This is a very powerful sermon.  I know you would be blessed by this sermon if you have ever thought about being a pastor, missionary, Sunday school teacher, small group leader, home group leader, Christian counselor, or having any sort of impactful ministry.

Awright, brace yourself.  Next on the list of things Christians don’t really believe in is the s-word.  Sin.  It might get a little ugly, but don’t worry.  It will all be about somebody else.  :)

Let me just say for starters that if you’re reading my blog, you probably weren’t raised sacrificing to idols, except this one:  yourself.  We are a generation of secular humanists, my friends, the cornerstone of our education was these words, “Believe in yourself.”  The core doctrine of humanism is that there is no sin, just unmet needs.

The contradiction with the Gospel this produces is so astonishing, we almost can’t see it.  It’s like a camera flash.  It’s such utter confusion, that subjecting it to the simplicity of Scripture (core doctrine:  the problem is sin) is so impossibly brilliant that we become overwhelmed.  Could life and reality really be that simple?  Surely not.

Many years ago, I took part in a walk to raise money for Crisis Pregnancy Centers on the lakefront in Chicago.  It was just a simple fundraiser, totally non-political, on behalf of centers created to help women in need.  I remember my little t-shirt, and the sheet I’d taken around for sponsorship.  I remember the beautiful Hispanic ladies I walked with.  It was several miles long and at one point we came across a group of women standing on the path so we would have to walk through them.  They were yelling and chanting, and as I tried to pass them, a woman stuck a flyer into my face and sneered, “Read this, if you CAN read!”  Her face held utter contempt and hatred.  I was twelve.

That woman with her short hair and female partner had no concern with contraception of any kind that day; she was out on a mission.  Her mission found her taunting a child, advocating for the most heinous injustice humankind has yet thought of (the murder of a child not yet born), and harassing a group of women who had been walking along, singing.  All in the name of “justice” for women.  When we don’t believe in sin, this is the sort of “justice” we get.  The state of her heart was just simply the state of the human heart.  It’s our capacity for blindness that we find so difficult to see.  Could it be possible to be so very, very wrong?  Surely not, we think.

And surely not Christians.  We preach sin.  We could not be so confused.  Or can we?

No one preaches sin like the Calvinists.  It’s the first ‘T’ in TULIP, for goodness’ sake.  T stands for Total Depravity, the utter depravity of the unregenerate soul and its inability to do anything good itself.  But we’re totally able to utterly disbelieve what we teach and preach without even knowing it.  These are folks who are known for heaviest possible doctrine on the sinfulness of man, and yet my experience has been that ardent Calvinists have been some of the haughtiest people I’ve ever met.  You try to have a conversation about the Bible, and suddenly you find yourself feeling like you’ve been bludgeoned about the head and neck!  You just sit there thinking, “How is it that you were just explaining to me that you’re totally depraved apart from Christ, and I still feel like you’re better than me?  Is there such a thing worse than total depravity…and I’m it???”

These were the guys you steered clear of in college.  ”Oh, no sir, I do not think I am predestined to starch your shirts and hope our children are among the elect!  Thanks, anyway!”  But doggone it, if Calvinists really believed what they assert, every young lady would be on her knees in her dorm room, praying, “Oh, please let that nice Calvinist boy call me!”  Because they would be most markedly defined by this one thing:  extremely happy wives!  Think about it.  How overjoyed a man who considered himself a totally depraved beast (apart from Christ) would be to wake up morning after morning next to such a lovely creature!  How tenderly he would care for such an unmerited gift!  How gently he would deal with her faults, being so aware of his own!  How quickly he would come low to apologize when he’d done wrong, and how often that would be, considering that awful depravity!  I tell you what, you’d know any true Calvinist by his wife’s glowing, radiant, secure smile.  If only people believe what we claim to.

We can know all sorts of stuff, even preach it, but totally disbelieve it!  We have that same amazing human capacity to be so sure of what’s right and yet in our hearts believe totally wrongly!  If Calvinists truly believed what they profess, those college debates would be marked by tear streaked faces, not hot tempers and superiority!  What irony…to condescend to someone because of your excellent doctrine of depravity!  Do you see it?  It’s human nature.  A sinfulness so deep that it takes true BELIEVING to grapple with it.  The kind of believing that leaves you weeping on the floor, not writing papers or giving dialectics.  A believing that leaves you with a permanent vote of ‘no-confidence’ in your own flesh, and full confidence in the Cross.

If we truly believe what the Bible says about us as sinners, the fruit of it is so unmistakeably sweet! Because what immediately bursts forth is exactly what Jesus said, “He who is forgiven much, loves much!”  Such sweet love and humility flows out of a real belief in our state apart from Christ.  It is such a sweet aroma to the lost and searching.  When we believe what the Word says about sin, the message we send out is, “If He could save a wretch like me, see what hope there is for you!”

Two things would end immediately if believers truly believed the Bible about sin.

1) Evangelistic programs and organized efforts:  When we see what a mess we were saved from and stay in that clear-eyed abundance of gratitude, the Gospel just flows out like a burst dam.  We don’t have to figure out a better way to communicate with people, get the message out, or explain the details.  We walk about like the woman who broke the perfume on Jesus’ feet:  overflowing.

2)  The search for something else, a touch, an experience, a seminary degree:  I love David’s phrase “the JOY of my salvation…” When we can see our salvation and we are not pretending the rescue was not as dire or costly as it was, then we have no need to supplement our joy.  It is complete.  It is incomparable.  It is more than enough to fuel this lifetime and a thousand more with exhilaration.

I wish I could say that better than I did, because it’s true.  What joy!

Psalm 32:2
Blessed (abundantly, ecstatically happy) is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit (perceiving himself as not that bad off, anyway).

Commentary in parentheses mine.  :)

Today was personal sinfulness.  Next: sin in the world.

P.S.  My apologies to the many wonderful and kind persons of Calvinist persuasion out there, and also to one of my faves, John Piper, who is marked by tears, joy, and true belief.  I hope that in my illustration I communicated that sin is the problem, not Calvinism.  :)

Allright, first on the list of things believers generally don’t believe in is Salvation.  (meaning that people don’t seem to think that salvation means actually being saved from anything)

Go ahead, throw a fit.  But if you can put up with me for a minute, I think I can prove this to you.  And I’ll try to make you laugh.

Here’s a typical conversation one might have with a Christian.

“So, are your parents saved?”

“Well, I don’t have a relationship with my dad.  But my mom and my step-dad, Fred, are.  They go to First United blah, blah, blah…”

“Oh.  Your step-dad?  The one your mom left your dad for?  Wait a minute, didn’t you tell me that Fred is an alcoholic?”

“Yeah, but he believes in Jesus.”  Believes IN Jesus?  What does this mean?  At this point, I’m picturing Fred giving Jesus a big high-five… “Way to go, Jesus.  I knew you had it in you.  I always believed in you. ”

“So…he believes that Jesus…is cool?  Likes church?  Gave him a free hall pass on adultery and drunkenness?  What?”

Note:  if you take the conversation this far, you will be getting a very blank look from your friend.  Or he might be getting a little angry.  So you might try this instead.  ”Have you ever talked with Fred about his relationship with Jesus?  Have you asked him about his testimony of salvation?”

“No, people in our family are pretty private about religion.  I love my parents.  I’m not trying to ’start something’ with them.”

At this point, you are wondering if this person has started to realize that they just claimed to “love” someone who may be headed for hell with their approval.  But typically they are not realizing.  Instead they probably think that you are weird.

But here is the Scripture:  ”Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” 1 Cor 6:9-10

You probably wouldn’t share that scripture. Because who believes that scripture?  WHO BELIEVES THAT SCRIPTURE?

I had a fear of God moment one when I was struck by how many programs churches present to those in sexual sin that enables them to sit in their bondage, tormented out of their minds, destroying themselves and their families and headed for hell because no one believes the Scripture enough to tell them the urgent truth straightforwardly.

FLEE SEXUAL IMMORALITY!  YOU WILL NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM!  The Bible says that ungodly sorrow leads to death but godly sorrow leads to repentance.  So it doesn’t matter if you cry over your addiction every day in church for ten years!  You will stay addicted because you have not repented!

If you’ve never had a conversation like this and seen the light dawn on someone’s face, I need to tell you how sweet and glorious it is when a sinner repents.  The angels in heaven REJOICE!!  And seeing sinners repent and come to God more than makes up for the sadness you feel at how people can be in church all their lives and never once hear the simple, beautiful message of the power of repentance.  Also if one person receives the truth, it more than makes up for ten who reject it and you.

If you believe the Scripture, you have fear of God over the souls of your friends.  You speak with force, and you do not let people sit in the deception that “I’m saved, you just can’t see it.  It’s the invisible kind that doesn’t bear fruit.”

The church simply has unbelief that salvation actually saves anybody.  Think about it.  When we come across someone who’s “really broken” with the drug addiction and the prison background, do we shrink back?  Do we calculate if they will fit in to our church body?  If there’s anybody equipped to handle their issues?  If we could afford the “Christian counselor” they need?  Or do we get in their face with the confidence of eternity in our eyes and our hearts filled with love and say “THAT is why He went to the cross.  YOU are the one He’s looking for. It was for YOUR ADDICTION, YOUR PAIN, YOUR SHAME.  IT’S ALREADY DONE. Will you BELIEVE on the Lord Jesus Christ, CALL on His name, and REPENT?  HE WILL SAVE YOU AND SET YOU FREE!!!  How many stories of how Jesus set ME free do you need to hear right now?”

Obviously, if we don’t have those stories about how Jesus set us free then we have quickly gotten to the core of our unbelief.  Of course, salvation is not just for the point of conversion.  Jesus always SAVES!  It’s who He is! Either we’ve been too prideful to see our need, or have not believed for the miraculous salvation of Jesus over and over and over as we daily encounter our stuff:  our depression, our anger, our confusion, our self-focus.  Do we call on the name of the Lord?  Or do we “handle” life with worry, analysis, and fleshly solutions?  Because normal Christian life is to have another story of how Jesus saved us with every passing day.

If I had to guess how most believers think of salvation, I’d say we tend to think of it more as a club membership attained by assent to certain doctrines.  We don’t tell people to be saved so much as to agree that He is a Savior.  You know, doctrinally.  Why is this?  What is it that we don’t believe about the world, ourselves, and Jesus that stunts our confidence in salvation?  Next time…sin.

At last week’s Bible study with the High School girls, a young lady gave her life to Jesus. She’d been hearing the Gospel at Bible study for a few months, but she got saved because someone appeared to her on her bed while she was listening to her rap music. He had asked her if she wanted to take “the oath.” Her response was, “I’m gonna have to get back to you on that.” She got on her computer to research the “oath” and learned that one of her favorite rap artists has written about “the oath” he took when he sold his soul to the devil. And another of her favorites. And another, and another.

We found all this out when she confessed in the group that she knew her music was sinful and she needed to get rid of it. I asked, “How did you know your music was sinful?” wondering where she got this revelation. Then she told us “the story” above.

So…we had preached the Gospel to this young lady, and eventually the devil showed his hand by showing up on her bed. This young lady knew there was a way out. She had been pondering if she would be able to give up her life to Jesus, but this pushed her over the edge. She gave it all to Jesus. The enemy lost this battle.

A few months ago, OJ and I came across a DVD of a black preacher who was testifying of what the Lord had shown him years ago about the then-emerging hip-hop movement. In the wake of the phenomenon of satanic heavy metal, the Lord told this man that the enemy was releasing a power to prepare a generation for total anarchy and resistance to order.

There are lots of freaky people out there with scare tactics and conspiracy theories. But this guy didn’t have any theories. All he did was tell the self-published stories of the most popular hip-hop artists of the day. He showed their lyrics, album covers, books, and video clips. There was nothing hidden. All the occult references were glorified and emblazoned, bold. I was paying attention, very close attention, because I had already witnessed the music addiction of the young people. I had experienced the feeling of trying to preach the Gospel while opposed by a spirit of witchcraft, but I couldn’t explain why, because the young people were not involved in the occult.

This is how I’ve heard the young ladies talk about their music repeatedly before they come to the point of being willing to give it up to Jesus:

“It’s my heart.”
“It’s who I am, it’s my identity.”
“I can’t live without my music.”
“I love it more than anything. I need it.”
“It’s the only way I can get my feelings out.”

I don’t know how many times a year a demon offers a lonely child “the oath” in exchange for fame and money, and they accept it. I don’t really care. No oath is bigger than the blood of Jesus, so it’s a hoax anyway. How can you sell a soul that’s already bought by Jesus on the cross? The answer’s still the same…it’s the Gospel. So why am I telling this story?

I’m telling it because I’m burning inside with a consuming fire. The phrase “the valley of the shadow of death” has been going through my mind today, but not just because of rap music.   There has never been a land or a country more saturated with Christianity, more churched, and more familiar with the name of Jesus than ours. But demons are visiting kids on their beds, thousands of young people are primed for riots and rebellion in our inner cities, millions are being launched into perversion by media and public education, and overall the situation is so much more dire than anyone will admit.  I feel like the “valley of the shadow of death” describes our nation. A religious graveyard that is saturated with a powerless gospel.

But how can the gospel be powerless?  Romans 1:16 says that the Gospel IS the power of God unto salvation.  Here’s how:  we preach a powerless gospel even if it is doctrinally accurate when we don’t ourselves fully believe it.  For OJ and me, the hunt for the power of God has led us through a lot of grand ideas right back to the simple gospel, only to discover that this most glorious and beautiful of all that could ever be said, thought, or imagined, had for us been shrouded in unbelief.

As we dove in through repentance addressing our own unbelief, we began to see this pandemic of unbelieving believers.  Unbelief leaves us essentially disabled in preaching an effective Gospel and seeing souls saved, lives transformed, and people set free.  I’m not talking about getting people to say a sinner’s prayer from a speech on a stage, but personally leading lost people into salvation, or a bound person into freedom.  You know, normal Christian life.

We did not know how much unbelief was in our lives, we seemed to be filled with faith.  But what an awesome and powerful revelation it has been to have our eyes opened!  I’m excited to take a few blogs to talk about some areas of unbelief that are so normal to believers, we often don’t even believe you CAN believe them.  :)  First up, Salvation.  Check back in.

If you have never had your eyes opened to the demonic powers at work today in hiphop music, then let me introduce you to G. Craige Lewis.  This man has more insight into the modern day music scene and its ties to mainstream pop culture and secular humanism than anyone I have ever heard.  And you know he’s the real deal because he always preaches the gospel while he’s opening up Christians’ eyes to the devil’s work.   Really, really love this guy.  His videos on youtube are hilarious and pointed.  Very powerful.

http://gcraige.blogspot.com/

A.B. Simpson was the founder of The Christian Missionary and Alliance Church. He was a Spirit-filled man of God who believed in all of the Bible and the full Gospel in the late 19th Century. Along with D.L. Moody and A.T. Pierson, he was instrumental in a powerful missions movement of that time. His book The Fourfold Gospel was instrumental in reigniting a passion for the lost and for true discipleship in my life. I am posting his most famous writing which was originally a tract or pamphlet for Christians simply called “Himself”. The language is a little archaic but if you can get past that, you will be greatly moved by the incredible truth of what he is saying here.

I wish to speak to you about Jesus, and Jesus only. I often hear people say, “I wish I could get hold of Divine Healing, but I cannot.” Sometimes they say, “I have got it.” If I ask them, “What have you got?” the answer is sometimes, “I have got the blessing”, sometimes it is, “I have got the theory”; sometimes it is, “I have got the healing”; sometimes, “I have got the sanctification.” But I thank God we have been taught that it is not the blessing, it is not the healing, it is not the sanctification, it is not the thing, it is not the it that you want, but it is something better. It is “the Christ”; it is Himself. How often that comes out in His Word - “Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses”, Himself “bare our sins in his own body on the tree”! It is the person of Jesus Christ we want. Plenty of people get the idea and do not get anything out of it. They get it into their head, and it into their conscience, and it into their will; but somehow they do not get Him into their life and spirit, because they have only that which is the outward expression and symbol of the spiritual reality. I once saw a picture of the Constitution of the United States, very skillfully engraved in copper plate, so that when you looked at it closely it was nothing more than a piece of writing, but when you looked at it at a distance, it was the face of George Washington. The face shone out in the shading of the letters at a little distance, and I saw the person, not the words, nor the ideas; and I thought, “‘That is the way to look at the Scriptures and understand the thoughts of God, to see in them the face of love, shining through and through; not ideas, nor doctrines, but Jesus Himself as the Life and Source and sustaining Presence of all our life.”

I prayed a long time to get sanctified, and sometimes I thought I had it. On one occasion I felt something, and I held on with a desperate grip for fear I should lose it, and kept awake the whole night fearing it would go, and, of course, it went with the next sensation and the next mood. Of course, I lost it because I did not hold on to Him. I had been taking a little water from the reservoir, when I might have all the time received from Him fullness through the open channels. I went to meetings and heard people speak of joy. I even thought I had the joy, but I did not keep it because I had not Himself as my joy. At last He said to me - Oh so tenderly - “My child, just take Me, and let Me be in you the constant supply of all this, Myself.” And when at last I got my eyes off my sanctification, and my experience of it, and just placed them on the Christ in me, I found, instead of an experience, the Christ larger than the moment’s need, the Christ that had all that I should ever need who was given to me at once, and for ever! And when I thus saw Him, it was such rest; it was all right, and right for ever. For I had not only what I could hold that little hour, but also in Him, all that I should need the next and the next and so on, until sometimes I get a glimpse of what it will be a million years afterwards, when we shall “shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of our Father” (Matt. 13: 43), and have “all the fullness of God.”

And so I thought the healing would be an it too, that the Lord would take me like the old run-down clock, wind me up, and set me going like a machine. It is not thus at all. I found it was Himself coming in instead and giving me what I needed at the moment. I wanted to have a great stock, so that I could feel rich; a great store laid up for many years, so that I would not be dependent upon Him the next day; but He never gave me such a store. I never had more holiness or healing at one time than I needed for that hour. He said: “My child, you must come to Me for the next breath because I love you so dearly I want you to come all the time. If I gave you a great supply, you would do without Me and would not come to Me so often; now you have to come to Me every second, and lie on My breast every moment.” He gave me a great fortune, placed thousands and millions at credit, but He gave a cheque-book with this one condition, “You never can draw more than you need at the time.” Every time a cheque was wanted, however, there was the name of Jesus upon it, and so it brought more glory to Him, kept His name before the heavenly world and God was glorified in His Son.

I had to learn to take from Him my spiritual life every second, to breathe Himself in as I breathed, and breathe myself out. So, moment by moment for the spirit, and moment by moment for the body, we must receive. You say, “Is not that a terrible bondage, to be always on the strain ?” What, on the strain with one you love, your dearest Friend ? Oh, no! It comes so naturally, so spontaneously, so like a fountain, without consciousness, without effort, for true life is always easy, and overflowing.

And now, thank God, I have Him, not only what I have room for, but that which I have not room for, but for which I shall have room, moment by moment, as I go on into the eternity before me. I am like the little bottle in the sea, as full as it will hold. The bottle is in the sea, and the sea is in the bottle; so I am in Christ, and Christ is in me. But, besides that bottleful in the sea, there is a whole ocean beyond; the difference is, that the bottle has to be filled over again, every day, evermore.

Now the question for each of us is not “What think you of Bethshan, and what think you of divine healing?” but “What think you of Christ?” There came a time when there was a little thing between me and Christ. I express it by a little conversation with a friend who said, “You were healed by faith.” “Oh, no,” I said, “I was healed by Christ.” What is the difference? There is a great difference. There came a time when even faith seemed to come between me and Jesus. I thought I should have to work up the faith, so I labored to get the faith. At last I thought I had it; that if I put my whole weight upon it, it would hold. I said, when I thought I had got the faith, “Heal me.” I was trusting in myself, in my own heart, in my own faith. I was asking the Lord to do something for me because of something in me, not because of something in Him. So the Lord allowed the devil to try my faith, and the devil devoured it like a roaring lion, and I found myself so broken down that I did not think I had any faith. God allowed it to be taken away until I felt I had none. And then God seemed to speak to me so sweetly, saying, “Never mind, my child, you have nothing. But I am perfect Power, I am perfect Love, I am Faith, I am your Life, I am the preparation for the blessing, and then I am the Blessing, too. I am all within and all without, and all for ever.” It is just having “Faith in God” (Mark 11: 22). “And the life I now live in the flesh, I live,” not by faith on the Son of God, but “by the faith of the Son of God” (Gal. 2 20). That is it. It is not your faith. You have no faith in you, any more than you have life or anything else in you. You have nothing but emptiness and vacuity, and you must be just openness and readiness to take Him to do all. You have to take His faith as well as His life and healing, and have simply to say, “I live by the faith of the Son of God.” My faith is not worth anything. If I had to pray for anyone, I would not depend upon my faith at all. I would say, “Here, Lord, am I. If you want me to be the channel of blessing to this one just breathe into me all that I need.” It is simply Christ, Christ alone.

Now, is your body yielded to Christ for Him thus to dwell and work in you? The Lord Jesus Christ has a body as well as you only it is perfect; it is the body, not of a man, but of the Son of man. Have you considered why He is called the Son of man? The Son of man means that Jesus Christ is the one typical, comprehensive, universal, all-inclusive Man. Jesus is the one man that contains in Himself all that man ought to be all that man needs to have. It is all in Christ. All the fullness of the Godhead and the fullness of a perfect manhood has been embodied in Christ, and He stands now as the summing-up of all that man needs. His spirit is all that your spirit needs, and He just gives us Himself. His body possesses all that your body needs. He has a heart beating with the strength that your heart needs. He has organs and functions redundant with life, not for Himself, but for humanity. He does not need strength for Himself. The energy which enabled Him to rise and ascend from the tomb, above all the forces of nature, was not for Himself. That marvellous body belongs to your body. You are a member of His body. Your heart has a right to draw from His heart all that it needs. Your physical life has a right to draw from His physical life its support and strength, and so it is not you, but it is just the precious life of the Son of God. Will you take Him thus today, and then you will not be merely healed, but you will have a new life for all you need, a flood of life that will sweep disease away, and then remain a fountain of life for all your future need. Oh, take Him in His fullness.

It seems to me as if I might just bring you a little talisman today, as if God had given me a little secret for every one here and said to me, “Go and tell them, if they will take it, it will be a talisman of power wherever they go, and it will carry them through difficulty, danger, fear, life, death, eternity.” If I could stand on this platform and say, “I have received from heaven a secret of wealth and success which God will give freely, through my hand, to everybody who will take it,” I am sure you would need a larger hall for the people who would come. But, dear friends, I show you in His Word a truth which is more precious. The Apostle Paul tells us that there is a secret, a great secret which was hidden from ages and from generations (Col. 1: 26), which the world was seeking after in vain, which wise men from the East hoped they might find, and God says it “is now made manifest to his saints”; and Paul went through the world just to tell it to those that were able to receive it; and that simple secret is just this “Christ in you the hope of glory.”

The word “mystery” means secret; this is the great secret. And I tell you today, nay, I can give you, if you will take it from Him, not from me-I can give you a secret which has been to me, oh, so wonderful! Years ago I came to Him burdened with guilt and fear; I tried that simple secret, and it took away all my fear and sin. Years passed on, and I found sin overcoming me and my temptations too strong for me. I came to Him a second time, and He whispered to me, “Christ in you,” and I had victory, rest and blessing.

Then the body broke away in every sort of way. I had always worked hard, and from the age of fourteen I studied and labored and spared no strength. I took charge of a large congregation at the age of twenty-one; I broke down utterly half a dozen times and at my last constitution was worn out. Many times I feared I should drop dead in my pulpit. I could not ascend any height without a sense of suffocation, because of a broken-down heart and exhausted nervous system. I heard of the Lord’s healing, but I struggled against it. I was afraid of it. I had been taught in theological seminaries that the age of the supernatural was past, and I could not go back from my early training. My head was in my way, but at last when I was brought to attend “the funeral of my dogmatics,” as Mr. Schrenck says, “the Lord whispered to me the little secret, ‘Christ in you’; and from that hour I received Him for my body as I had done for my soul. I was made so strong and well that work has been a perfect delight. For years I have spent my summer holiday in the hot city of New York, preaching and working amongst the masses, as I never did before; besides the work of our Home and College and an immense mass of library work and much besides. But the Lord did not merely remove my sufferings. It was more than simple healing. He so gave me Himself that I lost the painful consciousness of physical organs. That is the best of the health He gives. I thank the Lord that He keeps me from all morbid, physical consciousness and a body that is the object of anxious care, and gives a simple life that is a delight and a service for the Master, that is a rest and joy.

Then, again, I had a poor sort of a mind, heavy and cumbrous, that did not think or work quickly. I wanted to write and speak for Christ and to have a ready memory, so as to have the little knowledge I had gained always under command. I went to Christ about it, and asked if He had anything for me in this way. He replied, “Yes, my child, I am made unto you Wisdom.” I was always making mistakes, which I regretted, and then thinking I would not make them again; but when He said that He would be my wisdom, that we may have the mind of Christ, that He could cast down imaginations and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, that He could make the brain and head right, then I took Him for all that. And since then I have been kept free from this mental disability, and work has been rest. I used to write two sermons a week, and it took me three days to complete one. But now, in connection with my literary work, I have numberless pages of matter to write constantly besides the conduct of very many meetings a week, and all is delightfully easy to me. The Lord has helped me mentally, and I know He is the Saviour of our mind as well as our spirit.

Well, then, I had an irresolute will. I asked, ‘ Cannot you be a will to me?” He said, “Yes, my child, it is God who worketh in you to will and to do.” Then He made me to learn how and when to be firm, and how and when to yield. Many people have a decided will, but they do not know how to hold on just at the proper moment. So, too, I came to Him for power for His work and all the resources for His service, and He has not failed me.

And so I would say, if this precious little secret of “Christ in you,” will help you, you may have it. May you make better use of it than I! I feel I have only begun to learn how well it works. Take it and go on working it out, through time and eternity-Christ for all, grace for grace, from strength to strength, from glory to glory, from this time forth and even for evermore.

I made that phrase up.  But we were married seven years ago today!  OJ and I wrote vows to each other, said the traditional vows, and wrote a vow to the community…I know, long wedding!  Anyway, we cannot believe how faithful God has been to allow us to live these dreams! Literally, we looked at the words the other day and just were struck.  This is exactly what the Lord has done.

OJ and I were talking about there can be an illusion that “grace” or “anointing” ever substitutes for really hard work.  When we wrote these words, we had very little idea of what we were really getting ourselves into!  Much of these first seven years of marriage were spent in really hard work submitting ourselves to God in our marriage, breaking through in Biblical parenting, and laying a foundation.  There were many moments of…shall we say…REALLY HARD  work.  But the payoff…wow, the payoff.  Jubilee!!    God is so faithful!!!  Thank you, Jesus!!!

Commitment to the Community as One

“Suzanna and I could each give you a testimony of coming to Jesus and finding in Him the treasure that is worth everything.  We have been saved, set free, accepted as the Beloved of the Most High.  Most of you know the commitments we’ve made as individuals to, in the words of Paul, ‘offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable…’  But today, out of two God forges a new thing:  one flesh, individuals no longer.  And so we bring to you the renewed commitment verbalized and declared, personal testimonies become also the testimony of a marriage–from two, one voice.

“This marriage we offer to God as a living sacrifice.  This marriage we commit to Jesus for His use and pleasure.  In unity, we ask for the ministry of Jesus to flow through us, to bind up the wounded, nourish the impoverished, set the captives free.  as one flesh we choose to reject the idols of culture and comfort in favor of the kingdom of God.  We ask of Jesus that He take possession of our home, our marriage, and our children, just as He took possession of our broken souls.

“We commit to you, His beloved church, to live for Him, to seek Him on your behalf, to lean on you for support and love, rejecting independence.  We pray that when you come into our home, instead of finding us in pursuit of vain ambitions, you’ll encounter Jesus with arms open, saying, ‘All who are thirsty, come and drink…’

“We see our frailty, but we rest in the promise of Christ, the guarantee of the Spirit, and the trust that you will offer grace when we fail.”

7 years. 3 kids. 5 moves. Lots of Joy.

I love surfing, but I’m not very good at it.  I’ve only done it in really cold water, maybe that’s why.  If you’ve never surfed, let me give you the most amateur possible synopsis.

You pull your board out till the water’s getting kind of high.  You climb onto it, lay down, and paddle out further, till you reach the swell, where you want to catch the wave, kind of as it’s breaking.  You wait for a good wave, the whole time having to fight and paddle to maintain your position.  Good surfers don’t look like they are fighting anything.  I don’t know how they do that.  By this time, my arms are usually pretty tired.  When you see a wave coming, you start to paddle before it reaches you, so it can catch you.

Note:  everything up till this point has been basically miserable, unless you’re one of those “good surfers.”

Then it catches you, and it’s AWESOME.  Even if the wave’s dwippy and cold, which is really the only kind I’ve ever ridden.  And even if, like me, your arms are too tired  from fighting the water to push you up onto your feet, and you just look like a dork on your knees with a big smile on your beet-red face.  Still, AWESOME.

I have a point to make, which I may have ruined by distracting you through the mental images of my awkwardness, but pretend that the above was a really beautiful description of the glory of the sport, written by a “good surfer.”  The essence of the task is still the same, except that you actually can do all sorts of cool things once you’re, you know, surfing.

Here’s my point:  faith is like surfing.  You know something’s coming, so you do a whole lot of work to be ready when it comes, and when it does, you just ride.  All the power’s come from something outside of you, and you just positioned yourself to catch it.

Most people live in unbelief most of the time, and then, when a wave hits them and they’re tumbling around under it, try to rise up in faith and overcome.  When the devastating illness hits, the divorce is under discussion, the child is diagnosed.  At that moment, they work really hard to manifest “faith,” praying desperately for the desired outcome.  And then, the crushing disappointment.  The healing didn’t happen, the deliverance didn’t come, the request was not granted.  Disillusionment.  Why didn’t God answer the prayer of faith?

But here’s a secret about faith:  it’s in the paddling, not the wave.  When we face a moment of trial that requires great faith, the Biblical plan doesn’t say that’s the time to strain and groan and produce powerful prayers that move heaven.  We live at all times believing or we don’t.  If somebody tells you you’re going to win an Olympic medal, if you believe them, you don’t start practicing your platform mount, you start practicing your sport.  Over and over and over, until you ARE a champion.

If you believe the Lord Jesus, you live obeying Him.  ”If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”  JN 14:23  So, if my faith level is such that I live a life that would essentially look the same whether or not God exists (self-sufficient and natural), there’s a whole lot of unbelief.  If I am not concerned enough to hunt scripture to find out what these all-important commands of Jesus are, the ones for which I’ll be held accountable before His throne, I don’t really believe all that much.  If I live in bitterness, unforgiveness, and anger, when Jesus said to love my enemies, I just don’t believe.  If I live storing up treasure for a comfy life here on earth mostly unconcerned about what fruit I’ll present from it, I have very, very little faith.  I’m not paddling.

So when the wave comes, and it’s a time of perceived need, the Christian tries to rise up with faith for the miracle.  They’re desperately trying to plant the mustard seed faith in the ground, water it, and make it grow into a giant tree that can harbor the birds…ALL IN A DAY.  Mat 13:31-32

The Lord loves us so much, He works in those times, hears those prayers, and even often answers them!  He is not seeking to disqualify us.  No, He is seeking to qualify us the way a coach would qualify His Olympic athlete…through steady training day in and day out, challenges fit to the level of development, and strategic building up of weak areas.

So when the huge decision arises and the believer tries to “hear the Lord” for direction, the question is, “Did you believe that you needed to ‘live by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God’ and live desperate for the voice of the Lord from day to day?”  Because if so, you’ve paddled, and when that moment brings a big wave, you find yourself lifted up and exhilarated, riding His power, hearing His voice, seeing Him come through.  If not, it feels like a crap-shoot instead of standing on a Rock…am I hearing God?  Which voice is His?  Will He come through?  That’s not the FAther’s will for His kids!

His character is not such that He hides Himself in the desperate, painful hour, snickering at us in our bewilderment.  He is a good Father.  He has made Himself clear in His word, offering everything we need.  He does respond to faith.  But when we do not live obeying, we can be sure that we do not fully believe.  And when a big moment comes and we try to believe even though we don’t, it just doesn’t carry alot of authority.

So…the Father’s plan is this:  Paddle, paddle, paddle.  If we really believe, we’ll do the hard work of learning His commands, and doing them.  We’ll exercise our muscles not in great exploits, but in the hours of training, through submissive obedience to His Word and His Spirit.  Then, when the exploit moment comes, we catch that wave and just ride, knowing all the power is His.

Here’s a scripture:

But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.  Heb 5:14