So, I have been doing more than a little thinking about Jesus Christ and the last 2000 years of human history (probably my two favorite subjects), and something has become very real to me. When the true Gospel and truths of Jesus Christ are lived and breathed out in a society, the society itself tends to shifts its values, morality and productivity. The problem is, most of modern Christianity and the secular world has an impossible time understanding what the true Church of Jesus Christ is throughout history. Much of it gets blurred in the lines of history as what Christianity is to the eye of the historian is simply a name one group of people in one culture might label itself. Its the religion of this people group or that people group throughout history, or its that institution in that culture, or its that nations 'official' religion. What our modern world needs to know is that what the Christian religion is has nothing to do with what one person or groups of persons might call themselves or what one institution professes to be throughout history. No, no, no. This is such a terrible misconception. The true Church of Jesus Christ is the people who have been called by God at one point or another in history to do the will of God and by the grace of God are the living body of Jesus Christ on the earth. Now, does that body hate, kill, promote greed and idolatry? Does the New Testament allow for a church of luke-warm half-hearted people serving God only in word? Does the true church leave the world as they found it?
I find absolutely no room for such a Church in my Bible, do you? No, I think you will find throughout most of our history that there are many tares sowed into the wheat fields and often those tares have consumed the wheat field, leaving only threads of the true teaching of Christianity alive. I think if you really begin to look at history, there are very few times that the Church that looks most like the New Testament says it should look is not persecuted, even often persecuted by the professing church as a whole. This is just the truth of our history. Now, is this somehow surprising? Not at all if you have read the New Testament all the way through. Let us look at just a few of the many passages that speak directly to the falling away of the professing church:
Matthew 13:24Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: 25But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. 26But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.27So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? 28He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? 29But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. 30Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.
And continued:37He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; 38The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; 39The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. 40As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. 41The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; 42And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 43Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
1 Timothy 4:1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, 3 forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
2 Timothy 3:1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! 6 For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, 7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
2 Tim. 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 5 But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
Philippians 3:17 Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. 18 For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: 19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things.
Virtually the entire book of Jude: Jude
Galatians 1:6 I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, 7 which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.
This is just the beginning of the passages I could point to about this, but there is little doubt that not only is there foretelling of what is to come in these latter times (and I think it can be relatively easily stated that by most references of 'latter times' in the New Testament it is meant the times after Christ) but also in the apostles letters, the direct rebuking of the very present falling away that is already occurring. And remember, that many who cry 'Lord, Lord' will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven, no, its those who have made themselves as children before God and come to Him on bended knee and have been transformed into Christ's likeness and born the fruit of that in their lives. Unfortunately, while the New Testament explicitly lays these things out there, when asked about some of the things people might have done under the guise of the Christian religion, we quickly say, "well yea, the church has messed up in its history"... "Ya, we are saved, but we are still sinners." Yes, we are not perfect, but do you really think a man filled with the Holy Ghost ordered the burning of thousands of people who were actually trying to reform the Church? Do you really believe that the true church supported the terrible treatment of slaves and the institution of the so called "Middle Passage" once the information about these things became realized? Do you believe that the true church was responsible for the raping and pillaging that went on in misguided crusades? Did the Christ Jesus full of Love, mercy and grace dwell in the hearts of these men? Certainly not! I would use more forceful language in person.
No, the true Church members of the body of Christ were dying as missionaries in far off lands. Many of the true Church members of the early centuries were slaves in the Roman Empire as over 1/3 of the empires population were slaves; why do you think Paul spends several sections of his letters discussing this? Christianity has been and will always be a religion for the oppressed, even when the oppressors profess something of the Christian religion. The true Church was actually selling their bodies into slavery in the first several centuries so that they could buy others out of slavery and show the hands and feet of Christ to the those in bondage. The true Church was the driving force behind the emancipation of slavery in both England and in America. This is Christ's body, redeeming the world from the curse that it has been under since the beginning of human history. The curse that almost immediately manifested itself in what one old Christian has called "the combination of all human vices rolled up into one," slavery. I find it somewhat remarkable that this is one the greatest marks of the Church.
Now, today, you will find more slaves on this earth in many places where the gospel is not well known, and while Christ has redeemed and continues to redeem cultures throughout the world, turning people from the darkness of sin and death to the light of Christ (manifested in so many ways as cultures evolve under the gospel's influence), ee still face an incredible struggle not only out there, but back here as the glory of Christ's light dims in much of our culture. And what I desperately, desperately want the world to know and especially those who are apart of this Church, this Body, in this age, is that Jesus Christ has overcome the world. Do not retreat from it! Take this light out into the world! Put on the armor of Christ and stand in Him against all injustice, immorality, and all abominations to God that the world produces. The Bible gives us everything we need to know about what the Church is and is to do. Do not settle for less than what it has for us and calls us to be.
Acts 3:19Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
So, as we go, remember to call everyone to Christ, for in His resurrection, we find our regeneration and new life and as one man after another comes into the kingdom of God, Christ's body will become more and more complete until the full number of those who are called to Christ will come in. I find it very interesting and purposeful that we are called to pray for the coming of the Kingdom of God. Are you doing this with any purpose? It says in the book of Revelation that the prayers of the saints go up before God as an incense and at the time of God's ending of the days, it will be at the prayers of the Saints. I truly believe that while God has His appointed time that we do not know, it will certainly come about because the fervent prayers and activities of the saints present on earth. Is it under our control? No, but I believe with all my heart that when we as a body of Christ live out the great commision, we grow closer and closer to that day. Do you not long for this? Will you have faith? Will you pray that harvesters might be sent into the fields? Let us pray:
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven...
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
My Testimony
Some may know me well, some may know me not so well, either way, I think my testimony speaks very heavily and directly to many a person who has been raised in a Christian home. I pray that I may state what the Lord has done in my life in a way that causes you to turn to the Lord Jesus in true repentance and faith.
I was born and raised in maybe the strongest christian home I know. Three siblings who all pretty much got along incredibly well; two parents totally dedicated to raising their children in the way of the Lord the best they knew how, always willing to sacrifice all for us and always willing to teach and correct us in love. When I was 6 I began to attend a very, very strong Christian school that was and still is the most Christian 'Christian' school you'll find for 1st through 8th graders. In it, we read the bible literally everyday and were consistently taught the great truths of the Word of God. Before Christmas of my 6th year of life, our family sat down for an advent meeting; my father read a passage from Luke, I can't point to what the passage was exactly, but I know I was scared for the first time in my life for my soul. I went by my parents bed and lead by my parents I prayed what I guess is known as the 'sinners prayer'... I was not saved that day, and I know that only know looking back after 16 years of thinking I was. The words were all right, the intentions of my parent were right (although maybe a little bit to impatient to see their first son brought into the redeeming love of their Savior), but my heart was not changed and I certainly did not know what it actually meant to be transformed in my heart to serve the Lord Jesus Christ at that age. There was no counting the cost in my life nor desire to follow after Christ with all my heart, picking up my cross to follow Him.
Throughout most of my younger years, I certainly was the picture of a good Christian kid in many ways on the outside. I wanted to always please those in superior to me, I always wanted the favor of everyone around me, and the best way to have favor with people in a Christian community is to be a respectful, nice kid. In third grade I won the character award for my grade; I couldn't have been any happier. I knew this award meant that everyone thought I was such a great kid, my parents were extremely pleased, and I was all ecstatic to have some visible relic of the thing I desired more than anything else, the favor of men. However, when I was handed the award, someone told me: "Character is who you are when no one is looking." This began to weigh heavily on my heart, and I don't think it ever stopped weighing on my heart. For the first time in my life, I think I was convicted of my sin. Being the good Christian kid I was, this sin lay in the secret place, this fatality was right in my heart. When no one was looking, I was not obedient to my parents. When no one was looking, I was addicted to playing video games when my parents told me I could not. When no one was looking, I was indulging myself in all the things I was told not to. But on the outside, I was just a good a Christian kid.
1Samuel 16:7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees;for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
This was the ultimate reality of my life all the way up to my senior year in HS. I kept living and looking great to all those around me. I was smart, quick to understand God, and what He wanted and asks of us in the Bible, quick to assent to the belief in God in my mind, but none of it was in my heart. I suppressed the truth that my heart was as wicked as any murderer or adulterer, I suppressed the truth that I was entirely inclined to do none of the things God would have me do when I was out of sight of all other men. I served a god who I had created and formed in my head and in some crazy, blind way thought I served and lived for. I will tell you one thing I know about my human nature... My heart and mind are the greatest deceivers I have ever known. Satan has a hold on many a mind splitting the mind and heart, letting the mind believe God and serve Him, while keeping the heart utterly holding onto salvation in themselves, the love of the world and all that crucified Christ. What a terrible place to be in! Convinced thoroughly in your head that you have all that Christianity has to offer, but having a greater poverty of heart and soul than could ever be imagined.
Before my senior year in HS, I had one of the main idols in my heart rooted out. I loved playing sports, it was almost my entire identity in HS. I played 4 sports between my SO and JR year in HS, but before my SR year, I tore my acl in the third football practice of the year. All those things that I spent my time doing were taken away, and I was left to the loneliness and poverty of my heart for the first time. During those 6 months of recovery, the wretchedness of my sin-filled heart became more and more evident. Addiction to terrible things started to creep into my life, un-wanted and un-desired, but sin has a way of completely turning a man against himself... I believe without God and His sovereign grace, we are absolutely self-destructive, and I was certainly beginning to see this then. Half way into my senior year, I began for the first time in my life to actually search the Scriptures for myself. Starting in Proverbs 1, I began to actually read the bible for an answer. At Proverbs 23:26, I stopped: "My son, give me your heart and let your eyes follow my ways." That verse cut me to my heart, I wept several nights over reading that verse. I knew something was desperately wrong with my heart, but I had no idea how to give my heart to God. The truth was and is that most of the American 'church' has no idea what this means. I was duped into thinking I was as Christian as I possibly could be; no one told me that Christ required an entire repentance, turning from loving all the things that I love in this world to Christ. I thought slowly but surely I would just grow up in this Christian life as I slowly 'matured' in my walk. But not understanding and being blinded to the fact, that in Christ, I have my very life. Why are we so quick to gloss over Christ and His cross? This is everything. As a SR. in HS,I was convicted of my heart full of sin, but despite growing up in a bible-teaching church and home, no one was able to lead me to Christ. No one was willing to tell me that I actually needed to repent and be born of the Spirit, no one was willing to stand up and question my assurance of salvation despite the fact that the only assurance we are to have of Salvation is supposed to come from God and His Spirit testifying with our Spirit and our lives reflecting His work in us.
Why are we so quick to soften, yea even counter act the reproofs of the scriptures? I pray that we all look at the consequences of not hearing the reproofs of the word of God listed in Proverbs 1:24-33... "How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you."(Proverbs 1:23-24) Read on! These are our eternal souls we are dealing with, it is foolish not to think and ponder over these things.
I went on, thinking that in being sincere about sin with others, sincere about who I was, maybe I could figure this out. My life did not change one bit, I slowly slipped back into my comfortable 'Christian' life. By the time I went to college, I was excited about the opportunity to serve my god in college. I had even gone to China and back to share this god of mine with others, I thought I was starting to discover and get closer to God, but when I got alone, I was still desperately alone. I was empty. I was in complete denial of God in my heart, even though my head believed otherwise. In college, sincerely I pursued this god I had known in my head. I tried to read my bible, I tried to go out and pray. All the time living in sin, living in addiction to some terrible things. Proclaiming and professing Christ, while holding on with all my heart to so many things that I loved in this world. I did not want to go out and get drunk, but I certainly was not seeking God with all my heart, which is a prerequisite to finding God according to Jeremiah. I was a walking hypocrite, calling myself a follower of Christ, but having no cross to carry.
By the beginning of my Sophomore year of college, I was again confronted with my hypocrisy. Again, thinking I was still a Christian, I said to myself: "well, I will follow God, but I still want to have a girlfriend, popularity, and success and honor in men's eyes." This is utterly contrary to what the word of God teaches a follower of Christ should be, but every voice I heard that was a part of Christianity absolutely affirmed me, maybe subtly, but definitely affirmed me in my 'balanced' approach to my walk in Christ. It was not a matter of doing things, giving stuff away, even praying or reading my bible, no it went much deeper. I did all those things, I went on the mission trips, went to a Bible-preaching church, even did alot to defend my faith, read books, gave money and time to help people out... But deep in my heart, I was desperately addicted to this world, sin, self-righteousness, Christ was far from my heart. Its amazing to me, looking back on it, that I could think so absolutely little about Jesus Christ and still call myself a Christian. If we are not completely enamoured with Him and Him alone, we have missed Him; He is our very life if we are actually in Christ, "For you have died and your life is hid in Christ."
After a year of seeking self-gratification while giving total mental assent to the Lordship of Jesus in my life, I came to crashing, face-planting, halt at the end of my sophomore year. Everything fell apart, I was lost, broken, everything that I had made my idol ahead of Jesus was rent out of my life in violent succession. Yet, still, I had absolutely no inclination that Christ was not the center of my life, I had no idea that I had absolutely missed Jesus somehow after 20 years of hearing Him preached and taught by everything I was around. How is this possible? I am certainly foolish, but I have a hard time believing that someone did not soften the sword of the Word of God along the way when telling me about it. I fear more than anything, that I was no different at that time in my life than literally everyone I found myself around. Some people lived differently than I did, but there was no one who I knew that consumed themselves with Christ. The biggest and deepest roots of my heart at this point in my life were very literally ripped out, my heart lay open, oozing with self-pity, depression, and all kinds of stuff. I am sure many have known the sorrow of the heart when you realize that many of the pillars and pleasure you built your life on in this world were swiftly and easily knocked out from under you; what a terrible stat many of us live in!
I spent the next 6 or 7 months in state of some depression and some anguish, still living in terrible sin but unaware of the consequences of it. Total depravity had not quite set into control my life, but I was teetering on the edge. Everyone has their own secret sins if they know not Christ in their heart, mine began with laziness and spread into all kinds of addiction and up until the second semester of my JR year, I actually thought they were not that big of a deal, mostly because no one knew about them, or at least how bad they were. Finally, after not turning at all the rebukes and convictions that the Lord had sent my way over 4 years, I fell extremely hard on my face into a terrible addiction to gambling my second semester of my JR year (Spring of 2008). It began in laziness, luke-warmness, but in God's good mercy, He let me fall, fall and fall.
I don't even wanna tell you the depths to which I fell, the shame and desperation of a wicked heart is unbelievable. I fell and fell until a year later, after spending a semester out of school because of this addiction and many other spawns from it, I met someone who literally for the first time in my life showed me a different way. Somehow, after all this, I still thought of myself as a Christian, do you see the deceitfulness of the human heart? We are not saved by grace through faith to live in continual addiction and self-destructive behaviour in complete defiance to God, but instead to do the good works that God has prepared for us in advance. Christmas of 2008 I met a man who not just in word, but maybe even more so in earnestness and passion of heart showed me that there was much, much more to the Christian faith than I had been living out in my heart. From that day, I began to question my own salvation, sometimes not really worried about it, but still it was in my mind. "What this person has and what I have are absolutely, completely different, yet I call myself a Christian just like him." I began to listen to some salty preaching that my sister had given me, and although I was not convicted of just how desperately I needed Christ, I definitely started to see that I had certainly missed something growing up in this 'Christian' world that I had grown up in.
For the next half year or so, God began to lead me to a place where He could meet me. I was no different in regards to my sin, but God put me in a place where I was somewhat insulated from the devastating, numbing reality of a completely tossed away life, around godly people who were pursuing the Lord. Slowly but surely, I felt my heart being tugged away from the desperate hole that I had dug myself into. The life of self-destruction and sin was becoming more and more vile to me, yet, I was still stuck desperately in it. I tried and tried to resist the addictive nature and the sin that so easily beset me, but no power in me could do anything to stop it... Just as no power in me could crucify myself on a cross, I could not rid myself of the dead and sin filled me. One week, I became desperate. I said I was sick, but I was simply just sick of my soul and self. I saw in the trueness of light maybe just a glimpse of my heart and saw how desperately sick I was, the incurable sickness of death and sin was completely filling my heart. The addiction and sin was there in abundance, and the realization came to me how much God hated it. I was doing terrible things right in front of His eyes. Have you ever realized this? His law is holy and just, yet we are all transgressors of it. He cannot take us as we are, we are wretched, sinful, haters of God. I became fearful of God that week...
T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear.
On that Sunday, I came home from church completely broken. Got on my computer and watched a sermon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiZkicY0qj8
Maybe one of the simplest sermons you will find, just one godly man quoting word for word the sermon on the mount. The sermon on the mount has a couple of purposes, but maybe more than anything else, it is there to expound on the law of God and make it so that every man is absolutely, unequivocally condemned under it. for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. I was killed that day, completely utterly cut off from any hope of overcoming and saving myself. There is no way to describe to you what happened to me that day, but I know, I died with Christ on the cross. God took me as I totally and utterly repented and put me in with Christ so that I died. I died so that I could be raised in the newness of life. I died so that Christ could live in me and through me. I died, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I died so that I could live!
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
Faith in Jesus Christ puts us into Christ. If our life is not radically different, if we do not have a hatred for sin, if we are not new creatures, then I have to ask, have we actually be born again? Its a terrible thing to miss one of the very first things Christ tells us in the Gospel of John. I hope we actually understand what it means to come to true repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, otherwise, all righteousness is as filthy rags before God, all our trying will get us no where and all the proclamations of preachers will do us no good. The Gospel is the be all and end all of our hope and life, if we have not really received and taken into our hearts, we have no life.
"Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" (2 Corinthians 13:5) A great sermon on this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky8dTyPpiAo
Do not trust in a prayer you prayed in 2nd grade. For: "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 7:21)
Ask yourself this simple question: Is Jesus precious to you? Unto you therefore which believe He is precious
Do you look to Him for your life? Is your life filled with Him, desiring His will and His holiness in your life? I pray that we fail not to search our own soul and lives to see if we really are in Faith.
And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:13)
I was born and raised in maybe the strongest christian home I know. Three siblings who all pretty much got along incredibly well; two parents totally dedicated to raising their children in the way of the Lord the best they knew how, always willing to sacrifice all for us and always willing to teach and correct us in love. When I was 6 I began to attend a very, very strong Christian school that was and still is the most Christian 'Christian' school you'll find for 1st through 8th graders. In it, we read the bible literally everyday and were consistently taught the great truths of the Word of God. Before Christmas of my 6th year of life, our family sat down for an advent meeting; my father read a passage from Luke, I can't point to what the passage was exactly, but I know I was scared for the first time in my life for my soul. I went by my parents bed and lead by my parents I prayed what I guess is known as the 'sinners prayer'... I was not saved that day, and I know that only know looking back after 16 years of thinking I was. The words were all right, the intentions of my parent were right (although maybe a little bit to impatient to see their first son brought into the redeeming love of their Savior), but my heart was not changed and I certainly did not know what it actually meant to be transformed in my heart to serve the Lord Jesus Christ at that age. There was no counting the cost in my life nor desire to follow after Christ with all my heart, picking up my cross to follow Him.
Throughout most of my younger years, I certainly was the picture of a good Christian kid in many ways on the outside. I wanted to always please those in superior to me, I always wanted the favor of everyone around me, and the best way to have favor with people in a Christian community is to be a respectful, nice kid. In third grade I won the character award for my grade; I couldn't have been any happier. I knew this award meant that everyone thought I was such a great kid, my parents were extremely pleased, and I was all ecstatic to have some visible relic of the thing I desired more than anything else, the favor of men. However, when I was handed the award, someone told me: "Character is who you are when no one is looking." This began to weigh heavily on my heart, and I don't think it ever stopped weighing on my heart. For the first time in my life, I think I was convicted of my sin. Being the good Christian kid I was, this sin lay in the secret place, this fatality was right in my heart. When no one was looking, I was not obedient to my parents. When no one was looking, I was addicted to playing video games when my parents told me I could not. When no one was looking, I was indulging myself in all the things I was told not to. But on the outside, I was just a good a Christian kid.
1Samuel 16:7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees;for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
This was the ultimate reality of my life all the way up to my senior year in HS. I kept living and looking great to all those around me. I was smart, quick to understand God, and what He wanted and asks of us in the Bible, quick to assent to the belief in God in my mind, but none of it was in my heart. I suppressed the truth that my heart was as wicked as any murderer or adulterer, I suppressed the truth that I was entirely inclined to do none of the things God would have me do when I was out of sight of all other men. I served a god who I had created and formed in my head and in some crazy, blind way thought I served and lived for. I will tell you one thing I know about my human nature... My heart and mind are the greatest deceivers I have ever known. Satan has a hold on many a mind splitting the mind and heart, letting the mind believe God and serve Him, while keeping the heart utterly holding onto salvation in themselves, the love of the world and all that crucified Christ. What a terrible place to be in! Convinced thoroughly in your head that you have all that Christianity has to offer, but having a greater poverty of heart and soul than could ever be imagined.
Before my senior year in HS, I had one of the main idols in my heart rooted out. I loved playing sports, it was almost my entire identity in HS. I played 4 sports between my SO and JR year in HS, but before my SR year, I tore my acl in the third football practice of the year. All those things that I spent my time doing were taken away, and I was left to the loneliness and poverty of my heart for the first time. During those 6 months of recovery, the wretchedness of my sin-filled heart became more and more evident. Addiction to terrible things started to creep into my life, un-wanted and un-desired, but sin has a way of completely turning a man against himself... I believe without God and His sovereign grace, we are absolutely self-destructive, and I was certainly beginning to see this then. Half way into my senior year, I began for the first time in my life to actually search the Scriptures for myself. Starting in Proverbs 1, I began to actually read the bible for an answer. At Proverbs 23:26, I stopped: "My son, give me your heart and let your eyes follow my ways." That verse cut me to my heart, I wept several nights over reading that verse. I knew something was desperately wrong with my heart, but I had no idea how to give my heart to God. The truth was and is that most of the American 'church' has no idea what this means. I was duped into thinking I was as Christian as I possibly could be; no one told me that Christ required an entire repentance, turning from loving all the things that I love in this world to Christ. I thought slowly but surely I would just grow up in this Christian life as I slowly 'matured' in my walk. But not understanding and being blinded to the fact, that in Christ, I have my very life. Why are we so quick to gloss over Christ and His cross? This is everything. As a SR. in HS,I was convicted of my heart full of sin, but despite growing up in a bible-teaching church and home, no one was able to lead me to Christ. No one was willing to tell me that I actually needed to repent and be born of the Spirit, no one was willing to stand up and question my assurance of salvation despite the fact that the only assurance we are to have of Salvation is supposed to come from God and His Spirit testifying with our Spirit and our lives reflecting His work in us.
Why are we so quick to soften, yea even counter act the reproofs of the scriptures? I pray that we all look at the consequences of not hearing the reproofs of the word of God listed in Proverbs 1:24-33... "How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you."(Proverbs 1:23-24) Read on! These are our eternal souls we are dealing with, it is foolish not to think and ponder over these things.
I went on, thinking that in being sincere about sin with others, sincere about who I was, maybe I could figure this out. My life did not change one bit, I slowly slipped back into my comfortable 'Christian' life. By the time I went to college, I was excited about the opportunity to serve my god in college. I had even gone to China and back to share this god of mine with others, I thought I was starting to discover and get closer to God, but when I got alone, I was still desperately alone. I was empty. I was in complete denial of God in my heart, even though my head believed otherwise. In college, sincerely I pursued this god I had known in my head. I tried to read my bible, I tried to go out and pray. All the time living in sin, living in addiction to some terrible things. Proclaiming and professing Christ, while holding on with all my heart to so many things that I loved in this world. I did not want to go out and get drunk, but I certainly was not seeking God with all my heart, which is a prerequisite to finding God according to Jeremiah. I was a walking hypocrite, calling myself a follower of Christ, but having no cross to carry.
By the beginning of my Sophomore year of college, I was again confronted with my hypocrisy. Again, thinking I was still a Christian, I said to myself: "well, I will follow God, but I still want to have a girlfriend, popularity, and success and honor in men's eyes." This is utterly contrary to what the word of God teaches a follower of Christ should be, but every voice I heard that was a part of Christianity absolutely affirmed me, maybe subtly, but definitely affirmed me in my 'balanced' approach to my walk in Christ. It was not a matter of doing things, giving stuff away, even praying or reading my bible, no it went much deeper. I did all those things, I went on the mission trips, went to a Bible-preaching church, even did alot to defend my faith, read books, gave money and time to help people out... But deep in my heart, I was desperately addicted to this world, sin, self-righteousness, Christ was far from my heart. Its amazing to me, looking back on it, that I could think so absolutely little about Jesus Christ and still call myself a Christian. If we are not completely enamoured with Him and Him alone, we have missed Him; He is our very life if we are actually in Christ, "For you have died and your life is hid in Christ."
After a year of seeking self-gratification while giving total mental assent to the Lordship of Jesus in my life, I came to crashing, face-planting, halt at the end of my sophomore year. Everything fell apart, I was lost, broken, everything that I had made my idol ahead of Jesus was rent out of my life in violent succession. Yet, still, I had absolutely no inclination that Christ was not the center of my life, I had no idea that I had absolutely missed Jesus somehow after 20 years of hearing Him preached and taught by everything I was around. How is this possible? I am certainly foolish, but I have a hard time believing that someone did not soften the sword of the Word of God along the way when telling me about it. I fear more than anything, that I was no different at that time in my life than literally everyone I found myself around. Some people lived differently than I did, but there was no one who I knew that consumed themselves with Christ. The biggest and deepest roots of my heart at this point in my life were very literally ripped out, my heart lay open, oozing with self-pity, depression, and all kinds of stuff. I am sure many have known the sorrow of the heart when you realize that many of the pillars and pleasure you built your life on in this world were swiftly and easily knocked out from under you; what a terrible stat many of us live in!
I spent the next 6 or 7 months in state of some depression and some anguish, still living in terrible sin but unaware of the consequences of it. Total depravity had not quite set into control my life, but I was teetering on the edge. Everyone has their own secret sins if they know not Christ in their heart, mine began with laziness and spread into all kinds of addiction and up until the second semester of my JR year, I actually thought they were not that big of a deal, mostly because no one knew about them, or at least how bad they were. Finally, after not turning at all the rebukes and convictions that the Lord had sent my way over 4 years, I fell extremely hard on my face into a terrible addiction to gambling my second semester of my JR year (Spring of 2008). It began in laziness, luke-warmness, but in God's good mercy, He let me fall, fall and fall.
I don't even wanna tell you the depths to which I fell, the shame and desperation of a wicked heart is unbelievable. I fell and fell until a year later, after spending a semester out of school because of this addiction and many other spawns from it, I met someone who literally for the first time in my life showed me a different way. Somehow, after all this, I still thought of myself as a Christian, do you see the deceitfulness of the human heart? We are not saved by grace through faith to live in continual addiction and self-destructive behaviour in complete defiance to God, but instead to do the good works that God has prepared for us in advance. Christmas of 2008 I met a man who not just in word, but maybe even more so in earnestness and passion of heart showed me that there was much, much more to the Christian faith than I had been living out in my heart. From that day, I began to question my own salvation, sometimes not really worried about it, but still it was in my mind. "What this person has and what I have are absolutely, completely different, yet I call myself a Christian just like him." I began to listen to some salty preaching that my sister had given me, and although I was not convicted of just how desperately I needed Christ, I definitely started to see that I had certainly missed something growing up in this 'Christian' world that I had grown up in.
For the next half year or so, God began to lead me to a place where He could meet me. I was no different in regards to my sin, but God put me in a place where I was somewhat insulated from the devastating, numbing reality of a completely tossed away life, around godly people who were pursuing the Lord. Slowly but surely, I felt my heart being tugged away from the desperate hole that I had dug myself into. The life of self-destruction and sin was becoming more and more vile to me, yet, I was still stuck desperately in it. I tried and tried to resist the addictive nature and the sin that so easily beset me, but no power in me could do anything to stop it... Just as no power in me could crucify myself on a cross, I could not rid myself of the dead and sin filled me. One week, I became desperate. I said I was sick, but I was simply just sick of my soul and self. I saw in the trueness of light maybe just a glimpse of my heart and saw how desperately sick I was, the incurable sickness of death and sin was completely filling my heart. The addiction and sin was there in abundance, and the realization came to me how much God hated it. I was doing terrible things right in front of His eyes. Have you ever realized this? His law is holy and just, yet we are all transgressors of it. He cannot take us as we are, we are wretched, sinful, haters of God. I became fearful of God that week...
T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear.
On that Sunday, I came home from church completely broken. Got on my computer and watched a sermon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiZkicY0qj8
Maybe one of the simplest sermons you will find, just one godly man quoting word for word the sermon on the mount. The sermon on the mount has a couple of purposes, but maybe more than anything else, it is there to expound on the law of God and make it so that every man is absolutely, unequivocally condemned under it. for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. I was killed that day, completely utterly cut off from any hope of overcoming and saving myself. There is no way to describe to you what happened to me that day, but I know, I died with Christ on the cross. God took me as I totally and utterly repented and put me in with Christ so that I died. I died so that I could be raised in the newness of life. I died so that Christ could live in me and through me. I died, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I died so that I could live!
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
Faith in Jesus Christ puts us into Christ. If our life is not radically different, if we do not have a hatred for sin, if we are not new creatures, then I have to ask, have we actually be born again? Its a terrible thing to miss one of the very first things Christ tells us in the Gospel of John. I hope we actually understand what it means to come to true repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, otherwise, all righteousness is as filthy rags before God, all our trying will get us no where and all the proclamations of preachers will do us no good. The Gospel is the be all and end all of our hope and life, if we have not really received and taken into our hearts, we have no life.
"Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" (2 Corinthians 13:5) A great sermon on this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky8dTyPpiAo
Do not trust in a prayer you prayed in 2nd grade. For: "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 7:21)
Ask yourself this simple question: Is Jesus precious to you? Unto you therefore which believe He is precious
Do you look to Him for your life? Is your life filled with Him, desiring His will and His holiness in your life? I pray that we fail not to search our own soul and lives to see if we really are in Faith.
And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:13)
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
In Christ
"We saw how prominent is the word 'I' throughout Romans 7, culminating in the agonized cry: 'O wretched man that I am!' Then followed the shout of deliverance: 'Thank God... Jesus Christ!' and it is clear that the discovery Paul has made is this, that the life we live is the life of Christ alone. We think of the Christian life as a 'changed life' but it is not that. What God offers us is an 'exchanged life,' a 'substituted life,' and Christ is our Substitue within. 'I live; yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me.' This life is not something which we ourselves have to produce. It is Christ's own life reproduced in us.
How many Christians believe in 'reproduction in this sense as something more than regeneration? Regeneration means that the life of Christ is planted in us by the Holy Spirit at our new birth. 'Reproduction' goes futher: it means that new life grows and becomes manifest progressively in us, until the very likeness of Christ begins to be reproduced in our lives. That is what Paul means when he speaks of his travail for the Galatians 'until Christ be formed in you' (Gal. 4:19)."
The above is an excerpt from Walkman Nee's The Normal Christian Life... Maybe the best book I've read besides the Bible. Anyways, I find it fascinating that after reading Romans 6, 7 and 8 at least 30 times since I was saved that I could not figure this passage out for what it really meant. I thought I knew what it meant to be 'In Christ' but I had no idea what that meant to me in everyday life.
When Paul says repeatedly "You have died" and with and in Christ to our old selves as sinners and risen again in the newness of life in Christ Jesus, he means just that. If you have accepted Christ as your saviour and been born of the Spirit, your baptism is a symbol of just that... You are dead! and now, your life is to be found altogether in Christ. The problem we all face is that we cannot ever seem to know this well enough, we constantly forget who we are really in Christ, we constantly forget Him, and we constantly make Him commonplace... He is everything, and He is the only thing we have to look to. Where He is, our life is to be found, in who He is, our life has its strength, in what He's done, we have God's grace, and in His Spirit, our lives constantly can have strength... The work of Christ on the Cross and our reception and believing in it, is more than just the blood of Christ to cover our sins, but the very crucifixion of our old selves into the body of Christ. We no longer live but in Christ. This is why it becomes such misery for a true Christian to backslide and turn to the world, absolute misery.
Also, the end of Romans 7, I believe, seems to point directly to our struggle as Christians when we know we have to live to Christ, but forget on who's strength we are to rely. It is such a common thing for us to look to 'I', thinking in us is the means for sanctification, holiness, and love, but by no means is this the case. When we recognize just how poor we are in terms of our ability to obey Christ and turn to Him, saying 'O, wretched man that I am!', and then look to Christ, we are in the Christian life. We must always know how completely incapapble this 'I' of ours is and we need always to look to Christ, to His life lived through us. Rest on Him and know that your life is not the life to be lived anymore, but Christ's life is to be lived through you, so look to Him, pray always, feed on Him, and abide in Him. This is our strength and hope, all good things are in Christ. Rejoice always, giving thanks for the truth that you are dead in Christ and alive in Him too! This is true. Now, let us know this and walk in this, the Spirit of life, knowing that we are bought to Him and it is no longer our own life that we live, but Christ's.
How many Christians believe in 'reproduction in this sense as something more than regeneration? Regeneration means that the life of Christ is planted in us by the Holy Spirit at our new birth. 'Reproduction' goes futher: it means that new life grows and becomes manifest progressively in us, until the very likeness of Christ begins to be reproduced in our lives. That is what Paul means when he speaks of his travail for the Galatians 'until Christ be formed in you' (Gal. 4:19)."
The above is an excerpt from Walkman Nee's The Normal Christian Life... Maybe the best book I've read besides the Bible. Anyways, I find it fascinating that after reading Romans 6, 7 and 8 at least 30 times since I was saved that I could not figure this passage out for what it really meant. I thought I knew what it meant to be 'In Christ' but I had no idea what that meant to me in everyday life.
When Paul says repeatedly "You have died" and with and in Christ to our old selves as sinners and risen again in the newness of life in Christ Jesus, he means just that. If you have accepted Christ as your saviour and been born of the Spirit, your baptism is a symbol of just that... You are dead! and now, your life is to be found altogether in Christ. The problem we all face is that we cannot ever seem to know this well enough, we constantly forget who we are really in Christ, we constantly forget Him, and we constantly make Him commonplace... He is everything, and He is the only thing we have to look to. Where He is, our life is to be found, in who He is, our life has its strength, in what He's done, we have God's grace, and in His Spirit, our lives constantly can have strength... The work of Christ on the Cross and our reception and believing in it, is more than just the blood of Christ to cover our sins, but the very crucifixion of our old selves into the body of Christ. We no longer live but in Christ. This is why it becomes such misery for a true Christian to backslide and turn to the world, absolute misery.
Also, the end of Romans 7, I believe, seems to point directly to our struggle as Christians when we know we have to live to Christ, but forget on who's strength we are to rely. It is such a common thing for us to look to 'I', thinking in us is the means for sanctification, holiness, and love, but by no means is this the case. When we recognize just how poor we are in terms of our ability to obey Christ and turn to Him, saying 'O, wretched man that I am!', and then look to Christ, we are in the Christian life. We must always know how completely incapapble this 'I' of ours is and we need always to look to Christ, to His life lived through us. Rest on Him and know that your life is not the life to be lived anymore, but Christ's life is to be lived through you, so look to Him, pray always, feed on Him, and abide in Him. This is our strength and hope, all good things are in Christ. Rejoice always, giving thanks for the truth that you are dead in Christ and alive in Him too! This is true. Now, let us know this and walk in this, the Spirit of life, knowing that we are bought to Him and it is no longer our own life that we live, but Christ's.
Monday, February 8, 2010
What the Lord calls to us who live in America
Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you— The sure mercies of David. Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Pure Religion
"Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."
It is weird when I look at this verse and then look at what most of the American Church has done to itself over the last 100 years: I wonder, how did two simple biblical concepts unseperated in a single verse in the Bible become completely seperated churches? I mean, completely, fundemantly opposed 'churches'...
Yes, I am speaking about what most people would call the more often than not liberal churches and the fundemental, bible-believing churches. I do not quite understand how we have to seperate social justice with personal holiness, or simple belief in the bible from being the hands and feet of Christ to the needy. I think it is simply one of those stunning, complex, yet ludicrous, politically and ideoligically driven twists you see throughout human history somehow invading the Church that is supposed to be driven only by the knowledge of God and His will.
Two quick broadsides to the divided church and their respective often politically divided camps... First, How can Christ be in you and you not have a desperate heart for the poor and needy? How can the pictures of the poor and broken souls we see all the time not drive the Heart of Christ in you to groan? Second, How does the love of Christ dwell in a body that is given over to the world? How can the love of Christ for the poor and broken souls be attached and indwelling in the body of a man that still loves the very things that cause that terrible brokeness in our world according to God? Do you see the ridiculous paradox's of these notions?
I will say, if you are not going to be firmly rooted in the Word of God, you are going to fail as a man who is supposed to be full of the Holy Spirit and God's divine love and will, but if you are going to call yourself a Bible-believing Christian, live like it and stop ignoring the texts about being rich and what kind of responsibility that puts on you if you really are indwelt by the Spirit of Christ.
Lastly, I just read a brief summary of Walter Rauschenbusch life and work and wanted to throw a quote out there by this father of the Social Gospel... And while I can not say I agree with everything the man believes, I do believe he was a sincere follower of Christ:
"If the new interest in social questions crowds out the old interest in evangelistic work, it is a reaction from an old one-sidedness into a new one-sidedness...Nothing can supersede that great experience when the soul of man conciously turns to God"
Now, the only way you are going to have regeneration and the life of Christ in a man is to preach the Gospel as it is told and presented in all its power from the Bible. So, I desperately ask, anyone who wishes to really advance the Kingdom of God on this earth, preach the Gospel in all its power and give and do all you can for those in need.
Christ in You, the Hope of Glory
This short phrase is the end of Paul's opening remarks to the Colossians after exalting Christ and stating His preeminence in all things... To me, and to Paul, this sums up the mystery and power of our Christian faith. Christ, the maker, redeemer, keeper, and reason of all creation, dwelling in us.
Simple, straight up, powerful... As Paul states over and over again, this message of Christ crucified and resurrected is the very power of God unto our salvation. So, why the dead life? Why the complacent church? And why the need for change? Twofold: First, Christ is not in much of the church and then secondly, the part of the Church He might be in, He is subdued by our slavery to the world.
The Gospel is an added on, tacked on, easy ordeal of a message. "Lets get these guys into the Church and then we'll teach them, disciple them, and train them right into being good Christians..." Brothers, this Gospel is everything. This mystery, Christ in us, should be the driving force... Christ Himself, in us, will do His will through us, if we simply will get done with ourselves. And this is what we must do if we are to turn to the power of Christ. I cannot say this enough, we must turn to God with all our hearts. Their are so many promises God gives to us if we will just turn with our whole hearts to God; let us stop deceiving ourselves and realize that no, we have never done this.
Often, I have thought of the human heart as the roots of a big oak tree which is our lives. A tree thoroughly and thickly rooted to the world. So many people, so, so, so, many people simply throw a fishing line up to Jesus from the top of these deeply rooted trees. "Here you go, I'll give my life to Jesus," while deceiving themselves with such wicked deceit; often thoroughly encouraged by those presenting to them the life of a Christian and the Gospel. Doing this, they are still desperately rooted to the world in their hearts... Altogether completely in love with the world.
This is not the spirit, the Gospel, and saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Gospel of the Cross takes a huge axe right to the very roots, the biggest roots of our hearts. The roots that are firmly rooted to this world. The Spirit takes this axe by the Word of the Gospel and attacks the roots with an almost violent force, ripping, pulling, tearing up the heart until we are broken and hurt seeing our ugly, dirty, worm infested roots. When we see this, we have two choices, put a simple salve on our ripped out roots and continue to grow more roots, hardening our hearts. Or repent, turn to the Lord of All and He shall be your Root, the Root of Jacob. This, then, becomes your life force, for out of the heart all things flow. And when Christ is that heart, ruling, the root of our lives, He waters us, keeps us, and guides us. He calls and we hear His voice. We see with His eyes and we love with His heart. And as we grow in Christ, He continues to take those roots that are still rooted to the world and roots them into His blood.
This is the power of our faith. I pray that we do not fail to see this. Turn to Him, and He will give us the love for the needy that will stun the world. Turn to Him, and He will give us the power to save the lost. Turn to Him, and He will keep you holy. I pray that we never forget the true power of the Gospel of the Cross.
Simple, straight up, powerful... As Paul states over and over again, this message of Christ crucified and resurrected is the very power of God unto our salvation. So, why the dead life? Why the complacent church? And why the need for change? Twofold: First, Christ is not in much of the church and then secondly, the part of the Church He might be in, He is subdued by our slavery to the world.
The Gospel is an added on, tacked on, easy ordeal of a message. "Lets get these guys into the Church and then we'll teach them, disciple them, and train them right into being good Christians..." Brothers, this Gospel is everything. This mystery, Christ in us, should be the driving force... Christ Himself, in us, will do His will through us, if we simply will get done with ourselves. And this is what we must do if we are to turn to the power of Christ. I cannot say this enough, we must turn to God with all our hearts. Their are so many promises God gives to us if we will just turn with our whole hearts to God; let us stop deceiving ourselves and realize that no, we have never done this.
Often, I have thought of the human heart as the roots of a big oak tree which is our lives. A tree thoroughly and thickly rooted to the world. So many people, so, so, so, many people simply throw a fishing line up to Jesus from the top of these deeply rooted trees. "Here you go, I'll give my life to Jesus," while deceiving themselves with such wicked deceit; often thoroughly encouraged by those presenting to them the life of a Christian and the Gospel. Doing this, they are still desperately rooted to the world in their hearts... Altogether completely in love with the world.
This is not the spirit, the Gospel, and saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Gospel of the Cross takes a huge axe right to the very roots, the biggest roots of our hearts. The roots that are firmly rooted to this world. The Spirit takes this axe by the Word of the Gospel and attacks the roots with an almost violent force, ripping, pulling, tearing up the heart until we are broken and hurt seeing our ugly, dirty, worm infested roots. When we see this, we have two choices, put a simple salve on our ripped out roots and continue to grow more roots, hardening our hearts. Or repent, turn to the Lord of All and He shall be your Root, the Root of Jacob. This, then, becomes your life force, for out of the heart all things flow. And when Christ is that heart, ruling, the root of our lives, He waters us, keeps us, and guides us. He calls and we hear His voice. We see with His eyes and we love with His heart. And as we grow in Christ, He continues to take those roots that are still rooted to the world and roots them into His blood.
This is the power of our faith. I pray that we do not fail to see this. Turn to Him, and He will give us the love for the needy that will stun the world. Turn to Him, and He will give us the power to save the lost. Turn to Him, and He will keep you holy. I pray that we never forget the true power of the Gospel of the Cross.
Friday, January 29, 2010
The Gospel of Trying vs. the Gospel of Dying
There is so much hustle to change the Church. The Church needs reviving, everyone who is honest with themselves can see that. The World looks at us and mocks us for our complete lack of power and ability to affect real change. The question always must be asked, are we the light and salt Christ commanded us to be?
Well, I would and most other honest confessing believers would say "NO way."
Those with an active mindset and a desperate desire to make this Church relevant today are doing everything they can to make it so. We have certainly seen the problems and know without a shadow of a doubt, this church must be revived... I see it and hear it everywhere: "Be the hands and feet of Jesus! Feed the poor and help the homeless! Do Justice and good to those in need! Dress trendy and sleak and listen to cool music! Read this new book about what this person did! Hear this story and get motivated to help those in need!" Now this is juxtaposed against what we have seen said in the church for 40 or so years in the fundamental churches in America: "Read your bible everday! Do your devotions! Go to bible study and church every week! Read this new book about growing in your faith!" And to those of us who have grown up in this church and have at some point or another had a serious falling away moment (I did) we hear: "You need to get back on track, Here is a really good book that helped me when I got down, You need to make God more a part of your life and so on..."
So many of these things are truly great things. So many of them have helped countless people and many of the people that have pursued these things do so with pure hearts and a desire to serve the Lord. But even more than the many are those who are simply blinded, herded, and swayed by all these noises. All these noises coming right out of the most Christian of all Christian places. The place on this earth that is more saturated with the Gospel and the Bible than any other place. We run to and fro looking for the answer to a dead church and more importantly our dead souls. We are so easily distracted and we are so quick to put a salve on our bleeding souls as we slowly blind ourselves with the next new thing the world or our so called Christian culture comes up with. We are in the business of doing and trying. Doing this good thing, doing this new class, giving to this great cause, reading this inspiring book, hear this great preacher, read this new translation of the bible, Go to this great church... Oh let us do and read and hear and go all around and about ourselves. Let us save ourselves from the religious deadness, moral decadance, brokeness, and spiritual impitence of this world; let us, for Christ's sake!
But Christ says, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
Stop all this doing and trying!
The reality is that in all the scrambling, we have long forgotten what it truly means to come to Christ. What does it mean that we are heavy laden? So often we consider we are heavy laden by this world, by our bad sins, by the struggles and troubles of our families and jobs, but what the essential burden we bear is ourselves. We bear the burden of absolute slavery to ourselves and our own desires, wants, hidden lusts, contriving and striving natures. The call of Christ has always been and will always be this: "If you would come after me, you must deny self, hate the world, serve only me, and come die"... The power and truest form of the gospel lies in not just the salvation and imputing of righteousness to ourselves, but even more the very death of ourselves on that cross with Christ and the very ressurection of ourselves in the power and quickening of the Holy Spirit upon that death... There is simply no other true motivation in the Gospel to do anything good outside of this... What is it that Paul speaks so strongly about in chapter six of romans? You have died! You who have come to the cross of Christ for salvation have and must reckon yourselves dead to the old flesh! No one wants to hear that. No one wants to pick up this cross and go outside the city at the scorn of all those around them, even many within our Christian culture, and crucify themselves! This is pure folly to this world...
I will tell you, this dying does not take place just once, it must take place continously if we are to grow at all in Christ. There is no dying to found in a book, no dying to be found in a good speaker, no dying to be found in giving money or time to the poor (although seeing brokeness and not running from it is a good start to see your own broken selves)... Death to self takes place all by your lonesome; in the quite and stillness of your own time as you see within you a heart that condemns you before the holiness of God and you begin to earnestly, and I mean earnestly, cry out before the Lord as John Donne did in his poem "Batter My Heart":
Well, I would and most other honest confessing believers would say "NO way."
Those with an active mindset and a desperate desire to make this Church relevant today are doing everything they can to make it so. We have certainly seen the problems and know without a shadow of a doubt, this church must be revived... I see it and hear it everywhere: "Be the hands and feet of Jesus! Feed the poor and help the homeless! Do Justice and good to those in need! Dress trendy and sleak and listen to cool music! Read this new book about what this person did! Hear this story and get motivated to help those in need!" Now this is juxtaposed against what we have seen said in the church for 40 or so years in the fundamental churches in America: "Read your bible everday! Do your devotions! Go to bible study and church every week! Read this new book about growing in your faith!" And to those of us who have grown up in this church and have at some point or another had a serious falling away moment (I did) we hear: "You need to get back on track, Here is a really good book that helped me when I got down, You need to make God more a part of your life and so on..."
So many of these things are truly great things. So many of them have helped countless people and many of the people that have pursued these things do so with pure hearts and a desire to serve the Lord. But even more than the many are those who are simply blinded, herded, and swayed by all these noises. All these noises coming right out of the most Christian of all Christian places. The place on this earth that is more saturated with the Gospel and the Bible than any other place. We run to and fro looking for the answer to a dead church and more importantly our dead souls. We are so easily distracted and we are so quick to put a salve on our bleeding souls as we slowly blind ourselves with the next new thing the world or our so called Christian culture comes up with. We are in the business of doing and trying. Doing this good thing, doing this new class, giving to this great cause, reading this inspiring book, hear this great preacher, read this new translation of the bible, Go to this great church... Oh let us do and read and hear and go all around and about ourselves. Let us save ourselves from the religious deadness, moral decadance, brokeness, and spiritual impitence of this world; let us, for Christ's sake!
But Christ says, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
Stop all this doing and trying!
The reality is that in all the scrambling, we have long forgotten what it truly means to come to Christ. What does it mean that we are heavy laden? So often we consider we are heavy laden by this world, by our bad sins, by the struggles and troubles of our families and jobs, but what the essential burden we bear is ourselves. We bear the burden of absolute slavery to ourselves and our own desires, wants, hidden lusts, contriving and striving natures. The call of Christ has always been and will always be this: "If you would come after me, you must deny self, hate the world, serve only me, and come die"... The power and truest form of the gospel lies in not just the salvation and imputing of righteousness to ourselves, but even more the very death of ourselves on that cross with Christ and the very ressurection of ourselves in the power and quickening of the Holy Spirit upon that death... There is simply no other true motivation in the Gospel to do anything good outside of this... What is it that Paul speaks so strongly about in chapter six of romans? You have died! You who have come to the cross of Christ for salvation have and must reckon yourselves dead to the old flesh! No one wants to hear that. No one wants to pick up this cross and go outside the city at the scorn of all those around them, even many within our Christian culture, and crucify themselves! This is pure folly to this world...
I will tell you, this dying does not take place just once, it must take place continously if we are to grow at all in Christ. There is no dying to found in a book, no dying to be found in a good speaker, no dying to be found in giving money or time to the poor (although seeing brokeness and not running from it is a good start to see your own broken selves)... Death to self takes place all by your lonesome; in the quite and stillness of your own time as you see within you a heart that condemns you before the holiness of God and you begin to earnestly, and I mean earnestly, cry out before the Lord as John Donne did in his poem "Batter My Heart":
Batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp'd town to'another due,
Labor to'admit you, but oh, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly'I love you, and would be lov'd fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy;
Divorce me,'untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you'enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
The Broken and Contrite
"Blessed are the poor in spirit..."
"the broken and contrite heart, O LORD, you will not despise."
"I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit."
The human heart inside everyone of us is so prideful, self-absorbed, twisted and forgetful. I have been stunned at the overwhelming twistedness and deception of my own heart even after knowing the salvation of Christ. It runs so deep in us that its truly stunning to see ourselves for what we are, but that same vision is the most blessed vision we can ever have.
To some, they may just harden their hearts, stiffen their lip, move on and try to get over that vision, but to the ones who know the salvation of Christ, we must have a poor spirit that has seen this completely twisted, nasty vision of our own heart. We are so deceptive and prideful at the core that it is absolutely stunning. Forgetful of good and ever twisting the thoughts and intents of our heart, all that we think we do with good intentions often flows from deep rooted self-preservation and the desire to appear good in front of others. Nothing the unsaved man does is from a pure heart of love towards God, the One who formed him and made him for this purpose. So twisted are we from the purpose of God that it is astounding to me. I desire, truly desire to serve my Lord and worship Him, but how rare is an unadulterated action of love for my Maker. Oh to be pure of heart, I long for this, but we must always first see our foulness and know, desperately know, our need for the Saviour and the purifying work of the Holy Spirit.
So, are you broken over not just the brokeness of this world but the total wretchedness of your own heart? Do you mourn over it with a sorrow-filled chest, carrying around a desperate cry for the Makers re-forming of your heart? Does your heart then hunger and thirst for the righteousness that then comes from Christ's redeeming work in our lives? We are a desperate case, we must see ourselves this way! It is one of the most glanced over doctrines of the process of redemption, but we must, absolutely must, know our case... Why do you think it is often so much easier for the addicts, criminals, wretchedly poor and lost people of the world to come to the cross and leave it all there? It is their innate broken lives and their glaring need for a washing. I pray that we would be ever convicted of this need in each one of our self-righteous, self-decieving hearts.
"the broken and contrite heart, O LORD, you will not despise."
"I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit."
The human heart inside everyone of us is so prideful, self-absorbed, twisted and forgetful. I have been stunned at the overwhelming twistedness and deception of my own heart even after knowing the salvation of Christ. It runs so deep in us that its truly stunning to see ourselves for what we are, but that same vision is the most blessed vision we can ever have.
To some, they may just harden their hearts, stiffen their lip, move on and try to get over that vision, but to the ones who know the salvation of Christ, we must have a poor spirit that has seen this completely twisted, nasty vision of our own heart. We are so deceptive and prideful at the core that it is absolutely stunning. Forgetful of good and ever twisting the thoughts and intents of our heart, all that we think we do with good intentions often flows from deep rooted self-preservation and the desire to appear good in front of others. Nothing the unsaved man does is from a pure heart of love towards God, the One who formed him and made him for this purpose. So twisted are we from the purpose of God that it is astounding to me. I desire, truly desire to serve my Lord and worship Him, but how rare is an unadulterated action of love for my Maker. Oh to be pure of heart, I long for this, but we must always first see our foulness and know, desperately know, our need for the Saviour and the purifying work of the Holy Spirit.
So, are you broken over not just the brokeness of this world but the total wretchedness of your own heart? Do you mourn over it with a sorrow-filled chest, carrying around a desperate cry for the Makers re-forming of your heart? Does your heart then hunger and thirst for the righteousness that then comes from Christ's redeeming work in our lives? We are a desperate case, we must see ourselves this way! It is one of the most glanced over doctrines of the process of redemption, but we must, absolutely must, know our case... Why do you think it is often so much easier for the addicts, criminals, wretchedly poor and lost people of the world to come to the cross and leave it all there? It is their innate broken lives and their glaring need for a washing. I pray that we would be ever convicted of this need in each one of our self-righteous, self-decieving hearts.
Friday, January 22, 2010
The Presence of God
Often I have heard about the presence and omnipresence of God, but rarely did I understand what that means to my everyday life. Yes, certainly the fear and knowledge of an almighty God right among us makes me think about doing something I should not be doing. However, is it not a powerful thing to really believe this?
Do we really understand the implications of this in our lives? Faith is a funny thing so often talked about but very rarely real. I know Martin Luther said at the time of the reformation that true faith was a very rare find... Today, I think we are very limiting in our practice of it. If we really believe in the presence of God, an Almighty, loving, living God, not in just some pocket or slot machine type of god, and we believe and know He truly has redeemed us and delights in us, should we not live with a blazing, freeing joy in our hearts?
I have thought about this some today as I thought about what true faith really does for a man after watching a movie that pictured a man who "walks by faith and not by sight." What if I had true faith in an all-present God? I knew I believed in such a thing, and thought it mattered to me, but thought and truth were not linked in my life. I began to really start to dwell on it, simply believing it to be true and then I realized what incredible joy that could bring me. Knowing that this God, the one who saved me out of bondage and self-life, works His will all around me and has His hands on all of creation and waits for me simply to turn to Him in child-like faith and rest in His strength. As the Bible says, "the joy of the LORD is our strength," can this not be an always true statement for us? Dwell on this, this simple, yet freeing truth and turn to the ever present Lord of all with simple faith believing in Him and know His peace. The Lord longs for us to do so; He longs for us to walk with Him.
Do we really understand the implications of this in our lives? Faith is a funny thing so often talked about but very rarely real. I know Martin Luther said at the time of the reformation that true faith was a very rare find... Today, I think we are very limiting in our practice of it. If we really believe in the presence of God, an Almighty, loving, living God, not in just some pocket or slot machine type of god, and we believe and know He truly has redeemed us and delights in us, should we not live with a blazing, freeing joy in our hearts?
I have thought about this some today as I thought about what true faith really does for a man after watching a movie that pictured a man who "walks by faith and not by sight." What if I had true faith in an all-present God? I knew I believed in such a thing, and thought it mattered to me, but thought and truth were not linked in my life. I began to really start to dwell on it, simply believing it to be true and then I realized what incredible joy that could bring me. Knowing that this God, the one who saved me out of bondage and self-life, works His will all around me and has His hands on all of creation and waits for me simply to turn to Him in child-like faith and rest in His strength. As the Bible says, "the joy of the LORD is our strength," can this not be an always true statement for us? Dwell on this, this simple, yet freeing truth and turn to the ever present Lord of all with simple faith believing in Him and know His peace. The Lord longs for us to do so; He longs for us to walk with Him.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Conviction
Do you ever feel a bitter, empty, gut check feeling that will not stop burning in your heart until you get on your face and cry out for forgiveness?
Its a terrible yet somewhat awesome thing. Its the conviction and resistance of the Holy Spirit against sin in your life. The Holy Spirit in you hates sin. Especially, the hidden sins of the heart and mind, and when you die to yourself and allow the Spirit into your life, you will quickly find that you do not just die once to your flesh, you must die continuously. These moments hurt, but they are some of the best moments of our growth. The Holy Spirit knows what is best for us and will cause such spiritual strife in your life that it almost forces us to repentance. If you are true christian, while it may terrify you, pray that the Lord may continually convict you, burn in you, batter your heart, and transform you. Create in me a clean heart, O God
Prophetic message that needs to be preached even more so 50 years laters:
A. W. Tozer - Accepting Christ:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TRqS4gkYXc&NR=1
Its a terrible yet somewhat awesome thing. Its the conviction and resistance of the Holy Spirit against sin in your life. The Holy Spirit in you hates sin. Especially, the hidden sins of the heart and mind, and when you die to yourself and allow the Spirit into your life, you will quickly find that you do not just die once to your flesh, you must die continuously. These moments hurt, but they are some of the best moments of our growth. The Holy Spirit knows what is best for us and will cause such spiritual strife in your life that it almost forces us to repentance. If you are true christian, while it may terrify you, pray that the Lord may continually convict you, burn in you, batter your heart, and transform you. Create in me a clean heart, O God
Prophetic message that needs to be preached even more so 50 years laters:
A. W. Tozer - Accepting Christ:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TRqS4gkYXc&NR=1
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Psalm 51
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness
Lord, I have fallen so short of Your way. Where can I hide from You? Where should I run to besides You? Nothing in this world will satisfy my longing soul.
According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
To whom am I going to cry out to besides You? For who do I have in heaven but You? I can only rest on the promise of Your mercy to cover over the indescribable filthiness of my sin.
For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight. That You may be found just when you speak, and blameless when You judge.
Oh my hands have betrayed me, my ears have lied to me, my mouth has forgotten thee. My heart is bitter and hardened towards thee, Oh God, break me and remake me! How can I live if my heart condemns me? How can I live if I must hide my heart from You?
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire
truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part you will make me to know wisdom.
What a wretched man that I am! I have nothing to pour out before you as the very inner recess of my being is unclean defiling anything I would offer. Oh my Lord, you look at the heart, yet I have only the heart you would give me. What can I rely on but your mercy? I have rebelled against thee even from the womb of my mother. My heart has been brought down under labor for my rebellion.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
Only by the blood. Only at the cross. Wash me from this filth. Clean me in my sorrow. The purety of even the best deed done out of me is nothing compared to the whiteness of your goodness. Your water and blood flows continually. It covers and satisfies me everday. Pour it out on me for the thousandth time so that this heart can once again feel Your presence. I long to return to Your feet.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
My soul longs for You. Renew my mind, my eyes, my ears, my heart so that I can see you and feel you and know you again. These eyes cannot see, these ears will not hear, this heart cannot feel, I need Your grace to know You. How weak and frail I am in my sin! Your Spirit and Your Word alone can free me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You.
The joy of the Lord is my only strength. The assurance of my salvation comes in the spreading of Your love abroad into my heart. Oh, I know You love me more than I can know, but oh God, how I forget and can not see it now! Turn me so I can turn others, it will be my hearts desire to see other come to my God who is so merciful and loving.
Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise.
To sing again, but my heart is stopped and my toungue silent in my shame. Only your forgiveness can free me. In your sight, before your holy eyes, my sweet savior, have I sinned. Can I sing again the beauty of your salvation, oh Jesus? By your blood, by your doing, I can.
For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart—These, O God, You will not despise.
How sweet these words are to me! I have nothing to give you. I have nothing to pay you. Never is my heart able to love you as you deserve to be loved. What can I offer you but this weak heart? Here it is. See it, examine it, open it and search it. What can I hide from you? What shall I say in your presence? You have made me and formed. I am weak and a worm, yet you made me to love. You have formed me, I have brought nothing of worth to you. Yet you desire this heart. You desire this throne of mine that is nothing but dust and ashes. I offer it to you, it is nothing to me as I am nothing without thee.
Oh my Jesus, how I need your sweet words to guide me. I have nothing but sin and death without you. Sing your song of grace to my soul again. Sweetly and softly renew me in your ways. The breaking of the dawn can not due justice to the music you sing to my heart. This heart hears it and comes, you have loved me so now I come and lay it down. Why oh Lord do you love me so? What have I done for you? You love me even though I have rebelled, you relish my heart even though it is dirty. You hear my voice even though it is selfish. You long for my turning even though I yearn towards disobedience. I deserve you not, but you have served me with your life. I have paid nothing because you have paid it all. My mouth is stopped and I come, give me a song to sing and I will sing it for all eternity. Blessed is the name of my Redeemer!
Our hearts to God and Pascal
"God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and scholars...Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy...'This is life eternal that they might know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.' Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ...May I not fall from him forever...I will not forget your word. Amen."
These are the words written by the renowned philosopher, mathematician and scholar Blaise Pascal after his conversion, or maybe better said encounter with the Living God, in 1654. I love this simple, but perfect explanation of who God is to the true believer. When His light is shed into our hearts, we know with our hearts. This faith we speak so much about is so easily put aside by many of us and is so often falsely known. You can believe rationally and philosophically and morally all you want to on the name of Jesus Christ, but you have not found a saving faith until this light reaches your very heart. And in truth, while I can tell you to seek the Lord with all your heart, and as He promises, you will find Him, only the Lord can put this Light, His Spirit, the light of true faith, into our hearts.
My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes follow my ways. Proverbs 23:26
"Now, therefore," says the LORD, "Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping and with mourning. So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and merciful..." Joel 2:12, 13
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Romans 8
Read the whole book for yourself, Romans is said to be the best book to understand the true Gospel of Christ. I do not disagree, but you should read it all for yourself and see what is to be found in it to know what it looks like to come to 1.) A knowledge of your sinfulness and complete wretchedness when you are apart from God, rejecting the knowledge of him 2.) to be totally and completely justified by grace through faith 3.) what it means to be justified and born again by grace, or regenerated through the death and then resurrection of Christ... then so on.
Romans 8 is certainly one of my favorite books and I think the heart of it gets looked over by many of us, but it almost exclusively talks about what it means to have the Spirit of God and what it looks like. Starting with verse 1:
"There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit."
Some translations may not have the end of that verse, but I think thats a shame as it simply puts what the next 20 verses or so back up. For what its worth, the majority of Greek transcripts have it. Anyways, its interesting how we can read the first part of this verse and then not read what the condition is or how that actually plays out in real life. "Who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit". So, you have no condemnation if you are in Christ, for those who are in Christ walk according to the Spirit... and backing this up: "So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God" (vs. 8). "BUT, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness." (vs 9, 10)... There are several if statements as if Paul is questioning us, is the Spirit of God in you? He is not letting us just simply say we are in Christ, but rather is he really in us? Because if the Spirit of God is really in you, there is a difference...
Verse 11: "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you." So if we have been truly saved, we have life through His Spirit. If we have come to true repentance, we no longer are slaves to our sins in this mortal body. There is a profound difference between the unregenerate, unsaved heart and the regenerate, saved, Holy Ghost filled heart. If you do not see it in your heart, what assurance do you have? "For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God." (1 John 3:20, 21). This is not about works or about doing things just to have assurance, but way more profound than that. Is your heart enraptured and captured by Christ? Is it your goal in life to grow in the knowledge (way more than just head knowledge) of Christ and God? John 17:3 says "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." The word 'know' used in the greek here can mean to be interwoven with... I like to think of it as Ser vs. Conocer used in Spanish... Ser being to know someone personally and conocer to just know about someone. We must know God in a very real sense. Do you love the Lord God with all your heart, mind and soul? This is the very first and greatest commandment of Christ, if we do not know God, how can we love God? There is so much to be said about this, but read the Book, read it for yourself.
To go on in Romans 8:12-13, "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors- not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live." Is this a reality in your life? Are you overcoming the deeds of the body, are you putting to death sin in your life by the grace of God in the power of the Spirit within you? This is a very serious question as Paul explicitly says that those who "live according to the flesh... will die"... Meaning will not see eternal life. One of my favorite sayings about salvation comes from, I believe, Leonard Ravenhill: "So your saved? Saved from what? Lust, greed, idolatry, and so on." If you are by the grace of God, one of the "sons of God" led by the Spirit as vs. 14 goes on to say, then you will overcome some sin in your life in this present age. If you are not overcoming some sin that was present in your life before you were said to have been saved, how can you say that you were saved according to this passage? How can you say that the power of an Almighty God can not work some form of redemption to righteousness in your present body? If by grace, His Spirit is given to you in this mortal body, He does not give it to us in vain. His intention is to bring us to a right reflection of His holiness (2 Cor. 3:18)... And since when, especially if you hold to the doctrines of Grace and some form of Calvinisim, has God's will been suddenly undone in this generation of 'saved' saints? How have we lost this notion?
So I am very tired of writing now, but I do not think this is even the tip of the iceberg on this. Anyways, here are some sermons if you want to look at this further and then go, read the Bible for yourself. The true knowledge of God is usually found in the secret place: "...pray to your Father who is in the secret places" (Matthew 6:6). The Lord is Spirit and he is everywhere, but often only when you get alone, away from distractions can you really focus your whole heart on Him.
One of my favorites:
So, Salvation...
Sometimes I wonder why so many in the Christian culture of America simply do not talk about there moment of salvation. Is there anything more powerful and more telling of the power, love, grace, and goodness of God than the transformation and regeneration of the heart at the moment of salvation? Why are we not sharing what God has done in us to bring us from death to life?
There are many reasons for us not to talk about it. For many who claim to be Christians or to be associated with the Christian religion, it simply is because they have never met this living God at a real level and have not come to place of true repentance and self-death. I can not do justice to what actually happens at that moment in the lives of the saints, nor can it really be singularly defined (although there is clear explanation in scriptures as to the nature of what happens from that point on). Every truly saved man has a unique, yet similar testimony.
When I hear the the testimonies of the powerful men of faith throughout the centuries, my heart is always stirred. What an awesome moment! Reading just a small portion of Augustine's Confessions makes my heart rejoice. I know its been said before, but the work in salvation, the passing from death to life, the new birth of a son of God in Christ Jesus, is not something to be taken lightly... And I fear, with whatever tiny bit of minuscule spiritual discernment I have in me, that we have, as the "Christian" community have completely debased, marred, and trivialized this work. I hear it everywhere, and I see it all the time. I cringe, debate in my heart, become skeptical, and flat out get totally twisted in a knot when I look at most of the professing church and evangelical, often even totally bible-believing, community. I wonder how can it be that so many of us who claim to be "born again" who claim to have the Spirit of holiness living in us and yet live completely indistinct or unholy lives even by the standard of a completely fallen world. I do not see how this is possible when I read the New Testament. If we have known and met this supposedly Holy and Almighty God, how is it that we are not different? There is a right and powerful question put forth by the secular world when they ask what do you have that is any better than what I have when they look at the visible church of America.
A couple of key points I want to put forth and give only in question form so that anyone who dares reads this can ask their own hearts. First, do we today treat salvation with reverence, do we hold our hope of eternal security with assurance given by more than just one verse of scripture, but rather by the entire body of the New Testament? Do we read the bible only in portions and not in whole? Is our obedience and doctrine (especially referring to what is actually taught in the church to the people) compliant to all of scripture? Especially, Is our idea of what it means to be a child of God based on what the scripture tells us about how to discern the true believers? Read the whole New Testament. Do not be satisfied by a simple one word answer or a singular verse. This is not an easy question to answer and honestly, I could barely began to answer it. But, listen to this promise and follow it! "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."
I want to put forth something that came to me after reading several books about men of faith from the 18th century, which involved heavy discussion on the mighty work of grace done in salvation and what that looked like. Its not a complete encompassing of the work of salvation, but one that was very evident and real in my life and I believe is a very applicable and biblical based understanding of what happens in the process of being born again. Again, God's working is far beyond any comprehension of mine, and I simply put this forth as a thought to be judged against scriptures and to reflect back upon yourself:
Their is a death of the self-will at the moment of salvation, an altogether giving up of any hope or salvation in and of ourselves. This is when the doors of grace are opened. This is when the path of faith is made known to us by the Spirit.
At Some point, we may acknowledge and know that in ourselves sin is very evident, and Christ is the Way to salvation. However, this is not the point of salvation, if we simply stop here and give acknowledgement to the cross as the way, we settle, we fall for cheap grace, we know not the the death of Christ in our own lives and in turn we fail to rise in His resurrection. We must come to the point where we realize there is NO OTHER way to salvation outside the grace and mercy of Christ; in other words, we have no way in and of ourselves to even grab hold of this salvation.
We must come to the point of TOTAL surrender to the will of God. Let thy will be done Oh Lord.
Search the Word of God for yourselves, I desperately ask you to do this and search it with an open mind and heart, willing to be reproofed and transformed in thought by it, for if you search it only to back up some preconceived notion you will likely find something to back it up and not look further to compare "spiritual things with spiritual things" as Paul commands in 1 Cor. 2:
Start in Romans 6:1-7
"What shall we say then? Shall we continue to sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to in live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin..."
1 John 3:14 "We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death." then... 1 John 3:24 "... And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom has given us." 1 John 5:4 "For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world - our faith." Read all of 1 John, it is certainly a good book to test yourself and examine yourself as John seemingly wrote it for this very reason.
I wish I had done a more exhaustive study, I feel very incapable of doing an exhaustive work on this, but I know it is something that must be spoken about and brought up in the heart of every person who call themselves a believer. Everyone of us must come to our own assurance that we abide in Christ and come to know our salvation in the death and resurrection of Christ. I'll post several links to good sermons regarding some of the things that I have spoken about.
Opening
I need to start writing simply to keep my own thoughts from bursting out of my heart and also to keep me from simply forgetting them.
I want a place to keep my thoughts so that they would have purpose outside of myself.
I want a place to keep my thoughts so that they would have purpose outside of myself.
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