We Are What We Believe

Elijah had just won a decisive victory over the pagan gods Baal and Asherah at Mount Carmel. In a great display, he had called the fire of God down from heaven in front of the people thereby showing people who the true God was. In the aftermath of his display, he had killed around a thousand of the prophets of these false gods. He should have been feeling good with himself and confident in the power of God. However, shortly after this great display, he receives a message from the Queen Jezebel who threatens to kill him like he killed the prophets of the heathen gods she worshipped. Instead of being confident of the God who had just displayed such naked and awesome power on his behalf, Elijah runs away from the threat of the queen, abandoning his servant along the way.

Elijah ends up in the wilderness in Beersheba in the country of Judah, far from Jezebel’s reach and falls down tired, asking God to take his life. While resting under a juniper tree, God sends an angel twice to feed Elijah for the journey ahead. After a long journey, God catches up with Elijah in a cave. God then asks Elijah what he’s doing there in the cave. Just like he asked Adam where he was after he had eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and his eyes were opened and he knew he was naked, God was not asking Elijah a question he didn’t already know the answer to. Elijah then launches into a sob story of how he had been quite zealous on God’s behalf and everybody had abandoned God and he was the only one left serving God. God then tells him to stand on the mountain so that he could speak with him. While on the mountain, a strong wind, an earthquake and a fire pass by Elijah. The Bible says that while these things passed by him, God was not in it. It was until a still, small voice was heard that he heard God’s voice. When God spoke, it was to ask the same question he had asked at first. Again Elijah answered God with the same story of victimisation and abandonment he had rehearsed earlier. After this God gives him instructions on the people to anoint and to prepare himself for death.

At times we all go through circumstances that debilitate us. Circumstances like anxiety, depression, fear and other negative emotions come to test us and to try our faith and belief in God. They come to taunt us, to make us doubt the presence of God and his saving power. They want us to forget the numerous God has come through for us. Ultimately, they want us to confess negatively and speak words that agree with the circumstances we are going through. While the Bible says God was not in the wind, earthquake or fire, I believe those phenomena were sent by God to remind Elijah of his awesome power that was available to Elijah if only he could correctly discern what was happening. Instead of seeing God’s power at work, all Elijah could see were his present circumstances (which were temporary) and he therefore could not see the power of God. The Bible urges the weak to declare that he is strong and for the poor to declare that he is rich because of what the Lord has done. This is about recognising that while we go through things in life, the things we go through do not define us. What defines us is what God says we are.

God didn’t want Elijah to die. I believe he still had a lot for Elijah to do. However there was nothing God could do because of what Elijah believed about himself. Even after seeing a display of the awesomeness of God, he still could not look past his circumstance to lay hold of God’s goodness and grace by faith. Hence he died. We live in a fallen world and most and generally it’s a terrible place to live. But God want’s us not to look at the world with natural eyes, seeing those things that are temporary. He wants to look with eyes of faith to those things that are eternal, resting our hope and trust in him.

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers and LOST, BUT FOUND.

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

     

One and Half Popes and Doctrine

I read an article on the Fox News website about the ceremony where Pope Francis elevated nineteen new Cardinals to the College of Cardinals, the body responsible for electing a new Pope. His predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict was also present at the ceremony. It was quite an interesting article but there was something that struck me quite powerfully about the article. The writer made reference to the fact that the crowds that were coming to listen to Pope Benedict daily when he was in office were one-third of those that now come to listen to Pope Francis. I believe the intention of that particular piece of information (or was it a fact check?) was to show how unpopular Pope Benedict is in contrast to Pope Francis. This is in light of the fact that the writer in the same article remarked that people present cheered when they saw Benedict.

                        

There is a tendency in human beings for comparison even though the Bible tells us that the people who do this are not wise. One of the most obvious means of comparison is numbers. Therefore a person in an office who attracts more people to his sermons or meetings is deemed more popular and from that position we believe that he must be more effective. However I tend to see things differently. I believe the fact that Benedict drew smaller numbers of people than Francis says a lot more about the people than it does about Benedict.

There have been several reports in the mainstream media about Pope Francis comments. These comments have been analysed, dissected and analysed some more in the mainstream media. From their analysis of his comments one would be forgiven for thinking that he was about to abolish all the doctrines of the Catholic Church. It seems the mainstream media have got this idea between their teeth and their running with it so much so that it culminated with him being on the cover of TIME magazine as their man of the year. And it seems a lot of Catholics seem to have this idea as well. So it seems that while a lot of them see Benedict as a strict and unbending conservative, Francis is the flexible and conciliatory liberal. Hence the great love.

G. K. Chesterton said that the Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting, rather it deemed to be hard and so left untried. I have always said I do not believe in labels when it comes to Christianity. You are either a Christian or not. I do not believe you’re a conservative Christian or a liberal Christian. I also reject the terms fundamentalist unless by that you mean someone who believes in the Bible. I believe the Bible is the final authority on all things that has to do with the faith Christ gave us. Like C. S. Lewis said, doctrines were given to us as maps by men but these men had deep relationships with God. I believe we live in a fallen world with fallen minds which need renewal in the word.

I admire Benedict. He felt trapped in a position that was not allowing him fellowship was God which he missed deeply. So he gave up his position and all the trappings and stepped aside for someone else who could handle everything so much better. I do not believe the fact that Pope Francis is drawing bigger crowds reflects badly on his predecessor. I believe some of the people who come to see Francis are already living the liberal lifestyle they want him to endorse. They want him to endorse their own beliefs and make them happy and comfortable by breaking down doctrines that have served the Church for centuries. We’ll wait and see if he’ll oblige them. Although I wouldn't hold my breath.

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.  

Life and the Pride of Life

We live in a world that constantly tells us how we should view ourselves in relation to others. Most and generally, the world tells us that if we are talented, gifted, hardworking or have some gift or have some advantage that others do not seem to have, we should have a high opinion of ourselves. In fact, it tells that us that we should think of ourselves better than the next person. However we are then hurt when others do not seem to have as great an opinion of us that correlates and corresponds with the opinion we have of ourselves.

Let me say that I believe that there is good pride and bad pride although barely separated by a very thin line. Good pride is as a result of knowing and recognising the gifts, talents and blessings that God has given to you and doing your best even while resting in God's grace to make full use of them to bring glory to God. In the first place, it's not about you alone. It's all about God and you. You realise you are not in competition with anyone and you are running your own race based on the hand you have been dealt. It's also not really about the achievements or the accolades but it's about understanding the purpose for which you were born and working with God so that you reach as many people as possible with your gift, talent or blessing and if possible, help change their lives for the better. And in the process we are changed as well. If all we strive for are achievements and records rather than seeking to help change lives for the better and point God out to people, then we have entered the second category of pride.  

Now the other other pride which the Apostle Paul refers to as pride of life is not really something we are aware of. It's actually quite subtle and insidious. While the good pride corresponds with the relationship between us and God, the other pride normally shows up when we think of our talents and abilities in relation with others. In other words, pride shows itself with regards to our opinion of superiority in relation to others. Pride normally shows itself in situations which are perceived as negative by the person with pride. Pride is usually revealed by the question "Why?". I said usually because "Why?" could also be as a result of introspection with a view to correcting what is wrong. When a man is laid off from work and he asks "Why?" he could be asking with a view to finding out what went wrong and correcting it so that it doesn't happen again. However, when a man asks "Why?" and he is thinking "Why was I laid off since I was the best worker, the most hardworking person, the first in to work and the last person to leave?" he doesn't really need to ask the question since he already has an answer. He has shown that he is someone who takes pride is his abilities in relation to others and just maybe he lets others know what he thinks of them. The Bible asks us not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought.

The question "Why me?" usually denotes that we think that there is something special about us so that life is barred from happening to us. As long as we live in a fallen world, life will happen to us. The secret is not being to attached to this life and the things in it. Life will bring disappointments, pain, hurt and sadness. Things will happen that we will not be able to understand this side of eternity. Therefore our focus should not be on what we can do but on what God can do. When we focus on us, we get lost in a myriad of feelings and emotions but in him we find clarity of purpose. The Bible says when we behold him, we are changed to be like him. That should be our desire, to be more like Christ and less like the world.

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

He’s Waiting for You

                                                     

John 4:4 And he must needs go through Samaria

 At the beginning of chapter 4 of the book of John, we are told that Jesus is on his way to Jericho and that he needed to go through Samaria. On getting to Samaria, he sits at a well tired while he sends his disciples off to get food for them to eat. He’s seating there at the well and along comes a Samaritan woman to draw water from the well for her household. Jesus breaks the conversational ice by asking the woman for a drink of water. She expresses her surprise that Jesus as a Jew does not mind speaking to her, a Samaritan. A conversation then ensues between them with Jesus revealing the intimate details of her life, including the ones that were not so salubrious.

By the end of the conversation, Jesus reveals to her that he is the Messiah, the one sent by God to save the world from their sins. In the end, having been set free from her past, she runs into the city as a missionary declaring the Messiah to the men of a city. There is a belief that if you get a man to believe, you have also got his family to believe. In the end, the entire city was saved. By the time his disciples got back, Jesus was no longer hungry or tired. I do not believe that Jesus met the woman by chance. Jesus made it clear that he never did anything arbitrarily. The Bible tells us that he was the one who needed to pass through Samaria. We also know that he sent his disciples away while he sat and waited. He waited patiently for the woman he knew was going to be the first person at the well. He waited because of what he wanted to achieve in and through her life. In spite of the things that potentially disqualified her, Jesus knew what she was capable of achieving.  

God told Jeremiah that before he was formed in his mother’s womb, God had known him and ordained him a prophet to the nations. Isn’t it wonderful to know that there is a Saviour who knows us and what we are capable of, even when we look down on ourselves? Isn’t it great to know that there’s a loving God who even in depths of our sins or despair, is looking on lovingly as he waits patiently for us? He waits patiently for us even as we go about surfeiting and carousing even as he knows that he has so much better in store for us. All he’s asking is that we honestly seek for his help to be able to come through the things that are holding us back from being all he has called us to be.

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.  

Come Let Us Praise God

Psalm 150:6 "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord."

The above verse of Scripture which is the last verse of the last book of the Psalms admonishes us to praise God. The scripture enjoins us with something of a sense of urgency to offer praise to God and not to allow anything stop that praise. Interestingly unlike what a lot of people think, the verse of Scripture only gives one criteria for praising God. It has nothing to do with you and being happy or sad. It has nothing to with what God has done for us or what we perceive that he hasn't done. It has nothing do with what people think of God or not. The only criteria for praising God the Bible tells us is that of having breath in our lungs. Therefore it's not about how much money we have or what health issues we are facing that should determine whether we praise God or not. The only thing needed is to be alive. As long as we are alive and we have breath, we should praise God.

Looking at the Jewish words that are translated into praise in the Bible like halal, tehilah, barack, shabach and others, I have recently become convinced that it is more the norm to praise God with shouting, singing and dancing than it is to praise him silently. I personally begun to believe that we can't effectively praise God without some outward expression of the praise we are offering up to him. Even when the praise is rising from unmoving lips, the praise coming from our hearts will cause us to lift our hands in adoration. There must be some sort of response in us and from us in praise to God which manifests outwardly in a song, a dance or the raising up of hands. We cannot effectively praise God without an outward expression manifesting itself. Therefore when praising God, someone looking at us shouldn't have to ask what we are doing. It should be obvious. That in itself tells me something. It tells me that when we praise, the fact that we are going through trying times or terrible circumstances should not be obvious. Whether or not things are fine and dandy, our praise should not reflect our position but should reflect the goodness and glory of God and our love for him.

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. 

     

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. 

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.  

I Won't Judge (But Can I Say You're Wrong?)

Anyone who has read the first chapter of the book of Galatians would immediately realise that the Apostle Paul was quite annoyed, possibly extremely angry and livid when he wrote the letter. He could barely wait to write his usual gracious greeting before laying into the Galatians. The first few verses are a greeting blessing them and praying for the grace of God on their lives. Then he switches. While reading it, I thought to myself that the first verse should have given us a clue what was coming. In the first verse, Apostle Paul practically gave us his resume and the reason why he was qualified to write the letter. According to him, he was not an Apostle ordained by men both one ordained by God himself. Then he proceeded to tell the Galatians where they had got it wrong.

There is a constant refrain everywhere today both in the church and the world about how we shouldn't judge. I have begun to think this is another way of saying we shouldn't tell people about their faults just because we have our own. The other day I listened as a female artiste laughed away accusations of being a home wrecker even though she ended up with someone else's husband. We seem not to want to hear about the things we are doing wrong just because we feel no one is perfect.

For me, judging is not telling people what they've done wrong. It's about making a conclusion about what would happen to someone based on what they were doing wrong. For instance, telling someone it's wrong to have an affair with a married man is not judging. It's telling them what is biblically correct. However, saying the person will end up in hell and be damned and will never be happy is judging. Maybe I'm looking at it from a lawyers perspective. To put it another way, telling someone what they've done wrong with an attitude of love cannot be judgment. Telling them the consequences of their actions is judgment. And I think that is the way it should be. Or am I missing something? 

THE POWER OF INFLUENCE

The story is told in Daniel 3 of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who withstood King Nebuchadnezzar by refusing to bow to the idol he had made. The three Hebrew boys were part of the contingent of Israelite slaves taken to Babylon after their country had been attacked, overrun and sacked. Nebuchadnezzar had made a statue and he had made a proclamation that at the sound of the music instruments, everyone was to bow to the statue. However, out of the multitude of people who bowed, including their fellow countrymen, they alone refused to bow. We all know the story and what happened next.

I have recently been thinking about the influence and the things that cause us to do the things we do. This has become quite relevant to me in light of the outraged voices following from Miley Cyrus act at the MTV Video Music Awards. I have earlier said while I do not condone the performance or think it was right, I do believe if had been Lady Gaga or Madonna, there wouldn’t have been that much of a reaction http://herstheword.blogspot.com/2013/08/while-men-slept-culture-came-in-unawares.html. I said that people were probably reacting to fact that they could still remember her as Hannah Montana and the picture she was projecting via her performance was incongruent with that of Hannah Montana, hence the outrage. Personally, I think she’s trying too hard to shed her good little girl image so that people will see her as an adult.

However the most important thing for me is not what she did but why she did what she did. A lot has been made about the power of influence. Miley Cyrus wants to sell plenty of albums and make a lot of money while at it. She obviously wants fame and all the accoutrements that come with being rich and famous. She has also constantly been told that sex sells and she sees it in ice cream and car adverts. But that then raises other questions. Her father, Billy Ray Cyrus is a famous and rich musician; did he have to do all that? She could argue that the requirements for succeeding as a country musician and as a hip-hop artiste are quite different. She could also argue that things are much different for men and women. While I could point her in the direction of Adele as a female musician who has succeeded without having to go in the sex-selling direction, I think the problem is more than that.

Reading Daniel 3, you get the impression that there was a vast number of people gathered before the statue, either in their hundreds of thousands, probably millions. People don’t need to speak to influence others. They can influence by their actions. Hundreds of thousands of people, probably millions, all bowing to a statue is a powerful influence. A lot of people were bowing because there was a law in place but the majority was bowing probably because they were afraid for their lives. Seeing a sea of people bowing to a statue, no matter how stupid it may seem, is a powerful influence.

When a child is born, he comes without any preconceived notions or ideas about anything. However, the words, actions, opinions and thoughts of family, friends and loved ones shape what one believes and the values that guide your life. However, I believe that there comes a point when that child or adult becomes autonomous. By that, I mean that there comes a point at which influences that person comes in contact with are not accepted at face value anymore. The influences are measured against some internal system which decides whether or not to accept the influence. The three Hebrew boys had grown up being taught that there was only one God and his name was Jehovah and he was the only one they were obliged to bow down to and worship. Therefore when Nebuchadnezzar came along asking them to bow to the statue he had made, something in them compared what he was saying to what they believed and rejected it. Something in them refused to accept not only what Nebuchadnezzar was saying but what their eyes saw. I remember once leaving school with some friends. There were ten of us and at some point, eight people stopped to buy cigarettes. Something in me wanted to join them so that I could be one of the boys. However by then I knew cigarettes were addictive and that they could cause cancer and a cigarette wasn’t something I wanted to get enslaved to.

A lot is made of peer pressure and the power of influence. However I believe the greatest influence as to whether to accept or reject influence is the strength of the inner man, our spirit. The world is full of influences, some blatant and other insidious. I however do not believe we are helpless puppets who have no choice in the matter. I believe the power of influence lies in the power we give to it. Daniel served as prime minister to about four different kings of Babylon yet the culture of the age could not change him. The Bible says he had an excellent spirit. The Bible in Romans 12 asks us not to be conformed to the pattern and ways of this world but to renew our mind. Every battle is won or lost in the mind. The Bible constantly asks that we build our minds and strengthen our inner man by the word. That is the only thing, along with the Holy Spirit, that can keep us from caving under the cares and pressures and influences of the world we live in.


Update P. S. Just saw this http://video.foxnews.com/v/2659425980001/

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO, a thriller about politics and the persecution of Christians. The novel is published by WestBow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers. The book is available here http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU-194087/deceptio.aspx. He is also the author of LOST, BUT FOUND, a story of love, loss and redemption available here http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00dPLLEUQ            

I Believe

The general rule is that I’m too much of as tough guy to cry while watching a film. But I must confess that there are exceptions to this rule. One of those exceptions is the The Champ. I think you must be a heartless individual without any hope of redemption not to cry as the little boy (or is it a girl?) keeps on shaking the lifeless body of the dead father, uttering those heart rending words “Wake up champ.”. The next film that loosens my tear ducts is Quo Vadis. Courage Under Fire and Gladiator come close but they don’t really open the ducts.

For those who don’t know, Quo Vadis is the fictionalized account of true events. The story of the film is that of a popular Roman general who falls in love with a Christian girl. Their story is told with that of the persecution of Christians who were being thrown to the lions in the arenas as backdrop. The events of the film are supposedly quite a few years after the death of Christ. By this time, Peter is a blind and old. The early church has decided to secret Peter away. He is led out of the city gates of Rome by a young boy just before they are to close. Nero has blamed the Christians for the fire that burnt down Rome and they are all being apprehended. Just as Peter is about to escape, he sees a vision of Jesus Christ. Jesus tells him “Peter, I must go back to Rome to be crucified a second time.” Peter understands that Jesus is talking about him. He turns back and walks back through the gates to a certain death fulfilling Christ’s prophecy about his latter years. According to Church history, he asked to be crucified upside down because he felt unworthy to die the same way Jesus died. People say they want see Paul when we all get together in heaven. I want to see Peter.

The early church was extremely lucky to have people like Peter and Paul, men of great whose shadow according to reports healed people. These were people who received revelations of heaven, walked on water, raised the dead, healed people, saw the future including the end of the earth. These were spiritual giants, men to whom God told his secrets to. If we were to include them in the heroes of faith described in Hebrews 11, I would say that they were men and women of whom the world was not worthy. However, I must say that I have recently begun to marvel at the intellectual arrogance and feeling of superiority of the 21^st century Christian. Due to an increase in “knowledge” which feeds our souls instead of our spirits, we now feel we know more than the fathers of faith. We feel that we of the 21^st century have more “information” than the early church fathers and so we can ignore whatever they say. We think their words are advisory and to be ignored. We think the words are not relevant for the times we live in.

I believe in God, the creator of the heavens and earth and he dwells in Heaven. I believe Jesus Christ is the only begotten of the Father who in obedience to what the Father wanted, came to the earth to show us the way back to the Father. I believe that when Jesus Christ ascended, the Holy Spirit was sent to us to guide us in our honest search for truth. I believe the Holy Spirit lives in hearts of all believers and He is work is to help us fulfil the reason why God put us on the earth. I believe that Jesus is coming back again and that we will reign with him in his government that he will set up in the earth. I believe the Bible is the infallible Word of God inspired by the Holy Spirit and that the words are relevant for today and tomorrow. I believe.  

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

We Are Not At War (Are We?)

There were two quite interesting posts on Michael Hyatt’s blog on Tuesday this week. For those who don’t know Michael Hyatt, he was the former CEO of Thomas Nelson publishers and he is the current chairman. The first was a link to a post by someone called Anne Marie Miller. Her post (http://www.annemariemiller.com/2013/08/19/three-things-you-dont-know-about-your-children-and-sex/). She is a children’s counsellor and she was basically talking about the threat Google posed to children. According to her, children were searching for answers to questions they couldn’t ask their parents on the search engine. Not only were they finding unwholesome answers, they were getting pictures as well. Also, children were getting involved in unspeakable acts at a much younger age and there was a need for parents to be closer to their children and develop a rapport with them so that the children would trust them enough to ask them questions they needed answers to.

His other post, Whatever Happened To Modesty (http://michaelhyatt.com/whatever-happened-to-modesty.html) reflected on the attire worn by the artistes at the MTV Awards and some of the comments made. Personally, I think modesty is dead in America and that it has become a dirty word. Unfortunately, I think that has also become the case in the Church. What struck me was how there were people on the comments page who defended people’s rights to wear whatever they wanted. I have no problem with that argument as long as they aren’t Christians. However, there were those who saw the argument about modesty as an attempt by men to control women in the Church. Those are the ones I have a problem with. According to Rebecca Maynard, one of the people I disagree with, the “legalism” of modesty was designed by men to control women. This was allegedly done so as stop men from falling.

I find it hard to understand why men are accused of misogyny or the oppression or suppression of women whenever they comment on female issues. I also fail to understand why it is that women, even Christian women, seem to retreat behind the wall of women liberation and give the impression that we are at war. Even in the Church. You’ll have to forgive me but I believe the Bible is the final authority on our lives as Christians and not the United States Constitution. Not the laws of the United States. I might have said it before but I do believe that most of the laws of the United States are against God’s laws. We have sadly taken the view that human concepts like equality are better than what God says. We believe democracy is better than theocracy. The Bible says women should dress modestly. It also says that a woman should cover her nakedness. I don’t think that’s misogynist. Unless of God and the Apostles are now misogynist. Don’t get me wrong, I believe modesty applies to both men and women. I have never understood why a man should walk about in his vest instead of a shirt. They say the law is an ass. When we take the concept of equality too far, we discountenance the differences between us all in the name of sameness. Whether we like it or not, we are anatomically different. Which is why I think the present rage of women bathing topless in public because “men can do it” is a step too far. Unless of course we take the view that anything the law says is right.

I honestly believe that God’s laws are better than man’s law. At times, we have made the mistake and error of presenting God as a God of do’s and don’ts who is trying to spoil our fun. Nothing could be further from the truth. When God asks us to do or not to do anything, it’s for our benefit. Besides, I really do not see how being naked in public glorifies the God we say we serve. How do we think God is represented to people when we can’t keep our clothes on? The Bible says in the book of Peter that a woman should be known more for her character than the type of clothes she wears. I would add that a woman should be known more for her character than her lack of clothes.     

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers (bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU-000194087/Deceptio.aspx). He is also the author of LOST, BUT FOUND,  (www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ) 

Truth

Jesus once told his disciples that they had the erroneous impression that he had come to the earth to bring peace. He told them that this was not so. According to him, he had come to bring conflict between father and son, mother and daughter. According to him, he had come to set fire to the earth. He even said he wished it was already kindled!

The book of Proverbs urges us to buy truth and not sell it. The other day I was listening to a preacher and he was talking about the difference between hard and soft messages. According to him, soft messages were to get people to seek Christ and come to church. Once they had come to church, then they could hear the hard messages. Jesus told his disciples that if they wanted any part of him, they had to drink of his blood and eat his body. Most of the disciples left him at that point. When he asked Peter whether he too would leave, Peter wondered why they would leave. According to him, Jesus had “the words of life”.

Truth is hard. Most times, the harder it is for us to accept something, the likelihood of it being the truth is greater. A lot of people accept that Jesus lived and that he was a “good” man but they have issues with him being the Son of God. Major news outlets refer to the Bible as myth but yet they accept that a lot of the places in the Bible like Babylon exist. The fact is that you can’t take one and reject the other. You have to accept the truth the way it is and not chose the truth you will accept.

Riches and the Kingdom

Rom 14:17 “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.”

When I newly became a Christian, I often wondered why there was no Christian that was among the first 10 richest men in the world. I knew Pat Robertson owned the Christian Broadcasting Network and that he must be rich, but he wasn't among the first 10 richest men in America or the world. My reasoning went along the lines that if God was powerful, then he could make it so that Christians would be the richest people on earth. Then non-Christians would see the benefit of being Christian and convert and so a lot more people would go to heaven. I must confess that thoughts about purpose and serving God for the right reason’s never entered my mind.

Now that I'm older in the faith, I have come to understand that calling yourself a Christian and having a fat bank balance do not necessarily go together. In fact, a man can be extremely backslidden and still be filthy rich. Paul talked about those who preached Christ for the sakes of their bellies. He also made remarks about people like Demas who had forsaken Paul and Christ for the pleasures of this world. There are a lot of people who started out following Christ, who wanted to do God’s will. Somewhere along the way, the pleasures, ambitions and cares of this world drew them away from Jesus. Some people love the applause of men rather than the applause of heaven. There are those who think that loving others is the greatest commandment. Some people have received ecclesiastical titles from other men and they and the people who look at them think that they and God must be first cousins. But if the truth were to be told, their hearts are far from God.   

Having riches is not evidence of a relationship with God. Conversely, a relationship with God could translate into riches. However, a relationship with God is characterised by the fact that we have right standing with God through his son Jesus and that despite all that goes on around us and in the world, there’s a peace in our hearts. Also, joy follows us because we know that we are in his will for us.

I know of quite a number of miserable men and women who have quite a lot of money. A few years ago, I remember reading the story of a German billionaire who committed suicide by jumping in front of a train because he had lost a few billion Euros in the stock market. But he was still a billionaire. God wants to give us stuff but he doesn't want the stuff he gives us to have a hold on us. We should be able to leave everything we have at the drop of a hat to follow Jesus, otherwise the things we can’t leave have become gods and idols to us, replacing God. That is not what God wants. He wants us to have a relationship with him such that whenever he comes looking for us, unlike the first Adam, we can boldly and confidently looking him in the face and say, “Here I am.”

JC Cruz is the author of the novel, DECEPTIO, a thriller which has the persecution of Christians for their faith as one of its themes. DECEPTIO, published by WestBow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers, is available here http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU-000194087/Deceptio.aspx.  He is also the author of LOST, BUT FOUND, a story about love, rejection and redemption available here   http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/