Real zeal vs. False Zeal

                                            

Posted on March 25, 2023


By Elizabeth Prata

A regenerated heart means different affections, different point of view, different citizenship. It means the world will hate the believer. And it does. It does.

Post-salvation, I learned that some of the most vicious and difficult evangelistic responses don’t come from the world, but sometimes actually come from people calling themselves other Christians. That is because I learned there are false Christians who possess a false zeal. Or, actually, it’s a true zeal, but it’s misplaced from glorifying God in truth, to glorifying satan in hate.

Brothers, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. (Romans 10:1-2).

By this verse we see there is such a thing as a zeal that is not of God. There can be zeal, or fervor, or energy around religious things, but not according to what we know from the Bible. AKA knowledge.

This contrast of false zeal vs. true zeal was highlighted recently with several events in the news. Of course, the “Asbury Revival”, a week-long event that had occurred at a college in Kentucky where a seemingly spontaneous move of God spread across the campus, drawing hundreds of matriculated students, then busloads of students from other campuses, then rubber-neckers. The event seemed to indicate a spiritual move of the Spirit to awaken dead sinners. Or was it? There certainly was an abundance of zeal present. Was it real or false? How to tell? At the very beginning it was especially hard to tell.

Zeal: great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or an objective. Synonyms: passion, fervor, enthusiasm.

In addition, another zeal event occurred. Beth Moore’s third memoir was released in February and the enterprising little Bible thumper from Texas has been busy as a bee flitting from interview to interview. The book rests at this writing at the top of famous best-seller lists. It’s creating quite a buzz. She has been on TV, streaming, and print, her opinions delivered with as much verve as ever, and are eagerly absorbed by audiences, never waning despite her 65 years and over 4 decades in the Christian biz.

Beth Moore has been consistently described through the years as “energetic”, “charismatic”, “passionate”. She puts out an energy as zealous for God.

But how can we discern if we observe a true zeal or a false zeal? Let’s turn to the scriptures.

As Paul finished Romans 9, and remember, there were no chapter breaks in the original letter, before he went on to mentioning false zeal in Chapter 10:1, had reminded the Roman Christians that Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not attain that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. (Romans 9:31-32).

They appeared to be doing a religious effort, they looked like they were on the right track, and part of that appearance is because of their fervent energy.

They went across the world to make one proselyte, but wound up making him twice the sons of hell they were. (Matthew 23:15). That verse is the example of zeal without knowledge. You can be passionate, you can be busy making disciples, but a false zeal will make disciples who miss the mark completely and will wind up in hell as a son of hell. Zeal, no knowledge.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones preached on the Romans 10:1-2 verse in a sermon called False vs. True Zeal. The sermon is stunning, relevant, and informative. He laid the foundation as he always does, logically, then laid out tests to determine of someone is exhibiting false zeal. Then in the later part of the sermon he laid out how to determine if a person is exhibiting true zeal. I’ll paraphrase his sermon below in 2 parts. Today, we have an exam of false zeal. Tomorrow, true zeal.

Lloyd-Jones’ sermon can be heard here, for free: True Zeal and False Zeal: A Sermon on Romans 10:1-2. Or on Youtube with closed captions (which might help due to his accent).


I think almost invariably that zeal is one of the most prominent characteristics of people who belong to the cults.Martyn Lloyd-Jones


Test of False Zeal
by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, paraphrased & quoted from his sermon

Here is one thing which should always raise the query in our minds and that is that our zeal has been imposed upon us by somebody else and we are just conforming to a pattern. You’re becoming just like the rest of them, conforming to an external pattern.

Secondly if it is a zeal that has to be whipped up or organized as it were, or that we have to be kept up to it. If the stimulus has to come from other people on the outside, it may very well be a false zeal.

A third test if you find that you put greater emphasis upon doing than upon being, it’s always an indication. You should be careful if you are more anxious to do things than to be a saint, you better examine your zeal again.

Another way of putting that my fourth test can be put in this form that involves zeal the activity is always very prominent and at the center of the life rather than the truth. The thing you are hit by all along is the activity, this energy that’s being put forth, rather than by the truth which even the people themselves claim to be representing. In other words, there’s always a tendency in false zeal to overdo things. There’s always an element of excess where the activity is more in evidence than the thing which is claimed.



In the fifth place the more prominent the machinery and the element of organization the more likely it is to be a false zeal. When methods and means and organization of machinery are very prominent it’s good presumptive evidence that it is a false zeal.

As my sixth test MLJ grouped a number of things together under the heading of carnality carnality. He meant that by that the flesh. In false zeal there is always this carnal element and it shows itself by a kind of lightness, a lightness of spirit, almost sometimes even a frivolity.



This can sometimes be seen even in religious meetings. There’s a lightness and a joviality and the kind of jovial superficiality. You can’t imagine such things anywhere near the Apostle Paul or any other of the Apostles or anywhere near our Blessed Lord himself, but you get it in these meetings. They’re very zealous. I’m not quitting their zeal I’m granting their zeal. I’m granting their enthusiasm but they always overdo it and there is this light touch about it.

Indeed I have often on some occasions in a certain type of meeting I’ve had to remind myself that I am in a religious meeting. The spirit I have felt present has been the spirit of a cricket team or a football team. The spirit of doing something worldly some wealthy entertainment. Now the people were absolutely sincere but there was lightness in the atmosphere there was no sense of awe, no sense of God, no sense of holiness no sense of reverence but everything was bright and breezy. It was being carried along with the verve and wonderful organizing power I say these are indications of carnality, not of true zeal.

Still under carnality, if there is an element of self-confidence and of assurance and of being in control of the situation, you can be quite certain it is false zeal. Any impression that is given by men – I don’t care how zealous he is, I don’t care how sincere he is – if he gives that impression that he’s in control and self-confident in the show I’m suspicious of his zeal and of his sincerity. If there’s any suspicion at all of his being proud of himself, it is still worse.

But let’s go on to test number seven – false zeal is always impatient to the examination. It dislikes being examined. It dislikes being questioned.

It resents this- it says ‘Can’t you see that I’m zealous … I’m enthusiastic … I’m sincere … I want to do …’ But you say ‘Well but let’s make sure because of the teaching.’ No, no, it’s impatient of all that. It wants to get on with things, must be doing something.

False zeal dislikes slowing down long enough to be examined.

Eighth, that is surely a very bad sign and when it is impatient of teaching. It is still worse they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge. They don’t want the knowledge, for they’ve rejected the knowledge. They are not interested in it. They must get on with it they say. They don’t want to be taught and teaching is unnecessary. The thing to do is to be doing something that’s the spirit of the false zeal test number nine.

—end Martyn Lloyd-Jones tests of false zeal from his sermon.

As you read along of the 9 tests, did anyone come to mind? I can think of a lot of Christian celebs I see on social media who resist being tested, or don’t like their teaching being compared to the Bible. I can think of several people who exhibit a zeal but after having seen them PERFORM, their teaching actually evaporates. Their teaching has no substance when parted from their charismatic personality.

Monday I’ll post what Lloyd-Jones outlines as tests of true zeal. You’ll notice the difference immediately. Meanwhile, don’t be one of the many who think that just because a person seems passionate for God, they possess a true understanding of the faith. There IS such a thing as false zeal.


There is a danger of setting up zeal or sincerity to the supreme position.Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Hell Has Entered The Church

This sermon preached by Dave Hunt is convicting and tells the tale of where the Church is today.  Just as God told us in His word, we are lovers of self, wanting a comfortable and entertaining lifestyle instead of the life of sacrifice we are called to live.

 

Do You Know Jesus?

 

This is just a simple question that only requires a yes or no answer..........................

Do you know Jesus Christ? 

If you answered yes, hallelujah, praise the Lord!

If you answered no, here is the next question..............

Would you like to know Jesus Christ?  

If you answered yes or maybe you are just curious and want more information about this Jesus, here is a website that can take you through step by step and also connect you to someone who will answer any questions you may have.

                     https://peacewithgod.net/

Our world is becoming more and more confusing, violent and scary. Jesus can bring peace to your heart and give you hope for the future. Don't wait until it's too late - make a decision for Christ today ~ 

Where Are You Going?

Sermon by Bill Warren, Oct 13, 2019 (click here)

Dear Church, Here’s Why People Are Really Leaving You

A hard, honest look at why people are really walking away from church.

Being on the other side of the Exodus sucks, don’t it?

I see the panic on your face, Church.

I know the internal terror as you see the statistics and hear the stories and scan the exit polls.

I see you desperately scrambling to do damage control for the fence-sitters, and manufacture passion from the shrinking faithful, and I want to help you.

You may think you know why people are leaving you, but I’m not sure you do.

You think it’s because “the culture” is so lost, so perverse, so beyond help that they are all walking away.

You believe that they’ve turned a deaf ear to the voice of God; chasing money, and sex, and material things.

You think that the gays and the Muslims and the Atheists and the pop stars have so screwed up the morality of the world that everyone is abandoning faith in droves.

But those aren’t the reasons people are leaving you.

They aren’t the problem, Church.

You are the problem.

Let me elaborate in five ways …

1. Your Sunday productions have worn thin.

The stage, and the lights, and the bands, and the video screens, have all just become white noise to those really seeking to encounter God. They’re ear and eye candy for an hour, but they have so little relevance in people’s daily lives that more and more of them are taking a pass.

Yeah, the songs are cool and the show is great, but ultimately Sunday morning isn’t really making a difference on Tuesday afternoon or Thursday evening, when people are wrestling with the awkward, messy, painful stuff in the trenches of life; the places where rock shows don’t help.

We can be entertained anywhere. Until you can give us something more than a Christian-themed performance piece—something that allows us space and breath and conversation and relationship—many of us are going to sleep in and stay away.

2. You speak in a foreign tongue.

Church, you talk and talk and talk, but you do so using a dead language. You’re holding onto dusty words that have no resonance in people’s ears, not realizing that just saying those words louder isn’t the answer. All the religious buzzwords that used to work 20 years ago no longer do.

This spiritualized insider-language may give you some comfort in an outside world that is changing, but that stuff’s just lazy religious shorthand, and it keeps regular people at a distance. They need you to speak in a language that they can understand. There’s a message there worth sharing, but it’s hard to hear above your verbal pyrotechnics.

People don’t need to be dazzled with big, churchy words and about eschatological frameworks and theological systems. Talk to them plainly about love, and joy, and forgiveness, and death, and peace, and God, and they’ll be all ears. Keep up the church-speak, and you’ll be talking to an empty room soon.

3. Your vision can’t see past your building.

The coffee bar, the cushy couches, the high-tech lights, the funky Children’s wing and the uber-cool Teen Center are all top-notch … and costly. In fact, most of your time, money and energy seems to be about luring people to where you are instead of reaching people where they already are.

Rather than simply stepping out into the neighborhoods around you and partnering with the amazing things already happening, and the beautiful stuff God is already doing, you seem content to franchise out your particular brand of Jesus-stuff, and wait for the sinful world to beat down your door.

Your greatest mission field is just a few miles, (or a few feet) off your campus and you don’t even realize it. You wanna reach the people you’re missing?

Leave the building.

4. You choose lousy battles.

We know you like to fight, Church. That’s obvious.

When you want to, you can go to war with the best of them. The problem is, your battles are too darn small. Fast food protests, hobby store outrage and duck-calling Reality TV show campaigns may manufacture some urgency and Twitter activity on the inside for the already-convinced, but they’re paper tigers to people out here with bloody boots on the ground.

Every day we see a world suffocated by poverty, and racism, and violence, and bigotry, and hunger; and in the face of that stuff, you get awfully, frighteningly quiet. We wish you were as courageous in those fights, because then we’d feel like coming alongside you; then we’d feel like going to war with you.

Church, we need you to stop being warmongers with the trivial and pacifists in the face of the terrible.

5. Your love doesn’t look like love.

Love seems to be a pretty big deal to you, but we’re not getting that when the rubber meets the road. In fact, more and more, your brand of love seems incredibly selective and decidedly narrow; filtering out all the spiritual riff-raff, which sadly includes far too many of us.

It feels like a big bait-and-switch sucker-deal; advertising a “Come as You Are” party, but letting us know once we’re in the door that we can’t really come as we are. We see a Jesus in the Bible who hung out with lowlifes and prostitutes and outcasts, and loved them right there, but that doesn’t seem to be your cup of tea.

Church, can you love us if we don’t check all the doctrinal boxes and don’t have our theology all figured out? It doesn’t seem so.

Can you love us if we cuss and drink and get tattoos, and God forbid, vote Democrat? We’re doubtful.

Can you love us if we’re not sure how we define love, and marriage, and Heaven, and Hell? It sure doesn’t feel that way.

From what we know about Jesus, we think he looks like love. The unfortunate thing is, you don’t look much like him.

That’s part of the reason people are leaving you, Church.

These words may get you really, really angry, and you may want to jump in a knee-jerk move to defend yourself or attack these positions line-by-line, but we hope that you won’t.

We hope that you’ll just sit in stillness with these words for a while, because whether you believe they’re right or wrong, they’re real to us, and that’s the whole point.

We’re the ones walking away.

We want to matter to you.

We want you to hear us before you debate us.

Show us that your love and your God are real.

Church, give us a reason to stay.

It’s not you, it’s me.

That’s what you seem to be saying, Church.

I tried to share my heart with you; the heart of me and thousands and thousands of people like me who are walking away, to let you know of the damage you’re doing and the painful legacy you’re leaving, and apparently, you’re not the problem.

(Which, of course, is still a problem).

I’ve relayed my frustration with your insider, religious rhetoric, and you responded by cut-and-pasting random Scripture soundbytes about the “Bride of Christ” and the “blood of the Lamb,” insisting that the real issue is simply my “biblical ignorance,” and suggesting that I just need to repent and get a good Concordance (whatever that is).

I let you know how judged and ridiculed I feel when I’m with you, how much like a hopeless, failing outsider I feel on the periphery of your often inward, judgmental communities, and you proceeded to tell me how “lost” I am, how hopelessly “in love with my sin” I must be to leave you, reminding me that I never really belonged with you anyway.

In the face of every complaint and every grievance, you’ve made it clear that the real issue is that I’m either sinful, heretical, immoral, foolish, unenlightened, selfish, consumerist or ignorant.

Heck, many days I’m not even sure I disagree with you.

Maybe you’re right, Church.

Maybe I am the problem.

Maybe it is me, but me is all I’m capable of being right now, and that’s where I was really hoping you would meet me.

It’s here, in my flawed, screwed-up, wounded, shell-shocked, doubting, disillusioned me-ness that I’ve been waiting for you to step in with this whole supposedly relentless, audacious “love of Jesus” thing I hear so much about, and make it real.

Church, I know how much you despise the word Tolerance, but right now, I really need you to tolerate me; to tolerate those of us who, for all sorts of reasons you may feel aren’t justified, are struggling to stay.

We’re so weary of feeling like nothing more than a religious agenda; an argument to win, a point to make, a cause to defend, a soul to save.

We want to be more than a notch on your Salvation belt; another number to pad your Twitter posts and end-of-year stat sheets.

We need to be more than altar call props, who are applauded and high-fived down the aisle, and then forgotten once the song ends.

We’ve been praying for you to stop evangelizing us, and preaching at us, and fighting us, and judging us, and sin-diagnosing us, long enough to simply hear us …

… even if we are the problem.

Even if we are the woman in adultery, or the doubting follower, or the rebellious prodigal, or the demon-riddled young man, we can’t be anything else right now in this moment; and in this moment, we need a Church big enough, and tough enough, and loving enough; not just for us as we might one day be then, but for us as we are, now.

We still believe that God is big enough, and tough enough, and loving enough, even if you won’t be, and that’s why even if we do walk away, it doesn’t mean we’re walking away from faith; it’s just that faith right now seems more reachable elsewhere.

I know you’ll argue that you’re doing all these things and saying all these things because you love and care for us, but from the shoes we’re standing in, you need to know that it feels less like love and care, and more like space and silence:

If someone is frustrated, telling them that they’re wrong to be frustrated is, well, pretty freakin’ frustrating.

It only breeds distance.

If someone shares that their heart is hurting, they don’t want to hear that they’re not right to be hurt.

It’s a conversation-stopper.

If someone tells you they are starving for compassion, and relationship, and authenticity, the last thing they need is to be corrected for that hunger.

It’s a kick in the rear on the way out the door.

So yes, Church, even if you’re right, even if we’re totally wrong—even if we’re all petty, and self-centered, and hypocritical, and critical, and (I’ll say it), “sinful”—we’re still the ones searching for a place where we can be known and belong; a place where it feels like God lives, and you’re the ones who can show it to us.

Even if the problem is me, it’s me who you’re supposed to be reaching, Church.

So, for the love of God; reach already.

By John Pavlovitz

John Pavlovitz is a pastor/blogger from Wake Forest, North Carolina. An 18-year veteran of local church ministry, he currently writes a blog called Stuff That Needs To Be Said, and in January is launching an online Christian community called The Table.

The Thing We Don't Do

By ANDRÉE SEU

Issue: "Street theater," Sept. 30, 2006

Forgiving is the hardest thing you will ever do. That's why most people don't do it. We talk about it, cheer for it, preach on it, and are sure we've practiced it. But mostly the illusion of having forgiven is that the passage of time dulls memory. The ruse will come to light with hair-trigger vengeance when fresh offense hurls in to empty out the gunnysack of half-digested grievances.

I asked a few people if they'd ever forgiven anyone, and what it felt like. They gave me answers so pious I knew they'd never done it. I am at the present moment in the maw of temptation, and I can tell you there is nothing exalted about this feeling, this one-two punch to the gut that comes when you even contemplate forgiving, which is as far as I've come.

At first I decided I would forgive the person-and never speak to him again. This felt pretty good, but I saw the dissimulation in it at once. I alternately toyed with going to him to "tell him his fault" (Matthew 18:15), which is my biblical right, so there. I had the decree of rebuke written up in my head, a document of fastidious and plenary detail-all for his own good. A smarmy satisfaction accompanied the plan, so I nixed it. For now.

In C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce, a woman confronted by an angel about forgiving her husband says, "Well, I have forgiven him as a Christian." The phrase is meaningless. She then bulimically seethes for pages about his wrongdoing and her longsuffering.

Keeping one's mouth shut is commendable, and more than I have managed in the past. It will work as long as I don't go near a phone or e-mail. But I am reminded that "Absolom spoke to Amnon neither good nor bad" for two whole years after the rape of his sister Tamar, and it ate him alive till in the end he killed the man.

O my brothers, you cannot imagine the exquisite verbal retaliations I have hatched in the idle hours, each more perfect than the last: theologically impeccable, legalistically faultless, poisoned prose polished to a lethal point. Must I now relinquish these? Must I kill the little darlings? Are they not to see the light of day? Such a waste.

Forgiveness is a brutal mathematical transaction done with fully engaged faculties. It's my pain instead of yours. I eat the debt. I absorb the misery I wanted to dish out on you, and you go scot-free. Beware the forgiveness that is tendered soon after injury; be suspicious. Real forgiveness needs a time lag, for it is wrought in private agony before it ever comes to public amnesty. All true acts of courage are thus done in secret.

Pastor Tim Keller of Redeemer Church in Manhattan shares the following letter from a man who once had to forgive a woman:

"I forgave her and it took me a whole year and I had to forgive her in small sums over that whole twelve months. I paid those sums whenever I spoke to her and kept myself from rehashing the past. I paid them whenever I saw her with another man and refused self-pity and rehearsal inside for what she'd done to me. I paid them whenever I praised her to others when I really wanted to slice away at her reputation. Those were the payments but she never knew them. However, I never knew her payments, but I know she made them. I could tell."

And now the unthinkable: not only to forgive but seek the good. Nature abhors a vacuum and Jesus admits of no middle ground between hate and love. Pray for him.

When you were a child you thought like a child, that pain was something to flee. Now in the adulthood of faith, suck up your hundred denarii, because someone took your ten thousand talents upon Himself (Matthew 18), and like a lamb led to slaughter and a sheep before its shearers was silent (Isaiah 53:7). He did not retaliate but "continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly" (1 Peter 2:23). Be so awash in the ocean of His love, my soul, that the shortcomings of all human loves will, more and more, seem but a trifling thing.

Andrée Seu

Andrée is the author of three books: Won't Let You Go Unless You Bless Me, Normal Kingdom Business, and We Shall Have Spring Again.

Spirit vs. Flesh

Two natures beat within my breast,

The one is foul; the one is blest.

The one I love; the one I hate,

The one I feed will dominate.

unknown author

Live Before You Die - day 4

While Gideon was still in his mother's womb, God called him a mighty man of valor, and God never gave up on that dream for Gideon's life.

When Gideon looked in the mirror, all he could see were disadvantages and shortcomings.  He doubted that he was capable of greatness and was not convinced the Lord had picked the right man for the job.  But the Lord knew exactly what Gideon needed to hear, and He spoke words that went right to the heart of Gideon's inadequacy:  "The Lord said to him, Surely I will be with you" (Judg. 6:16).

These were the words Gideon needed to hear, and these are also the words you need to hear deep within your spirit as you begin this journey of discovering God's will for your life.  "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Heb 13:5) and again in Matthew 28:20, "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of age." 

When we understand this reality and it becomes part of the fabric of who we are, then we will begin to view every circumstance, both positive and negative, as a situation God can put to work for our good and the furtherance of His purposes.

Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." 

Daniel Kolenda, Live before you die

Live Before You Die - day 3

Many times when we begin to break out of the old patterns and mind-sets that have held us back, rejecting the status quo and looking for higher ground, our greatest opponents are close friends, fellow church members, and even our own relatives.  In fact, it's interesting to note that the Midianites, being descendants of Abraham, were actually cousins of the Israelites.  It was these "family members," if you will, who had so oppressed Israel that they were cowering in fear rather than living victoriously.  The enemy knows how to use those closest to us to bring discouragement.  They say, "Who do you think you are? Do you think you're better than us?  We've known you since you were a child.  We've seen all your failures, and we know your faults.  You are just one of us.  Get back in your place!"

But God sees more in us than we see in ourselves, and our obstacles, failures, and shortcomings do not intimidate Him.

The architect of the universe spoke the worlds into existence, but He crafted Adam with His own hands and breathed into him with His own mouth!  God has crowned His creation with a masterpiece, which is distinguished because it is "handmade" by the great Creator!  And God continues to fashion mankind with His own hands.  Psalm 139:13 says, "For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb."

But before He began to weave you together in your mother's womb, He saw you in His eternal mind down to the smallest detail.  And before you were ever born, He had a dream for your life.  Perhaps as He was weaving you together in your mother's womb, He said, "I'm going to make this little girl into a mighty prophetess to her generation!"  Whatever His dream for your life might be, one thing is for sure:  His will for your life is beyond what you could ask or think!

Daniel Kolenda, Live before you die

Live Before You Die - day 2

If the burden we feel for people is our sole motivation for preaching the gospel or serving the Lord, it is just another form of humanism.

After Jesus had risen from the dead, He found that Peter had gone back to his old occupation - fishing. After cooking breakfast for Peter, Jesus pointed to one of the fish and asked this question, "'Simon [Peter] son of John, do you truly love me more than these?' 'Yes, Lord,' he said, 'you know that I love you.' Jesus said, 'Feed my lambs'" (John 21:15).  Note that Jesus didn't say, "Peter, do you love My lambs?" Then, "Feed My lambs."  Rather Jesus asked, "Peter, do you love ME?" Peter's ministry to the sheep was to be motivated primarily by his love for Christ, not his love for the lambs.

When we receive His gift of life, which cost Jesus His life, how can we spend it in the pursuit of our own ambitions, lusts, and gratification?  God forbid.  Instead, in reverent awe and profound love, we are compelled to pour our lives back out before Him like a drink offering, holding nothing back, giving everything we are in the service of the only King who will reign forever and ever.  Make no mistake -  this is not a waste.  It is our reasonable service.  We have been saved to serve.

Leonard Ravenhill once asked the question, "Is what you're living for worth Christ dying for?"  We were not saved so that we could be polished, decorative knickknacks sitting on God's shelf filling space in heaven for eternity.  We have been saved for a purpose, and the fulfillment of that purpose is the only acceptable reaction we can have to the great gift of salvation we have received.  You have been saved, not for salvation's sake, but you have been saved to serve.

Daniel Kolenda, Live before you die

Live Before You Die - day 1

I just started a new book titled Live before you die by Daniel Kolenda.  Mr. Kolenda is a missionary evangelist and president of Christ for all Nations.  I'd like to take the next days/weeks to share excerpts from this book and hopefully you will find them as informative and moving as I have.



The purpose of your existence is not to achieve your own happiness or success.  Your role is to advance a cause greater than yourself. 

Although our lives will one day come to an end, the kingdom of God will keep moving forward to victory, and herein lies our greatest opportunity.  With our mortal hands we can help to build God's eternal kingdom - and that is the greatest privilege any human being could have!

Paul realized he had been saved to serve.  He went on to tell the Romans that they should also present themselves to God as a living sacrifice, and then he added, "which is your reasonable service" (Rom 12:1).  In other words this is not some generous favor you are doing for God.  He purchased you and redeemed you with the blood of His Son.  He set you free from sin and bondage.  He has blessed you with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ.  In light of all He had done for you, your reciprocate service to Him is only "reasonable."  You have been saved to serve.

Should Christians Boycott Boycotting?

We as Christians are supposed to be different from the rest of the world. How we operate should be a reflection of that. Others should be able to observe us and note there is a difference. Not because we are perfect, holier than everyone else or morally superior. But because we love when it's not normal to love. When the rest of the world hates, we love. When the rest of the world rejects, we accept. When the rest of the world condemns, we embrace.

The following article on boycotting is interesting because it first defines what boycotting really is. Choosing not to spend our money somewhere or on some product is not a boycott. By doing that we are simply making a decision based on our convictions. Joining others to try and coerce an outcome is what constitutes a boycott. Are Christians doing something biblical when we engage in a boycott? Is this what Jesus taught us to do? And what about our faith in God? Are we forgetting He is sovereign?

Should Christians Boycott Boycotting?

by Joe Carter

In 1873, a retired British Army captain became the agent for the 3rd Earl of Erne's estates in County Mayo. It didn't take long for the old soldier to find that he had taken the wrong job at the wrong time. Local tenant farmers, enraged at the high rents being charged by their English landlords, had begun to organize into a group called the Land League, and the movement was spreading across the Emerald Isle.
When the captain refused to reduce rents after a poor harvest season, the Land League began applying an unconventional tactic. Local residents refused to sell him supplies, tend his fields, or even to speak to him in passing. The landlord was reduced to depending on his wife and daughters to pick the crops while being protected by local constables. Eventually, he gave in and fled Ireland altogether.
The tactic was so effective that newspapers in Britain and America were referring to it by the landlord's name: Charles Cunnigham Boycott.
More than 130 years later, boycotts have become a staple of nonviolent resistance and economic suasion. Christian groups, in particular, appear to have an affinity for the measure, often using it to apply pressure to wayward corporations. In recent years, conservative Catholics and Protestants have punished Disney for various sundry offenses. More recently, liberals activists have targeted the Komen foundation for defunding Planned Parenthood, while conservative activists objected to J.C. Penny because the company hired a homosexual woman, Ellen DeGeneres, as its spokeswoman.

Who Would Isaiah Boycott?

When deciding whether to use the tactic of boycotting, we tend to fall back on the pragmatic question, "Will it be effective?" Rarely do we weigh the more pertinent consideration: Should Christians even engage in boycotts? And, if so, when can they be legitimately used?
For many Christians in America, to even ask such questions is absurd. Because of their association with the era of civil rights and other laudable movements of the 1960s, boycotts tend to have an air of romance. But while the causes were just, Christians must always be mindful that nonviolence, like just war, can only be considered a necessary evil. As political philosopher Glenn Tinder has explained, the concept of nonviolent resistance never would have occurred to any of the ancient Hebrew prophets. It is worth remembering that while Martin Luther King Jr. was a Christian, he learned his principle techniques from the Hindu leader Gandhi rather than from the founder of his own religion.
The tactic affirmed by Jesus, as Tinder correctly notes, was nonresistance, a way of refusing all power, and completely different from nonviolent resistance, which is always stained by the moral impurities inherent in the use of power. Nonviolent resistance also rests on the assumption that human evil is not so deeply ingrained that it cannot be overcome by a display of profound moral courage. The way of nonviolence requires only strength, fortitude, and a naive view of humanity. By contrast, the way of Jesus requires a willingness to be weak, reliance on his redeeming power, and a realistic eschatological hope.
Yet in our fallen world, uses of power---both violent and nonviolent---can sometimes be legitimate and necessary. If boycotts have any lawful role, it would be as part of a greater nonviolent resistance against a government or other institution that has a coercive control over a people. The boycott of public busing in Montgomery during the 1960s is a prime example.
Using such a tactic on a corporation trivializes whatever legitimacy the tactic may have. While Disney and J. C. Penny may be in the wrong, they are not committing evils that justify the use of coercion for their correction. Nonviolent resistance should be weighed carefully, especially in situations when violent resistance would be considered an absurd option. Unless we think that Mickey Mouse and Ellen are legitimate combatants, we should carefully consider why we believe it is necessary to use such a drastic coercive measure.

Rebuke, Don't Boycott

The righteousness of a cause cannot be imputed to the tactics. Even when we have legitimate concerns about a corporation's activities, boycotts are almost always an improper abuse of power. Rather than being a loving rebuke, boycotts become a form of moral extortion. By cutting off economic ties with a corporation or business, the boycotters are using coercion to force people to do something they would not willingly do on their own. While Christians may have legitimate reasons for not using a certain product or associating with a particular business, banding together to cut off commerce to an otherwise licit venture has no obvious biblical warrant.
To clarify, the term boycott here refers to the act of refusing to use, buy, or deal with a business as an expression of protest or as a means of economic coercion. The concern, for Christians, should be with the coercion part. Simply refusing to participate in an economic transaction with an individual or company is not a boycott. Our choosing not to spend money on lottery tickets is a values-based economic decision, but it is not a form of coercion. As Alan Noble recently said, "Whether it is through votes or dollars, coercing someone to accept our position is nihilistic: it suggests that real change---change of heart and mind---is impossible, or unlikely, and so the safest bet is to make it profitable to adopt our beliefs."
Forcing someone to adopt our beliefs---whether by violence or economic threat---is a questionable use of our economic power. "Nonviolent resistance," Tinder writes in his book Political Thinking, "is a way of using power and is thoroughly political." Tinder's claim brings to mind the claim of the brilliant Prussian strategist Carl von Clausewitz: "War is nothing but a continuation of politics with the admixture of other means." Nonviolent resistance may sometimes be a legitimate political act. But by mixing in the coercive tactic of boycotts we may be turning away from righteousness toward an unjust form of economic warfare.

Joe Carter is an editor for The Gospel Coalition and the co-author of How to Argue Like Jesus: Learning Persuasion from History's Greatest Communicator.

By Max Lucado

Jesus' Burial

When Pilate learned that Jesus was dead, he asked the soldiers if they were certain. They were. Had they seen the Nazarene twitch, had they heard even one moan, they would have broken his legs to speed his end. But there was no need. The thrust of a spear removed all doubt. The Romans knew their job. And their job was finished. They pried loose the nails, lowered his body, and gave it to Joseph and Nicodemus.

Joseph of Arimathea. Nicodemus the Pharisee. They sat in seats of power and bore positions of influence. Men of means and men of clout. But they would’ve traded it all for one breath out of the body of Jesus. He had answered the prayer of their hearts, the prayer for the Messiah. As much as the soldiers wanted him dead, even more these men wanted him alive.

As they sponged the blood from his beard, don’t you know they listened for his breath? As they wrapped the cloth around his hands, don’t you know they hoped for a pulse? Don’t you know they searched for life?

But they didn’t find it.

So they do with him what they were expected to do with a dead man. They wrap his body in clean linen and place it in a tomb. Joseph’s tomb. Roman guards are stationed to guard the corpse. And a Roman seal is set on the rock of the tomb. For three days, no one gets close to the grave.

But then, Sunday arrives. And with Sunday comes light—a light within the tomb. A bright light? A soft light? Flashing? Hovering? We don’t know. But there was a light. For he is the light. And with the light came life. Just as the darkness was banished, now the decay is reversed. Heaven blows and Jesus breathes. His chest expands. Waxy lips open. Wooden fingers lift. Heart valves swish and hinged joints bend.

And, as we envision the moment, we stand in awe.

We stand in awe not just because of what we see, but because of what we know… We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us” (Rom. 6:5–9 MSG).



From From When Christ Comes: The Beginning of the Very Best
Copyright (Thomas Nelson, 1999) Max Lucado

Cleansing of the Temple

The following is from an Easter Devotional put together by Covenant Fellowship.............

It often doesn't take long for heartfelt devotion and passion for God, to drift toward simply going through the motions.  Left unchecked, it can lead to hypocrisy - living your life with the appearance of devotion and love toward God that is not really there.  That's what happened to the Jewish people in New Testament times and the fig tree was a perfect illustration of this.  Jesus approached a fig tree with big, shiny leaves but no fruit.  On the outside the tree looked well, but it wasn't doing what it was created to do - produce fruit! So the Lord cursed the fruitless tree.  When Jesus approached the beautiful marble walls and gleaming gold pillar capitals of the temple with throngs of worshippers gathered around, all looked well - on the outside.  But the Jews received his strongest rebuke.  Jesus cursed the blatant hypocrisy and greed by turning over the tables and condemning their selfish practices.  The temple court was meant to be a place of prayer and worship for the Gentiles.  It was a place where men and women outside of Israel could seek God.  But it had become a den of robbers that hindered the Gentiles from praying and seeking God.  The same can be true today.  When we claim to have faith in Christ, but don't live lives transformed by his love and grace, we may hinder men and women from clearly hearing and responding to the gospel.  Unbelievers can see right through an outward "show" of religion.  Jesus wants us to know that how we live matters.  It matters that we pursue purity and obey God's Word.  It matters that we pray and seek God with sincere hearts.  Jesus died to free us from the trap of hypocrisy and to give us His Spirit, who purifies us and empowers us to live lives in line with the truths of the gospel.

Pray that God would help us to live pure lives that are dedicated to the glory of God, obedient to the Word of God and committed to prayer.

Tozer

  Nothing can take the place of the touch of God in the soul and the sense of Someone there.  Real faith, indeed, brings such realization, for real faith is never the operation of reason upon texts. Where true faith is, the knowledge of God will be given as a fact of consciousness altogether apart from the conclusions of logic.

Prayer from Iran

Max Lucado's

Jesus Washes the Disciples Feet

It has been a long day. Jerusalem is packed with Passover guests, most of whom clamor for a glimpse of the Teacher. The spring sun is warm. The streets are dry. And the disciples are a long way from home. A splash of cool water would be refreshing.

The disciples enter [the room], one by one, and take their places around the table. On the wall hangs a towel, and on the floor sits a pitcher and a basin. Any one of the disciples could volunteer for the job, but not one does.

After a few moments, Jesus stands and removes his outer garment. He wraps a servant’s girdle around his waist, takes up the basin, and kneels before one of the disciples. He unlaces a sandal and gently lifts the foot and places it in the basin, covers it with water, and begins to bathe it. One by one, one grimy foot after another, Jesus works his way down the row.

In Jesus’ day the washing of feet was a task reserved not just for servants but for the lowest of servants…The servant at the bottom of the totem pole was expected to be the one on his knees with the towel and basin.

In this case the one with the towel and basin is the king of the universe. Hands that shaped the stars now wash away filth. Fingers that formed mountains now massage toes. And the one before whom all nations will one day kneel now kneels before his disciples. Hours before his own death, Jesus’ concern is singular. He wants his disciples to know how much he loves them...

You can be sure Jesus knows the future of these feet he is washing. These twenty-four feet will not spend the next day following their master, defending his cause. These feet will dash for cover at the flash of a Roman sword. Only one pair of feet won’t abandon him in the garden. One disciple won’t desert him at Gethsemane—Judas won’t even make it that far! He will abandon Jesus that very night at the table…

What a passionate moment when Jesus silently lifts the feet of his betrayer and washes them in the basin!

Jesus knows what these men are about to do. He knows they are about to perform the vilest act of their lives. By morning they will bury their heads in shame and look down at their feet in disgust. And when they do, he wants them to remember how his knees knelt before them and he washed their feet…

He forgave their sin before they even committed it. He offered mercy before they even sought it.

Ten Signs of a Culture's End

There are ten signs that depict the end of a culture. Great civilizations of the past were destroyed when people saw these signs but failed to act. Each of these indicators is with us today.

The first sign of the end of a culture is that of a society which no longer worships or acknowledges God.
Christianity had played a significant role in the discovery and settlement of America. It had provided a standard in judging education, legislation, and behavior-both public and private. In the 1990s, it has actually become unpopular to advocate traditional Judeo-Christian values, such as the Ten Commandments. Thanks to Political Correctness, the popular culture ridicules those who worship God as the sovereign creator. Instead, it is popular to put our faith and trust in ourselves or in other creations of God.

A second indicator of the end of a culture is the decline of the family.
Just 40 years ago families usually lived close to grandparents. Fathers were responsible for the welfare of the family. Moms generally stayed home. It was safe to walk to school or go to the movies unattended. Today, statistics show divorce is at an all time high in the United States. It is now so common for young people to grow up in divorced households that the term "broken family" is now a forgotten expression in the popular culture. Fathers are living apart from their natural children. Mothers no longer stay at home, but work as a head of the household. As a result, women in our society have lost their feminine identity. As worship has declined, the spiritual values communicated by mothers have all but ended with a generation. The moral authority of fathers is undermined by a society that no longer embraces the structure of the family.

A third important indicator of cultural demise is a society's low view of life.
Today, the popular culture now views abortion as a "right." The failure of our government to outlaw partial birth abortion for such a long time demonstrated how intolerant of life the culture has become. Steadily, society's undermining of life has grown to include calls for legalizing euthanasia, assisted suicide, and scientific experimentation. But history warns no society can last without a high view of life.

Another sign of the end of the civilization is the prevalence of base and immoral entertainment.
In its last days, Rome had become a society with an insatiable appetite for debauchery and immorality. Perverted entertainment translated into perverted speech and behavior. The Roman society began to accept and encourage open homosexuality. The people turned away from God and forgot his commandments and precepts, and Rome crumbled. And today, our culture has begun to embrace the same kind of entertainment. In music, a song eulogizing a murdered rap star has held the top spot on the charts for two months. Many of our movies now feature heroes who triumph by copying the vises of the villains. Television has scuttled its family hour for more dramas and sitcoms that treat perversion as normal behavior. Wholesome entertainment is becoming a forgotten relic.

Still another troublesome indicator of society's demise is the increase of violent crime among young people.
Riddled with gang violence, many of our inner cities have become powder kegs portending future collapse. Today, young people think about death and dying more than any other subject. In fact, surveys indicate they think about death even more than they think about the opposite sex. There's a popular new sport called extreme fighting, in which combatants injure one another like the gladiators of Rome. The demise of the traditional family and absence of religion have combined to create a culture of children who are morally retarded. In the wake of this, our Politically Correct society offers young people no consistent arguments against violence.

Another key cultural indicator is the declining middle class.
Politicians have discovered one of the keys to reelection is to advocate more spending and government programs for the poor. The traditional middle class is now defined as rich. The work of the federal government has become the business of redistributing wealth through taxation and new government programs. After years of bureaucratic growth over the last fifty years, the United States has witnessed shrinking numbers of middle class wage earners, many of whom have become the working poor. The family structure has disintegrated over the last twenty-five years in part because of the economic pressure for women to join the workforce. This has lead to the increased polarization of the working class and the wealthy. Russia witnessed just such a polarization before a revolution ushered in the communist era.

Yet another sign of cultural demise is that of an insolvent Government.
The French Revolution occurred against the backdrop of a bankrupt government. Today, our government has not managed a balanced budget in nearly thirty years. Beneath the annual budget lies a debt of unmanageable proportions. History warns that a government rendered insolvent cannot quell its disenchanted masses.

Related to this, a government that lives off of society's moral decay is another sign of the end of a civilization.
The Roman civilization crumbled under the weight of an immoral and corrupt government. Over the years, our government has devised the creation of whole agencies that exist for no other reason than to manage some of the most immoral aspects of the culture. The National Endowment for the Arts and the Legal Services Corporation are examples of agencies that foster society's decline. Within the judicial branch of government, judges accountable to no one have helped undermine the religious freedoms that were once the centerpiece of our society. Laws once protected children and families. Criminals were punished severely for rape. People were arrested for cohabitation and adultery. Sodomy, outlawed in every state, was listed in the newspaper as a "crime against nature." A couple having a child out of wedlock was ostracized, and homosexuality was as foreign to the world as walking on the moon.

One obvious indicator that a culture is in decline is when the ruling class loses its will.
Our nation's leaders no longer see the world according to right and wrong. Instead, the objective of today's foreign policy Establishment is to maintain the status quo. In like manner, our elected leaders have lost their moral authority. Elected officials no longer seek office for the good of the country but instead seek reelection to further lucrative careers within the Washington Establishment. Also, our nation's defense Establishment has traded military readiness for social experimentation with a feminized military.

The final indicator of the demise of a civilization is the failure of its people to see what is happening.
In nearly every case, citizens of past civilizations which ended witnessed all of the signs of demise but failed to act. Today, the popular culture has helped society forget the lessons of history. In school, teachers used to teach the basics; children received report cards that actually reflected what they had achieved. In 1973, the NEA president said, "The day of basic skills is over . . . we will be the conveyor of national values" Today schools teach self-esteem and is a major tool used to indoctrinate our children. It's not uncommon in science class for children to be taught that humans evolved from a lower lifeform and that trees have the same right to life as humans. Children learn that it is okay to have two mommies and no daddy. Kids today are adept at using a calculator, but have no concept of multiplication or division. They cannot make change but score high in self-esteem.

All of the signs of the demise of our culture are with us today: the hostility toward religion, the breakup of the family, the declining view of life, the appetite immorality, the violence and crime, and the declining middle class are coupled with an federal government on the brink of insolvency, whose leaders are living off of society's moral decay leading to the loss of leadership and moral will. The education system has robbed our of a classic education; seduced them through deceit and outright lies; the court system has given us "rights" we never owned; the criminal justice system does not provide justice for those who are mistreated; legislators have legalized immoral behavior; and our national leaders have set an example of immorality.

In the days of Noah, God warned a faithless, immoral and violent civilization of the imminent catastrophe that was about to take place, but few listened. Tonight, our civilization is at the crossroads, but few are noticing the signs that are before us. It is time to take notice, and to pray for spiritual awakening in this country, before the light of our civilization goes out.

Prayer for March 5

O God, Because I acknowledge that I can only live with discipline, you give me that discipline; such knowledge is a great mercy.  Thus I ask you most humbly: Cleanse my heart and make it holy through repentance and faith, through the Holy Spirit and through rebirth.  Strengthen me, so I do not let any impure spirit control or possess me.  Amen.

Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you.  James 4:8

The Center of Your World

Narcissistic Personality Disorder may soon be dropped from the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.  Why?  Essentially because it's now considered just a manifestation of normal personality.   But here is the problem - dropping it from the manual is essentially throwing in the towel and waving a white flag where self-centeredness exists.  It will basically be telling our culture it's OKAY to be a narcissist, just not an extreme one - well, not for now anyway. 

We have become such a society of me, me, me.  The minute our feet hit the floor in the morning it's  - "how do I feel?"  "I need a cup of coffee."  "What do I feel like doing today?"  "Which outfit should I wear?"  And it only gets worse as the day wears on. "I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, I'm tired, I'm bored, I'm lonely, I'm rich, I'm poor, I'm fat, I'm thin, I'm just right, I'm smart, I'm dumb," etc.  It's not necessarily what we are, it's that we're constantly thinking of ourselves in every thought throughout the day.

Now one would think that a culture filled with people looking for self-gratification would be brimming with lots of self-fulfilled, satisfied people. But they couldn't be more wrong. Our culture is actually brimming with divorce, drug use, spousal abuse, child abuse, alchoholism, crime, suicide, etc.  There is just one problem with the theory that self-gratification leads to self-fulfillment.  Self.  We cannot look to ourselves for any kind of gratification or fulfilment.  It's impossible.  Our fulfillment comes from the One who created us and gave us our purpose to begin with - God.  And He created us to bring Him glory.  So how could we be fulfillers of our own desires?  Wouldn't we then be giving ourselves the glory?   But we weren't created for that purpose.  And when we don't fulfill our purpose we end up with a society full of miserable, misguided people looking for happiness in all the wrong places.

Then there are those who believe that helping others will bring them happiness. After all, they've taken the focus off of themselves and placed it on others.  Or have they?  We look to their motivation and often find they are patting themselves on the back for a job well done - whether publicly or privately. And the happiness is fleeting.

Our goal is not to do good on this Earth. Our goal is to do God's will and then give Him the glory. And by doing that we no longer puff ourselves up thinking we are "good" when in fact, we are fallen.   When we are in the center of God's will, we have a sense of peace and joy.  We can know that we are fulfilling our purpose on this Earth by bringing Him glory. It means we have truly taken the focus off of ourselves and placed it on God, who will then guide us to those He wants us to serve. 

We don't need to "know ourselves" - at least not the way all the self-help books and programs tell us we should.  By listening to them we only continue to put ourselves in the center of our world.  Jesus is the one we truly need to know and place in the center of our lives.  He will then help us to know his Father.  And it is He who knows us better than we could ever know ourselves.  God created us to bring Him glory and with a purpose in mind.  He will guide us to accomplish that purpose if we allow Him.