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Sunday, 24 January 2010

Steve W. (January 10)

In Mark 7 the Lord is still teaching us something about our heart and how horrible it can be. Some religious guys came down from a religious center called Jerusalem. These "Pharisees" felt they knew everything about everyone should act and weren't open to anything else. If we are someone who thinks we know everything and isn't open to receive from others or to be adjusted, that means we are a Pharisee!

The Pharisees should have been serving people in God's name and bringing people TO God. Instead, they misrepresented God to the people. They concerned themselves with the little details that actually prevented God's people from enjoying what God had provided for them. Instead of getting to eat what God had provided, they were prevented! "How can you EAT? You haven't WASHED!" Jesus gave them a plate of food, and the Pharisees complained the PROCEDURE hadn't been followed. It was the EATING that was important, though, because the people under the Pharisees were hungry.

Our need, for instance is to PRAY. A Pharisee may say, "You have to do THIS before you pray." God says, "You just need to PRAY."

The Pharisees would go hear the Scripture in the synagogue and come out and only see people weren't washing their hands! Jesus said, "You nicely set aside the commandment of God that you may keep your tradition!"

After I got saved, something in me said "No" when I would try to go to a movie theater. There was a word going on me. As a young Christian, I hadn't read the Bible totally. My conscience, however, bothered me. We are a complicated people, being created with a soul composed of mind, emotion and will...and a spirit having the functions of conscience, fellowship and intuition.

This matter in Mark 7 is a moral matter. The Lord's Law was given, and became a list that everyone could see.

The Lord called the Pharisees "hypocrites". In Greek, it meant wearing a mask. We can ACT a certain way outwardly that doesn't match or convey who we are or what we are really thinking. The Word should judge us and should be able to expose this kind of situation. That is what the Lord did! He saw that the hearts of these people were far away from God, even as they claimed to worship and serve Him.

Our serving could be a good application for this. We might pray, "Lord, add more people who have a heart to serve the children," and then go and rebuke the children instead of really caring for them. Or we may say, "We need to sing this song," and then do something that totally is the opposite from what we wanted to sing about. This is a matter of your lips saying one thing while your heart is doing something else. What is really motivating you doesn't match what you display.

If their heart had been for their fellow Jews, these Pharisees would have operated differently. Instead, they saw themselves as guardians of the Law, not realizing what the Law was for. They were like substitute teachers who weren't going according to the Lesson Plan the Instructor had set out, who really knew the students!

The Lord said, "While teaching the... You nicely set aside the commandments of God that you may keep your tradition. " Besides washing the hands being more important than getting to eat, the Pharisees interpreted God's word in a way that even allowed people from having to take care of their parents! Honoring your parents doesn't necessarily mean obedience. It means they are valued as and recognized as being your source. Honor is more important than strict obedience, since you may NOT do exactly as they suggest, but you certainly will honor them in your heart. (Some parents out of concern may counsel their children not to be "too much" for the Lord, for instance. We may still feel to follow Him, however! This doesn't mean we do not honor our parents.) In this situation it was really a dishonoring, because God's authority was replaced by the tradition that provided a loophole to people who didn't want to have to care for both God's need and their parents' need.

How the Lord speaks to us is His authority. If we replace that with our traditional practice and knowledge, we replace God's authority with our own!

We have to ask the Lord to give us hearing ears so we might hear what the Lord is speaking and we not overstep.

The Lord said there are those who will be satisfied with being led by others who are blind! The Lord was concerned about what enters into people's hearts, while the Pharisees were concerned about what entered into people's bellies (the clean vs. the unclean foods). If we stop the Lord's speaking or cannot receive it, the Lord's authority has no way to operate in the church life or to reach into the church life further.

If we are open to the Lord, the Lord will have the way to show us something about Himself. If we only live by traditions, we will not be able to know Him. Our traditions are a matter of our heart, so we need the Lord to work in us so that we might be able to let go of the other things that have grown up in us might give way to the Lord Himself, so that HE might grow in us.

Sunday, 20 December 2009

Mark 5 The Savior and the demon-possessed man

Steve Whitfield December 20 2009
We have to admit we are bound and limited. In Mark 5 we see a case where a man is also extremely bound Many of the cases presented in the gospels just represent US. That is a marvel.
This instance begins after the Lord and His disciples have come over the sea, where the Lord quelled the wind and the waves. The Lord is with us in our boat. Instead of letting Him rest in the boat and trusting that He is with us, however, we get agitated and lose faith. But by the Lord's mercy, the disciples made it to the other side still with the Lord.
When they reached the other side, they found a man who had bound with chains because he was possessed with demons, who cut himself with stones and lived among the tombs. After the Lord questioned him and the demons in the man informed Him who they were, He cast them out to a herd of pigs and they drowned themselves in the sea. The man was healed, yet the people asked Jesus to leave because they had lost their pigs!
Pigs are unclean, smelly animals. You know when you pass a pig farm. And in the Jewish religion, they are "unclean" animals, meaning the Jews were not to eat them. This was an unclean business. Many of us started out in an unclean situation. When the Lord first called me, I was sitting in a bar with a friend of mine. Suddenly, Jesus came to me. I was sitting in the tombs. (Bars are always dark places. People won't go into a well-lit bar.) We were all enjoying something in darkness when the Lord first appeared to us. My friend and I were talking about something when Jesus came up, and I wanted to hear more!
I don't care how cultured your situation was, it was an "unclean business". I don't know who was buying these hogs in Mark 5. The Jews shouldn't have been. But we see a picture here of our situation when the Lord appeared to us. This person was gashing himself. Why do people do such a thing? Like pierce themselves? Or cut themselves?
Sometimes we give kids limitations until they can't take any more, and they smash the "chains" off! They say, "I'm going to get a tattoo!" "I'm going to get pierced!" Even household rules out of care can't hold people. The evil one is working hard to capture people and keep them bound under HIM, not under the restriction of parents or the proper limitations of doing things such as getting to work on time or doing your homework or helping out with chores in the home. We like to rip off the "shackles". The fact is, we all need the good news.
I didn't know when I was sitting in that bar that I needed the good news. I thought I was a pretty good guy. Then a brother said something about Jesus. I was caught by that. I knew I wasn't satisfied. As soon as this demon-possessed man saw Jesus, he ran to worship Him! That was proof he wasn't satisfied.
When someone isn't satisfied, that person is always looking for something. Something more real.
The Lord knows we don't like to be under restriction. We want the Lord to set us free! He sets us free from the bondage of sin, but He allows other restrictions to remain. He sent this man back home. The Lord works in us not all at once, but little by little. If He were to clean us out totally all at once, MORE problems wouild inhabit us. The Lord drives out the "beasts" little by little.
The man admitted his name was Legion, "because we are many". Every person has many, many things in them. The Lord is able to cast them all out. Some people have a strong temper. Some people must have the last word. Some people are uncontrollable; no one can do anything with them, and they don't even know why.
This possessed individual also was naked. This was something shameful. The Lord's death on the cross covered our shame. People's lives are full of shame until the Lord finds them. This guy was walking around naked! After the Lord saved him, he was clothed. The Lord is so much to us! We don't apply the Lord
The Lord came and spoke a word to us as we were in darkness, possessed, wild and naked. For some reason we ran to Him, and He saved us.
As we see the day of the Lord's coming approaching, we should be assembling with the saints (Heb. 10:25). But we should not assume our meetings together will be sufficient for our daily salvation. Every day we need to run to Him for His salvation. We shouldn't worry about how terrible our circumstances or situation is. The battle is over; He has already crossed the sea and defeated the wind and waves. He now applies what He has accomplished. If we are not saved, we need to come to Him for His initial salvation. If we are already saved, we still need His daily salvation. We need to run to Him every day, because every day there is still a lot of nonsense going on. The Lord will listen to us as we are in our nonsense, and those demons and unclean things (pig business) that got us will be taken care of.
We don't know what we are doing, but the Lord does. He knows how to work; we need to know how to respond. He may need only to speak a few words, or He may do something more involved. Whatever it is, He becomes our Savior.
The Samaritan woman experienced the Lord's word and she told those around what He had done. They eventually also believed (John 4:42). The best person to relate something of the Lord is the person who experience something real of the Lord's salvation. When the Sower went forth to sow (Mark 4) it fell on good earth in Mark 5. Some, however, instead of rejoicing over the man's recovery and well-being, were anxious about their livelihood (of pig farming) so they asked Him to leave! Jesus told the man who had been demon possessed to go to his home and tell others the great things God had done for him. He didn't tell the man to go sit in church meetings (although we shouldn't forsake the assembling of themselves together). We should speak to those we know about what the Lord has done for us! If we don't, who else?
The Lord is there waiting for us. He heals us daily. As He does, we should be telling those we know of the Savior we experience.

Sunday, 22 November 2009

November 22 2009

Raymond Hudson
I hope we all would realize how important our heart is to the Lord. As long as our heart is right, everything else will be taken care of.
In the first chapter of Mark, we see the matter of repenting for the kingdom. We may think we only repent at the beginning of our Christian life, but we need to be repenting all the time for the kingdom. Baptism was something John the Baptist brought people into, which was being put into the death water so they might be brought into a new life. Even Jesus went through baptism, not because He needed anything put to death, but to signify He would not live by His natural life, but would ony do the will of the One who sent Him. As a man, He lived only to God.
In chapter 2, the Pharisees were the ones who should have educating the people and bringing the people to God. They weren't, though. So when John the Baptist came, everyone flocked to him. This reveals that the Pharisees didn't have it going on. Then, the people began to flock to the Lord Jesus. No one was going to the Pharisees, even though they were the ones who should have been educating God's people. Jesus' life, however, was an attractive life. We have this life now, so our lives should become attractive to others; we should become the gospel!
Jesus said He had not come for those who were well, but those who were sick. People have to realize their real situation before they can come to Jesus for His salvation. The Pharisees, instead of coming to Jesus, became jealous of Him. They refused to repent.
When we are not living by our natural life, the life of God in us can attract those around us. You don't have to tell others; they will know you have something they don't have.
In chapter 2 and 3 of Mark, we can see that the Lord's life was really beginning to shine forth. People were coming to Him. In chapter 3, we see that everyone was watching Him about what He would do on the Sabbath about a man with a withered hand. Those who had been following the Lord were being satisfied. People with Him were fed, healed, and released from bondage. He wasn't checking on them, making sure they were doing things like they should be according to some requirements. People with Him weren't under condemnation. The Pharisees, however, were watching to see if He would do something wrong. They had no part in what He was doing. When the Lord looked around, however, He was bothered they had no heart for the things of God. They only were concerned with some outward form.
When our heart is right, everything has a way to work itself out. When our heart is not right, nothing seems right. We need to ask, "Where is my heart at?" We have this kind of Pharisaic influence in us. Rather than loving the Lord and the truth, there is something in us that loves ourselves and our being better than others. This is why we always need to be brought into repentance. The Lord knows your heart is somewhere else, but if we turn our heart to Him, He will receive us into His kingdom.
We may have been baptized and we have repented, now we must learn to no longer live by our natural life.
Eventually in chapter 3 we see that the Lord called some to Him and sent them out. Those He chose, however, did not go out on their own. They had to go out trusting in Him. They went out with the gospel, and so should we!
His relatives thought He was "beside Himself" because of His total involvement with His Father's kingdom. Wherever He went, the crowds were pressing Him. He and His followers didn't even seem to have time to eat properly. Out of their natural concern, a door was opened for the enemy. The Pharisees, in response, claimed He was casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons. If we are not careful, we might open the door for others' accusations.
The Lord's response was that a house divided could not stand. The kingdom of God is not divided. Furthermore, He said no one can plunder the house of the strong man (Satan) unless he first thoroughly bind the strong man. Satan had to be tied up pretty good! Before we go out to preach the gospel, we have to make sure our heart is right. In order to plunder Satan's kingdom, we have to make sure he is bound.
As to the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit: They could reject Him being the Son of God, but to reject the Spirit of God through which Jesus worked was something that could not be remediated, for the Spirit was the means of God's work among them.
Jesus' whole focus was to do the will of God. This is why He said, "Who is My mother or My brother? It is they who do the will of God." We should pray for our families, but we have to stay focused on what the Lord has committed to us. The Lord had one goal, and He was not going to be swayed by anything from that goal. The natural life is a big frustration to what the Lord is after. We should not allow anything to distract us. The life within us will expose many thing within us that are not for God's will. This life will inspire, encourage, and expose us. In the process we will see many things, and yet the Lord will be there to bring us into His kingdom.
Unlike the natural Pharisees and relatives, the Lord will expose us not to shame or condemn us, but to bring us into what is real. His life is able to both expose and build us up.
This is how the Lord establishes God's kingdom.

Sunday, 18 October 2009

Tedario Smith
The portion we are sharing on is in 1 John 5
But I would like to start with Matthew 16 "And I also say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it."
There is some bad news here. There is the building and there's the gates of Hades. The gates of Hades are pushing against what God is doing to build up the church universally, locally, and even individually.
John's book is written to the believer. One thing the believer will struggle with is the matter of sin. Jesus has promised He will build His church. This is not based on our feeling, but His Word.
Some men are going to begin working on a building here. They will be working based on a plan, they will not be working haphazardly. They will have their steel-toed boots and hardhats, because some hazardous things will be going on. In the same way, there are some hazardous things that go on in our beings, so we should have some protective gear as well!
We all have a spirit, a soul, and a body. God created us in this way in His wisdom. Due to this arrangement, however, there is a struggle. Our flesh, even our good flesh, is in contention with what God desires to do. John in 1 John 5 wants to bring us to something. In the last verse, we are warned to guard ourselves against idols, for we are magnetically attracted to the world. "The whole world lies in the evil one." In Galatians 1:4 we read, "Who gave Himself for our sins that He might rescue us out of the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father." The evil age is still about us. There is much in this age that our flesh is attracted to. We all need to confess this. There is something in us that wants what this age can offer. There is also a part of us in our spirit that is warring against our flesh, saying, "Wait a minute! You've been born into an eternal thing! If you dwell in this age, you will frustrate what the Lord is trying to do in this age."
Some people have a funny idea of what the church is about. They want to do it their way. Paul was a very qualified individual, but he counted all those things loss so that Christ make have His place. The age can cause us to think we need to be somebody. We don't necessarily practice counting Christ more excellent than ourselves in the building up of the church! Yet it is not we, but Christ who builds, and we are the material He uses.
In 1 John 5 we read, And this is the boldness we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us...If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask, and He shall give life to him...there is a sin unto death. I do not say he should make a request regarding that....we know everyone who is begotten of God does not sin, but he who is begotten of God keeps himself, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that the whole world lies in the evil one, and we know the Son of God has come and given us an understanding that we might know Him who is true and that we are in Him who is true...His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true. Little children, guard yourselves from idols."
We have a dual status. W are the children of God, but many times we live as though we are a child of this age. We have the Bible that reveals the truth to us, and we have the Spirit to confirm that truth and usher us into it. Sin is just anything that violates God's law or will or the nature of who God is. You don't need anyone to tell you when you are sinning. (1 John 1:8...If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves.) We know sin is still in us. That is part of our dual status as those who still are in this flesh. John tells us, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us." That means we don't have to worry about it SO MUCH. He says further, "If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar." Later yet he says, "These things I write to you that you may not sin." But if anyone sins, we have an Advocate! We have an advocate, and we are told if we confess, He is righteous and faithful to forgive us our sins. In 1 John 5, we are told if we ask anything according to His will, He will do it.
The hardest thing about sin is to just let go of it. We still want to talk about it. In 1 John 1:7, we are told if we walk in the light as He is in the light, the blood of His Son Jesus cleanses us from every sin! We need to be in Him. In Galatians we are told if we walk by the Spirit, we shall by no means fulfill the lusts of the flesh. If we are in the light with Him, we are not in the flesh. And if we ARE in the flesh, His blood can cleanse us. Otherwise, there would be no material available for His building, for we all are corrupt!
John says he who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son was manifested to destroy the works of the devil. The gates of Hades is pushing against what God is doing. If I am not careful, I will find myself pushing against what God is doing if I am in my flesh. We need to take God's provision.
Another provision of God is in 1 John 3:9. Everyone begotten of God does not practice sin! Some say if we are borg again,we do not sin anymore. We all know from the rest of the Bible, however, that this isn't the case. Little tendrils of God's life have been spreading in us. What is of our flesh is not transformed by God's life. Our spirit is now our inner man. To this part of us, the world is not attractive. John says the reason the person begotten does not sin is because "his seed abides in him." We have become, according to John 15, branches of the vine. That life enables us to stand with God as the building One. We find ourselves able to stand with God, even as we have no confidence in ourselves (that is to say, our flesh).
Sometimes we need to buffet our flesh. We certainly need to cooperate with God in all He has arranged for us, and thank Him for it. All our transactions of our daily activities have to be transactions in Christ. Everything in this world that is under the hand of Satan is an idol. He is in all the good stuff.
I appreciate that when I came into the church life that the brothers told me, "You need to read your Bible. You shouldn't let others read it for you." In it we find what is opposed to what God is doing, and what God has provided so that we might stand against what the world is doing to frustrate what God is doing in us, and to keep us free from abiding in sin. (Meaning we don't accept sin.) We need to learn to walk according to the Spirit, for the Spirit has been given to us as the antidote for sin and the postive means for building up.

Sunday, 11 October 2009

The Pearl of Great Price

Tedario Smith October 11, 2009
In the OT we are told that the children of Israel's shoes did not wear out, etc., and that they had food and even water from a rock that followed them. If we have faith, we realize all things we need are already taken care of by God. We are not abandoned as orphans! He is caring for us in love.
The Gospel is not merely the four books in the beginning of the NT; the Gospel is the entire OT and NT. It is the well-speaking of God; that thing that has a certainty for what we have, where we are, and where we are going. It is focused on Jesus Christ. As such a person, He becomes our Savior, our Redeemer, and our content!
We should have the practice of speaking the Gospel to one another. The age that surrounds us exists to bring us OUT of the awareness of the Gospel. Therefore we need to always be brought into the Gospel by the Word.
In Matthew 16:16-18 we read that Jesus says something particular. (Remember, Jesus Christ is Himself the content of the Gospel.) Simon declares by revelation in these verses that he realizes Jesus is the Christ and the Son of the Living God. Jesus responds that upon this revelation (that Peter experienced concerning Him) that He would build His church! Then, on the day of Resurrection, He breathed Himself into them the Breath of Life. He came and He sowed Himself into those who had believed in Him.
In the first ten years of my salvation, my realization of Christ was mainly of someone who died on the cross so I might not have to go to hell. During the past twenty years, however, I have seen something more. My Christ today is something more! He is the Christ who is building up His church... which is us! We see in all the shadows of the OT... to Abraham God promised His offspring would be as the stars in the heavens. That was us God was referring to. (This was mankind that God had threatened to totally wipe out before Noah found grace in His eyes, and built that ark! That ark became the means for 8 souls to be saved from that age. That was a picture of the Gospel in the OT.)
The Lord gave us the power to choose Him. Mankind has the choice. Man usually uses this choice to go astray. One day, however, I realized I have nothing, can do nothing, and am nothing. All I have is of value is whatever God is doing in me and through me. This is what we should seek. We were all something lost, as in the parables in Luke 15. God didn't create us to merely be wanderers. He created us to be part of this living organism, the church. In the church, we have God's life, we can abide in God's life, and we can minister God's life to others. Because we have it, we can give it to others!
Matthew 13:44-45 tells us a man sold everything to buy something of great value to him. My "light" in this, my burden, is to see that the Word of God become living and operative to us (Hebrews 4:12). It doesn't matter if we understand what we read or not! Our spirit must be FED! Our spirit needs FOOD if we are to be one with God for His intention to build up the church. This is God's Gospel... not just to save us from hell, but to have us as His Bride!
We need to have experiences of wrestling with God as Jacob did, not to let Him go until He blesses us. This is WHY He comes to wrestle with us. If there is a treasure to be had, it is WORTH wrestling for. When we gain them, they become our treasure. Others may not be able to recognize what has become our treasure unless we help them appreciate its worth. "One man's junk is another man's treasure." Some may see what we treasure as unappealing, simply because they don't know the story behind it. Once they know what has taken place, they will come to treasure it.
When we come to the Word, we need to come to find Jesus, the One in whom GOD delights. Jesus is God's treasure. When we come to the Scriptures, we must come to Christ so that we might have another experience of Christ. What we gain of Christ is what will remain. All MY earthly "treasures" are going to burn. Therefore, let us seek after Christ. And how shall we find Him? One way is to find Him in the Word.
In Acts 13:27 we see that those who condemned Jesus condemned the very One who they read about every week! May that never be our experience! The church should be the stronghold that is pushing out in the midst of the devil's stronghold of tis world. We need to push back against what is pushing against us in the world. We face so much religious influence, even within us. We need to push out against this. As we come to the Word, we need to find Christ as our portion so that He might build His church!
Raymond Hudson
The enemy does his best to distract us from the Lord, even as we say, "I am fighting for the Lord... Where are YOU?" Elijah thought he was the only one standing for the Lord, even though the Lord had 7000 others. Therefore we need to ask that the Lord might join us to the Lord for what He is fighting for. Many things are going on today, and it is easy to just gain knowledge and thus become "reasonable" about things. All things are lawful to us, but do all things build up? The Lord paid such a high price for this pearl. He empied Himself and became in the likeness of sinful man (Philippians 2). We want to talk about the high price the Lord paid, and yet we can't make three meetings a week for Him. We have knowledge, not life. When death is operating, Paul said, life was operating in others. We need to be able to put our self-life to death, so that we might build up. The Lord has given us time, and yet we feel we have no time to give to HIM! We rationalize everything. The church is a pearl. Unless it is something of life, we shouldn't receive just anything.
Next week we are going to start building something here. It is going to cost us. It is going us some time, finance, and prayer. The Lord knows... and we feel justified withholding our time, etc. But the Lord EMPTIED HIMSELF. Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ JESUS! His mind was obedient all the way, even to the cross. Sacrifice is something we all can understanding. We all should be accountable to this Living One who has done everything for us. THe young ones can pray for their friends. When you pray for your friends, you live a certain way before them. Don't let the world shape you! You are special! (Romans 12:2) I've seen a lot change from one thing to another. Used to be you could get by on one income; now you need two. Should we buy into this, or should we live by faith!? We need to live by faith. We must be careful about losing our first love.
We may get heavy sometimes and think we are the only ones. We need to believe there are others out there fighting. We are not the only ones. And we need to lead our kids into this. "As for me and my HOUSE, we will serve the LORD" (Joshua) We shouldn't be allowed ourselves to be shaped by this age. This life we have received is for us to experience. We are not against knowlege. but we can never get away from LIFE!
We should beware of the enemy bringing in excuses which CHEAT us. The enemy will try to spread division and gossip among us. (Gossip only goes as far as people give it an ear.) We need to fight. We need to thank the Lord for every saint. When we see the value of the Pearl, we will free up our time and our finance and our prayer for it. When we become distracted away, however, things get cloudy and we live a "Lone Ranger" life. Once we see the value, however, we realize it is worthy. The age may have changed, but the Lord has not changed. Our situation may have changed, but the Lord's faithfulness has not changed. Things are not the same, but the Lord is still the Lord. Our job is to fight and exercise. We are all in this together. As we pray, the Lord will have a way.
We need to speak. The Gospel is our living a certain kind of life. When you live the Gospel, others can see who the Lord is, and they will come to treasure Him as you do.