Birthing Babies

A hospital delivery room is not for the fainthearted. I blacked out when one of our five children was being born (not quintuplets; it would have been far worse!). I was seated and didn’t fall over or pass out, but for a few seconds it was like someone had turned out all the lights, like one of the times I donated blood. Many are those who will bear witness that these venues are regularly characterized by a lot of yelling, blood, and gore. Until the process is complete, “birthing babies” can be very stressful, in particular for the mom giving birth and sometimes for the dads in attendance, who have been known on occasion to literally pass out during this miraculous phenomenon.

Spiritual birth can also be a painful experience. It is true that there are those who come to Christ at an early age in life and never look back. But even these must have their own “mini-Gethsemane” in the act of surrendering their (perhaps pliable, yet) still independent wills to Jesus, and the process doesn’t stop there. But for a large percentage of us, getting to, upon (“I am crucified with Christ”), and beyond the Cross of Jesus Christ can be a real life-and-death struggle because our own wills have been in in the ascendancy for so long.

There is a very real danger in the church when well-meaning (or at times self-serving) clergy and others try to inject their own “epidural” into those struggling to find God by providing misguided and human-inspired words of comfort and enablement instead of interceding and trusting God to save them, no matter how difficult and painful the “delivery.” I sat in a church “stuck in the breach” for a full year knowing that I was in a lost spiritual condition, but was absolutely unable to do anything about it. There was a hindrance and I was helpless to do anything except to ask for prayer and to hold on to hope as if my life depended upon it, which it did.

You may lose your grip on faith for a time, but you can never, ever abandon hope!

People who give up all hope are the ones who take their own lives, or are overpowered by Satan and consciously reject the claims of Christ for eternity. I could have prayed a thousand “sinner’s prayers” during my time of crisis and nothing would have changed, because God had a perfect plan for redeeming my soul, and that plan would unfold only in His timing and through His means. But when it was fulfilled, it would be real. It would be, not by reason, but by revelation. My pitiable portion of faith would become alive.

Our flesh, even without Satan’s added prompting and deception, can be the biggest deterrent to a genuine salvation experience. There are many things that can hinder salvation and then being filled with the Holy Spirit. It is often said, “Jesus doesn’t clean His fish before He catches them.” Much more accurately, Jesus doesn’t catch His fish until they “come clean.” Jesus doesn’t deliberately go around looking for rocky ground to sow His seed. There may be many obstacles in my heart that prevent me from seeing the true Gospel. Perhaps it is a root of bitterness or unforgiveness against someone that I, in reality, have no intention of surrendering. Perhaps it is a private addiction or some other sin that I consciously try to conceal from the piercing, convicting laser-light of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps I am expecting to come to Christ, but only as long as that doesn’t mean giving up any of my idols in the process.

As a friend of mine often says, “We need to let GOD save people!” That is not to say that God does not want to use us to sow, water, feed, and cultivate. That is a huge part of our mission during our stay here; to make disciples for Christ. But if a person doesn’t recognize they are lost and are in danger of eternal judgment, what are they going to be saved from? In the scriptures, repentance always precedes salvation. It is the job of the Holy Spirit to reveal our lost state, and then to bring us safely and methodically through the delivery process.

That process will inevitably involve a Gethsemane of our own will, but one of God’s making, with the loving objective of our eternal adoption as His children!

“Then he said to me, ‘This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel saying, “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the Lord of hosts.’” (Zechariah 4:6 NASB)

MY NAME IS IN HIM

God is not so concerned about the escalating partisan hatefulness of America’s political and social dialogue; the once unthinkable level of bloodshed through mass murder and abortions; the insatiable appetite for new and sensual entertainments to a level of “idolatry”; the ever-expanding lgbtq-xyz acronym; the greed causing a growing scarcity of livable and affordable habitation for the less prosperous; the disturbing epidemic of substance addictions, pornography, and suicides; the declining respect for authority and family and human life in general…as He is about something else:

His Holy NAME.

Obviously, that is not to say that the heart of God is not broken over the terrible toll sin has taken on our nation and on the world, with all of its violence, poverty, and disease; that has always been the case. That is why Christ came! But God is more concerned about what has become of the “light” and the “salt” that His Son’s bride, the Church, was intended to be. Those aforementioned “effects” of sin in all societies are only symptoms.

Exodus 23:20-21 nasb “Behold, I am going to send an angel before you [Israel] to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Be on your guard before him and obey his voice; do not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your transgression, since My NAME is in him.”

I Corinthians 10:3-7 nasb “…They [Israel] were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness. Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved.”

The same “Rock” who preceded, guarded, and followed Israel is the exact same Rock who guides, protects, and nurtures true believers today. Our Rock is the eternal Source of spiritual light (life) and salt (preservative) meant to show hurting people the way to God! What is the world to think of a “church” that is daily rocked by reports of child sexual abuse, immorality, corruption, scandal, and an ever-growing compromise of God’s Word? In what circumstances does God refuse to “pardon” sin? Is it the degree or the category of sin. No! The answer is simple. Sin is not forgiven when it is not acknowledged and repented of. Israel crossed a “threshold” of committing bloodshed during the time of King Manasseh. Manasseh himself was punished by God but was later redeemed when he repented, but the people would go on to experience terrible judgments “for the innocent blood which he shed, for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; and the Lord would not forgive” (II Kings 24:4 nasb).Their leader turned from his own sin, but his subjects refused!

On two occasions many years ago I tried to reach out to a man who was married and had several children. This man had an often volatile temper and was a spouse abuser. Both times I visited him I found him alone and sitting in a dark room, fighting depression. The problem was, his family had been faithful members of a megachurch which specialized in “praise”, “prosperity” teaching, and claiming God’s “blessings”, but had never addressed or dealt with the sin problem in his life. Upon my invitation, this man attended two consecutive services at our church. At the end of the second service he went to the altar and confessed, “There is no fear of God in my church.” The man went back to his megachurch and we never saw him again. The last report I had of him was that he had abandoned his family, committed theft and assault, and sounded like a man “demon-possessed”, although he exuded a form of religion and spoke often and passionately of spiritual matters.

2 Corinthians 6:17 kjv “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.”

When the Church becomes all about entertainment, self-indulgence, and soothing the social conscience of mankind, we have completely lost sight of our standard:

The Cross of Jesus Christ!

A worthy quote:

“Regardless…of the conditions or difficulties you face in life, see in each one ‘a chance to die.’ For die, to yourself, you must if you would live unto God. Your wishes have been crossed? your likes and dislikes disregarded, your wisdom discredited, your sensibilities provoked, your opinions ridiculed? You have been falsely accused and your name has been cast out as evil? Take any or all of these up, as your cross, and see, in each of them, a chance to die to your vainglory and pride. You will learn little by little to be led as a lamb to the slaughter. Self-will and self-justification and self-defense are indeed your greatest foes. Someone says, ‘Welcome anything that calls you to your only true position, crucified with Christ.’ You will then experience the glorious truth, ‘Christ liveth in me’…The life that He imparts is a crucified life. It is a life centered upon God, fixed upon God, a life lived in the will of God. This Christ-life, mark you, is the life of Him who, on the eve of His passion and death, spoke for the first time in His earthly career of ‘My peace, My joy’; and in prayer for His own: ‘that my joy might be fulfilled in them.’ Christ’s joy in life’s darkest hour was in the will of His Father.” ~ L.E. Maxwell, Born Crucified.

Is Christ’s joy being fulfilled in you?

Meltdown at Mount Sinai

When God appeared to Israel on Mt. Sinai, the people quickly concluded that hearing God’s audible commandments directly from the source – the great thundering voice, the raging fire, the billowing smoke, the cloud and gloom, the blasting trumpet, the boulder-splitting earthquake – was far too terrifying for them to deal with. Trembling, they petitioned Moses that God would speak instead through him and not to them directly.

What was behind God’s purpose in taking Israel through such a difficult experience all those years in the wilderness?

“You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not” (Deut. 8:2 nasb).

God was testing His people to humble them and to reveal what was in their hearts! But what was their response when they literally encountered God “face to face” at Sinai prior to going into Canaan?

“…If we hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer, then we will die” (Deut. 5:25 nasb).

In contrast, Moses was not only greatly blessed to be allowed into God’s intimate presence and to communicate directly with Him, but because of his favor and friendship with God, he was given the amazing privilege of seeing God’s glory with his physical eyes (although – as you will recall – God could not fully reveal His actual countenance even to Moses). Moses also trembled at Sinai (Hebrews 12:21), but he was not “afraid” to approach God, because he had received a revelation of God’s great redemptive LOVE that had been demonstrated and proven time and again through the trials in the wilderness.

For a combined total of eighty days and nights Moses was before the God of Israel on Sinai, receiving the law and instructions God had outlined for His chosen people that would enable Him to bless them once they entered the promised land of Canaan. Moses was so enraptured and enveloped in that holy, sustaining presence that he required neither water nor food during his extended stays on the mountaintop, and thereafter his face would shine whenever he had approached God.

“Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear Me and keep all My commandments always, that it may be well with them and with their sons forever!” (Deuteronomy 5:29 nasb).

Do I have a desire to be more like Moses, or more specifically, more like Jesus, whom Moses foretold as the future incarnation of “a prophet like me” (Deut. 18:5), or am I content to remain more like the fearful, doubtful, and stubborn multitude that the faithful servant Moses struggled to intercede for, to shepherd, and to lead?

Do I have an ever-increasing passion to know God for myself and a growing desire to enter daily into His presence directly through the sacrificial blood of my great high priest, Jesus Christ? Or do I prefer, like Israel, to have God’s Word “filtered” through another human being, or perhaps through some compromised or even worldly context in a way that I find more “palatable”; a way that does not really call me into account when the Holy Spirit reveals something in my heart that needs to change.

Concerning the recorded narrative of Israel’s experience in the wilderness, the apostle Paul wrote:

“Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Corinthians 10:11 nasb).

God admonished the people through Moses:

“But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those of them whom you let remain shall be as barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall trouble you in the land where you dwell” (Numbers 33:55 esv).

The Old Testament still speaks to us. For those of us living today, those “inhabitants” represent our enemies of sin and unbelief; those residual areas of pride and self in the promised land of our hearts that still remain to be subjected to the lordship of Jesus.

“If God speaks to us, we will die.”

How prophetic those words were, because that is exactly the point! The Cross of Jesus Christ calls us to complete and unconditional identification with both His death and His resurrection; an ongoing, daily surrender to His life and His leading through a constant “dying out” to ourselves and a growing appetite to feed our spirits with a steady diet of His Word. The prophet Amos spoke of a time when there would be a “famine” for the “hearing” of God’s Word (Amos 8:11). We are clearly living in such a time, but Jesus is still looking for followers who will simply trust Him, persevere, and be available to make a difference in a dark world.

It’s all about Jesus!

“And they overcame him [Satan] because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death” (Revelation 12:11 nasb).

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*Recommended blogs:

https://123hallelujah.wordpress.com/ by Margaret

https://unshakablehope.com/ by Bill Sweeney

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Image attribution: By Mohammed Moussa – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28338950

What is the Difference Between Grace and Faith?

Ephesians 2:8-9 NASB: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

This verse is often misread and misused by some who have used the “grace” of God as a license to justify sin…

Jude 4 NIV: “For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.”

Grace and faith are both gifts from God, and all men have received a “measure” of both. Yet the Bible says that, “not all men have faith.” Why? Because the faith that God did give to them has not been “activated” by the Word of God. In other words, they have refused to “act” upon their faith by seeking God, and that faith is either dead or is in danger of dying. James wrote, “Faith without works,” or more accurately, “without [action]…is dead.” There is a window of opportunity for all men to respond to God’s loving offer of salvation. It is our choice, but only while that window remains open!

A better reading of Ephesians 2:8 would be, “Because God’s grace has been made available to you, you are saved by the power of faith.” Faith is the active word here!

So, it is faith, not grace, that is actually doing the saving.

How do we know this for certain?

Jesus did not say, “My grace has saved you.” But rather, “Your faith has saved you…go in peace.”

Titus 2:11 NIV “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people.” Are all people saved then? Sadly, no…

But ALL are partakers of grace, as long as their heart is still beating!

Grace, as distinguished from faith, is as universally present as the mysterious and posited physics phenomena known as “dark matter” and “dark energy”; infiltrating, like the Spirit of God Himself, every conceivable corner of the cosmos, unhindered by time and space! The Holy Spirit – the Spirit of God and His Christ – is the omnipresent “Quantum Mechanic,” maintaining and upholding all things “by the Word of His power”!

Thank God for love, faith, grace, love, hope…ALL His amazing gifts!

Bryan

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Salvation and sexual reproduction? The new, revised 2019 paperback edition of my (co-written) book, Born of the Water Born of the Spirit, can be found at the following link. It is also available as a Kindle ebook download: