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Category: Witnessing/Evangelism

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Identifying Our Enemies – Consider the Heart

““You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore, you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:43–48)

Who is my enemy? That is the question of the day right; or is it? For people, identifying our enemy is simple as evaluating a person’s intentions toward us. If a person is running toward you with a gun or knife, he is your enemy right? Well, maybe; their intent depends on how they are holding the weapon and what they are saying too. They may be running past you and away from an attacking enemy; on the other hand, they may be pointing the gun or knife at you as they are running toward you – usually, it’s not hard to ascertain their intent. An invading army is a more obvious enemy while a sinister group of leaders may veil their true intent to harm you with deceptive words and promises. If they intend to harm our peace, our families, our livelihoods or our future we usually deem them to be enemies.

But are they really?

In the quoted section of His sermon on the mount, Jesus pointed the listener to a problem not in the scriptures but in the way the listener interprets them. When we read the Bible context is important, often people pull verses out of the context into which they’ve been nested and develop a doctrine, belief or principal which is not biblical; but the local context is not always the only one to consider. For example, Jesus begins this teaching with a quote from (Lev.19:18), “You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord;” and contrasts it with another quote from Moses in (Deut. 23:3-6) where the Israelites were commanded to never seek the peace or prosperity of the Ammonites or Moabites because of the way they treated them as they journeyed through the wilderness away from Egypt and towards the land of promise. The people apparently interpreted those commands to mean love those who agree with you or are like you in terms of national and religious identity and hate or despise those who do not. In (v.46-47) Jesus makes it clear to His audience (then and now) that it is no great act of love to love those who love you rather, to truly offer neighborly love, love those who curse, hate, use, persecute and despise you.

That’s what Jesus did!

Lately, I have been struggling with the question of how to handle my perceived enemies maybe you have been struggling similarly. To be honest, my eyes and ears inform me that I live in a world void of justice, sense, decency, morality – void of everything but hope in Jesus. The world seems to have declared the right to be wrong and the wrong to be right or, put another way – good to be evil and evil to be good. Trust me, I could list my grievances here and chances are that many of you would see it the same as I do but to do so would only fan the flame without arriving at an answer to my question: who is my (our) enemy?

The best way to get to the answer is to consider the question from Jesus’ perspective and to get that, I would direct your attention to the words He spoke just before He was persecuted and killed – “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.”” (John 12:31–32) Satan, is the one Jesus called “the ruler of this world.”

Satan is the great deceiver who darkens the minds of people like Judas which betrayed the Lord for worthless coin. Through His Son, God has “delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.” (Colossians 1:13) As the apostle Paul made clear in (Ephesians 6:12): “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Taken with what we read in (Romans 5:10) “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life;” we get an understanding that the enemy of Christ was and is the prince of darkness.

Unpacking (Romans 5:10) we see that when we were literally hateful adversaries of Jesus Christ and captive servants of Satan (John 8:43-44) Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8). Jesus died for people conducting themselves as His enemies. Why? Because He did not perceive people to be the enemy to be defeated rather, His war was against the enemy within us – the darkness of the deceiver and knowing that Jesus came to set the captive free should change the way we see those who are adversarial, hateful and worse to us.

The answer to a world full of people who seem to hate God, His word, His people and His church is to love them anyway – not to agree with their foibles or join them in those activities which oppose God; nor to compromise for the sake of our own peace or shrink back from our mission of preaching the gospel and discipling the believer. In order to be effective in evangelizing we must do what God did when He chose David to be king of Israel – “look upon the(ir) hearts.” (1 Sam. 16:7) It’s a common saying but we need to remember that every person is someone for whom Christ Jesus died and if we can see them for their need rather than for what they’ve done we have a chance of reaching them. Above all, we have a chance of sidestepping the bitterness which will no doubt fill our hearts if we let the iniquity abounding in the world today cause our hearts to grow cold (Matt. 24:12).

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You-Turn: An Imperative for New Life in Christ

“Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying,  “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”  Mark 1:14–15

In my life time, I have changed my mind many times about many things (I changed my mind about how to begin this post at least 10 times). Changing ones mind about anything requires an investment of thought and time far greater than what is necessary to change an opinion; especially when the issue at hand and the conclusion you come to about it may radically change the course of your life. The word often present in the New Testament when a person is presented with the facts concerning Jesus Christ is Metanoia (gk) which is defined as “a call to think differently; to reconsider” which will, I believe result in a change in the way one lives. I submit that apart from a change of mind about Jesus Christ no one can be saved.

Among Christians, men like Lee Strobel and C. S. Lewis (1) stand out to me as men who after great thought changed their minds about things that until that moment were nonsensical to them as former atheists. This is not to say that the conclusions of their research led to their petition for salvation rather, it lead to them receiving the salvation which had already been offered to them by God through Jesus Christ.  They changed their minds about Jesus and ultimately, all who will ever have the eternal life which they received through faith in Jesus Christ will have to do the same.

Some will say that, regarding eternal life, one need not come to repentance but only believe the gospel of Jesus Christ but this statement does NOT seem to agree with Jesus’ words in (Mark 1:15), there the Lord said “repent and believe the gospel.” I think that His words point to things which happen together, namely that faith and metanoia or a changed mind go hand in hand and can not happen apart from each other. In other words, repentance IS essential for salvation. In fact, God’ s drawing (John 6:44) us to Himself along with the Holy Spirits convicting us of sin (John 16:5-11) and our response to those interactions, first in our heads and then in our hearts are all required if anyone would be redeemed or born again.

To my point, I’d like to identify at least six notions which I believe a person will have to reconsider in the process of their becoming a Christian.

• The notion that death is the end. The Apostle Paul wrote in (Romans 6:23) “The wages of sin is death.”  We’ll talk about sin in a few moments but what about death? None of us have ever known life apart from the fact that everyone dies. In fact the writer of Hebrews declares that ” it is appointed to men once to die and then the judgment.” Only Adam and Eve knew of life apart from death, not simply because they were the first of us and the was no one before them to die but because death in the sense that Paul and the writer of Hebrews (arguably Barnabas) spoke of it was a consequence of their sin. As a result of their sin, death became a reality in two areas of human existence: First, it was a physical death. We all die because of Adam’s sin but it is also the death of relationship with God; in that sense death is an eternal lifetime seperated from God in hell. This is the point that we need to get: Death is a portal or doorway into either eternal life with God or eternal separation from God. We will ALL live forever in one of these two states.

• The notion that living is all about you. We all have one life on this planet right? But to what end? What is the purpose of life? To be happy? To find fulfillment? Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes that man fills his life with endless futility if in fact we live simply to these ends. But His final words bring even the fatalistic views of Ecclesiastes to a powerful conclusion; He wrote

“Fear God and keep His commandments,
For this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing,whether good or evil.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13–14)

Looking to the New Testament, we discover that life is about coming to know the Savior and then declaring him to the world around us.  Jesus said, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew 16:24–26) You might say that we have been given life to come to a decision about Jesus but in (1Cor. 5:9-10) Paul gives indication that the reason we have breath is to declare Jesus to the world and in the larger Westminster Chatechism we read, “The chief end of man is to glorify God.” Life is about more than “eating drinking and being merry for tomorrow we die” its about a choice that involves faith in the Son of God.

• The notion that the Bible and specifically the Gospel of Christ is fable, myth or a product of man’s imagination. Let’s be honest, no sensible person would change their lives over fiction or fantasy. With regard to the Bible, if it is simply fable why should we accept its teachings and live by them? To address ALL the ways that the Bible proves itself to be the word of God and worthy of both our attention and acceptance would take a lot of writing; instead let me position the entire argument on one point: the ends to which the original writers went to get the message out.

First consider that the gospel is the good news concerning the kingdom of God and the way which Jesus made to enter into it. The message hinges on three things: the everlasting Son of God came into the world in bodily form (John 1:14-18), suffered and ultimately died on a Roman cross (Luke 18:33, John 19:17-18) and then three days later rose again from the dead (1Cor. 15:3-8). The why that Jesus Christ endured what He did is also important – namely He died to save His people (by extention us as well) from their (our) sin. But what of those closest to Him who declared these things first and issued what we hold today as the word of God? Those men all risked and ultimately gave their lives to declare this message. Flesh it out. Would you die for a lie? All who declared the message that Jesus died and rose again as Messiah died for doing it and many still do today and their message still rings out 2000 years after it was first uttered. It is my belief that no one will believe in Jesus Christ apart from coming to accept the Bible as truth rather than fiction.

• The notion that Jesus Christ was merely a man. How much theology must one grasp before they can be born again? There is much to know about Jesus but to be saved we need know only a few things: He has the power and authority to save sinners (Luke 5:21-24) and that by faith in Him we find forgivness of sins:

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.” Ephesians 1:7–10

This is the message they preached in the days of the early church and which we declare today:

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Acts 16:31

Paul said in (Romans 10:17) “…faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” This is where the Holy Spirit comes in as well to lead us in all truth. As I write, I’m waiting for a flight. I don’t know the people who built the plane. I don’t understand the science of aerodynamics.  I don’t know the pilots. But I see the plane and have a destination in mind so I’m going to board the plane, buckle in and trust. Likewise, we won’t know all that we can know about Jesus when we first believe but we will know that He died for our sins (personally) and that through Him alone eternal life is promised.

• The notion that we are good enough for the kingdom of God/ an acknowledgement of our sinful condition. By now you probably have recognized that the Holy Spirit is the primary vehicle to changing a person’s mind about the things we’ve mentioned (1Cor.2:10-12). Of course people play a part but if God doesn’t draw them via His Holy Spirit, they will NEVER hear us. The convicting of sin likewise is one of those areas where the Holy Spirit must work in the hearts of those who are coming to faith.

What is sin? Sin by its simplest definition is rebellion or disobedience against God. In our natural condition,  we recognize right from wrong in two ways: the inner voice of conscience which in turn is influenced by the mores of the world around us. As our world continues to “call evil good and good evil” (Isaiah 5:20) upsetting the moral fabric of the world through media and the indoctrination of the youngest among us, more and more of what God deems rebellion will be entrenched as “the way we do life” making it more challenging for us to reach the world but not more challenging for the Spirit of God.

By the word of God and the leading of His Holy Spirit a person will change his or her mind about themselves as a part of their coming to Jesus. A person who sees themselves as generally good, summarizing their goodness with phrases like: “I’ve never killed anyone” or “I’m a good person, I think” will not see their need for a Savior. Jesus Himself said to some self-righteous men,  “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” (Mark 2:17) Our self estimation will change as a part of our conversion experience. Words like the ones we find in (Rev. 21:8):  “…all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death,” really get to the point; you might not have stolen, killed or commited adultery but who among us has NEVER lied? Its not up to any man to convince another about sin, God’s Holy Spirit does that but statements like the one above along with this one in (1 John 1:8): If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us;” and (Romans 3:23) “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” make it clear that no one can claim sinlessness but Jesus Christ alone (Heb.4:15).

• The notion that God doesn’t exist. It all sort of begins and ends with this question. If God does not exist then the words of the Bible are not authoritative and the promises contained within the word are moot. Thus this question will be answered before a person can respond to faith in Jesus Christ. So, how do we know that God is alive AND actively involved in the lives of people today? For the academic and skeptic among us, using the Bible to defend the assertion might be questionable and to that end we have other proofs. Take for instance, biology. The complexities of the human body and how it functions in perfect harmony speaks loudly for an intelligent designer. ” The heavens declare,” Paul said, “the glory of God.” In fact Romans 1 and 2 speak to the proof creation itself offers for an intelligent Creator but again, some rebuff any attempt to prove God from the Bible.

It was God who loved us, and God who sent His Son (John 3:16). It was God by whom, for whom and to whom all things were made (Col.1:15). While I would not argue as Pascal did for the “vacuum or void in our hearts which can only be filled by God” I would say that many people seem driven with a desire to interact with or to worship some deity but God is not one of many, He is God alone. He interacts with both the redeemed and those yet to be redeemed through the small voice of His Spirit, through His word and through myriads of other voices and circumstances in our lives. I would say that God reveals Himself to those He is drawing but the bottom line is, in order to make that life altering decision to trust in Jesus Christ a person who has previously denied the existence of God will have changed their mind about God.

This post has been long but certainly NOT exhaustive regarding just how essential repentance is for salvation. I suppose that many apply the concept of repentance to a turning away from all sin and while turning from sin is part of it, that all begins and continues as a part of the process of sanctification.

When I became a Christian, the Holy Spirit had already been convicting me of a particular sin which I did repent of however, sin is so invasive and we are so thoroughly immersed in it, leaving them will take a life time. Nevertheless, repentance in the sense that we will have to change our minds about some key issues as a part of turning to Christ is an essential aspect to the process of believing in Jesus Christ.

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God’s Whisper – The Conversation Continues

“Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying,
“This is the way, walk in it,”
Whenever you turn to the right hand
Or whenever you turn to the left.” Isaiah 30:21

I had a moment of clarity today after reading a Facebook post from a friend concerning the question of whether or not God still speaks today. As I thought about it, my thoughts turned to a recent conversation with my son-in-law concerning the word of God which, at the time upset me a little. He insisted that the Bible is not a “text-book” and that even without it people will come to faith. I took issue with him because the word of God declares in (Roman’s 10:17) that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Which is to say that salvation involves hearing the written word of God. I believe that word is spoken both in our ears by the witnessing disciple and into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. The word the disciple shares comes from the written word and along with it the drawing word of God’s Spirit speaks from God’s heart into our own. These together work to bring a person to Jesus for salvation. My moment of clarity was in realizing that the Lord was using my son-in-law to remind me that God is still speaking today. But now, rather than a “thus says the Lord” to the masses its a “thus says the Lord ” to me.

To regard the Bible merely as a text-book is to view it on an gnostic or intellectual level only. But as I see it, the Bible is, among other things, a record of God’s interactions with mankind. The Bible itself is an authoritative record but it does not conclude the conversation. God still speaks today. His word, far from being a text book serves not only as a record but also as a proof text. As an authoritative record of what God DID say it serves as an indicator of what God WOULD say. You can be sure that any communication between you and the Lord today will NOT contradict what He has already said.

There was a time in the Biblical record when God was apparently silent, we call that time the Intertestimental Period. The 400 years between His concluding words to and through the prophet Malachi and the words spoken by the angel Gabriel to Zachariah and Mary mark a time when no word came from God.

But we insist that God still speaks today – 2022 years after Jesus walked among us; how can that be? The answer is simple, in the days of the prophets, the Holy Spirit did not indwell people; He abided ON rather than IN them. God gave and recalled His Spirit at a time of His choosing (for an example see 1 Sam. 16:14-15) but not so today. Since the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Jesus the Holy Spirit is made a permanent resident in every believer (John 14:17). The indwelling Spirit of God serves as the guarantor of our inheritance with Jesus (2 Cor. 1:22, 5:5 and Eph. 1:14) as well as spiritual teacher, mentor and enabler. About the Spirit, Jesus said:

“These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” John 14:25–26

It is by the Holy Spirit that God speaks and His conversation continues with us to this day. As I awakened to this day, a point was immediately impressed upon my spirit from God. What I heard this morning was this: you can go out and cut your lawn today and continue to maintain that which will eventually belong to someone else or you can set your mind on My kingdom and its priorities. That this was not my flesh or conscience talking is clear as my flesh is not going to demand that I share the gospel with others. Without a doubt the Spirit of the Lord was speaking.

God still speaks to us today. Through others led by His Spirit, through His word, through music and through the created world around us – God still speaks. The psalmist wrote in (Psalm 19:1-4):

“The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.
Day unto day utters speech,
And night unto night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech nor language
Where their voice is not heard.
Their line has gone out through all the earth,
And their words to the end of the world.“

Paul also pointed to the natural created world in (Romans 1) when he wrote that man will have no excuse with regard to knowing or turning to the Lord because everything He has made directs our attention toward the Creator. The wind, the waves, the hammering thunder of Niagara, a babies heartbeat, bird songs, whale calls, dolphins chatter, thunder; these are some of the voices God uses to get our attention. He is still calling, still speaking and still trying to get our attention today and His purpose in speaking to us is to call the lost to Jesus Christ- to salvation in His name and after that, to develop and sanctify the believer.

Can you hear Him? Are you listening?

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Only One Way

Nearly 20 years ago, my wife and I traveled to Corpus Christi Texas for a weekend stay. After checking into our hotel room near the waterfront we set out for the flagship store of our favorite burger joint – Whataburger. It was already dark when, after settling in that we set out to fill our bellies at what is known as a Texas tradition. The streets around the hotel were under construction that year (probably still are) and it wasn’t long till I found myself going the wrong way on a one-way street. Thankfully, I wasn’t stopped and cited by the city police and more importantly I did not have a life altering meeting with someone actually going the right way on that street. As you might imagine, I quickly found my way out of that mess and headed in the right direction all the while singing to my wife (who was a little put out by my cavalier and seemingly careless driving) the words to a very famous Frank Sinatra song, you guessed it, “I did it my way!”

Believe it or not, life in this world is a lot like the layout of most city’s streets which have been designed with regard to the flow of traffic into and out of the city. Just as there is a deliberate right way and a wrong way to navigate those streets there is a right way and a wrong way to navigate life and that way has been determined by someone with far greater authority in this world – God.

My motive for this article is not to point out the right and wrong associated so much with the life style choices you and I make (that is for another time) but to point the reader in the right direction with regards to a proper relationship with our Creator. This past week, I had a conversation with a man who asked the following question: “Which religion is right, just tell me which one’s Jesus or God is the right one and I will believe in Him.”  Perhaps part of the reason for his confusion is the simple fact that the church with its many doctrines and denominations have so muddied the waters that people on the outside don’t know which way is the right way; or perhaps too many in the church have stopped pointing out the right direction altogether. When was the last time someone invited you to church instead of to Jesus?

My answer to the man was simple and straight from the Bible, I quoted Jesus’ words as found in (John 14:6): “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” He responded, “Yeah, but which Jesus?” He meant (for example), the Jesus of the Mormons, the Jesus of the Jehovah Witnesses or the Jesus of Islam. Each of these faith groups view Jesus differently and from the perspective of the Bible, erroneously. It became clear however, from our conversation that this man’s concept of Christianity itself may be incorrect. Biblically speaking there is but one way to God and that way is through His Son Jesus Christ as the words in John 14:6 make clear and yet people attempt to come into that relationship or to gain the grace of God in other ways – they are in essence in pursuit of grace but traveling in the wrong direction on an established one-way street.

For instance, Paul the Apostle made it clear in (Romans 3:20) that “by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His (God’s) sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” To be justified is to be declared righteous or good by God Who has already decreed through His word that (Luke 18:19) “no man is good, no not one” and that in fact (Genesis 6:5) “the thoughts and intentions of a man’s heart are evil only always.” We become justified through faith in Jesus Christ Whose righteousness God exchanges with our sin; the Bible says in (1 Cor. 5:21):

“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

This justification was made available through the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on the cross and apart from faith in Him it is impossible to receive it (Romans 4:5):

“But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.”

The Bible clearly says, “By grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God NOT of works lest any man should boast…” (see Ephesians 2:8-10) yet today people try to earn the grace of God. They are in pursuit of grace through their “good works” but like my wife and I that night in Corpus Christi in pursuit of the world’s best burger they are going the wrong way on a one-way street to find that grace.

Not only does the Bible declare we cannot gain the grace of God and be saved by good works, it also states clearly that salvation is not a determination of our will (John 1:12-13):

“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

This is in part where the man I was speaking to was stuck – salvation is not an act of our will alone. You might be thinking “Rich, what do you mean by that because it sounds like it contradicts the Bible?” There is a doctrine that teaches that man is so totally depraved that he would not nor could not ever choose to be saved. I agree and disagree with that position from Calvinistic theology. While I do agree that, like myself prior to my salvation, people do not care to know God let alone to be saved but are content to do whatever their flesh desires; I also believe that once the Spirit of God begins to intervene in a person’s life that mindset changes. Jesus said in (John 6:44):

“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

That drawing comes through in two ways which work together, the Word of God – “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17) and the Spirit of God who “when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” (John 16:8) The reality is that once the word of God and the Spirit of God begin their work in one being drawn by God to Himself their hearts may be led (as the first inhabitants of the early church were) to a time of great anguish for their souls. You may remember the response of those who heard the gospel message preached by Peter on Pentecost: “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”” (Acts 2:37) It is at that moment, when a person sees themselves as God sees him or her that he or she may come to God by faith in His Son sent for their redemption and justification. Thus, it is God and not men who initiate the process by which they can be saved.

The man I was speaking to made one more comment that I think is important at this point in our thoughts, He said, “My problem is a comprehension problem” implying that he did not know what to think or how to choose. Having  addressed much of that statement already let me say that my response to his statement identifies what may in fact be the larger problem for those struggling with the one right way. The Bible declares the problem in (1 Cor. 2:14):

“But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

Too many people put the cart before the horse when it comes to things of eternal value. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God – but, what word? What word does the natural man need to hear first? Let me just put it like this, if any person is to come to God they need to hear about Jesus – why He came and what He did. Jesus Christ is THE WAY, the truth and the life! No man comes to the Father but by Him! They need to hear about the one way to life God’s way. They need to hear about the one way to eternal life – a way blazed and made possible by Jesus Christ who left heaven for our sakes.  They need to hear about Jesus Christ who taught, literally who showed mankind what God was like. They need to hear about Jesus Christ who suffered and was tortured not because of any wrong that He had done but to satisfy the wrath of God for the wrongs – the sins WE HAD DONE! They need to hear about Jesus Christ who died for their sins and three days later rose from the dead to live again making forgiveness and power over sin available to all who believe.

Many there are in this life living the lyrics to Sinatra’s song – their way; we are called to point men to the one right way that leads to everlasting life through the gospel of Christ and the examples of our lives – point the way…lead the way…help them find the one-way that leads to a relationship with Almighty God.

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Wake Up, Church! (Pt. 3) Return to Your First Works

The words of Jesus to the Ephesian church in (Rev. 2:4-5) needs to be heard by the church today:

“Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.”

The Ephesians had let their orthodoxy and legalism get in the way of the mission of God – have we? Just as marriages fail because the fighting over whose right outweighs fighting to save the relationship; speaking truth without love (Eph. 4:15) can get in the way of the point of the truth we are trying to communicate. The problem did not come upon the Ephesians suddenly but was a systemic leftover of their sinful nature rising up in them. As Paul was developing that church he wrote in (Eph. 4:31-5:1): “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God in Christ has forgiven you…walk in love, as Christ also has loved us.”

Look again at (Romans 13:11-14), Paul said that “the night “was far spent meaning the time of Jesus’ absence from us as well as of Satan’s work in this world was nearly finished. Whatever the conflict in our lives, it is ALWAYS darkest before the dawn. Its true, the final push whether in the boxing ring, on the field of competition, on the track or in military conflict is always the hardest. The enemy of God will fight hardest when his day is at hand and the Lord’s return is on the horizon; we therefore must be ready for the fight and as Paul said, “cast off the works of darkness.” Some of those works may be the complacency, apathy, indifference or misplaced zeal which control some believers today. Our lust, our desire to have things our way is dulling our senses and making us less that ready in these days to rescue the perishing. Paul says. “let us walk properly, as in the day – not in strife and envy.”

In a similar message spoken to the Colossian church Paul wrote:

“Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time….(Col. 4:5) adding in (Eph. 5:16) “because the days are evil.”

Redeem the time…how? Paul said it in (Phil. 2:5):

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus…”

As we wrap it up today, I want us to consider the passion of Christ.

Jesus Christ left heaven to dwell among men. He minimized His glory and hid it within the frame of human flesh. He humbly allowed men to handle Him, talk to Him, question Him. He allowed their mistreatment against Him – their accusations, their attempts to harm Him and their mischaracterizations of who He was and why He had come. He allowed them to beat Him, literally ripping the flesh from His body – He did not fight back and as a sheep led to the slaughter so He opened not His mouth (Isaiah 53:7). He allowed them to spit on His face and tear out His beard. He allowed them to nail Him to a cross and raise Him up in their hatred, scorn and unbelief. He allowed this because His passion for the will of His Father and for those who would ever believe in Him was greater that His concern and passion for His own life.

Remembering that when Jesus did these things, we were all enemies of God (Romans 5:8,10) whom God nevertheless loved so much as to sent His Son to die for, His example serves as the best model for us today. His passion for you and for me outweighed His passion and zeal for Himself – He put aside every privilege and right belonging to Him as Creator of everything for us.

As we move forward church – let His example, His mindset change and become yours.

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Wake up, Church! (Pt. 2) Remember Why You Are Here

In (Romans 13:11) the apostle Paul appeals urgently to believers to wake up – to snap out of our stupor; those words were meant to shock his audience who like many of us were preoccupied more with the here and now than with the eternal. If the final salvation of believers was perceived to be nearer them then than when at first they believed, how much closer is it today- and how much further from being prepared for it are we than they were? I don’t mean to say that a believer can be MORE prepared to meet Jesus than to believe in Him rather, what I do mean is that believers have grown slack in the thing that we are to be MOST about today! Did not Jesus Christ Himself give a command to His followers to “occupy,” literally to “do business till (He) comes“? That is not a reference to the retail business but to HIS business! Today, many of us seem much more preoccupied with the world around us than with the kingdom of God today.

What one eternal concern ARE WE to be preoccupied with in these days?

Paul identified it in (v.8 of Romans 13) “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.”  There is no caveat here. No – love them only if they agree with you or only if they love you back. Jesus said “love your neighbors” (Matt. 22:39), “love your enemies and those who spitefully use you” (Matt. 5:44) and “do good to those who hate you.” Today, division in our land is thicker than a 50oz T-bone steak; and love seems to be in short supply. In his prophetic warning concerning the last days, Jesus said, (Matthew 24:12) “And because lawlessness (or iniquity) will abound, the love of many will grow cold.” That is more than just a prophetic remark and indicator about the future, I believe its a warning to believers in every age and ESPECIALLY today! If we let our passions and zeal for what we love to get in front of our passion and zeal for God our love will not only grow cold toward our neighbor but by extension it will also grow cold toward God. Tell me that when God’s word clashes with your inclinations and passions that you DON’T shut out His words…

Right now, you may be thinking, “but, I DO love my neighbor!” And I would reply, “how do they know?”

Who have you been Christ to this week? Do they know that you love them from your attitude and words about current events or your angry posts on social media? My friends, the church is majoring on the temporal and frankly minoring or failing in the thing we were actually called to be passionate about – the souls of men! One hymn shouts, “Rescue the perishing!” In the process of doing that, Jude says, “And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.” (Jude 22–23) Jesus said, (Matt. 28:18-20) “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Believer, why are you here? To enjoy the freedom and rights you own as a citizen of the greatest country on earth or to share with others the only hope of freedom from bondage to sin and forgiveness with God through His Son Jesus Christ?! Even Paul said, that it was for the sake of the sinful man or woman that we remain here to reach (1 Cor. 5:9-10); otherwise there would be no reason for us as believers to continue in this life.

Many of us are so CONSUMED with temporal passions and zeal that we have forgotten the need of the souls among whom we live. Understanding that we live in a fallen world which will ALWAYS be HOSTILE towards God and recognizing that perhaps we have allowed passion for what we love to cloud our minds from the reason for our being here, we will go on in the last segment to address the question – what can we do about it?

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Wake Up, Church! (Introduction)

“And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.” (Romans 13:11–14)

Just when you didn’t think that things could get much worse than they had been for nearly all of 2020, a new level of craziness surfaces only a few days after we welcomed the New Year. To be fair, everything is a matter of perspective. While Covid and the draconian way that leaders of cities, states and even our nation worked to take advantage and manipulate the situation to advance their own agendas we saw opportunities to develop new ways to minister, opportunities to work on relationships with our children and spouses and opportunities to serve those in need among us.

One of the “slogans” that came from the church as we developed a “stay home, stay safe” approach to continuing worship services on-line instead of in person was this one – “the church has left the building.” That statement really bothered me because I deeply believe that the church, that is, the living organism called the ecclesia, the fellowship of the saints and the body of Christ was NEVER meant to be constrained by four walls! In saying that, I am NOT saying that we SHOULD forsake the assembling of ourselves together (Hebrew 10:25) but I AM saying that nowhere in the scriptures are we called to stay within the four walls of our church building and wait for those outside to come to us. Nevertheless, many believers are and have been content for a long time to limit the activities that they associate with church to what happens on the INSIDE of a building. That should not be and I say along with Paul that it is “high time to awake out of [our] sleep!”

To be fair to the context of (Romans 13), (v.11) concludes Paul’s exhortation that believers obey the governing authorities but to me, the the notion that Christians need to “wake-up” is a general statement applicable to every aspect of Christian life. Time is short – the Lord’s return is much closer today that ever has been before and we need to be about His work with more intensity and a greater sense of urgency than ever before as well.

As it happens, these words were laid on my heart the day after the craziness in the capitol took place. Again, and to be fair, craziness seems to be an ongoing problem in our nation and among our leaders but what I saw that day blew me away.  Let me first say to you that I am a patriot! I love my country! My mind and my heart have been full of emotion over the last year as I have seen freedom, the flag, our rights as Americans, our shared faith etc., trampled upon. As I, like many of you watching from our living room TV sets saw the riots, fires and looting taking place in many cities around our county in the name of social justice over the previous year in addition to the mayhem in DC last week, my anger stirred and zeal for my nation was driving it. However, a few months back, after expressing some of my own frustrations on such things on social media and noting that bitterness was filling my heart, the Lord began to remind me of a few things that I feel we all need to remember today – one, we live in a fallen world and two, we need to redirect our zeal.

Over the next few days I hope you’ll bear with me as I unpack what the Lord laid on my heart concerning a godly approach to the days in which we live…

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Overcoming the Thorns

Recently, a question came up during a Bible study I was participating in related to what we as Christians are to do with regard to all that is happening around us. Of particular concern was our response to our state, local and federal leaders concerning the Corona virus as well as our position concerning the ongoing protests throughout our land.

The first thing that comes to my mind concerning the question is the fact that most, if not all of us are easily overtaken by the cares of this world. You might remember the words of the Lord as He taught the parable of the sower and the seed, when he referred to the seed which had come up (or taken root) among thorns, He said:

“Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.” (Mark 4:18–19)

Many things distract the follower of Christ from the course He has for them to follow. Our flesh craves and lusts for more, and more, and more of everything – of wealth, prestige, respect, notoriety, attention, the things other people have and our flesh fears many things as well. The cares of this world can drive us into a panic and in our struggle to make sense of a world that makes no sense: we worry, we lash out, we panic and we disregard the One who saved us. All our discontent, our desires to have more and all our fears end up accomplishing is a lack of productivity regarding the one thing every follower of Christ still walks on earth to accomplish – the making of disciples not of ourselves but of Jesus Christ.

A lot of people are so focused on the signs of the times these days, they see the fulfillment of prophecy in things happening today. They are focused on the first few lines of (Matthew 24) concerning “wars and rumors of wars,” “nations rising against nations,” “famines, pestilences and earthquakes in various (or diverse) places” failing to note that little remark in (v. 8) “All these are the BEGINNING of sorrows.” The fact is that the above has been the state of the world since the days that Christ walked among men; even the persecution of believers and abounding lawlessness of men has been with us since those days. Jesus continued, saying that because of lawlessness, “the love of many will grow cold” – how can that happen? How can Christian love grow cold? I suggest that the cold love Jesus mentions is evidence of people whose hearts of love and compassion have been choked by the cares of this world – people who are out of step with the Lord’s plan.

Christians are a people on mission and the mission is clear – preach the gospel!

“And He (Jesus) said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15)

What? You’re not a pastor, minister or missionary – that is NOT a prerequisite for the mission before us! We all are to preach with our words AS WELL AS our lives and every Christ follower is tasked with the same mission: (Matthew 28:19) MAKE DISCIPLES! Note what is said in (Matthew 24:14):

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”

Did Jesus mean to say that every person in every place on the planet will have to hear the gospel before He returns? No, He was actually pointing to the 144,000 Jews appointed in (Revelation 7:1-8) to be witnesses, carrying the message of the coming kingdom over which Jesus Christ will be King just before that kingdom would be established. But the verse also serves as reminder to the believer of what he or she ought to be about today – pointing the way to Christ!

The days in which we live have provided opportunity for us to either lash out against or love others. To those on whatever side who believe that ______ (fill in the blank with your choice) lives matter, we have an opportunity to show that, by His death and resurrection Jesus Christ declares that all lives, every life matters.

“By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Hebrews 10:10)

“For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.” (Romans 6:10)

“Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.” (Hebrews 9:12)

Not only that but to those who are in fear of death concerning the virus (trust me, I understand that no one is in a hurry to die) we also have a message of hope. You see the fear of death is seated in a lack of faith:

“Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” (Hebrews 2:14–15)

The bondage mentioned above is a bondage to fear and, in our day and time, the fear of death is couched in the notion that after death there is nothing.  But Jesus rose again after He was killed and He yet lives today as both the first-fruit of those who died (see 1 Corinthians 15:20) and proof to the fearful that there is in fact, life after death. Jesus said in (Luke 12:4-5):

“And I say to you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!”

Every one who has ever lived, is living or ever will live until the end of the age is an eternal soul (see Mark 9:47-48 and John 11:25-26) – faith makes the difference. Those who believe in Christ will live on in eternity with Him, those who do not believe, will live to experience the penalty of their own sins for eternity in hell.  The message to those in fear of death is plain – there is hope in Jesus Christ for every soul who trusts in Him.

What should we be doing in these days? What we should have been doing all along – reaching out to others in the name of Christ and to lead them to faith in Him by our witness.

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