February 28, 2005

Imagine the joy you would feel if you were saved from death either from drowning, or illness, or an accident; you are ever after elated. Can you even begin to imagine the infinitely greater joy you would feel if you could realize you have been saved from what the Bible calls “the second death”?

When old Simeon “blessed” Mary the mother of Baby Jesus in the Temple, he told her that “a sword shall pierce through thy own soul” (Luke 1:34, 35). The word he used was the Greek one for Goliath’s enormous sword, thus describing the pain that she would know at the crucifixion of her Son. Probably no other human has felt quite the extent of that pain: she knew that His conception and birth were that of a virgin; she knew the angel had announced it all to her; she knew His righteous, loving character as no one else could know; and yet now He is stripped naked, crucified like a common criminal before her eyes. Greater than her concern for her own salvation was the anxiety she felt for the world and the very universe of God--is the plan of salvation a failure? Is the great controversy lost? How she agonized!  Has any other human been so stricken with any “sword” that pierces the “soul”?

She must have been in such pain through the long weekend Jesus lay in His tomb.  Now imagine her soul-bursting joy when He is risen! That is the same joy God wants us to know. But we must not remain infants spiritually: we must “grow up unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13), so our heart can be stretched outsize enough to savor what has happened, to appreciate what He has done for us.

February 27, 2005

You want the Holy Spirit to help you win some soul to conversion in Christ. Note how Jesus won souls: He always gave them Good News.

Take for instance, the crucified thief on the cross (Luke 23:34-43): Jesus’ last chance to win somebody before He had to die! What did He tell the thief? “You will be with Me in Paradise!” simply because the ex-cursing, hate-filled man asked to be “remembered.” Jesus gave the poor wretch Good News.

Consider again the woman taken in adultery in John 8:1-11 (don’t cut the story out of your Bible!). Did He tell her, “Lady, if you will keep straight from now on, God will forgive your sins and then He will accept you”? He gave her Good News: “I do not condemn you! Go and sin no more.” I take your condemnation upon Myself; I am paying the price for your sin; I lift from you this burden of guilt, because as the Lamb of God I bear your guilt Myself. His command to “sin no more” was more a promise than a stricture. With this message, she was able to “go and sin no more.” She never fell again! Jesus saved her right then and there.

Consider Cleopas and his friend on the path to Emmaus. They were so overwhelmed with discouragement that they would have given up their faith in Jesus as “the Savior of the world” if they had not gotten help just then. He gave them a Bible study incognito that was full of Good News. He saved them. Go thou and do likewise with some soul who needs Good News.

February 26, 2005

Somebody writes us a thoughtful question: Are we sure that the Bible teaches that God’s “church” is a visible organization, and not an invisible number of scattered believers?

The only times we read that Jesus mentioned His “church” were twice--Matthew 16:18 and 18:17. He used the word ECCLESIA, which means “called out,” a people designated and separated from the world, defined and denominated in a form that the world could recognize as an entity. The apostles called ancient Israel a “church in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38), and we read that Israel was a visible organization that the world could see as God’s denominated people. In Matthew 18 Jesus outlined what should be done if a member in the church disgraces its name--he should be disciplined. Unless the church is organized, this cannot be done.

Paul thought of a beautiful illustration of what the church is--it’s a “body.” “Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular . . .  in the church” (1 Cor. 12:12-28).

Possibly the reason for this person’s question is the problem of apostasy and worldliness in the church, which is discouraging to a thoughtful, sincere Christian. Please think about Jesus: He is even more pained by this than you are. Be joined to Him by faith, share His heart burden for His church. It’s the great crisis of the ages. He wants to lead her to repentance, not to ruin.

February 25, 2005

When Jesus called His Twelve and ordained them, He called them to a solemn privilege: they were to take “bread” from His hands and fan out through the crowd of hungry people and feed them. The bread was never their own; they had never baked it. It was always second-hand bread. They were only the passers-on of bread that had been miraculously multiplied by Jesus.

The same Savior has called you to be His servant to pass on “bread” to some hungry person. This is what it means to follow Jesus. You are never an originator of saving truth, you are never a smart theologian. The less smart it is obvious that you are of yourself, the more the Lord can be honored by your ministry. The people need to know that the “bread” you are passing on is not yours, but His. “Bread” is Good News that nourishes a famished soul.

When Jesus fed the 5000 in John 6:9-13, apparently He Himself didn’t serve anyone; “He distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to” the people. No angel was permitted to touch that bread, as the one who fed Elijah in the desert--this job is special now for the Twelve. They are to be intermediaries between the Savior and the people. Their job is fun! The people smile at them and thank them profusely for what they don’t deserve thanks for. (They must remember that and never take an ounce of credit for themselves.)

And do you suppose the Twelve sneaked a bite themselves now and then, to taste if it was good? (there was always plenty, and they were hungry too). Their first-hand testimony, “It’s delicious!” was also fun to give.

Our “bread” to share today is “the everlasting gospel” (Rev. 14:6, 7).

February 24, 2005

Sinful, pain-laden time will not go on and on for eternity. There will be an “end of the world” and a return of Jesus as He promised, “I will come again” (Matt. 24:3; John 14:1-3). It is commonly understood that the last “sign” of His coming will be the “gospel . . . preached in all the world . . . and then shall the end come” (Matt. 24:14).  Is that a physical task completed--the printing press turning out a sufficient number of books or tracts, or electronic broadcasts reaching a sufficient concentration?

A parallel “sign” is when the Lamb’s “wife hath made herself ready” for “the marriage of the Lamb” (Rev. 19:7, 8). We’ve been through the childish stage of thinking that means a material city, the New Jerusalem, spontaneously erects itself; now it appears we understand that by “city” the Lord means its inhabitants. An unusual word is used there--the “righteousness” that becomes the bride’s wedding dress is “the righteousness of saints” (dikaiomata in the Greek instead of dikaiosune, Christ’s righteousness!).  For once in the history of the world, hallelujah choruses proclaim in heaven, “His wife has made herself ready.” And we lay aside our joking and our levity and our self-righteousness. At last Christ’s righteousness becomes more than merely legal, imputed objectively, and it becomes subjectively imparted. He will have a people who honor Him and glorify Him before the world and before the universe. As Isaiah says, their “righteousness is of [Him]” (54:11-17), but now there is the intimacy of a wedding night; both the Bridegroom and the bride contribute to the union.

February 23, 2005

Behold the compassion of the resurrected Jesus! One might think that in the enthusiasm of His newly resurrected life He is eager to be off on His new assignment in the heavenly sanctuary, but no, His heart is with His disappointed, discouraged ones here. His name is still “Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (Matt. 1:23).

Two men who have believed He was the true Messiah are on the path in their walk to Emmaus that afternoon of the “first day of the week” of the resurrection. Never have they known such crushing heart pain. It goes deeper than any humans can fathom for it is the pain of defeat in the great controversy with Satan; the death of the Christ means the ultimate victory of Satan. These two men feel they must conclude this. They are not mourning the loss of their own personal salvation so much as they mourn the grand defeat of God. The world (yes, the universe) is now to be plunged into hopeless despair! “We were hoping that [Jesus of Nazareth] would redeem Israel” (Luke 24:21)--and to them “Israel” was the only hope of the world.

The heart of the resurrected Jesus is with them as they trudge disconsolately toward Emmaus. He now teaches us that His heart is with all disappointed people all over the world, in all time. He joins these two men incognito and gently encourages them with Bible truth. “Beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (vs. 27). He is already doing His work as our High Priest! And so He ministers to you today--if you will let Him join you in your “walk.”

February 22, 2005

What would you think of a man and a woman who say they love each other and they plan to marry someday, and they keep going together off and on year after year until they get into their 90’s and still they don’t have a wedding?

The problem is that the man really wants to be her bridegroom; he loves her with all his heart and has declared his love for her in many ways; but she has a string of boyfriends; she still finds herself attracted. None of them will ever make her happy, and from time to time there is a revival of interest in this one man who truly loves her, and she starts work again on her wedding dress; but soon another charmer shows up on her horizon, and the wedding dress gets delayed again. Men are fascinating to her!

Her problem is: she just can’t get to a point of total commitment to one. His problem? he wants to, but can’t tell her more clearly how much he loves her.

According to the Bible, that’s the problem Jesus has with His Bride-to-be, His church. How can He display to her His love so clearly that the attractions of the world will fade away in comparison? The church studies about His love revealed in His “wondrous cross,” a love divine that excels all loves. There are moments when she senses a tug at her heart--yes, He is all in all! But then there’s a convenient text that says “be not righteous over much” (Eccl. 7:16). There must be “balance,” and again it becomes thermostatic--lukewarmness. How much longer must this go on and on?

February 21, 2005

Have you ever known someone who was faithful and obedient to the Lord, yet who was left to suffer sickness and pain for a long time, unhealed? Yes, it does encourage us to hear stories of other people whose prayers were answered miraculously. But for some people, the miraculous answer doesn’t come. I know of one case, a lady whose ministry blessed many people, whose love and unselfishness were unquestioned, whose life record was one of wonderful good works, yet her illness went on and on.

Have you suffered and yet it seemed your prayers were not answered? Let me encourage you: Elisha was undoubtedly a man of God, a true prophet, yet he became ill and he actually died of his sickness (read 2 Kings 13:14). Can you imagine Elisha praying for healing and wondering why the Lord did not heal him? If anybody had merit accumulated by a life of good works, he did. Why did God leave him to suffer until he died?

And then there is Paul, so sick that he almost died (2 Corinthians 1); well, yes, Paul must have been healed, but he tells us that when he begged the Lord three times to take away the “thorn in his flesh,” the Lord said No. Why? Doesn’t the Lord answer our prayers? Yes, He answered Paul’s with a straight-out No. But that “No” brought immense joy and peace to Paul’s heart and he was on “cloud nine” from then on because the Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (which means human helplessness). Then Paul soared on cloud nine: he said, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. . . . For when I am weak, then am I strong” (2 Cor. 12:7-10).

The real Good News in suffering like this is that you become “a partaker with Christ in His sufferings” (1 Peter 4:13) and that is real cause for rejoicing.

February 20, 2005

Have you learned to LOVE the Book of Galatians? Or is it dull, boring, confusing, to you? It has been the spark that has ignited glorious reformations in people’s lives since the time of Martin Luther. So you should learn to make friends with it, to love it, to let your heart revel in its powerful Good News.

The key is Paul’s vision of the cross of Christ and its effect on a proud, selfish, worldly human heart. He cries out, “I am crucified with Christ” (2:20), and says he can’t “glory” in anything else in the universe “save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (6:14). So white-hot was his burning devotion to the One who died on that cross that he tells the people in Galatia that he “set forth Christ evidently among you, crucified among you” (3:1). That fire in his soul lit a fire in their hearts.

As they listened to Paul, their eyes were fixed on his eyes; they forgot where they were or who they were--they saw Christ crucified before their astonished gaze. They forgot about their fear of hell-fire, and they forgot about their hopes of going to heaven and getting a great reward there. Only one idea possessed their souls: the eternal Son of God had gone to hell for them, died their second death, gave Himself for them totally; they saw a “breadth, and depth, and length, and height” of this love of Christ that shattered their captivity to the love of self and the love of the world.

In 3:2, 3, Paul makes clear to them that they didn’t DO anything or WORK any “works” to achieve this deliverance from the prison-house of sin--they simply LISTENED by what Paul called “the hearing of faith” (3:2). And thus they stumbled on the exact experience of “our father Abraham,” who also “listened,” and “believed” by saying “amen” to the fabulous promises of God (3:6-14). Now, after this glorious experience the Galatians enjoyed in fellowship with Abraham “by faith,” they turned back to the petty legalism preached by the “brethren” from the headquarters of the church in Jerusalem! That explains Paul’s righteous indignation! Let this “key” open the book for you!

February 19, 2005

Sometimes people ask, “Are babies born saved? Or are they born lost? Does the Bible answer clearly?”

First, we know this: every baby is born loved by the Father (John 3:16), loved so much that He loved this baby more than He loved His own Son, for He gave Him for the baby.

Second, the baby grows up not knowing this naturally; he must be told (Matt. 28:19, 20; Mark 16:15). In other words, he must hear the gospel somehow.

Third, the baby can’t understand at first; therefore its initial response to hunger is self-centered; the baby is naturally selfish, even goes “astray as soon as [it is] born” (Psalm 58:3). The Bible seems clear that this includes all of us (Rom. 3:10, 11, 12, 23). We are through our fallen nature separated from God.

Fourth, in the same breath the Bible says that “all . . . [are] being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (vs. 24). That’s why the baby lives!

Fifth, the Bible makes clear how this justification is a legal “verdict of acquittal” for “all men,” but must be realized by the sinner through the experience of faith (vs. 26-28; see also, 5:15-18, some translations make clear the “judicial verdict of acquittal”).

Sixth, we know that the scribes and Pharisees who murdered the Son of God on His cross were at one time innocent babies legally justified as all babies are. But as they grew up to be men, they chose to indulge self rather than to crucify self. What they understood of the gospel (all understand something of it, John 1:9; Rom. 1:19-21), they chose to resist and reject. Thus their “carnal mind [became] enmity against God” (8:7). They actually hated Jesus.

Seventh, when we choose repeatedly to indulge self, we come to the place where we “crucify to [ourselves] the Son of God afresh, and put Him to open shame”(Heb. 6:6).

Oh God! Save us from ourselves!

February 18, 2005

That divine cry of dereliction on Christ’s cross, “My God. Why have You forsaken Me?” is the world’s moment of truth. In becoming the Son of man, the Son of God became our second Adam, the new corporate Head of the human race. When the first Adam sinned in Eden, “we” sinned in him, because each of us is “adam”--that is our name. Each of us is his fallen descendant; he could do nothing other than pass on to us his fallen, sinful nature in alienation from his Creator, destined to “perish” eternally.

From Christ’s birth in Bethlehem, He lived in the sunshine of oneness with God. “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government [of the world and of the universe] shall be upon His shoulder” (Isa. 9:6, KJV). But He took on His sinless nature our sinful nature that He might meet the awful problem of sin in our flesh, sin’s last lair; God sent Him “unto us” “in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, [He] condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom. 8:3). As our second Adam, Christ won the awful battle.

But now as Head of the human race He enters into the darkness of hell on His cross, dying our death, doing what in John 3:16 He says He doesn’t want us to do--He tastes what it means to “perish.” It’s terrible beyond any words. We can’t grasp it unless we understand Galatians 3:13: “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written [quoting Moses], Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree” (Deut. 21:22, 23, KJV).  Thus He was “made to be sin for us who knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21). For you personally, intimately--not only instead of you but as you--He dies your second death.  Now in thanks what will you do for Him?

February 17, 2005

The Bible says, “Honor thy father and thy mother.” And it implies that you can’t be happy unless you do, for the commandment says, “that thy days may be long on the land the Lord thy God giveth thee.” Long days = happy days.  Now don’t get discouraged if you are an orphan and have never known your parents, or even if you have had an emotional upheaval with your parents in some way.  The commandment expresses a principle, and it’s not too late to learn how to obey that commandment truly, and you can become happy in its obedience.

But who is your “father”? His name is Jacob, yes, the grandson of Abraham. His life, his experience, is yours. And in a special way, Jacob is the “father” of those who will prepare to meet Jesus at His second coming--people who were born sinners, people who have sinned, who have often failed, have wrestled with unbelief, have struggled to understand why they have so many troubles, have been tempted to give up in despair, and yet who have chosen to hang on by faith until they experience the victory that changed their name from Jacob to Israel, the prince who has prevailed with God, who has won a wrestling match with Christ!

Jacob’s life-long problem was learning to believe the simple promise the Lord made to him: God had chosen, elected him, to receive the birthright, promised to bless him as He promised to bless Abraham. And all of Jacob’s heartaches were the direct result of his doubting that promise when he looked at his deep sinfulness and had a hard time believing that God could actually bless such a sinner as he knew he was! In that climactic wrestling match by the River Jabbok, Jacob broke at last through the clouds of unbelief and doubt and knew by faith that God “receiveth  sinners.” He learned at last that salvation is not dependent on his works, but on the grace of God and His promises. Read the seven great steps in Jacob’s experience in Genesis 25 to 42, and learn with your “father” how to believe.

February 16, 2005

Some days the sun shines bright, others it’s cloudy and gloomy. Was it so with Jesus?

Yes! Matthew says of Him at Gethsemane, “He began to be sorrowful and very heavy” (Matt. 26:37, 38). Even earlier when the Greeks came to Him, He said, “Now is My soul troubled” (John 12:27).

Has God provided for such a time in our personal experience?  Yes! He has given us His new covenant to replace our old covenant; it’s His own one-sided, unilateral promises which He made to Abraham His “friend” and to his descendants. If, like Abraham, you respond to God’s call, “come out of [Babylon], My people,” you are a descendant of Abraham “in Christ,” and all those promises are made to you (2 Chron. 20:7; Rev. 14:8; 18:1-4; Rom. 4:1, 16, 17, etc.). What are those new covenant promises?

a. He will make of you a “great” person “in Christ.” Yes!

b. He will “bless” you “in Christ” Yes!

c. He will actually make your “name great,” which means, “He will give you the desires of your heart” “in Christ” (cf. Psalm 37:4). True!

d. He will deliver you from being a cipher, so you will “be a blessing” wherever you go, “in Christ.” Wonderful, but true!

e. He will “bless those who bless you,” “in Christ.”   Amazing.

f. He will not bless those who don’t bless you. Again, very true!

g. You will help bring salvation to the world (all taken from Gen. 12:2, 3). Now, “believe” the Lord your God as your “father Abraham” did!

February 15, 2005

With One Grand Exception since Eden, every human soul has been born with a heart empty of love (agape). Only Jesus in the stable in Bethlehem was agape in human flesh because He was God in human flesh, and “God is agape” (1 John 4:8). We all need our empty, naturally self-loving hearts to be filled with agape. “The love of God [agape] has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Rom. 5:5). There is nothing the Holy Spirit likes to do more than “pour” agape into empty human hearts!

In 1 John 4 the righteous and the wicked are the one who “knows God” and “he that is not of God” and “does not know God” (vss. 6, 8). It’s clear: our final exam when we “appear before the judgment seat of Christ” will consist of one question--have you learned to love with agape? (2 Cor. 5:10; 1 John 4:7).

It’s interesting that on the eve of Valentine’s Day the media reported the recent scientific findings that a broken heart can kill. The usual cause of a broken heart is love betrayed, leaving a person bereft, forsaken, and hopeless. It was His broken heart that killed Jesus on His cross when He cried out, “My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46). We know well the stories of suicides caused by abandonment in forsaken marriages. The police report may not be able to tell the truth; God’s record book will record “murder.”

But being forsaken in human love is not really the problem: it’s the awful fear of being forsaken by God also (it’s very real!). If you have suffered a disappointment in love, stay close to the cross of Jesus.

February 14, 2005

What can we do to help people who are depressed? They are many!

Wise counselors suggest, “Get professional help.” Physicians can often treat clinical depression successfully. If a depressed person can get such professional help, let him/her do so.

However, the number of people who can afford to pay for such professional help or even have access to it, is comparatively small. Even in America, there are large numbers of sufferers who cannot have these privileges. Who can help them?

God calls upon those who serve Him to minister to others in need. He told Abraham that his descendants would be a blessing to the world: “Thou shalt be a blessing, . . . and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 12:2, 3). Jesus saw that His mission was to help depressed people: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel [good news, glad tidings] to the poor [those who can’t afford medical treatment]; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised” (Luke 4:18). These “poor” may be in India, Africa, South America, Mexico, yes, in our inner cities, perhaps among our teens in high school, who knows, maybe your next-door neighbor whose tears you cannot understand.

Each of us who realizes his/her debt to the “Savior of the world” will want to be ready to “know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary” (Isa. 50:4), because the Lord has sent us to do the work that He would do if He were here in person. As Paul says, “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, that bring glad tidings of good things!” (Rom. 10:15). Do it for somebody!

February 13, 2005

It’s a momentous weekend, for around the world millions of Christians are focusing their attention on the trial of Jesus before Annas, Caiphas, Pilate, Herod, and Pilate again--where He was finally condemned, totally unjustly, to die. And the wicked decision was ratified by a people who blindly followed their ecclesiastical, spiritual leaders and voted, “Crucify Him!”

What makes this study poignant is that there is a growing conviction among these people that the unjust condemnation of Jesus was (and is) a corporate sin: unless we are individually truly converted and self is “crucified with Christ,” unless our spiritual pride of feeling “rich and increased with goods” is humbled in the dust, we can corporately join Pilate and the others in their guilt. It’s time to “walk softly” in godly fear, or we are doing just what Hebrews 6:4-6 says we will inevitably do--“crucify to [ourselves] the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame.” Today is Calvary revisited, and we can thoughtlessly align ourselves on the wrong side and earn for ourselves a hardness of heart described as “impossible” to be “renew[ed] again to repentance.” It’s been done in history! And today?

Like the Roman governor Pilate, we can be suddenly confronted before breakfast by the judgment of our lives. It could be a phone call where we instinctively let the love of self take over. God can permit some test to probe the depths of our gospel profession and we expose ourselves naked before the church, the world, and the universe. Living is now serious business.

February 12, 2005

Abel told his brother Cain the truth in kind, loving words; the latter rose up and murdered him. For six millennia (and more), unnumbered Abels have told unnumbered Cains the truth in the same kind loving words, and have been hated for it. For nearly 1260 years of the Dark Ages, millions of Christians who loved truth were persecuted by millions more professed Christians who were Cain redivivus. Why do people who love truth feel motivated to tell it? The Holy Spirit impels those who love truth to “cry aloud and spare not, and shew [God’s true] people their transgressions, and . . . their sins” (Isa. 58:1, KJV). Until now, those who thus respond to the Spirit are resented. And we are all either Abels or Cains at heart.

* Imagine yourself in Jerusalem in the mid-first century A. D. The most “spiritual” members of your “church” are “the devout and honourable women,” the “good works” people (history says they gave pain killers to the crucified wretches, works of motherly kindness). But they oppose Paul’s preaching about their “despised and rejected” Messiah and “expel” him (Acts 13:49, 50). Paul proclaims Christ with kind, loving words, tears in his voice, but he can’t help bringing in “Christ and Him crucified.”

* Would you in sanctified common sense tell him, “Say less on that disturbing aspect of our message and tell it to these ‘devout and honourable’ people in a more palatable way. Paul, be a little more ‘serpent-wise, but ‘harmless as a dove.’ Maybe you could win more that way; the cross is offensive. Why make these ‘devout’ ones so uncomfortable?” Would you?

February 11, 2005

In the early centuries there was some serious talk that the Book of Hebrews doesn’t belong in the Bible. Even today some dear Christian people don’t like the main theme of the Book of Hebrews: perfection of character. They say it’s impossible, that God can never have a group or body of people on earth who have “overcome even as [Christ] overcame,” who reflect as in a mirror the beauty of Christ’s perfect character of self-denial. They say that as long as Christ’s body on earth is composed of people who have a fallen or sinful nature, it will be impossible for them to be perfect in character. But for all such the Book of Hebrews presents a formidable challenge: no less than eleven times we read there that perfection of character in His people is the goal that Jesus is working toward. (You can read them: 5:14; 6:1; 7:11, 19, 25, 28; 8:9; 10:1, 14;11:40; 13:21).

How does He accomplish this seemingly impossible task? The answer: through His ministry as Great High Priest (also a theme that makes Hebrews unique in the New Testament, for nowhere else in the NT is He so designated).

We modern people have a problem identifying with the word “priest.” especially “high priest.” It embraces so many “offices” that Jesus fills, for He wears many hats: He is a Counselor, a Teacher, a Leader, an Executive, but best of all, He is a Physician, not only of our bodies (He was called “the Great Physician”), but also of our souls. In other words, Jesus as our Great High Priest is functioning as our Divine Psychiatrist. That’s what Hebrews 4:15 is telling us: “We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” “Wherefore He is able to save them perfectly that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them” (7:25).

Your problem and mine is simply this: are we willing to humble our hearts and confess that we need the services of a Psychiatrist? Most people will angrily say “No!” They’re okay, they insist, “rich and increased with goods” spiritually and mentally; they don’t need healing. But the Book of Revelation is in tandem with the Book of Hebrews, and there we read that we are woefully in need of such a Divine Psychiatrist (3:14-21). The Book ends with the assurance that Jesus will have a people on earth who, as a body, respond to His appeal, accept His ministry of “perfection,” repent, and prepare for His second coming (7:1-4; 14:1-5, and 19:7-9).

February 9, 2005

All the wonderful promises that Jesus made before His death must and will be fulfilled. But there is one GREAT promise that has not yet been fulfilled, and many Christians think it never will be. They are wrong! He will not fail.

That great promise is in John 16:13: “When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth.” We usually think of the Holy Spirit as giving us happy feelings or of giving great power in witnessing and producing baptisms; we think that understanding “all truth” is of lesser importance. But over 200 times the Bible speaks of the importance of truth. In ordinary life, law courts, juries, judges, seek constantly to know the truth. Jesus says that it is so important that “the truth shall make you free” (8:32).

In His same promise that the Holy Spirit will guide us “into all truth” Jesus promised, “He will show you things to come.” The wording is very similar to the opening of the Book of Revelation, “the revelation . . . of things which must shortly come to pass” (1:1). The Book of Revelation was the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise! And yet Christian people go in all different directions in understanding what Revelation is saying!

Likewise, there is confusion in understanding Daniel’s prophecies; yet God commanded the angel, “Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision,” and later the angel said to him, “I will show thee the truth” (8:16; 11:2). Paul spoke of his message as “the truth of the gospel” (Gal. 2:5). There is as much division in understanding that as there is in understanding Daniel and the Revelation!

What can bring about a unity and clarity of understanding these important truths? Surely when that great fourth angel of Revelation 18:1-4 begins to “lighten the earth with glory,” the message that calls every sincere person “out of Babylon” will be a message of pure, unadulterated truth. We pray daily for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. An excellent place to begin finding the answer to that prayer is in honest, sincere, and humble listening to the Bible to permit it to tell us what the truth is in all these controverted areas. Jesus did not promise, “The Holy Spirit will TRY to lead you into all truth,” or “He wishes He could lead you into all truth.” No, He said He WILL do so. As surely as I write and you read this, so surely is the Holy Spirit right now “leading” us into the truth that will bind us together in loving harmony of belief. Let’s listen to Him!

February 8, 2005

Reading stories of human heroism is a popular pastime. And the world is full of such. But contemplating human heroes doesn’t change one’s heart or transform a sinner into a saint. Witness: idolizing sports heroes is vanity.

But here’s a miracle known and experienced worldwide in any culture or language: reading Bible stories does change the heart; in the process it makes a bad person become a good one. It’s proof of biblical inspiration.

Modern cell phones are a phenomenon: with the right one and the right service, you’re in touch with almost anyone anywhere in the globe. With the Bible in your hands and in your heart, you’re in touch constantly with the noblest and best people of the human race of all time. No, it’s not through Spiritualist séances; you don’t communicate with dead people--the Bible condemns that as contact with evil angels who fell from heaven with Lucifer, the devil. What happens instead is that through your reading the Bible with a heart that believes in Christ you experience actual identity-fellowship with those Bible characters of all ages--through the work of the Holy Spirit. You identify with them in their experiences of learning to know God. Not through the cinema screen, but through the Holy Spirit you enter into their knowing Him. It’s beyond the realm of normal fellowship with humans, but through the Bible “he that walketh with wise men shall be wise” (Prov. 13:20). By a heavenly osmosis more real than any earthly science, you receive the life of Christ through the Bible. Cherish that hunger and thirst for righteousness; the Lord promises that you shall be filled (Matt. 5:6).

February 2, 2005

Have you ever thought how weak and helpless Jesus was of Himself when He was with us in the flesh? Did you know that He did not work even one miracle “of Himself”? He said, “I can of Myself do nothing.” When He made decisions, He could not make them of any wisdom inherent in Himself, because when He left heaven to come down and become one of us, He laid aside all the prerogatives of His divinity. “As I hear, I judge,” He adds. What He said or taught, He had first to learn. In other words, He did not bring with Him within Himself any wisdom from heaven. His mother Mary had to teach Him to read the Old Testament, but He was different from our children--from the beginning, He loved it. He was agape in the flesh.

Jesus took all our weaknesses upon Himself, “in all points made like His brethren,” not unlike them! The flesh or nature which He “took” was “like,” not unlike, ours. “Morning by morning” He was awakened by His Father, to learn in prayer and study of the Word (Isa. 50:4, 5). In those prayer and study sessions as a Youth He gained an education that qualified Him to be better than a “Ph.D.” He said, “The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned.” He spoke so beautifully, so clearly, powerfully, succinctly, that people marveled, “How does this Man know letters, having never studied” [that is, in a college or university]? (John 7:15). Jesus took no credit to Himself; He gave all the glory to His Father: “My doctrine [My teaching. My speaking] is not Mine, but His who sent Me” (vs. 16). But that does not mean that He brought that wisdom with Him from heaven: He learned it in those “morning by morning” educational tete-a-tetes with His Father! And all that super-Ph.D. Wisdom is yours for just the hunger to acquire it--!

February 1, 2005

If we love the Good News of the gospel of Christ, we will not want to argue about the nature of Christ. We will want to flee from any place where such contention arises. The nearness of the divine Savior is too holy, too solemn, too most precious, to be submitted to the verbal violence of theological crossfire.

If one hungers to know Jesus more intimately, there is no book in the Bible where you see Him more closely bound with yourself in your human nature than in the book of Psalms. The divine Son of God has become one of us! The fact that Jesus ascended to heaven in the sight of His apostles (Luke 24:51) doesn’t mean that He is far away. “Behold,” He said just before He ascended, “I send the promise of the Father upon you” (vs. 49). That “promise” is the Holy Spirit, the presence of Jesus in the Spirit. “I will not leave you orphans,” Jesus assured them, “I will come to you” (John 14:18).

How does He “come” to us? Not in the flesh; there is a closer nearness than that. It’s “dwelling in the secret place of the Most High, abiding under the shadow of the Almighty” through the Word (Psalm 91:1). It’s sharper in clarity than any DVD can be, you “see” Him, “behold” Him as “the Lamb of God,” in those Messianic psalms.

In this way you “abide in [Him] and [His] words abide in you” (John 15:7). The four Gospels are wonderful revelations of Jesus; but when He walked with Cleopas and his friend that Sunday afternoon to Emmaus, Jesus didn’t have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to quote--just the Old Testament, largely the Psalms. But it was there that “He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:13-27, KJV).

Now, you join those three as they walk together, the two disciples as they listen, Jesus as He “expounds.” “Constrain” Him to “abide with you” when it’s “toward evening, and the day is far spent,” instead of seeking TV or silly entertainment. Your eyes will be “opened” and like those two you will come to “know Him,” too. And then, as surely as day follows night, the time will come when you will say, “Did not [my] heart burn within [me], . . . while He [opened] to [me] the scriptures?” (vss. 29-32, KJV). Yes! Thank God!