Allowing Me Into Your Life

Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel - Philippians 1:12-13

Have you ever heard these statements: "Money talks." Or how about this: This is the golden rule: He who has the gold makes the rules." Both of these statements have a hint of truth in them.

When Jesus was crucified there was a question as to where Jesus would be buried. Those that hurried Him to the cross, designed that He should make His grave with the wicked; that he would be buried with others who had been accused of crimes and that had also been crucified. God designed He should make it with the rich and prophetically had announced this in the Old Testament in Isaiah 53:9 - Though they prepared his grave with the wicked he entered in death with the rich though he had done no violence nor was there found any lie within him.

And so a rich man also named Joseph (like Jesus' earthly father) ensured he had a proper burial. In order for Jesus to be buried with honor, this man of influence was permitted to take the body of Jesus. It seems this man had a personal relationship with Pilate. Thus, we can call this Joseph a man of influence. Ultimately he retrieved the body of our Lord and placed it in a burial plot he owned in a cave that was reserved for the rich.

Joseph of Arimathea was called an honorable counselor, a person of character and distinction, and in an office of public trust; some think it would be comparable to our State Department. That would allow him to be privy to and associated with Pontus Pilate. This post also seems to have been in the Jewish faith and that he was one of the great Sanhedrim of the Jews, or one of the high priest's council.

The Bible says that God desires His people to be the head, not the tail. He prepares us, when we accept and embrace God's instruction through the Holy Spirit to be sensitive to God's leading and to be instructors, teacher's, leaders.

Guys, if we are to influence the our time, our place, the culture that surrounds us, we must be men and women of influence in whom God uses to impact the culture. If you are a successful person, consider the words of Paul when he said, "...what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel." Although Paul was referencing adversity in this statement, it can be equally said that each of us needs to ask if our prosperity has served to advance the gospel or our training or our advancement in any area of our life. We need to look to heaven and ask God to reveal to us where our personal leverage and leadership exists. We also need to ask where we have not sharpened the saw of our life or maximized our potential to change lives by allowing God to fully develop our tools, talents, passions and gifts.

Are you using your influence to impact your workplace, city, Body of Christ or even nation for the sake of the gospel? Is there something or some things you have neglected that would change your ability to stand in a place of honor, or, as in Paul's case, apparent dishonor (this to be developed more thoroughly in a future teaching) so that God is glorified and the borders of the Kingdom of God are spread by your efforts and position? What else should you be doing? What two things, right now, do you know for certain you could do that would extend your ability to touch and perhaps bring salvation to lives around you? THINK! :-) - I bet you dollars to donuts that if you spend just 15 minutes in consideration, meditation and prayer over this that the Holy Spirit of God will show you what those two things are...

This is a season of warmth, love, consideration, serving and fellowship. Nothing about giving is more valuable then your compassion spread in a way that would fall naturally within your gifting and position. God's richest blessings to you and may your borders and tents be spread and Jesus arise in you and through you to others like the Daystar of the morning. I remain...

InHISgrip,
~J~

Isn't Faithful Like Loyal & Aren't They Both A Ton of Work?

The Spirit of God came upon Azariah son of Oded. He went out to meet Asa and said to him, "Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you when you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you." - 2 Chronicles 15:1, 2

I am really struggling here. There is a whole bunch of believers these days that are attempting to embrace a God who flows naturally out of personal paradigms in their life. The emergent movement has spawned groups that, though they do not willingly embrace the overall pseudo-non-theological premise of conversation and dialogue based on a lack of foundations it is having an odd effect. May the outcomes be better than the beginnings.

 

But first what is a personal paradigm? An example might be a friend and you are talking about godly things and you say, "I think that God will let you know when He's ready to let you know." The key words there would be, I think. That is a personal paradigm. You aren't validating your thoughts against anything. You aren't speaking or indicating you are being lead by the Holy Spirit. You are not designating your thoughts as the Bible's position on the issue. You are merely stating an opinion. Now, depending on how valued your advice is to your friend, they may just take it as Gospel. You may in fact be all the Jesus they know. Right or wrong they view you as their spiritual guidepost. You are their moral compass. And that kind of response to them, well, it's sad to me. It's also dangerous for you.

 

In the verse above Asa was the king of Judah for 41 years. That's a long time. He was known as a good king who served the Lord with great zeal. He reformed and restored godliness to Israel as the direction the nation would pursue. He broke down idols in high places that were worshipped. These were foreign gods brought in by the insurgence of other people's into the lands. He did other moral and cool things as well such as doing away with male prostitutes. And check this out, he even removed his own mother from being queen because she worshiped an idol. The Scriptures say that as long as he sought the Lord, the Lord prospered his reign.

 

However, Asa was not totally faithful in his calling. There came a time in his life when he made a decision to no longer trust in the God of Israel. He lost his confidence in God as his deliverer. Later in Chronicles we would find the prophet Hanani come to Asa to inform him that God's blessing was no longer on his life because of an ungodly alliance he had made.

 

Were not the Cushites and Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen? Yet when you relied on the Lord, He delivered them into your hand. For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war - 2 Chronicles 16:8-9

 

We all are susceptible to do the very same things with our spiritual lives. Many of us are so constantly self-observing that we read, and listen and embrace and heap to ourselves teachers whose thoughts and concepts and attitudes speak to us and validate our current emotional state. But do they provide to us the kind of childlike love that Jesus came to restore to us when He gave us back our Father God? Do they help us hear Him early in the morning? Do they open and reveal the Bible to us in such a way that it provides guidance for our ability to try the spirits and voices?

 

We should press into God and align ourselves with those who are God pursuers; who seek to Love God - Who Love Others by their actions and words - Whose discipling power is energized by the Holy Spirit because it brings forth life and not just more dialogue. We should not simply be spinning our wheels and validating our weaknesses and the path we have pursued to this moment in time.

 

I read a series of blogs over the last two days of whining baby Christians. Pointing to a past of teaching, discipling and training that they say, 'wore them out,' and 'caused guilt and shame.' They describe their church experiences as if they had been tied to a chair and water-boarded spiritually. In post after post they validated the horrors of their Christian history. Apparently God was not sovereign in their lives. He missed them. They were not on His radar.  Whatever happened to the words of Paul where he indicated that all the things he had gone through were meant to provide goodness, grace, power, teaching and all God things for himself and his readers? Ah! If you ask some of these they would say, "I think he got sidetracked in his pursuit of God by thinking he could please God and his zealousness got him in trouble."

Ya. Uh huh. THAT's what happened.

Wake up believers. Get a grip! The God who loves and saved you is speaking to you. Pursue Him. Follow Him. Expect to hear and be guided by your Heavenly Father as you follow Him.

 

Look, there are no guarantees that if we began well we will finish well. The life of Asa tells us this. It is only through God's grace that we can be faithful to our calling. But being faithful to it means we actively pursue it. This is the God who said, "You will find me when you seek me...with all your heart."

 

And, make no mistake of it. You have a calling. Each of us is capable of falling away from that calling in God. God gets great joy in answering the prayers of the week. You don't have to come up with some slick teaching out of your own paradigm that justifies why you feel the way you do. Pray that God will keep you faithful to the purposes He has for your life. Engage your fellow believers in your quest to be strong in the Lord and the power of His might! Reach down and help another. There is ALWAYS someone who needs Jesus love as it comes from you. Our Father strengthens those whose hearts are fully committed to Him. And that is not how I feel. Ask Asa...I remain...

InHISgrip,
~J~

 

When God Kicked the Dog

I was listening this morning to a radio host who came dangerously close to letting the world off the hook. You may ask what I mean by that...

He was quoting a leading voice in the Emergent Church movement who was talking about the concept of Hell. Essentially, this leader, Brian McLaren, was saying that there was a "problem" with traditional theology it's teaching on Hell and on the idea of the centrality of the Cross of Jesus Christ. I've embedded a YouTube video. Listen to what this sweet and gentle voice of reason says and then get back to me on the other side of listening.



Oh Lord! May it never be said that you can't do something you ask of others! How insidious is that!

Guys, this may all sound very clever, but it does not match up with Scripture. Hell is not antithetical to the cross! Hell exists because of one very important aspect of the person of our God. He is a holy and perfectly just God. He takes rebellion against Him, His person, His truth, His leadership and yes, His rule ...He is a God that takes sin seriously. He is not a god who values personal lawlessness (don't call it freedom - God has a definition of freedom and that for another teaching) or that could care less regarding the way you live out your days on earth.

And what of Jesus? Jesus died on the cross because God is both perfectly just AND infinitely gracious. A God who could in fact take the hit of having His most precious relationship, His most precious and fully perfect Son humiliated in the site of the "piss ants of the Milky Way," human beings. Jesus actions represented how God made a way in which He could extend His grace to us without compromising His justice.

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus ~ Romans 3:21-26

That is the gospel! If God were not just, Jesus’ sacrifice inclusive of the cross would not have been necessary. God, said it was required. And if God were not gracious, He would have left you and I separated in our sins rather than sending His Son to a wretch like me. We can be forgiven because grace and justice met at the cross. Praise God that He is both Just AND the Justifier!

Let’s proclaim the Biblical Gospel faithfully! It is the only Gospel that saves. We have to take a stand. Dr. McLaren may not wish to stymie a "conversation" but the fact is Paul, Peter, John, Eusibius, Luther, Calvin, Wesley, Finney, Moody, Ironside, Graham, Swindoll, MacArthur, Beth Moore, and Joyce Meyer and 10,000,000 more some who just preached it and others who interpreted it had it right. There is a hell to shun and a heaven to gain! And, while we are at it, let us make sure that when we are hit with these kinds of thought processes, from these kinds of heretical corners of unacceptable liberalism, thoughts that elevate the idea of love at any cost, including the Bible account, that we have a standard and know where we stand.

I remain...in the arms of my loving Savior and grateful from all He has saved me from, including an actual Hell.

InHISgrip,
~J~