Category Archives: Christianity Today

Just a little false

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The devil fought me for hours. I was asleep and kept having these strong experiences, not really terrifying but just false. I knew it was some alternative reality that was upon me and I resisted it. I even quoted Bible verses to defy the things my mind was seeing in my sleep.

Yes, you can quote verses in your sleep and you should if you need to. But this just kept happening and coming back. I’d wake up and quote the Word to resist and wash away the things I’d seen in my sleep. Then I was so tired I fell back asleep and there was a new alternative reality, almost like a rabbit hole I fell down. It wasn’t really super bad, just that I knew it was false.

The Bible says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7) So much truth in that verse. But sometimes you have to keep up your resistance. You have to keep fighting, keep praying and keep quoting Scripture. This went on last night for quite a while with me.

And the funny thing is, it wasn’t just all blood-curdling, heart-stopping terror. It was just a false reality that was mixed with confusion that kept trying to take over my mind, my heart and my sleep, very persistently.

Finally some hellish imps appeared in my dream. They seemed like people but they were taunting me and challenging me. I had to fight emphatically in my dream and I thrust forward towards one of them as I called on the name of Jesus and quoted Scripture. Of course they disappeared and were defeated. And then again I woke up.

It’s not the first time this has happened; it doesn’t happen much but I suppose it’s the price of being on the wall of discipleship for the Lord, that from time to time the enemy will try to break in and attack us when and if he can. I’m not certain I really prayed over my sleep last night before I went to bed, as I should have and usually do.

Also I’m about to launch out on another activity abroad and I’m sure the devil doesn’t want me to. So, it comes with the territory. Those of us who are trying to be fighters for the Lord, part of the spiritual army of the Lord, living for Him in this world, can just expect to experience opposition, even the kind that comes with spiritual attacks in the night.

Then today at the end of the day, I had a really funny thought. I was recounting how the experience in the dream was before I woke up this morning and the nature of it all. And I remembered that it actually was not just some kind of horrific deviltry and gruesome wickedness I was seeing in my dream. It was just definite falsehood. It was some kind of alternative reality that I recognized as not having the essence of truth to it.

And tonight it dawned on me, “Well, that’s the way things are now in many ways.”

Here in the “civilized” West and North, we are not experiencing what the poor people in Syria or parts of Africa are experiencing, the violence, the anarchy, the collapse of civilization and the prolonged mayhem that grips many parts of the world.

But on the other hand, we here are strongly, persistently attacked every day by vehement falsehood, parading as some inside information, some “truth” that only that source has access to. Like my dream last night, it wasn’t horrific, just definitely false. And if I had not fought it and resisted it, it would have been the reality I would have accepted.

But I knew in the deepest place in my heart, even though I was asleep, that something was wrong with it. It didn’t have the ring of truth that I knew from many years of experience in the Lord’s service. It didn’t even have the elements of Godly dreams when the Holy Spirit can open our eyes and mind to His truths when our spirits are more sensitive when we are asleep.

It was just blatant falsehood. But very persistent. I had to keep continuing to resist it and to not accept what I was seeing in my night hours. The Bible says, “The Spirit bears witness with our spirit…” (Romans 8:16) We just get “the witness of the Spirit” sometimes. Or we don’t get the witness of the Spirit. And if we are in tune and experienced in these things, we notice that we don’t get the witness of the Spirit.

That can happen in your sleep or when you are awake and perusing the issues of the day and our times. Some of it is not really horrific, it’s just false. It is not confirmed by “the Spirit of Truth” (John 16:13). But if you are not paying attention to the checks you are getting in your heart, you can miss the signals of the Lord and not recognize that falsehood is before you and trying to take a place in your heart and mind.

So watch out for plain “not-so-bad” falsehood. The devil shouldn’t have to show what you think is his very worst before you recognize it for what it is. We should have enough of the presence of God in us to recognize falsehood, even if it “isn’t so bad”. That seems to me what is before so many of us in these times.

The need is very great for greater discernment and a willingness to not accept falsehood, even if it is pretty polished, kind of reasonable and is even selling itself as trying to expose some evil. God help us to recognize the attacks and devices of the enemy and not accept counterfeits or substitutes for the truth and reality we have within the Word of God and the life we have in Christ.

 

Judgment begins at the house of God

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The Bible says, “Judgment must begin at the house of God”. (I Peter 4:17) What does that mean? God holds the standard the highest for those who proclaim that they are His. It’s like how Jesus castigated the Pharisees rather than the drunks. In fact He told the self-righteous religious leaders of His day, “The tax collectors and harlots enter into the kingdom of God before you.” (Matthew 21:31) The same principle that Jesus espoused 2000 years ago is still valid today.

The recent pandemic that’s swept America, as well as the world, had a major, transformative effect on the elections of 2020 in the USA. The national government here was seen by many to be aloof and distracted by other things as the Corona virus hit America as hard as any disease has in the last 100 years.

Was this an example of judgment beginning at the house of God? Well, it sure had an effect on the elections last November. And America voted for a new administration and government which it was hoped would take more action and really get to grips with this vast, deadly emergency that has virtually overwhelmed the country.

And now this major historic cold and snow that has just hit here in Texas has had a similar effect. Both the cold in Texas and the Corona virus nationally have been ”natural disasters”, as we call them. Insurance companies actually call them, “acts of God”. But judgment must begin at the house of God. The Lord has ways to intervene in the affairs of humanity, even in our times. And thank God for that.

The Lord has always had ways to bring judgment first upon His own people, rather than on the so-called worldly or the unsaved. That’s why, in God’s eyes, His own saved Christians are so much more accountable than are the unsaved worldly who don’t know His Word or ways.

I often feel that it is a pitiful, fearful time for America. Will they be able to muddle through for a few more years, as they have for so long? Maybe; they’ve gone on a long time, coasting on the momentum of the righteousness of former generations. But, like Israel of old, there comes  time when God requires an accounting. It says in the Bible, “In those days the Lord began to cut Israel short”. (II Kings 10:32) I fear this is now happening to America as well.

The Lord has consistently held a higher standard for His own people than He does for the ignorant and unsaved of this world. But you seldom hear this message from the pulpit here or much less from the opportunistic politicos of our times.

A former US President from Texas once talked about “compassionate conservatism”. I wish I could say I have seen more of that here. In Texas there is a predominance of conservatives; but each of us will have to answer to God if we have truly been compassionate. I could go off on a tangent here, trying to apportion blame and take sides. But instead, maybe I’ll just try to keep seeing what the Lord is doing. I will add that I have certainly known personally some very humble and compassionate conservative Christians here in Texas.

The Lord brings crisis into our lives. He can, in His love and nurturing of us, even expose our sins, both to individuals and to nations. And almost no one really ever likes that, individually or nationally. Still, the Lord does it to purge and purify and to try to bring us out of “the sins that so easily beset us.” (Hebrews 12:1)

JobAnd how we react to that, individually or nationally, will really tell the tale of how our life goes. Almost everyone is very prone to “justifying themselves” (Luke 10:29). I wrote a blog article about justifying yourself which can be found here.

But God’s hope must be that, individually and nationally, we won’t justify ourselves and thwart the working of God in our lives. Instead, we will see the hand of God working when events that He sends expose our unpreparedness, our aloofness, our pride and arrogance. Then the hope must be that we will see it, acknowledge it, repent of it and be the better for the judgment the Lord sometimes brings. So often, it really comes down to that.

How’s this all going to end? Will the leadership of Texas confess their mistakes, ask for forgiveness and make the changes that are so desperately needed? We can hope so. Virtually every major leader in Texas is strongly a Christian conservative. May the Lord have mercy upon us all. May we all, individually and nationally, see the chastening, purifying hand of God in our lives.

“Now no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them which are exercised thereby.”  (Hebrews 12:11)

Insufficient in prayer

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I was thinking tonight about how God has been really good to me. So much so that I can’t really express it or find the words. Sometimes you can’t equal with your words of thankfulness the measure of the abundant grace that the Lord has bestowed upon you. Words fail you. But the funny thing is for me, in earlier years, before I came to the Lord and salvation, I went through a time of horror and depravity. And back then words failed me to describe my experiences as they do again now, but at the opposite end of the scale

When I was university I was swept up in a near death experience that took place in the realm of darkness, the spiritual world but without Christ and God. Afterwards it was close to impossible to find words to describe that experience and those things. At the time I didn’t really have any idea what was happening to me or why.

I just knew something was exceedingly wrong and that it was my fault. I knew that word back then, “fault”, but I didn’t really know or accept the word “sin”. Then gradually, as I came through and out of it all, I found the vocabulary in the Bible that described the experiences and grapplings I’d had in the realm of darkness.

By the love of God I had been “delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of His dear Son” (Colossians 1:13). Still, I could hardly talk about what I’d gone through. Now, decades later, I again have faced an inadequacy to put into words what is in my heart, but on the opposite side of the spectrum. He has blessed me, “above all I could ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20) so that my feeble attempts to thank Him and to appreciate His abundant blessings seem utterly inadequate to do the subject justice.

So I just have to trust the Lord. The Lord knows what He has done. The Lord knows how He has worked in my life. Hopefully He is pleased that I at least realize and know it somewhat and understand it to some degree. How can we be equal to the magnitude of God? We can’t. It reminds me of what I wrote a few years ago about “Thimbles”. I was struck with my inadequacy to respond to the vastness of God, like having a thimble on the beach to measure the ocean before me.

But I try to praise and thank the Lord for what He has done in my life. So many things have happened that I just know are the Lord, His plan and pre-vision and pro-vision. The Lord can make something out of nothing and actually that’s the way He usually works. He has to make you utterly nothing and so that you know it. And then He can begin to put you back together “a better vessel” (Jeremiah 18:1-4).

You may find yourself speechless, trying to find words to thank the Lord with when it all comes so short of describing the magnity of what He’s done in your life. Maybe that’s not where you are at right now. Maybe you are really going through trails and testings and “contradictions of sinners against yourself” (Hebrews 12:3), like what happened to Jesus. But as each of us keep holding on, the Lord can bring us into a fair haven. (Psalm 107:30)  A verse that often speaks to me is how He can “restore the years that the cankerworm has eaten.” (Joel 2:25) Seemingly years of wasted and fruitless existence when you longed to have a purpose and a meaningful life. But He can restore.

We don’t have to be eloquent when it comes to our prayers. Just honest, sincere and real. Our words are us and we are just little people trying to speak to the King of kings and Lord of lords. So we should just speak from our heart, even if it all seems to be so insufficient to express how we feel or how God has dealt with us. “Pour out your heart before Him”, as King David said. (Psalm 62:8)

“We are not sufficient for these things,” (II Corinthians 2:16). Paul knew it was all far beyond him what the Lord was doing in his life and in the lives of others. But he just kept the faith and kept following, even if it got to where it was beyond what he could ask or understand or comprehend.

Should we change?

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Should we change? Big question. It depends. Does God change? He actually answered that. “I am the Lord, I change not.” (Malachi 3:6) But when we search the Scriptures, we see examples where the Lord’s way of dealing with His people changed over the centuries. “The word of God was precious in those days, there was no open vision.” (I Samuel 3:1) But then in later centuries there came a time and age of prophets raised up by the Lord who received visions.

Jesus seemed to advocate change. His original message from the beginning was a commandment to change. “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17) Repent, change, have a transformation or even more, be transformed by the power of God.

I guess it depends on what you are changing. There’s a time to not change. John the Beloved disciple said, “Let that therefore abide in your which you have heard from the beginning. If that which you have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, you also shall continue in the Son and in the Father.” (I John 2:24)

But, equally and on the other side, Jesus seemed to strongly advocate change.  When His disciples asked Him why the disciples of John fasted but they didn’t, He said, “No man having drunk old wine straightway desires the new for he says the old is better.” (Luke 5:39) His teaching was “new wine” but some people, very religious, were stuck back with the old wine and just couldn’t get on board with the new.

So it seems like we are supposed to do both: at times hold on to the old and at other times break away and follow the new. Solomon wrote, “Destroy not the ancient landmark which your fathers have set up.” (Proverbs 22:28) Seems like we are supposed to hold on to the original foundations we receive from our beginnings.

But other times we are supposed to forget the past and press on to that which is before. (Philippians 3:14) So the only way this will make sense is through the mind of Christ in which these things don’t contradict themselves at all. Let go of the ways the Lord is no longer leading in. And hold on and seek the new ways God has for us now in these times. That’s been the primary procedure and secret of truly following God and abiding in Him for 4000 years or more.

And, without complicating things, we could look briefly at another kind of change. Definitely the wrong one. Paul spoke of this when he said of his formerly loyal helper and companion, “Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world.” (II Timothy 4:10) Yes, some sadly (many even in these present times) make a change for the worse. They put their hand to the plow and look back. In Demas’s case they go back, they forsake their calling for “this present evil world” (Galatians 1:4).

We have to follow God. What is He leading, saying and doing now? It actually won’t contradict what He has said before but at the same time He is fully able to lead us in some shocking and unusually ways which have often confounded His dearest followers. The Bible is full of times where God’s greats were stunned by His radical ways and often they were barely able to keep up with the Almighty.

We think of God as “the Ancient of Days” (Daniel 7:9) which is true. But at the same time He is the most present and future entity we could ever encounter. Only God is way out there in front and knows what’s going to happen and is able to lead us and guide us and show us what to do.

Sometimes we need to hold on and sometimes we need to let go. If you put both of those in their right context, both are right. Let go of your old ways of doing things, your old procedures that worked years ago and hold on to what the Lord has for now, what works for today, what He is seeing the need for today. And you’ll find that probably He has actually done it before at some time, only now evidently He is going to pull it out of His bag of tricks again as it’s what’s best for theses time.

Only in the mind and wisdom of God can these two things be compatible and true at the same time. We need to change and not change. We need to be God’s new bottles, desiring the new wine of His radical ways and means to meet the challenges of right now and the future to come.

But also, equally and at the same time, we need to continue to be so rooted and grounded in the eternal truths of God that we in no way abandon the eternal foundation of faith and truth that has been the pillar and groundwork of all we’ve ever believed in.

Contradiction? Impossible to reconcile the two? Not in the Lord at all. But only with the mind of Christ which He gives us. Change and remain the same. Forge forward as we are led by the Spirit of God into greater victories of souls won and the sheep of God established in the faith. But at the same time, remain unmoved, rooted and established in the faith. Only in the heavenly minded can these things make sense and be the beacon for us that the Lord wants them to be.

“Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad”

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A famous phrase from at least the time of Rome said, “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad”. Does it apply to now? Is God preparing to destroy parts of the world and so is allowing them to descend into madness so that they bring on their own destruction? To say the least, it’s happened before. The Latin rendition was, “Quos Deus vult perdere prius dementat,”  an opinion that’s been around for centuries.

Paul the Apostle spoke of this in a different way. He said that God sends “strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.” (II Thessalonians 2:11) But to whom is that strong delusion sent? Paul covers that quite succinctly. Those who “receive not the truth, that they may be saved.” (II Thessalonians 2:10)

I’ve personally witnessed the progression of history over the last 50 or 60 years. I enjoyed and spent time sharing my faith at Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus and Hyde Park in London in 1971. How has Britain progressed over the last 50 years? Or Dam Square in Amsterdam where I was in 1972? Have the nations of Western Europe and North America “progressed”? You might think to say yes. But what do you think the answer would be in the eyes of God? “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.”

What incredible depth that saying has and I think I only for the first time really saw it and realized it tonight. Is that saying something that the Hebrew Bible would agree with? It certainly is. One of the most incredible passages in the Old Testament bears out this thought. God said to the spirits around His throne, “Who shall persuade [ancient king of Israel] Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead… And one came forth and said, ‘I will go forth and being a lying spirit in the mouth of his prophets’. And the Lord said, ‘Go, you shall persuade him’.” (I Kings 22:20-22)

This is almost unfathomable for many people. But the Bible says that the Lord convened a multitude of spirits before His throne and that he sanctioned one who said he would go and be a lying spirit in the mouth of the prophets of the evil king Ahab.

This is not taught in the kids’ Sunday school class on Sunday. Or most likely even from the pulpit. But it’s the same idea as the ancient thought, “Quos Deus vult perdere prius”. Or as another translation gives it, “Those whom God wishes to destroy, he first deprives of reason”. Perhaps, if you prefer the Greek rendition, Sophocles said, “Evil appears as good in the minds of those whom god leads to destruction.”

God, at length, when they have rejected His messengers, despised His words and misused his prophets, sends a lying spirit to deceive fully and utterly those ones who have already gone so far in rejecting Him.

Like the Bible says of ancient King Saul, who ruled before King David, “The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him”  (I Sam 16:14). This is where we are now in our times. Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.

We all feel it and sense it. There is a spirit of madness and virtually insanity that is upon so many in our nations at this time. It is unsustainable. It is overwhelmingly lacking in basic truth and a grasp of reality and the truth that is of this time. But historically this is what happens before destruction. The ancients knew this.

But these are the overwhelmingly fearful and foreboding times we live in. If you study history, you’ll be aware of times when a lone voice was raised, “one crying in the wilderness”. (Mark 1:3) But it went unheeded. The multitude had hasted to follow evil. “They mocked the messengers of God and despised his words and misused his people until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people and there was no remedy.” (II Chronicles 36:16) Ask the Germans, they can tell you about it.

Well, this kind of talk is not popular. It’s depressing and discouraging. Still, historically, a solid case could be made that the times we are in right at this moment could be encapsulated by that phrase, “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad”.

Madness, unreasonableness, fierce senselessness is the order of the day here in our times and even is daily seen in my home country. Hopefully you are not sucked into these things. Hopefully you are anchored in the Lord and His truth. Because the delusion is very strong in our times. And multitudes are being confused and perplexed by it. May God help you and us all.

 

Tossed About

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We’re not just supposed to “watch our tongue”, we’re to watch our ears too. Jesus said so. “Take heed what you hear”, He said (Mark 4:24). And you may wonder how you can do that. But that verse came to me very strongly in relation to what I’m experiencing with so many Christians nowadays.

Maybe a better way it is expressed or explained is where Paul said, “That we no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine.” (Ephesians 4:14) So very many believers today are very much “tossed to and fro”.

In this case, it’s not like some specific Biblical doctrine. But, boy, they are carried about with every wind of political hearsay and rumor. Millions are just enthralled and entangled with political hearsay, as long as it has a little sprinkled sugar coating of what passes for Scripture glazing it.

Solomon said, “The simple believes every word but the prudent man looks well to his going.” (Proverbs 14:15) Most of the time it’s good to be simple. But in this Bible verse, “simple” has the connotation of the naïve and gullible. We’re supposed to be harmless as doves but also wise as serpents. (Matthew 10:16) I’m so often grieved when I see how very many Christians are sucked in to modern political quarreling and think they are doing God service this way.

Christians are just getting sucker punched by the enemy in the way of listening to secular, worldly diatribes which seek to allure Christians into their orbit by having a veneer of Christianity to them. But in actuality it’s just another Godless temptation to pull Christians away from our foundations in the Word and out into the latest concoction of the enemy to get us off the wall of God’s will.

In Job it says, “The ear tries words as the mouth tastes meat” (Job 34:3). Christians so much need to exercise discernment in what they allow themselves to hear. It doesn’t happen by just isolating yourself away from everything, I’m not talking about that. Jesus said we are to be “in the world but not of the world”.  (See John 17:15 & 16)

But I think it does come down to discernment in what we hear, recognizing when some broadcast or publication is just the devil’s slop, dressed up in a Christian costume. Jesus warned of false prophets that come unto you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly they are ravening wolves. So then we get all vigilant about some pastor or Christian teacher that we’re told is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

But we spend a couple of hours a day online on sensationalist, provocateur sites and channels that are nothing but political propaganda to indoctrinate you into a set of beliefs and actions that are not Scriptural and are not in truth leading you to true Christian service.

I’ve been making videos recently that go into the details of how things will be in the final days before the coming of the Lord and some places there have stood out to me so much. Here’s what the angel told Daniel it would be like in the very last days, how the people and servants of God will be in those times. “The people who do know their God shall be strong and do exploits.” (Daniel 11:32) Do you think that those are political exploits? Military or militia exploits? Or will it be like the exploits that happened in the book of Acts and the early church?

Another verse from Daniel, “And they that understand among the people shall instruct many.” (Daniel 11:33) Is that going to be understanding conspiracy theory and correct political stands? Or will it be in understanding the foundational truths of the endtime that will be playing out then? Are we going to be leading the believers and seekers of those times to a knowledge of the Lord and His soon coming? Or every wind of doctrine and confusion that will be blowing about in those times?

So this is something of a heart cry for me and from me. It just grieves me how many are actually falling away to fringe secular teachers and I’m talking about brethren who were before strongly on the wall of Christian service, even some who I knew on the mission field.

Take heed how you hear. We need to not only keep our mouth and our tongue, we need to keep our ears. “Go from the presence of a foolish man when you don’t perceive in him the lips of knowledge.” (Proverbs 14:7) We need a lot more discernment in what we’re spending our time listening to, how and where we’re getting out information from and what we are allowing to enter our hearts and minds. Lord help us!

One of the most sobering verses about the prophetic endtime is not found in Daniel or Revelation but in II Timothy. It says this, “And they shall turn away their ears from hearing the truth and shall be turned to fables.” (II Timothy 4:4) My gosh, how much this is happening across Christianity right now. Not fables like some ancient children’s fiction but broadcasts and publications that have just enough smattering of Christianity or the Bible so that they can pose as something of the Lord when it so utterly isn’t.

To me this is one of the greatest dangers facing Christians in these times, not secular governments or other religions but these empty, poisonous falsehoods, posing as truth by having a thin glazed veneer of Christian tinge. Brethren, watch out. Recognize it. Test it and if it is pulling you away from the depths of the truth of God’s Word and His service, the reject it like the plague.

Proponents of the Truth

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If there is anything a Christian should be known for, it should be for their truth. We should be known for our love, certainly. But if we’re weak in truth, it discredits the Lord and all He stood for. Jesus said, “Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice”. (John 18:37) He even said, “I am… the truth…” (John 14:6)

So truth, “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15) and just loving truth the way we love God and Jesus should be at the core of every true Christian.

And the same way we are to “hate evil” (Psalm 97:10), we should have a disdain and abhorrence for falsehood and even half truths. But if ever there was a time when the shadows of darkness and, frankly, the lies of the devil are running rampant and making inroads into the minds and hearts of the believers, it seems to be now.

There’s an amazing thing that’s to be found in the Book of Revelation about the conditions of the time right before the Lord’s return. It’s somewhat mysterious but I think it speaks plainly about the level of falsehood that saturates our lives today.

Revelation 12 verses 15 & 16 say this  “And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.”

Waters in Scripture often represent words. Jesus said of His disciples, “Out of their bellies shall flow rivers of living water”, speaking of the Holy Spirit that they would receive. But conversely, the devil also has his “waters”, Satan’s lies and propaganda which evidently will really be poured out in the final days. [And are being poured out already right now!]

And it says that “the earth”, the ungodly of this world, will swallow those waters that the serpent cast out of his mouth. But, significantly, it doesn’t say the woman, the bride of Christ will swallow them.

If ever there was a time when Christians should be diligently focused on finding the truth, holding the truth, speaking the truth and shunning falsehood, it should be in these times. It’s such a poor testimony of the Lord when Christians are easily deceived into some worldly cause or movement that is in fact a pitifully poor substitute for the genuine and truthful cause of Christ and the truth of His Word.

Some people think about purity and they immediately think of something moral or immoral, as they understand it. But simply extolling and embracing truth, while feeling a repulsion to lies and even half truths, can be an even greater need and testimony. It grieves me when I see so many believers get sucked into the affairs of this life and secular political parties, even long time friends I’ve known from the mission field who now view politics as their service to God.

Jesus even in His lifetime talked about those who will “…think they do God service”. But what will they be actually doing? Jesus said in John 16:2, “The time will come that whosoever kills you will think they are doing God service.” As many of you know, there are oodles of Christians who’ve gotten so involved with the affairs of this life that they are convinced that they need to take up physical arms and to be willing to kill others in their service for the Lord!

Isn’t that pitiful?! What a travesty of true Christian discipleship! I wrote something 7 years ago called “A Strong Man, Armed” about when there may be some margin of place where, to physically defend your family, bearing arms may be justified.

But then so many here in the States at least, nominal Christians and sometimes genuinely sincere Christians, are convince that a huge stock of guns is the only alternative for the people of faith. It’s really sad how many believers of our times have veered from the example of the Early Church as well as the pattern and explanation we have in the prophetic Word about the church of the endtime, before the coming of the Lord.

I’m convinced that, just as the Early Church was, the final church of the Endtime before the coming of the Lord will be dependent utterly on Him, His Word and His miraculous intervention and direction. This all just shows us how very far astray much of  Christianity in our times has gone and how much we actually need the cleansing purifying of persecution which, among other things, will sweep away all those who “walk in the counsel of the ungodly and stand in the way of sinners.” (Psalm 1:1) Lord help us!

And He will. He is the Author and Finisher of our faith. The Lord  is going to purify His church, purge out the abundant dross, worldly influences and political entanglements that are so utterly prevalent. He has to. Otherwise the believers of the final Endtime will in no way be prepared in any way for the onslaught that will come against them.

But it starts with truth. The deceptions that have captured so many believers of these times must be destroyed, like the idols the prophets of old had to smash and defy. It’s still the same today. Amen, Lord, do it.

PS   And this morning, as I somewhat hesitated to post this article, I heard verses quoted in a devotional which I know I’ve never noticed before.  “For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, even as you walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” (III John verses 3 & 4)

Godly weirdness

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If you’re going to be Godly, you may end up having to be weird. It’s just the way the world is now. It’s not really that the Godly are weird, it’s that the world is weird and contorted against the ways of God. So if you follow God, then you are going to look twisted to the majority.

I come from a weird family. What do I mean by that? It was weird when I was growing up not to use “the N word”. (Google it if you don’t know what that means.) Out of 500 kids in my school in central Texas, I was the only one that didn’t regularly use that word. Of course back then everyone in my school was white; no brown or black kids at all. This was before integration of the schools.

So I got mocked by everyone for saying “Negro”, which was the accepted non-racist word that was used back then. I was a little weird. But my folks told me how that hating people because of the color of their skin was wrong and evil, even though most of my friends who did were all Christians and went to church while my family were not Christians.

I grew up being just a little bit proud of being from a weird family. I realized that the modern majority may not hold the moral, ethical high ground; in fact they often don’t. Then in university I experienced the shocking event of nearly dying and finding out that there is a spiritual world, an eternity that we pass into, ready or not. It was the biggest shock of my life and it put me on the path to becoming a radical Christian some months later.

You could think, “OK, now he won’t be weird anymore. He’s going to be a nice, normal Christian, settle into society and be like everyone else.”

Nope, not at all. I actually found that, if you look to the Bible and history, Christianity is full of weirdoes! “Peculiar people” (I Peter 2:9), as the Bible actually says we are to be. Jesus, (was He the greatest weirdo of all?), said to His motley crew of followers, “Because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” (John 15:19) What? Christians are called by Jesus to be “out of the world”?! We are not of this world?!

My experience up to that time was that the Christians I knew were usually the most worldly, conformist, bland people I ever met! But here in the Bible I’m finding other weirdoes like myself! People who went against the status quo of their day when the majority were proponents of hatred, unbelief, injustice and utter Godlessness.

I learned about some pretty weird people in the Bible and church history, people who were rejected and mocked by the majorities of their generation and who often ended up paying for their Godly weirdness with their lives. No greater example can be found than Jesus Himself. His flesh and blood brothers thought He was weird and they tried to straighten Him out. But Jesus said to them, “The world cannot hate you but Me it hates, because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil.” (John 7:7)

So I guess all my life, running in the background has been that little awareness that I’m weird. But I’ve been ok with it because I have felt that it’s more important to stand on the side of truth, justice, love and the cause of righteousness than it is to be accepted by “this present evil world”. (Galatians 1:4)

But not everyone looks at it this way and it’s a tremendous struggle for many Christians to rise above their desire to be accepted and thought well of by their surrounding worldly neighbors.

This is what happed to Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah. Here’s what Peter the Apostle said about Lot. “But that righteous man, dwelling among them [the people of Sodom], in seeing and hearing, did vex his righteous soul from day to day with their ungodly deeds.” (II Peter 2:8)

Lot and his family probably seemed weird to the people of Sodom. But it sounds like Lot, although he didn’t partake in their sins, was pretty much compromised where he was, like so very many Christians are becoming more and more in our times. Finally, in Lot’s case, the angels had to come down and just forcibly take his family out of Sodom before its utter destruction at the hand of God.

And maybe I need to add a little something for balance. We all should know that there is “good weirdness” and “bad weirdness”. Just being constantly anti-social, contrary, freaky and difficult to be around is certainly not what I am talking about here. It’s about holding truths, values and deeds that reflect the ways of God, which are so often thought of as weird when any of us dare to be different and go against the status quo.

Are you weird? Are your values at odds with the values and deeds of our present world? Are you compromised with the world because you don’t want to stand out and be different from others? Or are you like the heroes and heroines of faith in the Bible and history who were not “conformed to this world”? (Romans 12:2)

If you’re willing to buck the tide and stand up for the ways of God, you’ll be blessed in this life and the one to come. It can be lonely at times but then the Lord can bring you into contact with other weirdoes like yourself, “sheep in the midst of wolves” (Matthew 10:16), as the Lord said. It’s way better to flock together with the sheep than to run with the wolves and snakes of this world when you actually aren’t one of them.

If this be weirdness, make the most of it.

Stay weird, my friends.

 

Being Led of God

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God is neither deaf, mute or inert. He’s not dead or even sick. God yearns to speak to our hearts personally every day and be the main factor in our lives. But it’s pitiful how few people really know this, take it to heart and take action about it. And, yes, I certainly mean most Christians.

The Bible says, “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the children of God.” (Romans 8:14) But how many believers are really led of God? How many even know what that means? It means that God, through the Holy Spirit can give you downright, upright personal directions for your life, daily and hourly.

Now that probably sounds “out there” to many if not most reading this. But it’s not. It’s New Testament Christianity and there are loads and loads of examples of this in the New Testament as well as the Old. In Acts 8 Philip was going down to Joppa and on the road he saw the Ethiopian eunuch who was in his chariot. Somehow Philip heard the eunuch reading Isaiah 53. Then what happened? Take note! The Spirit told Philip to “Go, join yourself to this charioit”. (Acts 8:29) Philip was led of God. He heard the voice of God telling him something to do right then.

Often it’s a matter of doing what the Holy Spirit is telling you go do, right then. Philip obeyed the voice of God, went and witnessed to that man and it changed the course of history in Ethiopia. But God had to find a person willing to obey Him in that split second of the golden opportunity, made by the Holy Spirit.

Now I know some will be growing skeptical here. “Mark, are you advocating ‘hearing voices?’ What about the Word of God, Mark?!”

Of course I agree. The first way to know the will of God is through His written Word. This is the irrefutable, unmistakable and final way to know the will of God. As Isaiah 8:20 says, “If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” In Phiip’s case, he already was fully versed in the Word of God from what he had been learning in Jerusalem, at the beginnings of the early Church. But in his case, it took the sudden, supernatural prompting of the Holy Spirit to lead him and point him at that moment into the high will of God.

The problem is, lots of people know that they should put God’s Word first, obey it and promote it above all. But they “leave the other undone.” They’re big on the Bible but not really having a living relationship with the Lord. And inadvertently they fulfill the verse “the letter kills but the Spirit makes alive.” (II Corinthias 3:6) One of the things that Jesus said that has always really spoken to me is this. “He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me. And he that loves me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest myself unto him.” (John 14:21)

But how many people are really having the Lord manifest Himself unto themselves daily? How many are really being led of the Lord? We need to “pour out our hearts before him” and in turn He has promised repeatedly, “Call unto me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you know not.” (Jerimiah 33:3) It’s sad and even ominous that the personal relationship that many believers have with God is pretty distant, often rather stale and tenuous as well.

It doesn’t have to be that way and it really shouldn’t be. Moment by moment  we should be in a living personal relationship with the Lord, our “antennas” up, our spirits “turned on and tuned in” to hear His voice. Yes, He may speak to us through His Word. He may bring to our minds some verse from His Word that applies to our situation. Of course, if you are weak in the Word, if you’ve never really delved into it or even memorized portions of it, then it becomes more difficult for the Holy Spirit to “bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” (John 14:26)

I think even the state of the world in our times can easily be traced back to a lack of real, personal contact with God for most people on a daily basis. “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16) How many are personally, individually coming in prayer to the throne of grace and then obtaining the help they need? Or the council and direction they need?

So often, God has to put the pressure on. So often, so many of us are content to rock along in our comfort zone, settling down into our routine so that there’s little difference at all between us and the children of this world. Therefore, God in His love puts the pressure on in order to break us out of our lethargy and dullness and get us to seek His face for His grace.

Would to God that more people would “judge themselves so that they wouldn’t have to be judged”. (See Romans 11:32) So many live in spiritual poverty, so many will look back in regret and remorse when they get to heaven for all they could have done and should have done, but didn’t.

Well, thank God. Thank God for the future to come and which in many ways truly is here already. While so many Christians are content with things as they are, Satan and his minions are working overtime to increase the evil and darkness upon this world. And Christians more and more are being swept away or dulled into spiritual death by these things. But some are seeing the rapidly rising tide of darkness and are learning that they have to start praying, hearing from God and obeying him like their lives depended on it.  Oh, that His Spirit will find hearts willing to awaken and get engaged in following God like never before in our times.

Bringing children to Jesus

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Should we teach children about God and Jesus? Many vehemently say no. But what did Jesus say? “And they brought unto Him also infants, that he would touch them. But when His disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them unto Him, and said, ‘Allow the little children to come unto me and forbid them not. For of such is the kingdom of God.’” (Luke 18:15 & 16)

Jesus’ words directly contradict what’s regarded in our times as ethical regarding the spiritual training of children. “But, Mark,” some say, “you take away their choice! You’re forcing them! Innocent little children, Mark!” No, this is where Christians need to stand with Christ. It’s clear throughout the Old and New Testament that the people of God should be teaching their children about Him.

It reminds me of the verse in Revelation, “The dragon stood before the woman to devour the child as soon as it was brought forth.” (Revelation 12:4b) If ever there was a war waged for the souls of men, it’s when they are young. Satan tries to talk us out of our faith and constantly contradicts with direct Satanic boldness the instructions of God.

And certainly this is as true as ever in these present times with the raising of children. Is God against “free choice”? Of course not. He created us and this world with the element of choice in it. “Choose this day whom you will serve”, as He said through Joshua. (Joshua 24:15)

But Satan in our day has worked overtime to convince the world that “children must choose” when actually the meaning that’s behind this is that children are to be like plants in a garden that is totally unkept. We are not to hoe the weeds, we are not to fight the bugs, we are to do nothing but “let the children choose”. How can children choose if they’ve never been taught right from wrong? If they’ve never heard the truths of God and the Words of Jesus?

If you know anything about the ways of the Jews of ancient Israel, you’ll know how strictly they were instructed when it came to how they were to raise their children. Every male child was to be circumcised on the eighth day. Here’s what God said to Israel through Moses about His words and their children. “And these words which I command you this day shall be in your heart. And you shall teach them diligently unto your children. (Deuteronomy 6:6 & 7)

“Brainwashing, Mark! That’s brainwashing!” If a friend of yours, or Satan himself tries to condemn you with that line of modern thought, just plainly call them out for gross hypocrisy of the first order. If we train up our children in the way in which they should go, we are “taking away their choice” and “brainwashing them”.

But those that accuse us of that are almost uniformly enthusiastic when little children are saturated with stories about the occult, casting spells and witchcraft. Or if they are indoctrinated in elementary school by guest visitors espousing “transgender” ethics and morals.

Adolf Hitler was quoted as saying something like, “If you are going to tell a lie, tell a big one.” And that seems to fit today with the depths of insane hypocrisy that is foisted on parents and society when it comes to the raising of children.

Satan and his knowing or unknowing followers have concocted this huge reversal of guilt. Instead of feeling guilt or remorse at how so many children are brought up in our times without the knowledge of God and His ways, Satan and his horde have reversed the polarity and now lay this immense guilt trip on Christians and the people of faith, trying to make us feel guilty for allowing little children to come unto Him, exactly what Jesus said we should be doing.

But the Godless, Christless forces of modern atheism howl out that this is immoral of us and in some cases they’re even able to have laws passed in some countries making it illegal to teach our children the fundamental truths of God. That’s just how bad it has gotten, remarkably.

Sometimes the most effective attacks of Satan are the ones that are like poisonous gas, seeping in under the door. If the forces of ISIS or some foreign power were amassed against us, most are prepared for that kind of attack and would do all to repel it.

But meantime Christians and the people of faith are being successfully disarmed worldwide by nothing more than words aimed at dissuaded us from obeying the commandments of God regarding the raising of our children in the faith of their fathers. Millions of children are being cut off from the nourishment God would provide for them through their parents who should be daily “feeding His sheep”, in this case their own little children, in the ways of the Lord. It’s just pitiful. I can’t do the subject justice.

Well, I started out talking about bringing children to Jesus and I’ve ended up talking about the seemingly successful attacks against people of faith in our times who try to bring up their children “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6:4) I guess the only Christianity I have known has been the discipleship, “soldier of Jesus Christ” kind of Christianity. (II Timothy 2:3) I believe that’s what I need to be and we need to be, especially in these rapidly darkening times.

Jude, the Lord’s brother, said that “you should earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints. (Jude 3) But that doesn’t mean getting into heated political arguments with people or just going around acting like you have the call of Jeremiah. I’ll end this with a few verses about how we are supposed to “contend for the faith” in these times.

The fundamental method of standing up for our faith and protecting our sheep and children is that this should be done with wisdom, love and by the Spirit of God. Paul said, “The servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God will give them repentance unto the acknowledging of the truth.” (II Timothy 2:24 & 25) We are “not to strive” but we are to “contend for the faith”. It can seem to be a thin line between those two at times.

May the Lord help us all to stand up for our convictions and to continue bring those we witness to and our children to Jesus, as He so clearly commanded us.

“And all your children shall be taught of the Lord. And great shall be the peace of your children.” (Isaiah 54:13)