“Now that I’ve seen your brain
waves and realize what you do for a living, I can see that
you’re a person filled with tremendous sadness.”
Mike: These were the words spoken to me by
a compassionate evaluator following a recent sleep study test
at the Veterans Administration Hospital. Her statement was like
hearing God explain to me why my heart has been growing
increasingly heavy this past year.
We’ve written previously about the
Holy Spirit’s assurance that the Hebraic foundations
won’t be embraced in the United States until the “dark days of chastisement” come upon this nation. In my spirit I know with
great sadness that these days aren’t too far off and that no mass repentance will occur to
keep our Lord from chastising this nation.
Our hearts grieve over the burgeoning
spiritual darkness that’s being entertained by so many
who call themselves “Chris-tian”. Many we know
personally have grown dull, lulled into lethargy about serving
the King in His Kingdom purposes.
Ask yourself if spiritual sloth de-scribes
you and/or your family:
• Have you no heart burden for the
salvation of your relatives, your neighbors, your co-workers,
or folks you happen upon?
• Are you ignoring or missing so many
opportunities because of your own laziness or tunnel-vision
self-focus?
• Do you find that all too often you
have no testimony of praise to our Father for divine encounters
in which Jesus was lifted up in your midst?
My heaviness of heart identifies with the
sorrow I sense from the Holy Spirit within me — so many
consider themselves “Christian” yet reject our Lord
Jesus by ignoring His commands. They’re
into Christianity, but not into Christ.
You may know from our previous writings
that when the Holy Spirit directed us to Jerusalem in 1993, I
earnestly sought Him to find out why He wanted us there. Early one morning I knelt
down and prayed, allowing my Bible to fall open. This passage
jumped out before me with the intensity the Spirit intended:
‘Get yourself ready! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified by them, or I will
terrify you before them.
Today I have made you a fortified city, an
iron pillar and a bronze wall to stand against the whole
land—against the kings of Judah, its officials, its
priests and the people of the land. They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you,’
declares the LORD (Jeremiah 1:
17-19).
“Stand up and say to them whatever I command you.”
The Christmas season is a difficult time
of year to write the warning the Holy Spirit inspired me to
share in this Teaching E-mail. Many of you are caught up in the
hustle of gift purchasing, parties, home decoration. However,
from our Father’s perspective this is possibly the
saddest time of the entire year.
Greed, loneliness, unfulfilled
expectations and even the spike in suicides underlay the shell
of holiday celebration. Sadly, so few of His children recognize
the pain of others or make themselves available to serve our
Lord by coming alongside these needy ones of His.
From His vantage point, so little of this
man-made, man-centered season has anything to do with our Lord
Jesus, even though it’s called “Christmas”. His first
coming indeed fulfills Hebrew prophecy and can be a
conversational starter among those who have yet to encounter
Him. But it’s all too easy for people to mix up His purpose for
entering man’s depraved world — to redeem and
reconcile us — with humanist idealism that our earthly
existence can be love-joy-peace but without
His Lordship.
Even the sweet nativity scenes
misrepresent the harsh reality of animal stench and a mocked
yet faithful young woman who was despised by her fellow
villagers because she conceived out of wedlock.
The Bible doesn’t mention any annual
celebration of His first coming because our Lord’s
victory was in His death and
resurrection. The helpless,
dependent baby grew up! He’s the King of Kings Who
is coming again to rule the earth!
Ironically, the word "Christmas"
originated as a contraction of "Christ's mass" — a
ritual eccesiastical holiday established by Constantine in the
4th century. The date of December 25 was intentional, to coincide
with the pagan festival of Saturnalia, the sun’s
“rebirth” on the winter solstice. This decree
appeased those who were “Christian” in name only
and insistently clung to their heathen festivals.
Please, be warned! Compromise with the world always robs the truth of its
power! Do you get warm fuzzies from
childhood memories by encouraging your children to mix trees,
Santa and self-indulgent gift receiving with the reality of our
Lord’s Incarnation? Then you’re setting the scene
for relegating God’s Word into humanism’s scheme of
the Bible as mythology.
• Will your children regard His
entire Word as absolute? Or will they choose by your example of
syncretistic compromise to believe some of it and ignore either
the “unpleasant” or the supernatural parts?
However, Christmas isn’t the real
issue in this Teaching E-mail. Rather, the Holy Spirit prompted
us to address the spiritual darkness that’s so readily
embraced by people who call themselves “Christian”
yet compromise with the world’s ways and goals.
It’s with impassioned spirit that we
ask you to examine your heart for loving, obedient
determination to walk in the Lordship of Jesus. Those who have
allowed a religious veneer to cloak a heart that loves the
world’s ways will suffer the same chastisement as unbelievers — because
that’s how you appear to Him! Even worse, you defame the
Name of Jesus by your worldliness that causes unbelievers to
sneer at Him as your supposed Lord.
The warning the Holy Spirit gave us to
share with you is difficult. It comes because God loves His people so
much, yet is so grieved by the spiritual adultery that’s so
prevalent. Out of His love we write with the same sense of near-hopeless
sorrow that was experienced by Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel as
they prophesied to warn the compromising Israelites.
Did they respond by repenting and returning to the
God Who loved them? You know the answer to that. Because so few
would heed the call to repent, God forbade His grieving
messenger to stand up for them:
Do not pray for this people nor offer any
plea or petition for them; do not plead with Me, for I will not
listen to you (Jeremiah 7:16).
Yet the prophetic voices were not
silenced...
Even Floods Don’t Change Man’s Desire to Sin
The Bible cascades with evidence that our
God is longsuffering toward man-kind. A brief discussion of
man’s sojourn on earth makes this clear.
Sinful Adam and Eve never raised even one
of their children in the Garden of Eden. Even their firstborn
was a murderer! By Genesis chapter 6 we learn that “every
inclination of the thoughts of
[man’s] heart is only evil all the time” (v.5). What a tragic commentary that pained our Lord over the
state of His creation, but still He withheld judgment.
Yet not all was destined for deserved
annihilation. Righteous Noah and his family, eight in all, were
a tiny yet faithful remnant among the millions that were on
Earth at that time. The rest of sinful mankind was destroyed in
a cataclysmic flood by a holy and just God.
The sin nature of man did not disappear, however. The
descendents of Noah were still bent on self-indulging
disobedience, their hearts unchanged by the flood’s
horror. In fact, by Genesis chapter 11, man’s arrogant
rebellion and fearless disregard of God had made His commands
irrelevant to them.
Come, let us build
for ourselves a city, and a tower
whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for
ourselves a name; lest we be scattered abroad over
the face of the whole earth (v.4).
You may not readily catch what’s
wrong with their intent: to establish a proud reputation for
themselves and to forestall
God’s plan that they be
dispersed over all the earth.
To understand the underlying nature of
their sin, we must visit God’s command to Adam:
Then God said, “Let Us make man in
Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion...over all the earth and
over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
Then God blessed them, and God said to
them, “Be fruitful and
multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the
birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the
earth (Genesis 1:26,28).
God intended that mankind scatter over the
earth and subdue it. On the plains of Babylon [which means
“gate of the god(s)”] they presumptuously built a
magnificant edifice to keep themselves unified and any enemies
at bay. God’s response? He scattered them by confounding
their communication through different languages.
As we’ll discuss, much of
Christen-dom continues to serve the proud spirit of Babylon.
And, our God, Who is true to His nature, continues to propel
His children out of their man-made edifices to scatter them to
serve in His Kingdom. But should He have to do this?
MYSTERY
BABYLON THE GREAT
THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES
AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH (Revelation 17:5).
“Babylon” — A Sinister
Force Dissuading God’s Children From Trustful Obedience
The spirit of Babylon will continue to
pressure and sway the people of God until it’s destroyed
as the closing chapters of the Book of Revelation reveal. How
does the spirit of Babylon operate? It seduces people into living contrary to the revealed will of God.
This sinister spirit convinces
self-proclaimed “Christians” that they’re
pleasing to God even while they embrace pagan practices which
they declare to be “holy”. In this manner the
Israelites were willingly deceived, so that God raised up the
Babylonians themselves to banish His children from their
Promised Land.
Much of Christendom today is allowing
itself to be similarly deceived in tolerated and even pursued unrighteousness,
leading to painful chastisement.
The spirit of Babylon more than any other
has lured millions in Christendom to forsake the commands of
our Lord by compromising His Word. Do you recognize some of these heathen
influences?
• The vast majority of
“Christian” religious practices are pagan in
origin—Christ-mas, Easter (to coincide with the spring
equinox and fertility-goddess worship), infant baptism,
spectator-filled pews.
• Edifices are erected as a rallying
point for members (remember the Tower of Babel?). The building
is referred to as a particular “church” where
members gather comfortably for religious rituals.
• The clergy system that runs these
gatherings emanates from pagan Hellenism and Romanism, replete
with honorific titles condemned by Jesus in Matthew 23:
5-10.
The Babylonian “edifice
complex” hinders the scattering of God’s people to
penetrate and permeate those who have yet to encounter His
grace in Jesus. Self-serving segregation among those within
your own “edifice gathering” forestalls your
obedience to the desire of our Father — the salvation of
the lost. How few of these “Babylonian” gatherings
fulfill our Lord’s command to “Go
and make disciples of all nations”!
Are you grieved that Revelation 18 so
clearly describes much of the self-serving, idolatrous
religious system today? “She
has become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil
spirit...” (v.2).
Jesus: “Wash Their Feet In Humble
Service. Never Let Others ‘Kiss Your Bottom!’”
You know in your heart that Jesus never
established an ecclesiastical religious structure with an
organizational headquarters — nor did He ever intend for
those who follow Him to do such a thing. Our Lord is well aware
of man’s sinful propensity to seek position and power;
even James and John hungered for acclaim at His right and left
side!
Therefore Jesus specifically forbade those
who would follow Him to bear titles such as Teacher or Father
or Leader that would lift them above others (see Matthew 23:
8-12). Rather, they (and we today) are to pour themselves out
on others — to role model humility of heart and loving
service in the steps of their Master.
Our Lord’s final command at His
Ascension summarized His marching orders for His faithful ones: to go forth in His Spirit and be
scattered around the world in service to others, bearing witness to the King as they went.
Isn’t this the pattern He showed them (and us)?
How grievously His command and pattern of
loving, humble service have been altered to suit man’s
selfish desires! Centuries of ecclesiastical systems have
brought about today’s man-centered religious practices
that mimic worldly methods and goals. Just as in corporate
America, to get to the top you must “kiss butt” to
get ahead, because those at the top lord it over those below
(see Mark 10:42-45).
If you’re troubled by the graphic
nature of this illustration, realize how offended our God is by the
reality it depicts! Realize too that the Bible is filled with
graphic illustrations intended by Him to warn His people
against giving way to such practices. Do you doubt this? Read
Ezekiel chapter 23 as an example of how detes-table the
spiritually adulterous practices of HIS PEOPLE are from His
perspective.
[Our Hebraic Article, I Hate Nicolaitanism,
discusses at length our Father’s grief when His people
are suppressed by others in His name.]
Please, heed the warning given to all who
would be absolutely true to Jesus. Yearning for the
world’s pleasures and approval brings only sorrow and
regret:
Come out of her,
my people, that you may not
participate in her sins and that you
may not receive of her plagues; for her sins have piled up as high as heaven,
and God has remembered her iniquities (Revelation 18:4,5).
Our Lord leaves no room for compromise for
His people! Allowing your carnal nature to be gratified deceives you that
your life can be dedicated to our Father’s interests and
purpose at the same time. The world’s way says,
“Schedule an appointment with me.” But if your walk
with Jesus consists of scheduled services and programs run by
others, you’re evidencing how much of the world —
of “Babylon”— has crept into your regard for
Him.
Our Lord allowed no such concession to
invade His loving yieldedness to His Father’s will and
purpose:
Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify [set apart as holy] the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate.
Therefore let us go forth to Him,
outside the camp, bearing His
reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to
come (Hebrews 13:12-14).
The Newer Testament describes the true
followers of Jesus who with Spirit-empowered hearts stay the
course of obedient trust:
Pilgrims scattered all over the earth as
they journey to their salvation,
bringing
with them as many as He has granted by grace.
Those who lead continue to walk by example in
fulfilling this purpose.
• Does this describe your goal and
purpose as one who loves and serves our Lord? If not, why not?
• Are you hiding out in a Babylonian
edifice where you can be comfortable each week, fulfilling your
religious duty so that you can then pursue your own goals and
interests the rest of the week?
• From our Father’s
perspective, are you a “follower of Jesus” or a
“Babylonian”?
One who leads God’s people His way
does so by example. Much can be learned from the ways of bees
about the need to scatter. Sue kept three hives of honeybees during our
years at the retreat center. As each hive grew too large to be
maintained by the colony, a new queen would be developed.
The old queen would leave the hive with a
certain number of bees to go start a new colony. The younger
queen would remain to build up the old hive. Once that colony
grew too large, the same process would take place: the
now-older queen would leave with her following while a younger
queen would stay behind in the original hive.
Isn’t this the pattern established
by Paul, Timothy, Titus, and others in the Newer Testament?
They gathered together a faith community of new believers,
trained and nurtured them to maturity, and then departed to
start another. This is the way of Jesus — growing
intimate, extended spiritual families who were being prepared
to reach others. But this is definitely not the pattern of the
Babylo-nian-influenced religious system!
From Jerusalem to the End of the World:
The Followers of Jesus Must Be Scattered
Read Hebrews 11 with an eye on the transitory nature of
our sojourn here on earth. As you read the testimony of our
spiritual forefathers, consider if the nature of those who were
commended for their faith describes you.
Our Father told us in Israel to call that
which He is restoring, “The
Hebraic Restoration.” We
understand this to mean that He’s restoring a
Spirit-grounded lifestyle of the loving, obedient trust found
in the Hebrew, Abraham.
What do we know about this Patri-arch who
found such intimate favor in the sight of God as His friend?
By trusting, Abraham
obeyed when he was called to go out to
the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
By trusting he lived
as an alien in the land of promise,
as in a foreign land, dwelling in
tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow
heirs of the same promise. For he
was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God (Hebrews 11:8-10).
Abraham trusted God, and obeyed God as evidence of that trust! His
trust-grounded journey led him from his familiar homeland of Ur
of the Chaldees through the Promised Land all the way to Egypt.
Note that Abraham didn’t succumb to the spirit of Babylon
and build a lasting edifice for himself. He lived in tents, as did his
son and grandson after him, remaining mobile so that God could
direct his life’s journey.
Jesus described this “mobile
availability” as an indicator for His followers of the
life He might call them to emulate: “Foxes
have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man
has no place to lay His head” (Luke
9:58). In other words, don’t sink your earthly anchor so
deep that you can’t set sail when His Spirit wind comes
up to move you on!
Other character qualities shaped our
Hebraic forefathers into the faithful sons and daughters
of God that they were. Each demonstrated a heart willingness to be about God’s purpose no matter what earthly discomfort they
encountered.
• They admitted they were aliens and
strangers on earth.
• They longed for the country beyond
— a heavenly home.
• They wandered in deserts and
mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground, prepared to
face hardship according to the good purpose and will of their
Father.
Note that their earthly journey never
found them enjoying the promise they pursued. We in Jesus are
the factor that brings about their longed-for goal:
All of these gained approval because of their trusting. Nevertheless, they did
not receive what had been promised,
because God had provided something
better that would involve us, so
that only with us would they be brought to the goal, being made perfect (Hebrews 11:39,40).
May our Lord commend you in your trust as
you set to free yourself from the spirit of Babylon.
Even Jerusalem Can Be A Babylon
The Jerusalem which Jesus mourned wallowed
in corruption. The intense anger of our Lord erupted, however,
not against the lost and sinning sheep but against the
unloving, self-serving religious leaders.
“Hypocrites!” he proclaimed in their hearing.
Be wary of anyone who romanticizes earthly
Jerusalem, Israel or the present-day Jewish people. Misplaced
sentimentality does the Word of God a great disservice. Know
that He keeps His promises, not because the recipients nobly
deserve it, but because He is true
to His Word! Surely each of us as
unworthy, redeemed sheep are well aware of our innate weakness
that so depends on the grace of the Shepherd!
Revelation chapter 11 speaks of a time yet
to come in which two prophesying witnesses of God will be
killed in Jerusalem. The unrepentant occupants of the city from
which King Jesus will reign rejoice when the two who decried evil are
slaughtered. What a tragic testimony against the city God had
specifically and uniquely chosen to “place His
Name” (see 1 Kings 11:36; 2 Kings 21:7).
And their dead bodies will lie in the
street of the great city which spiritually is
called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was
crucified (v.8).
What do Babylon, Sodom, Egypt, and
Jerusalem have in common? Each represents societies of people
who lived totally contrary to the
will of God. The first three,
blatantly pagan to the core, made no pretense of serving the
One True God. But Jerusalem, the “city of God” in
which their Lord was crucified as their prophets had written, let
herself be seduced by the spirit of Babyon.
Century upon century found the people God
had set apart for Himself forsaking His commands and reveling
in pagan practices acquired from the heathen nations around
them. How grieved was God, their spiritual
“Husband” (see Jere-miah 31:32)!
Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet
they are not gods at all.) But My
people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols (Jeremiah 2:
11).
With this backdrop Jesus lamented how far
the city had strayed from serving God as they butchered His
messengers and rebuffed His loving heart toward them:
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather
your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her
wings, but you were not willing!” (Luke
13:34).
Paul was a self-proclaimed “Pharisee
of Pharisees”. But, following his conversion, Jerusalem
and its religious establishment were no longer the source of
his proud identity. His heart was breaking that his beloved
Galatians might be seduced by the same anti-Christ spirit that
had enticed Jerusalem’s leaders and its citizens. In
anguish the apostle warned them to forsake slavery and cling to
the promise of freedom in Jesus:
For it is written that Abraham had two
sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.
But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh,
and the son by the free woman
through promise.
This is allegorically speaking: for these
women are two covenants, one proceeding from
Mount Sinai bearing children who are
to be slaves; she is Hagar. Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in
Arabia, and corresponds to the
present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.
But the
Jerusalem above is free; she is our
mother (Galatians 4:22-26).
The “Jerusalem above” (see
Revela-tion 21) is the city to which the people of faith in
Hebrews 11 were looking forward. The freedom in Christ to
lovingly serve our Lord on earth is our covenant of promise.
But what is the slavery of Jerusalem about which Paul writes?
Using Paul’s allegory, the
“slave master” was the Temple system whose leaders
were persecuting those born of the Spirit (see Galatians 4:29).
Herod had the “Babylonian” edifice rebuilt to give
the Jews a rallying point for their identity. You need to
remember that at this point the Ark of the Covenant was no longer within its walls. Nor was the shekinah glory of God in its midst.
At the time of Jesus the religious leaders
dominated the people who were dependent on the Temple
sacrificial system for reconciliation with God. Cor-ruption at
all levels permeated the Temple system, from haughty
white-washed priests to greedy animal sellers. (see Matthew 21:
12). The people who were earnestly trying to obey God’s
commands were instead enslaved by man-made rules (see Matthew
15:1-9).
The “Babylonian” Temple system
prevented people from embracing the loving relationship with
God as He had wanted and commanded (see Deuter-onomy 6:5;
Exodus 20:6). Standing in the way of the freedom of loving
forgiveness and reconciliation were the rules and traditions
heaped upon the common folk by hypocritical law-expanders (see
Matthew 23:15). Just in case someone might inadvertantly sin, ever-increasing
rules were added to God’s instruction. No way could
ANYONE fulfill all those decrees!
Many religious leaders exercise the same
control today over their congregation. People within each
“Babylonian temple” are compelled to embrace
man-made creeds and to use the resources of God to build
edifices in which they can spiritually and socially gratify
themselves. While caring for the poor and needy is given token
attention, tithes are more often used to maintain the edifice
and the religious programs.
When Jesus Entered Babylon
If we as His followers are to walk in our
Master’s steps, we need to recall His response to the
Babylonian spirit in Jerusalem.
The Temple in Jerusalem was called the
“house of God”. Do you think that Satan could have
access to it? We’re told that the devil “brought [Jesus] to Jeru-salem and had Him stand on the
highest point of the temple.
‘If you are the Son of God,’ he said, ‘throw
yourself down from here’” (Luke 4:9).
There was nothing holy about the Temple
edifice that wicked Herod had built. Neither was sacred unto
God the Babylonian religious system that was fostered through
it. The Temple building itself would be toppled just forty
years after Jesus became the Risen Sacrifice. Its gleaming
limestone walls would cease to exist.
Awed by its structural beauty, one of His
disciples exclaimed, “‘Look,
Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent
buildings!’” (Mark 13:
1). Yet Jesus, knowing that His Bride would be the collective temple in
which His Spirit would abide, demonstrated no sense of mourning
for what was to be: “Do you
see all these great buildings? Not one stone here will be left
on another; every one will be
thrown down” (Mark 13:2). The system that had become corrupted in
its requirements was no longer needed upon His victory over sin
and death.
The people of Jerusalem who served the
spirit of Babylon were the deluded who wanted to kill Jesus.
While they proclaimed (and believed!) that their Father was God
Himself (John 8:41), Jesus sharply confronted them with the
painful truth of their spiritual heritage:
If God were your Father, you would love
Me; for I proceeded forth and
have come from God, for I have not even come on My own
initiative, but He sent Me.
You are of your
father the devil, and you want to do
the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the
truth, because there is no truth in
him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he
speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies (John
8:42,44).
At the moment of Jesus’ death, the
curtain of the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom (Mark
15:38). There are several ways we could understand this
miracle. Personally, we believe that Jesus was announcing
freedom from the spiritual captivity of Babylon. From Pentecost
onward the followers of Jesus would be His temple as they are
scattered over the earth in service to Him. The ripped curtain
marked the end of separation between “priest” and
“others”.
The Scattered Followers of Jesus Mark the
Way
to the Heavenly Jerusalem
For some reason the Apostles were
reluctant to hear the intensity of Jesus’ command to scatter
themselves beyond the confines of Jerusalem, even after the
Holy Spirit had empowered them to go forth as His witnesses!
“Go and
make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit, and teaching them
to obey everything I have commanded
you. And surely I am with you
always, to the very end of the
age” (Matthew 28:19,20).
That command to go is an ongoing
imperative: as you go; keep going; do go. At any rate, it’s a lifestyle of
availability wherever you are and wherever you go, freed from
any complacent prison of hanging around only those who are
friendly and familiar! Finding your
own “all nations” means
determining from the Spirit how to make the most of your next
encounter outside your comfort zone of those who are
“like you”.
“You will receive power when the Holy
Spirit comes on you; and you will be
My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and
Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
It seems strange that the apostles
didn’t get hold sooner of the intent of Jesus to scatter them as His Spirit-filled
King-dom ambassadors. However, before long, God used the
martyrdom of Stephen to begin to propel disciples beyond
“Babylon” walls: “On
that day a great persecution broke out against the called-out at Jerusalem,
and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria” (Acts 8:1).
Perhaps you don’t take seriously the command of Jesus
to be scattered. You don’t see your job or neighborhood
or “chance” encounters as divine opportunity to
represent the interests of Jesus. Without
Kingdom motivation, you live as a Babylonian. You prostitute yourself so that you can live
comfortably like the pagans around you. That’s the spiritual adultery of
the Israelites which so grieved God’s heart.
We’ve heard from a number of you in
the home church movement who have made your fellowship a
Babylon. Perhaps you’ve succumbed to the comfort of “us four, no more.” Think about this: If you have no burden for
those who are heading for a Christ-less eternity, how can you
call yourself a “Christ-ian”?
Jesus commands His disciples— those
who love and obey Him— “Teach
them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Our God has always been interested in the
salvation of ALL mankind. To ac-complish His purpose to reach
the world with His good and just ways, He initially recruited
the Israelites to reveal His holy commands. They were to be His
light of wisdom in the pagan world of darkness.
During the Exodus God commanded the
descendents of Israel:
Observe [My commands] carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say,
“Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people (Deuteronomy 4:6).
God’s desire for the salvation of
all people was proclaimed by the psalmist: “Declare His glory among
the nations, His marvelous deeds among all peoples”;
and, “The LORD has made His salvation known and
revealed His righteousness to the
nations” (Psalms 96:3; 98:2). God even sent reluctant Jonah to
the decadent Gen-tile city of Nineveh to get them to repent.
The way of God is the
crucial glue in His plan to bring salvation to all man-kind. He
specifically chose the Patriarch Abraham because of the
man’s intergenerational concern for a relationship of
obedient trust with their God: “He
will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just” (Genesis 18:19).
To prepare for the coming of Messiah
Jesus, many from all walks of life went out to the Jordan River
to receive a baptism of repentance by John. Their repentant
hearts stirred them to want to know how God’s commands applied to them. They asked
the Baptizer:
“What should we do then?” the crowd asked. He
answered and said to them, “He who has two tunics, let him give to him
who has none; and he who has food, let
him do likewise.”
Tax collectors also came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked,
“what should we do?” “Collect no more than what you have
been ordered to,” He told them.
Then some soldiers asked Him, “And what should we do?”
He replied, “Do not
intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your
wages” (Luke 3:10-14).
Each of these categories of people knew a changed response of godliness was needed in order to fill in the ruts of their old
disobedient attitudes and actions. Each of us needs that kind
of forceful determination to be changed as well..
If you are earnestly following Jesus as Lord of your life,
then in His divine foreknowledge He has placed you among people
who need to come to repentance and enter our Father’s Covenant.
It’s your privilege and
responsibility to make known to them the way of the Lord.
To choose NOT to do this is sin for you.
If you’re familiar with the Bible
then you’ll probably recognize readily that you can
choose to be either a Kingdom person who loves the King, or a
Baby-lonian who compromises by loving the world.
To dedicate yourself to service in the
Kingdom, His call is as clear as it is precise: “Deny yourself and take up your cross and
follow Me” (Matthew 16:
24). As difficult as this command is, the Holy Spirit within
you ignites your motivation to be bouyed on your love for
Jesus. He empowers you to fulfill this command so that our
Father is praised!
If you’re in Babylon, flee it! Go
out and make disciples as you encounter willing hearts. Teach
them the way of the Lord through His Word as it’s made
alive through your testimony and life.
If You Don’t Leave Babylon
“For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us,
what will the outcome be for those who do
not obey the gospel of God?”
(1 Peter 4:
17).
Our Lord uses timeless truths to restore
us to His fruitful path. This morning we realized a reading
from Oswald Chambers penned nearly a hundred years ago was just
such a reminder. We quote from My
Utmost For His Highest:
“The golden rule for understanding
spiritually is not intellect, but obedience. If a man wants scientific knowledge,
intellectual curiosity is his guide; but if he wants insight
into what Jesus teaches, he can only
get it by obedience. If things are
dark to me, then I may be sure that there is something I will not do.
Intellectual darkness comes through ignorance; spiritual
darkness comes because of something I do not intend to obey.
“No man ever receives a word from
God without instantly being put to
the test over it. We disobey and
then wonder why we don’t go on spiritually...When Jesus
brings a thing home by His word, don’t shirk it... First
GO,— at the risk of being thought fanatical you must obey what God tells you.” (emphasis
added)
It pains us to do this, but we must end
this Teaching E-mail with a specific warning the Holy Spirit
gave us for those who like to think they’re
“Christians” but whose lives are a Babylonian
abomination. Please prayerfully read and discuss the next page
with those close to you.
“Your worthless form of man-made
religion has made you worthless in His Kingdom. You have
exchanged your opportunity to lovingly serve and bring glory to
your Father for religious ease and self-fulfillment. My Name is
on your lips, but I am far from your heart.
“You have forsaken the freedom
He’s offered to you to be a follower of Jesus who is
scattered as fruitful seed in service to Him. Instead , you
choose servitude to man-made religious practices that bring
about no change or spiritual maturity.
“Your lazy wickedness will result in
chastisement. Consider then and realize how bitter it will be
for you if you forsake the Lord your God as He has revealed
Himself in His Word and by His Spirit.
“You have turned your back to Me and
not your face. In vain I have tried to correct you, but you
would not respond. Don’t believe that I do nothing about
the sins of My people. I will pass judgment on you because you
say, “I have not sinned,” even though My Word warns
against this very deceit.
“Your religion is filled with
practices that are an abomination to Me. You worship the spirit
of lawlessness who now has dominion among those who should be
Mine. Your worship is not acceptable to Me. You do it for your
own soulish pleasure, so you can feel good about yourself. You
do not ask how I feel about your religion.
“You have no fear of Me. If you
truly feared Me you would repent and I could forgive you.
Instead, your confession is only pretense. You acknowledge your
sin but do not turn from it to live according to My commands in
the power of My Spirit.
“Don’t trust in the deceptive
words of your clergy. I never ordained for such people to lead
My flock. They practice deceit so people will esteem them. They
lean on their own understanding and do not inquire of Me. You
like it this way so that you too can live a lie of your own
making.
“I encourage you: circumcise your
heart or I will break out against you because of the evil you
practice. Wash the evil from your heart and fulfill your
journey to My salvation. Love Me! Learn and live by My holy
commands. Be a Kingdom of priests for Me, revealing to the
world the way of salvation.”
