HAVE YOU FOUND THE REAL JESUS WHOSE SALVATION IS FREE?

"Have You Found the Real Jesus Whose Salvation is Free?"

By Melinda Fish

I've recently been reading a book from Bill's seminary days, HERE I STAND, by Roland Bainton. It is the go-to book on the life of Martin Luther. Wow! Talk about a "poker chip pusher"who risked his life to preach the grace of God. In the 1500's, Martin had been a young monk who found himself almost crazy (his own words) in a quest to find forgiveness of sins. Being a very devout Catholic and a sincere seeker, he explored every avenue the Roman Catholic Church prescribed, but never could find the joy and peace of eternal salvation. His confessions would last for six hours as he would try in vain to uncover the hidden motives behind every act, afraid that a failure to discover his sins would condemn him to hell.(Don't you know the priests would see him coming and say, "It's your turn!--I had him yesterday!") Finally, one priest actually said, "Martin, why don't you go out and do something worthy of confession!"

 

After three years of struggle, a mentor sent him to teach the Bible at the University of Wittenberg, Germany. As he began to study the scriptures, he saw in them the real God who loved him, a loving Father who was eager to forgive. His quest to find forgiveness had led him through repeated lengthy confessions, cruel acts of penance, the purchase of indulgences and the viewing of relics to insure that his soul would one day spring from purgatory after his death. His view of God had become so distorted through trying to approach Him this way that he struggled with resentment and hatred toward Him.

 

Listen as he describes the moment he found eternal salvation while reading the book of Romans:

"... I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole of Scripture took on a new meaning, and whereas before the “justice of God” had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love. This passage of Paul became to me a gate to heaven!"

If you haven't had that sort of experience with God, you must. It's called the new birth, and it is available to you as a free gift. Just receive it!

But what happens afterward? Have you noticed that "religion" tries to creep back in to substitute for His grace? You say no, but how then do we become captive to our own rituals such as fasting, pressure to prove our devotion by leading more and more people to Christ, holding prayer meetings 24/7, tithing and climbing the ladder of success at church? The other night I was flipping through the channels and saw a snatch of a "Christian" telethon. If someone contributed a financial gift to the television ministry, they were guaranteed that a blessing wasn't far behind. Another host promised that a prophecy would follow any financial gift that exceeded a certain amount. They assured donors that God was taking note of each financial gift to the telethon and would "reward" the person with "the desires of (his/her) heart." I couldn't help comparing this to Luther's quarrel with the papal indulgence, a decree which guaranteed a supplicant reducing their time in purgatory for a monetary contribution. St. Peter's in Rome was actually funded by the revenues from papal indulgences. 

The Catholics don't have anything on us, though. We have our own fund-raising methods. I wondered when we would break out the Charismatic relics: the gold dust, the jewels and the feathers, which had supposedly appeared in services where certain evangelists were invited to speak. And don't  forget the healings and prophecies your donation will buy. For a nice contribution you may even purchase the Lord's undivided attention on the matter of a loved one's salvation. I shudder to think what Martin Luther would say if he had seen the telethon and what goes on in some pulpits today. Worse yet, what would Jesus say as we attach our price tags to His sacrifice?

Are you being seduced from the "simplicity and purity" of devotion to Christ? If you feel the need to place your faith in your donations to "Christian " ministries and admiring Charismatic relics, fake signs and wonders, religion is snapping at your heels! It's ok to stop, turn around and embrace the simple, pure and free grace of God. If it doesn't sound like grace is free anymore where you are, you need to go home to Jesus. He paid the price for your sins and shortcomings and His love is not for sale! 

IS HE MOSTLY DEAD, OR ALL DEAD?

"IS HE MOSTLY DEAD, OR ALL DEAD?..."

By Melinda Fish

       No wonder Jesus said to us that the key to true discipleship is reckoning oneself dead. After almost fifty-eight years as a Christian, I'm beginning to understand why and what He really meant. I realize now that for much of my Christian life, I was hoping He just meant "mostly dead." Maybe I could get by with faking it by looking spiritual. I identified with Wesley, the protagonist of the movie, "The Princess Bride," when his friends brought him in unconscious to Miracle Max ( Billy Crystal). 

      Miracle Max asked, "Is he all dead or just mostly dead?"

      Who wants to be "all dead?" When you are "all dead," there is no going back. You lose it all including your life, your agenda, your reputation, your defense, your control and all your rights including the right to choose. Who wants to go there? 

      It's not just a one time choice, either, Jesus said we have to die every day. The paradox is that your death, as His was, is the secret of experiencing the power of His resurrection in your life. 

      Back in Jesus' day, capital punishment wasn't as easy as it is now with lethal injection, you actually had to suffer physical torture in a gruesome public display known as crucifixion. It served as warning to everyone who walked past your rotting body that you were deserving of this shameful torment. It was a form of punishment, sometimes lasting for days, that embodied the words "cruel and unusual."

      In World War II, the Japanese kamikaze pilots displayed such devotion to the emperor that they hardened themselves and drove their planes into American ships in the hopes of destroying them. They were feared more than any other Japanese weapon. When the sailors on board the target ships heard the deadly whistle created by their final plummet, they knew there was no weapon to stop them. Like the jihadists of today, the decision to reckon oneself dead was their key to spreading terror. 

     But Jesus wasn't talking about committing suicide in which you are in control. When you die on a cross, you can't put yourself there. Others, particularly your enemies, will be very happy to help. Nor is it like suicide which we commit to get this "dying thing" out of the way. 

       Have you ever tried to heed a preacher's admonition to "die to yourself?" 

      I have. I've tried to give up things for Jesus like the privilege of having a new blouse or a new refrigerator. I thought that if I was willing to give up stuff, I was taking up my cross, but it was only a pathetic attempt at what I thought Jesus wanted. So is any form of sacrifice such as giving my body to be burned, selling everything I have to feed the poor and going to a third world mission field. You can do all of that and even fast for 40 days, but according to the Apostle Paul, it is not what Jesus was talking about. Do all this and you will still only be "mostly dead." 

     Why? It is only appeasement, something you do to satisfy your religious self and just another thing in which you can take glory.

     The kind of dying Jesus meant isn't subject to your convenience. In fact, when and how is not up to you. You give up entire control over it until you draw your last breath. No one can or should try to shame it out of you. And no one should over dramatize his own death by bragging about it to inspire you to donate money in the offering plate. That only glorifies the self, hiding it under a veil of self-sacrifice. That opposes the very thing this death is designed to do:  remove the only barrier between receiving His unconditional love and giving it away freely.    

     The moment you really die may be a secret, because likely no one will know it but you. You will give Him permission to carry out the sentence at His convenience, whenever and wherever He chooses. It may be quick, but it may not be. It may be embarrassing or not. You will not threaten or scream, you just simply decide to let go and lose yourself in Him. 

     Then it happens. You find yourself at peace and flooded with Divine joy. When your self-love dies, you realize you are the object of His magnificent love and the wall in your heart falls down. In that moment, He starts flowing out of you to the other "objects" of His love all around you. God releases His secret weapon of mass destruction-pure, selfless love.

     God isn't calling you to be "loving," to imitate what only death can produce. And He isn't interested in your blouse or refrigerator. Those things are only a mockery of real death. He is just asking for you, just as you are, to give up and stop resisting the inevitable.

         Shakespeare wrote, "Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once."

     What are you waiting for?

THE FEAST OF CHRISTMAS

THE FEAST OF CHRISTMAS

     The first Christmas after I received the baptism in the Holy Spirit fell one month after my father died. It was the worst holiday ever. Our family was in grief and none of us felt like celebrating. I cried everyday. During this time, I was under the delusion that my new experience with God had failed to reward my "faith" with a gift of healing for my father. I found myself questioning the very roots of my faith. I angrily told God that He could forget about me serving Him. If He couldn't see how hard I had tried to believe for my father's healing, how could I trust Him for anything else?
    Something inside me kept going in the direction of God anyway. I decided to make handmade Christmas cards. Instead of the usual tribute to Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus, I drew a picture of Jesus on the cross on each card. I deckled the edges and burned them with a candle. I chose an anonymous quotation from a teaching I had recently heard, "Christmas is the invisible God becoming visible in such a way that we may behold His glory; Christ, the far away God, becoming Immanuel. As Immanuel, Jesus is light coming to our darkness, life coming to our death, health coming to our disease and all the fullness of God coming to our emptiness."
     I made envelopes for the cards, sealed them and sent them on their way. Nothing of what I quoted in that card seemed to be true. My father's death when he was only 58 had drowned out any "heavenly " choir, and I couldn't feel anything but the gloom of a future without my Pop.
     He had been a bright spot in my life, always showing me unconditional love. He had a down-to-earth sense of humor. I remember him cooking chili in the fall and doing silly dances by the stove just to make me laugh. He never walked through the living room where I was sitting without pinching my cheeks and saying, "Your daddy loves you." Recovery from his death seemed impossible. I had always loved Christmas, but I could not imagine celebrating it again.
     The harsh and beautiful terrain of life here on this earth is designed to teach the disciple to trust. Every single person meets the same challenges in diverse circumstances. We all suffer loss, change, illness, deaths of those around us and the helpless feelings of being unable to change horrible situations into favorable outcomes.
      The only way to survive in these times is by learning to celebrate the goodness of God in the small and hidden places. While God was changing the hearts of the children of Israel in their wilderness season, He taught them to celebrate with feasts. Slaves did not feast; those days had been another day of cruel labor for them. On days of feasting, you were not allowed to do anything but rest, eat and enjoy the company of friends and loved ones. Everyone HAD to, no exceptions, no calling in sick. All excuses were cancelled. No one was allowed to be absent. It was the Law.
      God knew something about them that they didn't, that imposing feasts would cause them to remember His miraculous intrusions into their lives. They would remember the times that they submitted to the feasts with heavy, grieving hearts and the times where celebrations were acts of pure joy. The celebrations would trigger memories of both, and they would gradually learn that throughout a life of fluctuating circumstances, He was always there, and He could be trusted, no matter what.
      I hadn't realized it then, but sending out those handmade cards that Christmas in the face of my father's death was a desperate act of feeble trust. I didn't believe in myself, but He saw that I believed in Him. He saw a tiny shoot of frail faith that He had planted in me peeking above the soil of my grief. He knew then that it would eventually grow into "all the fullness of God" as He nurtured the gift of Himself in me.
      Every year when I take out the boxes of ornaments for the Christmas tree, I wonder if our family will all be together again next year. But I also remember that God, my Father, has caused everything in my life to enhance my relationship with Him. He is trustworthy. What He is "going for" in my life can only happen with all the necessary ingredients of human experience wrapped in God's love. In a lifetime of Christmases, He remains the faithful, constant center.

THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT FASTING

THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT FASTING - 

For part 8 of THE LEAVEN OF THE PHARISEES, see melindafish.blogspot.com

How you treat God says everything about Who you believe He is. Since Christians do not live under the Old Covenant but the New, our understanding of Him grows in a continuously unfolding knowledge of His grace and love. He is a loving, tender-hearted Father. He is not an abstract Force who wants to remain a mystery; He has spared nothing because He wants to know you. He has every hair on your head numbered---even the ones that fell out! To Him you are His Precious baby, and He wants to "pinch your little, fat cheeks."

I used to fast frequently and at great length for periods as long as 40 days back when I didn't know His love like I do now. Forgive me if I say that I have outgrown the practice. I never understood it really and dreaded the periods when I thought He wanted me to display my devotion to Him through it. I participated in it when I thought that it would help God hear me and answer my prayers. I never realized He cared about me so much, that He had affection and love for me and knew my weaknesses and was somehow "nuts" about me, anyway. 

For me to go on a long or even a short fast would be an insult to our relationship. It would be as though I suddenly forgot Who He is and His eagerness to answer my simple prayers. I've long ago found out that as far as the devil is concerned, "My Daddy can beat up your daddy, and He already has!" He has already subdued the Enemy and is currently "spoiling His house." I don't usually panic anymore when the tower of Siloam falls or the Romans do something else stupid or immoral. God knows it all and loves them, too. He sent Jesus to show them He does, even though they haven't seen it. Maybe they will, if I just love them.

If you want to fast, go ahead. Maybe you will wear yourself out, too, and just fall into His love and be able to trust Him to run the world and pillage the kingdom of darkness today. He has everything under His control. I hope so, because the grocery man needs your support! 

LEAVEN OF THE PHARISEES, PART 8, "OUT FASTED"

LEAVEN OF THE PHARISEES, Part 8

"OUT FASTED"


  One of the books I read in the first few months after receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit was called, GOD'S CHOSEN FAST, by Arthur Wallis. Since the author was from England,(and the English have cool accents) I thought he must have known what he was talking about, so I devoured it eagerly.  One morning I noticed that I was eating a doughnut with the book in my lap. Doughnut crumbs were strewn across my lap defiling the cover of the book, which must have been a prophetic sign of what I'm about to share.
Doing things halfway is not me. I tend to live by the motto, "If a little is good; more is better," so I don't usually approach anything with less than full commitment. In fact, the word, "compulsive," comes to mind. The same was true with my approach to fasting. I was fascinated with the possibility being able to give up meals and see God open doors for me. The thought of obtaining favor with God by doing something that required a sacrifice was appealing. Besides, it would be a good discipline and cause me to lose weight.
I started off with a three- day fast. Other people who were well known in the body of Christ fasted regularly, or so they said, so I knew that if I wanted to excel in ministry, this was the way. Sure enough, I made it through my first fast with relative ease. I can't remember what I fasted about, but I began to give this new found weapon in my spiritual arsenal more and more devotion. I began to attach the outcomes of my prayer requests to the length of the fast and especially the type of fast I was able to do.
Serving God was serious. I knew that people were choosing sin and were ignoring God, especially other Christians who didn't seem concerned that the Church needed revival. I knew it was up to me to "press in" to God and show Him I meant business.
During this time, I was able to convince a few others to fast with me. Since my husband and I were the pastors, I knew that our congregation would be worthy of revival, God's vindication of sincerity, if we would just be more devoted to the spiritual disciplines. After all, the books I read indicated that revivals had happened only when people had sought God with prayer, but especially with fasting.
It was odd, but the more often I fasted, the harder it was to pray. Within only a couple of hours into a fast, my mind drifted to gutting it out to make it until the time I had reserved, usually 3 days, 7 days, 21 or 40. I became grumpy and legalistic, and while I was fasting, the messages I preached had an element of intensity to them.
            I read some books that talked about not just fasting once in awhile but about leading a "fasted" life. These were the spiritual "big guns," who made fasting a regular habit. Their books filled the shelves of the Christian bookstores and they spoke in hushed tones about a deeper Christian life. Whenever I felt insecure, or in a state of bewilderment, or whenever things weren't going smoothly in the congregation, I fasted. I never felt close to God during the fasts, but it didn't matter, I saw the hunger and the lack of emotional feeling as just another sacrifice. I knew God would one day vindicate the time I had spent devoting myself to spiritual discipline with the blessing of revival, church growth and fulfillment of prophecies that had been given to us.
         I was on a 40-day bread and water fast when a girl in the congregation remarked about how much time I spent fasting and how much weight I had lost. She didn't know that one day that same week I was walking through a store, looked in a mirror and noticed that the whites of my eyes were turning yellow. She went on to share about an article she had read in a Christian magazine by a woman who acquired anorexia nervosa under the guise of fasting. Her words ran through me like a knife. I didn't show it on my face, but I wondered for a second if this could be happening to me.
       This woman was the first person God sent across my path. The second was a young man in our congregation who began to take me seriously. He, too, developed a penchant for fasting and intense prayer.  Within a few months our congregation was in the throes of a division. The young man had developed a following. He strained at prayer for revival and out fasted me. Then he subtly influenced his followers to despise Bill and me. We weren't committed enough to the revival vision to lead. Something was wrong, and I needed to find out what it was...
(Part 2 next week: What God showed me about fasting...)

HEAVEN'S BUSINESS CARD

#7- BEWARE THE LEAVEN OF THE PHARISEES

"...They (the Pharisees) love respectful greetings in the marketplaces and being called 'rabbi'..."

HEAVEN'S BUSINESS CARD

I was in the lobby of a hotel in Brooklyn, NY waiting for folks to pick me up for a church service when I spied a "fat" newsprint paper on the coffee table. I began flipping through it only to discover that it was a Christian newspaper. It was hard to find the news articles, because they were fighting for column space with the ads for church congregations and ministries. There was definitely a competition going on in New York City for who was the most prominent. Literally, every ministry identified itself with titles, each more elaborate than the next. There were bishops, bishops-of-bishops, apostles, prophets, prophets -of -prophets, archbishops and a new one I'd never seen before: judiciary prelate! (Uh-oh, now that's a serious Big Dog!)

It was difficult to figure out which one was the greatest. Who would want to share with others that you attended a fellowship whose " leader" was merely a common pastor. What if your friends attended the services of a bishop when you could only brag that your leader had not achieved that same high level of awe and wonder?

How did they earn these titles? Did the higher ranking ministers have knowledge that God held secret until you achieved this level? Or was it the size of one's congregation that mattered? Who recognized these folks and why? Or did they just wake up one day and start calling themselves with a new title, have new business cards printed and then follow up with an ad in the newspaper like the one I was reading. And what is the ultimate title? But more importantly, who cares? 

Why did any of these people feel the need to do this? Weren't they supposed to be serving Jesus? He clearly said, "I am among you as one who serves. " He never identified Himself with a title of any kind. He was firm that he didn't want any of His followers using titles, particularly "Father." He did not take the privilege of identifying Himself by anything which would exalt Himself over anyone. Why not?

He represented His Father who wanted to close the gap between Himself and mankind. Jesus was the ultimate Undercover Boss. He cleverly " disguised " Himself as a normal person in order to complete His Father's assignment, closing the gap sin had created between mankind and His Father. Intimidating people by insisting on receiving honor from them would have only  widened the gap. In the same way, as an ambassador of the eternal Gap-closer, our job is to literally take the hand of anyone who will listen and put it in the hand of Jesus, God the Father's only "business card."

Titles are merely symptoms of hierarchy, part of a sinister plot to disarm the Body of Christ of humility. This form of the leaven of the Pharisees has found its way in to every denomination and organization in Christendom, and it has been infecting us for centuries. It uses the weakness of man's inability to trust God and wait for Heaven's vindication. Rather than wait for God to bestow honor in eternity, hierarchy imposes its man- created pecking order based on carnal competition. It causes strife as people vie for position by serving man, rather than serving Jesus. Hierarchy demands obeisance as men lord it over each other. At the root is the fear that one cannot really trust God with a level playing field. Instead, the person must elevate himself so that others will take notice. Besides, waiting for God to show people who you really are may take too much time. You might die before people recognize your greatness! Then what?

No wonder that Peter, who witnessed the sufferings of Christ, admonished those who wanted to elevate him because he and John had performed a miracle of healing at the Gate Beautiful. Instead of allowing men to bow before him, Peter said that it was not their own power or piety that made the crippled man walk. It was Jesus, the Name above every other name. Paul later said the same when he performed a miracle that caused people to bow before him, "Rise up; I, too, am just a man!"

I wonder what would have happened had people who were in awe of the miracle of healing bowed before some of the folks running ads in that "Christian" newspaper. They may have been baptized in a flood of business cards.

One time I heard a preacher ask, "Why are there only 24 elders in heaven casting their crowns before Jesus?" Answer: "Because God could only find 24 who were willing to take their crowns off!"

When Paul wrote, "I will not have anyone credit me with more than he sees in me or receives from me," he was saying, " If God allows you to see Jesus in me, so be it. But until He takes the blinders off, I will remain in disguise with the same costume Jesus wore, that of a normal guy, just like you."

IT IS WHAT IT IS AND IT AIN'T WHAT IT AIN'T

BEWARE THE LEAVEN OF THE PHARISEES-#6 "Sounding the trumpet before you!"

IT IS WHAT IT IS AND IT AIN'T WHAT IT AIN'T

Are you suspicious of promotion? I'm not sure where we got the idea that the Lord is waiting for us to promote Him. There is a big difference between telling somebody something in a real context of joy and excitement and trying to fake joy and excitement, especially to obtain money or leverage. One is genuine and the other isn't. It has an ulterior motive.
One of the worst ways is playing to the media in order to sell yourself...uh...your ministry to the public. I come from the Bible Belt where billboard ads for church congregations and evangelistic ministries line the freeways. Each one usually has a slogan: "We are the Church In the Know, On the Go, Yo-ho-ho, Hidey-ho!" Why do we need to do that? The religion biz is rife with promotion and exaggerated advertising. But when you suggest to folks that your ministry is the greatest thing since Jesus walked the earth, no wonder people are disappointed when you show up. Then you have to pull an even bigger ruse by living under that religious mask.
What is wrong with being a normal person?
Everywhere I go, I always say to the Lord, "I'll know I'm on the right track if somebody here tells me, 'You're real.'" Transparency exposes the real truth that you are who you are, nothing more. It is the way to live when you are secure in the love of God. There is no longer any need to hide behind spin and clever exaggeration. You are normal just like everyone you are talking to. You have struggles like everyone else. The same joys, sorrows, fears and funny faux pas are as common to you as they are to everyone else. In fact, they are all points of identification with other folks you meet.
The trouble is that we somehow feel we need to hide our points of identification because we just feel awkward and unlovely. When you start to feel that way, remember that the guy in front of you is a normal person, too. One of the best ways to drop the wall between you is to reveal one of those points of identification. There is almost nothing about the way I live that I believe is a sacred secret--other than my passwords! Why should it be? I am just like you, peering out from a head that talks and a heart that feels.
Besides, if I share my struggles, maybe you will feel like there is no reason you need to hide, either. I am willing to become vulnerable to you in order to become friends with you, but better still to let you know that it's ok out here in the Light. If Jesus can love me, with my faux pas, He is likely to be able to love you, too.
The need to be known as something other than a normal person says that you think more highly of yourself than you ought. Have you ever met someone who over dramatizes themselves? Behind all that fluff is a scared little person who needs to come out of hiding and know the rest and peace of living in the light of God's love.
One of my favorite sayings is, "It is what it is, and it ain't what it ain't." There is no need to promote yourself as though you wear a halo. You are not a product and your "ministry" is not supposed to be, either. It's just you in there, ok? Your congregation is no better than anyone else's because it's full of regular people.
If you want to walk in the freedom of God's Kingdom, you will have to give up the fake you and just be who you are: a normal person who needs no other business card than the same one the Apostle Paul had, "I am who I am, by the grace of God." And the ego-bustin', verse, "I will not have anyone credit me with more than he sees in me or receives from me." That is just another way of saying, "It is what it is, and it ain't what it ain't!"