Don't Hide Christ

This is a busy time of year. Yet we should never be so busy that the wonder of Jesus becomes ordinary to us. Ask God to overwhelm you with the glorious deeds of Jesus Christ.

His birth was just the beginning of his time on earth. He is also creator of the Universe, and the fearsome rider on the white horse. He rules in and over time and stands outside of time. He turns darkness into the light that illuminates the new heavens and earth. He wields the sword which executes his Father’s will and pierces deeply into my heart. He strikes terror for those who will not yield. And he lovingly, compassionately, compellingly calls me home.

Praise his name!

From the Gospel of John

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.”

Ben Stein's confession

Apparently the White House referred to Christmas Trees as Holiday Trees for the first time this year, which prompted CBS presenter, Ben Stein, to present this piece which I would like to share with you.

The following was written by Ben Ste...in and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

My confession:
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejewelled trees, Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are, Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a nativity scene, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?' (regarding Hurricane Katrina). Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?'

In light of recent events... terrorist attacks, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said okay.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell.
Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. 

Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. 

Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit.

If not, then just discard it.... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what a bad shape the world is in.

My Best Regards, Honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein

'Knowledge' in Gen. 3:5

Some skeptics see the word “knowledge” in Gen. 3:5 and conclude that God wants to prohibit man from having knowledge. They claim God likes people to be ignorant and unthinking, but they fail to consider what it is a knowledge of. But their sin brought evil into the world, and once mankind knew both good and evil, he had to choose between the two.

Before sin was in the world, Adam and Eve knew, and experienced, only good; in fact, God’s entire creation was “very good.” These same skeptics often complain about the evil they see in the world and blame it on God—yet it was because of Adam and Eve's desire to know good and evil that we now know and experience evil.

Genesis 3:5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

The Atheist Challenge

A sincere atheist challenged me to live the life of an unbeliever for just one month. In return, he would live the life of a Christian. The rule is that each person has to be open-minded to the fact that he may be wrong in his beliefs. The Christian is not to read the Bible, and he’s not to go to church. The atheist will in turn read the Bible and go to church.

While I appreciate the kind gesture, it really illustrates that we Christians have a communication problem with some people. It’s completely our fault. We haven’t made the issue clear. So I’m going to try to make it very understandable. I will repeat and deliberately emphasize it, so that it hits the target. In doing this I risk sounding sarcastic. If that’s how it comes across, I apologize.

A Christian is someone who knows the Lord. Let me repeat that. Christians know the Lord. Actually know Him. Experientially. They know a Person, not a lifestyle. I’m talking about the God of the universe. They know Him.

I will now personalize this, but I am speaking on behalf of everyone who knows the Lord. I don’t “believe” that He exists. I know Him. Personally. I have a living relationship with the Creator. I talk to Him through prayer, and He guides me though His Word and by His Holy Spirit. I have known the Lord since April 25, 1972, at 1:30 in the morning.

Perhaps I’m not making myself clear, so I will try an analogy. It’s like actually knowing someone. Personally. It’s like having a friendship with Him—a 24-hour-a-day, 365-days-a-year, intimate relationship. Therefore, it is self-evident that I can’t live for a month being open to not knowing Him. All the so-called “mistakes” in the Bible can’t change that fact. All the hypocrisy committed by religious people in the past can’t change it. All the atheists on God’s earth saying that He doesn’t exist doesn’t change it in the slightest. Darwin’s theory can’t change it. The storms of this life can’t change it. If I get cancer and die a horrible death, it doesn’t change the fact that I know the Lord. I not only know Him, but I love Him. I love Him with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength. He is my life. He’s my joy, my Creator, my Savior, my Lord, and my God.

My earnest hope and prayer is that you would soften your sinful hearts, and repent and trust Jesus Christ, so that you too can testify to the unchanging truth that “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3).

-Ray Comfort

Hosea 2:20 I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness,
And you shall know the Lord.

Let us Pray

“All hell is vanquished when the believer bows his knee in importunate supplication. Beloved brethren, let us pray. We cannot all argue, but we can all pray; we cannot all be leaders, but we can all be pleaders; we cannot all be mighty in rhetoric, but we can all be prevalent in prayer. I would sooner see you eloquent with God than with men. Prayer links us with the Eternal, the Omnipotent, the Infinite, and hence it is our chief resort...Be sure that you are with God, and then you may be sure that God is with you.” Charles Spurgeon 

1 Kings 8:54 And so it was, when Solomon had finished praying all this prayer and supplication to the Lord, that he arose from before the altar of the Lord, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven.

Signs of the End Times

Few in the Church would deny that Bible prophecy is being fulfilled before our very eyes. These are certainly “perilous” times. Men’s hearts are failing them for fear of what is coming on the earth. There are suicide bombings, terrorist acts, nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom. The neighbors of Israel are boldly escalating their hatred of the Jews. Lawlessness and the love of sin abound on every side. Economies are collapsing, and as political leaders try to keep a brave face, I can see fear deep in their eyes. They fail to even acknowledge the God who gave them life, and I think of the psalmist’s prayer, “Arise, O LORD, do not let man prevail; let the nations be judged in Your sight. Put them in fear, O LORD, that the nations may know themselves to be but men” (Psa. 9:19,20).

In the midst of speaking about the dark and frightening signs of the end of the age, Jesus shone a bea- con of wonderful light: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Matt. 24:14). You and I can be a part of fulfillment of Bible prophecy. God has entrusted us (as the Church) to be lighthouse keepers, especially at the end of this age. We are to steer perishing sinners into the God-given safe haven. So make sure you show your brilliance by embracing the work that God has called us to do. If ever you were needed, it is now.

For more signs of the end times, see 2 Pet. 3:3.

2 Timothy 3:1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come...

Passion for Evangelism

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Such a thought should stir in us a passion for evangelism. For verses that warn of its reality, see 2 Tim. 4:1.

“The wrath of God does not end with death. This is a truth which the preacher cannot mention without trembling, nor without wondering that he does not tremble more. The eternity of punishment is a thought which crushes the heart. You have buried the man, but you have not buried his sins. His sins live and are immortal. They have gone before him to judgment, or they will follow after him to bear their witness as to the evil of his heart and the rebellion of his life. The Lord God is slow to anger, but when he is once aroused to it, as he will be against those who finally reject his Son, he will put forth all his omnipotence to crush his enemies.” Charles Spurgeon

2 Thessalonians 1:7 and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power...

What is the purpose of humanity 'a existence?

The Christian has a unique knowledge that is foreign to this world. The next time you witness to a professing atheist ask, “What is the purpose for humanity’s existence?” He will more than likely say that we are here to strive for happiness. Say, “That’s what you do while you are here, but what is the actual purposefor existence?” You know that you exist to love God and enjoy Him forever, but the world sees no logical reason to exist. That is a good and humbling realization for an unsaved person to come to: that without God, he is utterly lost with no rhyme or reason for his existence.

Daniel 2:23 “I thank You and praise You,
O God of my fathers; You have given me wisdom and might, And have now made known to me what we asked of You, For You have made known to us the king’s demand.”

Lamentation

The Book of Lamentations describes the spirit in which every Christian should walk. The Bible says that Jesus was a Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief (see Isa. 53:3). Those who acquaint themselves with the sufferings of this life, and the sufferings of the next for those who die in their sins, will lament in horror and then preach with passion. The lost, with the same loves and fears as we have, are held captive by the enemy (see 2 Tim. 2:26) and await unawares the most terrible of fates, but for the grace of God. Tragically, they do not consider their eternal destiny (see v. 9).

Lamentations 1:5 Her adversaries have become the master,
Her enemies prosper;
For the Lord has afflicted her
Because of the multitude of her transgressions.
Her children have gone into captivity before the enemy.

Free from fear

Always keep in mind that you will never be free from fear, especially just before you get up to open-air preach. Overcome it through thoughts of the fate of the ungodly, the sacrifice of the cross, and the fact that God is watching you. I have known men who said that it was less fearful for them to skydive for the first time than to open-air preach. So think of the worst-case scenario if something goes wrong with both. In skydiving, if the parachute fails to open or becomes twisted, you fall to an unspeakably terrifying death. In open-air preaching, you may make a fool of yourself and dent your ego. There is no comparison. So just do it, and God will be with you.

Haggai 2:5 ‘ According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remains among you; do not fear!’

God demands obedience

The ungodly often think that all that God requires of them is to “believe” in Him. However, God does not require just belief (the demons believe and tremble); He demands obedience. We are to bow to the Lordship of the One who gave us life. He is the Lord and if the world refuses to bow to His absolute sovereignty now in mercy, they will bow later in judgment.

“Salvation comes not by ‘accepting the finished work’ or ‘deciding for Christ.’ It comes by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, the whole, living, victorious Lord who, as God and man, fought our fight and won it, ac- cepted our debt as His own and paid it, took our sins and died under them and rose again to set us free. This is the true Christ, and nothing less will do.

“But something less is among us, nevertheless, and we do well to identify it so that we may repudiate it. That something is a poetic fiction, a product of the romantic imagination and maudlin religious fancy. It is a Jesus, gentle, dreamy, shy, sweet and feminine, almost effeminate, and marvelously adaptable to whatever society He may find Himself in . . . He is used as a means to almost any carnal end, but he is never acknowl- edged as Lord. These quasi Christians follow a quasi Christ. They want his help but not his interference. They will flatter him but never obey him.” A. W. Tozer

Zephaniah 3:2 She has not obeyed His voice,
She has not received correction;
She has not trusted in the Lord,
She has not drawn near to her God.