Follow Me - Matthew 9:9

“As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, 'Follow Me.'  So he arose and followed Him.'” - Matthew 9:9

    The Greek word for “follow” is ‘akoloutheo” - to accompany. Christ beckoned Matthew to accompany Him and Matthew immediately did so. There was no hesitation, no pause, no doubt. Jesus beckoned Matthew and in a like manner did so with all the Apostles. He chose these ordinary men. “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.” - John 15:16 The message is apparent: no one can come to Christ unless he is first called!
    There are a great many who believe that “making a decision for Christ” is the way to salvation. But how can this be? If holy scripture is inerrant then how can one reconcile how we can possibly  “make a decision for Christ,” if it is God who must first choose us? “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,” - Ephesians 1:3-5.
    Scripture tells us that no man will ever of his own ‘free will,’ choose God. “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” - Romans 7:8. Those in the flesh can neither please God nor ‘choose’ God! So God in His infinite mercy chooses those whom He wills to be saved for no other reason than His own good pleasure. Once God’s grace has been bestowed upon us we are then willing and able to accept Jesus Christ. Once filled by the Holy Spirit we are now capable of making that greatest of choices. “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,” - Titus 3:5.
     And just as Matthew and the Apostles willingly responded to the call of Christ we do the same. Not unless and until we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit can we or will we ever choose God. In all things give thanks to our Lord Jesus , the Christ -  the God Who Saves!

A Savior Is Born - Luke 1: 46-50

And Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; for behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation.”- Luke 1: 46-50
   
    Mary, the mother of our Lord, Jesus, had traveled to spend some time with her cousin Elizabeth, prior to the birth of her cousin’s child, John. Elizabeth greeted Mary, calling her “blessed’ and questioned why the mother of the Lord would come to her. God had so filled both of these women that there was the unquestioned presence of the Holy Spirit within each of them. Elizabeth knew the child she was carrying was to be a Spirit-filled man yet she also knew the child within her sister was the promised Messiah, “the Lord.”
    Mary responded to her cousin with “The Magnificat,” her song of praise.
    In many ways we should all echo Mary’s praise. We rejoice in God our Savior. He is mighty who has done great things for us. His mercy is on those who fear Him.   
    As a Christmas message we can all take confidence in a Savior who is for us and done great things for us. “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” - Romans 8:31. We know we have God’s mercy because we fear Him, and rightfully so because our God is an awesome God! “And I said: ‘I pray, Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments,’” - Nehemiah 1:5.
    Mary glorifies God as she realizes she has been chosen to give birth to her Savior, to our Savior! There is spiritual power in her song to God. She is expressing her joy, her faith, and her thanks to Him with humility and  reverence! And the most amazing thing is that as she did so “the Savior” was but a growing infant in her blessed womb. Not yet a swaddled infant, the Savior of the world, our King, our Lord, Jesus “the Christ” was yet to be born. Is there any wonder that Elizabeth’s child “leaped in her womb” upon their meeting? The utter power and strength of the Spirit of God was at work in Mary’s life and the life of her child even before His birth! This is the power of the Living God - that even before our prayers and supplications He is at work within our souls. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.” - Ephesians 1:3-6. What is not to praise?
    Within Mary grew the child who would walk on water, heal the sick, raise the dead, and become the Savior of God’s people! Could God have done it differently? God can do anything but He chose to send His Son to be like us - to save us. “Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” - Hebrews 2:17. 
    While Mary carried the unborn Savior from Immaculate Conception to birth, the Spirit of God was breathing holiness within her. That absolute perfect holiness took the form of the Son of Man, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! God bless us all and may we all have a Merry Christmas!
           

The Needle In the Haystack - 2 Timothy 4:3-4

   For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. - 2 Timothy 4:3-4

    What could be harder to find than a needle in a haystack? A church which follows sound theological doctrine. Don’t believe it? Just walk into a local church on any given Sunday morning with a pad and a pen. Now note every time you hear the minister say any of these words: hell, judgment, wrath, sin, punishment - you get the picture. But I think the ink in your pen will dry up before you ever get to use it.
    Far too many ministers today want to “tickle” their congregation’s ears. “Don’t want to upset them because, after all, their tithings put me in that new Lexus!” The false teachers will always be with us but the deeper problem, I believe, lies in the hearts of the congregation.
    In the subject verse, Paul is referring to the people, not the false teachers; “they” are the people. And these people are intent on finding a ministry where their erroneous understanding of Christianity is pandered to by an unscrupulous preacher. None of these “Christians” could sit for more than a minute in the churches of Jonathan Edwards or Charles Spurgeon. These people want to feel good about themselves when they walk out of church; they don’t want to feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
    Where do people first encounter this worldly doctrine of high self-esteem? The media, the government, the educational system, the popular culture. It surrounds us from the cradle to the coffin; it is everywhere! Is it any wonder that these people are bringing their preconceived notions of self-worth and their positive affirmations into the house of God? Christ, Himself, said as much. “When Jesus heard that, He said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.’” - Matthew 9:12-13.
    When you inject a pandering minister into this already poisoned atmosphere you wind up with a false teacher preaching falsehoods to an erroneously self-absorbed congregation who spend less time considering the precious blood of Jesus Christ and their eternal salvation than they did deciding what to wear to church today!
    The state of many churches in the world today appears to be a pretty bleak picture when viewed from this perspective. But, it is what it is. All joy is not legitimate joy. All praise is not worthy of God, no matter how loud or flamboyant it is. If this sounds eerily familiar to you perhaps it is time to reassess whether or not your minister or pastor abides by the instructions of Paul to the teachers - “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.” - 2 Timothy 4:2.

Strong Hearts - Psalm 27:14

“Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.” - Psalm 27:14

    We are often forced to be patient. Sitting in traffic, we bristle with impatience. Standing in line at the check-out counter we drum our fingers, hoping those “ahead of us” will get the message. And how patient are we when we have been put . . . “on hold?” Patience truly is a virtue that few of us have managed to master. But the few things I mentioned are really inconsequential. What do we do when wait for an answer from God?
    There will be times in all our lives when we must be patient and wait for answers to the more perplexing questions and situations in our lives. At those times we need to put away our own selfish desires and await God’s input - God’s will for us.
    The Hebrew word for courage, “châzaq,” can be interpreted as ‘fasten’ or ‘cleave to.’ We are to fasten ourselves or cleave to the Lord! And there is no greater way to do so than by trusting Him, having faith in Him, and fervently praying to Him. Pray earnestly for God’s will to be done . . . not ours. And with such prayer we are told that God shall strengthen our hearts. And not only our hearts, but our resolve.
    “Wait on the Lord, and keep His way, and He shall exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you shall see it.” - Psalm 37:34
    We must ‘keep His way’, and we all know what the Lord’s way is. He has revealed it to us in His holy scripture. When we keep God’s way we glorify Him and is it not our highest goal to glorify the Lord?
    “I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me, and heard my cry.” - Psalm 40:1. God is always faithful to us to hear our prayers when we come to Him humbly through the one mediator between man and God - Jesus Christ! But we must be patient and wait on the Lord. By doing so we can be assured that He will reveal His will for us.
    When we are at a crossroad in our lives and our own resources fail us worrying won’t help us. Fretting over our next move freezes and immobilizes us, keeping us from making sound decisions. We must give our troubles to our heavenly Father - trust Him, have faith in Him, and pray to Him in our moments of uncertainty. Then and only then will we be able to say, “And it will be said in that day: ‘Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for Him; we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.’” - Isaiah 25:9
    May our hearts always be strengthened by the Lord.

It Is About Style: 2 Corinthians 6:17

“Therefore ‘Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.’” - 2 Corinthians 6:17

    “It’s not about the style,” they say; “It’s about the content.” Well in this case I have to disagree. It is about style and here is the biblical standard we need to pursue. I don’t care whether the style is rap music, rock,  pop, or the redundant and inane ‘praise chorus’ songs performed in many churches today. I don’t care whether it’s a puppet show, a juggling act, or role playing on stage. If we need these worldly devices to spread the word of God or to edify ourselves then what we are receiving is not the word of God!
    Paul borrowed from Isaiah 52:11 in an attempt to convince the Corinthians to part ways with “the world.” Such “extracurricular activities” do two things to the worship of God. 1) Despite the best intentions of the heart these songs and shows distract from the message. And, 2) because this type of worship is so often self-indulgent it lacks the reverence that God demands of our worship. I could be very wrong here but it appears there is an irreverent familiarity at play here. “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” - Romans 12:2.
    Note too that none of the Apostles, nor Jesus, Himself ever resorted to “song and dance” to spread the gospel! Paul and the Apostles preached the Good News of Christ’s saving act. Go through the history of the church and you will find nowhere that Augustine, Luther, or Calvin ever resorted to their time’s cultural modes of entertainment to preach the message of the cross!
Neither Edwards, nor Whitefield, nor Spurgeon ever brought out “the band” to fire up the crowd - they fired up the crowd by preaching the blood of Jesus Christ!
    No my friends, the Christian church today has fallen far away from the demands for holiness and reverence to God’s holy name. If people refuse to respond to the Word of God because it hasn’t been presented in a colorful form of entertainment for them then perhaps they were not meant to receive an ‘effectual calling.’ The Holy Spirit will regenerate those He will regenerate. “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. - 1 Corinthians 2:12.
    I am not suggesting for a moment that these worldly forms of worship cannot be reverent or respectful. It’s just that the temptation to fall away from the proper attitude for worship exhibits itself more frequently within these worldly modes.
    May our worship of our Heavenly Father always be full of reverence and respect.

Christ Never Gave An Altar Call - Matthew 16:24

    Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” - Matthew 16:24

    Here is a statement that we can hold firmly in our hearts: Jesus Christ never mislead anyone! He certainly never implied that following Him would be as easy as a leisurely stroll to the front of a crowd followed by the recitation of a simple prayer which would validate all the pain and suffering He went through to save us from an eternity in hell! No, Christ never suggested that following Him would be easy.
    Christ’s challenge to sinners was so provocative that it is repeated in all three of the Synoptic Gospels - Matthew, Mark, and Luke! He calls for us to “deny” ourselves. Deny ourselves? Surely the Lord must be mistaken! How could we ever deny our carnal desires. Isn’t there some simple prayer we can say to assure our salvation? Well, that’s what many of today’s evangelists would like for us to believe but nothing could be further from the truth. No where in all of Holy Scripture is such a prayer recommended, suggested, commanded, or endorsed! Jesus Christ didn’t willingly submit to the greatest torture and death ever devised by man so that we could insure our salvation by reciting something as lame as - “Jesus, I believe and I need the salvation you have provided. Come into my heart, rule my life today, and show me how to live. Amen.”
    I went to my doctor a couple of years ago and had some routine blood tests done. When I returned for a follow-up he informed me that I had Type 2 Diabetes. Imagine my surprise - I didn’t even know I was sick! So I asked him what I needed to do to “fix” my health. He suggested a harsh regimen including daily exercise, weight loss, and diet modification. I asked him if there wasn’t some simple pill I could take so I didn’t have to resort to his otherwise sever program. While I would need some oral medication, he assured me that without the other facets of the program I would still face the effects of the diabetes. In a word - “No!” There wasn’t a magic pill that I could take and continue in my former lifestyle unabated. I would have to deny myself many of the things I had grown accustomed to and comfortable with. My life was in need of a sever change, an austere change, if I wanted my health back. I had to deny myself. A simple pill wasn’t going to do it . . . and neither will a simple prayer!
    “For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” - Matthew 10:35-37.  Pretty harsh position; wouldn’t you agree? But Christ wasn’t commanding us to hate our families. He was using that example for its sheer shock value. Our families, for most of us, are our world. He was merely saying that anyone who loved the world more than He was not worthy of Him.
    Mark 10:21 reiterates the point - “Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” Again, Christ tells us that to follow Him we must give up our ties to the world, step out of our comfort zones, and take up our cross if we are to truly follow Him. Sound like a one pill (or prayer) fix?
    Christ never hints that accepting Him as LORD and Savior will be easy. He tells us the truth about the cost of discipleship because, as in Mark 10:21, He loves us.
    Jesus makes a further point that “easy believism”, the “one prayer and you’re there” method of many evangelical ministries today is NOT the cost of our discipleship - “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matthew 7:13-14. Difficulty marks the way to Christ. He never gave an altar call. How many people would rush to the altar if a hammer, cruel spikes, and a hard wooden cross was waiting for them rather than a prayer? Christ picked up His cross for us and we are expected to do the same. Our resolve will be tried and tested. There will be no one pill - there will be no one prayer. But the reward is eternal salvation!
    May the Holy Spirit forge strength of faith within us on the anvil of our hearts.

Providence Is the Dominion of God - Psalm 106:1

Praise the Lord! Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. - Psalm 106:1
    Today is the day set aside by President Lincoln in 1863 to be  a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens." In the words of  Secretary of State William Seward - “No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people.” - October 3rd, 1863.
    From the day of the first Thanksgiving by the Pilgrims in 1621 to the present, the intended purpose of this solemn celebration has always been and will always be to thank God for His providence to us. And while we certainly prepare for and work daily for the things we receive to our betterment, the glory and the honor of what we receive goes to God almighty. “The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but deliverance is of the Lord.” - Proverbs 21:31. While we prepare and work we rely on the goodness of God. How many times in our lives has the rain failed to fall? How many times have we fervently prayed for the skies to open up and send down the blessings of our Creator and Sustainer? Man, in his stubborn pride can believe in himself all he wants (the Humanist position). Nothing man can ever do will ever bring the rain! It will not rain until God wills it. Yes, deliverance is of the Lord! This is the essence of God’s “common grace.”
    To deny or ignore or scoff at the Lord’s good and faithful providence is blasphemous and often risks the very wrath of God . What did Lincoln and our predecessors know that we seem to have forgotten? “For she did not know that I gave her grain, new wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold—Which they prepared for Baal.  ‘Therefore I will return and take away My grain in its time and My new wine in its season, and will take back My wool and My linen, given to cover her nakedness.’” - Hosea 2:8-9.  God gives to us and He can take away from us as He pleases. We must remember that all we do or have or are is a gift from God. Our homes, our families, our jobs, our talents, our creativity, our blessings in general all come from a holy, loving, and merciful God without whom we would be crawling around in the dust and the mire along with the worms.  
    God provides for us because He loves us and knows what we need - “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” - Matt 6:26.
    When you need something ( I said, “NEED”, not want), petition God in prayer and thanks to fulfill your needs. Pray that your supplication meets His holy will for you. And remember -     “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;” - Philippians 4:6.
    Pray, and thank Him. Never forget to thank God, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. Thank Him for your circumstance. Thank Him for your children. Thank Him for your spouse. Thank Him for the very air you breathe. Thank Him for every good thing in your life. Veterans, thank Him for bringing you home from foreign wars! First responders, thank Him for bringing you home at the end of your shifts. Recovering addicts, thank Him for bringing you home through your personal hell. Unbelievers, thank Him for the common grace He bestows even upon you. New believers, thank Him for His effectual call!
    If we could but  remember on Thanksgiving and every day of our lives what Paul told the Thessalonians - “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.
    Have a blessed and a very happy Thanksgiving!