God's Word: Past, Present.Future

Flip Wilson was a very funny comedian of the '60-70's who often portrayed the money-grubbing, low-living Reverend Leroy on his TV show. His permanent alibi for his sinful life was, "The Devil made me do it!" This saying swept the country and made us all smile.

I'm thinking today,however, of his oft stated "vision" for his "church". He would describe his church this way, "We don't care what happened in the PAST, or what's gonna happen in the FUTURE! We're the church of WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW!"

Unfortunately, such a description fits many of our churches well. Let us determine to not settle for such a truncated vision of the church. Let us embrace Christ's promise to the Apostles on the eve of His departure:

 "But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”John 16:13

How much truth is made available to the church/Christian according to the Head of the Church, the Lord Jesus Christ? What part of "all" don't we understand?

Let us make it our personal goal to know all truth revealed by the SPIRIT thru the WORD via the APOSTLES and those other evangelists, preachers, and teachers provided by the Holy Spirit for the edification of the church. Let us learn how God wrought in the Past thru individuals and Israel.

 Let us learn how Christ birthed the Church from His wounded side to be his Bride forever and how all of the pieces of the "mystery" fit well together and are in absolute harmony in the now completed revelation of the written will of God.

The most important factor in us learning the complete will of God is our DESIRE to do so! Consider this promise of God to any willing soul:"Turn at my rebuke; Surely I will pour out my spirit on you;I WILL MAKE MY WORDS KNOWN TO YOU." Proverbs 1:23

And let us consider the wonderful example of Daniel who heard the Lord's Angel say,"Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words." Daniel 10:12

Way back there, Daniel wanted to know the future, all of it, and God honored his worthy desire. Shouldn't we have that same desire as we see the world system crumbling before from the "birth pains" of a new creation beginning in our time?

 God will honor our careful study of His Word and open His secrets to all who will truly seek them. Let the scoffers scoff but let us value God's wonderful revelation to us who seek His truth and glory!

When the Pressure Is Just Too Much

WHEN THE PRESSURE IS JUST TOO MUCH

The Apostle Paul told of his own experience with over-whelming pressure here in 2 Corinthians 2:8: "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. 9 Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death."

COMMENT: At first glance, we may be amazed to learn the great Apostle is confessing to such pressure he even "despaired of life" and felt death was inevitable. After all, he had expressed and demonstrated tremendous faith in many other places.

It is he who taught in 1 Corinthians 10:13: "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it."

So what is going on? Is Paul folding under pressure and thus giving the lie to his teaching in other places in scripture?

No, we can't believe such is the case. What we do believe is the absolute honesty of the Apostle in confessing to the fact of stress which all people experience. We are encouraged that what Paul successfully endured and overcame can be a blueprint for victory in our own battle with stress, even overwhelming stress.

The key to victory for the Apostle was finding meaning and purpose in unavoidable stress. Here's the conclusion he reached in the depths of his own painful experience:

"But this happened (this threat of imminent death) that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead."

So distress, real distress, spirit-breaking distress, is allowed in the believer's life so we will not count on ourselves (our personal strength, intelligence, education, wealth, friends, position) "BUT ON GOD, WHO RAISES THE DEAD."

Self-reliance is our common area of greatest weakness. It may "work" in minor areas of our lives, but it will be crushed in the jaws of the realities of life.

Anyone can see faith in the God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead and is able to save us in life or death is far superior to our weak and fleshy resolves . Yet our natural tendency is to rely on ourselves. Thus it becomes apparent we we need help in this area: who are we going to trust, self or God?

God allows this test to happen again and again in the Christian life until we begin to see the wisdom of Christ in those strange sounding words (to our self-sufficient ears) of James 1:2:

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

Achieving maturity in the faith may involve many bumps and bruises along the path, but it is far superior to the cul-de-sac of immaturity. There we simply go round and round, like the disobedient Israelites wandering in the wilderness of sin. So let us make it our aim to become mature as our Father wants us to be, even while honestly admitting we have not yet "arrived".

As Paul said in Philippians 3:10-14:

10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

The rest of the original passage regarding Paul's experience with overwhelming pressure is found here:

10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11 as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

LAST COMMENT: Perhaps the "deadly peril" Paul is referring to is not death. Could it be he is praising God for delivering him from self-reliance which is indeed a "deadly peril" to real faith in the living God?

May God also deliver us and the church from relying on man-made schemes which disregard the saving power of the Word of God.