Tag: Christ

God is not out to hurt us!

Struggles! Who doesn’t have them? I have them. I have them a lot. Doesn’t it just seem like no matter what you do, it just isn’t good enough? Sometimes I feel like I am never going to please my own wife, let alone the rest of the world. Sometimes it feels like nothing I do is right, everyone wants to take a swipe at me, and sometimes I feel like God is not helping. I pray, but where is He? Every day is a new set of challenges that brings a new set of frustrations. Bills, kids, the wife, the job, the friends, and dare I say, that church folk even try to take a few licks at me too. When will the attacks stop? When will I be able to tell the truth without retaliation? The answer is never. But can I tell you that God gives us great joy in His divine lessons in His Holy word on this very subject.

I was listening to the podcast, “Thru the Bible” with Dr. J. Vernon McGee, and was motivated to do this piece on this subject. The message he was delivering is called “The Entrance Exams to God’s University”. You can click on that title to be taken to the whole message. I encourage you to listen to it.

Dr. McGee preached out of the book of James Chapter 1. Now let me say the book of James is my favorite NT book. It is the oldest NT book. It was written just a short time, 60-70 years, after the crucifixion of Christ. It talks a lot about how a true conversion, a true decision for Christ will change the behavior of man because there is an expected behavior for us. God does not want us acting like the world. He wants us to follow Him in His ways, not lead Him in our ways. But the book starts off by telling us all that the trials of our time, the frustrations we have with the world, are a joy if we grow in our faith, and endure with great patience. Dr. McGee highlights verse two of chapter one.

Key verses

James 1: 2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

First, let’s not make any error here. When he says “My Brethren”, James is talking to Christians. They were being persecuted. They were facing the same troubling times as followers of Christ than we are today, believe that or not. People were falling away out of fear. People were making up their own rules. Much like the times we read about in the book of Judges. This is a time period where there were no rules and man did what he wanted to do. This is so similar to today in America.

Second, do not be confused. James is not talking about works here. He is talking about faith. The book of James and all the books written by Paul are NOT at odds with each other. When James talks about works, he is talking about works that are brought about by the exercise of your faith.

Third, notice that James says “When”! He does not say “if”, but “when”. Going through troubles is not a matter of “if”, but the surety of “when”. It is going to happen!

Fourth, let’s get it out there that God does indeed put us through the tests of fire. He absolutely allows the trials of our life. People ask, “Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people.” God allows things to happen to all of us, the good and the bad. In fact, the bible tells us that there are none that are good, no not one. So what does “good people” really mean? If you mean the redeemed, well then there is an actual answer to why bad things happen to the redeemed, and I hope to clarify that answer here. It is only an assumption that the “Bad” person has had a great life. I am willing to bet that bad things happen to them too. The difference in the outcome. God puts us through things to show us the level of our faith. We can blame God for bad things, but do we credit Him for the good? We need to understand our success or failure is not for His learning. He already knows how we will fair, he knows what we will do. He allows us to go through things so that WE will know where WE stand. We go through adversity so that we can see where our faith is. If you don’t believe that, ask yourself, will you get into a plane that has not been tested? If you listen to the sermon you will hear the analogy given by Dr. McGee. He speaks of an engineer testing a plane to make sure it does what they say it does. Once the plane does what it is supposed to, then they put passengers on it. Then it gets used. We want things tested to prove its workability. Why then would God not want us to see our own workability of our faith?

Fifth, perfect does not mean perfect, without blemish. We will never be perfect! Perfect here means fullness, maturity, completeness. How can we be mature in our faith if we have never been tested? How will you know how you will work under pressure if you never felt pressure? I find it so refreshing when I see a child do something for the first time. First, they are scared, and unsure of themselves. But then they do it. They gain a measure of confidence. And they continue to gain measure after measure of that confidence as they try new things consistently. That is how they mature. Being a Christian is no different. And I just cannot see how God feels any different when he watches His children gain confidence in the face of troubles by leaning on Him. Time and time again, failures and successes. As Long as we are learning and growing and not consistently ignoring God, consistently leaning on Him, and praying to Him, we grow ourselves in our faith. We must go through fires to gain that confidence. Failing doesn’t mean loss of salvation; it means you need to gain more confidence.

Dr. McGee “The joy is the result of the Trial, not the trial in and of itself.”

When James tells us to count it joy, he does not mean only the situations you enjoy being in. As Dr. McGee points out, he also does not mean that the trial itself is joyous.

Hebrews 12: 11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

The death, untimely or even the expected, of loved ones are not joyful occasions. Even when we know our loved one will be with the King, we mourn. We would never bring them back to this evil world, but we long for them, and miss them. It hurts! Losing a job, arguing with a spouse, having disobedient children, none of these are enjoyable experiences, yet they are all struggles that will bring joy by our obedience and faithfulness. The trial is going to hurt. God corrects us, and teaches us. Going through life, and the trials of it, will produce the wisest student.

“Man learns through experience, and the spiritual path is full of different kinds of experiences. He will encounter many difficulties and obstacles, and they are the very experiences he needs to encourage and complete the cleansing process.” Sai Baba

The joy comes when you refuse to allow each of these, and any other, situations to cause you to lose focus on your worship of God. That is the result that Dr. McGee speaks of. So many Christians give up, they say it’s too hard and walk away. That is the example of the LACK of patience. They were tested an they ran. Is that you? Or are you one who has been tested and you continue to be faithful? This is important because continuing to have the patience is what makes us complete. Dr. McGee talks about a little shepherd boy by the name of David. God tested him many times. He wrote the 23rd psalm as he sat in a field and reflected over His past. Dr. McGee reports that King David wrote that as a man who was tried, and forged through the “fires of adversity”. King David went through many trials in his life. So did Pau and Job. John, the gentle apostle that Jesus loved, went through the trial of exile and imprisonment. Yet he remained faithful to the point that even while exiled Jesus used him to write the book of Revelation.

When I heard this sermon by Dr. J. Vernon McGee, I was inspired. I was grateful. Then I went to church. If there was any question as to what was being laid upon my mind for this edition, that question was erased when Pastor John McCaw preached on Faith! Pastor John preached out of Matthew 14.

Matthew 14: 22 Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. 23 And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there. 24 But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary. 25 Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. 26 And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” 28 And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” 29 So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. 30 But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!” 31 And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.”

First he covered that God puts us through trials. Jesus sent the disciples out in the boat knowing that there would be a store and that they would need Him. In fact, my KJV bible says Jesus MADE the disciples depart in the boat. Jesus knew there would be a storm. But while mourning the death of John the Baptist, troubles still come. We have heard it said, “When it rains it pours.” We need to remain focused.

Second, Jesus was right there, walking out on the water to them. They were scared thinking that stories of Ghosts and spirits were true. But Jesus had to say to them, “be of good cheer”. Really? Experienced fisherman on a stormy sea, scared, and Jesus says be of good cheer. Would you, could you be of good cheer? Are we joyful when the car breaks down, when the doctor gives us bad news, when we have no money to pay bills? Jesus tells the disciples, and tells us, to be of good cheer not because they are in the midst of a storm, but because He is there with them!!! We are to be of good cheer, we are to count it all joy when we are in the midst of the storm because Christ is there. In that storm, you will see the strength of your faith. Do you truly understand what it means that God is there? Do you truly know how to use Him?

Pastor McCaw went on to reveal the scripture’s account of what happens when we have distractions in our life. Again, a lack of faith does not mean loss of salvation. Peter saw God walking on the water and in his boldness asked if he could come out to him. Jesus told him to come. Peter did. His faith in Jesus permitted him to walk on the water. What an incredible success right? Then the wind came. Peter got distracted, he took his eyes off God, off Jesus and He started to sink. You need to know that the wind was created by God to test Peter’s faith. When that wind blew, Peter doubted, lost focus. As he started to sink he refocused and cried out for Jesus to save him. As Pastor McCaw pointed out, God is not out to hurt us. God is trying to teach us. Pastor McCaw made the observation (joke) that God did not allow Peter to go under, God did not shove Peter under and say, “Take that for not believing!” No, Peter cried out and the bible says, “IMMEDIATELY Jesus stretched forth His hand and saved him”. And the lesson was taught directly thereafter. After sinking and needing to be saved, Jesus says, “thou of little faith.” This is a great example of what Dr. McGee was saying in the maturity of our faith. Peter would go on to be a force in his service to God. But he needed to go through these times to get to that point. Pastor McCaw told us that “Little” really means puny or underdeveloped. I believe you could also say immature. He closed out his sermon by making sure we all know that God is ready and willing to rescue the helpless. But we have to be active in the exercising of our faith to cry out for that rescue.

Once back in the boat and Jesus calmed the seas, they acknowledged that Jesus truly is the son of God. It is funny that when we get what we want we say that He is God. But when we do not get what we want we blame Him. He is God when we get what we want, and when we don’t. A lot of the time the trials come because we asked them to. I hear a lot of people complain about their relationships. I know I complained, a lot. I can honestly say that it was all my fault because I was having sex before I was married, I was having multiple partners, and I really did not care what God thought about marriage. I set myself up for bad relationship after bad relationship. I see people doing the same thing. We cannot live in sin, and expect to be blessed, that is not how that works. We may think we are, but God will have His perfect way. Remember that!

Friends, having faith provides us with salvation. There is no work that you can do that will earn that for you. It is a free gift that you can accept by accepting Christ. Once you have that faith, God will send trials your way as a process of growth. You start off on the milk, and your goal is to grow up to endure on the meat. Each trial is to draw you closer to God, to mature your faith, to strengthen your divine relationship, and to correct you when you are outside His will for you. We are tried every day. I watch people every day, get all wrapped up in the pining and wallowing in the struggles of life. Christians who talk for hours about a problem and never once mention God’s name. Struggles exercise our faith which exercise our patience and that makes us complete in our faith. Struggles start with faith, has some work on our part, and then ends with an even stronger faith.

If you stand in the mirror, what will the reflection tell you about your relationship with God, and what are you going to do about it? May the peace of God be abundantly heaped upon you and your home, straight from the cross to the Christian!

Lesser of two evils

Election year is in full swing. Right now the party primaries are dwindling down to the front runners. As a result of that, many are looking forward to who will be running for president in November. For a Christian this can be such an important act, especially since some of our views and values do not seem to be so common anymore.

Over the years I have been in the position to live by the theory, “The lesser of two evils”. I have, just like everyone else, been in a spot where I only had a couple of choices and I was not thrilled with any of them. So what did I do, I pick the best one for the time. I chose the one that might not have been ideal for me, but that choice would get me somewhere closer to where I wanted to be. Is that the Christian thing to do when it comes to choosing for God? Notice the quote below. Where is our commitment to God? I think her quote is quite accurate, even among devout Christians. We remove God from our practice of voting because putting people in power to give us laws that satisfy our flesh or who are not of God, but get us closer to the rules and way of life we want to live in is more important that being Pro God, and only Pro God.

Voting is the expression of our commitment to ourselves, one another, this country and this world. Sharon Salzberg

Is it okay to look at, support, and vote for a candidate who talks about God or being a Christian but behaves in a manner that is clearly unbiblical just so someone else who is even more unbiblical doesn’t get into office? That is the heavenly question.

Does the bible address voting for President of the United States? I say that it does, AND it doesn’t. I say that it doesn’t because the U.S. wasn’t even here at the time of its writing. How then would Paul or anyone else know about how we elect out officials? But this would be the case in the issue of abortion too. There were no abortion clinics and Roe v Wade was not the law of the land back in Paul’s day. So how then does the bible address abortion? I believe that it does address voting the same way it addresses abortion. The U.S. may not have existed at the time, but people were still murdering each other, including babies. People were also still electing or selecting leaders of their tribes. So it is the practice that we must look at in the bible. We cannot dismiss it just because we are not talking about POTUS. The same qualifications that God gave us for leaders of the church, are the same qualifications that we need to be looking at for leaders of the community. If a man is not good enough to be the pastor of your church, why would you vote for him to be president of the United States? I have had people say, “We are not voting for a pastor to lead a church. We are voting for POTUS!” I agree, we are voting for a president of our country!! But my question is if he is not good enough to be a pastor, than why president? The only way you can answer that with an affirmative answer is if you look at POTUS as a godless position. Otherwise, our answer has to be, “He is not good enough.”I say that sternly because as a Christian I don’t think you should be voting for a person that you would not have in the pulpit AND at the head of your dinner table in your own home. I believe that wholeheartedly. Before we talk about those qualifications, let’s look at a common scripture often used to direct Christians to follow the leader, or so we think.

Matthew 22- 21 They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.

Many shorten this up and just say, “render unto Caesar”, as if we all know what it means. But just like some other areas of scripture, people only THINK they know what they are talking about. This rendering idea comes from people trying to trap Jesus into talking defiantly against Caesar. In a lot of places in the world you are not allowed to defy the government. If you do, you will be imprisoned or killed. If you talk about Christ, the same thing.  So the pharisees asked Christ what he thought about paying taxes to Caesar. Jesus asked to see the money being paid. It had an image on it, and that was an image of Caesar’s face. So Jesus simply said that if it belongs to Caesar, then give it back to him. What Christ did NOT say was give Caesar your worship, or your salvation, or your Christianity. Caesar cannot have that because it is not his, that belong’s to God. If you have Godly morals, this phrase does not support you bowing down to a leader who does not share your Christian morals.

Now that we have established that, lets look at a lesser referred to scripture on this subject.

Romans 13 1Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same.

Any Christian who thinks that earthly authority comes independent of God’s authority is not reading the holy word correctly. Even the pastors, or whatever name you call the leader of your church, are leaders because they are called by God. Today the churches are failing, in my opinion, because man is taking over the ordination process. You have to be elected, or voted for, or in some way approved by man no matter how you may feel called by God. Some churches say you cannot lead our church unless you have a degree. This is no where in the scripture and, in fact, we might as well throw the bible out on that standard since Paul certainly did not have a degree and God used him to record more books of the bible than anyone. The same is true for Peter, and James, and so on. This is man making up his own rules. God issues the authority. God made Christ the head of the church, then he made Christ the head of man, then man the head of woman, then woman over the children. He made that organizational chart, not me. God is the source of power and authority. He is the only one who can distribute it. I think that Christians have been convinced that they are the ones with the power and authority and so they are the ones who determine what is Godly and what is not. Wrong answer!!! Why is this important? Because of the next verse.

1 Corinthians 1- 10 I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. 11 My brothers and sisters, some from chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 12 What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas still another, “I follow Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so no one can say that you were baptized in my name.

So let’s collect our thoughts here. First, if you are a Christian voting for God then the “render unto Caesar” verse does not work because voting is not about giving back to man that which is man’s. It is about electing a representative of God to do God’s work from any office of authority. Second, man does not declare the power and authority, God does. No matter what office you vote for that man must be under the authority of God, not his own and certainly not any special interest. Third, there is only one standard for God’s authority and that is the Holy Scriptures. In this Verse Paul is clearly saying that we, as followers of Christ, cannot go off and set our own standards, even if we think we are doing it in the name of God. Paul clearly is saying that is not right. The Church of Christ must be one in thought and deed. Paul is fighting the multiple standards that are being followed by different people. He clearly sets the standard of Christ as the only standard to follow.

1 Timothy 2- 1I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; 2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

Here Timothy clearly identifies Kings and how they are to be Godly people. We live in a country that allows us to pick that Godly man. How do we know that a man is godly?

Titus 1- 5 For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee: 6 If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly. 7 For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre; 8 But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate; 9 Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. 10 For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: 11 Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake.

Yes, these are the qualifications of the leader of the church. But the reason there are very few verses in the bible about how a man is to act is because all men are leaders. Whether they lead at church, home, or work, these qualifications for the men in the church are also the qualifications of being a man period. This is what a Godly man looks like, and when running for office, exercises these qualifications of God? Because he exercises them, you, having the spirit of God in you, will recognize the spirit of God in him, and when it is not in him. Is the spirit of God in a man who does not exercise sound doctrine?

Titus 1- 15 Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. 16 They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.

I added this last part of Titus:1 because of verse 16. I was having a debate with a person and I stated that I did not believe one of the presidential candidates, in the 2016 primary, who said he was a Christian. Although I was accused of judging, which means to condemn, I did not condemn him, I simply said I don’t believe it. Again, we all better understand that we are to form opinions and judgments that help us be better Christians and make better God centered decisions. Not doing so means we’re making man centered decisions and that is very dangerous. We also better know where that line is that takes us from making good decisions to condemning people. I did not condemn him. Rather, I compared his visible behavior to Titus 1. Clearly, on so many levels, this man lacks these Godly characteristics. He is not slow to anger, he is given to wine, he is a lover of money (self-proclaimed), not holy, not temperate, definitely a vain talker, and so on. In Titus two we see that we are not to speak evil of no man, yet this candidate speaks evil of many. It does not take much to the person who reads the holy word, IN MY OPINION, to see that a Christian cannot vote for anyone who does not meet God’s standard.

The problem is that we become idolaters who say to God that His rules interfere with what we want. We say things like, “if I vote for a Godly man that is not in one of the two major parties, then I am taking my vote away from the party that best fits my beliefs.” Where in all the scriptures that I just cited here, or anywhere in the whole bible, does it say that we are allowed to do that? God does not care what we think; he only cares about us being obedient. God has used the word “wicked” to describe the thoughts in a man’s mind. Even if the other side wins, did God not say that we would be persecuted in His name? So again, we are saying I am going to do things my way God, and not your way because you have no idea what you are doing. I do not want to suffer for you, or your way. I want to control as much as I can by doing things my way. I caution anyone who thinks that they can vote for the lesser of two evils and think that theirs is a vote for Godliness. Godliness is spotless; there is no evil in it. We cannot have light and darkness at that same time, yet we are trying to figure out a way when we adopt the lesser of two evil theology. And even if our vote is 9 parts light and 1 part dark, God says it’s still dark. We cannot serve two masters. We cannot turn our head to the evil and see only the good. We cannot say, “I only vote for the good in him, but the evil, no I ignore that.” No, our vote is for the evil too. And if there be even one measure of evil, it is all evil because it is not spotless. I had a person tell me that she would accept the bad parts of a candidate just because one of the good parts of the candidate is that he proclaims to be against abortion, and she cannot have the blood of children on her hands. She obviously feels that voting for this candidate will get her closer to minimizing abortion, and that is a Godly position. She feels that he is a Christian, in spite of his ungodly behavior, just because he says he is a Christian. We cannot ignore the fruit. We are not only told to look for it, but we are told what it looks like so we can see it, both in others and in ourselves. I know pastors who believe that voting for the lesser of the two evils is better than a vote straight for God because they are fearful of the other party winning, which would be the more of the two evils. But I challenge all who share that view that while you vote to avoid having the blood on your hands you still turn your back to Christ and vote for darkness even if it is in only some SMALL part. I say that confidently because I do not believe Christ believes in the lesser of two evil theology. I am absolutely confident of that, and therefore, we should NOT subscribe to that as well. In fact, I believe we need to recognize that this idea is straight from the mouth of satan!!!! Who does more damage, the devil you can plainly see, or the wolf in sheep’s clothing? We are told to watch them both, are we not? Who do we think we are that we can stop the world from its destiny according to Christ? Again, you are worried about the blood on your hands; I am worried about the blood of Christ. I vote for Christ and let him worry about the babies. Christ is in a much better place than me to be in charge of that, and no matter how much you think of yourself, He is in a much better place than you to deal with that as well. I think I am rewarded for voting for Christ and putting faith in Him. Will it get better, probably not. The bible says not. So why sell Christ out for the lesser of two evils when the end is already foretold? Our country has gotten to the spiritually deprived place that it is because of the compromise of Christ. I hate it, and I refuse to participate in it any further. I stop and represent Christ immediately, and on His terms not mine.

I should close by saying recognizing that fallen man is a sinner, all of us. Even the minister who was my most favorite pick and was out of the race early on. He is a sinner too. But he is a repentant sinner, and a man who puts God first. There is a difference between being a saved creature who is living Titus:1 and a man who cries LORD LORD, and then attacks women, and has contention in his mouth. No one is perfect, but use your eyes and compare to the LORD’s admonition to these people seeking to be our leader, not mine. Read his expectations and and hold each candidate to the LORD’s example. Does he fit? If not explore options. When it comes to president, I ask for a write in ballot. I vote for myself because I know I, and my entire cabinet, will serve God!

If you stand in the mirror, what will the reflection tell you about your relationship with God, and what are you going to do about it? May the peace of God be abundantly heaped upon you and your home, straight from the cross to the Christian!

Kick back and relax

About the photo– I have been in a lot of church houses in my life, both protestant and catholic. I have been in churches with roles that exceed 600 members. This small little church house has more love, and from what I seen and felt, more people striving to live a Godly life than any other church house I have ever been in. There is no show, no theatrics, just the Spirit and His children!

So this past week I spent a lot of time thinking about what “deny yourself” really means. I found out that the meaning is hard core. So hard core that most Christians just like me say we do it, but really we don’t. The meaning is so hard core that understanding what it really means makes some not even want to follow Christ. The meaning is very simple; it is very black and white, it is very clear. There is no watering it down, and there is no manipulation, no wiggle room. Either you deny yourself and follow Christ or you choose to follow yourself and not Christ.

Luke 9- 23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

Mark 8- 34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

Matthew 16- 24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

Jesus himself said that in order to be a true follower of Him, we must deny ourselves. The bible offers a definition of what this means.

Galatians 2- 20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”

“I have been crucified” means I have died. Before Christ, I was an unrepentant sinner. Either you were too, or you still are, only you and God know which. We were doomed. We lived for ourselves and through ourselves. When Christ went to the cross, His perfect sacrifice gave us a way to repent and be redeemed for all eternity. In the act of salvation, we- the old unrepentant sinners that we were or are- is crucified, we die to our self.

“It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” After Christ enters in, we are now alive IN CHRIST. This is the meaning of rebirth. The old man dies and a new man is reborn in an instant. We are now alive because of Christ and for Christ. This means that you and I are to take on the characteristics of Christ. If we were a drunkard before, we are to be no more. If we had hate in our heart, we are to love instead. If we were sexually immoral, in ANY way, we are to stop and cherish our body as the priceless gift that it is. If we were proud and boastful, we are to be meek and humble until our second death. If we think about the NT, Christ spoke about the Father all the time. He wanted to lead people to God the Father. Jesus was obedient to His Father. Christ not only spoke these words, but He lived them as well. He was the model of the life He requires of His followers. No, it is not an option. He has said so over and over.

John 14- 15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

Jesus expects those who chose to follow Him to obey Him. “If you love me, you will keep My commandments.” Notice this is written in the plural. And notice that ‘My” is capitalized. That means the commandments that are spoke of here are the LORD’s commands, not yours, not mine, and not satan’s. Many think this means love everyone and you will be okay because love is the greatest gift, or because it is the command above all commands. But that theology negates that there are more than just that one command. There are hundreds of commands in the NT that we are to live out. They are not hard, they are not complicated. They are all wrapped around Christ and His agape love for us. We are to live according to His will, not our own. When we do that, Jesus says that He will advocate on our behalf to the Father. The Father will send the spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit, to us. The world does not know the truth, because they do not have the spirit. But because we live according to Christ, we have the spirit and we know the truth.

The truth is we are a fallen man, and sometimes we hold on to the parts of us which are dead, or at least are supposed to be dead. Hate, fornication, murder, lying, idolatry and such are not behaviors of Jesus, but of the devil. If you are the center of your universe, Christ is not in you. You simply have not denied yourself. That is simple and it is the truth. I don’t need to be Christ to make that call. Christ has left the word here for all of us to know what the fruit of the spirit looks like, and that rotten fruit of idolatry, man centered anything, tells all who know the truth, and have the spirit so that we can recognize it that the  spirit is not in that man centered person. It is not hard really. In fact, it is more simple and plain than most people think. People only think these words are complicated or have more complicated meanings because they want to feel comfortable in their sin.

We must become a people who are in submission, that is, submitted completely to the mission of the Church, ‘in statu missionis.’ Thus, living fully within the mainstream of grace, under the mantle of God’s divine authority, and by uniting ourselves to the obedience of Christ on the cross, we participate in the reversal of Adam’s sin.

Michael O’Brien

For many years I refused to go to church. I had a number of bad experiences and ended up saying that Church is not for me. I used to say, all the time, “I can have a relationship with God without having to go to church.” Even after I went back to church, I used to say; “nowhere in the bible does it say you ‘HAVE’ to go to church.” Let me tell you, I was wrong and so is everyone who is saying what I used to say.

Hebrews 10- 24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

These verses indicate that not only are we to go to church, but we are to urge and encourage others to go to church. It also indicates that not going to church is not a new idea. There were people thinking what I thought long before I thought it. These verses tell me it wasn’t right then and it isn’t right now. Finally, as it states, we should be gathering even more as the end times approach. No, this is not a quatrain declaring the end date! But my eyes work, do yours?

John Gills comments, “Now to “forsake” such assembling, signifies a great infrequency in attending with the saints, a rambling from place to place, and takes in an entire apostasy. It is the duty of saints to assemble together for public worship, on the account of God, who has appointed it, who approves of it, and whose glory is concerned in it; and on the account of the saints themselves, that they may be delighted, refreshed, comforted, instructed, edified, and perfected; and on account of others, that they may be convinced, converted, and brought to the knowledge and faith of Christ; and in imitation of the primitive saints. And an assembling together ought not to be forsaken; for it is a forsaking God, and their own mercies, and such are like to be forsaken of God; nor is it known what is lost hereby; and it is the first outward visible step to apostasy, and often issues in it.”

The great King David proclaimed that we need to Praise God in His house.

Psalm 150- 1Praise the Lord! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty firmament!

Apostle Paul said we need to get together for the purpose of learning and growing.

Colossians 3- 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

How do you teach and admonish one another if you are at home alone? This is a command that we do this. Today, people want to accuse others of judging because they don’t like what’s being said. Funny connection, the devil doesn’t like the truth too! Sometimes people are wrong, that’s why the mirror is an important piece of equipment. That’s why brothers and sisters need to be more honest with each other. On brother says another brother said I should stopped swearing. He is at home, who does he ask. If he is at church he can ask other brothers, is it true, should I stop. Everyone who loves this brother should tell him the truth. Yes, you swear too much and you need to stop. If you have numerous brothers and sisters agreeing that this something amiss in your worship, then a wise person should be convicted to check himself. People don’t go to church anymore, at least the churches that still preach the truth, because they want to remain comfortably in sin. People want to kick back and relax. They do not want to be corrected because they do not want to deny themselves. There is just too much fun in sin. Isn’t that some sad short term thinking?

Christlike communications are expressions of affection and not anger, truth and not fabrication, compassion and not contention, respect and not ridicule, counsel and not criticism, correction and not condemnation. They are spoken with clarity and not with confusion. They may be tender or they may be tough, but they must always be tempered.

Lionel Kendrick

 

I will conclude with the parable of the rich young ruler

Key Verses

Luke 18- 18 Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 19 So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. 20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’ 21 And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.” 22 So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” 23 But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.

And this is the truth more often than not. The idea of hell scares people, so they seek Christ. The idea of heaven is so comforting. A lot of people want Christ right up until Christ starts to infringe on one’s health, wealth, loves of entertainment and happiness, idea of fairness, and so on. God is good as long as the sinner comes first and God comes last. People, there shouldn’t even be balance. It is ALL for God, nothing for you. This ruler had power and possessions and wealth. To him, Jesus told him to deny himself because Jesus knew the ruler had a love for that stronger than his love of Christ. Christ new He was not first in this ruler’s life. But that ruler wanted it all. He wanted all he had on earth, and he wanted heaven, and he wanted it for him, not for Christ. When Jesus infringed on that, when Jesus told him to put Christ first and deny himself, that was too much to bear. He walked away sad. But he could not stay sad forever, right? So what did he do? Probably the same thing we do. We start saying there is no God, and there is no heaven and hell because I have to do something with this fear of hell. So if I negate the truth, and everything that reminds me that this is the truth, I can remain comfortably in my sin. That is why there are fake Christians in the world, and people who walk away. Everything is great until God asks us to sacrifice that which we love. Here is a plain and easy example. God tells me to love my wife like Jesus loves the church. Now, I don’t know about all husbands out there, but there are times when I do not want to love my wife. Sometimes I want to walk out that door. That would be a bad choice. Why? Because that is a choice made under extreme emotion, where I am lacking a God grip on my life. That would be Mike’s will, not God’s. God wants me to stay there and love her enough to let Christ take care of the devil who is trying to destroy my marriage. I have to love God enough to love my wife even when my flesh is screaming not to. I have to deny myself. What God may be asking you to do, or not to do, can be different than this. And knowing it is easy. Are you doing it, or do you have it for God, or for yourself. Deny yourself, die to your flesh. Life is not about you!

If you stand in the mirror, what will the reflection tell you about your relationship with God, and what are you going to do about it? May the peace of God be abundantly heaped upon you and your home, straight from the cross to the Christian!

That’s not baking; That’s cooking!!

I love to cook. I love to bake. Did you know there is a difference?

I love to cook because in cooking there is more freedom. I can throw this and that together and create something new. I can play with flavors and herbs and spices. I will admit that not everything I create is a winning dish. In fact there have been a couple of times that I have had to throw the dish away and order pizza. I have created some awesome dishes, and some awful dishes. But that is cooking. The only way to create wonderful things is to experiment and dare to fail.

I love to bake because it is an exercise in perfection. Just because you can read the directions, does not guarantee that perfection. There are rules to baking and you dare not violate them. I have forgotten to add baking soda, and well…..not so good. I have done things like add too much water, forgot the salt, and dare I say that making waffles with fat free milk instead of buttermilk changes the flavor more than one would think. Timing, have you ever taken a soufflé out before it was done. There are rules, and they need to be followed or you do not have the finished product you want.

I find that life is like cooking. People experiment all the time. We enjoy life because there are very little rules. And even for the ones that exist, we can break them and usually see little consequence. Most of the time, it is a lot of fun. Sometimes we make that choice that we wish we hadn’t. But when you balance it out, the good times outweigh the bad.

I find that serving God is like baking. That beautiful cake, that wonderful soufflé, that tender loaf of bread, these things cannot be attained if we do not follow the instructions.

Key Verse
James 1- 22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

James is the half-brother of Christ. He was the first head of the church of Jerusalem. He was dealing with Christians who believed that Christ was coming back immediately and so they were sitting idle waiting and hoping not to be persecuted for believing. Many of the Christians James was writing to had already been scattered across the land as a result of persecution. But James was saying, look, we all want the cake, but there are directions that we must follow until it is done. James was not saying that works is what makes the cake. I can work throwing this in and that in all day long. That’s not baking, that’s cooking! Only you can know what you will end up with. Baking God’s cake is specific, and the author of the directions is the LORD. If you want HIS cake, you will follow HIS directions.

A lot of people want to say that Paul and James write at odds with each other. I believe those who say that they write in harmony. Faith without works is not faith at all. What are you having faith in? Yourself?

John 14- 15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.

This is not a command for all people to keep God’s commandments. This is a requirement to your decision to partake of God’s cake. This is ingredient number one. If you want God’s Cake, you will follow His ordinances. If you do not want God’s cake, if you do not love Jesus Christ, you will not have the cake. After all, God does not send his creation to hell, they chose to send themselves to hell. They chose to eat their own cake. In other words, if you have faith, you will do the work. If you want the cake, you will want to follow the instructions. It is your choice to want God’s cake, or your own.

One great example is the parable of the rich man. Mark 10- 17 And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? 18 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God. 19 Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother. 20 And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth. 21 Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. 22 And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.

This man wanted Jesus’s cake, but wanted to follow his own recipe. He held on to his earthly possessions, and lost salvation. You desire God, but hold on to your earthly possessions. You want a godly relationship with a man or woman, but engage in sexual sin. You engage in sexual immorality outside the bonds of marriage and expect a blessing. Is that the directions in God cake? We want obedient children, but we either abuse or neglect “spare the rod spoil the child”. We want eternal life, but we want to be drunk even more. We want eternal life, but we want to disobey our parents, engage in the darkness of the world, be entertained by sinful movies and music. We want to have eternal life with a loving God but we want to hate people because of the color of their skin or their politics. We all have that thing, or more accurately THOSE THINGS, which is equal to the rich man’s possessions and we will not let go of them. Make no mistake; you can cry LORD, LORD all you want, you can believe you have great faith all you want but if you are holding on to what God is telling you to let go of, you will walk away sad and grieved and without eternal life, just like the rich man. After all, this parable is not here for you to say that it doesn’t apply to you. The ingredient here that the man did not like, the direction he wanted to skip was that God must come first. In all the examples I cited above, in each one of them we say that we come first. That is why we will suffer the same consequence as the rich man unless we follow God’s recipe and deny our own.

So if we say yes, “I want to eat the cake, so I will commit to following the directions” what do we do when we get to a direction that we don’t like? I do not like mushrooms. So if you hand me a recipe for stuffed mushrooms, I am going to change that recipe. Is it the same recipe that you handed me? No! So God says, through His Holy word, this is my cake, here are my ingredients, and here are my directions. I do not want to insult anyone, so I will speak for myself (but I know a vast majority of you will relate with me). I said to God, I don’t like this ingredient, forgiveness. I want to hate those who hurt me. I also don’t like this direction to abstain from sexual activity until after I am married. I am going to change those two things. Believe me, I have and do change much more than that. But let’s just keep it to these two very common changes. My question is now this. Is this still God’s cake, or is it Mike’s cake? If it is Mike’s cake, then what am I saying? What I am saying is I do not want God’s cake. That is just putting it very plain. I am saying, “I don’t like God’s cake” “I can make a better cake than God” “God does not know how to bake!” Listen, we do this all day long. It is too hard to love my wife; I am going to divorce her. My husband is not worthy of my submission, I am going to do what I want. My parents are insignificant to me; I will not obey their rules. I will not act like a Christian in the world because the world makes me angry and it must feel my wrath because God’s wrath is not good enough. They must know how I feel because I am more important than God. I am the ruler of morals. I decide what is morally right because I want to be happy and so I need to follow my own moral law and not God’s because He does not know how to make me happy. All of us are baking our own cakes.

At this point, I want to point out that the cake I am speaking of here is eternal life. God’s cake is eternal life with Him in heaven. That is the cake He wants us to have. He has given us the recipe, and the directions to have eternal life and we keep telling Him NO!! Even though we say we believe, we keep trying to make God fit into our box. We keep telling Him “I don’t want to go to hell, but I don’t want to live according to your direction”. We keep on baking our own cake. Since there are only two tables to eat off of, the table of the Lamb and the table of Satan, do I really have to define which table our cakes are set on? We cannot come up with such a recipe; we cannot create such a cake. There is only one cookbook for heaven, and it is the bible.

If you stand in the mirror, what will the reflection tell you about your relationship with God, and what are you going to do about it? May the peace of God be abundantly heaped upon you and your home, straight from the cross to the Christian!

Are You ‘Declared’ to Receive a Crown?

I was in a bible study just a couple weeks ago and the preacher teaching the class directed us to the book of Romans, and proceeded to teach the first seven verses. My attention was grabbed by the beautiful words in verse 4.

4 And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:

I am drawn to the word declared. Sometimes the idea of God being both man and God can confuse a person. It is certainly a piece of our faith that non-believers point to and say, “How can that be?” As man, as flesh, I understand how that can be a distraction. This particular idea is more meat than milk, and if you are looking for ways to disprove or dilute the word of God by way of confusion, this is a useful idea that will bewilder a babe on the milk. But I ask, “Are you ‘declared’ to receive a crown?”

First let’s look at the word ‘DECLARE’. If you are to read this verse like you read a novel, or the newspaper, you will read right over the word and attach the meaning regarding speech. To most of us, ‘declare’ means I said something. However that is not what it means here.

The Greek word here is Horizo. It means to define, mark-out, appoint, and determine.

Adam Clark writes of this word, “The word ορισθεντος, which we render declared, comes from οριζω, to bound, define, determine, or limit, and hence our word horizon, the line that determines the farthest visible part of the earth, in reference to the heavens. In this place the word signifies such a manifest and complete exhibition of the subject as to render it indubitable. The resurrection of Christ from the dead was such a manifest proof of our Lord’s innocence, the truth of his doctrine, and the fulfillment of all that the prophets had spoken, as to leave no doubt on any considerate and candid mind.”

The son of God has always existed, just as the spirit has. The trinity was in existence at the time earth and man was created. This is the reason for the pluralism, ‘our’, when we hear that man was made in ‘our’ image. Jesus was not defined the ‘Son of God’ during his life on earth, but long ago. However, the resurrection, an activity that only ever happened once (Lazarus was resurrected by Christ, Christ resurrected himself) is undeniable proof that Christ is who he says he is, and was ‘declared’ to be. If you go back to verse 3 you see Paul describing Jesus as flesh when he refers to him as the ‘seed of David’. Paul points to his humanness at a period of time, life of David, when Jesus was not yet born from the virgin Mary. But yet Jesus ‘was made from the seed of David’. Christ has always been as he was prophesied to be since the old testament. This is important to observe because we as man need to fully understand and believe that Jesus was man and is our example as to living according to the Father’s will and not our own. Jesus had to be man, he had to be just like us so that we could not say, “yeah well he was God and I am not”. He was tempted like we are, hungry like we are, thirsty like we are, hurt and alone like we are, and if anyone reads about his walk to the cross with any amount of sincerity, you have to admit that his body was broken like ours are.

To this point, Charles Surgeon said, “He is as much the Son of God as he was the Son of man. The humanity is as true as the divinity, the divinity as true as the humanity.”

Why is this so important to understand? Because just like Christ was flesh, so are you. Christ is God, and you are not. You and I, we are sinners. We are the children of man, and a creation of God. We have no power and authority over our flesh, and to ward off satan. However, because Christ came and sacrificed himself on the cross, we have the opportunity to accept the spirit into our flesh. At that moment, this part of Paul’s teaching becomes paramount in our faith. It is a teaching to the difference of being a man open to the sin of the world without Christ and being a redeemed soul in Christ living in our flesh. The difference between being alive in flesh, and being dead in flesh. With the acceptance of the spirit, we become appointed, marked out for heaven. Man is broken and needy. We are poor and sinful. We have no hope, just the coming of death. In the spirit we are rich. We have hope in the promise of Christ. We have the coming of a transition to eternity. We are the called of Jesus, because we saw the flesh and warred with it, losing every time. Until that day we called on Jesus, the son of God, and requested to be filled with the spirit so that, as the war against the flesh continues, we may turn that war over to Him, for He already has be victorious.

The proof of this meaning is noted in verse 6 of Romans 1, “Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ:”

Calling on the LORD with the sincere repenting mind, we too become a child of God. Reflecting back to verse one Paul said that he is, “separated unto the Gospel of God.” There is a pattern here. Christ was always marked-out as the son of God, Paul received the spirit and was therefore “separated”, or marked out, unto the Gospel. Our flesh is not to be held onto. Understand that this part of your body is not the priority. The soul is. It is not what we are that should drive us, but rather what we are defined and determined and marked-out to be that drives us. We are marked-out to have fellowship, a true relationship, with God the father. We cannot do that when we allow our flesh to get in the way. We cannot do that when we do not see ourselves as marked-out, as different from the rest of the unredeemed world. We are not better than anyone, we are separated because we know how weak we are, how defenseless we are, and how much we need Christ. We separate ourselves because that is the example of Christ, and the apostles.

I am grateful that Jesus came in the flesh to show me being in the flesh alone is not good. I must have a power inside me, His power. I am glad that Paul recorded this message, that I might see the importance of knowing that I am appointed for something greater than just living in sinful flesh, so that I can understand, and help others understand, that the flesh is broken and useless, that I can doing nothing to save myself but confess to the Father that I want to be marked-out for His Glory and His plan.

If you stand in the mirror what will the reflection tell you about yourself, and what are you going to do about it? May the peace of God be abundantly heaped upon you and your house, straight from the cross to the Christian!