Passionate Depravity***

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  As things are heating up in this, our "One nation under God", I am shocked as to what is being revealed in our days.  The personal principles of our lives and our Godly character are being challenged at the deepest levels.  The body of believers known as the Church is experiencing attack, both from without and even more sadly, from within.  

We have been told emphatically by one who claims to be a "christian" that if we have a problem with the person, and the lifestyle that person has chosen, then we need to take it up with our Creator God.

This morning as I do just that, and enter into the place of His counsel, the Holy One minces no words, "Don't be confused by their "passionate depravity".  My Word stands." 

The situation that has gained so much media attention is not just a cultural or social disagreement with a given lifestyle, it has been injected into the "Body of Christ", the Church of the Living God as a point of debate and even a place of division. 

As I accept the challenge and bring this issue to our Creator God, who by His Holy Spirit leads me into all truth, He confirms what those who follow Him and know what His word reveals about humanity's "passionate depravity". 

Humanity has been given the unique ability to choose good or evil by our Creator God, and to use our free will to decide our lifestyle here on earth and our ultimate eternal destination point.

As we set about pursuing a lifestyle apart from God and His Word, the confusion sets in and we begin to stray way from the most basic truth about ourselves and the One who created us; Male and Female. 

Romans 1:24-31 gives a clear understanding of the slide into passionate depravity, the scriptures refer to as a "debased mind".

As for the Body of Christ, Jesus warned us in Matt 13:24-30 that an enemy has and will "sow tares" in the wheat field.  Tares look like wheat but are toxic to humans.  Then, remarkably (according to the parable) when asked if these tares should be uprooted when they are recognized, the owner of the wheat field said "No", lest you uproot the wheat with the tares, but leave them together until the final harvest.

The wheat field is said to be the world, but as the body of Christ gets infiltrated by ungodly people who act as agents of the enemy, we must be on guard.  As they come in to challenge the Lord our God and His Word, I see how that warning can apply to the church, and in that warning, the Church must be ready.  We must be ready to refuse the temptation to capitulate to such error and what is a classic attempt to assassinate the Divine character of our Creator God, which will invariably lead to error. 

Apart from the reality of free will in choosing a depraved lifestyle it might be argued that God is cruel in creating us one way then forbidding us to act according to the "way" we were created.  Therein lies the character assassination of our God.  Do not be deceived, it is the created and not the Creator, it is the human and not God who promotes the confusion and chaos in passionate depravity and rebellion of our design.  

The adversary of truth exhorts us to take our questions to the One Who is Truth and there is the exact place where Truth is confirmed.  My only question is have they done the same?

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?   

Seeing The End From The Beginning***

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Life on planet earth can be so confusing as there is so much to the vast unknown of time and space and the human soul.

For the Christian the struggle is real but so is the good outcome since for us the ultimate judgment has been rendered and we possess the pardon for all we have done that represents sin.  Once we fully understand and embrace our salvation, and what salvation actually provides, our life trials don’t seem so dark and foreboding.

The Holy One speaks into my wrestles from out of darkness and sheds His light:

“I know the end from the beginning: trust yourself and my love”.

The mystery of Holiness draws me in.  The Word says that the Holy Spirit will lead me into all truth.  When He speaks I try to listen and then try to follow where His Holy thoughts lead.

The exquisite revelation of my Lord as the Sovereign Creator of the universe, the earth and all things that exist is found in His word and today He takes me to the book of Job.  We find in the beginning that Satan was given permission to test Job’s loyalty to God. What unfolds is the account of a desperate time in Job’s life and horrific trials that were brought by Satan in an effort to break the man and humiliate the Creator.

Human assessments and limited understanding are unearthed as Job and his friends try to make sense of what has transpired in the earth realm.  But then beginning in chapter 38 God entered the discussion and the word says,

“God spoke from out of the whirlwind and said, “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?  Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you and you will answer Me.”

Thus begins the personal lesson that the Sovereign God of all Creation is about to teach poor Job.

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?”

“Have you commanded the morning since your days began and caused the dawn to know its place?”

“Have you entered the springs of the sea or have you walked in search of the depths?”

“Who has put wisdom in the mind or who has given understanding to the heart?”

Chapter 39:

“Does the hawk fly by your wisdom?”

“Does the eagle mount up by your command?”

Chapter 40:

“Would you condemn Me that you may be justified?”

“Have you an arm like God or can you thunder with a voice like His?”

“Look now at the Behemoth (a dinosaur like beast) which I made along with you-He is the first of the ways of God.  Only He who made him can bring near His sword.”

Chapter 41:

“Can you draw out Leviathan with a hook? Or snare his tongue with a line that you lower?”

“Lay your hand on him; remember the battle-never do it again!”

“Who then is able to stand against Me?  Who has preceded Me that I should pay him?”

“Everything under Heaven is Mine.”

Talk about facing the reality of our own smallness and God’s great Sovereignty! Evolutionists would do well to read what the Lord had to say to Job.  I wonder if the Lord would not be asking them about the “newly discovered” black holes in the universe He created or the mystery of DNA scientists have finally tracked and that God used to create man in His image?

Today and with the help of my indwelling Counselor, I move through this account of Job’s encounter with our Sovereign Creator to the issue of trusting in His love and my own understanding of myself. 

Jesus came and at His incarnation, God the Son, wrapped Himself in a flesh body and walked among His created.  His voice did not thunder out of Heaven but spoke gently to those willing to listen. 

The Holy Spirit speaks in the same gentle tone to me today. And what He has enabled me to understand is the Truth:

Before Job was put through the fire, God saw and knew the end from the beginning.   God knew what Satan would do even before he asked permission to test Job.  And God knew what Job would do before that permission was even granted in the first place.  That is, after all, what Sovereignty is all about.

God knows the end of my trial from the beginning.  God knows the value and impact of the fire and how I will handle it in the process.  God knows what I do not and just as in Joseph’s life where the  pit, the dungeon and the prison were necessary stops on his way to greatness, (2^nd in command under the Pharaoh of Egypt) God’s Divine purpose is in what I am facing in these temporal trials.

Job’s trial ended in compete victory because he was drawn into a greater understanding of God Himself.  Today I can glean from what Job experienced.  God’s love for Job and confidence in his loyalty framed the trial.  And I am compelled to believe that God knew how it would end. Before He gave Satan permission to test His child, God knew what his child would do.

This insight gives me confidence not only in God’s love for me but in my ultimate victory in the test/trials that are permitted to touch my life.  My Heavenly Father/Creator knows my frame and has calibrated the weight I can bear.  God, the Sovereign One knows the end from the beginning of your story and mine. 

May the Lord be glorified as we trust in His love and find our self-confidence and courage for His victory growing in the process.

The Spirit is calling Can you hear Him?