Month: December 2009

Out with the old, in with the new


Only Jesus

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
The old has gone, the new has come!”
–2 Corinthians 5:17
          Sometimes an unbeliever will ask, “With so many different religions out there, how can you be sure Jesus is the only true way to God?”
          My answer, based on 2 Corinthians 5:17 is, “Because only the One who made me could re-make me.” No one else would have the authority or ability to do so. Other religions can only impose rules on a person in an attempt to control that person from the outside. But the Creator can be Lord of my heart, working to change me on the inside. All other religions are patently false, because they fail to provide their adherents with anything but rituals, practices, and ways to look holy. Jesus is the way to actually be holy.
          I know Jesus is the Lord, because He has made me something that I never could have been through my own effort: A new creation. Only Jesus can do that.

Jailhouse Concert

A Philippian Jail Cell

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.”
–Acts 16:25
         How do you handle it when things don’t go so well for you in ministry and the people don’t receive your message?  Do you complain to God?  Do you give up and quit?  Do you speak ill of those who oppose you?
         Paul and Silas’ response was to worship with their whole hearts.
         God had sent them to Philippi to preach the gospel, and there they were accosted, falsely accused, severely beaten and thrown in prison.  There, in the middle of the night, locked in stocks so that they couldn’t even nurse their wounds or recline to sleep, they praised the Lord.
         Their midnight praise & prayer session became a jailhouse concert, because as they ignored the pain of their circumstances to focus on the glory of their God, all the other prisoners were listening to them.  And that’s no surprise.  Would you not take notice if you saw people in such a trying situation praising the Lord with their whole hearts and calling upon His name?
         They had been placed in an inner cell, because the jailers thought it would make it impossible for them to break free; but it appears that it was really God’s plan, putting them at center stage so that all in the place could hear them glorify Him and know that He is God and the God who saves.
         The freedom their souls had found in Christ Jesus was so great that the walls of a prison couldn’t contain their testimony of faith or restrain their passion for God.
         If you’ve got the “winter blahs” or things just aren’t going all that well for you, remember to focus your attention on the God who is bigger than your problems and circumstances, and give thanks all the more.  What a witness it will be to unsaved family members, friends, or coworkers who know what you’re going through if you live your life not complaining, but saying, “Hallelujah” and giving Him honor in the midst of difficult times.
         Because the unsaved people around you go through tough times, too.  They might even be in the same “prison” you’re in.  And if you praise Him, they will be listening.  And it just might make them want what you have to be thankful for.
          Don’t let any circumstance keep you from saying “Blessed be the name of the Lord.”  If anyone had a reason not to praise the Lord, Paul and Silas did.  But they rose to the challenge and praised Him anyway.  And God was glorified.  Their hearts were already free, and because they praised Him, their bodies were also set free from prison later that night, with the family of the jailer who had imprisoned them becoming Philippi’s next converts for Jesus.

The Evangelism Alliance


The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!”
–Revelation 22:17a
          It is the age of grace. A time when eternal salvation is being freely offered to everyone on earth who is willing to receive it. To let them know, the Holy Spirit is engaged in a wonderful alliance with the bride of Christ — the church. The message this alliance preaches is so simple and clear that it can be voiced in one urgent word: “Come!”
          Come experience salvation. Come experience the forgiveness of all your sins. Come receive the free gift of fellowship with your Creator. Come know the peace and joy of being inhabited by the God of the universe and being made holy and righteous by Him. Come, all of you who have not yet become a child of God; Come to Him and drink freely of the water of life.
          Ever since Pentecost, the work of the Church and the work of the Holy Spirit have been one and the same. By His own choice, the Holy Spirit does not work alone. By His own design, every move He makes follows the prayers of His people. His every Word of witness to the lost world is spoken through Christians whose mouths He controls and whose lives He sanctifies to the glory of the Father in heaven. Every action of His people on His behalf is inspired by Him, and carried out to completion by Him through His indwelling power and the gifts He bestows.
          When the Spirit and the bride work together, as it should be, their voices become inseparable, inviting the world to “Come!” But it is so easy for our churches to become distracted from this noble purpose. Buildings, facilities, programs, committees, power struggles, fundraising campaigns, procedures, traditions, self-centeredness, inward focus, sinful attitudes, arguments — everywhere we turn, there is another circumstance or situation that seems ready-made to take our attention off the purpose defined for us in Revelation 22: to be the mouthpiece of the Spirit of God. Before long, we no longer operate in alliance with the Spirit Who lives in us, and we begin to quench His fire and turn the living organism of the church into a mere organization built by feeble human hands, designed by inferior human intellect, and sustained only by failing human strength.
          If that is happening in your life, or in the church you attend, the Spirit calls to you today, saying, “Come back.” Come back to the purpose for which you were called. Come back to the evangelism alliance where you and the Holy Spirit join hearts, minds, and voices to beckon the lost and dying souls of the world to come to Jesus and be saved.

The Personal God

Bruce’s story:
Who is my God? I asked. I was 14 years old. Who is He? No one answered, but I asked myself again, thinking, there’s my church’s God, then there’s the God that they tell us about in school. But who is my God?
No answers came from the frozen winter sky as I walked home. And it didn’t seem as though anyone knew the answer. The Sunday before I had gotten the courage to ask the teacher at the church. He smiled a big toothy smile, and told me I had already been taught all I could know about God by the church. I had learned theology and religion, but I wanted to know God.
My dad would rather I didn’t think about it. He’d look down at me with his crystal blue eyes and tell me that I was wasting both his time and mine. Maybe I was, I thought. It didn’t seem likely that there was any God to know except the fierce one my church talked about. It frightened me just to think about Him. This icy wind cutting my face is His wind, I thought to myself.
So why was I born? I thought. I’m weak, nearsighted, clumsy and awkward. I can’t even play football. When the ball is passed to me, it hits me and everyone laughs at me. My stomach got a cold heaviness, like when I eat ice cream too fast.
The more I thought about it, God’s judgment and punishment seemed easy to imagine: the earth opening and people being dragged into a pit of eternal fire, and Jesus coming with his army of bright, fierce angels armed with swords to destroy all creation for its sinfulness.
It frightened me to think of God. Sometimes when I would lose my temper, I would realize I was doing something wrong and think, Oh God, I’m going to be condemned.
I started to read the Bible in the gospel of John, and things seemed different then. Jesus wasn’t at all the way He had been described to me, it turned out. Or had I just been confusing Jesus with the God I feared? In John, everywhere Jesus went, people were being loved and changed by Him, and always for the better. He was loving people, even though they didn’t deserve it. And though their sins made them deserve hell, if they trusted in Him, He forgave their sins and promised them eternal life.
I thought of my friends that I went to church with. I’d gone there with them all our lives. I knew them. I knew they never changed. None of us ever changed. Even though there was lots of talk about change. We’d listen to teachings saying, “You’ve got to change because God is going to damn the earth and its sinners.” I knew I wasn’t perfect enough for God, but I wanted to know Him—and didn’t know He wanted to know me and love me and forgive me. So I just felt lost. And then I read in the Bible about Jesus, who “has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” That verse shocked me and sent a chilly sensation through my body. I knew God’s justice, that He would judge me based on my impurities—but here was a verse saying that Jesus had come to save the lost.
But how was He going to save me? A verse I had read in Romans began to make sense to me. It said that I would be saved by believing—by trusting in Jesus.
That’s all? I thought. Just believe? Shouldn’t I have to do some great thing? Shouldn’t I have to live a perfect life? That was the idea I had gotten from my church.
Then I felt drawn to speak to Christ. Of course I had prayed before, only formally in the church with the words they taught me to say. But this time was different. I lay down on my bed, and started to talk to Jesus. It was a simple talk, but it was the first time I had ever really communicated with Him.
“Lord Jesus, I’ve read about how everyone around You was changed. I want to be changed. I want peace and fulfillment and to be delivered from my fears. I am afraid of You. You know I don’t even like myself. Everything is messed up around me. And it’s messed up in me, too. But please God… I don’t know how You can do anything in me. But please Jesus, let me know You. Make me new.”
And then I knew I was being saved.

—————-
Bruce was able to experience these things with God and to have an eternal relationship with Him, because of what Jesus did for him, and for you and me. Because of our sin, we are separated from God and we deserve to be punished for all eternity. Maybe, like Bruce, you have come to realize that you are a sinner, just as the Bible says, and that when you stand before God at the end of this life, you will be judged and condemned. The Bible is clear that we all deserve just that. But it also teaches us that God loves us so much that He made a way for us to have our sins forgiven, so that we would not have to be punished in hell, but could go to heaven and be with Him, and experience joy forever.
Jesus never sinned, so He earned the reward of eternal life in heaven in our place. Then on the cross Christ died for our sins and rose again from the grave.
When the Bible says He died for your sins, that means that Jesus took your sin upon Himself, as if He had committed those sins; then, in your place, He let God the Father punish Him for every bad thing you’ve ever done or said. He took that punishment so that you wouldn’t have to.
Now, by believing that message and trusting in Jesus Christ alone, you can be saved from your sins, forgiven, and given eternal life in heaven. But you must not trust in good things you have done or in what the church or religious leaders have done to you, such as baptism. You must trust in Jesus Christ alone as your only way to heaven. He is the only one who can forgive your sins, because He is the one who lived a perfect life and then absorbed all the punishment you deserve on the cross.
And you must make a decision now in this life. Either you will trust Jesus Christ for salvation and eternal life, or you will trust in yourself and your good works, or your church, and then die in your sins. If you die in your sins, you will not be forgiven, but punished forever. But because God loves you, He doesn’t want to punish you, but to forgive.
Won’t you, like Bruce, let Him do that today? Talk to Jesus in your own words. Tell Him you believe you have sinned against Him and deserve punishment. Tell Him you believe He loves you and died for you and rose again. Tell Him you are trusting Him to save you, forgive you, change you, and give you eternal life with Him. Then thank Him for all He has done for you.

Improving your prayer life

Today’s message from the church was from Matthew 6, on improving your prayer life. It is in English with Romanian translation. You can listen to the message here.

If you’d like to hear my recent teaching on the same passage in English only, recorded Nov. 1 at Calvary Chapel Garland, TX, you can hear that message here.

Carol to read, pt 4

O holy night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Saviour’s birth
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born;
O night, O holy night, O night divine!
O night, O holy night, O night divine!

Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
O’er the world a star is sweetly gleaming,
Now come the wisemen from out of the Orient land.
The King of kings lay thus lowly manger;
In all our trials born to be our friends.
He knows our need, to our weakness is no stranger,
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!

Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!