Conviction or Condemnation

Posted on December 8, 2013 by Mark McMillion

The difference between conviction and condemnation was something I struggled with a lot as a young Christian. It seems to be something that’s not often touched on or even understood by many Christians. But for me, learning the difference between conviction and condemnation was a battle that I had to win if I was to grow in my Christian life.

Simply put, God convicts us of specific sins or weaknesses, giving us hope that if we bring it to Him, He can and will forgive us and heal us. On the other hand, it’s the Devil that condemns us, saying that we’re just generally bad and hopeless. It’s been understanding the difference between these two that has been an essential part of my being able to get to grips with some of the sins, failures and shortcomings of my life and to also recognize when the voice of Satan is trying to bring hopelessness to me in some matter.

Is what I’m saying here according to God’s Word? In John chapter 8, the Pharisees brought a woman to Jesus who’d been caught in adultery. They called upon Jesus to agree to the writings of the Jewish law that she should be stoned to death. But Jesus said to them, “He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone.” And the next verse says, “When they heard it, they went out being convicted by their own conscience”. (John 8:9) Jesus’ words brought conviction.

How about the Devil’s words? In Revelation 12:9 the Devil is called “the accuser of the saints”. The devil is like the prosecuting attorney in a courtroom, constantly bringing our sins before ourselves and God, calling for our condemnation and judgment.

But there’s another kind of condemnation and one that’s perhaps even more subtle. The apostle John wrote, “If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things.” (I John 3:20) Some people have a lot of trouble with that. Their heart condemns them in several ways. For one, since we are all sinners (Romans 3:23), then without the rebirth through salvation in Jesus, each of our hearts overcomes us through one sin or the other.

Sometimes though, even if you’re saved, your own heart may have the habit or tendency to condemn you. It’s like negative thinking. A verse that helped me on this one time was “He that justifies the wicked and he that condemns the just, both of these are an abomination to the Lord.” (Proverbs 17:15) You can get to thinking, “Oh I’m really humble because I’m always so down on myself”. But it’s not the way the Lord wants us to be in the spirit. For us to condemn ourselves is actually an abomination to God, according to that verse, just as much as if we were justifying the wicked,

Maybe the most famous verse about condemnation is, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which be in Christ Jesus…” (Romans 8:1) But in some ways, it’s a thin line to walk. On one side, we don’t want to “fall into the condemnation of the devil” (I Timothy 3:6). God forbid. But that sure doesn’t mean in any way that we want to harden our hearts against the gentle chiding voice of the Holy Spirit which “will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment”.

It comes down to which voice you are learning to listen to. We don’t want to be in tune with “the accuser of the saints” or our own heart that can condemn us. But we do want to have a clean conscience that can help to be a guidance to us. And even more than that, we want to have a clear channel to the voice of the Lord Who will convict us and lead us in the paths we are to walk in.

Someone said one time that it’s like a chain with a weak link. We’re that chain and we all have weak links, sins, and weakness, areas that we need to change and grow in. The Lord takes a look at the chain, probably sees a number of weak links and He points out the one that He wants to work on. He points to one weak link and says, “That one right there, give that one to me and I’ll fix it.” But then the Devil comes along and says, “Oh my God, that is a bad chain! It’s bad! It needs to be totally thrown away!”

That’s the difference between conviction and condemnation. One is specific, doable and brings hope for change and improvement if there is repentance. The other is general, totally negative and also hopeless. God help us all to know the difference between condemnation and conviction and to learn to recognize the Lord’s voice of conviction that brings change, hope and progress. “For Godly sorrow works repentance to salvation, not to be repented of. But the sorrow of the world works death.” (II Corinthians 7:10)

Soft heart, tough spirit

Posted on November 17, 2013 by Mark McMillion

Life is just full of contradictions. And it seems like, for believers, there are contradictions at times too. Some famous skeptics even wrote books about what they said they saw as contradictions in the Bible. But how about when, on the one hand, we’re told to be soft hearted and humble, and then it turns around and says we are to be like soldiers. How can that work?

It is a question. But of course there are some clear and simple answers to this to be found within the Bible. So if you don’t mind to look at some Bible verses on the subject, let’s try to check this out.

Jesus said of Himself that He was “meek, and lowly in heart.” (Matthew 11:29) If ever there is anything that’s remembered about Jesus, it was His love, His humility, His tenderheartedness, his forgiveness. It was even noted in the writings of the secular Roman authorities how much the early Christians loved each other.

But did Jesus ever get angry? In one place it says of Him, “He looked about with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts.” (Mark 3:5) Jesus was angry at the hardness of heart He often found in the most outwardly religious of His day.

And Paul told the Ephesians, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another.” (Ephsians 4:32) The New Testament is just chocked full of admonitions to keep a tender heart, softened by the Lord’s love. And actually the Old Testament has a lot of the same teachings. “Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” (Psalms 95:7&8)

It’s pretty clear that loving kindness is essential and “a meek spirit is in the sight of God of great price.” (I Peter 3:4)

But some would say, “So Mark, does that mean that we are to just sit around being noodles and wimps!?! That’s what we always see of Jesus: sweet, weak limp Jesus. Is that really what you’re saying?! And if Jesus was so meek and humble, then why did He go into the temple of God with a whip and turn over all those tables (John 2: 14-16) where those folks were cashing in on the economic activity of the temple? Huh? Huh?“

Like I said, there are seeming contradictions in the Bible. Because Paul several times compared our lives as disciples to being athletes in training or even soldiers in at war. “Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” (II Timothy 2:3) Are we supposed to be hard or soft, tough or tender? Is it possible to be both?

It’s like I heard someone say one time, “Keep a soft heart, and a tough spirit.” That’s always stuck with me, maybe because it so clearly defines where we need to be soft and where we need to be tough.

In our hearts, we need to have and keep the loving tenderness that God wants each person to have. It’s just paramount, “the greatest of these is love.” (I Corinthians 13:13) It’s so easy to harden our hearts; it’s so natural, and it seems so justified. But it’s just not God’s solution and never has been.

But, on the other hand, our spirit, that essence of ourselves that is the real “us”, not just our minds and our thoughts but our being that lives within our bodies, has to be strengthen to be able to withstand the turbulent darkness of this world, the sacrifices, the blows that come against us and the tempests that beset us throughout our lives.

That’s why salvation is so essential. In Salvation, that union with Jesus when He comes into our hearts, our spirits are changed through union with Him. We’re not the weak, incomplete, wavering spirits that we were before. That’s why John 1:12 has always been so precious to me. “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believed on His name.”

That is in no way just some obscure Bible verse; that’s exactly what happened to me personally. I received a transforming power when I received Jesus. My spirit was changed. It was strengthened. It was transformed and it continued to be transformed.

So we so utterly need both of these: a soft heart and a tough spirit. Isaiah said, “No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper,” (Isiah 54:17) because our spirits have been changed into the new creature in Christ Jesus that He wants us to be. And He wants us and needs us to be fighters for Him, fighting with spiritual weapons to win the battles here that need to be won for His Kingdom.

But we still have to choose to “keep our hearts with all diligence” (Proverbs 4:23) , to keep a soft, malleable, broken heart for Him and for others; that’s what wants to see in us. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, Oh God, you will not despise.” (Psalms 51:17)

A Parable of Yogurts & Warm Milk

Posted on October 9, 2013 by Mark McMillion

Have you ever made yogurt? I used to do that 30 years ago in Vienna, Austria when my little family was together. It was easy. First you had a big pot of milk. But you had to heat it to just the right temperature. It couldn’t really be “lukewarm” (Revelation 3:16) but you didn’t want it scalding hot either. If I remember, it had to be hot enough that you could just barely keep your finger in it.

Then when the milk was the right temperature (maybe you had two gallons of it or 8 liters), you added just a spoonful of what was yogurt culture. Then we’d wrap it up on top of the heater and leave it all night as it stayed right at that “just right” temperature. In the morning I’d come back and it would all be changed. The tiny little bit of yogurt that I’d put in had “infected” the big container of milk and it had all become yogurt! Sometimes it was so good that you could put a spoon into it and the spoon would stand up because the yogurt was so thick and strong.

It was like the milk had gotten stronger. It wasn’t really “meat” but it was more than just “milk” (Hebrews 5:12). It had been “infected” for good by the little spoon of yogurt that had been put into the milk. It was now more valuable than just milk, it had been changed. Actually it had good bacteria to it, it was healthier and it contributed to your health more than when it was just milk. All that was needed was to get that milk just at the right temperature and then add that tiny “culture” of yogurt. The milk had gotten “culture”, refinement, improvement, fulfilling its previously unknown destiny.

Could it mean anything? It usually does; that’s what Romans 1:20 says. I really believe that so many “milky Christians” are ready for something to be introduced to them that can change them and make them better. This can be especially true if the have come to “the right temperature”, more than just “lukewarm” but not really scalding hot.

But what’s that yogurt culture? Well, I know quite a few former missionaries who are more than just milky Christians. So maybe they’re not strong meat Christians but they aren’t just milky either.

What could happen is, if these “yogurt Christians” (who are few, far between and some are feeling rather useless nowadays) could find a big bunch of milky Christians who are pretty warmed up and ready for change, if these little spoons of “yogurt Christians” could just get mixed in with a big bunch of pretty warmed up milky Christians, if they’d mix for a while and let things happen, pretty soon that process would happen, just like with yogurt. A little spoon of one or two of “yogurt Christians” could transform a big bunch of warmed up “milky Christians”!

Result? Progress all the way around. The yogurt Christians are no longer feeling alone, useless and “on the shelf”. The milky Christians go through a big transformation so they become more nutritional, valuable and “solid in the Lord”. It’s a win-win situation.

And actually I know more spoons of yogurt than I know large amounts of warm milky Christians. Are you a lonely spoon of yogurt? Why not try to find a way to reproduce yourself by searching out some medium hot milky Christians? Maybe if they’re already pretty warmed up and the setting is right, they’d love to turn into yogurt and be more than they were before.

OK, admittedly, back in Vienna 30 years ago, it wasn’t a foolproof thing that every night the yogurt converted the warm milk. The yogurt culture had to be pretty good. Most often the temperature of the milk had to be pretty constant throughout the night. That’s why we’d leave it on the heater overnight. It couldn’t cool off. But it couldn’t get too hot either. If either of those happened, the yogurt culture didn’t change the milk to yummy, thick, healthy yogurt. Instead, the milk changed the yogurt! We don’t want that. But most often it worked the right way.

Yogurts! Find some warm milk! Fulfill your destiny! Warm milks! Move further up the food chain! Solidify your convictions! Find out your inward potential and be stronger and healthier than you are right now! Accept change! Seek it out! You need each other! “Except a corn of wheat (or a spoon of yogurt) fall into the ground (the warm pot of milk) and die, it abides alone. But if it die (gets mixed into the warm milk), it brings forth much fruit. (Or in this case, more yogurt!)” (John 12:24).

What’s it to you?

Posted on October 5, 2013 by Mark McMillion

Jesus and Peter-1 flat Have you ever said that to someone, “What’s it to you?” Or maybe someone’s said that to you? It’s usually not considered a real warm, friendly way to talk to someone. But Jesus said that one time to Peter, one of His top disciples. Why would Jesus talk like that to someone? Let’s look at the context and see if we can find out.

This all happened after Jesus’ resurrection. In another blog article, I wrote about “He Said It Three Times” and this is part of the same conversation where Jesus said “What’s it to you?” (John 21:22) to Peter. He’d just told Peter three times to “Feed My sheep” (John 21:16), to teach and minister to the disciples and followers of Jesus.

And the very next thing the Lord said to Peter was, “When you were young, you fastened your belt and went where you wanted. But when you grow old, you’ll stretch forth your hands and another will carry you where you do not wish.” (John 21:18) And the Bible goes on to tell us that the Lord was signifying to Peter that, when he was old, he would “stretch forth his hands”; in other words, Peter would be crucified.

So this was a very important, significant conversation Jesus was having with Peter, all taking place after the Lord’s death on the cross and His resurrection. What was Peter’s reaction? The Bible says that the next thing was that Peter saw John, another of Jesus’ closest disciples, and so he asked Jesus, “What about him?” (John 21:21)

Sometimes you just wonder and marvel at all this. The love and patience of Jesus. The all-too-humanness of some of His disciples, perhaps especially Peter. Peter had just heard some precious, personal words from Jesus for himself. But it doesn’t come across that Peter really relished the moment and its significance. Instead he asked the Lord, “What about John?” In His mercy and longsuffering, the Lord even partially answered Peter’s question but then also added a chiding reproof.

Jesus answered Peter’s question about John this way: “If I will that he remains until I come back, what is that to you? Follow me.” (John 21:22) In that one sentence, Jesus left open the possibility that John the Beloved would remain alive till the return of Jesus at His Second Coming. History tells us that John lived perhaps another 60 years after this time, to extreme old age. And here Jesus was foretelling that John would remain long after the Lord had returned to heaven.

But then Jesus asks Peter directly, “What’s it to you?” “Why should that matter to you, Peter? Just follow Me.” Of course it should be said that there are different ways you can say that. You can say that phrase in a cocky, challenging way or you can say it in a kind but somewhat chiding way. I’m sure the Lord spoke that in a kind way. But why would the Lord talk to Peter like that, even if it was kindly said? Was Jesus finally getting fed up with all the boneheaded things Peter had done and said over the last 3 years? Patience was wearing thin? I think not.

which greatest flat Here are a couple of things that Jesus might have foreseen that He was trying to prevent happening to His disciples as He was about to leave them: comparing and jealousy. Even before His crucifixion, His disciples were coming to Him to ask Him which would be the greatest of them in heaven. (Matthew 18:1)

There’s just an inborn sinful nature of man to “compare ourselves among ourselves and measure ourselves by ourselves” (II Corinthians 10:12), as Paul later warned the Corinthians. Getting our eyes on each other, “which is the greatest?”, “who gets most?”, “do I get enough?”, “will someone get more than me?”, and “is that really fair?” It’s just so ingrained in us but is so contrary to God’s ways.

Basically Jesus was telling Peter to not look too much on how others were doing or what was happening or going to happen in their lives. “Just follow Me”, was Jesus’ bottom line to Peter. And perhaps this reproof hit home for Peter. It seems like Peter and John got along well and were never recorded in the later parts of the Bible as ever having any strife or competitiveness, although I’m certain that Satan would have loved to stir that up.

But what about us? There’s a message there for everyone, not to feel we have to measure everything against our own personal standards of what’s fair and “am I getting what I deserve?” Maybe you’re even in an “unfair” situation right now. Maybe people are treating you unjustly or you’re being taken advantage of. “What is that to you; follow Me.” The Lord said one time, “Vengeance is Mine saith the Lord, I will repay.” (Romans 12:19)

It doesn’t have to be fair right now. The Lord sees it all and we can be utterly sure, “all things work together for good to them that love the Lord.” (Romans 8:28)

To me one of the greatest samples of this in the Bible is Joseph. If ever anyone was mistreated and “it wasn’t fair”, it was Joseph. His brothers actually sold him as a slave! But years later, when he’d been shuffled and reshuffled by God to end up being “second in Egypt” (Genesis 41:43), he met up with his brothers again and they were certain Joseph would now pay them back for the evil they’d done.

But he didn’t. His heart was so right with God that he could say to them about what they’d done, “You meant it for evil. But God meant it for good.” (Genesis 50:20) One of the most amazing examples in the Bible of keeping your eyes on the Lord and not on people and circumstances and conditions. Seems like Joseph had already learned that lesson that Jesus shared with Peter nearly 2000 years later, “What is that to you? Follow me.” Joseph did that. And he ended up saving his family and nation. Lord help us all to keep our eyes on Him and not on anything else.

Reason? Or the Miraculous

Posted on July 14, 2013 by Mark McMillion

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against reason. Isaiah 1:19 says, “Come, let us reason together” says the Lord. And it says that Paul “reasoned” with the Roman governor, Felix (Acts 24:25). But let’s face it, the devil has gotten in somewhere with the whole thing about “reason” in more modern times. Because it seems like 9 times out of 10, when people talk about reason, the implication is that we should forget about the miraculous. “We should depend on our own reasoning”, they say, “our minds and our intellect.” The idea is that there really isn’t anything other or better or higher than that.

That’s a serious mistake. It’s “throwing the baby out with the bathwater”. Or letting the pendulum swing too far in the other direction. It’s like what Jesus said, “These ought you to have done, and not to leave the other undone.”(Matthew 23:23) In other words in this case, we ought to use our minds but not to where we reject the supernatural and miraculous intervention of God.

Our minds don’t have to be considered our enemies. (Of course the unbelievers would hoot and squawk immediately at that idea there, if we were to even think that our minds could be our enemy.) But in the same way that our bodies can be our enemies if we let our physical desires and impulses take us over, our minds can be our enemies if we let our “carnal mind” (Roman 8:6) take first place in our decisions.

It’s a big subject but really important. Many people have faith in God, but it’s like they say, “Let’s not take this thing too far!” “Let’s not think that God can do anything outside of the rational laws of science that we all believe in today.” This seems to be the often unspoken faith of multitudes. So they limit God by their minds. It ends up just being unbelief or a very limited form of faith.

But as God so succinctly spoke to Job around 4000 years ago, “Should it be according to your mind?” (Job 34:33) Things were going really bad for Job. He’d been so good, really, and he’d tried so hard, sincerely. But then it seemed all hell was breaking loose. It just didn’t make sense! It wasn’t fair! And he was right in many ways; it didn’t make sense and it wasn’t fair, according to the natural, normal way that most people in their natural reasoning would look at things. But in the end it all worked out, totally contrary to how Job saw things happening and he ended up being doubly blessed.

In Isaiah 55: 8 & 9 God says, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are you ways My ways. For as the heaven is higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Our natural reasoning and understanding might make it through some situations but those things totally fail at other times.

Thomas Paine, author of “The Age of Reason”

But “reason” came to virtually replace God long ago. “The Age of Reason”, as they called it. It looked pretty good and there were a lot of good points there. But what was the end result? In turning to exalt and embrace Reason, the miraculous, the supernatural, the living presence of God not only took a back seat, it was kicked out of the car and left by the side of the road.

It certainly was not through Reason that I came to faith in God. It was the miraculous. But how many people of faith, regardless of their religion, really are looking for the miraculous intervention of the God of Abraham in their lives in these times? For so many, their faith is subservient to their reason. And perhaps this is because they are partially ashamed of their faith and don’t want others to think of them as strange or out of line with modern times.

This is what I wrote about in “Will He find faith on the earth?” Jesus virtually predicted that at the time of His return, the level of faith in the world would be at a very low ebb. It was the utterly miraculous that turned me from an atheist to a believer, even before I became a Christian. And that wasn’t just something that happened long ago. You can read “God’s Little Miracles” to find a miraculous thing the Lord did in my life just a few months ago.

So I’m thinking about writing some articles on some of the things I’ve experienced personally, not stories from centuries ago but things that have happened to me personally, that hopefully will inspire faith in others to know that God is not dead or even sick. I think I’ll call them Angel Stories. Here’s one about an incredible experience I had where angels saved me from death when I pretty much deserved death at that time. It’s called “Lights on the Road”.

Faith in the miraculous should come first, before our reason. We need both to be well balanced. But the presence of God should have first place in our sight, not our own reasoning. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your path.” Proverbs 3:5 & 6

Dumbing down

Posted on June 30, 2013 by Mark McMillion

It’s one thing to be simple, but another to be ignorant and lacking understanding. It’s often so shocking, heartbreaking and infuriating for me to see in my home country the level of ignorance concerning the things of the Lord or especially the history of faith.

If I asked 100 Americans who Martin Luther was, I honestly believe over 90% would ask if I meant Dr. Martin Luther King. Here’s another example. I have some friends here with master’s degrees or doctor’s degrees and often I’ll hear from them that “Allah” is a moon god, an idol that the Arabs worship.

My reaction is exasperation and real sadness. Maybe it’s like when God spoke through Hosea to the nation of Israel some 2800 years ago, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you.” (Hosea 4:6)

And I’m not just talking about “taking God out of the schools”. I’m talking about a huge falling away from a knowledge of the significance of spirituality in the civilization of mankind. I was in my third year of university when I personally experienced that the God of Abraham was for real. Among my many emotions at that time was anger at how little I’d learned about anything having to do with the great changers of history who were not politicians, businessmen or scientist but were purely spiritual people.

I myself had no idea who Martin Luther was, the German priest who set in motion the Reformation in the 1500’s and changed the course of European history. Joan of Arc? Never heard of her. But an illiterate girl who herded swine “heard voices” in the 1400’s. And by obeying the voice of God, she ultimately led the armies of France to defeat their invaders at that time, the English.

And there’s so many more. Saint Patrick? “Ha, ha, ha! Let’s all wear green and get drunk”, most would say. But that man virtually alone changed the course of the history of Ireland, starting a wave of faith and devotion in what was a land beyond the edge of civilization at that time. Patrick’s influence continued in his followers for several hundred years, inspiring other missionaries in the next two centuries to go out to places like the darkest … no, not Africa but places like modern Holland, Germany and the rest of Europe to take the light and love of Jesus Christ and to turn those peoples to the Lord during the times called the Dark Ages.

Did you know that? I didn’t until I was way up into my adult years. But it was those spiritual people, people of faith who changed their generations, brought civilization and spiritual enlightenment to their times and neighbors and that’s why we have what has been called “Western Civilization”.

So there’s just this huge irony. We have smart phones, the latest apps, Google glass and every kind of advancement and technical innovation that our hearts could desire. But all the while, the gloom of ignorance and the lack of basic knowledge of the spiritual world increases like the armies of Mordor across the world. Even a knowledge that there is a God is less and less a part of the mentality of hundreds of millions of people in the “advanced” and “civilized” nations of the world.

It’s a sad, ominous, foreboding situation to observe. Hosea also said, “They have sown the wind and they will reap the whirlwind.” (Hosea 8:7) How can there not come a reaping and reward for society’s abandonment of God and our eternal foundations, for ignorance of the reality of the spiritual world?

I experienced it myself. I was brought up in a home that didn’t acknowledge a prayer-answering God. “Maybe there’s a God but He is way off somewhere. Don’t bother Him and He won’t bother you”, seemed to be the idea. So in my greatest time of trial and difficulty, I simply and truly didn’t know there was a God, didn’t know or understand virtually anything about sin, faith, repentance, submission, redemption or grace. These were all utterly unknown to me. It’s an absolute miracle of God that He somehow pulled me through that time.

How many hundreds of millions now are in just as much spiritual darkness and delusion, no matter how advanced the technical gadgets they have? May God help us to do all we can to share His light, spread His truth and to keep our candles burning in this time of billowing darkness that we live in, even though most are blissfully ignorant of their ignorance.

He said it 3 times

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Mark McMillion

God doesn’t waste His breath. He just expects, like a good Father, that if He says something, we’ll do it. But on rare occasions, He’s said something three times. So, probably, whatever He said was important. One of those places is in Daniel chapter 8, the chapter I’m making the next video on currently. But let’s start off with what’s probably the most famous example of the Lord saying something three times.

After His resurrection, Jesus was with His disciples beside the Sea of Galilee. They’d just finished a fish supper that Jesus had prepared for them and it says in John 21:15-17, “So after they had dined, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?’ He said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs’ . He said to him a second time, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?’ He said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.’ He said to him, ‘Feed My sheep’. He said to him the third time, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?’ Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And he said to Him, ‘Lord, You know all things. You know that I love You.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed My sheep’”.

That’s an amazing passage in Scripture. Jesus told Peter three times, “Feed My sheep.” It must have been important to the Lord that He did something that emphatic and insistent. Feeding His sheep, teaching, instructing, nourishing and guiding the Lord’s sheep, His flock of believers is obviously just as important as it gets in God’s eyes.

And strangely, another time in the Bible it says that Peter was told something three times from God, in no uncertain terms. In Acts chapter 10 Peter was in Joppa in northern Israel. Peter was the head of the growing group of believers who spread Jesus’ message and truth, after He’d ascended to heaven years before. Peter was on a house top, in prayer, when in a vision he saw a sheet let down from heaven with all kinds of “unclean” animals. The Laws of Moses gave strict rules for the Jews as to what animals were “clean” to eat, permissible, and which ones weren’t.

So Peter sees this sheet coming down with these “unclean” animals and then he hears God’s voice, “Arise, Peter! Kill and eat!” Peter, being a righteous Jew replied, “Not so Lord, for I’ve never eaten anything that’s unclean.” And the voice said to him, “What God has cleansed, you do not call common.” (Acts 10:13-15)

It says, “This happened three times” (Acts 10:16) and then the sheet was let back up to heaven. It sounds like Peter was arguing with God but this seemed so contrary to everything Peter thought was righteous. Then it says that immediately there was a knock at the door downstairs at the house Peter was at. And the Lord told Peter that there were three men there who’d come to see him and that Peter should go with them, “doubting nothing”. (Acts 10:20)

“What’s the big deal with that?” you might say. The big deal is that these men at the door were Romans, “Gentiles”. The Jews weren’t supposed to have anything to do with Gentiles and certainly not go to their house. But Peter went, as the Lord had so firmly told him. The result? Peter preached to a big gathering of Gentiles, telling them about Jesus and they all experienced the infilling of the Holy Spirit, just as the first disciples had in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2.

Nowadays it’s easy for us to not appreciate all this. But it was a very, very big deal at that time. Basically this event was when the Lord opened the door clearly to non-Jews to receive all the blessing and provision of His promises, breaking down the wall between the Jews and the Gentiles, making it possibly for anyone through Jesus to receive salvation through Him. But God had to tell Peter plainly and emphatically, three times, that this was of Him and that Peter should go and flow with it, “doubting nothing.”

In Daniel chapter 8 something similar also happened. In a vision, Daniel was by the river Ulai, in what’s now modern Iran, and the angel Gabriel was commanded to explain what Daniel had just seen, a goat and a ram clashing in battle and the goat conquering the ram. But there was more to it, much more, and Daniel tells us he just didn’t understand it. But the angel Gabriel then tells Daniel three times in two verses that “at the time of the end shall be the vision”. (Daniel 8:17-19)

Daniel chapter 8 is a somewhat difficult chapter to understand or even to teach. Prophecy teachers through the years have had some huge debates about parts of it and I’ve been in some of those debates. Some say that it’s all already been fulfilled. But then we can go back to the words of Gabriel, spoken three times to Daniel, “at the time of the end shall be the vision.” At the time of the end. And we’re not there yet. But we may be getting real close.

[Since completing this blog post, I’ve also completed the full video on Daniel chapter 8. That video in English can be seen here.]

When God says something three times, it’s important. Whether it’s to feed the flock of God, or to not call unclean what God has cleansed, or that the prophecies of God are going to have a future, endtime fulfillment, God thought those were important enough to say it three times. Lord help us to get the point, to believe it and act upon it.

Truth

Posted on May 26, 2013 by Mark McMillion

I was an atheist from the time I was 12 till I was nearly 21. An atheist who “shared my faith”. If I found any Christian (usually Protestant) friends during that time who had any conviction to stand up for their faith, I just loved to tie into them with all the good reasons why there is no God and that religion is baloney. They’d almost always start backing off on any stand of faith they might have timidly taken. The only kids I found with any faith that couldn’t be easily mocked were the Catholic kids. Anyway, that was a long time ago and I don’t mean to demean any denominations here. Things have changed in some ways since back then.

But I really wasn’t looking for God since He wasn’t there. “God, Jesus, Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, it’s all the same group!”, that’s what I always said. I was really a case. And it’s always sort of astounded me that I ended up being a believer and even giving my life to serve God.

But I’ve always thought, if I had anything going for me at all, it was that I just somehow believed there is the Truth somewhere. Growing up in central Texas, I looked for truth in some unusual places. I actually even tried reading Karl Marx, just to see if there was any truth there. It was too dense for me or I just wasn’t really at that level yet to even understand what it was about. I read about every book my folks had and they had a lot, they were authors and jornalists.

About the closest I could get to finding truth was in the music that began to change around the time I was 14 or 15. This thing about everything being “relative” and that “there really isn’t such thing as truth” never floated my boat. I just knew there was truth and as I got older, I looked for it more and more.

In the 1960’s people started looking for and talking about love. I told my girlfriend one time that I didn’t even know what love was. I really meant it but it also shocked me when I said that. I knew that wasn’t really a good thing and it gave me a brief glimpse of how bad off I was getting.

I guess, all the while, the Lord in heaven was watching me and leading my life or allowing it to go the direction it did. It got more messed up when I went to the University of Texas at Austin in the late 60’s. SDS demonstration I was on the ground floor of the massive social changes that went on there at that time, both the counter culture as well as the political movement. But all the while, my soul shriveled and my mind got more mixed up and into the darker side of life and even the spiritual world.

When I finally came to a knowledge of God and, a few months later, a relationship with Jesus, perhaps the greatest feeling was that I’d found the truth. When I read for the first time where Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6), it spoke to me so much. Jesus said that He Himself was and is The Truth. Later in the same book of John, Jesus said in prayer to His Father, “Your Word is truth.” (John 17:17) I had and still have such joy and fulfillment in the truth-filled writings of the Bible. It was pure, it was light, it was health to my soul and mind. I had to grow in love. I really almost had to learn what love was, I was so bad off. But the truth was there, just like wandering across a desert to find a clear lake of refreshing water.

Some places in the Bible there are words of endearment. We find people saying, “Abba, Father” (Galatians 4:6) or “the Lord or Hosts” or actually many different words that are used at special times to make Him seem nearer by calling Him some name that’s very special to the individual.

I’ll let you in on one of mine. When I am praying in a personal way to the Lord, sometimes I call Him Truth. If I’m praying to Truth, I’m praying to Jesus and God because They are Truth. And that makes it more special and intimate to me.

Maybe you have some special word or name with which you address God or Jesus at some special moment? You might think, “Oh I can’t do that, I have to say Father God or Lord Jesus.” That’s surely the place to start and there‘s nothing wrong with that.

But if you’ve come further along in your relationship with the Lord and you sometimes have some special word or name you use, just like you might do with your parents, or kids or mate, I’m pretty sure that it’s fine. He wants to be near and dear to us all. For me, sometimes I just call Him Truth.

Certainty

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Mark McMillion

In our world, one of the most certain things seems to be uncertainty. Everything can seem elusive, a shadow or mirage that vanishes when we try to approach it. That’s why for me, the certainty that I have found in the life God has given me is one of the things I’m most thankful for.

Here are some incredible words of truth. If you’re a skeptic or atheist, this may be incomprehensible to you. But for those with a personal knowledge of the God of Abraham, they are glistening truths. It’s from King Solomon, from around 900 BC. He said,

“Have not I written to you excellent things in councils and knowledge? That I might make you know the certainty of the words of truth, that you might answer the words of truth to them that send to you?” (Proverbs 22.20 & 21)

Like so many passages from the Word of God, this is like a cluster of jewels, set in an ornament. But the word that stands out to me is “certainty”. What a priceless thing that is.

Most people have heard of “believing in God”. You’re supposed to do that, right? But what about that? Have you ever met someone and they said they “believe” in God? But you just had the gut feeling that they were pretty weak in whatever they meant by “believe”. Actually, “believe” in our times can sometimes mean not much more than “think”. People can say “I believe so” when you asked them a question.

Well, sometimes people have that kind of faith. Jesus asked one man if he believed that Jesus could do the miracle he’d asked Him to do. The man said, “Lord I believe, help my unbelief.” (Mark 9:24) And the Lord did, He healed the man’s son. Maybe that’s why it says of Jesus, “A bruised reed He shall not break or smoking flax He will not quench.” (Matthew 12:20) Jesus didn’t condemn and cast out that man because of his admitted wavering between faith and doubt.

But that’s not the condition the Lord wants us to remain in. More often the word “believe” is used in the Bible. But sometimes another word is used, “know”. In English this is a much stronger word and it’s what the Lord wants us to have. In I John 5:13 it says, “These things have I written to you that believe on the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe in the Son of God.”

At the beginning of Luke’s gospel, when he was explaining why he was writing it, he said, “It seemed good to me… to write to you… so that you might know the certainty of the things in which you have been instructed.” (Luke 1:3 & 4) Not just “believe” but “know”. That’s the kind of certainty He wants us to have and that we can come to have in Him.

What’s the difference between the belief of “believe” and the certainty of “know”? If you “know”, you’re no longer wavering. You might get tempted to doubt. The temptations of doubt might fly over your head like dark evil birds. But you shoo them away; they never make a nest in your hair. You don’t give place to the devil to entertain alternatives to the truth you’ve been given from God.

It doesn’t make you strident and dogmatic because you also have the fruits of the Spirit which are full of love, humility and kindness. But it’s like Peter said, you’ve been “stablished, strengthened, and settled”. ( I Peter 5:10) Like a marriage, you aren’t looking for anyone else. You’ve found what you were looking for and you’re “complete in Him” (Colossians 2:10) because you are complete in His truth.

And it’s a wonderful thing. In a sense, you really aren’t searching anymore. At least you aren’t searching for the truth because you know you have found it and it’s found you. Maybe that’s why it says that we have “peace that passes understanding”.(Philippians 4:7)

Some things are just over. Paul said “I know whom I believe and am convinced that He is able to keep me against that day”, ( II Timothy 1:12) a day of temptation or confusion or seeming despair. But he didn’t say he believed in that verse; he said he knew.

In this world of confusion, a world without absolutes, a world where atrocities grow grosser and more prevalent every day, it’s wonderful that the certainty we have in the Lord is like that rock that Jesus said we could build our houses on. Not on the shifting sand of this world and its knowledge and values. But on the eternal truths of God and the certainty that we have in Him. Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away but My Words shall never pass away.” (Matthew 24:35)

Certainty. Absolutes. Steadfast eternal pillars and beacons that we have from God to guide us through the shadows of this life and into the boundless beauties of the eternal world to come.

Red lights and the Sabbath

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Mark McMillion

I was out for a walk. I think it was a Tuesday. I had so much to do that it was really weighing on me. In Nehemiah it says “the people had a mind to work.” (Nehemiah 4:6) I guess I’m like that sometimes. I have so many things that I feel I need to do and they all seem to be within God’s will and the way He is leading.

But sometimes I don’t take a break. Or I have to make a conscious effort to do so. Also, I am not one who is really feeling bound in a legal sense to “keep the Sabbath”. Paul said “One man esteems one day above the other, another esteems ever day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.” (Romans 14:5)

So I don’t have a real big thing about not working on Sundays. And I had worked the rest of the afternoon Sunday after I got back from church. But I wasn’t feeling really good. I just couldn’t understand why. I was thinking about all I had to do as I was walking down the sidewalk towards the park.

I finally just shot a quick prayer up to the Lord to please help me and give me some hint or nudge as to what was wrong. Immediately my attention was drawn to a bright red lawn ornament in a yard I was passing. It was the only thing red in the whole scene I could see.

I didn’t get it. So I “thought” to the Lord, “What does that mean?” Again immediately He turned my attention a different direction and down at the end of the street was a bright red stop sign.

“Stop.”

“Oh. I get it. You want me to stop. You don’t want me to keep putting my shoulder to the bolder, to take up my cross, to lay down my life and to keep sacrificing and getting things done for You. You want me to take a day off. It doesn’t matter if a bunch of stuff doesn’t get done today. I can do it tomorrow. Maybe I could have even just taken the day off on Sunday like You were talking about on the mountain with Moses. OK, I get it. Yes sir; good idea.”

And this has happened before. I’m one of those who don’t believe we are still under the Laws of Moses. If you want some real controversy, start getting into that subject. This may mean I’m an Antinominalist. But I’ll need to do some more theology reading before I’m sure about that.

But what I’ve found is that there are all kinds of good reasons and wisdom in the Old Testament law. Yes, I eat pig. But I sure want to know it’s been overseen by government regulations or I might get trichinosis. Pig was considered unclean in the Mosaic Law and there were oodles of requirements and commandments which all had a huge amount of wisdom and reason to them. So many of them were quite scientific as well, even though back at that time they might not have had the knowledge that we do now.

I’ve learned though experience that “if you don’t make an offering, sometimes God takes a collection”. If I don’t just take a day off once a week, I end up really getting run down and tired in the next few days. When the Communists took over Russia, they tried to institute a 10 day working week, instead of 7, just to get more labor out of everyone. But it didn’t work. We just seem to have some kind of inward clock that says we need to knock it off after around 7 days. Even if we are no longer under the binding legalism of the Mosaic Law, we ignore its wisdom at our peril.

Well, thank the Lord for the operation of His Holy Spirit. On that walk, the Spirit was there to answer my prayer and even use the only red things that I could see, first the lawn ornament and then the stop sign, to get through to me that it was time for a day off.

If you’re feeling you are no longer under the law of Moses and you’re a “free man” now, you’d still better watch out if you ignore the wisdom and will of God. You’re safest if you are operating with the directions of the Holy Spirit. Then you may still be able to be guided by the Lord. And that’s really what it’s all about. “If you be led of the Spirit, then are you not under the Law.” (Galatians 5:18)

Mark McMillion

Creeds and Deeds, Facts and Acts

Category Archives: Insights and personal views