Be Used Where You Are!

I want to rejoice exuberantly that here at Suburban (and wherever you may be) there are some men and women like Elisha......you are diligent out on your farms, busy in your fields & faithful to the ordinary unnoticed life. Some of you are people who just always put yourselves...

• into the menial things...
• the ordinary things,
• the things which men would not call specifically spiritual service....

 .....it may not be that you are called to be a prophet...
but, it is that you are called to be faithful in His service and ultimately His purpose....

Whatever that it is that you are doing here....it is where you are right now - let God use you there!!

Elisha’s ministry, when the mantle fell from heaven on him, was to be a mighty Prophet, and when the mantle fell from heaven on you your ministry is what you are now doing for God and His church, God’s people, and His purposes through you here at ‘the SUB’ (or wherever you are) and you will continue to be used in the way God is using you till He takes you home or until the Lord says, “That is enough.”

 

God raised Jesus from the dead

{KJV}John 11:25 “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.”

Jesus’ resurrection is often used as an argument for the existence of God. And there is good reason. Jesus called himself the ‘Son of God.’ So if Jesus is the ‘Son of God’ then we could believe that there must be a ‘God’.  But some skeptics object that Jesus’ resurrection does not prove God’s existence at all. The atheist might say that, even if Jesus rose from the dead, this doesn’t prove that God exists. After all, a very powerful being  may have raised Jesus from the dead and it’s possible that something which we can’t explain scientifically took place and brought Jesus back to life......

So we could all ask the question........Are there any strong reasons to believe that someone other than God raised Jesus’ bloodless, suffocated, ripped to within an inch of death by 39 lashes body back from the dead?
First note that there is no one on the streets of history that has made the claim to have done it, and there is no evidence that someone else did do it.

Yet we do have Jesus’ very own claim that his resurrection would be evidence that he had divine authority (Mt 12:38, 16:4; Jn 2:18-21). 
On top of that we have the claim of alleged eyewitnesses who were taught by the risen Jesus and claimed that God raised him (Acts 2:24, 3:15; 1 Cor. 6:14 & 15:15).

These people, and especially Jesus, were certainly in the best possible position to identify the cause of his resurrection.  Unless the skeptic can produce stronger evidence in support of another way in which Jesus came back to life, the most sound thought or line of reasoning would be that God.......Jesus’ Father, breathed new life into His lifeless body......

On account of Jesus’ own teachings, his listeners concluded that his resurrection was an act that only God was capable of performing....

Jesus performed miracles and predicted future events, at times he read peoples’ thoughts....He lived an exemplary life. On top of that, we can read into his words that this sign; i.e. his resurrection, would be proof that He was sent by God from heaven and that God endorsed His entire life and message. Since dead men have no such capacity to act, it would certainly be reasonable to conclude that God, just like Jesus said, raised His lifeless body from the dead. And if Jesus rose, and all history proves he did in fact rise, then there is a God....and it can therefore be said of the atheists, Psalms 14:1 “The fool says in his heart, there is no God.”

Athiesm pt 2

{KJV}Ps 53:1 “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.”

There are a lot of people who don’t like God...if He could be sued, the courts would have a backlog of people who wished to stand against Him before a judge.....lol, but true!
Today there is a very aggressive and hostile form of Atheism...it is called “militant atheism” and these people are very excited. One of the great ironies, at least to me, is that they spend so much time fighting a God that they themselves say doesn’t exist. If there is no God, then why in the world don’t you just move on with it? 
One problem that I have seen in my life is the “One World Religion” movement...where all religions are put together. You’ve probably even heard it said there is one God but he has revealed himself differently to different people and religions...there’s even a sticker with all the symbols on it. Well, so many times, Christianity and Islam are linked together and the atheists write their books blurring the distinction between the two...so what you hear is these atheistic writers griping about the horrible atrocities done in the name of religion (mostly Islamic extremists) and they argue that the problem is with religion in general. Then you get this complaint that Christianity throughout history has caused the death of many people...that thousands were killed in the crusades...but they fail to tell people (and people have not learned) that the crusades fought by the Christians were to get back Jerusalem, the Holy City, from the Muslims, who had conquered and plundered it earlier. Gee, if the Hindus came into Saudi Arabia today and took the city of Mecca away from the Muslims, would there be an outcry if the Muslims armed themselves and attempted to take it back?

On top of that, Darwinism along with people like Friedrich Nietzsche (who coined the phrase ‘God is dead’), Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx, are all high priests of Atheism....ask the world how many people they have killed with their teachings?! Out of the twentieth century ‘the century of Atheism’ came Hitler and the killing of over 50 million people, Stalin and Mao Zedong killed over 150 million.......Atheism not only makes life cheap but robs it if of any meaning or significance....Dr. Stephen Jay Gould, professor at Harvard was an evolutionist and communist and he declared that human beings were nothing more than ‘twigs,’ like ones you find in your backyard...not a living branch cut off from the tree, and not a part of the beautiful tree, but just a dried-up laying around twig, good for nothing but to be put in a shredder or cast in the fire. Wow, that’s inspirational isn’t it...

Part 3 of 4 in a few days....

Athiesm? pt 1

We’re hearing that the founder of Facebook, who many thought was an atheist, has had his heart opened to the fact that there is a God and returned to his roots as a Jew...What a wonderful revelation it must have been to him these many years from his blindness. We can only continue to pray that he and so many like him seek deeper and grow as they find the true source of life, joy, peace, truth, etc…..Jesus!

On atheists, Dr. D.James Kennedy, the mighty minister of God at Coral Ridge Ministries, once wrote in his book, ‘The Presence of a Hidden God’ pg.24, something about atheism that is interesting...I will pass it along somewhat condensed. “Quite a few years ago I was invited to debate an atheist on the radio. The first thing I asked this doctor was, “Are you an atheist?” He said, “Yes.” I said, “Do you deny the existence of God?” He said, “Oh absolutely.” I said, “Wonderful. I suppose you understand that atheism is irrational.” He said, “What do you mean? Of course not.”

Dr. Kennedy then said, “Atheism, of course, is a universal negative. Atheism says there is no God.” Everyone who has studied logic knows what my friend on the radio didn’t know: it is impossible to prove a universal negative.  If you say there’s no such thing in the entire universe as little green men, let me assure you, you can’t possibly prove it. Should you travel to every planet and every star and through every galaxy in the entire universe and come back and tell me you didn’t see one, I would simply say to you, “well, you missed him.  While you were going that way, he was zigging this way.”  You would have to examine every single part of the universe at the same time.  I’ll say it again: it is impossible, according to the laws of logic, to prove any universal negative.

A universal negative is when you say, “There’s no such thing in the universe as....” –as little green men, angels, or God. Therefore, atheism is a logical contradiction, and to affirm a logical contradiction is irrational.

A thought: If we could wrap our minds around the infinite God, we would be greater than He is.....Part 1of 4

Elevated Souls

KJV 2 Chron 17:5-6 “all Judah brought to Jehoshaphat presents; and he had riches and honor in abundance. 6 And his heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord: moreover he took away the high places and groves out of Judah."

Jehoshaphat...lifted his soul to the Lord...not his eyes or thought life and not his ways or possessions...it was his heart – ‘his soul’...his eternal person....this man found himself, because of his relationship with the Lord and the deep working of that relationship, that it brought him to a point as to where he was favored and blessed....and that elevation...his vertical position was established and witnessed by others.

Oh to have an ‘elevated soul’ in the Lord...to have it established and polished off by God and to have it be a witness that God has recovered His testimony within us....’the elevated soul’....how that elevation of the soul separates good people from the masses.

The very elevation, the greatness of personality or position the greatness of the events of a man’s life, no matter how social and humanitarian he himself may be, or how noble his efforts for his neighbor may be……. that very elevation of soul may repel men as well as attract them.

The conviction that some men have…’that here in this fella’ is an incorruptible bullheaded dignity, one who will not compromise with iniquity, serves to separate that man from the rest of the people. We witness its power in twelve fishermen, a murderous Pharisee (Paul), a 20-year addict turned into an effective street preacher, or other men and women today whose lives go beyond a salvation experience. Elevated souls.

When a man is so dedicated to his Savior, his God that his companionship and love literally repositions his soul....what a walk he must enjoy...

 

 

Mirrors Finely Polished

One evening when our kids were over, we recognized that the grandkids were quietly playing in the family room....now different families of grandkids coming together in a family room and playing together and being noticeably  and commendably quiet is not something that you normally associate in that environment. But it was so!  All of a sudden the silence spoke to our parental nature and we headed to see what was up in the game room.....It was a sort of weird phenomenon but we looked down and the kids were all huddled around this toy gas station. The station had built into it a garage, and deep in the wall way back was a piece of metal which was to be used as a mirror. When you put a car in front of it, the reflection looked like a bunch of cars and this caught the kids imagination...the image was very poor but nevertheless it made one car look like several.....and several cars made it look totally undiscernible, but it kept them concentrating on mixing combinations of cars and colors to see how the reflection (though it was bad) would turn out....the metal was a very poor way to reflect the proper image of its subject ......

When I was a kid, we had a wonderful three bedroom camp in Tionesta, PA. When we bought the camp, it had a lot of primitive old items in it, and two or three of them were mirrors that hung in each room...the years had taken their toll on those mirrors and the winters, where the camp sat unused for months without heat, played an enormous rule in their effectiveness to reflect...so when you went to look into one of them, all you could see was this black coming through. Whatever image you hoped to see when you approached it, was always disrupted by that black on the mirror. When I was little I would try unsuccessfully to wash it off. Those mirrors could not reflect the clarity that the subject being reproduced wished to see! You could look in those mirrors and never see the lettuce on your tooth or the poppy seed stuck in a crevice near your gums.....lol.....

I was thinking of the gospels this week and I just so deeply thought of the apostles, those dear fisherman, those twelve men who were providentially called to be Christ’s witnesses in the world after He Himself had left it. It was to be their peculiar duty to give to the world a faithful account of their Master’s words and deeds, and a just image of His character, a true reflection of His spirit. This duty could only be given to us by persons who had been, as nearly as possible, eye-witnesses and servants of the Master from the beginning. Those twelve on whom so much depended, it plainly behooved to possess very extraordinary qualifications....those twelve mirrors would have to be finely polished because they were designed to reflect the image of Jesus...

             …us too!

Hearing His Voice

Isa 26:9 KJV “With my soul have I desired Thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek Thee early.”

How we all need a faith walk where our Father God is open in His communication to us….where His love and grace, His will and wisdom is heard by us so it can lead and guide us……His voice known to us, His tone always hinting of welcome, His sweet whispers present to soothe our souls…..

I know there are people who would say, “that is a bunch of nonsense, I believe in God and that being in church is a good thing. I know church helps to keep people in step, but as to God sharing His will with you and His being present to communicate His heart to you, I don’t believe in that at all.”

That line of reasoning just helps to prove my text….God doesn’t manifest Himself to the world…..it’s for those who desire to hear His intimate whispers while lying under the stars, His voice like the sound of a thunder clap, the sweet melody that comes out of struggle and despair, the One singing to you in that great and terrible time of sorrow. That is the voice of our Father.  A Believer should not have a simple “feel good” hunch about his Lord…every believer should have a deep-in-the-soul, know-in-your-knower ability to distinguish the pleasant and thoughtful voice of God because it is so present in his/her life.

I believe that there are times when we as Christians are in a season of fellowship where it seems like we are living right next door to the Kingdom of God….times when our heart is so filled with such heavenly ecstasy that if we were to move another inch we would walk right past the pearly gates and into Paradise. There have been times in my life when I feel like I could walk right into the Holy place and take a piece of the showbread right off the altar. Times when I could smell the incense from the censors and hear the harps and angels singing…times when I am alone but feel a comforting Presence like nothing I can explain.
The apostle Paul wrote, “I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.” He spoke of a man (maybe even speaking of himself) who was caught up to the third heaven and heard unspeakable words not known to the human ear….

A voice spoke to Moses at the burning bush. The prophets dreamed strange dreams…John, and Jesus Himself, heard that voice at His baptism…even men wishing to do harm to God’s people…..men not believers at all have been told by God…”abandon this or that.” Men throughout the ages have heard that voice….felt that push…been ignited by His unction…

God wants to reveal more of Himself and His love to each of us, and those of us who preach, and those of us who continue to share the Word, and those of us with an active witness, and those of us with a burden for someone or some group, we know there is a simple truth that is basic to all of us…”WE HAVE TO SEE MORE TO TELL MORE.”….We cannot tell what we do not know….we cannot proclaim a hidden message.

Let’s pray for each other that in these times of great darkness we will see more visions, dream real dreams, hear truth in revelation, share in a deeper light, so we can rescue those slowly dying souls around us…….with my soul I desire Thee in the night…Amen