Jesus, Lead Me / An Original Work / July 22, 2011
Jesus, lead me all the way.
Be my hope and be my stay.
Gently lead me where I should go,
So Your Spirit, I want to know.
Open up my heart to You.
Fill me with Your love and truth.
Make my heart want to obey.
Be my Lord today. Gently lead alway.
Jesus, lover of my soul,
Cleanse my heart, and make me whole;
Be transformed in my heart today,
As I turn from my sin and pray.
Make Your will known to my heart.
May I not from You depart.
How I long to hear You now,
As I humbly bow. Jesus, hear me now.
Song Lyrics @ Public Domain
Link to Song
Friday, July 22, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
The Danger of Deception
Wednesday, July 20, 2011, 7:30 a.m. – Yesterday afternoon I suffered greatly from a severe headache that sent me into a dark room to escape the light and to keep myself immobile, because it hurt even to move. I prayed for healing. I called out, “help,” to God because the pain was so great. Then, the Lord placed the song, “Our Awesome God,” in my mind. So, I began to sing to him, “I praise and adore You, Father. I worship and praise you, Lord. You are such an awesome God who loves us so much…” Just then, I heard in my mind, “Get up Tabitha and walk, because your faith has healed you.” So, I got up. And, I came out into the office and told my husband what the Lord had just done for me.
Tabitha (Dorcas) was a Christian woman in New Testament times who some presently regard as having had the ministry of a deaconess. She died and Peter was instrumental in raising her from the dead. Jesus healed a woman with a bleeding disorder when he said to her “take heart, daughter, your faith has healed you,” as well as he told a blind man who asked for healing, “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you,” and Jesus healed a paralytic when he said to him, “Get up, take your mat and walk.” So, when Jesus spoke these words to me, it was a combination of the words spoken to a man who was blind, a woman suffering a bleeding disorder, a paralytic who could not walk and a Christian woman and servant of the Lord who had died and whom Peter brought back to life.
I knew the Lord did not heal me for me to just take the rest of the evening off, so I got into the word to hear from the Lord. I read Mark 12 first about the parable of the tenants. And, I took notes on that chapter. But, then the words to the song came back into my mind… “You are such an awesome God who loves us so much, You implore us to follow You each moment of the days we have on earth…” I knew that the passage the Lord would have me read and write about must be related to God imploring us to follow Him each moment of the days we have left on this earth, so I kept reading. The next chapter, Mark 13, fit to the tee the idea of God imploring his children to live for him during the days they have yet remaining on the earth. So, I knew this is where I was to focus my time and attention.
Keep Watch!
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Mark 13 for my quiet time with the Lord. Since this chapter is 37 verses long, I will summarize some of it and quote some. Jesus told his disciples of the coming destruction of the temple. On the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, some of Jesus’ disciples inquired of him privately concerning the signs that these things are about to be fulfilled. Jesus told them of the signs of the end of the age. He began with the words “Watch out that no one deceives you.” At least seven times during this talk the Lord Jesus had with his disciples he used phrases such as “watch out,” “be on your guard,” “be alert,” “keep watch,” etc. Obviously there was much danger that even Jesus’ own disciples could be deceived, so he was warning them ahead of time, which we are also warned about in other passages in the New Testament. So, it is possible for us, as well, to be deceived, which is why it is so imperative that we keep watch and that we are alert.
Jesus told his disciples that there would be many deceivers, some of which would claim to be the promised Messiah of the people. I have found that the deception is greater if the claim is not so obvious but more subtle and comes more stealthily, escaping notice. Many raise themselves up as saviors of the people without literally declaring themselves to be such, but by their words and actions they give off the impression that is what they are claiming, and the greater deception lies there because people are more apt to follow them.
Jesus said there would be wars and rumors of wars; nation against nation; kingdom against kingdom; and earthquakes and famines. He said these were the beginnings of birth pains. He was relating the events of the last days to the pregnancy of a woman and these things being only the beginning of her pains associated with the birth of her child.
He told his disciples that they would be handed over to local councils and flogged in the synagogues. They would stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. “And the gospel must first be preached to all nations.” Family members will betray other family members and even have them put to death. We will be hated because of our faith in Jesus Christ, “but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.” Many of these things, if not all of them, have taken place since Jesus left the earth to go back to heaven. We, in America, have not yet had to face this kind of persecution, but it is coming. The gospel has gone far and wide, but I don’t know if it has reached every nation yet. The phrase, “but he who stands firm to the end will be saved,” is repeated in various forms throughout the New Testament. True faith is faith that endures, continues and overcomes to the end.
The Abomination
Abomination (definition) – “something that is immoral, disgusting, or shameful; an object of intense disapproval or dislike” (Encarta); “refers to foreign gods, their images, or related worship practices; denote improper ways of worshiping God” (Harper's Bible dictionary; 1985); “of idols and things pertaining to idolatry” (Strong’s Concordance).
There are many opinions as to what the “abomination that causes desolation” means. It is mentioned in Old Testament and New Testament passages of scripture. Matthew’s gospel states: “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel…”
So, if the “abomination that causes desolation” is standing (holding to a particular attitude, viewpoint or opinion) in the “holy place,” i.e. if it is taking a firm position in our hearts (the hearts of believers in Jesus), and “abomination” is directly related to idolatry, then this is speaking of God’s people, his church, living in idolatry against their holy God, with a refusal to repent, which is what brought destruction to God’s people all throughout Biblical history. The goal of the antichrist is to destroy the church. He will exalt himself over everything that is called God so that he sets himself up in God’s temple. So, if the temple is our hearts and collectively we are the church, then this is speaking of a person or entity of some kind that has taken a position in the church in authority over the authority of God. I can’t speak for other nations, but I do know that, in the USA, most institutional churches are under the authority of the government of the USA, and that authority supersedes God’s authority where God would tell his shepherd’s to speak on an issue that the government would forbid. So, in this sense, the US government has set itself up in the church in the USA in a position of authority that is over the authority of God and is followed over God’s authority.
“With flattery he will corrupt those who have violated the covenant…” The covenant is our covenant relationship with Jesus Christ. We violate that covenant through continued, unrepentant sin, in particular the sin of spiritual adultery and idolatry (being worshipful toward other things or people over or in place of true worship of God). The government of the USA asks us for this kind of worship when they ask us to put our hands over our hearts and pledge allegiance (commitment; faithfulness; fidelity) to the government of our nation, and we do this inside the confines of the institutional church. Yet, this is not confined merely to the government and to their authority, though it is highly possible that they have been behind much of the transition that has taken place within the church over the years.
The institutional church of the 21st Century in America has been taken over (most, if not all) by man’s philosophies, marketing schemes, programs, goals, visions, purpose statements, etc., which are all based off of Marketing 101 classes that we now call “church planting seminars” or “church growth seminars.” Churches are run just like businesses and they use the same techniques, to gain people, as do worldly businesses, which definitely use “flattery” to gain people’s attention and acceptance. The gospel has been watered down in many churches to where it has no resemblance at all to the true gospel of Jesus Christ. The word “sin” has been replaced with “I messed up,” which feels as though it has a lesser offense to it. It is being taught that repentance and obedience to Jesus Christ are not necessary for salvation and that God is pleased with you no matter what you do. These are all deceptions.
“His armed forces will rise up to desecrate the temple fortress and will abolish the daily sacrifice.” What if his armed forces are preachers and teachers in our modern-day churches? And, they are desecrating (insulting and defiling) the temple fortress (our salvation found in the true gospel of Jesus Christ) and are abolishing the daily sacrifice (our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, no longer conformed to the pattern of the world, but transformed by the renewing of our minds)? Remember that Jesus was speaking to his disciples and that the Bible teaches that even the elect could be deceived. Deception is not obvious. It is stealthy, and it comes at us slowly and subtly. That is why we need to watch, to be on our guard, and to be alert, because our enemy is a lion prowling around seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). We need to be in God’s word daily!
Our Awesome God / An Original Work / May 25, 2011
I praise and adore You, Father,
I worship and praise You, Lord.
You are such an awesome God,
Who loves us so much, You implore
Us to follow You each moment
Of the days we have on earth,
So that we might live forever
With You, ‘cause of our new birth.
I praise and adore You, Jesus.
You died on a cruel tree,
So that we might be forgiven
Of our sins; You set us free
To love and obey You only,
While we bow on bended knee,
As we humbly walk before You,
Serving freely; You to please.
I praise and adore You, Spirit,
You came in to live with me.
Jesus sent You to abide
Within us, and our comfort be.
You guide and direct and counsel
Us in all of our God’s ways,
So that we can live for Jesus,
To follow Him all our days.
Song Lyrics @ Public Domain
https://sites.google.com/site/psalmshymnssongs/home/songs/our-awesome-god
Tabitha (Dorcas) was a Christian woman in New Testament times who some presently regard as having had the ministry of a deaconess. She died and Peter was instrumental in raising her from the dead. Jesus healed a woman with a bleeding disorder when he said to her “take heart, daughter, your faith has healed you,” as well as he told a blind man who asked for healing, “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you,” and Jesus healed a paralytic when he said to him, “Get up, take your mat and walk.” So, when Jesus spoke these words to me, it was a combination of the words spoken to a man who was blind, a woman suffering a bleeding disorder, a paralytic who could not walk and a Christian woman and servant of the Lord who had died and whom Peter brought back to life.
I knew the Lord did not heal me for me to just take the rest of the evening off, so I got into the word to hear from the Lord. I read Mark 12 first about the parable of the tenants. And, I took notes on that chapter. But, then the words to the song came back into my mind… “You are such an awesome God who loves us so much, You implore us to follow You each moment of the days we have on earth…” I knew that the passage the Lord would have me read and write about must be related to God imploring us to follow Him each moment of the days we have left on this earth, so I kept reading. The next chapter, Mark 13, fit to the tee the idea of God imploring his children to live for him during the days they have yet remaining on the earth. So, I knew this is where I was to focus my time and attention.
Keep Watch!
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Mark 13 for my quiet time with the Lord. Since this chapter is 37 verses long, I will summarize some of it and quote some. Jesus told his disciples of the coming destruction of the temple. On the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, some of Jesus’ disciples inquired of him privately concerning the signs that these things are about to be fulfilled. Jesus told them of the signs of the end of the age. He began with the words “Watch out that no one deceives you.” At least seven times during this talk the Lord Jesus had with his disciples he used phrases such as “watch out,” “be on your guard,” “be alert,” “keep watch,” etc. Obviously there was much danger that even Jesus’ own disciples could be deceived, so he was warning them ahead of time, which we are also warned about in other passages in the New Testament. So, it is possible for us, as well, to be deceived, which is why it is so imperative that we keep watch and that we are alert.
Jesus told his disciples that there would be many deceivers, some of which would claim to be the promised Messiah of the people. I have found that the deception is greater if the claim is not so obvious but more subtle and comes more stealthily, escaping notice. Many raise themselves up as saviors of the people without literally declaring themselves to be such, but by their words and actions they give off the impression that is what they are claiming, and the greater deception lies there because people are more apt to follow them.
Jesus said there would be wars and rumors of wars; nation against nation; kingdom against kingdom; and earthquakes and famines. He said these were the beginnings of birth pains. He was relating the events of the last days to the pregnancy of a woman and these things being only the beginning of her pains associated with the birth of her child.
He told his disciples that they would be handed over to local councils and flogged in the synagogues. They would stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. “And the gospel must first be preached to all nations.” Family members will betray other family members and even have them put to death. We will be hated because of our faith in Jesus Christ, “but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.” Many of these things, if not all of them, have taken place since Jesus left the earth to go back to heaven. We, in America, have not yet had to face this kind of persecution, but it is coming. The gospel has gone far and wide, but I don’t know if it has reached every nation yet. The phrase, “but he who stands firm to the end will be saved,” is repeated in various forms throughout the New Testament. True faith is faith that endures, continues and overcomes to the end.
The Abomination
Mark 13:14-23: “When you see ‘the abomination that causes desolation’ standing where it does not belong—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 15 Let no one on the roof of his house go down or enter the house to take anything out. 16 Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. 17 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 18 Pray that this will not take place in winter, 19 because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now—and never to be equaled again. 20 If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, whom he has chosen, he has shortened them. 21 At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. 22 For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect—if that were possible. 23 So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time.
Abomination (definition) – “something that is immoral, disgusting, or shameful; an object of intense disapproval or dislike” (Encarta); “refers to foreign gods, their images, or related worship practices; denote improper ways of worshiping God” (Harper's Bible dictionary; 1985); “of idols and things pertaining to idolatry” (Strong’s Concordance).
There are many opinions as to what the “abomination that causes desolation” means. It is mentioned in Old Testament and New Testament passages of scripture. Matthew’s gospel states: “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel…”
Daniel 11:31-32: “His armed forces will rise up to desecrate the temple fortress and will abolish the daily sacrifice. Then they will set up the abomination that causes desolation. With flattery he will corrupt those who have violated the covenant, but the people who know their God will firmly resist him.”
2 Thessalonians 2:3-4: Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.The “holy place” used to be in a physical temple in which God’s Spirit dwelled. And, the temple of God used to be a physical building. Yet, when Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, that curtain that divided the people from direct access to God was torn in two. When Jesus ascended into heaven, he sent His Holy Spirit to indwell his followers, so that now the temple of God lives inside of those who truly put their faith and hope in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord (master) of their lives. And, now the “holy place” is in our hearts. And, we, the people of God, are his temple.
So, if the “abomination that causes desolation” is standing (holding to a particular attitude, viewpoint or opinion) in the “holy place,” i.e. if it is taking a firm position in our hearts (the hearts of believers in Jesus), and “abomination” is directly related to idolatry, then this is speaking of God’s people, his church, living in idolatry against their holy God, with a refusal to repent, which is what brought destruction to God’s people all throughout Biblical history. The goal of the antichrist is to destroy the church. He will exalt himself over everything that is called God so that he sets himself up in God’s temple. So, if the temple is our hearts and collectively we are the church, then this is speaking of a person or entity of some kind that has taken a position in the church in authority over the authority of God. I can’t speak for other nations, but I do know that, in the USA, most institutional churches are under the authority of the government of the USA, and that authority supersedes God’s authority where God would tell his shepherd’s to speak on an issue that the government would forbid. So, in this sense, the US government has set itself up in the church in the USA in a position of authority that is over the authority of God and is followed over God’s authority.
“With flattery he will corrupt those who have violated the covenant…” The covenant is our covenant relationship with Jesus Christ. We violate that covenant through continued, unrepentant sin, in particular the sin of spiritual adultery and idolatry (being worshipful toward other things or people over or in place of true worship of God). The government of the USA asks us for this kind of worship when they ask us to put our hands over our hearts and pledge allegiance (commitment; faithfulness; fidelity) to the government of our nation, and we do this inside the confines of the institutional church. Yet, this is not confined merely to the government and to their authority, though it is highly possible that they have been behind much of the transition that has taken place within the church over the years.
The institutional church of the 21st Century in America has been taken over (most, if not all) by man’s philosophies, marketing schemes, programs, goals, visions, purpose statements, etc., which are all based off of Marketing 101 classes that we now call “church planting seminars” or “church growth seminars.” Churches are run just like businesses and they use the same techniques, to gain people, as do worldly businesses, which definitely use “flattery” to gain people’s attention and acceptance. The gospel has been watered down in many churches to where it has no resemblance at all to the true gospel of Jesus Christ. The word “sin” has been replaced with “I messed up,” which feels as though it has a lesser offense to it. It is being taught that repentance and obedience to Jesus Christ are not necessary for salvation and that God is pleased with you no matter what you do. These are all deceptions.
“His armed forces will rise up to desecrate the temple fortress and will abolish the daily sacrifice.” What if his armed forces are preachers and teachers in our modern-day churches? And, they are desecrating (insulting and defiling) the temple fortress (our salvation found in the true gospel of Jesus Christ) and are abolishing the daily sacrifice (our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, no longer conformed to the pattern of the world, but transformed by the renewing of our minds)? Remember that Jesus was speaking to his disciples and that the Bible teaches that even the elect could be deceived. Deception is not obvious. It is stealthy, and it comes at us slowly and subtly. That is why we need to watch, to be on our guard, and to be alert, because our enemy is a lion prowling around seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). We need to be in God’s word daily!
Mark 13:35-37: “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. 36 If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. 37 What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”Don’t let him find you spiritually asleep because you have fallen into deception. Daniel 11:32b: “…but the people who know their God will firmly resist him.” Be alert! Keep watch! Be on your guard! Ask the Lord for much discernment so that you are not deceived. Allow him to bring healing to your lives and to bring you back from the dead. Repent of your sins today, and turn to walk with Jesus Christ in faith and obedience and your faith will heal you.
Our Awesome God / An Original Work / May 25, 2011
I praise and adore You, Father,
I worship and praise You, Lord.
You are such an awesome God,
Who loves us so much, You implore
Us to follow You each moment
Of the days we have on earth,
So that we might live forever
With You, ‘cause of our new birth.
I praise and adore You, Jesus.
You died on a cruel tree,
So that we might be forgiven
Of our sins; You set us free
To love and obey You only,
While we bow on bended knee,
As we humbly walk before You,
Serving freely; You to please.
I praise and adore You, Spirit,
You came in to live with me.
Jesus sent You to abide
Within us, and our comfort be.
You guide and direct and counsel
Us in all of our God’s ways,
So that we can live for Jesus,
To follow Him all our days.
Song Lyrics @ Public Domain
https://sites.google.com/site/psalmshymnssongs/home/songs/our-awesome-god
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
The Train is Coming
Tuesday, July 19, 2011, 6:57 a.m. – When I woke this morning, the title to the last song the Lord gave me to write was in my mind, i.e. “The Train.” I prayed, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening, and then I read Mark 10-11. This passage stood out to me today:
Mark 11:12-21:
My Understanding: The other day, my husband and I were praying concerning our need of a local body of believers with whom to meet on a regular basis for the teaching of the word, for fellowship, for the breaking of bread and for prayer, as well as for the exercising of spiritual gifts, and for the purpose of being a functioning body of believers as our Lord intended (See Acts 2:42-47; 4:32-35; Romans 12:1-8; I Corinthians 12; and Ephesians 4:1-16). When my husband began to pray, he said he heard the sound of a train. It immediately brought to his memory a particular local institutional church where we had visited for a while, and that triggered in his memory, and in mine, other institutional churches where we had previously attended. We talked about those particular local congregations together, as we were examining, in our minds and hearts, before God, where we had been previously and what message the Lord might have for us by the image he gave my husband of a train.
The evening prior to this, the Lord had given me a tune. I recorded the tune. I struggled with finding the right chords to go with the tune and even with the tune itself, but it finally came together. Then, I sat down to hear from the Lord concerning what lyrics he had for the song. He was silent. So, I went to bed with no lyrics for the tune, trusting that he would give them to me when the time was right. The next morning, my husband and I had the discussion together about the meaning of the train. Later in the day, after my husband and I had this discussion about the image of a train in relation to previous churches we had attended, I was praying, again, concerning lyrics to this tune, when I heard clearly in my mind, “The Train.” So, that evening, while my husband was busy with something else, I sat down and prayerfully inquired of the Lord concerning lyrics to this tune. Then, he gave me the words to “The Train,” which is about much of today’s institutional church.
The image the Lord was giving me of the train was that it was being powered by man and man’s teachings, marketing schemes, philosophies, etc., instead of by the word of God. The cars represented individual institutional church congregations. They were all interconnected, intrinsically linked together, and were all together on a set of tracks following the same engine car powered by man. A train presents a very interesting illustration, because if the Lord had shown us a caravan of automobiles, it would be completely different. If you are in a caravan of autos and are traveling a road, following a lead car, you can turn off in another direction and you can easily leave the caravan, plus you are the one in control and your auto is individually operated. Train cars, though, do not have their own engines, they do not have their own steering mechanisms, and they are linked securely together and are on railroad tracks with no way of escape. They are all powered by the same exact engine, and it is not God. And, they are all headed in the same direction, which is to judgment of God.
That brings me to today’s passage of scripture. The fig tree was illustrative of Israel. Today, true Israel is comprised of true believers in Jesus Christ. We are God’s chosen people, a holy priesthood of believers, set apart to God and to his service. The fig tree should have at least had buds on it, indicating that figs would come in season, but it only had leaves. This was a picture of God’s people without any evidence of fruit or even of the possibility of fruit. From a distance, the tree had the appearance of being a fig tree that would bear fruit, but on close examination, it was obvious that fruit was not going to come from this tree, so Jesus said to the tree that it would never bear fruit again. This was symbolic of the coming judgment on the nation of Israel for their stubborn and rebellious hearts in refusing to listen to and obey God and to recognize Jesus as their promised Messiah. And, this is also a picture of much of today’s institutional church, which has the appearance of being religious and of doing all the right things, but many are not truly bearing fruit in keeping with repentance, but are cars in this train, all linked together, and all following the same man-powered engine. And, their destiny is judgment, because they are followers of man instead of followers of God.
Jesus entered the temple area and saw that they had turned it into a marketplace. Today, the temple of the Lord is in the hearts of true believers in Jesus Christ. Collectively, we are called the church. The true church, in reality, is not an institution of man, it is not a denomination, it is not a building, and it is not a corporation under the government of the USA or of any country. The sanctuary of God is not in a building. A building, called a church, is not the house of God. We do not enter the Lord’s house when we enter a building. The Lord’s house is in the hearts of those who truly believe. We are the temple of God.
So, when we, the people of God, meet together, we are meeting together as the church. So, when men turn those meetings, gatherings, fellowships, etc. into big business, elaborate buildings and programs of men, marketing schemes of men, et al, in order to attract the world to the church, and/or to provide a Christian form of entertainment, they are doing the same things as these cattlemen and moneychangers were doing in the temple area. God’s church is for the purpose of prayer, true Christian fellowship in the Lord, the breaking of bread in communion and fellowship, and for the teaching of the word of God, as well as it is to be a functioning body as Christ intended. Instead, much of what we call church today has little resemblance to the church in the book of Acts or that is spoken of in Romans 12, I Corinthians 12, as well as in Ephesians 4.
We, as the Lord’s church, need to get disconnected from these other cars and from following a man-powered engine and from captivity to this train on these tracks, which is heading to judgment, and we need to learn what church really is about and to be the church as God intended us to be. We need to be in God’s word daily, listening to Jesus at his feet, obeying what he teaches us, following his teachings, learning what it means to be the body of Christ, and then we need to meet with other believers in Jesus Christ in the way in which God intended for us to meet and to function, not as a business, not following man, but under the power and control of the Holy Spirit of God allowing him to lead, guide, counsel and direct us in the way we should go. It won’t be popular. People may not like us because we are not on the train, yet we will be at peace with God and we will function as his body in the way he intended his body to function. May we all hear from the Lord in this matter today.
The Train / An Original Work / July 17, 2011
The train is coming down the tracks.
It captures all who in faith lack.
The engine is controlled by man;
Leads each captive to ruin.
The cars, they are God’s holy church,
Which follows men who are on the search
To trap the church in their own snare;
For Christ they do not care.
The track, it leads to God’s judgment
For those who are not repentant,
But follow, each his own stubborn way,
And Jesus they do not obey.
So God is calling to His bride
To turn from sin and in Christ abide;
Stop placing their trust solely in man;
Trust Christ for His forgiveness.
Song Lyrics @ Public Domain
Link to the Song
Mark 11:12-21:
Jesus Clears the Temple
12 The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. 14 Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.
15 On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, 16 and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17 And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written:
“‘My house will be called
a house of prayer for all nations’?
But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”
18 The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.
19 When evening came, they went out of the city.
The Withered Fig Tree
20 In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. 21 Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”
My Understanding: The other day, my husband and I were praying concerning our need of a local body of believers with whom to meet on a regular basis for the teaching of the word, for fellowship, for the breaking of bread and for prayer, as well as for the exercising of spiritual gifts, and for the purpose of being a functioning body of believers as our Lord intended (See Acts 2:42-47; 4:32-35; Romans 12:1-8; I Corinthians 12; and Ephesians 4:1-16). When my husband began to pray, he said he heard the sound of a train. It immediately brought to his memory a particular local institutional church where we had visited for a while, and that triggered in his memory, and in mine, other institutional churches where we had previously attended. We talked about those particular local congregations together, as we were examining, in our minds and hearts, before God, where we had been previously and what message the Lord might have for us by the image he gave my husband of a train.
The evening prior to this, the Lord had given me a tune. I recorded the tune. I struggled with finding the right chords to go with the tune and even with the tune itself, but it finally came together. Then, I sat down to hear from the Lord concerning what lyrics he had for the song. He was silent. So, I went to bed with no lyrics for the tune, trusting that he would give them to me when the time was right. The next morning, my husband and I had the discussion together about the meaning of the train. Later in the day, after my husband and I had this discussion about the image of a train in relation to previous churches we had attended, I was praying, again, concerning lyrics to this tune, when I heard clearly in my mind, “The Train.” So, that evening, while my husband was busy with something else, I sat down and prayerfully inquired of the Lord concerning lyrics to this tune. Then, he gave me the words to “The Train,” which is about much of today’s institutional church.
The image the Lord was giving me of the train was that it was being powered by man and man’s teachings, marketing schemes, philosophies, etc., instead of by the word of God. The cars represented individual institutional church congregations. They were all interconnected, intrinsically linked together, and were all together on a set of tracks following the same engine car powered by man. A train presents a very interesting illustration, because if the Lord had shown us a caravan of automobiles, it would be completely different. If you are in a caravan of autos and are traveling a road, following a lead car, you can turn off in another direction and you can easily leave the caravan, plus you are the one in control and your auto is individually operated. Train cars, though, do not have their own engines, they do not have their own steering mechanisms, and they are linked securely together and are on railroad tracks with no way of escape. They are all powered by the same exact engine, and it is not God. And, they are all headed in the same direction, which is to judgment of God.
That brings me to today’s passage of scripture. The fig tree was illustrative of Israel. Today, true Israel is comprised of true believers in Jesus Christ. We are God’s chosen people, a holy priesthood of believers, set apart to God and to his service. The fig tree should have at least had buds on it, indicating that figs would come in season, but it only had leaves. This was a picture of God’s people without any evidence of fruit or even of the possibility of fruit. From a distance, the tree had the appearance of being a fig tree that would bear fruit, but on close examination, it was obvious that fruit was not going to come from this tree, so Jesus said to the tree that it would never bear fruit again. This was symbolic of the coming judgment on the nation of Israel for their stubborn and rebellious hearts in refusing to listen to and obey God and to recognize Jesus as their promised Messiah. And, this is also a picture of much of today’s institutional church, which has the appearance of being religious and of doing all the right things, but many are not truly bearing fruit in keeping with repentance, but are cars in this train, all linked together, and all following the same man-powered engine. And, their destiny is judgment, because they are followers of man instead of followers of God.
Jesus entered the temple area and saw that they had turned it into a marketplace. Today, the temple of the Lord is in the hearts of true believers in Jesus Christ. Collectively, we are called the church. The true church, in reality, is not an institution of man, it is not a denomination, it is not a building, and it is not a corporation under the government of the USA or of any country. The sanctuary of God is not in a building. A building, called a church, is not the house of God. We do not enter the Lord’s house when we enter a building. The Lord’s house is in the hearts of those who truly believe. We are the temple of God.
So, when we, the people of God, meet together, we are meeting together as the church. So, when men turn those meetings, gatherings, fellowships, etc. into big business, elaborate buildings and programs of men, marketing schemes of men, et al, in order to attract the world to the church, and/or to provide a Christian form of entertainment, they are doing the same things as these cattlemen and moneychangers were doing in the temple area. God’s church is for the purpose of prayer, true Christian fellowship in the Lord, the breaking of bread in communion and fellowship, and for the teaching of the word of God, as well as it is to be a functioning body as Christ intended. Instead, much of what we call church today has little resemblance to the church in the book of Acts or that is spoken of in Romans 12, I Corinthians 12, as well as in Ephesians 4.
We, as the Lord’s church, need to get disconnected from these other cars and from following a man-powered engine and from captivity to this train on these tracks, which is heading to judgment, and we need to learn what church really is about and to be the church as God intended us to be. We need to be in God’s word daily, listening to Jesus at his feet, obeying what he teaches us, following his teachings, learning what it means to be the body of Christ, and then we need to meet with other believers in Jesus Christ in the way in which God intended for us to meet and to function, not as a business, not following man, but under the power and control of the Holy Spirit of God allowing him to lead, guide, counsel and direct us in the way we should go. It won’t be popular. People may not like us because we are not on the train, yet we will be at peace with God and we will function as his body in the way he intended his body to function. May we all hear from the Lord in this matter today.
The Train / An Original Work / July 17, 2011
The train is coming down the tracks.
It captures all who in faith lack.
The engine is controlled by man;
Leads each captive to ruin.
The cars, they are God’s holy church,
Which follows men who are on the search
To trap the church in their own snare;
For Christ they do not care.
The track, it leads to God’s judgment
For those who are not repentant,
But follow, each his own stubborn way,
And Jesus they do not obey.
So God is calling to His bride
To turn from sin and in Christ abide;
Stop placing their trust solely in man;
Trust Christ for His forgiveness.
Song Lyrics @ Public Domain
Link to the Song
He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:
“‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
7 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are but rules taught by men.’
8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men” (Mark 7:6-8).
Monday, July 18, 2011
O Unbelieving Generation
Monday, July 18, 2011, 6:11 a.m. – The old song, “There’s a New Song in My Heart,” by John W. Peterson, was playing in my mind when I awoke this morning. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Mark 9:14-32:
My Understanding: Most of us have not had to deal with being demon possessed to where a demonic spirit threw us into convulsions and we had no control over our own bodies, and subsequently we were in great need of a miracle of deliverance. So, we may not identify with this boy or with his deliverance. Yet, the Bible tells us that we are born into sin and if we are not serving the One true God, we are serving Satan, sin is our master, and we are its slaves. A slave is one who is dominated, controlled and ruled by another. And, a master is one who controls or influences, has authority over and has ownership of his slaves. So, as sinners outside of God’s saving grace, we are just as much in need of God’s healing touch of deliverance from the control of Satan over our lives as this boy who was demon possessed.
The father of the boy brought him to Jesus. He said to Jesus, “If you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” Jesus responded by saying, “If you can? Everything is possible for him who believes.” And, that is true of what it takes for us to be delivered from bondage (as a slave) to sin and from the control sin (our master) has over our lives, in the flesh nature. Not one of us is too bad to be saved or is beyond hope of salvation. We are all sinners. There is not one of us who is righteous in our own merit. And, we are all in need of God’s amazing grace in delivering us from slavery to sin and in setting us free to live for God.
Jesus had the authority to command this spirit to come out of the boy, because he was/is God and because he was speaking under the authority of Almighty God, who alone has the power to deliver from the evil one. Jesus also had the authority to take away our sins because he was/is God, because he became a man and suffered as we suffer and was tempted as we are tempted, yet without sin, and because he was our perfect Lamb who died on the cross, taking upon himself all our sins, crucifying and burying them with him, and then because he rose from the dead, triumphing over our sins so we could go free.
When the evil spirit came out of the boy, the boy looked like he was dead. But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and the boy stood up. When we come to Jesus Christ and by his grace he sets us free from our sin, we die to our old way of life and we leave our sins behind. Then Jesus raises us to a new life in Christ where we are no longer controlled and ruled by sin, but where the Spirit of God now lives within us and has rule and dominion over our lives; to where we now obey God instead of obeying sin (see Romans 6).
The unbelieving generation Jesus was referring to in this passage of scripture were those in the crowd, but in particular his disciples. He was chiding them for their lack of faith in God’s power to deliver from the evil one and for their spiritual slowness. Yet, “unbelieving generation” is a phrase that can be applied to our day and time and to those who lack faith in God to believe that he can deliver from bondage to sin and to believe that he can truly set someone free, transforming that person into a completely new individual. When we believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and we truly believe that he has set us free from sin, then it should be evidenced by how we live our lives.
If we continue to live in sin and to be controlled by sin after we have made a confession of Christ as Savior, then the question begs to be asked, “Did we really believe?” The disciples could not cast out that demon because they lacked the faith to believe the demon could come out of the boy. When we say we believe and yet we continue to be controlled by sin, we also are lacking in faith to believe that Jesus Christ can truly set us free from the control that sin has over our lives. Thus, we need to repent of our sin, we need to turn away from it, and we need to turn toward our Lord Jesus and to walk in faith and obedience to Almighty God. This is what it means to truly believe in Jesus Christ with the kind of faith that delivers from sin. If we do not have that kind of faith, then we are among the unbelieving generation Jesus is speaking about who need to understand what it means to believe, and to know and understand that God has the power to transform lives.
The father of the boy said, “I believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” I like that. I have, at times, prayed that prayer to God. It is an honest prayer. And, it speaks volumes about this man’s faith to believe in what God could do to deliver his son from this evil spirit. He recognized that he had limited faith. The Bible says that faith comes by hearing the message of the gospel, and the message is heard through the word of Christ (see Romans 10:17). This man probably had limited knowledge and understanding of Jesus and maybe had only heard about him by word of mouth, so limited knowledge of the word of Christ possibly contributed to his diminished faith, yet he acted upon the faith he had and he asked the Lord Jesus to increase his faith, so that was true faith in action.
I think we often get this idea of faith as something where we acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God, that he died on the cross for our sins, that we are sinners in need of a Savior, and that he died for our sins and thus has the power to free us from the ultimate penalty of sin, which is eternal separation from God and eternal torment in hell. Yet, faith means putting everything on the line for God. We may not come to Christ with enormous knowledge, but if we come to him with child-like faith that says, “I believe; help me overcome my unbelief,” that is genuine believing faith, because it completely puts our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to change our hearts, minds, way of thinking, behavior, actions, etc. It invites Jesus Christ to move us in a new direction with our lives and expresses a desire to no longer walk in the unbelief we had previously been living under. That is what it means to repent and that is what it means to have believing faith; obedient faith that submits to our Lord and that surrenders our wills to him, and that puts a new song in our hearts.
There’s a New Song in My Heart / John W. Peterson
There’s a new song in my heart
Since the Savior set me free;
There’s a new song in my heart,
‘tis a heavenly harmony!
All my sins are washed away
by the blood of Calvary;
O what peace and joy nothing can destroy:
There’s a new song in my heart!
The Healing of a Boy With an Evil Spirit
14 When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them. 15 As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him.
16 “What are you arguing with them about?” he asked.
17 A man in the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. 18 Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.”
19 “O unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”
20 So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.
21 Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?”
“From childhood,” he answered. 22 “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”
23 “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for him who believes.”
24 Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
25 When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the evil spirit. “You deaf and mute spirit,” he said, “I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.”
26 The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, “He’s dead.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up.
28 After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”
29 He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer.”
30 They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, 31 because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” 32 But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.
My Understanding: Most of us have not had to deal with being demon possessed to where a demonic spirit threw us into convulsions and we had no control over our own bodies, and subsequently we were in great need of a miracle of deliverance. So, we may not identify with this boy or with his deliverance. Yet, the Bible tells us that we are born into sin and if we are not serving the One true God, we are serving Satan, sin is our master, and we are its slaves. A slave is one who is dominated, controlled and ruled by another. And, a master is one who controls or influences, has authority over and has ownership of his slaves. So, as sinners outside of God’s saving grace, we are just as much in need of God’s healing touch of deliverance from the control of Satan over our lives as this boy who was demon possessed.
The father of the boy brought him to Jesus. He said to Jesus, “If you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” Jesus responded by saying, “If you can? Everything is possible for him who believes.” And, that is true of what it takes for us to be delivered from bondage (as a slave) to sin and from the control sin (our master) has over our lives, in the flesh nature. Not one of us is too bad to be saved or is beyond hope of salvation. We are all sinners. There is not one of us who is righteous in our own merit. And, we are all in need of God’s amazing grace in delivering us from slavery to sin and in setting us free to live for God.
Jesus had the authority to command this spirit to come out of the boy, because he was/is God and because he was speaking under the authority of Almighty God, who alone has the power to deliver from the evil one. Jesus also had the authority to take away our sins because he was/is God, because he became a man and suffered as we suffer and was tempted as we are tempted, yet without sin, and because he was our perfect Lamb who died on the cross, taking upon himself all our sins, crucifying and burying them with him, and then because he rose from the dead, triumphing over our sins so we could go free.
When the evil spirit came out of the boy, the boy looked like he was dead. But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and the boy stood up. When we come to Jesus Christ and by his grace he sets us free from our sin, we die to our old way of life and we leave our sins behind. Then Jesus raises us to a new life in Christ where we are no longer controlled and ruled by sin, but where the Spirit of God now lives within us and has rule and dominion over our lives; to where we now obey God instead of obeying sin (see Romans 6).
The unbelieving generation Jesus was referring to in this passage of scripture were those in the crowd, but in particular his disciples. He was chiding them for their lack of faith in God’s power to deliver from the evil one and for their spiritual slowness. Yet, “unbelieving generation” is a phrase that can be applied to our day and time and to those who lack faith in God to believe that he can deliver from bondage to sin and to believe that he can truly set someone free, transforming that person into a completely new individual. When we believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and we truly believe that he has set us free from sin, then it should be evidenced by how we live our lives.
If we continue to live in sin and to be controlled by sin after we have made a confession of Christ as Savior, then the question begs to be asked, “Did we really believe?” The disciples could not cast out that demon because they lacked the faith to believe the demon could come out of the boy. When we say we believe and yet we continue to be controlled by sin, we also are lacking in faith to believe that Jesus Christ can truly set us free from the control that sin has over our lives. Thus, we need to repent of our sin, we need to turn away from it, and we need to turn toward our Lord Jesus and to walk in faith and obedience to Almighty God. This is what it means to truly believe in Jesus Christ with the kind of faith that delivers from sin. If we do not have that kind of faith, then we are among the unbelieving generation Jesus is speaking about who need to understand what it means to believe, and to know and understand that God has the power to transform lives.
The father of the boy said, “I believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” I like that. I have, at times, prayed that prayer to God. It is an honest prayer. And, it speaks volumes about this man’s faith to believe in what God could do to deliver his son from this evil spirit. He recognized that he had limited faith. The Bible says that faith comes by hearing the message of the gospel, and the message is heard through the word of Christ (see Romans 10:17). This man probably had limited knowledge and understanding of Jesus and maybe had only heard about him by word of mouth, so limited knowledge of the word of Christ possibly contributed to his diminished faith, yet he acted upon the faith he had and he asked the Lord Jesus to increase his faith, so that was true faith in action.
I think we often get this idea of faith as something where we acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God, that he died on the cross for our sins, that we are sinners in need of a Savior, and that he died for our sins and thus has the power to free us from the ultimate penalty of sin, which is eternal separation from God and eternal torment in hell. Yet, faith means putting everything on the line for God. We may not come to Christ with enormous knowledge, but if we come to him with child-like faith that says, “I believe; help me overcome my unbelief,” that is genuine believing faith, because it completely puts our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to change our hearts, minds, way of thinking, behavior, actions, etc. It invites Jesus Christ to move us in a new direction with our lives and expresses a desire to no longer walk in the unbelief we had previously been living under. That is what it means to repent and that is what it means to have believing faith; obedient faith that submits to our Lord and that surrenders our wills to him, and that puts a new song in our hearts.
There’s a New Song in My Heart / John W. Peterson
There’s a new song in my heart
Since the Savior set me free;
There’s a new song in my heart,
‘tis a heavenly harmony!
All my sins are washed away
by the blood of Calvary;
O what peace and joy nothing can destroy:
There’s a new song in my heart!
Sunday, July 17, 2011
The Train
The Train / An Original Work / July 17, 2011
The train is coming down the tracks.
It captures all who in faith lack.
The engine is controlled by man;
Leads each captive to ruin.
The cars, they are God’s holy church,
Which follows men who are on the search
To trap the church in their own snare;
For Christ they do not care.
The track, it leads to God’s judgment
For those who are not repentant,
But follow, each his own stubborn way,
And Jesus they do not obey.
So God is calling to His bride
To turn from sin and in Christ abide;
Stop placing their trust solely in man;
Trust Christ for His forgiveness.
Song Lyrics @ Public Domain
Link to Song
The train is coming down the tracks.
It captures all who in faith lack.
The engine is controlled by man;
Leads each captive to ruin.
The cars, they are God’s holy church,
Which follows men who are on the search
To trap the church in their own snare;
For Christ they do not care.
The track, it leads to God’s judgment
For those who are not repentant,
But follow, each his own stubborn way,
And Jesus they do not obey.
So God is calling to His bride
To turn from sin and in Christ abide;
Stop placing their trust solely in man;
Trust Christ for His forgiveness.
Song Lyrics @ Public Domain
Link to Song
He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:
“‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
7 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are but rules taught by men.’
8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men” (Mark 7:6-8).
Who is Jesus?
Sunday, July 17, 2011, 7:27 a.m. – The song, “Our Awesome God,” was playing in my mind, again, when I woke this morning. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Mark 8:27-38:
I believe the same is true of us today. I believe it is very important that, if we are going to be Jesus’ true disciples, we have a clear understanding of who Jesus really is. “Oh,” you might say, “I know who he is. He is the Son of God, the promised Messiah, our Lord and Savior who died on the cross for our sins so that we could live eternally with God in heaven.” That is most certainly true, yet he is so much more than that.
He is not only the Son of God, but he is God the Son, i.e. he is the second person of our triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is the creator of the universe and he holds all things together (see Col. 1:15-23). He is our high priest, so we need no others to speak to God on our behalf, i.e. we need not go to another human priest, or pray to any other gods, nor pray to people who have died before us, because he is our only mediator between us and God the Father. He is our redeemer who bought us back from sin to faith in Jesus Christ so that we could be restored to a right relationship with God the Father, and so we could walk in obedient fellowship with him. He saved us, not only so we could go to heaven one day, but he saved us from bondage to and the control of sin over our lives on a day-to-day basis. As well, he saved us so that we could live to please him and to obey him in all things. One day he is going to judge us and the world, and he will say “I never knew you” to all those who had the notion that nothing was required of them but that Jesus does it all.
Next, Jesus told his disciples that he was going to have to suffer many things. He would be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law. They would kill him, but after three days he would rise again. In other places in the gospels, Jesus warned his disciples that they would face the same kinds of treatment because they were his followers. The whole of the New Testament continually emphasizes the cost of following Jesus Christ, i.e. that when we come to faith in Jesus Christ, we die with him to our old way of life and we are resurrected to a new life in Christ in which Christ now rules our hearts and the old life of sin is done away with. And, we are taught that being in Christ means sharing in the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. So, if we are truly following Jesus Christ with our lives, we have left our old lives of sin behind us, we are living to please God in all things, and we are walking in obedient daily fellowship with him, we will be persecuted and rejected for our relationship with Jesus Christ, even by the religious leaders of our churches today and/or by people in our modern-day congregations.
If we think that being a Christian means that everyone will like us and that we are to live lives pleasing to men so that people see us as “good” or “nice,” and/or that being a good Christian means that people will view us as such, then we need to go back and read through the New Testament and read the life of Jesus and his teachings. Jesus was a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. He was despised and rejected of man. Men hid their faces from him. They mocked him, accused him falsely, thought he was crazy, and even accused him of being of Satan. He said that if this is how he was treated, we, as his followers, will be treated the same. So, if we think being a follower of Christ will not mean rejection, persecution and great suffering for our faith, then we do not have in mind the things of God, just like Peter did not when he rebuked Jesus for telling his disciples all that he must suffer at the hands of the religious of his day. And, if we are not being rejected for our faith, then we need to ask why. Maybe we are not standing out as true followers of Jesus Christ in following him and we are living just like the world, so there is no reason to reject us.
Yet, Jesus taught his disciples what it meant to truly be followers of Jesus Christ. He said that if anyone was to come after him as one of his followers, he must first of all deny himself. To deny (disallow; forbid; prevent) oneself means to stop making ourselves and our interests, desires, wants and needs the objects (goals; motivation) of our lives, actions and decisions. The second requirement for being a follower of Jesus Christ is to take up our cross daily and to follow him. When Jesus made the decision to take up his cross and he carried it to Golgotha, he knew that this meant rejection, persecution, beatings, mocking, abandonment, betrayal, false accusations, and that a horrible death awaited him. Although he was God and he could have stopped it all, he submitted himself to the cross to die in our place so that we could go free. So, he denied his rights, as God, and he took upon himself the place of a servant because he loves us so very much. So, taking up our cross daily means daily dying to our own selfish desires, to sin, to what we want out of life, and to humbly submit (surrender) ourselves to God’s will and direction for our lives in all things.
Jesus said that if we want to save our human lives, i.e. our fleshly and worldly desires and our own selfish wills for our lives to live as we please and to do what pleases us without regard for or inquiry of God as to what he wants and desires of us, then we will lose our lives for eternity. Yet, if we choose to deny ourselves and to take up our cross daily and to truly follow the Lord Jesus Christ in living to please him and to obey him, leaving our lives of sin behind us, then we will be saved for eternity.
We cannot live our lives for the goal of gaining the world and the world’s approval of us and possessing the things of this world to satisfy the longings of our hearts, because if we do, we will forfeit our souls. As well, if we are ashamed of Christ and our relationship with him, i.e. we tell our friends and family members about all the worldly things going on in our lives – about our possessions, achievements, or the pleasures this world has to offer us in the world of entertainment, education, etc. – and yet we fail to tell them about Jesus Christ and what he means in our lives, because we are more concerned about fitting into and pleasing this “adulterous and sinful generation” in which we now live rather than with following after and living lives pleasing to Christ, then we will have no part of God’s eternal kingdom. We need to know and to understand this so that one day we don’t hear, “I never knew you.”
Our Awesome God / An Original Work / May 25, 2011
I praise and adore You, Father,
I worship and praise You, Lord.
You are such an awesome God,
Who loves us so much, You implore
Us to follow You each moment
Of the days we have on earth,
So that we might live forever
With You, ‘cause of our new birth.
I praise and adore You, Jesus.
You died on a cruel tree,
So that we might be forgiven
Of our sins; You set us free
To love and obey You only,
While we bow on bended knee,
As we humbly walk before You,
Serving freely; You to please.
I praise and adore You, Spirit,
You came in to live with me.
Jesus sent You to abide
Within us, and our comfort be.
You guide and direct and counsel
Us in all of our God’s ways,
So that we can live for Jesus,
To follow Him all our days.
Song Lyrics @ Public Domain
Link to Song
Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”My Understanding: The people of Jesus’ day did not recognize Jesus for who he was. In John’s gospel, he recorded that Jesus came into the world, but the world did not recognize him; he came to his own people, but his own people did not accept him as their Messiah and Lord. Yet, it was essential that Jesus’ own disciples realized who he was, especially because of what Jesus was going to tell them next concerning his own death and resurrection, and because of what being followers of Jesus Christ was going to cost them in the future. So, he asked his disciples first of all what everyone else was saying about who he was, and then he asked them who they thought he was, because it was important that they did not think like the world did, but that they had a clear understanding of who they were following.
28 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”
29 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Peter answered, “You are the Christ.”
30 Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.
Jesus Predicts His Death
31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
I believe the same is true of us today. I believe it is very important that, if we are going to be Jesus’ true disciples, we have a clear understanding of who Jesus really is. “Oh,” you might say, “I know who he is. He is the Son of God, the promised Messiah, our Lord and Savior who died on the cross for our sins so that we could live eternally with God in heaven.” That is most certainly true, yet he is so much more than that.
He is not only the Son of God, but he is God the Son, i.e. he is the second person of our triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is the creator of the universe and he holds all things together (see Col. 1:15-23). He is our high priest, so we need no others to speak to God on our behalf, i.e. we need not go to another human priest, or pray to any other gods, nor pray to people who have died before us, because he is our only mediator between us and God the Father. He is our redeemer who bought us back from sin to faith in Jesus Christ so that we could be restored to a right relationship with God the Father, and so we could walk in obedient fellowship with him. He saved us, not only so we could go to heaven one day, but he saved us from bondage to and the control of sin over our lives on a day-to-day basis. As well, he saved us so that we could live to please him and to obey him in all things. One day he is going to judge us and the world, and he will say “I never knew you” to all those who had the notion that nothing was required of them but that Jesus does it all.
Next, Jesus told his disciples that he was going to have to suffer many things. He would be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law. They would kill him, but after three days he would rise again. In other places in the gospels, Jesus warned his disciples that they would face the same kinds of treatment because they were his followers. The whole of the New Testament continually emphasizes the cost of following Jesus Christ, i.e. that when we come to faith in Jesus Christ, we die with him to our old way of life and we are resurrected to a new life in Christ in which Christ now rules our hearts and the old life of sin is done away with. And, we are taught that being in Christ means sharing in the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. So, if we are truly following Jesus Christ with our lives, we have left our old lives of sin behind us, we are living to please God in all things, and we are walking in obedient daily fellowship with him, we will be persecuted and rejected for our relationship with Jesus Christ, even by the religious leaders of our churches today and/or by people in our modern-day congregations.
If we think that being a Christian means that everyone will like us and that we are to live lives pleasing to men so that people see us as “good” or “nice,” and/or that being a good Christian means that people will view us as such, then we need to go back and read through the New Testament and read the life of Jesus and his teachings. Jesus was a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. He was despised and rejected of man. Men hid their faces from him. They mocked him, accused him falsely, thought he was crazy, and even accused him of being of Satan. He said that if this is how he was treated, we, as his followers, will be treated the same. So, if we think being a follower of Christ will not mean rejection, persecution and great suffering for our faith, then we do not have in mind the things of God, just like Peter did not when he rebuked Jesus for telling his disciples all that he must suffer at the hands of the religious of his day. And, if we are not being rejected for our faith, then we need to ask why. Maybe we are not standing out as true followers of Jesus Christ in following him and we are living just like the world, so there is no reason to reject us.
Yet, Jesus taught his disciples what it meant to truly be followers of Jesus Christ. He said that if anyone was to come after him as one of his followers, he must first of all deny himself. To deny (disallow; forbid; prevent) oneself means to stop making ourselves and our interests, desires, wants and needs the objects (goals; motivation) of our lives, actions and decisions. The second requirement for being a follower of Jesus Christ is to take up our cross daily and to follow him. When Jesus made the decision to take up his cross and he carried it to Golgotha, he knew that this meant rejection, persecution, beatings, mocking, abandonment, betrayal, false accusations, and that a horrible death awaited him. Although he was God and he could have stopped it all, he submitted himself to the cross to die in our place so that we could go free. So, he denied his rights, as God, and he took upon himself the place of a servant because he loves us so very much. So, taking up our cross daily means daily dying to our own selfish desires, to sin, to what we want out of life, and to humbly submit (surrender) ourselves to God’s will and direction for our lives in all things.
Jesus said that if we want to save our human lives, i.e. our fleshly and worldly desires and our own selfish wills for our lives to live as we please and to do what pleases us without regard for or inquiry of God as to what he wants and desires of us, then we will lose our lives for eternity. Yet, if we choose to deny ourselves and to take up our cross daily and to truly follow the Lord Jesus Christ in living to please him and to obey him, leaving our lives of sin behind us, then we will be saved for eternity.
We cannot live our lives for the goal of gaining the world and the world’s approval of us and possessing the things of this world to satisfy the longings of our hearts, because if we do, we will forfeit our souls. As well, if we are ashamed of Christ and our relationship with him, i.e. we tell our friends and family members about all the worldly things going on in our lives – about our possessions, achievements, or the pleasures this world has to offer us in the world of entertainment, education, etc. – and yet we fail to tell them about Jesus Christ and what he means in our lives, because we are more concerned about fitting into and pleasing this “adulterous and sinful generation” in which we now live rather than with following after and living lives pleasing to Christ, then we will have no part of God’s eternal kingdom. We need to know and to understand this so that one day we don’t hear, “I never knew you.”
Our Awesome God / An Original Work / May 25, 2011
I praise and adore You, Father,
I worship and praise You, Lord.
You are such an awesome God,
Who loves us so much, You implore
Us to follow You each moment
Of the days we have on earth,
So that we might live forever
With You, ‘cause of our new birth.
I praise and adore You, Jesus.
You died on a cruel tree,
So that we might be forgiven
Of our sins; You set us free
To love and obey You only,
While we bow on bended knee,
As we humbly walk before You,
Serving freely; You to please.
I praise and adore You, Spirit,
You came in to live with me.
Jesus sent You to abide
Within us, and our comfort be.
You guide and direct and counsel
Us in all of our God’s ways,
So that we can live for Jesus,
To follow Him all our days.
Song Lyrics @ Public Domain
Link to Song
Friday, July 15, 2011
A Divided People
Friday, July 15, 2011, 4:44 a.m. – The song, “A People Divided,” was playing in my mind when I awoke this morning. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Mark 7:1-23:
Then, Jesus went on to explain away these empty traditions of men handed down from generation to generation, by explaining what truly makes a man clean or unclean. He said that nothing outside a man can make him unclean by going into him, for what goes into the stomach comes out of the body. Rather, it is what comes out of a man (from his heart) that makes him unclean, such as evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, etc.
The world we live in today, including in the church, is not all that different from what Jesus encountered when he walked this earth. We have leaders and pastors in our churches just like these Pharisees and teachers of the law, and most of them are not in traditional churches, either. The worst offenders, I believe, are those within the circle of the current trend of how to do church in America today, which is based off of books and the teachings of men. They give the impression that they are the real deal, genuine, and authentic, etc., yet as you go from church to church, they are all, pretty much, carbon copies of one another, and are mostly all following the same non-biblical patterns and philosophies based off the teachings of men. And, more often than not, they hold to the teachings of men above and over the teachings of scripture, as many of them are taught to do so in their training. I know, because my husband and I went through such training, and I know, because I have personally witnessed this taking place in churches and among church leaders.
The Pharisees were so concerned with external appearance and following men’s teachings and rules that they neglected the greater things of showing love to their fellow man and obeying God’s commands. In fact, Jesus said that they nullified the word of God by their traditions. Many of these new teachings of men also nullify the word of God and provide the worst offense to the gospel of Jesus Christ when they teach that repentance (turning from sin) and obedience to God and to his commands are not necessary for salvation. Added to that is the teaching that God is pleased with you no matter what you do. They are giving people a false hope of salvation based upon a lie, and they are leaving people in their sins, which is not love. This teaching waters down the gospel and makes the narrow path to heaven on which few travel into a broad road that many travel, because then more people will come to “faith” in Jesus Christ, but what often is being taught is not biblical faith.
These modern-day teachings of men also divide the church, as they follow the concept of grouping people according to the personality of the church, demographics, etc. They use modern-day marketing schemes and techniques for attracting the people of the world to the church, yet they are attracting them by worldly means to worldly methods and worldly programs. If they do this, they are not attracting them to Jesus Christ or to the gospel but to a cleaned-up version of what the world is offering them. And, thus, they often tell parts of the body of Christ, “we have no need of you,” please go someplace else, because they feel those people, although genuine believers in Jesus Christ, don’t fit their particular circle within the body of Christ. I find these words, on this subject, from I Corinthians 12 particularly encouraging:
These same pastors and shepherds of the flock are following the same pattern as the Pharisees and teachers of the law in Jesus’ day when they tempt us to follow them and their teachings in pure and absolute devotion above and often in place of God’s holy word. They become idols to us when they get us to follow them above God and to follow their books above following the word of God and when they use manipulation and threats to get us to submit to them and to their human philosophies, telling us that somehow we are being disunifiers if we do not conform, yet they are the ones dividing the church and pulling away God’s people from pure devotion to Jesus Christ to follow man. The disciples had the correct response to this: “We must obey God rather than man.”
The goal of this new wind of teaching is to divide and to destroy Christ’s church. It may not be the goal of individual pastors, but it is Satan’s goal and I believe that it is the goal of those behind the scenes who initiated all of this new teaching, for it excludes people from the kingdom of God who think they are “in,” and it excludes genuine believers in Jesus Christ from the body because they “don’t fit” a particular human mold that someone decided was necessary for “growing” churches. Yet, that is counterproductive to how the church (the body of Christ) is truly to grow through genuine transformations of the human heart.
Jesus is warning against those who divide the church through stressing men’s teachings over and above the word of God and who call for devotion to men and man-made traditions over and above devotion to our Lord God and service and obedience to him only. He is warning against those who divide the church by telling those within the body “We have no need of you,” and who would forsake the teachings of scripture in order to fulfill the goals of men. He is warning against those who would give out a false gospel in order to achieve the approval of and the following of men to men’s teachings and by doing so offer religious Band-Aids to people for the serious wounds of men’s sins which are festering and are in need of God’s divine grace and transformation of the human heart. He is warning against those who care more about outward appearance than they care about what is in the human heart and in helping people to be free from their sins and free to obey God. And, he is calling out to us, his church, to forsake our man-made idols, to turn from our sins, and to turn or return to him as our One and Only Lord, God and King.
I pray we will heed his warnings and that we will cease following after men and man-made idols that divide us, including following after political parties that even divide the church, and that we will choose to follow him as our only master, doing what he asks us to do.
A People Divided / An Original Work / July 4, 2011
Flick’ring torches; hatred; violence;
Crashing windows; guns of men;
We are a people divided
By our love of pow’r and fame.
Idols marching; they’re in chorus;
Their goal to destroy the church,
Tempting us to follow them in
Pure devotion; them we search.
Leave your idols. Follow your God.
Make Him your Lord God and King.
Be a living witness for Him,
And your off’rings to Him bring.
Repent of your sins and worship
Him; a living sacrifice,
Put your all upon His altar.
Leave your old life way behind.
Flick’ring torches; hatred; violence;
Crashing windows; guns of men;
We are a people divided
By our love of pow’r and fame.
Song Lyrics @ Public Domain
https://sites.google.com/site/psalmshymnssongs/home/songs/a-people-divided
Clean and UncleanMy Understanding: In summary of this passage, the Pharisees and some teachers of the law gathered around Jesus. They saw his disciples eating with unwashed hands. They asked Jesus why his disciples did not live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with unwashed hands. Jesus quoted Isaiah, and applied it to the teachers of the law, by saying they honored God only with their lips but their hearts were far from God; they worshipped God in vain; their teachings were but rules taught by men. He went on to describe them as those who let go of, set aside and nullify the word of God in order to hold on to and serve their own traditions; the traditions of men.
1 The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and 2 saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were “unclean,” that is, unwashed. 3 (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4 When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.)
5 So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with ‘unclean’ hands?”
6 He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:
“‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
7 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are but rules taught by men.’
8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.”
9 And he said to them: “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ 11 But you say that if a man says to his father or mother: ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is Corban’ (that is, a gift devoted to God), 12 then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. 13 Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”
14 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean.’”
17 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18 “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him ‘unclean’? 19 For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods “clean.”)
20 He went on: “What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean.’ 21 For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’”
Then, Jesus went on to explain away these empty traditions of men handed down from generation to generation, by explaining what truly makes a man clean or unclean. He said that nothing outside a man can make him unclean by going into him, for what goes into the stomach comes out of the body. Rather, it is what comes out of a man (from his heart) that makes him unclean, such as evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, etc.
The world we live in today, including in the church, is not all that different from what Jesus encountered when he walked this earth. We have leaders and pastors in our churches just like these Pharisees and teachers of the law, and most of them are not in traditional churches, either. The worst offenders, I believe, are those within the circle of the current trend of how to do church in America today, which is based off of books and the teachings of men. They give the impression that they are the real deal, genuine, and authentic, etc., yet as you go from church to church, they are all, pretty much, carbon copies of one another, and are mostly all following the same non-biblical patterns and philosophies based off the teachings of men. And, more often than not, they hold to the teachings of men above and over the teachings of scripture, as many of them are taught to do so in their training. I know, because my husband and I went through such training, and I know, because I have personally witnessed this taking place in churches and among church leaders.
The Pharisees were so concerned with external appearance and following men’s teachings and rules that they neglected the greater things of showing love to their fellow man and obeying God’s commands. In fact, Jesus said that they nullified the word of God by their traditions. Many of these new teachings of men also nullify the word of God and provide the worst offense to the gospel of Jesus Christ when they teach that repentance (turning from sin) and obedience to God and to his commands are not necessary for salvation. Added to that is the teaching that God is pleased with you no matter what you do. They are giving people a false hope of salvation based upon a lie, and they are leaving people in their sins, which is not love. This teaching waters down the gospel and makes the narrow path to heaven on which few travel into a broad road that many travel, because then more people will come to “faith” in Jesus Christ, but what often is being taught is not biblical faith.
These modern-day teachings of men also divide the church, as they follow the concept of grouping people according to the personality of the church, demographics, etc. They use modern-day marketing schemes and techniques for attracting the people of the world to the church, yet they are attracting them by worldly means to worldly methods and worldly programs. If they do this, they are not attracting them to Jesus Christ or to the gospel but to a cleaned-up version of what the world is offering them. And, thus, they often tell parts of the body of Christ, “we have no need of you,” please go someplace else, because they feel those people, although genuine believers in Jesus Christ, don’t fit their particular circle within the body of Christ. I find these words, on this subject, from I Corinthians 12 particularly encouraging:
But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other (vv24b-25).God’s design for his church is described in I Corinthians 12. We are all one body no matter if we are old, young, plump, skinny, tall, short, black, white, Hispanic, male, female, a factory worker or an executive at a desk in an office, or we are rich or poor, etc. We are not to exclude members of the body of Christ based upon the teachings of men. Yet, many of today’s pastors are being taught to do just that and are told who they should desire to have in their churches and who they are to watch out for and to discourage participation from. And, I have heard on more than one occasion a pastor saying he would be glad to help a person find another church that would be a “better fit.” What better fit is there than for the body of Christ to work together as one unit as God intended and to not say to parts of the body, “We don’t need you because you don’t fit our demographic or our vision for our church”? Ezekiel 34 has some strong words of exhortation for these shepherds of the flock.
These same pastors and shepherds of the flock are following the same pattern as the Pharisees and teachers of the law in Jesus’ day when they tempt us to follow them and their teachings in pure and absolute devotion above and often in place of God’s holy word. They become idols to us when they get us to follow them above God and to follow their books above following the word of God and when they use manipulation and threats to get us to submit to them and to their human philosophies, telling us that somehow we are being disunifiers if we do not conform, yet they are the ones dividing the church and pulling away God’s people from pure devotion to Jesus Christ to follow man. The disciples had the correct response to this: “We must obey God rather than man.”
The goal of this new wind of teaching is to divide and to destroy Christ’s church. It may not be the goal of individual pastors, but it is Satan’s goal and I believe that it is the goal of those behind the scenes who initiated all of this new teaching, for it excludes people from the kingdom of God who think they are “in,” and it excludes genuine believers in Jesus Christ from the body because they “don’t fit” a particular human mold that someone decided was necessary for “growing” churches. Yet, that is counterproductive to how the church (the body of Christ) is truly to grow through genuine transformations of the human heart.
Jesus is warning against those who divide the church through stressing men’s teachings over and above the word of God and who call for devotion to men and man-made traditions over and above devotion to our Lord God and service and obedience to him only. He is warning against those who divide the church by telling those within the body “We have no need of you,” and who would forsake the teachings of scripture in order to fulfill the goals of men. He is warning against those who would give out a false gospel in order to achieve the approval of and the following of men to men’s teachings and by doing so offer religious Band-Aids to people for the serious wounds of men’s sins which are festering and are in need of God’s divine grace and transformation of the human heart. He is warning against those who care more about outward appearance than they care about what is in the human heart and in helping people to be free from their sins and free to obey God. And, he is calling out to us, his church, to forsake our man-made idols, to turn from our sins, and to turn or return to him as our One and Only Lord, God and King.
I pray we will heed his warnings and that we will cease following after men and man-made idols that divide us, including following after political parties that even divide the church, and that we will choose to follow him as our only master, doing what he asks us to do.
A People Divided / An Original Work / July 4, 2011
Flick’ring torches; hatred; violence;
Crashing windows; guns of men;
We are a people divided
By our love of pow’r and fame.
Idols marching; they’re in chorus;
Their goal to destroy the church,
Tempting us to follow them in
Pure devotion; them we search.
Leave your idols. Follow your God.
Make Him your Lord God and King.
Be a living witness for Him,
And your off’rings to Him bring.
Repent of your sins and worship
Him; a living sacrifice,
Put your all upon His altar.
Leave your old life way behind.
Flick’ring torches; hatred; violence;
Crashing windows; guns of men;
We are a people divided
By our love of pow’r and fame.
Song Lyrics @ Public Domain
https://sites.google.com/site/psalmshymnssongs/home/songs/a-people-divided
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