GOD'S PROMISES ROLLED IN LIKE SETS OF WAVES

Once in a while I come across a magazine article or a book that greatly challenges my comfortable level of Christian living and thought. A few days ago I had one of those Holy Spirit encounters. 

Rosaria Champagne Butterfield was a leftist, lesbian university professor who despised Christians — and then somehow she became one.

She begins her story with the following statement: “The word Jesus stuck in my throat like an elephant tusk; no matter how hard I choked, I couldn’t hack it out. Those who professed the name commanded my pity and wrath. As a university professor, I tired of students who seemed to believe that ‘knowing Jesus’ meant knowing little else.”

Rosaria was a professor of English and women’s studies and on the track to becoming, in her words, “a tenured radical” who cared about morality, justice and compassion. In her testimony, Rosaria talks about how she could probably have found a way to stomach the message of Jesus had it not been for, again as she saw it, the co-mingling of the Christian dogma with Republican politics.

After Rosaria was tenured, she began researching the Religious Right and their politics of “hatred toward queers like me.” While doing her research, she felt that she had to read the one book that had “gotten so many people off track” — the Bible.

Rosaria writes: “I started reading the Bible. I read the way a glutton devours. I read it many times that first year in multiple translations. At a dinner gathering that my partner and I were hosting, my transgendered friend J cornered me in the kitchen. ‘This Bible reading is changing you,’ she warned.

“I continued reading the Bible, all the while fighting the idea it was inspired. But the Bible got to be bigger inside me than I. It overflowed into my world. I fought against it with all my might. . . . I fought with everything I had. I did not want this. I did not ask for this . . . but God’s promises rolled in like sets of waves into my world.

“Then one ordinary day, I came to Jesus, openhanded and naked . . . and I was a broken mess. Conversion was a train wreck. I did not want to lose everything that I loved. But the voice of God sang a sanguine love song in the rubble of my world. I weakly believed that if Jesus could conquer death, He could make right my world. I drank, tentatively at first, then passionately, of the solace of the Holy Spirit. I rested in private peace, then community, and today in the shelter of a covenant family, where one calls me ‘wife’ and many call me ‘mother.’”

(Rosaria is now the wife of a pastor in North Carolina and the mother of several children.)

The link to the full article is:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/january-february/my-train-wreck-conversion.html

I am greatly challenged by the impact that God’s Word had on this precious soul even in the depths of her wayward lifestyle. I am also challenged by the neglect of the Word that is currently in vogue in the contemporary church where target marketing, the principles of John Maxwell, and the well-thought-out programs of Rick Warren are often more revered than the teachings of God’s Word. Is it any wonder that Christianity is in decline in America?

“The rain and snow come down from the heavens
and stay on the ground to water the earth.
They cause the grain to grow,
producing seed for the farmer
and bread for the hungry.
 It is the same with my word.
I send it out, and it always produces fruit.
It will accomplish all I want it to,
and it will prosper everywhere I send it” (Isaiah 55:10-11, NLT).

I’ll give you one more brief story about the impact of the Word of God and then I’ll leave you to mull this on your own.

Many years ago Robert Burris served as a missionary in the south of China. A part of his ministry was to distribute copies of the Bible in Chinese. Mr. Burris and three companions were on a trip with 4000 copies of the Chinese New Testament to give away and in the first ten days, about one-half of the New Testaments were given out. In a remote area they were stopped by armed bandits who took their money, their luggage, and the remaining 2000 copies of the New Testament.

Nearly twenty-five years later, Robert Burris was pastoring a church in Ohio and he and his wife attended a missions service at a church in a nearby town. The speaker at the service was a missionary to south China, and as a part of his presentation he showed slides of his work and area of service. Among these slides was a picture of the exact area where Burris and his companions had been robbed.

“Now,” the missionary said, “we come to the most important slide in my collection. It is a picture of what I call The Miracle Church.” The picture on the screen showed a large building.

“This is The Miracle Church because no one knows how it got started. Every Sunday four hundred people attend and each one has a copy of the New Testament. No one knows where they got these New Testaments and as far as it is known, no missionary ever went into these mountains because of the bandits. Yet today the church is there and the people have God’s Word.”

Robert Burris and his wife sat and smiled and wept in gratitude. God’s Word that had been taken from him twenty-five years earlier had been busy building the church in China.

“I send it out, and it always produces fruit” (Isaiah 55:11).

And it will in us, too, if we let the promises of God roll in!

THE YEAR OF THE LORD'S FAVOR - PART 2

 Joseph was in deep trouble. His pride, immaturity and need to brag had unleashed a torrent of difficulty in his life. His brothers had become so angry with him, they conspired to kill him. At first they threw him into a pit to die but then relented and sold him to a passing group of traders. “Problem solved,” thought his brothers. “We make a little money off this deal, Joseph goes far away to Egypt, and we’ll never see him again.”

Being away from his brothers did not make things better for Joseph, however; in fact, things got worse. When the traders arrived in Egypt, they sold Joseph to a wealthy and important Egyptian and Joseph began a career as a house slave. Genesis 39:2 indicates that Joseph was successful in this role. But just when his life began to turn for the better, Joseph was falsely accused of attempted rape and thrown into prison. In essence, this was the end of the line, a death sentence. Joseph was put into prison by one of the king’s closest confidants and the keys were thrown away.

The years of captivity and slavery had to be difficult for Joseph. First, he was rejected and sold into slavery by his brothers. Next, he was falsely accused and imprisoned. Prison had to be its own kind of hell. The harshness of prison life was not pleasant; none of what happened to Joseph was pleasant — but it was important.

The first brief manifestation of favor for Joseph had been when he was sold by the traders to one of Pharoah’s closest associates. Joseph was successful in managing this house but was still immature and the work of God in forming his character was not yet complete. The maturing process would continue in prison.

Being blessed with God’s favor is not a get-rich-quick scheme and it does not guarantee instant success. Favor is not an insulator against opposition and tribulation; in fact, one way of looking at favor is that it attracts opposition.

For Joseph to be the man God intended him to be, he had to grow up. I believe it was in the harshness of prison that Joseph stopped being a cocky adolescent and grew into the man God intended him to be. Before he went to prison, Joseph was an adolescent who shot off his mouth and irritated his brothers to the point they wanted to “do away with him.” When he came out of prison (we are not certain how long he was there but it was years), Joseph was a man walking in his gifting with wisdom and discretion. It is out of the rough and tumble of tribulation that maturity and character in our lives begins to take shape. These important character qualities take time to form correctly (see Romans 5:1-5).

And then we read Genesis 39:21:

“But the LORD was with Joseph, and showed him mercy, and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.”

God gave Joseph favor while he was still in prison! The Bible does not say he earned it or deserved it. But how can it be that in the middle of a downward spiral of trouble, God stepped in and gave Joseph a gift of mercy and favor that caused his circumstances to be improved?

It is perfectly consistent with the character and nature of God to give His favor to His children. Favor is undeserved and unmerited, but God gives it anyway. In the New Testament this is called grace. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works . . .” (Ephesians 2:8-9, ESV).

In the Old Testament we see God gracing or gifting His children with favor (Daniel, Esther, Nehemiah, David, Joseph and on and on goes the list). This extending of favor was supernatural in that it often caused difficult circumstances to begin to turn for the benefit of God’s children. In Exodus 3:21 (NKJV) God said to Moses, “And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and it shall be, when you go, you shall not go empty-handed” (also see Exodus 11:3 and 12:36).

This manifestation of favor is as much ours today as is the grace gift of new life in Christ. I believe that as God’s children we are to live in and experience His unmerited favor in all aspects of our lives, as much as Joseph experienced it in the bowels of prison. When all hope seemed to disappear with his freedom and the situation became increasingly desperate, God gave Joseph favor. Favor is a gift!

Joseph may have been immature and full of pride when he went into prison, but we have no evidence that he became unrighteous through immorality or other sin. He easily could have had sex with his employer’s wife, but Joseph knew it was wrong and did not give in. God’s promise to those who do not compromise is, “For You, Lord, will bless the [uncompromisingly] righteous [him who is upright and in right standing with You]; as with a shield You will surround him with goodwill (pleasure and favor)” (Psalm 5:12, AMP).

THE YEAR OF THE LORD'S FAVOR

A few days ago the Lord quickened to my heart a passage of Scripture that I felt strongly I should share first with my family and then with my friends. I am making the truth of this passage a part of my personal prayer focus for this year.

Just as I was beginning to write this brief article, I received an e-mail newsletter from friends who live and travel in ministry out of the Houston area. Joey and Betty Hamby have a wonderful ministry in the Word and in music, and they have been friends and co-workers for slightly over thirty years. They sent a letter to all the friends of their ministry expressing essentially the same thought that God had laid on my heart. The timing of the Hambys’ letter confirmed in my spirit that I was hearing from the Lord on this.

Briefly, here is what the Holy Spirit had impressed on my heart:

Psalm 5:11-12: “Let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you. For you bless the righteous, O Lord; you cover him with favor as with a shield” (ESV).

The Amplified Bible really helps to clarify some of what this passage has to say to us.

“But let all those who take refuge and put their trust in You rejoice; let them ever sing and shout for joy, because You make a covering over them and defend them; let those also who love Your name be joyful in You and be in high spirits. For You, Lord, will bless the [uncompromisingly] righteous [him who is upright and in right standing with You]; as with a shield You will surround him with goodwill (pleasure and favor).”

Verse 11 – God says He will spread His protection over us. The word used for protection means “to hedge in, to fence about, to cover, to put things together (to weave) to form a hedge.”

Verse 12 – “For you bless.” The word bless used here means “to care for and protect” and it brings with it:

1.      God who responds positively to those who are upright (righteous and unafraid to be so).

2.      Power for success in all areas of life. This is true biblical prosperity—not limited to wealth and income but includes all areas of our life.

“You cover him with favor as with a shield.”

The word favor comes from a root word meaning “to be pleased with, to be delighted in, to be accepted, to be approved.”

The word shield in this verse is not speaking of a small, circular shield that covers only a small part of the body at a time. It is describing a large, oblong shield that a person could completely hide behind. God’s promise is that His favor will encompass/shield all of our life. We will be favored in the city; we will be favored in the country; we will be favored in our families; we will be favored in all that we do, in all areas of our life (see Deuteronomy 28:1-14).

“The Lord will command the blessing on you . . . in all that you undertake” (Deuteronomy 28:8).

As the Lord quickened these verses to my heart, I felt very strongly that I was to do two things. First, I was to claim these for myself and my family for this new year and, second, I was to pray these daily over each member of my family — Carol, Barb, Les, Josh, Faith and JD — and I am committed to doing that. Every day I pray for and speak the blessing of God on each member of my family. I believe God’s favor is going to be upon our family in a very special way in 2013!

Why am I sharing this with you? If these verses resonate at all with you, then I encourage you to lay hold of this truth for yourself, for your family and your loved ones.

Seeing the Lord’s favor resting on our lives has absolutely nothing to do with what is going on in the world around us. It has nothing to do with the ups and downs of the economy or the changing winds of politics—and everything to do with Him! When we are walking uprightly before the Lord, then His promises are released to manifest fully in our lives. Careless living and sin is an impediment to the flow of God’s favor.

I love the Lord! I love my family! I love my extended family (all Carol’s relatives and mine) and I love my friends.

This is the year of the Lord’s favor!

THE BEAUTY AND POWER OF HARMONY

 While I was serving as David Wilkerson’s Crusade Director, we always found it a joy to go to Seattle. It had one of the finest fellowships of Spirit-filled churches in the nation and they invited David to conduct a crusade there every year for seven or eight years in a row.

    

During the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, we would conduct a three- or four-day crusade at the Seattle Center Ice Arena. The building seated 7,000 and it would be packed; in fact, often hundreds of people could not get in. Every time we visited Seattle, the altars were filled with hundreds and hundreds of young people receiving Christ.

I was disappointed to find that by the mid-1980s, the Seattle area Fellowship of Churches was no longer as active as it had been. Many of the churches had changed pastors, a few churches no longer existed, and the spirit of individualism had largely replaced the spirit of unity.

A few days ago I was awakened early in the morning, and I have learned to know when the Holy Spirit is nudging me awake. At about 1:00 a.m. I headed into my office and opened my Bible. I had been reading devotionally in the Psalms and the day before had reached Psalm 131. I read Psalm 132 and then I looked ahead to see that 133 had only 3 verses. Great spiritual giant that I am, I thought, “Hey, that’s great! I can read through that chapter in about a minute.” Was I ever wrong about that! The Holy Spirit got me into that psalm and after about an hour, I realized He was not going to let me out. The time there was glorious!

Psalm 133 is about God’s people living in harmony/unity. The most commonly known sentence from this passage is, “How good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.” But the psalm is not about some type of 1960s hippie commune. Rather, it is about the attractiveness and power that comes when believers lay down their differences, join hands with their brothers and sisters, and allow the Spirit of God to flow and work through them.

One of the tragedies of the current American church is the division that exists. We have contemporary churches and noncontemporary churches; we have seeker sensitive and “not so  sensitive” churches; we have denominational and nondenominational churches. And we have allowed doctrinal differences to divide us. The saddest part of this commentary is that there is very little cooperation/unity among the brethren.

Let’s look briefly at what the writer of Psalm 133 (NLT) has to say about the power and beauty of harmony.

¹ How wonderful and pleasant it is
    when brothers live together in harmony!

² For harmony is as precious as the anointing oil
    that was poured over Aaron’s head,
    that ran down his beard
    and onto the border of his robe.

The focus on verse two tends to be that unity is like the anointing and, in fact, it sometimes is referred to as a type of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The word precious, however, lifts that focus to a different level. The meaning of the word precious is “of a sweet-smelling ointment.” This verse is saying that unity between the people of God is like the sweet-smelling, fragrant anointing oil that was poured over Aaron’s head.

Few things are as attractive to the world as God’s people moving together in harmony, and nothing smells as rotten as discord within the body of Christ. Jesus said, “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are My disciples” (John 13:35). And few things inhibit the effectiveness of the church reaching out to a hurting world more than the spirit of individualism. Is it any wonder that evangelism has largely died in America during this period of unrestrained individualism in the church? Where are the cooperative evangelistic efforts of past years? They have been killed by the carnal spirit of individualism!

Individualism among the brethren is the spirit of pride wearing a mask of religion!

³ Harmony is as refreshing as the dew from Mount Hermon
    that falls on the mountains of Zion.

The Bible lands are largely arid, semi-desert areas of wilderness. For reasons that I am not aware, Mount Hermon continually had unusually high amounts of dew — which was known to be refreshing and invigorating.

Mount Hermon and the mountains of Zion are several hundred miles apart, but the writer says that like the refreshing dew that falls on Mount Hermon, it would also fall on the mountains of Zion. The mountains of Zion are a metaphorical reference to God’s people — to the church.

Again the writer likens unity to something very pleasant, and in this case, refreshing. I think I have the right to say I have found this to be true in those times when, like in Seattle, we were with a group of pastors who were moving together in unity: It was refreshing and invigorating — but that is not all!

And there the Lord has pronounced his blessing,
    even life everlasting.

The word pronounced used here is better rendered “commanded.” This verse is often overlooked, especially by those who are busy walking alone and out of harmony with their brothers. God commands a blessing upon harmony. It is the blessing of the flow of eternal life or, as translators have put it, “life everlasting.”

Here is how I read these three verses.

“It’s a wonderful and refreshing sight to see God’s people moving together in harmony. Experiencing unity among the brethren is as refreshing as a pleasant-smelling perfume or the fresh dew when it falls on dry ground. God commands a blessing upon harmony: the blessing of the flow of life, a blessing of life that will be refreshing and quickening to the church, and will result in many being born into His Kingdom and eternal life.”