I saw a post on Facebook the other day, and what it implied really bothered me. I hate picking on people, but this bothered me so badly that I’m going to quote it. I did respond to it, but I think I came across as to hard on the individual who posted it. I understand that they are disappointed, and I don’t necessarily know if they’re poking the finger at God, but the way it came across really made me think that this is what they were thinking, and it also really sums up what most people think as well.
… is sad to have just seen someone who was baptized a few years back, but today says, ‘It’s not working for me any more…’ I sometimes wonder why God doesn’t do a better job of keeping his people. But I also wonder, ‘What are all the dynamics that come into play in a decision like that?’
I think this is the wrong question to ask, honestly. I think the real question is: “why aren’t we doing a better job of keeping people?”. If God doesn’t change… if He’s the same today, as He was yesterday, and will be tomorrow, then it isn’t up to God to keep us, it’s up to us to keep ourselves and those around us. Blaming God because someone was baptized and then a few years later has strayed and says “it just wasn’t for me” is a cop-out, and playing the blame-game with someone Who doesn’t deserve that kind of criticism.
I think the problem really comes down to emotion, rather than faith. Too many people “try” Christianity and then when it doesn’t do what they want, they give up on it. But I don’t understand this, because I don’t understand why they “get into it” in the first place then. Do we “get into” Christianity because we expect God to do something for us? I think this is usually it. We want God to heal us, prosper us, take care of us. We go to a meeting, are swept away in anointed worship, get on a “high” and then come to the altar and profess our love and need of a Saviour. More
This has been on my heart and mind for a while now. I never really understood the fascination with angels, but I know that in the 90′s there was a huge surge of interest in angels, and it seems like it’s back again. I’m thinking of some “revivals” that were all about angels, and some “preachers” that lend more weight to angels than to Jesus. I believe in angels, I love angels, and yes, they are a curiosity because they are like, yet very much unlike, people. But there are some very unhealthy doctrines being bandied about regarding angels, and I think that as Bible-believing Christians we really need to question this stuff because it can so very easily take our focus off of Jesus, and distract us with cool/flashy/hip things like angels and what they’re doing around us.
Since angels are in the Bible, I whole-heartedly believe in them. Absolutely and without question. What I do question is what people describe as the purpose of angels. I question this need to describe the angelic hierarchy, to categorize them, to find out their names, to talk with them, pray to them, or order them about like they are our own personal genies. We have been told to worship God, yet I believe that what a lot of people are doing is worshipping angels.
The definition of “worship” is: adoration, reverence, devotion. When people focus on angels, seek after them, talk to them, concentrate on them, then they are, in essence, worshipping them. There is a stern warning about worshipping angels, and people who read their Bibles would know it:
“Now I, John, saw and heard these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. Then he said to me, “See that you do not do that. For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.”” (Rev 22:8-9, NKJV)
John was told not to worship the angel who had shown him such amazing and wonderful things as indicated in the book of Revelations. Why then would we think it is ok to give angels this same reverence and adoration today when it wasn’t ok to do it 2000 years ago?
As with all things, the Bible is our litmus test. So what does the Bible say about angels? It doesn’t talk much about angelic hierarchies, and very few angels are named. But it clearly says that angels are messengers of God, that they lead or prepare the way according to God’s Will, and that they also stand in the way, hinder, and destroy certain things — again, according to God’s Will. Angels are always met with reverence — not only because they are supernatural beings, but because they were a manifestation of the Will of God, because they brought God’s message to people. Heb 1:14 says that angels are “ministering spirits” . Psalms 91:11 and Psalms 103:20 say that angels do God’s commands, not ours. Matt 13:41 indicates that Jesus commands angels, not us. More
Awesome message tonight at the young adult service. Really fits in with the kind of stuff that has been brought up lately: obedience, righteousness, holiness. Now we can add faithfulness and as we understand it, it can bring profound changes to our lives.
The dictionary describes “faithful” as: loyal, constant, true, devoted, unswerving, staunch, steadfast, dedicated, committed, trusty, trustworthy (or “worthy of trust”), dependable, reliable. These are some powerful, yet intimidating, words. Keeping these words in mind, look at this scripture:
“And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” (2 Tim 2:2, NKJV)
Paul is talking about men that are trustworthy, dedicated, and loyal — to such men is the Gospel given in order to teach others. This shows us that Jesus wants to trust us with things, and know that we are going to be faithful to them. Just like an employer wants an employee that is dedicated and loyal, so does Jesus want followers that are dedicated and loyal.
If you’re not faithful, you’re unfaithful. There is no middle ground. The antonyms for “faithful” from the dictionary are: traitorous, unreliable. This is the definition of being unfaithful.
Seeing what the words mean (beyond a “spiritual” definition of faith) really lets us know why most people desire to hang out with, know, and associate with faithful people — whatever they are faithful to. Faithful to their spouse, their job, their family, their church. No one wants to associate with people that abandon their spouse, come to work late and do a half-hearted job, leave their family to go drink at the bar, or jump around from church to church. People are drawn to faithful people. At the same time, people are repelled by unfaithful people.
Look what Jesus says about being faithful:
“He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.” (Luke 16:10, NKJV)
This is a very real truth and there is spiritual principle here. I know this for fact when my wife and I started tithing years ago, despite the fact that we felt we couldn’t afford it. We wanted to be obedient to God’s Word, so we were faithful in the little that we had, and God gave us increase. We had proven that He could trust us with money, and He has been faithful to provide for both our needs and our wants. His Grace was sufficient, and while there are always times that are tight, usually it is due to us spending money on something silly, rather than the tithe being the burden. More
I recently watched the most amazing sermon by a man named Paul Washer, given to a youth conference in 2002.
This is a powerful message, and it is one that many will find offensive or “dated”, and the only reason you would think that is if you have bought into the “contemporary Christian” or “carnal Christian” mentality that is so prevalent in western churches today.
I don’t want to reiterate what Paul Washer said — if you know you are a Christian, you need to watch this. If you think you are a Christian, you really need to watch this. If you are not a Christian, you should watch this as well. The guts it took for this man to stand before an audience of 5,000 people (most of them youth), and preach this message, is astounding.
What I would like to do is focus on one thing he says because it really resonates with other things that I have really been feeling in the last few weeks, particularly in the areas of righteousness and holiness.
“‘Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way the leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.’” (Matt 7:13-14, NKJV)
Many Christians today think that righteousness and holiness is a lifestyle choice, like choosing to eat Subway over McDonalds, or drinking water over soda pop. Unfortunately, the Bible never taught that (as Bible-believing Christians) we had any choice on how we live as Christians. We were called to be holy and righteous — not as a lifestyle choice, but as a mandate. We were called to examine ourselves, line ourselves up to the Word, to be like Jesus as much as we can in this fallen earthly flesh. When did we get the idea that we ever had a choice?
Sadly, society and the idea of being un-offensive to people have told us the lie that we do have a choice, and when we read that verse we think of only the narrow gate, and think only that when we accept Jesus as our personal Lord and Saviour, then that’s it. Done deal. I’m going to heaven now. And we never change how we live our lives. Nothing changes! We continue to be of the world, rather than in the world. Two very different things! More
We have prayer meetings every Tuesday night at the church I go to, and as I was at prayer last night I kept thinking about “Holy, holy, holy, the whole earth is full of His glory” and then I had a crystal clear thought come to me that I had to write down. We’ve been talking a lot about holiness and righteousness at church, so this really settled into my spirit, and I thank God that He saw fit to share this with me.
“And one cried to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!’” (Isaiah 6:3, NKJV)
The whole earth is full of His glory. Who is in the earth? We are. So I think there is a call for us to be glorious before God, so we can fill the earth with His glory.
But how do we “fill the earth with His glory”? How do we become glorious before God?
I believe we display the glory of the Lord by leading lives of holiness and righteousness. Lives without compromise. I believe that God makes us glorious as we humble ourselves, and as we submit to Him, leading lives that are wholly holy (the dictionary defines wholly as “entirely” and “fully”), and righteous (right-living) before God.
I believe that if we are 100% wholly sold out to Jesus Christ — uncompromised, unapologetic (to the world), complete and utter love slaves to our Saviour and Redeemer, that we glorify God with our lives. I’m not saying we become glorified — we don’t. To say that we are glorious is to tread dangerous New Age thinking. No, we are not glorified. The whole earth isn’t full of our glory, but we were called to fill the earth (“Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28, NKJV)), and we need to start filling it with His glory. I believe we were called to more than just dominion over the fish and animals — we were called to fill the earth with His glory! We become vessels of honour as we are filled with the Holy Spirit and live righteous, holy, pleasing lives before Him. More
This is a bit of a follow up to the obedience story that was posted last. It has been a very interesting weekend and the Holy Spirit keeps opening my eyes. More on that later, because I think this topic is more pressing.
I was just listening to an interview with Andrew Strom and about how and why he left the so-called “prophetic movement” that has led to things like the Lakeland Revival and he made a statement that really spoke to me. He was talking about true revival, and how it would come, but how it was all about repentance and not “signs and wonders” which these big “revivals” are all about. He said that there was an unwillingness to wait, for these meetings, for real revival, and that people blindly pushed forward with things that did not seem Biblical because they wanted something and they wanted it now. Then he said something that really caught me: he said it was like Ishmael (Abraham’s first son). Ishmael was conceived because they (Abram and Sarai) were unwilling to wait. The story is in Genesis 16, so let me briefly recount the story.
In Genesis 15, God is giving Abraham (then Abram) an amazing promise. Genesis 15:2-3 is Abraham telling God that he has no heir that would come from his body, and Genesis 15:4 is God telling Abraham that he will have an heir from his own body, and:
“Then He brought him outside and said, ‘Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.’ And He said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.” (Gen 15:5, NKJV)
Taking the story up in Genesis 16, Sarah (then Sarai) went to Abraham and told him that she had no children (obviously Abraham had just finished recounting God’s promise to him). And instead of waiting for God to do His thing for them, she gave to Hagar to Abraham, her maidservant, in the hopes that Hagar would give Abraham a child. Abraham agreed and Ishmael was the result. But this was not the child that God had promised to Abraham! Ishmael was not the child of promise! Isaac, born later to Sarah, was the child of promise, the heir that God had promised to Abraham.
Instead of waiting for God to provide what He Himself had promised, Abraham and Sarah took it upon themselves to fulfill God’s Word to them their way. Not God’s way.
The interesting thing here is that Ishmael is the father of the Islamic nation whereas Isaac is the father of the Israelite nation. Thousands of years after their birth, Ishmael and Isaac still contest for the inheritance of Abraham! For a Christian, we know that the Muslim faith, Islam, is a counterfeit religion and is not of God. The counterfeit came first (this is the point that Andrew Strom was making regarding this “revival” movement).
So it got me thinking… if God promises us something, He is faithful to deliver. If we go out of our way to hurry God’s Hand, to fulfill a prophecy or vision by our means (despite good intentions!), and do not wait for the appointed time that God in His Sovereignty has dictated, we can go one of two ways: His favour is withdrawn and we fail (and then doubt that this was ever from God), or we produce something that is wrong and counterfeit, that will war with the latter thing that is of God. More
A few weeks ago at a Tuesday night prayer meeting, one of the members of the church was exhorting us about imitating Christ. He gave two scriptures:
“Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.” – 1 Corinthians 11:1 (NKJV)
“For to this you were called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: ‘Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth,’ who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously;” – 1 Peter 2:21-23 (NKJV)
This is a lofty thing to aspire to. Imitate Christ? He who was perfect and without sin? How can we possibly do something like that? More
The other morning I was reading in Joshua and the first chapter is full of promises, encouragements, and the importance of being involved with God’s Word:
“No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:5-9, NKJV)
These five versus are so full, we really need to break it down to fully understand what God was saying to Joshua, and is saying to us now. We know that He is saying this to us, today, because He is the same today, as He was yesterday, and will be tomorrow. God does not change (Mal 3:6a).
First, God is giving us a promise that no one will be able to stand before us, because He will be with us as He was with Moses (and God and Moses were tight; Moses was in God’s Presence all the time, he spoke with God face to face). There is a condition here, however. If God is going to stand with us, as He did with Moses, we have to be like Moses: obedient, willing — no, eager — to spend time in His Presence, seeking Him out, living solely for Him.
Second, He says that He will not leave or forsake us. How true this is! When we feel God’s displeasure or we feel alone, we need to look at ourselves and see who’s fault it is. Did God pull away from us, or did we pull away from Him? Did we allow the world — it’s lusts, temptations, cares, worries — to replace God? Every time I have felt overwhelmed in life it is because I had pulled away from God and decided to do my own thing. God didn’t leave me, I left Him. More
This morning I read Mark 5, which includes the story of man possessed by a legion of demons, and how Jesus cast those unclean spirits out of the man and they went into a herd of pigs. This is a story that many are familiar with, but then Mark 5:19 jumped out at me:
“However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, ‘Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.’” (Mark 5:19, NKJV)
This is exactly what this site aims to do. Jesus told the man who had an amazing experience with God’s power to tell his friends, to tell them how Jesus had compassion on him by saving him from a life of torment, and the absolutely great transformation Jesus did in his life. This site is a vehicle to do what Jesus has asked us all to do! Not only are we to “make disciples of all nations” as He stated in the Great Commission (see Matt 28:18-20), but we’re to share and tell the amazing things Jesus has done in our own lives.
Jesus completely turned around a life of absolute suffering:
“And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones.” (Mark 5:5)
Today we posted a testimony of the incredible power of God’s grace and how He can absolutely and incredibly transform a life. What is your story? Are you willing to do as Jesus asked and “tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you”?
It’s interesting how the Word is relevant in specific situations and points-in-time. For those that think it’s just some dusty old out-dated book, think again! There is real life in the Bible. The last posting was about the “To Save a Life” movie and how we are to be good neighbours and how we should treat those around us. This morning, following my church’s daily reading guide, I come across Matthew 25:33-46 which talks about the sheep and the goats.
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what’s coming to you in this kingdom. It’s been ready for you since the world’s foundation. And here’s why:
I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.’
Then those ‘sheep’ are going to say ‘Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?’ Then the King will say, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me — you did it to me.’” (Matt 25:34-40, MSG)
The passage goes on to repeat this to the “goats”, who are the people that did not do these things:
“He will answer them ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was me — you failed to do it to me.’” (Matt 25:45, MSG)
There is, in fact, a very real cost to not being a neighbour to those around you. There is also very great reward if you do. It’s a difficult things to do; I struggle with this all the time. It’s not always convenient to go out of your way for someone else, and sometimes it’s downright painful. But if you get that whispering voice inside of you telling you to do something, I would encourage you to listen even if, to you, the timing doesn’t seem right or convenient. There’s a very real payoff for being a servant to others. In fact, this is what Jesus has called us to be! We are called to be servants, and helping the hungry and thirsty, the homeless, sick, and those in prison is being a servant. We’re called to be in the world, not of it. We’re supposed to be kinder, more generous, more loving, and more caring than those around us. God’s calling us to step up and do what He’s called us to do!
I finish with this one scripture that I think sums this up nicely. Lord, help me to be a good and faithful servant, and to actively walk out Your will. It’s not easy, but by Your Holy Spirit you give me strength and victory!
“If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.” (Matt 5:46-47, MSG)
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We look forward to reading and sharing your stories. Thank you, and God bless!
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