Outage I am sure we have all experienced the power going out in the most inconvenient times. Usually power outages happen when there are storms or extremely hot or cold temperatures. This means that at the point we most acutely feel the need for energy, our connection is compromised. I must admit that during these last few months of extraordinary circumstances I have found myself somewhat drained of energy. The onslaught of changing and challenging conditions- medically, socially, politically, and even spiritually; has taken a toil! And I don’t think I am alone. No doubt many, if not most, of us have experienced both emotional and physical fatigue in the last several months. But when we find ourselves in this situation what we must do is reestablish the lost connection and regain access to the power. When the power is out, the question on everyone’s mind is, “When will it be back on?” A sense of urgency grips the people as they realize their need for and reliance on the power! The Power of God When you think about the power of God what comes to mind? Do you think about the flood of Noah’s day wiping out the wickedness of humanity that had grieved God’s heart? Do you imagine the image of the red sea rolled back and a million plus Hebrews escaping the most powerful military force on the planet on dry ground? Or is your mind filled with visions of lighting bolts and ominous clouds rolling across an endless sky? Well in the New Testament the power of God is generally associated with one primary thing: the GOSPEL! That’s right the one thing that is called out as the demonstration of God’s power is the gospel. Paul says that the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes! Paul states that this power is the source of his confidence. The apostle is not ashamed of the gospel not because the message is about power but because this good news is the power of God for salvation to all believers. I believe that Paul is using the word salvation here to refer inclusively to the work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to make for Himself a worshipping people (Rev. 7:9-17) for His own possession (Titus 2:11-14). Notice this powerful gospel is to everyone who believes, which by process of elimination means that it is not for those who do not believe. Paul is explicit that it does not matter what kind of person you are (Jew or Greek). This power is good news to those who believe, not to the desperate and helpless souls who do not believe. But why don’t they believe it? Two reasons: First they don’t believe it because they don’t want to! That’s right, when people reject the message of the good news it is not because of a lack of eloquence or evidence, but because men love darkness rather than light, for their deeds are evil (John 3:19). Secondly, some haven’t believed because they haven’t heard the good news. Later, in this very letter, Paul will ask how are they to believe without hearing and how are they hear without preaching?! We must be the one’s preaching this powerful message because, as my friend Cary Cox reminded us this week, the gospel has been entrusted to the church! Plugged In So how do we get reconnected to this powerful gospel? We need to read it in the Word of God! We must keep seeking the Lord where He may be found in His word. Also, we need to hear preaching! We need the message of the good news about what Jesus had done for us to come to our ears as we listen to the faithful proclamation of God’s word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ (Rom. 10:17). Finally we need to preach the gospel to ourselves and others! We need to rehearse to our own heart and soul the amazing realities of the good news. And we need to also pass on this message to those who haven’t heard and haven’t YET believed in the Gospel, which is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes!
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Believing Hearts We often speak of our hearts in very fickle terms. We speak of “falling in love” and say that people or things “make us mad.” Our heart, when being used in this figurative sense, is the core of our emotions. Love, hate, happiness, anger, and real sadness are felt in the heart. In John 14, Jesus tells His disciples to not let their hearts be troubled. It seems that Jesus is saying that there is a way that we can affect the state of our hearts. This way that we can affect our hearts is through believing in the Father and the Son. I don’t think Jesus is saying to just believe and that will make everything alright. This is especially true in the midst of real pain. Grief and sadness are right, appropriate, holy, and good in these times of true struggle and loss. Even the Lord Jesus wept at Lazarus’ death all the while knowing that He would raise him from the dead. But Jesus is instructing His disciples that there is a genuine benefit and hope found in believing in the Father and the Son. He has told the disciples at many points what is coming in Jerusalem. He is about to tell them again but still they do not seem to understand. Often the greatest pain comes in the midst of the most unexpected times. Jesus is going to give them precious promises to cling to in the hard hours and days from His arrest to His resurrection but before those promises can do them any good, what Jesus must press on them is the necessity of believing the Father and the Son. Without faith in God the promises of God do not bring hope, comfort, or peace. But with faith, even these seemingly impossible realities are possible. Prepared Peace After exhorting His disciples to not let their hearts be troubled in light of what is coming, our compassionate King tells them about the spacious places that He is going to prepare for His people in His Father’s house. What I have never been able to get over is the reality that for every believer in Jesus there is a prepared place in the presence of God! In this holy real estate, around the throne of Almighty God, there exists a place prepared for all the saints! Once again, Jesus never meant for this reality to take away all the grief of His cross and death, but to sustain them for the resurrection to come. In verse 6, Jesus reassures them (and us) that He is the way, the truth and the life. Because Jesus is the way to this prepared place, there is a real reason for hope for everyone who believes in Jesus. Because Jesus is the truth, there is a real reason for comfort for everyone who believes also in Jesus (2 Corinthians 1:3-7). Finally, because Jesus is the life, there is a real reason for everyone who believes in Jesus to have the peace that passes all human understanding (Phil. 4:7)! Prayerful Plea I want to end this week’s blog asking everyone to continue praying for the Hannah Housley family. Scott & Brandi, words are insufficient for the moment, but I am praying knowing that our God is able to comfort where our words are not. Truth Seekers In this world with a never ending news cycle and the abundance of ability for everyone and anyone to post and publish at will, I believe most of us just want to know what is true. I acknowledge that some may simply want to believe what makes them feel good or what confirms their prejudices and bias, but I genuinely think that most of us want to know the truth. Especially about the most important things, and nothing can be more important than knowing the truth about what God has and has not said. Last week, we looked at the danger of believing a false word from God. This week, we will look to the scripture for a biblical strategy for dealing with the claim of a word from God. Now regardless of your view about the cessation or continuation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, I want to acknowledge that I presuppose that the canon of Scripture is closed and there should be no expectation by any Christian of ongoing revelation either public or private. Prophets In Jeremiah 28, a prophet named Hananiah comes to Jeremiah and speaks to him in the house of the LORD and in the presence of the priests and all the people. Hananiah brings a message of liberation, prosperity, and peace that was surely a welcome thought as Jeremiah had just delivered a message from the LORD prophesying the subjection of Judah to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. Interestingly, God had just warned the people through Jeremiah’s prophecy that they should not believe any prophet bringing a message identical to the message of Hananiah! So what do you think Jeremiah did? It seems obvious that Hananiah is the equivalent of our modern prosperity spewing heretics so surely Jeremiah responds by engaging in the harshest possible polemical prose to deal with this false teacher, right?! Well, actually, he doesn’t do that. Jeremiah the true prophet says, “Amen”! Jeremiah says, “May the Lord make your prophecy come true.” Jeremiah says that would be great. However, Jeremiah doesn’t buy into what the false prophet is peddling! In verse 7, Jeremiah says “yet” or “but” all the earlier prophets have said what Jeremiah said so we must wait and see if Hananiah’s prophecy comes true. This means that as Bible believing Christians we must not believe anything that someone says is from the LORD if it is not clearly delivered to us in His word. When people bring to us a presumed message we can react appropriately to the content of the message, but we must not trust in, rely upon or proclaim such a message unless it is proved true according to the rock solid standard of the Holy Scriptures. The End of the Matter So what happened with Hananiah? Well the LORD speaks to Jeremiah and reveals that Hananiah is a false prophet and that the LORD never said the things that Hananiah had claimed to prophesy. The LORD sends Jeremiah to proclaim judgment on Hananiah. Even that Hananiah would die for his dastardly deeds of false prophecy. Then in the final verse of the chapter Hananiah dies exactly as the LORD had truly said! Last week I responded here to the video of pastor Dana Coverstone recounting some dreams he had that he believes to be from the Lord. He repeatedly claimed to not be a prophet but still insisted that these dreams are from the Lord. To that I responded that under the old covenant he would have been in danger of the death penalty at the hands of the civil/ecclesiastical authorities according to Duetoronmy 18. But on an even more sobering level, based on this text from Jeremiah, I must warn anyone who claims to speak for God, beyond what is written in the closed canon of scripture, that you are putting yourself not simply in danger of the judgment of men but in danger of the judgment of God! Dangerous Dreams This week I noticed a video going around where a pastor named Dana Coverstone recounts some dreams that he has had and gives dire warnings about what will happen in the rest of 2020. Now it would be easy to be sceptical of the validity of the dreams because just about anyone can tell that the trajectory of this crazy year is hurdling in a downhill direction. But this man claims to be speaking for God and he is appealing to a believing audience not a sceptical audience. So what should we do with his warnings? Also, regardless of this man’s claims, how should we evaluate the claim that someone has a message from God? Now I should point out that Pastor Dana states at several points that he “is not a prophet” but you can’t have it both ways. Either the message is from God (i.e. prophet) or it isn’t. Which would mean that according to Deut. 18, he should die if every single word is not exactly accurate! But it’s not just Pastor Dana. There are people all around regularly claiming to speak a word from God that is NOT from the Bible. So does the sure word of the Bible give us any instruction on this matter? Sure! Today, we will look at the horrible consequences of believing a false word. Next week, we will look at a practical Biblical strategy for dealing with a suspected false word. Word Up In 1 Kings 13 we are told of a man of God who received a direct and certain word from God. I say direct and certain because often people want to equivocate so that if the thing isn’t true they won't be held responsible. But this man of God had a word from the LORD that was sure. I might add here that you also, dear modern Christian, have the word from the LORD that is sure in your Bible! This man of God was supposed to deliver a message of judgment to King Jeroboam at Bethel. His prophecy proved true but the interesting thing for our consideration today is that the LORD gave him the specific instruction to not eat or drink while on this mission and to not return by the same way. The man of God holds persistently to the instruction of the LORD even when he is offered a royal reward in verse 7 by the king. He knows that he has a sure and trustworthy word and that he must obey God. Now If you haven’t read this story you may be expecting it to end with the man of God returning home by another way and living happily ever after but that’s not the case. The Old Prophet There was an old prophet who lived in Bethel and when he heard about the man of God and all that had happened he chased him down on the road to invite him to come to his home to rest and eat. When the man of God tells the old prophet that he could neither eat bread or drink water in this place, the old prophet tells the man of God that he also received a word from the LORD, by an angel even, saying to bring back the man of God to his house to eat and drink. However, verse 18 ends by telling us that this was a lie! Unfortunately, the man of God believed the lying old prophet and went and ate with him. At this point the LORD does speak to the old prophet to tell the man of God that he will now be judged because he has disobeyed the sure word he had from the LORD. In verse 24, the man of God is met on the road by a lion that kills him. This is an amazing story! But we must be careful to notice the lesson that not every word that claims to be from God is actually from God. The man of God ultimately is not judged for eating or resting but for not trusting in the authority and sufficiency of the sure word that he had from the LORD! Brothers and sisters, please let us not make the same devastating mistake! Communication! Over the last several weeks we have learned that there are a variety of ways that we can engage one another in dialog. While I prefer to speak with folks, especially the saints of our local church, face to face, this era of social distancing has meant that we have necessarily had to find alternate ways to connect. Obviously, we have used calls and texts along with already familiar social media platforms. I had been off Twitter for a couple of years, but recently reengaged and probably would not have if this pandemic had not happened. Many of us have even begun to use platforms that we had never used before. As I write this I just got off a zoom meeting with the youth in our church and I have probably averaged 4 or more zoom meetings a week since the quarantine began, even though I had never used it before. Sometimes, we find that we have to communicate in the way that is best for those with whom we are connecting with. I have several older saints in our church that don’t use social media or the internet, so other avenues have had to be used. On the other hand, sometimes you must communicate according to the dictates of an authority. I had to renew my car registration the other day and so I had to interact with the state in one of the ways they offered to me. The Lord is obviously capable of communicating with us in any way. He is not hindered by His capabilities or our inabilities. However, we cannot just decide how we are going to connect with Him. God is the authority and so we must connect with Him according to the method or manner that He choses. Medium In 1 Samuel 28, we see a startling example of how disastrous it can be when we neglect the God ordained revelation from God and go seeking after Him in a way that He has not sanctioned. In this passage, King Saul is frightened by the Philistine army. He cannot go to ask for the wisdom of Samuel because he has died. Saul seeks to inquire of God in the ways that he has in the past, but God has not answered him because of his sin. Saul had implemented strict restrictions on the mediums and spiritists because they were forbidden in the law of God. However, Saul, out of a combination of fear and impatience, disguises himself and seeks the aid of a witch at Endor. Saul is actually able then to communicate with Samuel but the answer is not what he wanted. The reality was that God had departed from him and become His adversary. His sin and disobedience had meant the loss of both his kingdom and the blessing of God. God's Way Saul had already been told by Samuel what God's verdict was that the kingdom would now belong to David. But you see Saul does not repent, rather he only increases his guilt by seeking his advancement against the expressed command of God (Lev. 19:31). Brothers and sisters we must learn a lesson from this that we can approach God in whatever way we choose, but only in the way that He has made. I think that this means at least three things. First, we must understand that our only access to God is found in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said that he is the door and that he is the gate. Everyone who tries to gain access by another way is a thief! Jesus is the one who has torn down the middle wall of hostility between us and God (Eph. 2:14) so that we can have access to His throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16). Second, God has given us the privilege of prayer. We can go directly to God praying with faith and know that when we ask, He hears us (1 John 5:14-15). God is pleased to listen to the pleas of His children and He is pleased to provide for the petitions we bring. Finally, God has given us a sure word from Him! In the pages of the Bible, God speaks to His people. The unbeliever cannot understand these things because they are spiritual, this was Saul's ultimate problem he didn’t trust the Lord. But we can understand the scripture when we are diligent and faithful to read and study. This is because the Spirit at work in us illuminates the word and our minds to think on the things of God. Beloved, we do not need mediums or human mediators to go to God for us or to bring God's word to us. We have His word in the Scripture that he has given us. I would urge you to reflect on this quote from George Whitefield, “Imagination is not the same as revelation”. |
AuthorEddie Ragsdale Archives
May 2024
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