EXTRA For we who fear, pray and work to fear rightly!

Sinful fear -- not uncommon - not good.

In his work, Triumphing Over Sinful Fear, John flavel writes some things that I have found convicting and heart breaking in my life.  Perhaps you will be blessed by his words as I was.  I highly recommend the book as a companion to scripture in these difficult times.  He writes of 3 kinds of fear, natural, sinful and holy --- well worth reading and following his guidance.

"Some fear more than they ought, some fear before they ought and others when they ought not at all.  The strong Christian fears God, not man.  The weak Christian fears man too much and God too little."

Based upon what we find in Hosea Flavel writes:
"But their eyes do not look to Me for protection and deliverance.  They expect more from Egypt than from heaven, more from a broken reed than from the Rock of Ages.  Do not fear their fear!  It drives them from Me to the creature.  It first distracts them, and then ensnares them.  In marked contrast, see that you and all the faithful in the land sanctify Me in your hearts, and make Me your fear and dread.  Rely upon Me by faith in this day of trouble.  See that you give Me the glory of My wisdom, power, and faithfulness by relying entirely upon My attributes that are engaged for you in so many tested promises.  Do not give yourself to sinful and vain dealings, as those who have no interest in Me nor experience of Me."

"Sinful fear will cause the best people to attempt to help themselves through sinful compromises."

Isa. 30:15-17a
"In a word, one act of faith will do them more good than Pharaoh and all his forces.  But they refuse to trust God."

"The sinfulness of fear lies in its exess and immoderacy when we fear more than we ought. . . . . Our fear exceeds the value and merit of its cause.  It is a great sin to love or fear any creature above its worth, as if it were master of all our temporal and eternal comforts."

"To trust in any creature as if it had God's power to help us, or to fear any creature as if it had God's power to hurt us, is exceedingly sinful."

Isa. 31:1
"It is a sinful and dangerous mistake to give to a creature that trust and dependence that belongs to God alone."

"Be careful not to fear any man, as if the power of making or marring you were in his hands - as if it were his will and pleasure to save or ruin you.  Do not fear those who can only touch your body, as if they could damn your soul; do not attribute to any creature God's sovereign and incommunicable power."

"The sinfulness of fear consists in its power to dispose and incline people to use sinful means to escape danger.  This casts them into the hands of temptation."

You are in our prayers.

There was only ever one hope!

Dear brothers and sisters,

I want to wear a button that says, "Repent, the end is here!!!!"

I am hardly fit company today after the results of the election.  That my "soul is cast down within me," is an understatement.

Of this, I am forced to repent and seek forgiveness.

I never realized how much hope I had placed in this election.  I am ashamed of how much I had looked to man and away from God.

I do know and I hope you do - that God is still sovereign - He still rules His creation, nothing is out of His control.

I am ashamed of the fear I have (surprise?) of the inevitable loss we will now suffer in terms of our material security.  I am ashamed of the thoughts that run through my mind.  I am ashamed at my lack of faith at God's answer to my payers.

I am ashamed at the thoughts that America, as we know it and love it is done.  I am ashamed of a desire to leave - either the country or civilization.  I am ashamed of my strong desire to drop off the grid and become one of the "invisibles."

I am ashamed of my lack of faith directed at the whole purpose of faith - His glory and honor.

I am haunted by one and only one statement made by Mr. Obama.  "Vote, it's the best revenge."  Though perhaps a slip of the tongue, for me it reveals the very heart of what we will now have to trust God in.   Revenge - the fundamental purpose behind what will not come to pass.

I don't know of anywhere else to go to live.  I don't know how to "get off the grid."  I do not know how to disappear.  Perhaps that's a good thing for I fear it would be an act of faithlessness.

Like many of you, I have been sorely distracted by all the political tension and hope.  My mind has been distracted and my heart wounded by taking my eye and mind off the call of God.

Gun sales and ammunition sales are sky-rocketing.  Self-protection?  From who?  I sense it is not from the "bad-guys" but from the guys who now have the bigger guns.

I have only two consolations.  the first is that my God is sovereign and His will is good.  The second is - well - the prophets, John the Baptist, the Apostles all lived under the cruelest of political powers and yet remained faithful and fruitful.  They stood for God against warped and insidious powers of their day - yet without sin.

We too must stand.  Not primarily for our "liberties," nor our "rights," for, as a nation of laws we are subject to the changing of the laws.

We must stand for Him.  perhaps this is why we find ourselves where we are.  For generations we have have stood for all sorts of social and cultural - even moral "issues," but we have not stood for Him.  I believe that He has been and is disciplining us and calling us back to His purpose for us.

Our fight is against the flesh.  Yes, the world and the devil are involved BUT at the very core of it all is - well - us, our flesh.  It is the flesh that battles against the spirit.  It is the flesh - this body of death - that is our primary enemy.  We must repent - in weeping and even gnashing of teeth at the faithlessness we have shown.

I am "in" the world by His will - certainly not my choice.  We are not to be "of" the world - we are not to fight as it fights - but we have and we must repent.

I am encouraging all of you to examine your hearts.  Look to see what matter most in your life and living.  If God, His glory and His will - your being conformed to the likeness of His Son, is not at the center, repent - please, repent.

I am praying to find brothers and sisters who will join with me in a commitment - a singular commitment -to turn back to the call of God to His prime directive -.

Jesus came to redeem - that is not our job.  Our calling is to call men and women to repentance through the preaching of the Gospel.  We are NOT called to change the world - we never could - we never can.

A subtle persecution has long existed - there is no need for subtlety any more.  There is also no excuse for "stealth" or "compromised" Christianity.  It is time to rebuild the wall between the Body of Christ and the world.  For too long we have allowed them to be dismantled for the sake of acceptance and congeniality.  The wall must rise again.  The distinction between believers, imposters, posers and unbelievers must be made clear.

I am ashamed of my lack of faith and faithfulness.  I never knew its depth until today and now I feel it deeply and painfully.

We must rebuild the wall around God's gate, God's door.  This must begin with each of us.  We must repent of claiming to not be "of" the world and yet craving all it's goodies and making use of all its ways.

The Puritans are our best examples of men and women who forsook the world - perhaps we would do well to follow their lead.

It is now - to what ever responsible degree we can and in God's truth and wisdom - that we must, "Come out from among them,"  Do we have the faith to do that?  Do we trust God enough to seek and follow His path in this?

The world hates Him - the world hates us - what part of that do we not want to understand?

Michael "sheepdog" Sanders
ms@tc2v1.com
336-549-2081

This and That: Coveting 092312

I consider covetousness as the most generally prevailing and ensnaring sin, by which professors of the gospel, in our materialistic society, are hindered in their spiritual progress. A disposition deeply rooted in our fallen nature, strengthened by the custom of all around us, the power of habit, and the fascinating charm of wealth-is not easily counteracted.  

The language of faith, when in exercise, will not be, "What is most conducive to my temporal ease and prosperity?" But "What will give me the best opportunity of glorifying him, who has bought me with his blood, and called me out of darkness into his marvelous light?

John Newton July 1725 1807

Luk 12:15 And he said to them, "Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."

Rom 7:8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.

Eph 5:3  But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.

Col 3:5-6  Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.  (6)  On account of these the wrath of God is coming.

Covetousness:  pleonexía; from pleíōn, more, and échō to;  to want more.

Yesterday Patti and I went looking at computers.  Hers, being about 6 years old is on its last legs and we are selling stuff to get her a new one.  Between editing my blogs and working on her photography it’s about time she had a new machine.  Being able to do this is a blessing.

But – the looking, for me, was crushing.  I did not realize the covetousness that yet lingered in my heart until we started the search.  Trying to get an answer to, “what is the bare minimum she needs?” from a salesman was like pulling teeth.  Of course he recommended the “on sale” super machine with all the bells and whistles she doesn’t need.

However that wasn’t the problem.  The problem was that as we looked I found myself growing dissatisfied with my computer.  Now my computer meets all the needs of which I can think.  Needing little more than a machine on which I can do my writing and the occasional Power Point presentation I actually probably have more than I need.  That’s just the fact.

Yet as I looked I lusted and as I lusted I could literally feel myself slipping into turmoil over not being able to have the latest and greatest, coolest and neatest.  Why?  Well, at the root is my fallenness.  Next is my lack of examining me heart for this covetousness.  Finally it is the good old:  1Jn 2:16 “the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions.”

I did not have a need, I knew I did not have a need and yet somehow I felt irritated that I could not get what I did not need.  I felt insufficient, less than, hindered, hampered even cheated.  Now, is that nuts or what?  Well, it’s nuts but it is also sin.

How can we (ok, I) begin to root out this, as Newton calls it, “most generally prevailing and ensnaring sin?”

Newton writes, “The principle of this evil is so strong in us, and so powerfully nourished by almost everything around us, that it is seldom suppressed, but by a course of sharp discipline.”

Newton writes well when he writes: 

I am where he has placed me; and the calling in which his mercy found me, (if it be a lawful one,) is that in which, for the present, I am to abide, as the best for me. When it ceases to be so, I may depend upon him to appoint me another. But, until then, I desire to be contented with such things as I have, and to be thankful for them. He knows my frame, my feelings, my needs, and my trials; he permits, yes, invites me to cast all my cares upon him. He assures me that he cares for me, and therefore I only wish to do or to suffer according to his will today, and to leave the concerns of tomorrow in his hands. While I live-may I live for him! And when I die-may I go to him! May his grace be sufficient for me-and all shall be well."

The key in the above quote, at least for me is his comment, “I desire to be contented with such things as I have, and to be thankful for them.” 

Since James tells us that, Jas 4:1  “. . . .Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?”  I must conclude that it is my “passions,” that is “pleasures” that are the, or at least a, source of my stumbling.  So I have to ask, what brings me pleasure?  Is it staying in vogue?  Keeping up with the Joneses?  Having the latest and greatest? 

I have to confess it must be.  And I must repent.  But repentance comes hard for it, in this case, must be continuous and consistent.  I must fix my heart and mind on engaging this failing and examine as minutely as possible what I allow to bring me pleasure.  What makes me feel OK, safe, secure, valuable, meaningful and good enough?

Here again, Newton provides a key: 

“He knows my frame, my feelings, my needs, and my trials; he permits, yes, invites me to cast all my cares upon him. He assures me that he cares for me, and therefore I only wish to do or to suffer according to his will today, and to leave the concerns of tomorrow in his hands.”

I would only add one thing to this; that I remember and be grateful that He provides me with not only everything I need as I need it but, what I want if I need it.  So as well as wishing to do or to suffer according to His will, I also wish to have or not have what He wills.  Everything outside of that can hardly be counted a blessing.

A favorite, and until now obviously meaningless prayer of mine has been.  “Dear God please do not allow me to want that which You do not want me to want.”  I have to take that prayer more seriously, trusting Him to work in my mind and heart to make it so.

Jesus asks us: Mar 8:36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?  From this I must learn to ask, when I sense covetousness stirring, “Of what benefit would this be to my soul?”

If our Redeemer and Sustainer can be counted on to provide a way out of temptation how much more will He provide what we need, be it computers, cars, cash or cookies, for us to effectively do the work He has given us to do?

So, if like me you struggle against covetousness.  If it surpasses you by sniping or ambush press your attack in the strength of the Lord.  Say, “No, no, a million times no!”  And trust that your desire to overcome, to be free of this, “most generally prevailing and ensnaring sin,” is His as well.