THE VITAL CONNECTION

THE VITAL CONNECTION

                Well, my article yesterday on worship was met with resounding silence. To talk about worship is sort of like serving “Holy Cow “hamburgers in India. And I understand. I really do. After all, if American Christianity is going astray why blame worship? In many ways we have a bigger choice of wonderful worship music than ever. And the same worship music is being sung by churches that are going astray and churches that are not going astray.

                But in my discussion about the many layers of worship including obedience, I am not talking in the least about a return to legalism. Jesus was diametrically opposed to legalism. He used every opportunity He could to refute legalism and to demonstrate to us that the kingdom He was talking about operated on a completely different level and under a new covenant and a new priesthood.

                There is no advantage whatsoever in going back to the Old Covenant to find righteousness, for our righteousness is in Christ alone and not in anything we can do. Still, there are statements within the New Covenant that give us pause.

                We all love John 3:16. It says: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” It is like an open invitation for the whole world to come into the open arms of Jesus and it is just that, but in that same chapter and verse 36 it says:  “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” Hmmm, that sounds pretty serious.

                Well, in John 14:1-3 we have another one of those open arms invitations, but on down in verse 15 Jesus says: If you love me you will keep My commandments. So how do we interpret that? Is He telling us to go back to the Law of Moses? Well, no. If the Bible doesn’t contradict itself and if Paul was inspired by God to explain this to us, then we know that the Law was given to lead us to Christ and once we have come to Christ the Law of Moses has finished its purposes. Gal. 3

                So, if Jesus says, “If you love Me you will keep My commandments, then the law of consistency will dictate to us that Jesus is here talking to His disciples about obeying all of the instructions that He has been teaching them. He is bringing the world a New Covenant and a new priesthood and as Hebrews 7:12 says, “Where there is a change of priesthood there is a change of law also.”

                So Jesus is not referring to the Law of Moses here in John 14:15. He is talking about the new commandments that He has been bringing to His disciples and to us. One of these is found in John 13:34.

                “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” John 13:34 also see John 15:12

                Another new commandment would be found in John 3:3-7 Jesus said: “Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God… that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit… You must be born again.” And yet there are entire denominations that literally despise the born again experience and have distanced themselves from it….Why?

                Another one of Jesus’ commandments is found in Acts 1:8. “But you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest part of the earth.” In other words this New Covenant is empowered by the Holy Spirit… and yet many denominations shy away from any demonstration of that power. See John 15:26, 27. So, the New Covenant is full of instructions, all of which operate within a new paradigm. We can’t do any of them without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

                Well, those three mentioned commandments are good for starters and as we can see, Jesus has with those commandments thrust us into a whole new dimension as I said. It is a covenant in which we can’t do anything apart from Christ dwelling in us and working through us. We don’t have the ability in our flesh to love like He loved. We have absolutely no ability to be born again unless the Holy Spirit performs an absolute miracle in us and we certainly have no power to witness to others. We can say many words, but it is the Holy Spirit that draws us to God and no one comes to the Father but by Him. John 6:44

                So the New Covenant is a supernatural life from start to finish and that is not even talking about miracles or healing or casting out demons. Being born again is the ultimate supernatural event. And Paul explains to us in Romans 8:9 saying: “But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ he does not belong to Him.”

                So the Christian life involves a vital and living spiritual connection with Jesus in which He is the Vine and we are the branches and Jesus says: “He who abides in Me and I in him he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.”  John 15:5b. We are now called to be fruit bearers and that fruit is from the Spirit.

                 So as we look across the broad spectrum of Christianity today we see many who have abandoned the New Birth and replaced it with self-help philosophies. We see others who presume that they have eternal life, even though they do not obey Christ or even live by His Holy Spirit. We see still others that find their security in having the right list of doctrines. And these days there is a big trend in returning to Judaism and to law as if the New Covenant is somehow inadequate to save them.

                We see still others going back to Rome to seek security in in the mother church, which the Bible describes as the mother of harlots (Rev. 17:5) and the woman who will ride the Beast as a part of the coming antichrist system.  (Rev. 17)Are you serious? Do we really want to return to apostate Rome? But even among fundamental evangelicals there seems to be a mad rush back to Pope Francis in spite of the fact that he has uttered many blasphemies over the last few years, advocating as a global religion the sorcery and black magic of Cabbalism as a source of universal faith.

                I did not appoint myself a watchman. I started out simply because I enjoy expressing life through writing. It is a creative outlet for me… but God tricked me… He set me up… and I have been thrust into a world of understanding and information that is not available to all. Suddenly I find myself needing to warn people about trends in the world, to which many seem blind and well, if you see your friends in danger, you throw them a lifeline if you can.            

                One person is not better than another, but sometimes one is in the helicopter and the other is in the ocean drowning and so in spite of the fact that they are otherwise equals it becomes the duty of the one in the helicopter to rescue the one who is drowning.

                So now the Lord has placed information in my hands that is too big for me and I have to figure out how to make the principles known without hurting anybody. When someone digs through a collapsed building looking for victims, there is a very real danger of accidently crushing somebody even while trying to rescue them and that is sort of how I feel right now.

                All I can say is, stay really close to the Lord and to His Word and ask the Holy Spirit to give you discernment, because Satan’s tricks are very sly and it is not that which seems bad that tricks us, but that which seems good. We need to study and pray for ourselves and each other more than we do, and love each other more than we do and to love the Lord so completely that we can recognize anything that is not of Him.

                I love all of you who take the time to read my articles and I pray for you. Bonnie and I pray for you all. The big picture is that we want to spend eternity together and whatever it takes to make that happen… well… it will be worth it… Eternity is a very big word and we have some very good friends and you are one of them. So smile… You are loved… and friendship is for eternity.