The Most Important Things

In the title (right above) I am not talking about the book of revelation, so much as I am referring to revelation that helps us mature in our faith. Paul says in Philippians 3:16: “Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.” Or in the NLT, “but we must hold on to the progress we have already made.” In other words, we are responsible for the revelation that has been given to us. At the same time that verse was rolling around in my spirit, I came across this quote: “the trouble with many of us (christians) is that we have hard hearts and soft feet.*”

I wonder if one of the real problems we have with spiritual maturity is the inability to deal with spiritual pressure. It’s not that we don’t want to mature in Christ, in theory. Perhaps it’s that we don’t want to be responsible for that next level of revelation. Paul says in Romans, that he would not have known sin if it were not for the law. (I imagine it sort of like the road runner and Wile E. Coyote. Wile E. Coyote runs off the cliff and hangs there, suspended in mid-air, for a moment. Then road runner hands him the book “laws of gravity”, Wile E. Coyote reads it, gets a revelation and then plummets to the ground below.) Perhaps, ignorance is bliss. I don’t think so, especially when ignorance takes the place of true spiritual maturity I strongly disagree.

Back to that quote about hard hearts and soft feet. We really should  have hard feet, to assist us on our lengthy christian walk. And we should have soft hearts, also to assist us on our lengthy christian walk. Yet we have it backwards. We have tender feet which causes us to moan, whine and question God as to why we are walking. And we have hard hearts that make us insensitive to the voice of the Spirit and filled with selfishness. Let it not be so! Let’s take the road Paul took. Though it was filled with many struggles and triumphs, he was able to say this: I have fought the fight, finished the race and I have remained faithful.

Those three elements are all equal to this: a soft heart and hardened feet. My prayer today is that my heart would be sensitive to the still, small voice of God and that my weary, hardened feet would carry me on to my finish line. What’s your prayer?

*Quote by Jackie Pullinger, a missionary who spent more than 20 years in Hong Kong working with prostitutes, heroin addicts and gang members.

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

Poor St. Francis, so many people have blasted him for a comment he never made. Perhaps, you have heard the phrase: “preach the gospel, if necessary, use words”. A lot of people think St. Francis coined that phrase. (He didn’t, his real quote: In Chapter XVII of his Rule of 1221, Francis told the friars not to preach unless they had received the proper permission to do so. Then he added, “Let all the brothers, however, preach by their deeds.”) Regardless, that “deeds” theology has pervaded in Christianity. It’s wrong. It’s off-balance. In James’ epistle he covers faith and works, so I don’t need to here. But I do need to cover the truth that the gospel must be preached, not “worked”.

All throughout the bible, OT and NT, there are ample scriptures regarding the necessity of declaring truth with your mouth. It’s inescapable. But we have settled into a social justice/ works gospel, while in and of itself it’s not entirely wrong, it’s just not right. If all we had to do on Earth was build wells for clean water, feed the homeless and build shelters to get people saved; we’d be experts. However, God demands that we use our words to preach. Isaiah ponders the question of salvation, he writes: how can they call on Him to save them unless they believe in Him? And how can they believe in Him if they have never HEARD about Him? And how can they HEAR about Him unless someone tells them?

In order to hear something, someone must say something. Take a look at Acts 8:26-39. Philip meets an Ethiopian Eunuch. He says to the eunuch, “do you understand what you are reading?” The Eunuch responds, “how can I unless someone instructs me?” Then it says, “Philip TOLD him the Good News about Jesus.” Notice it doesn’t say Philip dug him a well and the man got saved. Or that Philip gave him food for a year. (And all of those are necessities) It says, Philip told him the Good News. That is the REAL NECESSITY.

So why would we rather use words if necessary when it comes to preaching the gospel? Bottom line, social justice is easier. It’s not offensive or confrontational. We can perform social justice and the world will love us. It’s so hot right now, too. It’s also devoid of the power of God. For He says, “the Kingdom of God is not just in WORD, but in POWER.” God has built a throne of righteousness and justice. This world needs both. Not justice at the expense of righteousness. For with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation.

Preach the Gospel, with your mouth.

It’s hard to truly fathom heaven and eternity. In fact, in hebrew, the definition of eternity is time outside of the mind. So, having said that how can finite beings truly comprehend the infinite? Only through the mind of the Spirit (the mind of Christ).

It’s very easy to get caught up in earthly thinking. You have bills to pay, circumstances to overcome, trials to walk through and offenses to forgive. Those are things that happen everyday, there’s no avoiding them. Yet, in the midst of this God has called us to not think like that. He has called us to “set our minds on things above and not on this earth” (col.3:2). He has told us that we should constantly be allowing the mind of Christ to invade our natural mind. Paul says in Phil. 3:19, “…their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and they THINK ONLY ABOUT THIS LIFE HERE ON EARTH”(NLT).

What an excellent verse! It points out the current state of many christians! We think only about life here on earth. What are going to eat, what are we going to wear, where are we going to live; these are all valid questions yet Jesus has specifically instructed us to seek His kingdom first. Those are all finite, earthly things. Jesus’ kingdom is infinite and heavenly. It will last forever. That’s where our mind should be. That’s where we should be looking.

So why don’t we? I believe it boils down to one truth that has not been spoken on enough in recent years. The second coming of Jesus. Yea. For real. Because we don’t hear this doctrine being preached at all (in reality) a mindset has settled in. It is, “Jesus won’t come back in my lifetime”. No one on Earth can even make that claim. The bible most definitely contradicts claims like that. (See Phil. 4:5, James 4:13-17 for some of my favs) Because of a lack of teaching on this doctrine there is an enormous amount apathy in churches across the globe. Why should I witness? Jesus isn’t coming back for a long time. I can witness later. WRONG. Nobody, except the Father, knows the time. Therefore we should be witnesses. (Acts 1:8)

Take this as a healthy reminder, Jesus is coming back. We do not know how many days are left. Therefore set your mind on eternal things – salvation, discipleship, righteousness, etc. Not on things on the earth, for the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking (earthly things) it is righteousness, peace and joy (eternal things, that can be experienced on earth) in the Holy Ghost! Let a sense of urgency flow into your spirit right now.

The battle rages on in the kingdom: to drink or not to drink. Many denominations have relaxed their stance on ministers drinking alcohol. Many mainline preachers have given themselves over to social drinking (and the occasional curse word) and decried it as “relevant” and “I am not perfect”. These comments are of course ludicrous and obvious for a number of reasons, here’s one: relevance has nothing to do with you being friends with the world. (The book of James can instruct you in that basic premise, specifically James 4:4.) As a result of the rise Christians accepting lower standards, we continue down the broad path of compromise. All the while asking ourselves, “why don’t we see the miracles of the New Testament?”

I was reading in my daily reading plan and came across this verse, Isaiah 5:22:

I laughed. I found it amusing and scary. When ministers talk casually about substance abuse or misuse, I think we all need to do some soul searching and bible reading. We are not in a good place. When the world’s pleasures (or wines of the world) become our primary focus over the harvest and discipleship… renewing of the mind must occur.

I know what the “heroes” will say, Paul tells Timothy to take a little wine. Jesus was CALLED a wine bibber, His first miracle was turning water into wine, etc. Well, you are not the Son of God (who is God), neither do you walk in Paul’s apostolic authority/miracles/writing 2/3rds of the NT/ anointing. Not a good enough reasoning? How about we go back to Genesis and read that we are to have dominion over ALL the earth? Including (but not limited to) hops, grapes, animals, satan and spiders. So, are you being dominated by hops and grapes? Or are you having dominion?

It’s time we stopped having a fetish for the world’s pleasures and gave ourselves over to the New Wine of the Holy Ghost – righteousness, peace and joy in the Kingdom, not eating and drinking.