Merlin's Mustache

II Corinthians 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

I once heard someone say that of all men who ever lived, Barabbas should have the best understanding of vicarious substitution. Somebody died in his place. This murderer and thief walked out a free man, the crowds cheering his release. At the same time, an innocent Jesus was sentenced to die.

But Barabbas isn’t the only one who can say that Jesus died in his place. We all can say that Jesus died on that Cross for us, just as He did for Barabbas. In the words of II Corinthians 5:21, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Jesus simply died that we might live. He was bound, that we who are in bondage to sin might indeed be set free; though too often, we’re not even aware of how bound we actually are.

BOTTOM LINE:

When word of his freedom came, he only had to walk out of that cell to be truly free. Through Christ, our cell door has sprung open. All we have to do is say, “I accept what Christ did for me, and I will now live in the light of that truth.”

David Jeremiah’s Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God July 17

FOR FURTHER REFLECTION:

Our problem as man, is that we desire hope and transcendence without our surrendering, to God and His inconvenient Truths… yesterday’s post lead sentence…

I’ve had an interesting day. I awoke this morning that four airlines were shut down because of computer problems and a few minutes ago a friend called saying some banks are closed because of similar problems.

Earlier this afternoon, I overheard a longtime Christian trucker friend, Mike who possesses an astute open and savvy political mind who is a modern-day Benjamin Franklin, (Ben’s type are unusually scarce today even though their soapboxes are everywhere) whom loves America waxing lovingly eloquent with a newbie fellow trucker much as the Apostle Paul did on Mars Hill, who my heart really ached for, because this newbies demeanor, I thought, even screamed “help!” I had introduced myself to him earlier in the week but had not uncovered all this, but Mike had evidently done his homework with the lad because I quickly learned from their engaging conversation that he was a rather beaten man, without a spiritual compass or identity, an emotionally broken husband in a contractual marriage whence he was the pawn, or a belittled gopher. Their conversation was focused on his wife’s extreme hatred of Trump, such that she would have shot him in Butler herself had she the opportunity.

I know Mike is more an independent voter type avoiding the hype, for his conversational thrust was that we are we all at fault, especially the church, big business, and corrupt politicians for not merely allowing this polarization in America, but actually outright promoting it. This poor lad was so distraught at his wife’s hatred of Trump that he’d been victimized by it as well. He appeared unable to engage in any meaningful conversation about any of the issues facing our nation. I excused myself as Mike was more knowledgeable of the lad and skilled than I, and for sure, I was out of time.

While driving home, I reflected on the lad’s brokenness, his wife’s extreme hatred of anything Republican, and Mike’s simple assessment of America’s decline having been caused by spiritually dead churches, selfish big business and selfish politicians. Yes, indeed. If it were just that simple. I concluded with thinking that this posts main character, Barabbas, perhaps is our answer. For example, we’re all victims of sin as we struggle for freedom in our self-imposed emotional & psychological  prisons, (that we’ve all been prepared or equipped, as was Barabbas, to simply walk out of or away from) and it is also quite evident, we are not ready to Exchange the Lies of the World, for the Liberating Truth Of  Almighty God and Jesus Christ, as the Jamie Winship book’s title proclaims, and all of Scripture reveals! I’m done. merlin

Day 35:

Reflect the magnificence of this verse “The Law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.” Psalm 19.7

Understand those who reject God’s truth do not believe in nothing; they believe in anything. Once you surrender objective truth, upon what rational basis can you reject even the most absurd truth-claims?

People long to be believe in the transcendent – something above and beyond us. Perhaps that’s why UFO’s and benevolent aliens fascinate us. We desire hope and transcendence without surrender to God and His truths, some of which we find very, very inconvenient. And some of the same people who believe these outrageous stories reject Christianity because they think them unbelievable. Aren’t we all in for a surprise?

BOTTOM LINE:

“It’s easier to find a score of men wise enough to discover the truth than to find one intrepid enough, being characterized by sufficient resolute fearlessness, fortitude, and endurance, when in the face of opposition, to stand up for it.”   Archibald Alexander Hodge (1823-1886)

AAH was the principal of Princeton Seminary 1878-1886, and the son of Charles Hodge, the latter quite famous for his prolific quotes. See quotes.net or Quotefancy.com, for Charle’s quotes, such as “the grace of God exalts a man without inflating him, and humbles a man without debasing him.” OR “the gospel is so simple that small children can understand it, and it is so profound that studies by the wisest theologians will never exhaust its riches.”

Randy Alcorn Truth: A Bigger View of God’s Word 2017 Day 35

And whoever said books, (or today, internet searches) aren’t relevant or interesting?

I should certainly know better by now than to think I can predict what the next post is to be… Especially since God prefers we live in His moments, over ours. Even to the extent that a chirping smoke detector overrules the thoughtfully set alarm from the evening prior.. merlin

“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.” Colossians 2:8

Christians who believe biblical truths are skeptical about hundreds of other truth-claims.

Secular society – which we often think of as skeptical – is remarkably gullible about falsehoods they ought to reject.

The Bible is unsympathetic to teachings and worldviews that contradicts God’s Words: “If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, they are conceited and understand nothing.” I Timothy 6: 3-4

Why is false doctrine connected with conceit? A proud person elevates self over God, believing he is smarter than God’s Word and can improve on it.

BOTTOM LINE:

“If false, Christianity is not important.

If true, it is of infinite importance.

What it can not be is moderately important.”   C.S. Lewis

Oh boy! That last line really does hurt; or convict!

Thanks to Randy Alcorn for his Day 34 from his book Truth: A Bigger View of God’s Word

I was a police officer for several years back in the 1980’s. When I arrested somebody, I would bring them in and ask them for a confession. I didn’t ask them for an apology. We teach confession as though it were just saying, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” When a police-officer hands you a pen and paper and says “Write the truth about what happened,” and you write “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” it resolves nothing.

We grew up thinking confession was just telling everyone and God that we we’re sorry about stuff. But “I’m sorry” doesn’t lead to a transformation.

Confession is telling God the truth about what you really believe about him, yourself, and others. It’s the greatest act, a sacrament. God loves honest confession. Confession is the beginning of a genuine transformation. If you don’t tell God your truth, how can he enlighten your reality with his truth?

If I say to God, “I think you let me down every day, and I’m afraid to take a new job because I’m afraid you won’t show up,” he will always work with that. Always.

He will respond to truth. Jesus says, “For if you embrace the truth, it will release true freedom into your lives” (John 8:32 TPT). Truth always sets you free. Hiding the truth always makes you a slave. If you will not tell the truth, you’re in bondage to the lie, the deception, and the rationalization. Don’t apologize for your perceived reality; tell the truth about it. That’s confession. Remorse is not repentance.

Confession, repentance, transformation.

We practice confession and repentance all the time. Every time I feel intimidated by a situation, I say, “God, let me tell you how I feel right now.” God already knows how I feel and what I really believe. I’m not faking him out. I just say, “Lord, I really feel intimidated. I feel fearful right now. I feel powerless with this person. That’s how I feel.” That’s confession. Notice I’m not saying, “Lord, I’m so sorry for feeling afraid; please take the fear away.” God doesn’t want to merely remove your fear; he invites you to allow Him to simply transform it. Trust Him!

Acknowledging the truth about your fear opens the way for repentance and for your truth (fear) to be transformed by God’s truth. Then you have authority over your fear rather than the fear controlling you. That is called freedom.

God’s response to true confession is always grace and mercy. He “might whisper, “Beautiful. Let’s work with that. No one has authority over you. No one ever has or ever will. I brought you into this situation because this is what I want to accomplish with you. This person needs you. They’re hurt. They need you.” Boom! Repent – change the way you think – turn around and go the new way. That’s confession and repentance.

BOTTOM LINE:

When you live in continuous confession and repentance, your life is transformed in every area: professionally, spiritually, emotionally, physically. In every way, you will begin to ascend.

As I guide you in asking God questions, be prepared to write. Write ideas on your phone, on paper, on your hand …write down what comes to mind. You want the false things you’re believing to come into the light. Don’t live your life in secret. The fingerprints of Satan on your life are secrecy and shame. Writing down thoughts and impressions gets them out of your mind and into the light.

It’s even freeing to say these beliefs out loud to others you trust who are in the process with you. This is a great way to get to know one another in a small group and certainly a much better way than using those superficial formulaic introductions.  

Confessing to one another is the greatest way to form true community because it draws people together. They never forget one another because they’ve been with each other in their fear. And they’ve worked through their fear into victory. Confession makes communities function well together. This is true, spiritual relationship reality.

Silencing the Room & Moving On…

As a cop, I learn that when I go into a very tense situation and silence the demonic, the situation calms down. I call this exercise “silencing the room.” It got to be rather funny when I was training rookies. I would tell them, “Watch this.” Then I would pray out loud and the entire room would go silent. The surprised rookie would ask, “Where did you learn that? It’s not in the academy.”

When you’ve picked up this book, you brought all kinds of false ideas with you. You can’t help it; you’re human. Anxiety, fear, guilt, shame – all the garbage came with you, and the enemy is attached to it. The enemy has no authority over you. But if you think he does, in that way he does. That’s sort of his game. He asks you to give him permission to run your life, and you say yes by believing his deceptions: “I’m not good enough,” “Nothing will ever change,” “I’m stuck in this situation,” “God will never use me,” “I’m alone in this mess,” and so on. The enemy is ruling your life, and you become what you believe.

To Aid Your Further Reflections:

So, we’re going to silence the room. With God’s help, we’re going to silence the negative voices that disrupt our lives. Doing so puts the room and everything in it back in its rightful order. As we silence the room, your mind is going to open. As your mind begins to unlock, start writing down the ideas, thoughts, or impressions that come to mind. More to come.

(verbatim from Living Fearless by Jamie Winship, pages 47-51)

NEXT UP:

A necessary prayer of our dedication to Almighty God to Live Fearless; by exchanging the lies of the world for the liberating truth of God.

My Life’s Spiritual Honor and Duty

By Oswald Chambers My Utmost For His Highest  July 15

I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians… —Romans 1:14

Paul was overwhelmed with the sense of his indebtedness to Jesus Christ, and he spent his life to express it. The greatest inspiration in Paul’s life was his view of Jesus Christ as his spiritual creditor. Do I feel that same sense of indebtednesss to Christ regarding every unsaved soul? As a saint, my life’s spiritual honor and duty is to fulfill my debt to Christ in relation to these lost souls. Every tiny bit of my life that has value I owe to the redemption of Jesus Christ. Am I doing anything to enable Him to bring His redemption into evident reality in the lives of others? I will only be able to do this as the Spirit of God works into me this sense of indebtedness.

I am not a superior person among other people— I am a bondservant of the Lord Jesus. Paul said, “…you are not your own…you were bought at a price…” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Paul sold himself to Jesus Christ and he said, in effect, “I am a debtor to everyone on the face of the earth because of the gospel of Jesus; I am free only that I may be an absolute bondservant of His.” That is the characteristic of a Christian’s life once this level of spiritual honor and duty becomes real.

BOTTOM LINE:

Quit praying about yourself and spend your life for the sake of others as the bondservant of Jesus. That is the true meaning of being broken bread and poured-out wine in real life.

FOR FURTHER REFLECTION:

Yesterday morning this word “barbarian” really struck my consciousness anew! Remember from your high school world history classes Middle Age historians’ accounts of the barbarians (middle-ages terrorists, not merely middle-aged men or late maturing boys!) who were then threatening, indeed, as now, are seen by perhaps certain vocal Christian pontificators as challenging and shaking the very moorings and the foundations of our western civilization?

A closer examination of my grandfather’s Thompson Chain Reference Bible refers me to I Cor 14:11 (unknown tongues?) and that to Col 3:11 and that in turn, to chain #341, also including Acts 28:4 “and when the ‘barbarians’ saw the venomous beast (snake) hang on his hand, they said amongst themselves, no doubt this man is a murderer, though he (Paul) hath escaped the sea…”

Perhaps the word barbarian is better interpreted today as our “in the image of God brothers” yet outside the “fold” as indeed was Saul (later, becoming our beloved Apostle Paul) prior to his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, who was “yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord” … And don’t forget in our current cultural passivity, that Saul was prior the encounter, the kingpin in the leadership of the organized church.

I think our task to be salt and light today and beyond, is similar to the way the 20 construction workers from the Libya Coptic Church evidently witnessed back in February of 2015, to the 21^st victim, named Matthew Ayariga, of black African descent from Ghana, or perhaps Chad, who stated at some opportune moment in their transport to that beach, “I am a Christian and I am like them,” joining the 20 martyrs that fateful day. Search greekcitytimes.com for more interesting details.

This all reminds me of an account(s) somewhere in Martyrs Mirror, where during public on the town square mass burnings of dozens of Christians, such as our forefathers in Europe, that spectators in the crowds were so compelled by the previous witness of Jesus empowering the daily living of these persecuted and tortured men and women, even teens; that the “called” spectators voluntarily joined those confined in the flames sacrificing their lives, joining their new brothers in Christ, that very day in eternity. Consider, as is declared in Hebrews 11:25 speaking of Moses and all martyrs, “Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season…

Restated from Utmost above, Paul sold himself to Jesus Christ and he said in effect, “I am a debtor to everyone on the face of the earth because of the gospel Jesus; I am only free that I may be an absolute bondservant of His.”  

In regard to this word barbarian, I prefer to dwell on interpreting our current fragmented global planet and its God ordained domestic villages from the mysteries and majesty of Almighty God and the admonitions I read in such passages as Col 3:10-17 (actually, one should include the first nine verses as well!

10.) And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

11.) Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.

12.) Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;

13.) Forebearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

14.) And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.

15.) And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

16.) Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

17.) And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

Isaiah 43:5 “Fear not, for I am with you.”

While stranded on a deserted island, Daniel Defoe’s character, Robinson Crusoe, salvaged a Bible from the shipwreck, read it, and was converted. Imagine such seclusion today! He grew into a devout Christian. His life, though missing human companionship, was peaceful and prayerful.

But one day he found a footprint in the sand and realized he wasn’t alone. Knowing the cannibalism of the local tribes, he grew into a fearful man, looking over shoulder with every step. He no longer slept peacefully. He altered his habits. He visualized himself being captured and devoured. “That former confidence in God … now vanished, as if He that had fed me by miracle hitherto could not preserve, by His power, the provision which He made for me by His goodness.”

BOTTOM LINE:

Crusoe had to go back to his Bible, repent of anxiety, and be strengthened again in his faith. He eventually learned the great lesson of faltering Christians. The things we fear most are likely, in the providence of God, to be most used for our good and His glory. Those footprints, in the end, led to his deliverance.

God has planned out our future from eternity past and guaranteed it with His promises; in fact, to the very second of our future home-going! We can trust Him. Actually, we MUST trust Him. There is none other!

David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God   2002  July 14. Indeed, so well titled!

For Further Reflection:

My initial take while reading the above clip reminds me of our ever-present vulnerability to fear, whether we be so fortunate to reside in a Crusoe type paradise, as we may choose to enjoy here locally, where any of our “fear prisons” are currently only of our own imaginations. Jamie Winship (Living Fearless) is teaching me big time that all human conflict originates from fear (false evidence appearing real), and that fear originates from our false view of God, ourselves, and others. And unless we allow God to supernaturally exchange what’s false for what’s real in our psyche, we may never experience the true freedom of our identity in Christ, because we’re dominated by our false self – our fear, guilt and shame.  

Now, contrast that lifestyle (free from fear) with today’s not so subtle media-driven verbal visual emotional onslaught, and even though a few of us may be of an American Anabaptist cultural subset, we too are being swept downstream with the masses, too often inadvertently “swallowing the demonic fear bait” that is subtly and clandestinely generating our self-preservation & self-protection modes in our physical and emotional prisons, and perhaps all the while, it’s being accomplished with our permission; even under our watch!

My concern for Christ-Followers today and beyond is, how will we continue to grow in our faith, if once we’ve seen the disturbing unexplainable “footprints or saucers,” perhaps even taken the fear-bait, and are potentially deceived in the ensuing chaos, even becoming separated from His empowering remedy? It is imperative for those of us seeking the narrow path to continue in His grace and mercy, thereby repenting from our wayward anxiety, so we can again be renewed and strengthened in our faith …

As I said in the July 9 post, we must keep the Gospel message front & center, pure and simple.  Be on guard continually, for those future “unexplained footprints” may prove quite troublesome for shallow-rooted Christians, though ultimately & conclusively, as stated prior, such can be for our good and His glory. Do be forewarned though, that future narratives are being be purposefully designed to confuse Christ-Followers. Indeed, we are always protectively covered, until such time though, that we may ignorantly choose, or be persuaded to open our protective doors and allow the demonic to enter our heart, mind, and soul; and His (our) temple.

Again, Isaiah 43:5 “Fear not, for I am with you.”