Healing of the Soul

PRAYER FOR MISSIONS

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psa-2-8-web-watermarkedThis is a prayer from various scriptures for world wide missions and evangelism that I wrote and I plead you would pray with me.

Lord Jesus, we long for you to ask your Father to give you the nations as your inheritance, the whole earth as your possession!

And the entire earth will belong to you. All kings will bow before you, and all nations will serve you!

King Jesus, You are the ever living One able to intervene and save the lost masses of this planet for all time and eternity!

They will come to God through You alone and in the day of Your power, Lord Jesus,You shall have multitudes of willing, loyal subjects, among all peoples, kindred’s, tribes, nations and languages.

Oh LORD demonstrate your holy power before the eyes of all the nations. Let all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.

Now show them your power; show them your might. At last they will know and understand that You are the LORD!

Your realm will stretch from sea to sea and from the ends of the earth and your people will live undisturbed, for you will be highly honored around the world and you will bring salvation to the farthest corners of the earth!

Brother Stephen S. Gibney

FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES

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images“Then I said, ‘I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name.” But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.” (Jer. 20:9). 

A fire has been burning deep within the earth and anthracite coal fields of what used to be a small community called Centralia, Pennsylvania since May 27, 1962.  The temperature exceeds 1000°F and emits poisonous gas. There has been no success in extinguishing the fire and eventually the whole town was evacuated in 2012. At this rate the fire will burn in the earth for another 250 years. This is quite a phenomena.

It is like what we see in this passage.  Jeremiah does not want to preach anymore. He feels like a failure and no one is listening. One man said that Jeremiah is suffering, acute “prophetitus” because not only are there no results in his ministry but people are getting worse.  God seems to be giving him no words of encouragement at all.  Jeremiah said that he wanted to forget about preaching God’s words but there underneath the earth of his being there was a fire in his belly, a burning in his bones and he had to speak.

God told Jeremiah early in his ministry, ” I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.” (Jer 5:14). God also describes the characteristic of his word, “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” (Jer 23:29).  The word was like fire and there was not some dichotomy, some separation from what was in his mouth and what was in his heart.  The Word was a fire and He was on fire with the Word. The word in his heart was heaven birthed and nurtured and God deployed it from this man. He was made to do this. The more he held back- the pressure of the divine furnace in his bones began to force its way out of him.  He was worn out from holding back what was in his heart-he had to speak it!

A Christian, especially a preacher should be a person on fire for God. This does not refer to melodramatic public speaking but they are men who have been touched by the Holy Spirit’s fire. A Christian is deeply affected by the permanent work of the Holy Spirit in the new birth and being made right with God by faith alone.  Also, a person is deeply impacted by the baptism of the Holy Spirit as it comes with its life-giving wind and purifying fire.  But there comes a time for some when they realize the call of God to gospel ministry and preaching is God’s will for them.  There is nothing like it in the world. There is no vocation like it. You cannot think about doing anything else.

Those who have the call of God in their life to preach are precious and few. A man of God should be like a burning and shining light (John 5:35). When the Holy Spirit speaks through them after prayer and as they deliver the message their heart burns (Luke 24:32). The scripture is illuminated to them (Ps. 119:130), the anointing comes upon them (Isa. 10:27)  and Christ speaks through them and elevates their words (Luke 21:15). They become soul doctor’s to the needy and weapons against the forces of the devil. Satan and his emissaries will cease at nothing to hinder these agents of the gospel and discouragement and depression are his most powerful tools against them (1 Thess. 2:18). Thus he must use the sword of the Spirit to battle against those forces personally (Eph. 6:17; Heb 4:12).

A gospel preacher is very serious about what he says in the Lord’s name and he expects others to take it serious. If the man behind the pulpit believes that what he says is only a sermon and he does not believe that he should let God speak through him he obviously has not taken his responsibility as a messenger of God seriously (1 Peter 4:11). They need to get on their knees in prayer and ask God for his mercy to reveal his message through them (Dan 2:18). God says, “And I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you will be speechless and unable to rebuke them, for they are rebels. But when I give you a message, I will loosen your tongue and let you speak. Then you will say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says!…” (Ezek. 3:26-27NLT).

© 2014 Soul Health Care Ministries. Give credit where credit is due.

WE HAVE LOST OUR WAY

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looking-at-map“My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray and turned them loose in the mountains. They have lost their way and can’t remember how to get back to the sheepfold.” (Jer. 50:6)

Jeremiah in his prophecy begins once again to lambaste the spiritual leaders of his day for misleading and abandoning God’s people. These men are supposed to be men who knew the truth and knew the right way yet still misled the people of God. They have the people of God so twisted up in knots that they don’t even know how to get back to the sheepfold or where a true fellowship is. A true place of fellowship is that group of people that has Christ as their center who believes in the power of God and its application to every need and they teach the scriptures incessantly. But like them we have lost our way.

People today really rely on navigation. GPS in the car we drive (Global Positioning System) is very popular whether installed by the manufacturer or after market devices. Being a glorified car jockey for a while I saw that this is a nice selling point. It’s a great invention and is a tool. Now practically all cars have navigation. I don’t think it will be that far in the future that our cars will practically drive themselves.  People don’t see the need for a paper map anymore.

I don’t want to betray my age complaining about “the way things used to be” but a whole generation is being raised up that wouldn’t know North from South or East from West. It used to be that you had the map out when you were traveling long distance and figure out those routes before you even began to travel.  Not so now. You just enter your address and there you go. But having a actual sense of direction I think is gone. We just don’t want to have to think about how to get to where were going. We would rather someone else do that for us or in this case some “thing.”  I’m wondering what would happen to a person who has no sense of direction if they got lost in another state or God forbid in another country. Maybe a person can figure out that the sun rises in the east and sets in the West but I wonder-what would they do they got really lost and were unable to rely on the technology of today? It would be pathetic.

A growing number of Christians have no sense of direction. I don’t care on how much they insist that they are led by the Spirit. They would much rather have someone do the thinking about directions when it comes to any of the challenges that they face in life. They would rather go to church and hear a person give them instructions on what to do about their marriage, finances, parenting, employment and spiritual life rather than read the Bible for themselves. They will insist once again that it needs to be practical and relevant, when truth is always practical and it is always relevant. Now, there is much to be said about good teachers of the word of God.  How much in this day in our do we need people who stick to chapter and verse of the scripture. Without it we have lost our way.

People are lost in the sense of being disoriented. How can I say that? Have you ever listened to an average Sunday with men and women preaching.  it always seems that they have “the message. ”  It’s gotten worse and worse.  Not that there are not great preachers. It just seems that they are all saying something different. But I cannot blame them. I think the people who listen to them are far more culpable. We criticize people for going to church is that has priests but it seems that we ourselves instead of relying upon our great high priest Jesus we have people in between us and him. We have a third-party relationship. When God himself has blessed us with his word. No one denies the gift of solid teaching both ancient and contemporary. But those who lead have a solemn responsibility to lead us to Christ.

The Bible is the word of God, the Bible is God’s voice to us God speaks to us and tells us what to do. The Scripture seems to indicate that when a person lives right, when they guard their hearts and they take captive their thoughts by pondering, studying and seeking to apply the holy Scriptures- that in of itself provides direction and guidance. I do not think this is an oversimplification.

But we are not immersed in the word of God. We have sinned in this matter. It’s a great sin. I see whole groups fighting to keep the public display of the 10 Commandments and yet the Christian of today seems to have a poor relationship with the Scriptures. We want so much to know God’s will but we don’t want to make the effort in reading his word. We have every excuse possible. We excuse ourselves from studying the word then complain about our losing our way. I think we deserve to be lost. It’s our nature to  drift, our propensity to get off track. We have lost our way.

People say, “I try to be good.”  But what’s the test of that goodness? Doing good and doing the right thing is always tainted by our own selfishness pride and evil desires. That is why we need the word of God. It tells us that the only way that we can deal with that base nature is first through trusting in Christ. Complete and total trust reliance and dependency upon Jesus. Without that we have nothing. Without that we are lost.

One time Jesus told his disciples that he was going to prepare a place for them.  He told them they knew where he was going. Thomas disagreed. He did not think that he knew where Jesus was going.  I have heard people praise Thomas for his question. People tell me there’s no such that is a stupid question. I don’t mean to be crass but I think Thomas Estes stupid question. But you have to give them credit for not being a hypocrite.

Why in the world would Jesus think they knew where he was going? Why because in some way shape or form he must have told them. Jesus has taught them that he would be betrayed he would be crucified and he would be raised from the dead. Jesus believed they knew. Why? He made it clear.  Jesus insisted, “I am the Way the Truth and the Life.”  now I know we take that Scripture and we plaster it in the faces of people who are of other religions who believe that there are other ways and other truths and another life. We insist on the definite article “the” way and “the” truth and “the” life.  But the bottom line is is he are only way our only truth and our only life.

The son of God would not have us lost. He is searching for people relentlessly as it were. His Father he said is seeking for worshipers. The Holy Spirit leads us in the direction that we need to go. God is not lost. We are the ones that get lost. Why? Because our focus is not on Christ. Our focus is not the word of God and I don’t mean some legalistic study of the word of God. I don’t refer to some method of man in how to study the word of God. I refer to the Scriptures as imbibing it like water consuming it like food. Just as Jesus said his words are spirit and life and that they are his flesh and blood. They must become our flesh and blood as we meditate upon the Scriptures. for without Christ being the sum total of all that we are, we will lose our way.

DUST!

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dust man“For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” (Gen 3:19).

After the first couple, Adam and Eve sinned verbal chaos seemed to ensue like a football team fighting over a fumble. There was fighting and blame-shifting.  You can see guilt and shame at work bringing confusion and conflict.

Adam blames, “the woman you gave me.” OK I admit that blaming your wife is a bad habit, even dangerous, but I do not know about you, it does not seem like a good idea to imply the Creator as the reason you blew it.

Then Eve blames the serpent. We still love to blame the devil-hey why not? No one likes him. But Satan did not make her or her husband do anything. It was all their decision.

Finally, God steps in and basically says, “Enough.” He pronounces his sentence of judgment on all of them. The snake will crawl, the woman will have pain and Adam gets told he is dust.

That phrase, “For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” carries with it a certain finality.  In our world all you can see is dust-everywhere. On the shelves, the tables, the mirror, the ceiling fan, the desk and the computer-everywhere. This world is dusty.  Ever wonder why?

After Adam sinned he is told, “you were made of dust and now you will turn into dust.”  This is a common theme in the Bible. Abraham saw himself as dust and ashes (Gen. 18:27).   Dust refers to death and the grave (Psalm 22: 15; Eccl 3:20; 12:7). It is the final fade to black moment-the end.

But dust is like a sense of personal sinfulness guilt as well. Job is an expert on dust. He talks about it a lot and it is a reference to hopelessness and despair (Job 17:11-16). I mean we all sin, everyday and we are very good at it- thank you very much.  But there are some sins that really bother our conscience-those sins you combat more than others. Those sins that have got you in more trouble than others.  When my conscience bothers me. that is not all bad. This sort of  “dust” clouds everything and yet gives a dark clarity to who I am in and of myself-it gives the sense of my own mortality and depravity.  After I sin, if I do something especially stupid, I sense my own personal dustiness.  I feel like Job who said, “When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day. My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and become loathsome.” (Job 7:4-5). Yeah that says it. In those moments, I am not feeling much like the “righteousness of God in Christ.” I must deal with my sin by simple confession and see how Christ has dealt with my sin on the cross as a cure.

But guilt must not go unchecked  or it chokes my joy and it weighs me down with Adam dust.  Living in guilt, remorse and regret does not glorify God, nor satisfy God. It makes faith turn into ashes.  That is why we look to Christ as the one who removes the dust of our souls by the rushing mighty wind of his presence.

Sin happened in dusty Adam, but perfection happened in the Lord Jesus Christ. “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.” (1 Cor 15:45).

We are no longer just earthly dust but we are heavenly and spiritual because of Christ. He has made us alive forever by his saving power. Adam was just a man, Jesus was the Lord God from heaven. Yes, we have had an earthly image, but now because of Christ we have a heavenly dust free image.

We must look to Christ who takes away our sins and guilt by his precious blood. This is why God’s forgiveness and grace cleanses away sin and remove the dust of guilt. This continual uninterrupted grace and cleansing is offered to us through the blood of Christ (1 John 1:7-9). If we come clean with God this is just evidence that he is cleansing us continually from all the dust of this world.

JESUS, THE TENDER SAVIOR

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handMen and women I hope this helps you today.

Take the time to read this not just “like it.” It is medicine for a sick soul.

“He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. He will bring justice to all who have been wronged. He will not falter or lose heart until justice prevails throughout the earth. Even distant lands beyond the sea will wait for his instruction.”

Isaiah’s prophecy shows how tender Jesus is to those who are weak and fragile.

He gives the picture of a reed and a wick used in oil lamps describing his people. In the Middle East Reeds are actually quite strong.

This analogy would normally show people who are spiritually healthy and useful.

Flax is actually made into thread for linen cloth, nets and twine.

This is should be picture of strength and right living since the saints garments are identified as such linen.

The issue is that the reed and wick are seen as problematic, weak and frail.

The reed is crushed and the wick smoldering and about to go out. It is a picture of a person who is unstable and unusable.

This is where Jesus comes in!!!

Christ is never harsh with us but gentle and tender when we fail. He heals us when we are broken and restores us so we burn with full flame.

Sometimes as Christians we are ashamed at how weak and problematic we are.

We have been hurt and we feel unloved and unattractive.

Then we are far more smoke than fire because we pray so little and neglect His word. Our testimony is depressing.

Jesus helps us when others just are not comfortable identifying or helping us. He does not, “brush aside the bruised and the hurt and he won’t disregard the small and insignificant.” He, in his own wonderful way, mends and restores broken people.

He lifts up and helps those who are exploited, overlooked and abused. He makes them useful and strong again.

The word falter is the same word as smoking in smoking flax.

He will not lose heart or be discouraged is the same word as bruised.

He was once bruised and broken for us. His flame of life was put out on Calvary for us but NOW the Risen Jesus is unbroken and full of fire! He is a perfect Savior.

He is invincible in his redemption and omnipotent in his salvation.

He will not give up on you but will restore you to health.

That is good news for some today. (SG)

WE HAVE THE REAL GOD-YOU DO NOT!

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Trinity-560x560“I believe in God”

CHRISTIANITY has a specific unique faith.

In light of what I have previously posted now I need to be more poignant. I also want to be careful because many people in their attempts to talk about God make it sound anywhere from a fifth grade science fair project to the forensics you see on one of the CSI shows or Bones.  Theology is not supposed to dissect Deity into little pieces but reveal the majesty and splendor of the one true God.

We should not want to over-simplify biblical definitions of God for the curious spectators of this age. I do not want to talk about eggs and various forms of water to illustrate God. God is mysterious and he is above us in every aspect, his thoughts and ways can never be measured or understood. People say Christianity is simple, or it its all about love, or all about helping the poor, or this aspect or that-they are sadly ignorant. Christianity is all about God, specifically his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Christian faith or belief system is monotheistic. Monotheism is the belief that there is only God. The apostle Paul says that all other gods are anywhere from lifeless idols to demons (1 Cor 10:18-22) and we have no agreement, concord or unity with false religion. Among the three major religions that proclaim they believe in one God we are the closest to Judaism and Judaism and Christianity are furthest from Islam. All people must confess that Jesus is Lord and God or they cannot go to heaven.

Our faith distinguishes itself. Jesus Christ is God’s Son and we worship God as the Trinity. The Trinity is one God in three persons. There are many books dealing with this subject. That is called apologetics or the defense of the faith.  We must be clear that The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Father, the Father is not the Spirit. We can study the Trinity at another time. There are many anti-Trinitarian cults and sects out there-it is sad, but at one time being part of one of those groups, I have realized my errors. I stand with my fathers and heroes of the faith and now I shall not be ashamed.

Finally, let me say we owe a great debt to those who were heretics. I know I do. A heretic is a person who is against biblical teaching. Sometimes when we are challenged about what we believe it motivates us to study and make what we believe clear. Most of the teachings or doctrines we believe about God were developed in creeds due to the fact there were those who perverted or rejected biblical definitions of God, Christ, the Holy Spirit and salvation. People did not like that the Church used words outside of the Bible to defend scripture. I know that is a silly concept and all pastors and preachers would be out of a job for sure. The use of Trinitarian terms has been vociferously attacked for many years.

BB Warfield said it like this, “The doctrine of the Trinity lies in Scripture in solution; when it is crystallized from its solvent it does not cease to be Scriptural, but only comes into clearer view…the doctrine of the Trinity is given to us in Scripture, not in formulated definition, but in fragmentary allusions… we are not passing from Scripture, but entering more thoroughly into the meaning of Scripture.”

© 2013 Soul Health Care Ministries. If you use this article tell people about us and where you found it. Don’t plagiarize.

MERCY THAT NEVER ENDS

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CUS430Mercy“The mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting” (Ps. 103:17).

I want you to think about the mercy of God. Mercy is described as not getting what you deserve or as the Psalms put it,  “He does not punish us for all our sins; he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve.” Psa. 103:10).

God extends mercy to you today for all your failure. The mercy of God meets us right at the point of our failure. Where your sin seems so great, his grace and mercy are much greater.

The mercy of God is described as everlasting to everlasting.  

I know we don’t usually use the word everlasting in our vocabulary we and at first blush this phrase just seems to be a very emphatic way to describe something that lasts forever but we think about this idea of mercy without end.

We could go in all these theological ramifications of eternity but I want to go at this another way.

This term describes God’s mercy as stretching backward without limit and stretching forward without limit. It has no origin or end. It is unrestricted and boundless. God’s mercy is so overwhelming it is there all the time. God is present everywhere, he knows everything and he is all-powerful. That is pretty deep.

So often we think in terms of God’s mercy by our actions good or bad, especially when we do something especially bad or especially good in our own estimation.

Sometimes we feel God owes us mercy for the good things we do like prayer, or church or helping our neighbor. We love feeling we made something up to God in some way, by some action, so we earned or merited his mercy. As much as we preach to people you cannot make any deals with God, we try, don’t we?

At other times, we feel we will never receive his mercy because we have done something in the past that was so wrong, or we continue to do things we should not do. We feel like we don’t deserve his mercy or forgiveness until we permanently change or repent.

We are strange like that.

But that is not the way mercy works at all.  Our works good or bad do not qualify us for God’s mercy. It is not based on human action, it is all about God. God is not limited by what we do, he shows mercy because HE is merciful. He delights in showing mercy (Micah 7:18). The God of the Bible is completely different than the false god of manipulative religion marketed today.

I read one commentator who described mercy as God’s “exuberant goodness” (Clarke).  I just think that is awesome. God acts in mercy toward us in a lavish,  joyful, unrestrained manner. He is generous with his mercy. God has mercy upon you…he has mercy upon me. He loves to show us mercy, freely, unconditionally.

I want to close with the commentary of Mr. Barnes who said that mercy,  “had no beginning; it will have no end. There never was a period in the past when it was not the purpose of God to save his people; there never will be a period in the future when it will be said that his saving mercy has ceased.” (Barnes).

I know some are going through painful situations and it is hard to see God’s mercy. We judge his mercy based on our pain.  Our own shortsightedness does not allow us to see his mercy at work. But many people later have their eyes opened that it was God’s mercy and goodness that was right on the heels of the difficulty they were going through (Psalm 23:6).

May you understand and see his mercy that never ends in your life today.

© 2013 Soul Health Care Ministries. If you use this article tell people about us and where you found it. Don’t plagiarize.

You are Being Sentenced to Church!

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A Judge in Oklahoma is facing some criticism after passing a sentence on a convicted killer to 10 years of church. The seventeen year old Tyler Alred pleaded guilty to manslaughter for a car accident that killed his friend last December. Alred had a blood alcohol level of .07 when he drove his car into a tree.

The Muskogee County district court judge ordered Alred to spend the next decade going to church. The judge has handed out similar sentences in the past – but mostly to parents who fail to pay child support or felons who don’t pay their court costs.

This is not the first time for something like this. In Bay Minette, Alabama it lets convicted offenders to choose either jail time or church. The program will allow a city judge to sentence misdemeanor offenders to work off their sentences in jail and pay a fine, or go to church every Sunday for a year.

Oh yeah the ACLU doesn’t like this idea of church. Let me show you my surprised face!

Now the whole philosophy, “You show me somebody who falls in love with Jesus, and I’ll show you a person who won’t be a problem to society.”

So, I do not want to be over critical of this idea, it has some merit and I am sure some good results, I hope. Yet, we can only hope that Jesus, not religious morality will be preached in that church or churches in such way to help those people to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ. But imagine being sent to church as part of a sentence for a crime! I do not know whether to laugh or cry at the idea.

But most think they have a choice (my free will friends should like that) and thinking hmm, well, church or jail.  At this point, to the writer, jail sounds more like a ministry than church. In fact, for me, going to many churches has been like going to jail on Sunday. It has been brutal. What is worse is that you do not have to deal with convicts but Christians and they are a rough crowd.

A felon going to church? Wow what an experiment for those pesky church people. Imagine people knowing that you are coming to church because of a crime you committed. It is almost like, well…penance. And since much of what is preached today as repentance is actually protestant penance, I think many pastors would like the idea of being someones priest and able to mete out a few acts of contrition.

Church should be all about the gospel of Jesus Christ (1 Cor 2:1-2). I have heard and believed that the pulse, the very life blood of the church hinges on two main understandings: regeneration (how we are spiritually brought back from  death to new life) and justification (how we become spiritually righteous before God).  When I talk of the concept of church I do not want to hear about churches without walls, lectures on the pagan idea of the word “church.” I do not want to listen to somebody sell me on small groups, cell groups or home groups.  Hey there is nothing wrong with these things but they are NOT the answer CHRIST IS. Look, anything that sounds like an experiment is probably heresy. I don’t want to hear, “Oh if we gather over coffee that is the church.” I do not want to hear about apostolic models, episcopal organizations, ecumenical unity or evangelical marketing to solve the church growth problem. It all gives me motion sickness because it is like an out of control car. I decided to get out of the car and see who was driving.  I dared to examine church and preaching from a distance. How dare I? It always seems like we are trying to correct or remake “church” and now someone finally compares it in the same breath with jail. That hurts.

For a while, church seemed like jail to me. After pastoring for years and then to sit in church for a while, I realized my own errors and the misguided foolishness of those I listened to. It was hard to sit there. Preachers seemed to include Christ as a footnote or endnote in their messages instead of Jesus being their message.  Our first love is Christ. Our second love is his people. Being near him as we gather in whatever form, liturgical, formal or spontaneous is freedom for our hearts. Being near others that love him is fellowship.

I am sure of two things, Jesus said he will build his church and it was to be a house of prayer. Church is a place and a people. It is a place where the gifts of the spirit are seen to build up not tear down people. It is a place where we treat all people with honor, empathy and humility. We make no distinctions and resist division. It is one body, and where the true gospel is proclaimed the very body of Christ, many parts, not one part where we need everyone (see 1 Cor 12). The church is made up of God’s sons and daughters (2 Cor. 6:18) not inmates, paying off their spiritual debt to a God who is their warden.  Christ took our judgement, he went to prison (Isa 53:8) for us.  It is a place where we are family, a place where Jesus is preached (Acts 8:35), not a punishment where you serve out a sentence. Jesus paid for all of our crimes against him. He says to us, “You are forgiven and all your rebellion, lawless deeds and sins are gone.” (Heb. 8:12). That is the gospel.

© 2018 Stephen S. Gibney. If you use this article tell people about us and where you found it. Don’t plagiarize.

God Made the Call Right The First Time

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Both baseball and football have more rules in regard to reviewing plays to make sure the right call on a play is being made. There has already been many controversies to the chagrin of fans and players. Football has the red flag and baseball has instant replay.

This past summer (2012), Washington Nationals baseball team’s Michael Morse was asked to mime a grand slam in the first inning of the Nationals-Cardinals game after a call was overturned, leading to an odd, albeit hilarious, situation at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

Morse hit a fly ball to right field with the bases loaded in the first inning off Cardinals starter Kyle Lohse. The ball bounced off the second wall in right field and back onto the field, so right fielder Carlos Beltran played it like a live ball. Beltran threw the ball into the infield, and second baseman Skip Schumaker chased down Morse and tagged him out. At that point, Morse would have been credited with an RBI single to put the Nationals up 1-0.

The umpires decided to review the call and, after looking at replays, they determined that the ball bounced into play after hitting the second wall, which is considered a home run. They reset the runners on the bases, and they asked Morse to return to home plate (after touching first base on his way back) to mime a grand slam.

Morse happily obliged, and he was credited with his fourth career grand slam to give the Nationals a 4-0 lead. Even though it was odd seeing the umpires recreate the situation, the important thing is that they got the call right.

Truth is stranger than fiction.

God does not need to review the call he has made, he made the call right the first time. For context sake, we need to remember the way God does things. The scriptures says that God “left not himself without witness…for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.” (Acts 14:17; Jude 1:3).  What the Bible teaches, the truth that he has made known in his Word does not need a do- over. It was then complete, and that nothing was to be added to it.  It was done once and completed once and is not subject to review. Anything that is new as far as adding to what God has already revealed is a review. It is not of God. It is unnecessary and unacceptable. God made the call right the first time.

God has also called you to come to Jesus and be saved! What a play God made! It was awesome as he caught your falling soul.  Watch it in slow motion sometime! The crowd of witnesses went wild! What an awesome hit Jesus made when he knocked sin, death and hell out of the park!!! But some always question and think it was an incomplete catch or it was not a real home run and claim it was only a ground rule double or had fan interference. they cannot possibly be children of God now they question and want them to review in in the booth. But God made the call right the first time.

When you heard the gospel by preaching, the Holy Spirit joined himself in power to those words and created the miracle of salvation in your heart. You were an unworthy, undeserving law breaker both unwilling and unable to love and serve God. All of that is true!  Some would question and throw out the red flag questioning why God would save ungodly people like you and I. They look at our lives even now and we are far from perfect, and we still do do dumb things.  People look on it cynically, like some look on people who convert to Christ in prison and call for an instant replay of your sins and actions with a smirk.  But God refuses to be questioned about this decision. God made the call right the first time. There is no need for review.

Paul says, “He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Thess. 2:14). The gospel of grace is a divine power that brings salvation (Rom 1:16). We are not to be ashamed of it, it needs no review. God has called you by His grace through the precious blood of Jesus poured out on the Cross and  that will never be rethought, amended or rescinded. “The God of all grace, who called you”  is never going to change his mind about saving you (1 Peter 5:10; Rom 11:29).

It was his call.

It was his decision.

Our conscience may fight against this because it has an instant replay and reviews our bad decisions-our sins. The rules and laws of Moses sometimes are seen more clearly in their review of our lives rather than the solution that God gave for the sin problem, Jesus.

It is Christ alone who saves and delights to save. Your call to salvation and salvation itself will it never be subject to review.  The Bible says, “Those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” (Rom 8:30).

God made the call right the first time.  Be at peace.

APOSTASY GONE PANDEMIC 4: THE DISEASED GOSPEL

/ thesouldoctor / 1 Comment

God was still at odds with his Old Covenant people. God seems to show his displeasure with those who claim to love him but despise others.

When the ark was returned to the city of Bethshemesh, they all rejoiced to see it (1 Sam 6:13).

It is possible many people from the towns came to see it like a tourist attraction.

God obviously hated that.

The men of Bethshemesh foolishly looked into the ark and God destroyed fifty thousand and seventy men (1 Sam. 6:19).

Yahweh shows no favoritism and the ark was not their property just because they said they were religious and it was rightful furniture of where they worshiped.

They were just well informed religious people who had chosen the pagan idols of the Baals and the Ashtoreths of their day alongside of the true God and God was going to shut down their religious show.

If they were going to be like this, He did not want to be among them and he was for the time content to be in an open field rather than in Shiloh Worship Center. It makes one weep to think he found no place among men.

Today, many contemporary worship centers refuse to preach the scripture replacing it with a water downed version of pop theology that appeals to everyone that was ignorant of the word.

Is it possible that today, that as we see God’s sentences of justice against wickedness among the sin benighted nations-we feel justified.

You see, those who believe they can be saved by their religious practices have a low view of sin and a high view of self. Like Cain, they offer what they do to God like corrupt vegetables and toxic salad and want God to accept what they think should please him rather than what actually pleases him. They do not see how God demands perfection and that perfection is found in Christ alone.

Yet, they can never accept salvation by grace alone but they fight it  they think it is never enough. Fake Churchianity and the institutional churches of today that do not align themselves with the word of the Lord will face his justice as well because they are not protected by the blood of the Cross.

Many institutional worship centers and their life coaches are coy when it comes to releasing the full force of Scripture on the consciences of their hearers. So in the name of being practical they engage people on the basis of quality of life and success rathere than on the terms of the gospel and the new covenant.

Christ warns, “Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” (Mk. 8:38).

We are used to hearing that verse in terms of being a witness of the gospel message to those who are lost. But again that is not completely the case. Backslidden men and churches that are uncomfortable with preaching undiluted scripture, nervous about disclosing what the Bible teaches about Christ are an embarrassment to God and his angels.

About a year ago, we heard of a church with 7, 500 members in Long Island NY that someone who was serving communion to packed house and several services on Christmas day had Hepatitis A.[i]

But imagine something worse happening to people in the worship centers of our day.

Mulder and Scully show up and see an embarrassed pastor at his wits end because his congregation has rats scampering in the fellowship hall during Sunday school (for the churches who still have it) and unable to sit in their pews due to tumors (for the churches who still have them) during service because it hurts to do so.

After a while the pastor and his staff are being confronted by the congregation needless to say, their neighbors and businesses about the rats and the public health concern about the hemorrhoids.

They even wear masks and gloves to prevent the R5-H5 virus (taken from the five golden rats and five golden hemorrhoids analogy) to solve their problem.

Imagine that in church buildings all over the country-the same problem was spreading even to their missionaries overseas.

The story goes on that people do not want to come to church. The only thing the pastors, deacons and elders can do is tell their congregation to just wash their hands until they come up with an inoculation of some sort. It is not that they do not want to sit in church but they want to be able to sit period! So the church leadership must offer some other solution. It would be hard to attract people in our churches in such a condition, no matter the latest program because we would be infested with rats and disease. All our programs no matter how seeker sensitive would go right out the window.

The diseased message of American Churchianity has brought a pandemic global spiritual plague because what is being preached across pulpits and endorsed by churches and denominations is not the message of the Bible.

Imagine if we had a symbol of God’s presence like Israel did in the ark?

We do.

It is the Cross.

Unlike the ark that was stolen in battle, we just put it outside in the church shed. For those of you unfamiliar with biblical types and symbols the ark is referred to as the mercy-seat. It is a type of when Jesus died on the cross.  It is the message of Christ Crucified, Buried and Raised Again has been neglected.

There is a movement that is out to take all classical Christianity out of the church (except of course some of the religious biblical nomenclature that we can market) and any symbols, the cross, Bibles, hymn books out of the church and set the church up with a stage and video screens.

These people use the Bible and the holy things of God for their own motives and they dress up in religiosity and spiritual infomercials. Their goal is to make God and church more palatable to those who still hate God and the gospel.

You have to eventually change the message because of the methodology.  The message of the cross is too powerful, too untamed for people to handle.

The message of grace is too radical, even destructive to people’s lives. The exclusive claims of Christ create such a large gap between other religions and philosophies that it leaves true Christianity diametrically opposed to everything that claims to be truth around it.

The message of the Cross refuses to cohabitate  nor takes second place to man centered fleshy ideas of church growth and salvation.

It is so radical it will leave many worship centers only with a stump left of their fishy, rat infested, diseased message.

The Cross is the great leveler of human pride and idolatry. It is too heavy for many!  But the cure, the only healer is Christ and his presence among his people.  It is the reclamation of the truth of the gospel that is the vital and necessary element for the church today.

© 2012 Soul Health Care Ministries. If you use this article tell people about us and where you found it. Don’t plagiarize.