Napoleon rose from unknown artillery lieutenant to world-famous conqueror. He had about him, an acquaintance said, the sound of “impetuous wind” blowing. Those not so near still were astonished “by his energy and activity”, without understanding the danger he posed. Age of Napoleon, 124
Every person of influence had some distinguishing feature. General Washington had an imperial appearance that kept people from familiarity. One of his friends bet an acquaintance that he could go up to the General and pound him on his back in greeting. He did so and won the bet. But he told his friend that the look Washington gave him was so icy he wouldn’t repeat it for any amount of money. Jesus Christ had the strongest of all historical personalities; to say nothing of it being the most pleasant and positive of all historical personalities. Whose very spiritual dynamic invited seekers to come close. Whose most hopeless of humans found him their willing champion. He hasn’t been an overwhelming presence in history without having a pillar-of-light-and-fire nature. To this day devotees of other religions love him. This writer once talked with a Moslem. When I mentioned Jesus to him he broke into a smile and said Jesus was his favorite person. How then could he be less than God Almighty in the Flesh to his disciples? When to this day our minds expand and our hearts pound as we read his word. The effervescence natural to him pours out a beckoning radiance far in excess of any halo artists paint around his head. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, what other witness would he bear of Jesus except as THE LIVING LORD!
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The battle of Eylau in East Prussia, 8 February, 1807 left nothing decided but littered the snow-covered ground with French, Prussian and Russian corpses. Associated with the dead were their field packs, cannons, shells, horses, muskets and swords. Napoleon wrote that the very sight of the carnage should convince rulers to seek peace, not make war.
A convenient piety. For someone accompanying him as he walked the battlefield heard him say the dead were only “simple soldiers.” More such “little people” would soon be coming to replace those now dead. Age of Napoleon, 182. Maybe he didn’t mean it as a derogation. But military leaders of the time, Wellington included, considered their troops useful only as cannon fodder. Jesus loved those “little people”: the anonymous widows others overlooked; the sin-burdened prostitutes who heard him offer forgiveness and accepted cleansing; the fishermen whom leaders considered able to feed, but never lead the nation; the aristocrats who, despite their position, understood their place as “little people” needing God’s grace. Jesus came as the Fullness of the Godhead in bodily form TO: seek every sinner; forgive everyone who admitted he needed it; raise everyone’s sights from self to God; recruit disciples willing to follow him wherever he led them and to serve wherever he placed them. The hard truth confronting everyone: we’re all “little people” to God, whatever position we occupy among men. His comforting word to us: he LOVES each as completely as he loves all, the greatest sinner being the most vigorous object of his grace. His challenging word to us: accept him as Lord and Savior, then follow him perseveringly. Lee Greenwood composed a great patriotic song entitled God Bless the U.S. A. Its stirring lyrics and music remain an important American tradition on holidays.
Christians can’t be proud to be Americans today. Not with God ignored and Christ minimalized or vilified from the lowest to the highest levels of academia. Not with marriage rejected as a “piece of paper” and living together an accepted substitute. Not with the excess of egotism in every media outlet exalting humanity as deities. We can be proud to be Christians in America today. Bearing witness to Jesus as God’s One and Only Son and humanity’s one and only hope John 3:16. Living the sanctified example God demands in his believers Ephesians 2:10. Holding marriage as God’s only basis of long-term relationships between a man and a woman, and challenging husbands to be Christ-like leaders who love their wives and children as Christ loves the church Ephesians 5:22-28. Exalting motherhood as the highest calling of all women, Genesis 4:1-2. And so on. Being a Christian witness doesn’t demand a positive condition in society to exist, express itself and make a positive impact for Jesus. Break-up conditions often give us optimal opportunities to prove the difference Jesus makes in lives committed to him. He lacks only people who will take their relationship with him as seriously as he took his intention to be our Savior by Grace. Who will rise to his challenge? A birthday, a doctor’s appointment, a holiday and a breakfast/lunch engagement banished the finish of this blog to today, 6 July.
Preachers must consider any change in the message they preach an abomination to God. The whole idea of the Church Growth Movement accepted the view that God was on the defensive and had to prove he had the right to be heard. That’s a wholesale perversion of Bible truth. Jeremiah’s day didn’t want to hear the message God gave him, but he preached judgment on their sins. Christ’s generation didn’t want to hear parables, but he used them. Many didn’t want to hear his claim to be the End of Law and the Beginning of Grace, but he preached both. The first motive inspiring Europeans to voyages of discovery focused on spices, not gold. Spices, pepper especially, were necessary to preserve meat. The Molucca Islands sent them by sea and land to Europe. A bale of spices packed there costing one ducat brought 150 ducats in Europe. The Conquistadors, 23-24 Jesus had but a single purpose in coming to earth. He came to save humanity from sin and never deviated from it to another. Preachers cannot care that our degraded age no longer wants to hear that message. They may want something else...that gets their attention, interests them and keeps their coming to worship—something about fellowship or human relationships, or care of the environment, etc., etc., etc. Preachers can’t care. They must instead warn humanity to repent or die in sin and spend eternity in Hell. The point is: never consult people on what they want to hear. They’ll invariably reduce the Gospel to a comfort level. They’ll never elevate it to its naturally dangerous threat of Almighty God. We are perilously close to—and may already be in—the time Paul predicted: when, to suit their own desires, men “will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” II Timothy 4:3. Let every preacher vow: they will be among the few and stand with Jesus; they will never be among the many, departing from him. -Fini- |
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