Tuesday, February 9,
2016, 5:00 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song, “Forever With Us.” Speak, Lord, your words to my heart. I read Mark 14:1-11 (ESV).
By Stealth (vv.
1-2)
It
was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the
chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and
kill him, for they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from
the people.”
If someone does something by stealth, they are being sneaky,
sly, crafty, underhanded, and secretive (concealing their actions). It is the
opposite of openness and honesty.
There are many leaders today within the government and
within the organized church structure who are plotting the demise of Jesus’
true followers, and of the gospel of salvation, and they are doing so by stealth.
For one, they create crisis situations (false flag operations), and then they
blame their actions on other people, and/or they use these fake or orchestrated
crisis situations in order to advance their own theology and political agenda.
One of their purposes is to pit various people groups, one against another, so
that they can bring order (the New World Order) out of the chaos which they
first created. They do this, as well, in order to make certain people groups
look bad, so that they can come up with a solution to the “problem.”
Within the institutional church, the targeted people group
is evangelical Christians, i.e. those who hold to the tenets of the Christian
faith, who teach the full gospel message of salvation, who warn of judgment,
and who call people to repentance and faith or renewed faith in Jesus Christ. Since
the church here in America has largely gone the way of the world, and is
focusing much attention on attracting the world to the church, and marketing
the church to the world, they have diluted the gospel message to make it more
appealing and acceptable to the world. They focus much on entertainment and on
making the people of the world feel comfortable in their meetings, so they will
want to come back. Thus, they demonize those who are still preaching the gospel
according to Jesus and his NT apostles. They call them legalistic, intolerant,
bigoted, hateful, and charge them with teaching works-based salvation, even
though they teach what the apostles taught and lived.
Within the government of the US, and perhaps in other
national governments, as well, which give loyalty to the New World Order, Christians
are also being targeted for extinction or for reprogramming. The crisis
situations they create are for the purpose to demonize all who they consider to
be “extremists” or “radical” in their faith, and for the very purpose to bring
all religions in harmony, one with the other, under a one-world religion. The
way things are going, I believe it won’t be long before the gospel, as taught
by Jesus and his NT apostles, will be outlawed as hateful, bigoted,
prejudicial, intolerant and unloving toward our fellow humans. Leaders within
the church and government are already making motions that direction in their
consistent and regular messages against intolerance, and in their calls for
unity and harmony among people of different religions and varied lifestyle
choices.
A Beautiful Thing
(vv. 3-9)
And
while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at
table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very
costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. There were some
who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that? For
this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and
given to the poor.” And they scolded her. But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why
do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have
the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you
will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body
beforehand for burial. And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is
proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of
her.”
When we honor our Lord in service to him, there will always
be those who will criticize us for what we do. Now, I realize that not everyone
who says they are servants of Jesus Christ truly are, and their deeds are not
always honoring to God or in line with his word. So, we do need to exercise
discernment, and we do need to test everything we hear, see and read from those
who call themselves servants of Jesus Christ and/or who claim they are his
messengers. Yet, there will be many who claim to know Jesus but who do not have
the mind of God, and/or who are not following Jesus with their lives, who are
thinking like the world instead of with spiritual discernment, who will come
against the Lord’s true servants and will criticize, reject, persecute and
ostracize them, just because what they are doing feels foreign to them. That is
what the religious leaders of Jesus’ day did to him.
Yet, when we are dishonored of humans, God honors us, if we
are walking in his Spirit and no longer according to our flesh. When we are
rejected of humans, our Lord receives us. When humans abandon us, our Lord
assures us of his continued presence with us, that he will never leave us or
forsake us. When humans mock us, criticize us and say all kinds of evil against
us because of our sincere faith and devotion to our Lord, our Lord encourages,
strengthens, and comforts us, and heals our broken hearts. He speaks tenderly
to us when humans speak harshly against us. He reminds us of his complete
sovereignty over our lives, and that he has allowed all this for a time and for
a purpose, which is to bring people to salvation, to revive his church, and for
the spreading of the gospel of Christ. Yet, one day Jesus will make our enemies
acknowledge that God/Jesus has loved us (See: Rev. 3:9).
To Betray Him
(vv. 10-11)
Then
Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order
to betray him to them. And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to
give him money. And he sought an opportunity to betray him.
The sad reality of this all, though, is that it is not just
our government or those in leadership within organized religion who will turn
against us, and who will criticize, reject, abandon and betray us. Scripture
teaches that the gospel of salvation turns family members against one another,
because those who do not receive Christ and his message of salvation from sin
will hate and resent those who are following Jesus Christ with their lives.
When this hits close to home, that is when it is the most painful of all. Yet,
Jesus faced that, too. It wasn’t just the religious leaders of his day who
hated him and who rejected him, mocked him and criticized him. People of his
own town, his own faith, and from his own birth family turned against him. They
thought he was crazy, too, and his own family members wanted to remove him from
public ministry, probably because he was an embarrassment to them. And, one of
his chosen closest companions was the one to betray him to death on a cross.
Yet, in all of this, we are to put our faith and trust in
Jesus Christ, believing in God’s sovereignty over our lives and his absolute
power and control over all powers and authorities. We have to know that this is
part of God’s plan and purpose for us, that we should suffer as he suffered for
righteousness’ sake. So, we should rejoice! When suffering injustice for the
sake of the gospel, let God be your comfort. Let him encourage and strengthen
your heart and mind. And, keep on keeping on in your faith in Christ Jesus.
Forever With Us /
An Original Work
Based off Psalm 46 /
February 5, 2016
Be still and know
God is over all things.
Throughout the earth,
He’ll be honored as King.
The Lord Almighty,
Forever with us.
He is our refuge
When we’re in distress.
Therefore, we have
Not a reason to fear.
Trials will come,
But our God is still near.
He is our helper,
So we do not fall.
Mountains will quake,
But on Jesus we call.
Joy to the Church,
Even if sorrow comes.
Enemies rage,
But our faith marches on.
God’s Holy Spirit,
Now living within,
Gives peace and comfort,
And grace without end.
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