Life's Priorities

Job One is to practice the lordship of Christ over our lives and to abide in Him.  What does this entail? We must walk even as He walked in constant fellowship and union with Him in obedience and confession with our motto being, "Thy will be done!  We must rearrange our priorities and change our lifestyle to please Him Jesus doesn't just have an important place in our lives, but the predominant and preeminent place. Everything else is secondary! This involves seeing things in a new light as God sees them, not as the world sees them, for we are no longer of the world. The centrality of Christianity is Christ! All else is peripheral or circumference. 

Furthermore, we must put our whole heart into following Christ with as much gusto as we can muster, as "Mr. Hustle" himself, Pete Rose did when he put his whole heart into his game. God wants the same kind of attitude of us:  "And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, in the law and in the commandment, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart. So he prospered"  (2 Chronicles 31:21, NKJV). God found men who "wholly followed the Lord."  

This means a commitment to Christ through thick and thin and living by His agenda.  It means a "great commitment to the Great Commission and the Great Commandment!"  We "crown Him Lord of all," as the hymn goes, but this must be from the heart, not just the lips.  Joshua and Caleb are two examples:  "... for they followed the LORD wholeheartedly"  (cf. Numbers 32:11).

What is lordship mean?  "...You are not your own; for you were bought with a price (cf. 1 Cor. 6:20, ESV). "As you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk ye in him" (Col. 4:6)--we didn't receive Him as best bud, sidekick, or colleague, but as our Lord!  The only legitimate salvation is "lordship salvation" (once quite a controversy), which means we must accept Him with all the authority over us, dedicating our wills to Him all our lives, as living sacrifices. There is no such thing as a class of disobedient Christians who have accepted the lordship of Christ. 

Obedience is the test and the relationship is expressed by obedience. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "Only those who believe are obedient; only those who are obedient believe."  We are either obedient or not, with no middle ground--this has no degree of fulfillment and obedience. We must bow to His lordship and I don't mean just lip service. A. W. Tozer said, "The Lord will not save those whom He cannot command." If we don't accept His lordship, we haven't accepted Him and this is nothing less than easy-believism or "cheap grace," as Dietrich Bonhoeffer termed it.

We abide in Christ and walk in the Spirit in fellowship with God, as we are led by the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit for every good work that He has ordained for us.  Let it be said of us what God said of Joshua:  "He wholly followed the Lord!"  We live in a trusting and obedient life: "Trust and obey, for there is no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey!" 

Jesus said that if you love Him you will obey Him (cf. John 14:21). Believing and obedience are equated in Heb. 3:18-19 and in John 3:36 (ESV) as:  "He who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him."  Hebrews 5:9 (ESV) says, "And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him."     Soli Deo Gloria!

Back To Basics...

When we don't know what ails us and have too many spiritual problems and deficiencies to face up to, maybe it is time to go back to Square One, to First Base, the fundamentals, or the basics. Spiritual troubleshooting can be problematic; usually, the problem is that you just need to get back to basics because you've forgotten something. You are not ready for the meat of the Word if you haven't digested the milk, but will only err and be "tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine" (cf. Ephesians 4:11), not being grounded in the truth. 

Just like milk is a basic and most never tire of it, you should never get tired of the basics, and should never feel insulted by hearing them--the gospel message always seems like music to the ears. Some churches seem to be abecedarian or rudimentary, stuck in the ABCs; however, there should always be a challenge to those who are mature and can discern good from evil, according to Hebrews 5:14, and for those ready for the meat of the Word.

The preacher's role is to feed the sheep and the lambs or to meet the needs of the whole body. Some students of the Word get intoxicated with the deeper truths of the Word and haven't even mastered the basics, such as:  How to be assured of your salvation;  the learned discipline of confession; how to give a testimony; how to put on the armor of God; how to walk in the Spirit; knowing the way of salvation; how to pray; how to witness; and skills in reading the Bible. 

Did you know some Christians don't know what repentance and faith are?  Sad to say, all the exposure some believers get to the Word is what they hear on any given Sunday.  A preacher can bring him to repentance of his sins (to make him see them and have a right mental attitude toward them) because God is against sin and they need to learn how to claim victory over them--Jesus came to save us from our sins (Matt. 1:21).

Studying the deeper truths doesn't guarantee maturity unless one has mastered the basics and is able to digest them. We are hold to the deep doctrines of the faith with a clear conscience.  (cf. 1 Tim. 3:9). And to study and show ourselves approved unto God able to rightly divide the Word of truth. (cf. 2 Tim. 2:15).   Meditation is thought digestion and this is a lost art in today's church at large. 

We are to do more things with the Word than simply hear it preached:  We are to study it; meditate on it; memorize it; share it; teach it; receive it; examine it; pray it; heed it, read it; preach it; and obey it in order to get a proper grasp on Scripture--we are only cheating ourselves not doing these because you forget 95 percent of what you hear, but you remember 100 percent of what you memorize! 

But it does no good if we don't apply it to our lives!  The mind has to be selective in what it remembers and has to prioritize or we would face information overload, also known as cognitive overload or too much input.  We need reinforcement from other methods, even though we can retain 100 trillion facts in our brain.     Soli Deo Gloria!

It Is Finished!...

The declaration from the cross that summed up the work of Christ on our behalf is as follows:  The Father had planned or authored it, the Son realized, revealed, executed, and fulfilled it, and the Holy Spirit applied and made it known--it was a cooperative venture of the Trinity. But it was Christ who paid the ultimate price of His blood and will be glorified and worshiped for it ("Worthy is the Lamb"). We cannot add to Jesus finished work which is perfect already because He left nothing as undone for us to do--all we have to do is receive it as a free gift.  Jesus paved the way back to God (not one of several ways, not merely the best way of many ways, but the only way). 

If you were to add a mustache to the Mona Lisa because you thought it was an added touch for the good--you would ruin the masterpiece and insult Michelangelo to boot.  Don't even go there, suggesting we can finish what God started--God always finishes what He starts.  His work was not contingent, but a sure thing: Salvation is a done deal and not something we work for--that is how we can be sure.

Jesus actually called out "tetelestai" in Aramaic, an accounting term that means "Paid in Full."(salvation is a done deal!).    Jesus was saying that Satan had nothing on Him now and that the price of our redemption had been "secured and accomplished.  God was both just, and the Justifier--what had seemed incomprehensible. All of our sins were nailed to the cross according to Colossians 2:14 and Christ, in His infinite nature and perfection, was able to take on our punishment--so we don't have to bear it in hell, where we deserved to go. 

The miracle of the infinite redemption price was that Christ did it voluntarily and was not murdered on the cross, but gave up His Spirit willingly of His own accord, and expired on His terms at the exact moment of His choice. His statement emphasized that He had won and that what He came to earth to do was done so He could go to the Father. Jesus left nothing undone, He even provided for His mother, made intercession for the transgressors, and refused the painkiller to ease the pain of His suffering--neither did He left no prophecy unfulfilled.

What this means is that our salvation is a done deal and we don't add to God's work to get saved by our own efforts in the flesh or gain the approbation of God via morality, ritual, good deeds, philosophy, or religiosity.  It isn't Christ plus doing good, plus obeying and complying with church rules, plus being a moral person, plus achieving the American dream, ad infinitum.  Not plus anything!  We simply accept our salvation as the free gift of God via a personal act of faith alone in Christ alone by God's grace alone!

The gift of faith is also by grace and God enables us efficaciously to receive Christ as the Lord and Savior of our lives. We act on the faith that God gives us: It is God's gift, but our act! We are not on probation as a believer, but enter eternal life in the here and now and are to live in light of eternity the more abundant life that He promised.  It must dawn on you that you can do nothing but believe in your heart and follow on to know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior from Day One.  Soli Deo Gloria!

An Offering To God

God is looking for us being living sacrifices (God wants us to live for Him, besides being willing to die for Him) and all for His glory.  We are not saved by martyrdom.  We offer ourselves to Him to fulfill His will and to glorify Him (cf. Is. 43:7)  We don't have anything of our own merit to offer, such as righteousness, good deeds, morality, or philosophy, but nothing but brokenness and strife--in short, our sin!  We come to God only as the lowest bidder with nothing in our hands but Christ's righteousness.

We received Christ as an unworthy sinner who had nothing to offer God, being at His mercy:  The sinner's prayer in Luke 18:13 says, "God be merciful to me, the sinner."  He threw himself on the mercy of God,  declaring spiritual bankruptcy, and saw himself as unworthy!  John Bunyan wrote, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners--see how he appraised himself!  Paul never stopped thinking of himself as the chief of sinners (he said "am" not "was" foremost among them--cf. 1 Tim. 1:15).

The problem with people is their opinion of themselves--they won't let go and refuse to see their sin (Martin Luther said it is our job to make them see it). This is not the same as having low self-esteem, but of having no merit for salvation in God's eyes. This is God's estimation of man, not man's estimation of man. We are as bad off (not as bad) from being worthy as we can be, and as far away and removed from God as imaginable. In Luke 5:8 (NASB) Peter says, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!" Genuine repentance and saving faith entail cognition that you are a guilty and vile sinner in God's estimation.

Our offering to God is us--He wants us, not our gifts or merits. He wants us with all the wrinkles, blemishes, pimples, warts, bald-spots, missing teeth, eating disorders, disabilities, tears, and all our sins.  We must come to Him as we are to get a changed life; we don't change our life and then come to Him for approval. Our righteousness is all as filthy rags (cf. Is. 64:6). We don't come for approval but for change!   God can clean up our act and we can't.  Who has anything that God should desire?  God loves us despite all this and sees potential in us for His ultimate glory.

We must realize that God rewards us for what He has done through us:  "... Since You have performed for us all our works" (Is. 26:12, NASB);  "For I will not presume [venture] to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me..." (Rom. 15:18, NASB);  "You who rejoice in Lodebar [naught], And say, "Have we not by our own strength [without God's] taken Karnaim for ourselves [they are boasting]?"  (Amos 6:13, NASB);  and "... From Me comes your fruit [fruitfulness]" (Hos. 14:8, NASB).

We were chosen according to His purpose and grace and according to the good pleasure of His will (cf. 2 Tim. 1:9; Eph. 1:5).  I must emphasize:  We don't impress God!  It is grace that He even uses us as vessels of honor rather than vessels of dishonor.  We fit into His plans; we don't fit Him into ours. The kind of sacrifice God wants is for us to live our lives for Jesus, but take up the cross and be willing to die too, if He wills.  

Before we give our "offerings" we must first give of ourselves or they are worthless, because it is a privilege and honor to be used by God in giving offerings as sacrifices of worship. We come to Christ on His terms of absolute surrender to His Lordship and ownership of our lives, giving up the throne of our heart to Him so that He can live through us!     Soli Deo Gloria!

How To Engage Christ

Note, that in Ephesians 6:19, Paul asked for prayer support "... that words may be given to [him] in opening [his] mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel."  Yes, Paul needed those doors to be opened and didn't force Jesus on anyone.  You have to earn the right to speak and wait for the door to open.  Machine-gun  evangelism, or preaching to everyone the same message such as "repent sinner!" is out of line (this is only half the message--one must present the good news about Jesus too), and you must get them lost before saving them, but always saying the same thing simply doesn't work but only alienates. A good fisherman knows how to use different bait for different fishes. There is a "time to sow and a time to reap" and one must be patient because "He has made everything beautiful in its time"  (Ecc. 3:11).

The best preparation is to know the Word and your personal testimony, not to make mention of knowing why as well as what you believe.  Not knowing what you believe is a kind of unbelief and we are commanded to be ready to give an answer for the hope within us in 1 Peter 3:15.  You may have to make a defense and do so equipped with the full armor of God:  His truth, His righteousness, His Word, His peace, His shield of faith all given to you--note that your righteousness is God's gift to you, not yours to God (cf. 1 Cor. 4:7:  "... What do you have that you didn't receive?").  The more we learn to depend on God and realize that it isn't us doing it, the more success we will have.

There are plenty of provocative questions one might stimulate a dialogue with such as:  "What do you think is on the other side?  If you were to die today, are are you sure you'd go to heaven?  How are you managing your spiritual journey?  Do you ever ponder the hereafter?  What do you think a Christian is?  There are many such inquiries, and to personalize them is even better.  But let God direct the conversation and don't push it, but be Spirit-led.  Dare to be used by God because He will not let down a person of faith who wants to show his Christian colors and speak up for Jesus--you'd be surprised how many people really don't hold anything against Jesus Himself.

We are not to force an answer, but make sure they are ready to give one.  We should talk to God about the person before we talk to the person about God, it has been said.  In my own experience, it usually happens that, after much involvement with the person's own life, God seems to open the door and people don't really care how much you know until they know how much you care. The key to being used is to be prepared and to have compassion for the lost, which is a barometer of your usefulness, because you cannot do it in the flesh, but must know how to be led by the Spirit.  In witnessing, they would rather see a sermon than hear one any day--so guard your testimony. Once you've experienced God using you, you get addicted and desire to be used again and again--you get the bug!  They also say that once you've experienced the love of Christ, you want to pass it on!  You cannot lose, but it's always to your credit that you stood up for Jesus.

There are several roadblocks or impediments to overcome before the chance to present the gospel happens. Many don't know what to do at that last stage--they don't even know the gospel itself! There are opportunities, for instance:  To mention sin, then God, then Jesus, then salvation, then finally, the personal challenge, invitation, and opportunity for salvation--be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and don't force the issues.

Not making a decision, is a no decision. and we must make a beeline for the gospel as soon as we see the door open, i.e., know when to cast the bait and when to reel him in or close the deal.  We are never losers in this proposition because only God can open a door, and the results are up to Him who alone can convert a soul. "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him..." (John 6:44, ESV).  We are only being obedient to the Great Commission and doing our part.  "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received..."  (1 Cor. 15:3a, ESV).  We are only responsible for what God has given us and that is called faithfulness.

We all have a testimony (what you know for sure that happened to you) and that says something about how you came to know Christ personally, and as long as we don't jeopardize it, God will open doors: people will see Christ in us and want we we have--that is the highest compliment. But we must "be ready in season, and out of season" (cf. 2 Tim. 4:2) or we should always be on duty and know when to cast the line or drop the net because timing is everything--it must be God's timetable!

It is vital to know that you cannot argue someone into the kingdom.  "Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels, which generate more heat than light!   And the Lord's servant must not quarrel..."  (2 Tim. 2:23f, NIV). We should not be embarrassed that we don't know all the answers--it only proves that you don't need to know all the answers to have faith and it doesn't shake your faith to not know--but you can tell them you will find the answer. There is no question that hasn't already been asked and none is going to make an impact on the power of the cross. The servant of God is never quarrelsome, but patient and sometimes he is all ears before God gives him the opportunity to speak forth the Word of God--you must wait for God's timing.  Learn to build bridges, not tear them down and find common ground, especially by getting to know them and showing interest in their problems or life crisis.  Jesus is the only one who can bridge the gap between us and God and they must realize their alienation and estrangement from a relationship with Him and the more abundant life Christ promised.  Paul says in 2 Cor. 5:19 that God has given to us the "ministry of reconciliation" or of bringing people back into a harmonious relationship with God.

Remember, the final pivotal question and challenge is whether there is any reason they cannot accept Christ as their Lord and Savior right now and see the urgency.  But the problem with most Christians is that they don't know what to do when they reach this point:  i.e., knowing an invitation or prayer of salvation.  Many Christians do not see the big picture or have a handle on the gospel and how to present it, even if given the opportunity.  But they must be willing to step out in faith from their comfort zone and be used by God--a beautiful experience!

In the final analysis, you must realize that your skill is not as important as your faith and faithfulness. The bait that God uses for seed is the Word of God and He promises that it will not come back void in Isaiah 55:11 and will always accomplish God's purposes.  God promises to honor His Word, so incorporate it and depend upon it, not your brilliance, witness, or testimony, important as they are.  1 Cor. 3:7 says, "Neither he who plants, nor he who waters is important, but God who gives the increase." Note that there are different lures or bait for different kinds of fish and we can become "all things to all people that by all means [we] might save some" (1 Cor. 9:22b, ESV).

Finally, we must acknowledge Paul's attitude in Romans 1:14-16 that he is ready, under an obligation or indebted, and not ashamed or embarrassed to spread the Word.  This is the least we can do out of a debt of gratitude we owe for our salvation--of which grace we cannot ever repay, can't earn, and don't deserve.  The right attitude is that we "get to witness" not that we have to.  Someone took the time to preach to us, so we must observe the Golden Rule and do unto others likewise.  If we are well prepared, Christ will be the rock of offense and stumbling block, not us.   Soli Deo Gloria!