Rev 14; 13 Moreover I heard a voice from heaven, saying Write this: Happy are the dead who die in the faith of Christ! henceforth" says the Spirit they may rest from their labors; for they take with them the record of their deeds".
What we done does follower us, and what is done in faith will matter. Spirit led? All done out side of faith is sin? makes one wonder what real faith is? a quest dear to me is so amazing to experience knowing him so personally.
It;s why we speak to it so, could care less about all the formal stuff it means nothing in the end. The travesty of the assemblies in certain cities resulted by compromise and seeking to assimilate to much into the culture got them destroyed. Rev
Encouragement here is to take it serious, boy I fought some real inward battles in the street ministry, the struggles inside and out,there are no how to books and besides it;s something you need to learn by doing it.
I recently found myself thinking of love what it means to me to have had the opportunity to care and for others when it was considered a waste to others,in most minds to do so, yet in wisdom, and also of my family members who have departed, or others, and the people along the way. Dont waste time guessing go all the way in faith. Take care.
I think of it all the time, a few weeks back I wandered deep into area where trail led to endless depths and not knowing where I was headed, realized just how much I desire to go by faith alone no other dependencies but God's very presence in me, so pure simple and clear like the mtn streams.
No fear his love casts out fear, hard engagements, praise God, it teaches to submit and yearn for his presence to show the way, apart my day dreaming, seeing the impressions of the sounds and sights along the way.
Take care....love one another.
Friday, May 11, 2012
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Thanks probe,
This article is not an exhaustive list of Christ's claims to be God, but it does cover the major ones. I suggest you read this with a Bible open, as I have not posted all the scriptures listed.
1. Mark 2:1-12--Jesus heals a paralytic. He had authority to forgive sins, which is something only God Himself can do. Then, to authenticate His claim, He demonstrated His power by healing the paralytic.
2. The miracles Jesus performed are a very strong indication of His divinity (because no mere human can work actual miracles by his own power). Jesus referred to the miracles in John 10:24-39 as proof that he was telling the truth. This passage is Christ's own response to the unbelieving Jews' charge of blasphemy (dishonoring God by claiming to be God). Incidentally, this section also includes a beautiful promise that once you are saved/born again/become a Christian, you can never lose your salvation. Verses 28-29 say we will "never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one." (Here is another strong statement that He is God.) We can have the assurance of eternal security because we didn't earn salvation in the first place; it is a free gift (Ephesians 2:8,9).
3. During Christ's trial, the chief priests asked Him point blank, "Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God." And He said,
These are all ways of saying the same thing, written by different authors.
In John's gospel, he recounts Jesus' interview with Pontius Pilate (John 18:33-37). Pilate wanted to know if He were the King of the Jews. Jesus then talked about how His kingdom was not of this world. Pilate said, "You are a king, then!" Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king..." The truth is, he is King of the whole universe.
4. Jesus says in John 10:11-18 that he is the Good Shepherd. When you read this passage along with Ezekiel 34:1-16, you can see that Jesus was identifying Himself with God, who pronounced Himself Shepherd over Israel. The Jewish people, being an agrarian and shepherding society, knew and dearly loved this section of the Old Testament because God was using a metaphor they lived every day. So when Jesus said, "I am the Good Shepherd," and that whole John passage so clearly parallels the Ezekiel passage, there was no doubt that He was claiming to be God.
5. John 4:25-26. This is where the Samaritan woman, whom Jesus went to meet at the well, gets into a discussion of "living water" with Jesus. He pinpoints her sinful lifestyle (knowledge He would not have had as a mere human passerby), then He admits that He is the long-awaited Messiah: "I who speak to you am He."
6. John 5:1-18. Jesus heals a lame man on the Sabbath, which the unbelieving Jews gave Him a hard time about. His answer was, "My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I too am working." It was a well-known Jewish line of thought that, although God rested on the seventh day after Creation week, He continued to "work" in being loving, compassionate, and just, as well as keeping the earth producing, keeping the sun moving, etc. In other words, although the creating had stopped, the maintenance went on--even on the Sabbath, and that was the only "work" allowed on that day. So Jesus is putting Himself on the same level as his Father in working on the Sabbath. And by calling God "My Father" (instead of "Our Father"), He was claiming an intimate relationship with God that far exceeded anyone else's. So in these two ways, He was making Himself equal with God.
7. John 16:28. "I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father." What Christ is saying here is that he existed along with the Father before being born. He "entered the world" by wrapping Himself in human flesh and being born as a baby. He grew up, fulfilled His mission/ministry, was crucified and raised from the dead (all part of the "mission") and then left the world to go back to the Father in heaven, where He is now seated at the right hand of God (the place of honor). He is the only person who ever existed before conception. That Christ was in a "pre-incarnate state" means that He is God.
8. (This is many people's favorite argument for the deity of Christ, including the author's.)
First, turn to Exodus 3, where Moses encounters God in the burning bush. God tells Moses that he is the one He has chosen to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Moses says to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me 'What is His name?' Then what shall I tell them?" God replies to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'" God has said that His own name, His personal name, is "I AM."
Now...
The force of Jesus' claim to be Yahweh (I AM) was so powerful that it literally knocked the arresting officers and the Jewish priests off their feet!
The above points are by no means exhaustive, and are given to contribute to the reader's understanding that Jesus Christ is Lord because He is God. In this vein, I would like to close with one of the most powerful quotes ever written on the subject, by noted author C.S. Lewis in his classic, Mere Christianity:
1. Mark 2:1-12--Jesus heals a paralytic. He had authority to forgive sins, which is something only God Himself can do. Then, to authenticate His claim, He demonstrated His power by healing the paralytic.
2. The miracles Jesus performed are a very strong indication of His divinity (because no mere human can work actual miracles by his own power). Jesus referred to the miracles in John 10:24-39 as proof that he was telling the truth. This passage is Christ's own response to the unbelieving Jews' charge of blasphemy (dishonoring God by claiming to be God). Incidentally, this section also includes a beautiful promise that once you are saved/born again/become a Christian, you can never lose your salvation. Verses 28-29 say we will "never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one." (Here is another strong statement that He is God.) We can have the assurance of eternal security because we didn't earn salvation in the first place; it is a free gift (Ephesians 2:8,9).
3. During Christ's trial, the chief priests asked Him point blank, "Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God." And He said,
• "I am." (Mark 14:60-62)
• "Yes, it is as you say." (Matt. 26: 63-65)
• "You are right in saying I am." (Luke 22:67-70)
These are all ways of saying the same thing, written by different authors.
In John's gospel, he recounts Jesus' interview with Pontius Pilate (John 18:33-37). Pilate wanted to know if He were the King of the Jews. Jesus then talked about how His kingdom was not of this world. Pilate said, "You are a king, then!" Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king..." The truth is, he is King of the whole universe.
4. Jesus says in John 10:11-18 that he is the Good Shepherd. When you read this passage along with Ezekiel 34:1-16, you can see that Jesus was identifying Himself with God, who pronounced Himself Shepherd over Israel. The Jewish people, being an agrarian and shepherding society, knew and dearly loved this section of the Old Testament because God was using a metaphor they lived every day. So when Jesus said, "I am the Good Shepherd," and that whole John passage so clearly parallels the Ezekiel passage, there was no doubt that He was claiming to be God.
5. John 4:25-26. This is where the Samaritan woman, whom Jesus went to meet at the well, gets into a discussion of "living water" with Jesus. He pinpoints her sinful lifestyle (knowledge He would not have had as a mere human passerby), then He admits that He is the long-awaited Messiah: "I who speak to you am He."
6. John 5:1-18. Jesus heals a lame man on the Sabbath, which the unbelieving Jews gave Him a hard time about. His answer was, "My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I too am working." It was a well-known Jewish line of thought that, although God rested on the seventh day after Creation week, He continued to "work" in being loving, compassionate, and just, as well as keeping the earth producing, keeping the sun moving, etc. In other words, although the creating had stopped, the maintenance went on--even on the Sabbath, and that was the only "work" allowed on that day. So Jesus is putting Himself on the same level as his Father in working on the Sabbath. And by calling God "My Father" (instead of "Our Father"), He was claiming an intimate relationship with God that far exceeded anyone else's. So in these two ways, He was making Himself equal with God.
7. John 16:28. "I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father." What Christ is saying here is that he existed along with the Father before being born. He "entered the world" by wrapping Himself in human flesh and being born as a baby. He grew up, fulfilled His mission/ministry, was crucified and raised from the dead (all part of the "mission") and then left the world to go back to the Father in heaven, where He is now seated at the right hand of God (the place of honor). He is the only person who ever existed before conception. That Christ was in a "pre-incarnate state" means that He is God.
8. (This is many people's favorite argument for the deity of Christ, including the author's.)
First, turn to Exodus 3, where Moses encounters God in the burning bush. God tells Moses that he is the one He has chosen to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Moses says to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me 'What is His name?' Then what shall I tell them?" God replies to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'" God has said that His own name, His personal name, is "I AM."
Now...
a) Turn to John 8:56-58. Jesus is talking to the unbelieving Jews. "Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing My day; he saw it and was glad." "You are not yet 50 years old," they said to Him, "and you have seen Abraham?" "I tell you the truth," Jesus announced, "before Abraham was, I AM!" Jesus was the great I AM from before the beginning of time; He existed before Abraham ever was. He is claiming here to be the I AM of the Old Testament. Verse 59 says the Jews picked up stones to stone Him, but the Lord Jesus slipped away. The reason they wanted to stone Him was because stoning was the death penalty for blasphemy. He was claiming to be Yahweh--Jehovah--Almighty God--I AM. (Of course, it wasn't blasphemy when Christ claimed to be who He truly was!)
b) John 8:24. "I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I AM, you will indeed die in your sins." In your Bible, it may read "if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be...." The extra words are supplied by the editors; they're not in the original text. If you're familiar with Exodus 3 you don't need the extra words for it to make grammatical sense. The Lord Jesus is again claiming to be God.
c) John 18:4. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Judas and some priests and soldiers are about to take Jesus prisoner. "Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to Him, went out and asked them, 'Who is it that you want?' 'Jesus of Nazareth,' they replied. 'I AM,' Jesus said. When He said, 'I AM,' they drew back and fell to the ground." (Again, in your Bible the editors may have supplied "I am [he]" to make it grammatically correct. The Greek just says, "I AM.")
The force of Jesus' claim to be Yahweh (I AM) was so powerful that it literally knocked the arresting officers and the Jewish priests off their feet!
The above points are by no means exhaustive, and are given to contribute to the reader's understanding that Jesus Christ is Lord because He is God. In this vein, I would like to close with one of the most powerful quotes ever written on the subject, by noted author C.S. Lewis in his classic, Mere Christianity:
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic--on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg--or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon, or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come away with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Seeking, and embracing the truth?.
Ephesians; All of this will one day come crashing down at judgment when each of us will stand before Jesus, we all have the same bibles and will answer for why we didn’t search the scriptures to see if these things were true. 1 Corinth 3 How we build!
By Andy , (thanks and hope your fine, our reach is still on the move it;s our 12th year, and what a joy here) the north east is a real challenge and it;s missions ground.The Lord said to Moses, “Behold, there is a place by me…” Ex 33:21, KJV .
Though there is much talk of love, who really knows its depths? There is a place where that Love can be seen and experienced… it is “a place by me.” There is much talk about revelation, restoration and being the ones that will bring change in this world. But what is really lacking in all these human activity?
The things we to often admire today are shallow things: great men, great teachings, great miracles, great movements, great success, great crowds and great wisdom. All of these things we can build a religion around. We can write books about, hold conventions and teach them, but unless they reach to the very height of the presence of God and achieve absolute intimacy with the Lord, they are only still things.
It is true that one can achieve a level of self-control and righteousness, but it is only filthy rags if it is not born out of an eternal love that pre-existed long before God created man and man created religion. We were not given the bible to know the bible, we were given His word that we might love God and one another.
Now abides faith, hope and love and the greatest of these is love. Our minds are too quick to adhere to anything that makes us feel we are in the right place, weather a movement or a church, but there remains a place by Jesus in abiding in Him that few have found. We like to think we are spiritual as we compare ourselves to others; that too can be a religion of Cain, a religion where we forget the deposit of Christ in others… have we forgotten that we are our brother’s keeper?
The world is earnestly seeking to see the manifestation of the sons of God. So what is it they all so longing to see? It is the love of God that can fill every empty and broken heart. Love forgives, love is pure, love is humble and love cares. Today we have too much unforgiveness and judging of one another.
Love existed long before men and it was because of the love of God that God wanted to include him in their love for one another. Obedience, unity, fellowship is easily achieved when we touch His love. We too often know these things, but do we really see it and experience it. Do we really know that love is the answer? Do we really come into His presence because of love? Do we really relate to one another under His banner of love? Do we think of His love for us during every trial? Do know how much love He has to offer? Are we growing each day in His love? If not, we will live by a thousand other motivations and emotions.
Our Christianity can best be understood and experienced by our place in abiding in Christ rather than what we know in terms of biblical knowledge and doctrine. Nothing is really understood outside of His love. What is true or better what is real only comes as we understand why He created us.
The maturity of our walk is marked by a continual dwelling between the eternal love of the Father and Son. Only the truly spiritual person knows and understands by experience what in means to be seated in heavenly places and to experience the kind of love shared intimately between the Father and the Son.
“…[You Father] have loved them as You have loved Me…that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them." John 17:23, 26
Love is an environment of heaven in the presence of Jesus and the Father. Abiding in that love will make obedience easy and will give you faith.
We too freely talk about one another and fight with one another. We have no concept of the bigger war which we are losing each day. Ephesians, We think as Christians we are here to name and claim bible verses and to establish our comfy kingdoms.
We need people that are man enough and woman enough to show up for the battle. A house divided cannot stand…there is to be one body and one Head and every member functioning under the power of the Holy Spirit, loving one another and being built together as one body... otherwise we are a paraplegic institution showing up for a substitute to pacify our indifference and lethargy.How I weep for His Kingdom to return in power and holiness... I feel the pain!
By Andy , (thanks and hope your fine, our reach is still on the move it;s our 12th year, and what a joy here) the north east is a real challenge and it;s missions ground.The Lord said to Moses, “Behold, there is a place by me…” Ex 33:21, KJV .
Though there is much talk of love, who really knows its depths? There is a place where that Love can be seen and experienced… it is “a place by me.” There is much talk about revelation, restoration and being the ones that will bring change in this world. But what is really lacking in all these human activity?
The things we to often admire today are shallow things: great men, great teachings, great miracles, great movements, great success, great crowds and great wisdom. All of these things we can build a religion around. We can write books about, hold conventions and teach them, but unless they reach to the very height of the presence of God and achieve absolute intimacy with the Lord, they are only still things.
It is true that one can achieve a level of self-control and righteousness, but it is only filthy rags if it is not born out of an eternal love that pre-existed long before God created man and man created religion. We were not given the bible to know the bible, we were given His word that we might love God and one another.
Now abides faith, hope and love and the greatest of these is love. Our minds are too quick to adhere to anything that makes us feel we are in the right place, weather a movement or a church, but there remains a place by Jesus in abiding in Him that few have found. We like to think we are spiritual as we compare ourselves to others; that too can be a religion of Cain, a religion where we forget the deposit of Christ in others… have we forgotten that we are our brother’s keeper?
The world is earnestly seeking to see the manifestation of the sons of God. So what is it they all so longing to see? It is the love of God that can fill every empty and broken heart. Love forgives, love is pure, love is humble and love cares. Today we have too much unforgiveness and judging of one another.
Love existed long before men and it was because of the love of God that God wanted to include him in their love for one another. Obedience, unity, fellowship is easily achieved when we touch His love. We too often know these things, but do we really see it and experience it. Do we really know that love is the answer? Do we really come into His presence because of love? Do we really relate to one another under His banner of love? Do we think of His love for us during every trial? Do know how much love He has to offer? Are we growing each day in His love? If not, we will live by a thousand other motivations and emotions.
Our Christianity can best be understood and experienced by our place in abiding in Christ rather than what we know in terms of biblical knowledge and doctrine. Nothing is really understood outside of His love. What is true or better what is real only comes as we understand why He created us.
The maturity of our walk is marked by a continual dwelling between the eternal love of the Father and Son. Only the truly spiritual person knows and understands by experience what in means to be seated in heavenly places and to experience the kind of love shared intimately between the Father and the Son.
“…[You Father] have loved them as You have loved Me…that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them." John 17:23, 26
Love is an environment of heaven in the presence of Jesus and the Father. Abiding in that love will make obedience easy and will give you faith.
“faith working through love” Gal 5:6
“Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, [How?] looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” Heb 12:1-2
"As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.[if His joy is permitted to remain in us, our joy will be full. We are not to seek our joy, but His] This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends [this is a love that puts others first and not based on self]. John 15:9-14, NKJV
“Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, [How?] looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” Heb 12:1-2
"As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.[if His joy is permitted to remain in us, our joy will be full. We are not to seek our joy, but His] This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends [this is a love that puts others first and not based on self]. John 15:9-14, NKJV
Such saints will have learned to dwell in the love of God under the shadow of the almighty. It is there that the total essence of Christianity is found…Love!!!
Such saints have learned to abide in Christ as a dwelling place of intimacy. Not dwelling in our shallow problems, but by faith resting in Him alone. Those who have found His love know that Jesus is their hiding place: there past can’t find then, their problems can’t find them, their sins can’t find them, the world can’t find them, selfishness and pride can’t find them, and the devil can’t find them. “For me to live is Christ.” Jesus said that “Satan has come and finds nothing in me.” Why is that? Because He remained in the Father. Though Jesus was the unique Son of God, was not His life on earth the pattern, the example, the very image that we are to fulfill? “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son,” (Rom 8:29) Does that not have the ring of Geneses to it, “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them”
All our problems, trials, religion, will never be understood for what they really are until our place, out seat becomes a living reality while we are here on earth. That is why Paul said, “I don’t care to know anything among you except Christ and Him crucified.” This place seated in heavenly places with Jesus is not a seat that is understood by doctrine, but compassion. If our minds are not set in heavenly places with Jesus, we will be strangers to the resurrected, loving life and presence that Jesus has provided for all those who love Him.
Such saints have learned to abide in Christ as a dwelling place of intimacy. Not dwelling in our shallow problems, but by faith resting in Him alone. Those who have found His love know that Jesus is their hiding place: there past can’t find then, their problems can’t find them, their sins can’t find them, the world can’t find them, selfishness and pride can’t find them, and the devil can’t find them. “For me to live is Christ.” Jesus said that “Satan has come and finds nothing in me.” Why is that? Because He remained in the Father. Though Jesus was the unique Son of God, was not His life on earth the pattern, the example, the very image that we are to fulfill? “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son,” (Rom 8:29) Does that not have the ring of Geneses to it, “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them”
All our problems, trials, religion, will never be understood for what they really are until our place, out seat becomes a living reality while we are here on earth. That is why Paul said, “I don’t care to know anything among you except Christ and Him crucified.” This place seated in heavenly places with Jesus is not a seat that is understood by doctrine, but compassion. If our minds are not set in heavenly places with Jesus, we will be strangers to the resurrected, loving life and presence that Jesus has provided for all those who love Him.
The missing element
Could divine, sacrificial love be the missing element in much of what we do?
As the years go by, I am learning to see more and more through the eyes of Love. Only as we love Him in great humility can we see anything correctly. God loves me, not as a doctrine, but as a reality that must be lived out by faith and not reasoning or emotions. He has created every situation in my life that will lead me closer to knowing Him and His love. I can never have His love as long as I have self-love and self-preservation. I am becoming ever more conscious and ever more aware of one thing: His love comes to me personally out of the cross and my ascending with Him in heavenly places…Yes being heavenly minded is good!
John 14:19-21, "A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." NKJV
God is not willing to give us men and revelation to build our religion around, He gives us His Son and the Son gives us the Father and there we find real love followed by real spiritual obedience. God will reveal Himself only if we love Him… do we understand that? It is His love living in us and working through us that causes us to feed the poor, to visit those in prison and heal the sick. It is His love that supernaturally joins us together in a heavenly fellowship mentioned in Eph 4:16, “From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, makes increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.”
If we are filled with the eternal love of Jesus, we will have a love for one another that the world has yet to see. It is the love of Jesus that will cause us to love one another and in our love for one another we will know, by experience, the depth of the Love of God. “That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, [not doctrine or knowledge] may be able to comprehend with all [not just your little cutting-edge group] the saints what is the width and length and depth and height — to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge [beyond doctrine and the forms of men’s intellect and schemes]; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Eph 3:17-19, NKJV.
In the early assembly they looked for men who were full of the Spirit and wisdom. They didn’t train leaders, they recognized them. This was not a one time filling, but a perpetual filling.
“do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be [continually] filled with the Spirit.” Eph 5:18, NKJV
This is not an experience, but a life laud down and full of Joy and the Kingdom of God. Revelation can only come from a heart dedicated to His love.
What cutting-edge sect has ever walked in the fullness of His love and understood His love for them and others? Our doctrines have limited our ability to love as Jesus loves. We don’t understand His love because we are not really willing to love. We have been too long living out of our limited understanding and humanity and we have been deceived in thinking we have revelation, while all along we have not raised sonship to a level of incorporating all of the saints.
Could divine, sacrificial love be the missing element in much of what we do?
As the years go by, I am learning to see more and more through the eyes of Love. Only as we love Him in great humility can we see anything correctly. God loves me, not as a doctrine, but as a reality that must be lived out by faith and not reasoning or emotions. He has created every situation in my life that will lead me closer to knowing Him and His love. I can never have His love as long as I have self-love and self-preservation. I am becoming ever more conscious and ever more aware of one thing: His love comes to me personally out of the cross and my ascending with Him in heavenly places…Yes being heavenly minded is good!
John 14:19-21, "A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." NKJV
God is not willing to give us men and revelation to build our religion around, He gives us His Son and the Son gives us the Father and there we find real love followed by real spiritual obedience. God will reveal Himself only if we love Him… do we understand that? It is His love living in us and working through us that causes us to feed the poor, to visit those in prison and heal the sick. It is His love that supernaturally joins us together in a heavenly fellowship mentioned in Eph 4:16, “From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, makes increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.”
If we are filled with the eternal love of Jesus, we will have a love for one another that the world has yet to see. It is the love of Jesus that will cause us to love one another and in our love for one another we will know, by experience, the depth of the Love of God. “That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, [not doctrine or knowledge] may be able to comprehend with all [not just your little cutting-edge group] the saints what is the width and length and depth and height — to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge [beyond doctrine and the forms of men’s intellect and schemes]; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Eph 3:17-19, NKJV.
In the early assembly they looked for men who were full of the Spirit and wisdom. They didn’t train leaders, they recognized them. This was not a one time filling, but a perpetual filling.
“do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be [continually] filled with the Spirit.” Eph 5:18, NKJV
This is not an experience, but a life laud down and full of Joy and the Kingdom of God. Revelation can only come from a heart dedicated to His love.
What cutting-edge sect has ever walked in the fullness of His love and understood His love for them and others? Our doctrines have limited our ability to love as Jesus loves. We don’t understand His love because we are not really willing to love. We have been too long living out of our limited understanding and humanity and we have been deceived in thinking we have revelation, while all along we have not raised sonship to a level of incorporating all of the saints.
Loving others more than ourselves will keep us from anger, sin, hate and the multitude of inner wars we find today. Only the desire to love and the exercise of faith of Christ in us and us seated in heavenly places will cause us to understand the depths of His love. There are no short cuts or alternative paths. As long as we permit our carnal nature to devour and occupy all of our attention, we will never enter into the reality of truly loving Him.
It is an either or choice, “for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.” Luke 16:13, NKJV
Where are our loyalties? Those who dwell in the secret place of the most high will dwell in love and obedience… that is the true and the only means of salvation given to us by Jesus. Love is overwhelming. But we must let love fill our hearts and direct our thinking if we are going to grow.
Obedience is the spiritual result of where we live and not how hard we try to obey. Jesus said it this way, “If you love me, you will keep my [not yours or men’s] commandments.”
Obedience is the spiritual result of where we live and not how hard we try to obey. Jesus said it this way, “If you love me, you will keep my [not yours or men’s] commandments.”
Yes Jesus has commandments; it is in keeping them that defines His will from salvation to the life of the body. Sad that the majority of Christians don’t know that John 17 is one of His great and major commandments…
I am troubled when I see the commandments of men overshadowing the commandments of Jesus. Love and unity can not be separated, they build the body together in a bond that cannot be broken or separated. Any form of division is the result of a lack of love and understanding what the will of Jesus is. Creation is not waiting for divided, unloving sons.
I have cried for over 44 years over the many walls of division we have built. One day I was driving down the road and I asked Jesus (for the 10,000th time), “When will we see unity?” He said, “When love is restored to my body and men stop following men and start following Me.”
I am troubled when I see the commandments of men overshadowing the commandments of Jesus. Love and unity can not be separated, they build the body together in a bond that cannot be broken or separated. Any form of division is the result of a lack of love and understanding what the will of Jesus is. Creation is not waiting for divided, unloving sons.
I have cried for over 44 years over the many walls of division we have built. One day I was driving down the road and I asked Jesus (for the 10,000th time), “When will we see unity?” He said, “When love is restored to my body and men stop following men and start following Me.”
The cross
The provision of the cross has no value to us if we ignore it. The cross is the place where “God so loved the world;” it is there where we learn what love really is.
It is through the cross we deny our life and find the source of the love of Jesus’ sacrifice for each of us. Through the reality of the cross we see we are seated with Him in heavenly places. The other John 3:16 (1 John 3:16) has this to say about love, “By this we know love, [how?] because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren [all of the brethren].”
Love is defined by His sacrifice; His sacrifice was defined at the cross. The cross is the place where one loses their life in exchanges for His. When Jesus said, “take up your cross and follow me,” He was announcing that the cross meant a total death to self and a full surrender of our lives to the life of Jesus. If we try to hold on to the slightest bit of those precious things that are dear to us, we will find ourselves engaged in a perpetual inner battle between Jesus trying to remove those things and us desperately trying to hold on to them. Salvation came to all men through His cross, and salvation comes to us personally through our taking up our cross and following Him, both in His death and resurrection. Without the cross or death to self in our lives, we cannot be His disciple or be saved.
“And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.” Luke 14:27, NKJV
Only when we discover that it is His love that He wants to share with us that obedience becomes easy. Fall in love with Him and focus on Him and all the rest will be easy and make sense. Let His love occupy our every thought and occupy our every decision and we will find the joy of salvation.
We need to run from those problems that dominate our minds and focus. He made us to love Him.
The provision of the cross has no value to us if we ignore it. The cross is the place where “God so loved the world;” it is there where we learn what love really is.
It is through the cross we deny our life and find the source of the love of Jesus’ sacrifice for each of us. Through the reality of the cross we see we are seated with Him in heavenly places. The other John 3:16 (1 John 3:16) has this to say about love, “By this we know love, [how?] because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren [all of the brethren].”
Love is defined by His sacrifice; His sacrifice was defined at the cross. The cross is the place where one loses their life in exchanges for His. When Jesus said, “take up your cross and follow me,” He was announcing that the cross meant a total death to self and a full surrender of our lives to the life of Jesus. If we try to hold on to the slightest bit of those precious things that are dear to us, we will find ourselves engaged in a perpetual inner battle between Jesus trying to remove those things and us desperately trying to hold on to them. Salvation came to all men through His cross, and salvation comes to us personally through our taking up our cross and following Him, both in His death and resurrection. Without the cross or death to self in our lives, we cannot be His disciple or be saved.
“And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.” Luke 14:27, NKJV
Only when we discover that it is His love that He wants to share with us that obedience becomes easy. Fall in love with Him and focus on Him and all the rest will be easy and make sense. Let His love occupy our every thought and occupy our every decision and we will find the joy of salvation.
We need to run from those problems that dominate our minds and focus. He made us to love Him.
“You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You.” Isa 26:3, NKJV
“Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Matt 22:37, NKJV
“Casting all your care upon him; for he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7,
Jesus is our strength.
Jesus is our hope
Jesus is our joy
Jesus is our life
Jesus is our peace
Jesus is our righteousness
Jesus is our friend
We can only be transformed if we live by Jesus and His love for us. I have a saying I use to those I have helped, “I have never met a depressed person who kept their eyes on Jesus and I never met a person who kept their eyes on Jesus depressed.”
Those who live by His love for them will be filled with love. They well live by His peace and not their depression until His peace conquers their depression. Our emotions have taken to big a role in our lives and we have therefore been ruled by them. “Let the peace of Christ rule your hearts” out of love. (Col 3:15)
When I was suffering from depression many years ago, I would get up in the morning and say, “Jesus, how do You FEEL, You have peace? Then so do I, I will live by Your peace.”
We must remember we are eternal beings, and this brief moment is only in preparation for what is finally to come. It is better to regret the loss of what we deem important here and now, than to eternally live in regret in the eternal life yet to come.
Without an understanding of the cross and His love for us.
1 John 5:12, “He who has [lives by] the Son has life; [conversely said] he who does not have [live by] the Son of God does not have life.” NKJV
Jesus is our hope
Jesus is our joy
Jesus is our life
Jesus is our peace
Jesus is our righteousness
Jesus is our friend
We can only be transformed if we live by Jesus and His love for us. I have a saying I use to those I have helped, “I have never met a depressed person who kept their eyes on Jesus and I never met a person who kept their eyes on Jesus depressed.”
Those who live by His love for them will be filled with love. They well live by His peace and not their depression until His peace conquers their depression. Our emotions have taken to big a role in our lives and we have therefore been ruled by them. “Let the peace of Christ rule your hearts” out of love. (Col 3:15)
When I was suffering from depression many years ago, I would get up in the morning and say, “Jesus, how do You FEEL, You have peace? Then so do I, I will live by Your peace.”
We must remember we are eternal beings, and this brief moment is only in preparation for what is finally to come. It is better to regret the loss of what we deem important here and now, than to eternally live in regret in the eternal life yet to come.
Without an understanding of the cross and His love for us.
1 John 5:12, “He who has [lives by] the Son has life; [conversely said] he who does not have [live by] the Son of God does not have life.” NKJV
Frustration has a way of making the truth a lie and the lie the truth. Such people live by a “deceived” reality that is wrapped up in a twisted evaluation of their situation and by strong feelings that only support and seal their beliefs. In their reasoning and emotions they find no basis for hope.
In truth, such wondering souls have never fully understood the cross and the resurrected life that comes from dying to self. To them, the cross presents more problems than solutions. They fail to understand that no war can be won without a fight, so they therefore fall into a perpetual passivity and self pity as the flesh slaughters the life out of them. Their understanding and feelings “rule” supreme and in the reality of the attention they give them, they are “their gods”. If the flesh wars against spirit, they fail to see the agenda of destruction through their uncrucified life, and they fail to take their stand in the reality of the cross. The cross is foolishness to them, because for them, the cross lacks an understandable solution and doesn’t seem real to their intellect and emotions. They never understand that it is the solution they serve and not Jesus Himself. All that dominates their life is attached to their goal. So to live by the life of Jesus makes no sense to them while they are hurting.
Let us remember that Jesus “raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Eph 2:6, NKJV
We died when Jesus died and we rose when Jesus rose, it is now time we made that real in our experience.
Jesus Himself is the Way, the Truth and the Life… it is all spelled out in one word…God is love!
Truly Jesus is our life. It is the place by Him we will find the most intimate place.
In truth, such wondering souls have never fully understood the cross and the resurrected life that comes from dying to self. To them, the cross presents more problems than solutions. They fail to understand that no war can be won without a fight, so they therefore fall into a perpetual passivity and self pity as the flesh slaughters the life out of them. Their understanding and feelings “rule” supreme and in the reality of the attention they give them, they are “their gods”. If the flesh wars against spirit, they fail to see the agenda of destruction through their uncrucified life, and they fail to take their stand in the reality of the cross. The cross is foolishness to them, because for them, the cross lacks an understandable solution and doesn’t seem real to their intellect and emotions. They never understand that it is the solution they serve and not Jesus Himself. All that dominates their life is attached to their goal. So to live by the life of Jesus makes no sense to them while they are hurting.
Let us remember that Jesus “raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Eph 2:6, NKJV
We died when Jesus died and we rose when Jesus rose, it is now time we made that real in our experience.
Jesus Himself is the Way, the Truth and the Life… it is all spelled out in one word…God is love!
Truly Jesus is our life. It is the place by Him we will find the most intimate place.
We too freely talk about one another and fight with one another. We have no concept of the bigger war which we are losing each day. Ephesians, We think as Christians we are here to name and claim bible verses and to establish our comfy kingdoms.
The first ingredient of the New Testament church-assembly was a devotion to Christ, the Apostolic teaching and a power and presence of God that caused it to function and to be uniquely united together as an expression of the son of God on this earth. Paul's letter to the Corinthians tells us much about the meetings of the early church. Paul's letters reveal the activities of their meetings and the guidelines of the moving of the Spirit of God. These guidelines where designed to keep the flesh from entering and controlling the meetings. These guidelines serve no place in a meeting void of body function and power. Without the manifestation of the Spirit, there is no power and no supernatural gifts being manifested to encourage and build up the assembly.
If the early disciples would have initiated the "assembly_ church "I do nto do well with the Circe thing," without power, their meetings would have resembled much of what we see today. The lack of power would have forced them to "create" soulish and man centered activities to replace the power. They would have needed song books to sing, worship leaders to motivate them to worship, preachers to make up for the lack of body function, and programs to meet the special needs of the meetings. They would have had to depend on "form" in the absence of power.
The power of God through the working of the Holy Spirit was the essential ingredient of the early church. Even our house church movement is a formula for the new testament church. Though meeting in homes is new testament, meeting in homes without power isn't. The first few expressions we see in the scriptures is the power which the early church enjoyed and something totally foreign to us. A casual reading in the book of Acts demonstrates their power and their unity.
How we struggle today to meet once a week. And then when we get there we are often late. It is only because the things we want take priority over the things of God. We are divided in mind and purpose. Our churches are competitive in nature and we are quick to brag concerning "our" brand of religion. We are absolutely deceived in the manner which we subtly promote our "divisions" of religion. "A house divided cannot stand."
Our meeting are plagued with divided hearts and we are intolerant over the idea of meeting more than twice a week…. The "awe" is gone. If we had the power, the fellowship would follow. Who wouldn't want to meet seven days a week if we had such power. No one would care about the sports events, the news and movies on TV if God was healing and delivering those in bondage. It would be hard to leave the meeting and go to work. We simply do not want to face what it would take to find Him and the reality of His meetings (I purposely leave out the word "church" in referring to God's people meeting together, it is a mistranslation of the Greek word ekklesia)
"our traditions of division have taken on the garments of orthodoxy; they appear biblical, but they are not…. When pure Christianity degenerates into divided camps of ambitious people, it literally destroys the harmony, power and blessing of the 'temple of God.' The individual who brings or supports such carnal divisions in the church has positioned himself in a very dangerous place before God. The temple of God is holy. Our unity together is holy. Our love for one another is holy, for the Father Himself dwells in the resting place of caring attitudes and loving relationships. Collectively, we are the dwelling place of God on earth. The warning is severe: 'If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him.'" (THE CREDIBILITY FACTOR, by Francis Frangipane)
Compliancy is the enemy of hunger. In Rev 3:17, the Laodicean church found itself satisfied with the status quo and declared they were "in need of nothing" or lethargic. It must be that we are satisfied with the rituals of our traditions instead of a breaking with those traditions and seeking Him with a hunger to see the establishment of His kingdom. We cannot be driven by a deep hunger for what is real and what gives Him Glory on one hand and be satisfied with what we see today.
They were characterized with having "all things common.." True Christianity cannot exist with self-interest. Every man calling the things he possess as his own leads to selfishness and pride. In fact, our religious belief has lead us to selfishly possess more and calling it God's blessing. The Holy Spirit will only manifest Himself in unity and love. True love operates in the interest of others . The result of a loving body is not more possessions, but "great power," and "great grace."
Our churches in seeking more silver and gold are in poverty of power and grace. amen thanks, At narrowway we have taken all that as serious as we can, thanks.
If the great power and grace is going to work in our midst, there must be a great working of brokenness and humility to lay the groundwork. It would have to destroy our denominational divisions, our independent arrogance, and we would need a desperate search for the real and to be real.
At narrowway we're doing it and prusing that truth, we;re not fad driven sir or another program, vanquishing bottle cap answers.
My perosnal quest has led me far into a life of faith. I could nto agree more, it;s why it;s go-go here and little time to waste, faith grows when you go,love to those doing so, and to you... and may they see the other doorway, we speak of.. One can onlu imagine when we mature beyoud the divides
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Learning how to hear?
Now a word was secretly brought to me,
And my ear received a whisper of it,
In disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night,
When deep sleep falls on men,
Fear came upon me, and trembling,
Which made all my bones shake.
Then a spirit passed before my face;
The hair on my body stood up.
It stood still.
But I could not discern it;s appearance.
A form was before my eyes; there was silence Job 4;12-16.
For God may speak in one way, or in another,
Yet man does not perceive it.
In a dream, in a vision of the night,
When deep sleep comes upon men,
While slumbering on their beds,
Then he opens the ears of men,
And seals their instruction.
In order to turn man from his deed,
And conceal pride from man,
he keeps back his soul from the pit,
And his life from perishing by the sword Job 33;14-18
I would like to encourage those asking seeking to really think deeply one word at a time, get alone and ponder these deep truths. Yes,, God can save his way, dreams to Muslims, why not?, We allow him to speak for himself, no filter grids needed
I like thank one man way back in my early years after conversion , here were his words, "Franz- Read it 10 times, it helps us stop reading into it, and than somewhere latter on we start to really hear or listen.
I agree being able to listen should supersede good speakers seeing it;s more important to know what it is to know follow a person for his good speech that was the case Paul had to warn the body of early on.
Read Acts.This is for you Tom, what a wonderful brother and how truth in your every word has holden fast in my life all these years later, it has all come forward to being so.
Thanks enjoy .
And my ear received a whisper of it,
In disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night,
When deep sleep falls on men,
Fear came upon me, and trembling,
Which made all my bones shake.
Then a spirit passed before my face;
The hair on my body stood up.
It stood still.
But I could not discern it;s appearance.
A form was before my eyes; there was silence Job 4;12-16.
For God may speak in one way, or in another,
Yet man does not perceive it.
In a dream, in a vision of the night,
When deep sleep comes upon men,
While slumbering on their beds,
Then he opens the ears of men,
And seals their instruction.
In order to turn man from his deed,
And conceal pride from man,
he keeps back his soul from the pit,
And his life from perishing by the sword Job 33;14-18
I would like to encourage those asking seeking to really think deeply one word at a time, get alone and ponder these deep truths. Yes,, God can save his way, dreams to Muslims, why not?, We allow him to speak for himself, no filter grids needed
I like thank one man way back in my early years after conversion , here were his words, "Franz- Read it 10 times, it helps us stop reading into it, and than somewhere latter on we start to really hear or listen.
I agree being able to listen should supersede good speakers seeing it;s more important to know what it is to know follow a person for his good speech that was the case Paul had to warn the body of early on.
Read Acts.This is for you Tom, what a wonderful brother and how truth in your every word has holden fast in my life all these years later, it has all come forward to being so.
Thanks enjoy .
Saturday, March 31, 2012
I thought many would like this ...
What is heaven?
The simplest definition might be "heaven is the presence of God." Could we simplify that even further and say "heaven is God"? No! That would be a logical fallacy, for that would be to make some "thing", some concept, into God, which is the essence of idolatry. But we might invert the equation and say "God is heaven."
In the religion of Judaism there was great respect for God's name. Yahweh was comprised only of consonants, "YHWH". There were no vowels, and the word was thus unpronouncable. It was merely formed breath, which is consistent with the fact that God is Spirit (John 4:24). In order to avoid using God's name, the Jews used other names and designations, substituting other concepts as a circumlocution for the name of Yahweh.
The word "heaven" became a synonym for Yahweh in post-exilic Judaism. This usage is carried over into the New Testament as can be seen in the following gospel usages:
Matthew 21:25 - (Jesus says to the Jewish authorities) "the baptism of John...was it from heaven or from men?"
Matthew 23:22 - "he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it."
Luke 15:21 - (Prodigal son) "I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight."
John 3:27 - (John the Baptist says of Jesus) "A man can receive nothing, unless it has been given to him from heaven."
The equation of God and heaven is also evidenced in the manner in which the gospel writers use the phrases "kingdom of God" and "kingdom of heaven" synonymously. Matthew, who wrote his gospel narrative particularly for a Jewish audience, is sensitive to the Jewish evasion of the name of God and uses "kingdom of heaven" in exactly the same contexts where Mark and Luke (writing for Roman and Greek audiences respectively) use the phrase "kingdom of God" (cf. Matt. 13:11; Mk. 4:11; Lk. 8:10). "Kingdom of God" and "kingdom of heaven" are not separate eschatological concepts as some have attempted to differentiate them.
John the Baptist, and then Jesus, and then the disciples, all proclaimed to the people of Palestine, "The Kingdom of heaven is at hand!" (Matt. 3:2; 4:17; 10:7). This was the good news of the gospel what God, what heaven, was doing in Jesus Christ.
"Heaven" could be conceived of as the immanence of God's presence in the incarnation of His Son, Jesus Christ, and at the same time "heaven" was used of the transcendence of God's presence beyond mankind. Thus it is that Jesus could instruct His disciples to pray, "Our Father who art in heaven....Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven..." (Matt. 6:9,10). Later in Matthew 7:21 Jesus declares that "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven." In this latter reference Jesus seems to use the immanent and transcendent concepts of God's presence in the same sentence.
If "heaven" entails such a wide spectrum of God's presence, then the popular mental conceptions found in many religious circles today are most inadequate. Pictures of clouds, harps, angels, pearly gates, etc., are figures formulated as "concrete" conceptualizations and fixed in the "concrete" of religious dogma. Surely we must pursue an understanding of heaven beyond these inadequate pictures.
In I Corinthians 2:9 Paul quotes from Isaiah 64:4 and does so in the context of the spiritual realities God has made available to Christians in Jesus Christ: "Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him." Is that not true of "heaven," the presence of God, both immanently and transcendently? If it has entered the heart of man, our thinking processes and concepts, then it is probably not an accurate representation of "heaven," of God's presence! God is so much bigger than our finite abilities to conceptualize that any images that we can conceive are but inadequate images which become idols. Perhaps that is why the Jews generally refrain from speculating about "heaven," for it leads to forbidden idolatry. But Christians have always engaged in such speculation!
Would you want to participate in a "heaven" that was only what your mind and heart could conceive? I would not! I have very little imagination! The "heaven" that I could conjure up in my mind would be extremely boring! I am convinced that heaven is not boring. Is love boring? Is joy boring? Our meagre human perceptions of "heaven" would only lead to discontent. They are so static, so selfish, so mercenary, so materialistic, so space/time oriented, so inadequate! Man is made so as to only be content with God! That is why our human aspirations of heart and mind are no basis for revealing "heaven," as some authors have indicated. The character of God is the only basis for revealing "heaven." Heaven is the presence of God, acting as He always does, according to His character.
When it comes to thinking about "heaven," we, with our finite minds, do not even know how to ask the correct questions. Mankind ("religious" people especially), thinking as they most often do, in a futuristic, spatial and temporal framework, ask questions like these:
What will I be like in heaven?
What kind of body will I have? (physical, spiritual, visible, invisible?)
Will I be recognizable? (in form? in personality?)
Will I be able to recognize those I love? (my wife? husband? children?)
What will I be doing in heaven? ("I don't like playing the harp, you know!")
Will heaven be boring to me? (Most human portrayals of such seem to be so.)
Will all of my desires be fulfilled in heaven? (Someone once described heaven as "the presence of everything desirable; the absence of everything undesirable.)
Will I be able to progress, develop or grow in heaven?
Does heaven have any challenges for me? ("I am most satisfied when I am challenged and can achieve and accomplish and overcome.")
What kind of mental or emotional recall will I have in heaven from my time spent on earth?
What will my place of habitation be like?
How big will my "mansion" be?
Will I have more than someone else?
Will someone else have more than me?
Do these latter questions not seem rather mercenary and materialistic? It does not seem to me that we will "possess" anything in heaven. We do not "possess" mansions. We do not "possess" crowns. We do not "possess" salvation. We do not "possess" holiness. We do not "possess" love. We do not "possess" joy. We do not "possess" heaven! God possesses us!
Our questions about "heaven" are framed in such a self-oriented perspective. "What will I be like?" "What will I be doing?" These only reveal that we do not have a clue what heaven is all about!
Heaven is the presence of God. God's presence always implies that He is acting in accord with His character. God's character is summed up in Love. "God is Love" (I John 4:8,16). God's love is total selflessness. Love is concerned only about the other, and the Ultimate Other, God. Then why do we continue to ask all those self-oriented questions with personal pronouns such as "I, me and my"? My present self-concern pollutes my perspective of heaven! My present space/time context of thinking preempts my understanding of eternity, infinity, God and heaven. Ignorance is certainly revealed when we do not even know how to ask the right questions!
Heaven is the presence of God, acting in accord with His character. God is love, unselfish and unselfconscious. To experience "heaven" is to lose our self-orientation and our self-concern. This would seem to reveal that heaven has nothing to do with morality, whether "I" am doing things right! Heaven has nothing to do with dogma and doctrine, whether "I" believe and assent to the right ideas. Heaven is only concerned about, centered upon, the other person and the Ultimate Other, God, who should be our ultimate concern in heaven. That is why it can be said that "religion knows nothing about heaven!" Religion is so caught up in the self-centered me-ism of doing things right and believing the right things, and knows nothing of the loving, joyous, self-giving of heaven.
Heaven is the presence of God. Heaven is the character of God in action. Heaven is what God is and does, not what man does to perform for God, as religion advocates. If that be the case, does concern for heaven produce passivity and inactivity in the one thus concerned? Not necessarily! Necessarily not! God is an active God. His presence is always actively expressing His character in the out-going means of grace. Faith is our receptivity of His activity. God is love. Love is always active, extending out toward the other. There is no such thing as passive love; that is apathy! God is joy. Joy is always energetic and enlivening. Heaven's demeaner is that of humor and laughter and play and activity. Thus I repeat, "Religion knows nothing about heaven," as evidenced by its being so sour and dour and serious about itself, and so passive and inactive in loving others.
Heaven is the presence of God, and subjectively considered, heaven is spiritual ecstasy. The word "ecstatic" is etymologically derived from two Greek words, ek meaning "out of," and stasis which comes from histemi meaning "to stand." It is not difficult to see that that which stands and is unmoving is "static". "Ecstatic" has to do with that which is "out of" the realm of the "static." There is no ecstasy in that which is static, for such is rigid, cold, hard, immovable, dead. Ecstacy is experienced only in that which is dynamic, i.e. alive, active, warm, moving and incomprehensible. Heaven is spiritual ecstasy in that it has to do with the dynamic presence of God in action.
If heaven is the presence of God, does consideration of and concern for "heaven" produce in those thus concerned a form of "escapism" from the present situation? Many have charged that heavenly consideration and expectations lead to an "escapist" mind-set that involves losing interest in living and working in this world. We must admit that such is often the case among religionists who view heaven as merely a futuristic "pie in the sky bye-and-bye," almost an escapist "nirvana" concept. But if heaven is the active and dynamic presence of God God in action in accord with His character then to consider "heaven" is to consider ultimate reality and the divine intent for mankind. The failure and the refusal to consider "heaven," the presence of God, is truly "escapism!" Such is an attempt to "escape" from ultimate reality, an attempt to "escape" from functional humanity, an attempt to "escape" from genuine social interaction. Heaven, the presence of God, invests and infuses the present situation with His activity, His character, His love, His joy, His peace right now, here and now, within those receptive to Him.
Is this to imply then that we have heaven on earth right now? We have seen that heaven became a synonym for God, and is so used interchangeably in the gospels; that the "kingdom of heaven" is the "kingdom of God;" that "heaven" is the presence of God in action. Is God in action on earth right now? Is the presence of God active presently in the world? Is not the message of Christianity, the "good news" that mankind can be reconciled to the presence of God through Jesus Christ?
The earliest proclamation of the gospel by Jesus Himself was "The kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 4:17), because the presence of God was at hand in Jesus Christ. In the beatitudes, Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 5:2) Jesus kept telling parables about the "kingdom of heaven" (cf. Matt. 13), explaining the dynamics of new covenant Christianity. Jesus explained that the "key" to the kingdom of heaven was the confession that "Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matt. 16:19). The kingdom of heaven/ kingdom of God is present whenever the King is present, for Jesus said, "the kingdom of God is in your midst" (Luke 17:21) or "within you" (KJV). In Ephesians 1:3 Paul explains that "God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus," by the indwelling spiritual presence of Jesus Christ. The writer to the Hebrews indicates that Christians have becomes "partakers of a heavenly calling" (Heb. 3:1), have "tasted of the heavenly gift" (Heb. 6:4), and have "come to the heavenly Jerusalem" (Heb. 12:22).
If heaven is the presence of God, then is the presence of God not actively present among us and within us right now, here on earth, as Christians? Are we not actively participating in the heavenly and spiritual dynamic of the expression of the character of God? Is that not what the Christian life is all about? I believe it is! The heavenly Father is desirous of expressing His character with His spiritual children, Christians, the "People of God." As Christians, we presently participate in the "kingdom of heaven." The presence of the Spirit of God within us allows for the present subjective experiencing of the heavenly blessings of the active expression of His character. We experience "heaven" on earth, the active presence of God.
But I turn right around and declare that what I am saying is not to say that earth is heaven, or even that the church is heaven. To that I would exclaim, "Good heaven, God forbid!"
Does this sound contradictory and confusing? Bear with me as I attempt to explain, hoping not to muddy the waters even more.
Heaven is the continuum of the life that we now have in Christ Jesus. (By the use of the word "continuum" I do not mean merely the distant future continuation of Christ's life, but that there is no discontinuity of content, so it is not just a temporal designation but a substantive consideration of content in the context of eternal duration.)
Again then, heaven is the continuum of the life that we have as Christians. This is true objectively in that the life we have (or participate in) is the life of Jesus Christ. Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25). "I am the way, the truth and the life" (John 14:6). Paul refers to "Christ who is our life" (Colossians 3:4). John writes in I John 5:12, "He that has the Son has life; he that does not have the Son of God does not have life." The life that we participate in as Christians, both now and then, presently and in the future is the life of Jesus, eternal life, heavenly reality.
Subjectively, we are presently to be developing an appreciation for the function of Christ's life in our behavior. We are to be involved in the process of growing and developing the extent to which the life of Jesus is allowed to pervade and permeate our soul and body, so as to express God's character in our behavior, characterized by love, joy, peace, patience, etc. Paul explains that "it is no longer I who lives but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20), and that in order that "the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal bodies" (II Cor. 4:10,11).
If this be the case (as Scripture seems to indicate), then objectively we have all the heaven we are ever going to get, right now, presently, on earth, in Jesus Christ! And subjectively, now is the time, here on earth is the place, for the development of the appreciation of His life, since physical death would seem to be the terminus of such development and growth. Now is the day of salvation through sanctification in Christ Jesus (I Cor. 6:2; II Thess. 2:13).
Yet, we must consider not only the objectivity of the life of Jesus Christ and the subjectivity of the appreciation of such, but also the objectivity of the realm in which that life is experienced and the subjectivity of the experience of that life within that realm. The present subjective experience of Christ's life is within an objective realm that is antithetically hostile and alien to the experience and expression of His life the environment of the "world" thus causing subjective difficulty and hindrance to the awareness and enjoyment of His life. Such is the Christian life on earth! The future subjective experience of Christ's life will be within an objective realm that is completely conducive to the experience and expression of God's life. It will be in a "new heaven and a new earth" (II Peter 3:13), wherein the total environment and atmosphere will also be the presence of God. Thus it is that "heaven" as spiritual condition or state and "heaven" as realm or place or location will converge or merge into one the presence of God, objectively and subjectively. Even then there is no pantheism implied for the Creator/creature distinction will always be maintained. Though we partake of heavenly realities, the presence of God, we do not become God, nor do we assume any of His essential, exclusive and non-transferrable attributes. We do not become eternal, omnipresent, omniscient, etc.
Therefore, we are not saying that all there is to heaven, objectively and subjectively, is what we have and experience on earth right now! It is not a matter of "what you see is what you get." I would not want an eternity of what I am currently capable of seeing! That would not be "heavenly" to me. Yet, at the same time, I do have all heavenly blessings in Christ Jesus, right now (Eph. 1:3).
Heaven is the presence of God. Jesus Christ is the presence of God. Heaven is eternal life. Jesus Christ is eternal life. To have the presence of Jesus Christ in us be the Spirit, God in us, is to have the presence of heaven in us, to participate in the kingdom of God, and to allow God to act in accord with His heavenly character, both now and in the future.
The Creator-God so designed the creature-man so as to require the presence of the Creator-God within the creature man in order for the creature-man to be the creature-man that the Creator-God intended the creature-man to be. Man is not man as God intended apart from seeking for and participating in heaven, seeking for and participating in the presence of God.
It has been said that "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." I disagree! The road to hell is paved with apathy and escapism. Apathy which says, "I don't care; I don't give a damn." Escapism which seeks to avoid and evade the true functional intent for humanity. The divine intent for the human creature is to allow God, the heavenly Father (made available to mankind in Jesus Christ, His Son, and by the outpouring of His Spirit) to function by His heavenly presence in us. That is the gospel, the "good news" about "heaven."
Heaven: the presence of God in Jesus Christ. Now and then!
As the song writer testified, "Heaven came down and glory filled my soul."
Christocentric worship
My own words I do not use the hex word church I see no biblical relationship what so ever in it's use... narrowway enjoys the author truth fullness on the content of this discussion..
Thanks to christiocentric theology website, great article.
For many years voices have been decrying the decline of a proper sense of worship in the Western churches. Several decades ago A.W. Tozer wrote,
"The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshipping men."1
"We have lost our spirit of worship and our ability to withdraw inwardly to meet God in adoring silence."2
"I wonder if there was ever a time when true spiritual worship was at a lower ebb. To great sections of the Church the art of worship has been lost entirely, and in its place has come that strange and foreign thing called the 'program.' This word has been borrowed from the stage and applied with sad wisdom to the type of public service which now passes for worship among us."3
"The shallowness of our inner experience, the hollowness of our worship, and that servile imitation of the world which marks our promotional methods all testify that we, in this day, know God only imperfectly, and the peace of God scarcely at all."4
"If Bible Christianity is to survive the present world upheaval, we shall need to recapture the spirit of worship."5
More recently Leslie Flynn has lamented that,
"In many churches the art of worship has markedly declined. The so-called hour of worship has become a time when mind and emotions are anesthetized into neutral. Out of habit, church obligation, affection for the minister, peer pressure, family togetherness, patriotism, or community expectation, people sink into their usual pews." 6
In similar manner John MacArthur Jr. explains that,
"The Church has slipped into a philosophy of 'Christian humanism' that is flawed with self-love, self-esteem, self-fulfillment, and self-glory. There appears to be scant concern about worshipping our glorious God on His terms. So-called worship seems little more than some liturgy (high or low) equated with stained-glass windows, organ music, or emotion-filled songs and prayers. If the bulletin didn't say 'Worship Service,' maybe we wouldn't know what we were supposed to be doing."7
The suggested solutions to this perceived decline of worship range from encouraging a renaissance of ritual and liturgy to the repudiation of all structure. Perhaps the most prevalent emphasis is that which advocates "contemporary worship" styles which supposedly relate better to our modern culture. These are usually patterned after the worship styles of the "charismatic movement" which has flourished since the 1960s in the United States and around the world.
These public worship assemblies feature an energetic, enthusiastic and exciting spontaneity which is alleged to be the free-working of the Holy Spirit, but can also be an emotional and subjective experientialism.
The attendees at these "services of worship" are often physically involved by the raising and clapping of hands, as well as touching and hugging one another. The music features modern instrumentation of guitars, drums, keyboards, and large electronic amplifiers. Such a "renewal of worship" is used as a drawing-card to involve more and more people in the church.
We must question whether the variety of styles and forms employed in public assemblies actually constitutes Christian worship. Has there not been too much emphasis on the activities and their psychological effects upon people, rather than upon the reality that is the essence of Christianity?
Our starting point must be to define worship within a Biblical theology that is Christocentric.
The Hebrew language of the old covenant literature had several words that indicated worship. The most prevalent Hebrew word was shachah which referred to "bowing down before an object of honor." When Ezra read the Law after their return to Jerusalem, the Israelites "bowed low and worshiped the Lord" (Neh. 8:6). The Psalmist implores, "Come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker" (Ps. 95:6). A second Hebrew word was abad which indicated "service or work for God." Moses told the Israelites, "You shall fear only the Lord you God; and you shall worship Him" (Deut. 6:13). The Psalmist encourages rulers to "Worship the Lord with reverence, and rejoice with trembling" (Ps. 2:11). A third Hebrew word, segid, is used in Daniel to indicate "showing respect" or "doing homage" to the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar had constructed (cf. Dan. 3:5-18).
In the new covenant literature of the New Testament, several Greek words are employed to refer to worship. The Greek words gonu and gonupeteo refer to "bending the knee." From these we get the English word "genuflect." Paul refers to his willingness to "bow my knees before the Father" (Eph. 3:14), and the recognition that "every knee should bow at the name of Jesus" (Phil. 2:10). The Greek word sebo is derived from sebas, the word for "fear" or "reverence." The Jews tried to convince Gallio that Paul was persuading men "to worship God contrary to the law" (Acts 18:13). The composite Greek word eusebeo, combing eu, meaning "good," and sebo, is used by Paul when he refers to the idolatrous "unknown god" which the Athenians "worshipped in ignorance" (Acts 17:23). Proskuneo, which combines pros, "toward," and kuneo, "to kiss," is used by Jesus during His temptation when He responded to the devil, saying, "You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only" (Matt. 4:10). Jesus also used this word when He told the Samaritan woman, "God is Spirit; and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" (John 4:24). This is the predominant Greek word used for "worship" in the New Testament. Another word, latreuo, is derived from the word latris, referring to "a servant." To thus "serve in worship" is the word Paul uses of our "spiritual service of worship" (Rom. 12:1) and for "worship in the Spirit of God" (Phil. 3:3). The Greek word leitourgeo is the word from which we get the English word "liturgy." It is a combination of the word laos, "people," and ergeo, "to work." It refers to the work of the people in priestly service or temple worship. The Christians of Antioch were "ministering to the Lord" (Acts 13:2) in worship, and Christian giving can be a "ministry of service" (II Cor. 9:12). One other word, therapeuo, meaning "to heal," is translated as "worship" in the King James Version of Acts 17:25, where Paul indicated that God is "not worshipped" by human hands.
Our English word "worship" is derived from the old Anglo-Saxon term, weorthscipe, meaning "worth-ship," which gradually evolved into the word "worship." It refers to the attribution or expression of worth or value toward any object.
Word-studies, of themselves, do not bring us to a clear definition of worship. Such can only be derived from a comprehensive understanding of the New Testament and the new covenant awareness of the Person and Work of Jesus Christ.
Beginning then with the inadequate general and religious concepts of worship, we will proceed to differentiate "Christian worship" from all other concepts of worship.
In its most general sense worship has reference to regarding an object with honor, respect, devotion, reverence, veneration, adoration or admiration. An object regarded as having value, worth, honor or esteem is accorded recognition or worship.
Many have indicated that human beings in general have a fundamental need, drive or desire to worship, since they were created with a spiritual life-function. Unlike the animal kingdom which does not have spiritual function, all men have this basic need and human desire to worship, and therefore all men are worshipping creatures. Anthropologists and sociologists seem to confirm this phenomenon.
The object of this spiritual desire to worship is often sought in something beyond ourselves. Men have often projected spiritual worth and value to metaphysical, mystical and magical ideals and techniques, such as New Age "energy sources." Throughout history men have found more tangible objects to worship such as the sun, moon, stars, mountains, waters, storms, etc. In order to objectify the object of their veneration, men have often constructed tangible images or idols to represent what they worship. Paul explains the spiritual factor of idolatry as having "respect for demons" (Acts 17:22) and being "sharers in demons" (I Cor. 10:20).
Mankind can also revert to worshipping himself and his own abilities. Humanism ascribes ultimate worth to man and his intelligence, creativity and productivity. Writing to the Romans, Paul referred to those who "worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator" (Rom. 1:25). In so doing, man often becomes a slave to his own passions for power, possessions, relationships, sexuality, etc.
Anything that man becomes mentally and emotionally preoccupied with can become an object accorded with honor, value and worth. The materialistic orientation of modern society affords innumerable objects for worship. Real estate, automobiles, clothes, stocks, bonds and countless other objects are regarded as having great worth for the ascription of "worth-ship" in worship. Other people, such as athletes, musicians, and politicians (even pastors), are often idolized in hero worship. Associations with other people in such social groupings as fraternities, sororities, and special interest societies (even denominations and local churches) are often considered as having great worth that becomes "worth-ship."
All of these above mentioned objects of man's attention and desire have been formulated into collective religious expressions of worship.
By its etymological definition, religion involves being "bound" or "tied" in devotion to a particular object. In the process of such, religious worship, as differentiated from Christian worship, tends to develop certain traits and patterns. Whereas worship in general is object-centered, religious forms of worship are usually anthropocentric, focusing on the human worshipper's actions, experiences and benefits from such worship, as well as event-centered, focusing on the time, place and procedures involved in such worship.
Religious worship operates on the fallacious premise of human activated and generated activity. It fails to recognize that man is always spiritually derivative, deriving activity either from God or Satan. Such religious attempts at worship inevitably involve the imperative of human effort. Worship is defined as what we do. In order to worship we gather together and we sing, we pray, we listen, we give, and we serve God with our talents and skills. We "do our thing" in the parameters of prescribed programs and productions. It is "do-it-yourself" worship!
The reasoning behind such in the worship of Christian religion is usually that Jesus told His followers to do this, and gave us an example of such for us to follow. Even when couched in the explanation that "we do it because of Christ, in response to what He has done for us," it does not escape the reasoning that "we do it." Popular evangelical writers blatantly state that "real worship is something you do."8 "Because of what God has done for us, we are to be occupied with offering up acceptable spiritual sacrifices of worship."9 "Worship involves aligning ourselves with God's will for us."10
In contrast to such we shall note that Christian worship is not what we do anymore than anything in the Christian life is what we do! The explanation of worship as the self-generated activities of man is a failure to understand God's grace. "God is not served (KJV-worshipped) with human hands, as though He needed anything" (Acts. 17:25).
Religious worship also focuses on man's emotions and experiences. How does the worship experience make us feel? Do we feel good? Do we feel better for having thus engaged ourselves in worship? When worship is defined by how we feel, it is relegated to a mood-altering psychological experience. Our physical senses may be stirred by the architecture of the building, the beauty of the stained-glass windows, the sounds of the organ, the voices of a well-trained choir, the oratorical ability of the speaker, or the comfort of the pews. The lighting in the sanctuary, the musical variations, the sequence of the events, can and are orchestrated to manipulate people psychologically. They may be employed to create a pietistic and sentimental sense of peace and security. They may incite enthusiasm and excitement. They may draw tears of remorse, or impel the participant to a particular course of action. These subjective machinations are nothing more than playing upon the natural personal aspirations, gratifications and reputations of the participants, via "the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life" (I John 2:16).
In response to such experientialism, Ralph Martin writes,
"The centrality of God-in-Christ in Christian worship emphasizes the function of the Spirit's ministry to enable us to emerge from the straitjacket of our emotional introspections and oversensitive preoccupations with our 'feelings' at any given time."11
R.J. Neuhaus also indicates that,
"the celebration that we call worship has less to do with the satisfaction of the pursuit of happiness than with the abandonment of the pursuit of happiness."12
In addition to emphasizing what we do and how we feel, religious worship endeavors tend to fixate on how we think and the extent to which we think that we have the object of our worship all figured out. By the repetition of creeds and the recitation of "statements of faith" people's ideological belief-systems are conformed and confirmed. Worship is often regarded as a time to gain knowledge and understanding through the teaching of doctrine and theology. This is particularly true among fundamentalistic religious groups wherein epistemological constructs of thought become the objects of their worship, amounting to ideological idolatry.
Religious worship is also anthropocentric in its emphasis on the benefit that accrues to the worshipper by the activity of worship. By worshipping it is alleged that we get strength, patience, "energy," and blessings. "Blessing comes from God in response to worship,"13 writes an evangelical author. What then did Paul mean when he wrote that "God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ" (Eph. 1:3)? The objective of Christian worship is not to "get blessed," but "to the praise of the glory of His grace" (Eph. 1:6).
Alongside of being man-centered, religious worship is also event-centered. It is limited by particular times, places and procedures, outside of which the worship experience is not considered legitimate or allowed to take place.
In his book entitled Worship, A.P. Gibbs declares that,
"Much of the so-called 'public worship' in Christendom, is merely a form of Christianized Judaism, and, in some cases, thinly veiled paganism. In Judaism there was a separate priestly caste who alone could conduct the worship of Israel. In Christendom a man-made priesthood called 'the clergy,' is essential to its worship, in spite of the plain teaching of the New Testament that all believers are priests. These priests of Judaism wore a distinctive dress, as also does the clergy. Judaism emphasized an earthly sanctuary, or building. In like manner, Christendom makes much of its consecrated 'places of worship,' and miscalls the edifice 'a church,' and refers to it as 'the house of God.' Jewish priests had an altar on which were offered sacrifices to God. Christendom has erected 'altars' in these ornate buildings, before which candles burn and incense is offered, and, in many cases, on which a wafer is kept, which is looked upon as the body of Christ! It is hardly necessary to say that all this copying of Judaism is absolutely foreign to the teaching of the New Testament.
Thus Christendom has initiated its own specially educated and ordained priesthood, whose presence is indispensable to 'administer the sacraments.' These men, robed in gorgeous vestments, from within a roped off 'sanctuary,' stand before a bloodless 'altar,' with a background of burning candles, crosses and smoking incense, and 'conduct the worship' for the laity. With the use of an elaborate prepared ritual, with stereotyped prayers, and responses from the audience, the whole service proceeds smoothly and with mechanical precision. It is a marvel of human invention and ingenuity, with an undoubted appeal to the esthetic; but a tragic and sorry substitute for the spiritual worship which our Lord declared that His Father sought from His redeemed children."14
The Judaic religion had carefully prescribed Sabbath regulations for worshipping from sun-down on Friday evening to sun-down on Saturday evening. Voluminous legalistic accretions were added throughout the centuries. The Jews of the old covenant, for the most part, missed the intent of God in pre-figuring the privilege of God's people resting in the enjoyment of what God has done and is doing. Jesus Christ came as the substance of which the weekly Judaic Sabbaths were but a symbolic shadow. Aware that He was "Lord of the Sabbath" (Matt. 12:8), Jesus violated the religious regulations of the Sabbath, for He knew that the "Sabbath rest" (Heb. 4:9) wherein God's people could cease from their labors of striving to please God by their prescribed worship procedures, was to be found in the dynamic of His own life through Christocentric worship.
Yet the worship of Christian religion continues to emphasize the "Christian Sabbath" on Sunday, complete with legalistic expectations galore. The event of worship is considered to take place during the "Sunday Morning Worship Hour."
Whereas Judaism regarded the place of worship to be the "earthly sanctuary" (Heb. 9:1) of the tabernacle and the temple, Christian religion regards the "church building" as "God's House." This despite the fact that Stephen indicated that "the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands" (Acts 7:48), and Paul told the Athenians the same thing (Acts 17:24). Those who "go to worship" at "the house of worship" each week are limiting the worship that God intends in His people.
As religion is often based on law which prescribes precise procedures and patterns for life and worship, religious worship is often shackled by these forms, techniques, rituals, and "regulations of worship" (Heb. 9:1). Worship is perceived as a "program" or a "production," wherein different "styles" and "art forms" of "pomp and circumstance" are employed. The spontaneity of the Spirit of God is quenched. One religious author declared that "acceptable worship does not happen spontaneously. Preparation is essential."15 The author once overheard a pastor refer to his manipulation of "the worship service" using the oxymoron of "planned spontaneity."
Judson Cornwall writes,
"Whenever the method of worship becomes more important than the Person of worship, we have already prostituted our worship. There are entire congregations who worship praise and praise worship but who have not yet learned to praise and worship God in Jesus Christ."16
God is not pleased with such religious worship. Through Isaiah God says to the Israelites concerning their religious worship,
"What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me? I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams. I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats. When you come to appear before Me, who requires of you this trampling of My courts? Bring your worthless offerings no longer; their incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and Sabbath, the calling of assemblies I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts. They have become a burden to Me. I am weary of bearing them. So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you. Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen." (Isaiah 1:11-15)
"This people draws near with their words, and honors Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote." (Isaiah 29:13)
This latter verse from Isaiah is quoted by Jesus as an indictment upon the scribes and Pharisees of first-century Judaism (Matt. 15:8,9).
The prophet Amos also states God's perspective on their religious worship.
"I hate, I reject your festivals. Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; and I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. Take away from Me the noise of your songs. I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." (Amos 5:21-24)
Writing to the new Christians in Galatia who were in danger of reverting back to religious worship, Paul exclaims, "You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear that perhaps I have labored over you in vain." (Gal. 4:10). To the Colossians who were being bombarded by religionists, Paul declares, "Let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ" (Col. 2:16,17).
Religious worship is not only inadequate, it is an abomination to God. The "good news" of the gospel is that God has provided in His Son, Jesus Christ, an entirely new basis of life and worship.
Christian worship is radically different from all the forms of religious worship. That is because Christianity is not a religion, but the dynamic spiritual reality of God in action through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Judaism stresses God's Law and His activity which is to be gratefully praised. Islam emphasizes submission to the will of Allah. Hinduism advocates the good works of "karma" to please the gods. Buddhism promotes self-control for inner-peace to transcend the cycle of rebirth into "nirvana." Jesus did not come to bring another religious worship pattern. Despite his theological deficiencies, the early Christian thinker, Marcion, is reported to have said that "the new thing that Jesus Christ brought into the world was Himself." Christianity is Christ. Everything that is Christian is His Being in action, the dynamic reality of the ontological presence and activity of the risen Lord Jesus. Ralph Martin correctly states that "Christian worship is established on the premise that the risen Lord is present with His believing Church."17
Christian worship is not man-centered or event-centered, as is all religious worship, but it is Christ-centered. Such Christocentric worship was established by Jesus Christ in His redemptive work which reconciled God and man in order to restore the spiritual presence and dynamic of God to man.
"Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, entering through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve (or worship - latreuein) the living God?" (Heb. 9:11-14)
As the "High Priest" (Heb. 2:17) and "the one mediator between God and man" (I Tim. 2:5), Jesus led us into reconciled relationship with God with the privilege of His divine presence in us. Jesus continues to be the priest that leads us in our worship of God. "No man comes to the Father," either in reconciliation or in worship, "but through Him" (John 14:6). "Through Christ we are enabled to come to God."18 John MacArthur Jr. notes that "the objective of redemption is making worshippers."19 The primary purpose of redemption is not how to get a man out of hell and into heaven, but to restore man to God's intent by the imputation and impartation of Christ's life in the receptive believer in order to live and worship to the glory of God.
In Christian worship the Christian participates in what Christ continues to do as the living Lord in our lives. We participate in His life, His ministry, His intercession and worship. C.E.B. Cranfield states that "the efficacy of our worship as our action lies in His action on our behalf, His continual intercession."20 Christian worship is prompted, evoked, activated and generated by Jesus Christ. This is the basis on which J.B. Torrance asserts that "Jesus Christ is the one true worshipper,"21 for everything that is "Christian" is the activity of Jesus Christ. "Worship is controlled by its object who is also subject,"22 writes G.W. Bromiley. Jesus is both the subject and the object of Christian worship, which is thus completely Christocentric.
"Jesus and worship are inseparable," writes Judson Cornwall; "He is the route to worship, the reason for worship, and the reality of worship."23 J.B. Torrance explains that "worship...is evoked by Christ, through the Spirit, in such a way that He is the One who acts in us and through us, so that our worship becomes real worship in Spirit and in Truth. It is not we who represent Christ, but Christ who re-presents Himself through the Spirit."24 "By Him (Jesus Christ) is our Amen (our worship) to the glory of God through us" (II Cor. 1:20).
"The main point," states the writer to the Hebrews, is that "we have a High Priest" who is "a minister in the sanctuary, in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man" (Heb. 8:1,2). He identifies Jesus as the leitourgos, the "leader of worship," in the Holy Place of God's presence. The Christocentric reality of Christian worship could be expressed no clearer.
True Christian worship is the consistent response and activity of Jesus Christ within us toward God the Father, in order to glorify God by the expression of the "worth-ship" of His character in the behavior of man. Jesus is, and has always been, the only expressor of God. He is the expressive "Word" which "became flesh" (John 1:1,14). He is the expressive "image of God" (Col. 1:15; II Cor. 4:4), whereby the invisible character of God is made visible in human behavior.
As with everything in the Christian life, worship is enacted only by the grace of God. "Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17). The dynamic activity of God expressing the reality of God's character is only realized as expressed by Jesus Christ. Christian worship is always activated by God's grace. He is the dynamic of His own demands.
"We can expect God to provide everything necessary to make worship possible. We children of God must ever be dependent upon God, for we have no resources of our own. We are as impoverished in worship times as a baby unable to provide its own bottle at feeding time. God, the object of our worship, also becomes the inspiration of that worship. He has imparted His own Spirit into our hearts to energize that worship. All that is due Him comes from Him. His glorious Person evokes admiration for and honor of Him, as He imparts His nature into me."25
"The Father is the originator of worship. The formation of life is not the responsibility of the children. God is not a divorced parent who has visiting rights only on Sundays." 26
God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit prompt and activate Christian worship to express the "worth-ship" of His divine character, and are also the recipients of the glory of the expression of that all-glorious character. Christian worship can only be understood in this Trinitarian expression. All attempts to divide the triune God into varying economic roles is fraught with misinterpretation. The three Persons as one God function as the essence of Christian worship.
To the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus said, "God is Spirit; worship Him in Spirit and in Truth" (John 4:24). Despite the absence of a definite article, Jesus was not saying that "God is a spirit," one among many nebulous noumena. Rather, He was indicating that God is the essence by which all things "spiritual" are to be measured and determined. We are to worship God in (or by) the activity of His Spirit operative within our spirit. Every Christian has the Spirit of Christ dwelling in and operative in their spirit, or they are not Christians. "If any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His" (Rom. 8:9), and "the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (Rom. 8:16). We worship as Christians by the energizing activity of the Spirit of Christ operative within us. Christ is the spiritual Reality of God, the Truth (John 14:6), and the only One capable of expressing the reality of God's character through us. Christian worship transpires only as the Spirit of Christ who is the Reality of God expresses the character of God in the behavior of man to the glory of God. Those who do not understand the basis of Christian worship will inevitably interpret Jesus' words of worshipping "in Spirit and in Truth" with religious concepts of worshipping with emotion and mind, with feeling and doctrine, with experientialism and epistemology, with "enthusiasm and orthodoxy,"27 with "sincerity and Scriptural consistency"28, with "whole-hearted genuineness and true concepts."29 They have missed the spiritual reality of Jesus Christ in Christian worship.
To the Philippians Paul explained that "we (Christians) are the true (the spiritual reality that God intended, in contrast to the physical pre-figuring of such among the Jews) circumcision (in that our sins have been cut off by the work of Jesus Christ, rather than just male foreskins), who worship in (or by) the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh" (Phil. 3:3). Christians worship by means of the Spirit of God, who is the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9), expressing the "worth-ship" of God's character in our behavior, thereby counteracting "the confidence in the flesh," comprised of those selfish and sinful behavioral patterns expressed apart from Christ.
"Present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, your spiritual service of worship" (Rom. 12:1), urges Paul. Make yourselves available by faith to God's activity, in order to participate in a "spiritual service of worship." The intense practicality of such worship is evidenced by the following context in Romans 12-16. Christian worship is everything Christians do individually and corporately as Christ functions as their life (Col. 3:4). John Calvin noted that "the only lawful worship of God is the observation of righteousness, holiness and purity."30
What is the one condition of human responsibility for Christian worship? Faith is always the singular response of man in the Christian life, as the Reformation theme of sola fide (faith alone) indicated. Faith is much more than belief or mental assent. It is our receptivity of God's activity, which activity will always express the "worth-ship" of His character. God cannot act out of character. He does what He does, because He is who He is. In Christian worship we allow for our availability to His ability to express Himself unto His own glory. The message of Grace in the Christian gospel reveals that Christianity is not what we do, but what He does for us, in us, as us, and through us.
Christ's activity in the Christian is not prescribed with stereotyped patterns of behavior. Jesus Christ wants to be uniquely Himself in and through us. Whereas the old covenant had prescribed forms of worship as a pictorial pre-figuring to point to Jesus Christ, the new covenant is the Person of Jesus Christ functioning as the Reality of our lives, expressed in whatever form He directs and projects. The external rituals are replaced with internal spiritual Reality. Worship is not prescribed by the written words of the Law, but by the indwelling Spirit of Christ who serves as "the law written in our hearts" (Heb. 8:10; 10:16).
The free expression of a divinely indwelt human being allowing for the expression God's character in his behavior is the glorious purpose for which we were created (Isa. 43:7). That is why Jesus declared that "you shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). Such truth is not the propositional truth of doctrinal orthodoxy, but is the Personal Truth of the Reality of Jesus Christ who said, "I am the Truth" (John 14:6). Jesus went on to explain that the Truth of which He spoke was Himself, for He said, "If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed" (John 8:36). By the presence of the Reality of the Life of Jesus Christ we are liberated from the prescribed forms and patterned procedures of religious worship styles. We are free to allow for the spontaneous, unique and novel expression of the "worth-ship" of God's character in our behavior all the time, everywhere, and in whatever manner He desires to manifest Himself. We are not limited to specific times, places and procedures in our Christian worship.
Geographical location is not a relevant issue in Christian worship, as Jesus made clear to the Samaritan woman who was questioning the proper location (John 4:20-24). Christians are both individually and collectively the "house of the Lord" (Eph. 2:19; I Peter 2:5) and the "temple" wherein God's presence is active (I Cor. 3:16; 6:19; II Cor. 6:16).
The time of our worship is not limited to a specific hour in a "service of worship." Worship is a lifestyle. Ernst Kasemann refers to "worship in everyday life,"31 for it is the moment-by-moment privilege of "practicing His presence," as Brother Lawrence phrased it,32 and allowing the glorious life of Jesus Christ to be expressed in our everyday behavior to the glory of God.
This is not to imply that there is not a place for the collective expression of Christian worship in the Body of Christ, the Church. We are "not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together" (Heb. 10:25). We have a functional responsibility in the "sharing of the Body of Christ" (I Cor. 10:16). J.B. Torrance correctly notes that "worship is the very life and essence of the Church,"33 but we must be careful to remember that the Church is not an institutional organization that exists to plan and promote public assemblies, the traditions and rituals of which are often regarded as constituting or producing worship. The Church is the collective expression of individual Christians who are allowing the life of Jesus Christ to function in their inter-relationships. John MacArthur Jr. correctly explains that "a Sunday service is to be only a corporate overflow of a worshipping life."34
Every facet of the Christian life is to be an expression of worship. Every Scriptural reference to the life and function of Jesus Christ in our lives can be viewed as being inclusive of the activity of Christ in our Christian worship. A few examples will suffice to document such:
"The mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations; but has now been manifested to His saints, ...is Christ in you, the hope (confident expectation) of glory (of manifesting the "worth-ship" of the all-glorious character of God, unto God's glory). (Col. 1:26,27).
"It is no longer I who live (or worship), but Christ lives (and worships) in me: and the life that I live (and the worship I engage in) I do so by faith (our receptivity of His activity) in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me" (Gal. 2:20).
"For me to live (and worship) is Christ" (Phil. 1:21)
"His divine power has granted us everything pertaining to life and godliness (expressing the "worth-ship" of the character of God), through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence (to express such glorious and excellent character within His creation). (II Peter 1:4).
"Apart from Me you can do nothing (including the bearing of the fruit of His character in worship). (John 15:5).
"God is at work in you both to will and to work (and to worship) for His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13).
"Not that we are adequate to consider anything (including worship) as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is of God (derived out of God through Christ). (II Cor. 3:5).
"May the God of peace sanctify you (set you apart to function as He intended in the expression of His Holy character)... Faithful is He who calls you and He will bring it to pass (expressing the "worth-ship" of His character in Jesus Christ). (I Thess. 5:23).
These and many other Scriptures attest to Christian worship being the total expression of the life of Jesus Christ in our behavior. May we cease to generalize worship as object-centered human preoccupation with objects "which by nature are no gods" (Gal. 4:8). May we cease to engage in the man-centered worship of religion which falsely supposes that worship is what we do, how we feel and we think, the extent to which we are committed, and evaluated by the benefits and "blessings" we receive. May we cease to limit worship to the prescribed times, places and procedures of religious tradition. Christian worship is Christ-centered, being established by His redemptive and restorative work and continuously generated and activated by the risen Lord Jesus within the Christian.
Christian worship is Christocentric. Jesus worships the Father by the Spirit through the Christian.
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