As i write this new post i am thinking about the past 10-12 months of meeting a man named Dana. They say prophets come dressed in strange garb to the place that we do not recognize them. Dana was a God send for me. Before we can help others, he would say, we must first work on Dan. Oh, by the way, who doesn’t need a little work done in their garden at all times anyway. Dana went to the very core of my being. He would always open with the fact that hearing God’s word in any form is receiving counsel from Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Though our conversations took some turns i wish i could have escaped there was always a certain place he returned to weekly. The four needs that every person had; 1. Love 2. Worth 3. Assurance and lastly, 4. Security. He took no time at all to get to the core of what Love really is. “God is love”, says the holy writ. But to be loved unconditionally by the Lord is what we need and must understand. Jeremiah the prophet says he has loved us with an everlasting love. Jer 31:1. His love to us is not performance based but rather based upon the character of God. Love by the way is not one of His attributes it is His being. The world by the way has seen so many twisted views of love that it has lost perspective of what true love really is.
The pastor where i went to bible college used to say that the best news i have heard all day is that God loves me. Daily we should remind ourselves of the fact that He loves us and has given us his son. So, friend receive this truth in the spirit in which it is given, You are loved! We all love to hear it from those we cherish the most, our children, our mates, our families, our close friends and on and on I could go. I really did feel and know that God loved me so this was not necessarily the troubling point in my life. It was the next that troubled me, Acceptance. What exactly must i do to gain your acceptance? That was my mantra….Dana in no uncertain terms went to work being lead of the Holy Spirit to help me thru this maze of uncertainty. He want to the foundation of our spitual house and had to replace some unbiblical notions with truth, the vehicle that sets free. Why did I long for being accepted so badly? Why did it have to be from certain prople before i felt as though it was genuine? I think much of this stems from childhood in anyones life. We must receive the needed love and affirmation form our parents to feel totally accepted later in life. Whena eprson is encompassed in a performance arena it is easy to be fooled by the devil that progress equals acceptance. This could be no further from the truth. As a matter of fact, our Lord loved and accepted those that failed. Look at the life of Peter and see this truth come to life. Even after denying the Lord Peter received the total acceptance of the Lord Jesus. I love to read the story of his reappearing in the upper room. As he appeared the disciples were ashamed because they had forsaken him at Calvary. The first words out of his mouth were, “Peace be unto you.”. Here is how i interpret that, “Fear not, you are still accepted.” Nobody likes the scorn of unacceptance. Here is the beauty of the total acceptance of the Lord, it is not performance based. The performance based ministries of our nation have the acceptance level on the scoreboard. How do I know this, I have live it, i have been in the colisiums of Fundamentalism. When you are putting the numbers on the boards you are a head turner, a high point man that is making things happen. But the liberating truth is this, the most unproductive, saint that never puts the numbers on the scoreboard is just as accepted as the ”big guns” as one souther pastor called it. So what a blessing to know that I am accepted in the beloved. Arthur Pink was one of the most misunderstood of commentators of the past. History tells us that he seldom darkened the door of a churchin his latter years. Yet so many have his worls on the shelves and in their hearts. He got a little disallusioned by the actions of those in the church. Friend please remember that we need to treat this matter of acceptance the same as our Lord does. There is still a lot of work to do on Dan, but I am beginning to experience the love and acceptance that comes from Him and not those that sit in the cheap seats.
Claiming the deed to a trust that is not yours is commonplace in the days of the assumptive. The prophet Isaiah penned these words to remind the living Christos Doulos today of the great riches that are in our heirship. For we are not only heirs, but heirs with Christ. Our older brother (Hebrews 2) will receive the seat at the right hand of the Father but you and I who are his children are joint heirs with Jesus. This “is” the heritage of the servants of the Lord. No, we do not acquire these riches by service but we lay our symbolic ear to the door post and allow the King of Kings to take the aull of Grace and pierce our lobe. For we are not under bondage as some are, we stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. I want to lay the foundation that this is the heritage of those that serve him, not just anyone. What exactly is the part of the heritage that Isaiah wanted us to grasp? It has to do with the protection that the Lord gives to his servants. Was this the scripture that emboldens former servants of the Lord to withstand thier adversaries with great boldness. Like a J Frank Norris, whom historie tells that when threaten by a man that he was coming to the street out front of his church to kill him took his morning paper and a chair and read at street side awaiting the marader. Has someone formed a weapon against thee? If so count it all joy that they are aimed at you and that Christ thought you worthy to be entrusted with such a trial. No weapon, does one need a degree in the languages to understand this. Rest assured the enemy of our souls wants no heir to the kingdom going forward or prospering in their life spiritually. He wants us to understand that He wants to protect us. Now, remember that we must not be presumptuous. Do not live on the edge of acceptable behavior and expect to be granted an exception. Never mistake God’s mercy for His approval. Live right, serve wholeheartedly and then when the weapons are being formed stand abck afterward and praise Him for His deliverance. As Saul was defeated in his fain plight to seize the Giant slayer David embalmed him in honey and honored his son. But, you do not understand there are several and their weapons are fierce…. Many are they which say there is no help for him in God…. Go on child of God.. But thou O lord art a shield for me, the glory and the lifter of mine head!!!! In the face of the fierceist weaponry known to those that hate you turn your eyes upon Is 54:17 and cry aloud, This is my heritage!
The prophet Isaiah gives us solace to find such help from the Sovereign to come. Though some seven hundred years prior he can look through the prophetical eye and see that every child of God would experience two definite things in their lives; Sorrows and Griefs. Can you think for a minute of some of the things that grieve your own heart? Are there any sorrows that have been left uncured from years gone by? It seems as if the Lord wants us to see that we expend much of our energy on unnecessary grief and sorrows. Countless dollars are spent yearly on those that grieve by way of discouragment or depression over a former grief or pain. Friend, if you can take but these simple words to heart and remember that the Lord has already bourne your griefs, he has carried your sorrows. Every time i trod the pathway of Hebrews 4 i am reminded of this truth by the mear fact that, ”we have not an high priest which can not be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” He knows your griefs, He knows your sorrrows.
The very one that carried them also experienced them. No you can not say truthfully there are new forms of grief that people did not experience back then. There is nothing new under the sun. Parents grieved then as now when their children sinned. Wives greived then as now when their husbands were overtaken in a fault. Husbands grieved then when their wives fell into the snares of the devil. That grief, that sorrow, has already been carried. Is it not significant that the tones of this beautiful book also carries the music of the everlasting Gospel? What are you trying to say? If God in His omnipotence can bury our sins in the sea of His forgetfulness, can He not do the same with our Sorrows and Griefs? If he is bearing them, and if he is carrying them where is he taking them? Just food for thought I believe He would be apt to take them to His father. Once upon a train ride to a distant land Corrie Ten Boom was riding the train with her Father. She looked at her father and asked a question that was way beyond her age of needing to know. She was approximately eight or nine years of age. Her Father with great understanding looked at a large suitcase and looked at Corrie and replied, “Corrie, when you are able to lift the case i will then give yout the answer to that question.” We take our heavy sorrows and griefs to the one that can keep them and do wiht them what He wants. Come unto all ye that are heavy laden and I will give you rest. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. May God sear this into our heart of hearts, God does not want you carrying anything that He has already bourne to the Father. Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.
When the Pharisees brought the woman to Jesus they said we have caught this woman in the very act of adultery. One would tend to think that there may have have been one of them involved. Trying to trip up the very Son of God they went to the law and said Moses said such a person should be stoned, what do you say? Jesus, without missing a bit, “He that is without sin let him cast the first stone.” He knew there was not one of them that had a clean slate. The text goes on to say that they left from the oldest to the youngest until they were all gone. So, woman, where are they now? Where are thine accusers? Where are those thine accusers? They usually run in packs. Those that exercise biblical truth and talk to people one on one are a dying breed. Any fool or coward can criticize and most do, one said. Where are those thine accusers? They are among the soiled of heart looking for error in the lives of others. The challenge of the godly is to find good in the lives of those you could easily upend with slander. Where are those thinge accusers? Living in the lower ranks of the damned that have no excuse for when we judge one another we judge the law. At least that is what an old sage by the name of “Paul” said. Where are those thine accusers? They are among the weak in heart that refuse to surrender to the Lordship of Christ. A loose tongue seldom belongs to a contrite heart. Our Lord wanted this newly forgiven adulterous woman to understand that her future was not held in the hands of her accusers but rather by the one that said, “Neither do I condemn thee.” When is the condemnation over? To look at the trend, 1. Offense 2. Confession 3. Repentance 4.Restoration Ideally speaking this is the way it should take place. In reality it will follow most all the way to the grave. Now we understand that some will accuse and criticize trying to mearly get a foot up on the other. But when there is nothing to gain by a person’s continual slander and accusation what is any child of God to think? By their fruit ye shall know them. Here is the key, we need to forget slander and accusations as quickly as the Son of God does. Though it grieves the spirit of God when we do these things, it only harms the disher in the long run. For as our lord mentioned, “It is not what enters into a man that defiles him but rather what comes out of him.” I stand as thousands of others in the ranks of the fallen. But i can joyfully say that i also standin the ranks of the forgiven. Although the effecasious blood of the Lamb cleanses but present and past sins help us Lord to leave the judgment in your hands and understand the whereabouts of those, accusars, is a place I do not want to stand.
I recently picked up a good book at Lifeway that i would like to recommend to my friends. It is by, John Ortberg and titled: “the me i want to be”. When i first saw the title i thought “oh Boy another self help book by a big time preacher. You would be shocked as i was when you read the book. Laced with a lot of good, light hearted stories, you will enjoy this read and find yourself under deep conviction if you are a People Pleaser! Here are a couple of quotes from the book; “Surrender means that I will seek to handle the problems facing me in a way that honors God.” “If you want to experience victory, you must start by surrender.”
Trust me, get a copy and be blessed!!!
