This week I was reintroduced to a good friend. This friend of mind has been home with the Lord for 29 years now and I can hardly listen to his music without going back in my head and heart to those days of youth; me and Marilyn fresh in our new birth listening to Keith Green and those crystal clear lyrics. Keith was born October 21, 1953 and died, along with two of his children, in an airplane accident, only 28 years old. Keith was unashamedly a Christian, and knew why he believed, and preached his belief through great music.

Marilyn and I would sit and listen to Keith and others and question, and probe, and search for truth. Keith’s ministry was a loud speaker in those days, penetrating our darkness with the light we craved. In the years since then many things and challenges have come and gone, but the search for truth in this world of darkness has never waned. To sit back and re-listen to all those wonderful songs fills me with sadness, sorrow, joy, and a vibrant life, which sometimes gets lost in our present circumstances. Keith's songs bring me back to what is important; he did it then, and he's doing it now.

I shed a tear for Keith and his wife, and for all those who are searching and just can’t seem to find anything solid to stand on. Be my guest and listen to this music video and allow Keith’s words speak to your heart.

We here at IndyWatchman love you.

Steve and Marilyn Blackwell 

Ray comfort has done an excellent job of forcing his listeners to face the reality of government sanctioned murder. Please take  half an hour and watch this video and let it be your 180.

Steve Blackwell

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y2KsU_dhwI&feature=player_embedded#!

Where do we start an examination of “truth,” well, at the beginning would be a good place, so let’s go back to Genesis and the Garden of Eden.

The common story of the “beginning” seems to always start and finish with the disobedience of eating the forbidden fruit. That is all well and good, but much is being left out. A few questions need to be asked:

·         Why the test

·         What is the significance of the test

·         Why is the “knowledge of good and evil” a bad thing

·         Why is it important today

Let’s go back to before the eating of the fruit, when things were good between man and God. God walked with Adam and Eve, and there was an open, harmonious, relationship; not like today. Adam, not knowing “evil,” instinctively knew the right thing to say and do, always. He was not distracted with all the mental gymnastics that accompany decision making now.  Answers and solutions flowed easily from a mind uninhibited by contrary thought processes and guilt.  All of nature was in sync and operated according to a perfect order. It was a time that we can only dream about; the stuff fairy tales are made of. Adam and Eve never spent time considering a better life than what they had; trying to imagine a more perfect perfection doesn’t even make sense. They were perfectly content.

In the entire Garden there were only good things, and Man and Woman had every bit of it at their disposal, to enjoy for evermore, and never grow bored, or complacent. Only a single test was required. God did not put any pressure on them outside of a single test.

It is paramount that we understand what happened in the Garden for us to understand all the problems that followed, and to grasp the significance of our predicament today. It is kind of like a math formula; if you get the expression wrong up front the outcome will be wrong also. When things don’t work mathematically it is necessary to go back and see where you erred and make corrections.  Consequently, very much of what we are faced with today, in the church, and in the world, is a miscalculation of the consequences that took place with that single test.

There are a lot of opinions as to why God tested our ancient parents, but the one thing we know for sure is that they failed. Speculation and debates are useless and only allow good debaters to take advantage of those who are not as talented in arguing, and we see this in the world stage at every level; men, governing, controlling, and lording it over those who are considered to be their “lesser.”

The church has missed a very important part of the event that took place in the Garden. The issue of sin is not being minimized; sin is tragic, and will be the reason for the loss of so many souls to the torment of Hell. But, there is something else here that is going virtually unnoticed, and is critical for our successful navigation through the maze we call human life. How do we find our way back to God? How do we determine good from evil, and truth from error?

 The Bible declares that men are “lost.” I went wandering off one time in the desert around Superstition Mountain in Arizona. It was a long time ago. My girls were still very young. I pulled the car over to the side of the road and told Marilyn that I would be back shortly. So with camera in hand and brain turned off I started taking pictures. When I was finished I turned to go back to the car, but to my stark realization, I had become “lost.” I did not know where I had come from, or where to go. I became acutely aware that this was serious, and for an instant an adrenaline rush of fear passed over me. Lucky for me Marilyn had the presence of mind to honk the horn and direct me out of danger. That was a great lesson, and the lesson of the Garden is similar. What men have failed to learn from the Garden lesson is that they are very lost in this world and hear horns honking from many different directions, and have only succeeded in going deeper, and deeper, into a vast waste land, trying to reason-out which horn is theirs.

A human characteristic, which is now an inherent part of our makeup, is this new ability to know both good and evil. But, wouldn’t this be a good thing? Where once we were in harmony with God and His creation, and now we are in such pain, sorrow, and confusion, do you think this is a good thing? It is true,  we do know both good and evil, we just don’t know good from evil; so now what do we do? God has chosen this way to make His offer of salvation; He had a plan.

The whole idea of faith, trust, belief, devotion, obedience, consecration, dedication, sanctification, allegiance, and reliance, is that we would be able to find our way out of this wasteland by being able to distinguish the sound of God’s horn, from all the others. The horn I refer to is the voice of God. This is exactly the problem we now face, the inability to distinguish right and wrong, good and evil, and black from white. Every question has a thousand nuances, and every horn sounds like salvation.

God was clear in His directions on how to distinguish the correct path to follow, so what’s the problem? Human nature is the problem. If the easy path can be the right path also what a blessing that would be, and there lies the problem. When I was lost in the desert I had good reason to be afraid, but being lost in the “world” doesn’t appear that bad. As a matter of fact, most people don’t even consider themselves lost with all the creature comforts they have. Our diversions hide the problem, and the solution.

Have you ever stopped to consider that everything in nature takes the path of least resistance? Water will always run downhill and into the sea. The wind is the same, unless forced into another path. The laws of electricity are governed by an equal reality. The “law of the jungle” is dictated in the same way. Animals push their sick and weak to the back of the herd. Animals will do their business in the open without shame. They will procreate in the open with no regard for onlookers. They have absolutely no consciousness of guilt about destroying other animals, and little concern about the death of a sibling or parent. Humans who display such characteristics are called “animals.” Why? If evolution is the correct answer then why are we infected with all this inner turmoil to “care” about others? Why do we protect our sick and elderly? Why do we take food out of our own mouth to feed the hungry? Why are we tormented with guilt when we lie, cheat, and steal? Are the traits in animals somehow left undeveloped in humans? Are lower animals actually more highly evolved than humans in this sense, and humans still evolving to this higher state of being self-centered, un-caring, and free of guilt?

As we see in all of our surroundings, mankind is very confused in their role on this planet. Our human nature seems to be a composite of natures, a good caring side, and an opposite “law of the jungle side.” It is this law of the jungle side that desires the, go-with-the-flow, I’ll do it my way, path of least resistance, way of life. This way appears to be the right way because it blends so nicely with what we experience in life. But, this way always leaves a lot of baggage behind in the form of guilt, and the common way to remedy the problem is to submerge our hearts and souls into the mire of this depraved kind of “freedom,” and liberate ourselves from conscience. These warring natures are actually clues of how to distinguish which “horn” to listen to.

Here is the part that never makes it to the pulpit, and for some reason, we never hear of; it is the new way of coming to the knowledge of “truth,” and hearing God’s voice outside the Garden; don’t follow your heart or its reasoning. [1]Because of this we have accepted that it is O.K. to have divisions within the body of Christ, that achieving [2]“unity of mind and thought” is passé. “Is Christ divided?” Did the Holy Spirit communicate one truth to one denomination and another truth to a different denomination? Or, was truth spread around through so many religions and cults? All the Christian denominations look at all the other religions and say they have missed it, while thinking it is alright for them to pulverize God’s word into so many sects and denominations.

[3]Our “natural” ability to find solutions to problems has been totally corrupted by the invasion of a foreign element–the knowledge of evil– and there is now no way to escape from the wasteland. [4]All of our imagined solutions are only mirages, which lead us further and further away from the “truth,” and into despair. [5]There is only one way out of this house of mirrors, and without help we are doomed. [6]All of the solutions we are faced with today are only different facets of the grand delusion that [7]Eve was offered; and that delusion is the lie that we can be self-reliant; that in and of ourselves, and our own brilliant insight, we can be complete, and make our own decisions.

At this point God steps in. In our minds we would reason that the best thing to do would be to just kick the Devil out of the Garden, but the truth is just the opposite; God kicks us out, and gives us [8]instructions on how to distinguish the sound of His “horn,” or voice. Faith, trust, and belief, are key components of those instructions.

This is all very [9]simple, but has been missed by the majority of people, including Christians. We cannot see the truth because it all seems so illogical to our now impaired ability to reason correctly. Here is the simple God-logic of the situation. [10]Do not listen to the instructions that come from your faulty navigation system—your mind‑‑they will trick you into faulty conclusions, and keep you self-confident, and follow the wrong path.

In the Garden, God told our Grandparents to enjoy all of His creation for their own benefit; nothing was off limits, except one tree; “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” God told them not to eat of that tree, that if they did, they would die; it would be the beginning of a trip into superstition and despair, which would result in death.

We don’t know how long Adam and Eve lived in the Garden before the “fall;” all we know for sure is that they fell, and they died.

According to the Bible the Earth is the kingdom of Satan and his horde of disenfranchised angles called demons. God obviously had a plan since He created this place of beauty and rest in the middle of a prison planet occupied by evil on all sides. The Garden was a haven in the very center of enemy occupied territory.

Outside the sanctuary of Eden is the chaos of Satan’s dark kingdom. In this kingdom everything is antithetical, pretentious, and counterfeit. Out here, in the world, there are many horns sounding, and everyday more are heard. All of them come with a promise of light and wisdom, showing us a way to god or to become gods. Even as we speak, all of these prognosticators, seers, oracles, soothsayers, esoterics, philosophers, prophets, politicians, mystics, kabbalist, sects, denominations, cults, orthodox and unorthodox, are raising high the standard of truth, with voices sounding ever more as one voice, propagating the religion of the world.  

 In the Garden, beauty, simplicity, peace, and harmony, was obvious; chaos could not be found; everything was “the truth.” Outside, chaos and confusion reigns, and lying is the norm; you will look very hard to find true peace.

 The Word of God, i.e. the Tree of Life, has been reduced to a loosely held set of cultural events and archaic moral recommendations. The Bible has become a muffled sound in a whole concert of horns, all blaring and blending as one synchronized commotion to drown out the one true sound that can save us.

 This is exactly what we should expect if we understand what has happened in Eden. What God has said, Satan has copied, or tried to destroy. God said to Adam, “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Gen 2:16, 17. The anti-type of Satan sounds something like this, “my world is here for your enjoyment, take all you want and have fun, and be happy, but there is this one restriction, do not eat from the tree in the midst of my garden, the tree of Life, or you will die.”

 What the Bible says throughout is to live a separated life, isolated from all the commotion outside the Garden; from all the efforts of Satan to tempt and trick us into responding to one of the false sounds of deliverance. We must make a decided effort to ignore the sirens and seductresses of this world by closing off all avenues of assault. Not only that, but we are instructed to not even trust our own thinking. I know this all sounds ridiculous, and that is precisely why very few will heed the warnings, and so many will be lost.

 [11]As the world continues to rumble, and the seas roar, like a woman in labor, ready to deliver, the events that took place in Eden, and after that, should begin to make more sense. The tree of Life—the Bible–that we are advised to not take literally, is our only escape. It foretells of these end time calamities. The religious and political power structures of Satan’s world have diluted the message to a near meaningless book of verbiage. For anyone still seeking the truth, the message is still absolute, and able to lead any who follow to safety, but the trip is not without perils; the Bible is clear on that point also.

 The Bible, the Word, is the “tree of Life.”  When the Bible speaks of mixing two types of cloth together, plowing with an ox and an ass, or adding yeast to dough, it is speaking of the peril of adding or mixing anything of the world to the truth of Scripture; this will never work; it is like adding venom to vaccine, as history has proven.

 By extension we can say: If you think you can do something good for the Lord, you are wrong. If you think you can build or plant a “Church” for the Lord, you are wrong. If you think you can live a good life and please the Lord that way, you are wrong. If you think speaking in tongues, or healing the sick, or even reading your Bible will secure you a seat on the Gospel Train, you are wrong. We had life once, inside the Garden of Eden, but now, outside the Garden, the Lord requires death. Jesus said to follow Him. Where did He go? He went to a hill outside Jerusalem and died, and it is there we are to follow. Dead men do not do anything, they are dead. All our thoughts and good intentions must go; all our aspirations and education, no good; all our lust, desires, and habits along with all of those things, even our devotion to children and spouse, must take their place on the burning altar and be reduced to ashes. Then, and only then, with the faith and belief of Abraham, we know that what we have dedicated to the Lord He is able to raise again from the ashes, to be a vessel for the King’s use, forever, and evermore.

Rom 12:1-2

 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

 John 14:23-24

 Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

 This is part of the lost truth of the Bible, and this is only the beginning. There is so much that we are not hearing from the sounds coming from so many religious buildings, with their CEO’s and Sunday morning speeches, and the horns are earsplitting. We have men trained by men to preach the party line; ordained by men, commissioned by men, sent by men, to build something for “men.” It sounds very much like the episode of Nimrod and the Tower of Babel.

 These are the last days of the last days, before the Lord’s return, and truth is at a premium. Solomon instructs us to “buy the truth and sell it not.” Jesus instructs us to sell everything we own and buy “the pearl of great price.” They both speak of “truth” as the most valuable possession that a person can own. There are so few of us who really want to know the truth. We will satisfy ourselves with concession, because it is something we can live with.

 You have to be very careful and “See to it, then, that the light that is within you is not darkness.” Luke 11:35

 “Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!”  Matthew 7:22, 23

Many people, and Christians also, simply do not understand the story of the Bible, and throw out the parts that bother them. The Bible is the complete testimony of God; we accept it all or we reject it all, there is no middle ground. Those who did not accept Noah's offer of safety inside the ark perished; mercy had run it course. The Truth is still setting people free.

George Warnock say so gracefully and plainly what I have been trying to say, in my stumbling way, that we need an awakening to the deep things of God. What we have learned to be content with, in our forms and programs, George brings to the forefront and shines the bright light of truth squarely into its darkness.

I pray that you will be blessed as I was with the reading of Beauty For Ashes.

I will be publishing, for FREE, in PDF format, George Warnock's entire Beauty For Ashes series in our new store front, so be looking for it.

Steve Blackwell

______________________________________________ 

George H. Warnock

I am confident the time is at hand when our Lord will arise in the midst of the Church with eyes as a flame of fire, with feet as of polished brass, with a sharp twoedged sword proceeding out of His mouth… to cleanse and purge and prepare His people for His Appearing.

l am confident that any ministry in this hour that does not hear what this One is saying, and does not minister what this One is ministering, will be heaping up wood, hay, and stubble for the furnaces of God.

I am confident that there is a people in the land whom God is preparing, disciplining, and refining… who are going to minister in this hour out of the heart of God; and who, because of this, will work and minister in harmony with Him and with one another, as God sends His fire into the midst of the Church to accomplish His cleansing and purifying work.

We have come to the end; and no longer can we merely prophecy about end-time events, and teach end-time truths. We must begin to minister in union with the End-Time Lord.

Is He not the One who is the Same yesterday, and today, and forever? Ah Yes He is! But He has a special End-Time Name, and that Name is the OMEGA… which is the last letter of the Greek alphabet. I know He is the Alpha, and He changes not. But in this hour He stands in our midst as the OMEGA. He is bringing to a conclusion. He is bringing to a consummation. He is finishing what He started. He is completing the Building, for which He has laid the foundation. He is about to gather the Harvest, for which He planted the Seed. He will reconcile and join together in harmony the Family of God, for which He sent His Son to be the "firstborn among many brethren." He will bring forth the LOAF in His people, even as He was the Manna that came down from Heaven. He will effectually join His beloved ones unto Himself in one BODY, even as He was the BODY through which the Father expressed Himself in the earth many centuries ago.

The Vision is high, and we must keep it high. Man has obscured the Vision, because it seems too high for attainment. But in reality it is because man does not want to go God’s way, and yield himself as clay in the hands of the Potter. For this is God’s work… this is God’s creation.., it is not the work of man.

God is going to do what He said. But He is going to do it in a manner far different from, and far beyond, what any of us have imagined. He is going to bring to desolation everything, every church structure, every planting, every gathering together in His Name, every ministry.., everything that is NOT THE PRODUCT, that is NOT THE FRUIT OF HIS OWN SPIRIT EXERCISING HIS LORDSHIP IN THE MIDST OF HIS PEOPLE.

And then out of the ashes of all this desolation He will bring forth the very Beauty of the Lord!

And so I can think of no better title for this series of messages that I feel the Lord has laid on my heart, than this beautiful phrase from the prophet Isaiah, where God promised He would give His people "BEAUTY FOR ASHES."

Our hope is that we might rekindle the vision in the hearts of God’s people, and make it clear and plain… lest in the face of all the disappointment and disillusionment that has overtaken the people of God they begin to take the course that has been so tempting to take: either to forsake the Vision entirely, or to so dilute it with human reasoning and manipulation that there is really nothing left but a vision for some humanly devised project for promoting programs of various kinds, or amassing large congregations of people together in one building, under the guise of gathering together the Body of Christ in "the unity of the Spirit." In so many, many cases the Spirit of God is left completely out of the picture.

Invariably this seems to happen when God comes on the scene and makes His way known. Call it a vision, a revelation, a promise, or whatever. God may well have given it. But as we wait for it to come to pass a weariness sets in, a certain sense of perplexity, of disappointment, of frustration. Then little by little we find some strong leader who presumptuously begins to tackle the problem with his own wisdom and understanding. All in the name of "faith," of course. All in the name of "Christ." All in the name of "edifying the Body of Christ." And so there comes into being another church structure, another system, another outreach, another plan for accomplishing what God would accomplish in and through His own Spirit in the earth. And God gets the credit (though I should really say "the blame") for the new machinery that has come into being for the purpose of fulfilling the Vision of God.

Of course, every man has to "prove his own work," and this is not a wholesale condemnation of all that goes on in the Name of Christ. But this seems to be the general pattern; and for a season God seems to go along with it (if you understand what I mean). He knows the course that man will take, and He is not quick to abandon them because of their failure, or their lack of understanding. He just says nothing, and goes along with them. He does so in His great wisdom and love. To stop them short in their tracks would only frustrate them further (if they are determined to go their own way)… so God lets them do it. "God you said you wanted this… now I am trying to bring it into being… why do You hinder me?" So He usually just goes along… and blesses… for a season.

It doesn’t mean He has approved what man is doing… or that He has changed His mind about anything. And it doesn’t mean that He is going to incorporate man’s puny efforts into the grand scheme and design of His own purpose. It is simply a case. of the God of all wisdom and knowledge giving man the opportunity to do what He knows He alone can do; and then when man has become aware of his own failures, and the futility of his own works… God Himself comes on the scene… and in the background of human failure and desolation, and in the fullness of time, He gives… 

"Beauty for ashes, 

The oil of joy for mourning, 

The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness" (Isa. 61:3).

It is really the story of the Old Covenant and the New. Not that there was inherently anything wrong with the righteous requirements of the Law. But when God gave it, man grasped it in his own hands, and confidently cried, "All that the LORD hath said will we do…" You might even say that God enticed them into it. He offered it to them. Paul says, "The Law entered that the offence might abound" (Rom. 5:20). The thought seems to be it "crept in unawares." One translation reads, "The law slipped in…"

God knew it would. It was never part of His eternal purpose for the Church; but it would have a temporary purpose: namely, to "make sin exceeding sinful"… and to "shut up all men unto disobedience"… to imprison all men in one prison-house of sin and disobedience, that one day the Keeper of the prison might walk in and pronounce the message of free Grace: "If you realize now that you are in prison… if you know for a certainty that you are helpless and undone, and utterly hopeless before God, you may go free… I open the prison-door, and set you free, by the blood of My Cross."

And so this matter of justification by faith has become an established truth in the Church ever since the Reformation; and many congregations throughout the land rejoice in the fact that they are "not under the law, but under grace." But this whole matter goes much deeper than having the right theology; and the fact remains that most congregations of God’s people are living under Law, though loudly boasting of their deliverance from it. For the Scriptures make it plain that "IF YE BE LED OF THE SPIRIT, ye are not under the law" (Gal. 5:18). Only the ministration of the Spirit of God in our midst can deliver us from Law. Only as we "walk in the Spirit" are we really free from the Law.

All we have to do is to take a glance across the scene of Christendom, and what do we find? All kinds of laws and by-laws for running the Church. Elders and deacons and pastors and church workers of every kind are ELECTED by the popular vote of the people. It would be too tedious a matter, and too devastating to carnal ambition, to seek God so earnestly that the Spirit of God might come forth and say, "Separate unto me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them," as He did in the early Church. (See Acts 13:2.) Who needs that in this day and hour? It is much easier and more practical to have a missionary program of our own, and send out the ones we think are qualified for the task.

We could go on and on in this; but we are just illustrating the fact that God’s people as a whole continue to function according to LAW, human LAW… whether it be the Law of Moses, or their own. They have a certain organizational procedure, and all the while they boast they are "free from the Law."

Ishmael, Child Of The Flesh

Of course, if God were to come forth in our midst and say, "Now I want you to set apart this young couple for a special work for Me…" we would perhaps be quite prepared to submit to His choice, But if we wait and wait for Him to do it, and He remains silent in the matter, obviously we have to do something about it ourselves. (Of course, we are not suggesting that the Antioch experience is to be the formula for the Church. We are only emphasizing that if and when the Spirit of God is Lord in our midst, He will indicate His will and His way for the people of God.)

And so we have the story of Ishmael repeated over and over again in our various churches and fellowships that abound in the land.

"We have the Word… we have His promises… it’s up to you and me to get in there and make it work…"

And so the "Promise" that God gives us as a Word to embrace and cherish and hold, a promise that we must guard and nurture in our spirits, until it becomes a living and "pregnant" Word within us… we take it rather as a challenge to act upon, in the name of faith, in the name of Christian zeal, only to end up in frustration.

And God seems to go along with it for a season. So long, in fact, that we finally are able to convince ourselves that God DID use our plans after all.

And so Ishmael grows up in the household of Sarah and Abraham, as the beloved son that God had promised. God does not whisper in Abraham’s ear the day Ishmael is born, "Now look, Abraham… Ishmael is your son, and I will bless him… but he is not really the heir that I promised you." As a result Abraham comes to consider God’s silence to be His consent and approval… this year, and next, and next. Time rolls along, and Ishmael becomes the beloved of Abraham’s heart.

We have been accused of setting the Vision too high… too high for people to grasp. If only we could convince the people of God that the Vision is much higher than we have ever taught or expressed… and that it is not something for them to "grasp," but to nurture in their hearts until by the Light of His countenance we are "changed into the same image." For though the Vision might be spoken of in many ways (as we anticipate doing in this series of writings)… in the final analysis the Vision is NOTHING LESS THAN THE VISION OF HIS OWN GLORY AND PRESENCE, coming to abide in the House of God.

Then why do we not stop right here, and leave it at that? Because it is the Vision of Him… and there are so many facets of His Being, so many rays of His glory, so many aspects of His beauty, so many unfoldings of His secrets, that unless we see Him in the full expression of His Being we are not really seeing Him AS HE IS. And God forbid that we should, in this writing or in any other, become so taken up with the chemistry of the living Word that we rejoice in our scientific knowledge of spiritual things, and fail to eat of Him who is the living bread sent down from Heaven for the life of the world. We must not take our place at the table of the Lord as a scientist: able to clearly analyze the food that is on the table, and know for a certainty that there is carbon in this, and sulphur in that… and hydrogen in that over there… all the while being totally accurate, but NOT PARTAKING OF THE LIVING TRUTH and allowing it to bring life and health and strength to our spiritual man.

God waits about thirteen years, and then He comes on the scene and reveals Himself afresh to Abraham, and announces: "This shall not be the heir… Sarah shall have a son…" Abraham’s immediate response is one of surprise, and frustration, as if to say, "Impossible, Lord. But we have Ishmael already… Why not Ishmael Lord?"

We see an awful lot of the Ishmael in the Church today… in church structures and programs, and in the individual lives of God’s people. Not away out there in the apostate church… but in the midst of the anointed people, the people of God who profess to have the Spirit and to know His ways. God continues to bless, and God’s blessing is taken as a sign of His approval. But in the midst of it all there is the Abraham people of God, who are aware that God is coming on the scene… and they are hearing Him announce as He did to Abraham and Sarah: "My covenant will I establish with Isaac…"

In other words, God is bringing us back to the clear Vision that He announced in the Word; and we are going to have to forsake our own initiatives and all the schemes that we have devised to bring forth the true Body of Christ in the earth. For instance…

"God wants His people to be ONE. Just forget your differences and come together, and worship with us… forget your doctrines, they only divide the Body of Christ, and they don’t really matter all that much… just praise and worship together with us, and learn to love one another…"

And so we have a very sentimental display of what they call love and unity, and a systematized form of worship and praise, something you just do, something you just perform, something you even do in the flesh if need be, just as long as you do it.

Or we have a more practical, a more structured way of doing it…

"We have true leadership in our church. We have the apostolic and prophetic order established by God. We are authorized to establish the church on its proper foundation. Come under this covering, get on this sure foundation… and you will come into true relationship with the Body of Christ…" And so, acting under the delusion that because God did something wonderful away back there in history, whether it be so many centuries ago or so many years ago… and because they have continued on in that particular "movement" in an unbroken line of succession, therefore, it just must be RIGHT to try to continue and perpetuate what God started. The Spirit of God may have left the whole thing centuries ago… or even just a few years ago, as the case may be… but because God started it we are supposed to try to perpetuate it.

God help us to learn the lesson of Eli, of Saul, of Bethel, of Jerusalem, of Rome, of Constantinople… and we could go on and on in this; places where God’s glory once rested in power and authority, but which have long since ceased to be anything more than an empty shell, just a memory of what HAS BEEN. Hear what God has to say about Bethel, the House of God, the place of God’s visitation to His chosen Jacob… but which God forsook because the people had gone into apostasy and idolatry:

"For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, SEEK YE ME, and ye shall live: but SEEK NOT BETHEL, for… BETHEL SHALL COME TO NOUGHT. SEEK THE LORD, and ye shall live" (Amos 5:4-6).

God help His people to understand that places, things, gifts, enablements, ministries, men of God, movements, whatever He might have anointed and used for His glory, THESE ARE NOT TO BE HELD IN VENERATION BY GOD’S PEOPLE; and that for their day and hour they are to be received and honored only as channels of His grace to LEAD HIS PEOPLE INTO RELATIONSHIP WITH HIMSELF. Then having served their purpose, God removes them from the scene, that He Himself might have all the glory.

Definition of PACIFIST

2: strongly and actively opposed to conflict and especially war

Does that definition describe Jesus? No! Although He never engaged in or even defended Himself against violence, and charged His followers to do the same, He did not strongly and actively oppose conflict or war by unbelieving nations or people. On the contrary the Bible declares that it is God who establishes kings and kingdoms to do His will to punish and judge, and Paul states in Romans that these kings and kingdoms bare not the sword in vain, and is it not Jesus who will return and smite the nations, and tread out the winepress of God's wrath? Jesus did not disapprove of war, only that His followers should not participate in it; or violence of any kind.

As we move toward the end of the age, with all of what that means in terms of violence and war, what should the Christian position be? Should Christians support, oppose, or remain neutral as to war and military service? The position of Jesus must be the position of every follower of His if we claim to be Christians.

In America, as it is in most other countries I suppose, patriotism and national allegiance are honorable positions, but are they “Christian” positions? Most of the Christian denominations are considered to be “warring” denominations, by the Government, when the question of conscientious objector status is brought up. This is not surprising considering that it is very often Christians who lead the charge in the debate of “just war.” They are the first to stand, and recite with the loudest voices, the Pledge of Allegiance, and in singing the National Anthem.  What is the Biblical position that Christians should follow? And, if they are following a contrary position, why are they following it, and where did that position come from?

The question of whether or not Jesus was a Pacifist is not a fair question. Since we know God never changes, being “the same yesterday, today, and forever,” and we know that Jesus will return to tread the winepress of the wrath of God, then we can say with confidence that Jesus was not, and is not, a Pacifist. Did Jesus come to show us a new way to run the earth by ridding it of war? No! He came to show us a way out, by following His example of faith and trust in a supernatural God. He came to save us from the evil that rules the earth, not to establish a new theocratic world government of men based on the faulty idea that all mankind can be convinced to live peaceably. 

I really don’t like the word “pacifist” much, it has been hijacked by the liberals, who are for the most part pacifist, but for a worldly kingdom, and not the Kingdom of God. They are really humanist who use pacifism as a political tool to engineer a man made peace on earth, which is impossible, if you believe the Bible. If we say yes, Jesus was a Pacifist, then we protest, picket, and run off to join Jim Wallis and his band of liberal Christian humanist, exploiting politics and theology for an ecumenical one world government.

But, if we say that Jesus was not a Pacifist, we join the ranks of the “just war” advocates and ally ourselves with the evil of mass destruction, and to the government that promotes it, and drape the cross in red, white, and blue.

Jesus was neither for or against war, as far as the question pertains to the world. Both of the arguments above have their roots in the flesh of men. They both start in the minds of men and reason their way to a presupposed conclusion. They both get what they want at the expense of truth.

The words pacifist and pacifism are worldly terms that conjure up images that are packed with worldly ideals, none of which reveal the mind of Jesus. We cannot force Jesus to conform to our definitions and to model Himself as a hippie or a warlord; Jesus will not follow us, we must follow Him. Neither ignoring His plain words, like the mass of conservative nationalistic evangelicalism does, or contorting His meanings, like the old school liberal camp and the more resent emerging Christianity, will work. Disobedience and rebellion are a malignant cancer in both camps.

As practicing Christians we must impose this limitation in our search for facts, are those facts true, according to Scripture. On the surface this statement may seem obvious. You may say, “well of course, the Bible is the final word on any subject, so why state something so apparent?” Because, although, the truth is apparent it always seems to have the habit of disappearing in a cloud of human reasoning. The Bible warns us in both the Old and the New Testaments to not trust human reasoning, but we cannot resist the temptation to take a position founded on what we conclude to be a very rational thought process. 

Prov. 14:12, 16:25 "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death."

Prov. 3:5 "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." 

1 Cor. 1:20-21 "Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe."

1Cor. 3:18-20 “Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, ‘He is THE ONE WHO CATCHES THE WISE IN THEIR CRAFTINESS’; and again, ‘THE LORD KNOWS THE REASONINGS of the wise, THAT THEY ARE USELESS.’”

Why is the Lord so adamant about not trusting our ability to reason through a problem and coming to, what we might consider, a logical conclusion? The answer is, that we do not have the ability to reason properly since those days in the Garden of Eden, and that apple thing. Satan was right about having our eyes opened to both good and evil. Only now all of our cherished opinions and decisions are tainted with error. Every little task we now undertake has to be run through the infected database of our minds and heart. We rightly question whether or not we have made right choices. We ask our friends, search it out on the internet, and run it by the pastor, and are still deluded because we have not believed the plain written words of our Lord; the only one who can think straight and who has the power to discern correctly between good and evil; He says, "trust Me." 

Did Jesus exhibit the characteristics of a "pacifist" while He walked upon this earth? Yes, He appeared to be a pacifist. But, He was not. When Jesus comes the second time He will be no pacifist, but a roaring Lion, to tread out the winepress of the wrath of His Father, and to present a deed, that was purchased on Calvary. He will come as the conquering King, not a sacrificial Lamb, and declare war on all evil and unbelief.

It is Jesus’ first appearance, as the Paschal Lamb that we are to emulate. It is His cross that we are to likewise bear; it is His life that we are to present to the world, over and over again, as we follow the Master. The Lamb is our life, the humble Lamb, the meek Lamb, the weak and lowly Lamb. The life of Jesus should be the life of His followers.

This sounds all very simple, as it should be, yet there are those who disagree and argue that God supports and even promotes “just war.” In other words God approves and blesses Christians who fight as individuals, or in league with national allegiance, to suppress evil or defend the weak. 

Is this true? The truth is more important than any pet doctrine or allegiance to a flag. 

It seems that every little fragment of truth that we gather puts us more and more outside the circle of the general opinion or the consensus of Christian belief, either on the one side or the other.  Is it possible that truth is so rare that those who find it also find that they rarely agree with others who profess to follow the same Jesus you follow? The simplicity of Jesus, seems to be itself, veiled in complicated darkness and hidden from the sight of those who follow from a distance. They are more concerned with the pretty stones along the seashore than the mighty rolling glory of the Sea itself. But, many there are who look for pretty stones, and miss out on the preciousness, power, and cruelty of the sea. To follow Jesus will drive a wedge between what could be, lasting relationships, if the simplicity of Jesus becomes a reality in your life. 

If you were to ask the average person what Jesus preached – even the mediocre Christian – you'd no doubt hear something about love: "Jesus taught about love. He said we should all love each other." This perception of Jesus' teaching isn't wrong. Jesus did talk a lot about love. In fact he said that loving God is the greatest commandment and loving our neighbors is next (Mark 12:29-31). So, love figured prominently in the message of Jesus.

But love was not the core of Jesus' message. And, his preaching about love didn't get Him hung on a cross. Neither the Romans nor the Jews would have been particularly bothered by a Jewish prophet who ran around telling people to love God and people. A lot of Jews would not have appreciated His love of their enemies, but the Romans  wouldn't have crucified someone whose main crime was telling Jews to love them and turn the other cheek. The bone of contention with Jesus' message must have been more abrasive, indeed, more disgraceful, than a call to love your enemies.

Jesus' message was anything but pacifistic. He says of Himself that He, "came not to bring peace, but a sword." Jesus came to declare war against evil, using the tools of meekness, and obedience to the will of the Father, as a weapon of mass destruction to all who reject Him. What He doesn't win over with His immense, pure, complete, and everlasting display of love will be forever vanquished from His presence in a place the polar opposite of love, which can only be called pure Hell.  

Jesus spoke many times of the Kingdom of Heaven come to earth as a conquering force. He gave parables about the Kingdom and its King and His intentions.

Lk. 14:31 "Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand?"

Lk. 13:6-9 "He also spoke this parable: "A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’"

Jesus' preaching of the Kingdom was not a message of a pacifist; He was delivering a stern warning, and it was understood as such by those who killed Him.

The kingdom of God has been equated with all sorts of things in the last two millennia. Some have claimed that it is heaven, and that Jesus was saying, in so many words, "Now you can go to heaven when you die." Others have understood "the kingdom of God" as referring to the Church. From their perspective, Jesus announced the beginning of the age of the Church. Still others have seen the kingdom of God as a world infused by divine justice. They have taken Jesus' announcement as a call to social action. In recent times, New Agers have reduced the kingdom of God to inner awareness of one's divinity. Like the ancient Gnostics, they understand the good news of the kingdom to mean "You are divine."

Jesus was unleashing the power of God into the world through His sacrificial act and that it would be carried on by the sacrificial acts of all His followers.

His message is; The Kingdom of God is coming, God is establishing His direct rule or government in the earth, and this government will be manifested through Messiah (Jesus) (Psalms 2), and His warning is, repent or perish, that is the terms for peace. The government of the whole world will "rest on His shoulders." Human self-determination will end, and "every knee will bow."

All the false dreams of nationalism, patriotism, and pacifism will be extinguished, and then we will come face-to-face with reality, because God is the God of reality.

For the better part of my thirty plus years of calling myself a Christian I never comprehended or understood what was meant by the “offence of the Cross.” it seemed to me that this “offence” was an overstatement. Was Christ and His Cross really offensive or just mildly disturbing and controversial? And, all the persecution, couldn’t that be explained as the usual forces of opposing group dynamics; no different really from the varied conflicts we have on any given level? In these thirty years, I have known very, very few who have a deep-seated hatred for Christianity or the Cross. On the contrary; tremendous numbers of unbelievers go to Christmas cantatas, Easter plays, they bow their heads at invocations, wear cross-shaped amulets, give money to missions, and agree with the statement, “In God We Trust.” To be perfectly honest; the Christ and Cross, presented by commercial Christianity, of which I was a part, has never once offended me or anyone I know. The religious buildings of organized Christianity are busting at the seams with the unsaved all across this nation and they are not offended at all.

 The big question, at least in this time before Jesus comes again, is, if Christianity and the Cross are offensive, as pictured in Scripture, attested to by early Church history, and sometimes preached, why is it that Christianity, today, is so much in favor with the world, its supposed adversary? This is totally opposite of what we would expect. Is it that Christ has won out over the world and that the 1615 year old dying words of Julian the Apostate, nephew of Constantine, are true, that, “Thou hast conquered, O Galilean”. How can we explain the general lack of offense and persecution that should be part and parcel with Christ and His Cross? Is it conceivable that Satan is the real conqueror? Is it conceivable that the message of the Cross is not being presented or that a different message has taken its place? Is it conceivable that the visible Church has been bewitched and deluded into believing they are preaching the Gospel? Is it conceivable that the true message of the Cross-is still just as offensive as it ever was, but is nowhere being declared? Yes, this must be the answer, but how does the Cross become offensive? What is the “bone of contention” that is the real offence of the Cross?

 We see today the beginning again of trouble that has, at its root, the Cross.  The Cross has proved to be the means upon which God has caused to rest the full weight of His saving power. A proper understanding of the Cross will always instigate the foaming hatred of Satan against the saints. The Cross is the sole instrument of deliverance to save from the damning regions of darkness, both in this life and the life to come. Why is it that the Cross is behind so much of the renewed turbulence in professedly evangelical institutions, denominations, Christian homes, and individual Christian lives?

 Before we can answer that question, it is important to differentiate between: heroics, aesthetics, and romanticism, of which so many in religion are captivated—and the Cross’s deeper meaning. That meaning or implication, which the Bible attaches to the Cross, is the source of inflammation and aggravation, and can be witnessed in the following applications.

The Cross Passes Sentence on the World

 The Cross stands at the crossroad, it is a separator, dividing and disuniting two worlds, and it discriminates and disrupts, disregards and disqualifies, and disproves and disputes. The difference is so great that the two cannot be bridged. They are two totally different systems of values, standards of judging, sets of laws; forever antagonistic and irreconcilable.

 The Cross is absolute in its distinctiveness, i.e., its interest and objectives, relationships and resources, saved and unsaved, and ultimately between the living and the dead. This absoluteness is a heavy wedge that drives and separates, even between those in the Church, and is offensive to the planned ecumenicism prevalent in today’s congregations, and to the nation building goals of governments.

 Paul said that he had been “crucified to the world” and the world to him. God declares, “the whole world lieth in the wicked one.” The world’s ways, motives, purposes, ideas, and imaginations are all opposite of God’s, and the world is utterly incapacitated from receiving Divine revelations, or achieving God’s likeness. Therefore; it cannot enjoy and appreciate real fellowship with God, and cannot be trusted with God’s privileges, or His co-operation.

 The verdict, condemnation, and demands of the Cross, are unacceptable and vexing to the world and to token Christians. This “worldliness” in Christian lives and in the Church is the very thing that neutralizes them (keeps them lukewarm) as effective agents in regard to the purposes of the Cross. Consequently; they call themselves Christian, but their lives are full of sin and failure. 

The Cross Crucifies the Flesh

 The flesh is a lovely, sacred, and cherished thing, and worthy of respect, to the natural man. But,  the Word of God declares that by the Cross “our old man was crucified with Christ,” and that “they which live should henceforth live no longer unto themselves, but unto Him.” What we see is that we have tried to bring a big part of that old life over into the new life, but God will not go along with our designs, and the Cross continually torments and frustrates. What we see also is that God allows us to imagine that we can succeed in our plans if we keep trying, and even permits us to manufacture our own gods, our own way. All the living loveliness of the flesh, men have brought into their supposed worship of a God, Who only wants them dead.

 At the Cross God kills the conversation of the fallen race. From that time on God’s entire concern and communication is with His new creation. What this means is that God does not deal with us on a human level any longer. All our goodness and badness, our abilities and inabilities, talents or lack thereof, were included in that death. Humanly speaking, we have nothing of interest to God; no credits are given for some superior gift; speaking, art, knowledge, strength; nothing is acceptable to God because we are dead men. The flesh has been cut off; it is diseased. We are called to meet God on an entirely different level, a spiritual level, where the world and the flesh cannot enter. God only see us “in Christ” on the cross, dead; and, “in Christ” in His resurrection.

 The paralysis of the spirit life always comes about by the infiltration of the flesh, a human element; be it an assumption, a like or dislike, some personal interest, or ambition. The visible Church exist in these elements and thinks itself alive, when it is dead (condemned). It is not only our sins, but also our “selves” that were taken to the Cross. The only way to see God’s purposes fulfilled through our lives is to see our flesh hanging on that Cross with Jesus; we died with Jesus.

 While we are quick to acknowledge that we are, ourselves the trouble with our own lives, we are so very slow to accept our crucifixion with Christ, to have the Cross kill us, so that the life of Christ might be made evident in us. Herein lays the offence of the Cross, both to the world and to Christians. 

The Cross Banishes the Devil

 The fundamental cause of the offense is Satan’s claim on the world and the flesh as his property and instruments, by which he maintains his controlling force. As Jesus approached the Cross and His execution He said, “now is the prince of this world cast out.” And, Paul, looking back at the Cross said, “Christ stripped off principalities and powers, making a show of them openly, and triumphed over them.” By the Cross every true Christian has the authority, by being in that Cross with Christ (being now dead), to disavow all demands of that now defunct prince.

 It is to be expected that, that great source of evil should, by every means and resource, seek to make the Cross of none effect; a mere artifact of history. By our talents, strength, and by the pale cast of thought, Satan will dilute and play down the message of the Cross. By pushing in the world’s methods, means, materials, and spirit, he will sap the vitality of the Church, while allowing it to appear strong. By stirring the flesh, the ego, and the old man, he will divide, stress, and disintegrate; or by the vain institution of the human elements of art, aesthetics, heroism, and humanitarianism, he will blind the eyes to the need of regeneration. Reputations, popularity, bigness, success, are all contrary to the spirit of Christ, but they are the instruments of war to overthrow God’s Kingdom, and to engross the minds of many, even Christian ministers.

 Therefore, if the Cross is preached with full freedom, being emancipated from the world, the flesh, and the Devil, you can expect that the forces of evil will leave no stone unturned, and promote every cause of offence, in its quest to put down your revolt.

 The fullness of the Cross in our lives, the experience of victory, and the administrative co-operation with Christ, as a result of our realization that His purposes are our purposes, results in the joy of knowing that we are the children of the Most High God and co- regents with His Son Jesus.

 “I have been crucified with Christ, henceforth. . .no longer I but Christ.” “They overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony, and they counted not their lives dear unto the death.” 

There is a very prominent teacher within the ranks of the organized Christendom that teaches that the blood of Jesus had no intrinsic value in and of itself, that the term “the blood of Christ” is only a metaphor, or figure of speech, for the death of Christ on the Cross. He claims that Christ’s blood was merely the fluid that flowed through His veins, although it had to be shed, but that it was only His resulting death, by asphyxiation/suffocation, that the term, “the blood of Christ” points to. Is this an important issue? I think so, since “blood” is given such an elevated place in Scriptures. Dr. John MacArthur said,

"It was His death that was efficacious. . not His blood. . . Christ did not bleed to death. The shedding of blood had nothing to do with bleeding. . . it simply means death. . . Nothing in His human blood saves…It is not His blood that I love. . . it is Him. It is not His bleeding that saved me, but His dying."

John, in his book, The Truth War, make this accurate statement:

The war against truth is nothing new, of course. It began in the garden when the serpent said to the woman, “Has God indeed said . . . ?” (Genesis 3:1). A relentless battle has raged ever since between truth and falsehood, good and evil, light and dark­ness, assurance and doubt, belief and scepticism, righteousness and sin. It is a savage spiritual conflict that literally spans all of human history. But the ferocity and irrationality of this present onslaught seems quite unprecedented. ‘The Truth War,’ John MacArthur

The Bible says, Lev. 17:11, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul."

John, God has not said what you are claiming.

All men have holes in their theology. Some of these holes make little difference to the overall integrity of an otherwise safe vessel. But, other holes are of such consequence that if they are not addressed harbor great and serious results.

John has more than a few leaking seals in his theology, that have gotten the attention of quite a number of people. I do not bother myself with these that I call noncritical controversies. But, when the integrity of a weight bearing seam or wall is discovered to be faulty and dangerous by those whose job it is to look for such things, a warning needs to be sounded, even though the problem has lain dormant for three decades. Regardless of how much dust this issue has gathered, it is still alive, and is just one more gaping hole allowing the Church to take on water.

To call into question the very foundation of our forgiveness by reducing that foundation, the blood of Jesus, to a mere symbol is serious heresy. He has not retracted this belief, and in my opinion, stands in a very precarious position as a teacher, as do his followers. Can we have faith in a symbol or a metaphor? If so, maybe there is a Santa Clause; I'm just being silly here. Is reducing the very thing that God requires to a metaphor equate to having faith in the blood of Jesus?

In times past this question may not have gotten the attention that it deserves, and only barely appears on the radar at this late hour, and then only by those who thirst for truth and not the acceptance of men. Today a few are beginning to examine the statements of all the self appointed leaders who profess great wisdom by way of their institutionalized learning. This particular individual even mocks those kitchen table theologians who do not render the proper respect to schooled doctors of religion, “There is a vast difference, by the way, between the whimsical ‘kitchen table’ interpretations of laymen, and the teaching of skilled men who work very hard to rightly divide the Word.” It is primarily by way of these “gifted” teachers that we have now a dissected Body of Christ. The Church has been torn into a thousand sects and every doctrine reduced to gossamer shavings, and now, at the end of the age, is faced with this great apostasy. The revelation of Scripture is not enough for these highly educated types, they must have their opinions too. It is my guess that it is at least as much the fault of academia as it is the ignorant layman, but scholarship always trumps the un-schooled layman, who must rely on mere “revelation.”  The pride of education doesn’t stop at the pulpit.

If the blood is as important as the Bible seems to make it, then to trivialize it may spell disaster worse than the Gulf oil spill; the consequences may be eternal.

I think his error is that he has confused the blood with the Cross and made them into a single thing; it is to combine forgiveness of sins with deliverance from sin, the atonement with sanctification, and propitiation and the purging of a guilty conscience with emancipation from the sin nature. The purpose of Christ’s death had a dual result. The blood of Jesus, the perfect blood of Jesus, was the atonement for our sins. It was that perfect blood, offered to God, of which, He was wholly and completely satisfied. It is this blood that is on the door post of our hearts, that when God sees the blood, He passes over. The blood was for God.

But, something else is needed. Although the blood of Jesus achieves the entrance into the throne room of God by faith in the power of the blood, and washes away all the sins, past and present, God still has to deal with His sinner children. The death of Christ accomplished two things. His death not only atoned for our sins through the shedding of blood, it provided us with the solution to deliver us from the power of sin in our present lives, our sinful nature. We are not sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners. We were born with a sin nature, and it is our nature to sin, we cannot not sin, unless and until we change our nature, but we will never be completely free from sin as long as we are clothed with this flesh. We have gotten forgiveness for our sins through the blood, but how can we get deliverance from our predisposition to want to sin? Rom. 3:25,26 "God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. The cross is the answer. Rom. 5:9 "Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!" The blood was for God, but the Cross is for us, Rom 6:6,7 "For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.." Jesus did not go just half way. His death satisfied God’s need for absolute justice, and it provided us with the tool to defeat Satan’s goal to keep us sinning.

So, do you see why the blood is more than just fluid and why it is important? The blood of bulls and goats would not do, it had to be the perfect, untainted blood of a sinless person, Jesus.

The “blood” was not just a metaphor for the death of Jesus, it had intrinsic value that no other fluid possessed, and it was that very fluid, flowing in the veins of Jesus, His life blood, that alone would be adequate to satisfy His Father and atone for the sins of the whole world. He not only opened the way into the presence of the Father through His blood, but He opened the way to freedom from sin through the Cross.

The big question at present is not, “how does the Cross help us to overcome the sin nature,” (that is a subject for another time), but rather, if we trivialize the blood of Jesus, that God has put such high value on, by the application of our scholarship, and reduce it to just the fluid in the veins of Jesus, of which the only value was to point to His death, can we still appropriate the efficacious qualities of what that blood accomplished? Can we reduce the blood from its atoning value, through the misapplication of words, and still claim to have faith in the blood of Christ? And again, will those who uphold this teacher in this belief and follow him share in the effects of his error?

If the blood is just a metaphor for something else, then maybe we shouldn’t trust anything we read in Scripture, and we should just join the liberal camp of creative, personal interpretations.

Any novice coming to the Bible for the first time, without a doubt, would conclude that “blood” plays an important part of our understanding of the Bible, and our relationship to God. Also, this same novice would not conclude that  “blood” and “death” were synonymous. It is only through critical analysis and scholarship that intelligent doctors of theology have come up with a new view, by way of there fallen ability to “reason” there way to a proper understanding of the mind of God. 1Corinthians 1:20, 2:13: “Where is the wise man (the philosopher)? Where is the scribe (the scholar)? Where is the investigator (the logician, the debater) of this present time and age? Has not God shown up the nonsense and the folly of this world's wisdom?”. . . “And we are setting these truths forth in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the [Holy] Spirit, combining and interpreting spiritual truths with spiritual language [to those who possess the Holy Spirit].”

I do not question John MacArthur’s sincerity in wanting to deliver truth to those who follow him, but on this point of the blood of Jesus he is wrong, and it is a serious error. I have no personal axe to grind with JM, only that he has trivialized the very thing that effects our forgiveness, and I cannot be a part of that. It is the duty of the watchman to expose error wherever it presents itself, even if it comes from the camp of the watchman himself. We are to be seekers of truth, not followers of men.

How horrible it will be for you when everyone says nice things about you. That’s the way their ancestors treated the false prophets. Luke 6:26

This is yet another sign of the apostasy of Brian McLaren. In this piece on Brian’s site, he praises an atheist for saying nice things about him, who thinks Brian is the epitome of Christian faith.

Why would an atheist praise Brian McLaren? Well, the answer is easy enough, because Brian is essentially saying the same thing as the atheist, and their goals line up. Atheist and heretics are not offended by Brian’s message, they are brothers traveling the same road. They see Brian as moving into their camp bringing presents (the young and foolish).

The early Church dealt with a similar problem. The religions of the ancient Roman world were all accepted as equally tolerable and equally valuable, and to a large number equally vain, to the Roman people. All the gods were worshiped, and the bond of unity was maintained because every god reigned with equal favor and benefits. It was the Jews first, then the Christians, who violated this universe of unity, by declaring absolutely that there was no other God, but God.

Why were the ancient Christians persecuted?

1. They separated themselves from the world and were accused of being divisive.
2. They accepted as wrong, and idolatrous, every form of religion but the one Christ established.
3. They refused to bow to the Roman leaders and throw a little incense on a Pagan altar, or burn a candle to their gods.
4. They were labeled as “atheist” because they did not believe in the other gods as equal means of salvation.
5. They gave honor to One Who was higher than the Monarch.
6. And, there was one other reason for persecution, it was because of the teaching of the Judas Zealots.  Christianity provided the Zealots with a way to defeat the  government; they were revolutionary Jews who hated Roman rule, and Christianity was simply a means to an end. They were nationalistic, and earthly minded.

Christ has nothing to do with those who don’t believe in Him, they are the world. Next Brian will be telling us that unbelievers are pleasing to God; Oh! beg my pardon, he already says that.

And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. Hebrews 11:6

Brian McLaren has defected from Christ and Christianity, while still wearing the uniform and using the language (although with new definitions), and is one of the new Judas Zealots now trying to use Christ to their own advantage. This is the reason that he is  pleased to now add to his ranks, an atheist. It matters not that they represent two different worlds and systems, it only matter that he accomplish “his” goals, of unification of all beliefs, government reform, and selling a few books.

Steve Blackwell

The Mystery Revealed

I would like you to consider with me the state of the church in this generation. This is a serious matter—I speak of the church that our Jesus died to present to Himself as “a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and without blemish,” “and to make all (people) see what (is) the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places”!

That’s us guys—and the time (according to the Holy Spirit of God) is “now.” Do you believe that passage? Then it is also true that you must position yourselves to receive God’s grace as He desires to raise up a People, a Nation that is an “equal yoke” for the Groom—the King of all Kings!

“And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, ‘Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready!’ And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”

Some may think that you have heard all of this before. Oh, as Jesus our Lord said, be very careful how you hear! We only deceive ourselves if we “hear” but never act (Jas. 1:22; Lk. 6:43-49). Please! Now is the time—“in view of His great mercies” gather your thoughts and energies and fears and spiritual pride and all that you are, and lay it on the altar before Him… and ACT on the Word rather than bouncing around Bible verse truths to amuse (I speak boldly out of jealousy for my Lord’s church, which other than the normal speeches and scheduled rituals and programs seems to be invisible in most every city that I travel to). Please! As I would urge all of God’s People everywhere, don’t settle for anything less than “a city set on a hill that cannot be hidden,” “the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, (causing) growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love,” “the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, (growing) with the increase (which is) from God,” “And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.” That can’t remain theoretical any longer, OK?! Decide what you’ll do with your tonight (we know you’re tired), and your weekend and your “vacation” and… ! “You are not your own—you were bought for a price”! Get on the phone and begin to penetrate into the lives around you forcefully and relentlessly impassioned to “present everyone perfect in Christ. Labor to this end struggling with all His power”!

This is very simply what the Word of God says. My observation is that these things are almost universally disobeyed in the church world today, and the Corporate Life of Jesus Christ is replaced by a very poor substitute of unbiblical “worship services” and “mid-week Bible Studies.” Don’t take my word for it—see if you can find me that concept (dressing up to be an audience at a ceremony of two songs, a prayer by a guy chosen a week in advance, a speech by the official presenter of speeches, etc.) of “christianity” anywhere in the Bible. It’s not in there! Be honest now… Nowhere in the Holy Scriptures is a church pictured as (in the Book of Acts) or referred to or taught to be as such (in the Gospels or Epistles). The GOOD NEWS: There is a Biblical alternative! The BAD NEWS: “Few will be those who find it” because it will cost you all of your idols of television, selfishness, career idolatry, family idolatry and the like. Frankly, most will try desperately to find loopholes and create a theology to defend the fruitless mediocrity around us, and to protect their pride and orator-clergyman career path (that also doesn’t exist in the Bible—believe me I was in that category for several years and recognize the difficulty and insecurity in giving it up).

Three Visual Aids for the Church

There is an analogy that I hope that you are all intimately familiar with involving the Feasts of the Lord. Possibly this will be helpful in giving you a glimpse of the alternative to “churchianity.” The true, Biblical nature of the Church of Jesus Christ is essential for God’s People to respond to NOW, and we can be aided in our understanding of the practical outworkings of this by an understanding (believe it or not!) of the Last and Greatest Feast, Tabernacles. In the Bible, there are three major Feasts in the Old Covenant (which is, though so often ignored, the “shadow of the reality that is in Christ”—Col. 2:17; Heb. 8:5; 9:8-9; 10:1; etc.). A (very) brief glimpse for those of you who may not have been floored yet by God’s infinite Wisdom in establishing the sacrifices, the Temple, the Sabbath, the Law, the physical (geographical) nation of Israel, the Ark, the Manna, wheat fields, rivers, suns, physical families, Feast Days and a myriad of other things in order for us to have “visual aids” for our spiritual eyes in order to grow spiritually and to know the “times and seasons”! (Read again, in regards to the above statement, the following verses—I can’t take the time to go further now: Col. 2:16-17; Heb. 8:5; 9:9; 9:23-24; 10:1-2; Rev. 21:22-22:7; Lk. 12:54—56; 1 Thes. 5:4; 1Pet. 1:10-11; Rom. 15:4; 1Cor. 10:6, 11; Mat. 5:17-18; Ga1. 3:24; 1Cor. 15:46; Eph. 1:18; Jn. 14:19a, 21b).

Even if this is all foreign to you currently, please enjoy the fact that the Feasts are a great key to understanding (much like Gal. 4:24 and Heb. 9:1-9) the special inheritance that we have, and to discern the Day that we’re speeding towards (whether we believe it or not, we are obviously much closer to the Day of the Return of Christ than Paul was). And understanding the Wisdom of God in the “visual aids” of the Feasts will also help us to prepare ourselves for that Day—if we have the presence of mind and passion for Jesus, and jealousy for the honor of His Name and His Bride, the Church, to care. Here are some thoughts to hold before your Lord… analogies that I believe will be somewhat useful to your understanding of the nature of the church of the Bible. Don’t be picky. Just gain what you can from the passages referred to. If you don’t quite “get it,” don’t fret or be upset—just go on serving your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind and all of your strength! And so will I. Just pray through it and make Prov. 2:1-15 and 3:5-6 the guideline for your study.

The first of the Three Feasts of Israel is the Feast of Passover. (It also included The Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast Day of the Sheaf of First fruits.)

This first analogy is well known to us all. Our Lord and the Christ, Jesus, was that Paschal Lamb for us whose blood was sprinkled on the door and lintel in order that the Death Angel might “passover” the homes of those of us who have been prepared and cut by circumcision (Ex. 12:1-51; Lev. 23; Num. 33; Deut. 16; Heb. 11:28) and appropriate that blood by a response of faith. In addition to being “unleavened,” without sin (Heb. 4:15; lCor. 5: 7-8), our Jesus was also the single “sheaf of first fruits”—our “Pioneer,” the “Firstborn” of a new Race (Col. 1:15; 1Cor. 15:23, 45; 1Pet. 2:4-5, 8-10). Like the single sheaf of the first month grain harvest that was to be waved before the Lord “on the morning after the Sabbath” (Lev. 23: 9-14), so also the “Firstborn One” became a celebration of God’s coming Harvest as He was the lone Wave Offering before the Lord “on the morning after the Passover Sabbath,” His Resurrection Day! “But Jesus answered them, saying, ‘The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.’”

And so, the second great Feast that God had commanded: Pentecost (Also called The Feast of Weeks, of Harvest, of First fruits—Ex. 23; 34; Deut.16; Lev. 23; Num. 28).

This Feast was to celebrate the Harvest of the spring wheat, where a wave offering of, not a single sheaf as at the Passover, but rather a wave offering of two loaves were offered. This Feast was to be celebrated on the fiftieth day (thus, the name Pentecost) after the Passover Feast, again, not on the Sabbath day, but “on the morrow after the Sabbath.” This Feast was also to commemorate the giving of the Law on Mt. Sinai.

There is so much to say, yet even a brief mention such as this must leave us staggered at the infinite mind of our God who “when the day of Pentecost had fully come” (Acts 2:1) brought the first harvest of souls up from the ground as He had His “only begotten Son” fifty days earlier, and made a “loaf” out of them as a wave offering (1Cor. 10:17; Acts 2:42-47)!

What had commemorated the giving of the Law on the Tablets of Stone, now would commemorate the Law written by the Spirit of God in the New Covenant on the Tablets of the Hearts of men (Jer. 31:33; 2Cor. 3:3, 6; Ezek. 36:26-27).

Where 3000 had died (Ex. 32:15-28), now 3000 were raised from spiritual death (Eph. 2:1-5; Acts 2:36-41)!

Both of these Feasts, though historical events (both as Feasts in the old Covenant, and in Christ’s literal death and resurrection—the Passover blood that was shed, and Pentecost—the third month celebration of the harvest of 3000 souls) are clearly meant for us to participate in currently, in the spiritual sense, or we are “none of His” (Heb. 9:22; Rom. 8:9-11).

LIKEWISE, and the reason I’ve taken the time to establish all of the above, SO MUST WE PARTICIPATE IN THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES, THE LAST AND GREATEST FEAST, IN ORDER TO KNOW THE FULL INTENT AND BLESSINGS OF GOD!!! This Feast (Test this—but not by the traditions of men, but rather in the Spirit of God by the Word of God) is primarily:

1) Not yet fulfilled (as seems clear in the following parallels and observation); and

2) Involves the Church of Jesus Christ and You! (Only those that have shared in the other two Feasts can partake in this culmination of all of the work of God).

The third and last of the Feasts of Israel was to be held after the long, dry scorched months of summer when the rains finally were renewed at the final harvest time in the seventh month. This was to be the greatest of all the Feasts (GREATER EVEN THAN PENTECOST!)

The Feast of Tabernacles or Ingathering

It seems impossible to logically just call this “Judgment Day” since this Feast included the Feast Day of the Blowing of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Booths (Lev. 23:16; Num. 29; Deut. 16; 31; Neh. 8:14-15; Ex. 23:16; Jn. 7), and then ended with an eighth day Rest, the completion. If, again, this is hard to understand, that’s OK… I’ll bet you will still benefit tremendously from the New Testament scriptures, if you’ll be disciplined enough to look them up and obey them. Back to the analogy, the “shadow,” the “schoolmaster,” even the Old Testament that the Apostle Paul referred to as, (2Timothy 3:15-16), “the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture (a New Testament verse referring to the Old Testament, of course, in context) is given by inspiration of God, and (is) profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness…” And so, the “useful” shadow:

The Feast of Trumpets, because the Day of Atonement must be introduced by the Trumpet call of men of God carrying His Words (See Amos 3:6-8; Isa. 58:1; Hos. 8:1; Ezek. 33:1-7; Joel 2:1,15; Isa. 18:3; 27:13; Jer. 4:8; Rev. 1:10; 4:1; 1Cor. 14:8). There is no question that the dry summer months of the last 1800+ years have been primarily “a famine in hearing the Word.” At least it has been a famine in hearing a “living and active Word” that doesn’t simply “educate,” but “lays bear the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” and causes men that refuse holiness and cling to the cloak of darkness and the shadow of compromise and justifying words to run (“You’re judging—don’t you dare confront me with my cesspool mind and unfruitful life!”) (Heb. 4:12; Jn. 3:19-21; Jn. 15:1-8; 2Thes. 2:11-12; 2Tim. 4:1-3; 3:1-9). And, by the way, that exact same Word will bring grace and glory and liberty from the bondage of sin to those with “good and honest hearts” (Acts 3:19,26; Jn. 8:31-32; Titus 2:11-15; 1Thes. 2:13; Rom. 1:16; 2:4-11; Lk. 8:15; Mat.7:24-27; 2Cor. 3:16-18; Jn. 3:19-21). Most definitely, the Day of Atonement will be introduced by the Trumpet Call of the Word!

The Day of Atonement is, as we view the Word of God and make its application, 1) a reaffirmation, a reawakening of the necessity of the atoning blood of the Lamb of God (not as a “doctrine” that is taught and “claimed,” but in deep, deep gratitude, as the very source and essence of our abiding Life in Him); 2) a time of fasting and repentance and a “rending of our hearts”: “Without holiness no one will see the Lord”; and, 3) a time of moving into the inner sanctuaries of our God’s heart and mind (for proof see 1Cor. 2:9-3:2, Jn. 15:15)—moving into the Most Holy Place where the Ark of God’s Glory resides, filled with the hidden manna, the tablets of God’s Righteousness, and God’s affirmation in the rod of Aaron (Heb. 9:1-5; 10:19-20). That’s the place that Jesus spoke of “in a loud voice” on that “last and greatest day of the Feast” where “gushing torrents of alive water will flow from his innermost being”—that is absolutely to be the NORM of EVERY Christian’s life on earth, according to Jesus Himself! Again, not “the doctrine of,” but the reality of a river that Ezekiel saw that changes the world around us into Christ!

(Ezek. 47:1-12) “Then he brought me back to the door of the temple; and there was water, flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the front of the temple faced east; the water was flowing from under the right side of the temple, south of the altar… and there was water, running out on the right side… the water came up to my ankles… the water came up to my knees… the water came up to my waist… and it was a river that I could not cross: for the water was too deep, water in which one must swim, a river that could not be crossed. He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?” Then he brought me and returned me to the bank of the river. When I returned, there, along the bank of the river, were very many trees on one side and the other. Then he said to me: “This water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the valley, and enters the sea. When it reaches the sea (the Dead Sea here represents the Dead Sea of humanity that the waters of God flowing out of us and our “innermost being,” the Temple of God, cause to burst into Life!) its waters are healed. And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live! There will be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters go there; for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes. It shall be that fishermen will stand by it from En Gedi to En Eglaim; they will be places for spreading their nets. Their fish will be of the same kinds as the fish of the Great Sea, exceedingly many. But its swamps and marshes will not be healed; they will be given over to salt. Along the bank of the river, on this side and that, will grow all (kinds of) trees used for food; their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. They will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for medicine.”

But first, the Last and Greatest Feast, the Feast of the Ingathering, must see a great Day of Atonement in God’s People.

Acts 3:19 “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.”

Acts 3: 23 “And it shall come to pass (that) every soul who will not hear that Prophet (Jesus) shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.”

2Tim. 2:19 “Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: ‘The Lord knows those who are His,’ and, ‘Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.’”

Mat. 21:43 “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a People who will bear its Fruit”!

Lk. 19:44 “your enemy…will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

Some specific things that must be torn down in our cities, in our churches, and in our lives if we would see the fullness of God’s purposes:

1. Division amongst our number from old scars. “Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” That cannot be bypassed. Please take the initiative, each of you, to help the others that you are aware of that are still holding on to this sin—for everyone’s sake. God’s visitations (take this any way you’d like) are only to those that are of “one accord.”

2. Immorality. Nothing rationalized. Septic tank minds and mouths must be repented of.

3. Covenant violations (of heart) in marriage.

4. Selfishness, Idolatry, Laziness.

5. Spiritual arrogance, critics “twice dead” (Jude 11-12; Num. 16:1-7; 1Sam. 4:21-22).

I can’t encourage you enough to move to demolish these strongholds… that you might be useful to God. There won’t be any exceptions this time around!

2Tim. 2:21: “Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.”

Acts 17:30: “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent!”

ARE YOU READY TO GO FOR IT?!

Then last of all, the part of the Feast of Tabernacles that I’d like you to take very seriously, as it has application to your life…

THE FEAST OF BOOTHS

This can no more likely be devoid of meaning and application to us than the Passover or Pentecost—so consider carefully!

“Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of the Lord (for) seven days; on the first day (there shall be) a (sabbath-)rest, and on the eighth day a (sabbath)-rest. And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. (It shall be) a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I (am) the Lord your God.’ So Moses declared to the children of Israel the Feasts of the Lord.” (Lev. 23:39-44).

And, (Neh. 8:11-17) “So the Levites quieted all the people, saying, ‘Be still, for the day is holy; do not be grieved.’ And all the people went their way to eat and drink, to send portions and rejoice greatly, because they understood the words that were declared to them. Now on the second day the heads of the fathers’ houses of all the people, with the priests and Levites, were gathered to Ezra the scribe, in order to understand the words of the Law. And they found written in the Law, which the Lord had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths during the feast of the seventh month, and that they should announce and proclaim in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, ‘Go out to the mountain, and bring olive branches, branches of oil trees, myrtle branches, palm branches, and branches of leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written.’ Then the people went out and brought (them) and made themselves booths, each one on the roof of his house, or in their courtyards or the courts of the house of God, and in the open square of the Water Gate and in the open square of the Gate of Ephraim. So the whole congregation of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and sat under the booths; for since the days of Joshua the son of Nun until that day the children of Israel had not done so. And there was very great gladness.”

During the Feast of Booths, all of the people came out of their various levels of prosperity and comforts, and slaves right next to rulers would live in little thatched roof huts. During this Feast the streets were filled with these small booths! They were made from the “branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook” and were so numerous that there was only room on the rooftops to erect these huts. For the duration of the “last and greatest Feast,” everyone joined themselves together in a oneness, purposely destroying the divisions of class and possessions and education. It all sounds so much like the church of the Bible even before Tabernacles! (Acts 2:42-47) “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common (not a “common purse,” but the heart of Jesus unattached to material things—Acts 5:3-4; Lk. 6:20-36) and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”

And, (Acts 4:32-35) “Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all. Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid (them) at the apostles’ feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need.”

This is not cultural.

It’s the very foundation of a life that is storing up treasure in Heaven in simple observable obedience to Jesus (Lk. 6:17-36; 9:57-62; 14:12-13, 25-34) and is a suitable vessel to “turn the world upside down” in the power of the Holy Spirit of Jesus! It is only the fruit of a people that obey Jesus’ teaching literally, rather than delude themselves by getting together three times a week to simply give speeches about, talk about and form a denomination that agrees upon what that teaching is… but never obeys it as those simple, trusting folks in the first century did. It is also the fruit of those Disciples who would see the Feast of Tabernacles and God’s full intention in His People.

If you don’t believe that, would you at least believe “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not withstand it,” “to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places,” “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” As long as the “gates of Hell” continue to destroy marriages, and drugs and sex ravage the teenagers of “church folk” and conversions are oh-so-few, we have no RIGHT to defend the thing around us as “the Lord’s Church.” HIS church will blow apart the very gates and strongholds of Satan and Hell itself with the power of the Risen Jesus and His Word! (Mat. 16:18; 2Cor. 10:3-6; lJn. 3:6-9; Eph. 6:12). Nothing else is the church that He is “building.”

So why be defensive for something that does not bear the Fruit that Jesus said it must (Lk. 6:43-44; Mt. 21:43; Acts 26:20b; Lk. 3:8-9)? Let’s just be honest and humble enough to go on. We’ve paid a price to go this far—why camp out on something so undeniably (even by any intelligent heathen observer) short of the mark now?!

The Gospel of the Kingdom

Many of you have been aware of the fact that in recent years there has been a very obvious call to the intimate Knowledge and vertical Worship of, and Fellowship with, the Living King, Jesus, and His Father—rather than religious rituals and temple exercises done in His honor to somehow please a “way off somewhere inactive God.” As some of you have realized, either He’s “in our midst” (Mat. 18:20) or He’s not!

God’s call continues (Again, please test this—but don’t discard it out of apathy or justification of the idols of the middle-class American lifestyle) to be that call to glorious worship (rather than an unbiblical “song service” and “weakly” speeches to spit-polished “audiences” in the “pews”—Really, it isn’t anywhere in the scriptures!) and the drawing up of His People into a Holy Nation, a Royal Priesthood, an “Ever-Increasing Government” and “Habitation of God by the Spirit”! Not a “here or there Kingdom” “in Jerusalem or on this mountain” where someone says “here is the Christ, or there is the Christ”—but a People, a Church with “no beauty or majesty” that (one more time!) “the gates of Hell cannot withstand,” “to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places”!

Thank our God—He has put the “Second Adam” into a deep sleep (for three days and three nights) and has pulled a rib out of Jesus’ side and is building Him a Bride suitable for Him… of His nature! And that Bride, by the Spirit that “He exerted in Christ when He rose Him from the dead” is, according to Jesus Himself, more blessed by the Coming of the Comforter than we would be even with His physical presence on earth! (Jn. 14:12; 16:7). If you would prefer Jesus’ physical presence on earth to what you currently have, you’re missing what God has offered you!

The message delivered by those men who knew was continually the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom (His verifiable reign amongst His People)—Acts 8:12; Acts 28:31; Mat. 6:33. As we have focused the eyes of our hearts on a new Understanding of Worship of our Lord and King, it remains necessary to move into the Feast of Booths where we celebrate the “KINGDOM of our God and His Righteousness.” Jn. 13:35 “By THIS all will know that you are My disciples, if you have AGAPE for one another.” VISIBLE, as in, “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” With one another! Is it true? Can the world see that depth of relationship in your lives with one another? One thing is certain: if we are no deeper than a church lobby or fellowship meal—the world will never know that we are truly His disciples. He said a lot when He said “By THIS all will know that you are my disciples,” didn’t He?

(lJn. 2:7-8) “Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write to you which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.” No, its not a “new command” at all—but the very oldest. Yet it is new because now it is “seen” (NIV) in us rather than “studied” by us! (Heb. 8:10-13).

The very essence of the “christianity” that has descended from Heaven to earth is not primarily the passing on of knowledge, but rather, “the life became the light of men” (Jn. 1:4), the treasure, not on stone tablets or in gilded edge and leather bindings, but “living letters,” the treasure in “earthen vessels” (See Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 10:15-16; 2Cor. 3:2-6; 4:6-7; Ezek. 36:26-27; lCor. 4:19-20).

This is a Covenant, not of our words (though the Utterance of God is the very bedrock of the universe—1Pet. 1:22-25), but of the visible Agape that we have for “one another,” that Word becoming “flesh” in us, the corporate Life of Jesus Christ that looks like and bears fruit like:

Isa. 61:1-7 “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. And they shall rebuild the old ruins, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations… But you shall be named the Priests of the Lord, (men) shall call you the Servants of our God… Instead of your shame you shall have double honor, and (instead of) confusion they shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double; everlasting joy shall be theirs.”

Obviously this isn’t a life pulled away in seclusion, but out on the streets! Is that your heart? Oh, I hope so—it’s God’s heart for you and His church!

An Appeal

I’m certain that this is enough for now, but let me end with the challenge to consider each day and night and weekend: Am I truly building with the costly materials that are only found by digging very deep—“gold, silver, and precious stones,” or am I building with the cheap, surface materials of “wood, hay and stubble” that will not endure the test of fire? (1Cor.3:9-15).

Please, for Jesus’ sake and the honor of His Name and His Purposes, take this literally as it was intended: “but exhort one another daily, while it is called ‘Today,’ lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” We really need each other, Family. May the Grace of God, His Mercy and His Liberty be with you all… For Jesus’ Sake.