Partnering with Christ

When you think of it, that seems a bold, presumptuous statement for a human to say, that “we are partners with Christ”. However, it did not originate with humans, but from the Holy Spirit. Hebrews 3:12-14 (NRSV) tells us: “ ¹² Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. ¹³ But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴ For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end.” (compare Revelation chapters 2 and 3).

For those of us who are partners with Christ, we did not become so because we went out of our way to do this. No – the Holy Spirit came to us seeking us out to join in this unique relationship with Christ. In John's Gospel, chapter 4, Jesus reminds us that our relationship is a spiritual one, and that our lives should be lives of worship in spirit and truth (not just a thing we do once a week in a building).

Ephesians 2:1-10 outlines how we become partners with Christ. In fact, a description of that partnership is also in chapter 1, and in chapter 4. We are partners in Christ to do good works, as stated chapter 2, verse 10. Such works are defined by God in His Word so that we do not have to guess. Paul, through the Holy Spirit, also received the word at Romans 8 and 12 – which is a follower of Christ’s foundational doctrine for knowing one’s identity in Christ. Being in Christ conveys an immersion - a place of oneness. These verses also speak to those ‘good works’ that God has preordained for those followers and partners of Christ.

Just like wearing a badge does not make someone a policeman, neither does wearing the moniker of “Christian” necessarily convey that we are partnering with Christ. (see Jesus’ admonition at Matthew 7:21-23) Knowing God’s will for our ownselves by examining His Word and seeking His direction in prayer and, then, with His help, doing it is therefore very important towards growing in this unique relationship (John 15:1-5).  

Jesus encourages us throughout the scriptures that our partnership with Him is of high value to Him and the Father. That God moves us from death (what we deserve) to life in Christ (God’s unmerited grace), is a cause for celebration and a motivation to continue to build on our relationship in Christ. How can you not exult in knowing that you have been given the gift of eternal life, that God through the provision of the blood of Christ, has rescued you from darkness and an eternal death separated from God? Did you not know that God sees you as dead if you have not been saved by his grace? (p.s. baptism does not save you!!! Communion does not save you!!!! despite what many traditions teach - reread Ephesians 2:1-10!)

Choosing to accept God's invitation to partner with Christ is not limited to an age - older children through to old age have the same opportunity to walk in the spirit with Christ. God desires all persons to accept His invitation as He declares in John 3:16, yet as he notes in verses 18-20, there will be those who reject this life-saving gift: ¹⁶ “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.  ¹⁸ He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. ¹⁹ This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. ²⁰ For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed."

Consider today, while it is still today, this free invitation to share in Christ and enter into this unique relationship. The rewards are tremendous! 

I leave you with this prayer and blessing Ephesians chapter 1 given to those whom God has called and who has been brought into His spiritual family:

^“3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴ just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. ⁵ He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. ⁷ In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace ⁸ that he lavished on us.” Amen

“If we are the body, why aren’t His arms reaching, why aren’t His hands healing, why aren’t His words teaching…”

Handel's Messiah - Not Just Another Music Score!

When I first experienced this work performed at our church, it was an eye-opener (and heart-opener and mind-opener, and subsequently a Bible-opener). It is as far away from being ‘just another concert’ as you standing in your living room is as far from Jupiter, and even farther away than that! Because it is the Gospel message directly from the Bible; it carries a life-saving urgency. The Messiah came and is coming again! A couple of notes of applicability from the sheet music of Messiah …

           Opening voices: Male voices sound the prophecy, exhortation, and God’s Grace provision. God’s people can feel comforted and assured that God will carry out his promised restoration of His people. He forgives sins. He has sent his messenger to make a pathway, to clear the way for the Anointed One – the Messiah. His promised restoration will raise up His people again, and in contemporary times, we are His messengers, we proclaim the Gospel and coming of Christ. His Holy Spirit makes it possible for us to receive the Messiah by breaking our mountains we have set against God in our sinful condition, and raises us to spiritual life.

Isaiah 40 --  ¹Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.  ²Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD's hand double for all her sins. ³The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.  ⁴Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:
Then the choir – all voices – forthtell the immensity of the Anointed One’s coming

⁵And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

Many people shun the truth of the Word – Jesus – but are happy to celebrate a holiday that is said to be about him. Just because folks reject him does not make him to be a nothing, or to be inconsequential – it is like being in front of a tsunami and saying it cannot bother you because you’re in a Hummer. The immensity of the wave is terrifying. On the other hand, those who have accepted Christ the Messiah as their Lord and King, and have been brought into fellowship with him, sense the immensity of God in another way. They already enjoy a revelation of God’s glory – measure by measure – within their lives. When brought into the family of God, God installs in us Himself in the presence of the Holy Spirit so that the Shekinah Glory remains with us and in us. All can witness God’s glory in those in whom God is present – if we continue to let our light shine before men and women. Why? Because God says so – He has purposed a people from before time and has brought them into His glorious light. (Matthew 5:16; 2 Corinthians 4:4) What He also says in this very short verse is that regardless of whether or not you accept the Messiah, you will see the Glory of God – either in a positive way, or in judgment.

                Malachi 3:1-3. Male voices speak of God’s preparation of His people for the day of His coming, and the choir responds

¹Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the LORD, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.  ²But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: ³And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.

Fuller’s soap was a cleanser that was used to scour and scrub wool and cloth. In ancient times, cleaning a wool fabric was not as simple as taking it to the dry cleaners, or using Woolite. If you have ever seen the wool on a sheep, you recall that the wool is full of impurities and is dirty. The person called a Fuller had the job of taking the cloth woven with that wool and scrubbing and rubbing against a rock or other hard surface until it was reasonably clean. These were some very strong-armed folks. Hand-washing made extreme. Likewise, the task of purifying precious metals like gold and silver requires very, very hot fire to burn the impurities away. It is not an easy job standing in the heat of the furnace all day then processing the metal for purity. That is where the ‘karat’ and fineness designations fit in – they describe the purity of the metal.

For the ancient Israelite priests – the sons of Levi who were the only Israelites permitted to be priests, they understood the need for purification – they were handling sacred things, and standing before the very presence of God within the tabernacle and temple. They had to be made holy by God because they were entering a holy place. The blood of a perfect lamb would be sprinkled on the priests to cleanse them of their sins. Their clothing was made to specifications designed by God. It was and still is a fearful and humbling thing to stand before the Creator! And terrifying to come before Him unprepared. Without being made pure by God’s standards, it was impossible for the priest to offer up anything of worth to God. The book of Malachi speaks to how the priests had become wicked and had trashed the word of God. They worshipped other gods and mistreated the people. They refused to be sanctified and purified as God prescribed. Their offerings were worthless before God. Today, we are in the same situation. As a called-out, redeemed people, God has appointed us as his “holy nation of priests, a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9) and we are tasked with the responsibility of carrying out worship in our spiritual temples - our bodies. We are purified, made pure by the fire of His Word (Jeremiah 23:29) and His transforming Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:11, Romans 15:16, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20), so that our worship can be acceptable to God. We who subject ourselves to the authority of the Word, are cleansed and we are also washed in the blood of the Lamb, as the Israelite priests were during the cleansing ritual. (see Eph. 5:26; 1 John 1:7; Revelation 7:14; 1 Peter 1:18-20) If we reject God’s Word and authority, and do not submit to His Holy Spirit’s counsel, we are in the same predicament as those priests spoken of in Malachi chapters 2 and 3, and come under the judgment of God.

            Next time, we will look at the succeeding airs and chorus pieces in “Messiah” so as to understand what we are saying when we share this Gospel with others.

"Lawd Jesus, a fire!"

There is a video on youtube that went viral a few months ago. It was an interview with a woman awakened by a fire in her apartment building complex. When she fully awakened to what was going on around her, she remarked, "Lawd Jesus, a fire!"

That expression has stuck with me in a special way. Going through various trials, I know from whence my help comes. I cannot linger in discouragement. "I lift my eyes to the hills -- from where will my help come? My help comes from the LORD, maker of heaven and earth." Psalm 121 is one of those scriptural passages we need in our face daily to help us recall that when the fires of trials come to us that God has allowed, and we cry out "lawd Jesus, a fire!" and pray in the will of the Father, He will hear us. Our God who never sleeps, who keeps us from destructive evil that would try us beyond what He allows, our God who can keep our life for eternity, who keeps us in view marking our going out and coming in now and forevermore is able to do these things and come to the help of those who are tempted (Hebrews 2:18). I encourage you today to keep the psalm close and the Lord closer. Peace and joy from the Spirit of Christ.

Fear and Trembling

I wonder why we - both believers and nonbelievers - are asked to have an attitude of fear and trembling before Almighty God?

How fast has the Church held to this attitude? A couple of pastors I respect continually say that the Church must look and act more like Christ and not like the world; they grieve because too often it is hard to differentiate between the two. Many within the Body of Christ have set about to 'blend' with the world, assuming that the more we blend the more amenable and favorable people will be towards things churchy. Yet - if the Gospel of Christ, which holds and engenders the power of salvation from God, is not preached nor taught, nor reflected in those who fearlessly call themselves 'Christian', then what becomes the foundation standard within the church? It's not a coincidence that a (for lack of a better word) 'liberal' Gospel - one that purports to speak of God yet is deceivingly anti-God, is being offered by many church leaders who promote a God and gospel of convenience and feel-good comfort. It is a watered-down theology of empty promises and hyperbole. The Holy, Almighty God, Eternal Heavenly Father, maker of heaven and earth and Savior of the Bible - His Word - is diminshed to a customized made to order deity who deals out 'love' and favors, takes no notice of 'sin' nor holds any accountable. An easy-rider god doling out  >Peace! dude at every encounter.

Yet, look at what happened when Jesus met the young rich ruler as recorded in Matthew 19, Mark 10, and Luke 18. It is the only encounter where a person seeking Jesus goes away sad. Still, the Bible says, Jesus loved him with the same sacrificial love He would show for all of mankind. Jesus - God's instrument of His love for mankind -  throughout the gospel records demonstrates over and over what Godly love of mankind is. That was one of the reasons He came to earth. Look, too, at the woman at the well in John 4 (one of my favorites). In both of these encounters, Jesus in His love touches on those attitudes, practices, lifestyles that go contrary to God's moral will for their lives - attitudes that will be detrimental to their happiness and peace. Sore spots that left unchecked will take their lives. Jesus lovingly and caringly shows them Himself so that they can see their need for Him, and their need to be saved from the authority that their sin has over them.

His response to their circumstances could have been to overlook their error and accept the young man's idol worship, and the woman's adultery with a word of 'love' and let them continue on their way in sins that would destroy their lives. He could have given them a feel-good speech, and maybe the young man would not have gone away sad, and the woman not have been embarrassed or disgraced. But He would not. To do so would be against His character and His Father's character. It would be a deception to appear to approve of behavior that runs counter to everything He has ever said in His Word about worship and morality, and His desire for the best in their lives. Rather, in His unconditional love and in his unmerited grace and inestimable mercy, he conveys his conditional acceptance.

Jesus told Nicodemus that God sent His only-begotten Son to be a propitiatory sacrifice because He loved the world; but Jesus' words did not end with God loves the world. He adds, "so that those who believe in him (trust, obey him) would not perish but have everlasting life." His love is unconditional - He created us, gave us life; the Bible says that God makes it rain on the 'wicked' and the righteous. He laid down His life so that humans throughout the world and time could be restored to a right relationship with God. However, to receive salvation a person would need to believe that Jesus is Christ, Savior, and Lord of his or her life. That is called a 'condition.' God did not say, 'first you must clean up your life, do penance, this that or the other, then if you believe, you can be saved.' No; by God's grace, a person believes in Jesus no matter what circumstance God encounters him or her in, and by an act of faith, authored and sourced by God's grace, a person may be saved. After God's saving act by the cleansing blood of Christ, He begins the sanctification process - the transformation and restoration process within believers' lives to grow them to be more and more like Christ.. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11, 14-20)

To fully grasp the underlying message - if salvation was based on unconditional acceptance, then there was no need for Christ to die the horrific sacrificial death that he died. Why would He die for sins if they were acceptable to God to begin with? There would have been no need for a chosen people - Israel - through whom God would execute a plan of salvation, no Moses, no 10 commandments to show humankind its sin. The God of the Bible would not be Holy, because there would not be a delineation between holiness and unrighteousness. Adam and Eve should not have died, then, for their choice to reject God if there is unconditional acceptance. Why would have God bothered with a flaming sword in the Garden of Eden? Why all those Bible verses about destruction of Baal worship or false worship, or of places like Sodom and Gomorrah, if idolatry and immorality were acceptable to God? What about thieving and larcenous hearts in the wilderness experience of Israel and throughout that great nation's history - why would God have called for its destruction if He unconditionally accepts rejection? Why would God have bothered to denounce satan the devil if He is a God of unconditional acceptance? Why would God have carefully preserved His Word these many thousands of years, which has told the story of God's plan of salvation, His desire to see mankind saved and restored in relationship with Him - if there was nothing to be saved from?

Yet, it is this message, this gospel of unconditional acceptance of sin that too many loud voices in the Church are teaching (in fact, they dumb down the concept of sin and redefine it to support the lifestyles and behaviors of the world). It is a message that is well received by too many, by those who need their ears tickled. To feel good about themselves. To promote a pick'n'choose theology that fits one's lifestyle and then call it 'contemporary Christianity.' To bitterly abhor those parts of the Bible where God delineates his moral will for mankind and who in their abhorrence label those Bible passages as hate messages. To continue cocooned in the veil that the ruler of this world system has imposed to blind the minds of the unbelievers. That ruler satan disguises himself as a beacon of enlightenment and leads many astray. He even desires to deceive those who would call themselves followers of Christ into this false theology about God and His character. He has done this from the beginning - with Eve he told her God knows that when you eat of the fruit you will become like Him, so why would He forbid this and withold this from you? With 21st century worshipers he uses the same deception - telling them God's love means He accepts and condones wrongdoing and blesses persons, lifestyles and behaviors that are in rebellion against Him.

It doesn't take a lot of looking around to see that this is true - some church groups have made this their new mantra, believing this contemporary world view will bring people back to church. (what would be the purpose, I wonder???) Just as he did in the Garden of Eden, the god of this system deceives and misrepresents the truth. He knows his fate of eternal destruction awaits and has been striving to pull away and destroy the future of those who could believe and fear the God who created the universe just by speaking it into being, who knows the end from the beginning, and who desires that all should seek him and live forever. Yet, this deceiver, this slanderer, this rebel, liar, and murderer - even he and his demons know to tremble before this Almighty, Omnipotent God. (James 2:19) Because despite their lies and deceptions, they know the truth about who God truly is.

Who do you think God is? Is He really a God of unconditional love and unconditional acceptance? (an oxymoron if ever there was one) Are we humans so stubborn, blind, arrogant - or, too ignorant to recognize who God truly is and come before Him with fear and trembling? Do we not know who it is we are thumbing our nose at? (grammar intentional) Are you willing to stake your life on what you believe? One way or the other, we all are. And we will all see the results of our choices. Please choose to fear God and follow His will for your life.

The preceding will be said to be not politically correct, old-fashioned, antiquated (as one news commentator recently stated), narrow-minded, hateful, and might even get labeled by some one at some point as uncivil and anti-whatever. And, you know, it is true that we are narrow-minded, journeying through the narrow road that leads to life! The God who has the right to not only demand our worship but to also define how He wants to be worshiped is of old - from eternity to eternity; He is above all politics and political authorities; He has established eternal, universal principles that are against all things that would destroy and defile His highest creation - humankind. He has declared that the way to life is a narrow road. As for hatred, well, God abhors sin; as Holy, Almighty God He alone can define what sin is or is not, and He has done so in His Word the Bible. (Romans 1; Job 34:10-11, 21-27, 33; Matthew 7:13; John 8:24; 1 John 4:10; Revelation 21:7-8)