Daily Bread  -  September, 2007

by Robert J. Wieland

This is not flattering news; and some might just not like it: we are ALL the famous “Prodigal Son” of Jesus’ parable in Luke 15.

Some might grudgingly admit that much, but the blockbuster truth is this; his pigsty is our natural habitat.

A pigsty is not a nice place to live in; and this sinful, rebellious world is not a nice “home” for any of us. The living word which has power within it says, “Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Rom. 12:2). That’s the same as a “mind transplant.” A wise writer summed up the matter by saying that anything, good as it may be, that causes us to “forget God” is the path of death.

The remedy: a “mind transplant.” Pretty heavy surgery.

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5). Yes, the word means “purpose,” but that’s what our word “mind” really means: “I have a mind to do this or that ...”

The Lord Jesus, working through the Holy Spirit is trying to give us that “transplant” if we will not resist and oppose Him. “LET this mind be in you ...”

The entire ministry of eternal salvation is a LET it happen work of the Lord who accomplished the salvation of the world when He died our second death on His cross; but the world (to date) has chosen not to LET Him do it.

So, there is “a great controversy” between Christ and Satan raging in every human heart.

Even when we think at last we have attained, there comes the call of the Holy Spirit, “LET this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus ...” In “Pilgrim’s Progress” John Bunyan wisely wrote that at the very gate of the New Jerusalem there is a tunnel that goes down to hell. “Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12).

Does the mighty Holy Spirit, the third Person of the infinite Godhead, the “Comforter” whom Jesus promised would come and sit down beside us and never leave us (“Parakletos”),—does that mighty Power who is greater than the world itself, ... does He concern Himself with the trivialities of our mundane day-to-day living?

Specifically, does He concern Himself with our deadly addictions to unhealthful food?

As the Comforter, He is the Friend who “sticketh closer than a brother” (Prov. 18:24); it’s difficult to drive Him away for He is loathe to abandon anyone. The Holy Spirit is a Person who can be grieved away but if He must leave us it is in unutterable grief to Himself.

Slavery to appetite begins in childhood, often with candy or ice cream being given as a reward or “comfort” food; the innocent child thus learns a terrible lie—that “comfort” comes not from the Holy Spirit but from sweets.

We say that the addict cannot smoke another cigarette or take another drink or indulge again in drugs, without the Holy Spirit pleading with him (her) personally, “No, don’t do this!” The addict has deafened his ears and just doesn’t “hear” the appeal. But the love of the Savior is real, nonetheless, seeking to save us from ourselves. He tries and tries.

The addict is the Prodigal Son sitting in the pigsty day after day; he cannot forget the prodigal love of the father. Blessed is the hour when he stands up, stomps his feet, chooses to hate the pigsty, and declares, “I will arise and go to my Father ...”

He will say “No! No!” to this selfish appetite that has become a part of his being, and he will say “Yes! Yes!” to the true Comforter of his soul! (Cf. Luke 15:18).

“Oh, it’s so difficult,” self says; and yes, the Prodigal Son can’t do it without a Savior who “set His face to go to Jerusalem” to His cross (Luke 9:51), to die there the world’s second death. Christ was human as well as divine; the internal struggle was so intense at that moment that He summoned all His strength of will to begin that journey that He knew must end in the goodbye-forever-second-death. Every sinner in the world must re-enact that hour of utter commitment of soul; “the love (agape) of Christ constraineth us,” not craven fear, but a heart appreciation of the price which the Son of God had to endure so He could save us from hell itself. Jesus had to “overcome” in that act when He “set His face.”

We too “follow the Lamb wherever He goes” in the choice to “overcome even as [He] overcame” (Rev. 3:21). Don’t get childishly obsessed with your “reward.” Think of your blessed grown-up fellowship with Him.

The dear Lord has been leading His people in preparation for their role in the last days. Just before His crucifixion, He assured them His going “away” would not mean they would be deprived of His holy presence, for He said, “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.” The word in the original language means the One called to come and sit down beside you and never leave you—the Holy Spirit. Jesus also said, “He will guide you into all truth. And He added, “I will come to you” (John 16:7, 13).

Thoughtful people in all ages have believed that this promise was partially fulfilled in the gift of “the Revelation of Jesus Christ.” That last book of the Bible has raised up a people who are unique in that they are designated as “the remnant ... who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ,” again, as “the saints who keep the commandments of God.” They are not legalists for they keep “the faith of Jesus” (14:12).

The symbolic language of Revelation is a blessing; the full knowledge of what the book tells us would be greater than the Encyclopedia Britannica could hold, but a special angel is designated as the one who “signifies” the truth in the book (cf. 1:1), whose job is to make the precious truth so simple and clear that even a child can understand, as a kind of divinely inspired cartoon.

One precious “key” to unlock its truth has been the year-day principle in understanding the prophecies of Revelation and of Daniel. In God’s symbolic language of prophecy, a symbolic “day” means a year of literal time. This truth was clarified and established in the chapter that Revelation devotes to the rise of Islam—chapter 9.

In 1838 a thoughtful Methodist pastor put the idea to a severe test. In Revelation 9:15 God designated the linear time for the Islamic Ottoman Empire to remain independent and powerful is “an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year.” Litch studied Gibbons’ Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and history, and concluded that understood as symbolic day-for-a-year language, the Ottoman Turks should voluntarily surrender their independence on August 11, 1840—two years in the future. A “day” = a year; a “month” = 30 years; a “year” = 360 years; an hour = 1/24th of a literal year, that is 15 literal days. Total: 391 years and 15 days, stretching from July 27, 1449, to August 11, 1840.

He was brave and courageous to make the prediction; there was a remarkable fulfillment of the prophecy. It stunned Christians and even atheists, many of whom were converted. And forever established the year-day principle of understanding Daniel and Revelation.

Read Revelatio n 1:1-3 again. And thank God.

Ahmadinejad’s speeches at Columbia University and the U.N. were historic Islam. God has devoted an entire chapter in His Book of Revelation to the rise and impact of Islam on the Judeo-Christian world—the one in which we live.

Its role in history has been as a scourge on professed Christianity which has fallen away from the pure teachings of Christ (“apostasy”).

Revelation 9 is there for all the world to see; it makes sense. Just read it, the naked text. The Holy Spirit will begin to impress you with truth that we need to know.

Islam is “a star fallen from heaven” which has “opened the bottomless pit” whence has emanated “the smoke of a great furnace “ darkening “the sun and the air” (vss. 1, 2).

Only in the light shining from the books of Daniel and Revelation can Islam be understood. Apostate Christianity is symbolized in Daniel as the “little horn” of chapter 8 which exalts itself up and up “even to the Prince of the host,” absorbing and lifting up within itself the paganism that was the religion of the Roman Empire; the result: the most massive deception ever to afflict planet earth.

The book of Revelation puts a name on the whole monstrous confusion: “Babylon.” It exposes before the world its fraudulent claims to the inspiration of God. Revelation cries out that “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen,” and pleads with every honest-hearted soul in the world to “come out of her, My people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues” (18:4). It’s the most solemn message heard in the world today.

The nature of Islam’s work as a scourge on the early apostate Christianity in the Roman Empire was exhibited in the tongue-lashing the West had to endure from the Iranian president yesterday. The world was listening.

If you would like to receive via e-mail a serious verse-by-verse Bible study of Revelation chapter 9, hit your “reply” key, and ask for it. May the Lord add His blessing, as He has promised to do in Revelation 1:1-3, if we either “read,” or “hear” someone read the book to us! (Many have deprived themselves lifelong of the blessing!)

When we wake up each new morning, we face bewilderment and confusion all over the earth. We humans cover the earth like little ants running around when you disturb them, and yet we humans are the family of God. We are created in His image; the glorious Creator of the vast universe left His high and holy place and became one of us. We are not “ants,” we are sons and daughters of God “in Him.” We are fellow-saints with Him engaged in the greatest struggle that has ever been waged in the universe—the controversy between Christ and Satan. We are not spectators at the arena; we are players on the field.

What’s happening around us is the closing scene of this titanic war between two “spirits”—the One designated in the Bible as “Holy,” and “the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience” who is inspired by “the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world” (Eph. 2:1; Rev. 12:9).

How can “the whole world” be deceived? Jesus says that so terrible will be the deception that it will come “on the face of the whole earth” like “a snare” (Luke 21:35). It’s happening now. But thank God, not everyone will be deceived.

Think what it was like when Jesus was born; the masses knew the inspired prophecies of the Old Testament or at least had ready access to them if they didn’t want to be deceived, yet how many recognized the Messiah when He came as a humble Baby in Bethlehem? Some did, but only a few.

So today; there is for sure “a remnant” (Rom. 9:27), “few that be saved” (Luke 13:23), who have learned the lesson of Bethlehem, who “walk softly” (1 Kings 21:27), who respond to “the still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12), that calls them in God’s word, who choose to believe every truth that the Holy Spirit teaches as “He guides [you] into all truth” (John 16:13), who “follow the Lamb [the crucified Christ] wherever He goes” (Rev. 14:5, 6), who are “with Him” as He takes His final stand in the struggle of the nations of earth (Rev. 17:14), who identify with “the Lamb” so closely that they penetrate His thinking and His feelings as a bride penetrates her husband’s deepest yearnings.

Amid earth’s clash of arms and the din of its endless traffic, LISTEN.

What’s wrong with fornication? In our modern world, temptations are terrific; can’t God just forgive? Is fornication really sin? Is it the same as adultery?

“Adultery” is sex or familiarity with anyone who is not your God-given, lawful spouse. Fornication is the same. Even if you are engaged and looking forward to marriage, not yet has the Lord given you that personal intimacy; it’s a gift with His blessing that comes only from His hand and fornication is prematurely taking it out of His hand, trying to force God to do your own will, not His. It’s the direct opposite of Jesus’ prayer in His Garden of Gethsemane, when He prayed, “Not as I will, but as Thou wilt” (Matt. 26:39). His whole human soul revolted against going to the cross because He knew that it meant dying the forever-second death, and it cost Him sweating blood to say No! to His own will and Yes! to the Father’s.

Seen in this light, fornication is crucifying Christ afresh (cf. Heb. 6:6). It’s denying what He died to establish: He wants you to have a truly happy marriage and solid foundation home that will lighten this dark world. Fornication loads you with guilt God doesn’t want you to have; it’s destructive of domestic peace.

God has placed the seventh of His ten commandment in the center of His holy law, like your heart, your most sensitive, valuable organ enclosed within the defense of your rib cage. No sword could penetrate your physical heart until that outer defense is first broken. Thus it’s impossible to break the seventh until you have first already violated the preceding six; and it’s impossible to find forgiveness for breaking the seventh until you find repentance and forgiveness for breaking those preceding six.

For example, it’s impossible to break the seventh until you have first broken the fourth—you have been violating the holy Sabbath first, cherishing unholy thoughts and purposes; and you’ve broken the fifth, for illicit sex is a violation of holy parenthood; and you’ve broken the first for you have made it your “other god” which you have placed before the one true God.

But there is Good News: come to Jesus just as you are, filthy with sin; He “receiveth sinners” (Luke 15:2). With His New Covenant gospel He transforms the ten commandments into ten glorious promises. This happens when you believe that Preamble to the ten—a reminder of what Christ has already accomplished on His cross to deliver you from “Egyptian bondage” (Ex 20:1, 2).

You will discover how “love [agape] is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. 13:10). That is what you really have been hungering for all this while!

The lady comes on stage with stark credentials: “A woman in the city, which was a sinner” (Luke 7:37).

You would think that such “credentials” would debar her forever from having any part to play in the story of Jesus.

But lo and behold, He has nothing but praise for her: “Verily, I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her” (Mark 14:9). Jesus said nothing so complimentary about any other human being! And yet she “was a sinner.” 

(a) This is virtually a command: we may think we’re preaching “the gospel” faithfully over and over, but if we’re not telling this story as at the heart of it, we’re shortchanging the people.

 

(b) This is the lady who came uninvited to “the feast in Simon’s house,” and impulsively breaking her alabaster flask of rare and expensive perfume on His feet, washed them with tears of heart-melting repentance.

 

(c) No words spoken; no theology expounded.

 

(d) She succeeded in riling up and angering Judas Iscariot who was in the process of betraying Jesus (cf. John 12:4-6). That in itself is a feat worthy of honorable mention in the gospel story! Having him against you is a compliment, because he was also against Jesus. In order to be Christlike, everybody must have some enemies, and blessed are you if the like of Judas are your enemies.

 

(e) “Blessed [happy, GNB] are you when they [people like Judas] revile and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake,” says Jesus (Matt. 5:11). That puts you into the upper echelon of heavenly “society.” (But wait a moment, please don’t rush out and try to make enemies for He also says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (vs. 9). Mary Magdalene was a full-fledged “peacemaker.” She had not a word of censure to speak against any of the Twelve; the censure was all theirs).

 

(f) Jesus turned everything upside down when He said that this woman “which was a sinner” had “anointed” Him to His cross (Mark 14:8). No angel in heaven had been given such a high honor, for none could have whispered comfort and encouragement to Him as He hung on His cross, as the memory of Mary’s deed imparted. It assured Him that He was not dying in vain, for she would be the first of such multitudes.

Devout Jews have been celebrating their day of atonement, Yom Kippur. Their concern on this day is to confess their sins, to be forgiven. It’s quite the same as devout Christians who also want to be forgiven and restored to the favor of God, except that the latter trust the Lord Jesus Christ to do it for them.

To this observer, nothing has come to light in Jewish Yom Kippur practice or thought that evinces a concern for the Lord Himself to experience a lifting of heart-burdens on the sacred day.

The concern is either self-centered, that is individualistic; or us-centered, that is, a concern for Jewry in general.

God is not thought of as Someone who Himself is desperately in need, and hungry for “at-one-ment.” The day of atonement is all one-sided: the people’s need is served, not God’s.

Christians in general are also self-centered. Our prayers are ego-centered; bless me, and bless my loved ones.

On one occasion, Christ’s disciples discovered, perhaps accidentally, a Christ-centered prayer. While He was talking with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, the disciples had gone to the local market to buy some kind of safari-groceries for them to eat, for they were on a long journey walking to Galilee from Judea.

“Master, eat!” they “prayed Him,” (KJV). You’re hungry; you must be faint from the long walking all morning. You need to take care of Yourself. Here, let us help You!

Jesus has seldom heard “prayers” like that, in reverse gear. But this “accident” opens up the possibility that serious-minded followers of Jesus can develop a new level of prayer-consciousness. It’s the same level as the Bride-to-be of Revelation 19:7, 8 finally “making herself ready” for the marriage of the Lamb; it’s something she does on her own initiative, and it has no egocentricity mixed in with it. The biblical agenda says it’s time for it.

In the excitement, the dear lady at the well completely forgot to give Jesus the drink He needed; that deprivation has been His for a long time.

When the disciples begged Him to eat, He told them that His “food” was the joy of winning souls to the Father (John 4:31-36).

Have “lunch” with Him!

This weekend millions of Christians around the world are studying the life of the prophet Hosea. He could be described as called to be a Super Pastor, his pastorate being the entire nation of Israel.

Anyone so called to be a pastor needs a wife who stands by his side as a “help meet,” a woman also “called” to be a pastor’s wife whose influence in the congregation is uplifting, encouraging spiritually to the people. Pastor and wife are a happy team in the service of the Lord.

The last kind of a wife the pastor needs to team with him in his divine calling is ... horrors! a prostitute!

And that was just the woman that the Lord permitted his unfortunate servant to fall in love with and marry!

Yes, Hosea loved this woman, whose name was Gomer. He couldn’t stop loving her.

A pastor and his wife deserve to have a love affair like other people enjoy; they are not frigid digits forced to be holier-than-thou’s on a diet of love denied. Hosea couldn’t help himself; an unfaithful wife to him is not like the pastor’s car breaking down—junk it and get a new one. You can’t do that if you love a woman, and Hosea was himself deeply wounded by love betrayed. He still loved the junk heap in the wrecking yard.

Nothing can hurt a man, wound him, tear him to bits, like the woman whom he loves and who has sincerely committed herself to him in love, turning on him and ditching him for another man. It tears him to bits inside; he never gets over it for “love is strong as death, jealousy is cruel as the grave; its flames are flames of fire, a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, nor can the floods drown it. If a man would give for love all the wealth of his house it would be utterly despised” (Song of Solomon 8:6, 7).

The point of Hosea’s story is that the Lord God of Israel has become a real man, incarnate in humanity; He loves as a man loves, with His whole soul. He is deeply wounded by His Bride’s infidelity.

The Lord was not letting Hosea be tortured for nothing. The Lord Jesus Christ is deeply wounded in His heart of hearts by the heart-fickleness of the “woman” whom He finds Himself in love with (He can’t help it!)—her name: Laodicea.

There’s a serious slump in home sales in America, threatening to engulf us all in a serious recession. Roman Catholicism offers desperate homeowners an idol to revere that is widely believed to bring you a sale: a “St Joseph” icon.

You bury this little image somewhere in the yard. And wait for someone to come and make an offer.

The Sacramento Bee reports that these little idols are flying off the shelves as anxious homeowners try to get out from under their huge mortgage loads by getting rid of their big houses they now realize are too extravagant.

The reason why the husband of the virgin Mary is chosen to inspire this supposed miracle is that in the Gospel of Matthew he is identified as a “carpenter,” a house-builder. Details are given: he has four sons, their names included: James, Joses, Simon, and Judas (not the Iscariot; 13:55). Joseph was a hard-working, humble peasant “teknon.”

The idea now is that “Joseph” is in heaven ready to bless those who revere him as a “saint.” The bottom line of course is the idea of natural immortality of human beings; the belief that Joseph is not dead. When his body died (the Bible makes clear that the real Joseph died before Jesus laid down His own carpenter tools and went to be baptized by John the Baptist, to began His public ministry), Joseph’s soul went to heaven, it is supposed, and works these miracles to strengthen people’s belief in natural immortality. But God has taken care to enlighten people with truth: the falsehood of natural immortality opens the door wide to Spiritualism and God would save us from this deception.

Enter the Book of Daniel, the book which Jesus singled out as especially worthy of our “reading” and “understanding” (Matt. 24:15).

In chapter 8 God sent to the prophet a heavenly angel who told him of the rise of a supposedly Christian power that imports a revival of pagan idolatry—the “little horn” (vss. 9ff). Paganism is described as “the daily” or “the continual in transgression” which is lifted up and exalted by the “little horn” (Heb., rum). Five times Daniel informs us of the career of this infiltrating paganism (8:11-13; 11:31; 12:11).

But there is glorious good news: in “the time of the end” (which is now, 11:35; 12:4), God will have a people loyal to His truth who will be “wise. They will shine “as the brightness of the firmament” and will “turn many to righteousness,” “as the stars forever and ever” (12:3). What a wonderful career to have in these last days!

There’s a job opening for people who cherish that faith—now. Wherever you are—work at home, by faith. God is calling; listen, and respond!

Not only are we living in what we have always said is “the shaking time,” but more than that: we are living in the time when everything possible is being shaken furiously.

Is there a sine qua non, an utterly necessary truth that must be held onto, even at the cost of life?

The Bible says yes! Clearly so, in 1 Corinthians 13:

“Though I [or anyone] speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not [the love which is] agape, I have become as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal ...”A brilliant mind and ready speech may cover a lack of essential truth.

This brilliant mind may explain the prophecies: “And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, ... but have not [the love which is agape], I am nothing” (vs. 2).

We have come to the time when 1 Corinthians 13 itself has become a prophecy!

Almost overwhelming in its power of deception is the moving of mountains “by [supposed] faith,” where this alarming lack is there (vs. 2).

And we can “bestow all [our] goods to feed the poor [in Calcutta? What more could you give?)], ... but have not love [agape], “ it’s again only vanity. This agape is deeper than giving “goods.” Or even giving physical life.

The apostle John agrees with Paul: he says that “God is love [agape]” (1 John 4:8), and “anyone who loves not [with agape] knows not God.”

Is there confusion? No, not a trace: this is the solid building block of Bible truth. It’s what Paul meant when he told the Corinthians, “I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). In other words, agape.

Obedience to the law is included, for only “agape is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. 13:10). So it’s not sentimental emotionalism; love is being crucified with Christ, with joy and gratitude for the privilege of fellowship with Him.

Isaiah (the “Gospel prophet”) gives us a precious insight into the daily life of Jesus in His incarnation among us. We read in the Gospels how sometimes Jesus would “rise up a long while before daylight He would depart to a solitary place to pray”(cf. Mark 1:35). Doubtless, it was on such an occasion that the Father gave Him, through the Holy Spirit, the “outline” for that magnificent Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7).

Jesus speaks of Himself in Isaiah: “The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to hear as the learned” (50:4).

(a) He didn’t need an alarm clock; the Father woke Him through the Holy Spirit.

 

(b) It was on these occasions that He was called to “go to school” where He learned to be so highly educated that His enemies asked, “How does this Man know letters, having never learned?” (John 7:15). In His incarnation, Jesus truly “took” our fallen human nature; as a Baby He had laid aside the prerogatives of His divinity and had to learn as all babies do; His mind at birth was a white page. His mother Mary taught Him to read the holy Scriptures; thence He took off on His own, to study. It was through His own experience that He declared, “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matt. 5:6). His own personal hunger and thirst for it were insatiable.

 

(c) In Isaiah He tells us of His own reaction to being awakened early in the morning to go to school: “I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.” One scholar translates Him “I didn’t pull the covers back over My head.” Teens aren’t noted for readiness to jump up early in the morning. But this One who was serious-minded was humbly responsive. The Lord has thousands of them today in readiness for when they understand the true outpourings of the Holy Spirit. They will be ready to lay self aside and cooperate with Him.

 

(d) But this does not mean that Jesus deprived His physical body of the rest He needed. He was not a gaunt, hollow-eyed, stoop-shouldered specter of humanity. He was the picture of vibrant health and energy. The same Lord who awakened Him “morning by morning” also says that He wants us to get adequate rest and sleep: “He gives His beloved sleep” (Psalm 127:2). Jesus was the picture of vibrant health and energy.

 

(e) He wasn’t trying to carve out a brilliant career for Himself to “arise and shine.” He was simply following the leading of His Father (who, incidentally, is our Father, too!).

 

(f) If you can’t sleep, get up and pray and study the holy Word; blessed are you if you can find sleep through simple prayer rather than through drugs.

This weekend millions of Christians around the world have been giving special study to the story of Elijah and wicked King Ahab and Jezebel.

The little lesson book states that Elijah walked into Ahab’s office and told him there would be no rain nor dew until the Lord chose to send it.

But the Bible says that the prophet told the king, “There shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to MY word” (1 Kings 17:1). Several translations agree.

It’s no big deal, but the Hebrew says “my word.” And in the New Testament, James agrees. He tells how the famine was Elijah’s idea: Elijah “prayed most earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months” ( 5:17). Elijah loved Israel and saw they were going down to utter destruction unless something should happen to wake them up. His love for Israel was actually a love for the plan of redemption, for God had chosen Israel to be His missionary nation to the world. Elijah’s love for Israel was the same kind as God’s love for them—a love mixed with discipline. It seems that God had entrusted the fate of the nation in Elijah’s hands.

The lesson for us is that again in the close of time God entrusts into His people’s hands in partnership with Him the bringing to a close the great controversy that has raged so long:

“To the one who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with My Father on His throne” (Rev. 3:21). That’s not just for snapshots to be taken; that’s to share with Him executive authority for bringing an end to the great controversy that has raged for so long. There will be thousands of “Elijah’s” all around the world (cf. Mal. 4:5, 6; maybe 144k?), whose hearts have at last become totally reconciled (at-one-with) Him in His ministry and in His plan of salvation.

Respect yourself as He respects you; you’re somebody important! You have something to live for.

The “shaking” is a Bible doctrine as verily as the other established doctrines. An early mention of it is when the reformer Nehemiah “shook [his] lap and said, “So God shake out every man ... who does not perform” his vow of “obedience” (5:13). The reformer wanted to see some “works” that would validate the people’s professed faith.

God will “arise to shake terribly the earth” (Isa. 2:19), He “will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of His fierce anger” (13:13). However this may come as a natural cataclysm we shall wait and see; but the basic idea of a “shaking” among God’s people is that the LORD is fed up with the hypocrisy of professed faith that is not validated by appropriate works.

The world itself is tottering in rotting immorality; the collapse of the Twin Towers on 9/11/01 is a vivid picture of the collapse taking place before our eyes of simple, basic decency. The collapse taking place in just the last few years is astonishing; before the “shaking” is complete, everything that can be shaken will be shaken. But there will be some truths that will remain unshaken.

And each of us is a microcosm of the world and the church being “shaken.” We watch astonished as some we knew who once professed a firm faith in biblical inspiration now cast doubts on it and spew Hindu ideas, even postulating reincarnation as a possibility, so desperate are they in trying to endure the spiritual famine that is raging in church after church.

Side by side with the “shaking” that comes on the church will be that famine: “Says the Lord God, ... I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. ... In that day the fair virgins and strong young men shall faint from thirst” (Amos 8:11-13).

We are there now. Someone wisely said that the time will come when we must gather warmth from others’ coldness; yes! That’s where we are now.

The warmth of the genuine Holy Spirit is given to us, through the Word (John 14:16, 17); He will not leave one hungry, thirsty, soul to perish. So, on your knees! Tell the Lord that you believe (but please help your unbelief!) to receive into your hungry soul those new covenant promises the Lord made to Abraham (yes, you are Abraham’s descendant if you believe the gospel; Gen. 12:2, 3). Then keep on believing what “the Spirit of truth” says, and enjoy your victory.

The Bible records the faith-journeys that God’s people take—some on cloud nine in joy, and others down in the “depths” where they are in despair and long for death (cf. Psalm 130).

There’s nothing we need to say to encourage those on cloud nine; they’ve already attained; fellowship with Christ there is very nice if you’ve already arrived.

But Christ Himself is not yet on cloud nine; He is still fellowshipping with the others: “To this man will I look, even to him who is poor and of a contrite heart, and trembles at My word” (Isa. 66:2). “Thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, with him [also, KJV] who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble [thank God for that!] and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. For I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry; for the spirit would fail before Me, and the souls which I have made’” (57:15, 16).

When we look to the Lord and we see the slightest frown on His face toward us, we feel like lying down and dying. Moses said, “We have been consumed by your anger, and by Your wrath we are terrified. You have set our iniquities before You. ... All our days are passed away in Your wrath; we finish our years like a sigh” (Psalm 90:7-9). That’s as far as Moses can go.

But Isaiah has that gleam of immense comfort for us: the dear Lord knows how frail we are, how easily we slide into those “depths” when we “cry to you, O Lord” (Psalm 130:1). To “revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones” is to save them from even wanting to die.

Our Lord and Savior went through that experience, for Psalm 40 is a Messianic psalm: this therefore is Jesus speaking: “I waited patiently (Heb, waited and waited and waited) for the Lord; and He inclined to me and heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay [the mud hole!] and set My feet upon a rock, and established My steps. He has put a new song in My mouth—praise to our God; many will see it and fear and will trust in the Lord” (vss.1-3).

Think how marvelously the Father fulfilled that promise to young Jesus: “many,” yes, the “multitudes” at the Sermon on the Mount, the world itself, has “seen it and ... will trust in the Lord.”

Not one tear you have shed is wasted; not one heartache was in vain. The Father regards you as being as precious to Him as His own Son; “many” will find the pure gospel of truth in your experience!

Celebrating, ... no, no! remembering 9/11, has been very painful. The most unimaginable horror to come out of “the bottomless pit” of Satanic cruelty, was that.

Yet we live in a world where 22% of its people are Islamic; as the Industrial Age dawned on us after 1798, we found that the bulk of our industrial lifeblood—oil—has to come from Islam. Enjoy your luxurious SUV, but remember whence it is propelled.

Has God overruled modern life to be this way? We fight bloody wars to control that oil.

God has devoted four chapters of the great book of Revelation to the “seven trumpets” of world history (8-11), one chapter of which is devoted to the rise and career of Islam.

We are introduced to Islam as “a star fall[ing] from heaven,” to whom is “given the key of the bottomless pit” (9:1). “And he [Islam] opened the bottomless pit” and there arose a smoke out of the pit, ... and the sun and the air were darkened.” The proliferation of early followers of Islam is represented as “locusts”(vs. 3).

Its divinely appointed destiny is made clear in verse 4: to be a scourge to apostate Christianity. Islam was “commanded” that it should “hurt ... only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.” Abu Bekr, Mohammed’s successor, strictly charged his armies not to harm consistent, loyal followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But in spite of mercy extended, “the rest of the men ... yet repented not” of their multitude of sins (vss. 20, 21).

Abraham’s foray into the unbelief of bigamy (with Hagar) gave Ishmael to the world; God was caught in a promise. He had to bless him, too for He had promised to bless all of Abraham’s descendants. Ishmael had a dual character, one side of which was “wild”(pereh, “like a wild ass, Gen. 16:12), evident in his descendants even today.

We can’t change world politics; but we can love human souls for whom Abraham’s Descendant, Christ, gave His life and His soul. When the light of the gospel lightens the earth with glory (Rev. 18:1), many honest Muslims will respond. May the Lord teach us how to tell the gospel to them! (Which will require that we understand it, too.)

The pure, true gospel, Paul’s “truth of the gospel” (Gal. 2:5, 14), is “everlasting” (Rev. 14:6).

But “our” comprehension of that “truth of the gospel” grows “more and more to the perfect day” (cf. Prov. 4:18).

Therefore we cannot truthfully talk of “Luther’s gospel” or “Wesley’s,” but we should speak of their “understanding” of it. It was too much for them at that time to become fully and completely “protestant.” They unconsciously or inadvertently carried with them some Roman Catholic doctrines such as Sunday sacredness (or Sabbath disregard), and natural immortality (though Luther did begin to grasp some of the truth there).

Protestantism figures in Revelation’s prophetic picture as the “church in Sardis” that “has a name that you live but you are dead.” The reason: the “protestant” part of “your name” is inconsistently pro-Roman Catholic still (cf. Rev. 3:1). The Protestant Reformation of the 16th century was a noble and Spirit-driven development of Christian faith; but it was incomplete.

Before “our” faith can grow to understand the “truth of the gospel” to “lighten the earth with [the] glory” of the angel of Revelation 18:1-4, we must divest it of any lingering trace of the great apostasy.

One such trace is the doctrine that Christ in His incarnation took the sinless nature of Adam before the fall so that He could not have been “in all points tempted like as we are” (cf, Heb, 4:15). Specifically the idea is that Christ in His incarnation could not have been tempted to break the seventh commandment which forbids adultery or fornication as we are tempted. This false idea has been the foundation for an immense horror of sexual immorality, because in one fell swoop as it were it deprives us of a Savior from that sin. Thus the “gospel” is shorn of its “power” to “save” (cf. Rom. 1:16).

“The light [that] shines more and more unto the perfect day” will be divested of every such idea inherited from the great apostasy, and will proclaim a Savior who “saves to the uttermost those who come to God by Him” (Heb. 7:25). No more broken hearts caused by adultery and fornication, or marriages poisoned by pornography! There is a heaven on earth in which people can go to heaven—if the love of Christ prevails.

There are millions of dear people as sincere as Mother Theresa was who are victims of a massive takeover of a professedly Christian church by paganism. The prophet Daniel (Jesus told us to study him especially so we “understand” him, Matt. 24:15) was given a vision of this historical process in his chapter 8; the symbolic language is easy to understand:

The inflowing tsunami flood of paganism is “the continual” or “the daily” which he saw is “in transgression” (Dan. 8:11-13). The Hebrew verb RUM describes how paganism was exalted, lifted up, as it incorporated itself into professed Christianity. (One author describes vividly what happened: “Paganism, while appearing to be vanquished, became the conqueror. Her spirit controlled the church. Her doctrines, ceremonies, and superstitions were incorporated into the faith and worship of the professed followers of Christ.” [1])

This takeover astonished the prophet Daniel; we can’t understand Mother Theresa’s problems without seeing what God showed Daniel.

The God of heaven is moved by all this unnecessary suffering; He has raised up a people who take the Bible and the Bible only as their “creed;” they are His servants commissioned to enlighten the world. They are symbolized by the three angels of Revelation 14 whose labor is finally extended by a fourth of chapter 18 whose augmented message will finally “lighten the earth with glory.”

But they have themselves suffered a massive tragedy in misunderstanding that fourth angel’s message; hence, the light God sent them in His great mercy has been kept away from the world.

But He is not finished with them yet; He will give the gift of repentance.

[1] The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan, E. G. White, p. 50).

Dear Mother Theresa poured out her life in doing good works for the poor and downtrodden of the Calcutta slums, all “in the name of Jesus Christ,” and yet she has left us her diary notes that say she was at the end of her life bereft of a personal joy in the Lord.

Can we learn something from her sad experience? Her religion was devout Roman Catholicism; she was the most notable “saint” or at least one of their most notable saints in modern times. She had renounced the joys of love and marriage, homemaking and motherhood, and ended life with no children of her own to comfort her in old age, no personal family. What more self-denial could the Lord of the Catholic Church have demanded of her? You would expect that He whom she served so very earnestly in repeated self-denial would give her assurance of His personal presence in “the joy of the Lord.”

But no, her diary is filled with laments of spiritual aloneness that a thoughtful atheist might sympathize with.

Is it possible that we Protestants may also live a “Day of Atonement” life of self-denial filled with even painful good works, and we end up dreadfully alone spiritually?

Jesus has cautioned us to think carefully: “many will say to me in that [final] day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? And in Thy name have cast out devils? And in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you” (Matt. 7:21-23).

We have long been told that the remedy for a sluggish spiritual experience is “get out and work for the Lord.” Hence mission trips have become a very popular exercise; a few weeks of do-gooding in a needy foreign land perk us up for another year and give us lots of pictures to show and stories to tell.

But is a multitude of good works a substitute for a living faith in a real Christ?

Can we learn something from dear Mother Theresa? Time’s up; maybe a bit tomorrow.

You are praying for the Lord to help you understand righteousness by faith. Very good; He will be happy to hear your prayer; that’s for sure.

But while you are praying, there is a pile of dirty dishes in the kitchen awaiting attention; very likely He will impress you to go do them first, and while you’re doing them you may remember other “work” that needs attention.

These words of Jesus may seem out of place: “If anyone will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine ...” (John 7:17). But the one little sermon we have from Mary the mother of Jesus is very appropriate: “Whatsoever He says to you, do it” (John 2:5). The dear Holy Spirit is always busy convicting us of sin.

A thousand times over we must insist that “salvation is by grace, through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Eph. 2:8, 9); but we must remember that the “faith” through which we are saved by grace is a special kind—it’s always “faith which works” (Gal. 5:6).

In other words, the “works” is a verb expressing the action of the faith, not a noun. That’s the key.

Yes, when you row your boat you row with two oars, otherwise you stay in circles. In that sense, we may say that salvation is by faith and by works; but let’s be careful not to repeat the sin of the ancient Jews in rejecting the most precious message of the pure gospel as the Lord in His great mercy sends it to us. Yes, the old covenant is wonderful in that it has held the world together for 6000 plus years; you can drive home in comparative safety because of the fear that other drivers have of the law; the old covenant has sparked many revivals and reformations in “Israel” past and modern; but when the “days ... come” when the Lord will “make a new covenant” with His people, it’s rank sin to resist and cling to the old (Jer. 31:31-34).

We have resisted in the 19th, throughout the 20th, and now well into our 21st century; isn’t that long enough?

Someone asks that we document from responsible leaders of both Calvinism and Arminianism wherein they differ in their views of righteousness by faith.

The two ideas are distinctly different. Both try to understand what the Bible has to say about justification by faith but neither fully understands; and when God can find a church that believes the full truth, it will proclaim it so clearly that the Holy Spirit will bless as He blessed the apostles after Pentecost, to lighten the earth with the message.

Calvinism holds that whatever is God’s sovereign will must be fulfilled “on earth as it is in heaven”(to quote part of the Lord’s prayer). From this comes the idea that Christ must not be allowed to die for anyone in vain, so God must therefore predestinate some people to be saved eternally and nothing can alter that predestination. Calvinism would be right if it recognized that the Lord has predestinated everyone to be saved.

But many will at last be lost; therefore the strict Calvinist conclusion has to follow—that Christ did not die for the lost.

Arminianism arose as a protest: Christ must be allowed to offer salvation to all men, but He must have some resource to back up that offer. It follows that He must have died for all men; but that sacrifice does no one any good so far as salvation is concerned unless he first believes.

But this raises a problem: the salvation of those who believe therefore ultimately depends on their own initiative in believing. Thus in the end the idea is there, underground in every person’s “experience,” that he has had a vital part in his own salvation. The unconscious connection then inevitably produces lukewarmness in the world church. “Thou knowest not,” says Jesus (Rev. 3:17); if we believe we helped save ourselves, pride is inevitable.

Until this is resolved, generation after generation who anticipate the “soon” return of Christ go into their graves short of realizing the “blessed hope” of seeing Jesus return (John 14:1-3).

About 120 years ago two young men came up with a clearer understanding: Christ did die for “all men;” He did redeem “all men;” He gave the gift, not merely offered salvation, to “all men” in the same way that Esau’s birthright was his; no one could take it from him. And no one can be lost unless like Esau he has “despised” and “sold” what Christ has given him (Rom. 5:15-18; Heb. 12:16, 17). This truth puts an end to lukewarmness forever. Your soul is “constrained” by the love (agape) of Christ, for self is now “crucified with Him”(Gal. 2:20). And gladly so, no weepy regrets for what is given up for Him; the surrender is joyous.

Do you wonder sometimes if you are only an insignificant digit in God’s great economy of salvation?

Probably old Anna used to wonder if she was only that. You read of her in Luke 2:36-38; God has given her three verses in the Bible! Top complimentary, too.

When she comes onstage, she has been married 91 years but was a widow for 84 of them; she is a scholar and teacher. Her whole soul is absorbed “in Christ” for she cherishes the prophecies of His coming. She was like Paul who later said, “for me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). She was living in what Luke says was “the temple,” retired “with fastings and prayers night and day.”

In the ungodly atmosphere that was “the temple” of those days, she held on to her faith “in the Lord’s soon coming,” as we say; she held on doubtless because she understood the prophecy of Daniel 9:24-26 when the official priests in the temple had long ago abandoned their faith in that prophecy. It was too “old-fashioned” by then.

But she being an apparently insignificant “digit” in God’s plan is ready for something wonderful when she comes into the temple precisely at the instant that old Simeon, another “apparent digit” has taken the infant Lord Christ in his arms to pray for Him and bless Him. What a noble life work old Simeon has discovered in his old age way past retirement! No other man in all the world had been so honored—to hold the Messiah in his arms and pray for Jesus! Not many people have ever prayed for a blessing for Jesus! We pray Him to give us blessings!

There was something special about Simeon; the apostle Paul had not yet come onstage who later spoke about cherishing “the blessed hope” of seeing the Lord return the second time (Titus 2:11-14), yet he cherished the same hope about His first coming in his old age! This must have been also on his part a very intelligent and well-informed faith (genuine faith is never willingly ignorant or uninformed). How this was “revealed to him by the Holy Spirit” we do not know; but it could not have been mere factual knowledge of the arithmetic of Daniel 9:25, 26; it had to be a “heart” kind of knowledge or old Simeon could never have been so highly honored as to have been given this key part in the glorious gospel story.

Through all eternity in the kingdom of God old Simeon will enjoy this honor of being a key player in the drama of the first advent of Christ. Keep the faith; let Christ be the One for whom you live, and you will be a key player in the unfolding of the events that just precede His second coming.

God declared of Job four things: he was “perfect, and upright, one that feared [reverenced] God, and eschewed [rejected] evil” (1:1, KJV). If He were to declare that of us, we would be happy, wouldn’t we?

Or would we?

It would mean that like Job we would be the special objects of Satan’s attacks in these closing days of the great controversy that has raged for 6000+ years.

But don’t conclude that you need to get on Satan’s side so as to avoid trial: that would mean rebellion against the Lord Jesus Christ. As the Lord sustained and protected Job, so He will care for you and me. Job was indeed a very great man as to natural ability and mental strength and forcefulness of personality; you may or may not be likewise (I am not). But each of us will be privileged to honor Christ in the sphere of “sober thinking” that is our individual gift of the Holy Spirit ( Rom. 12:3). That is enough for anyone!

Job’s character was not self-righteousness; it had to be only by the faith of Jesus, for no one is born righteous. Therefore Job at the beginning of biblical revelation is a fitting representative of those who at the end of biblical revelation “follow the Lamb wherever He goes” and are “without fault before the throne of God” (Rev. 14:4, 5). The only way any one can follow Him in that way will be by the path of justification by faith.

Don’t fall into the trap of longing for a high place of honor in the kingdom of God as the “mother of Zebedee’s children” asked for them (Matt. 20:20). Ask only that wherever the Lord in His wisdom and mercy has placed you, you may honor Christ and not bring shame upon Him.

In the midst of the wildest confusion and turmoil the world has ever known that will accompany the last days, God’s true people will be peaceful happy (“blessed,” is the word), for these words will be true of them: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matt. 5:6; cf. vs. 9). If your heart hungers for a better understanding of the gospel, for a clearer view of what the cross of Christ means, you have a heaven on earth in which to go to heaven.