Jesus Is Lord
Pete returned recently from his annual trip back home to Alabama. After extended time in the South with like minded believers from his youth, God said, “Teach the men of Influencers the basics of our ministry.” These five basics are first, that Jesus Christ is both Lord and Savior. The second is that the Bible is the final authority for faith and practice. The third is that we are men of prayer. Fourth, we link together with likeminded men. Fifth, we give it away.
Oswald Sanders taught a conference in Germany where Pete served many years as a missionary. Pete asked him after the conference, “Can you be saved without making Jesus Lord of your life?” Sanders said, “I was saved before I made Jesus lord. This was because of poor teaching. But when I was taught correctly about the lordship of Christ, I dedicated my life to serve Him as Lord.”
Franklin Graham wrote a book many years ago called the Name. The name of Jesus Christ shouts out a choice: Whom will you serve? His terms are unilateral… there is no other name under heaven whereby we must be saved. Jesus is not a negotiator, he delivers God’s non-negotiable terms… He said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the father except by me.”
The name Jesus means savior. Savior is the one who brings salvation…. the one who saves us and delivers us from sin and the consequences of sin. He’s our rescuer and our redeemer who has paid for our sin and the penalty of sin. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through his son Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians says, Ye are not your own. You were bought with a price. The payment was the price of his innocent blood in exchange for our guilty blood. For he who was without sin was made the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.
The spiritual battle raging around us is not about political correctness; instead it’s about power and control. Evil dictators do the devil’s bidding… to take men captive against their will. The devil’s purpose is to steal, kill and to destroy. Those he takes captive are not atheists, they believe in the god of this world, the devil who has blinded their eyes lest the glorious light of the gospel of truth should shine unto them.
While he was playing Double A baseball, Pete came to a change of direction. He had been playing to be the best ball player he could be. When he read The Bobby Richardson Story, He received a new purpose for playing ball. Richardson was a hall of fame player who was also a committed Christian. The theme of Richardson’s story is, “I’d rather have my name and legacy erased from history down here to have my name written in heaven.” Pete had confessed “Jesus is Lord,” and his life’s pursuits took on new meaning…. To live for the praise and the glory of God’s grace.
Since his life changing decision to follow the Lord, God has revealed to Pete that without a test you cannot have a testimony. Pete learned this through difficult life lessons. When his beloved wife Suzan was diagnosed with stage four terminal brain cancer, God said to them, either this trial will break you or this will be your finest hour.
A lord is the supreme owner, the commander in chief over the life of a disciple who has confessed Jesus is lord. This means that I subjugate my will to his will. God will help himself to our lives whether we allow him to or not. The Lord’s bond servant’s prerogative is to bow in submission to his Lord. Then all things will work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose.
Without making Jesus Christ Lord, life will be an expertise in frustration. However, when we choose to abide with him and within him, He will work in us and through us to will and to do of His good pleasure.
Pete’s mentor Chuck Singletary said to Pete, “if you want to be a man of God, find a brother who is walking with the Lord, and “hang like a cat on his screen door and don’t let go.”
When God calls missionaries, they often worry about their safety in dangerous foreign lands. Pete reminds those called to foreign missions, “the safest place is where God calls you to be.” A bond servant’s heart says, “thy wish is my command.”
Jesus said in John 15, if you belonged to the world, the world would welcome you as its own and treat you with affection. A servant is not greater than his master… the world will not keep my word… they will persecute you because they persecuted me.
The adversary will do anything to entice us to acquiesce to his power. He and his minions strive for control over hearts and minds. The battle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness from on high.
There is a lesson from the story of Abu Tabor, a chieftain who was renowned for his small but powerful army. His elite fighting force of 200 mighty men had a reputation of invincibility. A warlord who commanded thousands of troops had pillaged and plundered the surrounding area and had claimed the territories around Abu Tabor’s tiny kingdom. The warlord sent an emissary to offer Abu Tabor terms of surrender. The emissary said, either you surrender your territory and pledge to serve our king, or we will decimate your army and take your women and children captive. Abu Tabor said to the emissary, You see my warrior here? Tabor said to the warrior, “Plunge your dagger into your heart.” The warrior did not hesitate and fell dead at the emissary’s feet. Then he said to the soldier on his right, “Jump off of that high cliff.” The soldier immediately jumped to his death. Abu Tabor said, “I have two hundred more mighty men just like these two. If you invade my territory, by sunset your army will be defeated and your chief will be chained to my dogs.” The emissary delivered to his chief the message of Abu Tabor’s refusal to surrender. The warlord attacked and by the end of the day, the warlord’s troops lay dead and dying and their chief was chained to Abu Tabor’s dogs.
The lesson is that it’s not the size of the dog in the fight but rather the size of the fight in the dog.
God is sovreign overall. God only is omnipotent. One with God is a majority. As Abraham Lincoln said, the question is not whether God is on our side, but whether we are on God’s side. If God be fore us who can be against us? Who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation or famine or nakedness or peril, or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
A bond slave says to his master the words Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “not my will but thine be done.” As Bonhoeffer said, “When Jesus bids a man come, he bids him, “come and die.” For I was crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me, and the life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
…that we may ever live for our Lord Jesus Christ… to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael
