“IRRESPONSIBLE IMPREGNATION OR SOVEREIGN SELECTION?”
“Irresponsible impregnation”? And I’m not writing about careless, unwanted, unexpected ‘child-births’ by immoral behavior and choices, but rather ‘sinful choices’ infusing, fertilizing, permeating a life with fallen nature’s fleshly desires, the world’s lust, and the devil’s delight!
Irresponsible impregnation is individuality and its choices as the ‘husk’ of an unredeemed life! It was Oswald Chambers who wrote: [“My Utmost For His Highest,” p.257], “Individuality counterfeits personality as lust counterfeits love,” and that is so on target! He had said earlier, [p.256], “It is the things that are right and noble and good from the natural standpoint that keep us back from God’s best.”
And I’m sure that the ‘irresponsible impregnators’ are unaware that “ they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh” or as Paul said in Galatians 5:24, “those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh WITH ITS PASSIONS AND DESIRES.” In the flesh men are dominated by, controlled by, even deceived by their, yes, devotion to their old sin nature, devotion to “if I want to do this, I’ll do it,” without any consideration of the natural consequences of opposing God’s Purpose, His will, or His holy desire for their lives!
“Irresponsible impregnation” is bowing before the idol of ‘self-indulgence’ intent on satisfying their ‘natural independence’ from God Himself, from His Son, and resist strongly the convicting power of the Holy Spirit BECAUSE “I crown the passions of my heart, my desires, my wants – and if that’s opposite of the Way, the Word, or the Will of God, who cares?” GOD DOES AND HE DEMONSTRATED HIS LOVE AND CONCERN THROUGH HIS SON AND THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST’S LIFE ON CALVARY’S CROSS WITH YOUR NAME ON HIS LIPS, MIND, AND HEART!
But are you aware of how strong ‘spiritual selfishness’ is as unbelievers ignore, close their ears, and seek to avoid even any contact with ‘true seekers’ and ‘faithful disciples’? It’s as if they feel or sense God, the Savior, or His people are “out to make something of me I don’t want to be!” So they erect ‘high walls’ of resistance to Biblical Truth, or to ‘emancipation proclamations’, or even testimonies about “blood redemption through Christ and His transforming power” because they’re satisfied with their “irresponsible impregnation” of self-will, self-rule, and selfish pleasures! It’s absolutely heart-breaking to encounter ‘smug indifference’ to the love of God! It’s so disturbing when you encounter ‘fleshly pride’ in the fallen sin nature in people you encounter regularly who have no desire to hear or learn about ‘godless existence with a hellish ending’ because they truly are enslaved to a self-love, self-enchantment, and a slavish determination to satisfy every sinful, self-centered desire, warped or not!
Do you remember Jesus’ encounter with the ‘rich young ruler’ in Luke 18? Verses 18-27 tell us: Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good, but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’”
And the rich young ruler responded, “All these things I have kept from my youth.” So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.
And when Jesus saw that he became very sorrowful, He said, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” And those who heard it said, “Who then can be saved?”
But Jesus said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” Then Peter said, “See, we have left all and followed You.” So He said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times more in this present time, and in the age to come eternal life.”
A “blessed life” is not because one chooses for himself/herself ,or both, what satisfies them, what they work for in their fleshly goal, fulfilling it and feeling ‘rewarded’ – personal ambition takes precedent over the eternal purpose of God and they miss out on eternal blessings through Christ only; self-determined, fleshly plans, goals, ambitions super-cede the eternal will of God “in Christ”; and spiritual self-centeredness -making one’s self the “idol” before which they bow, worship, and consent , without any awareness of serious consequences-, is the establishment of a fleshly altar before which they “bow” to worship their ‘self-realization’!
It was Elizabeth Barrett Browning, in her “The Poetical Works Of Elizabeth Barrett Browning”, (From 1826-1844, J.E.Beale Book Department, The Fancy Fair, Bournemouth, Eng.,p76), who began “The Soul’s Travelling” saying: “I dwell amid the city, the great humanity which beats its life along the stony streets, Like an unsunned river In a self-made course, is ever Rolling on, Rolling on!,” saying a little later: “I dwell amid the city, and hear the flow of souls! I do not hear the several contraries – I do not hear the separate tone that rolls in act or speech, For pomp or trade, for merrymake or folly – I hear the confluence and sum of each, And that is melancholy! – The voice is a complaint, O crowned city, The blue sky covering you, like God’s great pity!’”
The prophet Isaiah was given by God a glance of Holy God’s judgment on the nation of Israel and the holy city’s destruction in 70AD, and I believe a warning to every human being between then and now,(Isaiah 5:30),“In that day they will roar against them like the roaring of a sea. And if one looks to the land, BEHOLD, darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened by clouds.” And if you are unsure about God’s fulfillment of judgment upon lives, cities, states, or nations, examine what Jesus had to say in Luke 21: 20-28!
But Holy God does not leave His children of faith hopeless in the midst of a faithless, rebellious people, whether family or friends, states or nations! In 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 Paul wrote: “But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.
For when they say, “Peace and safety!”,(while doing their own thing!), then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. AND THEY (who do their own thing without the Savior!) SHALL NOT ESCAPE ( OR AVOID GOD”S JUDGMENT)! But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.
Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day (Day of the Lord & His presence and governing and watchcare over us?) be sober (serious-minded), putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.
For God did not (does not now!) appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.”
But for many who live without redemptive, saving faith in the victorious work of Christ at the Cross and beyond His empty tomb, there is the sad reality of many who “choose” to ignore “saving grace and mercy” and are ‘self-determined’ to ‘rescue’ and ‘save themselves’!
But then there are those who have, not an ounce, of fleshly hope in themselves at all, and cannot even see in the fleshly successful of our modern-day world any example of ‘better, fleshly living’, but at the same time remain deaf to our Lord’s entreaty, “Come to Me, and I’ll give you rest!”
In contemplating this teaching of “Irresponsible Impregnation Or Sovereign Selection?”, a few words of distraught souls who ignore His holy plea and invitation to be birthed “In the Spirit”. I wrote: “The rich man has a tower, the politician has power, the beauty has an orchid-flower, but I only cower.
No life, no hope, no talent, no gift, no rope – just a helpless, hopeless feeling of no purpose on earth. Stars shine even in the darkest night, for some, while others feel there is no hope, and respond: “Just not right!”
Eyes on their circumstances, selfish will clamoring to change their surroundings, but no looking up to the God who made them, and no desire for Him to ‘save’ them.
In Mary and Joseph’s day, “No room at the inn,” before Jesus was born. But in this modern-day, no room for Jesus in “my world of scorn!”
“Deny yourself”, was that Jesus’ call? So why should I do what He says at all? Master of my own destiny, owner of my own home – it’s ‘my will, my way,’ not Jesus at all!
Unteachable minds, darkened hearts, self-centered wills, for just a start, in explaining the blindness and pain of men’s hearts who have no desire to be reconciled but willing to live apart.
No desire for reconciliation, no sorrow over separation, no sadness of incoherence of His divine intent – “just leave me to myself and all my flesh invents!”
In the ‘lust of self-vindication’ men willingly attack or just ignore the “love of His vibrant manifestation” – but devotion to their ‘sad sweet selves’ takes precedence over His INTERCESSION!
So easily ignoring divine revelation and spoofing the Truth of Jesus’ crucifixion, men will try to debunk His ‘holy-blood sacrifice’, willingly choosing to assert their “all-rightness”.
But the day will soon come when sinful sorrows will be multiplied as they traded away God for ‘flesh’ and a ‘sin-nature’ as the companions of their side – “No Savior for me as I ‘save’ myself, enjoying my walk in a fool’s paradise’!”
You are aware that though many rebel and talk about their “peace and safety”, the day is coming when before Holy God they’ll have to stand with an explanation of their spiritual stupidity! But, let me shift gears from God saying “I called, but you refused” to Jesus saying, in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
“Come to Me!” Don’t YOU find it so interesting that unredeemed men and women, even boys and girls, have their sights, souls, intents, desires, and passionate longings on everything and anything except God’s eternal intent for willful sons and daughters, birthed in His ultimate intent spiritually to be vessels of His Holy Presence, temples of His resident-ministry, and extensions of His passionate longing to “draw” all mankind unto Himself through them?
It’s so eternally life-changing when one hears, receives, and walks in what Jesus said in John 14:6! “I AM THE WAY, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” True salvation, true redemption, true reconciliation to Holy God, true service, at His bidding, is only by “Christ in you the hope of glory.”
In 2 Corinthians 1:9 Paul wrote, revealing God’s eternal intent for true disciples “in Christ”: “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that WE SHOULD NOT TRUST IN OURSELVES but in God who raises the dead…”! And, no doubt, this is why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:31, “I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I DIE DAILY.” If Christ Jesus intended to be Himself in us, then why do men attempt to imitate Him rather than be dead to one’s self, allowing His Resurrection to be manifested in them and through them?
Do you believe this is why we read in 2 Corinthians 4:10-12 the following true plan of loving God for our lives as His ‘temples’ in which He dwells? Paul said: “always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life (fleshly life) in you.” Paul was intent on maturing ‘messy diaper babies’ into sons and daughters of true faith who die to themselves daily that His Resurrection Life may be manifested in and through their mortal flesh!
This just may be why we read early in the Old Testament writings, Genesis 24:26-27, of the man who said: “Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His mercy and His truth toward my master. As for me, being on (or in) the way, the Lord led me to the house of my master’s brethren.” And, IF JESUS IS THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE, then why do we assume He lauds our ‘best efforts’ when in reality, He weeps?!?
Did Jesus come to heighten your darkness or to bring you “Light”? Did Jesus come to improve or transform? Did Jesus come to ‘alarm’ or to say, ‘Be not afraid’? Did Jesus come to adapt ‘religious people and unbelievers’ to a plateau of ‘self-acceptance’ or to crucify you and your old sin nature with Him on the Cross? Did He come to affirm your best intentions or to atone for blackened hearts, selfish wills, and godless minds?
Did Jesus come to let you know, though clouds may surround you, in Him the Bright Son-Light of God’s love for you can be affirmed in your heart and mind by His ever-abiding, Spirit-raised, resurrection Presence in a redeemed heart and mind? Did Jesus come to assure us that even if sorrow or sadness befall us, in Him it will not stall us in complacency, doubt, or fear, but will be our reminder, “I’ll never you nor forsake you!”?!?
I find it so encouraging, so enlightening, so uplifting to read and absorb that early prayer of Christ Jesus as He sought to equip His early disciples and those to come when in Matthew 6:9-10 and Verse 13 He taught them “In this manner, therefore pray: “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” with the strong plea of Verse 13, “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 (Or “so be it!”), and you have to ask: “Are ‘Christians’ today discipled to live under the King’s rule, His leadership, His heavenly desire for their earthly ministries?”
Do we say daily, just as the Genesis 24 man stated, “I being in the way, the Lord led me..”? Do we say with Paul as he stated in Galatians 2:20, “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 I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Verse 21, I do not set aside the grace of God”, relying on my “grit” and “self-will, self-determination, or self-pleasure”? NO! We take the sentence of death unto ourselves daily that the resurrection Presence of Christ may be manifested, released, and extended through our mortal flesh!
This is why Paul declared in 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation…
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He (God) made Him (Christ Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that WE MIGHT BECOME THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN HIM.”
Discipleship in Christ is not the best of human effort or the best of fleshly adornment and improvement, but the reality of “new creations” through Christ Jesus’ BLOOD ATONEMENT!
There’s an old hymn in “The American Hymnal,” published by The Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, copyrighted in 1933! The hymn is entitled “Crimson Calvary Answers, “No!”, written by W.T.Dale and B.B. McKinney. It says:
“Shall I be condemned forever, I I to the Lord draw near; If I sue for peace and pardon, Will He deign to hear my prayer? Will He scorn my deep contrition, Will He not His grace bestow? Will He scorn my heart’s petition? Crimson Calvary answers “No!”
I am mourning o’er my follies; I am weeping o’er my sin; For my guilt’s become oppressive, and a burden long has been; Will the Lord be gracious to me, If I tell Him all my woe, Will He leave me in my anguish? Crimson Calvary answers, “No!”
If I go and tell Him truly, How I have His love abused, How I’ve sinned against His mercy, And His pardon have refused; Will He grant His loving favor When in penitence I go; Or in wrath will He forsake me? Crimson Calvary answers, “No!”
While upon the cross He suffered, Jesus prayed with dying breath, “Father, oh, forgive them,” cried He, “Save them from eternal death;” Am I worse than those who mocked Him, And who pierced Him long ago, Have I passed beyond His mercy? Crimson Calvary answers, “No!”
The chorus then says: On the cross the blessed Savior Paid the sin price long ago; All who will on Him believe, Full redemption shall receive, For the blood of Jesus cleanses Whiter than driven snow.”
Ephesians 1: 7-8 declares: “In Him (in Christ Jesus) we have REDEMPTION through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence..”! Redemption! Forgiveness of sin and the sin nature crucified with Him!
Reconciliation! That’s reconciled to God and “adopted” as sons and daughters of God by Jesus Christ! But hear me! One of the most thrilling truths of having been reconciled to God is: If YOU are a “born-again” child of God, it is because Holy God choice you and called you to Himself! In John 15:16 the Lord Jesus said: “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,” saying in Verse 19, “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not (any longer) of the world, but I CHOSE YOU out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”
Self-chosen, self-appointed, self-determined ‘service’ (?) in the name of Jesus is so opposite of Genesis 22:3 where the Word tells us: “So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey…and arose and went to the place of which God had told him,” obedience to the call, faithful in the divine ministry, intimacy based on faithful, personal response in His eternal purposes!
In 2 Timothy 1:8b-11 Paul testifies, edifies, and instructs true “disciples of Jesus”: “…share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and CALLED US WITH A HOLY CALLING, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, to which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.” And if Jesus redeemed You, reconciled YOU to Holy God, and set YOU apart as a chosen son or daughter of the true faith, please understand, it’s not what YOU choose and select for your ‘witness’ but what He gifts you to be and to do for His honor and glory! One thing you need to reflect upon! Jesus said: “I didn’t come to be served, but to serve and to give My life a ransom for many!”
And the called, the chosen, the gifted, the assigned, are those “born again” and set aside by the Lord Jesus as His ambassadors in our troubled world! We aren’t redeemed to do what we selfishly want to do in His kingdom, but to respond obediently to His gifting, His leading, yes, His directive for your life of ministry and service to the King of kings and the Lord of lords!
Since it’s mid-December, 2016, just prior to the “Christ-mas Celebration” and reminder, receive Adolf Adam’s, “O Holy Night,” from the old American Hymnal”! It says: “O holy night; the stars are brightly shining; It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth; Long lay the world in sin and error pining, Till He appeared, and the soul felt His worth;
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and cloudless morn! Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices, O night divine! O night when Christ was born! O night divine! O night, O night divine!
Led by the light Of faith serenely beaming; With glowing hearts by His cradle to stand; Led by the light of the star, so brightly gleaming, Here came the wise men from Orient land;
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and cloudless morn! Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices, O night divine! O night when Christ was born! O night divine! O night, O night divine!” Jesus has come!