Give Me That Old Time Gospel

[Soldier4Christ]

A call to fellowship - 1 Cor. 1:9

Why did God create us?  This is a deep question and theologians have been discussing it for centuries.  Let me throw in my two cents' worth.

I suspect that there are many reasons why God created us:  for His glory, to have people to love, to demonstrate His greatness, etc., and I am sure they are all true.  But, there is another one that I want to focus on:  Fellowship.

1 Cor. 1:9, "God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord" (NASB).  In Greek, the word "fellowship," is "koinonia."  It is also translated as "communion."  God wants to have an intimate communion, a close fellowship with us.  Remember the garden of Adam and Eve and when they sinned?  Who hid themselves?  Adam and Eve.  Who went looking for who?  It was God looking for them.  After the expulsion from the garden, after the flood, and at the time of the Exodus, God says to the people, "And let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them."  Again, who is seeking to dwell with who?  It is God seeking man.  Take a look at John 1:1,14 which says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth."  The word "dwelt" is the Greek "skano-o" and it also means to tabernacle, to tent, to dwell among.  Again, it is the Lord who is seeking us, who is dwelling among us. Of course, we see that we are the temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16), and this signifies that the Lord is in us and with us.

This simply tells us that God is a God of fellowship, that He desires to have people to be with and to love.  God is love (1 John 4:, and the nature of love is to give (John 3:16).  God desires that we have an intimate relationship with us through His Son, Jesus.

Do you have that intimacy with Jesus?  Do you spend time with Him talking to Him? Do you seek the relationship and fellowship with God that He desires and has manifested throughout history -- especially in the cross?

Seek Jesus.  Have fellowship with Him.  It is what God wants.

[islandboy]

Important as your task may be---
The work you must fulfill----
Be sure you keep that human touch
If you would do God's will.                   D.De Haan

[Soldier4Christ]

Close Calls

It is unavoidable that we will all die -- unless we are first raptured.  Death is a reality that we know will claim us one day.  But, like so many other things, we dismiss the thoughts of its arrival, until it comes a little too close for comfort.

Sometimes we experience unexpected illnesses or accidents that abruptly force us to face God, our mortality, and our future.  This can be a very good thing, especially if you are not a believer.  But, what if you are a believer?  What then?  If you suddenly woke up in an intensive care unit and you didn't know if you were going to make it or not, what would you be thinking about regarding your life and God?  It is hard to say unless you are actually there, but the longer you live, the more that scenario either has been a reality or will be one.

Since we will all face death one day, why wait to think about the meaning of your life until you are forced to?  Why wait to talk to God about what is really in you, about what you really feel, really doubt, really believe?  Close calls can be good for the soul.  God can use them to cause us to face ourselves and Him.  Close calls can wake us up and help us sort out our priorities.

Sometimes, when life is comfortable and predictable, we let our priorities slip because we take our eyes off of the Lord and put them onto our lives and even on our ability to get things done.  I can't help but wonder if God doesn't use sickness and misfortune in the world to cause us to re-evaluate ourselves before Him.  After all, don't we need to do that from time to time even if we don't think we need it?  Don't we need to see if we are growing closer to the Lord or not?

I think that it can be quite merciful that God would allow us to undergo hardship since such hardship can bring us closer to Him -- if we allow the opportunity to do that.  Personally, I am thankful for close calls.  Of course, I don't enjoy them, but they can be quite helpful by scraping away all of our self reliance and exposing ourselves before God.

So what about you?  Do you need a close call to get you thinking?  Do you need a drastic wake up call from God to get you to reconsider your life with Him?  Maybe, maybe not.  But, why don't you just sit down and talk to God.  Why not take a survey of your spiritual life and see where you are at with the Lord?  Open the Word of God, read, and pray.  Talk to Him.  He is always there to listen, close calls or not.
 

[Soldier4Christ]

Are you being perfected - Phil. 1:6?

Lately, there has been a passage of Scripture that has been echoing in my mind.  I can't think of any reason at all for this, except to say that perhaps God is wanting me to focus on it.  The passage of Scripture is Phil. 1:1-6 which says, "Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: 2Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 3I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, 5For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; 6Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (KJV).  I am drawn to the final verse and as I think about it, I am encouraged.   (By the way, it was the verse of the week in the last newsletter which I did not realize until I reviewed it.)

We need the confidence of knowing that the Lord is working in us, that He has not left us alone, and that He is very concerned about us.  Sometimes we experience the stale and dry, that season where we seem to have reached a stone wall in our spiritual development.  Of course, this could be true for many due to sin or rebellion of some sort.  But, for those who simply seek God and desire to experience Him more and more and yet find themselves wondering and waiting, this verse is for you.  It has three main parts.

First, the work that was begun in you was regeneration.  When you trusted in Christ and were born again, you were changed.  This is the beginning of the work of God in your hearts.  God saves us as we are, but He does not leave us as we are.  He changes us.  Initially, when we are saved, we are justified; that is, we are declared righteous in God's eyes.  That is the easy part because it is all done by the Lord.  The hard part is the changing part.  It is called sanctification, and is the process God puts us through to conform us more and more into the image of His Son, Jesus.  It is this second, part, this sanctification, that is hidden in the phrase of Phil. 1:6 where it says, "...will perform it..."  In other words, the Lord is "performing" (KJV), "perfecting" (NASB), us.  This perfecting will proceed until "...the day of Jesus Christ."  This is a reference to the return of Christ.  By design, the Bible leaves us with the impression that the return of Jesus can be accomplished at any time. This work will continue in all Christians in all places and in all times, until the return of Jesus.  Once He has been revealed, we will all be with Him (1 Thess. 4:16-5:2) and we will no longer as a whole church or as individuals need to be perfected since the full manifestation of our salvation has been realized in the resurrection and/or change of our bodies to the incorruptible state.

So, Phil. 1:6 carries with it the past, present, and future work of God in us and for us because of what Jesus has done on the cross.  Remember, it is because of Jesus, and only because of Jesus that the Lord will and is working in us.  If you are having problems of some sort, doubting your salvation, unsure about your growth, etc, let the Lord speak to your heart by spending time in prayer and reading His word.  He uses these things to "perfect" the work that He has begun in you.  Remember that the Lord will never forsake you or leave you.  He cannot be unfaithful, and His love for you cannot fail.  To the Lord be the glory.

[Soldier4Christ]

The Assurance of Salvation

One of the more annoying problems in Christians' lives is the issue of assurance of salvation. We've all been there. We've all wondered if we are really saved or not. We've looked at our lives and actions and thoughts and sometimes just said, "How can I be saved if I am like this?" I've counseled many Christians who have doubted their salvation and who have worked themselves into worry and sometimes even depression over the issue. I've always thought that the solution was pretty basic. I ask the person, "Why do you think you might not be saved?" Almost always the reason is, "Because I have a sin in my life. Because I can't beat this one sin. Because of my thoughts. Because I keep failing." "Okay," I say. "So you know you're supposed to be doing better than you are, right?" "Yes," they say. "I am supposed to be doing better and I'm not. This is why I doubt that I am saved." So, I give them this illustration.

Let's say that we are on a 20 foot boat out in the ocean. We are sailing along when we notice two men in the water. There is no other boat around, so it is obvious these two men are in trouble. We take a life preserver, tie it to a rope, and throw it to them. It lands just a few feet short. We start yelling and yelling for them to grab the life preserver so we can pull them in. "Come on," we yell. "Grab it! Grab it!" One of the men, exhausted, reaches out his arm for the life preserver but falls short. "Grab it!" we yell again. He reaches again and his arm plops down in the water from fatigue. The waves slap his face, but he tries again. The other man is simply floating face down in the water. He isn't struggling at all. But, the first man is trying for that life preserver. He is fighting against the ocean, the wind, and the waves, all which are greater than he is. That is when I ask the person, "Which one of the two men in the water is alive?" Always, the response is, "The one reaching for the life preserver." "Right," I say. "He is struggling for life. Dead people don't struggle for life.... and spiritually dead people do not struggle against their sin. Only those who are dead, who have no life in them, do not struggle. The fact that you are struggling against your sin is one very good sign that you are very much alive in Christ. If you were not struggling at all, then it might be true that you weren't saved. But, since you war against your sins, then it sure sounds like you're saved to me." Usually, the eyes brighten at this point. I then keep going.

"Do you believe there is only one God in all existence, all places, and all times?" "Yes," they answer. "Do you believe in the Trinity, that God is three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?" Again, "Yes." I continue. "Do you believe Jesus is God in flesh?" "Yes."　 "Do you believe Jesus is the only way to salvation?" Again, "Yes." "Do you believe that Jesus died for your sins and rose from the dead three days later?" Another, "Yes." "Good," I say.

1 Cor. 2:14 says, "But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised." I continue by telling them that a natural man is someone who is not saved. Now, these are absolutely, definitely spiritually discerned truths that they answered yes to above. They are that there is only one God and that God is a Trinity, that Jesus is God in flesh, that Jesus is the only way to salvation, and that Jesus died for sinners and rose from the dead three days later. In other words, the fact that the person confesses these things and believes them is further, very strong evidence, that he is spiritually alive. Usually, the person is encouraged even more.

And finally, I tell them that Jesus gives us eternal life (John 10:27-28) and He does not fake us out when we ask to be forgiven and for Him to be Lord of our lives. He said in Luke 11:10-12, "For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it shall be opened. 11Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? 12"Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? 13"If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?" In other words, you get what you ask for from the Lord (except for sinful and selfish things, of course); He does not bait-and-switch. If you ask for eternal life from Jesus, that is what you get--no matter how you feel, no matter how your emotions may mislead you. The truth is that God's word tells us that the Father will give the Holy Spirit to us if we ask. The Holy Spirit only indwells believers.

We all have our struggles and we all need to take into account the fact that we are still sinful and we are going to struggle with our sin. But, if you begin to doubt your salvation because you don't "feel" saved, then stop trusting your feelings and start trusting God at His word. Ask yourself if you are struggling against your sin. If you aren't, maybe you aren't saved. But if you are, then that is a sign of life. Ask yourself if you believe in the Trinity, that Jesus is God in flesh, and that He died and rose from the dead. If you do, that is a sign of spiritual renewal. Ask yourself if you believe what Jesus said about Him not faking you out, about Him giving to you the Spirit if you ask. If you do, then that means you are believing Him at His word. Take your eyes off your feelings and failures and put them on Christ, His word, and His sacrifice. Trust in Him and Him alone....not what you feel, not what you fail at. He didn't save you because of your works or your "goodness." He did not save you because of what is or is not in you. He saved you because of what is in Him: love and truth.

[Soldier4Christ]

Intimacy with God

Intimacy with God is a hard thing to attain.  The word "intimacy" carries with it the aspects of a relationship with someone where you are vulnerable, loving, trusting, etc.  To have an intimate relationship with God means that the deepest part of you is having a relationship with a deep part of God.  Of course, we cannot fathom the deepest part of God, but He condescends to our level and reveals a part of Himself that only the Christian (through the cross of Christ) can enjoy.  In addition, in heaven, this intimacy will not be hindered by sin.

The model of true intimacy is the Trinity. God is a Trinity of persons:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Therefore, our intimacy with God (and with each other) is ultimately a reflection of God's intimacy within the members of the Godhead.  This means that intimacy is an essential part of the very nature of God and because we are made in His image, it is natural to us as well.  This is why we are capable of intimacy with others and with God.  It is in our nature.

Our intimacy with God first began in the Garden of Adam and Eve, when God walked with man (Gen. 2 3).  It was something that God desired.  As we know, Adam sinned and the intimacy with God was lost.  But, God had a plan and He covered Adam and Eve with animal skins and shedding blood in the process (typifying the sacrifice of Christ in the future) so that the fellowship with mankind could be restored.  This was realized at the cross where Jesus became sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:17) and bore our sins in His body (1 Pet. 2:24).  Therefore, we are able to come to God through Jesus our mediator (1 Tim. 2:5).

Since Jesus is God in flesh, our mediator, this means that the intimacy we have with God is with Christ.  In fact, we are "called into fellowship with His Son, Christ Jesus" in 1 Cor. 1:9.  The word "fellowship" in the Greek is "koinonia," which is translated in the KJV as "communion" in 1 Cor. 11 in reference to the communion supper.  It is interesting that communion is the place where we accept the ultimate vulnerability of God in Christ who humbled Himself by becoming susceptible to death.  In this, I think, is a clue to true intimacy with God:  humility.  As Christ was humble to the point of death, so we too must be humble to the point of death; that is, death to ourselves, our selfish desires, our personal wants.  When compared to God, our purpose should not be to see what we can get from Him.  It should be to glorify Him and to love Him.  Pride seeks its own.  Humility seeks others.  Isn't that what intimacy is, the seeking of another in the deepest sense?  How can we do this if we are proud?

Intimacy with God is a privilege freely given to us by Christ in His sacrifice on the cross.  He removed our sins so that we might dwell with God.  Therefore, if there is sin in your life it will hinder your fellowship, your intimacy with God.  Ask Jesus to reveal your sins to you so that you might repent of them and not hinder the fellowship of intimacy that God so lovingly desires with you.

[islandboy]

I will meet thee again in that deathless land,
Whenever thy foot shall imprint the strand;
And the loveliest things that have here been mine
Shall there in eternal beauty shine.                          MacDonald

[Soldier4Christ]

Search Me, O God

Psalm 139:23-24 says, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; 24 And see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way."

These are perhaps some of the most poignant words in the entire Bible. In these two verses there is so much. We see the Psalmist asking God to search him, to look to the deepest part of what he is, his own heart. Why would the Psalmist ask this? And, why would any of us ask it? The reason is simple. We cannot know our own hearts as well as God can. He indwells us, knows every thought, is aware of every feeling, and He understands us better than we do. If we ever needed anyone to reach down in the depths of our hearts to find out what is unholy so that it can be removed, it is God.
David is the psalmist. David is asking God to prove, to test his loyalty because he is not like the wicked men spoken of earlier in the Psalm. David desired God and God's holiness.
When God asked Solomon what he wanted, Solomon asked for wisdom, and because he did not ask for money, and power, or fame, God blessed him with all of them. Wisdom was a great thing to have. Nevertheless, Solomon fell into idolatry in his later years and his wisdom did not help him in the end.

By contrast, David said, "One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to meditate in His temple" (Psalm 27:4). Even though David committed adultery, murdered Bathsheba's husband, and used deception to cover his great sins, God, who knew this would happen, said of him through Samuel, "The Lord has sought out for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has appointed him as ruler over His people..." (1 Sam. 13:14). There was a quality in David that pleased God. What was that quality? It was David's heartfelt desire for the Lord.

You need to know this, because it will help you to understand the intimacy that David sought with God which ultimately led him to ask God, "know my heart." David seeks God in the most intimate place and asks Him to examine him there. David asks God to see if there is any hurtful way in him -- in the deepest part of his being. David was being vulnerable.
Is there any hurtful way in your heart? Would you be able to ask God to search your heart down to the deepest levels and reveal to you the secrets that not even you know is there? Would you trust God enough to ask Him to expose and root out of you that which is displeasing to Him? Do you have the courage to bow your knees, to lower your head, to lay prostrate before God, and to become as vulnerable as you can to Him as you ask him to look into your heart, to see if there's anything bad in there, and to deal with it accordingly? Such a request grows out of humility as well as increases humility. It is the ultimate trust in God. It can be scary. But it is definitely good.

David did not simply ask God to see if there's any hurtful way in him and leave it at that. He asked to be led by God in the everlasting way. This means to be corrected and sanctified by God's loving hands.

David did not know the Messiah, since Jesus was far distant in the future. But David knew the Messiah would come. You, on the other hand, know the everlasting way -- if you know Christ as your savior. Jesus, who is God in flesh, who died in the cross and rose from the dead bodily, is the everlasting way. Therefore, for you to be led by God in the everlasting way is to be led to Christ.

May the desire of your heart be that you would seek Jesus, that you would dwell in His house forever, and that you would behold His beauty. God desires that you desires this because He loves you.

[Soldier4Christ]

Are you saved?

The Bible says "Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!" (2 Cor. 13:5).  Well, are you in the faith?  Have you examined yourself?  It is easy to ask and sometimes difficult to answer.

The Christian faith is as follows.  There is one God in all existence who is eternally existent from the past through to the future.  God is a Trinity of three persons:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14); they are not three gods, but one God (Is. 44:6-8).  Jesus is the Word who was God and was with God that became flesh (John 1:1,14) and was made under the Law (Gal. 4:4).  Because we are sinners (Rom. 3:23), who have broken God's law (James 2:11), and because we cannot be saved in anyway by our own works (Rom. 4:1-5), Jesus bore our sins in His body on the cross (1 Pet. 2:24), died, was buried, and rose again on the third day (1 Cor. 15:3-4), in the same body He died in (John 2:19-21) so that as many as receive Christ (John 1:12) are justified by faith (Rom. 5:1) and escape the righteous wrath of God (Rom. 5:9).

What a lot of people fail to realize is that Jesus is not saving us from sin.  Jesus is saving us from God!  You see, when a person breaks the Law of God, there is a punishment that must be carried out upon that person.  God is the one who carries out that punishment.  This punishment is eternal because God is eternally holy and righteous.  Our sins against God take on an infinite quality not because of who we are, but because of who God is -- because we have offended an eternal and infinite God.  Therefore, the sinner incurs an eternal and infinite offense against God.  This means there is absolutely no way that a finite, sinful creature can undo the offense against an infinitely pure Being.  This is why we need Jesus who is God in flesh.  This means that His sacrifice has eternal and infinite value and it is infinitely sufficient to save us from our sins.  Therefore, this means that it is only through Jesus that we can be saved and not by our own efforts in any way.

It is God who damns.  It is God who judges.  Sin does not send people to hell.  God does.  Of course, this is not a popular or "feel-good" notion that God is the one who is righteously judging the sinner and righteously condemning him to eternal hell.  But, that is the truth.  Yet, thanks be to God that because He loves us, He sent His son to save us from our sins so that we might escape the righteous judgment of God.  God is not some eternal ogre waiting to spit His wrath upon the weak and helpless.  Not at all.  He is loving and good and gracious and He desires that all be saved.  He offers the sacrifice of His Son as the loving and gracious means by which we may be saved.  It is a miraculous and wondrous act of love.

Now, what about you?  Have you completely trusted in Jesus and in nothing else for the forgiveness of your sins?  Have you received Christ?  Are you relying on Jesus and Him alone for your righteousness, for your safety, your forgiveness, or are you putting even the smallest bit of your works before God as part of the reason you are to be saved?  If you are relying in any way on your efforts, then you are in great danger of damnation, if not still unsaved.  Righteousness before God does not come by your efforts, but through the sacrifice of Christ; otherwise, Jesus died needlessly (Gal. 2:21).  If you could get to heaven by being good, then there was no need for Jesus to die for sins.

You are to examine yourself, to test yourself to see if you are in the faith.  This means that you must first know what the Christian faith is and what it means that to enter into that faith.  Furthermore, you must know and acknowledge that there is only one God in all existence, that Jesus is God in flesh, that you are a sinner, that you need to repent of your sins, and that the only way to find forgiveness is to trust in Jesus alone, by faith alone, through grace alone.

Don't waste any time wondering.  If you aren't sure, ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins (1 Cor. 1:2).  Receive Him (John 1:12).  Turn from your sins and to Him.  Trust Him alone. 

[islandboy]

The God who governs galaxies
And makes the thunder roar,
Gently guides my little craft
With safety to the shore.      Berg

[Soldier4Christ]

The Bible

What is the Bible?  Is it inspired or man-made, inerrant or faulty, myth or history?  For some, the Bible is a wondrous book given by God to men.  For others, the Bible is a collection of myths used to control people's thinking.  Whatever the opinion, it goes without saying that the Bible is perhaps the singularly most influential book in history.

The Bible is a collection of 66 books written by about 40 authors, over about 1600 years, on three continents, in three languages.  It contains history, poetry, fiction, doctrine, narration, and prophecy.  It is historically accurate, contains incredible claims of God's work and words, has prophecy, and it all points to one man:  Jesus.

The Jews wrote and assembled the Old Testament and the Christians wrote and assembled  the New.  Both Testaments contain teaching, prophecies, and doctrine.  But, it is the New Testament where we see Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Testament.  In fact, the Bible is about Jesus. "You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me" (John 5:39).  I always tell people when they come up to something difficult, "Put Jesus into it and see if it makes sense."  Usually, the light comes on and things then make sense.  Take, for example, the offering of Isaac by Abraham and notice the similarities between Isaac and Jesus:  Only begotten Son, Isaac in Genesis 22:2; Jesus in John 3:16.  Offered on a mountain (hill), Gen. 22:2 and Matt. 21:10.  Took donkey to place of sacrifice, Gen. 22:3 and Matt. 21:2-11.  Two men went with him, Gen. 22:3; Mark 15:27; Luke 23:33.  Three day journey - Jesus: three days in the grave, Gen. 22:4 and Luke 24:13-21.  Son carried wood on his back up hill, Gen. 22:6; John 19:17.  God will provide for Himself the lamb, Gen. 22:8 and John 1:29.  Son was offered on the wood, Gen. 22:9 and Luke 23:33.  Ram caught in thicket of thorns, Gen. 22:13 and Jesus' crown of thorns, John 19:2.  The comparison continues, but you can clearly see that Jesus is reflected in the Old Testament, which explains why Isaac was offered.  He was a prophetic typology pointing to Jesus as the true sacrifice.  Okay, so we now see that the Bible is about Jesus.  This is fine intellectually, but what does it mean to us as Christians on a spiritual level?

As Christians, the Bible is not simply a book of stories and moral truths.  It is the very word of God, inspired, inerrant, true, and infallible.  It is God breathed (2 Tim. 3:16).  But, it is also more than that.  It is the truth of God that resonates in the souls of those in whom the Holy Spirit indwells.  It is the means and the measure of our lives made real by God's indwelling.  It is the revelation of God's will for us and the world.  It is the promise of God to deliver the believers.  It is, in reality, the loving and true words of our God.  In this sense, it is alive.

Because of the God-breathed nature of the Bible, we Christians need to inhale its goodness on a regular basis.  It is no different than our need to breathe.  We must constantly take in air in order to live.  Likewise, we must constantly take in God's word in order to live spiritually and to grow in our love and obedience to God.  We cannot ignore His word and expect to grow in grace and life.  We cannot set His word aside and expect to walk in goodness and truth.  We cannot forget about God's word and expect to walk in holiness.  On the contrary, in order to grow in our relationship with God, we must have the word of God in us.  In order to walk in goodness and truth, we must study His word so it can guide us.  In order to live in holiness, we must live in God's word.  There is no other way.  We need His word.  We need His truth.  We need His food for our souls.  It is the cross of Christ that makes all this possible in us.  The cross is where the love and truth of God was most perfectly manifested.

God's word, when deeply studied, reveals two things:  God and yourself.  It reveals to you the sovereign and holy God of the universe who loves you and desires your salvation and presence.  But, it also reveals the sin in you.  It is like a mirror that enables you to see who you really are as it reflects yourself back to you compared to Jesus, the one who sacrificed Himself for us so that we might become more like Him as we study His holy word.

So, do you meditate on God's word?  Do you make it a part of your life?  Do you desire it like medicine, like food, like air?  Do you experience its goodness as it washes over your soul and cleanses your heart and mind from the filth of the world?  If not, repent, open the Bible, pray for understanding and truth, and then read.  Do it regularly.  You need it.

[islandboy]

Lord, help me not to cover sin,
Those secret wrongs that lurk within;
I now confess them all to Thee;
Transparent I would always be.         D. De Haan

[Soldier4Christ]

Blurred Lines

Jesus drew lines in the moral landscape of Israel.  he opposed the religious hypocrisy of the Pharisees and Sadducees and set a proper distinction between what is holy and what is hypocrisy (Matt. 23).  For this, he was killed.  But, the powerful testimony he left before his death and after his resurrection is recorded in the Bible.  His words and life are a beacon of light to all who want truth and desire to know the difference between right and wrong.  With Jesus, there were absolutes.  With Jesus, there really is such a thing as truth and error, right and wrong, eternal life and eternal death.

However, in today's world, relativism, which is the bedfellow of the secular, is becoming the temptress of the sacred.  In the world of the secular, people are taught to avoid passing judgment, whether it be in regard to other peoples' beliefs, or lifestyle preferences, sexual orientation, moral judgments, faithfulness, and personal ethics.  The secularists want tolerance shown to their ungodly lifestyles.  So, they consider sin to be an anachronistic and meaningless concept.  The world does not want the Christian to shine a holy light on its sin.  Instead, the world wants to have its sin without condemnation, without guilt, and without consequence.  The world offers a philosophy of "It is right if it is right for you," and "What is wrong for you is not necessarily wrong for anyone else."  In the secular realm of relativism, there are no absolutes.  There are no paradoxes.  There are no truth statements except to say that all views are acceptable -- except the biblical one.  In Judges 17:6 it says, "In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes."  When there is no King, when there is no God, then truth becomes a disposable opinion.  The secularists of today, like the kingless people of ancient Israel who have no direction, want to do what is right in their own eyes.

It doesn't take long for any serious Bible student to recognize the problems of relativism aren't only in the secular realm.  It is in the Christian church as well.  We see so-called Christian denominations and churches that approve of homosexuality, or couples living together, or who preach from how-to books and not the Bible, who water down the gospel, and teach a weak doctrine of God, sin, Christ, and salvation.  Unfortunately, these kinds of churches are in bed with their secular mistresses and are being seduced into further and further spiritual adulteries.  Their eyes are not on God's word, but on relativism.  That is why the lines that Jesus drew so sharply in the Gospels which separate the sacred from the secular are becoming more and more blurred by the relativism of today as it seeps into the Christian church.

The blunt truth is, however, that there is an absolute right and wrong.  We find it in the Bible which says that homosexuality is a sin.  It is not an "alternate lifestyle."  It is a rebellious act of people who oppose the God-ordained institution of marriage between a man and a woman (Gen. 2:18-25).  The Bible says that living together is a sin.  It is wrong, since it is the participation of the sexual union outside of the covenant establishment of marriage.  The Bible teaches us about husbands and wives, not about "significant others."  The Bible teaches us to NOT bow to social norms if they contradict God's word.  Therefore, it is always wrong to lie, always wrong to commit adultery, always wrong to steal, always wrong to bear false witness, etc.  It is wrong because God says it is wrong, because what is right is based upon God's holy character.

Furthermore, doctrine is important and there can be no compromise on the truth of what God has revealed.  There is only one God in all existence who has always been God (Isaiah 43:10; 44:6,8; Psalm 90:2).  God is a trinity (three persons in the Godhead - Matt. 28:18-20; 2 Cor. 13:14).  Jesus is the Word made flesh (John 1:1,14).  Jesus is the ONLY way to salvation (John 14:6; Acts 4:12).  If you do not believe and trust in Christ alone for salvation, then you are damned to eternal hell (John 3:77-18; Matt. 25:46).  These are only some of the many truths of the Bible that are under attack from the world, from the cults, and other false religions.  As unpopular as they may be, they are still true.

We Christians are to sharpen the lines between truth and error. But, to do this we must first know what the truth is.  We must know what the Bible actually says about right and wrong, about doctrine, about God, about ourselves, about judgment, and about Jesus.  And then, we must be willing to say, "That is sin" when we see sin.  We must be willing to stand up for righteousness, even if it costs us.  Far too many Christians compromise and let the world take their truth and gospel in exchange for comfort and safety.  The manifestation of this compromise is found in churches with social agendas instead of biblical mandates, who do not condemn sin, but practice it and who seek ways to appease the world instead of God.

Let me say it again:  The world wants to blur the lines that separate the absolutes of morality and truth from its lies and compromise.  The world wants Christian morality and absolutes removed.  It wants moral and truth grey areas to overshadow biblical truth.  By contrast, however, the Christian church is supposed to sharpen those lines by preaching, teaching, and standing up for the absolute truths of God's word.

But, should we be a people that stand united in truth with fists raised in stern defiance against the world's relativism and moral compromise?  Well, yes and no.  Yes, in that we are always to stand up for what is right.  No, in that if standing up for what is right is not done in love, then our message of truth cannot be heard.  Truth without love is hypocrisy.  Love without truth is is a lie.  Both truth and love must be presented in harmony.  The Christian church should be true and it should also be beautiful.  In other words, it should teach what is right and it should LIVE what is right.  1 Tim. 1:5 says, "But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith."

In your life, are you living both the truth and the love that Jesus presented to us?  Are you proclaiming truth at your job?  Are you teaching it at home?  Are you standing for truth in society?  Are you proclaiming truth in love?  Are you teaching truth by a loving example?  Are you living the truth?

Now, lest I risk teaching moralism and further the degradation of truth in the world, I must make it clear that both truth and love are based on the cross of Christ.  At the cross we see the perfection of truth and love realized together on the hard lines of that bloodied tree.  It is true that Jesus died and rose again.  It is true that his love for us bought us our salvation.  It is true that the cross is the only hope for mankind.  It is true that people need to die to themselves.  It is true that love is sacrificial and that it can cost us our lives.  It is true that there is such a thing as sin and it is true that we can point out what is right and wrong in the world because Jesus lived what was right and wrong, died, and rose from the dead to prove that what he said was true.

The church that has lost its truth is a false church.  The church that has lost its love is a godless church.  The church that has lost Jesus is a church of the devil.  The more the lines are blurred between the sacred and the secular, the more we move towards apostasy.  May it never be!  We must firmly trace out the lines already drawn and lovingly point out that there is a right and a wrong.  We point this out by pointing to Jesus.  But pointing this out must be preceded by living the truth, not in simply proclaiming it.

We need to make sure that the lines between the sacred and the secular do not become blurred.  We must make sure that they are sharp.  We must proclaim Christ and Him crucified and that He alone is the way, the truth, and the life.  Without Him, there is no truth.

[islandboy]

O worship the King,
All glorious above,
And gratefully sing of,
His power and His Love.             Grant

[Soldier4Christ]

Death

Funerals are sober reminders of our own mortality.  They have a way of quietly bring us face to face with the fact that one day we will die.  Death is a patient and perpetual enemy that reduces all our arguments about life down to one truth:  one day, we will die.  But, for the Christian, this death is simply a step to the fullness of life in the presence of the Lord Jesus in Whom we have placed all of our hopes and confidence.  We know that death is not the end, and so at funerals, especially of those of believers, we have a future hope that we see our loved ones again.  We are comforted by this and the pain is made more bearable.

But what about the non-Christian?  For them, death will be an awakening.  Right now, they are not aware that death's present sleep is allowing them to have a false sense of security.  One day, for them, death will awaken and claim them and when it does, they too will awaken to the harsh reality that there is a pure and holy God who requires purity in His presence, a purity that they do not possess.  For now, the lost fight against God by not submitting to Him.  They are fleeing the truth of God's love and God's Son.  But the sting of death will abruptly awaken them.  Then they will see the spiritual reality and realize that they have lived a false dream without God all the while not worrying about what the future will bring.  They will weep on that day when they no longer sleep.

 

The sleep now holds the lost, who walk

In dream of hope and foolish thought.

They wait the day of awakening,

By death, execution, the great happening.

 

They lived a dream, of hope, less God.

They lived and knew His history.

That day they'll see and so they'll weep,

That day when no longer they sleep.

 

Death is not the most pleasant subject.  But it is an important one because death is the result of sin in the world and sin and death are all around us.  Sin brought death. "The sting of death is sin..." (1 Cor. 15:56).

If you are not a believer in the true Jesus (God in flesh, John 1:1,14; risen from the dead, John 2:19-21), then you are now dead in your trespasses in sins (Eph. 2:1).  The only way to escape the righteous judgment of God upon you is to receive Jesus (John 1:12), to call upon His name (Rom. 10:9-10), and to trust in Him alone for the forgiveness of your sins so that you might be made right before God (Rom. 5:1).

If you are a believer, then you already know what it means to be forgiven and to have the hope of the future resurrection in Christ.  We look forward, with hope and joy, to that day when death will free us from our bonds of flesh so that we might forever dwell with the Lord.  We are not asleep.  We are alive and well in Christ and when He returns, or the rapture happens, or our bodies fail us, we will live with Him forever and ever.