Joh 7:24 Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.

In another place God says through the Prophet “for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” It is a wonderful place to be when you can see past someone’s exterior and look into their hearts. The proud man, the man who is smug in his own outward behavior is totally blind to the fact that the Lord knows the secrets of a mans heart. You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time but a man can never fool God at any time. Saul was the obvious choice for King of Israel. He was tall and handsome and no doubt had charisma. David on the other hand was but a shepherd boy, just a lad, but God knew their hearts.

In Jeremiah 17 God says “But I, the LORD, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.” It is true is it not, the Lord is the searcher and the examiner of all motives? It is less about what you do rather it’s about why you do it. Jesus in John 7 was addressing the fact that they were angry enough to kill Him because He healed a man on the Sabbath. Men, so blinded by outward appearance, cared nothing for the sick man. They were the guardians of the Law and it had afforded them a position, and all they were truly interested in was their position and how things looked to other men.

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(Matt 5:13)You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

So much of American Christianity is wrapped in their flag. Yet there is a wider problem in Christendom that goes well beyond the borders of the United States. It lies at the very heart of the religion of Christianity as opposed to the reality of Christ. True Christianity is indeed about becoming by grace what Christ is by nature. Yet the history of the Christian church from the time of Constantine to now has been about how to merge the church and the state. In order to do that the church has sanctioned wars and called it ” just wars.” This is the preposterous notion that the teachings of Jesus and the life of Christ in us are suspended in times of war and that it is perfectly okay to kill and maim you enemies if sanctioned by the state. Somehow the state over-rules Christ in times it deems to be emergencies.

This is no different from the Jewish leaders sacrificing to Roman gods inside the temple so as to preserve the temple system of worship and in doing so preserved their own place in society. If the visible church had opposed wars over the centuries they would have been driven out of public life and compelled to be an underground church. And therefore the church that we now know would not exist as it would have been an underground persecuted church. It would be a heck of a lot smaller but it would be the most powerful force on the planet as opposed to the weak and anemic world version we now see.If every professing saint in  Europe had refused to take up arms in the last several hundred years, there would have been no wars, including the two world wars.

Without the support of the established religious church, war could not exist as we know it in the west. What men have created, what men have forged together is now being dismantled from the inside by outside pressures. The culture is now demanding more and more of the established visible church. If it is to survive it will be forced to capitulate and the price of that capitulation is, as it always has been, truth. Thankfully God has always retained for Himself a remnant. He will have His witness and no force on earth can destroy it not even the gates of hell.

I moved to the States from Scotland in 1990. I was 26. I came to Christ a year later. After several years in America a strange thing began to happen in me and it was very unsettling. After visiting Scotland I knew I could never go ” home.” I did not belong there any more, I had moved on. Yet, I did not feel like I belonged here in the States either. I felt like a stateless person. After months of soul-searching I realized that I was actually a pilgrim and that I was on my way home to my heavenly kingdom. I was an am truly a sojourner here on this earth, belonging wholly to God and to the Kingdom of God that is and yet is to come.

Strangely enough, I would have to deal with that feeling again and it was way more unsettling and took much longer to come to terms with. I started out my Christian life as a Pentecostal for lack of a better term. My mother had attended the Assemblies of God when I was a child and was a “tongue speaking Holy Ghost Christian.” Now I did not attend that church as a child, my father was a Catholic and detested my mothers faith and so I attended the Catholic church for most of my childhood. Yet, I knew the difference. I had witnessed my mothers transformation when she ” found Jesus.” It was total and radical and had a profound effect on me. So when I came to Christ at the age of 27, it was natural for me to seek out a ” Pentecostal,” church which I did. I myself was ” baptized in the Holy Spirit,” about eight months after being radically transformed in the new birth. I want to state that my born again experience was way more radical than my baptism in the Holy Spirit. It was life changing and profound and seemed to change my very DNA. I actually had a new heart, one that was capable of love. God took a profoundly dysfunctional man, addicted to drugs and alcohol and food and sex and every type of excess and turned it all around. It was a miracle of enormous proportions, this new birth, this resurrection from the dead and I praise God above all things for it.

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2 Cor 12:9 My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

I was walking in the rain today and the creek was running quite strong along a portion of the trail that I walk. Over the years it has gouged out quite a depth at a certain spot. It is has become several feet deeper at a particular narrow channel as the water runs faster there. It has exposed the roots of the trees that line that section. There is even a tree that has fallen over and has formed a bridge over the deep little gorge. It struck me that the deeper the waters run then the roots are exposed. If we as Christians have the deep waters of life running through us, if we allow the living waters that flow from the throne of grace to freely run through us then we become more transparent to the world. The world can see our foundations, it can see our roots, it can see who we are. It may weaken us in a sense, it may make us more vulnerable, but it will bring to light the foundations upon which we stand. No where is this more clearly apparent than in the storms of life as the waters run swift. When we are confident enough to allow the world to see not only our strengths and successes but also our weakness and failures then they world will see something authentic. They may not agree with the roots and foundations that hold us up but they will see it. God indeed is magnified much more so in our weaknesses rather than in our strengths.

His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak and to those who have no might He increases strength.(Isa 40:28)

Oh to rest in the unsearchable understanding of God. When the darkness presses in, when the trials of life are threatening to consume and we do not truly understand what is going on, there is a God who not only dwells in heaven but dwells within my beating heart. He knows, He knows and I can rest in that. There is a burden in knowing. I thank God that I do not know what is around the next corner. If I knew I would steel myself and the rigidity of that would break me. But in Him, I live and I move and I have my rest and my being. He is my sanity. He renews my mind and He takes the burdens of my heart. When I have no more love to give I drag myself to the well of glory and of life. If it were not for that eternal well of living water I would surely die and be consumed by the darkness that is never far away. Yet in Him, my Jesus, my Lord, my reconciler,my intercessor, the bearer of my burdens and the lover of my soul I live. I run when I should not even be able to crawl. Tomorrow I shall awaken the dawn and with everything that is in me I shall praise His name. He is the lifter of my soul and He lifted it from the miry clay to a high and lofty place. Lift up your eyes today brother, lift up your hands today sister. See the glory and begin to mount up high above the darkness.

Mat 16:23 But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

Wow, can there be stronger words from Jesus to one of His disciples? How would you like to hear Jesus say that to you? It would be terrible. What is the context of this rebuke from Jesus? Jesus had just shared with the disciples how their declaration of Him as Lord was the foundation of the church, how whatever they loosed on earth would be loosed in heaven and whatever they bound on earth shall be bound in heaven. He tells them that they have the keys to the Kingdom of God. Excellent stuff, all positive and empowering, much like they would have felt when they were sent out by twos and welcomed everywhere and they healed and cast out demons.

Now Jesus explains to them the full dimension and cost of following the Father’s will here on earth. He must go to Jerusalem and be rejected by all men and suffer at the hands of these men. He would be tortured and then hung on a tree. At this, Peter rebukes Jesus. Think of that saints, a mere disciple rebukes Jesus the holy Son of the ever Living God! Peter is immediately rebuked in the harshest of terms. His rejection of future suffering for Jesus and for himself is evident. Jesus then makes it plain that if any man wants to follow him he must be willing to lose his life for Christ’s sake. He must be willing and expect to take up his cross and suffer. It is the heads and tail of the same coin. One faith equals ruling and reigning with Christ, walking in the power of the Kingdom of God triumphing over hell and darkness and doing it all in the midst of being rejected by those of this world and suffering and dying at their hands.

Saints, what is your attitude to suffering? Do you deny it and say ” God forbid?” Do you tell yourself that old lie that Christ suffered so that you do not have too? Is your goal in life to live your best life now? Is prospering in this world your main concern? Do you in fact mind the things of men and not the things of God? Can you worship and serve a God that has called you to enter into His sufferings? Those who are willing to enter into His sufferings are those who will rule and reign with Christ. Those who are unwilling to suffer and would rebuke anyone who would teach otherwise are counted unworthy of the Kingdom. Jesus goes on to say in the same breath that if you decide to avoid the sufferings that come from following Him and simply live in a fashion that produces your best life now then “what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” True joy and life is found in following the Lord wherever that narrow path takes us, whether through deep valleys of suffering or the high roads of victory. It turns out that they are one and the same road.

Rom 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

Many times in my walk with the Lord I have forgotten this truth. Many times in the last twenty-five years I have come across brothers and sisters who have either never learned this or have forgotten it. If God so loved me as a sinner that He sent His Son to die for me and then I was reconciled to Him, how is it that I could ever think that some how I had blown it with Him? If Jesus died for me while I was yet in my sin, how much more does His eternal life in Heaven at the right hand of the Father, interceding for me, guarantee that He will never leave me nor forsake me and the He indeed is the author and the finisher of my faith. He died for my justification and He rose again victorious and reigns for my sanctification. This is the promise upon which I stand. He is the author and finisher of my faith. By His power I was saved and by His power I shall be sanctified, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Maybe you are feeling very low today? Maybe you have fallen down and it seems like you shall not recover? Maybe you feel like you cannot be used by God, that you are not good enough, not Holy enough, not anointed enough, not gifted enough? Can I reassure you today that if you were saved by Jesus you shall be sanctified by Jesus, you shall be used by Jesus, you are a work in progress and the last chapter of your life is not written. All that the Lord requires from us is a broken and contrite spirit. If you live long enough you will know that life often breaks people. Yet right there, in the midst of your brokeness the Lord says ” Lift up your eyes, come to me, see where your help comes from.” Come to me in your brokenness and I will give you rest.

Too many people fall and then believe that they are not worthy enough to come to God. This is a lie from hell designed to keep your face in the mud. Jesus died for you and for your justification. He rose victoriously for you and reconciled you to your heavenly Father to whom you have access and can cry ” Abba.” God dwells with the lowly and the contrite, He is the healer of the broken. Do not make the mistake of falling and being broken but not coming to the Lord, this is the enemies desire. There is a world of brokenness which leads to despair, hopelessness and ruin. Do not let your brokenness lead you there, let it lead you to light and to life, the life of Christ and Him resurrected. Come unto Him today. He awaits.