The Most Important Things

This is an excerpt from A.W. Tozer, he passed away in 1963. This makes this insight that much more valuable. It’s at least 40 years old and yet speaks to us today. (emphasis mine)

“Unannounced and largely detected, there has come in modern times a new cross into popular evangelical circles. It is like the old cross; but while likenesses are superficial, the differences are fundamental.

From this new cross has sprung a new philosophy of the Christian life, and from that new philosophy has come a new evangelical technique – a new type of meeting and new kind of preaching. This new evangelism employs the same language as the old, but its content and emphasis differ.

The old cross would have not truck with the world. For Adam’s proud flesh, it meant the end of the journey and carried into effect the sentence imposed by the law of Sinai.

The new cross, in contrast, is not opposed to our flesh. It is a friendly pal, the source of oceans of good, clean and innocent enjoyment. It lets Adam live without interference. His life motivation is unchanged – he still lives for his own pleasure. But now he takes delight in singing worship choruses and watching religious movies instead of singing bawdy songs and drinking hard liquor. The accent is still on enjoyment, though the fun is now on a high plane morally, if not intellectually.

The new cross encourages a new and entirely different evangelical approach. The evangelist does not demand a surrendering of the old life before the new life can be received. He preaches similarities rather than contrasts. He seeks to create more interest in the gospel by showing that Christianity makes no unpleasant demands. His brand of Christianity offers the same things the world does, only on a higher level. Whatever the sin-mad world happens to be clamoring after at the moment is cleverly shown to be the very thing the gospels offers – only the religious version is better.

The new cross does not slay the sinner; it redirects him. It steers him into a cleaner and jollier way of living and saves his self-respect. To the self-assertive it says, ‘Come and assert yourself for Christ.’ To the egotist it says, ‘Come and do your boasting in the Lord.’ To the thrill seeker it says, ‘Come and enjoy the thrills of success through Christ.’”

A.W. Tozer

We must die to ourselves and cling to the old, rugged cross. It is only then that new life can be granted.

Well, we just got back from Brasil last week. What an amazing time that was! We saw hundreds get saved, healed and touched by the power of God. Paige and I (plus interns from 220) left on Sunday and were in the Brasilian state of Paraibo. We were preparing the city for a crusade that was to happen last Friday and Saturday night. Our job during the day was to go house to house and invite people to the crusade. Also, we took the opportunity to pray for people and lead them to Jesus. Many people were hungry to receive prayer!

In the evenings, we went to a number of churches to ignite some fires within them for revival and holiness. Every meeting was dripping with the anointing. A number of people were healed and saved. The altar was full every time we asked for people to come forward. It was a great move of God. The interesting thing about this whole trip, to me, was that in 50 years no new missionary had been to that village!

This led me to think about receiving revelation and rhema from God. Imagine if we had not received any new thing from God for 50 years?! Or, to really go deep, for 400 years (between Malachi and when John the Baptist came on the scene) there was no hearing from God! It’s known as the intertestamental period, it’s also the period when the King James Apocrypha was written. (Which is why those 14 books are not included in the Bible, among many other reasons.) During the time of Samuel, the bible states there was no widespread revelation from God. Revelation/ hearing the voice of God is so important! (It’s also important to make sure what we are hearing is actually FROM God and not other sources. Be advised that much of the “revelation” being spouted today is the result of the natural mind’s thoughts and not from the mind of Christ. If it cannot be easily backed up by scripture feel free to ignore it.)

How often do we take hearing the voice of God for granted? I am not saying that village hadn’t heard from God in 50 yrs. but that there was very little (if any) outside contact to the entire body of Christ. Thank God for His church! Thank God that we have the ability to receive from various ministries and ministers. But thank God most of all that we have the ability to talk directly to Him! Let us make a fresh commitment to not take for granted hearing the voice of God!

Psalm 116:1, 2 “I love the Lord because He hears my voice and my prayer for mercy. Because He bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath!”

I have had these scriptures rumbling about in my spirit for the last month or so. I figured I would share them. They are good ones (as different from “non-good scriptures”

Is. 59:14, 15 – Our courts oppose the righteous, and justice is nowhere to be found. Truth stumbles in the streets, and HONESTY has been OUTLAWED. Yes, truth is gone, and anyone who renounces evil is attacked.

WOW! Sound familiar? Yes. Sounds like the current state of affairs in the world today. In the non-christian world we should always expect this type of “law.” The scary scenario is when this sort of thinking creeps into the Kingdom of God on Earth.

The part that really provoked my spirit is where it says, “honesty has been outlawed.” That’s a dangerous statement. Especially when placed into the context of our ultra-politically correct society. Even more dangerous when you consider that it has creeped into our church language through decades of secular barraging. Ever heard this statement? “We don’t want to hear what you’re against, but what you’re for.” Harmless, right? Makes sense even. But in all honesty. Jesus, God, the Bible, et al talk a lot about what they are against. (And what they are for.)

This kind of honesty is getting very close to being outlawed. In some church circles you can no longer even refer to people as sinners, heathens, gentiles etc. Even though that’s what the bible describes US as. Bible language will never sit well with people living in sin.

Imagine if Paul, in his numerous lists of sins in his epistles, lived today? Would he have watered his list of sins down? I doubt it. Holiness brings authority. Paul simply states what kind of people do not inherit the Kingdom of God. If Paul lived today, he would most assuredly be on the list of “preachers who preach hellfire messages.” Why? Because he spoke honestly.

Now, somewhere out there, someone is thinking how judgmental?! That person is wrong for thinking that way. That person is the same person who wants to outlaw honesty and let truth continue to stumble through our streets getting mugged and beaten by hypocrisy and lies.

Anyone who renounces evil is attacked! A healthy reminder that the world must come up to the standard set by God, through His divine enablement of the HOLY Spirit. Speak the truth in love. And the truth is: we are all sinners. We all need Jesus to save us. And we all need to live holy lives.

p.s. Jamie is awesome.

In the last post I brought up the question of who is church for? I asked the question is church for believers or unbelievers. In this blog, I would like to re-ask that question from a different view point. Who is church for, Jesus or the world?

According to a number of scriptures in the bible (OT and NT), God refers to His people as…well HIS! In the Old Testament we find numerous occasions where God calls His chosen people back to Him. He pleads with them to repent and stop mixing themselves with the world’s religions and systems. His heart for them is unending. And His desire for them is to be holy as He is holy. This theme continues in the New Testament. Jesus comes on the scene preaching about a bride and a bridegroom. He consistently uses this type of imagery over and over again in the Gospels. He talks about the bridegroom being taken away, the bridegroom celebrating and the bridegroom returning . You cannot have a bridegroom without a bride. Who is the bride that Jesus desires to return to? The church, His people.

Who is church for? It’s for Jesus. It is the pure, spotless bride of Christ as Paul reveals in Eph. 5. She, the church, is supposed to be undefiled and without wrinkle. She is supposed to be a radiant, beautiful bride. The desire of all nations. She is supposed to be holy and pure saving herself for the bridegroom.

Problem. She is not. She is being presented to other bridegrooms. She is being prostituted out to the world system. Any time we present the church, the bride of Christ, to the world we dishonor the bridegroom. It seems in many of our churches we are more content to look good in the eyes of the world, than in the eyes of God. Every time we present our bride (which is really ourselves) to the false bridegrooms of fame, cultural relevance, compromise, tolerance, etc. we slap Jesus in the face and say, “you’re not the perfect bridegroom”.

How do we know when Jesus is pleased with His bride? I believe He shows His great pleasure in to His bride through miracles, His glorious presence and supernatural, unstoppable growth. Does that typify our modern, western-style churches? Not really, as in, no. In fact, most of our services have all but eliminated any room for the Holy Spirit to move and are now catered to other bridegrooms, namely the unsaved. Many churches now play secular music, show movies that aren’t godly and “give talks” that don’t go anywhere near Golgotha (aka the Cross). Any wonder why Jesus doesn’t want to show up?

Imagine, for a second, you are a groom on your way to your own wedding. When you get there, all the music, all the colors, all the decor that you and your bride had picked out; was changed by the bridal party in an effort to “draw more people in”. Would you stay for your own ceremony? All that investment you made into your own wedding was changed by the people you chose to help maintain your wedding celebration. That would be horrific.

Who is church for? Who are we presenting the bride to? If it’s the world, then no wonder God has decided not to come to the party. But if we are truly presenting the church to God, then we must begin to iron out the wrinkles, spot-clean the stains and sanctify ourselves. Make no mistake, Jesus is coming back. And He is coming back for a spotless, unblemished bride. Can that be said of you and your church? Could you be accused of turning the bride of Christ’s interest onto false bridegrooms?

If so, repent there’s still time. And there’s still time to prepare the Glorious Bride of Christ for the arrival of the Bridegroom! Let us trim our wicks, fill our lanterns with oil and arise a Glorious, wise virgin. Arise Church!

“Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet Him!” Mt. 25:6

I have been wrestling with modern ideas of the church as of late. Questions have been circling in my spirit about all the things taking place on a national level, or more specifically, a western church level. While I can see and recognize a great deal of good coming about. There are also many things that just aren’t sitting right. I won’t tackle all of them in this particular blog, but I do want to convey a revelation on the church.

For me, one of the biggest questions hitting me week in and week out is this: who is church for? This seems like a dumb question on the surface. But this will be one of the premier definitions of our era. Is church for the unsaved? (or whatever your term for them is) Or is church for the believer? This is the question that gets me. Let me first define what I mean by church, I should say I am specifically talking about “Sunday Morning”. Is Sunday morning for the unsaved, the saved, or both? The reason this is such a big question to me is that shapes the way we craft messages, view the work of the Holy Spirit, relate to others etc. It opens up a huge can of worms. It will define what we call church to an entire generation.

For example, if Sunday is for the unsaved, why do I the believer go? Do I go to tithe? I can do that online any day of the week. Do I go for fellowship? I can go to one of the numerous groups that meet throughout the week. Do I go to hear the preaching of the word? I can go online to watch a streaming service live; even better I can watch some of the nation’s best preachers. So, if Sunday is exclusively for the unbeliever why should a believer go? Especially when I can get all of my “fellowship” via these other sources? There are countless churches taking this approach to Sunday. Sunday becomes a drawing tool and the main source of outreach.

Well, maybe Sunday is for the believer. Paul tells us that the 5-fold ministers are for the equipping of the saints. So, Sunday is the day for equipping believers to reach people all week long. Besides, will unbelievers really understand worship? (Ezek. 44 talks about not allowing “foreigners” into the temple to worship because they have not surrendered to the Lord) Will an unbeliever fully understand tithing or offering? They also may not be prepared to hear the word of the Lord. This all makes sense to me. Sunday is for believers it allows us to minister freely by the power of the Spirit and not be constrained by time, because we’re here to worship and connect with God. There are countless churches who minister this way and, simply out of principle, throw in a salvation altar call at the end of the sermon just to cover all the bases.

The question then arises, where do people get saved? (If not Sunday morning) Or where do I bring my friends to meet Jesus? Or the question can also be raised, why does there have to be a distinction? Can’t we have both and all of us get along? No. Anytime there are multiple visions for anything it creates division. Anytime there is division or “double-mindedness” it creates instability, confusion and a lack of God’s blessing. (Read James 1) So, there must be an answer.

My conclusion, “church” (or the Sunday service) was originally intended for the believer. It was meant to equip, impart and prepare the NT believers to reach out during the rest of the week. When you couple this with daily ministering to the unsaved through home groups and public preaching by the apostolic team; it made for a dynamic explosion of growth. I think this model is fairly well outlined in the book of Acts and in the Pauline Epistles. Salvation and discipleship should take place in smaller more definitive settings. Settings, where true relationships are formed. If someone gets saved in a home group they are more likely to stick around and grow vs. someone who said a prayer at an altar. Why? Relationship. They are in a setting that is all about relationship. They are with people they trust and who will keep them accountable to their new decision. This is why babies aren’t handed off by anonymous storks, but are born into families. The mother and father are to take responsibility to raise and nurture the child to full maturity.

So, what do you think?

On every website, on every cell phone, on every computer and just about everything we encounter nowadays there is a subtle hidden feature. It’s the “my preferences” feature. On your laptop you can adjust everything from icons to screen saver to background image. The same goes for your cell phones as well. The same also applies to your favorite homepage on the internet. What’s wrong with that, you ask? Well, nothing really. Except that it does cause a reinforcement of one thing: self-centeredness. It’s subtle. You are always being asked, how do YOU want it? Whether “IT” is a cheeseburger or a computer or a ringtone. What is your preference?

The more things we prefer, the more we have to have it our way. The more things we have our way, the more self centered life becomes. Self-centeredness is the essence of sin. Jesus was constantly emptying Himself of His privileges (Phil. 2). Jesus gave up many rights that we, in our modern times, have no (or very little) concept of. For example, here are some rights Jesus gave up.

He gave up the right to:

eat (Mt. 4:1,2; 6:25),
sleep (Luke 6:12, 22:40-46; Mt. 14:13)
have privacy (Mark 8:2, Jn. 19:23)
have a home (Mt. 8:20, Jn. 14:1-8)
have an honorable reputation (according to the world) (Phil. 2:7, Gal. 3:13, Is. 53:3)
live (Phil. 2:8, Mt. 27:50, Is. 53:7,8)

Those are all “god-given” rights we have as Americans. Yet, in direct contrast, Jesus gave up ALL of those rights so that he could rescue our souls from eternal damnation. I think as Christians we need to start laying down our sense of entitlement. NOBODY OWES YOU ANYTHING. We all know what we really deserve, save for divine Grace. The next time you are demanding a “right”, think twice. It’s really time we stopped looking like the world, who demands entitlement, and it is time we began to trust in God to take care of our needs.

“After all these things, the gentiles seek. But you. You seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and then all these things will be added to you.” (paraphrase of Matt. 6;32,33) My preferences are your preferences, Lord. Let your preferences come on earth as they are in heaven. AKA nevertheless, not my will (or preference) but your will be done.