My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the LORD

…my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.  Psalm 84:2

We’re not jealous of anyone

We’re not envious at anyone’s popularity or apparent success in christendom. BUT we can only rejoice when a person has success or popularity BY FOLLOWING JESUS. How could we rejoice in anything less? The LORD knows our hearts that this is so.

I doubt that following Jesus will bring us to a place of popularity, but anything is possible with God.

A politician meets The King

Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from here. Pilate therefore said unto him, Are you a king then? Jesus answered, You say that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth hears my voice.
(John 18:36-37)

And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he said unto the Jews, Behold your King! But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate said unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. Then he delivered him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away.
(John 19:14-16)

We have no king but Jesus.

Yes, we respect the powers that be, but the bottom line is that we DO HAVE a King who rules over us, and we can never betray Him. We will proclaim Him.

Every politician, every person, should fear this King.

Yesterday was Holocaust memorial day

They say, Never again, but the world hasn’t learned, and we see the same attitudes fomenting around the world today as were evident in pre-war Germany.

David and his slingshot

Was just thinking about some other thing and then David and Goliath came to mind: about how David refused Saul’s armor.

What’s the quality there in David? Humility. He could have pretended to be something that he is not, a mighty warrior like Saul, and accepted the armor which was freely offered him, which was a great honor to be offered the King’s armor, but he was honest enough to be what God had made him to be, nothing more and nothing less, not someone else. He was familiar with a slingshot, so that’s what he used. He refused to use something which was not part of his experience, nor of his history with God, even as young as he was.

He was greater than Saul, but it’s good that he didn’t consider himself great; good that he didn’t know he was greater than Saul.

We are to be like him. We should be very comfortable with the weapons God has given us and not turn to the flesh for additional weapons.

Thankfulness in the Spirit

The Holy Spirit keeps reminding me to be ever thankful for the Cross and for all the grace showered on us. This is why the Table of the LORD was meant to be the center of Church life : the broken body and shed blood of the Lamb ever brought to our remembrance. For this is our only basis to live and serve, and to stand.

If we really take stock of all we have received in Christ Jesus, and all that is ours, how could we remain discouraged? Rather, how could we NOT have lives which are a powerful witness of the Cross and His resurrection?

Hidden hypocrisy

is simply when we have double standards: We hold others to a standard, but we object or are offended if they hold US to the very same standard.

I know of a group that distrusts nearly everyone outside their group, but they can’t handle it if you have any doubts at all about them. Suspicious of everyone, but can’t cope if someone is suspicious of them.

Related to this is the “holding at arm’s length” thing: Whenever i find out that someone is a believer i joyfully and lovingly call them my brother or sister. But some get unsettled at this, and hold me at arm’s length, as if to say, Ok… lets see first if you REALLY ARE my brother, before we get too close, before I call you brother…

That’s bad.

You don’t have to fear getting hurt, just love everyone liberally. If the blessing remains, praise God; if it returns to you, then move on. What have we got to lose?

Find the will of God

and do it.

Pray more

bcos there’s more things you need to pray for, and about : Much responsibility. Spiritually: taking care of business, and not leaving things undone.

A sample of Kingdom life

Acts 20:7-13

Here was a man who taught and preached all night and the saints were not bored, except the young guy who fell out the window.

Wouldn’t you like to have been in that house that night?! How can a man talk for so long about Jesus and people not get bored? It’s by the Holy Spirit, right. Would you like to be like that?

And, what if Paul were here today and visited your church? Would you re-schedule the program? Would he be allowed to talk all night if necessary?

If he came to our place i wouldn’t let him out of my sight! The poor guy wouldn’t get a chance to rest! Our spiritual hunger would draw the gift of God, the word of God, out of him, and i think that’s why he preached all night on that occasion, because there were spiritual transactions going on. Spiritual transactions are for more than merely giving a message and people listening to it. It’s Jesus speaking thru His vessels to His sheep, who receive it as from the LORD; and the life flows both ways, giving and receiving.

Don’t you want to be a vessel of the LORD like that? Even in a small measure?

Why did Jesus save you and me? He didn’t have to

For all of us redeemed sinners, who have received mercy, it’s the mercy of God we weren’t judged when we were unrepentant.

If there’s one thing which stays with me when i think of the horror and the suffering of the Haiti earthquake, it’s overwhelming THANKFULNESS that God had mercy on me, a sinner. That should be me squashed under tons of concrete, and then gone to hell forever. That should be me. But Jesus intervened and saved me.

That’s what sticks with me.

Lampstands

What if you have 100 men and women of God, who are filled with the Spirit and Truth, gathering together, and then one man comes in railing and accusing falsely, and speaking hatefully? Or, a man comes in who is in love with himself and teaches heresy?

This one man’s sin appears for what it is: The light shows up the darkness and the light is never moved by the darkness. If the Lampstand witness is maintained then the darkness can’t get an entrance; the devil can’t get an audience!

And this fact demonstrates the multi-faceted wisdom of God in Him having relational churches, deep and real relationships, for the enemy can’t assail and succeed against such love. And God’s love is far more than a ‘warm and fuzzy’ spirit which descends on a congregation; it is laying down our lives for the brethren; not counting our own life as dear to ourselves.

Which is why the enemy’s MAIN focus is to keep a local expression of the church from shining as a Lampstand, from being one, from having a real testimony in the midst of the darkness. Which is why we MUST be committed to the assembling of ourselves together in Jesus name, and not forsake it, not give up bcos of the great falling away, not retreat into a private christianity.

The spiritual ‘buy off’

In the news: Afghan president Hamid Karzai urges West to buy off the Taliban.

If you can’t beat em, buy them! Everyman has his price, they say.

That’s what satan tried to do with Jesus, but Jesus couldn’t be bought.

But he does find ‘christians’ who can be bought. He buys them off; Makes them an offer they can’t refuse.

What’s often missing from church?

Like, what’s the missing ingredient? I think it could be love and care for every brother and sister. The culture of attending a church show, and being in the audience: a non-participating spectator, has perhaps created a culture or ethos of self-seeking. Like, if you went every week to the cinema you probably wouldn’t develop a real concern for the rest of the audience in the cinema. You are there to receive. You are there bcos it’s good for you, it serves you. Modern churches are not much different to a cinema or a show, compared to the 1st Century churches. Such churches don’t produce mature disciples. Somehow the cycle of self-seeking needs to be broken.

The Warnings

Here’s some food for thought for our brethren who believe in OSAS.

There are many warnings to believers in the NT of the consequences of turning away from Jesus. If the person reading this does not have the Scriptures written in their heart, then perhaps no point in reading any further here. This is for those whom, when i mention ‘warnings’, know the many scriptures i’m referring to.

From now on, whenever someone wants to discuss OSAS with me, i’m going to say, I won’t discuss that until after we have first gone thru all the warnings from God and acknowledged them as truth first.

As I was working yesterday morning, shoveling dirt, the subject of OSAS became as clear as day to me.

Thinking in terms of OSAS is not fruitful in the context of the professing church, backsliding and carnality; rather we are to warn the backslider, with texts like 2 Peter 2:20-22.

If a professing believer is backsliding then OSAS is not the issue: repentance is the issue; the warnings are the issue.  The multiple Scripture warnings to those who profess Christ and who backslide or who don’t have any fruit, should be sufficient in themselves.  To debate OSAS with the backslider is totally irrelevant and could lead him to disregard the warnings concerning falling away.

So, I will refuse to debate OSAS, but simply quote all the warnings.

The argument against the warnings, which our brethren who believe in OSAS have, is that they say the warnings relate to false converts, who never knew Jesus and were never a new creation. So, that’s a very faulty logic, that it’s only false converts who can fall away, therefore all the warnings only apply to false converts : Like, listen up all you false converts who were never saved, BE CAREFUL that you don’t fall away!!

??? Hang on, if they can’t fall away, then why warn them about falling away? The very essence of the warnings affirms that they have received salvation, and therefore should not turn away from it, from the LORD. Their salvation is most positively affirmed in the warnings.

Indeed, the warnings are not worded in such a way as to make people doubt their salvation. The warnings don’t say that backsliding proves a person was never truly born again. What would happen if every backslider was told that they were never born again? The OSAS position, then, seems to force the conclusion that all backsliders were never saved, that they are false converts, if all of the warnings in the NT are for those who have never been saved, and don’t apply to the saved.

Now, in the case where a professing believer was never truly born again, they can still turn to the LORD. The ‘false convert’ could read this:

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

(Heb 6:4-6)

and realize they never had anything listed here, and then realize that the door is still open for them.

A glimpse into Glory

Periodically, and without any warning, the LORD gives me brief glimpses into Glory. This happened today. When this happens i’m mightily encouraged, and the trials of this life seem as nothing in comparison. It’s impossible to describe our future life in Christ, in Glory, with the vocabulary we have now, which is so limited. The reality of it overwhelms me. If we think this earth, nature and the universe is beautiful; there it is so much more beautiful. If you think the colors in the sky are beautiful, how much more beautiful are the colors you will see there. We’re going to live in a reality which is more real than this present one.

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Romans 8:18

…The few He can call His friends…

– Keith Green

To have the Creator of the universe call a man his friend seems beyond human comprehension. Yet it happened with Abraham. It’s a sign of this man’s great intimacy with God.

http://davidwilkersontoday.blogspot.com/2010/01/friend-of-god.html

Testimonies of the demonic ‘anointing’

Quote:

I went to Lakeland (Todd Bentley) 3 times.

I was so drawn to go there.

I really thought it was of God…

I had so many supernatural experiences – to seeing a mystical Jesus with a third eye, angels talking to me, visions, being transported. I had one experience with my daughter being in the room and her experiencing it too.

I was roaring like a lion, had gold dust and many other experiences. The worst thing that happened to me is that it got sexual. This false Jesus was approaching me sexually and I fell into it.

I still to this day do not understand how I could have been so deceived. I have been a Christian since the age of 16. I am 49 now… I fell right in… hook, line and sinker.

When I came home that last visit I became aware it was demonic, and I was surrounded and covered with demons literally, it was so horrible, all that I went through, you cannot imagine… I was seeing demons and being touched sexually and tormentingly constantly.. it has been 1 1/2 years and I am still battling these demonic spirits. I cry out to the Lord everyday for total deliverance. It has been horrible. I have renounced and repented, but still fighting. How do we get free of this?

Continued in Comments

An answer to someone leaning toward Universalism

I can very well appreciate that you don’t want to be categorized; same here, bcos it dishonors Jesus. And i believe that identifying with an “ism” is less than the perfect will of God, bcos if our understanding of the Bible centers around a dude who came along centuries after the Apostles then we dishonor Him by dishonoring the power of His Word, which is truth. It implies that the inspired Word is somehow incomplete if add-ons are compulsory.

Actually, we have no business seeking to understand “the whole” if we are not accepting all that Jesus said.

The childlike faith, by which only one can enter the Kingdom, accepts plain statements at face value whether they can be comprehended or not.

Bcos far more important than fully comprehending everything is the matter that we accept all that Jesus has said. If i don’t accept what Jesus said, even one thing, then i’m insinuating that He is a liar or a fool, mocking Him.

So this issue is not intellectual, it is a moral one.

So, when Jesus says that He will separate out of His Kingdom the wicked forever, it is plain to the person with childlike faith. But it is not plain to the person who is subverted and self-deceived. Such a person has a pre-set agenda, and such a truth would clash with his agenda – too inconvenient.

See what i mean? We don’t need to search for the magic formula, the holy grail of understanding everything, we only need to believe everything Jesus said. And He said that even a child can believe all His words.

Or else we are in this category:

For of this sort are they who creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with various lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 2 Timothy 3:6-7

No doubt, these ones have a GREAT DESIRE to learn. They are always “learning”. But their desire to learn, and in turn, to teach,  springs from their ego, from their flesh.

There is no gray area with God

He does not fluctuate between the truth and a lie, nor does He filter-out and/or pick apart false teachings and hang on to true teachings.

God does not reach down into a giant barrel of ooey-gooey, rotten tomatoes to search for one ripe tomato, and neither should we. The “fruit” is either ripe or rotten. God is not desperate. He doesn’t have to be.

All false teachers tell the truth part of the time. But with God, one is either a true teacher or a false teacher. God issued the rules and guidelines, and drew the line in the sand. His word draws a clear-cut distinction between truth and lies.

What are we if we tell the truth 99% of the time? Liars. Not half-truth tellers, but liars. God hates lies and deception, and instructs us to tell the truth in love at all times–no matter what.

Someone once said, “If you can’t do anything right, you can serve as a bad example.” All false prophets and false teachers have at least two things in common: God has warned us about them, and has instructed us to stay away and expose them.

Indeed, God has allowed false prophets and false teachers to exist and to serve as a bad example–an example of what we are not to be.

Bud Press

http://slaughteringthesheep.wordpress.com/2010/01/14/did-todd-bentley-plan-this/#comment-3648