END-TIME INSURGENTS!

I don’t have strong feelings about the exact timing of end-time events. I really don’t have an opinion (well, I do, but I’m not going to share it) on which one of the rapture theories I think is correct. I am very sure of one thing, however. No matter what we go through, He has promised to walk with us and that’s important—and the rest, to me, is inconsequential.

Scripture tells us that the days prior to Christ’s return will be chaotic and evil. Antichrist will arise and come to prominence, attempting to destroy or desecrate everything that is of God’s Kingdom, including the church and all who are a part of it.

Daniel 11 is both a prophetic picture of a time period before Christ first came to earth and a prophetic preview of Antichrist’s last-day activities, before Christ’s second coming. In approximately 175 B.C. a Syrian king, a certifiable madman, Antiochius Epiphanes, as he called himself, conquered Israel and held it in his control for about twelve years. Antiochius set out to destroy everything he could of the God of Israel. This madman’s activities are a preview of the evil destruction that Antichrist will unleash on the world and specifically against the Kingdom of God.

This time period in Israel’s history was perilous for all the Jews. The corruption of Antichrist and his legions, likewise, will be extremely difficult for all believers. It’s very likely that Antichrist is alive now and may be living in your neighborhood (just kidding—or am I?).

In verse 31 of Daniel 11, it speaks of the armed forces of Antichrist rising up to desecrate the worship of God. Tucked away in verses 32 and 33 is a fascinating insight into what happens with many of God’s people during this time of intense persecution: “….but the people who do know their God, shall be strong, and carry out great exploits. And those of the people who understand shall instruct many…” (Daniel 11:32b -33a).

There is a sense about this passage and the way it is presented that has the feel of an insurgency where God's people are fighting from a minority position against impossible odds, but God gives them the victory.

Again, we need to go back and look at the inter-testamental period where Antiochus was attempting to destroy everything that had to do with the worship of Jehovah. It was a small group of rebels led by the Maccabee family that fled to the mountains and although vastly outnumbered, soundly defeated the Antichrist-like Syrian army. It will be this type of insurgency that manifests itself during the reign of terror of Antichrist.

The secret to the victory of the end-time insurgents is found in this passage and specifically in 11:32: “…but the people who know their God shall be strong and carry out great exploits.”

The word “know” is the Hebrew word yada. One of the tried and true methods of understanding the meaning of a specific word is to see how it is used elsewhere in Scripture. One of the first uses of the word yada is in Genesis 4:1: “Now Adam knew (yada) Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain….”

In knowing God, as described in these verses, we are talking about a very intimate relationship between a man/woman and God, no barriers, nothing hidden. Everything is honest and transparent and out in the open; the relationship can be called “intimate” and only then do people really know each other.

It is out of the intimacy of a growing relationship with God that the seeds of victory and strength are planted in the Christ follower. It will not happen overnight but it will happen over time as you expand and deepen your relationship with Him.

You are not going to learn to be victorious and strong by going to another convention, watching another T.V. program, or reading the latest Christian bestseller. The seeds of your strength and victory will be planted and grow out of those intimate times when it is just you and God alone, and the relationship, your “knowing,” goes from casual to intimate.

The word “exploits” used here is not in the original manuscripts. It was added by interpreters but it is implied in the sentence construction and it is helpful that it is there. The actual Hebrew would read more like “the people who know their God will be strong and do.” It’s like it’s saying that because of the strength that God gives, we will be able to do whatever is required.

Verse 33 indicates that this group of end-time insurgents will be a magnet for ministry to those that are hungry. “…And those of the people who understand shall instruct many.” God’s insurgents will draw others to them and teach them how to walk with God and how to live in victory.

As you wait and anticipate the coming of the Lord…..don’t waste your waiting!

WAITING - A SECOND LOOK

I want to take a second look at the subject of waiting. If I bored you with the last one, then I apologize in advance for this article.

Just as I was finishing the last article, Carol, our daughter Barb, and I flew to Phoenix for a wedding where one of my nieces was getting married at Phoenix First Assembly of God. Over the years I have been to Phoenix First for meetings at least a dozen times, so I didn’t bother to ask for directions from the hotel to the church, I just operated on memory. The greater Phoenix/Scottsdale area has changed and grown since I was last there about ten years ago and so I got us lost. I was mildly irritated and embarrassed, to say the least. We got to the church about fifteen minutes late and then I was really embarrassed to find out that the wedding had been held up because of us. None of us were in the wedding party but the family wanted us to be there and share in the celebration. We had kept the wedding waiting! As my daughter Leslie would say, “We took the walk of shame” to our seats.

I don’t like being late for anything just as I don’t like it when people are late and inconvenience others. I think it’s rude to keep people waiting. Call me old-fashioned if you wish, but I think it’s very poor taste to keep others waiting unnecessarily. I would rather be twenty minutes early for a meeting than five minutes late.

“But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).

Again I ask the question, “Why does God say that they that wait are going to reap benefits?”

When I messed up in Phoenix, I was forced to face the fact that I was the reason we were late. It was my arrogance/pride that caused us to get lost. I had to face my own humanity and admit that I was to blame. Could it be possible that one of the reasons God puts us through the waiting process is to assist us in admitting that often we are in the way of His doing His work through us and blessing us in the process? Could it be that He is waiting for us to deal with our pride and humanity before He allows the blessing to flow?

“God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5).

The word “resists” used here has a strong meaning; it means that God sets Himself, as in battle, against pride. God resists the proud and blesses/exalts the humble. Humility is getting ourselves, our ego, under control and putting God first in every situation. Humility is not inherited, it is an acquired trait which we are to put on like we do a piece of clothing. We will work at humility our entire life.

A piece of advice here: Don’t pray for humility! If you do, He will answer your prayer and you won’t like what happens!

“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time” (1 Peter 5:6).

To wait for the fullness that God has promised is not only to get our pride in check, to repent of sin, but also to make ourselves fully available to God and His purposes for our life journey. It is our obedient submission to His purpose and timetable.

God won’t be hurried by you or me or anybody else. His timetable is controlled only by Him. He and He alone knows when we are ready to proceed and the timing is right, and then and only then will He release us into the fullness of what He has prepared for us.

Isaiah 40:31 is about waiting, but it’s also about renewal, about regaining spiritual life that has been dissipated or lost. “They that wait shall renew their strength.”

God’s idea of waiting on Him is not to settle into a big chair with a good book and do nothing. That’s not waiting—that’s taking a vacation. In Scripture waiting is defined as eagerly anticipating what God has in store and fully intertwining yourself with God’s work in your life.

Waiting upon the Lord defines the attitude of a hungry heart toward the Lord. It speaks of:
1. A listening ear
2. A heart that is responsive to God’s word
3. A focus of the heart and mind that puts God first in all things
4. The patience of faith

“The LORD is good to those who wait for Him” (Lamentations 3:25).

Don’t waste your waiting!

DON'T WASTE YOUR WAITING

“But those who wait on the LORD
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.”
(Isaiah 40:31)

Has God given you a promise that you haven’t seen fulfilled? Has He quickened a dream to you that you’ve been waiting and waiting to see come to pass?

Waiting is very much a part of our natural life. A recent survey said that we spend about sixty minutes every day waiting—at red lights, in line at the store, on the phone because you’ve been put on hold—you know what I mean. Sixty minutes a day means I spend slightly over two weeks a year waiting!

I don’t know why I get so irked at waiting but I do. I don’t like waiting in lines and I don’t like waiting for a phone call or a letter. I especially don’t like to be late for an appointment or to have someone arrive late to an appointment they set up with me.

Patience is an issue with me, or rather, impatience is a problem and I really struggle in this area. I always try to look calm and cool on the outside but if I am forced to wait on something or someone, it really irritates me. It seems to me that if I’m made to wait, then I’m wasting my time. Working as an associate for many years, I’ve “wasted” a lot of time waiting for others.

Isaiah puts a whole different twist on this word. My mind says that waiting is a waste and yet Isaiah says that waiting is very much a key to receiving definite benefits.

The Hebrew word for wait that is used in Isaiah 40:31 does not mean to sit quietly in the corner and do nothing. In fact, waiting on the Lord is actually quite a busy time for the person waiting.

So what are the benefits of waiting? I see at least four things in this verse:

1. Renewal of strength. If muscles are not used consistently, they will lose strength, and the same is true in the spiritual realm. If we are not using what God has given us, the quality of what we have will dissipate. Renewal means to regain something that has been lost, to build it back up, to refresh it. Our renewal happens because we are exercising our gifts.

2. Growing in faith. Waiting is an act of faith. The Hebrew word for waiting is also translated hope and it means to eagerly anticipate or expect. It is the renewal of strength that allows the eagle to rise up and soar. Eagles are noted for their ability to catch the winds and soar to incredible heights. The strength of the wing muscles allows the eagle to do that. God wants His people to soar to new heights of personal faith and that can only happen as we are renewed and grow in Him.

3. Gaining experience (maturing). Waiting is not meant to be down time. While the primary meaning of the word wait is “to eagerly look for” or to “anticipate,” it also means to “be bound together,” to be connected to. Our time of waiting is not to be a time of hopelessness but, instead, a time of hopefulness. It is as we involve ourselves in the things of God and as we are renewed in strength that we will learn to run and not be weary. That comes with maturity/experience.

4. Building stamina. Stamina and experience are not exactly the same but they live in the same neighborhood. Experience comes from going through a variety of situations and challenges and learning from them. We learn both what to do and what not to do. Stamina is having the capacity to see something through to the end.

When I started jogging in the middle ‘70s, I could hardly jog two city blocks before gasping for air and having to stop. When I quit jogging because of arthritis twenty-five years later, I would run almost every day for 45 minutes to an hour and on some days for 90 minutes to two hours. I would be tired but not winded…that’s stamina.

Don’t waste your waiting! His timing is always perfect. He knows exactly where you are—and He has not forgotten you!

I’m writing this as I wait for my wife and daughters…they have initiated a lot of growth in me!

ROMANTIC NARCISSIM

How’s that for a title? I wish it had originated with me but it didn’t. The late Robert Webber, author, Professor of Ministry at Northern Seminary, and Director of the Institute for Worship Studies, used this phrase in one of his articles on worship.

In recent years I have struggled to understand what is happening to worship in so many contemporary churches. It seems to me that much of the music being referred to as worship is really not worship at all. The music is often very loud, which is fine, and it’s often celebrative, which is also fine, but seems like it’s mostly about…me! I have left service after service with the feeling, “Well, that was nice but we really didn’t enter into worship—we really didn’t praise and worship the Lord!”

It has bothered me but I didn’t know how to classify it until I read the following statement from one of Robert Webber’s articles on “The Focus of Worship.”

“Too many people who lead worship do so with the ‘audience’ in mind. Even using the word ‘audience’ implies a wrong focus on worship. So, how has the notion of a ‘worship audience’ led to what I've named a ‘romantic narcissist’ worship? First, narcissism means to be ‘self-focused.’

“A narcissistic worshipper is one whose primary question is, ‘What's in it for me?’ The ‘romantic’ angle has to do with the current emphasis on worship as a realized emotional and even romantic relationship with God.”

In Revelation 3:14-20, the apostle John recounts the words of Jesus regarding the church in Laodicea. This is the last of the seven churches and I think most of us would agree that according to prophecy, we are the Laodicean church. Listen to the words Jesus uses to describe this church: “You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked” (3:17).

Narcissism is sometimes defined as “excessive self-admiration and self-centeredness.” American Christianity is filled with the spirit of narcissism. We are in love with ourselves and evaluate churches and ministries based upon how they make us feel about ourselves. If that person, church or ministry makes me feel good and wanted, then they are a good ministry—or so we think.

One of the gentle ways to move away from this spirit of deception is to refocus our worship. We need to stop singing worship songs that are essentially about me and my need for affirmation. Our worship needs to be about Him and His saving work on this earth. We need to worship the Creator and not the creation. Worshipping the creation is an exchange of truth and leads to serious problems (see Romans 1:18-25).

Let me finish this rambling treatise with this thought. While at times I am dismayed over much of the current “worship,” I am extremely hopeful about what I believe is being birthed in the church. Over the last 500 years, virtually every time there has been a significant “renewal” or “awakening,” it has been accompanied by a breakthrough or change in worship.

When Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the cathedral door in Wittenburg, Germany, at the same time he was writing some of the great hymns of the church, including “A Mighty Fortress is Our God.” This was revolutionary music in a church that for centuries had been chanting or singing psalms set to music. Not everyone greeted this new music with enthusiasm.

In the 1870’s, D. L. Moody and Ira Sankey conducted great evangelistic crusades in the U.S. and England.They were initiating a time of evangelism and what has become known as "The Open Door Revival." For over 300 years the church had been singing the great songs of the faith written by men like Luther and Isaac Watts. Moody and Sankey introduced what would become known as “gospel hymns” where the story of salvation was sung to a recognizable tune. It was revolutionary and not at all well received. When Moody went to England and began to conduct crusades, and Sankey started to sing one of the new songs, in some services up to half the crowd walked out of the building in protest.

These two examples could be repeated over and over during the last couple of centuries. In the 1950’s, churches began singing worship choruses instead of all five verses of a hymn. That was no small change, and again it was not greeted with universal enthusiasm, but slowly the change was embraced. Virtually at the same time, the Charismatic movement that has changed the face of the church worldwide was being birthed.

What am I saying? I believe that we are on the edge of an explosion of forward progress in the church. I don’t particularly like much of the music of the contemporary church but what my spirit tells me is that worship has not yet found its new voice—but it’s trying to and it will!

We will find the way if we are committed to Him and willing to deal with our stubborn flesh and pride.