The Righteous Shall Live By Faith - Romans 1:17

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” - Romans 1:17

    Martin Luther was convinced that this was the lynchpin of Christianity. "This one and firm rock, which we call the doctrine of justification is the chief article of the whole Christian doctrine, which comprehends the understanding of all godliness. . .  it is clear and certain that this faith alone justifies us...Nothing of this article can be yielded or surrendered, even though heaven and earth and everything else falls.”
    This sentiment is voiced at least three other times, in the New Testament - Habakkuk 2:4, Galatians 3:11, and Hebrews 10:38. Truly, it is the bedrock of our Christianity. But exactly what does it mean?
    Prior to the birth of Christ, the Jewish nation was convinced that the only way to salvation was through works righteousness. That’s why there were so many ceremonial laws, sacrifices, and rituals within the Jewish faith. But Christ came to fulfill the Law. And upon doing so in a way that only the Son of God could, He ended the legalism associated with strict obedience and brought forth a New Covenant, one based not upon works but upon His atonement as a substitute for us sinners. After which all we need do is “live by faith” in Him. “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?’”- John 11:25-26.  Whoever ‘lives and believes’ shall never die.
    Ask anyone about a true believer and they will tell you that yes . . . that man or woman lives and believes what he or she says. Living and believing is the foundation of true faith. But we must look to another mark of that true faith and that mark is trust. We must trust what we live for and believe in, That is the essence of the passage - ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’
    We are facing a national emergency, a crisis of catastrophic proportions the likes of which we have never experienced in the nation. How we behave during this tragic time will be forever recorded in history. How will our reaction to this calamity paint the picture of us as a people, a civilization, a species? So in whom shall we place our lives? In whom shall we place our belief? In whom shall we place our faith? “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.” - Psalm 118:8.
    As our government leaders and world leaders struggle to get a handle on this terrible virus, let us remember that God is with us even through our worst times. He is with us now and He will be with us tomorrow without fail. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” Psalm 23:4.
    Our lives should be a reflection of our belief, trust, and faith in God. If it is not, then we are neither justified nor faithful. Stripping shelves bare so that others are denied their needs during a crisis is not the way Jesus would have behaved and neither is it a way to behave for those who claim to believe in Him. Let us show ourselves as righteous by our behavior and by our conduct. To do otherwise is to show our true colors and the true content of our hearts.
    May God bless us all, bless our nation, and bless our world as we face the greatest pandemic of our time. And may we treat one another as Jesus commanded - “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” - Matthew 7:12.

The Genesis of Righteous Anger - 1 Samuel 11:6

   
And the Spirit of God rushed upon Saul when he heard these words, and his anger was greatly kindled. - 1 Samuel 11:6

    We often hear of people becoming angry at everything from a simply uncouth personal insult to a cultural rip current that tears across the grain of civilized decorum. We get angry at instances of injustice, criminal anarchy, and perceived government intrusion into our daily lives. But most times we display a fit of self-righteous anger and the Bible often cautions against such anger. “. . .  for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” - James 1:20.
    The Bible also suggests that there are times of righteous anger. “Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent.” - Psalm 4:4. The caveat here is to avoid sinful anger. Perhaps we can say that for there to be righteous anger there must be
1) a wrong-doing, and
2) a feeling of compassion or empathy for the subject or victim of the wrongdoing. Certainly, we can be assured that God will not censure us for anger at an injustice any more than He would demand that we quench our compassion for a suffering human being. Again, the cautions of Holy Scripture relate not to the mere presence of anger but to the irrational and heated response it often brings.
    In Saul’s case, he was responding to the horrific threat of the Ammonites to the men of Jabesh-gilead. And it is said that “the Spirit of God rushed upon Saul.”  Even so, Saul didn’t have carte blanc to do to the Ammonites as he wished. The response from Saul and his gathered troops was measured and limited. “And the next day Saul put the people in three companies. And they came into the midst of the camp in the morning watch and struck down the Ammonites until the heat of the day. And those who survived were scattered, so that no two of them were left together.” - 1 Samuel 11: 11. Notice there was no command from God to completely annihilate the Ammonites as per Joshua 6:21. Mind you, the goal of any battle is to win. A stalemate is often as bad, if not worse than a loss. In a fight, we must be ‘in it to win it’.
    So what are God’s criteria for righteous anger? Again, there must be a wrong-doing in the first place, a sense of compassion on the part of the ‘defender-protector’, and a pressing need for a halt of the wrongdoing at the least and a resolution on behalf of the victim at the best. As for injustices against ourselves, we may not engage in acts of revenge but we have every right to defend ourselves against evil and all its tentacles. We are sanctioned by God to stop sinful aggression and cruel violations of humanity. “Like a muddied spring or a polluted fountain  is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked.” - Proverbs 25:26.
    What I have written shall certainly offend many, if not most people simply because we see any affront to our well-being as a direct assault upon us. And it usually is. But as God-fearing Christians, we cannot "Cry 'Havoc!,' and let slip the dogs of war, "using Shakspeare’s words. You see, God is a jealous God and He takes very seriously any assault upon people made in His image. He is also jealous of His exclusive right to avenge. “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’”- Romans 12:19. We would do well to remember that before we entertain the idea of striking out with violence against anyone.  Our motive must depend upon clear and convincing evidence that they have placed others in physical danger such as an unruly crowd attempting to beat and rob a man or one country’s criminal aggression against another. God will forgive the sin of violence when engaged in the defense of the innocent. Perhaps we should all remember the words of the English Baptist minister and evangelist, F.B. Meyer- “Each of us must fight our fight against heredity, environment, and habit; against self within and Satan without. The measure of our success will be the measure of our ability to help others.”
    Clearly, we should do our utmost to avoid anger and the trappings which accompany it. But if we must get angry let us always recall,  “Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.” - Psalms 37:8.

Doctrine Matters - Ephesians 4:11-12, 14

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, . . . so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. - Ephesians 4:11-12, 14.

    I hear it from people who ‘worship’ at these emerging churches. They promise attendees that ‘this is the church for people who don’t like church’. What? People, if you don’t like church, that is all the more reason you need church! I don’t like getting stitches either but if I am going to have my wounds closed, I need them. And a person who doesn’t like church needs church more than the most ardent and frequent members of the congregation.
    So these emerging churches, or as some refer to them, these ‘seeker-friendly churches’ throw away all but the most token references to the Bible. There is no fundamental exegesis of the Biblical texts and when books and verses are mentioned, they are subtly nuanced.
    The danger of such preaching, if the presentation even meets the definition of preaching, is that it implies that true Christian doctrine is not as important as praise worshiping or anecdotal storytelling which may or may not even have a basis in Scripture. These are dangerous churches to find ourselves in. My advice to anyone who has the misfortune of winding up in one of these ‘snake-charmer circuses’ is to get out and run away as fast as they can.
    We are Scripturally instructed that - “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” - John 4:24. But we must be careful to correctly understand what it means to worship in spirit and in truth. American Presbyterian scholar and pastor, Ligon Duncan, explains it well -  “to worship in truth means to worship in accordance with the truth of and about Jesus — that He is the Son of God, the Messiah, and the only Savior of sinners.” Thus, to worship in the truth of Jesus Christ it is paramount that we understand Jesus as He is revealed in the Bible, not how some “mail-order minister” imagines Him to be.
    Therefore, a minister or pastor has to meet certain ecclesiastical requirements. “He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.”* - Titus 1:9. The pastor must be a man of God in the truest sense of the word. The words ‘sound doctrine’ appear again - “But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.” - Titus 2:1. Sound doctrine; that doesn’t include presenting Sunday services in a carnival atmosphere to the cacophony of loud rock music and a light show. The true danger here is that when we do so, we are actually engaging in what is known as ‘syncretic worship’.  That means that we are taking secular or pagan religious practices and combining them with our Christian religion, which results in a bastardized form of worship. These are the waves that carry about every incorrect wind of doctrine, human cunning, craftiness, and deceitful schemes. There are many pseudo-Christian churches currently operating in 21st Century America, from your hometown ‘feel-good churches’ to the ‘health & wealth megachurches’. To find ourselves worshiping in one is no different than engaging in Voodoo, Shamanism, or Santeria. Remember, we are to worship in the truth of Jesus Christ.
    We have a clear cut and knowable method of discerning between true worship and the worship of clowns, charlatans, sorcerers, and snake charmers - the Bible! “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” - 1 John 4:1. Once again, it is incumbent upon us to know what we believe and to know why we believe it. That is why doctrine matters!
* Tabletalk Magazine; January 1st, 2005
   

Finding Our Identity In Christ - Ephesians 2:19

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God . . . - Ephesians 2:19

    The current political trend is for people of various persuasions in America to identify themselves as members of a particular group, ergo we often see the term in the news and on the internet, ‘identity group’ in relation to ‘identity politics’. The group itself can range anywhere from climate-change warriors to racial pride entities to non-binary cliques to wealth redistribution associations. In fact, the variety of such diverse factions creates quite an antagonistic environment politically, socially, and culturally. It seems that there is always one identity group pitted against its opposite. And we shake our heads, wondering why we just can’t all get along. Apparently, we have forgotten -"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” - Genesis 1:27. We are all, men, and women, rich, poor, Black, White, Asian, and every other race, and ethnicity, created in God’s image.
    People today spend far too much of their time arguing and disputing over worldly issues that no child of God should ever entertain. We seem to be at odds with one another again, in spite of Christ’s own admonition to us. “Jesus answered, ‘The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” - Mark 12:29-31. Clearly, most of us are not doing this! For instance, when we seek to circumvent or ‘step around’ God’s designs by delving into sexual ambiguity or outright opposition to His plan for mankind, both in terms of sexual behavior and in terms of defined gender, we are committing a direct transgression against God. We are insolently telling Him, “No, we will not accept your disposition for our lives. We know better than you do!”
     On the other hand, when we are pitting ourselves against one another, trying to gain an advantage, and take more of God’s providence than we are blessed with, we are not loving our neighbors as ourselves. I can reasonably assure you that should one group attain supremacy over all the others, it would not be long before there would be a schism within that group, where brother would be fighting against brother. This is the ultimate conclusion to human identity politics; there is no reconciliation among godless men and there never will be. Sinful man, by his very nature, will never know peace through legislation, coercion, intimidation, threats, or terror.
    So I challenge you to think of a world where every man and woman finds their identity in Christ Jesus. In this ‘best of all possible worlds,’ we would find agreement through forgiveness - “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” - Ephesians 4:31-32.   
    There is only one way we could ever hope for such a world, rid of prejudice and hatred, and that is through our identification in Jesus. “. . . for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” - Galatians 3:26-28. Our true ‘identity’ is in Christ the Lord and nowhere else! If we refuse to identify with Jesus, we are revealing our collaboration with the devil.
    What would it take for men and women to become part of this identity in Christ? We must acknowledge the truth in our minds before the truth can pierce our hearts. “Do not be conformed to this world, but, be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”- Romans 12:2. The Apostle tells us not to be conformed to the ways of this world and that we are to be changed to know what is good,  not according to our will but to the will of God.
“But that is not the way you learned Christ!—  assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.” - Ephesians 4:20-25.
    We must all begin to abandon ‘identity politics’ and the divisiveness it insists upon and start identifying with Jesus Christ, the only true source of the brotherhood of man.


                                   

COVID-19: “The Roaring Lion” - Jeremiah 14:7

“Though our iniquities testify against us, act, O Lord, for your name's sake; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you.” - Jeremiah 14:7

    The fear is as real as it is current. Coronavirus or COVID-19, as the World Health Organization refers to it, is now making its way around the globe. I will not quote numbers of new cases as that number changes daily; however, the virus has made itself felt in no less than forty-nine nations as of today’s date. It is quickly reaching the likelihood of being called a pandemic. According to Dr. Carl Fichtenbaum of the division of infectious diseases at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, “It’s a matter of time, but I think that it’s only days or weeks from the World Health Organization calling this [COVID-19] a pandemic.” So, without histrionics or over-dramatization, it is safe to say that the Coronavirus is becoming a disease of historical significance.
    Although the exact number of fatalities is impossible to estimate at this time, the best guess for the virus stands at about 2% according to the WHO; lower than for SARS (9.6%) but more than the Swine Flu (0.02%). So, with all that we know about this strange disease and all that we have yet to know about it, how should Americans view the threat? “When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.”- Psalm 34:17.
    Our title verse is a cry for help from God’s chosen people, the Hebrews. So while the situation doesn’t involve the gentile masses or unbelievers, there is still a profound lesson to be learned here by all. The Hebrews recognized their sinful transgressions against God as the source of their problems, they called upon God to act for His “name’s sake” so that the unbelievers wouldn’t be able to mock Him and ridicule His name because of the tribulations of His people. Now, if the Hebrews’ recognition of their iniquities were enough to bring them to their knees before God, what is keeping us from doing the same?
    I am not suggesting to anyone that prayer alone will bring the threat of COVID-19 to a conclusion because I don’t know the decretive will of God. Perhaps this is His way of chastening us. After all, it’s not like America, or the world for that matter “The fear of the Lord prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be short.” - Proverbs 10:27.
    The Hebrews, in their painful supplication, acknowledged their backslidings and their sins. Now, while the unbelieving public is not backsliding, they are sinning against God. How, you dare ask? Let me count the ways, and be assured that many Christians are guilty of the same; we advocate for abortion, homosexuality, immodesty in thought, word, and deed; idolatry, heresies too numerous to count; greed, laziness, pride, arrogance, adultery, loose sexual behavior; the list is far too grand to document all our iniquities. And we have the nerve to question why a good, loving, and gracious God would allow such a terrifying disease like COVID-19 to “prowl around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour?”
    So what is left for us to do? One might heed the words of Scripture, remembering when God spoke to His people - “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?” - Deuteronomy 12-13.
    We must continue to use the science God has graciously infused into our universe to combat, cure, and conquer this dread disease in addition to prayerfully seeking both repentance and the wise and righteous fear of the Lord. Only then will we be armed to courageously face that roaring lion!
is living a God-fearing life.
 https://maranathia.blogspot.com/

The Christian Sabbath Desire - Matthew 18:20

“For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” - Matthew 18:20

    I hear from a lot of nominal or ‘professing Christians’ that they don’t need to attend Sunday or Sabbath services. They confidently proclaim that God knows they are Christians and that God knows what is in their hearts. I, being a finite and fallen human being, do not. That being said, I turn to the pages of the Book of Acts to find their justification and I cannot find support for their assertions. In fact, I find support for their belief nowhere in the Bible. I find just the opposite - “When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.” - Acts 2:1
    The Christian church has been in existence since before Jesus Christ declared its existence to His apostles. “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” - Matthew 16:18. And as surely as the church belongs to Christ, we as His followers are due bound to attend it. The notion that it is unnecessary to attend worship services is a heresy common in our age of distractions.
    The church has always existed, even before the beginning of time. We know this because from before the dawn of time, God chose His church. “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” - Romans 8:29-30. The elect are God’s chosen people - “His church.”
    There is not one biblical description of a solitary follower of Christ who avoids or ignores fellowship with his Christian brothers and sisters and still maintains his status as a faithful follower of Jesus. Not one! The Bible instructs us that fellowship is equally yoked with the hearing of Apostolic teaching and the Lord’s Supper; the tri-fold definition of Christian worship. “And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” - Acts 2:42
    So why have these singular professors of the faith decided that weekly worship is not a requirement for the Christian? I’m certain that if confronted by a church-going Christian, these professors would react both defensively and with rationalization when they respond. Some of the mitigation would point to the fact that they have not found a suitable church. I agree; it took me years to find a gospel preaching God-inspired church that met my needs and core beliefs. But the answer is not to simply stop searching!
    Many will say that it is simply not convenient for them to drop all their worldly duties (or desires) for an hour or two each Sunday. I’m afraid I don’t even know how to respond to that. But to be fair, this excuse is often fueled by simply laziness.
    Some, if approached properly, will admit that they see a certain stigma associated with regular attendance to church. I would pray that there is. A Christian should be known as a ‘churchgoer’, exhibiting all the godly behavior that is associated with the name.
    One thing that such a person should avoid is spreading their heresy among others. Deliberately declaring the erroneous belief that weekly church attendance is unnecessary for a Christian may present a dangerous pitfall for someone seeking God. Let us all remember the words of Mark  - “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.” - Mark 9:42.
    So we return to the initial declaration that a Christian need not attend weekly services.  This is a most deplorable state for someone who claims to be a Christian. It falls in with the suggestion that a Christian may sin as he or she will because ‘God knows my heart’. Indeed, He does. We must understand the gravity of that statement.
    Merely behaving in a civil manner doesn’t make one a true Christian any more than not killing your neighbor makes you a good person. Just being a good citizen doesn’t entitle one to a ticket to Paradise. Nor does weekly church attendance out of a sense of duty. There must be a true desire to be with the Lord! A day of worship should be the desire of every God-fearing Christian.
     We must celebrate church fellowship in the manner it was meant to be, “And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” - Acts 2:46-47
   

Heart Failure: Idolatry - Ecclesiastes 2:3

I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. - Ecclesiastes 2:3

    Despite the technological advances; despite the increased health and wealth of the last 200 years, we remain unhappy and unfulfilled. It’s like the fact that the U.S. has more home exercise machines than any other nation in the world and we are still by far the most obese people on the planet.
    Our restlessness engulfs us in spite of the innovations and inventions mankind has developed and we continue to futilely search for ‘the next big thing.’ How many times have we thought, “If I could only acquire this or that, I would truly be happy?” And the moment we obtain our heart’s desire - we begin to search for something else, something greater. We want more. Coveting is the drive-train behind our dissatisfaction in life. And we know what God’s word on coveting. It is clear. “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.” - Exodus 20:17. Coveting gets us nothing but frustration and condemnation.   
    I have been to many a funeral and have never seen a hole dug large enough to bury the man and his possessions. There was no room for his expensive cars and toys. There was no room for his many relationships. There was no room for his successes or failures. There was no room for anything but him and his sin if he died unrepentantly. Are we all not the same? And what will we take out of this world that we did not bring into it? Our opinions? Our egos? I’m afraid a six-foot hole in the ground isn’t big enough. The fact is: we take nothing with us. “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” - Genesis 3:19.
    We are all constantly seeking; it is in our human nature to seek. But what we seek is what defines us both in the eyes of our fellow men and in the eyes of God. A self-aggrandizing man will be recognized by his contemporaries just as surely as a man who seeks God. So it is not the seeking that is wrong but what we in fact seek. “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.” - 1 Timothy 6:9.
    How often can a man set aside riches and possessions before he realizes that seeking such worldly assets will never bring him the joy that only God provides? Jesus even extolled the idea of heaven as a greater dominion than earthly wealth. “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” - Matthew 6:31-33. We have already been told that everything we receive in this lifetime comes from God. There is no confusion here. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” - James 1:17. No matter what it is, it comes to us exclusively from God, no matter what lies we are told by this world. “John answered, ‘A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.’” - John 3:27.
    If all providence is bestowed upon us by God then why would we worship anything or anyone else? Jesus Himself warned us of the consequences of placing too much emphasis on our worldly possessions and by implication, our desires for them. “And he said to them, ‘Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”- Luke 12:15.
    As fallen human beings we simply must keep focus on the things of this life that truly matter and not on those things we merely desire. We desperately need to discern between the things of this world and the things of God. “For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.” - 1 John 2:16.
    We would all be wise to remember the advice of Jesus Christ - “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” - Matthew 6:19-21. Idolatry is truly a form of heart failure.