He Stood In The Midst

     Now I know I can't possibly be the only one who is like this, but there are a couple people in Heaven I basically must meet. Jesus will be a big one (obviously). Paul is definitely on the list, along with John the Baptist, and Jonah (I mean, how many guys do you know that have caught a fish from the inside!). But I have to tell you, the guy I was reading about today is a must-see. First of all, he's listed as one of David's mighty men. The guy gets huge man-points just for that. But look what he does.
     2 Sam. 23:11. And after him was Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite. And the Philistines were gathered together in a troop, where was a piece of ground full of lentils: and the people fled from the Philistines.
     12. But he stood in the midst of the ground, and defended it, and slew the Philistines: and the LORD wrought a great victory.
     Let's paint a picture here. So Shammah is with this group of people, maybe foragers, when a force of Philistines come over the hill. The people with Shammah pull on their New Balances and go tearing off in to the sunset, leaving Shammah all alone. Now put yourself in Shammah's shoes: you're all alone, facing an enemy army, and you're left with the decision to run for it or defend a pea patch. There are definitely some things I would die for. Bible? Yes. Family? Yes. Pizza? Obviously. Peas? Nope. Not happening. Sorry, but there is no way I would die for peas, and unless Shammah was some radical sort of devout vegetarian, I have a feeling he wasn't super inclined to make a great last stand on a vegetable garden. But he stays. Why? That was where God had put him. He was sent for a reason, whether it be to protect the foragers in the garden or to lead a scouting mission against the Philistines. Ultimately, it doesn't matter why. Shammah defended what was given to him even at risk of his life.
     My question for you is: what would you die for? The neighbor you're witnessing to, your unsaved coworker, or your children? Each of us has given a pea patch: a mission to accomplish or ground to hold at all costs. Even if it means giving up your life, but not in the sense you are thinking. All throughout the Bible, we are called to give up our lives on a daily basis; putting aside our old, sinful tendencies and loving people as Christ Himself. So I encourage you to read the story of Shammah, remember where God has called you, and daily lay down your lives for what God has called you to do.

Holy Ground

     He could have chosen the house of the Levite. Or the palace. Or the tent of the Midian high priest. Or He could have chosen Pizza Hut for that matter. However, as we see God doing so many different times in Scripture, God chose somewhere unusual, plain, unsuspected, and just plain ugly. The backside of the desert.
     Exodus 3:1 Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.
     2 And the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
     Moses was destined to be the future leader of Israel and to lead them out of Egypt and into the Promised Land in the name of the Lord. He was spared from Pharaoh's extermination of Hebrew children and was brought up in safety under Pharaoh's own roof. However, he was not ready to handle the task to which God had called him. Moses' action in killing the Egyptian in Exodus 2:11-12 proved that not only was he unprepared, but we also see in 2:14 that the Hebrews were not ready for him to be their leader. So Moses was led to a place where he would meet God; a place where Moses' past, pedigree, and former position were null and void. He became a shepherd in the backside of the desert. Not exactly a flashy position, but in leading sheep around the wilderness of Horeb, Moses was being prepared to lead a nation into the Promised Land.
     So what is the application here? Moses had a job to do; a big job. He had a massive calling on his life that he could not deny or fail to undertake. But God's strategy was not to put an ill-prepared soldier in the breach; there was a preparation period in which God hand-crafted His servant. All of us have hit those sections of life that could most definitely be classified as "backside of desert" equivalents. Whether those seem to be hard times in ministry, sickness, financial difficulties, or having to live in the heat, we will all spend a tour of duty being prepared for what God has for us. We look at situations or locations and call them God-forsaken, but Christian, if you lift up your eyes, you may realize that, like Moses, the place you are standing is holy ground.
    

The Believer's Creed

Not Without Strength

     Listen to the words of the songs we sing in church. Consider the words of many sermons and books. Look at the most well-known verses about Christ. Search "Jesus Christ" on the  internet. What do you find? Most often, themes such as His love, His compassion, His meekness, and His forgiveness are highlighted. All of these are amazing qualities of the Lord we serve, so don't misunderstand the point of this post; nevertheless, I think that we as believers are missing something crucial.
     Let me illustrate. Suppose someone is trying to describe me to you; they talk about how much I love potato chips. And cinnamon rolls. And Dr. Pepper. And cookies. And my First Love of Food: pizza. What is the image you are going to get? You'll probably start to envision me as a lazy, incredibly unhealthy couch potato lounging on a stack of pizza take-out boxes. While the above facts may be true, they aren't the whole story.
     Then there's the guy who only talks about how I love to play paintball, shoot, run and go to the gym. After talking to that guy, you'll think of me as a no-nonsense, tough-as-nails cross between John Wayne, a Marine, and Captain America. Obviously I'm far closer to the latter, but that's not exactly an accurate picture either.
     I went through all that to say: if you stress one part of a person's nature and neglect another, you don't get an accurate picture of who that person is. And unfortunately, I believe that we have done that with the person of Jesus Christ. The main focus of our songs, sermons, and illustrations are His "gentler" qualities. Again, don't get me wrong, we have not overemphasized these qualities, but we have neglected elements of His character that we see manifested in John 18:2-12.


   2 And Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place: for Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with his disciples.
   3 Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons.
   4 Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye?
   5 They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them.
   6 As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground.
   7 Then asked he them again, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.
   8 Jesus answered, I have told you that I am he: if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way:
   9 That the saying might be fulfilled, which he spake, Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none.
   10 Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus.
   11 Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?
   12 Then the band and the captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus, and bound him.

     Look at verse 6, the verse I underlined. Judas has betrayed Jesus and has led an armed mob to capture Him. Christ asks who they are looking for, and the leaders say "Jesus of Nazareth." Nothing unusual there. Christ says "I am he" and still nothing out of the ordinary. But then we get to verse six. When Christ merely said "I am He," the very force of His words literally blew the mob off its feet! Then the argument comes that the mob was just surprised; once they got on their feet they were strong enough to capture Jesus. Oh no...keep reading. Jesus says He would go with them if they let His disciples go. We know that the disciples escaped, but these verses imply that they were let go. Why? Because this mob of heavily-armed soldiers were too scared to tangle with Christ on anything but His terms! Look folks, this isn't "'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus;" this is "You're Cooked if You're on the Wrong Side of Jesus!"
     The examples could go on and on. The demon named Legion crawling before Christ and begging for his life. Christ's cleansing of the temple with a whip and God-load of righteous anger. The picture of the returning Christ in Revelation 19. Christ is as mighty and valiant and powerful and wild and uncontrollable as He is loving, compassionate,  and meek.
     The Jesus we serve is not to be laughed at or taken lightly. He is not to be deemed irrelevant or weak at best. He is above all and second to none. This is the Jesus that we all will face before the Judgement Seat. But this is also the Jesus that defends, sustains, and guides those that have put their trust in Him. Just as we cannot fathom a Jesus without grace, realize that the same Jesus is also not without strength.

The Cup

     Ever wondered what was in the cup? We hear about it, we read about it, and we study the context, but have you ever thought about what was inside of it? Just hours before His death, we see Jesus in a way that the gospels rarely portray Him. Matthew says that Christ “began to be sorrowful and very [distressed].” Luke 22:44 has Him sweating “as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground.” In the Garden of Gethsemane, we see Jesus suffering in a way He did not even as Pilate proclaimed His death sentence. The reason for His suffering? A cup. Just a cup. Christ engages in three rounds of intense prayer in the garden, and all three times He begs of the Father, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me…” What was in the cup?

Talk to some theologians and skim the religion section in the library, and you’ll here mostly about the nails, the soldiers, and crown of thorns. Go to an Easter service in an average church and you’ll get the parting of Christ’s raiment, the spear in His side, and the beating He received. You’ll hear that Christ could see the physical suffering coming, and it caused Him this great agony. This was what the cup held.

Honestly, it sounds pretty good, but there’s a hitch. Thousands of believers suffered in horrible ways for their faith. Most of them exhibited a\n unbelievable amount of peace in their deaths. Some forgave their oppressors, others died singing hymns. And you think that the same future had the Commander of the Heavenly Hosts cowering in a garden?? No, the cup was a far greater penalty.

     Turn to Isaiah 51:17. “Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.” Revelation 14:10: “The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.” Speaking of an apostate city known as Babylon in the end times, Revelation 18:5-6: “For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.” I know this is a lot of hard, symbolic language, but look for the common denominator in reference to the cup. Let me give you one last verse, Revelation 16:19. “And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.”

     What was in the cup? All throughout Scripture, this symbolic cup is filled to the brim with God’s wrath against sin. Every sinful motive, thought, word, and deed are stored up carefully, waiting to be revealed against unrighteous men who commit them (Romans 1:19). We wonder why wickedness seems to take the upper hand. On the basis of Scripture, I can tell you with full assurance that any victory or prosperity gained by unrighteous individuals and entities is a façade, and one day, the veil will be lifted. God, from His throne will bring forth the cup of His wrath against their sin, and they will be forced to drink the consequences.

In the cup was the wrath of God against sin. That’s what Christ suffered. In comparison, the nails were trivial. The crown? Secondary. The thorns? Peripheral. Even the cross itself? Nothing compared to the perfect Son of God drinking down the wrath of God in our place. His response in the garden to the mere thought of the wrath we had stored up is a testimony to what He endured. Christ, on the cross, drank down every drop of the wrath we deserve. The wrath of God is not simply appeased for a time or held back by Christ’s sacrifice. For you who have put your faith in Jesus, there is no more wrath stored up against you. Christ took the cup from the hand of the Father, and when it fell to the ground, not even a drop was left to ever be brought against you.

Here I Come, Ready Or Not

     So the question of the day is: can a person write a blog dedicated to the truths and implications of the gospel and somehow forget to write a post about Easter? Yup...pretty much. With that said, I apologize for not doing something to honor the resurrection of Jesus Christ. With that said, who cares when the calender tells me to think about Christ's resurrection; I'm going to do it today!
     Imagine someone ran up to you and said, "They just found Jesus' bones! The disciples moved His body and pretended He had risen from the dead. Your 'Lord' is nothing but a dead lie!" That's the kind of news that tends to put a damper on any day. No amount of pizza would fix that, and that's strong language coming from me. Why? Because our whole faith is wrapped up in the fact that Jesus is the Son of God, He was perfect enough to atone for all of our sins, and He was powerful enough to over come death. If He stayed dead, none of the above would be true. Paul said it pretty well in 1 Corinthians 15:17-19.
     17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
     18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
     19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
At the end of the day, if Christ was never raised from the dead, we are in for a world o' hurt. Paul gets us with a back-to-back-to-back triple whammy right here. First off, if Christ isn't raised from the dead, He wasn't powerful enough to overcome the penalty for your sins and all those thoughts, words, and actions that you thought you would never have to answer for again are all outstanding! You're still guilty! He follows that up with the nice sunny statement that everyone who died believing in Christ are suffering eternal punishment in Hell because they trusted in an insufficient sacrifice for their sin. To top it off, not only can we not have eternal joy like we thought, but we can't even enjoy life now because we constantly have eternal judgement hanging over our heads. I mean, how exactly would you end that memo? "Enjoy your week" sounds a little lame at the tail end of that bombshell.
     If you think the above paragraph a little on the ridiculous and "waste of time" side, I want you to take a moment and think about what exactly was going on here. Take a moment, and read a couple passages for me. For starters, take a look at Matthew 20:18-19, Mark 9:31, John 2:20, and John 10:17-18. Common denominator here? All of them are prophecies by Jesus Himself regarding His resurrection from the dead. If Jesus never rose from the dead, He is a liar, a false prophet, and guilty of leading millions astray. That doesn't sound like a person perfect enough for God to lay on Him the sins of us all. If Jesus is not raised, our sins are still outstanding. Not only that, but Romans 6:23 says that the wages of sin is death. If Christ remained dead, He would not have overcome the full penalty of our sin. Basically, if Christ is not raised from the dead, our sins our still outstanding and there will be no hope for us before the Judgement Seat.
     Lest I be labeled as a downer, I want to show you what Paul says right after 1 Corinthians 15:17-19. Verse 20a reads,
     20 BUT NOW IS CHRIST RISEN FROM THE DEAD!!!
     Sorry, I just thought that needed some bigger font, capital letters, and exclamation points. I mean, talk about a shift. Christ is risen from the dead. He stormed the gates of Hell and stayed just long enough to trash the place. They carried Him in the tomb, but He came out of there with enough style to knock out elite Roman guards. Your sins are payed for, those who have died in Christ are covered under the blood, and we can have hope for what happens after death. Notice the verb tense in that verse...now is. Right this second, we have an untiring, unceasing, very much alive advocate constantly defending us against every accusation Satan brings against us. And who says we should only celebrate that once a year...
   

Eyes and Lives On The Savior

     Well this is it. For three or four posts now, we have been looking at some of the latter verses in Jude. Like I said in the first post, Jude is one of those books you can blink and miss, but contains a truckload of truth. Here we come to verses 24-25, which read,

24 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.

25 To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.

So here we go. Jude bookends this entire passage, not by sharing five ways to hook your listeners, but by focusing on the believer’s spiritual health. In looking at verse 20-21, we talked about “keeping ourselves in the love of God.” And here we see that the author highlights the foundational element of holiness in a believer’s life. This is a critical point. Evangelism isn’t primarily about the pitch or eloquent public speaking. Successful witnessing is carried out by the believer who is abiding in Christ and living a life committed to holiness. Only such a life will bring God’s blessing on our efforts.

Notice the wording of the verse. It is not “work harder to keep from falling, and present yourself faultless.” Jude offers praise to the One who keeps us from falling and is able to present us to Himself as faultless. This is obviously none other than Jesus Christ. By His death, He presents us faultless and cleansed of our sin. We are no longer under condemnation, and we are “spotless to stand before the throne.”

Jesus Christ not only cleanses us forensically, but He is also the power by which we can lead lives pleasing to Him on Earth. In my opinion, this is one of the trickiest applications in the Bible. If you try to lead a holy life in your own strength, you will fall flat on your face. Guaranteed. However, you don’t see “Let go and let God” anywhere in the Bible either. The biblical doctrine of abiding in Christ involves fervent prayer for Christ to strengthen us in temptation, solid study in the Word of God, and a daily, conscious decision to live as He desires.

I don’t pretend to have all the answers to this in-depth application of an even more in-depth doctrine, but I do know this: we will only be successful in our evangelism when our eyes and lives are focused on Him who is able to keep us in the righteousness He gave us.

Tripping Gets You Farther Than Sitting

     I just thought I would briefly share a quote with you that I found this morning by Charles Spurgeon (my personal favorite preacher).
     “Let eloquence be flung to the dogs rather than souls be lost. What we want is to win souls. They are not won by flowery speeches.”
     First Corinthians 2:1-5 says,  
 1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
 2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
 3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
 4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: 
 5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
    From experience, I can safely say that when we as Christians get motivated or inspired to witness, the automatic thought is "Hey, I oughta learn how to witness better." What Paul is saying and Spurgeon is seconding is that we don't need more knowledge or training courses; we need action. The model we see in the book of Acts is that evangelism was a natural outflow of what God was doing in the believers' lives. So, if you are one of the people like me and you want to memorize all of the "right answers" to those difficult questions that unbelievers ask before you witness, this is for you. God has already given you everything necessary to effectively witness: power, knowledge, and support straight from the throne room of the Almighty. God's truth doesn't need eloquent and polished speech to enhance it. Do we need to be constantly in the Word as our source of truth? Yes. Do we need to be prayed up? Absolutely. Should we have an idea of what we are going to say? Probably wise. That said, we (I say "we" because this is something I struggle with) will never be effective evangelists if we are constantly in preparation and never in practice. There needs to be a balance. I hate to say this, but no matter how many books you read and how many times you rehearse your delivery in front of the mirror, you won't get it right every time. Nevertheless, we serve a God who is capable of using us despite our shortcomings. The application is simple and direct: get out and do it.

Elevators and Evangelists

     Today, we'll be moving ahead in our study of Jude 20-25. This'll be a little shorter than some of the other posts in this particular study, but hey, I hear short is the new long.
     Jude 23 says,
23 And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire...
     Suppose you're walking in the middle of New York City and you happen to see a construction team working on a new skyscraper. You and a hundred of your closest friends stop to watch. The main frame of the building is up, and the workers are putting the touches on the elevator shaft. They start to test the lift and send the elevator from the top floor to the bottom floor. As the elevator is sliding down toward the bottom, you look down and see two little children playing right where the elevator will land. What will you do? Chances are good that you are going to push your way through the crowd and sprint for the children. The only thing on your mind when you see those two children is to pull them out of there.
     Same idea.
     We've spent some time looking at the passages about Hell and God's wrath, so I won't rehash all that here. Let me just say this and leave it there. There are a lot of people that we come in contact with on a daily basis that are playing right under the elevator, so to speak. When we see lost men, women, and children playing around and living each day in danger of God's judgment, we should experience some of the same type of fear as described above. Jude uses a similar analogy of pulling someone away from a fire.
     So all of that said, my challenge to you today is to pray that God will allow you to see people as souls in danger of destruction. I guarantee that's all the motivation you'll need.
     Not only does this passage describe one of the things we should feel about the lost, but it tells us that people can be pulled out of the fire. There is hope, and we have to rest in that. So let this verse both challenge and encourage you.

The Ram of God

     I just want to take a brief respite from our study in Jude and share with you something I came across recently in my Bible study. If you have your Bible, turn to Genesis 22. This is a fairly familiar account in the Old Testament that is often used as a picture of Christ's sacrifice. Long story short, God comes to Abraham and tells him to go atop a mountain and sacrifice his only son Isaac. Abraham obeys and sets off the next morning for the mountain. Abraham and Isaac go on alone, they build the altar, and Isaac is laid upon it with the wood. Abraham readies his knife and prepares to sacrifice his only son, the son that God had so long promised him. Just before Abraham kills his son, a voice speaks out from heaven, staying his hand. Paraphrasing, God commends Abraham's faith, and that He had seen that Abraham was unwilling to hold anything back from Him.
     Again, it is a fairly familiar story and has great implications as a picture of Christ; however, I think that this account can reveal more about the heart of God than we often see. Look at who commands Abraham to sacrifice his Son. It's God. No surprise there. The person of the Trinity that is also termed God that Father makes this command, but look at verses 11-13, when the voice calls out from Heaven. In verse 12, the voice says that Abraham had not witheld his son from "me," so we see that this is God speaking, but look at the proper noun in verse 11. It says that the angel of the LORD is speaking. A while back, I wrote a post entitled "The Way" looking at something in the Old Testament called a theophany. I would recommend your going back to that post to get a little more detail on this particular truth, but, simply put, the angel of the LORD is the preincarnate Christ. Do you see the symbolism. God the Father demands the sacrifice, and the Son saves the victim, and in verse 13, provides a substitutionary ram. Thousands of years later, God the Father still demands that His holiness and wrath be appeased, but in His love, God sends another Ram to be offered up in the stead of the transgressors, and once again, it is the Son who provides this substitute.