The Cure For "Blackness, and Darkness and Tempest"

"For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, and...the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore....But you have come to...Jesus." (From Hebrews 12)

Here our Lord Jesus stands in contrast to the fear of the unknown, whether in the seen realm or unseen realm.  "The voice of words," and, "the word...spoken to them," were "hidden," mysterious, foreshadow words, words, "which angels desire to look into."  In Jesus Christ, however, all humanity may, "look into."  There are no "secrets" of God here, just the revelation in Jesus of Who He Is, loving, forgiving, nurturing, enfolding in His Arms.

I have shared before of my encounter in Sweden with an Iranian Muslim refugee who had surrendered his life to Jesus Christ and who was more effective in winning Muslims to Christ than anyone I had ever heard of.  When I asked him why he was so effective in winning Muslims to Christ, He said to me, "Brother Woody, Islam teaches that you can never be assured of the forgiveness of sins, and that you cannot know God personally."  He didn't need to say more.  When they hear of Jesus Christ-------  

Even as I write, from that, "blackness, and darkness and tempest," many are coming, "to Mount Zion,..to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven,...to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things that that of Abel." 

Father, in Jesus' Name, what glorious Words!  Amen.
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When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

"Looking unto Jesus"

Hebrews 12:2

What is "The Christian Thing"?

"And so it was, at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, 'Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened. (1 Kings 18:27)

 

According to most theology today, this was not "the Christian thing to do;" therefore, it was probably a mistake to invite Elijah to the Mount of Transfiguration.

 

From some responses, I think some believe I advocate book burning.  I don't think I have gone that far yet.  I do stand by my statement, however, that the Koran is a war manual.  I think it is noteworthy that all I have read and heard from Christian leaders about the planned "Koran Burning" in Florida Saturday says it is not the "Christian thing to do."  What that is can be quite cloudy.  Most religious people I have heard over my life time also condemn all of the Crusades as "unchristian;" I don't, though some of them in my opinion, should be condemned.  The Arab Muslims were invading Europe centuries before the First Crusade.  What was Europe to do, pass out tracks?  The Crusaders saw that the battle with Arab Islam would not go away, and they saw it almost a thousand years before Americans finally saw it on September 11, 2001.  No doubt there were excesses and abuses in the Crusades just as in any war, e.g., American Civil War, WW 2, etc.  But I thank God that someone had the foresight and courage to fight those wars. 

 

There is some "nice guy" theology in Christendom which just cannot be reckoned with either life or the Bible.  Much of it marginalizes the Old Testament with, "Oh, that's Old Testament," as though God somehow got converted in the intertestamental period.  And what of those who are "New Testament only," who love to site the "Sermon on the Mount" as, "that's the Christian thing to do?"  If they are honest Biblical scholars, then they must also "site" the Book of Revelation.  Both are God's idea.  And according to the latter, the last act of Christians on this planet will be to participate with Jesus Christ in the most "unchristian thing to do"--------- participate in the most total war the earth has ever seen. 

 

I am not trying to be contentious.  But it would be good to have some thoughtful, serious discussion on today's issues facing the Church.  The effectiveness of reaching the lost with the Biblical Gospel of Jesus Christ and the proclamation of "end time" Biblical Prophecy depends upon it.  Personally I think it would be refreshing and am open to input.

 

Father, in Jesus' Name, I readily confess to You that I have uncertainties about many issues------------------------ but none of You.  Amen.

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When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

The Koran Burning

"Let them be ashamed and brought to mutual confusion who seek to destroy my life; let them be driven backward and brought to dishonor who wish me evil." (I did not have to look for a "proof text."  This is from Today's Reading, Psalm 40:14)

 

Notice that the ultimate deliverance of the Follower of Jesus Christ is in Jesus Christ.  The psalmist fought many battles on the fields of Israel, and they were not just "spiritual" battles.  Yet he knew that he was not just, "[contending only with physical opponents], but against the despotisms, ...against the spirit forces of wickedness" (Amplified Bible).  His writings reveal that he knew the victory always came, "in the power of His might." So we have a text today which is a war prayer, and so very relevant for us who live on a planet at war.

 

There has been much talk in the last few days about the up coming Koran burning, and no, I'm not necessarily endorsing such activity.  But what some may be unwilling to say, I affirm--- The Koran is a war manual.  E.g., "O believers, take not Jews and Christians as friends....Make war on them until idolatry is no more and Allah's religion reigns supreme....It is not for any Prophet to have captives until he has made slaughter in the land.... When the sacred months are over, slay the idolaters wherever you find them."  Yes, this even includes all Bible reading, worshipping, church-going, even very active church people in America.  In case there is still any incredulity, here is the Open Doors prayer request for September 7-- "Somalia (Islamic Controlled): We received several reports of the increasing numbers of secret believers being exposed and killed for their faith in Christ."  In case anyone is wondering, we do pray regularly, "Have mercy on us and on the whole world," and yes, this includes the Arab Islamic world, that they may, "be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth," receiving Jesus Christ as their Lord, Master, Savior, baptized in the Holy Spirit, names in, "the Book of Life." 

 

What I write, however, is not mutually exclusive.  The Arab-Islamic World declared war on the rest of us fourteen hundred years ago.  What a part of that world saw on September 11, 2001, was the result of Arab-Koranic hatred of everything we stand for.  And to me, it is ominous that in the debate over the proposed "Koran Burning," people can still engage in some kind of arm chair talk of "religious liberty," "civil rights," and perhaps the most dangerous, "the Christian thing to do."  It is talk which is attempting to keep "peace," a peace of self preservation.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, "There is no way to peace along the way of safety."   

 

Father, in Jesus' Name, I pray for eyes to see and ears to hear.  Amen.

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When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

"You Have Loved Righteousness and Hated Lawlessness; Therefore...."

"You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness (sin); therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions."  (Hebrews 1:9)

 

Hating lawlessness (sin) and loving righteousness brings, "the oil of gladness."  I wonder if this could be the reason so many Christians have no, "anointed...oil of gladness."  The difference between the Follower of Jesus Christ and the world is, "righteousness," and, "lawlessness" (sin.)  One constantly hears the excuse, "Well, nobody's perfect, and yet the command and the power to walk in the command is still there, forever written in the universe, "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect."  By the way, the word for, "perfect," could be translated, "grow up."  The Bible says that, "we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ...."

 

Not long ago I was having a conversation with another believer about all the wars, killings, etc., in the Bible.  The commands to wipe out men, women, children, babies, even animals was always related to judgment against/on sin.  We are appalled at such pronouncements because we are too dominated by sin ourselves, still have too much sympathy with the sinner, not a grace or mercy sympathy, rather an "I'm-one-of-them" sympathy.  In Jesus Christ, however, I am not one of them; I am of Him.  Okay, "sinner saved by grace," and, "work in progress," and, "hate the sin but not the sinner," but we have simply used such cliches as excuses for our all too often flirting with and even participation in sin.  It seems to me that a reason Father speaks so grandly of the Son, Jesus, in our text is that Jesus loves what Father loves and hates what Father hates.

 

I have heard many times over the years people express disapproving alarm at God's judgment on sin, especially as expressed in the Old Testament.  Yet what they are doing in fact is making a moral judgment on God.  When people make moral judgments on the way God runs things, do they ever consider the awful, awful price, and the seeming unjust, "immoral" act of the death of Jesus on the cross------------ for me, the sinner?!?! 

 

Father, in Jesus' Name, may my greatest "shock" always be the Cross of Jesus.  Amen.

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When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2

The Challenge of the American Church in the Twentieth-First Century

"See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ." (Col. 2:8, NASB)

The Church of Jesus Christ historically has had to fight the seduction of the state to compromise, even amalgamate itself with the pervading social, political, and cultural order.  Followers of Jesus Christ all over the world can learn from one of the most vicious examples of this, the experience of the German Church during the 1930s.

I have included below some excerpts from the "Barmen Declaration," which was the birth of the "Confessing Church," in Nazi Germany.  Led by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the "Confessing Church" sought to be the Church of Jesus Christ, "in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation."  During this time, what Shirer called Germany's "descent into Hell," there was a majority movement which arose within the German Evangelical Church, called the "German Christians."  They attempted to amalgamate the German Evangelical Church with the Reich Church, a perversion of Christianity which arose after the victory of the National Socialists in the June and November, 1932 elections.  In January, 1933, since no party had a clear majority, President Hindenburg appointed Adolph Hitler, the leader of the majority Nazi Party, as chancellor.  In the midst of this great upheaval in German society, it did not take long before it became clear, as Bonhoeffer wrote, that the battle in the German Church was leading to "a large national church, with which we will then have to contend."  The example of the "Confessing Church" in Germany during that period is an inspiring example to all who would, "deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow," Jesus Christ.

II.  Theological Declaration Concerning the Present Situation of the German Evangelical Church

8.11 Jesus Christ, as he is attested for us in the Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death.
8.12 We reject the false doctrine, as though the church could and would have to acknowledge as a source of its proclamation, apart from and besides this one Word of God, still other events and powers, figures and truths, as God's revelation.
8.15 We reject the false doctrine, as though there were areas of our life in which we would not belong to Jesus Christ, but to other lords-- areas in which we would not need justification and sanctification through him.
8.17 The Christian Church is the congregation of the brethren in which Jesus Christ acts presently as the Lord in word and sacrament through the Holy Spirit.  As the Church of pardoned sinners, it has to testify in the midst of a sinful world, with its faith as with its obedience, with its message as with its order, that it is solely his property, and that it lives and wants to live solely from his comfort and from his direction in the expectation of his appearance.
8.18 We reject the false doctrine, as though the Church were permitted to abandon the form of its message and order to its own pleasure or to changes in prevailing ideological and political convictions.

Father, in Jesus' Name, grant me strength in the days ahead to stay true to You, Your Church, and Your Kingdom.  Amen.
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When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

"Looking unto Jesus"

Hebrews 12:2