Category Archives: Discipleship and Christianity today

Should Christians be passive?

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There is a time for believers to do more than fold their hands and pray. There is a time for that, certainly. But, equally, there’s a time to take action in the real world, to put feet to your prayers and deeds to your faith.

Part of the crippling weakness of so many people of faith currently is that they’ve been conditioned to believe that there’s very little they should do besides pray. Of course, prayer is vitally important, essential, necessary and even required.

But nowadays it just escapes many believers that there would be any more than prayer that God would want from us. I could cite innumerable examples from the Word of God where believers were commanded to take action in real time to do God’s will in this world.

In one situation even, some people were praying when the Lord spoke, asking them why they were praying when there was sin to be confronted. “And the Lord said, ‘Get up, why do you lie there upon your face? Israel has sinned.” (Joshua 7:10)

Probably most believers know (if they know much about the Bible) that it’s full of commandments to action, not just prayer. “Go into all the world.” “Roll away the stone.” “Teach all nations”. “Visit the fatherless and widows.” And on and on it goes.

So why doesn’t that resonate with believers today? Why is prayer all they think they can and should do? Are they lazy? Fearful? Complacent? Do they think that all the admonitions through the centuries to Godly activism are now all in the past? Do they think, “All we need to do today is be good citizens, acquire wealth and after that give a little to charity and missions” ? No, we should just pray and “Trust the Lord”. “The Lord knows”, I’m often told.What a sad delusion and compromisers’ limbo has the vast majority of modern nominal Christianity fallen into.

Most of us have heard of “The Salvation Army” and many people, Christian or not, respect the work they do with homeless people and the dregs of society in our times. But few know that in the late 1800’s Salvation Army workers were being killed on the streets of Europe, martyred for the work they were doing at that time. What were they doing? Well, for one, they were some of the most adamant and extremist folks there were when it came to fighting against the greatest plague on society of that time, the demon of drink.

One of the most famous Christian fighters of those times against drinking was Carrie Nation, a 6 foot tall woman who became famous for walking into bars in the US in the late 1800’s with a hatchet (!) which she used with vigor to do all the damage she could as frightened patrons and bartenders looked on.

Don’t laugh. Yes, alcohol in our time has been far eclipsed by a host of seemingly worse things, cocaine for decades and now the opioids crisis. But back in the 1890’s, alcohol ruined countless families and was the bane and scourge of generations, rather like it is still in parts of eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union to this day.

Did the Salvation Army offer “thoughts and prayers” back then? I’m sure they did. But the Christian activists of those times who went into bars and starting destroying the places are perhaps reminiscent of Jesus going into the temple in Jerusalem with a whip. Seems to be a pretty good example there of the Lord Himself getting active against a prevailing evil of His time when He was here on earth.

And certainly it can be mentioned with this that the Civil Rights movement in the southern USA in the 1960’s was frequently led by ordained ministers, black and white. These ones came to feel that simply praying against the racism and injustice that had prevailed for so long was just not all that the Lord wanted them to do. There is no greater example of that than Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer could be mentioned, one of the most famous modern martyrs who stood up against the Nazis in World War II and was killed by them shortly before the end of the war. Ordained minister and theologian, Bonhoeffer choose to speak and act with passion against the Nazi regime, becoming well known in the 1930’s for his opposition to the doctrines and actions of the Nazis.

If there is anything Jesus wasn’t, He wasn’t passive. And He didn’t command His disciples to be passive. But maybe it’s like Paul said in one place, “To will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not.” (Romans 7:18) We do want to be led of the Lord in what we are doing, not just do a bunch of feverish good works and helping needy causes of which there are so many. “But wisdom is profitable to direct”. (Ecclesiastes 10:10)

I guess sometimes it’s like the saying, “The boat has to be in motion for the rudder to take effect.” There seems to be a paucity of Christians really willing and ready to get “in motion”, to stand up like the Salvation Army, Martin Luther King and Dietrich Bonhoeffer did, at the forefront of the moral and spiritual crises that are also now everywhere in our times.

And to bring this all back home, I personally am facing some of these things right now. I’m looking to the Lord about things going on in my part of the world, appalling, infuriating things that are beyond the political and are fully into the spiritual sphere, which need spiritual warriors to confront and expose what’s happening. Or so it seems to me. I’ll try to keep you updating as I look to the Lord about what my reaction and actions should be in the next months. God bless you and God help us all.

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.

 

Defeated… by Increments

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Mark Twain once said, “The news of my death has been greatly exaggerated.” It was a joke about his advancing age but it’s also sort of a deep thought. By increments is the way things often come, both good and bad. I’ve been thinking about how sin can end up actually defeating us. So often it is by increments.

It’s a sad fact that we are much more likely to be defeated by the devil when he takes the slow, methodical approach rather than some sudden shocking attack. They say, “The storm that keeps us awake is safer than the calm that puts us to sleep.”

When God was leading Gideon in preparation to battle the huge army of the Midianites, He told Gideon to take his men down to the river to drink. As Gideon watched them, God brought to his attention a tiny minority of the men who drank from the river while also being watchful of their surroundings, looking to be aware of any encroaching enemy. And God told Gideon that with that tiny band of 300 soldiers he would defeat the vast army of their enemies. And they did.

Gideon’s tiny band of 300 was seen to be watchful while the rest of the army of Israel was not. How fitting for our times. How much the forces of darkness are roaming and rampant in our lands. But so many of God’s people are indolent, somnolent and almost acquiescent as the forces of darkness claim more souls daily in our countries.

And I’m not making this up. I could cite examples in my own home town in the last month that are things that are almost like out of a sci-fi horror movie. But it seems only the tiniest handful of Christians are aware of what has transpired or are taking any action to protect their own children in my home town from the gross darkness that public institutions are now mandated to instruct them in.

It’s like what they say about the frog. I’m told that if you throw a frog in a pot of boiling water, he’ll jump out. But if instead you just slowly turn up the heat on the frog in the pot, he’ll get boiled. By increments. That’s so often how the devil and sin will defeat us: just slowly wear us down and get us accustomed to what will finally kill us in the end.

As I’ve written before, I believe we’re not called to only “believe in Jesus” but also to serve the Lord. This is clear both in the Old and New Testament. We are not just supposed to be sluggish grazing sheep of the Lord. Instead, it’s God plan and will for us to grow to be shepherds of the flock ourselves who care for the people of God and even stand up to fight in the spirit the battles of the Lord against the forces of darkness who come against His people.

Jude, the Lord’s brother, said in his short book that “we must earnestly contend for the faith.” (Jude 3) I so much pray and hope that the Spirit of God can find among the many millions of nominal Christians at least some Gideon’s band who are watching and prepared to go into spiritual battle in the real world in these times. Not politically in a worldly sense but still in devout, ardent Christian activism as the Lord leads.

Solomon said, “The prudent man foresees the evil and hides himself but the simple pass on and are punished.” (Proverbs 27:12) I like the part about “foreseeing the evil” but maybe sometimes the way to take is not to “hide yourself” but to confront and expose the evil before it takes your children and claims the land that is supposed to be our inheritance in the Lord.

But when the devil comes along as the sly, persuasive snake, talking us out of our faith, reasoning with us out of our convictions, it’s pitiful how well this seems to be working in so many places. Christians are being seen to be backed into a corner, divided, confused, surrendered and fainting in the face of the march of darkness. It’s like the article I wrote about where Jesus said, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

Well, there is room for encouragement. I’ve always been encouraged by some obscure verses found in Daniel 11, a chapter Jesus Himself very specifically referred to, about the last days before His return. It says there of those final times, “The people who do know their God shall be strong and do exploits. And they that understand among the people shall instruct many.” (Daniel 11:32 & 33)

So from those verses I’m led to believe that there will be at least a Gideon’s band in the final days who recognize the steady incremental advance of the forces of Satan in my country as well as throughout the earth. God has said in His Word that there will be some, perhaps very few, who will not bow the knee before the “strange gods” (Daniel 11:39) of our times but will hold fast to their faith and the Word of God, “in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom they shine as lights to the world, holding forth the Word of Life.” (Philippians 2:15 & 16)

Frankly, right now I’m not seeing very many like that who have that holy vision and fearless boldness. But according to God’s Word, there will be some. Please pray with me that the Lord will find those few and raise them up.

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.

Empty Fields

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In early September I was alone, far off in a vast field of grain on my birthday, in eastern Norway. Suddenly, all that I saw around me took on a deeper meaning and spoke to me.  A large harvester combine stood alone in a half harvested field. Someone had started harvesting but then stopped. I looked at the ripe golden grain waving in the field, with storm clouds on the horizon. But no one was there. I was struck with sadness and I think this must be how the Lord often sees things in this world.

Jesus told His disciples, “Lift up your eyes and look on the fields for they are white already to harvest.” (John 4:35) And He was not talking about wheat, barley and rye. He was talking about the harvest of souls, the multitudes who were ready to come to Him and the kingdom of heaven. But they needed someone to gather them in, to lead them to salvation in Jesus and nurture them in the new life prepared for them.

I didn’t start crying that morning but I easily could have. Where were the laborers? Someone had walked off and left the crop in the field. And sadly this is exactly how it is right now in the lives of many laborers, as well as many fields all over this world.

I felt so very thankful, on my birthday, how that the Lord has presevered me over many years, not just physically but also He’s somehow kept my faith from being snuffed out and I’m still involved in sowing, reaping, harvesting and feeding His sheep, now (thank you, Jesus) in many countries and many languages by means of web sites, videos and cyber space.

It’s all by His grace. But also I could have given up many times. I could have shrugged my shoulders, figured I’d done enough, and turned to enjoy the rest of my life in my home country, eating barbeque, drinking beer and watching the games.

OK, sometimes I do those things. But my vision, goal and passion are still what they have been over many decades: to be of service to the Lord in winning souls and feeding His sheep. But I know of many fields like I saw on my birthday, standing in the sun but with no laborers. There was even a huge machine nearby that could be used. But no one was there. Jeremiah said one time, “The summer is past, the harvest is ended and we are not saved.” (Jeremiah 8:20) What a sad verse.

I believe “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance”. I think we are called to not only believe in Jesus but to serve Him. And that doesn’t mean voting for the correct political party. That means to feed His sheep, to nourish His little ones, to do all we can to witness, win souls and take care of the results. Not to leave fields of grain waving unto the horizon until they turn rotten in the encroaching winters.

I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable here but maybe I should say more since that is what I feel I was hearing from the Lord that morning. Are you a harvester who has left the field? Do you know how to share the gospel with others, to lead people to Christ, to feed His sheep? Are you still doing that?

“Well, Mark, I’m old. I did that for years but I got tired. People were not nice to me, they didn’t appreciate me, my family mocked me for doing that and even some of the ones I worked with on the field were mean and false brethren. So, no. I’m not interested in that anymore.”

Sadly I believe there are a lot of folks who think that in their hearts, even if they don’t say it out loud. Or maybe you are saying, “But Mark, I’m not a missionary like you have been. I just go to church on Sunday, listen to the sermon and then try to be a nice person. Isn’t that enough, Mark? It’s not my responsibility to witness to others, is it Mark? That’s our pastor’s job.”

All this would seem to be logical, reasonable and acceptable until we look at the words of Jesus. It says of Him, “When He saw the multitude, He was moved with compassion upon them, because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36) He was just as human as any of us. But Jesus’ heart stayed fixed on the love He had and the vision He had of the lost, despairing humanity He saw before Him. And most of you reading this have that same Jesus in your hearts right now.

Yes, you may have labored faithfully years ago in some fields, witnessed and won souls to Christ and fed His sheep. But the need is still very much there.

Even the methods have gotten easier in some ways. I’m finding that some of these extremely difficult fields that would be almost impossible for me to visit safely are now actually open through the internet. And I’m finding young people of those nations and languages who are longing to know more about the things of God, if only someone will explain it to them.

Maybe this is a sad article, you say. Not really uplifting and encouraging, as you were hoping it would be. Well, God does encourage us and uplift us. But also He can at times plead with us and implore us to not leave our plows in the field, as Jesus talked about in Luke 9:62. “No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

And I should certainly add that “the field” doesn’t have to mean some distant foreign country. For most of us, the field is right where we live, the lives we interact with each day or those we can come in contact with in our personal witnessing. These are the ones we should see as our field that we are called to labor in.

Every single one of us is so very needed by the Lord in His service, to lay down our lives and take up our cross and follow Him. “Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest truly is plenteous but the laborers are few. Pray you therefore the Lord of the harvest that He will send forth laborers into His harvest.’” (Matthew 9:37 & 38)

It was a sad birthday picture that the Lord brought meaning to on my walk that morning. So few are laboring to bring in the harvest of souls who wait for the message of salvation in these, their times. Abandoned fields, abandoned harvester combines and evidently lost harvests. Please pray that He will quicken the hearts of the harvesters (maybe you?) to return to their callings and jobs. “The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” (Romans 11:29)

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)

More Stumps

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In the article before this I wrote about stumps in the garden. But, sometimes, you’re the stump. You’ve been utterly cut off, as far as you can tell. Deserted by friends or family, afflicted in health, ruined in reputation and with seemingly no real reason to even keep on living. You’ve been cut off at the ground, like a tree that’s been chopped down.

Sound familiar? Going through that now? Or know someone who is? Truth be known, I’ve been through that a few times in my life. It didn’t just seem like the end, it was the end. Yeah, I still was alive but all I held dear had come crashing down or was taken from me. I was cut off and my life was a disaster and ruined.

Thankfully, by the mercy of God, I somehow held on. I think one of the reasons is that my original first experience in coming to the Lord was so horrific and extreme that actually nothing since that time has been like that. So even though I’ve been through some real cuttings off, endings and final scenes, it wasn’t like what the Lord brought me through before I came to Him and His love and truth.

Maybe you say that I use this analogy a lot, like in posts such as “Broken branches” or “Green leaves holding on.” But God can sometimes really speak to us through the creation we see around us and He often will if we listen.

We all go through endings, in this life. Winters, fiascos, ignominy, complete failures, utter rejections and personal debacles. We are cut off, like a tree, and seemingly nothing is left. And, oh, how the devil likes to take center stage at that moment and claim us, telling us that it really is the end, that our goose is cooked and there’s no other alternative but to take our life. I won’t go into this since I wrote about it recently in “Suicide”.

But there’s another ending to the story. There is a happy ending and actually we can claim it. God is “the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2) and He is the God of happy endings. Our job is just to hold on. If we hold on through these Gethsemanes, followed by what seem like crucifixions, He is able to raise us up again, as He did His only Son , to heights of victory and deliverance that are truly beyond our wildest dreams.

JobI’m not just talking here, I’ve been through it. A few times. And plenty of people in the Bible did as well. Job’s wife told him, in his miserable affliction to “curse God and die!” (Job 2:9) But he didn’t. Job held on through that incredible humbling and breaking so that God was able to deliver him from his sins of self righteousness and he ended up being doubly blessed.

Twenty years ago I thought my life was over. I felt I’d been a failure as a missionary and rejected by my friends and co-workers. I went back to my “Egypt”, got a secular job and just gave up on myself. But God hadn’t given up on me. If you want an amazing story from that time, you can read my testimony of “Strange, very strange. But true”. That was one of the incredible experiences I had back then where the Lord showed me that He wasn’t through with me, even if I’d been thrown on the scrapheap by others.

It’s possible that’s where you are now. Even fruitful trees go through seasons and we all go through our “winters” when it looks like we are dead stumps. But if you hold on and keep on believing, the Lord can and will bring a spring to you, perhaps one greater than you’ve ever experienced.

Like the stumps we’ve all seen which have new branches growing out of them, that’s a message to each of us of what God can and will do in our lives. It’s a test of faith. It’s a test of “walking by faith and not by sight.” But it’s all part of the making of a man or woman of God.

Are you a stump, cut off, abandoned by your family, mocked by ones who should love you, without hope except for the Word of God and the truths of the Bible? Hold on. Hold on to the truth of God’s Word and His promises. “Having done all, to stand” (Ephesians 6:13). Like I wrote about in “The Stand”.

When I came to the Lord, a long time ago now, a verse that stood out to me so much as being a truth I experienced when I’d been in the very fires of hell at times in months before, was this. “There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above that which you are able to bear. But will with the temptation, also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it.” (I Corinthians 10:13)

If your “will power” won’t work, try your “won’t power”. Just say to yourself and to the devil and God, “I can’t seem to go forward now. But I’m not going to go backwards.” Hold on. It’s a winter. It’s a test. It will pass. And you’ll be like that little sprig coming out of the dead stump of a life that’s now past into the light of a new day, more glorious that you’ve ever experienced. Hold on. God won’t fail to answer, bless, explain things and bring you into a new day.

Roots, seeds and weeds

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I cut that down, how is it springing back up?! Well, the roots are still there, alive below the surface although I cut it to the ground. Hmm. The Lord spoke to me this morning through this. Some things in our lives keep springing back up, even though we cut them down. The roots are still there.

Personally, I have sins and weaknesses in my life that I still have to fight daily that have been there for decades. “Why don’t you just root them out?” you may ask.

My experience is that there are different kinds of things like this, just like there are different kinds of plants and weeds in the yard behind the house here. Some things can be gotten rid of easily. Maybe they’re just weeds that don’t have deep roots. Others are like big trees that were cut down years ago. But the roots are deep and they still try to send forth branches every so often.

I suppose if I really took the time and the gardening equipment, I’d be able to root out some of these things that keep popping up from time to time. But there is another way which I’ve found that works against “the sins that so easily beset us” (Hebrews 12:1), although it may take more time. It goes like this. “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)

If you keep up your resistance, the enemy just has to flee, whatever form or shape he comes in. If I keep chopping the sprigs off these stumps that keep returning in the back yard, sooner or later the roots die out from lack of the nourishment they need from leaves. Same with sins. For the most part, I’m not fighting the same sins I did in my 20’s. I either rooted them out by the grace of God or I kept saying no to the devil, every time I was tempted by him. And in time it just stopped happening, the same as the roots in the ground which finally die when you keep chopping off the sprigs.

Keep-your-heartThen other things are just like weeds. The seeds fly through the air and end up sprouting in the back yard. If you don’t make an effort to chop them down, soon your whole yard will be utterly filled with thorny weeds and choking thistles. Just like our hearts and lives. That’s why one of my favorite Bible verses is “Keep your heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:23) I wrote a seperate blog article on that verse. You have to keep working on that garden, whether it’s the one in the back yard or the garden of your heart.

But not all roots are bad. Jesus is even called “the root and offspring of David” (Rev. 22:16). In that most significant prophetic chapter, Isaiah 53, speaking of Jesus to come, it says, “For he [Jesus] shall grow up before him [God] as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground.” (Isaiah 53:2) What a picture of the Lord, springing up out of the dry ground of His generation in Israel to ultimately be a tree of Life for all nations.

And what about us? We are to be “rooted and built up in Him and stablished in the faith” (Colossians 2:7). I’m so thankful that when I received the Lord, those who led me to Christ didn’t just cast seed into the ground and walk off. They nourished and cherished it, giving me daily Bible classes to really get me rooted in the Word, on the right track to a life of Christian service.

But, oh, how that “old man” (Ephesians 4:22) still likes to spring up in the garden of my heart if I let it. temptations-and-doubtsIt’s like the analogy about birds which says, “You can’t keep the birds from flying over your head but you can keep them from nesting in your hair.” Same with the weeds and sprouting from stumps you’ve cut down. You just have to keep going after them.

Some people think that once they are saved, it’ll just be clear sailing the rest of their lives. Well, you are saved and you do have that eternal power of Christ in you that you didn’t have before. But, believe me, you’ll still have self and sin and the devil to fight every day, especially if you’ve decided to take up your cross and follow the Lord. You are going to have to keep the garden of your heart, never let the evil start. It will; but you have to keep a watch and just cut it off as soon as it shows up, like the weeds and sprouting stumps.

The most controversial chapter in the Bible

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The most controversial chapter in the Bible is I Corinthians 7. Or at least it’s around the top of the list. For those who’ve really studied the Word, they’ll know what I mean. Basically Paul is tackling the subject of marriage, sex, abstinence and the whole gambit of human male/female relationships. And on top of that he was addressing the Corinthian body of believers, the group that’s become known as the most immature, broadly unspiritual group that Paul encountered.

I won’t even quote here what Paul confronted just two chapters before. You can read I Corinthians 5:1-5 to get an idea of how bad things were for the Christians in Corinth. As they post on some videos, pretty much the same can be said for those verses there: “Viewer discretion is advised”. Some would definitely give it an “R”.

But Peter Brown, considered the foremost writer on the Late Antiquities said that I Corinthians 7 did more to shape and form Christian viewpoints on marriage, sex and male/female relationships than any other passage in the Bible. Repeatedly this was the chapter quoted, claimed and exalted by ones like Augustine of Hippo and Jerome, who translated the Bible into Latin, the Vulgate Bible.

Quoting from I Corinthians 7, the early church fathers, especially by 250 AD and onwards, felt that it was clear from I Corinthians 7 that marriage was not really God’s highest and best. After all, hadn’t Paul said that it was better to remain as he was? (I Corinthians 7:7) And everyone assumes he was single, as far as we know.

But then I’ve read some Christians writers, such as F. B. Meyer, who were convinced that at one time Paul must have been married, otherwise he never could have been part of the Sanhedrin. In I Corinthians 7, Paul wrote, “Are you loosed from a wife? Seek not a wife.” (I Corinthians 7:27) Are Paul’s writings here to be taking in the same league as the Ten Commandments of Sinai? Certainly and without question that’s how it became as the Early Church morphed over into the early Catholic Church.

By the 400’s AD it was taken for granted that Christians knew that celibacy was God’s highest will. If you just had to get married, well you still might be able to go to heaven. But you just better not have a nice time with your wife or husband! All that stuff is just only in order to have children! That’s all! Shame! Shame on you if you even think about anything pleasurable! That’s sin!

Well, I jest. But of course it wasn’t really funny. The Jewish idea of a husband and wife (“rejoice with the wife of thy youth” -Proverbs 5:18) was utterly replaced by what became the supposed Christian viewpoint of marriage: that is was this horrible, filthy thing that God will just barely tolerate and won’t necessarily send you to hell for. But you sure better be in complete fear and trembling and be as holy as you possibly can be since all that stuff is absolutely of Satan!

Or so it was taught by around 400 AD. And it was still taught that way when I was a child and teen growing up in the 1960’s. And, very sadly, most of that those people way back then and up to now got it from how they read I Corinthians 7.

Of course Paul repeatedly in that chapter gave rejoinders and caveats to make it clear he was not pronouncing “laws from Sinai” on the subject. He said in I Corinthians 7:12, “This say I, not the Lord.” What does that mean? Did he say that kind of thing in other place in his epistles? Really not much.

He says, “I have received no commandment from the Lord but I speak as one who has obtained mercy…”. (I Corinthians 7:25) That’s how you say that he was giving his personal opinion and experience on the subject, a second place in I Corinthians 7 where he puts a sense of personalization and hesitancy into the passage. And there are other place where he seems to really make it clear that this is his personal opinion as a brother in Christ, one who has obtained grace and is sharing his thoughts and experiences.

Sadly, I Corinthians 7 has passed into history as the most fundamental, dogmatically taught passage on human relationships in the New Testament. Some question if Paul wrote the book of Hebrews but it says there, “Marriage is honorable in all things and the bed undefiled…” (Hebrews 13:4) But it was too late for those who believed that an abstinent, ascetic lifestyle was a fundamental tenet of Christianity.

You may not believe this but much modern scholarship tries to say that Paul didn’t write all the epistles that are attributed to him. If you don’t believe me, Google it. One of the things put forward is that Ephesians 5 and his views on human relationships, marriage and sex in that chapter seem to some to be so opposed to I Corinthians 7. So modern Christian erudition says Paul wrote I Corinthians 7 but not Ephesians. Pitiful. Sad. Infuriating.

Folks, what can I say? If you’ve been taught that I Corinthians 7 is one of the highpoints of the New Testament and that verses cherry picked out of there by ones like Jerome, Augustine and many others prove that the wonderful creation of man and woman and the joy of married love is just something that God will barely tolerate and actually goes against His chosen plan and will, then you’re being fed something that is not the fundamental truth of the New Testament.

Go back and read that chapter again. Notice Paul’s repeated hesitancy to get overly dogmatic. Read Ephesians 5, as well as many passages in the Old Testament which are still completely relevant and show that God has “given us richly all things to enjoy” (I Timothy 6:17). That includes the joy of married love in all its forms, a reflection of our relationship with God.

OK, I’m glad I got that off my chest. I virtually swore (although I didn’t actually) that I’d never write about this subject or about a certain modern country in the Middle East which also is so very controversial. But I suppose these things do need to be addressed and the light of Scripture brought upon them. God bless you, I hope this was some help and that no one was offended or shocked by my expressing my thoughts on this (what is for some) sinister subject.

Back in Brazil

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When people ask me, “What’s your favorite country that you’ve been in?” I’ve often said “Brazil”. I was here 20 years ago and now I’m back to do recordings for the video series I do. It’s a funny feeling, almost like meeting a girlfriend from your past that you actually really liked and hit it off with but somehow it just didn’t work out. Still, you parted as good friends.

Twenty years ago Brazil virtually amazed me as one of the happiest, friendliest, most sincerely Christian places I’d ever been in. It was almost like, “What can I do here? I think almost everyone is saved, filled with the Holy Ghost and rejoicing in the Lord.” Of course I knew it wasn’t really, totally like that. But it was striking how many people in Brazil had a real peace and joy in the Lord.

So, like meeting that girlfriend after 20 years, you wonder how it will be and how she will be. And of course, Brazil, like the hypothetical girlfriend, has changed. The country had years of what can be called Leftist leadership which ended up not turning out very well. Recently they’ve followed the pattern in countries around the world in electing a Conservative, pro-business president.

Still, I definitely can feel that tingle and aura I felt here before. Meeting old friends from earlier times, seeing how they’re doing, how they’re keeping the faith and dealing with the vicissitudes of life, it impresses me how their spiritual roots remain deep in the Lord. There’s like a depth and stability about the people here that I don’t often find other places.

But there are still big problems. One of the main ones is simply armed crime. “Stick-ups”. There’s a large class of very poor people and often crime seems to them to be the only solution. So you pull up to the stop light with your window down and the guy comes up to you with a gun. He’s say something like, “Sir, I’m sorry. Give me your money or I will shoot you.” Some folks even have $50 or so they keep in their car for these emergencies. You give it to the guy, he thanks you, apologies again and you drive off. And then sometimes it doesn’t work out as nicely and simply as that.

This is not a panegyric for Brazil. The heart of man is the same the world over and people have sin in their lives and heart, everywhere. And yet, as the Bible says, some peoples and nations stay closer to the Lord. There is “an evil and adulterous generation” (Matthew 12:39) as Jesus said of those who were in His times. But then David said “God is in the generation of the righteous” (Psalm 14:5).

My impression is that Brazilians in many ways are still holding on to the faith and truth that they have in the Lord perhaps better and more faithfully than some of the other modern nations of the world. And so the Lord can and does bless them for this.

There’s just something about genuine faith in God, or the lack of it. It even says in the Bible, amazingly, about Jesus, “He could do no might works there because of their unbelief.” (Matthew 13:58) The Son of God Himself was hindered by the unbelief He encountered. But equally and conversely, He often eliminated all but only His most believing disciples from some place before He raised the dead or did other miracles. And this works on a larger scale. “Righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to any people.” (Proverbs 14:34)

Here in Brazil there’s just a lot of faith in God and love for the Lord. Yes, there is stark poverty, crime, and violence as well as endemic illiteracy. And yet…, and yet there are these other more ethereal intangibles in the way of faith, joy and warmth that are so often noticed and appreciated by people like me who come from afar and who sense that these rather heavenly essences are strong here.

Well, the recording I came to do has been going well and I’ll soon be on my way again. I don’t really have any great lesson or teaching to share in this post. I just try to keep friends aware of what’s going on with me from time to time and that’s what this post is.

I guess we all know things about ourselves to some degree, our strengths as well as weaknesses. And I think the thing is, the people of Brazil are perhaps strong in areas that I don’t feel are my strong points. So often things come down to the heart and soul, not the mind. I find people here to have a pretty good mix of those three, heart, soul and mind. They seem to be relaxed but at the same time not really lazy.

Therefore it’s almost a little like going to a kind of school of life here for me , while also being idyllic in climate and geography. Forgive me if I’m just being too positive. There definitely are problems here but also it’s got a touch and taste of heaven that I don’t often find in other places.