TELL US ONLY SMOOTH THINGS!

God has a message for the contemporary church and it is found in Isaiah 30.

“What sorrow awaits my rebellious children,” says the Lord. “You make plans that are contrary to mine. You make alliances (enter into relationships) not directed by My Spirit. . . . For without consulting me you have gone down to Egypt for help. . . . You have tried to hide in his shade” (Isaiah 30:1-2, NLT)

I have written several times in the last couple of years that I believe we are moving into a very stormy and turbulent period, not just for the church but for all of mankind. Yes, there may be momentary respites from the coming storm cycles in business, finance, weather and world affairs but no observer can deny that serious storm clouds are gathering.

A few days ago I read an article in the New York Post in which they asked, “Why has there been a rash of suicides among some of the brightest and best financial executives in the world?” The article, written in the early part of March, detailed that since January 1 of this year there have been eight (8) suicides among key financial workers, and seven of the eight have been under fifty years of age.

As I prepare this article, the world has been baffled by the disappearance of a Malaysian passenger jet with 239 people on board. Russia is amassing troops on the Ukrainian border after annexing Crimea and thumbing its nose at the rest of the world. China is beginning to awaken and is making its strength known as a major player in business, finance and military might. The U.S. continues to sink under the weight of a massive, growing debt and America’s status as the world’s most important nation is eroding before our eyes! On Saturday, March 22, there were at least nine earthquakes in the state of Oklahoma that registered between 2.2 and 4.0 on the Richter scale . . . Oklahoma!

The stormy days are increasing in frequency and will progressively get more intense as time passes. After Jesus described many of the events that would lead up to His return for His bride, He described these events as birth pains (see Matthew 24:8).

I know that messages like this are not popular with most of today’s church. The majority of messages given in contemporary churches are on subjects such as “how to cope; how to have a happy and fulfilled life; how to be successful; how to be free from fear.”

God spoke to Isaiah and gave him a message for a people much like the crowd in today’s American and Canadian churches. Here is the message God gave him for a rebellious people (church):

“Now go and write down these words.
    Write them in a book.
They will stand until the end of time
    as a witness
 that these people are stubborn rebels
    who refuse to pay attention to the Lord’s instructions.
 They tell the seers,
    “Stop seeing visions!”
They tell the prophets,
    “Don’t tell us what is right.
Tell us nice [smooth] things.
    Tell us lies.
Forget all this gloom.
    Get off your narrow path.
Stop telling us about your
    ‘Holy One of Israel.’” (Isaiah 30:8-11, NLT)

The word translated “nice” in verse eleven is translated “smooth” in the original. The rebellious O.T. Israel (church) wanted only to hear smooth things. In essence, they were saying, “We don’t want to hear anything that would convict us of our bad behavior; we don’t want to be challenged to change or to repent; we don’t want any convicting messages that hit us like a bump in the road.” Isn’t it interesting that we have a popular TV preacher running around saying, “Because you repented at salvation, you never have to repent again.” That is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, “Tell us nice/smooth things—tell us lies.”

Smooth messages are not going to get us ready for the hell that is about to break loose on the world. We need God’s men and women to call us back to the place in God where we should be, and for many of us this means that we need to repent of our coldness and indifference. We don’t need lies and happy messages . . . we need the Word of the Lord delivered to us with directness, love and hope. Hope is the confident expectation that God is in charge and that no matter what we are called to face, He will be with us (see Psalm 23:4).

In Isaiah 30 God went on to say,

“Because you despise what I tell you

And trust instead in oppression and lies,

Calamity will come upon you suddenly—

Like a bulging wall that bursts and falls.

In an instant it will collapse

And come crashing down.” (Isaiah 30:12-13, NLT)

But for those who will listen God has an answer for the coming catastrophe

“In returning to me and resting in me will you be saved.

In quietness and confidence is your strength.” (Isaiah 30:15, NLT)

“Returning to me” means to repent of the previous course of action, and to return to their original place of faith and trust in the Lord. The Jewish people had begun “seeking shade/shelter” in Egypt; in other words, they were going to the world for help instead of seeking the Lord. The word of the Lord is to stop going down to Egypt and return to seeking and trusting Him!

DRIPPING WITH POWER

I have no idea how many times I’ve been to Los Angeles International Airport. All through the ’70s, ’80s and into the ’90s I was there sometimes once or twice a week, either as a traveler or to pick up or drop off guests of the ministry I was working with.

One evening when I was there to pick up someone I saw something very unusual. I had put my car in the parking structure across the street from the terminal. As I waited to cross the street to the terminal, an older car slowly went past and I noticed an orange/red glow coming from under the rear end of the car. As it passed me I was startled to see a thin ribbon of fire streaming from the underside of the car down to the street.

I ran across the street to one of the airport policemen and told him what I had seen. He immediately looked and then began running after the car yelling, “Stop! Stop!” The driver stopped but seemed bewildered as to why the policeman was ordering him to get out of the car—quickly!

The fire department and other police arrived and it was all over within a matter of minutes. The car had somehow developed a fuel leak and something, perhaps a hot muffler or perhaps a spark, had ignited the gas, but fortunately there had been no explosion.

What still sticks in my mind after all these years is the bewilderment of the driver as the policeman commanded him to get out of the car; at that point the driver had no comprehension of the explosive situation he was in.

In his teaching to the church at Corinth, the apostle Paul several times reminds them, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple” (see 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 and also 1 Corinthians 6:19).

Apparently the Corinthians were either not paying attention when Paul initially taught them that the Holy Spirit had taken up residence in them, or they were deliberately ignoring and negating the involvement of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

So it is with much of the contemporary Church. On one side we have those who suggest that the Holy Spirit’s work today is over and it has been since the end of the first century. They put flowers on the Holy Spirit’s grave every Easter as they celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And then we have those who tacitly agree that the Holy Spirit comes to the believer at salvation but then they quickly ignore Him except in their rather infrequent references to the Triune Godhead.

I have a question for all the Church: What does Acts 1:8 mean to you and how are you cooperating with the message that it conveys?

“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8, NKJV).

Much of today’s Church is living with the same level of bewilderment that I saw on the face of the driver of the car dripping fire at LAX. We are living in and around a Church that has lost its understanding of the explosive power of the Holy Spirit who dwells in them.

To those who are willfully ignoring the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the gifts and power He brings to you, all I can say is that you do so at your own risk.

There are some who suggest that today’s believers are much more enlightened and have so much more of the Word than the early Church did. They then use that as an argument against the present-day activities of the Holy Spirit. All I can say to those who ramp up that kind of argument is, “Take a look around you; take a look at the complex and evil world we live in; take a look at a powerless Church and then tell me that we don’t need everything the Holy Spirit has to offer.” If He is dead to you then may the Lord have mercy on you and your error-filled pathway.

We need the Holy Spirit’s comfort in these difficult days; we need His leading; we need His help in prayer; and today’s powerless Church needs His power to face the challenges ahead.

If you are a believer, whether you like it or not, you are God’s temple and God’s Spirit dwells in you. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.

A.B. Simpson, founder of The Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination, made the following statement: “So many have the Holy Spirit confined in a little pot of oil and hidden away on the shelf of a cabinet. God wants us to go out into all the needs of life, and pour that divine fullness into every vessel that comes to us, until our whole life shall be a living embodiment and illustration of the all-sufficiency of Christ.” [1]

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[1] The Holy Spirit, Simpson, A.B., Christian Publications, Camp Hill, PA, page 388

THE SACRED DANCE

One of the words frequently used by the early Church to describe the Triune Godhead was the Greek word “perichoresis.” The word, defining the relationship of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, is made up of two words, “peri” (around) and “choreuin” (to dance). The early Church saw the relationship of the Trinity as the dance of God—the three members of the Godhead flowing together in joy and harmony as they celebrate the creation and celebrate all those who have chosen to be in God’s family.

The “perichoresis” is the eternal dance of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit sharing mutual love, honor, happiness, joy and respect. God’s act of creation meant that God was inviting more and more beings into the eternal dance. When sin came, people began stepping out of the dance to go their own way, stumbling and struggling instead of moving with the grace and rhythm of the Sacred Dance. Through His Son Jesus, God entered creation to restore the rhythm and beauty of the Sacred Dance.

Jesus is the one who has been sent to open the way for all to follow and to come into the Sacred Dance. In plain terms, Jesus is the Lord of the dance.

 Charles Wesley put it this way:

Our concert of praise

To Jesus we raise,

And all the night long

Continue the new evangelical song:

We dance to the fame

Of Jesus’s name,

The joy it imparts

Is heaven begun in our musical hearts.

(Hymns and Sacred Poems by Charles Wesley)

Over 2000 years ago one man in a tiny insignificant country in the eastern Mediterranean began a dance of life that was so different, so daring and compelling that at first people just stared in amazement. But then he was joined by just two followers, Peter and his brother Andrew, but it wasn’t long before others came to join with the Lord of the Dance, Jesus Christ.

A few years later on the inauguration day of the Church on the Day of Pentecost, it was no longer just a handful of followers—on that day 3000 joined in the Sacred Dance. In the years that followed thousands more would come and then millions would join with the Lord of the Dance.

As followers of Jesus we follow Him in the dance—He leads and we follow. We are followers of His!

When He is leading and we are following, there is a peculiar and powerfully compelling attractiveness to what we do. Through the power of the Holy Spirit and the sacredness of the perichoresis, others are attracted to the life in us, to the dance that we are dancing, and they want to know: “What is that dance and how can I join in?”

In trying to illustrate this, I came across a video that in a rather amusing and inspiring way shows what happens when one person takes the risk and begins to dance where others can see them. Please take the time to watch the whole video; it lasts only three minutes. The video was made in 2009 at the Sasquatch Music Festival in Washington State. The guy is a lousy dancer but he doesn’t care because he’s celebrating—then one other person joins him and then watch what happens.

(Be sure to turn on your speakers.)

This silly video is an illustration of what can happen when just one person abandons himself to the Lord of the Dance. In the act of abandonment, our dance becomes attractive to others as they recognize the genuineness of our actions.

Every person has a dance . . . every life is a dance! Some dance only to the music in their own mind and of their own making. Some dance with the devil—but everyone dances! Do not waste your dance!

When we follow Jesus and let Him lead, then He takes us into the Sacred Dance—and it is the Sacred Dance that makes life meaningful and compelling!

THE NIGHTSTICK OF GOD!

We were living in Los Angeles and I had been invited to speak at a church in Wyoming. The church had been very supportive of the missionary evangelism program where I served as the Executive Vice President and I was glad to visit them to minister and say thanks.

I flew into the little town on a commuter plane from Denver. I was to stay with the pastor and his family and speak in three services the next day.

I knew I was in for an unusual time the moment I walked into the kitchen early Sunday morning. The pastor’s wife was fixing breakfast and when I said, “Good morning,” she smiled and greeted me. Then I glanced over and saw the pastor leaning against a counter, drinking a cup of coffee. He was dressed in a shiny black suit, clerical collar, and white patent leather cowboy boots.

The morning services were excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed being there. The people were friendly and the services lively. Sunday evening during the worship service, the pastor leaned over to me and asked, “Do you see that big guy on the second row? Remind me to tell you about him later.”

Later the pastor told me that the “big guy” was a deputy sheriff who had been a Christian for just a few months. Apparently this new believer was one of those who tried to find a Christian meaning for everything that happened to him. Just a few weeks prior, he and his partner had been called to a bar on the edge of town to break up a fight. By orders of the sheriff, one of the deputies was to break up the fight and the other was to stay off to the side and protect his partner from any interference.

Just a little insight about this town. It was a boomtown because of vast supplies of coal and oil in the area. The town was overrun with oil field workers and miners who worked the huge strip mines in the area. The workers were well paid and came into town to have a good time . . . and that often resulted in rowdy behavior.

When the two deputies walked into the bar, it was the new believer’s turn to protect his partner. The other deputy attempted to separate two drunken women who were wrestling on the floor. Some of the cowboys and oil workers were enjoying the spectacle and did not like the interference of the lawman. They began to push and pull on the deputy and things began to heat up into a mini-riot.

Suddenly there was a huge shout from the newly converted deputy sheriff. He pulled his nightstick from its holder and bellowed at the top of his lungs, “With the jawbone of a donkey Samson slew a thousand Philistines . . . and the world has yet to see what God is going to do with this nightstick!”

The whole bar fell silent as 15 to 20 drunken cowboys, oil field roughnecks and miners looked at the deputy with a certain amount of disbelief and wonderment. Even the scrappers on the floor stopped to see who would say something so outrageous, and in a moment the fighting and the near riot conditions had dissipated.

“And the world has yet to see what God is going to do with this nightstick.” There is something very simple and yet profound about that statement. Those who make the biggest impact for God are those who lay down their own agenda and allow themselves to be picked up and wielded by the hand of God. In the words of Jesus, “Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will’” (Mark 14:36, NKJV).

Samson’s choice of a donkey’s jawbone was an unlikely choice for a weapon. When David went to battle against Goliath and chose to use a sling and stones he had picked up on his way to the fight, again it was a unique choice but in both situations God displayed His power.

When God made us, He made each of us distinctive, one-of-a-kind, and then He broke the mold. God seems to love to make something unique and then fashion it into a weapon that defies logic. “But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty” (1 Corinthians 1:27, NKJV).

When you come to the place where circumstances seem way beyond you and there is no logical answer, no way out, and you acknowledge your helplessness, then you are in the right place for God to use you in a special and unique way. “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5, NKJV).

“And the world has yet to see how God will use (insert your name here).”