Acts 11:19-30
I am not a Christian. But I do follow Jesus Christ.
And I call Him Lord.
And I read His word, and I believe that He is the Word of God and the He is God.
I am not a Christian but I will die for the name of Christ. I will lay down my life so that someone who does not know the redemption that is offered through the name of Jesus Christ might know it.
I am not a Christian but I have faith. And I have hope. And I have love. And I trust that the greatest of these is love. But only because faith and hope must end and become sight, but love never ends. That is why love is the greatest gift.
I am not a Christian, but the Spirit of Christ lives inside of me.
I am not a Christian. I am a talibe Yesu in an Arabic speaking country.
I am not a Christian. I am not a missionary. But I will tell people what God has done for me through Jesus Christ. I will tell them for the rest of my life. Even if I know that telling someone will cause my death.
I am not a Christian. But I know for certain that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him.
I am not a Christian, but I know Jesus Christ who is the Spirit of God, who is God, has more power than any other spirit in all of creation, and that the spirits bow down to Him. I know that He is the Most High God, the creator, and sustainer of all and in all.
I am not a Christian, but I have seen and know that Christ has power over death, power over sin, power over temptation, and power over Satan. And I trust in Him alone for wisdom, strength, grace, mercy, guidance, and providence.
I am not a Christian. You may call me that, but that is not what I am.
I am a servant, a son, and a follower of the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
I live in the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
How is faith lived out?
What does it mean to have faith in a God who will deliver you from the lion’s den, when you are thrown in at the hands of your enemies?
Daniel had faith, and he went, full of confidence, into that den of lions.
What is the full story?
Daniel & his three friends Hananiah, Mischael, and Azariah were Jewish guys that had been in Babylonian captivity for quite a few years. King Nebuchadnezzar picked them out with a crowd of other guys (both Babylonian and Jewish) to study at the King’s palace. Daniel (King Neb called him Belteshazzar) had already proved himself to be a servant of the Most High God. He told the King a dream that he had.
The King had the dream.
Daniel told it to him.
And interpreted it.
Not just interpreted the dream after the King told him what it was, but both told the King his own dream, and interpreted it.
Accurately.
Because it brought glory to the LORD.
His buddies, Hananiah (Shadrach), Mishael (Mishach), and Azariah (Abednego) had faith too. In the Most High God.
Actually they refused to bow their knee to anything created in the image of creation instead of the Creator.
Their faith became works, if you will. Their faith in the Almighty God of their fathers caused them to refuse, outwardly, to worship a false God.
In the face of persecution.
In the door of a burning fiery furnace.
In the face of death.
They had faith that their God could deliver them from that furnace if He so desired. And even if He decided not to deliver, they had faith in an eternity with Him.
And as it turns out, He delivered them. And showed them His Son in the process. The Messiah that they had faith would come to atone for their sins once and for all.
And it glorified the LORD.
King Neb praised the God of Shadrach, Mishach, and Abednego. He praised the God who called them Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, because they were His children.
So that guy Daniel, the one that King Neb called Belteshazzar, was still around when King Belshazzar came to power and then King Darius after him. And Daniel gained favor before King Darius in the same way he gained favor before the King Neb, by showing them the power of God. The One he put his faith in.
But where there is favor, even if the favor is gained by righteous means, there is always dirty jealousy from the ones that desire unrighteous favor. So some dirty dudes convinced King Darius to write a law saying that any knee, bowed to anyone but him, would be thrown in the lion’s den.
Daniel knew when this law was passed.
Daniel, full of faith, bowed his knee to the Most High God that very night, instead of King Darius.
He had “faith” in that God. But that faith was just a word, until he bowed. Then it became a reality.
In the face of persecution.
In the mouth of the lion’s den.
In the face of death.
He had faith that devotion to the Most High God would result in deliverance from death, life, angels, principalities, powers, things present, things to come, height, depth, or any other created thing.
Especially lions.
And he emerged from that lion’s den the next morning without a scratch.
And it glorified the LORD.
So Daniels faith, it was acts; it was deeds. And faith without deeds is dead. And dead faith would cause a man’s back to bend in the lion’s den. Dead faith would die in the mouth of the lions.
Faith in the atoning power of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection causes acts. It caused the Acts of the Apostles. Acts of following Jesus, as Lord.
Both His acts
And His commands.
Without acts, the “faith” is dead.
Without acts, it really isn’t faith at all.
It is just “Christianity”
What about your faith? Does it cause acts?
Or is it just “Christianity”, with no faith in Christ?
So I’m sitting here, in my bed, at 12:33 am.
In 6 hrs I will be on a plane sitting on the pavement at the Birmingham airport. In 4 hrs I need to be awake and pretty much ready to go. Should I go to sleep? That is a question that bears on my mind everytime a situation like this arises.
Is it better to sleep for 3.5 hrs, and wake up miserable, or stay awake for these next 3.5 hrs and not be productive, but not fall asleep either.
What is going through my head right now? Right at this second?
- I am so lame. I have a blog and are posting on it in first person. What do I think this is a diary? No one cares about what I think about at 12:36 am.
- I am really glad some of these goodbyes have been as good as they have been. Auburn folks, I love you guys. Who could ask for better friends?
- I want to stay awake, so as to not fall asleep.
- My faith that started out as a mustard seed almost a year ago is about to be made sight. In less than 40 hours. PtL!
- I love my Mom. She made corn casserole AND cookies tonight. I love my Dad. He packed the most awesome stuff in my pack when we found out I had more room (and weight availability) than I thought. Such as:
- An 800 pack of toothpicks.
- A double fifteen set of dominos
- a tap light
- goggles “there’s really nothing like goggles when you need them”
Thank y’all so much for your prayers. God’s will for my life is so good, pleasing and perfect. Why do I deserve to be the one who gets to go to the DRC for two years? I don’t know, but I’m thankful for it. For all the things that I’ll miss out on in the states (the office wedding, 2009 and 2010 Auburn football, my 23rd year of life, David and Alicia’s wedding) I am sure that there will be things that far surpass them all on the other side of the pond. Not that David and Alicia’s wedding won’t be awesome, because it will. Its just that I’m not so sad about missing it. Why be sad about missing the ceremony when you saw it coming from the beginning? PtL for good friends and their getting married. And ptL for all the things that will happen in the DRC over the next two years that will assure me that God’s will is for me to be there, not here.
T-5:07:47 till the doors close behind me
T-35:07:03 till all the doors open ahead
Good question: What is faith to you?
Better question: What is faith?
Best question: What is faith, according to the Bible?
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:2 (NKJV)
The substance of things hoped for. The evidence of things not seen.
So faith is always forward looking. Sounds simple enough. But why in the world is faith (while still here on earth) integral in the salvation of someone’s eternal soul? We have to examine what are
the things –hoped for–
the things –not seen–
In Ephesians chapter two Paul writes,
It is by grace that you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God– not by works, so that no one may boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV
What are the things we look forward to that are involved with our salvation?
- The perfect atoning work of Christ on the cross, made possible by His sinless life in the flesh.
- His resurrection from the dead, defeating death, and defeating Satan eternally.
“But!” you say (and I said), “Those things have already been completed! How can things that are hoped for, things unseen, be things that have already happened?”
The faith is necessary in the application to me, personally. And to you, personally. And to all the peoples of all the tribes and all the nations, personally.
I have not seen the death and sacrifice and forsaking by God of Jesus Christ applied to me personally, but my faith is my full assurance that His blood has been spilled so that MY SINS will be covered on the day that God judges my soul. My faith is my full assurance that I have no power to obey the law in its entirety (Galatians 3:10). My full assurance that I can do nothing but sin without the Holy Spirit of God moving me to do His will in faith (Romans 14:23). My full assurance that eternal life will be mine only because the Holy Father has loved me, and the Holy Son has died in my place, and the Holy Spirit has guided me to holiness day by day, that the thrice Holy God may be glorified as all in all.
So how does saving faith change a person’s life from a life in bondage to sin into a life in bondage to righteousness? More on that to come in a later post. Forgive me if its not for a while. A big transition, or so you could say, is coming up in my life.
Pray for me. Prayer is another one of those things that works, but only in faith. Expect God to answer your prayers that are according to the truth of Scripture. That is faith. Though you don’t see the answer, believe, hope, be assured that He remains faithful, and know that even when you have no faith, He remains faithful (II Timothy 2:13)
Lord I believe; only help my unbelief!
Check out this video about the D.R. Congo. There are some moving pictures with some stunning statistics.
While social justice is not what I am going to the DRC to address, it is important to know how much these people are hurting for the gospel.
To know that there are millions of people that are sick, dehumanized, displaced, and dying without the peace that comes from faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and the joy that is everlasting in Him is heartbreaking. To know that there is no way I can make a difference in this huge country, but that our God can is more than encouraging. It is moving. It is moving me there to be His hands. And to be His feet. Romans 10:14-17. Do these statistics move you? Will you let our God and Father move you?
All Creatures of our God and King
Lift up your voice and with us sing
O Praise Him! O Praise Him!
Alleluia
Creation sent to me the centipede
to witness the complexity
of one hundred legs that were moving unexpectedly
ironically
just as they were meant to be,
they’re fearfully and wonderfully made;
An organism praised in circadian rhythms:
the sun will rise and then the sun will set, and then the sun will rise again,
so lift up your head!
this is life: not a static object preserved and displayed like a relic from the day
You are not a fruitless tree with a rootless disease
growin’ in a bucket in a rich man’s home
next to the TV tamed and alone
learnin’ to lust for the things you don’t own
like an arm chair warrior who’s been dethroned
Declogged and fixed
fighting for you life with unattended slit wrists.
Don’t let your name get intermingled with the number cause its time to awaken from the devilish slumber,
to freely follow the Forerunner
to the fatherland and rally round the renaissance man
and the wisdom of His ways
and all the work of His hands
(catch comas catch can)?
concentrating on the good words of the Son of Man,
the plan is to withstand the demands of a confused oppressor:
a wolf in sheep’s clothes
with monotonous lectures
and questionable gestures
unequal measures
cultural pressures
and synthetic textures
force fed instead of the most beautiful architecture
of our long lost, forgotten origins:
Unseen fiber in the blood of my King
And that old rock where we confessed our sins
Oh, my God, fellow man
in this great land they all cry out for
full restoration
and this will take
patience
AND THIS WILL TAKE THE TRIBES
AND THE TONGUES OF ALL THE NATIONS
and all of creation groans in anticipation
Waitin’ for the Son of God to be manifest
I can feel it burnin’ in my chest
The liberation for the oppressed
And it’s beautiful like the feet that bring good news…
Its beautiful like this freedom tune
Its beautiful like the power to choose…to change
Beautiful like the long awaited rain
Beautiful like the healing pains
Beautiful like the holy flames…coming down!
All creatures of our God and King
Lift up your voice and with us sing
O Praise Him! O Praise Him!
Alleluia….
Al Mohler’s blog post from Wednesday is very interesting, dreadfully saddening, but also clearly obvious. He cites a couple articles referring to the current declining state of established Christianity in America (not even Europe, they have already passed this stage). One describes the state as, “divine-deli-cafeteria religion” and “very much in the Spirit of Hinduism. Let us be certain that this perversion is not true Christianity. It cannot be called a cult though because it is terribly unorganized. For those of us who know the Bible as ultimate Truth, we must pray that the true gospel conquers this syncretistic onslaught of feel-good religion in America. The reality is that the sheep and the goats will be separated in the end, but we must pray for the sheep that we know, and for those goats that we are witnessing to.
The persecuted church across the world was the topic of our sessions yesterday and today at ILC. It was a very heavy day, if you can imagine. All of us in that room are either going out to places where we will face persecution, or preparing people to go to places where they will face persecution, or expecting to go to a place in the future where persecution is a reality. Most of this post will be quotes or direct thought translations from what we heard today and yesterday.
First of all, let me define what persecution is and is not. Persecution at its worst, at its foundation, denies others access to Jesus; there is a difference between covert and overt persecution, covert being the most destructive. Persecution is not what is causing the Western church denominations to decline. Persecution happens in places where the church is actually growing. It is not someone who isn’t your friend anymore or makes fun of you. It actually tries to prevent others from hearing the gospel.
In Muslim areas that experience persecution, Muslim-background believers are killed because:
- whom they work with
- whom they worshiped with (esp Westerners)
- being found with a Bible
- sharing the gospel by familiar methods
As expatriate workers and local believers are obedient to our calling and faithful witness, persecution, suffering, and martyrdom will happen because of the Holy Spirit’s obvious work in that area. A “Judas” doesn’t show up where there is no church growth.
Check out Matthew 2 and the persecution that happens there. This is the familiar Christmas story, but we seem to overlook the tragedy that happened to all the families except Jesus’ at that time. The magi (wise men, witchdoctors, whatever you prefer) told King Herod everything they knew about the “King of the Jews” so Herod had every boy under the age of two (estimated to be about 1700 babies) killed in the city of Bethlehem. Killing babies in order to stop the new King is pretty terrible! The wise men were definitely not wise, especially concerning the information that they told Herod (like saying that there was a kid born that would be the new King). We all have to be careful, but not give up our prophetic position. If we ever give up our prophetic position in order to get next to a secular leader (even to share the gospel with him and give him a Bible) we are failing in obedience to the great commission.
If we do everything right, however, people will still go to jail, and people will still be killed. Don’t waste the blood by giving up after that persecution happens! Those people must not shed blood in vain! To those who are married, is Jesus worth not only your life, but the life of your wife and children?
There are three profiles of persecutors:
- The State (#1 in history) This is “top-down persecution” and is least effective to stop the work of the gospel spreading.
- The State coupled with and ideological partner (such as an orthodox leader or the local catholic church) An example of this is Pilate (Roman) and the Jews in the death of Christ. Since both of them were partly responsible, no one had to take the blame for the act.
- The State coupled with an ideological partner alongside the extended family and basic social structure. This is known as “bottom-up persecution” and is the most effective in hindering the spread of the gospel. People in this culture, granted they don’t have a accurate idea of Hell or heaven, will say, “I would rather go to hell with my family than go to heaven alone.
In light of all that, our freedom to share the gospel still has nothing to do with our political situation, but everything to do with how much you are willing to suffer for the sake of Christ.
There are three types of churches in regards to how the Spirit is working:
Pre-Pentecost: scattered believers, focused on the message of Christ’s 1st coming, very vulnerable to persecution
Pentecost: house churches, focused on evangelism, persecution is regarded as normal or not-out-of-the-ordinary
Post-Pentecost: buildings, don’t experience much persecution, don’t grow much except for generationally (kids that have grown up there), spend way more money on church buildings, etc. than missions or evangelism.
There is a different tool set required for each situation that a cross-cultural worker is dropped into.
People that live Victorious lives in the midst of persecution:
- Have a faith grounded in Jesus Christ as their Saviour
- Have prayers lives that are beyond supernatural, and incorporate intense fasting
- Large portions of Scripture are memorized.
- Large amounts of indigenous hymns and music are committed to memory
- Know that they are prayed for and not forgotten.
- Have local believing bodies that support their families in the midst of persecution
- Know that their suffering is for Jesus’ sake
- Have claimed freedom by the blood of Christ
- Have no fear of the persecutor, or of Satan’s forces
- Are in or do start a genealogy of faith that knows the reality of persecution and enduring it with joy for the glory of God.
The stories of persecution that have been shared this week are like nothing that I have ever heard mentioned in a church. They are real, obviously for the glory of Christ, and more intense than we even want to think about. They have brought me to tears of joy and sadness, all at the same time. Sadness because it is hard to hear. Joy because I know I could very well face it one day, and many of my friends could very well face it, and I know that the name of Christ is and will be proclaimed in glory by those that face the persecution like what we have heard.
Praise the Lord for His glory. Pray for those that are suffering persecution, but pray that their suffering is for the glory of Christ.
Isaiah 58:6-9, 14
“Is this not the fast that I have chosen:
To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
And you bring to your house the poor who are cast out;
When you see the naked, that you cover him,
And not hide yourself from your own flesh?
Then your light shall break forth like the morning,
Your healing shall spring forth speedily,
And your righteousness shall go before you;
The glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;
You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’
…
Then you shall delight yourself in the LORD;
And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth,
And feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father.
The mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
