Commandment #1--No Other Gods

Before I begin this post, I would like to take a moment to apologize to my readers for the disjointedness that appeared at times in my previous post. As I mentioned in that post, my wife and I are currently going through a very difficult time as we adjust to the surprise child that the Lord has given us in our first year of marriage, and I am afraid that some of that struggle may have played itself out in the more jumbled and ridiculous-sounding areas of my post.

In particular, I would like to apologize to anyone who, for whatever reason, was sidetracked by my discussion of ways in which separating ourselves from the world may manifest itself in our daily lives. Yes, my wife and I are restricting our intake of television, and yes, we are planning and preparing to homeschool our children--and yes, we do see these things as a form of separating ourselves from the world. However, I do think, on reading that post again, that the section in which I articulated the necessity of not depending on institutions could have been better worded, and I am afraid that to some, the shoddy wording may have distracted from the real message that the Lord was trying to convey to them.

Ladies and gentlemen, I do believe that it is time for believers in Christ to choose whether they will continue to depend on the institutions of this world or depend on the Lord for their welfare. As I have said before in this blog, even if the United States were to remain a nation and government friendly toward Christianity, the social and economic situation in which we currently find ourselves is fragile at best. The governmental and corporate structures--things such as "retirement" or "credit" or "social security"--are tottering on very unstable legs, and eventually, as the baby boomer generation claims its retirement benefits, the economy will become increasingly strained.

I think that believers in Christ, under the circumstances, should not trust that the systems and structures of yesterday will remain in place tomorrow, and this, in part, is what brings me to the first of what we in the western world have come to call "the ten commandments."

In our first series of posts on the Lord's commandments to the ancient Israelites, we covered the Passover and its significance for the people of the Old Testament and the converts of the New Testament--and now, after covering the Lord's outlining of blessings and curses to the ancient Israelites in the desert, we come to what is arguably the most well-known, yet misunderstood, section of the Bible.

Let us begin by reading the account given to us in Exodus 19, leading up to the Lord's words in Exodus 20:

In the third month after the Israelites left Egypt—on the very day—they came to the Desert of Sinai. After they set out from Rephidim, they entered the Desert of Sinai, and Israel camped there in the desert in front of the mountain.

Then Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain and said, "This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: 'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites."

Here in verses 1-6 we have a beautiful promise--the Lord wanted the nation of Israel to be "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." What does that mean? It means that he wanted Israel to be a nation that was striking testimony to the world of the reality of God--and ladies and gentlemen, the Lord succeeded in this regard . . . but at great cost.

You see, Israel was never supposed to suffer the things that she suffered during her history after the exodus from Egypt--Israel was never supposed to be divided into two kingdoms, or destroyed, or led into captivity. However, all of these things happened, and the Bible tells us that they happened because the people of Israel refused to obey the Lord and because they looked to other gods.

Nevertheless, the Lord did (and does) have a living testimony of his existence in the words of the Bible--he indeed was glorified through the nation of Israel, but not in the way that, I believe, He would have wished.

Exodus 19 tells us that the Lord called the people of Israel to Mount Sinai so that they could hear--as Moses heard--the voice of the Lord speaking to them . . . and indeed they did hear it. Verses 16-19 describe this experience in vivid, frightening detail:

On the morning of the third day [after they had purified themselves for two days] there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him. [c]

Now, what was the very first thing that the Lord said to the entire people of Israel? What message did He first want to convey to them?

We find out in Exodus 20:1-3:

And God spoke all these words:

"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

"You shall have no other gods before me.

This is the basis of the Bible--of the Old and New Testaments--and it is sad that in today's world, so few people who claim the name of Christ Jesus for themselves actually heed it.

The sin that brought the Israelites into disrepute and destruction and the sin that pervades so many of our churches today are, I am afraid, one and the same: syncretism. Merriam-Webster defines syncretism as "the combination of different forms of belief or practice," and the American Heritage Dictionary defines it as "the reconciliation or fusion of differing systems of belief" . . . but I have a less euphemistic way of defining syncretism:

Syncretism is, simply put, an attempt by man (and woman) to have his/her cake and eat it, too--to have the vitality and blessed assurance of salvation that comes with recognizing the one true God and to have the comfort and riches of this world as well.

Some of you may find this to be a bit uncomfortable, but ladies and gentlemen, the God described in the Bible is a "jealous" God, meaning that He "jealously" guards what is His--and Christ Jesus Himself said, "He who is not with me is against me" (Matthew 12:30). Do you think He looks upon your worship of money or sex or upward social mobility as simply a "viable way" to "combine different belief systems"?

Or do you, as so many people in our society often do, assume that He understands that sometimes situations call for compromises?

You won't hear this kind of talk in most American churches today. Most prominent pastors and televangelists are more concerned with being popular than with telling the truth, and so they will not tell you that repentance, not a few simple words muttered at the front of a tent or chapel, is what the Lord ultimately desires from each and every one of us.

If you have not put the Lord first in your life, my friend, than no matter how many Bibles and devotionals you have, no matter how many times you uttered the "sinner's prayer," and no matter how faithful your attendance at church has been . . . you are sinning against the Lord, and you must repent of that sin if you want to be right with Him.

I understand that you may find those words very difficult to accept . . . just as I once did.

I wasn't a very Christian or holy man for most of my life--in fact, I even went so far as to delve into some very dark spiritual things--but for much of that time, I was a faithful church attender.

I could even quote Bible verses . . . at least the ones I had taken in from my years at a Christian liberal arts college in Virginia.

I had other gods, however--gods that, in my heart, came first. One of them, as you may have gathered from reading my original Sabbath Breakers blog, was sex--I wanted endless sex and endless pleasure, any way I could get it, and I didn't care what kind of harm it was doing to my life, and my relationships with my family and others around me, and I didn't care what my obsession was destroying inside of me.

Another god, however, was freedom.

Freedom has become a very popular word in our culture today, but I wonder if we understand to the extent to which we abuse this concept in our daily lives, using it as an excuse for socially (and personally) destructive actions. Abortion is undertaken in the name of freedom, divorces often occur in the name of "liberating" one spouse from the other, and of course, the United States has waged a number of wars in the name of preserving freedom.

I wonder if we truly understand Paul's words to the believers in Rome when he said,

Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities for there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.

Romans 13:1

These words, of course, were written in a time when "the governing authorities" were military generals who ruled by force, using fear, intimidation, and cruelty as instruments of order.



More to the point, I wonder if we understand the words of Christ, as recorded by Matthew:

A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub, how much more the members of his household!

So do not be afraid of them. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight. What is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid--you are worth more than many sparrows.

Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.

Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn
'a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law -
a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.'

Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

verses 24-39

Most megachurch pastors and televangelists will quote the softer-sounding portions of this passage, such as "the very hairs of your head are all numbered" and "what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs," without providing the context. Unfortunately, what many people are then left with in our society is a "Christianity" in which Christ can exist in the same room with "career" or "materialism" or even "my own political beliefs."

Note, in particular, the words at the end of the passage above: "anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me." These are among my favorite words of the Bible, and whenever I hear them, my soul is stirred with a longing for the Christ who took up His cross for me. So often, we hear in our churches today that the "cross" Christ is talking about is metaphorical--it can mean anything from problems at work to difficulties in the home--but when Christ said those words, they had a very concrete meaning to those who heard them.

The cross was a public method of execution designed to humiliate and torture its victim--and everyone in ancient Judea knew the kind of suffering Christ meant when he said "anyone who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me." You see, Christianity is hard (as I have said before), and very few people can meet with the real suffering, real persecution, and real pain that comes when we fully allow Christ to shine in our hearts. We live in a world, after all, that is cruel and heartless--and love, real love, is often tinged with tears.

I wish, ladies and gentlemen, I could have relented and listened to this message sooner--I wasted so many years of my life attempting to seek fame and fortune--but the Lord has been very gracious, and with His help, my children won't have to learn the hard way as I did . . . and, I hope, neither will you.

Listen to your heart. Do you have other gods? If so, I believe the Lord is asking you to lay them aside.

I have said at numerous times that I believe that we are increasingly seeing a spirit in this nation that is hostile to Christianity and to Christ, and that one day, if believers in Christ are not willing to make their loyalties clear, we may see a time when the Lord will use the persecuting hand of non-believers to winnow out those in the ranks of Christendom who never really held Christ first in their hearts. Please, ladies and gentlemen . . . let's not make that kind of hard hand from the Lord necessary.

In Christ, we have a redeemer--one who cleanses us from all sin.

Let us not allow the pressures or pleasures of this world so great a place in our hearts that we fail to see our need for that redemption.

The Lord Who Heals: Promise to a Lost Generation

Things have been busy at the homestead as of late. My wife is in the middle of her first pregnancy, and I am in the process of finding us some income as we recover from our recent move to South Carolina. I wish I could say I knew what I was getting into as a husband and (now) as a father, but the fact is, I am overwhelmed most of the time at the weight of responsibility that the Lord has given me. Jessica and I are in the unique position of having to trust in the Lord for every resource, every insight, every bit of character development we need in order to handle what was, to us, a very unexpected pregnancy, and during the past several months, we have had, I admit, our share of good days and bad days.

The Lord, however, has been very gracious, and every day we are thankful that in His wisdom, He put the two of us together. I wish that every couple could know the oneness of mind, body, soul, and spirit that Jessica and I share, and I must thank God for it, because without that, it would have been very difficult for us to make it through the summer without a great deal of marital conflict.

(Yes, conflict does happen even in the best of marriages--those of you out there who view wedded bliss as an oasis of sex, pleasure, and self-gratification will, I fear, find yourselves immensely disappointed after your marriage vows have been taken . . . )



Our text in this post is Exodus 15:22-27, but I'd like to begin with Matthew 7:13-14 because I feel that this passage has, for us, a very strong message. Listen to Jesus' words from the Sermon on the Mount:

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

To some of you, I know, this probably sounds a lot like sandpaper grating in your ears, but given the context of the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, I think you will find that this passage offers a very hard-hitting diagnosis from the Lord concerning a problem common not only in first century Judea but in twenty-first century America. You see, not very many people in our society are interested in truth anymore--only in how to get ahead, how to gain more pleasure for themselves, and how to prevent other people from getting in the way of those two pursuits. Divorce is now "no fault," the killing of unborn children is "abortion," and sleeping with a member of one's sex (as one would sleep with a member of the opposite sex) is termed a "viable lifestyle choice."

People like me who would point out the major sin issues within our culture have a hard time fitting in at social gatherings--we're not very popular. My wife and I once listened to a "Lake Woebegone" segment in which Garrison Keeler recounted a time when he was offered (by the Almighty) the position of prophet, and he turned it down because it would have meant that he would spend a lifetime telling people the truth--and most of the time, people just don't want to hear it.

I don't blame him for making that decision.

Being a Christian is hard, ladies and gentlemen--and one of the first things we must be willing to sacrifice, I'm afraid, is our popularity. The fact is, we are not part of this world, and no matter how much we try to camouflage ourselves, those who are nonbelievers know, instinctively, who the real Christians are. If you were under the impression that you could be in Christ and still slip under the world's radar, I can tell you from personal experience as someone who was "of the world" most of his life that you are deeply mistaken.

What does all of this have to do with Exodus 15:22-27? I believe that in this passage, we see the essence of the narrow road that Jesus later describes--and a promise for those who are willing to walk that road.

Immediately after the songs that Moses and Miriam sang in praise of the Lord for leading the people of Israel through the Red Sea (and after all of the other miracles that the Lord performed in order to deliver the Israelites from the bondage of slavery), we find the following passage:

Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "What are we to drink?"

Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.

Isn't it amazing?

The Israelites, after experiencing the mighty hand of the Lord in freeing them from generational slavery, actually grumbled when they came to a place where water was bitter. Shouldn't they have expected that the Lord would provide for them in spite of their lack of water--and frankly, shouldn't they have been a little more respectful of Moses since he was the instrument the Lord chose to free them from the Egyptians?

Well . . . I guess we shouldn't be too hard on them. After all, as I will demonstrate later in this post, we are no better than they were.



After the account of the Lord's deliverance of the Israelites from thirst at Marah, we find the following 2 verses (25b-26):

There the LORD made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them. He said, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you."

Clearly, the Israelites were presented with two alternatives: (1) Obey the voice of the Lord and really live, or (2) disobey the voice of the Lord and suffer the same fate as that of the Egyptians. We will cover those alternatives in more detail during future posts, but I would like for us to link this verse (26) together with Jesus' description of the broad and narrow ways.

As we have seen from Matthew 7:13-14, the broad way "leads to destruction" and "many" undertake it. I believe that the broad way of Matthew 7 and the way of disobedience from Exodus 15 are one and the same: disrespect for the Lord.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am not talking about the kind of disrespect for the lord that we see in the peoples and nations of this world today--the kingdoms of the world do not honor the Lord, and never have. Moreover, as we can see in Exodus 15, the Lord is presenting these two alternatives not to every man, woman, and child on the face of the Earth but specifically to the people of Israel, a nation already in a very real sense commited to the Lord.

Sadly, it seems, the disrespect that most grieves the Lord does not come from those who never gave their hearts to him at all but instead from those who, for whatever reason, gleefully accepted him only to spit in his face when the road he wanted them to travel does not seem as easy as they thought it should be . . .



Ladies and gentlemen, we live in a world that does not want to be convicted of its sins--and frankly, why should it be, when those who are supposed to be examples of Christ are, in many ways, some of the worst purveyors of sin, rebelliousness, and hypocrisy? As I have noted on numerous occasions, the divorce rate within Christian circles is actually higher than the divorce rate outside Christian circles--and the number of abortions commited among Bible college students is, according to a recent article in Relevant Magazine, one of the dirtiest secrets postmodern American Christendom has ever kept. Though almost all so-called conservative Christians agree that homosexuality is a sin, it is very rare that a homosexual will find him-/herself in a Christian environment which is safe enough to promote the confession of sins one to another (James 5:16).

And these are only the highlights, my friends. What a sad state of affairs Christianity has fallen to when the proposition of charismatic speakers, flawless choral singing, and various pseudo-gospels of wealth and success and social acceptability draws more people into the walls of a church than the hard-hitting, soul-winning, heart-convicting power of the Holy Spirit?

Are we that spiritually bankrupt?

I am afraid we are, ladies and gentlemen--and I am afraid that because of our lack of enthusiasm for the Lord, we will find ourselves one day in a nation that will use very unpleasant means to make us decide once and for all where our loyalties stand . . .



I would like to suggest 3 areas where the narrow road of Christ-obedience may touch our everyday lives, so that at the very least, some of you will be prepared for what Christianity may one day mean for you and your families:

1. It may mean that you will have to restrict television's impact on your life.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the television which brings so many wonderful channels of entertainment into our homes 24 hours a day is, I fear, an increasing engine of hostility to the Christ of the Bible. I am not talking specifically about the relentless glorification of sexual perversion (or at the very least sexual immaturity), violence, and materialism--those things have been glorified long before humanity invented television--but instead, I am talking about the extent to which we have come to rely on television as a teacher. Television teaches us about a great many things, it seems, particularly regarding the expectations we should have about God, about the world, and about ourselves, and the doctrines it most often professes are very clear: There is no God, we are capable of greater wonders than we ever thought possible, and what we gain in this life (for ourselves or for others) is of paramount importance.

These doctrines may ring in your heart as inspirational and true, but they are not the doctrines that the Bible teaches. It may be, my friend, that you will one day have to choose between the Bible and your television set if you want to have a clear idea of where things stand--both in this world and in the world to come.

2. It may mean that you will have to revise the way you approach sexuality.

Our society, it seems, has tossed aside almost every restraint in its exercise of sexual intercourse for the sake of personal pleasure--and virginity is increasingly regarded as a sign of childhood rather than a stance taken for reasons of physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. Unfortunately, as I can attest to you, the union of bodies under the sheets is also a union of souls and spirits, and if you think you can switch partners without suffering serious personal and psychological repercussions, you are deluding yourself.

I know that a lot of bad teaching (in the name of good morals) has confused many people about what the Bible says regarding the exercise of sexuality, and we will cover this topic in more detail later, but what I want you to understand right now is that if you share your body with someone, you are sharing your soul with that person as well. Therefore, it is of the highest importance that, if you value your soul, you will only allow it (and your body) to be shared with whoever Christ would have you share it with.

3. It may mean that you abandon some of the institutions of this world.

Jessica and I are going to join the growing ranks of homeschoolers across the United States, simply because we will not commit our children to an institutional regime that (1) does not recognize Christ Jesus as the Son of God and (2) cares more, in general, for its own self-perpetuation than for the students it is designed to teach. We are, after all, only stewards of the beautiful human beings that the Lord has given us, and since the Lord has given us the responsibility of raising them, we do not want to leave that charge to the care of strangers.

Our departure from the institutions of this world may occur in other areas as well, however:

Finances--Jessica and I may find ourselves lead to create home businesses rather than depending on multinational corporations for what seems to be readily available jobs and income.

Medical care--Jessica and I may be forced to choose between a dietary and health lifestyle that prizes good personal health habits over prescription drugs, and a lifestyle that will see us visiting doctors and hospitals over and over and over again.

Church--Jessica and I have essentially abandoned the practice of attending a congregation of strangers for 2 hours a week and instead are focusing our attention on a congregation that has far more personal significance . . . our family.



Let us look at Exodus 15:26 again.

There the LORD made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them. He said, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you."

Now, why in the world would the Lord end his statement to the Israelites with something as dopey-sounding as "I am the Lord, who heals you?"

I researched this verse using Strong's Concordance, and I found that the Hebrew word translated "heals" means more than simply healing a wound or healing non-functioning organs. In short, the Lord is saying, "I am the Lord, who is capable of healing you of every disease and making you completely whole."

As I said earlier, believers in Christ are not citizens of this world, and so they will receive none of its promises or benefits--but they have something better in store for them. They will be "whole"--completely healed of every sickness, disease, and imperfection, and they will be far happier for it than anyone ever could be in this life. As Paul once said, those of us who are in Christ are being changed every day, our bodies and souls and spirits brought closer and closer to Christ's ideal, and when our Lord comes, we will be forever united with Him, and never again will we stumble, or walk blind . . . or sin.

Isn't that worth a little heartache in this life?

Ladies and gentlemen, I am not directing this post to the millions and millions of nonbelievers out there who have never considered or accepted Christ Jesus as their Lord and Savior--I am instead directing it to those who at one time accepted Christ but who now find themselves attracted, for whatever reason, to the things of this world. I want you to know that I understand where you're coming from--sometimes it seems that the road Jessica and I are on in Christ is a very hard road indeed, and we've both wanted to get off--but I also know that you will get nothing of lasting significance or enjoyment from this world. Pleasure--whether it comes from popularity or entertainment or physical highs--is fleeting, and it leaves you always cold and always, always barren inside.

If you are in Christ, you can't love the things of this world--and moreover, the world can't love you. As a nonbeliever, I was automatically (for reasons I would not have been able to explain even to myself) hostile to anyone and anything that bespoke Christ or Christianity. I was open to other religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Rastafarianism, but I hated Christ and everything He stood for--and so did all of my companions.

Make no mistake, my friend--if you accept Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are from that point on an enemy of this world, and this world will do whatever it can to demolish you. If you pursue what it has to offer, you will be tolerated but (in secret) laughed at and ridiculed as a hypocrite, and if you pursue the Lord at the cost of the things of this world, your very existence will be a stench of death to those who have not given their lives to Christ.

Either way, they will hate you.

Wouldn't you rather they hated you for the stand you took than for your lack of interest in following the Lord you profess to serve?

The Firstborn Covenant: Symbol of a Broken Church

In Exodus 13:1-2, shortly before the account of the Israelites' deliverance from the hand of Pharaoh, we read this:

The LORD said to Moses, "Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether man or animal."

Why would the Lord have given Moses such a stern command, and what, if any, significance does it have for us today?

In Moses' recorded remarks to the people of Israel before setting out from the land of Egypt, we hear God's reasonings clearly stated:

In days to come, when your son asks you, 'What does this mean?' say to him, 'With a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed every firstborn in Egypt, both man and animal. This is why I sacrifice to the LORD the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons.'

Exodus 13:14-15

I wonder if those of us in the body of Christ understand even a hint of the significance of these passages. You see, the blood of the Egyptian children was precious and real--and I do not believe it was something the Lord wanted to shed.

Think about it for a moment. In Matthew 18, we find Jesus (the Son of God) saying that "whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me" (v. 5), but "if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea" (v. 6). Why? Because "their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven" (v. 10).

Do you think that God loved the children of ancient Egypt any less than He loved the children of first century Judea?



The firstborn of every womb in Israel was, in light of God's great sacrifice, the very least that the people of Israel could give back in return for their freedom . . . just as the heart, body, and soul of every believer in Christ is the least that you and I can give back in return for the freedom we have through the sacrifice of Christ Jesus on the cross. If children were so dear to God, and if it was such a heartbreaking act for Him to kill so many of them in Egypt, how much more heartbreaking would it have been for Him to sacrifice the Son of God on the cross 2000 years ago? I don't claim to know all the mysteries of the Trinity, ladies and gentlemen, but I do know this: The Crucifixion caused God pain.

That is why Paul writes so eloquently in Romans 12:1, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship." Note that Paul does not say, "Offer your time to God," or "Offer your best wishes to God," or "Offer your most honorable intentions to God"--he says "bodies" . . . your hands, your feet, your physical strength and manliness, your physical beauty and femininity, your eyes, your nose, and (yes) your reproductive organs.

We live in a church culture today that would have Americans believe that they are, in Christ, free to pursue all of the material vices of the world--with some socially unacceptable exemptions--because, it is presumed, the crucifixion represents one giant meal ticket for believers. Just say a prayer, mumble all the "right" words, and you can have a life of "freedom" in which you can do, essentially, everything you did before, with the possible exception of drugs, alcohol, or criminal activity. The postmodern church has, it seems, ditched the hard message of the Gospel for a theology that uses the cross of Christ Jesus to allow parishioners to pursue socially acceptable sins.

I hear it all the time on the Christian radio.

"Did you get a divorce? That's covered by God's grace--you can go on with your life now, free as a gazelle."

"Did you teach your children all the wrong things? Don't worry--God's grace will cover that, too, and you can go on with your life in the knowledge that God doesn't hold you accoutable anymore."

"Did you sacrifice your family for a business promotion? God feels your pain. Here, just hold fast to God's grace, and you won't have as much trouble looking at yourself in the mirror when you get up tomorrow."

Ladies and gentlemen, our Lord calls us to a higher standard of holiness than the rest of the world--and I believe that if you are really committed to the Lord, then you feel a stirring inside of your heart as you read this post, knowing that yes, there is a deeper Christianity than the Sunday/Wednesday tradition of superchurch attendance, nice sermons, and shallow lives. The believers in first century Judea were holy men who led lives that would drive any one of us to shame: healing dirty, poverty-stricken men and women with sores and moans and pressing needs as great as any suffered by a denizen of the Third World, fending off crowds of hungry people starving for a loaf of bread and yearning for spiritual insight, and hunted day and night by people who had the authority to imprison, torture, and kill.

I wonder where their spiritual descendants lost their fortitude?

When my wife and I were living in Fort Worth, Texas, we noted that it seemed every city block had at least one church building on it, if not two--and with so many churches (and presumably so many Christians), Fort Worth should have been an oasis for the poor and the homeless, right? Sadly, Fort Worth has as many miserable, starving, and desperate homeless people as any other city does.

It often seemed to my wife and me that if you had money or power, you were looked upon by many superchurch attenders with respect--but if you were poor, you were looked upon as an inconvenience or a project . . . when you were looked upon at all.

Our bodies are what the Lord is asking for--not simply our songs, our church buildings, and our prayers--and I believe that a day may well come, ladies and gentlemen, when the Lord holds the church in America to account for its lack of humility and love.



Healing the sick, bringing love to the poor and outcast, visiting those in need--these are standing orders in God's kingdom, and Christ Himself uttered them. If we are not doing likewise as the ancient disciples did (either before or after the Resurrection of Christ) then it is not simply because we are "weak" or because we live in a world that makes it "hard to follow Christ's commands."

It is because we have sinned.

Disobedience is sin, my friends--and it is only atoned for when, by God's grace, we are willing to turn away from it.

If we are to become part of that remnant which will meet Christ in the air someday, we must be willing to obey Christ in every respect--whether He is speaking to us from the Gospels or from the book of Leviticus. I am not saying that we must be utterly sinless--we are redeemed, after all, not perfect--but I am saying that we must be willing to pursue lives that, while socially vile to the rest of the world, exhibit the love and the power of Christ's kingdom on Earth. If we are at least willing, that is enough in God's sight.

You may feel secure in knowing that you gave God your time and your prayers--but it is also your body that God wants.

Will you give it to him?

Antichrist: The Spirit of This Age

I know that many of you reading this blog may have been convinced, as I was, that the word "Antichrist" in the Bible simply referred to a person connected with what many Christians have called the "last days." This man, it is believed, will bring devastation unheard of to the ranks of Christians through a worldwide system of economic, military, and political control.

However, I would like to propose something to you that will, I think, open your eyes not only to the depth of scripture but to the ever-present reality of a spiritual warfare that is, I am afraid, far closer to home than you and I would like to admit.

Let me begin with a passage from Paul's letter to the Ephesians:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Ephesians 6:10-12

This is a favorite passage on the Christian radio and in many Christian sermons, but sadly, it is rarely understood. What, for example, does Paul mean by "our struggle is not against flesh and blood?"

I think that we will find part of our answer in another passage that is often quoted amiss by the institutional church:

Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.

Romans 13:1-2

"Wait a minute," some of you may be saying. "Wasn't Paul saying in another letter that our struggle is against authorities?"

Yes--but if you reread the entire passage from Ephesians 6, you will find that Paul goes on to describe the authorities he is talking about as (v. 12) "the powers of this dark world" and "the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." You see, the "government" in Paul's time was not a democracy--it was military rule, a style of government that the Romans had established shortly before the birth of Christ in order to stabilize their society. Furthermore, this military rule was, in the eyes of Paul's people, an occupying regime since its soldiers had subjugated the land of Israel, relegating it to an outer province of the Roman Empire called "Judea" (or, as it should have been called by its own residents, "Judah").

This military regime punished its enemies by ruthless means. After all, the Cross, an instrument of death designed to prolong the life of its victim for days or sometimes weeks, was a unique invention of Rome--as was the Coliseum, and the deadly games that would seal the martyrdom of so many Christians in centuries to come. And yet Paul goes on in Romans 13:3-5 to say

For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience.

How, indeed, could Paul say these things about an empire that had humiliated his people and subjugated the known world by inventing methods of cruelty formerly unknown to humankind? Because, as Ephesians 6:11 says, his battle was not "against flesh and blood."

I am afraid, ladies and gentlemen, that in its zeal to "reform" the rest of the world according to the principles of representative democracy, our society has lost any sense of a Christianity that could look a dictator squarely in the eyes and say, "I believe you are a servant of God to bring order to my nation." The United States goes to war these days, it seems, not out of concern for the welfare and defense of its people (a legitimate reason for any government to go to war) but out of a desire to "improve" the nations around her. The governments of Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea, and Iran are "immoral" and "corrupt," and yet, except for Afghanistan (which was an anarchy that did strike first at the United States), all of these governments had, as their aim, to bring law and order to their people and to achieve some semblance of national cohesion and stability.

I realize that this is an unpopular assertion, given the times that we live in, but remember, ladies and gentlemen, that the body of Christ exists in more countries than the United States and its allies. There are Christians suffering and dying by the thousands in many nations around the world, including the Middle East, and I am sure that almost all of them would tell you that they are not dying for the benefit of a "free people" or "democracy" but simply because their allegiance to the Lord outweighs their allegiance to their governments.

Ladies and gentlemen, for 300 years Christianity was persecuted by the Roman Empire, and for 300 years, Christians submitted to the swords, axes, and fires of their executioners without duress--not because they were weak but because they knew that their bodies and souls belonged to another Ruler who would resurrect them, as He resurrected Himself . . .



It is my belief that postmodern Christians come to concepts such as "Antichrist" in the Bible with an understanding that is firmly rooted in the perspective of this world. Instead of understanding "Antichrist" as a spirit, a "power of this dark world" and a "spiritual force of evil in the heavenly realms," we instead understand him as some sort of evil dictator who rules the world in the same way that evil dictators in the movies do: through military force. And it is because of this understanding that we fail to see Antichrist at work in so many of our churches.

The first reference we see in the Bible to "Antichrist" appears in 1 John 2:18-19:

Dear children, this is the last hour, and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us, but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

Note that John's main focus in this passage is not on the future but on the present. Antichrist "is coming," but "even now" Antichrist is active and at work--not in the military and political affairs of John's world but within the church.

John clearly identifies Antichrist as a spirit manifested in certain people, a spirit that is active within the church. He says that those who operated in the spirit of Antichrist "went out from us" but "did not really belong to us," signifying that one of the traits of this spirit is to do something "good" or "beneficial" in order to present itself as godly or God-driven. John says further that if they had been real Christians, they would have remained with John and the other apostles rather than going out on their own, but instead, they went out on their own, without the permission of the apostles.

1 John 20-25 outlines the specific qualities of Antichrist, and of the believer in Christ:

But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist—he denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he promised us—even eternal life.

John says specifically here that those who deny that Jesus is the Christ (the Messiah) are "Antichrist"--but how do you deny that Jesus is the Christ? Not simply through words, it is clear from 1 John 2:18-19, but through lack of submission to His apostles.

You see, Christ submitted Himself to the Father, even unto death, as Paul so eloquently writes in Philippians 2, and hence, the mark of the believer in Christ is submission as well--to Christ and to the word of God.

Those who are not submitted to Christ and the word of God, we can infer from the above passage, do not have eternal life.

1 John 2:26-27 ends the discussion by articulating John's purpose in coining the term "Antichrist":

I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.

Again, John identifies representatives of "Antichrist" as operatives within the church--in his words "those who are trying to lead you astray."



I think that by now, ladies and gentlemen, you can see my point. It is the same one I have been making for several posts now: A believer in Christ does not long for anything in this world because he or she is a citizen of a better one. It only remains for believers to share with others the truth they themselves have received, and to win souls for Christ.

We live in a church culture today that would, I fear, prefer to win souls for itself. Pastors, radio talk show hosts, and televangelists center their sermons on non-confrontational topics such as grace or legalism (without defining very effectively what these terms mean) in order to attract more parishioners, more listeners, and more viewers. The result is a generation of people who have trouble seeing the difference between loyalty to their church and loyalty to Christ . . . and who are becoming increasingly apathetic toward both.



My wife and I are believers in Christ . . . but we do not attend church. We tried several churches in the Dallas-Fort Worth area before moving to Lancaster, South Carolina, but all of them exhibited the same spirit that John was describing in his letter--the unsubmissive spirit of Antichrist. The one congregation we found that evidenced the Spirit of Christ was, oddly enough, a small Orthodox Christian church--there were clear lines of authority, and it was obvious that the priest of that church was submitted in his heart to the Lord, Christ Jesus. It was the first time in a long while (years) that either one of us felt truly free inside a church building.

I know that some of you will read this and think I am endorsing Orthodox Christianity as the solution to America's spiritual problems. Unfortunately, it seems that Orthodox Christianity has its share of dead churches and equally dead parishioners as well (as my wife and I discovered when we researched the denomination further).

All I am saying is that the search for a real, vibrant group of believers in Christ who are really and truly born again is increasingly taking people like us in directions outside the realm of traditional Protestant Christianity. I wish I could say this was a good thing, but the fact is, it only evidences the sad reality that many, if not most, American churches are repositories of doctrines that John and the other apostles would have found dubious, if not repugnant.

There is a lot of bad teaching going on out there, just as there was in John's time, and believers in Christ need, more than ever, to find good resources. In the next few weeks, I will add a few that my wife and I found to the "links" section of this blog--and I would appreciate any feedback from other bloggers on Christian resources for new believers as well. Part of the reason I started this blog, after all, was so that other people wouldn't have to struggle quite as much as my wife and I did when we received Christ.

Our hope, ladies and gentlemen, is not in this world.

The life and possibilities we can have in Christ Jesus are truly endless.

Exodus 12:43-49: God's Warning to Those of Us Who Compromise

In this post, I'd like to focus on the last portion of Exodus 12 (yes, I know there was more on the Passover commandments than you anticipated), and while I think it would be sweet and somewhat soothing for my readers to look at verse 46 ("It must be eaten inside one house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones.") and its relationship to the crucifixion of our Savior, the ultimate Passover Lamb whose bones were not broken as He gave Himself freely for our deliverance from sin, I will instead focus on the following, which begins the portion of scripture that will serve as our text:

No foreigner is to eat of it. Any slave you have bought may eat of it after you have circumcised him, but a temporary resident and a hired worker may not eat of it.

What does that mean?

Simply this: in order to partake of the Passover, you had to be consecrated, part of the Lord's elect, His chosen nation. Anyone who was not a part of the Lord's nation did not have the right--either in God's sight or in the sight of God's people--to engage in the celebration.

Ladies and gentlemen, we live in a society today in which churches regularly "water down" the Bible, Christ, and Christianity in order, so they say, to be "relevant"--in other words, to attract new parishioners who will, it is hoped, enlarge the church rosters, donate generously to church projects, and provide some semblance of legitimacy. Youth groups, even in many so-called conservative churches today, are little more than dating scenes with a few Bible verses, guitars, and "hallelujahs" thrown in. College ministries are, in many cases, pairing ministries, in which young men and women play a game of relational "musical chairs" until the odd man or woman out is forced to "live a life of chastity" as everyone else strolls off, arm in arm with his/her future spouse, into the sunset . . . and into a life of meaningless superchurch attendance, shallow faith, and a suburban pseudo-Christianity that looks an awful lot like the feckless materialism so endorsed by other, more pagan elements of our society.

It really is amazing to me that so many professing Christians in the United States fail to see the glaring inconsistencies of a religious culture that publishes a lot of books, music CD's, and even (it seems) special movies about Jesus but which also happily sends its children off to public schools, endorses a home life which forces the man to spend 8 or more hours a day away from his wife, and acquires every bit as many technological gadgets, entertainment devices, and other toys as its atheistic and/or pagan counterparts.

Worse, many of the very denizens of this church culture balk at basic ideas which are found in the Bible, such as the fact that sin is not only wrong but is not to be tolerated in those who would educate others in the way of Christ, the infallibility of scripture, and (yes, I know a lot of you will want to dispute me on this point) the premise that the Earth is, in fact, only 6000 years old. I can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that scripture supports, vigorously, each of these points, and I suppose that at some point the time will come when I will devote several posts to each of them, but for now, I would simply like to emphasize that there is a very sharp dividing line between those who have unflinchingly given their hearts, bodies, and souls to Christ and those who merely use Christ's name to gain for themselves good social standing.

The Lord was very serious about who could participate in the Passover celebration, and is even more serious about who can celebrate the resurrection of Christ Jesus. I believe two scripture passages from the New Testament will serve to illustrate this point:

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.

1 Corinthians 11:23-32, emphases mine

It is important to note that Paul meant "died" when he said "fallen asleep"--this is corroborated by other passages in the New Testament which phrase death as "sleep" or "falling asleep."

Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife's full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles' feet.

Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? 4Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God."

When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. Then the young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.

About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, "Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?"

"Yes," she said, "that is the price."

Peter said to her, "How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also."

At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.

Acts 5:1-11

I understand that the second passage I quoted does not specifically refer to the celebration of what we in the United States call communion, but think about it for a moment: Ananias and Sapphira lived in a community in which everyone shared everything in common, and in which believers in Christ were routinely ostracized. Don't you think that in this environment, Ananias and Sapphira probably celebrated the Passover and Christ's Last Supper along with the other believers? I think so, and I think this is why their sin was all the more grievous--it was a betrayal not only of finances but of heart and soul and blood, a stab in the back to friends, comrades, and to the very God whose Son they had so willingly accepted as their Savior.

I am afraid that the professionalization of most of America's seminaries has led to the rise of aliens and strangers not only in the body of Christianity but within its very leadership. I would like to be able to say that most of us do not know who these aliens and strangers are, but the sad fact is that all too many of us are well aware. And out of concern for popularity or fear or simple lack of determination, we just don't want to confront them.



At this point, I'm sure some of you are reading this post and thinking, "This guy is proposing that we engage in a postmodern spiritual witch hunt."

No.

That is not how you "confront" a leader within your church circles whom you know is not a real partaker of the body and blood of Christ.

What I am instead urging is that you treat such people within your denomination or home church the same way that you would treat anyone else who is not a believer in Christ: Lead them there, through prayers, through the winsomeness of Christ inside of you, and through the truth of God's Word, articulated in the power of unconditional love.

It works very well for the hard-core cocaine or pornography addict, and it has just as much power with a man or woman pretending to be a Christian. I know because I was such a man, and I was constantly driven to my knees by people around me who exemplified Christ and worshipped Him. I know now that to be a part of the body of Christ is more than to recite a prayer, attend church regularly, or even read my Bible--it is, in essence, to be a member of something beyond "cause" or "body" or "self." Believers in Christ--real believers--know instinctually who their brethren are, both past and present. It is as Paul wrote so many centuries ago:

There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Ephesians 4:4-6

It follows, then, that those who are in the body of Christ have a bond with one another that goes beyond body and soul, and that each and every one of them would know, at least on a subconscious level, who is and is not a real Christian. (This verse, by the way, is not the only verse I can cite from the New Testament as either articulating or demonstrating this principle--for further information, I would encourage you to read the book of Acts and the Gospels of John and Luke.)



To those of you out there who are reading this post and are wondering, for whatever reason, if you are a real Christian or not, there is a very clear distinction between a "born again" (see John 3) believer in Christ and a non-believer who simply echoes the words and phrases of the Bible (and of the institutional church) without attaching any meaning or substance to them. It is my contention that anyone who is indeed a member of "the Lord's nation" as I phrased it at the beginning of this post already knows, even if only at a subconscious, instinctual level, who the real believers are . . . but we live in a world which has, for the most part, divested itself of any serious discussion of spiritual topics in relationship to religion in general (or Christianity in particular), so I would like to present a brief sequence of points at which you can see this divide between the Christian and the pseudo-Christian playing itself out:

1. Real Christians are holy.

I always heard, and from reputable as well as disreputable sources, that the word translated as "holy" in the Bible means "set apart," and this interpretation, I think, is borne out by the simple fact that in the Bible, anything that is holy is to be treated with great reverence and respect, over and above what one would do for objects that are common or ordinary. If a Christian is holy, then we must assume that Christians are (1) treated as if they are holy, even at an unconscious level, by those around them and (2) that they act, speak, think, and make decisions in ways that are different than those of their non-believing friends, relatives, or coworkers.

This second part is very important, because it is not a conscious or affected approach to life. Real Christians act, speak, think, and make decisions differently without even noticing, at times, that they are doing so--it is simply part of who they are.

2. Real Christians evangelize.

I understand that when most of you hear the word "evangelize," you think of those people who stand on street corners or who go door to door and pass out pamphlets--but this is not the essence of evangelism as it is presented in the Bible. You see, those who are part of the Lord's nation focus first on evangelizing their families.

1 Timothy 3:4-5, in the context of church leadership, articulates this principle very well:

He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God's church?)

In other words, what Paul was implying was that all Christians, regardless of whether or not they were bishops, deacons, elders, or simple laity, had, as first priority, the winning of their families to Christ. This will not be news to those of you who actually received Christ as your Lord and Savior and gave freely of your hearts, bodies, and souls to Him--after all, who were the first people you came to with your testimony? They were, of course, your family and closest friends.

Again, this is not a deliberate activity--it is, instead, an unconscious one. The first thing that a new believer with a broken family does is try to pray for that family, just as the first thing a new believer with an unbelieving family does is witness to his/her brothers, sisters, parents, and children. More often than not, real believers in Christ succeed in convincing their families to commit themselves to Christ as well.

3. Real Christians are Christ-like.

This is the one that is most evident to anyone who is "of the world." You see, people who are not in Christ lie, cheat, steal, and bulldoze their way through life, not because they necessarily mean to be evil most of the time but because this world is all they have and all they really know. It is a shock to them that someone would tell the truth, deal fairly with others, and share of themselves, even when it is not to their advantage--but you see, this is what Christ did even as a matter of course throughout His life.

You may say, "Well, Christ could afford to be a little lowly," and that is true . . . but it is also true of the believer in Christ.

I'll share an example from my own personal life: I tend to be a fairly "meek" person most of the time, and I don't always (or even sometimes) exhibit the "killer instinct" that a lot of people express in the workplace or in school in order to get ahead of others. I know this makes me vulnerable in the eyes of some, and yes, I have been taken advantage of, both personally and professionally, by people who have used what they saw as my "naivete" against me, but . . . I don't really care about this world. Its charms, its possessions, and its entertainments are nothing to me because I know that my life is going to end someday, and whatever the Lord has planned for me then will be far more beautiful, captivating, and mesmerizing than anything this pathetic excuse for an existence has to offer.

If you can't say in your heart that you love Christ more than you love the paltry things of this life, then you may be interested to know that even in the Old Testament, there was provision for those who were aliens and who wanted to participate in the Passover celebration.

Exodus 12:48 says

An alien living among you who wants to celebrate the LORD's Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised. Then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat of it.

Or, to put it in terms more applicable to the world we live in 2000 years after Christ's resurrection

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.

If you have been reading this post and know in your heart that you are not a real Christian, then you also know deep inside that you are a sinner. Romans 10:9 provides 2 preconditions for your salvation:

1. You must confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord."

2. You must believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead.

Paul goes on to say in the next verse that "it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved."

So I leave you with these questions:

Do you believe God raised Jesus from the dead?

Are you willing to allow Jesus to be Lord of your life?

Blood: The Essence of Salvation

Our text in this post will be Exodus 12:21-27, continuing the regulations for the celebration of the first Passover which are outlined in this chapter:

Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin, and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. Not one of you shall go out the door of his house until morning. When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.

"Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, 'What does this ceremony mean to you?' then tell them, 'It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.' "

Blood.

It is a central, indeed critical, element of both Christianity and the ancient Israelite understanding of God, and I am afraid that in our culture, it has lost almost all of its meaning. Westerners--both "Christian" and Jew--revel in the fact that they do not have to kill innocent animals for the sake of pleasing their God, and yet look at how bloody human history has become in the wake of this "freedom." In the past 100 years alone, we have killed more of our brethren--soldier and civilian, male and female, born and unborn--than all of our ancestors put together, and the reckless abandon with which we approach murder has not shown any signs of abating.

What a sad commentary.

I'm not saying that we should reinstitute a system of animal sacrifice--the Bible is very clear that in the wake of Christ's atonement, such a reinstitution would be meaningless--but I am calling into question the extent to which we shy away from something that is very central to both the Christian and ancient Hebrew understandings of God.

Blood is real. It is a core part of any life--human or animal--and if you take away the blood of a human being or animal, you have destroyed life.

Leviticus 17:10-12 clearly articulates God's feelings on this matter:

Any Israelite or any alien living among them who eats any blood—I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from his people. For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar. It is the blood that makes atonement for one's life. Therefore I say to the Israelites, "None of you may eat blood, nor may an alien living among you eat blood."

Blood is so important to God that innocent blood shed by another human being brings judgment from heaven. Genesis 4:10-12 says that, in answer to Cain's attempt to conceal his brother's murder in the face of an all-seeing God,

The LORD said, "What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth."

And in Genesis 9:6, we hear the Lord saying that "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God has God made man."

Ladies and gentlemen, I wonder how meaningful all of this is in a world that represents the shedding of human blood in movies, television, and video games as a casual, even enjoyable, affair. Statistics tell us that, on average, a child in our entertainment saturated society will have witnessed thousands of murders by the time he or she reaches adulthood. In fact, it is even possible that a child in our videogame rich society will have, by simulation, engaged in thousands of murders by the time he or she reaches adulthood.

Do you think this bodes well for the future of the United States?

I know that, to some of you, those words may seem a bit extreme, but let me ask you this: If someone has been trained from childhood to look upon the shedding of virtual blood as a casual enterprise, do you think they will shrink from the prospect of shedding real blood if the occasion be desperate enough and the action suitable to their purposes? And even if they do not commit murder in the sense of sneaking up behind someone in the middle of the night and stabbing that person to death, do you think that they will shrink from doing other things that will be less gruesome in appearance, yet have the same effect?

I spent 4 years tutoring students in writing at Texas Christian University, and in that time, I saw a lot of people--most of whom were majors in business or some related field, but some of whom were majors in other disciplines--whose concern, or even attention, to the impact that their future decisions might have on others was sorely lacking. It seems that, to many of our nation's up and coming business professionals, slashing salaries and benefits, to say nothing of outsourcing and simple exploitation of Third World labor, have a legitimate role in what they would call "making a company more efficient." Building relationships with their co-workers, treating their employees as human beings, these are increasingly going by the wayside, lost to a decidedly hostile spirit of greed and self-service.

I'm sorry to say this, ladies and gentlemen, but shedding someone's blood through the stroke of a pen is still shedding someone's blood, even if you didn't use a hatchet or a knife.



The principle to be learned in the scripture from Exodus 12, indeed the principle that is articulated over and over again in both the Old and New Testaments is simply this:

Sin has consequences.

You may not agree with me on this point, and that's all right--after all, I would have laughed at someone saying the same thing a couple of years ago myself--but let's look at a few examples:

When I log onto the internet and surf around, looking for pornography, if I am married, I am betraying my spouse's trust in me, and if I am single, I am destroying any semblance of awe and wonder I would have taken into the marriage bed. Either way, I am not hurting only myself.

When I snort cocaine, looking for that next high, I am cutting myself off from my friends and saying that my finances are at the beck and call of the next pusher that comes my way. So what happens when I have a family or a loved one who is depending on me for some financial support--to say nothing of love, care, and energy? Yes, that's right--I have just hurt someone other than myself.

When I steal, even in order to shoplift, I may think I am "sticking it" to some faceless corporation, but in reality, I am preventing someone else from having whatever I stole. That's the principle of stealing, after all: I want no one else to have what I want, so I'm just going to take it. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that's hurting someone else.

When I lie, even to myself, I am hurting every man, woman, and child who puts their trust in me.

When I shirk my responsibilities, I make it that much harder for everyone else to fulfill theirs.

When I lust after a woman who does not belong to me, I am seeking to rob myself and her of a happy life with happy relationships so that I can enjoy a few moments of selfish pleasure.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, sin has consequences.

I didn't even talk about Hell, which is a subject we will cover later on, after we have finished tackling God's commandments in the Torah, but of course the Bible is clear that there is a final judgment, and all souls who have lived in sin throughout the number of their days will experience a torment far worse than any we can experience in this life.

But I wanted to indicate to you in this post very strongly that the consequences of sin affect others in this life. You may not want to accept that, you may want to switch to another blog after reading this, but the fact is that your sin hurts other people, indeed everyone around you, and that is why the God of the Bible is so adamantly against sin.

Ladies and gentlemen, that is why we have the ultimate sacrifice, the Cross of Christ Jesus. His blood, shed for the remission of sins, poured out in streams on that wooden crucifix, making pools in the ground for you and for your atonement. You don't have to suffer the weight of bloodguilt for all the wicked things you've ever done in your life--that's what the blood of the Cross is for.

In the New Testament, Christ Jesus is referred to over and over as "the Lamb," and this is something very meaningful when you consider the original Passover regulations, because a Passover lamb had to be eaten in one night, signifying a new life freed from bondage to slavery, and the blood of the Passover lamb was used to indicate that the owner of the house was a Hebrew and therefore not subject to judgment.



I took some time to research the hyssop plant, mentioned in Exodus 12:22,

Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin, and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. Not one of you shall go out the door of his house until morning.

and what I found was very interesting. All of the websites I looked up, including several botanical sites, indicated that the plant has certain healing qualities as an herb.

I'm not a fan of Wikipedia--as a resource, it is fairly hit or miss--but the following paragraph from Wikipedia describes the healing qualities of the hyssop plant in a way that is somewhat easier for the layman to understand:

Hyssop also has medicinal properties which are listed as including expectorant, carminative, relaxes peripheral blood vessels, promotes sweating, anti-inflammatory, anti-catarrhal, antispasmodic. Its active constituents are volatile oil, flavonoids, tannins and bitter substance (marrubin). A strong tea made from the leaves and flowering tops is used in lung, nose and throat congestion and catarrhal complaints, and externally it can be applied to bruises, to reduce the swelling and discolouration. An old English country remedy for cuts and wounds suffered while working in the fields was to apply a poultice of bruised hyssop leaves and sugar in order to reduce the risk of tetanus infection. An essential oil made from hyssop increases alertness and is a gently relaxing nerve tonic suitable for treating nervous exhaustion, overwork, anxiety and depression. The Herb Society's "Complete Medicinal Herbal" cautions however that "the essential oil contains the ketone pino-camphone which in high doses can cause convulsions. Do not take more than the recommended dose."

Isn't it interesting, also, that hyssop became a part of Christ's crucifixion? In his account of Jesus' last moments on the Cross, John provides for us the following vivid portrait of a longsuffering, merciful Savior:

Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty." A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (John 19:28-30)

The very stick on which the sponge that the soldiers used to give Jesus something to drink rested was from the hyssop plant. It seems that on this Passover of Passovers, when the Lamb of lambs was sacrificed, hyssop was again dipped in blood, not only for the freedom of the Jews but for the freedom of every man, woman, and child on the Earth.

Yes, your sin hurts other people, but my friend, it doesn't have to go on that way. Through Christ Jesus, you can be freed. Through Christ Jesus, you can be brought into a new world. Through Christ Jesus, the incredible weight and bloodguilt of your sin can be atoned for.

I know these are ancient, meaningless words to a lot of you--I sat through sermons on the atoning sacrifice of Christ Jesus myself years ago and ignored every word I heard--but for some of you, they may be everything you needed. We hear so often on the conservative radio today that America is a Christian nation, but I think that if we examine our hearts and look at the Bible, we will find that we are far more lost than we ever could have imagined.

Don't rest on your church membership or your casual adoption of the name "Christian." The Lord whose name you invoke will not accept anything less than a soul willing to turn away from sin.

The blood of Christ is crying out for your soul.

Are you going to listen?

The Festival of Unleavened Bread: Testament to a Sick and Dying Church

Our text in this post shall be Exodus 12:14-20, and I'd like you to follow along very slowly (yes, even as a reader) because there is something here, I believe, of major importance for the majority of American Christians today.

This is a day you are to commemorate. For the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD, a lasting ordinance. For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat—that is all you may do.

Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is an alien or native-born. Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.

Let me start, ladies and gentlemen, by calling our memories back to another verse from the same chapter, Exodus 12:11

This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste. It is the LORD's Passover.

On the night that the Israelites were freed from the bondage of Egyptian slavery, the Lord provided for them a way to leave the country with full stomachs--by eating the Passover lamb (which we will talk about more later) and by eating the Passover bread. The firstborn of all Egypt, from the firstborn of the domestic servant to the firstborn of Pharaoh, were all killed by the Lord in one night--but those Israelites who put hyssop (dipped in blood) on their doorposts were to stand out as a people whom the Lord chose for His good and holy purposes (see Exodus 12:1-10).

Now, let us go back to those words: "Eat it in haste."

What does that mean?

Well, the very next morning, all the neighbors of the Israelites, the Egyptians who had been holding them in bondage, were so anxious for them (and their God) to leave the country, and so despondent over the loss of so many dear children over Pharaoh's stubbornness, that they literally ushered them off their land, giving them whatever they wanted just so they would go. The Israelites, therefore, had to leave in haste--and the night before, as you can imagine, was one in which they knew the seriousness of what they were about to enter into as a people. From that night on, they would be uprooted, never again to know the predictable terrors and comforts of generational slavery.

Yes, you read that right. I said "terrors and comforts"--because the same generation that walked out of Egypt the next morning with their heads held high was the one that grumbled against Moses, and God, for taking them away from a life in which they had beds to lie in, houses to work in, and regular allotments of food.

What does that have to do with unleavened bread, you may ask?

Well, ladies and gentlemen, as all of us who grew up in country homes can tell you, the process of leavening bread--i.e. the process of putting in that wonderful yeast that makes dough rise and acquire that wonderful fluffy texture to which you and I are so accustomed--takes a lot of time. It takes several hours for "leaven" (or yeast) to do its work, and all of this must happen before the dough is baked (another hour). There is absolutely no way that a couple preparing to leave in haste would be able to allow themselves the luxury of waiting until a batch of dough had risen before baking it, particularly when one considers the other main element of the Passover meal: the lamb.

This scene was to be reenacted every year by each and every household in the community of Israel. Why? Because every year, it was to serve as a reminder that, while not always comfortable, their lives would be free. The Israelites were to have a living (or at least edible) testimony every year that the Lord knew what their needs would be before they even asked, and that He would always be there to provide for those needs.

What a wonderful picture this is of the Lord's goodness . . . and how little even those of us who call ourselves Christians grasp it today.

In Matthew 16:6, we read the following words of Jesus, which I'm afraid are often misunderstood in today's American Christian context:

Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Later on, Jesus explains to the disciples that he is speaking metaphorically, since they at first assumed he was chiding them for not bringing any bread with them. (Ladies and gentlemen, we love to laugh at the disciples and their "tomfoolery," but we in the 21st century United States are no better.) However, the meaning and symbolism of Jesus' words are lost to us unless we first take the time to examine Exodus 12.

You see, the Pharisees had a very simple problem, one that every facet of American Christianity suffers from today: They assumed that the worldly systems and structures that kept them in place as respected members of their society would always remain, even unto the end of the age.

They were comfortable, they were complacent, and they had no inkling that the Roman system which allowed them to serve as honored men would only last as long as those in charge of that system wanted it to. Approximately 30-40 years after Jesus' resurrection, not only the priesthood but the nation of Judea itself were destroyed by the Roman emperors, resulting in what we have today come to call the Diaspora, or dispersal of Judeans (or "Jews") across Europe.

Much of American Christianity is in the same boat, ladies and gentlemen, and it pains me to watch people in conservative Christian circles talk as if the systems and structures of the United States are eternal, both in significance and longevity. Christian radio talk show hosts urge their listeners to vote, to write their congressmen, to march in political rallies, as if the American political system can always be trusted to serve Christian ends. They talk of supporting our troops and refer to military enterprises currently under way in the Middle East as if they were "our wars" fought by "our boys."

Ladies and gentlemen, I am all for loving our troops--as I am all for loving Osama bin Laden, Sheikh Nasrallah, and Iranian President Ahmadinejad. The Bible says, after all, that we are supposed to love our neighbors, and I believe Jesus' parable of the good Samaritan served as ample answer--then and now--of who our "neighbors" are.

I also believe in praying for our nation's leaders. Paul wrote in Romans 13:1 that "there is no authority except that which God has established," and this principle is clearly articulated throughout the Bible. I think it is also important for us to remember that Paul wrote those words in a world in which his own people were subjugated by a pagan empire that invented methods of torture and execution (including the cross) which were designed to prolong the victim's life as long as possible, with as much pain and suffering as possible. Whether the governing political authorities in a particular nation are "just" or "unjust" in the eyes of the world has no bearing on whether or not a Christian should submit to them--the Bible is very clear that to rise up in bloody rebellion is not only to disobey men but to disobey God.

No, ladies and gentlemen, what I object to is the whimsical attitude with which war and economic exploitation and, worst of all, nationalism are associated in the minds of most Americans with serving the Lord. Is this not the same Lord who, when His disciples attempted to strike his captors, rebuked them with the words "all who draw the sword will die by the sword" (Matthew 26:52)? Is this not the same Lord who reached out his hand to a Roman soldier--a member of the same army that would later crucify Him--and heal that soldier's slave (Matthew 8:5-13)? Is this not the same Lord who lifted up not one finger in anger against those who called him a servant of the devil, a drunkard, a glutton, and a madman?

Ladies and gentlemen, I submit to you that the life we are offered in Christ is more than a comfortable life in a suburb, surrounded by friends who vote the same way we do, wear the same clothes we wear, and (probably) attend the same church we do. Christ said "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" (Matthew 19:24 and Mark 10:25), and that is as true today as it was 2000 years ago.

Are you willing to enter the alleyways and search out the homeless, the wanderers, the prostitutes, and the drug addicts in order to show them that there is a Savior and that, yes, they are worthy of love?

Are you willing to walk into a poor neighborhood in your city and share the same kind of warmth, smiles, and love that you share with your middle class neighbors in the cul-de-sac?

Are you willing to go to a country in which Islam is the main religion and risk life, fortune, and blood to win souls for the Lord, Christ Jesus?

Ladies and gentlemen, the American church today is full of leaven. We are too comfortable, too fat, too lazy to see a world of pain outside our doorstep, and the hurting souls that cry out day and night, "Where is the one who will tell me of a reason to go on living?" We don't want to leave our homes in haste, as the Israelites did for their Lord--in fact, we don't want to leave our homes at all.

A nation in which 80% of the people claim to be Christians while families and marriages are breaking apart in droves and children--born and unborn--are dying because of a pronounced lack of love in their culture is a nation which is an embarassment to Christ, not a testimony. We had better get on our knees, my friends, and beg the God of Heaven, and the Father of our Lord, Christ Jesus, to make us new creations and to spare our land from the measure of wrath which is assuredly being stored up against it. This land is bleeding--and the blood is crying out to God for vengeance, and the Lord is looking to us for answers (see Genesis 4:7-8)

We cannot afford to be complacent anymore. The system that has become so comfortable for us to live in is going to self-destruct in approximately 10-20 years, and the next generation, I'm afraid, is ill-equipped to take leadership in this country, either political or spiritual. We are simply out of room, ladies and gentlemen, and whether we like it or not, the Lord is going to call everyone who professes the name of Christ to take some steps into an economic and spiritual wilderness, just as the Lord called the Israelites to walk into a physical wilderness so many millennia ago.

It's time to separate the men from the boys (or the women from the girls, if you prefer). Are you willing to let go of the political and economic systems and structures of this world for the Lord, or is your allegiance to Christ only skin deep? You may think I'm harsh for asking this question in such blunt terms, and maybe I am, but my friend, it is better for you to find out where your loyalties really are here and now than for you to find out the hard way in a time when Christ and His people may not be so popular anymore.

Where is your loyalty?

Who (or what) does your heart really belong to?