December 9 (Zechariah 14)
God’s word tells right after the 7 years and 45 days we call The Tribulation, Jesus will return to the earth and establish His throne in Jerusalem. Revelation 20 tells us He will throw the false prophet and the beast (aka anti-Christ) alive into the lake of fire (Revelation 19:20). Satan will be bound and thrown into the abyss (Rev. 20:1-3). He will be locked up there for one thousand years. All church age saints will take part in the first part of the first resurrection (Rev. 20:1-4). Jesus and those saints will rule the earth with a rod of iron. In other words, there will be no democracies or oligarchies anywhere (Ps. 2:9; Rev. 2:27; 12:5; 19:15). The entire earth will be one big theocracy. It will be the one world government under Christ's rule the anti-Christ is now trying to establish under his authority.
Zechariah 14 gives us a lot of detail about the kinds of things that will be going on during that reign. We are told in that section of God word the feasts will be restored. The glaring difference between these feast and the ones the Jews were observing in ancient times is that during the millennium all nations will be required to go to Jerusalem to celebrate those feasts. And, we’re told any nation or group of people who refuse to go up for those feasts will experience immediate withholding of rain. All the technological systems we currently have to do things like irrigation will be gone, so when the rain ceases during the millennium, the people involved will experience immediate crop loss and thirst for water. Without water, no nation can survive long. My best guess is those conditions will result in much unrest among those nations. Those who have their rain witheld will likely declare war on adjoining nations to get their water. Voila! the reason for ruling with a rod of iron.
I think the reason for this period where Jesus will actually visibly rule from Jerusalem is to show those who use the old line, “The devil made me do it,” he didn’t. When he is locked up and so many continue to rebel against the authority of our Creator it will be obvious man's propensity to sin wasn't entirely Satan's fault. Of course, many conservative theologians completely ignore the massive amounts of information contained in scripture about that millennial period; and some teach an a-millennial view (a misnomer). A-millennialists interpret all verses dealing with that period as imagery and is currently being fulfilled in the church age. Many a-millennialist have excellent theology until they get to that one issue. Most conservative theologians try to ignore the topic altogether because then they have to deal with those humans left on the earth after God’s final bowl judgments. There will obviously be people around the globe who will not be present at the battle of all battles, Armegeddon. Of course, it’s simple to determine their fate. They will be the people who refused to receive the mark of the beast. Revelation 19 makes it abundantly clear any who receive the mark will receive God's wrath. There will be people who don’t get converted during the seven years of tribulation. Many of them will actually help the saints escape the murderous rampage of the beast as he sets out to exterminate them. Jesus makes several interesting comments about that group in Matthew 10:41, 42,
“He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward."
Zechariah 14 makes it clear there will be unsaved people living during the millennium. The feasts will be reinstated, as already indicated, thus animals will be sacrificed as a reminder of man's sinful state, not as having any ability to redeem anything anymore than they ever did. Prior to the church age, the sacrifices typified the coming sacrifice of the Lamb of God. During the millennium, they will point back to Calvary, reminding everyone of Christ’s payment for sin.
In closing today’s lesson, I confess my own misunderstanding about the importance of interpreting the sacrifices more thoroughly. I intend to begin an intense study of them soon. It seems a very elite group (meaning a very small contingency) of Christians will have the incredible opportunity to minister directly in the presence of the Lord Jesus during the millennium. They will not go out of His presence in the sense that they will actually be living in the Holy City and ministering with the Levites before His throne (Rev. 7:15, 16; 22:3-5). It seems logical one of the requirements for those in that group will be that they know the whys and wherefores of the feasts and the sacrifices. Of course, God could supernaturally imbed that knowledge into the minds of every one, but it seems to me, since He has already given that information in His written word, He is expecting us to know it before we come into His presence. If that’s true, I, of all people, have been terribly remiss as a child of God and teacher of His word. I intend to spend the next few months correcting that. I will what I learn daily in this blog to any interesting in know what I am learning. I challenge each of you to spend time each day reviewing the things I learn. I'm quite excited about the prospects of learning more thoroughly about the significance of those feasts. And I think the information I gather will be the material for my next book. May God bless you and keep you; may He make His face shine upon you, and grant you peace.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010
And He Ordered us to Preach
December 8 (Acts 10:42)
It forever amazes me the number who think preaching the gospel is optional equipment for disciples of Christ. Of course, one of the main problems is bad teaching on things like gifts of the Spirit. I wrote a book on that topic if anyone is interested in reading it. The bad teaching on the topic of evangelism goes something like this, God calls evangelists and professional, full time preachers to show people from His word what they have to do to be saved. Unfortunately that has bred apathy and incorrect behavior on the part of believers in His church universal. All one has to do is follow the biblical pattern to know it is each and every Christian’s responsibility to tell any who will listen what great things God has done for them. And of course that great thing is not a physical healing, though He still does that. The truly great thing He has done for each of us was to redeem us from the kingdom of hell and welcome us into His kingdom.
No one needs a theological degree to know how Jesus made our once dead souls alive. It truly is akin to having the light switched on in one’s heart. In Acts 16:14 Luke wrote it this way, “. . . and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.” Paul had gone out to the river to pray supposing there would be people there to whom he could speak about Jesus. Strange thing; there were. The above verse refers to one of the ladies (Lydia), who was a worshiper of God. It troubles me that most who call themselves believers have never in their life shared that information with anyone else, other than possibly inviting someone to church. If you really became a believer at some point in your life, you know what it took for you to do that. That’s called your personal testimony. It includes the marvelous things Jesus has done for you. My younger brother led me to Jesus just that way. One of my favorite theologically profound truths goes like this, “I don’t know about that, but what I do know is, once I was blind; now I see.”
I believe when it gets right down to where the rubber meets the road, the reason so few witness to anyone in the course of their lives is they never made doing it their number one priority. A huge contingency of people I personally know actually think the way to qualify for eternity in the kingdom of God is to attend church, live a good life, tithe to the church, take care of the family, be a good husband or wife, and not murder anyone. Actually, the Catholic Church has a plan where its members can buy forgiveness. They call that satanic doctrine “indulgences.” It made them quite rich. I just had a rather heated debate with a young lady I once had as a student. She got pregnant in high school out of wedlock, which isn’t the point, but it is an indicator of her moral beliefs. She put some words from one of John Lennon’s songs on FB and hailed him as a wonderful musician who made such a marvelous impact on the world. She wrote, “May his music live forever.” I responded, “It won’t,” I also pointed out to her John Lennon was a drug addicted, polytheist, and reminded her one of his songs suggested we “imagine there is no heaven or hell.” I finally argued her time and energy would be better spent honoring someone who was, or is, actually honorable. I also pointed out to her that unless John Lennon repented before he was murdered, his is currently in Hades, awaiting his final judgment (Rev. 20), which will guarantee him a front row seat (figuratively speaking) in hell for eternity.
Her response was interesting. First she said she goes to church every week. She was a Catholic the last time I actually saw her. If that’s the basis for her salvation, she is to be pitied. Then she said she had the right to her own opinion and didn’t appreciate me suggesting she was going to hell for having an opinion. Of course, I never said any such thing, so it’s clear there was conviction by someone besides me involved, like maybe the Holy Spirit. Then, her mother and a few of her friends joined the exchange of words and attacked me for everything but loving her enough to tell her the truth. One other young lady (also raised as a Catholic) actually suggested she could believe what she wanted and she could teach her children whatever she wanted because it was “her” life and the children were “her” children. I’m tempted to write her back and point out her error (her children belong to God). Many young people are losing their children today in a variety of ways, and unfortunately most of them don’t make the connection.
My point for today is, I think, absolutely crucial for us to understand. If you love people enough to tell them they’re going to spend eternity in hell if they don’t repent of their sin, if you care enough to have them angry at you for speaking the truth, be forewarned, only those whom God has effectually called and regenerated will appreciate your intervention into, what they perceive as their own business, i.e., it’s none of yours. Many people will want to have nothing to do with you anymore. It’s nothing new. Jesus told us to move with the movers and leave the others to their own devices (Matt. 10:11-14). You can expect people to respond to the gospel in one of two ways: by counter attacking, using secular arguments, dodging the real issue, spouting words of wisdom from philosophers of this world, which is all they have with which to respond. Guess what, the religious experts in Jesus time did the same things. They hated his constant harassing them for their lies and false theological teachings. They even called him a bastard son. One used biting wit by suggesting he at least knew who his father was. Of course, the implication was Jesus, being conceived out of wedlock, was a bastard child. You can be absolutely sure if no one is offended by the gospel you preach, it isn't the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can also be sure if everyone loves you, you are not filled with Jesus' Spirit. Satan is alive and well on planet earth, and he is the first to recognize the presence of the Spirit of God if He is in you. He will quickly recognize your very presence is a threat to his kingdom. The gates of hell crumble when the gospel is preached. Also be forwarned, this generation has learned to call the gospel "hate speech." It's another one of Satan's cleverly devised plans to make us who proclaim it appear evil.
The second possible reaction you will witness when you preach the gospel is that the light will come on (regeneration), and your listener(s) will choose to follow Jesus. God's word assures us the over-whelming majority of people who hear it will reject the gospel. Jeus said, "The gate to the kingdom of God is narrow and few enter it." If you are not willing to deliver a message that most don’t want to hear, you don’t want to be a disciple of Jesus. We are ordered to go and preach to the people the message of repentance from sin. The true gospel will instantly bring dead souls alive (II Cor. 5:17), and it will make the demons of hell flee (James 4:7).
In closing, allow me to suggest you might indeed choose to be a little more diplomatic than I am. It’s my Achilles Heel. I have always been one to “tell it like it is,” which often makes people so angry at me they miss the point altogether. Actually, the direct approach served me well in prison ministries. It is also quite effective with any who know me because they watch me live what I proclaim; thus the proclamation is credible even if they don't wish to believe it. I am quite aware I'm too direct for some; and I’m working at being more diplomatic; but in the final analysis, I will not stand idly by and allow anyone to go to eternity in hell if I they give me the ever so slim opportunity to preach the gospel to them. And I urge any and all who read these daily lessons to take the order, as spoken in Acts 10:42, seriously. It was given to every single person who claims to be a part of His church. Personal witnessing to any who will listen is not optional. It is not an alternative lifestyle. It is an essential part of the daily life of anyone who claims to be a follower of “The King.” I quoted John 15 yesterday where Jesus insisted everyone who abides in the vine will bear fruit. Of course it doesn't take a rocket scientist to conclude you can't bear fruit if you never even water the garden (imagery for preaching the gospel). We must be about the business of going and preaching the gospel, making disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:18-20). It must be our number one priority. And that’s His word for us today.
It forever amazes me the number who think preaching the gospel is optional equipment for disciples of Christ. Of course, one of the main problems is bad teaching on things like gifts of the Spirit. I wrote a book on that topic if anyone is interested in reading it. The bad teaching on the topic of evangelism goes something like this, God calls evangelists and professional, full time preachers to show people from His word what they have to do to be saved. Unfortunately that has bred apathy and incorrect behavior on the part of believers in His church universal. All one has to do is follow the biblical pattern to know it is each and every Christian’s responsibility to tell any who will listen what great things God has done for them. And of course that great thing is not a physical healing, though He still does that. The truly great thing He has done for each of us was to redeem us from the kingdom of hell and welcome us into His kingdom.
No one needs a theological degree to know how Jesus made our once dead souls alive. It truly is akin to having the light switched on in one’s heart. In Acts 16:14 Luke wrote it this way, “. . . and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.” Paul had gone out to the river to pray supposing there would be people there to whom he could speak about Jesus. Strange thing; there were. The above verse refers to one of the ladies (Lydia), who was a worshiper of God. It troubles me that most who call themselves believers have never in their life shared that information with anyone else, other than possibly inviting someone to church. If you really became a believer at some point in your life, you know what it took for you to do that. That’s called your personal testimony. It includes the marvelous things Jesus has done for you. My younger brother led me to Jesus just that way. One of my favorite theologically profound truths goes like this, “I don’t know about that, but what I do know is, once I was blind; now I see.”
I believe when it gets right down to where the rubber meets the road, the reason so few witness to anyone in the course of their lives is they never made doing it their number one priority. A huge contingency of people I personally know actually think the way to qualify for eternity in the kingdom of God is to attend church, live a good life, tithe to the church, take care of the family, be a good husband or wife, and not murder anyone. Actually, the Catholic Church has a plan where its members can buy forgiveness. They call that satanic doctrine “indulgences.” It made them quite rich. I just had a rather heated debate with a young lady I once had as a student. She got pregnant in high school out of wedlock, which isn’t the point, but it is an indicator of her moral beliefs. She put some words from one of John Lennon’s songs on FB and hailed him as a wonderful musician who made such a marvelous impact on the world. She wrote, “May his music live forever.” I responded, “It won’t,” I also pointed out to her John Lennon was a drug addicted, polytheist, and reminded her one of his songs suggested we “imagine there is no heaven or hell.” I finally argued her time and energy would be better spent honoring someone who was, or is, actually honorable. I also pointed out to her that unless John Lennon repented before he was murdered, his is currently in Hades, awaiting his final judgment (Rev. 20), which will guarantee him a front row seat (figuratively speaking) in hell for eternity.
Her response was interesting. First she said she goes to church every week. She was a Catholic the last time I actually saw her. If that’s the basis for her salvation, she is to be pitied. Then she said she had the right to her own opinion and didn’t appreciate me suggesting she was going to hell for having an opinion. Of course, I never said any such thing, so it’s clear there was conviction by someone besides me involved, like maybe the Holy Spirit. Then, her mother and a few of her friends joined the exchange of words and attacked me for everything but loving her enough to tell her the truth. One other young lady (also raised as a Catholic) actually suggested she could believe what she wanted and she could teach her children whatever she wanted because it was “her” life and the children were “her” children. I’m tempted to write her back and point out her error (her children belong to God). Many young people are losing their children today in a variety of ways, and unfortunately most of them don’t make the connection.
My point for today is, I think, absolutely crucial for us to understand. If you love people enough to tell them they’re going to spend eternity in hell if they don’t repent of their sin, if you care enough to have them angry at you for speaking the truth, be forewarned, only those whom God has effectually called and regenerated will appreciate your intervention into, what they perceive as their own business, i.e., it’s none of yours. Many people will want to have nothing to do with you anymore. It’s nothing new. Jesus told us to move with the movers and leave the others to their own devices (Matt. 10:11-14). You can expect people to respond to the gospel in one of two ways: by counter attacking, using secular arguments, dodging the real issue, spouting words of wisdom from philosophers of this world, which is all they have with which to respond. Guess what, the religious experts in Jesus time did the same things. They hated his constant harassing them for their lies and false theological teachings. They even called him a bastard son. One used biting wit by suggesting he at least knew who his father was. Of course, the implication was Jesus, being conceived out of wedlock, was a bastard child. You can be absolutely sure if no one is offended by the gospel you preach, it isn't the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can also be sure if everyone loves you, you are not filled with Jesus' Spirit. Satan is alive and well on planet earth, and he is the first to recognize the presence of the Spirit of God if He is in you. He will quickly recognize your very presence is a threat to his kingdom. The gates of hell crumble when the gospel is preached. Also be forwarned, this generation has learned to call the gospel "hate speech." It's another one of Satan's cleverly devised plans to make us who proclaim it appear evil.
The second possible reaction you will witness when you preach the gospel is that the light will come on (regeneration), and your listener(s) will choose to follow Jesus. God's word assures us the over-whelming majority of people who hear it will reject the gospel. Jeus said, "The gate to the kingdom of God is narrow and few enter it." If you are not willing to deliver a message that most don’t want to hear, you don’t want to be a disciple of Jesus. We are ordered to go and preach to the people the message of repentance from sin. The true gospel will instantly bring dead souls alive (II Cor. 5:17), and it will make the demons of hell flee (James 4:7).
In closing, allow me to suggest you might indeed choose to be a little more diplomatic than I am. It’s my Achilles Heel. I have always been one to “tell it like it is,” which often makes people so angry at me they miss the point altogether. Actually, the direct approach served me well in prison ministries. It is also quite effective with any who know me because they watch me live what I proclaim; thus the proclamation is credible even if they don't wish to believe it. I am quite aware I'm too direct for some; and I’m working at being more diplomatic; but in the final analysis, I will not stand idly by and allow anyone to go to eternity in hell if I they give me the ever so slim opportunity to preach the gospel to them. And I urge any and all who read these daily lessons to take the order, as spoken in Acts 10:42, seriously. It was given to every single person who claims to be a part of His church. Personal witnessing to any who will listen is not optional. It is not an alternative lifestyle. It is an essential part of the daily life of anyone who claims to be a follower of “The King.” I quoted John 15 yesterday where Jesus insisted everyone who abides in the vine will bear fruit. Of course it doesn't take a rocket scientist to conclude you can't bear fruit if you never even water the garden (imagery for preaching the gospel). We must be about the business of going and preaching the gospel, making disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:18-20). It must be our number one priority. And that’s His word for us today.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
How Sloppy is Your Faith?
December 8 (John 15)
As I read Leviticus and Numbers yesterday I couldn’t help but notice how meticulous God expected Israel’s worship of Him to be. They had to kill in a particular way and provide a particular kind of animal of a certain age. It had to be brought to a specific place, given to the priest, whose job it was to make sure it met all the requirements of the specific type of offering it was intended to be. He had to slaughter it exactly as prescribed, taking care to remove specific inner parts (all the fat, the lobe of the liver, the stomach, the blood), carefully sprinkle some of the blood on the front of the altar seven times, put some of it on the four corners of the altar (dedication offering), pour the rest of the blood on the ground at the side of the altar, and carefully cover the blood with dirt when finished. Then, depending what kind of sacrifice or offering it was, (there were about twelve different kinds), he either waved it, heaved it, burned it whole, or burned only the inner parts. He had to offer a particular grain offering with a particular meat offering, and an oil and wine offering. The part of the offering that belonged to the priest depended on the kind of offering being presented. Over and again God warned the priests to do everything exactly as He had commanded.
Every offering had a specific order in which things had to be done. If it was not offered exactly as God directed, the offering was not acceptable and the sinner had to bear his sin. He would not be forgiven for that sin, if it was indeed a sin offering; his freewill offering would not be accepted, and the priest would be guilty of sin for which two of them got instantly fried for ignoring these precise instructions (Leviticus 10). The Israelites were so afraid of God (and He commended them for their fear), they begged Moses to go up on the mountain, far away from them, to speak to Him and not force them to hear His is voice out of the cloud again. They literally believed they would all perish in an instant of time if they had to listen to His mighty voice from the midst of the burning cloud as He descended to speak with them at the foot of Mount Sinai.
There are two things I’d like for us to glean from today’s lesson: 1. I believe most of us take God way too lightly; 2. I believe our worship of Him is way too sloppy. And please understand, I am fully aware of my own propensity to do that. Regarding our first point, I have noticed most of my life, even before I got saved, people who call themselves Christians tend to be very non-chalant about what it means to actually be one. I literally tremble and look up to heaven quickly, expecting lightening to strike every time I hear someone call God the man upstairs. We all tend to engage in things each day that are clearly ungodly and counter productive. We join with fellow workers whose language is disgusting and in some cases downright blasphemous, listening to crude jokes and even laughing at them.
We tend to be rather flippant about the things we view on TV or listen to on radio. I’ve noticed lately even commercials are becoming too racy for my taste. I immediately turn off anything that shows more of a woman’s body than it’s healthy for a man to see. Even news anchors nowadays wear clothes that give leave little for the imagination. We apparently think anything that is animated is for children. Disney and most of the other cartoon whizzes present animated stories glorifying sorcery, magic, astrological reading, violence, and blatant disregard for all kinds of authority. I wearied of students, when I was a teacher, who told me they didn’t have to respect me until I earned it. God only knows where that ignorant philosophy came from. I think I’m going to throw up the next time I hear someone say they watch movies about witches and warlocks and they're Christians. We get such great pleasure watching violent sports like football, wrestling, and boxing; and we cheer and stomp frantically when someone is getting pummeled. Beloved, such things ought not be.
When we go to church, our children run in the isles, have to go to the bathroom two or three times during service, cry and talk so loud it’s a struggle to hear the sermon. Some actually come to meetings dressed like they’re on their way to the local tavern to get sloppy drunk. I’m certainly not advocating men need wear a tie and coat or that women need to wear fancy dresses. Far be it from me to suggest any such thing. And certainly if a man or woman off the street wanders into our midst in dirty, ragged clothes, we need to welcome them with open arms as would Jesus. However, I unless we are actually attending services on a beach somewhere, we need to wear dress moderately as indicated by Paul's words in I Tim. 2:9 and Peter's in I Peter 3:5 . Women most certainly should not be wearing mini-skirts, low cut blouses, blouses that ride up so skin can be seen if they have to bend over for any reason, or spaghetti strap tops. For that matter, I don’t think godly women should wear those kinds of clothing anywhere. Most church gatherings have someone to care for children who haven’t been taught or are too young to sit still and quietly while the church is meeting. Whether it is in a home or a large traditional building, it doesn’t allow for focused worship of our Lord when children are running wild.
In closing, I suggest it’s time we considered what kinds of things we can do in our personal and church lives to cause others to look at us and recognize that we are in Christ and He is in us. The way we dress, the words we speak, our personal demeanor, every aspect of our lives needs to be brought under the guidance of the Holy Spirit as He dwells within us. The best compliment one can pay me is to suggest I spend way much time acting like a holy roller. I know they're usually being caddy, but I find their comments quite reassuring, and consider them compliments. Some suggest I’m obsessed because I strive every moment of every day, avoiding even the appearance of evil, and preaching to anyone who’ll listen. I believe the reason the New Testament Church of the first century grew so rapidly is the same reason, though opposite in course, today’s church is dying on the vine. Jesus put it this way,
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.”
It’s words like those recorded in John 15 that make me tremble when I go more than a few days without speaking to someone about Jesus. If we are not bearing fruit (witnessing regularly), we need to recognize it’s because we are not abiding in the vine. Call it legalism if you like. That only indicates you don’t know what the term means. I tremble because I know God will bring someone several miles out of their scheduled path to cross mine if I’m just ready to speak boldly to them as I ought to speak about the coming kingdom of God and Jesus, His only Son. Even while retired, spending massive amounts of time writing and studying, God seldom fails to bring someone daily to my door or to my ear via the phone. And I’ve discovered, when I’m abiding in the vine, the opportunity always presents itself to tell them about Jesus. I tremble because I know witnessing is our way of telling our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that we love Him above all else.
Of course, we could stand on corners every day, shouting out some semblance of a gospel for great multitudes and not be doing it out of love for God. We might just be crazy, stark raving, demon filled lunitics. But one thing I consider over and again almost daily is how Paul insisted we need to be striving for the upward goal of our high calling in Christ. It is the mark for which we are to be ever aiming. Two final thoughts will close this lesson for today: 1. If we are abiding in Christ, we will be bearing fruit; 2. If we aren’t bearing fruit, it's because we aren’t abiding in Christ. The truth couldn’t be simpler, and Matthew 28:18-20 wasn’t a suggestion. Oops! There goes another minute; now go and serve your Lord.
As I read Leviticus and Numbers yesterday I couldn’t help but notice how meticulous God expected Israel’s worship of Him to be. They had to kill in a particular way and provide a particular kind of animal of a certain age. It had to be brought to a specific place, given to the priest, whose job it was to make sure it met all the requirements of the specific type of offering it was intended to be. He had to slaughter it exactly as prescribed, taking care to remove specific inner parts (all the fat, the lobe of the liver, the stomach, the blood), carefully sprinkle some of the blood on the front of the altar seven times, put some of it on the four corners of the altar (dedication offering), pour the rest of the blood on the ground at the side of the altar, and carefully cover the blood with dirt when finished. Then, depending what kind of sacrifice or offering it was, (there were about twelve different kinds), he either waved it, heaved it, burned it whole, or burned only the inner parts. He had to offer a particular grain offering with a particular meat offering, and an oil and wine offering. The part of the offering that belonged to the priest depended on the kind of offering being presented. Over and again God warned the priests to do everything exactly as He had commanded.
Every offering had a specific order in which things had to be done. If it was not offered exactly as God directed, the offering was not acceptable and the sinner had to bear his sin. He would not be forgiven for that sin, if it was indeed a sin offering; his freewill offering would not be accepted, and the priest would be guilty of sin for which two of them got instantly fried for ignoring these precise instructions (Leviticus 10). The Israelites were so afraid of God (and He commended them for their fear), they begged Moses to go up on the mountain, far away from them, to speak to Him and not force them to hear His is voice out of the cloud again. They literally believed they would all perish in an instant of time if they had to listen to His mighty voice from the midst of the burning cloud as He descended to speak with them at the foot of Mount Sinai.
There are two things I’d like for us to glean from today’s lesson: 1. I believe most of us take God way too lightly; 2. I believe our worship of Him is way too sloppy. And please understand, I am fully aware of my own propensity to do that. Regarding our first point, I have noticed most of my life, even before I got saved, people who call themselves Christians tend to be very non-chalant about what it means to actually be one. I literally tremble and look up to heaven quickly, expecting lightening to strike every time I hear someone call God the man upstairs. We all tend to engage in things each day that are clearly ungodly and counter productive. We join with fellow workers whose language is disgusting and in some cases downright blasphemous, listening to crude jokes and even laughing at them.
We tend to be rather flippant about the things we view on TV or listen to on radio. I’ve noticed lately even commercials are becoming too racy for my taste. I immediately turn off anything that shows more of a woman’s body than it’s healthy for a man to see. Even news anchors nowadays wear clothes that give leave little for the imagination. We apparently think anything that is animated is for children. Disney and most of the other cartoon whizzes present animated stories glorifying sorcery, magic, astrological reading, violence, and blatant disregard for all kinds of authority. I wearied of students, when I was a teacher, who told me they didn’t have to respect me until I earned it. God only knows where that ignorant philosophy came from. I think I’m going to throw up the next time I hear someone say they watch movies about witches and warlocks and they're Christians. We get such great pleasure watching violent sports like football, wrestling, and boxing; and we cheer and stomp frantically when someone is getting pummeled. Beloved, such things ought not be.
When we go to church, our children run in the isles, have to go to the bathroom two or three times during service, cry and talk so loud it’s a struggle to hear the sermon. Some actually come to meetings dressed like they’re on their way to the local tavern to get sloppy drunk. I’m certainly not advocating men need wear a tie and coat or that women need to wear fancy dresses. Far be it from me to suggest any such thing. And certainly if a man or woman off the street wanders into our midst in dirty, ragged clothes, we need to welcome them with open arms as would Jesus. However, I unless we are actually attending services on a beach somewhere, we need to wear dress moderately as indicated by Paul's words in I Tim. 2:9 and Peter's in I Peter 3:5 . Women most certainly should not be wearing mini-skirts, low cut blouses, blouses that ride up so skin can be seen if they have to bend over for any reason, or spaghetti strap tops. For that matter, I don’t think godly women should wear those kinds of clothing anywhere. Most church gatherings have someone to care for children who haven’t been taught or are too young to sit still and quietly while the church is meeting. Whether it is in a home or a large traditional building, it doesn’t allow for focused worship of our Lord when children are running wild.
In closing, I suggest it’s time we considered what kinds of things we can do in our personal and church lives to cause others to look at us and recognize that we are in Christ and He is in us. The way we dress, the words we speak, our personal demeanor, every aspect of our lives needs to be brought under the guidance of the Holy Spirit as He dwells within us. The best compliment one can pay me is to suggest I spend way much time acting like a holy roller. I know they're usually being caddy, but I find their comments quite reassuring, and consider them compliments. Some suggest I’m obsessed because I strive every moment of every day, avoiding even the appearance of evil, and preaching to anyone who’ll listen. I believe the reason the New Testament Church of the first century grew so rapidly is the same reason, though opposite in course, today’s church is dying on the vine. Jesus put it this way,
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.”
It’s words like those recorded in John 15 that make me tremble when I go more than a few days without speaking to someone about Jesus. If we are not bearing fruit (witnessing regularly), we need to recognize it’s because we are not abiding in the vine. Call it legalism if you like. That only indicates you don’t know what the term means. I tremble because I know God will bring someone several miles out of their scheduled path to cross mine if I’m just ready to speak boldly to them as I ought to speak about the coming kingdom of God and Jesus, His only Son. Even while retired, spending massive amounts of time writing and studying, God seldom fails to bring someone daily to my door or to my ear via the phone. And I’ve discovered, when I’m abiding in the vine, the opportunity always presents itself to tell them about Jesus. I tremble because I know witnessing is our way of telling our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that we love Him above all else.
Of course, we could stand on corners every day, shouting out some semblance of a gospel for great multitudes and not be doing it out of love for God. We might just be crazy, stark raving, demon filled lunitics. But one thing I consider over and again almost daily is how Paul insisted we need to be striving for the upward goal of our high calling in Christ. It is the mark for which we are to be ever aiming. Two final thoughts will close this lesson for today: 1. If we are abiding in Christ, we will be bearing fruit; 2. If we aren’t bearing fruit, it's because we aren’t abiding in Christ. The truth couldn’t be simpler, and Matthew 28:18-20 wasn’t a suggestion. Oops! There goes another minute; now go and serve your Lord.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
They Saw His Miracles, Yet . . .
December 7 (Numbers 13)
We read about a really puzzling event described in Numbers 13. Upon arriving at the entrance to the Promised Land, Moses sent out 12 spies, one member from each of the twelve tribes of Israel. I assume they were warriors, because he was sending them into a hostile land with little to defend themselves against some of the most ruthless people known on the planet at the time. For nearly five hundred years God had promised that land would eventually be the inheritance of Israel. He had made the promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob numerous times and had Moses record those encounters with God by their ancestors in the book of the law. What we now call the Pentateuch, i.e., Genesis-Deuteronomy was originally only one book.
When the twelve scouts returned, ten of them verified the land was all Moses claimed, but they also reported that the land’s inhabitants were too much for them to conquer. One group was literally giants. They were descendants of Anak, also called Nephilim (see also Gen. 6:4). The Nephilim were a puzzling group of giants in the days of Noah. Some think they were men who had evolved into giants through some kind of selective breeding (for lack of a better way to put it). Others suggest these were the fallen angels referred to in Jude 6 who abandoned their proper abode, intermarried with human women, and had children who turned out to be giants. I concur with this second view simply because of the words of Genesis 6:4, “. . . and also afterward.” The Nephilim before the flood would have all been killed in the flood. Apparently, fallen angels can give up their angelic status and intermarry with human women. At least they have done it at least twice historically if this view is correct. It seems the only explanation that would fit with the testimony of Numbers 13 is that after the flood, more fallen angels (aka Nephilim) intermarried with human women and bore children who were also giants. Thus they are called the descendants of Anak, aka Nephilim.
We know so little about the topic it really doesn’t do us a lot of good to speculate wildly about the myriad of implications these fallen angels might bring to the human problem of sin. I imagine it is significant, but I fear we will not learn any more about it until we see Jesus face to face. It is one of the mysteries God allows us know exists without explaining it to us fully. Of course, Hollywood producers have let their imaginations run wild producing hundreds of movies on the theme. That said, I personally prefer to operate in the realm of what we can discern from such things that teach us more about the nature of our God and His expectations for us. In the story as recorded in Numbers 13 we discover there were ten of Israelites finest who brought a bad report, who made the congregation afraid of the inhabitants of the Promised Land, while only two, Joshua and Caleb, encouraged the congregation to stop worrying about the size of the enemy and concentrate on the ability of their God make them conquerors.
What is so puzzling to me about this incident is that this group of 603,550 Israeli warriors had just seen God completely dismantle the most powerful military in the world, the Egyptians, kill every firstborn of every man and animal in Egypt, part the Red Sea, kill the entire Egyptian army for following them into that sea, bring water from a rock sufficient to satisfy the thirst of a contingent of probably 6 million people total, and water all of their livestock. He had turned one lake of bitter water into fresh water instantly, fed them miraculously with manna from heaven and pigeons who just fell from the sky and died right before their eyes three feet deep for a two mile circumference around their camp. They had already defeated one mighty army with zero casualties of their own. In spite of this myriad of reasons to know God would be with them and to know He was able to give them victory, they turned back from following at the mere suggestion of ten men who didn’t believe.
Imagine, if what I have been claiming for decades is true that there are tens of thousands of such men who have infiltrated the church and are now actually preaching in pulpits across America. Imagine the affect that would have on the rest of the congregations of God’s chosen people who have seen His miracles in their own lives time and again, yet, they cower in the presence of the Nephilim, afraid to contend for the faith, afraid to stand against the fiery missiles of the evil one. Then imagine there are actually some preachers standing in pulpits in America today who are finally teaching what I’ve been claiming for decades. Beloved, if you aren’t being persecuted for your faith, I suggest it’s only because you don’t make it a point to contended for the faith. If you experience no persecution, even in America, it’s only because you have chosen to remain quiet when you have had a chance to expose false teaching or confront any false teachers with the truth of scripture who are trying to lead entire congregations into the pits of hell.
I’ve been called everything but brother by well meaning but entirely misguided and ignorant people who truly believe they are the elect of God. I’ve been called a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a false brother, a liar, a deceiver, and a number of other things I wouldn’t repeat in public. Jesus made it clear and literally hundreds of verses attest to the fact that we are literally in a battle for the souls of men, women, boys, and girls, and the enemy is no longer outside the church. He has infiltrated thousands of churches around the world by now, and is preaching the same ungodly things from pulpits Satan has been preaching for 6,000 years of human history. And tragically, the church universal is so incredibly ignorant of what God’s word actually says, they have become easy targets for the devil's flaming missiles.
I’ll close with this one question that will make my point as well as anything I could conjure. Your answer to it will be a clear indication of your level of knowledge about the God of creation. Do you have any idea how many people God has killed in the 6,000 year history of man, for blasphemy alone (and all of them weren't in ancient times)? Think about that as you watch your friends and loved ones die without ever getting to hear an accurate presentation of the gospel. Think about that as you go to your job or shopping this holiday season and see great multitudes who are going to spend eternity in the lake of fire and brimstone who never got to hear you tell them about Jesus. Think about that, and ask yourself if you’re happy someone had the nerve to snatch you from the burning jaws of hell by telling you about God’s provision for your sin in His Son’s substitutionary death on the cross of Calvary. Finally, ask yourself why you seldom or maybe never have told anyone about God's Son, His perfect life, His sacrifice of Himself on the cross, taking upon Himself the sins of all mankind, and His resurrection. Could it be you're a goat and not a sheep? I pray you'll all have a blessed celebration this season contemplating the miraculous birth of that Son through a young unwed teenage virgin girl who lived two thousand short years ago in that Promised Land, because God finally gave it to the descendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Go and serve your King.
We read about a really puzzling event described in Numbers 13. Upon arriving at the entrance to the Promised Land, Moses sent out 12 spies, one member from each of the twelve tribes of Israel. I assume they were warriors, because he was sending them into a hostile land with little to defend themselves against some of the most ruthless people known on the planet at the time. For nearly five hundred years God had promised that land would eventually be the inheritance of Israel. He had made the promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob numerous times and had Moses record those encounters with God by their ancestors in the book of the law. What we now call the Pentateuch, i.e., Genesis-Deuteronomy was originally only one book.
When the twelve scouts returned, ten of them verified the land was all Moses claimed, but they also reported that the land’s inhabitants were too much for them to conquer. One group was literally giants. They were descendants of Anak, also called Nephilim (see also Gen. 6:4). The Nephilim were a puzzling group of giants in the days of Noah. Some think they were men who had evolved into giants through some kind of selective breeding (for lack of a better way to put it). Others suggest these were the fallen angels referred to in Jude 6 who abandoned their proper abode, intermarried with human women, and had children who turned out to be giants. I concur with this second view simply because of the words of Genesis 6:4, “. . . and also afterward.” The Nephilim before the flood would have all been killed in the flood. Apparently, fallen angels can give up their angelic status and intermarry with human women. At least they have done it at least twice historically if this view is correct. It seems the only explanation that would fit with the testimony of Numbers 13 is that after the flood, more fallen angels (aka Nephilim) intermarried with human women and bore children who were also giants. Thus they are called the descendants of Anak, aka Nephilim.
We know so little about the topic it really doesn’t do us a lot of good to speculate wildly about the myriad of implications these fallen angels might bring to the human problem of sin. I imagine it is significant, but I fear we will not learn any more about it until we see Jesus face to face. It is one of the mysteries God allows us know exists without explaining it to us fully. Of course, Hollywood producers have let their imaginations run wild producing hundreds of movies on the theme. That said, I personally prefer to operate in the realm of what we can discern from such things that teach us more about the nature of our God and His expectations for us. In the story as recorded in Numbers 13 we discover there were ten of Israelites finest who brought a bad report, who made the congregation afraid of the inhabitants of the Promised Land, while only two, Joshua and Caleb, encouraged the congregation to stop worrying about the size of the enemy and concentrate on the ability of their God make them conquerors.
What is so puzzling to me about this incident is that this group of 603,550 Israeli warriors had just seen God completely dismantle the most powerful military in the world, the Egyptians, kill every firstborn of every man and animal in Egypt, part the Red Sea, kill the entire Egyptian army for following them into that sea, bring water from a rock sufficient to satisfy the thirst of a contingent of probably 6 million people total, and water all of their livestock. He had turned one lake of bitter water into fresh water instantly, fed them miraculously with manna from heaven and pigeons who just fell from the sky and died right before their eyes three feet deep for a two mile circumference around their camp. They had already defeated one mighty army with zero casualties of their own. In spite of this myriad of reasons to know God would be with them and to know He was able to give them victory, they turned back from following at the mere suggestion of ten men who didn’t believe.
Imagine, if what I have been claiming for decades is true that there are tens of thousands of such men who have infiltrated the church and are now actually preaching in pulpits across America. Imagine the affect that would have on the rest of the congregations of God’s chosen people who have seen His miracles in their own lives time and again, yet, they cower in the presence of the Nephilim, afraid to contend for the faith, afraid to stand against the fiery missiles of the evil one. Then imagine there are actually some preachers standing in pulpits in America today who are finally teaching what I’ve been claiming for decades. Beloved, if you aren’t being persecuted for your faith, I suggest it’s only because you don’t make it a point to contended for the faith. If you experience no persecution, even in America, it’s only because you have chosen to remain quiet when you have had a chance to expose false teaching or confront any false teachers with the truth of scripture who are trying to lead entire congregations into the pits of hell.
I’ve been called everything but brother by well meaning but entirely misguided and ignorant people who truly believe they are the elect of God. I’ve been called a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a false brother, a liar, a deceiver, and a number of other things I wouldn’t repeat in public. Jesus made it clear and literally hundreds of verses attest to the fact that we are literally in a battle for the souls of men, women, boys, and girls, and the enemy is no longer outside the church. He has infiltrated thousands of churches around the world by now, and is preaching the same ungodly things from pulpits Satan has been preaching for 6,000 years of human history. And tragically, the church universal is so incredibly ignorant of what God’s word actually says, they have become easy targets for the devil's flaming missiles.
I’ll close with this one question that will make my point as well as anything I could conjure. Your answer to it will be a clear indication of your level of knowledge about the God of creation. Do you have any idea how many people God has killed in the 6,000 year history of man, for blasphemy alone (and all of them weren't in ancient times)? Think about that as you watch your friends and loved ones die without ever getting to hear an accurate presentation of the gospel. Think about that as you go to your job or shopping this holiday season and see great multitudes who are going to spend eternity in the lake of fire and brimstone who never got to hear you tell them about Jesus. Think about that, and ask yourself if you’re happy someone had the nerve to snatch you from the burning jaws of hell by telling you about God’s provision for your sin in His Son’s substitutionary death on the cross of Calvary. Finally, ask yourself why you seldom or maybe never have told anyone about God's Son, His perfect life, His sacrifice of Himself on the cross, taking upon Himself the sins of all mankind, and His resurrection. Could it be you're a goat and not a sheep? I pray you'll all have a blessed celebration this season contemplating the miraculous birth of that Son through a young unwed teenage virgin girl who lived two thousand short years ago in that Promised Land, because God finally gave it to the descendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Go and serve your King.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Contend for the Faith!
December 6 (Jude 3, 4)
Several years ago when I was a cop in Arizona, I had the opportunity to listen to Christian radio for quite a few hours each day in my patrol car while on patrol. I was an elder of a local church and taught adult bible studies. It seemed strange at the time that on a regular basis, those radio preachers were preaching on the same topic God had placed on my heart. Over the years I have come to realize that is exactly how God works. When something is wrong in the midst of His church, and it’s a universal problem, He gives the same message to all of those He has called to teach His sheep. Of course, that doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out. It’s entirely logical that the God of the entire church would know if there was a problem that was almost universally wrong in it. This morning, while listening to Sirius 161, a preacher named Yussef was speaking about Jude 3, 4 saying what I have been beating to death for weeks now. It is a plague of staggering magnitude that within God’s church some have crept in and are distorting the gospel. It was happening when Jude wrote his letter, has been happening since that time, and is reaching epidemic proportion in these final days of the church. It is one of the signs we are in the final hours of church history that the church will become so liberal those who preach in it will claim godliness but by their works will be denying its power. Titus 1:6 tells us, “They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.”
The problem is magnified because so few professing believers spend enough time studying God’s word themselves to recognize when these infiltrators of the church appear. The problem today is that the overwhelming majority of these wolves are the senior pastors of local churches. I suggest the very thing the church determined would help it escape that problem has now become her Achilles heel. Instead of local churches raising up new pastors and sending them out to start new churches (as was done in the first few centuries of the church), some geniuses decades ago decided the church needed to have professional clergy who got their training in a denominationally certified university. Voila! They have been and still are graduating and ordaining tens of thousands of preachers who have never read God’s word from cover to cover once. All one has to do is have the tuition and not screw up too badly for four years and he can graduate with honors and an ordination certificate from nearly any Christian university in the United States; and if he actually goes on to seminary, he can usually get a job making over $70,000 a year in most big city churches. Certainly if he takes a call from a Southern Baptist church he’ll just about be guaranteed a fine salary. That particular denomination has a salary schedule determined by the amount of education the pastor has. I recall several years ago in California, a PhD got about $30,000/year teaching in most public school systems. During that same period of time the Southern Baptist denomination required new preachers with PhDs get paid $33,000/year. Now, that’s what I call setting the example for the sheep to follow.
I know it to be true, but I think one day I’ll visit several Christian schools and find out how many of their students have ever read the bible from cover to cover. The speaker on the radio this morning indicated one research found that among those in the church less than 50% of them have ever read the bible at all. I watch television preachers on a regular basis stand before a congregation, raising their solid black four pound version of God’s word, sweating profusely from preaching so hard. And it’s incredibly obvious they never actually read it because they say things that aren’t in it, all the while insisting they’re words are divinely inspired truth. Allow me to tell you the quickest way to spot a phony. Jesus mentioned it numerous times in a variety of ways. As a matter of fact He once made a whip, cleaned out the temple in Jerusalem, and told those He drove out, "It is written, ' MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER'; but you are making it a ROBBERS' DEN."(Matt. 21:13) Take note; when a preacher claims he wants to give you a gift for a small donation to his ministry, he is a peddler of the word, not a preacher of it. He is turning God’s house into a robbers’ den. And when a preacher tries to convince you tithing is a New Testament ordinance, it is a clear indication he hasn’t a clue what the purpose and scheme for tithing was under Old Testament law. Of course the New Testament demands we be financial supporters to ministry. It declares in numerous places we are to support those in full time ministry and that takes money. The problem is the number in full time ministry who don't belong there in the first place. And that problem becomes staggering when those same unordained of God preachers have anything to say about where the money given to the church should be spent. Most importantly, tithe is not to be a standard for any New Testament giving. The complete lack of understanding on that basic topic is clear evidence for the failure of bible colleges and seminaries.
Ask any Mormon; if every member of local churches gave 10% of his income to those local churches, those churches would be among the wealthiest corporations in the world. Mormons demand their member be tithers. I know a protestant preacher who demands the same thing. Please allow me to digress for just a moment (though this actually is the whole point of today’s lesson). If your preacher knows God’s word he will probably feel quite uneasy about taking an offering each week. I liken such behavior to begging. And I also believe in a real sense, taking up an offering is very akin to turning his church into a robber's den. There are much more creative ways to enable church members to support the church’s ministry assuming (and it’s quite an assumption) the local church deserves our financial support in the first place. One day I’d like to accidently (on purpose) knock the offering plate to the ceiling as it passes in front of me. We’re told when we give not to let the left hand know what the right hand is doing. How is that possible when everyone in the church (at least everyone behind you in church on a given day) can see whether or not you’re putting money in that disgusting thing we call the offering plate. One day I may actually get up the nerve to say quite loudly when the usher hands me the plate, “No thanks, I prefer to give to the needy.” I’ve also considered putting a note in one of those envelopes in the church pews saying, “April fools! Get a real job; it may not pay as much, but at least you won’t be misleading God’s sheep anymore.”
I’ve written a systematic 44 page treatise on the topic of Christian Stewardship if you’d like to understand the biblical reasons and pattern for given in this the church age. In it I include every single verse found in scripture that deals with the topic. I will close today’s lesson with two thoughts: 1. If true believers actually made it a priority to read their bibles, they would quickly leave most of today’s churches. I believe they’d exit post haste, disgusted with the lackluster, unbiblical, impotent, ungodly preaching that is going on in most contemporary churches. I further believe there would be a mass movement to restart home churches. Preachers like Allistaire Begg, John McArthur, Walter Martin (deceased), Adrian Rogers (deceased), and J. Vernon McGee (deceased), a pastor I once knew named Eddie Pate, and that Yussef guy would have or would have had (in the case of those deceased) so many people in their local congregations they wouldn’t be able to accommodate them all. They’d have to start meeting in homes because they wouldn’t be able to build a church building big or fast enough. Oh yeah, that’s how the church did it for the first four hundred years of its existent. I know there have to be more than those I have named, but in my 38 years as a follower of Christ I can’t name ten men I believe make it a priority to read the entire word of God from cover to cover on a regular basis. 2. Avoid bible reading programs like the bubonic plague. Begin your reading in Genesis 1 and read clear through to Revelation 22. I’ve been doing that for decades and can tell you it is the only way to understand it as God wrote it. I know it isn’t chronologically written, but any good study bible will explain the whys and wherefore of that. After you do that about ten times, it will begin making sense within its context. I know most don’t want to believe it, but unless you read massive amounts of scripture at one time, you won’t ever come to understand it in one lifetime. In Israel, the priests would read it to the Israelites four or five hours straight as they all sat around listening during every feast (there were a total of seven) they celebrated each year. Those feasts lasted one to three weeks and they sat for hours every day listening as the priests read. They had no choice because the average Israelite didn’t have their own personal copy of the Law of Moses. Most likely the reason so few ever read massive amounts of scripture today is our propensity to want to learn everything we know from things like television and/or computers. I personally believe unless you discipline yourself to read ten to twenty chapters each and every day, you’ll never have a good grasp of God’s word in its entirety; and it seems to me it should be the goal of every believer to have a good grasp of it. If you're a really poor reader, get a copy of it being read on CD and listen to it as you follow along in your on bible. Make sure to have the same version being read to you and your reading ability will improve drastically.
I fear a huge contengency of people in today’s churches are going to be sorely disappointed when and if they actually enter the eternal kingdom of God. I’ve been reading massive amounts of God’s word daily for 38 years and I’m still learning new things about Him each and every day. My own communication skill improved exponentially the more I read scripture. Unless I’m a slow learner, that means all of us should be doing the same. Finally, it would be extremely difficult for anyone to sneak into His church unnoticed and preach another gospel if God’s children actually searched the scriptures daily to see if the things they are teaching meet the test of scripture. I know it is the joy of my own life to preach to a group of men and women who actually read God's word themselves on a regular basis. When Jesus promised the sheep hear His voice (John 10), He presumed they would hear His voice because they would know His words; and that thing we call the Bible is filled with His words. And beloved, that’s His word for us today.
Several years ago when I was a cop in Arizona, I had the opportunity to listen to Christian radio for quite a few hours each day in my patrol car while on patrol. I was an elder of a local church and taught adult bible studies. It seemed strange at the time that on a regular basis, those radio preachers were preaching on the same topic God had placed on my heart. Over the years I have come to realize that is exactly how God works. When something is wrong in the midst of His church, and it’s a universal problem, He gives the same message to all of those He has called to teach His sheep. Of course, that doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out. It’s entirely logical that the God of the entire church would know if there was a problem that was almost universally wrong in it. This morning, while listening to Sirius 161, a preacher named Yussef was speaking about Jude 3, 4 saying what I have been beating to death for weeks now. It is a plague of staggering magnitude that within God’s church some have crept in and are distorting the gospel. It was happening when Jude wrote his letter, has been happening since that time, and is reaching epidemic proportion in these final days of the church. It is one of the signs we are in the final hours of church history that the church will become so liberal those who preach in it will claim godliness but by their works will be denying its power. Titus 1:6 tells us, “They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.”
The problem is magnified because so few professing believers spend enough time studying God’s word themselves to recognize when these infiltrators of the church appear. The problem today is that the overwhelming majority of these wolves are the senior pastors of local churches. I suggest the very thing the church determined would help it escape that problem has now become her Achilles heel. Instead of local churches raising up new pastors and sending them out to start new churches (as was done in the first few centuries of the church), some geniuses decades ago decided the church needed to have professional clergy who got their training in a denominationally certified university. Voila! They have been and still are graduating and ordaining tens of thousands of preachers who have never read God’s word from cover to cover once. All one has to do is have the tuition and not screw up too badly for four years and he can graduate with honors and an ordination certificate from nearly any Christian university in the United States; and if he actually goes on to seminary, he can usually get a job making over $70,000 a year in most big city churches. Certainly if he takes a call from a Southern Baptist church he’ll just about be guaranteed a fine salary. That particular denomination has a salary schedule determined by the amount of education the pastor has. I recall several years ago in California, a PhD got about $30,000/year teaching in most public school systems. During that same period of time the Southern Baptist denomination required new preachers with PhDs get paid $33,000/year. Now, that’s what I call setting the example for the sheep to follow.
I know it to be true, but I think one day I’ll visit several Christian schools and find out how many of their students have ever read the bible from cover to cover. The speaker on the radio this morning indicated one research found that among those in the church less than 50% of them have ever read the bible at all. I watch television preachers on a regular basis stand before a congregation, raising their solid black four pound version of God’s word, sweating profusely from preaching so hard. And it’s incredibly obvious they never actually read it because they say things that aren’t in it, all the while insisting they’re words are divinely inspired truth. Allow me to tell you the quickest way to spot a phony. Jesus mentioned it numerous times in a variety of ways. As a matter of fact He once made a whip, cleaned out the temple in Jerusalem, and told those He drove out, "It is written, ' MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER'; but you are making it a ROBBERS' DEN."(Matt. 21:13) Take note; when a preacher claims he wants to give you a gift for a small donation to his ministry, he is a peddler of the word, not a preacher of it. He is turning God’s house into a robbers’ den. And when a preacher tries to convince you tithing is a New Testament ordinance, it is a clear indication he hasn’t a clue what the purpose and scheme for tithing was under Old Testament law. Of course the New Testament demands we be financial supporters to ministry. It declares in numerous places we are to support those in full time ministry and that takes money. The problem is the number in full time ministry who don't belong there in the first place. And that problem becomes staggering when those same unordained of God preachers have anything to say about where the money given to the church should be spent. Most importantly, tithe is not to be a standard for any New Testament giving. The complete lack of understanding on that basic topic is clear evidence for the failure of bible colleges and seminaries.
Ask any Mormon; if every member of local churches gave 10% of his income to those local churches, those churches would be among the wealthiest corporations in the world. Mormons demand their member be tithers. I know a protestant preacher who demands the same thing. Please allow me to digress for just a moment (though this actually is the whole point of today’s lesson). If your preacher knows God’s word he will probably feel quite uneasy about taking an offering each week. I liken such behavior to begging. And I also believe in a real sense, taking up an offering is very akin to turning his church into a robber's den. There are much more creative ways to enable church members to support the church’s ministry assuming (and it’s quite an assumption) the local church deserves our financial support in the first place. One day I’d like to accidently (on purpose) knock the offering plate to the ceiling as it passes in front of me. We’re told when we give not to let the left hand know what the right hand is doing. How is that possible when everyone in the church (at least everyone behind you in church on a given day) can see whether or not you’re putting money in that disgusting thing we call the offering plate. One day I may actually get up the nerve to say quite loudly when the usher hands me the plate, “No thanks, I prefer to give to the needy.” I’ve also considered putting a note in one of those envelopes in the church pews saying, “April fools! Get a real job; it may not pay as much, but at least you won’t be misleading God’s sheep anymore.”
I’ve written a systematic 44 page treatise on the topic of Christian Stewardship if you’d like to understand the biblical reasons and pattern for given in this the church age. In it I include every single verse found in scripture that deals with the topic. I will close today’s lesson with two thoughts: 1. If true believers actually made it a priority to read their bibles, they would quickly leave most of today’s churches. I believe they’d exit post haste, disgusted with the lackluster, unbiblical, impotent, ungodly preaching that is going on in most contemporary churches. I further believe there would be a mass movement to restart home churches. Preachers like Allistaire Begg, John McArthur, Walter Martin (deceased), Adrian Rogers (deceased), and J. Vernon McGee (deceased), a pastor I once knew named Eddie Pate, and that Yussef guy would have or would have had (in the case of those deceased) so many people in their local congregations they wouldn’t be able to accommodate them all. They’d have to start meeting in homes because they wouldn’t be able to build a church building big or fast enough. Oh yeah, that’s how the church did it for the first four hundred years of its existent. I know there have to be more than those I have named, but in my 38 years as a follower of Christ I can’t name ten men I believe make it a priority to read the entire word of God from cover to cover on a regular basis. 2. Avoid bible reading programs like the bubonic plague. Begin your reading in Genesis 1 and read clear through to Revelation 22. I’ve been doing that for decades and can tell you it is the only way to understand it as God wrote it. I know it isn’t chronologically written, but any good study bible will explain the whys and wherefore of that. After you do that about ten times, it will begin making sense within its context. I know most don’t want to believe it, but unless you read massive amounts of scripture at one time, you won’t ever come to understand it in one lifetime. In Israel, the priests would read it to the Israelites four or five hours straight as they all sat around listening during every feast (there were a total of seven) they celebrated each year. Those feasts lasted one to three weeks and they sat for hours every day listening as the priests read. They had no choice because the average Israelite didn’t have their own personal copy of the Law of Moses. Most likely the reason so few ever read massive amounts of scripture today is our propensity to want to learn everything we know from things like television and/or computers. I personally believe unless you discipline yourself to read ten to twenty chapters each and every day, you’ll never have a good grasp of God’s word in its entirety; and it seems to me it should be the goal of every believer to have a good grasp of it. If you're a really poor reader, get a copy of it being read on CD and listen to it as you follow along in your on bible. Make sure to have the same version being read to you and your reading ability will improve drastically.
I fear a huge contengency of people in today’s churches are going to be sorely disappointed when and if they actually enter the eternal kingdom of God. I’ve been reading massive amounts of God’s word daily for 38 years and I’m still learning new things about Him each and every day. My own communication skill improved exponentially the more I read scripture. Unless I’m a slow learner, that means all of us should be doing the same. Finally, it would be extremely difficult for anyone to sneak into His church unnoticed and preach another gospel if God’s children actually searched the scriptures daily to see if the things they are teaching meet the test of scripture. I know it is the joy of my own life to preach to a group of men and women who actually read God's word themselves on a regular basis. When Jesus promised the sheep hear His voice (John 10), He presumed they would hear His voice because they would know His words; and that thing we call the Bible is filled with His words. And beloved, that’s His word for us today.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
When Was I Saved?
December 5 (Eph. 1:4-11)
A major doctrinal issue most contemporary protestant churches ignore or deny is the doctrine of election and predestination. It seems inconceivable to me, though I certainly pray I’m wrong, anyone who denies the doctrine of elections and predestination is advocating a kind of works salvation. If that is true, and I see no way to deny it, Paul’s warning to the Galatians is appropriate here. “But even if an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed.” And the gospel Paul, Peter, James, Jude, and the writer of Hebrews and each of the the gospel records their writers record preaches as one of its most basic tenets election and predestination (Eph. 1:4-10; John 10; I Peter 1:1-2). Both Isaiah and Jeremiah realize they were called before they were even born (from their mother’s womb/Jeremiah 1:4, 5; Isaiah 49:1). Romans 9 insists before Jacob and Esau were even born, God had determined their lives plans and direction.
I’ve recently discovered, what I used to think wasn’t a good study tactic, is actually not too bad. Try this; begin reading scripture actually looking for indications and verses that speak about the elect, those chosen, the sheep and the goats. You’ll quickly discover there are literally hundreds of verses which make it abundantly clear unless God elects, predestines, regenerates, effectually calls, grants faith and repentance, justifies, definitively sanctifies, adopts, and progressively sanctifies, you, you will not spend eternity in His kingdom. One hasn’t got a snowball’s chance in hell of being part of the kingdom of God unless God has chosen him for that destination. I have also discovered if one thinks about those nine elements of true salvation while studying scripture, he’ll discover there is no theology that doesn’t fit into the definition of at least one of them; thus, you will have to conclude as I have that salvation, from beginning to end, is God’s work. He chose every single individual whom He will save before the foundation of the world, which goes quite comfortably with the teaching from Ezekiel 3 and 33, Paul’s comments in Ephesians 1 and Romans 9:21. He makes one piece of pottery for glory and another not for glory. And if you really think carefully about it, you’ll have to conclude any other theological position actually demands a works salvation. Even if I chose on my own to be faithful, that means I committed an act of works. It means for some reason I was worthy to be saved.
Finally, think about this; Paul had little interest in hearing the gospel when He was called to be an apostle to the gentiles in Acts 9. It was literally the last thing on his mind. He was determined to imprison Christians and see to it they got the maximum penalty the Jewish leaders could impose under Roman law. His conversion demonstrates as well as any his human will would have never chosen to follow Jesus. And that is the testimony of Romans 3:10-18. Romans 3 demands we believe no man, of his own volition, ever has or ever will choose to do good. All, every single person on the planet, minus 0 have, do, and always will reject God and the truth He has given us in His word.
Almost from the point of new birth in Christ, I believed my salvation was entirely His work. It wasn’t until the last four or five years however, that I really began understanding how central reformed theology, which insists we were predestined and elected before the foundation of the world, is if one is to understand huge doses of the rest of scripture. I am so sure it is absolutely crucial to salvation that I have determined not to attend any church that does not teach it. I do not believe any preacher who doesn’t teach it properly is worth the time it takes each week to listen to him preach. I have more recently discovered just how much it affects the rest of a preacher’s teaching.
In closing today’s lesson, I want to challenge each of you and myself, to strive to be more consistent and determined to set aside time each and every morning to be diligent to show ourselves approved unto God. I challenge each of us to be more disciplined when it comes to prayer and bible reading and study. I am providing several tools I believe will help us all do that. I am putting the bible on CD MP3 format in all of the modern translations one can download to their computers or any MP3 player (MP3 players are available for under $35 at Pamida); I am also putting each of my study guides on over twenty five major doctrinal issues on CD. I am making sure to put some verses for the day each and every day on my Face Book site. I am praying each day I have at least one chance a day to share the gospel with someone. I am praying for wisdom and boldness to be faithful to do that when the occasion presents itself. I covet your prayers for me and would be thrilled to put you on my prayer list to pray that same prayer for each of you. Just contact me by using the comments section below or email me at dspurkey@midrivers.com. I have believed for several years God wants to bring revival to America. I also believe it will start with a few faithful souls who will commit themselves to complete, unwavering, unbendable, sold our, God loving, evangelically minded, preaching of the gospel to any who will listen. I’m currently praying for one man who will join with me in my home town in that endeavor like Jesus sent out His disciples two by two. I have already gone into my neighborhood attempting to do it by myself. While God’s prophets usually stood entirely alone (and I am not a prophet), usually two or more working together, who are of one mind, are a more powerful ministry than one man working alone.
If you are reading this lesson, please join with me in praying daily and fervently for revival in America; and I believe for that to happen, we must also pray that Christians all across this land will renew their commitment to be faithful servants and stewards of the gospel message (I Cor. 4:1). And that’s God’s word for us today.
A major doctrinal issue most contemporary protestant churches ignore or deny is the doctrine of election and predestination. It seems inconceivable to me, though I certainly pray I’m wrong, anyone who denies the doctrine of elections and predestination is advocating a kind of works salvation. If that is true, and I see no way to deny it, Paul’s warning to the Galatians is appropriate here. “But even if an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed.” And the gospel Paul, Peter, James, Jude, and the writer of Hebrews and each of the the gospel records their writers record preaches as one of its most basic tenets election and predestination (Eph. 1:4-10; John 10; I Peter 1:1-2). Both Isaiah and Jeremiah realize they were called before they were even born (from their mother’s womb/Jeremiah 1:4, 5; Isaiah 49:1). Romans 9 insists before Jacob and Esau were even born, God had determined their lives plans and direction.
I’ve recently discovered, what I used to think wasn’t a good study tactic, is actually not too bad. Try this; begin reading scripture actually looking for indications and verses that speak about the elect, those chosen, the sheep and the goats. You’ll quickly discover there are literally hundreds of verses which make it abundantly clear unless God elects, predestines, regenerates, effectually calls, grants faith and repentance, justifies, definitively sanctifies, adopts, and progressively sanctifies, you, you will not spend eternity in His kingdom. One hasn’t got a snowball’s chance in hell of being part of the kingdom of God unless God has chosen him for that destination. I have also discovered if one thinks about those nine elements of true salvation while studying scripture, he’ll discover there is no theology that doesn’t fit into the definition of at least one of them; thus, you will have to conclude as I have that salvation, from beginning to end, is God’s work. He chose every single individual whom He will save before the foundation of the world, which goes quite comfortably with the teaching from Ezekiel 3 and 33, Paul’s comments in Ephesians 1 and Romans 9:21. He makes one piece of pottery for glory and another not for glory. And if you really think carefully about it, you’ll have to conclude any other theological position actually demands a works salvation. Even if I chose on my own to be faithful, that means I committed an act of works. It means for some reason I was worthy to be saved.
Finally, think about this; Paul had little interest in hearing the gospel when He was called to be an apostle to the gentiles in Acts 9. It was literally the last thing on his mind. He was determined to imprison Christians and see to it they got the maximum penalty the Jewish leaders could impose under Roman law. His conversion demonstrates as well as any his human will would have never chosen to follow Jesus. And that is the testimony of Romans 3:10-18. Romans 3 demands we believe no man, of his own volition, ever has or ever will choose to do good. All, every single person on the planet, minus 0 have, do, and always will reject God and the truth He has given us in His word.
Almost from the point of new birth in Christ, I believed my salvation was entirely His work. It wasn’t until the last four or five years however, that I really began understanding how central reformed theology, which insists we were predestined and elected before the foundation of the world, is if one is to understand huge doses of the rest of scripture. I am so sure it is absolutely crucial to salvation that I have determined not to attend any church that does not teach it. I do not believe any preacher who doesn’t teach it properly is worth the time it takes each week to listen to him preach. I have more recently discovered just how much it affects the rest of a preacher’s teaching.
In closing today’s lesson, I want to challenge each of you and myself, to strive to be more consistent and determined to set aside time each and every morning to be diligent to show ourselves approved unto God. I challenge each of us to be more disciplined when it comes to prayer and bible reading and study. I am providing several tools I believe will help us all do that. I am putting the bible on CD MP3 format in all of the modern translations one can download to their computers or any MP3 player (MP3 players are available for under $35 at Pamida); I am also putting each of my study guides on over twenty five major doctrinal issues on CD. I am making sure to put some verses for the day each and every day on my Face Book site. I am praying each day I have at least one chance a day to share the gospel with someone. I am praying for wisdom and boldness to be faithful to do that when the occasion presents itself. I covet your prayers for me and would be thrilled to put you on my prayer list to pray that same prayer for each of you. Just contact me by using the comments section below or email me at dspurkey@midrivers.com. I have believed for several years God wants to bring revival to America. I also believe it will start with a few faithful souls who will commit themselves to complete, unwavering, unbendable, sold our, God loving, evangelically minded, preaching of the gospel to any who will listen. I’m currently praying for one man who will join with me in my home town in that endeavor like Jesus sent out His disciples two by two. I have already gone into my neighborhood attempting to do it by myself. While God’s prophets usually stood entirely alone (and I am not a prophet), usually two or more working together, who are of one mind, are a more powerful ministry than one man working alone.
If you are reading this lesson, please join with me in praying daily and fervently for revival in America; and I believe for that to happen, we must also pray that Christians all across this land will renew their commitment to be faithful servants and stewards of the gospel message (I Cor. 4:1). And that’s God’s word for us today.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Is God Love?
December 4 (I John 4:8)
One of the most heinous mistakes we make as teachers of God’s word, at least in my humble opinion, is our horrendous use of the English language. Second only, of course, to our propensity to take a statement entirely out of context or without including its context. See what I mean. That sounds like I said the exact same thing using different words. Allow me to explain. To take something out of its contextual setting for the purpose of misleading others as to its true meaning is a disgusting act of folly. Failing to include the context often leads to an unintentional misunderstanding, but isn’t done for that purpose. If we were to conclude “love is God” for example, we would be idolaters. And to conclude from the context surrounding the phrase in I John 4:8 without consulting the thousands of other verses about the nature of God is an irresponsible example of really bad expositional teaching. It is taking the verse out of context in the worst sense.
God is an extremely complex being with more characteristics to His overall nature than I could begin to expose here. Certainly scripture makes it clear He is love, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control from just two verses (Gal. 5:212, 23). But we also discover, if we’re willing to do a little searching the scriptures, He is a God of great wrath, perfectly just, capable of immeasurable anger, all powerful, condemning, sarcastic, humorous, all knowing, intolerant, jealous, and unbendable when it comes to the solution to man’s state of sin. Most today who claim to be Jesus’ disciples think He demonstraes His love in everything He does. In a sense, that is actually true. However, what those same people often forget is that He demonstrated that love for Israel by destroying Egypt and Pharaoh and his entire army. In other words, even in His wrath He is demonstrating His perfect love. Of course, if you are on the wrong side of that love, you won’t be a happy camper.
So, while it is true that God is love, it is not true that God loves everyone. Just as God’s omnipresence means He is everywhere, it does not mean He is a rock. Sorry, bad analogy, since Jesus is figuratively referred to in scripture as “The Rock.” I’m relatively sure you still get the point. It is critical for our understanding of God that we realize He, unlike man, is a perfect harmony of all of His characteristics at one time. He never becomes angry unjustly. He is always righteously indignant when He becomes angry; unlike man, who often becomes violently angry about anything that is of the slightest irritation to him. God is perfectly just, which means every single being (man, woman, or child) on the planet will be condemned to eternity in hell who fails to submit himself to God’s only plan for man’s sin. I won’t attempt today to deal with the theological quagmire that suggests every child under the age of consent (I’m not sure where anyone got that term) will go to heaven if he dies before he reaches that age. Far better theological scholars than me preach that idea. I just don’t believe it has much support in scripture.
I heard a preacher once suggest most would want to have nothing to do with the God of creation if they really knew Him intimately. That’s kind of a weird statement, but there is biblical support for the idea. Jesus said to the crowds that were following Him to think about their reason for following Him in John 6:26, 27. At one point when the crowd was told the cost of following Him, many returned from doing so. I know I keep beating this dead horse to death, but it is of gigantic concern to me the number of people who call themselves followers of Christ, some claiming to have been such for decades, who think He has only one or two characteristic to which they cling for dear life. He is the God of love; He is patient and kind and gentle and good. But he is the Master Who demands his children be separate from the world around them. He demands His children give up everything to follow Him. He demands His children spend time each day talking with Him and getting their daily walking orders. I’m always puzzled how so many get up each morning just in time to get dressed, grab a bite, and run out the door for the car which they frantically drive to work. I don’t know how they think their day will be anything special when they haven’t even bothered to speak with their Father yet. I don’t understand how they think they’ll have their priorities straight when the only thing they have considered before they get to work is whether or not they are going to be on time.
I’m relatively sure God finds such lack of discipline in our lives both humorous and sad. I know without question He wants us to begin each and every day with a significant amount of time speaking with Him and listening to Him as He speaks to us. I know He is pleased, though I don’t think the timing for studying His word is as critical as a quiet time of prayer, if we start every day reading scripture until He tells us something new from it. For some a significant amount of time reading and study will be ½ hour. For others it might be two hours. For some, it will be four or five hours. The point is that everyone should ask themselves how believable a confession of love would be if their spouse got up, got dressed as fast as he/she could, ran to the dining room for a quick breakfast, and was out the door before he/she made any attempt to communicate anything significant to us or hear anything significant from us.
Tomorrow I’m going to spend some time writing about what it means to be diligent to show ourselves approved unto God. For today, I’ll close with this thought. Jesus, as our example, often went off to a quiet place to pray. Jesus, the King of kings, the Master of the universe, the one and only Son of God, the Lord of lords, found it essential to go off somewhere quiet on a regular basis to pray. I’d like to humbly suggest, if more of us did that, a whole lot more people would see those greater works than His we are supposed to be doing. And, of course, the greatest work of all is to reap the harvest of a lost soul. And that’s God’s word for us today.
One of the most heinous mistakes we make as teachers of God’s word, at least in my humble opinion, is our horrendous use of the English language. Second only, of course, to our propensity to take a statement entirely out of context or without including its context. See what I mean. That sounds like I said the exact same thing using different words. Allow me to explain. To take something out of its contextual setting for the purpose of misleading others as to its true meaning is a disgusting act of folly. Failing to include the context often leads to an unintentional misunderstanding, but isn’t done for that purpose. If we were to conclude “love is God” for example, we would be idolaters. And to conclude from the context surrounding the phrase in I John 4:8 without consulting the thousands of other verses about the nature of God is an irresponsible example of really bad expositional teaching. It is taking the verse out of context in the worst sense.
God is an extremely complex being with more characteristics to His overall nature than I could begin to expose here. Certainly scripture makes it clear He is love, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control from just two verses (Gal. 5:212, 23). But we also discover, if we’re willing to do a little searching the scriptures, He is a God of great wrath, perfectly just, capable of immeasurable anger, all powerful, condemning, sarcastic, humorous, all knowing, intolerant, jealous, and unbendable when it comes to the solution to man’s state of sin. Most today who claim to be Jesus’ disciples think He demonstraes His love in everything He does. In a sense, that is actually true. However, what those same people often forget is that He demonstrated that love for Israel by destroying Egypt and Pharaoh and his entire army. In other words, even in His wrath He is demonstrating His perfect love. Of course, if you are on the wrong side of that love, you won’t be a happy camper.
So, while it is true that God is love, it is not true that God loves everyone. Just as God’s omnipresence means He is everywhere, it does not mean He is a rock. Sorry, bad analogy, since Jesus is figuratively referred to in scripture as “The Rock.” I’m relatively sure you still get the point. It is critical for our understanding of God that we realize He, unlike man, is a perfect harmony of all of His characteristics at one time. He never becomes angry unjustly. He is always righteously indignant when He becomes angry; unlike man, who often becomes violently angry about anything that is of the slightest irritation to him. God is perfectly just, which means every single being (man, woman, or child) on the planet will be condemned to eternity in hell who fails to submit himself to God’s only plan for man’s sin. I won’t attempt today to deal with the theological quagmire that suggests every child under the age of consent (I’m not sure where anyone got that term) will go to heaven if he dies before he reaches that age. Far better theological scholars than me preach that idea. I just don’t believe it has much support in scripture.
I heard a preacher once suggest most would want to have nothing to do with the God of creation if they really knew Him intimately. That’s kind of a weird statement, but there is biblical support for the idea. Jesus said to the crowds that were following Him to think about their reason for following Him in John 6:26, 27. At one point when the crowd was told the cost of following Him, many returned from doing so. I know I keep beating this dead horse to death, but it is of gigantic concern to me the number of people who call themselves followers of Christ, some claiming to have been such for decades, who think He has only one or two characteristic to which they cling for dear life. He is the God of love; He is patient and kind and gentle and good. But he is the Master Who demands his children be separate from the world around them. He demands His children give up everything to follow Him. He demands His children spend time each day talking with Him and getting their daily walking orders. I’m always puzzled how so many get up each morning just in time to get dressed, grab a bite, and run out the door for the car which they frantically drive to work. I don’t know how they think their day will be anything special when they haven’t even bothered to speak with their Father yet. I don’t understand how they think they’ll have their priorities straight when the only thing they have considered before they get to work is whether or not they are going to be on time.
I’m relatively sure God finds such lack of discipline in our lives both humorous and sad. I know without question He wants us to begin each and every day with a significant amount of time speaking with Him and listening to Him as He speaks to us. I know He is pleased, though I don’t think the timing for studying His word is as critical as a quiet time of prayer, if we start every day reading scripture until He tells us something new from it. For some a significant amount of time reading and study will be ½ hour. For others it might be two hours. For some, it will be four or five hours. The point is that everyone should ask themselves how believable a confession of love would be if their spouse got up, got dressed as fast as he/she could, ran to the dining room for a quick breakfast, and was out the door before he/she made any attempt to communicate anything significant to us or hear anything significant from us.
Tomorrow I’m going to spend some time writing about what it means to be diligent to show ourselves approved unto God. For today, I’ll close with this thought. Jesus, as our example, often went off to a quiet place to pray. Jesus, the King of kings, the Master of the universe, the one and only Son of God, the Lord of lords, found it essential to go off somewhere quiet on a regular basis to pray. I’d like to humbly suggest, if more of us did that, a whole lot more people would see those greater works than His we are supposed to be doing. And, of course, the greatest work of all is to reap the harvest of a lost soul. And that’s God’s word for us today.
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