Faithful in What He Givs Us

His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. (Mat 25:21)

Above all, the Lord is looking for faithfulness in our being and faithfulness in our doing with regard to the things that He has given us, not what things we conjure up out of ourselves. Whatever He bestows upon us is not for our safekeeping but to be multiplied and presented back in full to Him. This Multiplication is not for our own kingdom building plans, but dying to ambition of the self and having only His Kingdom in mind. Bearing fruit of which is of Him not that which represent us (Gal 5:22).

Keep good accounts of what He bestows, we mustn’t be careless. Work out what He has put in (Php 2:13), to the degree we have attained, walk by them (Php 3:16). Live in constant urgency, looking for His coming as though it is the next moment. Yet living each day faithfully, in patient endurance in all that life will throw at us though it is ‘after a long time’ (Matt 25:19). Don’t let go of what He gave, but multiply. Add on; faith, to faith virtue, etc (2 Pet 1:5). Faith without working it out is dead.

The Lord will do the accounting, it is faithfulness He desires.  Faithful only in what He gave, anything else extra is not credited. The end of faithfulness is to enter into His Joy and greater rule. Count all else loss, take on what He gives. Rule or take action over the ‘very little’ (Luke 19:17) He gives to us, in that He will multiply it back to us.

Transcendent Life
Watchman Nee


And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. (Mat 5:41)


Our transcendency is before the Lord for no one demands more than the Lord. The most people can demand is only one mile, but what Lord requires is the second mile.


May the Lord’s hand be on me. If I lose all, I will not be able to lose any more. When I am totally dead, I will not be able to die further. As long as I may yet die, I have not died enough. Since I may still lose, I have not lost enough. I am willing to increase the Lord’s hand on me, rather than to lighten it.


If we are able to stand on the Lord’s side and deal with ourselves, we will never entertain the thought of revenge on others.

Burden or Life

My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; (Pro 2:1)

The Torah and the Sermon on the Mount can either be viewed as a heavy burden or we see the grace to abundance of life. If the Commandments are considered information on what we ‘should be’ and what to shun, then we have an unbalanced view of a tyrannical God. His commandments are never meant to be grievous (1 John 5:3).


Experiencing abundance of life comes by taking the first few steps of obedience in faith than realization that we can do it because it is by His grace. We should not ask for evidence before we keep what He says, but believe without seeing by doing first, in that we will be blessed (John 20:29); ‘in keeping of them there is great reward’ (Psa 19:11).

Glorious Pursuit


I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. (Php 3:14)


There is something about pursuing God that He loves in a man and a woman. It is a trusting in the Unseen God and thrusting our life, future and in fact everything into His loving hands, sojourning into the uncharted territory where man’s council and experience could never articulated. God’s ways are beyond all scope of human understanding and history.


Once we have been called, He is faithful to keep calling us. Whenever we forget, face discouraging hurdles, pain, suffering, despair, He keeps reminding us of the call. Don’t give up as much as He doesn’t; He cannot deny His character of faithfulness.


Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: (Heb 12:14)


Our pursuit is ‘in the Kingdom’, not outside. This pursuit of holiness only avails to those who believe and testify that Christ is Savior and Lord. Christians are not to remain idle, but to pursue. Never boast (Prov 27:1) of any form of spiritual attainment (Php 3:12, 13) nor compare ourselves against others who haven’t attained but remain faithful in whatever station of life we are in and continue to press on (Php 3:16).


Our reward is great. We will discover that in our pursuit, there will be much rubbish that requires shedding off to complete the race gloriously, clothed with nothing but His righteousness (Job 29:14, Php 3:9).

What is the original Hebrew name for Jesus? And is it true that the name Jesus is really a pagan corruption of the name Zeus?
Dr. Michael Brown


I am continually amazed by how many people write to our ministry and ask us questions like this one, which came in last week: “Some Christians say we have to use the Hebrew name, Yashua. They say calling on the name of Jesus is calling on Zeus. That Jesus is a disguise name for Satan. What answers do you have for this? Where can we prove the name of Jesus is correct to use in its English translation and pronunciation?”


As bizarre as these questions are, the fact that they keep coming up means that they need to be addressed, so here are some simple responses (for more details, see What Do Jewish People Think About Jesus, question #38).


The original Hebrew-Aramaic name of Jesus is yeshu‘a, which is short for yehōshu‘a (Joshua), just as Mike is short for Michael. The name yeshu‘a occurs 27 times in the Hebrew Scriptures, primarily referring to the high priest after the Babylonian exile, called both yehōshu‘a (see, e.g., Zechariah 3:3) and, more frequently, yeshu‘a (see, e.g., Ezra 3:2). So, Yeshua’s name was not unusual; in fact, as many as five different men had that name in the Old Testament. And this is how that name came to be “Jesus” in English: Simply stated, this is the etymological history of the name Jesus: Hebrew/Aramaic yeshu‘a became Greek Iēsous, then Latin Iesus, passing into German and then, ultimately, into English, as Jesus.


Why then do some people refer to Jesus as Yahshua? There is absolutely no support for this pronunciation—none at all—and I say this as someone holding a Ph.D. in Semitic languages. My educated guess is that some zealous but linguistically ignorant people thought that Yahweh’s name must have been a more overt part of our Savior’s name, hence YAHshua rather than Yeshua—but again, there is no support of any kind for this theory.


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THE GATEWAY TO THE KINGDOM
"Blessed are the poor in spirit." Matthew 5:3
Oswald Chambers


Beware of placing Our Lord as a Teacher first. If Jesus Christ is a Teacher only, then all He can do is to tantalize me by erecting a standard I can not attain. What is the use of presenting me with an ideal I cannot possibly come near? I am happier without knowing it. What is the good of telling me to be what I never can be - to be pure in heart, to do more than my duty, to be perfectly devoted to God? I must know Jesus Christ as Saviour before His teaching has any meaning for me other than that of an ideal which leads to despair. But when I am born again of the Spirit of God, I know that Jesus Christ did not come to teach only: He came to make me what He teaches I should be. The Redemption means that Jesus Christ can put into any man the disposition that ruled His own life, and all the standards God gives are based on that disposition.


The teaching of the Sermon on the Mount produces despair in the natural man - the very thing Jesus means it to do. As long as we have a self-righteous, conceited notion that we can carry out Our Lord's teaching, God will allow us to go on until we break our ignorance over some obstacle, then we are willing to come to Him as paupers and receive from Him. "Blessed are the paupers in spirit," that is the first principle in the Kingdom of God. The bedrock in Jesus Christ's kingdom is poverty, not possession; not decisions for Jesus Christ, but a sense of absolute futility - I cannot begin to do it. Then Jesus says - Blessed are you. That is the entrance, and it does take us a long while to believe we are poor! The knowledge of our own poverty brings us to the moral frontier where Jesus Christ works.

Parashat Pinhas: Leadership through speech
By SHLOMO RISKIN




“Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, ‘Let the Lord God of all the spirits of mortal flesh appoint a person of stature over the witness congregation’” (Numbers 27:15).


Moses was the master of all prophets, and the individual who came closer to God than any other mortal in history. Now, after a chorus of rebellions against him, God tells him that he is about to be taken from this world without entering the Promised Land. His response to God demonstrates his deep and abiding commitment to his nation. He does not seek a reprieve for himself, but rather a fitting successor for his people. In so doing, he identifies the area in which he himself failed, and the qualities which his heir must have in order to succeed, thus defining the sine qua non condition of leadership for future generations, and so leaving a crucial legacy to “Knesset Yisrael.”


The biblical words are stunning in their simplicity: “And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Climb to the top of this Abarim Mountain [just in front of Mount Nebo] and gaze upon the land which I am giving to the Israelites. After you see it, you will be gathered to your nation, in the same manner as was Aaron your brother. This is because you rebelled against My word at the Zin desert, just as the witness-congregation were engaged in dispute and you neglected to sanctify Me before their eyes with the water…” (Numbers 27:12-14) God is now exacting the punishment He had meted out to Moses in last week’s biblical reading, when the prophet was instructed to take his staff and “speak to the rock”; but instead, “struck the rock with the staff twice.” Although at the time much water gushed forth, God proclaimed that as a result of this transgression, Moses and Aaron would not be permitted to lead the nation into the Land.


Why did God command Moses to take the staff but only to speak to the rock, whereas almost 40 years before, after the splitting of the Red Sea, when the Israelites also bitterly disputed with God over the lack of water, He instructed Moses to take the rod and strike the rock with it? Why was striking the rock a commandment then and a transgression now? Apparently, Moses himself had pondered this question, and in this week’s portion, he arrives at the reason.


There are two types of leadership: leadership with a staff, and leadership with words; leadership by means of power and leadership by persuasion.


A slave people, beaten into submission by a powerful despot, will be moved only by a greater and mightier power. Slaves lack the emotional energy and the rigorous reserve to respond to logical thought or inspirational visions. They require a God with plagues more powerful than the Egyptian Nile, and a leader with a staff more efficacious than that of Pharaoh’s magicians.


But almost 40 years have passed since then, years of wandering in an alien desert and years of being protected by a loving Deity, years of commitment to God’s laws and years of studying God’s words.


And now, when history is repeating itself, when the witness-congregation is again panicked by the lack of water, God adjures Moses: Take your staff of leadership, but instead of striking with your hand, speak with your mouth; instead of commanding with the fiery law of a written Torah from God on High, try convincing with a song of an Oral Torah whose chorus is composed and sung by the souls of all of Israel; the Written Torah is a strict law, eternal, absolute and unchanging, emanating from the Lord, Creator of the Universe, while the Oral Torah is a soft law, born of dialogue with Israel and informed by the compassion and loving-kindness of the God of history.


And so Moses understands that the next leader of Israel must be less a prophet of God and more a man of the people, less a conveyor of God’s eternal law and more a mediator between God’s words and the people’s needs. Moses is at peace with his realization that if the staff was crucial to bring Israel out of Egypt in order to form a nation committed to God and His law, the next leader must use the word – speech and dialogue – to convince, inspire and extract new insights and interpretations of Torah from God’s partners in history, the nation of Israel.


“Moses spoke to the Lord saying, Let the Lord God of all the spirits of mortal flesh appoint a person of stature over the witness-congregation. Let him go out in front of them and let him come in before them, let him take them out and let him bring them in, so that the witness-congregation of the Lord shall not be as sheep without a shepherd” (Num. 27:15-17).

Finally


Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord…..(Php 3:1)


What is the ‘finally’ in our Christian life we are experiencing? Conclusively is there rejoicing? Not in what we have done, achieved, accumulated or any form of spiritual trophy placed on the pedestal of a Christian’s hallway of fame. The finality of our faith is Christ and Christ alone (Php 3:8) and to be found in Him (Php 3:9). To be established where our enduring existence is not of our own but His only.


I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine…… (Son 6:3)


Exclusivity comes with a price of suffering loss and reckoning all else as dung (Php 3:8). As with a marriage there has to be a leaving and a cleaving unto oneness; our position where He will spread His banner of love over His church (Son 2:4). His joy will sustain us (Neh 8:10). Our pursuit is not then aimless and our destiny laid out; the path has been drawn out. We keep our eyes focus on the goal of our upward call. It is upward glorious resurrection to save us from all forms of depreciating corruption that surround us daily, into an everlasting Kingdom. Rejoicing now and rejoicing in the end.


With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: they shall enter into the king's palace. Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth. I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations: therefore shall the people praise thee for ever and ever. (Psa 45:15-17)

Consistency


And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. (Luke 9:23)


Have we asked ourselves why we roller coaster through our Christian walk? Victory sometimes can be grasps at an arm’s length and other times it does not seem to avail to us. David knew about the importance of consistency (Psa 51:10).


For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? (Luke 14:28)


Victory requires reckoning or accounting with regard to the issue of the cross. Weigh not on what is the gain, but on the loss. The next step of faith is to cut off (Matt 5:30) and put off (Eph 4:22). His grace avails deeply for us, but we have to weigh and be willing to suffer loss (Phil 3:8). There is no short cut but always remembering that His grace avails always. Keep in mind that the person who carries the cross is not dead but a living sacrifice (Rom 12:1). 'Dead' yet alive to a higher life (Rom 6:11), it is a mystery that can only be fully realized if we live on the foundation of grace. An Old Testament sacrifice is severed, place on the altar, burned with fire and reduced to the lowest irreversible and consistent form, ashes. The Lord is not concerned with the gruesomeness of the sacrifice but in the aroma it finally emits.


Consistency is a narrowing journey (Matt 7:13). We have to reckon and account for loss in order to end at the gates of the ‘Celestial City’ (Pilgrims Progress, John Bunyan). Loss in order for great gain (Matt 14:36). The secret to consistency is carrying the cross and following Jesus. He will never lead us the wrong way. Cross equals loss, the end of great gain.

What Glory Do We Seek For?


And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: (John 17:22)


The bride is the focus of attention in any wedding, which is how much glory Jesus bestows upon His church.  It is not ours to earn nor striving nor fighting to gain (John 18:36). It takes faith to receive. Looking at not with human senses, but having a belief full of unshakeable substance and able to behold things not seen (Heb 11:1).


The glory is not then, but now. The manifestation of the glory is unity. Oneness is in Christ where the bond of brotherhood becomes thicker than blood which is of the spirit (Eph 4:3). The humanly base idea of glory is exaltation of self to prove we are better. God’s glory is founded on love, not the sentimental kind but one of action toward others, never self seeking nor arrogant. This is the true mark of discipleship (John 13:35). Christ’s glory given to the church is deeply founded in His love (John 17:24, 26), what else do we desire or seek for?

The Church and the World
Catherine Booth


When the church and the world can jog comfortably along together, you can be sure something is wrong. The world has not compromised - its spirit is exactly the same as it ever was. If Christians were equally as faithful to the Lord, separated from the world, and living so that their lives were a reproof to all ungodliness, the world would hate them as much as it ever did. It is the church that has compromised, not the world.

The Pulpit by J.C. Ryle


‎Without Christ crucified in her pulpits, a Church is little better than a dead carcass, a well without water, a barren fig-tree, a sleeping watchman, a silent trumpet, a lighthouse without fire, a stumbling-block to weak believers, a comfort to unbelievers, a hot-bed for formalism, a joy to the devil, and an offence to God.

Rulership


And he gave them into the hand of the heathen; and they that hated them ruled over them.
(Psa 106:41)


It is a fearful thing to be delivered to the hands of man because of God’s wrath and abhorrence (Psa 106:40). David knew it and in great strait asked to ‘not fall into the hand of man’ (2 Sam 24:14). ‘Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men’ (John 2:24). We may not be conscious that we are being ruled by man, it will show when the crunch comes.


So why it is that man is sought first before God? Man’s help and out stretched hand can become a dangerous crutch; a ‘broken reed…..whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it’ (Isa 36:6). When man rule or control our destiny than God’s sovereignty is left out. When God rules, we trust Him in getting alone with Him and faith is when we hear no answer, seeing greater promises afar off (Heb 11:13) and hearts at perfect peace that our cries have been heard in heaven; ‘having obtained a good report through faith’ because ‘God having provided some better thing for us' (Heb 11:39, 40).


The difference of rulership can be subtle. Man’s rule seeks human intervention, selfish and long term untrustworthiness. God’s rule is eternal and glorious even if it requires to die in faith (Heb 11:13). After all, everyone must die, the finality is where we stand in the last judgment (Heb 9:27).

Have You Come to "When" Yet?
Oswald Chambers


"And the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends." Job 42:10


The plaintive, self-centred, morbid kind of prayer, a dead-set that I want to be right, is never found in the New Testament. The fact that I am trying to be right with God is a sign that I am rebelling against the Atonement. "Lord, I will purify my heart if You will answer my prayer; I will walk rightly if You will help me." I cannot make myself right with God, I cannot make my life perfect; I can only be right with God if I accept the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ as an absolute gift. Am I humble enough to accept it? I have to resign every kind of claim and cease from every effort, and leave myself entirely alone in His hands, and then begin to pour out in the priestly work of intercession. There is much prayer that arises from real disbelief in the Atonement. Jesus is not beginning to save us, He has saved us, the thing is done, and it is an insult to ask Him to do it.


If you are not getting the hundredfold more, not getting insight into God's word, then start praying for your friends, enter into the ministry of the interior. "The Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends." The real business of your life as a saved soul is intercessory prayer. Wherever God puts you in circumstances, pray immediately, pray that His Atonement may be realized in other lives as it has been in yours. Pray for your friends now; pray for those with whom you come in contact now.

The Tension of the Ages
Rebekah Mui


Talk has been going on for quite awhile in the church about “the end times” and “the last days”. What exactly are the end times and the last days? How do we know for sure where we are on the Biblical calendar? And how are we youths supposed to live our lives since time is so short?


“End times” is not a phrase found in the Bible at all. The phrase used in the Bible is “last days”. Jacob prophesied over his sons over what would befall them in the last days (Genesis 49:1). Isaiah 2:2 and Micah 4:1 speak of YHWH’s house being established and all the Gentiles flowing towards it.


In the New Testament scriptures, the first mention of the last days is at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit fell (Acts 2:7). The fact is, the “last days” and “end times” began 2,000 years ago. The early church was very conscious of Jesus (Yeshua’s) return and lived soberly and in vigilance.  Hebrew 1:2 speaks of “these last days”. 2 Timothy 3:1 says, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.”


The Hebraic and Biblical understanding of the times is that there is this present evil age and the age to come. Last month, I mentioned the Hebrew word “olam”, meaning age or universe. The Olam Hava is the age to come, hava meaning come. (Baruch hava b’shem Adonai means "Blessed is he who comes in the name of YHWH.”). Olam Hazeh literally means “this world”. As the Scriptures say clearly, this earth was created by God (Elohim). The world in which we live in today is temporal and sinful. The Messiah comes to usher in the eternal Kingdom of God.


We know that Yeshua the Messiah of Israel has come. The last days have already begun, because with His coming, He brought the Kingdom of Heaven into individual lives. “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand (within reach)”, Jesus preached. We know that Yeshua is the Messiah because He has fulfilled, is fulfilling, and will fulfill all the word of the Tanakh (Old Testament). The olam hazeh is passing away and the olam haba has already come.


Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” The Kingdom of God is already established, the feast has been prepared. We are living in the overlap of the ages, between Jesus’ two comings. The tension between the ages must be a part of our Christian life! The literal, physical, worldwide, and total bringing in of the Kingdom will come when Jesus comes again, but it is our duty as sons of God who has entered into the Kingdom to preach the Gospel to every creature (Mark 16), bringing the good news of the Kingdom of Heaven.


Peter warned us in 1 Peter 3 that in these last days scoffers will come, that deny that God created the heavens and the earth, and also deny that Jesus will come again. (One common objection is that the church has been waiting for 2,000 years already and He still hasn’t come). Actually, as Peter says, it’s because God is very patient and doesn't desire any should perish. The New Testament scriptures are full of exhortations to the church to live soberly and be vigilant in these last days. 


“But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand yearsas one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.


Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen." (2 Peter 3:7-18 KJV)


It is our duty to store up our treasure in heaven (Matthew 6) and set our minds and hearts on things above (Colossians 3). It is our duty to be watchful and vigilant. It is our duty, as Jesus commanded, to go into all the world and preach the gospel.


And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. (Matthew 24:14 KJV)


Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving; Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds: That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. (Colossians 4:2-6 KJV)


Let us live godly lives and pray for the salvation of the peoples of this world and for our governmental authorities. Let us pray and preach the Kingdom of God to the lost peoples of this world. Let us remember the words Jesus spoke in Matthew 24 and 25 about watching and praying, staying awake. Don’t be like the virgins who fell asleep. The reason why we still have time is to bring souls into the Kingdom of God in the harvest of these last days, not to idle away and spend our lives on the things of this world. Let us not be distracted by the cares of this life, the pursuit and vanity and riches. Let us pray for laborers in the harvest fields of the kingdom! Let us never lose hope in the promises of God found in the Prophets.


Let us have faith in Jesus that will stand no matter what fiery trials and tribulations come our way. Let us have peace in our hearts, the true shalom of YHWH, that will stand sure and strong on the Rock of Ages, YHWH the God of Israel. Let us stand with Israel and bring the gospel back to Jerusalem where the Holy Spirit was poured out 2,000 years ago!


Let us live every day of our lives in eager anticipation, expectant hope, watchful preparation, sober vigilance, and solidarity as a body, for the coming, returning, glorious King Messiah and His Kingdom (of which there will be no end), the fullness, completion, and beginning of all, for He is all and He is in all of His! Amen

"Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?"
—Corrie Ten Boom

Bonhoeffer’s Cost of Discipleship – An Excerpt Loosely Reworded in Simple English
Rebekah Mui


"Cheap grace" is the deadly enemy of our church. What we must fight for today is to retain the true value of God's costly grace.


"Cheap grace" is a lousy discounted stuff sold for several cents at the flea market, (cut-rate, a real steal, practically sold for nothing or given away) which people throw away without thinking and take for granted. (It is a waste, a terrible disastrous waste.) It is simply presumed and assumed that the central meaning of grace is that the account for our sins has been paid for well in advance.


Cheap grace means the blood and body of Christ, the forgiveness of your sins, and the comforts of a "religion" practically thrown away at ridiculously low prices. The church portrays grace as its never-ending resource which she can just give away indiscriminately. "Grace can be had here, cheap!"


Cheap grace means grace held as belief system and generalized assumption by the church. "Everyone can have their sins forgiven freely!" The precious love of God is exploited as a selling point. "God loves you! As long as you believe this and pray a little prayer your sins will be forgiven. Won't you like that?" In this kind of “Church” the world can find a cheap covering for their sins - no repentance needed, you don't even need to feel sorrow for your sins or fear the wrath of God - you don't even need to really desire to be set free from sin. In the end, cheap grace is DENIAL of the living Word of God and a denial of the Word of God become flesh (Jesus).


Grace is "peddled" cheaply today, as if it were cheap and lousy trinkets sold by the streets, given without thought to people who would not treasure it, appreciate it, or value it, and would most likely end up throwing away (casting away beautiful, genuine pearls and freely feeding it to swine). We must fight today to retain the precious treasure, the costly grace of God which we can never achieve, buy, nor afford.


Cheap grace is just saying to the sinner "God has justified you - forgiven you - and is alright with your sin" - without emphasizing or even mentioning the face that you need to get right with God! "Grace, grace alone" they say, so that everything can just remain as it was before. "Let the Christian live like the rest of the world, let him model himself on the world's standards in every area of life, and not presumptuously aspire to live a different life under grace from his old life under under sin... (that would be striving, you see)"


Cheap grace is actually grace which we imagine, conjure up, and give ourselves. Cheap grace says you can be forgiven without even being repentant or the least bit sorry for the wrong you’ve done, you can be baptized into the church without having to submit yourself to church rules, disciplines, etc., you can enjoy communion as a body without the “unnecessary discomfort” of confessing your sins. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship; grace without the cross; grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.


Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; a man’ will gladly go and sell all that he has to buy the field. It is the genuine and luxurious pearl worth billions which a trader will sell all his goods to purchase (he would take great pains to care for it, insure it, and guard it, wouldn’t he?). God didn't give us a cheap little free gift.
Costly grace is about the kingly rule of Christ for which man will zealously even pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble!


Costly grace is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.
We must strive today to maintain the costly value of God's grace and reverence it. It is no common thing to be doled out indiscriminately. It is given to those who ask it. Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again and again, the gift which must be asked (or begged) for, the door at which a man must keep knocking.


Costly grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner.


Above all, costly grace is is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “you were bought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the manifestation and incarnation of God!


Costly grace is the holy, set-apart sanctuary of God; it has to be protected from the world, and not thrown to the dogs. Costly grace is the living word, the Word of God, which he speaks as it pleases him. Costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus. Costly comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. Grace is costly because it compels and calls a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”


On two separate occasions Peter received the call, “Follow me.” It was the first and last word Jesus spoke to his disciple (Mark 1.17; John 21.22). A whole life lies between these two calls. The first occasion was by the lake of Gennesareth, when Peter left his nets and his craft and followed Jesus at his word.


The second occasion is when the Risen Lord finds him back again at his old trade. Once again it is by the lake of Gennesareth, and once again the call is: “Follow me.” Between the two calls lay a whole life of discipleship in the following of Christ. Half-way between them comes Peter's confession, when he acknowledged Jesus as the Christ of God....


This grace was certainly not self-bestowed. It was the grace of Christ himself that forced itself upon Peter and caused him leave all and follow Christ. It was the grace of Christ himself that worked in Peter that confession which to the world must sound like the ultimate blasphemy, and it was the grace of Christ himself that now invited Peter to the absolute highest fellowship of martyrdom for the Master he had denied. It was the grace of Christ that consequently forgave him all his sins. In the life of Peter, grace and discipleship cannot be separated. He had received the grace which costs.


As Christianity spread, and the Church became more secularized, the costliness of grace was gradually forgotten. The (Western) world was “Christianized”, and grace became just like any other common object. It was to be had cheaply.


Summary: Grace is not the license to do what we want – it is the power to do what God wills! Grace is not the forgiveness of sins doled out – it is infinitely more powerful and of greater value. Grace doesn’t just leave us as we are but compels us and leads us somewhere. It is easier and quicker to define cheap grace and to “use it”, but it takes the cross plus a lifetime to understand and come into a complete revelation of God’s costly grace

Sin Leading to Apostasy
Matthew Henry

What Have We Handled?


……. which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (1Jn 1:1)


We hear to believe (Rom 10:17) and receiving revelation of Christ’s grace and truth to begin the journey of salvation (John 1:14). That is not enough, there is required a deepening relationship which is to handle or to touch, a verification of all that we have heard and seen that we are wholly His and live for Him. Relationship is a personal experience; not hearsay nor by observing what others have.


Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus (Php 2:5)


Phileo is to be a friend, agape is love in action. The former may go as far as a feeling, concern or even shedding a tear. The latter is laying oneself down to give, a deliberate choice and action of the will (John 3:16). It concerns the welfare of others over self (Phil 2:4). It is a pouring out and not withholding back an ounce of good that others may progress ; higher than sacrifice, it is pouring out on sacrifice (Php 2:17). I cannot give what I haven’t experience or what I don’t possess. Water flows downstream, from top to bottom. That is an unchangeable natural law. I have to experience life in the higher plane of Christ life in order to give life. This is all possible if I have handled or verified who Jesus is to me and in me. When that happens there is a clear and distinct mark of Christ ownership (Gal 6:17). The trouble with us is that we have not been single hearted and touched many things that doesn't concern Christ.

Speaking That Challenges


But I say unto you …… (Mat 5:22)


There is a speaking that reverberates, transcending time and space (Psa 19:2), an articulation without involving the faculty of speech. It reveals who God is; power, righteousness, wisdom harmoniously in sync with love and mercy. It is life (John 6:68). Yet it challenges the core belief system that has gradually built an impenetrable citable where His Truth has yet to piece to make free. This fortress is a sum total of our understanding and experience mixed in with self conclusions.


The speaking is everywhere; it becomes a life transforming epiphany when Jesus personalizes the Truth to us. He begins by saying ‘but I say unto you….’ When He does that, the wall come crumbling down and we are loosed into the realm of His grace and glory (Rom 5:2). Or conversely, the wall gets higher and thicker. We can hold on for dear life to all that we have believed, from our worldview. Yet He will continually speak ‘but I say unto you….’ Receiving the subsequent words requires faith. No disputing or arguments. Just believe.


Jesus never sugar coats His words. It is a sword that will divide asunder (Heb 4:12) and brings us into a stature where the soul does not rule. The spirit triumphs (Rom 8:2).


He mercifully continually speaks, am I willing to allow His piercing Words to do a permanent liberation in my life so that the completeness of the Father dwells in me (Matt 5:48)? If I resist, my belief system will become my god of my own imagination (1 John 5:20, 21).

The Righteousness of God
David Pawson


David Pawson speaking at International House of Prayer (15 May, 2011)

Blameless Sons


That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; (Php 2:15)


There are essential two fathers, God or the devil (John 8:44). God’s sons are the ones without rebuke or blameless to all in right being and right doing; before man, to the devil and toward God. God gives the redeemed a clear conscience in all aspects (1 Pet 3:16), hence if we were to suffer, it would be better for good alone (1 Pet 3:17). There is a blessing of the Kingdom to those persecuted for righteousness sake, not for evil (Matt 5:10).The state of blamelessness is defined by other parties, not of self (Prov 27:2). God recognizes and bestow inseparable love to the unblemished led to the slaughter for being and doing right (Rom 8:35, 36).


Jesus gave us the capacity to be unhidden light, unconsciously and naturally shining His glory (Matt 5:14-16). We have become what He ordained for us when there is an imputed Christ-like meekness to ‘do all things without murmurings and disputings’. In the ability to ‘do all things’ that exalts the Father with Godly attitude we become ‘blameless….’. It takes dying to self ambition and vainglory (Php 2:3).


The servant takes after the Master (Matt 10:24). The son takes after his or her father. Who is our father?

The Spiritual Man
Watchman Nee

Prevailing


….. If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him.(Est 6:13)


Being set apart is not earned but providential by the grace of God (Duet 10:15). The disposition of a Jewish man living under the covenant will be required to circumcise the flesh (Gen 17:11) and YHWH requires a deeper circumcision (Duet 10:16). The circumcision of the heart is beyond an outward recognizable separation but also of affections (Duet 30:6) and spirit (Rom 2:29). The acknowledgement is beyond that which human eyes behold but an eternal transaction in the spirit realm with a secure guarantee (Eph 4:30).


Holding fast to His love and thrusting ourselves into His tender mercies will guarantee our prevalence (Jud 1:21). These are the hardest to do because our human tendency is to work it out with our mind and hands without being on our knees. It is God that will ensure that we prevail if we would do it within the confines of His divine wisdom. Our prevailing is an observation by even our enemies because of the distinction in Christ, not in ourselves. How desperate are we to prevail? The determining factor lies in whether our life stem from the olive tree of Israel (Rom 11:17).

The Normal Christian Life: Reckoning of Faith
Watchman Nee





Watchman Nee Playlist: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=FF7506AC2682B24B

An excerpt from the book "The Normal Christian Life," by Watchman Nee (1903-1972).

Watchman Nee became a Christian in mainland China in 1920 at the age of seventeen and began writing in the same year. In 1952 he was imprisoned for his faith; he remained in prison until his death in 1972. His words remain an abundant source of spiritual revelation and supply to Christians throughout the world.

Romans 6:6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ...

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Worthiness of Our Lives


Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ…. (Php 1:27)


There is nothing more devastating than Christianity without Christ. Without the centrality of Christ, there are no glad tidings of good things (Rom 10:15). The climax of the week is found in triumphalism celebratory Sunday 'worth-ship' (Col 2:20) and holding on to creeds and denominations rather than holding on to Christ and in obeying His Word (1 Cor 1:13). The world is in darkness and lies under the sway of the wicket one (1 John 5:19), do we see people heading down the road to eternal damnation or still quibbling over matters that bring ‘spiritual’ goose bumps .


But this shall be the covenant …. I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. (Jer 31:33)


God has given us the capacity to be epistles or message to be read by all men (2 Cor 3:2). The same capacity that principalities, powers and rulers of this darkness will acknowledge our existence (Acts 19:15). We are the light of the world that illuminates the dark sphere surrounding us. We are the distinguishing factor that will show men and women that they are bound in sin by demonic forces and we have been made free (John 8:36). Without Light people cannot see. Without light, darkness cannot be dispelled. People cannot be drawn to Christ without light. What gospel are we preaching through the way we live (2 Cor 11:4)? Is there a 24-7 preparedness of the gospel of peace (Eph 6:15). Are our lives worth measured in the Good News of Christ?

Why Jews Don’t Believe in Jesus
Dr. Michael Brown


Audio recording

Tradition Today: The saddest day of all
By REUVEN HAMMER (jpost.com)


Let it be a day of remembrance and mourning, of tribute to those who suffered, those who perished and those who offered help and comfort.


When Pessah comes, the two newest sacred days of the Jewish calendar are not far behind: Yom Hashoah V’hagevura (Holocaust Remembrance Day) and Yom Ha’atzmaut. Without positing a causal link between them, these two days commemorate the two most significant events in modern Jewish history and the polar opposites that they represent. Holocaust Remembrance Day signifies the worst tragedy we have ever experienced, that which brought the Jewish people as close to extinction as we have ever been. Yom Ha’atzmaut celebrates the great triumph of our return to our national home, the phoenix-like resurrection of the Jewish people from the ashes of near-destruction.


To my mind, Holocaust Remembrance Day is the saddest and most tragic day of the Jewish year. Nothing even remotely like it ever occurred before. The systematic destruction of six million individuals, one-third of our people, the elimination of a great center of Jewish life and learning – it is beyond imagining. Each year, I listen to the reading of Megillat Hashoah, a liturgical retelling of the events of the Holocaust, written by Avigdor Shinan under the auspices of a special committee of the Rabbinical Assembly and the Schechter Institute. It is chanted aloud in synagogues throughout the world, and I contemplate an event that I cannot begin to comprehend. I ask myself questions about it and I read many excellent books that describe aspects of it, and I still cannot grasp fully what happened and why.


......


Among them was Europe’s long history of anti-Semitism, which was at least as strong in France as it was in Germany. Another was the built-in anti-Jewish teachings of Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant. The accusation of Jews as killers of God taught in every church and religious school had its effect. However, at least the Church had a teaching that Jews should be kept in misery but kept alive to show what happens to those who reject the son of God. Nazism taught that they should be denied life. As a matter of fact, it taught that Jews were not human, they were a kind of vermin that should be eradicated just as one would kill rats. If there is anything that we can learn from the Shoah, it is that is it forbidden to categorize human beings as inferior species, or any group as superior to any other.


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Full article

The Towers Have Fallen But We Missed the Message
by David Wilkerson, October 8, 2001


On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City were destroyed. Five days later, as I was preparing this message, I looked out the window of my study in our 30th-floor apartment. Huge clouds of smoke were still smoldering from the ruins. They rose from the rubble and drifted out over the Hudson River, passing above the Statue of Liberty.


The following Sunday, just before I preached this message at Times Square Church, I wept at the sight of the utter devastation. I pleaded with God for mercy: mercy for the grieving families who lost loved ones. Mercy for the workers still digging through the rubble, hoping to locate survivors, but finding only corpses and severed body parts. Mercy for all the police officers, fire fighters and volunteers, who wept openly over the indescribable horrors they saw.


Our church was allowed to set up a relief tent at ground zero of the disaster. Ministry leaders and volunteers from our congregation worked tirelessly around the clock, helping to feed and encourage the weary workers.


Six weeks prior to the disaster, the Holy Spirit forewarned our pastoral staff that a calamity was coming. We had scheduled several major events for the weeks ahead, including our Missions Conference and Youth Convention. But God's Spirit prompted us to cancel them all. Instead, we felt stirred to call our congregation to prayer.


We decided to hold prayer meetings four nights a week. From the very beginning, each meeting was marked by an awesome stillness that settled over the congregation. We sat quietly in the Lord's presence, often without a sound, for up to an hour, followed by soft weeping and heartrending repentance. In one meeting, I had to steady my knees with my hands, to keep them from trembling in God's awesome presence.


During this visitation from the Lord, the Holy Ghost revealed there was a reason for the weeping in our hearts. We were being so moved because a tragedy was coming. A severe calamity was coming to the nation. And even though we didn't know what it was, our hearts were stirred to intercede concerning it.


Then suddenly, the calamity struck. And it hit not only our city, but the nation's capital. One network anchor declared, "Think of it, our two symbols of power and prosperity have been smitten in one hour." Little did he know, he was quoting Revelation 18:10: "Alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour is thy judgment come."


As a policeman from our church helped out at ground zero, his fellow officers kept asking him, "What's this all about? What's happening?" Meanwhile, the whole nation has been asking, "Where is God in all this?"


Read rest of message

A Call to Anguish
David Wilkerson