He Went Out

 “For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it.” – Proverbs 2:21

Abraham, the patriarch of the Jewish people, was a man called by God to leave his place of certain dwelling and asked to “go out not knowing where he went.” He did so, trusting in God to lead him to a land of promise, Canaan land.

In the Bible, Canaan land was/is the land that God promised to Abraham and his descendants. Canaan was prepared for Abraham, and in a way, Abraham was prepared for Canaan. The man of faith, the man of righteousness, the upright and perfect man; that was the man who could dwell in Canaan. It was his people who would one day enter in and possess the land. God gave for us the scriptures on the land of Canaan so that we might understand and experience the spiritual Canaan land. We live in a world of natural things, but God calls us to leave off the pursuit of the natural and dwell in the spiritual. The natural man looks, touches, reasons, and uses logic to govern his life. He lives for himself, and the things that he cares about. When God called Abraham, he was living in a city of commerce, he had a family and extended family. His situation was one of comfort and stability. It was everything that the natural man aspires after. It was the equivalent of a modern-day house in the suburbs, with kids, cars, and a healthy portfolio of investments and real estate. God called Abraham and told him to “go out;” to leave all that he had and trust that God would bring him into a better land. This was a step of tremendous faith. Those who live in Canaan land will always be a people of faith. A person who shuns the natural and seeks spiritual. A people who “go out;” following the will of God over and above everything else. It takes faith to get into Canaan land, and faith to stay in Canaan land. Faith to follow the will of God and remain in the will of God. The people of Abraham, the people of Canaan, the people of Jesus Christ; are a people of faith. Canaan is now a spiritual dwelling place, where we can live with God and His Son Jesus. When you are cleansed from all sin, it is a burden lifted, but you must seek the Holy Spirit, to become sanctified, and to be brought into Canaan land.  If you are to become sanctified and remain sanctified, then you must “go out.”  You must leave your old life, old ways, and old wishes; you must die to your idea of everything and trust in God completely. God will bless this sacrifice and give you his Spirit, not by measure, no, rather by promise. The Holy Ghost will come and dwell within your heart bringing you into the land of Canaan. This is why the upright shall dwell in the land and the perfect shall remain in it. It takes faith to get into Canaan and faith to stay in Canaan. Faith becomes your new operating principle, forsaking your own way and following His way. This is living in Canaan.

It is a good land, the land of Canaan. When you become sanctified, you find the same marvelous truths that Abraham found, which is, serving God is far more wonderful than serving anything else. The way of faith is far better than the way of sight. The spiritual, better than the natural, and the land of Canaan is and always will be the land of promise. God’s promises never fail; if you trust him, he will comfort and keep you. For the upright dwell in the land, and it is good land.

A Full Reward

“The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.”-Ruth 2:12

God does not see as man sees. We see with a limited eye and weigh our plans and ambitions on an unbalanced scale. God holds all power in earth and heaven, therefore judgement as well. To abandon the world, and all its values, is to abandon what is known to us, what is familiar. The lesson of Ruth is a lesson of trust, as much as it is a lesson of redemption.

The lesson of Ruth begins with a woman named Naomi. She left Bethlehem, in the tribe of Judah and traveled to Moab with her family. Her sons and husband died and left Naomi with two daughters in law. It is here that Naomi decided to return home, and one daughter went back to her people, and the other, Ruth, did not. The scripture says Ruth was: “steadfastly minded” to go with Naomi. So, the two of them arrived back in Bethlehem with nothing, and no one.  In a time when women had little chance to support themselves. So, Ruth did what she could and gleaned in the field with the rest of the poor and strangers.  It is there she caught the attention of Boaz. Ruth’s faith and dedication made an impact, and Boaz inquired after this young girl, finding the answer to his questions (and her character) in the words: “it is the Moaithish damsel that came back with Naomi.”  A damsel that could have stayed, could have abandoned Naomi, could have played it safe. A damsel that left all she knew to follow God. Boaz told her “It hath fully been shewed me, all that thou hast done unto thy mother in law since the death of thine husband: and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a people which thou knewest not heretofore.”  Ruth’s faith in God moved Boaz’s heart toward her (a solid foundation for any courtship). I am sure she looked different and was slow to notice the cultural lingo, and ingrained customs. I suspect she was gossiped about, and unaccepted in certain circles. The world may reject you, gossip, slander, and degrade you, but our aim is not to live in this world but to live in heaven. Then Boaz said: “The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.”  Baby chicks have an instinct, an innate understanding that under the wings of their mother there is safety, warmth, and protection. They trust in the sheltering covert of her wings. The wings of the Lord provide a sure place, and Ruth found that out firsthand. Boaz would bring her over to his fields and instruct his reapers to “let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her.” Boaz would care for her and eventually marry her. Their marriage would prove exceedingly fruitful because from Ruth would come Obed, who would father Jesse, who would Father David; and David would become the Lord’s anointed, the king of all Israel. From whom would come the true king Jesus Christ.

In Psalm 91. King David writes “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.”  I cannot help but wonder if David was thinking of his great grandparents when he wrote this. Drawing from their experience, how Grandma Ruth abandoned all that she had, all that was familiar, to follow God. Truly, a full reward was given Ruth for her trust in God, so a full reward will be given to us as well if we trust in Him.

Worship In The Beauty Of Holiness

“Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.” –Psalm 29:2

When we talk of worship, we are speaking of something reserved for God and God alone. In worship we give honor, adoration, and reverence to God and his Son Jesus; we give it to them and them alone.  This worship is clothed in the beauty of holiness. Worship is not an intellectual ascension, or a Sunday formality, worship is as much a possession as it is a practice.

In the ages before Jesus Christ the Jews had specific instructions on how to worship God. These instructions surround who, what, when, where and how. Who should worship, what should they worship and when. Finally, where, and how to do it. By following these instructions, you gave glory unto God (for he is worthy), you worshipped His name and did it in the beauty of holiness. They had the law which helped them to understand how to worship God and at times it instructed them to put on or prepare themselves to worship. You had to wash in water, wear certain garments, give certain sacrifices which were sanctifying the worshipper to approach God.  Bridging the gap between holy, and unholy.  Setting themselves apart, cleansing from committed sin and preparing to worship. At that time, this was worship in the beauty of holiness. When our Savior Jesus Christ came, he fulfilled the law (the rules I spoke of above) and brought to humanity the chance of personal holiness through Him. The gift of the Holy Spirit within whereby the converted is sanctified and brought into full fellowship with the Father.  No longer must you wash yourself X number of times or wear a certain garment. No longer must you obey rituals and slay animals; the Holy Spirit in your heart is all the preparation you need for worship. When Jesus abides into your heart, he abolishes formality and brings actuality. He removes professed and produces possessed. When you truly receive the Spirit, you simultaneously receive a genuine spirit of worship. Why? Because not only does it compel you to want Him to have his way, his will, and his wishes in your life, but it manifests in you the realization that you have been redeemed. You have a personal testimony, a real relationship, and you love God so much that it brings about a continuous spirit of worship. Moreover, you understand and recognize that he is worthy, because you remember well the day when the breath of God banished the dark cloud of sin from your life.  This is the beauty of holiness; we can possess it, and we can worship the Lord in it; “for the Father seeketh such to worship.” (John 4:23)

When holiness is your preparation for worship it changes the: who, what, when, where and how you worship. First, who.  You no longer worship yourself or an idol, but you worship God and Jesus Christ, and you do it out of love. Second, it is no longer once on Wednesday and twice on Sunday, but every minute, every hour, every day (and on Wednesday and Sunday too). It changes the where, to anywhere, anywhere God would have you to be. You can worship in your living room, in the parking lot, in your car, “where Jesus is tis heaven there.”  Finally, it changes the how. Before the experience of holiness, maybe you went to church because momma did, or granddaddy did. Your wife goes, so you go. You read your Bible because “that’s what we do.”  During this time, the “how” to worship is lost to you, just like the how to love your neighbor was lost to you. Then holiness came and when the Spirit came, the “how” came with it; and how do we worship? We worship in spirit, in truth, and in the beauty of holiness. For He is worthy.

Holiness Becometh Thine House

 “Thy testimonies are very sure: holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, forever.”-Psalm 93:5

The testimonies of God are holy, and each one as an ornament of grace and beauty. As the flower on a barren tree, or the petals on a rose, so holiness becometh thy house.

When the psalmist speaks of God’s testimonies, he is speaking of the law of Moses. The rites, practices, and rituals that sanctify the temple of God. The house of God. The dress and ephod that adorn the priests who minister; and the commandments that govern the conduct of God’s people. It all points to holiness. To a separation from the world, a sacrifice of yourself, and an obedience to God. It reflects God’s character, righteousness, goodness, and judgment. Without it there is no beauty, comeliness, or alluring presence. Holiness becometh thine house. Holiness is beautiful, comely, and befitting for the house of God, and if for His house so let it become our house as well. And what is our house? The scripture says that: “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”(2 Corinthians 5:1) Our house here on earth is not about four walls and a roof, nor is it all about two hundred and six bones, containing seventy-eight organs, covered over with skin. Though this body that we walk around with is our tabernacle, it means more than just a collection of molecules. It is the decisions we make, and the consequences we leave behind. Our actions and reactions, our thoughts, words, and deeds. It all compiles together to create a house. People seek to ornament their house with so many worldly things, because they are becoming to the people of this world. Yet none becoming and so enduring as the ornament of holiness. Nothing so attractive to Almighty God as holiness and righteousness. When God chose to adorn his priest, he chose to use the finest stones, and choicest jewels, yet on his forehead he chose to proclaim: HOLINESS TO THE LORD. It was holiness that would lead the charge, holiness that would be set before them, holiness that must always remain on their minds.

God is holy, Christ is holy, and we are to be a people of holiness. It is not for us to promote worldly measures to try and attract worldly minds. No, our attractiveness to the world rises no higher and falls no lower than this powerful truth: “Thy testimonies are very sure: holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, forever.”

Perfection? -

“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” – Matthew 5:48

Question:    Does God expect perfection?

Short Answer: Yes.

Long Answer: Perfection is a widely misunderstood and misrepresenting point of doctrine.  The charge to perfection was made very plain by our Savior, therefore the means of attaining it must be equally as plain; and it is.  Jesus himself proclaimed it, taught it, bought it, and gifted the means to bring it unto us.

                God wants your heart.  If you read the Sermon on the Mount carefully (Matthew 5-8) you will find that Jesus speaks to issues deeper than the physical.  He calls for righteousness, righteousness that goes deeper than just what you do.  He wants to cleanse all the way to what your heart intends.  I find it no coincidence that he starts his ministry with a sermon about the heart and ends his ministry with a sermon about the heart (John 14-17).  The perfection is found in your heart; a perfect heart is a holy heart.  What God wants to perfect is within.  If I break my finger, my body is now less than perfect; am I now condemned to hell because I am no longer perfect?  No.  There is no disobedience found in a broken finger.  Imperfection in God’s eyes is rooted in disobedience to God, direct disobedience to God is sin, and sin is rooted in carnality (the desire to sin against God).  Carnality (the innate desire to sin) is found in the heart of man, and it is that which needs to be sanctified by the Holy Ghost.  When the Holy Ghost comes in it will purge out that want to sin and sanctify your heart to the service of God, manifesting in your life a perfect love for God, and a perfect love for man.  It is this love that brings peace, joy, contentment, obedience, wisdom, and all the fullness and goodness of God.  God expects you to have a perfect heart, and you get there by repenting of your sins.  God will forgive you as he has promised in His Word.  After this work of grace one must invite Jesus, in the person of the Holy Ghost, to come in and “take up his abode with you.”  The second work of grace.  By this very action God gives you a new heart that is conformed to the image of himself: holy, pure, clean, and perfect; and when he has your heart, he has you. 

                To deny perfection is to deny sanctification, and to deny sanctification is to deny the will of God, and the power of God.  The power that can save to the uttermost all that come unto Him (Heb 7:25).  The power that can keep that which is committed unto Him against that day (2 Tim 1:12).  What sin is too great for God?  Why must we wait until we are in heaven to live holy? Why can He not deliver you now, from all sin?  Do not abuse the grace of God or deny the power of God a moment longer.  Fully embrace the cross and surrender your all to Christ.  Open the door of your heart and let Jesus come in and sanctify you wholly. 

The Grace That Brings Salvation

“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” Titus 2:11-14

The human mind cannot comprehend the power of God’s grace.  What God has done for us, in contrast with what we deserve, is as vast as the cosmos.  The grace that brought salvation is truly an amazing grace.

This grace that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men.  The Holy Spirit will bring conviction, and the conviction of the Holy Spirit is the revealing of the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  Illuminating the reality that you are a sinner that needs a Savior.  Jesus is that Savior and he died for you.  When a penitent soul pours out their transgressions in earnest at an altar of prayer, you can rest assured that it is the Spirit of God that brought that about.  That soul who repents and truly forsakes their sin; dying out to all that he/she is, was, and ever will be.  That soul is truly converted; and when that soul approaches God once more and seeks the blessing of Sanctification he/she will obtain the Spirit of Jesus dwelling inside.  This Holy Spirit will eliminate carnality with the same consuming fire that scorched the sacrifice on Mt. Carmel and licked up the water around (1 Kings 18); this Spirit can very much keep you from all sin and lead you in paths of righteousness.  This is the grace that bringeth salvation, it is not a grace that keeps you in sin but brings you out of sin.  Grace calls us, converts us, sanctifies us, keeps us, and corrects us.  It is forgiveness, it is absolution, but forgiveness and absolution are but a part of the whole.  Grace is in absolution, but grace is not only absolution.  Like a lawyer representing you in a courtroom.  Pleading the blood of Christ, and your identity to his sacrifice (i.e. dying to your wills, ways, and wishes) will result in a not guilty verdict and absolve you of your crimes against Almighty God.  However, absolution was not the end goal of Jesus’s sacrifice.  It is salvation through sanctification.  Using God’s grace as a rug that you lay down over the stain of sin in your life, or a filter to distort the wickedness in you is something that God forbids.  The grace of God that brings salvation is the kind of grace that convicts, calls, and commands you to sacrifice yourself.  This grace brings full deliverance from all sin, which is salvation.  Salvation from sins committed and the desire to sin.  Every Sunday, masses walk into a church to hear a sermon.  If we preach sermons that promote absolution over deliverance, then we undermine the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  The message is grace, but the grace of God that can bring salvation; and I believe that there are many people in this world who no longer wish to live in righteousness and true holiness.

The grace that bringeth salvation hath appeared.  It appears in the human conscience, whenever the power of God pulls on a heart, it has appeared and appears unto all men.  This grace will bring salvation; do not let it become callous over by the continuing call of the world, the business of life, or the desire to remain in habitual absolution.  Break with the half-truth that Jesus came only to absolve our sins and embrace the grace that brings complete salvation from all sin.

Cieled Houses

“Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?  Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.”-Haggai 1:4-5

The value of a home is far more than just four walls and a roof.  Equity and investment.  It is the center of your life.  Your “homebase.”  A place of shelter, safety, comfort, and security.  A dwelling place.  Yet, for all its value, it’s only temporary. 

The prophet Haggai asked the people of God this searching question: “is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?”  The house to which he was referring was the temple in Jerusalem.  The temple which the scribe Ezra, and the cupbearer Nemiah had endeavored (by God’s help) to rebuild.  Haggai saw the waste and destruction of God's house and challenged the people.  The people had built cieled houses for themselves.  Comfortable, safe, convenient, affluent homes to dwell in.  While God’s house lay ruined. A cieled house was an extravagant house.  It would have had paneling and covering.  Proof that the people had money left over to give.  Time left over to sacrifice, and energy left over to serve.  Yet they spent all this on a covering for a covering.  On coating and finishing for their four walls, while God’s house had no walls.  The destruction of God’s house should have shocked them into action, but they passed by unconcerned, while decorating their own homes.  The destruction of God’s house should shock us into action; however, the comfort of a cieled house cradles us in apathy. How can we sit at ease when the world around us cries out for the gospel?  How can we dwell in fatness, when multitudes are starving for truth?  Is it not the ones that live around us with whom God wants to dwell?  Should we eat, drink, and be merry while the world burns?  Can you face God honestly after spending your life at play?  Heaping up treasures, comforts, and safety nets for your safety nets, while the Lord’s house lies in ruin?  It is not brick and mortar that must receive our work, but men and women.  The people around us who need the restorative power of Christ in their lives.  Let us receive the exhortation of the prophet.  Rise and work!  Ministry is messy.  It’s the life of a miner.  Descending into the darkness each day to hammer against the hardest stone of sin and wickedness; praying that amidst all the filth and dust there lies a precious jewel.  Ministry is a risky endeavor.  It is an uncomfortable task.  Yet, those who choose to follow Christ sign up for suffering.  “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”  (2 Cor 4:17-18)

Our mission has taken us to the front lines of the battlefield, where excess is abhorred.  No soldier would hold on to double rations while his brother starved.  No medic would hold back life saving medicine, from the wounded and dying.  We dare not stay home, while the rest of our brothers and sisters die on foreign lands, in foreign fields.  For how can we dwell in cieled houses, and call ourselves disciples?  

The Work Of Righteousness

“Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: Which justify the wicked for reward and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!”- Isaiah 5:22-23

The justification of wickedness will interrupt the operation of righteousness. Like a white blood cell, righteousness will find and destroy sin, and when the preaching of truth falls on a ready heart it convicts or converts.  

In the prophet Isaiah’s day, there were false prophets falsifying God’s judgment on sin. Desiring to ease the burden of the word of God. Or so they thought. They told the people “Smooth things” and prophesied deceit. While Isaiah spoke the truth in righteousness. The people flocked to the false prophets because they coddled their sin, justifying the wicked, which took away from the possibility of righteousness. A work where the righteousness of God will confront sin, and the truth of God’s word exposes sin. Once exposed the sinner will quake under the truth that God is righteous, and they are wicked. Then they will either yield, rage, or run. Rage like a dying animal with its last stand. Rage like a wolf's den disturbed, or a bear robbed of her cubs. Yet, in all the rage and discomfort, it must not be that the work of righteousness is taken away; for the end of it is peace and assurance. As Isaiah says in chapter thirty-two: “And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.”  Righteousness will purge out sin and establish peace. The peace of knowing God richer, fuller, deeper, and sincerely. This will settle in and promote more righteousness. Reveal more grace. Humble the penitent still further. God desires the work of righteousness to be accomplished on the earth, by accomplishing it in earth. In you and me. From the very beginning he sought to preserve righteousness, saying of Noah “for thee have I seen righteous before me.”  The Holy Ghost, coupled with the Word of God is not only the giving of righteousness but an instructor in righteousness. I ask, what area of life could not be better with instruction in righteousness? What if all relationships were righteous? All the businesses just? What if every heart of man was set to do what is right? Bars would close, gambling halls, strip clubs, and prisons boarded up. Locksmiths and security companies would go out of business. Donation boxes would fill up, while poverty and homelessness went down. Our fighting forces and weapons money redistributed. This is because the cleansing wave of righteousness flows like a mighty stream, purging out the deadness of the land, and leaving behind water that gives life. Well said the prophet Amos “But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.” (Amos 5:24)

This stream of righteousness can reach you. Are you a liar? Are you a cheat? Are you ashamed of the sin you are living with or living in? Do not comfort it, kill it! Do not justify it. Kill it! As David did Goliath, pick up the sword and cut its head off. Kill it, kill it all. Why can’t we be rid of wickedness? Why can’t righteousness work a work in you? Nobody wants a little bit of cancer; they want to be rid of it. Why should we settle to have a little bit of sin within, when within our reach is the means to destroy it? Christ offered the work of righteousness as a gift. Take it, take it by faith and stop at nothing until you have it. Kneel before God, die to yourself and surrender to Christ. 

Precious Promises

“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”-2 Peter 1:4

Life is full of promises. Promises that you make and promises that others will make to you. It is likely you have had someone promise you something, and they have broken that promise. It is just as likely that we have broken a few promises ourselves. Man is fallible, but God is faithful.

From an early age, kids’ pickup on promises made to them saying things like: “Daddy, you promised.”  My dad was quick to counter this and implement the “we’ll see” method so as not to overcommit himself. And now, I do the same, because when you make a promise, you set yourself up to proceed in the realms of faith and trust. We all make promises. Promises to your kids, your family, your spouse, friends, employers, and employees. Promises are a pledge, declaration, with which it binds the promisor in conscience and honor. Promises to bind us together, they make up an essential component of society. Faith and trust are the building blocks of promises. To keep them builds up faith and trust, and to break them tears it down. Therefore, when someone makes you a promise, and you act on it, you are exercising faith in that promise and that person. You are saying “I trust your word.”  Do you trust God’s Word today? Do you believe His promises? Then act. Act on them. In Hebrews eleven it tells of a people of faith who acted in faith on God’s promises. Noah, at God’s word, began building a boat long before it ever rained. God called Abraham out of his own country to go to a land which Abraham knew not. God made Abraham a promise that he would be the father of many nations, and Abraham obeyed God in faith. Joseph believed the same promise that God gave Abraham and asked that they would carry his bones up out of Egypt to the land of Canaan. Moses believed God and left the lap of luxury, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than that of Egypt. Gideon went to battle against incredible odds, believing the Word of God, over the evidence of strategy. They believed the promises and waited for the promise. The promise of the Father that would solidify all promises. A promise that Jesus would come, die, rise again, and send the Holy Ghost to fulfill the promise to dwell with us. To adopt us, to give us power to become the sons of God. To deliver us from the snare of Satan. To assure us of a home in heaven. To separate us from a life of sin. To comfort, guide, and teach us. To be an everlasting testament and cornerstone of all of God’s promises to us. God has given unto us exceeding great and precious promises. “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Promise. “I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”  Promise. “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.” Promise.  Take time, take down your Bible, and read all the promises that God has made to us. We can stand on the promises of God. We can believe them, trust them, and we can have confidence in them. We can act in faith with them.  As the hymn says: “they are builded sure and strong for the conflict with the wrong, God’s promises are never known to fail.”

The same God that sacrificed for us, is willing to sanctify us, and carry us through this life into a home in heaven. The promises of God are indeed exceedingly great and precious. Believe, trust, and act on them. 

Ye Are Idle

“But he said, Ye are idle, ye are idle: therefore ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice to the Lord.”-Exodus 5:17

The scripture says: “whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”  The world cannot esteem the things of God, because they are contrary one to the other.  This is the case when it comes to praying.  At best the world views it as personal development, and often as idle time.  However, like farming, when the seeds of prayer are sown in the fertile ground of faith it will bear much fruit.  It may take some time, but it will pay off. 

In the above text, Moses comes to Pharaoh at the word of the Lord to tell him to let God’s people go that they may go and worship.  Pharaoh responds: “Ye are idle, ye are idle: therefore ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice to the Lord.”  Then he tells them to get back to work.  Pharaoh is like the world in this instance.  When the people want to go out and worship the Lord his response is that they must not be busy enough.  If they have enough time to go and worship, then they should have enough time to go and work.  Prayer being an element of worship, an essential component of worship.  Of all that is attacked by the world as idleness and slothfulness it is the place of prayer.  Yet nothing could be further from the truth.  Prayer has a profound utility to it, just not in the way that the world honors.  The world exalts the man that sits down, hashes out a plan, rally’s the labor, the capital, and then executes that plan.  It bears their name and most often they rejoice in the glory of it all.  From entrepreneurs to military generals, this kind of work is esteemed.  Yet the labor of prayer is not this way; it is founded in a place of yielding.  It is not that you concoct a brilliant strategy but wait before the Lord for direction.  It is not that you rally labor and capital to your cause but rely on the moving of the Spirit of God to: open doors, send volunteers, and provide the means.  It is not that you follow through with your strength and might but give yourself over to His might that he may work through you, giving glory to God.  The early church wasn’t strategizing and organizing in the upper room, they were praying.  Praying and waiting on the power from above.  Some took them for idle drunkards, but little did they know that the work was underway and had been underway since the foundation of the world.  They were simply fulfilling their part in the plan of God.  What seems like idleness to the carnal world is essential in the work of God.  The investor that sets a certain sum in a sure stock knows that in time his money will compound.  What seems like idleness to the untrained, is in fact compounding into a generous sum.  So, it is in the place of prayer.

We must invest our all in the place of prayer, because only through prayer can we beat back the forces of darkness.  The battle ground we are tasked to fight cannot be won through capital and strategy.  We are fighting for the eternal soul of man.  We are preaching to raise the dead from sin.  We are laboring to liberate the captive from the clutches of Satan.  It’s spiritual warfare that must be fought with spiritual weapons.  So let us find ourselves praying. 

Take Your Place

 “And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord:”-Genesis 19:27

The man who is intimate with God will see and experience things other men will not.  They can entreat God with confidence, and where others will shrink from the same request they make; they in turn inquire with boldness.  When the time came Abraham knew the voice of God and followed, when others did not. 

The verse above comes to us concerning the father of Israel.  God’s chosen man, Abraham.  Here is up early to meet God, and he looks toward the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Only to find them burning to the ground.  Just one chapter before Abraham had noticed the angels of God headed toward Sodom, and he invited them in and entreated them as brethren.  He then began to inquire of God about Sodom and Gomorrah’s deliverance.  Asking for it to be spared of God’s wrath.  He began asking for fifty, just fifty righteous people in the city and God would spare it.  Then he asked for forty-five, then thirty, then twenty, then ten.  God was patient with him, and said he would spare the city at every count.  He heard Abraham’s request, and Abraham had the boldness to ask.  I believe Abraham had insight where others could not, because of his morning worship.  The hours that could have been given to work or rest, Abraham went to his place and stood before the Lord.  When you have a “place” it stands to reason that it is a place you frequent.  Whether it is a chair or a couch.  A pew of a church or certain locker at a gym.  Everything has a place, and it’s a place you go back to over and over.  I believe Abraham had a place he went to over and over to stand before the Lord.  To communion with him, to worship him, and to hear his voice.  The voice of God was Abraham’s priority.  He knew firsthand what obedience and belief could do.  He had seen how God had called him, blessed him, and provided for him in miraculous ways.  Abraham won battels he should not have won, obtained favor he should not have obtained.  Abraham thrived, because God was with him.  He was near to God’s will, and the Lord blessed Him.  He stood before the Lord, and because he stood before the Lord, that intimacy with God gave him a boldness and perseverance to continue to ask of God.  When you’re intimate with something or someone, it affords you a boldness that others don’t have.  The career carpenter will swing a hammer with confidence to drive a nail, because he has done it thousands of times.  The captain knows how far he can push his vessel because he has sailed it thousands of miles.  The husband can say things to his wife no other man can, and the same goes for a wife to her husband.  The man that appears before the Lord will have an intimacy with God that others are forsaking, and consequently they will have a boldness with God that some do not have.

Abraham couldn’t control the outcome of Sodom and Gomorrah, but he could make the ask.  He could presume upon God to change God’s righteous judgment; and God listened to him!  The Almighty God engaged with Abraham over the deliverance of a wicked and sinful city.  This is one of the many benefits of spending quality time with God.  That he hears and answers prayer.  Regularly, taking your place before the Lord to fellowship with Him to know His heart affords to that soul a boldness through intestacy that many miss out on, because they are captivated by the things of this world.   

No Room for Him: Rev. Luther Gray (posthumously)

“And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.” -Luke 2:7

The following is an excerpt from the journal of Reverend Luther Gray (Uncle Luke) of Christ’s Sanctified Holy Church.  Date and time unknown.

The town of Bethlehem was crowded because a decree had passed that all the world should be taxed.   It is easy to understand why there was no room at this hotel but knowing who it was knocking at the door that night and what it would have meant to them; it seems they would have made room for them.  If the door manager at the inn could have seen the opportunity of it, if he could have looked in the future to see what joy, what happiness it would have been to him. If he only could have let them in, it would have been the greatest hotel of all. Its name would have lasted through time and outlasted the finest hotels of our day. The Ponce de Leon of St Augustine and any in New York or Chicago. It would have exceeded them all in fame and may have been the largest today. If they would have known who was knocking at the door. The picture of the inn would have been on calendars and walls, and on thousands of Christmas cards. If they had only let Joseph and Mary in that night. But there was no room. What a chance, what an opportunity to become something. To do something worthwhile in life. And they passed it by. A humble manger took the glory and honor that would have been given to the inn. It would have been in the hearts and minds of men and women of the world, yet without this it is gone forever. That opportunity was lost, because there was no room. 

Now my dear friend, what might this mean to you? The Great one has said “Behold I stand at the door and knock.”  Now we may think that it was a pity that they did not make room for Jesus. How about us? Can we make room for him? May we as others have, make room in our house, in our life for Jesus? Or is our life so filled with the cares of this life, that there is no room for him. There are many things that we do that we think are not wrong to do. Our time is all taken up what with no harmful things at all. There just doesn’t seem to be room in our own life for Jesus. What a pity, we are like the inn, and inn keeper. Missing the chance of a lifetime by not letting Jesus in. That he may be formed anew in our lives. Behold, what we are missing no human tongue can tell.  Nothing but eternity can know all that we are missing. It is not what we are doing, but rather what we are not doing that counts against us. We take time to get up, to get to work. We take time to eat, and some time to sleep. We take time to go to town and do shopping. We take time to wash our car. We take time to build and to plant. Time to fish and hunt. We take time to go out to eat. We take time to talk with one another. Yet, no time to talk with Jesus. All these things may fill the house. All these things take up all our time; and we will not have any room for Jesus of Nazareth. 

If It Be So, Why Am I Thus?

“And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the Lord.”-Genesis 25:22

Why?  This searching question has accompanied mankind through the ages.  It is a question that has driven, provoked, plagued, and befuddled mankind since the beginning.  Why?  Why are we thus?

The son of Abraham.  God called Abraham to leave his home and country; called him to journey to the unknown.  God promised that he would make Abraham a mighty nation.  Abraham believed God, and one day had Isaac.  Isaac was the beginning of the fulfilment of that promise and would be the beginning of this nation. Issac’s wife Rebekah was a woman of faith herself, having never met Isaac, she went in faith and followed the calling of God into the unknown.  She was brought to Isaac and became the mother of the people of promise. In the twenty second verse of Genesis chapter twenty-five, we find Rebekah pregnant with twins, one to be called Esau and the other Jacob.  (Jacob would later be renamed Israel and have sons that would become the Israelites.  God’s chosen people.  Through this lineage would come the Savior Jesus Christ.)  As she is carrying them the children are struggling together within her.  Children that Isaac had entreated the Lord for.  The twins came to her as an answer to prayer, and now the children are bringing to her what is sure to be fear, pain, and anxiety.  The fear only a pregnant mother can know.  The anxiety of feeling unrest within the womb and knowing the helplessness of not being able to do anything about it.  Again, a result of Isaac’s prayer, to which she replied, “if it be so, why am I thus?”  As if to say: “why is this happening to me?”  The scripture tells us that the ways of the Lord are past finding out.  That his ways are higher than our ways.  To the sufferer, this can seem insufficient.  As it is mankind’s nature to want to know why; often, when we lack contentment, we will push for insight.  Settling in our minds to search out our own resolutions.  Doctors, therapists, self-help, social media, friends, and much more may be employed to help us find more insight into this great question of “why, and why me?”.  Now, please don’t take me to mean that this is without merit.  I am sure Rebekah would have loved to get an ultrasound, but there was no way to know or understand.  Yet, she was still wiser than many today in that her first instinct was to inquire of the Lord.  She didn’t go to Isaac, or her friends or confidantes.  She went to inquire of the Lord.  To wait before him and take his instructions on the matter.  She went to the one who understands it all and she got her answer.  The answer was that two nations are in her womb, and the present struggle is predestined to bring about a future deliverance.

This can be said of many things.  The present struggle we feel is predestined to bring about a future deliverance.  To bring forth something in God’s plan for our lives that we cannot see.  That is bigger than us.  The walk of faith rests on the pillar that God is in control.  No matter what.  The reason we don’t always see, but we must trust.  Therefore, in all things we must inquire of the Lord.  Go to Him, because he knows, and we don’t.  He is the one who can speak peace, knowledge, wisdom, and contentment to our hearts, our fears, our cares, and our deepest concerns.  The only one that can truly answer the question: “if it be so, why am I thus?” 

Owe No Man, But Love

 “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.” Romans 13:8

 Have you ever owed anyone money?   Or has anyone owed you and not paid?  It’s an uncomfortable relationship to be in; and the larger the sum the more uncomfortable things become.  We owed a tremendous debt to God and could not pay.  So Christ step in and absorbed the debt, and brought life and love to whosoever will.  

To truly understand or even begin to approach the depth of this scripture we must first understand the love that Paul is speaking about.  To do this, we can reach back to Romans chapter five where Paul writes: “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.  For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.  For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.  But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  Can you see in this text the amazing love of God?  The passion of Christ?  How that the Son of God left heaven to be broken for you and for me?  To be tortured, rejected, and humiliated for you and me?  The just for the unjust.  This is the love of Christ.  That he gave.  He gave his time, himself, his life, his all; for you and me.  My sin was on his shoulders says the hymn writer.  My debt, he paid.  I owed God, but Christ wrote the check.  We live in a qualify and quantified world.  One must be qualified and quantified before you can justify giving them anything.  Justify giving, loving, aiding, helping, ministering, lending or embracing.  It’s much like when you go to borrow money.  Before you can borrow money, the lender wants to see if you have justifiable collateral against what they plan to lend you.  They want to qualify and quantify you.  They want you to fill out an application with your assets listed and references they can call to inquire about your character and past performance.  You must articulate to them what you’re worth before they decide to give you anything.  What if God had done that to us before he sent Son?  Would we have qualified?  Certainly not.  We must see and understand that freely we have received and freely we must give.  We are debtors to everyman in love, because our example became a debtor himself.  Christ placed himself as a debtor to all men; who am I to do anything less?  The man in the gutter, the women on the stoop, the drunks, prisoners, murders, gangsters.  I am indebted to love them.  This is contrary to the theme of the world.  The world loves its own.  It loves those like them.  Those that make them feel rich, safe, happy, familiar and comfortable.  We are called to love all mankind, even those who seek to torment and destroy us.  To take from us, and despitefully use and persecute us.  Jesus pleaded to God on behalf of his persecutors: “Father forgive for they know not what they do.”

 Second Corinthians says: “For the love of Christ constraineth us” The love of Christ compels, drives, and presses us.  The same chapter goes to say that we are “ambassadors for Christ.”  The ambassador goes out as a representative.  If you are sanctified and serving Jesus.  The love you show to people may be the only representation of Christ they ever see.  Their introduction to the gospel may be a cup of cold water, a warm jacket, a bus ticket, or new shoes.  A listening ear, or time of intercessory prayer.  This love is like a foreign language in the world today, and as ambassadors for Christ we must carry his message.  At the risk of our all.