A Christian Voice & The New World Order!

Understanding the biblical injunction to obey our leaders (Rom. 13) does not excuse our accountability to use our minds wisely. Nor can it mean that we bail out on our responsibility as a citizen of the United States. President Kennedy famously urged, "Ask what you can do for your country." And there are things that a good, law-abiding Christian can do without relinquishing his duty before God. Under dictatorial Rome and other such totalitarian governments, the average citizen was severely limited in their impact on government. But our founding fathers, through the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights bequeathed to every person a voice in the United States. 

The Obama Deception is a must-see video for any responsible citizen. There has been a nefarious and unremitting movement on the part of the few (oligarchy) to take over the United States and subject us all to the same sorts of rule foisted upon the people of Stalin's Russia, Hitler's Germany, and Mao's China. Before you cry, "Conspiracy theorist," consider the video on it's own merit. Similar laws are already in place and much legislation is now pending (and being passed every day) which will enslave the American people while purporting to offer them freedom. These "elite" are breaking numerous principles in the above documents every time they do it!

Warning: What you see will be disturbing. The video is 7 minutes shy of 2 hours, so set some time aside to view it. It is a documentary with copious interviews and footage of actual events. The author invites all viewers to check out his facts for themselves, which lends credence to the validity of the documentary.

Encouragement: True believers in Jesus must never give up hope, but see God as the Ruler throughout all changes, national or otherwise. Our hope must not rest in our own government (even at it's best), but in God who holds all things together and works all things together for his own glory. I close with the very powerful Psalm 2 on the the Sovereign reign of God over all nations of this earth:

2 Why do the nations rage 

and the peoples plot in vain? 

² The kings of the earth set themselves, 

and the rulers take counsel together, 

against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, 

³ “Let us burst their bonds apart 

and cast away their cords from us.” 

⁴ He who sits in the heavens laughs; 

the Lord holds them in derision. 

⁵ Then he will speak to them in his wrath, 

and terrify them in his fury, saying, 

⁶ “As for me, I have set my King 

on Zion, my holy hill.” 

⁷ I will tell of the decree: 

The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; 

today I have begotten you. 

⁸ Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, 

and the ends of the earth your possession. 

⁹ You shall break them with a rod of iron 

and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” 

¹⁰ Now therefore, O kings, be wise; 

be warned, O rulers of the earth. 

¹¹ Serve the Lord with fear, 

and rejoice with trembling. 

¹² Kiss the Son, 

lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, 

for his wrath is quickly kindled. 

Blessed are all who take refuge in him. 

What If Jesus Visited Your Church? Part 2

On Thursday I posted a question as to how we might respond if it were told us that Jesus would be visiting our church in person. I think our "knee-jerk" reaction would be amazement, followed by consternation (especially if we'd been living life awry from his commands). This might be followed-up by relief (or disappointment) knowing that such a consideration is patently hypothetical. Yes, Jesus will come at the judgment, but we are fairly well-assured that he will not make a surprise physical appearance in our meeting houses! 

. . . or, WILL HE . . . ?

This leads us to a logical and biblical conclusion . . .  

Christ In You

 

Christ is in fact already more visible in us than if he were just physically present! --Do you believe that the spirit is more vital than the flesh?-- Indeed, Paul writes in Colossians 1:27, that Jesus' presence in believers is the essence of the riches of his glorious mystery. And in that monumental eighth chapter of Romans, Paul affirms FOUR TIMES in just a few lines (vv. 9-11) that "the Spirit of God dwells in you," "Christ is in you," "the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you," and "his Spirit who dwells in you." This magnificent chapter asserts beyond the shadow of a doubt the security of the true believer. And one of the means whereby he affirms this is in the repetition of of this marvelous truth, viz., that God, the Spirit and Jesus dwell in his own!   

So, this begs the question as to what has stymied our faith that we are more easily impressed by the physical than the spiritual? This is usually a trait that is attributed to non-believers. Yet, it would seem, we who profess Christ fall prey to the same weak faith! So, Jesus' physical presence would shock us, but his indwelling us doesn't seem to phase us? I ask again, how can this be? Well might Jesus question us as he did his disciples after the calming of the stormy sea, "Why did you doubt, O you of little faith?" (Matt. 14:31) So critical is the reality of Christ's presence to the believer that Paul hangs the genuineness of a person's salvation on the recognition of it, 

Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you fail to meet the test! (2 Cor. 13:5)

Maybe Jesus WILL make a surprise appearance in church--a surprise because he blows away our customary Spirit-less worship by his evident and glorious presence. Perhaps the room will be so thick with God's presence that we might conclude that HE COULD NOT BE ANY MORE REAL IF HE WERE PHYSICALLY PRESENT! Let us expect greater worship, a more godly Spirit-presence. Let us overcome the spiritual lethargy to which we have grown so accustomed and seek the face of God in reality! Proof of Jesus' presence will be changed lives, humility, and a holy expectation of hell and of heaven. Glorious. 

Pray that Jesus WILL INDEED visit our churches, that we will not let him remain outside but enter and dine with us and we with Him! (Rev. 3:20)

What If Jesus Visited Your Church This Sunday?

Seeing the Invisible Through Eyes of Faith

1 Peter 1:8, [Christ] whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory (NKJV). 

I have on occasion asked our congregation what they or our neighbors would do if they heard that Jesus was coming to visit our church in person—next Sunday! Right in front of their own eyes, they would see Him about whom they have heard all these years! I could see the wheels turning, a sort of collective . . . hum-m-m. This notion immediately seems to elicit either a sense of wonder or of dread--wonder at the thought of actually seeing Jesus, and dread at the implications involved in his seeing us! Imagine how this contrasts with the fact that for all these years we have already been praying to the Unseen. We have grounded our hopes and decisions upon biblical principles alone, fostered by the inner working of the Spirit--both real for sure, but incorporeal. Further, we have fought off the pesky temptation to content ourselves with earthy expressions as over against an “other-worldly” attitude. We live out the Christian faith supposedly in the reality of Christ’s presence. 

The flip side is the divinely intended one, namely that NOT seeing Christ IS IN FACT seeing him. Indeed, "believing IS seeing." And this seeing of him produces a marked positive change in the demeanor of the genuine saint--"joy inexpressible." 

But after having posed the above question, we have to scratch our heads and ponder. Oddly, we may need to ask ourselves the unthinkable--"How truly necessary is Jesus himself to our Christianity?" Ludicrous, you say? Of course it is. But WHAT is ludicrous, the question or the answer? How contented has the mass of believers become with a non-Christ Christianity? Hebrews says that "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen," and where might that fact most be tested but right here in the personage of Jesus himself?

It seems a necessary question these days, when so many have grown smug in their "decision" to "accept" Christ. Their salvation seems to have become reduced to a choosing of Christ, without an accompanying affection for him. Yet, biblically, there is no alternative faith for all true salvation finds it's life in a living, loving Jesus. He "rejoices with joy inexpressible and full of glory" (1 Peter 1:8b). Should this not be the test of our profession, viz., that we are so grounded in the visibility of the Invisible that it is as if he were walking down the isle of our church, or sitting at the dinner table, or in the passenger seat? Why should a mere thing like invisibility create such angst among believers? I suggest that it does not . . . in the true saint. This is key. Such faith will enliven the church once again, for it is on this basis that all are saved. Living, breathing joy . . . inexpressible!

The Empty Promise of Meditation--Al Mohler

For those of us old enough to remember, there were many in the "hippie generation" who somewhat recovered a focus on meditation. One problem with it, however, was that they promoted it as a self-purification via the cleansing of the mind of all other thoughts--a turning within oneself. Biblical meditation is patently different than this as Al Mohler writes on his blog:

The biblical concept of meditation on the Word of God does involve an emptying, of course. We must empty our minds of ungodly and unbiblical thoughts, of desires for sin and resistance to the reign of God in our lives. But that emptying never involves an empty mind. Instead, it involves a mind in which unbiblical thoughts are replaced by the truth of Scripture -- not a blank slate of meditation that revolves around the self. . . . For Christians, this kind of meditation is a danger, not a means to spiritual growth. Should we meditate? Without question, we should meditate upon the Word of God. This should be a part of our regular and constant spiritual discipline. But, this kind of meditation does not lead to an empty mind, nor to the sense of an empty mind, but to a mind constantly more directed by Scripture.

Successful Evangelism is God-Centered (Legacy 2, Lloyd-Jones)

In his marvelous biography on D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Iain Murray presents the church with invaluable and corrective insight. He writes, not to repeat his previous and massive two-volume biography but to focus on several vital legacies which ML-J (as he calls him) left to the evangelical church. Lloyd-Jones, Messenger Of Grace, was published in 2008 and cannot help but becoming a vital help to the church, especially to those whose life is bound up in ministry. How we need to hear this man's insight and wisdom today! I quote just a portion from Legacy #2, "Christianity is God-Centered Religion." Murray writes:

God-centered Christianity does not mark churches in decline and it was rare in twentieth-century Britain. In the Welsh chapel life of ML-J's own background, the pulpit ethos was mainly sentimental, moralistic, and anecdotal. It was worse in the many churches where liberal theology held sway; the message was akin to saying that a God of love exists for man's comfort and happiness. Even in evangelical circles the message of the gospel was too often reduced to the forgiveness to be gained by responding to Jesus Christ.

For Lloyd-Jones the whole approach was different. Preaching needs to start from where the Bible starts: "In the beginning God"--God the Almighty, the Eternal, the Ruler and Judge of all.

The Bible is the record of the activity of God. God is the actor. God is the centre. Everything is of God and comes from God, and turns to God. It is God who speaks. It is God who acts. It is God who intervenes. It is God who originates, who plans everything everywhere.

He goes on to explain major implications of failing to preach this, implications which are most vital to reiterate as we move toward the celebration of the resurrection . . . 

Without the Bible's revelation of the majesty and holiness of God, man has no conception of the glory from which he has fallen, or of his present predicament. His need is for reconciliation that will change both his statue and nature as a sinner. It is a need that cannot be met without divine action. When Christianity ceases to be God-centred, a superficial understanding of sin will always follow; sin is treated as mere unhappiness or dissatisfaction instead of rebellion against God. Consequently the wrath of God passes out of sight, and with it, the necessity of the substitutionary death of Christ. Men reject the penal sufferings of Christ "because they do not see the problem."

Indeed, it is light views (unbiblical, therefore, false) of man's depravity that has led to the substandard preaching of the gospel around the world today. Every minister would benefit greatly from reading this well-written account of several significant themes in ML-J's ministry, themes which today cannot be overstated! Salvation hangs in the balance as God's greater glory is being ignored!

Why Don’t We Pray Luke 10:2?

And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. (Luke 10:2; also Matthew 9:38)

Implications of this prayer:

1. There is still a great harvest of souls to be won.

2. There is a perennial lack of laborers. (This infers that God seeks and uses laborers, election does not mitigate such a need, but assures its success!)

3. The Lord does the sending of missionaries.

4. It seems we believers must first pray for God to send, even before volunteering to go!

5. It is always God’s harvest, not ours. 

In my years of hearing and preaching missionary messages, most seemed to revolve around Great Commission challenges. And, of course, who can gainsay such an emphasis? Still, as Jesus himself gave the above command, somehow this too must enter into our philosophy of missions. Through international media coverage and the internet, we see the world more easily today than ever. The immensity of the need is astounding. So it is a boon to our soul to know that we may, indeed must, call upon God to send out those into the world to harvest his crop.

Better Than "The Good Ol' Days"

What's better than "The Good Ol' Days?" It's a Spirit-filled work of God TODAY. But many Christians expect too little today; their expectations are well below what many in the past pursued and even pled to get from God. As C. S. Lewis said, "Christians have been far too easily pleased."

Jeremiah 3:15-16, 

¹⁵‘And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. ¹⁶ And when you have multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, declares the Lord, they shall no more say, “The ark of the covenant of the Lord.” It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again.

My focus here is on the words of verse 16, "When you have multiplied and increased in the land . . . they shall no more say, 'The ark of the covenant of the Lord.'" When God is manifestly doing a genuine, vibrant work Christians do not fall to reminiscing about the “good old days” of revivals past or of their favorite, charismatic preachers. Such memories are a fine thing and worthy of reflection, but not if it’s due to a paucity of spiritual enlightenment today. Israel began to actually prefer Egyptian slavery and deprivation over wilderness freedom if only because it was predictable. To unbelieving Israel, God forsook them in the wilderness. And if he were to be absent there, then why not return to an oppression that at least boasted better onions, leaks and garlic?

We are no different today. People come to church—and if their spirit hasn’t atrophied—still hope to find a vibrant God and virile worship. But the Spirit has been disallowed from so many churches today that spiritual dullness prevents their ability to detect His absence! This is heartrending. We go through the motions of glorifying God, but demean it’s effectiveness at every turn. We come and we go with nary a word from the Lord. We grow accustomed to it, entering the sanctuary with little expectation for anything glorious. It’s one thing to suffer divine silence, quite another to accept it as the norm! What a distressing state to which the church has fallen.

Yet, it was Jeremiah’s word that sounds an opposite and clear invitation. He will provide shepherds whose leadership will ring so true with Spirit-power, that the people will simply forget all the glory days of yore in favor of the awesome presence of God today.