Woe or Whoa?

“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil..." In this fifth chapter of Isaiah there are six “Woes.” The old Nazarene preacher, Uncle Buddy Robinson, used to say, “When God says Woe, you’d better stop. I thoroughly agree, whether it be Woe or whoa, it will be to anyone's advantage to come to a complete halt!

Our text was written some seven hundred and fifty years before Christ; yet you’d think it was penned yesterday. Here we find that reversal of morality in a nation is no new thing. God’s people of old had destroyed all decent distinctions. They gave new definitions to sins. They used God’s vocabulary, but not His dictionary. They did not follow Isaac’s example, “he called their names after the names by which his father had called them.”

Whenever you find one perverting the scriptures, you will discover one who has no problem accepting and promoting any and all types of perversion.

"...that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.” Before you can get a kindergarten child to say that a white piece of paper and a black one is the same; and before you can get them to admit a dill pickle and a chocolate bar taste alike, you must first educate them to say and believe such lies.

And so it is with our beloved nation. This tripe must first be channeled through our institutions of learning, the news media, and pulpits of our country, before it is ingrained in our character. So watch what you're being fed!

Ye have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the Lord God of judgment? (Mal.2:17)

Meeting in the Middle

I have lived long enough to observe, and read enough to learn, that present generations and previous ones, have always had their difficulties accepting the other. The older generation invariable believes the younger group arriving on the scene comes far short of its own. That wisdom, no doubt, will die with them; and therefore youth is wasted on the young. While on the other hand, the young contemporaries feel new is always better, and that anything from the past is outdated, archaic, and obsolete. Therefore, there will always remain this great chasm between the two. That is, until a bridge-builder shows up.

Let’s not allow youthful pride, or senior stubbornness keep us from picking up hammer and nails. We both have a lot to contribute to one another, if we are willing to build from each side and meet in the middle!

A Life Worth Living

Many Christians follow the Epicurean philosophy: “Let us eat, drink, and be merry; for tomorrow we die.” They indulge, but they don’t enjoy, in spite of the fact we are told God gave us all things richly to enjoy. Why, then, the emptiness when they are full? the hunger pains after eating? and the sorrow after elation? It is because they have left God out of their lives. Like the man in Ecclesiastes who had it all but found life was not worth living without God.

To de-thrown Christ is to lose the key of life. All knowledge, mirth, and wealth leave a restless soul, apart from Him. Life is valueless without Jesus Christ; for we are told He is our life. Every blessing becomes boresome, if He is absent. We become cynical, pessimistic, and even fatalistic. Jesus is the Spice of Life, and without this Divine Ingredient, life is bland.

The wise man put God out of his life and lived only for the things “under the sun,” leaving him severely depressed. It’s beholding the One over the sun that makes life, and all that’s in it, an enjoyment. When we look into the mirror, we need to see the Christ’s image. If not, you’ll experience the vanity of an unyielded life.

They lose nothing who gain Christ. (Samuel Rutherford)

Patience and the Eternal

“God waited...” Isaiah tells us what to do at a time like this: “And therefore will the Lord wait...blessed are all they that wait for him.” Waiting on a waiting God. This is not an easy thing for we who are eternally impatient time-checkers to wait on an eternal, timeless God. One of whom it is said, a day in His sight is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. God is never in a hurry—we are. It is well to remember, if we have eternity on our side, we can afford to wait.

There is no Big Ben in Heaven, everything is measured by eternity. God’s clock has no hands and His calendar has no days. Therefore, settle it; our eternal God is going to take His good old time, and nothing or no one is going to hurry Him up. If we will but patiently wait for Him to accomplish our deepest desires, we will find, “He [makes] everything beautiful in his time.”

To lengthen my patience is the best way to shorten my trouble. (Puritan saying)

What Wheel Chair?

He was wounded in Vietnam, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. Upon discharge, he entered college, where he met his wife to be. They were both gloriously saved, while still attending school. His wife told me the first time that they talked was in the campus cafeteria. She said they had chatted for more than an hour before she realized he was in a wheel chair! Would to God we could be oblivious to the wheel chair each of our brethren occupies. We all are cripples in some area of our lives; salvation doesn’t change every deficiency. Mephibosheth sat at the King’s table, but he was still lame.

Some of us need to leave the lab and get a real life. If we continue dissecting our family and friends, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out there will soon be nothing left. And you know where that leaves the technician. In all intimate relationships, only God can handle an up close and personal one. We are not good at handling defects; that is, unless it is found in us. In this case we become amateur cosmetologists.

And so my friends let us back off, so to speak, and appreciate the whole picture, leaving the details to God. It is good to allow Him to decide where the touch ups are needed in another’s life. If we do it, I guarantee you; we’ll make a mess of the entire picture.

Remember, if we are to enjoy the forest, we can’t afford to get too close to the trees.

False Fear

“They feared the Lord, and served their own gods.” This record is as old as the Bible, but it is as new as today. These ancient people have kin among us in our age. There is at this present time, a generation of professing Christians who say they fear the one true God, but serve another.

Something is tragically wrong when a person can divorce their fear of God from their obedience to God. We are told in the Scriptures to “...fear the Lord...and obey his voice...” It is plain to see, these ancients, along with their modern day contemporaries, have a counterfeit fear. Notice that all the wrong lies in the fear itself. If you’re wrong on the fear, then you’re wrong on everything else.

You can always spot a person with a false fear of God. Yes, they pay Him outward respect, and give Him formal recognition, but that is as far as it goes. This kind of fear is skin courtesy. There is no beating heart behind it. It’s hollow—not holy. These kinds of people give God a passing nod on their way to do something they feel is better.

The Irish have a good saying for a person when they speak without their heart being in it, “He speaks from the teeth out.”

Do Christian's Sin?

“Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”

I need not go to a Greek scholar to find the meaning of this text, as I have repeatedly told you, and will continue to do so; the Bible interprets itself (A.V. 1611). The word “cannot” in scriptures does not mean the thing does not or might not occur; but that its occurrence is wholly against the nature of things. For example, “A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit.” But it can, and often does. And what about, “As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.” Well, they could if they wanted to. Compare other passages such as: Lk.11:17; 14:20; John 7:7; Acts 4:16, 20; 1Cor. 10:21.

Any enlightened Believer, even if he or she has only one Spiritual eye, knows the Bible does not contradict itself. In the very book that tells us we cannot sin, it says in chapter one that if we say we haven’t sinned we make God a liar, and show the truth is not in us. Most certainly, we can sin, but it is not our nature to do so. Paul tells us, if and when we sin, we will not continue in it.

A hog wallows in the filthy mire because it is his nature: but a sheep that falls into that sludge will make every attempt to get out. Wash, perfume, and dress a pig in the best clothes. Sit him in the parlor among all the finery. But know this; the first opportunity he has he will head back for the pig-pen (11Peter 2:22b). Why? That’s his deposition!

There is a vast difference between professing to possess something; and possessing what you profess.

Irreconcilable

“The flesh…against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other.” When will we learn these two can never be joined in harmony? What God hath put asunder, let no man join together.

The flesh will never want to go to heaven, live godly, glorify God, read the Bible, pray, and think on good things. Why then do we try incessantly to get our flesh to agree with, and to desire, what the Spirit does? We spend a lifetime thinking something is wrong with us, because in our natural state we do not feel the same way about things as the Spirit.

When we deny the flesh any say-so in spiritual matters, denying it recognition, then the guilt of it not desiring the spiritual will subside.

Horses and Things

I do not believe in shooting dead horses. The thing to do is bury it and walk away. I know people who are still taking pot shots at issues that gave up the ghost long ago. We put bulls-eyes on corpses, set up a rifle range in a grave yard, and spend our days shooting holes through something that no longer has legs to stand on.

I met a widow once who had been bitter because of her husband’s treatment of her for thirteen years. The ironic thing was that he had been dead that amount of time. Instead of moving on, there are those who prefer to spend their lives digging up corpses and dealing with the dead. You don’t have to be around them long to know who they are; they carry the stench of a mortuary. Plus, they always have in their pocket or purse, a bottle of embalming fluid.

May God help those who are living among the tombs to bury once and for all those dead issues in their lives. And when you do, don’t forget to throw away the shovel. Once you get back among the living, you will be glad you did, for you will be a new person. Or as Peter puts it, “…a lively stone.”

The Universal Gospel and Universalism

“Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature…for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that that believeth…Repent and believe the gospel…[God] commandeth all men everywhere to repent…except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”

Christ’ s death was sufficient to save all men, but only efficient to save those who believe. The Universalists attempt to make what is true only of all repentant believers to be factual for all mankind. Rather than the Biblical teaching of conditional salvation, they make it unconditional.

They will not accept the scriptural truth of eternal punishment for those who reject Christ as God’s only way for man’s salvation. Yet it is through Jesus Christ himself that we learn most clearly the doctrine of eternal retribution. Jesus told the people of His day, “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.” It is impossible for anyone to misinterpret this text, unless he or she is as crooked as a cork-screw.

John 3:16 is the one proof text that causes Universalism’s house to crumble. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." By the two texts just quoted we find that as long as there is an eternal Heaven for Christ’s own, there will be an everlasting Hell for those who reject Him. And both will be consciously aware, whether it be bliss or suffering.

God’s love for mankind ends at the grave; after that, the judgment!

Perplexity or Simplicity

One characteristic of most of us is that we are experts at complicating the simple. Perplexity is most certainly a part of life, but by no means is it the whole. The rule should be simplicity, with perplexity being the exception. I’m afraid the devil has won in many of our lives by getting us to be removed from the simplicity that is in Christ.

Our Lord dealt with some of life’s most difficult problems, but you will not find Him making them complex to the point of driving Him, or those around Him, to frustration. He always used sanctified reasoning; He started with the basic fundamental premise, and then worked toward the more problematic. In other words, He never used algebra for the answer to a problem, when simple math would do.

The old-time evangelist, Vance Havner, along with his wife, was traveling by bus to a revival meeting in the hills of Tennessee. While at a rest-stop at a little country store, his wife noticed from her window an old scrub-woman hanging up her wash at the house next to the store. She commented to her husband, “Vance, look at that dear old soul; she doesn’t know the rest of the world exists.” To which he replied, “Well for goodness sakes, don’t tell her!”

Profundity can fall under the category of simplicity; it need not be perplexing.

What Do You Say?

“But whom say ye that I am?” Jesus had just asked His disciples who men thought Him to be. Then He gets personal; He wants to know who they believe Him to be. After which Peter gives that great and famous confession, “Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.” But the world had equated Him with their past and present religious leaders, just as cults, New Agers, and the false religions of our day do.

Jesus told Peter that flesh and blood had not revealed this truth unto him. But, did not his brother Andrew first tell him of the Christ immediately after he himself had met him? Yes, he had related Christ to him, but only God can reveal Christ to us. It is Christianity that receives revelation; all other religions reject Divine revelation. They attempt to deny and distort who Christ really is. They turn light to darkness, and become slaves to deities of their own making.

Christianity is first and foremost relational. It is not knowledge by description, but knowledge by relationship. As J.I. Packer puts it, “A Christian is someone who is constantly reaching out by faith to an invisible Christ.” He is the only one who can really help when those devastating earthquakes hit in our lives.

The Father must reveal the Son to us; and only the Son can reveal the Father!

A Greater Love

There is much misunderstanding over Jesus’ telling His followers that except they hated their loved ones they could not be His disciples (Lk.14:26). This comes from not allowing the Word of God (A.V.1611) to be its own interpreter. In the O.T. we are told that Leah believed she was hated by her husband Jacob, but it was not in the way she imagined. We are told Jacob “…loved Rachel also ‘more’ than Leah.” That is, his love for Rachel so far exceeded his love for Leah that it seemed as though he hated her in comparison.

If you’re going to love God with all your being, then as Abraham of old, you are going to have to visit Mt. Moriah with that loved one who holds a place in your heart equal to God. With God, those two loves cannot co-exist. One must be sacrificed. If you do not, the much loved one you spare will keep you from doing God’s Will in your life. Apparently, Adam had this problem.

God sacrificed His Beloved for you; will you do the same for Him?

*Jesus Slept

Our Lord was not only all God, He was all Man. Because of this latter truth, He was made like us in every point (sin excluded). And one of our physical necessities in this life is sleep. And so we are told Jesus got wearied in body and had to rest. He was also tired at the end of the day and needed to sleep. I was meditating recently on what He awoke to. What kind of days did He have to face? What were the conditions around Him in which He awoke each morning?

First of all, politically Rome was in power and was a government corrupt to the core; socially, class warfare was one of the top evils of His day; morally, permissiveness prevailed; there were no “Thou shalt nots”; spiritually, among the professing religious elite, it was all externals; and personally He awoke to long days, a hurting world, very little time to Himself, and the shadow of the Cross constantly falling upon His path.

Yet He could say, “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” How could any Godly person find delight in such depressing surroundings? The secret is found in the words “…within my heart.” Paul experienced similar circumstances as his Master, and he had also learned from Him, no doubt, how to face these insurmountable odds. Form a prison in Rome he wrote the Philippian Church, “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.” It was not something going on around Paul that caused him to rejoice, but something on the inside that brought about this exceeding joy.

Remember, “Jesus rejoiced in Spirit.”

The Body

“Now the body is... for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.” As I have often said, “We were made for each other.” It seems our bodies are the last thing we give to God, but it’s the first thing He wants.

We are like God’s people in Joseph’s day. We’ll give our money and material things before we relinquish to our heavenly Joseph our bodies. It takes a famine in our lives sometimes before we are willing to say, “…there is not aught left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies…”

Many Christians treat God as a tenant in His own house, instead of recognizing Him as the owner (1Cor. 6:19-20). Paul literally begged believers of his day to give their bodies to God. You would think this unnecessary considering what it cost Him to redeem them; but still the begging goes on.

Nowhere is depravity better seen, than when a little muddy man refuses to yield to his Maker and Master.

*The Heart of the Matter

“Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.” Western Christianity has come to major on petty, outward things, while ignoring and considering to be minor, weightier internal matters. We give all our attention to scraped knees and neglect the cancer within. We are more concerned with temporary relief than permanent ruin.

The people addressed in our text lived good outward lives, and were active for God. They, like many today, believed that it mattered little whether one had faith or not, just as long as their conduct was right. “An evil heart of unbelief” was accepted among them if the outside of their cup was clean. They had departed from the living God, but continued going through the motions of living for Him.

The one sin that damns the lost, and destroys a believer’s life, was not an issue with them. And so it is with many professing Christians today. They hide “an evil heart of unbelief” behind a white vest of religion. They live their daily lives with no thought or need of Christ whatsoever. They are the masters of their own ships.

The Hebrews’ “evil hearts of unbelief” soon became “hard hearts.”

*Its a Passing Thing

“And the world passeth away...” Like all the things in it, the world itself is going to wax old and pass away. God is going to baptize this present world with fire, burning off the dross and thus making all things new. It is because of this we should not get attached to our toys, for they are headed for the furnace. But, thank God, there is another world that shall never pass away. It is upon this world we are to set our affections, for the things in it abide forever.

C.S. Lewis says, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” Many, like Lot, are living only for the things of this world. But, like him, they will see all go up in smoke. When we truly seek the lasting things of the next world, it is then we can enjoy the temporal things of this present one. To this type of person, God is going to give “beauty for ashes.”

Never sacrifice the permanent on the altar of the immediate. (Dr. Bob Jones Sr.)

*Just Pray

Watch out for the How To books, especially when it comes to the subject of prayer. Any manual designed to show you how to pray has the wrong designer for its author. A book or sermon’s objective should not be to show you how to pray, but rather to get you to pray. The real problem has always been to get God’s people to just pray. Whenever this happens, the rest will take care of itself. It then simply becomes a trial and error thing. We learn to pray by praying!

Following some book about how to pray with a slavish superstition will cause you to lose your spiritual sanity. Like children in an earthly family, God’s children are all different and talk to their Heavenly Father in various ways. There is something between each of the children and their Father that is not understood by the others. The best advice on prayer that I’ve heard thus far is, “Pray as you can and don’t pray as you can’t.” The only requirement is staying within Biblical guidelines.

A Scottish Pastor out for a stroll one morning heard the voice of a young boy behind a hedgerow reciting the alphabet. When he asked the lad, who was on his knees at the time, what he was doing, he replied, “Well sir, I just became a Christian and am trying to pray. But I don’t know the right words to say, so I thought by quoting the alphabet the Dear Lord would put together the words and know what I’m trying to say to Him.”

Getting God's Ear

“And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord…save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD God, even thou only…Thus saith the LORD God…That which thou hast prayed…I have heard.” John tells us in his first Epistle that the secret of getting your prayers answered is to first get God’s ear. He goes on to say, to do this, you must pray with God’s interests in mind.

Hezekiah was concerned with God’s concerns. As a result, God heard and answered his prayer. If you’ll check, this was also true in the lives of men such as Abraham, Moses, David, etc. All were occupied, first and foremost, with God’s interests. It seems when we look out for God and His concerns, then He looks out for us and ours. Solomon found this to be true, and so will you and I.

By putting God first, you end up at the head of the line.

Vile Virtues

Daniel was one of the Bible’s saintliest men. He holds a place in the front ranks of the godly. His enemies could find no fault in him other than he prayed too much. He had religion with windows in it. The angel Gabriel told him he was greatly beloved of God.

You would have a difficult time trying to find a hole in his spiritual armor. His life was beyond reproach. Yet, in his prayer of confession in chapter nine, he includes himself, along with the Lord’s people, when saying they had sinned against God. But he ends the prayer by personalizing it. He refers to it, by saying “my sin.”

What sin was it that he was confessing? Certainly not his vices; there are none recorded. Was he, then, confessing his virtues? In the presence of God, our virtues can become vile. Self-revelation is a devastating thing. Usually connected with our virtues is a vicious pride. The lesson is plain; I can’t trust myself an inch.

The word that makes virtue vile is pride. Remember the Pharisee in the temple?

Watch For the Misses

As you read the Gospels, one of the things that stands out is how Jesus’ words were misunderstood. Over and over again, we see the arrogance of the religious crowd, presupposing what He meant. When we misunderstand, we misconstrue; when we misconstrue, we misrepresent. And the latter borders on slander.

Make up your mind, then, if you’re going to be a person with spiritual depth and maturity, you also will fall into the category of the misunderstood. The superficial, legalistic, traditionalists have only a one-track mind. That’s why their mental train is always derailing. They can’t stay on track; therefore, don’t look for them to ever arrive.

As soon as this type of person sees, hears, or reads something not fashioned upon their own anvil, they begin throwing out words such as heretic, apostate, and false doctrine. The pathetic thing about this is that they don’t even know the Biblical definition of the words they use.

When we misunderstand something (or someone), we invariably do one of two things: run from it, or try to destroy it. This is seen in the life of our Lord. And I guarantee, those who choose to follow Him in an intimate relationship will experience the same.

Watch the prefix “miss” in your vocabulary; you may miss the point.

Gushy or Gutsy

An evangelist friend of mine, now with the Lord, used to describe the Christians of our day, as those who live by their warm, fuzzy feelings. I attribute much of the “falling away” today to this very fact. These people need to trade-in their gushiness for some old time gutsiness.

It seems, at the least little inconvenience these thin-skinned saints are ready to sell their birthright for any “sloppy-joe” that the world serves up. Real intestinal fortitude sticks under trials and temptation.

But I hear someone say, “You don’t understand, I’m a mess.” Well welcome to the junkyard! You’re only experiencing what many of us older saints have. With the exception of the first few months of our new found faith, when we thought ourselves archangels, we also now see all the hideousness of our lives. We are presently in the salvage yard trying, the best we can, to wait patiently for our new model to replace this wrecked one.

I love the way C.S. Lewis puts it: “You can be assured that God is well aware of what a wretched machine you are trying to drive, and asks only that you keep on, [doing] the best you can.”

The Supernatural

“[T]he water was made wine...this beginning of miracles did Jesus...” There is a term used among Bible students known as “the law of first mention.” That is, the way anything is used originally, it will remain that way thereafter. We find this truth in Jesus’ first miracle.

In our Lord’s “beginning of miracles,” He uses all natural means to perform the supernatural. I have not looked up the dictionary meaning of the word “supernatural,” but it seems to me that the Bible’s definition would be, “The supernatural is the natural with God in it.”

Possibly, the greatest supernatural act God ever performed was entering a virgin’s womb and coming into the world in the likeness of a natural man who bore the name Jesus. “God was in Christ…” The second amazing act was when He entered my body and changed my life supernaturally. Paul referred to it as a mystery. “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

The world today is seeking the supernatural when, all the time, they are surrounded by it...their called Christians.

The Invisible Man

“Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.” So says David in the 139th Psalm. I have a note in the heading of this book that reads “There’s a Balm in Psalms.” Certainly this text has healing in its wings.

As to yesterday’s failure and the guilt which is its companion, my lovely Lord comes between me and my pursuers. “Thou hast beset me behind.” But I have natural fears of tomorrow and the unknown. What about the enemies that would hinder my advance on the Heavenly road homeward. “Thou hast beset me...before.” All the fiery darts shall be quenched before they reach me. My unseen Shield is ever before me.

He has graciously taken care of my past and my future. But what of the present? “[A]nd laid thine hand upon me.” No immediate circumstance can overtake or overwhelm me. There can be no unexpected ambush by my adversary, which my Protector has not seen and planned for.

The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. (Psl. 34:7)

Is He or Isn't He?

“…if the LORD be God, follow him.” Elijah called for a one-time decision, but it was not to end there. They were to follow through on it. This initial experience needed to become a process. Long term commitments are best achieved by daily renewals. God knew His people, then and now, have short memories. “They soon forgat…” is God’s testimony of us.

It is wise for us to apply Joshua’s words, “…choose you this day…” to our daily lives. Each day, we must decide “…if the LORD be God…” And the decision we make will determine our success or failure, our victory or defeat, our overcoming or being overcome.

God is a present “I AM,” not a past “I WAS.”

Grace Costs

Joseph’s coat of many colors was a free, unmerited gift from his smiling father. It cost him nothing to receive it from his hands, but it cost him the rejection and hatred of his brethren to wear it daily. It may sound like a misnomer, but grace does cost. A father may give his son a new car, without conditions, but there is a price to pay in receiving it. One is the jealousy of many of his friends. Also there is the personal responsibility placed upon him in owning it.

And so it is with the grace of God. Once this supernatural, free gift is received, there are natural costs that follow. The first is a scrutiny on the part of the believer himself. He must be careful he does not abuse or misuse this new-found liberty. He must be always conscious that this grace he has received does not become a disgrace. On the other hand, there will be the slanderous reports of the brethren who say you teach “Let us sin that grace may abound,” and accuse you of antinomianism. It would seem that, if we are following Paul’s example, a believer is not really living under grace until he also is accused of this.

Thank God for delivering some of us from the legalistic slavery of a list of man-made rules and regulations, to the ranks of the “freedom movement” that is governed only by His Spirit and His Word.

Excuse Me, Please

"And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell…” This was a Divine interruption. The Holy Ghost cut short Simon’s sermon. To interrupt while another is speaking is considered by us to be bad manners, but when it comes from Heaven, it’s perfectly proper, as well as polite.

In most of today’s churches, there is no place in prepared programs to fit the Holy Ghost into a particular time slot, if He so chooses. Everything is planned ahead of time, and unless there has been previous notification, the services must, and will, go on as planned, at all costs. Nothing or no one must disrupt it…even God.

When preparing your order of service, make sure there’s room for God to interrupt it.

Good and Evil

“Overcome evil with good.” There is no other way. Satan cannot cast out Satan. You can’t clean house with a dirty dust cloth. A doctor cannot cut out diseased tissue if his scalpel is defiled. He will only remove the one to leave another. It is health that fights disease.

And so it is in my Christian life. If I would eradicate a vice, I must cultivate a virtue. The best way to get rid of an immoral habit is to replace it with a good one. Instead of earthly evil being my food for thought, I must feed upon, and nourish my mind with, heavenly manna. Don’t feed on “devil’s food,” but on “angel’s food.”

This also applies to the faults and vices of my Christian brethren. I must fight his evils with opposites. If he is harsh and cruel, I must be kind and considerate; if possessive, I must be generous; if loud, I, soft-spoken; if carnal, I, then, must be Spiritual.

From Genesis to Revelation good ultimately and always triumphs over evil.

A Signed Check

“According to your faith [appropriation] be it unto you.” This principle is found throughout the Bible. It’s not wishing, longing, wanting, or even praying that gets the blessing. It’s appropriation (taking for one’s own). Drab, defeated lives have been transformed by learning the art of appropriating. They turned promises into facts. They stepped out on a promise and trusted God—sink or swim. And those who do, never have to experience either.

In the story of the prodigal son, it says of the father, “He divided unto them his living.” The prodigal may have had a lot of faults, but appropriating what his father had given him was not one of them. This was not so with his elder brother. He accused the father of not even giving him a “kid,” to which his father replied, “Son, all that I have is thine.” Yet, he had not appropriated one kid. The difference was not in bestowal, but in appropriation. We must appropriate what God has given (Josh.1:3 and Eph.1:3).

Jesus has already signed the check. He’s waiting for us to cash it at Heaven’s bank.

The Virtuious Woman

'A woman's heart should be so hidden in Christ that a man should have to seek Him first to find her.'

Standing the Test of Time

Paul’s principles were in line with the Word of God. He believed people, as well as things, should first be proved before putting one’s stamp of approval upon them. Individuals who live by this scriptural philosophy are many times misunderstood and even criticized as being harsh and unforgiving.

A good example of this is found in the latter part of Acts chapter fifteen. In our story, the Apostle did not want young John Mark to prove himself to Paul, but to his own self. Interestingly, after Mark did prove himself to himself, Paul’s opinion of him changed (2 Tim.4:11).You see, the old man knew it was more important how the young man felt about himself, than how others thought of him.

Time is a good tester! A person or product that has not been proven over a period time is generally not one you would want to put your full confidence in. Just to site one example of this in my own life would be my use of the old 1611 Authorized King James Version of the Bible. You can put T. and P. next to every verse in it. That is, Tried and Proved.

A wait and see attitude is not necessarily pessimistic; it can be pietistic!

Do You Know This Person?

They attend a new church; they meet a new friend; they support a new cause; they begin a new ministry. Everything is great, and nothing that came before these mentioned things can be compared. But when the newness wears off, and they are no longer the center of attention, but now become one of many, a face in the crowd, so to speak, they pack their bags and move on to another church, friend, cause, or ministry. These are vagabond saints. Do you know such a person; have you met them; are you that person?

What is the root cause for this painful problem in the lives of these sad saints? One does not have to dig too deeply to find the source. It is self-absorption! Some definitions of this word are: to be concerned only with ones self; self-centered; excessively self-involved; egomania. Not a pretty picture at all, is it?

The only hope for such a person is to understand what Jesus meant when He said, “Deny thyself.” This is not denying recognition of our humanity, but denying any rights to the Adamic nature. That is, the Adamic syndrome, the sinful, egocentric behavior pattern which has been developing from our birth. The impulse to do anything rather than to obey God.

The “Last Adam” must be put first if we’re to overcome the first Adam.

Double or Nothing

"Ask what I shall do for thee…And Elisha said…a double portion…And he [Elijah] said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless if…it shall be so unto thee." When asking hard things from God, the question of receiving them is on us not on Him. Speaking of God, Jeremiah tells us, "…there is nothing too hard for thee."

The "if'" is on us, not God. Jesus taught this to the father who brought his needy son to Him. The distraught father said, "…if thou canst do anything…" But Jesus placed the little two-letter word back on the father, by saying, "If thou canst believe…" It is not if God can do, but if we can believe.

Elisha had one, top priority; and, not only was this request hard, but he made it doubly so by asking for a "double portion." When we mean business with God, God will mean business with us. Three times Elisha was told to "tarry," and three times, his reply was, "I will not…" Dogged perseverance always gets the hard things in life.

With Elisha it was "double or nothing," and God gave him the former.

Generational Songs

While browsing churches on the Web recently, I came across one that advertised, “No worship leader, no worship team, no worship songs.” I chuckled to myself and said, “I wonder if they have a worship service?” I’d be the first to admit that some of the modern-day worship songs are both unscriptural and without substance. But is that not also true of the old ones? Songs such as “A Cabin in Glory Land,” and “There’s a New Name Written Down in Glory,” come far short of Biblical correctness.

Many good churches, as my dear mother used to say, “Cut off their noses to spite their face.” The argument is that the old songs are better. But what they’re actually saying is that the songs from their generation which they were brought up with are better. A woman once told my wife after she sang the old, old, song, “Come, Ye sinners,” that she enjoyed it, but preferred the old ones, to the newer ones. It is well to remember, the songs of today will be the old songs in twenty years.

Isaac Watt’s father accused his son of blasphemy when he started writing church music. He believed the Psalms of David were sufficient. In the book of Revelation we have “The song of Moses” (old), and we sing, “A new song.” Jesus tells us, in His treasure box there are, “…things new and old.” My church incorporates in its singing both the contemporary and the traditional, and I, for one, like it!

When a Little Comma Covers a Long Period

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; Because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted; to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord”, (Isa.61:1-2).

Every writer has his or her own style. For example, I like to use commas. And so did my wife in her writings until she was intimidated by my daughter for using them so often. But she (Leah) doesn’t scare me. Well most of the time, anyway.

In our opening text, the little comma we stopped with covers some two- thousand years. You’ll recall in the synagogue how Jesus quoted this portion from Isaiah’s prophecy, but did not finish it, stopping at the comma (Lk.4:18-20). Why? Because when He said, “This day is this scripture fulfilled,” it would have not been true had he continued on with the verse. For the rest of the text says, “And the day of the vengeance of our God.” You can see the former has to do with His first coming, the latter His second coming.

Thank God, “He closed the book…and sat down.” The first part of the text reaches to our age. He is still binding up the brokenhearted and freeing the captives. May God have mercy in the day of His vengeance.

Background or Foreground

“And he is before all things…” Christ is to be first in line, at the head of the pack, if you please. I’m fearful that He is in the background, rather than the foreground, in many of our lives. The former word meaning, “the distant part of a scene; behind or subordinate to something.” The definition of the latter is “nearest the viewer.” It can be said, and rightly so, that scores of Christians today are like the prophets of old who “…stood to view afar off.”

Our relationship with Christ is to be “up close and personal.” What lover wants to court from a distance? You have to be close to Him, if you’re going to cling to Him. Saintly Brainard said, “I want to be so close to Jesus that I can hear His heart beat.” John the Beloved would have said, “Amen” to that statement, for, you remember it was he who leaned his head on Jesus’ bosom. When will we learn, familiarity is not intimacy.

The best way to get close to God is to make over His Son.

Check the Price Tag

"Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.” The reserved, conservative, religious Jews could only surmise that these Spirit-filled disciples had gone over the edge. They had become fanatical. Someone defined the word, when used in Christian circles today, as meaning “someone closer to God than me.”

There is a cost to being filled with the Holy Ghost. The lives of John the Baptist, Stephen, and Paul, along with a host of other humble believers, as well as Jesus, testify to this fact. As a preacher of old used to say, “There is no Pentecost without plenty-cost.” The price tag on a powerful race car is much more than that of a mope-along four cylinder.

All Christians want the power of God until they check the price tag.

A Book and It's Author

Recently my wife and older son Andrew drove form our home in Northern CA. to the Los Angeles area. The purpose was to hear and meet an author my wife had been reading after; our son had recommended him to her. The book is entitled, “What’s So Great About Christianity?” The author’s name is Dinesh D’Souza. She was so taken up with the book she would not be satisfied until meeting the writer. She was thrilled when introduced to him by our son.

Is this not the way it should be in the Christian life? We begin by reading the Word of God; and then we are so impressed, we long to know the God of the Word. How sad to see so many Believers today talking about and quoting this Divine Book, who do not know, or have an intimate knowledge of, the One who wrote it? They stop short, spending their entire Christian life in the outer court at the Laver (type of the Word) rather than continuing on and entering the Holy of Holies, where the Glory was. Every time God rends the veil of their lives so they can enter in, they patch the veil back up.

The purpose of knowing God’s Word is that it will ultimately lead one to knowing Him. Toward the end of David’s life he wanted to show his son Solomon the importance of this great find, “And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy Father.” This was also Paul’s one great desire. As an old man, he tells the Philippians of this longing, “That I may know him…”

The end of all learning is to know God, and out of that knowledge to love and imitate Him. (John Milton)

Feeding the Feeder

As a new-born babe in Christ, I remember listening to The Old-Fashioned Revival Hour and Radio Bible Class every Sunday morning before church. On the weekdays, it was Back to the Bible. How I was fed through their ministries. Much of my spiritual growth as a Christian I attribute directly to these marvelous ministries.

Though I believe, generally speaking, one should tithe through their local assembly (if they are being fed and nourished from the Word of God), I also preached and practiced the truth that your offerings could prayerfully be given to a ministry, or ministries, that have been a blessing to you.

I am so thankful, as I look back over the years, that I supported some of these ministries on a regular basis. I knew what they did for me, and I dearly wanted them to do the same for others.

How I appreciate now that little handful of faithful friends who financially help us each month. A seasoned preacher told me when I first started out, “You feed God’s people and they’ll feed you.” I call it, “feeding the feeder. I praise God for my “feeders!”

“If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?” (1 Cor. 9:11)

Inside Issues

In the future, from time to time, I will be writing about what I believe to be some serious problems within the Body of Christ (Inside Issues). Mind you, this is only one man’s humble opinion. It comes from an old disciple’s observance of an institution he has dearly loved and been an intricate part of for more than half a century. I’m speaking of The Church of Jesus Christ.

Today I’d like to discuss the Christian and politics. I want to cover this controversial subject a little differently from that which is generally presented. One’s involvement in the political process, I believe, is up to an individual’s conscience before God. My position is that of the little proverbial saying, “Some can, others can’t.” And as far as which of the two is better, I think we could apply Paul’s words to each side, “…neither…are we the better; neither …are we the worse.”

My concern is not with a believer’s involvement in governmental affairs, but their entanglement. Paul warns us, “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life.” It seems to me when preachers and churches intertwined with the world, they lost the power of God. When your brand of Christianity is accepted and applauded by this world, you have the wrong sort. Jesus said the world hated Him, and it will hate us. We need to be more concerned with God’s acceptance than the world’s corrupt system.

God said He would have spared Sodom had Lot been a Spiritual influence rather than getting tangled up in their political affairs (Gen.19:9). As D.L. Moody said, “It’s alright for the ship to be in the water, but it sinks when the water gets in the ship.” Separation is not isolation, but insulation without contamination. Even a casual reading of the book of Acts would settle many doubts as to a Christian and politics.

You’ll never straighten out this world with crooked Christians.

Caught in the Middle

The story is told of a young man during the Civil War who wanted to play it safe, so he put on Yankee pants and a Rebel coat. But, to his dismay, he was shot at by both sides. And so, without compromise, I hope to appease both sides of a warring issue, but feel I’m in a no-win position. I speak of the Atonement. Was it universal or particular; was it for all or only the elect?

As much as one side “wrestles the scriptures,” it still comes out, “He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” If you change “the whole world” to mean something else; then you must do it later on in John’s first Epistle when he writes, “The whole world lieth in wickedness.” On the other side of the coin, to deny God has an elect people, you must take a penknife, as Jehudi of old, and cut out great portions of scripture.

And so, is it universal or limited? His atonement is sufficient for all, but only efficient to those who believe. We are to, “…do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.” Watch these two words in italics as they’re used elsewhere. “[He] is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.”

To me, this is the only way you can make a legitimate offer of the gospel to the whole world. For those who believe in a “Limited Atonement” limit God’s love for the world. But, on the other hand, those who detest “Election,” as the old preacher said, “That’s why God didn’t elect you; He knew you wouldn’t like it.”

Well that’s it, and I can already sense some taking aim.

A Divine Invitation

If I understand it right, no one can approach a king on his throne except by the king’s personal approval. Esther realized this when she told Mordecai, “...whoever...shall come unto the king...who is not called...[shall be] put...to death.” That is, she adds, “...except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden sceptre.” She went on to say, “...I have not been called to come unto the king these thirty days.”

How I thank God that I can approach my King anytime, day or night—not with fear and trembling, but with full assurance in my heart. I am told I can enter boldly on the basis of the blood of His Son. Jesus is God’s “sceptre of righteousness” which God has reached out to me. Because of this, we have a Divine invitation to approach His throne. “Let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy (for past failures), and find grace to help (for the present) in time of need.” Yes, there are warnings in the Book of Hebrews, but, overall, it is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, books in the Bible on assurance and comfort for the believer.

Years ago, a man in England named Dr. Barnardo, took in little waifs from the streets of London. He clothed, fed, and gave them a home. One little fellow entered his office on a certain night, requesting help. The doctor asked who had recommended him. The reply from the little urchin was, “I thought these tattered clothes would be recommendation enough.”

Oh, how I thank God I can come to His throne today, knowing my tattered, soiled rags of failures and shortcomings will be recommendation enough for help in my time of need!

Doom's Day

“And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them…” The disciples were in the midst of the sea, toiling in the storm. Jesus was on high, praying. It was when His elect were engulfed in darkness, with the wind and the waves raging all about them, that Christ left His place of intercession and came to them, walking on a liquid floor.

Throughout the Scriptures, you find God always showing up at the last minute. You can look for Him when all hope is taken away. He waits till the fourth watch, when it’s the darkest, so that we will not be tempted to say later, “…mine own hand hath gotten me this.”

And so it will be with His Second Coming. The darkest hour of the night is just before the dawn. The morning watch (3 a.m. to 6 a.m.) is when those who are watching can see the “Bright and Morning Star.” As the night intensifies, you can look for “The Star” to show up.

This is not a Doom’s Day approach; it’s about His Glorious Appearing.

Getting Into Hot Water

Jesus didn’t get into trouble with His Jewish brethren for glorifying God. He got into hot water because He glorified Him at their expense. As long as He didn’t bring them and theirs into the picture, everything was fine. But when He put God before their exalted personalities (Abraham, Moses, etc.) and their religious rituals and rites (the Sabbath, Circumcision, etc.) they went after His scalp.

Not much has changed from those olden times. Many of the brethren today are all for glorifying God, as long as it doesn’t show them up. But, if you take away the outward spiritual tinsel, leaving them bare, with God towering over them, they’ll be looking for a cross to nail you to, also. Characteristically, these personalities and pet projects that are passed off as spiritual, must not be overshadowed by God; He is to take His place at the end of the line.

People such as this can never sincerely pray the prayer of A.W. Tozer: “God, glorify thyself, and do it at my expense.”

You Can't Change the Unchangeable

“Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?” There are some things in our lives that will never change. True, God can give both of these a new nature. The Ethiopian eunuch can testify to this as well as the leopard that lies down with the kid. But neither has a change of their skin or spots. They will always remain the same. Some are like Sisera’s mother, anticipating something that is never going to happen.

We need to read again the little “Prayer of Serenity”:

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change
Courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.

C.S. Lewis says, “Don’t you think the things people are most ashamed of are those things they can’t help?” I believe this to be true. But I also believe we should be ashamed of those things we can help and refuse to change.

I can’t change the wind’s direction, but I can change my own.

Are Babies in Heaven?

There is a difference of opinion on the above question. The Scriptures are not too clear on the subject. My personal belief is that they are not; my reason for saying this is the same as that of no old people being there: imperfection. What mother going to Heaven before her infant would want it to remain a baby on earth? She would want it to grow and mature. It seems to me we will all be of a perfect age. Our Lord died in the prime of life and stayed that way.

No matter your position on the subject, one thing all of us should agree on is that maturity is one of the great necessities of life. Most all our problems stem from this lack. We hear a lot about growth today in the Christian realm, but Peter tells us that along with growth, there should be knowledge of the Lord Jesus. The result of growth without knowledge is retardation.

Paul told the Philippian believers he had lost everything for the knowledge of Christ. C.S. Lewis said, “The process of growing up is to be valued for what we gain, not for what we lose.”

A person doesn’t know anything until they know Christ intimately. (Col.2:3)

*Faith's Funeral

“Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone...For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” A living faith has works; if not, it’s in a coffin. Is it any wonder that we are exhorted to “...be careful to maintain good works.” The judgment seat of Christ is not about the existence of works in a Christian’s life, but the quality of their works. We are to assume all believers have them, of one “sort” or another.

Jesus told His disciples that when men saw their good works, they would glorify the Father in Heaven. Good works are something we can leave behind for our loved ones to remember us by. “Dorcas...was full of good works...and all the widows stood by him [Peter] weeping, and shewing the coats and garments which Dorcas made, while she was with them.” And, ultimately, they will follow us to Heaven: “...and their works do follow them.”

If James were living today, I imagine he would have come from Missouri—the “show-me” state. “Shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.” In other words, James believed we ought to “put-up or shut-up.”

Like a rowboat, the Christian life has two oars—faith and works; take away one, and you go in circles.

*Were or Are?

“And such were some of you." It is not "then"; it is "now." It is not the past; it is the present. It is not what you were; it's what you are that counts with God and is what should occupy our minds. An old Methodist preacher used to say, "A person who builds his life on his past is destined to fall."

Paul only gave his testimony two times in Acts. That's twice in some thirty years, and both times it was given out of necessity. The Apostle's epistles give little space to our being "in Adam" in comparison to our being "in Christ." Dwelling on the former can bring on a state of defeat, but dwelling on the latter brings victory.

Constantly inspecting a corrupt corpse can cause morbidity and depression. Like the man of Gadara, we need to leave the tombs and go among the living. The Prodigal's father said of his son, "This my son was dead, and is alive again." Let us dwell on the "is," not on the "was."

A person can do nothing about who he was, but can, who he is.

*One Bad Experience

I was a boy of eight or nine and had just finished playing baseball on an extremely hot day. I stopped at the corner ice cream parlor on my way home and got a delicious, creamy, vanilla ice cream cone. After consuming about half of it, while heading for the house, I got horribly sick and brought it all up. From that day, I never ate that flavor again until recent years.

How many of us in life are like this? We spend years blaming others for one bad experience, when all the time, it would never have transpired had it not been for the condition we were in at the time. What is so pitiful about the whole thing is that we could be enjoying that thing or person we blame if we only admitted it was not them or it that was the cause, but us! I now thoroughly love vanilla, but cringe when I think of the wasted years of enjoyment I forfeited by living on one bad experience.

*Divine Interruption

“While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell...” In recounting this event to others, Peter said, “And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell…” I am so thankful to say that I have been in such services—services where God interrupted preaching, singing, and even the praying. I was once asked, “What do you do when God gets in it?” My reply was, “I get out of it.”

The Bible teaches order, but not at the expense of God interrupting that order. I am not against bulletins listing the order of the service, but let us be careful we do not organize God out of them. You cannot dictate time to an eternal God.

Let’s be more concerned about our heart’s burning than the Sunday roast.