The Biblical Perspective Is Not The Survival Of The Fittest

                                                 When The Door Slams  

Jesus was in Bethany. He was at the house of Simon, who had a harmful skin disease. While Jesus was there, a woman came to him. She had an alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume. She poured this perfume on Jesus head while he was eating. His followers saw the woman do this and were upset. They asked, "Why waste that perfume? It could be sold for a great deal of money, and the money could be given to the poor."   (Matthew 26:6-9 NCV)

            Jesus himself inherited [the ] rich Old Testament legacy of care for the poor, and put it into practice. He made friends with the needy and fed the hungry. He told his disciples to sell their possessions and give alms to the poor, and when they give a party to remember to invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind, who would probably be in no position to invite them back. He also promised that in feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, welcoming the homeless and visiting the sick, they would thereby be ministering to him.

            The biblical perspective is not "the survival of the fittest" but "the protection of the weakest." Since God himself speaks up for them and comes to their aid, his people must also be the voice of the voiceless and the defender of the defenseless. 

            The church should not tolerate material poverty in its own fellowship. When Jesus said, "You will always have the poor with you" (Mark 14:7), he was not acquiescing in the permanence of poverty. He was echoing the Old Testament statement "there will always be poor people in the land" (Deuteronomy 15:11).  Yet this was intended not as an excuse for complacency but as an incentive to generosity, as a result of which "there should be no poor people among you' (Deuteronomy 15:4). If there is one community in this world in which justice is secured for the oppressed, the poor are freed from the indignities and physical need is abolished by the voluntary  sharing of resources, that community is the new society of Jesus the Messiah. It happened in Jerusalem after Pentecost, when "no one in the group needed anything" (Acts 4:34), as Luke is at pains to show, and it can (and should) happen again today. How can we allow our own brothers, sisters and children in God's family to suffer want? 

Affirmation: Instead, when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. Then you will be blessed, because they cannot pay you back. They have nothing. But you will be rewarded when the good people rise from death (Luke 13:13-14 NCV).     

Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin. Acknowledge these to the LORD and thank Him for His forgiveness.   

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We Are Fighting Today For God Grace

                                                 When The Door Slams

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore  do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law but under grace.                            (Romans 6:11-14 NIV)

            Man receives God grace at once and fully. Thus he is save. Good works do not need to come to his assistance but are to follow. It is precisely as if God were to produce a fresh green tree out of a dry log, which tree would then bear its natural fruit. 

            Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. 

            God grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a person must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is God grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is God grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and it justifies the sinner. 

            Think about this: A very great, strong, mighty, and active matter is the grace of God. It does not lie asleep in the soul, as visionary preachers fabrication; nor does it let itself be carried about as religious people carries their armor in the back pocket. No, none of that! God grace hears, it leads, it drives, it draws, it changes, it works all in man, and lets itself be distinctly felt and experienced. God grace is hidden, but its works are evident. Words and works show where it dwells, just as the fruit and the leaves of a tree indicate the kind and the character of the tree.

            Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son...and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is God grace because God did not consider his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.    

            Petition: "This, then, is how you should pray: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.                (Matthew 6:9-15 NIV)   

Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin. Acknowledge these to the LORD and thank Him for His forgiveness.                                                   

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We Call It "Stress," But Its Real Name Is "Egocentric."

                                                 When The Door Slams

Do not worry because of evildoers, Nor be envious toward wrongdoers: For they will wither quickly like the grass, And fade like the green herb. Trust [rely on and have confidence] in the LORD and do good; Dwell in the land and feed [securely] on His faithfulness. Delight yourself in the LORD, And He will give you the desires and petitions of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; Trust in Him also and He will do it. He will make your righteousness [your pursuit of right standing with God] like the light, And your judgment like [the shining of] the noonday [sun]. Be still before the LORD; wait patiently for Him and entrust yourself to Him; Do not fret (whine, agonize) because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who carries out wicked schemes. Cease from anger and abandon wrath; Do not fret; it leads only to evil. For those who do evil will be cut off, But those who wait for the LORD, they will inherit the land. [Is 57:13c] For yet a little while and the wicked one will be gone [forever]; Though you look carefully where he used to be, he will not be [found]. [Heb 10:36,37; Rev 21:7-8] But the humble will [at last] inherit the land And will delight themselves in abundant prosperity and peace.      Read: [Ps 37:29; Matt 5:5].                       (Psalm 37:1-11 AMP) 

            How much emotional energy do you spend protecting yourself from every possible slight, challenging every word spoken by either friend or enemy which demeans you, cringing under every cool look, tossing at night because someone else seemed preferred over you? How much emotional energy do you spend trying to doctor up your image and "look good," try to say only what's "cool," trying to do only what's accepted, trying to appear only in a way that will make you admired, trying to sustain a subtle publicity campaign that says you are more, do more, have more...? Exhausting isn't it? 

            It's a cruel, crushing burden, and it never lets up. It never lets you relax a minute to recoup. It wears away your strength, your morale, your life. We may call it "stress' but its real name is "egocentric." Egoist may be open or subtle, worldly or Christianized. It may mean smashing faces and brains to wow the world of warfare. It may mean taking over enough companies to wow the corporate world of business. It may mean getting enough church members or adherents to wow the religious world. Or individually, memorizing the most verses, visiting the most shut-ins, teaching the biggest Bible class--whatever makes the rest of the world say "wow!" 

            Think about this: Egocentric keeps you forever tense and dissatisfied, forever in agony if someone else appear better, smarter, richer, more liked, more successful, more admired, more spiritual, more "blessed." Egocentric is a terrible and evil burden. Some things we will never understand. Some losses will never make sense to us, but in time and in God's economy we can see that Romans 8:28 is true and does work. All things DO work together for those who love God. Jesus says, "Let me give you rest. Learn of Me. I am meek!"

Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin. Acknowledge these to the LORD and thank Him for His forgiveness. 

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The Evil Within My Mind

                                                 When The Door Slams 

For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but it is the sin that lives in me. So I discover this principle: When I want to do what is good, evil is with me. For in my inner self I joyfully agree with God's law. But I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this dying body? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh, to the law of sin.             Romans 7:19-25 HCSB   

            All of the "roaring and groaning" of my spiritual desire to overcome evil in my heart--this reached your ears [O Lord]...Now I see that I was searching for the answer outwardly--trying to reason with my mind the best way to escape temptation--when the freeing knowledge I sought could only come by the Holy Spirit as it brings inner light. As long as I kept struggling in this way, I was unable to return to the place where my soul might receive fullness and well-being and rest and joy.

            But you, O Lord, who abides forever--you are not angry with us in our fumbling blindness. You are so merciful to "dust." It was pleasing to you to reshape the deformity that was causing my blindness. You kept stirring me with the sense that I was missing some secret goodness that is in you. O Lord, you kept me in a state of restlessness. Finally, I saw, inwardly, the truth about the origin of evil! 

            I saw how superior I felt, in my striving for spiritual well-being and sufficiency--but in all this striving I was still totally inferior to you. I had been so blind to what I was doing, because pride is like a spiritual wound to the face, swelling shut the inner eyes of understanding. And through this swollenness of pride and disobedient, I was fumbling in the darkness of my mind separated from you. But your healing hand applied to my eyes a stinging ointment that caused repentance and my pride and self-sufficiency to subside. 

            I was given a true understanding for my sinful condition. And at the same moment I saw myself in this way, I looked upon you and your mercy for me...From that day to this, I have kept this stinging ointment for my sins--the pain that causes me to run to you for the healing of my soul, and not away from you but in my pride, mistakenly thinking that I can somehow prove my worthiness. For I see now that this pride--self-sufficiency before you--is the source of the evil within my mind. 

            Affirmation: The LORD is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack. He lets me lie down in green pasture; He leads me beside quiet waters. He renews my life; He leads me along the right paths for His name's sake. Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff--they comfort me (Psalm 23:1-4 HCSB).     

 Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin. Acknowledge these to the LORD and thank Him for His forgiveness.

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The Biblical Answers Have To Be Lived And Not Just A Thought

                                                  When The Door Slams

Until we all reach unity in the faith and in  the knowledge of God's Son, growing into a mature man with a stature measured by Christ's fullness. Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit. But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into Him who is the head--Christ. From Him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building up itself in love by the proper working of each individual part.                            (Ephesians 4:13-16 HCSB)                                                

            I firmly believe in acquainting children with God's judgment and wrath while they are young. Nowhere in the Bible are we instructed to skip over the unpleasant scriptures in our teaching. The wages of sin is death, and children have a right to understand that fact.  

            When we accept Christ as Savior, we must also acknowledge and then act upon the fact that if He is our Savior, He is also our Lord in all life. He is Lord not just in religious things and not just in cultural things such as art and music, but in our intellectual lives and in business and in our attitude toward the devaluation of people's humanness in our culture. 

            Acknowledging Christ's Lordship and placing ourselves under what is taught in the whole Bible includes thinking and acting as citizens in relation to our government and its laws. We must know what those laws are and act responsibly to help to change them if they do not square with the Bible's concepts of justice and humanness. The biblical answers have to be lived and not just a thought.

            We must live under the Lordship of Christ in all areas of life--at great cost, If need be. It is a faithful life to think of the Christians in China, paying a great price for their loyalty to Christ, but that does not relieve each of us from being under the Lordship of Christ in regard to our own country. 

            Think about this: With Christ as Savior and Lord, we must do all that we can to lead others to Christ. And simultaneously we must use every constitutional practice to offset the rise of authoritarian governments and the loss of humanness in society. But there is no use in talking of offsetting the loss humanness in society if we do not act humanly to all people about us in the contacts of our individual lives.

            Affirmation: We have redemption in Him through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure that He planned in Him for the administration of the days fulfillment--to bring everything together in the Messiah, both things in heaven and things on earth in Him (Ephesians 1:7-10). 

Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin. Acknowledge these to the LORD and thank Him for His forgiveness 

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The First Fruit Of Our Justification Is Peace With God

                                                 When the Door Slams

All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.            John 14:25-27 NIV

            The struggle we have with a holy God is rooted in the conflict between God's righteousness and our unrighteousness. He is just and we are unjust. This tension creates fear, hostility, and anger within us toward God. The unjust person does not desire the company of a just judge. We become fugitives fleeing from the presence of One whose glory can blind us and whose justice can condemn us. We are at war with Him unless or until we are justified. Only the justified person can be comfortable in the presence of a holy God.

            The Apostle Paul set forth immediate benefits--fruits of justification. In...Romans he explains what happens to us when we are justified, when we are covered by the righteousness of Christ that is by faith: "Since we have been made right with God by our faith, we have peace with God. This happened through our Lord Jesus Christ, who has brought us into that blessing of God's grace that we now enjoy. And we are happy because of the hope we have of sharing God's glory" (Romans 5:1-2). 

            Think about this: The first fruit of our justification is peace with God. To the ancient Jew peace was a precious, but elusive commodity. The present-day turmoil in the Mid-East seems like a replay...The Jew longed for peace. He yearned for the day when swords would be beaten into plowshares. He waited for the time  when the Prince of Peace would come to end  the incessant hostilities. So important to the Jew was this quest for peace that the very word peace became a daily greeting. Where we say "hello" or "good-bye," the Jew said, "Shalom." 

            Renewal: Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:15-17 NIV)        

 Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin. Acknowledge these to the LORD and thank Him for His forgiveness.

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Fear Is Not Your Master

                                                 When The Door Slams

The LORD is my light and my salvation--whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life--of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked advance against me to devour me, it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall. Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident.                                                                                          Psalm 27:1-3 NIV 

             Are you afraid? Does it bother you and lower your self-esteem? Do you try to deny it? Well, don't. Because the truth is, you are not alone in your fears. We are all afraid. My fears may not be the same as yours, but they are there nonetheless. 

            You may be afraid of the dark, whereas I am afraid to speak in front of a large group.... Fear is not my master....You may be afraid that you are going to come down with an incurable disease, and I may worry that I am going to be involved in an automobile accident....Fear is not my master. But one way or another, we all have our doubts about the future, our worries, and our fears....Fear is not your LORD. 

            If you tell yourself you should not be afraid, or to fear something that makes you a coward, then it is time for you to lower your expectations in that regard, fear has a price to high and it will take you to a place you don't want to go. 

            Very often, the person who has tendencies in the direction of defeated perfectionism has a problem with his fears. He tries to deny them and fight against them, which don't usually do any good at all, and then he berates himself for being a coward. He don't realize that courage really has nothing to do with the absence of fear.

            Think about this: If you tense up and fight it, chances are that it is really going to grab ahold of you. If you tell yourself things like, Stop being afraid, stop having butterflies in the stomach and you probably going to aggravate things. But, if you learn to admit that you are afraid, just go with it and accept it, you can overcome it. 

            This great law briefly and simply stated is that if you think in negative terms you will get negative results. If you think in positive terms you will achieve positive results. That is the simple fact which is at the basis of an astonishing law of prosperity and success. Believe and succeed that fear is not your master.

            Intercession: Then Asa called to the LORD his God and said, "LORD, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, LORD our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. LORD, you are our God; do not let mere mortals prevail against you  (2 Chronicles 14:11 NIV).

Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin. Acknowledge these to the LORD and thank Him for His forgiveness.

                                                        Never Rest Ministries