The Devil is Very Real!

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against ​the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over ​this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12).

One of the things that surprised me when I first read the New Testament seriously was that it talked so much about a Dark Power in the universe - a mighty evil spirit who was held to be the power behind death and disease and sin. The difference is that Christianity thinks this Dark Power was created by God, and was good when he was created, and went wrong. It is a war between independent powers. It thinks it is a civil war, a rebellion and we are living in part of the universe occupied by the rebel. Enemy occupied territory - that is what the world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful King has landed, you might say in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in His great campaign of sabotage.
                                         
                                                          --C. S. LEWIS, Mere Christianity

FEAR NOT - The Church Reigns Triumphant!

If we knew what is going on this world, the prevailing evil, unmitigated terror being perpetrated on numerous people groups in the name of the state, overweening atheism, militant gays, and all contrasted with a most tenuous church, we would become very much afraid. It seems no stretch by any means to admit of end-times responsibility. What are we to do who have been watching not just the world decline, but seemingly the church as well? First, we need to "get our heads out of the sand" and see the reality of this sin-torn world. Second, we MUST PRAY WITH ALL THAT GOD IS for revival and the coming of the Lord Jesus. In the mean time, don't think that the church will pass into oblivion, or drift silently into the night. Jesus declared (with full understanding of the evils of this world), "On this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). 

In a most encouraging sermon, Charles H. Spurgeon preached, "Man Transient: God's Word Eternal." Toward the end, he gave the following application. Whenever you are feeling weighed down by the pressures of this world or culture, grab hold of the truth Spurgeon proclaimed!  

Another lesson. If you be on God’s side, never be afraid of the mightiest opponent. What are they? What are they? Grass! Where is the mower? Then he comes, there is an end of them. And what are their boastings, and what are their railings? The flower of grass. Here comes a breeze — the sharp breath of winter, and they are gone. . . . Ah! the Lord knows how to take care of his Church without the help of some of those gentlemen who are so very earnest in taking care of it just lately, and I am pretty sure that if he could not take care of it without them, he won’t do much at it with them. But his truth will never shake nor be moved, come what may. You never need be alarmed. If all the kings, and emperors, and cardinals, and popes, and priests, and great men, and mighty men, and merchants, and mobs, and crowds should rise against the Lord’s truth and against the Lord’s anointed, what would it signify?  Who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and the son of man that is but a worm? The grass in the field — why, let it boast; what cares the king with his army about the grass? “Why,” saith he, “the steeds of my cavalry shall eat the grass; it shall soon be gone.” So God shall overthrow all their show of strength. In an hour, if so God willed it, he could convert the world. In a single hour, if so it pleased him, dominant superstitions would be relinquished, and the old systems of idolatry would totter to their fall.

Never think of the Church of God as if she were in danger. If you do, you will be like Uzza; you will put forth your hand to steady the ark, and provoke the Lord to anger against you. If it were in danger, I tell you, you could not deliver it. If Christ cannot take care of his Church without you, you cannot do it. Be still, and know that he is God. Who am I that I should begin to agitate myself about the safety of the Empire of France, and should go to Napoleon and should tell him that I was afraid the empire was insecure, and I was come to help him manage the Government? I think I should be sent back about my business. And so, surely, when you begin to say, “The Church is in danger! The Church is in danger!” what is that to thee? It stood before thou wert born; it will stand when thou hast become worm’s meat. Do thou thy duty. Keep in the path of obedience, and fear not. He who made the Church knew through what trials she would have to pass, and he made her so that she can endure the trials and become the richer for it. The enemy is but grass, the word of the Lord endureth for ever. [emphases mine]

God help us to believe in the strong Savior of which Spurgeon speaks!

Pascal's "Three Kinds of People"

There are three kinds of people in the world; those who have sought God and found Him and now serve Him, those who are seeking Him but have not yet found Him, and those who neither seek Him nor find Him. The first are reasonable and happy, the second reasonable and unhappy, and the third unreasonable and unhappy. 

--BLAISE PASCAL 

Does Bible Reading Make You Spiritual? Part 2

Yesterday, we focused on the idea that Bible reading in itself does not make you spiritual, that this is the work of God in Jesus Christ.

Unquestionably, the Bible places great emphasis on reading the Bible. Of the godly man, Psalm 1:2 says, "His delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night." But, there's more . . .

QUESTION
Today, we want to affirm the very important place of God's Word in the Christian's life. We ask the question, "Is there a right WAY to read God's Word? Is there a way to study the Bible that really imparts God's power and presence to us?"

BELIEVING IS SEEING

This is basic to all successful Christian living. It goes contrary to the world's mantra that "seeing is believing." Faith sees what the eyes blindly overlook. The only way we can glean from God's Word is to PARTICIPATE in our reading. Participation is faith participation. What does that mean? Eugene Peterson explains that there is a TEXT where God is the subject. It is not just words on a page, therefore, it demands that we get involved in our reading in a more intensive way than if we were on the outside looking in. He says further, "If we have not entered this text as participants we arent' going to understand what is going on. This text cannot be understood by watching from the bleachers -- or even from expensive box seats. We are in on it."

I LOVE RUNNING!
--We Involve Ourselves in What Really Interests Us
Peterson explains something that makes so much sense to me because I do the same thing. He used to run, and enjoyed it when he took up running. He was so interested in it that he bought magazines and checked out books at the library to read everything on the subject. He entered 10K races every month or so, and entered a marathon once a year. It didn't matter, he avers, if the magazines were well-written, or that there wasn't but so much you can write on the subject without repeating. He loved running, and therefore, loved reading about running as well.

Then something happened. He pulled a thigh muscle and while he was recuperating for a couple of months, not running, he stopped reading the periodicals and books. It wasn't a decision he made, they were still all over the house. He just wasn't reading them. "The moment I began running again I started reading again."

AN "A-HA" MOMENT!!
Here's the point of spiritual reading, participatory reading. GET THIS! Peterson writes:

It meant that I read every word on the page as an extension or deepening or correction or affirmation of something that I was a part of. I was reading about running not primarily to find out something, not to learn something, but for companionship and validation and confirmation of the experience of running [emphasis mine]. Yes, I did learn a few things along the way, but mostly it was to extend and deepen and populate the world of running that I loved so much. But if I wasn't running, there was nothing to deepen.

The parallel with reading Scripture seems to me almost exact: if I am not participating in the reality -- the God reality, the creation/salvation/holiness reality -- revealed in the Bible, not involved in the obedience Calvin wrote of [i.e., "all right knowledge of God is born of obedience"], I am probably not going to be much interested in reading about it -- at least not for long.

Obedience is the thing, living in active response to the living God. The most important question we ask of this text is not, "What does this mean?" but "What can I obey?" A simple act of obedience will open up our lives to this text far more quickly than any number of Bible studies and dictionaries and concordances.

TO READ OR NOT TO READ, IS THAT . . . ?
Reading alone does not a spiritual person make. Nor does reading disconnectedly. There must be a readiness to know the Author first, even before we read a word. And after we have begun reading, we must embrace the ongoing heart of the Author in our doing what he says. To quote a line from the University hymn of Bob Jones, "Knowledge alone life's problems cannot meet, we learn to live while sitting at Thy feet." Indeed.

INDEED!
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Does Bible Reading Make You Spiritual? Part 1

"Read your Bible, pray every day, and you'll grow, grow, grow."

We sang this song in my years growing up. Often! It became the mantra of every Bible-teaching church it seems, for many of you have heard it as well.

Question: "Is it true?" Does reading the Bible make you grow?

Answer? It depends. I'd like to present two seemingly opposing points of view on this. Seemingly, because in the end it will be seen that they do not conflict at all. They actually combine to surface one of reasons the church of today suffers from spiritual anemia.

FIRST. You don't have to READ the Bible to grow spiritually.

Don't quit reading this post! Not yet. Please hear me out. I definitely believe in reading the Bible; I've personally been reading through the Scriptures since I was 15. And, of course, I have absolutely no regrets at all. What a tremendous blessing has come to me through the intake of God's Word. But I'm making another point.

The church indeed does stress reading the Bible, but the fact is there used to be a time when reading the Bible simply was NOT an option. Not that long ago, literacy was a real luxury not enjoyed by very many. Most early church attenders heard the Word read to them for two reasons, 1) there were no Bibles for everyone, and 2) not everyone could read. According to Gene Edwards (The Secret to the Christian Life) "illiteracy was not a sign of ignorance. . . Literacy was a trade similar to cabinet making or television repair." As we know, before Gutenberg, books were not readily available, and for those who could afford them they were quite rare. Edwards offers that "before 1700 . . . the ability to read and write did not become a viable force in the general human society." Even in Martin Luther's day, "when the printed word had been credited with bringing in the Reformation, the maximum number of people who would read what Luther wrote stood at about 5 percent! And even as late as 1800, 85 percent of all Southern boys who fought in the Civil War could not read, and of those who could, they were only semi-literate."

Did Jesus require that before he selected the disciples, they had to take a reading test? We know that in the Old Testament and in the early Church, one had to attend synagogue or a house church (respectively) in order to hear the Word of God. We understand that Hebrew children were required to memorize great portions of Scripture so that they could refer to it in that fashion. Scrolls were not as abundant nor mobile as our Bibles.

POINT?
Well, if so many in Bible days, or in succeeding generations could not read, how can we affirm that "unless you read your Bible, you cannot be a good Christian?" I think this is valid question. No one is arguing that illiteracy is to be preferred to literacy. No. Of course not. But the question remains and it is a good one. How DOES one go about knowing God better if he doesn't read?

SOLUTION
I will give you what Gene Edwards teaches though I cannot fill in all the details today. But I wanted to give enough to understand 1) the depth of the question, and 2) the loss we've been suffering due to our failure to implement the very presence of God. Gene Edwards says,

"We believers, whose ranks are spread among tribes and nations over this planet, have but one common factor among us: a living, moving, speaking Lord who dwells inside each of us. That the indwelling Lord is the only one with the resources to live the Christian life. To point to anything else as the answer to the Christian life cuts off most of us from effectively living the Christian life."

"It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God . . ." (Gal. 2:20). "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3).

HOW ABOUT BOTH?
"Wouldn't it be better," you ask, "if we had both, if we read God's Word AND pursued the indwelling living, breathing power of the Spirit of God within us?" Yes, that of course is to be preferred. But by isolating the reading from the indwelling Spirit, we are enabled to acclimate ourselves to God's initial intention IN HIS WORD. He never meant for us to divorce reading from himself. "Abide in me" (John 15:4). Indeed, Jesus IS the Word become flesh (John 1:14), whom we must eat (John 6) if we are to be saved. The two go hand in hand. Reading alone does not breathe God's life into the Church or into any individual. Yet, God could and did breathe life into the soul of many who have not been able to take advantage of the written word in their own possession.

Tomorrow, Part 2 - Yes, read God's Word, but read it the RIGHT way. What's that?
_

Do We Ever FEEL Anything About God?

What do you "feel" about heaven and holiness? Not, "What are you SUPPOSED to know . . . but feel. The following excerpt from the Personal Narrative of Edwards causes the true believer to sigh with longing for Christ & God's heaven!

The heaven I desired was a heaven of holiness; to be with God, and to spend my eternity in divine love, and holy communion with Christ. My mind was very much taken up with contemplations on heaven, and the enjoyments there; and living there in perfect holiness, humility and love: And it used at that time to appear a great part of the happiness of heaven, that there the saints could express their love to Christ. It appeared to me a great clog and burden, that what I felt within, I could not express as I desired. The inward ardor of my soul, seemed to be hindered and pent up, and could not freely flame out as it would. I used often to think, how in heaven this principle should freely and fully vent and express itself. Heaven appeared exceedingly delightful, as a world of love; and that all happiness consisted in living in pure, humble, heavenly, divine love.

I remember the thoughts I used then to have of holiness; and said sometimes to myself, "I do certainly know that I love holiness, such as the gospel prescribes." It appeared to me that there was nothing in it but what was ravishingly lovely; and highest beauty and amiableness ... a divine beauty; far purer than any thing here upon earth; and that every thing else was like mire and defilement, in comparison of it.

Perhaps between yesterday's and today's posts will serve to whet your appetite for more of Edwards. Many of Edwards' sermons & writings are online here. Please check them out! They will be a boon to the soul of anyone willing to put forth the effort.

Jonathan Edwards' Walk to Remember

Don't mistake Edwards' genius for a cold, calculating heart. Not at all! He reveals a very personal and vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ in his Personal Narrative. It is a sort of journal of his heart-warming desires after Christ. The following is lifted right out of his narrative and unveils the true yearning of his heart. I wonder if we had more of this exhibited in our leadership in churches if it might not ring more true in the hearts of some of our religious "skeptics" even within the congregation? They hear the truth, but seem unable to "connect the dots" when it comes to seeing it actually lived out. Listen to Edwards:

I felt then great satisfaction, as to my good state; but that did not content me. I had vehement longings of soul after God and Christ, and after more holiness, wherewith my heart seemed to be full, and ready to break; which often brought to my mind the words of the Psalmist, Psal. 119:28. My soul breaketh for the longing it hath. I often felt a mourning and lamenting in my heart, that I had not turned to God sooner, that I might have had more time to grow in grace. My mind was greatly fixed on divine things; almost perpetually in the contemplation of them. I spent most of my time in thinking of divine things, year after year; often walking alone in the woods, and solitary places, for meditation, soliloquy, and prayer, and converse with God; and it was always my manner, at such times, to sing forth my contemplations. I was almost constantly in ejaculatory prayer, wherever I was. Prayer seemed to be natural to me, as the breath by which the inward burnings of my heart had vent. The delights which I now felt in the things of religion, were of an exceeding different kind from those before mentioned, that I had when a boy; and what I then had no more notion of, than one born blind has of pleasant and beautiful colors. They were of a more inward, pure, soul animating and refreshing nature. Those former delights never reached the heart; and did not arise from any sight of the divine excellency of the things of God; or any taste of the soul satisfying and life­giving good there is in them.

Is this not a wonderful account of the holy breathings of a heart after God? Oh, how blessed it would be to find ourselves in a similar vein. God help us.