Witness for the Truth

Oh, what a glorious freedom it is to rely on the Lord.
Freedom? Rely?
How difficult it is in this present age(and perhaps every age) to grasp hold of this freedom.

We know that Christ has come to set us free, more than that, that it was for freedom’s sake that He did this. I believe that we have been set free in many ways, but perhaps we have misunderstood what this freedom is.

This is what I believe: We have been set free from sin. Sin, at the core, is rebellion agianst God. Now when a person has been set free he may go where he chooses. When a person has been set free from the control of sin he can voluntarily choose to remain loyal to sin. I believe that this is the case with many who upon release do not devote themselves to the one who paid their bail price. As David said in his comment on Grace Through Faith, it is a supernatural occurance when one is made aware of their sin and set free to choose between the two paths. Who, I ask, upon release would not be broken and humbled by the fact that he was shown mercy. Would he not proclaim,”Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man”? But to his astonishment and bewilderment he hears,”Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch men”! What might this mean? So the one who had been released chooses to go with the one who set him free. He doesn’t know where. He doesn’t care. He puts his faith in the one who set him free. He has concluded that surely He has his best interest in mind and has freed him for His own purposes.

Oh, please believe in the Holy Spirit. If you can’t testify truthfully that He directs your paths then repent and admit that you have been following your own desires and purposes and tell the Lord that you want to do His will and not your own. Yes, you can live a life of adherence to moral statutes and laws and convince yourself that that is God’s will. But Paul says,”for anyone who relies on the law is under a curse”. Won’t you put your life in the Lord’s hands? Most people are kept from taking this step because they still love their life. May God’s mighty hand come upon more people that will be so broken by His mercy that they gladly give over their rights to direct their own lives, knowing that He has something better for them.

I think I got it!! We have accidently replaced faith with grace!! Let me explain. First off I am only reffering to the evangelical theology I hear so frequently. We have it right on paper but wrong in practice! We’ll begin with the most common forms that Christianity is presented to the non-believer.

First of all: ” Ask Jesus to come into your heart and you’ll be saved”. I am not aware of any where in scripture that gives evidence to this being an example to how one becomes a Christian. So, you first show a person that they are a sinner. That’s easy enough. Then you tell him that unless he is saved he will suffer everlasting punishment. O.K, we got that settled. Then you ask him if he wants to be saved. It only makes since that he would. So he says yes. Then you say then ask Jesus into your heart. What in the heck does that mean. Absolutely nothing! It has no meaning at all. Why is no explanation ever given? Because there isn’t one! I mean what are you going to say if asked to explain it. You have no scriptural basis, and certainly no visual proof. Maybe you could turn to metaphysics and say, “see, when you asked Jesus into your heart He heard you and sent His spirit to dwell in you and what you have to do is believe that it’s true”. This is NOT the way the scriptures speak of conversion and salvation.

Believing that Jesus is the Christ is first and foremost. Then you must put your faith in Him as not only able to save you from hell but as trustworthy to be the Lord and director of your life,and strive to live righteously. Then it is by God’s grace alone that He moves one along this path of perfection.

It is pointless to constantly point out to believers that it’s all about grace. Well of course it is! But what people need to be reminded of is that we are called to be holy. I have little doubt that some who have always tried to do something great for God will be found wanting, because they were never content with becoming holy and righteous saints of God. And how does one become one of these? By believing that God knows what is best for him, and that God will direct the spirits of those who have laid down their great and mighty ambitions so that they may be used as He wants.

Here is an exerpt from Soren Kierkegaard’s Papers and Journals: A Selection

[...] This is how it is with the relation to Christ. A person tests himself as to whether Christ means everything for him and therefore says, I stake everything on this. But I cannot acquire any immediate certainty of my relation to Christ. I cannot acquire any immediate assurance as to whether I have faith—for having faith is precisely this dialectical floating which is in constant fear and trembling yet never doubts; faith is precisely this infinite self-concern which keeps one awake in one’s risking everything, this self-concern also about whether one does indeed have faith–and behold! it is exactly this self-concern that is faith.
But what has brought about such a colossal confusion into Christianity is the fact that at one moment one preaches dialectically and the next as thougth faith were the immediate, the immediate certainty.
Alas! and all this, which I myself could well go on, year in and year out, pondering and musing over, what do people care about? Not the slightest thing. And this spiritlessness is Christianity–and I, who in fear and trembling scarecly dare call myself a Christian, I am mad, an eccentric.

What say you?

This little writing is dedicated to women, and more specifically Christian women.

Wake up! Come back to your senses and stop sinning. How is it possible that you have been so poisoned by the world’s ways? Don’t you know that a little yeast works throughout the whole batch of dough? Be a new batch without yeast, as you really are.

First of all, I want you to know that I am obviously not speaking to every single one of you(women). But I would ask that before you assume:”this is most certainly not addressed to me”, assume that it is addressed to you. I ask you to do this so that by assuming it is talking about you, you can approach it face to face and see for yourself whether any of this resides in you. For if you assume that it is not applicable to you, then you have made it an impossibility for this writing to be of any benefit to you. And I want it to benefit you. If you approach this in the latter sense, the one in which I am asking you not to, it is the same as if someone said to you: “My goodness! Your eyes are completely bloodshot! Go look in the mirror”. And so you got up, walked down the hall, stopped, stared at the bathroom door, walked back, and said:”No they’re not”. Would that person not conclude that you were completely out of your mind? I trust that you see my point. By the way, this is a most excellent way to read the Holy Scriptures. Now that that is out of the way, let me get to the point.

It is fairly well accepted that we as humans are affected by our environment in regards to how we percieve things or understand them. I guess this is what is refered to as our ‘world-view’. Now a world-view has to have a point of origen from where it derives itself. Basically, our core belief. But apparently not everyone knows this. This is what Paul was referring to when he says: We take captive every thought, and make it obiediant to Christ. It is basically saying to oneself: “In view of what has been revealed by the appearing of God’s one and only son and His teaching, how am I to understand this thing that I am thinking or this thing that I am seeing?”

OK, fine I’ll get to the point.(But, I hope that you have listened to everything up until now because I feel that they are vital understandings for the believer)

If you care to pay attention, which you will see that you do(whether conscious or unconcious), that nearly every outlet of communication in this world is communicating this message: Men are idiots, animals, they don’t know how to treat a woman, they are insensitive, they’re incapable of raising children, need to be spoken to like a dog: Good boy! Come here(whistle)! Don’t touch that! Oh, you know men! Ha Ha Ha.

NO YOU DON’T. Don’t you know the Lord? Don’t you know what the Lord can do with beastly man? He makes them like Himself!
OK, He’s in the process of making them like Himself. Please, I beg you, don’t encourage a man by telling him that he’s only a man. That is evil. Encourage him that the Lord has full intentions of making him holy, like God. I believe that men already have a higher view of women than vice versa. That is of course besides those who see women as sexual objects.

I suppose the earlier part of this letter is really the most important because the latter is merely a repercution of having not developed the Christ mind. This takes a lot of work and effort. To have a Christ mind, you need to discover how it was that Christ thought when He was on the earth. I do not want you to be unaware of the fact that the Christ-mind is different than the Christian mind, even though it shouldn’t be. We are truly called to something great, just as Peter said: To take part in the divine nature. Remember what Paul said: Put your mind on things above, not on earthly things.

It is common to hear about how it is one’s duty as a Christian to disciple new believers. But what are the qualifications for being a Christian? What about for being one who disciples? It is though the emphasis is put upon another. And this is done while neglecting the importance that one is teaching one in what one aught to be taught in. It is taught that to be a real Christian, one must disciple; rather than saying: “Until you become a Christian, you must not disciple another.”. Remembering the words: “If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”. Or even,”unless it is your gift to teach, do not presume yourself able to disciple”. Now we can safely say that in order to be able to disciple, one must be a disciple. How is one able to disciple, when they themselves have yet to become one? This , I believe occurs rather often and goes unnoticed.

Let us imagine a new believer, or one just becoming acquainted with Christianity, hears : “If you’re a Christian, your duty is to make disciples out of all peoples”. Let’s also suppose that this one is diligently studying the scriptures at the same time he hears this. He reads:” If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”(Jn.8.31-32). He see quite clearly that what he needs is Jesus’s teachings  so that he can hold to them. He inquires of other believers about what these teachings might be. But what he keeps on getting is, ” to fulfill the Great Commission”. He is quite uncertain what this means and it appears that there are a variety of opinions on the subject. He is very confused about all this talk of evangelizing, and none of being like Christ. So he returns to the scriptures. He comes upon a certain passage that startles him:

A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees,” If you are willing, you can make me clean.” Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man.”I am willing,”he said. “Be clean!” Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured. Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere(Mk1:40-45)

The man reflects upon this and says to himself:”Even though the people still came to him, the man who had been cured aught to have obeyed the Lord. Why did the Lord ’strongly warn’ the man to not tell anyone, but to do the thing that he aught to do in accordance with the law?” Recieving no clear understanding about this, he reads on.

He then stumbles across: “Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to gain a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are”(Mt23.15).

Now the young man is terrified. He sees what appears to be a contradiction between what the preacher says and what the Teacher says. So he thinks about leaving the church. But wait a moment! Not far behind the stressing of that great commission, he hears: “No one can be a Christian outside of community”. Now he is even more confused and disturbed. He wants to do what the scriptures tell him to do. 

It was from out of darkness that the Lord called him. Of that, he is most certain. The Spirit impressed on him that he should go to the family of believers. And so he went. The Lord told him,” These are my people”, and the young man believed Him. But look where he has found himself. He wants to go, but he knows he must stay. Why? Because the preacher said so? No. Because God told him to. But they do not seem to be for the same reason. The One says: “Stay”. The other one says: “Stay”. The One speaks out of darkness. The other, on stage with lights shining upon him. The One, he knows is perfectly good. The other, at best a good man, at worst an impostor. Who is he to trust? Does it even matter, since both are saying the same thing? Of course it does, because both have a great deal more to say; and they are not all the same thing. So he chooses to stay. But he is certainly none the more at peace.

So the young man attempts to share his experiences and thoughts with others. He tells them that he does such and such because God told him to. Then his ears hear the most terrible words they have ever heard. “Did God really tell you to do that? How do you even know that it is God that you are hearing?” Oh, the most dreadful utterance that has ever been spoken to man. From the serpent all the way up until now. Terrible! More terrible than any threat that could be made upon one. More terrible than any pain that one might have to endure. He is now certain that he must flee. But, no. God tells him to stay. Stay? But why? Because God tells him to do so.