CONCECRATION TO CHRIST’S LORDSHIP?”

J.FARRELL FISHER, JUNE 20-21,2019

LEVITICUS 11:44 IS SO VERY, VERY CLEAR & PLAIN. IT SAYS: “FOR I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD. YOU SHALL THEREFORE CONSECRATE YOURSELVES, & YOU SHALL BE HOLY; FOR I AM HOLY.” BUT IN OUR WORLD, OUR DAY & TIME, JUST AS IN THE EARLY DAYS OF THE : “SO-CALLED” PEOPLE OF GOD, THEIR LIVES WERE BEING CONSUMED BY “COMPETING LIFESTYLES.” ‘HOLINESS’ BECAME, & STILL IS, EVEN IN SOME ‘CHRISTIAN’ (?) CIRCLES TODAY, A STRANGE WORD, A DEROGATORY WORD; RATHER THAN AFFIRMATION,& IT HAS BECOME A FROWNED-UPON CONCEPT OF “THE LESSER INFORMED”, BECAUSE, ‘THEY’ [THE SPIRITUALLY ELITE] ARE SO ‘ABOVE’ SUCH AN ‘ILL-INFORMED, UNEDUCATED, NARROW-MINDED GROUP’, WHO CAN’T POSSIBLY REPRESENT GOD!!

YET IT’S GOD HIMSELF WHO SAID, “..BE HOLY,” & “CONSECRATE YOURSELVES.” AND THE MEANING OF THE WORD, ‘CONSECRATE’? IT’S FROM A HEBREW WORD MEANING, ‘TO BE SET APART,’ OR ‘SACREDNESS’! WEBSTER’S 1828 DICTIONATY SAYS OF ‘SACRED’, “HOLY, PERTAINING TO GOD OR TO HIS WORSHIP; DEDICATED; DEVOTED; DUE REVERENCE OF GOD [IN THE WAY ONE LIVES!!]; IT MEANS, SET APART TO HONOR GOD WITH ONE’S LIFE & ONE’S WALK.”

I THINK YOU’LL UNDERSTAND THE TITLE OF THIS MESSAGE WHEN YOU REMIND YOURSELF OF GALATIANS 6:14 WHERE PAUL SAID, “BY WHOM THE WORLD IS CRUCIFIED UNTO ME; & I UNTO THE WORLD.” REALLY? IN JOHN 17:15 JESUS PRAYED TO THE FATHER ABOUT HIS DISCIPLES: “I DO NOT PRAY THAT YOU SHOULD TAKE THEM OUT OF THE WORLD, BUT THAT YOU SHOULD KEEP THEM FROM THE EVIL ONE.” WE’RE LEFT IN THE WORLD, NOT TO BE CAPTURED & CONSUMED BY ITS FALLEN SPIRIT, BUT TO BE OUR LORD’S WITNESSES OF HIS SAVING GRACE, MERCY, & LOVE! BUT SOME RECEIVE ‘SEED’ IN THE MIDST OF ‘THORNS’- MATTHEW 13:22 SAYS, “NOW HE WHO RECEIVED SEED AMONG THE THORNS IS HE WHO HEARS THE WORD, & THE CARES OF THIS WORLD & THE DECEITFULNESS OF RICHES CHOKE THE WORD, & HE BECOMES UNFRUITFUL.”

“COMPETING LIFESTYLES”? SOMEONE ANONYMOUSLY WROTE: “THE SHIP’S PLACE IS IN THE SEA, BUT GOD PITY THE SHIP WHEN THE SEA GETS IN IT. THE CHRISTIAN’S PLACE IS IN THE WORLD, BUT GOD PITY THE CHRISTIAN IF THE WORLD GETS THE BEST OF HIM.” COMPETING LIFESTYLES? IT WAS THEODORE MUNGER WHO ONCE SAID: “THE UNREST OF THIS WEARY WORLD IS ITS UNVOICED CRY AFTER GOD,” & SADLY DOESN’T EVEN KNOW WHAT IT’S ‘UNVOICED CRY’ IS ALL ABOUT!

COMPETING LIFESTYLES? GOD’S PEOPLE ARE TO BE FAITHFUL “TO THE WORLD IN ITS WITNESS,” BUT… “FRIENDSHIP OF THE WORLD [MAKES ONE] THE ENEMY OF GOD.” (JAMES 4:4). WE ARE TO BE DISENGAGED FROM ITS WAYS BUT ENGAGED IN ITS CONVERSION & SUBMISSION TO HOLY GOD THROUGH THE “RECONCILER” & “REDEEMER”, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST!

COMPETING LIFESTYLES? THE ‘WORLD’ IS A NET TO SNARE, ENTRAP, & CAPTURE ONE’S SOUL – IT HAS NO SPIRIT OF CONTENTMENT BUT ONLY DISCONTENT, NO PEACE BUT CHAOS, NO FORMING BUT FRACTURING, NO LAYING UP OF TREASURES IN HEAVEN BUT WASTEFUL SPENDING & ROTTING OF WHAT COULD HONOR HOLY GOD! COMPETING LIFESTYLES? THE ‘WORLD’ BIRTHS WORRY, WAR, FALSE WORSHIP, CHAINS & BONDAGE, RATHER THAN FREEDOM & LIBERTY, CHAOS RATHER THAN “THE PEACE THAT PASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING.”

COMPETING LIFESTYLES? “DAY OF WRATH THAT DAY OF BURNING, SEER & SIBYL SPEAK CONCERNING, ALL THE WORLD TO ASHES TURNING,” [THOMAS DE CELANO]. MASTERS OF ‘SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS’ BECOME MIDGETS MIRED IN THE MUD OF ONE’S OWN MAKING.IT WAS JAMES MILNER WHO SAID: “WHILE A MAN RESTS IN HIS OWN MERITS FOR ACCEPTANCE WITH GOD, IT IS OF LITTLE CONSEQUENCE WHETHER HE BE A PAGAN IDOLATER, OR A PROUD, ARROGANT PHARISEE – I KNOW NOT WHICH OF THE TWO IS MOST DISTANT FROM THE KINGDOM OF GOD.”

COMPETING LIFESTYLES? IRREVERANCE IS THE NAME FOR TOO MANY PEOPLE WHO BOW BEFORE THEIR ‘FLESHLY IDOLS’,NOT EVEN KNOWING IT IS A ‘god’ THEY BOW BEFORE & WORSHIP. FOULNESS IS ITS FRUIT, SMELLY STENCH ITS JUICE, POISONOUS VINES THE VEINS WITHIN THEIR ‘SICKENED, SINFUL, NATURAL, THO’ RELIGIOUS PRESENCE’, BUT “STILL” ALIENATED & SEPARATED FROM HOLY GOD, BECAUSE, THOUGH ‘BELIEVING’, THERE’S BEEN NO TRUE REPENTANCE OR TRUE “RESTING” IN THE FINISHED WORK OF CHRIST AT THE CROSS & HIS EMPTY TOMB,OR WELCOMING OF HIS REIGNING PRESENCE!

COMPETING LIFESTYLES? WEALTH IS THE ‘god’ BEFORE WHOM MANY BEAR WITNESS! JESUS SAID IN MATTHEW 6:19, “LAY NOT UP FOR YOURSELVES TREASURES UPON EARTH, WHOSE MOTH & RUST DOES CORRUPT, & WHERE THIEVES BREAK THROUGH & STEAL.” IT WAS ROBERT SOUTH WHO ONCE SAID: “THERE ARE NOT A FEW WHO BELIEVE IN NO GOD BUT MAMMON, NO DEVIL BUT THE ABSENCE OF GOLD, NO DAMNATION BUT BEING POOR, & NO HELL BUT AN EMPTY PURSE; & NOT A FEW OF THEIR DESCENDANTS ARE STILL LIVING.” NO WONDER JOHN FOSTER WROTE: “THE PRIDE OF DYING RICH RAISES THE LOUDEST LAUGH IN HELL.”

COMPETING LIFESTYLES! I’VE SAID BEFORE, & I’LL SAY IT AGAIN: “RELIGION IS NOT AN ETERNAL, VIBRANT RELATIONSHIP, BUT AN OCCASIONAL ‘SUNDAY-NODDING OF THE HEART’, BUT ABSENT OF A “NEW, GRACED, SPIRIT-ANOINTED LIFE & HEART”!! YET ‘RELIGIOUS GATHERINGS’ ALL OVER THE WORLD WILL INCLUDE JESUS CHRIST AMONG THE ‘WORSHIP’ (?) OF THEIR NATURAL GODS!! BUT THERE IS NO GRASP AT ALL OF THE LORD’S WORDS: “YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN”!!

WALTER BAGEHOT WROTE: “THE WHOLE HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION IS STREWN WITH CREEDS & INSTITUTIONS WHICH WERE INVALUABLE AT FIRST, & DEADLY AFTERWARDS.” (CONTEMPLATE THAT THOUGHT FOR A DAY!). COMEPETING LIFESTYLES? HOW MANY DO YOU KNOW WHO’VE BOWED BEFORE THEIR OWN MINDS AS THEIR ULTIMATE ‘god’? I DO KNOW THAT IN PHILLIPIANS 2:5 PAUL WROTE: “LET THIS MIND BE IN YOU WHICH WAS ALSO IN CHRIST JESUS,” BUT THAT’S CONTINENTS AWAY FROM BOWING BEFORE ONE’S OWN MIND AS HIS RESOURCE OF SALVATION, WISDOM, & UNDERSTANDING! BUT HOW MANY ‘EDUCATED’ UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS HAVE DISAVOWED ALLEGIANCE TO GOD & BOW BEFORE THEIR FLIMSY, FAITHLESS BRAINS?

IT WAS J.B.PHILLIPS IN HIS “NEW TESTAMENT CHRISTIANITY” WHO WROTE: “THE MODERN INTELLIGENT MIND, WHICH HAS HAD ITS HORIZONS WIDENED IN DOZENS OF DIFFERENT WAYS, HAS GOT TO BE SHOCKED AFRESH BY THE AUDACIOUS CENTRAL FACT THAT AS A SOBER MATTER OF HISTORY, “GOD BECAME ONE OF US.”!!

COMPETING LIFESTYLES? “HAPPINESS IS WHAT LIFE IS ALL ABOUT – GET BUSY WITH WHATEVER MAKES YOU HAPPY!” HOW PHONY IS THAT? NOWHERE DO YOU FIND GOD SAYING, “BE HAPPY”…HIS CALL ON YOUR LIFE? “BE HOLY” – BUT WITHOUT HIM IT NEVER HAPPENS! BLESSED IS OUR LORD’S SERMON. BLESSED IS OUR SAVIOR’S PROVISION. BLESSED IS TRULY THE FRUIT OF A HOLY-SPIRIT-DIRECTED, GOVERNED LIFE.

COMPETING LIFESTYLES? “THERE IS NO GOD!” IT WAS PLATO WHO LONG AGO SAID, “ATHEISM IS A DISEASE OF THE SOUL BEFORE IT BECOMES AN ERROR OF UNDERSTANDING.” I CHOOSE TO STAND WITH GOD HIMSELF WHO SAID: “THE FOOL HAS SAID IN HIS HEART ‘THERE IS NO GOD’!” IT WAS MARY ANN VINCENT WHO SAID: “AN ATHEIST’S MOST EMBARASSING MOMENT IS WHEN HE FEELS PROFOUNDLY THANKFUL FOR SOMETHING, BUT CAN’T THINK OF ANYBODY TO THANK FOR IT.”

COMPETING LIFESTYLES? ALL ACROSS THE SPECTRUM OF HUMANITY FLOWS THE IDEA IN MANY MINDS THAT THEY CAN, IN & OF THEMSELVES, FULFILL THEIR OWN DESTINIES & BE RICHER FOR IT THAN ‘THOSE POOR CHRISTIANS’, YET GOD SAID IN JEREMIAH 2:11-13: “HAS A NATION CHANGED THEIR GODS, WHICH ARE YET NO GODS? BUT MY PEOPLE (ISRAEL) HAS CHANGED THEIR GLORY FOR THAT WHICH DOES NOT PROFIT. BE ASTONISHED, OH YOU HEAVENS, AT THIS, & BE HORRIBLY AFRAID, BE YOU VERY DESOLATE, SAYS THE LORD. FOR MY PEOPLE HAVE COMMITTED TWO EVILS; THEY HAVE FORSAKEN ME THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS, & HEWED THEM OUT CISTERNS, BROKEN CISTERNS, THAT CAN HOLD NO WATER.” (IS THAT ‘WATER’ THE “WATER OF THE WORD” THAT ISRAEL DID NOT UPHOLD?). (BY THE WAY, THE “WATER OF THE WORD” IS KING JESUS THAT THEY WILLINGLY CRUCIFIED!!).

COMPETING LIFESTYLES? THAT’S THE ‘godless’, THE ‘convenient’, THE ‘careless’, THE ‘self-exalting, self-ruling, self-indulgent, self-deceived individual, who, like Israel, (Gen.11:4), “..LET US BUILD A CITY, & A TOWER, WHOSE TOP MAY REACH UNTO HEAVEN; & LET US MAKES US A NAME, LEST WE BE SCATTERED ABROAD UPON THE FACE OF THE WHOLE EARTH.” SELF-EXALTATION, NATIONAL EXALTATION, FAMILY EXALTATION, BUSINESS EXALTATION – & MAKE SURE THAT YOU LEAVE ‘YOUR ‘god’ out of our self-governing right!’ REALLY? IN JOHN 5:44 THE LORD JESUS SAID TO THE ‘SELF-REIGNING JEWS’, “HOW CAN YOU BELIEVE, WHICH RECEIVE HONOR ONE OF ANOTHER, & SEEK NOT THE HONOR WHICH COMES FROM GOD ONLY?”

COMPETING LIFESTYLES? IN 2 CORINTHIANS 13:5 PAUL SAID TO THE “CHURCH” IN CORINTH, “EXAMINE YOURSELVES, WHETHER YOU BE IN THE FAITH; PROVE YOUR OWN SELVES. KNOW YOU NOT YOUR OWN SELVES, HOW THAT JESUS CHRIST IS IN YOU, EXCEPT YOU BE REPROBATES?” WHEN IS THE LAST TIME YOU READ GALATIANS 6:1-8? IT SAYS: “BRETHREN, IF A MAN BE OVERTAKEN IN A FAULT, YOU WHICH ARE SPIRITUAL, RESTORE SUCH A ONE IN THE SPIRIT OF MEEKNESS; CONSIDERING YOURSELF LEST YOU ALSO BE TEMPTED.

BEAR YOU ONE ANOTHER’S BURDENS, & SO FULFILL THE LAW OF CHRIST. FOR IF A MAN THINK HIMSELF TO BE SOMETHING, WHEN HE IS NOTHING, HE DECEIVES HIMSELF. BUT LET EVERY MAN PROVE HIS OWN WORK, & THEN SHALL HE HAVE REJOICING IN HIMSELF, & NOT IN ANOTHER. FOR EVERY MAN SHALL BEAR HIS OWN BURDEN. LET HIM THAT IS TAUGHT IN THE WORD COMMUNICATE UNTO HIM THAT TEACHES IN ALL GOOD THINGS. BE NOT DECEIVED; GOD IS NOT MOCKED; FOR WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWS, THAT SHALL HE ALSO REAP. FOR HE THAT SOWS TO HIS FLESH SHALL OF THE FLESH REAP CORRUPTION; BUT HE THAT SOWS TO THE SPIRIT SHALL OF THE SPIRIT REAP LIFE EVERLASTING.”

COMPETING LIFESTYLES? YOU’VE HEARD THE WORLD’S ‘EDUCATIONAL ELITISTS’ SAYING, “WE “are” the “ELITISTS”!! WE ARE THE SUPERIOR MINDS OF OUR DAY! WE ARE OF SUCH AN ACADEMIC MENTALITY THAT OUR EDUCATIONAL & SCHOLARSHIP COMPETENCE LEAVES NO ROOM FOR DISCUSSIONS ABOUT GOD, YOUR ‘JESUS’, THE BIBLE, LIFE OR DEATH, ‘SALVATION’, OR WHAT YOU ‘CHRISTIANS ‘ (?) CALL ‘FREE GRACE’ – WE’LL JUST SLIDE INTO ‘YOUR HEAVEN’ BY OUR ‘GREASE’!” BUT I CHOOSE JOHN 17:6 FOR MY EDUCATIONAL DEGREE! IT SAYS: (THIS IS JESUS SPEAKING TO FATHER-GOD!), “I HAVE MANIFESTED (UNVEILED) YOUR NAME (FATHER-GOD) UNTO THE MEN WHICH YOU GAVE ME OUT OF THE WORLD: THEY WERE YOURS, & YOU GAVE THEM TO ME; & THEY HAVE KEPT YOUR WORD.” (WHAT AN AWESOME WORD OF HOLY TRUTH!!).

COMPETING LIFESTYLES? ARE WE IN “THE LAST DAYS”? IN 2 TIMOTHY 3:1-5 WE READ, “THIS KNOW ALSO, THAT IN THE LAST DAYS (OF JUDAISM?), PERILOUS TIMES SHALL COME. FOR MEN SHALL BE LOVERS OF THEIR OWN SELVES, COVETOUS, BOASTERS, PROUD, BLASPHEMERS, DISOBEDIENT TO PARENTS, UNTHANKFUL, UNHOLY, WITHOUT NATURAL AFFECTION, TRUCEBREAKERS, FALSE ACCUSERS, INCONTINENT, FIERCE, DESPISERS OF THOSE THAT ARE GOOD, TRAITORS, HEADY, HIGHMINDED, LOVERS OF PLEASURES MORE THAN LOVERS OF GOD; HAVING A FORM OF GODLINESS, BUT DENYING THE POWER THEREOF: FROM SUCH TURN AWAY.”

OH, I HAVE NO DOUBTS AT ALL! WHAT WE JUST READ REFERRED TO JUDAISM IN THAT DAY & TIME PERIOD, BUT THAT ‘FALSE SPIRIT’ DOESN’T ABOUND IN THE 21^ST CENTURY OF “MODERN-DAY CHRISTIANITY”? HAVE “YOU” NOT GRASPED THAT ALL YOU SEE IN “YOUR” ‘LAST DAYS’ IS ALSO MUCH ‘godlessness’ THOUGH MANY ARE “PROFESSING BELIEVERS, CHURCH-GOERS, & STRONG PROMOTERS OF THEIR ‘SELF-RELIGIOUS DECEPTION’? YES, EVEN IN THE CHURCH THERE ARE THOSE, MEN & BOYS, WOMEN & GIRLS, WHO HAVE DECIDED, “THE LOW LIFE IS THE HIGH LIFE,” “VIOLENCE IS VIRTUOUS,” “REBELLION IS SPIRITUAL INDEPENDENCE”, “GODLESSNESS IS GREAT”, “SIN IS JUST THE CELEBRATION OF “WHO WE WERE”, BUT NOT WHO WE ARE NOW (EVEN AS WE CONTINUE TO MANIFEST, CELEBRATE, & PROFESS OUR ‘TWO-WORLDS FAITH’, “OURS & GOD’S”!)”. REALLY?

THERE’S NO ‘GOD-THING’ IN THE RELIGIOUS CLIMATE THAT CELEBRATES BOTH ‘THE LOW-LIFE & THE HIGH-LIFE’, OR ‘VIOLENCE IS VIRTUOUS – IT HAS ITS PLACE’, OR ‘REBELLION ( A ‘LITTLE-DAB WILL DO YOU’!)’, OR ‘SIN IS JUST THE CELEBRATION OF WHO & WHAT WE ARE – GOD UNDERSTANDS OUR TWO-PART SYSTEM: FLESH & SPIRIT, WORLDLY & THE KINGDOM OF GOD ‘– SORRY, YOU CAN’T WALK ON TWO STREETS!!’ ‘SACRILEGE IS PERMISSABLE’, ‘THOUGH MY WAY MAY NOT BE GOD’S WAY, HE STILL OVERLOOKS MY ‘FLESHLY TRAITS’ & ACCEPTS MY ‘BEST EFFORTS’! NO! YOUR ‘BEST EFFORT MENTALITY’ WAS CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST!!!!

COMPETING LIFESTYLES? OH, THERE ARE THOSE WHO READ THE BIBLE & HEAR FROM JESUS, “IN THE WORLD YOU WILL HAVE MUCH TRIBULATION, IF YOU FOLLOW HIM,” & YOU HEAR THEM SAY, “PLEASURE FOR ME – NOT PAIN; GOOD TIMES HELL’S WAY, NOT HEAVEN’S WAY; WE WANT “ALL” THAT ENCIRCLES US IN THE WORLD’S WAY”, [NOT KNOWING “IN CHRIST” THEY INHERIT HEAVEN’S FORTUNES!]; INTEGRITY? HOW ABOUT FOR US, COMPROMISE? ‘ALL-OUT’? – HOW ABOUT: HALF-HEARTED? HALF OF FLESH, HALF OF THE HOLY SPIRIT?’ COMPETING LIFESTYLES? DON’T TELL ME YOU’VE NEVER BEEN AROUND THEM! THEY’RE USUALLY VERY VOCAL!

THEY STAND INCESSANTLY AT THE “CONSTANT COMPLAINT CENTER”; THEY’RE A PART OF “MISERY IS COMPANY-CROWD; IT MAY NOT BE PRINTED ON A POSTER BOARD BUT IT’S EASILY VISIBLE: “FATAL FRETTING FULL OF FRUSTRATION FREE OF CHARGE!” COMPETING LIFESTYLES? IN GALATIANS 4:7 PAUL WROTE: “FORMERLY, WHEN YOU DID NOT KNOW GOD, YOU WERE ENSLAVED TO BEINGS THAT BY NATURE ARE NOT GODS.” HOW MANY DO YOU KNOW TODAY PAYING BIG BUCKS FOR THE SHYSTERS WHO “CAN READ YOUR MINDS”? HOW MANY DO YOU KNOW WHO PRACTICE WITCHCRAFT? HOW MANY DO YOU KNOW WHO TODAY CELEBRATE THE “DEMONS”? HOW OFTEN HAVE YOU WITNESSED “HELL’S ANGELS”? (JUST TURN ON YOUR TV &YOU’VE WITNESSED “HELL’S ANGELS”?)

BUT WHAT DID JOSHUA SAY? “CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY WHOM YOU WILL SERVE, BUT AS FOR ME & MY HOUSE, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD!” CHOICE! WEBSTER’S 1828 DICTIONARY SAYS THAT ‘CHOICE’ IS THE ACTS OF CHOOSING; THE VOLUNTARY ACT OF SELECTING OR SEPARATING FROM TWO OR MORE THINGS THAT WHICH IS PREFERRED..CARE IN SELECTING; JUDGMENT OR SKILL IN DISTINGUISHING WHAT IS TO BE PREFERRED…HOLDING DEAR…”

I DON’T THINK YOU’LL FIND IT SHOCKING THAT GOD HIMSELF MADE A CHOICE! IN ACTS 15:7-9 WE READ, AND WHEN THERE HAD BEEN MUCH DISPUTING, PETER ROSE UP, & SAID UNTO THEM, MEN & BRETHREN, YOU KNOW HOW THAT A GOOD WHILE AGO GOD MADE CHOICE AMONG US, THAT THE GENTILES BY MY MOUTH SHOULD HEAR THE WORD OF THE GOSPEL, & BELIEVE. AND GOD, WHICH KNOWS THE HEARTS, BORE THEM WITNESS, GIVING THEM THE HOLY SPIRIT, EVEN AS HE DID UNTO US (JEWS); & PUT NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN US & THEM, PURIFYING THEIR HEARTS BY FAITH.” [BUT THAT’S NOT WHAT GOD STILL DOES TODAY?].

THE BROTHER OF JESUS, JAMES, IN JAMES 2:5, WROTE: “HEAR ME, MY BELOVED BRETHREN, HAS NOT GOD “CHOSEN” THE POOR OF THIS WORLD RICH IN FAITH, & HEIRS OF THE KINGDOM WHICH HE HAS PROMISED TO THEM THAT LOVE HIM?” [I ASSUME THE QUESTION IS: “ARE ‘YOU’ THE POOR OF THIS WORLD WHO ARE, YES, RICH IN FAITH & HEIRS OF THE KINGDOM BECAUSE “YOU” TRULY LOVE THE GOD WHO PROVED HIS LOVE FOR YOU EVEN WHILE YOU WERE ‘CHIEFEST OF SINNERS’?”].

“GOD HAS CHOSEN! GOD HAS CHOSEN ME! GOD HAS GRACIOUSLY CALLED MY NAME, KNOCKED ON MY HEART’S DOOR, & ASSURED ME THAT HE HAS SET ME APART AS AN HONOR TO CHRIST, A TESTIMONY OF CHRIST’S INDWELLING PRESENCE, & AS AN ASSURANCE OF HIS SAVING GRACE & HIS ETERNAL POWER TO, YES, RAISE THE “DEAD” INTO HIS ABIDING PRESENCE!” IT OUGHT TO PUT YOU ON “HALLELUJAH GROUNDS” WHEN YOU READ JOHN 15:16 WHERE JESUS SAID: “YOU HAVE NOT CHOSEN ME, BUT I HAVE CHOSEN YOU, THAT YOU SHOULD GO & BRING FORTH FRUIT, & THAT YOUR FRUIT SHOULD REMAIN:THAT WHATSOEVER YOU SHALL ASK OF THE FATHER IN MY NAME, HE MAY GIVE IT TO YOU.” AN AWESOME DECLARATION!! YOU DO UNDERSTAND: “JESUS TOOK UNTO HIMSELF THE TWELVE INITIAL DISCIPLES,” & THEY WERE FOR SO LONG UNSURE OF HIS INTENT & PURPOSE WITH THEM, BUT THEY ‘FOLLOWED’.

I LOVE HOW OSWALD CHAMBERS PUT IT IN “MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST”, (P.158), “THE BRAVERY OF GOD IN TRUSTING US! YOU SAY – ‘BUT HE HAS BEEN UNWISE TO CHOOSE ME, BECAUSE THERE IS NOTHING IN ME; I AM NOT OF ANY VALUE.” & THAT IS WHY HE CHOSE YOU! AS LONG AS YOU THINK THERE IS SOMETHING IN YOU HE CAN’T DO WITHOUT, HE CANNOT CHOOSE YOU BECAUSE YOU HAVE ENDS OF YOUR OWN IF YOU CHOOSE TO GIVE HIM YOUR BEST, (WHICH HE CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST ON THE CROSS!); BUT IF YOU HAVE LET HIM BRING YOU TO THE END OF YOUR SELF-SUIFFICIENCY, THEN HE CAN CHOOSE YOU TO GO WITH HIM TO JERUSALEM, & THAT WILL MEAN THE FULFILLMENT OF PURPOSES WHICH HE DOES NOT DISCUSS WITH YOU.”

HAVE “YOU” HEARD HIS VOICE OR HIS ‘KNOCK’ ON YOUR HEART’S DOOR? “FOLLOW ME”!! MRS. CECIL F. ALEXANDER WROTE AN OLD HYMN ENTITLED “JESUS CALLS US.” IT SAYS: “JESUS CALLS US; O’ER THE TUMULT OF OUR LIFE’S WILD, RESTLESS SEA; DAY BY DAY HIS SWEET VOICE SOUNDS, SAYING, “CHRISTIAN FOLLOW ME.”…JESUS CALLS US FROM THE WORSHIP OF THE VAIN WORLD’S GOLDEN STORE, FROM EACH IDOL THAT WOULD KEEP US, SAYING, “CHRISTIAN, LOVE ME MORE.” IN OUR JOYS & IN OUR SORROWS, DAYS OF TOIL & HOURS OF EASE, STILL HE CALLS, IN CARES & PLEASURES, “CHRISTIAN, LOVE ME MORE THAN THESE.” JESUS CALLS US: BY YOUR MERCIES, SAVIOR, MAY WE HEAR YOUR CALL, GIVE OUR HEARTS TO YOUR OBEDIENCE, SERVE & LOVE YOU BEST OF ALL.”

OH, I KNOW THAT EVERY BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER DOESN’T HAVE THE EXACT EXPERIENCE OF JOHN ON THE ISLAND CALLED PATMOS, BUT I PRAY THESE VERSES STIR YOUR HEARTS TO AFRESH & ANEW HEAR HIS VOICE! REVELATION 1:12-18 SAYS, AND I TURNED TO SEE THE VOICE THAT SPOKE WITH ME. & BEING TURNED, I SAW SEVEN GOLDEN CANDLESTICKS; & IN THE MIDST OF THE SEVEN GOLDEN CANDLESTICKS ONE LIKE UNTO THE SON OF MAN, CLOTHED WITH A GARMENT DOWN TO THE FOOT, & GIRT ABOUT THE PAPS WITH A GOLDEN GIRDLE.

HIS HEAD & HIS HAIRS WERE WHITE LIKE WOOL, AS WHITE AS SNOW; & HIS EYES WERE AS A FLAME OF FIRE; & HIS FEET LIKE UNTO FINE BRASS, AS IF THEY BURNED IN A FURNACE; & HIS VOICE AS THE SOUND OF MANY WATERS. & HE HAD IN HIS RIGHT HAND SEVEN STARS, & OUT OF HIS MOUTH WENT A SHARP TWO-EDGED SWORD; & HIS COUNTENANCE WAS AS THE SUN SHINES IN ITS STRENGTH.

AND WHEN I SAW HIM, I FELL AT HIS FEET AS DEAD. & HE LAID HIS RIGHT HAND UPON ME, SAYING UNTO ME, ‘FEAR NOT; FOR I AM THE FIRST & THE LAST: I AM HE THAT LIVES & WAS DEAD; &, BEHOLD, I AM ALIVE FOREVERMORE. AMEN; & I HAVE THE KEYS OF HELL & OF DEATH.” CHRIST JESUS CONQUERED DEATH, THE GRAVE, & HELL ITSELF! OH, & THEN, IN MATTHEW 16:19, WE READ: “AND I WILL GIVE UNTO YOU THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN; & WHATSOEVER YOU SHALL BIND ON EARTH SHALL BE BOUND IN HEAVEN; & WHATSOEVER YOU SHALL LOOSE ON EARTH SHALL BE LOOSED IN HEAVEN.”

DO YOU BELIEVE ONE OF THE “KEYS” IS THE KEY OF TESTIMONY? EXAMINE ROMANS 5:1, & VERSES 6-11! “THEREFORE BEING JUSTIFIED BY FAITH, WE HAVE PEACE WITH GOD THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST:

VERSES 6-11 THEN SAYS: FOR WHEN WE WERE YET WITHOUT STRENGTH, IN DUE TIME CHRIST DIED FOR THE UNGODLY. FOR SCARCELY FOR A RIGHTEOUS MAN WILL ONE DIE:YET PERADVENTURE FOR A GOOD MAN SOME WOULD EVEN DARE TO DIE. BUT GOD COMMENDS HIS LOVE TOWARD US, IN THAT WHILE WE WERE YET SINNERS, CHRIST DIED FOR US.MUCH MORE THEN, BEING NOW JUSTIFIED BY CHRIST’S BLOOD, WE SHALL BE (BEING) SAVED FROM WRATH THROUGH HIM.

FOR IF, WHEN WE WERE ENEMIES, WE WERE RECONCILED TO GOD BY THE DEATH OF HIS SON, MUCH MORE, BEING RECONCILED, WE SHALL BE (BEING) SAVED BY HIS LIFE. & NOT ONLY SO, BUT WE ALSO JOY IN GOD THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, BY WHOM WE HAVE NOW RECEIVED THE ATONEMENT.” DO “YOU” TRULY UNDERSTAND THE WORD, ATONEMENT, OR WOULD IT BE BETTER TO SEE IT AS “AT-ONE-MENT” WITH GOD THROUGH JESUS ONLY?

IN PHILIPPIANS 1:21 PAUL WAS SO CONFIDENT, EVEN IN PRISON, THAT WHETHER BY LIFE OR BY DEATH, THE LORD JESUS WAS GOING TO BE MAGNIFIED IN HIS BODY BECAUSE HE SAID, “FOR TO ME TO LIVE IS CHRIST, & TO DIE IS GAIN.” WHAT HAD JESUS SAID IN JOHN 10:10? “I HAVE COME THAT THEY MAY HAVE LIFE, & THAT THEY MAY HAVE IT MORE AVBUNDANTLY.” THAT’S “CHRIST IN YOU THE HOPE OF GLORY!” IT’S LIFE, THE LIFE IN & OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, LIFE THAT IS ABUNDANT, LIFE THAT IS ETERNAL!

GALATIANS 2:20-21a TELLS US, “I AM CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST:BUT I LIVE;& THE LIFE WHICH I NOW LIVE IN THE FLESHLY BODY I LIVE BY THE FAITH OF THE SON OF GOD WHO LOVED ME, & GAVE HIMSELF FOR ME. I DO NOT FRUSTRATE THE GRACE OF GOD…!” OUR “LIFE” IS CHRIST, OUR “DAILY WALK” IS CHRIST, OUR UNDERSTANDING IS THAT “IN CHRIST” DWELLS ALL THE FULLNESS OF THE GODHEAD BODILY: “AND YOU ARE COMPLETE IN HIM!”

THAT TELLS ME OF THE “POSITIVENESS OF HIS PERSON: RESURRECTION LIFE, RESURRECTION POWER, RESURRECTION HOPE” – & I AM WRAPPED UP “IN HIM” IN THE VERY FULLNESS OF THE GODHEAD BODILY! THIS TELLS ME OF “THE POSITIVENESS OF PRECIOUS PRIVILEGE”- ONE IN CHRIST, AMBASSADOR OF CHRIST, MEMBER OF THE ROYAL FAMILY OF GOD HIMSELF – OPENING THE DOOR EVEN BROADER & WIDER TO THE “POSITIVENESS OF DAILY PURPOSE” – LIVING IN HIM, BY HIM, THROUGH HIM, WHICH OPENS DOOR AFTER DOOR TO THE PATHS OF CHRISTIAN GRACES, FOR THE HONOR OF CHRIST ALONE!!

I CLOSE WITH THE WISE WORDS OF PETER IN 2 PETER 3:9-14!! “THE LORD IS NOT SLACK CONCERNING HIS PROMISE, AS SOME MEN COUNT SLACKNESS; BUT IS LONGSUFFERING TO US-WARD, 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, & THE ELEMENTS SHALL MELT WITH FERVENT HEAT, THE EARTH ALSO & 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 & GODLINESS, LOOKING FOR & HASTING UNTO THE COMING DAY OF GOD, WHEREIN THE HEAVENS BEING ON FIRE SHALL BE DISSOLVED, & THE ELEMENTS SHALL MELT WITH FERVENT HEAT?

NEVERTHELESS WE, ACCORDING TO HIS PROMISE, LOOK FOR NEW HEAVENS & A NEW EARTH, WHEREIN DWELLS RIGHTEOUSNESS. WHEREFORE, BELOVED, SEEING THAT YOU LOOK FOR SUCH THINGS, BE DILIGENT THAT YOU MAY BE FOUND OF HIM IN PEACE, WITHOUT SPOT & BLAMELESS.”

IT WAS CHARLES WESLEY & S.B.MARSH, IN THE OLD “THE AMERICAN HYMNAL”,(P.131), (PUBLISHED BY “THE BROADMAN PRESS,” NASHVILLE, TENN.), WHO WROTE THE HYMN, “JESUS, LOVER OF MY SOUL.” IT SAYS: JESUS, LOVER OF MY SOUL, LET ME TO YOUR BOSOM FLY, WHILE THE NEARER WATERS ROLL, WHILE THE TEMPEST STILL IS HIGH! HIDE ME, O MY SAVIOR, HIDE, TILLTHE STORM OF LIFE IS PAST; SAFE INTO THE HAVEN GUIDE, O RECEIVE MY SOUL AT LAST!

OTHER REFUGE HAVE I NONE;HANGS MY HELPLESS SOUL ON YOU: LEAVE, AH, LEAVE ME NOT ALONE,STILL SUPPORT & COMFORT ME!ALL MY TRUST ON YOU IS STAYED, ALL MY HELP FROM YOU I BRING; COVER MY DEFENSELESS HEAD WITH THE SHADOW OF YOUR WING.

YOU, O CHRIST, ARE ALL I WANT; MORE THAN ALL IN YOU I FIND; RAISE THE FALLEN, CHEER THE FAINT, HEAL THE SICK, & LEAD THE BLIND.JUST & HOLY IS YOUR NAME, I AM ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS; FALSE & FULL OF SIN I AM, YOU ARE FULL OF TRUTH & GRACE.

PLENTEOUS GRACE WITH YOU IS FOUND, GRACE TO COVER ALL MY SIN; LET THE HEALING STREAMS ABOUND, MAKE & KEEP ME PURE WITHIN.

YOU OF LIFE THE FOUNTAIN ARE; FREELY LET ME TAKE OF YOU; SPRING YOU UP WITHIN MY HEART, RISE TO ALL ETERNITY.” (IS CHRIST “RISEN” IN YOU?).

By: J.Farrell Fisher, October 26-27, 2017

Before we get to the major thrust of the message, “Imitation or Actualization?”, I sense the need to make you fully aware that there are unbelieving men and women across the world who have no shame that, yes, they are “enemies of God”! Unbelief IS the major calling card of many people who are content in the ‘darkness’ of their minds and hearts of no need of God – they are ‘sufficient’ in themselves and what they stand for and want to hold on to it!

You may not be familiar with the Pharoah of Egypt that Moses and Aaron confronted in Exodus 5:1 on appointment from Holy God. They told Pharoah, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.’” But in Verse 6 Pharoah 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.”

There are many ‘pharoahs’ across our known world who are staunch enemies of our loving, merciful, caring God! There are many ‘pharoahs’ who are so ‘self-mastered’ that to suggest submission and surrender to the Author of Life and His authority is to release from within resentment of, hatred for, and opposition to the King of kings even if it ushers in more and more of unbelief, and they’ll willfully “crucify the Christ” over and over, again and again, in their hearts and minds!

There IS ‘the counsel of the ungodly’, there ARE ‘paths of the sinners’ clearly marked out, and there are those who “sit in the seat of the scornful”, fully opposed to Divine, Eternal Truth! Around you are “the chaff which the wind WILL DRIVE AWAY,” with the way of the ungodly becoming a ‘wall of separation eternally’ because they refused to bow before the King of kings and Lord of lords, not fully surrendered to His good and perfect will for their lives but content with the “best” sinful flesh has to offer! There ARE highly intelligent individuals in man-made ‘philosophies’ who, for themselves, “have no need of God or your Savior”, and they are strong, at times even, vindictive in their responses, but they ARE THE ONES FOR WHOM CHRIST JESUS SHED HIS INNOCENT BLOOD ON THE CROSS FOR THEIR REDEMPTION AND RECONCILIATION, Jesus even knowing there would be those who turn from Him, not to Him!

Unbelievers, yes, are ‘savorless salt’, yet they sense the world around them can’t do without them, even though they themselves ‘drink’ the poisoned waters of their own intellectual philosophies! Unbelievers speak of “my good chosen lifestyle” but void of abiding peace with God and with his/her fellow man. Unbelievers choose life apart from the sacrificial nature of Christ as He willfully gave Himself to fulfill God’s perfect will; unbelievers live without divine, sacrificial love, lives without the foundation of true faith that lights the way in and through their dark world, and, certainly, for them, no true foundation to withstand life’s, at times, brutal storms; oh, and void of sustaining power against the world, one’s old sin nature, and Satan Himself!

Unbelievers are unaware they’ve been totally blinded by Satan and the powers of darkness; they are unaware of Heaven’s intent, and without knowing it, blinded to demonic intent through Satan’s ‘disciples’ – they are well-trained in the deceptions of darkness; and, in Luke 14:34-35, Jesus describes lives who know nothing of “salt’s intent”, who are not ‘fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out’! Consider that for a few moments before continuing!

Unbelievers ARE slaves to their old sin-natures, carnal in a man’s ‘self-will’, always “behaving like mere men” (1 Corinthians 3:3!), ‘natural men’ bound by what their sin-natures dictate! There are ‘unrighteous men and women’, and they do not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9), Paul then saying, 1 Corinthians 6:9b-11, “Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, not thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God.”

And true believers forsake the world, their old sin-nature, and the Satanic deceptions, yes, even willing to die for the “Eternal Truth”! Do you remember what Christ Jesus said to the ‘religious’ (?) scribes and Pharisees, products of the false teachings of Judaism in Matthew 23:2-5, self-appointed, and, yes, out to deceive true seekers and true believers? “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe AND DO, but do not do according to their works; FOR THEY SAY, AND DO NOT DO. For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; BUT they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do to be seen by men.” [Do you understand? There’s no radiant life in the ‘scribes and Pharisees’ unveiling Christ but only unbelieving men ‘trying’ to religiously pump their ‘flesh’ up to an acceptable level before God’s eyes and feel themselves ‘superior’ even to ‘grace-birthed-disciples of Christ; in fact, they’ll see to it you’re crucified or banned from legitimate, fleshly lives like theirs !].

I was awed recently reading again Dallas Willard’s book “The Great Omission” where in it he wrote the following: (pps. 11-12), “Nothing less than life in the steps of Christ is adequate to the human soul or the needs of our world. Any other offer fails to do justice to the drama of human redemption, deprives the hearer of life’s greatest opportunity, and abandons this present life to the evil powers of the age. The correct perspective is to see following Christ not only as the necessity it is, but as the fulfillment of the highest human possibilities and as life on the highest plain. It is to see, in Helmet Thielicke’s words, that “the Christian stands, not under the dictatorship of a legalistic ‘You ought’, but in the magnetic field of Christian freedom, under the empowering of the ‘You may’.”

And I must ask! Do you understand “the magnetic field of Christian freedom, under the empowering of ‘You may’”? Here’s how Paul explained it in Colossians 1 as he unveiled “the mystery”! He said in Verses 26-29, “the mystery which has been hidden from ages and generations, but now has been revealed to His saints (that’s those set apart by God FOR the dwelling place of His earthly presence!). To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ. To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.”

That, my friends, is a “Wow Word!” It’s not you ‘trying your best’ to serve Jesus! He crucified your worst and your best, raising you up to be the temple of His Holy Presence, so that His Resurrection Life, His Resurrection Hope, and His Resurrection Power would be continually manifested in and throughout the ages through any life finished with its self but available to Him as the earthly abode of all He is and all He desires to do through them! Most ‘church folk’ are so in love with their own ‘Christian identity’ that Christ is shut out from being Himself in and through them, and a lost world around them never sees the Savior and Lord being Himself!

But, in Galatians 2:20-21a, Paul wrote: “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. I do not set aside the grace of God…”! I am an A.W. Tozer fan because his writings truly align with Biblical Truth! Many years ago Tozer wrote about, his “feeling that a notable heresy has come into being throughout evangelical Christian circles – the widely accepted concept that we humans can choose to accept Christ only because we need Him as Savior and that we have the right to postpone our obedience to Him as Lord as long as we want to,” adding that for one to profess that falsehood is to deny its tragic deception but heighten the Truth “that salvation apart from obedience is unknown in the sacred scriptures”, with Jesus speaking in Luke 6:46, “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’, and not do the things which I say?”

Christ Jesus Himself declared that obedience to Him is not an option in the day of grace and mercy! In John 6:63-64 the Lord Jesus said: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh (that’s the best and the worst of all fallen mankind!) 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.”

He went on to say, because He knew there were some who professed, followed, but did not ‘believe’, AND they eventually did and eventually will betray Him! (Of course, there are those who say: “It happened with early disciples, but not in our day or our time or in our ‘assembly of believers’!” Really?). And John 6:66 then says: From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. (For you, how sad is that?).

You understand, I pray, that there is a natural world AND there is a spiritual world, the world of fallen humanity AND the spiritual world of the Kingdom of God, a world of ‘self-direction’ AND the world, the kingdom, the family of faith, trust, and obedience who give King Jesus His rightful place as Savior and Lord and Sovereign Administrator ushering in His Kingdom-Will in repentant, available vessels who accept “crucified with Christ” but through Redemptive Faith have become vessels, temples of His Holy Presence!

No doubt this is why the Lord Jesus said in John 6:63, “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life”! Do you think this just might be why Jesus said in John 4:24, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him MUST worship Him in spirit and truth”? Jesus said and still says, “You MUST be born again,” stating the reality of spiritual birthing through repentance toward God and faith alone in Christ’s “finished work” at the Cross AND through “His empty tomb” presence and living as intercessor at the right hand throne of Holy God!

In Colossians 2:11-15 Paul testifies, teaches, and trains true disciples in Truth! He said, “In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism (that’s the ‘baptism’ of crucifixion-death’!), in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. (Dare I tell you? Believe I will! “If you NOW don’t see yourself crucified with Christ, you and your old sin nature, then you are still captive of the world philosophies, satanic deception, and your own brainless, godless nature!”) – “YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN!”

Again, remind yourself of John 6:63! “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh (your old sin-nature!) profits nothing.” To give you understanding, let me take you to 1 Corinthians 2:1-4 where 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. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

What does 1 Corinthians 2: 14 declare to us and, yes, witnessed by us in the spiritual blindness of many unbelievers? “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned,” which affirms Jesus’ words, “God is Spirit; and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth”, affirming, “You must be born again, born of the Spirit, for new life in Christ alone!”

But, having moved away from the initial statements about “unbelievers”, has there been clarity for you of the difference between “imitation” of the faith and the “actualization” of re-born, Spirit-birthed, “new creations” through their repentance toward God and, yes, faith alone in Christ’s redemptive work at the Cross, taking ‘natural mankind’ to be “crucified with Christ”, and aware of it, repented, and then “rested” in His Resurrection Presence? HEAR ME:

No more ‘knowledgeable’ awareness of the ‘good self’ substituted for God’s verdict of worthiness of the Cross alone, what one author called “an embarrassing encumbrance”, but, yes, now, the Bible confession, “it was for my sin, my sin nature, my devotion to ‘self’ rather than all-out allegiance to “God’s Way” that Christ Jesus willingly, lovingly, obediently, submitted Himself to God’s perfect will and Way, and in the willful laying down of His own life for the sin of all the world because of God the Father’s still great love for all of fallen humanity, enduring the Cross”!

I close with Jesus’ words in John 7:16-18! “My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him.”

And, I ask, WHAT DOES JESUS’ WORDS EXPLAIN OR EXPOSE IN YOUR TRUST IN HIM ALONE OR ARE YOU STILL LEANING ON YOUR SELF-CENTERED UNDERSTANDING AND EXPRESSION OF YOUR ‘RELIGION’ BUT NOT HIS TRUE SCRIPTURAL FAITH OF AN INTIMATE, LIFE-EXCHANGE THROUGH YOUR DEATH WITH HIM AT THE CROSS, ACCEPTING HIS RESURRECTION PRESENCE AS YOUR HOPE ALONE – NOT ME, BUT CHRIST IN ME THE HOPE OF ETERNAL GLORY?

HAVE YOU “DIED TO YOUR OWN SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS”, NOW CONSCIOUSLY AWARE HE TOOK YOUR OLD SIN NATURE TO THE CROSS THAT IT MIGHT DIE WITH HIM, BUT THEN GLORIOUSLY RAISED UP TO BE HIS “MASTER-FILLED” “NEW CREATION”?

BY: J.FARRELL FISHER, NOV. 11-13, 2017

“Length of age”? At the present time period, I’m 81 years of age on my way to 82 in about 7 months, having outlived “Papa” Fisher who died at 78 and my father, Jim Fisher, who died at 78 years of age! I think I have more Lemons’ genes than Fishers because “Pappa” Lemons lived to about 94; oh, and my Dad’s mother lived to 102! So in physical ‘age-traits’, I have some of both sides of the family. But, when it comes to “quality of life”, that, my friends, is a huge question mark, because I do not see “length of age” as a legitimate indication of “quality of life”!

As a pastor of churches for over twenty years and then missions for another twenty-five years, I witnessed some ‘children’ age-wise who understood and lived out the vibrant ‘quality of life’ even stronger than many aged-men who ‘professed’ faith but had no “Fire” in their bones! I’m all in for a lengthy ‘length of age’, but it’s Holy God on the Throne who can ‘end’ or ‘extend’ as He sovereignly chooses!

It may be that with the psalmist we need to learn, rest in, and live by: “This is the day the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it!” In Psalm 119:33 the psalmist said: “Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, and I shall keep it to the end,” even requesting in Verses 34-37, “Give me understanding, and I shall keep Your law; (In Old Testament days, the “law” was engraved on stones to be observed; in New Testament days, the “law” is engraved on our hearts and in our minds!); indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart.

Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, for I delight in it. Incline my heart to Your testimonies, and not to covetousness. Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things. And revive me in Your way.”

“Revive me in Your way?” For Holy God who IS the Almighty on the Throne, is His concern for YOU the length of your age OR the quality of your life? Do you realize that Holy God knows what HAS your mind, heart, and spirit of life, whether it’s the worthless or valuable quality of life?

Interesting passage in 2 Chronicles 1:11-12! Then God said to Solomon, “Because this was in your heart, and you have not asked riches or wealth or honor or the life of your enemies, nor have you asked for long life – but have asked wisdom and knowledge for yourselves, that you may judge My people over whom I have made you king – wisdom and knowledge are granted to you; (Is God ‘the same’ yesterday, today, and tomorrow?); wisdom and knowledge are granted to you; and I will give you riches and wealth and honor, such as none of the kings have had who were before you, nor shall any after you have the like.” [Are there “The Chosen” and the “Not chosen”?].

Question! “Is there STILL God examining our “hearts” to see what truly has them, whether His eternal purpose or our fleshly pleasures, His eternal design or our instinctive, fleshly aims and ambitions, His eternal PLAN or our ‘self-determined’ desires, ambitions, or ‘self-centered’ awards?” HOLY GOD NEVER CHANGES – the “same, yesterday, today, and forever”! Are you a “stickler” for old age, but void concerning submission and obedience to the King of kings and His instructive Word for true disciples?

It was G.A.Young in the 1930’s who wrote a hymn entitled “God leads us Along”. It says: “In shady green pastures, so rich and so sweet, Where the water’s cool flow bathes the weary ones feet, God leads His dear children along.

Sometimes on the mount where the sun shines so bright, God leads His dear children along; Sometimes in the valley, the darkest of night, God leads His dear children along.

Tho’ sorrows befall us, and Satan oppose us, God leads His dear children along; Thru grace we can conquer, defeat all our foes, God leads His dear children along.

Away from the mire and away from the clay, Away up in glory in eternity’s day, God leads His dear children along.

Some thru the waters, some thru the flood, Some thru the fire, but all thru the blood; Some thru great sorrow, but God gives a song, In the night season and all the day long.”

What has really been the testimony of your “faith walk In Christ” or your “faith walk without Him”? Joshua had questions for all men but especially to those of “professing faith” or of “possessing faith”? Joshua 24:14-15 we read: “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 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.”

Hear me! Every man, woman, and child is “led” to believe and does serve some kind of god! There are ‘gods’ and there IS the one, true, Living God who desires to be worshipped, blessed, and served by “sold-out” servants TO the King of kings and Lord of lords, not to the gods of men’s flesh-minded inventions! There are vague, ‘flesh-adorned’ thoughts of God but they don’t draw anywhere near to Biblical Truth, though the proponents would argue until their dying days their position is Biblical Truth “whether God likes it or not”!

Even atheists and unbelievers have “theologies” whether they’d ever admit it or not! There are “graced theologies” and “gritted theologies” – that’s men under God’s administration or men under their “best effort” mentality! There is INTERSECTION with God and man, but also there is INSURRECTION because some oppose any relationship with Holy God, and especially if ‘beginning’ is through “the shed blood of the Lamb of God and Him alone!”

Lives without Christ as Lord and Savior and Master of the “new-born” life are men and women, boys and girls, strongly influenced by devilish activity, choosing their “own tents” with no recognition of accountability before Holy God the Creator and Redeemer! For the spiritually unborn, they choose a fragmented ‘faith’ that has no responsibility before the God who made them, lost them, and even bought them out of their ‘bondage, but choose to live “on my own”! And if one shuts Holy God out, they open the door to buy into anything their fleshly mind and will can allow, and does – and the eternal “death-nail” is ready to shut the eternal door tight, away from God, if the Intercessor is not allowed to intervene! (And do you understand? Even in Protestantism, some believers have ‘professed’ Christ while they walk with one foot on the path of faith and the other foot firmly given over to “flesh avenue” – and in the Holy Word, that doesn’t soar into heavenly places!).

But the question of this moment in YOUR journey: “Length of Age or Quality of Life?” In 2 Timothy 3:1-5 is a convicting word that no doubt related to ‘early Jewish believers’ before and during Paul’s time of ministry but has a challenging Word for men today in our modern times since “All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable to all men…!” It says:

“But know this, that in the last days (of Judaism?) perilous times will come: (I’m 81 years of age – and without a doubt, I say to you, WE are living in perilous times!) For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents (especially students (some), before school teachers today, because many come from one parent homes!), unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!”

In our ‘modern-day’ there is far more emphasis on “Length of Age” than there is on “Quality of Life”, understanding that I am using “Quality of Life” as THE WAY OF LIFE in and through repentance toward God and faith in Christ Jesus’ finished work in and through the Cross and His Empty Tomb Resurrection! There’s a challenge in Ephesians 6:3 about honoring your father and mother which says, “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” And, certainly, but sadly, there are those who had fathers and mothers who lived ‘long lives’ but were spiritually faithless in that long journey. At the same time, I also say, there are those whose parents lived victoriously the “Life in and through Christ” and were faithful examples to their children.

Having come from a broken home, my parents divorcing when I was three years of age – and I was taken by my mother to her parents who cared for me for nine years when my mother married again, and I was taken to live with her and my step-father. But my grandparents had two other daughters still at home, one only three years older than me and the other about ten years older than me – and besides my faithful grandparents, their two daughters still at home became dynamic Christian witnesses, nurturing me strongly in the “true faith”!

Paul also said, in Ephesians 6:4, “And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.” Tell me: “How do fathers bringing up their children today ‘in the training and admonition of the Lord’ sound to you? Does it ring a familiar or strange tone in your life and early relationships with family or lack of it or a reminder of your blessings of true spiritual nurturing?” Sad to say, my father was never in my home after I married and raised three sons and a daughter? If I saw him, I traveled thirty miles from one city to where his business was his entire adult life – but never in my home or never desiring to see his grandchildren. My Dad lived to be 78 years of age, but “quality of life”? Little evidence of a deep or abiding love of the Lord Jesus Christ –it shows in abiding love and concern for your own and for those who need the introduction to Christ’s passionate love for the “lost” and “unredeemed”!

Interesting verses in Deuteronomy 32:3-6! The “song of Moses” says: “For I proclaim the name of the Lord: Ascribe greatness to our God. He is the Rock, His work is perfect. For all His ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is He. They (the, yes, ‘unbelieving Jews’) have corrupted themselves; they are not His children, because of their blemish; a perverse and crooked generation. Do YOU thus deal with the Lord, O foolish and unwise people?”

Oh, and what you’ve just read is followed by Verses 15-20!! “But Jeshuran (‘religious’ but unredeemed Israelites!) grew fat and kicked; you grew fat, you grew thick, you are obese! Then he forsook God who made him, and scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation. They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods; with abominations they provoked Him to anger. They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they did not know, to new gods, new arrivals that your fathers did not fear. Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful, and have forgotten the God who fathered you. AND WHEN THE LORD SAW IT, HE SPURNED THEM, because of the provocations of His sons and daughters. And He said: “I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end will be, for they are a perverse generation, children in whom there is no faith.” [Do YOU see “faith” as true obedience or simply a ‘religious’ mind-set with no “new-birth”?].

Parenting today? Whether by both parents or one, at least those who have responsibility for the children at least have a concern that they learn about “length of Days”, but not as many as there once was who are, yes, truly devoted to their children’s spiritual “Quality of Life” in nurturing them, bringing them up in the biblical “admonitions” of “blood-bought lives” as “devoted, yielded servants of the King of kings and Lord of lords”, yes, regenerated, born-again, Spirit-filled disciples of Christ Jesus!

“Quality of Life” under the administration of the Resurrected Christ, by the Indwelling Holy Spirit, and by the “daily manna” of the milk and meat of the Word of God, plus the “care”, yes, of spiritual brothers and sisters of the Lord’s true “family of faith”?

It was Thomas Jefferson of historic American ‘birthing’ who once said: “Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever He had a chosen people, whose breasts He has made His peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue.” When I read his comment, I wondered, “How many believers today truly see themselves as “the chosen people of God”, set apart by His grace, mercy, and love, to extend His LIFE, to express His LOVE, and to prove His POWER?” That’s like John Steinbeck’s comment years ago who said, “We can shoot rockets into space but we can’t cure anger or discontent” – and certainly fallen mankind, on his own, cannot graciously ‘create’ “new birth” with “new resurrection life” ordained for God’s “eternal purpose” but exists only with a ‘divided personality’ unaware of their “world” split apart and separated from God’s aim of “vessels” overflowing with His Holy Presence and Purposes as He outlines a “servant of Christ”, yes, every step! DO YOU LIVE IN SUBSTANTIAL AND GENUINE VIRTUE?

The “TLB” translation of the Bible (“The Living Bible”) in Proverbs 8:18-21 says, God speaking, “Unending riches, honor, justice, and righteousness are mine to distribute. My gifts are better than the purest gold or sterling silver! Those who love and follow Me are indeed wealthy. I fill their treasuries.”

Are YOU aware that Holy God, through Christ Jesus, through His Holy Spirit, and through His Holy Word “sustains” and “keeps His own”? Receive Psalm 37:23-26!! It says: “The steps of a good man are ordered (established or made to stand by Him!) by the Lord, and He delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with His hand. I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread. He is ever merciful, and lends; and his descendants are blessed.”

Yet how many do you know or have witnessed, locally or nation-wide, whose ‘witness’ about God’s and Christ Jesus’s and the Holy Spirit’s “divine revelation” as simply ‘moral relativism’ or “try your best”, rather than receiving, repenting, and resting in “the mercies of God”? I read recently David Wells, in his book, “No Place For Truth”, who said: (p.59), speaking about godless men and their “illusions of progress”, without God’s Grace (!), saying:

“Yet it is interesting that the illusions of progress that went hand in hand with these (fleshly, humanistic, man-made interpretations!) ideologies have managed to live on despite the fact that the ideologies themselves are now hiding in embarrassment or have already passed onto the junk heap of history.” And there’s a reason for that: Wells went on!

“What is it, then, that accounts for the tenacity of the belief? It is not that contemporary people are self-consciously utopian, at least not in obvious ways. No, it is not ideology that seems to fuel this fire but “experience”. More specifically, it is the experience of science. It is the experience of a world made over by technology in which the prospects of conquering disease, discomfort, and distance are large and the expectations of limitless improvement are themselves unlimited. It is this conquest, Christopher Lasch thinks, that has given to science its current aura of immortality and, with that, the immortality of what drives it, the belief in progress.”

“Let’s lengthen their days – that’s the vital thing!” Really? Lengthened days without God’s grace and mercy? Lengthened days apart from eternal purpose? Lengthened days apart from “new-born Life in the Spirit”? Lengthened days apart from the miracle of resurrection life and hope but guided by one’s self-conscious utopia? Fleshly betterment through social self-improvement apart from the miracle of God’s power to “raise up the spiritually dead” just as He raised His Son Jesus from the grave to reign eternally in and through your transformed life? “Lengthened days” OR God’s Gift of His “Quality of Life” in and through Christ alone?

I close with “The Living Bible” translation of Hebrews 11:13-16 which says: “These men of faith…agreed that this earth was not their real home but that they were just strangers visiting down here…they were looking forward to their real home in heaven. If they had wanted to, they could have gone back to the good things of this world. But they didn’t want to. They were living for heaven. And now God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has made a heavenly city for them.” In fact, “His Kingdom has come, on earth, as it is in heaven”, and “in Christ” you live gloriously in and through Christ Jesus’ Resurrection Presence extending His Kingdom Rule, releasing His Kingdom Power, and celebrating daily His Kingdom Purpose! Yes, it’s “To God Be the Glory”!!