CHAPTER 6 - GETTING CAUGHT BY YOUR CALLING
God acts in history and in your and my brief hsitories
not as a puppeteer who sets the scene and works the strings
but rather as the great director
who no matter what role fate casts us in
conveys to us somehow from the wings,
if we have our eyes, ears, hearts open
and sometimes even if we don't, how we can play those roles
in a way to enrich and ennoble and hallow the whole vast drma of things
including our own small but crucial parts in it. frederick buechner
the day had arrived and a decision had to b made:
would i accept a job offer to teach at a respected seminary,
or would i become part of the team that was starting a new graduate school in seattle?
my vife and i had spent weeks tossing around various options,
and it boiled down to a choice between safety and madness.
the established seminary offered security,
a good salary,
and the opportunity to teach the courses that i wanted.
the chance to start a new school was ridiculous.
we needed to raise three hundred thousand dollars just to fid out if we would fail.
i had reached the moment where a commitment needed to be finalized.
becky brought the discussion to a close when she said,
'you've never had a normal life. why start now?
in a matter of seconds, my mind flitted from
how we met, to how i was seduced to go to seminary,
to how i met larry crabb and went into counseling,
to how larry and i began a counseling program,
to the (current) events..
for whatever reason, my mind landed on the first sermon i heard after becoming a christian.
i was a troubled twenty year old
who had been involved in illicit pharmaceutical sales for a number of years.
the small cartel with whom i worked had arranged to sell drugs from a new supplier.
i learned after the fact that the drugs would be coming from sources connected with organized crime.
all of a sudden i had gone from the status of middle class, mom and pop drug czar
to the big time.
and the big time involved carrying guns, buying judges and police and threatening
undisciplined dealers.
i wanted out and i knew that could mean forfeiting my life.
i can't explain why i had the strength to slip the bonds of that world,
but i did. i knew that if i died i would go to hell.
more precisely,
i knew that if there was a hell,
i was certainly going there.
somewhere in the recesses of my soul i believed in God,
but the other 98 % of my being though the whole business of God was absurd.
death lay ahead eventually,
no matter what i decided to do,
so i said, 'fine', to God.
that was the entirety of my prayer:
'fine..
i knew the gospel well because my best friend, tremper, had discussed it with me many times.
i had watched people come to know Jesus
and had gone to a few bible conferences
and even to the campus of the seminary i eventually attended.
i knew the basic beliefs of christianity well, but it was not for me.
yet i was glad it was true for my best friend.
the night i cam to faith i had ingested a sizable dose of hallucinogens earlier in the day,
so i was fairly fried.
i felt profoundly uncomfortable walking into that small presbyterian church in the country.
people were friendly and warm.
tremper and i sat off to one side about midway between coming and going.
i felt relieved i was on the end of the row so that if i needed to run,
i'd have full access to an escape route.
the service began.
at certain times people would stand,
and i couldn't
t figure out what prompted the shift from sitting to standing.
they read and sole back to the dude up front.
they sang and then they would bow their heads and close their eyes
as if the whole thing had been choreographed.
was i missing some hand signals or a secret command from the front?
clearly some time would be required for me to figure out this scene.
then the guy in the robe began to talk.
we opened the black books in front of us,
and he read and then talked about what he had read.
i didn't bother to read,
nor did i listen.
but somehow i heard him mention balaam's ass.
my ears came alive with curiosity.
he talked about how balaam's ass had spoken to balaam.
i was freaked out.
i glanced around and noticed that no one seemed at all concerned about this bizarre revelation.
halfway through the sermon the preacher switched and started saying,
'balaam's donkey'.
i was so relieved i nearly fell out of my seat.
in fact, i was so relieved i though i would cry.
a talking animal was just fine.
under the influence of LSD, i had often heard animals talk,
but the thought of going through my religious life with talking body parts
seemed more than any human ought to bear.
somehow, as unlikely as it might sound,
i came to faith that night.
faith gradually became central to my life,
and years later my wife and i were faced with the decision to make a career move.
why would the scene in that rural presbyterian church come to mind as becky commented,
'you've never had a normal life. why start now?
stories inform story...
the future is meant to be written in light of the patterns of the past.
we can't predict the future,
but we can read the patterns of the past
to see how God has marked us for His purposes.
He uses the past to open our future.
as we learn to read patterns, we gain an understnding of our calling.
READING PATTERNS
becky and i and our friend christie were traveling together on a half day road trip.
our conversation was pleasant and free.
after talking about various matters, my wife asked us both:
'if you were a letter of the alphabet,what would it be?
her question struck me as a monumental waste of time,
a silly icebreaker for a threesome who had been through fire, storm and calamity together.
we didn't need to break any ice..
but christie, to my chagrin, jumped in with both feet.
she added,
'befkore we answer for ourselves,
why don't we say what letter we consider each other to be?
i was irked but outnumbered,
so i played along.
we made guesses about one another and then explained why we had made our choice.
it turned out to be a fascinating conversation,
but then it was my turn to be associated with a letter of the alphabet.
when my wife said X
christie began to laugh because she had chosen the same letter.
my wife chose it because of the word Xtreme.
christie chose it because she sees me as a person who lives on the border
at the crossroads,
always pressing limits
and calling others to cross to another side.
i laughed, but i felt caught and exposed.
i am often more extreme than others.
i live more in the drama of intensity and the crisis of decision than in reflective meditation.
I felt the blush of being known and honored,
albeit with the sense that both women were saying
i am enjoyed yet it is best to take me in small doses.
we will not read the patterns of our past unless we have data from the present.
and the data can't come with fullness and accuracy until they come from others.
WE SIMPLY CAN'T SEE OUR OWN FACE.
IF WE WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT OURSELVES,
WE MUST BE IN A RELATIONAL DIALOGUE.
that's how god has made us.
we must be avid, curious and open if we are to learn who we are.
we must listen to the wind that wafts through a conversation when someone asks,
'have you always been so intense?
'you seem so sure of yourself-don't you ever doubt?
how come you seem to always hand back and let others speak before offering your opinion>
throughout our lifetime, all sorts of people have named us...
stop now and think for a moment about the observations others have made about you.
what are they?
how do you react to these observations?
do you find truth there?
add to that data more intentional feedback-
input that you seek out.
IT IS IMPERATIVE TO HEAR FROM THOSE WHO KNOW, LOVE AND RESPECT YOU.
how do they see you, both at your best and at your worst?...
if you collect the data from a number of different observers, you will..notice..overlap...
once you own the pattern as at least somewhat true of who you are,
they it's wise to look at the past and ask,
'how did this pattern come to exist?...
but remember that some of the words, phrases and images used to describe you will be inconsistent.
...we are complex, inconsistent, contradictory beings...
we love and we hate. we sacrifice for others and we are self absorbed..
lets assume you have entered into significant conversations with a handful of friends, especially your spouse and children.
...you now have a stock of data,
and you've moved beyond defensiveness, doubt and dismissal.
you have collated the data and embraced much of it as likely being a true description of who you are.
what do you do now?
it is time to connect the dots and plunge into the gaps...
in reading your patterns-
both in terms of consistency and inconsistency-
you begin to get an inkling of your life them.
listen to your life....it will give words..
which will help you identify your character and your role in life.
listen to your stories . they will reveal a pattern of roles that you've played throughout your life.
...there will be discrepancies and mind-boggling contradictions.
there is evolution and transformation...
a coherent sense of self lasts over a lifetime,
and what is retained over a lifetime speaks to the unique role or character
you are to play out on god's stage.
what lasts, yet grows and matures to an even greater gory, reveals your thematic calling.
...a life theme is not our mission, moral or purpose.
it is the significance of our life
as seen by those who are close enough to sense how our life
either reveals or fails to make known the character of God.
...a life theme sets the trajectory of our life..
the truest themes have to do with what each of us uniquely reveals about God's character.
our calling is to reveal God
through the themes He has woven into our character. .
the questions that relate to where (place),
what brokenness to confront (problem),
with whom (population),
and how (process),
are largely left to our own choice and talents....
once we begin to read our life, then we are called by God to do more:
we are called to mess with our story.
we are called to write our destiny
and edit our writing in community with others
for the sake of an even better and truer story.
but first we must have some sense of the direction our story is meant to move.
we must at least catch a whisper of our calling.
God calls us, which means we must listen and respond.
God calls us to tasks and to service,
but most important,
He calls us into relationship with Him.(AMEN)...
God commanded His people to offer burnt offerings
and then He said,
'they make Me sick.
HE WANTS US TO LIVE WITH A HEART OF PASSION FOR JUSTICE-PERIOD.
religious deeds, be it prayer, fasting, giving, sacrifice, song..turn God's stomach when we do them without a hear for righteousness.
...we don't find our calling; it finds us.
Monday, December 17, 2012
Sunday, December 16, 2012
12.12.2012 TORTURED FOR CHRIST by RICHARD WURMBRAND
this book was published in 1967 a short while after richard wurmbrand and his family were brought to the united states. from romania. i would like to type the whole 100+ pages...probably will not get much. this first is his personal testimony.
i was orphaned from the first years of life.
being brought up in a family in which no religion was recognized,
i received no religious education as a child.
as the result of a bitter childhood,
which included knowing poverty in the difficult years of world war I,
at age 14 i was as convinced an atheist as the communists are today.
i had read atheistic books,
and it was not just that i did not believe in God of Christ-
i hated these notions, considering them harmful for the human mind.
so i grew up in bitterness toward religion.
but as i understood afterward,
i had the grace to be one of the chosen of God for reasons that i don't understand.
these reasons had nothing to do with my character,
because my character was very bad.
although i was an atheist,
something unreasonable always attracted me to churches.
i found it difficult to pass a church without entering it.
however, i never understood what was happening in these churches.
i listened to the sermons,
but they didn't appeal to my heart.
i had an image of God
as a master whom i should have to obey.
i hated this wrong image of god that i had in my mind,
but i would have liked very much to know that a loving heart existed
somewhere in the center of this universe.
since i had known few of the joys of childhood and youth,
i longed that there should be a loving heart beating for me too.
i convinced myself that there was no god,
but i was sad that such a God of love did not exist.
once, in my inner spiritual conflict,
i entered a catholic church.
i saw people kneeling and saying something.
i thought,
i will kneel near them so i can hear what they say
and repeat the prayers to see if something happens.
they said a prayer to the holy virgin,
'hail mary, full of grace.
i repeated the words after them again and again;
i looked at the statue of the virgin mary,
but nothing happened.
i was very sad about it.
one day, being a very convinced atheist,
i prayed to god.
my prayer was something like this:
'God, i know surely that You do not exist.
but if perchance You exist, which i contest,
it is not my duty to believe in You;
it is Your duty to reveal Yourself to me.
i was an atheist, but atheism did not give peace to my heart.
during this time of inner turmoil,
an old carpenter in a village high up in the mountains of romania prayed like this;
'my God, i have served You on earth
and i wish to have my reward on earth as well as in heaven.
and my reward should be that i should not die before i bring a jew to Christ,
because Jesus was from the jewish people.
but i am poor, old, and sick.
i cannot go around and seek a jew.
in my village theree are none.
bring a few into my village
and i will do my best to bring him to Christ.
something irresistible drew me to that village.
i had no reason to go there.
romania has twelve thousand villages,
but i went to that one.
seeing i was a jew, the carpenter courted me
as never a beautiful girl had been courted.
he saw in me the answer to his prayer and gave me a bible to read.
i had read the bible out of cultural interest many times before.
but the bible he gave me was another kind of bible.
as he told me some time later,
he and his wife prayed together for hours
for my conversion and that of my wife.
the bible he gave me was written not so much in words,
but in flames of love fired by his prayers.
i could barely read it.
i could only weep over it,
comparing my bad life with the life of Jesus;
my impurity with His righteousness;
my hatred with His love-
and He accepted me as one of His own.
...out of remorse for being an atheist, i longed from the first day of my conversion to be able to witnesses to the russians.
..it was a dramatic, moving work.
i will never forget my first encounter with a russian prisoner, an engineer.
i asked him if he believed in God.
if he had said 'no', i would not have minded it much.
..but when i asked him this, he lifted his eyes toward me without understanding and said,
'i have no such military order to believe. if i have an order i will believe.
tears ran down my cheeks.
i felt my heart torn in pieces.
here stood before me a man whose mind was dead,
a man who had lost a great gift God has given to mankind
-his individuality.
...this was a typical russian after all these years of communist domination!
after the shock of seeing what communism had done to human beings,
i promised God that i would dedicate my life to these men,
to give them back their personalities
and to give them faith in God and Christ.
....once the communists came to power, they skillfully used the means of
seduction toward the church.
the language of love
and the language of seduction are the same.
the one who wishes for a wife
and the one who wishes her for only a night
both say the words,k
'I love you.
Jesus has told us to discern between
the language of seduction and the language of love,
and to know the wolves clad in sheepskin
from the real sheep.
unfortunately, when the communists came to power,
thousands of priests, pastors and ministers
did not know how to discern between the two voices.
the communists convened a congress of
all christian bodies in our parliament building.
there were 4000 priests, pastors and ministers of all denominations-
and these men of god chose joseph stalin as honorary president of this congress.
at the same time he was president of the
World Movement of the Godless
and a mass murderer of christians.
one after another,
bishops and pastors arose and declared
that communism and christianity are
fundamentally the same and could coexist.
one minister after another said words of praise toward communism
and assured the new government of the loyalty of the church.
my wife and i were present at this congress.
sabina told me,
'Richard, stand up and wash away this shame from the face of Christ!
they are spitting in His face.
i said to her,
'if i do so, you lose your husband.
she replied,
'i don't wish to have a coward as a husband.
then i arose and spoke to this congress,
praising not the murderers of christians,
but Jesus Christ,
stating that our loyalty is due first to Him.
the speeches at this congress were broadcast
and the whole country could hear proclaimed
from the rostrum of the communist parliament
the message of Christ!
afterward i had to pay for this,
but it was worthwhile.
orthodox and protestant church leaders competed with each other
in yielding to communism.
and orthodox bishop but the hammer and sickle on his robes
and asked his priests to no longer call him
'Your Grace, but 'Comrade Bishop.
priest like patrascoiu and rosianu were more direct.
they became officers of the secret police.
rapp, deputy bishop of the lutheran church in romania,
began to teach in the theological seminary
that God had given three revelations;
one through moses,
one through Jesus,
and the third through stalin,
the last superseding the one before.
i attended the congress of the baptists in the town of resita-
a congress under the red flag,
where the anthem of the soviet union had been sung with everyone standing.
the president of the baptists praised stalin
as a great teacher of the bible
and proclaimed that stalin did nothing but fulfill
the commandments of God!
....together with others, i began an underground work.
outwardly i had a very respectable position-
pastor of the norwegian lutheran mission-
that served as a cove for my real underground work.
at the same time i represented the
world council of churches in romania.
(in romania we had not the slightest idea that this organization
would ever cooperate with the communists.
at that time in our country
it did nothing but relief work.)...
there were two aspects of this underground work.
the first was our secret ministry among russian soldiers.
the second aspect was our underground work with the enslaved peoples of romania.
for me to preach the gospel to the russians
is heaven on earth.
i have preached the gospel to men of many nations,
but i have never seen a people drink in the gospel like the russians .
they have such thirsty souls.
and orthodox priest,
a friend of mine,
telephoned me
and told me that a russian officer had come to him to confess.
my friend did not know russian...
i read (the man) the sermon on the mount and the parables of Jesus.
after hearing them,
he danced around the room in rapturous joy
proclaiming, 'what a wonderful beauty!
how could i live without knowing this Christ!
it was the first time that i saw someone
so joyful in Christ.
then i made a mistake.
i read to him the passion and crucifixion of Christ,
without having prepared him for this.
he had not expected it and,
when he heard how Christ was beaten,
how He was crucified and that in the end He died,
he fell into an armchair
and began to weep bitterly.
he had believed in a savior
and now his savior was dead!
i looked at him
and was ashamed.
i had called myself
a christian, a pastor and a teacher of others,
but i had never shared the sufferings of Christ
as this russian officer now shared them.
looking at him,
it was like seeing mary magdalene
weeping at the foot of the cross,
faithfully weeping when Jesus was a
corpse in the tomb.
then i read to him the story of the resurrection
and watched his expression change.
he had not known that his savior
arose from the tomb.
when he hear this wonderful news,
he beat his knees and swore-
using very dirty,
but very 'holy' profanity.
this was his crude manner of speech.
again he rejoiced,
shouting for joy,
'He is alive! He is alive!
he danced around the room once more,
overwhelmed with happiness!
i said to him,
'let us pray!
he did not know how to pray.
he did not know our 'holy'phrases.
he fell on his knees together with me
and his words of prayer were:
'Oh God,
what a fine chap you are!
if I were You
and You were me,
i would never have forgiven You of Your sins.
but You are really a very nice chap!
i love You with all of my heart.....
we worked among the russians not only by individual witnessing.
we were able to work in small group meetings as well.
the russians were very fond of watches.
they stole watches from everyone.
they would stop people on the street
and demand that they hand them over.
we would see russians with several watches on each arem,
and russian women officers with alarm clocks hanging around their necks.
they had never had watches before
and could not get enough of them.
romanians who wished to have a watch
had to go to the barracks of the soviet army to buy a stolen one,
often buying back their own watch.
so it was common for romanians to enter the russian barracks.
the underground church also used that pretext-\
of purchasing watches from them-
to give us entrance into their barracks.
the first time i ;preached in a russian barrack
was on the day of st. paul and st. peter, an orthodox feast.
i went onto the military base pretending to buy a watch.
i pretended that one was too expensive,
another was too small,
and another too big.
several soldiers crowded around me,
each offering me something to buy.
jokingly i asked them,
'are any of you named paul or peter?
(some of the older russians knew it.)
so i asked,
'do you know who paul and peter were?
no one knew,
so i began to tell them about paul and peter.
one of the older russian soldiers interrupted me and said,
'you have not come to buy watches.
you have come to tell us about the faith.
sit down here with us and speak to us!
but be very careful!
we know about whom to beware.
these around me are all good men,
but when i put my hand on your knee,
you must talk only about watches.
when i remove my hand,
you may begin your message again.
quite a great crowd of men was gathered around me and i told them...
the underground church met secretly
in homes, in the woods, in basements-
wherever it could.
as is true in many captive nations today,
the underground church in romania
was only partially underground.
like an iceberg,
a small part of its work was in the open.
under the communists,
we devised a plan of street preaching,
which in time became very risky,
but by this means we reached many souls
we could not reach otherwise.
my wife was very active in this.
some christians would quietly gather on a street corner
and star to sing.
people crowded around them to hear the beautiful singing,
then my wife would deliver her message.
we left the spot before the secret police arrived.
one afternoon, while i was active elsewhere,
my wife delivered a message
before thousands of workers
at the entrance of the great MALAXA factory in the city of bucharest.
she spoke to the workers about God and salvation.
the next day,
many of the workers in this factory
were shot after rebelling against
the injustices of the communists.
they had heard the message just in time1
the secret police greatly persecuted the underground church,
because they recognized in it the only effective resistance left.
it was just the kind of resistance
(a spiritual resistance)
that, if left unhindered,
would undermine their atheistic power.
they recognized,
as only the devil can,
an immediate threat to them.
THEY KNEW THAT IF A MAN BELIEVED IN CHRIST,
HE WOULD NEVER BE A MINDLESS, WILLING SUBJECT.
THEY KNEW THEY COULD IMPRISON THE PHYSICAL BODY,
BUT THEY COULDN'T IMPRISON A MAN'S SPIRIT-
HIS FAITH IN GOD.
and so they fought very hard.
but the underground church also has its sympathizers or members
even in the communist governments
and in the secret police.
we instructed christian to join the secret police
and put on the most hated and despised uniform in our country,
so they could report the activities of the secret police
to the underground church.
several brethren of the..church did this,
keeping their faith hidden.
it was difficult for them
to be despised by family and friends
for wearing the communist uniform
and not reveal their true mission.
yet they did,
so great was their love for Christ....
i worked in both an official and underground manner until february 29, 1948.
on that beautiful sunday, on my way to church,
i was kidnapped from the street by the secret police....
christians were hung upside down on ropes
and beaten so severely that their bodies swung back and forth
under the blows.
christians were also placed in ice box 'refrigerator cells',
which were so cold that frost and ice covered the inside.
i was thrown into one while i had very little clothing on.
prison doctors would watch through an opening
until they saw symptoms of freezing to death,
then they would give a signal
and guards would rush in to take us out
and make us warm.
when we were finally warmed,
we would immediately be put back
into the ice box cells to freeze..
thawing out,
then freezing to within minutes of death,
then being thawed out-
over and over again!
even today there are times when i can't bear to open a refrigerator.
we christians were sometimes forced to stand
in wooden boxes only slightly larger than we were.
this left no room to move.
dozens of sharp nails were driven into every side of the box,
with their razor sharp points sticking through the wood.
while we stood perfectly still,
it was all right.
but we were forced to stand in these boxes for endless hours;
when we became fatigued and swayed with tiredness,
the nails would pierce our bodies.
if we moved or twitched a muscle-
there were the horrible nails....
..i have passed through brainwashing myself.
it is a most horrible torture.
we haqd to sit for 17 hours a day-
for weeks, months and years-
hearing
communism is good!
communism is good!
communism is good!
christianity is stupid!
christianity is stupid!
christianity is stupid!
give up!
give up!
give up!
several christians have asked me
how we could resist brainwashing.
there is only one method of resistance to brainwashing;
it is 'heart washing'.
if the heart is cleansed by the love of Jesus Christ,
and if the heart loves Him,
one can resist all tortures.
what would a loving bride not do for a loving bridegroom?
what would a loving mother not do for her child?
if you love Christ as mary did, who had Christ as a baby in her arms,
if you love Jesus as a bride loves her bridegoom,
then you can resist such tortures....
the year 1956 arrived.
i had been in prison eight and a half years.
i had lost much weight,
gained ugly scars,
been brutally beaten and kicked,
derided, starved, pressured, questioned
as nauseum,
threatened and neglected.
none of this had produced the results
my captors were seeking.
so, in discouragement-
and amid protests over my imprisonment-
they turned me loose.
i was allowed to return to my old position as pastor
for just one week.
i preached two sermons.
then they called me in and told me
that i could not preach anymore,
nor engage in any further religious activity.
what had i said?
i had counseled my parishioners to
have 'patience, patience and more patience.
'this means you are telling them to be patient
and the americans will come and deliver them,
the police shouted at me.
i had also said that the wheel turns and times change.
'you are telling them the communists will not continue to rule!
these are counterrevolutionary lies! hey screamed.
so that was the end of my public ministry.
probably the authorities believed that i would be afraid to defy them
and continue with underground witnessing.
that was where they were wrong.
secretly,
and with my family's support,
i returned to the work i had been doing before...
my second imprisonment...
it was strictly forbidden to preach to other prisoners,
as it is in captive nations today.
it was understood that whoever was caught doing this
received a severe eating.
a number of us decided to pay the price
for the privilege of preaching
and they beat us.
WE WERE HAPPY PREACHING;
THEY WERE HAPPY BEATING US-
SO EVERYONE WAS HAPPY.
the following scene happened more times than i can remember.
a brother was preaching to the other prisoners
when thee guards suddenly burst in,
surprising him halfway through a phrase.
they hauled him down the corridor to their 'beating room'.
after what seemed an endless beating,
they brought him back and threw him-
bloody and bruised-
on the prison floor.
slowly, he picked up his battered body
painfully straightened his clothing and said,
'now, brethren, where did i leave off when i was interrupted?
he continued his gospel message!
i have seen beautiful things !
sometimes the preachers were laymen,
simple men inspired by the holy spirit
who often preached beautifully.
all of their heart was in their words,
for to preach under such punitive circumstances
was no trifling matter.
then the guards would come
and take the preacher out
and beat him half to death....
a total of 14 years in prison passed for me.
during all this time i never saw a bible or any other book.
i had forgotten how to write.
because of the starvation, drugging and tortures,
i had forgotten the Holy Scriptures.
but on the day that i fulfilled 14 years,
out of oblivion came into my mind the verse;
'so jacob served 7 years for rachel,
and they seemed but a few days to him
because of the love he had for her genesis 29.20.
very soon after this i was released through a general amnesty given in our country,
very much under the influence of american public opinion.
i saw my wife again.
she had waited faithfully for me for 14 years.
we began our new life in poverty,
because those who are arrested have everything taken from them.
the priests and pastors who were released
were allowed to have small churches.
a church in the town of orsova was given to me.
the communist department of cults told me
it had 35 members in it
and warned that must never have 36!
i was also told that i must be their agent
and report to the secret police on every member
and keep all youth away.
this is how the communists use churches as their 'tool' of control....
because of the renewed work of the underground church, i was in very great danger of still another arrest. at this time, two christian organizations, the orwegian mission to the jews and the hebrew christian alliance, paid the communist government a ransom of $10,000 for me..i could now leave romania.
i would not have left romania, despite the dangers,
if the leaders of the underground church had not
commanded me to use this opportunity to leave the country,
to be a 'voice' of the underground church to the free world.
they wished me to speak to you of the western world on their behalf
about their sufferings and needs.
i came to the west, but my heart remained with them...
before leaving romania, i was called twice to the secret police.
they told me that the money had been received for me. ..
they told me,
'go to the west and preach Christ as much as you like,
but don't touch us!
don't speak a word against us!
we tell you frankly what we plan for you if you do tell what happened.
first of all, for $1000 we can find a gangster to kill you,
or we can kidnap you...
we can also destroy you morally by spreading a story about you
with a girl, theft or some sin of your youth.
the westerners-
especially americans-
are very easily deceived...
so in december 1965, my family and i were allowed to leave romania.
my last deed before leaving was to go to the grave of the colonel
who had given the order for my arrest
and who had ordered my years of torture.
i placed a flower on his grave.
by doing this i dedicated myself to bringing
the joys that i have
to the communists who are so empty spiritually.
i hate the communist system
but i love men.
i hate the sin
but i love the sinner.
i love the communists with all of my heart.
communists can kill christians
but they cannot kill their love toward even those who killed them.
i have not the slightest bitterness or resentment...
if i were asked,
'are you for the communists or against them?
my answer would be a complex one.
communism is one of the greatest menaces to mankind.
i am utterly opposed to it and wish to fight it until it is overthrown.
but, in the spirit,
i am seated in heavenly places with Jesus.
i am seated in the sphere of the 'no',
in which, notwithstanding all of their crimes,
the communists are understood and loved...
st macary said,
'if a man loves all men passionately,
but says only about one man that
him he cannot love,
the man who says this is no more a christian,
because his love is not all embracing.
st. augustine teaches,
'if all mankind had been righteous and only one man a sinner,
Christ would have come..He so loves every individual....
a great part of my family was murdered.
it was in my own house that their murderer was converted.
it was also the most suitable place.
so in communist prisons thee idea of a
christian mission to the communists was born.
strategic thought is needed in missionary work.
from the point of view of salvation,
all souls are equal;
from the point of view of missionary strategy,
they are not equal.
it is more important to win a man of great influence,
who can afterward win thousands,
than to speak to a savage in the jungle assuring salvation only for him.
(note: is this right?)
therefore, Jesus chose to end His ministry
not in some small village,
but in jerusalem, the spiritual headquarters of the world.
for this same reason,
paul strove so much to arrive in rome....
the early church worked secretly and illegally,
and it triumphed.
we must learn again to work in the same manner.
until the communist era, i never understood why so many persons of the new testament
are called by nicknames:
simeon who was called niger,
john called mark and so on.
we continue to use secret names in our work in captive nations....
A MAN REALLY BELIEVES NOT WHAT HE RECITES IN HIS CREED,
BUT ONLY THE THINGS HE IS READY TO DIE FOR.
the christians of the underground church have proved
that they are ready to die for their faith.
our international network of missions continues today
with a secret work in captive nations
that can mean for them
imprisonment, torture, and death
if caught in such a country...
but the worst thing communists do is not that they torture and kill the bodies of men.
they hopelessly falsify the thoughts of men and poison the youth and the children...
..many christians i the west have no love for those in captive nations..
many have no mission to captive nations,
claiming that such work is 'against the law'!...
..by their complacency,
by their neglect,
and sometimes by acting as actual accomplices,
some western church leaders strengthen the infidels in their infidelity.
they help the communists to intrude into western churches
and to win leadership in the churches of the world.
they help christians remain unaware of the danger of communism...
..they do not love their own flocks..
if they do not allow them to participate in
this spiritual battle around the world...
when i was reunited with my wife after my release from prison,
she asked me what my plans were for the future.
i answered,
'the ideal that i have before me is the life of a spiritual recluse.
my wife answered that she had had the same thought.
i had been a very dynamic type in my youth.
but prison, and especially the years of solitary confinement,
had transformed me into a meditative, contemplative man.
all the storms in the heart had been stilled.
i did not mind communism;
i did not even notice it.
i was in the embraces of the heavenly bridegoom.
i prayed for those who tormented us
and loved them with all of my heart.
i had very little hope of ever being released.
from time to time i wondered what i would do in case i were released.
i always considered that i would retire somewhere and continue the life
of sweet union in the desert with the heavenly bridegroom.
God is the Truth.
the bible is the truth about the Truth.
theology is the truth about the truth about the Truth.
christian people live in these many truths about the Truth,
and because of them, have not 'the Truth'.
hungry, beaten and drugged,
we had forgotten theology and the bible.
we had forgotten the truths about the Truth,
therefore we lived in 'the Truth'...
the desire to fight against somebody or something could not have been further from my mind.
i did not wish to fight any wars, even just wars...
but, from the very day of my release,
i was faced with aspects of communism more ugly
than all the tortures of my imprisonment had been.
one after the other i met great preachers and pastors of the different churches,
and even bishops,
who simply confessed with great sorrow
that they were informers for the secret police
against their own flocks.
i asked them if they were prepared to give up being informers,
even at the risk of being imprisoned themselves.
all answered 'no'.
and explained that it was not fear for their own persons that restrained them.
they told me of new developments in the churches,
things that did not exist before my arrest-
that to refuse to be an informer could mean the closing of a church....
..peasants from all over the country came to me,
and told me how the collectivization was being conducted.
they were now hungry slaves on their own former fields and vineyards.
they had no bread.
their children had no milk, no fruit-
and this in a country with natural riches that equal those of canaan of old.
brethren confessed to me that lenin's communist regime
had made thieves and liars of them all.
out of hunger they had to steal from what was originally their own field,
but now belonged to the collective.
then they had to lie to cover their theft.
workers spoke to me about the terror in the factories
and about an exploitation of work power..
intellectuals had to teach, against their inner convictions,
that there is no God.
the whole life and thought of one third of the world at that time
was destroyed or falsified,
as is still being done in restricted nations today...
everything was desperately false and ugly.
then i met the fighters of the underground church-
my comrades of long ago-
some of whom have remained uncaught
and others who have taken up the fight again
after having been released from prison.
they called on me to take up the fight with them.
i attended their secret meetings
at which they sang from hymnbooks written by hand.
i remembered st. anthony the great,
who had been in the desert for 39 years.
he had left the world altogether,
passing his whole life in fasting and prayer.
but when he heard about the fight
between st. athanasius and arius about the divinity of Christ,
he left the contemplative life and came to alexandria
to help the tuth to triumph.
i remembered st. bernard de clairvaux,
who was a monk high up in the mountains.
but he heart about the foolishness of the cursades,
about christians killing arabs and jews
and their brethren in faith of another confession,
to win an empty tomb.
he left his monastery
and stepped down from his heights
to preach against the crusades.
i decided to do what all christians have to do:
to follow the examples of Christ, the apostle paul, and the great saints,
to give up the thought of retiring and to take up the fight.
what kind of fight would it be? CONTINUED at II, 1.15.13
i was orphaned from the first years of life.
being brought up in a family in which no religion was recognized,
i received no religious education as a child.
as the result of a bitter childhood,
which included knowing poverty in the difficult years of world war I,
at age 14 i was as convinced an atheist as the communists are today.
i had read atheistic books,
and it was not just that i did not believe in God of Christ-
i hated these notions, considering them harmful for the human mind.
so i grew up in bitterness toward religion.
but as i understood afterward,
i had the grace to be one of the chosen of God for reasons that i don't understand.
these reasons had nothing to do with my character,
because my character was very bad.
although i was an atheist,
something unreasonable always attracted me to churches.
i found it difficult to pass a church without entering it.
however, i never understood what was happening in these churches.
i listened to the sermons,
but they didn't appeal to my heart.
i had an image of God
as a master whom i should have to obey.
i hated this wrong image of god that i had in my mind,
but i would have liked very much to know that a loving heart existed
somewhere in the center of this universe.
since i had known few of the joys of childhood and youth,
i longed that there should be a loving heart beating for me too.
i convinced myself that there was no god,
but i was sad that such a God of love did not exist.
once, in my inner spiritual conflict,
i entered a catholic church.
i saw people kneeling and saying something.
i thought,
i will kneel near them so i can hear what they say
and repeat the prayers to see if something happens.
they said a prayer to the holy virgin,
'hail mary, full of grace.
i repeated the words after them again and again;
i looked at the statue of the virgin mary,
but nothing happened.
i was very sad about it.
one day, being a very convinced atheist,
i prayed to god.
my prayer was something like this:
'God, i know surely that You do not exist.
but if perchance You exist, which i contest,
it is not my duty to believe in You;
it is Your duty to reveal Yourself to me.
i was an atheist, but atheism did not give peace to my heart.
during this time of inner turmoil,
an old carpenter in a village high up in the mountains of romania prayed like this;
'my God, i have served You on earth
and i wish to have my reward on earth as well as in heaven.
and my reward should be that i should not die before i bring a jew to Christ,
because Jesus was from the jewish people.
but i am poor, old, and sick.
i cannot go around and seek a jew.
in my village theree are none.
bring a few into my village
and i will do my best to bring him to Christ.
something irresistible drew me to that village.
i had no reason to go there.
romania has twelve thousand villages,
but i went to that one.
seeing i was a jew, the carpenter courted me
as never a beautiful girl had been courted.
he saw in me the answer to his prayer and gave me a bible to read.
i had read the bible out of cultural interest many times before.
but the bible he gave me was another kind of bible.
as he told me some time later,
he and his wife prayed together for hours
for my conversion and that of my wife.
the bible he gave me was written not so much in words,
but in flames of love fired by his prayers.
i could barely read it.
i could only weep over it,
comparing my bad life with the life of Jesus;
my impurity with His righteousness;
my hatred with His love-
and He accepted me as one of His own.
...out of remorse for being an atheist, i longed from the first day of my conversion to be able to witnesses to the russians.
..it was a dramatic, moving work.
i will never forget my first encounter with a russian prisoner, an engineer.
i asked him if he believed in God.
if he had said 'no', i would not have minded it much.
..but when i asked him this, he lifted his eyes toward me without understanding and said,
'i have no such military order to believe. if i have an order i will believe.
tears ran down my cheeks.
i felt my heart torn in pieces.
here stood before me a man whose mind was dead,
a man who had lost a great gift God has given to mankind
-his individuality.
...this was a typical russian after all these years of communist domination!
after the shock of seeing what communism had done to human beings,
i promised God that i would dedicate my life to these men,
to give them back their personalities
and to give them faith in God and Christ.
....once the communists came to power, they skillfully used the means of
seduction toward the church.
the language of love
and the language of seduction are the same.
the one who wishes for a wife
and the one who wishes her for only a night
both say the words,k
'I love you.
Jesus has told us to discern between
the language of seduction and the language of love,
and to know the wolves clad in sheepskin
from the real sheep.
unfortunately, when the communists came to power,
thousands of priests, pastors and ministers
did not know how to discern between the two voices.
the communists convened a congress of
all christian bodies in our parliament building.
there were 4000 priests, pastors and ministers of all denominations-
and these men of god chose joseph stalin as honorary president of this congress.
at the same time he was president of the
World Movement of the Godless
and a mass murderer of christians.
one after another,
bishops and pastors arose and declared
that communism and christianity are
fundamentally the same and could coexist.
one minister after another said words of praise toward communism
and assured the new government of the loyalty of the church.
my wife and i were present at this congress.
sabina told me,
'Richard, stand up and wash away this shame from the face of Christ!
they are spitting in His face.
i said to her,
'if i do so, you lose your husband.
she replied,
'i don't wish to have a coward as a husband.
then i arose and spoke to this congress,
praising not the murderers of christians,
but Jesus Christ,
stating that our loyalty is due first to Him.
the speeches at this congress were broadcast
and the whole country could hear proclaimed
from the rostrum of the communist parliament
the message of Christ!
afterward i had to pay for this,
but it was worthwhile.
orthodox and protestant church leaders competed with each other
in yielding to communism.
and orthodox bishop but the hammer and sickle on his robes
and asked his priests to no longer call him
'Your Grace, but 'Comrade Bishop.
priest like patrascoiu and rosianu were more direct.
they became officers of the secret police.
rapp, deputy bishop of the lutheran church in romania,
began to teach in the theological seminary
that God had given three revelations;
one through moses,
one through Jesus,
and the third through stalin,
the last superseding the one before.
i attended the congress of the baptists in the town of resita-
a congress under the red flag,
where the anthem of the soviet union had been sung with everyone standing.
the president of the baptists praised stalin
as a great teacher of the bible
and proclaimed that stalin did nothing but fulfill
the commandments of God!
....together with others, i began an underground work.
outwardly i had a very respectable position-
pastor of the norwegian lutheran mission-
that served as a cove for my real underground work.
at the same time i represented the
world council of churches in romania.
(in romania we had not the slightest idea that this organization
would ever cooperate with the communists.
at that time in our country
it did nothing but relief work.)...
there were two aspects of this underground work.
the first was our secret ministry among russian soldiers.
the second aspect was our underground work with the enslaved peoples of romania.
for me to preach the gospel to the russians
is heaven on earth.
i have preached the gospel to men of many nations,
but i have never seen a people drink in the gospel like the russians .
they have such thirsty souls.
and orthodox priest,
a friend of mine,
telephoned me
and told me that a russian officer had come to him to confess.
my friend did not know russian...
i read (the man) the sermon on the mount and the parables of Jesus.
after hearing them,
he danced around the room in rapturous joy
proclaiming, 'what a wonderful beauty!
how could i live without knowing this Christ!
it was the first time that i saw someone
so joyful in Christ.
then i made a mistake.
i read to him the passion and crucifixion of Christ,
without having prepared him for this.
he had not expected it and,
when he heard how Christ was beaten,
how He was crucified and that in the end He died,
he fell into an armchair
and began to weep bitterly.
he had believed in a savior
and now his savior was dead!
i looked at him
and was ashamed.
i had called myself
a christian, a pastor and a teacher of others,
but i had never shared the sufferings of Christ
as this russian officer now shared them.
looking at him,
it was like seeing mary magdalene
weeping at the foot of the cross,
faithfully weeping when Jesus was a
corpse in the tomb.
then i read to him the story of the resurrection
and watched his expression change.
he had not known that his savior
arose from the tomb.
when he hear this wonderful news,
he beat his knees and swore-
using very dirty,
but very 'holy' profanity.
this was his crude manner of speech.
again he rejoiced,
shouting for joy,
'He is alive! He is alive!
he danced around the room once more,
overwhelmed with happiness!
i said to him,
'let us pray!
he did not know how to pray.
he did not know our 'holy'phrases.
he fell on his knees together with me
and his words of prayer were:
'Oh God,
what a fine chap you are!
if I were You
and You were me,
i would never have forgiven You of Your sins.
but You are really a very nice chap!
i love You with all of my heart.....
we worked among the russians not only by individual witnessing.
we were able to work in small group meetings as well.
the russians were very fond of watches.
they stole watches from everyone.
they would stop people on the street
and demand that they hand them over.
we would see russians with several watches on each arem,
and russian women officers with alarm clocks hanging around their necks.
they had never had watches before
and could not get enough of them.
romanians who wished to have a watch
had to go to the barracks of the soviet army to buy a stolen one,
often buying back their own watch.
so it was common for romanians to enter the russian barracks.
the underground church also used that pretext-\
of purchasing watches from them-
to give us entrance into their barracks.
the first time i ;preached in a russian barrack
was on the day of st. paul and st. peter, an orthodox feast.
i went onto the military base pretending to buy a watch.
i pretended that one was too expensive,
another was too small,
and another too big.
several soldiers crowded around me,
each offering me something to buy.
jokingly i asked them,
'are any of you named paul or peter?
(some of the older russians knew it.)
so i asked,
'do you know who paul and peter were?
no one knew,
so i began to tell them about paul and peter.
one of the older russian soldiers interrupted me and said,
'you have not come to buy watches.
you have come to tell us about the faith.
sit down here with us and speak to us!
but be very careful!
we know about whom to beware.
these around me are all good men,
but when i put my hand on your knee,
you must talk only about watches.
when i remove my hand,
you may begin your message again.
quite a great crowd of men was gathered around me and i told them...
the underground church met secretly
in homes, in the woods, in basements-
wherever it could.
as is true in many captive nations today,
the underground church in romania
was only partially underground.
like an iceberg,
a small part of its work was in the open.
under the communists,
we devised a plan of street preaching,
which in time became very risky,
but by this means we reached many souls
we could not reach otherwise.
my wife was very active in this.
some christians would quietly gather on a street corner
and star to sing.
people crowded around them to hear the beautiful singing,
then my wife would deliver her message.
we left the spot before the secret police arrived.
one afternoon, while i was active elsewhere,
my wife delivered a message
before thousands of workers
at the entrance of the great MALAXA factory in the city of bucharest.
she spoke to the workers about God and salvation.
the next day,
many of the workers in this factory
were shot after rebelling against
the injustices of the communists.
they had heard the message just in time1
the secret police greatly persecuted the underground church,
because they recognized in it the only effective resistance left.
it was just the kind of resistance
(a spiritual resistance)
that, if left unhindered,
would undermine their atheistic power.
they recognized,
as only the devil can,
an immediate threat to them.
THEY KNEW THAT IF A MAN BELIEVED IN CHRIST,
HE WOULD NEVER BE A MINDLESS, WILLING SUBJECT.
THEY KNEW THEY COULD IMPRISON THE PHYSICAL BODY,
BUT THEY COULDN'T IMPRISON A MAN'S SPIRIT-
HIS FAITH IN GOD.
and so they fought very hard.
but the underground church also has its sympathizers or members
even in the communist governments
and in the secret police.
we instructed christian to join the secret police
and put on the most hated and despised uniform in our country,
so they could report the activities of the secret police
to the underground church.
several brethren of the..church did this,
keeping their faith hidden.
it was difficult for them
to be despised by family and friends
for wearing the communist uniform
and not reveal their true mission.
yet they did,
so great was their love for Christ....
i worked in both an official and underground manner until february 29, 1948.
on that beautiful sunday, on my way to church,
i was kidnapped from the street by the secret police....
christians were hung upside down on ropes
and beaten so severely that their bodies swung back and forth
under the blows.
christians were also placed in ice box 'refrigerator cells',
which were so cold that frost and ice covered the inside.
i was thrown into one while i had very little clothing on.
prison doctors would watch through an opening
until they saw symptoms of freezing to death,
then they would give a signal
and guards would rush in to take us out
and make us warm.
when we were finally warmed,
we would immediately be put back
into the ice box cells to freeze..
thawing out,
then freezing to within minutes of death,
then being thawed out-
over and over again!
even today there are times when i can't bear to open a refrigerator.
we christians were sometimes forced to stand
in wooden boxes only slightly larger than we were.
this left no room to move.
dozens of sharp nails were driven into every side of the box,
with their razor sharp points sticking through the wood.
while we stood perfectly still,
it was all right.
but we were forced to stand in these boxes for endless hours;
when we became fatigued and swayed with tiredness,
the nails would pierce our bodies.
if we moved or twitched a muscle-
there were the horrible nails....
..i have passed through brainwashing myself.
it is a most horrible torture.
we haqd to sit for 17 hours a day-
for weeks, months and years-
hearing
communism is good!
communism is good!
communism is good!
christianity is stupid!
christianity is stupid!
christianity is stupid!
give up!
give up!
give up!
several christians have asked me
how we could resist brainwashing.
there is only one method of resistance to brainwashing;
it is 'heart washing'.
if the heart is cleansed by the love of Jesus Christ,
and if the heart loves Him,
one can resist all tortures.
what would a loving bride not do for a loving bridegroom?
what would a loving mother not do for her child?
if you love Christ as mary did, who had Christ as a baby in her arms,
if you love Jesus as a bride loves her bridegoom,
then you can resist such tortures....
the year 1956 arrived.
i had been in prison eight and a half years.
i had lost much weight,
gained ugly scars,
been brutally beaten and kicked,
derided, starved, pressured, questioned
as nauseum,
threatened and neglected.
none of this had produced the results
my captors were seeking.
so, in discouragement-
and amid protests over my imprisonment-
they turned me loose.
i was allowed to return to my old position as pastor
for just one week.
i preached two sermons.
then they called me in and told me
that i could not preach anymore,
nor engage in any further religious activity.
what had i said?
i had counseled my parishioners to
have 'patience, patience and more patience.
'this means you are telling them to be patient
and the americans will come and deliver them,
the police shouted at me.
i had also said that the wheel turns and times change.
'you are telling them the communists will not continue to rule!
these are counterrevolutionary lies! hey screamed.
so that was the end of my public ministry.
probably the authorities believed that i would be afraid to defy them
and continue with underground witnessing.
that was where they were wrong.
secretly,
and with my family's support,
i returned to the work i had been doing before...
my second imprisonment...
it was strictly forbidden to preach to other prisoners,
as it is in captive nations today.
it was understood that whoever was caught doing this
received a severe eating.
a number of us decided to pay the price
for the privilege of preaching
and they beat us.
WE WERE HAPPY PREACHING;
THEY WERE HAPPY BEATING US-
SO EVERYONE WAS HAPPY.
the following scene happened more times than i can remember.
a brother was preaching to the other prisoners
when thee guards suddenly burst in,
surprising him halfway through a phrase.
they hauled him down the corridor to their 'beating room'.
after what seemed an endless beating,
they brought him back and threw him-
bloody and bruised-
on the prison floor.
slowly, he picked up his battered body
painfully straightened his clothing and said,
'now, brethren, where did i leave off when i was interrupted?
he continued his gospel message!
i have seen beautiful things !
sometimes the preachers were laymen,
simple men inspired by the holy spirit
who often preached beautifully.
all of their heart was in their words,
for to preach under such punitive circumstances
was no trifling matter.
then the guards would come
and take the preacher out
and beat him half to death....
a total of 14 years in prison passed for me.
during all this time i never saw a bible or any other book.
i had forgotten how to write.
because of the starvation, drugging and tortures,
i had forgotten the Holy Scriptures.
but on the day that i fulfilled 14 years,
out of oblivion came into my mind the verse;
'so jacob served 7 years for rachel,
and they seemed but a few days to him
because of the love he had for her genesis 29.20.
very soon after this i was released through a general amnesty given in our country,
very much under the influence of american public opinion.
i saw my wife again.
she had waited faithfully for me for 14 years.
we began our new life in poverty,
because those who are arrested have everything taken from them.
the priests and pastors who were released
were allowed to have small churches.
a church in the town of orsova was given to me.
the communist department of cults told me
it had 35 members in it
and warned that must never have 36!
i was also told that i must be their agent
and report to the secret police on every member
and keep all youth away.
this is how the communists use churches as their 'tool' of control....
because of the renewed work of the underground church, i was in very great danger of still another arrest. at this time, two christian organizations, the orwegian mission to the jews and the hebrew christian alliance, paid the communist government a ransom of $10,000 for me..i could now leave romania.
i would not have left romania, despite the dangers,
if the leaders of the underground church had not
commanded me to use this opportunity to leave the country,
to be a 'voice' of the underground church to the free world.
they wished me to speak to you of the western world on their behalf
about their sufferings and needs.
i came to the west, but my heart remained with them...
before leaving romania, i was called twice to the secret police.
they told me that the money had been received for me. ..
they told me,
'go to the west and preach Christ as much as you like,
but don't touch us!
don't speak a word against us!
we tell you frankly what we plan for you if you do tell what happened.
first of all, for $1000 we can find a gangster to kill you,
or we can kidnap you...
we can also destroy you morally by spreading a story about you
with a girl, theft or some sin of your youth.
the westerners-
especially americans-
are very easily deceived...
so in december 1965, my family and i were allowed to leave romania.
my last deed before leaving was to go to the grave of the colonel
who had given the order for my arrest
and who had ordered my years of torture.
i placed a flower on his grave.
by doing this i dedicated myself to bringing
the joys that i have
to the communists who are so empty spiritually.
i hate the communist system
but i love men.
i hate the sin
but i love the sinner.
i love the communists with all of my heart.
communists can kill christians
but they cannot kill their love toward even those who killed them.
i have not the slightest bitterness or resentment...
if i were asked,
'are you for the communists or against them?
my answer would be a complex one.
communism is one of the greatest menaces to mankind.
i am utterly opposed to it and wish to fight it until it is overthrown.
but, in the spirit,
i am seated in heavenly places with Jesus.
i am seated in the sphere of the 'no',
in which, notwithstanding all of their crimes,
the communists are understood and loved...
st macary said,
'if a man loves all men passionately,
but says only about one man that
him he cannot love,
the man who says this is no more a christian,
because his love is not all embracing.
st. augustine teaches,
'if all mankind had been righteous and only one man a sinner,
Christ would have come..He so loves every individual....
a great part of my family was murdered.
it was in my own house that their murderer was converted.
it was also the most suitable place.
so in communist prisons thee idea of a
christian mission to the communists was born.
strategic thought is needed in missionary work.
from the point of view of salvation,
all souls are equal;
from the point of view of missionary strategy,
they are not equal.
it is more important to win a man of great influence,
who can afterward win thousands,
than to speak to a savage in the jungle assuring salvation only for him.
(note: is this right?)
therefore, Jesus chose to end His ministry
not in some small village,
but in jerusalem, the spiritual headquarters of the world.
for this same reason,
paul strove so much to arrive in rome....
the early church worked secretly and illegally,
and it triumphed.
we must learn again to work in the same manner.
until the communist era, i never understood why so many persons of the new testament
are called by nicknames:
simeon who was called niger,
john called mark and so on.
we continue to use secret names in our work in captive nations....
A MAN REALLY BELIEVES NOT WHAT HE RECITES IN HIS CREED,
BUT ONLY THE THINGS HE IS READY TO DIE FOR.
the christians of the underground church have proved
that they are ready to die for their faith.
our international network of missions continues today
with a secret work in captive nations
that can mean for them
imprisonment, torture, and death
if caught in such a country...
but the worst thing communists do is not that they torture and kill the bodies of men.
they hopelessly falsify the thoughts of men and poison the youth and the children...
..many christians i the west have no love for those in captive nations..
many have no mission to captive nations,
claiming that such work is 'against the law'!...
..by their complacency,
by their neglect,
and sometimes by acting as actual accomplices,
some western church leaders strengthen the infidels in their infidelity.
they help the communists to intrude into western churches
and to win leadership in the churches of the world.
they help christians remain unaware of the danger of communism...
..they do not love their own flocks..
if they do not allow them to participate in
this spiritual battle around the world...
when i was reunited with my wife after my release from prison,
she asked me what my plans were for the future.
i answered,
'the ideal that i have before me is the life of a spiritual recluse.
my wife answered that she had had the same thought.
i had been a very dynamic type in my youth.
but prison, and especially the years of solitary confinement,
had transformed me into a meditative, contemplative man.
all the storms in the heart had been stilled.
i did not mind communism;
i did not even notice it.
i was in the embraces of the heavenly bridegoom.
i prayed for those who tormented us
and loved them with all of my heart.
i had very little hope of ever being released.
from time to time i wondered what i would do in case i were released.
i always considered that i would retire somewhere and continue the life
of sweet union in the desert with the heavenly bridegroom.
God is the Truth.
the bible is the truth about the Truth.
theology is the truth about the truth about the Truth.
christian people live in these many truths about the Truth,
and because of them, have not 'the Truth'.
hungry, beaten and drugged,
we had forgotten theology and the bible.
we had forgotten the truths about the Truth,
therefore we lived in 'the Truth'...
the desire to fight against somebody or something could not have been further from my mind.
i did not wish to fight any wars, even just wars...
but, from the very day of my release,
i was faced with aspects of communism more ugly
than all the tortures of my imprisonment had been.
one after the other i met great preachers and pastors of the different churches,
and even bishops,
who simply confessed with great sorrow
that they were informers for the secret police
against their own flocks.
i asked them if they were prepared to give up being informers,
even at the risk of being imprisoned themselves.
all answered 'no'.
and explained that it was not fear for their own persons that restrained them.
they told me of new developments in the churches,
things that did not exist before my arrest-
that to refuse to be an informer could mean the closing of a church....
..peasants from all over the country came to me,
and told me how the collectivization was being conducted.
they were now hungry slaves on their own former fields and vineyards.
they had no bread.
their children had no milk, no fruit-
and this in a country with natural riches that equal those of canaan of old.
brethren confessed to me that lenin's communist regime
had made thieves and liars of them all.
out of hunger they had to steal from what was originally their own field,
but now belonged to the collective.
then they had to lie to cover their theft.
workers spoke to me about the terror in the factories
and about an exploitation of work power..
intellectuals had to teach, against their inner convictions,
that there is no God.
the whole life and thought of one third of the world at that time
was destroyed or falsified,
as is still being done in restricted nations today...
everything was desperately false and ugly.
then i met the fighters of the underground church-
my comrades of long ago-
some of whom have remained uncaught
and others who have taken up the fight again
after having been released from prison.
they called on me to take up the fight with them.
i attended their secret meetings
at which they sang from hymnbooks written by hand.
i remembered st. anthony the great,
who had been in the desert for 39 years.
he had left the world altogether,
passing his whole life in fasting and prayer.
but when he heard about the fight
between st. athanasius and arius about the divinity of Christ,
he left the contemplative life and came to alexandria
to help the tuth to triumph.
i remembered st. bernard de clairvaux,
who was a monk high up in the mountains.
but he heart about the foolishness of the cursades,
about christians killing arabs and jews
and their brethren in faith of another confession,
to win an empty tomb.
he left his monastery
and stepped down from his heights
to preach against the crusades.
i decided to do what all christians have to do:
to follow the examples of Christ, the apostle paul, and the great saints,
to give up the thought of retiring and to take up the fight.
what kind of fight would it be? CONTINUED at II, 1.15.13
Friday, December 14, 2012
12.14.2012 PSALM 119.126-8
taken from spurgeon's treasury of david. the focus is most all on the first verse but i added the last two of this group of eight verses for i received such a blessing from this simple thought:
if when 'it is time for the lord to work
i myself set myself to
Love His commandments above all else in life
esteem everything He says to be right and
hate everything He says is wrong
can it not be said that maybe it is possible
for a sinner to, in this way, assist God in some small way in His work..
to slip into His easy yoke and as we work together to learn more sweetly of Him?
126 it is time for Thee, Lord, to work:
for they have made void Thy law.
127therefore i love Thy commandments above gold;
yea, above fine gold.
128 therefore i esteem all Thy precepts concerning all things
to be right;
and i hate every false way.
david was a servant, and therefore,
it was always his time to work;
but being oppressed by a sight of man's ungodly behavior,
he feels that his master's hand is wanted,
and therefore He appeals to Him to work
against the working of evil.
men make void the law of God by denying it to be His law,
by promulgating commands and doctrines in opposition to it,
by setting up tradition in its place,
or by utterly disregarding and scorning the authority of the lawgiver.
then sin becomes fashionable,
and a holy walk is regarded as contemptible puritanism;
vice is styled pleasure,
and vanity bears the bell.
then the saints sigh for the presence and power of their God;
o for an hour of the King upon the throne and the rod of iron!
oh for another pentecost with all its wonders,
to reveal the energy of god to gainsayers,
and to make them see that there is a God in Israel!
man's extremity, whether of need or sin, is God's opportunity.
when the earth was without form and void,
the Spirit came and moved upon the face of the waters;
should He not come when society is returning to a like chaos?
when israel in egypt were reduced to the lowest point,
and it seemed that the covenant would be void,
then moses appeared and wrought mighty miracles;
so, too, when the church of god is trampled down,
and her message is derided,
we may expect to see the hand of the lord
stretched out for revival of religion,
the defense of the truth,
and the glorifying of the divine name.
the Lord can work either by judgments which hurl down the ramparts of the foe;
or by revivals which build up the walls of his own jerusalem.
how heartily may we pray to the Lord to raise up new evangelists,
to quicken those we already have,
to set His whole church on fire
and to bring the whole world to His feet.
God's work is ever honourable and glorious;
as for our work, it is as nothing apart from Him. spurgeon
v126 'it is time for Thee, Lord, to work'
was ever vessel more hopelessly becalmed in mid ocean?
or did crew ever cry with more frenzy for some favouring breeze
than those should cry who man the church of the living God?
if God work not,
it is certain there is nothing before the church
but the prospect of utter discomfiture and overthrow.
greater is the world than the church
if God be not in her.
but if God be in her,
she shall not be moved.
may He help her and that right early!
when He arises to work we know not what may be the form and fashion of His operations.
He worketh according to the counsel of His own will;
and who knows but that when once he awakes,
and puts on His strength,
it may not be confined in its results to the
immediate and exclusive quickening of the spiritual life of the church.;
but may be associated with providential upheavals and convulsions
which will fill the heart of the world with astonishment and dismay.
His spiritual kingdom does not stand in isolation.
it has relations which closely involve it with the material universe,
and with human society and national life.
there have been times when God has worked,
and the signs of His presence have been seen,
in terrible shakings of the nations,
int the ploughing up from their foundations of hoary injustice,
in the smiting of grinding tyrannies,
and in the emancipation of peoples
whose life had been a long and hopeless moan.
there have been times, too, and many,
when He has worked through the elements of nature-
through blasting and mildew,
through floods and famine,
through locust, caterpillar and palmer worm;
through flagging commerce,
with its machinery rusting in the mill
and its ships rotting in the harbour.
all these things are His servants.
sometimes the sleep of the world and the church
is so profound that it can be broken only by agencies like
the wind,or fire, or earthquake,
which made the prophet shiver at the mouth of the cave
and without which the voice that followed,
so small and tender,
would have lost much of its melting and subduing power.
when society has become drugged with the circean cup of worldliness
and the voices that come from eternity are unheeded, if not unheard,
even terror has its merciful mission.
the frivolous and superficial hearts of men have to be made serious,
their idols have to be broken,
their nests have to be stoned
or tossed from the trees
where they have to be taught
that if this life be all,
it is but a phantom
and a mockery.
when the day of the Lord shall come,
in which He shall begin to work,
let us not marvel if it
'shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty,
and upon all the cedars of lebanon, that are high and lifted up,
and upon every high tower,
and upon every fenced wall,
and upon all the ships of tarshish,
and upon all pleasant pictures.
and the loftiness of man shall be bowed down,
and the haughtiness of men shall be made low;
and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
but this working of God will also take other shapes.
will it not be seen in the inspiration of the church with faith in its own creed,
so far as that creed has the warrant of the divine
if when 'it is time for the lord to work
i myself set myself to
Love His commandments above all else in life
esteem everything He says to be right and
hate everything He says is wrong
can it not be said that maybe it is possible
for a sinner to, in this way, assist God in some small way in His work..
to slip into His easy yoke and as we work together to learn more sweetly of Him?
126 it is time for Thee, Lord, to work:
for they have made void Thy law.
127therefore i love Thy commandments above gold;
yea, above fine gold.
128 therefore i esteem all Thy precepts concerning all things
to be right;
and i hate every false way.
david was a servant, and therefore,
it was always his time to work;
but being oppressed by a sight of man's ungodly behavior,
he feels that his master's hand is wanted,
and therefore He appeals to Him to work
against the working of evil.
men make void the law of God by denying it to be His law,
by promulgating commands and doctrines in opposition to it,
by setting up tradition in its place,
or by utterly disregarding and scorning the authority of the lawgiver.
then sin becomes fashionable,
and a holy walk is regarded as contemptible puritanism;
vice is styled pleasure,
and vanity bears the bell.
then the saints sigh for the presence and power of their God;
o for an hour of the King upon the throne and the rod of iron!
oh for another pentecost with all its wonders,
to reveal the energy of god to gainsayers,
and to make them see that there is a God in Israel!
man's extremity, whether of need or sin, is God's opportunity.
when the earth was without form and void,
the Spirit came and moved upon the face of the waters;
should He not come when society is returning to a like chaos?
when israel in egypt were reduced to the lowest point,
and it seemed that the covenant would be void,
then moses appeared and wrought mighty miracles;
so, too, when the church of god is trampled down,
and her message is derided,
we may expect to see the hand of the lord
stretched out for revival of religion,
the defense of the truth,
and the glorifying of the divine name.
the Lord can work either by judgments which hurl down the ramparts of the foe;
or by revivals which build up the walls of his own jerusalem.
how heartily may we pray to the Lord to raise up new evangelists,
to quicken those we already have,
to set His whole church on fire
and to bring the whole world to His feet.
God's work is ever honourable and glorious;
as for our work, it is as nothing apart from Him. spurgeon
v126 'it is time for Thee, Lord, to work'
was ever vessel more hopelessly becalmed in mid ocean?
or did crew ever cry with more frenzy for some favouring breeze
than those should cry who man the church of the living God?
if God work not,
it is certain there is nothing before the church
but the prospect of utter discomfiture and overthrow.
greater is the world than the church
if God be not in her.
but if God be in her,
she shall not be moved.
may He help her and that right early!
when He arises to work we know not what may be the form and fashion of His operations.
He worketh according to the counsel of His own will;
and who knows but that when once he awakes,
and puts on His strength,
it may not be confined in its results to the
immediate and exclusive quickening of the spiritual life of the church.;
but may be associated with providential upheavals and convulsions
which will fill the heart of the world with astonishment and dismay.
His spiritual kingdom does not stand in isolation.
it has relations which closely involve it with the material universe,
and with human society and national life.
there have been times when God has worked,
and the signs of His presence have been seen,
in terrible shakings of the nations,
int the ploughing up from their foundations of hoary injustice,
in the smiting of grinding tyrannies,
and in the emancipation of peoples
whose life had been a long and hopeless moan.
there have been times, too, and many,
when He has worked through the elements of nature-
through blasting and mildew,
through floods and famine,
through locust, caterpillar and palmer worm;
through flagging commerce,
with its machinery rusting in the mill
and its ships rotting in the harbour.
all these things are His servants.
sometimes the sleep of the world and the church
is so profound that it can be broken only by agencies like
the wind,or fire, or earthquake,
which made the prophet shiver at the mouth of the cave
and without which the voice that followed,
so small and tender,
would have lost much of its melting and subduing power.
when society has become drugged with the circean cup of worldliness
and the voices that come from eternity are unheeded, if not unheard,
even terror has its merciful mission.
the frivolous and superficial hearts of men have to be made serious,
their idols have to be broken,
their nests have to be stoned
or tossed from the trees
where they have to be taught
that if this life be all,
it is but a phantom
and a mockery.
when the day of the Lord shall come,
in which He shall begin to work,
let us not marvel if it
'shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty,
and upon all the cedars of lebanon, that are high and lifted up,
and upon every high tower,
and upon every fenced wall,
and upon all the ships of tarshish,
and upon all pleasant pictures.
and the loftiness of man shall be bowed down,
and the haughtiness of men shall be made low;
and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
but this working of God will also take other shapes.
will it not be seen in the inspiration of the church with faith in its own creed,
so far as that creed has the warrant of the divine
12.14.2012 CONSECRATION VI
'little children, guard yourselves from idols' I john 5.21
this week has been a war against the idol 'ray'.
this is not a person,
for we wrestle not against flesh and blood
but against rulers,
against the powers,
against the world forces of this darkness,
against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places (ephesians 6.12).
it is a 'golden lie'.
it is the temptation to trust something other that God alone.
this last week i have been largely without conscious prayer.
it is like someone flicked a switch.
yet i am not abandoned for God says, '..be content...for He Himself has said,
'I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you'. hebrews 13.5
Hallelujah.
I. decided to go through another section of psalm 119 starting out this morning.
came to vs. 126-8 and could not understand them.
to that point i had gotten nothing.
finally, decided to read spurgeon's treasury of david on this section.
126 'it is time for the Lord to act.
for they have broken Thy law.
127 THEREFORE i love Thy commandments
above gold, yes, above fine gold.
128 THEREFORE i esteem right all Thy precepts concerning everything,
i hate every false way.'
2. the words 'it is time for the Lord to act' v126
became connected with the 'therefore' in v127
(and later, with the 'therefore' in v128).
times were bad.
men were being wicked.
rather than wilt, rather than judge and condemn, rather than fear,
the psalmist decided to take a new resolve:
to be openly and unashamedly and completely on the side of God and His word.
-i LOVE Thy commandments above all else. not only that,
-i esteem RIGHT
ALL Thy precepts
concerning EVERYTHING.
-i HATE EVERY false way.
as a good example always does much to encouraged another,
i was duly encouraged by David's heart choices here
and make the same choices as he.
3. then i turned to my reading of ezekiel SLOWLY AND PRAYERFULLY.
(what are You saying to me Lord?)
today's portion was to be chapters 26-8.
i got to 27.19 (more tonight when i go home)
the three chapters are talking about God's judgment of tyre, a renowned, busy seaport just north of israel.
my mind kept pointing me back to
26.5 'she (tyre) will be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea..
and she will become spoil for the nations.
and v14 'and I will make you (tyre) a bare rock;
you will be a place for the spreading of nets.
you will be build no more..'
my mind focused on NO MORE. (i have heard that it is still a bare rock)
then i remembered that the Lord had prophesied some similar things that He would do to babylon.
i found them in the book of jeremiah.
25.12 'then it will be when 70 years are completed
(the jews exiled to babylon were released 70 years after arriving there)
I will punish the king of babylon and that nation for their iniquity
(they were destroyed by the medes and the persians)
and the land of the of the chaldeans (babylonians)
and i will make it an EVERLASTING DEVASTATION.
(the site on which babylon stood is still wasteland)
50.39f 'therefore the desert creatures will live there along with the jackals;
the ostriches also will live in it,
and it will NEVER AGAIN BE INHABITED
or dwelt in from generation to generation
as when God overthrew sodom and gomorrah with its neighbors..
no man will live there,
nor will any son of man reside in it.
then i happened to notice the reason given by God for His judgment of babylon
jeremiah 51.7 babylon has been a golden cup in the hand of the Lord
intoxicating all the earth.
the nations have drunk of her wine;
therefore the nations are going mad.
i thought of america where i live, constantly, polluting the whole world with immorality, greed, genocide and war...
i thought of how little i have done because i will not sell out completely to obey God (like david talked of)...and live openly, unashamedly, completely obedient to His words.
i looked back at the reason given by God for His judgment of tyre. in eze. 26.2 He said to ezekiel,
'son of man, because tyre has said concerning jerusalem,
'aha, the gateway of the peoples is broken;
it has opened to me.
i shall be filled,
now that she is laid waste.
i thought of how i assiduously
(constant, unrelenting)
earthly ease and security for myself while untold people around me are a breath away from hell.
why should not i be eternally condemned for focus on self with no real concern for those around me?
4. then i was struck by the vast difference between the above punishments and God's treatment of Israel and Judah in jeremiah 51.5,
'for neither israel nor judah has been forsaken
by his God, the Lord of hosts;
although their land is full of guilt
before the Holy One of israel.
5. at that point i remembered the word 'survivor' as applied to judah, currently under the judgment of God and decided to consult strong's concordance.
the hebrew verb, palet, in one form is used often of david in the psalms with the sense, 'trust (as a fugitive?), deliver (as a fugitive)'
(17.13; 18.2,43,48; 22.4,8; 31.1; 37.40; 40.17; 43.1; 71.2,4; 82.4; 91.14; 144.2)
and in another form is used with the idea of 'escaped one, fugitive'
the first occurrence is in judges where the tribe of benjamin was nearly annihilated by the other tribes. after the fight there were only 400 men left.
the elders of israel said,
'what shall we do for wives for those who are left, since the women are destroyed out of benjamin?
21.17 and they said, 'there must be an inheritance for the SURVIVORS of benjamin, that a tribe may not be blotted out from israel'.
in other words the word is used in the context of 'israel CANNOT perish (any tribe even).
the next is in II kings 19.31 where isaiah gives answer to hezekiah after God has heard his prayer for deliverance in the face of a massive, hostile assyrian army at the gates of jerusalem,
'and the surviving remnant of the house of judah shall again
take root downward and
bear fruit upward.
for out of jerusalem
shall go forth a remnant
and out of mount zion SURVIVORS.
the zeal of the Lord shall perform this. (recounted in isaiah 37.32)
v35f 'then it happened that night that the angel of the Lord went out, and struck 185,000 in the camp of the assyrians; and when men rose early in the morning, behold, all of them were dead. so sennacherib king of assyria departed and...as he was worshipping in the house of nisroch his god, that adrammelech and sharezer killed him with the sword...
next, isaiah 4.2,
'in that day the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious and the fruit of the earth will be the pride and the adornment of the SURVIVORS of israel.'
isaiah 66.18f 'for I know their works and their thoughts;
the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues.
and they shall come and see My glory.
and I will set a sign among them
and will send SURVIVORS from them to the nations..
to the distant coastlands that have neither heard my fame nor seen My glory.
and they will declare My glory to the nations.
then they shall bring all your brethren
from all the nations
as a grain offering to the Lord,
on horses, in chariots, in litters, on mules and on camels,
to My holy mountain Jerusalem....
ezekiel 7.15f (foretelling the destruction of jerusalem by babylon)
'the sword is outside and the plague and the famine are within.
he who is in the field will die by the sword;
famine and the plague will also consume those in the city.
even when their SURVIVORS escape,
they will be on the mountains like doves of the valleys,
ALL OF THE MOURNING
EACH OVER HIS OWN INIQUITY.
all hands will hang limp
and all knees will become like water.
and they will gird themselves with sackcloth,
and shuddering will overwhelm them;
and shame will be on all faces,
and baldness on all their heads.
and they shall fling their silver into the streets
and their gold shall become an abhorrent thing...
they cannot satisfy their appetite,
nor can they fill their stomachs,
for their iniquity has become an occasion of stumbling.
ezekiel 14.20f (foretelling the destruction of jerusalem by babylon)
even though noah, daniel, and job were in its midst..
they could not deliver either their son or their daughter.
they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness.
for thus says the Lord God,
how much more when I send My four severe judgments against jerusalem:
sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague to cut off man and beast from it!
YET, BEHOLD, SURVIVORS
will be left in it (!)
who will be brought out,
both sons and daughters.
behold they are going to come forth to you
(ezekiel and the jews in captivity in babylon)
and you will see their conduct and actions;
then you will be comforted for the calamity
which i have brought against jerusalem
for everything which I have brought upon it.
then they will comfort you
when you see their conduct and actions,
for you will know
that I have not done in vain
whatever i did to it,
declares the Lord God.
this amazing grace of God to the SURVIVORS, both at the past destruction of jerusalem by babylon and in the yet coming deliverance of jerusalem from a whole world gathered together to destroy her once for all..spoken of in the above passages,
is confirmed by the apostle paul in romans 11.25f,
'for i do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery,
lest you be wise in your own estimation,
that a partial hardening has happened to (racial) israel
until the fullness of the gentiles has come in
and thus ALL (SURVIVORS of racial) israel will be saved;
just as it is written,
'the deliverer will come from zion,
He will remove ungodliness from jacob.
and this is My covenant with them,
when I take away their sins.
...all one can say is AMAZING GRACE all around,
not one of the jews deserve it,
not one of the gentiles deserve it, especially me..
6.(i have continued to struggle mightily (it doesn't look mighty from within or without) against the subtle, seductive honied strains of the pied pip0eer in my mind promising PROVISION for my needs if i would just bow down and worship the god of 'ray'..if i would just give my life to, if i would just do what he says...)
then my mind went to the words of Jesus in luke 16 with 'many are those who enter' destruction (matthew 7.13) and 'many will seek to enter (the narrow door that leads to heaven) and will not be able' (luke 13.24) playing in my mind. help me come and die Lord!
luke 16.13 (Jesus speaking)
'no servant can serve two masters;
for either he will hate the one and love the other
or else he will hold to the one and despise the other.
you cannot serve God and mammon.
v14 now the pharisees,
who were lovers of money,
were listening to these things
and were scoffing at Him.
v15 and He said TO THEM,
'you are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men,
but God knows your hearts;
for that which is HIGHLY ESTEEMED among men
is DETESTABLE
bdelugma - arousing or meriting intense dislike;
in the sight of God.
V16 the law and the prophets were proclaimed until john (the baptist..just recently)
since then the gospel of the kingdom of God is preached,
and everyone is forcing his way into it.
v17 but it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away
than for one stroke
(a tiny projection from some of the hebrew letters that gave them their unique meaning)
of a letter of the law to fail.
everyone of us has a choice
to serve money and the things it buys
or to serve Jesus Christ.
what He commands He means.
not the smallest part of a letter,
let alone a word,
a sentence
or their meaning
will ever change.
i fear men too much.
men will do anything to avoid confronting their real need before God, crying out to Him and following Him faithfully to the consternation of other men. far better to fear God and see the stink of thinking the way most human beings think.
that means further ostracization and possibly more.
Lord, if i could only see clearly
and clearly covet only Your smile,
only to please You
though i be rejected by all me...
that is my desire...
back full circle to psalm 119.128..i HATE EVERY FALSE WAY.
(kjv for DETESTABLE reads AN ABOMINATION - HATED, loathed intensely)
then my thoughts turned to getting 54 fixed up and sold ASAP...oh Lord i come to You, the God of the impossible. so help me God...I WILL DO IT...
this week has been a war against the idol 'ray'.
this is not a person,
for we wrestle not against flesh and blood
but against rulers,
against the powers,
against the world forces of this darkness,
against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places (ephesians 6.12).
it is a 'golden lie'.
it is the temptation to trust something other that God alone.
this last week i have been largely without conscious prayer.
it is like someone flicked a switch.
yet i am not abandoned for God says, '..be content...for He Himself has said,
'I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you'. hebrews 13.5
Hallelujah.
I. decided to go through another section of psalm 119 starting out this morning.
came to vs. 126-8 and could not understand them.
to that point i had gotten nothing.
finally, decided to read spurgeon's treasury of david on this section.
126 'it is time for the Lord to act.
for they have broken Thy law.
127 THEREFORE i love Thy commandments
above gold, yes, above fine gold.
128 THEREFORE i esteem right all Thy precepts concerning everything,
i hate every false way.'
2. the words 'it is time for the Lord to act' v126
became connected with the 'therefore' in v127
(and later, with the 'therefore' in v128).
times were bad.
men were being wicked.
rather than wilt, rather than judge and condemn, rather than fear,
the psalmist decided to take a new resolve:
to be openly and unashamedly and completely on the side of God and His word.
-i LOVE Thy commandments above all else. not only that,
-i esteem RIGHT
ALL Thy precepts
concerning EVERYTHING.
-i HATE EVERY false way.
as a good example always does much to encouraged another,
i was duly encouraged by David's heart choices here
and make the same choices as he.
3. then i turned to my reading of ezekiel SLOWLY AND PRAYERFULLY.
(what are You saying to me Lord?)
today's portion was to be chapters 26-8.
i got to 27.19 (more tonight when i go home)
the three chapters are talking about God's judgment of tyre, a renowned, busy seaport just north of israel.
my mind kept pointing me back to
26.5 'she (tyre) will be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea..
and she will become spoil for the nations.
and v14 'and I will make you (tyre) a bare rock;
you will be a place for the spreading of nets.
you will be build no more..'
my mind focused on NO MORE. (i have heard that it is still a bare rock)
then i remembered that the Lord had prophesied some similar things that He would do to babylon.
i found them in the book of jeremiah.
25.12 'then it will be when 70 years are completed
(the jews exiled to babylon were released 70 years after arriving there)
I will punish the king of babylon and that nation for their iniquity
(they were destroyed by the medes and the persians)
and the land of the of the chaldeans (babylonians)
and i will make it an EVERLASTING DEVASTATION.
(the site on which babylon stood is still wasteland)
50.39f 'therefore the desert creatures will live there along with the jackals;
the ostriches also will live in it,
and it will NEVER AGAIN BE INHABITED
or dwelt in from generation to generation
as when God overthrew sodom and gomorrah with its neighbors..
no man will live there,
nor will any son of man reside in it.
then i happened to notice the reason given by God for His judgment of babylon
jeremiah 51.7 babylon has been a golden cup in the hand of the Lord
intoxicating all the earth.
the nations have drunk of her wine;
therefore the nations are going mad.
i thought of america where i live, constantly, polluting the whole world with immorality, greed, genocide and war...
i thought of how little i have done because i will not sell out completely to obey God (like david talked of)...and live openly, unashamedly, completely obedient to His words.
i looked back at the reason given by God for His judgment of tyre. in eze. 26.2 He said to ezekiel,
'son of man, because tyre has said concerning jerusalem,
'aha, the gateway of the peoples is broken;
it has opened to me.
i shall be filled,
now that she is laid waste.
i thought of how i assiduously
(constant, unrelenting)
earthly ease and security for myself while untold people around me are a breath away from hell.
why should not i be eternally condemned for focus on self with no real concern for those around me?
4. then i was struck by the vast difference between the above punishments and God's treatment of Israel and Judah in jeremiah 51.5,
'for neither israel nor judah has been forsaken
by his God, the Lord of hosts;
although their land is full of guilt
before the Holy One of israel.
5. at that point i remembered the word 'survivor' as applied to judah, currently under the judgment of God and decided to consult strong's concordance.
the hebrew verb, palet, in one form is used often of david in the psalms with the sense, 'trust (as a fugitive?), deliver (as a fugitive)'
(17.13; 18.2,43,48; 22.4,8; 31.1; 37.40; 40.17; 43.1; 71.2,4; 82.4; 91.14; 144.2)
and in another form is used with the idea of 'escaped one, fugitive'
the first occurrence is in judges where the tribe of benjamin was nearly annihilated by the other tribes. after the fight there were only 400 men left.
the elders of israel said,
'what shall we do for wives for those who are left, since the women are destroyed out of benjamin?
21.17 and they said, 'there must be an inheritance for the SURVIVORS of benjamin, that a tribe may not be blotted out from israel'.
in other words the word is used in the context of 'israel CANNOT perish (any tribe even).
the next is in II kings 19.31 where isaiah gives answer to hezekiah after God has heard his prayer for deliverance in the face of a massive, hostile assyrian army at the gates of jerusalem,
'and the surviving remnant of the house of judah shall again
take root downward and
bear fruit upward.
for out of jerusalem
shall go forth a remnant
and out of mount zion SURVIVORS.
the zeal of the Lord shall perform this. (recounted in isaiah 37.32)
v35f 'then it happened that night that the angel of the Lord went out, and struck 185,000 in the camp of the assyrians; and when men rose early in the morning, behold, all of them were dead. so sennacherib king of assyria departed and...as he was worshipping in the house of nisroch his god, that adrammelech and sharezer killed him with the sword...
next, isaiah 4.2,
'in that day the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious and the fruit of the earth will be the pride and the adornment of the SURVIVORS of israel.'
isaiah 66.18f 'for I know their works and their thoughts;
the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues.
and they shall come and see My glory.
and I will set a sign among them
and will send SURVIVORS from them to the nations..
to the distant coastlands that have neither heard my fame nor seen My glory.
and they will declare My glory to the nations.
then they shall bring all your brethren
from all the nations
as a grain offering to the Lord,
on horses, in chariots, in litters, on mules and on camels,
to My holy mountain Jerusalem....
ezekiel 7.15f (foretelling the destruction of jerusalem by babylon)
'the sword is outside and the plague and the famine are within.
he who is in the field will die by the sword;
famine and the plague will also consume those in the city.
even when their SURVIVORS escape,
they will be on the mountains like doves of the valleys,
ALL OF THE MOURNING
EACH OVER HIS OWN INIQUITY.
all hands will hang limp
and all knees will become like water.
and they will gird themselves with sackcloth,
and shuddering will overwhelm them;
and shame will be on all faces,
and baldness on all their heads.
and they shall fling their silver into the streets
and their gold shall become an abhorrent thing...
they cannot satisfy their appetite,
nor can they fill their stomachs,
for their iniquity has become an occasion of stumbling.
ezekiel 14.20f (foretelling the destruction of jerusalem by babylon)
even though noah, daniel, and job were in its midst..
they could not deliver either their son or their daughter.
they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness.
for thus says the Lord God,
how much more when I send My four severe judgments against jerusalem:
sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague to cut off man and beast from it!
YET, BEHOLD, SURVIVORS
will be left in it (!)
who will be brought out,
both sons and daughters.
behold they are going to come forth to you
(ezekiel and the jews in captivity in babylon)
and you will see their conduct and actions;
then you will be comforted for the calamity
which i have brought against jerusalem
for everything which I have brought upon it.
then they will comfort you
when you see their conduct and actions,
for you will know
that I have not done in vain
whatever i did to it,
declares the Lord God.
this amazing grace of God to the SURVIVORS, both at the past destruction of jerusalem by babylon and in the yet coming deliverance of jerusalem from a whole world gathered together to destroy her once for all..spoken of in the above passages,
is confirmed by the apostle paul in romans 11.25f,
'for i do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery,
lest you be wise in your own estimation,
that a partial hardening has happened to (racial) israel
until the fullness of the gentiles has come in
and thus ALL (SURVIVORS of racial) israel will be saved;
just as it is written,
'the deliverer will come from zion,
He will remove ungodliness from jacob.
and this is My covenant with them,
when I take away their sins.
...all one can say is AMAZING GRACE all around,
not one of the jews deserve it,
not one of the gentiles deserve it, especially me..
6.(i have continued to struggle mightily (it doesn't look mighty from within or without) against the subtle, seductive honied strains of the pied pip0eer in my mind promising PROVISION for my needs if i would just bow down and worship the god of 'ray'..if i would just give my life to, if i would just do what he says...)
then my mind went to the words of Jesus in luke 16 with 'many are those who enter' destruction (matthew 7.13) and 'many will seek to enter (the narrow door that leads to heaven) and will not be able' (luke 13.24) playing in my mind. help me come and die Lord!
luke 16.13 (Jesus speaking)
'no servant can serve two masters;
for either he will hate the one and love the other
or else he will hold to the one and despise the other.
you cannot serve God and mammon.
v14 now the pharisees,
who were lovers of money,
were listening to these things
and were scoffing at Him.
v15 and He said TO THEM,
'you are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men,
but God knows your hearts;
for that which is HIGHLY ESTEEMED among men
is DETESTABLE
bdelugma - arousing or meriting intense dislike;
in the sight of God.
V16 the law and the prophets were proclaimed until john (the baptist..just recently)
since then the gospel of the kingdom of God is preached,
and everyone is forcing his way into it.
v17 but it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away
than for one stroke
(a tiny projection from some of the hebrew letters that gave them their unique meaning)
of a letter of the law to fail.
everyone of us has a choice
to serve money and the things it buys
or to serve Jesus Christ.
what He commands He means.
not the smallest part of a letter,
let alone a word,
a sentence
or their meaning
will ever change.
i fear men too much.
men will do anything to avoid confronting their real need before God, crying out to Him and following Him faithfully to the consternation of other men. far better to fear God and see the stink of thinking the way most human beings think.
that means further ostracization and possibly more.
Lord, if i could only see clearly
and clearly covet only Your smile,
only to please You
though i be rejected by all me...
that is my desire...
back full circle to psalm 119.128..i HATE EVERY FALSE WAY.
(kjv for DETESTABLE reads AN ABOMINATION - HATED, loathed intensely)
then my thoughts turned to getting 54 fixed up and sold ASAP...oh Lord i come to You, the God of the impossible. so help me God...I WILL DO IT...
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
12.12.2012 HOMOSEXUALITY AND CHANGE: IS IT POSSIBLE?
the following article is in the winter 2012 harvest news, a publication by harvest USA.
HARVEST USA i a faith operated ministry.
most of our work is given freely or at low cost.
we are supported entirely by churches and individuals who are convinced of our mission.
our mission is to partner with and equip the church in bringing the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to transform the lives of those affected by sexual struggles and sin.
proclaiming Christ as Lord to a sexually broken world
equipping the church to minister to sexually broken people
the article is written by david white
'i love children.
i've always wanted a family.
i just can't imagine myself ever getting married.
i mean, how would sex even work
i don't think this is working'.
'frank' shook his head and threw up his hands in exasperation.
a christian man in his 30s, wrestling with same-sex attraction (SSA),
he was beaten down by the relentlessness of his temptation and his seeming inability to change.
like most men and women struggling with SSA,
frank hoped coming to harvest USA would translate into deliverance from his homosexual desires.
for him, defeating SSA meant
eradicating ongoing homosexual temptation and essentially becoming heterosexual.
this is what change means for many people and anything short of that feels like a 'bait and switch'.
first, we need to acknowledge that the ongoing, persistent nature of a struggle with SSA is very hared for those who desire to follow God's word regarding His design for sexuality.
for the vast majority of men and women, it will be a lifelong experience in this fallen world.
it is a unique and, at times, excruciating cross they are called to bear,
but it is not a hopeless journey.
for it is there, in that struggle, that God wants to meet them.
(for a fuller description of how god uses our battles with temptation for our good and His glory,
please see my prior harvest news article, 'suffering with temptation at harvestusa.org;
click on Resources/Articles/Same-Sex Attraction).
conflicting views of change
in our culture there is a cacophony of voices expressing radically divergent perspectives on change.
because the media shouts the loudest,
a growing number of people have adopted the view that SSA is 'inborn and unchangeable'.
after all, no one ever asked to have SSA.
the desires come unbidden and they stubbornly persist.
it is never a conscious choice.
although direct genetic and/or physiological origins have never been scientifically proven,
the spirit of the age insistently asserts that altering sexual orientation
is as futile as trying to change skin color.
it is argued that the very attempt is psychologically harmful,
so california recently made it illegal for therapists to talk to teenagers about the possibility of change.
sadly, even the church's voice has too frequently been unhelpful.
to begin with, homosexuality is often viewed as particularly abhorrent
and far more broken than heterosexual brokenness.
further, some christians act like SSA is simply a chosen 'life style' that can be easily deselected.
perhaps more pervasive is a triumphalist christianity that suggests
any significant sin struggle is easily overcome as long as someone has enough faith.
this is why i tend to cringe at the typical church testimony,
'my life was a mess, but then i got saved and now everything is grand!'
anything short of painless, temptation free, easy obedience
is chalked up to an individual's failure to really believe,
as if our journey in this life is a gentle sunday stroll to heaven.
finally, most people (particularly those who struggle with the issue)
see change as nothing less than the utter eradication of their SSA,
coupled with a big boost in heterosexual desire.
mistakenly, they believe that ultimate change means
a traditional marriage,
children,
a house in the burbs with a white picket fence and
eventually grandchildren.
there is an understandable longing to find relief
from the unwanted attraction and the ongoing temptation,
but this expectation goes far beyond the promises of the bible.
how can we sort through all these dissonant voices?
re-aligning the focus
since freud, our culture has placed an inordinate focus on our sexuality.
so many women wrestle with body image because they are programmed to believe
that sex appeal is one of the most important aspects of their person.
in this environment, it's not surprising that people
build their fundamental identity around their sexuality.
this is not what it means to be human.
the bible gives us two primary categories for identity formation,
tied to the reality that we are body and spirit.
first, we are created as God's 'image bearers', either male or female,
and second, we are either 'in Christ' or not.
perhaps this sounds overly simple, but to be 'in Christ' means
to be an adopted child of God,
an heir to His eternal kingdom.
our identity is completely bound up in Him-
this union with Him is both foundational and of infinitely greater worth
than what our culture proclaims is our sexual 'orientation'.
a biblical anthropology does not recognize 'sexual orintation' as a core identity marker.
this is why i am very concerned by the growing number of Christians who
uphold biblical sexual morality in practice,
but maintain the identity of a 'celibate, gay christian'.
God doesn't want our identity wrapped up in
the broken places of our humanity,
but in the glorious redemption that is ours in Christ!
men and women coming for ministry to harvest USA
are always surprised by how little we talk about sex.
seriously.
why?
for us the issue is not sexual orientation;
we're not in the business of making people 'straight'.
for 30 years, our focus has always been the gospel-
that God has reconciled us to Himself through Christ, not counting our sins against us.
('for the love of Christ controls us,
having concluded this,
that one died for all,
therefore all died;
and He died for all,
that they who live should no longer live for themselves but
for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.
therefore from now on we recognize no man according to the flesh;
even though we have known Christ according to the flesh,
yet now we know Him thus no longer.
therefore if any man is in Christ,
he is a new creature;
the old things passed away;
behold, new things have come.
now all these things are from God,
who reconciled us to Himself through Christ,
and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
namely, that God was in Christ
reconciling the world to Himself,
not counting their trespasses against them,
and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ,
as though God were entreating through us;
we beg you on behalf of Christ,
be reconciled to God.
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf,
that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. II corinthians 5.14-21)
God initiated a relationship with us
and that relationship becomes the defining core of our identity.
the focus on who i am is no longer on my sexual attractions, desires or tendencies
(or anything else for that matter!)
increasingly, it's no on me at all-
my life is radically reoriented around Him.
...God's great love for us in Christ becomes the center of our identity
and the controlling factor in our lives.
in Jesus, we find the 'treasure in the field', the 'pearl of great value'
and everything formerly prized is counted
'as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord'
(see matthew 13. 44.6; philippians 3.8)
at harvest USA, we believe the opposite of homosexuality isn't heterosexuality-
it is holiness.
to be holy means to be set apart for God.
this is what it means that we are reconciled to Him.
He is our God, we are His people.
to be a disciple means taking up a cross,
willing to lose my life for His sake,
believing His promise that in so doing i will actually find abundant life.
thus dietrich bonhoeffer wrote,
'when Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.
the bible's starting point
ultimately, the 'inborn and unchangeable' claim rests on personal experience, not science.
the arguments goes,
'i never asked for SSA.
i've always felt this way.
it is natural for me.
therefore God made me this way.
but here's rub:
the bible teaches that what is 'natural' to us is broken!
nothing in this world is the way it's supposed to be.
all of us have a sexuality in need of redemption.
what i mean is,
no one goes through life with blinders on,
experiencing a dormant sexuality
until they finally meet that special someone of the opposite gender,
get married,
and then spend the rest of their lives in starry eyed, selfless devotion to that person,
never looking to the left or right.
in a fallen world,
sexuality is bent in innumerable directions,
but ALL of us have a broken sexuality.
my wedding ring is completely foreign to me naturally.
apart from Christ, when i was single i cheated on every woman i dated.
i'm not naturally wired for monogamy-
i needed a radical, supernatural intervention by the Spirit of God
to overcome my 'natural' tendencies and begin living differently.
beginning in genesis 3 and running straight through to revelation,
the bible assumes that our 'natural' state is broken and anti-God,
meaning we live for self, not Him.
this is the natural 'orientation' for all humanity-
to live self determinative, autonomous lives apart from God.
this means who we are naturally is not God given!
our feelings, our attractions, the worldviews we develop as we are shaped by life,
can't be trusted.
thus the very starting point of pro-gay theology is completely unbiblical.
as c.s. lewis wrote,
'fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement;
he is a rebel who must lay down his arms.
in our pluralistic society, many choose to reject the bible's doctrine of man,
but for any who want to call their faith christian,
our broken natural state,
our utter inability to change ourselves
and our desperate need for God's supernatural intervention
is the only starting point for understanding what is wrong with us
(and the world at large!)
this is where change begins.
a biblical view of change
the hope of the gospel is that God does what is impossible for us:
He gives us a new heart that understands our need for His grace
and embraces Christ by faith.
this new heart is what enables us to obey.
and, as we looked at above,
obedience begins to flow from affection for God
in response to His love for us.
although the new heart we are given when we come to Christ by faith is 'instantaneous',
the outworking in our lives is a lifelong process.
and the truth is that temptation, struggle and loss
will be a life long reality,
not just for the SSA struggler,
but for everyone who lives in this fallen world.
so to speak of change biblically means
in Christ we now have the ability to obey God
and align our life to His will and design.
transformation means
i am no longer a slave to my desires.
by His Spirit, God empowers us to obey-
in the face of ongoing temptation and the tug of our flesh.
listen to how paul describes this battle;
'for the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit,
and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh,
for these are opposed to each other,
to keep you from doing the things you want to do. galatians 5.17
as we live in relationship with Him,
and equally important,
as we live authentically
(not false; genuine; real)
with others in the community of Christ,
the Spirit of God reins us in and even though we 'want' to continue pursuing sinful activities,
as we surrender to Him,
His hand restrains us in love.
because He knows what is best for us.
living in obedience is the demonstration that we know Christ
(my little children,
i am writing these things to you
that you may not sin.
and if anyone sins,
we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous;
and He Himself is the propitiation
(satisfaction of God's wrath) for our sins;
and not for ours only,
but also for those of the whole world.
and by this we know that we have come to know Him,
if we keep His commandments.
the one who says,
'i have come to know Him',
and does not keep His commandments,
is a liar,
and the truth is not in him;
but whoever keeps His word,
in him the love of God has truly been perfected.
by this we know that we are in Him... I john 2.1-5)
in our wisdom
change looks like the removal of SSA,
but God's purposes are powerfully at work in our suffering with temptation
(see my aforementioned article).
His promise is that there will always be away out of temptation
so we are able to endure it I corinthians 10.13.
God doesn't magically transport us out of the mess;
rather, like shadrach, meshach and abednego,
we need to pass through the fire,
but with a promise;
He is with us and we won't be consumed.
(..'when you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they will not overflow you.
when you walk through the fire,
you will not be scorched
nor will the flame burn you...
do not fear, for I am with you...see isaiah 43.1-7)
looking to the one who empowers change
will it be like this forever?
absolutely not!
(there'll be more on that on our blog..(truthandmercy.wordpress.com)
i realize that the thought of living with lifelong temptation,
with sexual attractions and pulls that you wish you didn't have,
can at times feel crushing,
but believe me,
it gets better.
temptation may persist,
but that doesn't mean it will be at the same intensity all the time.
i always tell people,
if there's a predator after you,
it makes a HUGE difference if it's a lion..or a gnat.
one will destroy your life;
the other is a nuisance.
the more you walk in obedience,
the more temptation will become less life-dominating
(more the 'nuisnce' and less the destructive threat.)
as you live according to His word,
seek the support of others in the body of Christ-
(note: or if you find no one,
get very close to the one who said,
'come unto to Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.
take My yoke upon you and learn from Me
for I am gentle and humble in heart;
and you shall find rest for your souls.
for My yoke is easy and My burden is light. matthew 11.28-30
..fill every moment talking to Him, complaining to Him, praising and thanking Him, asking Him to give you guidance and beholding His beauty
...memorizing and meditating on His word
...agonizing to obey His commands,
especially to make disciples and to proclaim the good news of His loving death and powerful resurrection to make forgiveness and eternal life possible to everyone who will turn from their sins to Him as Lord and savior.)
which is absolutely essential for any change oriented movement.
as you intentionally turn from your idols
you begin to see reality more clearly.
you begin to see the hooks connected to the idols
that draw you in your struggle
away from obedience to Christ
(idols of
comfort,
pleasure,
avoidance of pain,
the need for relationship at any price,
to name a few.)
and you learn to identify them and avoid them.
more importantly, you begin to experience 'abundant life'
in your relationship with God and others;
relationships with others that can be deep, enriching and need not be sexualized.
in following Christ, many men and women
have experienced a lessening of SSA desires and attractions over time,
but some have not.
some have experienced growth in heterosexual desires
(especially with regard to a specific person of the opposite sex
that they love or are married to),
but some have never experienced a change in sexual desires.
the essence of the fruit of change
is the Spirit led ability to resist and turn from temptation to past desires
and we believe anyone in Christ can grow along that trajectory.
(the curve described by the path of a propelled object?)
will there be times of failure?
yes, as there is with anyone dealing with other deeply rooted issues,
like anger, overeating and various addictions and so on.
as i grieved the loss of my first wife,
facing the overwhelming challenge of being a single parent to twin teen girls,
God met me in my grief, loneliness and sexual longing as He never had before.
at one point, reading thought the gospel of matthew, two passages spoke to me.
FIRST, when Jesus was telling about His return,
He mentioned that He didn't know when that day will be-
only the Father knows.
consider that:
for 2000 years Jesus has been waiting,
perhaps patiently asking with each new morning,
'Father, is it today?
He has been waiting a LONG time.
this is not to diminish your time of waiting.
i'm not saying Jesus has it worse,
so buck up.
what i want you to see is that He knows what it takes to wait.
He knows exactly the grace you need as you are 'waiting' on Him, '
not just for the future when He returns,
but now, every day, trusting in Him
as He works change and growth in your life according to His timing.
SECOND, at the last supper,
He passed the cup
saying i would be the last time He would partake of the fruit of the vine
until He drank it with us in the kingdom.
He left us the supper and told us to feast frequently,
remembering Him until He returns,
but He Himself is fasting.
He is depicted in scripture as our victorious King,
ruling the universe by the word of His power,
but He is a patiently waiting and fasting King.
He is patient,
but eagerly looking forward to sitting down at the wedding feast with you and i..
HARVEST USA i a faith operated ministry.
most of our work is given freely or at low cost.
we are supported entirely by churches and individuals who are convinced of our mission.
our mission is to partner with and equip the church in bringing the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to transform the lives of those affected by sexual struggles and sin.
proclaiming Christ as Lord to a sexually broken world
equipping the church to minister to sexually broken people
the article is written by david white
'i love children.
i've always wanted a family.
i just can't imagine myself ever getting married.
i mean, how would sex even work
i don't think this is working'.
'frank' shook his head and threw up his hands in exasperation.
a christian man in his 30s, wrestling with same-sex attraction (SSA),
he was beaten down by the relentlessness of his temptation and his seeming inability to change.
like most men and women struggling with SSA,
frank hoped coming to harvest USA would translate into deliverance from his homosexual desires.
for him, defeating SSA meant
eradicating ongoing homosexual temptation and essentially becoming heterosexual.
this is what change means for many people and anything short of that feels like a 'bait and switch'.
first, we need to acknowledge that the ongoing, persistent nature of a struggle with SSA is very hared for those who desire to follow God's word regarding His design for sexuality.
for the vast majority of men and women, it will be a lifelong experience in this fallen world.
it is a unique and, at times, excruciating cross they are called to bear,
but it is not a hopeless journey.
for it is there, in that struggle, that God wants to meet them.
(for a fuller description of how god uses our battles with temptation for our good and His glory,
please see my prior harvest news article, 'suffering with temptation at harvestusa.org;
click on Resources/Articles/Same-Sex Attraction).
conflicting views of change
in our culture there is a cacophony of voices expressing radically divergent perspectives on change.
because the media shouts the loudest,
a growing number of people have adopted the view that SSA is 'inborn and unchangeable'.
after all, no one ever asked to have SSA.
the desires come unbidden and they stubbornly persist.
it is never a conscious choice.
although direct genetic and/or physiological origins have never been scientifically proven,
the spirit of the age insistently asserts that altering sexual orientation
is as futile as trying to change skin color.
it is argued that the very attempt is psychologically harmful,
so california recently made it illegal for therapists to talk to teenagers about the possibility of change.
sadly, even the church's voice has too frequently been unhelpful.
to begin with, homosexuality is often viewed as particularly abhorrent
and far more broken than heterosexual brokenness.
further, some christians act like SSA is simply a chosen 'life style' that can be easily deselected.
perhaps more pervasive is a triumphalist christianity that suggests
any significant sin struggle is easily overcome as long as someone has enough faith.
this is why i tend to cringe at the typical church testimony,
'my life was a mess, but then i got saved and now everything is grand!'
anything short of painless, temptation free, easy obedience
is chalked up to an individual's failure to really believe,
as if our journey in this life is a gentle sunday stroll to heaven.
finally, most people (particularly those who struggle with the issue)
see change as nothing less than the utter eradication of their SSA,
coupled with a big boost in heterosexual desire.
mistakenly, they believe that ultimate change means
a traditional marriage,
children,
a house in the burbs with a white picket fence and
eventually grandchildren.
there is an understandable longing to find relief
from the unwanted attraction and the ongoing temptation,
but this expectation goes far beyond the promises of the bible.
how can we sort through all these dissonant voices?
re-aligning the focus
since freud, our culture has placed an inordinate focus on our sexuality.
so many women wrestle with body image because they are programmed to believe
that sex appeal is one of the most important aspects of their person.
in this environment, it's not surprising that people
build their fundamental identity around their sexuality.
this is not what it means to be human.
the bible gives us two primary categories for identity formation,
tied to the reality that we are body and spirit.
first, we are created as God's 'image bearers', either male or female,
and second, we are either 'in Christ' or not.
perhaps this sounds overly simple, but to be 'in Christ' means
to be an adopted child of God,
an heir to His eternal kingdom.
our identity is completely bound up in Him-
this union with Him is both foundational and of infinitely greater worth
than what our culture proclaims is our sexual 'orientation'.
a biblical anthropology does not recognize 'sexual orintation' as a core identity marker.
this is why i am very concerned by the growing number of Christians who
uphold biblical sexual morality in practice,
but maintain the identity of a 'celibate, gay christian'.
God doesn't want our identity wrapped up in
the broken places of our humanity,
but in the glorious redemption that is ours in Christ!
men and women coming for ministry to harvest USA
are always surprised by how little we talk about sex.
seriously.
why?
for us the issue is not sexual orientation;
we're not in the business of making people 'straight'.
for 30 years, our focus has always been the gospel-
that God has reconciled us to Himself through Christ, not counting our sins against us.
('for the love of Christ controls us,
having concluded this,
that one died for all,
therefore all died;
and He died for all,
that they who live should no longer live for themselves but
for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.
therefore from now on we recognize no man according to the flesh;
even though we have known Christ according to the flesh,
yet now we know Him thus no longer.
therefore if any man is in Christ,
he is a new creature;
the old things passed away;
behold, new things have come.
now all these things are from God,
who reconciled us to Himself through Christ,
and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
namely, that God was in Christ
reconciling the world to Himself,
not counting their trespasses against them,
and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ,
as though God were entreating through us;
we beg you on behalf of Christ,
be reconciled to God.
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf,
that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. II corinthians 5.14-21)
God initiated a relationship with us
and that relationship becomes the defining core of our identity.
the focus on who i am is no longer on my sexual attractions, desires or tendencies
(or anything else for that matter!)
increasingly, it's no on me at all-
my life is radically reoriented around Him.
...God's great love for us in Christ becomes the center of our identity
and the controlling factor in our lives.
in Jesus, we find the 'treasure in the field', the 'pearl of great value'
and everything formerly prized is counted
'as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord'
(see matthew 13. 44.6; philippians 3.8)
at harvest USA, we believe the opposite of homosexuality isn't heterosexuality-
it is holiness.
to be holy means to be set apart for God.
this is what it means that we are reconciled to Him.
He is our God, we are His people.
to be a disciple means taking up a cross,
willing to lose my life for His sake,
believing His promise that in so doing i will actually find abundant life.
thus dietrich bonhoeffer wrote,
'when Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.
the bible's starting point
ultimately, the 'inborn and unchangeable' claim rests on personal experience, not science.
the arguments goes,
'i never asked for SSA.
i've always felt this way.
it is natural for me.
therefore God made me this way.
but here's rub:
the bible teaches that what is 'natural' to us is broken!
nothing in this world is the way it's supposed to be.
all of us have a sexuality in need of redemption.
what i mean is,
no one goes through life with blinders on,
experiencing a dormant sexuality
until they finally meet that special someone of the opposite gender,
get married,
and then spend the rest of their lives in starry eyed, selfless devotion to that person,
never looking to the left or right.
in a fallen world,
sexuality is bent in innumerable directions,
but ALL of us have a broken sexuality.
my wedding ring is completely foreign to me naturally.
apart from Christ, when i was single i cheated on every woman i dated.
i'm not naturally wired for monogamy-
i needed a radical, supernatural intervention by the Spirit of God
to overcome my 'natural' tendencies and begin living differently.
beginning in genesis 3 and running straight through to revelation,
the bible assumes that our 'natural' state is broken and anti-God,
meaning we live for self, not Him.
this is the natural 'orientation' for all humanity-
to live self determinative, autonomous lives apart from God.
this means who we are naturally is not God given!
our feelings, our attractions, the worldviews we develop as we are shaped by life,
can't be trusted.
thus the very starting point of pro-gay theology is completely unbiblical.
as c.s. lewis wrote,
'fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement;
he is a rebel who must lay down his arms.
in our pluralistic society, many choose to reject the bible's doctrine of man,
but for any who want to call their faith christian,
our broken natural state,
our utter inability to change ourselves
and our desperate need for God's supernatural intervention
is the only starting point for understanding what is wrong with us
(and the world at large!)
this is where change begins.
a biblical view of change
the hope of the gospel is that God does what is impossible for us:
He gives us a new heart that understands our need for His grace
and embraces Christ by faith.
this new heart is what enables us to obey.
and, as we looked at above,
obedience begins to flow from affection for God
in response to His love for us.
although the new heart we are given when we come to Christ by faith is 'instantaneous',
the outworking in our lives is a lifelong process.
and the truth is that temptation, struggle and loss
will be a life long reality,
not just for the SSA struggler,
but for everyone who lives in this fallen world.
so to speak of change biblically means
in Christ we now have the ability to obey God
and align our life to His will and design.
transformation means
i am no longer a slave to my desires.
by His Spirit, God empowers us to obey-
in the face of ongoing temptation and the tug of our flesh.
listen to how paul describes this battle;
'for the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit,
and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh,
for these are opposed to each other,
to keep you from doing the things you want to do. galatians 5.17
as we live in relationship with Him,
and equally important,
as we live authentically
(not false; genuine; real)
with others in the community of Christ,
the Spirit of God reins us in and even though we 'want' to continue pursuing sinful activities,
as we surrender to Him,
His hand restrains us in love.
because He knows what is best for us.
living in obedience is the demonstration that we know Christ
(my little children,
i am writing these things to you
that you may not sin.
and if anyone sins,
we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous;
and He Himself is the propitiation
(satisfaction of God's wrath) for our sins;
and not for ours only,
but also for those of the whole world.
and by this we know that we have come to know Him,
if we keep His commandments.
the one who says,
'i have come to know Him',
and does not keep His commandments,
is a liar,
and the truth is not in him;
but whoever keeps His word,
in him the love of God has truly been perfected.
by this we know that we are in Him... I john 2.1-5)
in our wisdom
change looks like the removal of SSA,
but God's purposes are powerfully at work in our suffering with temptation
(see my aforementioned article).
His promise is that there will always be away out of temptation
so we are able to endure it I corinthians 10.13.
God doesn't magically transport us out of the mess;
rather, like shadrach, meshach and abednego,
we need to pass through the fire,
but with a promise;
He is with us and we won't be consumed.
(..'when you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they will not overflow you.
when you walk through the fire,
you will not be scorched
nor will the flame burn you...
do not fear, for I am with you...see isaiah 43.1-7)
looking to the one who empowers change
will it be like this forever?
absolutely not!
(there'll be more on that on our blog..(truthandmercy.wordpress.com)
i realize that the thought of living with lifelong temptation,
with sexual attractions and pulls that you wish you didn't have,
can at times feel crushing,
but believe me,
it gets better.
temptation may persist,
but that doesn't mean it will be at the same intensity all the time.
i always tell people,
if there's a predator after you,
it makes a HUGE difference if it's a lion..or a gnat.
one will destroy your life;
the other is a nuisance.
the more you walk in obedience,
the more temptation will become less life-dominating
(more the 'nuisnce' and less the destructive threat.)
as you live according to His word,
seek the support of others in the body of Christ-
(note: or if you find no one,
get very close to the one who said,
'come unto to Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.
take My yoke upon you and learn from Me
for I am gentle and humble in heart;
and you shall find rest for your souls.
for My yoke is easy and My burden is light. matthew 11.28-30
..fill every moment talking to Him, complaining to Him, praising and thanking Him, asking Him to give you guidance and beholding His beauty
...memorizing and meditating on His word
...agonizing to obey His commands,
especially to make disciples and to proclaim the good news of His loving death and powerful resurrection to make forgiveness and eternal life possible to everyone who will turn from their sins to Him as Lord and savior.)
which is absolutely essential for any change oriented movement.
as you intentionally turn from your idols
you begin to see reality more clearly.
you begin to see the hooks connected to the idols
that draw you in your struggle
away from obedience to Christ
(idols of
comfort,
pleasure,
avoidance of pain,
the need for relationship at any price,
to name a few.)
and you learn to identify them and avoid them.
more importantly, you begin to experience 'abundant life'
in your relationship with God and others;
relationships with others that can be deep, enriching and need not be sexualized.
in following Christ, many men and women
have experienced a lessening of SSA desires and attractions over time,
but some have not.
some have experienced growth in heterosexual desires
(especially with regard to a specific person of the opposite sex
that they love or are married to),
but some have never experienced a change in sexual desires.
the essence of the fruit of change
is the Spirit led ability to resist and turn from temptation to past desires
and we believe anyone in Christ can grow along that trajectory.
(the curve described by the path of a propelled object?)
will there be times of failure?
yes, as there is with anyone dealing with other deeply rooted issues,
like anger, overeating and various addictions and so on.
as i grieved the loss of my first wife,
facing the overwhelming challenge of being a single parent to twin teen girls,
God met me in my grief, loneliness and sexual longing as He never had before.
at one point, reading thought the gospel of matthew, two passages spoke to me.
FIRST, when Jesus was telling about His return,
He mentioned that He didn't know when that day will be-
only the Father knows.
consider that:
for 2000 years Jesus has been waiting,
perhaps patiently asking with each new morning,
'Father, is it today?
He has been waiting a LONG time.
this is not to diminish your time of waiting.
i'm not saying Jesus has it worse,
so buck up.
what i want you to see is that He knows what it takes to wait.
He knows exactly the grace you need as you are 'waiting' on Him, '
not just for the future when He returns,
but now, every day, trusting in Him
as He works change and growth in your life according to His timing.
SECOND, at the last supper,
He passed the cup
saying i would be the last time He would partake of the fruit of the vine
until He drank it with us in the kingdom.
He left us the supper and told us to feast frequently,
remembering Him until He returns,
but He Himself is fasting.
He is depicted in scripture as our victorious King,
ruling the universe by the word of His power,
but He is a patiently waiting and fasting King.
He is patient,
but eagerly looking forward to sitting down at the wedding feast with you and i..
Saturday, December 8, 2012
12.8.2012 PSALM 18.26 WITH THE CROOKED WHOU DOST SHOW THYSELF ASTUTE
this psalm of david here quotes II samuel 22.27,
the context of the chapter is shown in
v1 'and david spoke the words of this song to the Lord in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the had of saul.
the remaining 50 verses are his song.
the immediate context of the verse considered is
v24 'i was also blameless toward Him,
and i kept myself from my iniquity.
therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness,
according to my cleanness before His eyes.
with the kind Thou dost show Thyself kind,
with the blameless Thou dost show Thyself blameless;
with the pure Thou dost show Thyself pure,
and with the perverted Thou dost show Thyself astute.'
this truism we hear repeated in
galatians 6.8 for the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption,
but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life.
in both passages God is said to be astute. the hebrew word for this, pathal, has the meaning of twisted. the english definition of the word is,
of keen penetration or discernment; clever, cunning; ingenious shrewd...synonyms: smart, quick, perceptive
the man God is dealing with is called 'perverted' (nas) in II samuel and 'crooked' in psalm 18,
but both are a different hebrew word, iqquesh, having the meaning 'twisted' with a twist you will learn below and will see that God is better at 'twisting' than man.
delitzsch writes of the II samuel verse...that God shows Himself perverse towards the perverse, by giving him up to his perverseness and references romans 1.28,
'and just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer,
God gave them over to a depraved mind,
to do those things which are not proper..
matthew henry's commentary on this verse says,
'those who turn aside to crooked ways He will
'lead forth with the workers of iniquity'
as He says in another place.
with the froward (willfully contrary; not easily managed)
He will wrestle
and those with whom God wrestles are sure to be foiled.
woe unto him that strives with his Maker!
God will walk contrary to those who walk contrary to Him
and be displeased with those who are displeased with Him.
as for the haughty,
His eyes are upon them,
marking them out, as it were to be brought down;
for He resists the proud.
for psalm 18.26 henry references leviticus 26
v21 if then, you act with hostility against Me
and are unwilling to obey Me,
I will increase the plague on you seven times according to your sins.
v23f..if by these things you are not turned to Me,
but act with hostility against Me,
then I will act with hostility against you:
and I, even I,
will strike you seven times for your sins.
below is from spurgeon's treasury of david on psalm 18.26..
the sinner's frowardness is sinful and rebellious and the only sense in which the term can be applied to the Most Holy God is that of judicial opposition and sternness, in which the judge of all the earth WILL ACT AT CROSS PURPOSES with the offender, and let him see that all things are not to be made subservient to wicked whims and wilful fancies.
calvin very forcibly says,
'this brutish and monstrous stupidity in men compels God to invent new modes of expression, and as it were to cloth himself with a different character. there is a similar sentence in leviticus 26. 21-4 (henry above), where God says,
'and if ye walk contrary unto (or perversely with) Me,
then will I also walk contrary unto (or perversely or roughly or at random with) you'.
as if He had said that their obstinacy and stubbornness would make Him on His part forget His accustomed forbearance and gentleness, and cast Himself recklessly or at random against them.
we see then what the stubborn at length gain by their obduracy;
it is this,
that God hardens Himself still more to break them in pieces,
and if they are of stone, He causes them to feel that He has the hardness of iron.'
the jewish tradition was that the manna tasted according to each man's mouth;
certainly God shows Himself to each individual according to his character. spurgeon
but doth the Lord take colour from everyone He meets or change His temper as the com0pany changes?
that's the weakness of sinful man:
he cannot do so with whom there is no variablenes nor shadow of changing.
God is pure and upright with the unclean and hypocritical, as well as with the pure and upright
and His actions show Him to be so.
God shows Himself froward with the froward when He deals with him as He hath said He will deal with the froward-
deny them and reject them.
God shows Himself pure with the pure, when He deals with them as He hath said He will-
hear them and accept them.
though there be nothing in purity and sincerity which deserveth mercy,
yet we cannot expect mercy without them.
our comforts are not grounded upon our graces,
but our comforts are the fruits or consequences of our graces. joseph caryl
here, as in the first promise, the two combatants stand contrasted-
the seed of the woman and the serpent-
the benignantly bountiful., perfect, pure One,
and the froward one, whose works He came to destroy,
and who made it his great business to circumvent Him whom he feared.
the literal meaning of the word is 'tortuous' or 'crooked'
and both the ideas of perversity and cunning which the figure naturally suggests, are very applicable to
'that old serpent the devil',
from the concluding part of the sentence, i think there is no doubt that it is the latter idea that is intended to be conveyed.
God cannot deal perversely with any one;
but He outwits the wise and takes the cunning in their own craftiness. john brown
(note: I corinthians 3.18-20)
the hebrew word in the root signifieth
to wrest or writhe a thing,
or to wrest or turn a thing,
as wrestlers do their bodies.
hence by a trope,
(any literary device, such as metaphor, that consists in the use of words other than their literal sense)
it is translated often to wrestle,
because a cunning man in wrestling,
turneth and windeth his body,
and works himself in and out every way,
to get an advantage of his adversary
any way;
therefore your cunning headed men,
your crafty men,
are fitly presented under this word;
they are like wrestlers who turn and wind themselves in and out, and lie for all advantages;
or as we speak, they 'lie at catch'.
a man knows not where to have them
or what they mean when they speak plainest or swear solemnest;
when we think we wee their faces, we see by their vizards;
(a mask for disguise or protection)
all their promises and performances too are under a disguise....
and this word is applied to the Lord Himself,
'with the froward Thou wilt shew Thyself froward';
that is, if men will be winding and turning,
and thinking to catch others, or over reach the Lord Himself
with tricks and turnings of wit.
the lord will meet and answer them in their own kind;
He can turn as fast as they,
He can meet and answer them in their won kind;
He can turn as fast as they,
He can put Himself into such intricate labyrinths of infinite wisdom and sacred craft,
as shall entangle and ensnare the most cunning wrestler or tumbler of them all.
He will cretize the cretans (?), supplant the supplanters of His people. joseph caryl
it is a similitude taken from wrestlers and noteth a writhing of one's self against an sdversary.
..deuteronomy 32.5 'they are a perverse and crooked generation',
the same two words that are her in this text;
the latter importeth that they wriggled and writhed after the manner of wrestlers that wave up and down and wind the other way, when one thinks to have him here or there. but all will not serve their turn to save them from punishment.
God will be sure to meet with them,
his word will lay hold on them,
and their sin shall find them out. john trapp
'
the context of the chapter is shown in
v1 'and david spoke the words of this song to the Lord in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the had of saul.
the remaining 50 verses are his song.
the immediate context of the verse considered is
v24 'i was also blameless toward Him,
and i kept myself from my iniquity.
therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness,
according to my cleanness before His eyes.
with the kind Thou dost show Thyself kind,
with the blameless Thou dost show Thyself blameless;
with the pure Thou dost show Thyself pure,
and with the perverted Thou dost show Thyself astute.'
this truism we hear repeated in
galatians 6.8 for the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption,
but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life.
in both passages God is said to be astute. the hebrew word for this, pathal, has the meaning of twisted. the english definition of the word is,
of keen penetration or discernment; clever, cunning; ingenious shrewd...synonyms: smart, quick, perceptive
the man God is dealing with is called 'perverted' (nas) in II samuel and 'crooked' in psalm 18,
but both are a different hebrew word, iqquesh, having the meaning 'twisted' with a twist you will learn below and will see that God is better at 'twisting' than man.
delitzsch writes of the II samuel verse...that God shows Himself perverse towards the perverse, by giving him up to his perverseness and references romans 1.28,
'and just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer,
God gave them over to a depraved mind,
to do those things which are not proper..
matthew henry's commentary on this verse says,
'those who turn aside to crooked ways He will
'lead forth with the workers of iniquity'
as He says in another place.
with the froward (willfully contrary; not easily managed)
He will wrestle
and those with whom God wrestles are sure to be foiled.
woe unto him that strives with his Maker!
God will walk contrary to those who walk contrary to Him
and be displeased with those who are displeased with Him.
as for the haughty,
His eyes are upon them,
marking them out, as it were to be brought down;
for He resists the proud.
for psalm 18.26 henry references leviticus 26
v21 if then, you act with hostility against Me
and are unwilling to obey Me,
I will increase the plague on you seven times according to your sins.
v23f..if by these things you are not turned to Me,
but act with hostility against Me,
then I will act with hostility against you:
and I, even I,
will strike you seven times for your sins.
below is from spurgeon's treasury of david on psalm 18.26..
the sinner's frowardness is sinful and rebellious and the only sense in which the term can be applied to the Most Holy God is that of judicial opposition and sternness, in which the judge of all the earth WILL ACT AT CROSS PURPOSES with the offender, and let him see that all things are not to be made subservient to wicked whims and wilful fancies.
calvin very forcibly says,
'this brutish and monstrous stupidity in men compels God to invent new modes of expression, and as it were to cloth himself with a different character. there is a similar sentence in leviticus 26. 21-4 (henry above), where God says,
'and if ye walk contrary unto (or perversely with) Me,
then will I also walk contrary unto (or perversely or roughly or at random with) you'.
as if He had said that their obstinacy and stubbornness would make Him on His part forget His accustomed forbearance and gentleness, and cast Himself recklessly or at random against them.
we see then what the stubborn at length gain by their obduracy;
it is this,
that God hardens Himself still more to break them in pieces,
and if they are of stone, He causes them to feel that He has the hardness of iron.'
the jewish tradition was that the manna tasted according to each man's mouth;
certainly God shows Himself to each individual according to his character. spurgeon
but doth the Lord take colour from everyone He meets or change His temper as the com0pany changes?
that's the weakness of sinful man:
he cannot do so with whom there is no variablenes nor shadow of changing.
God is pure and upright with the unclean and hypocritical, as well as with the pure and upright
and His actions show Him to be so.
God shows Himself froward with the froward when He deals with him as He hath said He will deal with the froward-
deny them and reject them.
God shows Himself pure with the pure, when He deals with them as He hath said He will-
hear them and accept them.
though there be nothing in purity and sincerity which deserveth mercy,
yet we cannot expect mercy without them.
our comforts are not grounded upon our graces,
but our comforts are the fruits or consequences of our graces. joseph caryl
here, as in the first promise, the two combatants stand contrasted-
the seed of the woman and the serpent-
the benignantly bountiful., perfect, pure One,
and the froward one, whose works He came to destroy,
and who made it his great business to circumvent Him whom he feared.
the literal meaning of the word is 'tortuous' or 'crooked'
and both the ideas of perversity and cunning which the figure naturally suggests, are very applicable to
'that old serpent the devil',
from the concluding part of the sentence, i think there is no doubt that it is the latter idea that is intended to be conveyed.
God cannot deal perversely with any one;
but He outwits the wise and takes the cunning in their own craftiness. john brown
(note: I corinthians 3.18-20)
the hebrew word in the root signifieth
to wrest or writhe a thing,
or to wrest or turn a thing,
as wrestlers do their bodies.
hence by a trope,
(any literary device, such as metaphor, that consists in the use of words other than their literal sense)
it is translated often to wrestle,
because a cunning man in wrestling,
turneth and windeth his body,
and works himself in and out every way,
to get an advantage of his adversary
any way;
therefore your cunning headed men,
your crafty men,
are fitly presented under this word;
they are like wrestlers who turn and wind themselves in and out, and lie for all advantages;
or as we speak, they 'lie at catch'.
a man knows not where to have them
or what they mean when they speak plainest or swear solemnest;
when we think we wee their faces, we see by their vizards;
(a mask for disguise or protection)
all their promises and performances too are under a disguise....
and this word is applied to the Lord Himself,
'with the froward Thou wilt shew Thyself froward';
that is, if men will be winding and turning,
and thinking to catch others, or over reach the Lord Himself
with tricks and turnings of wit.
the lord will meet and answer them in their own kind;
He can turn as fast as they,
He can meet and answer them in their won kind;
He can turn as fast as they,
He can put Himself into such intricate labyrinths of infinite wisdom and sacred craft,
as shall entangle and ensnare the most cunning wrestler or tumbler of them all.
He will cretize the cretans (?), supplant the supplanters of His people. joseph caryl
it is a similitude taken from wrestlers and noteth a writhing of one's self against an sdversary.
..deuteronomy 32.5 'they are a perverse and crooked generation',
the same two words that are her in this text;
the latter importeth that they wriggled and writhed after the manner of wrestlers that wave up and down and wind the other way, when one thinks to have him here or there. but all will not serve their turn to save them from punishment.
God will be sure to meet with them,
his word will lay hold on them,
and their sin shall find them out. john trapp
'
12.8.2012 FRANCIS CHAN'S 'MULTIPLY: DISCIPLES MAKING DISCIPLES
below taken from an interview by mark galli in december 2012 christianity today on chan's new book..
what are you hoping to accomplish in your new book?
i try to explain the most important things a believer needs to know. it's an attempt to teach the basics of what i fee needs to be passed on to new believers..
unlike many other discipleship manuals, yours does not begin by explaining about how to pray..etc..instead, you begin by talking about the importance of church..
in our culture, people have a very low view of church
(note- if i read him right he's talking about acts 2.42 practice which i personally know nothing of and have not yet experienced in my life (if this take is correct may chan's tribe of believer increase!..seems everyone is 'doing the church program' rather that being obedient to the word in a costly way, experiencing persecution as the norm of every day life and being intimately and regularly involved in the lives of other such 'practicing' believers..)
and i didn't want readers to forget the church. for a person to be truly discipled and growing in their faith, they need more than one person discipling them. they need to see the gifts of the body; that's how God created it and intended it...this is how He is going to reach the world.
your book is also not topical but mostly a journey through the bible, where you let the biblical narrative shape the content of chapters.
one weakness in the chu4rch is that we can make things too formulaic, with a blanket statement for every situation about what you do. i want to help people understand how
to study the scriptures with other people,
to give them an over view of scripture
and assume that by understanding the scriptures better, the Holy Spirit will bring to mind the right stories, the right teachings...
you say that every disciple needs to disciple others. if discipling is essentially teaching-in word and example-why is it everyone's job, and not just those with the gift of teaching..
there is a gift of teaching..that's not what we're talking about.
it has more to do with, for example,the older women teaching the younger women.
parents are supposed to instruct their kids.
it doesn't mean that necessarily have that gift of teaching
the teaching in the great commisision is about obedience to Jesus.
it's not necessarily,
'now let me teach you what this means in the greek.
its,
let me teach you how to obey this.
so often we teach these great lessons but we don't push it to the point of obedience.
and satan loves that because we're deceiving ourselves.
the teaching i'm talking about is like walking alongside someone
rebuking, exhorting and getting them to the point where they realize they
need to repent
or they're living in disobedience.
in places, you say the church's mission is for the sake of the world;
the church exists to help us each fulfill that mission.
but revelation 4-where the church in heaven gathers in joyful worship of god-suggests that the church is not a means to an end, but the end.
so is the church a means or an end for you?
i definitely don't think it's an either/or.
i really do believe it has to be both.
i know that there's no direct command to go plant churches.
there is a command to make disciples.
as we make disciples, churches form..together they form a body.
if i had to lean one way, it really seems like you start with the mission
and then the church forms,
and then the church continues the mission.
sometimes we get so focused on creating a gathering the mission becomes optional.
that hurts the church.
for example, in the gatherings i have in san francisco, everyone knows that we're on a mission because that's such a big part of what we do.
our gatherings involve the mission. we gather and go out and gather back again.
it creates an incredible sense of unity, because these people i consider my brothers and sisters, because they're serving along side me. i've seen how the mission really makes the church so beautiful because the mission is so central.
...when you read the scriptures, the verses that grab you run along the lines of
'go and make disciples' and
'sell all you have.
others are most taken with verse like
'come to Me, all you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest' and
'your sins are forgiven'.
do you ever wonder why you are taken with the former more than the latter?
we, i wouldn't say the latter don't engage me, because there are times when they do. i just preached on the faithfulness of God, and i was bawling my eyes out.
i was memorizing ephesians and got to chapter two and i was just screaming out to God when it says,
'but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us...
it's like, aaah!
but i try to consider my audience and what they hear all the time.
i see Christ doing that;
He preaches one way to the pharisees and another way to the woman caught in adultery.
i speak primarily to an american audience involved in a consumer driven culture.
right now i'm speaking to a lot of drug addicts and people whom the world has discarded, people who just feel like they're of no worth. my message is very different to them. it's
'you are of worth. you've been lied to and you bought into the lie. it led to death. but here's the truth. the truth will set you free. you are the ones who are going to change the world. you're the very ones God would choose.
in every congregation, there's going to be both kinds of listeners. but to generalized, in my perception, the majority is unruly and rebellious. look at the different barna stats on how many people claim to be christian and yet their lifestyle is absolutely no different from the rest of the world. so that's what i tend to attack, rather than believing people are too diligent and that they are way too works oriented.
...if francis chan were to die tonight, what would be one thing you'd regret at 'being called home' sooner than later?
i'm pretty happy with my life, but there are still some fears in me.
i'm still a coward when it comes to sharing my faith.
i've gotten better, but as far as character, that would be the one thing that stands out to me.
I DON'T LOVE PEOPLE AS MUCH AS I WOULD LIKE TO
(note: ME NEITHER AND I'M NOT CONCERNED ENOUGH TO SEEK THE LORD CONTINUALLY THROUGH PRAYER AND FASTING UNTIL HIS LOVE IS IN, AND FLOWING OUT OF, ME.)
..i'm just not as bold as i should be at times.
and so i wish i could grow in those character qualities.
(note: or be filled with the Holy Spirit
acts 2.4 'and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak...as the Spirit was giving them utterance (margin, 'the ability to speak out.
2.14 but peter taking his stand with the eleven, raise his voice and declared to them...v41 so then, those who had received his word were baptized (same day) and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
4.8 then peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them,
'rulers and elders of the people...v13 now as they observed the confidence of peter and john and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were marveling and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus..
v18 and when they had summoned them, they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. but peter and john answered and said to them,
'whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God you be the judge;
for we cannot stop speaking what we have seen and heard..
v23 and when they had been released, they went to their own companions, and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them.
and when they heard this, they lifted their voices to God with one accord and said...
'and now Lord,
take note of their threats and
grant that Thy bond servants may speak Thy word with all confidence,
while Thou dost extend Thy hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Thy holy servant Jesus.
and when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak the word of God with boldness....)
what are you hoping to accomplish in your new book?
i try to explain the most important things a believer needs to know. it's an attempt to teach the basics of what i fee needs to be passed on to new believers..
unlike many other discipleship manuals, yours does not begin by explaining about how to pray..etc..instead, you begin by talking about the importance of church..
in our culture, people have a very low view of church
(note- if i read him right he's talking about acts 2.42 practice which i personally know nothing of and have not yet experienced in my life (if this take is correct may chan's tribe of believer increase!..seems everyone is 'doing the church program' rather that being obedient to the word in a costly way, experiencing persecution as the norm of every day life and being intimately and regularly involved in the lives of other such 'practicing' believers..)
and i didn't want readers to forget the church. for a person to be truly discipled and growing in their faith, they need more than one person discipling them. they need to see the gifts of the body; that's how God created it and intended it...this is how He is going to reach the world.
your book is also not topical but mostly a journey through the bible, where you let the biblical narrative shape the content of chapters.
one weakness in the chu4rch is that we can make things too formulaic, with a blanket statement for every situation about what you do. i want to help people understand how
to study the scriptures with other people,
to give them an over view of scripture
and assume that by understanding the scriptures better, the Holy Spirit will bring to mind the right stories, the right teachings...
you say that every disciple needs to disciple others. if discipling is essentially teaching-in word and example-why is it everyone's job, and not just those with the gift of teaching..
there is a gift of teaching..that's not what we're talking about.
it has more to do with, for example,the older women teaching the younger women.
parents are supposed to instruct their kids.
it doesn't mean that necessarily have that gift of teaching
the teaching in the great commisision is about obedience to Jesus.
it's not necessarily,
'now let me teach you what this means in the greek.
its,
let me teach you how to obey this.
so often we teach these great lessons but we don't push it to the point of obedience.
and satan loves that because we're deceiving ourselves.
the teaching i'm talking about is like walking alongside someone
rebuking, exhorting and getting them to the point where they realize they
need to repent
or they're living in disobedience.
in places, you say the church's mission is for the sake of the world;
the church exists to help us each fulfill that mission.
but revelation 4-where the church in heaven gathers in joyful worship of god-suggests that the church is not a means to an end, but the end.
so is the church a means or an end for you?
i definitely don't think it's an either/or.
i really do believe it has to be both.
i know that there's no direct command to go plant churches.
there is a command to make disciples.
as we make disciples, churches form..together they form a body.
if i had to lean one way, it really seems like you start with the mission
and then the church forms,
and then the church continues the mission.
sometimes we get so focused on creating a gathering the mission becomes optional.
that hurts the church.
for example, in the gatherings i have in san francisco, everyone knows that we're on a mission because that's such a big part of what we do.
our gatherings involve the mission. we gather and go out and gather back again.
it creates an incredible sense of unity, because these people i consider my brothers and sisters, because they're serving along side me. i've seen how the mission really makes the church so beautiful because the mission is so central.
...when you read the scriptures, the verses that grab you run along the lines of
'go and make disciples' and
'sell all you have.
others are most taken with verse like
'come to Me, all you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest' and
'your sins are forgiven'.
do you ever wonder why you are taken with the former more than the latter?
we, i wouldn't say the latter don't engage me, because there are times when they do. i just preached on the faithfulness of God, and i was bawling my eyes out.
i was memorizing ephesians and got to chapter two and i was just screaming out to God when it says,
'but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us...
it's like, aaah!
but i try to consider my audience and what they hear all the time.
i see Christ doing that;
He preaches one way to the pharisees and another way to the woman caught in adultery.
i speak primarily to an american audience involved in a consumer driven culture.
right now i'm speaking to a lot of drug addicts and people whom the world has discarded, people who just feel like they're of no worth. my message is very different to them. it's
'you are of worth. you've been lied to and you bought into the lie. it led to death. but here's the truth. the truth will set you free. you are the ones who are going to change the world. you're the very ones God would choose.
in every congregation, there's going to be both kinds of listeners. but to generalized, in my perception, the majority is unruly and rebellious. look at the different barna stats on how many people claim to be christian and yet their lifestyle is absolutely no different from the rest of the world. so that's what i tend to attack, rather than believing people are too diligent and that they are way too works oriented.
...if francis chan were to die tonight, what would be one thing you'd regret at 'being called home' sooner than later?
i'm pretty happy with my life, but there are still some fears in me.
i'm still a coward when it comes to sharing my faith.
i've gotten better, but as far as character, that would be the one thing that stands out to me.
I DON'T LOVE PEOPLE AS MUCH AS I WOULD LIKE TO
(note: ME NEITHER AND I'M NOT CONCERNED ENOUGH TO SEEK THE LORD CONTINUALLY THROUGH PRAYER AND FASTING UNTIL HIS LOVE IS IN, AND FLOWING OUT OF, ME.)
..i'm just not as bold as i should be at times.
and so i wish i could grow in those character qualities.
(note: or be filled with the Holy Spirit
acts 2.4 'and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak...as the Spirit was giving them utterance (margin, 'the ability to speak out.
2.14 but peter taking his stand with the eleven, raise his voice and declared to them...v41 so then, those who had received his word were baptized (same day) and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
4.8 then peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them,
'rulers and elders of the people...v13 now as they observed the confidence of peter and john and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were marveling and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus..
v18 and when they had summoned them, they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. but peter and john answered and said to them,
'whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God you be the judge;
for we cannot stop speaking what we have seen and heard..
v23 and when they had been released, they went to their own companions, and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them.
and when they heard this, they lifted their voices to God with one accord and said...
'and now Lord,
take note of their threats and
grant that Thy bond servants may speak Thy word with all confidence,
while Thou dost extend Thy hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Thy holy servant Jesus.
and when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak the word of God with boldness....)
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