Posted by appolus on October 27, 2020
Religion is just one more form of enslavement. It wraps its tentacles around every part of who we are and crushes the life out of us. It portrays itself as the saver but is in fact the slayer. It is an imposter, a chameleon that pretends to be all things to all people. It pretends to give while all the time taking. It feeds its monstrous appetites while it’s victims starve to death. What a grand deception.
Starving to death and not even realizing your hunger and all the time you are wasting away. An emaciated people starved by a grotesque monster that presents itself as an angel of light. Look again, stare deeply into the eyes of this “angel.” They are blood red and cold. Merciless and without natural affection. This entity, even in the midst if its delusion, can barely conceal its maniacal hatred for the ones who follow it.
If religion is all about deception and taking then Jesus is the antidote to it all. While religion takes and enslaves, He sacrificed and freed the captives. While religion crushes the heart, Jesus restores that which was crushed. While religion starves its followers, Jesus feeds the hungry. While religion is aloof and separate from its adherents, Jesus makes His home in His children’s heart. He feeds us, He dines with us, he laughs with us and He cries with us. In short, He enters into a relationship with us and we become one with Him.
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Posted by appolus on October 27, 2020
In the ancient world, oftentimes men would sell themselves into slavery just to eat and put a roof over their heads. In fact, it was not just the ancient world, but in our own western world men and women would join the clergy or some order of nuns and monks to put food on the table. For hundreds of years men would join the army or the navy for the same reasons. They were selling themselves into slavery in order to survive. When men and women are hungry, it tends to captivate the mind. Not a lot of room for the luxury of contemplation or philosophy when you are open to the elements and have not eaten in days.
Likewise, people put themselves under the authority of lords and warlords for centuries. The grand bargain being that they would be protected and in return they would serve their “masters.” People were also enslaved to religion because not only were they afraid of death, but they were also terrified of the what would happen to them in the world beyond this one. So, religion thrived along with witch-doctors and so on. Mankind has always had these great fears. Poverty, sickness and death.
Now in our modern world we may think that we have moved beyond all of that. We have not, quite the opposite. We are moving into an age where scientists are the new overlords. And what empowers them? Fear of death. Fear of disease that leads to death. And in our age of communication, we can spread that fear and reinforce that fear every single day right where the people are. Now, imagine an unholy alliance between science and government and leaders of industry. This is the age where total control over all the populations of the world is a possibility. And, it would be voluntary. Just as voluntary as the men and woman who sold themselves into slavery in the ancient world.
I believe that by government and industry and scientists making themselves indispensable to the general population, then we are on the precipice of complete control. It will be presented as a virtuous service to humanity and the planet itself. We must do what we are told not only for our own good but for the general good of society and if we do not capitulate then we are a danger to the general good. Now, all of this rests upon fear and especially the fear of death. There are other fears, such as the fear of being shamed or being labelled, they all play their part in control but in the end death is the greatest fear.
By and large men and women will gladly enslave themselves in exchange for security. Security of life and limb. Security of food and shelter. Threaten these in any way and it sends people into a tailspin. Their thin veneer of civilization is soon enough stripped away and we see the raw brutality of humanity. Yet the one force they most often will refuse to bow down to, even under the most dire of situations, is Jesus. Men will gladly bow down to other men if the situation warrants it, but they refuse to bow down to a Holy God. And of course the great irony is this, men and woman who genuinely bow down to Jesus are set at liberty. Liberty from what? From the forces that have shaped mankind. The fear of death and all other fears.
Oh death where is your sting, oh grave where is your victory? (1 Cor 15:55) It is swallowed up in Christ. He conquered the grave not only physically but spiritually. The chains that had bound humanity for all of its history were broken. It is a true freedom. For the saint is no longer bound by the restraints of this world and the fears thereof. It is the Lord Himself who told us that He knows the things that we need. He told us to consider the lilies of the field, how they neither toil nor spin. Consider the birds of the air. Consider even the sparrows, for the eye of our Father is on them. And if it is on them, how much more His own children?
And so, in the near coming age, the enslaved and the en-slavers will look with great hostility upon the freed men and women of Christ. Free people cannot be allowed in an age of control and chains. Hitler and his cohorts came up with the final solution to their “problem.” Scientists and politician, government forces and religions will likewise have to come up with a final solution to those who reject their authority. Lest the “virus,’ of rebellion spread among the population at large. It will be a “virtuous,” act by those in control for the general good. And the people in general will celebrate the ridding of a troublesome people.
I write to true saints. The Lord’s remnant people here on earth. And in doing so I do not have to explain that “they loved not their lives unto death.” This is how we overcome, this and by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of His testimony. Even in the midst of death we who have died to this world will be living an abundant life. The truth that burns so gloriously in our veins will overshadow any beggarly fears of this world. We already know that there is something worth dying for. Something that is more important than our lives. The Truth. Our history is replete with examples of this, down through every age. And now they cry our from beneath the altar.
So saints. It is almost upon us. The end of the ages and everything that comes with it. We stand on the shoulders of our brothers and sisters who went before us and who stood strong in the midst of terrible darkness. Who loved not their lives unto death because our Christ has overcome death. They were able to slip the surly bonds of this earth long before they ever faced physical death.
They would run and not grow weary, they would walk and not faint. They would mount up with wings as eagles and fly in the heavenly realms. The Kingdom of God. Seek it first today and His righteousness and you too shall run and not grow weary, you too shall walk and not faint. We as the Body will mount up with wings as eagles and soar into the lofty heights of His presence. Perfect love casts out all fear.
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Posted by appolus on October 26, 2020
Job 1:8 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job
Can you even begin to imagine brothers and sisters, the Lord saying “Have you considered my servant…..” fill in the blank with your own name. What glory and honor that the Lord of all creation would testify of His servant before the throne-room of heaven, before the heavenly hosts. God is well confident in his servant. The accuser on the other hand has nothing at all to accuse Job of therefore he turns to the motivations of the heart of Job. And so unfolds the story of humanity.
The Lord knows you, He knows you through and through. The same enemy of Job is the enemy of your soul. And the same accusation that he made against Job he makes against you. In the eternal spiritual courtroom, God stands accused by Satan that no one actually loves Him, they only follow Him for what they can get from Him. This is Satan acting according to his character, nasty and vindictive, the father of lies distorted with hatred for God and for His children.
You, dear saint, are a witness in this case. You are called to testify. Your testimony is your life in God and the motivations of your heart. Every moment that you praise Him, give thanks to Him, rejoice in Him, glory in His majesty, you continue to make the case against Satan. You are part of the truth and he is all of the lie. Truth is victorious over lies. Your life is a testimony to love. God’s love for you and your love in return. This glorifies God, this is your primary purpose here on earth. And the darker your circumstances, the greater more powerful the witness. To glory in God and to give thanks to Him in the midst of trials and tribulations is your greatest contribution to the reality of your relationship with God.
So brothers and sisters, never stop thanking God, no matter your circumstances. You may not think that no one knows about your situation. God knows, the heavenly hosts knows and the fallen angels know. They know and they watch. This is why the promises are made to those who overcome and endure till the end. For love endures. It overcomes all obstacles and it even willingly dies for the object of its love. This is the testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have been called to follow Him.
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Posted by appolus on October 21, 2020
I have no hesitation in saying that it is my honest and charitable conviction that the Christ of the average religion today is not the Christ of the Bible at all. He is a manufactured Christ, the Christ painted on canvas, the Christ drawn from cheap poetry, a Christ of the liberal and the soft and timid person. He is an imitation Christ that has not in Him the iron and the fury and the anger, as well as the love and grace and mercy (A.W.Tozer-Living a Christian life. pg 218)
Tozer was right in his day, and, I put it to you, we find ourselves in very much more degraded days than his. The Christ, for the most part, that is propagated today is a mere Santa Claus figure, gentle and timid and somewhat fearful of man. This man made Christ watches over men and smiles approvingly at all of their sins. Like a father who cannot discipline his children and they run wild, Jesus has been reduced to this in the minds of most men who would call themselves by His name. They have created this Jesus in their own image. They would gladly say “behold the goodness of God,” while not finishing the sentence “and the severity of God.”
They would gladly tell you that “the gift of God is eternal life,” while refusing ever to say that the “wages of sin is death.” They will gladly tell you that God did not send His Son into the world to condemn it, but they will never mention the very next sentence which says he who refuses to believe is condemned already. There is no iron and fury and anger, as Tozer puts it, in the God that they have created and worshiped. There is only grace and mercy and woe betide anyone who suggests otherwise. In the end, this will separate the wheat from the tares. Those who refuse to acknowledge a God who will judge the living and the dead will throw their lot in with a world who will be taken up with the god of this world.
The only iron and fury and anger we will see will be that of the apostate and the fallen world who will come together to judge the saint who worships the true and the Biblical and the living God. Their fury will be great and their anger without measure. They will have murderous hearts and will gnash their teeth and fall with great fury upon those who refuse to compromise, those who love the Word of God and who long for His appearance.
Yet, like Stephen, the saints of God will see the heavens open in that day and will see the glory of God in ways and depths that they have never seen nor experienced Him before. It will be their honor to stand upon the truth and to suffer and die for it and the Holy Spirit will rise up in them in ways the world has never seen. God will be glorified in His children and that glory will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.
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Posted by appolus on October 21, 2020
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the persectuted church, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
Posted by appolus on October 21, 2020
2Co 4:9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
Oftentimes we find ourselves troubled on every side. Many times we are perplexed. Many of us have been persecuted, perhaps not in the sense of living in a hostile country, but maybe within the confines of our own families. We have been thrown down and trampled on . Often dying it seems by our many troubles. All of these things and more are the things that would destroy most, but in you they have caused the life of Christ to spring up from the darkness of your situations. An abundance of grace has been poured out upon your life that speaks to the glory of God and the love of the Father for His children. He established you and gave you grace and purpose before time began.
When we have been troubled on every side we can testify that we have been rescued from distress. When we have been weighed down with the perplexities of life, the Lord Himself pulls us up from the valleys of despair.In the midst of our persecutions and feelings of isolation we have discovered that we are not alone. When we have been thrown down and trampled on, the Lord Himself has saved us from being destroyed.
In all of these things we do not faint, we rise up by the power of the Holy Spirit. The outer man may be in the process of perishing but our inner man is renewed daily by the glory of God and the amazement of a dying world. The world sees that out of the darkness of our situations that God Himself has commanded light to shine forth. You may not be able to fully articulate the Roman road to salvation but the world does see that out of you, out of your many trials, your sorrows, your afflictions and your infirmities, there shines forth the light of Christ Himself. Be encouraged saints, you are a mighty witness for Christ.
Perhaps the world will never know your story, but the Lord knows and the mouths of the principalities and powers are closed by the testimony of God in you, your hope and your glory. God spoke into Gideon’s life and He called him a mighty man of valor, although at the point of which He spoke it to him nothing could be further from the truth. Yet the key was “God spoke.’ And even although Gideon would complain that he was the weakest man from the weakest clan in all the land, that meant nothing to God. You see, its never the man or the woman, its always God. If He is with you brothers and sister, then He can achieve whatever He desire through you , not because of you, but because of Him, the one who speaks and the one who calls. He equips the ones He calls. Your job is to keep on standing, keep on moving, one step at a time, one day at a time, getting up and then getting up again and again and again. And even in this, He empowers us to rise up when we decide to get up. Rise up today brothers and sisters and put one foot in front of the other.
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Posted by appolus on October 20, 2020
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Posted by appolus on October 20, 2020
If we are thrown into the blazing furnace,” they said, “the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up (Daniel 3:17-18).
Above is either side of the one coin of faith. You cannot have one without the other. If your faith relies on a positive outcome then what you have is positive thinking but it’s not faith. If on the other hand you have counted the cost and are willing to praise God no matter what comes your way, you have found true faith. Everything must be unconditional, including our faith. You see, many people have faith in faith. Lets just replace the word faith with trust. Would it make sense to have trust in trust? You just have to exercise your trust? Faith, we are told in Hebrews 11, is the evidence of things not seen. To believe in something that you cannot see is the essence of trust. Without this kind of trust it is impossible to please God.How do we please God? By trusting in Him.
It is easy to trust in the Lord when everything is going our way, when all is right with the world. Yet when we are suddenly caught up in darkness and we cannot see the way ahead, this is when flesh is put upon the bones of what we have confessed. The word becomes flesh as we raise our hand to God in the darkness and seek to grasp His. Our Father is a rewarder of those who diligently trust Him in the darkness. This is faith….Even if He slays me, yet shall I trust Him. Consider Jobs words and actions right after he learns that he has lost everything and that all his children are dead. Remember, the accuser of the brethren had said that he would curse God.
Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshiped, And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.(Job 1:20-22)
In the coming days there will be great turmoil and tumult.Though the world may turn on us, we are still the light of this world and Jesus is still the Jesus that died for them. Stand fast saint, stand boldly and do not be afraid. Speak the truth in love and let the world know that even if they kill us, we shall never bow down to their gods. Make no mistake, they are demanding that we bow down to the gods of homosexuality, transgenderism and abortion, to name but a few. Yet the God that we serve still sits upon His throne. The God that is worthy to be praised is still worthy. Our Holy God and Father is Holy still. No matter what darkness the enemy musters up, our light shall still shine and all the brighter in the gross darkness.
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Posted by appolus on October 16, 2020
2 Tim 1:10 Who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel.
Brought to light? What does that mean? It is a phrase we use often in our everyday conversation and as with other such phrases, its common use often clouds or distorts what we are really saying by the very familiarity of our words. In Christ, we saints, each of us individually as well as corporately have purpose and grace. There is a very definite purpose for your life and it has been established and enabled before time began, not by any goodness or merit on your part, but by the very grace of God by which we are saved.
In 2 Tim Paul writes this, speaking of God and His power ” who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our own works but according to His purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel.”
Brothers and sisters, there is so much spoken in just those few sentences from the word. Read it again and ponder the majesty and the glory of what is being spoken, of what is being revealed itself. When you bring something to light, you are bringing something that already exists into view. It stands to reason that something that dwells in darkness, when brought to the light, comes into view. Paul clearly states that His purpose and His grace, which was given to us by the power of Christ, was given to us before time began. Before time began. One more time, before time began, it was established, it was brought into being, it was created and there is stood, not seen by man, until the sun arose with the dawn, Christ was born, and suddenly the light of Christ shattered the darkness and revealed that which has been established.
This week, I have traversed the valleys and the mountains of Zion National park. One thing is for sure, you can take something already very dramatic and transform it into something otherworldly when the sun rises and finds its way into the the valleys and the peaks. The grandeur of His creation is transformed and set ablaze by the rising of the sun. We too saints, are set ablaze and transformed when our lives and our circumstances are “brought to light.” When light rises up and shines upon us. The word here says that He brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
You have life and immortality by the power of God and it was established for you before time began. It was established for you, it was created by the hand of God. That which did not exist sprang into life through His love and power and grace and for His glory.. And there it stood, in the shadows and the darkness until that glorious day when Christ came forth and the Son rose high above the horizon of the earth, bringing light and glory and setting ablaze that which He established by His very hand, you. Saint, you are not ordinary, you are an extraordinary work of exquisite art, crafted and created by the hand of God and brought to life and light by the Jesus our Christ and our Saviour. Dont forget that today, ponder upon the mystery and the glory of His purpose for your life today.You were brought to light.
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Posted by appolus on October 15, 2020
Psa 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
In the Lord Jesus we find true love and forgiveness. Not as the world forgives, for His forgiveness is untainted by human imperfection. In 1 Cor 13 we discover that true love keeps no record of wrongs. I first heard that at a wedding I was attending. I was not saved and I was drunk. I heard the minister read this out and thought what a load of nonsense. One can maybe forgive but never forget. That was what i thought until many years later I myself became the recipient of such love and forgiveness. It took me years to fully realize the magnificent truth of this. Raised in the Catholic tradition of punishment and penance and purgatory, the notion that the Lord had not only forgiven me, but had now cast my sin into a sea of forgetfulness never again to be dredged up was transformative. The tyrannical forces of guilt and shame were dealt with head on.
The antidote to shame and guilt is an intimate confession to a holy and loving God. Then when that is done we must believe that when the Lord forgives us He keeps no record of our wrongs. He casts them into a bottomless sea. The problem is that we judge and gauge the Lord our God by our own standards. But of course His ways are not our ways. He is higher than we. His love is beyond the grasp of the mortal mind of man and can only be grasped by the inspiration of the Spirit.
Encounter God and touch infinite beauty and love. Encounter God and stand in a place of inexpressible awe and majesty. When we grasp something of His vastness, then we are able to grasp the fact that not only has He forgiven us, but that He never keeps a record of our wrongs. They are cast into a sea where it is impossible to plumb its depth. The chains of guilt and shame that for so long have imprisoned men are broken asunder by the love and mercy of God that we encounter before the throne. Today is the day for your encounter. This is the day for your chains to be broken.
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Posted by appolus on October 13, 2020
Having now lived in the States for over 30 years, I am just as dismayed now as I was when I was first saved over here and saw an American flag flying in the church. It seemed so out of place to have such a flag flying or any flag flying. I have no problem with the American flag. I believe that in a secular world, America is among the greatest if not the greatest country to ever emerge from the chaos of a lawless world that had only once ever really been conquered, and that by a ruthless Rome in a limited way.
I suppose America is the high water mark of Western civilization and it is and has been in the process of committing slow suicide for generations, death by “freedom.” Any so called freedom, apart from the freedom wrought for us on bloody Calvary ultimately proves to be poison to a fallen mankind. This is where most so called American Evangelicals are hopelessly confused. They have co mingled secular freedom with the freedom given to us by Christ. What man gives man can take away, what Christ gives no man can touch.
So, in a couple of weeks we shall be, it will be told to us, voting for freedom versus oppression. And let us not doubt, although that is wrong, that oppression of the Christian will undoubtedly soar under a Biden administration that will be run by critical race theorists and gender identity madness that will seek, eventually, to lock up anyone who disagrees with them. Yet still, the choice is not between oppression and freedom. he whom the Son set free is already free.
The choice for me, if one votes, whether Evangelical or Catholic or any other group or individual who would have the audacity to call themselves followers of Jesus, and it is an audacious and dangerous claim, lies under the shadow of 64 million murdered babies and counting. I believe for so many genuine saints, this is truly their motivation for voting. They have not fully realized the depths of the fallenness of man and their systems. They believe that they can stop the slide of man into the abyss, not realizing we are already there and the only thing that stops the world from being totally consumed by the darkness is the light that shines from genuine saints.
So, genuine saints will hold their noses once again and vote for Trump for the reasons I have stated and more. God bless them. But in the end, the only thing that makes a difference in this world, truly makes a difference in an evil and fallen world, is someone getting saved. One soul saved is far better than one vote cast. One is a secular right and the other is a mandate from the King of the Kingdom in which we truly dwell, a Kingdom not of this world.
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Posted by appolus on October 13, 2020
For the last couple of days I have been surrounded by glory. I mean the kind of beauty that just dazzles you and helps you understand how infintesimally small you are in the grand scheme of things. How big is our God? Have you cast your eyes heavenwards? Have you seen His grandeur in the heavens? Have you considered the depths of the oceans or the dizzying heights of the mountains? Today we saw two specks, two men, scaling one of these mountains. We were told it would be a two day trip for those guys. Spending a night on the top.
Scaling the heights of His glory. Imagine a mountain that made Everest seem like a mole hill. Everest is just under six miles high, now imagine a mountain hundreds of miles high. It would be unscalable. Yet, there would be men and women out there who would certainly try. They would be the few, but they would exist. Brothers and sisters, we get to do that with God. He beckons us upwards. To scale His glory, to scale His majesty of which there is no beginning and there is no end. To say that we who know Him are the fortunate few is to understate a magnificent truth.
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers—for whoever is covered by His his blood with me today shall be my brother. We are a band, not just of brothers but of sisters, we are the Body and we walk in the shadow of infinite glory. For our Creator Jesus has shown His handiwork not only in the heavens and on the earth, but no where more spectacularly than in each and everyone of us. Let us marvel together.
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Posted by appolus on October 12, 2020
Php 3:14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Paul was always moving forward. He never lived in the past. Whether it was failures or victories he did not let them hold him back or move him to think he had arrived. He did not “count himself to have apprehended.” Apprehended what? Why salvation of course. He did not consider in his mind that he had “arrived.” This is not to say that he did not have eternal assurance, he certainly did. Yet, he did not stand upon that as a reason to sit back and coast. God forbid, he was always pushing forward, precept upon precept, glory upon glory ever coming into the likeness of Jesus.
Now how does that apply to you and me? There is a temptation to think that because you have been saved then that is it. Or there is the equal temptation to think because you have messed up then you are finished. You would be wrong on both counts. The Lord here in this portion of Scripture is telling us to forget what has already happened. He is assuming in this Scripture that you have come before Him and asked for forgiveness and you found grace and mercy. That sin is now as far as the east is from the west and has been cast into a sea of forgiveness, never again to be remembered by the Lord. He will not cast it up, only we humans do that.
Now He is urging us to reach forward to the things that lie ahead. A journey is only completed when the pilgrim keeps in front of his mind his final destination. He cannot take up residence somewhere. He cannot camp there, he must get up and get on with the journey if he is to find his way home. Camping on a particular situation or putting down roots in a place that you know is not right will come between you and the Lord. Press forward saint in your narrow path of sanctification that is your high calling. Jesus is your high calling. We have been called to be like Jesus. This is the mark. Push on saint. Win that prize, run this race like someone who desires to actually win the race. God bless you as you make your way home.
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Posted by appolus on October 7, 2020
2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
The man that has fallen to the lowest depths of despair over his sin, knows something of the magnificent heights of God’s mercy and forgiveness. The thoroughly broken man, whom no-one can put back together, knows something of the glorious redemptive restorative touch of God. The man who has walked in the gross darkness of this world, knows something of the impenetrable light of God that penetrates and dispels all darkness.
The man who has walked an age with a heart of stone, knows all too well the glory of a new heart of flesh, one that can love and feel the warmth of another’s love. The lame man who could not walk knows something of the exhilaration of having his strength renewed and restored so that he could run and not grow weary.
Each one of these men came to the intersection of their fallenness and Gods glory. When we encounter that glory in the depths of our fallen humanity then we are transformed and transported from a world of darkness to the kingdom of light. Where once we were blind we now have eyes that can see. Where once was the eternal overcast skies that hemmed us in, there now is a perpetual blue heaven that crowns the kingdom skies.
So to you who dwells in despair. Reach out to God. To you who are broken, cry out to the one who makes beauty from the ashes of our lives. To you who are covered in darkness shout out with all of your might to the one to whom even the darkness is light. If you have a cold hard heart, then search for the one who will give you a new one, He shall be found by you. Glory to God.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Jesus, New creature in Christ, The glory of God, The remnant | 1 Comment »
Posted by appolus on October 6, 2020
One of my favorite lines from a President was from FDR in 1933 in the middle of the greatest depression the modern world had ever seen. The whole world was in a terrible depression, lives ruined, people faced a bleak future with no real hope on the horizon. He stood up and said “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” The press of today would have torn into FDR and mocked him for not being afraid. Their focus would have been on the numbers. Daily they would remind people of how bad it was and would ignore any good news. They would accuse him of having no empathy and would be screaming “we’re all going to die man.” It would have been the typical talk of cowards down through the ages.
Just one week after Dunkirk, when the British backs were to the wall. When the might of the British army had to run for their lives from the Germans and all of Europe lay under the gross darkness of the Nazis, Churchill stands up in the British Parliament and spoke these words……………
We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.
He did not focus on what his enemy was doing, he focused on what the British people were going to do despite their enemy. This is what leaders do, they lead. They do not lead from behind, they lead from from the front. They do not lay down and die, crying in some huddle, they stand up and fight and if they die in the process of that fight then so be it. Never in the history of the world was the battle cry ” we’re all gonna die man.” That is the whimpering cry of the cowards.
Christian, our Lord has said to us that He did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind. A sound mind is a disciplined mind. Self control in the face of dire circumstances. That is power, the power of God. Only when walking in that kind of power can we truly love. When others all around us are losing their minds then our own sound minds will stand our like a city set upon a hill. Can people see that power in you? Do not run with the cowards or with the faint of heart.
God says to Job in chapter 40 “Stand up like a man and brace yourself for battle.” The Lord was not talking in a still small voice, this came out of the whirlwind. Brothers and sisters, we are in the midst of a whirlwind. Stand up like a man and brace yourself for battle. Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency; and array thyself with glory and beauty. Who can stand against God? Who can make himself a thing of beauty? The truly strong man is the man who humbles himself before the Living God. The man who who understands his true nature understand that the only beauty that exists is the beauty and the glory of God.
The power that we have, the only power that we have is the power that we have been given by the Spirit of God. When we move in that power, when we move in that love then fear is cast out and we are free to live our lives boldly no matter what set of circumstances that we face. It is time to be bold saints. If you are afraid today, get it right. If certain brave men in the flesh can do mighty things, then what can we do, we who love Jesus? We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
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Posted by appolus on October 5, 2020
At the beating heart of everything that we are and do must lie the Golden chalice of Christ Himself filling our heart to the brim. Our relationship with Jesus quite apart from any religious externals must be the driving force of our lives. Externals can change and even fall away but our relationship with Jesus never changes. He walks with us daily, He comforts us hourly, He intercedes for us at all times. It is Jesus that is the centerpiece of who we are.
I know people, good people who will say things like, ” you must come to my church, you must hear my pastor, you must come and see our worship team,” and so on. What happens when your church fails, when your pastor falls, when your worship leader runs off with the youth pastor? I say it tongue in cheek but you get my point. Each one of us should have such a relationship with Jesus that if we have an opportunity to speak to anyone about the One that we love then we are able to speak by the power of the Holy Spirit.
We are for the most part, a spiritually impotent generation. And let me say first and foremost that it is our own fault. Each of us who know Jesus have the ability to share with others. Remember that the steps of a righteous man and woman are ordered of God. If you “happen,” to be speaking to someone and that conversation turns towards the spiritual then know that God knew that and the fact that you are speaking to that someone is no surprise to God who brings order to the universe. He knows that person and He knows you. He makes no mistakes.
The dividing line between the clergy and the laity has fundamentally weakened Christendom. It has served to disenfranchise the believers and has turned most of them into pew warming spectating tithers whose main purpose is to pay the bills and play their part in a religious spectacle that typically serves to promote the professional pastor and the professional worship leader so that they can build their kingdoms and franchise their organisations. And since we now have the technology, when it is franchised then they can simply pipe in the original ” team,” into another location thus nullifying the prospect that anyone may rob them of any of the glory they have so dearly sought while typically hiding it under a mask of humility.
If our denominations and churches only exist on the plane of external religion, then how can they ever make any significant impact on our communities? If our communion, our fellowship, is not enthroned upon the Spiritual, if the central aspect of our gatherings is around anything other than a supernatural Jesus who gives sight to see that which is not visible and gives ears to hear that which is not audible then what do we have?
If we are left only with the religious externals then all we have is religious entertainment of one sort or another. A building or an organisation that only truly exists to perpetuate itself and promote certain individuals. We must cry out for Jesus and for Him to once again be preeminent in our gatherings. If we make Jesus the centerpiece of our life, if we allow Him through His Holy Spirit to be central in our gatherings then I believe we would then be truly equipping the saints to be witnesses to His glory in season and out of season and especially in this day which could very possibly be the end of the ages.
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Posted by appolus on October 5, 2020
It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. (Lam 3:22-24)
Notice this verse from Lamentations 3. It is a very grave chapter where the afflicted are overcome with fears and are surrounded by troubles. Yet right here in the middle of the chapter we see our great hope. Indeed the Lord’s compassion never fails, His mercies are new every morning and great is His faithfulness. We have hope because He is our Lord. There is a tyranny of yesterday and fear for tomorrow and they are chains which are designed to drag us down.
Oftentimes the older we get the heavier the chains are because many are our yesterdays and fewer are our tomorrows. Yet, praise the Lord the antidote to these fears and these tyrannies is the now. We serve God today and we are assured that His mercies are new every morning. It is the enemy that reminds us of our yesterdays, it is the enemy that sows fears in our heart for tomorrow. And why? He wants to rob you of today. Yesterday is gone and tomorrow is not guaranteed. All we truly have is now. Live and walk in the Lord today and forget yesterday and care not for the morrow for Christ is in you today. Today is the day of our salvation.
If the enemy has stolen from you yesterday, do not allow him to take tomorrow as well. Awake each day and give glory to God. Our circumstances may not change but we will. Arise with the sun tomorrow morning and know that the Lord Himself directs the tides, makes the moon to rise and the sun to set. He holds it all in His hand and remember this more than anything, He holds you in His hand. You are His servant for His purposes and you are called to rise every day and seek the Lord and serve the Lord. In this is peace and from this peace springs joy and that joy, the joy of the Lord is our strength for a brand new day.
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Posted by appolus on October 4, 2020
1Pe 1:16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
The Lord’s Holiness is seen in men and woman who have encountered the Living God. This radical conversion is seen in their walk. They are a living testimony of the power of God to change lives. The man who has never encountered God cannot be Holy. He can be self-righteous, he can be religious, he can be sanctimonious and legalistic, but he can never be holy.
The man who has genuinely encountered God always keeps his eyes upon Jesus. Others may flatter him but he never takes those words to heart because he has stood in the shadow of majesty. He has had the impenetrable light of Christ penetrate every part of who he is. He knows that outside of God he is undone. The foundation of his life will be love, for he himself has been swallowed up by love. The religious man can reproduce many things in this world for a time but he cannot replicate genuine love. He can seem to many to be upstanding, as were the Pharisees, yet God has considered the inside of the cup. This outward appearance is everything to the religious man because ultimately he fears man more than he fears God. His greatest fears are what others think of him, its what motivates him in all that he does. He is an actor and full of guile, yet, God has considered the inside of the cup because he looks upon the heart.
The child of God is not conformed by the thoughts nor the expectations of men. He is not moved by the tyranny of expectations no matter how good those expectations are. He is conformed to the image of God which is the Lord Jesus. He loves because he himself has been and is loved. He is merciful because he was and is the recipient of mercy. He forgives because he himself has been forgiven. He has joy because he has been ushered into the very presence of God. This joy is his strength. This love is his strength, this mercy is his strength, the forgiveness he finds is his strength. His greatest strength is his love for His Lord. And he knows that even this he only has because he himself was first loved. And this love is the singular motivation for all that he does. Out of genuine love flows obedience. It is the motivation of the child of God. He has called us to holiness and the path to holiness is paved by a loving obedience and a desire to be like the object of our grand obsession, Jesus.
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Posted by appolus on October 1, 2020
I see judgement whether we turn to the left or right ( not meaning that in a political sense although it may fit) If Trump is reelected the forces of anarchy will intensify and cities will burn. If Biden is elected there will be a sharp rise in aggressive political acts against the Christian community and of course abortion will not only go on unabated but children who somehow manage to survive an abortion will be left to die on a table in the corner of a room. Now, perhaps that is our end, the end of a society that has highly flawed notions of what freedom actually is. There is the freedom wrought for us on bloody Calvary, and then there is everything else.
The freedom that man gives, man can take away. The freedom that God gives though His sacrifice, no power that exists can touch. No man can make me less free. No political party can make me less free. No principality or power can degrade my freedom in any way. I may be in a jail cell but I will be free. I may even be martyred for the cause of Christ but I shall be free indeed. In fact, the more the devil rages, the more I plunge the depths of freedom. We saints must remember that and stand upon that. Dark days lie ahead, but above every dark cloud there is a piercing and perpetual blue sky.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 3 Comments »
Posted by appolus on September 30, 2020
For we live by faith, not by sight (2 Cor 5:7)
If faith is that important. If it is the deliverer of what grace provides then how shall a man increase in faith? Shall he pray more? Shall he tithe more? Shall he live a more holy life? Shall he increase in the rigors of religious life and then somehow earn more faith by denying himself? Now obviously praying and holiness and denying oneself are not inherently wrong. Yet they become disastrous if they are flowing from the heart of one who is trying to earn faith by their own efforts. Everything must flow from the presence of God. What is begun in the Spirit must abide in the Spirit and walk daily in the Spirit. The key of faith, given to us by Jesus, that unlocks the door of salvation is also the key which unlocks every other door.
I have seen men trying to kick in the doors of mercy and peace and joy. I have seen groups of men with battering rams trying to break down the doors of love and forgiveness and holiness. I have been that man at times, I have held that battering ram at times. Yet no door that opens deeper into the heart of the Father can be strong armed open. It is not by might nor by any power, it is by His Spirit alone. And it is by weakness and an understanding of our weakness that draws us near to the Father and deeper into His heart. As we draw near, faith is increased. As our faith is increased then it delivers what grace has provided. As we receive what grace has provided then we share with others that which we ourselves have been freely given. As we share this with others, faith is increased and the evidence of God walking among us is evident to men and He and He alone is glorified.
Will you draw near today? Will you enter into His rest and cease from your own works today? In His presence there is fullness of joy. In His presence there is a peace that surpasses understanding. In His presence there is forgiveness and restoration. In His presence there is purity of heart. In His presence there is mercy and love beyond measure. In His presence there is strength for the weak. In His presence you can run and not grow weary, you can walk and not faint. In His presence you can mount up with wings as eagles and soar to unimaginable heights. Will you draw near today saints?
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A Call To The Remnant 