Within the Lines

Grumpiness

Monday was starting out as a grumpy day for me; well, actually it started Sunday night.  You know that feeling of needing to scream or stomp or throw something, tho you know you can't, but you're looking for a good reason?!  About mid-morning (Monday), I had a sudden revelation break in to my meditation on reasons to be mad -- I didn't have to give into the feelings; I could pray!  So, I took a break from my frantic drivenness, went into my bedroom, plunked in a chair and waited.  God focused my attention on a book beside the bed, Surrender by Nancy Leigh DeMoss.  I weighed my options for a bit -- did I want to read the book? "certainly not"  so did I want to remain miserable and infect everyone else in the house, collapse into bed at night hoping no one would remember in the morning?  "NO!  more-certainly not"  So I got up, got the book and opened "randomly" to a section titled "Signing Our Surrender".  It speaks of signing a contract of surrender to God.  She goes on in the next section to describe the joys of those who have willingly surrendered.  Included is this "Covenant Prayer" written by John Wesley, based on a Puritan text:

I am no longer my own, but thine.

Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,

Exalted for thee or brought low by thee.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

Thou art mine, and I am thine.  So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth,

Let it be ratified in heaven.  Amen.

In the latest issue of World mag, the following is listed in Quotables (pg 18):

"I've had a very good life, filled with love and family and faith.  You can make life good, or you can make it bad."   Dianne Odell, who lived nearly her entire life in a 7-foot long metal tube due to complications from polio.  Odell, who despite her health problems gained a high-school diploma and wrote a children's book, died on May 28 at age 61 when a power outage stopped a pump drawing air into her lungs.

I chose (and choose) surrender.

Oh, and P.S.  Monday went amazingly well, so that I lay in bed that night marvelling at what God had done.

WHOA!!  I haven't heard anything like this mentioned much in Christian circles lately.  Isn't following Christ supposed to be as simple as "acceptance" and Him meeting all of my needs?!?

WE can never cling to a besetting sin with one hand, and grasp Jesus Christ with the other. Until thou art content to reckon thyself dead indeed to every known form of sin, whether thou thinkest it small or great, thou never canst follow Jesus.
WM. HAY M. H. AITKEN

Dad's Sermon, part 3

I'll try to wrap this up today...

     Around 45 years ago, I started noticing humanism starting to invade Christians' thinking.  I imagine humanism has always been around, but I think it only took over the Christian world view in the last few decades.  When I use the term "humanism", I am referring specifically to relativistic postmodernism; the belief that all truth is relative, that everyone's reality is equally valid, and the humanistic doctrine that everyone is good somewhere down at the heart level. 

     The acceptance of these deceptions has affected church thinking in several ways.  One very alarming attitude that has come from this relativism is a rather high-handed approach to scriptural interpretation.  Professing believers think that their feelings and desires transcend Scripture.  Teachers and preachers routinely toss out whole reams of Scripture in favor of personal agendas.  Surveys show that large porportions of professing Christians no longer believe that the Bible is the inerrant word of God.  They don't believe many of the miracles, even the virgin birth of Christ.  In short, they believe their reality is equally valid with God's:  that their wisdom is equal, or even greater than, God's.  RIDICULOUS!

     At least as alarming are attitudes that have sprung from the blatantly unscriptural belief that all people are good at the heart level.  Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is deceitful above all things."  Psalm 14:1-3, "There is no one who does good."  The way Christendom has adopted this humanistic belief is by believing that everyone who claims to be a believer is one, no matter their evil attitudes or behavior.  They are all just considered works in progress.  The are all considered to have a good heart.  Who are we to judge?  Don't we all have sin?  To make a judgment about a situation or a person is narrow-minded, critical and judgmental, right?  To be tolerant of almost any kind of attitudes and behavior in professing believers is loving and merciful, right?

     According to this belief system, Peter was being hateful and unmerciful when he told Simon in Acts 8:20-23 that he should die with his money, that he had a bad heart and was full of bitterness and sin.  Or how about Paul's awful attitude in 1Corinthians 5:1-5 when he says the church people were proud (apparently of their tolerance and mercy), but they should be ashamed; he said they should put the sinner out of their fellowship, and that he, Paul, had already passed judgment on the man.  Talk about judgmenatl!!!  Or how about 1Corinthians 5:9-13, where we are commanded to pass judgment on church people?  Then there is Jesus' diatribes against the church leaders in Matthew 23.  he called them snakes, a brood of vipers (demon-possessed).  How unloving can you get?

     These attitudes and behaviors would be roundly condemned in virtually every church in America nowdays; even the Son of God would be condemned as hateful.  Yet the Word says Jesus is love, so when He spoke such hard things He had to be speaking the truth in love.  How is such harsh language love?  Because it releases the spirit of conviction which can lead to repentance and life.  Treating pretenders as brothers and sisters only enables and empowers the counterfeit church and, furthermore, binds the Holy Spirit of conviction.

     Some people will claim that I am advocating witch hunts, but all I'm saying is -- speak the truth in love.  Speaking half-truths in fake love and mercy is never loving.  It reinforces hypocrisy and leads people to hell.  We need to speak the truth in love with an eye always for the heart.  Never focus on performance; always look for the attitudes of repentance, of transparency, openness, honesty, and humility.

     Come on!  Let's do like the Bible says so we can be a pure bride, a strong church, a glory to God.  Let's be an effective light to the world. 

Dad's Sermon, Part 2

Continuing my dad's sermon/essay...

      The second "R" is repentance.  In some churches now, repentance is down-played because they say everything is under the blood, so we don't need to even try to live a holy life.  But Luke 13:3 says that anyone who does not repent will face eternal death.

     Some people believe that repentance means turning away from sin and never repeating it.  However, the Greek word, "metanoeo", translated "repent", means "to think differently".  It can also be translated as a mental about-face.  It has to be more than a change in ideas.  It has to be a mental resolution; a determination to change.  And it has to be a life-long attitude.

     The third "R" is relinquishing the sovereignty of your life.  Again this relinquishment, surrender, commitment, or whatever you choose to call it, is NOT optional.  In most churches, total commitment is rarely taught and if it is taught is is presented as an option.  And yet the Greek word used almost exclusively through the New Testament, "pisteuo", translated "belief", means more than mental assent.  It's a conviction that includes entrustment.  You believe in Jesus and what He did--fine.  But unless your faith includes the entrustment of your life (total surrender to His will) you don't have saving faith.

     Now all these three "R"s, relationship (love God with your all), repentance (mental about-face), and relinquishment (surrender of your life) are goals.  Absolute love, total repentance and complete surrender are perfect states.  But the Bible is clear that unless we resolve to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and unless we determine to be totally repentant, and unless we purpose to be totally surrendered to His will, we don't have saving faith.

     Sadly, extensive surveys have shown that only 2-5% of professing Christians have these goals.  That can only mean that 95-98% of people who claim to be Christian are not actually saved according to Scripture.  It's no good excusing people by saying they mean well; so do Muslims, Hindus, and all kinds of cults.  It's no good to say they have the right doctrines or facts; even demons profess some truth.

     Scripture is full of warnings about this, especially for the last days.  I am talking about the false church, counterfeit believers, the great whore.  Matthew 23, 2Timothy 3, 1Corinthians 5, and numerous other passages warn and instruct about this false church.  But what is being done about it now? 

An excerpt from this week's Homeschool Minute that I thought would be a good boost when we're having one of those "maybe we should be sending the kids to school" days.  (She had several links throughout, that I'm sorry, but couldn't copy through.)

Mercy Every Minute
Deborah Wuehler, TOS Senior Editor

While knowing what public schools teach may be comforting to some, there are things being taught in the public schools that would make you extremely uncomfortable.

What goes on in the governing and instruction in that nice little school down the street is something we can make some comparisons with that will make you glad you are homeschooling.

Public School            
Required to teach humanism, based on atheism: the doctrine that man is supreme in all things; a rejecting of God. Textbooks have been revised to take "religion" out at the expense of altering real truth. Revised history and evolution are taught as fact.

Homeschool
Privileged to teach that God upholds all things by the word of his power (Hebrews 1:3) and that He alone is Supreme, and His Word is truth.

Public School
Teaches hedonism - A pleasing of the self as the highest ethical principle. Self pleasure and exaltation is upheld in public school classrooms and curriculum.

Homeschool
We teach children to make it their aim to please God and to be Christ-like in their service to God, their families, their churches and their communities.

Public School
Promotes the homosexual agenda, partnering with the NEA with complete lesson plans and curriculum for even the very youngest.

Homeschool
Allowed to teach the truth of God's Word: God created the family as one man for one woman. Family is strengthened and promoted.

Public School
Full lesson plans on teaching tolerance, including the "blasting of stereotypes" of women's and men's roles. Teach children to tolerate all things, except Christianity. Prayer is banned, the Ten Commandments are banned, God is banned.

Homeschool
We can teach the Ten Commandments; the Golden Rule; loving your neighbor; prayer and Bible Study. God is alive and well in our homes.


Public School
Sexual abuse of children runs at a high level in public schools. Peer pressures are causing children to conform to this world and leave the faith of their fathers (88 percent of the children raised in evangelical homes leave church at the age of 18, never to return).

Homeschool
A loving and safe environment, free from worldly pressures and vain philosophies. Children who walk "with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed." (Proverbs 13:20)

If we are comparing, let's start with comparing which environment teaches Truth. Some would say we are living in fear; I say we are living in the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of knowledge.

~ Deborah
Jeremiah 10:2

My Dad's "sermon", Part 1

 My Dad, pictured above, recently wrote an essay (?) that I enjoyed and decided to post here.  He is a tree-farmer, not orator, so the grammar, etc may not be perfect, but hopefully that can be overlooked for the meat of the message.

Basics

     I was saved at an early age and have attended Evangelical churches for over fifty years now.  During that time I experienced and observed many events in churches that were very disturbing.  I have seen delusional behavior, theft, scams, hatred, immorality, bitterness, unforgiveness, etc, etc.  I'm not addressing these things as if I have no sin.  I most definitely do, as we all do.  What I am talking about is unrepented sin.  A real Christian has an attitude of repentance and what I'm talking about is professing believers who are walking in an attitude of hiding and denying.  Why?

     I have pondered these things as well as the problem of people seemingly unable to get free of some compulsion even though repentant.  I've seen alcohol, sex, food, nicotine and other addicts try and try to get free with God's help only to fail.  Why?

     I've thought about these things for over forty years.  Then finally the answers came one by one from the Word.  The three R's.  The basics of Christianity.

     James 2 says faith without works is dead.  Obviously dead faith can't save.  Some people don't like what James says here: most notably Martin Luther who purportedly said James should not even be included in the Bible.  Others have used these scriptures as an excuse for legalism.

     Again, the Word has the answer:  The first "R", relationship.  Matthew 22:37-40 says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it:  Love your neighbor as yourself.  All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments."

     That pretty much prevents legalism, but that is not the main point.  The main point which cannot be over-emphasized is that loving God is the first and foremost work of faith.  REPEAT-- LOVING GOD IS THE FIRST AND FOREMOST WORK OF FAITH!  It is the centerpiece of faith.  This love relationship is spoken of thoughout both the new and old testaments.  It is described very poetically in the Song of Solomon, and allegorized in God's instructions to Adam and Eve (eat the tree of Life), and in Jesus' picture of the vine and the branches.

     This love relationship with God is unique to Christianity from all the world's religions.    If you remove the love relationship from Christianity, you have just another dead religion, no different than Hinduism, Islam, Animism, or any other false religion.  Nothing left but dry bones, lifeless, ritual, bareness and futility.

     This love relationship is what gives us life; it's our umbilical to God through which His life flows.  This love relationship is the conduit to produce the life of God in us, the fruit of the Spirit (God's character in us), the fruit of spiritual reproduction, and power over sin and power in ministry.  This love relationship is so pre-eminent that God even said that if your "good" works aren't a result of this love, they are actually iniquity.  (Matthew 7:21-23)

     It's no wonder Satan started immediately in the Garden of Eden and has never let up since, attacking that intimate, abiding, life-giving, empowering relationship.  

     In most of the fundamentalist Evangelical churches in the country, the first commandment is largely ignored and instead, all the emphasis is on the great commission and perhaps a list of thou-shalt-nots.  This ignoring of the first commandment explains most of the hypocritical and even demonic behavior we have all seen in churches.

     Many people believe that if they show a lot of enthusiasm in church services that proves they have a love relationship with God.  Picture a political rally like we see on television every election year.  Those people are extremely enthusiastic, jumping, shouting and waving banners.  Is this evidence of a relationship?  Their candidate probably doesn't know them.  If their is love, there will be zeal, but zeal doesn't prove that love is present.

     Others think that if they carefully obey all God's laws, attend church regularly, study the Bible, etc, that proves love.  Picture someone working for a large corporation.  They are very conscientious and always on time, etc.  No one could conclude, based on their performance, that there is an intimate relationship between them and the CEO.  The CEO doesn't necessarily know them from a sack of apples.  If there is love, there will be obedience, but obedience doesn't prove there is love.

This relationship looks like a perfect marriage.  There is emotion, passion, zeal, and obedience.  There is praise, thanksgiving, and adoration with no thought of getting.  Love is about giving -- not getting!  In Song of Solomon 4:9, Jesus allegorically says, "You have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes."  WOW!

Going Bananas!

Just had to add this to my "lines".  The first line makes me laugh out loud every time I read it. 

We should all aspire to live like bananas.  They are on permanent vacation, living in lush, tropical rainforests.  From high above, a canopy of trees provides the perfect balance of sun and shade.

                  --from the back of a Post Banana Nut Crunch cereal box