LIKE A GLOW IN THE DARK PLASTIC CROSS...

LIKE A GLOW IN THE DARK PLASTIC CROSS...

The modern church is a paradox: Great masses of world class debaters defending their favored denominational flavor or brand while embracing cobbled together half-true doctrines that promote and satisfy worldly desires: Devoid of demonstrable agape love, requiring no sacrifice for others, expecting no denial of Self, experiencing no transformation into Christlikeness, and producing not a hint of humility. The focus is on making converts – a change of belief – when we should be making disciples – a personal follower of Jesus who is disciplined in His ways -- and building bigger buildings (barns), as if ministry size implied God’s favor. Love, Sacrifice, Passion, Obedience, and Humility, these five characteristics capture the reality of God’s heart  Like a glow in the dark plastic cross the church is a cheap substitute for a divine reality.

The true “ekklesia” needs not man’s “forms of godliness”, for God’s ekklesia, which takes no form as a particular building or denomination, is at work everywhere often working under the radar of church structures. It would do us well to study the history of the modern church to understand how this man-made pretender came to represent God’s Church. We are entering the times of the Great Apostasy, when the modern church will be shaken, and God’s ekklesia will take visible form much like the first century church, as small organic gatherings under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  To be forewarned is to be forearmed...

Disclaimer: This is not to be construed as an attack on all churches, the sincerity of members, or justification to ignore the call to assemble together as believers. I have been blessed to have been a part of several good churches. But the majority of churches fit this narrative, and the church as we know it will undergo dramatic change as the Church Age winds to an end.

“GO THEREFORE AND MAKE DISCIPLES

TEACHING THEM

TO OBSERVE ALL THINGS THAT I HAVE COMMANDED”

(Matt. 28:18-20)

SALVATION

Salvation is not a recited prayer, declaration of faith, ministerial proclamation, or church membership: Through supernatural union with Christ we are reconciled to God, a new creation freed from the power of sin and death. Having died to sin’s rule we are enslaved to righteousness, willing to crucify Self daily, allowing the Christ-Life to emerge replacing our old Self-life. This is Grace, the freedom not to sin... the freedom to be like Jesus. So Rejoice!

Salvation is a supernatural experience producing dramatic immediate evidence and continuing ongoing evidence of Christ’s indwelling Spirit, if we are truly saved. God’s goal for us is not a label, “Christian”, but a lifestyle embedded in holiness, reeking of “Christlikeness.” The “evidence” of salvation is our transformation into the nature of Christ: Self must decrease, and He must increase. The release of the Christ-Life within is our only hope of godliness. So... salvation without change? Well... it simply is not possible...

Salvation is the supernatural process of transformation into the nature of Christ. Our transformation begins the moment our heart says yes to the Father’s call, and never stops unless we throw the free will circuit breaker, disconnecting from God’s plans and purposes. We evidence our salvation by change in the things that really matter, the inward appetites that drive our outward choices. Salvation is demonstrated as the desires of our inner life are dramatically changed from Self to God, as we “seek those things which are above ... set our mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” (Col. 3:1-3)

Inward transformation is manifested as the Fruit of the Spirit outwardly: “Examine and test and evaluate your own selves to see whether you are holding to your faith and showing the proper fruits of it. Test and prove yourselves. Do you not yourselves realize and know, thoroughly by an ever-increasing experience, that Jesus Christ is in you--unless you are counterfeits, disapproved on trial and rejected”? (2 Cor. 13:5, Amplified Bible) They will know we are Christians by our Love... Joy... Peace... Longsuffering... Kindness... Goodness... Faithfulness... Gentleness... Self-control. There is no salvation without the fruit of Christlikeness: “Those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” Those who are Christ’s have made Him both “Lord and Savior.” (Gal. 5:22-24; 2 Peter 1:11)

SALVATION:

THE SUPERNATURAL PROCESS OF TRANSFORMATION

INTO THE NATURE OF CHRIST

INFINITE IN ALL OF HIS PERFECTIONS...

How we view God is the single most important aspect of our walk of faith, for no religion will ever be greater than its idea of God. In this respect wrong perspectives about God can limit or twist our expectations creating havoc with our faith. And, it is not enough to “follow God” for if we don’t view Him correctly we will have created an idol in our own mind to follow.

We cannot dissect God's nature, embracing some attributes while ignoring others, for it is the total of the sum that defines Him as our God. He is Loving, Holy, Gracious, Just, Good, Merciful, Longsuffering, Truthful, Faithful, Immutable, Wise, Self-existent, Self-sufficient, Eternal, Omniscient, Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Sovereign. And, God is infinite in all of His perfections, holy in all His ways: Knowing no boundaries He is without measure. This attribute by definition impacts all of the others. Since God is infinite, everything else about Him must also be infinite, and thus He is holy in all His ways.

Our view of God must capture all He is and not just favorite attributes like love or grace. For example, God is loving and just and abounding in grace: “For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons … But if you are without chastening … then you are illegitimate and not sons.” God chastens us “for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.” His discipline – chastening and scourging and rebuking -- is grace to us, dispensed in love, a tool of discipleship encouraging us to walk justly before Him along the pathway of transformation. “Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” (Heb. 12:5-11) We must study to understand all of God’s attributes and how they interrelate and apply to our life, to view God through the eyes of the Spirit... to mature our view of God. Then we can begin to praise Him in prayer... for who He is! Our God is an awesome God!

HOLY IN ALL HIS WAYS...

THE LANDING PLACE

“For no temptation, no trial regarded as enticing to sin, no matter how it comes or where it leads, has overtaken you and laid hold on you that is not common to man: That is, no temptation or trial has come to you that is beyond human resistance and that is not adjusted and adapted and belonging to human experience, and such as man can bear. But God is faithful to His Word and to His compassionate nature, and He can be trusted not to let you be tempted and tried and assayed beyond your ability and strength of resistance and power to endure, but with the temptation He will always also provide the way out, the means of escape to a landing place, that you may be capable and strong and powerful to bear up under it patiently.” (1 Cor. 10:13, Amplified Bible)

Point One: God personally adjusts and adapts temptation to sin, ensuring it is common to the human experience and bearable. Just as in the time of Job He sets both the type and limits of satan’s attacks.

Point Two: God will not allow us to be tempted beyond our ability and strength to resist or power to endure. In this He is faithful and can be trusted.

Point Three: God will always provide a way out, an escape to a safe landing place, a strong tower of refuge.

Point Four: We will be – all of us – tempted (to enticed to sin), tried (to test), and assayed (to determine the quality of). God brings us through adversity and affliction in order to encourage and prove our faith and confidence in Him, and conform us, through our growing dependence and submission, into “the image (nature) of His Son.” Temptation and trials are simply sculpturing tools used by God, the Master Potter, to transform us into vessels of honor fit for kingdom use.

Point Five: God’s purpose is that we become capable and strong and powerful, that our faith increases and grows strong through use as we bear up under the enemy’s attacks patiently. And, our faith – our shield during bad times -- pleases God who rewards us, as we “diligently seek Him”, with more faith (Heb. 11:6). Temptations and trials not only test, approve and grow our faith, changing us from the inside out, but also grow our power to endure… for we “have need of endurance.” (Heb. 10:36)

Note: Endurance is consistency, perseverance, steadfastness, the capacity to bear up under difficult circumstances, not with passive complacency, but with a hopeful fortitude that actively resists worry, fear, doubt, weariness and defeat.

THE LANDING PLACE

OUR DADDY’S ARMS…

THERE IS NO SAFER PLACE TO BE!

INTROSPECTION: GOD’S YARDSTICK

Before one answers the call of the Father scripture states “a veil lies on their heart”, they are separated from the love and promises of God. “Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we (the saints of God) all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image (nature) from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Cor. 3:15-18)

Whenever a person turns to the Lord the veil of separation is removed and we are granted the liberty to behold the glory of the Lord. When we behold God’s glory with an unveiled face, something amazing happens; we begin to become like that which we behold. This is the sanctifying process of spiritual transformation, the metamorphosis of sin stained spiritual cripples into beacons of radiant light reflecting the holy nature of Christ to a world drowning in sin’s darkness.

The Holy Spirit is “willing and working” in us on the soul level, encouraging our submission to the Lordship of Christ, encouraging our death to Self’s control and Self’s interests,  renewing our mind to reflect Christ’s mind, transforming those who are willing so that we become more like Christ. Glory is the true apprehension of God, His unchanging essence, His holiness on display. When we become more like Christ, we bring God glory (which is our highest purpose in life) because God’s glory is displayed through us. And, We are called not only to experience the Christ-Life but to measure our progress into it:

“Examine and test and evaluate your own selves to see whether you are holding to your faith and showing the proper fruits of it. Test and prove yourselves (not Christ). Do you not yourselves realize and know thoroughly by an ever-increasing experience that Jesus Christ is in you—unless you are counterfeits, disapproved on trial and rejected”? (2 Cor. 13:5, Amp. Bible)

Reflections on our Self and its battle for control of our life are necessary and scriptural. It is through comparing how we were to how we are that we can know our spiritual progression into Christlikeness. The Fruit of the Spirit is the benchmark, not spiritual gifts real or imagined, not titles rightly or wrongly conferred, not how many people we can get into a building, not what other people think, and certainly not any humanly devised critique. How much have we been transformed... how much is our heart aligned with our Savior’s heart... how much do our thoughts, words and actions re-present Christ... How much of Christ do people see when they look at us? These are the questions that should burn out the dross in our heart driving us to cry “More of you Lord, and less of me...” 

It cost Jesus everything for us to experience gazing with an unveiled face on the glory of God. The number one passion of both Christ and the Father is to see every saint transformed, allowing the Holy Spirit to conform them into the character, virtues, values and attitudes -- into the very nature of Christ – to make them Chrikelike! In order to behold His glory, we have to let go of our own glory the cheap earth bound glory of Self-Life which is the sworn enemy of the Christ-Life, and  willfully embrace the Christ-Life.

CHRISTLIKENESS: 
THE ULTIMATE MEASUREMENT 
OF A SAINT’S SPIRITUAL MATURITY

“THERE BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD GO I”

This quote is from John Bradford, the fifteenth century martyr who, upon seeing evil-doers taken to their place of execution would exclaim, "There but for the grace of God goes John Bradford.” Mr. Bradford understood “he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.” He knew beyond any doubt it was God’s grace and only God’s grace that enabled him to sow to the Spirit.

 Some saints apply this quote to suffering in general, to the adversity of life. It is good to recognize it is only God’s grace that spares us from the suffering around us, not super faith, not passionate holiness, not any works of righteousness we may have done. But this “sparing” is not a lifestyle, rather an interlude, as scripture repeatedly declares: “And if we are His children, then we are His heirs also: heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, sharing His inheritance with Him; only we must share His suffering if we are to share His glory.” “We must share His suffering if we are to share His glory”! We will all spend time in the valley of suffering, as well as the mountain top of rejoicing.  Every saint will have the opportunity to demonstrate their grace under the pressure of suffering, for suffering is no respecter of persons. We are appointed to suffering... adversity, the speed bumps on the narrow gated difficult road into transformation...  into Christlikeness...

Endnote; “In the day of prosperity be joyful, But in the day of adversity consider: Surely God has appointed the one as well as the other … Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity … I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ … No one should be shaken by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we are appointed to this.”

THERE BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD GOES (insert name)

(Gal. 6:12; Rom. 8:17 Amp.Bible; Ecc. 7:14; Job 2:10; Col 1:24; 1 Thess. 3:3)

BEHOLDING: THE ACT FROM WHICH THE PROCESS OF CHANGE PROCEEDS

“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image … by the Spirit of the Lord.” The Greek word katoptrizo, translated “beholding”, is used only this one place in scripture and literally means to look or behold in a mirror, to cause to be reflected. Beholding expresses the act from which the process of change into God’s image -- transformation into Christlikeness – proceeds, When Moses beheld God’s glory his own face reflected that glory. Scripture calls the Gospel “the gospel of the glory of Christ” When we behold the glory of God in His word, God’s mirror, we will be changed and reflect that change.

Beholding is how we are “conformed into the image of His Son”, Christ, and is, therefore, the gateway to all we will ever be in the Kingdom of God. For example love: “We love Him because He first loved us.”  The conjunction “because” assigns the cause, the motive for and basis of, our love for God: We love Him for this reason, He first loved us. The more we behold in His word God’s love for us, the more His agape love will flow into our hearts and be reflected outwardly to others. 

As we continued to behold in the Word of God as in a mirror the glory of the Lord -- His character -- His virtues -- His values -- His attitudes -- we are constantly being transfigured into His very own nature in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another. The very same Spirit that hovered over creation in the beginning is hovering over every blood bought saint, enveloping us, and conforming us into the nature of Christ. We must continue to behold the word made flesh if we want His nature to be reflected through us as a beacon to a lost and dying world. As we behold... We become!

BECOMING WHAT WE BEHOLD

(2 Cor. 3:18, 4:4 1 Jn. 4:19)

TOUCHING THE HEART OF GOD

The twenty-first century church has spawn three basic categories of Christians:

*People who have no hope that the world can be redeemed. Assuming Christ's return is imminent, they retreat into a shelter of apathy concerning the non-Christian world around them. They love the Lord and concern themselves with their immediate family and closest friends, but they don't know how or what to do to change society or impact their workplace or neighborhood.

*People who confront the world’s darkness, the depravity of the ungodly and the audacity of the wicked. They are both vocal and visible, pounding the pulpit and the pavement. But their ability to transform culture is, for the most part, neutralized by their harshness, negativity, and rage… and their lack of perceived love. They are dismissed as judgmental extremists.

Both of these groups sincerely desire to see culture transformed. But they are troubled that the world is unchristian, without being troubled that their own hearts are un-Christlike. They do not understand their own need to be transformed into the nature of Christ – the number one priority of God's heart – which is the singular prerequisite to all ministries, callings, giftings and righteous works of any sort. (Rom. 8:28-29)

*People who are passionate about being conformed into the very nature of Christ, partaking of His character, virtues, and attitudes, sharing the desires of His heart, moving in His agape love, and controlled by His Spirit. These are people who have understood the priority of God; they know that the Father's highest passion is to behold His Son revealed in a believer's soul. Their primary quest is not just to touch their neighbors' hearts, but first to touch the heart of God. For it is in the awakening of the Father's pleasure that the power of His Spirit flows forth as a river of living water… changing the hearts of those around them.

WORLD CHANGERS NEEDED

 (Modified excerpts from Francis Frangipane, To Touch the Heart of God)

ENTERING THE KINGDOM

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Jesus makes a clear distinction between people who call Him Lord – lip service – a mere verbal profession of Lordship -- and people who demonstrate He is Lord by obedience to the Father’s will.

“Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name”? Many will proclaim their Self-works as the works of God: They may have a spectacular ministry, proclaiming scripture, exercising spiritual authority, and using the name of Jesus, without genuine heart surrendered submission to the Lordship of Christ. The twenty-first century church is covered by a deep impenetrable thicket of thorns, people who are Self-possessed and consumed by their own will.

“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness”! There is no mincing of words here. Those who chose Self-ship over Lordship are guilty of practicing “lawlessness” revolting against the will of God. The Apostle Paul directly referred to this passage in his letter to Timothy:  ^“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 (lawlessness).”

The Lord’s Prayer, “Not My will but Your will be done”, was modeled for us in the Garden of Gethsemane. This prayer should be on the lips of every saint as submission to the Lordship of Jesus brings the “Knowing” of God: “I know you. You call me Lord and do the Father’s will. Enter My Kingdom.”

Endnote: There is no egotism in Christ’s sense of His position as “Lord”: He is simply the Son and servant of the Father who is the source of all wisdom and power, whose will Jesus and all who follow Him must obey. And doing God’s will is the condition of approval and admittance into God’s Kingdom – the price of admission.

“YOUR KINGDOM COME 
YOUR WILL BE DONE”

(Matt.7:21-23; 2 Tim. 2:19; Lk. 22:42; Matt5. 6:10)