Written Word

Why Are You Not Healed?

Here I go, inviting the wrath of those who are caught up in the "health-wealth" mentality: After due consideration, I am convinced that God does, at times, cause His children to suffer physical ailments. Now hear me out and please don't go to the extreme with this concept and every time you get a slight fever cry out frantically, "Oh, I think God is punishing me!"

God is not a God who dabbles in trivialities. He does not toy with us nor, on the other hand, does He take vengeance on us for mistakes, sins or whatever is not quite right with us. God takes vengeance on the wicked. His own children sometimes need discipline and He will mete that out to them, but only in love. It will be for their good. Whatever God does to you as a child of God, or whatever He allows to happen to you, the aim is for your purification and discipline; God will never harm you.

If you are experiencing suffering because you have not listened and if you now hearken to His voice from the midst of the distress that has overtaken you, He will soften the blow and heal you physically or in whatever area you need healing. But if you refuse to listen to what God is trying to tell you – I have to say that I would not want to be in your position.

"Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?" (Rom 9:20)

God has a plan for you, one that He envisioned from forever. It is important to God and it should be very important to you. This great God has laid His hand on you for a reason: that should set alarms ringing in your head. You have not hitherto inquired as to the reason He saved you nor have you bothered to follow Him closely. Perhaps you are one of the thousands of Christians who are following their Lord from a distance and have let "things" and carnal pursuits come between them and their Savior.

Wake up! The affliction or whatever it may be that is causing you such discomfort is an alarm going off in your head and you drowsily reach over and turn it off so that you can go back to sleep. This is foolishness! I am not about to pronounce doom over you – I don't want to pronounce doom over anyone – because I was once as you are and God was patient to the extreme with me. By the grace of God I came awake and now I am trying to wake you up.

Please, please hear me, or rather, hear the voice of God trying to bestir you before it is too late. You are still a child of God, but you will not be a child of God forever if you do not wake up and run close to Jesus. There is a great future for you if you will apply yourself to whatever task or tasks God may have waiting for you to do. I will not bamboozle you: the work God wants you to do will more than likely be small in the eyes of men. But who are they and what do they know? How important is the reckoning of men? I can guarantee you greatness in the sight of God.

Of course I am not speaking to everyone that is sick. But someone somewhere is sick physically or tormented in their mind because they have not listened to the call of God to greatness. Examine yourself. Is that someone you? Why suffer further and why delay your fascinating journey into the sweet will of God? He is waiting for you.

Are We Bound – or Not – by the Old Testament Law?

A Scriptural Look at the Old Testament Law vis-à-vis New Testament Salvation

Scripture – Hebrews 8.1-13 (NIV)	Commentary
1 The point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,	Our High Priest is Jesus Christ (Heb. 2.17, 3.1, 4.14, et al), who is the fulfillment of the OT high priest. The OT high priest was the type and Jesus was the antitype. He was the reality which the OT high priest symbolized.
2 and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man.	The entire Mosaic Law system and the persons and objects in it were "a shadow of the good things to come" (the plan of salvation for all mankind).
3 Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and so it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer. 4 If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already men who offer the gifts prescribed by the law. 5 They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: "See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain."	The sum of Heb. 8.3-5 is this: If Jesus were serving under the Mosaic Law, He could not have been a priest because the priests were all of the tribe of Levi, whereas Jesus was of the tribe of Judah. Their service and worship were all a foreshadowing of the coming of the true High Priest and the salvation of all men and women. God was very firm in enjoining the Israelites to make a true representation of the coming authentic Tabernacle and all the accompanying rites. They could break the symbolism only at their own peril. (Ref. Nadab and Abihu – Lev 10.1, 2. Also Moses himself disobeyed one time only and suffered a penalty from God – Num 20.8-12)
6 But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises. 7 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. 8 But God found fault with the people and said: "The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 9 It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord.	The Old Covenant was faulty because it did not change the hearts of the people. It made them conform outwardly, but did nothing to the inner person and in verse 10 God declares that He will remedy that situation –
10 This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 11 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."	What a difference a New Covenant makes! After God had demonstrated to the Israelites and all mankind that they could not trust in mere conformation to a law nor could they trust in their own righteousness that such conformation brought them, Jesus Christ came, a mediator of a New Covenant as Paul explained: "19 What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator. 20 A mediator, however, does not represent just one party; but God is one. 21 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. 22 But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe." (Gal. 3.19-22)
13 By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.	You will note that Paul refers to the Old Covenant as "obsolete and aging," and not as completely discarded at that time. Could Paul have in mind that the converted Jews had not yet completely broken away from the Law although they claimed salvation solely through Jesus Christ? The Jews had all their lives observed the commandments of the Mosaic Law and it was difficult for them not to still feel bound by its rigidity. For example, when Peter had his vision of "all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air," he refused to kill them and eat them even though God had told him to do so. It was similar to a person today who goes on an authentic 3-day fast in which no food or water passes his lips. If someone would tell him on the beginning of the third day to eat, he would strenuously object. Why? He had gone through the extreme discomfort of fasting up until then, not because he liked to fast, but because it was for Christ's sake. If he should then, after having gone that far, eat or drink ahead of time, it would seem that he were eating or drinking poison. His mindset would be that strong against yielding to food until the completion of the fast. The saved Jews of that day felt comfortable with the fact that Jesus was the only way to salvation, but they were not yet at ease with giving up their minor observances of the Law. (This is no reference to the so-called Judaizers who clung to the Law so much that they persecuted those saved Jews who realized they were free from the Law – even though they found it difficult to completely escape its many lifelong entanglements.)
What is the conclusion of the matter? We are not bound by the Old Testament Law except where it has been brought over into the New Testament "Law of Liberty." But you will find that all of the Ten Commandments have indeed been repeated in the new Law except for the observance of the Sabbath. For further information on this topic you may click here: http://www.lulu.com/content/brochure/does-god-require-us-to-keep-the-ten-commandments/580865

Two Pentecostal Handbooks of Christian Terms and Phrases

JacLyn Enterprises has two books to present to you at this time. They are "companion" books; they complement each other. While either one is a good book to have, neither is actually complete without the other. The two books are: A Consensus of Pentecostal Thought and One Believer's Thoughts on Various Christian Topics. Below are as many details on the two books as we can give in this setting.

A Consensus of Pentecostal Thought             Compiled by Aaron J. Smith

A book of 236 pages. Collaborating in the writing of this work are the following Spirit-filled writers:

Virgil Cox Jr.	Merlin L. Ford
Mary J. Freeman	Morris E. Golder
Thomas E. Griffith	Byron V. Johnson
Clifton Jones	Stephen C. Jones
Ronald Oliver	Gretchen Seagraves
Francis L. Smith	Ethel Trice
James E. Tyson

After my compiling the original Essays on Pentecostal Terms and Concepts (1992), I have had to make some hard decisions. My theology has evolved since then and if I were to publish another edition of the original work, I would have to consider the opinions of my previous faithful co-authors. Not all of them see eye to eye with me on some of the topics in the new work, One Believer's Thoughts on Various Christian Topics. Therefore, I have compiled their writings into a new book titled A Consensus of Pentecostal Thought. It is a companion book to One Believer's Thoughts and together the two books constitute a great presentation of what Pentecostal Christians think about various words used by them on a daily basis.

One Believer's Thoughts on Various Christian Topics   by Aaron J. Smith

A book of 388 pages. This is written for all serious Christians and it is comprehensible by the average person. The entries are arbitrarily chosen as it is manifestly impossible to make the entries all-inclusive. This book and A Consensus of Pentecostal Concepts are companion books. That is, while either book is edifying and informative of itself, possessing both books gives one a broader view of Pentecostal Christian thought.

For more information, please go to the address below and scroll down the list of books until you find the two books we are extolling, and click (separately) on their titles. www.lulu.com/ajs.

 

'The Beginning of Sorrows'

The world is in a chaotic state.  It seems there are so many special, even tragic, needs. Men and women are fighting to stay afloat mentally, physically and financially. Dismiss the thought that the believer in Christ is in his or her own little bubble, shielded from the “beginning of sorrows” that is rising like a flood all over the earth. There are many Christians who need exceptional help to combat their exceptional tests of faith and the words “special” and “exceptional” have lately become the norm for the child of God.

I have intimated that the believer is not shielded from the storms raging all around us – but that is only partially correct. We Christians experience the same violent churning of the seas, but in the midst of it all (this is true only for those who have Jesus in the same boat with them) they can cry out to the Master who seemed not to care.

If He cared, we reason, why hasn’t He done something about our situation? But, at our cry Jesus bestirs Himself  and commands the winds and the waves, “Peace, be still!” And they no longer can harm us.

Note that I did not say they no longer raged and dashed us furiously: they could no longer harm us. What had seemed like a certain death in the roiling waters, can now  bring us only good. We shall not die, but live.

It is uncertain to me whether the devil does it or my own carnal nature (which is dead only by faith, not literally), but there have been times when I was rocked furiously within my mind and I would cry frantically for help and it seemed there would be no help forthcoming. But I want to advise you who have not been through this yet: your help is on the way. Your faith has to be tried first and the heat must be applied to your life so that God can make you what He wants you to be.

You will not die; you will live to yet praise God and to say in awe, “It was not me; it was the Spirit of God within me!”

What About This Jesus?

What about this Jesus? What love can match His love? For a second let us disregard His miraculous birth and His miraculous untainted life and focus on His hour of Passion. There has been no experience in all the history of the universe to compare to what He went through.

It was as though the whole of the demonic force under Satan had swirled down like a huge tornado and caught up the frail body of Jesus in its vortex and then slammed Him against the iron wall of the venom and hatred of demons and men. Jesus was left horribly crushed and without life or hope. Thus God and men and demons discarded Him, without life or hope, on the trash heap of history, in the depths of His own personal hell.

But the love of the Father who, although He had rejected Jesus when Jesus took on Himself the sins of the world, could not leave Jesus there. It sought for Jesus in the fiery depths of hell and summarily plucked Him out of it in a breathtaking show of power and love and the triumph of the inexorable will of God.

It is very clear to all believers and it will one day be similarly clear to all unbelievers: Neither Mohammed nor Confucius nor Siddhartha Gautama (the founder of Buddhism) nor any other spiritual leader can dare to match himself with the divine Personage of Jesus. It would be as though one would place a lit candle directly in front of the Sun. The light of the candle could not be seen for the terrible brightness of the Sun and the candle would be instantly and irreversibly destroyed.

“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Heb 10:31)

Set God Free!

Please be aware that in this post I am not attempting to be some sort of guru or "wise" spiritual leader, leading the unwashed masses out of their abysmal ignorance to heights of glory that only I now know. No, I am not the only person in the world who has a keen awareness of what God wants. There are many of us. And I must say that all who follow Christ are a washed, saved people. We all belong to God. Nevertheless our sense of who and what God is, is underdeveloped. We talk rapturously about our great and good God, which we should do, but we have such a childish (not childlike, which would be good) sense of who God really is and how He thinks and operates.

We seem to assume, without serious thought, that God operates optimally in a scenario of frenetic activity and loud sound. God can no doubt work in these conditions – He is, after all, GOD – but He neither needs nor prefers such circumstances in which to show His power and glory.

We preach and teach often about Elijah's experience on Mt. Horeb (1 Kings 19.9-18), in which he saw the Lord's power in the wind and the earthquake and the fire. But scripture tells us that the Lord was not in the wind, earthquake or the fire. That the Lord was not "in" these cataclysmic events indicates that God chose not to speak through them to Elijah. After all the sound and fury, God spoke to Elijah in a "still small voice." That is, God spoke within Elijah's thoughts, and it was very effective.

God wants, in addition to the aforementioned conditions of great movement and loud praise, a sober, quiet moment before Him, in which we see who He really is and what He really wants from us. We Pentecostals like to quote our Pentecostal catch phrases and quote our own Pentecostal jargon, which is not too bad. But doing this does not put any more stars in our crown. In fact, we utter some of our pet sayings without giving a thought to what we are actually saying. It's what our brothers and sisters expect us to say.

What we need are great hearts, hearts of depth so that we will think soberly and long about this Almighty God of all creation, this tremendous God we serve. If we do this, we will realize we have trivialized God and tried to squeeze His uncontainable Spirit into our own severely restricted mold.

Set God free! Broaden your mental and spiritual horizons. Is He a God who is only near at hand and not far off, filling every conceivable nook and cranny of space and existence? (Jer. 23.23) We are, in a sense, stifling the Almighty Spirit; we are reducing Him to our own stunted stature, and that limits Him in what He can do for us. Give wings to your faith and set God free!

The Life of Christ in Five Phases - A Most Revelatory Book

We at JacLyn Enterprises think we have the answer to the need for a book that gives its readers more than a cursory study of the life of Jesus. Titled The Life of Christ in Five Phases, Fourth Edition, the book delves more deeply into who Jesus was, what were His reasons for doing the things He did and what His relationship was to the Father and the Holy Spirit. At the same time it is targeted to the average person, not necessarily to the learned theologian – to him reading these thoughts would be like feeding Pablum (a bland food for babies) to an adult.

Below are two snippets of text taken from The Life of Christ in Five Phases:

1. The Identity of the Holy Spirit

Jesus, in His last discourse with His disciples, said, "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Counselor, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows Him, [note the following] for He dwells with you and will be in you." (John 14:16, 17 - RSV).

If the Counselor (Comforter‑KJV) was then dwelling with the disciples, it must have been Jesus Himself who would come back, after leaving the earth in bodily form, to dwell in them as the Holy Spirit. It could not have been one of the disciples. Jesus then makes it clearer to them: "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you."

 

2. Crucified!

The soldiers laid the cross flat on the ground and made Jesus lie on it, His arms stretched out along the cross beam on either side. Jesus knew what was coming and no doubt His flesh did draw back, but not in a literal sense. With no hesitation, except that caused by His broken physical condition, He positioned Himself on the cross. An unnamed soldier who should forever live in infamy took a spike and hammer and viciously drove the spike through one of Jesus' outstretched hands. To the soldier it was as though the hand were a block of wood he was fastening to the cross. It was not so with Jesus. The pain flashed up His arm and into His whole being. Then they nailed the other hand with the stabbing pain again accompanying it.

Next, they nailed Jesus' feet to the cross with the same unconcern by the soldiers and the same cruel pain suffered by Jesus. They thus impaled the Lord of glory on all the outrages and abominations of fallen man. They lifted this mighty God and this broken Man upon the tree so that He was hanging, a tragic and repulsive sight, between heaven and earth where He was accepted by neither. Here was this accursed and innocent Man, hanged for all the world to see as a sort of invective that mankind hurled in the face of God Himself! And still God let them live in their sin and madness

 

For more information on The Life of Christ in Five Phases and how to purchase it, click here:

http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/the-life-of-christ-in-five-phases/4667814

 

Good Fathers Are not Born, They are Made

Of course, considering my advanced age, my own father has been gone from this earth many years. But I can tell you what a good father is because I had one of the very best. So listen to me, as a son and a father in his own right, while I muse on what good fathers are made of.

Good fathers are not born that way; they are made – by trial and error, by perseverance, by the best of intentions and by the grace of God.

The title of itself grants no special significance to the indifferent father who looks on it as a right to mistreat his brood – often brutalizing their mother. Not so with a good father: he realizes he has a tremendous responsibility to discharge. He must be a God figure to his children who are too young to have a concept of a God who is over all creation. Good ol' Dad is their God, and that is as it should be. He shows them early in life what that authority figure is like. Of course He won't be perfect in the role, but he should give it his best.

A father is the head of the family. Note that he is NOT the "boss." Do we who know God look on Him as a "boss," or as the great and powerful yet loving Person He really is? Similarly, a father should be an authority figure who exhibits the love and gentleness and kindness that entitle him to his children's love as well as their respect and obedience.

A father works together with the mother to create a home that embodies warmth and safety, a home to which the children are eager to return after they have been away for a while. He should be a source of comfort to his children, perhaps not in the same classic sense as the mother, but in a protective "nothing-can-hurt-me" and "my-Dad-could-fight-a-tiger-if-he-was-chasing-me" way. Mothers can't fight tigers; they can only soothe the wounds inflicted by the tiger and wipe away the tears of pain and fright from scared little eyes.

But we have to be realistic. When all is said and done, a real-life father may not fill the requirements for the post perfectly. He is human and he will stumble here and there despite battling his human frailties. At times he will feel like kicking himself for not being the kind of Dad he wants to be. But that's just the point: his heart is into the task and he can't fail with such an attitude. If he is giving it his all, he is a hero to his children and in the sight of God – and he will do quite well until the perfect Dad comes along.

A Tribute to Patricia

This post may not have a direct bearing on "A Word from God," but it does relate to how God views the sexes, which He deliberately made different and unequal in His own wisdom…

What Is It I Want

In a Woman?

Well – let's see. I want a woman who is:

• ...understanding and caring....not necessarily physically strong. If I had wanted a physically strong woman, I would have married a weight lifter with a body of steel. That I don't want. I want my woman to be soft, like women are supposed to be. When I am looking for a shoulder on which to lean, it is not necessarily to impose on it all my weight, but to place my temporarily unsteady hand on it for the mutual warmth and comfort of both of us. Above all, I don't want a strong hard shoulder – make it soft and warm with the assurance that it is there as a help "meet" or suitable for me
• ....soft and tender in her emotions. If I had wanted a woman bereft of tender emotions, I would have found a modern-day Jezebel somewhere and married her.
• ...spiritually astute. One who knows what it means to trust God and who shares in my admittedly limited dreams and aspirations.
• ...capable of being lover, friend and confidant.

When I think of all the reasons for a man to love a woman, I can only think about you -- my very own

Pat.

I guess I'm a hopeless romantic...

 

 

The Gentle, Overwhelming, Beneficent Spirit of God

The gentle, overwhelming, beneficent Spirit of God – Jesus needed this Spirit, and His followers have always felt the inborn need for the Spirit of God in their lives. They need Him even more so in these troublous times.

As a case in point, a colleague of mine who takes medication for hypertension told me recently of an interesting experiment he conducted, using himself as the guinea pig. One day after testing his blood pressure and, finding it to be a little higher than usual, he had a novel idea. He decided to take himself and his elevated blood pressure into his "secret closet"; he would go before the Lord in prayer. After the prayer session he would test his pressure again. This will prove the efficacy of prayer, he no doubt thought. He put his little plan into operation and, guess what – his blood pressure was higher than before! So much for unproved theories.

This was not a shock to me, however. It was as I told him: Too many of us Pentecostals (yep, I own up to being a true Pentecostal!) do not know how to relax before the Lord. We think the more intense our feelings and the higher the decibels (a numerical expression of the relative loudness of a sound) of our petitions, the greater impact we will have with God. Now don't read me wrong. There is without doubt a time for intense emotions and, for some, there is a time and need for lifting up our voices on high; but there is also a time for unwinding and resting in the presence of the Lord.

When I am greatly perturbed and tense in my mind, I surely am not seeking to make those feelings worse; I need just the opposite. I want to find rest and peace as I wait before my Lord. What we all need frequently is this quiet period spent with God. We need at that time to let go of every worry, loosen up our tense frame of mind and untie the taut muscles of our body and fall, exhausted and believing, at the feet of Jesus. It can do a marvelous work of "healing" for the mind and the body. We can jump and shout and holler at a later time, but for the present, when we are so keyed up, the jump and shout are counterproductive.

The Israelites of old were a very emotional people, very volatile and changeable. They could praise you one moment and think of stoning you to death the next. A large crowd of them went before and after Jesus on His triumphal entry into Jerusalem on a Sunday, but by Friday of the same week they clamored for His crucifixion! David's band of six hundred men willingly followed him into battle, endangering their lives for him one day, but when they met with disaster not many days later, they threatened to stone him.

In that day these high strung people needed a day of rest, a day of letting go of old hostilities and vengeance and all strenuous physical activities; they needed a Sabbath or day of rest. Today we too need our regular times of resting in the presence of the Lord. It is good for the body, the mind, the soul and spirit, and if we fail to take advantage of the rest God has promised us in this life, we will miss it spiritually and naturally.

Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer,

That calls me from a world of care

And bids me at my Father's throne

Make all my wants and wishes known!

 

In seasons of distress and grief

My soul has often found relief,

And oft escaped the tempter's snare

By thy return, sweet hour of prayer.    

Behold, What Manner of Love…

"25 …How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself."

A stranger made these remarks to two disciples who were on their way to the village of Emmaus a few days after the crucifixion of Jesus. The disciples did not know it at the time, but this was very Jesus, the one who had just a few days earlier gone through such a horrifying ordeal in Gethsemane and on Calvary. Yet He (love personified) said what He had endured was no more than would be expected of Him! This was the love of Christ speaking.

The more you look at what Jesus said to the two disciples on their way to Emmaus, the more wondrous and resplendent the love of God appears. As a case in point, consider this:

We know that strict justice, which is a trait of God Himself, required the death of the sinner. It was simple and equitable: man sins, man dies. The Almighty God of all creation, who was the epitome of righteousness, would not and indeed could not tolerate any breaching of His righteous law. Such lèse-majesté or disdaining of God's royal personage was unthinkable and unpardonable. So, to repeat, man sinned, man had to die. That was simple justice in a world that had been perfect before man defiled it.

But God is not merely righteousness and justice. He is also love; and love viewed the situation through the lens of – what else? – love. The facts remained the same: man sinned, man dies. Simple enough. But the love of God examined the facts through lenses that were rose-tinted with divine hope and they imparted to the basic hard facts an aura of expectancy.

We can see now that, although Justice had made the decree (man sins, man dies) from an eternity ago, the same Justice, urged on by Love, had to – in all justice and equity – consider the righteous decree of Imputation, which, biblically, is the attributing of something "in a judicial manner, so that the thing imputed becomes a ground of reward or punishment." (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia) Imputation is as old as Righteousness and Justice and Love: It is from forever. Regarding the matter of imputation, the Scripture tells us, in two separate passages, the following:

"Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord IMPUTETH not [does not charge with] iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile." (Psa 32:1-2)

 

"And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not IMPUTING [charging or reckoning] their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." (2Co 5:18-19)

In the scriptures above the doctrine of imputation is applied to persons who had been sinners and were literally guilty of a host of sins, but God, through the atoning blood of Jesus, reckoned or imputed them to be without sin. After their sins were in this manner taken away, the same righteous God imputed to them the righteousness of Christ. This was either an extreme oxymoronic act or the dizzying heights of Love. By all means it was the latter.

We have seen how Love intervened to spare man from an eternity in hell. But Love is not yet through. Despite what I have said here, some of you have yet to see its greater brilliance. And that would be that man was rescued from damnation by God's decision that He Himself would have to "die" for man! What other "god" in what other religion would wrap Himself in a body of flesh and condescend to come to this otherwise insignificant planet so that He could "die" – for what? – a caricature of divinity, the grotesque creature who was once made in the image and likeness of God! What an embarrassment to the great Creator man had become! What a mockery it was that the man who was next to God, or eventually would be, was about to be asphyxiated by his own moral vomit!

But God persistently loved man with a love that would not be repelled by man's disgusting condition. There has never been, and there can never, never be, a love that comes even a distant second to the love God has for man.

"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God…" [This is an astounding turn of events!] (1Jo 3:1)

Note this further definition of imputation:

"…the term "imputation" has been used in theology in a threefold sense: 1) to denote the judicial acts of God by which the guilt of Adam's sin is imputed to his posterity; 2) by which the sins of Christ's people are imputed to Him; and 3) by which the righteousness of Christ is imputed to His people." (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

It could only have been the love of God that fashioned the doctrine of Imputation. At first glance it may seem somewhat strange that item 1, that Adam's sin was imputed to his posterity, was propounded by Love, but that was the only way that dimwitted man could see the beauty of love in action as evidenced by items 2 and 3. And what a beautiful, thrilling show it was and has been and shall be throughout the never ending ages! We shall never tire of this Grand Spectacle.

Can There Be Peace in the Midst of a Chaotic, Doomed World?

God has not guaranteed us a life without struggle. He has not promised that we will always have ideal conditions in this life. It is logical, therefore, to assume that our lives may be stressful at times. But He has said that He would give us peace. Perhaps you are an unbeliever. You sneer, "How can you have peace and stress at the same time? The two are not compatible, like oil and water. They can't mix."

I can't explain it to you; you will simply have to take my word for it. I certainly do have stress in my life, but at the same time I have the peace of God deep within me. This is not something I learned to say from my parents. (They taught it to me, but I learned it for myself. We all have to learn anew many facts we have already been taught.) The peace of God is what makes the adversities in any believer's life bearable. We who believe are threatened often; we have more than our share of anxieties, but through it all we have the calming assurance that God is with us. He watches over us and lets nothing happen to us that will not help us in some manner. For

"…we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." (Rom. 8.28)

That gives us the incredible peace to which I refer. It comes only from a God who is all-knowing and all-powerful – and loving beyond degree.

When Jesus walked in the furious storm (Mat. 14.25-27) to go to His disciples who were about to be swamped in the turbulent waters and howling gale, something strange was happening other than the fact that He walked on the water. Wherever Jesus planted His feet became a small oasis of calm in the midst of the waves dashing all around Him.

The demonic winds did not cease; it was not yet the time for that. But they were compelled by a higher authority to go around Jesus. There Jesus was, a small bubble of peace and serenity in the midst of a vast scene of devilish chaos that was determined to take Him and His disciples to a violent, watery grave.

Do we experience fear at times? I have to say yes. But time and time again God has beat back the fear by His soothing presence with us and within us. Do we ever get "down"? Again, yes, but God never leaves us in the valley of despair.

We who have lived and trusted God more than a few years are living testimony to the faithfulness of God in delivering us before we could be overcome by our afflictions. We are living proof that His peace can run still and deep within us when the storm is churning the waters and our fragile boat is bobbing fearfully high and perilously low, like a cork going up and down on the waters – except that a cork always remains afloat. We, however, are not corks; we can be sunk without hope IF the Master of the seas does not watch over us.

Do you still wonder how we can have peace and turmoil in our lives at the same time? We have a hope in Christ that the churning of the seas will pass in time, even in this life, although we know without doubt that another storm will bear down upon us. The sun will reappear, and it too will be only for a time, but through dashing waves or sunny skies the peace of God is always there. It is like His Spirit, who is constantly abiding in our innermost beings, forever keeping and reassuring us.

No doubt we the followers of Christ are invincible because we have this peace that engenders a hope – or is it hope that engenders peace? Whatever the right sequence is, we have peace and we have a hope in Christ and neither can be taken from us. We are indeed invincible, but we dare not boast with poet William Ernest Henley, "I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul": we give all that into the hands of the real Master and the indisputable Captain: Jesus Christ. And we remain invincible.

Oh, to Be Like Thee!

"Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee!,

Blessed Redeemer, pure as Thou art!

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness,

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart."

This should be the heartfelt cry of every believer in Christ. Jesus has said that we should be like Him and it is now high time that we "lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us" (Heb.12.1) and throw ourselves into this business of serving and becoming like our Lord.

We know full-well that we can never be like Him in every respect, that is in His divinity and divine prerogatives, but that is not what Christ is demanding of us. He wants us to use every bit of grace that He pours into our lives to be as pure and as sinless as He is. If Christ is the head and we are the body of Christ, shouldn't we aspire to that level of being?

"A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master; it is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master." (Mat 10:24-25a RSV)

I strongly believe that God requires more of some of His saints than others. It depends on various factors such as 1) knowledge of God's Word and His will, 2) mental capacity, and 3) even the sheer size of the distortion of the saint's natural makeup or personality. No one, though, should allow himself/herself any leniency. If you can discern your warped personality, it is likely that you have the mental capacity and grace to beat the monster into submission. But that is a subject calling for a counselor who is, above all, saved and following the leading of the Spirit of God.

That leaves you and me whom God is calling to a constant push to perfection. But we needn't feel that God is going to call us into judgment for every fault and every sin. Relax (but not so much that you will let down your guard or ceasing pushing for perfection). Jesus Christ is even now at the right hand of the Father interceding for us (yes, even we who are saved need His intercession) with His atoning blood.

"Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens…" (Heb 8:1)

 

"But this man, after he had offered ONE SACRIFICE FOR SINS FOR EVER [text enhancement is mine], sat down on the right hand of God…" (Heb 10:12)

The gist of what I am trying to say is that we do need to exert every effort to be like Jesus, but when we fail here or there, God is not looking for an excuse to send us to hell. If you are a true follower of Christ, forget about ending up in hell. It ain't gonna happen! God, who is all-seeing and all-knowing, sees your faith in Jesus. Therefore, as He saved you from hell by suffering and dying for you, it stands to reason that, now that you are saved, He will move heaven and earth to keep you saved. Christ will not have died in vain – if you keep the faith!

So what should we do? We need to heed His continuing call to come closer to Him. Pray, meditate, think on Him and come before Him, lowly and with the heart of a servant. If we do this, we will never have to worry about going to hell. Hell is definitely not our home!

 

Sometimes We Have to Fight to Gain the Mastery Over Our Enemy

The physical battles that Israel waged in the days of Moses, Joshua, Gideon, David, et al., were a type or precursor of our own spiritual warfare of today. There is no longer a flesh and blood foe that we have to literally beat down and slay in order to obtain what God has promised us.

"For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds…" (2Co 10:4)

This does not mean however that we can stand idly by and engage in our own trivial pursuits while the Spirit of God does all the hard work. But, of course, you are quick to rebut that statement:

"Look at Israel at the Red Sea (Ex. 14.13-29) and at Jericho (Josh. 6.2-21)," you say. "The Lord told Israel they would not have to fight: He would fight for them. You [meaning me] say that the physical warfare of that time was typical of our spiritual battles today… they didn't have to exert themselves and neither should we…"

Oh, come on, friend, do you expect me to accept that line of reasoning? You have not looked at the whole history of Israel's warfare. You have failed to take the analogy to its proper conclusion. It is true that there were times when God decided to let the army of Israel hang back while He did the work, but there were also many more times in which they had to engage the enemy in mortal combat. If they had refused to fight, they would never have won the land of Canaan.

Similarly, if we refuse to fight in this spiritual warfare, God certainly will not give us the mastery over anything, including mental turmoil, illness, domestic problems and the carnal nature with which we were born (now that is the nitty-gritty fight, the lifelong struggle where the rubber meets the road!)

There were many times the Israelites of old had to fight and bleed and die in making the promise of God come true. God has more than one way to bring His promises to His children to fulfillment, in that day or this.

The Israelites were not a perfect example of how to please God nor are we. We are both imperfect people living in an imperfect world that really does not like us very much. But they had a small excuse (very small): they did not have the many scriptural examples, negative and positive, whereby they could learn to do the good and avoid the bad.

We have no excuse whatever today. If we would win, we must fight. If we would gain the mastery over the devil and our old carnal natures, we have to push through the hard times, slog through the mud of adverse circumstances and kill the carnal nature that is a part of us. The cliché is true: No pain, no gain.

With Freedom of Choice Comes Tremendous Responsibility

The first thing or person of which Adam was aware after God had formed him of the dust of the ground was the Spirit of God brooding over him as a parent hovers protectively over its firstborn. After that auspicious moment, all that Adam knew was the close bond he had with his Father – that is, until Adam sinned.

"Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions [evil ways around God's will]." (Ecc 7:29)

    It was only when he sinned that Adam experienced the displeasure and reprimand that a just, and even a loving, God had to give him. What Adam did not perceive at the same time was the grief his Father God had undergone when His only begotten son (in a physical sense at that time) broke faith with Him. What Adam did not realize, nor have many of His progeny up until this very day, is that every act of disobedience wounds the heart of our Father, who is compelled by His own justice and faithfulness to administer the chastisement that is commensurate with our misdeed.

If however, despite our temporary lapse, we have been walking close to our heavenly Father, we will find His censure is a part of the corrective rod laid upon our backs. When God disciplines us in love He is not rejecting us nor is He exacting revenge from us; He is reining us in from our waywardness.

God never throws us away for one sin or for many. It is He who gave us freedom of choice and He knew we would falter and stumble often in that setting. That is why He counts our failures and His corrective actions as a part of the process of molding and purging us. And again, if we have been walking close to the Father despite our temporary lapse, we can sense at the same time the grief we have caused Him.

God could have made all men robots who would love and delight in their Master's approval and never offend Him in any way – but that is not the way God operates. He wants willing service and sincere worship that are motivated by a heart that fervently cries out, "Lord, use me!" God wants full commitment from His creatures and in return He will give them His love, protection, peace and everlasting life

But be advised: those perquisites (His love, protection, peace and everlasting life) are only one side of the coin. The flip side is that all who choose not to love and serve God will eventually be consigned to the torments of hell forever, which is an unending, irreversible fate.

Do you realize that with these words God has just given you a choice? Consider this proposal carefully as it is the most important and far ranging decision you will ever make:

God offers you

1.    love, protection, peace and everlasting life OR

2.    He offers you the unending torments of hell – which do you choose?

Please, please: It's an easy fly out… don't drop the ball! Your whole existence depends on it.

Use Your God-Given Gift - Humbly

We have all said, at one time or another, "I can't live without Jesus!" or "I can't do anything without His help!"

Well, that is actually true, for saint or for sinner. As a matter of fact, there could be no living creatures, no inanimate objects, no world, no universe without a God who created it all and who sustains it by His powerful Self.

What we meant by uttering the statements above is that, beyond the natural life and design by which God made and keeps all creation in existence and functioning as it should, we cannot live spiritually on our own. We cannot know God's purpose for us as individuals nor can we discern His will for us as distinct persons and free moral agents.

If God tells you to be a healer of those who are physically ill, you cannot know whom nor how nor when to heal (God has never willed to heal all who are afflicted) without the all-wise, all-knowing Spirit of God to anoint you and direct your efforts. The gifts or "enablings" of God – even the smallest -- are such vital tools in God's Kingdom that none of Christ's followers has a clue as to what they should do with their tool or when to use it.

Let's face it: We are clumsy, inept fools without the Spirit to help us, anoint us for service and guide us. We are like a raw rookie baseball player drafted straight out of high school and thrown willy-nilly into the outfield at cavernous Yankee Stadium. It is the ninth inning of the seventh game of the World Series and the opposing team, the hated Boston Red Sox, has no outs and two men on base, one on first and the other on second. The Bosox hitter strides to the plate and blasts a screaming line drive directly at the rookie, who is in left field. Although totally rattled, our rookie manages to hold on to the ball – but now what?

Both runners are barreling toward second and third base respectively. Our inexperienced young player has just caught a red-hot brick in his hands and he has to get rid of it quickly before he is seriously burned. In his confusion all he has ever learned to do in such a situation has deserted him like rats leaving a sinking ship. So he throws the hot brick with all his might to home plate! Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

That is the end of the story. Sorry; I did not promise to give you a fairy story ending or any type of ending. This is an allegory and the moral is already laid out before you, plain to see. If we don't have the Spirit of God to enable us and anoint us and guide us, we are all like the rookie. We don't have a clue.

If you are called to be a healer of physical ailments, that is merely the beginning of your task. As we noted before, it is not God's will to heal everyone that has an affliction of some sort. Every gift of God comes with "strings" attached. You can't just walk up to Sally Mae, who has a hangnail and say, "Have faith, my daughter, and I will heal you. I am a healer!" Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

First of all, forget all boasting, no matter the "size" and "importance" of your gift. What do you have that God did not give you? What do you know that you have not learned – from God, human teachers or experience or all three? Walk softly in the grace God has given you. Nor should you advertise your gift. "A man's gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men. (Pro 18:16) Boasting and self-aggrandizement are a shortcut to destruction. Walk softly.

But you do not have to be "demonstrably humble." God does not expect you to go around saying to all and sundry, "Oh no, I don't have the gift of healing!" If you have it, you have it. Stand tall and acknowledge the fact – without boasting. If, as you so "humbly" say, you don't have the gift of healing or whatever gift you may have, then God can't use you; you have nothing to use. You said it yourself.

There is so much more for me to say here. (I am really trying to take a book-size subject and squeeze it into a short article of less than 1000 words.) But do these three things:

1. Know what your talent (gift) is and acknowledge that you have it – humbly.
2. Do NOT immediately run out and use the gift, whatever it is, indiscriminately.
3. Get serious for once in your life, dead serious, and call on God to inspire you, anoint you and guide you wherever He wants you to go. Without the Spirit to help us we are all novices, raw rookies in the service of God.

May God richly bless your ministry!