The Heart God Revives

Ps 51:17;  The sacrifice you want is a broken spirit. A broken and repentant heart, O God, you will not despise. (NLT)

In this writing I would like to focus a little attention on those within the Body of Christ that have a humble heart or as Ps 51:17 says, “a broken spirit.”  Now the broken spirit means your spirit is broken like a toy gets broken.  Actually that word for broken used twice in this scripture is ‘shabar’ and it means, to break, to break in pieces, to break down, to rend violently, to wreck, to crush, to quench ....gosh that is ugly! God wants people who are not in their flesh, they are willing to be broken, crushed, wrecked, quenched, and rent violently.... to remove sin. In other words when they see themselves in their sin, it matters to them.  They are so truly hungry for God that they want that stuff out of them to make room for greater holiness and the power that comes with it. So what would I look like if I had a broken spirit? Let’s look:

·       You are grieved over the cause, the root, of your sin.

·       Once broken, you don’t give a hoot who knows or who finds out, ‘they’ve found the pearl of great price’.

·       Are truly, genuinely repentant over their sin, evidenced in the fact that they forsake that sin.....Hmmmmmm, they what?  Forsake that sin!

·       They realize that they need to have a continual heart attitude of repentance and they ask for the grace of God to give them the repentant power. They want the sin away, removed and done with....not pretending God’s goodness doesn’t mind them having it.

·       Don’t play sincere by making some general ‘I’ am sorry for my sin statement,’...These people  are specific and want that specific sin gone...they know it’s name and they abandon it b/c they know it is taking the place of something better, some greater gift, some greater anointing, some greater Holy Ghost virtue, etc...they want that power, that gift, that walk...God’s all over them and they want to wear Him till they get their new glory robe in heaven.

·       They continually sense the need for a fresh encounter w/ God and the Holy Ghost.

·       They yield their rights and have a meek spirit.

·       Have a sense of their own unworthiness; and are thrilled that God would use them to begin with.

·       Are totally wiped out by how much they know they need to learn.

·       Not big on self or self seekers.

·       They desire to promote others. They understand one is an eye the other a toe and another is an ear and they make room for them.

·       Are self denying.

Wow is that awesome!  On Friday I will give you some proud people stuff and you can compare them together and see where you stand.

For some more great scripture hopping on this subject read Mt 23:12; Ps 25:9; Ps 51:10; Ps 119:11; Obadiah 3; Jer 17:9; John 17:4;

The Great Event

How many people do you know who search the planets for new life.  What scientific club have you seen or read in the paper who is searching the heavenlies for extra-terristrials, also know as aliens. They are continually watched by the millions-but there is one great event in the worlds history that commands far more spectators than watching the moon, searching the planets or observing the heavenlies.  There is one great event, which every day attracts more admiration than do the sun, moon, stars or the planets that faithfully keep their course. That event is the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
To that event the eyes of every saint is directed and commands their fullest attention.  Upon Christ the angels in heaven perpetually gaze.  Upon Christ, if we look backwards through the centuries every saint that has ever lived have their eyes fixed upon Christ. The resurrection commands that much attention.  It is upon that singular event that God himself was so pleased  that he could receive his created  but separated worshippers. Millions of the redeemed pilgrims, whose tear path we can only imagine have no higher object for their faith, and no better desire for their vision, than to see Jesus as He is in heaven sitting at the right hand of God.
Reader you are not a solitary spectator of that horrible Calvary and its bloody crucifixtion.  All the universe turns its eyes to that place which is the focus of heaven's joy and delight, the cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This Easter week take some time to visit Calvary.  Let's hope to have the leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit while we look upon Him who died upon that tree. Think, today of the cause of Christ's death.  Reflect for a time this week on the reason for Christ's death. Lastly, think of the wonderful benefits of our redeemer's death. Happy Easter!  He is Risen....He is risen indeed!

Otherness

It is, I'll grant you, an odd title.  But that being said, if you will read this little work you will find out (odd or not) that it has extensive potential. In the first chapter of the book of the great Apostle John you will find that he describes within that initial writing, three things that failed to recognize Jesus Christ our Savior, what His purpose was and who He was.
 Those three things are 1) darkness which to me represents Satans' powers and plans, 2) the world, where he actively employes those powers and plans, and 3) the Jewish nation, in which everything he does, he works to destroy.  That Jewish nation includes the Hebrew's themselves, the big brother of the Gentile church, which is now grafted into Gods family tree.
Why did so many not see Christ?  I believe those three systems saw Christ the same way as the disciples did (but didn't recognize it).  Let me explain.
When Jesus brought the disciples into His "school of the Holy Spirit", one of the first things they had to learn was how 'other' Jesus was from themselves. I'm sure it didn't come to them at first, and that is why darkness, the world and the Jewish nation didn't get it either. But as the Lord's disciples continued on with Him, they found themselves again and again clashing with His thoughts, His mind, His ways. They would urge Him to take a certain course of action, to do certain things, to go to certain places; they would seek to bring upon Him "their own" judgements, feelings and ideas.  But He would have none of it. All the time He was putting them back on their heels as He would show them how altogether "other" His ways were from their own.
  I believe the disciples probably got really frustrated and Jesus Himself would have gotten frustrated as well but He knew exactly what He was trying to accomplish in them. It's a lesson we will have to learn as well.  That "otherness" which was in Christ, that the disciples had to learn, is also what we have to study and learn ourselves in this school of the Spirit. When we have throughly learned that lesson - the lesson of  "altogether other" or 'otherness' then we can begin constructive work. But at present it is necessary for you to come to the place where you recognize you are 'altogether other' than Christ.  The difference is that we, you and me, move in two, totally altogether opposite worlds than our ordinary mind. This will of man, at its best, is another will. We cannot produce from this nature anything acceptable to God. All that can ever come to God is through Christ alone - it's not in us.
 What I am trying to get into you is this - we need to know that we are one thing and the "otherness of Christ" is another. We must pray that our way of thinking would be transformed and become "other" than what the natural man thinks.

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Fullness of God

Someone asked T.Austin Sparks what it would take to get the fullness of God in his/her life.  Austin pretty much thought about it and wrote a book on it.  I like what he said and I will pass it on to you.
There are three things essential to a full Christian life he said. First, the realization that God is concerned with the accomplishment of something worthy of Himself.  He said, "we will not get very far toward a full Christian life, or a life with God, until it breaks upon us and takes hold of us that God is really concerned with the accomplishment of something worthy of Himself. What a grand statement, Austin...bravo! 
The second thing is that people shall become aware of what that great something in the heart of God is, what it is that God is so concerned with, and then, and then, and then, that they shall be moved to co-operate with Him in it.  That is an essential to a life of fullness with God, that we His people shall come to see what it is that He is really is set upon, what it is that will really be worthy of Himself, and, more than that, that we shall become so deeply moved about this matter as to co-operate with Him in it.
The third thing that we are to recognize is that this object in the heart of God and this co-operation with Him by His people involves very real conflict and cost, and that His people must face that and be ready to accept it.
Austin is writing this article using the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah was the last historic book of the Old Testament, and Nehemiah was the last great man of the Old Testament, who finds himself contemporary with terrible spiritual decline. He also found that God is willing and wanting to act in that nation according to His will and desire to bring restoration and revival to the Jewish people who are deep in idolatry.
I think many people in contemporary America, or Britain or wherever feel that the time has gone and conditions are too bad, and we can hope for nothing very much in view of the our situation here and around the world; but this book and this man, administer a very sound rebuke to any such pessimism.  As a matter of fact, Nehemiah rebukes some men who want to talk to him by explaining to them that he can't stop or be side tracked because God has him on assignment.  Put your ear to the window of history and listen to what Nehemiah said to them, I quote it from Neh. 6:3...."I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?"  Is that awesome....Call us to your purpose Lord and then we can say to temptation, why should I stop to talk to you I am to busy doing God's stuff.

"Do I really have to get rid of my sin??"

This blog concludes my remarks about secret sins.
The very reason we have so much unbelief today is because we have so many people who love their sins and desire to stay in them. Many people have no god or they will fashion a belief about God so that it comforts them or allows them to live their life without the conviction of sin. Many people will have no god because God interferes with their lusts. They would not be able to go on with their evil pleasures if they allowed themselves to believe in a god over and above them. It is for this reason that people hate God and hate His servants - because the truth is too hot to handle.
If you would send along a preacher who would not tell them of their sins they would hear him gladly; but when the truth of the gospel comes with power then men can't bear it (or they sure don't want to hear it!) When the gospel message tramps upon a rascals' vice, sin or iniquity, it is then that they become obstinate, and refuse to believe.
We could probably triple our church attendance and have people standing in the overflow section of the sanctuary and have tons of folks believing the gospel even more, if they were allowed to live in their sins as well. Think about it! How many drunken reprobates would be a "christian" if they could live peaceably with their sin.  How many thieves, how many philanderers, liars, schemers or arsonists would come to church if they could believe and yet retain their sins.
There is just one huge problem. Faith and sin can never stand side by side; or righteous together with unrighteousness. The gospel would cry, "down with it," "down with it," and the man of guilt would say "not so, down with the gospel."  For the sinner, it is too hot to handle so it's easier to turn aside from it.
No one in his right mind wouldn't say there is a "pleasure" to sin. Hebrews 11:25 says that Moses chose to suffer affliction with the children of Israel, rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. You got that last word, right? "Season", like summer, winter, etc. Seasons don't stay forever, they soon turn into something else. Just like the "pleasure of sin" for a season.  Before long the pleasure turns into pain, hurt, then destruction, ugliness, anhilation, etc.
The scripture reads this way, "Except you be converted and become as little children, you can in nowise enter into the kingdom of heaven." The sinner says, "I will not be converted then; I am not going to be a child, I am a man, and a man I will be. I would rather be a lost man than a saved child.  What? Am I to surrender my judgement, and sit down tacitly to believe in God's Word?"
And so in his arrogance and pride, he says, "I will not".  Like Satan, he declares it would be better to go to hell and "be with his friends" than to serve in heaven. Thus he goes away an unbeliever, because it is just too humbling a thing to give in to God; too humbling to say, "I surrender myself".
 Our church has started, "In Just 40 Days",  a time of humbling, seeking and allowing God to work deeper things in our lives.  How about if in the next 40 days church, we pray some of these rascals in.

Hidden source of visible Damage - Pt 3

  There is a misery that goes with secret sin.  It is a master with unequaled cruelty and never-lessening demands.  Its name is "misery".
Think about it reader, the sinner who makes a profession of religion, and yet lives in iniquity, is the most miserable. A person who is a drunkard in the world is not ashamed of his sin. He doesn't even call it a sin. He will be forever miserable when he is called before God, but here in this world, he feels that he has his "happy hour". 
A foul-mouthed rebel who cusses and swears up a storm, says, "thats the way I am". He's not ashamed of it and doesn't even try to hide what he is. He's not really miserable he is just downright ignorant, crude and base.
But the professing Christian, the one who God has called out from his darkness, the man who claims to walk with God, who is united to a church, who hangs out with God's people and fellowships with them, but then lives in sin, what a miserable existence he must have! 
It reminds me of the voles in our garden. They stay hid most of the time, eating up our fruits and veggies, but every once in a while they have to come out from their cover, only to quickly run back into hidding. Men (or women) who have hidden sin are like that as well. They run out now and then, hard pressed by their desire; but then, concern and great fear of being discovered, pulls them back. It is a miserable situation for them.  They are never sure they have not been seen. One day driven like the slave they have become, they wonder out with cunning and secrecy and manage to conceal and hide their problem; but the next day something else comes, and they live in constant fear, telling lie after lie, to make the last lie appear truthful, adding deception to deception, in order that they may not be discovered.
It is a terrible thing for the church when we have men who accompish things in the "Big house". You want to celebrate their work with a great big, 'that a boy', then you recognize (or find out about) their secret works and recoil with pain. It adds great hurt and causes great stress for the sheep and the church when we have to live life constantly on guard for the person who requires two faces in order to get by.
If you get to a point in your life where you are serving God with less than "all your heart",  then don't pretend to serve him with all your heart. 'No man can serve two masters". Don't do it. Don't even try to do it, because life will be forever miserable.
Above all, beware of commitments, actions, conversations, places, people or things that you do that you will find it necessary to conceal.
There is a great poem written by Thomas Hood called 'The Dream of Eugene Aram,' you gotta read this poem it is an amazing work on the topic we have been discussing.

Hidden Source of Visible Damage Pt 2

Before I continue, I have to admit that I know nothing of identifing a pretender.  In all my years of ministry, I can recognize damage and hurt a whole lot better than I can identify a pretender.  My experience is that by the time you learn someone is "living life out in the open in a Christian way", yet they are involved in "secret sins while the doors are closed", usually you've already been stung.

Pretenders are generally pretty normal people who conduct outwardly upright lives. I have found them to be congenial, generous, easy to have trust in and socially well-adjusted.  But they indulge in some sin which the eye of man has not yet detected. It would definetely change our opinion, our acceptance, our confidence and trust in them (the Penn State Jerry Sandusky type comes to mind). On the outside you think they have their 'A' game on but behind closed doors they're dealing with some lust or vice that has totally seduced them. 

So, pretender, whatever it is, I want to say this to you. You are a fool for this one reason: your sin is not a secret, it is known, and it will one day be revealed; maybe very soon. But be aware that it probably won't be revealed till Satan is sure that it will cause the most irreparable damage possible to you and anyone around you, especially those you love.

Please know that your sin is not a secret for three very powerful reasons: 1) because Satan and his cohorts know and see it, they are the ones who have seduced you and drawn you deeper into a pleasureable dellusion; 2) you know it and feel its power over you 3) The eye of God, whose face you are sinning before, has seen it.

There is no secret chamber where you can hide. There is no dark cellar where you can conceal the damage done to your body,soul and spirit. If you were to dig a hole as deep as hell, there is not enough earth on this globe to cover your sin. If you were to lay it on the gound and cover it with a mountain, those mountains would tell the tale of what is buried underneath it. Cast that sin into the sea and a thousand babbling waves would tell the secret out. There is no hiding it from God.

This world that we live in is like the glass beehive we see when we go to Trax Farms; the bees and all they are doing is visible and revealed to those watching.  You can look right in and see the bees doing their wonderful honey making process the same way our lives are transparent to God who sees our good and our evils.

It is a for-certain-fact that our eyes are weak. We cannot, as human beings, see into the darkness. We cannot see things that are unknown to us, but God's eyes can penetrate the blackness and read the thoughts of man. He sees those acts when we think ourself most concealed.

You may be saying within yourself, "Nobody knows". Well I am here to tell you that God's eyes are now looking through those concealing clouds and is even now starring right at you. Neither our visible acts or our secret innermost thoughts hidden from God. He knows them as well.

Pretender, get that hidden sin removed.  The blood of Jesus Christ was shed to set you free from all sins, overt and covert.

Part 3 of 5 next week..."The Misery of Secret Sin"