Third Day

The prophets of the Old Testament met great opposition. Ministry is nice when it’s a suburb and, manicured, quiet, well-kept place to come and wash feet. It’s nice when there’s fruit. When there’s encouragement. When there’s hope. When there’s appreciation. When there’s spiritual hunger. When there’s a readiness to change. When there’s a passion for Christ. When it’s yours and God blesses and blesses and blesses. It’s nice, isn’t it?

Jeremiah was told by Jehovah God, “Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them, but they will not hearken to thee; thou shalt also call unto them, but they will not answer thee” (Jeremiah 7:27). Jeremiah was told by the people to either change your message or change your address. They would not hear or listen to his warning.

This was Main Street in Dodge City at high noon. This was the greatest of all fights. But Jeremiah stood his ground. Most people don’t. They run. They hide. They say, “I never signed up for this course.” There is a great gulf between heaven and hell. When people choose to serve themselves, their self, and refuse God’s glory then there is hell on earth. And Jeremiah felt the heat of it!

What about us? Do we yearn to quit? How far will we walk away before we turn back? Many serve God with strings attached. Jeremiah was disappointed but He did not get tangled in the strings. He was committed to God’s calling upon his life. People want to go where it is easy, while the thrust of ministry is not easy. Jesus promised it! If it was not simple and easy for the Lord Jesus then why do we think it would be for us?

When you say you believe a biblical truth, where does that belief come from? Some might say:

* My parents taught it to me.

* It’s what my pastor believes.

* I read it in a Christian book.

* A famous Christian said it.

* It just feels right.

* It’s what I’ve always believed.

* It gives me comfort to believe it.

* It makes me happy.

* It seems more inclusive.

* I can’t imagine God behaving otherwise.

* I seriously prayed about it.

* It’s in the Bible.

There is only one 100 per cent reliable source–the application of the Bible in daily life led and supplied by the Spirit of God. The bottom line of any belief we hold onto is if it can be backed up by Scripture. If the Word of God does not back that belief and that action then it is no more than wishful thinking, speculation, or a theory with no impetus of God’s power.

Too many today do not live lives backed by the Word of God. Their plumbline is what they feel or think. It is not according to the Word of God. It causes disruptions in the body of Christ. Therefore we have a church and a nation that is run by our wants rather than by God’s will. The church has run amuck today because it does not run on the tracks of the Word of God led by the Spirit of the Living God. These are our beliefs and it is what we do to satisfy us.

Only Scripture applied by discernment, led by the Holy Spirit, involving both the will and the mind, engaged by the study and application of the Word by faith, really works. Only then will the Word of God transform a person’s thinking, focusing the lens through which he or she sees God, life, others, the world, and reality itself. We have a generation of people doing what is right in their own eyes when they really believe they are doing it God’s way.

Biblical knowledge is meant to be both intellectual and experiential. There are two sides to the same coin and it is meant to be enjoyed together. Knowledge without response is like an incomplete sentence or a song without a chorus. We have to go beyond merely quoting the truth….to obeying it.

Why are we to contend for the faith? Because there are false teachers, wolves in sheep’s clothing, counterfeits, apostates in our pulpits across the church scene.  Theology was important to Jude and Paul. God takes the truth seriously. We must know what and why we believe. That is God’s call on every believer.

Our faith is not primarily a feeling. It is belief based on fact. It is more about a grounded assurance than personal philosophy. We can not simply make up facts or imagine things about God and then base our lives on those thoughts.

Faith fads, theological trends, popular contemporary thinking, is carrying an unthinking church away from strong historical beliefs and Scripture. Just believing something doesn’t make it true. It’s either true or not, independent of our belief in it. Everything that is not Scriptural and experientially defended in our daily lives sets up misrepresentation of the God of doctrine and truth. Just ask the woman at the well in John’s gospel chapter four.

It may feel as if the Word of God is rocking back and forth, swaying to the fads of Christianity, but it is not…for the Word of God is stable, it is not changing, progressing, or emerging. We are called to stand for and proclaim what is true, and even when necessary to expose false teaching and heresy. Always ask, “What does the Bible say? And not “Does it make me feel good, happy, or accepted by others?”

A little lady by the name of Amy Carmichael spent her life for the gospel in India. Amy became aware of the terrible practice that was so common in the Hindu Temples. Little girls as young as six and seven would be sold by their parents into lives that prostituted their little bodies. Amy Carmichael was shaken to the core of her being. So she decided something must be done

Through miraculous means, the first girl was brought to her in 1901. The little seven-year-old girl showed Amy her hands that had been branded with hot irons because she had tried to escape once before. By 1943, Amy was taking care of eight hundred children, and she was the hated woman by a powerful system of prostitution. God protected this woman who stood for Him and His Word.

Oh, if men, God’s men, would rise up and have just a tenth of the courage of this woman then we can change our churches and our homes. Why? Because God would stand up for these mighty men as He stood for Stephen as Stephen stood for Him. It is going to take courage and holiness for this new era of American history. That is why some of you are going through trouble because God is getting you ready for leadership.

The best time to tackle a minor problem is before he grows up. The Christian world is in a deep sleep. Nothing but a loud voice will awaken them out of it.

Loose wires give out no musical notes, but when their ends are fastened, the piano, the harp, the guitar,  or the violin is born. Free steam drives no machine, but harnessed and confined with piston and turbine, it makes possible the great world of machinery. An unhampered river drives no dynamos, but dam it up and you can generate sufficient power to light an entire city.

Strings that are tightened, steam which is captured, rivers that are harnessed, and children that are disciplined can produce astonishing results. Roy Lessin said, “Rules for children are like a pole that is placed alongside a tall plant growing in the garden. The pole is not  there to stop the plant’s development, but to help guide it into maturity and productivity.”

Fathers are commanded to put those poles in place. It gives him the joy of watching his sons become mature and productive in his old age. What a tragic waste of potential when fathers do not “bend” their children toward God. Without a plumb-line there is no real joy. History teaches us that the very survival of a nation can depend upon a child having a father who is a moral relative. A dad who is a moral relative knows how to draw the lines in the necessary places.