Always Trust God and Use Your Reason
I felt compelled to write this as I see our church struggling and bickering and succumbing to "relative truth" which, Satan used to tempt Eve in the garden. It is cloaked as Post Modern thought. You can be a "god" in your own right.
Here is a quote from John Lennox who appeared with Ravi Zacharias at a Pastor's Conference. He said:
"There is a fine line in one sense between Christianity and Idolatry. Paul (the apostle) was a genius, a brilliant man but the secret of the way he lived was that he used his reason and trusted God. The danger for us is that we use God and trust in our reason."
He also
made the point that the general public had bought into the error that
"faith is believing without evidence". He states, however, that "faith" as defined
in the Book of John is evidence-based.
John wrote down the miracles he says so that we may believe.
30 There are also many other signs and
miracles which Jesus performed in the presence of the disciples which are not
written in this book.
31 But these are written (recorded)
in order that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ (the Anointed One), the
Son of God, and that through believing and cleaving to and
trusting and relying upon Him you may have life through (in) His name
[through Who He is]..
39 Whoever finds his [lower] life
will lose it [the higher life], and whoever loses his [lower] life on My
account will find it [the higher life].
Matthew 16:24 (AMP)
24 Then Jesus said to His
disciples, If anyone desires to be My disciple, let him deny himself
[disregard, lose sight of, and forget himself and his own interests] and take
up his cross and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My
example in living and, if need be, in dying, also].
Mark 8:34 (AMP)
34 And Jesus called [to Him] the
throng with His disciples and said to them, If anyone intends to come after Me,
let him deny himself [forget, ignore, disown, and lose sight of himself and his
own interests] and take up his cross, and [joining Me as a disciple and siding
with My party] follow with Me [continually, cleaving steadfastly to Me].
Mark 8:35 (AMP)
35 For whoever wants to save his
[higher, spiritual, eternal] life, will lose it [the lower, natural, temporal
life which is lived only on earth]; and whoever gives up his life [which is
lived only on earth] for My sake and the Gospel's will save it [his higher,
spiritual life in the eternal kingdom of God].
________________________________________________
Luke 17:33 (AMP)
33 Whoever tries to preserve his
life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve and quicken it.
Luke 9:23 (AMP)
23 And He said to all, If any
person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself [disown himself, forget,
lose sight of himself and his own interests, refuse and give up himself] and
take up his cross daily and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly
to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also].
Luke 9:24 (AMP)
24 For whoever would preserve his
life and save it will lose and destroy it, but whoever loses his
life for My sake, he will preserve and save it [from the penalty of
eternal death].
I would hope that after carefully reading these passages that the reader sees that there is often a very different Christianity going on in our churches and in our own homes.
When we submit to Christ the first time, I believe that very few of us have little idea of what He really wants from us. The failure to disclose this is laid at the Pastor, or Evangelicals feet. One must be told the things that Christ told those who followed Him and it is not being done.
Christ paid our sins so we have access to the Father through
Him. We do not have to perform in any
way to receive this. But in order to
receive this grace, our "lives" (the lower, natural, temporal life which is lived only on
earth] must be laid down before Him to be at His disposal). That includes denying oneself and our own interests. If God calls you...you go. You may not be called to China, but you might be called to allow your neighbor to interrupt your favorite pastime because God wants you to build a relationship with them and give him or her the Gospel.
This idea is explained fully in the Amplified
Version of Matthew 16:24 below
Matthew 16:24 (AMP)
24 Then Jesus said to His
disciples, If anyone desires to be My disciple, let him deny himself
[disregard, lose sight of, and forget himself and his own interests] and take
up his cross and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My
example in living and, if need be, in dying, also].
We learned from the Greek meanings (in brackets on the Scriptures above) that to "believe" and "have trust in"...that is faith is rendered in the Greek as "trust in, rely on and adhere to" and if you look at the Amplified of Matthew 16:24 above, you will see that it is explicit regarding what we are to do.
He who puts Christ in his "back pocket" after he is saved, to use for emergency purposes will definitely be disappointed when God does not "perform" by giving him what he wants. These individuals will often eventually give up or "lose" their spiritual lives because they see that it doesn't work the way they believed. Not having a good grounding in Biblical truth, they will feel just as Eve did...that God is keeping good things from them. God gives all of those who belong to Him what will ultimately be for our good and He sometimes leads us through suffering to mature us and sometimes yes... tragedy strikes because evil does exist.
We live in a corrupted world and that produces sickness and death. And we have the nerve to be surprised. Let's face it, we all want our autonomy but when evil hits our lives we want God to remove the free will of others. If your own mother or sister were raped, would you want the judge to say....Oh well...these things happen and the person who did this has more good deeds than bad, so I'm going to release him. Would that be justice?
God's plan gave everyone free will. If we say we follow Him, but don't ask him before we make decisions, we can hardly blame Him for the outcome. One of the outcomes is the state in which our church is today. We let this happen while we were "enjoying" ourselves at the expense of our country. Christ is not an emergency exit for our problems. He did not die to please us but to save us for eternity and to raise an army that will hold ground against Satan until he comes. Matthew Henry speaks of this when commenting on Peter's admonition of Christ about His going to the cross.
"It is an unspeakable comfort
that our Lord Jesus is God's Anointed; this signifies that he was both appointed
to be the Messiah, and qualified for it. Jesus discourses concerning his own
sufferings and death. And so far must his disciples be from thinking how to
prevent his sufferings, that they must prepare for their own. We often meet
with crosses in the way of duty; and though we must not pull them upon our own
heads, yet, when they are laid for us, we must take them up, and carry them
after Christ. It is well or ill with us, according to as it is well or ill with
our souls. The body cannot be happy, if the soul be miserable in the other
world; but the soul may be happy, though the body is greatly afflicted and
oppressed in this world. We must never be ashamed of Christ and his gospel."
Matthew
Henry Concise Bible Commentary.
The peace that we can have which passes all understanding, even in the midst of trials, is only possible because we are citizens of heaven and our heavenly Lord, Christ Jesus reigns in our hearts. As we go through trials and give up ourselves for the cause of Christ, He fills us with His Spirit and we are given peace, though from an earthly standpoint we may be suffering persecution, poverty, abuse by men for Christ's sake, illness and/or loneliness. Remember, that we are never alone, for He is in us and in our Brethren who also are suffering similar things. We are here to love and comfort one another with the Grace and Comfort we have flowing through us from our Lord and to spread the good news before it is too late.
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