2013 - I See a Bad Moon Rising

Ok - this isn't a very happy blog - but it is what it is.  I hope you will be convicted to draw closer to Him, dive deeper into His Word and pray like you've never prayed before.

I keep hearing, "Bad Moon Rising" playing in my head (yeah, I'm that old).


2013

I'd love to give you some sage advice and encouraging words but I just can't find any.  Things are bad for many of us and there is no confidence that (baring His coming)they will do anything but get worse.

We see the evil of men, especially men (not to leave out women) in power and we see their godless intentions being worked out.  Oh, we tried to beat them at their own game but, well, it was always their game so winning was not an option we had.  We've expended countless effort and rediculous amounts of wealth trying to beat a rigged house.  And now we will have to experience the consequences of it.

While we have been saying to the unbelieves, "No, you can't do that," and trying to halt the doward spiral of a world which we have been told has no way to go but down, we have forsaken our imperative and compromised our indicative (thanks David).  We have not been what we were called to be and hence we have been doing what we were never called to do.

What part of, "Christ the Redeemer," do we not get?  We redeem nothing and yet we have wasted so very much of His provision trying to.  We are called to be His and to do His will.  But, no, we have our own ideas and instead of simply and faithfully obeying Him we poured ourselves into - well - playing in their gym on their court by their rules.

Now we will reap what we have sown.

I am concerned that those who follow Christ will now, similar to the days of Rome, have to submit to a godless authority or pay grievious consequences.  While we have spent decades saying, "You can't....."  we have lost the voice to say, "We won't....."  And now we will have to say "We won't...." and they, like Rome will exact their pound of flesh - actually, several pounds (how much do you weigh?)

We have been so wrapped up in the myth of a Christian America (sorry folks, our revolution was a direct violation of scripture) that we have not given the needed attention to being individual Christians.  We have picked a fight with flesh and blood when we are clearly taught that that is not the true fight.

Not only have we picked a fight that was not ours but at the same time we have groveled pleading, "Please like us --- we're not so bad --- see all the cool stuff we do that you like."  We have YouTubed the gospel to the point that it's meaningless.  We have so focused on "fighting" to keep sinners from sinning that we have ignored our own sins.

Folks, it's time to flee to Pella.  Here's an interesting thing.  In the battle with Rome in 70 a.d. most believers thought it was the biggy and they booked it out of Jerusalem to Pella.  Well, they caught a lot of flack for that so in 132 a.d. when Simon bar Kokhba led his revolt against Rome we hung in there and fought.  All was hunky dory until the High Priest declared Kokhba the Messiah.  Well, then we dropped our weapons and said, "No!"  But it was just a little too late.  Our "No!" didn't matter.  We had sold out to culture and nationalism - patriotism and ended up having served "another evil."

Well, we didn't seem to learn from that one.  And now, our "No!" is meaningless.

Now I'm reading about folks buying lots of guns and ammo.  What do you plan to do follower of the Prince of Peace?  Kill someone in Jesus's name?  Are we going to do another "Peasant's Revolt?"  Another "Revolution?"  I'm not.

Oh, don't get me wrong I will, for prayerfully considered reasons, defend myself and my family but I'm not getting into an unholy war in His name.  If I am told I must offer sacrifices to Caesar (or the modern equvilant) I will not.  But I've got to have a lot of His help determining if and when I'm being told I have to do that.  The tough part is being sure that what I'm being forced or coerced to do is indeed a denial of Christ.

The issue is, "Who do I have to accept as sovereign?"  Christ or the ruling forces?  At what point can I say in good conscience, "No, it goes against my faith and would be tantamount to a denial of my Lord."

Now, however I get there and make that decision it will have to be my prayfuly considered decision.  I will have to examine everything prayerfully and scripturally and then stand to the consequences.  What I can not do is form some weird "movement," some crusade into which we pour and waste more lives, effort and money.

You know, regardless of our corporate calls for being united in refusing to deny our Lord it will always come down to you and me.  We will each have to stand before Caesar's alter and the bowl of incense and make our own decision.  When we say, "No!" we will say it individualy - only He will be with us.

Yes, God is sovereign but tell that to all those before us who were slaughtered, burned, starved, exiled, imprisonned ---etc.  Oh, they know it much better than we do - but we will be learning.  It will not be fun it will not be easy but He will be in charge of every moment of it.

I worry that those for whom serving Christ has been a comfortable thing will soon find it almost unbearable.  I fear those who have poured out only a little life for Him will stumble when all of it is demanded.

It may not be "lambs to the slaughter" time but the fleecing has begun.

Maranatha - Oh my sweet Lord!!!

Peter’s Pen 1st Peter 1:2

(1Pe 1:2)  according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

You’ve heard the saying, “He said a mouthful.”  Well, Peter says several mouths-full in this verse.

Peter gives us a box in which we can see something about our lives in Jesus.  Our lives in Christ are:

1     1.  according to the foreknowledge of God the Father

2     2.  in the sanctification of the Spirit

3     3.  or obedience to Jesus Christ

4     4.  or sprinkling with his blood

Look at each point this way:

1     1.  You are His and that is no surprise to God He knew it and if He knew it He brought it to pass.

2     2.  You are His inside and out, over and under and His “seal” of the relationship, the Spirit, is in you an        

             upon you – and that Spirit works in you making you like Him.

3     3.  We couldn’t and wouldn’t obey without 1 and 2.  Now we can and do.  Don’t go all legalistic on me 

            now - !

4     4.  Huh?  This means you are His forever.  His blood has cleansed you and made you His dear child – and 

            this blood will always have its effect. 

I would love to launch into a lot of information about the broad and deep meaning of this passage but I won’t.  What Peter is telling you and I is that we are His – period – not questions on His part and that ought to help us when we question it on our part.  He did it – it is done!

One little – kool beans part.  Notice that Peter tells us 1 and 2 were done for obedience and then he mentions the sprinkling of the blood.  For me that’s a comfort.

When I read “for obedience,” my flesh is very quick to tell me how poorly I obey.  I get this big spreadsheet of all the rebellious and unthinking ways I disobey.  I’m sure Peter knew all about this.  I wonder how often his flesh reminded him of his sins (see Peter in the Gospels). 

So knowing that we would iinstantly default to our weak and struggling obedience Peter with the Spirit’s guidance brings up the blood of Jesus which cleanses us from all unrighteousness.

This knee jerk to our weakness/sin is what I call a “Romans 7 moment.”  Get your Bible and read Romans 7.  Ouch!  But please do not skip verse 25!!!!! 

From there Paul writes:

There is therefore now

no condemnation

for those who are in Christ Jesus.(Rom 8:1)

There we are – this are us.  This is YOU!

Brothers and sisters, “in Christ,” no failure is ever final.  No one and nothing can undo what God has done.  Our hope here and our hope for heaven is secured by Him – not by us.

“Walk behind Him leaning forward.  If you fall, fall in His direction.  If you smack the ground, crawl towards Him.” MS

Peter's Pen 1 Peter 1:1

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,   (1Pe 1:1)

OK, think about this.  Peter, under the power of the Holy Spirit, wrote this to you and me.  So, in some way his address to them back then must apply to us now (and tomorrow).

We, believers, are “those who are elect exiles of the dispersion.”  Peter uses a phraseology more familiar to Jewish folks than to Gentile so his original audience was probably a mixture of Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus.  Two words are important for us (ok - not just two but I’m focused on two).

Elect and Exiles

What’s up with this “elect” thing?  Well, take a look at this –

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.   (Eph 1:3-6)

Now how that works, I’m not sure.  Can I “explain” it?  Probably not well.  But Paul writes it as fact – not fantasy or fiction, not metaphor or hyperbole, a fact.

So instead of worrying about “how,” what if we just accept it as the truth?  No bells, no whistles, just a truth.

“Us” of course refers to believers and Paul writes that believers were chosen before the foundation of the world.

OK – a little thought on “time.”  With God there is no before or after.  With God there is no yesterday, today or tomorrow.  “Time” is a part of His creation intended to aid us – not Him.  We see time progressively.  God isn’t limited to that – as He says, He Is.  So when Paul refers to, “the foundation of the world,” it is to help us understand God’s sovereignty as well as the assurance we have in Him.

If being “in Him” was dependent upon me – I’d be in real trouble.

Yes, this idea of “the elect,” is a tough one to chew on.  Thousands of books, sermons, lessons, etc. have been produced addressing it, and appropriately so.  But even though I’ve heard them and read them (just some), I still come back to, “God said that through Paul to me.”  What a blessed assurance!

We can struggle in this verse by asking, “Why me?” or “Why not xxxx?”  Well, I may have assurance of my faith but it isn’t for me to have assurance of someone else’s.  Not that the spiritual condition of another is of no consequence but rather that leads me to questions in which I can get lost.  When, in the last chapter of John’s gospel, Peter asks Jesus about John's future, Jesus basically tells Peter that John is not his (Peter’s) concern rather Peter has a calling he is to fulfill as John has his.

“Why” is not a question for which we always find an answer and that can really obsess us.  The danger there is that we become so focused on the whys we get unfocused on our calling and growth. 

A couple of good works to address this issue are:

Chosen By God by R.C. Sproul

Election and Free Will: God's Gracious Choice and Our Responsibility by Robert A. Peterson

Next we will explore the idea of “exiles.”