Run With The Vision

2000 Years Later, He is Still the Reason...and here's why!

2010-12-18T22:09:00.013-05:00

"He grew up quietly and unnoticed in a retired Galilean mountain village of proverbial insignificance, and in a lowly carpenter-shop, far away form the city of Jerusalem, from schools and libraries,with no means of instruction save those which were open to the humblest of Jews-the care of godly parents, the beauties of nature, the services of the synagogue, the secret communion of the soul with God, and the scriptures of the Old Testament, which recorded in type and prophecy his own character and mission. All attempts to derive his doctrine from any of the existing schools and sects have utterly failed. He never referred to the traditions of the elders except to oppose them. From the Pharisees and Sadducees he differed alike, and provoked their deadly hostility. With the Essenes he never came in contact. He was independent of human learning and literature, of schools and parties. He taught the world as one who owed nothing to the world.He came down from heaven and spoke out of the fulness of his personal intercourse with the great Jehovah. He was no scholar, no artist, no orator; yet was he wiser than all sages, he spake as never a man spake, and made an impression on his age and all ages after him such as no man ever made or can make.

He began his public ministry in the thirtieth year of his age, after his Messianic inauguration by the baptism of John, and after the Messianic probation in the wilderness- the counter-part of the temptation of the first Adam in Paradise. That ministry lasted only three years- and yet in these three years is condensed the deepest meaning of the history of religion. No great life ever passed so swiftly, so quietly, so humbly, so far removed from the noise and commotion of the world; and no great life after its close excited such universal and lasting interest. He was aware of this contrast; he predicted his deepest humiliation even the death on the cross, and the subsequent irresistible attraction of this cross, which may be witnessed from day to day wherever his name is known. He who could say, "If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto myself," knew more of the course of history and of the human heart than all the sages and legislators before and after him.

He chose twelve apostles for the Jews and seventy disciples for the Gentiles, not from among the scholars and leaders, but from among the illiterate fishermen of Galilee. He had no home, no earthly possessions, no friends among the mighty and the rich. A few pious women from time to time filled his purse; and this purse was in the hands of a thief and a traitor. He associated with publicans and sinners, to raise them up to a higher and nobler life, and began his reformation among the lower classes, which were despised and neglected by the proud hierarchy of the day. He never courted the favor of the great, but incurred their hatred and persecution. He never flattered the prejudices of the age, but rebuked sin and vice among the high and low, aiming his severest words at the blind leaders of the blind, the self-righteous hypocrites who sat on Moses' seat. He never encouraged the carnal Messianic hopes of the people, but withdrew when they wished to make him king,and declared before the representative of the Roman empire that his kingdom was not of this world. He announced to his disciples his own martyrdom, and promised to them in this life only the same baptism of blood. He went about in Palestine, often weary of travel, but never weary of his work of love, doing good to the souls and bodies of men, speaking words of spirit and life, and working miracles of power and mercy.

He taught the purest doctrine, as a direct revelation of his heavenly Father, from his own intuition and experience, and with a power and authority which commanded unconditional trust and obedience. He rose above the prejudices of party and sect, above the superstitions of his age and nation. He addressed the naked heart and touched the quick of the conscience. He announced the founding of a spiritual kingdom which should grow from the smallest seed to a mighty tree, and, working like leaven from within, should gradually pervade all nations and countries. This colossal idea, the like of which had never entered the imagination of men, he held fast even in the darkest hour of humiliation, before the tribunal of the Jewish high priest and the Roman governor, and when suspended as a malefactor on the cross; and the truth of this idea is illustrated by every page of church history and in every mission station on earth."

from "The History of the Christian Church Volume 1", pg 102-105, Philip Schaff

Do You Believe The True Gospel

2010-12-13T16:12:00.014-05:00

I recently responded to a Facebook post with some real words and not just a like, thumbs up or :) (not something I normally do). The statement that got me so "moved" was this...and I quote...

"I heard it said once, the social gospel is great, it builds roads, schools and hospitals, but, how much better is the TRUE Gospel that saves men from Hell?"

Whenever I read something like this my stomach starts to turn, kind of like when my Haitian amoeba, that I happen to share a stomach with, begins doing back-flips. This is one of those statements that just rankles my cerebrum. Why? Because in a way the guy is not totally wrong but at the same time he is totally wrong. When the our un-churched friends look at churchydom today they tend to group us in one of two camps. There are the hippie do-gooder churches that are soft on preaching but do a bunch of great things in the community...and then there are the hardcore "drill Sargent" type, fundamental Bible thumpers that know they have the truth and will be glad to shove it down your throat as soon as they meet you. Now my Facebook friend may not put himself into the second category but I would wager that most of his un-churched neighbors have never seen the true gospel.

So with that intro...here's the lowdown on the "True" gospel.

As with many difficult modern day "church" issues this one has its roots in the modernist-fundamentalist showdown that took place in the early 20th century. At that time liberal theologians were restricting the modern significance of Jesus Christ to ethical considerations, ie. meeting human needs while downplaying the spiritual needs of man. Liberal theology focused on the good works of Christ and remade the "gospel" into a "meeting the material needs of humankind" gospel. The fundamentalist group chose to emphasize the proclamation or preaching of the gospel ie. salvation through faith in Jesus Christ preached to every creature. So in response to the liberal churches' left turn toward mercy ministries, fundamental churches responded with a farewell to mercy ministry and a hard right and full steam ahead approach into hell-fire and damnation preaching ministry. (This last statement is said somewhat tongue in cheek, recognizing there are the exceptions whenever speaking about large ecclesiastical groupings).

The truth is that while good works will never save a single soul, faith without works is dead and we know dead faith...what is it good for? Absolutely nothing. We are now seeing churches that are practicing both mercy ministries and proclamation with amazing effects. We can think of it as the two hands of the gospel. 1) salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and 2) consideration of the material well being of people. In the New Testament we find that it is not an" either/or" but a "both/and" proposition. To be a true follower of Jesus Christ we must practice good works or "love our neighbors as ourselves" and love them enough to teach them all that Jesus taught.

Just in case you're still not convinced let's look at the ministry of Jesus and the apostles which were ministries of both word and deed.

Ministry of Jesus:
Healing (Matthew 8:16, 12:22, Luke 4:40)
Feeding (Matthew 15:32-39, John 6:4-13)
Delivering (Matthew 9:32-34, 12:22)
Preaching/Teaching (Matthew 5-7, Mark 1:14, Luke 20:21, John 6:59, 18:20)
Other teachings (Matthew 9:35, 10:7-8, Luke 19:1-10)

Ministry of the Apostles:
Mercy Ministry (Acts 2:44, 3:1-9, 4:34-37, 5:16, 6:1-6, 8:7, 9:34, 28:8-9
Preaching (2:14-44, 5:17-42, 5:42, 7:1-53, 8:4, 13:16-41, 17:22-31)

Wow, if you took the time to read just half of these scriptures I know that you have been blown away by how these two hands of the gospel worked (and still work) in unison. I am convinced that those we seek to reach are looking for Christians that are showing their faith by their works. (James 2:14-18 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.)

In the next post we will see that this two sided ministry of Jesus was not some new part of God's nature that was unrevealed to the Old Testament saints. But God has consistently demonstrated his love through both word and deed.

Less is More!

2010-11-08T10:25:00.003-05:00

Living with less has seen a recent surge in popularity especially during this economic downturn, recession, depression or whatever you want to call it. The basic premise for most minimalists is that you can live with a much smaller collection of stuff and still be completely content and probably live even more fulfilled than the guy with all the toys. Click here to check out a recent video report from CBS news on minimalism called "100 Items or Less"

So, you determine the smallest number of items that you need to live your life. What is the bear minimum that you need to survive and still maintain a "reasonable" standard of living? My good friend Zack Woolwine writes a blog called One Backpack. You can check it out here. He makes some very good points and covers some of the fundamentals of "living life simply".

Different ideas and philosophies drive this downsizing gone wild. Some want to lower their carbon foot print. Others want to wipe out poverty and some are just trying to prove that they can do "it" and then they have bragging rights at the local watering hole. For me it is all about using the resources that I have been given, in a way that will bring God glory. In other words, I am willing to sacrifice my stuff, in a major way, so that others can be helped, in a major way! And according to the Bible, God is happy when I (you should include yourself here) live a self-sacrificing lifestyle.

Now I want you to think about how living simply lines up with the Bible. Jesus said that his followers would "love God with all of their heart" and that they would "love their neighbors as themselves". You may be wondering "What does this have to do with all of my material possessions?" Consider...as I follow Christ, God will be be the most important thing to me. I will love Him with all of my heart and secondly, I will love my neighbor as myself. If I love God I will obey what He has given me in His word, including helping the poor, the fatherless and widows (we'll look at this more in another post). I will also take a close look at how I treat myself (which is pretty dang good) and then I must apply that treatment to those around me.

Living It: It's winter here in Ohio and I like to be warm...so, I bought myself a couple of sweaters and a pullover micro-fleece at New-2-You (an awesome second hand clothing store here in Mason). If I am really a follower of Jesus then I will meet my "neighbor's" need in this area as well. And today we (my family and I) had the opportunity to do just that when God brought someone into our lives that was homeless and without a coat.

Now that is not radical Christianity but it is the type of Christianity that the world is looking for in you and I today. As Leonard Ravenhill once said, "This world doesn't need a new definition of Christianity...they need a new demonstration of Christianity."

Let us demonstrate our love for the world by our willingness to live with less.

2010-11-08T09:55:00.005-05:00

Thanks to my dear friend and brother, Wade McHargue for passing along these awesome quotes. Wade and his wife Kate and three children are being used in a mighty way by the Lord in Guinea Bissau. Please remember them in prayer today.

"Let the devil choose his way; God is a match for him at every weapon. The devil and his whole council are but fools to God; nay, their wisdom foolishness." - William Gurnall

"What a difference in the men who go into battle intending to conquer if they can, and those who go into battle intending to conquer." - D.L. Moody

"A coward heart will not do for the day of battle; a doubting spirit will not stand in conflict." - C.H. Mackintosh

"We are a supernatural people; born again by a supernatural birth; we wage a supernatural fight and are taught by a supernatural teacher; led by a supernatural captain to assured victory." - J. Hudson Taylor

"On the following words I staked everything, and they never failed, 'Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.'" - David Livingstone

One Passion

2010-11-07T20:33:00.002-05:00

"I have but one passion: It is He, it is He alone. The world is the field and the field is the world; and henceforth that country shall be my home where I can be most used in winning souls for Christ." -- Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf

"If the Great Commission is true, our plans are not too big; they are too small." -- Pat Morley

"To know the will of God, we need an open Bible and an open map." -- William Carey

"People who don't believe in missions have not read the New Testament. Right from the beginning Jesus said the field is the world. The early church took Him at His word and went East, West, North and South." -- J. Howard Edington

'Not called!' did you say? 'Not heard the call,' I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father's house and bid their brothers and sisters and servants and masters not to come there. Then look Christ in the face -- whose mercy you have professed to obey -- and tell Him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish His mercy to the world.--William Booth

From the Pen of an Atheist

2009-01-05T21:30:00.002-05:00

Missionaries, not aid money, are the solution to Africa's biggest problem - the crushing passivity of the people's mindset

Matthew Parris

Before Christmas I returned, after 45 years, to the country that as a boy I knew as Nyasaland. Today it's Malawi, and The Times Christmas Appeal includes a small British charity working there. Pump Aid helps rural communities to install a simple pump, letting people keep their village wells sealed and clean. I went to see this work.

It inspired me, renewing my flagging faith in development charities. But travelling in Malawi refreshed another belief, too: one I've been trying to banish all my life, but an observation I've been unable to avoid since my African childhood. It confounds my ideological beliefs, stubbornly refuses to fit my world view, and has embarrassed my growing belief that there is no God.

Now a confirmed atheist, I've become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people's hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.

I used to avoid this truth by applauding - as you can - the practical work of mission churches in Africa. It's a pity, I would say, that salvation is part of the package, but Christians black and white, working in Africa, do heal the sick, do teach people to read and write; and only the severest kind of secularist could see a mission hospital or school and say the world would be better without it. I would allow that if faith was needed to motivate missionaries to help, then, fine: but what counted was the help, not the faith.

But this doesn't fit the facts. Faith does more than support the missionary; it is also transferred to his flock. This is the effect that matters so immensely, and which I cannot help observing.

First, then, the observation. We had friends who were missionaries, and as a child I stayed often with them; I also stayed, alone with my little brother, in a traditional rural African village. In the city we had working for us Africans who had converted and were strong believers. The Christians were always different. Far from having cowed or confined its converts, their faith appeared to have liberated and relaxed them. There was a liveliness, a curiosity, an engagement with the world - a directness in their dealings with others - that seemed to be missing in traditional African life. They stood tall.

At 24, travelling by land across the continent reinforced this impression. From Algiers to Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and the Central African Republic, then right through the Congo to Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya, four student friends and I drove our old Land Rover to Nairobi.

We slept under the stars, so it was important as we reached the more populated and lawless parts of the sub-Sahara that every day we find somewhere safe by nightfall. Often near a mission.

Whenever we entered a territory worked by missionaries, we had to acknowledge that something changed in the faces of the people we passed and spoke to: something in their eyes, the way they approached you direct, man-to-man, without looking down or away. They had not become more deferential towards strangers - in some ways less so - but more open.

This time in Malawi it was the same. I met no missionaries. You do not encounter missionaries in the lobbies of expensive hotels discussing development strategy documents, as you do with the big NGOs. But instead I noticed that a handful of the most impressive African members of the Pump Aid team (largely from Zimbabwe) were, privately, strong Christians. “Privately” because the charity is entirely secular and I never heard any of its team so much as mention religion while working in the villages. But I picked up the Christian references in our conversations. One, I saw, was studying a devotional textbook in the car. One, on Sunday, went off to church at dawn for a two-hour service.

It would suit me to believe that their honesty, diligence and optimism in their work was unconnected with personal faith. Their work was secular, but surely affected by what they were. What they were was, in turn, influenced by a conception of man's place in the Universe that Christianity had taught.

There's long been a fashion among Western academic sociologists for placing tribal value systems within a ring fence, beyond critiques founded in our own culture: “theirs” and therefore best for “them”; authentic and of intrinsically equal worth to ours.

I don't follow this. I observe that tribal belief is no more peaceable than ours; and that it suppresses individuality. People think collectively; first in terms of the community, extended family and tribe. This rural-traditional mindset feeds into the “big man” and gangster politics of the African city: the exaggerated respect for a swaggering leader, and the (literal) inability to understand the whole idea of loyal opposition.

Anxiety - fear of evil spirits, of ancestors, of nature and the wild, of a tribal hierarchy, of quite everyday things - strikes deep into the whole structure of rural African thought. Every man has his place and, call it fear or respect, a great weight grinds down the individual spirit, stunting curiosity. People won't take the initiative, won't take things into their own hands or on their own shoulders.

How can I, as someone with a foot in both camps, explain? When the philosophical tourist moves from one world view to another he finds - at the very moment of passing into the new - that he loses the language to describe the landscape to the old. But let me try an example: the answer given by Sir Edmund Hillary to the question: Why climb the mountain? “Because it's there,” he said.

To the rural African mind, this is an explanation of why one would not climb the mountain. It's... well, there. Just there. Why interfere? Nothing to be done about it, or with it. Hillary's further explanation - that nobody else had climbed it - would stand as a second reason for passivity.

Christianity, post-Reformation and post-Luther, with its teaching of a direct, personal, two-way link between the individual and God, unmediated by the collective, and unsubordinate to any other human being, smashes straight through the philosphical/spiritual framework I've just described. It offers something to hold on to to those anxious to cast off a crushing tribal groupthink. That is why and how it liberates.

Those who want Africa to walk tall amid 21st-century global competition must not kid themselves that providing the material means or even the knowhow that accompanies what we call development will make the change. A whole belief system must first be supplanted.

And I'm afraid it has to be supplanted by another. Removing Christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone and the machete.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article5400568.ece

God has chosen the weak...

2008-06-21T10:07:00.003-04:00

"The road must be trod, but it will be very hard………….. This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere."

J. R.R. Tolkien "The Fellowship of the Ring" , 1985, George & Allen & Urwin Pub LTD (Chapter 3 The Council of Elrond Page 352)

The Secret of the Disciple

2008-06-19T09:27:00.002-04:00

Jesus did not say - Make converts to your way of thinking, but look after My sheep, see that they get nourished in the knowledge of Me. We count as service what we do in the way of Christian work; Jesus Christ calls service what we are to Him, not what we do for Him. Discipleship is based on devotion to Jesus Christ, not on adherence to a belief or a creed. "If any man come to Me and hate not . . . , he cannot be My disciple." There is no argument and no compulsion, but simply - If you would be My disciple, you must be devoted to Me. A man touched by the Spirit of God suddenly says - "Now I see Who Jesus is," and that is the source of devotion.

To-day we have substituted credal belief for personal belief, and that is why so many are devoted to causes and so few devoted to Jesus Christ. People do not want to be devoted to Jesus, but only to the cause He started. Jesus Christ is a source of deep offence to the educated mind of to-day that does not want Him in any other way than as a Comrade. Our Lord's first obedience was to the will of His Father, not to the needs of men; the saving of men was the natural outcome of His obedience to the Father. If I am devoted to the cause of humanity only, I will soon be exhausted and come to the place where my love will falter; but if I love Jesus Christ personally and passionately, I can serve humanity though men treat me as a door-mat. The secret of a disciple's life is devotion to Jesus Christ, and the characteristic of the life is its unobtrusiveness. It is like a corn of wheat, which falls into the ground and dies, but presently it will spring up and alter the whole landscape (John 12:24).

Oswald Chambers

Normal Christianity

2008-06-18T12:57:00.003-04:00

"Satan has us convinced to just stay put - You've got good music, good preaching, you need to grow a little bit more first. You go to all the services, you give, you give to missions, you're good. But the job of the church is to go right into the enemy's territory, not hide behind our comforts. . . . The normal Christian life is to push the enemy back - it's what we're doing right here. This is the normal Christian life." (said in Cape Verde West Africa)

The Right Reverend R.B. Snoddy :)

Is Your Church Cumbering the Ground?

2008-06-18T12:12:00.001-04:00

There is . . . no place today for a Church that is not aflame with the Spirit who is the Lord and Giver of life, nor any value in a theology; which is not passionately missionary. If there throbs through the Church the vitality of a living union with Christ—and apart from this the Church has no claim to exist, no right to preach, it is merely cumbering the ground—if the Church can indeed say "It is not I who live, it is Christ who lives in me," then the dark demonic forces of the age have met their match, and the thrust of life is stronger than the drift of death. A Church that knows its Lord and is possessed by its Gospel cannot but propagate creatively the life that is has found. A Christian who is taking his faith seriously cannot but evangelize.

("A Faith to Proclaim”, James S. Stewart, p. 11,12 Regent College Publishing , 2002)

Lord Send Revival

2008-06-18T11:16:00.002-04:00

We like to talk about how many of the great revivals were started when young people repented and began to cry out to God. Let me say here that God is no respecter of persons and that He can use whoever He wills, but the age of those used has nothing to do with it at all. If the prayers of children brought about revival it was because God saw honest repentance and a humbling of their hearts. Men of God, leaders of churches, elders, deacons, or babes in Christ; if we would humble ourselves, repent and pray, the God of heaven would hear our cry and pour out His strength on our behalf. What must be exercised is humility, repentance and childlike faith. E.M. Bounds stated it this way in his work The Necessity of Prayer,

"What an era of glorious achievements would dawn for the church and the world, if only there could be reproduced a race of saints of like mighty faith, of like wonderful praying! It is not the intellectually great that the church needs; nor is it men of wealth that the times demand. It is not people of great social influence that this day requires. Above everybody and everything else, it is men of faith, men of mighty prayer, men and women after the fashion of the saints and heroes enumerated in Hebrews, who "obtained a good report through faith," that the church and the whole wide world of humanity needs."

Get Your Affections in Line

2008-06-18T11:08:00.001-04:00

"God is pursuing with omnipotent passion a worldwide purpose of gathering joyful worshipers for Himself from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. He has an inexhaustible enthusiasm for the supremacy of His name among the nations. Therefore, let us bring our affections into line with His, and, for the sake of His name, let us renounce the quest for worldly comforts and join His global purpose."

John Piper

A Leader that Leads

2008-06-18T10:56:00.003-04:00

II Kings 22

The good king Josiah was involved in service. He was concerned with the business of ministry, as it were. Josiah had sent the scribe to settle all accounts and to make sure everyone involved in the repair of the house of the LORD received their due. It was during all of this “religious activity” that Hilkiah found the book of the law in the house of the LORD. Take note that not only was the book found, but it was read; and not only was it read but the reading of it brought about repentance and a crying out to God. Josiah is cut to the heart not because of his lack of good activity, but because his activity was taking place apart from the truth of the Book. There were great things happening around the LORD’s house during this time, but the King put a stop to it all when he realized the sinful state of his people as pointed out by the book of the law. Josiah assumed everything was alright until He heard God’s opinion on the matter. The truth of the Word brought conviction, repentance and change of direction for both Josiah and the people he had a God given influence over. Oh that we would read the word of the LORD longing for His way, and not looking to justify ours!

God makes Josiah a promise in the last part of chapter 22. Notice that this promise is based on the condition of Josiah’s heart and his humility before God.

2 Kings 22:19,20 Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the LORD. Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And they brought the king word again.

If I was in Josiah’s place I would have just let out a great sigh of relief. The God of the universe has just promised me that I will die in peace and not see the evil He is about to reign down on this wicked, backslidden people. I’m now free, shouting the victory and at ease in Zion. Not Josiah.

He begins what must have been a frantic gathering of all the people. Everyone is called in, all the men, all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests, the prophets and the people, both great and small. Everyone must hear regardless of their prominence or position. No one is too young. No one is too old. No one is too spiritual or too deep in sin. The cry goes out into every corner of the land, "The great King Josiah has proclaimed that all the people of Judah, both great and small, be gathered immediately to hear the book of the LORD which was lost and has now been found." All work ceases, people drop what they are doing and begin moving toward the center of town. Even work on the house of the Lord stops. At this point in time there is something to be done that supersedes even work at the LORD’s house. The King has made a proclamation so we must attend, but its not just any old gathering of the people…today we will hear from the LORD!

Pay close attention to the next step in this process for to many times we cry upon the altar, repenting for sin, only to make concession to the flesh in the days to follow. True repentance brings about drastic action.

2 Kings 23:3-8 And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant.
And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Bethel.
And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.
And he brought out the grove from the house of the LORD, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people.
And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove.
And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba, and brake down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man's left hand at the gate of the city.

In this passage we see Josiah making a covenant "to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book." The leader changes first and then the people follow. In many cases our people would be willing to change but leadership must first swallow their pride, admit disobedience, and repent.

Have we become to set in our ways to change? Has our spiritual inner ear become calcified with our own pride and self worth? God help us to return to that place of saving, childlike faith!

Back to the Basics

2008-01-11T13:31:00.001-05:00

In our day there is a great need for the followers of Jesus Christ to get back to the Bible and the truth contained therein. This is a call to return to Biblical Christianity...

Biblical Christianity is the law convicting of sin. It’s God using men and women of great faith to impact the world for eternity. It’s God becoming flesh and living among us, so we could behold His glory. It was a hill called Golgotha and a Savior beaten beyond recognition being nailed to the cross; the sinless Lamb of God being sacrificed for sinful humanity. It’s an empty grave and a risen Lord! It’s His ascension back to the Father and the promise He will return again in like manner. It’s His last command to teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. It’s Paul on the road to Damascus being totally changed. It’s Steven preaching the gospel to those that hated him so much that they stoned him, as he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father. It’s a counsel held in Jerusalem to straighten out the legalist teachers. It’s Peter, John, Phillip and Steven preaching to the Jews. It’s Paul, Barnabas, Silas, Mark, Timothy and Luke going into the Gentile world. It’s getting the gospel from Jerusalem into Judea, Samaria and the uttermost. It’s the number being added to daily such as should be saved. It’s the number of saved being multiplied and then the number of churches growing exponentially. It’s teams of early followers risking their lives, being beaten with rods and whipped and stoned and thrown out of town, all for the sake of the glorious gospel! It’s going to Paphos, Antioch, Iconium and Lystra. It’s the Macedonian call to Troas, Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens and Corinth. It’s writing the new churches in Thessalonica from Athens to confirm foundational truths, exhort them to be holy and to comfort them. It’s letters of rebuke and return visits to straighten out “new” issues among believers. It’s committing the gospel to faithful men, who will be able to teach others and encourage them in their ministries. It’s looking forward to the soon return of Christ but not failing to preach the word; being instant in season and out of season. It’s reproving, rebuking and exhorting with all longsuffering and doctrine. It is a trail of suffering and bloodshed that began at the cross and has followed every true believer throughout history. It is men and women willing to give their all for the one that gave His only begotten Son, the precious Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!

Topics like sacrifice, bloodshed, beatings, suffering cold and hunger for the sake of the gospel don’t play to well with the average Christian in the States today. It’s not the kind of message that will draw a crowd. The crowd wants to see Jesus do another miracle, they want a healing or to be fed. Jesus lost a lot of followers when His preaching turned to denying oneself, and taking up your cross, and following me, or when he said to go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and come and follow me. It’s not the inspirational message most "Christians" want to hear, but it, and only it, is the kind of Biblical Christianity that will get the gospel to the ends of the earth in 54 AD or 2006 AD.

The Cross

2007-11-26T14:07:00.000-05:00

". . . save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Galatians 6:14

If you want to know the energy of God (i.e., the resurrection life of Jesus) in your mortal flesh, you must brood on the tragedy of God. Cut yourself off from prying personal interest in your own spiritual symptoms and consider bare-spirited the tragedy of God, and instantly the energy of God will be in you. "Look unto Me," pay attention to the objective Source and the subjective energy will be there. We lose power if we do not concentrate on the right thing. The effect of the Cross is salvation, sanctification, healing, etc., but we are not to preach any of these, we are to preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The proclaiming of Jesus will do its own work. Concentrate on God's centre in your preaching, and though your crowd may apparently pay no attention, they can never be the same again. If I talk my own talk, it is of no more importance to you than your talk is to me; but if I talk the truth of God, you will meet it again and so will I. We have to concentrate on the great point of spiritual energy - the Cross, to keep in contact with that centre where all the power lies, and the energy will be let loose. In holiness movements and spiritual experience meetings the concentration is apt to be put not on the Cross of Christ, but on the effects of the Cross.

The feebleness of the churches is being criticized to-day, and the criticism is justified. One reason for the feebleness is that there has not been this concentration of spiritual energy; we have not brooded enough on the tragedy of Calvary or on the meaning of Redemption.

Oswald Chambers

One Passion

2007-11-19T14:58:00.001-05:00

A Look Into Total Darkness

2007-11-19T14:17:00.000-05:00

The Fula Jalon

The Fula Jalon are a large people group located in the western African nations of Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Senegal. The majority live in Middle Guinea, or the Fouta Djalon of Guinea, an area consisting of mountains and plateaus. They speak a Niger-Congo language called Futa Jalo (or Pulaar).

Along the plateaus of Fouta Djallon, there are grassy plains and fields of millet. Fulani herders settled in this region over 200 years ago and have since spread throughout western Africa. The Fula Jalon are a sub-group of this vast Fulani people group. They are semi-nomadic and raise crops as well as livestock. The high plateaus serve as part-time pastures for their herds.

The Fula Jalon of Guinea have also moved into southern Senegal and northern Sierra Leone, leaving the culture and heritage of this tribe in all three countries virtually identical. Today, the only differences are ones of terrain or climate.

The Fula Jalon are 99.9% Muslim, faithfully following the teachings of the Koran. They believe that Allah is the only god and that Mohammed is his prophet. Islamic schools are also set up for the children in some of the villages.

The percentage of Fula Jalon that are followers of Jesus Christ is only 0.01%. There are 4,279,000 of these people on the earth today. This means there are approximately 428 Christians worldwide among the Fula Jalon people. This leaves 4,278,572 of these people living in total darkness.

"Sympathy is no substitute for action." -- David Livingstone, missionary to Africa
"No one has the right to hear the gospel twice, while there remains someone who has not heard it once." -- Oswald J. Smith

And I Quote...

2007-11-09T22:15:00.000-05:00

This world doesn't need a new definition of Christianity...they need a new demonstration of Christianity.

Leonard Ravenhill

2007-11-09T22:12:00.000-05:00

God hath work to do in this world; and to desert it because of its difficulties and entanglements, is to cast off His authority. It is not enough that we be just, that we be righteous, and walk with God in holiness; but we must also serve our generation as David did before he fell asleep.

John Owen

Thomas, I. (1996). The golden treasury of Puritan quotations. Includes index of authors. General index created by Christian Clasics Foundation. (electronic ed.) (258). Simpsonville SC: Christian Classics Foundation.

2007-11-09T22:11:00.000-05:00

An Evangelist- A man, who had his eyes up to heaven, the best of books was in his hand, the law of truth was written upon his lips, and he stood as if he pleaded with men.

John Bunyan