Stand in the Gap

When Pete was called of God to put the love of God into action, he wrote this paraphrased prayer:

“O sovreign Lord of all men and of all times. We come to you with praise in our hearts for only you O Lord are worthy of praise. Despite our sins you have saved us by your grace. Though we are sinners deserving of judgement, you sent your son our Lord Jesus Christ to pay the debt of sin on our behalf. You have called us as your messengers, your witnesses of your saving grace. Break our hearts to see those whom you have called us to minister your love and grace… To bring them from darkness into the glorious light of your gospel of truth. May we seek for the lost with your heart. May we turn our hearts toward you so that our heartbeat is your heartbeat for your precious souls. We desire to be your church, serving at your pleasure, in your way and in your power…to spur others to be sensitive of their need for your grace and mercy. Work a miracle in our hearts and in your church to bring about a revival and a harvest… That we might be burdened to accomplish that which Jesus came to accomplish, the redemption of the world. May we lavish your blessings on a world of darkness that they may come to know our Lord Jesus Christ and at the end of our journey here on earth hear our master say, “well done my good and faithful servant. Enter now into the joy of your Lord.”

God gave Ezekiel a picture of how corrupt Israel had become. Ezekiel prophesied about God’s judgement upon Israel. The tribes of Israel had forsaken their Lord God Jehovah. Reading Ezekiel 22 is like reading about current events in America. Ezekiel 22:30 says, “And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.” Billy Graham said that if God doesn’t judge America, then he will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. God’s righteous judgement has been held back by the remnant of God’s people who stand in the gap as watchmen on the wall.

In John 2 when Jesus went into Jerusalem, the multitudes said, “we believe in you.” However, Jesus knew what was in the heart of man. Their’s was not true believing, but merely mental assent. Ezekiel looked for a man who would build up the wall and stand in the gap against the powers of spiritual wickedness from on high. Likewise, we’re exhorted in 1 Corinthians 16:13-14, “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you (acquit yourselves) like men, be strong. Let all your things be done with the love of God.” We have been called as God’s love letters, His epistles known and read of all men. God has called us to be witness of his truth and of His glory.

Our exhortation in Ephesians 6 is to stand in the evil day and having done all, to stand. Only two things of this world will last forever: God’s people and God’s word. Therefore let your conversation and your manner of living be as it becometh the gospel of Christ…for the word of God liveth and abideth forever.

Every moment is a divine appointment with our Lord Jesus Christ. Dis-appointment is the result of missing and “dissing” God’s appointment. Our calling is to “choke in the dust of men of God who chase after Christ.” Life on this earth will soon be passed, only that which is done for Christ will last. We are called to be witnesses of our sovreign Lord…to “give ’em heaven.” He has made us living epistles of the love of God, known and read of all men. May He find us faithful to His calling as watchmen on the wall, standing in the gap with the shield of believing faith to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one, and that when we finish our course we will hear our Master say, “well done my good and faithful servant. Enter now into the joy of thy Lord.”

May we ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael

Awe and Gratitude

Our concept of God and our attitude toward him will determine whether or not we make the right decisions in life. Regardless of the trials of life, all God requires is that we keep a heart of awe and gratitude. We need to dwell in the Lord’s presence to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” In his presence, we allow him to speak. Only in his presence can we hear his “still small voice.” Time in prayer alone with God dwelling in the presence of our Heavenly Father is where we come to know and understand his peace, his mercy, his grace, and his blessing. Then when the crisis comes and courage is required, we who have waited upon the Lord will have such confidence in him that we will be his reliable ones.

The wisdom of God is antithetical to the wisdom of men. The first shall be last and the last shall be first. He who thinks he is wise becomes a fool. The ultimate freedom is the ultimate captivity…Ye are slaves to whom ye obey. Therefore, make me a captive Lord, and then I shall be free. The church in Corinth dealt with issues that are common to all men. Paul’s letters to the Corinthian church are epistles of “reproof and correction.” Reproof is for conviction. Correction is for restoration to an upright position.

In the first three chapters of 1 Corinthians, the early church was divided in whom they followed. Some said “I am of Paul.” Others said, “I am of Apollos, or of Peter, or of Christ.” The antidote to division is to reconcile our hearts through Jesus Christ at the foot of the cross. For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “consider your calling.” Receiving the Word of God starts with humility…for in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Unless we “humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God,” we cannot receive the truth of the Word of God. Paul said, there are not many mighty and not many noble who are called. God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the wise. Jesus said, “you haven’t chosen me, rather I have chosen you.” We who are chosen are the result of God’s election.

Jonathan Edwards, who was considered the greatest preacher in America, changed the lives of thousands. In meekness and humility, he would lay on the floor in front of his fireplace until he was convicted that the words he would speak were God’s words and not his own words. He understood that his calling was to give glory to God.

God calls the foolish things of this world to shame the wise and the weak things of the world to show his strength. The world will think we’re foolish for following the truth of the Word… And for following our Lord Jesus Christ, the word made flesh. Jesus, before his crucifixion, wept over the city of Jerusalem. God had called the people of the city to worship him, but they rejected God’s word of truth and the gospel… his son, Jesus the Christ, the son of the living God.

Philippians 3 says “let this mind be in you which was also in Christ.” He willingly laid aside his credentials as the promised Messiah and became a bondservant to serve God’s people in love. Jesus by his example taught his followers how to be servant-leaders. For the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, and patient, in meekness serving those who oppose themselves.

Pete prayed, “I can’t love my wife the way she deserves to be loved. If I make myself available you, Lord, then allow me to love her the way you love her.” Pete’s prayer was like David’s prayer of repentance is in Psalm 51:7-10: “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.”

Like Paul said, “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this dead body?” Pete prayed, “I know I’m not the man you want me to be. Lord please make me that man.”

Suzan wrote Pete a card that said, “Thank you for modeling the love of Christ. You show me every day what it means to be loved by a man of God…a man of humility, and gentleness who loves me like Christ loves the church and gave himself for her.”

It’s by God’s provision and by his mercy and grace that we can walk according to the good pleasure of his will. For in Christ, he has made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Our strength and wisdom is in Him alone. We become more like Jesus as we follow in his footsteps. God will put in our hearts to make our desire his desire. As Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight thyself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” When our heart’s desire is God’s desire, when his will is our will, then our hearts are aligned with God’s heart….then it is God who worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure.

God has chosen us, appointed us and invited us to walk in fellowship with him. His calling is to sanctification and holiness…to set us apart according to his purpose…that we should be to the praise of the glory of his grace.

For what are you thankful? When we’re thankful for our Lord Jesus Christ we can rejoice as Paul did…in everything give thanks. All God requires is that we keep a heart of awe and gratitude. For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all generations.

May we ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael

Thanksgiving

Colossians 2:6-7 says, “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.”

Paul was grateful that in the midst of the Roman world’s secular teachings, the believers in Colosse continued to walk in the Lord and the truth that they were taught… Rooted and grounded in the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. These believers abounded with Thanksgiving. For what were they thankful? They were thankful for their root and their firm foundation in the faith of the Lord. Jesus said, be like the wise man who built his house on the rock. And when the waves and the storms beat upon the house, the house stood because its foundation was upon the rock. Jesus Christ himself is the firm foundation…he is the rock of ages. He is the chief cornerstone upon which we, the church are built. Unless there is a firm foundation on the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house will come crashing down when the storms of life prevail upon it.

How do you define manhood consistent with the firm foundation? Contrary to the truth of the Word, the world’s man-code says that a real man is self sufficient and needs no one else. He is a rugged individualist. His self sufficiency is rooted in himself. The world’s man says, “I win and you lose.” The world’s man leaves a path of destruction when he climbs over lesser men to reach the pinnacle of success. Through the trials of life, he will be wounded, but the world says, whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger…always at the expense of others.

However, God uses trials and tribulations of life to bring a man to repentance…a point of turning from himself and unto God. After woundedness, there is healing, but to be healed we must face reality:

The first reality is that life is hard. Jesus said, In this world you will have tribulation. But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. A man of God’s response to trials and tribulations is different from the world’s response. Jesus said to recompense to no man evil for evil. When the trial comes, in the midst of the trial, tribulation works patience and patience experience and experience hope and hope makes not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us.

The second reality is that I’m not in control. When Pete’s wife was in labor and in distress, the doctor came into the Father’s waiting room and said, “we’re losing the baby’s heartbeat.” Pete desperately prayed, “Please Lord, save my wife and my child.” God’s answer was, “how much control do you have over this situation?” Pete answered, “None.” God’s next question was “no matter the outcome of this situation, will you still honor and serve me?” Pete answered, “Yes Lord, You’re in control and not me. I purpose in my heart to honor and serve you no matter what.” Then the doctor came into the waiting room. He said, “we lost the baby.” Pete and Suzan used this ordeal to come to an understanding that God is Sovreign overall. His thoughts are not our thoughts and his ways are not our ways. Despite the trial, God works together all things for good to those who love him…to those who are called according to his purpose…

The next reality is that it’s not about me. The devil’s original lie to Eve in the Garden of Eden was, “ye shall be as God knowing good and evil.” He appealed to her pride. However, the pride of man goes before a fall. As John the Baptist said, “I must decrease that He may increase.

The fourth reality is that with patience in abiding with Him and within Him, over time we will know by experience the goodness of our Lord. The question is, “do you want to spend the rest of your life learning to become just like Jesus? A sage is a wise and experienced man who knows the love of God and is healthy, strong, and faithful in the truth of the word of God. Abiding in Christ means spending time in the word of God, in prayer, and in fellowship with others in the family of faith.

The final point in Colossians 2:7 says, let your life overflow with joy and thanksgiving for all he has done. The letter to the Colossians starts with grace and peace. Grace is unmerited divine favor by the one who didn’t need to give it to ones who didn’t deserve to receive it. Peace is the result of reconciliation with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Psalm 100 is a song of praise and thanksgiving…for the Lord, he alone is worthy of praise. Therefore, make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord, He is God. Many young Christians think that the blessings are what God has given us by his mercy and grace. However, over time he teaches us that the greatest blessing is to bless God. It’s not about us…it’s about Him…that we should be to the praise of the glory of His grace. For It is he that has made us and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture.

Our loving Heavenly Father will give us an open heart and will enlighten our spiritual understanding so that we can see him as he is. Despite our fallen nature, God will by his love and grace, through the peace that passes understanding, reconcile us back to him. For there is one God and one mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus.

Salvation doesn’t depend on whether we’re good enough. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Therefore be thankful unto him and bless his name.

Paul despite his persecution in a Roman prison said, “I’m poured out as a drink offering to my Lord.” I am poured out as a sweet-smelling fragrance as a prayer to my Lord. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For those who are saved, it is the fragrance of life unto life. Jesus said, “as ye have received the Lord Jesus Christ, so walk ye in him.”

According to Philemon 1:4-7, “I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers, Hearing of thy love and faith, which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all saints; That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. For we have great joy and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother.”

We have so much to be thankful for. The conclusion of Psalm 100 says, “For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all generations.”

May we ever live to the praise of the glory of His Grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael

Grace of Repentance

Pete reports that his mission team’s trip to the Holy Land was the best of all the mission trips that he’s been blessed to experience. There were many highlights of their trip. They were honored to join in a worship service at a small Christian church in the city of Bethlehem. After the service the pastor invited Pete and his mission team to spend the afternoon at his house to harvest olives. In three hours their team harvested what would have taken the pastor’s family two weeks. Pete and his team were honored to minister at a youth mission in Israel. They shared communion at the Garden Tomb. The significance of the tomb is that in this area, God resurrected Jesus Christ from the dead. At Magdala, a recent archeological discovery, they were blessed to visit a newly constructed chapel. Another highlight was a baptism service at the river Jordan where one of the women on their mission team was baptized. John the Baptist’s mission was to call God’s people to repentance.

The essence of a Puritan prayer from the book, The Valley of Vision, says, “Blessed Lord, we kneel in prayer and see the sin that caused the enormity of your divine wrath. Allow us to perceive the saving grace of the divine sacrifice of our Lord Jesus. Sin is our malady born in our flesh dominating our faculties and intermingling with our every thought…the nature that holds us captive against your will. Yet your heart hastens to our rescue…your love endures our curse. Let us walk in humility bathed in the precious blood of our Lord as heirs of your salvation through his supreme sacrifice. You saved us from eternal death and gave us life more abundantly….for that we are ever grateful and give you all praise and glory through our Lord Jesus Christ…Amen.”

Christianity starts with repentance. Repentance means to turn around, to change your mind. Repentance begins with a broken and a contrite heart. Repentance is by God’s grace…God will break our heart for what breaks his. God’s love and grace calls a man to repentance. Those who do not repent are held captive to their sin nature. Repentance is to turn from sin…to turn our hearts to the Lord. To feel regret for the direction we were headed…to experience the burden of sin and to lay down our burden at the foot of the cross. May our prayer be to run the race set before us and to press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Psalm 51 and Psalm 32 are pictures of repentance through the eyes of David, a man after God’s own heart.

All men struggle with sin and it takes repentance to turn from the destructive appetites of the flesh and toward God’s saving grace. There are two types of repentance. One is a false repentance. This is like when the child says to his father, “Dad, don’t spank me.” It’s a feeling of remorse for having been caught and for having to suffer the painful consequences.

The story of David and Bathsheba is an illustration of true repentance. David sinned by committing adultery with Bathsheba, getting her pregnant, and then having her husband Uriah murdered. David continued in sin for a year. God gave his prophet Nathan a story to convict David of his sin. Nathan told David about a poor man in his kingdom whose only possession was a precious little ewe lamb whom he cherished and loved like his own daughter. There was also a rich man in David’s kingdom who owned many flocks of sheep and herds of cattle. A traveler came to the rich man’s house for dinner. Instead of taking a sheep from his own flock, the rich man stole the poor man’s precious little ewe lamb, butchered her, and served her to his rich guest.” David had been a shepherd as a boy so this story moved him deeply. The penalty for stealing a man’s sheep is to pay him back four times over. However David pronounced the death penalty when he said, “the man that did this thing must die.” Then Nathan stuck his finger in David’s chest and said, “You are the man.”

The worst part of sinning is when we deny that we have sinned and fail to acknowledge that the sin separates us from walking in fellowship with a holy God. David’s confession in Psalm 51 said, “against thee only have I sinned.” According to 1 John 1:9, “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

David’s confession in Psalm 51 says, “I was born in iniquity and sin.” Confession is coupled with a desire to come clean before the Lord and to make restitution for wrongs committed. David knew that only God’s mercy and grace would allow him to repent. David was a man after God’s own heart because he returned back to God with a broken and a contrite heart. The grace of repentance is that God will break our heart for what breaks his. David’s story is a picture of true repentance. Even though he sinned mightily against God, he approached his Lord with true contrition. A contrite heart is given by God’s mercy and grace so that we can turn from our wicked ways and return our hearts to fellowship with our Lord.

God doesn’t want our sacrifice…all he wants is a broken and a contrite heart, for godly sorrow works repentance unto salvation. A scene from the movie “The Mission” illustrates true repentance. Spain had sent missionaries to South America to convert the natives to Christianity. The King of Spain gave this territory to Portugal as part of a treaty. Portugal sent their soldiers to enslave the natives that the Spanish missionaries had converted to Christianity. In one moving scene, the military leader of the Portuguese enslavers has a conversion experience. He is brought to repentance when after struggling to bring his pack with all of his possessions to the top of a mountain, he’s confronted by the Spanish missionary and the tribesmen the missionary has led to Christ. The tribesmen approach the Portuguese leader with a knife to slit his throat as an enemy of the faith. However, the missionary tells the tribesmen to cut the burden free instead of killing the Portuguese enslaver. In this scene the leader rejoices that God has forgiven him and freed him from his burden of the sin.

Repentance is by God’s grace. The Holy Spirit stirs the soul of men unto godly sorrow which leads to repentance. The miracle is when a man turns from his wicked ways and unto the living and the true God. Where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more….in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.

May we pray as David prayed in Psalm 51, “have mercy on me O God. According to thy loving kindness and tender mercies blot out my transgressions. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.”
Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.”

Thank you Lord for the grace of repentance through our Lord Jesus Christ.

May we ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael