The DNA of Sin

The Bible teaches that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Like it or not, we are all born sinners, which means we are all born unbroken. Yes, our DNA is infected with the sin of our forefather Adam. The word that best describes this condition of unbrokenness is pride. The word that best describes brokenness is humility.

We are all—every last one of us—more or less unbroken. The Christian journey is one of God bringing us out of tree of knowledge trash such as sinful, rule-based, self-righteous, self-sufficient, prideful dependence upon our own strength, wisdom and knowledge into the tree of life treasures of brokenness, humility, worship of and dependence upon Him. These are God’s highest desires for all of His children, and His desires are always what is best for us. They are highly prized by Him, and once we begin to understand and bear the fruit of them, we will prize them highly too.

“For Thou does not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; Thou art not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise”(Psalm 51:16-17).

The word “broken” used in Psalm 51:17 translates “crushed, broken in pieces, torn, and brought to birth!” The word “contrite” means “collapsed physically or mentally”. These two words describe a soul in devastated brokenness. From an eternal perspective, these are the sacrifices of God. This is not exactly something the fittest, the toughest and the slickest want to hear, but it truly is good news. Like freshly tilled soil, a broken and surrendered heart is the perfect environment for God to bring it to birth.

It is a narrow way that leads to life (Matthew 7:14). The word “narrow” means “to suffer tribulation” and “pressure”. Like a baby coming through the narrow way of the birth canal, the pressures of our sorrows are actually meant to bring our hearts to birth, to life, by the power of God’s grace.

Paul’s writings bring light to the phenomenon of a heart brought to birth. In Galatians 4, he wrote that he was “once again in labor that Christ might be formed” in us (v. 11). This word “labor” is from the root word meaning “to lament and mourn”. Jesus used the metaphor of laboring in childbirth to describe the weeping and lamentation His disciples would endure upon His death (John 16:20-21).

The seasons of crushing brokenness we all endure are like birth pangs. They bring our hearts to birth as we surrender to God in the midst of them. Great or small, our brokenness is the incubator of God’s overshadowing grace as He forms the tangible reality of the character of Christ within us. This is one of the most important and misunderstood spiritual dynamics in the Word of God.

The Book of Psalms is the holy of holies of the Bible. Much of it is an intimate glimpse into the journal of and memorial to the tearful prayers of the broken- hearted. It stands as a testimony to God’s love and faithfulness to those who cry out to Him for help.

"Of His fullness have all we received" (John 1:16).

If there is a seeming difference in the "level" of anointing or power or spirituality among believers it is definitely not because some have more of the Lord than others. Let this be an encouragement to you. Indeed, Christ is not divided, and of His fullness we all share.

We are all baptized into the same Spirit. The difference is some saints are more broken than others. Some have passed through many seasons of tearing down and building up, while some after many years of experience are still resisting the Lord and refusing to lay down their lives. Some have recognized God's dealings and have submitted to them, while others have misunderstood or been totally ignorant of God's dealings with them.

The ones who have been sufficiently broken eventually manifest very little of their self, and very much of Christ. God must work long and hard with us to bring us to this place, but what a glorious day it is when we are able to bow our heads and finally surrender everything.

What joy it is to look back over all that the Lord has led us through and realize His purpose in both the good times and the bad times, to behold the goodness and the severity of God in His dealings with us.

Desire of the Humble

God knows the desires of our hearts. And as we are seeking to walk in His ways, and to walk in humbleness of heart and mind, He will prepare our hearts, and bring us to steadfastness of vision. David said, "LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear" (Ps 10:17). But even as we seek to walk in His ways, we must learn through many strange experiences that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are our ways, God’s ways (Isa 55:8).

Knowing that it is God’s will that we prosper in His ways, we look for it--and like His servant Joseph we find ourselves prospering... but in a prison house that we did not choose. And yet we are free. For who is more free, or prosperous, than one who is a bond-slave of the Lord? (Gen. 39:3; 1 Cor. 7:22; Eph. 4:1).

Knowing that He would make us to be co-heirs with Him in His everlasting Kingdom, we ask to know the way, and He makes us to be the least of all, and the servants of all. For He who is King of all kings became a bond-slave, that He might show us the way to the throne. (Matt. 23:11; Phil. 2:7-9).

We ask Him to make us loving and kind and patient with others--and He brings across our pathway those who are embittered with life, unloving and uncaring, that the springs of love and charity might be able to flow forth in healing streams. For charity suffereth long, and is kind... charity never faileth… (1 Cor. 13:4-8).

We ask that we might bear abundant fruit for the Kingdom of God, and He lays us low in the dust; for He knows that except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit. (Jn 12:24).

We ask for true peace and rest... and He sends us into a world where all is turmoil and confusion, that we might know His peace in the midst of the storm. And He bids us to take His yoke upon us, that as we labour with Him we might know His rest. (Jn. 16:33; Matt. 11:29).

We ask for a forgiving spirit, and we find even our loved ones may turn against us, that the forgiving virtue we desire might be nurtured and released. And in the flow of forgiveness we ourselves are inwardly healed and liberated, even before they have felt the pain of their wrong, or the joy of forgiveness.

We ask for a lowly and humble heart--so He leads us into valleys of great weakness and disappointment, that the lowliness of the Lamb might subdue the proud and haughty lion within, and beautify the meek with His own nature.

We ask that we might hear His voice more clearly in a world filled with so many confusing sounds--and He leads us into a wilderness, and feeds us with manna from heaven, that we might hear His voice, and know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord. (Deut 8:2,3).

We ask for His abiding presence... for a closer walk with Him... and He sends trouble. He causes His billows to overwhelm us, so that He might draw us closer, still closer to Himself; that in the billows of God we might discover the depths of His love and truth and faithfulness. "Deep calleth unto deep" as we are overwhelmed in the cataracts of distress, and we cry unto Him who is looking for an abiding place in the broken and the contrite heart. (Ps. 42:7; Isa. 57:15).

We ask for enlargement in God, and He confines us and restricts us and closes us in on every side. And sometimes we ourselves may wonder if others are right when they judge we are wasting our time, and wasting our efforts, and accomplishing nothing of profit to God or to man. (Isa. 49:4). For He knows that it is only as we are restricted in our ways, and confined to His will, and reduced to God, that we will know the enlargements and the depths that are in Him, and an open door into the Heavens...

For those who draw nigh to God in priestly service can find no pleasure in anything this life has to offer, nor even in the gifts He has given them. Their true delight is only in Him, and in doing what He shows them to do. Therefore the Lord reminds His priestly people, "Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land... I am thine inheritance". Those who are looking for the City where the Lamb is the Light, can never be satisfied with any other inheritance. (Num. 18:20; Phil. 3:8).

And so if we truly desire to be clothed upon with these virtues of Christ, no matter how feebly we may have tried to frame our desires into an effectual prayer, if the desire is there for Him and for Him alone, to know Him, to walk with Him, and to abide in Him... He sees that desire, He hears that desire as though it were a fervent prayer from the heart and lips, And He will be faithful to prepare our hearts and lead us in the right way, strange though it may seem to be in our own eyes, or in the eyes of those who do not understand the ways of the Lord.

"LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble : thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear" (Ps. 10:17).

Redemption, God’s Masterpiece

In the heart of the artist or musician or artificer--someone with special creative talents--there is always that inherent desire to bring forth their masterpiece. They try and try again, but remain unsatisfied. There is always that nagging sense of failure... “I haven’t done it yet... I’m not satisfied. I cannot rest till I have done my very best... and this is not it!” And yet no matter how many times they try, they generally end up with the feeling, “It could have been better... I must try again”.

Now God is the infinite Artist, and Builder, and Architect of all things. Unlike “masters” here in the earth He doesn’t try, and try, and try again; but often it seems that way. And the evolutionist would like us to imagine that’s the way it is. We might get the impression that God tried to make a perfect man when He made Adam... and failed. That He tried to bring forth a holy nation in Israel... and failed. That He tried to establish Aaron in a holy priesthood... and failed. That He tried to set up a powerful kingdom in David, or Solomon... and failed. But it was not that way. Rather He was demonstrating over and over again the futility of man, and the inability of man to maintain order and beauty in a fallen creation. But underlying all this was the scarlet thread of Redemption, while He waited in great patience and longsuffering for the day when He Himself would come on the scene, and bring forth the ultimate Masterpiece of His creative hands.

And so we have the story of Redemption. It is there that God poured everything He had into the creative work of His hands, and found rest and delight in a people whom He created for His glory, For the apostle Paul tells us that “We are His workmanship” (Eph 2:10). To bring about our Redemption, God poured everything He had, everything He is... into the redemption of His people. So in reality “We are His Masterpiece!” It cost God everything He had... even His only Begotten Son. And we will never fully appreciate the glory of Redemption until we understand that it was God Most High who clothed Himself in flesh, and submitted Himself to the hatred and scoffing of His rebellious creatures for their redemption and transformation! And that it was in this great creative work that He found complete fulfillment and could stand back and say, “It is finished”. He made this declaration, first from the Cross, and will declare it yet again from His exalted throne in the heavens (Jn 17:4; 19:30; Rev.l0:7). For what He accomplished at the Cross must yet be consummated in a people made complete in Christ, and conformed to His image. The old creation could manifest but the limited rays of His glory. It took the New Creation for God to manifest the full shining Light of His glory, And the redeemed ones of Adam’s race are yet to be revealed to the highest of His celestial creatures, as His ultimate and perfect Masterpiece. No wonder we are told that the angels desire to peer into these things that pertain to our salvation! (1 Pet 1:12). And so in redemption:..

We behold God in His infinite depths, as well as God in His infinite heights. We see Him stooping to lowest realms of darkness, to raise a people into the highest realms of light. We see the glory of His condescension, as well as the glory of His ascension. We see the glory of His weakness, as well as the glory of His power. We see the glory of His emptiness, as well as the glory of His fulness. We see the glory of His humility, as well as the glory of His exaltation. We see Him stopping in His steps, to hear the cry of a blind Bartimaeus, And we see Him riding majestically in the heavens, as the One who has conquered over all the forces of evil. We see Him riding into Jerusalem on the foal of an ass, And we see Him ascending in clouds, with power and great glory. We see a bleeding Lamb, slain for our redemption. And we see the same Lamb, high and lifted up on the throne of Glory, with angels and cherubim falling down before Him, and the redeemed of the earth crying out..

“Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation” (Rev 5:9)

And it is in and through this strange combination of the weakness of man and the majesty of God Most High, that He is seen as the Master Workman of the New Creation. In a way that no artist or musician has ever been able to do, God has invested everything He has, everything He is, in the people whom He has redeemed for His glory. He can do no more for us--other than to open our eyes and ears and hearts to receive and to perceive the fulness of His salvation. This is a great work, indeed; and for this we continue to cry out, and hope for, and expect. Then will He be fully satisfied. Then will He “rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing” (Zeph 3:17)

But let us not think for a moment, having come into this fulness of glory, that we have come to the end. In this life, when we come to the end of a matter, or to the end of life... we face deterioration and decay. But in New Creation life--how could we ever exhaust the riches of Him who is infinite and eternal? Even now as partakers of Eternal Life there is to be an expansion of His glory within us, and this must go on throughout eternal ages. Here in this brief period of our lives that we call “time” we can only pause for a moment, and faintly discern a new galaxy of truth and revelation far beyond the limits of our present spiritual constellation. But as surely as we find ourselves caught up unto God and into His eternal purpose, the realms of eternity become more and more real to us. So we must continue to abide in Him, now and all our days, as we anticipate the glory that is yet to be revealed. For how can we know, except in the most incomplete and fragmentary way... what God means when He declares to us “That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:7)? Nor do we say these things to encourage more research in those areas, for it is certain they will remain obscure to us until we become one with Him in His love. Rather, our hope is that He would bring us to greater humility and worship before Him, for knowledge can very easily blind our eyes to the more excellent way, and nurture pride in our hearts.

Self-pity vs Repentance

This really spoke to me today. I used to have a very bad problem with self-pity and the subject hasn't come up in awhile. I think I was reminded today because its so easy to fall into old habit patterns of thinking. I found this helpful:

A common problem that we deal with is self pity which never leads to transformed behavior or restored relationships.
· It diminishes, in our eyes, the gravity of each sin we commit against love and honor towards others.
· It hinders Godly repentance by feeling that life has not been fair with us and believing that others are the cause of our frustrations. Thus we do not look to God but people to meet our need.
· It places the primary fault upon others for relational conflicts because we feel that we have been treated unfairly.
· If they would not have done that to me… Or, If only they would have done this for me then life would be better and I would not be forced to act in such a way!
· It excuses our negative attitudes by seeing the weaknesses in others and feeling that our rightness justifies our judgmentalism or actions.
· It tries to get others to feel sorry for us and to get them to feel that we have been treated unfairly (defilement) thus strengthening the stronghold of selfpity within.
· It may try to compensate for our relational failures with increased hyperreligious activity, aggressively striving to earn self-worth or acceptance, or we may take on a false sense of responsibility and place all the blame upon ourselves for relational conflicts thus denying others the opportunity to deal
with their own issues.
· It often leads to others feeling manipulated or demeaned by closing our heart to those that will not come into agreement with our self-pity, thus leaving others feeling that they have little value or honor in our presence.
· It may result in hidden anger at our feelings of loss or unmet expectations.
· This increases our blame towards others and results in deeper feelings of anger, insecurity, shame, isolation, self-condemnation, addictive compulsive behavior, and/or depression.
· It leaves us dissatisfied at work, church, and at home and we want to escape to a place where we can find rest.

On the other hand, Godly repentance always involves action. It is not just emotions and tears. It is to be so grieved at the wounding and stress that our actions and attitudes have brought to others that now we are willing to humble ourselves and do whatever it takes to restore healthy relationships.
· It is to be so grieved at the hurt that our actions and attitudes have brought to others that now we are willing to humble ourselves and do whatever it takes to restore healthy relationships.
· It comes to hate the destructive habit patterns that have misrepresented God's love and grace to others.
· It becomes more concerned with others' needs than our own pride and walls of self-protection.
· It is willing to lay down the need to be right in order to see healing in those whom we have hurt or offended.
· It chooses to walk in openness and transparency, and willingly comes forward and acknowledges our sin against love and how we have hurt or offended others.
· It does not seek to make excuses, seek to put the blame on others, or diminish the depth of our self-deception or fear of intimacy with which we have struggled.
· It takes the focus off of ourselves (self-pity) and begins to focus our energy upon humility, confession, forgiveness, repentance, and healing the pain that we have caused others.

The Narrow Way

I got this off Lois's blog "DISTILLED" but its so timely for me I needed to post it here too:

"The path of discipleship is narrow, and it is fatally easy to miss one's way and stray from the path, even after years of discipleship. And it is hard to find. On either side of the narrow path, deep chasms yawn.

To be called to a life of extraordinary quality, to live up to it, and yet to be unconscious of it is indeed a narrow way.

To confess and testify to the truth as it is in Jesus, and at the same time to love the enemies of that truth, his enemies and ours, and to love them with the infinite love of Jesus Christ, is indeed a narrow way.

To believe the promise of Jesus that his followers shall possess the earth, and at the same time to face our enemies unarmed and defenceless, preferring to incur injustice rather than to do wrong ourselves, is indeed a narrow way.

To see the weakness and wrong in others, and at the same time refrain from judging them; to deliver the gospel message without casting pearls before swine, is indeed a narrow way.

The way is unutterably hard, and at every moment we are in danger of straying from it. If we regard this way as one we follow in obedience to an external command, if we are afraid of ourselves all of the time, it is indeed an impossible way.

But if we behold Jesus Jesus Christ going on before step by step, we shall not go astray.

But if we worry about the dangers that beset us, if we gaze at the road instead of him who goes before, we are already straying from the path. For he is himself the way, the narrow way and the straight gate.

He, and he alone, is our journey's end. When we know that we are able to proceed along the narrow way through the straight gate of the cross, and on to eternal life, and the very narrowness of the road will increase our certainty.

The way which the Son of God trod on earth, and the way which we too must tread as citizens of two worlds on the razor edge between this world and the kingdom of heaven, could hardly be a broad way."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Spiritual Authority..

There are two kinds of leaders: those who use people for their own interests, and those who sacrifice themselves for the interests of the people. The former denotes the nature of worldly authority, the latter godly authority. Pharoah allowed his country to be destroyed while striving to preserve his power over the Jews. Moses on the other hand, so loved and identified with these people that he even offered his own life to appease God's wrath on them. See Phil 2:5-10.

Selfish ambition is one of the most destructive characteristics found in ministry and has led to much perversion and humiliation that has come upon the church. When men are established in positions of authority prematurely, it is a tradegy for both leader and led. To be placed in spiritual authority before having been freed from carnality will in fact "feed" the carnal nature and can even prevent true spiritual growth and authority.

"Premature responsibility breeds superficiality"

Glory Just Around the Corner

I Peter 4
12-13Friends, when life gets really difficult, don't jump to the conclusion that God isn't on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.
14-16If you're abused because of Christ, count yourself fortunate. It's the Spirit of God and his glory in you that brought you to the notice of others. If they're on you because you broke the law or disturbed the peace, that's a different matter. But if it's because you're a Christian, don't give it a second thought. Be proud of the distinguished status reflected in that name!

17-19It's judgment time for God's own family. We're first in line. If it starts with us, think what it's going to be like for those who refuse God's Message!

If good people barely make it,
What's in store for the bad?
So if you find life difficult because you're doing what God said, take it in stride. Trust him. He knows what he's doing, and he'll keep on doing it.

CHRIST-CENTERED ?

Real spiritual growth occurs when we realize that God has only one goal for us, and that is, the full, mature, complete, and experiential knowledge of Jesus Christ. To the extent that we discard "things" and become focused wholly on Christ, to that extent we will make progress.

Christians should walk in the Lord Jesus as they received Him. We must not allow anything to keep us from growing up in to Him. Spiritual growth in the life of a Christian is determined by the measure of the increase of Christ and the decrease of Self: "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30). It is not a question of gifts, knowledge, years of experience, or power. If by the end of today there is less of me and more of Jesus then I am growing. Otherwise I am not. Jesus must become greater and greater in my life, and I must become lesser and lesser. This is the Path.

Along this Path towards apprehending Christ as all in all there are many pitfalls, snares, hindrances, and detours. Thus, Paul says we are to be on our guard and let no man spoil us. In this context, the word "spoil" means, "to destroy and strip of one's possessions; to deprive of something valuable by force." Every spiritual blessing heaven has to offer is found in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). Each believer has an incredible fullness and completeness in the Person of Jesus Christ. Christ is THE Gift of God, the ultimate Gift, and this Gift is precious, valuable, and of great worth.

How then can we be spoiled? According to Paul we are spoiled "through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments (elements) of the world, and not after Christ." It matters not if the philosophy is good, right, morally excellent, and praiseworthy. It matters not how well intentioned, meaningful, or helpful the tradition is. It matters not how necessary we think the worldly element to be, or how important it is to society in general. If none of these things are "after Christ", that is, if they are not of Him, through Him, and unto Him, then they are worthless insofar as God's Purpose is concerned and must be discarded.

The spirit of Antichrist is not necessarily seen in something that is obviously satanic or demonic. Instead, the spirit of Antichrist is revealed in anything that seeks to spoil us by taking our eyes off of Christ - it is anti-Christ, against Christ, antithetical to the great Purpose of God.

How easy it is for us to become distracted into something less than Christ! Are you centered on Christ? Is Jesus your obsession? Is He your focus? Or have you set your sights on something beneath Him? This speaks right to the heart of the crisis we find ourselves in today.

Learning Obedience through Suffering

It is told in Hebrews 5.8 that Christ “learned obedience through what He suffered.” Suffering called forth obedience from the Lord. Please note here that He did not bring obedience to this earth; He learned it—and He did so through suffering.

When we meet suffering we then learn obedience. Such obedience is real. Our usefulness is not determined by whether or not we have suffered, but by how much obedience we have learned through that suffering. The obedient ones alone are useful to God. As long as our heart is not softened, suffering will not leave us. Our way lies in many sufferings; the easy-goers and pleasure-lovers are useless before God. Let us therefore learn to obey in suffering.

Salvation makes people obedient as well as joyous. If we seek only joy, our spiritual possessions will not be rich; but those who are obedient will experience the abundance of salvation. Let us not change the nature of salvation. Let us obey—for our Lord Jesus, having been made perfect through obedience, has become the source of our eternal salvation. God saves us that we may obey His will. If we have met God’s authority we shall discover obedience to be easy and God’s will to be simple, because the Lord Himself was always obedient and has given this life of obedience to us.

Vance Havner..

Quote of the Day
In state and church too many decisions are reached by compromise; steam-rollered by a consensus of rubber stamps and yes-men. It is fast becoming the unpardonable sin to be a lone dissenter on any issue. The big idea is to present a united front at any cost. A prominent churchman has reminded us that this can be a sinister device, smothering all opposition and excluding passion for rightness and reform. Under the pretext of a solid front to enemies without, we are told to overlook al deserters and traitors within our own ranks, since this causes division. Unification, unanimity, and uniformity are the order of the hour, and woe unto any Micaiah who disagrees with four hundred false prophets bidding Ahab and Jehoshaphat go up against Ramoth-gilead! This will, of course, in time produce a monolithic world state and world church with the mark of the beast and plenty of trouble for any who do not wear his brand. This is the advance program of Antichrist.

Bahama Mama..

Amazing Sunset


The beach when we arrived..no one there!


RELAXING..finally


A different view..

As it was in the days of Noah..so shall it be before Jesus returns:

by Manfred Schreyer

(Num 6:24-26 NIV) "' "The LORD bless you and keep you; {25} the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; {26} the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace."'
(Psa 119:135 NIV) Make your face shine upon your servant and teach me your decrees.

• Our life can be observed as a great paradox. There are those moments where we are overwhelmed by the wonderful gift of life and then there a times when some of us find ourselves strangled by circumstances in life.

• When we observe life, we can easily come to the understanding that life is corrupted with evil.

• I heard from those who lived longer then I have lived that our time is the worse of time. Well, it is NOT! Very early on in the history of creation God was so angry, because the world that he had created had become morally bankrupt. God had become so disgusted with the human race that He as ready to wipe it out.

• I recently spoke with someone who had committed a very violent crime and almost killed the person. And in that conversation the individual stated: “that person had it coming.” These are the statements of corruptness of the human mind, where all conscience is missing, where there is not a tear of hope.

• The person who was almost killed in fact (at least according to the this person) had indeed treated him in a very horrible way. Treated the person with no respect, dignity, fed the person with lies, cheated the person almost daily, etc.

• When I sat with the individual, I thought that that must have been the state of humankind during the time of Noah.

• Yet when you read the story about Noah, God took notice of Noah. The bible tells us that Noah was a pleasure to God. Noah was a pleasure, because Noah accepted the will of God.

• What God really wants from us is the deep desire from us to love God with everything we have. He wants us to take all of our own desires aside and make room for Him. God in a way longs for our love.

• There is no greater objective in this life then to get to know our God in an intimate relationship.

• Do you remember the commandment of Jesus to love our God with ll of our heart, mind and soul?

• Nevertheless, love alone is not enough . . . unfortunately.

• I know people who believe they have given their life to God, but they have only placed a safe bet. You see they see God being part of a religion. Here is their equation: If in fact there is another God like Buddha . . . Buddha seems to be more accepting of other Gods. Most of the man-made religions allow to worship multiple deities and the common phrase today is that “there are many ways to God” So people take that statement with the full knowledge that our God does not accept any other God. And that is where they place a safe bet: They commit their life to God with their tongue. They now believe that if they die and God should not exist as described in the bible they have nothing to lose since the other gods are accepting. But if the God of the bible exists they have placed a safe bet on Him.

• Those who are doing that live a lie! Yes, they even participate in church, they even participate in the life of the church, but the one thing that the God of our bible is asking of them they do not . . .

• They do not trust God completely. You see, when God told Noah to build the ark, Noah did so without any question. Noah built a ship not to survive, but because it was asked of him.

• All of this seems very simple to you and to me, but the reality is that we would have not built the ship. And I will tell you why:

• As we look today to the word of God, we end up in endless interpretation. Because when we do not know the reason for some of the things God tells us in His Word, we find a reason. Even when we do not know what the consequences are we establish them. Because we think we are so knowledgeable of everything. We just know . . . And if we do not know we just follow our instinct.

• Allow me to say this: When God spoke to Noah that He would flood the earth with rain, I mind you that Noah had never seen rain, because until that time God watered the earth from the ground up. Ref. Gen 2:5-6.

• If God would have spoken to us today about an upcoming flood, we would have not been so much concerned with building the ark, but we would have founded a think-tank to interpret the word: “rain.” And then we possibly would have come to the conclusion that we do not need an ark, but that we need to convince God that there is another way to look at the situation.

• But the story tells us that Noah built the ark . . . over a very long time . . .

• Trust in God . . . constant trust in the word of God, eternal trust in the love even in the moments of discouragement.

• We look at the Word of God and we think that God changed His mind over the years. We believe that it does not mean now what it once meant. We believe that God meant it differently than what it means now.

• Well, let me say this: It took Noah a 100 years to build the ark. Not a single day with a sign of rain. Days of mocking by others who though he was a nutcase.

• Noah could have easily said “the flood is not coming,” “there is no sign of the promise given,” “this is all crazy” . . . but Noah trusted God with all that he had. He placed his entire energy to follow the will of God. He did not sit down and re-interpret the word spoken to him; he was not influenced by those who ruthlessly opposed his doings. No, he loved God so much, that he gave it all and he trusted God with all he had.

• He obeyed every instruction, every detail God had brought to him, Noah did not alter anything . . . Noah followed exactly the model God gave him.

• God’s face was shining upon Noah, because the flood did come and it destroyed everything

• The moral of the story?

• God does not owe us an explanation as much as he did not owe Noah an explanation. God says that understanding of the things can wait, but not our love and loyalty to God. God wants our trust, and by our gift of choice we have the power.

• Not to follow His will lead to suffocation of the eternal glory. Disobedience will lead to the cries of those who are grounding in the waters after they die. Noah had no ropes others could hang on to; he did not offer last minute reservation, Noah did not open the boat to let those in who barely hung on to the trees which the flood uprooted . . . it was too late.

• With the Word of God and the commands we cannot pick and choose.

• The world we experience with all its horrifying stories is the decay caused by the standards we set for ourselves in society. We are to blame for the crimes that are committed. We are willing to trust our own will and interpretation of how things should be . . . but we are not willing to accept the offer God makes to us in His word.

• You can’t choose. You can’t have one foot on the ark and the other touch the ground.

• My plea is just like the one from King David: (Psa 119:135 NIV) Make your face shine upon your servant and teach me your decrees.

"OTHERS MAY...YOU CANNOT"

by W. B. Howard
(Access Hannah Whitalls books
also for extra comfort & teaching)

If God has called you to be really like Jesus in all your spirit, He will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility, and put on you such demands of obedience, that He will not allow you to follow other Christians, and in many ways He will seem to let other good people do things which He will not let you do.

Other Christians and ministers who seem very religious and useful may push themselves, pull wires, and work schemes to carry out their plans, but you cannot do it; and if you attempt it, you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent.

Others may brag on themselves, on their work, on their success, on their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing, and if you begin it, he will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.

Others will be allowed to succeed in making money, or having a legacy left to them, or in having luxuries. But it likely God will keep you poor, because He wants you to have something better than gold, and this is a helpless dependence on Him, that He may have the privilege of supplying your needs day by day out of an unseen treasury.

The Lord will let others be honoured, and put forward, and keep you hid away in obscurity, because He wants to produce some choice, fragrant fruit for His coming glory, which can only be produced in the shade. He will let others be great, but keep you small. He will let others do a work for Him, and get the credit for it, but He will make you work and toil on without knowing how much you are doing: and then to make your work still more precious, He will let others get the credit for the work you have done, and this will make your reward ten times greater when Jesus comes.

The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you, with a jealous love, and will rebuke you for little words and feelings or for wasting your time, which other Christians never seem distressed over. So make up your mind that God is an infinite Sovereign God, and has a right to do as He pleases with His own, and He will not explain to you a thousand things which may puzzle your reason in His dealings with you.

He will take you at your word; and if you absolutely sell yourself to be His slave, He will wrap you up in a jealous love, and let other people say and do many things that you cannot do or say. Settle it forever, that you are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit, and that He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue, or chaining your hand, or closing your eyes. In ways that He does not deal with others. Now when you are so possessed with the living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life, you will have found the vestibule of Heaven." (End of quote).

FAITH is needed at every step of this life on this fallen planet. Our Saviour knows what He is doing with you, beloved of the Lord. Consider the faith passage, Hebrews 11, what a list of trials and seeming disasters it gives to us. Awhile ago, a missionary and his two sons from Australia were burned alive in their car by Hindu extremists in India. But, Hebrews 11 shows that the history of the people of God on this planet runs red with their blood! This horrifying incident in India is no isolated occurrence in a world teeming with rebels against the One true God, rebels who are controlled by Satan. Faith in the One who loves us so can master insurmountable difficulties. The following quote from F.B. Meyer, written on the Hebrews 11, is a joy to read. Praise God, He will take us through in triumph until we meet Jesus face-to-face in glory:

"There are many difficulties before us all.

Stormy seas forbid our passage;

frowning fortifications bar our progress;

mighty kingdoms defy our power;
lions roar against us;

fire lights its flaming barricade in our path;

the sword, the armies of the alien, mockings,

scourgings, bonds, and imprisonment-all these
menace our peace,

darken our horizon, and try on us their power;

but faith has conquered all these before,

and it shall do as much again.

We will laugh at impossibility;

we will tread the shores of the seas,

certain they must make us a way;

we will enter the dens of wild beasts
and the furnaces of flame,

sure that they are impotent to injure us;

we shall escape the edge of the sword,

out of weakness become strong,

turn to flight armies of aliens,

and set at nought all the power of the enemy:

and all because we believe God.

Reckon one God's faithfulness.

Look not at the winds and the waves,

but at His character and will.

Get alone with Him,

steeping your heart and mind in

His precious and exceeding great promises.
Be obedient to the utmost limit of your light.

Walk in the Spirit, one of whose fruit is faith.

So shall you be deemed worthy to join this band,

whose names and exploits run over from this page

into the Chronicles of eternity,
and to share their glorious heritage."

(p.139, The WayInto theHoliest)

Read these Scriptures to ponder prayerfully the above comments:
Song of Solomon 4:12-16; Psalm 92:12-15; Psalm 36:7-11;
Jeremiah 9:23-24; Revelation 18:10-20.
OUR GOD IS FOR US, WHO CAN BE AGAINST US?

God Will Judge with Equity

Psalm 75
We thank you, God, we thank you— your Name is our favorite word; your mighty works are all we talk about. You say, "I'm calling this meeting to order, I'm ready to set things right. When the earth goes topsy-turvy And nobody knows which end is up, I nail it all down, I put everything in place again. I say to the smart alecks, 'That's enough,' to the bullies, 'Not so fast.'" Don't raise your fist against High God. Don't raise your voice against Rock of Ages. He's the One from east to west; from desert to mountains, he's the One. God rules: he brings this one down to his knees, pulls that one up on her feet. God has a cup in his hand, a bowl of wine, full to the brim. He draws from it and pours; it's drained to the dregs. Earth's wicked ones drink it all, drink it down to the last bitter drop! And I'm telling the story of God Eternal, singing the praises of Jacob's God. The fists of the wicked are bloody stumps, The arms of the righteous are lofty green branches.

A PLACE FOR THE LORD

"But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste?" (Matthew 26:8).

We want to appear to be busy doing for God, busy at our "ministry". But there is a place where we simply "waste" ourselves on Him, and outwardly we appear to be doing nothing. Would that more believers would "waste" themselves more often, ministering to the Lord, sitting at His feet, hearing His word, ministering to Him in secret prayer and fasting! Then when they do rise up to work, how much more fruitful they will be!

Hoping that I'll rise up from our week of resting, and be fruitful! Nice to be home..I'll post some pics in the near future!

Grand Bahama Island

Hey, Jerry and I are heading off today for a short holiday with some good kingdom friends! Be back next week. Pray for rest and rejeuvenation - spirit, soul and body. It's been a year to remember..and the next battle is just around the corner..

I know if I take care of His stuff and do things His way, He'll take care of my stuff. I like this verse in the King James:

Psalm 138:7-8 (King James Version)
Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me. The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.

Make this your manifesto:

Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Set God-sized goals. Pursue God-ordained passions. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. Stop pointing out problems and become part of the solution. Stop criticizing and start creating. Stop playing it safe and start taking risks. Expand your horizons. Accumulate experiences. Consider the lilacs. Find every excuse you can to celebrate everything you can. Don't let what's wrong with you keep you from worshipping what's right with God. Burn sinful bridges. Laugh at yourself. Keep making mistakes. Worry less about what people think and more about what God thinks. Don't try to be who you're not. Be yourself. Quit holding out. Quit holding back. Quit running away. And remember: if God is for us who can be against us?
Chase the lion!

Chain Gang

THE CHAIN GANG
For some there was the slight semblance of the synchophonic sound of church bells. But it was, instead, the clanging of chains synchophonas the prisoners performed their duties.
Their day began with roll-call, responding to their assigned identification number. Then, dressed in the dreary uniformity that dissipates individuality, and manacled together in bondage, they marched out to perform their monotonous tasks. The obligatory service having been performed under the watchful eye of the taskmaster, the prisoners filed back into the vaulted dungeon to be fed a bland diet and to engage in the socialization of their chants. They were psyching themselves up for another day of the same regimen on the chain-gang. Each day as they labored, a crusader on a nearby hill repetitively proclaimed, “Let my people go!” “Let my people go!” “What you are doing to my people is contrary to justice; it is cruel and unusual punishment.” “I have come to set you free!” “Exercise your right to walk out in freedom with me.” This sounded like good news to the prisoners, yet there was little hope that such freedom could be effected until their sentence had been served. Whatever hope these men had was long-term and futuristic, for these men been were “lifers.” Meanwhile, the law-enforcement officers who guarded them made every effort to keep the prisoners from hearing the daily proclamations of the rabblerouser on the hill. They knew that what he was saying was true. Very few exercised the right to walk away unto freedom. They were held not by the manacles of chains but by the captivity of their own minds.

There was an initial enactment of this scenario when the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt. Moses was the designated leader to “set the people free.” A great exodus ensued, though few ever Iraelites found their way to the land of freedom.

Today God’s people are enslaved in the bondage of religion. Individuality is dissipated; conformity is dictated. Attendance is mandated; performance is regulated. The roll is taken as we file back into our vaulted cathedrals to be “fed” a bland diet, and to engage in what we have been conditioned to call “worship.”

Jesus Christ, by His Spirit, still stands
on Calvary hill, calling, “Let My people go!”
“You shall know the truth, and the truth
shall make you free” (John 8:32). “I am the
truth” (John 14:6). “I came that you might
have life, and might have it abundantly”
(John 10:10). “I am the life (John 14:6).
Few there are who leave the bondage
of religion for the freedom of Christ’s life.

~Author - Jim Fowler

Parables and Parodies

On most occasions Jesus did not provide any explanation of
His parables, leaving them like “dangling modifiers” in His teaching. They served as “pictorial ponderables” which could implode within one’s thinking and explode misconceptions. They were puzzling and problematic; veiled with hidden meaning which was concealed in order to reveal. The parables of Jesus had a “back-handed impact” which “upset the apple-cart” of traditional religious thinking. What Jesus was advocating was 180 degrees opposite of the typical religious practice. With a subtle, dry humor, Jesus illustrates that “God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, nor our ways,His ways” (Isa. 55:8,9). Eventually the Palestinian religionists realized that Jesus was talking about them (Matt. 21:45), often making parodies of their piety, and they sought to silence Him.

What is a parody? A parody is a comic caricature, a ludicrous likeness, an absurd analogy, a ridiculous representation which exposes a particular reality by comparing it to another of a different order. Parodies can be a very useful verbal or literary tool to exposes the “red herrings” of diversions which distract attention from real issues; to expose “hobby horses” whereby men keep reverting back to repetitive over-emphases without critical thought; to expose inane traditions which become familiar ruts wherein we fail to recognize the absence d’esprit. By the use of parody one can be direct yet subtle at the same time. Blaise Pascal exposed the Jesuits by showing the absurdity of their thinking in analogical constructs. Soren Kierkegaard utilized and parables and allegory to reveal pompous and fallacious activities in the Church of Denmark. Both were criticized for irreverence, but their writings exist to this day as valid examples of courageous men who stood up for veracity, integrity and genuine spirituality. Sometimes this means “stomping through the tulips.”

In his Provincial Letters, Blaise Pascal noted that “there is a vast difference between laughing at Christianity and laughing at those who profane it by their extravagant opinions. It were impiety to laugh-be wanting in respect for the verities which the Spirit of God has revealed;but it were no less impiety of another sort to be wanting in contempt for the falsities which the spirit of man opposes to them.”

“There are many things which deserve to be held up to ridicule and
mockery, lest, by a serious refutation, we should attach a weight to them which they do not deserve.”
“...what is more fitted to raise a laugh than to see a matter so grave as that of Christianity decked out with fancies so grotesque...”
“...it is impossible to refrain from laughing.”

In documentation of his point Pascal quotes from Tertullian.
“...to treat them seriously would be to sanction them.”
“Can anything be more justly due to the vanity and weakness of these opinions than laughter?”
“Whether ought we to laugh at their folly, or deplore their blindness?”

There comes a time when we need to stand before the mirror to engage in some ecclesiastical self-examination. Those who are not willing to do so “deceive themselves,” and “their religion is worthless” (James 1:22-26). If we cannot or will not engage in self-criticism, we become very in-grown and unhealthy. The body-religious today seems to be in a state of “denial,” unwilling to admit or deal with their “ingrown toenails.” Such a situation is an unhealthy situation that hobbles our effectiveness. The ecclesiastical community today is so myopic that it cannot detach itself from the extraneous criteria of self-image in order to be objective about its munity condition. Perhaps we need to follow Jesus’ advice to “take the log out of our own eye, before we seek to take the speck out of another’s eye” (Matt. 7:3-5).

Hopefully parodies will allow us to “see ourselves as others see us,” and thus to be freed from some of our “foolish notions” and “blunders.”

“Charity may sometimes oblige us to ridicule the errors of men, that they may be induced to laugh at them in their turn, and renounce them.” ~Augustine

Whom Should Christians Turn to in Times of Trouble?

The Bible says nothing about professional help for Christians in turmoil, but it does say that Spirit-filled believers are to minister to such people. I think part of the reason people go outside the church for help is that many churches have failed to gently restore fallen believers and lovingly bear their burdens (Gal. 6:1 2).

When Christians fall into traps of despair, discouragement, depression, immorality, and substance abuse, the church should function as a healing community to such people. Spiritual believers have the responsibility of helping to restore them.

True biblical counseling to Christians in need is the process by which a Spirit controlled Christian leads another believer to spirituality through prayer and the Word. There's no fleshly way to accomplish that. It's a spiritual ministry. In addition, I believe that although certain people are wonderfully gifted counselors, the restoration of sinning Christians is a ministry of the whole congregation rather than just one individual.

One writer drew a helpful analogy that illustrates the point: "Do not let discouragement drench your spirit, or fear flood your soul. Despite the howling winds of circumstance and the undercurrents of the enemy, press on in the power of the Holy Spirit as you hold firmly to the rudder of faith. Scan your horizons for a fleet of like-minded ships: vessels who adore and serve their King, the Lord Jesus. Once you find them, forsake your isolated wanderings for their protection, fellowship and instruction:

* The old ships will teach you reverence.
* Battered vessels are a practicum in compassion.
* Fast clippers, leading the fleet under Christ, instill obedience.
* Slow barges instruct you in patience and kindness, for they often bear the heaviest burdens.
* Front line battleships evoke respect and humility.
* A broken boat will enlarge your heart for meeting needs.
* And even a collision with another freighter will alert each member to stay on course and faithfully follow love."

No one person be he pastor or counselor can teach all that. But when the church functions in the power of the Holy Spirit, all those ministries take place. That dynamic stimulates each believer toward spiritual growth.

One of the tragedies of our day is that many Christians have drifted away from depending on the Spirit because they get in the habit of depending on themselves. When they finally discover their own inadequacies, they turn to the world for solutions rather than seeking God's provisions through the Spirit and through fellow believers. Whom do you turn to in times of trouble?

Because the Spirit ministers to us through other believers, we must never cut ourselves off from that vital source of stimulation and accountability. Unfortunately some Christians can attend church or Bible study week after week and make little or no contribution to the lives of other believers and receive little or nothing from them. Others spend time with Christians but the topic of conversation may not be of any spiritual significance. Be sure to make the most of the Spirit's ministry through other believers!

~John MacArthur

Bondslave

"I, Paul, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you..." (Ephesians 4:1a).

To be the prisoner of the Lord means that we accept the sentence of death and are resigned to our fate. We are not the Lord's prisoner if we are still protesting our innocence. If we do not agree with the Lord that Self is worthy of death then we unnecessarily delay the inevitable. If we must take up the Cross and be crucified, it is better to submit ourselves to it as Christ did, giving up our spirit into the Father's hands, and bowing our head in peace. So let us drink the Cup that the Father gives us. If we struggle and protest, like the two thieves, then we only prolong our agony, and the soldiers must come and break our legs. Either way, the Cross means death. The sooner we surrender to it the sooner we find Resurrection.

Feast of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Teacher, Martyr, 1945
During the last year or so, I have come to appreciate the "worldliness" of Christianity as never before. The Christian is not a homo religiosus but a man, pure and simple, just as Jesus became man... It is only by living completely in this world that one learns to believe. One must abandon every attempt to make something of oneself, whether it be a saint, a converted sinner, a churchman, a righteous man, or an unrighteous one, a sick man or a healthy one... This is what I mean by worldliness -- taking life in one's stride, with all its duties and problems, its successes and failures, its experiences and helplessness... How can success make us arrogant or failure lead us astray, when we participate in the sufferings of God by living in this world?

Content to be..

Its been a long time since I posted something more personal. Im not a great writer and generally I can find things that people have written that say things I feel or want to express. Sometimes its good to write my own personal thoughts down so here goes:

Do you ever mix up who you are with what you do? Or who you are with your gifting? I remember managing a restaurant in my twenties and deciding I needed a change from that kind of work. I had been in the position for a number of years. Soon after my job change, I began to experience a kind of withdrawl. I realized that I needed to separate my identity from what I did and my giftings. It was very difficult as I seem to attach myself to this very easily without even knowing it. Anyway, the Lord challenged me on this again the other day.

Lord I want to find my identity in you alone. I thought I had, but here I am again. Its so easy to fall into the flesh and begin striving, thinking that I have to perform somehow or try to please you with all my doing. I release all that to you and am, content to be your child. You can give or take away; either way I will bless your Name. I give you who I am so that I can be found in you; more of you and less of me. Forgive and cleanse me of pride. I lay down all that you have given me, including gifts, talents, ambitions, hopes and plans. Make me your bondservant, chained only to you.. AMEN.

A Man of Great Wisdom Turns to Idolatry
This is perhaps one of the most tragic stories in the Bible... the story of Solomon, a man who came to the throne in great humility, and built a temple for the name of God... and later turned to idolatry. (See 1 Kgs 11:5,6). God knows the subtlety of the human heart far better than we do. And may we pray earnestly, "O Lord, Thou who alone knowest the hearts of all men, search me and know me, try me and know my thoughts, see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting". God warned Israel what would happen when they came into Canaan, the land of fruitfulness and abundance. "Beware", He said, lest when you become rich and prosperous, "Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the LORD thy God" (See Deut 8:14). I am not talking merely about natural prosperity. There is a spiritual prosperity that the Church is boasting about these days, and God looks down and sees the utmost spiritual poverty. God will reveal in the Day of the LORD, in the Day of His fire, whether our works have brought glory to His Name, how much of it is "gold, silver, and precious stones" and how much is "wood, hay, and stubble". We thank the Lord for every good and perfect gift that He bestows upon us; but let not our prayers stop there. We must find the grace to lay it all down at His feet, in loving self-sacrifice unto Him. For unless we do that, we cannot be His disciples (Lk 14:33). ~ George Warnock (Templebuilders)

How Deep the Father's Love

How deep the Father's love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only son
To make a wretch His treasure
How great the pain of searing loss
The Father turned His face away
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the man upon a cross!
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life;
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything:
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ;
His death and resurrection
Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart:
His wounds have paid my ransom

Brave

By Nichole Nordeman & Jay Joyce
For Charlie, who rearranged my fearful heart.

That I might Gain Christ..

Over a hundred years ago Horatius Bonar, the Scottish pastor and hymn-writer wrote a little book called Night of Weeping, or, "When God's Children Suffer." In it he said his goal was, "to minister to the saints . . . to seek to bear their burdens, to bind up their wounds, and to dry up at least some of their many tears." It is a tender and deep and wise book. So it's not surprising to hear him say,

It is written by one who is seeking himself to profit by trial, and trembles lest it should pass by as the wind over the rock, leaving it as hard as ever; by one who would in every sorrow draw near to God that he may know Him more, and who is not unwilling to confess that as yet he knows but little."

Bridges and Bonar show us that suffering is a path deep into the heart of God. God has special revelations of his glory for his suffering children.

After months of suffering, Job finally says to God, "I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee" (Job 42:5). Job had been a godly and upright man, pleasing to God, but the difference between what he knew of God in prosperity and what he knew of him through adversity was the difference between hearing about and seeing.

When Stephen was arrested and put on trial for his faith and given a chance to preach, the upshot was that the religious leaders were enraged and ground their teeth at him. They were just about to drag him out of the city and kill him. At just that moment, Luke tells us, that "Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit and gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God" (Acts 7:55). There is a special revelation, a special intimacy, prepared for those who suffer with Christ.

Peter put it this way, "If you are reproached for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you" (1 Peter 4:14). In other words God reserves a special coming and resting of his Spirit and his glory on his children who suffer for his name.

So the focus of today's message is on this intimacy factor in suffering. One of the purposes of the suffering of the saints is that their relationship with God might become less formal and less artificial and less distant, and become more personal and more real and more intimate and close and deep.

In our text (Philippians 3:5-11) I want us to see at least three things:

First, Paul's preparation to suffer by reversing his values;

Second, Paul's experience of suffering and loss as the cost of his obedience to Christ;

Third, Paul's aim in all of this, namely, to gain Christ: to know him and be in him and fellowship with more intimacy and reality than he knew with his best friends Barnabas and Silas.

Paul's preparation to suffer

In verses 5 and 6 Paul lists the distinctives he enjoyed before he became a Christian. He gives his ethnic pedigree as a thoroughbred child of Abraham, a Hebrew of Hebrews. This brought him great gain, a great sense of significance and assurance. He was an Israelite. Then he mentions three things that go right to the heart of Paul's life before he was a Christian (at the end of verse 5): "as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless."

This was Paul's life. This was what gave him meaning and significance. This was his gain, his fortune, his joy. Different strokes for different folks--and Paul's was that he belonged to the upper-echelon of law keepers, the Pharisees, and that among them he was so zealous that he led the way in persecuting the enemies of God, the church of Jesus, and that he kept the law meticulously. He got strokes from belonging, he got strokes from excelling, he got strokes from God--or so he thought--for his blameless lawkeeping.

And then he met Christ, the Son of the living God, on the Damascus road. Christ told him how much he would have to suffer (Acts 9:16). And Paul prepared himself.

The way he prepared himself is described in verse 7. "But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ." Paul looks at his standing in the upper-echelons of religious society, the Pharisees; he looks at the glory of being at the very top of that group with all its strokes and applause; he looks at the rigor of his lawkeeping and the sense of moral pride he enjoyed; and he prepares to suffer by taking his whole world and turning it upside down, by reversing his values: "Whatever things were gain to me (that's verses 5-6), those things I have counted as loss."

Before he was a Christian he had a ledger with two columns: one that said: gains and another that said: losses. On the gain side was the human glory of verses 5-6. On the loss side was the terrible prospect that this Jesus movement might get out of hand and Jesus prove real and win the day. When he met the living Christ on the Damascus road Paul took a big red pencil and wrote "LOSS" in big red letters across his gains column. And he wrote "GAIN" in big letters over the loss column that only had one name in it: Christ.

And not only that, the more Paul thought about the relative values of life in the world and the greatness of Christ, he moved beyond the few things mentioned in verses 5-6 and put everything but Christ in that first column: Verse 8: "More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." He started by counting his most precious accomplishments as loss, and he ended by counting everything as loss, except Christ.

That's what it meant for Paul to become a Christian. And lest anyone of us think he was unique or peculiar, notice that in verse 17 he says with his full apostolic authority, "Brethren, join in following my example." This is normal Christianity.

What Paul is doing here is showing how the teaching of Jesus is to be lived out. For example, Jesus said, "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field" (Matthew 13:44). Becoming a Christian means discovering that Christ (the King) is a Treasure Chest of holy joy and writing "LOSS" over everything else in the world in order to gain him. "He sold all that he had to buy that field."

Or again in Luke 14:33 Jesus said, "No one of you can be my disciple who does not take leave of all his own possessions." In other words, becoming a disciple of Jesus means writing "LOSS" in big red letters over all your possessions--and everything else this world offers.

Now what does that mean practically? I think it means four things:

1. It means that whenever I am called upon to choose between anything in this world and Christ, I choose Christ.

2. It means that I will deal with the things of this world in ways that draw me nearer to Christ so that I gain more of Christ and enjoy more of him by the way I use the world.

3. It means that I will always deal with the things of this world in ways that show that they are not my treasure, but rather show that Christ is my treasure.

4. It means that if I lose any or all the things this world can offer, I will not lose my joy or my treasure or my life, because Christ is all.

Now that was the reckoning that Paul reckoned in his soul (v. 8): "I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." Christ is all and all else is loss.

Now let's stand back a minute and get our bearings. I am still dealing with the first point: namely, that this is Paul's way of preparing to suffer. Why do I say that? Why is becoming a Christian, and writing "LOSS" across everything in your life but Christ a way of preparing to suffer?

The answer is that suffering is nothing more than the taking away of bad things or good things that the world offers for our enjoyment--reputation, esteem among peers, job, money, spouse, sexual life, children, friends, health, strength, sight, hearing, success, etc. When these things are taken away (by force or by circumstance or by choice), we suffer. But if we have followed Paul and the teaching of Jesus and have already counted them as loss for the surpassing value of gaining Christ, then we are prepared to suffer.

If when you become a Christian you write a big red "LOSS" across all the things in the world except Christ, then when Christ calls you to forfeit some of those things, it is not strange or unexpected. The pain and the sorrow may be great. The tears may be many, as they were for Jesus in Gethsemane. But we will be prepared. We will know that the value of Christ surpasses all the things the world can offer and that in losing them we gain more of Christ.

So in the second half of verse 8 Paul moves from preparing for suffering to actual suffering. He moves from counting all things as loss in the first half of verse 8 to actually suffering the loss of all things in the second half of the verse. " . . . for whom (that is, Christ) I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish in order that I might gain Christ." We are going to see this next week: Paul had experienced so much actual loss of the normal benefits and comforts of the world that he could say that he was not merely counting things loss; he was suffering loss. He had prepared by turning his values upside down, and now he was being tested. Did he value Christ above all?

So let me close by riveting our attention on Paul's goal and God's purpose in this suffering. Why did God ordain and Paul accept the losses that it meant for him to be a Christian?

Paul gives the answer again and again in these verses so that we cannot miss the point. He is not passive in this suffering loss. He is purposive. And his purpose is to gain Christ.

Verse 7: "I counted them loss for the sake of Christ."
Verse 8a: "I count all things to be loss for the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord."
Verse 8b: "For him I have suffered the loss of all things."
Verse 8c: "And I count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ . . ."
Verse 9: ". . .and that I may be found in him (so as to have God's righteousness, not my own) . . ."
Verse 10a: (still giving his aim in accepting the loss of all things) ". . . that I may know him"
Verses 10b-11: (followed by four specifics of what it means to know Christ)
". . . 1) (to know) the power of his resurrection; and
2) the fellowship of his sufferings;
3) being conformed to his death;
4) in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead."
In other words, what sustains Paul in suffering the loss of all things is the confidence that in his losing precious things in the world he is gaining something more precious --Christ.

And two times that gaining is called a knowing--verse 8a: ". . . in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." Verse 10: "That I might know him." This is the intimacy factor in suffering. Do we want to know him? Do we want to be more personal with him and deep with him and real with him and intimate with him--so much so that we count everything as loss to gain this greatest of all treasures?

If we do we will be ready to suffer. If we don't it will take us by surprise and we will rebel. May the Lord open our eyes to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ!

Copyright 1992 John Piper

Psalm 36

I love this in the Message version:

The God-rebel tunes in to sedition— all ears, eager to sin.
He has no regard for God,
he stands insolent before him.
He has smooth-talked himself
into believing
That his evil
will never be noticed.
Words gutter from his mouth,
dishwater dirty.
Can't remember when he
did anything decent.
Every time he goes to bed,
he fathers another evil plot.
When he's loose on the streets,
nobody's safe.
He plays with fire
and doesn't care who gets burned.

God's love is meteoric,
his loyalty astronomic,
His purpose titanic,
his verdicts oceanic.
Yet in his largeness
nothing gets lost;
Not a man, not a mouse,
slips through the cracks.

How exquisite your love, O God!
How eager we are to run under your wings,
To eat our fill at the banquet you spread
as you fill our tankards with Eden spring water.
You're a fountain of cascading light,
and you open our eyes to light.

Keep on loving your friends;
do your work in welcoming hearts.
Don't let the bullies kick me around,
the moral midgets slap me down.
Send the upstarts sprawling
flat on their faces in the mud.

Email from intercessor friend..

Dear friends ,
I hope you are doing good. Somehow i feel in my spirit that things are coming together very quickly. God is getting the last pieces in order and getting ready to raise up from His throne ......one last time!!! We will see an ultimate breakthrough - Revival. Its time to get ready for the harvest. But as the Jesus said that the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few (Luke 10:2), i dont know whether we can see the need and urgency to answer God's call.
My friends please dont slack off in answering His call. God is more than our daily devotions. Please dont put Him in a box. If we think that God is our genie we are in big trouble. He is not the means to the end but He is our end. He is not there to just tuck us in our beds. He has greater desire for your life and mine. His people are perishing and crying for hope. Can we stand in the gap and cry out for them.
I want to give you the call that Moses gave when He came down the mountain with those 10 commandments. He came down and saw the nation of Israel caught in revelry ,sin and Idol worship. He gave a cry out to his people and said ' WHO IS ON THE LORD'S SIDE'. I want to ask you the same. Are you on the Lord's side ???? Choose this day whom you want to serve. We want to serve ourselves and selfishness or do we want to serve our God and His will.
May God be glorified at our expense. ... Time is running out so choose what you want to do with it.

Then he sends me this - hard to believe but the Scriptures are clear that this will happen and to beware:

Fear No Man

Our desire for promotion, compensation or appreciation will inevitably lead us to compromise, tone down, whitewash, filter, edit, distort, or make more palatable the message we bring. If we are promoting ourselves, then let us do all we can to push our names to the top and be pleased with any recognition we may receive. But if it is God's Word we speak, let God see to the promotion of His Word as well as His servant. Better to have a small circle of influence with freedom to speak as we are led to speak than to have a large circle of influence obtained through a message deemed "safe for public consumption".

In order to rid us of the fear of man, the Lord will prepare a path for us strewn with misunderstanding. Finances will dry up. We will be placed on a shelf for many days, until we no longer look to people as our source. To overcome the fear of man we must be wholly GOD'S and no one else's. A man or a woman who does not need to be appreciated or understood; who does not desire compensation, material or otherwise; who does not desire a large ministry but a faithful one; this individual is free to be the SERVANT of all without being ENSLAVED to all.

Submission..

Scripture admonishes us that we are not to be ignorant of the schemes of the devil, otherwise he will take advantage of us (2 Corinthians 2:11). Instead of ignoring him, James 4:7 tells us to submit to the will of God and resist the devil and he will flee from us. If we are not surrendering to the will of God, we can resist Satan until the end of time. He will not cease to buffet us. When we do submit to God and Satan continues to buffet us, we know two things. One, we are to remain submitted to God and continue to resist the devil. Two, if the devil does not flee, God is most assuredly working on something in our lives. In this case He is more than likely working on something of which we are unaware (2 Corinthians 12:7-9).

Our fallen nature makes us blame. We either blame Satan, ourselves or someone else for everything bad that happens. Sometimes we blame God. The blame game keeps our hearts off of the real issue . . . submitting to God and what He wants to do in our own hearts regardless of the source of our problems.

Also, our carnal nature makes us think that we are ok as we are as long as we do "good" things and that we don't need to be tested and tried. Not so. God is more interested in our character than He is in our outward behavior. The fires of trials and testings shape our character. His promises are not as much for what He will do FOR us as what He will do IN us. The latter is His priority.

Your God is Too Safe

Mark Buchanan wrote in his book Your God is Too Safe, that there is one soil that usually withers pride. It is brokenness. He goes on to write that broken- ness "molds our character closer to the character of God than anything else. To experience defeat, disappointment, loss—the raw ingredients of broken- ness—moves us closer to being like God than victory and gain and fulfillment ever can."

J. C. Philpot wrote over 150 years ago that "There is much presumption, pride, hypocrisy, deceit, delusion, formality, superstition and self-righteousness to be purged out of the heart of God's child.

"But all these things keep him low, mar his pride, crush his self-righteousness, cut the locks of his presumption, stain his self conceit, stop his boasting, preserve him from despising others, make him take the lowest room, teach him to esteem others better than himself, drive him to earnest prayer, fit him as an object of mercy, break to pieces his free will, and lay him low at the feet of the Redeemer, as one to be saved by sovereign grace alone!"

The catalysts for brokenness don’t have to be huge, tragic or devastating, though sometimes they are. Suffering comes in all sizes and shapes every day of our lives. And when it comes, we often bury the pain of it somewhere deep inside us where it simmers and stews and gnaws away at our peace, faith and health, turning our hearts even stonier, compounding our pride and unbroken- ness layer by layer.

2Ki 19:8-19

Hezekiah receives an answer of peace.
Hezekiah discovered deep concern at the dishonour done to God by Rabshakeh's blasphemy. Those who speak from God to us, we should in a particular manner desire to speak to God for us. The great Prophet is the great Intercessor. Those are likely to prevail with God, who lift up their hearts in prayer. Man's extremity is God's opportunity. While his servants can speak nothing but terror to the profane, the proud, and the hypocritical, they have comfortable words for the discouraged believer.

What is idolatry?

II. At the beginning of the 10 Commandments is the sin of idolatry. This is the "sin of sins" for once begun man's understanding is forever befuddled; the Truth of God is polluted; all is lost! Idolatry remains man's greatest threat!


1. Modern man will not become an idolater in the sense of the pagan mythologies of the Greeks, Romans, and Norse. These bowed down to a material image crafted with hands from precious metals or sacred wood/rocks. Modern man is too far "advanced" for this.
2. Modern man's lure into idolatry is much more subtle and this is where it is much more deadly. This danger is succinctly stated: "The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him. It begins in the mind ... The idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true" (A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, 5).

3. Satan's evil scheme is not to get us to say there is no God but to say there is a DIFFERENT God than what the Bible teaches. This scheme begins in our minds (2 Co 10:5).

4. The success of this evil scheme is repeatedly found in Scripture and has subtly invaded our modern society. In fact, it is alarming to see just how successful Satan's scheme has been.

5. The idolater today is not one who bows down before some image, but is one who has mentally modified the God of the Scriptures so that He is now more attractive, more tolerant, more permissive, more loving, less denouncing, less damning, and less restrictive. Modern idolatry accepts biblical religion and the biblical God, BUT first modifies each to suit personal tastes. The result, a religion of convenience but no conviction; a god who is personal and up close but not the sovereign Lord; adherents who follow feelings rather than faith. In summary -- it is a religion, a god, and a group of adherents who are totally different from that which you read in the Bible! And it ALL results from idolatry!

1 Timothy 1:3-17

Watch For False Teachers
When I left for the country of Macedonia, I asked you to stay in the city of Ephesus. I wanted you to stay there so you could tell those who are teaching what is not true to stop. They should not listen to stories that are not true. It is foolish for them to try to learn more about their early fathers. These only bring more questions to their minds and do not make their faith in God stronger. We want to see our teaching help you have a true love that comes from a pure heart. Such love comes from a heart that says we are not guilty and from a faith that does not pretend. But some have turned away from these things. They have turned to foolish talking. Some of them want to be teachers of the Law. But they do not know what they are talking about even if they act as if they do.

The Law Is Good
We know the Law is good when it is used the way God meant it to be used. We must remember the Law is not for the person who is right with God. It is for those who do not obey anybody or anything. It is for the sinners who hate God and speak against Him. It is for those who kill their fathers and mothers and for those who kill other people. It is for those who do sex sins and for people who do sex sins with their own sex. It is for people who steal other people and for those who lie and for those who promise not to lie, but do. It is for everything that is against right teaching. The great Good News of our honored God is right teaching. God has trusted me to preach this Good News.

From Personal Redemption by Starr Daily

Love in action - this is the way that leads to redemption.
Not only belief; but belief plus behavior.
Not only concept, but concept plus conduct.
Not only creed, but creed plus deed.

Food for Thought..

On many occasions the Lord has drawn my attention to the fact that He requires us to preach the gospel, cast out demons and heal the sick. I wonder if the gospel is really being preached and if so, why are more people not being delivered and healed? Perhaps we are preaching as Paul says "another gospel"..or "another Jesus".. what is the gospel that was "first delivered to the saints"? How is our gospel today different from that? Has the real gospel been perverted?

1 John 2:3-11
And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

BEEN THINKING ABOUT: The Road to Realism

Someone has noticed that, “Optimists think the glass is half full. Pessimists think it’s half empty. Realists know that if they stay around long enough they’re going to have to wash the glass.”

In art, realists paint life with blemishes, wrinkles, and scars. Idealists paint a subject as they imagine it could or should be.

On the road of life, both are important. Ideals give us direction. Realism gives us traction.

Both, however, have their downsides. Realism can cost us our dreams. Idealism can consume our days in a futile search for the perfect marriage, employment, or happiness.

Idealism and realism also show up in matters of faith. Some think of God as an obsessive, demanding parent who cannot be pleased. Others think of Him as an indulgent grandparent who is so endearing and compassionate that there is no reason to fear Him.

What do we think? Is God a realist or an idealist? It’s a question that brings us to a busy intersection of ideas. If we aren’t careful, we will run into traffic coming at us from either the right hand or the left.

The danger of these crossroads, however, is worth the risk of getting past them. While looking both ways and proceeding with caution, many have found a God who is good enough to inspire us with His ideals, merciful enough to accept us as we are, and too loving to leave us there. This, it seems, is the story of the Bible.

In a perfect world, we would live forever. That’s how the drama of the Bible begins and ends. Within the opening chapters, however, our first parents lose their innocence and immortality. Their first son kills his younger brother and a succession of good days and bad days take turns raising hopes and ruining them.

The realism of a beautiful world stalked by conflict and death, however, is not what makes the Bible an all-time bestseller. What makes this Book so compelling is that its rugged realism offers strength for the journey with a vision for a better world at the end of the road. Someday, according to the prophet Isaiah, weapons of war will be recycled into tools of agriculture (2:4) and even a defenseless lamb will eat safely at the side of a wolf (65:25). In the end, those who make peace with God now will find perfect peace forever.

Yet, the idealism of the Bible is not just about the future. Both Testaments also call us to love God with all our heart and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Both emphasize not only the moral rule of “love,” but also the virtues of “joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, [and] self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).

No society passes laws against such ideals. Yet, no one consistently lives up to them either. So how do we come to terms with our imperfection?

In a real world of human weakness, first-century Judaism had an answer for moral limitation. Some rabbis taught that a person who observes any important commandment, such as forsaking idolatry, is equal to him who keeps the whole law.

Interestingly, a New Testament author by the name of James takes a different approach. He writes, “Whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10).

At first look, the rabbis who focus on the law we keep rather than on the one we break seem more realistic. James, on the other hand, seems to be setting a trap of perfectionism. Break one law, he says, and you break them all.

On second look, will a “Keep one, and you keep them all” approach allow us to sleep any better? Who has loved our neighbor as ourselves? Who, when the heart of idolatry is understood, has forsaken all false gods? Who has not coveted?

Interestingly, James is not the idealist that 2:10 seems to suggest. When he presses the logic of law, he does so only to get the attention of self-righteous persons who refuse to receive or show mercy (vv.12-13). He writes as a follower of Christ (1:1), and believes that his faith in Christ compels him to pursue neighbor love in the most realistic and down-to-earth ways (1:26–2:8).

The people James has a problem with are those who talk as if they are friends of both idealism and realism—without honoring either.

Dangerous drivers —The religious leaders who called for Christ’s death had the law of God in their minds, but not in their hearts. Publicly they were experts in the Law. Privately they created legal loopholes that allowed them to ignore the compliance they required of others.

Publicly they argued the moral ideals and logic of the slippery slope. They made laws around laws, like fences around fences to keep less thoughtful people from trespassing the boundaries of Moses. Privately they were realistic enough to know that they had to break their own laws to get rid of the rabbi from Nazareth who was making them look like hypocrites.

Merging from the right and left —Jesus was kind to people that other religious leaders avoided. He ate and drank with people that other religious leaders wouldn’t be caught dead with. He touched lepers, talked respectfully with women, and loved noisy children.

The most inspiring idealism comes together with the most rugged realism in Jesus. Nowhere do we find a better picture of what it means to be faithful to the highest principles while offering mercy to the most broken people.

When Jesus pressed the logic of moral idealism, He did so in order to lovingly humble self-righteous people (Matthew 5:20-48). When He offered mercy instead of morality, He did so to show that He had come not to condemn but to rescue (John 3:17; 12:47).

Father in heaven, thank You for showing us through Your Son that there is no conflict between the heights of Your ideals and the depths of Your mercy. We will be eternally grateful that You have loved us enough to accept us as we are and loved us too much to leave us where You found us. Please help us to extend both to others as You have given them to us. —Mark De Haan

(I just wanted to add, that tolerance should never be confused with mercy. Tolerance is looking the other way - ignoring, minimizing or winking at sin; grace is honestly acknowledging and grieving the sin itself and its results, knowing its cost, while at the same time, walking in a spirit of forgiveness.)

Ignoring God Leads to a Downward Spiral

Romans 1:21 (The Message)But God's angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can't see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn't treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.

Risky Business

The gospel is a summons to radical obedience and, if need be, danger. Throughout the Bible, the people of God are called to intrepid lives as evidenced by the tumultuous lives of the Patriarchs and Esther. Time and again, faith is inextricably linked with action. As Bonhoeffer said, “Unless he obeys, a man cannot believe.” One cannot serve the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob without action in the midst of uncertainty. Christianity is not a religion that can be enjoyed without risk.

Apostasy

by Wayne Blank

Apostasy, from the Greek word apostasia, meaning withdrawl or defection, is the defiant falling away from the Lord by someone who had been a converted member of the faith. Apostasy is a deliberate, unrepentant rejection of the Truth by someone who became fully aware of it.
Apostasy, or rather, never committing it, is a very serious matter. Once one knows better, he or she is expected to do better. Of all of the sins that there are to commit, apostasy is The Unpardonable Sin

What does The Bible have to say about apostasy? What does Bible Prophecy say about it in the end-time?

"In Later Times"
"Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, through the pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and enjoin abstinence from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving; for then it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer." (1 Timothy 4:1-5 RSV)

"But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of stress. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, fierce, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding the form of religion but denying the power of it. Avoid such people." (2 Timothy 3:1-5 RSV)

"Thorns and Thistles"
"For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then commit apostasy, since they crucify the Son of God on their own account and hold him up to contempt. For land which has drunk the rain that often falls upon it, and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed; its end is to be burned." (Hebrews 6:4-8 RSV)

Another Crazy Video!