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

 

Knowledge, Not Opinions

Jesus, entering the region of Caesarea Philippi, came to His followers - and more specifically, His disciples who had been with Him for, at this time, about three years- and He asked this question, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”

Jesus didn’t ask this question as a man who needed to be informed. A.B. Bruce, the great Christian mind who learned Christ, said it wasn’t from “some morbid sensitiveness such as vain men feel, respecting the opinions entertained of them by their fellow contemporaries.”

Several disciples enthusiastically shared the opinion of the people around them. They were quick to be able to tell the Lord what the public had to say…Jesus waited till all the blabbing stopped and He looked them square in the face and said….”But who do ‘you’ say that I am?

Jesus did what He did so often throughout His ministry…He used a question to locate the position of their hearts - of their faith. He made each man come to a true realization of what they did or did not believe!  These men are like many of the people in the church today. They’re living off of someone else’s thoughts, songs, clichés, belief’s…But not their own convictions—which come from a knowledge of God Himself and His Word.

Peter said, “Thou art the Christ”, and Jesus told him “upon this rock I will build my church”. That rock wasn’t Peter, the person, it was the revelation faith given him from Jesus’ Father. The Holy Spirit told him who Jesus was. It was revealed knowledge. Wisdom from the Father. When you have that revelation knowledge, you are indestructible, and that kind of faith the gates of hell will not prevail against.

What is faith?

NLT 1 Tim 6:12-13 - "Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have confessed so well before many witnesses."

Just what does it mean to fight the good fight of Faith? What do I mean as ‘the faith’? This will be part #1 of our article….

In Luke 4 we have Jesus in the desert fasting for 40 days and nights. The devil comes to Him in His hour of great and severe weakness and begins to question Jesus. The whole of the Devil’s interrogation is centered around, “If Thou be the Son of God…’

What then is ‘the faith’? It is all summed up into one great phrase, “the Son of God”. He is Jesus Christ, the Son of God - -that is, the deity of Christ. Remember the announcement made from heaven when He was baptized? “ This is my beloved Son” (Luke 3:22).
Then, into the wilderness, and to the challenge of Satan He went. The devil pressed him again and again… “If thou be the Son…” and so intense was the battle that it took angels from heaven to minister to Jesus after the great conflict.

Jesus is standing against the Sanhedrin that dreadful night and what is it that they press Him on??  “Are you the Son of God.” There whole challenge is on Jesus’ son-ship, Him being the Son of God….Matt 8:28….When Jesus was come into the country of the Gergesenes, who met Him there? Two men possessed with devils, who had been living in the tombs, (and they were exceeding fierce, the scripture says) They were so tough that no one would go past that way. What did the demons inside these two men yell out? Here it is as recorded by Matthew himself….”What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?

This proclamation speaks for itself and is noteworthy.

What did John the Baptist say the day he saw Jesus along the Jordan River for the first time, “And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.”

So the whole question of what is ‘the faith’ that Paul is talking about in our opening scripture, is that Jesus IS “the Son of God”….

I could go on and on with this, but let’s begin to wrap this up with a scripture given to us by the apostle John who says it quite well, in John 20:31 “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”

And the apostle Paul adds for our edification, “Because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” (Gal. 4:6).

Galatians speaks to all of us throughout the ages who believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior. He was ‘the son of God’ come to pay the ransom for our souls & because of that, we become ‘sons’-- one scripture verse says “joint heirs with Christ.”  Isn’t that great!
Let’s build on this in part two….

 What an awesome thing it is to be an “heir”.....not of earthly things, but of Heavenly!