Biblical Encouragement for a Rocky (but hope-filled) Road!

                I have been thinking a lot recently – as I’m sure MOST Chiristians have been since last week’s EPIC Supreme Court decision about Same-sex Marriage. The LGBT Community (activists, not ALL!) KNOW – because they, like EVERYONE, are made in the image of God, through their natural conscience - that their actions are indefensible rebellion against God. Because they refuse to humble themselves and repent  (agree with God that their actions are sinful and turn FROM them) -  as EVERYONE must who comes to Christ to accept His gift of Salvation – of ALL sins (not EXCLUSIVELY homosexuality),  they push away and out of sight the ones who remind them – simply by their presence (with or without words)  of their deep down unrighteousness requiring judgment  and so they double down with PRIDE (as with parades, which are getting increasingly rude, crude and lewd) – basically a form of flipping God and His holiness “the bird.”

    
            After years when they felt locked in the proverbial “closet,” ( due largely to widespread  Judeo-Christian values),  they now feel they have finally been “set free” and “won” due to an UNCONSTITUTIONAL act of the SUPREME COURT crossing over the legal scope of their jurisdiction [their JOB is to explain and work out the details of laws ON the books, NOT to WRITE laws!].  

             
           For many, the issue is finally resolved, and they have what they wanted all along.  They are willing to “live and let live.” OK.  The First Amendment of our Constitution reminds us that we have freedom of Speech and Religion,  even though the battles for both are raging around us and we may not have them for much longer, as we already see them disintegrating beneath our increasingly mud-encased feet!  We can agree to disagree  and  let the battle be the Lord’s while we show them God’s “kindness that leads to repentance.”  But we can’t force change on anyone;  ultimately it has to be each person’s choice. We can love and pray, but are not responsible for their choice or the consequences thereof. Trying to be sets on our shoulders a burden that the Lord never put there.  C.S. Lewis spoke, in his book The Great Divorce,  about pity, how it was meant to “be a spur that drives joy to help misery.”  But then, one of the characters says that it can go wrong, describing it as “blackmail” in order to get one’s way (“I will choose to be miserable until you give in to my demands”).  I love the Heavenly response that we should remember – for this and many other situations and people in our lives.  The spirit says to the “tragedian” (“actor”-puppet attached to her former husband visiting her from Hell), “Did you think joy was created to live always under that threat? Always defenseless against those who would rather be miserable than have their self-will crossed?...Can you really have thought that love and joy would always be at the mercy of frowns and sighs? Did you not know that they were stronger than their opposites?” (p. 115-116)
   

            For many of the Militant leaders of the LGBT community,  the “win” has only begun to whet their appetite for the ONGOING agenda. Blackmail is one way they ply many.  False pity and a seeming appeal to compassion and “equity.”  And if that doesn’t work,  there is outright vindictive hatred toward those they feel they have at last – and in their eyes, justifiably trounced – the Christians, whom they feel have been their “slave masters,” keeping them down for so long.  Having a limited – in many cases (and warped) view of Scripture, they run back to their favorites in an effort to attack on equal footing:  “Judge not lest you be judged,” and “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone,” ignoring the contexts (and forgetting a few verses down from the latter, in John 8, where Jesus saves the woman caught in adultery from being stoned to death,  He tells her in parting, “Go and sin no more.”)

    
           This is going to be the beginning of a rocky ride for Christians who have grown complacent,  and some even “entitled” and “self-righteous.”  And many have. For every believer who knows Jesus and seeks to love and be light and salt in our world, unfortunately, there are others who either being well-meaning give the message of condemnation without the hope of grace, or have fallen for the mistaken pity-threat and feel that it is “compassionate” to go along and agree with same-sex marriage based on “equality” or “fairness” over truth, which can come across as cold and hateful. This is WHY we need to stay close to  Jesus when we talk or write to people who have fallen under any one of these “spells” of darkness.

  
         To be fair, I’ve seen some “true believers” coming across badly online as well, which saddens me.  I even resorted to sarcasm myself once in response to a particularly virulently hateful comment someone leveled at a friend who responded honestly but kindly.  For this I am sorry.  I had to remove myself from the fray and plan on apologizing for it.  It’s easy to let the flesh take control of the conversation and forget that “the battle is the Lord’s” (2 Chron. 20:15) and that “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms”  (Eph. 6: 12).

  
          But in some ways I think that this may also be the beginning of good things to come for the American Church. As with the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis (chapters 37-50),  I believe that while Satan means this new experience of persecution for evil for the Body of Christ,  Jesus will mean it for our good and growth – and won’t let go.  I just hope that WE don’t!  Churches WILL be tested – and SHAKEN!  Many will lose their tax-exempt status, pastors may be sued for not marrying same-sex couples,  Christian individuals have already started losing or being unable to obtain jobs due to their deeply held beliefs, Christian schools, organizations and businesses may be sued or arrested, forced to close or hire people who (as in the case especially of schools that want to hire people who adhere to a particular “Statement of Faith,”) do NOT believe as they do (it’s already happening to Campus Ministry communities around the country!) though other groups are not held to the same requirement.  While in one way these developments will be devastating,  in another, it may bring about the “revival” that so many have for so long prayed!

         “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church” is an old saying.  Now, while this is not an “ISIS-in-the-Middle-East” kind of  persecution (another post for a different time and most surely on the way) and I don’t anticipate actual shedding of blood – I hope – as a result of this new, stepped up persecution,  I think it COULD result (if we draw near to Jesus rather than pulling away out of fear or fleshly self-reliance!) in a number of POSITIVE outcomes for the church.  Among them some of the following I hope will see: 

         1)   Christians being drawn closer to the Lord and to His Word.  This IS a battle – not against flesh and blood but in the Spiritual realm, and we will NEVER SURVIVE spiritually if we are in “the flesh.”  But as we draw closer to God, we WILL be strengthened and even GROW in grace, mercy and peace,  and  learn to “love our enemy,” which we will NEED to learn for greater battles ahead!

         2)    Christians realizing our need of each OTHER and gathering together for greater maturity through teaching, comfort  and encouragement of fellowship,  assistance in difficult times, and UNITY. Basically,  returning to what the New Testament Church did in the book of Acts (2:42-47)!  [Washington State currently has a dismal regular church attendance rate of 24% - neither the lowest (Vermont at 17%) nor the highest (Utah at 51%), but low nonetheless!]

        3)     As we start to be who we were called to being, more people will see our increasing love and ask questions, leading to more conversions than we have known in many years or even generations!  The Spirit WILL once again grow HIS Church in the BEST way:  REVIVAL!

        
        4)    The “Sleeping Giant” of the Church will awaken at last as many are awakened from their spiritual slumber and see the needs around them and begin to meet them in Jesus’ Name! 

       
         5)   As faith begins to arise in believers,  we will begin to see what Jesus foretold:  that we would do GREATER things than He even did!  Miracles of healing – body, mind and spirit – happening, people set free – literally and from drugs and other substances.

         6)    While there WILL continue to be division as Jesus promised, there will also be, I believe, a spirit of reconciliation like we may never have seen in our day!  Families coming back together:  parents and children, couples, siblings:  all reuniting as a result of first reconciling to God in Christ! 

         7)     God only knows what ELSE might happen as a result of OUR – the Church as a WHOLE - repentance and  reconciliation in His Love!   What is impossible in the flesh is possible in the Holy Spirit with God through Christ! 

         Those are not predictions or prophesies, but possibilities! With God, ALL things are possible!

          In the meantime, brothers and sisters, let us remember these words from the book of James (maybe ESPECIALLY when online or with unbelieving or homosexual family or co-workers):  “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”  (James 1: 19-20).  We can  and maybe SHOULD expect that some will hurl vile epitaphs our way when we stand for what is right.  Peter said (1 Peter4: 12 – 16) speaking to the church experiencing SEVERE persecution that I hope we NEVER see but expect we probably WILL before too long.  Still, it could have been spoken to us today:   “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.  But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.  If you are insulted because of the name of Christ,  you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.  If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even a meddler.  However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.”  And Jesus said, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Mt. 5:11 – 12)  Prophets in the Old Testament were not known for political correctness.  They were given a message – often of impending judgment due to outrageously sinful behavior that God put up with long enough and was  letting people know that SOON He would TOLERATE sin no longer and there would be wrath.  I imagine that the people reacted in not too different ways than those today – the men of Sodom called out for the angels who came to Lot’s house (to bring destruction for the sinfulness of the city, unbeknownst to them at the time) to come out, “so that we can have sex with them.”   Maybe things haven’t changed as much as we thought over the past few thousand years?

            
          Much as we believe this world is more evil than ever before – and it certainly may be heading that way – in the darkest night the stars shine brightest.  Stay close to Jesus – and I’m talking to myself first here).   If you are going to “do battle,”  make sure it is Christ who calls you there, and that you are there as HIS ambassador of love and reconciliation, where possible – at least from YOUR side.  If and when provoked, PRAY and respond in love.  If you can’t, get OFF the field, for BOTH your sakes, but especially so that you don’t say anything you may later regret.  And if you DO stumble, repent and  ask forgiveness.  It may not be accepted, and may even result in a nasty response, but we’re only responsible for doing the right thing, NOT for the response TO it. 

            
         As Atlanta Pastor Charles Stanley always says, “Obey God and leave the consequences to Him.”  I think that’s a pretty good way to live in general and in this case specifically!

           

Being the Church - For Such a Time as This

I awoke middle of last night to a deluge and thunderstorm outside! Since I was awake, I started to pray about this world that we are living in. Jesus warned us of terrors to come before He returns. He warned of everything from nations rising up against nations and the stars falling into the sea to false Messiahs (Christs) being out in force to families hating and being against each other and people's hearts FAILING them for fear. A lot of that is being seen even now. Even WITHOUT all that, this is an often frightening world we live in. Hate and immorality abound, common decency is UNCOMMON. 

What is the meaning of this for Christians? For ONE thing, I believe that it is a reminder for us to get closer to Jesus - in Word and prayer. Also a reminder that this world is NOT our home. The more I look at this world, the more I LONG for my TRUE and ETERNAL home in Heaven. Yet, we cannot simply long and wait to go home! God has PLACED us in this world FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS (Esther 4:14). It would seem that as we trust that God knows who we are better than we do, we can rely on HIM more than on ourselves (Prov. 3:5-6) for strength and courage (Josh. 1:8) and direction to make it through these difficult and CRAZY times! And we will KNOW what our part is as we draw near and PRAY! Encourage ONE ANOTHER, brothers and sisters! This is why we HAVE each other - the CHURCH - which IS the Body of Christ. It is NOT a PLACE but it is WE who know and love Jesus, who is our HEAD. He gave us each other, NOT to coerce or manipulate as some do to their shame, (because they can't TRUST Jesus to lead His OWN). This is the job of His Holy Spirit - to lead, guide, teach all truth, convict of sin as necessary [none of us is perfect] - to train and comfort. (Jn. 14:16-17, 24-26; Jn. 16: 8-15).

It  beyond  MY ability to grasp the WHYs of it, but  He chooses to use US - to partner with His SUPERNATURAL power to build each other up and draw others to Himself.  That's the REAL purpose of the church - to use the spiritual gifts He has given us in order to BUILD each other up so that we can walk OUT of the building and into the world to be LIGHT and SALT there! Because when they see Christ in US, they will MARVEL and drop hate to serve & worship He who IS TRUE LOVE!

 But as they did to the Master, some will also (as Jesus warned) hate us and have us killed, joyfully, because OUR light will show up and convict them of their DARKNESS, and that most often without a word from us.  It is not necessary.  This is why it is not our place to speak judgment on anyone. Jesus does it through His Spirit IN US.  People KNOW  that they are doing wrong.  I believe that that is WHY they march in Pride Parades!  That is WHY they are trying to DESTROY Christians who refuse to not only accomodate but bow down and do homage to the LGBT activist agenda.  It's like they are getting into the face of Jesus and boldly rejecting His way for their own,  almost DARING Him, through us, to shout them down!  But that isn't His way.  And it shouldn't be OURS, either, as His children. The hate they accuse us of belongs to them, not us, and we must not act in kind.  But we must take our cues from our Master, who when He was slapped, offered the other cheek, answered directly but without hatred or sarcasm, and gave His hands and feet to the nails.  

Some call that weakness.  Islam, Communism, Fascism,  Paganism - (you don't have to go farther than our own government to see) - they ALL see Jesus and His followers as weak.  But Jesus was anything BUT.  They think He was a Pacifist.  But would a pacifist make a whip to disrupt and send the moneychangers packing?  Would a wimp call the religious leaders of his time "Whitewashed tombs, filled with dead men's bones" and "Hypocrites!  You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are." (Mt. 23:15)  I think NOT! When He came the first time it was with the purpose of being the Lamb of God  come to save the world by humbling Himself to death on a cross, followed by a vindicating resurrection.  But He WILL come again, and THEN it will be as the ROARING LION of the tribe of Judah, to JUDGE and SENTENCE!  In the meantime, we each have our "assignment," according to the faith and gifts he has given us to work with Him.  I honestly don't believe, however, that we have even completely awakened to live out that calling on our lives, but I think the time is close at hand.  

While praying early this morning, the passage in Ezekiel 37 came to my mind:  the story about the Valley of Dry Bones.  One day when Ezekiel was praying, God took him (in the Spirit) to a valley filled with dry bones.  Then God asked him, "Son of man, can these bones live?"  To which  Ezekiel replied, "O Sovereign Lord, you alone know."  Then the Lord told Ezekiel to prophesy over the bones and piece by piece, tendons and flesh, skin and breath entered the bones and they came to life as a mighty army!   While I didn't "see" the image myself, the idea materialized as it were, and I sensed God telling me that this would be HIS church in THIS day - coming SOON!   

Many have counted the church OUT - like a boxer in a ring that appears to have been knocked out.  Our numbers have lowered in many churches, our ranks appearing weak.  But I think that we will soon watch the Sleeping Giant RISE in Jesus' Name as we once more SEEK and see MIRACLES of regenerated life, healings, and more, as Jesus promised ("I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing.  He will do even GREATER things than these, because I am going to the Father." (Jn. 14:12)  and BE the people of God that we were meant to be, bringing in many people to the kingdom.  I haven't seen that  - maybe people in other countries I've heard about - but just maybe it will soon be OUR turn.  When the darkness is the darkest, the Light of TRUTH will shine like the noonday SON!  Let's all start (if we haven't already) praying BIG TIME for the world around us and for the SPIRIT to bring us a new Pentecost, complete with power and boldness - and fruit like we've never seen before!  Let us prepare ourselves to be faithful in order to RECEIVE such a TREMENDOUS "catch" as we partner with our Lord to improve our "fishing" skills (Mt. 4:19)!

IT'S ABOUT THE HEART

 IT'S ABOUT THE HEART

       Another terrible tragedy occurred yesterday.  A sick and evil man, convinced that blacks were the cause of  the trouble in our society and had to be removed, according to one statement I heard on the news, walked into a black church, sat in for an hour on a Bible Study/Prayer meeting, then took out a weapon and started shooting, killing 9 individuals in all, including the pastor. Heartbreaking. Inexcusable. And once more the President is stepping in and exploiting the tragedy of Charleston with his propagandist rhetoric about gun control. And he won't be alone. (Yet if there had been one responsible gun owner, then maybe only one would have had to die - the one evil heart  that held and used a weapon of hate.)
        But this is not about guns and gun control.  This is about hate and what lies in the heart.  Do we really think that criminals care about gun (or other) laws? Do they care that there is a law against  murder? I think not.  People disregard Temporary Restraining Orders and kill in spite of them all the time, whether by gun, knife, car or bomb. The manner of murder isn't the important thing or we would outlaw knives and cars!  We need to work on the HEART and the only one who can change the heart is JESUS CHRIST. No law can do that - We have laws against murder galore on our books. We have the Ten Commandments, which includes "You shall not murder."  A dark heart doesn't care what the best law says.
       What we have are loads of laws. Unfortunately, what we seem to have lost is the intrinsic value of human life! If all we are, as some teach now, is a bag of chemicals, then how can any of us have a problem when people are killed, whether by gun or having their heads lopped off by ISIS? If there is no intrinsic value to life, then why do we have a problem with what Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot or other dictators have done, killing millions, or what ISIS & Al Qaeda are doing today?  We seriously need to reevaluate the meaning and value of human life! That's the scary issue for me, whatever the reason, whether it's hate based on race or sexual orientation,  self-hatred resulting in cutting, bullying and suicide among our teens,  gangbangers or veterans, the convenience of aborting an unwanted (or "badly timed") baby or just to replicate a video game or steal a pair of sneakers!  In every case listed, one theme is in common:  life is cheap and meaningless.
        If we only recognized the value of our lives that God has put into us!  The worth He has imputed to us by coming to earth - God made man - to die in order to make it possible for us to be reunited and reconciled back to Himself (and then truly to our own selves) both now and eternally.  WOW!  What value!  What  intrinsic worth!  What purpose He has planned for us:  to show others the value they are to Him, the hope of reconciliation with God and man, to build  one another up rather than tearing down, to heal rather than kill. To make our communities safer rather than destroying through vandalization and looting!  To unify and reconcile rather than divide.  

       This is what we were created to do!  When we follow Him, we will be new people - a new KIND of person. ("Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come" 2 Cor. 5:17). This doesn't  mean "turning over a new leaf" in the usual sense. A bad hair day and the old returns. But when we become new people in Christ, and put our eyes on Christ (rather than our world, politics, the media, anything we hear from those around us, or even on our own circumstances),  tuning our ears to listen to our Shepherd & Lover of our Souls, Jesus Christ, then we receive a new SPIRIT – GOD’S Spirit living inside of us. We think and discern differently  because we have the mind of Christ instead as we come to know HIS will and His heart. And that will be the only means by which this nation or world will truly change and senseless violence like this and so many other instances we've seen, will end. It won't end completely until Jesus comes back and destroys all evil, but in the meantime, it is happening in one person at a time who calls on His name and follows in His steps. 
       The "system" of this world will always "major in the minors":  focus on the externals like controlling the weapons that darkened and misguided individuals use to spread their pain, hopelessness and evil, but it will never fix the problems. Creating new laws won't fix the problems.  Shutting up or destroying those we disagree with won't fix the problems. ONLY going to the source - exchanging our broken, terrified, hopeless, hard, and rebellious hearts once and for all - for the open, loving, giving, pure and compassionate heart of God and accepting His outstretched and nail-pierced hands, sacrificed for us - will begin to bring healing to this sad and self-destructive world!  This also gives Christians more of a motivation to BE the people of God that He has called us to be:  His voice, His cry to reconciliation, His arms and feet, going where He calls.  Is there a higher calling than that?  I think NOT.  Let’s do it, then – with His Spirit guiding us,  let’s BE the Church of God, marching out like an ARMY of  GOD for GOOD!

Transformation to Proclamation

      I started reading a new book tonight.  It's about becoming free to be the people we were meant to be in terms of who God is making us.  Quite the process, as anyone who has known Him for more than a day or two can readily attest. After reading a chapter, I found myself talking to Jesus, admitting  to Him that I feel like a failure and a fraud often.  I told Him that, and He responded, surprisingly, "Do you believe that I Am and I have died for you?"  "Yes, Lord, I do." "Then," He replied, "It would seem that you would need to change your opinion to line up with fact, wouldn't it?"

     Jesus' words to me took me somewhat aback. We - in this country - have been raised in our culture of being told to "trust your gut"  and rely on one's feelings in every conceivable situation. And like it or not, growing up in this culture, Christians are not immune from this cultural mandate - growing up with it as we do.  And unfortunately not all churches teach Jesus' message that contradicts the "way of the world."  Particularly when we have had a history of being an "outsider," or abused, even though we may have known Jesus for some years on this earth, it's sometimes still difficult for us to get our feelings to line up with the facts.

      What Jesus was telling me, in his simple, yet somewhat jarring and straight-forward manner, was that how one feels about themselves, really has little relevance to the truth of the situation, particularly about how we are seen by Him and are accepted "into the beloved," having a place and a purpose among the called (which we are if we've taken Jesus at His word and accepted His death on the cross as payment which we couldn't make for our own sins).

      While feelings are good to acknowledge, they can, if we put our trust in them over Jesus' words, replace truth with a dangerous lie - a lie that can take away our potential as individual faithful Christ-followers or go so far as to send one - or an entire culture  (including entire "Christian" denominations!)  down to destruction as they listen to the culture's politically correct edicts while turning a deaf ear to the truth of our Lord's voice.

      The bottom line in all this is found in Scripture - the book of Romans, to be exact. It says this: 

      "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is  - His good, pleasing and perfect will."  (Rom. 12: 2). 

     Imagine the otherwise unimaginable that could happen when each individual follower of Jesus Christ sees him or herself, not as the world sees, but with the seed of Christ IN US -TRANSFORMED - by daily walking and talking with Jesus. Following our Shepherd's voice and ignoring the noisy voices from elsewhere in this world -  will speak to our self-doubts and false feelings that tell us we're not good enough, we're failures, frauds and more.  When we are listening to HIS directions and are ourselves set free (Jn. 8:32, 36) of the lies we have believed,   then we move from transformation to proclamation - when we proclaim the truth of this freedom through forgiveness of sin to those around us!

      What will that take? We all need to pray and decide that for ourselves - some may need to "unplug" from listening to other messages, or to the culture of the world around us;  even "good" music, talk, TV - anything listened to all the time may become the "noise" that keeps us from listening to the voice of our Savior!  I know I'm talking to myself as well as anyone, and it is not easy in this "plugged in" generation!  But the ultimate question is do we want what Jesus has for us more than what this world has to offer? And the next question: Are we willing to do what it will take to show the hopeless world around us the better way of life in and with Christ?  We will be when we let Christ transform us,  but remember - transformation is a process that will take our whole lives.  As with most good things in life, the "right time" will never happen if we wait for everything - or ourselves - to be perfect. God doesn't expect perfection because that will never happen this side of Heaven - but as we walk attentively and doing our best to be obedient to His directions - subtle and nudging or more overt - our lives and our lips will proclaim the truth of Jesus to an unsuspecting world.

     With transformed lives and words that proclaim life in Jesus, lead us, Lord!