Seed Bearing Fruit After Its Kind

 

 Well now, dear ones...

 

I have not read or watched or listened to the national and international news for a few weeks...and I pretty much only know enough locally to have fair warning should an expedition from Mars touch down...but I do get a glimpse now and then.

 

I am still following baseball...after all...if we do not have baseball what do we have? Even though it has also changed...I will pass on the All Star Game...haven't watched it in years...like everything else it is now insane with hype, marketing, etc.

 

Come on...it is a game, a game that adults play...

 

"The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind..." Genesis 1:12.

 

Why is it that many of us who insist on a certain reading of Genesis, and who brand others as outside the pale who do not agree with them, do not apply the same fervor and meticulousness to the national creation myth of the United States? That is, why don't they look at the facts...and if Christians, why don't they ask where faithful preaching and pastoring was during the Revolution - where the image of Jesus was during our First American Civil War?

 

As a rule, pastors who preached peace and obedience were driven from their churches and homes. Things haven't changed...yes?

 

Civil wars are brutal - how can we gloss over this?

 

Just asking.

 

If Genesis 1:12 is true, and I believe it is...then I cannot see how a nation birthed in violent rebellion can have a trajectory other than rebellion...and when it ends it will certainly end in a Biblical image...that of it imploding and consuming itself in rebellion...and the birds of the air and the beasts of the field will have quite the feast.

 

Yes, our Imperial Cult and our Nero(s) and Caligula(s) once again express the truth of Psalm 2 and Daniel 2 and Hebrews 12:12 - 29.

 

Did I mention Revelation 17 and 18? (Every generation has them I suppose).

 

Revelation and Daniel give us true images of the powers of this age, shattering the facades, shattering the national myths - the cry from the Throne is ever and always, "Come out of her (Babylon) My People that you do not partake of her sins!"

 

Genesis is not only the book of beginnings, it is also the book of endings. Nimrod, Shinar, Babel are all there...as are Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Joseph. We meet them in every generation, plants yielding seed after their kind...we meet them in Revelation, we meet them today.

 

Those who partake of the Tree of Life (Christ the Vine) are called, in Him, to give life to the world - the Grain of Wheat has fallen into the ground and died and come forth in Newness of Life...and the leaves of the Tree are for the healing of the peoples.

 

Those who partake of Nero's table?

 

Two women in Proverbs Chapter 9, two tables (1 Cor. 10:21)...two seeds...

 

Two women in Revelation, the Bride and the Whore.

 

Two kingdoms in Revelation, the Lamb's and that which makes the peoples drunk with the wine of fornication.

 

I suppose there aren't really words to describe all of this...but there sure are images...there sure are images.

 

I was thinking that like Samson we have had our eyes put out...but unlike Samson we don't know it. (John 9:35 - 41).

 

Much love...let us follow the Lamb wherever He goes!

 

Bob

Revelation - Letter to a Friend (10)

 

Revelation – Letter to a Friend (10)

 

“This in-between time [between the first and final comings of Jesus] that John calls “the tribulation” is a battle for “the soul of the world” that will “shock God’s people out of their complacency.” (The Revelation of John, James L. Resseguie, page 72).

 

“Christians are part of a countercultural kingdom that opposes the ways of the dominant culture represented by Babylon.” (italics mine).  (Resseguie, page 73).

 

This can be a difficult message for professing Christians in America to comprehend, indeed, we can react strongly against it – for our core identity is not found in an exclusive and monogamous relationship with Jesus Christ as His Bride, but rather in a culture dominated by nationalism, economic success, pleasure, entertainment, athletics, and personality (as opposed to character). Since we have been raised in this environment, both within and without the “church,” how can we possibly know anything different?

 

Some of us may wonder at the atheism of certain philosophies and political systems, but we do not question our own syncretistic idolatry. Is it better to believe in no god or in a false god? Is an Imperial Cult better than no cult? Does it really make any difference how our souls are poisoned? Babylon has many faces, as does the Beast.

 

I’m not sure about God’s People being “shocked out of complacency,” would that it was so. Those “Christians” who profess a high view of Scripture seem to be leading the way into the depths of Babylon, or else are passive observers – I suppose fearing to speak a prophetic and timely “Word”.  Strangely, when insightful words are spoken, they tend to come from those who are not associated with the Evangelical movement. (Has this movement become a Nehustan?)

 

“You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4).

 

It is natural to want to be accepted, to be successful, to be affirmed by others, to avoid conflict, to live in peace (at least for most of us). However, if our hearts and souls and bodies belong to Jesus and to Jesus alone, then it is more natural to desire to please Him, to be faithful to Him, to share Him – regardless of the outcome. If we live for Jesus there will be conflict, there will always be conflict – and the absence of conflict means the absence of faithfulness to Jesus our Bridegroom. “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12).

 

On page 73 Resseguie writes that “patient endurance” is the “essential virtue” we need in our countercultural lives of faithfulness to Jesus Christ, calling it the “main Christian virtue” while citing seven passages in Revelation to support this thinking; 1:9; 2:2, 3, 19; 3:10; 14:12.

 

“It is not “dumb passivity,” but active resistance to the battle lines drawn by the beast and Babylon who require assimilation to their values, norms, and beliefs” (Resseguie, page 73, italics mine).

 

“Patient endurance is never a miraculous escape from the ordeal but faithful perseverance through troubled times” (Resseguie, page 73, italics mine).

 

Active resistance takes the form of obedience to Jesus. We offer ourselves to God as living sacrifices, allowing Him to transform our souls – not conforming ourselves to the world but to Christ and His Kingdom (Romans 12:1 – 2).

 

“Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” (Rev. 14:12).

 

Friends, resisting the world, Babylon, and the Beast means that in our obedience to Jesus Christ we are conformed to Him, and Him alone. We are not to be transformed into the image of a Conservative, Progressive, or anything in-between. We are not to be conformed to Fox News, CNN, MSNBC or any other form of media or personality. Nor are we to be conformed into the image of politicians, national or local “leaders,” national or economic agendas (as they are normally expressed). If we are not going against the grain of the movements swirling around us – red, blue, and purple, then we are wearing their colors in some fashion. The only color we are called to wear is the white linen of the righteousness of Jesus Christ – any other color pollutes our souls and destroys our testimony to Jesus Christ.

 

The Son of Man and His Body, the Church, has no political or national or economic or social place to lay His Head on this earth (Matthew 8:20); this was true of Jesus Christ, and it is true of us, His People…assuming we truly are His People.

 

The Scriptures speak of perseverance and endurance, because this is what is required of us to reject the mark of the Beast and follow Jesus.

 

“Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved” (Matthew 24:11 – 14).

 

O dear friends, false prophets are not limited to those who make no pretense to follow Jesus, they are of little threat to professing Christians. False prophets include those who outwardly use the name of Jesus, who carry Bibles, who use the language of the Bible, who use the form of prayer to propagate their agendas of death, destruction, and hatred. False prophets are popular with professing Christians for they give them what they want, while blaming others for the world’s problems, while sowing division and hatred and violence and pride and arrogance among their followers.

 

And here is the thing, many pastors who recognize false prophets within the professing church dare not speak about them, dare not warn their people, for they know (or are pretty sure) that their people will reject them while continuing to follow the false prophets. I do not excuse these pastors, but I do feel sorry for them – very sorry. I know the dilemma myself – it is heartbreaking to see people you are trying to serve in Christ rejecting Him and following the airwaves and demagogues and attempting to conform Jesus into the image of political leaders, a nation, and the Almighty Dollar.

 

 I once asked a congregation why we, American Christians, don’t stop kidding ourselves and replace the Cross with a Dollar Bill. They probably didn’t appreciate the question.

 

It is hard to live among a church and in a society that has lost its mind, that embraces moral, ethical, spiritual, national, and international lawlessness. It is hard to see the spirit of the “man of lawlessness” (2 Thess. 2:3 – 12) embraced by professing Christians and our nation. It is heartbreaking to see the disenfranchised, the alien, the poor, the sick, the homeless, and so many others preyed upon by those who manifest the characteristics of the beasts of Daniel and Revelation. What can we say to the “bodies and souls of men” which are sold in the name of commerce and riches and wealth and pleasure? If it doesn’t affect us, we don’t care.

 

But of course it affects us, either we weep for others, or we offer our souls on the altar of the Beast and Babylon.

 

God tells us to flee Babylon (Rev. 18:4 – 5) and yet we justify her sins, making her sins our sins.

 

Either we will be molded into the image of Jesus Christ through the Word of God, or we will bear the image of the Beast and its mark. God’s Word, the Bible, as it is written (not as the false prophets would have us read it!), is our refuge, our defense and our offense – as we actively obey God’s Word in Christ, as we follow the Lamb we resist  the world, the flesh, and the devil – we reject the Beast and Babylon.

 

There is never any neutral ground, never; there has never been neutral ground in all the history of mankind and there never will be. We are either living for Christ and others, either loving Christ and others…or we are giving our souls and those of our families, those of our children, to the fires of Satan.

 

The Lamb or the Beast?

At whose altar are you worshipping today?

 

 

 

 

Revelation - Letter to a Friend (9)

 

 

“To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood – and He has made us to be a kingdom of priests to His God and Father – to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen” (Rev. 1:5 – 6).

 

“Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:5 – 6).

 

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

 

What do we “see” when we read these passages?

 

“The result of liberation from sin is that Christ has established a counterkingdom – a kingdom opposed to the influence of the dragon and the beast, the Pharaohs of the narrative…Like the Israelites, the hearers/readers of this book are on a new exodus to a new promised land. Along the way they encounter other Pharaohs (the dragon and the beasts) and are tested with idolatrous distractions in their wilderness sojourn – namely, the temptation to settle down or compromise with Babylon. The plot of Revelation is the story of how the Lamb leads His people out of slavery and exile into the new promised land, the new Jerusalem” (The Revelation of John – A Narrative Commentary, James L. Resseguie, pages 67 – 68, italics mine).

 

If we have learned to read Revelation through the lens of the entire Bible, then what Resseguie writes make sense, we say, “Of course!” However, if we have been seduced by purveyors of teaching on prophecy who make a sermon or book out of every current event and headline, who focus on what the natural eye can see as opposed to the eternals (2 Cor. 4:18), who would have us compromise with the beasts of this world – to the point of teaching us to align ourselves with the kingdoms (or a kingdom) of this world, who would have us believe that some “special” nations are the equivalent of the Kingdom of Christ; if this is the way we see life and the world, then we will not likely “see” what Revelation 1:5 – 6 is about, we will not understand Resseguie.  

 

Since Revelation is a recapitulation of the entire Bible, since its plotline is that of the preceding 65 books, since its focus is Jesus Christ the Lamb, since it is calling us Home to that City which all of our spiritual fathers and mothers have sought (Hebrews 11:8 – 16), it is a tragedy when those to whom it is written do not “see” what they are reading and hearing. It is a double tragedy when those who do not see nor hear, align themselves with the beasts and whores of Revelation, when they insist on not only ignoring God’s call to come out of Babylon, but teach that we should participate in her sins (Rev. 18:4 – 5).

 

Revelation is not only first and foremost the story of the Lamb, Christ our Passover (1 Cor. 5:7), it is also the story of His People, but it is not only the story of His People, it is also my story and it is your story. It is the story of our marriages, our families, and our congregations.

 

A question is, of course, “What does my story within this Story look like?” Where am I in this story? Where are my marriage and family in this story? Where is my congregation in this story? Where are my friendships in this story? What does my vocation and education look like within this story? Am I taking the mark of the beast as my way of life so that I may buy and sell and be successful in the eyes of the world, or am I following the Lamb wherever He goes?

 

If we read Revelation chapters 2 and 3 honestly, where do we see ourselves, our families, our congregations? What sin and idolatry and complacency and self-absorption are we practicing and promoting in our lives and churches? How are we justifying our abandonment of the Lamb? Are we wedded to the Lamb or to the world, the dragon, and the beasts?

 

Are we so foolish as to push chapters 13, 17, and 18 (indeed the entire book) into the future, and not “see” that it is true in every generation – and therefore for us it is particularly true?

 

Let me share a little “secret” with you, let me tell you what you can anticipate should you live in the Lamb, follow the Lamb, and speak the truth of the Lamb. You can expect to be persecuted as the saints in Smyrna (Rev. 2:8 – 11) and tested as those in Philadelphia (3:7 – 13). You can look forward to joining that blessed multitude who suffer for the Lamb (7:9 – 17) and who follow Him wherever He goes (14:1 – 5). Why you may even have such a testimony that when the world thinks it has silenced you that it will throw a party (11:10)!

 

Such is the Way of those who overcome the dragon and the beast and who come out of Babylon, such is the Way of those who overcome “because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the world of their testimony, not loving their lives even unto death” (12:11).

 

But there is more, so much more, for to those who “go outside the camp, bearing His reproach, knowing that here they have NO lasting city" (Hebrews 13:13 – 14) the glorious New Jerusalem, the Mother of us All in Christ (Galatians 4:26), welcomes them. God Himself will be their God, and they will inherit all things as they see His Face (Revelation chapters 21 – 22; Romans 8:17, 32).

 

O dear friends, those who will know the Light of Lamb today are those who will bask in His Light tomorrow (Rev. 21:23).

 

I cannot emphasize this enough – it is a matter of life and death. We must live in the light of the Lamb and only the Lamb. The Father says again and again and again, “This is My Beloved Son, with whom I am well – pleased; hear Him!” (Matthew 17:5).

 

Elijah did not die for us, Moses did not die for us (Matthew 17:4) your favorite preacher did not die for us, a venerable historical figure did not die for us, an entertaining teaching on prophecy did not die for us, a doctrine of “your best life now” did not die for us – and for sure no political or social figure died for us, nor did a nation or political movement purchase our salvation nor does it have a right to claim our souls – Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone deserves and demands our allegiance, our hearts our minds our souls our very bodies – and we are called to live in His Light and only His Light.

 

O dear friends, let us recall that Satan and his angels manifest themselves as agents of light (2 Corinthians 11:13 – 15). Our Christianity is entertaining us at the cost of our souls, it is leading us away from the Cross and the Ark, we are throwing a party as a prelude to our own death…unless we are following the Lamb!

 

Well, I guess we have two possible parties we can choose from. We can either join the party of the world and a professing church that rejects the Way of the Cross, or we can have such a passionate testimony for Jesus that when we die or are silenced – that the world will throw a party (Rev. 11:10) - but we will join the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:9).

 

Which will it be?

 

Which will it be pastor? Which will it be husband and wife? Which will it be parent? Which will it be elder and deacon? Which will it be…you who claim to follow Jesus?

 

Which will it be for me?

 

Which will it be for you?

 

 

 

Revelation - Letter to a Friend (8)

 

“It [Revelation] is John’s readers’ concrete, day-to-day world seen in heavenly and eschatological perspective. As such its function…is to counter the Roman imperial view of the world, which was the dominant ideological perception of their situation that John’s readers naturally tended to share. Revelation counters that false view of reality by opening the world to divine transcendence.” (The Theology of the Book of Revelation, Richard Bauckham, page 8, italics mine).

 

What is our current “imperial view of the world” in the United States?

 

Are we willing, in Christ, to look in the mirror? Are we willing to consider Babylon of the Bible, of Revelation chapters 17 and 18?

 

Are we willing to take a good look at the beasts of Daniel and Revelation?

 

Are we willing to “see” the world as God sees the world, are we willing to see the world through the images that God gives us in Daniel, Zechariah, and Revelation?

 

“Seeing” can be difficult when we are comfortable, as Bauckham writes concerning the churches of Revelation, “Many were affluent and compromising with the oppressive system” (page 15).

 

Many churches today are doing more than compromising with the imperial worldview, they are stridently promoting it and attacking those who question their promiscuity. They are assisting the Imperial Cult in its assimilation of so-called Christianity, they are placing themselves and their people in the service of the very Beast who is attempting to destroy the image of the Lamb on the Cross by turning it into the image of another beast who kills, devours, and destroys. Let us make no mistake, the cult has many forms, and it adopts those forms as a chameleon changes colors – some forms practice overt destruction, other forms are covert – they range across the political, national, economic, social, and theological spectrum – only Jesus, only Jesus, protects us…and we are to follow only Him, the Lamb of God.

 

When the gods of war assimilate the Word of God into their propaganda, when they do just what Satan did with Jesus in the Wilderness by quoting Scripture, if we do not know the Word of God as Jesus did, if we do not know who we are in Christ just as Jesus knew who He was (and is) in the Father, then we will partake of the table of demons and drink their cup (1 Cor. 10:21). Then we will deny the Lord who purchased us.

 

Let us be faithful to the Lamb even unto death, let us overcome by His blood and the Word of our testimony, which is Jesus.

 

How can we deny our dear God, who loved us even when we were His enemies (Rom. 5:1 – 11)? How can we trade our inheritance in Him for an imperial cult?

 

“For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).

 

 

Revelation - Letter to a Friend (7)

 

 

“John’s work is a prophetic apocalypse in that it communicates a disclosure of a transcendent perspective on this world. It is prophetic in the way it discloses a concrete historical situation…enabling them [the readers] to discern the divine purpose…”

 

“The effect of John’s visions, one might say, is to expand his readers’ world, both spatially (into heaven) and temporally (into the eschatological future), or, to put it another way, to open their world to divine transcendence. It is not that the here-and-now are left behind in an escape into heaven or the eschatological future, but that the here-and-now look quite different when they are opened to transcendence.” (The Theology of the Book of Revelation, Richard Bauckham, Cambridge University Press, pages 7 – 8, italics mine).

 

Paul writes, “We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal…for we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 4:18; 5:7).

 

Faith is the conviction, the evidence, “of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1).

 

Noah was warned by God of “things not seen” (Heb. 11:7).

 

The Scriptures, in Christ, teach us to see the invisible.

 

Contrast this way of viewing life with popular “Christian” teaching on the world, the church, and prophecy, with the way the popular church teaches Revelation. Popular Christian teaching focuses on what we can see. It would have us give our hearts to politics, to worldviews, to nationalism, to military power, to economic prosperity. Popular “Christian” teaching would have us view the world in terms of conservatives, liberals, moderates, progressives. This teaching would have us view the world in terms of national borders in place of the Kingdom of God in Christ. It would have us view the church in terms of “bigger is better,” “comfort is better,” “prosperity is better.” 

Popular Chrisitan teaching in America would have us reject the people of nations who have come within our borders, rather than share the Gospel with them, rather than serve them, we will reject them and send them to uncertainty, poverty, homelessness, sickness, and death.

 

Even though Revelation clearly teaches that the Lamb and His followers conquer by dying, popular Christian teaching would have us conquer by missiles, bombs, bullets, civic violence, legal intimidation.

 

O my friends, Revelation promises us a new way, in Christ, of seeing the world as it really is, and frankly seeing the apostate church for what it really is, a Whore riding on the Beast (Revelation 17). It also confronts us with Revelation Chapter 18, who are we really? Can we bear to look in the mirror?

 

Can we hear the cry, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues!” (Rev. 18:4; see also 2 Cor. 6:14 – 7:1).  

 

 

 

Revelation - Letter to a Friend (6)

 

 

Johnson makes two other points in the preface of Discipleship on the Edge that I want to highlight, the first is that Revelation is not written in chronological order!

 

“It is important to emphasize at the beginning of our journey through Revelation that this series of windows, this series of visions, does not progress in chronological order. That is, the events depicted in the images are not presented in the order in which they happened historically. They are presented in the order in which John saw them. “Then I saw.” “Then I saw.” “Then I head.” We are not to ask, “What happens next?” but rather “What did John see next?” That’s because what John sees next may not be what happens next” (page 29, bold mine).

 

“Thus, as we make our way through Revelation we find ourselves thinking we are coming to the end, only to start a new series of images that then seem to lead towards the end, only to start yet another series of images” (page 29).

 

Johnson’s observation is not novel; it has long been recognized as a simple matter of fact. However, if we have been conditioned by the historically novel notion of a rapture, of charts purporting to detail world events, of “End Times” hype, of preoccupation with headlines, then not only may Johnson’s point be a shock, it may be irritating and we may want to ignore it rather than explore it. There is a huge difference between looking for Jesus in Revelation and looking to satisfy our curiosity. Satisfying our curiosity is not the same as entering into a deepening relationship with Jesus Christ.

 

Revelation is not history 101, it is not the future 101, it is Jesus 101. If we are not looking for Jesus, if we are not seeking to be faithful to Him and to one another, if we are not learning to come out of Babylon and stand with Christ Jesus in opposition to the Beast (in all of its forms), then we are in the wrong classroom. If we are not giving up our lives for Jesus and others, not loving our lives “even unto death,” then we are kidding ourselves about our approach to Revelation. Revelation is “the Revelation of Jesus Christ,” if we aren’t seeing Him then we are blinded by a sandstorm of curiosity and self-interest and fast food religion.

 

If we are living in the entire Bible then the idea of Revelation not being chronological is not a big deal, for we see this throughout the Bible. To begin with, the Bible’s arrangement is not chronological, a fact which often confuses people, but which also points up the need for immersion in Scripture. I can read about Adam, Abraham, and Jacob in Genesis, I can also read about them in 1 Chronicles. I can read about King Hezikiah in 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, and in Isaiah.

 

If I attempt to read Jeremiah thinking it is in chronological order I will be frustrated. In fact, if I try to impose any order in my reading of Jeremiah, I may go mad (as it appears some scholars have done). As J. A. Thompson wrote in his NICOT commentary, “When we come to inquire whether any principles of arrangement can be observed in the book of Jeremiah, we have to admit that any consistent principles escape us” (page 30).

 

“Our uncertainty is increased by the fact that the book of Jeremiah is partly in prose and partly in poetry, these being present in approximately equal proportions. But there is no attempt to keep the prose and the verse separate since both appear side by side in many parts of the book. Nor does any help come from the fact that Jeremiah sometimes speaks for himself in the first person, sometimes in the name of Yahweh in the first person, and is sometimes spoken of in the third person. He refers to the people as “you” or “they” or “she.” The three major blocks of material, poetic sayings, biographical prose, and prose discourses, do not furnish any clue to the arrangement of the book either” (page 31).

 

Someone familiar with Zechariah will likely be at home in Revelation, for in Zechariah as in Revelation the question is, “What does the prophet “see” next?” not “What is the next event in chronological order?”

 

Isaiah has 66 chapters. As with Revelation we see the consummation of the ages again and again and again throughout Isaiah, beginning with Isaiah Chapter 2! Why then do people impose chronological reading on Revelation and not on Isaiah or Zechariah?

 

And note that in Isaiah and Zechariah, we not only move forward and backward in time, but we are also in the heavens before the Throne of God (Isaiah 6, Zechariah 3) – just as in Revelation.

 

We cannot overemphasize that our question in reading Revelation ought to be, “What does John see next?” rather than the popular but misinformed, “What happens next?”

 

Johnson’s second point that I want to highlight is that Revelation is about Jesus coming; coming today and yesterday and tomorrow. Jesus is always coming. How is He coming to me, to you, to us?

 

Johnson writes that the first of the “great unseen realities [of Revelation] is that Jesus is “coming”.” (page 30).

 

1:7 – “Behold, he is coming.”

22:7 – “I am coming quickly.”

22:12 – “I am coming quickly.”

22:20 – “I am coming quickly.”

 

Johnson points out that the message of Revelation is not that Jesus will come, but that He is coming.

 

“The process is happening at this very moment. Jesus Christ is not sitting on the throne passively anticipating some future date when he gets up and moves toward us. He is moving even now. He is coming... Jesus is pressing in on the world, and that pressing generates great upheaval…The invasion of the cities of the world by the City of God cannot but result in great upheaval. Jesus is coming – even now” (pages 30 – 31).

Why do we get crazy about world events and reading the entrails of news when our God has said that He will shake all things in the heavens and on earth so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain (Hebrews 13:25 – 29)? It is as if we’ve never read Daniel Chapter 2 or Psalm 2.

 

Why do we seek to preserve the kingdoms of this world when the Stone cut without hands is bringing them all to an end (Daniel 2)? Why do we align ourselves with systems that are passing away? Why do we practice syncretism in which we meld the Gospel with the philosophies and beastly governments of the present age? (The beastly imagery of governments we see in Revelation and Daniel portray the true nature of the kingdoms of this world).

 

Jesus is coming now. How is He coming into my life? Into your life? Into our life as His Body?

 

We are either living in the City of God or the city of man – a city with many expressions. Ours is not to choose between the cities of man, for they all have one source and they are all in rebellion – they are ALL in rebellion. Ours is to choose to live in the City of God, following the Lamb wherever He goes.

 

Jesus is coming today, right now…are we seeing Him?

 

 

 

Revelation – Letter to a Friend (5)

 

 

I had a dear friend who was a landscape painter; he is now with the Lord. One of the blessings of having an artistic friend is watching the creative process, both in the moment as he brings a canvass to life and over years as you absorb the body of his work. We have two paintings and one print of his hanging in our home, and to see them is to see my friend, not just to see the individual work, but to see years of friendship and to see the individual work within his body of work.

 

A visitor to our home may appreciate a painting, but he cannot appreciate the body of work for he does not know the body of work. As much as a visitor may enter into a painting, he cannot possibly appreciate my friend’s body of work; for while the body of work expresses common threads and nuances, all of these are not necessarily contained in every individual painting, or if they are, they may not always be discernable.

 

One of the original paintings we have is quite special, in fact, it is especially special. It is a beach scene from the Outer Banks of North Carolina and it has five people in it. Two of the people are walking down the beach together. One person, a woman, is sitting in a sand chair close to the ocean. A man is sitting in a chair under an umbrella reading a book. A young woman is sitting in a chair under an umbrella not far from the man.

 

The couple walking down the beach are strangers to the artist.

 

The young woman is the artist’s daughter.

 

The woman in the sand chair is my wife Vickie.

 

I am the man reading the book.

 

Our friend and his family were vacationing with us and the painting is from a photo he took.

 

This would be a special painting if I told you no more about it, but there is more. You don’t know there is more, but there is more.

 

Our friend seldom included people in his paintings. Animals yes, people no.

 

His wife, however, is also an artist. They collaborated on this painting, our friend the husband painting the landscape and our friend the wife painting the people. They painted this for us as a Christmas gift. This painting has always been prominently displayed in our home and we love telling the story of our friends as people admire the beautiful scene.

 

Someone familiar with the husband’s body of work might view the painting and say, “That’s unusual, I’ve never seen people in his paintings.” Someone unfamiliar with our friend would not think the people unusual.

 

Darrell W. Johnson writes that the imagery of Revelation “sustains the new vision of reality” (page 22). “The images have to stay as they are, for it is the image that embodies the message” (page 23).

 

On page 23 Johnson has a quote from Eugene Boring which we would do well to ponder:

 

“They [Revelation’s images] are not mere illustrations of something that can be said more directly. A picture makes its own statement; it is its own text. It does not communicate what it has to say by being reduced to discursive, propositional language. Just as is the case in visiting an art gallery, while commentary and explanation may help one to ‘get the picture,’ language about the picture can never replace the message communicated in and through the picture itself…

 

“It would be a violation of Revelation’s mode of communication to attempt to summarize its message in a manner that would make the image itself unnecessary.” (Italics mine).

 

Now let me attempt to tie my story about our artist friend and the imagery of Revelation together.

 

“John sees what he sees and hears what he hears through his Old Testament-informed imagination. There are more than 500 quotations from and/or allusions to the Old Testament in his work. This fact alone tells me that if I want to read Revelation correctly, I, too, need to be steeped in the whole biblical story” (page 23, italics mine).

 

It is one thing to see one of my friend’s paintings, it is another thing to see the painting in the context of his body of work. With Revelation, it is more of a case that we can see very little in a scene, in an image, unless we see it in the tapestry of the Old Testament, unless we see the images of the Old Testament flowing into and through the imagery of Revelation. A single painting by my friend is not likely to be misinterpreted, each painting can stand alone. However, misunderstanding a single passage of Revelation is highly likely if two things are missing; a heart seeking the unveiling of Jesus Christ, and a heart, mind, and soul steeped in the Old Testament.

 

Another way to put this is, if we do not know the prophet Zechariah, if we do not know Exodus, if we do not know Ahab and Jezebel, if these images and stories are not coming through the pores of our skin, then we had better think again before we think we know much about Revelation. Furthermore, if our desire is not for Jesus Christ, to know Him, obey Him, and tell others of Him – no matter the cost! – then we had better think again before we are so very foolish as to think we can gain insight into Revelation.

 

Anyone teaching Revelation outside the context of radical obedience to Jesus Christ, which means nonnegotiable witness today, is someone to be avoided.

 

Does this mean that if we are low on the Biblical learning curve that Jesus will not reveal Himself to us through Revelation? I don’t think it means that, for the Holy Spirit takes of His and reveals it to us (John 16:12 – 15). However, it does mean that our vision is limited by our Biblical travels, our context. It also means that we are more susceptible to being diverted by teachers who sensationalize their “prophetic” teaching and who seek to entice us to discern the entrails of the news and current events rather than seek Jesus Christ.

 

We cannot, I think, touch and experience the texture of Revelation without living in the texture of the Old Testament. This does not happen overnight and any teacher or pastor who says otherwise is to be avoided – discipleship is a lifelong journey, there are no quick avenues to conformity to the image of Jesus Christ. To see Jesus in the text of Revelation is to be continually challenged to obedience to Him and witness for Him to others.

 

And here let me again quote Johnson on page 16 of his book:

 

“I am, therefore, gladly constrained to simply live in the particular texts of the Revelation until they open themselves up to me; or, as I should say, live in the text until the Jesus of the text breaks though to me.”

 

It seems to me that this humility, and this recognition of our need for Jesus and the Holy Spirit, is the prerequisite for not only "seeing” Revelation, but for reading and experiencing the entire Bible.

 

 

Revelation - Letter to a Friend (4)

 

 

This morning I had a decision to make, it is a decision I make every morning, sometimes it’s easier to make than others – especially if I want to know who won a March Madness game or a World Series game. It was not so very difficult to make this morning (March 3, 2026), most mornings I don’t even think about it; this morning I didn’t think much about it. What is this decision?

 

Shall I first seek Jesus in His Word, in the Holy Bible through the Holy Spirit; or will I read the news…the news which is transient, fleeting, and ephemeral? Shall I read the Bible, which never deceives, or the news of man which deceives as a matter of nature? Shall I seek that City whose Builder and Maker is God, or will I allow myself to be seduced by the city of fallen man?

 

Darrell W. Johnson (Discipleship On The Edge, page 21) makes a statement that I think embodies a challenge for many Americans when reading Revelation:

 

“It turns out that, although the seven churches of Asia to whom Revelation was first addressed (1:4) were facing varying degrees of persecution, the greatest danger was not the persecution itself (and it never really is), but rather spiritual complacency. That is, believers were uncritically benefiting from the seductive riches and might of “Babylon,” which at that moment in history was Rome. (As we shall see in our study of Revelation 17 – 18, “Babylon” has taken on many different expressions throughout history.) The last book of the Bible calls us to a radical discipleship, to all-out courageous loyalty to the Lamb in a world “feverishly worshipping the beast.”” (Italics mine).

 

Our challenge in America is not simply spiritual complacency; it is a refusal to consider what Babylon looks like in our own time in history. It is unwillingness to read Revelation 17 – 18 and look in the mirror. We have been so indoctrinated by the Imperial Cult, and our syncretism is so ingrained within us, that we cannot imagine that the prophet Nathan would say to us, as he did to David, “Thou art the man!”

 

This reminds me of something I have experienced on Sunday mornings and in small group after small group. People often come up to me at the conclusion of Sunday worship and say, “Pastor, people need to hear what you’ve said this morning.” They seldom say, “I needed to hear that.”

 

In small groups, one of the greatest challenges is for the group to look in the mirror when reflecting on a Bible passage. The tendency is to talk about how others measure up to the passage, not how the passage challenges us to obedience to Jesus Christ. This tendency is so ingrained that when I, or someone else, reminds a group to look away from others and look into the mirror of the Word, that within minutes the group has turned away from the mirror once again and is looking at others and not themselves. Jesus desires to reveal Himself to us through His Word, we want to turn away from His gaze, away from the One whose “eyes are like a flame of fire” (Rev. 1:14).

 

Johnson reminds us that “Babylon has taken on many expressions throughout history.” If we read Revelation as being in the future, as always in the future, then we will not think as Johnson thinks, nor will we understand Revelation. Revelation was written to Christians to reveal Jesus Christ and to show them (as opposed to “telling” them about) present realities. Yes, it does indeed have unfolding reality within it, just as it has transcendent portrayals – dancing backward and forward through time and space and upwards into the heavens.

 

As Johnson writes, Revelation’s “imagery sustains the new vision of reality” (page 22).

 

Johnson also points out that since Revelation is a prophecy, that it means that Christ is calling the seven churches to an immediate response, to “some new form of obedience to his will” (page 25). “The heart of biblical prophecy is not, “look what is coming,” but “thus says the Lord” (page 25).

 

When we have been seduced by eschatological constructs and systems that move our center from Jesus Christ to examining the entrails of news and aligning ourselves with political, economic, cultural, military, and other systems of a world in rebellion against God (Psalm 2, Daniel 2), then we cannot see or consider the possibility that we just might not only be living in Babylon, but that we might be enabling and propagating Babylon – incorporating Babylon into our churches, teaching our people the ways of Babylon and the Beast, offering our children to the gods of this age.

 

Jesus said to the church in Sardis, “You have a name that you are alive, but you are dead” (Rev. 3:1). To the church in Laodicea He said, “Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire…” (Rev. 3:17 – 18).

 

We may look good by the world’s measure, but sick and pitiful in the light of Christ. Jesus speaks the truth to us because He loves us and because our Good Shepherd wants to deliver us from Babylon, just as He delivered Israel from Egypt.

 

Our danger is not persecution. I will go farther than Johnson, while complacency is a danger, active participation in Babylon and in the system of the Beast is a greater danger, trading the name of the Lamb, the Father, and the Holy City for the image and name of the Beast is a greater danger than complacency in America today. (Rev. 3:12; 14:1 – 5; 22:1 – 4; 13:11 – 18; Daniel 3).

 

Francis Schaffer thought that “personal peace and affluence” would be the great dangers to the American and Western church at the end of the 20^th century, I don’t think even he could see that it would lead to seduction in the arms of Babylon.

 

How can we possibly read and respond to Revelation if Jesus isn’t everything to us? If He isn’t everything then He is nothing. We are either “following the Lamb wherever He goes” or we are following some form of the enemy and the world – overtly or covertly.

 

Let us remember, our enemy is typically not something that looks evil, but that which looks quite good (Genesis 3:1 – 6; 2 Cor. 11:1 – 4).

 

“Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever” (1 John 2:15- 17).

 

Are we following the Lamb, and only the Lamb?

 

 

Revelation – Letter to a Friend (3)

 

There are many books and commentaries on Revelation and the so-called End Times, one of the few I recommend is Discipleship on the Edge by Darrell W. Johnson. In fact, I’d put Johnson’s work in first place and last place, that is, it is good to begin with Johnson and end with Johnson and keep referring to Johnson – because Johnson is focused on Jesus Christ, insisting on seeking Christ, insisting on living with Christ.

 

“I am convinced that no other book helps us see Jesus as he is right now as clearly and compellingly as the last book John wrote” (p.13, italics in text).

 

“No other book helps us see Jesus relative to “the powers” at work in our time the way the last book does. No other book helps us see him in a way that overcomes our fears and frees us for radical faith” (p. 13).

 

Johnson writes that if he could keep only one book of the Bible that it would be Revelation. Then he rephrases himself and writes, “If I could be kept by only one book of the Bible I want to be kept by the last” (pg. 14).

 

I love Johnson’s humility and his trust in Jesus as he writes:

 

“I do not claim to have the last word on the last book of the Bible…I believe what John believes…I am not always sure what he believes! I am, therefore, gladly constrained to simply live in the particular texts of the Revelation until they open themselves up to me; or, as I should say, live in the text until the Jesus of the text breaks through to me” (pg. 16, italics mine).

 

Lest you think the above means that Johnson is wishy – washy, in my next reflection I will share a quote from him that should correct that impression. Furthermore, his determination to know and seek Jesus and only Jesus is the type of commitment and perseverance we need today within the professing church in America.

 

A wrong approach to Revelation and Biblical eschatology can lead to evil beyond anything I could have thought possible, I know this as I look around me, both nationally and internationally, as I witness professing Christians endorsing and participating in evil. Without a nonnegotiable focus and commitment to Jesus Christ we have no hope – and this focus and commitment must be exclusive.

 

As we see Jesus and participate in His life, in His Cross, we become overcomers in Him and begin to experience the “already – not yet” glory of the Lamb, the Father, and the New Jerusalem.

 

“To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood – and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father – to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen” (Rev. 1:5 – 6; see also 1 Peter 2:9).

 

Revelation is written to bondservants of Jesus Christ. These slaves have been released from their sins by the blood of the Lamb and being released they have become the perpetual bondservants (with the ear pierced by an awl, Deut. 15:17) of the Lamb. Revelation is written to those who have been made a kingdom in Christ, priests to God the Father. In other words, Revelation is written to the Kingdom of Priests in Jesus Christ. We are to read Revelation as bondservants, we are to read Revelation as citizens of the Kingdom of God, and we are to read Revelation as God’s Priesthood.

 

We are not to read Revelation to satisfy our curiosity, to know more than those around us, or to look for a way to escape our responsibility as disciples of Jesus Christ, as priests unto God the Father. Priests, at least faithful priests, give themselves for others, they live on behalf of others; faithful priests do not run away, they stand with their people, they suffer with their people, they lay down their lives for others, just as our High Priest Jesus Christ laid down His life for us.

 

Bishop Fulton Sheen wrote a book a few decades ago that Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox clergy should read prior to ordination, its title is, The Priest Is Not His Own. Since God has made every Christian a priest, we all ought to live by the truth of this statement, for we all have been purchased by the blood of the Lamb.

 

The Scriptures call us to be overcomers in the midst of trial and tribulation, to suffer with Jesus and for Jesus, to live cruciform lives on behalf of others. The message of Revelation is clear, just as the Lamb overcame by His death on behalf of others, so we overcome as we lay down our lives for the Lamb and others.

 

Those who follow Jesus wherever He goes are those who lose their lives for His sake and the Gospel (Mark 8:34ff). They are those who do not love their lives, even unto death (Rev. 12:11).

 

I make a point of all this for many reasons, one of which is to state what should be obvious; you aren’t going to sell many books and videos, or get many people to attend your hyped conferences, with this message; you aren’t going to get your radio audience hooked on your next broadcast.

 

But you will be telling the truth.

 

Revelation – Letter to a Friend (1)

 

LETTER I

Dear Linus,

 

It occurred to me that one way in which we are strikingly similar is in our response to a subject, a problem, an issue. As I observed my response to you bringing up the subject of The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John, I realized this, for I have been pondering Revelation and your discussion with Boris ever since your spoke of it and thinking of a thousand follow up elements. True, we did not go into the subject in any depth, but you lit the fuse.

 

What I mean by our similarity is that when I bring a project or problem to you, whether regarding health or a home improvement project, I can expect a chain of follow up thoughts from you. For example, when I raised the issue of replacing our rear deck, you went into high gear in your consideration of the project; preparation, material selection, the best fasteners, how to measure the project and lay it out, tools to use, to name just a few things we discussed over a few weeks, up until the time you (and Boris) arrived to blessedly carry the project forward to completion.

 

Once I asked you about a home repair problem over the phone (I can’t recall what it was) and you gave me your initial thoughts. When we finished our call Vickie, who was listening said, “He’ll get back to you once he’s given it more thought.” Indeed, you did, a few times. This is the way you are when I bring something to you, and this is the way I am when you bring something to me. Our conversations have a life of their own, and any one conversation may contain threads from many past conversations. I often lament the fact we live so far apart, but if we lived close to each other we might never leave the coffee shop!

I live in Revelation, just as I live in the entire Bible, it is my biosphere in Christ for it is the Word of Jesus Christ, the revelation of Jesus Christ with both an upper case “R” and a lower case “r.” All of the Bible is the revelation of Christ Jesus, I see Him everywhere, I meet Him everywhere, He lives in me everywhere, I live in Him everywhere. Everywhere I seek to partake of His Divine Nature as I meet Him in His Word (2 Peter 1:4).

 

I see our journey Home in Revelation, in fact I see that this very day we are to live in that Holy City with the Father and the Son as our One and Only Light, with God as our Temple, with transparency as our Way of Life. I see us living as the Tree of Life in Christ, for the healing of the peoples. But I am getting ahead of myself, my point is that Revelation is very much “already – not yet,” I live in Revelation today, I will live in Revelation tomorrow.

 

As I pondered your chat with Boris, one of the first things that struck me is that if you don’t know what you’re reading you won’t know how to read it. The other thing that I thought about was whether Boris could even begin to understand Revelation because it was not written to him (more on this below).

 

We have so paganized Revelation that these things are a challenge. “Paganized!” you say.

 

Well, we are friends and I can write to you as a friend. Yes, I do mean “paganized.” We are like ancient pagan priests observing the entrails of animals to discern the future, having an insatiable desire to satisfy our appetite for knowing the future, for being ahead of the curve, for having special knowledge, and for drawing a crowd.

 

Let’s be honest, there are “Christian” ministries who keep followers tantalized with End Times teaching rather than teaching them to follow the Lamb of the Bible, the Lamb of Revelation. While Revelation teaches us to lay down our lives for the Lamb and others, these ministries offer a steady dose of self-preservation. While Revelation teaches us to participate in the ironic victory of the Lamb (it is both ironic and irenic as we lay down our lives), these teachers would have us align ourselves with world powers and earthly forces and conquer through violence and natural power and might and national and political and economic and cultural authority. Our victory is ironic in that who would think that we conquer through dying with Christ (Romans 8:35 – 39)? It is irenic in that we conqueror peacefully (James 3:17 – 18).

 

Well, as I said, you are my friend and I will write plainly.

 

“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John, who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw” (Revelation 1:1 – 2).

 

Three things immediately strike me about the first two verses.

 

1.       This is about Jesus Christ; it is the unveiling (the revelation) of Him.

2.       This revelation is given to His bond-servants (or slaves).

3.       It is about things “which must soon take place.” If we understand this in the natural sense of the word “soon,” then it actually means “soon,” it does not mean hundreds or thousands of years later than “soon.” I will come back to this.

 

 to be continued...

Esther, Where Are You?

 

 

As I witness the sellout of the Gospel to political, social, economic, and national interests and idols, and as I wonder where men and women of courage are to be found among those who claim to be servants of Christ (though does anyone claim such a title anymore?), I wonder if there still might be an Esther or two “for such a time as this" (Esther 4:13 - 14).

 

If there are such women and men, there is but one promise for them, and that is the Cross. Rest assured, it is not likely either the “right” or the “left” will spare them, for the otherworldliness of the Cross and Christ cannot be tolerated, no opposition can be allowed to remain.

 

The Son of Man had no place to lay His Head 2,000 years ago, and He has no place to lay His Head or His Body today. There is no political, economic, political, social, philosophical, or national place where the Body of Christ can rest; we will find rest only in Him, only in Jesus, only in our Good Shepherd.

 

Esther was able, with the help of Mordecai, to overcome her initial reluctance to risk her life for her people. She could choose to be the instrument of God’s deliverance, but “if not” Mordecai promised her that God would raise up someone else. I am not sure about our own time; I am not certain of two things.

 

The first thing I am not certain about is that there will be any temporal “deliverance,” in whatever form that might take. This then means that it may be that there are no “deliverers” in the normal sense of the word.

 

We are seeing a great falling away from the Person of Jesus Christ, from belonging to Him, from the Biblical Gospel and call to His Kingdom, to the prostitution of the professing church in the name of Christianity, of so-called Christian worldviews which are Nehustan; they may have had worthy beginnings, but they have been formed into idols.  (A. W. Tozer identified the tragedy of Christians not actually knowing Jesus in The Pursuit of God almost 80 years ago.)

 

Many of those who still profess a Kingdom perspective, seem to think that if they play whack-a-mole long enough that the fog will eventually lift, the sun will shine, and we can go back to the way things used to be (though why we would ever want to go back to that which paved the way for our present insanity is beyond me).

 

When I write “whack-a-mole” I mean a preoccupation with religious (including Evangelical) and gnostic playthings which allows us to avoid speaking a clarion Word to the Church of Jesus Christ and society.

 

I wonder if these folks (those who know better) realize that as long as they avoid calling for complete and total faithfulness to Jesus Christ, as long as they avoid Mark 8:34 – 38 and 1 Corinthians 1:17 – 31, that they really don’t know what they have in their congregations, institutions, denominations, and movements. Or perhaps they do know and don’t want to confront the reality.

 

If the fabric of a congregation can be rent by calling for total fidelity to Jesus Christ, if it can be torn asunder by calling for the Bride to leave behind the movements of this world and be in a monogamous relationship with her Bridegroom (2 Cor. 11:1 – 3), if calling on professing Christians to leave behind garments of “red” and “blue” for the pure white garment of Christ’s righteousness and to be a City set on a Hill – if such preaching is sure to create upheaval – then what do we really have? We have dishonesty built on fear and intimidation; we do not have the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

On the one hand we have preachers who have left the Gospel of Christ and the only call that they really have, the call to present the Church as a pure Bride in a pure marriage to her one Husband. On the other hand, we have the people at the foot of Sinai insisting on golden calves to worship.

 

Is deliverance in such an atmosphere possible?

 

I don’t think so. I may be wrong, I hope I am wrong, but I don’t think so. I don’t think we would stand for returning to Jesus Christ. I don’t think we’d stand for pastors and teachers and other leaders insisting on us returning to Jesus. I think that, having mounted the beast, we now must ride the beast until the beast devours us. (Is it possible to have renewal outside old wineskins?)

 

As Revelation demonstrates, there are times when the only way to victory, to irenic and ironic victory, is via martyrdom. To be sure witness, martyrdom, takes many forms, but none of these forms are pleasant.

 

This means that any Esthers among us must walk alongside Daniel’s three friends, and that their credo must be, must always be, “But if not” (Daniel 3:18). It means that deliverance likely lies on the other side of this life, in that City where Christ and the Father and the saints await us. It means that the faithful “consider the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt” or Wall Street, or Hollywood, or Capitol Hill, or than anything this world offers.

 

It means that we confess that we are strangers and pilgrims and that we are seeking a country of our own (Hebrews 11:13 – 16). Such a testimony is in opposition to political, economic, and social movements – for it recognizes the kingdoms of this world and their systems for what they are, opposed to Jesus Christ (Psalm 2; Daniel 2; 1 John 2:15 – 17; Revelation chapters 17 – 18).

 

We seek good for all mankind, but we do not deceive ourselves as to the systems of this wicked world.

 

The overcomers of Revelation overcome by the blood of Lamb, by their testimony (of Jesus), and by not loving their lives, even unto death (Rev. 12:11). Run from any preacher, any pastor, any teacher, any professor, any fool who would tell you otherwise! Run, run, run from those who would spare you the Cross of Christ, and run to Jesus, embracing Him and His Cross (Matthew 16:21 – 23). O dear friends, if we are not learning to die with Jesus, then we are not learning to live with Him (2 Cor. 4:12; Gal. 2:20; 6:14).

 

If a man or woman meets God, it is not likely that person will ever be the same. Since Jesus is God, how is that we are still of this world, when we claim to be Christians? How is it that we dress ourselves in “red” and “blue” and seek to destroy one another? O dear friends, there are only two reasons why professing Christians act this way, the way of the enemy (James 3:13 – 18); it is either that we have never really met Jesus Christ and surrendered our lives to Him – living under His lordship, as His possessions, or it is that we have left our first love (Rev. 2:4).

 

To be faithful to Jesus Christ means that we must “go outside the camp, bearing His reproach” (Heb. 13:13). This is the religious camp (both on the “right” and the “left”), it is the political camp, the nationalist camp; it is the camp of the world – it means that we identify with Jesus and preach Jesus and Jesus alone…and to be sure, that will incur the enmity of the world around us, in all of its forms…and yes, we will likely find ourselves put out of the synagogue (John 9:22, 34).

 

And yet, and yet, there will be those who see Him through the darkness and vitriol and hatred and cacophony…and on that Day those men and women and children will say, “Thank you. Thank you for showing me a better way, the Way of Jesus, the Way of the Cross. Thank you for showing me Jesus.”

 

One thing we can say with surety concerning potential Esthers, those who seek to spare their lives need not apply.

 

“As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:15).

 

What about you?

 

“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1 – 2).

While my intention is to call us back to Jesus, and only to Jesus; if I have offended you, then I have made my point. Let us return to Jesus, He awaits us, He will restore us so that we can restore others. The Cross is always offensive, so that we might come to the end of ourselves and find Jesus. 

 

“For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy, for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:2 – 3).