Let’s Celebrate the Holy Spirit

    Today is Pentecost Sunday. It is not just a Sunday in the liturgical calendar, but it is the observance of an historical fact, the day in which the Holy Spirit was poured out upon people in accordance with the promises of the Old Testament, and the predictions of Jesus of Nazareth. There are people who are worried that the church has become idolatrous because it recognizes Christmas and Easter.  No doubt there are pagan associations with some of the traditions that accompany these celebrations, and if it were up to me, I would not have the church ever refer to the Sunday after Passover as Easter. I wonder if those same people who are so worried about these things consider that every day of the week is named after a pagan god? Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. The Bible refers to the First day of the week, and the Sabbath day, or seventh day.

   Paganism has its ugly face everywhere.  However, should we as believers not consider the incarnation of God’s Son into the world? Should we ignore Passover, the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth? Should we also ignore the pivotal point of history when God poured forth His Spirit in fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel 2? 

    It would do us all well to know and understand all the feasts that God established for Israel, for each feast is God’s encouragement to His people to celebrate His goodness and intervention in their personal and national lives. Passover was His deliverance from slavery to Egypt. Tabernacles was to remember the wilderness wanderings and God’s faithfulness to feed them manna and supply them water in an otherwise exceedingly hostile environment. Pentecost was the feast coinciding with first-fruits and harvest, and specifically celebrating God’s giving of the Law that would set His people apart from all other nations. Jubilee was to be observed every fifty years cancelling all debt, releasing all Israelite slaves, and giving the people a chance to start over new.

   Today, we don’t celebrate the giving of the Law per se, but a greater gift, the giving of God Himself to live in His people. The union of believer to the Triune God, where we could experience the oneness that Jesus experienced with the Father and the Spirit. “He would be in you, and you shall be in Him, and we shall all be one.” (John 15-17) It was a new day then, and for those who are baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit, each day is a new one. Glory to God!

12 Steps

     We are living with the reverberation of the echoes of Eden.  It seems that in our generation, the echoes are getting louder and more frequent than in times past. Perhaps it is my age, as I see my life on the “downward” slope. I have less time to live than the years I have already lived, at least statistically, and I don’t anticipate living to be 112. I have experienced many things, as most of you reading this have. I have traveled various parts of the world. I have had personal tragedies, as well as times of apparent success. I have raised a family, and my children know the Lord and are walking with Him. I have had material blessings all my life, and have never been without the basics of food, shelter, companionship and purposeful employment. Yet the echoes are still there.

   What are the echoes? The deepest sense of knowing that I was made for something, or more accurately Someone. That I live in, and am a contributor to the brokenness of this world, and that this world is not Eden.  It is the ruins, the remnant of something else, and that something else still calls to the deepest part of me. It is God.

    Far too often we orient ourselves to a place. A place where peace, joy, love are complete. But the problem is that it really is not so much a destination as it is a Person. The difficulty with that truth is that we can go to a “place” and somehow remain autonomous, independent and self-determining. But when we go to a “Person”, we must throw all of that out, and we must surrender everything to really know Him.  He is God. He is Creator, and He has purpose in everything and everyone He has made. The fool says, “There is no God.” The fool says, “I will never surrender to another.” The fool remains dead.

    The wise person recognizes that Jesus’ words were not cute poetry, or some purposeful paradox to sound smart.  His words are truth and they are life. “If anyone loses his life for My sake, He will gain it.” When we surrender our lives and wills over to the One who is wise, loving, compassionate and good, we will find life. For He is life. Alcoholics Anonymous discovered this in the Twelve Steps. Though these programs have for the most part lost their way in this secular age of non-offending dribble, the truth of turning our lives and wills over to a Higher Power who can help us regain our sanity and self-control was a priceless truth. It still is.

All, All, All or Nothing

      Have you ever noticed that in many cases the word “Christian” has to be qualified by an adjective. For example, adjectives like “committed Christian”, “born-again Christian”, “devoted Christian”, “Spirit-filled Christian”, “carnal Christian”, “nominal Christian”. It is a sad reality that there are many people in the world that claim to be “Christian”, and so we need some sort of modifier to determine what kind of Christian we are talking about.

     In the book of Judges, there is a phrase that is repeated many times; “and each man did what was right in his own eyes.”  A careful reading of that book shows us that people, when left to their own ideas, will always degrade in their understanding and will take on behaviors that are evil.  A memory of God was retained by the people, but devotion to His will and to His law were totally lost, and they received no help from the priests either. They were as corrupted as the people.

     The same is true today. The result is the need for modifying words to describe  “Christians” who in many ways are doing what is right “in their own eyes.”  Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7 that people will come to Him and say, “Did we not prophesy in Your name? Did we not cast out demons in Your name, and perform many miracles?” And Jesus will say, “Depart from Me you workers of iniquity. I never knew you.”  Jesus is telling us that even though you may be a “committed Christian”, one who worships with fervor, one who works with diligence and one who gives witnesses faithfully may still fall short because, “I never knew you.”

     There really is only one kind of Christian, and there are no modifiers for it.  One either knows the Father through the Son, being fully possessed by the Holy Spirit, or one is not.  You can believe and not know. “The demons believe and they shudder,” says James.  It is time to take a good hard look into our hearts and see if we really know Him, or if we are counterfeit. “Test yourselves and see if you are in the faith” wrote the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians.  Wheat will grow with weeds until the harvest when the true fruit will be evident. 

     There is a wonderful promise. “You will seek Me and you will find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13) There is the key. ALL your heart. Like the Great Commandment, to love with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. He gave all. He accepts nothing less.

God Is The Point

I am reading a book by Brad Bright, son of the late Dr. Bill Bright, entitled, God IS The Issue. In the first chapter he stresses that the battle for morality in America, or any culture for that matter, is being lost because the central issue is not being discussed.  Christians, in our paltry attempt at relevance have become most irrelevant because we are trying to argue morality without the basis for morality. God is the issue. Like trying to fight fire with fire, or outwit the devil with trickery, to argue for morality in our culture without making God the issue is futile. More importantly, we must be talking about the God of the Bible, the God who revealed Himself in Scripture, and ultimately in Jesus Christ.

Why are we afraid to talk about God? It is supposed we must prove His existence first. However, that is not necessary. God’s existence needs no proof, for it is self evident. Arguments for the existence of God do not bring conviction of sin, righteousness or judgment.  What are needed are two basic things: 1) people who know God personally and 2) people who actually act like they know God personally.  People who know God personally do not have to back down from what they know, and those who act like Him will have clear testimony in speech and conduct. There is something even more important, such people will be giving evidence of God by the power of God.  Paul wrote to the Corinthians that when he visited them, he did not give them persuasive words of wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit of God, so that their faith would not be in men, but in God. All too often, people are either ashamed of their faith, or have no faith. Such people are not able to bring change, only scorn.

The world hates God, and has been trying to rid itself of Him since the Fall.  But this world belongs to God, and His purposes for His kingdom will prevail, and God is not at all intimidated. Nor is He unwilling to punish all disobedience. His gracious love demands the ultimate destruction of all wickedness and unbelief.  And God commands His people to stand up and be counted in the fray. We do not stand in arrogance of our own intellect, or bow in fear of our inability to articulate. We stand solely in the power of God as we are faithful to proclaim Jesus as the proof of both righteousness and wrath against sin. We proclaim Him as Lord, so that all who trust in Him will find the ultimate transformation from darkness to light. His light triumphs. Let His light triumph through you.

The New Birth

Now moving into the third week of Lent, we continue to focus on growing closer to the Lord Jesus Christ . We look to Jesus who is the promise of eternal life to every person born of God’s Spirit. 

What does it mean to be born of God’s Spirit? Jesus said in John 3:3 “You must be born again.” Jesus said, “Unless one is born or water and the Spirit…” It means something not earthy, or natural or human. It is a divine birth, it is a reconnect with the divine. It is a completion of the human spirit with God’s Spirit. This connection can never happen without dramatic change. To have been met by God, connected to God, indwelt by God cannot be something that is passive. Someone changes, and that someone is the person who is born again. “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” (2 Cor. 5:17)

Unfortunately, the gospel has been so distorted to what one agrees to rather than what one has experienced.  Somehow, (and as with many things, good intentions have unanticipated negative consequences) in a zeal to get people into salvation, free from the horrors of hell, the gospel became something easy to espouse, easy to believe, and easy to confirm. The dire unintended consequences are that people have never been born of the Spirit, they simply have agreed to an idea or concept and given false hope regarding their future in heaven. For this reason Jesus warned to those who had cast out demons in His name, had healed the sick or prophesied, “Depart from Me! I never knew you.”

Can we improve on the justice of God? We try by thinking that hell is horrible, and no person should go there. I will do anything, including making it as easy as possible to get people to “accept Jesus” so they won’t perish.  But the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, not “accepting Jesus”. It is committing ourselves to Him without reservation, control, or strings whatsoever. We cast ourselves on His mercy expecting nothing in return except that He would take our worthless offering and make a new creature out of it.  A creature according to His design, not ours; for His purpose, not ours. 

The gospel has been peddled, perhaps not always for money, maybe just to east the conscience, but cheapened none the less. Jesus is worthy of entire abandonment of self for His glory. Nothing less is appropriate, and noting less qualifies a person for the new birth.

He Is Drawing Closer

Now moving into the second week of Lent, we continue to focus on growing closer to the Lord Jesus Christ through this season in anticipation of the celebration of Resurrection Sunday.  How important the resurrection of Jesus Christ is to all life and hope!  The resurrection is the promise of eternal life to every person born of God’s Spirit.  That life is not simply some kind of ethereal, spiritual existence, but the guarantee of the restoration of all creation, the total and absolute healing of our bodies, the security of a perfect union with God and the hope of an eternal glory to be shared with the Father.

This message of hope is not received by everyone. Our society has become so secularized that most people have grown comfortable with the idea the there is nothing after death. That once a person dies, there is no lingering consciousness but just total oblivion. Yet, even with this prevailing view, people are still struggling with the meaning of it all. To live for a short time, then die with nothing else in view is a despairing view. So people try to fill their short-term existence with everything they can to obtain some sense of meaning.  If this were the case, how unjust is life. Some live in high-rise penthouses and others in cardboard shanties or under bridges. What separates them in life? What separates them in death?

The resurrection is a promise of justice being granted to all. That those who oppressed in their lifetime simply by virtue of being born into the right family, or acquiring wealth will ultimately face a Judge who will weigh their motives and actions and deal justly with them. Those who lived in utter poverty will face that same Judge to give an account of what they did with what they had. In both instances, they had a chance to believe in a Creator who will do right. Romans chapter One states this. And in either case, every mouth will be silenced at the goodness of the Judge who will make all things right.

The resurrection is the guarantee that a sacrifice was made to make people whole again. The hope of a new life in this life, not just a new or never ending life in the future. Jesus, disfigured both by the beatings of men and the ravages of man’s sin, came forth from the tomb, and was seen and recognized by all who believed.  His restored body is the foundation of faith in our restored lives. There is no excuse for not clinging to Him now in the assurance of a new life from now on.

Keep looking forward, even upward, those who believe, for you Redeemer draws ever closer.

What Is Lent?

                What is Lent? Lent is not in the Bible. Neither is Christmas, nor Easter. Neither is Trinity, but that does not deter us from believing in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, mysterious as that is.  Lent simply means “season of Spring.” Poor choice of words for what I am calling our church to do. We could call it “40 Days of Spiritual Journey” We could call it anything. I am not going to get hung up on “Lent” any more than “Advent” or “Christmas.”

                The history of the observance of this 40 day period dates back to the 2^nd Century church.  It was a practice that was introduced to bring believers into disciplines that would increase their passion for Jesus Christ and focus away from worldliness.  Unfortunately, like so many good intentions, things do get messed up over time. The celebration of Jesus’ resurrection has been tainted by Easter and the Easter Bunny but we celebrate His resurrection anyway, and we still call it Easter.  The celebration of the incarnation of Jesus, the Son of God becoming a human being has been tainted by the introduction of Santa Clause.  May I ask you what you did on Valentine’s Day? Celebrate with a box of chocolates, flowers, a card, dinner out? We all celebrate various things. The question is, “Why?”

                This year we are calling our church to a 40 day focus on Jesus. The 40 days of preparation for the “big Sunday” is meant to increase our awareness of Jesus, to examine ourselves to see if we are walking in the truth, walking in the right motives, loving the Lord; or just going through the motions. Is there disobedience, addictions, or spiritual lethargy? Every believer needs to take inventory from time to time. The Bible says, “Examine yourselves to see if you are even in the faith!”

                I know that Lent is new and different for some, and not for others. Many have observed spiritual emphases in the past such as the “40 Days of Purpose” and the “40 Days of Community.” The truth is, people will get out of any activity proportionate to what they put into it. If you celebrate Christmas, or make any effort to celebrate a birthday, then this next 40 days is about  getting your heart and head focused on Jesus Christ. You can do this by choosing any means that will help you, especially if you prayerfully ask God for insight on what He wants you to do. 

A Useful God

Do you have a useful God?  By that I mean, do you have the idea that God exists for your benefit, and that it is His job to make you happy?  This way of thinking is more prevalent than you might think. It may actually be your philosophy of life, but you have managed to disguise it in your religious notions. I heard a radio talk show host say to a caller, “Well you can always pray, after all, that’s what the Man-up-stairs is there for.”  BLASPHEMY! Utter blasphemy!  Fortunately for that talk show the public doesn’t care to stone him, and the  reason is that the public, including most professing Christians actually believe that statement to be true.

 

A useful God syndrome is seen by how you expect life to go for you, and when it is not going well, how you approach God about it.  Teaching on prayer has become a fuel for idolatry rather than a remarkable fellowship with the Almighty.  We are taught to bring our requests to God, and that with enough faith (often believed to be intense emotion) and with enough church attendance and good deeds, God is obligated to answer according to our specifications. The real proof of our hearts is how we react when God answers no or wait. When we don’t get what we want, we entertain blasphemies against Him by suspecting that He is neither good nor caring. The truth is, we are spoiled brats and need to learn how to live as Jesus lived.

 

Jesus had His prayers answered, right up to and including the last one. “Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit.” And God heard Him because of His piety, and delivered Him from death. WAIT! Jesus died. What do you mean God delivered Him from death?  Jesus never asked to be delivered from dying, but to be delivered from death. And He had the promise of His Father that He would do just that, but not allowing His Holy One to undergo decay. (See Acts 2:25-37). And God was faithful to His word, and Jesus was raised from the dead, never to die again.  Yet not once in Jesus’ life was He spared from temptation, from hostility, from misunderstanding, from miscarriage of justice. He endured it all, and staying resolute in His surrender to the Father as His Lord, He lived perfectly. We should do no less.

 

There is hope for our dying, selfish souls through repentance. And repentance starts with changing our minds about who God is and who we are.  Through surrender to Him as Lord, and by trusting in Him regardless of our experiences, we begin the new trek of faith in God who can use us, rather than the blasphemy of having a useful god.

Bad Boys In The Church

     I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sisterbut is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.” (1 Corinthians 5:9-13)

     The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is in a very confused state.  This confusion is brought on largely through the law of unintended consequences, through humanitarianism and blatant refusal to let all of God’s Word speak.  Functionally, many churches are “Reader’s Digest” churches more than Biblical, in that we pick and choose the passages we will commit to, but will ignore the ones that require a cost, requiring something of both the body and those who refuse to live in humility before God. Notice what the Scriptures say regarding wickedness: slanderer, greedy, drunkard, immoral, swindler.  In other passages, people who rage, given to sensuality, verbally abusive, selfish ambition, discord, faction among others (see Galatians 5) of which the Bible says, “shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.”  Yet, in the church we will excuse such behaviors saying, “they (we) are a work in progress.” No doubt we all are, but there is not doubt that this has become an excuse for blatant sin in our lives and in the church, and God does not share our tolerance.

     Paul minced no words about how we are to relate to those whom he said, “claimed to be a brother or a sister” but refused to live obediently before Christ.  For sure, there are many passages of Scripture that teach us to go to who are caught in sin, do what we can to restore them to holiness and restoration to God, taking care to get the log out of our own eyes first, but to seek people none the less.  But the Bible does not promise that people will respond as they should.  Sometimes they prefer their own self-centeredness, and refuse to listen to those who are seeking their good. Instead, the sinful person turns the table and accuses the believer of intolerance, judgmental, Pharisaical and refuses correction. So if the church leaders decide that they should be “put out of the church,” the horror isn’t that a person refused to repent, but that the church should act with such harshness.

     Please read the gospels, and read about Jesus’ conduct toward people.  The only people Jesus would tolerate were those who were humble, contrite, recognized their sinfulness and repented. He had no tolerance for those who refused correction, who would not submit themselves to the authority of God, and those who walked in their own self-righteousness. 

 

I had a consult…

I had a consultation with a personal trainer this week. I found out that I was doing just about everything wrong. I was not doing cardio correctly, and though I was burning calories, I was doing it in a way that did not burn fat, but used up all the energy that was readily available to my system, and then my body would work to keep the fat by storing all new foods rather than burning it off. I learned that my strength training was perfect for the first three weeks of training, but after 3 years I was at a perpetual plateau because I was not training my muscles correctly. I also was reminded that if you eat poorly, that is a recipe for being overweight. I was encouraged to know that there was hope, but I was embarrassed at how many things I was doing that was not appropriate for who I am and what I want to accomplish. I was training like I did in high school and college, but that is not appropriate for a 55 year old man. I wonder how this can transfer to spiritual principles. I suppose it is obvious. The writer of Hebrews chided his readers because they were still consuming spiritual milk, and were not maturing. They needed to move on to solid foods, and to have lifestyles that were reflective of a mature believer. They were stagnant. Doing what they may have thought was helpful, but not realizing that there was a need to change their approach to spiritual things so they could live up to the times and expectations in which they were now living. One thing that is constant is change. And one thing that bothers most people the most is change, especially change that is brought about by things or persons outside themselves. When we don’t feel like we are in control, then we tend toward fear and fear has many ugly faces. It shows up in impatience, unkindness, anxiety, irritability, critical attitude, arrogance, self-seeking and self-gratification, just to name a few. Notice that these things are the opposite of the things listed as spiritual fruit, or the characteristics of love. Perfect love casts out all fear. Love cannot be in the forefront if we are living according to principles that are not appropriate for the time of our lives. Best to consult the ultimate Trainer of our souls, and see if we are on track for a healthy spiritual life.