What Music? Thoughts from a Friend

A dear brother wrote me about yesterday's post...it is encouraging to me, with its focus on Jesus; I hope it will be encouraging to you.

This is exactly the message that we ALL need to both hear and absorb. All the other issues are secondary to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It seems to me that our love for Jesus grows when we recognize our own sinful nature, are genuinely remorseful, truly repentant, and consequently incredibly grateful for the mercy extended to us through Jesus Christ. I am convinced more than ever that to really appreciate the Love and Amazing Grace of Jesus, we need to humble ourselves before the Cross, and thank the Lord for rescuing us from what we all deserve. Thanks for the refreshing music of unmerited Grace in Jesus. His love is beyond anything imaginable ! Bob Fitch 

What Music?

 

It occurs to me that most “Christians” have it all wrong – we think that if we don’t change our ways that God will judge us (well, perhaps some of us do, I’m not sure) – we are too stupid to see that the things that are happening are not a possible prelude to judgment, but that they are God’s judgment – both within and without the professing church. (Romans 1, 2 Thessalonians 2).

 

If God’s Word is not penetrating our inner beings (Hebrews 4:12 – 13), if we are not engaged in deep intercessory repentance (Daniel 9), and not asking God to search us and try us (Psalm 19:12-14; 139:23-24), then think and say what we want – we have sold our birthright for a mess of pottage, have despised our inheritance, delivered our children to Molech, have prostituted ourselves, and are a wicked people, an apostate church.

 

The lampstand of the Ephesian church (Rev. 2:1ff) was not going to be removed because they taught false doctrine, they were commended for their discernment – it was going to be removed because they had left their first love – Jesus Christ.

 

Does anyone still love Jesus Christ?

 

Do I?

 

Do we?

 

Do you?

 

If so, what does that love actually look like? Is it obvious to others? Are we talking about Jesus or about our Americanism, our consumer-driven Christianity, our health and wealth? Where is the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ (Galatians 2:20; 6:14).

 

Don’t play me music on a piano tuned to anything other than the Lord Jesus Christ – the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ.

 

What music are you listening to, what music are you responding to?

 

Father’s Day

 

This morning some of my first thoughts were of Romans 8:14 – 16 and Galatians 4:6 – 7:

 

“For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption [the placing of a son] as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies that we are children of God...” (Romans 8:14 – 16).

 

“Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, carrying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.” (Galatians 4:6 – 7).

 

Do we realize that we are the sons and daughters of the Living God? That we have been invited by Christ, and through Christ, into the fellowship of the Trinity?

 

Can we hear the words of Jesus as He taught us to pray, “Our Father…”? Can we not see that our Lord Jesus came to open the gates of sonship to His brothers and sisters?

 

Do we hear the words of the resurrected Christ, “…but go to My brethren and say to them, I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God”? (John 20:17).

 

The same John who wrote the Gospel that bears his name, also wrote a letter in which he said, “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God…” (1 John 3:1a).

 

And then we have one of the great incarnational passages in Scripture, Hebrews 2:5 – 18 in which we see that the Father is bringing “many sons to glory” through Jesus Christ, and that “both He who sanctifies [Jesus)] and those who are sanctified [us] are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren.”

 

Do we see and accept the glorious Gospel – truth that our Father’s eternal desire is to have sons and daughters transformed into the image of His Firstborn? Do we behold the unfathomable mystery that we are now in the Father and that the Father loves us as He loves His Firstborn? (John Chapter 17).

 

Can we not see that we are called to be conformed to the image of the Firstborn Son of our Father so that Jesus will be the “firstborn among many brethren”? (Romans 8:29).

 

What a glorious Father’s Day it can be if we will accept the magnificent love of God, if we will confess our sonship and the glorious grace that has come to us through Jesus Christ.

 

It is because we are all of One Father, that our Lord Jesus calls us His brothers and sisters.

 

Let us cry, “Abba! Daddy! Father!”

A.W. Tozer Quotes

 I first read Tozer as a teenager; his book, The Pursuit of God, is a classic and worth reading and rereading. Here are some quotes:

From The Pursuit of God, by A.W. Tozer:

 

“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”

 

“To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul’s paradox of love.”

 

“Let every man abide in the calling wherein he is called and his work will be as sacred as the work of the ministry. It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular, it is why he does it.”

 

“God must do everything for us. Our part is to yield and trust.”

 

“Millions call themselves by His name, it is true, and pay some token homage to Him, but a simple test will show how little He is really honored among them. Let the average man be put to the proof on the question of who or what is ABOVE, and his true position will be exposed. Let him be forced into making a choice between God and money, between God and men, between God and personal ambition, God and self, God and human love, and God will take second place every time. Those other things will be exalted above. However the man may protest, the proof is in the choice he makes day after day throughout his life.”

 

“The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God and the Church is famishing for want of His Presence.”

 

“Let us practice the fine art of making every work a priestly ministration. Let us believe that God is in all our simple deeds and learn to find Him there.”

 

“We now demand glamour and fast-flowing dramatic action. A generation of Christians reared among push buttons and automatic machines is impatient of slower and less direct methods of reaching their goals...The tragic results of this spirit are all about us: shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies...the glorification of men, trust is religious externalities....salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit. These and such of these are the symptoms of an evil disease.”

 

“You can see God from anywhere if your mind is set to love and obey Him.”

 

“Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth.”

 

“He had everything, but he possessed nothing. There is the spiritual secret.”

 

“God is so vastly wonderful, so utterly and completely delightful that He can, without anything other than Himself, meet and overflow the deepest demands of our total nature, mysterious and deep as that nature is.”

 

“O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, that so I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away." Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee….”

 

“Every man must choose his world.”

“If we cooperate with Him in loving obedience, God will manifest Himself to us, and that manifestation will be the difference between a nominal Christian life and a life radiant with the light of His face.”

 

“Promoting self under the guise of promoting Christ is currently so common as to excite little notice.”

 

“As long as you set yourself up as a little god to which you must be loyal there will be those who will delight to offer affront to your idol.”

 

“Between the scribe who has read and the prophet who has seen there is a difference as wide as the sea. We are today overrun with orthodox scribes, but the prophets, where are they? The hard voice of the scribe sounds over evangelicalism, but the Church waits for the tender voice of the saint who has penetrated the veil and has gazed with inward eye upon the Wonder that is God. And yet, thus to penetrate, to push in sensitive living experience into the holy Presence, is a privilege open to every child of God.”

 

Pondering Judges (2)

 

“But Manasseh did not take possession of Beth-shean and its villages…so the Canaanites persisted in living in the land…they [Manasseh] put the Canaanites to forced labor, but they did not drive them out completely.” Judges 1:27 – 28.

 

In Judges 1:27 – 35 we see that, contrary to God’s command, the tribes of Israel did not fully possess their inheritance by driving out the peoples of the land, but rather thought that they could coexist with them. Not only did they think they could coexist with them, but in many instances, such as with Manasseh, they thought they could make use of the inhabitants by forced labor. In other words, they thought that their lives would be better off by using the people of Canaan rather than by obeying God and fully possessing the inheritance which God had promised to them.

 

The result of Israel’s misplaced trust and unbelief was that they not only came to adopt the religions of Canaan, committing idolatry and spiritual adultery, but it was only a matter of time before the people of Canaan regained their military strength and began to turn the tables on Israel, militarily overpowering the Israelites.

 

Since we know that all things written in the Old Testament are written for our instruction (1 Cor. 10:11), what can we learn from this?

 

While I am certain you can identify insights and lessons in response to my question, for there are many, let me state some basics.

 

1.    We are called to live in the Holy Spirit and not rely on the wisdom of this world or the abilities of this world.

2.    God’s ways are not our ways.

3.    We are not called to live in pragmatism, but according to the Word of God in conjunction with the illumination and leading of the Holy Spirit.

4.    We are called to be people of the Spirit and not people of the flesh and natural.

5.    We cannot coexist with the unholy – we are called to be holy as God is holy.

6.    We are foolish to think that we can adapt the ways of this present age to the service of the Kingdom of God.

7.    We must not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship can light have with darkness?

8.    The express purpose of Israel coming to Canaan was to worship God, to serve Him, and to be a light to the nations. When we forget our purpose in God we become self-centered, take the place of God (we think), and find ourselves careening down a slippery slope with increasing velocity.

9.    When we bring the leaven of sin and the world into the Bread of God, the People of God, this leaven will permeate the loaf of Bread if it is not confronted, repented of, and cast out. If the leaven is allowed to remain we will come to a place where we can no longer discern the difference between the holy and the unholy, between the flesh and the Spirit, between the Church and the present evil age.

10. The pragmatic may have short-term benefits, but it is guaranteed to give us long-term pain. Also, once the pragmatic becomes our source of life, it is impossible, without the grace of God and deep repentance, to disengage from that in which we have come to trust.

 

Well now, what is there in my life that is the equivalent of coexisting with the Canaanites? What is the equivalent of putting the Canaanites into forced labor? What is there that I am trusting in other than God? What, or whom, am I looking to as my security in place of God?

 

What about you?

 

What about our churches, ministries, and institutions?

 

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting Way.” Psalm 139:23 – 24.

Pondering Judges (1)

 

“Then [the tribe of] Judah said to [the tribe of] Simeon his brother, Come up with me into the territory allotted to me, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I in turn will go with you into the territory allotted you. So Simeon went with him.” Judges 1:3.

 

Isn’t this the way it’s supposed to be? Brothers and sisters helping one another grow in their inheritance in Christ? And if we must have denominations and doctrinal distinctives because of the hardness of our hearts, then let’s remember the context of this passage – tribes helping one another gain their inheritance. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Presbyterians assisted Baptists, and Pentecostals assisted Methodists, and Lutherans gave a hand to Nazarenes in the obtaining of our mutual inheritance in Jesus Christ?

 

“For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established; that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine.” (Romans 1:11 – 12).

 

What am I doing to facilitate this Biblical vision? What are our congregations doing? What are our traditions and denominations doing? What are you doing?

 

I’m reminded of a time when I was a teenager and two churches that I was close to had revival services during the same week. One was a Baptist church and the other was an Assembly of God; both of the pastors were good men; the churches were just a few miles apart. I went to each pastor and said, “Since your churches are having revival services the same week, wouldn’t it be great if each church would pray for the other church?”

 

I was given a pat on the head, told that I was a good boy, and sent on my idealistic way – how naïve to think that Ephesians 4 and John 17 still applied to the Church of Jesus Christ.

 

It is better to try and fail in this than not to try at all. It is better to be the only one in your congregation or denomination or city or town to, by the grace of God, attempt to fulfill the prayer of Jesus Christ that we would all be one, as the Father and Son are one (John 17), than to turn your back on the prayer of the Son.

Monetization - Loving Money

This morning I was reading 2 Timothy Chapter 3. Paul writes about a time when we will be "lovers of self, lovers of money...lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God."

 

What do you think about this?

 

What do you see around you?

 

What is the professing church modeling? How is the professing church living?

 

Have we monetized life? Have we monetized the professing church?

 

I suppose it’s easy for some of us to look at “name it and claim” types and say, “Well, they have certainly monetized the church,” but I don’t think this is that simple. What, after all, is the final arbiter of our decisions as congregations, denominations, parachurch ministries, and educational institutions? Is it really God’s Word, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus Christ?

 

Years ago there was a man, Eric, in my small group who was a church trustee. During the preparation of the budget for the coming year Eric, (who had been studying Henry Blackaby’s Experiencing God, along with others in his church), made the suggestion to his church that they prepare the budget not as they had done in the past, by anticipating tithes and offerings, but rather by seeking God’s direction for ministry and believing God to provide for that which He was directing. In other words, Eric suggested that his congregation base their decisions not on money but on the leading and provision of the Holy Spirit. This was all the more striking to me at the time because Eric was the treasurer of a large international corporation – in other words, he was at the top of the international  corporate financial ladder.

 

A few years ago Vickie and I were attending a church that we enjoyed, and we especially enjoyed the folks in our Sunday school class – it was good fellowship. Then a multi-million dollar building program reared its head. The congregation heard about the program during each service, via emails, and via YouTube videos. The fundraising was to culminate on Easter Sunday. It was distressing to us that anything should share the spotlight with the Resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday. It was also distressing that at no time, and I mean at no time, was there ever any mention of the leading of the Holy Spirit, of prayer, or of the Word of God (such as the Great Commission) in the fundraising. Not in any printed matter, not in any video, not in any email, and not in any church service.

 

The fundraising was sucking up all the air in the room. Where was Christ and the Cross? Where was the leading of the Holy Spirit?

 

Since I had a pretty good relationship with one of the associate pastors, I asked him to have lunch with me. During lunch I asked him whether there had been any discussion of prayer, the leading of the Holy Spirit, or of Biblical vision, with the congregation (in case Vickie and I had missed something). After a few thoughtful moments he said, “No there hasn’t. The fact is that we hired consultants to help us grow and we are following their recommendations.”

 

Dear friends, to monetize is to descend into the pragmatic, and to descend into the pragmatic is pretty much to monetize. We descend from being a supernatural people into being men and women of the earth; we trade our garments of the Spirit for the rags of the carnal.

 

When we measure our lives, whether they are our individual lives, our congregations, our nation, by money – when virtually everything is measured by its monetary value, its utilitarian function – then we have become loves of money.

 

Take a slow and sober look at 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9, what does this teach us about financial resources within the Body of Christ? Why isn’t this preached? Why aren’t we living this out? It’s because it would require a tectonic shift in our thinking about money and about how to value life – our own lives and the lives of others.

 

Our American individualism gives us, we think, a free pass in the way we value money. It gives us, we think, a free pass not to think of ourselves as the People of God but rather primarily as individuals who put ourselves first – hardly congruent with Christ’s call to lose our lives for His sake and the Gospel’s – a Gospel, by the way, which emphasizes laying down our lives for others, a laying down of  life which entails meeting the needs of not only those around us, but of those far away from us (we see this in 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9).

 

At least the “name it and claim it” preachers don’t hide their agendas – let’s give them credit for that. They might not be respectable for some of us, but at least they are respectably transparent, even if they are deceived and deceiving. Pity that they have not been taught the religious nuances of being able to love money and still look respectable and proper.

 

The tentacles of what I’m writing about remain in me, and only the Holy Spirit knows the extent to which they have poisoned my own soul. I long for freedom from loving money, from having money as my arbiter. I will not deny I have experienced the power and seduction of money and the pragmatic.

 

What about you?

 

Francis Schaffer wrote that the greatest threat to the church at the end of the 20^th century would be “personal peace and affluence.”

 

Do you think Schaffer was right?