Ultimate Christianity

“Tried with fire.” Was Peter thinking of his forefathers in the book of Daniel when he penned these words? Possibly so. You remember those three brave believers would not bow to the intimidating threats of the hierarchy, though it meant being put into the fires. Their answer to the King is the ultimate Christian testimony: “Our God...is able to deliver us...and he will deliver us...But if not...” A general consensus—God is able; an individual trust—God will; a personal acceptance—if God doesn’t.

You can’t stop a person armed with this philosophy. These three Jewish saints are undoubtedly the ones referred to in Hebrews eleven, where we are told, “and others...not accepting deliverance.” They knew it was just as great, if not greater, to be delivered in the fire, as it was out of the fire. Maybe they were trusting the promise of Isaiah, “When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.”

There is a double blessing to be found in the fire. They had a Divine Companion Who entered with them, and they had a glorious liberty. Both fellowship and freedom are found in the midst of the flame.

Amy Carmichael tells the following precious story. “One day we took the children to see a goldsmith refine gold after the ancient manner of the East. He was sitting beside his little charcoal fire. ("He shall sit as a refiner"; the gold- or silversmith never leaves his crucible once it is on the fire.) In the red glow lay a common curved roof tile; another tile covered it like a lid. This was the crucible. In it was the medicine made of salt, tamarind fruit and burnt brick dust, and imbedded in it was the gold. The medicine does its appointed work on the gold, "then the fire eats it," and the goldsmith lifts the gold out with a pair of tongs, lets it cool, rubs it between his fingers, and if not satisfied puts it back again in fresh medicine. This time he blows the fire hotter than it was before, and each time he puts the gold into the crucible, the heat of the fire is increased; "it could not bear it so hot at first, but it can bear it now; what would have destroyed it then helps it now." "How do you know when the gold is purified?" we asked him, and he answered, "When I can see my face in it [the liquid gold in the crucible] then it is pure.”

What's On Your Plate?

Eat All That’s On Your Plate

“Whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no question…” In the context, Paul is discussing meats offered to idols. He shows the Christian’s responsibility in different situations that may arise in the eating of such. I’d like to take these words and apply them to our lives in a practical everyday way.

How many remember their Mother saying, “Make sure you eat everything on your plate?” And that meant eating those detestable vegetables. Your loving chef knew what was good for you, even if you didn’t!

And so it is with our single parent Heavenly Father. When He prepares and sets our meal before us, He expects us to eat everything on our plate. We are to accept whatever’s placed before us and believe Father knows best.

His only begotten Son, and our Elder Brother, left us an example by wiping His plate clean! And that included partaking of what you and I try to set aside and dispense with, crucifixion of self.

Putting the Cross in the mix makes even the bitter sweet.
(Ex. 15:23-25)

Frustrated Saints

“[He] hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose.”

The word frustrate is used three times in the Scriptures. My intention is not to expound the texts but explain the word. Webster gives the definition as “in vain; to cause to have no effect; to prevent from achieving a goal or gratifying a desire.” It is plain to see that if Satan can keep a Christian frustrated, he or she will never reach the potential God has set for them. Our adversary knows, to keep a saint frustrated is just as effective as getting him or her to fall. Either way, the believer is ineffective.

I have observed that there are three areas in which the enemy of our souls works to achieve his goal of keeping us continually frustrated. If he can get us “entangled” in any one of these, he has bound us. The first has to do with the political see-saw of our day. The second, with its social ills. And the last, with the sad spiritual condition of God’s elect.

Let’s face it; the root of all frustration is to be found in our inability to control people and situations. Happy is the man or woman who has learned that only a Sovereign God can accomplish this. Therefore, Let us keep our eyes upon a never-changing God in this ever-changing world.

C.S. Lewis on Politics

Christians in Politics

(by C.S. Lewis)

Politics, Christians in From many letters to The Guardian [Footnote: a weekly Anglican newspaper], and from much that is printed elsewhere, we learn of the growing desire for a Christian “party,”a Christian “front,”or a Christian “platform”in politics. Nothing is so earnestly to be wished as a real assault by Christianity on the politics of the world: nothing, at first sight, so fitted to deliver this assault as a Christian party.

. . . It remains to ask how the resulting situation will differ from that in which Christians find themselves today.

It is not reasonable to suppose that such a Christian Party will acquire new powers of leavening the infidel organization to which it is attached. Why should it? Whatever it calls itself, it will represent, not Christendom, but a part of Christendom. The principle which divides it from its brethren and unites it to its political allies will not be theological. It will have no authority to speak for Christianity; it will have no more power than the political skill of its members gives it to control the behaviour of its unbelieving allies. But there will be a real, and most disastrous, novelty. It will be not simply a part of Christendom, but a part claiming to be the whole. By the mere act of calling itself the Christian Party it implicitly accuses all Christians who do not join it of apostasy and betrayal. It will be exposed, in an aggravated degree, to that temptation which the Devil spares none of us at any time—the temptation of claiming for our favourite opinions that kind and degree of certainty and authority which really belongs only to our Faith.

God in the Dock, “Meditation on the Third Commandment” (1941), para. 1, 4–5, pp. 196–198.

Think About it

The Result of Right Thinking

One of my wife’s favorite literary characters is Winnie the Pooh (smile). She loves it when he gets into one of his messes, sits down, taps his forehead, and says, “Think, think, think.” Would to God, in this one particular, we Christians would emulate this comical cartoon clown. Many have flabby brains from lack of exercise. We can’t get out of a jam for the same reason we got into it; we don’t think.

A Christian can be carnally minded (fleshly), or spiritually minded. It’s his or her choice. To choose the former is existing; to pick the latter is living. The Prodigal Son got out of his dilemma and back to living, when he started thinking spiritual thoughts.

This runs true throughout the scripture. David tells us in the Old Testament book of Psalms, it was when he started to think on his ways that things began to turn around. And Peter in the New Testament, like the Prodigal, we’re told, “...when he thought thereon.” That is the moment when God’s heavenly sunlight  broke through the dark clouds in his soul!

God is not going to do our thinking for us. That’s why he gave us a brain. But He does tell us how to think, so that we may have an inward, tranquil life. I admonish each of my readers to, as Paul said, “…think on these things.”

Sticking to the Script

Scripted Saints

“Therefore David enquired again of God; and God said unto him, Go not up after them; turn away from them, and come upon them over against the mulberry trees.”

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” There's absolutely no evidence that Einstein actually made this statement; but it's still a great quote! If this saying is true it is imperative, as sane saints, we reject any and all forms of  scripted living.

I personally believe the average Christian church, family, and individual, live scripted lives, consciously or unconsciously. It is the same-o, same-o, Sunday after Sunday, day after day. Most certainly, life is regimented, but to stay in step 24/7 will drive one wacky. At least it would me.

When our church services and lives become predictable, they become pitiful. When David was fighting the Philistines, God told him to go up a different way. Many, I find, have a problem doing things a different way. We refuse to go “ off script.” To adhere to a man-made script is to lose the liberty of the Spirit.   

While Peter was preaching in Cornelius’ house, the Holy Ghost fell upon them and interrupted the services and his preaching. When this happens, it is a wise saint who shuts everything down and gets out of the way, not ignore it and go on with business as usual as we are so prone to do.

The sanity of the saints depends on, “Times of refreshing... from the presence of the Lord.”

An Open Letter to My Son-in-law

My Beloved Son-in-law

Let me congratulate you on your forty-fifth year as an evangelist, bragging on Jesus, from behind the sacred desk. What a blessing that He chose lepers such as us to tell the good news. We certainly did not take this honor upon ourselves, but being called of God, are so very honored by Him.

Job's statement is so pertinent today: "How little a portion is heard of him." 

June eighth, I myself, began my sixtieth-year of pointing people to the bleeding Lamb. Apart from my salvation, (and I'm sure it's true of you) the day I heard those immortal words, "Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men," was the second greatest day of my life.

I read once, "When God has an impossible task to perform, He takes an impossible man and crushes him." How blessed to be crushed under His nail-scarred heel. 

When I think of you and the ministry God has called you to, I'm reminded of a thought I had that I wrote down in the flyleaf of my Bible, "Anywhere, Anytime, Anything, at Any Cost!"

I am praying for a fresh anointing upon you this special day. "But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil."

I close with something I heard an old camp meeting preacher say years ago. "I'll preach till the PREACHER comes."

An Old Disciple,

Dad

The Husband/Wife Relationship

One Roof and Two People

"And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel." Jacob was put out with his favorite wife, and, in this case, justifiably so. Rachel was blaming him for something over which he had no control. Disagreements in the home should not surprise us. As an old preacher, Dr. Bob Jones, used to say, "You can't put two completely different personalities under one roof and not expect conflict from time to time.

As long as the exception does not become the rule, we who still retain the Adamic nature should not be overly concerned. Personally, I've always been suspicious of couples who say they never have any disagreements. I think, in such cases, one of the mates has died without the other realizing it! My wife has a book entitled, Marriage to a Difficult Man: the Uncommon Union of Jonathan and Sarah Edwards. I mentioned to her that she should write one and call it, "Married to an Impossible Man"! Jacob's seed has not died out; I'm proof of that.

A few violent storms should not destroy the enjoyment of those long, tranquil seasons between.

I like what my wife tells young brides. "Marriage is like riding a train; there are a lot of "getting off" places. But if you'll ride it through, you'll get to your desired destination.”

My "FATHER" and I

With a plurality of children, it is a wise father who makes each feel like he or she is an only child. Our Heavenly Father does this with every one of His children. In our Father’s House we are told that He “…will give [to him that overcometh] a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.”

Here is a relationship that is not only unknown, but unknowable. It is a peculiar and individual intimacy with God, which none other can ever know. Therefore, there can be no comparison among siblings, for no one knows, save the person themselves, what transpires between the Father and that individual. You might say it’s a little secret between God and His child.

As a family member I address Him as, “Our Father”; as an individual child, He is “My Father.”

Miniature Pontiffs

Miniature Pontiffs

Martin Luther wrote, “I am not as concerned with the Pope that resides at Rome as the one that lives within me.” Totalitarianism is alive and flourishing in many circles of Christendom today. One expects this of the cults, but not Christians. When it comes to lording it over one another, Jesus tells His followers it should not be so with them.

Far too many are like Martha. We try to control every aspect of the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Such pastors and people know absolutely nothing about the priesthood of all believers. The scripture is clear on this matter. No believer, including a minister, is to ever have supremacy  over another’s faith. FAITH MUST BE FREE!

We need to constantly remind ourselves of the Apostle’s words, “Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand.”

You Just Wait and See

“And it shall come to pass…And when this cometh to pass…And it came to pass.” The first text is a promise made; the second, a promise anticipated; the third, a promise fulfilled.

Child of God, did the Lord make you a promise in the past? If so, you can have full assurance in your present situation that it will happen. For in the future, your testimony will most certainly be, “And it came to pass.”

Let us take solace in God’s word to Habakkuk. When everything around him was dark, and all seemed impossible, the prophet received this encouragement from God concerning the promise He gave him, “Though it tarry, wait for it; because it shall surely come, it will not tarry.”

It is better to be as low as hell with a promise, than in Paradise without one! (Puritan John Flavel)

In the Sweet Hereafter

“Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.”

I am neither a novelty preacher or writer; nevertheless, to get a point across it is sometimes necessary to have a play upon words. When Jesus spoke, in our text, of the hereafter it was in reference to this life, not the next. Thus we find there is a here and an after-here. There becomes here when you drop the “T.” When you arrive there it becomes here to you. I speak of a double-here. Where you’re at and where you are headed. They’re both here in time.

Peter writes of that blessed hereafter, “But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.” Also Daniel could testify to what awaits one in the hereafter, when finally loosed from the lion's mouth, “So this Daniel prospered.”

And what saith darling David about the storms of life; when we have moved from the first here to the second here? “For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end. Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.”

Our blessed Lord leaves us an example of this truth. After His great temptation we read, “Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.” O, the sweet hereafter!

The Real Culprit

“Get thee behind me, Satan.” The late Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “If we cannot discern the chief cause of our ills, how can we discern the cure?” Jesus looked past the means to the real culprit.

When we play our blame game, we usually list either the political, social, or cultural conditions for our dilemma. But they are only puppets on strings, controlled by Satan behind the scene.

If we can only see flesh and blood as our adversary, then we will never overcome. We are in a spiritual battle with the Prince of Darkness, who hides in the shadows. Those who have put on the armor of light will recognize him for who he really is.

Lon Chaney, the actor, was known as “the man of a thousand faces," but it was always him behind each one. So it is with Satan.

Throw Your Worries to the Wind

“...the chaff which the wind driveth away.”

Idioms such as “Cast it to the wind,” or “Throw it to the wind,” simply means to discard or dispense with; especially in an abrupt or reckless manner. I believe this is what we’re to do, like the useless chaff, cast our worries to the wind.

When worrisome caution challenges Biblical faith we are to, “Throw caution to the wind.” In this particular setting, personally, I’m cautious of cautious Christian’s. As A.W. Tozer says concerning trust, “We need a reckless abandonment.”  

Sometimes, like Paul when in the storm, we need to cast everything out that hinders, and let come what will! The saints of Hebrews, chapter eleven, cast all their doubts and fears to the wind. God said, “They had a good report card.”

As a missionary friend of mine used to say, “RISK EVERYTHING ON GOD!” Let’s do it beloved, let’s cast everything to the wind. Right now!

You're in the Army Now

“Chosen...to be a soldier.”

(2Tim.2:4)

We hear much today about using diplomacy to avoid war. But diplomatic efforts, when dealing with the world, the flesh, and the devil, are futile. It’s a war from beginning to end, “…and there is no discharge in that war.” A random reading of the writings of the old war-horse, Paul, confirms this. “Fight the good fight of faith...so fight I,” he tells a younger generation. Down to old age the warrior’s last words, before the axe fell, were“I have fought a good fight”

But this battle is a spiritual one. “…we do not war after the flesh: (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal). ” Our fight is with “…spiritual wickedness in high places.”  And so the elder exhorts the younger, “…war a good warfare.” He goes on to say, “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life.” Christian soldiers can’t fight when all wound-up in this world’s ball of yarn. This is not being “A good soldier of Jesus Christ.”

From all the above texts, one can deduct, Biblical Christianity has no place in its ranks for cowards. As Goliath came out daily to challenge God’s people, so our giants confront us day to day. The victors in this life are those who dare to face the devil’s dares, by boldly telling him as David did, “I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts.” Then, by faith, hurling at him one small, smooth, scriptural stone. As a line in Martin Luther’s song says:     

“We tremble not for him;

His rage we can endure,

For lo, his doom is sure;

One little word shall fell him.”

(Martin Luther)

Take it Up With the Potter

I was brought up in the thirties and forties in a traditional home. But without traditional values. It was non-Christian. There was love there, but the worlds kind, if you know what I mean. Sin was the accepted norm and as a result left a little boy very insecure, leaving him with no idea who he was and with little, or no, self-esteem.

I started going to movies at the age of seven by myself. It was here I found my escape from reality; I could pretend to be someone I wasn’t, even if it was for a brief time. But soon I found I could take this character outside the theater. I could live another's life. Thus my most enjoyable time of all was play-acting with other kids.

This continued into my teens, then on into the military. Upon my discharge, I went to Los Angeles and entered, what else, dramatic school. Then, in my early twenties, Christ saved me. Finally it was over. NOT BY A LONG SHOT; the battle had just begun. Now it was no longer actors, but preachers I would emulate. O, the agony of not being yourself!

After many years of God chiseling away at the granite house I hid all my insecurities in, the real me came forth; a vessel meet for the Master's use, a chipped, broken piece of pottery, but, nevertheless, one in which the Potter chose to live. With all my faults, failings, and idiosyncrasies, CHRIST LIVETH IN ME! He is so easy to live with. And as a result, I can finally live with myself.

If you have a problem with yourself, or another marred vessel like you, I recommend you take it up with the Potter.

Helpers Along the Way

“And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?”

Is Jesus teaching in the story of these ten cleansed lepers that only one in ten will show gratitude to the one who has been a great help to them, along life's long journey? It seems, from my observation, having lived awhile in this old world, this is probably a fact.

Throughout my life and ministry, I’ve attempted to express my gratitude personally, by phone or letter, to those who helped me up and kept me going when things were rough.

Recently, my earliest mentor, who was also instrumental in my salvation, and who was ninety-four, went to be with the Lord. I was his first preacher-boy and the oldest (82) living. I called him at the rest home he was in a few days before his departure, and we had a good conversation. I let him know how thankful I was for taking all the time with me in the early stage of my Christian life. We had our differences, but that fades when one thinks of the person who was there when you needed them! YOU DON’T WANT TO EVER FORGET THAT!

A dear pastor friend, now in heaven, used to say of a preacher he had helped tremendously when a novice, who wanted nothing to do with him in later years, “He has a short memory.” I am afraid this could be said of far too many saints today. We need to follow Paul’s blessed example in Romans chapter sixteen. He names no less than thirty individuals or groups of people who had been a help to him.

“When gratitude goes a person is shipwrecked.”

(Bob Jones Sr.)

 

Those Lovable Prophets

“The prophets prophesy falsely...and my people love to have it so”

Among God’s prophets there were both forth-tellers and foretellers. Nevertheless, all had one characteristic that distinguished  them; they gave out God’s true message, whether it had to do with the present or future. They were fewer in number than the false prophets, by, let’s say, some four-hundred to one. Whether you liked him or not, he was a man hard to forget, “And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house,) yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them.” The other kind are easy to forget.

Usually, God’s prophets didn’t have much good to say about the conditions of their day. Or as to that matter, God’s people themselves. They have come to be referred to among many, in today’s Christianity, as “Doomsday Preachers.” The false prophets, generally, seem to have been those with a positive message. Their words were pleasant and enticing, in spite of the fact they were all lies. But the people loved their cheerie message, as well as the deceiving prophet. They hated God’s negative messenger. “And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may enquire of the LORD: but I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil.”

Jesus Christ was, among His many titles, a prophet of God. So much so that the people of his day were constantly equating Him with one of the prophets of old, Elias, Jeremias, etc. We are told Jesus was hated because of His words. After reading Matthew chapter twenty-three, one can understand why.

There’s still a few rugged prophets of God running around; some call them, “Revivalists.” If you happen to know one, bow your head and thank God for him. For you are literally seeing, “The Last of the Breed.”

God’s prophet’s Sword is not single-edged, but double edged.

One side cuts, the other heals.

(rds)

Looking in All the Wrong Places

“And the man of God said, Where fell it?”

I heard an amusing story years ago. It seems, a fella had lost something small, but valuable. As he was feverishly seeking the item under the streetlight, a passer-by stopped and inquired what he was doing. After being told, he offered his help, asking the specific area in which the man thought he had lost the article. To which he replied, “Across the street.”

The inquirer then asked why he wasn’t searching there? The bewildered man said, “There is more light over here.”

We laugh but how many of us have lost something we hold dear and are looking in all the wrong places? I realize this is a simplistic statement, but generally you’ll  find what you lost where you lost it. Thus the man of God, in our text, says “Where fell it?” Many, I have found, like to look in the more convenient places; but if we’re to find our lost valuable, a lot of us are going to have to get down into the weeds and search!

“He that seeketh findeth.” But not if you’re looking in all the wrong places.

Staying Sharp Till the End

“If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength.”

Andrew A. Bonar writes, .“Very few ministers (as well as Christians in general) keep up to the end the edge that was on their spirit at the first.”

How many there are, like the man in the book of Kings, have lost their ax-head some time ago. No longer do the chips fly and trees fall in their lives and ministries; now there is only a going through the motions. And that wears one down quickly.

Again the blessed old sage pens a warning to us all who name the name of Christ, “See that your last days are your best days-not like David, of some of whose descendants it was said in praise, “they walked in the first ways of their father David.”

“Paul the aged,” when shut-in and shut-up in prison wrote, “Onisimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds.” The old warhorse was a good example of what David wrote in Psalms, “They shall still bring forth fruit in old age.”

The evangelist Gypsy Smith was asked when he turned eighty if he was going to retire, to which he answered, “Shucks no, I’m going to re-fire!”

Harboring Hatred

In the Old Testament, we find a vicious enemy who was trying to destroy God’s people. We are told it was “for the old hatred.” It’s recorded that these same people had “a despiteful heart,” which is always characteristic of this sort of person.

What is the cause of such a perpetual hatred? Simple, they allowed an “old hurt” to fester until it became “an old hatred.” Old grudges must be vented sooner or later. Like a volcanic mountain that has lain dormant for years, once it erupts and spews its hot lava, it can be destructive even to itself.

I’ve seen people whose grudges became their graves.

(rds)

Grace and Pain

“They gnawed their tongues for pain, And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains.”

Contrary to what many Christians believe, peace is not the absence of fear; joy, the absence of sorrow; victory, the absence of battle; nor grace, the absence of its opposite. If one did not have the latter running along side of the former, how would you know you really possessed the better of the two?

This is true with grace and pain. Grace doesn’t take away the pain. Grace is not the absence from pain, but an addition to it. GRACE IS AN ADDITIVE. It’s the crutch or wheelchair that enable us to, “keep-on-keeping-on!” It doesn’t take away the limp or paralysis. God didn’t take away Paul's painful thorn, He gave him something to keep him going.

I have always found it difficult to be patient when in pain, but I’m learning. It seems pain brings out the best and worst in people. Some, like in our text above, blaspheme His name, others bless His name. I want to be among the latter. When God permits pain in our lives, each of us has one of two choices: to KISS the Son; or curse the Creator.

“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes...neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”