April 30, 2006

Why did God deliver the Ten Commandments at Sinai with fear-inducing thunder, lightning, earthquake, fire, an ominous trumpet blast, and a death boundary around the mountain? (cf. Ex. 19:16-19).

Did He frighten Abraham when He delivered to him the New Covenant? We read that He melted Abraham’s heart with the revelation of His love and wrote the Ten Commandments upon his believing heart (Gen. 12:2, 3; 15:1-7; Gal. 3:8). Why this awesome display at Sinai?

Before Israel left Egypt He gave them the same Good News He had given Abraham 430 years earlier, but the people didn’t listen (Ex. 6:2-9). Then at Sinai He renewed the promise He had made to Abraham (19:4-6). But the people in unbelief invented for themselves the Old Covenant idea of disregarding God’s promise to them and substituting their own to Him (vss. 7, 8).

Paul in his Letter to the Galatians appears on stage as the first Israelite to discern the meaning of Israel’s history: “the law.... was added [or emphasized or underlined] because of [their] transgressions, till the Seed [Christ] should come to whom the promise was made” (3:19). They thought able to do everything the Lord said to do, so now He had to impress on their minds their helplessness to obey and their need of His much more abounding grace. In Paul’s words, “the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came [in everybody’s personal experience], we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the [Ten Commandment] law was our tutor [“schoolmaster,” KJV, disciplinarian, policeman) to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith” as Abraham was (vss. 22-24).

Thus “the law” led Israel on that long detour of ups and downs in their history after Sinai. Finally, instead of believing as Abraham did, they crucified their Messiah; but now we have the opportunity to believe!

You and I don’t need another long detour; let’s “believe” today as God intends we shall!
 

April 28, 2006

When you even begin to appreciate that the Ten Commandments have become ten promises, life becomes a constant springtime, a mountain-peak experience. Yes, it means you will never fall into sin.

It means that the Good Shepherd has found you, the lost sheep, and is bearing you (present tense) on His shoulder back home (Luke 15:3-6).

It means that the Lord Jesus will hold you by your “right hand,” telling you over and over “Don’t be afraid!” (Isa. 41:13).

It means that on the unknown pathway of life “Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it’ whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left” (Isa. 30:21). That “word” won’t necessarily be an audible Voice; it’s a “word” that the ears of your soul will hear distinctly. Talk about a new navigation system for your Lexus! Believe that truth in the Preamble to the Ten and you have that system built-in to your soul from now on.

If you’re a teen, that’s a huge burden lifted from your heart; you wonder what you’re going to do in life, or who you’re going to marry: your Navigation System will guide your every step.

If you’re an old person, you can look back and sing Hallelujah that the dear Lord has already held you by the hand and saved you from innumerable pitfalls, the most horrible of which is the “dominion” of sin (Rom. 6:14; have you ever thanked the Lord that He saved you from prison?).

A galaxy of New Covenant promises is in Ezekiel 36: “You shall be clean.... from all your idols,” you are given “a new heart,” there’s “a new spirit” installed within you, the old “heart of stone” that has plagued you all your life, removed, the Holy Spirit is placed “within you,” and your greatest joy becomes “walking in [the Lord’s] statutes” (vss. 25-27).

April 27, 2006

It’s true: if we read the Ten Commandments with New Covenant eyes, they become ten promises of right living by faith. But how does this transformation take place?

It’s not motivated by fear (the standard though popular Old Covenant motivation). Rather, “the grace of God that brings salvation to all men has appeared,” “grace [which] abounded much more” than all the sin Satan could throw at us (Titus 2:11, Gr.; Rom. 5:20). It teaches us “that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age” (“in this present world,” KJV). Grace becomes our tutor in a New Covenant school, actually trains us in total obedience to God’s holy law. And the tutelage is a joy all the way.

But how does “grace teach” us? Titus 2 explains: “Our.... Savior Jesus Christ.... gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed....” (vs. 14):

(a) Long ago, before the foundation of the world, Christ as the Son of God “gave Himself” in a solemn covenant with the Father that if sin should ever arise on earth His love would constrain Him to give Himself, that is, to die for us.

 

(b) Laying aside all the advantages and prerogatives of divinity as He became incarnate in the womb of the virgin Mary, Christ grew to manhood as one of us (though still the Son of God “in the likeness of sinful flesh,” Rom. 8:3), and now again He pray to His Father, “Not as I will but as You will” (Matt. 26:39). That “not as I will” included His human (as well as divine) will to live; the “death” on His cross was the real thing. No thought of resurrection crossed His mind as He cried out, “My God, why have You forsaken Me?” He “poured out his soul unto death,” the second and final, everlasting one. “The Saviour could not see through the portals of the tomb. Hope did not present to Him His coming forth from the grave a Conqueror.” His emptying Himself was total (cf Isa. 53:12; Phil. 2:5, 6).

 

(c) Grace is undeserved favor; when it’s of Christ, like love, it constrains to total devotion to Him (2 Cor. 5:14, 15). The old fear is forgotten.

April 26, 2006

If you memorize the Ten Commandments but omit the Preamble, you have a stern code of law, Old Covenant in nature. If you permit the Preamble to be where God spoke it, you have a New Covenant set of Ten delightful promises.

The Hebrew scholars tell us that the “Thou shalt nots” are the simple future tense indicatives; believe this and you will never steal, for example (the Enron execs would have been saved from disaster had they known and believed the Preamble). “Adultery is a trap—it catches those with whom the Lord is angry,” says the Wise Man (Prov. 22:14, GNB). Believe this Preamble, and you will never fall into that pit, says the Lord. (Is that ever Good News!)

What does the Preamble say? It’s New Testament, New Covenant, Good News:

“I am the LORD....” That holy name of infinite mystery; the Israelites were afraid to say it, but now we know He is “our Father in heaven” (Matt. 6:9), your intimate best Friend who’s on your side.

“Your God....” He’s yours; He actually gave Himself to you.

“Who [past tense] brought you out of the land of Egypt.... ,” in other words, out of darkness of soul. The Father brought you into the light; the Son has saved you from hell, having taken the darkness of your second death; and the blessed Holy Spirit ministers the sunshine of grace upon your soul 24/7.

“Out of the house of bondage.” “Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace” (Rom..6:14; sums up the Ten Commandments!). Christ redeemed you before you were born; the Father accepted you then “in Him.” As He gave Esau the birthright, so He has given you the gift of salvation (Heb. 12:16, 17; Gen. 25:34; Rom. 5:15-18). The Holy Spirit is telling your heart about it—don’t despise or sell it.

Now, believe the Preamble.

April 25, 2006

There is to be in Washington a great convocation the first Sunday of May in celebration of the Ten Commandments. In anticipation, various versions are being published. In our ever present hurry to condense, we humans have devised one version that entirely omits the second commandment (forbidding “to bow down to graven images”) but splitting the tenth to make up the coveted “ten.” Protestants vigorously oppose this version.

Another truncated version of the Ten Commandments omits most of the fourth, leaving humanity helplessly adrift in identifying the Lord’s day (or Sabbath day). This will probably become the favorite version celebrated that first Sunday in May.

But there is another version that has suffered a more sophisticated and therefore more clever mutilation: it faithfully reproduces the “ten” but omits the Preamble. But the Preamble is expressly declared in the original to be part of “all these words” that “God spake” (Ex. 20:1). Leave out the fluff, is the idea; let’s get to the real stuff—the “obedience” that God requires under pain of consignment to hell.

But.... leave out the Preamble and what you have is an Old Covenant code of law. The “I am the Lord” is the Lawgiver, but the idea of His already being a Savior is muffled. Face it, the Old Covenant is immensely popular, both outside the church and inside; Old Covenant ideas are what we humans naturally gravitate to. They have been our obsession for 6000 years. There’s an almost irresistible gravitation of thought toward the idea expressed as “obedience.” The deception is fantastically clever because obedience is indeed required; but the deception lies in the idea that hard work and painful self-denial will produce it.

This particular truncated version is the favorite used for children to memorize. They are imbued with Old Covenant ideas from their kindergarten years. Read the Preamble; grasp what it says. Maybe we can look at it tomorrow, the Lord willing.

[Robert J. Wieland's book, A New Look at God's Law: How the Ten Commandments Become Good News, points us to the importance of the Preamble to the Ten Commandments—that the Lord has already brought us out of the land of Egypt. In addition to the Introduction ("The Powerful Good News of the New Covenant"), ten chapters, one on each of the commandments, bring these ten "promises" out of the darkness of legalism into the sunlight. Timely reading for the current discussions on the commandments. Available from: Glad Tidings Publishers: (269) 473-1888; www.1888msc.org.]

April 24, 2006

How do we explain baptism to children? In order for it to be meaningful they need to understand.

What is the great pre-requisite? “He who believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mark 16:16). Believes what?

Paul’s explanation in Romans 6 (“we are buried with [Christ] by baptism into death”) is connected with Romans 5; that’s where he makes clear what to believe. It’s this:

(a) The love that God has to us “while we were still sinners” (vss. 5-8).

(b) We were “justified” by His dying for us (vs. 9).

(c) He died because of our “offences” and was raised again for us to be declared “justified” (4:25; the key thought).

(d) The “wrath” that we are “saved from” is not the Father’s (vs. 9; He loved us so much He gave His Son for us! Some modern translations insert what is not in the original Greek). The idea that the Father is mad at us and Jesus pacifies Him is not biblical.

(e) The Father didn’t need to be reconciled to us; we were reconciled to Him (vs. 10). The apostles “implore” us to let our angry hearts be reconciled to Him (2 Cor. 5:20).

(f) From now on life is “joy” (Rom. 5:11).

(g) Adam passed on to us our fallen, sinful nature; but the much more abounding grace of Christ is “out of all proportion” to the evil that Adam did to us (vs. 15, NEB).

(h) Over and over Paul says that what Christ did for us is the “gift” of salvation—not its mere offer (vss. 15, 16).

(i) The “believing” that Jesus says is necessary for baptism is a heart-felt thanks for this “gift” (6:1-13).

(j) Children can appreciate the love of Christ.

April 22, 2006

Have you ever wondered why Jesus asked John to baptize Him? Wasn’t He sinless? Wasn’t John sent to baptize only people who had repented? (Matt. 3:11). Why this anomaly?

True—Jesus was totally sinless.

True—John was sent to baptize sinners only, and then only if they repented (pastors have no right to baptize people who have not repented!).

When Jesus asked John, he “forbad Him” because he knew He was sinless (vss. 13, 14). It makes more sense for You to baptize me, John said.

As Matthew writes, Jesus gave John a Bible study, extensive, thorough. He explained how the Father had sent Him to be the Lamb of God. As sinners at the sanctuary placed their hands on the head of an innocent lamb and transferred to it their sins, so Jesus was taking upon Himself all the sins of the whole world, “made to be sin for us, who knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21), “made a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13). He put Himself in the place of every sinner, took the guilt upon His own heart (it wasn’t the nails in His hands and feet that killed Him).

Carrying this load, Jesus experienced repentance in behalf of every sinner. Without joining in our sin, He felt how every sinner feels. He prayed for us all, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” So terrible was the weight of our sin that He hardly felt the physical agony of the crucifixion. He was terribly tempted to conclude that His Father had forsaken Him. That cry of despair was no TV actor’s script: “My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” The death Jesus died was the equivalent of our second death (read Psalm 22). He didn’t go to sleep “three days and three nights; “Christ DIED for our sins” (1 Cor. 15:3, 4), was resurrected from the DEAD, not from mere sleep, went to hell itself in order to save us from hell itself (Acts 2:27).

All this Jesus had to explain to John, until the prophet could see in Him “the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world” (as he said the next day, John 1:29).

The repentance Jesus experienced in our behalf was not personal, for He had no sin of His own. It had to be a corporate repentance. As we grow closer to Him, we identify with Him. We learn that we have no righteousness inherited by our DNA; the sins of others would be our sins—but for the grace of a Savior, and then we can forgive others as we have been forgiven by Him. We will be like Him—experiencing a corporate repentance.

April 21, 2006

How can we believe in “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” unless we also are loyal to “His wife,” who must “make herself ready” for “the marriage of the Lamb”?

Can we trust “the Lamb” (which means the crucified Christ) if He ultimately suffers shame and defeat in His nuptial choice? We read in Revelation that “the marriage of the Lamb” has been long delayed for the obvious reason that “the Lamb’s wife” has not yet “made herself ready” (19:1-8). “The Lamb” wants to return in His grand second coming, and “take [her] to [Himself], that where [He is, she] may be also” (see John 14:3).

There is no shame a man can suffer quite as painful as to be “stood up” at his wedding. All the guests have assembled, and to his embarrassment the woman he loves is a no show; she is not “ready.”

Why? She proclaims loud and clear that she doesn’t want to say “I do.” What will they think of him as a bridegroom? He may be great in his career whatever it is, but failure to win his bride is an embarrassment he can never overcome. Is our “Lamb of God” unable to woo and win the “woman” of His choice? What reason can she have for not making herself “ready” except that she has not been “won”?

That’s “her” problem, and He cannot force her to “make herself ready.” When Abraham Lincoln gave Mary Todd a ring inscribed, “Love is eternal,” he was recognizing the nature of true love; Christ’s love for His Bride-to-be is eternal—He can’t flippantly select another; He doesn’t dare compromise in the eyes of the world and of the universe the very nature of love itself.

Faith in the Lamb of God must also require confidence that “His wife” (His church) will “make herself ready” through accepting the gift of repentance appropriate for her (cf. Acts 5:31). Don’t give up on the church!

April 20, 2006

The Bible is clear (Mal 4:5, 6):

(a) “Says the LORD of hosts,.... I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD....” That means now.

(b) His main agenda: not beheading modern “prophets of Baal,” but “turning” hearts in a grand, cosmic ministry of heart-reconciliation.

(c) “He will turn the hearts of the fathers,.... and the hearts of the children....”

(d) The greatest “heart” that needs “turning”: the heart of “the Lamb’s wife”-to-be, His church (Rev. 19:7, 8).

(e) The “Lamb” (which means the crucified Christ) loves her and wants to marry her, but she has delayed “the marriage of the Lamb” by remaining un-ready as a Bride, alienated in that deeper conjugal maturity. Egocentric concern has been her primary motivation.

(f) That means that “she” is holding back from the total surrender of heart appropriate for any bride to give to her husband-to-be.

(g) In other words, the “Lamb’s” wooing has thus far been unsuccessful.

(h) The greatest “prophecy” of the end times declares that she (His church) will repent as a Bride, give her heart to Him in a corporate, nuptial love. This surrender of heart worldwide will release the pent-up Hallelujah Choruses of all eternity when she “makes herself ready” for the “marriage” (cf. Rev. 19:1-7).

(i) This being un-ready has involved the Bride-to-be in shameful, painful rejection of the Bridegroom, which has naturally humiliated Him. She, not He, has created a cosmic lovers’ split.

(j) Thanks to “Elijah’s” ministry, a healing of her heart must and will come. It will be the “repentance of the ages.”

(k) Those who would be loyal to the Bridegroom-to-be will also in deep contrition remain in the loyal fellowship of the bride-to-be. They will fulfill Hosea’s appeal to “plead,.... plead” with her (cf. 2:2, 13-15, 17-20).

April 19, 2006

Who was Moses? How would he fit in with our 21st century world? Could he relate?

These questions are not irrelevant because he is alive, somewhere. “The dead in Christ” are all asleep, awaiting the first resurrection at the second coming of Christ (Rev. 20:6; 1 Thess. 4:14-17; John 5:28, 29). But Moses was granted a special resurrection (Jude 9)! He would doubtless have been granted translation without experiencing death as Enoch (Heb. 11:5), but Moses brought shame and disgrace on the Lord by losing his temper at Kadesh (Num. 20:7-13). In anger he struck the rock twice to bring water to the people rather than speak the word as the Lord had commanded him. In so doing he had given the people the impression that he—not the Lord—was providing their water.

But after he was especially resurrected, one would think that Moses would be lonely in heaven (for human companionship, except for Enoch and Elijah who were translated), for all the others who have believed in the Lord are “asleep.” But surely God would give Moses something meaningful to do to relieve his celestial boredom. And we have a brief glimpse in Matthew 17 of his assigned work; God sent him to minister encouragement to the Savior of the world in the conference on the Mount of Transfiguration (vss. 1-3).

Moses had an experience that enabled him to come close to Christ. His heart had been “enlarged” (cf. Psalm 119:32, KJV) in his appreciation of the sacrifice of Christ. He was qualified to minister to Christ. He and Elijah shared this deeper insight so that the two of them were sent on this unique errand. In his love for God’s people (“the church in the wilderness,” Acts 7:38) Moses asked for his own name to be blotted out of the book of life if thereby he could save Israel (Ex. 32:32, 33). That is a rare love—it’s agape! It motivated Christ.

The love that Moses knew did not precede the love that moved Christ; Moses learned it from Him, for Christ was first. But what’s important is that he did learn it! He opened his heart; he did not resist it. Moses had a point of intimacy with Christ. He was qualified to attend the conference on the Mount and speak words of encouragement to Jesus. Thank God that he did!

April 18, 2006

In 1906 the Titanic disaster was still some six years away; but now historians say that San Francisco’s pride and joy, the Palace Hotel, was the Titanic of that day. Built ostensibly to be earthquake proof (San Francisco had known past quakes), in only a few hours on April 18 the Palace was ruins. When the people saw it burn, they knew that their beloved city was doomed. The fire was worse than the quake.

Why would a God of love permit such a horrendous disaster? The death count was close to that of our 9/11 (there was no Al Qaida to blame, only God). Now, a century later, the seismologists warn that another big quake is due anytime and very little preparation has been made for it.

When we stop to reason, we can begin to realize that the pride and greed of man made the 1906 disaster worse than it needed to be. Previous quakes had destroyed much of the city (1864, 1898) and the resultant rubble had been dumped in the Bay, only to create new “land” on which more city had foolishly been erected. It was lethal building land. Every square inch seemed valuable for putting buildings on; even dirt that filled in lakes was built on (it also liquefied in the quake). California was booming and San Francisco was where wealth came easily. Money for building seemed unlimited. Heaven was being built on earth. And God was pretty well forgotten. Let’s not forget Him today.

He has indeed promised to create “new heavens and a new earth,” but not before the second coming of Christ. The earth is fragile like an old garment worn out (Isa. 51:6); God has not promised to re-create those earthquake faults now, nor stop the formation of hurricanes and tornadoes now. But He has promised to care for those who “dwell in the secret place” of prayer with Him (Psalm 91), and are “content.... having food and raiment” though living among popular extravagance (1 Tim. 6:6-9). If God calls you to live and work in the equivalent of “San Francisco,” do so as a missionary.

April 15, 2006

God declared to ancient Israel that one day in their year was of superlative importance: “the day of atonement.” That one day was of life-or-death significance, for it prefigured the final Day of Judgment. If any Israelite had failed to observe the day of atonement as the Lord had said, he was “cut off,” expelled, forever.

But of course, all this was “typical,” not antitypical. In other words, it was a sandbox children’s “toy” that was designed to carry their minds forward to the grand finale of human history. According to the time-prophecy of Daniel 8 and 9, we have now been living in the great, antitypical, solemn, cosmic Day of Atonement for no less than 162 years!

What did it mean for the Israelites to “afflict [their] souls” on that “ceremonial sabbath,” to do no work (close their shops, no money-making, etc.), on that day? On that one day only of the year they were required to fast! It was to be a day on earth like that final “day” when we all “appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Cor. 5:10). The answer is simple: on that one day in the year, they were to be at-one-with God, to think as He thinks, to feel as He feels, to look upon life and upon the world and upon the universe, as He looks. In other words, to be reconciled to, and with, Him.

This Day of Atonement is for the whole world! Paul says, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5). That’s it: to welcome the “mind” of Christ, the mind of God, to think as He thinks, to feel as He feels.

The ultimate finale will be “the marriage of the Lamb” when His “wife hath made herself ready” (Rev. 19:7, 8). No, it’s not a day of terror but of love-union. Christ invites His people on this Day of Atonement to “sit with Me on My throne even as I overcame....” (3:21), in other words, share with Him executive authority in bringing to a successful close the great controversy between Christ and Satan. “Atonement”? A Day of At-one-ment is what brings a wedding to its consummation, then two lovers become one—forever.

To become “one” with the Son of God is to feel toward Iraq, Darfur, and the oppressed of the earth as He feels toward them, to share His heart burden, to “help” Him bear His burden! It’s to grow up, out of our child-mind status.

April 14, 2006

It seemed strange to me that during my 24 years of service in Africa, a mysterious question frequently cropped up in question and answer periods: “Why is Judas Iscariot so universally execrated when he was simply doing what the Bible says he had been ordained to do? For example, one year before the cross, Jesus had said, “Did not I choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?” (John 6:67). Wasn’t Judas’ betrayal predicted in Psalm 41:9 (John 13:18)? How could Judas help himself if long before he was even born it was prophesied that he should do this evil deed?” These questions troubled me; on which side of the “great controversy” did these questioners really stand?

My African brethren long ago knew nothing of what is now touted as “The Gospel According to Judas Iscariot,” the current media rage, except that they seemed to share a widely rooted subterranean sympathy for the Betrayer. The spirit of Judas Iscariot was “enmity against” Jesus, the open demonstration of what Paul says is by nature true of all of us when he says, “The carnal mind is enmity against God” (Rom. 8:7). All during Judas’ association with the Twelve, he was secretly trying to foment rebellion against Jesus, although for a time he was not himself conscious of his true spirit. Apparently he joined with the Twelve in the missionary journeys and even succeeded in casting out devils (Matt. 10:5-8; Luke 10:17, 18—a solemn disclosure—a servant of Satan can cast out Satan and work miracles!).

God’s foreknowledge is something He cannot help having, but it is not fore-ordination. God foreknew what Lucifer in his rebellion in heaven would become, but God did not program Lucifer to become the devil, or Satan. Luicifer himself chose to become what he became. It was the same with Judas Iscariot; the erstwhile disciple had what all of us have—freedom of choice. Like all who will at last be lost, he was a new “Esau” who had been given the precious “birthright” of eternal salvation but chose to “despise” and “sell” it.

Judas allowed something very prevalent and very modern to finally possess his soul: the love of money. Treasurer of the infant church, he allowed himself to become a thief (John 12:6) until he lost control and sold his Lord for the price of a slave (Ex. 21:32).

The story of Judas reminds us how easily we can switch sides in “the great controversy between Christ and Satan.” Oh Lord, save us from ourselves!

April 13, 2006

If you possess more of this world’s goods than you really need, the Lord loves you so much that He warns you to dispossess yourself of excess before it’s too late. “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days” (James 5:1-3).

No one in heaven will condemn us; condemnation will be self-evident in the “corrosion” of our “gold and silver” that we will at last abhor. This is a pitiful trap to fall into—the self-deception of a fancy house or luxurious car, or the smug content that our net worth can afford anything we desire. I had a personal visit once with the king of Uganda when it was still a British Protectorate. We met in the private home of one of his personal friends. He himself drove his Rolls-Royce to the appointment. I remember that during the visit he volunteered to express appreciation for my gospel-ministry for the Baganda, saying that “our problem is materialism.” Later he had to flee the luxury of his palace for refuge in England. Yes, he would have been happier living in secure peace in a mud house with only a bicycle. He was a good man caught up in the “misery” of wealth and power, as the apostle says.

Yesterday’s Sacramento Bee has a pathetic picture of the face of Jacques Chirac under the headline, “France fearful about future.” The camera couldn’t help but capture reality: a good man whose heart is “failing [him] from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven will be shaken,” says Jesus (Luke 21:26). For you and me, says Paul, “having food and clothing, with these we shall be content,” “for we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out” (1 Tim. 6:8, 7). And let’s be ready to walk away and leave everything—“content” to walk arm in arm with Jesus.

April 12, 2006

Nearly a billion Christian people have been taught the popular idea known as “the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary,” a doctrine taught nowhere in the Bible. Sincere but mistaken “Fathers” in early church history thought they could make converts faster from the pagan masses in the Roman Empire if they could adapt the popular pagan beliefs into “Christian” thinking. This was one of them.

The wildly popular winter solstice festival of December 25 became “sanctified” as “Christmas,” despite the illogical, irrational denial of Christ’s birth being when there were “shepherds abiding in the field [camping, sleeping on the ground], keeping watch over their flocks by night” (Luke 2:8).

The pagan idea of a natural immortality of the human soul was welcomed into the early church despite the obvious contradiction of the great fundamental truth that “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3), which He could not have done if the soul is naturally immortal.

The idea that the mother of Jesus was given the grand exemption of being conceived “immaculate,” that is, did not receive the DNA that every human being has received genetically from the head of the human race, this the Roman church welcomed. They refused to believe that she had the normal nature or “flesh” of the fallen Adam, but decreed for her the supernatural gift of a nonexistent sinless flesh or nature. In so doing, they excused her from the battles with temptation to sin that all the rest of us have.

But why take such pains to create this minor non-biblical exemption?

The real purpose: to “create” a “christ” who likewise was exempt from inheriting our DNA from Adam; “he” too as the son of this re-invented  “Mary” must be “conceived immaculate.” This plastic “savior” looks beautiful in stained glass cathedral windows, but has no heart relationship with human beings, never having been tempted as they are.

Another pagan festival adopted is the spring holiday of Easter. The divinely appointed memorial of Christ’s resurrection is not the observance of any day, but it’s baptism by being “buried” in the water (Rom. 6:3-5), not “sprinkled”—which again defies logic. Jesus warned that any idea not from the Bible, although taught by any church, is doomed (Matt. 15:9-13).

April 11, 2006

Almost everything that has to do with AIDS is bad news, but the latest is distressing: the Washington Post reports that “President Bush’s global AIDS plan.... to promote abstinence and [marital] fidelity is causing confusion in many countries and in a few is eroding other prevention efforts..... The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR.... encourages abstinence until marriage, [and] being faithful thereafter.” There is “widespread support” for this “ABC” program in the 20 countries that want help in combating AIDS, but “program managers [are] worried” that requirements that 2/3 of spending go to “stop sexual transmission of HIV must be used for promoting abstinence and fidelity” is considered counter-productive.

“Abstinence until marriage and fidelity thereafter” is a fruit of the love of Christ in action, and is a blessing from Him to all people of the world. The love of Christ binds two human hearts in one so that in God’s plan promiscuous sex becomes abhorrent and even impossible for those whose hearts are moved by that love of Christ. Government money, even President Bush’s, cannot take the place of the proclamation of that love. God has entrusted that mission to His church on earth. If “God so loved the world that He gave” His only Son to save the world, it follows that He plans that His church proclaim the message that tons of government money cannot effectively duplicate.

There are two “Christs”: The true One, whom the Father sent in the likeness of sinful flesh and on account of sin,.... condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us....” (Rom. 8:3, 4); the one whom Christ Himself called “false” (Matt. 24:23, 24) who did not “take” our fallen nature upon His sinless nature and therefore could not “in all points [be] tempted like as we are tempted (Heb. 4:15), and who can do nothing more for us than to “pardon” us IN sin rather than save us FROM sin. God hasn’t given the task of preaching the true Christ to government, but to the church. Let’s do it!

April 11, 2006

The Lord Jesus Christ surprised everybody, shocked them, when He said the opposite of what people expected to hear: “Blessed [happy] are the poor in spirit,.... blessed are those who mourn,.... blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,” etc. (Matt. 5:3-12).

His specialty is comforting the “broken-hearted” people (Psalm 34:18). If you are looking for Jesus, trying to find Him, remember that “the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth” (Eccl. 7:4). “The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit.”

He has plenty of such people to be “near” to. Like the young people who must die of AIDS before they have begun to live—multitudes are “broken hearted.” Some have brought the misery on themselves through sexual promiscuity; if they are “contrite in spirit,” they can sense the Lord is “near” them, too. If, as are many, they are innocent victims (for example, faithful wives of husbands who gave it to them), the Lord Jesus feels for them in a special way. He suffered innocently on His cross; He felt “forsaken” of God, crying out, “My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Read Him in Psalm 22.

Does Jesus merely pity these distressed people? Or does He actually “comfort” them? He promises, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” When they lie down alone to die, He is near to them. “He gives His beloved sleep” (Psalm 127:2). Those who believe we are living in the great Day of Atonement (heart-reconciliation) are blessed by the ministry of “Elijah the prophet” who reconciles alien hearts everywhere (Mal. 4:5, 6). Join him in his reconciling ministry! Give someone some Good News.

April 10, 2006

What did Jesus accomplish on His cross? The light that will yet “lighten the earth with glory” (cf. Rev. 18:1-4) will make it clear to every honest heart. It’s a self-humbling truth that is cataclysmic.

In John 12:47 He said He didn’t come to pronounce condemnation on the world, “but to save the world.” “God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:17). So the Father sent Him to save the world; that was His allotted task.

In 17:4 He claims He accomplished the work the Father gave Him to do. He did not say, Father, I tried to save the world, I did the best I could do, but they wouldn’t let me do it! I gave everybody the offer of salvation, but the majority wouldn’t have it! Sorry!

No, He said, “Father,.... I have finished the work which You have given Me to do,” I brought it to completion. And in His last breath on His cross He said, “It is finished, ” the work is done, complete. To that last breath He had “condemned sin in the flesh,” said “No!” to self, as our “last Adam” (1 Cor. 15:45); He had reversed what the fallen “first Adam” did to the human race, and transformed his legal condemnation into a legal “verdict of acquittal” (cf. Rom. 5:15-18, NEB). Christ built a bridge over the chasm sin had made for the human race, and rejected the most awful temptation Satan could invent—the temptation to despair when He felt the curse of God to its uttermost, “My God,.... You have forsaken Me!” (read Psalm 22 all the way through—there’s the story!). For every human soul Jesus made despair unnecessary and obsolete.

He (a) “saved the world,” or (b) He only tried to? Let’s believe Him when He tells us what He did.

And if He did, then He saved you—five things, says Paul in Ephesians 1: “blessed” you, “chose” you, “predestinated” you, “adopted” you, “made [you] accepted in the Beloved” (vss. 3-6). The “us” means the whole world, you. When at the Jordan John baptized Jesus, the Father proclaimed Him “My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17; fine). But you must believe that He also threw His arms around you! You can resist and reject all that He did for you through the awful sin of unbelief. Respond to Him, thank Him! Pray, “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief!” (Mark 9:24).

April 7, 2006

Something unusual has just been published in our small town local newspaper: a high schooler in English class wrote a piece about the love which is agape! It’s entitled, “Time to express some selfless love”:

“While sitting in English class.... we were discussing a recent boiler topic..... It seemed the whole class agreed that there really is no deed that is.... selfless..... No act done by man is ever unselfish..... [But] there are rare occasions where completely unselfish and self-sacrificing acts of kindness are performed.... agape..... It seems that people who donate to the Salvation Army their clothes do it more for the tax write-off rather than.... this selfless love [which] is extremely rare..... But that does not make it non-existent..... Acts of agape love do not have to be a big deed that is almost miraculous-like.” (This girl learned about agape from C. S. Lewis.) But she didn’t tell us where to learn agape!

John says that no one who has not learned to love with agape could be happy in heaven, because he doesn’t “know God” (cf. 1 John 4:7, 8, 17; at the gate of the New Jerusalem we’ll be asked one question—have you learned to love with agape?). Agape love has been revealed and demonstrated to the world in Jesus (vs. 9). Salvation does not depend on us loving God with agape, but on our receiving His agape into our empty hearts (vs. 10; Rom. 5:5). Peter wisely declined to claim that he loved Christ with agape (cf. John 21:15-17, Greek). What’s important in God’s sight is for us to love somebody else, not Him, with agape (1 John 4:11, 20)!

Paul prayed for us that we might “comprehend.... the width and length and depth and height [of] the agape of Christ” (Eph. 3:14-19). Those are the dimensions of Christ’s cross! Do the “comprehending” (one writer suggests it takes an hour a day to “behold”), and the agape love will “constrain” you to selfless living which brings honor to Jesus (2 Cor. 5:13-15). It doesn’t have to be so rare!

April 6, 2006

The story of Saul, the first king of Israel, next to that of Judas Iscariot, is the saddest in the Bible. The problem was initially the fault of the people. They had demanded of God that He give them a king like all the nations around them. God selected the best man available in the nation. The prophet Samuel anointed him, and all went well for a time. He proved to be politically and militarily a success.

When the Lord directed him to take a step that would establish Israel forever a secure nation, that is, to annihilate the Amalekites, King Saul disobeyed, and lied. Patiently, the Lord tried to help him, but he became stubbornly rebellious. Then the Lord did the most terrible thing He can do to any man or woman—backed off and left Saul to himself. Sent no lightning bolt from heaven to destroy him, just turned His back and walked away.

But God could not forsake Israel. They needed a king whom the Lord could be with, so He instructed Samuel to anoint young David.

Saul yielded his soul to become insanely jealous, and “the anointed of the Lord” persecuted young David. But he still respected Saul as such. (David believed what wise men say today, “if you can’t respect the man respect the office he holds.”) A few people believed in David and supported him; but the youth bore a heavy burden: Why was “the anointed of the Lord” against him? Could it be that the Lord also was against him? Had he misinterpreted Samuel’s very humble “anointing”? Could he trust the “Spirit of prophecy” of his day when absolutely everything was stacked against him?

David’s nadir came at Ziklag in a disaster that seemed to say he was totally forsaken of the Lord. His own few men talked of stoning him (see 1 Samuel 30). The Lord had to let David suffer being apparently forsaken, else he would never have been able to write Psalm 22! The Lord did appear to leave him; but in his anguish, David did the right thing—which you and I must do: “David encouraged himself in the Lord” (1 Sam. 30:6). In principle, it’s what the future “Lamb’s wife” will do when she “makes herself ready for the marriage of the Lamb.” It’s something the Lamb cannot do for her, and this was something the Lord could not do for David at Ziklag. There was a choice David himself had to make, something to do himself—believe!

April 5, 2006

It’s one of those early mornings when I cannot sleep; wish I could. But the story (parable) of the Good Shepherd is on my empty heart (Luke 15:3-7). It’s raining and it’s cold, nice to snuggle up in a warm bed; the office is outdoors, but finally I get up and go out and pray, “Father in heaven, please fill my empty heart by ‘pouring in’ afresh the agape-love of Christ for I don’t have a drop left from yesterday (Rom. 5:5). Grant me a morsel of “the bread of life” that I can share with some unknown “friend of mine on his journey” (I don’t know who, far out there around the world) “is come to me..... and I have nothing to set before him” (Luke 11:6; it’s not literal “midnight,” but a little past). Let me be a lowly pipe through which a few drops of “the water of life” can flow to a thirsty heart (John 7:38).

The Good Shepherd keeps seeking for His lost sheep “until He finds it” (Luke 15:4). That’s up to when he/she takes that last breath; the lost one may be entangled in hopeless briars and underbrush and has long given up any thought of being “found.” The Shepherd braves the storm, the darkness, the precipices, Himself wounded in His searching; what the lost “sheep” needs to do is just cry in the darkness—He will and must hear. You can’t free yourself, you are hurt; but you must do the most difficult thing you’ve ever done in your whole life—you must believe (1) He loves you with a seeking, never-giving-up- love that is divine, (2) that “this man receives sinners”—you.

You must believe He actively forgives you; He was “made to be sin for you who knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21), He has “chosen” and “adopted” and actually “predestinated” you to be saved eternally (Eph. 1:4, 5). The thunder rolls through the mountains and the lightning flashes, but the Shepherd cannot go home to rest until He brings you with Him.

Think about Him instead of yourself; He needs a little joy—forget your own. Give Him the joy of “calling together His friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with Me, for I have found My sheep that was lost.” Somehow in the process it will rub off on you, “Enter into the joy of your Lord” (Matt. 25:21).

April 4, 2006

We are soon to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The Smithsonian Magazine of course has run a special. An article tells about the heroic efforts of Frank Leach and his workers who had water and hoses and managed to save the U. S. Mint when vicious flames melted the window glasses and started eating on the woodwork inside. All the gold in the basement was saved, and the great building (the granite was popping due to the intense heat).

But that’s not the point of this little article. Yes, “a city of 400,000 was flattened by a wallop of nature,” the Katrina of that generation. “An estimated 3000 people died as a direct or indirect result of the quake and the fires that followed. More than half of San Francisco’s residents were left homeless.” The Smithsonian article also rivets home a gospel truth.

A tiny group of survivors plan to celebrate, come the centennial. Frances Duffy, 11 months old at the time, appreciates her good fortune. My belief system, she says, “is that if you can survive something like that, the rest of life is gravy.” That’s our point today.

The fact that you can read these words is evidence that you have survived something whereas others, just as worthy, did not. Every one of us is a survivor of the death that is “the wages of sin” (Rom. 6:23). If the Father had not loved “the world” and given His Son to take upon Himself its “wages” of death, we would all be in an eternal grave now.

Wise, thoughtful people, pause in life’s busy tempo and ponder that. For them, “the rest of life is gravy.” No matter what our pain or affliction might be, it takes on a meaning that invests life with heart-lifting joy. We are co-laborers with the Son of God, partakers with Him of His sufferings (1 Peter 4:13). The little group of centenarians who will celebrate April 18 at 5:12 a.m. can teach us all to celebrate the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by yielding our lives and all we have to Him who died for us. Living such a life “henceforth” is “gravy” (cf. 2 Cor. 5:14, 15).

April 3, 2006

The Bible is clear: there are three people from Old Testament times who are in heaven today: (1) Enoch, who “was translated that he should not see death” (Heb. 11:5) for he had “walked with God” (Gen. 5:24). (2) Moses, who was almost translated but who had to die on Mt. Nebo but was specially resurrected by “Michael, the archangel [Christ]” (Jude 9). (3) Elijah, who was also translated without seeing death (2 Kings 2:11). All the others in OT times who died are “asleep” in their graves awaiting the first or second resurrections. Some were resurrected when Christ was resurrected (Matt. 27:52, 53).

Moses and Elijah were sent on that special mission to converse with Jesus before His crucifixion (Matt. 17:1-5).

But why is Elijah, and not Moses or Enoch, sent to “us” before “the great and dreadful day of the Lord” (Mal. 4:5, 6)? Ancient Israel was the corporate “body” of Christ in Elijah’s day and they had fallen into a grievous apostasy without knowing it; the True Witness” says modern Laodicea (also the corporate “body of Christ”) has also unknowingly fallen into a serious state of “you know not” your true condition before God and before the universe—a condition of pitiable “nakedness” of soul (Rev. 3:14-21).

Elijah had had a unique experience of contending with the Baal worship of Ahab’s day; it seems obvious that the Lord has sent “the prophet Elijah” to lead out in our struggle today with modern Baal worship. This struggle is unmasked in the message of the three angels of Revelation 14:6-12 that prepare a people to meet the final test of the mark of the beast and the close of probation.

Whether Elijah will direct this struggle personally, we cannot say; the message of John the Baptist accomplished that same work just before the coming of Christ the first time. Now, just before His second coming, the same bold exposure of Baal worship must be proclaimed—“come out of [Babylon], My people,” God says. “Elijah” will be loyal to the church, but loyalty also requires fidelity to truth, humbling as it may be. Let’s be sure we know the Holy Spirit personally, how to recognize His presence, and how to tell when He is absent.