The Gospel – Part 2 of 7

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2 Timothy 1:14 ‘Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you — guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.’

 

1st and 2nd Timothy, being part of what is known as the Pastoral Epistles or Pastoral Letters, has much that we who are in the ministry should keep in mind. However, like the rest of the Word of God it is all written for our admonition. We should all keep in mind that if we are part of the Body of Christ and have been born again that we are all ministers; we are part of the holy priesthood. (1 Peter 1:5)

 

One of the admonitions of Paul to Timothy, and I believe through Holy Writ to us as well, is to guard the Gospel. Is it possible that the gospel has become watered down today because we have not guarded it as we ought? I think so. Consequently we do not see the Gospel as dynamite today, like Paul expressed in Romans 1.

 

The question comes: how do we guard the Gospel? Our text tells us that we guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. But what does this mean in practical terms? I would like to offer several things in this connection.

Paul said in 1 Timothy 4:16, “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” There is no better way to guard the gospel than to see the gospel being demonstrated in one’s life.

 

John 1:14, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only.”  When Jesus spoke it was often said that the people were amazed because He spoke with authority. Authority and His life go together.

 

Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:13, “It is written: ‘I believed; therefore I have spoken.’ With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak.” What does this mean: I believed; therefore I have spoken. Paul knew that what he believed was real because it was working in his life and because of that he spoke.

 

A question that we could ask ourselves is: Is the Gospel real in our lives? Has it made a difference? Paul said to the Corinthian church: “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you — unless, of course, you fail the test?” (2 Corinthians 13:5)

 

WE GUARD THE GOSPEL WITH OUR LIVES. One of the reasons why the Gospel does not have much of an impact is because there is not much difference in the lives of those who profess to have the Gospel – from those who are ignorant of the Gospel.

 

We are to guard the Gospel by our suffering. 2 Timothy 1:8 “So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God.”  I think it is interesting to see that suffering and being ashamed is in the same sentence. Is there a connection? I think so. For many of our brothers and sisters in certain countries there is real suffering for the gospel to the point of death. However, for those of us in the West it might be more the suffering of embarrassment.

 

If we are honest there is a certain amount of shame or embarrassment in sharing the Gospel. Paul, I believed faced this when he was writing in 1 Corinthians 1:23 “but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.”  Here in our sophisticated west we have a tendency to being ashamed of the simple pure gospel. By sharing it will bring suffering of embarrassment that we are not wise in believing the Gospel. But like Paul says, we have come not with the wisdom of man, but with the simplicity of the Gospel that can change a man’s life.

 

Reformation will bring us back to the simplicity of the Gospel.

The Proverbs 31 Woman – Chapter 18 – An Enterprise Perspective

Posted by & filed under Carols Blog.

The truly fulfilled woman has the confidence, energy and initiative to start and carry on with projects till finished. Even undertakings that are risky and somewhat dangerous she will take on as long as it lines up with God’s will for her and her family. We are denying God and lying to ourselves if we are applying this confidence, energy and initiative outside our marriage and family so that it has little to no benefit to our husband and children.  As wives and mothers our husband and children come first and God will hold us responsible for this remaining our top priority. They deserve more than left-overs and crumbs that fall off the table. They deserve all our attention, energy and affection.

 

The woman who trusts in God has a readiness to take a risk with her enterprise perspective. She sees it as an adventure with God who would have something extremely beneficial for her and her family. She’s not afraid of failing either; for it only helps her narrow in her perspective to do things in the most excellent way; the most effective way.

 

The reason there are countries of people going without food is because of wicked leaders. The reason our neighbor or relative is going without food is because – those who have more than enough – simply don’t care. “For the fool speaks folly, his mind is busy with evil: He practices ungodliness and spreads error concerning the Lord; the hungry he leaves empty and from the thirsty he withholds water.” (Isaiah 32:6)

 

The woman of virtue pulls together what others (especially her husband and children) are in need of and figures a way to get it – knowing full well that when she asks, she gets; when she seeks, she finds; when she knocks, the door is opened to her. This is who ‘her’ Father God is. Our Father God doesn’t expect us to do more than we can with more than we have; just that we do something within our own means and abilities, and watch how He can bless it all the more.

 

If we are not moved by our faith in what we see happening around us we will do nothing, or we will do things that aren’t going to really help in a right way. Our enterprise perspective should have God’s heart in it if we expect Him to bless it so that it benefits our family and community, and so that what we do will be rewarded one day by our Lord God.

 

God gets emotional when He sees people being deprived of food and water, but God’s emotions do not result in the same way the emotions of worldly people do. It is not God’s will that people starve to death, but they do. It’s not God’s fault when He has generously given us everything we need to take care of the world and that He put mankind in charge of. We have left far too much in the hands of corrupt leaders and greedy governments. But in countries where there is a devil-like man in control over the people – we should not forget that God is still God of the impossible; God of all wonders just waiting to work though His children of faith, hope and love.

 

Any nation that is rich in resources and supplies, and not rich in humanitarian efforts could become an impoverished nation overnight. God has put more than enough resources in the earth; it only takes people with the right enterprise perspective to discovery it and put it to GOOD use.

 

Any government that deprives its people of the fruit of their own labors could quickly become a depleted government. It is happening here in America with government growing bigger and bigger, raising taxes and making more laws with unfair and unnecessary regulations to discourage free enterprise.

 

Definition of Free Enterprise: “Freedom of private business to organize and operate for profit in a competitive system without interference by government beyond regulation necessary to protect public interest and keep the national economy in balance.” Not all government leaders honor and uphold this God-given right. They want ‘slavery’ where the people work for them and their greedy/selfish/wicked agendas. Oh Lord, deliver us from evil!

 

As a woman of God it is not enough to care only for feeding my own children. I must take in consideration the whole world of God’s children, for anything less than that would not be compatible with the heart of God and His unlimited storehouse. But God does not expect me to do more than what He’s enabled me to do with how He has blessed me. We can fear not having enough for ourselves if we take care of someone else, but how can we out-give the Lord? We can’t. God has enabled me to serve Him without any fear! Just be wise in what you feel you should do for others. Human sympathy won’t get the results that godly compassion gets.

 

Whatever the harvest you want, plowing is how you begin. Plow with prayer to the God who defends and blesses the enterprise perspective of His children.

 

A wife and mother’s enterprise perspective takes in consideration how her work will affect her family and home-life. My get-up-and-go needs to have the right motive in it, or it can cause your husband to get-up-and-go to another woman. My get-up-and-go can run right over my children too, and crush their potential.

 

Children are naturally inclined to think only of themselves and they must be taught and held accountable to the needs of those around them, beginning at home. They need to be taught that God will make sure that they will have all that they need just as long as they are doing a good work that pleases God. This is the right foundation for an enterprise perspective; that it pleases our Father God.

 

Our attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 2:1-5) We each should look not only to our own interests and how to take care of ourselves, but also to the genuine needs and godly interests of those God puts in our lives – as important as our own. God sees our humility or pride or greed in “humanitarian efforts.” We can fool people, but not the Lord.

 

There will always be the ignorant who will misunderstand when a true leader sets out with a genuine interest and bold work for the good welfare of his nation; a nation that has been taken advantage of for so long. It happened to Jesus when He saw what was happening in Jerusalem’s Temple with wicked leaders taking advantage of God’s people, and it is happening to our nation and to our world where evil rules over the people. But when God’s people humble themselves, repent of their own wicked ways and pray to Him about it, God will turn things around.

 

We are living in a day of great turmoil and Christian persecution, but also in a time of great opportunity from God! Father God, help us to see what we need to see, know what we need to know, in order to do what we need to do.

 

The Gospel – Part 1 of 7

Posted by & filed under Franks Blog.

We need to see the difference between the Gospel and Postmodernism. Reformation will attack this worldview that we have in the West and bring us back to the simplicity of the Gospel of our Lord.

 

2 Timothy 1:14 “Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you — guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.”

 

Another aspect of reformation that we need to consider is what we call The Gospel of Jesus Christ. I believe that reformation will bring us back to the true gospel and what it can do for anyone who puts their faith in the gospel. Paul said in Romans 1:16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.”

 

Do we, like Paul, believe that this gospel is like dynamite? Do we believe that it can enter into a man’s heart and life and change him or her? Or do we believe that something ‘else’ is needed to bring about the change in a person? Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

 

It seems that a new gospel has crept into the church and is being preached today. A gospel where Jesus does all of the dying; a gospel where there is no sacrifice on our part, no giving up, no dying to the self-life; basically – a gospel where the life of Jesus is absent.

 

I am reminded of the passage of Scripture when Jesus was 12 years of age and He went with his parents to the temple in Jerusalem. After two days and on their way back they thought that Jesus was with them, but He wasn’t. He was back in the temple doing His Father’s business. (Luke 2: 41-49) In the same way there seems to be a gospel preached today where Jesus is not really present with us.

 

The gospel that Paul was talking about in 1 & 2 Timothy was a radical gospel. That gospel called a man or woman to come and die to themselves and to the world. They realized like Paul that this gospel delivered them from their self-life. 2 Corinthians 5:15, “And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”

 

When the gospel came into a man’s life he realized several things:

  1. That he was not his own; he had been bought with a price. 1 Peter 1:18-19 “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ.”
  2. That there was a new Lord or Master in his life. Romans 14:9 “For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.” Self who had been king has now been replaced by a new King, King Jesus.
  3. That there was a new beginning and direction in his life. “He is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
  4. That this gospel was ‘free,’ but not cheap. It cost God everything. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

 

It was THIS gospel that went out and changed the course of history in the first century. In the first 60 years the gospel had gone forth throughout the Roman Empire; churches were planted, lives had been changed and new hope had pervaded the world. The world would never be the same. It was THIS gospel that changed a man by the name of Martin Luther and through whom God ushered in the reformation five hundred years ago – which changed Western Civilization.

 

It is THIS gospel that we need to come back to in our preaching and living.

Who Is Man – Part 6

Posted by & filed under Franks Blog.

 

POSTMODERNISM AND CULTURE – WORLDVIEW AND THE GOSPEL

 

1 Corinthians 15:4-8 Speaking of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: “…that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.”

 

That Christ was buried and rose from grave and then was seen by a number of witnesses; this is good news!

 

God had told us that we should let everything be established by two or more witnesses. Deuteronomy 19:15 “A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.” Here we have over five hundred at one time.

 

Francis Schaeffer talked about the “mannishness of man.”  He said this:  “This draws attention to the fact that humans are different from all other things in the world.  Several things bring this out:  1. Creativity 2. People fear death 3. We are able to choose and we are able to verbalize.  People are able to remember the past and make plans for the future.”

 

With the gospel being the core of a biblical worldview we see how this question is answered: How does this build a biblical worldview?

 

When I think of what Christ has done for me (for man) it makes me realize that I, or man, am different from all other creatures. I can think, verbalize, create, love, fear, feel and express emotion, etc. One of the things that Schaeffer brings out is that man fears death. There seems to be within the heart of man a sense for the eternal. Even in our postmodern culture we see this coming out with man trying to remain young. Look at the medicines being propagated that will reduce aging, exercises that we do to remain healthy. Pseudo spiritual mantras are being voiced, etc. All of this because of the sense of the eternal in the heart of man placed there by God. Man knows that he is different, but why?

 

The Gospel tells us that man is unique because he is made in the image of God. Man has a longing for eternal life, but why? God has placed eternity in his heart. Man fears death. But the Gospel gives us hope. The Spirit of God raised Jesus from the dead. To collaborate this truth He was seen after the resurrection by over five hundred brethren at one time. So what does the Gospel tell me? 1. God made the world and He is in control. 2. Man is made in the image of God.  He is different from other creatures. 3. Man has sinned and fallen out of fellowship with God his Maker. 4. Jesus died for my sin so I might be forgiven and brought back into fellowship with God my Maker. 5. He rose from the dead and so will I.

 

Another question that comes is: Why do I know that this is true? The answer lies in Scripture. Twice in 1 Corinthians 15 it says: “….according to the Scriptures.” These are the core beliefs in creating a biblical worldview.  How important it is to be grounded in these truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

 

We need to see the difference between the Gospel and the world’s Postmodernism of a worldview. Reformation will attack this false worldview that we have in the West and bring us back to the simplicity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with His worldview.

God calls and qualifies

Posted by & filed under Mikes Blog.

I have heard that God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called! So listen carefully to everything He tells you. He requires you to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly. He will guide you along the best pathway for your life. He will advise you and watch over you. The world will recognize you as someone who had been with Jesus. They will see that the Lord is on your side, and be amazed at what He will do for you; for His blessing will be seen by a watching world.

My conversation with my Lord

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This morning in my quiet time this is what my conversation was with my Lord.

Son, I have cared for you since you were born. I have been with you throughout your lifetime; even now that your hair is white I will continue to be with you. Remember, I alone AM God, and there is none like Me. Only I can tell you the future before it even happens. Everything I plan will come to pass.

 

So publicly proclaim what is about to happen and tell My children to be prepared. I have not whispered in some dark corner what I am about to do. What I have said in My word, I will do. Why does this seem incredible to anyone that I can do this? Look straight ahead and fix your eyes on what I have asked of you. Don’t get sidetracked by those who refuse to listen and have turned away from My word. Trust Me with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek My will and I will show you which path to take. Having My word in your heart is the key to developing good judgment, and it will determine the course of your life.

 

Don’t be impressed with man’s wisdom, for that only leads to sorrow. Those who argue with Me are fools. For I AM the LORD, and there is no other God but Me, a righteous God and the only Savior. Therefore, world look to Me for your salvation! The gods of this world cannot save anyone – let alone protect you! But, I AM ready to save anyone who will call on Me in truth and spirit.

The Proverbs 31 Woman – Chapter 15 – She Makes and Sells

Posted by & filed under Carols Blog.

Idle hands are the devil’s workshop, or so it’s been said by wise mothers of the past. When we aren’t doing the right things with our hands and our time you can be sure that what we are otherwise doing are non-important things and even wicked things in the eyes of God. You won’t find women wasting their skills and strength if they know the truth as to how God made them and what their life on earth is all about as a daughter of His.

 

When I was a teenage girl I preferred hanging out and partying with my girlfriends of like-mind. I was living out that cliché: “Girls just want to have fun.” Recreational activities are very important for enjoying and bonding with family and friends, but much of what people call fun today is just plain immoral, degrading and destructive to societies.

 

We are wrong in thinking that our children need to have fun in non-constructive and non-productive ways, or to be active doing things that have nothing to do with who they really are. Children today have the wrong idea about work and fun, and so do most adults. Skill and excellence is hard to find in our society today. Those who do work for excellence in their skills are few and far between. Business owners are looking for skilled and confident workers that they can count on, and they are willing to pay a high price for a rare find.

 

Children need to grasp early in life that there is greatness in them; that they have been given talents and abilities from God to be developed so they can prosper in life, and so that God can use them in many ways. It fulfills me to be of use to God. It blesses Him when His children work to please their Father God.

 

When the creative juices of true femininity and true masculinity are hindered in girls and boys during their developing years they will find false fulfillment in this world and waste their time and talents that God has given them. They may rise to the top of worldly standards, but in God’s eternal kingdom they will not be known or even remembered. If we fail to keep and teach the reality of Christ’s kingdom we and our children will miss the life that is truly life.

 

If all you know how to do is go to a store and buy what you need or want, then you will be one of the needy people when life as you’ve known it – changes dramatically; when you can’t go to a store and buy a thing. And yes, this day is coming for those who refuse to take the “mark of the beast.” We see this “mark” progressing with “micro-implants” in pets and employees, and now with babies. The devil has his own agenda in this progressivism; for he wants nothing more than to hurt and kill the children of God; to make them look like fools so their message about Christ and His cross of redemption will be trampled on. God’s people need to learn how to depend on God and how to be ready and prepared in practical ways.

 

Government was never designed ‘by God’ to control our lives and do for us what we are to do for each other; serve one another in love by using our talents and abilities that God gave us. We need to return to what God gave us our hands and common sense for!

 

Government hand-outs is not God’s way; it’s the devil’s way of making people dependent on man with their worldly systems instead of on God and what He’s given us to prosper with and help others with.

 

Man has wonderfully come up with the way to use wind and solar power, and what he gets out of the ground and mountains, and out of the depths of the sea. Man comes up with the “industry,” but initially he needs that which God created. This is God’s desire for mankind. God’s creation is sustained by God Himself so that we need NOT fear running out. Man needs to learn how to properly use God’s created “things.”

 

I believe God thoroughly enjoyed His six days of Creation. I believe the work He did, that He called “good,” was exciting to see throughout its day by day production. I believe our Father desires the same for us; that we would also enjoy the work of our hands, and enjoy the fruit of our labor. I believe He wants us to take one day a week off to appreciate how we have been so blessed by God.

 

“For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation.” Leviticus 23:3

 

The Lord says, “My chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands.” Isaiah 65:22

 

What the Proverbs 31 woman makes and sells is needed in any generation of God’s people who are preparing for His kingdom.

 

 

Who is Man – Part 5

Posted by & filed under Franks Blog.

If paradise has been lost – it can be regained. Man can be regenerated. The image that we had can be regained. This is one of the great truths in the Word of God. Instead of the devil’s image of pride, malice and envy, the righteousness and goodness of God’s image can be recovered. “…and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” Colossians 3:10

 

This image repair can be accomplished only by God. In Hebrews 1:3 it says, “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person.” He, who is the image of God is the only One that can restore the image in us. How did He do this? This is what the Cross of Jesus is all about. This is why reformation is so important. It brings us back to the Cross and what it means. In Adam we die, but in Christ we live. (Hebrews 2:6-8) “But there is a place where someone has testified: ‘What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?  You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor 8 and put everything under his feet.’” Psalms 8:4-8.

 

It is through His grace that those who are ‘in Christ’ will share in His glorious reign. When God raised us up in Christ we possess a dominion that Adam would never have known had he remained innocent all his days.

 

We will be given a new name. It is interesting to see that what Nimrod and the people of his days wanted was to make a name for themselves, yet God gives us a great name through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Genesis 11 they are wanting to make a name ‘for themselves,’ but in Genesis 12 where Abram is chosen we read, “I will make your name great.”

 

Later in life we read that God gave the name Abraham to Abram. “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him. 5 No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations.” Genesis 17:1

 

Most of the world, with the different religions, are like Nimrod leaving God and His Word out of the picture and trying to gain their own righteousness, but true righteousness is being offered to us by grace through the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Needless to say, that reformation brings us back to this truth: IT IS ALL GRACE AND NOTHING OF WORKS.

 

 

Who is Man? Part 4

Posted by & filed under Franks Blog.

When we think of man we cannot forget what evolution has done. However, evolution did not start with Darwin, but with philosophers known as the ‘pre-Socratics,’ around sixth to mid-fifth century BC. These are philosophers bouncing ideas back and forth before the coming of Socrates.

 

They were not interested in ‘who’ created the earth, but ‘what’ the universe was created of. They thought that all of life was ‘matter’ (stuff). For them even if the ‘gods’ did exist they too came out of the same cosmos soup.

 

This type of thinking has been with us ever since and today it shows up in our class rooms as evolution. In this type of thinking and here in the West especially, it is not that they are against God, but that He does not really matter. He is insignificant. Man has evolved and has taken the place of God and can manage on his own.

 

Yet when we read the Bible we find that it is completely different than what we are learning in the class rooms of our universities. Some will say that evolution does not oppose the Bible account of the origin of man.  However, they are wrong and here are a few questions by Herbert Lockyer that they can give us an answer to.

 

  1. At what point in the ascending scale do moral questions emerge, or where does irresponsible animal passion pass into moral obligation?
  2. At what point does a spiritual nature, carrying the gift of immortality, appear?
  3. At what particular stage in the development of a semi-animal, semi savage creature, can we apply the words, “made in the image of God”?
  4. How does the theory affect the “Person of Christ,” and how far back along the process of development does His redemptive work take effect?”

 

I am reminded of the philosophers of Paul’s day when he said, “Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?”  (1 Corinthians 1:20) What Paul is doing is putting out a challenge and saying to these people that if you have the answers to life’s questions then step forward and let us hear. But they have nothing to say. Reformation brings us back to who man is and why he is here, according to God and God’s own Word.

 

Why is all of this important? It is important because we need to see that we are the creatures and He is the Creator. Man’s own philosophies have penetrated the churches here in the West and it is causing untold damage. That somehow we can do the work of God in the flesh. Paul said: “Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?” Galatians 3:3

 

How much of what we do: programs, missions, evangelism, etc. is a direct result of waiting on the Lord for HIS direction for our own plans that seem good to us? God’s work done, if done in the flesh, is nothing more than ‘dead works.’

Seek the LORD your GOD

Posted by & filed under Mikes Blog.

Seek the Lord your God with all your heart and soul. Be strong and courageous for you will be successful if you carefully obey all that He tells you, and do not lose heart. Now begin the work He has for you. He is watching over you. Trust His words for they have power. He will be with you, and answer you when you call to Him.