Stand
up, stand up for Jesus, Ye soldiers of the cross
Lift up
the royal diadem, It must not suffer loss
From
vict’ry unto vict’ry, His army shall He lead
Till
every foe is vanquished, and Christ is Lord indeed (George Duffield, Jr., 1858)
I am continuing with my message on the need of militant
faith. But I will start with very sad occurrences which serve to demonstrate
that the message is on point. I had talked about the formerly missionary
sending nations becoming more anti God than the nations they had feared to
offend with the gospel.
In the USA these things are happening. A school had refused
to allow Christian students to be meeting. They had to bring in lawyers to
compel the school to recognize their right to meet. And what clauses did they
use? The right of minorities!
Another school was under threat of legal proceedings because
its sporting team prayed before going for their matches. The freedom from
religion act forbids public prayers it appears. In another school they are
fighting a battle to avoid the desecration of a monument because the same or
similar law is being used to compel them to remove some scripture inscribed on
it.
A homosexual mayor is compelling pastors to turn in their
sermons to her so that she can take action on them should they preach something
against her abomination. And pastors countrywide are fighting to compel
congress to change a seventy year law that forbids them from preaching about
politicians (unless in favor of course)
By the way I did not look for these stories. I stumbled on
them as I was interacting on social media. I am sure there are many other such
stories concerning the restrictions being placed on practicing Christians even
as they release the abominations by giving them legal protections. I remember some
time ago reading (this time in the UK) about a homosexual couple (sorry, two
men) that had taken a church to court to compel them perform a wedding ceremony
for them even though the church’s constitution forbids it. I did not pursue
that story as I normally don’t. They just serve to remind me that my duty as a
Christian minister is cut out for me.
And the great dragon
was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth
the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast
out with him. (Revelation 12:9)
The world is heading towards hell on the fast lane. We are
deceived to think that it is improving, or even neutral. The devil is against
all that represents God and His created order, and excessively militantly, I
may add. I am thoroughly deceived to think that any person, religion or
structure that is not founded on Christ is not only headed to hell, but is
drawing everything in its wake there. Like Jesus said to the Jews and they
became very offended, ‘you are of your father, the devil, and it is his will
that you are doing’.
Seeking neutrality for fear of offending gets me into
Satan’s team. I might shout the loudest about being a worshipper, even a
minister of a Gospel I am ashamed to proclaim.
The Bible is pivotal in our militancy. It is the one that
sets the agenda for that militancy.
And that militancy MUST touch every single aspect of our
life. In fact it will end up defining who we are. It will leave no doubt to
friend and foe as to where our allegiance lies. We will raise the premium we
place on the word of God above any and everything else. We will not do anything
before we know what the Bible has to say about it.
It is instructive to realize that new Christians are very
sensitive concerning what the Bible says. ‘Is doing this right? Is saying this
okay? Is reading this alright? What does the Bible say about this or the other?
are some questions they will be asking those they think are more mature.
It is sad that many outgrow that desire as their experience
in salvation grows. Yet it is not supposed to change one whit. 1 Peter 2: 2 was
not written to new Christians but mature. It is probably a deficiency in us
that we use it to challenge new Christians to value scriptures that many think
only they should CRAVE them.
2 Timothy 3: 16, 17 fall under the same deception. We then
teach (at least by implication) that only new believers need to treasure the
scriptures until they outgrow them. Then they can become independent thinkers.
For I say unto you,
That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
(Matthew 5:20)
Do we realize that those two groups were known for their
adherence to the strictest adherence to the scriptures? Is it possible to
exceed that righteousness without valuing the Bible as they did? Do you realize
that Christ never rebuked them for the value they placed on the scriptures? In
fact He encouraged them in their study and observance of the same, only asking
them to go beyond the superficial observance.
And that is why discipleship is so important. A Christian
should be brought to value the Bible and use it to give them a worldview on a
continuous basis. In fact that is the reason I am pushing for the translation
of a discipleship material I had made for missions into all the languages
without Bible Study materials, which are the vast majority. The believer will
then be able not only to understand his faith but also get into the daily
‘habit’ of constantly being able to look for answers from the Bible he values
and knows pretty well.
But other things will be affected. The Bible will guide
their prayer lives. There are people who fast for long spells without reading
the Bible in those times. On what do they base those fasts? No wonder many
become proud of those achievements and look down on others without them. Only
prayer guided by the scriptures (and not a collection of selected ‘relevant’
verses) meets God’s approval. Passion and zeal are not sure guides to effective
prayer, scripture is.
But scripture will affect every other aspect of our daily
lives. We might have to dethrone that TV if not do away with it altogether.
Why? Most of the agenda it pushes is not Biblically sound. Even most (if not
all) Christian TV is not much different. This is because it elevates the
performer many times above Christ. Christ is used like an advertisement or
something like that. In any case if I have enough food in my garden it will not
be easy to go to my neighbor to borrow any. Why then will I be enthralled by
someone using one verse (some do not even quote scripture) for an hour when I
read chapters daily? Only someone who does not place much value on private
devotions will find some of the telepreachers useful for their Christian lives.
My expenditure will be affected. There is a lot of
‘prophecy’ about debts being written off that it angers. Why not teach people
to avoid getting in debt in the first place? Of course we know that greed is
the driver of most of the debts people get into, and greed is one thing the
Bible speaks so strongly against. In fact that is what the tenth commandment is
about.
I can not spend adequate time with God’s word and be
wasteful. It is not possible to value God’s word and be selfish.
One last thing I will say will change with my increased
intake of God’s word is dressing. And this because the purpose of dressing in
the Biblical and worldly context are directly opposite. Dressing in the Bible covers the shame of
nakedness. In fact it serves the complete opposite reason than the world.
Dressing should conceal me, not only my nakedness. Dressing makes me invisible
so that Christ becomes visible. John 3: 30 should give the driving force for a
believer’s dressing.
Simply saying, if my dressing draws stares then it is
scripturally inappropriate, and that whether it is a miniskirt that shows the
pants or a sack that covers even the face. A woman shaving or a man plaiting
fall under the same rule because both draw undue attention to self.
Yet we find women going to church naked, some with breasts
almost falling off and others with their inner clothes in open view, and
pastors are not ashamed of not confronting those Jezebels! And it is not
surprising that the same pastors will not preach against sexual sin because
that is where such dressing automatically leads to.
But our radicalism will not just stop with what we become.
It must of necessity result in our witness. Of course our change of lifestyle
influenced by our intake and transformation of scripture is witness enough.
People will be seeking to know where all that positive change (because it will
not only result in simplicity but also rest and peace with God) will draw
people like bees to flowers.
But sanctify the Lord
God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that
asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: (1Peter
3:15)
Then the same scriptures will give you the right answer
(which is the Gospel) when these people come seeking. But we need to realize
that the same lifestyle change will draw controversy from those whose lifestyle
is being rebuked by what Christ is making out of you. These will bring
arguments and fights to try to explain away their depravity because they know
that they are out rightly on the wrong side of God’s standards and values. And
that is the reason in my last post I gave a brief of some of the battles my
militancy brought my way. Incidentally even now I am still fighting because the
normal is abominable when one appreciates the demands of Christ.
I know thy works, that
thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because
thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
(Revelation 3: 15, 16)
I will give us another verse that confronts the fear of
confrontation.
But the fearful,
and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and
sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake
which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
(Revelation 21:8)
Imagine the coward starts the list of those headed to hell!
And why? Because he would rather accommodate than confront.
But it is important to remember that elevating the place of
scripture in our life goes hand in hand with the relationship with the author
of that word. We must never for the commitment to scripture lose our passion
and commitment to a healthy and vibrant relationship with Christ. And that is
where the Pharisees and scribes went wrong. Scripture became everything. In
fact it became an idol to them. And that is why we are supposed to have a
righteousness that exceeds theirs. We value the scriptures as they did but go
farther by developing and working on a relationship with God.
Any other excess is wrong. That balance is what makes our
militancy healthy and effective.
No comments:
Post a Comment