is meant to have preeminence IN ALL THINGS, in your life and walk, does He have preeminence in who you are and what you do? Does He have ‘preeminence’ in determining the streets upon which you walk? Your education, your training, who you date, who you marry, your evaluation and commitment of your ‘best effort’ to what you consider your spiritual, eternal calling?” What did the Word just say? “that in all things He may have the preeminence”! DOES JESUS HOLD PREEMINENCE IN YOUR LIFE’S JOURNEY? Fanny Crosby and Robert Lowry wrote the following hymn words: “All the way my Savior leads me; What have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercy, Who thro’ life has been my Guide? Heavenly peace, divinest comfort, here by faith in Him to dwell! For I know, whate’er befall me, Jesus does all things well.
All the way my Savior leads me, Cheers each winding path I tread, Gives me grace for every trial, Feeds me with the living bread. Though my weary steps may falter, and my soul athirst may be, Gushing from the Rock before me, Lo! A spring of joy I see.
All the way my Savior leads me; Oh, the fullness of His love! Perfect Rest to me is promised in my Father’s house of love. (Now, not someday, ABOVE in the after-life!).When my spirit, clothed immortal, Wings its flight to realms of day (Actual Heaven’s abode!), This my song thro’ endless ages: JESUS LED (IN ME) ALL THE WAY; (EVERY DAY IN THE STILL ETERNAL DAY, IN THE ENDLESS AGES OF NO DEATH, NO SORROW, NO PAIN, NO SEPARATION)!” And His “Eternal Light” in us never dims, never fades, never darkens! AMEN?
ARE YOU ENJOYING AND CELEBRATING AND CONTINUALLY REJOICING AND PRAISING HIM THAT BY HIS GRACE, MERCY, AND LOVE, THROUGH REPENTANCE AND FAITH, YIELDEDNESS AND SURRENDER, YOUR “NEW-BORN” LIFE IN CHRIST BECOMES HIS HOLY TEMPLE OF ABIDING PRESENCE, YES, HEAVEN ON EARTH!??!
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“CROWNED PRINCES,CROWNED PRINCESSES SERVING THE KING OF KINGS”?
OUTSTANDING, MIND-ILLUMINATING, HEART-INSPIRING WORDS FROM PAUL IN HEBREWS 2:14-3:1-14 THAT ALL “CHURCH-FOLK”& “ALL OUTSIDE OF CHRIST” MUST HEAR!! PAUL SAID:
HEBREWS 2:14-18, “FORASMUCH THEN AS THE CHILDREN ARE PARTAKERS OF FLESH & BLOOD, CHRIST ALSO HIMSELF LIKEWISE TOOK PART OF THE SAME; THAT THROUGH DEATH HE MIGHT DESTROY HIM THAT HAD THE POWER OF DEATH,THAT IS,THE DEVIL; AND DELIVER THEM WHO THROUGH FEAR OF DEATH WERE ALL THEIR LIFETIME SUBJECT TO BONDAGE.
FOR VERILY HE TOOK PART NOT ON HIM THE NATURE OF ANGELS;BUT HE TOOK ON HIM THE SEED OF ABRAHAM. WHEREFORE IN ALL THINGS IT BEHOVED HIM TO BE MADE LIKE UNTO HIS BRETHREN, THAT HE MIGHT BE A MERCIFUL & FAITHFUL HIGH PRIEST IN THINGS PERTAINING TO GOD, TO MAKE RECONCILIATION FOR THE SINS OF THE PEOPLE. FOR IN THAT HE HIMSELF SUFFERED BEING TEMPTED, “HE IS ABLE” TO SUCCOUR THEM THAT ARE TEMPTED. (SUCCOUR?IT’S A WORD DEFINED AS, “HELP,RELIEF,AID,ASSISTANCE”; THAT’S HOLY GOD ‘RUNNING’ TO HELP RAISE YOU OUT OF DEATH INTO “LIFE”, OUT OF BONDAGE INTO “ETERNAL FREEDOM”, OUT OF DEVILISH CHAINS “TO THE PROMISES OF YOUR LORD & SAVIOR OF GOD’S OVERCOMING STRENGTH”, OUT OF DEVILISH ACCUSATIONS “TO OUR LORD’S ABIDING TRUTHS”, OUT OF CONSTANT ACCUSATIONS BY DEVILISH DEMONS TO THE “LORD’S PEACE THAT PASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING”!). OH, NOW TO HEBREWS 3:1-14! WHEREFORE, HOLY BRETHREN, PARTAKERS OF THE HEAVENLY CALLING, CONSIDER THE APOSTLE & HIGH PRIEST OF OUR PROFESSION, CHRIST JESUS; WHO WAS FAITHFUL TO HIM THAT APPOINTED HIM, AS ALSO MOSES WAS FAITHFUL IN ALL HIS HOUSE.
FOR THIS MAN (JESUS) WAS COUNTED WORTHY OF MORE GLORY THAN MOSES, INASMUCH AS HE WHO HAS BUILT THE HOUSE HAS MORE HONOR THAN THE HOUSE, FOR EVERY ‘HOUSE’ IS BUILT BY SOME MAN; BUT HE THAT BUILDS ALL THINGS IS GOD.
AND MOSES VERILY WAS FAITHFUL IN ALL HIS HOUSE, AS A SERVANT,FOR A TESTIMONY OF THOSE THINGS WHICH WERE TO BE SPOKEN OF AFTER; BUT CHRIST AS A SON OVER HIS OWN HOUSE: WHOSE HOUSE ARE WE IF WE HOLD FAST THE CONFIDENCE & THE REJOICING OF THE HOPE FIRM UNTO THE END. WHEREFORE (AS THE HOLY SPIRIT SAYS), TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, HARDEN NOT YOUR HEARTS, AS IN THE PROVOCATION, IN THE DAY OF TEMPTATION IN THE WILDERNESS: WHEN YOUR FATHERS TEMPTED ME (GOD, THE SPIRIT, JESUS, THE THREE IN ONE!),PROVED ME, & SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS.
WHEREFORE I WAS GRIEVED WITH THAT GENERATION, & SAID, THEY DO ALWAYS ERR IN THEIR HEART; & THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN MY WAYS. SO I SWORE IN MY WRATH, ‘THEY SHALL NOT ENTER INTO MY REST “TAKE HEED, BRETHREN,LEST THERE BE IN ANY OF YOU AN EVIL HEART OF UNBELIEF, IN DEPARTING FROM THE LIVING GOD.
BUT EXHORT ONE ANOTHER DAILY, WHILE IT IS CALLED ‘TODAY’; LEST ANY OF YOU BE HARDENED THROUGH THE DECEITFULNESS OF SIN. FOR WE ARE MADE “PARTAKERS OF CHRIST” “””IF”””!! WE HOLD THE BEGINNNG OF OUR CONFIDENCE STEDFAST (OR FIRM) UNTO THE END.” WOW!!
CHRIST JESUS “IS” KING OF KINGS & LORD OF LORDS, & IF KING JESUS IS IN US, HE’S THERE NOT SIMPLY TO BE ‘PRESENT’ BUT TO ‘PRESIDE’; HE’S IN YOUR HEART NOT TO BE PROMINENT BUT PREEMINENT; “OBEDIENCE” IS NOT AN OPTION IN THE “AGE OF GRACE”!! GEORGE MACDONALD, IN HIS WRITING “MARQUIS OF LOSSIE” (CH.72) WROTE: “I FIND THE DOING OF THE WILL OF GOD,LEAVES ME NO TIME FOR DISPUTING ABOUT HIS PLANS.”
THERE’S AN OLD HYMN WRITTEN BY A LADY NAMED MARY BROWN THAT SAYS: “I’LL GO WHERE YOU WANT ME TO GO, DEAR LORD, O’ER MOUNTAIN OR PLAIN OR SEA; I’LL SAY WHAT YOU WANT ME TO SAY, DEAR LORD, I’LL BE WHAT YOU WANT ME TO BE.”I ASK YOU!!!
ARE YOU (“IN CHRIST”) A “CROWNED PRINCE” OR A “CROWNED PRINCESS”? DO “YOU” LIVE IN OBEDIENCE TO KING JESUS?IN “ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGIOUS QUOTATIONS”,(PUBLISHED BY FLEMING COM.,WESTWOOD,NJ),IS A COMMENT BY MICHAEL EYQUEM de MONTAIGNE: “THE FIRST LAW THAT EVER GOD GAVE TO MAN WAS A LAW OF OBEDIENCE; IT WAS A COMMANDMENT PURE & SIMPLE; WHEREIN MAN HAD NOTHING TO INQUIRE AFTER OR TO DISPUTE, FOR AS MUCH AS TO OBEY IS THE PROPER OFFICE OF A RATIONAL SOUL ACKNOWLEDGING A HEAVENLY SUPERIOR & BENEFACTOR. FROM OBEDIENCE & SUBMISSION SPRING ALL OTHER VIRTUES, AS ALL SIN DOES FROM SELF-OPINION & SELF-WILL.”
WHEN GOD SPEAKS, LIKE ADAM & EVE, MANY ‘PLAY’ BUT DON’T OBEY!! THEY STILL ‘SIN’ AS THEY ‘PLAY’ THE ‘RELIGIOUS GAME OF ‘PRETENSE’ HOPING OTHERS DON’T SEE THEIR SIN-NATURE IN OPEN DISPLAY AS THEY,YES, CHOOSE THEIR WAY RATHER THAN VICTORY OVER THEIR SIN & SIN-NATURE BY THE BLOOD SHED BY CHRIST ON THE CROSS, CARRYING HIMSELF &YOU TO CALVARY, TO THE GRAVE, BUT 3 DAYS LATER AROSE OUT OF PHYSICAL DEATH INTO SPIRITUAL VICTORY BECAUSE OF THE REVEALED WORD OF GOD! IT WAS JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER WHO WROTE YEARS AGO THESE WORDS: “IN SIMPLE TRUST LIKE THEIRS WHO HEARD BESIDE THE SYRIAN sea, LET US, LIKE THEM, WITHOUT A WORD, RISE UP & FOLLOW THEE.”
CHOSEN BY CHRIST! CONVICTED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT! CHRIST KNOCKS ON YOUR HEART’S DOOR – IF “YOU” INVITE HIM IN, HE OFFERS YOU THE FREE GIFT OF EVERLASTING LIFE, & IT’S YOURS BY REPENTANCE BEFORE GOD & FAITH IN “CHRIST’S FINISHED WORK”! & THE RESULT? HOW ABOUT CROWNDED PRINCES & CROWNDED PRINCESSES?
CROWNED PRINCES –CROWNED PRINCESSES?IF I REFER TO THEM, NOT AS SOME NATION’S KIDS UNDER A GOVERNOR’S RULE, BUT AS CHOSEN SERVANTS OF THE KING OF KINGS & LORD OF LORDS, DO YOU GET A CLEAR GLIMPSE AS TO WHERE I AM HEADED IN THIS PRECIOUS WORD & WILL OF GOD?
1 PETER 4:10-19 INFORMS US: “AS EVERY MAN HAS RECEIVED THE GIFT (A MAN, A WOMAN WHO HAS REPENTED & TRUSTED!),EVEN SO MINISTER THE SAME ONE TO ANOTHER, AS ‘GOOD STEWARDS’ OF THE MANIFOLD GRACE OF GOD. IF ANY MAN SPEAK, LET HIM SPEAK AS THE ORACLES OF GOD; IF ANY MAN MINISTER, LET HIM DO IT AS OF THE ABILITY WHICH “GOD GIVES”; THAT GOD IN ALL THINGS MAY BE GLORIFIED THROUGH JESUS CHRIST, TO WHOM BE PRAISE & DOMINION FOREVER & EVER. AMEN (OR SO BE IT!).
BELOVED, THINK IT NOT STRANGE CONCERNING THE FIERY TRIAL “WHICH IS TO TRY YOU”(OH, BUT IN THE 21ST CENTURY, ‘WE WORRY ABOUT THAT? THESE ARE ‘SMOOTH’ DAYS; RIGHT?). WRONG? THE WORLD, THE OLD SIN NATURE, & SATAN & HIS DEMONS STILL STRUT IN PROUD ARROGANCE TO TAKE YOU AS A DISCIPLE OF JESUS DOWN – THEY WANT YOU MARRED,SCARRED, & HARDENED BY ‘DECEIT, PRIDE,& THE PULL OF THAT DECEITFUL NATURE OF SIN THAT STILL CAN DECEIVE!). PETER GOES ON,
VERSES 13-19 SAYS, “BUT REJOICE, INASMUCH AS YOU ARE PARTAKERS OF CHRIST’S SUFFERINGS; THAT, WHEN HIS GLORY SHALL BE REVEALED, YOU MAY BE GLAD ALSO WITH EXCEEDING JOY.
IF YOU BE REPROACHED FOR THE NAME OF CHRIST, HAPPY ARE YOU; FOR THE SPIRIT OF GLORY & OF GOD RESTS UPON YOU:ON THEIR PART JESUS IS EVIL SPOKEN OF, BUT ON YOUR PART JESUS IS GLORIFIED.BUT LET ONE OF YOU SUFFER AS A MURDERER, OR AS A THIEF, OR AS AN EVILDOER, OR AS A BUSYBODY IN OTHER MEN’S MATTERS.
BUT LET NONE OF YOU SUFFER AS A MURDERER, OR AS A THIEF, OR AS AN EVILDOER,OR AS A BUSYBODY IN OTHER MEN’S MATTERS. YET IF ANY MAN SUFFER AS A CHRISTIAN,LET HIM NOT BE ASHAMED; BUT LET HIM GLORIFY GOD ON THIS BEHALF. FOR THE TIME HAS COME (IS THAT TIME COMING AROUND OUR WORLD TODAY?) THAT JUDGMENT MUST BEGIN AT THE HOUSE OF GOD:AND IF IT FIRST BEGINS WITH US, WHAT SHALL THE END BE OF THEM THAT OBEY NOT THE GOSPEL OF GOD?
AND IF THE RIGHTEOUS SCARCELY BE SAVED, WHERE SHALL THE UNGODLY & THE SINNER APPEAR? WHEREFORE LET THEM THAT SUFFER ACCORDING TO THE WILL OF GOD COMMIT THE KEEPING OF THEIR SOULS TO “HIM” IN WELL-DOING, AS UNTO A FAITHFUL CREATOR.”
CROWNED PRINCES – CROWNED PRINCESSES SERVING THE KING OF KINGS? I WANT TO CLOSE THIS MESSAGE WITH THE HYMN ENTITLED “CROWN HIM WITH MANY CROWNS”. (THE AMERICAN HYMNAL, BY BROADMAN PRESS, NASHVILLE, TENN.1933).
“CROWN HIM WITH MANY CROWNS, THE LAMB UPON HIS THRONE; HARK! HOW THE HEAVENLY ANTHEM DROWNS ALL MUSIC BUT ITS OWN! AWAKE, MY SOUL, & SING OF HIM WHO DIED FOR THEE; AND HAIL HIM AS YOUR MATCHLESS KING THRO’ ALL ETERNITY.
CROWN HIM THE LORD OF LOVE! BEHOLD HIS HANDS & SIDE,- RICH WOUNDS,YET VISIBLE ABOVE, IN BEAUTY GLORIFIED: NO ANGEL IN THE SKY CAN FULLY BEAR THAT SIGHT, BUT DOWNWARD BENDS HIS WOND’RING EYE AT MYSTERIES SO BRIGHT.
CROWN HIM THE LORD OF LIFE! WHO TRIUMPHED O’ER THE GRAVE; WHO ROSE VICTORIOUS TO THE STRIFE FOR THOSE HE CAME TO SAVE: HIS GLORIES NOW WE SING, WHO DIED & ROSE ON HIGH; WHO DIED ETERNAL LIFE TO BRING, & LIVES THAT DEATH MAY DIE.
CROWN HIM THE LORD OF HEAVEN! ONE WITH THE FATHER KNOWN, ONE WITH THE SPIRIT THRO’ HIM GIVEN FROM YONDER GLORIOUS THRONE! TO YOU,LORD,BE ENDLESS PRAISE, FOR “YOU” FOR US DID DIE; BE THOU, O LORD, THRO’ ENDLESS DAYS ADORED & MAGNIFIED.”
WOULD “YOU” DARE SHOUT: “GLORY BE TO GOD ALMIGHTY FOR HIS GRACE, MERCY, & LOVE, SO PROVEN BY THE SACRIFICE OF HIS OWN SON THAT WE MIGHT BE RESTORED TO “HIS KINGDOM LIVING FOREVER & EVER”??!!
CROWNED PRINCES-CROWNED PRINCESSES? IN 2 PETER 1, VERSES 1-7, IS PETER’S INSPIRED WORD ON GOD’S GRACIOUSNESS & POWER THAT IS AVAILABLE TO ALL TRUE REPENTANT & FAITHFUL BELIEVERS! FOLLOWED IN VERSES 8-11,& VERSE 16, THEN I CLOSE THIS MESSAGE.
2 PETER 1:1-7 SAYS, SIMON PETER, A SERVANT & AN APOSTLE OF JESUS CHRIST, TO THEM THAT HAVE OBTAINED LIKE PRECIOUS FAITH WITH US THROUGH THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD & OUR SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST: GRACE & PEACE BE MULTIPLIED UNTO YOU THROUGH THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD, & OF JESUS OUR LORD,
ACCORDING AS HIS DIVINE POWER HAS GIVEN UNTO US ALL THINGS THAT PERTAIN UNTO LIFE & GODLINESS,THROUGH THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIM THAT HAS CALLED US TO GLORY & VIRTUE: WHEREBY ARE GIVEN UNTO US EXCEEDING GREAT & PRECIOUS: THAT BY THESE YOU MIGHT BE PARTAKERS OF THE “DIVINE NATURE”, HAVING ESCAPED THE CORRUPTION THAT IS IN THE WORLD THROUGH LUST. AND BESIDE THIS,GIVING ALL DILIGENCE,ADD TO YOUR FAITH VIRTUE; & TO VIRTUE KNOWLEDGE; & TO KNOWLEDGE TEMPERANCE; & TO TEMPERANCE PATIENCE; & TO PATIENCE GODLINESS; AND TO GODLINESS BROTHERLY KINDNESS; & TO BROTHERLY KINDNESS CHARITY.
THEN EXAMINE VERSES 8-11! FOR IF THESE THINGS BE IN YOU, &ABOUND, THEY MAKE YOU THAT YOU SHALL NEITHER BE BARREN NOR UNFRUITFUL IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. “BUT” HE THAT LACKS THESE THINGS IS BLIND, & HAS FORGOTTEN THAT HE WAS PURGED FROM HIS OLD SINS. WHEREFORE THE RATHER,BRETHREN, “GIVE” DILIGENCE, TO MAKE YOUR CALLING & ELECTION SURE;FOR IF YOU DO THESE THINGS, YOU SHALL NEVER FALL; FOR SO AN ENTRANCE SHALL BE MINISTERED UNTO YOU ABUNDANTLY INTO THE EVERLASTING KINGDOM OF OUR LORD & SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST.” THEN, VERSE 16!! “FOR WE HAVE NOT FOLLOWED CUNNINGLY DEVISED FABLES, WHEN WE MADE KNOWN UNTO YOU THE POWER & COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, BUT WERE EYEWITNESSES OF HIS MAJESTY.” GLORY!!
ARE “YOU” AN EYEWITNESS OF HIS MAJESTY? HE SAYS, AS HE KNOCKS ON YOUR HEART’S DOOR, “OPEN THE DOOR OF YOUR MIND, HEART, & WILL, & I WILL COME IN! BY MY LOVE, GRACE, & MERCY, I’LL CROWN YOU AS “CROWNED PRINCES & CROWNED PRINCESSES” IN MY KINGDOM LIVING OF HEAVENLY GLORY, DIVINE LOVE & POWER,SONS OF ETERNAL FAITH! AMEN? & WE’RE CALLED TO BARE FRUIT
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“TROUBLING TOMBS OF GODLESS LIVES!”
Troubling Tombs? Troubling Tombs of Godless lives, like self-centered lives striving in a Godless existence, even striving to find meaning to life without God but assured in self, worldly, demonic deception that your life will work it out and find meaning, a sense of peace and purpose without Him, though for most with godless minds, they never consider what or who or why life has to be a struggle finding any sense of blessing or peace or satisfaction as they see it, doing so without eternal identity and eternal purpose!
Troubling Tombs of Godless Lives? When in James 1:8 the brother of Jesus said, “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways,” you get a true picture of a godless life that has a hint of a God-filled life as a possibility, but has no desire to die to the ‘flesh’, the old sin-nature, or devotion to a world of unbelief – he, she desires, though troubled, because their greater allegiance is satisfying the ‘fullness of the flesh’ rather than experiencing “New Birth” in and through the Holy Spirit!
Troubling Tombs of Godless Lives? How clear do you find the words of Christ Jesus in Luke 11:34 when He said: “The light of the body is the eye: therefore when your eye is single (Settled in on God alone in His love, grace, and mercy!), your whole body is full of light; but when your eye is evil, your body also is full of darkness.” Some say Jesus was “too strong” in His words about lives that choose to accept, visit, remember, hold on to, indulge in a false confession of faith with one foot stepping forward in Him and the other foot yielding to the world, the old sin-nature, and, yes, to Satanic, demonic deception! Haven’t you crossed paths with, yes, many ‘religious’ (?) people who want the best of both worlds?
Troubling Tombs of Godless Lives? Is that a “downcast life”, a life that seldom, if ever, looks UP toward the King of kings and Lord of lords, as He sits on His throne ready to respond to the needy, empty, sin-sick soul, though they mentally, at times, at least ‘wanting’ to be religious without being ‘dead to the old sin-nature’, but they never ever consider being made ‘alive’ in the Resurrection Presence of the Reigning Lord and Savior?
Troubling Tombs of Godless Lives? How easy is it for Godless lives, even some modern-day ‘religious profess-ors’, to ‘profess’ but never “POSSESS” the fullness of the blessing of the Resurrected Christ? There are ‘religious-cave-dwellers’ that are not just prehistoric men but modern-day-religious pretenders dwelling in the cave of self-determination, “saying” one thing about their ‘faith’ (?) but “living” still in their ‘godless life’, though they sing about “blessed assurance” as they practice their “cursed existence”!!
Troubling Tombs of Godless Lives? How aware are you of the disease of “the reverence of a man’s self-nature”, so in love with his/her ‘fleshly passions’, that he/she never looks to the eternal Truth of, yes, “crucified with Christ”; or, as some, they profess allegiance to the false expression: “God helps those who help themselves, saying “I try”, rather than truly trusting in Christ’s finished work at the Cross”, or, “Do your best”, as religiously they bow at the altar of ‘self-control’ rather than “resting” in Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope IN “Christ Only, One’s Only Hope of the Glorified Life”!!
Troubling Tombs of Godless Lives? Oh, how easy it is for far too many people to live in a false pretense of faith rather than the “blessed assurance” in and through Christ alone! Alexander MacLaren once said, “All along the Christian course, there must be set up altars to God on which you sacrifice yourself, or you will never advance a step.” This is why in Galatians 2:20 Paul said, “I AM CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in this fleshly body I live by The Faith of The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me,” adding in Verse 21, I do not frustrate the grace of God!”
In the short but sensational word of Jude you find him writing about “pretenders”, though they ‘dressed’ daily in imitation garbs! In Verses 3-5 and Verses 8-15 Jude exposes not only those in his day but also those in modern centuries and in our current century who live the “victimized life of religious pretense” filling some church pews!!
Jude said, Verses 3-5, “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
For THERE ARE CERTAIN MEN CREPT IN UNAWARES, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God INTO LASCIVIOUSNESS, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
I will therefore put YOU in remembrance, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.
Verses 8-15 then says: Likewise also these filthy dreamers (who) DEFILE THE FLESH, DESPISE (CHRIST’S) DOMINION, AND SPEAK EVIL OF DIGNITIES. Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke you.
But, these speak evil of those things which they know not; but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. Woe unto them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.
These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear; clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withers, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints,
To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
It was Sir Francis Bacon in his writing, “New Atlantis”, who said: “The reverence of a man’s self is, next to religion, the chiefest bridle of all vices.” Have you ever crossed paths, in a local church, with ‘active’ church members who are ‘brain and heart dead’ to “taking the sentence of death daily to the mortal sin-nature that the Resurrection Life of Christ may be manifested in and through their mortal flesh?”
Oh, and reflect upon the startling, shocking, awakening words of Charles Caleb Colton, (The Enclypodia of Religious Quotations, p.397, Fleming H. Revell Company, Westwood, New Jersey)!! “Heroism, magnanimity, and self-denial, in all instances in which they do not spring from a principle of religion (and, I say, “Biblical Faith”!), are but splendid altars on which we sacrifice one kind of self-love to another.”
TROUBLING TOMBS OF GODLESS LIVES ARE DARKENED HEARTS SADLY DENYING RESURRECTION LIFE IN AND THROUGH CHRIST ONLY!
TROUBLING TOMBS OF GODLESS LIVES ARE DARKENED HEARTS DOMINATED BY FLESHLY “WARPED WITS”!!
TROUBLING TOMBS OF GODLESS LIVES ARE DARKENED HEARTS STILL SATISFIED WITH HIGHLY EDUCATED WORLDLY WILLS, YES, CELEBRATED BY SATAN AND HIS DEMONIC DECEIVERS!!!
TROUBLING TOMBS OF GODLESS LIVES ARE INDIVIDUALS VICTIMIZED BY THE POWERS OF DARKNESS RADIATING THE “FLESHLY LIGHTS OF SEIF-IMPORTANCE AND SELF-INDULGENCE” WITH NO NEED OF BEING RESCUED BY GOD!
TROUBLING TOMBS OF GODLESS LIVES ARE LIVES JOHN MILTON ONCE DESCRIBED AS: “HE WHO REIGNS HIMSELF AND RULES HIS PASSIONS, DESIRES, AND FEARS IS MORE THAN A KING,” and, I say,- “HE, SHE IS A DECEIVED SINNER WITHOUT ANY NEED OF A SAVIOR SINCE “SELF-RULE” STUPIDLY REIGNS!!”
TROUBLING TOMBS OF GODLESS LIVES ARE LIVES RADIATING THE ‘DARKNESS’ OF CAGED SELFISHNESS THOUGH ‘PROFESSING’ A RELIGIOUS FAITH!
TROUBLING TOMBS OF GODLESS LIVES? OH, THERE IS FOR MANY A TROUBLING AWARENESS OF THEIR ‘SIN-NATURE’ BUT IN THEIR DARKENED HEARTS AND BONDAGED-SELF-WILL NO AWARENESS OF THE NEED OF GOD’S INTERVENTION – THEY CAN HANDLE THEIR ‘MENTAL MISTAKES”! REALLY?
TROUBLING TOMBS OF GODLESS LIVES? HAVE YOU EVER CROSSED PATHS WITH,YES, CROWDS OF PEOPLE WHO ARE APPRECIATIVELY INFORMED ABOUT CHRIST’S “BLOOD SACRIFICE” IN THEIR BEHALF BUT SEE AT AS AN UNNECESSARY EVENT BY GOD SINCE THEY SEE THEMSELVES AS RELIGIOUSLY “OK”?
TROUBLING TOMBS OF GODLESS LIVES? “BELIEF” THAT IS DARKENED UNBELIEF THAT DESTROYS BECAUSE, THOUGH “CONFESSING CHRIST”, ONE’S WALK- HIS PATH, HER PILGRIMAGE-IS AN IMMORAL DESERT WHERE ONE CONTINUES TO WALK DEAFENED TO THE PRECIOUS VOICE OF GOD AND BLINDED TO HIS FOOTSTEPS TO CALVERY, OUT OF THE TOMB, BUT HIS CONTIUNUING WALK WORLD-WIDE TO KNOCK ON THE DOORS OF MEN’S HEARTS! HAVE YOU OPENED THE DOOR TO THE SAVIOR’S LORDSHIP AND SOVEREIGN REIGN OVER YOUR WALK, YOUR PATH, YOUR PILGRIMAGE TO HONOR HIM DAILY? It was Elizabeth Barrett Browning, in her writing “The Cry of the Human”, who wrote:“There is no God,” the foolish says, But none, “There is no sorrow”; And nature oft the cry of faith In bitter need will borrow. Eyes which the preacher could not school, By wayside graves are raised; And lips say, “God be pitiful,” Who never said, “God be praised.”
Sadly, yes, across many ‘Christian paths’, people walk and talk and pretend but are blinded in unbelief by the mind of religious human reasoning, superficial in religious thoughts and pretense, but void of Resurrection Presence – Christ knocked, but they didn’t answer because their pretense was sufficient rather than His Presence!
How clear and convicting was Paul when in 1 Corinthians 13:11 he wrote, “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” Are You ruled by ‘self-love’ or fully embraced and overflowing with your love for Christ Jesus who suffered, bled, and died on the Cross of Calvary as He, yes, carried YOU with Him to be “crucified with Christ”? In Mark 8:34 Jesus said: “Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS (DYING DAILY!), AND FOLLOW ME.” For YOU? A TROUBLED TOMB OR TRIUMPHANT IN JESUS?
In the old “American Hymnal” of 1938, Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, is a hymn entitled, “O For A Faith That Will Not Shrink.” It says:
“O for a faith that will not shrink Tho’ pressed by many a foe, That will not tremble on the brink Of poverty or woe.
That will not murmur nor complain Beneath the chastening rod, But in the hour of grief or pain Can lean upon its God.
A faith that shimes more bright and clear When tempests rage without, That, when in danger, knows no fear, In darkness feels no doubt.
Lord, give me such a faith as this, And then, whatever may come, I taste even now my hallowed bliss Of my eternal home.”
Can YOU say Amen to that Truth? Are YOU settled and cemented in Christ alone, or do you ‘rest’ in your fleshly self?
Are YOU a TROUBLED TOMB OR HIS TRIUMPHANT TEMPLE OF ETERNAL PRESENCE REIGNING VICTORIOUSLY THROUGH YOU?
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
“CRIMINALIZED FOR STANDING FOR THE TRUTH”!
At a “National Hispanic Leadership Conference” in Houston, Texas, April 29, 2015, former Florida governor and presidential candidate, at the time, Jeb Bush, said: “There is no more powerful and liberating influence on this earth than the Christian conscience in action and today in America it is important to respect and to protect Christians acting on their faith…not just talking about their faith, but there is a constitutional right and more importantly for a loving society Christians need to have the space to be able to act on their conscience.” My only problem with his statement is, that often, the ‘Christian conscience’ is willful determination of ‘flesh’ opinions rather than Holy Word of God revelation!
It wasn’t long ago, maybe same day as Jeb Bush, that former Arkansas governor, Mike Huckabee, said, maybe same conference, “We are living in perilous times where people who are Christian are on the brink of being criminalized for their convictions.”
And both men, stressing their beliefs, are easily, in this day and time, set aside and considered ‘radical’ by ‘godless’ or even ‘misinformed’ professing believers who don’t stand on the Word of God! It’s difficult to “stand for Truth” when one’s foundation is built on “self-evaluation” rather than “God-revealed-Holy Truth”!
We can go all the way back to Joshua’s day when in Joshua 24:14-15 we read, Joshua speaking, “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
We live in days as a nation that are not foreign to any nation, any people, or even to one, and can visualize what goes on anywhere, anytime, with any persons, just like the historical history of Christ’s crucifixion on the Cross several thousand years ago! Come with me to Luke 23, beginning with Verse 32! “There were also two others, criminals, led with Him to be put to death. And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left.
Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” And they divided His garments and cast lots. And the people stood looking on. But even the rulers with them sneered, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ, the chosen of God.”
The soldiers also mocked Him, coming and offering Him sour wine, and saying, “If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself.” {“If”? Are you aware of the reality of literally millions and millions, more likely billions, who understand, ‘There IS the King of the Jews, the King of all Americans, the King of every European, African, or Asian’ but who selfishly decide for themselves as to whether or not they will choose to serve the Lord?!?}.
In Luke 23:34 then tells us that Christ Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do,” {Which is so true of literally millions and millions who do not know what they do when they trivialize Christ, join those who divide His garments and “roll the dice” hoping what He says is not true – BUT IT IS!}. Even the rulers of Israel SNEERED, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ, the chosen of God.”
Don’t you find that so interesting? They had an inkling about ‘the Christ, the chosen of God,’ but couldn’t, wouldn’t, didn’t receive the prophetic word from many of their prophets hundreds and hundreds of years before His actual coming! Do you remember Jesus saying in John 8:56, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad”? Verse 57 follows, Then the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” In Verse 58 Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” And their response? THEN they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them (the “stone-throwers”), and SO PASSED (THEM) by.” {Will Jesus have to “pass you by” when all are brought before His Throne of Judgment, whether you like it or not?}.
In Luke 23:36-38 we read: The soldiers also mocked Him, coming and offering Him sour wine, and saying, “If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself.” And an inscription also was written over Him in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrews: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
Didn’t we just read in Luke 23:33, “And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left.” At least Luke KNEW Jesus was not a criminal, but, as God in the flesh, Who willingly offered Himself as THE sacrifice for the sins of all humanity! Even John, early in his writing of the Gospel of John, John 1:14, wrote: “And the Word (the Living Word of God!!) became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth,” proclaiming in Verse 29, The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
Examine John 1:32-35! And John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ AND I HAVE SEEN AND TESTIFIED THAT THIS IS THE SON OF GOD.” Again, the next day, John stood with two of His disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”
Dare I tell you that Christ Jesus IS “the Way of Life” that leads to the “way of death”? In Matthew 10:16-18,21-22 Jesus challenged the original ‘twelve disciples’, saying to them, “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues. You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.
Verses 21-22 then says, “Now brother will deliver up brother TO DEATH, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.”
It is so evidently true that to “follow Christ Jesus” is to follow Him in every step He had to take, including the way of ‘suffering’, the way of ‘rejection’, the way of ‘obedience’, willing to fulfill the Father’s eternal will: death to Himself that resurrection life and hope could, would, and was manifested! Oh, and then in John 20, after His crucifixion and burial and resurrection, in Verses 19-21, we read:
Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.
So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” John 20:30-31 then says: And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”
And do you understand that “life in His name” does not come in full fruition apart from the awareness of and willingness to die daily to the ‘flesh’, the old sin-nature, and self-will, plus, a readiness of physical death by persecution if it comes your way, BECAUSE you will not deny Him?
In 2 Corinthians 1:9-10 Apostle Paul wrote: “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death (“the wages of sin is death”!), and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us…”! Did Holy God, the Father, allow Jesus’ death and then manifest His Holy Power to raise the dead after Jesus’ three days in the grave?
And, how pleased is God the Father for the willingness of 21st Century disciples to offer their lives daily as a “willing sacrifice” taking that sentence daily to themselves that His Resurrection Life may be manifested in their mortal flesh?
Do you remember Paul and Silas imprisoned, Acts 16:20-24? It says: And they brought them to the magistrates, and said, “These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city; and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.” ( Ever heard it yourself? “We’re free Americans and not interested in anything you ‘Christians’ have to say! Keep on, and we’ll have you imprisoned, or kill you ourselves!”}. [I actually heard that threat in India as I preached openly on the streets!].
Continuing in Acts 16:22-24, Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.”
That was a literal event for faithful believers, and it does still happen today that some believers are physically jailed for faithful testimonies in certain locations. BUT there IS a ‘symbolism’ which extends to many today who are vocal for the faith but ostracized by ‘friends’ and ‘family’, opponents shutting the door on them for their outspoken challenge to receive Christ!
“CRIMINALIZED FOR STANDING FOR THE TRUTH OF GOD’S HOLY WORD”? Are you aware of Christian Institutional and openly, strong, faithful disciples of Christ witnessing a rapidly growing opposition and threats because of many enemies of God who are becoming openly hostile to the Word and Will of God and against those who uphold “All Scripture is divinely inspired…”?
Prayer is rapidly being removed from classrooms with kids being told “School is not a place to pray!” Really? Yes, really! Ten Commandments are being removed from lots of places across the Nation where the banners of Truth used to fly! In Sweden pastors have been jailed for opposing homosexuality – and that threat is not far away in the U.S.A.!
There’s an active homosexual- sick man named Mitchell Gold whose diatribe against the Word of God and churches, pastors, and faithful disciples who stand on that Word of God, who has said, “They must be made to take homosexuality off the sin list,” and a New York Time’s writer, Frank Bruni, affirmed Gold’s obscene opposition to Holy God and His Word, saying, “His commandment (that’s Mitchell Gold’s commandment) is worthy – and warranted.”
And what sickens me is when I hear some say of their pastors, “They’ll not expose or speak the Truth because they don’t want to offend ANYBODY!” God, help us! It’s as if our formerly great nation, “one nation under God”, is fast becoming a nation under opposition to God!
“CRIMINALIZED FOR STANDING FOR THE TRUTH OF GOD’S HOLY WORD”? I want to urge you right now to commit yourself to reading faithfully, over and over, the Book of Daniel for at least a week! In Daniel you’ll find, not trivializing Truth, but many who want Biblical Truth obliterated from the national scene or stage! Follow Daniel 6:1-16!
It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom one hundred and twenty satraps, to be over the whole kingdom; and over these, three governors, of whom Daniel was one, that the satraps might give account to them, so that the king would suffer no loss. Then this Daniel distinguished himself above the governors and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king gave thought to setting him over the whole realm.
So the governors and satraps SOUGHT TO FIND SOME CHARGE AGAINST DANIEL concerning the kingdom; BUT THEY COULD FIND NO CHARGE OR FAULT, because he was faithful; nor was there any error or fault found in him. Then these men said, “We shall not find any charge against this Daniel unless we find it against him concerning the law of his God.”
So these governors and satraps thronged before the king, and said thus to him, “King Darius, live forever! All the governors of the kingdom, the administrators and satraps, the counselors and advisers, have consulted together to establish a royal statute and to make a firm decree, that whoever petitions any god or man for thirty days, except you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, O king, establish the decree and sign the writing, so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which does not alter.” Therefore King Darius signed the written decree.
Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows opened toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days. Then these men assembled and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God.
And they went before the king, and spoke concerning the king’s decree: “Have you not signed a decree that every man who petitions any god or man within thirty days, except you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions?” The king answered and said, “The thing is true, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which does not alter.”
So they answered and said before the king, “That Daniel, who is one of the captives from Judah, does not show due regard for you, O king, or for the decree you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day.”
And the king, when he heard these words was greatly displeased with himself, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him; and he labored till the going down of the sun to deliver him. Then these men approached the king, and said to the king, “Know, O king, that it is the law of the Medes and Persians that no decree or statute which the king establishes may be changed.”
SO the king gave the command, and they brought Daniel and cast him into the den of lions. But the king spoke, saying to Daniel, “Your God, whom you serve continually, He will deliver you.”
In Verses 21-22 Then Daniel said to the king, “O king, live forever! My God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths, so that they have not hurt me, because I was found innocent before Him; and also, O king, I have done no wrong before you.”
AND the accusers, on the king’s command, were all cast into the den of lions, them, their children, and their wives; and the lions overpowered them, and broke all their bones in pieces before they ever came to the bottom of the den!!!
What was King Darius’ response? He wrote a proclamation! Verses 25-28 says: “To all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom men must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel For He is the living God, and steadfast forever; His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed, and His dominion shall endure to the end.
He delivers and rescues, and He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, Who has delivered Daniel from the power of lions.” So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian. Glory!
“CRIMINALIZED FOR STANDING FOR THE TRUTH OF GOD’S HOLY WORD”? John 8 is a strong chapter defining Christ’s strong “Personal Witness” against the ‘religious’ Pharisees who determined He deserved to die because He opposed their religious pretense and no true eternal foundation upon which they walked and talked “the game” yet they never faced their guilt, sin, and separation from Holy God, and certainly had no ears to hear both prophetic utterances from hundreds and hundreds of years before or His declaration of Messianic identity!
Jesus told them in John 8:19, “You know neither Me nor My Father. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also.” Oh, and then in John 8:23-24 Jesus released the eternal arrow of Truth about the scribes and Pharisees and the ‘religious but unredeemed’ Jews: “You know neither Me nor My Father. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also.”
In John 8:37-47 Jesus then said: “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.” They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.”
Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I
heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father.” Then they said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father – God.” Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.
Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.
When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.”
So…Christ Jesus Himself was ‘criminalized’ by the religious, unbelieving, unrepentant crowd and CRUCIFIED ON THE CROSS for all men because of God’s great love for the world!
What went on then still goes on today! The unbelieving world still condemns the holy and congratulates the hollow; the unbelieving world sentences the sincere and celebrates the sinner; the unbelieving world imprisons the faithful and frees the ‘foul’ from any and every offense; the unbelieving world still maligns the merciful and merits the ‘molded’ in mind and heart!
It was Harriet Beecher Stowe who once said: “No one is so thoroughly superstitious as the godless man. Life and death to him are haunted grounds, filled with goblin forms of vague and shadowy dread.” And, in most cases, it’s the godless man criminalizing those who stand for, in, and through the truth, resulting, for them, a Hell forever with the devil, his demons, and all rejecters of Biblical Truth, and all sin-infected ‘profound minds’, and all ‘superficial thinkers’ who know nothing about standing on Eternal Truth!
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
GOD DWELLS WHERE THE THRONE IS!!
Revelation 4:1-5:14
It’s not seen with the visible eye, but every life has a throne – and WHO sits on that throne defines that life.
Life is not defined by outward appearances but is defined by the authority on the throne of that life.
It is not explained by educational degrees, bank accounts, or even meritorious accomplishments – it’s explained by WHO gets the glory.
Life is not explained by beauty, talent, genes, abilities or the lack of them, religious inclinations or the lack of them, ancestral heritage or the lack of it, hall of fame awards or the lack of them – LIFE is defined by either a temporal throne or the Eternal Throne.
It’s either a throne of religious devotion or The THRONE OF REDEMPTIVE MERCY.
It’s either a throne of self-declaration as ‘god’ unto myself or submission in the heart at the Throne of Sovereign, Mighty God.
It’s either a throne of self-reflection or the Throne of God where repentance is the welcome Door-Opener to an Eternal relationship with Him.
It’s either a throne of self-satisfaction consumed by constant introspection or the Throne of a life bent toward God because His drawing power of us was not in vain.
Do you remember the godless saying to the Psalmist, Psalm 42:3. “Where is your God?” Can I tell you?
“God dwells where the Throne is” – not your throne but His Throne. He’s at home where His Throne has been established. He’s honored where He feels welcomed and received.
As John Piper so ably expressed, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”
Jesus put it even clearer when in John 14:23 He said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make Our home with him.”
Do you see it? A God-loving heart, a welcoming home, and a Royal Throne.
In Revelation 4 and 5, 14 times the word, ‘throne’ is used. Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary says of the word ‘throne’, “The place where God peculiarly manifests his power and glory…sovereign power and dignity…”
Psalm 99:1-3 declares: “The Lord reigns; Let the peoples tremble! He dwells between the cherubim; Let the earth be moved!…The Lord is great in Zion. And He is high above all the peoples…Let them praise Your great and awesome name – He is holy.”
“Where is your God?” He’s seated on His throne, He reigns on His throne, He dwells on His throne, and He feels at home on His throne.
And my one driving ambition of life should be to be raised up and seated with Him in heavenly places. Where is that? Let’s see what God’s Word is telling us – I want you to see 9 truths:
GOD DWELLS WHERE THE THRONE IS? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
First, God dwells on THE THRONE OF SOVEREIGN AUTHORITY. Revelation 4:1, “After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, ‘Come up here, and I WILL SHOW YOU THINGS WHICH MUST TAKE PLACE AFTER THIS.”
How do you read that? Are you side-tracked onto a path of prophetic utterances or is God revealing Himself? “I will show you…I will explain what’s to take place…I, as absolute Monarch, I as Sovereign Ruler, will tell you what is about to happen.”
We think life is ‘chance;’ we believe life is just ‘a roll of the dice;’ we’re convinced ‘whatever will be will be’ and WHOMEVER (God) has nothing to do with it; we believe ‘free will’ trumps divine influence and God is left out in the cold; we believe man is something in himself and God is an option he can take or omit when the truth is God Sovereignly rules and He will have mercy on whom He wills to have mercy!
Listen to me, we ought to rush the Throne of Sovereign Authority. We ought to take hold of the horns of the altar and, with Jacob, cry out, “I’ll not let go until YOU bless me.” We ought to be caught up in the Sovereign wind currents of Holy Grace resting our lives at the foot of His Throne.
Listen to Paul instructing Timothy in I Timothy 6:15-16, “… He who is the blessed and only [Sovereign], the King of kings and Lord of lords… who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, TO WHOM BE HONOR AND EVERLASTING POWER.
AMEN.”
Psalm 103:19 says, “The Lord has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all.”
The question is, ARE YOU SUBMITTED TO HIS SOVEREIGN AUTHORITY?
Second, God’s Word tells us A THRONE OF MERCY IS AVAILABLE! Look at Revelation 4:3, “And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a RAINBOW around the throne, in appearance like an emerald.”
In Ezekial chapter one, verse 26, God’s Word speaks about “a throne,” and then, in verse 28, it says: “Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it.” And I hear a Word from the heart of God:
“Your life has been dark clouds, it’s been rainy days, the storms have been so intense upon you, but look up – there’s a rainbow, which means behind your darkest clouds the Sun still shines, behind your darkest days, God reigns with mercy-drops; to this point the testimony of your pilgrimage has been hollow and meaningless with blackness in your heart – but look up because your redemption draws nigh! Look up, open wide, and let those mercy-drops of God settle within your life!!
Listen to Psalm 147:11, “The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those WHO HOPE IN HIS MERCY.”
You probably know Psalm 23 by memory, but let me share it: “The Lord id my shepherd, I shall not want..He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters…He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake…Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; For Thou art with me.; Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me…Thou dost prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; Thou hast anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows… Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
What did Paul say to the Ephesian church? “But God who is rich in mercy…” That’s it! That’s where God dwells!!
Where do you dwell? Where have you settled on your residence? And I’m not talking about the country you are from! What do you call your permanent home? What is your address?
Write it down! My address is “Hope in God’s Mercy Alone.” My permanent residence is not personal merit but Providential Mercy. It’s not my attainment but appropriation of His ATONEMENT. My dwelling place is not on the avenue or street of disciplined ‘doing’ but the DIVINE “DONE” – “It is finished” – and I rest in God’s mercy alone!
“O the love that drew salvation’s plan! O the grace that brought it down to man! O the mighty gulf that God did span at Calvary…
Mercy there was GREAT, and grace was free; Pardon there was multiplied to me; There my burdened soul found liberty AT CALVARY.”
Where does God dwell? On the THRONE! And third, we see that throne IS A THRONE OF AWESOME SPIRIT-ANOINTING!! Revelation 4:5, “And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, WHICH ARE THE SEVEN SPIRITS OF GOD.”
I so love what Reinhard Bonnke had to say in his book, “Mighty Manifestations.” (p9), “A powerless gospel preacher is like an unwashed soap salesman.”.
How many disciples do you know who’ve crossed over into the realm of the supernatural because of the “New Birth” but continue to live as if they are only ‘natural’ beings?
It’s why Paul, in I Corinthians 3:3, spoke of those Corinthian disciples “behaving like mere men!!”
In Acts 2, Peter quotes the prophet Joel, in verses 17 and 18, God speaking, “I will pour out My Spirit…I will pour out My Spirit in those days,” and then Peter says, in verse 39, “For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
Later, (p35), Bonnke said, “Without that vitality we have a secularized, nominalized, anglicized, rationalized, and harmless religion.” I don’t want a harmless religion – I want where God Himself feels at home in supernatural anointings, enduements with power from on high, and where God’s people walk in Spirit-baptisms!!
Listen to Chuck Swindoll in “Flying Closer To The Flame,” (p.75), “What fuel is to a car, the Holy Spirit is to the believer. He ENERGIZES us to stay the course. He motivates us in spit of the obstacles. He keeps us going when the road gets rough. It is the Spirit who comforts us in our distress, who calms us in times of calamity, who becomes our companion in loneliness and grief, who spurs our “intuition” into action, who fills our minds with discernment when we are uneasy about a certain decision. In short, He is our spiritual fuel. When we attempt to operate without Him or to use some substitute fuel, all systems grind to a halt.”
Fourth, God Dwells Where The Throne Is, A THRONE OF UNENDING ADORATION! Revelation 4:8, “and they do not rest day or night, saying, ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!”
Adoration, worship, praise is not simply a bodily position (although we do bow down) but an attitude of the heart. Adoration is not simply acknowledgement of God but selfless surrender and constant commitment to Who He Is and What He Desires! Adoration is more than “respectful and formal recognition of God” – Jesus put it like this to Satan in Matthew 4:10, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.”
Did you see it? “…worship…and…serve.” Worship and the walk. Worship and the witness. Worship and the waiting. Worship and willful yielding to the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.
Psalm 22:3 says, “But You are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel.” Psalm 84:4 says, “Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; they are ever and ever praising You.” You want to know where God dwells?
Look at Romans 12:1, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable spiritual service of worship.”
Fifth, God Dwells Where The Throne Is, A THRONE OF THE ETERNAL! Revelation 4:9-10, “Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, WHO LIVES FOREVER AND EVER…the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever…”
And the one thing I want you to grasp is resolving where you center your life and your walk – on that which is so temporal or upon Him Who Is Eternal?
In Exodus 3:14, God said to Moses, “I Am Who I AM;” “I Am Who I Always Was;” “I Am Always The Present I Am,” and…”I Am Is He Who Will Always Be!!”
In Genesis 21:33 He’s called “The Everlasting God.” In Psalms 90:2, Moses said, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting You are God.” And the one thing you must lay hold of here is that mankind either centers its life upon what is so temporary or centers its life upon that which is Eternal! You have a choice.
And this is our Gospel message and is to be our Gospel preaching – I John 5:20-21, “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true: and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God AND eternal life.” That’s where I want to dwell!!
Sixth, God Dwells Where The Throne Is, A THRONE OF SUBMISSION AND SURRENDER! Revelation 4:10, end of the verse, these worshippers “cast their crowns before the throne…”
They lay everything down at the feet of Jesus. They take “hands off” of the governing of their lives. They, with Saul of Tarsus, say, “Lord, what would You have me to do?’
If “As Jesus Is, So Am I” is true, and it is, then I must find my holy place of Gethsemane, and I must say deliberately, willingly, passionately as Jesus, (Matthew 26:39), “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; NEVERTHELESS, not as I will, but as You WILL.”
God dwells where the Throne is where men are casting their crowns at His feet. God dwells where self-will dies and Divine Will is uppermost. God dwells where men hear His voice and go out not even knowing where they’re going – but God has spoken and we must follow. God dwells where human will is swallowed up by Divine Life.
“I am resolved no longer to linger, Charmed by the world’s delight; Things that are higher, things that are nobler, These have allured my sight…
I am resolved to follow the Savior, Faithful and true each day; Heed what He sayeth, do what He willeth, He is the living way…
I am resolved to enter the kingdom, Leaving the paths of sin; Friends may oppose me, foes may beset me, Still I will enter in…” [Palmer Hartsougfh]
Seventh, God Dwells Where The Throne Is, A THRONE OF UNVEILING OF THE PRESENCE OF THE WORTHY LAMB! Revelation 5:1-6
God dwells where Jesus is honored. God dwells where the Son of God is lifted up. God dwells where the Savior is magnified. God dwells where the Worthy Lamb is unveiled.
He’s the Lion of the House of Praise, He’s the Root of King David, He’s the sacrificial Lamb, He’s the Friend of Sinners, He’s the Loving Savior, He’s the Merciful Master…And He says, (John 12:32), “And I, if I am lifted from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.”
I want to be drawn to Jesus more and more. I want to lift Him up more and more. I want to exalt the name that is above every name. I want to pray more and more, “Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus.”
I want to “Preach Christ and Him crucified!” I want to preach “The Resurrected King of kings and Lord of lords.” I want to create expectancy that “The King Is Coming,” Prepare to meet Him.
Preach it, pastors, REDEEMED, “with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” (I Peter 1:19)
Eighth, God Dwells Where The Throne IS, A THRONE OF SYMPHONIC PRAISE AND WORSHIP! Revelation 5:9-13
How many do you know who sing old songs, dead songs, man-inspired songs, but they have nothing to do with what matters most. Redemption is absent. Reconciliation is a foreign language. Regeneration is not simply a mystery – it’s a lost language.
But when the Lamb is lifted up – there’s a “new song,” there’s a new symphony, there’s a new orchestra, there are new singers, and with loud voices they make much of the Worthy Lamb.
Blessing and honor and glory and power belong to Him – and they major on that. Spurgeon wrote: “A heart full of praise is heaven in the bud. Perfect praise is heaven full-blown.” Why? Because of our redemption through the blood of Christ, “Heaven came down and Glory filled our souls!!”
We sing of the mercies of our Lord forever and ever. We sing of the marvelous, wondrous grace f God forever and ever. We sing of the love of God forever and ever.
Luke 19:37-40, “And as He was now approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, saying…”Blessed Is The King Who Comes In The Name Of The Lord; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”…And some of the Pharisees in the multitude said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.”…And Jesus answered and said, “I tell you, if these become silent, THE STONES WILL CRY OUT!”
I don’t want to be a hardened rock that someday acknowledges Christ ashamedly – I want to be “a living stone” that worships Him so appreciatively!! (Revelation 5:12)
Lastly, God Dwells Where The Throne Is, A THRONE OF A COMPLETED WORK BECAUSE OF OUR PRAYER OF AGREEMENT! Revelation 5:14, “Then the four living creatures said, “AMEN!” And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshipped Him who lives forever and ever.”
“AMEN?” “It is done – It is finished – So be it, Lord. We stand upon Calvary’s completed work. We rest in the resurrection out of our empty tombs. We claim only the finished work of Christ. Our merit is Your mercy. Our hope is Your help. Our salvation is Your sacrifice. Our life is Your death, burial, and Resurrection. Our past and present has a future – His Name Is Jesus Only!! “AMEN!!”
Nehemiah 8:6, “And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. Then all the people answered, ‘Amen! Amen!’”
Psalm 41:13, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen.”
Psalm 72:19, “And let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen.”
Psalm 106:48, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting! And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’”
Jeremiah 28:6, Jeremiah, “Amen! The Lord do so; the Lord perform your words which you have prophesied, to bring back the vessels of the Lord’s house…”
Mark 16:20, “And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. AMEN.”
Ephesians 3:21, “to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. AMEN.”
2 Peter 3:18, “To Him be the glory both now and forever. AMEN.”
I John 5:21, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols. AMEN.”
Revelation 22:20, He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.” AMEN. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” Verse 21, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. AMEN.”
Will you put an AMEN into your life? Will you put an AMEN into your prayers? Will you put an AMEN into your home, your church, your business, your ministry? AMEN – it’s finished! AMEN – SO BE IT, LORD, only according to Your signature.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
“AWAKENINGS’ NECESSITY!”
EPHESIANS 5:14
God says: “Awake, you who ‘SLEEP’, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light!”
Isn’t it amazing to you that the Holy Word of God is so filled with biblical Truth about those “choosing” to “live in the dark,” “sleepy-time lives”, totally unaware of their ‘fleshly destinies’? In Proverbs 6:4-5 the wise man wrote: “Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids. Deliver yourself like a gazelle from THE hand of the hunter, and like a bird from the hand of the fowler (or ‘hunter’ who seeks to slay you!).” And then in Verses 6-11 the wise man continued, desiring to “wake us all up” from the “sleep” of spiritual death, alienation from God, incapable of personal deliverance from its powerful sentence of spiritual death – a ‘sluggard’ of spiritual inactivity, a ‘sluggard’ of perpetual spiritual sleep, a ‘sluggard’ of slothfulness and indifference to the “Holy Truths” of God, and, yes, even indifferent to His amazing love and grace and mercy, just satisfied to live in “the darkness of a deep spiritual sleep,” unconcerned about his void of spiritual life and faith and purpose, or its penalty!
So, Proverbs 6:6-15, declares so wisely, so convicted, “Wake up, go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, Which, having no captain, ( no Savior, no Redeemer, no Lord, no loving spiritual caretaker), overseer or ruler, Provides her supplies in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest. How long will you slumber, O sluggard? WHEN WILL YOU ARISE FROM YOUR SLEEP? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep – SO SHALL POVERTY (that’s spiritual poverty and spiritual bankruptcy!) COME ON YOU LIKE A PROWLER (one who comes to steal, like the devil!), AND ON YOUR NEED LIKE AN ARMED MAN (or robber or thief, yes, “the powers of darkness”!).”
Verses 12-15 then solemnly, seriously, and in convicting fashion, describes the end of a sleeping, spiritually negligent, self-serving individual, who resists his need of “spiritual awakening”: “A worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth (“that Bible may be what YOUR God says, but I don’t care!”); He winks with his eyes, he shuffles his feet, he points his fingers; Perversity is in his heart, he devises evil continually (that’s ANYTHING THAT LEAVES GOD OUT OF ONE’S ‘MIXED-BAG-OF-LIFE CHOICES’!), he sows discord, (Opposition to eternal Truths). THEREFORE his calamity shall come suddenly; suddenly he shall be broken without remedy.”
Oh, but there is “hope that is eternal”! There can be, must be, if you let Him, an “awakening” from spiritual sleep and slumber, spiritual death, spiritual hopelessness, to the reality of the true, merciful, spiritual awakening in and through “Christ Jesus” alone!
In Joel 1:5 the word of the Lord had come to Joel: “Awake, you drunkards, and weep; and wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth.” Is this ‘literal’ speech or ‘metaphorical’? The ‘drunkards’ are ‘sinners separated from Holy God ‘intoxicated’ in unholy, unbiblical, un-redeeming truths! The ‘drunkards’ are ‘willful sinners’ intoxicated with the ‘devil’s brew’ of unbelief, rebellion, disobedience, self-centeredness, and purposely, willfully, so intoxicated with self, one has ‘no sense’ or ‘will’ or ‘desire’ to live for God! “IS IT EVIDENT IN SOME ‘MODERN-CHURCHES’? WITHOUT ANY DOUBT! But loving, merciful, caring, compassionate God takes on the mission to awake those who sleep, resurrect those who are spiritually dead, and by repentance toward Him and faith in Christ Jesus’ “finished work” at the Cross, the ‘dead’ can be, will be, have been “raised from spiritual death’ from the ‘slumber of the devil’ INTO THE REALITY OF THE SAVIOR’S MERCY,LOVE,&GRACE!!
Get ready! It’s going to be an interesting, awe-inspiring ‘journey’ from spiritual sleep to “awakened by the love, mercy, and grace of GoD”!! FIRST! LET’S LOOK AT THE REALITY OF GODLESS MEN/WOMEN,TEENS/CHILDREN, WHO “ARE” CAPTURED IN BIRTH BY THE REALITY OF A COVETED SIN-NATURE, ‘STRIVING’ TO “LIVE”, BUT WITHOUT HOLY GOD! GOD HAD NO DESIRE IN BIRTHING MEN WITH NO “FREE WILL” because He knew it’s consequences, “BUT THE ‘FREE WILL” OF ‘FLESH’ had to be because Holy God was not interested in seeing men & women as automatic robots”, and certainly, natural birth WAS & IS NOT “LIFE IN THE SPIRIT OF HOLY GOD”! THIS IS WHY JESUS CONFRONTED ‘REALITY’ OF THOSE SEPARATED FROM GOD WHEN HE ‘MENTIONED’ IN JOHN 1:13 ABOUT THOSE ‘BORN NOT OF SPIRITUAL BLOOD BUT OF THE WILL OF THE FLESH’, THE WILL OF FALLEN MANKIND!
IN ACTS 7:51 STEPHEN HAD BEEN CALLED BEFORE THE SANHEDRIN TO ANSWER QUESTIONS THEY HAD ABOUT HIS “OPEN CHRISTIAN WITNESS” – THEY WERE READY TO KILL HIM! HAVING BEEN THREATENED, HE SAID TO THE PUBLIC OFFICIALS & ISRAELI LEADERS, “YOU STIFFNECKED & UNCIRCUMCISED IN HEART & EARS, YOU DO ALWAYS RESIST THE HOLY SPIRIT: AS YOUR FATHERS DID, SO DO YOU.”+ (DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT “RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS” WITHOUT THE PRESENCE OF THE SAVIOR AS LORD, BIRTHS A GREATER ‘BONDAGE’, A STRONGER ‘RELIGIOUS PRIDE’ THAT CRUCIFIED KING JESUS, & MULTIPLIES DEEPER DECEPTION & RESENTMENT OF TRUTH ABOUT “TRUSTING” WHEN THEY’RE SO DEVOTED TO THEIR ‘RELIGIOUS TRYING’, TO THE POINT THAT WHEN KING JESUS SAID, “FORSAKE ALL & FOLLOW ME”, THE UNBELIEVERS & RELIGIOUS PRETENDERS UNITED TO SEE THAT HE, JESUS, WAS CRUCIFIED ON THE CROSS, FAILING TO UNDERSTAND ‘THE CROSS’ WAS GOD’S PLAN, BUT THEIR EMBITTERED ‘RELIGIOUS HEARTS’ & SPIRITUALLY ‘BRAIN-DEAD MINDS’ ACTUALLY WAS “USED” BY HOLY GOD TO CARRY OUT HIS ETERNAL PLAN OF “BLOOD REDEMPTION” THROUGH THE SACRIFICE OF HIS OWN SON ON CALVARY’S CROSS!
THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH ! THE NATURAL MAN, UNREDEEMED CAN SIN, UNAWARE IT EXPOSES THEIR ‘SPIRITUAL DEATH’! SIN-NATURES “DO NOT NATURALLY BIRTH ‘SAINTS’, BUT BIRTHS SINNERS UNDER SATAN’S MANAGEMENT CONTROL, A LOST WORLD’S DEFENCELESS DECEIT, &, YES, THE SINNER’S ‘OPINION’ THAT ‘SIN DOESN’T PRODUCE DEATH –IT’S FUN’, BUT HOLY GOD OVERSEES & SETTLES THE ETERNAL DESTINY OF THE UNRESPONSE TO HIS LOVE & GRACE AS BEFORE HIS JUDGMENT SEAT THEY DID, DO, & WILL STAND BEFORE HIM AS HOLY GOD ISSUES FOR ALL, SINFUL OR SINLESS, WORLDLY OR HEAVENLY, PERSONAL PERSUASION OR PRINCE OF PEACE’S PRESENCE IN THE REPENTANT, REDEEMED, RECONCILED, REWARDED, & RELEASED “TRUE CHILDREN OF GOD” WHO “GO OUT TO SHARE HIS GOOD NEWS OF ETERNAL SALVATION IN & THROUGH CHRIST’S BLOOD SACRIFICE & THE FREE GIFT OF RECONCILIATION IS GRANTED”!
SECOND, LET’S EXAMINE THAT “FREE GIFT” & HOW “HE” SHOULD INSPIRE OUR DAILY WALK OF “CHRIST IN US OUR HOPE OF GLORY”! IN THE “ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGIOUS QUOTATIONS” (P183) IS A QUOTE BY ST. PATRICK (SIGERSON,tr.), THAT SAYS: “GOD’S MIGHT TO DIRECT ME, GOD’S POWER TO PROTECT ME, GOD’S WISDOM FOR LEARNING, GOD’S EYE FOR DISCERNING, GOD’S EAR FOR HEARING, GOD’S WORD FOR MY CLEARING.”
IN MICAH 7:1-7,&18-19! THE PROPHET SAID: “WOE IS ME! FOR I AM AS WHEN THEY HAVE GATHERED THE SUMMER FRUITS,AS THE GRAPE-GLEANINGS OF THE VINTAGE:THERE IS NO CLUSTER TO EAT:MY SOUL DESIRED THE FIRSTRIPE FRUIT. THE GOOD MAN IS PERISHED OUT OF THE EARTH (“THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH”!); & THERE IS NONE UPRIGHT AMONG MEN:THEY ALL LIE IN WAIT FOR BLOOD;THEY HUNT EVERY MAN HIS BROTHER WITH A NET.
THAT THEY MAY DO EVIL WITH BOTH HANDS EARNESTLY, THE PRINCE ASKS, & THE JUDGE ASKS FOR A REWARD; & THE GREAT MAN, HE UTTERS HIS MISCHIEVOUS DESIRE:SO THEY WRAP IT UP. THE BEST OF THEM IS AS A BRIER:THE MOST UPRIGHT IS SHARPER THAN A THORN HEDGE: THE DAY OF THEIR WATCHMEN & THEIR VISITATION COMES;NOW SHALL BE THEIR PERPLEXITY. TRUST YOU NOT IN A FRIEND,PUT YOU NOT CONFIDENCE IN A GUIDE:KEEP THE DOORS OF YOUR MOUTH FROM HER THAT LIES IN YOUR BOSOM.
FOR THE SON DISHONORS THE FATHER, THE DAUGHTER RISES UP AGAINST HER MOTHER, THE DAUGHTER IN LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER IN LAW; A MAN’S ENEMIES ARE THE MEN OF HIS OWN HOUSE. THEREFORE I WILL LOOK UNTO THE LORD; I WILL WAIT FOR THE GOD OF MY SALVATION:MY GOD WILL HEAR ME.”
THEN IN VERSES 18-19 THE PROPHET EXPLAINS! “WHO IS A GOD LIKE UNTO ‘YOU’, “HE” PARDONS INIQUITY, & PASSES BY THE TRANSGRESSION OF THE REMNANT OF “HIS” HERITAGE? HE RETAINS NOT HIS ANGER FOREVER, BECAUSE “HE” DELIGHTS IN MERCY. HE WILL TURN AGAIN, HE WILL HAVE COMPASSION UPON US;HE WILL SUBDUE OUR INIQUITIES; & HE WILL CAST ALL THEIR SINS INTO THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA.” THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA? THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA OF GOD’S FORGETFULNESS? THAT, MY FRIENDS, IS REALITY FOR SINNERS WHO REPENT & “TURN”, FULLY SURRENDERING TO CHRIST’S BLOOD ATONEMENT, HIS FORGIVENESS, & BECAUSE YOU TRULY REPENTED, HE MAKES YOUR BODY ,HEART, & SPIRIT, INTO A “NEW HABITATION” THAT BECOMES HIS TEMPLE OF EARTHLY RESIDENCE, NEVER TO LEAVE US OR FORSAKE US! GLORY!
“AWAKE YOU WHO SLEEP! ARISE FROM THE DEAD,& CHRIST JESUS WILL GIVE YOU LIGHT!” THERE MUST BE IN THE 21ST CENTURY ANOTHER GREAT “SPIRITUAL AWAKENING” WHERE THE “LIGHT OF CHRIST JESUS IN REPENTANT, BORN-AGAIN HEARTS & MINDS” REVEALS HIS MISSION THROUGH THEM AS “WITNESSES FAITHFULLY TO NEEDY, UNSAVED, SEPARATED-FROM-GOD PEOPLE, UNREDEEMED, WHO MUST BE RECONCILED TO HIM FOR HEAVENLY GLORY TO “REST” IN THEM & THROUGH THEM, BEING HIS “HOLY TEMPLES” OF ETERNALLY ABIDING PRESENCE”!
THIRD, KNOWING CHRIST JESUS GIVES ‘LIGHT’, DOES THAT INCLUDE THE NECESSITY OF GRASPING THE UNDERSTANDING OF TRUE SPIRITUAL GROWTH & MATURITY IN HONORING CHRIST, OBEYING CHRIST, & YES SHARING CHRIST BEYOND THE FOUR WALLS OF ONE’S CHURCH? JESUS SAID IN MATTHEW 4:4 THAT, “IT IS WRITTEN, MAN SHALL NOT LIVE BY (PHYSICAL) BREAD ALONE, BUT BY EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.” SO “EATING BREAD ALONE, FOR MY ENJOYMENT & SATISFACTION”, BUT IGNORING THE STARVING, EMPTY HEARTS & MINDS OF THE “LOST”, ALIENATED FROM GOD, IN NEED OF CHRIST’S “BLOOD REDEMPTION”, BUT YOU LOCK IT & THE NEEDY IN THE SEA OF FORGETFULNESS & “LET THE WORLD AROUND YOU “GO TO HELL”?
FOURTH, AS A “FOLLOWER OF CHRIST”, ARE YOU COMMITTED, NOT ONLY TO “FAITH”, BUT ALSO “OBEDIENCE”? IF YOU’RE A “TRUE FOLLOWER” OF CHRIST, IF HE SAID & SAYS, MATTHEW 4:19, “FOLLOW ME & I WILL MAKE YOU ‘FISHERS OF MEN.’ IN PROVERBS 11:30 WE READ, “THE FRUIT OF THE RIGHTEOUS IS A TREE OF LIFE; & HE THAT WINS SOULS IS WISE.” EVEN THE PROPHET DANIEL HAD A CLEAR UNDERSTANDING OF THE MINISTRY OF MEN & WOMEN ‘RECONCILED TO GOD’! HE SAID, IN DANIEL 12:3, “AND THEY THAT BE WISE SHALL SHINE AS THE BRIGHTNESS OF THE FIRMAMENT; & THEY THAT TURN MANY TO RIGHTEOUSNESS, AS THE STARS FOR EVER & EVER!” TELL ME! “HOW’S YOUR TESTIMONY TO THE WORLD AROUND YOU WHO LIVE APART FROM RECONCILED TO GOD, RE-BORN, & ‘SHINING’ ON OTHERS THE PATH OF “BLOOD REDEMPTION”?
I CLOSE THIS PARTICULAR TEACHING WITH THE WORDS OF AN OLD HYMN ENTITLED “RISE UP,O MEN OF GOD”, (FOUND IN THE 1940 PUBLICATION OF “THE BROADMAN HYMNAL,” BY BROADMAN PRESS, NASHVILLE, TENN.). IT SAYS: “RISE UP, O MEN OF GOD! HAVE DONE WITH LESSER THINGS; GIVE HEART & MIND & SOUL & STRENGTH TO SERVE THE KING OF KINGS.
RISE UP, O MEN OF GOD! HIS KINGDOM TARRIES LONG; BRING IN THE DAY OF BROTHERHOOD AND END THE NIGHT OF WRONG.
RISE UP, O MEN OF GOD! THE CHURCH FOR YOU DOTH WAIT, HER STRENGTH UNEQUAL TO HER TASK; RISE UP, & MAKE HER GREAT!
LIFT HIGH THE CROSS OF CHRIST! TREAD WHERE HIS FEET HAVE TROD; AS BROTHERS OF “THE SON OF MAN”, RISE UP, O MEN OF GOD!”
“AWAKENINGS’ NECESSITY”? IS IT ‘REAL’ FOR “YOU”? IF ‘YOU’ ARE YIELDED TO THE KING OF KINGS & LORD OF LORDS, ARE “YOU” OBEDIENT OR COMPLACENT? COMPLACENT? “SATISFIED IN ONE’S SELF, UNCONCERNED ABOUT WHAT HOLY GOD HAS TO SAY,INDIFFERENT, & EVEN UNCONCERNED ABOUT GOD’S MISSION THROUGH YOU AS A DISCIPLE OF CHRIST IN BEING “HIS WITNESSES” TO UNREDEEMED, INDIFFERENT, UNCONCERNED ‘FOLKS’ ABOUT THEM BEING RECONCILED TO GOD? ARE “YOU” OBEDIENT TO THE “CALL”, “GO & SHARE THE GOSPEL!”
ONE MORE HYMN OF “CHALLENGE” FROM THE SAME OLD HYMNAL,P.187! IT’S ENTITLED, “O JESUS, I HAVE PROMISED”! IT SAYS: “O JESUS, I HAVE PROMISED TO SERVE YOU TO THE END; BE THOU FOREVER NEAR ME, MY MASTER & MY FRIEND; I SHALL NOT FEAR THE BATTLE IF YOU ARE BY MY SIDE, NOR WANDER FROM THE PATHWAY IF YOU WILL BE MY GUIDE.
O LET ME FEEL YOU NEAR ME, THE WORLD IS EVER NEAR; I SEE THE SIGHTS THAT DAZZLE, THE TEMPTING SOUNDS I HEAR:MY FOES ARE EVER NEAR ME, AROUND ME & WITHIN; BUT, JESUS, DRAW YOU NEARER, & SHIELD MY SOUL FROM SIN.
O JESUS, YOU HAVE PROMISED TO ALL WHO FOLLOW THEE THAT WHERE YOU ARE IN GLORY THERE SHALL YOUR SERVANT BE; AND, JESUS, I HAVE PROMISED TO SERVE YOU TO THE END; O GIVE ME GRACE TO FOLLOW MY MASTER & MY FRIEND.” ARE YOU A TRUE FOLLOWER OF CHRIST, AVAILABLE TO SHARE HIS LIFE, EXTEND HIS LIFE, & EXPRESS HIS LOVE TO OTHERS?
CHAPTER THIRTY
“ADAPTABLE CHURCHES OR
APOSTOLIC ASSEMBLIES?”
In Exodus 19:5-6 we find an illuminating statement from God about His “chosen people.” And you have to ask, “Did the people God intended His word for become the “special treasure to Him above all people”? Sadly, some didn’t, but with thankful hearts some did! What did Holy God say?
“Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
What an awesome calling yet easily ‘adaptable’ by many churches today! Today it’s ‘one priest’ without the equipping of all saints to touch the darkened world with the True Light, the Lord Jesus Christ, with many, many churches maintaining their survivability without directions, examples, or equipping of the church’s calling to be “witnesses” to the needy world – evangelism is a lost ministry in many churches, even discipleship training is absent in many churches, and to think that a pastor has the role of equipping saints to “do” the work of the ministry is an ‘archaic, religious tradition’ – not the ‘way of a super-saint’ calling!
In fact, if one truly devoted himself/herself to the inspired words of Simon Peter, one might come to a different conclusion and a more sound foundation to ‘church building’! In 1 Peter 2:7-9 Peter wrote: “Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone,’ and ‘A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.’ They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they were also appointed. BUT YOU (in Christ) are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light…”
How much preparation is given in far too many churches nation-wide to being “witnesses”, equipping ‘saints’ to touch their needy world with Redemptive Truth? Sadly, it’s near or about ‘zero’!
Come to Acts 13:1-5a where we find an obedient witness to the Promise of the Holy Spirit to every disciple to fulfill our calling as a follower of Christ! It says: Now to the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manean who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away. SO, being sent out by the Holy Spirit…” How awesome do you find that commissioning upon every disciple of Christ!?
You can be assured that I for one do not distinguish between ‘leadership’ responsibility and the role and ministry of every true born-again believer. Are there different callings and ministries under the same tent of faith? Of course, but not in excluding or excusing some from being “witnesses”!
I pray you’ll follow with me through John 17 as I look at the prayer of Jesus to His Father in heaven. Don’t miss this! John 17:1-3, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent…”
John 17:6 says, Jesus speaking, “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given me out of the world.” Oh, and then look at what the Lord Jesus said in John 17:17-18! “Sanctify (or “set apart”) them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You (God the Father!) sent me INTO THE WORLD, I ALSO HAVE SENT THEM INTO THE WORLD.”
And then in John 17:25-26 Jesus thanks the Father and reflects upon His eternal ministry and ours! “O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
And are you familiar with the rest of John’s gospel? Jesus’ betrayal and arrest in Gethsemane, even disciples’ denial, the choosing of Barabbas’ freedom over Christ’s, the soldiers scourging of the Lord Jesus, Pilate’s deliverance of Christ to be crucified, His piercing, His burial, and then, praise God, “the empty tomb”! Oh, and then, before His ascension, He said to His disciples, “Follow Me!” And that following is a willful surrender of self-will to the divine will of Father-God! Oh, and then Acts 1 unfolds the eternal purpose, the sovereign grace, and the all sufficient supply to fulfill divine intent through our re-born lives!
In Acts 1:7-8 Jesus spoke to the “gathered assembly of true believers”, saying: “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And, praise God, Acts 2:32 declares, “This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all WITNESSES!”
You are aware that there is a worldwide battle for the souls of men by the world, the flesh, and the devil himself with his demonic forces opposed to anyone or anything that relates to the “blood redemption” of our world – why? Because “God so loved the world” that He desired to rescue as many as received His message and the Master of true life, the Lord Jesus Christ – salvation of the “lost” and alienated from God reduces his kingdom numbers who’ve been the devil’s enslaved!
Notice Paul’s emphasis in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5! “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” [Hear me! I know that much of what we just read relates to the warfare between the old man and the new man, between flesh and spirit – but, at the same time I see our weapons in Him fighting against those spirits that have men and women, boys and girls, enslaved in the demonic kingdom of alienation from Holy God and the Eternal Word!
Apart from Christ fallen mankind ‘drinks’ of worldly streams, devilish rivers, and lakes of unredeemed curses and ‘snake-like’ strangle-holds with its released poisons of godlessness! When Jesus said you’ll know people by their ‘fruits’, it’s either the “Fruit of the Spirit” or the “Foul Fruit of Satanic indifference” to the things of Holy God and His Kingdom rule and reign. I believe the Lord Jesus “celebrates” the child-like obedience of children of the faith to allow their bodies to be the kingdom of His holy presence and through which He bears witness Himself!
It’s really, really interesting that in Revelation 1:5-6 the Holy Spirit unveils the beauty and blessing “from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness,” but continuing, “the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, AND HAS MADE US KINGS AND PRIESTS to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” That’s ‘kings’ and ‘priests’ in His heavenly kingdom, sovereignly appointed to be the vessel to a world of self-rule, self-worship, and self-gratification, and the change comes in that world when disciples of Christ allow Him to be Himself through them!
No wonder Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 2:14, “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.”
But my concern in this modern day is that, sadly, “Apostolic Assemblies” are set aside for “Adaptable Churches” that want to be so accepted by the world that they tone down biblical truth to make it acceptable, ignore specifically “Preach the Word”, fearing to say what God has said would limit their attendance, and, certainly feel justified to do their best at Bible teaching without encouraging pure devotion to His commissioning to be His witnesses in our lost, needy, alienated from God world!
According to Paul in Ephesians, 3:10-12, there is a divine design by God in maturing the ‘saints’ one has and the mobilizing of the body of Christ in reaching out to a needy world even if it costs us our lives! Paul said, “to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him.” That’s confidence in boldly approaching the very throne of Holy God AND boldness in touching our needy world; and that has, can even today, cost you your physical existence!
I’m convinced that much of the problem of churches that do not have mission support worldwide, evangelism outreach locally, or even discipleship training and equipping of the saints to do evangelism ministry, is that “heavenly joy” in Jesus has been ignored, denied, or never understood. In John 15:11-17 Jesus said:
“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends IF you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another.” Yes, rather than an “Adaptable Church,” what about making sure your fellowship of believers is an “Apostolic Assembly”!!
I guess one of the huge questions one must deal with initially is: Do I have a teachable spirit anxious to know what Christ Jesus has to say to me? It was David’s heart when he said in Psalm 27:11, “Teach me Your way, O Lord..” Is that the attitude of YOUR heart?
FIRST, PLEASE NOTE THAT GOD PERSONALLY LOVED YOU ENOUGH THAT EVEN IF YOU WERE THE ONLY HUMAN BEING TO EVER LIVE, BECAUSE OF GOD’S LOVE FOR YOU CHRIST WOULD HAVE DIED ON THE CROSS FOR YOU ALONE, BUT HE DIED TO SAVE ALL MEN, BUT SOME DO NOT BELIEVE IN, RELY UPON, TRUST IN, OR ADHERE TO HIM!
In Romans 8:35-39 Paul gives us a powerful word of hope that should strengthen your ‘faith journey’! He said, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet in all these things we are MORE THAN CONQUERORS THROUGH HIM WHO LOVED US. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor death, nor any created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
And our Savior, the Lord Jesus, said in John 3:16-17, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” Rev. J.M. Driver wrote an old hymn entitled “Wonderful Story of Love. [Broadman Hymnal, Broadman Press, Nashville, Tenn., 1940]. The first verse says:
“Wonderful story of love; Tell it to me again; Wonderful story of love; Wake the immortal strain! Angels with rapture announce it, Shepherds with wonder receive it; Sinner, O won’t you believe it? Wonderful story of love.”
SECOND, AWARE OF HIS GREAT LOVE, THE SINNER WHO IS DESIROUS OF FORGIVENESS AND RECONCILIATION, IS LED TO THE ALTAR OF REPENTANCE. In Romans 2:4 wise Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote: “Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads to repentance?”
When you look upon an ungodly world, one is saddened that a man in his sin and sin nature is not aware of his separation from God and from Holy God’s divine design for his life, so “messengers” are sent praying initially for the truth of the burden of sin and death, then the crucifixion of Christ in his stead! This is why in 2 Corinthians 7:10 the Holy Word instructs us, “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.”
I so admire Oswald Chambers and his book, “My Utmost For His Highest,” (p.254). In it Chambers wrote: “The marvels of conviction of sin, forgiveness, and holiness are so interwoven that it is only the forgiven man who is the holy man, he proves he is forgiven by being the opposite to what he was, by God’s grace. Repentance always brings a man to this point: I HAVE SINNED. The surest sign that God is at work is when a man says it and means it. Anything less than this is remorse for having made blunders, the reflex action of disgust at himself.”
Examine John 16:5-11 Jesus explains: “But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment; of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” And apart from repentance, there is no reconciliation with Holy God!
THIRD, HAVING BEEN CONVERTED THROUGH FAITH AND REPENTANCE, THE WORD TELLS US THAT THE “APOSTOLIC ASSEMBLIES” LIVE VICTORIOUS, OVERCOMING LIVES BY HOLY SPIRIT GUIDANCE INTO BIBLE TRUTH! In John 16:12-15 Christ Jesus’ holy instruction for new disciples says: “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. HE will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine, and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”
Christ Jesus emphasized the ministry role of Spirit-assistance, the ministry as faithful guide, the “Joy-Giver” of the full unveiling of Christ in you, and grants each disciple a forceful empowerment!
In Romans 8:26-27 Paul unveils this ‘representative ministry’ of the Holy Spirit before the Throne of God in our behalf. Receive the Word with joy and gladness! “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”
And there is no Spirit-anointed victories in “Apostolic Assembles” or ‘professing lives of allegiance to Christ’ if there is no allegiance to, awareness of, and willfully “yielding” daily to the Holy Spirit’s ministry! Paul asked a penetrating, challenging word in Romans 6:16: “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?” Are YOU yielded to the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, whose God-inspired role is to glorify Christ through your daily walk?
As Jesus was profoundly concerned about “false prophets” early in His ministry, he warned in Matthew 7:15-16a, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruit.”
I want to close out this teaching with the solid scriptural challenge of Galatians 5:16-25! It says: Paul speaking, I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
BUT the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
Has that changed somewhere along the line or path of discipleship? Is it that some in the 21st Century feel we’re so intellectually superior that “Christians” shouldn’t be concerned whether they need to walk in the Spirit or Not? The “Abnormal Christian Life” is avoidance of Spirit-ministry in an available vessel! The challenge to be filled with all the fullness of God does not become a reality apart from the Spirit’s abiding and anointing! The Holy Spirit glorifies Christ in us and through us, and only as we willfully yield to the Spirit’s control is Christ’s presence in us fully revealed! Walking in the Spirit is not an option believers hold but an eternal necessity!
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
AUTHENTIC, SPIRITUALLEADERSHIP
In I Timothy 3:1, Paul said to Timothy, “This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of bishop, he desires a good work.” The New English Bible interprets this verse, “To aspire to leadership is an honorable ambition.”
One translation says “desires” and the other says “aspires.” And I am convinced God’s Word is ever true, and desiring and aspiring is not evil.
At the same time, not many of our biblical heroes desired or aspired to leadership – they were drafted by God into service. That’s true of Abraham, Moses, reluctant prophets, and questioning young disciples: “Are You sure, Lord?”
But James and John were bold. In Mark 10:37, they said to Jesus, “Grant us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory.”
Then Jesus responded, “But are you able to drink the cup I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”
J. Oswald Sanders, in his book, “Spiritual Leadership,” (p10), talked about “mere place seekers and charlatans.” Then he added, (p12), “They coveted a crown of glory but were not ready for a crown of thorns. Coronation interested them, but not crucifixion.”
Following Christ Jesus in leadership is not a call to supremacy but servanthood; it was not a call to ascendancy but humility; it was not a call to personal ruling but a pouring out of life as a drink offering!
But Nehemiah was confronted with serious problems in his day just as we confront serious problems today concerning leadership. In Psalm 48:2 God describes “the holy city of Jerusalem” as “Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, the city of the great King.”
And what did Nehemiah find? Nehemiah 2:17 says, “You see the distress we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach.”
Are you familiar with Raphael who was commissioned to paint the frescoes of the Vatican walls in Rome?
When several cardinals walked by one day they had to come against Raphael. One cardinal said, “The face of the apostle Paul is too red,” to which Raphael responded: “He blushes to see into whose hands the church has fallen!”
It was Warren Weirsbe, in his book, “The Integrity Crisis,” who wrote (p56), “In recent years, the church has had too many celebrities and not enough servants, too many people with plenty of medals and no scars.”
If Jesus is Prophet, Priest, and King, and, “As He is so are we in this world,” (I John 4:17), do ministers today minister in the prophetic role calling men to account, the priestly role of intercession, and the kingly role of true biblical authority and anointing?
We’re not to be as Ron DeArmand said, “High Gloss – Cheap Merchandise,” but a reflector of, an imitation of, an interpretation of Jesus Himself!
Yet, often, leaders today stand behind the sacred desk, and minister, as someone has said, “imperiled by familiarity and [lost] our sense of awe and reverence.”
The Book of Joshua is the text for this teaching, but I want Psalm 78:70–72 to capture your heart first! Listen:
“He also chose David His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds; from following the ewes that had young He brought him to shepherd Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance. So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.”
And you want to cry out, “God, do it again and again, over and over; give us leaders with the integrity of a holy heart, and skills engrafted by Your Own Holy Hands!”
Come to Joshua 1. Notice, First:
LEADERSHIP IS BECAUSE OF THE ETERNAL DETERMINATION OF GOD TO USE MEN AS AN EXTENSION AND EXPRESSION OF HIS OWN SOVEREIGN LEADERSHIP.
Joshua 1:1–2 says, “After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, saying, Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them – the children of Israel.”
Do you remember Exodus 3:10? “Come now, therefore, [Moses], and I will send you to Pharoah that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” Moses was divinely chosen of God. Abraham was sovereignly chosen by God.
David was supernaturally chosen by God. Prophets were appointed and anointed by God. Joshua, an assistant, is chosen by God to replace Moses as the leader of Israel.
Jesus chose twelve disciples. The apostle Paul was chosen by Jesus being confronted on the Damascus Road.
What did Jesus tell those early disciples in John 15:16? “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit…”
And here is the amazing, heart–shaking truth: Ephesians 1:4, “just as He [God] chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.” Do you remember the 180,000 warriors, men chosen by God?
How humbling is I Corinthians 1:26–29? “For consider your calling, brothers, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the FOOLISH things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the WEAK things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the BASE [insignificant, lowly] things of the world and the things which are DESPISED God has chosen, and the things WHICH ARE NOT [nothings, zeroes], to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.”
A true leader is a man touched by the scepter of God’s grace. A true leader is a man who knows he’s a nothing, but by God’s mercy is enabled to see God’s hand on his life, validating he’s “the chosen of God.” A true leader is not of “elite” status but of the ELECTED, and empowered by God’s presence and His holy purpose, can literally shake continents! A true leader is always and forever confounded by God’s choice of him as a chosen leader for such a time as this! Second,
GOD’S AUTHENTIC LEADERS ARE THOSE BLESSED BY GOD WITH THE PROMISE TO BE WITH US. Look at Joshua 1:5! “No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so will I be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you.”
In Joshua 6:27 the Word says, “So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout all the country.”
And your “fame” in pastoral ministry is not because of any educational degrees you’ve earned – but because GOD IS WITH YOU.
Your “fame” is not because of your best efforts – but because of Holy Presence. Your “fame” is not because you’re blessed with keen insights and wise words – but because you’re a habitation of God in the Spirit!
It’s why David sang in Psalm 40:10, “I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart.” What is your hope of glory, pastors? What are the riches of glory you are a part of? Colossians 1:27 says, “Christ in you, the hope of glory!”
You may find yourself on the backside of a desert pouting about your pastoral problems – then all of a sudden there’s a “burning bush.”
You may find yourself with your head on a stone as your pillow, the darkest night of your ministry because of an offended brother – and you find out your darkest night is the very house of God.
You may run like a David from one of your spiritual sons and hide in a cave – and God shows up with 400 brothers to stand, walk, and fight with you.
You may deny your calling and you sulk by the seashore – then the Savior appears.
In 2 Timothy 4:16–18, Paul says: “At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them. But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be fully preached through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. Also I was delivered out of the lion’s mouth…AND THE LORD WILL DELIVER ME FROM EVERY EVIL WORK, and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen.”
“As I was with Moses, so I will be with you!”
AUTHENTIC, SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP IS VICTORIOUS OUT OF DIVINE STRENGTH AND HOLY COURAGE. Four times in Joshua 1 God said to Joshua, “Be strong and of good courage.”
Come to Joshua 14:6–11! This passage relates to Caleb getting his promised mountain after 45 years of
“Standing On The Promises!”
Verse 6, Caleb had a word from God. Verse 7, it was in his heart. Verse 8, he wholly followed the Lord his God. Verse 9, he knew his inheritance and that of his children which was a forever promise. Verse 10, 45 years later he still stands on the promise. Verse 11, “As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me; just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in.”
In 2 Corinthians 2:1,4, Paul wrote: “And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. Verse 4, My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.”
Are you getting the picture? What does 2 Chronicles 16:9 tell us? “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.”
The great South African preacher and author, A.W. Tozer, wrote: “Before we follow any man we should look for the oil on his forehead. We are under no spiritual obligation to aid any man in any activity that has not upon it the marks of the cross.”
Don’t ever forget Paul’s testimony to the Corinthians! 2 Corinthians 3:5–6, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also MADE US SUFFICIENT as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but OF THE SPIRIT; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
Do you understand divine ministry of holy strength and a holy courage? Where does it come from? In 2 Corinthians 3:10–11, Paul said he carried in his body “the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus might be manifested in his body.” And the result? “the resurrection life of Jesus manifested in our body.” That’s power; that’s courage; that’s the divine strength of the indwelling Christ! Not of you, but of Christ Jesus Himself!
In 2 Corinthians 4:7 Paul said, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.” Did you hear it with your heart? “that the excellence of the power may be of God, and not of us.”
John Piper wrote the book, “Brothers, We Are Not Professionals.” In chapter one he wrote, “We pastors are being killed by the professionalizing of the pastoral ministry. The mentality of the professional is not the mentality of the prophet. It is not the mentality of the slave of Christ. Professionalism has nothing to do with the essence and heart of the Christian ministry. The more professional we long to be, the more spiritual death we will leave in our wake.”
Then Piper quoted E.M. Bounds: “The preacher…is not a professional man; his ministry is not a profession; it is a divine institution, a divine devotion.” And let me add, it is the overflow of the indwelling of the power of our Lord and Savior – and He gives us courage!
AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP PROSPERS OUT OF REMEMBRANCE. In Joshua 4:3, the Lord spoke to Joshua about taking twelve stones out of the middle of the Jordan River, from the place where the priests’ feet stood firm.
And then he told Joshua that the children would be asking what the stones are all about, “What do these stones mean?”; then the children would learn anew, the parents and leaders would remember, from where they came, what they’re about, to whom they belong, and where they’re going!
Again, it was Tozer who wrote: “The first step down for any church is taken when it surrenders its high opinion of God.”
And the first step down for a leader is when he not only surrenders his high opinion of God, but fails to remember from where he came, what he’s to be about, who he represents, and where he’s going!
The people under Ezra’s leadership had failed to “remember,” and in Ezra 9:6, Ezra cries out: “O my God, I am too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God; for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has grown up to the heavens.”
Here’s how John Piper challenges us about “remembrance,” (“Brothers, We Are Not Professionals,” p113), “The keener the memory of our awful rescue, the more naturally we pity those in a similar plight. The more deeply we feel how undeserved and free was the grace that plucked us from the flames, the freer will be our benevolence to sinners.”
But the question is, “Have you forgotten or do you remember?” When it comes to an authentic, spiritual ministry, if remembrance is set aside it breeds forgetfulness, it lights a destructive fire of indifference evidenced by what one calls “lazy bones and limp minds,” with the end result of divided hearts and misplaced allegiance!
AUTHENTIC, SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP IS EVIDENCED BY THE CONTINUAL PREPARATION FOR BATTLE AND SPIRITUAL WARFARE. In Joshua 4:13–14, God’s Word says, “About 40,000 prepared for war crossed over before the Lord for battle, to the plains of Jericho. On that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel…”
Do you remember God’s Hall of Fame in Hebrews 11? Let me amplify verses 33–34! “who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle [or war], turned to flight the armies of aliens…”
There is a War against the Lamb of God and His followers. There is a fight concerning the Faith. There are battles to crush you, disillusion you, destroy you.
There are wars within ourselves concerning flesh or Spirit. There are wars in the streets over Truth and The Lie. There are wars about the Bible, God’s Word, inerrant, infallible – that Word which is Living, Powerful, and Sharper than any two–edged sword!
There is a war against Satan and his demon powers of Hell, the foul spirits, the unclean spirits of an unholy army. And we must be those who “Fight the good fight of Faith.”
It was Amy Carmichael, from England, who went to India in her early twenties (1890’s) after “bombing out” in Japan. She devoted almost 60 years of her life to the dusty trails and needy people of southern India.
I’ve visited her Donavour Fellowship several times. She wrote:
“Have you no scars? No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand? I hear you sung as mighty in the land, I hear them hail you the bright ascendant star: Have you no scar?
Have you no wound? Yet, I was wounded by the archers, spent, Leaned me against the tree to die, and rent by ravening beasts that compassed me, I swooned: Have you no wound?
No wound? no scar? Yes, as the Master shall the servant be. And pierced are the feet that follow Me; But yours are whole. Can he have followed far who has no wound? No scar?”
I so love what J.Oswald Sanders wrote in his book, “Spiritual Leadership,” (p108), “The loneliest preacher today is the man who has been entrusted with a prophetic message that is ahead of his times, a message that cuts across the prevailing temper of the age.”
In 2 Timothy 2:3–4, Paul challenges his spiritual son, “You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.”
Pastor, were you enlisted as a “please all” kind of pastor, or a soldier of truth that may cost you friends or even your life?
AUTHENTIC, SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP IS A LEADER WHO PROSPERS BECAUSE HE GETS A PROMISE AND STANDS ON IT. We saw this earlier in Joshua 14 when Caleb got a promise and waited 45 years for its fulfillment. In Joshua 14:6–7, Caleb speaks, “You know the word which the Lord said to Moses the man of God concerning you and me in Kadesh Barnea. I was 40 years old when Moses sent me.”
Caleb says in verse 9 that he was given a promise about an inheritance. In verse 10, he’s now 45 years older, and he says in verse 12, “give me this mountain of which the Lord spoke.”
Caleb stood on a promise of God for 45 years and was blessed. An authenticated, true, spiritual leader is a man who thrives on the promises of God, even if the fulfillment comes 45 years later!
S.D. Gordon put it like this: “Let it once be fixed that a man’s ambition is to fit into God’s plan for him, and he has a North Star ever in sight to guide him steadily over any sea, however shoreless it seems.”
That North Star of an authentic, spiritual leader is the reality of God’s faithful promises! That leader knows, “All the promises of God in Christ Jesus are “Yes” and “Amen” to the glory of God!
AUTHENTIC, SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP IS WITNESSED AS PRECIOUS BECAUSE THAT PECULIAR LEADER HAS A HEART FOR A LEGACY OF MINISTRY TO THE GLORY OF GOD.
Joshua 24:15 says, “And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
It was Andrew Murray of South Africa who wrote many years ago, “God has no more precious gift to a church or an age than a man who lives as the embodiment of [God’s] will, and inspires those around him with the faith of what grace can do.”
Is that in your heart as a pastor? Is your heart an “embodiment of God’s will?” And do you keep your heart with all diligence because you know the heart reveals your true motive of ministry?
In John 17:6, Jesus speaks, “I have manifested [revealed, unveiled] Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.”
AUTHENTIC, SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP IS NOT ONLY THAT WHICH IS “CAUGHT” BUT ALSO TAUGHT. In 2 Timothy 2:2, (the Williams translation), Paul writes, “The things you learned from me before many witnesses, you must commit to trustworthy men who will be competent to teach others too.”
Caught and Taught are both foundational to a fulfilling, Christ–honoring ministry.
In Mark 10:42–44, “Jesus called the disciples to Himself and said to them, You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all.”
What an illuminating, exposing, revealing passage of authentic ministry!
In Galatians 6:17, Paul wrote: “From henceforth let no man trouble me; for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.”
Do you bear in your body and pastoral ministry the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Is it earthly riches that define your ministry or the riches of grace?
Is it “jargon” you speak or preaching the talk of divine truth?
Is it “junk” you speak or the testimony of the treasures of God’s Word?
Is it “high gloss – cheap merchandise” or the spiritual tiaras of eternal truth and eternal values?
Praising Christ in ministry is prizing Christ in the practical ministry of Who He Is, What He Said, and How He Walked!
Let me close: Do you understand our Lord’s divine pathway to true happiness and blessing and an authentic, spiritual ministry?
Hebrews 11:26, “the reproach of Christ [is] greater wealth than [all] the treasures of Egypt.”
What is your testimony of ministry? Who gets the glory?
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
“CAPTURING THE VISION”
Carl Henry wrote a book entitled “Twilight of a Great Civilization.” This theologian knew who the real heroes of a given age are – those who know divine visitation and have been captured by heavenly vision! Examine what he wrote: “The real heroes of our time are those who in a faithless age hold, live, and share their faith in God. Genuine revolutionary courage belongs to those who remain true even if atheistic rulers force them underground or punish citizens simply for being Christians…The true immortals will be those who seek to apply the principles of the Bible concretely to the complicated realities of modern life, who preserve a devout and virtuous family life, who are faithful to the abiding values of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.”
Modern life, both politically, socially, and spiritually is being pounded by waves of indifference, shoals of apathy spiritually, rocks of opposition to God and His Truth, even endless tidal waves of the visionless and a lack of virtuous, victorious living. We are a people being programmed for failure, governed for godlessness, educated for imbecility, and silenced to hear and trust God alone for ourselves.
Oswald Chambers, in his book “My Utmost For His Highest” (p.46), wrote: “It is easier to serve God without a vision, easier to work for God without a call, because then you are not bothered by what God requires; common sense is your guide, veneered over with Christian sentiment. You will be more prosperous and successful, more leisure-hearted, if you never realize the call of God. But if once you receive a commission from Jesus Christ, the memory of what God wants will always come like a goad; you will no longer be able to work for Him on the common-sense basis.”
No…it’s not a common-sense basis but the uncommon Spirit of visions and dreams. It’s not human compassion but divine appointment. It’s not fleshly reasoning but Faithful Revelation. Paul said in Galatians 1:15-16, “BUT WHEN IT PLEASED GOD…TO REVEAL HIS SON IN ME…” Dynamic, dynamite, distinctive service unto God is that which is unveiled by God! George McDonald wrote, “The one principle of hell is, ‘I am my own.’” Cal Thomas put it in a little different way when he commented in his book, “The Things That Matter Most” (Harper-Collins Publishers, 1994, New York, NY, p.145): “The fact is, burden-less lives create superficial people whose only interest is themselves.” And visionless lives also create sham people and preachers whose only concern is themselves, and they never listen to the God who gives visions and dreams!
The poet said it well when he wrote: “There is a secret in his breast that will never let him rest.” What I want to say is: There is a “Vision” in the true disciple’s heart that will never let him rest!
Jeremiah 29:11-14 is such a powerful, personal, and practical Word. Three truths are amplified there: 1) God’s thoughts and purposes toward us are good. 2) God has a living hope and an abiding future for us. 3) God hears our cries and is ever-present to lead us and enable us to His highest calling for our lives.
Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” I think it is very important for you to consider what your vision is, what God has revealed to you about yourself and your future, about your family, about your nation and about your church. WE NEED VISION FROM GOD!!
In Acts 26:16-19, Paul is relating his testimony of his encounter with the Lord on the Damascus Road. Look at what the Lord said to him: “But arise, and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; delivering you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, in order that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’ Consequently, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision…”
So, this encounter with the Lord, Paul calls it a “heavenly vision.” He met the Lord on the road to Damascus, God revealed to him that he was to be a minister and a witness to the things he’d already seen, and to the things in which the Lord would appear to him and reveal to him. And Paul states, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision…”
Look at Revelation 1:1-2: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must shortly take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John, who bore witness to the Word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.” Now, look at verses 9-11: “I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos, because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. “I WAS IN THE SPIRIT” on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet, saying, ‘Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches…” John was IN THE SPIRIT on the Lord’s day. I am firmly convinced that our yieldedness to the Holy Spirit is vitally imperative if we’re going to receive this vision from the Lord. I am fully convinced Saul of Tarsus was under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, or he would not have said, “Lord, what would You have me to do?” I think he came to the realization that His encounter with the Lord was through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. WE NEED TO BE YIELDED TO THE HOLY SPIRIT.
I don’t believe there is any man or church that advances without a sense of need, awareness, conviction or direction; aware that God has something to say to each one of us; that He has a purpose and a plan for every one of our lives. The greatest need of our day is God’s vision!
George Moore is an English novelist. In one of his novels was an illustration of Irish peasants during a period of great depression. The government put them to work building roads. At first the peasants were joyous. They worked appreciatively; they were glad to have a job. Over a period of time, however, they learned the truth – they were building roads to nowhere! They were roads that went out to the wilderness area and just stopped there. As they became aware that they worked for no purpose, only to provide them employment and as an excuse to feed them, the laborers grew listless, stopped singing, and the work building roads came to a halt. Here is George Moore’s comment in this novel: “The roads to nowhere are difficult to make. For a man to work well and sing, there must be an end in view.” I’m convinced the “end in view” is VISION FROM GOD! “WHERE THERE IS NO VISION, THE PEOPLE PERISH!”
Beth Moore, from her book, “Things Pondered,” has written these words entitled “The Mountain”:
“I hear You call ‘Come meet with Me, See that which eyes are veiled to see And ears in vain will please to hear Except your heart should draw you here!…Abandon deeds down at My feet, No crowns as yet, no Judgment Seat, Surrender here all noble plans, Just lift to Me your empty hands…I’ll fill them with the richest fare And circumcise your heart to dare To reach beyond all earthliness For on this mount you’re Mine to bless…With gentle hands ‘til heart is stretched I’ll have MY Word upon it etched ‘Til only knees can catch the fall Of one who cries ‘You are my all!’”
What is this vision? We can say that it’s something seen, something that has been heard, something that has been revealed, maybe in a dream; it may be at the height of spiritual ecstasy under the anointing of the Spirit of God or it may be a supernatural appearance that conveys a revelation, a will, a purpose, a plan to your life; but God comes and speaks to the hearts of men.
Rudyard Kipling has a poem called “The Explorer.” He wrote: “There’s no sense of going further, it’s the edge of cultivation, so they said and I believed it, broke my land, sowed my crop, built my barn, strung my fences in the little border station, tucked away below the foothills where the trails run out and stop, ‘til a voice as bad as conscience rang interminable changes on one everlasting whisper day and night repeated, ‘Something hidden; go and find it; go and look beyond the ranges. Something lost behind the ranges, lost and waiting for you, go.”
There is the vision beyond the ranges of the common place to man. There is a vision behind the hills that are hidden away for the life of a man who will listen, for the life of a man who will look, for the life of a man who will stop and hesitate and wait upon God because God is no respecter of persons. What are visions and dreams all about?
FIRST, LET’S EXAMINE THE BLESSER OF VISIONS:
The Blesser of Visions is God Himself! Look again at Revelation 1:1, “The revelation of Jesus Christ WHICH GOD GAVE HIM TO SHOW TO HIS BOND-SERVANTS.” So God Himself gives to you His vision! Joel 2:26 says, “And you shall have plenty to eat and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you…”God is the giver of a vision. God authors spiritual dreams. And we need to recognize that since God is no respecter of persons, God wants to give YOU a vision for your life.
This needs to be a matter of prayer, of laying hold of the horns of His altar and hold on!! “God, do You have something for me individually? God, are You speaking to my family, my church, our nation?” Unless we have that attitude prevailing in our hearts, we’re going to miss what God has to say to our lives. We ALL need to bow before the Blesser of Visions and say, “God, since You are no respecter of persons, what is Your vision for me, for my family, for my church, for my nation?” I believe the Word of God reveals our need of bowing before the Blesser of Visions and saying, “Lord, here we are; what do You want to say to us today?”
SECOND, LET’S EXAMINE THE BIRTH OF VISIONS!
- Here is an Abraham, who is given a vision that he is going to be the father of a great nation. So he leaves Ur of the Chaldeas, not knowing where he was going, but only that God had sent him and said to him, “You’re going to be a blessing to all the nations of the world.” [Didn’t Jesus say that Abraham rejoiced to see Jesus’ Day, and he was glad?]
- Here is a young Joseph. He is given a vision. Just a young farm boy, yet God says in Joseph’s childhood, “You’re going to be a great leader, and there are going to be many in the world who are going to bow down to you; they will acknowledge the leadership that is in your life.”
- Here’s a Moses, given a vision of the God of fire who cannot be consumed. This vision is of God taking Moses’ life and making him a leader of his people out of bondage.
- Here’s a Nehemiah, given a vision of a restored city. He’s given a vision of a mighty work of God, which compels him and thrusts him out on the edge of a new adventure for his life. He goes into the city of Jerusalem. He cannot come down off of the wall because of the significance of the work. He cannot compromise with the Arabs (that’s very, very interesting) because of the vision God has given him.
- Here’s a Joel, given a vision of a land that is prosperous, of people that are filled with plenty, of a band of followers of a Holy God; people who’ll find satisfaction in their lives and will not be disappointed regardless of what comes against them. They’re going to be a people blessed of Almighty God.
- Here’s a band of disciples who are so very few, about 12 in number, given a vision of ushering in and establishing the kingdom of God on earth. What a vision! Twelve men – ushering in the kingdom of God!
- Here’s that grain of wheat, given a vision of dying to itself, of reproducing many more grains of wheat and being fruitful in its life.
- Here’s a Paul, given a vision of touching his world with the gospel of which he was not ashamed!
- Here’s a John, whose friends are dying for the faith, given a vision of hope and victory, a vision of a new heaven and a new earth, and of celebration in the wedding of the Lord Jesus Christ with all His followers. With that vision in his heart not even death could discourage John or the Body of Christ, and they walked on victoriously because of the vision that God had given to them!
My co-laborer in India for ten years was Dwayne Weehunt, now founder and director of “Sower of the Seeds International,” who commented in one of his meetings: “When the church has vision, it changes society around it. But when there is no vision, society changes the church!”
Then you come and you think about where Satan’s seat is (I’m not sure that there is any church on the face of the earth today that’s not where Satan’s seat is – Bedford, Texas, Dallas, Texas, Nigeria, India or some place in Europe, Satan’s seat is prominent in the land). But “Here Is A Church That’s Given a Vision!” It’s going to be a faithful, caring, giving, telling, and healing community with a vision of hope, health, helpfulness, growth and prosperity, and spiritual plenty. It has a vision of joy and blessedness abounding, true salvation, the healing of the hurting and the broken-hearted, marriages restored, deliverance of captives, godly families putting their hands to the plow and not looking back, people who hunger and thirst after righteousness, a loving and caring family, a cooperative body of a rejoicing people that praise God for their present and for their future, a praying people that loose and bind, that release and restrain, that uplift and cast out.
There’s an old hymn that says:
“Once to every man and nation [or church?] Comes the moment to decide, In the strife of truth with falsehood, For the good or evil side; Some great cause, some great decision, Offering each the bloom or blight, And the choice goes by forever, ‘Twixt that darkness and that light.”
The birth of a vision! All these men of God had a vision, and it was birthed within their hearts. And if there is the birth of a vision , what’s yours? What is it that God has revealed to you that He wants to accomplish in and through your life? We need to see and hear that vision. We need to know that God has spoken to our hearts. We need to be thankful that God is the God of visions and dreams, and that He is no respecter of persons. He has a vision for each one of our lives!
W. Graham Scroggie has written: “If one would be Christ-minded he must be missionary-minded, and one who is not this has no justification for calling himself a disciple of Christ. Are you missionary-minded?” Have YOU seen this vision?
Henry T. Blackaby, in “The Power of the Call” (Broadman & Holman, Nashville, TN. P.35) wrote: “God Himself chose us, called us in His time, and separated us out for Himself. As clearly as God separated from all other days and sanctified the seventh day (set it apart for Himself, Gen. 3:3) and commanded it to be ‘the Sabbath of the Lord your God’ (Exodus 20:10), so God set you apart from all others – for Himself!” And I would add – for His purposes, His visions, and His dreams!
THIRD, LET’S EXAMINE THE BATTLE OF THE VISIONS!
You need to be aware that whenever a vision is given and birthed within a person’s life, there is always going to be a battle about that vision. God ALWAYS gives a vision that places men at the point of their extremity where God begins to have an opportunity in their lives. GOD ALWAYS GIVES YOU A VISION THAT IS BEYOND YOURSELF! God gives a vision that puts people on the edge of impossibility where God becomes known as the God with whom all things are possible. That’s what our lives are all about: the God with whom all things are possible! So…He gives you a vision. I don’t know what that vision is going to be for you, but I’ll tell you this, it’s going to place you at the point where God has the opportunity to bring the impossible into reality as a demonstration of the greatness of our God. In fact, the vision God gives always brings His people to the point of “death” where they discover God as the power and authority and the Author of Life over death! Let me explain:
Let’s think about Abraham: “Abraham, you’re going to be the father of a great nation. Through you all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” (By the way, how old was Abraham at this particular time when he gets this vision? I believe he’s about 100 years old and that the Bible says Sarah was past the age of childbearing.) So God gives them a vision, and says, “You’re going to have a son.” What did Sarah do? She began to laugh – but God had brought them to a place of impossibility in the natural, so that through the supernatural work of Almighty God, the vision He gave them can be fulfilled by Him!!
Think about Joseph. He’s the farm-boy, the little child to whom God had given a vision that this little shepherd boy would shepherd nations! God saw him as a world-leader. So what happened to Joseph? He was sold into slavery, falsely accused, and imprisoned; yet God raised him up as a world leader.
Consider Moses. “Moses, you’re going to lead My people out of bondage!” You cannot read the life of Moses, even before the burning bush experience, and not know that it was already in the heart of Moses that God had told him he was going to be the deliverer. So he goes out, acts impulsively, kills the Egyptian, and then out of fear of Pharoah runs for his life and spends 40 years on the backside of a desert with his rod as a shepherd. But even in spite of that, God raised Moses up!
And here are the disciples. They’re going to usher in and establish the kingdom of God on earth! Then their King is killed. They in their despair said, “We may as well go back to the old way of life; let’s just go back and be fishermen again,” yet the Resurrected Christ re-appointed them!
Here’s John – a new heaven, a new earth; you’re going to have life and victory – yet, the world around him was crumbling, his friends were dying about him every day. BUT GOD SAYS, “There’s going to be a new heaven and a new earth.”
What about “the wheat”? The one grain of wheat was going to be fruitful and bring forth a great harvest. Yet, it was placed into the ground, it rotted, it died. Then here came the mighty harvest!
What about the church? Victorious, mighty army, strong, dynamic force penetrating society, changing society, for the glory of God! When you read the Book of Acts, all of a sudden they were scattered abroad, everywhere, alone, weak, feeble, struggling. Yet the Bible says they turned their world upside down!
The battle of the vision! I don’t know what all that means. I have heard many people say to me, “God gave me a vision of what He was going to accomplish in my life. It was totally beyond the realm of human possibility, but God honored Himself and brought the fulfillment of that vision and dream into my heart.” Whatever He shows you is going to bring you to the edge of your own impossibility, where whatever He shows you will be possible for your life because “HE IS ABLE…!!”
God may say to you, “You’re going to be a doctor someday.” You reply, “A doctor? How could I be a doctor? I don’t even enjoy Biology or Chemistry!” God will bring it to pass. Whatever He says to you, He’s able to do! He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that you ask or think!
FOURTH, EXAMINE THE BLESSINGS OF A VISION! What are the blessings?
THERE’S THE BLESSING OF DIRECTION. Just because we haven’t arrived as yet to the fulfillment of the vision that God may give to us does not make the vision unreal. So many times God gives a vision, it is ‘out there’ to be fulfilled, totally beyond us, it seems. Just because we haven’t stepped the soles of our feet on every inch of ground in that land of promises doesn’t mean the vision and the promises and the purpose of God has been defeated for us! But the sense of direction that we KNOW we heard from God, we know that He revealed His purpose, we know that He gave us the Divine blueprint, and it gives a sense of direction to us.
Dr. Paul Tillet made this statement: “God is present in the unknown forces that make us restless.” AND IF YOU’RE NOT RESTLESS, YOU’RE NOT LIVING ON THE EDGE OF GROWTH! If you’re not restless, you’re not on the edge of maturity, not on the edge of hunger and thirst for what God wants to do in and through your life. But if you’re there, and God has said, “This is what I’m going to accomplish through your life,” then there is a striving toward that sense of direction. It’s called the “Sabbath Rest”! Our striving is being finished with ourselves and found us in His faithfulness.
Oswald Chambers said in his “My Utmost For His Highest” (p.51) that we don’t “attain to a vision, we must live in the inspiration of it until it accomplishes itself.” Paul said, “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
There is nothing more beautiful than to see one who has heard from God and knows what God’s purpose and God’s plan is for that life. They commit themselves to that, they hold on to it, and they see the fulfillment of that vision. It may take years. Think about Caleb. It was forty years before Caleb saw the fulfillment of his vision. God said to Caleb, “I’m going to give you a mountain.” After he came into the land of promise, he went to his mountain, and said, “Give me my mountain.” It was 40 years from the time God gave him that vision of what his inheritance was going to be. He held onto it. It gave a sense of direction to his life, it gave a sense of purpose to his life. He would not be detoured away from what God had revealed to him. It gave him the blessing of direction!
THERE’S THE BLESSING OF DEPENDENCY. What did we say about the birth of a vision? About the battle of a vision? God is always going to bring you, with whatever He asks of you, to the place of impossibility. Why? So that whatever God is revealing, it takes Him to fulfill it. So there is the blessing of dependency. When I know that God has brought me there and given me a vision that is beyond me, then every day of my life I find myself dependent upon God for that fulfillment of the vision – and that’s a good place to be!
The Lord said when you pray, pray like this: “Give us this day our daily bread.” Give us this day our fulfillment of the vision, give us this day whatever is necessary to meet the physical, emotional, mental, material, spiritual needs of our lives – absolutely dependent!
Georgia Harkness is an outstanding Methodist theologian. The author wrote: “Christianity’s major world in the western world is secularism. Secularism defined? “The organization of human life as if God did not exist.” I thought about that as I read that statement. How many people organize their daily life as if God did not exist? And that’s true of some businesses, some families, yes, even some pastors and churches.
Acts 26:16 says: “I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you.” Verse 17 says, “…I am sending you.” Here is one who has a vision. As a result of that vision, he is sent out. Read verse 18. Whatever the vision is, there is purpose behind it: “To open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God in order that they also may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in me.” Look at verse 22: “And so, having obtained help from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, stating nothing but what the prophets said was going to take place.” Notice the first part of that 22nd verse: “And so having obtained help from God…” That’s the blessing of dependency. God gives Paul such a vision that he understands that vision cannot be fulfilled in and of Paul himself. Paul understood that, and he obtained help from God! We ALL need that kind of vision – every one of us! We need the kind of vision that will cause us to be shipwrecked on the isle of God’s sovereignty and stranded on the island of His omnipotence, where, if the vision that God gives us is going to be fulfilled, He has to be the provider of everything that is necessary to fulfill that vision.
THERE IS ALSO THE BLESSING OF DELIVERANCE. Joel 2:32 says: “And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape…” Deliverance from what?
Deliverance from the bondage of criticism of what we’re about with our lives. There is deliverance for the man who has a vision from God. Here’s the man who has this vision from God: He begins to “live” that vision, he begins to “die” for that vision, he begins to invest everything in himself to that vision…and opposition arises! Here comes a family member; along come close friends; business associates arise and begin to say, “You’re being so foolish; do you know what you’re doing? Do you realize what price you’re paying? How foolish can a man be?” Yet, what happens? Well, here’s a Paul who says, “It’s good to be a fool for Christ’s sake.” He was delivered from criticism of what he was about!
One of the biggest hindrances to the fulfillment of a vision in a person’s life is the opposition that comes from those who have no spiritual understanding of hearing the voice of God, of seeing a vision from God or a dream from God, and then pouring out their lives to see that vision come to be a reality within them. But if there is that vision burned within your heart, it doesn’t matter what family or friends may say. When you know that you’ve heard from God, you’re willing to lose everything, lay down your life and die, so that vision can be fulfilled through you!
There is deliverance from aimlessness. What is life all about with the people you come in contact with every day? Think about it – the people in your neighborhood, the people in your business office, the people where you work at that factory, the people you rub elbows with every day – what is their life all about? Can I tell you? Can I tell you that probably 80-90% of the people you come in contact with, their whole reason of existence is simply survival. They’re just doing the best they know how to survive. They have no purpose to life, no meaning to life, no aim to life, no goal to life except that they’re just trying to get by every day and survive life as it is. What a sad state of life! But when you have met Christ, when you have heard the voice of God, when you know He has spoken to you about your life purpose, you have an aim. You have direction. You have a goal. You have a purpose for living. And your life will never be the same! You are all business for the King of kings and the Lord of lords!
Let’s come back to Joel 2:26. “You shall have plenty to eat and be satisfied [Are you satisfied? REALLY satisfied? Is there contentment to your life?] and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you; then My people will never be put to shame.” YOU shall praise the name of the Lord your God! Prayer and praise are how you maintain a vision. God inhabits the praises of His people! Prayer and praise maintain the vision! God inhabits the praises of His people! And when you arise in the morning, in that inner man, there ought to be that thankful spirit. When you walk through the day, there ought to be that thankful spirit that God has a purpose for your life; He’s given you a vision and a dream and you are fulfilling that vision and that dream. Praise the name of the Lord!
Not only is there praise to maintain the vision, but there is participation in the vision. Paul said: (Acts 26:19), “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” That is so practical to our lives. If we’re not participating with God in the fulfillment of what He reveals to us, we’re not maintaining the vision, and the vision will die! Paul was obedient to the vision God gave to him for his life and as a result of that he was maintaining the vision, there was fire in the vision, there was warmth to the vision, and it carried him through even to the point that he died for it because he knew God had spoken to his heart and life.
WHAT ABOUT BOUNDARIES TO THE VISION. Joel 2:28-29, “And it will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. And even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.” Boundaries?
GOD HAS A VISION FOR EVERY INDIVIDUAL. (Philippians 1:21), “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” What is your purpose to life? What is your reason for living? What is the purpose in what you do with your daily life? Paul said, “For to me, to live is CHRIST” – to honor the Lord through all he is and all he does.
GOD HAS A VISION FOR YOUR OCCUPATION. (Exodus 31:1-6), “Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘See, I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur of the tribe of Judah. And I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all kinds of craftsmanship, to make artistic designs for work in gold, in silver, and in bronze, and in cutting of stones for settings, and in the carving of wood, that he may work in all kinds of craftsmanship. And behold, I Myself have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and in the hearts of all who are skillful I HAVE PUT SKILL that they may make all that I have commanded you.” God gives severally as He wills. He gives gifts unto men. That is a vision God will reveal to you, as clear as a ringing bell! It may take a while for that bell to ring clearly in your mind and heart and spirit, but God has a purpose for your life!
GOD HAS A VISION FOR YOUR FAMILY. (Genesis 12:1-3) “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country, and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” God is no respecter of persons. If God had a vision for Abram and his family, through which all the families of the earth shall be blessed, then God has a vision for your family. Begin to thank Him!
GOD HAS A VISION FOR INDIVIDUAL CHURCHES. Acts 1:7-8, He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs [seasons] which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” God revealed His purpose to individuals, and to the body of believers. He gives a vision, a dream, a direct order, yes, to fellowships.
What did we begin with? “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” What is YOUR vision before God? What has God revealed to you? I believe we ought to pray for that vision or dream. We ought to have a vision for our nation! Whenever we lose sight of the vision of God for a nation, the people perish. Whenever a fellowship loses sight of its vision, the people perish. Even in marriages – when they have no vision of what their purpose is before Holy God in marriage, marriages drop like dying flies! It’s so true, yes, of individuals. That’s why it’s so important to be committed to that one, to the many, whose hearts are going after God. For what fellowship does light have with darkness? There is none. We need a vision!
Barbara Reynolds, a liberal columnist for USA Today, wrote an enlightening column for June 25, 1993. She was addressing the clouds and thunderclaps of lawlessness and lack of social order that hangs over far too many country’s major cities. She wrote: “Those murderous habits aren’t based solely on financial poverty, but on a bankrupt human spirit caused by an absence of the Spirit of God. If it weren’t for the religious faithful [in cities and schools], life would be utterly hopeless.” She was so right! But even more, if we lose the religious faithful who’ve been captured by Vision, Vision from God, all segments of human life will be utterly hopeless! But we are not “hopeless” people; we are hope-filled servants of the Most High God who unveils for us the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God!
Let me close this truth of vision with several tremendous statements penned by Gloria Gaither in “An Old Friend Not Forgotten.” Bill Gaither included this in his “Homecoming Collectors’ Edition (Gaither Music Company, 1993): “The world is oblivious for there are too few visionaries. Too blind to subtleties and too imprisoned by carnivals. Too numb to gentleness and too overwhelmed by power. Too deaf to music and too stimulated by noise. Too dull to recognize the permanent – too focused to the transient. Too tuned out to the prophets, too attuned to the hucksters. The world is oblivious for there are too few visionaries…The world is losing heart for there are too few dreamers. Too much cynicism and not enough faith. Too much hype and not enough hope. Too much savvy and not enough wisdom. Too much money and not enough treasure. Too much form and not enough substance. Too many takers and not enough givers. Too many dissenters and not enough inspirers. The world is losing heart, for there are too few dreamers…Into such a world God sends His poets, prophets, troubadours who see what we have missed, who warn us lest we self-destruct, and who fill the songless night with music. They surround our alienation with love’s embrace; they burn through the fog of our oblivion with the piercing light of truth, and they sing the dream back into our hearts.” AMEN?
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
MARVELOUS MERCY & MATCHLESS GRACE
Micah 7:18–20
I don’t know where your faith rests, but I want to let you know my faith is not in my natural abilities, my fleshly instincts, my educational degrees, my personal disciplines or lack of them; it’s not in my personal goals, visions or dreams; it’s not in self, dogged determinism, my best efforts, my untiring discipline.
Here’s how Paul put it in I Corinthians 15:10, “and His grace toward me was not in vain.” And the one thing I want you to discern today is that His marvelous mercy and matchless grace will never fall short of your point of need!
Remember Jesus speaking in Luke 11: 11–12? “If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer a scorpion?” YOU KNOW THE ANSWER!
He sits on the throne of mercy. He governs by the spirit of grace. He’s the Father looking down the road for the prodigal’s return – and He awaits, not with scolding and condemnation, but a celebration spirit that it’s Heaven’s “party–time”!
Have you ever felt hopeless in your spiritual pilgrimage – and then you hear there is a haven of rest? Have you ever sensed a lack of confidence on your spiritual journey – and then you become aware of “holy presence” revealing the Way?
Have you ever found yourself on the canvas of life, on your back, trying to comprehend the knock–out blow to your chin, ever so helpless – then Jesus says, “Get up – this bout is not over, it’s just begun?”
Have you ever been in the throes of spiritual darkness, not discerning the next step to take in what direction – but you hear a voice: “This is the Way, walk you in it?”
Have you ever been “down” – “I’ve fallen & I can’t get up!” But then Jesus says , “Rise & Walk” – and you arise & walk!
It’s been a self–indulgent, spiraling downward, careless, corrupt life–style – and you wonder, “Is there any hope?’ “Is there a recovery possibility?” “Am I too far gone?”
That’s what the powers of darkness would like you to think. That’s what the faithless want you to believe. That’s what the hopeless hope you hold to so there’ll be miserable feelings in you as well as them, the misery loves company crowd!
A cloud of confusion colors the true picture of the nature and character of God – “I’ve fallen beyond the reach of God and, really, He could care less about me.” Is that true?
“I’m too far gone – and His reach is shortened by my degree and depth of sinfulness.” Is that true?
Can’t you hear it? “I’ve gone too far, I’ve fallen too hard, I’m too deep in bondage for even God Himself to help me.” Is that true?
Fallen sin–nature theories, immature conceptions and ideas, even vain imaginations control even the minds of saints who have fallen when they ignore biblical revelation and, yes, the very heart of God!
I want to smash the mental entrenchments that ignore revealed truth. I want to smother the poisonous gases of fleshly determinations about the heart of God. I want to suffocate the breaths of spiritual ignorance that paint a false picture of God’s activity in behalf of fallen humanity and reveal the true knowledge of God that brings salvation, healing, deliverance, restoration, and renewal.
I believe Paul told the church at Corinth [2 Corinthians 10:5], that we’re to “bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”
How many of us have walked in our faith for a long time on the sea of smooth waters, and then, all of a sudden we find ourselves under dark clouds, stormy waters, and the horrendous winds of a walk contrary to God’s will? Have you ever been there?
How many of us have forgotten where we once were with Christ, and now we’re filled with fear as to whether or not we can recover what we once had and move on into His fullness?
There is the ministry of the interior but I’ve majored on the exterior. There is the ministry of the Spirit But I’ve focused on the flesh. There is the ministry of the eternal but I’ve settled on the temporal. And there is no joy, no peace, no contentment, no spiritual satisfaction of blessing in my relationship to Him – Is there a word?
In Hebrews 13, two phrases in verses 5 & 6 I want you to see:
Hebrews 13:5, “For He Himself has said…” Hebrews 13:6, “So we may boldly say…”
Can you rest your life on that? Can you settle your hope for eternity on those two phrases? Can you say what God says?
Faithlessness, futility, feebleness, frailty, frustrations are not to be words, spirits, seasons, or points in our walk that describe our eternal relationship with Holy God. “For He Himself has said…,” so now “we may boldly say!”
I love I Corinthians 10:13! Let me paraphrase: “No test has overcome or overtaken you except such as is common to man; but GOD IS FAITHFUL who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the testing will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”
There is something that must be indelibly printed on your mind and your heart: THE MEASURE OF YOUR FAILURE, YOUR FALL, YOUR PAIN, YOUR DISAPPOINTMENT WITH YOURSELF, IS NOT GREATER THAN GOD’S MARVELOUS MERCY AND MATCHLESS GRACE!!
Hebrews 7:25 says, “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost [the furtherest throw away from Him] those who come to God through Christ, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”
Three things of vital importance for you to rest in today from Micah 7:18–20:
FIRST, “ONCE AGAIN…” Can you rest your faith on those two words? “Once again…!”
I don’t believe the spirit of those two words is carte blanche for open sin and rebellion. I don’t believe it’s saying, “Do as you please – God doesn’t care as long as you believe.” I don’t believe it’s a call to acceptance of His grace without any accountability. I don’t believe it is a liberating license to licentiousness and the low road to lesser than Christ’s best.
That’s how some fall into the trap of “God’s obligation to accept me regardless of what I do because I believe.”
“Once again” is the description of the heart of God. “Once again” is the hymn of God’s faithfulness. “Once again” is the clarion call to turn to Him, not the acceptance of our self–indulgence with our hollowness and emptiness.
“Once again” is God’s demonstration of His great love for us “in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” [Romans 5:8]. ‘Demonstrates’ is the “once again” of present tense, continuous action, out of the overflow of God’s heart.
“Once again” is God’s covenant of grace with Himself & us – the rainbow that reminds Him the world will never again be destroyed by a flood of water.
“Once again is God’s cry of victory over the battles you felt you’d horribly lost.
“Once again” true sheep have wandered but the True Shepherd seeks them out, even though wandering on the dark mountains of sin, selfishness, and shame.
“Once again” is the unveiling of the authenticity of God’s mercy and grace and the awareness and amplification of our great need of Him.
“Once again” is the authority of God over the “god of this age” bringing victory in your life over the powers of darkness even when “the whole world is in the power of the evil one.”
“Once again” is the unconditional love of the Father for His children who fell short of the Family heritage and loyalty.
“Once again” is the proof of God’s unfailing love for us when we’ve been seared by the paralyzing torture of falling short and He picks us up when we stumble and sings over us the hymn of His acceptance.
“Once again” is His knock at our heart’s door when we thought it best to shut Him out – “I’m not worthy of Him!” – communion was absent but the hound dog of heaven was hot at our heels!
“Once again” is the symphony of praise that cannot be drowned out even when you wonder, “How do you sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?”
It was Samuel Rutherford, Scottish minister in the 1600’s, imprisoned for his ‘non–conformity’ by Episcopalians who did not welcome his Presbyterian persuasions. He spent two years in prison. In prison he gave us a strong look at the true “once again,” enduring peace, pleasure, and blessing.
[E.M. Bounds wrote about it in “Heaven: A Place, A City, A Home.” Grand Rapids, Baker Book House, 1975, p13.]: “If God had told me some time ago that He was about to make me as happy as I could be in this world, and then had told me that He should begin by crippling me in all my limbs, and removing me from all my usual sources of enjoyment, I should have thought it a very strange mode of accomplishing His purpose. And yet, how is His wisdom manifest even in this! For if you should see a man shut up in a close room, idolizing a set of lamps and rejoicing in their light, and you wished to make him truly happy, you would begin by blowing out all his lamps; and then throw open the shutters to let in the light of heaven.”
You are in darkness – but the light of heaven once again shines upon you!
You have sunk to a depraved state – but the light of heaven once again radiates upon you!
You were ready to denounce your faith because of your disappointment in yourself – but the light of heaven has broken through!
You’ve heard it from the atheists and liberal, faithless professors: “Born again” is not possible – but “once again” there is a new creation.
“Born again” is a figment of one’s imagination – but “once again” imagination is replaced by redemptive reality.
“Born again” is natural man’s ascendancy to human potential – but “once again” God signs His name in the blood of Christ on the heart of that man saying, “He’s Mine!!”
“Born again” is religious foolishness that blinds the uneducated, an “opiate” of the people dulling their senses – but “once again” we fled for refuge, found strong encouragement, and laid hold of heavenly hope, an anchor of the soul!
Hear me, church! THE THEREFORE OF GOD’S WHEREFORE OF OUR “ONCE AGAIN” VIBRANT FAITH WITH A VIEW OF ETERNAL REALITY WILL CAPTURE US AND WE’LL SAY: GOD LOVES US AND HAS “ONCE AGAIN” MADE A WAY FOR US!
SECOND, “ONCE AGAIN – GOD WILL!” How powerful is that! Is it “you will” or “God will”? – and every man has that choice in himself as to what foundation he rests his life upon.
It’s God’s will that birthed salvation by grace through faith. It’s God’s will that this is accomplished through the shed blood of the Lamb of God alone. It’s God’s will that fallen man experiences that salvation through repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ at Calvary. It’s God’s will that that salvation process is perseverance unto perfection, “conformed to the image of Christ.” [Romans 8:29]
Listen to John 6:39–40! “This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son, and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
You will or God will?
Hear Jesus! Matthew 4:19, “and I WILL make you fishers of men.” Matthew 11:28, “and I WILL give you rest.”
Matthew 16:19, “I WILL give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 24:35, “Heaven and earth will pass away, But My words WILL BY NO MEANS pass away.”
Romans 5:17, “…much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness WILL REIGN IN LIFE THROUGH THE ONE, JESUS CHRIST.”
Do you remember Paul saying that we should “understand what the will of the Lord is?” [Ephesians 5:17]
What did we read in Micah 7:18–20? “Who is a God like You?” What a profound, penetrating, perfecting statement in the heart of a man who wants to know God! What did Micah say?
“He will again have compassion on us…He will subdue our iniquities…He will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea…He will give truth to Jacob, mercy to Abraham…”
There is something marvelous that is about to happen if you haven’t sensed it as yet. In Acts 9:16 God promises His “return” – and when He does, He says: “I will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, And I will set it up, verse 17, So that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord…”
2 Peter 3:9 says, “God is NOT WILLING that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
Jesus says, “I’m WILLING – be cleansed.”
What did we see in John 6:40? “And this IS THE WILL OF HIM WHO SENT ME, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I WILL raise him up at the last day.”
What’s the old saying? “None are so blind as those who will not see!” Did you hear it? “This is the will of Him who sent Jesus!” God’s heart, God’s design, God’s desire, God’s pleasure, God’s passion, God’s intent, God’s strategy, God’s Way, Truth, and Life – “that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him [trusts in, relies upon, adheres to] may have everlasting life; and [Jesus] will raise him up at the last day.”
THIRD TRUTH: “ONCE AGAIN – GOD WILL – REMIND US OF EVERLASTING COVENANTS.” Look at Micah 7:20, “You will give truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham, which You have sworn to our fathers from days of old.”
Is that written into the fabric of your faith? “You have sworn, You swore to our fathers, and You swore from days of old until now, and You’ll still be swearing in the days to come!”
Are you familiar with Isaiah 55:11? HEAR IT! [God speaking], “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me VOID [or empty without fruit], but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall proper in the thing for which I sent it.”
You heard earlier Jesus speaking in Matthew 24:35, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.”
“Lord, I was so foolish in that fall; but I remind You, You’ve said: “You’ll have compassion on me, You’ll subdue my iniquities, You’ll cast all my sins into the sea of Your forgetfulness, and You’ll give me truth to stand on, because You swore to my spiritual fathers, even from the foundation of the earth until now.”
“Lord, I was so stupid to give a ‘toe–hold’ to the devil; I opened the door of temptation; I let sin reign in that moment rather than righteousness. I was so wrong – but You say there’s a throne of mercy and the gift of grace. I need it today – right now.”
“Lord, we both were so selfishly insane in our marriage, choosing self–will over divine will, flesh over Spirit, my way or the highway. But You say, ‘Marred marriages are My specialty. Right now take the sentence of death unto yourselves and the resurrected Life of Jesus will be manifested.”
Come to Psalm 121 and follow and see from where your true Help comes: “I will lift up my eyes to the hills – from whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul… The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore.”
Daniel B. Towner understood this when he wrote this hymn: “Years I spent in vanity and pride, Caring not my Lord was crucified, Knowing not it was for me He died On Calvary.
By God’s Word at last my sin I learned; Then I trembled at the law I’d spurned, Till my guilty soul imploring turned To Calvary.
Now I’ve given to Jesus everything, Now I gladly own Him as my King, Now my raptured soul can only sing Of Calvary.
O the love that drew salvation’s plan! O the grace that brought it down to man! O the mighty gulf that God did span At Calvary!
Mercy there was great, and grace was free; Pardon there was multiplied to me; There my burdened soul found liberty…At Calvary!”
In “My Utmost For His Highest,” [p266], Oswald Chambers has a powerful word for us about Galatians 6:14 which says, “But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Hear it:
“The Gospel of Jesus Christ always forces an issue of will. Do I accept God’s verdict on sin in the cross of Christ? Have I the slightest interest in the death of Jesus? Do I want to be identified with His death, to be killed right out to all interest in sin, in worldliness, in self – to be so identified with Jesus that I am spoilt for everything else but Him? The great privilege of discipleship is that I can sign on under His cross, and that means death .”
And from Micah 7:18–20 you’re reminded: IT’S HIS DEATH THAT LIBERATES ME! IT’S HIS SACRIFICE THAT SETS ME FREE! Hear me wanderer; no, hear me wandering child of faith – God has a word for you: Isaiah 54:4–8! “Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed; neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and will not remember the reproach of your widowhood anymore. For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is His name; and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He is called the God of the whole earth. For the Lord has called you like a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, like a youthful wife when you were refused, says your God. For a mere moment I have forsaken you, but with great mercies I will gather you. With a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer.”
His compassion is real; His strength to subdue our iniquities is real, His grace to cast all our sins into the depths of the sea is real, and His covenant truth reigns forever!
Accept His Marvelous Mercy and His Matchless Grace!
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
“KINGDOM LIVING – KINGDOM BLESSINGS!”
It’s a day in “Christian circles”, whether schools, universities, churches, businesses, or homes, when the revelation truth of “Kingdom Living” needs to be resurrected ! I’m really not sure if even ‘seminaries’ have taught at all about this subject but rather majored on ‘church life’ void of what is called by most the “Lord’s Prayer”! I want you to read it carefully at least a dozen times in one sitting, and for a period daily of at least one month! I want you immersed in the Lord’s Prayer! It says in Matthew 6:9-13 the following words of Jesus as He trained His disciples, yet, it was months, even years before it sank in to their minds and hearts and wills – Hear His Prayer!
“Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts As we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
But I wonder! How many prayers are engaged in the pure desire to see Christ’s Kingdom-Rule on earth, in their hearts and homes, overseeing and ruling in a redemptive Way in all they do, to His honor, His glory, and passionately praying to be equipped “in Him” in touching our world with His Kingdom mission and Kingdom blessings”?
Oh, and here’s the real “kicker”! In Matthew 6:33 the Lord Jesus said, “But seek FIRST the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” And, in seeking First “the kingdom of God”, is that willful submission and faithful obedience in all He tells you to do? “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth AS IT IS IN HEAVEN”! Does that shock you or surprise you that the heart of Jesus’ prayer and your praying is to usher in heavenly living on earth?
And how interesting and awakening do you find it when in Matthew 6:25-27 the Lord Jesus says, “Therefore I say to you, take no thought for your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on? Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?”
Your heavenly Father KNOWS your birthing, He knows how to bless you, He knows how to “bear with you” in life’s struggles, their turmoils, their ups and their downs, He knows how to bid and abide peaceably and confidently in your every step, and His heart and mind overflows in benevolence for your sovereign care! And, again, in Matthew 6:32b Jesus said, “…For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things…”, so why ‘worry’ when you can worship the One who cares for you more than you care about yourself?
Do you grasp that Father-God, the Lord Jesus, and the convicting and convincing Holy Spirit wants YOU living day by day in the CONFIDENCE of God’s faithfulness? “Kingdom Living”? In Matthew 13:18-23 Jesus shared the parable of the sower. He said: “Therefore hear the parable of the sower: When anyone HEARS THE WORD OF THE KINGDOM, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside.
But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.
Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”
Are you aware that in this 21-first-century that there are not many, if any, places where the Word of God has not gone? I traveled our ‘known’ world for twenty-five years, and I seldom found nations or countries without a church, but I soon learned that a local church does not necessarily mean their location had been saturated with the Word of “blood Redemption” through Christ Jesus! I saw people on the streets of foreign cities who had never heard the name of Christ Jesus or heard that He shed His own blood for their salvation, reconciling them to God’s eternal earthly, worldly purpose for their lives and families!
“Seek first the kingdom of God”, “Take no thought for your life (in the flesh)”, “Hear the word of the kingdom”, yet masses of people locally or worldwide have no understanding about “steadfastly in Christ possessing their souls” with the deed of their bodies, minds, spirits, and souls transferred to the ownership of Christ Himself!
Pause to reflect upon what it is that consumes most people in their everyday lives: “I know I was ‘birthed’ – and I’ll ‘try my best’ to make the most I can out of it, with others possessing not even a penny’s worth of concern about why they are here other than ‘self-indulgence’, trying to find something or someone to satisfy the vast emptiness of the mind, soul, and body!
“I’m here, and eternal purpose for me is not a consideration – I live motivated by what satisfies ME!” “I’m here, and it takes a job of some kind to supply what I want!” “I’m here – and I don’t want to live a ‘naked existence – I’ve got to clothe myself and my family!” “I’m here – and breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with snacks in between requires I labor!”
Do you sense at all that many Americans are more concerned about their “outward dressing” more than they are how they are “heart-dressed” before Holy God? Is it “physical bread” without any consideration of “the manna from Heaven”?
In Matthew 4:1-11 there are “soul-awakening, spirit-shocking” Verses! It says: Then Jesus WAS LED UP BY THE SPIRIT (THAT’S THE HOLY SPIRIT!) into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him (Is it possible that the “tempter” has come to you many times nut you didn’t recognize him?), he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
But Jesus answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by (physical) bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Is there a hunger in you for the “bread of Truth” and for the “meat of His Word”, or is it just three square meals a day physically that satisfies you?
In Deuteronomy 8:1 Holy God spoke: “Every commandment which I command you today you MUST BE CAREFUL TO OBSERVE, that you may live and multiply, AND GO IN AND POSSESS THE LAND OF WHICH THE Lord swore to your fathers.” Dare I tell you that “the land” you are to possess wisely is the land of your own mind, heart, soul, and spirit, possessed wisely by yielding daily to the True Owner who “bought you with a price”, yes, the shed blood of the Lamb of God!
Jesus said in John 6:63, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” And later, in John 16:7-15, we learn of one of the most important of “Kingdom Blessings”! Jesus said to young disciples, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment; of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said to you that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.” ARE YOU KEEPING THE SOVEREIGNLY, ORDAINED APPOINTMENTS OF SPIRIT-ASSISTANCE IN GUIDING YOU IN ALL BIBLICAL TRUTH?
I find it extremely interesting and convicting to hear the Lord Jesus speak to me and you when He said in John 15:16, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you AND appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.”
And “Kingdom Living” through the grace, mercy, and love of God leads to the true remnant of faith involved in “Kingdom Blessings”! “Kingdom Living” comes about because of the “grafted in” “Kingdom Character” which abounds in “Kingdom Blessings”!!
And do you remember the First of the “kingdom Blessings” found in Matthew 5:3 where Jesus spoke the following: “BLESSED are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” That’s “heaven on earth in the life of a ‘poor in spirit’ person who repents”, who turns from ‘self’ to the Savior and Lord, who abandons and exchanges the old sin nature for the “new Life in Christ”, who tires of his fleshly best, even seeing no ushering in of Kingdom allegiance by his endeavor to, at least, live acceptably by the world around! But ‘the world around’ is not going to lead one to True Kingdom allegiance apart from devotion to the King of kings and Lord of lords!
So, Matthew 5:4 declares: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” What did the prophet Isaiah hear about the Spirit on Christ Jesus and His ministry to and through our Savior and Lord, even extended to us? Isaiah 61: 1-3 says, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach glad tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”
In Matthew 5:5 we read, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” The meek? They’re the “teachable”, not the stiff-necked, cold-hearted, or minds dominated by stubbornness and indifference when it comes to trusting Holy God! The ‘earth’ is the new invisible ‘kingdom of righteousness’ being built by the Master-Contractor who takes you and me as ‘stones’ in the building of His Holy Temple only seen by spiritual, re-born eyes in tune to His eternal will and purpose!
And the ‘teachable’ inheriting ‘the earth’? Because we achieve or we receive? Because we merit it or we’re mercied? Earned or credited? Pumped up or poured out on us by God’s grace and mercy? Bought personally or paid for by the Lamb’s blood? Self-genius or Sovereign grace? Talented or “touched by the Master’s hands and taken over in our minds and hearts? Entering Man-made doors or embraced by His amazing love? Personal initiative or the Prince of Peace’s intervention? Perplexed or persuaded?
What does Matthew 5:6 tell us? “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled.” We hunger and thirst, but the filling of us in righteousness is God’s doing! “Shall be filled” is in the “passive” voice – Someone else does the filling as we hunger and thirst before Him for His righteousness!
In Matthew 5:7 we read, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” It’s not in the human anatomy apart from God to be merciful – it’s much easier for lost men to be “revenge-filled”, but when Christ enters our hearts, He’s able to be Himself in us, and He extends mercy through us!
Oh, in Matthew 5:8, Jesus really gets “testy”! He said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Get ready! Christ Jesus really stirred the waters among the “religious Jews” – and He can do the same in some ‘religious communities’! In Matthew 23:23-28 Jesus exposed ‘outward loyalty’ apart from true devotion to the Righteous One, the Lord Jesus. He said: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. Blind guides, who strain at a gnat and swallow a camel!
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them nay be clean also.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”
Would you say that modern-day Pharisaism is “pretense” at attempting to live ‘religiously’ apart from “re-birth” and “true transformation by the grace of God and the blood of the Lamb”? Are you a “pretender” or, yes, a “partaker of Christ’s Sufferings”? (1 Peter 4:13).
“Kingdom Living and Kingdom Blessings” come about by being finished with one’s own abilities and “resting” in the Resurrection Life of Christ! Personal ambitions and personal drives block “Christ in you the hope of glory”! Individual evaluation and individual determination that doesn’t begin at the Cross of Christ and His empty Tomb and His heavenly reign in you is fraudulent, deceived, and totally misleading! Your way is not God’s Way – never has been and never will be! Accept YOUR death with Christ on the Cross, and live in, through, and by His Resurrection Presence in you! What did Paul say in 2 Corinthians 5:17?
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things become new.” For you, is it “newness living in Christ” or the “gut-it-up mentality” of the “pretenders”?
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
FACING NEW DAYS CONFIDENTLY
Time. What is it? The seconds, minutes or hours on your wrist watch? For the ancients was time just the shadow on their sun dial? Is time the gauging of the midnight hour on your old grandfather clock? Is it the grains of sand seeping through the hour glass?
Tolstoy, in “War and Peace,” said: “Time is infinite movement without one moment of rest.” Sometimes I say YES to that! J.A. Van Horn, in “Physics Today,” said: “To the philosopher, time is one of the fundamental quantities. To the average man, time has something to do with dinner.” Longfellow wrote in “Hyperion,” “Time is the life of the soul.” That definition gets a little closer to the truth! Plato put it like this: “Time is the image of eternity.”
Considering all of the prior attempts at defining time, I believe a better explanation would be, “Time is the moment for a life, with the brush of faith, to stroke on the canvas of one’s being the masterpiece of the presence of God, the reflection of the eternal, through repentance, reconciliation, and redemption.”
Look with me at Ecclesiastes 3:1-9. “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven – a time to give birth, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot what is planted. A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to tear down, and a time to build up. A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance. A time to throw stones, and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace, and a time to shun embracing. A Time to search, and a time to give up as lost; a time to keep, and a time to throw away. A time to tear apart, and a time to sew together; a time to be silent, and a time to speak. A time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils?”
And verse 9 brings us to the moment of divine confrontation, “What eternal profit is there in the daily investment of my life?”
In “A Psalm of Life,” Longfellow wrote: “Lives of great men all remind us we can make our lives sublime, and, departing, leave behind us footprints on the sand of time.” Leah Richmond said, “There is a time to be born and a time to die, says Solomon, and it is the momento of a truly wise man; but there is an interval between these two times of infinite importance.”
In Galatians 4:10,11, Paul is talking to a church who saw only the “surface” and had not yet majored on the “substance.” “You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.”
Jesus spoke to the multitude in Luke 12:54-56, “And He was also saying to the multitude, ‘When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming,’ and so it turns out. And when you see a south wind blowing, you say, ‘It will be a hot day,’ and it turns out that way. You hypocrites! You know how to analyze the appearance of the earth and the sky, but why do you not analyze this present time?”
The Psalmist had a discerning of the days when in Psalm 39:4-7 he said, “Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the extent of my days, let me know how transient I am. Behold, You have made my days as handbreaths, and my lifetime as nothing in Your sight, surely every man at his best is a mere breath. Surely every man walks about as a phantom; surely they make an uproar for nothing; he amasses riches, and does not know who will gather them. And now, Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in You.”
I want us to study what we must possess in order to face new days confidently. FIRST, WE MUST KNOW THE DAYS ARE DIVINELY ORDAINED.
Psalm 31:15 says, “My times are in God’s hand…” Do you believe that, or is each day just an accident of the ages? Ecclesiastes 8:15 speaks of “the days of [a man’s] life which God gives him under the sun.” Are the days of my life gifts of His grace? Is He in control of those seconds, minutes, hours, days on the clock of my life?
Psalm 118:24 says, “This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” How awesome when we see it!
I believe without a doubt that multitudes never come into confident living in their hour because they’ve never seen themselves as a piece of the puzzle that God is putting together. I believe that many never come into confident living in their marriages because they have never really seen their marriages as an interpretation to the world of what Christ and His bride are like. I believe that far too many businessmen have missed eternal blessings because they’ve built, they think, businesses as a reward of their own diligence and not a tool to honor God and expand His kingdom.
Frederick William Faber: “The surest method of arriving at a knowledge of God’s eternal purposes about us is to be found in the right use of the present moment. Each hour comes with some little fagot of God’s will fastened upon its back.” I would only add, “…not some little fagot of God’s will, but the full assurance of divine intent fastened to your heart!”
Paul, in Acts 17:26-28, said to the aimless Athenians, “And He made from one, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times, and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist…”
Isaiah 49:5 says, “And now the Lord says, Who formed ME from the womb to be His servant…” And because I know my days and times are ordained of God, according to Psalm 62:8, I will “Trust in Him at all times…” In verse 5 the Psalmist said, “My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation (or hope) is from Him.”
And because I know my days and times are ordained of God, according to Psalm 34:1, “I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall continually be in my mouth…” And because I know my days and times are ordained of God, I’ll not see change as a disaster, but as a blessing! Daniel 2:20-22 says, “Daniel answered and said, let the name of the Lord be blessed forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to Him. And it is He who changes the times and epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men, and knowledge to men of understanding. It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him.”
In Robert Wise’s book, “When The Night Is Too Long,” he quotes a poem written by Ruth Harms Calkin entitled “Once For All.” The poem was found in the belongings of a friend, Jan Wolfard, who had helped him with typing over the years. Jan had suffered from a serious mental illness, he says, “triggered by the failure of her marriage.” But with God’s help and Robert Wise’s, she’d climbed back. At the age of 38, she died. In her belongings they came across Ruth Calkin’s poem: “Lord, may I settle it once and for all that I am dealing directly with You. You need never apologize for any plan You ordain for me since nothing but good can come from Your hand. You are sufficient for every changing circumstance in my God-planned life, for every unchanging circumstance as well.”
Do you sense divine ordination over your life? In Jeremiah 1:9,10, Jeremiah says, “Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me, ‘Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”
Is God’s divine ordination written on your mind and heart yet? Look with me at Psalm 139:16, “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your Book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.”
WE MUST SEE THE DAYS AS DAYS OF DIVINE OPPORTUNITY. In Ephesians 1:5,6, Paul said, “having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will – to the praise of the glory of His grace.” Verse 12 goes on to say, “that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.” And verse 14 reiterates, “to the praise of His glory.”
Days of divine opportunity are to be days of magnifying Him! 2 Corinthians 5:18 says, “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.”
To the Galatians, Paul put it like this: “but when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace…to reveal His Son in me!”
Robert Wise, in “When The Night Is Too Long,” tells an awesome story of Christ-like ministry and response as we walk life’s paths of opportunity:
“Kitty Hart is an amazingly energetic woman with great drive. An x-ray technician, she has also raised two out-standing sons. Perhaps the most remarkable quality one discovers as Kitty talks is her energetic buoyancy and zest for living. Considering the extraordinary pain that has filled her life, her optimism is confounding. The fact that she is alive is itself something of a miracle.
As a teenage Jewish girl, Kitty and her family were torn apart by the Nazi assault that ripped her world to pieces. As her family struggled to survive annihilation, they were separated. She and her mother were shipped to Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Poland. Her father and her brother disappeared.
Kitty discovered quickly that survival depended on doing daily jobs too nauseating to describe. Such tasks as carrying out buckets of human waste from latrines provided minimal shelter to keep winter ice storms from devouring her. Removing jewelry and other items from bodies being prepared for crematoriums gave her precious trinkets with which to bargain for bits of food. Being on a detail that spent the days throwing bodies onto wagons kept her out of the endless flow of human traffic toward the crematoriums. Kitty’s adolescence was spent in pursuit of an existence that seems worse than death.
The horror of the murder of six million Jews is so overwhelming that statistics have persuaded many that people are essentially only animals. The Hitlers, Himmlers, Eichmanns, and Mengelas seem to prove the hypothesis that humanity is no more than the most cunning and dangerous of all species. The death camps suggest that survival of the fittest is a fact and the only measure of right in this universe. So the experience of Kitty Hart poses an unavoidable question for us. Can people really be a reflection of a God of love?
As the years dragged on, Kitty was subjected to horrors that only increased with time. During one period she worked in the infirmary. As the sick poured in, Kitty found old friends and relatives among the multitude. Reunions were a singular source of joy when she was able to smuggle in a crumb of bread or an article of clothing to help someone survive. On one of those bleak winter mornings, the commandant appeared, demanding that the entire infirmary be emptied into waiting trucks. Instantly everyone knew that must mean death.
The influx of more and more Jews had produced an overload of sick people. The Nazi solution for the crowding was to exterminate the present population. Since none would survive anyway, recovering patients were only marking time until they disappeared.
Kitty knew there was no alternative but to comply with the orders, which soldiers stood ready to enforce with club and bayonet. One by one she helped her friends out of the cold, shabby sick bay on their way to death. At such moments the terror and horror that mingled with overwhelming anger created a single desire. Should she survive, the day would come when she would avenge the butchery. Hate kept Kitty alive.
Even though the end of the war was at hand and the defeat of the Nazis had become imminent, Kitty and her mother were sent on a death march to another camp. All that kept her bleeding feet moving was the burning intention to get her hands on her German captors. Germans of any shape or size. Germans who would bleed and die as her people had. Germans who could be strangled.
On the final day of their imprisonment, Kitty and her mother noticed that men in strange uniforms were walking outside the barbed wire. Then an SS guard appeared and announced surrender to the Allies. Immediately the prisoners turned on him, tearing his uniform from his body. As the other inmates beat him, Kitty saw his dagger fall to the ground. Instantly she grabbed the knife and ran for the gate out of the camp. Surging together, the prisoners rampaged into the town seeking food. Kitty clutched at the dagger with one thought in mind. Somewhere she would find a German to try to even a score that had never been settled.
Breaking down the door to one of the village houses they poured in seeking food. The house appeared empty until a prisoner noticed a door that went down to the basement. Quickly Kitty descended the stairs with the knife in the air, poised for attack. From out of the shadows the forms of people began to emerge. There they were. Germans who were trapped just as Kitty and her friends had been for all those years.
“Throw it!” someone yelled in her ear. “Stick them!” As one man stepped from the group, Kitty drew her arm over her head ready to plunge the knife into his chest.
“Throw it!” the man behind her screamed. With the blade overhead, a most contrary impulse surged up from her soul. An almost lost emotion touched her intention. Deep within the recesses of her mind, compassion arose. Unexpected goodness froze the knife in the air. Her obsession with revenge gave way to thoughts of forgiveness. To Kitty’s amazement, her own hand turned, hurling the knife against a wall where it fell harmlessly to the floor.
“I realized that if I killed the man, the Nazis would have succeeded in making me like them,” she now reflects. By bearing humiliation and degradation with forgiveness, Kitty demonstrated that the inhumanity of the Nazis was only a momentary perversion of true humanity. Kitty is living proof that the image of God can be obscured, but not destroyed. The worst life offers produced in her a transcendent quality of character.
Kitty found that she was changed by her decision. By exchanging benevolence for bestiality, she profited the most.
How can the effect of years filled with hate be revised in a few moments of forgiveness? Nothing compares with the power of love. No cleansing agent, no scouring powder, no catharsis can accomplish what a few moments of absolution will do for the soul. The darkest depths of hate reveal most fully the highest possibilities of love.” WOW! DAYS OF OPPORTUNITY – days of ministry to reveal Christ!
WE MUST SEE THE DAYS AS DAYS OF OCCUPATION! Ecclesiastes 3:10-11 says, “I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves. He has made everything beautiful in its time.”
Luke 10:13 makes a similar point: “So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Occupy (or do business) till I come.” Do you remember young Jesus’ response to His parents when they came back to Jerusalem to find him? Luke 2:49, “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”
George Macdonald, in the “Marquis of Losaie”, wrote, “I find the doing of the will of God leaves me no time for disputing about His plans.”
** DAYS OF OCCUPATION ARE DAYS OF DECISIONS – Ephesians 1:1 says, “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God…” What is the will of God for your life? I Corinthians 2:2 says, “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” Ephesians 6:6 says, “servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart…”
**DAYS OF OCCUPATION ARE DAYS OF DETERMINATION – Look with me at 2 Samuel 23:10-12, “He arose and struck the Philistines until his hand was weary and clung to the sword, and the Lord brought about a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to strip the slain. Now after him was Shammah the son of Agee a Hazarite. And the Philistines were gathered into a troop, where there was a plot of ground full of lentils, and the people fled from the Philistines. But he took his stand in the midst of the plot, defended it and struck the Philistines; and the Lord brought about a great victory.”
Henry Parry Liddon says, “Nothing is really lost by sacrifice; everything is lost by failure to obey God’s call.” John Greenleaf Whittier wrote, “In simple trust like theirs who heard beside the Syrian Sea the gracious calling of the Lord, let us, like them, without a word rise up and follow God.”
Hebrews 12:2-3 says, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart.”
** DAYS OF OCCUPATION ARE DAYS OF DISCIPLINE – Look carefully at I Corinthians 9:23-27 and ask yourself, “Is my walk with Christ disciplined?” “And I do all things for the sake of the gospel, that I may become a fellow partaker of it. Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. And everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I buffet my body, and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.”
As Paul came near the end of his life, he wrote in 2 Timothy 4:7, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
WE MUST SEE THE DAYS AS DAYS OF ORDER: Do you remember “good King Hezekiah?” In 2 Kings 20:1-2 Hezekiah was sick and near death and Isaiah the prophet went to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.” In Amos 4:2 God said, “Prepare to meet your God!!” Set your house in order! Days of order are days of preparation, examination, devotedness and readiness.
In Luke 16:2 Jesus speaks of the rich man’s steward when he called him to himself and said, “What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship…”
To the church at Corinth Paul said, “It is required in stewards that one be found faithful.” Set your house in order.
Matthew 25:10 speaks of those five foolish virgins: “And while the five foolish virgins went to buy, the bridegroom, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding. And the door was shut.” Set your house in order!
Revelation 19:7 also speaks of a wedding. “Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and HIS WIFE HAS MADE HERSELF READY.” Set your house in order!
Oswald Chambers, in “My Utmost For His Highest” wrote, “The great need for the Christian worker is to be ready to face Jesus Christ at any and every turn. This is not easy, no matter what our experience is. The battle is not against sin or difficulties or circumstances, but against being so absorbed in work that we are not ready to face Jesus Christ at every turn. That is the one great need, not the facing of our belief, or our creed, the question whether we are of any use, but to face Him…Jesus rarely comes where we expect Him; He appears where we least expect Him; He appears where we least expect Him, and always in the most illogical connections. The only way a worker can keep true to God is by being ready for the Lord’s surprise visits. It is not service that matters, but intense spiritual reality, expecting Jesus Christ at every turn…If you are ‘looking off unto Jesus’ avoiding the call of the religious age you live in, and setting your heart on what He wants, on thinking on His line, you will be the only one who is ready. Trust no one, not even the finest saint who ever walked this earth, ignore him, if he hinders your sight of Jesus Christ.” SET YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER!
WE MUST LIVE THE DAYS WITH THE PROMISE OF OVERCOMING! I John 5:4 says, “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that overcomes the world – our faith!”
In I Corinthians 15:57 we read, “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Is it so? Then…”These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace; In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” 2 Corinthians 2:14 says, “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.”
We are not called to Christ to be men and women filled with pessimistic fear, but men and women empowered by a powerful faith of “Victory In Jesus.” We are not called to Christ to be disciples clouded by doubts, but disciples who are gloriously certain of our conquest because of the unconquerable majesty of Christ. We are not called to Christ to be His servants bathed in the foul smell of failure and short coming, but servants flooded with the heavenly perfume of Christ’s joy, His triumphant victory, and His overcoming life.
We don’t walk despondently toward heaven’s gates, we ride the chariot of faith radiant in the triumphant procession of oneness with Christ. We don’t walk toward heaven’s gates hoping that at least some of our time we are triumphant in Christ, the Word says God “always” leads us in triumph in Christ! We walk toward heaven’s gates because we willfully chained ourselves to Christ, responding to the unfathomable love of the Victor!
George Matheson wrote the text to the hymn, “O Love That Will Not Let Me God.” Those four verses say: “O love that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in Thee; I give Thee back the life I owe, that in thine ocean depths its flow may richer, fuller be.
O Light that follows all my way, I yield my flickering torch to Thee; my heart restores its borrowed ray, that in Thy sunshine’s blaze, its day may brighter, fairer be.
O joy that seeks me through pain, I cannot close my heart to Thee; I trace this rainbow through the rain, and feel the promise is not vain, that many shall tearless be.
O grace that lifts up my head, I dare not ask to fly from Thee; I lay in dust life’s glory dead, and from the ground there blossoms red, life that shall endless be.”