Written Word

God Intends Never to Let You Go!

Jen, you write some interesting – and hopeful – things in your post on FB. For instance, you say that God is “no longer harassing me, but He's not as persistent as He used to be and I'm not as interested in wanting to know why as I should be.” Yet (and here is the glimmer of hope) you apparently can’t suppress the “spark of God-ness” that God gave you at birth and, more importantly, at your spiritual birth however many years ago it was.

Remember this: God is not going to give up on you despite the cooling of your zeal and the barren desert into which you sense you have wandered unintentionally. It’s true that “He and [you] are [indeed] old friends that lost touch” with each other (or rather you lost touch with Him). It’s also a fact that you don’t know God as you formerly did, but as long as you are alive and believe in Him, He will not give up on you.

At this point you are somewhat reluctant to call on Him to help you because you feel your own worthlessness. I have been in the same position a time or two in my own life, and so has any believer who has known God for any length of time. No one is worth God’s love and tender concern, and if we were, He would not have had to suffer and die for us.

The whole point of Gethsemane and Calvary was that we should have the right to live a life secure in the knowledge that Jesus paid the extreme price for our redemption. Now when we falter or fall flat in our walk with God, we simply acknowledge we have sinned or come short of His standard in any way, accept Christ’s hand of mercy and love, get up – and continue our walk with Him. This is not a reason to live a life of sin because we know He will forgive us. No, it is the goodness of God leading us to repentance for our sins and it should stir us to make every effort to be like Him.

I’m praying for you that you will accept God’s call to really move closer to His side secure in the knowledge He will never let you go if you continue to believe in Him. God loves you more than you can possibly know!

It All Started Here...

(The following text is a reprint of a post dated 7/27/05)

Where Will It End for You?

Once, before there was an Earth or a blanket of water swaddling the Earth -- even before there were angels – there was a great all-powerful God who lived from forever. This great God never got lonely (a Being so great and with so many characteristics does not know loneliness), but His will from forever had been to create a creature with traits and distinctive qualities of being -- a personality – similar to the Creator's. Eons before He implemented this desire, God had thought within His many-faceted being, "I want to make a creature patterned after my own diverse Self, someone who will be able to commune with me and glorify my great Name."

When the time was right, this great God went to work with a will and purpose that would not be denied. He first created a habitat for the man-creature that was yet unmade. When chaos erupted on the planet that was in the making, God said, "Not so!" and His Spirit brooded over the confusion like oil spread on troubled waters, wresting tranquility out of the demonic turmoil, and peace reigned again on planet Earth. And God looked and He saw that it was good.

In order to stress the grandeur of the creative moment, we could say that now God threw out His arm in a mighty, sweeping gesture and from each outstretched finger a myriad of angels sprang into existence. We could say that, yes, but there was no need for the grand gesture. We have to think and pray as we read any of the great biblical accounts, so that they might impact us with the drama that is inherent in them, and which the Bible states so tersely. We use great figures of speech due to our inability to convey the majesty that was in the act itself. All the great Creator did was speak – no – all He did was to reason the angels into being. It was a much grander moment than I could express in words and by using dramatic language. It was similar to God's saying, "Let there be light!" Did He actually speak the words, or did the thought project itself from within His mighty Self – and light flared forth instantly and unimpeded? The act alone, without my verbal props, is the drama and the majesty and the grandeur.

God's next act was the pièce de résistance: He formed man out of the dust of the ground that lay so plentifully all around. It was not, strictly speaking, a creative act; God used what He had already created to mold a man-creature into existence.

"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." (Gen. 2.7)

Again the biblical account does not elaborate on the act. It puts the story out there in a bare-bones manner. God has intended for us to study and pray for further enlightenment. We need flesh to cover the skeleton account. When we seek Him diligently, God begins to reveal to us the utter glory and wisdom and knowledge and power that are inherent in Him and which translate into His wonderful acts in the Creation of the universe. He will also show us many other bits of gold as we dig into His Word.

Looking again at the Bible passage above, we see that God took a handful of dust from the ground and molded it into the form of man that God had already conceptualized. That lifeless body was material man as opposed to the spiritual nature given to him soon afterwards when God "breathed into [him] the breath of life." What a powerful deed lies in the bare words used to tell it! Man, taken from the ground on which he would walk, was sculpted by God into the shape that pleased Him, and He then breathed into man not just breath, but the spirit of life that would never cease to exist. (This does not denote eternal life; it signifies only eternal existence. Eternal life is the "more abundant life" of which Jesus spoke many centuries later.)

"And God blessed them [Adam and Eve], and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over...every living thing that moveth upon the earth."  (Gen. 1.28)

This Is Where It Ends

We have been looking at some of the underlying facts in the Creation story. There are many more fascinating bits of data that we have not touched, many of which we are ignorant. But we know this: God created the worlds and man and all we can see around us. He gave the Earth to us to rule it and to cultivate it as a gardener does his flowers. It goes without saying that we have failed miserably, nor have we given God the worship and praise that are due Him.

The Church is actively trying to reach every single human there is in the world today, but we know that many people will reject the truth of God. Therefore it remains up to you, whoever you are who are unsaved, to make your own salvation sure. You have to leave the lost pack of lemmings that are running mindlessly to their everlasting destruction, and turn to God for yourself. It is so senseless to run to your own damnation!

 

Are You Carrying Others' Burdens? That's Love!

Sometimes life can seem to be just too much. If it isn’t your own troubles that beset you, it is the distress you witness in your friends and loved ones. To top it off, there are the burdens of people you don’t know, but of whom you have heard and you feel obliged to add their anguish to the heavy load you are already bearing. No, you don’t have to take on any of these burdens other than your own, but the love of Christ within you constrains you to do so.

It is the love you have for Christ and for all men and women that makes you want the best for everyone else. You wish for them salvation if they are unsaved; you wish for them health and prosperity; you want them, saved or unsaved, to know God as you do. God is surely a mighty rock of defense. It is the shade of that Rock that comforts and keeps us in the hot, weary trek through the burning sands of life. You know God is everything you need Him to be and you want so much to impart that critical knowledge to the world. Every person who is living has his or her stressful times and they all need Christ as their hope, their rock, their peace and joy.

It is the compelling love of Christ that we share with Him for the world that causes a good deal of our stress. There are times when all we have to rely on is the intellectual knowledge that God exists and that He really does care about us. At that time there is no “feeling,” no warm emotional sensation to which to cling. Those are the periods of your walk with God when you are enduring – barely – but you are terribly battered and beaten by the waves of misfortune dashing high and collapsing down around you, completely engulfing you.

You are holding on solely by the “head” knowledge you have of the existence and compassion of God. It is a hard knowledge, offering little comfort. Nevertheless it does have a modicum of consolation; it does contain what you need for the present time.

But you – or I should say, we – are only human. As we see the rising distress in the world, the painful lives that most people are enduring, and then we look at our own burdens, we tend to falter at times. It seems so hopeless. We know what we have, and the knowledge carries us through our daily trials, but when we add to our burdens those of a world of hurting, desperate creatures – the weight is crushing.

What can we do? We can’t throw off the burdens of our brothers and sisters and fellow creatures – the love of Christ within us will not let us do that. So how do we handle this weight of the world that is crushing our frail shoulders? There is only one thing to do: We take our burdens to Jesus, and that includes the burdens of others as well as our own.

I have found that I need to feel the need of my fellowman in order to pray effectually for him or her. I deliberately pray that God will help me to put myself in my brother or sister’s place and feel their pain and distress as my own. This may sound somewhat selfish, but if the hurt he endures becomes my hurt, I will cry the more passionately to God for him. Then, when I have poured out my soul to God, I release the burden to Him. This is necessary because no one is capable of carrying the weight of the world on their back at all times without going off the deep end. Continued worry can make you susceptible to all sorts of physical and mental ailments. And that is not seemly for a child of God.

Meanwhile God, the God you know at that time very unemotionally, is looking on your struggle. He sees your heart and knows that you want to please Him. You want to do His will, but the pounding waves are just about to wash you away to an inglorious end. God knows when the time is just right to deliver you. When that time occurs, then, somehow, by the grace and love of God, a sermon or a song or a small voice inside you will cause the intellectual knowledge you have of God to be infused into your spirit. It will flood your heart and seem to permeate every cell of your physical body. You will feel, not just know in your mind, that God exists and that He cares so very much for you

These two factors – the intellectual knowledge and the emotional awareness – are essential to our spiritual existence. I have often criticized the over-dependence we have on our emotions or how we feel at the moment. This criticism is still valid, but I have to admit we can never make it through our many adversities without our emotions being involved. An intellectual and emotional awareness of the existence and unsurpassed love of God are alike indispensable in the life of the believer.

But, as we have seen, emotional awareness will come and go. Our emotions run high today and low tomorrow, thus making it imperative that we have drilled deep into our minds and hearts that God is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Then when the emotional fuel runs low, as it must, we will have the reserve of head knowledge to fall back on. It is not an easy option, but it will take us through every obstacle. We just have to cling to the belief in the existence and dependability of our God.

The conclusion of the matter is this: Be concerned and involved in the plight of your fellowman and your own self. I would even dare to say, worry about the plight of both him and you, but only to a degree. Let that mounting worry make you run quickly and often to Jesus for help with the overwhelming load of care: He will help you to bear it. Unquestionably you cannot bear the burden alone.

But, after you have eased the burden onto the shoulders of the Almighty, the weight of it or another burden will soon come back, and that’s as it should be. You are a person who loves and you will always be involved in someone else’s difficult experiences as well as your own. They will return to weight you down, but then you go running to the One who carries all your burdens and once again you pour out your soul to Him. He will help you, He will help the one for whom you are praying, and through it all He will keep the minds of both of you in perfect peace – if you both keep your faith in the Lord Jesus.

You will note I did not say you won’t stumble nor did I go so far as to say you won’t fall. Whether you continue to walk upright or stumble or fall, all you or I or any other believer has to do is keep their faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in Christ is the victory that overcomes the world.

Reaching Beyond Your Private Space

There is a song, “Brighten the Corner Where You Are.” Its meaning is obvious: We should brighten the world around us, lift up the fallen and downtrodden, cheer the crestfallen and sad, bring help and hope to those who are helpless and without hope. Above all, we are supposed to offer salvation to sinners who have neither help nor hope in their lives.

Each of us has his or her own little cubicle or, speaking cosmically, his own “space” in the universe. He can choose to keep that space to himself or he can allow others to enter the space with him via some form of communication such as speaking or eye contact or other means of nonverbal communication, including body language that conveys to another person what is in the first person’s mind by the first person’s various postures and gestures.

We have to open up our private space to the teeming throngs around us and be voices crying in the wilderness (I use the term so often it is becoming a banality, but that is precisely what we are) of sin, “Repent ye, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

There is such an overwhelming amount of suffering in the world that we can ill-afford to stand aloof from the hordes of humanity who are sorely battered by the turbulence of this life. There is also a super abundance of sin; it is in the air we breathe and in our own carnal natures. Suffering and sin are closely related as sin is the original cause of all adversities. It is not only the original cause; it is often the immediate producer of suffering.

I suppose we could retreat into our private space and turn a deaf ear to the cries of the desperate souls all around us, but you know better than that. The love of God will not let us. As James warned us, “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?” (Jam 2:14) Can we wrap our faith with us in our private envelope of self-concern and ignore the plight of the lost souls around us on every side? Can our faith that we clutch so tightly to our chests – can it save our miserable, miserly hides?

The obvious answer is No; and it’s something to seriously think about. Yes, I know you are not one who can skillfully witness one-on-one with an unbeliever; you are unable to do so even with your wife or close friend.

Here is what I would do if I were you: First I would make sure that my nonverbal witness was above reproach. In other words I would see to it that my life, devoid of any verbal witnessing, was solid. That is the basis of any witnessing to a skeptical world: if we don’t first live right, any other type of witnessing can be forgotten. It would be useless. Next I would pray for God to help me speak, under the anointing of His Spirit, words that will leave their mark on the one to whom I am witnessing. God knows your skills and your obvious lack of certain skills and He will not leave you with an open door for witnessing and no means by which to enter that door.

In your quiet time you can ponder how you would witness face to face with someone, but do not let the thought upset you because there are any number of situations that could arise in an opportunity to witness that you cannot foresee. If the thought of witnessing one-on-one terrifies you, dismiss the thought and put your trust in God. He can transform your sow’s ear of witness into a silk purse. He made you; He made your mouth. He controls your thoughts – just be sure that you continuously live a good life of witness. Always remember: When the opportunity of personal witnessing arises, DO NOT BE TERRIFIED. If you let fear overcome you, it will have its negative impact on your witness.

“And Joshua said unto them, Fear not, nor be dismayed, be strong and of good courage: for thus shall the LORD do [bring them down in defeat] to all your enemies against whom ye fight.” (Jos 10:25)

I have listed here a few more scriptures that will bolster your courage: 1 Chr 22.13, 28.20; Eze 2.6.

A word of admonition: God understands our fears; that is why He encourages us, but He will be displeased with us if we give into the fright that is naturally ours when we come upon any situation that is beyond our native capabilities. This is akin to the scripture, “Be ye angry, and sin not...” God knows anger can assail anyone for a righteous cause, but He cautions against letting it master you. So it is with fear: Fear can come upon even the most righteous of men, but he should not allow it to overcome him and render him ill-equipped for the task of bearing witness.

The best advice I can give you is what I take for myself. I am as you, I am not naturally predisposed to be a great personal witness, that is, one with a charming personality and a ready flow of eloquent words with which to convince the unbeliever. That does not mean however that I dread any chance one-on-one encounter because I stay close to my God who has all power and the anointing to give me when I need it. Above all, I endeavor to live a solid life of witness that so often speaks louder than the spoken word.

Put your trust in God and “be not dismayed.” He will be with you and help you to enter that open door of witness when it comes before you.

God Is His Own Mediator

“Jesus” is such a short name for such an all-encompassing Person. Jesus is indispensable to the entire Creation. He is by Himself the basic nuts and bolts of existence, He is that which sustains the entire mélange of trillions of objects large and small. It is Jesus who makes the birds fly and the fish swim and gives mankind the ability to think and to ponder and to poke his inquisitive nose into questions of being that were once unanswerable. Some of them mankind will never know in this life. Jesus is everything a man or a universe could need because what we don’t know or don’t have that is necessary for our survival, He has in His all-sufficient Self. He wears a thousand hats and fills a gazillion offices.

To save space and time there is only one office we have arbitrarily chosen to consider here. It is just one out of the many Jesus fills flawlessly and effortlessly each moment of every day. The office is His position as Mediator between God and man. Coincidentally in Jesus’ office as Mediator He also fills another office: The Lamb of Sacrifice for all humanity, no mean office by itself. It is part and parcel of His role of Mediator.

Jesus the Mediator between God and Man

“Now a mediator cannot be of one (but must be of two parties whom he mediates between); but God is one” (not two: owing to His essential unity not admitting of an intervening party between Him and those to be blessed; but as the ONE Sovereign, His own representative, giving the blessing directly by promise to Abraham, and, in its fulfillment, to Christ, ‘the Seed,’ without new condition, and without a mediator such as the law had).”  (Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown n.d.)

It is clear there can be no outside mediator between God and man due to God’s complete sovereignty and oneness. Who other than God can represent God? Therefore the Law, the instrument that requires a mediator in God’s dealings with man (e.g., Moses and the many high priests through the years), cannot be the means by which man may obtain salvation. Nor can it promote the very close personal relationship God wants between Himself and His creature. Many, many years before the promulgation of the Mosaic Law, God in His sovereignty dealt with Abraham by direct promise from Himself to Abraham. That was God’s preferred way of striking an agreement between Himself and His earthly subjects.

The Mosaic Law, in its need for a mediator (Moses, the priests, etc.) between God and man, was not the divine “norm”; it was applicable to the Jews only and served to pave the way for God’s preferred way of dealing with man, “face to face directly; by promise and grace.” God determined to deal with those who were of the seed of Abraham by faith as He did with Abraham before the Law was brought in: He would commune with them face to face directly.

Jesus, who we rightly suppose to be the mediator between God and man in this Day of Grace, was, as the scripture quoted above has declared, only ONE, uniting in Himself the nature of God and the nature of man. Jesus was the “love facet” of God and not another person. He was God come to earth as the true Son of God because God literally begot Him and dwelt in Him. Now there is only ONE God and ONE people of God without regard to race, nationality, culture or gender.  As the Son of God, God was His own mediator between Himself and Man.

(The belief expressed above was derived in great part from A Commentary on the Old and New Testaments by Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown n.d., Commentary on Gal. 3.20)

Hell Is a Serious Matter

In today’s society of upside down values hell is a word that is tossed around like so much confetti, and it has just as little meaning to us. But the word in any of its various meanings is deadly serious. In this space we want to set the record straight that hell in any form is nothing to disdain as though there were no such thing or that you were not going there.

The definition of “hell,” as we generally use it today, is directly the opposite of heaven. As we usually view heaven as the final abode of the righteous, so we see hell as the final dwelling of the wicked. But the word has a history of varied origins, vague percep­tions and ambig­uous implications.

The Israelites, before the coming of Christ, had no certain idea of what happened to the souls/spirits of the dead. The dispari­ty of views was emphasized by two of the major religious parties of Jesus’ day: 1) the Pharisees, who believed in an afterlife for both the righ­teous and wicked dead; and 2) the Sadducees, who con­tended that there was no life after death.

There are many references to hell in the Old and New Testa­ments, but the original word does not always mean hell as we define it today. There was then no sure perception of a place of re­ward for the good or a place of punishment for the wicked. Heze­kiah, who had been a good king, lamented like one who had been wicked when God told him that he would soon die. There is no hint in his attitude that God had some­thing good in mind for His followers. Hezekiah said:

“...I shall go to the gates of the grave [Sheol]; I am de­prived of the residue of my years...Like a crane or a swal­low, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward: O Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me.”!

This is scarcely the approach that the righteous take today when their death is imminent. Theirs is a sense of relief and a longing to return “home,” realizing that this world has never been a haven for those who live righteously. Christ has made all the dif­ference.

In some Old Testament scriptures the original Hebrew word used to refer to life beyond death is sheol, which corre­sponds to hades in the New Testament. The KJV translates the two words variously as “hades,” “ hell” or the “grave.”

The two words, sheol and hades, never refer to the final destiny of the wicked. Geenna (gehenna) is the ultimate home of the wicked dead and is synonymous with “the lake of fire” of Rev. 20:10, 14; 21:8 or hell as we perceive it today.

During the awful time Jesus was dead and in hell because the Father had abandoned Him, His human spirit, as is the case with all humans, was an immortal entity untouched by the death of the body. The human spirit imparts a certain definite touch of immortality to all men and women; it is the essence of them, that part of them that will never cease to be. It came from God at birth (or before) and it cannot ever cease to be. But that is not necessarily all good for the sinner. He will exist (not live) forever – only to suffer forever.

Be sure of this: Jesus was not caught by surprise; He well knew He would be plunged into hell by taking on the sins of the world and thus losing His tight bond with the Father. There was no coercion by the Father or any outside agent; it was as Jesus declared,

“Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.”  (Joh 10:17-18)

I'll not attempt to set a time frame for Jesus' stay in hell – time is an unheard of commodity in hell. To the uninvolved observer there may be a start and an ending to hell, but not to the one who is thus enwrapped by the torturous tentacles of hell. With Jesus, and with Him only, at a certain point there was indeed a cessation of His agony: the sin debt had been paid in full. But this will not be so with anyone else caught in that chamber of horrors. Once in, there is no way of escape - ever. The quotation is true,

“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here!” - Dante Alighieri

There are numerous pathways into Hell, but never an exit. Hell for you will be forevermore.

For the unregenerate sinner hell will start when grace (for him or her) finally dies, and, like the abundant life of the righteous, it will never cease to be. The unrelenting gnawing pain that is hell will have established squatter's rights within the sinner's own private space to all perpetuity. The everlasting life conferred on the righteous will have its terrible counterpart in this, the sinners’ exquisite anguish of everlasting DEATH.

“And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.”  (Rev 14:11)

God doesn't literally thunder from heaven, It's my way or the highway, sinner! but it is plainly interwoven in the tapestry of Scripture that God's will shall surely survive and all other wills shall be shattered into irretrievable pieces.

Quickly climb aboard the Divine Will; it’s the sinner’s (that means all of us who don’t belong to Christ) only means of survival.

A Devastating Look Backward from Hell

The following post is about YOU (in hell!) – who refused in this life to give God what He wanted:

God Simply Demanded Too Much.

He wanted to take away your fun and sex and games. That would have made your life drab, monotonous and unbearable, you thought. So now God is demanding nothing and He is not taking anything away from you. You simply have no means of enjoying the fun and sex and games: You have no body to participate in any of those short-lived joys of a life that is forever gone. Nor is there anyone to be involved with in your sinful binge – IF you could binge. NOW life should really be an unending pleasure — except now you know that the unconscious sense of the presence of God was all that kept you from going mad.

It is true, God has ceased asking you to give up all your sinful joys. He is at last demanding nothing – and He is giving nothing in return: There is no love, no grace, no sense of being wanted... no God to harass you.

You have never known existence without the unconscious sense of the presence of God. That sense of which you were unaware was bestowed on you only by the grace of God. While you were rejecting its calls to salvation, it was all around you and a world full of sinners, keeping you all from taking a swift and early plunge into damnation.

You wanted to be left alone. You didn’t like those persistent pleas God made for you to come to Him; giving up your pleasures was too much to ask. So God finally gave you what you wanted. Now He wants absolutely nothing from you. He has left you alone – in your sins and unceasing torment.

In fact, to Him you forever no longer exist.

IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT?

An Insight into the Gifts of Prophecy and Speaking in Tongues

A Bible Study of 1 Corinthians 14.1-20

An Insight into the Gifts of Prophecy and Speaking in Tongues

            Before we plunge headlong into our study, we should do a little toe dabbling. We need to understand what New Testament prophecy is. Prophecy is not necessarily the predicting of events, such as Mabel Sue is going to have a baby or Howard Thomas will get a new car. These things are impressive (if and when they come true), but it seems to be a rather frivolous use of the gift of prophecy. As much as I’d like to have the best in material possessions, please predict, if you must predict, that I am going to really love God more and that I’ll accomplish all of His will in my life. That would excite me! Paul describes prophecy in the 3rd verse: “But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification [building up], and exhortation [encouragement], and comfort.”

Verse 1

“1)  Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.”

Comment on Verse 1

            In the two preceding chapters of 1 Corinthians (12 & 13) Paul has 1) laid out for the Corinthians the various gifts of the Spirit in chapter 12, ending the chapter with this: “…covet [desire] earnestly the best gifts [that he has just named]: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way,” and 2) in chapter 13 Paul eloquently shows what the “better way” is. To give chapter 13 a single-sentence wrap, we could put it this way: No gifts a person might acquire nor anything he can accomplish is worth an ice cube in the hot sands of the Sahara Desert if the person does not LOVE.

            Now we can start our primary lesson. Paul begins this 14th chapter by urging the saints, “Be constantly pursuing this love.” (Kenneth S. Wuest, The New Testament, An Expanded Translation) Love is the hallmark of the Christian. Jesus said, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” (John 13.35)

            Paul next encourages them to seek the gifts of the Spirit, “BUT,” he advises them, “seek rather that ye may prophecy.” He then explains his preference for prophecy in the next three verses (2-4), verse 3 in particular. It gets to the heart of the matter.

Verse 2

“2  For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God:  for no man understandeth him; howbeit [although] in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.”

Comment on Verse 2

            When a worshiper speaks in tongues it is a private conversation, not meant for our unenlightened ears – unless God grants interpretation. Frankly, even the person speaking doesn’t understand what he is saying although he is thrilled by his conversation with God.

            It is hard to understand our obsession with speaking in tongues, although Paul said in v. 18, “I speak with tongues more than ye all.” But he had the powerful anointed word to go with his speaking in tongues. Then, after he had mentioned his tongues-­­speaking prowess, Paul showed the much greater importance of the prophetic gift by saying that he would rather speak just five words in his own language than ten thousand in an utterance unknown to his listeners.

            It is also significant that in the four times (to my knowl­edge) that Paul speaks of the gifts of the Spirit in his letters, twice he does not mention the gift of tongues (the first and the last scriptures in the following list) – Rom. 12.6-8; 1 Cor. 12.4-10; 1 Cor. 12.28-31; Eph. 4.11, 12 – and in both of the other two passages it is next to last in the list. Only interpretation of tongues comes after it. I am not saying that this proves anything, but if speaking in tongues is as crucial to the believer’s (and Church’s) survival as we say it is, why did the Apostle not list it more prominently?

            The hard fact here is that the tongues-speaking is not what is so important, but the power of the Holy Spirit who speaks through the individual. Backslidden saints have been known to speak in tongues. We can speak often, but if we are not fully yielded to the Spirit who uses our mouths, the power will be hindered. As a gift of the Spirit, speaking in tongues is important but we have overrated it. Paul did not.

            With regard to speaking in other tongues, there was a show on TV recently that featured the attempts of a specialist in his field to fathom the mystery (or sham) of speaking in other tongues. I was impressed with the evident sincerity and objectivity of the specialist – he was intent neither with proving or disproving the experience. He did not jump on the bandwagon, but he did not look down his nose at these misguided people who were caught in an emotional frenzy of self-hypnosis that caused them to speak a gibberish that had no evident benefits. To repeat: he was objective.

            The specialist had two subjects: one was the pastor of a church, an intelligent man of apparent deep convictions and spiritual values. The other was a lay person, a woman of average intelligence and deep spirituality, one who could subject herself to such a probe – I could not have done it. In each case the subject was wired to some type of device that recorded the activity in different parts of the subject’s brain as he or she spoke in tongues.

            The pastor, who obviously possessed the “gift” of speaking in tongues (which not every believer has), was asked to speak. After a short prayer, he did so, and it was no sham, like some persons who “speak” on TV; it was the real thing. The Spirit within me witnessed to the fact. It was notable that there was no visible activity in the frontal lobe of his brain as there is when a person talks normally. This, said our specialist, was an indication that he was not consciously forming concepts and choosing words with which to express them. I took it to show further that, although he chose to speak in tongues, he did not choose the words nor the concepts the words expressed. The Spirit chose as He willed.

            Next the specialist tested the woman. She apparently could not speak in tongues “at will,” so he stood by while she prayed and sang – in other words, she worshiped – until the Holy Spirit took over and she too began to speak in tongues. (Incidentally this was all very intriguing because of the understanding air with which the specialist conducted the tests.) Again there was no sign of frontal lobe activity, indicating that she too spoke on a higher authority (my words, not the specialist’s).

            A similar test was conducted on a group of Buddhist monks who were praying to their god Buddha. This time the recording device showed frontal lobe activity similar to what occurs when a person engages in a normal conversation. They were consciously speaking their words.

            The tentative conclusions the specialist reached were, as expected, not a sanctioning of the experience of speaking in tongues, but neither were they a lumping of all tongues speakers into one loony bunch and sending them off to a mental institution. The specialist decided that more testing was needed before any final conclusions could be drawn. Fair enough.

            But that is beside the point. My own conclusions were these: 1) The tests, despite not presenting hard conclusions, could possibly convince some outsiders that what we experience is the real thing, and 2) they neither confirmed nor shook my personal belief in the experience known as speaking in tongues. I have experienced speaking in tongues for myself (although I cannot speak at will) and I could scarcely be open-minded about the matter.

            It is my earnest prayer that the tests will help to convince others who have not the faith, to see that there is something big and factual and genuine going on among us who are true believers in Christ.

Verses 3-4

“3  But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification [building up], and exhortation [encouragement], and comfort.

4  He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church.”

Comment on Verses 3-4

            We have already touched lightly on the meaning of New Testament prophecy and its highly important role in the Church. Here the Apostle gives us the nitty-gritty New Testament meaning of prophecy. And looking at it from a whole, biblical perspective, we could add that it includes speaking under the anointing of the Spirit of God. But of course, in order for a word to be to edification, exhortation and comfort, it would necessarily be an anointed word. The Spirit would have to give it impact. A word of truth spoken without the anointing behind it is lifeless though true. I could mechanically say words to a discouraged person that would technically fit the category of edification, exhortation and comfort – “Hang in there!” “Keep praying; God will answer!” – but if there were no anointing present, and the words did not even have the ring of sincerity, they would be futile and my disheartened brother or sister would not be helped. I might have added a little to her discouragement by my evident lack of empathy.

            There can be no substitute for the anointing of the Spirit on our words, even those words we speak in all sincerity. It is incumbent on all believers to pray as they walk, pray as they talk that their “…speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that [they]may know how …to answer every man” (Col. 4.6) in any trying situation. We have not fully attained that goal, but we are pressing toward it.

Verse 5

“5  I would that ye all spake with tongues but rather that ye proph­esied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying.”

Comment on Verse 5

            Paul is not downgrading the gift of other tongues. If he were, he would not say that he wished that they all spoke in tongues. That brings up an interesting side point. If he wishes that they all spoke in tongues, does that imply that there were some believers in the local church who did not have the gift and who did not speak in tongues on a regular basis? Think it over.

            Now the Apostle sets a hierarchy of gifts. He puts the prophet on a higher level than the speaker in other tongues. Once again, I must say that it is because the Church needs the beneficial effects of prophecy.

Verses 6-12

“6  Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation [speak a revelation to you], or by know­ledge [bring further knowledge], or by prophesying, or by doctrine [teaching]?

7  And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped?

8  For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?

9  So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be under­stood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air.

10  There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without significa­tion.

11  Therefore if I know not the mean­ing of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a bar­barian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me.

12  Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church.”

Comment on Verses 6-12

            The reason for the gifts of the Spirit is that the Church and its individual members may be helped. Speaking in tongues does edify the speaker, but the rest of the congregation is left in the dark. They can’t very well say amen to what he says: they don’t have the least idea of what God is saying through His ecstatic worshiper.

            Paul is stressing here the need for prophetic utterance, that speech that supplies what is lacking in a person or a church group at that moment. The congregation may not lack teaching, although that is too often true, but God may see a need of the moment that he wants a layperson to fill. Tongues will not suffice then. Shouting and great demonstrations by others cannot fill the need of the moment. A word of prophecy is required.

            We should heed Paul’s words. When we seek spiritual gifts, prophecy should be one of the foremost. A good pastor, of course, has the gift of prophecy. If he does not, he has missed his calling. Perhaps he should be a plumber or an electrician; certainly not a pastor. But there is always a place for an anointed word from the ordinary person in the pews. God has so structured His Church that everyone has a niche to fill, a slot into which she fits. Sometimes God will use you for a particular task just for that instant. There are other tasks that are yours on a permanent basis. We need to seek God earnestly for our proper place in the Church. It is the body of Christ and it cannot function as a body without the contributions of its individual members.

            The pastor will be the first to admit that he cannot do it all. There are many things that the laity has to do. The pastor cannot always be there on the spot when your sister needs encourage­ment. He cannot always be there when your brother is depressed and on the verge of taking drastic measures to climb out of his pit of despair. If you are there, you, my friend are IT. You are the mouth of God for that moment.

            We have a habit of underrating ourselves, of being “humble” and saying, “Oh, I can’t do that; I don’t have that kind of ability.” The brother in need can’t wait until someone comes along who supposedly is more talented than you. The sister who desperately needs encouragement and comfort doesn’t have the luxury of waiting for just the “right” person to come along. God let you come at just that time to fill just that need. Fill it. You will cry a thousand bitter tears if a life is ended or a soul is lost because you hid behind the lame excuse of “I don’t have that kind of ability.”

            Speak to your brothers and sisters in a tongue they can understand. Speak to them under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Use the language of love. Speak. Write. Use sign language, Pony Express – anything to get the word to them that God wants them to hear or read. 

            And then again, sometimes all that the unfortunate victim needs is a hearty pat on the back, a cordial handshake or an affectionate embrace. And whisper earnestly in his ear, “God bless you, my brother!” Do what God leads you to do. To me it all comes loosely under the heading of prophecy, the anointed “word” from God. This of course assumes that the Spirit of God is leading you.

Verse 13

“13  Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret.”

Comment on Verse 13

            If you simply have to have the gift of unknown tongues, ask the Lord to give you also the interpretation of what you say.

Verses 14-17

“14  For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understand­ing is unfruitful.

15  What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the under­stand­ing also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.

16  Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he under­standeth not what thou sayest?

17  For thou verily givest thanks well, but the other is not edified.”

Comment on Verses 14-17

            Although, as Paul said earlier, the individual saints were edified by speaking in tongues, they did not know what they were saying. This was true also when they prayed in an unknown tongue. Therefore he advised that there should be a balance: Pray in the Spirit and also pray in your own language.

            There are times when a heavy spirit of prayer comes on you and you don’t know why the heaviness. The need to pray is not for you at that time. The prayer is a growing pressure within your spirit and it has to be expressed. That is the golden moment when the Spirit will either pray through you in other tongues or will vent your prayer with “groanings” or deep-seated sighs “which cannot be uttered.” (Rom. 8.26) When the Spirit takes over and prays for you, through you and for someone else possibly half a world away from you, that, my friend, is a mystery – but a beautiful one.

Verses 18-19

“18  I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all:

19  Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thou­sand words in an unknown tongue.”

Comment on Verses 18-19

            We have already dealt with verses 18 and 19.

Verse 20

“20  Brethren, be not chil­dren in understanding: how­beit in malice be ye chil­dren, but in understanding be men.”

Comment on Verse 20

            Our study concludes with verse 20 in which Paul is enjoining his parishioners to grow up spiritually. It is all right, even needful, to come to God as little children – our Master said that we have to become as little children before Him – but God does not want us to remain children in understanding nor in our grasp of spiritual truths. Paul wished for his flock what God wishes for us all, that we would go on to perfection in Christ.

            If we are indeed mature members of the body of Christ, we should deport ourselves in a mature fashion. We have to see things in the right perspective and quit giving dispropor­tionate weight to the gifts of the Spirit that are relatively less important. You will note that I use the term “relatively less important” because all the gifts of the Spirit are important and profitable for the Church and its individual members

Are You Hurting? Wait Just a While Longer

Oh yes, there will be peace for the children of God some day. We don't need a crystal ball to make this prediction, we don't have to be students in history or political science nor is it required that we be so-called prophets. It seems to me that even if we did not have the numerous biblical prophecies assuring us of this long sought for, elusive worldwide peace, we know enough about the ways of God from the other scriptures to know that God, who is a just, righteous, perfect Creator of all things, will not forever endure the vagaries of men and the chaos sin produces. Could the God we know – a God of peace who came to earth to bring peace to men – bear an eternity of sin and turmoil and terrible upheaval in nature and the hatred and venom of men?

It is impossible that an all-powerful being such as our God would wait year after weary year for the perfection of man, which by all counts should never happen because man as he is constituted now is a child of hell on a never swerving perennial tack to hell. God has held onto mankind in spite of man's unlovable nature, but a perfect and almighty God will not allow the persistent state of lawlessness and disobedience to divine will to continue into indefinite perpetuity.

God can bide His time; He has all the time in the world and He is of infinitely long patience, nevertheless there is a set time, of which only He is aware, a time of metamorphosis worldwide and universal, a time of cosmic CHANGE. And, as nothing and no one could hasten the day of change for centuries and centuries, there will be no power in heaven or earth that can stay its appointed time. God will have His day, and I am not now referring to the great Judgment Day.

Judgment will have been meted out by the time God gets what He wants for Himself and all His people. Perfection will be the rule of the day; perfect humans, perfect circumstances and perfect order throughout the universe. There will be no more infrequent collisions of large stellar objects far off in the depths of the cosmos. These cosmic accidents God has mercifully kept far away from our planet, but who can say when God will pull back the protective hedge and allow judgment to run rampant?

There will be no further devastating climatological occurrences here on earth, no fires, no earthquakes, which phenomena terrify us into sweet angelic beings for the moment in which they occur. After the terror is gone however we revert to our same lustful, sinful pursuits.

A good knowledge of God and how He operates tells us that, however long He waits, He will not wait to see the same sin-impregnated creatures spawned generation after sinful generation. What then would be the purpose in there being a God? If God can do whatever He sets His mind to do, you know this interaction between God and wicked man cannot continue. A Glad Day is coming.

God will have His day and, if we belong to Him, we too will see the great day for which we have longed, a day completely unlike any time we have experienced in our mortal lives. I can’t set a time; I will not even hazard a year. We might all be alive and waiting for the day, or we could have gone to be with Jesus by then, but this I know: the day God has promised us is coming and it is likely to be sooner than later. Let’s not defect or default now; we have come this far by faith: let faith take us all the way home.

Jesus may come today, Glad day! Glad day!

And I would see my Friend;

Dangers and troubles would end

If Jesus should come today.

 

I may go home today, Glad day! Glad day!

Seemeth I hear their song;

Hail to the radiant throng!

If I should go home today.

 

Glad day! Glad day! Is it the crowning day?

I’ll live for today nor anxious be,

Jesus, my Lord, I soon shall see;

Glad day! Glad day! Is it the crowning day?

 - George Walker Whitcomb

Is This a Closing Look at Jesus?

 Jesus was the “last Adam” (1 Cor. 15.45) and, like the first Adam, Jesus had no human (biological) father or mother. God formed the first Adam out of the ground and it is logical to assume that Jesus, the second Adam, had the same chemical makeup that His predecessor had.

 The first Adam was not created in the strict sense of the word nor was Jesus. Jesus’ body had the same chemical components as the bodies of His human family. His flesh was like ours. The greatest difference between the human Jesus and the rest of the human race other than Adam was that Jesus did not inherit the sin with which we are plagued. Similarly Adam was sin free in the beginning of his existence. He was not formed in sin; he was not deceived as Eve was; Adam deliberately fell from the innocence with which he was originally clothed. 1 Tim. 2.14 informs us, “…Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.”

I formerly have said, only partly in jest, that Adam saw that Eve had fallen from divine favor because Lucifer had deceived her and he decided that if his mate was to be condemned to death, he would join her. “Now that is true love,” I would conclude with a straight face.

But what I was overlooking was that Adam had the audacity to disobey God, the Maker of heaven and earth and all things therein – just because his wife was foolish enough to do so! In this instance Adam loved his wife more than he loved his Creator. We know today better than Adam that God is indeed a jealous God and will tolerate only so long our relegating Him to second place in our affections.

That was a very damaging error on Adam’s part, one that would bring down untold misery upon Adam and all his descendants. Millions will eventually end up in hell for that one act of disobedience. In their sinful stubbornness they will continually reject God’s offer of salvation until they will have reached the point of no return; they will have crossed the line drawn in the sands of time and be forever damned.

Yes, there is a line drawn, a specific place where the grace of God for you (not for everyone) will abruptly be cut off. There will then be no more pleas for you to come to God. The pleas to all sinners will still be made by God’s representatives here on earth, but they will not be directed to you: your ears will be stopped by the hand of divinity and your eyes blinded to the truth. Will this eternal damnation on your part negate the love, mercy and grace of God that will still flow bountifully and freely all around you, leaving you parched and doomed in the midst of God’s plentiful blessings?

Didn’t God plead with you in the many altar calls through which you have gritted your way and in the whispering in your heart in the night hours and even during your busy times when you really didn’t want to be bothered?

“Yet you say, The way of the Lord is not fair. Hear now, O house of Israel. Is My way not fair? Are your ways not unfair? When a righteous one turns from his righteousness and does injustice and dies in them, he shall die for his injustice which he has done. [But] when the wicked turns from his wickedness that he has done and does justice and righteousness, he shall keep his soul alive. Because he sees and turns from all his transgressions that he has done, living he shall live; he shall not die. . . Are My ways not fair, O house of Israel? Is it not your ways that are not fair?” (Eze 18:25-29 LITV)

I implore you to think, think and see that God is eminently fair and righteous in all His ways. He did not have to extend mercy to us for breaking His law – which is of the essence of God Himself – nor was He compelled to suffer hideously and die in great pain and humiliation for us. It was only His great love that drove Him to such extremes. He could not bear to see the creature He loved die in its sins. He did what He could, but He will never force you to serve Him and love Him. God’s love causes Him to give you freedom of choice.

You have to decide soon what you will do because the time is fast getting away from you. Will you love and serve this God who suffered and died for you – or will you continue to turn away from Him and die in your sins? In your brief moment of time on earth you must make your choice for all eternity.

An Interesting Tale of Two Races

(A reprint of September 2, 2007, extensively edited)

This blog site is not supposed to produce scholarly tomes based on extensive research, and this present post is certainly not one of those scholarly tomes. It consists, rather, of some timely observations about our individual and collective efforts to live and love and be Christlike. This includes looking at our past and present areas of Christian service and how we worship God. In this regard, let’s go back a hundred fifty years or so to the religious community in the United States.

A History of Prejudice and Subjugation

In the days before the Civil War, black people were often treated worse than animals, especially in the Southern States. The slave master had the power of life and death over his human chattel. Of course not every person of color was killed; no, they were needed to pick the cotton, to do labor that was below the dignity of the white man and to bring more babies into the only world the black man knew, a world of subjugation and humiliation. And, curiously, these same people who were lower than animals were employed in personal household chores and their females were used to cook for the master’s household and to help raise the white man’s children. They entrusted their lives in a sense to the lowest of their low plantation beasts!

The African American slave came to know God in the midst of the fire of oppression and bondage. He had been forcibly rooted out of his homeland in Africa, brought to America in chains and made to serve a master who was, at best, uncaring and, at worst, cruel and oppressive. The slave was, in general, an unfortunate human being who was made, like his white master, in the image of God Himself. But those who exploited and enslaved and dehumanized their captive willingly disregarded or were ignorant of this divine resemblance in their pursuit of monetary profit and personal convenience.

The poor slave awoke as in the middle of a nightmare to find himself in America with no family and no ties to his homeland except the ties he had with others who had been captured with him and dumped unceremoniously in the “Land of the Free.” He had been dropped into a culture totally foreign to him and given no Adult Education classes on how to win friends and influence people. The slave was truly a ship without sail, rudder or anchor and he sorely needed something to sustain him. He needed a God.

Blacks Were Forced into Segregated Worship

“A Judas goat is a trained goat used at a slaughterhouse and in general animal herding. The Judas goat is trained to associate with sheep or cattle, leading them to a specific destination…” (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

In the matter of segregated worship it was not that the off-color sheep of God willingly followed a Judas goat into such an unloving practice. We were forced into it because we did not have the “intelligence” or the inbred “dignity” to worship God as other humans.

 

I won’t pretend to know the details of how this people’s theology was shaped. This I do know: These wretched people, my ancestors made in the image of God, weren’t at all concerned with denominational labels: that would come later as a negative in their religious history. They wanted only to worship their God, the God who had breathed into them the desire and the compulsion to worship Him. They needed their God to survive. After a day or a week of physical and mental stress, the slaves would gather in worship whenever and wherever they could. In an emotionally charged worship service they found sweet release for their straitened souls from the drudgery and stresses of their daily tasks.

Meanwhile, the mainline denominational churches were a thousand emotional miles removed from the blacks’ primitive places of worship. In their neat well built churches the members of the ruling class gathered to worship the same God the blacks worshiped, but in decidedly different atmospheres. And heaven forbid that they should actually consider their God to be one and the same as the God of the slaves toiling under their lash! Starched and prim in their devotions (and despite their refusal to acknowledge the two Gods’ co-identity), the ruling class worshipers knew of the same God their slaves worshiped, but they were on no more intimate terms with that God than they were with the drudges – His people – toiling on their plantations.

Each Sunday their ministers would deliver a dry homily that gave no life-changing impetus to a bored congregation eagerly awaiting the doxology. There was no passion to their worship, no intimacy of fellowship. The worship of the Caucasian Christian was a tradition and a duty; that of the African American was a need and a release and it arose from the inner person.

The slave, whose only crime was to be born black, was forced to get close to God in order to endure the rigors of bigotry and bondage. Inborn prejudice and tradition told the slave master that anyone who looked different than he had to be inferior. We (I say “we” as though I had experienced, by some mystical genetic assumption, my ancestors’ travail) had a fervor in worship that renewed our will to live while ofttimes we were held in the unrelenting grip of cruel conditions.

But today, where have the black worshiper’s vaunted devotion and fervor and intimacy with the Savior gone? These quality traits have vanished like a vapor in today’s sex-and-money surfeited atmosphere. Today we “talk the talk” and even dance the dance, but our sincerity is sometimes seriously suspect. At this point in our religious experience we are no better off than the majority of all so-called believers, most of whom don’t know God. God does not “see” the color of a person’s skin, and He is just as displeased with one race as He is with all races who refuse to serve Him in the way He has prescribed, whether they are black, white, yellow or red. Too many of us have either never known God or have strayed from His side. It doesn’t take a prophetic voice from the past to tell us we are living in an age of apostasy and rampant wickedness. Like it or not, we are in the middle of the evil of which the old line prophets spoke so accurately.

God Is Working in Both Races

But for many years there has been a stirring and rustling in the midst of our white brethren as they come to grips with the knowledge that they have not always pleased God with their former liturgy-oriented manner of worship. They have loosened up and given vent to the emotions and praise that are pushing out from within. They raise their voices in praise and do their gentle little up-and-down dances that give them emotional release and, I am sure, please God.

Meanwhile the black believer, who was brought up on sincerity and freedom of worship, has gone to the extreme (extremes are seldom good) and he now often bases his acceptability to God on how loud he can shout and how much dust he can raise in his worship. Some of our congregations don’t know what it is to have a sweet, anointed service in which they can quietly bask in the presence of God. I often wonder if the individual members experience those delightful moments of communion even at home in their “secret place of prayer.” It seems there must always be noise and physical demonstrations. We are afraid that God will not notice or hear us without the traditional buck and wing and high-decibel shout.

The objective observer can see where the integrating of the races in worship has benefited both sides, not just in the fact that it’s what God desires, but in the tempering of the modes of worship by both races. The white worshiper has loosened up and learned how to enjoy His God, and the black believer has tuned down some of his fierce emotionalism so that he has learned to express his feelings and to praise God without disturbing everyone around him. Some of them even do the little gentle up-and-down dance (I love it!) instead of wreaking havoc on church property and beating their fellow worshipers on the head, and then saying afterwards, “Man the preacher really tore up tonight!” It wasn’t the preacher, my friend, it was you.

A friend of mine made this interesting remark:

“First of all I want to thank God for my Pentecostal background. Not because Pentecostals were accurate in their theology (there was much to be desired in that area), but because of the fire they ignited in our hearts to have a meaningful relationship with the God of our salvation.  Their emphasis upon Jesus made it so personal for us, that is, our relationship with God is so real.  I think their major contribution…to us was an impartation of "sincerity" in walking with God. That quality is missing in today's brand of "Pentecostalism"… I have told my church that I am not Pentecostal, or Baptist or anything other than that I am a child of God and am in the body of Christ.” (Virgil Cox Jr., former pastor, The Good Shepherd's Assembly, Kansas City, MO)

As quoted above, the Pentecostal mode of worship did give us a meaningful relationship with our God. It made the worship of Jesus a personal thing and it gave us a fire in our hearts, but too often we thought the fire needed to be a white hot conflagration. We have thrown the gasoline of our volatile emotions on the fire instead of letting it gently warm us as we worship God.

There is an appropriate time for great rejoicing and exuberance, but that is not necessarily every time we gather to worship or to pray. Where are the intimate times of quiet meditation and communion? There is certainly a time for everything: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven…” (Eccl 3:1) But, as in everything else, we need balance in our worship. When I go to a worship service, I don’t want to hear, every time I step inside the door, a cacophony of shrill voices and booming drums that beat mercilessly on my ears, dissipating the sweet reverie that I had before entering the sanctuary.

Let me feel the warm glow of His Presence. We all need that. We need to revel in the sunshine of His smile and feel Him so near that we speak audibly to Him. There will be times when we can almost reach out and touch Him. Sure, this thrilling intimacy may cause the worshiper to get beside himself and to be physically demonstrative. That’s all right, but remember this: there is a time for all things, a time for loud praise and a time for quiet worship. We don’t need to bring down the glory of God by constantly hollering for Him. He’s not off somewhere on a journey nor is He asleep and we have to wake Him up. God is right there beside us and in us, if we will just get attuned by focusing our thoughts on Him.

Then, after we have focused on God and become one with His will, we can do as Samuel told a humble, tractable Saul (before he was crowned king and became too self-willed to listen to God),

“After these things happen [when you become focused on and one with His will], do whatever you think is right! God will help you.” (1 Sam. 10.7 – Contemporary English Version)

So go ahead: Raise your voice in praise. Be physically involved in your worship. Or quietly meditate on God and His goodness. Weep for joy. Do as the occasion warrants as you focus on, and become integrated with, the sweet will of God. Just, please, don’t shut me out of my quiet moments of meditation. We all need that and we will not be spiritually well-adjusted until we learn to balance our worship.

I leave you with a portion of the lyrics of the Negro National Anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing. I love the song not just because I am a black worshiper; what stir my emotions greatly are the powerful, gripping words that were forged in the white-hot fires of oppression. Every believer of every tint or shade would do well to at least gain a cursory knowledge of the black man’s history. He or she will then understand why the the words of the song range widely throughout from a dirge of wretchedness and misery to a paean of liberty and sheer gratefulness to the Father of mercies and God of all comfort.

Lift Every Voice and Sing

 Lift ev’ry voice and sing,

Till earth and heaven ring,

Ring with the harmonies of liberty;

Let our rejoicing rise

High as the list’ning skies,

Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.”

 

Stony the road we trod,

Bitter the chast’ning rod

Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;

Yet with a steady beat,

Have not our weary feet

Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?”

 

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,

Thou who has brought us thus far on the way,

Thou who hast by thy might.

Led us into the light,

Keep us forever in the path, we pray.

- James Weldon Johnson

The True Reality

Reality in this life is obviously what we can perceive by our five senses - sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. Anything else, in this view, is not reality. Our thoughts, although they may be based on something "real," are ephemeral and wispy: we tend to assume that whatever cannot be discerned by at least one of our five senses is less than real. Based on that assumption, of what does even our natural life consist? It is evident we are existing and we are obviously alive, but can we touch life or taste it or see it or smell it or hear it?

Are any of these insignificant items the true reality? Such thinking would make heaven and angels and even the pillars of our existence – our God and Savior Jesus Christ – insubstantial figments of our overactive imagination. And by the same reasoning the spirit /soul of man is unreal. We know however the spirit of life and the Spirit of God within us are real. We are here and thinking as confirmation of our existence and we feel the Spirit of God moving and “talking” to us as an even stronger evidence of the existence of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. It is evident we have to approach this matter of reality from an angle other than bodily perception; we need a more REAL platform than our five senses from which to launch our search for true reality.

Life is real, life is earnest

And the grave is not its goal;

Dust thou art, to dust returnest

Was not spoken of the soul.

All the items we see, hear and feel in this world will be shaken in a figure by the mighty hand of God. The material things of life, whether houses and real estate or cars and clothes and the like cannot be termed real when they will one day go up in smoke.

“But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”  (2Pe 3:7)

Peter repeats his awful warning in verse 12 of chapter 3:

“[We are] looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat…”

The earth and the whole universe will be consumed in a terrible cosmic conflagration. It will be a gigantic cosmic inferno never before experienced by the whole creation. God also refers to the cataclysm as a violent shaking of the entire world and He has said He will once more “shake the earth” with a devastating worldwide earthquake that the things which are real may remain. (Heb.12.26-27) As an animal coming out of the water shakes itself vigorously to rid itself of the water that remains on its body, one day God will shake off from this universe the things that are not real, things that are material, leaving  behind the things that cannot be disposed of, the things that are incontrovertibly REAL.

“And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.” (Rev 16:18)

But as terrifying as a worldwide earthquake will be, the more dreadful event will be the unimaginably enormous fire in a dreadful microsecond roaring through the whole material universe, an insatiable fiery maw consuming all things that can be perceived by our five natural senses. We shall then perceive reality in its most wholesome state, never again to know negatives of any kind.

A closing word of advice is in order here: We have to remember we are still living in a world in which physical perception is very important albeit not all-important. Our “feelings” strongly affect our lives while at the same time we know that feelings will one day dissipate and be replaced by an eternal solid state of reality.

Some things are true in this life that will be true throughout eternity. For instance, the strength of the “feelings” stemming from the supreme event of deity suffering and dying at the hands of sinners, an event we never saw, is to those who believe the indisputable evidence of its reality. However, before we could “feel” the proof, we had to accept Christ’s death solely by faith because God has already given men and women sufficient proof of His existence and power. Then, after we became part of the body of Christ, we could feel the suffering of our Lord, and it told us there was indeed a hammer striking nails through sinless hands and at that moment we had all the proof we thought we needed – after we believed.