Obscurity Orders Observation

“Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.” (Mt 25:13 AV)

I know this has been the main idea for a few days and we wonder when the Spirit might go in a different direction.  Yet, He will not let us forget that Jesus is coming soon!  The motive for watching above is different here.  When last we visited this theme, we were to watch, pray, and take heed.  We also learned that God controls the events of mankind and nothing can hinder His purposes.  Even the coming of the LORD.  No matter what happens in our nation or world, the Devil and his partners cannot hinder the coming of Christ.  Jesus created all that we see and has the absolute right to it.  Including all human souls.  He will reclaim what is rightfully His and will rule it in peace and authority.  Until that time, we are to watch.  The motive for watching is the uncertainty of the timing of His return.  Sure, we can see signs that may indicate His return is close.  Israel has returned to Palestine and the world, as a whole, and knowingly rejected Christ.  There isn’t much more needed for the LORD to return.  We just don’t know when.  And that is why we must watch.

To watch here means more than merely keeping an eye out for.  It has the idea of having His return so forefront in the mind as to alter our behavior and increase our joy.  There were a couple of times when my wife and I were apart.  On my end, it usually involved a hunting trip.  For her, it was usually a trip to see relatives.  It is interesting how one’s life changes during the time our spouse is away, and the day in which they are scheduled to return.  On one such trip, my wife went back to Ohio for a special anniversary birthday for one of her aged relatives.  It might have been her great-grandmother.  I was left behind.  I couldn’t afford to take off work.  She was in her beloved land of nativity for about a week.  Leave a man home alone without his wife for a week, and the health department might have to get involved.  However, as the day approached for her return, an amazing thing happened.  Misery ruled for the six days she was gone.  But on that seventh, when I knew she was headed home, my entire disposition changed.  Not only that, but the cleaning fairy showed up.  The house was spotless and the dishes put away!  I didn’t want her to come into a house that needed attention.  I prepared for her arrival as best I could so she would be pleased with all that I had done for her.

The thing is, I knew when my wife was coming back.  We do not know when Jesus is coming back.  We need to live in the reality it could be anytime.  It could be today.  It could be tonight.  We know it is going to happen.  If it doesn’t happen tonight, we are not disappointed.  For there is tomorrow night.  The delay of His appearing should not be a discouragement.  Quite the opposite.  As His delay tarries on, what it accomplishes is to build up more anticipation.  Not less.  Like knowing my wife’s return to the day, but not necessarily to the hour.  My sweet wife has the habit of finding little stops along the way which delays her coming.  An antique shop; a street-side baker; a yard sale or two; and a rest area all mean the normal time for her arrival is delayed.  All that does is make me more anxious.  More excited.  The closer she gets, even if it is taking longer than I think it should, makes the arrival all that much more special.  I think we as God’s people are too discouraged by that which is going on around us.  We should not be surprised our nation is falling headlong into socialism.  Socialism is the government of humanism.  Humanism is the belief that man is the ultimate god and government is the means to control the masses.  All this means is that we are all the closer to Jesus’ return and that hope can no man steal!  Watch, for the coming of Jesus just may be sooner than you think!

Travel Plans Prayed Through

“But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:” (Mt 24:20 AV)

 

This advice of Jesus I found rather astounding.  He gives this advice in the light of the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet.  For those unfamiliar, it is the event that marks the mid-way point of the tribulation.  The tribulation is a seven-year period in which the church is removed and the Devil, by way of the Antichrist, is allowed to have unabated control over the affairs of men.  The interesting thing is, those who hate God assume if God and His people are removed, then the Devil will leave them alone and they can live in unhindered debauchery.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  The Devil will try to annihilate the human race, starting with Israel and those we are saved during that tribulation.  To mark the mid-way point, the Antichrist will sit upon the ark of the covenant and declare himself to be God.  It is this sign which Daniel gives as the sign wherein the true people of God are to flee into the wilderness.  There, Jesus Himself will sustain this small remnant.  But note the extraordinary advice Jesus gives above.  They are to pray their flight is not in winter or the sabbath.  This means the LORD can and will control even the timing of events that affect His people if they will simply pray.

Most people are not convinced that prayer is powerful.  Prayer changes things.  We have heard that many times.  But do we really believe it?  In the above advice, Jesus is implying that if the saints understand the times in which they live and know there will be coming a day when the Antichrist will sit in the temple, they can then pray the LORD to choose a day that makes it much easier from them to escape.  They can pray it is not in the hardship of winter or on a day when they are to meet for worship.  The former may compromise their well being.  The later, their liberty to meet and worship.  I think it is amazing Jesus encourages His sheep to pray for things that involve the free will actions of others.  When the Antichrist sits on the mercy seat atop the ark is a choice He will make.  When he is able to actually do that is another matter altogether.  To think that prayer will determine when this event happens is beyond our comprehension.  But, it will and it does.

We live in a time when we see amazing things happen.  We are racing towards the finish line.  The last nation whose foundation and founder is God has made unprecedented choices to reject the God who founded them and pursue and humanistic and God course of political power.  Make no mistake.  This wasn’t recent.  This has been generations in the making.  Humanism took root at the turn of the last century.  Since then, the foundation of a Godless society has been meticulously laid.  Abortion and same-sex relationships are the end result.  Not the beginning.  God knows all this.  He has prepared the rapture as the means of removing His church before the gates of hell prevail against it.  Lot is our example.  This is testified by Peter the Apostle.  We don’t know when this will happen.  We may have to go through persecution first.  Only God knows.  What we do know is that prayer does change the course of human activity and especially, at this time, we cannot and must not abandon prayer!

Be Prepared for the Inevitable

“Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.” (Mr 13:33 AV)

 

Isn’t that the truth?  The time Jesus is referring to is the time of His return.  Now, consider He made that statement about two thousand years ago.  If He made that statement two millennia ago to a generation He knew would not see His coming, imagine what that means for us today!  There are three instructions here.  There is to take heed.  That means to tend to things.  There is the instruction to watch.  Most of all, there is the instruction to pray!  If that was the case many years ago, it is even more so today.  However, let me preface our blog by saying this. Believers can look at the events of our nation this week and assume that if things do not go the way we anticipated, the LORD is coming back immediately.  They may or may not be the case.  We cannot look at end-time events solely from an American point of view.  The Spirit is cautioning me on this.  However, having said that, if the America we know permanently rejects God, it just may indicate the LORD’s return is imminent.  Having said that, the uncertainty of the second coming of Christ as to the timing of it certainly is the main idea of the commands above.  Since it could be at any time, we need to heed, watch, and pray.

We are instructed by the word of God to take heed to our actions, thoughts, and words so that we do not sin against the LORD (Ps 39:1; 119:9; Lk 12:15).  There is the command to take heed to remain humble (Mt 6:1; 1Cor 10:12).  There is the warning to take heed to sound doctrine and avoid false doctrine (Mt 16:6; 1Ti 4:16).  We are to heed the value of another human soul (Mt18:10).  We are to take heed that we are not deceived (Mt24:4).   We are to take heed that when we suffer persecution, we respond in a God-honoring manner (Mr 13:9).  We are to take heed of how and what we hear (Lk 8:18).  We are to heed the warning to keep the light that God has given (Lk 11:35).  We are to take heed against a spirit of unforgiveness (Lk 17:3).  We need to heed how we conduct ministry (1Cor 3:10).  We are to heed how we use liberty lest we discourage another believer (1Cor 8:9).  We are to heed our disagreements that they do not put an end to us (Gal 5:15).  We are to take heed against pointless arguments (1Tim 1:4; Titus 1:14).   We are to heed the scriptures so that we do not lose them (Heb 2:1; 2Pet 1:19).  We are to take heed that we lose not our faith and fall away from the fellowship of God and His people (Heb 3:12).  To take heed means to watch for and tend to.  The context is the LORD’s return.  It is a good thing to tend to the above regardless of when He returns.  But, He is returning.  This should give an even more important incentive to tend to things as we should.

The second command is to watch.  This watching means to keep awake or be sleepless.  It means to always be aware.  Not just of our current events.  Rather, what these current events mean regarding the second coming.  We are to watch with anticipation.  We are to look towards the heavens as though His return is a reality in our future. The scriptures say,  “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” (Tit 2:13 AV)  Paul wrote this to Titus roughly 1900 years ago.  Paul was of the mind that he may see the second coming of Christ and he lived in that possibility.  If the Son knows not the day or hour, but only the Father, then no one knows.  Therefore, we should always live in the reality that Christ may return at any minute.  We are so overly concerned with the affairs of this life, we live as though the coming of Christ is not a possibility.  Some make the argument that God’s people have always thought they were the generation that would see Christ return.  If they were all wrong, then we are wrong.  His coming is a long way off.  I disagree!  That is not the instruction of our Savior nor the attitude of the first-century saints.  Since Christ’s ascension, each generation has lived under the possibility of Christ’s return.  Our present generation should not do any less!

Third, and most importantly, we are told to pray.  Pray, pray, pray!  The secret sauce that is missing in the life of the church and the believer!  Pray!  Pray for the LORD’s return!  Pray the LORD will come and set up His kingdom that all the world may be drawn to Him!  Pray for strength to live in the light of His promise that He will return for His bride and catch her away.  Pray with the excitement that the prayer for His return will be answered.  This is a certainty!  Jesus will come!  Pray for one another that we are not discouraged from the events of our world.  The more wicked the world becomes only indicates the LORD’s return is all that much closer.  Pray for protection for our churches that the gospel message is not hindered.  Pray the forces of evil that wish to destroy the bride of Christ be dealt with soundly by the miracles which our politicians deny!  Pray that the world will be prepped for the tribulation so that countless souls will come to Christ.  Most of all, pray for your own heart that you faint not!

Just Another Reminder

“In your patience possess ye your souls.” (Lu 21:19 AV)

Never has there been a time when we needed this short little verse more.  I know I have written about this verse before.  I know the Spirit has used the verse more times than I care to count.  In today’s tumultuous world, this verse is especially relevant for us today.  Jesus is giving His disciples last-minute advice.  He is instructing them of what is about to come and the power of God that will be with them.  In context, the LORD is preparing His disciples for very difficult times which are prophesied to occur towards the end of the world.  Dispensationally speaking, there remained a possibility that if Israel accepted Jesus the first time around, this event would have ushered in the last times.  There would have been persecution from and judgment on the Gentile world.  However, since Israel rejected Christ, the church age came into being and the end times were delayed.  Now, we can look at Jesus’ words and apply them to the generation that is approaching His second coming.  Regardless of our eschatological leanings, the basic principle still applies.  When very difficult times come, possess your soul in a spirit of patience.

Thayer’s defines the Greek word for patience as “in the NT the characteristic of a man who is not swerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings”.  Strong’s ties the meaning of this word to an emotional foundation, “cheerful (or hopeful) endurance, constancy”.  Thayer’s stresses the working out of patience in the actions we do, whereas Strong’s sees the emotion that motivates to action.  In both definitions, we see the instruction of Christ to those who are going through troublesome times.  Let us be clear.  That of which we speak is near to impossible.  At least in our own strength.  Reading Foxe’s Book of Martyrs will, however, reveal the child of God can go through hard times, even unto death, with an attitude and work of patience.  But keep one thing in mind.  Jesus would not have instructed us to keep our souls in patience if it was impossible to do.  He gave this instruction because it is possible to do.  Faith in a God who is bigger than our circumstances is the key to getting through troublesome times.  This morning, I had a thought.  I was thing how nice it would be if the LORD would call me home immediately.  With all that is going on and the callousness of the world towards spiritual things, I just don’t see the need.  However, the Spirit gave me a follow-up thought.  If the LORD would call me home, then I would miss the experience of the rapture!  That is if it happens in my lifetime. 

We have already considered emotional discipline in the recent past.  We made mention of a generation or two that had not been raised to control their emotions.  This is why we see what we see.  Above, this is exactly what the LORD is sharing with His faithful.  The discipline of patience is what overcomes the trouble of today.  Knowing how to limit one’s reactions to his or her situation is the discipline that the LORD is commanding here.  There is a job to do.  Souls still need the gospel message.  Either to escape eternal hell or, be made accountable for their rebellion.  Patience is the key here.  The LORD will hold His church accountable for the lack of action commanded us in the scriptures.  Regardless of what happens today, tomorrow, this week, month, or year,  the LORD knew it already and is still in control.  There really is no other way to meditate or expound on this verse.  It is commanded, by our Savior, to possess our souls in patience.  Overreacting to circumstances beyond our control is in direct disobedience to the command of our Savior.  Check an earlier blog for the fact Jesus calls the patience we are supposed to have as our patience.  Not the patience that would come supernaturally by the irresistible work of the Holy Spirit.

The Dying Need No God

“I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” (Mt 22:32 AV)

 

This statement is a treatise on the resurrection.  The Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection, posed a hypothetical situation and challenged Jesus to defend the doctrine of the resurrection.  They questioned if a man died and his wife married his brother, and his cycle repeated down to the seventh brother with no offspring left behind, then whose wife would she be in the resurrection?  The implication is the resurrection would pose all sorts of confusing situations.  Their error was not in the resurrection.  Rather, their error was in the nature of that resurrection.  That nature being one of spiritual reality and glorification and not so physically.  The marriage relationships we enjoy in the temporal world have no force in the spiritual world.  Then, Christ asks revealed just how contradictory their own belief system appears to be.  The Sadducees refer to the LORD as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  How can that be?  If there is no resurrection of the dead, then God cannot be the God of someone who has died.  He can only be the God of someone who is living.  By using that phrase, the Sadducees are admitting what they refuse to profess and the truth.  That is the resurrection of the dead unto eternal life.  But we want to consider this passage in a slightly different way.

There is another way of looking at the understanding of ‘the living’.  Not merely resurrected.  But spiritually alive.  Having life.  Vibrant.  We can look at this as it applies to the believer.  Namely, if God is our God, then we should be alive!  We should exhibit signs of life.  My son, Joshua, was a pitcher from the time he played ball in little league to his freshman year of college.  All through his early years and into High School, the pitcher is often seen as the de facto team leader.  The starting pitcher was the cheerleader of the team.  He was the one who bore the outcome on his shoulders more so than any other single player.  He played for an inner-city High School team that didn’t show nearly as much enthusiasm or effort when it came to practice or games.  Contrast that against his years playing for a team located on a Navy base and there is quite a difference being the team leader for a team that didn’t really care and a team that was pumped up for every game.  There was one game that went sixteen innings.  We ran out of pitchers.  As an assistant coach at the time, my job was to keep these kids focused and enthusiastic until an outcome was determined.  I learned it is much easier to coach a team that can be motivated.  Flip the page.  When coaching the High School team, enthusiasm was not even in the script.  Players were sitting in the outfield picking dandelions.  It was pathetic.  In one such game, the coach up and walked out.  He looked at me with a look that said, “you need to walk out, too.”  If the team would not respond to any kind of motivation, why bother.  If they have no life, then they are not going anywhere.

The church of Laodicea was accused of being lukewarm.  They were neither hot nor cold.  It made God sick.  God is the God of those who have life.  He is the God of those who show life.  God cannot lead where people are not willing to go.  I sense a deep feeling of apathy settling in the people of God.  A general spirit of ambivalence towards just about anything.  The world is not as we wish it would be.  Our nation is falling into a hole of secularism, socialism, and immorality which will be impossible to escape.  Our churches are not as alive as they once were.  There seems to be little life.  What life there is, is manufactured by worldly music and manipulative stage presentations.  God is not the God of the living.  He is quickly becoming the God of the dying.  The fault is not His.  The fault lies with the people of God.  We have refused to live.  We are content in waiting out the clock.  This is not the kind of people whom God wishes to be a part of.  It is time for us to live again!

Worship That Fills the House

“Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.” (Joh 12:3 AV)

 

What a picture of what true worship can do to a household.  Mary, the sister of Lazarus, anointed and dried the feet of Jesus, preparing him for the coming crucifixion and burial He would suffer for us all.  A pence, or penny, was considered a day’s wage.  Judas claims the spikenard used by Mary was worth three hundred pence.  Or, what someone would commonly make in an entire year.  Very little is known of spikenard as it is mentioned in the scriptures only a few times.  What is known is the scent is very powerful.  It is often said of this perfume there is no equal in its potency.  When Mary anointed the feet of Jesus, the perfume filled the house.  There wasn’t a place in the house in which it could not be detected.  What a picture of how much true holy worship can affect all those in one’s own household.

Last week, there was an odor coming from the kitchen area.  At first, I thought it was our garbage.  So, I took the bag out and out to the dumpster it went.  That didn’t solve the odor problem.  It seemed to be getting stronger and stronger.  There was a load of laundry going and the odor smelled a bit like the detergent we were using.  However, it wasn’t quite like that soap odor.  I kept sniffing.  I investigated other possibilities and it grew stronger and stronger.  Then I had a frightful thought.  Could it be natural gas?  We just had our furnace serviced and readied for the winter.  Could the furnace have finally given up the ghost?  But, no, it didn’t smell quite like natural gas.  There was something wrong about that smell.  It smelled much like the laundry, but not enough to be the washing machine.  I had to find out.  So, I went to the basement and what did I see?  Sewage was backing up into the basement from the laundry machine going upstairs.  PEW!  After the wash was done, the sewage slowly went back down the drain.  But there was sludge left on the floor.  The floor is a mix of poured cement and loose dust.  That smell wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.  There was nothing I could do.  It was 10:30 at night.  Off to bed, we went.  Our bedroom is on the second floor.  We were twenty-five feet or so above the spill with two doors between it and us.  But still, the odor came.  It filled the house.

But there was a solution.  My wife is one of these housewives that loves to burn those wax perfume burners.  Not the candles, but those ceramic wax decanters that warm the wax with a bulb underneath.  We switched that on and it was amazing.  As potent as the sewage was, the was wax vastly more potent.  The more the scent of the wax-filled the house, the less we smelled sewage.  Rather than smelling something like the inside of a port-o-potty, our house began to smell like Sunday Morning breakfast.  The sweet smell of a perfumed wax outbattled the putrid smell of human waste.  The pleasant smell won out.

When we live under a roof with others, how we worship the LORD can often overcome ambiances of fear, strife, anger, resentment, lust, or a whole host of negative influences in the home.  It is just my wife and I now.  No kids.  We have a dog.  But no other creature to which we can interact.  My wife is an incessant hummer.  She hums all the time without realizing she is doing it.  The tunes she hums are sometimes recognizable.  Sometimes not.  When she hums spiritual songs, it does something to the atmosphere of our home.  She doesn’t even realize she is doing it.  But what she does is change the disposition of those around her.  She is unaware.  But it happens.  People become more pleasant.  People become more in tune with one another.  She worships the LORD as part of her nature and it affects the entire home.  This is the picture the LORD wises us to see.  If our homes are filled with strife, anger, resentment, etc. maybe what we need is a spirit of worship where ever we go and it will rub off an all who come in contact with it.

People Can Lead More Than Leaders Lead

“And could not find what they might do: for all the people were very attentive to hear him.” (Lu 19:48 AV)

 

In our passage this morning, we see the leadership of the nation of Israel wanted to take Jesus Christ and send Him to the Roman government for trial and death.  Eventually, they would succeed.  In fact, it only took one week to completely change the attitude of the multitude which resulted in the death of the Messiah.  Above, we see the multitude, because of their interest in the ministry of Jesus, the leadership could not touch Him.  They feared the people.  What we see is something that has been true throughout the history of mankind.  Actions of a nation are often more dependent on the multitudes than they are the leaders who lead them.  Every revolution started and ended with the commitment of the multitude.  Leaders know this.  They know they have little to no power unless the people are behind them.  Even a dictator knows that he survives only because the majority allow him to.  If the majority of the military will not back him, then he is powerless to wield his will.  In two short days, the American people will decide who leads them.  But bear in mind, the direction and values of our nation will not be determined by the leaders whom we choose.  It will be, and always has been, determined by the will of the people.

Scouting taught me many of life’s principles that have carried over into the pastorate.  Leadership skills is one of those areas.  My father required that everyone serve as a patrol leader.  Each troop was broken down into smaller units called patrols.  The way my father had it organized, there were usually six to eight boys in each patrol.  Every six months, we would hold an election for the patrol leader and assistant patrol leader.  These two boys were responsible to organize their patrol and perform assigned tasks.  These requirements were often tested in the context of camping trips.  It would be the job of the patrol leader to organize and train his patrol for competition.  It would be his job to organize training for the younger boys to learn the basics required for advancement.  As a leader, you learned really quickly that you cannot force any individual to do what you think is best.  As the leader, you had to learn motivational skills and people skills to encourage your patrol to do their best.  However, if they didn’t feel like going along, there was nothing that could change it.  The Klondike Derby was the test of all tests.  The leader had to organize and motivate their patrol to push a dog sled through a course, performing skills like knot tying, first aid, and fire building.  In the middle of February, that was quite a task.  If you got the patrol all the way through the course working as one unit, regardless of the time it took, you were a winner.  Too many sleds were abandoned to the side of the trail because patrols just couldn’t hack it and the majority called it quits.  No matter how competitive the leader was unless he had his six men with him, that sled wasn’t going anywhere.

The point is this.  We pray for our leaders because the word of God tells us to.  And we should.  No matter the leader, he or she should be prayed for.  But realize the key to revival is not the leader.  The key to revival is the people.  No matter who is sworn in next January, he or she cannot keep revival from coming.  Revival is a work of the Holy Spirit on the people of God and there is no law or tactic of man that can stop it.  Our hope cannot be in who sits in the White House, the Governor's Mansion, or who sits in Congress or the Supreme Court.  Our hope is in the LORD Jesus Christ and if the people experience a turning towards God, there isn’t a force on earth that can stop it.  They tried with Jesus.  And failed many times.  Here is a warning though.  One week prior to His crucifixion, the people were ready to crown Jesus.  Seven days later, He hung on a cross.  The people are extremely fickle.  They may wield a lot of power, but their values can change in an instant.  My hope is in neither the people nor the leaders they choose.  My hope is in God!