The One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell (Luke 12:5)

            Unbelievers, men God calls “abominable”, murderers, sexually immoral people, those that consistently work with witchcraft, men and women who worship other gods, and people who are consumed in deception – what type of people are missing from this list that the Lord gives to John the Apostle?  At the end of John’s encounter on Patmos island, the Resurrected Messiah personally informs His confidently beloved friend, John, that there are certain people that will certainly be in the Lake of eternal Fire for judgment.  Among those listed above, He begins the list with “the fearful”.  Some translations say “the cowardly”.  Fear is living without faith.  Without faith it is impossible to please God.  Fear is not just bad, fear is sin.  This is why it is listed with murder, sexual immorality, witchcraft, idolatry, etc.  However, the Lord delights in the fear of the Lord.  Chew.

            One major thing that the Lord wants us free of is fear of man, fear of the devil and any other random fear that has found a way to lodge itself into our souls.  He is wise enough that He doesn’t try to deliver us from something without giving us the thing we really wanted but were distracting ourselves from with lesser satisfiers.  When helping a new member of our church move into his new house in our neighborhood recently, this man told us his testimony and said that Colossians 3:11 was instrumental in his salvation experience.  He said that when he read “Christ is all and is in all”, he thought ‘I thought I had tried it all, I definitely wanted it all.  Apparently, Jesus Christ is all.  I want Him.’  I found this strikingly profound.  Everything that we as people are looking for is not merely in Him, but we are searching for Him.  Our desires are satisfied by Him alone.

            Eternal perspective will ultimately bring us to understand that He is the End of all things.  Sin ends in judgment, He is the Judge.  As much as some philosophies of life would like to think, life does not end at death – there is an afterlife that is determined by how we live in the current life-age we are in.  As the Author of the life that flows through us for an average of 70 years, He has authority to take our lives as He wills and desires.  It not just an ability to kill us, He is allowed to, justified in doing so and is the Author of the authority.  But His authority does not stop there, after He has righteously taken someone’s life, He also has the authority to cast that person into eternal punishment.  He has the keys of authority over death and Hades, they are His domain.  The devil doesn’t own hell.  Hell will be thrown into the Lake of Fire after the Millennial reign of Christ on the earth and there the fire of God will punish the disobedient.  This is Who Jesus says to fear.  I think I can understand why.  Fearing a man or a devil doesn’t make much sense.

            This is what we like to call “Divine Logic”.  Don’t fear men, they can only take your life.  Don’t fear devils, they can only do what God allows them to do – which is at most taking your life.  Fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell.  Why?  Because, ultimately He has the final say in all things.  This is why Paul says to the Corinthians that he persuaded men because he knew the fear of the Lord.  If there are things that hold us back from enjoying life now, either the One with Ultimate authority is trying to teach us something or He is about to exact judgment and deliver us so that we can enjoy Him.  Temporal living is stressful because it is a form of bondage.

            Eternal perspective brings freedom.  Forever the Word of God is settled in Heaven.  When we have it settled in our hearts that the Word of God is true, Heaven comes into the Earth of our bodily temples and Forever enters the bounds temporality.  The end result is patient urgency.  The devil is in a hurry because his time is limited.

*You who dwell in Eternity, change our perspective and give us patient urgency.  Amen*

Half Marathon Financial Support for Africa Trip

            Greetings from Charlotte.  As many of you know, and some do not, I am currently at MorningStar School of Ministry.  One of the divisions of the school is the “Special Forces” which is essentially extreme missions training.  Since November we have been training physically, spiritually and emotionally for extreme missions situations.  Under the guidance of Steve Thompson and the other leaders in MorningStar Ministries, we have been trained in the discernment of spirits and hearing the voice of God very clearly for practical life situations.  We have also been going on “challenge trips” in which we are stretched emotionally and mentally so that if we are in hostile missions situations, we are not hindered by emotional and mental weakness.  Physically, we have been working out for 3-5 times a week, running multiple miles each time.  We are training for a half marathon on April 12^th.  You are receiving this letter because all three of these things are coming together soon and I need your help.

            At the end of the year, we will be going to Africa (most likely, the plans are still in the works).  This trip will cost a few thousand dollars.  Though I have been volunteering to reduce the cost of this trip, the volunteer reductions are spread evenly throughout the whole group.  One of the purposes of the half marathon is to give us a goal to shoot at, the other purpose is to help us raise money for Africa trip.  My goal is to not have to pay any money for the trip.  If I can get 10 of you to commit $10 per mile of the 13 mile half marathon, then I will likely not have any costs.  If 100 people commit $1 per mile the results will be the same.  To donate via PayPal, click here and follow the directions to support this trip to Africa.

Thank you already.

vince

The Wisdom of God (Luke 11:49)

            In the Scriptures, Jesus is the Master of referring to Himself without anyone picking up on it.  Whether He is mentioning that the “Son of Man” will suffer and be killed or quoting Himself by an alias – as in this case, He always seems to find a way to seem more mysterious.  If you search the Scriptures for a time when someone says anything like what Jesus quotes “The Wisdom of God” to have said, you will find that only once is something similar said.  And guess who said it.  That’s right, Jesus Himself said it – search for yourself, but it is found in Matthew 23.  Interesting side note, I think.

            The Apostle Paul, in his first letter to the church in Corinth, called Jesus “Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God”.  If you have ever read Proverbs 8, it seems like when “Wisdom” is talking that Jesus is speaking.  Here in Luke 11 Jesus is confronting the spirit of legalism.  Many have wrongly defined “legalism” as being a mindset of works unto righteousness.  Legalism may be related to this, but it is slightly different.  The mindset that many believers hold for at least a small part of their walk with the Lord before being set free that they gain righteousness through the things they do is mostly a subconscious belief system.  This would more rightly be called a “works mentality”.  Legalism, however, is the demonically induced religious structure that emphasizes rules over relationship.  This is a huge problem for those set free for freedom.

            As the Lord confronted the lawyers, He rebuked them for hindering people from entering into what they had not themselves accessed.  In verse 52, He says that they keep the key of knowing Him from the people that are entering into the Kingdom.  Lawyers here are not the people that one would go to for legal suits, they were experts of the Law.  They had spent their lives studying and trying to understand all of the rules that were given to Moses.  They would interpret the Laws where they seemed unclear.  They would define what “work” was on the Sabbath beyond what the Lord revealed, using the Scriptures, but not in a way that freed people to enjoy the Lord like the Sabbath was for.

            The same spirit that worked on the lawyers that Jesus rebuked then is still around, trying to keep the liberated sons of God live under rules and regulations that manipulate us back into servitude to religion when we have been freed to be free.  Sometimes shows up as control or manipulation, but many times it those being wounded by this legalism spirit think that they are protecting themselves from sinning by putting rules up to keep them from access.  Accountability can be a good thing, but if the only reason a man does not give into lust is because he knows that he will have to tell his accountability group then he is not free, he just isn’t acting on the lustful desires of his flesh.  It was for freedom that Christ set us free, Paul wrote to the Galatian church, we don’t want to go from one for of bondage to another.  There is something far better than accountability.

            Freedom is not merely lack of oppression, true freedom is having authority over the oppressor.  Our view of almost everything in the Kingdom needs to expand.  We must take our end goals and go “too far” with them.  If we are striving to not gossip, we are under that legalism.  The law that we are bound to is “Thou shalt not gossip.”  Taking that thought to the next step is saying “I am dedicated to encouraging  everyone around me.”  This is taking the negative law and finding the positive, life-giving direction.  The removal of negative is ineffective if there is not an insertion of power.  Removing darkness is not difficult if you are a lit lamp.  Law kills, the Spirit gives life.

*O Wisdom of God, give us righteous understanding and hearts that burn to bring Your glory and grace into every place the soles of our feet tread with You.  Amen*

He who made the outside and the inside (Luke 11:40)

            We have been made fearfully and wonderfully.  Our Maker did a great job when He made us.  Each of us is unique and awesome.  Though the vain society we live in has attempted to convince us that our exterior is sub par, the vote of the Scriptures is that we are beautiful in His eyes – the eyes of Him in whom our true identity can be found.  When a brave soul overcomes the vanity of this perverse age and becomes comfortable in their skin, the attack of the enemy is against the interior life of a believer.  Have I measured up to the standard?  Are the requirements fulfilled?  Am I good enough?

            Are you ready for some Good News?  He made you inside and out.  From your very first breath, He approved of you in all aspects of your existence.  It is easy to take statements like “God could stare at you for eternity and not get bored or disgusted” as cliché and cheesy encouragement from someone that doesn’t have anything genuine to say.  However, truth is not cliché.  Perspective and attitude determine our reception of truth.  We must renew our minds and see ourselves through His eyes, not society’s.

            It is one thing to make the outside look good, but anyone who has wrestled with the flesh to overcome and make the inside a pleasing dwelling place for the Lord will tell you that it is far more difficult to clean up a man’s interior.  The soul is an intricate place.  When I was in high school I had a pair of shoes that I really liked.  These shoes looked great, at least when they were clean.  The problem there was that they were white, even the soles were white.  If it rained and I stepped in a glob of mud, I would have to get to a sink and wash my beloved shoes before a stain set in.  There was not always time to be detailed with my cleansing, so I would just rinse the big chunks off with a strong faucet flow.  Then later I would turn the water on softly and have a toothbrush in hand to scrub between the small grooves in the sole.  The Lord does the same thing with our souls.

            The Blood washes us completely of our sin like a power washer, but the Holy Spirit is still very gentle and precise in the cleansing process of the souls of men.  As the Maker of the soul, He knows all the places that need the most attention.  Engineers know where the machines they design will get the most wear and tear.  The Engineer of our souls knows every square inch of our interior life and He is zealously dedicated to the maintenance and improvement of His creation.  But it is not a dedication based on obligation, but based on friendship.  His heart is fro restoration.  He knows who we truly are, so He knows our end before our beginning.  So as He brings correction, He is not critical, He is letting us know where we are not acting like ourselves.  Like a friend of an amnesia victim, the Lord walks us through life, steering us towards our identity in Him.

            This requires great trust in His goodness and faith in His understanding.  Paul was right when He said that the Lord does all things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.  Though we may not see why He does what He does, if we have a foundation of trust in Him, we will walk through trials knowing that He would not allow things to happen if we were not being made more like Him.  Consequently, if we get a hold on the reality that we are pleasing to the only One whose opinion, confidence swells within us and we cease to anxiously watch people for their approval of us.  We have the divine stamp of approval.  He says we are very good.  If you can look yourself in the mirror and approve of yourself, you are agreeing with God.  The Father has many great thoughts concerning you.  Agreement with His opinion is walking in the truth.  Eventually striving to agree fades away, and agreement propels us forward.

*God, would you please tell us your opinion of us so we can agree with You?  Thanks*

The Voice (Luke 9:36)

            When there is a narrator in a movie, the script writer will put the initials “v.o.” next to the narration lines to indicate that the lines are “voice over”.  There may be any number of actual lines, actions or sounds going on at the same time that the voice over is speaking, but the emphasis is always on what the narrator is saying.  The characters are completely oblivious to the voice-overs, but would probably benefit greatly if they were to actually hear what is being said.  In some more recent films, the characters will hear the voice-overs and it is either comical or experimental in nature, but this is only because it seems ridiculous to us that there would be a running commentary on our lives.

            It may not be so much a reaction to the absurdity of a Commentator, but rather a nervous rejection of the necessary thought process that would follow the existence of an interested omniscient Being.  Recognizing that there is Someone completely unaffected by the confines of our human experience is a fearful thing.  The glorious reality, though, is that the Voice in our case is sympathetic to our condition because He lived in skin just like us in arguably the least comfortable time and place in history.  Having a Voice come from beyond our understood existence forces our minds to a humble perplexity.

            In an age in which there are hundreds of voices telling us to do so many things, in the media, in the spiritual realm, in our families, it is becoming increasingly important to determine which voice we will give authority to as “The Voice”.  We must determine from whom our chief commands will come.  Many people will tell us what to do, most of them will have good reasons, some of them will mean will, few will have right motives and only One will lead us into all truth.  Our allegiance must be predetermined or else the default will not be a good option.  There is only one voice that sheep know and listen to, their shepherd’s.  Others may dress just like him, say the same things in the same ways and even be given responsibility over the flock, but only the shepherd’s voice commands the flock.  It is the right of every believer to hear and know the Voice of our Shepherd.

            It is a supreme honor to be given the ability and right to hear a Voice from another realm.  Every time that the Father speaks to us, He speaks from Eternity.  Isaiah called Him “He who inhabits eternity”.  His primary existence is outside of existence as we understand it.  When we speak of “eternal truths” or “eternal life”, we are not just talking about truths or life that has no expiration date on the label.  Eternal things are things which exist apart from existence.  “Eternal” is not a characteristic, it is a nature, an essence, an irrevocable quality.  My roommate in ministry school is an American citizen, but he was born in Russia.  Try as he may, he is not an American, he may act like one, think like one, operate in society like one, but he is not an American.  (This is not at all to imply that America is comparable to Eternity, the example is purely for illustration)

            So when The Voice speaks out of Eternity, Peter’s cognitive circuits are fried.  He went from babbling about making three tents on a hill because he didn’t know what else to say to not saying anything about the encounter for a long time.  If it were not for the frightening touch of Eternity, any one of us would be liable to boast about what we had seen.  The closer we get to the heart of the Shepherd, the softer He can speak to get our attention.  We can have dozens or hundreds of people demanding healing from us when anointed with a healing ministry, but we are listening for what the Father is saying so that we can do what He is doing.  When men and women find their true identity in the opinion of Eternity, that is when temporal taunts become worthless whispers in disinterested ears.

*We turn our ears to the Voice that spoke us into being, give us ears to hear.  Amen*

The Christ of God (Luke 9:20)

            After doing an astounding miracle, feeding 5000 plus people out of nearly nothing to work with – and having them all full and satisfied, Jesus was found praying.  He was not doing this out of need for a refilling, but out of a desire to commune with the One through whom He was able to do such amazing displays of authority over physical laws.

            Luke appears to be contradicting himself in verse 18.  Jesus was praying alone but His disciples were with Him.  And while they were with Him while He was praying alone, He asked them a question about other people’s opinions of Him.  Now, Jesus is not insecure and needing affirmation.  When He asks questions, the purpose is revelation for us not information for Him.  We must, also, recognize that our definitions of prayer are somewhat divergent from the Biblical, even Messianic, examples of Divine Communion.

            This is the heart of the Lord for us: intimacy, friendship, community.  He was not offended by their presence while He spoke with the Father and Spirit, it did not throw Him off or hinder His relationship or standing with the rest of the Godhead.  In asking them a question, it is almost as if He enjoyed them being there and wanted to bring them deeper in.  Prayer is a group conversation.  Prayer meetings are more like celebratory gatherings of friends than somber appointments with a stoic King who demands flawless petitions with eloquent preambles.  Religious jargon and superficial praises in many cases are more related to witchcraft than to deep devotion to the Redeemer of our souls.

            There is an invitation set before us to intimate friendship with the Christ of God.  We read, here, in Luke 9 that after the Peter gets an inspired guess right, that Jesus tells Peter and the other disciples not to tell anyone that He is in fact the Messiah.  He tells them secrets because they are His friends, who He chose and has great affection for.  It is those who fear the Lord who are the keepers of His secrets (Psalm 25:14).  When you read in the Word about the mysteries of God or the Kingdom, understand that these are hidden mysteries, not hidden because they are not to be found, but hidden because they are to be found.  It is the glory of the kings of the Kingdom to search out a matter that has been hidden by the King of kings.  There are things that are hidden for you to find that no one else may ever be able to access unless you first seek and find it.  We are treasure hunters of the divine truths and realities of the Word and the Spirit.  Our Guide: Jesus.

            After He lets out the Messianic secret and encourages them to keep it a secret, He brings three of them up to an appointment with the authoritative figures of the Law and the Prophets – Moses and Elijah.  Here He shows that He is not just talk but is truly the Christ of God.  Again, He is bringing the disciples into His interior life.  He escorts them into a heavenly visitation.  Jesus is not like other leaders who would try to keep the hierarchy of spiritual authority very strongly established and recognized.  If He is doing it, they are to be in on it.  He does not change from yesterday to today on to tomorrow.

            Set before every believer is a welcome mat into a higher and deeper level of intimacy, affection and responsibility.  There is no limit to how far we can go in God except for the limits that we accept.  He would not withhold any good thing from us, and there is nothing more good than Himself.  Psalm 23 says that His goodness will follow, or stalk, us all the days of our lives.  The highways of Zion are in our hearts (Psalm 84:5), the access is there, the apprehension is what is lacking.  You are in control of how close you are to the King.  You can chose to live in relationship to the King like the prodigal son’s brother, or you can be God’s best friend on the earth.  The choice is before us.

*Christ of God, we want to be much closer to You, lead us in choosing wisely.  Amen*