Jesus

A life on fire – responsive

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In considering the life of John the Baptist as an example of a life on fire, I would like to move on to the responsiveness of this life. “…the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. And he went in to all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.” Luke 3:2b-3

Notice these phrases – “the word of God came” “and he went”. John didn’t sit around luxuriating in the warmth of a word from God. He recognized that the word made a requirement of him. The word came…and he went. The word makes a requirement of us as well – obedience.

Somewhere after being born again, as we become more acclimated in the Christian environment, we can find ourselves receiving the word of God in a way other than how God meant for us to receive it.  Consider what was happening in the day of Ezekiel the prophet:

“As for you, son of man, the children of your people are talking about you beside the walls and in the doors of the houses; and they speak to one another, everyone saying to his brother, ‘Please come and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord.’  So they come to you as people do, they sit before you as My people, and they hear your words, but they do not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain.  Indeed you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they do not do them.” Ezekiel 33:30-32

These were the religious folks; happy to get together for church, ready to hear a message.  But they had no intention of allowing that word to impact their lives.  It was just their religious form of entertainment.  And it is just as prevalent in our day.  How many people do you know that run from church to church, conference to conference, book to book, always looking for the latest word in religion.  They aren’t necessarily just interested in the religious cotton candy that’s out there, but find an in-your-face message just as tasty.  However, the word is not allowed to nourish and bring growth to their inner man.  It makes its way to the belly and is eliminated without ever having affected the heart.   It is spiritual bulimia.

But those whose lives are on fire by God will listen with a heart to obey, to hear the very voice of God speaking to them through the message.  “Speak to me God!” is the cry of their heart, and they treasure one word from heaven over 10,000 messages from the most learned theologians.  Then, and only then, can they go with something to share with the world.

Oh let us hear!  Let us respond!  And let our hearts burn for His speaking!

To be continued…..

A life on fire – focused

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“I came to send a fire on the earth and how I wish it were already kindled” Luke 12:49

These are the words of Jesus. A fire is to be kindled. A fire that He desires to be kindled. What is this fire that He longs for? As I have thought upon this passage, I keep returning to the same conclusion – Jesus is longing for the day when His followers are aflame with desire for Him. He came to send a fire on earth. That fire is this new life that He gives those who believe in Him. It is a life on fire.

But what does this look like? What is a life on fire? My meditations on this subject kept leading me back to one man – John the Baptist. He illustrates it well.

A life on fire is a focused life

John’s life was a focused life. He wasn’t into fancy clothes and fine cuisine, but was satisfied with camels hair and locusts. He was so focused on one thing that he didn’t need a whole lot of other things. And that one thing was this – I must prepare the way. John could have been a priest, with all the prestige and perks that accompanied such a life. Instead he chose the wilderness and a life of seeking God, being prepared for the work that God had created him for. When the prophet Malachi put down his pen, then began 400 years of silence from heaven. And then….

“Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberias Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, while Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in thee wilderness.” Luke 3:1-2

These verses are a veritable who’s who of that day. There were many powerful leaders both in the secular world and the religious world. These were men of influence, wealth and power; respected (or at least feared) by those they ruled. But when God was looking for someone to speak through, He spoke through John. John was nobody; some obscure man living in deserted places. But he had set himself apart to seek the face of God and be a vessel prepared for His use. So God was pleased to overlook the well-known and look upon the unknown. This man who had spent his life seeking God was now to speak for God and when he emerged on the scene, his was a life on fire.

To be continued…..

The glorious face of Jesus

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2 Corinthians 4:6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

We can know the power of God by the works of His hand. We can know the mind of God by the words of His mouth. But we will only know the glory of God by the gaze into His face.

Just a few verses earlier we read:

2 Corinthians 3:16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Doesn’t this bring to mind the moment in a wedding when the groom lifts the veil that covers the bride’s face and the two gaze at each other, filled with love?

Jesus has unveiled us. Our sin-clouded eyes have been washed that we might see Him clearly, and in the seeing, know His glory.

Those who only catch a passing glance of Jesus as they go about their life will never see that glory. It requires face to face. Stopping everything to gaze upon Him. To linger…beholding the glorious face of Jesus.

Running with certainty in uncertain times

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1 Corinthians 9:26 Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty.

There are people who run for pleasure, or for fitness. They run a while and then turn around and go back. They have no particular destination. Paul wasn’t living his life without a certain aim. There was a finish line he was running towards and it was always on his mind.

It’s only the sprinter who can see the finish line from the starting line. The marathon runner knows there is a finish line although he doesn’t see it for most of the race. He will run for miles and miles and miles and never see the finish line ahead of him. He just stays on the path, knowing it will lead him to the finish.

The scenery around the path may change from time to time as he goes through a city and then past a field of flowers. He doesn’t expect it to always look the same. He just keeps running.

Within the last year many have felt they are running with uncertainty. I think of all the people in ministry who feel sidelined right now because of shut downs and restrictions related to Covid. Prison ministries are shut down. Many churches are shut down. Hospitals aren’t allowing people in to visit and pray. There are a lot of people who have been very active in ministry, running the race, but now feel like they are idle and unfruitful and the finish line seems uncertain. They were on the path and running the race and now the scenery has changed and things don’t seem as clear.

Just keep running. Stay on the path. Be faithful to do what is at hand in the moment. This is a marathon so we won’t see the finish line for a while, but the path will lead you there…to cross the finish line…to obtain the prize…to hear the words:

“Well done my good and faithful servant”

Supernatural seed

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Mark 4:26-29 And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

Anyone who has been involved in evangelism has undoubtedly experienced the reality of this verse. Salvation is a supernatural experience produced by the power of God. I can preach the word of God until my voice fails, but if the Holy Spirit doesn’t move upon the heart, nothing will change.

For years in evangelism I put undue pressure upon myself to produce results, which led to times of great discouragement. I considered if I had said the right things or been persuasive enough. This verse has brought clarity to the role of man and the role of God in the salvation of souls.

The Lord has chosen to use men and women as His messengers. Angels may have been more efficient, but they have not experienced the saving power of God. So frail humanity has been entrusted with this noble task. Let’s consider what this parable says.

The sower is scattering seed on the ground. We know from Luke 8:11 that the seed is the Word of God. Any experienced farmer will make sure that the ground is prepared to receive the seed. Likewise, we pray that the hearts of men would be prepared by the Spirit of God to receive the seed of His Word.

While the seed is in the ground, hidden from sight, things are happening. Life and growth are being produced. For a while it is unseen but eventually it will sprout out of the ground and grow. God is at work.

During this time the farmer isn’t totally inactive. He pulls weeds, watches for insects that would damage the crops and provides water. He ensures that there are optimal conditions for growth. Again, this happens very powerfully through prayer and intercession as the work of God continues to produce life.

A glorious day will come when God’s work has produced a soul ready to be harvested, that is, brought into the kingdom. And here is the farmers joy, to reap the fruit of his labors.

Man cannot do God’s part. He is the one who saves, many times in spite of us. But He has given us a part to play as well. Let us be found faithful as sowers of the word, tending in earnest prayer to those souls who have heard.

Being flexible

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Mark 2:21-22 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.”

In the passages leading up to these verses we see Jesus touching a leper, forgiving and healing a paralytic, eating with sinners. The religious people hated Him for it because He just wasn’t…well…religious enough. There wasn’t enough fasting, enough rigid law keeping, enough self righteous separation from sinners. It was in this context that Jesus spoke these verses. He spoke them to people whose religion made them stiff and rigid. It made them harsh and judgmental. It shut up their hearts to those broken in body and broken by sin.

They clung to the old wineskins of their religious tradition, and when Jesus brought the new wine of a Spirit filled life, just like the old wineskins they weren’t able to receive the new thing.

These rigid religionists were mad when His disciples got something to eat on the sabbath (2:23-24), mad when Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath (3:1-2), and accused Him of being devil possessed because He cast demons out of people who were bound.

Jesus just would not be like them and they hated Him for it. I supposed it never crossed their minds that they should become like Him. Rigid and inflexible, they missed the miraculous things that God was doing, and the miracle of God incarnate being in their midst.

Let God bend you, beloved. Don’t miss the glorious things He wants to do in your life by being inflexible.

Another level of being nothing

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1 Corinthians 1:29 that no flesh should glory in His presence.

1 Corinthians 1:31 …..He who glories, let him glory in the LORD.

Innate in fallen human nature is the desire to be great. The desire to be admired. The desire to be applauded. We learn to excel at many things to gain the accolades we desire. They become our life’s fuel.

And then….Jesus. When we meet Him it changes everything. In the fervor of first love we would willingly become less than nothing that He might be all. But then we gain spiritual knowledge and step out into some ministry or other…and well meaning people praise us. It is at this point that those old prideful desires make an appearance, and sometimes they become the driving force of our spiritual life.

We want to write the best blog, record the best video, create the most spiritually relevant posts. Our adrenaline level mirrors our “likes”. We begin to live for the praise of men, although we would never admit it (and possibly may not even be aware of it).

Until eventually we find that everything we’ve been giving our life to is wood, hay and stubble and Jesus is in none of it.

It is time to come to another level of being nothing, that Christ may be all.

The world is waiting

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1 Corinthians 2:4-5 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

I believe that I serve a God of power. Not just 2,000 years ago, but now. Here. Somewhere along the way the church has forgotten this and has lost the faith to believe for it. And so now all our preaching has to be eloquent and clever. The skill of the preacher energizes an otherwise average message. The power of personality is displayed instead of the power of God. And so, men and women trust in the cleverly worded sermons and the artful turn of a phrase and never see a glorious Christ with the power to save.

4 ways to have a happy marriage

10 steps to financial prosperity

6 secrets to a disciplined life

But where is the power of God? Where is the radical transformation of a life that has been touched by fire from heaven? Where are disciples ablaze with an otherworldly love and passion?

These cannot be produced by the thrashings of our fleshly attempts at ministry. We need a move of God. The world is waiting.

Is that you, Haman?

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The name Haman means “magnificent” and Haman certainly seemed to want to live up to his name. The first mention of Haman is when he was elevated to a position of prominence by King Ahasuerus. In fact, he was elevated above all the other princes in the kingdom and the king commanded that everyone bow and pay homage to Haman. That seems pretty magnificent. But it wasn’t enough for Haman, because there was one man who refused to honor him – Mordecai (whose name means “little man”). Mordecai was no noble personage or prominent dignitary, but Haman was infuriated at Mordecai’s refusal to venerate him. His wrath was so great that he not only wanted to destroy Mordecai, but every single one of the Jews in the kingdom. And so the plotting began.

He formulated and finalized his plan.  The date was set for the extermination of the Jews and the elimination of Mordecai.  And now he waited.

The plot thickens – what Haman didn’t know was that Queen Esther was also a Jew, and when she was made aware of Haman’s plans she began seeking a way to undo what Haman had done.  It started with a private dinner party for the king and Haman, with neither of them yet knowing the purpose, except that Queen Esther asked them to return to another private dinner party the next day.  Haman returned to his house that evening and his response to the day is in classic Haman style:

Esther 5:11-13 Then Haman told them of his great riches, the multitude of his children, everything in which the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the officials and servants of the king. Moreover Haman said, “Besides, Queen Esther invited no one but me to come in with the king to the banquet that she prepared; and tomorrow I am again invited by her, along with the king. Yet all this avails me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.”

His desire to be honored by every single person overshadowed all else.  He couldn’t rejoice in any good that came to him because there was ONE person in the entire kingdom that didn’t honor him appropriately.

The next day all his plotting was exposed, Haman was hanged on the gallows that he had built to execute Mordecai and the book of Esther ends with the magnificent one being disgraced and the little man being elevated.

Beloved, pride is an ugly beast that will turn on you and tear you to pieces. If we are honest, we have all experienced a little bit (or maybe a lot) of Haman rising up in us at times.   We want to be noticed.  We want to be important.  We want people to think we are special.  But Jesus told us this: 

But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”  Mark 10:31

…but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant.  Matthew 20:26

The servant of Jesus Chris does not seek his own honor and the building of his own kingdom. If everyone else is exalted and given a place of prominence, and you continue to be unnoticed, be assured that your Lord sees and knows. Any rewards, any reputation, any status we receive on earth will pass away. Heaven is the place for real and lasting rewards. You may feel like a “little man” but you are “magnificent” in Jesus. Maybe nobody else sees it. He does. That has to be enough.

No time for retreat

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Mark 8:36-38 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

I don’t know if this verse has ever hit me as profoundly as it did in my most recent reading of it. I have definitely had experiences of being mocked and ridiculed for believing and preaching God‘s word. That certainly isn’t a pleasant thing to go through, but like many others before me, I survived it 😊.

Things have changed a great deal in recent years. The stakes have gotten higher and as people whose whole lives and value systems have been built upon the word of God, it may cost us more than we ever expected.

There have been times in recent years that we have seen surprising concessions by leaders in the body of Christ as things that God has always called sin have become accepted and applauded not only in secular society, but also within portions of the “church”.  Rather than risk seeming unloving, the clear teachings of the Bible have been watered down so that we don’t offend anyone.  Some pastors have refused to take a stand for righteousness because if they do they may face retaliation. Tolerance is the new buzzword, except of course when it regards matters of faith. You can believe anything you like in your heart, but if the wrong person hears it coming out of your mouth you could find yourself in serious trouble. The pressure to conform and be silent comes from every direction.

Don’t do it!

The word of God is still true and it is still the power of God unto salvation. Jesus never told us that everybody would love us or His message through us. In fact He told us just the opposite.

John 15:19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

John 15:18 If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.

I want to encourage you today to stand boldly for Jesus and don’t be ashamed of His words. They are spirit and they are life.