Monday, April 30,
2012, 5:44 a.m. – I woke this morning out of a dream.
THE DREAM: My
daughter was non-communicative with me. She did not trust me to take care of
her child, so she took him (a baby/toddler) with her to work (a business), but
she didn’t pay attention to (watch) what he was doing. He was flipping some
switches that I knew could be disastrous. I tried to warn her, but to no avail.
She ignored the warnings. Then, my daughter and her child were out in an open
area, so I played with my grandson. My daughter continued to ignore me, so I
finally turned my back to her, and I just focused my attention on my
grandchild, i.e. on her offspring. END
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Matthew 3 (NIV 1984):
John the Baptist
Prepares the Way
In those days John the Baptist came,
preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven
is near.” This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:
“A voice of one calling in the desert,
‘Prepare the way for
the Lord,
make straight paths for him.’”
John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and
he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.
People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the
Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and
Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of
vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping
with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham
as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children
for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that
does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
“I baptize you with water for repentance. But
after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit
to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing
fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat
into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
My Understanding: John
the Baptist was sent to prepare the way for Jesus Christ, for his earthly
ministry, and for the salvation that would be ours through faith in Jesus. His
message was simple, short and to the point: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven
is near.” To repent means to turn and go the opposite direction, i.e. to leave
our lives of sin behind us, and to turn to follow Jesus Christ in faithful
obedience to his will for our lives. Included in this should be sorrow and
grief over our sin, humility, and a heart desire for change. This is how we
come to faith in Jesus Christ. This is the message of the gospel of Christ.
The kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven are synonymous
with the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This kingdom began with
Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry, and it culminates in Jesus’ second coming and
his earthly reign and rule on the earth during the Millennium, as well as it
encompasses our eternity with God in heaven. John the Baptist proclaimed that
this awaited future kingdom, prophesied about by the prophets of the Old
Testament, was “at hand” in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ preached
the same message as did John the Baptist, only he said that the kingdom was
already present in his ministry. Jesus Christ was and is the embodiment of the
kingdom of God.
The kingdom of God will be finally realized at the second
coming of Jesus Christ when he comes to rule and reign on the earth. When it is
finally realized, it will bring this present evil age to an end. When we come
to faith in Jesus Christ, we enter into this eternal kingdom of God. In one
sense, then, the kingdom has already come, but in another it is yet to come in
its entirety when Jesus Christ is revealed. This kingdom of God thus parallels
our salvation – we are saved, we are being saved (the process of
sanctification) and we will be saved when Jesus Christ returns and our
salvation is complete. So, in reality, we can still preach: “Repent, for the
kingdom of heaven is near,” because it is present but it is also future.
Prepare the Way
John’s commission was to prepare the way for the Lord Jesus’
earthly ministry and his provision of salvation for our sins. He was to make
straight paths for him. My Bible commentary suggested that this making of
straight paths was “a metaphor using road building to refer to repentance.”
[Ref: Zondervan NIV Commentary] John’s primary preparatory message was “Repent!”
The people must turn from their sins and turn to follow Jesus Christ as Lord
and as Savior. This makes a straight path to Jesus Christ, i.e. it is not a
path that is bending, curving, twisted, but is level, solid, accurate, truthful,
consistent, and not diluted, etc. In other words, repentance is the straight
way to Jesus Christ, i.e. it is the only way to salvation. The whole of the New
Testament teaches that the way we come to faith in Jesus Christ is through
turning from our sins, and through turning to walk in faithful obedience to
Jesus Christ. There is no other way. There is no curved or twisted path that
will get you to heaven. Jesus said if anyone wants to come after him, he must
deny himself (his flesh), and he must daily take up his cross (dying to sin) and
follow (obey) Christ.
Brood of Vipers
Many people came to be baptized of John. Confessing their
sins, they were baptized in the Jordan River. Many of the religious leaders of
Jesus’ day also came to be baptized of John. John, filled with the Holy Spirit
of God, knew their hearts. He called them a brood of vipers. Ouch! That’s
certainly touchy-feely, and a way to win friends and influence people! Yet,
John was not here to make friends and to make people like him. He was here to
lead people to their Savior and Lord Jesus Christ and to salvation from their
sins. He cared more about people’s relationship with God than he cared about
their relationship with himself.
He called the religious leaders a “brood of vipers.” A brood
is “a group whose members share a common origin or background.” And, a viper is
a poisonous snake or “somebody who is considered to be malicious, treacherous
(a betrayer; unfaithful; shifty; dangerous; deceitful and/or false), or
ungrateful.” [Ref: Encarta Dictionary] Wow! What an indictment!
He asked them who warned them to flee from the coming wrath.
Evidently they thought they could escape the wrath of God coming upon men who
did not put their faith in God/Jesus, and that they could do so merely by going
through the ritual of baptism. Yet, John was given insight into their hearts.
He told them they must produce fruit in keeping with repentance if they wanted
to escape God’s wrath (God’s judgment against sinful man via eternity in hell).
Fruit is the outgrowth; produce; harvest; yield or result of true repentance.
In other words, if we have truly repented of our sins, then the heart change
and change of attitudes and behavior should bear fruit in our lives.
They also could not count on their religious heritage or
even their race (family ties) to save them. We don’t inherit salvation via
physical birth, we don’t earn it through human effort, and we don’t achieve it
via going through a set of religious rituals. Salvation involves a heart
transformation and should result in a life committed to following Jesus Christ.
The Ax
John, speaking for God, told the religious leaders, too,
that God could raise up children for himself outside of Judaism, or outside the
confines of institutional religion. When he said that the ax was already at the
root of the tree, he was letting the religious leaders know that Judaism was
about ready to be cut off, for only the Jews who accepted Jesus Christ as Lord,
Messiah and Savior and who produced fruit in keeping with true repentance would
survive the cut. The ax was a symbol of judgment, and I believe it was symbolic
of judgment against institutionalized religion that did not result in a
spiritual harvest in keeping with true repentance (true heart, attitude and behavioral
change). Though we are not saved by works (of the flesh), but salvation is a
work of the Spirit of God in transforming human hearts, still salvation is not
absent of works (fruit). James said that faith absent of works (produce) was
dead (non-existent).
John said that he baptized with water for repentance, but
that Jesus Christ would baptize us with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Baptism
is a symbol of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross for our sins, his burial and
his resurrection in conquering death, hell, Satan and sin, triumphing over them
by the cross. When we enter into the waters of baptism, we are symbolically and
publicly declaring our identification with Christ, not only in what he went
through for us so we could be saved, but in our own death to sin, the putting
our sins behind us (they are buried), and our resurrection to new life in
Christ Jesus. Yet, this baptism of the Spirit John spoke of is not water
baptism, but it is our salvation. When we invite Jesus Christ into our hearts
and lives to be our Lord and Savior, we die with Christ to our sins, we bury
our sins with him, and we are resurrected with him to new life in Christ. This
is the baptism of the Spirit. Our water baptism merely serves as an outward
sign of the baptism that has already taken place in our hearts. [See: Ro. 6; 1
Co. 12:12-13; Gal. 3:26-27]
Jesus will also baptize us with fire. Fire has to do with
judgment, and the New Testament teaches that God judges (disciplines; corrects;
punishes; rebukes; chastises) his own for the purpose of purifying them and
making them holy, and/or to get his wandering ones to return to their “first
love.” He does this because he loves us, and because he wants us to be in a
right relationship with him. One other purpose of judgment is to separate the
wheat from the chaff, i.e. to sift out who is truly a follower of Jesus Christ
and who is not, but is in form only. The chaff will be burned up with unquenchable
fire, i.e. those who followed a form of religion but who did not produce fruit
in keeping with repentance. The wheat, i.e. those who survived the cut and who
did produce fruit in keeping with repentance will survive and will be gathered
to Jesus Christ for the wedding supper of the Lamb.
The Dream
I am representing God/Jesus in this dream. My daughter is a
picture of the Jews of Jesus’ time, and of the lukewarm church and/or of institutionalized
Christianity of our day. Since she has an offspring, she represents the
leadership (parents) of the church, such as was the case with the Pharisees,
Sadducees and Elders of Jesus’ day. She is representing church leadership that
has turned the church into a business and into an institution of man instead of
maintaining its true identity as the body of Christ (those bearing fruit in
keeping with repentance). This leadership is not in true fellowship with Jesus
Christ, because she fails to truly hear God’s voice speaking, but rather is a
follower of man and man-made religion. God has been calling out to her to
repent and to produce fruit in keeping with repentance, but she is turning a
deaf ear to his commands for faithful obedience.
She does not trust God with her spiritual offspring, which
is evidenced by all the manipulations of man in today’s church services,
marketing schemes, church growth schemes, plots and plans. Today’s
institutional church, for the most part, is very worldly, and follows after the
pattern of the world in how to grow and build a big business. That is why the
child, in the dream, was taken with her to work (business) and explains why she
did not trust me (representing God) with her offspring. She waters down the
gospel message, and entertains, tries to make church fun and exciting, comfortable,
non-threatening, etc. Yet, the gospel is an offense to those who are perishing.
If the unsaved feel comfortable, non-threatened and if they have fun in our
churches, then we are not preaching the true gospel of Jesus Christ. If we
began preaching: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near” each Sunday, and
our songs followed suit, and everything we planned and did revolved around
getting across this message, would the people attending our churches still feel
comfortable, non-threatened, and would they enjoy themselves?
My daughter (the church/leadership) didn’t watch (be
watchful in the sense of shepherding the flock) what was happening to her
offspring. He was flipping switches that were dangerous in this “business”
called “church.” To flip means to be casual; joking; dismissive; carefree;
unserious; bending; to go from one side to another; and/or to spin. Switch –
sudden change; an exchange or a substitution; shift; replacement. [Encarta
Dictionary]
In other words, the child (the spiritual offspring) was
learning from the parent to not take God seriously or sin seriously, and he was
casual, carefree and joking about his relationship with God; he was dismissive
with regards to the truth of the gospel (repentance and obedience required); he
was easily swayed by various winds of doctrine (see Eph. 4:14); and he was
learning in this “business” called “church” to replace the true doctrine of
salvation with a false teaching about salvation; to replace true repentance and
obedience to Christ with an “all grace” theology; to replace devotion and
loyalty to Jesus Christ alone with loyalty and devotion to the teachings of
man, and this was and is dangerous. God has warned and warned his “daughter”,
but she is not listening.
The open area, I believe, represents the area outside of
institutionalized religion, i.e. such as in home Bible studies, Christian
discussion sites on the internet, informal gatherings of believers in Christ, social
networks, etc., that don’t fall under the scrutiny of the institutional church
and its teachings of man, man-made rules, human philosophies, marketing schemes,
etc. God is able to minister to his children outside the confines of
institutionalized religion (Jesus did it throughout his earthly ministry) so
much better since the institutional church is turning a deaf ear to his calls
to repentance. So, God, I believe, is turning his back in judgment against the
institutional church and man-made religion and he is focusing his attention now
on the offspring, i.e. the remnant (the wheat), i.e. those willing to hear God’s
voice, to follow the truth of scripture, to produce fruit in keeping with
repentance, and who will follow the Lord Jesus Christ in full surrender and
obedience to his commands, rejecting false religion, teachings of man, and the
manipulations of man used to build big businesses.
Listen! Listen! /
An Original Work / December 20, 2011
Weep and wail o’er
your sins, children.
God is calling out to
you:
Be ye honest; tell the
truth,
And it will set you
free.
Harken to Him calling
you to
Bow on bended knee
today.
Don’t delay to let Him
in,
And He’ll cleanse your
hearts;
Pure within.
Sinners, won’t you
listen to Him
Calling out to you
today?
He died so that you
would be free
Of your sins always.
Turn from your sin.
Turn to Jesus.
Obey Him in ev’ry way.
He wants to set you
free of
All your guilt,
For which He did pay.
Listen! Listen!
Don’t close your
hearts
To His voice speaking
to you.
He will give you all
of His peace,
If your hearts be
true.
He longs for you to
come to Him
Humbly now and
repentant.
Obey all of His
commandments.
Live with Him
eternally.
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