Ears to Hear

Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD before Eli.  And the word from the LORD was rare in those days, visions were infrequent.  And it happened at that time as Eli way lying down in his place (now his eyesight had grown dim and he could not see well), and the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the Temple of the LORD where the ark of God was, that the LORD called Samuel, and he said, “Here I am.” Then he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.”  But he said, “I did not call, lie down again.”  So he went and lay down.  And the LORD called yet again, “Samuel!”  So Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am for you called me.”  But he answered, “I did not call you, my son, lie down again.” Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, nor had the word of the LORD yet been revealed to him.  So the LORD called Samuel again for the third time.  And he arose and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.”  Then Eli discerned thta the LORD was calling the boy.  And Eli said to Samuel, “Go lie down, and it shall be if He calls you, that you shall say, ‘Speak, LORD, for Thy servant is listening.’  So Samuel went and lay down in his place.  Then the LORD came and stood and called as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!”  And Samuel said, “Speak, for Thy servant is listening.”  And the LORD said to Samuel, “I am about to do a thing in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle.”

Oh my!  There is so much of interest to me in these verses.  Samuel, still a boy and hadn’t come to know the LORD, nor had the word of the LORD been revealed to him.  But God still was calling Samuel.  And He kept calling until Samuel answered.  In a time when the word from God was rare and visions infrequent, God spoke to a child allowing a boy to hear him.  God told Samuel that what He was about to do in Israel would make both ears of everyone who heard tingle.

First, I think most of us think about the New Testament times and think on the fact that God spoke so often and Jesus walked and taught on the earth and God allowed many miracles and visions to occur among the believers.  Second, I also think that we don’t consider that God really speaks very often today and there are few visions.  And third, I believe that God is getting ready to make every ear that is “tuned in to Him” tingle with what He is about to do.  Sometimes in order to really hear God, we need to listen as children, eager to catch a word, eager to hear what our Father has to say.  I have to wonder how often we ask God to speak to us?  Mostly we do plenty of talking to God – and that’s great, but it shouldn’t end there, we need to allow time for God to speak to us.

During this time in Scripture the nation of Israel was very wicked.  No one was interested in listening to God, hearing His word.  People were busy with their own lives, too busy breaking God’s commands.  The last thing they had time for was listening to a prophet speak the word of God to them.  And so, the word of God was rare.  Sounds uncomfortably familiar.

You may or may not know this, but in the wake of the Revolutionary War there was a moral slump in this country.  Drunkenness was epidemic; out of a population of 5 million, 300,000 were drunkards.  At a rate of 15,000 per year they were being buried.  Profanity was shocking and for the first time in the history of the settlement, women were afraid to go out at night for fear of being assaulted.  There were bank robberies every day.  Churches – the Methodist being the largest at the time – were losing more than they were taking in.  The second largest was the Baptist, and they said that this time was their most wintery season.  The Presbyterians met in General Assembly to deplore the ungodliness of the country.  From the Congregationalists, the Rev. Samuel Shepherd in Lenox, Mass. had not brought in one single young person into fellowship in 16 years.  The Lutherans were so languishing they thought of joining with the Episcopals who were even worse off.  The Prostant Bishop of New York, Bishop Samuel Provost, quit functioning.  He had confirmed no one in so long that he decided he was out of work, so he took up other employment.  The Chief Justice of the United States, John Marshall, wrote the Bishop of Virginia that the Church was too far gone ever to be redeemed.

Voltaire said that Christianity would be forgotton within 30 years time and Tom Paine cheerfully preached this news all over America.  By the way, because of his ridicule of Christianity, Tom Paine was ostracized and at the time of his death in 1809 there were only 6 people at his funeral.

Is any of this sounding familiar for our time?  The great church historian, Kenneth Scott LaTourette, said that it seemed that the church was about to be ushered out of the affairs of men.  The church had its back against the wall and it seemed it was about to be wiped out.  But God had other plans.  What did God do to change all this?

It came through the concert of prayer.  In New England, there was a man of prayer named Isaac Backus a Baptist pastor and in 1794 when conditions were at their worst, he sent out a plea for prayer.  In the colleges of the time a poll was taken at Harvard and it was discovered that wasn’t even 1 believer in the whole student body.  A poll was taken at Princeton, a more evangelistic campus, and they found only 2 believers and only 5 who weren’t part of the filthy speech movement of the day.  Students rioted, had a mock communion at Williams College.  They had anti Christian plays at Darthmouth, Nassau Hall at Princetonwas burned down, a bible was taken from a Presbyterian church and burned in a public bon fire.  Christians were so few on campus they met in secret like a communist cell and kept their minutes in code so that no one would know what they were doing to persecute them.

Isaac Backus addressed his plea for prayer to ministers of every Christian denomination in the United States.  The churches responded, Bishop Frances Asbury adopted it for all the Methodists, the Baptist Association, the congregational, the Reformed , the Moravians, the Presbyterians joined in until America was a interlaced network of prayer meetings.  The first Monday of each month was set aside to pray and it wasn’t long before God worked and Revival began.  It broke out in Conn. And spread to Mass. When it reached Kentucky, it hit a temporary road block but from extra-ordinary prayer of the faithful, in the Summer of 1800 the great Kentucky Revival caught fire and 11,000 people came to a communion service.  The Pastor put out a call for help and Baptists, Methodists, and ministers of other denominations came all working together – Ecumenical.  The revival swept Tenn. Then burst over to North and South Carolina and throughout the frontier.  That was the turning point and from this came the amazing missionary movements, social reform, education guidelines, evangelistic drive.  More than 600 colleges in the Mid West were founded by revivalists.
Is the Word of the Lord rare in your life? How often do you listen to the Word of the God? How often are you able to come to public worship? What about in your own private life? Is the Word of the Lord rare in your private life? Are you too busy to have a private devotional life with God? Are you too proud, too self-reliant – “I’ve just never done that sort of thing before – I don’t read the Word of God on my own.” Or maybe you do, but it’s very quick, not much thought goes into it, because you need to get on with those things that are more important in your life.

It’s interesting to me that when people begin to drift away from God, one of the most common things they will say is:  “But I pray all the time.”  God just isn’t listening to me.  We want God to hear us, but we don’t even consider that we should be listening to Him.  We just want to do all the talking and demand that God do all the listening.  Today we are so caught up in our own needs, we pay little attention to the needs of others.  We could care less about the deplorable condition of people’s lives.  We just don’t want them bothering us, after all, they got themselves into their own mess.

Isn’t it interesting, that verse 7 tells us that “Samuel did not yet know the Lord, the Word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.” God was still a stranger to Samuel. And so it is with so many people, God is still a stranger. We’re too busy to listen, and we pray at times when we remember, but really, we are failing to make his Word a priority in our lives. God becomes more and more a stranger to us. We make excuses, but in the end, we are sinning, and we know it.

But what happens when we stop, and listen to our God? Three times God called out to Samuel, and Samuel did not know it was the Lord. Finally Eli figured out what was going on – God was finally speaking, and Samuel was the one God had chosen to speak to. And then verse 10: “The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other time, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

From that moment on, God spoke to Samuel on a regular basis, and Samuel listened. He came to know God for who he really was, what he was really all about. He became a prophet that everyone respected in Israel, because everyone knew that God was speaking to Samuel, and Samuel was listening.

Isn’t it amazing, that we can get to know the true God, not by doing something difficult or complicated, but simply by listening? What a blessing it is when we take time out of our busy lives and listen to our God! For example, did you hear the voice of God this morning? Did you make time for Him for a moment this morning?  When was the last time you confessed your sins to Him?
And did you hear what God said to you after you confessed your sins? God told you that his Son, Jesus Christ, has taken all of your sins away. God told you that Jesus, his Son, has died as a sacrifice for you, to pay for all the mistakes you have made in your life. God told you that because of his Son, Jesus, he completely forgives you for all of your mistakes, all of your sins. And not only does He forgive you, once you confess your sins and repent, He remembers them no more.  Were you listening when God spoke to you and said these things to you?

These wonderful words of faith are words that we would like to feel and speak every day to our Lord, Jesus Christ. What an amazing God we have, that he would give us this kind of faith simply through his Word. What an amazing God we have, that he asks us to do nothing more than listen, to say, as Samuel says, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.” Jesus told Nathanael, “You shall see greater things than these,” and Nathanael did. He eventually saw Jesus rise from the dead and ascend into heaven.

We have not, because we ask not. James 4:2

I challenge you today to ask God to speak to you - to give you visions - to fine-tune your waiting ears.  I promise they will tingle with His response!  And pray church!  Pray like never before – and not just ordinary prayers, pray extra-ordinary prayers for if ever the church needed another Spiritual Awakening, it is now!  Our backs are against the wall once again.  We are in deplorable condition and we need the tide to shift from the secular to the sacred.  We need healing that only God can bring.  It’s time for prayer meetings, for people to care enough to go to extra-ordinary lengths to pray – giving up lunch hour, praying half the night away, setting aside and calling others to a specific prayer time – on our faces before our Holy God.  All ONE body, no denominational boundries here.  Here is your challenge, now is the time.

A Time To Cling

There are several of my brother and sisters in Christ fasting for eternal purposes, I am also involved in fasting at this time and while I will not go into details of why, let me just say that I have taken some people into my confidence on why I seek God and His will through fasting and prayer for Him to accomplish something in the church that will open hearts to Him in a new way.

Last night a friend textd me on how I was doing.  There have been struggles as there will be in the early stages of a fast, but last night I was filled with joy that God was up to something amazing and I shared those feelings with my friend.  God placed a phrase in my heart on Sunday, the first day of my fast, “It is well with my soul”  I’ve shared that phrase several times and it is well with my soul today.  God is at work in His church!  That gives me great joy!  I want to see a vast army rise up – an army of God to combat the apostasy and complacency I see through out the church of America.  We are not prepared for persecution, we are not prepared to stand firm when we are sifted, we are not prepared to face the wrath of the enemy.  Please church, stop being “church people” and enter into relationship with one another and with God!  This isn’t about you or me, it’s about us being who we need to be to grow the kingdom!  Let God do amazing things in your life so you can share them with those who are hopeless, lost, struggling, hurting!  Be blessed today so that you can be a blessing to others!

^{Ezekiel 37:9} Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” ¹⁰ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

¹¹ Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ ¹² Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. ¹³ Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. ¹⁴ I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’”

The Holy Bible  : New International Version.

Something is happening to me as I fast and pray.  I have begun not only to dream, but to remember the dreams.  This is something unusual for me as I rarely remember dreams.  I think it’s significant.  Last night I dreamt that there was a large tree in a forest.  Larger than any other trees, it was beautiful and had great branches reaching out to touch many of the other trees around it.  It was warm and I liked the idea of resting beneath the shade of the tree.  The breeze would cause the leaves to rustle so I knew that it was growing season because of the leaves and the warmth.  Light filtered through at times and filled me with even more warmth.  Almost like there were two sources of warmth, one from the tree and one from the heavens.

I realized that I had an sapling in my hand.  Not much more than a switch, but it was important that I plant the sapling as close to the large tree as possible.  The dream fast-forwarded from there and it seemed like the large tree wasn’t in a forest any longer but standing alone in a court-yard type place with other people coming and going.  As I walked by the tree I did a double take because the sapling I had planted beside the large tree had attached itself to the larger tree with hundreds of little fingers all up and down the length of the sapling making it look somewhat like a centipede.  I thought to myself in the dream, I wish I could draw this!  But the fingers/roots were like a vine that affixes itself to a wall or something akin to that and I felt like each little finger was a person clinging to the tree and it was a sure feeling that without the large tree the smaller tree would wither and die with all her little roots shriveling up and dying also.

 

 

I think it’s obvious that this dream was a dream that calls the church to cling to the Cross of Christ – He offered Himself up on a tree.  Christ is the tree, the warmth of the season is of God, He gives us a chance to cling to Christ and Christ alone Who is the Author and Perfector of our faith.  Without Him we can do nothing and with Him nothing is impossible.  We can rest in His presence and we can attach  ourselves to Him in such a way that we can take on His very characteristics.  Without Him we are lifeless and unusable, we hinder the process unless we are willing to afix ourselves to Him and grow in Him.  God has given us a season to do what needs to be done, but that time is limited.  Let’s get along side of Him and get busy!

^{Daniel 4:10} Thus were the visions of mine head in my bed; I saw^b, and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great. ¹¹ The tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth: ¹² The leaves thereof were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it wasmeat for all: the beasts of the field had shadow under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof, and all flesh was fed of it.

^b I saw: Chaldee I was seeing

The Holy Bible  : King James Version.

xzi_JwTuXds

 

God Seeks the Lost

You can find many religions in our world and they all seem to have one thing in common: People seeking God.  They seek God through any number of philosophical or cultural practices, trying to do what ever it takes to make a connection with God.

But Christianity is different: God is seeking us.  This is what Christmas is all about.  It is God pursuing humanity.  The coming of the Christ child has nothing to do with trying to unravel the mysteries of God through personal or intellectual or mystical abilities.  In that little child in the manger, God tood the initiative and revealed Himself to us.

There is a story of a young man traveling around the countryside in a spiffy sports car.  He screeched to a halt when he saw an old gentleman at a crossroads.  The young man shouted at him, “Do you know how far it is to the city?” “No.”  ”Well then, can you tell me what time it is?” “Can’t say that I can, young man.” “You don’t know much, do you?”  “No, but I’m not the one who is lost.”

We call come across people who know an awful lot, but they are very lost.  And many times, they don’t know that they are lost.  All of us have been in the “lost” category at some time.  People are made for God, but they have lost God, and they may be driving around looking good and sounding intelligent, but they are totally disoriented.  Sometimes they feel like life isn’t making a lot of sense, but they don’t know why.  That’s what we mean by lostness.

The word “lost” in Scripture is sometimes translated as ‘perish.’  To perish is to slowly deteriorate.  Can’t we relate to this?  Sometimes we sit down and look at our lives in light of where we were ten years ago, and we’re horrified to discover how far we’ve come.  Yet we are hard pressed to see how we got to where we are.  It’s been a slow, insidious, careless, undisciplined deterioration of spirit.  Sometimes we look at habits that dominate us, and we remember when we thought we has so much control over our lives.  That’s lostness.

Wherever youlook, people’s lives seem to be unraveling.  They make a wrong decision or take a wrong turn, and suddenly their lives are in shambles.  There are many people who have started life’s journey on the wrong premise, have based actions on wrong conclusions, and who will finish up at the wrong destination uless something changes dramatically.  That’s what lostness means.

The good news is that God came looking for people who are lost and wandering and disoriented.  He came for us.

Enough is Enough or “Drastic Action”

I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah’s household goods out of the room. I gave orders to purify the rooms, and then I put back into them the equipment of the house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense (Nehemiah 13:8-9).

The high priest had allowed his grandson to marry the daughter of Sanballat, the governor of Samaria, who was an ally of Tobiah the Ammonite. Both of these were vitriolic, bitter enemies of Nehemiah. This cozy alliance led to an invitation to Tobiah to actually move into the temple itself. To make room for him, the high priest took over the storeroom that was set apart for the grain, oil, and incense used by the Levites in their purification and ritual ceremonies. So there were two wrongs involved. An Ammonite and his family were actually living in the temple, contrary to the Law of Moses; and, they had deliberately defrauded the Levites of their rights of storage.

When Nehemiah returned he went into prompt and passionate action. He threw the baggage out, fumigated the room, and returned the oil, grain, and incense to their proper place. Many people feel that he overreacted. Today we do not get upset by the presence of evil and think it strange that a man should act like Nehemiah did.  We have lost to a great degree our ability to express outrage and public indignation over things that are wrong.   There are many different ways that Satan will try to influence the body of Christ.  He tries many tactics because he wishes to break the heart of God and what better way to break God’s heart than to influence His people to accept or become indifferent to certain things that would allow them to entertain acceptance of alternate beliefs or lifestyles that are out of the will of God.

Ok, now is where I am going to step out and really step on some toes.  There is a thing called “Holy Yoga.”  This is a contradiction in terms because there just cannot be anything “Holy” about Yoga.  Yoga is an Hindu form of stretching and the movements are designed to pay homage to the many different gods they worship.  I have become convicted about this over the past month and am going to take a strong stand for God here.  I’ve been told that I am overreacting.  But in the general conversation when it comes up on this matter, normally the “holy” part is not mentioned, just the “yoga.”  God wants us to take care of our bodies and to be healthy and strong for Him.  But to try to incorporate a false belief system into the Christian life is not the answer.  The Bible is clear that there are just some things that shouldn’t be “mixed” together.  God asks His people to stay pure for Him.  Not allowing the world to filter into the New Creation He desires you to be.

syn·cre·tismNoun/ˈsiNGkrəˌtizəm/

1. The amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought.  Please consider this:

SA writes: “I am in a dilemma…I have spoken personally to my Parish Priest about my concerns about Yoga taking place now 3 times a week in our community hall. Some parishioners attend the yoga sessions. I have prayed for about 3 years to see yoga removed, to no avail… I personally know the dangers of Yoga, having practised it for about 3 years, but have renounced and confessed my taking part in yoga. Nobody seems to be bothered… Can you please give me some guidance, I do not know what to do now…”

This is a problem that only seems to get worse over time. The New Age movement is making its greatest advances into our faith on the backs of people who think they can “Christianize” fitness programs such as yoga and tai chi and thereby render them harmless.

Think about it – if this was possible, why couldn’t we just “Christianize” occult practices such as tarot cards and palm reading? How hard would it be to create a Christian deck of tarot cards and associate biblical prophecies with each one? And couldn’t we justify palm reading by saying that God created our bodies so when we read our palms, we’re just reading what God put there?

I know it sounds silly, but what’s the difference between this and what people are doing when they attempt to Christianize a Hindu practice?  And yet they’re doing it everywhere, and getting away with it!

If you really want to get mad, check out this story about “Catholic” yoga classes being held at the parish hall of none other than Sacred Heart Cathedral in Chicago! The woman responsible for bringing it to the parish claims that Catholics who take the class will experience “a growth in their faith life, and a growth in their sense of the Holy Spirit within” (I kid you not) This is in spite of a statement in the same article made by an expert in Hindu spirituality who says yoga cannot be anything but religious, and to detach it from its religious roots is offensive to Hindus.  (My thanks to M&LB for sending us this link):
http://cbs2chicago.com/local/catholic.yoga.controversy.2.1515067.html#addComments

The bottom line is simple – what these people are engaging in is syncretism.

Syncretism is the attempt to reconcile or merge opposing philosophies or principles and is a hallmark of the New Age Movement. This is why you see retreat centers offering tai chi and yoga alongside Catholic prayer and the Mass. Syncretists believe all religions are equal, and convincing us of this is a crucial step toward ushering in One World Religion, a major goal of the New Age Movement.

Unfortunately, this plan is achieving success because of a general lack of knowledge about yoga – and Christianity – which results in a hopeless blurring of the lines.

Everyone who participates in yoga, especially here in the West, needs to understand that the physical exercises of yoga are only one of eight limbs of this practice, none of which are designed to be isolated from the others. Yoga is all one big package designed to achieve “Kaivalya” (ultimate freedom) by releasing the soul from the chains of cause and effect (karma) which tie the person to continual reincarnation. Yoga employs physical postures (asanas) along with the seven other limbs – moral restraint, religious observance, breath control (pranayama), sense withdrawal, concentration, meditative absorption and enlightenment (Samadhi) to achieve this goal. This complex ancient science of self-purification and development is all aimed at yoking the practitioner to the Hindu God known as Brahman.

But what has happened here in the largely Christian West is that people wanting to cash in on the yoga-craze either to fill their pockets or their pews (or both) have fallen into the trap of thinking they can simply substitute Christian teachings for these Hindu concepts and thereby render them Christian. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple and major mistakes have been made by some of the leading proponents of “Catholic” or “Christian” yoga.

Elliot Miller, research specialist in Eastern religions for the Christian Research Institute, lists several major contributors to the field of “Christian yoga” in the U.S., all of which base their teachings on flawed understandings of either yoga, Christianity, or both.

The most influential is Nancy Roth, author of An Invitation to Christian Yoga (Seabury Books, 1989) and an Episcopal priest with “an ecumenical ministry in spirituality.” Roth claims she would use the relaxation and visualization time at the end of class to focus on Jesus even though the class was chanting “om” and all their exercises had Hindu names.

Eventually, she came to the realization that “there needed to be a new Christian asceticism that respected the integration of body and mind and reflected both the newest research in psychology and physiology and the wisdom of other, even more ancient spiritual traditions.” Christian yoga was her answer to this problem.

As Miller writes: “Roth’s words appear to reflect an inclusivist theology that is common in mainline churches such as the Episcopal church. Inclusivism holds that salvation is through Jesus Christ alone, but Christ’s salvation can extend even to those who do not consciously believe in Him, imparting to them gifts of grace or spiritual riches that can benefit those of other faiths, including Christians.”

As a result, “Roth’s interfaith exploration and synthesis of East and West laid the conceptual and practical foundations for Christian yoga, and the marks of her influence are evident throughout the movement,” Miller writes.

Two more recent authors who admit to being influenced by Roth’s work are Susan Bordenkircher (Yoga for Christians, 2006) and Brooke Boon (Holy Yoga, 2007). Both of these writers believe yoga can be redeemed and made into a holy practice to the Lord, even without a major revamping of yoga, Miller writes.

In studying their writings, he found significant theological flaws. For instance, knowledge of one’s true self is the ultimate goal of classical yoga, but has never been the goal of Christian spirituality. In order to “baptize” this major difference, Boon reconstructs the yogic goal of “acquiring the deepest knowledge of oneself” to “acquiring the deepest knowledge of oneself in Christ” and thinks she has fixed this problem.

However, as Miller points out, “Adding Christ into the equation does not make the pursuit of self-knowledge in ‘Holy Yoga’ any more of a Christian practice than adding sprouts to a greasy hamburger makes it health food.”

This is exactly the same error made by those who think they can “Christianize” the concept of a universal life force energy (chi, qi, ki, prana) simply by calling it the Holy Spirit. We can no more call chi the Holy Spirit than we can call a dog a cat. Why not? Because you can’t change the nature of something just by changing its name. Chi will always be chi, a dog will always be a dog, and yoga will always be yoga, no matter what you call it.

Profound errors are also found in Bordenkircher’s work. For instance, she does an awkward job of “Christianizing” the Hindu concept of bodymind (the idea that the body and mind are a single entity) a pantheistic belief that has no basis in Christianity.

“Because of this teaching, not only are the postures of yoga created for the end result of mind control, but it is also believed that the mind or soul cannot reach its potential if the body is beset with weakness,” Miller explains.

This non-Christian concept is found in the Christian yoga espoused by Bordenkircher. She writes “As your range of motion decreases, your ability and desire to do certain tasks will likely be affected. Your attitude may be negatively affected . . . your relationships may even suffer as you struggle with self-image and esteem.”

Even though the Bible does teach that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit and that they must be kept healthy in order for us to follow the Lord more effectively, “it is not true, however, that our moral decisions are determined by our bodily condition or that Christian sanctification flows from, or depends on, a sound body,” Miller points out.

These are just some of the flaws Miller uncovered in these works which are fueling the “Catholic” and “Christian” yoga craze in the U.S. Notice how subtle these errors are. One needs a theologian to point them out. And many of them – such as our pastors – don’t catch them either!  So how can we expect the “average Joe” in a yoga class to understand all this?

My advice to anyone who has a problem with yoga showing up in their parishes or schools is to attempt to educate the parties responsible about yoga. I have written a “quick read” on this subject (see the New Age Resources on the navigation bar above) that was designed to be used for exactly this purpose. Make sure these efforts are backed by continual and persevering prayer. Pray until the situation is resolved – even if that means praying until the day you die.

This article by Elliot Miller may also prove helpful, particularly to pastors:
http://www.equip.org/articles/yoga-exercises-and-christianity

This article gives an easy-to-remember acronym to the false teaching that yoga can be Chritianized: http://www.equip.org/hank_speaks_outs/how-should-christians-respond-to-yoga

Have I stepped on your toes?  Am I overreacting?  You have the right to your own opinion.  But I believe that God is convicting me and allowing me to seek His will and I will not be associated with a practice that I feel is out of His will and may result in creating a mixed and false message.  Now matter how unpopular I might become as a result.    The thing is, you can’t have it both ways.

You might remember an incident in the New Testament when Jesus came into the temple and found it filled with moneychangers. Jesus reacted in a way similar to Nehemiah. He made a whip and went around the temple, upsetting tables and driving the moneychangers out. It indicates that there is a time for strong stands against the evils that others have indifferently accepted.

Evil invades us quietly. Before we are aware of it, we have compromised and gone along with standards widely accepted. We find the people of God have often been corrupted by this kind of thing. When it comes down to individuals, this is a picture of our struggle with our flesh. We must be prepared to be drastic and take often painful action to clear up the things that are wrong in our own affairs. Many Christians allow evil to take root in their own lives. This story pictures the way these false forces can invade our lives and take up rooms in the very temple of our spirit, polluting and destroying us in the process. Take action. Do not allow these evil things to remain. Even if it takes painful effort to do so, end it! That is what this great story in Nehemiah teaches us.

Lord,
forgive me for the ways in which I allow subtle compromises to creep into my
thinking and my choices. Help me to be as ruthless in judging and dealing with
my own sin.

Who Are You?

Are you a Pillar? – One who worships regularly, gives freely of both time and money.

Are you a Supporter? – One who gives time and money if he likes the pastor.

Are you a Leaner? – One who uses the church for funerals, baptisms and marriages, but gives no time or money to support the church.

Are you a Special? – One who helps and gives occasionally for something that appeals to him.

Are you an Annual? – One who dresses up, looks serious, and goes to church on Easter.

Are you a Sponge? – One who takes all the blessings and benefits, but gives nothing to support the church.

Are you a Tramp? – One who goes from one church to another but supports none.

Are you a Gossip? – One who talks freely about everyone and everthing except Jesus Christ.

Are you a Scrapper? – One who takes offense at everything and is always criticizing everybody and keeping things stirred up.

Saved To Serve

We are not here to learn – but to lift – Galatians 6:10

We are not here to absorb – but to give forth – Luke 6:38

We are not here to be ministered unto – but to minister – Mark 10:35-45

We are not here to be served – but to serve others – John 21:15-17

We are not here to hinder – but to help – Mark 14:3-9

We are not here to be a burden to others – but to bear the burdens of others – Galatians 6:2

We are not here to stand on the sidelines and criticize the players – but to get in the game and help win the victory – Mark 16:15

Dr. T. Myron Webb

What is your life as you walk this earth?  As you go through your day do you do something for someone else?  And your heart, is it clean in God’s sight or is there something you need to make right with Him?  And your mind; are your thoughts pure?  Are you “storing up” something of eternal value?  And your lips, are your words gentle and kind?  Or do you sometimes speak and then regret?  Are your hands busy doing good deeds?  Have you given to someone in need?  Maybe if we worked harder in these things, the earth would be much better, not to mention our own lives.

Thanks for reading – have to go now, work to do!

Betsy

Jesus

He began His ministry by being hungry, yet He is the Bread of Life.

Jesus ended His ministry on earth by being thirsty, yet He is the Living Water.

Jesus was weary, yet He is our rest.  Jesus paid tribute, yet He is the King.  Jesus was accused of having a deamon,

yet He cast out deamons.  Jesus wept, yet He wipes away our tears.  Jesus was sold for thirty pieces of silver,

yet He redeemed the world.  Jesus was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, yet He is the Good Shepherd.,

Jesus died, yet by His death He destroyed the power of death.

Gregory of Nazianzus, 4th century archbishop of Constantinople

There are also many other things that Jesus did.  Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world could not contain the books that would be written”  John 21:25 

The Mind Guards

“And now, dear brothers and sisters, let me say one more thing as I close this letter.  Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right.  Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable.  Thing about things that are excellent and worthy of  praise.  Keep putting into practice all you learned from me and heard from me and saw me doing and the God of peace will be with you.”  Philippians 4:8-9

 

The Apostle Paul knew that sometimes we give way to stinking thinking.  He was writing the church in Philippi and trying to encourage – well really he was pleading with – two women to settle the rift between them.  We don’t really know the details of their disagreement, and that isn’t the important thing for us to know.  Maybe someone with malice in their heart told one woman that the other has said something damaging to their Christian walk – that recently happened to me – someone told another person that I said something I didn’t say.  We can’t prevent others from telling untruths about us, what we can do is to set the Guards of our minds in place and give the situation over to the Lord and pray for His guidance.

Paul names eight guards that we should station in our thinking.  “Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right.  Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable.  Think about about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.  These are absolutes that we are expected to adhere to as Christians and through these we can test any information we recieve.

As we get information, the first thing we ask ourselves is: “Is it true?”  We use God’s truth as a measuring stick.  Then we ask, “is it honorable?”  Does the thing I hear have a noble ring to it?  Is the action I’m being asked to take respectable?

Then we have to decide if its right, if it’s just and fair.  We search Jesus’ teaching to see if He had and words on the matter.  What did He say was right?

When we consider what we are filling ourselves with, what we watch on tv, or what we read, or the movies we watch, we should ask ourselves, is it pure and lovely? Will this that I’m filling my mind with result in the love of God and beautiful actions?

And we need to ask, if it’s admirable, is what I’m thinking about praiseworthy and of good repute?  Does it sound attractive and appealing?  Can people say of you that you just won’t listen to gossip or slanderous talk?

Finally we have to consider if we are thinking on excellent and praise worthy things?  There are many of us that would have a hard time labeling our thoughts as excellent, we must fight a constant battle to think excellent thoughts.

If we would only allow those things that are pleasing and approved by God into our thoughts then we could be well on the way to that peace of mind Paul says will be with us if we have set our guards in place.  If you value the approval of God – think on these things.

Jesus Love Me – and you too!

Ephesians 3:7-3:21

Years ago, a large Atlanta church was televising the service where they had asked a retired 92 year minister preach from its pulpit. There was a warm welcome as he was introduced and, as the applause quieted down, the old man rose from his high back chair
and walked slowly, with great effort to the podium.

Without a note or written paper of any kind, he placed both hands on the pulpit to steady himself and then quietly and slowly he began to speak.

“When I was asked to come here today and talk to you, your preacher asked me to tell you what was the greatest lesson I ever learned in my 50 odd years of preaching. I thought about it for a few days and boiled it down to just one thing that made the most difference in my life and sustained me through all my trials. The one thing that I could always rely on when tears and heart break and pain and fear and sorrow paralyzed me. The only thing that would comfort was this verse:

“Jesus loves me this I know. For the Bible tells me so.  Little ones to him belong, We are weak but he is strong.  Yes, Jesus loves me… The Bible tells me so.”
When he finished, the church was so quiet you actually could hear his foot steps as he shuffled back to his chair.

This is one of the most popular Christian songs ever written.  It is arguably as well known as Amazing Grace and Silent Night.

It is taught by Christian parents and teachers to their children from the day they can speak. And it has been translated into most major languages and sung by children in every nation on the face of the earth.

The Bible is filled with verses that show God’s love.”  But sometimes in the midst of life, we don’t really feel loved by God.  But if we don’t
understand anymore today than this, it is that God loves each of us in a very real and personal way.  The measure of His love for us is so great that we can’t even begin to fathom it.

In Galatians 2:20, Paul wrote: “…I live by faith in the Son of God, WHO LOVED ME and gave himself for me.”

The Apostle John wrote “… Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him WHO LOVES US and has freed us from our sins by his blood” Revelation 1:5

Jesus said: “As the Father has loved me, SO HAVE I LOVED YOU. Now remain in my love…. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.” John 15:9, 13-14

And, in the text today, Paul said it was his prayer that we would “… grasp how wide and long and high and deep is THE LOVE OF CHRIST, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge— that (we might) be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Jesus loves me – How do I know that?  I know that Jesus loves me because, “the Bible Tells Me So!”

There are many world religions with their many books of scripture, but only the Bible tells us that God loves us.

* The Buddhists have their book called the Dharma – but Buddhists don’t actually believe there is a god… let alone a god who would love you.

* The Hindus have their many book and their many gods… but their gods aren’t the type that would love.

* The Muslims have the Koran that tells of Allah… but Allah is an impersonal god who really isn’t known for loving people.

In fact – no matter what world religion you talk about – their gods (if they love anybody) only love “nice” people. Love, in those religions, is reserved only for the ones who deserve it.

By contrast, Paul tell us “… God demonstrates his own love for us in this:
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” Romans 5:8

The Bible tells us that even when we weren’t worthy of love – God loved us anyway. Paul continues in Romans 5:10 “… when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son…”
One man observed:
“Anyone can devise a plan by which good people may go to Heaven.  Only God can devise a plan whereby sinners, who are His enemies, can go to Heaven.”

What makes the Bible distinctive is that it says God loves us.  He cares for us.  He created us.  We’re made in His image.  And it hurts Him when we damage our lives.  He wants to make our lives better. And in order to do that, He gave us the most precious gift He could give. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish but have
everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so Little ones to Him belong we are weak but He is strong”

We are weak.  And we’re weak because we sin.  And because of our sin, we sometimes misunderstand who this Jesus is that
Scripture tells us loves us so much.  Sin warps our understanding of who Jesus is, and since sin is essentially the product of our own selfishness and self-centeredness, we can begin to believe
that “Jesus loves ONLY me”.
But Jesus said: “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” John 13:34
Tony Campolo recalled working at a Christian junior high camp. One of the campers, a boy with spastic paralysis, was the object of heartless
ridicule. When he would ask a question, the boys would deliberately answer in a halting, mimicking way.
One night his cabin group chose this boy to lead the devotions before the entire camp. It was one more effort to have some “fun” at his
expense.
Unashamedly the spastic boy stood up, and in his strained, slurred manner – each word coming with enormous effort – he said simply “Jesus loves me — and I love Jesus!”

That was all.

Campolo said that conviction fell upon those junior-highers. Many began to cry. Revival gripped the camp. Years afterward, Campolo says he still meets men in the ministry who came to Christ because of that testimony.
Sometimes, because “we are weak”, we forget Jesus loves others that we don’t.  We can misunderstand Jesus, and think that “He loves ONLY me”
And, because we are weak, we can also misunderstand Jesus by thinking that Jesus loves on OUR terms.

There are people who – when they hear some of the teachings out the Bible – don’t like what they hear.  They think Jesus should sound different.  And so they try to accept the Jesus they want – while rejecting the Jesus they don’t like.  It doesn’t work that way.  You don’t get to pick and choose with Jesus.  If you want the Jesus that the Bible says loves you, you have to take the rest of the package.

Jesus is a God of love.  And yes, He loves people so much that He gave His life for us to save us from our sins.  In fact, He loves us so much – that He doesn’t want us slip back into that lifestyle of sinfulness. And so He calls us to live lives of holiness and purity.

And because He loves us that much – He calls His church to confront certain kinds of sins and discipline His people if necessary.  Why?  Because
if sin is not confronted … If wicked behavior is permitted to go unchallenged… that sinfulness will be accepted by others in the church as normal. They’ll begin to see sin that was ignored in others as an excuse to slip into their own sinful behaviors. Paul tells us in I Corinthians 5 that such an attitude moves through the congregation like leaven in bread.  We must hold each other accountable when we see a brother or sister
acting in a manner displeasing to God.  Because if we don’t then the sinful behavior will cause our brother or sister to drift further and further away from God … and ultimately they will drift away into the very pits of Hell.

Jesus loves me, Jesus loves you. Jesus loves US far too much to let that happen.

Jesus loves me… and He calls me to a life of holiness and purity.  We are Christ’s ambassador’s here on earth and we must be very careful to not damage our witness to the world.  We don’t want anyone saying about us, “if that’s a Christian, I don’t want to be one.”

Originally, the song “Jesus Loves Me” wasn’t a song… it was a poem.

Back in the 1800’s a woman named Susan Warner, asked her sister Anna to write a poem that she could use in her book “Say and Seal.” In the book, this poem was spoken to comfort a little child who was dying.

The original poem includes the following verse which is not generally published or sung:
”Jesus loves me! Loves me still, though I’m very weak and ill,
That I might from sin be free, He bled and died upon the tree.
Yes Jesus loves me, yes Jesus loves me,
Yes Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so!”

Paul tells us that this is the part of Jesus love for me that I MUST understand.  Look again at Ephesians 3:16-19:

“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.  And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge— that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
It is when we understand how wide, and long, and high, and deep Christ’s love has been for us – THAT IS WHEN we can be filled with all the fullness of God.
So, what is it to “grasp how wide and long and high and deep” Christ’s love is?  Well, think about it.
His love was as HIGH as heaven itself.  And His love went DOWN into the depths of Hell to draw us to God. And it was as DEEP as the pain He bore when He carried our sins away.  And it was as WIDE as the length of his arms as He was nailed to the tree.

Peter writes: “(Jesus) himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” 1 Peter 2:24

I recently read the true story by a woman named Phyllis W. Zeno.
She wrote:

One day a beautiful, but very troubled little girl came through the door of my day nursery. From the very beginning I became captivated by this child who had so little but needed so much. I was heartbroken that a four-year-old could have such heartache and pain. She was born in prison after her mom had used marijuana, crack and cocaine her entire pregnancy.
The little girl was nonverbal and had very little control. I knew her progress would be a mighty battle.  Whenever somebody approached her, she became violent for long periods and ended up in a fetal position on the floor crying out. I found myself praying for her day in and day out.

As months rolled on, I began to bond with this child that no one wanted. She and I worked very hard taking one step forward and four steps back. Daily, we sat in the big rocking chair in my office, swaying back and forth and back and forth. During our rocking time I sang “Jesus Loves Me.” She always settled down and became very still at the melody. Though she never spoke, peace seemed to fill her face as she listened to the song.

One day after a very long battle I held my special girl to again calm her fears and pain. In silence we rocked back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. Then she looked at me with tear-filled eyes and spoke for the first time, “Sing to me about that Man who loves me.”

A Debt Of Love

Read the Scripture: 1 John 4:11-16

¹¹Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

¹³We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. ¹⁶And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

                                                                                                                                                                                                               New International Version

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another (1 John 4:11).

This is the answer to every lame excuse on our part that says, Oh, I just can’t love that person. You don’t know what he or she is like. If you had to live with him/her as I have to, you wouldn’t be able to love him/her, either. No, Dear friends, since God so loved us… If you have experienced this kind of love, if you have been to the cross and felt the overwhelming cleansing of God’s love for you, despite the antagonism and hatefulness you have shown Him and despite your loving your own way and wanting to do what you like; if you have felt the cleansing grace of God wiping that all out without any recriminations or calling up of the past, forgetting and forgiving it all, then, as John says, you not only can love someone else but you ought to—you owe it. That is where the word ought comes from. You owe it to love one another.

This is why Paul could say in Romans 1, I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks [everyone] (Romans 1:14). I owe something to everybody. And he himself said later on in that very epistle, Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another (Romans 13:8). We owe it because we have within us the fountain of love in the life of God. If you do not have the life of God, you cannot love one another like this. Do not try. Above all, do not come up with the shabby, shoddy, sleazy imitation of love that treats others kindly to their faces and cuts them to death behind their back. That is not love. Or merely to tolerate another for a time. That is not love. Unless you have the life of God, you cannot love. But if you have the life of God—that is the whole point—you can love like this, and you ought to do it. God, in you, can love through you and will love through you. All He is waiting for is the acquiescence of your will; then He will do the loving.

Verse 12 declares a great and daring concept: It recognizes that God is invisible, and no person has ever seen God. Even in Old Testament days, though there appeared manifestations of God in human form, these were but God in human disguise. These manifestations were not God made visible. Where is He made visible? John says, If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is made complete; that is, His love reaches its final end in us. That is where people see God’s love, and it is the only place it can be seen. The fact of an indwelling God becomes visible only when we manifest love one to another. As long as we are nice only to our friends or to those who are nice to us, no one has any idea that God is around. But when we start being nice to those who are nasty to us, when we start returning good for evil, when we start being patient, tender, thoughtful, and considerate of those who are stubborn, obstinate, and selfish, then people get the sense that God is close at hand, that He is in the situation. Then God’s dwelling in us becomes visible to them.

Father, may these words burn themselves into my heart, that I may recognize myself as called preeminently, above all else, to this great task of being an abundant demonstration of this kind of love.

Ray Stedman