Monday, March 30

Modern Corinthians

“Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: 'Let him who boasts boast in the Lord'” (1 Corinthians 1:26-31).

By human standards there is nothing among those called to purpose within the Body that would qualify or impress the worldly Christian. God equips and God provides for those to whom He has purposed and uses the seemingly weak to confound the ‘worldly wise’.

Paul confronted me during my morning time in fellowship for the past few weeks………….

Michael Horton, the J. Gresham Machen professor of apologetics and systematic theology at Westminster Seminary California (Escondido, California), host of The White Horse Inn national radio broadcast, and editor-in-chief of Modern Reformation magazine, wrote an article in the Modern Reformation magazine (Issue: "Preaching Christ" March/April Vol. 2 No. 2 1993 Pages 22-24) which brought me to consider how far deeper God goes beyond the simple ' weakness of the humans instrumental' in the forwarding of the Kingdom.

I’ve taken a beating because of my position on the missed mission of the Western Church, which gives to mega-sizes, feel good doctrine, spiritual mysticism, post-modern theology and the Barney Gospel of “God loves you, God loves me. We’re a big, happy family.”

I am continually confounded by the increasing ‘hoo hum’ of the modern Christian, who can justify voting for a President based on his color of skin and not the contents of his character, and yet claim understanding and even power in the title of Christian. I am saddened, like Paul was in his Corinth, at the post-modern day Christian living in the gospel of man’s making, and yet claiming godly authority.

Today, most Western Christians are nothing more than ‘modern-day’ Corinthians.

Corinth was a prize in the world of Paul, placed in a strategic location. Following the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C., his successors struggled against each other for control of Corinth.

They regarded it as quite a prize, due to its strategic location directly south of the Corinthian Gulf on the Peloponnesian (southern Greece) side of the Isthmus of Corinth that allowed, through its two harbors, the city to control the isthmus between the two seas. Lechaeum was the westward harbor, facing the Corinthian gulf, and Cenchreae was the eastern one, looking out over the Saronic Gulf.

Not only was it a strategic point of control of the sea, but it had a variety of terrain; coastal plains (watered and fertile), flat areas further from the coast that were fairly well-watered, arable sloping hills and even mountainous regions.

From 198 BC to 146 BC, Corinth was nothing more than a bargaining chip between the Romans and the Greek Achaean League until 146 BC, when Rome finally destroyed the city and sold its inhabitants into slavery. Julius Caesar reestablished Corinth as a Roman colony in 44 BC and settled it with Italian lower classes, ex-soldiers of varying ethnicity and Greek, Syrian, Egyptian and Judean freed slaves.

But it is what this mix of various ethnicities created that brings me to believe that America and its 'christian' religious have become the modern-day equivalent of Corinth.

As it was the capital of the Achaia province, the city was a diverse cultural icon of social, cultural and religious beliefs. Even the Judean populations of this city were more cosmopolitan and multicultural than their Palestinian brethren.

The church in Paul's time existed as 'home' churches which reflected the city's diversity.

Much like America does today with its westernized Christianity. There is a place in which even false beliefs can be 'worshipped' in the communities of our country, where faith can be 'catered' to the system of belief we consider our 'world view'. Church is less of a fellowship and more of a social gathering, based on our individual taste.....this is not, in and of itself, wrong.

Just as Corinth was prosperous enough to be named as one of the three economic centers of Greece by Plutarch, a writer of the second century, so was America considered to be the vanguard nation in terms of wealth, security and economic might. Our economy, as has been recently experienced, affects to a large degree the economic status of many other nations.

Just as Corinth was considered a 'hot spot' in terms of prosperity, the many immigrants (both legal and illegal) consider America to be the 'land of milk and honey.'

America 'boasts' an population that considers itself to be 'Christian', though the consideration of what 'type' of Christian must be explored further to find a more complete and truthful number as many of the 'post-modern, emerging' cultural diversity of the religious movement that still bears the name of its Creator has diverted farther and farther from the shape and foundations of the original Judeo-Christian beginnings.

The Corinthian Christians were economically diverse, like much of the American Churches today, with a cross-section of society's rich, trades people, slaves and former slaves.

The modern day equivalents of ‘slave and former slaves’ are not defined by ‘color’ or ethnicity but in a modern sense of ‘slavery’, it is the fate of the modern Corinthian to be a 'slave' to the immoral and secular dictates of consumerism, the idol of the modern world---the "American Dream".

The "Modern day" Corinthian, who grows tired of the battles over such issues as homosexual ‘marriage’, the murder of the generations called ‘pro-choice abortion’, intelligent design, evolution and the insensitivity of the exclusiveness of the biblical Truth has mixed secularism with Christianity and called it 'good'.

These MDC’s believe a church is only as ‘godly’ as its technical finesse and ‘culturally-sensitive’ proclamation of the Gospel, we all get to heaven, works are the methods of a good god, and never speaks of the depravity of man, the sin and judgment of humanity and the guilt of mankind in the action of grace bore by the very Begotten Son of God Himself.

The 'practical' Corinthians liked to think that they were up on the latest ideas regarding the human experience; the Epicureans who believed a philosophy of " We live happiest when we are free from the pains of life, and a virtuous life is the best way to obtain this goal," the fatalistic Stoics who were 'guided' by logic, physics, and ethics in which morality is a life in accordance with nature and controlled by virtue, and the speculative mysticism of Greek philosophy which sought to combine Christianity, folk religion and esoteric wisdom into a 'new' faith.

Temple prostitution was big business at the shrine of Aphrodite (goddess of love), the shrine of Asclepius, the god of healing, was still frequented. This continued even when the twelve pagan temples were converted to "christian" churches.
Silver-tongued speakers put on seminars and promise the keys to success and happiness, making at least some appeal to Christ or the semblance of Him.

The best of secular wisdom and Christian beliefs are being brought together to make Christianity revelent.

To be acceptable, the adherents to the Christian faith have to find answers to questions that aren't contained in the biblical text and to solve riddles the God contained therein wasn't interested in inside their 'places of worship', the church.

Sounds like modern-day America, doesn't it?

This is the culture in which Paul came or wrote about in his Corinthian missals.
This modern "sophisticated" Christian, commonly labeled a post-modernist, enlightened and emergent, is "confident and self-assured" and fully engulfed by a "religion [that supplies the] social glue, [giving] people a philosophy of life and a way of living a happy and meaningful life," Horton writes in what to me is the 'dirge of the post-Christ Christian.'

"In bending over backwards to be relevant, we have actually become politely irrelevant, mumbling when we get to the bit about judgment, hell, wrath, condemnation, human helplessness and our utter dependence on the grace and righteousness of someone outside of us." Dr. Michael Horton notes about the modern-day church.

Much like those Corinthians of old, the modern-day religious movement that bears a curtsy semblance to Christianity are interested in anything but Christ and the absolute simplicity of the Gospel.

There is no room in the halls of worship for moral or ethical debates, or any dogma of "original sin, total depravity, guilt atonement, propitiation, substitution, justification, the sovereignty of God, regeneration and sanctification, judgment and heaven or hell," Dr. Horton notes.

The 'modern Corinthian' wants a 'god who shows us an example of greatness-power, virtue, wisdom [rather] than a god who dies for us.'

Too much of the theology of today's emerging religious movements, misleading labeled as 'spiritual' movements seem to be dressed up human philosophy, much like the Corinthians. It is bereft of suffering, consequences and the realities of living dead in a broken and sinful world.

"In Corinth, the super-apostles convinced some of the believers that they were simply bringing together the best of secular wisdom and Christian belief," Dr. Horton comments.

In our time, no longer is the simplicity of the Gospel truth enough for our appetites, our yearning for complete and utter knowledge to defy even the darkest of times. After all, from the time of mankind's assumption of church 'leadership,' the doctrine has been to leave no stone unturned and to bring enlightenment where the biblical accounts do not venture.

In essence, create the handbook for 'Christian living, thought and deed.' We express surprise and dismay over the fertile breeding grounds that we, the modern Christian, have created throughout the ages….that give birth to the emergent, post-modern and all-inclusive doctrine of a “Christ-less Christianity."

Our job within the 'missional' life of the Church isn't to teach the reality of original sin and the totality of mankind's depravity.

Rather than examine the guilt that all humanity has as a part of their heritage, the atonement and substitution played out upon the wooden cross as the fabric of our judgment and justified punishment or the sovereignty of God; the Church preaches felt needs, social service and the relevance of inclusion, compassionate acceptance because the desire of God is not to be boxed into a set 'label or character' but to appeal to all…regardless of their man-made religion. We have gone beyond the 'keep it simple silly' theology that ran supreme through the original Church.

Throughout the modernistic movement to ‘rescue’ the spiritual movement of Christ from the likes of evangelicals like me sounds like a laundry list of rehashed spiritual philosophy fresh from the Greek houses of ‘enlightenment’, complete with those ‘super-apostles’ with names like McLaren and Bell.

Staying far from the absolute authority in which Paul speaks directly to the Corinthian Christians, such leadership of the modern movement of ‘inclusive spirituality’ promote no longer the utter depravity of mankind and the absolute statements of Christ, who said He” is the Way, the Truth, and the Light” and that absolutely no one would be saved unless they claimed salvation through His sacrifice upon the Cross. The ponderable questions that the emerging, post-modern leadership postulates we have to answer is, “Is God working in all of the disasters and chaos of the world?” and “How do we make the Gospel appealing to those who believe another ‘religion’?”

The questions are no longer bringing people to a place of redemption but teaching them to bring healing (both physical and spiritual), justice (condemnation by commission) and equality (all have fallen short, no sin is greater than another; all are separation from God) for the world into their lives as the way of happiness, peace and prosperity; regardless of what the religious or spiritual movement they follow.

Is it a wonder why Christianity is no longer relevant to the modern world?

We spend our time in churches giving out theories and ‘quick fixes’ to the problems that are unsolvable in this world without a closer relationship with our Creator. Instead of dwelling within those problems and ‘seeing God’s movement’ in the problems, thereby helping people become more mature in the use of those problems to be closer with God, we ‘counsel’ prayer time, lifestyle changes and theories of theological empirialism.

We preach 'felt needs' to a people who are prone to selfishness and idolatry because of our fallen natures. We are like the blind leading the blind, hampered by our own depravity into believing we can define who, what and how God is. What is thought to 'help' ease the burden of this world is nothing more than justification of those 'felt needs' of people who love themselves, money and instant pleasure (gratification).

While Greek culture-Christianity, both in Corinth and America has turned Christian discourse into a combination of magic, self-reflection, and speculation, where understanding the esoteric mysteries of life and the 'secret' laws of the spiritual lead to power through the mystical and self-realized 'awareness' and the 'new nobility' of the Corinthian' who has the niceties of life, and comes from ‘higher’ learning is a Christ who is all about love and nothing about that considerations of what contributes to the salvation of one’s soul and how fear, self-service labeled ‘social activity’ and subjective truth can hinder the application of Grace. It is more about the ‘condition’ of life rather than the ‘calling’ of your life by God, more of the epicurean philosophy of 'living happiest free from the pains of life through a self-defined virtuosic lifestyle.

Where the Scriptures are silent, secular wisdom throws in its fix: calling itself Christianity because it seeks to be the 'social glue' that binds us together, giving us a philosophy of live and a method of living a self-defined, self-attaining way of life that is seemingly happy and meaningful. The sophisticated Corinthian, both in AME and modern cultures who is confident and self-assured, has little time for the definition of irrefutable definitions of sin and judgment, guilt and grace, as established by its Author and our Creator..

It is the philosophy of the ‘Greeks’ in this broken world that calls Christians from the close relationship with God into a more personal, private shadow of what we were meant to be. If you cannot speak some profound wisdom in today’s modern age, you must not be ‘of God.’

David Ben-Gurion, one of the founders of modern-day Israel, once said, “Courage is a special kind of knowledge, the knowledge of how to fear what ought to be feared and how not to fear what ought not to be feared. From this knowledge comes an inner strength that inspires us to push on in the face of great difficulty. What can seem impossible is often possible with courage.”

Is it any wonder that God has chosen to use the weakness of human instrumentally to convert the world, those people who are (by society’s standards) less than wise or powerful? Amazingly enough, it is the weak work of these ‘common’ people that has such wonderful and undeniable power in its movement for there is no ability within the reasoning and logical thought of man of the fact that God moved and did work within that person and through that person for the greater good of all mankind and the salvation of a few.

It is these ‘weak, common’ people who “recognize that [sin] is a power at work in the world that seeks to smother, dominate and oppress [and is more than making good choices],” as Josh Graves, minister at Rochester Church of Christ and author of the Jesus Feast blog states. Just because we all can state verbatim the obvious addictions, such as: “sex, gambling, porn, alcohol, drugs, and eating,” we don’t give voice to the less obvious which are no less deadly such as: “drama, anger, fighting, thrill, avoidance, shopping, TV., film, gossip, vanity, clothes, racial jokes, sports, gender exploitation, comfort, power, Internet, blogging, e-mail and funny you-tube videos.”

“An addiction is the place we go when we want to hide from God,” Graves blogs in a recent post, Addictions.

And that is what Christianity has become, an addiction. We want to get away from the desperation that life enfolds upon us, the suffering unexplained by the esoteric philosophies of the societal consciousness and yet we find nothing that we can come up with in the minds of our ‘greatest’ intellectuals, philosophers and psychologists can make the world bend to our wills.

We find, in the realization of our own depravity and inabilities, an emptiness that we long to fill with the addictions of this world; the obvious and the ‘covert’ as Graves labels the less-obvious ones.

It is those people, who are weak by the standards of an immoral, self-centered society, who come to the realization that to define God is to create a god of insufficient ability and power to control and define this broken world. They understand the absoluteness of God’s authority and the mystery of ‘knowing but not fully understanding’ a God who seems to allow babies to be killed by the millions throughout this broken planet for simplicity’s sake, who allows suffering of a young child who loses a cherished love one, or allows the American economy to tank; causing good and faithful servants to endure financial struggles and pitfalls.

It is these ‘weak’ people; considered ‘intellectually poor’, ‘mystically impaired’ and ‘psychologically impaired’ that fall upon the mercy of a God who has no moral or ethical reason to redeem, no human reason to restore or human designed authority to empower but who has, because of His righteousness and love deemed it His will to rescue from its own corruption a creation unworthy and unfit for its benefits. A God who, through the personal and effective sacrifice of His only begotten Son, gives…not grants nor offers….but gives to those who would ask the purchase price for sin’s commission….it is these people of ‘poor humanity’ that become its greatest orators of its salvation.

It is these people, who seek the simplest answers to the most complex problems and standing upon a absoluteness of a Creator’s authority regardless of the ‘perception’ of human mercies of a non-human God through the relational communication with that God, who are the ones who move in the spiritual battlefield of this world and conquer the enemy’s forces; creating a void in Hell and drawing the harvest of the Lord’s kingdom in.

These faithful, who are neither ‘ignorant’ by mental capabilities or ‘foolish’ by intellectual standards, who come to a realization of an inkling of what God truly is that are impacted to the point of boldness to impact the society around them. These warriors in the Army of the Most High have come to “fully experience Jesus as the One who liberates from the powers of this present darkness” those who believe.

These ‘common, broken and weary’ travelers have come to the understand of “Salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone” is the only way to find joy and happiness in a world of human depravity and sin that will be as strong and uplifting in the days of the storms of life as it will be in days of ‘good times’. They surrender a power that they never were granted by a society driven by materialism, post-modernism and emergent philosophies that are becoming more and more legalistic as they were in Jesus’ time and work on advancing the church to affect an increasingly self-absorbed culture through the respectability and authority of the Gospel message.

In a culture which idolizes self, it is these people to whom wealth, wisdom, strength and nobility fall victim to the authority and absolute Truth of the biblical text and the God who wrote it through human hands. They have come to the realization of the utter dependence of humanity upon the grace and righteousness of a God who is not humanly defined or fully understandable.

As quoted earlier, a God ‘who dies for us’ and tells us how to live through the example He Himself set.

It is these ‘people of simple faith’ that address the culture with familiarity only as a bridge for communication rather than accommodation, who love as purely as fallen beings can under the authority and training of the Spirit and who come in absence of an agenda to be a servant to their fellow human beings. It is these who move the Gospel into the culture by living through the hope established, the inherited riches realized and the power of a righteous, holy, loving, wrathful and compassionate Creator, rejected of society’s ‘magic’ solution of ‘self-gratifying, self-defined and self-serving Christianity of the modern-day Corinthian.’

It is these simple, common and humble servants of the most High that remember where they came from and by who’s sacrifice on the Cross and resurrection from the dead have been granted the eternal gift. It Is these humble servants of Christ that will benefit of His promise that if we will depend on Him the way He depended on the Father, then He will be that power, wisdom, holiness and motivation of self-sacrifice that God was to Him.

"For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose" (Philippians 2:13).

These humble servants don’t seek out the modern Corinthian’s explaination of what makes a ‘good’ chrisitan for they know that they cannot ever attain such a goal, Christ Himself said we would never be able to do it. They know that the God who called them to the Christian life is also the God who wants to live through them and gives them the power and effective strength to live within His will, His purpose and for His glory.

"The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it" (1 Thess. 5:24).

These are the modern-day Pauls, Moseses, Jeremiahs, Peters, Abrahams, Isaacs, Jacobs and Matthews. It is here that the redemption of the strayed, the lost and the broken are found, in the incapable hands of broken, struggling and purposeful servants of the most High God.

Major Ian Thomas expressed who these disciples were in his book The Saving Life of Christ,

“The Lord Jesus Christ claims the use of your body, your whole being, your complete personality, so that as you give yourself to Him through the eternal Spirit, He may give Himself to you through the eternal Spirit, that all your activity as a human being on earth may be His activity in and through you; that every step you take, every word you speak, everything you do, everything you are, may be an expression of Christ, in you as man....

That is what Paul meant when he said 'For me to live is Christ.'... It is for you to be — it is for Him to do. Restfully available to the Saving Life of Christ, enjoying the richest measure of the Divine Presence, a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself, instantly obedient to the heavenly impulse — this is your vocation, and this is your victory!"

It is these disciples who are empowered to speak the truth of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob not for the defeat of the enemy already vanquished, but for the edification of the saints, redemption of the strayed and the repentance of the lost with the unconditional and unconquerable love of their Lord and King!

"I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, if anyone steadfastly believes in Me, he will himself be able to do the things that I do; and he will do even greater things than these, because I go to the Father. And I will do [I Myself will grant] whatever you ask in My Name [as presenting all that I AM], so that the Father may be glorified and extolled in (through) the Son (John 14:12-13, Amplified).

So, the question begs to be asked and dared to be answered.

Are you a modern-day Corinthian or a disciple of Jesus Christ?

Your answer just might save your life.

http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/corinthians/cityhistory.stm
http://www.modernreformation.org/default.php?page=articledisplay&var1=ArtRead&var2=783&var3=main
http://www.believersweb.org/view.cfm?ID=820
"Apart from Me... Nothing." Article by Austin Pryor, Sound Mind Investing

Thursday, March 19

A faith tried is a faith true....

"Yet I am always with you; you hold me by My right hand. You guide me with Your counsel, and afterward You will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? And earth has nothing I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." Psalm 73:23–26

Most of us would stop at the gracious grace and abundant mercy of God's salvation, purchased through the blood of the innocent Lamb --the perfect sacrifice, Jesus Christ. We'd muddle through this life secure in that knowledge that we were destined for a greater place.

We'd sit back on our laurels and wait...wait...wait...

And then move on, forgetting the rest of the progress towards that day, leaving behind the abundance and the assurance that God would provide us, if we would only look to Him. At least, that is what the 'post-modern' intellectual would say. "Hey, been saved. Been baptized. And doing my best to do...."

Despite the fact James tells us works are not enough, even though Paul speaks of an inner change and the wealth of realized impact that comes from our real condemnation found when we approach Christ as open, sorrowed and agrieved sinners, dragging our meager faith with us like a security blanket --realizing we are at the mercy of a God who is a vengeful, righteous and powerful God, fully within His rights to smote us like a knat on the hindparts of a donkey.

God doesn't stop at our conversion. We gain eternal life, the old self (that sinful, worthless person) dies instaneously in the true repentance of a sinner and God transforms us into new creatures; capable of so much more than the corrupted people we were. But, it isn't something we know to use or become instantly knowledgable in its power and authority over the things of this world. Too often, though, like the 'rumors' of men who won't follow the directions to assemble a children's bike we ignore the instruction manual of this new self...and fail to be truly fully converted into the new creature God has given us.

Much like Peter, who Ray Pritchard of Keep Believing Ministries spoke of in his post on Facebook......

(http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=59747202660&h=aFe7u&u=6a2Jk&ref=nf).

Peter is our best character to look to in regards to how human we can be in our belief and totally unprepared (uncoverted, if you will) for the abilities, talents and gifts that God has equipped our new natures with. And, because of that, we fail to achieve what has been set aside for the purposing God has for us in the Kingdom work.

Jesus recognized Peter's humanity in his faith when he spoke the prediction of Peter's denials. "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers." (Luke 22:31-32) Recognize that Christ doesn't call him by his given spiritual name, Peter, but by his human name of Simon. He is speaking to the human fraility of His disciple, not the strong and powerful spiritual leader that bore the name Peter.

And it is Simon who answers, professing the promise of following the LORD in death before he would utter such denial. The King James version says "Before you are converted" instead of "when you have turned back."

"Peter was saved," Pritchard notes, "but in some deep sense he was not yet fully converted to the Master's use --and that explains his tragic failure." Faith without temptation, suffering or sorrow is a shallow and humanistic faith which often crumbles just like Peter's did with the first accusation and rapidly fails with each successive assault.

Because we stand on our own perceived strengths.

"Why should Satan attack only at the point of your self-perceived weakness?"
Pritchard asks, "If you know you have a weakness, that's the very area you will guard most carefully." Our own sinful, broken humanity demands that we feel 'good', that we are percieved as 'productive and valuable' and that our 'faithful' service to God means that we are never foolish enough to be tempted or struggle in our lives. We are prosperous in wealth, health and happiness.

God has a purpose behind our suffering, as He did Peter's sorrowful and sinful denials. If God's grace was not enough to save us from harm or suffering, what kind of God would He be? If His promise of a 'new creature' was not true, then how can we have confidence in anything else He says, promises or predicts?

Yet there are Christians the world over that are suffering because they chose to accept Christ's salvation, are persecuted because they struggle for the Kingdom and not man and religious movements abound to 'explain' what we are 'lacking' in service, thought or action that causes such human suffering, human pain and human discontentment.

I used to think enviously of 'successful' Christians; you know, the ones who had material possessions, were living a 'happy' life in their pursuits of employment, family and service to God. I would listen with awed jealousy to the 'big-time' preaching of those who have made it 'big' in the Christian community of faith; mega-churches, multi-million dollar ministries. Such things as envy and discontent are man-made illusions that we consider standards; in terms of progression in the faith, of achievement.

Our pastors aren't broken, sinful-natured human beings but 'godly' and 'righteous' men who would impart their knowledge of 'how to do it' to us for the occassional tithe, the full hearted signing on to the 'vision' and who display their 'humility' weekly upon the stage of our 'progressive, contemporary' church services.

Yet when they fall, and fall hard, we run from them as if they were plague-infested and contagious. It is that surprise and strength of the temptations we all face that is forgotten in the sorrow and shame of the sinful actions they take and our safety from such illusionary temptation is called into doubt.

Just as Peter expressed shock and a bit of self-felt anger at Christ's assurance he would indeed denial Him three times before the crow croaked out its sound. Like Peter learned, we become the most pliable and stronger for the purposes of God when we fall flat and hard upon the face of our own abilities and are faced with the undeniable fact, as Pritchard says, "without the LORD we can do nothing but fail."

We must find our safety in temptations and the victory over them, not in our own 'self-assessed' confidence in our strengths, but only and completely by the gracious presence of God with us and Christ's continued and assured intercession for us.

"A bone that is broken often becomes stronger after it is healed," Pritchard notes, "Something in the healing process actually makes the break point stronger than it was before." And as the breaks occur in our lives; families torn asunder, marriages broken and battered and a 'good' child from a Christian home errs, for all those who come to the realization that God has committed both His word and His Spirit to us for the sake of counsel and for His glory find themselves cleaving to such assurance even under the condemnation of this mortal and sinful body.

And we place the assurance of our eternal new nature to the authority and proven abilities of our God. The believing hopes and prospects of Heavenly protection reconcile us in the dark providences we will journey into.

"Blessed LORD," Matthew Henry says, "who hast graciously promised to become our portion in the next world, prevent us from choosing any other in this [world]'"

If we ascribe our confidence not in our ability to 'weather the storm' but rather in the assurance of increased condemnation the closer we become in relationship with our Creator for the purposes of rooting out our old nature through faith and prayer, we find ourselves converted through spiritual wisdom, capable of dealing with the muck and grim of our falls in the confidence of our 'newly' acquired abillites in the new nature we have. And we find our testimony, our service and our faith strengthened.

Pritchard points out that Peter lost "his vanity, pride, self-confidence, rash impulsivness and unreliability" to gain "humility, new[ly] confidence in God,tested courage, New determiniation to serve Christ and a willingness to use his experience to help others."

A man truly worthy of being the cornerstone of Christ's church.

"The things he lost he didn’t really need; the things he gained couldn’t have come any other way."

And we find the confidence in tested faith to overcome temptations of our old sinful nature that is all too fully human because we hear the counsel and wisdom God speaks to us with, know the confidence and assurance of His ability to overcome and His promise of our 'godliness and righteousness'.

We find ourselves in spiritual progress, as Prtichard expresses as his "first law"; where we find we 'cannot go back, cannot stay here and must move forward' from the sinful ways of our old nature because of the progression towards the realization of our 'new' nature's desire and need of a relationship with our God.

And we become stronger warriors in the battle of this world, fierce and loving in our faithful desire that 'all should not perish, but have eternal life.' We express and shine with God's glory made perfect through our suffering and trials, lighting the darkness with the righteousness of our Savior and the Truthfulness of His word. Speaking the power and authority of God in our lives; even in the midst of the storms that ravage this world.

We find instruction in the darkness of our sinful ignorance, peace in our suffering for Kingdom sake and joy in the brutality of a sinful, broken world that we cannot fully explain or be comfortable with anymore.

We become indestructable in our destruction and happy in our sorrow.

And become more effective, purposed and Christ-like in our Kingdom commission.

Evangelizing to the world about "the GOOD NEWS" by the testimony of our lives.

Tuesday, March 17

Ponderings...

"Do not be turned from the right way by foolish words; for because of these things the punishment of God comes on those who do not put themselves under him." Ephesians 5:6 BBE

No matter what, I have tried to be honorable in the circumstances that exist in this war between my ex and I, quaintly labeled divorce, and to what I believe is right, even when some would question that judgment and some would question that honor. What is right isn't always what feels right and what is truth doesn't always be the easiest to follow. Neither is the constant bombardment of verbal and mental abuse that has been the hallmark of the last two and a half years. But even in the midst of the 'night attacks' and 'sapper harrasments', there has been one thing that I can control and one thing only; my response and reaction to the person involved, who is surely hurting as much as I am.

It is hard to take the eternal view, that the judgment of all things has been and will forever be in the hands of God. No matter what the courts, lawyers or people may say. Even in this situation, where I have gone as a result of someone else's choices and decisions that drew them and everything that connected us into the darkness of this world has been solely upon the faith I have been tested and tried with in the last three years. Knowing God doesn't approve of divorce, knowing that there are biblical grounds for such; allowed through the broken nature of our humanity; I have spent this time working to be honorable...and towards the end of things, it is growing harder and harder to not respond with equal and hurtful actions and words.

I am far from a perfect human being, as far as I understand....so is everyone else. But God convicted me early on in the battle that I would have to be honorable and not respond to wound with wound, vicious word with vicious word....no matter how difficult it would be not to find 'self-justified' reasons to respond equally. There were those who disagreed with such a noble sentiment, considering it foolish not to be equally as forceful (in a loving way) in this prolonged battle.

But I did and I remained.....honorable. By the tips of my fingers and with a desperation known of sweat, blood and tears that make my grip slippery at best.
I had though the time had come where the fruit of honoring God's word and conviction to be honorable was being bore upon the vine; recently the friction and the strife have died down to manageable levels. Conversation has been less hurtful and more towards the redeeming grace of healing.

And when I thought that it was safe to let down my guard, I found myself open for more painful wounding and vicious words. Foolish words, hateful and hurtful....wounding and stabbing my open heart and sending me limping back to shelter. Someone has read MacBeth and wants their pound of flesh.

God has been largely silent in this latest battle, as if He has said enough on the subject (stand firm in faith, be honorable as I would have you be) and will say nothing more.

I have lived on the edge of faith for so long now; disasters and circumstances have lashed at this tiny little row boat cast out upon the vastness of the open seas. As I battle in the storm, brutalized by the fierceness of the gale winds, numbed by the pounding of the cold and strength-sapping waves and exhausted by the constantly steady bailing to keep myself afloat; my faith is foremost and open before my sight.

George Mueller said, "Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where man's power ends." Is there glory for God in a place where He didn't design us to go? There is no rescue like the one of Elijah of his wayward wife from her return to prostitution, no sudden 'repentance and redemption' born from an awakening from sin. I have borne the responsibility of this failure before the Throne and been called to account for the things that I have sole responsbility for.

But there is no peace in this valley and only the eternal hope of salvation purchased and signed for through the blood of Jesus Christ. It is only through the strength of He who sent His only Son to stand in my stead upon that cross of mankind's sin that has kept me through this constant strife.

Even then....as I grow ever more weary from the struggle, I remember this. Even our enemies, either made or shaped through the struggles of life, are children of God.
And how honorable do I want to be before my brethren, my faith and my God?

George, of www.worthynews.com, sent this story in a devotional today. I thought it appropriate to that question:

A friend sent us this story about a young lady named Sally and her experience in a recent seminary class, given by her teacher, Dr. Smith. Dr. Smith was known for his elaborate object lessons. This particular day, Sally walked into the class and knew they were in for a fun day.

On the wall was a big target and on a nearby table were many darts. Dr. Smith told the students to draw a picture of someone that they disliked or someone who had made them angry, and he would allow them to throw darts at the person's picture.

Sally's friend drew a picture of girl who had stolen her boyfriend. Another guy drew a picture of his little brother. Sally drew a picture of a former friend. The class lined up and began throwing darts. Some of the students were throwing their darts with such force that their targets were ripping apart and everyone was laughing hysterically.

Finally, Dr. Smith asked all the students to be seated. He came to the front of the class with a less-than-amused look on his face. As he began removing the target from the wall, there appeared underneath, a picture of Jesus. A hush fell over the room as each student viewed the mangled picture; holes and jagged marks covered Jesus' face, and His eyes were pierced.

Dr. Smith said only these words. "In as much as you have done it unto the least of these my brothers, you have done it unto Me." Matthew 25:40.


Even in the midst of life's struggles, God continues to bless, to guide, to teach and to inspire me to the Purpose He calls us all..........

TO LIVE LIFE ETERNAL

Thursday, March 12

What kind of God is that?

"From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. "Go on up, you baldhead!" they said. "Go on up, you baldhead!" He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths." (II Kings 2:23-24)

The poster on AFA's site on Facebook said that it is things like this moment in the biblical text that caused him to realize that "because the God that's described in the Bible is cruel, arbitrary, humorless, vengeful, and impossible" is not a God "worthy of worship, or of any consideration whatsoever" after a 'misspent' youth in a fundamentalist church that he was 'born into.'

I decided to post my response to it here on my blog. I'll post an invite to read it, but thought it should be written here where I am solely responsible for its contents.

Of course, without digging further (as the poster claims to have done more than most believers) we wouldn't discover those things that would bring this circumstance into possibly a more 'understandable' light.

The word used for 'children' here means idolatrous or infidel young men. We'll look into why these men were 'idolatrous' or 'infidel' in a moment. Also, the retort of the 'children' of 'baldhead'(‏קֵרֵ×—ַ‎) was a epithet of contempt in the East, viciously applied even to people with a full bushel of hair, which was mostly meant to imply the person was 'unclean like a leper', if we look at the requirement that a priest examine the bald spots on people's heads (Leviticus 13:40-44) and see if they were suffering from leprosy.

So, these young men were being very vicious in their slander of a prophet of God.

And, the 'go up' is a reference to this prophet's Master and is a case of modern-day religious persecution……

But, let's not stop there. Going back further, into Genesis, we discover more on our 'deeper' discovery of what 'extenuating circumstances' could lay behind the outcome of this incident.

Bethel was established by Jacob (who was renamed Israel and the patriarch of the Twelve Tribes) and means "House of God". Jacob named it Bethel because this is where God spoke to him after he fled the wrath of his brother Esau. A deeper search into the history of Jacob is for another discussion, surely which a person who seeks understanding of the character of God would endeavor to undertake.

Now, there was an altar built, El-Bethel, which means "God of the House of God," so labeled by Jacob for the "God, who answered me when I was troubled and who has been with me wherever I've gone." So Bethel has a historical spiritual significance that doesn't get portrayed in the account our poster cites as one of many examples of a God who is bitter to swallow and mean-spirited.

Now, the books of Kings (1&2) chronicle the 'royalty' of Israel's early history, another example of God's chosen people not believing that they should be different from the other nations of the world and demanding from Samuel that they be given a "real King to rule over them" rather than the 'judge' format of government that was established from the time of Moses. Even in the context of human experience, the history isn't that great with the majority of the kings being wicked and evil in the sight of God.

But it is Jeroboam that we want to pull from the histories of the Israel kings. Jeroboam was the son of Nebat and an Ephrathite named Zeruah and an officer in Solomon's kingdom appointed to oversee the forced labor of the tribe of Joseph in Jerusalem, who was chosen by God to punish Solomon for turning to the pagan worship of Astarte (the goddess of the Sidonians), Chemosh (the god of Moab), and Milcom (the god of Ammon) and not following God's ways in doing what was right and established through the Mosaic law as King David, his father, had done. Again, the story of Solomon deserves more than a curtsy glance, but that isn't part of this discussion.

God chose the prophet Ahijah to tell Jeroboam that he would take 10 tribes from Solomon's legacy, for God was going to divide the kingdom but spare Solomon total defeat due to the faith of his father, David. As with each decree, commandment or law of God, God gives an opportunity for doing the right thing to those He has given them to.

Solomon's son, Rehoboam and Jeroboam are no different; Rehoboam is offered a chance to abandon the pagan worship of his father by the people of Israel.

Jeroboam was told at the time of the division prophecy that "If you will do all I command you, follow My ways, and do what I consider right by obeying My laws and commands as My servant David did, then I will be with you. I will build a permanent dynasty for you as I did for David. And I will give you Israel."

God gives many chances for us to return to what is right. Much like a human father and mother are oft to do.

Rehoboam, rejecting the wise counsel of elders who had serve his father in the past and instead accepting the foolish and inexperienced counsel of his peers, proclaims that he will be far worse than his father was. Israel rebels and proclaims Jeroboam King, and Rehoboam is left with Jerusalem, as prophesied by Ahijah.

Jeroboam, who rebuilds Shechem in Ephraim, is afraid if the Israelites return to Jerusalem to worship God, he will be rejected and killed in favor of Rehoboam. So he seeks to protect his newfound status as King by giving the Israelites two pagan calves to worship, much like they did in the wilderness when Moses was receiving the 10 commandments on Mount Sinai, and proclaiming "You have worshipped in Jerusalem long enough. Here are the gods who brought you out of Egypt." A festival, on the fifteenth day of the eighth month is established for these 'gods' with priests established from non-Levite tribes.

Worshipping these gods became a national sin, with the Israelites rejecting God's favor and commandments to follow these new gods. It is in Bethel where Jeroboam goes to burn an offering to the pagan calf-gods on the appointed day of his invented festival. (1 Kings 11 & 12 GW)

So, we have a people in a state of national sin and corruption and from these people comes a large crowd of idolatrous and infidel young men. They are very proud of, and fond of, this calf of Jeroboam's and hate those who reprove them of their pagan worship. So, a very angry and hate-filled gathering comes against God's invested prophet Elisah, who has purified the water so that the deaths and crop failures from the corrupted water supply would cease. He proclaims God's word, and yet this crowd comes against him.

They mock God through His prophet and Elisah speaks a Spirit-inspired curse. Only 42 of the gathered are killed, in an undeniable fashion through God's punishment, for the course they had undertaken and the deliberate mocking of God's blessing and the prophet who delivered it.

So, far from "simply [making] fun of a "prophet's" baldness", this exposes a "supposedly just and merciful deity" that holds not only His chosen people, but Himself to "the highest standards of all." And, the 'differentiation between the Old and New Testaments" doesn't exist. God was, in the context of this moment in the story, far more merciful than He had the justification to be.

"Perhaps some of you who take that book literally can tell me what I ought to be thinking..." the poster comments......

I would venture that you should dig deeper for understanding.

Far from the "grisly death as [an] appropriate punishment from poking fun at a chrome-domed holy man, it shows an absolute authority and mercy even in the Old Testament. The Creator shows very high patience between the sin and the punishment, giving ample time for repentance and restoration.

The poster claims that the bible "is cruel, arbitrary, humorless, vengeful and impossible." I would stipulate that the argument that he gives against those who believe in the authority and literal interpretation of the Biblical text is far more 'cruel, arbitrary, humorless, vengeful and impossible' than he wants to admit.

This event, and the poster's comments behind it, shows the completeness that goes far beyond any human capability of achieving, in any societial context or culture, of the authority and fullness of God and highlights the difference between the 'wages of sin' and the 'evil nature of a wicked humanity'as opposed to the righteousness and moral authority of a loving and just God.

But I'm not here to refute this poster's argument, I think the biblical story itself brings an understanding to linear human thinking of a possible justification of such a brutal punishment. God shows us higher standard and tells us to follow the example shown....Of course, there are those who would still say that even in the light of the full story, there was no reason for delivering such punishment.

I, obviously, would have to disagree.

When a sixteen year old decides to engage in sexual relations, and becomes pregnant…what is the 'just' punishment? Beyond the aspect of 'you play, you pay?'

For the mother-to-be or the child that grows inside her? Who loses, and who has the 'higher' standard for the right to live?

What about a wife who decides to engage in an extra-martial affair…..what is the just punishment? She made a choice, and lives with the consequences, but why do the husband and the children suffer as well? Were is the justification in punishing the children?

Far better is a religion that tells it's faithful to kill those who don't convert or kill those who have the misfortune to belong to a family that practices such 'religious' decrees and decides it is their right to believe what they want, not what they are told?

Far better then the allowance of that unfaithful wife to be beheaded under the dictates of that religion? What if that 'unfaithfulness' is the fact the husband doesn't think she makes a good wife?

There is no such dictate under the Christian faith, even the fundamentalist denomination to which the poster claims to have had wasted his youth by being 'born' into.

If we apply human standards and moral authority to the Biblical text, we find ourselves afraid of this God who seems far more evil than He has a right by our standards to be. And not in the least desirous to know Him. We subject the truth to our view, our thoughts and our character to explain a God we cannot explain in our sinful nature.

We reject such a deity because we have the human condition of wickedness, evil and atrocities against each other as our standards, where truth is subjective to the culture, the national image or the desire of the individual.

But when we take in the fullness of God and His eternal character, all of it, releasing the boundaries of human condition to an un-human deity, we discover that God, far from being just cruel, humorless, vengeful and impossible is a complete packet of love, mercy, grace and compassion as well as being faithful to deliver (as well as capable) upon the decisions of His people. For good or bad, our choices are but God brings both good and bad into an eventual 'good' outcome to which only He can know.

Hindsight is twenty-twenty and only a human condition that is placed on a non-linear God.

The absoluteness and proven authority of God, to be just, fair and loving to a created people who don't deserve it is far more worthy of respect and investigation than what has been given. Even if I know I will never truly understand, in this place, the God who allows humanity to destroy itself through its own invention. As a human father, I wouldn't do so.

And, in return for His salvation, bought and purchased for a people (all of humanity) who don't show worthiness for its commission because of His love…all that is asked is that we believe in Jesus Christ and His Truth.

Where is the justification in that, I would ask? Far less than the righteous justification God has in this context.

There's only love.

Tuesday, March 10

The call to battle for a nation.....

"If at this time you say nothing, then help and salvation will come to the Jews from some other place, but you and your father's family will come to destruction: and who is to say that you have not come to the kingdom even for such a time as this?" Esther 4:14 BBE

Ask any number of people across the cultural, economic and social landscape of this great melting pot called America, you will get equally varied responses, all weighty and honestly logical in their importance, of what is the worst thing happening in the United States of America today. And equally varied responses on who is responsible and who is required to 'fix' it.....and how.

Everyone wants someone else to do something about the mistakes made by someone else in the past that has created an impossible situation for the present and a dismal one for the future. Such is the human condition; identify the problem and locate the offender that created the mess........thereby foregoing the need to examine ourselves and how we, as individual citizens of this nation, contributed to the problem.

With some 83% of the American citizenship claiming 'belief' in a "higher power", commonly referred to as 'god', it makes me wonder what the heck did we expect other than what is come about on the plate of the American experience and has expanded outwards into the world scene.

Should we have expected more? From human-designed, ran and staffed institutions? Apparently, we can ignore historical data (or at least change it to reflect our own subjective truth); the example of the Corinthians adopting Greek philosophies to their pure Gospel. The morph of the Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish faiths into manageable, understandable doctrines of 'right living.'

Pastors don't want to point to their congregations and call the people into account for their faith, to do so would be nothing short of ministerial suicide. American Christians, whether cultural or missional or emergent or evangelical or whatever 'name' they go by, don't like to be told they are responsible for the woes of the world and that there is nothing that the 'change' of our elected President can do that mitigates that or will make a difference.

But we are responsible for our institutions, voting choices or ignorance of historical proofs of what happens to a nation, a people, a culture or individuals who chose to humanize God, ignore God or reject God.

Just like Esther, we have been placed in the nations of our birth, our jobs and our communities to promote in the most effective and powerful ways the mission statement of the Kingdom to a culture that wants nothing more than its own human control.
The very same Kingdom left in the hands of human beings for sure...but human beings who subjected themselves; their lives, their wills and their bodies to the sustaining of that Kingdom for the glory, purpose and end design of God. Amid persecution, death, destruction and individual suffering. To die for the Kingdom was gain, to live for the world was loss.

This is the language of strong faith, a language that has been lost in the translations of emergent, post-modern and missional wording of modern Christianity. This is why there is no longer clear cut, authorative doctrines being taught in apologtics, seminaries and our schools.

There are no longer Davids among us for we have confused the generations born, calling the godly design of men and women wrong and creating a human standard that has begot gender-confusion, homosexual pride and loose sexuality.

There are no Moses' among us for we have created human standards for the godly calling of the faithful, looking at what the person has done and not what God has and can do within that calling.

Gone from the reality of our 'post-modern' Christian movement is the Pauls, Peters and Timothys.

We have brought to bear upon the unimaginable power, mercy and grace of I AM; the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob human understanding, human philosophy and human conformance. If God is not dead in the landscape of human thought, surely we are hell-bent on doing our best to killing Him.

By discouraging the young Shadrachs, Meshachs, and Abednegos of the Christian faith to be less aware and faithful to a God that cannot be conformed to human standards but lies far beyond the scope of our linear understanding: to believe in the seen and hope in the unseen. To teach them that the dictates and decrees of a mighty and powerful God are nothing more than 'suggestions' to being faithful has wrought generations poorly equipped to fight against the cultural and secular pulls of a corrupt society.

"The day of the LORD is near for all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your own head." Obadiah 1:15

Pastor David Wilkerson , author of "The Cross and the Switchblade," and founder of Teen Challenge, warns about an "imminent catastrophe" that is coming upon America as a judgment of God for the wickedness of this nation. Wilkerson's message can be read in the WorldNet Daily article (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=91097). Bill Keller, of Liveprayer, has been equally as vocal in his calling for repentance in the face of God's judgment upon this country. Prophetic voices across the landscape of our nation are preaching the Word of judgment and being ignored.

All eyes of the American citizenry are upon Washington D.C. and the young, charismatic leader that has promised so much 'unity and prosperity' for the hard-working and patriotic Americans who elected him into the most powerful office in this nation, and the world. Christians who voted for this liberal, universal and Black Liberation Movement disciple defend themselves and their vote as "the best choice for change" and "it is the person, not the issue" that we elected. We want to follow the precipes of the faith movement established and defined by Christ in human terms and human conditions patting ourselves on the back for each child we feed in a third world country "as we preach the Gospel", for every 'carbon credit' we buy to offset 'global warming' and each religious 'friend' we have that is of the Islamic, Hindu or Buddhist faith...for we are tolerant. We look at the 'progress' in the human fields of science, culture and faith and call it "good."

Isaiah's words to the Israelite nation need to be sounded again, in this once mighty land, to realize why the economic and culture decline is continuing despite the best human efforts of the human institutions of government and its leadership, the human glory of the mega-pastors and their ministries and the apathy of the congregations sitting in the comfortable chairs throughout the "western church."

"I have tested you in the fire of suffering, as silver is refined in a furnace. But I have found that you are worthless. What I do is done for my own sake--- I will not let my name be dishonored or let anyone else share the glory that should be mine and mine alone." The LORD says, "Listen to me, Israel, the people I have called! I am God, the first, the last, the only God! My hands made the earth's foundations and spread the heavens out. When I summon earth and sky, they come at once and present themselves. "Assemble and listen, all of you! None of the gods could predict that the man I have chosen would attack Babylon; he will do what I want him to do. I am the one who spoke and called him; I led him out and gave him success. "Now come close to me and hear what I say. From the beginning I have spoken openly and have always made my words come true." (Now the Sovereign LORD has given me his power and sent me.) The holy God of Israel, the LORD who saves you, says: "I am the LORD your God, the one who wants to teach you for your own good and direct you in the way you should go. "If only you had listened to my commands! Then blessings would have flowed for you like a stream that never goes dry. Victory would have come to you like the waves that roll on the shore. Your descendants would be as numerous as grains of sand, and I would have made sure they were never destroyed." Go out from Babylon, go free! Shout the news gladly; make it known everywhere: "The LORD has saved his servant Israel!"" (Isaiah 48:10-20 GNB)

The spiritual corruption of this nation has begotten spiritually dead and purposeful denial of God's existence who have only garnered the righteous judgment of God's people for an accounting of their sins and wickedness. There are no human genius, economic stimulus or even 'religious' calls for economic revival by endorsing and support 'religious' businesses that will make this crisis turn around and return to normal. No amount of governmental spending or the salvation of the manufacturing base of this nation will bring about the blessings once felt and experienced by the citizenship of this country.

The only thing that is going to 'revive' this nation, its economy and the condition of the world is for the modern-day Jonahs to be heard, the nation repent upon knees bent in fearful repentance before the one True God, undeniable and unignorable in His glory and His wrath. The only thing that the leadership of this once mighty nation can do to affect the 'change' that will bring this nation back into the grace and mercy of God is to don sack cloth and ashes in sorrow for the sinfulness of the people and lead them in true repentance before God. Maybe it is for this purpose that our President has been raised to the highest office in the land of the most powerful nation in the world; so that God's glory might shine through the spiritually bankrupted and power-loving man who inhabits that chair.

The leadership of this nation, from Congress to the State Governments, cannot bring about the return of our fortunes and the prosperity of this nation. The wrath of a righteous God, even if it is nothing more than His staying His hand from the course of this country is being applied in response to our silence, being distracted by the temporary pleasures of this world and the prechance of the 'Christian' leadership to 'play the game of faith.'

It is not the Joel Osteens, Henry Wrights, Rob Bells, Bill Hybels, Creole Dollars and countless others that will substain and redeem the multitudes residing in the land of America; the prosperity, seeker-friendly and emergent doctrines continue to bring pain and hurt to a people morally bankrupt and spiritually impure causing the wrath and vengenance of God to be rightful brought upon the people's head. It is the time for those who hear the voice of God speaking judgment upon His people to come to their knees in fearful humility, the common warriors in the pews and the chairs.

Such is the time to bring our faith into our workplaces, our homes and our communties and ignore our tendencies to leave it at the door of our mega-churches when we depart the convienant service we've attended on Sunday morning, afternoon or evening. It is time to bring our faith into our actions; calling our leadership to lead us in repentance to bring about revival to a nation sorely in need of grace and mercy for its transgressions.

It is time for our congregations to stop worrying about filling the pews and the coffers of the congregational hall and to return to seeking, preaching and speaking the Truth, God's judgment is upon us and we are in need of repentance...not the greatest band in the community to sing Christian contemporary for the Seekers, the special powerpoint presentations that excite the Borderline nor the studious interpretation of Paul's travels interspersed with pictures of the Pastoral staff standing in the ancient lands. Now is the time to call for a return from the entertainment value of the Gospel presentation to the Truth as unadorned as possible by man and given to the glory of God. To do anything less would be spiritual malpractice.

It is the time for the Shadrachs, Meshachs and Abednegos to stand firm in the face of agressive, sweet-worded and self-inspiring glory that spews from the words of the modern spiritual movements and stand upon what is before them in Truth and Love. To refuse to bend their knees to corrupt laws and ungodly principles, even to the point of persecution and death.

"He said to them, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, is it true that you refuse to worship my god and to bow down to the gold statue I have set up? Now then, as soon as you hear the sound of the trumpets, oboes, lyres, zithers, harps, and all the other instruments, bow down and worship the statue. If you do not, you will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace. Do you think there is any god who can save you?" Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered, "Your Majesty, we will not try to defend ourselves. If the God whom we serve is able to save us from the blazing furnace and from your power, then he will. But even if he doesn't, Your Majesty may be sure that we will not worship your god, and we will not bow down to the gold statue that you have set up." Then Nebuchadnezzar lost his temper, and his face turned red with anger at Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. So he ordered the furnace to be heated seven times hotter than usual. And he commanded the strongest men in his army to tie the three men up and throw them into the blazing furnace. So they tied them up, fully dressed---shirts, robes, caps, and all---and threw them into the blazing furnace. Now because the king had given strict orders for the furnace to be made extremely hot, the flames burned up the guards who took the men to the furnace. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, still tied up, fell into the heart of the blazing fire. Suddenly Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement. He asked his officials, "Didn't we tie up three men and throw them into the blazing furnace?" They answered, "Yes, we did, Your Majesty." "Then why do I see four men walking around in the fire?" he asked. "They are not tied up, and they show no sign of being hurt---and the fourth one looks like an angel." So Nebuchadnezzar went up to the door of the blazing furnace and called out, "Shadrach! Meshach! Abednego! Servants of the Supreme God! Come out!" And they came out at once." (Daniel 3:14-26 GNB)

We were never given the commission to vanquish our enemies under the sword and shield, the physical manifestations of 'in your face' evangelism but to speak the Truth, without fear and without agenda, so that those who hear can look at us and say, "They have sinned as I have, but look at the joy and the fearless proclamation of what they believe." When the cause of Christ demands it, as in times such as these, we must take up the Cross of suffering and shame upon our shoulders and follow...imperfectly as our old nature makes us but under the power and authority of our new natures as God empowers us. We need to dispose of our own comforts and life of ease and step into the world without fear for the good of all mankind.

We need to girth ourselves in the provided armor of the LORD and set into the world, not for the vanity of our own glory or peace of mind, but into those places we fear to tread with the mindful purpose of God in our hearts and His word upon our lips, into the very halls of the enemy's power and declare the Word of God. We need to overcome our tendency of the old nature to shrink from service that bring peril or loss upon us. For, if we truly come to the footstool of His throne of grace boldly and walk welcomed into the holiest of holies because of the washing and redemption of Christ's blood upon us, what do we truly have to lose in this world?

Just as the King's adore had cooled against Esther and the imminent doom of her people was upon the doorstep of fruition, it is in times such as these that our faith and courage is more tried so that when we step into the world of sorrow and sin, it is God's goodness that shines through the favor He shows His children in the gathering darkness and draws those long in the darkness to the living waters of Christ's blood.

It is the language of strong faith, shown in the story of Esther that must be spoken from the lips of the faithful and carried through courage into the darkness gathered against this nation as the light of God is removed. The faithful cannot stagger or falter in times of hopelessness to believe in hope as defined and promised by our Heavenly Father. We are bound not by fear, but by gratitude, to service for God and His church, speaking the wise counsel and design of God's provisions for His people.

It is time for Men of God to stand together in community with other men and in relationship with their wives; accountable, strong, and loving to the relationships they are called to fight for. It is time for Women of God to stand together with their sisters and husbands; equal partners in God's design, with relational purpose and honor.

Heavenly Father,
We praise You and the mighty works that Your hand has made upon the breathe and width of creation. We thank You for the sacrifice of Your Son and the blessing of the counsel of the Holy Spirit. In these times, we turn to the one Truth that has never changed; I AM.

For the faithful have solemnly commended their souls and their cause to God, so that our cause will bear fruit for the Kingdom and our souls are safe from the death that remains for those who know not God. The faithful have taken the step the trembling sinners of the world haven't, throwing themselves upon the free mercy of Christ through earnest prayer and supplication for all their needs; temporary and eternal.

We fight with Your armor, Your strength and Your love for those who still stand within darkness' embrace and we work tirelessly to bring the nation, corporately and individually, back in to a redeeming relationship with You. We lift up our President, that he may realize the power of Your name and Your purpose and lead the nation in a mournful stance of sack cloth and ashes for the sins we as a nation have committed.

In Your Son's mighty and merciful name we pray.
AMEN


There is only one cause in this world that will be safe enough in these times to align ourselves with:

The cause of God

AND IT ONLY TAKES ONE TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT AND GOOD IN THE EYES OF GOD

Friday, March 6

Stormy weather....

Life happens, I wrote in the blog on Monday.

Life; broken and bruised, battered and bleeding, happens throughout the world each day. Victories won, battles surrendered, lives changed in the blink of an eye and circumstances come to beat down even the most powerful people. In an instant, life happens. In the tempest of the storms, Christ calls us out like He did Peter…..one simple, direct word: “Come.”

Too few of us will give up that immediate and illusionary safety of the boat and the companionship that surrounds us. Yet Christ stands upon the waves so high that it surely seems He should drown. He holds out His hand and simply says, “Come.” Yet, we who have surrendered our lives to Him in dying to ourselves and our own foolishness react much like the other eleven disciples did…..”It’s a ghost!” and continue to battle the wind, the sea, and the tempest deep.

Just as Jesus commanded the twelve to get into the boat and cross the sea, sometimes the events of our lives are nothing more than the result of our actions, sinful and immoral, that are an accounting; Our Father God bring about that which we desired so much to do that we strayed from His path…..and He, ever faithful, calls us back. It is that moment; between the realization of sin and the calling of our God to repent and return that we find our boat moment.

Like Peter, is our desire to be living examples of Christ and to do His will enough? Peter knew that what Christ commanded He was also empowered to do. William Carey once said, “Expect great things of God, and attempt to do great things for God.” Despite what I am sure was opposition from the others in the boat, Peter denied what his mortal body told him and stepped into the tempest.

And walked on water, defying the very laws of physics that bound his physical body by the application of his faith.

So, you’ve stepped out into the raging seas….walking confidently those first few steps with confidence and faith…..a surreal moment bound by the eerie silence and heaviness of faith…….

And then Chaos exerts control and you feel the sway of the tide, the wetness of the waves and the howling of the wind. You hear, as Peter did, the boisterousness of the wind. It seems louder than God’s voice and far, far more desiring of you attention than Christ.

“Unbelief puts our circumstances between us and God.” F.B. Meyer remarked, “But faith puts God between us and our circumstances.”

Faith cannot be called faith unless it is followed by action, obedient action, in the worst of storms and raging circumstances. A faith untested is a useless thing, for anyone can say, “Lord, Lord” and yet walk a life that brings devastation and chaos to all they come into contact with. Few can walk the path that Jesus laid out, and none can walk it as Christ did.

Our storms cause us to wonder and fear stands before our faith.

We, like Peter, take our eyes off Christ and begin to sink…………………..

Life happened yesterday. Like a nuclear explosion. Like a runaway train. Like the betrayal of a wife who seeks the arms of another. Like the husband who hides his heart from those who need his unconditional love. Like the Body of Christ who stand in judgment and issue the decree of reasoning for another’s struggle.

Life sank, and God stood there upon the waves of fury and despair…...

I don’t know how long it took Peter before he cried out for Christ’s help. Maybe he looked around, and tried to turn back towards the boat. Maybe he sank as far as his chin before he cried out to Christ for help.

I know that when the life-altering, exploding and damaging wind of this life’s happening hit the walls of my faith, I shuddered……and felt the pain of its impact. And I lost sight for a moment of that figure on top of the waters of this violent and troubled world.

Sinking isn’t a pleasant feeling…..especially when you’ve been at the bottom before and knows of its despair and hopelessness.

And God said, “Why, with what I have brought you through, do you doubt My authority and My power? My grace. My mercy. Above all, my son, why do you know doubt My strength?”

He’s trained me to carry a lot more as a testimony of His power and this new burden is but a fly upon the cross I carry for my God…….

Lesson learned……God has shown up and is…..


calling me out of the boat to walk on the water……

Monday, March 2

Life happened......

"Anything which comes from God is able to overcome the world: and the power by which we have overcome the world is our faith." 1 John 5:4 (BBE)

Life happened this Sunday evening.

Life is its' most distruptive, sorrowed and chaotic way brought several of us journeyers together in the stark, quietly busy enivronment of Annapolis Hospital in the evening yesterday.

My ex-wife called to say that she had received the call, that call from the hospital that you never hope to get but know in the passage of time that it will come. The Doctors had done all that they could do in regards her father and recommended that he be put into a 'safety and comfort' status, so that his final days would be free from pain and discomfort. He lost the battle against the host of health issues that he's fought most of his life, but more intensely in the last three months. It was time to gather, to say goodbye and let him move into his eternal reward.

No longer were the issues of possible cancer, the amputation of his right leg below the knee or the big toe on the left foot. No longer was the infection of primary concern; nor the effects of its ravashing of this man's body. No longer were his respiratory or diabetes an issue. No longer his heart...nothing no longer was the issue....

The battle upon this world and its desire to fell the righteous was over for this warrior; who had bravely marched under the command and order of his LORD and King these many years.

Tripping and falling, surely as is the wont and fate of any of us broken and sinful human beings. But standing more often than not upon the battlefield's front lines in the battle between Good and Evil; an inspiration and comfort to those who came alongside him.

His battle fought, the scars of a long effort upon the front lines etched upon the mortal flesh; his LORD called him from the battle, saying that it was time to pass on the sword of righteousness, the shield of love and the breastplate of Truth and come home.

To those of us; Carol, Betty Jo, Ed, Tammie and the grandchildren, who bore this warrior from the lines of fierce fighting for the souls of the lost, the disheartened and the weak, did so with sadness and sorrow for he was a father, a grandfather and a friend.

But far from the front lines and the din of the ongoing battle, we were able to speak the words of goodbye and Godspeed to the hearing ears and echoing voice of this warrior. To account in our words the deeds; both mighty and small, fruitful and destructive, Godly or manly. And know in each of the children of this great warrior, a piece of him would continue.

Life happened this Sunday evening.

But it won't end there; not for those left with all-too-familiar sorrow at the passing of a loved one. No, for amid the darkness of death's approaching, there stood silent testimony to the power of the One who overcame its' power. The new life promised shone as a beacon to those who had accepted Him as their LORD.

As I travelled home from the hospital last night, bearing this warrior's grandchild home to carry on with the life that we have left to live upon this earth, though absent of a loved one held so dear who's departure is counted now in days rather than years, I reflected upon the life we've shared, him and I, and how God has moved within its pages; writing the story of this epic with His own hands.

Where once, for the same purposes and passions, we once stood in opposition and battled against each other for the benefit of those loved ones we both shared and how life moved in destructive ways upon the landscape of our journey, wounding and scarring us both. And how blessed and honored I was, in these latter years, to fight alongside him in love and brotherhood for the common salvation of all those loved ones.

Maybe not always in agreement, but always with the love taught and bore by the LORD and Savior of our lives.

It struck me, in the echoing background of moving tires, bright lights, and the drone of the highway traffic, that all of us die....it is the result of Adam and Eve's original sin and the deviation of mankind from the purposes and plans of the Creator who fashioned and breathed life into our bodies.

There is no way to cheat the due of the "Grim Reaper." It is the fate of all who breathe a breath upon the reality of this world.

Some of us, though, are fortunate enough to die twice.

In our spiritual death, where we die to ourselves and the world subjecting ourselves and our will to that of the Father, we find the One who has gone before the "Grim Reaper" and left him empty-handed and find life abundantly. For, to those who have discovered the hope of eternal life in the gift of salvation bought by the sacrifice of Christ, what other kind of life can we truly have, except abundant?

Gone is the assurance of death's completiness, replaced by the confidence of God's promised gift of eternity, free from the brokenness of this world's suffering and sorrows!

Jack's reward, his graduation if you will, from this world is a moment of joyful celebration and jealous envy for he will be with the Savior seated with the saints who gone on before, to await the time that the Father only knows to return in victory with our LORD and King.

What would not bring such a celebration upon the attaining of a Christian life's goal?

But, for those of us who are left behind; the loss of his smile, his love and even his gruffiness are those things to which our sorrow is expressed and felt. But, even in that sorrow is the assurance that it can only be temporary...for God promises us that as well.

Today, as I step back out upon the battlefield of this fallen world; girthed in the belt, breastplate, helmet, sword and shield of the Most High King, my LORD and Savior Jesus Christ.....I paused for a moment and looked to the sky, in its beginning daily progression of overcoming the darkness of the passing night.

I feel my Father's hands upon my head, speaking the blessings of the day to which He knows I will need and will make good use of. He accepts my hopes for my son, my daughter and all those to whom I have been blessed to be given to love. He gives me the assurance of the request for those I don't know yet, to whom I pray my life will speak of the Father's love and His promised hope. And He promises to be with those who are burdened with sorrow anew as He gathers His son Jack, and all the other saints whom have recieved the waited call home, into His arms to wait the coming victory and establishment of God's Kingdom.

I have to smile a bit bigger today....for I know that I will stand before the Throne on that day and hear the name of my brother called from the Book of Life as he is rewarded for his good and faithful service. Another victory today for the LORD my God from the enemy is etched into the granite of God's promise.

For Jack Small was dead to the world years ago, born anew from the Father God into a new man. And all things that come from God overcome the world and our victory of triumph over sin's wages lie within our faith in Jesus Christ, our LORD.

Makes us indestructible, don't it?

Today, as I stepped off the front porch of my home and began my journey into this thing called life, such thoughts captured my mind and lifted my heart in the midst of the sorrow.

In Jesus, we are the Chosen people, part of the royal priesthood and offered a place at the King's table for the victory banquet that will be coming when Christ returns to this world and brings defeat to the enemy, establishing His kingdom upon the creation borne from His Father's hand.......

But until then, the harvest is full though the workers are few;

As you step out into the world today, girthed with the armor of the LORD, take a moment to remember who's you are and remember His promise:

Press forward -- swinging the sword of righteousness and truth with the assurance of knowing who you are in Him, and giving true service to the Great Commission today as you step into the darkness of this sinful,broken world among the loss, the broken, the sinful and the victorious.

We cannot chose the manner in which we depart this world, but we can chose the manner in which our lives are lived upon this world.

For the eternal hope which is assured and the coming of our KING!