(Devotional): Sherwood Barnette sent you a video: "Karl Barth on the Confessing Church (Bekennende Kirche)"

"How long, O Lord, must I call for help?  But you do not listen!  'Violence is everywhere!'  I cry, but you do not come to save.  Must I forever see these evil deeds?  Why must I watch all this misery?  Wherever I look, I see destruction and violence.  I am surrounded by people who love to argue and fight.  The law has become paralyzed, and there is no justice in the courts.  The wicked far outnumber the righteous, so that justice has become perverted."  (From today's "Minor Prophets" reading, Habakkuk 1:1-4, NLT)

Now tell me the Bible is not relevant.  This is a writing from the late 7th century B.C.  Yet it's as though Habakkuk was now reading and watching current world news.  But lest depression overtake you, the Living Triune God responds to the prophet, "Look around at the nations; look and be amazed!  For I am doing something in our own day, something you wouldn't believe even if someone told you about it."  Now what follows is coming judgment, and one might say, "What's edifying about that?"  Well, for me it is the declaration to His servant, Habakkuk, of what King Jesus is about to do, letting him in on Father's administration.  And Jesus is doing the same with you and me today.  We have lived and are living history, a history in which Jesus Christ reigns and has always reigned.  He is not silent; He is not deaf; He is not "uninvolved."  He reigns!

The short video below is from an interview with Karl Barth concerning "The Confessing Church" during the Nazi era.  Sarah and I lived in Germany from October 1998 to October 1999, and go there regularly.  Now some people may believe that my interest in Germany from 1918-1945 is just a guy-war-thing; it is not.  Germany in the first half of the twentieth century is a classic study of Biblical Prophecy and the struggle of Christ's People in a sin ladened culture.  It is, at least, a partial fulfillment of our text.  Germany is a study on how a great people descended into Hell.  The questions remain, questions such as William Shirer put forth, "How did it happen that an ancient and cultured people, steeped in Christianity, cultivating the arts and sciences, and preeminent in modern technology collapse into savage barbarism in the mid twentieth century?"  They turned their backs on Jesus Christ and, as it is or will be with any people group or individual, "....they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.  And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie...."

You and I are living in perilous, very troubling times, yet they are exciting times.  Jesus Christ, King of the Kingdom of Heaven, reigning in the earth, among nations, among people, and in His Church, in you and me is showing His Church more and more the power of His Words.  I had a renewed fervency in prayer today, my call affirmed and strengthened in the Holy Spirit.  I pray more and more for you the Words of Jesus, "Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near."

Father, in Jesus' Name, I do lift up my head!  Amen.

Sherwood Barnette has shared a video with you on YouTube Karl Barth on the Confessing Church (Bekennende Kirche) by kbarthorg Karl Barth on what led to the formation of the Confessing Church (Bekennende Kirche) in Germany. Extract from the documentary film "JA und NEIN, Karl Barth zum Gedaechtnis" (1967), directed by Heinz Knorr, Calwer Verlag. Visit http://www.kbarth.org to learn more about Karl Barth, one of the greatest thinkers of Christendom.

"Whoever Desires to Save His Life"

"For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it." (Jesus)

A person "saves" his life only in absolute surrender to Jesus.  Anything else we do loses life, now and for eternity.  Every time in the quarter I come to this text I must "take stock."  Where am I in Jesus?  Am I attempting to save my life or any detail of that life?  If I am, I am the loser.  If, on the other hand, I not only say, but live, "I Surrender All," then I have Life Eternal, Who is Jesus Christ.

"Having found in many books different methods of going to God, and divers practices of the spiritual life, I thought this would serve rather to puzzle me, than facilitate what I sought after, which was nothing but how to become wholly God's" (Brother Lawrence, Practice of the Presence of God).  Who, in their right spiritual mind, cannot say the same.  This is the most noble of life's pursuits.  I am thankful for the teachers and books in my life over the years.  But no one should ever allow them to replace God Himself.  Sadly I have had many people in parishes over the years who did just that.  The "big names" were more "lord" than The Name.  "How to become wholly God's," has been always God's desire for us.  "Adam, where are you?" has never changed in the heart of the Living Triune God.  We see this desire in Him as He walked the shores of The Galilee, as He encountered the weary, the lost, the suffering, the hypocrite religious leaders of the day.  And these words are still going forth in the Earth to every man, woman and child on the Planet, "_______, where are you?"

So today the words of Jesus still go forth to you and me, to all, "Whoever desires to save his life will lose it...."  You and I know the, "wrestle against," which we experience so much, the wrestling with the enemy of man's soul throughout our lives to be "wholly" anyone's or anything's other than Jesus'.  We don't say the words, but we act them out nonetheless, "I'll take it from here;" losers all who live thus.  But "winners" all, "whoever loses his life for [Jesus'] sake...."  Yes, this includes my willingness to lay down my life, but also my obedience to say to Him and live to Him every moment of every day, "Thy Kingdom come.  Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven."

Father, in Jesus' Name, "such a worm as I" has attempted to, "save his life," in far too many ways over the years.  He surrenders now, anew to, "lose[] his life for [Your] sake...."  Amen.
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"The Thug Culture That Killed Chris Lane":  www.jerusalemberlinwashington.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

Beware the, "Shibboleth," Test

"The Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath." (Luke 6:5)

There is a constant need of reminding us, "The Son of Man is also Lord of...."  Perhaps a current application of our text could be, "I am Lord of, 'your-sinner's-prayer-is-not-as-good-as-mine.'  I am Lord of your theologies.  I am Lord of the Church in _________ (your town here), not you and all your billboards which may imply otherwise.  I am Lord of political beliefs, economic beliefs, and, 'my-sin-is-not-as-bad-as-their-sin.'"  The Jewish leadership by this time in history had developed quite a variation of this mentality.  I pray I have not. 

Jesus said at one point, "a greater than Solomon is here," and, "Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple."  In effect, "You say that my disciples committed a sin by plucking, 'the heads of grain and eating them.'  Are you not aware of what David did?  You have enshrined Solomon and the Temple, yet your interpretation of what I have said and been about from the beginning is based on your desire to make yourselves look righteous and all others unrighteous."  This is what many fundamentalists have attempted with Bonhoeffer and other great men in Church History who did not pronounce the, "shibboleth," correctly.

"Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?"  Jesus response is the theme of His Teaching, "The Son of Man is Lord...."  What the Jews needed, and what you and I need, is an attitude before our Lord of, "....quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger...."  Most Jews of the First Century were quick to judge anyone who was not of their "camp."  What about today?  Could it be that we have cut ourselves off from those who are just as much, "born again," just as much citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven as we?  Bonhoeffer once wrote, "Unity which is not based on truth is a sham."  This is absolutely true; therefore, I am not advocating a careless, "try the spirits," rather an application of the oft read and quoted, yet little understood 1 Corinthians 13.   

Biblical love is not a love of, "O, you have your beliefs and I have mine, and that's okay."  It is not, as Mumford says, "Sloppy Agape."  It is the very Love which Jesus Christ Is, as He is also, "The Way, the Truth, and the Life."  This love is correctly translated in the KJV as, "charity," a giving which expects no receipt, no tax deduction, no, "Well I gave to you; now what are you going to give to me?"  Phillips paraphrases it this way, "This love of which I speak is slow to lose patience-- it looks for a way of being constructive.  It is not possessive: it is neither anxious to impress nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance.  Love...does not pursue selfish advantage.  It...does not gloat over the wickedness of other people.  On the contrary, it is glad with all good men when truth prevails." 

I see none of this in the accusations of the Jewish leaders in the Gospels.  "The Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath," is a reminder that you and I are not.  Could there be a sense here and an application of the 1 Corinthians passage, "Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes.  He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart" (NIV).  I confess I have attempted this far too many times over the course of my service in the Church.  I now bow and surrender anew to Him Who is, "The Lord of the Sabbath."

Father, in Jesus' Name, convict me every time You would need to remind me that You are the, "Lord of," and not me.  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