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| A Muslim Finds Peace With God |
| Tuesday, May 06, 2008 |
We live in a world of frightening images. Muslim extremists have declared war on our western culture, which they see as pagan and ungodly. The answer, for many of them, is to cleanse the earth of the infidels. And so every day we hear news of Palestinian unrest or young muslims blowing themselves up in the name of allah.
But rather than fearing this, and closing ourselves off from it, we need to be praying for those who are lost in the legalistic world of Islam. Because for Muslims there can be no real peace with God. They live in constant fear (though they often won't admit it) that in the end God (allah) will find their good works inadequate, and so the Muslim lives and dies with the dread that God will pour out His wrath on them.
That's why I love to hear stories of how Christ is sweeping through the Muslim world today with forgiveness, peace, and hope. Missionaries are reporting that thousands, if not millions, of Muslims are coming to faith in Christ.
I'm not sure how long this link will be available, but I invite you to scoot over to this site to read the testimony of a Muslim woman in America who finally found peace with God through Jesus Christ. It's stories like this that make my heart sing with thanks and praise to Jehovah God.
Labels: Evangelism, muslim, peace with God |
posted by Alan @ 1:03 PM   |
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| Perfect Patience |
| Friday, May 02, 2008 |
What an encouragement the Apostle Paul is to us who struggle with our faith, and who struggle with sin.
"It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. And yet for this reason I found mercy, in order that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect ptaience, as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life." (1 Tim 1:15,16)
Sometimes I get very discouraged with myself. I want so much to be just like Christ, and yet find that sin battles on in my life. Then Satan tries to fool me into believing that Christ is going to abandon me if I keep messing up.
But God's assurance from Paul is that He chose Paul, the chief of sinners, as an example of His patience toward the rest of us who fight the good fight against sin, temptation, and the world. Paul was far from perfect, as he well knew, but was delighted that Jesus showed infinite patience with him as he stumbled along.
You too can have that same assurance. If you believe in Christ for eternal life, He will show you the same perfect patience that He showed the foremost of all sinners, Paul.
So relax! And carry on.
Labels: assurance, faith |
| posted by Alan @ 10:17 AM |
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| Potty Mouth Christians |
| Tuesday, April 29, 2008 |
 I've addressed this issue before, but it deserves another look, because far too many Christians, in my view, think that it's kind of "cool" to use mild vulgarity or the salty colloquialisms of our culture. "It helps me to relate to them", they reason. "And if they think I'm a stiff, self-righteous Christian, I'll never get their ear."
Well, a lot of verses come to mind for me when I hear that, but here's just two:
1 John 2:15
"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him."
Eph 5:8-12
"Walk as children of light finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret."
William Law, in his book A Serious Call To A Devout And Holy Life, writes about "the reason why the generality of Christians fall so far short of the holiness and devotion of Christianity." In his day it was quite common for men, even professing Christians, to regularly use vulgarity and profanity. And so Law asks, "How comes it that two in three of men are guilty of so gross and profane a sin as this is?"
His answer? THEY DO NOT INTEND TO PLEASE GOD IN THIS MATTER.
"For let a man but have so much piety as to intend to please God in all the actions of his life as the happiest and best thing in the world, and then he will never swear anymore. It will be as impossible for him to swear whilst he feels this intention within himself as it is impossible for a man that intends to please his prince to go up and abuse him to his face. And if you were to stop and ask yourself why you are not as pious as the primitive Christians were, your own heart will tell you that it is neither through ignorance nor inability, but purely because you never thoroughly intended it."
Hmmmmm.
Is it my intention to be pleasing to God in ALL THINGS, or just a few? Have I convinced myself that God doesn't really care about careless words and coarse jokes? Jesus said that our mouth gives away our heart. James said the same thing in his epistle.
Friends, God has made it clear: it is pleasing to Him that we use our mouths to speak love and grace and peace:
Eph 4:29-30
"Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but only what is good for edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers."
Eph 5:3-5
"Let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints: filthiness, foolish talking, coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks."
Eph 5:18-21
"But be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God."
It's time to close the lid on our potty mouths!
Labels: holiness, purity, speech |
| posted by Alan @ 1:29 PM |
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| All Pity, No Pride |
| Thursday, April 24, 2008 |
God's view of us is one of pity. Simple as that.
Judges 2:18 "For the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them."
Joel 2:18 "Then the LORD will be zealous for His land, and pity His people."
But, our postmodern mindset kind of cringes at that perspective. Pity is demeaning. It suggests that the recipient doesn't really deserve this largess. We rather prefer the word "mercy" -- Lord, have mercy on me -- because mercy is seen as a noble thing given to someone who is of somewhat noble, though perhaps confused or misguided, character. Mercy maintains our dignity; pity does not.
Evidence of this is that many Christians today pray "forgive us our trespasses", really meaning "Lord, give me a bit of a break, would ya? I'm not so much a miserable sinner as I am just a stressed out guy who needs a break." But this attitude exposes our pride. It saves the ego; it soothes our self-image. It does not understand forgiveness.
And so if my pride is untouched when I pray for forgiveness, then I haven't really understood my relationship to God and my fellow humans. Because real humility understands these truths:
Our God is a consuming fire. Through the LORD's mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.
He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him.
You see, self-pity and unforgiveness have everything to do with pride. They believe that there is merit in received goodness. But once we step into God's Kingdom and really trust Him, we understand that we deserve nothing at all, and so God's pity and our humility become the atmosphere in which we have learned to live. We understand and agree that we are hopeless sinners who rely exclusively on the pities and mercies of God. "For the Lord is bursting with compassion and full of pity" (James 5:11)
This, then, helps the Christian who finds it hard to forgive -- whether it's his neighbor or himself. Because the Christian who can't forgive is the Christian who still hangs on to pride. He doesn't understand God's realm of pity, nor does he live in it. All good things from God are "somewhat deserved". And so, just as he won't accept pity from others, neither will he offer it to others. He walks by the beggar on the sidewalk mumbling to himself, "Get a job, you bum. Why should I help you?" This, then, leaves him with a poverty of spirit and a deficit of love that affects his whole outlook on life and all of his relationships.
But the man who lives in the realm of "all pity and no pride" is the man who sees life as it truly is. He has accepted that he earns nothing and receives everything. And he has learned to love much because of it. He sees a reflection of himself in the struggling masses all around him, and so he shows love, grace, and pity for them as a fellow sojourner, because he himself lives in the realm of God's unmerited pity. Labels: love, pity, pride |
| posted by Alan @ 3:12 PM |
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| "Wake Up, Pastor!" |
| Thursday, March 06, 2008 |
 This is God's Word to pastors who have fallen asleep at the switch, who have promoted programs and promises, but who have done little to shepherd God's sheep, and so have seen little spiritual fruit in their ministries:
Jeremiah 5:26
"For among My people are found wicked men; they lie in wait as one who sets snares; they set a trap; they catch men. They have grown fat, they are sleek; yes, they surpass the deeds of the wicked; they do not plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless; yet they prosper, and the right of the needy they do not defend. Shall I not punish them for these things?' says the LORD.
God is addressing His concern that church leaders have fallen asleep at the switch; that they are no longer pleading the cause of the helpless before God; that they have tolerated wickedness in their midst. These leaders have grown fat and lazy, all the while personally prospering in many ways. "Shall I not punish them for these things? says the Lord."
2 Tim 3:13
But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
Jude 4
For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Matt 13:24-26
Because the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept [churches and their leaders], his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.
Pastor, if this is your church, it's time to wake up. Elder, if this is your church, it's time to wake up. Or if this describes you, you'd better quickly repent, for "I will come near you for judgment", says the Lord (Malachi 3:4).
Luke 13:5
I tell you.....unless you repent you will all perish.
Luke 13:7,9
Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and found none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground? If it bears fruit, that's good. But if not, [I will] cut it down.
Jesus ordered the disciples to "watch and pray". They didn't, and the enemy cut their underbellies. This is one of the greatest flaws in the modern church today -- we're too often all programs and no prayer.
It's time to wake up, Pastor, before it's too late. This has been God's personal call to me, and I share it with you as well.
The heart of God is for faithfulness in church leaders. He's far more concerned about character than He is about numbers. And if we fall asleep while the enemy sows tares, we must expect darkness in our ministries, and churches that continue to struggle.
Labels: faithfulness, leadership, pastors |
| posted by Alan @ 12:10 PM |
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| Hope For Struggling Churches |
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The church I have been serving for the past eight years has been struggling with shades of apathy and faithlessness lately. It seems to have infected a growing number of our people, like a silent cancer moving throughout the Body. And we leaders have been scrambling to plug the holes in the boat.
 As we've prayed about it and sought the Lord's heart He has been making it increasingly clear that unchecked sin in our midst is one of the causes. Some of us have been coming to worship the Lord, but our hearts have been far from Him. We have not offered ourselves in righteousness. We have been trying to love the Lord while loving the world as well -- and as God makes perfectly clear, that just doesn't work (1 John 2:15). We can't serve two masters.
God has spoken to me again today through His servant Malachi, and I want to share it with those of you who may be frustrated with your own walk, or frustrated with the lack of life in your church. Here's what God said to His people 400 years before He sent Christ:
I will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; I will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the LORD an offering in righteousness.
Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to the LORD, as in the days of old, as in former years. And I will come near you for judgment; I will be a swift witness against sorcerers, against adulterers, against perjurers, against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans, and against those who turn away an alien-- because they do not fear Me," says the LORD of hosts.
The Scriptures from 1 Corinthians 11, Revelation 1-3, and the story of Ananias and Sapphira should all serve to remind us that God doesn't tolerate sin in His midst for long. Where two or three are gathered, there He is, but if backsliding Christians continue to come willfully to tweak God's nose, He will remove His lampstand from their midst, and darkness will begin to set in.
But Malachi reminds us that God loves us too much to just let us go on like this, so He will come to us like a purifying fire, and purge the sin out of us and nail it to the cross. Difficulties, hardships, and trials may descend upon a church body until repentance is achieved, or the tares have been yanked from among the wheat. Then, and only then, can we "once again offer acceptable sacrifices to the Lord", and He will accept and rejoice in them as He did in the past. Then, and only then, will we recover the life and joy that once was.
So, if you're struggling with apathy these days, or you're frustrated because your church is, wait upon the Lord to bring His incense bowl of fire, that you might be purged of the things that have come between you and God.
Don't forget these probing words:
"If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:6,8,9)
This is what God is waiting for. This is the heart of God!
Labels: repentance, revival, sin, worship |
| posted by Alan @ 11:07 AM |
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