T.G.I.M. / Faith Alone

As we count down to Reformation Day at the end of this month and honor those who protested, this week let's focus on just what it was they fought to reform. What exactly were our church fathers protesting? 

Two vital things mark the Reformation, two things we today as Christians should always take a stand to defend and uphold: 

1.) Sola Scriptura - Scripture alone. This means that the Bible is not only the infallible Word of God, but it alone is authoritative for the faith and practice of Christians. Church tradition is not equal or above the Scriptures, but the Scriptures alone should determine and guide our traditions and everything we do. 

2.) Sola Fide - Faith alone. This means that we are justified by faith alone. The doctrine of justification means that we are counted righteous before a holy God only on the merit of Christ and his cross, not by any works we have done. To say that justification is "Jesus plus" is to actually subtract from the work of Christ. 

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." ( Ephesians 2:8 ) 

But what does it mean that we are justified? What does this impart to one who has faith in Christ for their salvation? This is what I think we should ponder and hold in our hearts, not just this week and month but always: 

Romans 5:1-11 

"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
For one will scarcely die for a righteous person--though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die--
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation."

1.) Peace with God. This isn't a warm feeling we get inside of us. Through justification we are now at peace with God - we are no longer his enemies because of our sin nature. Jesus served our death sentence and paid the punishment for the sins a just and holy God can not overlook. 

2.) Hope in suffering. Suffering has a purpose, and even though we might not be able to see a reason for it, it doesn't mean there isn't any. In fact Scripture tells us that if we share in Christ's sufferings, we do so in order to share in his glory. ( Romans 8:17-18, 1 Peter 4:13 ) "Rejoice!" "Indeed," Paul wrote to Timothy, "All those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." ( 2 Timothy 3:12 ) And the Church has been harassed and hounded for over two thousand years. 

Remember, your sufferings are preparing for you an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison! ( 2 Corinthians 4:17 ) 

You will not be put to shame. Quite the contrary. 

3.) Saved from God's wrath. Because Jesus has justified us, our sins are atoned for. The Bible tells us that God will by no means clear the guilty. ( Exodus 34:7 ) He is the just judge, unlike our human judges, many of whom can be bribed. God will execute on Judgement Day what is perfect and fair. People who have been victims of horrific injustices and who have family members who have suffered atrocities beyond imagination take comfort knowing a day is coming when God will rightly judge the living and the dead. This is our hope. One day, God will right every wrong. 

God would not be good if he was not just. 

4.) Reconciliation with God. We could go on and on about this glorious benefit all day. We are adopted by God as his children. We are no longer alienated from God. We have access to the throne of grace. ( Hebrews 4:16 ) We can come continually to obtain mercy and grace. 

We can come home. 

Read Romans 5 and Ephesians 1 & 2 

Let's remember what the gift of faith alone has brought to us in Christ alone. 

Soli Deo Gloria! 

💜

Archive photo of our first Great Pyrenees Paw Patrol 

True Healing

"The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out like calves leaping from the stalls." ( Malachi 4:1-2 ) 

It's hard to wrap my mind around the fact that tomorrow marks the 20th anniversary of my sister's death. 

I remember several different Christian women during that difficult time, including one of Kathy's oncology nurses, gently ministering to me about my belief system. But I didn't have ears to hear their godly counsel just then. I was like a Great Pyrenees, ever hearing, never listening. Nonetheless, the seeds were planted. 

After Kathy died, it all came crashing down, my faith, my belief system. Something wasn't adding up in my theology, and I was determined to find out why. The Farmer would come home from work to find me sitting up in the bed with my Bible and recently purchased theology books spread out before me.  

The doctrinal rubble that once seemed to stand so tall and strong now lay crumbled in ruins amidst my cozy quilts in the sinking sand. The storm had made landfall. 

It reminds me of what C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity: 

"Imagine yourself a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house....But presently he starts knocking that house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? ....You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but he is building a palace. He intends to come live in it Himself." 

And God makes no provision for false doctrine in his children's houses. Of course not, he loves his sheep with a holy jealousy. ( Exodus 20:5 ) 

During this time of intense study I asked the Lord to please show me the truth. I was confused because as Scripture warns can happen I had allowed myself to be "tossed about by every wind of doctrine" for my entire life. And that's exactly how I felt, "storm tossed on the billowing waves of twisted theology" as I had latched onto whatever I was taught, what tickled my ears, instead of knowing my Bible and testing what I heard against it. And so often it takes a typhoon to topple the imprudent, frail cottage. 

During the continued study, the truth began to dawn on me that, in spite of being in church my whole life, if asked, I could not unpack the Gospel of Jesus Christ to save my soul. 

Slowly, my faith began to be rebuilt on the firm foundation of God's Holy Word. And it began with theology - the study of God. Up to that point I didn't have an accurate view of Yahweh or Jesus Christ, of his person and his redemptive work. I had heard many teachings on the Holy Spirit, but I really didn't know him either or his crucial work in the life of the believer. 

There would be more storms and nasty battles to confront, and as Christians we will always be growing, which includes growing pains in the process as God burns off the impurities with his cleansing fire, but I was finally on my way to living the Christian life on solid ground. A sense of joy and freedom was settling into my heart. 

Before this journey at Kathy's long chemo treatments we would talk about the desire the Farmer and I had for a piece of land to build a homestead. For much of her eight month battle, we thought it would be an adventure together with our families, but as it became more apparent that her time on earth was quickly drawing to a close; heartbroken, I knew it wasn't meant to be. 

A year and a half after Kathy died and after we had engaged in one wild goose chase upon another, investigating property all over the state of Virginia, the Farmer and I finally found land. It had a beautiful blend of our "must haves" with open acres, woods, a thriving body of water, and it was just enough off the beaten path in rural Bedford County close to where I grew up. 

The Farmer asked me to name it. He knew it was important to me. I told him that it was going to he "healing" something because my sister had taught me that true healing takes place in one's spirit and is found only in Jesus. 

I couldn't get the second word - I liked "springs," but there was already a "Healing Springs" in Virginia. One day while I was driving and thinking it over the word "brook" came to me. I liked it. I was pretty sure there was a verse somewhere in the Bible about a brook. 

Shortly after closing, the Farmer and I were walking over the perimeter of the woods, this was our "pre-Great Pyrenees days," to our delight we found a babbling brook cascading down from the mountain through the forest trees, encapsulated with strong boulders, the bubbles rolled sweetly over the rocks and into the creek that bordered the property. 

Now from time to time I sit by the "healing brook" with my dogs and listen to the calming sound of the water. Nature composes the most beautiful symphony. Through a groaning creation, God mysteriously comforts us and gives us glimpses of the resplendent, promise land to come 

My mother-in-law, a pastor's wife, visited the farm to pray with us before we started to build anything. She prayed over our future together with the Lord and she wanted to help me in my on-going grieving process. She said that when her husband died young, the Farmer's father, that she knelt in agonizing prayer over his death and for the first time she said that she came face to face with the sovereignty of God. 

I would come to learn what she meant. Today the sovereignty of God is the most comforting, precious, and reassuring hope to me, bringing an overwhelming confidence and strength to serve my Maker. 

In "Orthodoxy" G.K. Chesterton wrote about the contradiction of God's sovereignty and man's freewill and the tension of living within them. "It's a mystery," he writes, "As long as you have mystery you have health; when you destroy mystery you create morbidity." I'd add "whether we realize it or not." 

We want to figure things out, but God's ways are not our ways. And yet his ways are the best ways. When we understand, we can't understand, accepting and living in the tension of both of these, I've found this spiritual truth creates a strong reliance upon God and a robust faith. 

Chesterton goes on to say that if we see two truths that contradict each other, we should take the two truths and the contradiction along with them, for in seeing two different pictures at once, we see all the better for it. When one thing becomes mysterious, everything else becomes clear. 

For instance in Genesis 22, when God tested Abraham by telling him to take "your only son Issac, whom you love," the son of promise, and sacrifice him on Mount Moriah, this testing seemed to contradict all that God had promised to him. 

Hebrews 11:17-19 tells us that Abraham was prepared to obey God while believing God to bring Issac back to life again. God provided a ram caught in a thorny thicket for the sacrifice instead of Issac. All of this being a type and shadow of the day when God would prepare another sacrifice in the life of his Son, the Lamb of God, in the same place. ( 2 Chronicles 3:1 ) 

And the sacrifice of His Son would not be halted. No, this sacrifice would be carried out in the life of his Son. Christ is the ram caught in the thicket of thorns, willingly wearing the crown. Jesus the Christ would take our sin and in exchange give us his perfect righteousness - the only way back to God. 

In the mystery of my pain and His sacrifice, Jesus became clear. 

Through the ages of human history, most have viewed life and religion as circular, the "circle of life." 

Not so with Jesus. At the heart of the Cross, Chesterton explains, is a collision and a contradiction that can extend its four arms for ever without altering its shape. 

I love this. 

Things are not how I thought they would be, but God has given me more through the Cross and his Son than I ever knew or dreamed possible - not a physical healing that will eventually end in death - no, something far greater and needed and abundantly life-giving, a healing of my spirit in salvation that will never die. 

I found my answer - I found Jesus. 

Or rather, He found me. 

Soli Deo Gloria! 

💜

T.G.I.M.

"And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." ( John 17:3 ) 

"Thus says the LORD: Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD." ( Jeremiah 9:23-24 ) 

"I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep." ( John 10:14 ) 

"What matters supremely, therefore, is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it - the fact that He knows me. I am graven on the palms of His hands. I am never out of His mind. All my knowledge of Him depends on His sustained initiative in knowing me. 

I know Him, because He first knew me, and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, one who loves me; and there is no moment when His eye is off me, or His attention distracted from me and no moment, therefore, when His care falters. 

This is momentous knowledge. There is unspeakable comfort - the sort of comfort that energises, be it said, not enervates - in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love, watching over me for my good. 

There is tremendous relief in knowing that His love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion him about me, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself, and quench His determination to bless me.

There is, certainly great cause for humility in the thought that He sees all the twisted things about me that my fellow-men do not see ( and I am glad! ), and that He sees more corruption in me than that which I see in myself ( which in all conscience is enough ). 

There is, however, equally great incentive to worship and love God in the thought that, for some unfathomable reason, He wants me as His friend, and desires to be my friend, and has given His Son to die for me in order to realise this purpose. 

We cannot work these thoughts out here, but merely to mention them is enough to show how much it means to know, not merely that we know God, but that He knows us." 

( J.I. Packer, Knowing God, InterVarsity Press, 1972 ) 

Live in that thought this week! 

Happy Monday! 

Archive photo of Natasha with a new lamb and his mother

"Tale as Old as Time" Kingdom Living

The Farmer has sole control of the TV remote in our household, and whenever we all come together as a family to watch a movie, he promptly pauses it when the rest of us begin to engage in discussions during a particular scene. "Are you all done?" he'll asked a bit annoyed before he pushes the play button again. lol 

Last weekend I had the privilege of being the sole controller of the remote when my grandchildren and I watched Disney's original 1991 classic "Beauty and the Beast." We had a charming time because Gigi always allows for much movie talk among the little people. 

It's such a great story, isn't it? My favorite. 

The kids immediately identified Beauty ( Belle ) as "good" and the protagonist Gaston as "the bad guy," but they weren't so sure about the Beast. 

"Is he good or bad?" 

"He's both. He's complicated. You'll have to keep watching." 

As the movie plays out, one comes to find the Beast tolerable, then engaging, dare we say "lovable?" 

He was once a handsome prince living in his stately castle when an old woman came begging at his door for shelter from the cold. When he refused to offer her a refuge in his huge home, because he was "spoiled, selfish, and unkind," she revealed her inner beauty and placed him under a spell by turning him into a brute beast, confined to his castle until he could show love to another and be loved in return. 

That's the backstory to the Beast. 

Then there's the conceited hunter Gaston who is a picture of narcissism if ever there was one. He has his sights set firmly on marrying Belle, thinking he's doing her a favor, but the last thing on her mind is to become the little wife of a megalomaniac. 

Belle, with her nose in a book surrounded by sheep, is looking for something other than her "provincial life" and is in for her own twisted, romantic surprise. 

When Belle first meets the Beast she is scared and repulsed, but as time sings along, her heart begins to melt toward him. What became of the prideful, spoiled prince who refused to offer kindness to an old beggar woman? What is the difference between the Beast and the egotistical, self-absorbed Gaston? 

One thing. 

The prideful Prince-turned-Beast has been humbled. 

And this is a plot changer. 

Humility transformed the prideful, selfish prince into a handsome beast. 

And Belle falls head over heels because there is no character trait in a man as attractive as humility, strength under control, looking out for the needs of others above his own, able to say he's sorry. 

In the biblical narrative, Jesus is the Beauty. He's the Beautiful One, and we're the Beast. We're sinners, humbled and granted repentance, given grace, mercy, and faith to believe, adopted into the family of God by our Savior's sacrifice, and nothing spectacular that we have done, but still dragging around our baggage, our sinful nature. We live in this continued state of working humility in the kingdom as we are conformed into the glorious image of Jesus. 

We have a past, a backstory. We are good and bad. We are complicated, and we live in a complicated world, learning what it means to love and to be loved. 

We live in the "already and not yet" kingdom. Jesus has already won and secured the victory for us on the cross and by his resurrection and ascension, but he has yet to consummate the victory by his return. 

I love how I recently heard Sinclair Ferguson put it: "The implications have yet to be worked out in the church or the world or in ourselves as individuals. Sin is still in the world. People still rebel against God. Satan is wounded but active. We still stumble."

"Only when Christ returns will his enemies be made a footstool for his feet. Jesus has done the big thing. Victory is certain, but we live in between two moments." 

And the key to living in between these two moments is humility, remembering what we were and what Christ has done to redeem us when we could do nothing to save ourselves. And looking forward to the glorious future he has already secured. 

Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 18:3 that unless you turn and become like children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven, and that whoever humbles himself like a child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 

Humility is needed to enter the kingdom and to be the "greatest." Unless we recognize our need, we will never come to Jesus. And unless we continue to walk in humility, we will not be great. If we think we are better than other Christians, or at a higher spiritual level because of our gifts or status or whatever it may be, we are fooling ourselves right out of the kingdom. 

There is a purpose for us in this already but not yet kingdom or God would not have left us here battling the sin within and the power of the Holy Spirit to do so. Life in this kingdom is making us Christ-like. We are confined to our "castles" until Love sweeps us away to himself one day. 

Christianity is a life of humility as we confront our stubborn, indwelling sin, weaknesses, and suffering, the enemy and the world's system, learning to master evil and bring good out of it. God chooses to develop his children this way, not changing us immediately into goodness, but through the slow, beastly  processes of sanctification. 

"Then Jesus told his disciples, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.'" ( Matthew 16: 24-25 )  

"And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me." ( Matthew 10:38 ) 

Crosses are intended to kill people. 

And we aren't called to walk in the lead with Jesus; we're called to follow him, dragging our crosses as we go. Killing ourselves daily, mortifying our sin when it seeks to have us. The change doesn't happen overnight, and it's painful. 

But the promise in Scripture is that if we share in Christ's sufferings, we most certainly will also share in his glory. The results of our journey on this hard, narrow path of life is our glorification in the life to come. His Kingdom come. (  Romans 8:17-18, 1 Peter 4:13, Matthew 6:9-13 ) 

Dare we say, "lovable?" 

One of the most delightful surprises in Christianity is just how satisfying and joyful this humble, transforming path with Christ becomes once we understand the nature of our journey and what it promises to provide within us. 

Yes, throughout the movie there were lots of questions, teaching moments, and reminders, especially for Gigi. It's such a great story, isn't it? 

Tale as old as time.

Song as old as rhyme. 

Beauty and the Beast. 

Happy Weekend!

💜🐾

Shasta as a sweet pup from the HBF Archives

Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven

"And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes. 

When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, 'Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.' And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, 'I will; be clean.' And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, 'See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.'” ( Matthew 7:28 - 8:4 ) 

The context of this passage is that Jesus has just finished teaching his famous Sermon on the Mount. Jesus had astonished the crowd with his words and authority, with his claim to fulfill the law, and now he is descending the mountain to heal his people. 

Beginning with a leper. 

I've found as I study the Scriptures carefully that no biblical text is randomly placed, but all of God's Word fits together and is arranged by the Holy Spirit in a cohesive rhythm and flow, one passage building on the other, all of it testifying to and interpreting the other. However, I've also learned with the many passages I find to be puzzling to just read the text and let it be. Don't read my theology into it. Before I employ critical thinking skills, let the tension stand. I've also found this exercise takes a bit more discipline than I've been used to, but it results in correcting my errors and my pride. 

Why a leper? 

Lepers were outcasts. They lived apart from the rest of society because they were deemed unclean, and anyone who touched them would be ceremonially unclean. Leprosy was usually a death sentence. There was not treatment available for the disease, and it was as if a person slowly rotted away from all of the uncleanliness in a sort of living death. It was horrific. 

It's interesting that the word "healing" is not used in this passage; however, the Greek word "katharizo" is used three times - meaning "1.) to make clean, cleanse, a.) from physical stains and dirt, b.) in a moral sense, to free from defilement of sin and faults, to purify from wickedness, to free from guilt of sin, to purify, to consecrate by cleansing or purifying." 

The definition that best fits the passage contextually is "the moral sense" because Jesus had just demonstratively shown in his Sermon on the Mount exactly what the law requires. And it's crushing, to say the least.  

The leper is a beautiful picture of our salvation story because all of us are the leper. We are all unclean, guilty, shameful, and sinful before a thrice holy God. We are not sinful because we sinned - we are sinful because we were all born that way from Adam's sin, our federal head or representative of the human race, now passed down to everyone. ( Romans 5:12-21, Psalm 51:5 ) 

That's the human condition. If we look around at the world, it is easy to see how the biblical narrative makes sense of the narrative of our own lives and answers the hard questions of this existence. We are born a sinful people. ( Romans 3:11-18, Psalm 14:1-3, Psalm 51:5, Psalm 53:1-3 ) 

And no amount of hand washing or bathing or good works can take away the filth. We are rotting away. ( Isaiah 64:6, Ephesians 2:1-5 ) 

This has been forever ago, but it reminds me of when I was in high school English Literature class and we read Shakespeare's Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is tormented with guilt after persuading her husband Macbeth, the Scottish general, to murder King Duncan to fulfill the witches's prophecy of Macbeth becoming king. Even though Lady Macbeth has no actual blood on her hands, she still sees it there. She sees the spot. She's driven mad because no matter what she does, no matter how hard she scrubs, she can't get rid of the bloody sin, the guilt, "that damned spot." 

"What must I do to be saved?" ( Acts 16:30 ) 

Listen to Ezra's prayer: "O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens." ( Ezra 9:6 ) 

And Daniel's: "O LORD, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules." ( Daniel 9:4-5 ) 

Now David's: "For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight." ( Psalm 51:3-4 ) 

The preaching of John the Baptist: "Bear fruit in keeping with repentance." ( Matthew 3:8 ) 

A parable of Jesus: "But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted." ( Luke 18:9-14 ) 

It really isn't complicated - in our uncleanliness and living death, come to Jesus. Knell before him in a humble posture and heart of repentance, and Jesus will touch us. When Jesus touches us he doesn't become unclean, instead, we the unclean are made clean. Jesus fulfilled the law for us. Our righteousness, anything we think we can do to save ourselves, is as filthy rags, but his righteous life in fulfilling the law perfectly, imputed to us makes us clean.  ( Isaiah 64:6, Matthew 5:20 ) 

That's the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

The story of this leper coming to Jesus after his initial teaching of what life in the kingdom of God stringently requires isn't about physical healing; it's much deeper than that. It's more urgent than that. Everyone healed physically in this life will still eventually die. Bodies can be healed as they travel the wide road to destruction. 

So we need something greater than an outside removal of dirt to wash away our iniquity, for the deeper cleansing of the human soul. 

There's nothing we can do. We are incapable of saving ourselves from God, and so he has sent his own Son to save us. He has upheld his end of the bargain as well as ours. We should be the ones condemned to death, but God has provided the sacrifice himself to save us from his own holy wrath. ( Genesis 22:13, John 3:16 )

The cleansing of our sins has brought forth our eternal healing.  

This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." This is Jesus's first statement in Sermon on the Mount. 

"The poor in spirit are those who recognize they are in need of God's help. The kingdom of heaven belongs to those who confess their spiritual bankruptcy." ( ESV Bible commentary ) 

The kingdom of heaven belongs to the unclean who come humbly to Jesus to make them clean. 

That's the Good News.

💜

Archive photo of Nicky with her sweet litter. 

T.G.I.M.

Many times when I start out feeding in the mornings there's this thin, delicate mist that drapes the blue hills in front of the farm. I took special notice of its fragile beauty one particular morning last week. I turned away to top off the cows' water trough and hook Aslan on his leash. When I turned back around, the mist was gone. 

It was a sorrowful walk. I had just heard the news about Dr. Steven Lawson stepping down from ministry after confessing to an inappropriate relationship with another woman, and although I had only listened to a few of his sermons and read two of his books, I have respect for him. I've seen the word "shock," a lot, and that's exactly how I felt. 

As I followed behind Aslan's big, shaggy tail along the narrow cattle path that extends the length of the front field, through the damp grass and the gathered geese, I tried to process the shock. I knew it would take awhile. I felt no unforgiveness or anger or anything of that nature; what I felt was sobriety. 

"Dear God, no one is safe." 

If I had strayed at all in my thinking that I couldn't fall into any sordid, seedy sin, think again. This news threw me back to the gospel center. 

It reminds me that I have a job to do as a follower of Jesus - there's a cost to discipleship - but at the same time I know there is no way I can do it on my own. 

"...work out your own salvation in fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure." ( Philippians 2:12-13 ) 

Whether we acknowledge it or not, every breath, every heartbeat, every step, is a gift from God. ( James 1:17 ) In the same way, as a believer now empowered by the Holy Spirit forever, we have a new desire and ability to obey, but we must still depend on him to help us carry this thing out. We don't "got this." ( John 14-16 ) 

Sometimes I run ahead through the tall grasses with neck-breaking speed only to be caught by the back of my flannel farm shirt in a moment of trauma as the shock reverberates my entire being, "Hey, where do you think you're going? Get back to the Center." 

I love the expression, "We are becoming what we are" in this "already, but not now kingdom." Work out your own salvation, but it is HE who works in you. The Holy Spirit is doing the sanctifying, but he isn't going to do it without us. Every day, one step at a time, we have to walk in step with the Spirit. ( Galatians 5:16-26 ) 

"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all." ( 2 Corinthians 13:14 ) 

On an application level of what this looks like daily: read and study our Bibles deeply; God only gave us one Book. Are we really getting to know it? "Pray without ceasing." ( 1 Thessalonians 5:16 ) Be in constant communication with our Heavenly Father, humbly acknowledging our dependence on Him every second of every day and on the righteousness of his Son imputed to us in which none of this sanctification into his image would be possible for these fading, misty lives of ours. Time is of the essence. 

Sober up. 

Carry on.

Happy Monday.

 

"The Faith That Was Once For All"

I've only written a small amount on the Progressive Gospel and nothing on the Social Gospel, the reason being is that I have very limited knowledge of them or experience. However, having been involved with the Word of Faith Movement that developed in the early part of the twentieth century, also commonly referred to as the "health-wealth gospel," I feel I can speak into this one, shed some light possibly, and help others. I want to publish one more blog to clarify why I believe some of the word-faith doctrines are false teachings. 

The Farmer and I attended Word of Faith churches in the 80s and early 90s. We went through the WOF satellite school's training classes at our first church in Texas taught by the leaders of the movement, and at the second WOF church we attended, the Farmer held a leadership position on staff as the youth pastor.  So I feel I have a firm grasp on the doctrine, even though WOF isn't a denomination, it still contains theological distinctives. 

Again, I can't overstate this: there are plenty of people who believe bits and pieces of the Word of Faith doctrine who don't subscribe to the movement full sail. 

Believing that the atonement of Jesus Christ guarantees us health and wealth in this life is just one of the beliefs in this movement, and it's a hill I'm not willing to die on. Even though I don't think this doctrine can be supported biblically, it's not heretical. And I want to respect other's beliefs. 

What is promised in the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ, and what we all agree on, is that one day our decayed bodies will come up out of the grave, incorruptible, resurrected to eternal life. ( A good chapter to read is 1 Corinthians 15. ) 

As far as wealth, I'll just say that Jesus taught us to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," and God has always come through on that request for me and my family. I am beyond grateful. 

However there are several Word of Faith beliefs that I am willing to take issue with because they strike against the core doctrines of the Christian faith. I believe Scripture makes it clear what battles we are to choose. 

"Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints." ( Jude 3 ) 

"Our God is in the heavens, he does all that he pleases." ( Psalm 115:3 ) 

I find that WOF theology has a simplistic and frail view of the sovereignty of God. Some teachers advocate that God is not sovereign at all. Others say that God is sovereign in the sense that he is supreme, but he is governed by how much faith we have. If God is governed by us and anything we do, not delegating, but hands tied, how then can he be sovereign? 

WOF teaches that God doesn't allow suffering in the lives of his children. This is not heretical either, but it does make great claims on what they think God can and can't do. I believe the entire Book of Job proves this statement is unbiblical. I've heard some say that Job was afraid, but again, this is not supported in the text or entire theme and overview. We have to read Job in context as an entire book, and in keeping with the whole biblical narrative, not as a disjointed part. All of the Bible fits together in one cohesive story, and it seems at times as if it's this massive, sweeping mysterious jigsaw puzzle. And as we continually search and examine the pieces, turning them over and around, it is so satisfying to set one in place giving us a clearer focus of the big, beautiful picture. 

They say God can't be sovereign and people still have free will, but the Bible teaches otherwise: 

Peter tells the Jews in Acts 2:23 "this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men." It was God's will to crucify Jesus, but that didn't mean the people were let off of the hook. They were not coerced. They acted freely, and they were held responsible for their actions. There are many other examples entwined throughout the Bible of this complexity; some are vividly seen in the life of Paul, David, and Joseph. 

What I'm attempting to say is that things are more multi-layered and intricate than we can understand. We can't figure God out, and that's a good thing. If we think we can, our view of God is too low. When Spurgeon was asked how he reconciled God's sovereignty with man's responsibility, he said that he didn't have to reconcile them that they were friends. 

The fact that God uses our prayers to accomplish his purposes is mind-boggling to our human brains. 

God is so far above us, and whatever is true about anything, we can know for certain it's the right thing because God is always good and can do no evil. "He is light, and in him is no darkness at all." ( 1 John 1:5 ) All his work is done in faithfulness, and he has nothing in store for us but good. And only he knows what that looks like. We don't. It's painful to set a bone, but the results are healing. I've found God's sovereignty to be the most comforting doctrine and the softest pillow to rest my head. ( Psalms and 1 John ) 

For the other doctrines that strike against the core essentials of the Christian faith, I'm going to let Robert Bowman explain from the summary of his book "The Word-Faith Controversy" because he's a biblical scholar and sums it up precisely into what I'm attempting, but failing to say. Plus I'm a bit tired today: 

"The Word-Faith movement teaches patently unbiblical ideas about the nature of God, the nature of human beings, and the person and redemptive work of Jesus Christ.

If the errors of the movement were restricted to its presumptuous and extreme views of health and wealth, I think we would have to regard it as fanatical but not heretical. If it taught erroneous doctrines about the secondary theological issues such as the timing of the rapture or the validity of speaking in tongues today, such errors would not disqualify them from being considered soundly orthodox. 

On the other hand, to teach significant errors about the nature of God, such as the idea that God has a body or that he must speak words of faith to get anything done, places the movement's orthodoxy in serious question. To teach that human beings are exact duplicates of God and have the capacity to create physical realities by speaking them into existence in the same way that God created the world is to teach a false doctrine that seriously undermines the basic biblical distinction between Creator and creature. To teach that Jesus died spiritually to complete our salvation, and to teach that Christians are just as much incarnations of God as was Jesus, is flagrant error on such central issues as to threaten the very integrity of the faith of those who believe such error." ( Robert M. Bowman, Jr, The Word-Faith Controversy, Understanding the Health and Wealth Gospel, pgs. 226-227 ) 

I hope this helps clarify as to why I believe some of the word-faith doctrines are false teachings. I know some will not agree with me, and I understand and love them nonetheless. Absolutely. I'm not bitter at anyone in the Word of Faith Movement, if I was that would be an egregious sin on my part against Christ who bled and died and forgave all of my sins, and for all of the grace and mercy he has had on me in my life. I'm trusting him to finish the job, smooth out my rough edges, and seal the cracks in this mess in progress. 

Many saints and church fathers gave their lives to preserve our faith - historic, orthodox Christianity and the doctrine of Sola Scriptura. ( Scripture Alone ) The creeds, confessionals, and catechisms are not extra biblical material. No, they were constructed by our church fathers for Christ's church, who for most of human history lacked access to a Bible, many being illiterate, having to rely on their shepherds to basically hand feed the sheep. 

Church history is a beautifully woven, oftentimes in blood and pain, tapestry that displays Christ's promise to build his Church, protecting and preserving his Bride through the ages. Those saints knew a thing or two about suffering as did the early church members and Apostles. 

The three ecumenical creeds, Apostles,' Nicene, and Athanasian, were forged by our church fathers when heresy threatened the church. They form the foundation of historic Christianity. Everyone has a creed of what they believe. That's what a creed is. Our creeds in the church are the Bible in compressed format. They were written out so we could read them at home to remind us always of the core doctrines of the Christian faith, teach them to our children, and were to be recited together out loud in worship services to test that the pastor was teaching sound doctrine. 

"The faith that was once for all delivered to the saints."  

We now must contend for it as well. 

I want to end with the Nicene Creed: 

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth

and of all things visible and invisible

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, 

the only-begotten Son of God,

begotten of His Father before all worlds,

God of God, Light of Light,

very God of very God,

begotten not made,

being of one substance with the Father,

by whom all things were made;

who for us men and for our salvation

came down from heaven

and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary

and was made man;

and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate.

He suffered and was buried.

And the third day He rose again

according to the Scriptures

and ascended into heaven

and sits at the right hand of the Father

And He will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead,

whose kingdom will have no end.

And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life,

who proceeds from the Father and the Son,

who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified,

who spoke by the prophets.

And I believe in one holy Christian and apostolic Church

I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins,

and I look for the resurrection of the dead

and the life of the world to come. 

Amen. 

💜

 

My Shasta 

The Word of Truth

"Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." ( Matthew 11:28 )  

Recently I had the pleasure of reconnecting with a young man, along with his wife and sons, who grew up with my man children. In the course of our conversation and finding out about their faith journey, because I unabashedly get around to asking everyone, they proceeded to tell me that they had left a big box church for a more gospel-centered church. 

In the midst of the conversation his wife looked at me and said, "It was just so exhausting." 

Later on the drive back home, I thought about her words because I knew exactly what she meant; I'd just been out of the Word of Faith Movement for so long now that I had thankfully forgotten the endless, exhaustive routine of it all. Even when we attended other denominations, I still believed the theology. 

The nagging unsettledness that continually vexes one's soul if they've done their part enough to stay in God's good graces to get their needs met and keep the devil away has caused many to abandon the faith altogether. It's easy to see why there's so many deconstruction stories. God is reduced to a genie in a bottle, and you better conger up enough faith to get him to grant your wishes. 

Instead of developing a relationship with our Savior, developing one's faith is the way to get God's attention and acceptance. Wow, do we really think this is how God loves his children? 

The couple weren't in the same type of church, but it was still that same religious rhetoric based on "works righteousness," just a different to-do list oriented on works and one's job performance to get God and his Word to "work" for you. 

Specifically in the Word of Faith Movement, ( This is another one of the nasty shoots growing out of the rotten roots. ) the leaders teach that you must develop enough faith to get the things you want by confession. ( Not to be confused with "confessing" your sins to a priest or in private prayer, but you'll see in a minute. )

Getting the answer you desire rests all on your own shoulders, and it's beyond a heavy weight to bear. You don't realize just how burdensome it is until the doctrine begins to crumble. "God is not sovereign," they say, "You are the one in control of the situations in your life, and it's up to you to develop your god-size faith." God is waiting on you to get your faith up to par so he can act on your behalf; otherwise, his hands are tied until you do. 

If you've read from Genesis to Revelation, does this sound like the God of the Bible? Be honest. 

To the word-faith proponents, God is little more than a puppet on a string, and you need to cherry pick some Bible verses that "line-up" with what you need and want. Then confess the daylights out of those verses along with your wish list until you have what you say, training yourself to believe in the process what hasn't actually materialized yet. 

Right, I hear you, go back to my blog on the history of the movement and it shows how E.W. Kenyon based his word-faith doctrine off of Quimby's New Thought, Mary Baker Eddy's Christian Science, and the early faith-cure healers and holiness movements of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. Keneth Hagin took up the message where Kenyon left off by plagiarizing much of his work. I'll share the link at the bottom with a couple of good resources. 

This false teaching is based off of Romans 4:17. Paul writing about the faith of Abraham says, "I have made you the father of many nations - in the presence of God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist." 

Who is giving life to the dead and calling things into existence? Yes, that's right, God. 

Why do WOF proponents think that they can do the same thing as God? Ex nihilo? Creating something out of nothing, calling into existence the things that do not exist? 

One reason is because they are twisting the theology of creation and what it means to be created in God's image. WOF doctrine teaches that we are created out of the same fabric as God, deeming us too as "divine" and a "little god" with the ability to do everything that God does. 

They skip right over that part in Genesis where it says, "then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground.." And God absolutely did a stellar job with that handful of dirt, but we hardly think God is made of the same substance. Or made at all. There are many aberrant beliefs in the word-faith theology; this is just one of them.

Good grief. Kenneth Copeland goes so far as to say that God told him directly, in a conversation that is so flippant and casual between him and God, that he is so much like the incarnate Jesus that he could have done what Jesus did on the cross. ( Copeland, "What Happened from the Cross to the Throne," tape #02-0017 - you can also hear it on "The American Gospel - In Christ Alone" documentary or I'm sure find it on Youtube ) 

"As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust." ( Psalm 103:13-14 ) 

"The LORD has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all." ( 103:19 ) 

"For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time." ( 1 Timothy 2:5 ) 

Although Copeland and others in the WOF movement claim that as believers we can do all of the miracles Jesus did we never see them walking on water or raising the dead or multiplying bread and fish to feed the world's hungry or healing all of the world's physically and mentally ill. Copeland's followers will say that over the years he has given millions of dollars away. Is this a reason not to call out his false teaching? He should be giving. 

Most reports I looked up agreed that his net worth as America's richest pastor is $300 million. I suspect it's higher. He's seen on Tik Tok bragging that he's a billionaire, but what I'm concern about in this blog is not his monetary contributions. I'm concerned about his false doctrine contributions in the lives of innocent and vulnerable people as well as new believers whose biblical theology is not yet filled out. 

Mature believers, Scripture tells us, have a responsibility to look out for the weak, as well as the widow, orphan, the marginalized, and poor.  ( Deuteronomy 15:7 & 11, Proverbs 14:21, Galatians 2:10, James 2:14-17, Romans 15: 1-2, Galatians 6:2, 1 Thessalonians 4:18, ) 

Copeland built his little gods theology off of his mentor Kenneth Hagin's aberrant beliefs that claim, "The believer is as much an incarnation as was Jesus of Nazareth." ( "The Incarnation," The Word of Faith, Dec. 1980, pg. 14 ) 

Another of Hagin's books is entitled, "How To Write Your Own Ticket With God." This and the above should be enough information to make us flee from all things Word of Faith. 

But I do understand the deception, I was in the movement. And no one loved that teaching of having what you say more than me. However, it is very possible to have a bit of the doctrine in your belief system and not be a part of the movement full sail. In fact it's very possible in light of our current church culture to have some or be confused by it which is why I write about it so much, in hopes I can help others. 

Because the Bible is so much better than this. 

Jesus is so much better than this. I want people to come to the real Jesus. 

Even if it was possible, and it's absolutely not, I wouldn't want to be on par with Jesus. This diminishes his deity and his sacrifice. It is Christ alone who is the worthy Lamb of God. The One who died and lives again and is alone found worthy to open the scroll. ( Revelation 5:4 ) 

Another teacher we had at our church in Texas back in the 80's, Charles Capps, didn't even much involve God. He believed one's words did the work for you once you developed your faith enough. Because when you have a need, whether it be health, financial, relational, spiritual, whatever it may be, it's up to you to speak those answers into existence with your creative, power-filled words. Capp does away with the genie and puppet metaphors. I mean, who needs God when the "faith force" is with me? 

Ironically during that time we had a prayer not be answered that may have changed the course of our lives. 

The Farmer applied to the Word of Faith Rhema Bible Training College and was rejected because he was a smoker. To this day, a week doesn't go by, that the Farmer doesn't say, "I thank God for watching out for us. I thank God for his grace and mercy."

That has to be an example of how God uses the bad things in our lives for good. ( Romans 8:28 ) 

However, in services and special classes at our church, the Farmer and I were trained in the word-faith methodology of how to "activate" and develop our faith: to always be thinking positive thoughts, binding and loosing spirits, speaking in tongues, rebuking the devil, confessing your selected verses, declaring and decreeing, commanding and demanding, also called naming and claiming, so God could get to work for us. Or our faith. The teachers weren't consistent with each other, but that's not a big surprise. 

It's exhausting trying to be a "little god," isn't it? 

If you're not familiar with Word of Faith theology, you might be scratching your head right now, but yeah, that's what they believe and teach. It's exhausting. And insane. So if you don't get your need met then you didn't work hard enough to develop your faith to God's level of faith. ( It's ridiculous to even think that God has or needs faith. ) 

Remember there's always a bit of truth mixed in with false teaching, that's why we've got to ask the Holy Sprit to give us discernment every morning when our feet hit the floor. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. 

What WOF teachers instruct is a gross mishandling of the Scriptures that cultivates a shallow relationship with God who is reduced to a genie in a bottle, or worse just getting rid of God altogether.

This is not Christianity. 

I know this is lengthy, and I need to cut to the chase. So here's the concern: 

If I can't develop my faith enough to get an answer to a small need, then maybe I didn't develop my faith enough to believe in Jesus for salvation. Because believing for my salvation and eternal destiny has got to be something that requires a whole bunch of faith. More faith than I'm capable of mustering no matter how many times a day I declare and decree. 

When someone is told that developing faith to have their needs met is up to them by the words they speak and the faith they manage to develop, this is the logical place they are going to end up. And sadly, many have. 

"Am I really saved?" 

"I don't see how I could be with my little faith." 

"I haven't confessed enough." 

"I haven't developed my faith enough." 

Do you understand the danger in WOF teachers like Andrew Womack, who leads the charge in teaching that God is not sovereign, Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, Todd White, and the many others, in instructing their followers to develop their faith so they can get results and God to move on their behalf? 

This is not the Christian Gospel, but another gospel altogether. WOF teachers and preachers do not teach the entire counsel of Scripture, and when you begin to grow in your knowledge of the Bible, you see it. 

But until then it can send people either away from the faith, thinking that they will never be able to attain to it or it will send them onto a never ending hamster wheel exhausting them in the process of trying to build up enough faith and then maintain it.

Dear friends, faith is a gift, not a force we brandish and command like a lightsaber driving the enemy away and earning God's favor and blessing. No.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." ( Ephesians 2:8-9 ) 

God doesn't want us working ourselves into a frenzy because our works can't save us or keep us saved. Our faith can't even save us - only the object of our faith can save us - Jesus. 

Jesus said, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and  I will give you rest." ( Matthew 11:28 ) 

And this isn't physical rest - it's something much deeper and life-giving than physical rest, as the sacrifice of Christ is realized more and more in our daily lives, it results in the deepest rest of the human spirit in the knowing that Jesus has done for me what I could never do for myself - change my heart. 

Now I am accepted in Christ before God - his perfect life of righteousness is imputed to me when I confess my sins, repent and trust in Jesus. 

Now I can move out into the world in his strength to do the works that God has purposed for the believer. I'm not working to earn God's acceptance. That's not possible. ( Romans 3 ) But in Christ it is possible by way of his atoning work. He's done the work for me. And the good works I do now are done out of my grateful, regenerated heart. 

No amount of striving to keep the law or activating some kind of super faith can earn God's acceptance or his blessings for me. They rest in Christ alone, so now we rest in him as well. 

God's Word is powerful and faith comes through hearing the word of Christ, ( Romans 10:17 ) so we should be active in the Scriptures during our daily means of grace: reading and memorizing, meditating, preaching it back to ourselves, sitting under sound biblical pastors and teachers. As we grow into mature Christians through God's word, when we hear false teaching, it'll be like hearing fingernails scratching on a chalkboard.

And the beautiful thing is that when you are saved by God's grace in Christ alone, you are actually able to rest better physically because you are finally, truly resting in Him and his righteousness that is applied to you at the moment of your salvation and not your own good works or endless faith exercises. 

God accepts me, not because of my work or faith, but through Christ's work alone. I am secure in Christ. 

Have I said that enough? 

Each day is a joy now in Christ as the Holy Spirit works through us, powerfully granting us the desire and ability to serve and obey him in our daily lives as believers where ever we are and whatever we face for his glory. 

"Cast your deadly doing down - 

Down at Jesus's feet;

Stand in him alone

Gloriously complete." 

💜

 

There are several books that take on the Word of Faith doctrine including John MacArthur's "Strange Fire" and "Charismatic Chaos," D.R. McConnell's "A Different Gospel: A Historical and Biblical Analysis of the Modern Faith Movement," Hank Hanegraaff's "Christianity in Crisis."

The one I found the most helpful and thorough was Robert M. Bowman Jr's "The Word-Faith Controversy: Understanding the Health and Wealth Gospel." 

Happy Weekend, Friends! 

A Sign of the Times

I don't believe that God still does miracles because I believe he never stopped doing miracles. I just don't believe there has ever been another group like the original group - the Apostles Jesus appointed in the New Testament and anointed to do the kinds of signs and wonders they did that kick started the Church. If you're being honest, you know that's true. The Holy Spirit inspired them to write the Scriptures - no one's doing that today. Or they shouldn't be. 

And it's okay; it's not like we don't have the same Spirit. We do. I believe in miracles. I mean, my faith, my entire world view is based on a dead man walking out of a grave. 

"So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit." ( Ephesians 2:18-22 ) 

Jesus is the cornerstone - the stone that every other stone is aligned off of. The apostles and prophets are the foundation, and a foundation is only laid once - at the beginning. ( This blows the NAR's rhetoric out of the water. ) We are stones being placed upon that foundation, and together we are God's building. Where are we now? Only God knows, maybe the third floor, maybe the attic. ( 1 Corinthians 3:9, 1 Peter 2:4-8 ) 

I think it's like the grand opening they used to have at new stores when I was growing up. There'd be a banner out front of all of the construction work announcing when the grand opening day would be and then everyone would show up because the store would give out free food and prizes and shopping sprees. 

After opening day, it was business as usual. 

The first century church was a lot like that with all of the signs and wonders and the big day of Pentecost with the smaller ones that followed when God poured out his Holy Spirit on all flesh. ( Acts 2 and really the entire book of Acts ) 

I know lots of Christians want to think that we can do everything that the first Apostles did, but we aren't anointed for that plus 2,000 years of church history shows us that miracles were still done, but on a smaller scale it appears, in smaller ways, but just as powerful, if we have eyes to see and ears to hear, and a heart to understand. 

First and foremost, all believers are "Spirit-filled" believers, and the miracle that took place in our heart at the moment of salvation should overwhelm us every day of our lives. This grace should never stop amazing us. 

It seems like it does though in a lot of the American Church. "More, Lord!" we often hear in worship services, but do we understand what we already have? Do we understand the significance of it?  Of what has been done to us by God's grace through the faith that he gives, meaning it's a gift, in Christ by the power of his Holy Spirit while we were sinners, no less?  

Acts 2:43 tells us "many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles." 

The apostles. 

And yet they were not healing people on demand. They didn't have faith-healing ministries evoking people's emotions through music and their annoying showmanship, parading sick people around the crowds who clearly weren't healed while passing around KFC buckets to collect "seed-faith" offerings from the vulnerable and exploited. 

When dear saint Dorcas dies in Acts 9, her friends are so grieved. They wash her body as was customary and laid her in an upper room. Do they raise her from the dead? No, if they could have they would have. But instead they hear Peter is in town, not conducting healing revivals, but he's about to share the Gospel with some Gentiles, and so they call for him because God is doing signs and wonders through Christ's appointed apostles. They know this. 

Peter raises Dorcas from the dead, and her story points to our story: resurrection from the dead one day. 

Have we lost sight of that? That while we're so concerned about physical healing being a part of the atonement and having what some call a "full gospel" that we've lost sight of the true gospel and better things we've been blessed with in the heavenly places? A resurrected body! One day our bodies will be made new and greatly improved and spring up out of the grave into everlasting life. ( Ephesians 1:3 ) 

"Then Jesus told his disciples, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.'" ( Matthew 16:24 ) 

"Deny?" 

"Take up his cross?" 

Jesus washed his disciples feet and told them to do likewise. ( John 13 ) Jesus emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant, not a snake oil salesman. ( Philippians 2:7 ) No, he did not give up his deity. He laid down his life of his own accord as God. 

"All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word." ( Isaiah 66:2 )

We have to know we need him. 

If miracles happen, great, if not, great, I'm following Jesus. He's already done a bigger miracle in the life of this brat than I ever could have imagined. 

When we live our lives in the "business as usual" mind set what happens in our faithfulness is that we begin to see the hand of God working in our lives in the ordinary and humble, but much over-looked details of where the Holy Spirit is truly working. He always meets us there. 

Just this week in a small group setting I listened as the Farmer gave his testimony of the many miracles we've seen at Heritage Home in Indonesia in order to keep it running smoothly each month since he founded it back in 2012. A farmer who simply got on an airplane after working though a few details, one being open-heart surgery, without any fanfare, flies to Indonesia and quietly saves fourteen children's lives by securing a house and an unbelievable commitment from daughter Lisda. 

I think of faithful pastors who aren't in slick suits, but in sweaty shirts with their sleeves rolled up serving their sheep as the Great Shepherd does, and then studying for hours to preach to them, hours that nobody sees. 

"Of whom the world is not worthy." 

And my dear friend Joyce who keeps her grandchildren while their parents work. I love this so much. She pours her life into them having a godly influence on those babies who are going to inherit a mixed-up, crazy world. She's helping prepare them. This may not be glamorous work to some, but this is "serving the Lord with gladness" and what it means to be a Christian and follow Jesus. ( Psalm 100:2 ) 

I want to have that kind of influence on my grandchildren and on the next generation. That's huge. In fact, I happen to know that children's ministries at many churches are looking for some of these faithful saints to step in and help in one of the most important areas of life. Talk about seeing the Holy Spirit work. 

I'm so blessed to see it in the eyes of my granddaughter Margot every time I sing her to sleep with a hymn. It's so precious when she sings with me as young as she is. 

These are just a few examples of being faithful with what's in front of us each day. 

I've found that when we stop looking for "signs and wonders," we find them. 

Not in what the world calls spectacular, but in what God calls spectacular. 

It grieves my heart all of the "supernatural," fake ministries that are leading people to believe in a god of their own making and not the real, true beautiful Jesus and the powerful Holy Spirit who lives in each of us believers and works mightily through our everyday lives. 

As the Farmer was sharing about the goodness of God this week, he said that if he was a strong, healthy man without a heart condition out on the mission field, well, "Where's the glory in that?" But because God chooses to work through our weaknesses, he gets all of the glory. 

"Indeed we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead." ( 2 Corinthians 1:9 ) 

Because God doesn't always choose to heal in this life. The mortality rate among Christians is the same as unbelievers, 100%. God has a greater purpose in mind:

Our resurrection from the dead. 

And that, my friends, is a sign and wonder worth living and dying for. 

To God be the glory.

Soli Deo Gloria

💜

Happy Weekend!

 

Another Archive Photo: Misha with a little lamb. 

Labor of Love

"Many" preaching the "American Gospel" have become so focused on the spiritual gifts and the supposed "authority" they now have by the power of the Holy Spirit that we can see "many" being led astray into this apostasy just as Jesus warned would happen in the last days. ( Matthew 24:10 ) 

Last days, most commentators say, is the church era since the Ascension of Christ. The Corinthians in the first century were a doctrinal mess in just about every area of spiritual life in both theology and practice. 

Listen to what Paul writes to them in the midst of arguing over spiritual gifts, mainly speaking in tongues and prophecy, and explaining gifts are for building each other up and not everyone is given every gift: 

"And I will show you a still more excellent way. 

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." ( 1 Corinthians 12:31, 13:1-3 ) 

And Paul doesn't stop there; he goes on to define love. So there's no question. 

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends." ( verses 4-8 ) 

As I'm reading this passage I'm thinking that there is no way in hades I can do this. It takes something way more powerful than me, never mind the spiritual gifts - this is a job for the Holy Spirit. I'm humbled to the core on this one. Often times when I come to a knowledge of the truth, I feel I must apply it to everyone with a sledge hammer. No one can love like this without the power of God! We are incapable. 

Love is important to get right because we see the spiritual gifts all cease, and the Scriptures don't teach us that God is faith or hope, but that "God is love." And that everyone born of God loves. ( 1 John 4:7-8 )  And that definition. Wow. 

When the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin, granting us repentance and opening our hearts to believe and come to faith in Christ, the greatest love ever put on display, He stays with us forever. He doesn't go anywhere. Jesus said that when he asks the Father to send the Holy Spirit to us: "the Spirit of Truth to be with you forever." ( John 14:16 )

Becoming focused on a second helping or blessing of power to get spiritual gifts and operate in the supernatural, isn't just unbiblical, but ironically, it takes our eyes off of the true work of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives. The beautiful rhythm that develops, not in signs and wonders, but in the ordinary means of grace enabling us to love others and walk after Him more and more, and in effect being light and salt for the world to witness. This is what it means to follow Jesus. 

One of my recent observations in the church is that God is still doing miracles and healing people -it's just not what we might think. It's not through big name word-faith healers or TV evangelists or celebrity pastors or supernatural ministry schools. 

It's in the ordinary lives of people like you and me, the common, every-day folk who are trusting God quietly in their lives, praying for their loved ones to be healed in their bodies, praying for the salvation of their neighbors, praying for strength to persevere through another day while clinging to Christ. 

It's in the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world, whom we are united with by the Holy Spirit into one Body, praying for patient endurance while suffering persecution under hostile governments and officials, in chains, in prison, being hounded and watched and harassed. Praying for the protection of their children in the midst of such distress. Can we imagine? It's easy over here in the West in all of this comfort and absurd, prosperity teaching to forget them. May it never be so. 

"Of whom the world is not worthy." 

And when God moves through the ordinary and humble circumstances of his people, through suffering and through the mundane, God gets all of the glory. 

Not any man or woman. 

And those who did and didn't receive the promise in this life are both commended for their faith. ( Hebrews 11:39-40  ) No child of God in either group is admonished by our Heavenly Father for not having enough faith. They are both commended for their labors even though they didn't live to see the promise fulfilled. 

Are you going to listen to a wolf in sheep's clothing or the Shepherd and Overseer of your soul? 

Think about that this Labor Day. We are laboring together in the Body, but it is a labor of love, something that takes the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish in our lives through his supernatural ability and not ours. We don't have what it takes to love people as the Bible spells out, but praise God, he does. When we love others that is God the Holy Spirit lovingly laboring through us and in us, doing something we could never do on our own. "Now, that's truly supernatural," Mr. Sid Roth.  

We want the Holy Spirit to give gifts and do signs and wonders and great miracles, but do we faithfully pray and petition him to please love others through us? That we are desperate for him to give us this power to love so the world will know that we are his disciples? I know I'm desperate for that help. Maybe that's the first step: recognize our need. 

"Faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love."

"Love never ends." 

"God is Love." 

Happy Labor Day! 

"In Accordance with the Scriptures"

Mom used to have these two paperback books she kept on the coffee table next to her Living Bible when I was a young teenager. That's been over forty-five years ago now, but I can still remember the covers of those two books clearly. It all came rushing back to me when I recently stumbled upon them in the course of my research on the second wave of the charismatic movement and its influence on and shaping of the "American Gospel." The second wave is the hardest to find information on, but what I've managed to uncover makes up for the lack.  

To say when my parents left our traditional Presbyterian church to join this second wave movement was like going from one extreme to the other would be a gross understatement. In fact, I don't even have words to describe the difference; I thought they had lost their minds. But Mom took it quite seriously, that's why I had to get my hands on those books recently and read them. 

I'm almost finished with the first one, and my initial concern is that everyone in the storyline seems to rush through the conversion process, accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior as fast as they can, qualifying them for the "good stuff," the real power of being baptized in the Holy Spirit, followed by a linguistic tutorial on how to begin speaking in tongues because that's the evidence that you received this second blessing of power, or so they said. Never mind what Paul said to the Corinthian Church in 1 Corinthians 12:30. 

The Gospel is never explained or unpacked. 

The Episcopal priest telling his story, who seems genuine and sincere, like an all-around nice guy, says that until he had this "experience" in his life of the second blessing and tongue speaking, he was dry and empty spiritually. 

It's funny because my "experience" was just the opposite. I "experienced" all of the charismatic "stuff" as a young adult, and there was a time when I wasn't sarcastic about it and genuinely asked to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, receiving prophecies, being "slain in the spirit," engaging in holy laughter. I admit that the red flags never quit flying for me; but nonetheless, I was still searching and open to it all and a willing participant. 

And yet I was still dry and empty by the time I reached by fortieth birthday. It was the summer my younger sister was battling cancer, and I still believed in all of the charismatic "stuff," now in addition to the Word of Faith and health-wealth nonsense. Whatever one may believe about the spiritual gifts, nothing should ever be elevated above the Gospel. 

Man, I was such a theological mess. But God began to unravel the tangles one thread at a time, as I've shared before, sitting in a Passion Conference listening to John Piper. You may not agree with everything Passion or Piper, but the point here is that God can use whatever he desires to reach a heart. 

And my heart began to open up that night to the Gospel. Why? Because the Bible tells us: "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." ( Romans 10:17 )  

The Word of God is the means God uses by the power of his Holy Spirit to bring dead people to life, empty people to fullness, not spiritual gifts or experiences or personal revelations or the power of suggestion and manipulation through evocative music. 

"through the word of Christ." 

"For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, 'The righteous shall live by faith.'" ( Romans 1:16-17 ) 

It's funny because after that conference when I began studying my Bible, I learned the truth about the Holy Spirit's work from a Presbyterian minister, clearer and sounder teaching than I ever received from the group who supposedly had a corner on Him. 

But I still tested everything like the Bereans in Acts 17:10, and I still do. I don't want to be fooled anymore. The Bereans are an example for all of us. I don't fault my mom at all for her earlier beliefs, in fact, I wished I could have her back and enjoy theological conversations with her now that I'm not so biblically illiterate. I know the last ten years of her life, like mine, she grew away from aberrant doctrines and closer to the truth as we all do in our sanctification process. It's lifelong. It's grace. 

For all of this talk about the Gospel, what is the Gospel exactly? We have to get the Gospel right because believing a different gospel leads to damnation. That's the strong language Paul uses when he admonished the Galatians for so quickly deserting the grace of Christ for a different gospel. 

The Gospel isn't telling someone about Jesus and then leading them in a sinner's prayer never to be mentioned again. No, we never get beyond the Gospel. 

Paul spells out the Gospel to the Corinthians in no uncertain terms: 

"Now I would remind you, brothers, of the Gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you - unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: 

that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas ( Peter ), then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 

Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed!" 

1 Corinthians 15:1-11 

So I'm continuing in my research and study, Lord have mercy - it's time consuming. I don't have all of the answers by any stretch as to why the American church has gone in some of the directions it has. It's a mystery, but what I do know is that we aren't called to understand the complexity of history. We are called to understand the Scriptures. 

When we focus on the Bible, the rest of life tends to come into clearer vision as we pursue the ordinary means of grace. 

Also, off topic and on the opposite end, I'm curious and looking into the theological differences in Calvinism and Confessional Lutherism, if anyone has any resources they can recommend. 

Thanks!

Stay biblical, my friends! 

Happy Labor Day Weekend! 

Soli Deo Gloria! 

Another Archive Photo: Atlas and Kimba / Our farm cats have enjoyed the overflow of the dogs' livestock protection plan. Any farm animal or pet is consumed within their care. 

"The Mystery of Godliness"

"With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" ( Micah 6:6-8 ) 

Paul said in 1 Timothy 3: 14-16: "I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness:

He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory." 

Until recently, I had never looked into the beliefs I was taught at a young age in the charismatic movement that took the globe by storm back in the 1960s, which came on the heels of researching the history of the Word of Faith movement, which in turn led to more unplanned investigating because I discovered it's all connected in a tightly woven web like the ones the spiders of Healing Brook delicately, but firmly weave along our livestock fencing this time of year. 

In my study and research into some of the movements in the twentieth century American church, I find one common denominator always before me: In each movement, supposedly a movement claimed to be of God, I can't find him. I can't see the Gospel of Jesus Christ, only a replacing of Jesus for an agenda or formula, personal experience, spiritual gifts, and otherworldly practices sprinkled with a measure of Christianity.  

Each group has their own agenda to put forth. 

It's feels cold and manufactured, like a business. 

Superficial. 

I've watched dozens of sermons and interviews and read many of the movements' books and articles. I've based my assessment from the horse's mouth. Their websites are full of words like "networking," "dominion theology," "Seven Mountain Mandate," "restorationism." I've paid close attention to their activities and conferences lately, and it's disturbing.

Where's the Gospel? 

Where is the unpacking and explanation of the core doctrines of our faith? Where is the preaching of God's Word as Paul instructed Timothy in his pastoral position at Ephesus? Our Reformation fathers were willing to give their lives in fighting for the supreme authority of the Bible and justification by faith alone. If God did have "generals" - it would be these courageous souls. 

The early days of Pentecostalism, with the faith-cure healers and their aberrant doctrine and unorthodox healing methods, the Latter Rain, Word of Faith formula, the health-wealth emphasis on worldly achievements and success, the charismatic, third wave, the demon-slayers, and the NAR with their initiating of new apostles and prophets into their organization, ushering in a new era in church history, they say, for one, exercising authority over current pastors and elders, is what Paul calls "another gospel" in his letter to the Galatians. ( Chapter 1 ) 

In addition, the history of all of these movements, coming about a little over a hundred years ago, (isn't that suspicious?) is interwoven together sharing a foundation that's built upon British Israelism, Christian Science, New Thought Mysticism, Keswick Higher Life, with a sprinkling of Christianity. And a boat load of pride. All of us must battle pride for the rest of our lives; it's a daily battle that gets us coming and going. However, we should see growth in humility in our sanctification process - and especially in our shepherds. Jesus said that we would know them by their fruits - a diseased tree can't bear good fruit. Their fruits are bad because the trees are bad. The roots are bad. 

A good teacher and pastor is kind and welcomes hard questions. They bear good fruit because a good tree can't bear bad fruit. ( Matthew 7 ) 

These are my initial observations. It doesn't mean that every church involved in these movements believes all of the false theology or that there aren't sheep in these organizations and denominations. The Farmer and I were. Jesus rescues his lost lambs. We tend to not think much about this, until we're one of them. ( John 10 ) 

I find myself having to pull back a bit to process all of this. It's heavy stuff. I think of Augustine's explanation of the "visible" and "invisible" church. 

In attempting to understand why God allows certain things that seem beyond confusing to me in this world, and mostly in the church, I am reminded that he has not called his sheep to understand the world or the church, his ways or his means, but his Word. We are commanded to understand his Word, and we will do well to do this. And I've found that when I dig deep into the living and breathing Word of God, allowing it to transform and renew my mind, my vision also sharpens and my focus becomes clearer into the mysteries of godliness and wickedness of this world. 

This research project, more than anything, maybe, has caused me to cling to Christ and his Word more than anything else in memory. Another thing I don't understand is why he has had such grace on me. 

As the prophet Micah brings to remembrance in the type and shadows of his book, God did give his first born for my transgression, for the sin of my soul. 

That's what I do understand. 

And that's more than enough. 

Stay biblical my friends! 

Stay true to God's Word. 

💜

Another archive photo I stumbled upon: 2005
At Bush Gardens with the man children, the year before we found the land for Healing Brook.