A prideful person “does not seek the Light of God. You can often notice that if a man has a high opinion of himself, he is extremely good and excellent and does not need to be saved by Grace. He does not want to be told too much about himself. He likes to go to a place of worship where they prophesy very smooth things and if he ever strays in where there is very plain talk, he says that the preacher is too personal. The Hindu thinks it is wicked to kill an insect, or to take life of any kind—and that he will surely not enter into his happy paradise if he does. When the missionary showed a Hindu, by means of a microscope, how many living creatures there were in a single drop of the water which was in a glass on the table, in order to convince him of the impossibility of avoiding the destruction of life if he drank the water, what did the Hindu do? Why, he smashed up the microscope! That was his way of answering it! And so, sometimes, if the Truth of God is put very plainly so that men cannot escape from the force of it, not wishing to know the uncomfortable Truth, they turn upon their heels and find fault with the preacher and refuse to hear any more from him!”
We are the microscope. We show the truth of the hidden manna. We point the eye toward the hidden kingdom. Some will not even look through the lens! Others who dare to peer, will react as the Hindu did, and smash the Christian. Why is this?
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. (John 3:20)
In 1845, American Preacher Daniel A. Clark said,
Wicked men hate the light, because it exposes his vileness. When the cellar has been shut up for years is first laid open, by the opening of knows and doors, it presents a disgusting sight. We wonder how so much filth could have accumulated there. So the dark and wicked heart of man seems unutterably vile and loathsome when God’s Word and Spirit enters into it.
Wicked men hate the light, because it shows the necessity of a better character. The soul in love with sin is agonized with an apprehension of the necessity of reformation. Sinful habits let go their hold with a wonderful reluctance. They cry out, “let us alone,” and they are expelled, just like the demons who were driven out by our Savior. The contrast which exists between good and bad men is painful to the wicked just as it is perceived.
(source, The American National Preacher, Volumes 19-22, 1845)
But there is good news too. John 3 continues from verse 20 to verse 21,
“But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”
With the support of Dutch Christians, in 1855 two German-born missionaries, Carl Wilhelm Ottow and Johann Gottlob Geissler sailed for the forbidding lands of Dutch New Guinea.
After both the Dutch Indies government and the Sultan of Tidore had given permission, Ottow and Geissler left their schooner Ternate in January 1855. It was there they reportedly fell on their knees to pray and called out: “Im Namen Gottes betreten wir dieses Land” (“In God’s name do we set foot on this land”); after that they went across to the mainland to look at another site, then returned to the ship. Early in the morning of Monday, 5 February, the Ternate anchored off Manaswari to drop them off with their belongings. To this day that date is celebrated as marking the beginning of the Protestant mission in (formerly) Dutch New Guinea. (source)
One hundred years later, missionary work was still going apace in the DNG islands. Yet there were still peoples who had not even been contacted, who had not met with the outside world at all. In 1968, in the same area but with a new name, now called Irian Jaya, Indonesia, two missionaries prepared to leave their mission base and penetrate the Snow Mountains. The Snow Mountains were home to one of the most feared tribes of the area, the Yali. This Stone Age tribe was heavily animistic, deeply superstitious, practiced human sacrifice, and they were cannibals. Very few men had met them and come out alive.
The two missionaries preparing to leave base were Phil Masters from America and Stan Dale from Australia, who had been working out of Korupoon for the previous 6 years. Though progress had been slow, the missionaries had seen some conversions from other tribesmen who had come to faith. For example, Masters’ work with the Kimyal (Kimjal) people had yielded some conversions in 1963 when several of the Kimyal chieftain’s sons had converted. Dale’s work with the Dani had led to conversions also. But not the Yali. They resisted, fiercely.
In this note Stan Dale wrote to his support personnel back in Australia, he said-
“Please continue to remember us in prayer. Unfortunately, there is not much interest where the visible results are small. We trust that something will happen in our areas that will bring glory to God, even though we may be unknown.”
The Yali were a short tribe of people, what we used to call pygmy. The Yali men grew to less that 5 feet, the women a bit shorter. Despite their diminutive stature, they were the most feared tribe in the mountains. They were savage and aggressive, cannibalistic toward other tribesmen not only during in war but sometimes hunting humans just for meat. After killing a person they would chop them, grind their bones and scatter the dust, in order to prevent the person from ‘returning’. As a result of their fearsome demeanor and ferocious acts, the mountain tribes rarely interacted with each other.
However, the language of the Gospel is universal, and while some tribes, like the Kimyal, had been somewhat receptive, Stan and Phil were determined to reach the Yali peoples too. In 1961 on a former trek where the Gospel had been preached to the Yalis along by Stan with fellow missionary Bruno de Leeuw, Stan had been shot with five arrows, and the duo retreated. Now Stan wanted to try again, this time Phil Masters would be his companion. The two men were propelled by an equally fierce conviction that the Yalis needed Jesus, even if at the expense of their own lives.
It was a grueling journey. The geography of the region was challenging, rugged, and isolating. Trekking was arduous. Though the native people would clamber through the dense jungle and trot barefoot up inclines in the rugged terrain, never slipping, the going was harder for the missionary men and their carriers from the Dani tribe. There was one friendly Yali with them.
As the group reached Yali territory, warriors came out of their huts, and menacingly waved their arrows. Undaunted, the group of missionaries and carriers continued. The Yali tribesmen with the group observed that a sign had been given that they were to be killed. The group turned around and began trekking back. When they came upon a small, level river beach with rugged mountains towering over them, the Yali let loose a volley of arrows. Stan was hit numerous times, but amazingly, he simply stood. He tore the arrows out of his body, one by one. The volley of arrows continued and still, Stan yanked them out. The Yali became fearful, knowing these men served another God. Their volley of arrows became more intense, fearing more and more the God they served and wanting the men to die so they could quickly escape the area in case there was divine retribution.
Phil was spurred on by Stan, and the two men, who supernaturally had been withstanding an incredible onslaught, finally became too weak to pull out their arrows, and they fell. Several of the carriers were killed also. The Yali chopped the men and ate them, and scattered their ground-up bones so they could not be “resurrected,” a term they had heard before when Stan had shared the Gospel in 1961.
Phil Masters, author of the Daily Sentinel’s Missionary Dairy, is reported missing in the interior of West Irian, Indonesia. A missionary for the Regions Beyond Missionary Union, Phil and his family have spent some six years in the primitive areas of what was once the island of Dutch New Guinea. The island was taken over by Indonesia over three years ago. Mrs. Masters is the former Phyllis Wills, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Hollis Wills, Seney. It was reported by Phil’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Tom Masters, Mapleton, were notified Monday morning by telegram that Phil is overdue from a trek into the interior. Although all the details have not been learned, it is believed Phil and another missionary went into the jungle to visit a neighboring village and haven’t been heard from since.
Mrs. Ron Severson, LeMars, has received a news release from the Regions Beyond Missionary Union, Philadelphia, with more information about Rev. Phil Masters. The Severson family was one of the interested in LeMars area families in the work of Phil Masters. The union reported the deaths of two of its missionaries in the eastern highlands of West Irian, former Dutch New Guinea, Wednesday, Sept. 25. The date had not been reported previously. Rev. Philip Masters and Rev. Stanley Dale were killed instantly in an ambush by hostile tribes while on an evangelistic trek between the RBMU outposts of Koruppun and Ninia, the missionary union source said.
The society is one of several mission groups working in the interior of West Irian among tribes just emerging from a stone-age culture. A phenomenal response to the message of the Gospel has been witnessed among some of those warring cannibal tribes. Notably, in the Swart Valley alone, since 1960, some 8,000 of the Dani tribe have become Christians, weapons and fetishes have been discarded and literacy has become widespread.
One of the last communications received by the home office from Mr. Dale carried this significant comment—“I have a burden for these places where the way is hard. Please continue to pray for the people of the Holuk that they may break free from their fetishes and declare themselves wholly on the Lord’s side. Please continue to remember us in prayer, for we still carry some heavy burdens that are not burdens of work.”
The Lord blessedly answered the missionaries’ prayers. The various peoples of the Seng Valley in Indonesia have been released from their shackles to a ritualistic and demonic system of fear and death. They are joyously free. Though the burdens Stan and Phil (and Bruno, and the Wilsons who are still there) carried were heavy, they were temporary. The massacred missionaries are now enjoying freedom from their earthy tent of a body and dwell in glory with Christ. The day will come when the two men, shot through with arrows and ignominiously eaten, will eagerly and joyously greet their brethren the Yalis in heaven. Only the Gospel of Jesus Christ can cause such warm love and dramatic transformational change.
The Lord Jesus Christ loves His people, all peoples, and He died and rose again to bring a message of light and hope to all men. He sends His Spirit to indwell men and some of those, Jesus has set them apart for missionary work to bring the Gospel message to those who are in deepest darkness.
The Korowai people of that area did not emerge into the 20th century nor had they been contacted by any Westerner until 1974. Wikipedia: “The first documented contact by Western scientists with members of a band of western Korowai (or eastern Citak) took place on March 17–18, 1974.”
We are not talking long ago times of unreached people groups. Dutch Christian missionaries immediately began living among the Korowai and the first converts came to Christianity in the late 1990s. You see that the fields are white, the need is deep. These cannibalistic, stone age tribes are still emerging into the present day.
And before the Wilsons who live there now, there was Dale and Masters, and before that Bruno de Leeuw and before that Carl Wilhelm Ottow and Johann Gottlob Geissler…and before that Apostle Paul and before that…JESUS. No matter where one extends the unbroken line of missionaries back, it always ends, or begins, with the first missionary. He left His holy habitation of pure glory to descend to depraved man, bringing the Light and the Hope of the Gospel.
Thankfully, some tribes already have emerged into the Light. Here is a wonderful video of the Kimyal people, whom Phil had worked with, rejoicing when a small plane brought to them their first bibles in their own language. Below that, the Yali themselves commemorate the day that Bruno and Stan brought the Gospel to them in 1961, which has become their TRUE Independence Day.
The Kimyal Tribe of Papua, Indonesia celebrate the arrival of the New Testament Bible in the Kimyal language:
Youtube summary:
“On May 21, 1961, Stan Dale and Bruno de Leeuw made first contact with the Yali tribe in what is now Papua, Indonesia. In the week of May 16, 2011, the Yali held the Yubileum, or Jubilee: they celebrated fifty years since the coming of the Gospel to their tribe, and fifty years of its transformational impact on their society. This video captures some of the highlights of that celebration, as well as the Holuwon Yalis’ welcome of John and Gloria Wilson and their family, who had lived among them for twenty years:”
While a boy was using scissors to cut his Christmas tree project, he was being very slow but very painstaking. He wanted to be exact. And to do a good job. So while the rest of the kids had moved on to the ornaments and coloring and going fast, the boy was still plodding along.
When he got done, he held up his tree and said, “I’m a good cutter!” I said, “Yes. You are a good cutter!” “Jesus teaches me. He is in my head teaching me how to do it.” “What does He say to you in your head when He teaches you?” “He don’t say nothing. He’s magic. Like, when there was a storm, he said STOP and just like that, a rainbow! He helps me.”
Jesus is very present with this boy and in this boy. He speaks of Jesus often, but has never talked about his relationship with Jesus before.
“And they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?” (Matthew 21:16)
“Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” (Luke 18:17)
The boy talks about Him as He actually is- a friend and a helper, as if Jesus was here and right next to him. Which He is. Adult Christians lose that.
When we paint or make a Christmas gift or a craft and put the finishing touches on it, someone may say “That looks wonderful. You did a good job!” Do we say “Jesus directed my steps and it is with His wisdom/strength/help that I made this”?
The boy praised Jesus for His very present help. The boy testified of Jesus and worshiped Him. The boy acknowledged his need for help in even the smallest of things. The boy exalted the transcendent Creator Jesus by recounting His powerful miracle but at the same time praised His presence, Jesus’ immanence.
Transcendence (God exists outside of space and time) and immanence (God is present within space and time) are both attributes of God. He is both “nearby” and “far away,” according to Jeremiah 23:23.
Praise Jesus today, and often. Praise Him like this boy did, confidently, matter of factly, and certainly.
“but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:14)
The Lamb is Worthy …8When He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. (Revelation 5:8-9)
The word song in this verse, in the Greek is ōdḗ and it means just that, a song. Strong’s 5603 (ōdḗ) is defined, “in the NT of spontaneous, impromptu (unrehearsed) melodies of praise – not merely sung about (for) God but to God from a Spirit-filled heart. Spirit-inspired songs minister to God and exhort others, giving testimony about the living God to other worshipers.”
In his verse-by-verse exposition of Revelation, Oliver B. Greene says,
There is no song recorded in the book of Genesis. The Patriarchs were men of seriousness and deep thought. The first song on earth of which we have any record, is found in Exodus 15. The deliverance which had been wrought for Israel (Exodus 14) formed the theme and material for the song (Exodus 15:1-19) and the refrain (Exodus 15:21).
The old song is God’s celebrated song of creation (Job 38:7). The song here in Revelation is termed “a new song” because its theme, Redemption, when fully accomplished, will create “all things new.” In the end, all things will be new, all evil and old things as a result of sin will be put down, put away, totally destroyed.
It is the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb (Revelation 15:3). The song celebrates God’s past ways with Israel and His present grace through the Lamb slain. Grand as might have been the song of Israel when sung on the eastern bank of the Red Sea, this song in its character and the occasion when it is sung, is incomparably greater. There is no comparison between the old song of Israel and this new song of Redemption. THE REDEEMED (Jew and Gentile, bond and free, rich and poor) SING OF HIM AND TO HIM! They sing, “Thou art worthy to take the book and to open its seals.”
He is so worthy! Sing of His worthiness! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PostChristianity now has its own page at Wikipedia. The definition is a little scholarly convoluted, but here it is:
Postchristianity is the belief that the loss of the Christian monopoly in political affairs, especially in the Global North where Christianity had previously flourished, will eventually lead its demise in favour of secular nationalism. It includes personal world views, ideologies, religious movements or societies that are no longer rooted in the language and assumptions of Christianity, at least explicitly, although they had previously been in an environment of ubiquitous Christianity, i.e. Christendom.
We knew this day would arrive. The ‘slippery slope’ of morality has now become a proverbial landslide of moral morass. What seemed to be a slow decline has now exponentially accelerated. The parading and applauding of all things unbiblical and immoral has reached its zenith on the shoulders of the autonomous self, where me, myself, and I are the arbiters of all things truthful and spiritual. Gone is any reference to transcendent authority.
But fear not, dear Christian. Like an athlete out of shape in the off-season layoff, it may take awhile for American Christians to awaken from our ‘most-favored-religion-status’ we have come to assume in this great country of ours, but I believe we’re up to the task. We’re not the first Christians to live ‘behind enemy lines’ nor will we be the last.
In a look at “churchless” America, Barna Group found many people who label themselves “Christian” are actually more like their secular neighbors — people who claim no particular religious brand — in their beliefs and practices.
That post-Christian, churchless, the ‘Jesus is a nice guy but ultimately doesn’t affect my life’ attitude is seen in the fact that articles like these below actually exist.
As church attendance falls, one group believes that the lure of a burger and fries might make church more appealing. … “Christianity is unable to capture modern audiences,” Di Lucca told NBC News. “There’s a lack of innovation and lack of design thinking in Church communities.” … “It’s time for churches to engage with entrepreneurship,” writes the group on its IndieGoGo site. “By combining a church and a McDonald’s we can create a self-sustaining, community-engaged, popular church, and an unparalleled McDonald’s restaurant.”
The entrepreneurial spirit that infects churches today is thanks to Rick Warren and his “The Purpose Driven Church is listed in “100 Christian Books That Changed the 20th Century.” Forbes magazine called it “the best book on entrepreneurship, management, and leadership in print.” [Left, Actual logo for the McChurch idea]
Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God. (2 Corinthians 2:17)
And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. (2 Peter 2:3)
Unlike in corporate culture, a lack of innovation in church is a good thing. If the McMass McChurch idea succeeds, the people who attend will get what they get: a Jesus that is fast, lite, insubstantial, and ultimately bad for the heart.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here is another example of church folks bowing to culture.
A despondent Ryan cut off from his parents and his faith, started taking drugs and in 2009, died of an overdose. “Now we realize we were so wrongly taught,” said Rob Robertson, a firefighter for more than 30 years who lives in Redmond, Washington. “It’s a horrible, horrible mistake the church has made.” The tragedy could have easily driven the Robertsons from the church. But instead of breaking with evangelicalism — as many parents in similar circumstances have done — the couple is taking a different approach, and they’re inspiring other Christians with gay children to do the same. They are staying in the church and, in protesting what they see as the demonization of their sons and daughters, presenting a new challenge to Christian leaders trying to hold off growing acceptance of same-sex relationships.
The article continues with examples of people touting active homosexuality as acceptable to God, and the article author supports their contentions with numerical examples of growth for each of their websites, Facebook pages, or published books that they sponsor/promote this stance.
It’s brilliant actually. Satan targets the youth, they succumb to perverse passions, parents who naturally love their children are faced with a dilemma, so parents declare, ‘it’s happening to me and my experience trumps scripture so scripture must be wrong.’
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Maybe this next article doesn’t have to do directly with church and faith so much, or maybe it does.
A pig landed on a US Airways flight out of Connecticut on Wednesday, but was taken off the plane after it became disruptive, a spokesperson told ABC News. Jonathan Skolnik, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a passenger on the flight, told ABC News today he thought the woman with the pig was carrying a duffel bag when she got on the plane and headed straight for the empty seat next to him. “But it turns out it wasn’t a duffel bag. We could smell it and it was a pig on a leash,” he said. “She tethered it to the arm rest next to me and started to deal with her stuff, but the pig was walking back and forth.”
According to ABC, the incident happened on Wednesday at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut. The woman had been allowed to bring the pig, who was on a leash, with her—pigs, like dogs, monkeys and cats, can qualify as “emotional support animals,” which are allowed on flights under federal rules. Passenger Rob Phelps, who took the photo on top, told CBS Springfield the problem was that this particular piggy was squealing and defecating in the aisle, prompting flight attendants to ask them to leave, which they did without incident.
For people who truly need an Emotional Support Animal, (ESA) for example soldiers with PTSD, the Service Dog Central website states, “In order to fly with an Emotional Support Animal OR Psychiatric Service Dog in the cabin of the aircraft with you, you will need a special letter from a licensed mental health professional.” That letter must state the specific disability the traveler has, according to the Diagnostic Statistical Manual, be not more than one year old, that the animal is necessary to the well-being of the traveler, be lodged with airline authorities 48 hours in advance of travel date, and be written and signed by a licensed medical or psychiatric professional.
True ESAs who are professional and not pets, curl up at the master’s feet when not working and are trained not to cause a disturbance. Like perhaps wandering, squealing, and defecating in the aisle. If it was truly an ESA it would not cause a disturbance. If it was a pet, it should not be allowed in the cabin.
Twitter: FoxCT News reporter Angelica Spanos photo The twitter feed indicated the pig and owner finally made it to their intended destination, CT, for Thanksgiving.
“An emotional support animal is a companion animal (typically a dog or cat) that provides a therapeutic benefit to its owner through companionship. The animal provides emotional support and comfort to individuals with psychiatric disabilities and other mental impairments. The animal is not specifically trained to perform tasks for a person who suffers from emotional disabilities.” Source Animal Law.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For people without Jesus, these dark and confusing times are oppressive to them and they do not even know it.
The fact is, the more post-Christian the world gets, the more the lost cling to the wrong things for emotional support. It’s a stark example of why we need to offer the solution to their sin problem and their emptiness. Jesus is the Friend who knows us, He created us. He loves us and wants the best for us. He sent His Spirit into the world to inspire the world’s greatest book full of wisdom, comfort, history, poems, and truth. Without Jesus, the lost person knows none of this.
“I was sinking deep in sin…” goes the first line of an old song. (Love Lifted Me, 1912)
Mixed media collage, plus digital overlay. By EPrata
No matter how deep in sin a person is, no matter how low…no matter if they are in the gutter, or even one foot down the shaft of the gates of hell (like I was)
God’s arm is not too short to lift you from it!
He won’t make you wait. He won’t toy with you. If you call out to the Lord to save you and forgive your sins, He will, instantly. If you are saved but have sinned or strayed, and you call out to the Lord to forgive you, He will, instantly.
He was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ Immediately Jesus reached out His hand and caught him. ‘You of little faith,’ He said, ‘why did you doubt? (Matthew 14:29-31)
And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. 3And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. (Matthew 17:1-3)
A spiritually awe-filled scene, as we mentally behold it and picture Jesus glorified and being fully God. However, today I am picturing Moses and Elijah, talking with Him.
Imagine, in the Millennium Kingdom and in Eternity, we will do the same! We will stand casually on a mountain and talk with Jesus! My mind veritably breaks apart just thinking of this. What will I say? What were Moses, Elijah and Jesus talking about? What could I possibly have to say to Jesus, except only “thank You!”
But we are His friend. We will talk with Jesus, and He will talk personally and directly to us.
For all of you who envy Beth Moore and her personal conversations with a different Jesus, and for all of you who covet the personal touch Sarah Young claims to have had with Jesus Calling her, I have this to say. Those women and all those like them are having the only talk with “Jesus” they will ever have, except at the Great White Throne Judgment when He says “Depart from Me, I never knew you.” Will they then wonder, were the five or ten or fifty chats they thought they’d had with ‘Jesus’ worth an eternity of missing the real Him, and never speaking to Him again?
Yet for the persevering and patient Christian who clings to Hebrews 11:1 and believes that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (and not heard), we will be talking with Him just as Moses and Elijah were.
Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. (John 3:2)
We will join Moses and Elijah and be talking with our wonderful Savior, Friend, Shepherd, every ‘day’ throughout all eternity.
On Monday we had an 80-mile widespread internet outage here. A fiber had been cut on “some very important lines” the tech person told me. It lasted 14 hours. Otherwise known as an eternity. I’ve been playing catch-up ever since.
I love me some internet. I make no bones about it. I did enjoy the opportunity to read my new John Grisham book distraction free, but overall, I realized that I enjoy and depend on the internet for my theological studies quite a bit.
I have some commentaries, atlases, a book of biblical natural history, and several bibles as well as other books, but for overall fast access to all of the above and more, the internet cannot be beat. And what a grace-filled gift the Lord gave us when laying the path to the birth of the internet and now I can listen to so many sermons. That is what I missed the most- sermons.
Of course I enjoy using my laptop for all my entertainments, movies and tv shows and Youtube clips etc. I also play with my photos and sometimes use a photo editor to make digital collages or even photo gifts from Snapfish. I’m trying to make bookmarks out of some of my photos for stocking stuffers.
I’m not in any different of a boat than anyone else who has become dependent on technology and an online access point for work, entertainment, and communication. Perhaps I’m less stressed when it goes off because I don’t have a business that depends on active and reliable internet connections.
Anyway I am still catching up. I surely would not be a good pioneer woman. I hardly know how to do anything except light a candle when the power goes out, or read a book when the internet goes off, lol.
I have a few different thoughts for this blog essay. Not one big point but a variety of different thoughts that I re-read in my spiritual journal. I re-read it because I wanted to use the journal for note-taking at school and I ripped out the written-in pages. I read them before I tore them out, and there were some pretty good thoughts in there. I think they’re good thoughts. You’ll have to decide for yourself whether you agree.
You know how we are called to be salt and light?
You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. . (Matthew 5:13-14a).
Being salt, to me, means adding seasoning to a bland world by sharing His word and doing His works. Of course there is more to it but this is just a quick notion here tonight.
Here is the thought about salt: salt promotes thirst. Salt makes people thirsty. Jesus is the Living Water. If we are truly salt, even if what we are saying or doing in the world causes aggravation or offense (Gospel offense, not rudeness) then the recipient will become thirsty, one hopes. And in their seeking to slake the thirst, they will turn to the bible, to Jesus, to God, to the Spirit…(one hopes).
Paul Washer had a good word one year ago on truly knowing the Lord. As the synopsis states, “It was a sermon delivered to a body of students at the Master’s College, headed by Dr. John MacArthur. Brother Washer doesn’t allow these students to hide behind their school or association with Dr. MacArthur. Everyone must know the Lord for themselves, and be known of Him. Adam knew his wife and she bare him the fruit of the womb. Has Jesus so known you that you bear fruit? Included was a statement about persecution in America. His words are coming true. Here are just a few excerpts.”
“The church in America is going to suffer so terribly and you laugh now but they will come after us, they will come after our children, they will close the net around us while we are playing soccer mom and soccer dad, when we’re arguing over so many little things and mesmerized by so many trinkets. The net even now is closing around you and your children and your grandchildren and it does not cause you to fear. You will be isolated from society as has already happened, anyone who tries to run for office who actually believes the Bible will be considered a lunatic until finally we are silenced. We will be called things that we’re not and persecuted not for being followers of Christ, but for being radical fundamentalists who do not know the true way of Christ, which of course is love and tolerance. We’ll go down as the greatest bigots and haters of mankind in history.”
The holy Bible is perfect. It is finished! There is no more to add, nor should any be taken away. People who have allegedly been to heaven, and come back with “a message”, or who have heard God speak to them with a word and told to declare it, are wrong, deluded, and dangerous. The perfect, and complete bible says, via the Spirit:
“You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.” (Deuteronomy 4:2)
“Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.” (Proverbs 30:6)
“Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.” (Deuteronomy 12:32)
“I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.” (Revelation 22:18-19)
It is clear! The bible is finished and we are not to add new revelations to it. Besides, it is perfect. Why would a person want to add to it?
For I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish—that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder. (2 Corinthians 12:20)
The Greek word for gossip here is psithurismos, a word that means “a whispering, secret slandering.” Moreover, it is an “an onomatopoetic word for the sibilant murmur of a snake charmer.”
Think of that the next time you (or I) want to spread gossip about someone…our mouth making the sss of the snake as we gosssssssip.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I am studying the glorified body. I’ll be writing on that soon. Just think of it, a body that has no aches and pains, eyes that can behold Jesus face to face without bursting apart, never getting old, a body that can transcend matter and perhaps…even fly. Won’t that be wonderful!
We know John 14:6 as one of the tremendous I AM statements Jesus made.
Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. (John 6:35)
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)
I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. (John 10:9)
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11)
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25-26)
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
alí̱theia, the Greek word for Truth
In focusing on the Way, the Truth, and the Life statement from John 14:6, we learn from Greg Matte in his book, I AM Changes Who i Am:
More than any other I AM statement, John 14:6 stops us in our tracks. Jesus claims without exception to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life. In the original language of the New Testament, this statement has more going on than in English. The countless times I read the verse, I thought it was just a 1, 2, 3 listing. However, the Greek language’s richness is shown in the cyclical statement in which the previous word is the foundation of the next.
Matte goes on to quote Pastor RC Sproul, who taught in his book “John” that
I am the Way BECAUSE I am the Truth and Life. The structure of this statement is such that Jesus was not giving a string of descriptive terms. He was not saying I am (A) the way, (B) the truth, and (C) the life. Rather, this statement is in an elliptical form, so Jesus was saying, “I am the way because I am the truth and because I am the life. I am the way to the Father because I am the true manifestation or revelation of the Father. I am the way to the Father because I alone have the power of eternal life.”
The ‘because’ makes such a difference, don’t you think? 🙂
What a balm and the solace to ponder our Savior as the first cause of everything good.
Fairest Lord Jesus
Fairest Lord Jesus, Ruler of all nature, O Thou of God and man the Son: Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honor, Thou my soul’s glory, joy, and crown.
We read many times in the bible that sin corrupts the mind. A mind without Christ will not work right, it will be blind, deluded, corrupt, twisted.
The perversion of a sin-sick mind varies from person to person. Not all people are as totally evil as they could be. But sin piling upon sin will corrupt the mind in increasingly evil ways. Here is one example: King Saul.
I wrote recently about Saul and David. Saul was king, the people’s choice and God allowed it. Yet when David had earned victories and the people sang of them, Saul became jealous. In jealousy, Saul cast a wary eye against David. What happened then? The next day an evil spirit came to Saul. (1 Samuel 18:7-10).
The point of that essay was to show how quickly sin will rise and seize the opportunity to magnify itself in a man’s heart and mind. Sin does not wait for a second invitation. Sin does not lollygag. Sin pounces at any opportunity, with all haste.
The point of this essay, in still viewing King Saul through the biblical lens, is to see how sin that’s unaddressed degrades a man’s mind.
David plays the harp for Saul, Rembrandt
Some time has gone by, and Saul is by now deeply tormented by David. He has no cause to be. David is Saul’s servant, gaining the king victories. David never gave reason or cause to Saul for any lack in his duties as servant and subject. David played the lyre to soothe Saul. David has made no move against Saul and has only supported Him. Yet Saul is jealous. Saul threw a javelin against David while David played music for Saul. David escaped the piercing. It must have been the hand of God, for Saul was large and tall, skilled in battle, and one would surmise Saul’s javelin did not miss his target in close quarters. Yet it did.
David ran. His wife, Michal, told Saul’s messengers who appeared as his house that David was in bed, sick.
And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, “He is sick.” Then Saul sent the messengers to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him.” (1 Samuel 19:14-15).
Saul’s fear, envy, jealousy, insecurity … all negative values that show us Saul was not standing in the hand of the LORD. His negativity had grown to monstrous proportions. Monstrous, because Saul purposed to kill his servant. His servant was said to be sick, in bed, and Saul decided to kill him in bed. Saul said he will kill his servant David while David was at his most vulnerable and could not even fight back.
This is a perverted mind and a blackened heart. Of course, David was not actually sick, his wife was trying to gain her husband time for David to flee. However, Saul’s act here was a watershed.
You’ve heard the phrase, “he drifted in and out of consciousness”? Saul had been drifting in and out of God. He was in God’s hand at his anointing. Samuel the prophet tells this to Saul:
Then the Spirit of the Lord will rush upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man. Now when these signs meet you, do what your hand finds to do, for God is with you. (1 Samuel 10:6-7)
Initially all was well. But then Saul disobeyed and gave an unlawful sacrifice, and he lied to Samuel the Prophet about it. Events in Saul’s life and kingship lost their luster and eventually “the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him.” (1 Samuel 16:14)
Verse 23 of that same chapter shows us that the harmful/evil spirit came to Saul and at times departed from Saul, usually when David was playing the lyre. Saul drifted in and out.
In 1 Samuel 18:10 when the harmful spirit tormented Saul, this time Saul began raving. Here is the key:
Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him but had departed from Saul. … And when Saul saw that he had great success, he stood in fearful awe of him. (1 Samuel 18:12, 15)
Saul was looking at man, and not at God.
Saul knew the reason for his troubles and the reason for David’s success. Does not Saul believe God is a mighty God and a loving God and a listening God? If Saul had humbled himself before the LORD and asked for forgiveness of his jealousies and violence against a man of GOD, does Saul believe the LORD would not have forgiven? Saul knew he was out of the LORD’S will and pleasure but Saul remained in awe of David, not in awe of God. Saul refused the antidote that was poisoning his mind and polluting his heart.
Repentance.
What a joy we have in our Savior, Jesus Christ. He shed the last blood the Father will ever need. He stands with the Father, interceding for us in our sins.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15)
Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. (Hebrews 2:18)
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
The truly gracious gift to us from the Father is Jesus, who atoned for our sins. When we do sin after conversion, He listens and accepts and forgives. We need not fear the departure of the Spirit as the Spirit departed Saul, and we have the bible as our holy writ to guide us into all truth. It is on this foundation we stand, and looking to Him, our Savior and our Friend, when we repent.
We live in a truly gracious age! We should celebrate our opportunity to repent, be forgiven, and grow in renewing our minds with pure truth of holy scripture. Once converted and justified by grace, our minds are no longer degraded and polluted, but it is still our responsibility to read the bible so as to renew it in truth. It is our responsibility to wash ourself daily with it. It is our responsibility to pray mightily to God for forgiveness of our daily sins, and appeal to our High Priest who stands at the ready to bring our cares and sins and woes to the Father. David washed himself often in prayer to God in repentance and in heartfelt plea for forgiveness.
Saul and the witch of Endor, Gustave Dore
More than that, what a joy it is to do so! Saul did not, and ended up in 1 Samuel 28 where all people with unaddressed sin end up: at the devil’s door. In this case, the Witch of Endor’s house. In his sin-sick mind, when Saul finally sought to address his problem, it was too late. His mind was too far gone to think right.
And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets. (1 Samuel 28:6).
And so Saul went to the devil ‘to inquire’ of the devil instead of to God. Worse, Saul swore to her ‘by the LORD.’ Oh, Saul wretch of a man, swearing to the devil by the precious LORD! What has Light to do with darkness?
David did pray and repent often and seek to live in God’s will, and ended even his most tearful prayer in hope and joy and peace at pouring out his woes to God. David was called a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22), not because he never sinned. Why did David’s mind not become sin-sick as Saul’s did? Because when David sinned (unlike Saul) he repented and in so doing saw God ever more clearly as the savior, protector, gracious and revered Eternal Hope.
the-end-time.org 