DECEPTION AND PROGRESSIVE "CHRISTIANS"

If we are going to call ourselves a Christian, we are saying that we are disciples and followers of Jesus.

What does it mean to be a follower of Christ? It's very obvious:

·       “Jesus answered him, 'If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.'” (John 14:23-24)

In response to a Christian who had been arguing against the threat inherent in receiving more Muslim refugees, a progressive "Christian" countered that:

·       "A religion of fear was not the kind of religion that Jesus had been preaching. His was a religion of love."

However, if we love, we will warn. Jesus certainly did a lot of warning, especially about hell. He also warned a lot about other things. False teachings and practices were also a big part of His warnings, like blaspheming against the Holy Spirit.

I, therefore, chided the progressive that he would not have approved of Jesus' religion. However, he replied:

·       "Perfect love casts out fear. Since you still fear, you are not walking in love. You claim to follow Jesus, but you really don't believe Him."

He was referring to 1 John 4:

·       “By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear [of judgment] in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” (1 John 4:17-18)

Notice that John wrote about a specific form of fear - the fear of judgment - and insisted that if we walk in love as Jesus did we will have a greater confidence about who we are and will not fear judgment.

Instead, God purposely created us with a capacity to fear. Why? Because many things we should fear! We should fear the power of sin and even God:

·       “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him [God] who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28)

On the same thread, another progressive insisted that Jesus would have received all the Muslim refugees.

Would He? We don't know, but He would have received all who came to Him but would have also insisted that they'd repent, an ingredient which the progressives leave out:

·       “And he answered them, 'Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.'” (Luke 13:2-5)

Jesus would also have insisted that love has to begin among the brethren:

·       “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17:20-24)

In contrast, progressive "Christians" behave as if Christians should be the last ones they help. They advocate for Muslim refugees but don't raise a whisper on behalf of those refugees who are truly in need.

Are these progressives true brethren? True brethren abide in His Word and don't distort it. They fear God and don't play fast-and-loose with Him.

I KNOW MY LORD, AND MY LORD KNOWS ME

Psalm 34:4-6

“I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears…

This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.”

I am that “poor man.” I am facing problems that are bigger than I am, and I fear, but the Lord has guaranteed to save me out of all my troubles. I haven’t see this deliverance yet, but I am looking towards it. I have no choice but to trust in my Lord. My eyes are upon Him.

I don‘t KNOW how others face life without this Hope. Do they close down their heart? Their mind?

I think back to my life before Christ, before 40 years ago. How did I make it from one day to the next? I told myself lies. I believed them. They were my drugs. I told myself that I had the strength to endure anything, that I had the courage to face any threat; that I had the character to find a way out.

These were lies, but I believed them. They blinded me, but they also sustained me. They were costly, but they paid the bills.

I can now face life without my blinders. How? Because my Savior is near:

·       When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. (Psalm 34:17-18)

I am that “brokenhearted” man, but I know my Savior and He knows me.

DEALING WITH FEAR

How do we deal with fear? Embrace it as a friend! Why? It imparts many benefits, like vigilance.

But you will retort, "My fear is far more intense and obsessive. It is a curse." Well, perhaps we need our curses in order to enjoy our blessings.

Here's an example. My favorite verse on fear is this:

• “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

(Philippians 4:6-7)

The encouragement of this verse has often quieted my runaway fears and has made me feel grateful for my Savior. However, had I not experienced my intense fears and anxieties, I would not have known the blessing of His comfort.

Here's how psychologist Edward Welch states it:

• “Rather than minimize your fears, find more of them. Expose them to the light of day because the more you find, the more blessed you will be when you hear words of peace and comfort."

How can I be Confident that I am in God’s Will?

 We are tormented by the doubt that we do not know if we have made the right decision and that we are in the will of God. I certainly had been. However, learning more about God has freed me from this doubt.

First of all, He promises to guide us:

• A man's steps are directed by the LORD. How then can anyone understand his own way? (Proverbs 20:24)

He guides us through our understanding:

• Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)

If we are going in the wrong direction, He reveals this to us:

• Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. (Philippians 3:15-16) 

However, unconfessed sin will place a barrier between ourselves and God. And what if we fail to perceive His guidance or His voice? No matter! Our God is so great that He is able to lead us infallibly, whether we hear Him or not:

• Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. (Psalm 139:16)

• In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps. (Prov. 16:9)

This is beyond our understanding – how it is that we are responsible for our lives, and yet God is even more responsible. Nevertheless, this combination is thoroughly biblical:

• The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases. (Proverbs 21:1)

The king is responsible for his freewill choices even as the Lord guides him to do what He has ordained.

This means that our Lord is able to guide His enemies to do just what He wants them to do. (And yet, they are fully responsible!) He certainly did that with the kings He brought against Israel. And if He can do that with pagans, He certainly can guide those who want His guidance. Therefore, we can cast all of our fears and concerns upon Him. He’s got a plan for our lives and will fulfill it:

• For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)

Even when we make sinful decisions, He is still able to bring good out of them, even though they might bring painful chastening:

• And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

In Him, we are safe and can confidently place our minds on our God:

• “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew 6:33-34)

Entrust your concerns to our Lord!

Buddhism and the Prospect of Death

Editor of World Magazine, Marvin Olasky, cites Alex Lickerman, former director of primary care at the University of Chicago. He has been a practicing Buddhist for 26 years, but to little avail, when it came to managing his fear of death:

·       “One of the supposed benefits of manifesting the life-condition of Buddha is freedom from all fear. I’ve tried to resolve my fear of death intellectually and come to the conclusion that it can’t be done, at least not by me.”

·       “Whenever I’ve tried wrapping my mind around the concept of my own demise… I’ve unearthed a fear so overwhelming my mind has been turned aside.”

This should not be surprising. Death is a reality so bleak that it can only be faced with denial. A discussion leader informed the group that he derived comfort from the fact that the world is eternal. I responded, “What comfort can you derive if the world goes on, but you don’t?”

He didn’t have an answer, but we do. Our Savior promised us:

·       "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:1-3)

We have an eternal home with the One who loves us so much He died for us, even when we were His enemies.

Living with Yourself as an Inadequate Person

I want to feel that I am an adequate person, but I know I am not. I will be facing some protracted challenges, and I know I’m not up to them – not emotionally, psychologically, physically, or even spiritually. My many failures confirm this for me.

I want to feel that I have things under control, but I do not. I find this threatening. I am therefore greeted by anxiety dreams at night and fear in the morning. My defenses have been breached and my insecurities stick out like spines on a porcupine.

I morbidly obsess over my weaknesses and failures. The Apostle Paul had his own weaknesses. He called one of them a “thorn in my flesh.” He prayed that the Lord would remove this painful affliction, but the Lord would not. Instead, He informed Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

In light of this, weaknesses and inadequacies are actually a plus and not a minus, as Paul concluded:

• Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Cor. 12:8-10)

Frankly, I want to be in control. I do not want any more “thorn[s] in my flesh.” They’re just too painful, but according to my Savior, I need them. He doesn’t want me to be in control or to trust in my abilities and strengths to carry me through. This was the very lesson Paul had learned:

• We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. (2 Cor. 1:8-9)

He does not want us to be in control. This is what self-trust and self-righteousness is all about, and it’s in opposition to trusting in God. If I’m convinced that I got what it takes, I will not trust in God. I also must admit that I would not learn to adore God. Instead, it would be all about me, and the fact that I got what it takes to manage this life, no thanks to God!

I am an inadequate person, but so are all of God’s children. Paul admitted that he lacked what was required to accomplish any spiritual undertaking:

• Such confidence we have through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant. (2 Cor. 3:4-6)

Okay, we might be competent in Christ, but He also painfully chastens us and allows us to fail. How can I endure the constant stream of anxiety dreams and the morning panics? I can’t! He will have to enable me – the very thing He promised to do:

• Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. (John 15:4)

But I do remain in Him, and I crash nevertheless! However, He has promised to rescue me:

• “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.” (Psalm 91:14-16)

The crashing is an unavoidable part of the Christian life (2 Cor. 4:10-11), but the rescue is also guaranteed.

We need to let go of all the demands that we place on life – that we be happy, healthy, spiritually successful, popular, wealthy, admired…. Instead, we need to place Him first in everything (Mat. 6:33) and entrust of our concerns, fears, weaknesses, insecurities, and inadequacies to Him:

• This poor man called, and the Lord heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them. Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. Fear the Lord, you his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing… The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all. (Psalm 34:6-9, 17-19)

Yes, I am a dependent, kept man, but I am God’s man. I am not defined by my weaknesses, failures and inabilities. Instead, I am defined by the unconditional love of my Savior – the source of all worth, truth, and reality. I don’t have to prove that I am significant, if I am significant in His eyes. I might be a failure, but not before Him.

Abraham was a spiritual failure. He had periodically pimped out his wife Sarah (Gen. 20:11-13). However, after the king of Gerar had taken Sarah to be his wife, having been told that she was merely Abraham’s sister, God visited the king in dream and warned him that he was a dead man if he didn’t return Sarah to her husband. He also informed the king that Abraham would have to pray for him so that God would heal him from his debilitating disease:

• Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her. Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all who belong to you will die.” (Gen. 20:6-7)

How is it that God would still call this spiritual failure a “prophet” and honor Abraham by requiring his prayer? Wasn’t Abraham a disappointment? Yes, but not in his Savior’s eyes, and that’s what mattered. Abraham’s relationship with his God overshadowed everything else.

Israel rebelled angrily against God as they were encamped against the Red Sea, and the murderous Egyptian chariots were approaching. However, their God parted the Sea making a way of escape for them. They hadn’t been faithful, but God saw something very different in them:

• By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned. (Hebrews 11:29)

There are only two kinds of people – spiritual failures and those who know that they are spiritual failures. It is a great relief to simply accept this fact and to lay aside the facade. However, this is only possible if I know that, in Christ’s eyes, I am His beloved child who dwells in His glory.

I am inadequate. I can’t even manage my own life, but this no longer matters:

• I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Gal. 2:20)

I am not in control, but this doesn’t matter either, because He is!