I May Be Wrong…But I Doubt It

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but, after their own lists, shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears” (2 Timothy 4:3).

In this diet, fitness-crazed world especially found in America, there are many conversations when it comes to good cholesterol, bad cholesterol, fat, fiber, calories and carbohydrates.  The wellness teams are coming up with all kinds of programs to help us lead better and healthier lifestyles.  They want us to live a long time.

I read about two elderly ladies who died and went to heaven.  As they walked the streets of gold, one said to the other, “Just think, if we hadn’t eaten all that bran, we could have been here years ago.”  We are in a fitness craze today.  We live longer and we enjoy it less.

I only wish that the Christian community was as into a rigorous spiritual exercise as they are with their physical exercise.  We are so focused on the temporal more than the eternal.  We worship dust when we are more concerned about our temporal bodies than the eternal body.

Firm faith is better than firm bodies.  We have promoted buns of steel and brains of silly putty.  This is a scandal and a sin.  We have dumbed down our minds.  Although there are more Christian Bookstores today, only 10-12% of American Christians ever visit them.

The majority of the Christian world would rather be ignorant than learn.  People no longer read, or think.  And because of that fact we have raised a generation that cannot endure sound doctrine.  There are many in our church pews today who desire not to be taught or to teach.  And when we watch the news we see the Philistine mindset which promotes untruth.

There needs to be a return to seeking the face of God and the mind of Christ.  We must call people to discipline their minds as well as their bodies.  God expects us to take care of our physical bodies but not at the expense of not exercising our spiritual minds for the glory of God.  There needs to be a real turn to Christ and His Word.

Similar Posts

  • Not I, But Christ

    “…for by works of the law shall no flesh be justified” (Galatians 2:16c).

    “…for in thy sight shall no man living be justified” (Psalm 143:2).

    Our Lord suffered in His death for our disobedience. In His life His obedience to the law was perfect. Since the Law was perfect (revealing the heart and mind of God), it says that any who break it is condemned to death. Jesus Christ is and was the only One who ever obeyed all points of the law perfectly and obediently. All that is required of us to be justified, therefore, is to acknowledge our sin and helplessness. We are to repent of our life of self-assertion and self-righteousness, and to put our whole trust and confidence in the finished work of Christ to save us.

    Faith in Jesus Christ is more than intellectual consent only, but personal commitment. We believe “into” Christ Jesus. It is through faith we are justified. The law kills but faith in Christ makes alive. “For it is through the law I die to the law, so that I might live to God” (Gal. 2:19). The law slays but Christ saves. So we have no good works we can do to earn justification. Because the works we do, under the law, only condemn us to death; while faith in Christ bypasses the law of condemnation for us but trusts in Christ who died according to the law for us, who did not bypass the law but died our death’s penalty.

    Salvation is an act of committal, not just assenting to the fact that Jesus Christ lived and died, but running to Him for refuge and calling unto Him for His mercy. Justification is not only a legal fact when we are saved in Christ, whereby we are declared righteous by a holy God; it is also a transforming experience through a living identification with Christ.  By union with Christ we are radically transformed; we can no longer go back to our old life, for in Christ we are “a new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17). We are saved by the faith of Christ: past, present, and future.

  • A Jewish Lady and a Bible

     “He that cometh from above is above all; he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaks of the earth; he that cometh from heaven is above all” (John 3:31).

    My copy of God’s Word is back with me again. It was in the Christmas year of 1981 that dad and mom bought me a Scofield reference Bible, and I received it as a Christmas gift on the twenty-fifth of December. I have had it rebound once back then, plus other minor work done to the pages over the years. But yesterday I picked up my copy of God’s Word from Susan that had my personal Bible, and once more had an overhaul and completed. She really did a remarkable job.

    My heart was burdened as I spoke with Susan face to face. I told her that I love what the Jewish people have done for the world and for what they have given to us. I spoke of Jesus who is the Messiah and what He did and is doing. I spoke with pathos as I called her attention to the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah. I tenderly but hurriedly spoke of how our hearts are wicked and deceitful and how God took My hard heart and gave me a heart of flesh. It is tendered to the touch of the finger of God. It responds to Him.

    She really did not seem to be too impressed but we talked and I went as far as I could in my witness and love for Christ. She said to me that she hoped to see me again, and I said the same. I will continue to pray for Susan.

    When I step up to the pulpit to preach or introduce Christ in private speaking to others, I have asked the Lord to lay the world’s burdens upon my heart that I may care and have compassion. Today there will be around 150,000 people who will die and many will die in their sins. I don’t want people to live without God and to die without God. Will you join me this Christmas season and pray, seek, and “Love One More”?

  • Ransacked

    “And he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king’s house; he even took away all. And he took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made” (I Kings 15:26).

    Israel was once a powerhouse of divine wealth. But then the nation plunged into evil by allowing idolatry and apostasy to stagnate their lives. They slid in and swam into a cesspool of evil and sinfulness with glee.

    There was a king by the name of Shishak. He was king of Egypt. On the heels of apostasy Jerusalem was attacked. This devilish King came and took the treasures of the house of the Lord away.

    All over our land today are hearts and homes and churches who were once rich in prayer, the Word of God, good works, joy, but now they are ransacked and barren because Shishak has stolen the treasures of the Lord from the people of God.

    It is time to return to the Lord with acknowledgement of sin. We are dusting ourselves off instead of confessing our sin. How can we teach transgressors God’s ways until we profess our great lack? May God help us to see our exposed sin that sinners see and we do not. There is hope when our hope is in God. May God lay His axe to the root of our lives by His Word and by His Spirit.

  • Lane Change

    “But he saith unto them, It is I; be not afraid” (John 6:20).

    One can be driving on the interstate and before becoming aware, the driver could be swooped into a direction they never intended to go. Uninitiated drivers, flying along faster than they really want to go in the farthest right-hand lane, can suddenly look up in dismay to see the interstate dividing into two. Just in a blink or two, one is swept along in another direction, toward another destination.

    Could this be…her time, her release? Could this be the EXIT she had longed for all those years? Was this the one exit sign that read “HEAVEN”? Was this God’s plan? Is this God’s itinerary of being taken to a destination that calls out to Heaven? This is what Joni Eareckson Tada wondered when she realized she had breast cancer.

    Friend, all of us are on a plane that is loading and unloading passengers. We might get off of one plane in this city or in that destination, but eventually, for those who know the Lord Jesus there is Destination Heaven. Twenty-four hours before you are humming down the interstate and you miss the turn, for there is no going back, you find out for sure this is your destination–Heaven. This is it; life on earth is about to end from the way you used to know.

    I will never forget what a gentleman said to me some years ago. I was asked to come by and visit for his days were numbered. He said to me, “Joking about death is funny until it’s about me.” You see, the speedway had split, and he was heading at a different destination than what he thought he would be on for that day just twenty-four hours ago. There was no going back, no turning around, the destination was set.

    Remember what Alan Redpath, a British pastor and author, had written. “There is no circumstance, no trouble, no testing, that can ever touch me until, first of all, it has gone past God and past Christ, right through to me. If it has come that far, it has come with great purpose.”

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Spiritual Discipline

    “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul” (Psalm 19:11).

    We live in an undisciplined age. The old disciplines are breaking down. Today the discipline of divine grace is derided as legalism by those who are not disciplined. We have an illiterate generation that is not steeped in the Scriptures or the very truth of God. Without this rugged strength of Christian character that originates from the discipline of grace and Scripture we will continue to fall on hard times.

    There must be direction given to the soul of a man if he is to succeed in this life and be rewarded in the future. Prayer threatens to be a drudgery but if one looks into the future and views prayer accomplishments, we would pray with discipline. Meditation on Scripture is certain but we treat it as if it is not important in our lives then we fail to know the ways of God.

    Sunday is a day to come back with the people of God under the Word of God and yet when we treat it as an unworthy discipline then we will fail to glean the benefits of assembling with one another. God is looking for men and women in whom He can trust to wield His presence and power in and through and for a lost people who need to know there is a true God.

    It is crucial to see the Lord in these days for without holiness no one can see Him. This generation is lost. The god of this age has blinded their minds and we can become obstructions to God instead of stepping stones that lead to Him. Godliness is God’s goal for you and for me. Live a life of discipline and count upon the future to be kind as God shapes you into one of His own.

  • The Dark Day of Redemption

    “And they shall scourge him, and put him to death. And the third day he shall rise again” (Luke 18:33).

    Three pronouns, one scourging, one death, and One to rise again. Who is this person? Who is Dr. Luke describing? Or better yet, Who is this who is describing himself?

    It is none other than the Son of man. He came to save and to seek those who are lost. What does it mean to be lost? It means to understand that God loved you, satisfied His own righteousness by judging His own Son to death upon a rugged tree for you and for me. He went to the desk of Calvary and paid the bill for you with His own blood, the payment of sin which leads to death.

    To be found means to know that God’s love (His Son) was given to die as you. His mercy will forgive you if you recognize that you are THE Sinner and ask Him. It is His mercy you and I need today. Are you willing to understand that Jesus was scourged in your place, put to death in your place, and rising again proving He died for all your sin and mine.