No Celebrities at Calvary

“Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we [him] no more.” (2Co 5:16 AV)

The context here is the ambassadorship of every believer to the lost around them.  Paul is saying he no longer sees men as he once did.  He does not know them after the manner of flesh, but rather, as they all are – lost souls in need of Christ.  He no longer interacts with men as society would demand.  He respects men for their position’s sake, but he does not idolize them or revere them to the point of being unable to witness to them.  Just as he can no longer consider the LORD Jesus in the manner in which he knew him – in the flesh – he can no longer see others as he once saw them.  Jesus Christ is not glorified.  He no longer retains the limit human body He once inhabited.  Paul can no longer know Jesus Christ after the flesh.  But as He is – the King of kings and LORD of lords – the only wise potentate!

It is interesting what happens when the saint walks with God.  We are not all that impressed with the fame of man.  Years ago, my sons and I caddied at an exclusive golf club.  In doing so, we had the privilege of meeting and working for some very well-known golfers.  Luke Donald, Phil Mickelson, Jim Lovell, and a retired Chicago Bears football player were the most well-known.  There were others.  A part owner of the Cleveland Browns, a top executive with CBS, and enough multi-millionaires to shake a stick at.  However, the longer one caddies for these men, the more one realizes they are not all that much different than anyone else.  They are still a soul for whom Christ died.

I don’t know if the LORD was able to use me to reach any of them.  Yet, one thing I always mentioned.  When they asked of my family and occupation, I readily told them I was a bi-vocational Baptist pastor who worked with folks in the inner-city.  It gave an open door to witness to them.  Who knows what the LORD did with the few years at the club?  One thing is for sure, we can no longer know men after the flesh.  After the spirit, yes.  After the flesh, no.

Turn On The LIGHT!

“For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.” (Lu 2:30-32 AV)

A wonderful description of the ministry of Christ!  A light!  A light gives hope and direction.   A light illuminates the dark, ridding the soul of all fears.  A light gives warmth is a cold, dark, and foreboding world.  If the days or nights seem hopeless, a sole candle in the middle of the room gives an air of comfort.  Jesus is that light that lightens the Gentiles.

I was seventeen years old and the LORD turned my world upside down.  Moving away from all my friends and working more hours that a senior in high school should, I soon found myself confused and with no purpose in life.  Having attended three different high schools, it soon become awfully lonely.  With teachers and counselors pressuring me to come up with a plan for life, there was nothing on the horizon that gave any answers.  It was so bad, I was toying with ending it all.

Then a miracle happened.  Someone at work began to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.  At first, I rejected it because it went contrary to what I had always believed.  I had always believed it took effort on my part, good works so to speak, in order to go to heaven and have a relationship with God.  The Bible says something completely different.  After months of wrestling with what to do with Christ, the Holy Spirit was successful in convicting my heart and encouraging me to put all my trust and faith in Jesus Christ and Him alone!  Praise be to God.

Finally, there was a peace like I had never experienced before.  There was hope!  The LORD had as yet given me a direction and specific purpose in life, but with the communication lines now open, it would only be a matter of time until the LORD did so for me!  There was a light at the end of the tunnel.  Soon, the tunnel wouldn’t even exist!  He is that light!  Trust Him today!

What Simple Obedience Looks Like

“And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.” (Lu 1:38 AV)

Mary’s simple obedience without objection is amazing.  No wonder the LORD chose her.  He needed someone who would submit by faith with no objection in order to parent the Son of God!  Mary asked only one question of Gabriel.  “How shall this thing be seeing I know no man.”  This was not a question of submission.  Rather, a question of process.  Perhaps she was asking so that she could encourage Joseph to marry her sooner.  There is nothing in her tone of voice that would suggest she had one sliver of objection to the LORD’s will for her.  One realizes that giving birth was the sole definition of a woman’s purpose in life at the time of the LORD’s coming.  Ladies would stress rather deeply if they were married without children.  But this is being with child out of wedlock with no guarantees of how Joseph and society would respond.  Joseph could have put her away and she would have been known as a whorish woman.  All of Jewish society could have shunned her.  And, maybe they did!  All of that never entered the mind, or if it did, it was never voiced as a concern.  This obedience is the highest of all! No saintly role model ever did outperform Mary’s simple obedience.

When the LORD asks us to do something difficult, we hem and haw.  If we don’t have all the answers and there is a predictable hard road ahead, we question if the LORD really knows what He is doing.  We would have a  come-a-part if the LORD would ask us to suffer possible shame at the direction which He intended.  We would find any and all objections why it could not be done.  We would fire off one reason after another why it should be us.  Moses comes to mind.  That is our natural response.  We cannot speak.  We are not a natural leader.  We can choose someone better than the LORD can.

Mary utters the simple words.  Let it be done to thy handmaid as you wish.  What a statement of complete and unobjectionable submission.  Something we could all learn and apply!

Pounding Tenderness

“And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us,” (Lu 1:76-78 AV)

I thought this was slightly ironic when compared to John’s preaching towards the Pharisees!  Haha!  When one considers the tone of the message and the accusations leveled at the Pharisees, it hardly reminds one of tender mercy.  However, as we saw in a previous entry, there are only two styles of preaching; fear and compassion.  In either case, it results in the tender mercy of God being the desired outcome.

I remember my Mom giving us a chore. It was beating to death a cube stake in the hopes it could be eaten.  She gave us this little hammer that had teeth on both heads.  We would sprinkle a little seasoning in it then beat it to a pulp.  This little kitchen hammer was called a tenderizer.  Today, we can use spices (compassion) or the hammer (fear).  It all depends on how tough we are at the time.

Years ago, we used to have really hard preaching.  Really pointed.  Penetrating to the soul.  Yes, some of it was over the top.  There were preachers who believed that if they made someone made, it was Holy Ghost conviction.  Yet, most of the hard preaching was not.  We have become so sensitive that we cannot endure the chastening and rebuke of the LORD from the pulpit.  Guilty as charged!  There was a time when I could not endure it.

There is something the child of God must remember.  There are times we are not as tender to the leading and instruction of the Holy Ghost as we would like to believe.  I can personally attest to that!  There are and were times when the obvious escapes us.  As a preacher, there are times when the sheep cannot take a hint and sometimes one must be extremely blunt.  All these blunt times are still considered the tenderness of God!  His mercy to try to fix us!  Praise God for these ‘tender’ times.

His Judgement is Not Blind!

“And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.” (Isa 11:2-4 AV)

What a wonderful and comforting truth to know that the LORD will judge according to what is and not what is perceived!  This passage is a millennial passage.  It speaks of the nature of Christ’s government.  An absolutely righteous judgment that knows what is and is not limited to what can be seen or heard.  The LORD knows the intent of the heart.  The LORD knows the motive.  The LORD knows what was really done that no one else can see.  The LORD is not limited to the words another utters, but rather, can see the heart which would have said what it was thinking if an ear were provided.  He sees and knows it all and will judge accordingly!

One of the greatest challenges is to referee and argument between siblings.  As a parent, we were not there when it started.  We could not see what was done or said in real time.  We have to try to discern the truth filtered from the bias of each combatant.  There are many times when this is impossible.  Our children resent us because our judgment was not perfect.  There were times when a brother and I would get into trouble.  Yet, the one caught at the time would receive the greater condemnation.  If it were me, I would storm up to my room and brood on my bed about how unfair my parents were.  If I was the one who got off easier, I would gloat!

This will never happen with Christ.  Even now, the LORD knows it all.  He knows what we are all thinking and doing.  If we are harming another, Christ knows about it!  If we are thinking of harming another, Christ knows about it!  If we are on the other side of that harm, Christ knows all about it.  He even knows things that we cannot know!  The judge of the Earth will do right!

Share and Apple with Your Enemy

“In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, [was there] the tree of life, which bare twelve [manner of] fruits, [and] yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree [were] for the healing of the nations.” (Re 22:2 AV)

I had a question regarding this passage that was very profound.   If there is no more sorrow or pain, why would there be a need for healing?  Excellent question.  It caused me to search out the word “…healing…” to see what was meant.  The Greek word is therapeia from which we get the English word, therapy.  We may have a glorified body and not physical sickness a possibility, but, there will be memories of which we must deal.  What I think some of the commentators suggest is this tree of life wherein the nations heal one another is a place where folks will meet for the purpose of mutual fellowship and edification.  It may just be the place where we meet and have to, once and for all, release one another from the bitterness we have harbored all these years.  It will be a place where we finally realize all those injustices were not that big of a deal and as Joseph learned, God meant them for our own good.  It will be a place where personal differences, which were removed at the point of glorification, are verbalized with those whom we disagree. It will be a place of emotional and social healing.  A place of therapy!

 There have been times when my parents would send two arguing siblings to the same bedroom to figure things out.  We wouldn’t be allowed to come out for any reason, including to eat, unless we had buried the hatchet.  If it is one thing that saints know how to do with complete unity, it is to eat!  Put a pot luck on and all the petty differences we shared are all of a sudden forgotten.  The LORD knows this.  He can remove the sin nature; which He will when we arrive home.  But He cannot force us to reconcile our differences.  With the sin nature removed, reconciliation will be a joyful pursuit.

But herein is the application.  If we will not reconcile, it is because of sin in our own heart and not necessarily what the other has done.  Why not confess our bitterness now and reap the rewards of restored fellowship rather than wait for the tree of life?  We will have to reconcile eventually.  No reconciliation, no heaven!  You and I will reconcile!  So, why not make our own little tree of life in our churches that forgiveness might be granted and we can once again walk in unity?

Moving Day

“And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.” (Re 18:4-6 AV)

The context is the judgment of Babylon.  The angel is warning all those who know the LORD to come out of her.  Like Lot, they must come out because judgment is coming.  More importantly, they must come out because of the filth of the sin!  An interesting side note here is the absence of the condition of judgment upon Babylon as there was on Sodom and Gomorrah.  God could not judge Sodom and Gomorrah while Lot was there.  There is no condition mentioned above.  That is beside the point.  The point is separation.  God’s people should flee the very appearance of sin!  They should not go anywhere near it lest it touches us.  We should flee from it and ask the LORD to take vengeance upon it.

There are places a saint should not be even though he or she may not participate directly in any sin involved.  When I lived in Chicago, I became a Cubs fan.  A rather ardent one at that.  The reason why may be a little strange.  But nonetheless, goes to our point.  My wife and I enjoyed several games at the home of the White Sox.  But the inter-inning music was loud rock music.  They served beer there and it wasn’t out of the ordinary to witness drunken behavior.  But when one went to Wrigley, at the time, they did not serve alcohol.  The music was an old-fashioned organ.  It was truly family friendly.  I don’t go to hockey games anymore because of the loud acid rock music. There are simply some places that I don’t go to because of the extra-curricular activity that one is exposed to.  Just this past year, at a state fair, there was a couple who decided to make a public spectacle of intimacy right in front of a stadium of people!

It is time for the saints to separate themselves from an ever increasingly wicked world!  Not only that, but desire the judgment of God upon it!  Come LORD Jesus and establish righteousness once and for all!  Bring holiness and purity!  Bind the hands of Satan and reign in holiness!  Please, Lord, come!

Taking Control

“And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.” (Re 11:16-17 AV)

The statement of eternity!  The four and twenty elders, representing the church, praise the LORD for asserting His absolute right to reign without the interference of His creation.  God has been, and always will be, in complete control.  Nothing happens without His consent.  That doesn’t mean He causes all things.  It just means He knows what will happen and uses it according to His divine plan.  This also means He has allowed the liberty of His creation to participate in the events He has determined will happen.  The choices of free agents like Satan and men are in the design of His perfect will.  However, there will come a time when this liberty is severely constrained and consequences for choices come unabated upon the actors.  He will take back His creation from the influence of evil and will reign completely according to the laws of His holiness!  This is for what the 24 elders are praising the LORD!

With seven brothers and three sisters, chaos was a regularly occurring theme in our family.  Specially when we got together in an attempt to play. It often got out of hand.  We were wise to keep it down and not destroy anything or anyone in the process because it meant Dad had to get involved.  Just his presence alone seemed to solve a lot of issues.  One of these times didn’t involve play, but rather, a chore we shared.  We rummaged through other people’s garbage and collected glass, which in turn, we smashed and sold to the recycler.  It was our job, usually three of us, to smash the glass and store it in barrels.  This wouldn’t take a whole lot of time.  But it was a chore no one liked to do.  Arguments often ensued and what should have taken an hour easily mushroomed into three or four hours.  My father would often come to the garage door and peer inside.  As he did, we would get quiet and resume working together.

The church so desperately desires for the LORD’s return that He might set in order the chaos caused by sin!  We want His rod of iron so that sin will cease and peace will blossom.  We want the LORD to take back His kingdom, locking the adversary up, so that all of mankind might enjoy the blessings of God’s grace!  Come LORD Jesus!  Come!

Eye Hath Not Seen

“And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:” (Re 1:17 AV)

To get the full impact of this statement, it would behoove us to recall certain facts of the past.  John the Apostle walked with Christ for 3.5 years.  He was named the disciple whom Jesus loved.  It was not uncommon to read of John sitting at the side of Christ as an intimate friend.  This same John would witness the transfigured Christ at the mount with Moses and Elijah.  He would see Jesus shine as bright as the morning sun.  This same John would see the resurrected Christ very early in the morning on the first day of the week.  He would see the resurrected Christ for 40 days following the resurrection and he would also see Jesus taken up into heaven.  John saw all these appearances of Christ, yet it was this one that moved him to almost die.  This speaks to the person and deity of the LORD Jesus Christ.  How different than the Jesus portrayed by the contemporary saint!

Years ago, I was obligated to attend a service at a contemporary church.  I fully expected the type of music which would eventually come across the sound system.  But something else happened that illustrates the flawed image which the contemporary saint has of the LORD Jesus Christ.  The artist meant well.  He was trying to minister to people who were hurting.  A contemporary song was playing over the sound system and a blank   canvass on an easel were uncovered.  A painter came out and over the length of a contemporary piece of music, he painted the laughing Jesus.  It is a rather well know piece which many have seen.  The problem with this image are multiple.  But the one that sticks in my mind is the image of our Savior which the carnal community wish to portray.  They emphasize the humanity of Christ to the exclusion of His divinity!  They make Him as common as they possibly can, ignoring that fact that Jesus is as much God as He was man.  They have this idea of high fiving Jesus or seeing Him as He was on earth when they meet in heaven.

However, the one disciple who was closest to him and knew him best fell flat on his face as one dead!  When John saw Jesus Christ, there was no laughing Jesus, high fives, bear hugs, or tattered old robes.  He is so transfigured that the closest person to him fell flat was one who was dead!  This is the Christ that we should seek to worship and know!  This is the Christ that is missing from our churches and pulpits.  This Christ is the Christ that will transform lives into righteousness and holiness!  This is the Christ that belongs front and center!  This is the Christ whom we will meet!