AMAZING GRACE

Judas Iscariot was one of Jesus twelve original disciples. From the accounts in the Bible, he was also something of the treasurer who kept the purse of the group. We are told in accounts of the story of the woman who broke the contents of her alabaster box on Jesus feet even as she wept on them and wiped them with her tears how Judas was offended by the act. According to him it was a waste of money. People have deduced from the account that he was probably skimming from the money but the Bible says nothing about that. He probably just a skinflint and couldn’t bear to see such waste. However Judas was one of the twelve and he followed Jesus for three and a half years and saw all the miracles and wonders that Jesus did. However in Luke 23:2 we are told “Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve.”

A few months ago, I got into conversation with Bart Millard, the lead singer of the Christian group, MercyMe on Twitter. They were about to release their latest album Welcome To The New and he was twitting about his new understanding of grace. I follow him and the band on Twitter so I get his words first hand. I must confess that I was disturbed by his words which is what made me start a conversation with him. I wasn’t the only one who felt disturbed by his comments and I was disturbed by the way he dismissed words from the Bible that didn’t fit the narrative he was pushing. According to him, once you become a Christian you can’t draw back or backslide because of grace. In the end, I cut to the chase and asked him if what he was saying is that once saved, always saved. He said yes.

I believe that grace is powerful. I believe that grace is powerful enough to keep us from falling. The Bible says God works in us to will and to do of his good pleasure. Simply it means God works in us so that we desire and want to do his will. Therefore God works in us so that we desire to do his will. Does it mean that God overrides our will? No. He just works in us so that we know and desire to do what is right. Even when we know what is right to do because of God’s spirit in us, he still will not force us to do it. Knowing the right thing to do and doing it are two different things.

Grace cannot force. The Bible tells us that it is God’s desire that all men be saved. But do we see all men being saved? Paul said he would glory in his infirmities so that the power of God would be more at work in his life. That meant that more grace would be available to him. The book of Proverbs tells us that God gives more grace to the humble while he resists the proud. Therefore I believe while grace is powerful, we have a part to play for grace to work in our lives. While even when we walk in rebellion grace is made available to us. However we cannot make use of the grace available until we leave our rebellion behind. We need to receive the grace and accept it to work. I have never heard of a situation where you can use something you have not received. While in rebellion grace will keep calling us back to God but it will not force. That is not in God’s nature. Jesus never forced men rather he persuaded men. The Holy Spirit does the same.

Just like most things in life, I believe that salvation can be lost. Jesus said his soul would have no pleasure in any man who puts his hand on the plough and looking back. We are asked to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. If it was something that could not be lost, why would the Bible ask us work out our salvation? Why would the Bible ask us to watch and pray? Why would the Bible ask us to watch lest we fall? God loves us and he wants us to love him back. He wants us to be involved in our own salvation. The idea that we have no part to play while the grace us God just takes us to our salvation I believe is wrong. I do not believe in once saved, always saved. Grace does not exclude responsibility.

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 

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.  

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.