Imagine being an angel created on day 1 of the Genesis account. What would you think? One minute you don't exist, but the next minute you are falling on your knees before a Most Holy God. The only thing that has been created thus far has been the angels and other than that...nothing! Everything is pitch black because there is no universe, yet even so, your very first sight is the brightest Star of all!
You see God in Supreme Brilliance and out of an outburst from your inner most being you shout, "GLORY TO YOU, O GOD, FOR YOU ALONE ARE WORTHY OF ALL OF MY PRAISE!!"
I believe the very first thing God created were the angels. They were made on day 1 of creation before there was even a hint of universe in sight. There was a purpose in doing this, you see, because God wanted them to marvel at His majesty! He wanted them to praise Him for His mighty works! He desired to show them His strong hand...and thus it was so...and it was very good!
Again, imagine with me that you are this angel. It is the beginning of the third day of the creation week and you have already witnessed God unravel the universe out of a scroll that did not exist. You watched Him spin the galaxies into motion and set the darkened chaotic watered down earth on its path following an orbit around nothing (for at this time the sun was not there).
You have no clue what is going on and yet you worship Him!
But what is God doing? Now He begins to take this wreck of a planet, which is the unlikeliest of all, and He begins beautifying it.
If there is anything that I have learned over the time that I have spent knowing the Lord, it is this: God longs for the opportunity to magnify His grace by taking the least likely and the chaotic mess and completely transforming it into a beautiful masterpiece.
Therefore, if you were this angel, and on the third day God commanded that the earth would sprout forth vegetation, and before anything green came up, would you be the one to go up to God and tell Him that this is impractical? After you have seen the wonder of the Most High God, would you tell Him that what He is commanding is too much? Would you dare limit God in this instance?
I am sure most, if not all of us, would quickly say no. However, it is sad that many of us do this on a daily basis. We limit Him in our lives and discourage others from experiencing the fullness of God because self-consciously we don't believe that He is truly Incredible. We don't understand that God is limitless, therefore, for some obscure reason we put a limit on Him.
I experienced challenges such as these for two years already and it hasn't stopped. As many of you may know, I have a desire to go into a tribal location with zero access to the gospel and I am trusting that God will use me to be an effective Bible translator for New Tribes Mission. God has placed on my heart a conviction to give these people everything that I have.
I also find myself longing to speak with missionaries who have gone before because I hope that we will be mutually encouraged by each other's willingness to serve overseas. However, I must confess that out of all of the missionaries that I have spoken to and told this dream that I have of translating God's Word into a language unreached, well over half of them and many of my friends have said nay to this goal. The thumbs down has been given.
Has this ever happened to you?
Do you have a call on your life from God in order to accomplish a specific purpose? Our Lord and Savior sure did as He says in John 17:4 "I glorified you on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do." God has given each one of us a task to do and by accomplishing it we bring glory to the Father.
Why is it that so often we limit this task? What if God actually gave us a pretty big task? I would say that our Lord's task on earth was pretty huge! I heard a quote one time that goes very well with this passage and the basic premise is that God doesn't give us tasks lesser than or equal to our strength, but He gives us the grace to accomplish the task according to His will.
A big part of the reason why Caitlin and I are headed for the Missionary Training Center this coming Fall semester is because we want to be highly equipped for the work of service into this holy calling that is placed on our lives. This is not a joke, therefore, we will not treat it as one. We are using common sense and right judgment by training for these next three years before we head off.
I have been told that translating sixty-six books (which aren't really that big) would be impractical. Someone has even told me that it would pretty much be a waste of time because if you finish the New Testament, then you should move on to a different tribe. How can somebody who claims to know God say these things? I tell you they don't know the power of my GOD!!
My goal is not to be satisfied with just a short portion of the Scriptures because my goal is not to make a bunch of converts. The desire of my heart is to make disciples. You cannot build a luxurious house without having all of the tools necessary...thus disciples, yes can be made on a small portion, but if one worker (the American believer) has the nails and the hammer, then the other worker (the tribal believer) will never have the possibility to be as effective as the first if you only give him the nails.
I thank God for men and women such as Ron and Carrie Lindsey who stood up for me when I was told those discouraging words.
As of now there are only a little over 500 complete Bible's in the world from beginning to end. I praise God for men and women who are willing to respond in faith to the calling that God has placed on their life to go into an unreached people group, but I praise God even more for those who remain until the work is finished.
I have a joyous hurt when I read the list and find that there are over 2,000 languages now that have the New Testament. I am joyful because God has reached in. I am hurting because man won't grab hold. In my spirit I am ashamed to tell you right now that those so called "reached" tribes that have the New Testament and portions of the Old Testament are sadly forgotten now.
I fear that so often we treat these people as numbers. Why do I say they have been forgotten when many of them have a well established church? They have been forgotten because the job is not finished. Oh how I pray that God will raise up workers who will stick it out until the end.
I am writing to you who have been discouraged by fellow believer's. Stay the course and remain on. Continue in the faith and if God has called you to do something that is impossible and that somebody else can't, then don't ever let them discourage you. This is not a work for your siblings in the faith to decide what you can and cannot do! This is a work given only by your Father in Heaven!
Do not ever believe a man who says that God can't do it. Believe the God who masters the impossible! For if a man, even a missionary, is unwilling to believe, then doors will be closed to them and God will not work fluently in their ministry. However, if you believe God, then He will show you things you cannot even imagine! Persevere...even when Christian's say no because God is saying YES!!
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Thursday, January 16, 2014
The Sinner in Hell
The Unbelievers Eternal Posture
In this story, told by our Savior, the rich man goes to hell. Verse 23 says, "In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment..." I can promise you that this man was not standing up with his head bowed. That was not the position he was in when it says this. He had absolutely no strength whatsoever to stand and all comfort had fled from him. His legs gave out long ago. He was on his knees, arms laid out on the ground in front of him, and face to the floor where he will remain for the rest of his eternal dwelling.
That is the position in which every sinner will be in for all of eternity, for they shall rightly bow before the Alpha and the Omega forever, never having the ability to stand in defiance again (Isaiah 45:23; Romans 14:11; Philippians 2:10).
All of creation, whether in God's presence or not, saved or unsaved, angel or demon, will all rightly bless the name of the Lord for all of eternity. Every single human will either bless His name now in a willing spirit or they will bless His name later in a painful outcry (Revelation 5:13).
We must understand that everything God is involved in is good. Not only good, but it is for the best. And not only is it good and for the best, but He receives praise, blessing, honor and glory even from among the sinner in hellish torment. From a scriptural standpoint, God has a purpose for everything that He does, and everything He purposes will result in His glory being shown and shouted among all of creation.
An Eternal Thirst
Again, there was barely any strength left in this man. Notice that even in his weakest state of being, it wasn't God that he was calling after to quench his thirst, but instead he was calling forth a man. He will take anybody except the Creator and he exerts all that he had in order to lift up his eyes and receive but a glimpse of what paradise looked like. He shouted forth a cry for mercy with all of his might that Abraham, a man, would show him grace by sending Lazarus, a man, over to cool off his tongue. He doesn't want God. The only thing this rich man wants is a new place to live.
This man was feeling the pain of the hottest fires of hell and he was desperately seeking even just the simple satisfaction of a droplet of water upon his tongue because his mouth was dry. Yet, the issue goes deeper than this. He is spiritually thirsty because he is spiritually depraved. He was seeking the wrong thing. Notice he still doesn't want God to satisfy him, he wants other things. The reason the believer is joyful in eternity is because Christ is the overflowing abundance of water they so crave for and He alone can quench their thirst. The unbeliever finds no satisfaction.
The rich man in this parable was seen to still be consumed in himself and defined as sin. He only wanted what is temporary. All that he desires is exactly what sin always offers and that is a momentary pleasure. It is a shame that he still fails to realize the destructiveness of his sinful condition and refuses to pursue what is truly valuable, Christ the eternal!
However, this is what we miss so often when we read and interpret scripture. For some reason, we come to the conclusion that sin stops in hell and that the unbeliever is only paying for the sin(s) of his life that took place here on this earth. In the story, the rich man hates his environment. He would rather be anywhere else than there. Notice he still hates God. Sin does not stop in hell.
The Nature of a Sinner
The only reason in which one sins is because that one is already a sinner. You are not merely a sinner because you have committed sins, but you sin because you are a sinner. Sin is the defining nature for the unbeliever. It is what they do, but even more than this it is who they are.
The sin nature is ultimately not based upon ones behavior, but upon ones birth. If you are born of Adam, then you are a sinner whether you commit sins or not. However, all sinners will commit sins in order to further evidence their defining nature and thus all sinners will be thrown into the only place in which God's gracious presence does not dwell.
It is in this place that sin will not stop. There may be certain aspects or types of sins that will never again be committed, nonetheless, sin will never cease being the defining character of a sinful individual. They will for all of eternity grow in their hatred for God, thus the very wrath of God will be continually poured out upon them. They will never grow used to the hurt nor will the pain eventually numb. However, this is what awaits the sinner.
More often than not, I find that we (myself included) have a very man-centered perspective on sin. For some reason we think that the punishment is to cruel and that sin stops in hell and that a sinner will for all of eternity regret refusing the grace of God. Biblically speaking, none of those things are true. For in his sin he will hate God for all of eternity and God will forever have victory over His crushed enemy!
Can a believer die from sin?
Often times we as believers can focus on our positional truth in such a way that we actually abuse it by thinking we are invincible and the Lord (our Father) would never strike us dead in our sin. There is a growing movement in the church today, referred to as "Perseverance of the Saints" that believes this among Christian circles.
Although they would not say it like this, the truth is they believe that if you die in sin, then you were never saved to begin with. They say that all of God's true elect will persevere to the end and be found faithful. The point of this blog is to prove from a scriptural standpoint that there are many "believers" mentioned in the Bible that are with God to this day in heaven but as they were here on this earth they refused to persevere until the end; as a result, God judged them by way of death.
Why do we so often get the impression that God can never be against us? I feel like a lot of the time we (myself included) are coming to Scripture with a wrong definition for two words: love and death. What if love meant that sometimes you would have to kill your own son? What if instead of calling it death, we referred to it as life?
Look back up at the question in bold. Has God ever done this? Yes! He did it for the Son that He loved above all other sons! So why would we ever think that He would be unwilling to do the same for us at times?
Objector: "Because He loves us!"
Response: "Love is why He killed His Son!"
Objector: "Yes! And that's why He won't ever do it again!"
Response: "How do you know that? What if it was more loving to bring the child home? What if 'death' in our understanding, actually means 'life' in God's?
Isn't it true that the death for a believer here on this earth is actually the first time they experience the fullness of life in glory? For the Christian, death is not a bad thing...but it is the best thing because then we shall see our Lord as He is!
Is it not the God of the universe (our Father) who is infinitely worthy of all glory, honor and praise and who also opposes the proud? Can believers be proud? Have you ever been lifted up in pride? If you say yes, then God opposes you when you are. If you say no, then you are in violation of re-writing the Scriptures. "God opposes the proud..." - James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5.
I believe that one thing I lack in this subject quite often is the fear of the Lord. In Joshua chapter 22 the Israelites, after already having entered in the land beyond the Jordan, each went to their allotted portion that Moses had commanded. When the tribes had dispersed, the eastern ones built an altar. When this action had reached the ears of the western tribes they were greatly distressed and after calling it an abomination they marched down in preparation for war.
Thankfully the Israelite armies sent out 11 men to confront them on this awful thing before any such attack was to be declared. The eastern tribes, however, were quick to explain that this was not a sacrificial altar, but one as a witness between the nation for the generations to come. This then brought great joy to the Israelites and they rejoiced in the fact that they misunderstood.
In the story above I want you to notice that these men may not have been so quick to hear as James 1:19 commands, but the one thing we should greatly admire of these men was that they were very quick to fear! Fear who? They were quick to fear God. In Joshua 22:18 the Israelites were greatly afraid that if these tribes were rebelling, then God would be against them all!
Check out what God did to His own for the sin of Achan in Joshua 7. Achan took for himself what rightly belonged to the Lord and for that he was stoned. Achan is a believer. Who else died with him, but also his whole family as well (believers)! Not only that, but before any Israelite had known what he had done, God took the lives' of 36 military men (believers) by the hand of the gentiles because of Achan's sin.
So let's pretend that I am Achan. I sinned greatly against the Lord. Because of this He killed 36 of my friends who lived next to me and were all believers. Then God orders my death and the death of all those I am related to. I pose the question: If God will kill someone for the sin of another, then why is it so hard to believe that God will take the life of the one who committed the crime? The others didn't do anything wrong, yet God was vengeful. Therefore, God will take the life of His child if He sees fit to do so.
This would give full explanation for the believers who have died in judgment from taking the Lord's supper in a disrespectful manner in 1 Corinthians 11:29-30. Paul says that a number of them have died and many are sick and weak. This is a result of God against His children in the faith as a consequence for their sins.
Acts 5 gives the ABSOLUTE clearest example of this with Ananias and Sapphira!
My last example from the Word deals with Hymenaeus, Alexander, and Philetus. 1 Tim. 1:20; 2 Tim. 2:17. Paul hands Hymenaeus and Alexander over to Satan. Paul has done this before and used this exact wording in 1 Cor. 5:5 to a believer who was in gross sin. These two are believers as well and we know that because in 1 Tim. 1:19 they have "suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith." The only way you can do this is if you have faith and we know that all who are justified will be glorified (Rom. 8).
So let me ask you...can a believer die in sin? A believer will never die in sin in the sense of loss of salvation, but some have and will die as a result of their willful disobedience. God has every right to take us home whenever He pleases and if their comes a time when we are doing harm to furthering His kingdom, then it is possible that He will end your life here. God has all of eternity to show us who we are in Christ, but He only has this one life to teach us who we are apart from Him and if it takes a lifetime even to the point of death, then I know that my God will certainly do what is necessary.
However, a lot of this may sound rough. It may be hard to hear. It may come across throughout this article that this is what God is all about and I am deeply sorry if I have conveyed that message. When we sin, yes God's heart is broken, but He is actively seeking for our restoration. He is always pursuing us and He never lets go. But, the Biblical truth is that there may come a point in a believers life when God says "Enough!" and He will judge that believer by way of death penalty.
What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! This is a good thing on both sides because God is faithful. Is this an abomination? Absolutely not! The believer then is in glory looking upon the face of God for the first time and falling down in worship. That beiever can no longer sin and I guarantee that he/she, as we are arguing about this justice, is thanking God for removing them from this sin cursed world and bringing them into His presence.
God is good, and He is always working out the very best for His children. Sometimes that means bringing them home early. In order to truly live...we must die.
In light of all that you just read I want to leave you with an encouragement. God is faithful and He will never fail you nor will He ever give up on you. He may choose, by His infinite wisdom, to take you home early as a result of sin, but He loves you and is actively every day seekng for your success. The truth is...I don't know where the line is, but He does and I can guarantee that it's not right around the corner. It takes quite a bit for Him to do this, but if He does, always know that it is for your good and for the advancement of His Kingdom!
Although they would not say it like this, the truth is they believe that if you die in sin, then you were never saved to begin with. They say that all of God's true elect will persevere to the end and be found faithful. The point of this blog is to prove from a scriptural standpoint that there are many "believers" mentioned in the Bible that are with God to this day in heaven but as they were here on this earth they refused to persevere until the end; as a result, God judged them by way of death.
Why do we so often get the impression that God can never be against us? I feel like a lot of the time we (myself included) are coming to Scripture with a wrong definition for two words: love and death. What if love meant that sometimes you would have to kill your own son? What if instead of calling it death, we referred to it as life?
Look back up at the question in bold. Has God ever done this? Yes! He did it for the Son that He loved above all other sons! So why would we ever think that He would be unwilling to do the same for us at times?
Objector: "Because He loves us!"
Response: "Love is why He killed His Son!"
Objector: "Yes! And that's why He won't ever do it again!"
Response: "How do you know that? What if it was more loving to bring the child home? What if 'death' in our understanding, actually means 'life' in God's?
Isn't it true that the death for a believer here on this earth is actually the first time they experience the fullness of life in glory? For the Christian, death is not a bad thing...but it is the best thing because then we shall see our Lord as He is!
Is it not the God of the universe (our Father) who is infinitely worthy of all glory, honor and praise and who also opposes the proud? Can believers be proud? Have you ever been lifted up in pride? If you say yes, then God opposes you when you are. If you say no, then you are in violation of re-writing the Scriptures. "God opposes the proud..." - James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5.
I believe that one thing I lack in this subject quite often is the fear of the Lord. In Joshua chapter 22 the Israelites, after already having entered in the land beyond the Jordan, each went to their allotted portion that Moses had commanded. When the tribes had dispersed, the eastern ones built an altar. When this action had reached the ears of the western tribes they were greatly distressed and after calling it an abomination they marched down in preparation for war.
Thankfully the Israelite armies sent out 11 men to confront them on this awful thing before any such attack was to be declared. The eastern tribes, however, were quick to explain that this was not a sacrificial altar, but one as a witness between the nation for the generations to come. This then brought great joy to the Israelites and they rejoiced in the fact that they misunderstood.
In the story above I want you to notice that these men may not have been so quick to hear as James 1:19 commands, but the one thing we should greatly admire of these men was that they were very quick to fear! Fear who? They were quick to fear God. In Joshua 22:18 the Israelites were greatly afraid that if these tribes were rebelling, then God would be against them all!
Check out what God did to His own for the sin of Achan in Joshua 7. Achan took for himself what rightly belonged to the Lord and for that he was stoned. Achan is a believer. Who else died with him, but also his whole family as well (believers)! Not only that, but before any Israelite had known what he had done, God took the lives' of 36 military men (believers) by the hand of the gentiles because of Achan's sin.
So let's pretend that I am Achan. I sinned greatly against the Lord. Because of this He killed 36 of my friends who lived next to me and were all believers. Then God orders my death and the death of all those I am related to. I pose the question: If God will kill someone for the sin of another, then why is it so hard to believe that God will take the life of the one who committed the crime? The others didn't do anything wrong, yet God was vengeful. Therefore, God will take the life of His child if He sees fit to do so.
This would give full explanation for the believers who have died in judgment from taking the Lord's supper in a disrespectful manner in 1 Corinthians 11:29-30. Paul says that a number of them have died and many are sick and weak. This is a result of God against His children in the faith as a consequence for their sins.
Acts 5 gives the ABSOLUTE clearest example of this with Ananias and Sapphira!
My last example from the Word deals with Hymenaeus, Alexander, and Philetus. 1 Tim. 1:20; 2 Tim. 2:17. Paul hands Hymenaeus and Alexander over to Satan. Paul has done this before and used this exact wording in 1 Cor. 5:5 to a believer who was in gross sin. These two are believers as well and we know that because in 1 Tim. 1:19 they have "suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith." The only way you can do this is if you have faith and we know that all who are justified will be glorified (Rom. 8).
So let me ask you...can a believer die in sin? A believer will never die in sin in the sense of loss of salvation, but some have and will die as a result of their willful disobedience. God has every right to take us home whenever He pleases and if their comes a time when we are doing harm to furthering His kingdom, then it is possible that He will end your life here. God has all of eternity to show us who we are in Christ, but He only has this one life to teach us who we are apart from Him and if it takes a lifetime even to the point of death, then I know that my God will certainly do what is necessary.
However, a lot of this may sound rough. It may be hard to hear. It may come across throughout this article that this is what God is all about and I am deeply sorry if I have conveyed that message. When we sin, yes God's heart is broken, but He is actively seeking for our restoration. He is always pursuing us and He never lets go. But, the Biblical truth is that there may come a point in a believers life when God says "Enough!" and He will judge that believer by way of death penalty.
What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! This is a good thing on both sides because God is faithful. Is this an abomination? Absolutely not! The believer then is in glory looking upon the face of God for the first time and falling down in worship. That beiever can no longer sin and I guarantee that he/she, as we are arguing about this justice, is thanking God for removing them from this sin cursed world and bringing them into His presence.
God is good, and He is always working out the very best for His children. Sometimes that means bringing them home early. In order to truly live...we must die.
In light of all that you just read I want to leave you with an encouragement. God is faithful and He will never fail you nor will He ever give up on you. He may choose, by His infinite wisdom, to take you home early as a result of sin, but He loves you and is actively every day seekng for your success. The truth is...I don't know where the line is, but He does and I can guarantee that it's not right around the corner. It takes quite a bit for Him to do this, but if He does, always know that it is for your good and for the advancement of His Kingdom!
The 5th point of TULIP = Perseverance of all the Saints = FAIL!!
Thank You God for Your Preservation of the Saints!
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