Posted on 02/02/2021 3:47:41 PM PST by pastorbillrandles
And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us.( I John 4:15-19)
And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.( Romans 5:5-8)
I, like multitudes of other Pastors, teachers, and leaders in the church, have been seeking God for ways to let God’s flock know that difficult times are descending upon us, and that the relative tolerance and acceptance of Christianity in our culture is giving way to a season of hatred and even persecution. Anyone in tune with the Holy Spirit at all, knows this and is trying to prepare people for it.
The question is, How will we be prepared for it? What does preparedness look like?
I want to dedicate the next few articles to this subject and hopefully this will spark a wider discussion.
First of all, though, I seek to ‘cut to the chase’ as they say, and give you a simple answer to this question. the only ones who will make it through this season with their faith and integrity intact are those who Love the LORD. Only Loving God can make us ready and bring us through.
Usually I resort to a lot of scripture, (and rightly so) , and of course I will be providing scriptural answers to these questions, in this article and the rest, but first I will point to a sterling example of people who went through similar changes and wrote about them, in a classic book called “The Hiding Place”, by Corrie Ten Boom.
This book is not fiction it is a real account of Dutch Christians who underwent a rapid transition in their day, from the civilized world of Holland in the early years of the twentieth century, into the Gathering storm of Naziism and eventually occupation by the German Army.
The Ten Booms teach us something about ‘preparedness’ and ‘getting through tribulation’. One of the prime lessons is this, the family simply loved God. (How else does one ‘prepare’ for Nazi invasion and occupation, and eventually imprisonment)?.
I have never read of a more saintly example of a godly man, than the patriarch of the family, Caspar Ten Boom. He was a skilled artisan, a watchmaker, a man who knew no strangers, helped orphans and widows, and He loved the Bible, constantly having devotions and Bible studies for his family and employees.
Ten Boom’s two spinster daughters, Corrie and Betsey lived with him, and they too were skilled in watch repair. There was a wider family as well, all of them Christian, and who had ‘caught’ their Father’s love for God.
When the Nazis came and occupied the city where they lived ,(Haarlem), the opportunities were presented to them to save the Jews, whom the Nazis were hunting down and shipping away to slave labor and death camps.
This is not a book report, (although I highly recommend the book), but suffice it to say that what has always struck me about these very ordinary people, the extraordinary risks they took and the huge price they would pay for those risks , was that they did it seemingly without hesitation, because they Loved God.
The Nazis eventually caught the old man and his two spinster daughters and arrested them. After helping the ailing Caspar TenBoom climb into the transport to the prison, the Nazi officer offered leniency and mercy if he would but renounce helping the Jews, the Gestapo told him they would release him because of his age so that he could “die in his own bed”. He replied: “If I go home today, tomorrow I will open my door to anyone who knocks for help”.
This man died in prison, but maintained his faith and his testimony. He loved his God. One of his daughters died in a squalid prison also, but proved to have been ‘ready’, for she too loved God. His other daughter, Corrie, also overcame the hatred, fear and bitterness of the experience and has helped millions to come to know the God of Love, in spite of her suffering, because she too Loved God. They knew and believed in the LOVE of God.
It is Love that will bring us through, Love for God and the resulting love for our neighbor.
“No, don’t hate Corrie…” While in a concentration camp in Germany, Betsie ten Boom was becoming frail. One day while doing heavy manual labor, she kindly said to her guard, “Don’t give me more to do than I am trying to do already, because I am not strong enough to lift these heavy parts.” The guard flashed back, “You don’t decide what you do. I decide.” At that, the guard brutally beat Betsie. Corrie ten Boom, her sister, watched and was enraged. When the guard left, Corrie went over to Betsie who now had blood all over her face. Betsie immediately said, “No, don’t hate, Corrie. You must love and forgive.”Corrie knew that she was unable. That night she went for a walk and told the Lord that she could not forgive “that brutal woman.” The Lord reminded her of a Scripture, “God’s love had been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.” (Romans 5:5) Corrie knew that what she was unable to do, the Lord, in her, was able to do.She writes, “At that moment, when I was able to forgive, my hatred disappeared. What a liberation! Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hatred. It is a power that breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness. What a liberation when you can forgive.”- Adapted from Oh How He Loves You, by Corrie ten Boom#OhHowHeLovesYoutenboom.org
I have been thinking much of the example these saints hav set for us, and have come to the conclusion , that the fact that they truly and deeply loved God was what brought them through.
I realize that this may sound obvious and too simplistic for some, but this is the ‘Word’ I have been getting lately.
Everything that is truly spiritual , presupposes a loving relationship with God, through the Blood of Jesus. All that we are supposed to rely upon; Faith, the promises of God, grace to persevere through our trials, the armor of God, are based upon “Knowing and Believing the Love God has towards us, for God is Love”. If God be for us, who can be against us?
Our trials do not give us anything nor do they take anything away from us. The function of trials is that they reveal what is in us, or what isn’t in us…. . The Love of God in us, as a reality which is ongoing, vital and which elicits a true heartfelt response from us, is what makes us ‘ready to face the darkness which is coming.
As the Apostle John tells us, “We Love Him because He first loved us…” ( I John 4:19)
We love God today, maybe not so much tomorrow.
What really sustains us in knowing that God loves us and that love for us is intense and NEVER changes. “I’ve got you and I’ve got this”, He says to us, all the time.
Yes of course, my next article will be called “Loving God can only be a response” to the Revelation of His Love...
There is much to learn from Corrie Ten Boom’s example.
Read it .................................... we will live it shortly.
bkmk
Well I can tell you from my own testimony (I’ve been a born-again, spirit-filled Christian since 1968),
Most of my Christian life was was based on traditional church teaching and doctrine that mixed the law with grace whereby during that time I was basically a defeated Christian. Then about ten years ago, I began learning about the true Gospel of the Grace of Christ which is grace with no law mixed in. I am now very much a victorious, happy, and fruitful Christian.
Given that framework as a backdrop, I can tell you that I used to be depressed because I felt like I didn’t have enough love for God or anyone else, again, because traditional church teaching emphasized our love for God first (usually using the Ten Commandments which God has discarded (Heb. 8:13; Rom. 6:14), but man still holds onto).
After learning about grace which focuses not on what we do but what Jesus has already done for us and his unwavering love for us regardless of our performance, I’ve been set free from worry and being depressed about my not measuring up, because God doesn’t use the law as his measuring stick he uses Christ who IS our measuring stick (1 John 4:17). Now I’m wildly in love with Jesus, not becsue I have to be but because I know he first loved me, his love contains NO condemnation, and he will always love me no matter what. My performance is simply not in the equation.
So from the Gospel of Grace as well as my own experience, I think we need to start with God’s unwavering love for us regardless of what we do, and not starting with us loving God. People are set free knowing that.
God bless.
Thanks brother. I appreciate your own testimony, and am sure millions upon millions would resonate with it. Even in my article ,the starting place was “Knowing and believing in the LOVE God has for us...” however it is still true, Loving God in response is our goal. Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6, when He summarized all of the LAW, “Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind and strength...”. It is not wrong to teach that and call Christians to aspire to it...
Well, when it is when I stopped worrying about loving God as my goal that I actually realized I loved him, but without noticing or trying. In fact, the more I tried, the worse I got.
all of the LAW
Well, what are you going to do about this? "[Y]ou are not under the law, but under grace" (Rom. 6:14).
It is not wrong to teach that and call Christians to aspire to it...
According to Galatian 1:6-9 it is because it is not the Gospel of the Grace of Christ - it is "another gospel" - one that tells people they need to keep the law (self-effort, trying in the flesh, self-righteousness). It actually accursed according to Galatians and elsewhere.
The law STRENGTHENS sin (1 Cor. 15:56). The law NEVER cures you of sin, it actually makes sin worse in your life (Rom. Chapter 7).
There is only ONE cure for sin. GRACE. "For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace" (Rom 6:14).
Why will sin not have dominion over me? Only one reason. I am under GRACE. In fact NOT being under the law FACILITATES sin not having dominion over me. This is the gospel of the New Covenant of Grace and it is my own personal experience. I.E. the Gospel of the Grace of Christ WORKS!!!
Was Paul being legalistic when He pronounced a curse on those who do not "Love the Lord Jesus?" If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha. I For 16:22
Not every theological discussion is a polemic on legalism vs Grace... As for your criticism of my quoting Jesus - when He quoted Deuteronomy ,"...all of the LAW", as if I was giving you another gospel, what about Paul in Romans 12?
Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Romans 13:8-10
Was Paul preaching another gospel" Of course not, He knew (as I know) that we are not UNDER the Law, (of Moses), but he never denied the value of the Law.
I have not told anyone that self effort is what is needed to be saved, nor anything of the sort. Every one of the ten commandments is re-iterated in the New Testament except one. Do we Keep the law to be saved? of course not! But shouldn't we want to Love God supremely? (Not as a legalistic principle, but as a valid aspiration). I still stand by my article's premise that the best way to prepare for the trials ahead is to love and believe in God.
There appears to be a new Awakening taking place. One centered on the Grace that is so well illustrated in 1 John 4:17. As God IS so are we in this world.
Not as He was or as He will be, but as He IS.
There is so much Good News contained in that scripture if we would only sit back and think about it instead of letting it skip through our brains like a meteor skips through the earth's atmosphere.
Pastor, I don’t assume anything except from what you say – obviously I don’t know you apart from your posts here. When you say, “I know that grace alone is why I am saved, but having said that, I Love God and want to Love God”, you are falling into the same trap Paul fought against as communicated to us in Galatians. “Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?” (Gal. 3:3).
What did he mean by that? He was speaking to what has become traditional church doctrine - that having begun by being saved by grace we go on to perfection by keeping the law. Scripture curses such teaching TWICE (Gal. 1:7-9).
(Your reference to Paul’s closing in 1 Cor. 16:22 (basically talking about those not saved), does not reverse the doctrine of grace as taught mainly in Romans and Galatians, but also throughout the New Testament, especially epistles of Paul who had a revelation of grace that even Peter said was hard to understand (2 Pet. 3:15-16).)
As far as Jesus quoting Old Testament law, remember, until Christ was crucified, they were still under the Old Covenant of the law. Also remember who he was talking to – a Jewish scribe and lawyer, both of whom who loved the self-righteous profession of keeping the law. Jesus speaks in kind to a person’s heart. First, they have to see their utter inability to keep the law Jesus give them (Galatians 3:24).
As far as Paul “never denying the value of the law”, may I remind you that scripture buy the hand of Paul makes it clear that the law STRENTHENS sin and makes it worse (1 Cor 15:56, Rom. Chapt. 7). As far as “the value of the Law,” Paul wrote that “the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith” (Gal 3:24). The whole purpose of the law was to show the self-righteous Jews (and later the Gentiles who adopted such self-righteousness) that they are utterly unable to keep the law and need Jesus, not to just be saved, but to live their lives every day.
As far as the premise of your article, politically, each one of us needs to turn our hearts from trusting in man and his government which gone way off the rails, and put our trust in God. But spiritually, the only way to scripturally do that is to “know and believe the love God has for us” (1 John 4:16) and in doing so, “we love him because he FIRST loved us” (vs. 19). By letting ourselves FIRST revive and believe the love God has for us, we effortlessly and basically unconsciously find ourselves loving God – not the self-effort of “aspiring to so” (thus mixing grace with the law -cursed by scripture). It happens BY GRACE, not the law.
Bible fight. Who has the greatest love or the most grace. I don’t know but these two will duke it out to be the next contender on UBC (ultimate bible championship).
One upping, and nick picking like this turns more people away than simply saying - God loves you, through Christ alone by grace alone you are saved.
You two could take this thread to email. Or better yet get in the octagon.
The Apostle Paul and Jude thought the fight for the true Gospel of the Grace of Christ was a “good fight” (1 Timothy 6:12; 2 Timothy 4:7).
Satan will do everything and everything to prevent Christ from embracing the “Faith that was once delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). The gospel of the Grace of Christ makes believers victors, valuable to the Kingdom, and a real threat to Satan.
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