I WAS THINKING 9
Fire faith
The other day a phrase set my mind and heart stirring. "An offering made by fire unto the Lord" (Leviticus 2:16 and many other places). What offering? Well, there's me, if I am fulfilling Romans 12, "present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable unto the Lord".
In John 21, Christ told the disciples to bring to Him some of the fish they had caught. These were a cold offering. But He had a beach fire! He cooked the fish for breakfast.
Bible religion is a fire faith. What is our religion? Cool, correct, precise, unemotional, unexciting? A church member who had just found true joy in salvation, told me her vicar complained that she put him off preaching because she was smiling so brightly in the congregation and therefore couldn't be listening!
Somebody asked whether we should tithe before income tax or after? So canny – is that a fire offering? Fire translates into exuberant generosity, joy, praise and worship, an "I've got to, I want to, I must, I will" attitude. Not an occasional bit of service attitude, but one ablaze for God, in giving, praying, working and loving.
The disciples saw Jesus in furious action and remembered the Scripture "The zeal of your house has consumed me". Eaten up! What consumes many is ambition, money, lust - enthusiasm for what they can get. Psalm 58:3 (French version) says "consumed by iniquities". But a fire offering is always something being given, on the altar, aflame.
People sing 'send the fire'. They mean on the unconverted world, on God's work, on their church. But why not on themselves? A cold offering is better than no offering at all, I suppose; just doing what we should, attending worship, helping a bit here and there, doing things at and for the church. But when the God of the burning bush, the God of Pentecostal tongues of fire comes, offerings become fire offerings.
BUT .. there's no fire without an offering. An empty altar does not attract the fire of God. Do you see what I mean?
THE MOST FRIGHTENING AND THE MOST JOYOUS BIBLE INSIGHT I EVER HAD.
Paul was dragged out of Lystra presumed to be dead. Some think that this was the time described in 2 Corinthians 12. He said he was caught up to the third heaven, and heard inexpressible things he was not permitted to tell. How did he hear them? With his mortal ears or by some immortal means? What kind of consciousness was he in? The death state or near-death state possibly mentioned in Acts 14:19?
Consciousness is perhaps the greatest scientific mystery, but it is God's greatest natural gift to us, so we can say "I am me" and "I know you".
Normally we only know what our five senses tell us; what we see, hear, feel, smell and taste. We believe our faculties are reasonably reliable, conveying to us valid impressions of our earthly surroundings.
But knowledge can come to us without our five senses. We Pentecostals believe that God reveals to us what eye has not seen nor ear heard. Then also by the gifts of the Holy Spirit supernormal insights are experienced that normal human faculties could never convey to us.
But apart from the Holy Spirit, everyone may sense things that they can't explain. The 'sixth sense', presentiment, is common, when our alter ego seems to be somewhere else. Adam and Eve came into existence as adults in a new world, to dress and keep it. How? Without any knowledge at all? God instructed them and they were immediately competent and knowledgeable, nature being within their capacity and responsibility. Their consciousness reached out to God, the fount of knowledge, who brought them swift understanding.
Now this consciousness is capable of expansion. The Readers Digest recently published an article on expanded consciousness. It quoted proven instances of people knowing what they could never know by normal human means. A woman undergoing special surgery had to be rendered brain-dead. During that brain-dead time she watched the surgeons at work on her own inert body with not one of her faculties operating. Her consciousness was alert when her brain was not.
This is not a one-off incident. Thousands of people simply know they have seen something, somewhere, during extreme illness. A convincing instance came to me when I was ten. Mother brought me to see my dying father, a decent but not religious man. He told my mother he had been "to the gates," but had to return in seven days. He died a week later. More than that He spoke of "the greater love" he had encountered during his deep coma.
God is omniscient, He knows everything. His consciousness is all-embracing. Psalm 139 declares that God not only know what happens, but knows everything about us, our personal feelings and thoughts, even what we shall say.
This was seen in Christ. "He did not need man's testimony about man, for he knew what was in man". He told Nathanael he seen him under a fig tree when Philip called inviting him to meet Jesus and knew his character as an Israelite without guile. Overwhelmed, Nathanael cried out "You are the Son of God, the King of Israel". Jesus startled the Samaritan woman by telling her all she ever did. 'Doubting' Thomas fell in worship and called Christ his Lord and God, realising Christ knew about him.
But apply this to Calvary and tremendous implications arise. His super-consciousness brought him identity of experience with sinners, knowing what it felt like to be guilty before God. "He was made sin for us". He experienced sinnership which is the essence of the work of Christ in His death. He entered into total oneness with us all, experiencing our experience, as one with sinners under the wrath of God. He suffered for us as we would in the judgment, and thus saved us, aware of God's awful antipathy for sin, our judgment falling on Him.
Now our own personality, with the power of consciousness, if released from confined physical limitations, will also expand quite comprehensively. What happens then depends on whether we left this life 'in Christ' or out of Christ.
Either saved or lost, our consciousness will penetrate other people's consciousness. I shall know what I really did to people, good or bad, and will enter into their reactions, feeling as they felt, how they were happy or how they were hurt. The horror of murder is that the murderer will suffer his victim's suffering, knowing how his victim felt. His sin will return to face him in stark and vivid form. Our sin will find us out and so will our acts of love.
This fact horrifies me when I think of Hitler. His fate at this moment is to be flooded with the terror and emotions experienced by the millions he murdered. It is a picture of hell too harrowing to contemplate.
However the wonder of redemption has to be and is the wiping out of all haunting recollections as God said "Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more". What God chooses not to remember, we cannot. Our hostile attitudes, betrayals, careless indifference, selfishness and failures in love which brought such heart-grief to other people, God remembers no more.
The creative act of Christ's finished work, will remove the pain from the fact of our sin. Our consciousness passes through Christ's precious blood and is filtered of awareness of sin. Forgiveness is nothing less than that. God, for Christ's sake, will not allow us to be haunted and blackmailed in heaven by self-recrimination and guilt. Processes are in motion that whatever we have done, our consciousness of other people's consciousness will be barred by the barrier of the blood of Christ. He absorbed it all and we are 'justified', treated as if we had not sinned, as just and righteous.
We used to sing a most un-theological hymn "I'm only a sinner, saved by grace". This is not really the case. We are not just saved sinners, but far, far more in Christ. The angels won't look at us and say "That man was a murderer but he is permitted to brush shoulders with us by the goodness of God". Our reputation won't be as sinners, but as the favoured of God. He Himself remembers our past no more, and neither will anybody else.
We shall have the immense joy of all knowing one another in glory. We shall know as we are known. Peter knew Elisha and Moses, and so shall we. More than that, every lovely quality we ever had, the fruits of the Spirit, will be highlighted by the pleasure of God. The ugly and evil will have been filtered out of our personalities by the power of the Cross. Everybody will be a joy to know. Heaven will be full of glorious children of God, each a shining prince in glittering splendour.
God is handling our wrongs, ills and evils, but at what cost He has never said. We saw the spectacle of Calvary but our eyes penetrated no more than to a scene of inhuman wickedness and frightful suffering. If we knew what Christ actually endured, it would paralyse us. Even to dwell on what we do know can appall us, but already our consciousness expands to know Him and His incredible love and to come to a realisation of His assuring embrace.
These thoughts make me want to save others. His name is Jesus "for He shall save His people from their sins". It is our own taunting and tormenting sins that will make hell. We need no devils with goads. But God is saving souls from their sins. That is what we are to do, save, before the floodtide of sin catches up with our friends, families and neighbours. We can't judge anyone in our present earthly stage. Some I am sure are far less wicked than we suppose. There is decency and self-sacrifice all around us, but from deep within us all, self-condemnation arises like a poisonous vapour. But, "O the deep, deep love of Jesus!" We have the hope of a heaven of unalloyed, un-abating relief in the sunshine of God's love. Thank you Jesus!
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HOMOSEXUALS AND 'ANY QUESTIONS?'
The BBC plonked their 'Any Questions?' team down into territory unfamiliar to them – that of church affairs, asking, "Should homosexuals hold church office?" What on earth would they (secularists, perhaps humanists, agnostics and non-religious types) know about it? I can't imagine them reading their Bibles every morning and speaking with tongues. One panellist was anxious to tell the nation he was an atheist, as if that was such a brilliant intellectual achievement it qualified him to be an authority on church appointments. Then one member of the audience said he was born a homosexual. How did he know what he was when he was born?
Political cross talk won't do for spiritual matters. They are not talk stuff. Actually, one panellist said he had been reading the Bible (sensation!) but only the bits about homosexuals. Insight into the other 750,000 Bible words might have led him to see that God has an extreme distaste for human perversity.
However, they had to answer the question given to them and they did their best, despite being handicapped by what appeared to be little understanding of the culture and language of the Christian world. It is fundamentally different. The church is not governed by opinion but by the Word of God. Spiritual truth is not decided by democratic vote.
Well, those who see no wrong in homosexuality can certainly claim overwhelming support. For thousands of years the whole world saw no wrong in it. That was the pre-Christian, pre-scientific age of almost total ignorance. Only one nation on earth knew better and treated same sex intercourse as a wicked, namely Israel. That light came direct from God when He spoke to Moses.
Homosexual practice has always, everywhere, been one of various sexual aberrations. Slaves were sex objects, as were young boys. 'Worshippers' visited temple prostitutes, with social customs of sex orgies and gang rape. Even wealthy Roman 'matrons' acted and dressed as prostitutes for the thrill of it. Paul's references to women wearing a head covering is a direct allusion to this in the Roman city of Corinth. Plato has some shocking social views. This sexual 'freedom' went hand in hand with slaughter as sport, unwanted babies thrown out to die, human sacrifice and other wickedness, in which they saw no wrong. The world scene is described in Scripture "There is none that does good, no not one". Israel regarded all nations as like a sea throwing up evil.
This 'culture' persisted into the Greek and Rome civilisations, until the world victory of Christianity. I assumed such history would be known yet a BBC lady panellist declared that people [of pro-homosexual opinion] had 'progressed farther than the Church' in homosexual matters. Progressed? How could going back to a pre-Christian age be progress? If decency exists, It came via Christianity and from when God told Moses "Be ye holy for I am holy". How holy are homosexuals?
For all that, we would all be as corrupt and hedonistic as the ancient heathen, if we, like them, lacked any guiding light or moral reference point. The true light now shines, but it is being deliberately smothered and is evident in many TV programmes which channel ancient and gross lewdness to us. Turn from God and you find the devil. Know God and in the light of His glory, everything messy, sordid and shameful is impossible, "hating even the garment spotted by the flesh".
The Bible laws stress that God hates confusion. Garments of cotton and wool were forbidden, yoking together animals of different species, and wearing the clothes of the opposite sex. The colour 'pink' is not mentioned in the Bible, being a dilution of red with white. We are responsible to a holy God whose righteous will is mandatory and absolute.
God wants men to be men and women to be women, neither feminised nor masculinised. God formed men physically for women and women for men. Anything different is an offence against nature. The results show on medical records. God destroyed Sodom at the beginning of history as His warning that this sin would find us out. When Christianity was originally proclaimed it was a message or moral change and included condemnation of sexual aberrations. The so-called homosexual 'life style' is clearly taught in the New Testament as a death style.
Christians and the Bible are not in the defendant's dock. They are God's earthly attorneys at God's judgment bar. Preach the Gospel and the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. It can't do that if we are compromising. Without Divine standards, there exists no authentic moral guide whatsoever. We are thrown back on Government legislation, which itself has no moral foundation. Until World War II, all the Ten Commandments were deeply embedded as part of the British life-basis, and were an effective brake. Today, in 2004, Parliament's 100,000 commandments can't stop runaway evil.
One thing more. The BBC panellists seemed unable to grasp that the Christian church's standards are not open to discussion. They are absolute. The Church is the pillar and ground of the truth standing to confront the world with the mind of God. The Bible is not a book of club rules for those joining the church. It is God's law and standard for all mankind, all races, in the church or out. "Here we stand, and can do no other". Unbelief gives no immunity to God's requirements. Defy His will and we are like a fly up against a 70 mph car!
Incidentally this 'Any Questions' broadcast did include an evangelical voice, but it seemed so friendly. Paul the Apostle pioneered purity and holiness against ancient evils without compromise or apology . To the 'Any Questions' heathen of sophisticated Athens he declared, "God has set a day when he will judge the world by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead." Today the devil has plenty of agents. The world needs to see the flashing two edged sword of the Word of God, the Gospel, wielded with a strong and courageous arm.
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"Does Prayer Work?" the Daily Mail asked. But whose prayer? What about?
The newspaper and television people seem to think that prayer generates some kind of power that might cure the sick, a measurable but mystical energy. The more the prayer the higher the calibration? The only way prayer works is if God answers it, but He doesn't care for newspaper people testing Him to see if He does.
Last year they tried prayer as an experiment. The hyped television and press experiment produced exactly the same as if nothing had been done. Did they really think God would cooperate (that is if it entered their minds that God had anything to do with it). Actually some healings were recorded, but they appear to have been when believers laid hands on the sick. Otherwise, nothing, but then would God show what He could really do just to conveniently fill newspaper space?
It prompts me to remark that newspaper and television people are not notably pious. At least, TV programmes give me that impression and newspaper editors (the Mail or Telegraph anyway) appear never to have heard of God. Considering their poor acquaintance with the Almighty, were they not a trifle too sanguine that he might go along with their scheme to provide data? I didn't think the Creator of infinity would be all that enthusiastic about a journalistic stunt.
Whoever had the idea, didn't know the Bible. The infamous King Herod tried something similar. He had always had a fancy to see a miracle, like going to the circus. He had heard wonders were taking place and superstitiously feared the prophet Elijah had come back from heaven. Then he learned that Jesus was performing the healing miracles and he believed Jesus did perform wonders, which is more than some liberals and Bible critics do now. When Jesus was arrested they sent Him to Herod and the King was delighted, hoping to see a miracle as a royal command performance? Jesus ignored this pompous royal nobody.
God isn't waiting to find out if He exists till somebody proves it. His reputation has not been handed to the BBC and ITV. He is not seeking their attention. I think perhaps THEY might seek His attention and find out what God thinks of them and their programmes. A vast quantity of modern stories, thrillers and dramas are empty of any moral point, and of all godliness. The formula used is one of violence, revenge, unforgiveness, worship of money, hatred and greed.
It is with a shock that one realises the devil tried it out even on Christ to tempt God. "The devil took him (Jesus) to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 'If you are the son of God' he said, 'throw yourself down. For it is written 'He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. '" Christ answered "It is also written: 'Do not put your God to the test'".
God never tries to prove to us He is God. Does He need to? In Canada I was astonished that I had to have I.D. when I wanted to put my money into my bank account! But God is independent. It doesn't matter to Him what we think about Him. You either believe or you don't. One time when God is put to the test is in healing meetings and in prayer. When people lose faith because God didn't do for them what seemed reasonable, they were testing God.
In healing meetings, many come to try it out. If it doesn't happen, they either profess disappointment or are happy to 'prove' it doesn't work. The allegation is that the evangelist built up their hopes and then failed them. I don't believe this ever really happens. They had been testing God and God had not obliged. True faith is never disappointed, healing or no healing.
I recall a very correct church member trying to force God into a corner and do what was demanded of Him. This man was always super-correct. He sat in my congregation with an almost visible aura of critical rightness around him. After a while he no longer appeared. I hunted him down. He explained he had prayed for God to do a particular thing which God could do and God didn't do it. He decided there was therefore no God!
Testing God is a subtle sin. Students of church history will find the word 'simony' occurring too often. Churchmen sought to acquire church office by money, like Simon Magus who sought to buy the power of the Holy Spirit. The essence of simony is the same as putting God to the test, that is to try dealing with God in a materialistic frame. The doubters, demanding hard evidence and scientific proof. But God is love, and nothing in the world is so hard to pin down in concrete form. You can only trust.
God never will oblige. He is known only by faith. He performs miracles but never to convince critics. You can't push God. If anyone wants to be an unbeliever He will let them be. He is just not a suitable subject for the analytical processes of the scientific age. Miracles are for believers. By the way, they do happen.
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