CALLED TO BE GODLY

In the book I Samuel Chapter 8, we see a familiar story. The prophet Samuel had ruled the nation of Israel as a judge. He was God’s representative to the people of Israel. He was the visible representative of an invisible God. He was the one who relayed God’s mind and heart to the people of Israel. In Chapter of I Samuel, the people gather together in something of a coup. They tell Samuel that they no longer want him to rule over them but that they want a king like the other nations round about them. One could say that a mitigating factor in all this was the fact that both of Samuel’s sons, one of whom could be expected to take over from him, were totally unfit for the job. Samuel took the decision hard and he went to God. He wondered why the people were rejecting him. But God told him that it wasn’t really a rejection of Samuel as it appeared on the face of things but it was actually a rejection of God. The nation of Israel didn’t want to be different from the nations around them by being ruled by a righteous and holy God. They didn’t like different. They wanted same.

I read this article (http://www.esgetology.com/2014/06/04/baccalaureate-vespers-2014/) a few weeks ago thanks to Mollie Hemingway (@MZHemingway). I really enjoyed the article not just because it spoke the truth, but I realised it spoke present truth. The story of Samuel and the Israelites is familiar because it is a story that is sadly still been played out today in Christianity. A few years ago, a lot of preachers kept saying that the Church was growing worldlier while it seemed the world was becoming more like the Church (but not like Christ). Today it is no more a saying but a fact. Christ likened the Church to a city on a hill, to salt but we have abandoned that role. We don’t want to be different. We want to be the same with the world around us. We don’t want to stand out, be different. We are scared, afraid that people will look at us and point and laugh in ridicule. We don’t want that. We want to be like the people around us. We just can’t stand to be different. So we neglect the Holy Spirit and instead of relying on Him to show Jesus to us, we rely on our own finite, depraved minds.

When Jesus was leaving after his resurrection, he promised he was going to send the Holy Spirit to us. According to Jesus, one of the things the Holy Spirit would do was that he would point us in the direction of Jesus. He would not speak of himself but he would speak of Jesus. However we have chosen to neglect him and his work in order to fit it. We have exchanged the Spirit of God for the spirit of the world. How do I know this? We have exchanged what we know to be godly with what seems to be reasonable. We have rationalised with our fallen minds the laws of God and scorned his grace in order to follow our own agenda. An agenda set for us by the spirit of the age. We have forsaken truth in order to be popular, in order to be seen to be on the side of men. While God has promised to never leave nor forsake us, we have forsaken him at the first sign of resistance.

Every day God is calling out to us through his Holy Spirit, asking us to come back. The more he calls us, the more we ignore him even as we chase after reasonable and the adulation of men. Jesus promised us troubles, tribulation, trials and tests if we followed him. It seems we are just not cut out for all that so we have taken the easy way out. We have decided not to be led by the invisible God by the reality of our five senses. I believe the call of God is always counter to the spirit of the age no matter that you dress it in the robe of reasonableness. I have looked at this world and all it has to offer. And I have made up my mind. I will not be led by the spirit of this age or this world. I have chosen to follow God and all that is godly. I have taken up a commission in the army of the Lord of hosts and there will be no desertion. I will live for him, I will be different. I will endure the scorn and ridicule of men. I will endure insults, abuse and if necessary death for the sake of him who loved me and gave himself for me. That is my solemn promise.

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers.http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal

     

It's Not For Us To Wonder How

“How shall this thing be seeing that ….”

When Mary the mother of Jesus was told by the angel Gabriel that she was going to give birth to a child that would save the world from sin, she wondered how it was going to happen. She wanted to believe but to her there were several reasons why it was not going to happen. She was looking at the facts that would negate this promise of God. The normal process of life is that for a woman to get pregnant, she would normally have to have sex with the proposed father of the child. However here was God telling her that she didn’t need to be with any man to see the fulfilment of God’s promise to her. All she needed to do was to believe. God would make the rest possible by the power of the Holy Spirit.

In the book of Joel, specifically Chapter 2 verse 28, God promises to pour out his spirit upon all flesh and promises that his spirit will cause the opening of eyes so that men and women will see visions and dream dreams. We all have dreams and visions for our lives and there are some of us who think we need psychiatric help due to the dreams we have envisaged. Like Mary, we ask ourselves, “How shall this thing be?” We seem to be looking for one excuse or the other to let God know that the dream or vision he has impressed upon our hearts are just too impossible to accomplish. The fact is that even when we see dreams about what we are going to be, we want to understand the process. Our finite minds desperately try to grasp and understand how God is going to make it happen. But can I say that understanding how is not really our role.

The story is told in the book of 2 Kings 7 about a famine in the land of Israel. Elisha brought a word from God telling the king about what God was going to do in the land. However the king’s adviser scoffed. Elisha promised him he was going to see what God would do but he wasn’t going to partake of it. Somewhere else there were four lepers outside the gate of the city. They were impoverished men who had no hope. However they reached a decision about their future and they acted on that decision. God used their decision to bring deliverance both to them and their nation.

It’s really not our role to worry about things like how. Ours is to walk in obedience to the vision or dream God has given us. When we do that, the power of the promise keeping God will come to help us become all that he has called us to be. What vision or dream do we have or have we seen? Now is the time to act on it. 

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers, http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal.  

It Was Foretold

^{1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.}

^{2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.}

^{3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.}

^{4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.}

^{5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.}

^{6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.}

^{7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.}

^{8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.}

^{9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.}

^{10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.}

^{11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.}

^{12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.}

^{13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.}

^{14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.}

^{15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.}

^{16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.}

^{17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.}

^{18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.}

^{19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.}

^{20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.}

^{21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.}

^{22 If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.}

^{23 He that hateth me hateth my Father also.}

^{24 If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.}

^{25 But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.}

^{26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:}

^{27 And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.} 

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers.http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal

The Government

God is awesome.

I was recently thinking about how great God is. And how caring he is. In spite of how great and awesome he is, he still cares about the small details of our lives. Here is God, he creates this great world, he creates birds, cattle, the waters, plants, everything. And then he puts us, the zenith of creation into an already created world. We don’t have to worry about anything because everything we need is already provided for.

Even after the fall of Adam and his presence has gone far away, he still looks for a way to get close to us. He looks for a way to get us to look to him for all we need. He couldn’t find anyone capable enough to send to point us back to him. So he came himself in the form of a man. He came and instituted a government where he set himself up as king and based on his work on the cross, we became his heirs to the vast riches of his kingdom. Even though our old enemy has set up a parallel kingdom that sets out to deceive us parading as the truth, causing us grief and pain, the king assures us that if we trust in him and hold on to him to the end, we win. He assures us that there is nothing we can do or so that could make him love us more or less. He tells us that we don’t have to work to earn salvation. In fact, we can’t earn it. We can never deserve it but he has freely given it to us as a gift. He tells us that we shouldn’t work to be saved but we work because we are saved. He then tells us to get moving and go out into the world and bring other people into this kingdom.

Isn’t he awesome? 

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers.http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal

Saint Know Thyself

3 John 1:1  The elder unto the wellbeloved Gaius, who I love in truth

At first reading, a man calling himself “the elder” seems quite pretentious. However, when I continued to look at this scripture it occurred to me that the words were not those of an ego driven man but those of a man who knew who he was, his position in the scheme of things and the responsibility that came with that position. At the point he wrote the letter, he was probably old and nearer the end of his life than near the beginning of his ministry. He could have called himself an apostle, the one whom Jesus loved the most when he was alive, anything. However he chose to refer to himself as an elder. This doesn’t even begin to describe who he was to the church and what he had done. By this time he and Peter had healed the lame man at the Beautiful Gate. He had done many things by this time although he had not received the revelations detailed in the book of Revelations. He had seen many things, he had experience. He knew the power there is in the name of Jesus.

A man came to Israel and said he was the Son of God. He impacted the life of a dozen men, eleven of whom went on to do great works in his name. People were impacted by the lives of these eleven men such that men in exponential amounts began to follow the Jesus that these men preached. These men made such an impact on the world that in one of the places where they went to, they were described as the people who were turning the world upside down. These were men who were beaten, went to jail, suffered all kinds of deprivation yet they never lost sight of what they were, men and women who had been privileged enough to be called and chosen by God for his purpose. Nothing was too much for them to suffer to bring glory and honour to God. Some of them were killed for the sake of the message they proclaimed.

In today’s era of social media and being concerned about what people think of us, the question I ask of myself is: what am I ready to give up to serve and honour Jesus? What do I think is too much to do for God? What am I ready to suffer for Christ? The apostles of old were totally aware of whom they were in Christ. Paul understood that his identity was to be found not in any thing he had achieved but his identity was to be found in a God who loved him enough to send Christ to die for him. I believe the there was a direct proportional relationship between the revelation  these man had of God to the understanding of who they were in him which was directly proportional to the exploits they did in his name.   

Every day, I have to keep reminding myself that it’s not really about me, it’s about him and his purpose. Until I let go and stop struggling to find relevance for myself and realise that it’s about what he wants me to become, I will never truly find myself in him. I will continually struggle to live this life that he has given me. But like Paul, every day I press on that I may be found in him. Every day, I hope to grow in the knowledge in of God that I might truly fulfil the reason for the call on my life knowing that he who loves me and called me is cheering me on.

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers.http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal. 

     

In His Presence

A few hours ago, I was listening to the song “I Am”, a song by Nicole Nordeman from her album, Woven & Spun. A part of the song talks about dying, leaving this world and going home to heaven. We have all heard it before. When a child or parent dies, the person left behind is told that the person who has died has gone to home to heaven. If we were to speak to most Christians, one would discover that most Christians think of heaven as home. That however is only partially right.

When one talks of home, one thinks of a place where one stays with family and loved ones on a permanent basis. One of the tenets of the Christian faith is the belief that Christ will return one day for a church without spot or blemish. A ready church. The book of Revelation tells us that Christ will come again for us and we will be with him where he is. But a careful reading of the book of Revelation however shows that heaven is not our permanent home. Heaven is for God. The White Throne judgment will take place in heaven after which those whose names are found in the Book of Life come back to earth with Christ. We understand that there will be a new heaven and a new earth and that instead of the moon and sun, Christ’s face, his presence will be our sun and our moon. The Apostle Paul said that to be absent from the body to be present with God. That tells me that heaven is something of a place where those that leave this world go to stay before Christ returns.   

All that got me thinking. Why do we like thinking that heaven is home? Simple. Because that’s where God is. We all want to be where God is. While listening to the song, it occurred to me that the thing we most long for (but at times we don’t know it) is the presence of God. While we long for God’s presence and the knowledge that he is with us, our bodies and the circumstances we go through in the flesh living on this earth do not let us realise or know that God is with us. We go through troubles and we ask ourselves, “Where is God in all these things I’m going through?”

But Jesus told us that God would send the Holy Spirit to be with us and we know that the Holy Spirit was sent at Pentecost. We know that God has given us the Holy Spirit as a gift, just as he gave us Christ as a gift. The Apostle Paul tells us that it’s a mystery, God being with us and living in us. We don’t therefore need to die and go to heaven to be in God’s presence. He is already with us, living in us. That is what we need to understand and believe right now. God loves us and his presence is with us. Jesus promised, “I will be with you, till the end of the age.” Take him at his word. 

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers.http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal.  

All Of Us Are The Church

The Apostle Paul was quite different from the other Apostles. Unlike the others who had lived with Jesus and had developed a personal relationship with him based on proximity, Paul’s relationship with Jesus was based solely on revelation. Paul’s initial zeal in persecuting the early Christians was turned around and used in serving God. God saw his heart and turned him around because God saw his heart and understood that he did all he initially did out of a zeal for and a desire to please God. Unlike most of the Pharisees in Jesus days who loved themselves and wanted honour from men, Paul loved God. Therefore when God turned him around, he committed to Paul the deep revelations about the nature and structure of the Church and sent him as an Apostle to the Gentiles (that’s you and I).

Paul wrote most of the books of the New Testament. It was Paul that gave the analogy that the Church was like a body where everyone has something to contribute to the development of the Church. He therefore admonished that we should not think that one part of the body was more important than the other or that one part of the body was not needed. Unfortunately we have come to believe in the Church that the pastor is the most important person in the church because he feeds us with the word. I understand that the pastor is the person with the vision and the leader but I do believe that without people to help him achieve his vision, he would be a very frustrated person indeed. No matter how anointed a pastor is, he needs a choir leader and members, ushers, people to serve in the children’s ministry, even people to park cars and people to sit on the pews and listen to his message. In essence, we are all important in the Church of Christ. However, a note of warning. While we are all important, it is not about having a sense of pride in the fact. It’s about doing all that we are called to do with a sense of humility and thanking God for the privilege to serve. Someone recently said that even though God loves us, his investment in us is not solely because of that love. His investment in us is because of the purpose he seeks to achieve from our lives. What we are created for. If we fail to fulfil our purpose, God will find a replacement. Upon his triumphant entry into Jerusalem when the Pharisees were complaining about the people praising him, Jesus told them that if the people failed to praise God would cause the stones to praise.

When I go through a blog, I marvel at the number of people who criticise the Church. They have no church in which they are planted and all they can talk about is how no Church is good enough for their perfect natures. There is always a problem with somebody or everybody else. Either the pastor is wrong or the ushers are rude or the worship is not good enough. They criticise and complain and move from place to place, not setting down roots anywhere because there is just no church that can meet their high standards. Once in a while some go to a church so that it can’t be said they’ve forsaken the gathering of believers. They add nothing to the Church because they feel they’re not getting anything.  

I have come to understand that as long as men live, there will be problems with institutions. The high rate of divorce doesn’t mean there is a problem with marriage. The problem is not with the institution called marriage but with the people who get into it. Good sex cannot be the basis for marriage. Marriages mostly collapse because people do not know the reason for marriage neither do they understand that marriage is about the other person, not you. As long as we live in the flesh, there will be problems in the church. What we need more of is not the spirit of criticism or self-righteousness. We need less of finger pointing. We need more of people speaking in love. We need more of people praying for their leaders and the church.  We need more people led not by the spirit of their own self-importance but by the Holy Spirit who is always ready to help us. We need more of people practising biblical Christianity and not thinking it’s just an opinion we can ignore. We need more people with patience who led by the Holy Spirit are ready to change the things that are wrong.

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers.http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal. 

Mix and Match

In the first book of Joshua, God instructs Joshua to meditate on his words and tells him that if he wants to have good success he should continually think on God’s word. Every major religion or faith has its major precepts and one of the major precepts of the faith known as Christianity is the Word of God. Our faith tells us the Holy Bible is God’s word. The Apostle Paul tells us that the word of God is given to us for correction, direction, inspiration. The Bible continually tells us to meditate on God’s word. We understand that Christian meditation involves the internalisation of God’s word by the constant muttering and recitation of the word.

However Christianity is not the only religion that uses meditation. Most, if not all Eastern religions also use meditation. Personally, I believe that meditation no matter the religion in which it is practiced, is all about connecting with something outside of yourself or opening yourself up for something to inhabit you. In essence, I believe that meditation, no matter the way it is practiced is spiritual. You don’t have to be a recognised adherent of a religion or faith to practice it. Therefore I believe you don’t have to be a recognised practicing Buddhist to practice Buddhism. All you need to do is adhere to certain aspects or teachings of the religion. And one of the teachings of Buddhism and most Eastern religions is the use of meditation to find inner balance or peace. Therefore to my mind, when you say you’re a Christian and you’re also meditating the Buddhist way, it means you’re not really sure which religion you’re practising.

Many years ago I listened to a programme where the person with the record for the most days spent without eating was being interviewed. Incidentally, the person was a Buddhist. He had managed to go a hundred days without eating. He had managed to do it by a lot of meditating. Some people would argue that Jesus and a whole host of people in the Bible were able to fast for forty days. Exactly! Which is my point. Jesus and the others had the Holy Spirit. I personally do not believe that a person can voluntarily go that long without food unless he has something or someone aiding him.

David said in the Psalms that God keeps those whose minds are stayed on him in perfect peace. I therefore believe that God’s plan through his word, Spirit and presence is to help people achieve peace and balance in their lives. However he can only help us achieve this when we look to him and not to some New Age mixture of religions. The Bible says that God is peace. Therefore there is really no amount of peace we can search for that we will find outside of him. God is also only a payer away. We don’t need to run to some other god or gods to find him. He lives in us. That’s how close to us he is.

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers.http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal.  

Parental Discretion Advised

"Col 3:8 - But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth."

I had a friend while I was in school who I considered to be more spiritual than I was. He was the kind of person people looked up to. If the Bible didn't enjoin us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling I would say that I would have loved to be like him. There was however something about him I didn't like or understand. He, like quite a lot of other Christians I have met since then, thought it was okay to swear.

You'll have to forgive me but I have never been too impressed by the desire to be cool or belong. The Bible says we should be different. I have therefore never understood how Christians think it is cool to swear or use the "F" word. The interesting thing was that my friend felt he had a ministry calling. That used to give me a funny feeling. Not that I didn't think he wouldn't make a great pastor, I was afraid of what he might say in the process of operating in his ministry. Whenever I think of the topic, I think of a scenario where a pastor is preaching to his congregation and he tells them, "Jesus "f-----g" died for you, that's the message of the gospel" or something like that. I have told myself if something like that were to happen, I would get up and walk out of that church.

I believe that there is a place for big open door outreaches where a great number of souls who are hungry for Jesus can come to and meet with him. However I think we are too fascinated with numbers. The Bible tells us that heaven rejoices over one sinner that repents but we want to see as many as possible repent at once. A thousand people become saved at the outreach and we rejoice. The person leading them in the prayer of salvation tells them to lead new, holy lives but we don't really tell them how. No one is there to model the new life for them so they wing it. They live the life they want to live or feel they should live not knowing the life God wants them to live in the Word by the help of the Holy Spirit.

Because society has become inured to the meaning of a word or it's root does not take away the meaning. Also because it acceptable in normal society doesn't mean it's acceptable in Christianity. When a rappers's CD is labelled, "Explicit Lyrics, Parental Discretion Advised", it not only relates to the content explaining what they want to do with the Uzi, it's also about the swear words used. It is believed that the words are not proper for children to know or hear. Jesus told us that in this new life that we have, we should be like little children. I wonder, how many of us who are parents would love it if our or our neighbour's four year old daughter walked up tp us and asked "Who the f--- are you?"

Exactly.

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers.http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal.  

God is Love But is Love God?

To ask that God’s love should be content with us as we are is to ask that God should cease to be God – C. S. Lewis

When people mean when they say that God is love is often something quite different; they really mean love is God – C. S. Lewis

Recently I saw a tweet that brought a wry smile to my lips. On the 24^th September this year Nicole Scherzinger tweeted the following passage of the Bible from her account:

“A new commandment I give unto you, That you love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”

The above passage is John 13:34. Jesus was speaking to his disciples during the meal known commonly known as the Last Supper. Jesus knew that he was about to be crucified and he was effectively given his last sermon to the disciples before he would be taken away. Earlier in his ministry, he had broken down the entire law that had been given through Moses, comprising over 600 rules and regulations into two, to love God with our whole heart, mind and soul and to love our neighbours as ourselves. After Jesus died, even Paul wrote an entire chapter in the book of Corinthians on the topic of love. One then might be forgiven for thinking that the only important thing in Christianity is love. However, while it might be the most important thing, it’s not the only thing.

The Bible says that “while we yet sinners, Christ died for us”. He died for us because he loved us. The Bible also says we love him because he first loved us. That means we are able to love him back because he first loved us. The Christian group had a song that said, “Love is a Verb”. That means that you cannot say you love without doing something to show it? How do we know he loves us? Because he died to save us from our sins. But he also wants us to love him back. In the book of John 14:15, Jesus said: “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” Therefore, the only way we can show we love God is by keeping his commandments.

I've said before that I do not believe that Christ came to establish a religion called “Christianity”. I believe that Christianity is a contraption formulated by man to allow us fall short of what Christ expects of God since we are “just men” even though Christ said that greater works than he did we would do. Christianity is a crutch we lean on that allows us to conveniently fall short of what God expects of us. Christ came to set up a kingdom known as the Kingdom of God (or the Kingdom of Heaven) with the Holy Spirit as his representative when he left, not to set up a religion. From the book of Acts, we understand that Christians were called by that name first in Antioch. I believe the people who started using the term were not people of the same faith and there is every likelihood that the term might have been derogatory. We shy away from the concept of a kingdom with a king because somehow prefer the concept of presidents and democracy where everybody is “equal”. However, God is not some equal opportunities employer, he is a king.

Romans 8:2 talks about the “law of the Spirit of life”. Isaiah 9:6 talks about the government being upon the shoulder of the child that is born. If there is a kingdom or government, it presupposes that there must be legislation. We seem to think that the kingdom of God has no rules. However, what kingdom, or government can stand without rules? We seem to think that because we operate a new covenant that we are under no obligation to keep any of God’s commandments. While I will admit that quite a number of the laws were personal to the Jews, the laws known as the 10 Commandments are not. For instance, from Jesus words, it’s quite clear that God is still interested in us honouring our parents. So, if we still need to obey laws, how then is this dispensation of grace different from that of the law? The main difference is Holy Spirit. Under the law, we tried to please God with our own efforts. We did all we could and we still fell short. When we sinned, we tried to pacify God with the sacrifice of animals because the Bible says the wages of sin is death. Therefore we needed something to take our death when we sinned. Under grace, before we even sin, we understand that Christ has shed his blood for our past, present and future sins. We also understand that God himself through the Holy Spirit is working in us to help us keep the laws. We also don’t need to beat ourselves up when we fall or run away from him when we sin. We are to run toward him and fall at his feet and receive his forgiveness.

The Bible says Christ is returning for a Church without spot, wrinkle or blemish. If Christ died for us while we were yet sinners, do we presume to think that God is happy if we continue doing the same things that made him consider us sinners even after we accept Christ?I think not. God said that in these times, he would write his laws not on tables of stone but on the tables of our heart. The heart is a symbol of love. It means therefore that in these days, God’s laws will be dear to us. His laws will not be grievous to us because we love him and want to please him and because we understand that they are for our good.

God is a God of love. But he is also a God of judgement. Any attempt to gloss over this is wrong. While God is love, love is not God. We should stop trying to excuse or justify the wrong we or others do by saying “God loves us the way we are”. It's even funnier when people who don't acknowledge Jesus as their Lord and Saviour try try to preach love to Christians. If there was a man who was married but had an anger problem and every time he got angry he beat his wife. When he’s asked why he doesn't deal with his anger issues, he replies, “God loves me the way I am”. I wonder which one of us would agree with that. Jesus said he did not come into the world to condemn it. However, he did say that in the end, we would be judged by the words he had spoken. Everything we do should flow out of love but we should use love as an excuse not to move on to maturity. How does maturity come about? By being obedient to God’s laws.The Bible makes it clear that one day, Heaven and Earth will pass away and we all we will stand before God’s throne in judgement. Then we’ll discover just how far God’s love extends. But by then, it might be too late. 

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO, a political thriller about the persecution of Christians. DECEPTIO is published by WestBow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers and is available at http://www.bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU-000194087/Deceptio.aspx. He is also the author of LOST, BUT FOUND a story about love, loss, rejection and redemption available on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ. You can follow him on Twitter at @Cruz_JCReal

How Do You See God?

While doing my devotion a few days ago, I came across the premise that while there is an innate desire to worship God in every man, we will not be able to truly praise or worship him with our lives or in word, song and dance like the fathers of the faith unless we get a true understanding of who he is. According to the writer, if we think God is some faraway being who is not too concerned about our lives but just wants obedience from us, we will never be able to truly worship God. I agree.

Moses grew up realizing that there was something special about him. His real father was a prophet while his mother came from a family of prophets. He grew up in Pharaoh’s palace where he learned governance and administration but he always knew where he was from. He felt the desire stir in heart to deliver his people but he missed God’s leading and timing. In the end he ran away from Pharaoh’s wrath and ended up tending sheep, a far cry from being a prince of Egypt. Moses must have been traumatised by his experience. However, when Moses met God his life changed. From an insipid cowering shepherd, he became a god to the most powerful monarch in the then known world. He led millions of Israelites from Egypt in one while ruining the economy of Egypt. He spoke with God face to face. The Bible says God showed his acts to the children of Israel but to Moses he showed his ways. God later described Moses as the meekest man that ever lived.

One of my favourites in the Old Testament was Elijah. Elijah definitely knew God and had a right perception of God. Whenever Elijah spoke to a king in his days, you would usually find the expression “the God before whom I stand” as part of his comments to that king. He was always conscious of the fact that he stood before God whether in the palace or pit. He famously called down fire not only on a sacrifice to God but on two different battalions of soldiers that came to arrest him. Even though somewhere along the line Elijah got afraid of Jezebel, from the Bible we know that along with Enoch, Elijah was not allowed to taste of physical death.

Peter and ten of the Apostles walked with Christ for three and a half years. By the time he died, resurrected and went to be with the Father, those who met them realised that these men had changed. Before meeting Christ, quite a few of them were uneducated. However by the time the three and a half years were over, something had changed. Paul never met Christ physically but by revelation. From being a zealous persecutor of the church, he became the pre-eminent teacher of the Gospel of the Kingdom. From their letters that we read in the Bible, we know that all of them were worshipful, thankful men. Their lives and the things they did by obedience were acts of worship. All these men had something in common. They either met God physically or by revelation. And their lives never remained the same. According to Dr. Mike Murdock, you cannot meet with God and remain the same, unless you met with an impostor. I believe they were able to do the things they did because they had a right perspective of God which led them to worship and obedience.

The book of Revelation shows us a picture of everything in heaven, from the elders to the four living creatures, from the innumerable company of angels to the saints in heaven; we see a picture of never ending worship. However, we haven’t yet reached that zenith were we know God totally and we are known totally. While on earth, the Bible tells us that we see darkly as if in a mirror. However, that is not an excuse to press on to know more of God, to have a right perspective him. Paul, as great as he was still pressed on to know more of God. The Holy Spirit has been sent to us to show us Christ and the father. The thought of whether I have the right perspective of the father is one that has continually engrossed my mind these last few days. Like Paul, I want to know him, even as I am known that I might worship him like Michael W. Smith said with my love, my life, my all.  

Entering The Kingdom of Heaven

The view from a hill

“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” – John 3:3

“Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” – John 3:5, 6

Most of the times when Christians talk about the gospel – the good news – what they are talking about is the gospel of Jesus Christ and they stop there. By that I mean they talk about the gospel of salvation as if that is the only the good news is all about. There are those who go a step further and preach heresy by saying that once you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and personal Saviour, all your troubles would end. Nothing could be further from the truth. To quote a tweet from Pastor Rick Warren, “Not everything on earth has a happy ending. But we need to remember that this is not the end.” I believe that there is a problem with Christianity in that we are producing an assembly line of Christians (because the Bible says there are rewards for soul winning) but we are not doing enough to let people understand how to live the life or what to expect. A lot of Christians therefore go through life not understanding what they’ve signed up for.

In verse 3 of the third chapter of John, Jesus says we need to be born again for us to see the kingdom of God. In the Bible, Jesus described himself at various times either as the Way or the door. Therefore I believe Christ is the doorway into Christianity. A lot of people go to church never having accepted Christ and think they’re Christians. They’ve filled forms where when asked for their religion they filled Christianity. They think because their parents were “Christian”, they’re Christian too. Then one day they wake up and talk about how they’ve “rejected” Christianity never knowing they were never Christians. But no one goes to a house to visit and stays in the doorway. You have to enter the house. Jesus gives the formula for entering the house. The water and the Spirit. In the Bible, the water is synonymous with the Word of God. Therefore to enter the kingdom, the Word of God and the Holy Spirit must be your constant companies.

Sadly nowadays, a lot of people say they’re Christian but want to have nothing to do with either the Word or the Spirit. They would rather be led by their humanist thinking, which of course is their flesh. There are those who in this age of political correctness have rejected the Word. They say the Bible is too violent. To others, the Bible is old fashioned and out-dated. So they’ve replaced it with their own rules that they’ve formulated from their minds which have not been renewed. They believe Christianity should be a democracy or an equal rights movement. They lobby, scheme and blackmail to get their way and feel victorious when they achieve their aims. They are more concerned with the things the world is concerned about than they are concerned with the things God is concerned about. The Bible says that as many as led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. They are more concerned about culture and their place in history than they are with God’s purpose for man. That all should be saved and come to the knowledge of God.

It’s therefore evident that accepting Jesus is not enough. It’s not enough to stay at the door when the father is beckoning for you to come in. Sadly, a lot of people don’t want to come in to see or know the father. The Bible says that Jesus is our example. Jesus knew the Father intimately and knew the father’s will. This is because he spoke with him regularly. But we distance ourselves from him and then presume to speak for him. The Word and the Spirit are longing for us to know them and through them get to know the Father. Will we oblige them?

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO, a thriller published by WestBow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers available here http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU-000194087/Deceptio.aspx. He is also the author of LOST, BUT FOUND, a story of love rejection and redemption http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ. 

Can I Do All Things Through Christ?

I honestly believe that there is no substitute for reading the Bible ourselves. The book of Joshua enjoins us at Chapter 1, verse 8 that “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein; for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success”. The simple fact is that if we want to ensure that the book does not depart out of our mouths or and that we meditate on what is written in the word day and night and observe to do all that’s in the word, there is no substitute for us to read the word and understand it ourselves by the help of the Holy Spirit. While our pastors, friends, colleagues and other Christians are there to help us with our understanding of the Scriptures, it does not absolve us of the responsibility to check if what they are saying is the truth.  

 

The Sun Shining

While I was in university, I remember that when examinations came around we were urged to pray and declare that our memories were blessed and that we would remember all that we had read. I really didn’t think much of this and I happily and fervently prayed along with the rest of the congregation that my memory was blessed and that I would remember all that I had read. No matter how little I had read or understood. However when I got round to reading the verse of scripture that gave rise to the prayer point, I discovered that we had been applying the scripture in error. Proverbs 10:7 says: “The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot”. Immediately I read it, it occurred to me that the verse had nothing to do with my memory or examinations. It also occurred to me that it had been taken out of context. I realised that what the verse was talking about was about how men who were considered just or wicked would be remembered when they’re dead. Case in point, Saint Francis of Assissi and Adolf Hitler. While people are grateful for the life of the former, a lot of people probably wish the latter had never been born.

Which then leads me to the verse of scripture that I think has been quoted of context the most, probably because a lot of Christians have not taken time to read it and understand it for themselves. They’ve heard their pastor, parents, friends, colleagues and even new converts to Christianity all quote it and so they’ve accepted it. Philippians 4:13. “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me”. However, when people misquote it, the “which” somehow changes to “who”. What they then mean is that thanks to Christ who strengthens them, they could become a brain surgeon, an architect, an intrepid explorer, you name it. For a while, I accepted this misquote. But then, I began to wonder, why would Christ strengthen you to be able to do all things if he has a specific purpose for your life? I then went back to read the verse and I found out that people were quoting the verse all on its own. The more I read it, the more I was convinced that verse 13 was linked to and could not be divorced from the verses above it, especially verse 11 & 12. Verse 11 talks about how Apostle Paul has learnt to be content in whatever situation he found himself. Verse 12 talks about how he has learnt to abound or be abased, be full or be hungry. Verse 13 then talks about how he is able to all those things he talks about in verses 11 and 12 through Christ. The question then is, is it Christ that strengthens him to go through those experiences? Probably. However, I believe that in using “which” instead of “who”, I believe what he was saying was that the things he goes through strengthen him for the other trials that are to come. In short, they build character in him.

The Bible is full of rich texts which if we faithfully apply and follow, our lives will be full of joy and prosperous, just as God intended. However, we can’t continue to receive revelation on a second hand basis. We need to dig into the word of God ourselves and unearth it’s rich resources.      

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO, a thriller published by WestBow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers. DECEPTIO is available here http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU-000194087/Deceptio.aspx. He is also the author of LOST, BUT FOUND, a story of love and redemption. LOST, BUT FOUND is available on Amazon,  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on @CruzJC_Real.