Not “Us and Them”, Just Us

“Putting away lying, let each of you speak truth to his neighbor,

for we are members of one another.”

Ephesians 4:25

Daniel was a very great man before God.  When God wanted to emphasize how crafty the coming world ruler would be (the man called “the beast” in Revelation), he said through Ezekiel, “You are wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that can be hidden from you” (Ezek. 28:3).  And when God wanted to emphasize how furious he was with His people for their godly conduct, He said this, to stress that even the prayers of the most righteous men in history would not help them now:

Ezekiel 14

14. Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God.

15. If I cause noisome beasts to pass through the land, and they spoil it, so that it be desolate, that no man may pass through because of the beasts:

16. Though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters; they only shall be delivered, but the land shall be desolate.

17. Or if I bring a sword upon that land, and say, Sword, go through the land; so that I cut off man and beast from it:

18. Though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only shall be delivered themselves.

19. Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out my fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast:

20. Though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness.

Remember what God thought of Daniel as you read the following prayer from this wonderful man of God:

Daniel 9

1. In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans;

2. In the first year of his reign, I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

3. And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplication, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.

4. And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;

5. We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:

6. Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

7. O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.

8. O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.

9. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him;

10. Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.

11. Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.

12. And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.

13. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth.

14. Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.

15. And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.

16. O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.

Other righteous men of God felt the same way.  Consider Ezra:

Ezra 9

1. . . . the princes came to me, saying, The people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.

2. For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands: yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass.

3. And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down astonied.

. . .

5. And at the evening sacrifice I arose up from my heaviness; and having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the Lord my God.

6. And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.

7. Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.

8. And now for a little space grace hath been showed from the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage.

9. For we were bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.

10. And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? for we have forsaken thy commandments.

Ezra was, himself, not guilty of marrying a heathen woman.  But with this prayer, Ezra was not being overly pious.  Nor was Daniel being overly pious when he confessed the sins of his people as his own.  These men of God were thinking the way the Son of God thought when he came to earth.  He was moved by God’s love for us to become one with us, to share in our shame, to taste of the death we must taste, and to become sin for us so that we might become his righteousness.  We find prayers of the Son throughout the book of Psalms, in which he is begging God to forgive him, to cleanse him, to deliver him, though he could have cried out for his own deliverance from this world at any time, and angels would have come and taken him away.

This is not just the way a few of the very most righteous men of history have felt.  This is the way the love of God makes everyone feel who feels it.  This is the way every child of God feels who loves with the love of God.  It is a a love that makes you love the family of God so much that you want to share in their destiny; it makes you want it so much that you become willing to take their place if they are wrong.  It makes you want their guilt, if your brother and sisters are guilty; it makes you want to take their guilt on yourself and then go to God with that guilt to get rid of it for them and you.  Isn’t that what Jesus did?  Paul felt this way.  Paul said that he was willing to be cursed if he could just reach the hearts of his fellow Jews with the gospel (Rom. 9:3).

He explained the unity Christ died for us to have like this:

Romans 12

3. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

4. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:

5. So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

1Corinthians 12

12. For just as the body is one, and yet has many members, and all the members of the one body, though many, are one body, so also is Christ.

13. For by one spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and all were given to drink of one spirit.

14. For the body is not one member, but many.

15. If the foot say, “I’m not part of the body because I’m not a hand,” does that mean it is not a part of the body?

16. And if the ear say, “I’m not part of the body because I’m not an eye,” does that means it is not part of the body?

17. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be?  If the whole body were hearing, where would the smelling be?

18. But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He was pleased.

19. If everything was one member, where would the body be?

. . .

24b. God has blended the body together

25. so that there might be no division in the body; instead, members would share the same concern for one another.

26. And then, if one member suffers, every member suffers with it; if one member is honored, every member rejoices with it.

27. You yourselves are the body of Christ and, individually, members of it.

If the body of Christ is broken, the man is broken who loves the body of Christ as Christ loves the body.  If the body of Christ is confused, the man is confused who loves the body of Christ.  If the body of Christ is rebellious and disobedient, the man feels rebellious and disobedient who loves the body of Christ as Christ loves the body.  He became sin for us because we were sinful, and he loved us.

Now, do we love the body of Christ they way Jesus does?

“Much More”

“Much more, then, being now justified by his blood,

we shall be saved from wrath through him.”

Romans 5:9

There is something much more than being justified by the blood of Christ, and that is being saved from wrath by him.  In other words, it is greater to be saved from the coming wrath than it is to be justified.  What good is it if we are justified, but in the end, we are not saved from wrath because our lives have not pleased God?  We must be justified, of course, in order to have the hope of being saved in the end, but justification only gives us the hope of salvation; it is not salvation itself.  That’s what makes salvation greater than justification.

It is the same with reconciliation.

“For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”

Romans 5:10

Being saved by Christ from the coming wrath of God against sin is also “much more” than being reconciled to God.  Just as with justification, we must be reconciled to God in order to have the hope of being saved in the end, but reconciliation, like justification, gives us the hope of salvation; it is not salvation itself.  That’s what makes salvation greater than reconciliation.

Being counted worthy of salvation in the Final Judgment will be greater than anything we may experience in Christ in this life, whether it be justification, reconciliation, gifts of the Spirit, visions, revelations, anointings, or anything else.  For Christ to judge us worthy of salvation at the end of this age, to hear the Lord say to us on the Day of Judgment, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant,” will be very “much more” than anything in this life could possibly be.

In the Middle

“And to the messenger of the congregation in Laodicea, write:

The Amen, the faithful and true witness,

the beginning of the creation of God, says these things:

I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot.

I prefer that you be either cold or hot.

So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold,

I am about to vomit you out of my mouth.”

Revelation 3:14–16

Preacher Clark once told us, “Some people have too much of God in them to enjoy the world, but too much of the world in them to enjoy God.  Theirs is the most miserable spiritual condition to be in.”

I can think of nothing to add to that statement but, “Amen!”

Are You Persecuted or Persecuting Others?

“You can’t grow, or do anything for Christ, 

as long as you persecute any child of God.”

Preacher Clark, 1972

My father, a survivor of much cruel persecution, learned much about the subject.  In his 60-plus years of Spirit-filled ministry, he learned that everyone in the body of Christ either persecutes or is persecuted.  There is no middle ground in spiritual warfare.  And he said that God told him one day that there is one group of people that we can always be sure we are ahead of in the Spirit.  That group which is always on a lower spiritual plane than ourselves is comprised of those who are persecuting us.  “You only persecute those who are ahead of you,” he taught us.  We may think that those we are speaking evil of are less holy than we are, but then, our thoughts are not the standard; God’s thoughts are.

If you are persecuting any child of God, you are blocking your own way to spiritual growth.  They are ahead of you in Christ, and as long as you persecute them, you cannot catch up with them, much less surpass them in the Spirit!  Many of God’s people justify harshness toward others by pointing out how wrong those others are.  My friend, hard-heartedness is never right.  You cannot justify having an unmerciful spirit toward those who are wrong.  If Jesus had been that kind of person, we all would have been lost.

If you see a brother or sister doing what you think is wrong, be like Jesus, and be willing to endure whatever you need to endure in order to make them right again.  And if you find yourself in the wrong, make it easy on those who are over you in the Lord by quickly confessing your fault and receiving the forgiveness they so much want to show you.

Your Vision or God’s?

“Be not conformed to this world,

but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,

that you may prove what is that good,

and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

Romans 12:2

“For whom He did foreknow,

He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son,

that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

Romans 8:29

Every person has a future vision for himself in his own mind.  Even young children have ideas about what they want to be when they grow up.  If a person’s name is in the Lamb’s Book of Life, however, God has His own vision for that person.  The process of growing up in Christ is the process of having your vision for yourself changed into the vision of you that God has in His mind.

When I was a young man just getting out of college, the world had used me up.  I felt old.  I had no energy left to form a future image of myself.  My images were gone.  Jesus found me the way he said he found Israel (Ezek. 16:5–6): “None eye pitied thee . . . to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the loathing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born.  And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, “Live!”  Yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, “Live!”

Since I had no more no visions, nothing had to be the way I wanted it to be.  There was nothing in me that felt like a leader, or a teacher, or even a helper.  I was a hopeless mess, and I knew it.  Whenever I tried to testify (and I did not often feel worthy to do so), I would cry.  I was desperate to be led and completely willing to do as I was told.  I was a real follower of those who were over me in the Lord, and thankfully, they were worth following.  It hasn’t been that way for other sincere souls.

One of the things I saw was that those elders had a great love for the Bible.  So, I followed them in that love.  I humbled myself to whatever the Bible said just as I humbled myself to my elders in the Lord. (They never demanded that I or anyone else do so; they knew that such devotion cannot be commanded; it must come from the heart.)  And as a result of my submission to the Bible, in not too long a time, I found that I had attained to a knowledge of the scriptures which few other people possessed, including those who were still my elders in the Lord.

I developed an Old Testament course for the local Community College and after several years of teaching, one of my students asked me, during an evening class, “How did you get to know the Bible the way you know it?”  I had no answer, for it was a question I had never considered.  For days, that student’s question rang in my mind until, suddenly, the answer dawned on me.  The reason I knew the Bible so well is that God had pieced it together for me, as the scripture says, “here a little and there a little”.  But He pieced it together for me only because I had surrendered my mind and soul to His mind and soul, as it was revealed in the Bible!

I looked at the Bible the same way I looked at my elders.  There was in me no disagreement about anything they said because as soon as I learned their thoughts on a matter, I began thinking them.  Their thoughts became my thoughts when they were revealed to me.  I brought nothing to the table because I knew I had nothing to bring!  The words and the ways of the saints around me became my words and my ways, and I came to know them better than anybody in this world.

In the very same way, I came to know the Bible well, and finding in me no interfering self-visions, God began to reveal to me “great and mighty things” which I did not know – things I never could have known if I had been clinging to a vision of myself that I had made.  I had no vision; I had no opinion; I had no preference.  I hated my own thoughts and my own ways.  I was, in fact, afraid to have things my way because my ways had ruined my life and had almost destroyed me.  Why would I want my ways any longer when I knew what my ways had done to me?

Do you really know what your ways have done to you?  If so, you have trashed all your self-visions and prayed for God to grant you His vision for you instead.

Listen to this!  You will never know God or the Bible unless you are willing to let go of your self-vision and let God renew your mind.  If you are ever to see the future that God sees for you, if you are ever to become the person God intended for you to be from the beginning of the world, you must come low, as the old saints used to say.  You must have a heart that will believe whatever He says – even if what He says is contrary to what you have always thought, or always wanted, or always judged to be right!

The secret of God is with the humble!  It is with the bruised and battered, and with those who are so beaten down by this life that they are not just willing for God to have His way but they are begging God to have His way.  God’s secret is with those who have discovered how desperately needy they are and who are seeking Him and His will for them, the way some men pursue gold.  The old song tells the truth: “He will not walk with the proud or the scornful.”

When we bring nothing to God’s table, when we are completely willing to eat whatever Jesus puts on our plate, the holy truth that Jesus serves us will create understanding within us as we swallow it.  It will give us the knowledge of God.  The truth of Christ will shape our spirits; it will inform our attitudes and determine our choices.  It will keep us from sin and make us perfect before God – if we don’t bring anything to God’s table.  

Let me give you a couple of examples of how my attitude before God as a young man in the Lord made room for God, through the scriptures, to shape my thoughts.  First, the story of Uzzah and the stumbling oxen.

2Samuel 6

2. And David arose, and went with all the people that were with him from Baale of Judah, to bring up from thence the ark of God, whose name is called by the name of the Lord of hosts that dwelleth between the cherubim.

3. And they set the ark of God upon a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab that was in Gibeah, and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart.

4. And they brought it out of the house of Abinadab which was at Gibeah, accompanying the ark of God, and Ahio went ahead of the ark.

5. And David and all the house of Israel played before the Lord on all manner of instruments made of fir wood, even on harps, and on psalteries, and on timbrels, and on cornets, and on cymbals.

6. And when they came to Nachon’s threshing floor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it, for the oxen shook it.

7. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his error; and there he died by the ark of God.

8. And David was displeased because the Lord had made a breach upon Uzzah, and he called the name of the place Breech of Uzzah to this day.

1Chronicles 13

9. And when they came unto the threshing floor of [Nachon], Uzzah put forth his hand to hold the ark, for the oxen stumbled.

10. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and He smote him, because he put his hand to the ark; and there he died before God.

11. And David was displeased, because the Lord had made a breach upon Uzzah; wherefore that place is called Breech of Uzzah to this day.

Now, I was designing for the Community College the first Old Testament class that I taught because the school had no Old Testament class before then, and I was actually learning the Old Testament as I was teaching it.  For example, I remember discovering as I was preparing the assignment for the end of the book of 2Kings that the class was near the end of the history portion of the Old Testament.  I didn’t even know that.  So, when I read the story of Uzzah being struck down by God for touching the ark, I did not know why God was so displeased at Uzzah for doing the good thing he did that He struck him dead.  It seemed to be a straightforward matter: the oxen stumbled, the cart shook, the ark appeared to be in danger of falling off the cart, and so, Uzzah reached out and steadied it.

And God killed him.

After reading this story with my class, I told them that it was safest to always assume that God is always right and that if something He did in the Bible did not seem right to us, then either it was because we do not have all the information or it was because our hearts are not pure.  I could not explain to them God’s actions, but I knew in my heart, and I would not be moved from it, that God was right to kill Uzzah.

Studying further, we learned that David, though displeased with God for killing Uzzah, afterward sought God for His reason for killing him, and that God had shown David why He had done it, and that David then decided to move the ark again – this time the right way.  Then David, made wiser by the tragic experience, gave a stern warning to the priests and Levites to follow carefully the instructions for carrying the ark that Moses had given to Israel in the law:

1Chronicles 15

1. And David . . . prepared a place for the ark of God, and pitched for it a tent.

2. Then David said, “No one ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites, for the Lord has chosen them to carry the ark of God and to minister unto Him for ever.”

3. And David gathered all Israel together to Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the Lord unto his place, which he had prepared for it.

4. And David assembled the children of Aaron, and the Levites,

. . .

12. And said unto them, “You are the chief of the fathers of the Levites.  Sanctify yourselves, both you and your brethren, that you may bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel unto the place that I have prepared for it.

13. For because you did not do it the first time, the Lord our God made a breach upon us, because we sought him not after the due order of Moses.”

14. So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel.

15. And the children of the Levites bore the ark of God upon their shoulders with the staves thereon, as Moses commanded according to the word of the Lord.

God was right to kill Uzzah.  In fact, it was merciful of Him not to kill them all, including David, for bearing the ark in a manner contrary to the holy law He had so graciously given to them through Moses.

There were other places in the Old Testament that contradicted my thoughts, but my thoughts instantly vanished when I read them.  I remember reading that God’s judgment was that kidnapping should be punished by death (Ex. 21:16), and instantly, I thought the same thing!  Do you?  What is your opinion about that?  If you have an opinion about it after hearing God’s judgment of the matter, you are a fool.  Why are you holding on to your opinion after God has spoken?  When I was young, I earnestly prayed to be delivered from my opinion, and God answered that prayer by giving me the kind of heart that gladly abandoned what I thought whenever He let me know what He thought.  The truth made me free from my own opinion, but only because I believed it; the truth make nobody free who does not receive it.

The old man John Clark gladly died when God offered him life, and in time, I was “transformed by the renewing of my mind” because I believed God and surrendered my life!  I believed that whatever God said and did was right, and nothing He said or did displeased me.  Displease me?  Who was I to dare to be displeased with God?  I had no vision for myself, no dream, no plan, no desires for the future that interfered with His work in me.  My heart was soft in His hands, and He molded me.  And I am persuaded that He will do the same for every moldable heart.

Visions for Others

You can have your own visions for others as much as you can have visions for yourself.  What kind of past do you insist on your friends having, or your pastor?  I am certain that few if any of the saints who were Preacher Clark’s sheep when I started in the Lord would ever have chosen him to be their pastor, but they all knew that God had chosen him to be their pastor, and that made all the difference.  Preacher Clark used to ask us these questions: “Would you want a man who was guilty of murder to be your spiritual guide or judge?” or “Would you want a man guilty of adultery and murder to be your pastor?”  Let me rephrase those two questions so as to make it clear what Preacher Clark was asking.  “Would you want Moses for a pastor?” or “Would you want David for a pastor?”  Moses murdered an Egyptian.  He was guilty of that crime.  Given a choice, would you have a convicted murderer as your guide to eternal life? King David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then murdered her righteous husband in order to cover it up.  Given a choice, would you want David as your pastor, knowing how people would talk?  In their times, the overwhelming majority of Israelites did not want either one of them, BUT GOD DID, and those who had given up their own visions of the right spiritual leader knew that God did, and they were satisfied with God’s choice.

Furthermore, God chose Moses and David, each in his time, to be pastors for His people – but listen – God also chose His people as sheep for Moses and David!  And every person in Israel, whether Moses, David, or anyone else, who was humble, accepted God’s choices, for they were too busy rejoicing that God had chosen them at all to meddle in His business.

What is it that matters to you?  God’s vision of your life or your own vision?  In the Spirit, there is but one vision of you, for there is just one hope.  Walk with Jesus in the Spirit, and that hope will grow brighter and brighter until the Perfect Day when he who is our hope will appear, bringing his salvation with him.

The Son Did Not Glorify Himself

“No one takes this honor upon himself, but one who is called of God,

as in the case of Aaron.  Likewise, even Christ did not glorify himself

to be made high priest; but He who said unto him,

‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you.’ ”

Hebrews 5:4-5

Dear friends, “Come, and let us reason together.”  If either of the doctrines of “the Holy Trinity” or “Oneness” was true, if the Father and the Son were, one way or the other, the same Being, then the man of God who wrote the book of Hebrews would never have thought to write the above verses.

The Honorable Thing

“He who conceals his transgressions shall not prosper,

but whoever confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy.”

Proverbs 28:13

There is nothing honorable about talking about how bad you are, or have been.  There is no honor in talking about your sin.  Confessing sin without repenting of it is the flesh’s subtle way of boasting about its power.  True honor is found in believing the gospel, confessing your sin, and then turning away from it; humble repentance before God is the honorable thing.  When you kneel in contrition at Jesus’ feet, you have done a truly honorable thing, and in doing so, you bring honor to God and His Son, through whom all sin is forgiven.

Merciful without Sin

“Every high priest . . . is able to deal gently with the ignorant and misguided

because he, too, is encompassed with weakness.”

Hebrews 5:1–2

When we know ourselves, we are merciful to others.  Until we come to know ourselves, however, we usually are not so merciful.  People who are proud of how good they have always been are the least merciful and the most impatient with those who fail.  One of my earliest feelings about the Lord was wonder, when I thought about how merciful and patient he is, and yet, he never sinned.  How did Jesus come to be so incredibly forgiving without first being humbled by failures of his own

What Jesus told his disciples really is true: “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.”

While There is Time

I read recently that in California, it has been determined that no one can be a judge who is associated with the Boy Scouts.  The Boy Scouts of America, it was decided, is such an evil institution (because it does not endorse men marrying men) that mere association with it makes one unfit to serve as a judge.

As people are losing their respect for the Son of God, goodness is becoming disgraceful and disgraceful things are becoming the new “goodness”.  What used to be commonly understood as righteousness is gradually being outlawed, and wickedness is being imposed on us and our children by this increasingly godless society.

It’s happened before.  In ancient Israel, among God’s own people, the truth became so hated and wickedness became so loved that anyone who dared to speak the truth or dared to stop sinning made himself a target:

Isaiah 59

14b. Truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. 

15a. Yea, truth fails, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.

As is happening now before our very eyes, ancient Israel drifted so far from God that good was everywhere condemned as evil, and evil was praised as good:

Isaiah 5

20. Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil, who put darkness for light, and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

And as is happening now, perverse immorality became standard practice in the nation that God had chosen.  Very few of God’s people loved Him enough to resist the pressure to embrace the socially acceptable wickedness of the time:

Isaiah 1

9. Except the Lord of hosts had left for us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like Gomorrah.

Heartbroken as God was about the direction His people had taken, He extended a precious promise even to those who had embraced the worst of the dark spirits of the time:

Isaiah 1

18. Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord.  Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

And since our God does not change (Mal. 3:6), but is “the same yesterday, and today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8), I feel sure that He is extending that same promise of mercy now to those who have fallen victim to the dark spirits of our time.  May we all be wise and “seek the Lord while He may be found, and call upon Him while He is near” (Isa. 55:6).  It is supreme importance that we do that, that we take advantage of God’s compassionate offer of forgiveness and cleansing because “it is appointed unto men once to die, and after that, the Judgment” (Heb. 9:27).

When that day of Final Judgment comes - and it is coming - the time for repentance will have past, and no offers of forgiveness will be extended.  On that day, we will “all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to what he has done, whether it be good or bad” (1Cor. 5:10).

“Now is the day of salvation”, the man of God said.  But what makes that statement true is that God is now offering mercy to those who turn from sin and come to His Son Jesus, whom “God has made both Lord and Christ”.  Let’s all do that while we still can!  A life of righteousness is much preferable to a life of sin and shame.  And an eternity of peace and joy is much preferable to an eternity of torment and regret.

Leave Your Gift for God at the Altar, Part 3

So, if you bring your gift to the altar,

and there remember that your brother has something against you,

leave your gift there before the altar and go your way;

first be reconciled to your brother and then come offer your gift.

Matthew 5:23-24

What this person was offering to God on His altar was a gift; it was not a sacrifice for sin.  Gifts were optional.  They did not have to be brought.  Sacrifices for sin, however, were required of those who hoped to be saved from the coming wrath.  What, then, does it tell us that the person in Jesus’ parable was bringing a gift to God?  It tells us that he was there to worship God simply because he wanted to be there, not because he needed forgiveness for some sin.  At some point in the past, he had already made things right with God and was now bringing an offering out of gratitude and joy.

But notice what Jesus said God wanted such a worshipper to do: “Leave your gift there before the altar and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother and then come offer your gift.”  Did you notice that Jesus did not tell the worshipper to take the gift away with him?  In other words, God wanted the gift!  He was not rejecting it!  God wanted the worshipper to come back and enjoy the sweet communion of worship with Him!  At the same time, He loves all His children and couldn’t accept worship from one who had not made things right with others.  As long as there remained someone who had been wronged by the worshipper and was still hurt by it, God could not rejoice with that worshipper as He would have liked to.  God wants us all – together – to enjoy communion with Him, but that cannot happen if are there are things still dividing us such as wrongs that have not been dealt with.

The worshipper in Jesus’ parable had been forgiven, but it is precisely because he had been forgiven that God told him to go heal his brother’s heart.  Before he was forgiven, before he himself was right with God, he was unable to do the good work that God now asked him to do.  Now was his opportunity to demonstrate that he had a renewed mind, a right spirit, and a heart of love for others, like God.  God was not condemning him when he told him to leave his gift at the altar; He would have gone with him as his Helper and Guide.  With the demand to go be reconciled with a wronged brother, God was showing him a new way to think and live, a way that considered others before oneself, as God does.

My aunt “Onie” was in a prayer meeting one night when she saw a visitor there whom she knew.  It was Mr. Grady, the owner of a local furniture store, to whom she and her husband owed money and had not been making their agree-upon payments.  Aunt Onie knew that if she worshipped God with the saints that night, it would trouble the man she and her had not been treating right.  So, she held herself back and sat still throughout the service.  After the meeting was over, my father went to his beloved sister, Onie, and asked her why she had been so quiet that night.  She explained the situation and then added that the next morning, she intending to go see Mr. Grady and humbly apologize, and to start making payments again, immediately.  True to her word, the next day she went to Mr. Grady and asked his forgiveness, and then she and her husband began fulfilling their obligation to him.  The next night when the saints came together for a meeting, Aunt Onie rejoiced with them as she normally did, and she would have been glad if Mr. Grady had been there to see her do it.  She had left her gift at the altar, taken care of the business that she needed to take care of, and then came and offered her gift of worship to God, who, I feel sure, accepted it gladly.

God was glad that worshipper had brought an offering to Him.  But He was willing to postpone His joy a little while until others could partake of it with Him and the worshipper.  He was showing the forgiven worshipper how to be like Him!  God would humbly wait for His gift, and He wanted the forgiven worshipper to wait to give it, until everyone in the body could rejoice with them.

Leave Your Gift for God at the Altar, Part 2

So, if you bring your gift to the altar,

and there remember that your brother has something against you,

leave your gift there before the altar and go your way;

first be reconciled to your brother and then come offer your gift.

Matthew 5:23-24

In the late 1940’s, Brother Oral Roberts, a prince in the kingdom of God, wrote a book titled, If You Need Healing – Do These Things.  In it, he dealt with many aspects of healing, including what to do after being healed.  Part of his counsel to healed people included this paragraph, from page 44:

Some people lose their healing because after being well they cease to receive attention. . . .  When you are healed, God expects you to get your mind off yourself and devote your attention to His service by working as a laborer in the white harvest fields of suffering humanity.

This is an extremely important point, for it applies to being forgiven and cleansed from sin as much as it does to being healed.   One’s repentance before God will last and have its full effect only if after being forgiven by God, he reconciles with those whom he has wronged.  There is something wonderful that happens within our hearts when we humble ourselves to a wronged brother or sister and confess our fault.  Nothing can take the place of that simple, godly act, for, as Jesus said, it makes our repentance truly complete and our worship acceptable to God.

May God help us to do His will quickly and not miss the golden opportunities God gives us to do the things that “make for peace and joy”.  If we love the fellowship of Christ enough to pursue it, we will reap the benefits that are promised to the faithful children of God.

Do Not Pray for These Problems

Many people pray for things that God will not do, and He will not do them because He knows, as they know in their hearts, that they can answer those prayers for themselves.  This thought reminds me of the farmer’s wife in eastern North Carolina who refused to go pick the beans out of her garden until she prayed about it.  She didn’t need to pray about it.  She had the power to solve the “problem” of her ripe beans herself.

The “Pearl” for January 21, “You answer every prayer you can, and leave the rest to God,” reminds us that we can answer some of our own prayers if we will just do what we are supposed to do.  The point that Preacher Clark was making in that Pearl from his long-ago sermon is that our prayers should always be for the miraculous, not for things that we can fix on our own.

After reading that Pearl, I heard my daughter Rebekah say something yesterday that struck me as being beyond true; it was more like revelation knowledge than just a wise observation.  It went along with the January 21 Pearl, and I wanted to pass it on.

There are people who have vexing, life-impacting problems that they themselves could fix if they would just do the will of God.  Righteousness is their answer, and by it, they could fix their problems if they would just do it.

On the other hand, there are people who have vexing, life-impacting problems that they cannot fix, no matter how righteous they are.  Many times, in fact, those problems burden their lives because of their righteousness, not because of the lack of it.  These are the kind of problems that only God can fix, and they are the only kind of problems that we should pray for deliverance from.  The rest, we can fix by just doing right.

Through the years, I have seen but had not thought about it until I heard what Rebekah said, that the people who have the problems they could fix by doing right are also the people who usually receive the most attention and sympathy.  In hindsight now, I can see that those who suffer because of righteousness instead of because of their lack of it, suffer without burdening the body with their sorrow or vain prayer requests.  Their prayers are for what God alone can do because they are not bogged down with problems that are caused by unrighteousness.

What have you been praying about?  Is your problem something that would go away if you just did what is right in the sight of God?  If so, stop praying about it and do something; you are wasting your breath.  Pray instead for spiritual strength to face up to the real issue and deal with it.  Jesus will gladly give you that strength!  Then, when you have fixed your problem, you will find that you have the time to think on the hurts and needs of others, and you can pray then for those whose problems require the intervention of God.  That way, you will fulfill the desire for God’s children expressed by Paul:

Philippians 2

4. Let each one of you look not only to his own interests, but each one also to the interests of others.

5. Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus.

Paul found few who were righteous enough to be free enough to feel as he did toward God’s children.  That is why he loved Timothy as he did, even calling him his “son in the faith”.  Timothy had no problems caused by unrighteousness, and he was free, therefore, to be used by God, as this from Paul’s letter to the saints in Philippi indicates:

Philippians 2

19. Now, I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your state.

20. For I have no such kindred soul who will genuinely care about your welfare;

21. they all seek their own things, not the things of Christ Jesus.

Don’t you want to be useful for God’s people?  Don’t you want to be free from “the weights that so easily beset us”?  Don’t you want no problems except the ones that only God can fix?  Aren’t you tired of the dismal Swamp of Self?  Aren’t you tired of trudging through the muddy ditches of self-pity and self-will?  Let’s go!  Let’s lay hold of eternal life and rid ourselves forever of self-inflicted wounds!  If we are wounded, if we are faced with suffering, let’s let it be, from this moment on, because we have done what is right.

Leave Your Gift for God at the Altar

So, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember

that your brother has something against you, 

leave your gift there before the altar

and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother

and then come offer your gift.

Matthew 5:23-24

Virtually every religion on earth teaches repentance, in one form or another.  That’s not surprising, for there are some real benefits to be had by ceasing to do bad deeds and starting to do good deeds.  So, if you repent, you are going to feel better, maybe even much better.  But the revelation contained in the scriptures above, is that genuine repentance is not about how you feel.

Whenever sin happens, it hurts people.  It is impossible for anyone to do wrong without causing someone else to suffer.  What Jesus revealed about God was that until the transgressor has repented, personally, to the people he has harmed, God does not accept his worship, no matter how much better he feels.  Our repentance, when it is perfect, is not about us; it is about restoring damaged relationships.  Jesus said that God demands that we do more than repent in our hearts.  He demands that we also go to anyone whom He brings to our mind who “has something against you”.

Remember this!  True repentance is not about you; it is about those you have wronged.  True repentance focuses on repairing relationships damaged by ungodly behavior.

“Having Something Against”

Many people think that “having something against” someone means holding a grudge or being angry with someone, but that is not the case.  There were many in Israel who thought they had something against Jesus, but they did not have something against Jesus because he had done no evil to them.  They thought they had something against him only because they did not like what he taught, not because he had done wrong to anyone.  And because they did not really have something against him, Jesus never went to such people to say, “I am so sorry if I have done anything to upset you.”  He knew better.

We are never to try to repent to people who have nothing real against us; to do so only emboldens them in their error, and it will not bring peace and joy to anyone.  In fact, for a godly person to humble himself like that to an ungodly person confuses and harms everyone concerned.  Solomon said it this way:

Proverbs 25

26. A righteous man falling down before the wicked is as a troubled fountain, and a corrupt spring.

Loners

Everyone who goes astray goes astray because they prefer self over God and others.  At some point, they chose to “go it alone”.  Genuine repentance is a changing course; it is the opposite of self importance.  It is to deny self for the sake of others, to choose the will of God, and to prefer others.  

Self-willed people who repent are completely content with the joy that God gives them when they turn from their own ways and begin to seek to please Him.  But God is not content with that.  And He is not satisfied because He doesn’t just love the person who is repenting; He also loves the ones who have been wronged.  This is an absolutely critical point:  If those who have been wronged do not feel good about the worship of the one who wronged them, God will not accept that worship!  That is what Jesus was saying in Matthew 5:23-24.  Read it again:

Matthew 5

23. So, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you,

24. leave your gift there before the altar and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother and then come offer your gift.

God is so good, and He cares so much about us all, that when one of us repents before Him, as happy as that makes Him and the angels, He insists that we go to those whom we have wronged and who, therefore, have something against us, and that we humble ourselves to them first.  Then, the worship we offer God will be acceptable to Him.  Fellowship is the goal; it is not that one of us repents and is happy all by himself.

Get in the Spirit, and get the heart of God in what you are doing!  Think about it.  If God were a loner, if self was what He cared about most, He would accept the worship of everyone who repented, regardless of their relationships with anyone else.  But God is not a loner; He loves people and wants to be close to them.  He began creation by creating a Son to love, and everybody who has been created since then has been created to be loved, too.  It is only when we feel that way, the way God does, that we are able to repent the way Jesus said God demands.

There is another important point I should make that is, it is much more likely that one’s repentance will last if he does what God says and reconciles with those whom he has wronged.  There is something that happens in our soul when we humble ourselves to a wronged brother or sister and confess our fault.  Nothing can take the place of that simple, godly act, for, as Jesus said, it makes our repentance truly complete and our worship acceptable to God.

May God help us to do His will quickly and not miss the golden opportunities God gives us to do the things that “make for peace and joy”.  If we love the fellowship of Christ enough to pursue it, we will reap the benefits that are promised to the faithful children of God.

What's Done is Done

People speak of “making things right” when they have done something wrong.  In a real sense, however, we can never make anything right that we have done wrong.  What’s done is done.  We can repay something we wrongly took; we can regret a deed; we can confess a sin; but we can never undo a deed once it is done.  We can never make a wrong deed right.

Knowing this, God only requires that we confess our errors openly and determine not to repeat them – and if we have caused others harm, to do what we can to diminish the harm done.  God has promised to forgive and to cleanse us from our sins if we do that, and to remove the record of that sin from His Book.  But He does not undo the deed.  A deed done is a deed done, and it will forever be a deed that was done.

Live in the love of God and you will do no wrong, for “love worketh no ill to his neighbor.”  And it is certainly better not to do an evil deed than it is to do the evil and be forgiven for it.  It is better never to have had sins written in God’s Book than it is to have had sins in there and had them removed from it.

Being human, we all have had sins written in God’s Book, but Jesus has cleansed us and given us a new start.  And Jesus told us all, “Go, and sin no more.”  If you did not take the best advantage of his precious gift of a new start, and if you did wrong after Jesus cleansed you, then by all means, go back to Jesus and take advantage of the opportunity he offers to start again with a clean record.  But this time do what he says, and “sin no more”!

In the meantime, remember that the wrong you did remains something that was done, and those you hurt may still be hurt.  If God brings to your mind someone who is still living with the unpleasant consequences of your deeds, then show Jesus how thankful you are for his mercy and go to that person in all meekness, and seek their forgiveness, too.

What’s done is done, and God does not undo it.  But He can restore lost fellowship, and joy, and love, and hope, and He can heal bruised spirits and broken hearts.  He can renew lost friendships and ruined marriages.  He can make us feel the peace and joy that comes with a sinless life because it is His sinless life that comes into our hearts and cleanses and heals us.

“Though our sins be as scarlet,” He will make us feel as if our souls are white as snow.  He can restore lost years, lost health, wasted money, missed opportunities, and anything else we need to be happy!  “If God be for us, who can be against us?”  AND GOD IS FOR US!

The phrase, “What’s done is done” does not apply only to us.  It applies to what God does, too.  And if He has cleansed, if He has forgiven, if He has restored, it is done!  Let’s rejoice in His work, and forever abandon our own.

Do You Really Love, or Just Think it?

Most people judge themselves by what they think they are, within.  In the Final Judgment, God will judge us all by what we have done.  Whose judgment do you think will stand?

You can flatter yourself by saying that you love people, but if you do not express love to those people in a way that makes them feel it, your “love” is imaginary; it is worthless.  In fact, it isn’t even real.  Remember the words of this song; they are true:

A bell’s not a bell ‘til you ring it.

A song’s not a song ‘til you sing it.

Love in your heart wasn't put there to stay;

Love isn't love ‘til you give it away.

Now, go give your love away!

All Things John Said Were True

   Yesterday, Brother Damien and his family dropped by for a short visit, and while here, he pointed out a verse that we have all read many times but, if you are like me, have never really thought about. It is from the Gospel of John: 

John 10:39-41 

39. Then, again, they attempted to seize him, but he escaped out of their hand.

40. Once more, he departed to the other side of Jordan to the place

      where John was first baptizing, and he stayed there.

41. And many came to him, and they said, “Though John did no

      miracle, everything John said about this man was true.”

   Now, we know that whatever John said was true, but what were those things? The above verses from John make it seem as though he said a lot about Jesus, and he may have, but if he did, the Gospel writers did not tell us.

   One of the very few things that we know John said about Jesus is that he would baptize “with the holy Ghost and fire”. The people who excitedly declared that everything John said about Jesus was true did not know that statement from John was true because Jesus, at that time, had not baptized anyone with the holy Ghost and fire.

   Another statement John made about Jesus was that “he was before I was.” The people did not know that was true, either, because no one yet knew about the pre-existent Son of God.

   Another statement John made about Jesus was that he was “the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.” The people did not know that statement was true, either, of course.

   According to what we find in the Gospels, that is just about all that John said about Jesus. He did say that Jesus was greater than he was, and the people could have known that was true, just seeing the miracles that Jesus performed. But what else did John say about Jesus that they knew was true? What were the “all things” to which these people were referring, the things they said they now knew were true?

   If John said about Jesus only the things found in the Gospels, then what we find in John 10:39-41 is just another case of people becoming over-excited and saying things in their excitement that they would not think or say at a later date. Jesus certainly took this proclamation of faith with a grain of salt, so to speak, as he did every confession of faith in him that people offered, even the confessions of faith offered by his disciples:

John 16:30-32

30. We know now that you know everything, and you have no need for anyone to question you; by this, we believe that you came from God.”

31. Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe?

32. Behold, an hour is coming, and has now come, when you’ll be scattered, each to his own house, and you’ll abandon me, and yet, I’m not alone because the Father is with me.

   Jesus was wise. He knew that no man’s testimony can be trusted who does not have the Spirit, even the testimony of a comparatively good man. The Bible makes this very clear:

John 2:23-25 

23. During the Feast of Passover, while he was in Jerusalem, many people believed on his name, seeing his miracles that he performed.

24. But as for Jesus, he did not trust himself to them because he knows all men,

25. and because he had no need for anyone to testify to him about man, for he knew what was in man.

   Let us follow Jesus’ example and trust no testimony of man until the Spirit has born witness to his faith. If we accept the testimony of those who do not have the Spirit, if we do not wait for the Spirit to testify of the genuineness of a person’s faith, we will be trusting our souls to something Jesus never trusted – what man says.

   What the “all things” are which the people in John 10 claimed that John the Baptist said about Jesus, we cannot say. But we can say that whatever those things were (if they were at all), the people did not really know they were true, no matter what they claimed to know. The sure knowledge of the Son of God came only through the Spirit that was poured out on the day of Pentecost, and none of those people had it.

Lord at Birth

My children and grandchildren sang a few Christmas carols after our Christmas Eve supper tonight.  As we sang the classic song, “Silent Night”, something in one of the verses caught my attention.  The end of the verse says, “Jesus, Lord at thy birth.  Jesus, Lord at thy birth.”

The prophet Malachi foretold of the Messiah’s coming by saying, “The Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his temple.”  This happened when the Son of God, in the shape of a harmless dove, “suddenly” came from heaven and lit upon Jesus, Mary’s son.  Therefore, the Lord whom Israel sought was still in heaven when Jesus was born.

Jesus was not Lord when he was born.  He was made Lord and Christ when the Lord and Christ from heaven came into him and the Son of God from heaven was blended with the son of Mary from Nazareth.

Being Pruned

   John 15:2, 5-6 “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bring forth more fruit.  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit, for without me ye can do nothing.  If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.”

   If after much reproof, we do not do well, Jesus said, God will eventually cut us off and cast us into the fire.  But if we do well, God will still cut us so that we learn how to do even better.

   This can be a puzzling thing if we are proud of how good we have been.  If after we have done what is right, God cuts on us, it seems unfair to a spirit that thinks too highly of itself, but this kind of cutting, this pruning, is only a reward for having done good.  It is done only to the plants that God thinks are healthy enough to take it.

   God is not in awe of us when we do what is right, and He does not feel obligated to heap up rewards on us when we do right.  Jesus said that when we do God’s will, then we should say to ourselves, “I am an unprofitable servant.  I have only done that which is my duty to do.”

   Do not sulk when God rewards your good work with a hard trial.  You earn such trials by doing good.  Your past obedience makes you worthy to be made even more like your Heavenly Father!  Do you think that what good you have done is so great that you deserve nothing but luxuries the rest of your life?  Or do you think that you are so holy that God has nothing else to change in you, to make you more like Him?  God is answering your prayer to be made worthy to stand in His presence with His Son.  Will you complain about the fire that burns out your dross?

   Look at what the Father put His Son through, even though the Son had never done anything wrong! The Father perfected the sinless Son through suffering!  This is the message the Lord is sending some of us right now:

Hebrews 12:3-13

“Consider him [Jesus] who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.  Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.  And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him.  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

“If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?  But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.  Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?  For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.  Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.  Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.”

   You do not want to be “turned out of the way” just because God is pruning you and you don’t like it.  Receive His correction and live.