To the first of the seven Churches listed in the Book of Revelation Jesus Himself declares we have lost our first love. What really amazes me is the consequences of losing our first love as described in the last Church listed. When the Church loses her first love she inevitably turns to love another - the love of money takes the place of the love of Christ! In the eyes of our Lord His Church is going from Ephesus to Laodicea - from a loveless Church to a naked Church. But in the eyes of men the "hard-working" Church becomes a prosperous Church. Why? God's people love the Church of Christ more than the Christ of the Church! The Church makes them rich but Christ doesn't.
The Lord said to the Church in Ephesus (first Church listed):
"I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.
Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love" (Rev. 2:2 - 4, NIV, emphasis added).
The Lord said to the Church in Laodicea (last Church listed):
"I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm - neither hot nor cold - I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked" (Rev. 3:15 - 17, NIV, emphasis added).
I believe the Church in Laodicea is a vivid description of the Church today - the end-time Church. I also believe the Bible is more up-to-date than today's newspapers. The love of money, which is a root of all kinds of evil (1 Tim. 6:10), has taken the place of the love of Christ. Clearly the driving force behind it is growth (in number) and prosperity of the Church. That's why there are now many nega-churches with thousands of churchgoers. The Church says, "I am rich; I have acquired wealth" because they have more and more people in the pews. And more people means more collection of tithes and offerings. People love to attend Church services because the gospel message had been diluted and in many cases replaced by "itching ear" messages (2 Tim. 4:3).
The Church in Ephesus - A bit of history
The Church in Ephesus had its beginning on Paul's second missionary journey (50 -52 AD) when he visited this city with Priscilla and Aquila. In Acts 19, we see the outbreak of a great revival in Ephesus with many people being saved, filled with the Spirit, healed, delivered from demonic oppression, and completely changed.
The Ephesian Church had experienced a glorious beginning and had risen to prominence among first-century Christians. There were many commendable qualities in these believers: They were an active hard-working group of people; they persevered in the face of strong obstacles; they were intolerant of evil men, false apostles, and those who were distorting the gospel; and they have not grown weary following the Lord. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with them because they had left their "first love" - the Lord Jesus Christ!
The greatest pursuit in life
Our ultimate love and loyalty belong to God and therefore Jesus said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength" (Mark 12:30, NKJV).
Jesus also said, "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who love son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me" (Matt. 10:37).
Our Lord couldn't have spoken in more graphic terms to describe the importance of our relationship with Him. He assumes we do love the members of our family, but He requires us to love Him even more. He requires our love for Him as the greatest pursuit in our lives.
The Ephesian Church was diligent in doing good deeds and enduring in their Christian faith, yet God was not satisfied. Their origianl love was gone. Just being busy didn't impress Him at all. He wanted their hearts. He got their labor - it wasn't enough.
How does our first love fade?
For many of us, our spiritual walk may have gotten off to a good start, but God is concerned about how we are doing today. We may be involved in essentially the same activities (going to Church, attending praying meetings, attending home-cell groups, attending Christian meetings and conferences and attending Church family camps) as we were when Christ first came into our lives, but now these activities have lost their joy and meaning for us. Or, we may even begin to grow apathetic and uninterested in spiritual things. We then gradually pull away from God and away from any meaningful Church involvement. Anger, exhaustion, and exasperation then start to show up in our attitudes. The desire to draw close to God diminishes. Our first love begins to fade.
Many people think the opposite of love is hate but I believe the opposite of love is indifference, apathy, and with an "I don't care" attitude. This is precisely what happens to the Laodicean Church, being lukewarm - neither hot nor cold (Rev. 3:15).
Commitment to the Lordship of Christ
In God's perspective we should grow in our love for Him daily. If we are focusing all our efforts on simply hanging on, we are bound to make little progress. We must arise and not just "sit there until we die" (a recent message). It does not take many people to change the Local Church, it just takes commitment.
In general, commitment means to entrust or to pledge involvement. For Christians, commitment is a means by which we enter into an obligation of relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, we are committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives. Every thing our lives involved in as Christians hinges on our attitude of commitment to our declaration that Jesus Christ is the Lord of our lives.
The principles of commitment
The Lord has committed to us His faithfulness, His righteous judgment, His trust, His trustworthiness and His Word. We in turn commit to Him in His Lordship, our faithfulness to His Gospel, our trust in His Word, and our entire lives in His service. It is a mutual commitment of love relationship. We have to fulfill or obligation to Him because we are His purchased possession (Eph. 1:14). We are obligated by this purchase to serve Him with love.
Paul wrote to Timothy, ".... According to the glorious gospel of blessed God which was committed to my trust" (1 Tim. 1:11).
"O Timothy! Guard what what was committed to your trust, ..." (1 Tim. 6:20).
"For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day" (2 Tim. 1:12).
The nature of commitment
1. Commitment demands the exercise of responsibility otherwise it is not a commitment.
2. Commitment demand the exercise of self discipline.
3. Commitment is an attitude which can be developed. It is an attitude which God's grace can work in our hearts if it is not there to begin with.
4. Commitment is designed to go hand in hand with hard work.
5. Nothing prospers, nothing grows, nothing increases, and nothing gets better unless there is commitment.
6. There is nothing more powerful in the earth today than a human being who is totally committed. You can see it in every walk of life, in every kind of vocation, in every kind of pursuit. Famous athletes and other successful sports stars are all committed.
7. True Christians are committed to the Lordship of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
8. Christians who are being used tremendously by God are committed. They deny themselves and carry the cross daily and follow Christ (Luke 9:23). They remain as amateurs and never professionals. There is no such thing as professional Christians.
9. The only difference between the men in the Bible and you and I is the level of commitment to our callings. Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, Paul and many others have much higher level of commitment than most of us.
Spiritual Diseases
In our walk in obedience to the Lord we must beware of spiritual diseases. Briefly, here are two common spiritual diseases.
1. Spiritual Old Age
There are Christians who are relatively young in the Lord, but already have evidence the characteristics of what we called "spiritual old age". The resulting symptoms closely parallel the same conditions we often observe in those older people who have become set in their ways:
a. Unteachableness
Some Christians think they have arrived at a sufficient level of spirituality as compared with other believers. They may then develop judgmental attitudes towards other believers who are not as knowledgeable. When their "mature and seasoned" point of view is not accepted, they often become offended.
b. A loss of flexibility
Some Christians live in a predictable manner so as to avoid the threat of uncertainty and so as to maintain a sense of control. In so doing they become satisfied with a mere mechanical performance of their traditions, with little or no dependence upon God.
c. Focus on past events
Many Christians begin with a powerful revelation of God's love and grace, but do not continue on to stay in touch with Him. They try to live off the strength of their initial experience. They fail to cultivate a fresh, daily relationship with Him. Their spiritual walks are leading them nowhere.
d. An inward orientation
Some of us in the beginning had an outward focus that motivated us to extend ourselves to others in love, but after a time we may selfishly turn inward. By so doing we miss the opportunity to reach out for Christ to those around us.
2. Barrenness in Busyness
A Christian began his spiritual life full of zeal. He was the kind of person you never had to motivate in his devotional life, spending several hours each day reading the Bible and praying. Later on in life, he found a demanding job in a large corporation. Dealing with the daily pressures he encountered not only sapped his energy, but robbed him of time he needed with the Lord. This was a new phase of life for him and much had changed. The stress of handling work obligations and providing for his family was extremely taxing on him.
We all face the problem of losing sight of Jesus in the crowded events of the day. Jesus Himself spoke to this issue in Luke 17:26, 27, unsing both Noah and Lot from the Old Testament as examples:
"And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; ..." (Luke 17:27, 28, NKJV, emphasis added).
Obviously Jesus was not condemning eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building and marrying. He was condemning our excessive preoccupation with these things, preoccupation that dulls us to the sound of His voice. It is impossible to maintain a love relationship with someone whom you cannot hear!
Have you left your first love because you are preoccupied with worldly cares and concerns?
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
God's Mandate for Fathers
Many Local Churches have recently celebrated Fathers Day and Mothers Day. I am prompted to post a message, written Biblically from God's perspective, to Christian fathers. It is good to remind Christian fathers their God-given mandate (role and responsibilities) in Christian families. I believe many fathers take their fatherhood too lightly and many failed to fulfill their role and responsibilities toward their families. As you read on you'll discover that it is not easy to be a father if you are going to take God's mandate seriously. Someone said, to become a father is easy but to be a father is almost impossible.
Fatherhood on earth is an extension of Fatherhood in Heaven
Paul wrote to the Church in Ephesus, "For this reason (seeing the greatness of this plan by which you are built together in Christ), I bow my knees before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for Whom every family in heaven and on earth is named - (that Father) from Whom all fatherhood takes its title and derives its name" (Eph. 3:14, 15, The Amplified Bible, emphasis added).
Here are some statements of truth:
1. Every fatherhood on earth is named after the Fatherhood of God in heaven. In other words, fatherhood is a projection on earth, the divine and eternal Fatherhood of God in heaven.
2. Before creation ever took place God was already a Father - the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The relationship of Fatherhood and Son-ship within the Godhead is eternal. Therefore fatherhood on earth is also eternally ordained. This revelation is of tremendous sanctity and importance.
Family on earth is an extension of the Family in Heaven
Jesus said, "In my Father's house are many mansions; ..." (John 14:2, NKJV).
The word "house" in Scripture is never used to indicate a physical or material building. In Greek the word is "oikia" - means a home or a family. Jesus was telling us God has a heavenly Family.
Therefore from eternity two things are always true - God is a Father and Heaven is a Home. Our home-life on earth is an extension of the Family in Heaven. In fact our home-life is derived from the eternal being and nature of the Godhead.
The concept of headship and authority
Together with the concept of fatherhood there is another concept that is also eternal - the concept of headship.
Paul said, "But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God" (1 Cor. 11:3).
Note the descending chain of authority - from God to woman and from eternity into time. God the Father is the Head of Christ eternally, Christ is the Head of the husband (male) and the husband is the head of the wife (female). Therefore the husband-wife relationship transcends time in this world. It is a projection in the Family Life of eternal relationship of God and Christ. This also gives us the pattern of authority.
Chain of authority in a family (home)
We all have authority by taking our right relationship in the above chain. Every chain of authority in the universe goes back to one source - God the Father.
In a home there will be God-ordained chain of authority when the husband is subject to Christ and the wife is subject to the husband. If either of these relationships is broken down the authority of the home is also broken down. If the husband is not subject to Christ he does not have the authority he should have; and if the wife is not subject to the husband she does not have the authority she should have.
The secret of authority is summed up by the Centurion whose servant was sick:
"For I also am a man placed under authority, having solders under me" (Luke 7:8, emphasis added).
The centurion didn't say he had authority, but said he was under authority. He knew that because he was under authority he had authority. He took his right place in the chain of authority. By saying the word "also" he revealed that he knew the concept of authority; and more importantly, Jesus was under the authority and headship of the Father!
When the husband is under the authority of Christ he has behind him the authority of Christ. Similarly when the wife is subject to her husband she has behind her the authority of the husband, which is the authority of Christ, which is the authority of God the Father. If the chain is broken at any point then authority in the family is broken down.
I believe this happens in majority of Christian homes today. This could be one of the reasons why Rick Warren wrote in his book "The Purpose Driven Life" - "Our families on earth are wonderful gifts from God, but they are temporary and fragile, ofter broken by divorce, distance, ..." (Pg. 118).
Paradox in the husband-wife relationship
Many women object being told they should be in subjection to their husbands. They feel that this put them in a position of inferiority. But the truth is, subjection is not inferiority.
Jesus said, "I and My Father are one" (John 10:30).
There is complete unity between Jesus and the Father; He is equal to the Father. On the basis of what we are discussing, there is also complete unity between the wife and the husband - they are equal and they are one.
Later on Jesus said, "I am going to the Father for My Father is greater than I" (John 14:28, emphasis added).
So, there is an apparent paradox here; Jesus is equal to the Father and yet the Father is greater than Him! This paradox is resolved if we read what Paul said:
"Who (Jesus) being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men" (Phil. 2:6, 7, emphasis added).
Exactly the same is true in the relationship between husband and wife - they are one and yet the wife is subject to the husband. Just like Jesus who is not inferior to the Father, the wife is also not inferior to her husband. If the wife loses the subjection she loses the unity; you can't have it both ways! This is the divine pattern of headship and subjection and it never changes.
Divine pattern for home-life
Paul said, "Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all" (1 Cor. 15:28).
Paul was talking about the "fullness of time" (time to the end). The Father through His eternal relationship with Christ has put everything under Christ. Then in the fullness of time, Christ will then turn around and put Himself again under the Father, so that in their relationship, God through Christ will be all in all throughout eternity.
This is a divine pattern for home-life. The husband should delight to honor his wife. He should do everything possible to "lift up" his wife, and make her feel respected and honored and esteemed. Likewise, the wife when she is treated that way should in turn gladly and willingly honor her husband's headship. The Christian home should be the closest thing to heaven made heavenly available on earth by God so that every home on earth should be a reproduction of the Father's Home in heaven.
The responsibilities and ministries of fathers
In every home, in every dispensation, every father by virtue of his fatherhood, has three specific ministries delegated by divine authority from which he cannot abnegate in the sight of God.
These three ministries are: Priest, prophet and king in this divine order.
1. Priest of his home. As priest he represents his family to God. His primary job is to pray and intercede for his family.
2. Prophet of his home. As prophet he does it the other way round - he represents God to his family. In other words, he stands between his family and God.
3. King of his home. As king he governs his family on behalf of God. He also provides for hie family.
No father can ever delegate the above responsibilities to the mother, to a pastor, a Sunder school teacher, a counselor, a youth worker or any other such persons.
Renegade and delinquent fathers
Today there are many renegade fathers. A renegade father is one who reneges from the three primary responsibilities ordained by God as head of his family - husband, father and a spiritual leader.
These three responsibilities may be seen in the life of Noah (Gen. 7) and Abraham (Gen. 18:17 - 19).
Someone said there is no such thing as delinquent children, but many delinquent fathers - delinquent fathers produce delinquent children. If your children fail you fail. You can be very successful in you job, you can be a senior Pastor, a president of many Banks, a sports star, but if you are not successful as a husband and a father in your home you are a failure in the sight of God. I believe both wife and children, in their hearts know a man ought to lead. Most women if they have to lead, they are forced to do so by default because men fail to fulfill their functions.
Result of the father's failure
When a father fails to fulfill his function ordained by God the result is a curse.
1. "You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for they shall go into captivity" (Deut. 28:41).
Because of a curse your children shall go into captivity and bondage of the occult and drugs.
2. "Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children" (Hosea 4:6).
Surely it is a terrible and dreadful thing if God forgets your children!
3. "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse" (Malachi 4, 5).
Notice that the last word of the Old Testament is a curse. If God had not given us the New Testament His last word to the human race would be a curse. What will bring a curse? Failure of the father to maintain right family relationship! God demands the fathers to repent and turn their hearts back to their children.
God is merciful:
"And he (John the baptist) will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, 'to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,' and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord" (Luke 1:16, 17).
Please also read my earlier posting "The Elijah Ministry" (1st. March 2005).
Promise of restoration foretold
Says the Lord, "As for Me, this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants' descendants, from this time and forevermore" (Isaiah 59:21, NKJV).
The Lord demands that Christian fathers filled with the Holy Spirit and heed His Word and submit to the Lordship of Christ.
Fatherhood on earth is an extension of Fatherhood in Heaven
Paul wrote to the Church in Ephesus, "For this reason (seeing the greatness of this plan by which you are built together in Christ), I bow my knees before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for Whom every family in heaven and on earth is named - (that Father) from Whom all fatherhood takes its title and derives its name" (Eph. 3:14, 15, The Amplified Bible, emphasis added).
Here are some statements of truth:
1. Every fatherhood on earth is named after the Fatherhood of God in heaven. In other words, fatherhood is a projection on earth, the divine and eternal Fatherhood of God in heaven.
2. Before creation ever took place God was already a Father - the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The relationship of Fatherhood and Son-ship within the Godhead is eternal. Therefore fatherhood on earth is also eternally ordained. This revelation is of tremendous sanctity and importance.
Family on earth is an extension of the Family in Heaven
Jesus said, "In my Father's house are many mansions; ..." (John 14:2, NKJV).
The word "house" in Scripture is never used to indicate a physical or material building. In Greek the word is "oikia" - means a home or a family. Jesus was telling us God has a heavenly Family.
Therefore from eternity two things are always true - God is a Father and Heaven is a Home. Our home-life on earth is an extension of the Family in Heaven. In fact our home-life is derived from the eternal being and nature of the Godhead.
The concept of headship and authority
Together with the concept of fatherhood there is another concept that is also eternal - the concept of headship.
Paul said, "But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God" (1 Cor. 11:3).
Note the descending chain of authority - from God to woman and from eternity into time. God the Father is the Head of Christ eternally, Christ is the Head of the husband (male) and the husband is the head of the wife (female). Therefore the husband-wife relationship transcends time in this world. It is a projection in the Family Life of eternal relationship of God and Christ. This also gives us the pattern of authority.
Chain of authority in a family (home)
We all have authority by taking our right relationship in the above chain. Every chain of authority in the universe goes back to one source - God the Father.
In a home there will be God-ordained chain of authority when the husband is subject to Christ and the wife is subject to the husband. If either of these relationships is broken down the authority of the home is also broken down. If the husband is not subject to Christ he does not have the authority he should have; and if the wife is not subject to the husband she does not have the authority she should have.
The secret of authority is summed up by the Centurion whose servant was sick:
"For I also am a man placed under authority, having solders under me" (Luke 7:8, emphasis added).
The centurion didn't say he had authority, but said he was under authority. He knew that because he was under authority he had authority. He took his right place in the chain of authority. By saying the word "also" he revealed that he knew the concept of authority; and more importantly, Jesus was under the authority and headship of the Father!
When the husband is under the authority of Christ he has behind him the authority of Christ. Similarly when the wife is subject to her husband she has behind her the authority of the husband, which is the authority of Christ, which is the authority of God the Father. If the chain is broken at any point then authority in the family is broken down.
I believe this happens in majority of Christian homes today. This could be one of the reasons why Rick Warren wrote in his book "The Purpose Driven Life" - "Our families on earth are wonderful gifts from God, but they are temporary and fragile, ofter broken by divorce, distance, ..." (Pg. 118).
Paradox in the husband-wife relationship
Many women object being told they should be in subjection to their husbands. They feel that this put them in a position of inferiority. But the truth is, subjection is not inferiority.
Jesus said, "I and My Father are one" (John 10:30).
There is complete unity between Jesus and the Father; He is equal to the Father. On the basis of what we are discussing, there is also complete unity between the wife and the husband - they are equal and they are one.
Later on Jesus said, "I am going to the Father for My Father is greater than I" (John 14:28, emphasis added).
So, there is an apparent paradox here; Jesus is equal to the Father and yet the Father is greater than Him! This paradox is resolved if we read what Paul said:
"Who (Jesus) being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men" (Phil. 2:6, 7, emphasis added).
Exactly the same is true in the relationship between husband and wife - they are one and yet the wife is subject to the husband. Just like Jesus who is not inferior to the Father, the wife is also not inferior to her husband. If the wife loses the subjection she loses the unity; you can't have it both ways! This is the divine pattern of headship and subjection and it never changes.
Divine pattern for home-life
Paul said, "Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all" (1 Cor. 15:28).
Paul was talking about the "fullness of time" (time to the end). The Father through His eternal relationship with Christ has put everything under Christ. Then in the fullness of time, Christ will then turn around and put Himself again under the Father, so that in their relationship, God through Christ will be all in all throughout eternity.
This is a divine pattern for home-life. The husband should delight to honor his wife. He should do everything possible to "lift up" his wife, and make her feel respected and honored and esteemed. Likewise, the wife when she is treated that way should in turn gladly and willingly honor her husband's headship. The Christian home should be the closest thing to heaven made heavenly available on earth by God so that every home on earth should be a reproduction of the Father's Home in heaven.
The responsibilities and ministries of fathers
In every home, in every dispensation, every father by virtue of his fatherhood, has three specific ministries delegated by divine authority from which he cannot abnegate in the sight of God.
These three ministries are: Priest, prophet and king in this divine order.
1. Priest of his home. As priest he represents his family to God. His primary job is to pray and intercede for his family.
2. Prophet of his home. As prophet he does it the other way round - he represents God to his family. In other words, he stands between his family and God.
3. King of his home. As king he governs his family on behalf of God. He also provides for hie family.
No father can ever delegate the above responsibilities to the mother, to a pastor, a Sunder school teacher, a counselor, a youth worker or any other such persons.
Renegade and delinquent fathers
Today there are many renegade fathers. A renegade father is one who reneges from the three primary responsibilities ordained by God as head of his family - husband, father and a spiritual leader.
These three responsibilities may be seen in the life of Noah (Gen. 7) and Abraham (Gen. 18:17 - 19).
Someone said there is no such thing as delinquent children, but many delinquent fathers - delinquent fathers produce delinquent children. If your children fail you fail. You can be very successful in you job, you can be a senior Pastor, a president of many Banks, a sports star, but if you are not successful as a husband and a father in your home you are a failure in the sight of God. I believe both wife and children, in their hearts know a man ought to lead. Most women if they have to lead, they are forced to do so by default because men fail to fulfill their functions.
Result of the father's failure
When a father fails to fulfill his function ordained by God the result is a curse.
1. "You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for they shall go into captivity" (Deut. 28:41).
Because of a curse your children shall go into captivity and bondage of the occult and drugs.
2. "Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children" (Hosea 4:6).
Surely it is a terrible and dreadful thing if God forgets your children!
3. "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse" (Malachi 4, 5).
Notice that the last word of the Old Testament is a curse. If God had not given us the New Testament His last word to the human race would be a curse. What will bring a curse? Failure of the father to maintain right family relationship! God demands the fathers to repent and turn their hearts back to their children.
God is merciful:
"And he (John the baptist) will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, 'to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,' and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord" (Luke 1:16, 17).
Please also read my earlier posting "The Elijah Ministry" (1st. March 2005).
Promise of restoration foretold
Says the Lord, "As for Me, this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants' descendants, from this time and forevermore" (Isaiah 59:21, NKJV).
The Lord demands that Christian fathers filled with the Holy Spirit and heed His Word and submit to the Lordship of Christ.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Teach Us to Number Our Days
The psalmist (Moses) said, "Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom" (Psalms 90:12, NKJV).
Moses prayed that God would instruct us how to make full use of the limited number of days of our lives. Let Him grant us wisdom that we may act and live wisely. Moses said this because life is only a short journey and we must make full use of it before it vanishes away.
James said, "For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away" (James 4:14).
I believe we don't ask ourselves this question often enough - What is your life? Even if we did ask we would be shocked with the answer. We tend to take life for granted - we just live on and believe that we are just here, we are going to do certain things today and tomorrow, with little or no purpose.
The fact is life is just a vapor, it is passing away quickly. Once it is passed away it will never return again. If you are to ask a 13 year-old teenager how old is he, the answer you are likely to get is - "I'm nearly 14". When you get to the age of 40 and above, you don't tell people what you are going to be next year; you begin to realize that your life is just a vapor.
We need to take heed to the fact that there are many different forces at work to blind you from realizing what your life is. There are all sorts of entertainment (Films, TV, Computer games, and Internet surfing) and other things that demand our precious time. People come away for holidays to forget. There is an atmosphere of forgetfulness that permeates the culture and keeps us from facing reality. Life goes at the same speed for everybody, it does not matter whether you are a king, a queen or a president or a janitor. You can't hold on to one minute. People lament if they lose a $50 bill, they get upset about it naturally. Have you ever thought if you lose 50 minutes of your time you'll never get them back again? But you can get another $50 bill. Time is beyond your control.
One appointment we all have to keep
As believers in Jesus Christ one day we are going to answer for the way we spend every minute of our time. There is one appointment that every human being is going to keep. You might say "death", but it isn't because there will be those alive when Jesus Christ comes again - they will not die naturally. The one appointment that we all (saints or sinners) are going to keep is the Judgment of God on our life - The Eternal Judgment. Please read my earlier postings - "Judgment of True Christians" and "Total Judgments of God". Eternal Judgment determines your destiny for eternity. Different judgment seats for the unbelievers and those who don't know God and don't submit to Him - this judgment is called the Great White Throne Judgment.
There is a different scene of judgment for those who have known Christ (born again Christians). This is called the Judgment Seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10) which is not a judgment of condemnation (1 Cor. 3:12 - 15). He will either reward you or penalize you. If you fail to get your reward, your soul will be saved but you are just a naked soul. There are only two kinds of action or behavior: Either good or bad, nothing in between; either white or black; and either the light or the darkness. In my opinion if you are one of those people (there are many in the average Local Church today) who thinks how little do you have to do to be saved, then you are not saved. You have the wrong motive. That attitude is totally contrary to God.
Jesus said, "He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad" (Matt. 12:30).
Clearly there are only two kinds of relationship or activity - gathering or scattering. What would God hold you accountable for scattering? For wasting your time, your talent, your gifts and your money. You'll have to give an account of every one of those things wasted.
The danger of passivity
I believe the greatest single frustration in the ministry is passivity of Church leaders and members. It is much easier to deal with opened opposition than it is with passivity.
Jesus spoke to His disciples, "Do you not say, 'there are still four months and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together" (John 4:35, 36, NKJV, emphasis added).
Here are some statements of truth:
1. Jesus was talking about procrastination - about putting it off, not now, let us begin in another day. Satan will entice you and then let you go. But when he finally lets you go, it would be too late for you do what you ought to have done earlier! Satan does not have to prolong you for good; he just has to hold you long enough to keep you from doing things that matters most.
2. Notce the two things that Jesus mentioned - wages and fruit.
Wages - Wages are the things (money or kinds) you received for a job done. Jesus said if you reap you'll receive your wages. You may have to go through difficulties and trial; you may have to live in the bare minimum, but sooner or later He will adequately remunerate you.
Fruit - Your fruit (in this context) is not here on earth but in eternity. You will only see your fruit in eternity.
Why are we sitting here until we die?
There is an interesting picture in the Old Testament (2 Kings 6 and 7). The Northern Kingdom of Israel was attacked by a large army from Syria. Samaria, the capital city was being besieged and the people were just in the verge of total famine - "until a donkey's head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and one-forth of a kap of dove droppings for five shekels of silver" (2 Kings 6:25).
It gives me a picture of the spiritually famished Church today. All you can get is the donkey's head of liberal modernistic theology and man-made rules. Instead of the visitation of the Holy Spirit (dove) you only get a measure of droppings of the dove! You can laugh, but it is a very sad picture.
At the gate of Samaria sat four leprous men who were not allowed in because they were unclean. They said to one another "Why are we sitting here until we die" (2 Kings 7:3)? Does that describe some of us? We are not lepers, but we are just the same, sitting (inside or outside the Church) until we die!
The leprous men decided to do something. They reasoned that they had nothing to lose; if they enter the city they will die there - either be killed or because of famine. If they sit here they would also die. But if they would surrender to the Syrians they may be allowed to live. But what they didn't know was that God created great noise of chariots and of a great army. The Syrians were so frightened that they run away in such a hurry that they left everything behind. So the leprous men had more than what they could eat and took away their spoils.
The moral of this picture is very simple - If you are not satisfy, go forth and do something and God will surely satisfy you! Don't just sit there and perish.
Progress in the Christian life
All progress in the Christian life is by faith. If you are not willing to go forward in faith you cannot go forward. Christians are like bicycles. You can't steer a bicycle unless it is moving. God cannot guide you unless you are moving. As long as you are stationary you can't ask God to guide you - you have to begin to move in faith.
Basically our priorities are what determine our life. You say you have no time to pray, but you have time to eat. You have time to eat because it is your priority. Jesus said there is only one top priority for Christians:
"Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you" (Matt. 6:33, emphasis added).
You cannot have righteousness apart from the Kingdom of God.
Paul said, "For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 14:17).
Many of us have a false picture of being a Christian. We wear a little tag showing that we are born again; we are baptized in the Holy Spirit and we speak in tongues. But what have we done about our Christianity?
John said, "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God. even to them that believe on his name" (John 1:12, KJV, emphasis added).
Notice we only become sons of God when we begin to exercise the power He has given to us. Christianity is never static. If we fail to exercise the power and authority given to us we will not be sons of God!
Solomon said, "But the path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto a perfect day" (Prov. 4:18, NKJV).
If you are walking in the path way of righteousness (or just) the light is going to be brighter today than yesterday and brighter tomorrow than it is today. If it is not true of you, you have better check if you are on the path of righteousness.
Walk with sacrifice
Whenever we walk in faith, we also walk with sacrifice. Christianity is a life of sacrifice.
2 Samuel 6 describes how David brought the Ark back to Jerusalem.
"And so it was, when those bearing the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, that he sacrificed oxen and fatted sheep" (2 Sam. 6:13).
The above gives us a picture of the Christian life. It is impossible to follow Jesus without sacrifice. That is how far you can go, six paces, if you do not offer any sacrifice - a long way from your destination. What are we going to sacrifice? The answer is obvious; you have to sacrifice your time, your inconveniences, your money and your entertainment.
In my opinion committed Christians should enjoy celebration and not entertainment. Entertainment basically means you sit there watching other people do something. The longer you do it, the further you get from reality. Celebration means you are in it, you get involved, you are a part of it, and you are on the stage dancing, singing and making joyful noise to the Lord!
The most important ministries in the Local Church
The preaching of the Word is important but not the most important. You can hear a good sermon and be blessed by what you heard, but as long as you just sit there, remain passive and do nothing about what you heard, you'll soon forget.
I believe the most important ministries in any Local Church are:
1. Prayer and intercession
Any believer can pray and ask for God's mercy (supplication), but intercession is a ministry gift. There is nothing more important in the Kingdom of God than prayer and intercession. I don't think the Local Church and individual members can accomplish significant things for Christ without prayer. As we approach the end of time, forces of evil are becoming so much stronger and so much bolder. If we think we can do away with prayer and intercession and spiritual warfare in the Local Church and still please God, we are deceiving ourselves.
2. Mission outreach
Paul gives an answer to the problem of bringing the gospel to the lost:
"How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they ar sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring food news!'" (Romans 10:14, 15, NIV).
Here Paul reiterates the need for mission of the Church. The mission of Christ was in behalf of those who had rejected God the Father. The rejected Father sent the Son and the Son sent His Church. That is the basis for the world mission of the Church. It is the mandate of Christ that those who have not heard do hear. They cannot hear without a preacher, and there cannot be a preacher without a "sending". The mandate of Christ is that the gospel be preached in every land and nation, to every tribe and tongue, to every living person.
Moses prayed that God would instruct us how to make full use of the limited number of days of our lives. Let Him grant us wisdom that we may act and live wisely. Moses said this because life is only a short journey and we must make full use of it before it vanishes away.
James said, "For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away" (James 4:14).
I believe we don't ask ourselves this question often enough - What is your life? Even if we did ask we would be shocked with the answer. We tend to take life for granted - we just live on and believe that we are just here, we are going to do certain things today and tomorrow, with little or no purpose.
The fact is life is just a vapor, it is passing away quickly. Once it is passed away it will never return again. If you are to ask a 13 year-old teenager how old is he, the answer you are likely to get is - "I'm nearly 14". When you get to the age of 40 and above, you don't tell people what you are going to be next year; you begin to realize that your life is just a vapor.
We need to take heed to the fact that there are many different forces at work to blind you from realizing what your life is. There are all sorts of entertainment (Films, TV, Computer games, and Internet surfing) and other things that demand our precious time. People come away for holidays to forget. There is an atmosphere of forgetfulness that permeates the culture and keeps us from facing reality. Life goes at the same speed for everybody, it does not matter whether you are a king, a queen or a president or a janitor. You can't hold on to one minute. People lament if they lose a $50 bill, they get upset about it naturally. Have you ever thought if you lose 50 minutes of your time you'll never get them back again? But you can get another $50 bill. Time is beyond your control.
One appointment we all have to keep
As believers in Jesus Christ one day we are going to answer for the way we spend every minute of our time. There is one appointment that every human being is going to keep. You might say "death", but it isn't because there will be those alive when Jesus Christ comes again - they will not die naturally. The one appointment that we all (saints or sinners) are going to keep is the Judgment of God on our life - The Eternal Judgment. Please read my earlier postings - "Judgment of True Christians" and "Total Judgments of God". Eternal Judgment determines your destiny for eternity. Different judgment seats for the unbelievers and those who don't know God and don't submit to Him - this judgment is called the Great White Throne Judgment.
There is a different scene of judgment for those who have known Christ (born again Christians). This is called the Judgment Seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10) which is not a judgment of condemnation (1 Cor. 3:12 - 15). He will either reward you or penalize you. If you fail to get your reward, your soul will be saved but you are just a naked soul. There are only two kinds of action or behavior: Either good or bad, nothing in between; either white or black; and either the light or the darkness. In my opinion if you are one of those people (there are many in the average Local Church today) who thinks how little do you have to do to be saved, then you are not saved. You have the wrong motive. That attitude is totally contrary to God.
Jesus said, "He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad" (Matt. 12:30).
Clearly there are only two kinds of relationship or activity - gathering or scattering. What would God hold you accountable for scattering? For wasting your time, your talent, your gifts and your money. You'll have to give an account of every one of those things wasted.
The danger of passivity
I believe the greatest single frustration in the ministry is passivity of Church leaders and members. It is much easier to deal with opened opposition than it is with passivity.
Jesus spoke to His disciples, "Do you not say, 'there are still four months and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together" (John 4:35, 36, NKJV, emphasis added).
Here are some statements of truth:
1. Jesus was talking about procrastination - about putting it off, not now, let us begin in another day. Satan will entice you and then let you go. But when he finally lets you go, it would be too late for you do what you ought to have done earlier! Satan does not have to prolong you for good; he just has to hold you long enough to keep you from doing things that matters most.
2. Notce the two things that Jesus mentioned - wages and fruit.
Wages - Wages are the things (money or kinds) you received for a job done. Jesus said if you reap you'll receive your wages. You may have to go through difficulties and trial; you may have to live in the bare minimum, but sooner or later He will adequately remunerate you.
Fruit - Your fruit (in this context) is not here on earth but in eternity. You will only see your fruit in eternity.
Why are we sitting here until we die?
There is an interesting picture in the Old Testament (2 Kings 6 and 7). The Northern Kingdom of Israel was attacked by a large army from Syria. Samaria, the capital city was being besieged and the people were just in the verge of total famine - "until a donkey's head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and one-forth of a kap of dove droppings for five shekels of silver" (2 Kings 6:25).
It gives me a picture of the spiritually famished Church today. All you can get is the donkey's head of liberal modernistic theology and man-made rules. Instead of the visitation of the Holy Spirit (dove) you only get a measure of droppings of the dove! You can laugh, but it is a very sad picture.
At the gate of Samaria sat four leprous men who were not allowed in because they were unclean. They said to one another "Why are we sitting here until we die" (2 Kings 7:3)? Does that describe some of us? We are not lepers, but we are just the same, sitting (inside or outside the Church) until we die!
The leprous men decided to do something. They reasoned that they had nothing to lose; if they enter the city they will die there - either be killed or because of famine. If they sit here they would also die. But if they would surrender to the Syrians they may be allowed to live. But what they didn't know was that God created great noise of chariots and of a great army. The Syrians were so frightened that they run away in such a hurry that they left everything behind. So the leprous men had more than what they could eat and took away their spoils.
The moral of this picture is very simple - If you are not satisfy, go forth and do something and God will surely satisfy you! Don't just sit there and perish.
Progress in the Christian life
All progress in the Christian life is by faith. If you are not willing to go forward in faith you cannot go forward. Christians are like bicycles. You can't steer a bicycle unless it is moving. God cannot guide you unless you are moving. As long as you are stationary you can't ask God to guide you - you have to begin to move in faith.
Basically our priorities are what determine our life. You say you have no time to pray, but you have time to eat. You have time to eat because it is your priority. Jesus said there is only one top priority for Christians:
"Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you" (Matt. 6:33, emphasis added).
You cannot have righteousness apart from the Kingdom of God.
Paul said, "For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 14:17).
Many of us have a false picture of being a Christian. We wear a little tag showing that we are born again; we are baptized in the Holy Spirit and we speak in tongues. But what have we done about our Christianity?
John said, "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God. even to them that believe on his name" (John 1:12, KJV, emphasis added).
Notice we only become sons of God when we begin to exercise the power He has given to us. Christianity is never static. If we fail to exercise the power and authority given to us we will not be sons of God!
Solomon said, "But the path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto a perfect day" (Prov. 4:18, NKJV).
If you are walking in the path way of righteousness (or just) the light is going to be brighter today than yesterday and brighter tomorrow than it is today. If it is not true of you, you have better check if you are on the path of righteousness.
Walk with sacrifice
Whenever we walk in faith, we also walk with sacrifice. Christianity is a life of sacrifice.
2 Samuel 6 describes how David brought the Ark back to Jerusalem.
"And so it was, when those bearing the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, that he sacrificed oxen and fatted sheep" (2 Sam. 6:13).
The above gives us a picture of the Christian life. It is impossible to follow Jesus without sacrifice. That is how far you can go, six paces, if you do not offer any sacrifice - a long way from your destination. What are we going to sacrifice? The answer is obvious; you have to sacrifice your time, your inconveniences, your money and your entertainment.
In my opinion committed Christians should enjoy celebration and not entertainment. Entertainment basically means you sit there watching other people do something. The longer you do it, the further you get from reality. Celebration means you are in it, you get involved, you are a part of it, and you are on the stage dancing, singing and making joyful noise to the Lord!
The most important ministries in the Local Church
The preaching of the Word is important but not the most important. You can hear a good sermon and be blessed by what you heard, but as long as you just sit there, remain passive and do nothing about what you heard, you'll soon forget.
I believe the most important ministries in any Local Church are:
1. Prayer and intercession
Any believer can pray and ask for God's mercy (supplication), but intercession is a ministry gift. There is nothing more important in the Kingdom of God than prayer and intercession. I don't think the Local Church and individual members can accomplish significant things for Christ without prayer. As we approach the end of time, forces of evil are becoming so much stronger and so much bolder. If we think we can do away with prayer and intercession and spiritual warfare in the Local Church and still please God, we are deceiving ourselves.
2. Mission outreach
Paul gives an answer to the problem of bringing the gospel to the lost:
"How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they ar sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring food news!'" (Romans 10:14, 15, NIV).
Here Paul reiterates the need for mission of the Church. The mission of Christ was in behalf of those who had rejected God the Father. The rejected Father sent the Son and the Son sent His Church. That is the basis for the world mission of the Church. It is the mandate of Christ that those who have not heard do hear. They cannot hear without a preacher, and there cannot be a preacher without a "sending". The mandate of Christ is that the gospel be preached in every land and nation, to every tribe and tongue, to every living person.
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Conscience and Guilt
It is never easy to understand what "conscience" is. It is even more confusing if you fail to understand that there is a difference between the "soul" and "spirit" of man. Please refer to my earlier posting "The Saving of Souls" (17th Oct 2005) before you read on.
Briefly, the soul of man relates man to the intellectual and emotional realm. It is that part of man which consists of his mind, his will and his emotion; whereas the spirit of man relates man to the spiritual realm. It gives man the ability to relate to God and to know about God. It makes him God conscious. Conscience is a function of the human spirit. It has been created by God with the ability to "see" general moral truths (such as honesty and faithfulness) and the ability to apply them to particular cases so that we have the desire to tell the truth, and to keep our promises even when it is inconvenient to do so. People everywhere, irrespective of race and culture, have an inner sense of right and wrong and an inner fear of judgment. This inner judge is called conscience. Therefore even in the fallen state, the natural man has a measure of conscience. The natural man is not totally immoral and lawless but has some desire to do "good". This can be attested by the Scripture.
The Unbelievers' Stand in God's Sight
The question we need to ask is - How God deals with people who don't have a revelation of Him in the Word, either in the Law or subsequent portion of Scripture?
Paul said, "For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them)" (Romans 2:13 - 15, NIV, emphasis added).
Here are some statements of truth:
1. The law refers to bothe Moses Law (God give perfect Law) and other forms of law - verified by Greek Lexicon.
2. There are only two ways of achieving righteousness, one is by keeping rules and the other is by trusting God in faith.
3. The natural instinct of every human being when challenged in the issue of righteousness is to start to think in terms of rules. Rules have a place in life, but Christianity is not a set of rules.
4. Unbelieving Gentiles don't have the direct revelation of God's Law, but there is something inside them which does the same for them as the law would do, so that they show the work of the law written in their hearts. This is the work of conscience. What is written in their hearts is not the law but the working of the law.
5. The work of conscience is not to make us righteous but to bring us to the point where we see we need G0d's mercy to be made righteous.
6. Paul pictured a kind of court scene going on inside us. Conscience is our prosecutor. But we are all inclined to justifiy ourselves - one thought says we tell a lie, the other says n0, we just exaggerate a little bit.
There are no innocent people in the world
In God's perspective there are no innocent people in the world. It is in fact a careless presumption to believe that some people who have not heard of Christ are innocent. The opposite of innocent is guilty. And so, if the natural man is never innocent then he must be guilty.
Let us apply some simple logic. If the natural man is truly an innocent person, he needs not hear about Chirst. He has no need of redemption. God never punishes innocent people because such people are also righteous. The innocent person needs no Savior; he can save himself by his innocence.
The fact remains the people who die without hearing the gospel will be judged according to the knowledge they have. They will be judged guilty for rejecting God the Father. God never condemns innocent people.
The following paragraphs explain why:
Every person knows about God
The New Testament reveals the universal guilt of man - all natural men are sinners and they need a Savior. It announces the coming Christ to a world that had already rejected God the Father!
Jesus said, "For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance" (Matthew 9:13, NKJV).
Paul said, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be know of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened" (Romans 1:18 - 21, NKJV, emphasis added).
Here are some statements of truth:
1. God's wrath as revealed is not against innocence or ignorance but against ungodliness and unrighteousness - which is suppressing of truth. Men know the truth about God, but they do not allow this truth to work in their lives. They suppress it in order that they might live their own lives and not be convicted by God's truth.
2. God reveals what theologians called "general revelation" about Himself. So every man knows God. But man's problem is not that he doesn't know God but that he refuses to acknowledge what he knows to be true.
3. The revelation of God has been going on since the foundation of the word. It is not a once-for-all event but continues in a constant way. The revelation comes by way of creation. God's invisible nature is revealed "by the things that are made".
4. The revelation of God is sufficient to render man inexcusable. Since all men know God and all distort or reject that knowledge, they are not innocent. No man can plead ignorance as an excuse for not worshiping Him.
God judges according to the knowledge people have
The New Testament makes it clear that people will be judged according to the light that they have. This is implied by Paul:
"For as many as have sinned without the law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law" (Romans 2:12).
Applied generally, this means that each person will be judged according to the measure of moral light and understanding made available to him. Those who have had the full knowledge of God's moral standards revealed to them through the Law of Moses will be judged by that law. But those who did not have the fuller revelation of the Law of Moses will not be judged by that law, but only in accordance with the general revelation of God granted to the human race as a whole through the wonders of creation (Rom. 1:20).
It is important to mention here that idolatry as a "religion" does not please God but adds insult to injury to the glory of God:
"I am the Lord, that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to carved images" (Isaiah 42:8).
"Religion" does not redeem people but may add to their guilt.
Briefly, the soul of man relates man to the intellectual and emotional realm. It is that part of man which consists of his mind, his will and his emotion; whereas the spirit of man relates man to the spiritual realm. It gives man the ability to relate to God and to know about God. It makes him God conscious. Conscience is a function of the human spirit. It has been created by God with the ability to "see" general moral truths (such as honesty and faithfulness) and the ability to apply them to particular cases so that we have the desire to tell the truth, and to keep our promises even when it is inconvenient to do so. People everywhere, irrespective of race and culture, have an inner sense of right and wrong and an inner fear of judgment. This inner judge is called conscience. Therefore even in the fallen state, the natural man has a measure of conscience. The natural man is not totally immoral and lawless but has some desire to do "good". This can be attested by the Scripture.
The Unbelievers' Stand in God's Sight
The question we need to ask is - How God deals with people who don't have a revelation of Him in the Word, either in the Law or subsequent portion of Scripture?
Paul said, "For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them)" (Romans 2:13 - 15, NIV, emphasis added).
Here are some statements of truth:
1. The law refers to bothe Moses Law (God give perfect Law) and other forms of law - verified by Greek Lexicon.
2. There are only two ways of achieving righteousness, one is by keeping rules and the other is by trusting God in faith.
3. The natural instinct of every human being when challenged in the issue of righteousness is to start to think in terms of rules. Rules have a place in life, but Christianity is not a set of rules.
4. Unbelieving Gentiles don't have the direct revelation of God's Law, but there is something inside them which does the same for them as the law would do, so that they show the work of the law written in their hearts. This is the work of conscience. What is written in their hearts is not the law but the working of the law.
5. The work of conscience is not to make us righteous but to bring us to the point where we see we need G0d's mercy to be made righteous.
6. Paul pictured a kind of court scene going on inside us. Conscience is our prosecutor. But we are all inclined to justifiy ourselves - one thought says we tell a lie, the other says n0, we just exaggerate a little bit.
There are no innocent people in the world
In God's perspective there are no innocent people in the world. It is in fact a careless presumption to believe that some people who have not heard of Christ are innocent. The opposite of innocent is guilty. And so, if the natural man is never innocent then he must be guilty.
Let us apply some simple logic. If the natural man is truly an innocent person, he needs not hear about Chirst. He has no need of redemption. God never punishes innocent people because such people are also righteous. The innocent person needs no Savior; he can save himself by his innocence.
The fact remains the people who die without hearing the gospel will be judged according to the knowledge they have. They will be judged guilty for rejecting God the Father. God never condemns innocent people.
The following paragraphs explain why:
Every person knows about God
The New Testament reveals the universal guilt of man - all natural men are sinners and they need a Savior. It announces the coming Christ to a world that had already rejected God the Father!
Jesus said, "For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance" (Matthew 9:13, NKJV).
Paul said, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be know of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened" (Romans 1:18 - 21, NKJV, emphasis added).
Here are some statements of truth:
1. God's wrath as revealed is not against innocence or ignorance but against ungodliness and unrighteousness - which is suppressing of truth. Men know the truth about God, but they do not allow this truth to work in their lives. They suppress it in order that they might live their own lives and not be convicted by God's truth.
2. God reveals what theologians called "general revelation" about Himself. So every man knows God. But man's problem is not that he doesn't know God but that he refuses to acknowledge what he knows to be true.
3. The revelation of God has been going on since the foundation of the word. It is not a once-for-all event but continues in a constant way. The revelation comes by way of creation. God's invisible nature is revealed "by the things that are made".
4. The revelation of God is sufficient to render man inexcusable. Since all men know God and all distort or reject that knowledge, they are not innocent. No man can plead ignorance as an excuse for not worshiping Him.
God judges according to the knowledge people have
The New Testament makes it clear that people will be judged according to the light that they have. This is implied by Paul:
"For as many as have sinned without the law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law" (Romans 2:12).
Applied generally, this means that each person will be judged according to the measure of moral light and understanding made available to him. Those who have had the full knowledge of God's moral standards revealed to them through the Law of Moses will be judged by that law. But those who did not have the fuller revelation of the Law of Moses will not be judged by that law, but only in accordance with the general revelation of God granted to the human race as a whole through the wonders of creation (Rom. 1:20).
It is important to mention here that idolatry as a "religion" does not please God but adds insult to injury to the glory of God:
"I am the Lord, that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to carved images" (Isaiah 42:8).
"Religion" does not redeem people but may add to their guilt.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
The Circumcised Heart
Moses was speaking to the children of Israel just prior to their entering in the land of Canaan - the Promised Land. The first generation which disobeyed God had fallen dead in the wilderness. The second generation, brought up in the wilderness, was here prepared to cross over into the Promised Land of God.
They were under the Moses Law. Moses spent the entire Book of Deuteronomy recalling and restating the Mosaic Law which includes circumcision as a sign of God's covenant relation with His people. But in the middle of the whole setting Moses said:
"And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good? In deed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it. The Lord delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day. Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer" (Deu. 10:12 - 16, NKJV, emphasis added).
Clearly Moses linked uncircumcised heart with being stubborn and stiff-necked. Basically Moses was saying that if Israel would circumcise their heart, their heart would be tender, soft and sensitive so that they could hear God and be touched by Him. If their heart remained uncircumcised, their heart would remain hard and callous and insensitive to God.
People with uncircumcised hearts
One of the characteristic traces of God's people in the Old Testament was their hardheartedness. God called them rebellious, stubborn and disobedient children. In fact they were so characteristic of all fallen humanity. They were no more stubborn than any other ethnic group or nationality; they were just like us.
The Words of the Lord came to His people through His prophets, but they refused to listen:
According to Zechariah
"But they refused to heed, shrugged their shoulders, and stopped their ears so that they could not hear. Yes, they made their hearts like flint, refucing to hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets" (Zech. 7:11, 12, NKJV).
According to Jeremiah
Jeremiah's ministry was to give a message from God to people who didn't like to hear it.
"O Lord, are not Your eyes on the truth? You have stricken them, but they have not grieved; You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to return" (Jer. 5:3).
Israel refused to submit and bend under the Hand of God.
"Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed; nor did they know how to blush" (Jer. 6:15; 8:12).
Israel had forgotten how to feel guilty when God said something was seriously wrong.
"Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain. You have a harlot's forehead; you refused to be ashamed" (Jer. 3:3, emphasis added).
One of the reasons why rain was withheld was that the nation was stubborn, refused to feel guilty and refused to be ashamed - a judgment of God.
"Harlot's forehead" was a metaphor used to describe the nation of Israel in comparison of a woman who was so misused and abused that she got so harden that when you look into her face there was no softness, no tenderness, no gentleness and no compassion.
God's warning to the Hebrew believers
Many Jewish believers, having stepped out of Judaism into Christianity, wanted to reverse their course in order to escape persecution by their countrymen. The writer of Hebrews exhorted them to "go to perfection" (Heb. 6:1). He urged them to develop within themselves an enduring faith to withstand the tests and trials of life.
"Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellions. Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called 'Today' lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin" (Heb. 3:7, 12, 13, emphasis added).
Notice that "unbelief" is a product of an evil heart; "sin" causes the heart to be hardened.
God was saying, "You must obey, respond and stay soft. Don't let things in your life cause you to resist and hold back what I am speaking to you today".
"Today" is repeated several times all through to the next few Chapters. I believe the reason being, the key for tomorrow is today! What they had started today must carry them through until tomorrow. But they had grown so accustomed to not believing and disobeying God that by the time they got to the test of their faith, their hearts began to harden and got callous before "tomorrow" arrived.
Tender hearted Bible Characters
Here are some examples of tender hearted Bible characters:
1. David
According to the Scripture the greatest person ever lived with circumcised heart and was tender to the Lord was David. God removed king Saul and made David king.
God said, "I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will" (Acts 13:22, NKJV, emphasis added).
Notice that it is impossible to do all of God's will without a circumcised heart.
David's encounter with Saul
1 Samuel 24 tells of how David spared Saul when he found him in a cave. Instead of killing Saul, David only cut off a corner of Saul's robe.
"Now it happened afterward that David's heart troubled him because he had cut Saul's robe, and he said to his men, 'The Lord forbit that I should do this thing to my master, the Lord's anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord'" (1 Sam. 24:5, 6, emphasis added).
David's heart was so sensitive and tender that he felt bad even just cutting off a bit of Saul's robe.
David's confession of sin
2 Samuel 12 tells of David's confession of sin after Nathan, sent by the Lord, to confront him after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband killed later. David saw the evil in his own heart and said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord" (2 Sam. 12:13). He also wrote the beautiful Psalm 51 - a prayer of true repentance. Only a person with circumcised heart could write "Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight" (Ps. 51:4).
2. King Josiah
Josiah was a son of David and he became king when He was only eight years old.
"And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left" (2 Kings 22:2).
Josiah started a National revival and restoration of the work of God (Verses 11, 16, 18).
The Lord said, "Because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you" (2 Kings 22:19, emphasis added).
The lesson learnt is - The Lord hears the prayer of a person who has a circumcised heart, a heart that is tender, soft and sensitive enough to hate sin.
Circumcision of the whole person
So far we have dealt with the circumcision of the heart. The Bible reveals two other areas of our bodies (our lives) that need to be circumcised.
1. Circumcision of the ears
Jeremiah was sent by the Lord to speak to a people (Judah) not only with uncircumcised heart but also with uncircumcised ears:
"To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Indeed their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot give heed. Behold, the word of the Lord is a reproach to them; they have no delight in it" (Jer. 6:10, emphasis added).
2. Cicumcision of the heart
For the sake of completeness I mention this again. Here are more Scriptures on the circumcision of the heart:
"And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live" (Deu. 30:6).
"Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your hearts, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, ..." (Jer. 4:4).
3. Circumcision of the lips
At the commission of Moses to free the children of Israel from the land of Egypt Moses said before the Lord:
"Behold I am of uncircumcised lips, and how shall Pharoah heed me" (Exodus 6:30)?
At the commission of Isaish as a prophet he said to the Lord:
"Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips" (Isaiah 6:5).
Uncircumcised lips are unclean and unfit for the Lord's use.
Relationship between circumcision and our faith
The three areas of our body that need to be circumcised are collectively involve in the salvation process - closely related to our faith.
"So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17).
"But what does it say? 'The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart' that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:8, 9).
The three areas of our body provide the channel by which the Word of God must go through before "the power of God unto salvation" (the gospel) coming out of it. In other words, the Word has to come in our ear, goes down into our heart and comes out (confesses) out of our mouth. In every place that the Word has to go, that area has to be circumcised; has to be tender and sensitive to God. Whether a person is saved or lost entirely depends on the condition of his ears, heart and lips - circumcised or uncircumcised!
Let us use the story of the rich man and Lazarus as an illustration of the above Spiritual principle (Luke 16:19 - 31).
The rich man who was tormented in Hades had five brothers. God had been speaking to them through Moses and the prophets; God had been trying to get their attention, but they didn't have the circumcied ears to listen and the circumcised heart to believe.
Jesus said, "If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead" (Luke 16:31).
The problem is not who speaks to them, but lies in the condition of their ears and their hearts!
They were under the Moses Law. Moses spent the entire Book of Deuteronomy recalling and restating the Mosaic Law which includes circumcision as a sign of God's covenant relation with His people. But in the middle of the whole setting Moses said:
"And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good? In deed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it. The Lord delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day. Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer" (Deu. 10:12 - 16, NKJV, emphasis added).
Clearly Moses linked uncircumcised heart with being stubborn and stiff-necked. Basically Moses was saying that if Israel would circumcise their heart, their heart would be tender, soft and sensitive so that they could hear God and be touched by Him. If their heart remained uncircumcised, their heart would remain hard and callous and insensitive to God.
People with uncircumcised hearts
One of the characteristic traces of God's people in the Old Testament was their hardheartedness. God called them rebellious, stubborn and disobedient children. In fact they were so characteristic of all fallen humanity. They were no more stubborn than any other ethnic group or nationality; they were just like us.
The Words of the Lord came to His people through His prophets, but they refused to listen:
According to Zechariah
"But they refused to heed, shrugged their shoulders, and stopped their ears so that they could not hear. Yes, they made their hearts like flint, refucing to hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets" (Zech. 7:11, 12, NKJV).
According to Jeremiah
Jeremiah's ministry was to give a message from God to people who didn't like to hear it.
"O Lord, are not Your eyes on the truth? You have stricken them, but they have not grieved; You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to return" (Jer. 5:3).
Israel refused to submit and bend under the Hand of God.
"Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed; nor did they know how to blush" (Jer. 6:15; 8:12).
Israel had forgotten how to feel guilty when God said something was seriously wrong.
"Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain. You have a harlot's forehead; you refused to be ashamed" (Jer. 3:3, emphasis added).
One of the reasons why rain was withheld was that the nation was stubborn, refused to feel guilty and refused to be ashamed - a judgment of God.
"Harlot's forehead" was a metaphor used to describe the nation of Israel in comparison of a woman who was so misused and abused that she got so harden that when you look into her face there was no softness, no tenderness, no gentleness and no compassion.
God's warning to the Hebrew believers
Many Jewish believers, having stepped out of Judaism into Christianity, wanted to reverse their course in order to escape persecution by their countrymen. The writer of Hebrews exhorted them to "go to perfection" (Heb. 6:1). He urged them to develop within themselves an enduring faith to withstand the tests and trials of life.
"Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellions. Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called 'Today' lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin" (Heb. 3:7, 12, 13, emphasis added).
Notice that "unbelief" is a product of an evil heart; "sin" causes the heart to be hardened.
God was saying, "You must obey, respond and stay soft. Don't let things in your life cause you to resist and hold back what I am speaking to you today".
"Today" is repeated several times all through to the next few Chapters. I believe the reason being, the key for tomorrow is today! What they had started today must carry them through until tomorrow. But they had grown so accustomed to not believing and disobeying God that by the time they got to the test of their faith, their hearts began to harden and got callous before "tomorrow" arrived.
Tender hearted Bible Characters
Here are some examples of tender hearted Bible characters:
1. David
According to the Scripture the greatest person ever lived with circumcised heart and was tender to the Lord was David. God removed king Saul and made David king.
God said, "I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will" (Acts 13:22, NKJV, emphasis added).
Notice that it is impossible to do all of God's will without a circumcised heart.
David's encounter with Saul
1 Samuel 24 tells of how David spared Saul when he found him in a cave. Instead of killing Saul, David only cut off a corner of Saul's robe.
"Now it happened afterward that David's heart troubled him because he had cut Saul's robe, and he said to his men, 'The Lord forbit that I should do this thing to my master, the Lord's anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord'" (1 Sam. 24:5, 6, emphasis added).
David's heart was so sensitive and tender that he felt bad even just cutting off a bit of Saul's robe.
David's confession of sin
2 Samuel 12 tells of David's confession of sin after Nathan, sent by the Lord, to confront him after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband killed later. David saw the evil in his own heart and said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord" (2 Sam. 12:13). He also wrote the beautiful Psalm 51 - a prayer of true repentance. Only a person with circumcised heart could write "Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight" (Ps. 51:4).
2. King Josiah
Josiah was a son of David and he became king when He was only eight years old.
"And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left" (2 Kings 22:2).
Josiah started a National revival and restoration of the work of God (Verses 11, 16, 18).
The Lord said, "Because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you" (2 Kings 22:19, emphasis added).
The lesson learnt is - The Lord hears the prayer of a person who has a circumcised heart, a heart that is tender, soft and sensitive enough to hate sin.
Circumcision of the whole person
So far we have dealt with the circumcision of the heart. The Bible reveals two other areas of our bodies (our lives) that need to be circumcised.
1. Circumcision of the ears
Jeremiah was sent by the Lord to speak to a people (Judah) not only with uncircumcised heart but also with uncircumcised ears:
"To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Indeed their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot give heed. Behold, the word of the Lord is a reproach to them; they have no delight in it" (Jer. 6:10, emphasis added).
2. Cicumcision of the heart
For the sake of completeness I mention this again. Here are more Scriptures on the circumcision of the heart:
"And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live" (Deu. 30:6).
"Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your hearts, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, ..." (Jer. 4:4).
3. Circumcision of the lips
At the commission of Moses to free the children of Israel from the land of Egypt Moses said before the Lord:
"Behold I am of uncircumcised lips, and how shall Pharoah heed me" (Exodus 6:30)?
At the commission of Isaish as a prophet he said to the Lord:
"Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips" (Isaiah 6:5).
Uncircumcised lips are unclean and unfit for the Lord's use.
Relationship between circumcision and our faith
The three areas of our body that need to be circumcised are collectively involve in the salvation process - closely related to our faith.
"So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17).
"But what does it say? 'The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart' that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:8, 9).
The three areas of our body provide the channel by which the Word of God must go through before "the power of God unto salvation" (the gospel) coming out of it. In other words, the Word has to come in our ear, goes down into our heart and comes out (confesses) out of our mouth. In every place that the Word has to go, that area has to be circumcised; has to be tender and sensitive to God. Whether a person is saved or lost entirely depends on the condition of his ears, heart and lips - circumcised or uncircumcised!
Let us use the story of the rich man and Lazarus as an illustration of the above Spiritual principle (Luke 16:19 - 31).
The rich man who was tormented in Hades had five brothers. God had been speaking to them through Moses and the prophets; God had been trying to get their attention, but they didn't have the circumcied ears to listen and the circumcised heart to believe.
Jesus said, "If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead" (Luke 16:31).
The problem is not who speaks to them, but lies in the condition of their ears and their hearts!
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
An Area of God's Nature
In my message last week I pointed out that the Fruit of the Spirit is a perfect picture of God and Christ. My message this week concerns a specific area of the Nature of God - His long-suffering.
The psalmist put it this way:
"The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy" (Psalm 145:8, NKJV).
This area of God's nature is revealed through the prophet Habakkuk. By studying the first two Chapters of the Book of Habakkuk we learn how God rules the nations of the world in time of war as well as in peace.
Habakkuk and his burden
The Bible says very little about Habakkuk. From his writing revealed that he was a prophet of deep emotional strength. He was also a poet quite similar to the psalmist David. The only thing we know about him is when he lived and what was going on in his country (Judah) during the reign of king Josiah (around 630 BC).
During that period of time the nation of Judah was enjoying prosperity. But as the material prosperity was up the moral level went down. There were violence in the streets, there were injustice, people got away with crime and the law was paralyzed. Habakkuk complained about the moral disorganization around him and cried out to God for help - how long would God allow this moral decay to continue? He prayed for almost ten years about the situation until he was fed up with praying.
Habakkuk's prophetic prayer
Not only Habakkuk cried out to the Almighty God for justice, he also complained, protested and questioned God:
"How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, 'Violence!' but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abound" (Hab. 1:2, 3, NIV).
Notice that Habakkuk prayed with a question mark at the end of each sentence. This is a perfect example of a prophetic prayer. Prophetic prayer is a prayer often prayed by all Old Testament prophets including the psalmists and Job. Most of us want to know how to pray effectively, how to get answers from God and how to hear God. Well, by praying the prophetic prayer, all prophets heard from God and got their answers from God, even though sometimes God didn't answer them the way they wanted.
How Habakkuk prayed the prophetic prayer?
Habakkuk started by telling God what he thought of Him. He was utterly honest with God. Anyway, whether he was honest with God or not, God knew his heart.
The Lord said to Isaiah, "Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear" (Isaiah 65:24, NIV).
Study the Bible and you'll see again and again that the prophets of God dared to speak to God that we wouldn't dare to speak to our parents! They understood that when you are honest with God you are likely to get through to God - because God hates hypocrites (Matt. 6:2).
Interrogative prayer
Another form of prophetic prayer is interrogative prayer. The psalmist always prayed interrogative prayers:
"Why do You stand afar off, O Lord? Why do You hide in times of trouble" (Ps. 10:1, NKJV)?
"My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, and from the words of My groaning" (Ps. 22:1)?
Job also prayed many intterogative prayers:
"Why then have You brought me out of the womb? Oh, that I had perished and no eye had seen me" (Job 10:18).
"Why do You hide Your face, and regard me as Your enemy" (Job 13:24)?
I heard people complained that God never speak to them. My suggestion is that they try to ask God something like this:
"Lord, is there anything in my life you don't like"? You'll be amazed how quickly you get an answer from God!
I believe the fact that God allows Himself to be questioned by His followers is an indication of His long-suffering, loving kindness, mercy and grace.
God's first answer to Habakkuk
God's first reply brought little comfort to Habakkuk. He told Habakkuk He was raising up the Babylonians to bring judgment to Judah soon:
"For Iam going to do something in you days that you would not believe even if you were told" (Hab. 1:5).
Habakkuk was not happy because in his own eyes the righteous God should not allow the Babylonians to execute judgment upon a people (Judah) more righteous than they:
"Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves" (Hab. 1:13)?
To Habakkuk it looked as if the wicked were getting away with it and overcoming those who are apparently more righteous than themselves.
God's second answer to Habakkuk and to us
Just as in Chapter One the Lord said to Habakkuk that he needed a larger view of what He would do, in Chapter Two the Lord said he needed a longer view of what He would do. Habakkuk must wait for the appointed time (Hab. 2:3). There would come a day He would deal with the Babylonians who did two things that God hated - greed and pride. These are the two things that will destroy any nation.
The Lord is saying the same thing to Christians today. In the end the tyrant will fall; in the end the wrong will be put right; in the end the wicked will perish. The mill of God though grinds slowly but we'll soon see His righteous work prevails in the end. No one will get away with anything unjust and unrighteous and still be found blameless. They may get away with the police; they may get away with their parents or their bosses or the Income Tax inspectors. But they will not get away anything before God.
"Woes" for the unrighteous
The little word "woe" appears five times in Chapter Two. "Woe" is actually a curse word, the opposite of of "woe" is "blessed". Every Old Testament prophet used both words. But "woe" is a word you rarely hear from the pulpit today because the prophetic Word of God is rare in the days of Samuel (1 Sam. 3:1) as well as today.
In my opinion the five "woes" mentioned here are so relevant to the whole question of human-rights in the world today. Much of the Bible is not only written for God's people but also for others.
1. "Woe to him who piles up stolen goods and makes himself wealthy by extortion" (Hab. 2:6, NIV).
My paraphrase says, "Woe to those who get what they want by force". The Lord said, "Those who plunder you will be plundered" (Jeremiah 30:16, NIV).
2. "Woe to him who builds his realm by unjust gain ...." (Hab. 2:9).
3. "Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by crime" (Hab. 2:12).
My paraphrase says, "Woe to him who builds a city by exploited slave labor".
The hanging-garden of Babylon was built by God's people taken from Judah and enslaved by Nebuchadnezzar.
4. "Woe to him who give drink to his neighbors, pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk ...." (Hab. 2:15).
One of the things that the Babylonians did was to make those people they conquered drunk so that they would commit orgies in front of them - for their own entertainment.
5. "Woe to him who says to wood, 'Come to life!' or to lifeless stone, 'Wake up!" (Hab. 2:19).
My paraphrase says, "Woe to him who makes an image of God and makes it speak!".
Images of God cannot speak because it has no breath in it. This type of images includes an image of God in your mind that does not exit.
Habakkuk was told to be silent before God because God knows what He is doing and all His ways are just. We are on earth but God is in Heaven - His holy temple. God would not be mocked; the Babylonians would certainly be judged more severely than the judgment they brought against God's people.
God will always vindicate His righteous character: "For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea" (Hab. 2:14).
We should stop asking where God is in any situation - but let the world be silent and be humbled before Him. We are made righteous by believing (Romans 5:19). And we live by faith:
".... the righteous will live by his faith" (Hab. 2:4).
The above verse of Scripture is the most significant in the entire Bible. It is quoted three times in the New Testament - Roman 1:17, Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38.
The psalmist put it this way:
"The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy" (Psalm 145:8, NKJV).
This area of God's nature is revealed through the prophet Habakkuk. By studying the first two Chapters of the Book of Habakkuk we learn how God rules the nations of the world in time of war as well as in peace.
Habakkuk and his burden
The Bible says very little about Habakkuk. From his writing revealed that he was a prophet of deep emotional strength. He was also a poet quite similar to the psalmist David. The only thing we know about him is when he lived and what was going on in his country (Judah) during the reign of king Josiah (around 630 BC).
During that period of time the nation of Judah was enjoying prosperity. But as the material prosperity was up the moral level went down. There were violence in the streets, there were injustice, people got away with crime and the law was paralyzed. Habakkuk complained about the moral disorganization around him and cried out to God for help - how long would God allow this moral decay to continue? He prayed for almost ten years about the situation until he was fed up with praying.
Habakkuk's prophetic prayer
Not only Habakkuk cried out to the Almighty God for justice, he also complained, protested and questioned God:
"How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, 'Violence!' but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abound" (Hab. 1:2, 3, NIV).
Notice that Habakkuk prayed with a question mark at the end of each sentence. This is a perfect example of a prophetic prayer. Prophetic prayer is a prayer often prayed by all Old Testament prophets including the psalmists and Job. Most of us want to know how to pray effectively, how to get answers from God and how to hear God. Well, by praying the prophetic prayer, all prophets heard from God and got their answers from God, even though sometimes God didn't answer them the way they wanted.
How Habakkuk prayed the prophetic prayer?
Habakkuk started by telling God what he thought of Him. He was utterly honest with God. Anyway, whether he was honest with God or not, God knew his heart.
The Lord said to Isaiah, "Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear" (Isaiah 65:24, NIV).
Study the Bible and you'll see again and again that the prophets of God dared to speak to God that we wouldn't dare to speak to our parents! They understood that when you are honest with God you are likely to get through to God - because God hates hypocrites (Matt. 6:2).
Interrogative prayer
Another form of prophetic prayer is interrogative prayer. The psalmist always prayed interrogative prayers:
"Why do You stand afar off, O Lord? Why do You hide in times of trouble" (Ps. 10:1, NKJV)?
"My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, and from the words of My groaning" (Ps. 22:1)?
Job also prayed many intterogative prayers:
"Why then have You brought me out of the womb? Oh, that I had perished and no eye had seen me" (Job 10:18).
"Why do You hide Your face, and regard me as Your enemy" (Job 13:24)?
I heard people complained that God never speak to them. My suggestion is that they try to ask God something like this:
"Lord, is there anything in my life you don't like"? You'll be amazed how quickly you get an answer from God!
I believe the fact that God allows Himself to be questioned by His followers is an indication of His long-suffering, loving kindness, mercy and grace.
God's first answer to Habakkuk
God's first reply brought little comfort to Habakkuk. He told Habakkuk He was raising up the Babylonians to bring judgment to Judah soon:
"For Iam going to do something in you days that you would not believe even if you were told" (Hab. 1:5).
Habakkuk was not happy because in his own eyes the righteous God should not allow the Babylonians to execute judgment upon a people (Judah) more righteous than they:
"Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves" (Hab. 1:13)?
To Habakkuk it looked as if the wicked were getting away with it and overcoming those who are apparently more righteous than themselves.
God's second answer to Habakkuk and to us
Just as in Chapter One the Lord said to Habakkuk that he needed a larger view of what He would do, in Chapter Two the Lord said he needed a longer view of what He would do. Habakkuk must wait for the appointed time (Hab. 2:3). There would come a day He would deal with the Babylonians who did two things that God hated - greed and pride. These are the two things that will destroy any nation.
The Lord is saying the same thing to Christians today. In the end the tyrant will fall; in the end the wrong will be put right; in the end the wicked will perish. The mill of God though grinds slowly but we'll soon see His righteous work prevails in the end. No one will get away with anything unjust and unrighteous and still be found blameless. They may get away with the police; they may get away with their parents or their bosses or the Income Tax inspectors. But they will not get away anything before God.
"Woes" for the unrighteous
The little word "woe" appears five times in Chapter Two. "Woe" is actually a curse word, the opposite of of "woe" is "blessed". Every Old Testament prophet used both words. But "woe" is a word you rarely hear from the pulpit today because the prophetic Word of God is rare in the days of Samuel (1 Sam. 3:1) as well as today.
In my opinion the five "woes" mentioned here are so relevant to the whole question of human-rights in the world today. Much of the Bible is not only written for God's people but also for others.
1. "Woe to him who piles up stolen goods and makes himself wealthy by extortion" (Hab. 2:6, NIV).
My paraphrase says, "Woe to those who get what they want by force". The Lord said, "Those who plunder you will be plundered" (Jeremiah 30:16, NIV).
2. "Woe to him who builds his realm by unjust gain ...." (Hab. 2:9).
3. "Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by crime" (Hab. 2:12).
My paraphrase says, "Woe to him who builds a city by exploited slave labor".
The hanging-garden of Babylon was built by God's people taken from Judah and enslaved by Nebuchadnezzar.
4. "Woe to him who give drink to his neighbors, pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk ...." (Hab. 2:15).
One of the things that the Babylonians did was to make those people they conquered drunk so that they would commit orgies in front of them - for their own entertainment.
5. "Woe to him who says to wood, 'Come to life!' or to lifeless stone, 'Wake up!" (Hab. 2:19).
My paraphrase says, "Woe to him who makes an image of God and makes it speak!".
Images of God cannot speak because it has no breath in it. This type of images includes an image of God in your mind that does not exit.
Habakkuk was told to be silent before God because God knows what He is doing and all His ways are just. We are on earth but God is in Heaven - His holy temple. God would not be mocked; the Babylonians would certainly be judged more severely than the judgment they brought against God's people.
God will always vindicate His righteous character: "For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea" (Hab. 2:14).
We should stop asking where God is in any situation - but let the world be silent and be humbled before Him. We are made righteous by believing (Romans 5:19). And we live by faith:
".... the righteous will live by his faith" (Hab. 2:4).
The above verse of Scripture is the most significant in the entire Bible. It is quoted three times in the New Testament - Roman 1:17, Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
God's Work In Christians
God's primary work in Christian is two-fold; to enable us to be like Jesus Christ and to maintain unity in the Body of Christ - His Church.
According to the Gospel, John the Baptist and our Lord Jesus Christ had two different ministries which were complement to each other. John came with the message that God can deal with your past, whereas Jesus came with the message that God can deal with your future.
The fact is that every single thing an unbeliever said or done or felt is recorded in him - becomes a part of him. Not one of us can cut this link with the past. Our present action is controlled by our past decision. But God at His mercy performs a miracle of forgiveness so that we can arise, go forth and follow Christ. God deals with our past through the ministry of John and we are cut off from it by washing it away - so that our pasts will no longer going to control our present and our future. That is good news and this good news is called repentance.
But John could not deal with your future. That was why he said, "I indeed baptized you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose, He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (Luke 3:16, NKJV).
We, not only need pardon for the past, we need power for the future as well. Therefore if ever I want to be a truly fruitful Christian then it will be God who has to do it in me. I will not be able to manage it myself. His Holy Spirit is given to us precisely for this purpose.
The Gifts and the Fruit
The two things that the Holy Spirit gives to help us to be Christians are the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Fruit of the Holy Spirit. We will not be fully matured Christians until we have both. The Gifts are given so that we can do what Jesus did; the Fruit is given so that we may be what Jesus was - this is good new.
We do not go out and try to do our best or try to be like Jesus. His standard is so high that He said, "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5:48, NKJV).
Similarities and differences
1. Both the Gifts and the Fruit are supernatural social gifts primarily given to help us to relate to other people. They are not private things for me alone but for us.
2. All the Gifts are given to me to pass on to the Body of Christ. All the different flavors of the Fruit are given to me to relate properly to others, to God and to myself.
3. Both can be imitated both by men and by Satan. But discernment will tell you where it is the real things.
4. Gifts are more spectacular and more difficult to handle. Therefore there are more teaching in the Scripture on how to handle Gifts. You can't handle the Gifts without the Fruit. There is no teaching or guidance in the Scripture on how to handle the Fruit for obvious reasons. When you grow the Fruit you can handle it yourself. The last flavor of the Fruit is self-control - "Against such there is no law".
5. Gifts tend to be outward things - they show outwardly, they can be seen and heard. But Fruit is inward.
6. Gifts appear suddenly, they can be given suddenly or even in a flash. Fruit appears gradually, it grows gradually.
7. Gifts are temporary things but Fruit is permanent. A person can lose his Gifts. Samson lost his Gifts because of his pride and disobedience to God.
8. Gifts usually appear early in the Christian life but Fruit appears later.
9. Gifts can be given to very immature Christians, even to carnal and unholy Christians. Fruit is for matured Christians - it takes time to grow and to mature (ripe).
10. Gifts are many, Fruit is one. God's plan is to have the Gifts spread out in the Local Church so that one person has one Gift and another another person has another. But the flavors of the Fruit can't be divided - you either have all the flavors or none at all.
11. There is a difference between the Fruit and the apparent virtues in ungodly or unsaved people. But you'll never find all the nine flavors or virtues of the Fruit in unbelievers.
The Fruit of the Holy Spirit
This message concerns only the Fruit because there is very little teaching on the Fruit. On the other hand you'll be able to find a lot of teaching on Gifts elsewhere. Anyway, God willing, I'll deal with the Gifts in a later message.
The nine flavors of the Fruit are listed by Paul, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law" (Gal. 5:22, 23, NKJV).
The first three flavors primarily relate us to God are - love, joy and peace.
The next three relate us to other people are - longsuffering, kindness and goodness.
The last three help us to relate to ourselves are - faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Let us consider briefly one by one:
1. love - or loving care. Love has been so abused because the English language is limited and inadequate to describe the different types of love. The Greek has four ways of saying love. Love as a Fruit in Greek means loving care.
When you have loving care for someone this is what you'll say, "I care for you so deeply that I always seek your best good what ever it costs me".
We do not find this kind of love very frequently in a world that doesn't know God!
2. Joy - or deep happiness. Joy is so deep that no one or any circumstance can take it from you. Happiness comes to an end because it usually founded on people and people can be taken away from us.
3. Peace - or deep serenity (in harmony with God). When your body is in harmony you have physical health; when your mind is in harmony you are free from worry; when your spirit is in harmony you are forgiven by God - you are saved from sin.
4. Longsuffering - or endless patience. A longsuffering person is a slow tempered person. This does not mean that this person never gets angry. Jesus was angry sometimes. But He has been described by the psalmist:
"The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy" (Ps. 145:8).
5. Kindness - or practical kindness. A person with kindness has a deep feeling for people. He is a mellow and gracious person.
6. Goodness - or all-round generosity. A person with goodness has a generous heart, a generous mind and a generous hand - so that when he sees a need he wants to go and meet that need.
7. Faithfulness - or steady reliability. He is a person who will always be there without your asking. He is a committed person. He is someone you can always depend on.
8. Gentleness - or gentle humility. A person with gentleness has meekness of the best kind - not weak or mild meekness but tamed and positive meekness.
9. Self-control - or firmed self-control. He is a person who can always say no to himself. He will not be tempted in all circumstances.
All the above flavors are of one Fruit. It is important to note that while describing the various flavors of the Fruit we are actually painting a precise picture of our Lord Jesus Christ! The Fruit of the Spirit is a perfect picture of God and His Christ.
Human virtue and temperament
God created each one of us with different human virtue and temperament. Every fallen human being has his unique God given human virtue and temperament. Only believers in Christ can grow the Fruit of the Holy Spirit.
Human virtue says I'll make my New Year resolution, I'm going to be a more loving person next year; I'll be more joyful and caring. These are piecemeal virtues. You'll find you can manage some virtues better because of your temperament type. But the Fruit of the Spirit provides you with all these virtues in one go, eventhough it comes gradually.
Because every one of us is born with some human virtue, you can see some good in everyone although everyone has his own strengths and weaknesses. But what you can't see is an all round character. What you can't see is virtues in balanced. What you can't see is Christ-likeness that only the Spirit of Christ can give. Take for example, love (as defined by the Scripture), is the one thing you can't find in human virtue and temperament. That was why when Jesus came He said we must love the Lord our God and love our neighbors (Matt. 22:37 - 40) - He emphasized love as a Fruit.
Problems in marriage
What will happen if we fail to grow Fruit or grow Fruit at a different rate? Problem arises because we have different human virtue and temperament and this strains our relationship with other people.
Therefore every marriage between two people is incompatible simply because every marriage is between different temperaments - either similar or of the opposite. They need adjustment because there are gaps in their virtues and temperaments. If the gaps coincide then that marriage needs help.
Problems in the Local Church
The Local Church is like a gigantic marriage between a whole lot of people. Can you imagine keeping 500 people together in loving relationship when virtues and temperaments are different?
Possible solutions
1. You can hold the Church together by keeping people separated - by not getting them too close together. Don't let them get involved with one another - just offer one another social lip service. Many Churches, especially the mega-churches are doing exactly that.
2. You can develop cliques within the local fellowship so that those who can get on stay with their group. This can work when that clique centers on a leader of a particular temperament. Then you get into the same kind of situation of the Corinthian Church - "I am of Paul; I am of Apolos" (1 Cor. 3:4).
Obviously the above are not real solutions. Unless the Fruit of the Spirit grows in everyone you'll have people (including pastors and leaders) hop from a local church to another local church - when relationship becomes too difficult to bear.
The Fruit of the Spirit is a vital necessity in a Local Church, so vital that we can't fulfill God's will without it. God's will is not we should try to find our temperamental home. God's will is that we all attain to the "measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephe. 4:13)! Unity comes naturally when everyone is growing the Fruit. Then we can get along fine no matter what our temperament and human virtue have been before we are saved.
Spiritual conditions for growing the Fruit of the Spirit
1. Abide in Christ
It is one thing to start with Christ and another to continue with Him. You can't continue with Him unless you also abide in Him.
Jesus said, "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me" (John 15:4, NKJV).
All of us tend to be like the people we associate with or live with. Abiding in Christ means living (maintaining a personal relationship) with Him all the time. If you do, without you realizing it you begin to grow Fruit. Not only all of us in the Local Church must abide in Christ (the Head) we also must abide in the Body (our fellow believers in Christ).
2. Walk in the Spirit
Paul said, "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Gal. 5:25).
Walking in the spirit means every single step that I take is in total response to the Holy Spirit. There is no short cut in growing the Fruit of the Spirit. Attending Christian conferences or conventions will not help us to grow Fruit. The only thing we might gain is knowledge - and knowledge puffs up according to the Scripture (1 Cor. 8:1).
Whether our old temperament likes it or not we have to go wherever the Spirit leads. We can fill up the gaps in our old temperament by walking in the Spirit.
According to the Gospel, John the Baptist and our Lord Jesus Christ had two different ministries which were complement to each other. John came with the message that God can deal with your past, whereas Jesus came with the message that God can deal with your future.
The fact is that every single thing an unbeliever said or done or felt is recorded in him - becomes a part of him. Not one of us can cut this link with the past. Our present action is controlled by our past decision. But God at His mercy performs a miracle of forgiveness so that we can arise, go forth and follow Christ. God deals with our past through the ministry of John and we are cut off from it by washing it away - so that our pasts will no longer going to control our present and our future. That is good news and this good news is called repentance.
But John could not deal with your future. That was why he said, "I indeed baptized you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose, He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (Luke 3:16, NKJV).
We, not only need pardon for the past, we need power for the future as well. Therefore if ever I want to be a truly fruitful Christian then it will be God who has to do it in me. I will not be able to manage it myself. His Holy Spirit is given to us precisely for this purpose.
The Gifts and the Fruit
The two things that the Holy Spirit gives to help us to be Christians are the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Fruit of the Holy Spirit. We will not be fully matured Christians until we have both. The Gifts are given so that we can do what Jesus did; the Fruit is given so that we may be what Jesus was - this is good new.
We do not go out and try to do our best or try to be like Jesus. His standard is so high that He said, "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5:48, NKJV).
Similarities and differences
1. Both the Gifts and the Fruit are supernatural social gifts primarily given to help us to relate to other people. They are not private things for me alone but for us.
2. All the Gifts are given to me to pass on to the Body of Christ. All the different flavors of the Fruit are given to me to relate properly to others, to God and to myself.
3. Both can be imitated both by men and by Satan. But discernment will tell you where it is the real things.
4. Gifts are more spectacular and more difficult to handle. Therefore there are more teaching in the Scripture on how to handle Gifts. You can't handle the Gifts without the Fruit. There is no teaching or guidance in the Scripture on how to handle the Fruit for obvious reasons. When you grow the Fruit you can handle it yourself. The last flavor of the Fruit is self-control - "Against such there is no law".
5. Gifts tend to be outward things - they show outwardly, they can be seen and heard. But Fruit is inward.
6. Gifts appear suddenly, they can be given suddenly or even in a flash. Fruit appears gradually, it grows gradually.
7. Gifts are temporary things but Fruit is permanent. A person can lose his Gifts. Samson lost his Gifts because of his pride and disobedience to God.
8. Gifts usually appear early in the Christian life but Fruit appears later.
9. Gifts can be given to very immature Christians, even to carnal and unholy Christians. Fruit is for matured Christians - it takes time to grow and to mature (ripe).
10. Gifts are many, Fruit is one. God's plan is to have the Gifts spread out in the Local Church so that one person has one Gift and another another person has another. But the flavors of the Fruit can't be divided - you either have all the flavors or none at all.
11. There is a difference between the Fruit and the apparent virtues in ungodly or unsaved people. But you'll never find all the nine flavors or virtues of the Fruit in unbelievers.
The Fruit of the Holy Spirit
This message concerns only the Fruit because there is very little teaching on the Fruit. On the other hand you'll be able to find a lot of teaching on Gifts elsewhere. Anyway, God willing, I'll deal with the Gifts in a later message.
The nine flavors of the Fruit are listed by Paul, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law" (Gal. 5:22, 23, NKJV).
The first three flavors primarily relate us to God are - love, joy and peace.
The next three relate us to other people are - longsuffering, kindness and goodness.
The last three help us to relate to ourselves are - faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Let us consider briefly one by one:
1. love - or loving care. Love has been so abused because the English language is limited and inadequate to describe the different types of love. The Greek has four ways of saying love. Love as a Fruit in Greek means loving care.
When you have loving care for someone this is what you'll say, "I care for you so deeply that I always seek your best good what ever it costs me".
We do not find this kind of love very frequently in a world that doesn't know God!
2. Joy - or deep happiness. Joy is so deep that no one or any circumstance can take it from you. Happiness comes to an end because it usually founded on people and people can be taken away from us.
3. Peace - or deep serenity (in harmony with God). When your body is in harmony you have physical health; when your mind is in harmony you are free from worry; when your spirit is in harmony you are forgiven by God - you are saved from sin.
4. Longsuffering - or endless patience. A longsuffering person is a slow tempered person. This does not mean that this person never gets angry. Jesus was angry sometimes. But He has been described by the psalmist:
"The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy" (Ps. 145:8).
5. Kindness - or practical kindness. A person with kindness has a deep feeling for people. He is a mellow and gracious person.
6. Goodness - or all-round generosity. A person with goodness has a generous heart, a generous mind and a generous hand - so that when he sees a need he wants to go and meet that need.
7. Faithfulness - or steady reliability. He is a person who will always be there without your asking. He is a committed person. He is someone you can always depend on.
8. Gentleness - or gentle humility. A person with gentleness has meekness of the best kind - not weak or mild meekness but tamed and positive meekness.
9. Self-control - or firmed self-control. He is a person who can always say no to himself. He will not be tempted in all circumstances.
All the above flavors are of one Fruit. It is important to note that while describing the various flavors of the Fruit we are actually painting a precise picture of our Lord Jesus Christ! The Fruit of the Spirit is a perfect picture of God and His Christ.
Human virtue and temperament
God created each one of us with different human virtue and temperament. Every fallen human being has his unique God given human virtue and temperament. Only believers in Christ can grow the Fruit of the Holy Spirit.
Human virtue says I'll make my New Year resolution, I'm going to be a more loving person next year; I'll be more joyful and caring. These are piecemeal virtues. You'll find you can manage some virtues better because of your temperament type. But the Fruit of the Spirit provides you with all these virtues in one go, eventhough it comes gradually.
Because every one of us is born with some human virtue, you can see some good in everyone although everyone has his own strengths and weaknesses. But what you can't see is an all round character. What you can't see is virtues in balanced. What you can't see is Christ-likeness that only the Spirit of Christ can give. Take for example, love (as defined by the Scripture), is the one thing you can't find in human virtue and temperament. That was why when Jesus came He said we must love the Lord our God and love our neighbors (Matt. 22:37 - 40) - He emphasized love as a Fruit.
Problems in marriage
What will happen if we fail to grow Fruit or grow Fruit at a different rate? Problem arises because we have different human virtue and temperament and this strains our relationship with other people.
Therefore every marriage between two people is incompatible simply because every marriage is between different temperaments - either similar or of the opposite. They need adjustment because there are gaps in their virtues and temperaments. If the gaps coincide then that marriage needs help.
Problems in the Local Church
The Local Church is like a gigantic marriage between a whole lot of people. Can you imagine keeping 500 people together in loving relationship when virtues and temperaments are different?
Possible solutions
1. You can hold the Church together by keeping people separated - by not getting them too close together. Don't let them get involved with one another - just offer one another social lip service. Many Churches, especially the mega-churches are doing exactly that.
2. You can develop cliques within the local fellowship so that those who can get on stay with their group. This can work when that clique centers on a leader of a particular temperament. Then you get into the same kind of situation of the Corinthian Church - "I am of Paul; I am of Apolos" (1 Cor. 3:4).
Obviously the above are not real solutions. Unless the Fruit of the Spirit grows in everyone you'll have people (including pastors and leaders) hop from a local church to another local church - when relationship becomes too difficult to bear.
The Fruit of the Spirit is a vital necessity in a Local Church, so vital that we can't fulfill God's will without it. God's will is not we should try to find our temperamental home. God's will is that we all attain to the "measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephe. 4:13)! Unity comes naturally when everyone is growing the Fruit. Then we can get along fine no matter what our temperament and human virtue have been before we are saved.
Spiritual conditions for growing the Fruit of the Spirit
1. Abide in Christ
It is one thing to start with Christ and another to continue with Him. You can't continue with Him unless you also abide in Him.
Jesus said, "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me" (John 15:4, NKJV).
All of us tend to be like the people we associate with or live with. Abiding in Christ means living (maintaining a personal relationship) with Him all the time. If you do, without you realizing it you begin to grow Fruit. Not only all of us in the Local Church must abide in Christ (the Head) we also must abide in the Body (our fellow believers in Christ).
2. Walk in the Spirit
Paul said, "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Gal. 5:25).
Walking in the spirit means every single step that I take is in total response to the Holy Spirit. There is no short cut in growing the Fruit of the Spirit. Attending Christian conferences or conventions will not help us to grow Fruit. The only thing we might gain is knowledge - and knowledge puffs up according to the Scripture (1 Cor. 8:1).
Whether our old temperament likes it or not we have to go wherever the Spirit leads. We can fill up the gaps in our old temperament by walking in the Spirit.
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
True Spiritual Strength
Many Christians in ministry are accomplishing great things for God. There are ministers who go around preaching and telling people what they could do for God. The whole theme of their preaching concerns what mighty works of miracles, healings, prophecies and other manifestations of the gifts of the Holy Spirit they are accomplishing for God. Everything they said is true, but it is interesting to see when they are coming to the end of what they can do. Very often in our ministry, which is given to us by God, by divine appointment, we shall come to the end of what we can do. There is a place we can come to where we can do no more.
True Scriptural Spiritual Strength
True spiritual strength is not how much we can do and how much we can exercise spiritual gifts.
Paul said, "We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves" (Romans 15:1, NIV, emphasis added).
In the King James Version the word "failings" is replaced by the word "infirmities".
Therefore, the scriptural mark of strength is not how much you can do; essentially it is how much you bear the weaknesses and infirmities of others. It is very satisfying to be in your own ability, in your own ministry and have your own spiritual experience. But this really does not require much spiritual strength. It does require spiritual strength to bear the weaknesses of others. In fact, to be able to bear with the failings of the weak is the mark of Christian maturity. I believe spiritual strength is measured by God and by the Scripture in proportion to the degree that we are able to support and bear the weaknesses of other people. This is never easy.
This is exactly the opposite to the spirit of this evil age, which is to get what you want for yourself and let the weak take care of themselves. Once we begin to make what suits us the measure of what is right we are on a slippery path that goes downward to a horrible mess. How often we see people written off those who were born hopelessly handicapped, those who were born not more than a vegetable? What about the mentally sick? One after another they were written off in the name of humanity. That is not the Christian's answer. What about cases of abortion which in the sight of God is murder? Not merely abortion is forbidden by God, but also the attitude behind it is totally un-Christian.
Christians do not write the weak off. We don't even relegate them to an institution where we never hear about them or care about them any more. A true Christian's first motive is not to get away with as much as he could get away with legally, but to do what Jesus Christ wants him to do.
We ought not to please ourselves
According to Paul, if we please ourselves we cannot bear the weakness of others (Romans 15:1).
Every time I do anything effective for the Lord, that is acceptable to him, I begin by not pleasing myself. That is to say I must deny myself. In the scriptural sense to deny myself means to say no to myself:
Jesus said, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me" (Luke 9:23, NKJV, emphasis added).
To deny myself daily
The ego that is in me, that is always exerting itself saying I want, I wish, I feel and I think has to be denied on a daily basis. I have to say no to myself otherwise I cannot live the type of Christian life that is pleasing to God. It is impossible to be a self pleaser and a Christ pleaser at the same time.
To take up the cross daily
Everyday presents every Christian with an opportunity to take up his cross. If you use the opportunity you'll have a victorious day, and if you lose the opportunity you'll have a day of defeat. Someone said, "Your cross is where your will and the will of God crossed. Your cross is the thing on which you can die; it is the place you can lay down your life:
Jesus said, "The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life - only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again" (John 10:17, 18, NIV).
If you don't voluntarily lay down your life no one takes your life from you - you are in control of it. Your cross is the place where you can make the decision not to please yourself. If you take up your cross the ministries of God will flow out of your life. You have to do it on a daily basis. Ministries will not flow out of the life of a believer who pleases himself.
A true child of God
The distinctive mark that makes you a true child of God is having the Spirit of Christ.
Paul said, "You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ" (Romans 8:6, NIV).
There are a lot of Christians who have been baptized in the Holy Spirit, speak in tongues, work miracles and preach powerful sermons but they demonstrate little or nothing of the Spirit of Christ. The mark that makes us children of God is having the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of Christ cannot be separated from the nature and personality of Jesus Himself. It is a meek Spirit, humble and gentle Spirit; certainly not arrogant, not self-exerting or self-pleasing.
In contemporary Christianity we hear a lot of teaching of claiming your inheritance and getting what belongs to you. There is nothing wrong to receive what has been given to you. But there is a difference between thankfully receiving it and selfishly grasping it.
Many Christians abuse what John said, "Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers" (3 John 2).
In God's sight you don't prosper by exerting your right. The Spirit of Christ does not lay claim to any right. The Spirit of Christ is a yielding Spirit. When you yield to Christ He will prosper you, not necessarily only material prosperity but all round prosperity (good health and general well-being).
Christ as our perfect example
Christ is our supreme example of yielding:
Paul said, "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness" (Phil. 2:5 - 7, NIV, emphasis added).
Jesus is entitled to be in equality with God; it was His by divine right, but He did not grasp it. Lucifer, who became Satan, on the other hand, was not entitled to be in equality with God, he did grasp at it and he fell!
If you do not have the Spirit of Christ then you have the spirit of the world (spirit of Satan). We have to discern between true and false prophets, true and false ministers of God, and those who are serving God in Spirit and in truth and those who are not. The mark that separates the true from the false is the Spirit of Christ.
Biblical examples of yielding
The Spirit of Christ is a yielding Spirit; but the spirit of the world is a grasping spirit. All great men of God, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, had the yielding Spirit. Here are some examples:
1. The Wisdom of Solomon (1 Kings 3)
Solomon did not ask for riches, he did not ask for honor or the lives of his enemies. Instead he asked God for wisdom and a hearing heart (verse 9). God was pleased and He gave him what he did not ask for as well (verses 10 to 13).
Solomon's wise judgment was immediately tested (verses 16 to 27). There were two harlots who lived in one house. Each of them brought forth a baby; each had the baby in bed with her. In the middle of the night one of the women rolled onto her baby and killed it. So in the morning there were two mothers but only one baby. Each of the mothers wanted the baby that was alive and both claimed the baby.
The case was brought before Solomon who heard the case and said there was only one thing to do - bring in a sword and cut the baby in half. The woman whose baby had died said that was right. But the real mother didn't want to see her baby die said give her the baby and let it live. Solomon said that was the real mother!
The lesson is very simple. If it is really your baby rather than see it die you let the other person have it - that is the real test of the yielding Spirit and spiritual strength! Many times in Christian services and ministries a man brought forth which is his, but somebody contested it and claimed it. Are you prepared to let go and let the other person claim what was yours? The answer lies whether you love yourself more than the baby or the baby more that yourself. The result of the test is - if you give it away you love the baby, if you claim half you don't!
2. The Story of Abraham (Genesis 12 and 13).
Abraham started his journey from Ur of the Chaldeans to Canaan, but he was not in full obedience to God. He took his father and nephew with him - he was not authorized to take either of them. As long as he had his father with him he only got half way - Haran. He couldn't go further until his father died (Acts 7:4).
Many of us are like Abraham. God says, come out and leave every thing behind and I will show you your inheritance. But we want to bring daddy along. Your daddy may be your denominational affiliation, a pension scheme or a situation. God says as long as you take daddy along you'll get only half way.
Abraham still had another problem - his nephew Lot. Both Abraham and Lot prospered. They had so many goods and cattle that they couldn't dwell together because there was strife between their herdsmen (Gen. 13:7). Abraham was the senior, he was the man whom God called and he was the man whom the inheritance belonged. But he had the yielding Spirit. He let Lot made his choice first. Lot chose to dwell in the plain. It is interesting to note that as soon as Abraham let Lot go, God showed him his inheritance (Gen. 13:14 - 17).
The lesson learnt is, as long as you hold on and say that's mine, I'm not letting go, you will not see what God has for you. It is the yielding Spirit that receives the inheritance and not the grasping spirit.
3. A lesson from Isaac (Genesis 22:1 - 18)
God tested Abraham's faith by asking for his son Isaac to be a burnt offering (Gen. 22:2).
The writer of Hebrews said, "By faith Abraham when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, ..." (Heb. 11:17, NKJV).
One thing about Abraham was that not only he obeyed God but he obeyed Him promptly - he got up early to do it. Abrahem come the place when he was actually ready to kill the miracle child who was the only hope for his God promised inheritance. But his faith in God caused him to say to his men, "Stay here with the donkey; the lad (Isaac) and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you" (Gen. 22:5, emphasis added).
If Abraham had held on to Isaac all he had gat was Isaac. When he gave Isaac up, he had got Isaac back and multiplied beyond his power to calculate.
The lesson learnt is, when God gives you something unique, something precious and something miraculous, one day He is likely to say, "I want it, give it back, kill it and lay it on the altar for me"! You have two choices - either you are going to follow the footsteps of Abraham or you are going to miss God's blessings.
I believe the biggest test of any servant of God is this - is he willing to put his ministry on the altar?
Jesus said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain" (John 12:24, NKJV).
Each one of us is holding in our hand a little grain; God placed it there - it can be your gift, your ministry, your talent, something very precious because God gave it to you. God says if you keep it that is all you have, just one little grain. You can put your name on it, you can put a label on it, but you'll never get more. The alternative is clear, let the grain go, drop it, let it go right down into the earth and lost out of sight! But God is responsible and He has guaranteed the fruit.
I believe this is the place that is coming and coming soon. Many of us will be faced with this choice - Do I love it or do I love me?
True Scriptural Spiritual Strength
True spiritual strength is not how much we can do and how much we can exercise spiritual gifts.
Paul said, "We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves" (Romans 15:1, NIV, emphasis added).
In the King James Version the word "failings" is replaced by the word "infirmities".
Therefore, the scriptural mark of strength is not how much you can do; essentially it is how much you bear the weaknesses and infirmities of others. It is very satisfying to be in your own ability, in your own ministry and have your own spiritual experience. But this really does not require much spiritual strength. It does require spiritual strength to bear the weaknesses of others. In fact, to be able to bear with the failings of the weak is the mark of Christian maturity. I believe spiritual strength is measured by God and by the Scripture in proportion to the degree that we are able to support and bear the weaknesses of other people. This is never easy.
This is exactly the opposite to the spirit of this evil age, which is to get what you want for yourself and let the weak take care of themselves. Once we begin to make what suits us the measure of what is right we are on a slippery path that goes downward to a horrible mess. How often we see people written off those who were born hopelessly handicapped, those who were born not more than a vegetable? What about the mentally sick? One after another they were written off in the name of humanity. That is not the Christian's answer. What about cases of abortion which in the sight of God is murder? Not merely abortion is forbidden by God, but also the attitude behind it is totally un-Christian.
Christians do not write the weak off. We don't even relegate them to an institution where we never hear about them or care about them any more. A true Christian's first motive is not to get away with as much as he could get away with legally, but to do what Jesus Christ wants him to do.
We ought not to please ourselves
According to Paul, if we please ourselves we cannot bear the weakness of others (Romans 15:1).
Every time I do anything effective for the Lord, that is acceptable to him, I begin by not pleasing myself. That is to say I must deny myself. In the scriptural sense to deny myself means to say no to myself:
Jesus said, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me" (Luke 9:23, NKJV, emphasis added).
To deny myself daily
The ego that is in me, that is always exerting itself saying I want, I wish, I feel and I think has to be denied on a daily basis. I have to say no to myself otherwise I cannot live the type of Christian life that is pleasing to God. It is impossible to be a self pleaser and a Christ pleaser at the same time.
To take up the cross daily
Everyday presents every Christian with an opportunity to take up his cross. If you use the opportunity you'll have a victorious day, and if you lose the opportunity you'll have a day of defeat. Someone said, "Your cross is where your will and the will of God crossed. Your cross is the thing on which you can die; it is the place you can lay down your life:
Jesus said, "The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life - only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again" (John 10:17, 18, NIV).
If you don't voluntarily lay down your life no one takes your life from you - you are in control of it. Your cross is the place where you can make the decision not to please yourself. If you take up your cross the ministries of God will flow out of your life. You have to do it on a daily basis. Ministries will not flow out of the life of a believer who pleases himself.
A true child of God
The distinctive mark that makes you a true child of God is having the Spirit of Christ.
Paul said, "You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ" (Romans 8:6, NIV).
There are a lot of Christians who have been baptized in the Holy Spirit, speak in tongues, work miracles and preach powerful sermons but they demonstrate little or nothing of the Spirit of Christ. The mark that makes us children of God is having the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of Christ cannot be separated from the nature and personality of Jesus Himself. It is a meek Spirit, humble and gentle Spirit; certainly not arrogant, not self-exerting or self-pleasing.
In contemporary Christianity we hear a lot of teaching of claiming your inheritance and getting what belongs to you. There is nothing wrong to receive what has been given to you. But there is a difference between thankfully receiving it and selfishly grasping it.
Many Christians abuse what John said, "Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers" (3 John 2).
In God's sight you don't prosper by exerting your right. The Spirit of Christ does not lay claim to any right. The Spirit of Christ is a yielding Spirit. When you yield to Christ He will prosper you, not necessarily only material prosperity but all round prosperity (good health and general well-being).
Christ as our perfect example
Christ is our supreme example of yielding:
Paul said, "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness" (Phil. 2:5 - 7, NIV, emphasis added).
Jesus is entitled to be in equality with God; it was His by divine right, but He did not grasp it. Lucifer, who became Satan, on the other hand, was not entitled to be in equality with God, he did grasp at it and he fell!
If you do not have the Spirit of Christ then you have the spirit of the world (spirit of Satan). We have to discern between true and false prophets, true and false ministers of God, and those who are serving God in Spirit and in truth and those who are not. The mark that separates the true from the false is the Spirit of Christ.
Biblical examples of yielding
The Spirit of Christ is a yielding Spirit; but the spirit of the world is a grasping spirit. All great men of God, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, had the yielding Spirit. Here are some examples:
1. The Wisdom of Solomon (1 Kings 3)
Solomon did not ask for riches, he did not ask for honor or the lives of his enemies. Instead he asked God for wisdom and a hearing heart (verse 9). God was pleased and He gave him what he did not ask for as well (verses 10 to 13).
Solomon's wise judgment was immediately tested (verses 16 to 27). There were two harlots who lived in one house. Each of them brought forth a baby; each had the baby in bed with her. In the middle of the night one of the women rolled onto her baby and killed it. So in the morning there were two mothers but only one baby. Each of the mothers wanted the baby that was alive and both claimed the baby.
The case was brought before Solomon who heard the case and said there was only one thing to do - bring in a sword and cut the baby in half. The woman whose baby had died said that was right. But the real mother didn't want to see her baby die said give her the baby and let it live. Solomon said that was the real mother!
The lesson is very simple. If it is really your baby rather than see it die you let the other person have it - that is the real test of the yielding Spirit and spiritual strength! Many times in Christian services and ministries a man brought forth which is his, but somebody contested it and claimed it. Are you prepared to let go and let the other person claim what was yours? The answer lies whether you love yourself more than the baby or the baby more that yourself. The result of the test is - if you give it away you love the baby, if you claim half you don't!
2. The Story of Abraham (Genesis 12 and 13).
Abraham started his journey from Ur of the Chaldeans to Canaan, but he was not in full obedience to God. He took his father and nephew with him - he was not authorized to take either of them. As long as he had his father with him he only got half way - Haran. He couldn't go further until his father died (Acts 7:4).
Many of us are like Abraham. God says, come out and leave every thing behind and I will show you your inheritance. But we want to bring daddy along. Your daddy may be your denominational affiliation, a pension scheme or a situation. God says as long as you take daddy along you'll get only half way.
Abraham still had another problem - his nephew Lot. Both Abraham and Lot prospered. They had so many goods and cattle that they couldn't dwell together because there was strife between their herdsmen (Gen. 13:7). Abraham was the senior, he was the man whom God called and he was the man whom the inheritance belonged. But he had the yielding Spirit. He let Lot made his choice first. Lot chose to dwell in the plain. It is interesting to note that as soon as Abraham let Lot go, God showed him his inheritance (Gen. 13:14 - 17).
The lesson learnt is, as long as you hold on and say that's mine, I'm not letting go, you will not see what God has for you. It is the yielding Spirit that receives the inheritance and not the grasping spirit.
3. A lesson from Isaac (Genesis 22:1 - 18)
God tested Abraham's faith by asking for his son Isaac to be a burnt offering (Gen. 22:2).
The writer of Hebrews said, "By faith Abraham when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, ..." (Heb. 11:17, NKJV).
One thing about Abraham was that not only he obeyed God but he obeyed Him promptly - he got up early to do it. Abrahem come the place when he was actually ready to kill the miracle child who was the only hope for his God promised inheritance. But his faith in God caused him to say to his men, "Stay here with the donkey; the lad (Isaac) and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you" (Gen. 22:5, emphasis added).
If Abraham had held on to Isaac all he had gat was Isaac. When he gave Isaac up, he had got Isaac back and multiplied beyond his power to calculate.
The lesson learnt is, when God gives you something unique, something precious and something miraculous, one day He is likely to say, "I want it, give it back, kill it and lay it on the altar for me"! You have two choices - either you are going to follow the footsteps of Abraham or you are going to miss God's blessings.
I believe the biggest test of any servant of God is this - is he willing to put his ministry on the altar?
Jesus said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain" (John 12:24, NKJV).
Each one of us is holding in our hand a little grain; God placed it there - it can be your gift, your ministry, your talent, something very precious because God gave it to you. God says if you keep it that is all you have, just one little grain. You can put your name on it, you can put a label on it, but you'll never get more. The alternative is clear, let the grain go, drop it, let it go right down into the earth and lost out of sight! But God is responsible and He has guaranteed the fruit.
I believe this is the place that is coming and coming soon. Many of us will be faced with this choice - Do I love it or do I love me?
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Right Overseeing
It is of utmost importance that we oversee or supervise persons or things correctly in the scriptural sense. Otherwise when we oversee incorrectly we are called a busybody.
The Bible says nothing good about a busybody. In fact the sin of a busy body can't be over exaggerated:
"But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people's matters" (1 Peter 4:15, NKJV, emphasis added).
The first three, a murderer, a thief, an evildoer are clearly undersirable, and Christians are saved from doing such awful things. Notice that a busybody suffers unnecessarily and his sin is lined up with the other three types of sinners.
The Greek word for "busybody in other people's matters" is "allotriepiskopos" which according to Standard Greek Lexicon is "One who takes the supervision of affairs pertaining to others but in no way toward himself. He is a meddler in other men's affairs"
In simple language a busybody is one who oversees things that God has not given him the authority to oversee.
Wrong Overseeing
The Greek word for "overseer" is "episkopos". An overseer is also called a bishop or a superintendent. Jesus is a Shepherd and a Overseer:
"For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls" (1 Peter 2:25).
A shepherd (Pastor) is one who oversees the sheep - congregation of a Local Church.
How can you be an overseer of people or things that don't belong to you? Or to put it bluntly, how can you be a busybody without even knowing it? Here are several examples:
1. Too critical about other people's children
The responsibility of the parents is to bring up their own children. God does not give us the responsibility to bring up other's children. Problem comes when somebody comments about how other parents did a bad job of bringing up their children.
2. Ignoring God's Law of Liberty
We are not allowed to trespass other people's privilege and freedom given by God:
"Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him" (Romans 14:1, 2, 3).
Some Christians don't eat meat or certain types of meat. Some drink wine or other forms of liquor. If you show contempt of what they eat or drink then you are a busybody.
3. Problem with mothers-in-law
God said, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh" (Gen. 2:24).
Father and mother do not have any right to dictate to their son and daughter-in-law how they are to run their home. It is their responsibility; they have been given the authority by God to oversee the running of their home. But this does not mean that they are not to offer counsel or help. I believe when they wish to offer counsel it is more effective when it is asked for.
Right Overseeing
There are many things that God has given us to oversee. In fact He created us to rule and to govern:
God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth" (Gen. 1:26, emphasis added).
Even after the Fall there are elements of God's original purpose of creation left. There is something in man that isn't satisfied unless it is fulfilling that God given impulse to oversee. What we want to do is to find the legitimate way to give expression to it so that we oversee people or things the way God wants us to oversee.
Overseeing is Progressive
The Biblical way of overseeing is always practical and progressive. The God given Divine order always start with some thing small and then move up to some thing bigger. A man who does not succeed in the small will not succeed in the big.
Jesus said, "he who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much" (Luke 16:10, NKJV).
It is wise to start to train a child to be an overseer with some thing small like taking care of his toys and pets. When he grows up and gets married he is ready to oversee his wife. Every married Christian man has at least one sheep to begin with - his wife. Later on when children come along he has a family to oversee.
If he is a Pastor and he can't rule his own household he is not fit to oversee a congregation:
"A bishop (overseer or pastor) then must be blameless, one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God" (1 Tim. 3:2, 4, 5)?
If his children are rebellious and out of control; or even worse, if his wife runs off with another man, then this Pastor is not fit to oversee a Local Church!
Areas of Overseeing and Supervision in the New Testament Church
The twelve apostles said to the disciples, "It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word" (Acts 6:2, 3, 4).
There are essentially two areas of overseeing in the early Church - the material and the spiritual.
1. The Material
There will be danger of division and confusion when material problems are not fairly and wisely handled. Even in the Local Church now if we can solve the financial problem we'll go a long way to solving spiritual problem. If we don't handle the material things right we'll mess up the spiritual things.
Those who look after the material needs of a Local Church are the Deacons:
"But let these also first be tested; then let them serve as deasons, being found blameless. For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 3:10, 13, NKJV, emphasis added).
Serving as a deacon is a time of testing. So if you have served well as deacon, if you have been successful in overseeing the material then you are qualified to be promoted to oversee spiritual things.
2. The Spiritual
The ministry in the spiritual realm is two fold - The ministry of prayer and the ministry of God's Word. You can't minister the Word of God effectively unless you are also a prayerful person.
There is a general basic spiritual principle pertaining to secular (material) ministry and spiritual ministry. I believe a man who could not be successful in the secular realm would not be called by God into spiritual service. In other words, a man would not be called by God out of secular failure into spiritual ministry. A man who could not make it in the secular employment would not be successful in the pastoral ministry.
Every Christain is an overseer and needs an overseer
Every Christian needs to be an overseer and at the same time needs an overseer. This is basically how the Local Church ministry functions. Every Christian should face up these two questions:
1. What do I answer for? 2. Whom do I answer to?
Everyone, even the youngest, oversees something. There is hardly any Christian who isn't held accountable by God to oversee something. At the same time every Christian needs an overseer. You job as a Churchgoing Christian is to find the place, in God, that you are overseeing the things that God has put you over, and at the same time, being overseeing by whom God has put you under. In other words, you need to find the place, in God, where you are overseeing the things that God holds you accounted for. At the same time you need to be under those whom God has called to oversee you. This is your God appointed place in the Local Congregation.
Solomon said, "Like a bird that wanders from its nest is a man who wanders from his place" (Pro. 27:8, NKJV).
There is a great depth of truth in the above verse. What is more weak and helpless than a bird wandered from its nest? A man out of his place is just as weak and helpless. Furthermore he does not come under the covering of God if he is out of his God appointed place!
How is your Spiritual Place determined?
Your spiritual place in the Local Church is determined by relationships. You have to get rightly related to everybody that God has put in your life. In doing so you'll discover that these relationships are like many lines from different angles which would ultimately pinpoint at one place - this is your God appointed place! This is the place, and only one place, where you are rightly related to every single person that God has put in your life.
In this place, under somebody, over somebody, over something, rightly related with those around you, you will find security, serenity and comfort - this is your spiritual nest. God has commiteed to provide for you in that place. He has appointed different places for other Christians.
Requisites for finding your Spiritual Place
Here are some requirements on your part, if you want to find your spiritual place in the Local Church:
1. Acknowledge your need
As a member of the Body of Christ it is important that you acknowledge your gifts, you weaknesses and you need; especially your need of others. This is made clear by Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 where he wrote about the parts of the Body of Christ.
"But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased" (1 Cor. 12:18, NKJV).
This is the place set by God for individual members.
2. The willingness to lose your life
We must be willing to lose our life in the scriptural sense:
Jesus said, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it" (Matt. 16:24, 25, NKJV, emphasis added).
To "deny himself" means to "say no to himself" or to "say no to his ego".
I believe that everything we do for God that is of permanent value is always done out of self denial. As long as we serve ourselves we cannot serve others.
3. Humility
Learn how to humble youself before God.
Peter said, "Yes all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for 'God resists the proud, but give grace to the humble'" (1 Peter 5:5).
Jesus said, "For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 14:11).
Daniel's prayer was heard when he humbled himself before God (Daniel 10:12).
The Bible says nothing good about a busybody. In fact the sin of a busy body can't be over exaggerated:
"But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people's matters" (1 Peter 4:15, NKJV, emphasis added).
The first three, a murderer, a thief, an evildoer are clearly undersirable, and Christians are saved from doing such awful things. Notice that a busybody suffers unnecessarily and his sin is lined up with the other three types of sinners.
The Greek word for "busybody in other people's matters" is "allotriepiskopos" which according to Standard Greek Lexicon is "One who takes the supervision of affairs pertaining to others but in no way toward himself. He is a meddler in other men's affairs"
In simple language a busybody is one who oversees things that God has not given him the authority to oversee.
Wrong Overseeing
The Greek word for "overseer" is "episkopos". An overseer is also called a bishop or a superintendent. Jesus is a Shepherd and a Overseer:
"For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls" (1 Peter 2:25).
A shepherd (Pastor) is one who oversees the sheep - congregation of a Local Church.
How can you be an overseer of people or things that don't belong to you? Or to put it bluntly, how can you be a busybody without even knowing it? Here are several examples:
1. Too critical about other people's children
The responsibility of the parents is to bring up their own children. God does not give us the responsibility to bring up other's children. Problem comes when somebody comments about how other parents did a bad job of bringing up their children.
2. Ignoring God's Law of Liberty
We are not allowed to trespass other people's privilege and freedom given by God:
"Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him" (Romans 14:1, 2, 3).
Some Christians don't eat meat or certain types of meat. Some drink wine or other forms of liquor. If you show contempt of what they eat or drink then you are a busybody.
3. Problem with mothers-in-law
God said, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh" (Gen. 2:24).
Father and mother do not have any right to dictate to their son and daughter-in-law how they are to run their home. It is their responsibility; they have been given the authority by God to oversee the running of their home. But this does not mean that they are not to offer counsel or help. I believe when they wish to offer counsel it is more effective when it is asked for.
Right Overseeing
There are many things that God has given us to oversee. In fact He created us to rule and to govern:
God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth" (Gen. 1:26, emphasis added).
Even after the Fall there are elements of God's original purpose of creation left. There is something in man that isn't satisfied unless it is fulfilling that God given impulse to oversee. What we want to do is to find the legitimate way to give expression to it so that we oversee people or things the way God wants us to oversee.
Overseeing is Progressive
The Biblical way of overseeing is always practical and progressive. The God given Divine order always start with some thing small and then move up to some thing bigger. A man who does not succeed in the small will not succeed in the big.
Jesus said, "he who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much" (Luke 16:10, NKJV).
It is wise to start to train a child to be an overseer with some thing small like taking care of his toys and pets. When he grows up and gets married he is ready to oversee his wife. Every married Christian man has at least one sheep to begin with - his wife. Later on when children come along he has a family to oversee.
If he is a Pastor and he can't rule his own household he is not fit to oversee a congregation:
"A bishop (overseer or pastor) then must be blameless, one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God" (1 Tim. 3:2, 4, 5)?
If his children are rebellious and out of control; or even worse, if his wife runs off with another man, then this Pastor is not fit to oversee a Local Church!
Areas of Overseeing and Supervision in the New Testament Church
The twelve apostles said to the disciples, "It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word" (Acts 6:2, 3, 4).
There are essentially two areas of overseeing in the early Church - the material and the spiritual.
1. The Material
There will be danger of division and confusion when material problems are not fairly and wisely handled. Even in the Local Church now if we can solve the financial problem we'll go a long way to solving spiritual problem. If we don't handle the material things right we'll mess up the spiritual things.
Those who look after the material needs of a Local Church are the Deacons:
"But let these also first be tested; then let them serve as deasons, being found blameless. For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 3:10, 13, NKJV, emphasis added).
Serving as a deacon is a time of testing. So if you have served well as deacon, if you have been successful in overseeing the material then you are qualified to be promoted to oversee spiritual things.
2. The Spiritual
The ministry in the spiritual realm is two fold - The ministry of prayer and the ministry of God's Word. You can't minister the Word of God effectively unless you are also a prayerful person.
There is a general basic spiritual principle pertaining to secular (material) ministry and spiritual ministry. I believe a man who could not be successful in the secular realm would not be called by God into spiritual service. In other words, a man would not be called by God out of secular failure into spiritual ministry. A man who could not make it in the secular employment would not be successful in the pastoral ministry.
Every Christain is an overseer and needs an overseer
Every Christian needs to be an overseer and at the same time needs an overseer. This is basically how the Local Church ministry functions. Every Christian should face up these two questions:
1. What do I answer for? 2. Whom do I answer to?
Everyone, even the youngest, oversees something. There is hardly any Christian who isn't held accountable by God to oversee something. At the same time every Christian needs an overseer. You job as a Churchgoing Christian is to find the place, in God, that you are overseeing the things that God has put you over, and at the same time, being overseeing by whom God has put you under. In other words, you need to find the place, in God, where you are overseeing the things that God holds you accounted for. At the same time you need to be under those whom God has called to oversee you. This is your God appointed place in the Local Congregation.
Solomon said, "Like a bird that wanders from its nest is a man who wanders from his place" (Pro. 27:8, NKJV).
There is a great depth of truth in the above verse. What is more weak and helpless than a bird wandered from its nest? A man out of his place is just as weak and helpless. Furthermore he does not come under the covering of God if he is out of his God appointed place!
How is your Spiritual Place determined?
Your spiritual place in the Local Church is determined by relationships. You have to get rightly related to everybody that God has put in your life. In doing so you'll discover that these relationships are like many lines from different angles which would ultimately pinpoint at one place - this is your God appointed place! This is the place, and only one place, where you are rightly related to every single person that God has put in your life.
In this place, under somebody, over somebody, over something, rightly related with those around you, you will find security, serenity and comfort - this is your spiritual nest. God has commiteed to provide for you in that place. He has appointed different places for other Christians.
Requisites for finding your Spiritual Place
Here are some requirements on your part, if you want to find your spiritual place in the Local Church:
1. Acknowledge your need
As a member of the Body of Christ it is important that you acknowledge your gifts, you weaknesses and you need; especially your need of others. This is made clear by Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 where he wrote about the parts of the Body of Christ.
"But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased" (1 Cor. 12:18, NKJV).
This is the place set by God for individual members.
2. The willingness to lose your life
We must be willing to lose our life in the scriptural sense:
Jesus said, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it" (Matt. 16:24, 25, NKJV, emphasis added).
To "deny himself" means to "say no to himself" or to "say no to his ego".
I believe that everything we do for God that is of permanent value is always done out of self denial. As long as we serve ourselves we cannot serve others.
3. Humility
Learn how to humble youself before God.
Peter said, "Yes all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for 'God resists the proud, but give grace to the humble'" (1 Peter 5:5).
Jesus said, "For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 14:11).
Daniel's prayer was heard when he humbled himself before God (Daniel 10:12).
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