Praying the Word

Posted on February 23, 2016 by Mark McMillion

There are so many good things to do. But sometimes we just need to lay them down and pour out our hearts to the Lord. Jesus said, “Without me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) And as much as our own independent hearts would like to disagree with that, it’s totally the truth. Well, we might clarify His words there by saying “We can do nothing good and anything bad“, without Him.

“And Jesus, rising up a great while before dawn, went out into a desert place and there prayed.” (Mark 1:35) For me, prayer is an absolute necessity. Of course we should be praying all the time, “pray without ceasing” (I Thes. 5:17), right? But there are certainly times when it’s got to be a whole lot more than our little prayers we pray as we go about our tasks of the day. There really have to be times when we “Come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16) God wants that and we need that in a more absolute way than most of us realize.

But, what do we say? How do we pray? In many ways, it should just be natural. Jesus said “The hour comes and now is that the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeks such to worship Him.” (John 4:23)

In the first weeks after I became a Christian, my friends encouraged me that, in prayer, I should tell God how much I loved Him. Well, I was so messed up back in those days and still coming out of so much darkness and heart sickness that I just told God I didn’t know how or if I loved Him. I just knew that He was, that I believed in Him and was very thankful to be alive. I told Him I didn’t even know what love was so He would have to show me and teach me to love because I didn’t know it or see it in myself. Later I found a lot of comfort in the verse I Corinthians 8:3, “If any man loves God, the same is known of him.” I figured God knew I loved Him, even if I was finding difficulty expressing it. And I think, over the years, gradually the Lord has taught me about love and loving Him.

There’s just so much to prayer, it’s hard to encapsulate it into a small post like this. But worshiping the Father “in spirit and in truth” is what Jesus said we should do. You “pour out your heart before Him” (Psalm 62:8), telling the Lord what’s at the bottom of your soul, even if you think it’s not perfect, eloquent or sufficient. Just that you’re bringing your innermost self before Him is a major right thing to do and He sees it and will bless it.

But for me, I’ve ended up finding that when I “pray the Word”, I feel my prayers go further and are stronger. What do I mean by that? Often in prayer I have to “prime the pump”. It’s a little like that strange verse, “He did evil because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord.” (II Chronicles 12:14) We have to not only get in prayer, it helps a lot if we get in the Spirit also. We have to move out of our carnal minds and worldly affairs and to come into the place in our hearts where it’s like what it says, “Who is this that engages his heart to come unto me?” (Jeremiah 30:21)

We have to engage our hearts to come to Him. And for me, one of the ways to do this is to pray and quote the Word, the Bible. It gets me out of my carnality and into the Godly mindset of His promises. Peter said, “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these we might be partakers of the divine nature”. (II Peter 1:4a) There’s a whole lot of truth right there in that verse.

So when we bring our thoughts and conscience into the realm of His promises, His Word, it engenders light and truth and the whole revitalizing “magic” (pardon the expression) that God’s Word can and does work in us. Jesus said “The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life.” (John 6:63) King David certainly knew this principle when he said, “My soul cleaves to the dust, quicken me through Your Word.” (Psalm 119:25) Or it’s like Jeremiah prayed to the Lord, “Your words were found and I did eat them and Your Word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.” (Jeremiah 15:16)

So if you’re battling in prayer, weighted down by the affairs of this life, all too aware of your demanding nature, here are a few ideas. Sing a song to the Lord that’s meaningful to you. Then sing another one. And if you feel you’re not great at memorizing, try to just memorize the 23rd Psalm, the one that starts “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…”. You could quote that in prayer. Some people even raise their hands in prayer, you don’t have to but it can be good.

These things are like priming the pump. And what you may find is that it begins to get a little easier. Thank Him for all the good things that you have, even if you feel there are some things missing. You could even use the word “praise” in your prayers, like you find so often in the Psalms. “Let all the people praise You, then shall the earth yield its increase.” (Psalm 67:5 & 6)

For me, sometimes in prayer I just quote God’s Word like a stream flowing out of me. I claim God’s promises and I pray and quote the prayers I find in the Psalms which I’ve committed to memory. Sometimes I just get lifted out of my doldrums and almost get “lost in the Spirit”, delivered from my self-absorbed self as I enter the realm of His presence through prayer and His Word.

I hope your prayer life is what He (and you) want it to be. We all need this so much. “Without me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

Hard Knocks Witnessing

Posted on February 18, 2016 by Mark McMillion

you are wrong flat I’ve often mentioned the subject of witnessing and it’s certainly a huge subject. I’ve never yet been in a church that teaches personal witnessing to its people. But witnessing at times can be tough. Everyone probably knows that and it’s one reason so few people do it.

I was on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, California decades ago, witnessing to young people when I was a young person myself. Then, off to my right and striding down the sidewalk in the early evening was someone decked out in a full Satan costume, red cape, horns, mask and all. As he walked by he was repeatedly saying in a deep voice, “I’ve come to see my kingdom”. This was many years ago and I’ve been told it’s much worse there now.

While witnessing is really like sowing seeds, it also can be like a battle. Some folks just have their standard lines they throw back at Christians since most Christians don’t know how to answer tough questions. I remember one that really stumped me when I was about a year old in the Lord. This guy in Los Angeles told me that Jesus never actually said that He was the Son of God. That really got me right then. I’d been studying the Word and had memorized a lot but I just couldn’t think of anything right then that absolutely proved the guy wrong.

But it really got me into the Word about it. Later I found what I figure was the best place where Jesus said He was the Son of God, John 10:36b, “…do you say of Him who was sanctified and sent into the world, ‘you blaspheme’, because I said I am the Son of God?”

Actually, when you think about it, Jesus didn’t go around all the time telling everyone He was the Son of God. He called Himself “the Son of Man” over 70 times but the specific places where He said He was the Son of God were rare. So that guy back then long ago sort of won the conversation I was having with him that day. But then I knew what to answer the next time someone pulled that one on me.

Weapons to Pakistan 1-flattened Maybe that’s another thing about witnessing that most people just don’t want to experience. You just might meet your match, ha! The only thing is, it may be your match but not the Lord’s. Like anything, you have to hone your skills or, better yet, let the Lord teach you how to witness and share your faith. You may have your stumbles or bumps in the road but you keep taking it back to the Lord, learn your lessons, Weapons to Pakistan 2-flattened and do better next time. A little like what happened to me years later in New Delhi, India when I was witnessing door to door there and a woman almost immediately, upon opening her door, yelled at me, “Why are you selling weapons to Pakistan!” I wrote about that experience here.

I was a smart-alecky 18 year old atheist in my first semester of university when a young Christian student at the university was going door to door in the dormitory, witnessing for the Lord. I gleefully welcomed him in to have a talk, like a spider to a fly.

The thing is, I’d never before met a Christian like that. I tried all my old lines I usually used to mock Christians. I laughed long and heartily at him. He stood his ground with a friendly smile and just kept sharing his faith with me. I rejected the witness he shared with me but that experience changed my life.

Jesus said, “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin.” (John 15:22) Up till that time, I’d never really been witnessed to by a strong Christian. But after that event I was much more accountable and two weeks later, having rejected the messenger of God, the messenger of Satan was allowed by God to come to me in the form of a hippie on campus who sold me my first marijuana. For the next 2 years my life gradually went downhill till I very nearly died on drugs and went to hell, an event I told you about in “Lucifer and the White Moths”.

delivered your soul-1 flat But it was the faithfulness of that young Christian student at my university to share God’s message with me, even though I rejected it, that was part of God’s plan in bringing me to Him. And I share this here to show how that, even if you have a “negative” witnessing experience, as that dear brother had with me that day back then, “nevertheless Christ is preached” (Philippians 1:18) and it was an integral part of God’s plan for my life. Even if someone gives you grief while you’re out witnessing, it is still your faithfulness that counts and you have “delivered your soul” (Ezekiel 3:19), as the Lord wants us to do.

Cartea lui Daniel Capitolul 2 (Romanian video)

Posted on February 14, 2016 by Mark McMillion

Romanian
Aceasta este cea de-a doua înregistrare în limba română din seria profețiilor lui Daniel. Capitolul 2 al cărții profetului Daniel este considerat de către erudiții de seamă din aproape toate confesiunile drept perspectiva cea mai concisă și mai obiectivă din Biblie asupra istoriei și a viitorului lumii. Acest capitol este, din multe puncte de vedere, temelia de pe care putem înțelege atât multitudinea de profeții împlinite din trecut, cât și a celor care urmează încă să se împlinească în viitorul apropiat.

De multe ori am avut impresia că acest capitol a fost conceput de către Dumnezeu în mod intenționat ca un prim și ușor pas pe drumul profeției. Este ca o pregătire pentru capitolele mai avansate din domeniul profeției, ca, de exemplu, Daniel capitolul 7. De-abia din acel punct putem spune că am început cu adevărat să urcăm pe muntele profeției.

Versiunea în engleză a acestui capitol, intitulată “The Book of Daniel Chapter 2”, poate fi accesată aici. Prima înregistrare în limba română din această serie, “O încadrare a profeției în istorie”, poate fi vizionată aici. Sper că atât voi, cât și prietenii voștri să vă bucurați și să profitați de aceste înregistrări video pe tema profeției biblice.

English

This is the second video in Romanian of the Prophecies of Daniel series. Daniel Chapter 2 is considered by scholars of almost all faiths to be the briefest and most concise overall picture of the history and future of the world in the entire Bible. This chapter is in many ways the foundation on which we can understand fulfilled prophecies of the past, as well as see what still is to be fulfilled in times soon to come.

It has often seemed to me that this chapter was intentionally designed by God as an easy first step along the path of prophecy. It’s like a preparation for the more advanced prophecy chapters, such as Daniel chapter 7. That chapter is where we will begin to really climb up into the mountains of prophecy.

The English version of this video, “The Book of Daniel Chapter 2”, can be seen in here. The first Romanian video in this series, “O încadrare a profeției în istorie”, can be seen in here. I hope you and your friends will enjoy and benefit from these videos on Bible prophecy.

Zeal and Hard Sayings

Posted on February 12, 2016 by Mark McMillion

I was thinking about Winston Churchill, one of my heroes. A movie that made a huge impact on me was “The Gathering Storm” about Churchill in the 1930’s. He was already old and pretty much out of favor in Britain. In the British parliament he just kept up his “rant”, if you will, against the dangers of Germany and Hitler’s rise. But it wasn’t what people wanted to hear and he was pretty much “a voice in the wilderness” (John 1:23), going against the wind and the tide of the times. But he was right, very right. And ultimately, as that movie shows, the nation came to see that he’d been right all along in his warnings.

It can be a lonely job at times to tell truths that are unpopular and go against popular opinion. It can be tough to be tough. And sometimes, actually, it can be God’s will to be a little tough. Jesus was. Yes, He was, at least in some sense. You don’t usually hear about this from the pulpit but in John 6 Jesus gave His “cannibal speech”. Today we have sanitized the whole thing and understand it by the Spirit. But back then it was very, very rough.

hard saying flat So rough that it says that some of His disciples said, “This is a hard saying, who can hear it?” (John 6:60) The Bible goes on to say, “From that time, many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him.” (John 6:66) What happened? Well, Jesus told them, “Except you eat the flesh of the son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life within you.” (John 6:53)

That doesn’t bother you because you’ve had it explained to you and you know Jesus was not speaking of cannibalism. But the ones who heard Him say it that day really didn’t get it. And it gets worse. In Luke 14 “Great multitudes followed Him and He turned and said to them, ‘If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children, yeah and his own life also, He cannot be my disciple’.” (Luke 14:26)

So there you have it in the Gospels, cannibalism and hatred. Of course we now know and understand what we feel those things mean. But the point is, there are some relatively hard sayings in some places in Scripture, even in the four Gosples. And if we’re following the Lord and letting the Lord speak to us and through us, at times there are still hard sayings today.

Maybe it’s like the phrase people use nowadays, “tough love.” That’s how it can be. Solomon said, “Rebuke a wise man and he will love you.” (Proverbs 9:8) Let’s face it, most of us are not that wise and don’t love getting rebuked. Still Solomon was right; being shown a better way than your own can be tough but it also really helps.

I guess I’ve been a little concerned because I know that recently I’ve put some things in my posts that may have been “hard sayings” to some of my friends. I hesitate to apologize because I just know and feel that there has to be a time in each life where difficult things need to be said in order to make things better. It’s certainly not a matter of hate or, hopefully, of self-righteousness. It’s just that in order to help each other, we have to say things that are difficult, things that call us to a serious appraisal of ourselves and even to repentance for our slackness and an urging to great commitment to Him.

You told me the truth-a-flattened This can not only be difficult to receive, it can be difficult to share. But I’ve often been on the receiving end of some rather strong but Godly council from Christian brethren who were trying to help me see the error of my ways and the areas I needed to make Christian progress in. It was not easy to receive and sometimes it wasn’t even shared with me in all that sweet a lovey-dovey package. Nevertheless, the Lord’s truth was there and I needed “to see the lightning without feeling the bolt”, which was not always easy.

So when I share things in some of my posts that may come across as challenging or almost extreme to some, I hope I’m sharing these things in love, often as lessons I myself have experienced and gone through. Again, going back to movies many of us have seen to be an example of this, “An Officer and a Gentleman” is an incredible movie that shows these things so well. Staring Richard Gere and Louis Gossett, Jr., Gere is in basic training to be a navy pilot and Gossett is his hard-as-nails drill sergeant and instructor. It basically seems like Gossett hates Gere and is doing all he can to get him to fail. But the movie brings out that the drill sergeant has to be that way in order to get Gere to be a completely remolded man and to know if he will be of the meddle that can have what it takes to be at that level of the military.

And so it is with us. The Lord loves us but wants to make us into something useful and fruitful for Him. I’ve been through the fire, the flood, the anvil and the ice at times in my life. It was rough, sometimes really rough, but I’m still around and I’ve profited from those tough experiences. If you find things in my blog posts that push you, challenge you or make you feel uncomfortable, hopefully it will not be something you take personally. Instead you’ll see it as my trying to share what I’ve learned in my life with you and my trying to help all of us to go further up the mountain of His will, further along the road of the cross, further along the road of commitment and fruitfulness.

Jesus said, “Blessed is he who is not offended in Me.” (Luke 7:23) My hope and prayer is that what I share in my posts, although they may be zealous, will be a blessing to you, even if some things are hard to receive or understand at times. God bless you, your friend, Mark

Christians, the endtime and witnessing

Posted on February 4, 2016 by Mark McMillion

get out Gods truth flat It’s always struck me, when reading about the prophecies of the future to come, that repeatedly the future believers are pictured as being witnessers and proclaimers of His truth and power. There are many examples of this. One of the best is found in Daniel 12:3, a verse specifically about the last years before the second coming of Jesus at the end of this age. It says, “And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.” This is a direct prophetic verse about the future times which speak of the people of the endtime who will “turn many to righteousness”. That’s witnessing, folks. That’s an active, fruit-bearing body of believers who evidently are having a real harvest in the final days.

But there’s more. Some of the verses that have inspired me the most about this are from Daniel 11. The context is that Jesus Himself specifically referred to Daniel 11:31 when teaching His disciples in Matthew 24 about the times immediately prior to His second coming. But what do the next two verses in Daniel 11 say? Daniel 11:32b says “but the people who do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.” Strong. Doing exploits. Like the Early Church, witnessing miracles , “greater works shall they do”. (John 14:12)

please teach us flat Then the next verse in Daniel 11 says, “And they that understand amoung the people shall instruct many…” (Daniel 11:33) There it is again. Not only will some endtime Christians be strong and do exploits, it says that some will have understanding and that they will instruct many. Not only miracles and greater works but also fruitful witnessing and teaching, explaining to the people of the endtime what’s happening around them, because of their knowledge of prophetic events unfolding before their eyes that they recognize from their study of Bible prophecy.

The believers turning many to righteousness, doing exploits, being strong, understanding, instructing many in the final years prior to the return of Jesus . Sure sounds like an on-fire, fully-functioning, dropped-out multitude of believers, a bride “who has made herself ready” (Revelation 19:7). Inspiring, no?

But as we look around us in our present times, we see so many pundits of fear who want to tell us who the Antichrist is. They want to tell us who are enemies are, they want us to become fully armed with carnal weapons. But are those folks preparing us to be “strong in the Lord and the power of His might“? (Ephesians 6:10) Are they discipling Christians to be the light to the World that the Bible says some will be in those times? Or is it a constant cacophony of consuming fear and hatred of “our enemies”? Are we really going to go to war against the Antichrist forces with AK-47 assault rifles? Here’s the Bible’s answer to this as found in Revelation 12. “And they overcame him (the devil and the Antichrist) by the blood of the Lamb, and by the Word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death.” (Revelation 12:11) Nothing about armed Christian militias there.

If the believers of the endtime are people who dependent on spiritual weapons rather than carnal, if they’re going to be strong enough to witness and do mighty works in those times, then so much of Christianity now will somehow need a huge, mighty turn around. died in faith The vast majority of Christians today are spectators, at best. They’ve left the arena and are watching from the grandstands. But Scripture says that the bride of Christ in the endtime will be in the arena again, literally or otherwise, like the believers of the Early Church.

Maybe it will take a continuing loss of Christians across the whole spectrum of the faith, a vast falling away that will be the shock that’s needed for the few that are left that they need to get down to business with God like few, if any, have done in the last few hundred years. At some point, somehow God is going to find those ones who will fulfill those verses given so long ago about the believers of the endtime. And, yes, I do hear of some here and there who are banding together in a new wave of witnessing and discipleship, like I wrote about in “German Awakening“.

endtime witness-flattened But overall and for the most part, right now things look bleak. So many want to tell us who our enemies are, those who we’re to fear and even prepare to kill. But where are the noble souls who are preparing His people to be the mighty witnessers and disciples of the endtime that we read about in Scripture? Oh, dear Lord, please raise up the believers You spoke of who will be those that will turn many to righteousness, do great exploits, and instruct many before You return.

God’s Many Ways

Posted on February 1, 2016 by Mark McMillion

God’s kind of funny sometimes. Just when you think you’ve got Him figured out and under control, He pops up with some new thing that lines up outside the box you had for Him. You’re reading your Bible and you come upon some verse or story and you slam on the breaks with a “What!? That’s in the Bible?!” Or you read the history of Christianity or even the history of the Jews in the Bible and you come upon things that seem to be way out of bounds at times.

Does God change? It says in the Bible, “I am the Lord, I change not.” (Malachi 3:6) But it sure seems to me He has a pretty wide array of ways and tools at His disposal. And of course this is only good.

For example, here’s an obscure verse that’s always interested me. “The Word of God was precious in those days, there was no open vision.” (I Samuel 3:1) This is right at the end of the period of the judges and right at the beginning of when Israel went into the period of their kings. From what I get from that verse, during the period of the judges they were not having the kind of spiritual manifestations we associate with visions, dreams, prophecies and the like. And so the simple word of God was all the more precious then.

But in Samuel’s time and certainly with David and even Solomon after him, the Lord changed that. When you read I and II Samuel, as well as the Psalms, it seems they came into an abundant wealth of revealed spirituality that was a major change from the previous centuries. And you could say this went on for a good while. Even though northern Israel and southern Judah split into two kingdoms and often there were evil kings, still the Lord kept sending prophets in those times. We read about Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah and many others.

But then what happened? They stopped. For 400 years. It is said in Jewish history that Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi were all around at the same time, around 400 BC and even then it was known among the people that after them, the line of prophets would stop. That’s what it says in history, they knew back there at that time that they were the last prophets.

Why? Why did God do that? Maybe it’s like it says in the Psalms, “Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.” (Psalm 55:19) Maybe God doesn’t like it when you think you have Him figured out. Like He said to Job, “Should it be according to your mind?” (Job 34:33)

Then along came Jesus. Talk about a change! But it was change with continuity, wasn’t it? The absolute basics didn’t change, to love God and love our neighbor. But as so many of the prophets had foreseen, God was going to “put the law in their heart”, (Jeremiah 31:33) with “a new spirit within them”. (Ezekiel 11:19) And it was to be “a light to the Gentiles, that you should be salvation unto the ends of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:6)

That was about the biggest thing that broke the religious old bottles of Jewish Christians back then, that the God of Abraham was no longer just for the Jews but that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) “What!? He loves the whole world? Whosoever believes in Him?” Even John 3:16 is a really radical verse when you see it in the context of its days. So in some ways, God is a moving God. He’s in some ways constantly changing and doing new things, effecting change in every sphere of His creation.

And when I say, “God’s Many Ways”, of course I’m not meaning many ways to God. I’m still a firm believer in what Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but by Me.” (John 14:6) There’s only one way to God, “one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.” (I Timothy 2:5) But, boy, God Himself has a really huge repertoire of songs He can sing, instruments He can play, brushes in His box, and colors on His palette.

“The Venerable Bede”, northern England, 722 AD

Here’s one that nearly stumbled me so I”ll share it, just to show God’s many ways. Relics. Have you ever heard of “relics”? Years ago I read a fantastic book, written in 722 AD, called “The Ecclesiastical History of England.” Written by “the Venerable Bede”, it’s the story of the Christianization of England up till that time. But I was choking and stumbling where there were repeated testimonies of relics being the instruments of major miracles back then. I figure that this guy, “the Venerable Bede”, was either lying or telling the truth. It didn’t seem like he was lying. So, if he was telling the truth and all these things happened like he said, then why and how did the Lord allow that to happened? Why did He work that way back then?

Books and libraries have been written on this subject and I don’t have that much room here. But maybe the Lord was working with the faith that people had back then. So many had faith but they really didn’t have the knowledge of the Word that we have now. The Bible was all still in Latin or Greek and perhaps one in a thousand back then could even read. And besides, God had used this method of working at least a few times in the Bible.

II Kings 13:20 & 21 says a burial team in an emergency virtually threw a dead body onto the grave of Elisha. And when the dead man’s body touched the bones of Elisha, then he came back to life. Or in the New Testament they sent handkerchiefs from Paul to people and they got healed. So, what can you say? These things are in the Word. (Acts 19:12)

But it just shows the broadness and latitude of God at times to work in ways that we (should I say this?) don’t think He should. Ha! Lord help us. Like King David said, “Stand in awe and sin not.” (Psalm 4:4) He really is a mighty God. We don’t have Him completely figured out. We err when we limit Him and say what He can’t or won’t do. He doesn’t always fit into our religious framework. He’s downright unorthodox at times. Still, we love Him, right? Lead on, oh King Eternal.

Brakes and Gas Pedals

Posted on January 27, 2016 by Mark McMillion

God told Moses, “Command the armies of Israel that they go forward.” (Exodus 14:15) That’s what we should be looking to do; we should be determined to go forward for the Lord. He said to go forward for Him and with Him, through the Holy Spirit. And they did. Jesus said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15) “Go therefore and teach all nations…” (Matthew 28:19) And gradually, through fits and starts, His earliest disciples did that. So going forward for Him and His cause should be our default position, our basic vision.

This is why, when I was writing “The Stand”, about the stand of faith, that I got a little concerned. Because perhaps the majority of Christians need more encouragement and admonition to use their “gas pedal” than to use their “brakes”. Using our brakes is certainly necessary and a matter of life and death at times. But maybe it’s like the little girl said about the purring cat, “Oh look, mommy! The kitty has gone to sleep and left its engine running!”

We’re not supposed to go to sleep and leave our engine running. We’re not supposed to sit around with our foot on the brakes in some kind of defensive, “hold the fort” attitude. If there’s been a bane of organized Christianity in our times, it’s been this. And it’s now gotten to where virtually everyone thinks that this is Christianity. “Go to church on Sunday. Be good. Don’t be bad.”

Jesus didn’t tell His disciple, in the 40 days He was with them after His resurrection, “OK guys, this has been great! Now everyone go back to your old jobs, go back and join a good synagogue, blend into society. It’s all over! I’ve done what I came to do so you guys can relax. Enjoy life!” Umm, no.

Of course many churches do teach the Bible and even salvation, faith in God and in Jesus. But often at some point it just doesn’t go any further. How many churches really instill in each individual member that they can and should witness their faith and win souls? Paul said, “Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel!” (I Corinthians 9:16) To which the standard reply is, “Oh, we can’t all be Paul!” Or “Oh, I’m not a preacher! That’s what we pay Reverend Smith for.”

Lord help us! Has human nature changed in the last 2000 years? Nope. “They all began to make excuse.” (Luke 14:18) Or as Solomon said, “There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the council of God stands assured.” (Proverbs 19:21)

So let’s answered a couple of those things that our hearts often throw at us. “Oh, we can’t all be Paul.” Right. But we can do what we can. And so often that’s a good deal more than we are doing. Maybe you can’t be a missionary right now. But you can witness to the circle of people you come in contact with. Virtually everyone can do that. This is the message the Lord gave me for the precious Christians I spoke with in Bulgaria back in March, that I wrote about in “God Needs You.”

Hardly any church anywhere puts their membership under conviction to lead others to Christ. Virtually no church I know really instructs their members in how to personally witness and win souls. That’s why I’m so glad I was born into a soul winning, discipleship Christianity. Because if the Devil can’t stop you from being a Christian, then he’ll try to stop you from being a disciple and serving the Lord. He may not be able to stop you from having your engine running, but he’ll sure try to stop you from putting your foot on the gas. And I think that must sadden and perhaps even anger the Lord.

The only Christianity I’ve known has been one that endeavored to be based on the book of Acts and the Early Church. “They went forth and preached everywhere.” (Mark 16:20) “But Mark! I’m not a preacher! What do you want, Mark? For us all to go stand on some street corner and preach?!” Nope. But you could pass tracts to people you meet. You could be “always ready to give an answer of the hope within you.” (I Peter 3:15) You could be “instant in season and out of season.” (II Tim. 4:2)

Maybe it’s like something else Paul said, “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.” (II Cor. 5:11) Paul really knew what it was like to be found utterly wanting and under the partially judgment of God. He was blinded for 3 days by the hand of God. He knew what it was like to be utterly blinded spiritually and even physically. Maybe that helped him have the compassion and drive that he had the rest of his life.

Many have been Christians all their lives. They’ve never really known what the horrendous torments of hell are like and so they don’t have the driving motivation to help those still in those straights.But one way or the other, each Christian needs to put their foot on the gas, not just the brakes.

We have the answer, we have the Lord, we have salvation and we are charged before the Lord to share that with others. “He that withholds it tends to poverty, but he that scatters abroad it increases.” (Proverbs 11:24) “He that knows to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin.” (James 4:17) Step on the gas.

The day of small things

Posted on January 24, 2016 by Mark McMillion

During my devotions this morning, I listened to a short talk given years ago about common place things. I was surprised how it spoke to me as, I have to admit, at times I can chafe at the work and ministry I have presently, Lord forgive me. But as this message brought out, it’s a sad condition of human nature that we all are tempted to bemoan our lot, no matter what it is and find it drudgery.

The teacher can grow weary in the well doing of training the precious ones they instruct. The mother can faint under the continuing housework and monotony of the care she shows to her family. The father can trudge back home after a day of work, feeling unappreciated and that his life is going nowhere. This mindset is there probably for ever person on earth.

But God’s Word asks “who has despised the day of small things?” (Zach. 4:10) We are to be “content in whatsoever state we are in” (Philippians 4:11). “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” (I Tim. 6:6) Of course, as I wrote about recently, I’m not advocated a resigned, fatalistic capitulation to whatever life seems to throw at you. That’s not according to God’s Word either. I’m talking about the kind of contentment we have and need to hold on to when we know we are in the will of God but we are tempted to “be weary in well doing.” (Galatians 6:9)

The devil just loves to belittle us. If he can’t get you lifted up in pride, then he tries the other direction of belittling us, making us feel small, foolish and insignificant. It reminds me of what Solomon said, “He that justifies the wicked and he that condemns the just, even they both are an abomination unto the Lord.” (Proverbs 17:15) Perhaps more people have a problem with walking in pride but some have a real problem with condemnation. They perennially are under a cloud of condemnation, whether of their own making or the devil’s. “If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things.” (I John 3:20)

What’s the solution to all this? “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” (Hebrews 12:2) We’re to walk neither in pride nor condemnation. In fact, the less we have our eyes on ourselves, the better off we’ll be. I think it was the famous song writer Fanny Crosby who said, “There is joy in self-forgetfulness”. Boy, that’s the truth. Otherwise it can certainly happen to any and all of us that we “despise the day of small things”.

So many nowadays fully know of the humdrum drudgery, zombie treadmill and rat race that modern employment and making a living can be. It’s a sad day for a poor man. It seems most middle class people have to be going full speed and flat out just to stand still in so many modern economies.

At least for us Christians, those who are serving the Lord, we can have a glory in the things we do, if we are doing it for the Lord. “Whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (I Corinthians 10:31) You’re a school teacher? A busy mother? A businessman supporting your family? A missionary on some far flung field? Then if you have the Lord, you have that infinitely greater motivation that you’re doing what you are doing in service to Him. And you have His abundant grace for the job He’s given you.

For me, I can find it slightly tedious and monotonous to be spending many hours at my computer, mainly working on real minuscule details in getting out these foreign language videos of the series I’ve done on the prophecies of Daniel. It’s so much brain work, so many various facets that go into the final product that it’s almost numbing sometimes.

But for me, this is my “day of small things”. This is where things are for me right now and I just have to keep the vision. “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18) and I have to continually remind myself that the seeming sacrifice in all this right now will be worth it when folks in these countries get to have these classes on Bible prophecy and the endtime that so few know anything about.

And I’m sure it’s that way for many now. I don’t know many people presently who are working together with other Christians in some great endeavor for the Lord, like it was here in east Europe in the 90’s. It seems like for many it’s a time of “every man to his tents” (II Sam. 20:1) , a time of abatement, loneliness and low tide spiritually, rather than the great united forces of the Lord, “knit together as one man” (Judges 20:11) that have been at other times

But we all can still be wary not to “despise the day of small things”. We can keep the vision for our callings during these times when life can seem tedious and hum-drum, when we can seem insignificant to ourselves, falsely thinking we are unknown, unappreciated and forgotten. We’re not. His eye is on the sparrow and He sees every sacrifice, ever deed we do as unto Him. “In due season you shall reap if you faint not.” (Galatians 6:9)

“…but now they are hid from your eyes.”

Posted on January 21, 2016 by Mark McMillion

The Bible says of Jesus, “When He beheld Jerusalem, He wept over it saying, ‘If you had known, in this your day, the things that belong to your peace! But now are they hid from your eyes’”. (Luke 19:42) His entering Jerusalem right then was the very day when prophecy was being fulfilled, Zachariah 9:9, which said to Jerusalem that “…behold, your King comes to you: He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.” Jesus wept because the very Word of God was being fulfilled that day before them. But for so many, they just couldn’t or didn’t see it.

That’s kind of scary in some ways for me: Jesus wept because God worked right in front of people and they didn’t recognize it. On the other hand, He said one time to His disciples, “Blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear, for many prophets and kings have desired to see the things you see and have not seen them and to hear the things you hear and have not heard them.” (Luke 10:24)

How does this all work? Is it just random? God in heaven simply decides who can perceive His mighty works and who can’t? I was thinking about these things this morning while on a walk and pondering my recent trips around Europe. In several places in the last month I spent the day among Muslim refugees, helping them physically but also talking with them about the things of God. And I was just thinking this morning how thankful I am that the Lord has shown me that these people need His love and truth, not our Christian hatred. Because, let’s face it, it certainly seems that the vast majority of Christians evidently feel that our religious obligation before God is to be some of the most vehement voices of hate and fear when it comes to these people.

And that just grieves me and perhaps it grieves the Lord too. You don’t often hear about Jesus being angry. But in one place it says of Him, “He looked about with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts.” (Mark 3:5) He was angry and grieved for their hardness of heart. And I’m figuring that a hardened, hateful heart in His people must grieve and even anger Him today just as much.

My thinking on this continued, “How can any of us ‘see’? Are we all doomed to be spiritually blind like so many people of Jesus’ day?” And I’ll speak here to those of us who are already Christians. I think if there’s any secret to this, it’s in doing all we can to take on “the mind of Christ” (I Cor. 2:16) which comes so much through reading His Word.

King David said, “Your Word is a lamp into my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalm 119:105) The fact is that we need to continually let God’s Word wash us. And yes, that does sort of mean a Godly “brainwashing”. We need to be “renewed in the spirit of our minds.” (Ephesians 4:23) He must “sanctify and cleanse us through the washing of water by the Word.” (Ephesians 5:26) Jesus even prayed to the Father in Gethsemane for His disciples, “Sanctify them through Your truth; Your Word is truth.” (John 17:17)

And perhaps a caveat is needed here. Some, perhaps all of us need to pray the prayer of David, “Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” (Psalm 119:18) Because the sad fact is that folks can be reading the Bible and it still may not get though to them , perhaps because of some religious rut they’ve been in for years. Jesus said, “The words that I speak unto you are spirit and life.” (John 6:63) God’s Word has incredible power to reach down to our hearts but still we need to pray for that and want it as well.

If we let God’s Word be the eyes with which we see the world, even the current events and seeming dangers and threats we’re so told about, then He can give us a perspective that’s of Him, not of the world. But it’s something we have to want to do and decide to do. Because there are oodles of wolves in sheep’s clothing, determined to implant fear and hatred in your heart in the name of Christ.

Millions of Christians are already on the Enemy’s channel because they imbibe and espouse fear and hatred first and foremost. Jesus said, “The times come that whosoever kills you will think that they do God’s service.” (John 16:2) How many Christians today daydream about killing those they consider their enemies, rather than winning their souls to Christ? Very many; too many.

Jesus “went about doing good.” (Acts 10:38) And He can still do the same in us today if we have eyes to see things the way He wants us to and the way His Word shows us. I think for many of the people of faith in our times, it’s like what Joshua said to Israel long ago, “Choose this day whom you shall serve.” (Joshua 24:15) I’m convinced that love is the will of God, not hatred and fear. My hope is that more of His people will turn from the prophets of Baal of our day, the false prophets of hatred and fear, and will choose instead to have the mind of Christ through God’s Word and win even our seeming enemies to Him.

German Refugee Camp

Posted on January 9, 2016 by Mark McMillion

I’ve been visiting a camp in Germany for refugees from the Middle East. There was a riot one evening in the camp that my friends work in daily. People from one nationality got very riled up against folks from another country in the camp. Chairs were thrown, furniture broken, water hoses pulled out of the wall and 200 people fled to the streets. Over 100 police were called in to quell the disturbance. It was a very big deal.

My friends the next morning got an emergency email about the situation in the camp. They wrote back that they weren’t afraid and that they were on the way there. It turns out that they’d already been scheduled to do a major performance and skit for the 1000 or so people in the camp the next day. It was to be based around the parable of the Sun and the Wind and how that love is more powerful than violence, an interesting theme indeed when contrasting Christianity and Islam. So, strange as it may seem, the uproar the night before made the setting perfect. The Lord had prepared hearts and allowed the riot to happen so they’d see their need all the more.

“The sun and the wind” (Based on the fable by Aesop)

One day the sun and the wind quarreled about which was the stronger. The wind said, “I’ll prove I am. See that old man down there with a coat? I bet I can make him take his coat off quicker than you can.”

So the sun went behind a cloud and the wind blew until it was almost a tornado. But the harder it blew, the tighter the old man wrapped his coat about him.

Finally the wind calmed down and gave up; and then the sun came out from behind the cloud and smiled kindly on the old man. Presently, the man mopped his brow and pulled off his coat. The sun then told the wind that gentleness and friendliness were always stronger than fury and force.

My friends came to the camp with their guitars. But some of the ones they planned to work with in the camp were terrified because of the events from the night before and didn’t want to do it. So they prayed with them against fear and at the same time prayed with several of them to receive the Lord. This helped and they were more relaxed.

Also some of the main workers at the camp talked with various factions there to try to restore calmness and cooperation between national groups. Each ethnic or national group, Syrians, Kurds, Afghans, Iraqis, etc, have their own group leaders and they talked to their people in their language. The German Christian woman who heads up the camp spoke to them about forgiveness and peace. She said if some were doing evil, it would not be accepted; that they are going to build up something there in peace.

My friends and their helpers started their performance with the song, “Love Can Build a Bridge”. But then while some were singing, a man from one nationality came up and insisted that he speak on stage. He wanted to apologize to the other nationality group that his people had gotten into the fight with the night before. He publicly asked them for forgiveness. Then he went out into the large crowd, shook hands and gave hugs to the ones his people had been fighting with. This man was actually one of the ones who were working with my friends and he played the role of “the Sun” in the skit.

He’d told my friends days before that those people have no concept of forgiveness and love because it is not emphasized in the Koran. They can’t relate to it. So when my friends talk to them about forgiveness and love, they really listen and they don’t know what to say. It shakes there concept of things that Jesus came for love. They said they never heard that before, that Jesus came to bring God’s forgiveness to them.

The skit started. One of my friends was “the Wind”, Mustafa was “the Sun” and there was another Muslim guy who took his jacket off. So afterwards my friend asked the hundreds watching the skit if they understood that the sun is more powerful than the storms and that love and forgiveness are more powerful that hate and violence. I should mention by the way that this friend of mine who was sharing this is actually from Asia and was raised a Buddhist. But he became a Christian in his 20’s and is one of the most vigorous, fruitful Christians I know anywhere.

He said that he wanted to pray with everyone so he knelt down on stage and asked others on stage to knell with him. He prayed for them and their countries, that God would stop the wars. He told them he was a Christian and that he wanted to build bridges of love and faith. He asked who wanted to pray and very many raised their hands. He prayed a prayer that they repeated, that God would stop the war, that they would have peace there in the camp and a better life. And that they would have Isa (Jesus) in their hearts as their friend.

The devil wrecked havoc there the night before because he was mad that the next day there would be such a victory. I was just so encouraged and inspired when I heard about all this. It’s not something the media will report but I think it was a very big thing in the Spirit that “the poor have the gospel preached unto them.” (Luke 7:22)

Mark McMillion

Creeds and Deeds, Facts and Acts

Category Archives: Basic Christianity