The Baby or the Lord?

   

    You know, this Christmas season there is, as some say a "war on Christmas" and I guess, maybe, there is, but I am not sure of how important or serious it is.  The truth is, we could convince the whole world that Jesus came as a babe, and the whole world would still be lost, if that is all they knew.  It is good to know He left the throne of glory and came as a babe.  It is a precious truth, but it is not a saving truth.  You can believe that, agree with that, and defend that but if that is all you know, you are lost.  Even if you lift your sights a bit and believe there is a creator God, a heavenly Father, an almighty Judge, a great Savior, and that is all you know, you are still lost.  Educated, but lost.  In this country, it is a sad thing indeed that we have sunk to such a low level that we think that just believing there is a God is enough to make you a Christian.

    It is good to celebrate the incarnation - God made flesh and dwelling among us, but you won't be any closer to heaven and eternal life if you do, or any further away if you don't.  You see, that eternal question about your eternal destiny is answered in Christ the Lord, and in Him alone.  The way to salvation is not even in believing that Jesus is your Savior.  I know that is the popular notion that sounds like this  "ask Jesus to be your Savior and He will save you".    No, it is not calling HIm Savior, it is knowing and confessing that He is Lord that brings salvation, (Ro. 10:9, 13). You see, we are saved by grace and grace is the administration of the ruler of the universe, Jesus Christ the LORD.  He can show you grace because He is Lord.  He does not save you because He is Savior. He is can save you and become your savior,  because He is Lord. 

    If you are in this new and great covenant we have with God, if you have a covenant relationship, you know He as Lord!  "and they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest", Heb. 8:11.  This is not knowing about Him, this is knowing Him.  This is not knowing Him, or knowing about Him because your neighbor or brother witnessed to you.  You know Him because He, by the Holy Spirit presence and power, has revealed Himself Lord of all.  That is who He is now!

   Remember, this Christmas season, that He came like a baby, died like a lamb but He arose as the Lord!  And, if you are going to exchange gifts around the tree or the family table, remember that the exchange of those gifts are reminders of the great gifts God has given to us.  The LORD has given us pardon. The LORD has given us mercy and grace!  The LORD gives us forgiveness and healing!  The LORD has given us the gift of the Holy Ghost.  Don't take those gifts from your loved ones and fail to claim the gifts the LORD has given to you.  Claim every one of them. And, remember to say "Thank you LORD".

Facts versus truth

  

     You know, facts often get in the way of truth (reality) and vice versa.  You may have the fact that it is raining. Oh, you just love the rain!  However, go outside when the temp is cold and the reality of the rain will make you uncomfortable.  The truth is, we human beings, Christians being no exception, live in an odd dream world.  Our dream world is often built on facts, but not reality.  We are sold a way of life with facts but then the reality catches up with us and we are unhappy and a bit confused.  Politicians know this and use it to manipulte the whole country.  They will will throw out facts by the bushel and we vote "yes" and then the reality sinks in and we realize we have been had. 

     Religious people are even better at this.  In fact, perhaps, maybe, the politicians learned how to do this by going to church.  Who knows?  Religious voices, using Bible facts can and do manipultate people, rob people, cheat people and do it all with facts.   Of course, the reason the church in America is not growing, is not doing what they should is that we are overloaded with facts and skimpy on reality.  We are those the Bible speaks of who are ever learning but never coming to the reality, the experiential knowledge, of what  they know.  And, worse, if the reality of the facts does manifest, we are very apt to reject the reality and cry out "just the facts, just the facts".  That was the plight of the Pharisees when Jesus came to them.  They had the fact that there was a coming Messiah.  Then He came.  They stuck with the fact and resisted the truth. The same thing is going on right now on a much bigger scale.  Across the whole church world, we believe the fact that there is a Holy Ghost.  But then.....He shows up and His reality makes us uncomfortable so we go back to the worship of the fact and dismiss the reality.  They are great with the story of men who appeared as drunk when baptized in the Holy Ghost, but let it happen in their church and they will fight it tooth and toenail.  They are comfortable with the fact, but not the reality.  That is a strange bondage indeed!  But, it is what we have.

 

   When Jesus said to them they would be made free when they knew the truth, this was what He was referring to.  The reality of something frees you from the fact of that something.  The word "truth" as Jesus so often used it actually means "verity" or "reality".  He said the Spirit was coming to lead us into "all truth / reality".  There is tremendous resistance to this.  In the church world we think we are doing great, just hanging on to those facts but actually, we are being robbed.  Religious people, legitamizing this theivery, say "oh,we don't want experiential theology, we will just stay with the facts". That is their big criticism of those of us who live the Spirit-filled, faith, life.  Yet, that is exactly what Jesus has promised us.  The Bible is not just a book of facts, like Webster's Dictionary.  It is a book of facts that when allowed, the Holy Ghost can give life and experience to each and every fact.  He can turn facts to experience.  And, He wants to.

Divine Order anyone?

     

You know, it seems to me a person, in the church world, could live and die and never hear the words "divine order".   Isn't that strange that though we serve a very orderly God, so many of us have no idea of what His order for us might be?   It is even more strange considering the fact that Jesus gave us two commands and gave them by order. The first, and the great, is to love God with all our being.  The second, and not called great, is that we are to love our brother.  There are those, with bats in the belfrey, who say we are to pay no attention to these two commands or the order of these commands.  They don't really have to encourage most of the church that way, they were not paying any attention anyway.  

   When Jesus numbered these two commands, he set forth a divine order.  He said on these two commands hang all the words of the law and the prophets.  That makes them the foundation for whatever spiritual life, structure or understanding you are building.  That makes the guidebook by which you interpret all that God has said or has to say.  With divine order in mind, you are building a structure, whether that be a life or a church, designed to love God with all its being.  Without divine order, you are building on whatever you, or some other man, decides to build on and you will never arrive at divine order.  Of course, you may not notice it right away, because there will be so many others around you who have also missed divine order.  All the enemy of God has ever had to do to steal the love and worship of God is to simply get us to flip the numbers, putting two where one should be.  When it happens, we have missed God and may never know it - until we make heaven.   And then - we will discover it was all about loving God from the very beginning.

     Does God care?  I think He does.  He has sent the Holy Ghost to shed His love abroad in our hearts.  That is not just His love for us, but also our love for Him.  The uniqueness of this covenant, above all  people and their covenant before us, is that we, by the power of the Holy Ghost can love God with all our being, if only we will.   Of course, it is easier not to.  There is a fight about the matter. The enemy of God has always had in mind to steal the love and worship of God and works hard at doing so.  So, as long as we are not going that way anyway, the journey takes less energy, the battle less fierce. The path away from loving God  with all our being is a down-hill slope and quiet simply so because the resistance of the enemy is so much less.

   Did you know that by far the most commanded subjects in the Bible are to praise, give thanks, rejoice and worship God?  Why do you suppose that is?  It is God asking for us to express our love and giving us His desire for how to do it.  It is God laying out divine order with instructions on how to express that divine order. Approaching God is not done just any old way your taste demands.  It is done God's way.  It is done following His instructions.
 
   When we stand before God, I think this will all matter.  If we will be judged by our works and our first work was not the love and worship of God, I think it will matter.  He saved us to worship Him and we missed the point.  If we will be judged on how we made the journey, I think He will take note if we were faithful to love and worship Him, with all that we are, to the very end.