In Revelation 2:25 and 3:11 the Christ "who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands" ordered two churches to "Only hold on to what you have until I come" and "Only hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown".
He warned Christians...his own believers...his acknowledged disciples...heirs of his promises...to repent of sins they tolerated in the church. They had the responsibility of taking action that would KEEP THEM in grace. The very opposite of Calvinist doctrine that anyone turning from Christ never possessed grace. Careful attention to obedience secures our discipleship. For we can lose what we have in Christ. Judas HAD BEEN one of the disciples, Acts 1:17, but lost his place through sinning without repentance. Right there, in Peter's first reference to Judas after betraying Jesus, the apostle could have said, Judas NEVER WAS "one of our number and shared in this ministry." But no. "Judas...was one of our number and shared in this ministry," but lost his share of leadership by disobedience. All Bible teaching, and the New Testament particularly, emphasizes the responsibility each believer has in HOLDING ON to faith in Christ. A religious chimera teaches the impossibility of losing what we HAVE, though in careless disregard of Christ's treasure we lose interest in persevering in obedience. And the corollary chimera teaches that we won't DESIRE to lose what we HAVE. That theory ignores the Master's teaching that we need to WATCH and PRAY lest we fall into temptation. For while our spirit wills obedience our flesh weakly implements it Matthew 26:41. It also discounts the spiritual conflict constantly ebbing and flowing in us between the Spirit of Grace and the works of the flesh Galatians 5:16-26. HOLD ON! Christians.
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Understand, friends, that this critique doesn't discredit the personal faith or destiny Catholics have in Christ. It's about the apparatus of organized Catholicism, whether Roman, Russian or Greek Orthodox that elevates the privilege of priesthood over people. Their absolutism leads them to put ecclesiastical privilege above their people's lives. It also encourages their leaders, particularly Roman Catholic Popes, to make unfair attacks on Europe and America. For example, on a visit to Cyprus Pope Francis criticized European governments for their "indifference" to the plight of refugees. San Diego U-T, 12/6/21. He obviously thought sympathetic words would distract from the historic Catholic Church's REAL indifference to people under their control. An indifference in the leadership that Americans see every day, with thousands of Mexican and South Americans seeking refuge here. And he has inconsistently criticized America for not taking MORE of the illegals who want to come here.
The liberal Democrats in Congress are also at their "Treat Muslim's gently, don't criticize Islam" semantics. I don't know all the details of the fracas in Congress between the Minnesota Representative in Congress who is offended because a Colorado Congressional Representative has made "repeated anti-Muslim attacks". U-T 12/3/21, 12/6/21 But, how interesting. Liberal Democrats defend anyone telling any lie about Christ, Christianity and Christians. That's freedom of speech. But if anyone tells the truth about Islam, the Koran or Mohammed, that's intolerance. Conservative Democrats, a number of them Christians, need to explain how they can spinelessly let Jesus Christ be demeaned by their leadership. How can they claim allegiance to Jesus, yet cravenly allow their anti-Christ leaders to attack him, while demanding favorable treatment of anti-Christ religions? Whether or not God's people stand up for Jesus, GOD HONORS HIM ABOVE ALL! And take seriously, everyone, what Jesus said in Matthew 10:32. If we acknowledge him before men—defend him, praise him, serve him, declare our allegiance to him, he will acknowledge us before God. BUT...Jesus used the word, if we disown him before men—refuse to honor him, refuse to declare him God's complete TRUTH, the only Savior of humanity, and the only LORD God in human form, he will disown us before God! Any Gospel message, parable, miracle or exorcism has a purpose that leads to a decision. The purpose leads to faith in Christ John 20:30-31. The decision leads unsaved people to personal faith in, and commitment to, Christ. FIRST we accept his forgiveness of sin as a gift of grace, Ephesians 2:8-9. Then we practice faithful discipleship as a Christian duty Ephesians 2:10. In turn, duty becomes pleasure. Colossians 1:13-14 teaches the same truth in different words.
Thus, Christ calls both saved and unsaved people to his purpose, wanting each to make the decision that undergirds life with God's love. If we don't have that Love:
If we once possessed both forgiveness and discipleship:
-- compromised them or -- buried them under the cares of life Luke 8:14. Once finding, secure them firmly as the first step to restructuring life. Whatever...don't delay:
Don't stand outside Christ, making excuses and stating doubts. Come inside obedience, despite them. Any doubt we have will be resolved in obedience and any question will be answered in obedience as the veil covering unbelieving Jewish eyes is removed by turning to the Lord II Corinthians 3:16. While Jesus has no tolerance for self-serving excuses and doubts, he has a surfeit of forgiveness for all confessed sins. Midwest floods in 1993 swamped thousands of acres of land, and multiple cities, along the Mississippi and its tributaries. Engineers worked tirelessly to save further catastrophe by bolstering levees built to protect human habitations from the Mighty Flow.
At times they had to risk undermining the levee by moving soil from its base to its crest. They knew it could compromise the entire structure. But felt the need to risk it to prevent an overflow that would breech the levee. Sometimes they won. Sometimes the river won. God's love undergirds human life and never fails to protect it. Satan never wins unless we turn from God to devices of our own manufacture, thinking we can save ourselves without God. God's solid foundation stands FIRM. It ENDURES and offers FAIL-SAFE infrastructure for life. But only HE! Those who disregard God's will invariably, somewhere in life, by some circumstance or experience, find life eroding beneath them. Thomas Andrews, builder of the RMS Titanic discovered that. On the dock at Liverpool he had ironclad confidence that not even God could sink the ship. Only to find on April 14, 1912, that an iceberg could and did. When he knew the inevitable—not long after hitting the frozen ice—he retired to the smoking lounge. All he had worked to achieve; all the mastery of shipbuilding that he put into the giant vessel; all the pleasure he promised himself and his company after a successful voyage—all IRREPERABLY damaged and hopelessly lost in one brief instant of collision with an object he never contemplated could interfere with his quest for fame and riches. Once it did, it left his massive ship DOOMED and himself a hopeless victim. A steward later found him standing in the lounge, looking AFT.... He asked if Mr. Andrews wouldn't try "to make a go for it." No answer. He stood arms crossed, staring AFT...devastated...while his DREAMBOAT sank beneath him. Without God's love in our life the same will happen to us...sooner or later...in an accident, a disease, a business failure, a broken marriage, rebellious children—fill in what could happen to you that you never anticipated, and for which you haven't developed a defense by faith in God. We will all, in our passage through life, find storms breaking over us, beating against us. Nevertheless, with God's love as the Mighty Pedestal on which we build life, NOTHING can ever shatter us, weaken us, defeat us, or find us so dispirited we fold our arms and quit because life became too hard, too mysterious, too awesome, TOO MUCH! "I fled him down the nights and down the days and down the labyrinthine ways of my mind..." begins Francis Thompson's eloquent epic poem The Hound of Heaven. The story of a man who sought God's beneficence in created things, not in God, only to find "their faithlessness to me in their traitorous trueness" to God. Only to find the inescapable Hound of Heaven deigning to love him enough to pursue him, asking, "Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee, save me, save only Me?"
God, the Mighty Hunter of human minds and hearts, loving each "ignoble thee" called ____________, put your name in the blank, as I put mine—all over the world all through history. He relentlessly pursues us, joyfully ambushes us, audaciously tracks us to all the lairs to which we flee from him. All because he LOVES us and wants us to love him. Because he delights more in our confession of him than a thousand loyalties declared by angels—since mortals KNOW the JOY of salvation angels can experience only vicariously through us. God's love always HOPES we'll admit our lack and his sufficiency; our self-imposed fragmentation without him and our entirety in him; our few weak arguments and excuses for unbelief and his persuasive, bold, convincing evidences of Himself. Why do we stubbornly cling to our forlorn humanity when we can be held in God's everlasting arms, caressed by his everlasting grace? In June, 1802, Alexander von Humboldt climbed 19,000 feet of Ecuador's Mt. Chimborazo's 20,500 feet elevation. On those snow-capped shoulders he claimed to climb earth's highest mountain.
To his later dismay he learned that the Himalayas, not the Cordilla Real, had the highest mountains, including Mt. Everest, the highest of all. Which could disappoint a guy. But instead of accepting the fact that his achievement had been remarkable, THOUGH surpassed by an even greater achievement, and getting on with life, he considered all his succeeding days as failures. As every inventor, engineer, athlete, technician, entrepreneur, etc. knows, what he does, makes or builds can be surpassed by someone else. And...likely will be. Which doesn't make previous achievements any less valuable. For very often those who later enjoy greater success have learned much by studying previous efforts and research. The love shared in the Godhead never fears a greater power coming, sooner or later in humanity, offering greater spiritual, social, intellectual or emotional power to humanity. In addition, their love never needs to re-define itself to fit our increasing mental, emotional, medical or technical skills. It does, automatically, persuasively and instinctively enlarge our abilities in every way to fit its peerless definition. |
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