Letters to the Flock

Sanctification By Faith (Part IV): Who's Right & Why Does It Matter?

2008-02-02T14:11:00.000-08:00

by Pastor Jacob Doran,
The Church of God in Flathead Valley (MT)

I think it good to say, from the start of this message, that my study of God's Word and time spent at His feet has inclined me to view of sanctification that departs in some ways from the generally accepted views of sanctification, finding in its truth a living God rather than a pall dogma or doctrinal postulate. For one, I passionately believe that Christians and theologians have spent far too much time dissected and defining something that is meant to be experienced (and experienced by faith) rather than fully understood.

In my own experience, the more that Christians struggle to define and understand sanctification, the further they are from actually experiencing it, with painfully few exceptions. The Bible was given to men and women who were mostly illiterate and, by our standards, simple people—not to Greek scholars or theologians with doctorates in divinity, although the Apostle Paul and Luke both appealed to the more scholarly minds of the Romans.

The diligent study of God's Word is always commendable, but the experiences it points us to must not be scrutinized until all of the life has been extracted and they become mere doctrinal points that are taught above must people's heads--to the intellect rather than to the heart--without producing any real fruit in the life and without any supernatural or lasting change that bears witnesses of its own divine nature.

One of the most striking instances of the rift between experience and understanding comes in the early days of the Pentecostal movement, here in the United States. I want to specifically refer to a man by the name of William Durham, whose teaching introduced a revolutionary—albeit not entirely accurate—view of sanctification that deviated greatly from the view accepted by Pentecostals from the Wesleyan or Holiness movements.

So different was Durham’s teaching that many were convinced he had launched an outright attack on the doctrinal foundations upon which the Pentacostal/Holiness movement was built. Much of Durham’s teaching was scripturally sound, and well in accordance with what the Lord revealed to me in my own searching of His Word, long before I had ever heard of Durham. However, on one major point we differ greatly.

A paragraph from one of the many histories of the Assemblies of God provides a fair summary of Durham’s teaching:

"Actually, Durham and those who grasped his message taught a crucifixion of the old nature, a crucifixion declared to be a fact by the Word (Romans 6 and Galatians 2:20), and made experiential within believers through faith, through reckoning on the historical fact of the Cross. If a lapse should come, through a failure to reckon constantly oneself dead to sin, the principle of reckoning must be placed into operation again. Whereas, one who is taught that the inbred corruption is completely removed is bewildered when sin reappears. If the root is eradicated, whence the fruit? Did it somehow return to its former soil? Must it be eradicated again? How many definite works must be wrought until deliverance is "definite"? Durham inquired: Would it not be much simpler and much more scriptural to observe that, whatever the inward condition, the definite fact of the Cross remained, and the inward condition can be rectified when the Christian begins to reckon again? By accepting sanctification as a work which is based on the finished work of Calvary, the believer starts on a high plane of holy living, and can maintain it by abiding in Christ. In this manner, the object of our faith is not in an experience of sanctification but in the Lord Jesus Christ 'who of God is made unto us... sanctification.'" (Carl Brumback, Suddenly… From Heaven: A History of the Assemblies of God, p. 102)

I will delve into this a little deeper in upcoming messages, because there is much practical merit to be found in several aspects of what Durham taught. I want to specifically address in future messages, the concept of temptation from without versus temptation from within, as well as the whole aspect of ABIDING in Christ and the fruit of that abiding.

However, suffice it to say for this message that the Bible teaches sanctification by faith and that without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith reckons us first to be justified based on the merits of Christ’s obedience and atonement on the cross, then to be spiritually crucified with Christ and so raised with him in newness of life—dead to sin and alive unto God.

One does not have to mentally go through the process to receive this experience by faith. One does not have to understand it to experience it. However, it IS the result of faith and the working of God’s Grace (ie. yielding oneself to “the divine influence upon the heart and it’s reflection in the life”—which is, by definition, the second aspect of Grace).

When we fail Him, the failing is not a failure of His Grace or deliverance from sin. The failure is a result of a weak faith. Remember: the enemy’s greatest power is to deceive, and he loves to convince Christians that God has not truly or completely delivered them from sin—that we are not in truth a new creation but an old one merely trying to reform. When we are convinced of this, we will fail and fail habitually until our faith is so shaken that we completely give up.

What happened? I ceased to RECKON myself (ie. to conclude beyond all doubt) dead to sin. My faith must now be recovered, in the reality and experience of Christ's definitive work in me, before I can be sanctified anew.

This much is true. Such faith and subsequent consecration may occur at the very moment in which I turn to Christ, but it may not occur until Christ reveals himself to me as the sanctifier as well as the forgiver of sins.

However, Scripture also tells us that, if any man comes to Christ in faith and repents of his sin, Christ will in no wise refuse him. Contrition is the key to relationship with Christ. (See Psm. 34:18, 51:17; Isaiah 57:15, 67:2; Matt. 5:3.)

Does repentance imply the forsaking of sin? Indeed, it does, as well as a turning to Christ, but that does not necessarily mean that an inward struggle will not persist until Christ is personally revealed to be our deliverer and sanctifier. (See Romans, chapter 7, describing the struggle of the individual who still believes he must by his own efforts fulfill the law of God and is frustrated when he ultimately fails.)

As stated in the last message, the book of I Thessalonians was obviously written to believers, as is evident in the first few verses and later reinforced throughout the epistle. Even so, the Apostle Paul entreated them to be sanctified and said that he prayed for their sanctification.

Reckoning by faith WORKS. Durham’s preaching proved that. Wesleyans who believed the DOCTRINE of sanctification were struggling to EXPERIENCE it, until they heard Durham’s teaching on the subject and for the first time embraced sanctification by FAITH, followed by an immediate change in heart, mind and life that attested to the freedom from sin in their nature.

Sadly, Durham’s followers contended with the Wesleyan (Holiness) Pentecostals over how and when a person became sanctified until the issue of sanctification became more theological than experiential.

The Holiness movement saw Durham as a heretic—and I would have to agree, when it comes to his teaching that Sanctification occurs when one is justified—but subsequently dwindled in their spiritual influence because many continued to struggle with sin in spite of a solid teaching that sanctification was a second definite work of grace, failing to accept and experience the blessedness inherent in RECKONING oneself dead to sin and alive to God, through the outworking of Grace by faith in what is indeed the finished work of Christ.

The southern Pentecostal groups (ie. The Church of God, the Pentecostal Holiness Church, the Church of God in Christ and others) continued their teaching on sanctification as a second definite work of grace, due to their history with the Holiness movement, but many failed to grow beyond the limitations inherent in mere doctrine.

On the other hand, Durham’s people were indeed confused, although their hearts may well have been in the right place, and the “Finished Work” was anything but finished because the Finished Work movement (ie. Assemblies of God and subsequent organizations) began to teach practical sanctification as a “progressive work” that merely begins with justification/salvation.

I realize, for those who are familiar with the progression of these organizations, that I have vastly oversimplified this. However, the bottom line is that organized religion can become so dogmatic about doctrinal definitions that the actual experience is lost and becomes nothing more than words in a statement of faith. Sadly, that is the reality of what is seen in most churches, including those with solid Biblical teaching.

Beyond doctrine, the Holy Spirit will lead the truly converted man or woman to genuine sanctification by faith. It is often a church’s doctrine or teaching on the subject that confuses and hinders converts from simply yielding themselves fully to the Spirit to reveal and “complete” the work.

For all of the frustration and futility of Romans chapter 7, it is all the more blessed to know that chapter 8 begins with these words: Romans 8:1-4 (1) There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (2) For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. (3) For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: (4) That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Romans 8:9-12 explains:
(9) But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. (10) And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. (11) But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. (12) Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. (13) For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

How do we “mortify the deeds of the body”? By our own efforts to overcome sin?

Let me, again refer us to Romans 6:
Romans 6:11-14
(11) Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (12) Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. (13) Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. (14) For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

The chapter goes on to increase our faith in the work of God whose Grace does not abound in sin but in righteousness, declaring that we who were once the servants of sin, have a new master, whom we now obey—not because of our great willpower, but because of His Spirit, that “worketh in you, both to will and to do”. (More to come on this.)

Romans 6:22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

Note: we are MADE free from sin. It is a perfect work, and not of our own imperfect doing. Nor is it a “progressive work.” As a result, we now bear the FRUIT of righteousness.

Paul compelled the Thessalonians to be sanctified (just as he had compelled the Ephesians believers to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost in Acts 19:1-6). He even prayed for their sanctification. They needed to experience the fullness of the perfect work of Christ, through sanctification (spirit, soul and body), by complete faith in Him.

These messages are intended to strengthen your faith in that work, so that you too may enjoy the transformation that results from reckoning oneself dead to sin and alive unto God. However, I implore you to seek that experience in your heart and yield yourself to the Spirit, rather than to attempt to understand and define it, because it is the will of God to give it as soon as you are ready to believe and receive it—whether it be at the moment of salvation or as the Spirit so reveals Christ to you.

Sincerely,

Pastor Doran

The Spirit of Peace, Love & A Sound Mind

2008-01-25T10:59:00.000-08:00

by Pastor Jacob Doran,
The Church of God in Flathead Valley (MT)

I was reading this morning, in II Timothy, in the first chapter, and came across this familiar passage that has long been a blessing to me. I thought I would share it with all of you, as well.

II Timothy 1:7
(7) For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

I love this verse, because it is empowering.

Sometimes, we find ourselves dreading, worrying, feeling powerless and occasionally even unloving toward another, not to mention in a state of mind that is far from sound. When we are upset, whether we're worrying, depressed or angry, we do not think rationally. We cannot make decisions in such a state or even trust ourselves to act and react appropriately (ie. as the Lord would have us to, at that moment or in that situation).

Immediately, upon recognizing that we have succumbed to such a spirit, we must claim the promises of God in Christ Jesus, who has NOT given us a spirit of weakness, fear, bitterness or defeatism. Such feelings are NOT of God, and we must resist those feelings which the enemy of our souls would use to oppress us.

We must CLAIM by faith the Spirit of POWER, LOVE and a SOUND MIND. That Spirit is ours by right. That Spirit stands at the ready, every hour, to assist us in living a spiritually victorious life, but the enemy--a liar from the beginning and the prince of deception--wants to convince us otherwise.

Whose report will YOU believe? Will you believe the defeatist spirit, which is obviously not of God, or the Spirit that comes from God and stands ready to empower you. We have not been given the spirit of fear or bondage but the Spirit of power, love, and soundness of mind.

"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." (John 14:27)

"Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world." (I John 4:4)

Those are promises that you can take to the bank.

Sanctification by Faith (Part III): A Perfect Work

2008-01-23T10:18:00.000-08:00

by Pastor Jacob Doran,
The Church of God in Flathead Valley (MT)

According to Webster’s, Sanctification is “1. The act of making holy. In an evangelical sense, the act of God's grace by which the affections of men are purified or alienated from sin and the world, and exalted to a supreme love to God. 2. The act of consecrating or of setting apart for a sacred purpose; consecration.”

Century Dictionary puts it this way: “In Theology, the act of God's grace by which the affections of men are purified and the soul is cleansed from sin and consecrated to God; conformity of the heart and life to the will of God."

John and Charles Wesley, who were instrumental in recovering the Biblical teaching of Sanctification asserted these four things:

That Christian perfection is that love of God and our neighbor, which implies deliverance from all sin; for Christ stated that all the commandments are fulfilled in these two, and the Apostle Paul also wrote extensively of this same truth.
That such perfect love, which perfects the soul of man, is the gift of God—the divine nature. We cannot produce it in and of ourselves. It is the life of Christ, in the believer, which we accept by faith.
That entire sanctification is instantaneous, rather than a gradual process.
That we are to expect it sanctification, not at death, but every moment, as we live and walk in the Spirit, allowing the Christ-life to direct our thoughts and actions.

Luther Lee, a nineteenth century reformer, ordained minister and co-founder of the Wesleyan Movement (known as Methodism), proclaimed that: "Sanctification is that renewal of our fallen nature by the Holy Ghost, received through faith in Jesus Christ, whose blood of atonement has power to cleanse from all sin; whereby we are not only delivered from the guilt of sin, which is justification, but are washed entirely from its pollution, freed from its power, and are enabled, through grace, to love God with all our hearts, and to walk in His holy commandments blameless."

In a nutshell, Sanctification must be viewed as something more than spiritual growth or “growth in grace.” It is the necessary second step that should result from faith in Christ and repentance and should be understood as the perfect work of Christ in response to the believer’s faith that Christ can and will change both the heart and nature of sinful man—from sinner to saint, from carnal to spiritual, from fallen to restored, from earth-like to Christ-like, “conformed to the image of His Son.”

Simply put, Sanctification is deliverance from sin. It is the purging of carnal desire from within the Adamic heart and the transplanting of the divine nature, imputed in response to our faith.

We have often been told by psychologists that if I child is told he is stupid or that he is incapable of doing something for long enough—sometimes just once or twice—he is likely to believe it and be limited by those thoughts for the rest of his life, unless he is retrained to believe that the opposite is true. Even after being taught differently than what he first believed, he must ACCEPT it in order to be liberated from the old mindset and live accordingly.

That is the simple truth about Sanctification. We cripple Christians by telling them that even though they have believed on and accepted Christ for salvation, they cannot—nor is He able to MAKE them—live free from sin in the present life. If that is what they are made to believe, they are kept in bondage and will never rise above it until they are both taught the truth from the Bible and ACCEPT it by FAITH.

When they truly believe that “this is the will of God, even your sanctification” (I Thes. 4:3*), that “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2) and that “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Phil. 4:13), they will live accordingly because if we “walk in the Spirit”—the agent of the divine nature, according to the promise of God in Christ—we “shall not shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16).

Faith unto salvation is incomplete, if it does not lead to deliverance from sin. We must believe that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to CLEANSE us from ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS.” (I John 1:9)

The book of I Thessalonians was obviously written to believes, as is evident from the first few verses and is reinforced throughout the epistle. Yet, the Apostle Paul entreats them to be sanctified, as though they yet lacked some important aspect of their faith.

He concludes with, “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.” (I Thes. 5:23-24)

In our next message, we’ll consider Sanctification as a second definite work of Grace, versus to Sanctification as part of Justification. Who’s right, and why does it matter?

*see also verses 4 and 5.

Sactification By Faith (Part II): Concluding Ourselves Dead to Sin

2008-01-12T07:57:00.000-08:00

by Pastor Jacob Doran,
The Church of God in Flathead Valley (MT)

For this next message, I want to take another look at Romans chapter six. In particular, I want to focus on four verses, although the whole chapter could well be cited in addressing the subject of sanctification.

Romans 6:1-2, 6&11
(1) What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
[Grace is defined as “unmerited favor,” as well as “the divine influence on the heart and it’s reflection in the life.” Refer to and read Titus 2:11-12.]
(2) God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
(6) Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
(11) Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Paul says to reckon—a mathematical term, which means “to conclude” as an absolute—ourselves dead indeed unto sin. We’ve done the math. We know the outcome. We are to conclude ourselves to be as dead as Christ is dead to this earthly life (verses 7-10).

As Christ was buried, so are we buried—baptized into His death. The former life is over. The body of sin—sin that He took upon Himself, on the cross, when He became my sin—has been destroyed. He came forth from the grave WITHOUT sin. He came forth in NEWNESS of life, and in the experience of Regeneration we came forth with Him.

We are now to reckon ourselves—to conclude it just as absolute in the realm of heaven and earth as the laws of physics are in this present world—to be as dead to sin as Christ is dead to sin and as alive unto God as Christ is alive unto God. We have been separated from the world by that death, as completely as Christ’s death separated Him from this world—not by any work that we have done, but by faith in the finished work of God in Jesus Christ.

In Acts 26:18 Jesus told Paul that we are sanctified by faith in Him.
(18) To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

With New Life Comes New Stewardship Of The Body

I Corinthians 6:15 tells us that our bodies are the members of Christ. Thus, our union with Him is both a spiritual union and a physical union. Our bodies are physically Christ’s. We are as truly united with Him by faith as He is united with God by His Resurrection and Heavenly birthright.

The Apostle Paul describes his own Romans 6 experience in Galatians 2:20-21, which we referred to briefly in the last message on Sanctification by Faith:
(20) I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

God’s solution to sin and my past life of transgression is simple. He crucified it, when Christ bore it on the cross. I can’t physically go back and climb up on the cross, which is one reason why He saw fit to die in my place. I can, however, confess my faith in His finished work, and by faith my guilt and sin are transferred to the cross, covered by His blood, forever dissolved in time and eternity.

That was His cure for the disease of sin that was in my life! The cure was that I identify with His death on the cross by faith and be concluded dead, along with my sin. The life I now live, I live by FAITH in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me, to ensure a victorious life by securing for me “wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption,” (I Cor. 1:30) wisdom and “all things that pertain unto life and godliness” (II Peter 1:3).

God doesn’t help my old nature to become better. He puts it to death and creates me anew. (See II Corinthians 5:17-19 and Galatians 6:14-15, “…by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world.”)

Old things have passed away. All things have become new. God, whose Spirit moved upon the face of the deep to perform a creative work has performed the same creative work in my own soul, giving spiritual life and righteousness to one who was spiritually dead and defiled. Furthermore, He has made a spiritual division between the light and the darkness. I now CONCLUDE myself—as does God—dead to sin and alive unto God.

Illustration:

I heard an excellent analogy—I believe it was from Michael Pearl—which I thought was absolutely great. I want to share, with some personalization and embellishment/dramatization for emphasis:

Guys like cars. Although I have many favorites, my current favorite is a Lotus Exige S., a supercharged English motorsport car manufactured by Lotus Engineering Ltd. It looks and drives like a piece of engineering art with enough speed to make living near the Audubon look very inviting. It’s been clocked at 0-60 in 4.1 seconds, or 0-Dead in under 15 seconds.

If I could afford to own one, you can bet I would baby it. I’d give it the royal treatment routinely, both inside and out. And if something ever went wrong, you can bet I’d have it to the best mechanic I could find to get that problem taken care of, without delay.

Imagine, if you will, that I’m having serious problems with my Exige, and so I take it to the most competent mechanic I know. That mechanic’s name is Jesus.

He tells me, “Yeah, I can fix your car.”

I ask, “How much is it going to cost?”

He says, “Oh, don’t worry about that. You can’t afford what this is going to cost. Just let me take care of it. It’s all on me.”

So, He tells me to pull my car around back and He’ll fix what’s wrong with it. I do. I pull my beautiful piece of human engineering around, get out and hand Him the keys.

Then, I watch in horror as He pulls a little lever and a huge magnet the size of a small convenience store drops down on top of my car. It lifts my Exige into a large crushing machine, and I begin to scream out loud as I hear the metal crunching and glass shattering, while I am helpless to do anything but watch.

“What are you doing?” I cry—literally, for I’m crying by now. “You said that you could fix it.”

“I AM!” He replies. “You won’t have any more problems with this car.”

You see, that’s God’s solution to my old habits and vices—the life I led before I came to Him. He doesn’t just fix it. He destroys it. He replaces it. My former life could not please Him and I was not capable of living the life He has called me to. Therefore, he put it to death, when I turned to His Son for help and believed upon Him to make me what I could not be on my own.

He just destroyed the old life and gave me a new one.

Back to our illustration: Around pulls an H2 Hummer limousine. The Holy Ghost is driving. He opens the door for Jesus and me. Then, Jesus looks at me and says, “Get in. From now on, you’ll be riding with me. My wheels are in perfect condition, and I intend to keep them that way.”

Now, if I come back, later on and seek out my old Exige by digging around through the junk yard, the only thing I’ll find is a compacted mass of crushed metal that has forever been rendered inoperable.

(Like my old van. It was totaled, so they had to give me a new one. I can cause the destruction of the new one, but I can’t resurrect the old one, because it’s nothing more than scrap metal in some bone yard.)

Likewise: The old life is dead and buried. Dead people don’t sin.

If I am to return to sin after I have been given new life in Christ Jesus, I have to defile Christ, for it is His life that I have been given. I know that it is no longer I (the old me) who lives but Christ who lives in me, and the new life, which I now live, I live by faith both in Him and in His work for/within/through me.

Romans 6:17-18
(17) But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
(18) Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

He took my Exige, in which I committed a great deal of sin, and gave me an H2 Hummer Limo. As long as I allow the Holy Spirit to do the driving, he knows when and what kind of maintenance is needed and will see to it that it is done. If I, however, tell him to move over and climb behind the wheel, I’m going to put this thing in the ditch or ever worse. I certainly won’t maintain it like I should. If I am careless and take if for granted, I can ruin it, but if I’ll let the Spirit of God do His job and, in faith, leave the driving to Him, He’ll never let that happen.

What’s more, He takes care of this ride for it is the Life of Christ, in me. It only takes handing Him the keys. He’ll undertake any and all maintenance/restoration that is needed, if I’ll let Him and if I’ll take my hands off of His wheels.

I AM NO LONGER a servant of sin. The second, definite work of Grace, by faith in Christ, has made me a servant of RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Romans 4:3-4
(3)For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
(4) Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
(5) But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

As in redemption/justification, so in sanctification. If I believe that my works of self-denial and obedience are the sanctifying power in my life, I will live a life of discouragement and defeat, for it can never be so. If, however, I trust Christ to produce the obedience and self-denial, He will do so, that I may glory in His finished work alone.

1 John 5:4 explains:
(4) For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

Although some take this to mean that we are sanctified immediately when we are saved, we need only understand that, if we are truly born of God, we will “walk in the Spirit” and overcome the world by that very faith. Consequently, we “shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.” (Galations 5:16) Though it may occur simultaneous with salvation, it is ALWAYS a second, definite work of Grace, through faith. (See I Th. 4:3-4 & I Cor. 6:9-11)

The Two-Fold Quest of the Magi

2008-01-11T11:26:00.000-08:00

By Pastor Jacob Doran
The Church of God in Flathead Valley (MT)

I didn’t grow up with any knowledge of the season of Advent, the Twelve Days of Christmas or the celebration of Epiphany. I have learned of these only in recent years.

However, the more that I read about them, the more inspired I become to live out what they represent and to embrace them as means of sharing the true message of Christmas with my family and others in my life.

I do not compel us to incorporate these observances into our own Christmas traditions, but to seize upon the passion that first inspired them and by which they both keep Christ’s redemptive work at the very center of the holidays and redirect the focus of the coming year, bringing us ever closer to the DIVINE passion.

There's something seeing candles in windows that always thrilled me as a child, when my Grandparents took me out to see the Christmas lights. There was a certain warmth and enchantment that excited both a sense of wonder and an inner peace that prevailed throughout the Christmas season, so long as those candles remained in the windows.

I now understand that the candles and Christmas lights are meant to reflect the Christ’s light, as it shone to the Gentiles, which is a good excuse for me to leave up the tree a bit too long, and to leave the Christmas lights up, even longer. I am notorious for continuing the singing of Christmas songs and reflection on the Christmas story until its glow burns so brightly within my soul that it sets the tone for the entire new year.

Last year, I shared with you little about the Twelve Days of Christmas, which traditionally began on the evening of December 25 and culminated on the morning of January 6 with the observance of Epiphany—a theme upon which I want to elaborate today (being Jan. 6).

Epiphany marks the arrival of the wise men in Bethlehem, where they found the Christ child, bestowed upon him their most precious gifts and worshipped him. Following the star, which they saw in the east, they journeyed to a far country to find the promised King of whom prophesies—carefully preserved with great expectancy from the days when Daniel ruled the magi in both the Babylonian and Median and Persian empires—foretold.

The wise men were astrologers and magicians, but it is evident that some of them highly esteemed Daniel’s God, seeing that Daniel’s prophesies came to pass again and again. In fact, Daniel was never wrong, and he had explained to them that it was God who gave him understanding of the things about which he spoke. Even after Daniel’s passing, some of the magi continued to believe in his prophesies about a coming king.

That is why, when they saw the star, probably having been informed by Daniel of what to look for and what the star would signify, they embarked at once for the country to which it led them. Recent discoveries about the star Regulus—known throughout history as the King Star—and an even that was noticed by even the Romans, in the very year in which we now believe Christ to have been born to the Jews, sheds much light upon how the magi must have followed the arch of the star/event in the heavens, over several months, to Bethlehem of Judea.

Over “field and found, moor and mountain,” they traveled, in search of the One whose birth the star heralded. No matter how long or hard their journey, they continued on, fully committed to find and worship the heaven-born king, whom they knew had come to lead the sons of men.

Theirs was a quest of epic proportion, worthy of the greatest liturgical heroes, the most noble and adventurous among us, with it’s object greater than any ever sought, to look upon the very face of God who had visited earth in the likeness of a tiny child and would—for a few, short years—walk among us as a man.

They not only beheld him but stood in his very presence and touched with mortal hands that divine Gift—that “holy thing”—that would change the soul a man and the direction of human history.

Epiphany means 'appearance' or 'manifestation.’ It signifies the "shining forth" or revelation of God to the Gentiles, through Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God.

The foreign wise men, who had waited hundred of years for the chance of thousand lifetimes, the chance to glimpse the divine and stand in the presence of the Creator, who rules both the heavens and the earth, came baring gifts with which to honor Him and became the first Gentiles to acknowledge Jesus as the eternal "King," as well as the first to "show" or "reveal" Him to the world as the Prince of Peace, Reconciler of man and Giver of eternal life.

This act of worship corresponded to Simeon’s blessing that this Jesus would be "a light to lighten the Gentiles" (Luke 2:32). It was one of the first evidences that Jesus came for all people, of all nations, of all races, and that the work of God in the world would not be limited to only a few.

In later history, on the evening before Epiphany (also known as Three Kings Day and the day of the Adoration of the Magi), the master of the house would traditionally write with chalk C + M + B, which has often been interpreted to stand for Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar—according to some legends, the names of the wise men—but according to Church history stood for "Christus Mansionem Benedictat,” which in English is “Christ bless this home.” In this way, they invited Christ to shed his light upon their individual homes and day-to-day lives.

A group of carolers would travel the streets of the city, recalling the journey of the wise men—a practice that is, even now, alive and well in Bavaria and Austria. From New Years Day until January 6, children would dress as the wise men (or kings) and lift up a large star on the end of a pole as they went from door to door, caroling.

I wonder if there was not a deeper meaning in the tradition, as though they were looking for Christ in those homes. Would they find Him in our homes, today? Is there room for Him amid the chaos of our day-to-day lives?

I do not attribute any great honor to the wise men, although I both admire them for their journey and envy them their experience as witnesses of Christ and the first Gentile evangelists of His coming and purpose. And, like the wise men, I am compelled to embark on a similar Gospel Quest.

In our day, Epiphany is observed as a time of focusing on the mission of the church, which is to reveal Christ as the Savior of all people and to take His message of peace, reconciliation, and eternal life to the world, along with His calling to be the people of God.

1 Peter 2:9-12: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.”

There were two aspects of the magi’s quest:

The first was to find the Christ child, and that must also be the first of our own priorities in the new year. We must find Christ in our daily lives. If there we have found no room for him in the place of honor, where have we relegated him to? If he have been unsuccessful in finding him amid the chaos of our daily routine, we need to resolve as did the magi that we are fully committed to this quest—that we will FIND Him, HONOR Him, WORSHIP and EXALT Him as the heaven-born King of our lives, homes, families, challenges and pursuits.

The second aspect of the magi’s quest was to take the news that the Savior and King of all the earth had come. That must be our quest in the new year, as well. As He has been a light to lighten our own hearts—if that is truly what He is—we must allow that light to shine through us and illuminate the lives of those around us.

The magi came with Great Expectations, and all of their hopes were realized in Christ. They believed on Him, worshipped Him and accepted His right to govern the lives of men. If we have also accepted His right to govern our own lives, we too shall find our expectations fully realized in the coming year, for the scripture assures us that he “is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Eph 3:20).

And may we remember, each and every day, that we are His lights in a dark work.

Sanctification… by Faith or by Works? (Part I)

2008-01-04T08:49:00.000-08:00

By Pastor Jacob Doran
The Church of God, in Flathead Valley (MT)

It has long been one of the failings of Christian holiness doctrines that a great disparity exists between our teaching on Justification and our teaching on Sanctification. While some have taught that Sanctification occurs at prior to Justification and others that it occurs simultaneously as a work of the Holy Spirit, still others have taught that it is a progressive work or achieved by works of self-denial and obedience to the law of God.

Scripturally, none of these teachings regarding sanctification is entirely correct, although Sanctification may occur simultaneously (while, yet, a second definite work of Grace) with Justification, since both are accomplished in the very same way, in the absence of any works rendered by the penitent.

How can Bible believing Christians stress that, according to scripture, we are justified by Grace alone through Faith alone, and then assert that we are sanctified by works, as we “crucify” or “mortify” the flesh in obedience to the commandments of Christ?

Although Paul does boast that he is “crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2:20) and that they that are Christ’s have “crucified the flesh” with it’s affections and lusts—mortification is also mentioned in Romans 8:13 and Col. 3:5—these are often misunderstood apart from the context in which they occur.

Let us consider, briefly, the CONTEXT of Galatians 2:20, wherein the Paul states, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

The context is FAITH. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, on the merit of HIS FINISHED WORK.

Likewise, Paul’s admonition to crucify the flesh (in Galatians 5:24) is immediately followed by the instruction, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (verse 25), and is preceded by the insights provided in verses 16. Here, we find that if we walk in/are led by the Spirit we (1) will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh and (2) are not under the Law. Walking/living in the Spirit is not achieved through works but through faith in Christ, thereby allow HIS righteousness to be worked out in us in the same way that it is imputed unto us … BY FAITH. Walking in the Spirit is an act of faith or TRUST in the perfect, completed work of Christ.

Paul, in Hebrews 10:10, puts it this way: “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”; and, in verse 14, he adds, “For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.”

That is a finished work. By faith in that work, the righteousness of Christ is imputed to me, the same way that it was imputed unto Abraham. (See Romans 4:11, 4:20-25, and James 2:23.) Paul explains, in Romans chapter 4:24-25, that we who believe are justified because we accept the work of God in Christ Jesus by faith.

Those who preach Philippians 2:12 must both understand and teach that the command to work out our salvation in fear and trembling is incomplete without a firm grasp of verse 13, which states, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”

Even the willing to do good and to please God—or the removing of the desire to sin and subsequent enjoyment of sin—is the gift of God, through faith in Christ Jesus, which is what God told the Apostle Paul to preach to the Gentiles (in Acts 26:18):

Act 26:18
(18) To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

The bottom line is that we are “SANCTIFIED BY FAITH” in Christ. That faith is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)

In I John 5:4, the Beloved Apostle stresses that, “whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”

So essential is faith in the equation of acceptance with God based upon the iputed righteousness in Christ Jesus that Hebrews 11:4 tells us, “without faith, it is impossible to please Him.”

I’ll close this portion of this discourse with a couple of excerpts from Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest:

The mystery of sanctification is that the perfect qualities of Jesus Christ are imparted as a gift to me, not gradually, but instantly once I enter by faith into the realization that He "became for [me] . . . sanctification . . . ." Sanctification means nothing less than the holiness of Jesus becoming mine and being exhibited in my life. The most wonderful secret of living a holy life does not lie in imitating Jesus, but in letting the perfect qualities of Jesus exhibit themselves in my human flesh.

Chambers concludes:

Sanctification means the impartation of the holy qualities of Jesus Christ to me. It is the gift of His patience, love, holiness, faith, purity, and godliness that is exhibited in and through every sanctified soul. Sanctification is not drawing from Jesus the power to be holy— it is drawing from Jesus the very holiness that was exhibited in Him, and that He now exhibits in me. Sanctification is an impartation, not an imitation. Imitation is something altogether different. The perfection of everything is in Jesus Christ, and the mystery of sanctification is that all the perfect qualities of Jesus are at my disposal.

1Co 1:30-31
(30) But of him [God] are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
(31) That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

Prayer Journal Sheets ... A Great Tool For Spiritual Growth

2007-12-30T07:40:00.000-08:00

I have long sought a tool such as this. It is not the end-all and be-all of spiritual growth, but it is a good place to start, if you are struggling in this area. I have even found it to be beneficial for people who already have an established prayer and study life.

If you already possess of vital relationship with God and His Word and are making regular progress in your walk with Him, I encourage you to keep on doing what you're doing. If, on the other hand, you could use a boost and are serious about wanting a closer walk with Him, this is a powerful tool that WILL WORK, if you are faithful to use it.

I am trying to secure permission to use this on our website, but until that permission is granted, I am providing a link to the page where you may download these sheets for free. There are two sheets, one on which to record what you study each day and what your response is to that passage. The other sheet is a weekly review and a place to chart what you want to change or do differently.

I pray that this will be a blessing to each one of you, as it has been to me and to others in our local church. May the Lord bless you as you strive to draw nearer to Him and to emulate Him more perfectly in your daily life.

http://www.bethanybible.org/pdf/journal/index.htm

THIS SHALL BE A SIGN

2007-12-28T15:37:00.000-08:00

by Pastor Jacob Doran,
Flathead Valley, MT

For as long as I can remember, I have heard the story of the angel appearing to the shepherds and the heavenly host announcing the Savior’s birth, as it is recorded in Luke chapter two, read aloud on Christmas and in the days that precede the holiday. In fact, it is what we evangelicals refer to as “reading the Christmas story.”

Many years have passed since I first heard the Christmas story, and I have learned many new details about the account which have enhanced my love of the story. Today, it is one of my favorite stories in all of the Bible.

I haven’t the time or space in so brief an article to write all of the reasons why the Christmas story is so very special to me or so profoundly significant to the world, but I will give here four of what I consider to be the most important reasons.

I. The Significance of the Author

Luke was a physician and historian of sort. He was given to exacting detail, because every detail was of the utmost importance in his profession. A history of Luke’s journeys with the Apostle Paul and of the purpose of his gospel is to me more epic than Homer’s The Illiad and The Odyssey.

I’ll not retell that journey or give all the details of the many interviews that Luke conducted, but I can assure you that God had the right man in mind to search out the details of the Christmas story and to commit them to writing for the benefit of the whole world. Luke compiles the particulars of dozens of eye-witness accounts, probably including intimate information known only by Mary and Joseph, which Mary still lived to share at the time of Luke’s writing.

I have often pictured Luke searching out and sitting with Mary, listening to her retell the story and watching the emotion well up in her eyes as face as she did so, and I have envied him that special meeting with the woman whom the angel Gabriel called “highly favored”—who witnessed the life of Christ from His nativity to His crucifixion (and probably also his resurrection and ascension).

II. The Significance of the Shepherds

What once served only as great puzzle to me has become one of the most precious gems that the New Testament holds.

Of all the ways that the Heavenly Father could have announced the advent of His Son on earth, I have long deliberated over the meaning of that glorious occasion being heralded only to shepherds, who were then give the charge of spreading the news throughout Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

The angels could have just as easily appeared over Jerusalem or Rome, over both simultaneously or even around the whole earth to ensure that all men knew what unspeakable wonder had just taken place on the spinning speck of dust called Earth.

Instead, they appeared only to a handful of men engaged in the work of one of the lowliest occupations in all of Israel. However, I have recently learned that they were not so base as most shepherds of their day, for these were special shepherds indeed.

As prescribed in the Mishna, those animals between Jerusalem and Bethlehem were to be available at all times to be sacrificed at the temple in Jerusalem, for which they were destined (Shekelim 7:4). Because of the staggering numbers of unblemished lambs that would be necessary for the sacrifices, the Temple authorities kept their own flocks, which were reserved for this special purpose.

These flocks were pastured near Bethlehem, which lay only seven miles south of Jerusalem. Here, there stood a tower for watching over the flocks, in order to determine any danger from predators or thieves. It was known as the Tower of the Flock or, in Hebrew, Midgal Edar, of which Micah prophesied 700 years earlier (Micah 4:8) that the Kindgom and dominion of Christ would come.

It seems that the priest may even have used the tower of Edar to inspect the lambs for blemishes, using a special cloth to swaddle and restrain the animal while it was being scrutinized prior to fulfilling its purpose.

The shepherds who kept these sheep were devout men who were trained for this special task, educated in the law concerning sacrifices and the importance of protecting the lambs from anything that might blemish or make them unfit for temple sacrifice. They also knew what the ritual sacrifice of these lambs foreshadowed and looked for the promised Messiah who was able to make peace between God and fallen man.

The announcement to the shepherds, in Luke 2:8-20 was a purposeful part of God’s ultimate plan to redeem fallen man through the perfect, unblemished sacrifice of one whom John referred to as “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”

When the angel sent these shepherds to Bethlehem, he was pointing the way to the very last sacrificial lamb who, once offered, would end all need for further temple sacrifice. The Lamb was the culmination of all other sacrifices that had ever been, according to the law of Moses—the One to whom all other sacrifices had pointed—who would at last remove the enmity of our sin and make us acceptable before God.

In essence, once they had found the Lamb of God, lying in a manger, they were—for all intents and purposes—out of a job, as far as God was concerned. The last Lamb, God Himself would nurture and inspect before offering Him up for the sins of all.

III. The Significance of the Christmas Wrapping (Swaddling Clothes)

The angel gave the shepherds a sign.

Luke 2:12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. We all know that Jesus was wrapped in "swaddling clothes" and laid in a manger, and even in our day hospital wrap newborn babies what is commonly referred to as a "swaddling" cloth or receiving blanket, which is something of a 2,000 year-old misnomer, since the word translated "swaddling clothes" in this passage possesses a meaning far deeper than the customary wrapping of children. It is significant that the Greek word here translated as "swaddling clothes" is the same Greek word that signifies "burial bandages."

In the Middle East, traveling long distances was much more difficult than in our day. Joseph didn’t simply load up the family sedan and head for Bethlehem. If you think that your vehicle is in need of a luggage carrier because there is not enough room to transport you and your things, just think about what Joseph was able to fit in his vehicle.

The donkey only had room for one suitcase and that was Mary’s womb. The Bible points out that Mary was GREAT with child, which means that the donkey probably didn’t carry anything other than Mary and the child. Joseph walked the whole distance. Imagine having to walk along side the family car on the way to visit family in the next state.

People often took sick and died on such journeys or were overtaken by robbers and killed. Back then, when you left home, there was no guarantee that you would reach your destination, which is why they wore swaddling cloths under their garments. These were a thin, gauzelike cloth, wrapped in a band around the waist so that they could be easily removed and used to wrap the body until it could be transported home and buried or entombed.

Thus, it would seem that the first clothing given to the baby Jesus was, unlike traditional receiving clothes or blankets, the same type of cloth that would be used for His body after His death on the cross. The significance is clear. From the very beginning, the Father signified to the His people and to the countless generations who would read the account in the interim between his first and second coming, that he came into the world not to rule as earthly kings but to die as a sacrifice for sins.

“This shall be a sign unto you.”

A sign is something that gets your attention, conveys relevant information and points you in the right direction. It would not have been a sign for me to tell someone that they would know a certain baby because they would find him wrapped in a receiving blanket in a blue cap in the nursery of the local hospital. There are probably several of those. However, it was certainly a sign when the angel told the shepherds that they would recognize the King of Kings by the fact that he had been wrapped in burial clothes and laid in a lowly feeding trough—the Lamb of God, born to die for the sins of the world.

IV. The Significance of the Manger. (Luke 2:7) He was laid in a manager for want of a bed. A feeding trough. A place that contained grain and hay to feed the livestock.

Again, “This shall be a sign unto you.”

Bethlehem means, “House of Bread.” The significance of Christ being laid in a manger as a sign to the shepherds—and to us—is that He came into the world as the bread of life for our for our hungry souls.

However, the bread had to be broken and consumed.

During the last Passover meal that Jesus ate with his disciples, he broke the bread and gave to his disciples. He told them, “This is my body, which is broken for you.”

----------------------

Mary pondered these things in her heart, and so must we. Although our gifts to one another are wrapped in colored paper, they are cheap compared to the gift that the Father gave to you and I. His gift was wrapped in grave clothes, to signify the cost of our redemption. His was the gift of reconciliation, through the offering up of His only begotten Son as a sacrifice for our sins.

He gave of Himself. He gave the very best that He had to offer.

What will we give Him, in return?

David told Ornan the Jebusite when offered the threshing floor and oxen for a sacrifice to the Lord that He would not offer anything to the Lord which cost him nothing. Instead, he paid the full price.

I’m not talking about earning Grace through works, nor I’m I talking about gifts of plastic and circuitry that we probably spent too much on. I’m talking about giving from the heart that same Lord that Christ has given us.

Greater love hath no man than this…

These are a few of the reasons why I love the Christmas story.

Christmas Day

2007-12-25T09:00:00.000-08:00

To all whom I cannot see today,

Sister Mandie, Caleb, Sis. Nancy, Kirby, Noel, Matthew and all the rest,

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Remember, today, that God gave his very best for us. How can we give any less to Him. No matter how much money we may spend to find the perfect gift for those we love, our gifts of plastic, circuitry and sophisticated computer chips are ever-so cheap, compared to the gift of love that the Father gave in His only begotten Son.

There's only one Gift that keeps on giving, both in this life and in eternity.

Christ is the expression of the Father's perfect love for us. May the REAL gifts that we give, on this day, be both an extension of our own love and an expression of God's love, for it is to share that Gift that we celebrate this day.

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

2 Corinthians 9:15 Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.

glitter-graphics.com

I'll post a follow-up later, along with a Christmas message for those of you who would like to celebrate the Reason for the Season by reflecting on the Greatest Gift of all.

P.S. Our thanks to Caleb and Mandie for allowing us to come out and visit them, last week. Our apologies for our long absence in posting, while we were there. However, thanks be unto God for His blessings upon us and the time of fellowship that we shared.

Wisdom, Free for the Asking

2007-12-13T21:26:00.000-08:00

James 1:5-8
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

Consider this: You're faced with a difficult decision, confrontation or challenge, perhaps even something as simple as knowing how to handle our own children, when we come to the end of our rope. How often is our first thought to ask for wisdom from the Lord?

I don't claim to be any guru on child-raising or any other subject, but I know without a doubt that I would not have made a fraction of the good choices that I have if it had not been for the wisdom that the Lord imparted, in response to such prayers.

I cannot tell you when I learned this passage, but it must have been one of the first passages to which the Lord brought me upon giving my heart to him. I was a young man of 18 years who had received little guidance in my lifetime. I needed a father figure more desperately than I needed food or drink, and I asked God to be a father to me. Without hesitation, he took me to the above passage, and I can honestly say that He has honored it every time that I have evoked its promise.

In fact, one of the things that I love about verse 5 is that it is followed by verses 6-8. James not only assures us that God will impart the wisdom we ask of Him, without rebuking us for what we should already know, but he tells us that it is such a divine certainty that we must ask it with complete confidence or expect nothing at all. If we ask wisdom, let us have boldness to know with absolute certainty that God will provide the guidance we have need of, even to the point of giving us deep insight into matters that we know nothing about.

To doubt either that He is the source and repository of all wisdom, including what to do in our specific circumstance, or that He is faithful to answer us when we ask of Him, is to be like a wave of sea, unstable in all our ways.

God knows us and He knows our circumstances, better than anyone else in all the world. James wants the people of God to understand who we place our confidence in, that He is not like men who cannot be depended on. It is the character of God to guide and reveal.

How much more is this true in regard to His children?

Make Me a Servant, Today.

2007-12-08T09:01:00.000-08:00

By Pastor Jacob Doran

During my time with the Lord, this morning, I read the following passage:

Mark 10:42-45
42 And Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they who are accounted to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great ones exercise authority over them.
43 But it is not so among you: but whosoever would become great among you, shall be your minister;
44 and whosoever would be first among you, shall be servant of all.
45 For the Son of man also came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

Jesus' admonition to his disciples struck me as the kind of words that, if we allow them, hold the power to change lives--both ours and the lives of others around us.

I realized that, most of the time, we go about our day entirely focused on ourselves, or at least on our own lives, our own needs and the demands that have been placed upon us. In whatever free time we have, we plan, we dream, we think about the things that would make our lives better or easier.

However, none of us have been called to be self-absorbed Christians. We are called to be salt and light--to bring help, hope and healing--to generally enrich the lives of others.

I had the incredible experience, last night, of meeting a Rwandan woman at the YWAM base in Lakeside, MT. She is there to learn skills that she wants to take back to her country and teach to the widows and orphans she has built her life around ministering to.

In all, there are 2100 orphans and more than 700 widowed women. Of the children, 1105 have tested positive for AIDS. Of the 700 widows, 403 have AIDS. The numbers are staggering.

Many of these are survivors of the genocide that took place in Rwanda, as is she. God kept her alive. Why? So that she could minister to her people's needs. The ministering of the Word is only a small part of her ministry to her people. The vast majority of what she does is simply to serve them and provide for their needs. She strives to brief relief from the suffering and joy to their despair. But that is the Gospel, in a nutshell.

We can say that Christianity is a lot of things, but the first general overseer of the Church of God, known to the Apostles as "James the brother of Jesus," declared: "Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world."

Keeping ourselves unspotted from the world is only part of the calling of Christian, a reasonable service that we should in no way rest upon thinking that we have therein fulfilled the Word and will of God.

PURE religion and UNDEFILED BEFORE GOD is this: that we visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction. We must never forget that the whole of law is fulfilled in two commandments: to love the Lord our God with all of heart, mind, soul and strength and to love our neighbor--the ones created in His image--as ourselves.

The woman wept as she told me about her people, confiding that she had left them in the care of another and that it was difficult for her to be so far from them.

"I love them." She said, unable to speak again for a few moments, overcome the depth of emotion and concern for her people. She missed them. She wanted to be back in Rwanda with them.

That's why she is so devoted to learning everything she can while she is at YWAM. It has to be worth her while. She doesn't go back to Rwanda until March, and being so far from where her heart longs to be, doing what her passion compels her to do, would be unbearable if she did not occupy herself with getting the most out of her DTS (discipleship training program) so that she can minister to them more effectively when she returns.

Listening to her was one of the most powerful experiences I have even seen or felt. I was moved to love those around me as she loves her own people--the fatherless and the widows.

"There was so much killing," she said. "So much suffering. I can't ever let that happen again. I have to help them."

You see where her focus lies. She does not think about what she has lost--she too is an orphan--but about what her people have lost. She doesn't think about what she WANTS. She thinks about what her people NEED.

I have so much to learn.

Perhaps, we all do.

Matthew 9:35-37
35 And Jesus went about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of disease and all manner of sickness.
36 But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them, because they were distressed and scattered, as sheep not having a shepherd.
37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest indeed is plenteous, but the laborers are few.

Prayer:
Heavenly father, I have been spoiled by my own comforts. I have complained about petty things that are not worthy of my concern or attention. I have desired things that are not worthy of my affection. Please teach me to love as I am love. Teach me to give to others what you have given me. Move me with compassion for those who are distressed and scatter, as sheep not having a shepherd. Make me a servant, today.

Who can understand his errors?

2007-12-07T06:13:00.000-08:00

I am going to be preaching a message on Psalm 19, concerning God's desire to reveal Himself to us so that we may know Him more intimately, as well as His desire to reveal us to ourselves, so that we can yield those areas of our lives that are not being daily brought under His authority.

For this morning, however, I will merely cite Psalm 19:12, because it asks a profound question and follows it with an equally powerful prayer: " Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults."

I have no intention of making this a lengthy discourse. It is a simple admonition, as it has been for myself. The Word of God tells us that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, so that no man can know it (Jeremiah 17:9). Thank God that HE knows our heart and that, if we will let Him, He will plainly reveal it's motives and hidden faults so that we may submit them to Him.

May our prayer, this day, include this powerful line, "Cleanse thou me from secret faults."

God Bless you, today and always.

Making Bitter Waters Sweet

2007-12-05T17:36:00.000-08:00

By Pastor Jacob Doran

Flathead Valley, MT

Exodus 15:22-26 So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them, And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

In a desert, 600,000+ men (not to mention women and children), can work up quite a thirst, as can their abundant livestock, brought with them from Egypt. Whatever water they brought with them would not last long, before they found themselves rationing their water, enduring both the weakness that accompanies dehydration and the continual cotton mouth of a thirst that is never satisfied.

Understandably, some of them were wondering where God was in all of this. If He could part the waters of the Red Sea and lead them across on dry land, why couldn’t He provide them with water to drink?

The answer is that He COULD provide them with water, as we are quick to answer. Why, then, didn’t He do so?

God allowed His people to endure their thirst until they were painfully aware of their need for His provision—what He alone could supply—and of the fact that they had exhausted their own supply, which meant they could no longer depend on the water they had brought with them.

It has often been observed that, when trials beset us, what is in our hearts usually comes out. Like the Hebrews, what often comes out of God’s people today is a barrage of complaints, both over their circumstances—and by implication God, since He seems to have allowed and not intervened in those circumstance—and in regard to His appointed leaders (after all, they are the ones who led us here).

At first, they could find no water at all, but when the cry went out that water had been found, it was bitter and undrinkable. The Hebrews called the place Marah, which means "bitter.”

What we must realize is that, until God’s people learn to put their trust in Him, seeking first the eternal rather than the temporal, their way will always be bitter.

However, when Moses cried out to God on behalf of the people—something that they should have done to begin with—God showed them how to change their circumstances from bitter to sweet.

Matthew Henry puts it this way:

Even true believers, in seasons of sharp trial, will be tempted to fret, distrust, and murmur. But in every trial we should cast our care upon the Lord, and pour out our hearts before him. We shall then find that a submissive will, a peaceful conscience, and the comforts of the Holy Ghost, will render the bitterest trial tolerable, yea, pleasant. Moses did what the people had neglected to do; he cried unto the Lord. And God provided graciously for them.

Many, here, compare the tree to the cross—and I’m not saying that there isn’t an analogy to be made. However, I think that comparing the tree to the cross alone can be a grave mistake. Yes, Jesus died on the cross, but He did so for a profound reason that we must here consider.

Ephesians 2:13-18 tells us,

But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.

I am reminded of the tree of life, set in the midst of the paradise of God (Gen. 2:9 & Rev. 2:7) and pictured in Revelation 22:2 as the central feature of the City of God. Sin and the carnal mind are what separated Man from the tree of life. However, Christ removed the enmity that separated us from Himself and gave us access, by one Spirit, to the Father.

The cross is but a picture of Grace—that Christ did for us what we could not do for ourselves and, thus, secured for us what we could not secure for ourselves. The cross is only part of the equation. What truly makes the waters of our own trials sweet—and all of life, for that matter—is Christ, who abolished the enmity in His own flesh.

When we, as believers, get our eyes off of the Lord, life is made bitter again. Of a sudden, there is no joy, no enjoyment of life or salvation, and no peace of mind. When Christ—our Tree of Life—does not stand at the center of the Paradise of God, to which He has brought us, and at the center of the City of God (the Church), we will find there no lasting joy or blessing.

In short, it is not the cross that many envision as meaning perpetual sacrifice and dying to self that makes life sweet and enjoyable, but rather the Christ who died once for all and now sits at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for the saints. Although He does bid us to take up our cross and follow Him, to deny ourselves and seek first the Kingdom of God, the cross itself represents only death. It is Christ who represents life, and when He is the center of our lives and churches, we will find that it is HE who makes the waters sweet.

Fellowship with Christ is the only paradise we are called to enjoy, either in this life or the next, and without it we can but wander in the desert, empty and bitter. He alone is our Oasis. He is the only solution that God will offer to change our circumstances and make them sweet.

In John 4:10 we read,

Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

How do we give Him drink? We bring Him into the midst of every day and let Him make the bitter waters sweet. When we submit to Him and let Him be the center of everything, the bitter becomes palatable and even enjoyable.

Notice where the Lord took His people next.

Exodus 15:27 And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees: and they encamped there by the waters.

Not only did He make the waters of Marah sweet. He then brought them to a place where there was water abundance. In fact, there was a well for each tribe and seventy palm trees to offer shade—the Biblical number of fullness or completeness.

Abundance and blessing resulted from their faith in Him and their obedience to His word. All that they needed was theirs when they got their eyes off of themselves and their own want and fixed them upon Him. Rest and contentment is only found when we bring Him into the midst and fellowship with Him through even our sorrows and felt needs.

“I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10b)

He not only gives abundant life. He IS abundant life.