The Gospel is advancing

Though the world is dark and satan prowls, the Gospel's power to transform lives and enlarge the kindgom is advancing!

As you shake your head is dismay at the darkness that is covering the world, remember the Light is advancing MORE because Jesus is the power! I dare you to watch these two trailers from the DVD Dispatches from the Front series and not be moved by the Gospel's power and awed at the grace and love of our Savior. THIS is what it is all about: salvation

"Frontline Missions is an amazing ministry that produces the Dispatches from the Front DVD series. Here is what the ministry is all about: Frontline’s key objective is to advance the Gospel, forming vibrant, Word-centered, disciple-making churches, especially in those regions of the world that have the least Light. We are driven by the same desire that animated the apostle Paul who said it was always his ambition to preach the Gospel where Christ was not known (Romans 15:20). We pursue this goal by equipping Christians on the frontlines to reach their own people for Christ, by forming strategic partnerships with them, and by developing creative platforms in countries closed to traditional missions."

Please support missionaries with your prayers and your money. They are on the frontlines. And lives are being changed, eternally.

What's "The Gospel"?

I watched a good movie called Time Changer this summer. It was stodgy and slow, but I like stodgy and slow. It was set in 1900 and was about a junior seminary professor who writes a book saying that in some cases it is all right to preach living a good life without using Jesus as a moral absolute. A senior professor of the seminary objects to that section in the book and urges the young seminarian to use his secret time machine to go 100 years into the future to see where his beliefs will lead. He arrives in 2000 horrified to experience the cold and pale thing Christianity has become.

What I liked about the end was a scene where he is getting ready to return to the past. He says goodbye to a laundromat caretaker he had met, and gives him a bible. He says the following to the laundromat guy, named Eddie:

"Jesus is coming back soon to set up His earthly kingdom. The requirement, though, to enter this kingdom, is that we must be absolutely perfect, without sin.

Well, that leaves me out of that party.

No one is without sin, Eddie. Not one! All of us face eternal judgment and separation from God. This is why we must accept Jesus Christ into our life as Lord. He is the only one who lived a perfect life, and thus became the substitute for our sins.

For me, too?

Yes, for you too Eddie. He rose from the dead, proving He was God. And He wants to save us from the penalty of our sins, and give us eternal life. But we must first individually receive Him. This is what it means to believe in Jesus.

I never heard it explained so simple, preacher.

God wants us to be reconciled to Himself. So much so that He gave His only so to die for us. It’s all in the bible. I pray that you will consider what I’m saying."

That is the Gospel. Here are some few scriptures that are proof texts for this Gospel:

Jesus and His kingdom: Revelation 20:4, Daniel 7:13-14, Zechariah 14:8-11
Requirements for entry: John 3:5, John 3:3, Titus 3:5
No one is without sin: Romans 3:10
We all face judgment: 2 Corinthians 5:10, Hebrews 9:27, Romans 2:16, Acts 10:42
Jesus is sinless: 1 Peter 2:22, 1 John 3:5, Hebrews 4:15, 2 Corinthians 5:21
Jesus is our substitute: Isaiah 53:4-6
He died for all: John 1:29, "The next day he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!'" and John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." 1 John 2:2, "and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.
Jesus' resurrection: Acts 13:33, Romans 1:4
Believe and you shall be saved: Acts 16:31, Romans 10:9
It's all in the bible: 2 Timothy 3:16

Why was a sacrifice necessary? Why was it necessary that blood had to have been shed? The Gospel is that we believe Jesus the son of God is fully God and fully man, manifested in the flesh, who came to earth to seek and save the lost. He died on the cross, shedding His blood as the perfect, sinless sacrifice. He was buried and resurrected by the power of God three days later. (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).

 Leviticus 17:11 says "For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.’ " Hebrews 9:22 says "And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness."

I do not know why God set it up that the blood is the life, and is the mechanism for atonement, but it is so because we are told that by His word. God had to pour out His wrath for sin upon Jesus, whose shed blood was payment for the sins of the world. There had to be a sacrifice and it had to be pure. Jesus is sinless, and was therefore acceptable to God as that sacrifice. Jesus took on all the sins of the world AND all God's wrath for it. He took our place so we do not have to endure God's wrath, unless a person rejects Jesus. Then they are subject to wrath! Forever!!

That's the Gospel. Please believe it. Your soul depends on it.
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Back to basics

I've been mulling over some things about apostasy. This is because in the course of my online and real life discernment and apologetics ministry, I have lately been shown by the grace of the Holy Spirit that the essential doctrines of our faith not only are being eroded "out there", but also "in here", in places and in people close to me. I am horrified at the depth and breadth of the erosion of what I believed were the obvious givens. I am grieving over the adherence to some of the more destructive heresies uncovered of late.

In my mind, the "obvious givens" start with the the Gospel. That Sovereign Jesus lived as fully man on earth, was sinless, died on the cross, bore the wrath of God for payment of our sins,was buried and resurrected by the power of God on the third day. That's the Gospel. One must believe those essentials in order to be saved. But even this basic tenet, the one that distinguishes us from ALL other philosophies, doctrines, faiths and assertions, is being corrupted daily. I had known it was bad in our faith. I had believed the prophesies about how bad it would get. I hadn't realized how bad the foundations had been eroded, or how many people are affected.

I worry strongly for the mature in the faith who are being drawn away by doctrines of devils, seducing spirits,  empty philosophies that are said to come. (1 Titus 4:1, Colossians 2:8). Worse, "For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect--if that were possible." (Matthew 24:24). This means that if you can be deceived, you will be.

I'm worried for the new believers in our faith who watch the way mature believers act and listen to what the mature believers say as they get carried away with seducing spirits and the new ones are being carried away too. I want to protect the vulnerable.

I had been mulling about writing on the Ten Kings from Daniel and Revelation, about Ezekiel 38, about whether the US is in prophecy, what is Babylon and metaphorical Egypt and Sodom, and I'll likely get to those, but I'm shifting my focus at the prompting of the Spirit to explain simply what the basics are. There are people out there who believe we can be saved if we dream of Jesus in a jungle or that God is so big He could justly accept people into heaven who have not been born again by faith in ALL the Gospel... Our brethren are at risk!

So for a while I'm going to go back to the basics in apologetics (defending and explaining the faith) rather than continue in increasingly complex eschatology. Not that I will go away from eschatology. This whole week has been about the Spirit focusing me on end time prophesies of deception and false teaching, false doctrines, false prophets and false church culture. We have to look at these things through an end time lens, well, because we are in the end time. As a matter of fact, the end time deceptions are simply exploding right now, at a pace that faints my heart. I want to do this because when we're gone, and it seems that we will be soon, the people who are left behind and need to convert will need milk.

Jesus is tantamount. His Word has got to be adhered to strictly. Jesus finished His Sermon on the Mount, a lengthy discourse on how to live as a follower of Him. "Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall." (Matthew 7:26-27).

The Word of God is our rock. It will never fall. Let's begin...
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KISS: Keep It Simple, Sailor. The Gospel isn't complicated

I invite you to listen to this very convicting and wonderful sermon on How to Recognize True Repentance by Pastor Don Green. It was delivered last month at the Truth Matters conference. You can listen to the sermon or read a transcript, but listening to it is the best way for you to have the impact. I was deeply moved by it, and was uplifted as always by the true words of Jesus in the Gospels the pastor shared throughout the sermon.

Fall surely is a great time of year. The air is freshened, the colors are out, and the seasons are changing. "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace." (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)

Adam Clarke's commentary of those verses says, "Every thing has its time and season. God by his providence governs the world, and has determined particular things and operations to particular times. In those times such things may be done with propriety and success. However if we neglect the appointed seasons we sin against this providence and become the authors of our own distresses. God has given to man that portion of duration called time; the space in which all the operations of nature, of animals, and intellectual beings, are carried on. But while nature is steady in its course, and animals faithful to their instincts, man devotes it to a great variety of purposes, very frequently to that for which God never made time, space, or opportunity."

God is our first season and our last season, and He is the season at all times. Make sure your relationship with Jesus is not a seasonal activity, one that comes and goes, but is everlasting and sure. All else comes and goes, His love is eternal. Stay within it in prayerful attitude, grateful for blessings for all the things He sends to us in their own due season.

JESUS AS FORGIVER

The Lord is sovereign. He wields all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18) and that means our Lord has been given all authority to judge. He specifically said so in John 5:22. Repentance is the simple truth of the Gospel. It isn't fixing social ills. It isn't reaching out to have conversations with other religions. It isn't simply "accepting Christ" as if WE have to find HIM acceptable.... It is personal awareness for your own sins, mourning over those sins, and appealing to Jesus for forgiveness of those sins, and finally, turning from those sins by making Jesus Lord and submitting to His will in us. It is repentance.

When I was living aboard the sailboat with my husband, there is a common adage all sailors know. It's KISS, "Keep It Simple, Sailor". When you're out in the middle of the ocean you depend on each other and the systems aboard your boat to stay alive and make port safely. Everything is stripped away, and it's just you, the boat, and the wind. KISS meant that the more complicated you make the systems aboard your boat, the more likely it is that they will fail, putting you at risk of death.

The Gospel is simple. Christianity, especially American Christianity, has made it complicated. We have been told that somehow we are failing if we are at odds with Catholics, or Mormons, or Muslims. Repentance isn't to exhibit a display of hatred of other people's sins. While it is OK to be upset at homosexuality or gay marriage or abortion, it should not be at the expense of mourning over and hatred of our own sins. We have been told that we must be peaceful and unite in our common love of love. Not so. Jesus is singular. He isn't to be melded with other religions, He isn't to be ignored, and He isn't one of many paths. He is THE way, THE truth, and THE life. "Repent, and ye shall be saved. Refuse to repent, and ye shall perish." (Luke 13:5) Jesus only, sin, and repentance. Keep it Simple, Sailor. We repent, and then we call others to repentance. That's it.

Remember to KISS, Keep it Simple, Sailor! It is all about Jesus, our sin and His forgiveness.When was the last time you actually cried over your own sin? When was the last time you were broken and ashamed before God at the creature you used to be, and cried in joy at the grace He has afforded you to become a new creation? Think about it. If it has been too long, a good dose of prayerful repentance does the spiritual body good. "II Corinthians 7:10, NIV. "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death."

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How the truth pierces hearts

I wanted to share the beauty of the Gospel and the beauty of children. When the twain meet it is a glorious thing.

The truth as expressed in basic bible doctrines grabs you. Some people gasp and twist away. Others sit absorbed, never being able to get enough. The entire book of Acts is an ode to the transforming power of truth. But make no mistake, either way, the Gospel affects people. They either “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” because they do not want to submit to the Creator (Romans 1:18) or they accept it on faith and receive eternal joy through the indwelling Spirit while on earth or in glory by being with the Savior. The reactions run one or the other. People respond... 1 Peter 1:23 it is the truth that saves us. "For you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God."

I have found that it is the children who are the most attentive and joyous when listening to the truth. I've taught children in afternoon bible clubs, evening bible clubs, all kinds of bible clubs and in my experience, the children are immediately heedful of the import. They sit open mouthed, rapt, listening, eager for more. They ask questions, sophisticated ones. They want to know.

The unsaved, whom we call the lost because they are stumbling around in the dark, lost from the only path that will take them to heaven, deride children's bible lessons. They claim Christian adults "indoctrinate" them. That is rubbish for two reasons. First, ALL adults indoctrinate their children. 'Indoctrinate' simply means "To instruct in a body of doctrine or principles." All parents do that because all parents teach their children the difference between right and wrong as they see it. Another definition is "To imbue with a partisan or ideological point of view' which again, all parents do with their children either overtly and directly, or by default with the child 'picking up; the mores of their parents by observation and imitation. It is what parents are supposed to do and it is what it means 'to raise children.'

Secondly, anyone who has seen a classroom of children learning about Jesus has seen pure joy. No, THIS is indoctrination:

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The power of the word of God is the most powerful thing on earth or heaven. When that power is introduced to a child's heart, it is a match literally made in heaven. Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." (Matthew19:14). It is interpreted to mean first that Jesus had a real soft spot for children. He takes notice of all believers, and would not overlook even the smallest and least noticeable such as a child. Children have exactly the attitude needed for approaching God; joy and acceptance of the truth as it pierces their heart (instead of refusal, pride, and rejection). The receptiveness of children was a huge contrast to the stubbornness of the Pharisees. Children respond to the power of the Gospel because they know it is the truth, and whenever that happens it is a beautiful thing to be part of.
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