"EveryThought...to the Obedience of Christ"

"For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ...."  (2 Corinthians 10:4, 5)

When I was in my twenties, I was thinking that the way in which you implemented our text was to just say, "I pull down your strongholds," etc.  It is not.  The warfare described here is obviously not that "declaratively prophetic."  It is teaching, preaching, testifying to the, "Word of God."  

In this coming election year, it would be great if the Church in America would pull down the, "strongholds," and, "arguments," of just voting the way your parents did, or the union says, or your gender, race, etc., dictates, pulling down strongholds that say voting is a matter of personal preference, or that "Christians should stay out of politics."  The latter, my friend is why America is not the America of our fathers.  As for "personal preference," that stopped the moment we surrendered our lives to Jesus Christ.  This is how people who are surrendered to Jesus Christ vote:  We look for those people and the party which come closest to representing, "the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ," which most closely reflect Biblical Theology.  It is incumbent upon us to know the platform of the people and party we vote for.  To those who claim to be Christian, do not surrender to humanist-thinking-and-acting, "strongholds," and, "arguments."  If those claiming Christianity would vote as "one block," we could take over the United States of America.  After all, isn't that the Biblical mandate for the People of God?!?

I pray that what the Church preaches, teaches, bears witness to in these days always contributes to, "pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ...."

Father, in Jesus' Name, "every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ," is my renewed commitment to You today.  Amen. 

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

Overcoming "The Error of Balaam"

"Woe to them!  For they have run riotously in the way of Cain, and have abandoned themselves for the sake of gain [it offers them, following] the error of Balaam, and have perished in rebellion [like that] of Korah!" 

(Jude 11, Amplified Bible)

The wording here in the Amplified gives us the idea of a reckless abandoned to the sin nature--------------- with no thought or care given to consequences.  

Balaam has always been an enigma to me.  Who can fault him for his "words," deny, or say that his prophetic utterances were not "good" prophesies?  Everything Balaam said of Israel was and is true.  Why then did the Jews of a successive generation seek him out to kill him?  Why is he in our text linked with the likes of Cain, a murderer, and Korah, symbol of presumptuous rejection of God-appointed authority?  Something was obviously wrong.  You get a little of it in his willingness to compromise obedience to God with procuring Balak's money and prestige.  It was as though the money drew him, and/or the prestige of a ruler of a people group seeking out his "gift."  One thing is for sure; Balaam's whole approach was shrouded in religious language.  How very "spiritual" we can sound, getting many to confirm our "words" and deeds, and affirm us as a man or woman of God.  But the determining factor of God's favor and blessing is not "spiritual," religious, cliche talk.  It is a matter of the heart.

A question which arises from today's text is, How does one avoid, "the way of Cain," 

or, "rebellion of Korah," or, "the error of Balaam"?  My first thought is, a pure heart.  "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."  They shall see Him when everything that Satan can throw at us descends upon us, when the temptations are seemingly too much to overcome.  I submit to you that, "....For they shall see God," is the same as, "Looking unto Jesus."  And when you and I run our, "race," with such focus, such purity of heart as the Amplified says, "Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus," then we will not see money, prestige, fame, recognition, acceptance, flattery, or anything or anyone else.  When we have a pure heart of utter surrender and devotion to Jesus Christ, the race that is set before us will be run in Jesus Christ and in His example, "who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."  This is the way of deliverance from the ways of Cain, Balaam, and Korah, "Looking unto Jesus," and keeping Jesus as, "the joy...set before [us]." 

Oh, Father, in Jesus' Name, help me today to run as You "ran" on the earth Incarnate in Jesus.  Keep the "prize" ever before me today, You and Your Eternal Abode.  Amen. 
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Russia's Descent Into the Past? www.jerberwash.blogspot.com

Unreached People Group of the Day: www.apfunreachedpeoples.blogspot.com

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

They "Have Crept In Unnoticed"

"For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who...deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ." (Jude 4)

Denying Jesus is not standing up and saying, "I deny Jesus."  It is marginalizing Him, i.e., not declaring to the nations that this God of Whom we speak is not some distant, non-present, Deistic, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, New Age, nameless God.  He is the God of the Universe Who has revealed Himself solely in Jesus, the One Who said, "Before Abraham was, I Am."  If we speak of God and have no reference to Jesus Christ, the world can easily think that "we all worship the same God."  

The ancient Creeds focused on Jesus, because Jesus is, "to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness;" nothing has changed.  Now you may say, "Wait a minute.  Isn't that reference to the Cross?"  Yes, but it is the Cross of Jesus, and the Cross is not the stumbling block; it is the Jesus of the Cross Who Is the, "stumbling stone and rock of offense"(Romans 9:33).   We proclaim Jesus as, "Immanuel, God with us" (Mt. 1:23), not God Whom we have to "invite," or, "welcome," or worship in, or pray in.  Jesus is God Who is our, "very ('abundant') present help...."  Jesus, my friend, is "there," wherever "there" is before we are!  

So we proclaim Jesus as declared in John 1, "In the beginning was Jesus.  And Jesus was with God, and Jesus was God."  One again may say, "Wait a minute; that text says, "In the beginning was the Word."  Of course it does; and Who Is, "the Word"?  Revelation 19:13-16 speaks of Jesus, "He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The word of God."  It is good to keep in mind that everything we read of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Bible is, "in the beginning," as Micah 5:2 prophesies of Jesus, "His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity."  The Jews may not realize it, but when they speak of "The Eternal One," it is of the Living Triune God they speak, He Who Is, "Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.., Immanuel.., the Word." 

I pray today that this short "honoring" of Him Who does not need us to honor Him, but Whose Honor is, "from everlasting to everlasting," will be a strength and encouragement to you as you live in a world who thinks this is all, "foolishness----- but to us who are being saved it is the power of God"!

Father, in Jesus' Name, I thank You than in Jesus I can know You and am presented, "faultless," before You.  Amen.

  

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

Our Keeper and Presenter

"Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glory without fault and with unspeakable joy, to the only God, our saviour, be glory and majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord before time was, now, and in all ages to come, amen."  (Jude, 24, 25--J.B. Phillips)

Jesus, "is able to keep you...and...to present you...."  To put it another way, Our Lord Jesus Christ is our "Keeper" and our "Presenter."  No human being on this Planet has the right nor the ability to, "come boldly to the throne of grace," any other way; in fact, there just is no other way, than He Who is the, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."

"Now to Him who is able to keep you...."  Our text says, "from falling," and only Jesus Christ can do that.  Yet Jesus not only keeps us, "from," something, but He keeps us for something, yea, rather, for Someone---- Father, Son, Holy Spirit.  When Jesus shed His Blood and died on that Cross, He released power to keep us from his Satanic majesty, his demons, his plans to destroy all that is of the Living Triune God, primarily you and me and all humanity.  At the cross and in the Blood of Jesus, Satan was defeated in those purposes.  Now all who trust Jesus can boldly say with Jude, "Now to Him Who is able to keep [me] from falling."  

But there's more!  Jesus, "is able to present you before his glory, first, "without fault," and second, "with unspeakable joy."  Any "joy" based on any other reality than the hymn's, "faultless to stand before His Throne," is an illusory joy; it is baseless.  But the joy which comes from faultlessness, "before His glory," the joy of knowing that I can stand in the Holy of Holies, in the very Presence of the Living Triune Lord God of the Universe, and more, to not only stand, but live and abide, have my very being in God Himself, is what Peter describes as the, "joy unspeakable and full of glory," Eternal Joy, untainted fruit of the Holy Spirit.

Now, with this Covenant promise in our hearts and minds, you and I ought to be ready to face the rest of this day, no matter what has happened and what will happen, and not only today, but for the rest of our lives, to all Eternity, "to the only God, our Savior, be glory and majesty power and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord, before time was, now, and in all ages to come.  Amen."

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"Not a week passes without an anti-Semitic attack in France"--  Read more at:

www.jerberwash.blogspot.com

Unreached People Group of the Day: www.apfunreachedpeoples.blogspot.com

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

"Making Every Effort...To Contend For the Faith"

"Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints." (Jude 3, NASB)

Strong's says that the word translated, "contend," speaks of "a contest, competition, literally, 'struggle upon appropriately, i.e. with skill and commitment in opposing whatever is not of faith.'"  And be sure of this, that, "the faith," is nothing less than what the Bible calls, "the faith of Jesus."  This, "contend," has been the call of the Church from the beginning.  And through the centuries the call, the mandate has only grown more and more urgent.  The subtleties, the deception, the alluring demons to which the majority of humanity has yielded have only increased their warfare against, "the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ," against the People of Jesus Christ.  

 

The exhortation of the Holy Spirit in Jude has been waking me at nights, causing me to pray with more intensity.  The battle is raging, "heavenly places," are ablaze with the bomb bursts of the cosmic struggle.  It is the goal of Satan to see mankind, "suffering the vengeance of eternal fire,..the blackness of darkness forever."  Now the declaration of Jesus from the Cross, "It is finished," decreed the completion of man's salvation, hence, the theological statement, "Christ's finished work of the Cross."  That battle is over, won, and deliverance from, "eternal fire,..the blackness of darkness forever," is guaranteed to anyone who surrenders his life to Jesus Christ, walks/abides in Jesus Christ.  The final deposing of Satan and his demon forces, however, is yet to come (see Revelation 20:7-10).  This is the reason for the call in Ephesians 6 to continue in the fight.    

So today, my friend, I ask you to join me to, "contend for the faith...."  This does not mean to put opposers to the sword as Mohammed, or to argue, split over whether the Second Appearing of Jesus Christ will be pre, mid, or post Tribulation, or any such contention.  But there is a jealousy for the Truth, Who is Jesus Christ.  It is a "love-jealousy," a love for Jesus and His Supremacy in the Universe.  It is also a "love- jealousy" for humanity, a love for humanity which will fight in prayer, in "declarations," in preaching, teaching, serving so that they may escape, "the vengeance of eternal fire,..the blackness of darkness forever," that the world will hear and see in us, the Church, the loving, saving, delivering, healing, keeping power of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Father, in Jesus' Name, Holy Spirit power, release in me, "contend for the faith."  Amen.

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A revelation on racism in America: www.jerberwash.blogspot.com

Unreached People Group of the day: www.apfunreachedpeoples.blogspot.com

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

"To Keep You From Falling,..To Present You Faultless"

"Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe.  And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day...." (Jude 5, 6--NASB)

Please excuse the personal reference here, but I pray that what happened to me last night will happen to you.  First, let me say that over the years I have looked at my life from time to time and thought that I have not been "successful," you know, big churches, big ministry, in demand, in other words, how most of unspiritual Christendom measures success and "favor" and anointing and, well, you get the picture.  Of course we can say that much of this is flesh, and indeed it is.  I am the first to say that from my early days as a pastor I have tended to be too direct, too "in your face," or maybe too little of Joel Osteen.  Seriously though, regardless of who and what I have been, there is one thing for certain in my life:  I have never been able to get away from the Bible.  If I ever tried to be more "acceptable," there was the Bible; if I ever tried to be more like, well, Mr Success, there was the Bible.  It has been as though Jesus has had to treat me at times as a child and let me wonder down the fleshly path, only to bring me back to Himself, His Words, His Wonderful, beautiful, "God-Breathed," Words.  And make no mistake about it; today's text is in the Bible and is for all people in every generation.  By the way, I'm not saying that all big "ministries" are not Biblical, but if anyone is committed to the Jesus Christ and His Words, they will not avoid such passages just to build big ministries.

Our text for today is from my latter half of my New Testament reading.  Last evening as I read it, I experienced an intensity in prayer that I have not experienced for a long time.  I began praying for my family and others as Paul said, "with groanings which cannot be uttered."  If people even come close to believing that Jude is rooted in the "Breath of God," the very, "words of God," then they must believe that this is a warning, a dire, sobering warning to the Church as well as the nations.  It is a short epistle, and I encourage you to take the several minutes required to read it and just see if the Holy Spirit does not do the same with you.  There was a renewed sense of the, "fear of the Lord," as I read and prayed last evening.  May this ever be an integral "part" in motivation to pray, our commitment, "to the ministry of the word," and in our Lord Jesus Christ's command to, "Go therefore and make disciples all the nations."  

"Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever.  Amen." (Jude 24, 25)

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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