What has happen to your Light?

 

2 Timothy 2:3

“Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.”

I must put a disclaimer in the beginning; I have not, nor have the Christian American churches experienced real suffering, but get ready, it is coming!  It is not that I’m a prophet, nor have I looked into the tea leaves, but we have entered the time referred to in the book of Isaiah 5:20-21, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!  Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and shrewd in their own sight!”  If you had been sleeping for the last 15 years and woke up this morning in this present darkness, you would be frightened at the hate for Christians and the Church.  But if you have not been asleep, you may be part of the problem, if you have been silent, if you have not stood-up and said, no matter what the cost my family and I will be light in this darkness. 

What has happened to us reminds me of a lesson taught to me as a young Christian:  I went to Mexico with Jack Archer to be part of a week-end with a pastor friend of Jack’s who was a missionary to this very poor church.  His name was pastor Joe, and after the service we came back to a town on the Mexican side of the border, and entered this very large restaurant.  We came out of bright sun light into almost total darkness and as we entered, I was not able to see anything, but after sitting at our table for a few minutes Pastor Joe asked this question, “Do you remember how dark it was when we walked out of the light, but the longer we sat in the dark, the more we became accustomed to the darkness, and that is what happens when Christians are around sin.  At first it is very ugly and evil, but the longer we stay around it, without being a light, the more it enters into our hearts.”

Many years later I learned that darkness is not something you can measure, and the smallest light will expel darkness.  So I must ask this question; If darkness is expelled with light, and yet today in our culture good is spoken of as evil, and evil as good, what has happen to your light?  The prophet Isaiah had this word of council to each of us who are vessels of the Lord’s, “Depart, depart, go out from there!  Touch no unclean thing!  Come out from it and be pure, you who carry the vessels of the Lord.”  If you are part of Christ, examine yourself to make sure you are in fellowship with the Lord.  If you are beginning to suffer because you are being light, take heart in John 15:19 we read, “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as it’s own.  As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.  That is why the world hates you.” 

History always repeats itself, when men keep silent and pastors refuse to call sin, sin, darkness will have a foot hold in that church, in that community, and in that nation.  Ephesians 5:11, “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.”  If you have no understanding of what I’ve said about the darkness that has entered the Christian Church, stop and ask the God of all Creation to allow your eyes to see.  If you’re a pastor, ask the Lord to give you the boldness of Pastor Joe Wright.

“Pastor Joe Wright opened a new session of the Kansas House of Representatives on January 23, 1996 with the following prayer…Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and seek your direction and guidance. We know your Word says, “Woe to those who call evil good,” but that’s exactly what we’ve done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values.

We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of your Word and called it moral pluralism. We have worshipped other gods and called it multi-culturalism. We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building esteem. We have abused power and called it political savvy. We have coveted our neighbors’ possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our fore-fathers and called it enlightenment.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

Are these the Last Days?

 

Acts 2:14-20

I bet you have heard someone say that they believe we are in the last days, and your question may be “the last days of what?”  In my profession the last days of the quarter were always important if you had not reached your quota, and it always seem to bring with it expectation, anticipation, (hope), and frustrations.  We have many last day experiences in our lives, the last day of school, the last day before we move to a new area, the last day before coming back from a great holiday or vacation, the last day before being locked up in prison, but none of these is what Scripture is making reference to.

If you look at Acts 2:14-16, you see Peter addressing the men of Judea with this announcement; “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.  And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.” (Acts 2:17-20 ESV)

What Peter is quoting is from the prophet Joel and the name Joel means “Jehovah is God.”  This took place about 800 BC, and the key thought is national repentance so that the nation of Israel would receive blessing and not curses from God.  He used the phrase, “The day of the Lord,” in 1:15; 2:1, 11, 31; 3:14, and it is clear that Joel is looking to a special day.  It is in keeping with the Scripture that the Holy Spirit spoke truth of what was to come.  Hebrews 1:1-3, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”  And the apostle Peter makes this very clear in these verses; “knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:20-21 ESV)

Jesus the Son of God also spoke of this day, “The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.” (John 12:48-50 ESV)  Has Jesus spoken else where in Scripture and the answer is in many places, but the church and especially the American church has come up with a doctrine that has an escape clause to what Jesus, the Author and Creator, has spoken to us about in the gospel of Matthew 24.  And we would be wise to take these words to heart; “See that no one leads you astray.”  My fellow Christians, it is your job to ask the “Helper” to guide you into all truth, do not take my word for it or any other man’s, God has promised that the Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth.  As you read Matthew 24, pay attention to verses 4-8, and with that insight look at what Jesus has said: “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

(Matthew 24:9-14 ESV)

In that I am often a coward, and especially when it comes to pain, I’m hoping that I’ve missed something, and the guys who teach blessing with no pain or suffering are right.  But stop and examine these last four years in the United States, the land of the free, and what do you see; at every door is some group that hates Christians, and it is being encouraged from the President and his administration.  Could it be said, and I believe it could, that the church in the United States as a whole, and there are exceptions, is much like the church Jesus referred to in Revelation 3, “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” (Revelation 3:15-17 ESV)  If that is were you find yourself, part of one of these churches, ask your “Helper” to guide you into all truth, because we are living in the last days.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

Many Encouragers but few Mentors

 

2 Timothy 2:1-2

“You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”

I’ve come to this understanding from my life experiences, I’ve had many encouragers that have taught me how to live the Christ life, but I’ve had few men who would pour their lives into mine.  Encouragers are very important, and they come in many forms, a book that someone tells you to read because it helped them, a Bible study where the teacher was able to convey truth that you applied to your life.  One who played the role of encourager is Joyce Ray.  Many years ago, I had to start over in a new division, in the big city of Houston, with a new product line, and with my family four hours away.  I was living in hotels and I began to have anxiety attacks about my family and my health.  I often could not sleep because of chest pains, but I did not share this with anyone but Jan and the Lord.  It was during this time that my phone rang in my hotel room and I heard Joyce’s voice; this is what she said, “Bob, the Lord impressed me to call you and read this verse to you” “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”  I cannot put into words what that phone call did for me, but it encouraged me to the point that I believed what God said in that verse, and I began to look forward to this new opportunity.

Now a mentor or life coach will surely be an encourager, but they also will slap you in the head (so to speak) when needed, and we all need a person who loves us enough to tell us when we are moving into a spiritual minefield.  If you have the desire to mentor in the spiritual area of a mans life, it will require you to ask the Lord to bring a man into your life that will ask you to train him in God’s wisdom.  If you do so and that man is not a faithful man, in that he is not on time, misses appointments that you have agreed on, or after a few weeks he is never prepared; he is not a faithful man and it is in his best interest to tell him he is not ready at this time to be mentored.

So what does a faithful man look like: He is teachable, or better said, has a teachable spirit, and a great example of this comes from the mouth of a blind man who Jesus had healed; when Jesus ask him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”  He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?”  Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.”  He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.”  He also is a seeker of truth, and such a person is described in Proverbs 18:15, “The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge; the ears of the wise seek it out.”

I have come to understand that mentoring is much like raising a child, the return on your time and investment is seeing an adult who lives out Micah 6: 8, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”  That person will take hold of the eternal life that the apostle Paul is referring to, not after the death of their earth-suit, but now.  1 Timothy 6:12, “Fight the good fight of the faith.  Take hold of the eternal life to which you are called when you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”   And the joy comes when they begin to live out Christ’s life, and in doing so you teach others.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

Faithful Men

 

2 Timothy 2:1-2

“You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”

I’ve come to understand that from my life experiences I’ve had many encouragers that taught me how to live the Christ life, but I’ve had few men who would pour their lives into mine.  Encouragers are very important, and they come in many forms, a book that someone tells you to read because it helped them, a Bible study where the teacher was able to convey truth that you applied to your life.  One of my encouragers is Joyce Ray.  Many years ago, I had to start over in a new division, in the big city of Houston, with a new product line, and with my family four hours away.  I was living in hotels and I began to have anxiety attacks about my family and my health.  I often could not sleep because of chest pains, but I did not share this with anyone but Jan and the Lord.  It was during this time that my phone rang in my hotel room and I heard Joyce’s voice; this is what she said, “Bob, the Lord impressed me to call you and read this verse to you” “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”  I cannot put into words what that phone call did for me, but it encouraged me to the point that I believed what God said in that verse, and I began to look forward to this new opportunity.

Now a mentor or life coach will surely be an encourager, but they also will slap you in the head (so to speak) when needed, and we all need a person who loves us enough to tell us when we are moving into a spiritual minefield.  If you have the desire to mentor in the spiritual area of a mans life, it will require you to ask the Lord to bring a man into your life that will ask you to train him in God’s wisdom.  If you do so and that man is not a faithful man, in that he is not on time, misses appointments that you have agreed on, or after a few weeks he is never prepared; he is not a faithful man and it is in his best interest to tell him he is not ready at this time to be mentored.

So what does a faithful man look like: He is teachable, or better said, has a teachable spirit, and a great example of this comes from the mouth of a blind man who Jesus had healed; when Jesus ask him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”  He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?”  Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.”  He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.”  He also is a seeker of truth, and such a person is described in Proverbs 18:15, “The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge; the ears of the wise seek it out.”

I have come to understand that mentoring is much like raising a child, the return on your time and investment is seeing an adult who lives out Micah 6: 8, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”  That person will take hold of the eternal life that the apostle Paul is referring to, not after the death of their earth-suit, but now.  1 Timothy 6:12, “Fight the good fight of the faith.  Take hold of the eternal life to which you are called when you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”   And the joy comes when they begin to live out Christ’s life, and in doing so you teach others.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

Yukky, USDA-Choice, or PBA)

 

2 Timothy 1: 13-14

“Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.  By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.”   Many a follower of Christ lives their life in victory, because they understand that the Holy Spirit who dwells in them is the only one who has the authority and ability to live the victorious Christian life through them.  They have come to understand that the flesh cannot please God, Romans 8:5-8, and many a Christian reads this and are in full agreement, but their definition of flesh is a person who does drugs, cheats on their mate, stays out all night, and will not go to church on Sunday, and that does qualify as flesh, but it is more than that.  Much of what I’ve learned in this area came from Bill Gillham, and he would describe the example listed above as “yukky” flesh.  Bill would say there is many flesh types but they seem to fit into these topics:

Bill has a category called USDA-Choice flesh: it is flesh that looks good and gains worldly acceptance.  However, it is still flesh.  But Bill often said “the Biggie” is: performance-based acceptance (PBA) and this is the most common influence in the programming of flesh.  “If you perform well, I will accept you.  If you don’t, I won’t.

This deposit that the Holy Spirit is guarding, is your life in Christ.  It required spiritual death and Romans 6:6, “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be bought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.” Now go with me to Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.  And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” My teacher would say; “God has no plan to make something beautiful of your life (in Adam).  The plan is to kill it and start over again.”  The great news is that spiritual death brings about new creations in Christ, 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”  

We need to grasp the fullness of Romans 8:7&8, “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed it cannot.  Those who are in the flesh (Yukky, USDA-Choice, or PBA) cannot please God.”  Emphasis added.  Till we believe that our life and our true identity is Christ living life to the max in you, we will not walk in this world in the authority and power that is ours; our light will be very dim.  So my prayer for each of us is that by faith we apply these truths and then, watch-out world!

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

Faithful with what has been Entrusted

 

2 Timothy 1:12-14

Have you ever dropped the ball?  I awoke at 3:15 this morning in the middle of a rainstorm, one that is needed and in the middle of that moment I remembered a promise I had forgotten to keep.  It was a promise that caused two little pets to go hungry because I forgot, got busy, and did not feed them.  But worst yet, it was a promise I made to another that he could trust me to do that task.  I was not able to sleep and now I’m waiting for the storm to end so that I can take care of the task that was entrusted to me.  My lack of sleep cannot compare to those little guys going hungry, but you and I who are in Christ have been entrusted with a task of much greater worth and yet many of us are dropping the ball.

The apostle Paul states in verse 12, “But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me.”  Do you have any understanding of what has been entrusted to you?  As a dad I had this understanding, I was to mold my daughter in a manner that she would feel loved, and that she could love others.  That she would feel secure and that our home would be a place she could run to for safety; as a dad I knew that God had entrusted me with Natalie to raise her to love God and to obey His written word.  But that is not what Paul is addressing, when you entered into the time line of Christ, everything changed, you were given spiritual gifts, eternal life, wisdom, the ability to understand spiritual knowledge, and you were given faith.  And with all of these gifts come responsibility.

Many of us fly all over the world, and most of us do not fully understand how something that weighs that much can fly, but what we lack in knowledge we exchange with faith and belief in the airline.  Most of us believe it will perform in full agreement with what our ticket states.  If your faith were not in an airplane that would get you to your destination, would you board it?  It comes down to a very serious question only you can answer; do you know Jesus in a way that you will board the faith plane for the life Jesus promises in John 10:10, a life of fullness, a life of abundance? “For I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me.”

Faith that gets on the plane is a faith that is convinced that Jesus tells the truth, and that Jesus is able to keep all of His promises.  Bill Gillham was like you and me, but he believed that “God never allows a problem to come into your life for which God does not already have a solution.”  Knowing that in your mind is one thing, but getting on the plane of faith in your life and acting as if Jesus tells the truth will give you the ability to first, not be ashamed of your true identity and realize that Christ is your life.  Next, your actions will change from fear to faith, and you will have no doubt that what was given to you is yours because the Creator, Jesus Christ is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to you.  Note:  The two little guys were dry and very happy to have food.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

Living life as a Prisoner of Jesus Christ

 

2 Timothy 1: 8-12

What insight!  It always amazes me that the key to living the Christ life is found when we ask the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to the verses and then to show us how to let Jesus do it all for us.  Verse seven that we addressed yesterday is the key to having a testimony like the apostle Paul’s.  It was Christ’s Spirit living in Paul, and Paul’s willingness to obey and follow the leadership of the Spirit, which is “power and love and self-control.”  So with that backdrop, shall we look into a life that is under the authority of the Holy Spirit?  And remember it required Paul to “faith it,” and Paul was very clear in Romans 14:23, that if you have doubts, wait, then ask for directions.

So as we pick-up in verse 8, “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God” Life is so much how we look at the situation or the circumstance, and at the writing of this letter Paul is in prison in Rome, but he is not a Roman prisoner, he is there because of his willingness to serve Jesus Christ by his own testimony, a prisoner of Jesus Christ.  And how does he tell us to share?  In suffering for the gospel, but not in your ability but by the power of God.  Has anyone at your local church put out a signup sheet for suffering for the gospel, if so, I am willing to bet the form it still blank.  But in no way, or at any time, is Paul stating that he is doing this in his ability, but by the Spirit’s power.

Going back to 2 Timothy 1:9, “Who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.”  He saved us, (we did not have one thing to do with it) and He called us to a holy calling.  This week, I read and kept this insight from Os Hillman, and I quote: “However, there is often an unspoken hierarchy that positions clergy (missionaries and evangelists, pastors and clergy) at the top, and occupations such as of the "helping professions" (doctors and nurses, teachers and educators, social workers) next, and "secular" workers (business executives, salespeople, factory laborers, and farmers) at the bottom.
So what determines the spiritual value of a job?  How does God assign significance? The hierarchy assumes sacred and secular distinctions, and assigns priority to the sacred.  But does God view vocations that way?  No, He does not.”  It matters not what God’s holy calling is for you, Housewife, Plumber, or President of the United Sates, it is your place in God’s plan to share Christ with a world in darkness, it is a holy calling, and it was assigned before the ages began.
Picking up in verse 10 -12, “And which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do.  But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me.”  I’ve told my wife often, that I could make some claim about a goat, and take it through downtown San Antonio, and in less than two hours I would have a group of people following the goat.  Yes, we live in a culture that is in search of a provider, protector or one might say, a savior.  Many in the church are religious, but few can say as Paul has; “I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me.”  Jesus abolished death and gives life, who else can make that claim?  I am in full agreement with Paul, I also am trusting Jesus to guard all that He has promised till that Day.
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice