Coming Out

"John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were GOING OUT TO HIM and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins." (Mark 1:4, 5)

The people of Israel were supposed to be God's covenant people.  They were the nation that God inhabited.  Jerusalem was the "city of God" and there was a temple in the city that was the very house of God.  Everything about that city within that nation was focused on that temporal dwelling place that had been built for the God that they continually sought. 

But before the time of Christ, God had been silent for 400 years.  People were starved for a word from God.  They wanted to know Him, and see Him move and work in ways that their fathers had experienced.  This desire to know God made them do the unthinkable.  They left the city, the temple, their traditions, and went out to the desert to see God work through one of the roughest figures that many had ever seen.  Have you ever considered what they were leaving behind in order to experience God?

They left behind the traditional places that God had lived.  The Jews believed that the temple in Jerusalem was the exclusive dwelling place of God.  It was the only place that one could go to be anywhere near His presence.  The rituals that were practiced by the priests and pharisees were rituals designed to bring about the presence of God. At one point these rituals had been valid - even commanded by God -  but by this time Israel had come to the point where they were simply going through the motions.  The ritual had become just that, ritual.  They had ceased to be about pleasing God and had become nothing more than a method for man to manipulate God.

I say these things, not to run down tradition, but to point out that sometimes tradition grows cold.  Those who went out into the desert were not leaving behind tradition simply to do something new.  Far too often we change just for the sake of change.  This was not the case.  These people were not leaving behind the commands of God.  They were simply tired of the ineffectiveness of man's interpretation of God's commands.  They wanted explanation, they wanted substance rather than formality and legalism.  These people wanted to experience the holiness of God.  They wanted to see Him work, they wanted to know Him.

This scripture has an interesting parallel in our day.  We go through the motions, and do what we've always done, and we don't experience God, we don't experience holiness, and we seldom experience anything more than those of the world experience.  We are generally pretty ignorant of the commands of God, why God gives them, and what we need to do with them.  We don't experience God because we've become very good at performing ritual and ignoring the substance.  I think this is probably a "form of Christianity that denies the power."  Scripture gives us the information that we need to experience God.  If we earnestly seek Him, He will be found.  The Bible gives us an abundance of proof that if we are seeking God, and not simply a free ticket to heaven, we will experience His presence in our lives.  We will see Him work among us, and within us, and around us.  The question is, how much dead ritual are you willing to give up to experience Him?  Are you willing to come out from among the cold, dead ritual that we practice to experience God through prayer, His Word, and His Holy Spirit?  It had taken the people of Jerusalem and Judea 400 years, but by the time John the Baptist came onto the scene they were finally willing.  Are we? 

Following at a Distance

When Jesus was arrested in Gethsemane most of His disciples scattered.  They fled in fear for their lives.  After having vowed allegiance to Him, they showed the great value that they placed on their earthly lives.  However, Luke tells us that Peter "followed at a distance (22:54)."  He had made the bold claim that he was willing to follow Jesus to the death, but after seeing Him arrested was only will to look on from afar.  Doesn't this seem like a familiar scene?

We have people in the church today who just can't understand why they don't experience the power of God in their lives.  They follow all the popular speakers and preachers, they read the most promising books, they go to the most up to date conferences and worship seminars, yet God just doesn't move.  Why?  I wonder if it's because so many are following at a distance.

There are thousands of professing Christians today who want to see the miraculous and the exciting, but they are not committed enough to their Savior to see it up close.  They follow those who are doing God's work and hope to see God move from a distance.  They're just close enough to see the fireworks, but not close enough to be scared of the bang.  We function within a church today that largely embodies this mentality that was displayed by the Apostle Peter so many years ago.  They want the benefits of following Jesus, but they don't want to make the sacrifice necessary to walk with Him.  So they think that if they follow far enough behind they can see the exciting work of God and simply be dragged into heaven along with the wake of those who are following God.  They want to see the results of a holy life without actually living one.  They want to see the results of an uncompromising biblical life, but they don't want to take the ridicule that may come with it.  They want to spend eternity in heaven, but they don't want to have to prepare for it during their time on earth.

As I was meditating on this scripture a couple of weeks ago it occurred to me that this is the case with many more "Christians" than we would like to admit.  They'll come to church and participate in some of the activities, but it's always from a distance.  They'll only come so close.  Can it be that one of the reasons that we don't see God move in a mighty way in our day is because we're afraid to get to close to His work?

Blessings of the Holy Spirit

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. (Gal. 5:22)"

When Jesus Christ ascended to heaven, He empowered His people with the Holy Spirit of God. The Spirit cleanses us, sanctifies us, and conforms our character to that of God. He can provide us with all of the things (and more) listed by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Galatians. Not only can He provide those things, but we fully expect Him to. God has promised these things, and He should provide them in the way that we want them.

Something occurred to me along these lines this week. Can we really expect the blessings of the Holy Spirit if we are unwilling to stand in the truth revealed by Him? The Holy Spirit inspired the Word of God, interprets the Word, and teaches us about the Word. He is God's witness to us in the world today. There are things that are clearly revealed (such as the call to be holy) that are largely ignored by the church in our day. We explain them away and try to diminish the importance of many truths by making lists of "essentials" and "non-essentials" but the fact remains that the Spirit of God inspired these truths.

I think that if we are ever going to see revival among God's people it will come first and foremost through the prayers of God's people; but I also suspect that many of our prayers are in vain because we are not praying from the proper foundation. We do not see the blessings and power of the Spirit in the church because it is not sought with a proper foundation. The truth that is revealed by the Spirit is something that must be applied to our lives as a foundation for everything that happens spiritually.

We have tried for far too long to get by on what we think and what we want. It is time that the church stand on the truth that has been given by God. Look around you. The world, and especially our nation, is in turmoil. We have compromised too many times. We have ignored the truth far too often. If we are to be the holy people that God has called us to be we must be people whose desire is to know the truth that will set us free.

What Are We Living For?

Holiness is a realignment of or priorities and motives. According to John Wesley it is God's love perfected within us. It is the desire to love God above all else and our neighbor as ourselves. It is the same self-sacrificing love that Jesus Christ showed when He died on the cross to save us from (notice, I did not say "in") our sins. This is why Scripture teaches us to be like Christ. He came to emody holiness. He died so that we could also live such a life. So that we could live to serve our God. So that the greatest among us would be servants of the Almighty.

All of this brings us to a question that was asked by Leonard Ravenhill. In fact, the question was written on his tombstone. Even in death he challenges us by asking, "Are the things you are living for worth Christ dying for?" Every once in awhile this question will pop into my mind and haunt me for weeks. Not because I doubt that I am living for God, but because I wonder if we - as the church - are living for God. We spend hours and days and even years dealing with our thoughts (not that those are bad) and ideas while teaching holiness - a complete surrender to God.

I have no doubt that there are people who are living holy lives. I've witnessed it. Holiness, however, is a way of living. It is not a static characteristic. It is shown in the way that we interact with one another. It is shown in the things that we are "living for." How often do we get caught up in ourselves, and our ideas, and our wants and desires and forget what we are living for? Sometimes we seem to be reminded that our lives are not our own. If we are to be holy, we must be "sold out" to God. He must be the one for whom we live. I'll leave you to spend some time considering Ravenhill's question:

Are the things you are living for worth Christ dying for?

Proactive Faith

I keep hearing about Christians who are "turning people away" by "ramming Scripture down their throats." I'm told that they are overwhelming people with their zeal and passion about spreading the gospel, and many people take it the wrong way. There's just one thing that bothers me about these discussions, and the accusations about Christians that result. WHERE ARE THESE CHRISTIANS??? I read about them in books, I hear about them on tv, and people talk about them in small groups. Be honest, have you ever really met someone whose witness was just overpowering? I'm 28 years old, and in my lifetime I have only ever seen one person standing on a street corner yelling at people to repent (and I do admire his zeal and determination). I'm beginning to think that these people are nothing more than a figment of someone's imagination. The "seeker-sensitive" movement, and the emergent church want nothing more than for us to take away the offense of the gospel, so they made up a scapegoat to get us to change. They tell us about the masses of people that are "turned off" when we tell them that they need to get saved.

Let's consider some facts. 1) We have become so weak in our stand for the truth that most people are never "turned on" in the first place. We'd hate to make someone think that we're "too radical." I think our problem is that there AREN'T ENOUGH radical Christians. I am in no way promoting violence. That is not what it is to be a Christian. I mean that we need people who will live the word of God and the love of Christ with reckless abandon.

2) We have become very reactive rather than proactive in our faith. I was sitting in a conference a couple of weeks ago (it was a great conference) listening to people discuss the beliefs of the emergent church. I thought to myself, "here we are reacting to their false teachings. If we had been proactive with the truth for the last 30 years people would know that this stuff is wrong, and we wouldn't be in this position." People are being taken by false doctrine with each passing day. People cease to recognize the authority of Scripture, or the substitutionary death of Christ. They explain away the miraculous. We hear false teachings and then we respond with the truth. Why don't we simply teach the truth in the first place? As long as we're not hearing false teaching in the public arena we're content with our pop-psychology lessons in place of sermons. It's time that we become proactive with the truth that God has revealed to us.

I say all this to point out the possibility that we need Christians who are willing to preach and teach the truth. Even if it makes sinners uncomfortable. We have sacrificed truth in the name of "love" for far too long. Love is not to keep the truth of God from people. It is to obey the commands of Christ, and live our lives as servants of God, like He was. I don't care if we're in a post-modern/post-Christian culture, or any other type. The truth will still set us free.

Spiritual Disciplines

The church of our day has become very focused on doing good works. The current generation seems to use works as their measuring rod for success within the church (especially those who claim to be "emergent"). There are congregations that cancel Sunday morning services to go do things in their communities, and others who give weekly pep talks on doing good things for people. Don't misunderstand me, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH DOING GOOD THINGS! In fact, the Bible says that we should do good things. However, I'm beginning to get the feeling that we are pursuing good works to the extent that we have devalued spiritual disciplines.

You know what I mean. We will go out of our way to help people do whatever they need done (again, not necessarily bad), but when is the last time you fasted? When is the last time that you took an hour to worship God during the week? When is the last time that you spent an evening in prayer? It is pretty hard to argue that these disciplines are not necessary in our lives. The Bible teaches that there is importance in fasting. Paul said, "Pray without ceasing." Worship is what man was created for.

If the Bible is so clear on the importance of these things, why do our works often take priority? I say all this to make this suggestion. It is good for you to do things to help other people, but if you're doing so many things that you are neglecting spiritual disciplines maybe God does not intend for you to do ALL of those things. Maybe you should narrow it down to some of them. I know people will say, "people keep calling me," or "I can't turn people away." I understand how hard that can be to do, but maybe sometimes the phone needs to ring. Maybe there are times that it is more important for us to spend the time in fasting and prayer, or to spend time in worship than anything else. Maybe the church is not the holy bride that it was called to be because we do not spend the necessary time practicing spiritual discipline.

Just a thought.

Expectations

I have nothing original or new to post this week, but I'd be interested to hear some thoughts on a quote that I've been thinking about for a few days. It is from A.W. Tozer's book, "Reclaiming Christianity."

"As God's people, you have every scriptural right to demand that you hear the Word in power, and if you do not hear the Word in power, you have a right to rise up and ask why. If you are hearing nothing but teaching, nothing but instruction, with no evidence of God in it, and the preacher cannot say, "I appeal to God" to say whether this is true or not; if this cannot be, then you have a right to demand that somebody preach that can. On the other hand, every man who stands in a pulpit to preach has a right to expect that the congregation believe in power and are so close to God, so surrendered, so full of faith and so prayerful that the Word of God can work in power."