|
Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. (Romans 11:22) |
|
In the Kingdom you can be as young as you want to but you never can be older than you are. |
|
No one wants his father to be a kid. It's nice if your father will play games with you, but there come times when you want Dad to lead the way. |
|
It seems our culture in America has become childish. One of the passages of Scripture talks about a displeased God putting children in charge of a nation. I think that sometimes we long for a godly individual who is ahead of us in character, who stands as a beacon of wisdom, strength, and integrity in times of crisis. |
|
We do not need political leaders who are continually suing for peace, grinning at us and trying to please us. |
|
God is gentle and kindly, perfectly able to play with babies and young children. In fact, God delights in such. |
|
But as we grow in Christ we find that God becomes increasingly austere and stern. There is no foolishness here. He expects us to endure long seasons during which we are denied what we want, times of perplexity, sometimes darkness, sometimes pain, sometimes agony. |
|
As the Lord said, God expects you to come in from the field about ready to drop, and then to gird yourself and wait on Him. He does not want to find self-pity in us. He does not expect grumbling or complaining from His sons. |
|
Faith must be exercised. We must remind ourselves constantly that no matter what happens to us, God is seeking our good. |
|
It is time for us to get serious. God is serious. God is austere. "I know you are an austere man," the lazy servant said. While He is ready to play with His children He expects us eventually to begin to grow. The sign of growth is that we are better able to discern between good and evil and have increased strength and willingness to choose the good and reject the evil. |
|
In order to grow in such discernment and ability we must be willing to experience increasing hardness. God begins to reveal to us the depths of the spiritual and moral horrors of Hell arrayed against us. As we are able to bear it God permits us to experience some of the sufferings of Christ. These sufferings are tough! |
|
We need to get more acquainted with the austerity of God. He can have better fellowship with us if He doesn't have to keep babying us and sending His angels to change our diapers, so to speak. |
|
Lead on, O King eternal. We know you are the one Leader with the wisdom and strength to keep us from harm and to lead us to that which is lovely, joyous, peaceful. |
|
We know you are austere and are glad for it. We need that kind of strength in a silly, fatuous, undisciplined age. Father, we want to be just like You. |
|
Help us to grow up until we can have fellowship both with the goodness and the severity of God. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wherefore, said they, if we have found grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants for a possession, and bring us not over Jordan. And Moses said unto the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben, Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here? (Numbers 32:5,6) |
|
Israel was preparing to go across the River Jordan and attack the Canaanites. The Jews were occupying the land of Moab on the east side of Jordan. |
|
The tribes of Reuben and Gad and half of the tribe of Manasseh owned much cattle. They came to Moses and asked that they be allowed to inherit the land of Moab instead of the country on the other side of the Jordan. They said Moab was an excellent place for their cattle and they wanted to make it their home. |
|
This may sound like a reasonable request to us. In fact, this would provide more territory for those of Israel who inherited the land across the Jordan. |
|
But Moses hit the roof! |
|
Moses understood that the whole purpose of the journey through the desert was to obtain that which the Lord had promised the land of Canaan. Moses knew also that to disobey the Lord was asking for big trouble. |
|
"Will you ever learn?" Moses roared. "As if we don't have enough trouble, now you want to settle on the wrong side of the Jordan!" |
|
The cattle lovers responded, "Look. We will go across Jordan and fight alongside our brothers so they can get their land. Then we will come back here and settle down with our families and cows." |
|
Moses said, "All right already. But you better be sure you do what you are saying." |
|
This all sounds copacetic. But think about it. |
|
The Ark, the Tabernacle, the priesthood, Moses, Joshua and the elders, the singers and musicians, the Glory of God, were about to cross the Jordan. |
|
Do you think Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh cared about these? They did not! They had milk, butter, and hamburgers on their mind. |
|
Have you ever been around cows much? They are not intelligent like horses and dogs. A cow barn does not smell the greatest. Cows are placid in their bovine manner but not truly inspiring. They hardly can be compared with the Shekinah when it comes to glory and power. |
|
Can you imagine the Lord and His army returning on cows? It doesn't cut it. |
|
I like cows as much as the next fellow. But when you put cows next to the Ark, the Tabernacle, the priesthood, Moses, Joshua and the elders, and the singers and musicians there really isn't much comparison. And think about the manifest Glory of God that was traveling with the Jews! Not a difficult choice except to Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh. Kind of shortsighted, don't you agree! |
|
So it is today. People have their "cows" they are weighing against the Glory of God in Christ. Perhaps they are having difficulty deciding between the Baby Jesus and the other inhabitants surrounding the manger. |
|
How long will you halt between two opinions? Do you want to spend eternity with Jesus or with your "cows?" |
|
Don't wait too long! |
|
Moo! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. (John 14:2) |
|
Here is one of the verses that governs Christian thinking. The only problem is it doesn't mean what we think it means. |
|
Let us deal first with the venerable "mansions." Everyone from Cro-Magnon man forward understands that the word mansion, as used in John 14:2, has nothing to do with stately residences. It means room or abiding place. How long will we keep talking about mansions in Heaven when no verse of the Bible speaks of mansions in Heaven? Do we just enjoy being wrong? Or is it that we all hunger for a house bigger than what we have? |
|
I suppose wealthy Christians talk about the mansion they are going to get in Heaven with seventeen bedrooms, ten and one-half baths, and a circular driveway a quarter mile long. |
|
There may be mansions in Heaven for all I know. I will find out quicker than I otherwise would if people keep preaching about mansions in Heaven! |
|
First of all, it doesn't rain and it isn't cold in Paradise. Second, if you have lived as a victorious Christian you will have a body like Jesus. In this case you would find a mansion confining to say the least. |
|
So shine the mansions. What is the verse talking about? |
|
It is talking about the Father's house. We are so taken up with the thought of a fancy home (what a drag!) that we can't get with the fact that the issue is the Father's house. All of this is for the Father, not especially for us! |
|
The Father's house is not Heaven. The Father's house is Christ and those who are part of Christ. Jesus is telling us He is not to be the only room in the Father's house, He is going to the cross and then to Heaven to prepare a place for us in Himself and thus in God. |
|
Jesus is the way to the Father, not the way to Heaven! Whether we know it or not what we want is God! |
|
The Lord Jesus is the chief Cornerstone in the Father's house. Right? We are living stones in the same house. All that is taking place in us is so the Father can find rest. How can God rest in Heaven with the angels rebelling all over the place? |
|
The fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John is speaking of the spiritual fulfillment of the Old Testament feast of Tabernacles. God is creating a tabernacle for Himself, as the martyr Stephen told the Sanhedrin. The eternal temple of God is one of the main subjects of the Scriptures. |
|
The 23rd verse of John Fourteen tells us we are the mansion of God. |
|
Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode [mansion] with him. (John 14:23) |
|
The word "abode" in the preceding verse is identical to the word "mansion" in verse two. Bible scholars could have saved us endless confusion and speculation if they had been consistent in the translation of the Greek term. |
|
Now tell me, in your hope for the future, would you rather live in a large house and have all that cleaning to do, or would you prefer to have the living God Almighty and Jesus Christ His Son live in you for the ages of countless ages? |
|
Would you rather get a house from God or be the house of God? |
|
If you choose the latter there still is some housecleaning to do. But the Holy Spirit will help you do it if you will cooperate with Him. |
|
Mansions in Heaven? Give me a break! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12) |
|
When we employ the grace-Heaven model of salvation, Philippians 2:12 (above) does not make sense. What is there to work out? We "make a decision for Christ," are forgiven our sins, and wait to die to go to Heaven. There is no "working out" of salvation. |
|
When we employ the grace-transformation model of salvation the verse makes perfect sense. |
|
The goal of the grace-transformation model has two sides. The first side is our change into the moral, and eventually bodily, image of Jesus Christ. The second side is our entrance into the rest of God, that is, into untroubled abiding in the Personality of God. |
|
The grace-Heaven model leaves us with nothing substantial to do in the way of affecting our salvation. We just have to make sure we don't lose our "ticket." |
|
The grace-transformation model demands our total attention every day of our discipleship. |
|
We can think of salvation as a continuum. The individual on the one end of the continuum is in the moral image of Satan and has the spirit of Satan in him. The person on the other end of the continuum is in the moral image of Jesus Christ and has the Spirit of Christ in him. |
|
When we first come to Christ, believe, repent, and are baptized in water, we still are in the moral image of Satan. This is extremely important for believers to understand because many of them believe that by accepting Christ they have suddenly become new creations. Your neighbors can tell you better than this! Ask them! |
|
It is a fact that in many instances people do make a great change for the better when they accept Christ. But this is a honeymoon period. After a few months it will become clear that not all the old things have passed away. Right? |
|
But we have made the all-important start. Our sins have been completely forgiven, we have the Spirit of God, and the Divine Nature has been born in us. |
|
Now the journey through the desert begins. The Holy Spirit is in charge of us. We receive a portion of evil each day and a portion of Divine good that is sufficient to enable us to overcome the evil. |
|
The Holy Spirit points out to us what there is to overcome, the immediate challenge. When we are faithful in praying and doing whatever else is necessary to overcome the evil, we move forward toward our goal of change into the image of Christ and union with God. |
|
When we are not faithful in praying, when we become angry with the tools God is using to test us (often other people), or angry with God Himself, we do not move forward on the continuum. Instead we become bitter and full of resentment. |
|
Multitudes of Christians are bitter and full of resentment. This is because they do not understand the program of redemption. They have not been encouraged to take everything to God in prayer. They have not been taught that their goal is change into the image of the Lord and this is why it is absolutely necessary for them to keep gaining the victory over sin. |
|
They have their ticket to Heaven. All this talk about "overcoming" is for religious freaks, so they think. |
|
The believer who understands the grace-transformation model of salvation realizes why it is absolutely necessary he keep on top of the challenges and testings that it is these that are creating his salvation. |
|
As long as we view eternal residence in Heaven as the goal of our salvation we will not understand the New Testament writings and probably will flounder in our discipleship. |
|
When we realize clearly that it is our change into the image of Christ and our rest in God's Person that in fact are our salvation we will cease railing against the tools God uses and get on with the program of confessing our sins and obtaining the Virtue of Christ. In so doing we shall be able to keep singing and dancing in the heights of Zion. |
|
Are you bitter, mean, and unforgiving? You are losing it. You are going to have a rotten resurrection. I'm not kidding! |
|
Turn to Christ and ask Him to remove your filthy garments before it is too late. I am speaking to experienced Christians! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:1-3) |
|
The elect start at the Throne of God as high as it is possible to go in the Kingdom. Then they must go back and work through each aspect of redemption one step at a time. |
|
By faith we begin at the top, the summit of the new Jerusalem. Then faith is worked out in our thoughts, our words, and our actions. If we do not press forward in faith until our personality is a new creation, our original position in Christ is placed in jeopardy. |
|
By grace, by the Lord's deliberate action, we are placed spiritually on the highest throne. It is possible, however, to pervert God's grace into lawlessness and immorality. |
|
We start at the right hand of the Father spiritually. Then we obey God until what we are in total personality is identical to our spiritual assignment. |
|
What we have initially, when we first receive the Lord Jesus, is a "firstfruits" of redemption. Because the firstfruits is holy, having been offered to the Lord, the rest of our personality and our household are holy to the Lord. As soon as the firstfruits has been received, God begins the work of judging (reaping) the remainder of our personality and also, in many instances, our household. |
|
Notice the exalted position of the Lord Jesus Christ. |
|
Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: (Ephesians 1:20,21) |
|
The Lord Jesus can be brought no higher. He is "far above" every other authority. The Father has given Him all authority, all power in Heaven, on the earth, and under the surface of the earth in the dark caverns located there. |
|
Jesus is on the highest throne. All things are being put beneath His feet by the Father. |
|
Then, a remarkable statement is made by the Apostle Paul. |
|
Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us [hath made us alive] together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: (Ephesians 2:5,6) |
|
When we were dead in our sins, God gave us the resurrection life by which the Lord Jesus lives, and then made us part of His ascension so that we are seated on the unbelievably high throne of the Lord Jesus. |
|
When we receive Christ Jesus, although we are dead in our sins at the time, God makes us part of Christ's crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Now we are located in Christ in God at the highest level of the ruling city, the heavenly Jerusalem. |
|
We have done nothing to acquire such an exalted station, the position in Christ given us from the creation of the world. |
|
Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. (Romans 8:30) |
|
Called, justified, and glorified all in the past tense! |
|
We can go no higher. We are at the highest place we ever shall attain. We have the greatest authority we ever shall possess. We are as close to God as it is possible to be. |
|
God has brought us on eagles' wings to Himself. (from Eagles' Wings) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. (Genesis 2:8) |
|
And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, (Revelation 16:10) |
|
The greatest contrast imaginable is that between the scenes portrayed in the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis and the horrors described in the Book of Revelation; the contrast between the peace and beauty of Eden and the roaring inferno of the last days. |
|
The result of the transgression of Adam and Eve has been thousands of years of agony and death. The history of mankind has been tragic. But of all the catastrophes of history, including the Holocaust perpetrated on the Jews by the Nazis, nothing has occurred as yet on the scale outlined in the Book of Revelation. |
|
We may wonder, why would God permit such awful torment and chaos to be visited on the earth? |
|
There are good reasons. |
|
First we must point out that the Lord God takes no pleasure in the pain that comes upon man. The anguish man experiences is of man's own doing. It grieves the Lord to see a single human being suffer pain and confusion. It is the conduct of man that brings pain and confusion upon him. Spiritual laws are inviolable. Certain kinds of behavior bring love, joy, and peace. Other kinds of behavior bring murder, torment, and anxiety. |
|
God has done all in His power to save man. If God went any further in controlling the conduct of people they would cease to be human beings and would be puppets possessing no will or judgment of their own. |
|
God is permitting Satan to realize and express all that is in his personality. The exposure of Satan's personality will continue until sin and self-will have been brought to maturity. |
|
God's purpose in allowing Satan to utilize the physical world to portray the consequences of his ambitions and lusts is to provide an object lesson for the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth. All the creatures of God now have portrayed before their eyes the results of not abiding in the will and love of the Father. Indeed it is a horrible sight. |
|
At the same time, God is bringing forth sons in His image. God's sons will be filled with glory and, under Christ Jesus, will reign supreme over all the works of God's hands. The angels are ministering spirits for these heirs of the Divine salvation. But before the sons are fully born (to be fully born as a son of God we must be born of woman, born of the Spirit, and raised from the dead) they must be thoroughly exposed to Satan's being and works. |
|
Each son must of his own will choose to abhor Satan and cleave to God. The Lord Jesus Christ came to help us do that. God's Glory is revealed, not only in forgiving sinners but in bringing forth sons in His image sons who, under the most difficult of circumstances, have chosen to obey their Father in all things. |
|
We are drawing near the days of vengeance. It may be true that the hour of temptation already is upon us. Even now the tares may be being removed from the wheat. The foolish virgins may be running out of oil. (from The End-time Judgments) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:27) |
|
Salvation is deliverance from the guilt, power, and presence of sin. |
|
When we Christians think of the future, whether it be residence in Heaven, or life on the new earth in the Holy City, or service with Christ on this earth during the thousand-year Kingdom Age, we assume sin no longer is present with us. |
|
Although we have come to trust in God's mercy during our life on earth, if we think about it we would not want to live in Paradise, in the new Jerusalem, or on the earth during the Millennium, if we and those around us still are behaving in a sinful manner but were forgiven by grace. |
|
How would you like to live in Paradise or in the new Jerusalem if people still were envious, spiteful, angry, jealous, lustful, slanderous, covetous, as they are today in the Christian churches? Suppose you were told it doesn't matter how people behave because God has forgiven us by grace? How would you feel then? |
|
What if you were given a beautiful, large mansion to live in but the people were angry, spiteful, and treacherous as they are today in the Christian churches? Is this part of your hope for the future? |
|
If you will take a little while to consider this problem seriously you may find you are assuming that not only the guilt but also the urges and presence of sin have been dealt with somehow. You hope that sin can never enter Heaven not even your sin. Am I correct? |
|
If so, then salvation must include deliverance from the guilt, power, and presence of sin if it is to produce the kind of world we desire to live in. |
|
Even if no death or trouble followed sin, the true saint in his or her heart does not wish to live in a sinful environment. |
|
Christians understand that the guilt of our sin was taken care of on the cross of Calvary. The message of forgiveness through the atoning blood of Christ Jesus has been preached and taught to the ends of the earth. |
|
However there is a problem with today's preaching concerning the guilt of our sin. It is that the message of deliverance from guilt, if it is to be presented according to the Bible standard, should always be accompanied by a demand for the most sincere, vigorous repentance. Very often the forgiveness is emphasized today but not the vigorous repentance. |
|
The lack of emphasis on thorough repentance may account at least in part for the moral weakness and confusion so evident in the churches. |
|
The power and presence of sin are another matter. It appears that the Christian preachers and teachers have come to believe that salvation is primarily forgiveness. If such were the case the new covenant would not be any more effective in dealing with the problem of sin than was true of the Law of Moses. |
|
We must always keep in mind, if we would understand the plan of redemption, that it operates primarily for God's benefit. God has a problem. His creation is in rebellion. God's solution is to create sons in the image of Christ who are able, because of their mature character, to sit as judges and rulers over the creation. |
|
If every person on earth were forgiven his sins it still would not solve God's problem in any manner. But one individual who presses forward in Christ until he is in the moral image of Christ and at rest in God's will, is a definite part of the solution to God's problem. (from Eternal Judgment) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
