Friday, January 25, 2013

1.25.2012 HOW, EXACTLY, DO I SHARE THE GOOD NEWS OF JESUS?

i really don't know.
but there is something working within me
that will not allow me to continue to put off doing it
until i know how.

some days ago i was reading matthew 10
where Jesus, having summoned His 12 DISCIPLES (v1),
gave them
authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out,
and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.
then it tells the names of these 12 APOSTLES (v2).

this didn't occur too long after
He had called them to follow Him.
so it seems that not to long after a person
becomes a LEARNER of Jesus, how to imitate Him,
he becomes a SENT ONE
to do mighty good things to others
which involves exercising power over evil spirits
and being a healing and life giving agent.

so everyone in human history who Jesus sends out to help others
is His learner and imitator
and wants to be just like Him
and think, speak and do what He would.

in v7 Jesus tells them,
'AND AS YOU GO
PREACH (proclaim as a king's herald), saying,
THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN AT HAND (near).

so the mission of every learner of Jesus is:
1. exercise spiritual power
2. meet physical needs
3. tell people, where ever they meet them,
that they will come under God's control sometime soon.

when i hit vs 7 my mind just started  churning out, as it were, the things that follow, in the format in which they appear.

-DO I HAVE TO TELL THIS TO EVERYONE?
* no, only everyone possible that you meet
as you are going along from one place to another.

-EVERYONE..i meet?!
*only as many as you think are in the position of possibly being
a nanosecond from an eternity in hell.

-HOW MANY IS THAT?
*you can only start to have an idea by talking with them, i would think.
Jesus said that MANY are on the road to hell
and that few will certainly be received in heaven.

*LET ME ASK YOU
IF YOU WERE A NANOSECOND FROM NEVER ENDING TORMENT
WOULD YOU WANT SOMEONE TO TRY AND HELP YOU
find a way of escape?
if you say 'no' then i guess you are taking your chances.
do you say yes?
well then i encourage you to do to others
what you would want them to do to you.

-WHAT IF I COME INTO DIFFICULTIES?
because the ones i'm talking with
don't like what Jesus says.
what if they make fun of me or
say bad things about me
even lie about me
and treat me badly
for trying to help them?

*BLESSED ARE YOU when you have been persecuted
for the sake of this righteousness of trying to help them.
YOURS IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.
blessed are you when men
cast insults at you and
persecute you and
say all kinds of evil against you falsely
on account of Jesus.
REJOICE AND BE GLAD
FOR YOUR REWARD IS GREAT,
for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

-well...
i AM a learner of Jesus' commands and ways.
i'm committed to do His will no matter what happens to me,
so with God's help
i plane to start proclaiming that
'the kingdom of God is near'
to those i meet
as many as possible!,
for every man needs to fear God and keep His commandments
if he is to do as he should,
for Jesus commanded this..
He didn't suggest it.

-why should i say that 'the kingdom of God is near' though?
shouldn't i rather say,
'you need to ask Jesus into your heart

*well,
for one thing, it's short...
easy to get out, you know,
if its just a passing encounter
or no time to talk because of the situation.
you are, at times like this, like a sower of seed
scattering it liberally on the fly!
the more of this seed that falls on the human ear
(others you may not even know of may hear too!)
the more chances that it will germinate.
if there's no seed....God needs to work another way
like in the middle east where,
because no missionaries are willing to go there,
people are being introduced to Jesus
in visions and dreams.
that's not God's Plan A,
we are.

*also, it is not condemnatory in the least.
it is something that is just as true
for the 'best' or 'worst' man in the world.

*Jesus left it purposefully enigmatic (perplexing, mysterious)
we (especially I) tend to try to say too much,
to make it all too 'clear' too quickly
rather than to make short statements,
ask thought provoking questions
so as to understand better where
the person they are talking with
'is' spiritually.
so it can create curiosity
especially in a situation where nothing else is shared.

-that seems all good,
but shouldn't i understand what i am saying,
so that if someone says,
'what does that mean?'
i can explain it to them?

*you're right! what don't you understand?

-well, i know that
1. God is the King of kings,
obviously, as their creator,
the ruler over all men.
2. that even though He is  heaven,
He wants His will to be done
by all everywhere.
...but, what does Jesus mean by the words 'IS AT HAND'?

* that means that it is very near.
now we have to understand several things
that will better help us to see
that this is a matter of urgency.
Jesus says that no man knows the day or the hour
of His return to earth.
but think of this.
neither does any man know the day or the hour
of his death.
OUR DEATH COULD HAPPEN AT ANY TIME..
so all the time we are potentially a second
away from the kingdom of heaven...
from standing in before God
with no chance to
'go back and do better'.

-i hadn't thought of that
and it is certainly true
that for every man,
being where God' will
is unchallenged,
...and eternal!....
is an IMMINENT (likely to occur at any moment) REALITY.
may God have mercy on me
and help me to obey this command
to proclaim His kingdom's imminence
and do the things He commands.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

1.24.2012 600 NECKS VS BLEND IN

'LET THE WORD OF THE LORD COME, LET IT COME,
AND IF WE HAD 600 NECKS WE WOULD SUBMIT TO HIS DICTATES.' augustine

'i thank my God for every storm that has wrecked me on the Rock, Jesus Christ.  charles spurgeon

'suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. II timothy 2.3

v25 'it is enough for the disciple that he become as his teacher,
and the slave as his master.
if they have called the head of the house beelzebul,
how much more the members of His household!

v27f 'what i tell you in the darkness,
speak in the light;
and what you hear whispered in your ear,
proclaim upon the housetops.
and do not fear those who kill the body,
\but are unable to kill the soul;
but father FEAR Him who is able to destroy
both soul and body in hell.
are not two sparrows sold for a cent?
and yet not one of them will fall to the ground
apart from your Rather.
but the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
therefore DO NOT FEAR
you are of more value than many sparrows. matthew 10

on the other hand....
it can get lonely,
for we know that the whole world lieth in the evil one. I john 5.19
(being rocked in the lap of satan, fast asleep spiritually)
it can get rugged
doing anything in opposition to the world system
(which will accept anything except exact OBEDIENCE to God)
 this system is in league with satan,
who is the god of this world,
and with the flesh which loves the world
'all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh
and the lust of the eyes
and the boastful pride of life,
is not from the Father,
but is from the world. I john 2.16

there are at least three very strong chains here:
habits, social mores and the commandments and teachings of men.
it should give pause to all those who would obey the word,
that Jesus Christ was put to death by the religious.
habit likewise is a very subtle but powerful agency,
in the life of an individual,
as well as in the life of a community.
to utterly shatter one or two of these iron fetters,
is a feat that is rarely accomplished.
to be free of all three is a license to die.

because of these
those seeming of the most rocklike nature,
without divine aid,
move subtly, but really,
away from resolute obedience to the clear cut commands.
we  become 'careful', 'prudent', 'respected' and 'enmeshed'....
well respected in this life, but
opposite 'the scum of the earth' and
the 'despised and rejected of men'.
all must fall, even our heads
to the cause of truth..the cause of Christ.
but what a thicket of opposition would silently, subtly, smilingly
blunt the gleaming, razor sharp edge.
we all are prone to, we all abound in
wicked hesitations and subconscious calculations
with the result that we end up
fearing men
rather than the One before whom we will stand
and hear the eternal answer.

we TEMPORIZE...
from middle latin temporizare - to pass the time of day
1. act to suit the time or occasion 
2. yield to the current or dominant opinion or
COMPROMISE (from latin com (with) + promittere-to promise)
1a.the process or result of settlement by arbitration
b. something blending the characteristics of 2 others
2. a committal to something prejudicial: surrender

so when a person temporizes, subconsciously or consciously,
instead of just acting on the clear and forthright command of Jesus,
over time
he learns to tailor his obedience to (ie. compromise with)
 the human reaction he receives.
most of these humans are the sons of disobedience
referred to in ephesians 2.2,
(dead in trespasses and sins)
in which you formerly walked
according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air,
of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

when we act to suit the time we are in,
any occasion is automatically decided against us
clearly, confidently and unashamedly obeying Christ.
the flow of current or dominant opinion is always against that.
that is why the bible clearly states that
'all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus
WILL BE PERSECUTED'.

(so each of us who thinks we are a follower of Jesus Christ
have in this a mirror which infallibly shows whether we
are real or pretend.
since everyone around us is evil (as we are evil)
this means that the vast majority of the time-
if we are out in the world being salt and light like we're told,
seeking and saving the lost
(rather than self-ghettoized in 'church' activities
or hiding in 'devoting our lives to our families'
or any number of similar dodges)
we are, most of the time, gonna get it in the neck...
bloody, messy, horrible...
just what you'd expect of a follower of  Jesus.)

if you just want to be NICE
and a faithful attender at churchmeetings
and such,
you have probably
at some level or other
chosen to compromise..
to stay out of all that mess.

in this situation you and others of the same mind among the churchgoers
submit to arbitration. (involves one with (literally) 'the power to decide',
and we know him as satan, the god of this world
he inwardly delights in the most awful specters,
for he holds an unqualified hatred for us created in God's image creatures.
but he has learned that raw evil
and the results of raw evil,
are subject to the law of diminishing returns
and actually start to drive the dead in trespasses and sins to the hated
Redeemer God.
things work best for his program here
if there is not too much evident evil,
if niceness is the mask that hides wickedness.
this seems to have the highest yield
of those, churched and unchurched, who are heading
down the wide road,
the easy way,
that ends in destruction.
he's a master of stirring up
and blending
good and evil...
behind the gentile mask
there is the reality,
(for the obedient to Christ believer)
of SURRENDER to 'the program'.
this of course spell eternal spiritual battle
between those subject to God
and the resisting satan.








Monday, January 21, 2013

1.21.2012 SELF HEALTH

the following is taken from 'FOLK MEDICINE' by dr. d.c. jarvis (1958) a vermont country doctor.
originally bought it at millers natural foods in bird in hand, pa. where i go every three months to get most of my food. when my daughter moved to vermont recently i decided to send it to her as a gift. the first time i read and underlined i had a much lower opinion than after just rereading it before sending it off to her as a belated house warming gift. reading it now i found much so valuable that it seemed good to try and put a bit on here.

a second reason for sharing is that it is coming to be more and more a settled conviction that i plan to spend whatever short time i have left here as disconnected as possible from the AMA system of medical 'care'. a growing personal aversion to prescribed drugs, doctors, hospitals and anything else accepted as good and normal by the media comes from personal experience and observation of how and why things are done in this realm and a multitude of increasingly horrid stories i hear along the way. at the conclusion of each i want to scream, 'RUN FOR YOUR LIFE is at stake!' but i have now learned that most of the time most all of us are impervious to all kinds of warnings for our good and sound wisdom that would be very helpful...so i pray.

maybe what i need do is make up one of those new fangled...what do they call the things..'living wills'
they came about i reckon because the path to a simple, honorable and a totally-trusting-only-the-Lord death has been buried under all the spif and shine of the miracles of modern medical establishment...i paint with a large brush but all the signs are there that the number of people who 1. actually know what they are doing and 2. have an ethical commitment to help every person for their good is decreasing daily).

if i wrote now it would be something to the effect:
- if this individual is found in a position, physically or otherwise,  where it is deemed proper to take him to the hospital
(every situation is deemed proper for it adds to the bottom line while they pile up, one after another, all kinds of big bucks procedures that, along with the drug companies omniscient guidance and pricing, keep the bottom line, in most cases, in the black)

DO NOT. if he is unconscious, DON'T TOUCH him. call his son nate (phone number) and tell him to come and get him.'

the thing about a living will is that it does not match real life.

in real life there is an increasing number of people who look at themselves as, i'll call it 'little gods', who deem themselves as having the 'right' because of their position to dictate to you and your family (if around) what is going to happen to you. i hear stories like this all the time involving public servants, such as policemen and ministers of healing in the health field. ah yes, the land of the free.

so you have paid some bucks for a useless piece of paper as far as totally protecting yourself from those who, when you can't navigate yourself, can't wait to put their mits on you and make some $....

the only good thing is that if you are favored by God to actually have
a strong, independent and legally appointed person
who actually gets contacted in an appropriate amount of time...
and can actually get to you before medically polluted,
they can possibly pull you from the medical lions' den before too much
(how much, honestly, is too much...the first foreign hand on your body is too much..)
has gone wrong
and with a bit of commonsense, timely contact with a person
who can actually be reached
and is actually available,
who can actually help without taking over
and, above all,
the providential care and guidance of God over the whole -

MAYBE I CAN BE LEFT ALONE WITH GOD TO GO TO HIM IN PEACE

rather than as a human guinea pig surrounded by those who don't have a real clue as to
1. skillfully asking understanding questions of the patient,
if conscious,
so as to determine  2. what is actually wrong
and 3. what is needed.

the bottom line is
(are you listening, nate.........):
-be patient and kind and talk with me a little from time to time (even if unconscious)
-read the bible and pray out of what is currently of concern to you.
(don't worry about me at all..i'm almost HOME!)
so i can, in my heart, join you before the gracious throne of God
-give a little water from time to time and
-give a bit of bread from time to time. that's good.

...oh well, thanks for putting up with my little tirade..
another of the many evidences,
hidden and viewed by all
of how little REAL trust i have in God.
maybe God could use me in 'guinea pig' role to do
some little thing to advance His name.

my plan at this point is to type key things that seem helpful
and also try to make an alphabetical list of things he recommends.
may You in some way cause it to be a blessing to someone
in some way.

opening page..
the three Rs: Resistance, Repair, and Recovery
Resistance to disease
Repair of injury.
Recovery from illness.

vermont folk medicine has much to give
to those who reject the inevitability
of physical impairment and wekness,
to those who plan instead
to be strong, active and free from disease
throughout their lives.
here is the wonderfully simple secret of good health
that vermonters
working WITH nature
rather than AGAINST IT,
is the best medicine.

VERMONT MEDICINE

14.  men in their 70s do a full day's work on vermont farms
as a matter of course,
and it is not unusual to find men of 80
sharing the farm work as though they were
many years younger...

that it is posswible to prolong the span of life beyond 70 years of age
is amply proved by studying native vermonters living close to the soil.
..the vermonter's knowledge of food does not come out of books
but from close association with the creatures of the barnyard,
which teaches that the DAILY FOOD INTAKE must be
HIGH IN CARBOHYDRATES,
represented by fruits, berries, edible leaves, and roots
and LOW IN PROTEINS,
represented by meat, fowl and eggs.

vermonters accept the body tissues
as soil in human form.
management of the soil
to its best advantage
requires undderstanding of natural laws,
and SPECIFIC CARE to
MAINTAIN and
BUILD it.

...(to do this) 'we take into account
dominance of the body
by MINERAL elements.
...the number of minerals included in the functioning of the human body
is one of the wonders of life.
except for silver and gold,
practically all minerals are in action.

in vefrmont fold medicine there is an extremely simple prescription
for replenishing the mineral needs of the body.
TWO TEASPOONFULS OF HONEY and
TWO TEASPOONFULS OF APPLE CIDER VINEGAR,
TAKEN IN A GLASS OF WATER
one or more times a day
depending on how much mental and physical work is done.

17....let us consider the ANIMAL LAWS
-an animal's refusal to eat when it is sick.
if we wish to imitate the animals'
restorative biochemical change
withing the body,
we can do so by limiting ourselves to
an acid drink such as
grapejuice which contains tartaric acid
or cranberry juice, which contains citric, malic, quinic and benzoic acids
or to apple juice, which contains malic acid.

..by the age of fifty one needs to begin building the body anew.
not eating to gratify the appetite,
but rather selecting the foods which
our somber second thoughts tell us

Thursday, January 17, 2013

1.17.2013 BREAKTHRU PRAYER by JIM CYMBALA

the following is taken from the chapter 'breakthrough moment'

...prayerlessness often coexists with extensive bible knowledge.
only the Holy Spirit can inspire us to pray effectually,
and He uses various means to accomplish his purpose.

first of all, SERIOUS PRAYER  is born out of a sense of need,
out of the knowledge that we must ask God to intervene.
the Spirit of God moves us toward prayer by using scripture to show us two things:
our human need and the Lord's promise of provision.
breakthrough prayer isn't born out of an 'I SHOULD PRAY TODAY' attitude but,
instead, out of an 'I MUST HAVE GOD'S HELP' frame of mind...
like worship and hunger for God,
THE IMPULSE TO PRAY IS OFTEN CONTAGIOUS.
we catch it as we watch others presenting their needs at the throne of grace,
pouring their souls out in prayer.
years ago i reached one of the lowest points in my spiritual life.
i was so challenged by the ministry
and so discouraged that i felt dangerously numb.
the Lord seemed remote, too distant to help me,
and i fell into a depressed, prayerless state.
all of this happened while i was trying to pastor a church!

one sunday during a time of prayer,
i noticed a woman standing at the edge of the platform,
sobbing quietly
and then gradually raising her hands toward heaven.
her uplifted face, stained with tears,
reflected the earnestness of her heart.
in her, i saw my answer.
the God she was imploring
was the same one i needed to call on.
i broke down in tears and began seeking the Lord again.
God used that woman to encourage a pastor in spiritual trouble,
though not one word ever passed between us.
that night i found the strength to continue my journey.

this was not a case of emotional excess,
but an example of how the act of prayer itself can inspire others.
i never learned that woman's name,
but another one named hannah,
whose story is told in the bible,
has also provided motivation for my prayer life.

hannah could be called 'the first lady of prayer'
because she's the first woman whose petition is recorded in scripture.
her story is related in some detain,
showing us how God uses deep human need
as a springboard to accomplish his purposes.
whenever he does this,
believers receive answers they can hardly believe.

(hannah couldn't have children
and her husband's second wife-with-children, peninnah taunted her)
'constantly tormented,
with no offspring of her own,
weeping and unable to eat,
hannah seemed mired in a hopeless situation.
in the midst of her pain,
she didn't know what God was about to do.
she had no idea that
He was going to raise up a prophet
who would lead His wayward people
back to Himself.
nor did she know that God would choose her,
among all the women of israel,
to bear that child.
God chose this heartbroken woman
out of compassion and grace.
and he used a remarkable method
to bring about the birth of hannah's son, samuel.

once when they had finished eating and drinking in shiloh,
hannah stood up.
now eli the priest
was sitting on a chair
by the doorpost
of the Lord's temple,
in BITTERNESS OF SOUL hannah WEPT MUCH
and prayed to the Lord.
and she made a vow, saying,
'O Lord Almighty,
IF YOU WILL only look upon Your servant's misery
and remember me,
and not forget your servant
but give her a son,
THEN I WILL give him to the Lord
for all the days of his life. I samuel 1.9-11

this prayer, one of the greatest in the bible,
not only changed hannah's life,
but also altered the history of israel....

incredibly, we have the same potential in prayer that hannah did.
like hannah, OUR 'BREAKING POINT' CAN LEAD TO A 'BREAKTHROUGH''
if it spurs us to call on God.
hannah asked for a son,
but god gave her much more. ..

hannah's encounter with the Lord was not about emotional fanaticism.
her example assures us that a prayer answering God can resolve
seemingly hopeless situations.
if we deny or doubt that fact,
we are the losers.
many times, sons and daughters are wooed back to the Lord
through a mom or dad breaking through in prayer.
great things still happen...

hannah's sorrow, tears, and anguish
showed the earnestness and intensity
of her petition....

like hannah, we sometimes find it difficult
to form the proper words for prayer.
but God hears our heart's cry even when our mouths are silent. ...

..(eli thought she was drunk and rebuked her)
..her experience at this moment points to an important lesson about prayer:
if you pray,
you will certainly become a target of satan,
who will immediately attack you
with spiritual opposition and discouragement.
the secret to prevailing in prayer involves '
'pressing through'
and 'holding on to God'.
don't be distracted
when people accuse you of fanaticism
because you believe God answers prayer.
follow the Spirit's leading
and ignore everything that discourages you
from trusting the Lord....
after hannah explained to eli what was really happening,
she manifested great faith in God.
'eli answered,
go in peace, and may the God of israel
grant you what you have asked of Him.I samuel 1.17
upon hearing that word from the priest of God,
hannah 'went her way
and ate something,
and her face was no longer downcast v18

..she felt sure her petition would be granted...
hannah was sure about God's answer BEFORE she conceived her child...

..some earlier christians used the term
'praying through'
to describe the supplication that stays
at the throne of grace
until this assurance has been granted.
rather than the human centered
'name it and claim it' formula,
this is the 'pray it and know it' cycle..

some problems, of course, will not be resolved by a few moments spent in heartfelt prayer.
these can only be overcome by extended times of prayer and waiting in faith.
..paul understood this in giving instructions about spiritual warfare in his letter to the ephesians,

'pray in the Spirit on all occasions
with all kinds of prayers and requests.
with this in mind,
be alert
and always keep on praying for all the saints..ephesians 6.18f

why must there be 'all kinds of prayer'
'on all occasions'
if God has already decided to help us?
why must we 'keep on praying for all the saints'
if one concise petition can do the trick?..

these are some of the mysteries of prayer that God never fully explains.
still, He gives spiritual insight to those who spend time with Him
at the throne of grace...

hannah did something else that day in the temple
that shows us how to succeed in prayer.
she dedicated the son she prayed for
before he was even conceived..
it seems at first glance
as though she was bargaining with God...
hannah asked for a son
and promised God that
the answer would be consecrated to Him...

A COMMON PROBLEM IN OUR PRAYER
IS THAT WE FOCUS ONLY ON OURSELVES
WITH LITTLE THOUGHT TO HOW
GOD CAN BE GLORIFIED...
(note: when we are desperate enough to say 'i will do x, if You will do y'..
if we are really desperate we may say 'i will do anything You want,
if You will do what You know is best!)

..most christians can quote from memory,
cast all your anxiety on Him
because He cares for you. I peter 5.7
but reciting a verse is different from putting it into practice.
putting a verse in practice means
unloading our burdens through fervent prayer...

but reciting a verse is different
from putting it into practice.
putting the verse into practice
means unloading our burdens through fervent prayer...

'yet i am poor and needy;
may the Lord think of me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
O my God, do not delay psalm 40.17

david combined FAITH IN GOD'S CHARACTER
with a prayer for help.
the actual transfer of our anxiety, fear, or sorrow occurs
when we give it to God in prayer.
lack of prayer translates into lack of peace
no matter how knowledgeable we are about the bible.

'do not be anxious about anything,
but in everything,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God.
and the peace of God,
which transcends all understanding,
will guard your hearts and minds
in Christ Jesus. philippians 4.6-7

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

1.16.2013 PERSONAL PRAYER

a very meaningful verse in my life has been psalms 27.4,
'one thing have i desired of the Lord, that will i seek.
that i may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life
to behold the beauty of the Lord
and to enquire in His temple.

a little over 10 years ago my son Nate and i went up to the brooklyn tabernacle.
it was the first time either of us had been there.
they were still in their old building and it was packed.
the Lord prepared my heart by the many things i experienced that day.
before the service began the prayers of the people all over the building
sounded like an otherworldly..holy, beehive.
the message from pastor cymbala was on psalm 27.4.
at the end i joined a throng of people at the front,
many who came in response to the invitation
to ask God to make this real in their lives.
it was the only time i have ever responded to an invitation as a non-child.
the fountain of my spirit was opened
and God has made real the desire and response of my heart.

in many various situations the Lord will bring that verse to mind...
almost more than any other verse.
recently i have more and more been drawn to the phrases,
'behold the beauty of the Lord' and
'inquire in His temple'
just as the new year came this meditative habit
once more had me thinking,
especially of the second..'inquire'..
asking Him to reveal what that meant practically.
with most things that i experience that are
what i call God things,
a tidal change occurred inwardly.
i find whenever the Lord
'highlights with neon yellow' marker
or 'sticks it to the soul with velcro'.
when He does this
from then on it is a part of my life.
that is what happened just after the new year.
i began a new page to write personal prayer requests
and noticed something new at the end of a lot of them.
question marks.

this has seemed,
hopefully somewhat true,
to subtly move me a bit from the position of
'I KNOW what is needed in this situation', to
'what is needed in this situation, Lord?'
maybe He is somewhat more
realizing to me, just
how little i even know how to rightly pray,
how a gracious God is
faithfully, lovingly listening...and cares
how greatly He must yearn over my sad state
seeing me like a sheep with ripped flesh from the brambles,
cast
(an animal in such a position on the ground
that it cannot get up on its feet again)
helpless to in any way help myself,
without a shepherd,
for i have wandered away
from His care, provision and protection,
thinking i know....matthew 9.36
...and is quietly working to make me a bit
more like Himself.

may God have mercy on me and help me to do what He says.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

1.15.2013 TORTURED FOR CHRIST II

i suffer in the west more than i did in communist lands. (wurmbrand speaking)

my suffering consists first of all
in the longing after the unspeakable beauties of the underground church,
the church that fulfills the old latin saying,
nudisnudum christi sequi
naked, follow the naked Christ.

in captive nations,
the Son of Man and those who are his
have nowhere to lay their heads.
many christians there don't build houses for themselves.
to what good?
they will be confiscated at their first arrest.
just the fact that you have a new house
can be a greater motive for you
to be imprisoned,
because the others wish to take your house.
there you don't bury your father,
neither do you say farewell to your family before following Christ.
..mother and brother are for you
only those who fulfill the will of God...

the underground church is a poor and suffering church,
but it has few lukewarm members.

a religious service in the underground church
is like one nineteen hundred years ago in the early church.
the preacher knows no elaborate theology.
he knows no homiletic...
the bible verses are no well known in many countries,
because bibles are not permitted.
besides, the preacher has most likely
been in prison for years without a bible.
when they express their faith in a Father,
it means much because there is a drama behind this assertion.
in prison they have daily asked this almighty Father
for bread and have received instead
cabbage with unmentionable filth.
nevertheless, they believe God to be the loving Father.
they are like job who said that he would believe in God
even if He would slay him.
they are like Jesus who called god 'Father',
even when He was seemingly forsaken on the cross....

..i see with my own eyes western civilization dying.
oswald spengler wrote in 'decline of the west',
you are dying.
i see in you all the characteristic stigma of decay.
i can prove that your great wealth
and your great poverty..
your wars ad your revolutions,
your atheism and your pessimism  and your cynicism,
your immorality,
your broken down marriages,
your birth control,
(note: your millions of abortions spengler did not foresee)
that is bleeding you from the bottom
and killing you off..

this was written in 1926...much of the west sleeps.

but there is one force that does not sleep....
we christians are often half heartedly on the side of  the whole truth.
they are wholeheartedly on the side of the lie...

to keep liberty for all denominations and all theologies,
and to regain it where it has been lost due to widespread religious persecution,
is more important than to insist upon one certain theological opinion.

'the truth shall make you free, said Jesus john 8.32
but, the same freedom, only freedom, can give the truth.
and instead of quarreling about non essentials,
we should unite in this fight for freedom against the tyrannies in this world.

...men who suffer often seek a scapegoat,
someone on whom to place the guilt.
to find such a one eases the burden much.
i cannot do it.

i cannot put the guilt on some of the church leaders of the west
who compromise with the haters of christians.
the evil comes not from them.
these leaders are themselves the victims of a much older evil.
they did not create the mess in the church;
they found it.

since being in the west, i have visited many theological seminaries.
there i heard lectures about the history of bells
and the history of liturgical songs,
about canonical laws long since disused
or about A CHURCH DISCIPLINE THAT NO LONGER EXISTS.
i have heard that some students of theology
learn that the biblical story of creation is not true,
nor that of adam,
nor the flood,
nor the miracles of moses.
some are taught that the prophecies were written after their fulfillment;
that the virgin birth is a myth;
likewise the resurrection of Jesus, that His bones have remained somewhere in a grave;
that the epistles are not genuine;
and that revelation is the book of a madman.
otherwise, the bible is a holy book!
(this leaves a holy book in which there are allegedly more lies
 than in chinese communist newspapers.)

that is what some present western church leaders learned when they were in seminaries.
that is the atmosphere in which they live.
why should they be faithful to a master
about whom such strange things are said?
why should church leaders be faithful
to a church in which it can be freely taught that
God is dead.

some leaders of denominations are not of the bride of Christ.
they are leaders in a church in which many have long since
betrayed the master.
when they meet someone of the underground church,
a martyr,
they look at him strangely....

..another pain..even very close friends misunderstand me...accuse..of bitterness..resentment against..
communists..not true.

the mosaic writer claude motefiore said that
Jesus' attitude toward scribes and pharisees,
His public denunciation of them,
is contrary to His command to love our enemies
and bless those who curse us.
and dr. w. r. matthews, retired dean of st. paul's in london,
concluded that this is an
incoherence and inconsistency in Jesus.
he gives the excuse that Jesus was not an intellectual!

monte's impression of Jesus was wrong.
Jesus loved the pharisees,
although He denounced them publicly.
and i love the communist,
as well as their tools in the church.
although i denounce them.

constantly i am told,
'forget the communists!
work only in spiritual things!...

the underground church, if helped by christians in the free world,
will win the hearts of the communists
and will change the face of the world.
it will win them,
because it is unnatural to be a communist...
the hearts of communists rebel against the role they must play
and the absurdities they are forced to believe.

individual communists asserted that 'matter is everything' -
that we are a handful of chemicals organized in a certain fashion
and that after death we will again be salt and minerals.
it was therefore enough to ask them,
'how is it that communists in so many countries have given their lives for their belief?
does a 'handful of chemicals' have beliefs/
 can 'minerals' sacrifice themselves for the good of others?
to this they have no answer.

and then there is the issue of brutality.
men were not created as brutes
and cannot bear to be brutes for long.
we have seen it in the collapse of nazi rulers,
some of whom committed suicide,
while some repented and confessed their crimes.

the enormous amount of drunkenness in communist countries
exposes the longing for a more meaningful life,
which communism cannot give.
the average russian is a
deep, big hearted, generous person.
communism is shallow and superficial.
he seeks the deep life and,
finding it nowhere else,
he seeks it in alcohol.
he expresses in alcoholism his horror about
the brutal and deceitful life he must live.
for a few moments alcohol sets him free,
as truth would set him free forever
if he could know it....

many communists commit suicide...

communists are unhappy. so are even their great dictators.
how unhappy stalin was!
after having killed nearly all of his old comrades,
he was constantly in fear of being poisoned or killed himself.
he had eight bedrooms that could be locked up
like safes in a bank.
no one ever knew in which of these bedrooms
he slept on any given night.
he never ate unless the cook tasted the food in his presence.
communism makes no one happy,
not even its dictators.
they need Christ.

by converting those who persecute christians,
we would free not only their victims,
but the persecutors themselves...

the underground church represents the deepest need of
enslaved peoples in captive nations.
help her!

the distinctive feature of the underground church
is its earnestness in faith.

the minister who disguises himself under the name of 'george'
tells in his book about God's underground the following incident:

a russian army captain came to a minister in hungary
and asked to see him alone.
the young captain was very brash,
and very conscious of his role as a conqueror.
when he had been led to a small conference room
and the door was closed,
he nodded toward the cross that hung on the wall.

you know that thing is a lie, he said to the minister.
it's just a piece of trickery you ministers use
to delude the poor people to make it easier for the rich
to keep them ignorant.
come now, we are alone.
admit to me that you never really believed that
Jesus Christ was the Son of god!

the minister smiled.
but, my poor young man,
of course i believe it.
it is true.

i won't have you play these tricks on me!,
cried the captain,
this is serious.
don't laugh at me!

he drew out his revolver and held it close to the body of the minister.

unless you admit to me that it is a lie, i'll fire!

i cannot admit that,
for it is not true.
our Lord is really and truly the son of God,

the captain flung his revolver on the floor
and embraced the man of God.
tears sprang to his eyes.

it is true! he cried. it is true.
i believe so, too,
but i could not be sure men would die for this belief
until i found it out for myself.
oh, thank you!
you have strengthened my faith.
now i too can die for Christ.
you have shown me how....

i speak on behalf of my brethren who lie in countless nameless graves.
i speak on behalf of my brethren who now meet
secretly in forests, basements, attics and other such places.

the message i bring from the underground church is;
don't abandon us!
don't forget us!
don't write us off!
give us the tools we need!
we will pay the price for using them!
this is the message i have been charged
to deliver to the free church.
i speak for the underground church,
the silenced church.
the 'dumb' church,
which has no voice to speak.
hear the crises of your brothers and sisters in captive nations!...

..help at once in the following ways.

atheists are men who do not acknowledge the invisible sources of their life.
they have no sense for what is mystery in the universe and in life.
christians can help them best by walking themselves not by sight,
but by faith,
leading a life of fellowship with the invisible God.

they can help us best by leading the lives of consistent christians,
lives of sacrifice.
they can help by protesting publicly
as often as christians are persecuted.

western christians can help us by praying for the persecutors
that they may be saved.
such a prayer may seem naive.
we prayed for the communists
and they tortured us the next day
even worse than before the prayer.
but the prayer of the Lord in jerusalem
was also 'naive'.
they crucified Him after this prayer.
but only a few days later,
they beat their breasts
and 5000 were converted in one day....

we must love our neighbors as ourselves.
communists and other persecutors are our neighbors
as much as anyone else.

they are the result of our not making known the words of Christ:
I have some that they may have life,
and that they may have it more abundantly. john 10.10
christians have no yet made this abundant life available to everyone.
they have left some on the fringe of everything valuable in life.
these individuals have rebelled and constituted
the communist party and other false beliefs.
often the victims of social injustice themselves,
they are now bitter and cruel.
we have to fight against them.
but christians, even if they fight against an enemy,
understand and love him.

we are not guiltless of the fact that some live in rebellion.
we are guilty at least by neglect of duty.
for this we have to atone by loving them-
which is something entirely different from liking them-
and praying for them.

i am not so naive as to believe that love alone can solve these problems.
i would not advise the authorities of a state
to solve the problem of gangsterism only by love.
there must be a police force, judges and prisons for gangsters-
not just pastors.
if gangsters do not repent, they must be jailed.
i would never use the christian phrase about 'love'
to counteract the appropriate political, economic, or cultural fight
against communists and other tyrants,
who are nothing but gangsters on an international scale.
gangsters steal a purse;
they steal whole countries.

but the pastor and the individual christian have to do their best
to bring to Christ rebellious nations-
whatever crimes they commit-
as well as their innocent victims.
we have to pray for them with understanding.

another way free christians can help is by sending bibles and bible portions...
,..they are desperately needed...

we also print and send special literature to counterattack
the atheist poison  being given the youth from kindergarten to college.
in the soviet union, the communists prepared 'the atheist's guidebook,
which is the atheist's bible.
simple versions are taught to kindergarten children,
with more advanced versions of the same guidebook
taught as the children progress.
the evil 'bible' follows a child as he grows and advances-
poisoning him with atheism all the way.
we print and send 'the answer to the atheist's handbook'
as the christian answer to poisonous, atheistic teachings...

we also must 'join hands ' with members of the underground church
and give them the financial means o travel about with the gospel
in person to person evangelism.
so many..are chained to their homes for lack of funds..

afterword (this is from a copy of the 30th anniversary from the time of its first printing)
..within his first year in the united states,
pastor wurmbrand was detained twice for
'disrupting' pro communist rallies.
he was called to testify before the senate,
stripping to the waist to reveal
the scars of 18 embedded wounds from the frequent tortures.
some christian leaders called him a lunatic-
one who had lost his mind in the confines of a solitary prison cell.
to others he became the 'iron curtain paul
or the 'voice of the underground church'.
a reporter with the philadelphia herald said of wurmbrand,
he stood in the midst of lions, but they could not devour him...

although we are called to take every opportunity to help those in need,
we are to recognise that the 'rite of christians
is to be persecuted.
11 of the 12 disciples were murdered.
Jesus never said it would be any different for us,.
it is part of who we are in Christ.
not all of us are called to suffer persecution,
as pastor wurmbrand did.
but when trials do come,
we should not be surprised
but rather should rejoice
that we have been considered worthy to suffer for Christ.
for he has also stated,
blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. mathew 5.10



Monday, January 7, 2013

1.7.2012 THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS by JOHN BUNYAN

this book is about a man, christian, who comes to realize that he is living  in the CITY OF DESTRUCTION and that he and his family are in imminent danger thereof. after unsuccessfully trying to persuade his wife and children of the fact and in the face of their mockery/persuasion to stay, he finally, in desperation to escape, runs-with his family crying out for him to come back- from the city, with his fingers in his ears and crying out again and again,
'LIFE, ETERNAL LIFE!

the rest of the book is a description of his journey through many difficulties and fears which  brings him finally into heaven. sometimes he travels alone, other times with another. the two longest fellow travelers are FAITHFUL and HOPEFUL. faithful is martyred. at one point.  further on hopeful joins christian and they enter heaven together.

i read this book a long time ago. a friend recently shared that he had just read the book a second time. he had received nothing the first time and he still received nothing. i had been thinking to read again and this prompted it.  i received such good and helpful spiritual impressions that i can see myself re-reading it AGAIN AND AGAIN, with benefit, as long as i may be here.

this book was criticized by some believers before it was printed. bunyan, feeling that God used the devise of allegory in the bible and sensing that it might be helpful to some who might read, went ahead with the plan to publish. i hear that only the bible has had more printed copies than this book and that many, many people have been helped spiritually. i can now heartily recommend it for it has been this second a real 'spiritual elixir' to my soul. (i was a church goer, religious and self righteous when i read the first as its only a little over 10 years since the time of what i now believe to be, by the grace of God, my true conversion...God certainly has not dealt with me according to a formulaic ' i-came-to-a-crisis-and-cried-out-to-God-to-save-me'  i once held to be the only way God saves men...no, if I am now truly saved, God found me not me Him.)

the dialogue below between CHRISTIAN and HOPEFUL takes place just after christian talks to ATHEIST. it starts on page 150 of my copy...

christian - now, then, to prevent drowsiness in this place,
let us fall into good discourse.

(note: as much as i bemoan that God has not seen fit to cause me to meet up with living examples of what some divines of old called 'experimental christians', that is genuine, serious seekers of holiness who, dead to the world, openly witnessed to the Christ and His truth and suffer in an ongoing way for it (matthew 5.10-12.) this makes me sad for i do not yet see myself as one of the number of 'experimental christians' but as some kind of aspirant to such a blessed group. i occasionally hear of some that sound like such who are reported to boldly live for Christ in the face of threats and the possibility of death. i occasionally meet dead ones in books who draw out my spirit to them to be companion with them. but i am not one. oh, may
God have mercy and help me to give all for Him and be totally unashamed of the gospel....and possibly be given the gift of actually meeting another like minded.  
sorry..back to the book.
if my above impression is generally true of the church as i have experienced it (ie.that it is dead spiritually),
yet thankfully this book, written in england of the 1600s, was written in a situation where there were actual 'experimental' christians and therefore portrays them along with all the counterfeit types.

i see the book as containing two continuous intermingled strains:
1. bunyan seems to portray genuine believers in a way that seems to almost 'say'
that any true believer
will not only seek out
but will find
ongoing dialogue about and comraderie in
both spiritual reality and experiences

(which often result in general temporal difficulty
and, what might be called repeated times of 'recovered spiritual decline')

in the hearts, conversation and acts of obedience to the word of God
of any other true believer they happen to come into contact with.

2. bunyan, on the other hand, portrays the genuine believer
as having little 'heart dialogue' with false 'believers'
(whose life contains only,
at the best, correct doctrine
and often a lot of words
but no obedient acts)

the genuine believer,
in my understanding of bunyan's portrayal of
what we call 'fellowship',
1. being a doer of the word by practice
quickly discerns the non-doer
2. and by words of truth he
a. seeks to gain the other to its practice
b. but inevitably seems to end up
unmasking the other,
who disappears from the scene.
when this happens the genuine believer is never portrayed as being saddened
...and sometimes positively relieved and gladdened, for
'evil company corrupts good morals' I corinthians 15.33

SUMMARY STATEMENT: it seems that the genuine believer is
1-obedient to the Lord
2-when disobedient or careless
turning from this and
learning from his mistake
3-very open in his speech with every other person:
believer, would be believer, false believer, unbeliever. etc
4-continuously desirous to talk with other genuine believers
not about what is 'correct doctrine',
but the experience in the pursuit of obedience
with the desire either to teach or to learn what
obedience involves
and pitfalls to its proper performance and fruit
5-very open about his faith in Jesus Christ
in words and actions...end of note... to dialogue again.)

hopeful.
with all my heart. (i want to discourse, or talk, with you)
ch.
where shall we begin?
ho.
where God began with us.
but do you begin, if you please.
ch.
 i will ask you a question.
how came you to think at first
of so doing as you DO now.
ho.
do you mean,
how came i at first
to look after the good
of my soul?
ch.
yes, that is my meaning.
ho.
i continued a great while in the delight of those things which were seen and sold at our fair;
(note: vanity fair, an allegory of all the vain, empty things this world affords-
things, wealth, power, sex, fame etc.)
things which, i believe now,
would have,
had i continued in them still,
drowned me in perdition and destruction
ch.
what things are they?
ho.
all the treasures and riches of the world.
also i delighted much in
(note: the person who is familiar with the king james version, used in bunyan's day, will soon realize how much word for word bible is in the book.)
rioting, reveling, drinking,
swearing, lying, uncleanness, sabbath breaking,
and what not, that tended to destroy my soul.
but i found at last,
by hearing and considering of things that are divine,
which indeed i heard of you,
as also of beloved Faithful,
that was put to death for his faith and good living in vanity fair,
that the end of these things is death.
and that for these things' sake
cometh the wrath of god upon the children of disobedience.
ch.
and did you presently fall under the power of this conviction?
ho.
the causes were:
1. i was ignorant that this was the work of god upon me.
i never thought that,
by awakenings for sin,
God at first begins the conversion of the sinner.
2. sin was yet very sweet to my flesh,
and i was loath to leave it.
3. i could not tell how to part with mine old companions,
their presence and actions were so desirable unto me.
4. the hours in which convictions were upon me
were such troublesome and
such heart affrighting hours,
that i could not bear, no,
not so much as the remembrance of them upon my heart.
ch.
then, as it seems, sometimes you got rid of your trouble.
ho.
yes, verily,
but it would come into my mind again,
and then i should be as bad,
nay, worse than i was before.
ch.
and could you at any time,
with ease,
get off the guilt of sin,
when by any of these ways it came upon you?
 ho.
no, not i,
for then they got faster hold of my conscience;
and then if i did but think of going back to sin
(though my mind was turned against it),
it would be double torment to me.
ch.
and how did you do then?
ho.
i thought i must endeavor to mind my life;
for else, thought i,
i am sure to be damned.
ch.
and did you endeavor to mend?
ho.
yes, for a while;
but at the last, my trouble came tumbling upon me again,
and that over the neck of all my reformations.
ch.
how came that about,
since you were now reformed?
ho.
there were several things brought it upon me,
especially such sayings as these:
all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.
by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
when ye shall have done all those things, say,
we are unprofitable;
with many more like.
from whence i began to reason with myself thus:
if ALL my righteousnesses are filthy rags;
if, by the deeds of the law,
NO man can be justified;
and if, when we have done ALL,
we are yet unprofitable,
then it is but a folly to think of heaven by the law.
i further thought thus:
if a man runs a hundred pounds into the shopkeeper's debt,
and after that shall pay for all that he shall fetch;
yet, if this old debt stands still in the book uncrossed,
for that the shopkeeper may sue him,
and cast him into prison till he shall bay the debt.
ch.
how did you apply this to yourself?
ho.
why, i thought thus with myself:
i have,
by my sins,
run a great way into god's book,
and that my now reforming will not pay off that score:
therefore i should think still,
under my present amendments,
but how shall i be freed from that damnation
that i have brought myself in danger of,
by my former transgressions?
ch.
a very good application;
but pray, go on.
ho.
another thing that hath troubled me,
even since my late amendments,
is that
IF I LOOK NARROWLY
INTO THE BEST OF WHAT I DO NOW,
I STILL SEE SIN,
NEW SIN,
MIXING ITSELF
WITH THE BEST OF THAT I DO;
so that now i am forced to conclude,
that notwithstanding my former fond conceits of myself and duties,
I HAVE COMMITTED SIN ENOUGH IN ONE DAY
TO SEND ME TO HELL,
THOUGH MY FORMER LIFE HAD BEEN FAULTLESS.
ch.
and what did you do then?
ho.
Do!
i could not tell what to do
until i brake my mind to Faithful,
for he and i were well acquainted.
and he told me,
that unless i could obtain the righteousness
of a man that never had sinned,
neither mine own,
nor all the righteousness of the world,
could save me.

ch.
and did you think he spake true?
ho.
had he told me so
when i was pleased and satisfied
with mine own amendment (trying to do good instead of bad)
i had called him fool for his pains;
but now,
since i see mine own infirmity,
and the sin that cleaves to my best performance,
i have been forced to be of his opinion.
ch.
but did you think,
when at first he suggested it to you,
that there was such a man to be found,
of whom it might justly be said
that he never committed sin?
ho.
i must confess the words at first sounded strangely,
but after a little more talk and company with him,
i had a full conviction about it.
ch.
and did you ask him what man this was,
and how you must be justified by him?
ho.
yes, and he told me it was the Lord Jesus,
that dwelleth on the right hand of the Most High.
and thus, said he,
you must be justified by Him,
even by trusting to what He hath done by Himself,
in the days of His flesh,
and suffered when He did hang on the tree.
i asked him further,
how that man's righteousness could be of that efficacy
to justify another before god:
and he told me He was the mighty God,
and did what He did,
and died the death also,
not for Himself,
but for me;
to whom His doings,
and the worthiness of them,
should be imputed,
it i believed on Him.
ch.
and what did you then?
ho.
i made my objections against my believing,
for that i though He was not willing to save me.
ch.
and what said Faithful to you then?
ho.
he bid me go to Him and see.
then i said it was ;presumption;
but he said,
no, for i was invited to come.
then he gave me a book of Jesus,
His inditing,
(compose, write)
to encourage me the more freely to come;
and he said, concerning that book,
that every jot and tittle thereof stood firmer than heaven and earth.
then i asked him,
what i must to when i came;
and he told me,
I MUST ENTREAT
WITH ALL MY HEART AND SOUL,
THE RATHER TO REVEAL HIM TO ME.
then i asked him further,
how i must make my supplication to Him?
and he said,
go, and thou shall find Him upon a mercy seat,
where He sits all the year long,
to give pardon and forgiveness to them that come.
i told him that i knew not what to say when i came.
and he bid me say to this effect;
God be merciful to me a sinner,
and make me to know and believe in Jesus Christ;
for i see, that if His righteousness had not been,
or i have not faith in that righteousness,
i am utterly cast away.
Lord, i have ordained that Thy Son Jesus Christ
should be the Saviour of the world;
and moreover, that Thou art willing to bestow Him
upon such a poor sinner as i am
(and i am a sinner indeed);
Lord, take therefore this opportunity,
and magnify Thy grace in the salvation of my soul,
through thy Son Jesus Christ. amen.
ch.
and did you do as you were bidden?
ho.
yes; over, and over and over.
ch.
and did the Father reveal His Son to you?
ho.
not at the first nor second nor third nor fourth nor fifth;
no, nor at the sixth  time neither.
ch.
what did you do then?
ho.
what! why i could not tell what to do.
ch.
had you not thoughts of leaving off praying?
ho.
yes; an hundred times twice told.
ch.
and what was the reason you did not?
ho.
i believed that that was true which had been told me,
to wit, that without the righteousness of this Christ
all the world could not save me;
and therefore, thought i with myself,
IF I LEAVE OFF I DIE,
AND I CAN DIE AT THE THRONE OF GRACE.
and withal, this came into my mind:
though it tarry, wait for it;
because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
so i continued praying until the Father showed me His Son.
ch.
and how was He revealed unto you?
ho.
i did not see Him with my bodily eyes,
but with the eyes of my understanding;
and thus it was:
one day i was very sad,
i think sadder than at any one time in my life,
and this sadness was through a fresh sight of the greatness and vileness of my sins.
and as i was then looking for nothing but hell,
and the everlasting damnation of my soul,
suddenly, as i thought,
i saw the Lord Jesus Christ, look down from heaven upon me,
and saying,
'beleive on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
but i replied,
Lord, i am a great, a very great sinner.
and He answered,
My grace is sufficient for thee.
then i said,
but, Lord, what is believing?
and then i saw from that saying,

'he that cometh to Me  shall never hunger,
and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst',

that believing and coming was all one;
and that he that came,
that is, ran out in his heart and affections after salvation by Christ,
he indeed believed in Christ.
then the water stood in mine eyes,
and i asked further:
but Lord, may such a great sinner as i am
be indeed accepted of Thee,
and be saved by Thee?
and i heard Him say,
'and him that cometh to Me,
i will in no wise cast out.
then i said,
but how, Lord, must i consider of Thee in my coming to Thee,
that my faith may be placed aright upon Thee?
then He said,
'Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
He is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
he died for our sins, and rose again for our justification.
He loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood.
He is mediator betwixt God and us.
He ever liveth to make intercession for us.
from all which i gathered,
that i must look for righteousness in His person,
and for satisfaction for my sins by his blood;
that what he did in obedience to His Father's law,
and in submitting to the penalty thereof,
was not for Himself,
but for him that will accept it for his salvation,
and be thankful.
AND NOW WAS MY HEART FULL OF JOY
MINE EYES FULL OF TEARS,
AND MINE AFFECTIONS RUNNING OVER WITH LOVE
TO THE
NAME,
PEOPLE
AND WAYS
OF JESUS CHRIST.
ch.
this was a revelation of Christ to your soul indeed;
but tell me what effect this had upon your spirit.
ho. it made me see that all the world,
notwithstanding all the righteousness thereof,
is in a state of condemnation.
it made me greatly ashamed of the vileness of my former life,
and confounded me with the sense of mine own ignorance;
for there never came thought into my heart before now
that showed me so the beauty of Jesus Christ.
IT MADE ME LOVE A HOLY LIFE AND
LONG TO DO SOMETHING FOR THE HONOR AND GLORY
OF THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS;
yea, i thought that had i now a thousand gallons of blood in my body,
i could spill it all for the sake of the Lord Jesus.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

1.2.2013 AMERICAN DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE (1828) by NOAH WEBSTER I

1. DEDICATION to George Washington

after eight long years as commander in chief of the army of the republic, washington was ready to resign his commission. he wrote from his head quarters at newburgh, june 14,1783, in his circular letter to the states,

'i  now make it my earnest prayer,
that God would have you, and the state over which you preside,
in His holy protection,
that He would incline the hearts of the citizens
to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government,
 to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another,
for their fellow citizens of the united states at large,
and particularly for their brethren who have served in the field,
and finally, that He would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all,
to do justice,
to love mercy,
and demean ourselves with that charity, humility and pacific temper of mind,
which were the characteristicks of the divine author of our blessed religion,
and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things,
we can never hope to be a happy nation'.

2. (note: on another page, after the dedication,
webster gives amazing facts about the sequoia tree
ending with the fact that many are from 3,000 to 4,000 years old...and concludes,)
'here they remained while the chain of christianity moved westward
with 'signs following'-
the liberty of the individual and of nations.
just yesterday, in the sequoia's life,
came the flowering of these bethlehem principles in government-
'we hold these truths to be self evident,
that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable
(not transferable to another or capable of being repudiated (to reject as having no authority or binding force)
that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness-
that to secure these rights,
governments are instituted among men....'

(note: compare this kind of liberty to what Jesus says in
JOHN 8.31f...'if you ABIDE IN MY WORD, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and YOU SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH and the truth shall make you FREE...
v34...'everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.
and the slave does not remain in the house forever;
the son does remain forever.
if the SON SHALL MAKE YOU FREE you shall be FREE INDEED.

webster's word 'right' shows the difference between God's view of 'rights' and man's view..
definition 2
'in morals and religion,
just,
equitable,
ACCORDANT TO THE STANDARD OF TRUTH AND JUSTICE OR THE WILL OF GOD. that
ALONE IS RIGHT in the sight of God, which is consonant to His will or law;
this being the only perfect standard of truth and justice. (ie. john 8)
in social and political affairs, (the above view, God's has been changed by men...)
THAT IS RIGHT
WHICH IS CONSONANT TO THE LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF A COUNTRY,
( in a democracy, X OUT THIS LAST LINE) provided these laws and customs are not repugnant to the laws of God.'

reflecting on how far the founding fathers' view of the WORD 'liberty'
is from Jesus' view of freedom..i journaled,
the core WORDS of any human language are, ideally, to be granite like indicators of the reality, all created by God...never changing, revealing the way a man ought to live before God and in connection with unchanging truth. however the study of words, as actually used among men, show that
they are clear indicators of man's fallen nature, of his 'bent' away from God and His truth that started in the garden of eden.

...continuing...now when we read these words ('life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness') they kind of do something to us..maybe bring a lump to the throat and a tear to the eye..
as americans we tend to invest them with a mystical, a magical power.
but as christians we realize they are at best misleading
...and at worst, a lie.

following is some commentary that flowed into a journal after reading them:

men are created equal only in the sense
that every man is created in the image of God,
that every man is invited by God to call upon Him
for deliverance from and forgiveness of his sin.
aside from these
there equality ends
due to the fact that we live in a world which has become alienated from God.
human beings
do not see other human beings as equal
other than a public head nod to poetical expressions of the same.
the realities of life show this fact.
the day to day of man's inhumanity to man is a much truer picture of reality
than men treating those around them as they would like to be treated themselves.

secondly, men are created by God
for the exercise of His will
and have nary a right before Him
even though men may claim to create, out of thin air, the 'right' or 'rights' of men.
it is nothing more than a paltry human devise which creates a legal fiction
that does not square with reality before Him...
and exist objectively no where outside the dictionary.
(1. 'right',  a just claim or title, whether legal, prescriptive, or moral. 2. sometimes, 'rights', that which is due to anyone by just claim, legal guarantees, moral principles)

finally,
LIFE and LIBERTY
are not rights.
they are gifts given
by certain men to certain men
in the providence of God.
further,
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS
as viewed by God,
far from being a right,
is an evidence of departure
from the duty
God calls man to.

a person truly born of God is
HIS SLAVE FIRST, LAST AND ALWAYS.
where he lives is absolutely immaterial
if he is deciding how he will live
-continually breaking the first and foremost commandment of God
THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER GOD BEFORE ME-
rather than doing what God commands.

every man,
having become alienated from his creator
through the sin of the first man, adam,
does what HE not God wants..
he pursues his own happiness.
(the source of this is happenings here..on earth.)

any man,
having become a child of God
through the sacrificial death of God's Son, Jesus,
increasingly over time,
comes to do
and love to do
what God commands.
(the source of this is the One who waits for us there..in His eternal kingdom in heaven)

Thou wilt show me the path of life:
in Thy presence is fullness of joy;
at Thy right hand there are pleasures for
evermore. psalm 16.11

3. another introductory page..
noah webster's famous 'blue-backed speller', his 'grammars' and 'readers' all contained biblical and patriotic themes and webster spearheaded the flood of educational volumes emphasizing christian, constitutional values for more than a century...the 1828 American Dictionary has the greatest number of biblical definitions given in any secular volume. he felt 'education useless without the bible'
'and while he cautioned against too extensive use of the bible in the schools as 'tending to irreverence' he reiterated
'in my view, the christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government, ought to be instructed. ..no truth is more evident to my mind than that the christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people'..

(note: whether he knew that only a true believer in Christ and the bible could be free is not stated..certainly the more generally accepted the values of christianity are in a society, the more that society can take on the appearance of freedom by the, say, cultural imitation of the ten commandments etc...maybe he was thinking the salt and light of true believers would cause the general increase of christians.)

'upon horace mann rests the blame for removing from the curriculum the study of an american philosophy of government. opposed to the fundamental conceptions of our american constitution namely, property, self government and voluntary union, horace mann,
'the father of progressive education', removed the spirit of constitutionalism and allowed only the letter to remain. the bible, which noah webster indicated as the source of 'the principles of republican government' was closed to its primary function'
namely to testify of God's redeeming grace for mankind through Jesus Christ. actually, it was mann in the 1840s who removed the bible and its sacred purpose from the schools, not the..supreme court in the 1960s.
through the european pilgrimages of horace mann and his contemporaries the alien seeds of foreign ideologies and philosophies of education were implanted in american soil. the independence from european 'maxims of government' which noah webster had worked so diligently to achieve was subverted during the early years when american education was made the ward of the state. 'a federal catechism', part of 'the american spelling book, had introduced civics into the curriculum in 1794,  it gave a short explanation of the principles of the american constitutional form of government and defined america as 'a representative REPUBLIC
(note: rule by law (reflective of the bible) as opposed to, what we have had for the last 150 or so years, democracy, the rule of people)  
is 'a better form of government'. the 'defects of democracy' were discussed and students learned distinctly why a 'federal representative republic' is 'a better form of government'. shortly after schools became organized under state systems the substitution of democracy for republic was made'.