“WONDERING, WANDERING, OR WILLFULLY WORSHIPPING?”
By: J. Farrell Fisher, July 23-25, 2017
Would you describe a created world as an unexplainable, freak event of nature OR the handiwork of God who is able to create as He pleases? Would you also describe human beings with free wills to choose whether they want to rule over their own minds and hearts or be surrendered willfully to the God who ordained their human existence for His heart-plans of rescuing the perishing as their Heaven-ordained ministries?
There’s a huge difference between men who speak of the positive awareness of and availability of the God who made them, birthed them, and calls them to join Him in world redemption or join the crowd of negative spiritual intents, always leaning strongly on their ‘mindfulness’ of self-ability to rule over self even if, at times, they, yes, do question if their rebellion against God is justified!
And, certainly, there are strong-willed dads and arrogant, self-centered moms who unitedly or dividedly teach, promote, insist on “our children, our sons and daughters” walking their paths or ‘my path as a dad or mom’ of ‘wondering if God really exists’! Sadly, those parental premonitions, for some sons and daughters, births within them even ‘half-truths’ about unbelief, but for many sons and daughters under stiff-necked moms and dads, it’s full-bore because they were ‘cut’ from the ‘same cloth’ of demonic, worldly, and self-centered overseers!
Wondering? Is it really true? Does God exist? Is it inevitable that fallen mankind, or some of them, may open the wrong door and choose ‘godlessness’ why some never bend, bow, or give in to unbelief about God’s reality! In fact, in Psalm 14:1, out of a ‘song’ of David, we read: “The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” But ‘the fool’ who denies God’s existence often is only standing up for his right to do wrong, sure, “if there is a God, He isn’t concerned about what I choose to do”! It’s more likely than not that the ‘foolish unbeliever’ is “sure” if there is a God, “that God isn’t concerned about what I choose to do – I’m a free man,” which is true that he/she is free to destroy their lives rather than choose to live by the Life of Another – “even your God, Messiah, or Savior and Lord”!
The ‘wonderers’ are usually extremely busy people, enthroning their ‘jobs’ or ‘occupations’, highly committed to ‘stay busy’ because “who needs relaxed time to consider whether God is real or not”! And enthroning their work means little time to wrestle with, “What about God”? “Self-reasonable, self-explainable men” understand they don’t have to busy themselves concerned about God because “our sensibleness is our argument God doesn’t exist” but blinded to Satan’s deceit, “Did God really say if you sin you will die? You won’t die!”
Yet the Holy Word declares: “The wages of sin is death!” So ‘wonderers’ live in their doubts, buy the devil’s lies, and darken their minds and hearts to the reality of God’s amazing love and grace and mercy! It was Spurgeon who once said, “It is never worthwhile to make rents in a garment for the sake of mending them, nor to create doubts in order to show how cleverly we can quiet them.” So true! Your doubts never cloud the reality of God’s eternal existence, but open wide-doors to an invitation to live one’s life without God! And doing so, many choose to live with nature’s goods with no desire to live under nature’s God! That’s like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s writing entitled, “Fiftieth Birthday of Agassiz”, saying: “Come, wander with me,” she said, “Into regions yet untrod; and read what is still unread in the manuscripts of God.”
That’s why Psalm 19:1 says: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork.” Few earthlings, if any, see what ‘space pilots’ see as they fly to realms most of us only get a small glimpse at, but ‘space pilots’ who do come home, upon arrival, are still AWED by Creator-God!! Most of them are not ‘wonderers’ (?), but worshippers of God and adoring what they viewed in His awesome Creation!
Wonderers? “Is there a God? Should I know Him? Am I accountable to Him for what He has entrusted to me? How should I respond to what I see Him do?” In Mark 1:25-28 you’ll find Christ Jesus casting out a demon (or unclean spirit)! The unclean spirit had said to Jesus, “What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did you come to destroy us? I know who You are – the Holy One of God!”
But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him. Then they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.” And immediately His fame spread throughout all the region around Galilee.”
Questioners are more often than not ‘wonderers’ who are consumed by ‘fleshly intelligence’ only without little, if any, spiritual discernment! Would it shock you for me to say that I sincerely believe, yes, even fallen men are, at least at times, aware of the reality of Holy God?
And the ‘wonderers’ who are aware of God’s presence will turn more inward to their continuing destruction or upward to their “Rescue”! Paul’s description in Ephesians 2:1-4 is so on target: He spoke in Verse 1 about those “who were dead in their trespasses and sins, Verse 2, 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.”
In Ephesians 2:11-12 He heightens what ought to be greater conviction of living without Christ as Lord, Savior, Healer, and Deliverer! “Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh – who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands – that at that time YOU WERE WITHOUT CHRIST, being ALIENS from the commonwealth of Israel, and STRANGERS from the covenant of promise, HAVING NO HOPE, AND WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD.” Does that description break your heart? Are you stirred at all about how Holy God sees you without Christ in your ever-darkening world??
Oh, but then, beside the chasm ‘wondering’ digs in you, ARE YOU AWARE THAT WONDERING WILL LEAD TO “WANDERING”, SADLY, EVEN FURTHER FROM THE GOD OF THE CROSS AND EMPTY TOMB!
I’m not sure if you’re aware of Biblical history as it related to the Israelites and their journeys from the ‘wilderness’ into the Promised Land, but the Word tells us that there were those Israelites who wandered away, even after “spying out” the Promised Land! In Numbers 14:27-38 we read: (The Lord speaking to Moses and Aaron), “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against Me? I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against Me. Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you:
The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in the wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty-years old and above. Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in. But your little ones, whom you said would be victims, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised.
But as for you, your carcasses shall fall in the wilderness. And your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and bear the brunt of your infidelity, until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years, and you shall know My rejection.
I the Lord have spoken this. I will surely do so to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.’” Now the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation complain against him by bringing a bad report of the land, those very men who brought the evil report about the land, died by the plague before the Lord. But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive, of the men who went to spy out the land.”
Would you say that following the directions of the Lord is essential and necessary? Well, of course, you’ll hear verbally from a lot of pulpits or Sunday School classes, “Well, of course, obedience is an option in the age of grace,” when the Lord Jesus said, “Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, but you do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46!).
Many ‘believers’ in churches today across America will ‘profess faith in Christ’ and willfully then choose to do as they please, without a word of, “Lord, what would You have me to do?” Pretending is not lending any credibility to one’s “profession of faith”! I’m sure the angels of Heaven are shocked by “deaf-eared professors” in a lot of churches professing faith while they willfully and consistently disobey divine revelation! Often in New Testament Scriptures the “wanderers” are referred to as the “anti-christs”!!
In 1 John 2:15-19 the “beloved John” wrote: “Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him. For all that is in the world – THE LUST OF THE FLESH, THE LUST OF THE EYES, AND THE (BOASTFUL) PRIDE OF LIFE – is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, EVEN NOW MANY ANTICHRISTS HAVE COME, by which we know that it is the last hour. (Immediately, just a few years later it was the destruction of Jerusalem by invading armies!). John continued:
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with is; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.”
And John went on to say, “But you, true disciple, you have an anointing from the Holy Spirit, and you know all things.” The Spirit of God guides you into all truth, and you know it’s Truth by the very witness of the Holy Spirit!
In the spiritual world, as well as the natural world, it’s affirmed: One knows the difference between wild wolves and peaceful sheep, except for some in the church who have no discernment biblically but only personal opinions; and there are those in the church who’ll call sheep wolves or wolves sheep – doesn’t matter to them as long as they are not bitten by ‘wild animals’, though at times because of poverty of spirit, they’ll affirm wolves who attack innocent sheep! Our “last days” of modern-day ‘Christianity’ is being invaded by “the wild side”!
BUT, LAST OF ALL, THERE ARE THOSE WHO LIVE A LIFE OF REDEMPTIVE FAITH WILLFULLY WORSHIPPING! In Colossians 3:1-12 Paul builds a strong foundation defining the “true worshippers”! He said: “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, (which, sadly, rules out a lot of ‘church folk’!),not on things on the earth. For you died (Did YOU?), and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. THEREFORE put to death your members which are on (and of) the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.
BUT NOW you yourselves (professing faith in Christ!) are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another (all liars go to Hell!), since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering…”, eternal evidences of a reigning Savior and Lord! A “dill pickle” ‘believer’ is so opposite of a “sweet pickle” unveiling the Christ he/she knows they trusted in! Oh, I know our ‘salvation walk’ is a process, but from infancy, through childhood and teen years, to young adults, maturing adults, and mature “seniors of faith”, every person is not to lean upon himself/herself but learn to let Christ “reign” in and through your journey of maturing in your faith-walk to honor Christ by the daily sentence of death to ‘self’ that He might reign supremely and superbly through you!
Redemptive reality is not a ‘reflection’ of Jesus but a release from within of His abiding Presence since through “new birth” He established His “Holy Temple” IN YOU! What did Paul say in Galatians 6:14-15? “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.”
Tell me about your personal awareness of your life “crucified with Christ” and how His Resurrection Presence is easily identifying for you ‘death without Him’ OR “eternal Life and Holy Presence in you”! What did Joshua say? “Choose for yourselves whom you will serve, but as for me and my house, we choose to be His earthly temple or tabernacle” through which He extends His LIFE, expresses His love, and proves His power!
Have YOU died? Is your life hidden with Christ in God? Are YOU His “new creation”? Do YOU live for the glory and honor of Christ ONLY, or are you determined to “make a name for myself”? In Christ we do not live to elicit fleshly obedience to human inclinations – but day by day taking the sentence of death to ourselves that His presence will be manifested in us and through us for the glory of God alone! Can YOU say with Paul, 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, OR whatever you do, do all to the glory of God”?
Fanny J. Crosby wrote an old hymn entitled “I Am Thine, O Lord” that says: “I am Thine, O Lord, I have heard Your voice, And it told Your love to me; But I long to rise in the arms of faith, And be closer drawn to Thee.
Consecrate me now to Your service, Lord, By the power of grace divine; Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope, And my will be lost in Thine.
O the pure delight of a single hour That before Your throne I spend, When I kneel in prayer, and with You, my God, I commune as friend with friend!
There are depths of love that I cannot know Till I cross the narrow sea; There are heights of joy that I may not reach Till I rest in peace with Thee.
SO…Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, To the cross where You died; Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, To Your precious, bleeding side.” Amen?