Should I Know Good?

“Why do you call Me good?” Jesus answered, “No one is good—except God alone.” --Luke 18:19

Eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was prohibited, and that prohibition is still in effect. We are not to eat from it, for to the extent that we know good, we will also know evil. We eat from the tree for the appeal that we will be like God. However, our problem is that when we set out to know and practice good, we know evil, and we do not do the good that we wish; instead we do the evil. In short, we cannot handle the knowledge that comes from this tree.However, if we are intent on knowing good without the pitfalls of evil, then we can set our hearts to know God. God is good. God is love. The knowledge and experience of Him is freeing.

- Mike Wells

Separating Light From Dark

Light is a special part of life.  And, Jesus as The Light of this world, is more than just special…He brings the spectacular to life.  Walking in The Light is our choice to take on Christ’s spectacular Life.

Michael shows us the difference between Light and darkness, and how our enemy tries to steal (the big thief) our walk in Jesus/Light.

God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. --Genesis 1:17 & 18

The day that you received Jesus you received everything.How could you not? He is, actually, everything. Colossians 1:16, “For by Him all things were created, {both} in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created by Him and for Him.” Each day, since that first day, it has been the mission of the Holy Spirit to convince you that you are lacking in nothing. In opposition, Satan has taken it upon himself to convince you that you are lacking in everything, to persuade you that your job, mate, kids, situation, physical appearance, and position in life are all substandard. He also has to convince you that holiness, mercy, fellowship, maturity, blessings, and forgiveness must all be worked for, his goal being to have you so consumed with what you think you do not have that you will never recognize what you do have.

Sometimes I feel as though my office, wherever I happen to have it set up, is a place where light and darkness meet, and it is God’s gracious work to separate the two. My job is to witness to the work of the Spirit, the Jesus that is in believers. So many come to my office possessing so much, and yet they cannot see the blessings for obsessing on the negatives. They are men with beautiful families, children that are not rebellious, financial security, and a wife who puts up with and even loves them, despite their goofy behavior. Yet the devil has blinded them to the point that they cannot see positives in any of it; they sit there recounting the offenses they have had in life, the people who have let them down, and their failed attempts to be Christian. Every preacher must learn to be free from the fear of repetition.I am! What gets a person’s attention gets him! We are to obsess on what is true, right, pure, and lovely. I guess everyone is just self-centered enough to think only about himself! We mingle light and darkness to the point where we do not know the difference and all of life is gray. Pray for a word from Him that would separate the two!

- Mike Wells

Form Despair to Joy

My power is made perfect in weakness.
2 Corinthians 12: 9

Each year World Magazine chooses a Daniel of the year.
This year its cover is a full page picture of Joni Eareckson
Tada. She is sitting in a wheel chair, her arms and hands in
braces, but I am drawn to her radiant face. Fifty years ago,
at the age of 17, Joni dove into shallow water and broke her
neck. Suddenly this active teenager was in a small room at
the hospital on a striker frame which allowed the nurses to
turn her side to side. When she realized that God was not
going to heal her she fell into deep despair, even asking her
friend to take her life. She couldn't walk, eat by herself, get
dressed or blow her nose without help Finally Joni prayed,
"God if You won't heal me or let me die, then show me how
to live."

Fifty years later she says this about her unanswered prayers,
"It sounds incredible, but I would rather be in this wheel
chair knowing Jesus as I do, then be on my feet without
Him. That glorious but awful, beautiful but sad, terrible by
wonderful, day I broke my neck--because look what God
has done."

Joni came to embrace God's sovereignty in her suffering
and she founded a ministry, Joni and Friends, that has helped
hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities here in the
US and around the world. She has written dozens of books
promoting life instead of death.

In 2010 Joni was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer and
endured surgery and chemotherapy which weakened her all
ready frail bones. A new door opened to constant pain. Many
days Joni tells God. "I don't have the strength for this, but
You do. I can't do quadriplegic today. I cannot do it without
You." She has learned to boast in her weakness.

God has not passed her by. She says, "Thank you Jesus for
Your "no" to physical healing. It's meant that I am depending
more on your grace, its increasing my compassion for others
who are hurt and disabled...It has strengthened my hope of
heaven, and it's made me love you so much more...And I
would not trade it for any amount of walking."

Joni is a vibrant example of "victory in Christ." She
has surrendered to that which cannot be changed and lives
a full impactful life--even at age 67. Glory to God!

Hymn: Never Alone

Help us, O Lord our God, for we rely on You and
in Your Name we have come...  2 Chronicles 14:11

"We rest on Thee" our Shield and our Defender!
   We go not forth alone against the foe;
Strong in Thy strength, safe in Thy keeping tender,
   "We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go."

Yea, "in Thy Name," O Captain of salvation!
   In Thy dear Name, all other names above;
Jesus our Righteousness, our sure Foundation,
   Our Prince of glory and our King of love.

"We go" in faith, our own great weakness feeling,
   And needing more each day Thy grace to know:
Yet from our hearts a song of triumph pealing;
   "We rest on Thee, and in Thy name we go."

"We rest on Thee"--our Shield and our Defender!
   Thine is the battle, Thine shall be the praise
When passing through the gates of pearly splendor,
   Victors--we rest with Thee, through endless days.

-
Edith G Cherry

The Love Of God!

For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. –Romans 5:6

Two boys in a village began to fight, and one boy killed the other; upon seeing what happened, the villagers began to chase the boy to put him to death. The boy ran to the house of the chief and fell at the doorway, crying out to the chief for his protection. The chief came and, seeing the crowd, asked for an explanation of what was happening. The crowd yelled, “The boy killed another boy in a fight, and we have come to take him and kill him.” The chief said, “I cannot allow you to take him, for he has fallen at my doorstep,” and at that he lifted up the boy and put him in his house. Then the crowd yelled, “The boy that he killed was your son! Give him to us.” The chief’s face became despondent. The crowd continued to yell, but the chief went silent until, after a long time, he spoke again, saying, “Then I will adopt him.” In wonder the crowd departed.

Do you believe in the love of God? Do you believe He would do the same for you? He has, and no matter what has happened in your life, the love of God is up to something.

- Mike Wells

Satan Works on a Permit

As Saints, we have been given victory over the spirits, and reign in Christ as the Victor!

And He said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.--Luke 10:18-20

When one king defeats another king, the subjects of the defeated kingdom become slaves. Satan conquered the man Adam and became the ruler of the world over which Adam had been given dominion. Through defeat, man yielded what was his to the enemy. However, when the second Adam, Jesus, conquered Satan, things above, below, and on the earth became the Son of God’s. We are in His Kingdom, and therefore, what is His is ours. This simply means that we do not have to be controlled by spirits! The believer who does not like a spirit can remember that in Jesus’ Kingdom he has authority over it. In Africa I met an old woman who would not call alcohol by that name, choosing instead to call it a spirit. If the spirit of alcohol is controlling some Christian, it is by his permission. I have known those that are controlled by the spirit of suicide, and there simply is no excuse for that when by drawing near to Christ a believer can simply tell the spirits to leave. Being in His kingdom, what is His, He has shared with believers. All spirits must now yield to Him. As I have said before, at the highest revelation of Jesus there will be no opposition.

I have been asked, “How much power does Satan give his followers?” None! How can a lesser creature give something to a greater creature? Man is greater, and therefore, all Satan can give is a lie, which is where he excels. None can argue with the fact of believers being oppressed, but that occurs when someone believes the enemy’s lie. Being the father of lies, Satan can visit his children, and so a received lie actually opens the person up to the demonic world and all manner of attacks from without, including psychosomatic manifestations. Many have made the mistake of not recognizing the work of Satan, so as a heavenly disciple, do recognize his work, but more importantly recognize the work of Jesus that made Satan fall from heaven, and camp at the work of Christ.

- Mike Wells

Slavery To Righteousness

Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in
slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wicked-
ness, so now offer them in slavery to righteous-
ness leading to holiness. Romans 6:19

It is ourselves that God wants. No gift of money,
time, service, or talents will meet the yearning of
His heart for ourselves. For God is love, and love
would above all things have the heart. Thus surren-
der is a transaction between Redeemer and re-
deemed, and whatsoever falls short of the sacred
gift of a yielded heart falls short of all.

Even the heart of the poorest and most degraded
shrinks from money when it needs love. How much
more so with the Lover of our souls. Silver and
gold, time and talents, ministry, and service, are
acceptable to God as an accompaniment of surren-
der, but never as an evasion of it.

There are those who will give wealth, time and
effort, but how in their secret hearts have never
yielded themselves to God. When in the silence
and secrecy of their own communion which God,
this issue rises before them, they tremble and
grow pale, and shrink back from this definite trans-
action with God. And yet if God is to be all to us,
we must yield all to Him.

- James McConkey

Unable To Do Good

That which is born of flesh is flesh; and that which
is born of the Spirit is Spirit. John 3:6

Too often we believers have a serious misconception--
imagining that while salvation comes to us freely, vic-
tory depends on ourselves. We know we cannot add
any merit or work of ours to obtain salvation. We
must simply come to the cross and accept the Lord
Jesus as our Savior. This is the gospel! We realize we
cannot be saved by works, yet we reason that for
sanctification we must do good works after we are
saved. This is to say that though you cannot be saved
by works, you need to depend on works for victory.

Let me tell you that just as you are not saved by works,
so you do not overcome by works. God has declared
that you are unable to do good. Christ has died for you
on the cross, and He is now living for you within. That
which is flesh is flesh, and God rejects all that came
from it. Nevertheless, we usually surmise that while
salvation is dependent upon the substitutionary death
of Christ on the cross, we should think of doing good,
should do good, and expect to do good for victory in
our lives.
Let us realize, though, that we can do NO good.
Victory is freely given us by God.

- Watchman Nee

Some thoughts on choosing worship songs

Welcome to another edition of 3 Minute Thursdays. You know how it works by now. We put three minutes on the clock and in that brief amount of time I do my best to say something helpful, maybe even useful about a subject that’s of interest to people like you. Today I want to talk about music. I want to talk about church music. I want to talk specifically about how to choose music for church, right. Does that sound like a good topic? We’ll get three minutes on the clock and we’ll go for it in just one minute.

Today we’re talking music, we’re talking church music. We’re talking about how to choose songs for your church that will be helpful to the congregation. So, we’ll get three minutes on the clock, and let’s do this.

The very first thing I want to say is to choose songs that are theologically sound. Now, we have to be careful here. We don’t necessarily mean theologically dense. Not every song has to be absolutely jam-packed with truth. But it does have to be true. Which means it can’t be full of air. So we need to carefully evaluate songs to ensure they are fundamentally true. But there is a place for simple songs. I was just reflecting earlier on Psalm 117, all of two verses. Psalm 118, which is what, 29 verses or something maybe. All the way to Psalm 119, which goes on and on, it’s a huge thing. There’s a psalter, and so back in the day, people were singing those short, all the way to very long songs. And we can learn from that. We can sing short, we can sing long. What matters is the truth. What matters is that they contain sound doctrine.

The second thing is to choose songs that are congregational. What I mean is, there’s songs that are meant to be sung by a group of people. Over the last few years, we’ve really started to choose our songs based on what we hear on Christian radio, or on Christian albums. And that’s not to say those songs are bad or there’s anything wrong with them, but congregational singing really requires congregational songs. So we should really be thinking about songs; are they singable by a group, are they singable by amateur musicians, by people who probably don’t sing for a living, probably don’t know a lot about music. The beauty of hymnody is not just the content of the songs, but it’s the fact that they’re so, so singable. Just about anyone can sing Amazing Grace and pick it up almost immediately. And many of the old hymns are like that. So, let’s go back, as a church, to singing songs that are singable by a group. We don’t have to sing songs that are popular. We don’t have to sing those musical styles. Let’s choose songs that are truly, genuinely singable.

The third principle is to choose songs that have a future. What I mean is, try as much as you can to project which songs will we be singing still in a few years. Alright, there’s maybe nothing wrong with choosing songs for a purpose. Like we’re doing a missions emphasis. So we’re going to sing some songs that maybe aren’t the greatest hymns ever, but they really fit with this emphasis we’ve got now. That’s okay. But generally, as you add new songs into a church’s repertoire, why don’t you focus on songs that really will be around for a while, as much as you can project. Now, we get this wrong sometimes, right. You think about Fanny Crosby, Charles Wesley, the greatest hymn writers, the one’s who wrote the most hymns. They wrote, what, eight, nine, ten thousand hymns each. We sing maybe twenty or thirty of them today. Why don’t we sing the others? Probably because they weren’t that good, but someone had to sing them, and I’m glad they did. They sang them until they realized, they’re not that good. We have that responsibility today, but we want to find those hymns that really do have a future. The ones that we’ll still be singing in twenty years. The ones we might be singing at somebodies bedside while they’re in the hospital dying someday. These are the hymns that really deserve our focus, deserve the best of our attention.

Alright, I know my times up, but I want to throw in a bonus one, which is, add sparingly, repeat regularly. Here’s what I mean. Don’t add a new song, you hear it on Wednesday on the radio, you add it to the church on Sunday, don’t do that. Think about your songs, really understand if they’re going to be good songs, then add them sparingly. Don’t add new songs all the time. The songs you do have, that you’ve built up this repertoire as a church, sing those ones, again and again until you really get them. One good idea might be, choosing a hymn or a song, and singing it once a Sunday for an entire month or two months until people really get that song, they really understand it. One thing we do at our church, is we have hymn sings sometimes in the evening where we can teach a new song or two. But we can sing some of those ones, and make sure they’re really down deep into people hearts, into their lives. So consider that. Consider adding sparingly and singing regularly. Make sure you get those songs in peoples’ minds again and again.

Satan

And the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” And He said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall injure you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.” --Luke 10:17-20

The Epistles mention Satan only fifteen times, the whole of the Bible forty-seven times, and of that, fourteen are in the book of Job. In contrast, Jesus is mentioned 880 times and Christ 493 times.Elementary math reveals that Jesus is leading, thirty to one. How, then, has Satan become the focus of so many believers? Why has he been given equal billing and considered by many to have power equal to Christ’s? 

“Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory; and he said to Him, ‘All these things will I give You, if You fall down and worship me.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Begone, Satan! For it is written, “YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY”’” (Matthew 4:8-10). Some of what the word “worship” means is “to give attention to.” The thing that we give attention to is actually the thing that we worship. It is frightening to find so many believers that worship Satan by giving him their undivided attention. When Satan is our focus, it is not unlike any other obsession: we will find him everywhere in everything.

In the early 1970’s a brand new emphasis entered the church scene; I say “brand new,” for aside from the fact that there are absolutely no Scriptures to back up the claim, Church history is also void of the emphasis. The new teaching was that Christians could be possessed by demons. In all of Paul’s dealings with troubled believers, not once did he even hint that the solution to their freedom rested in having demons cast out of them. In fact, that would be a basic contradiction to Paul’s making this point in I Corinthians 3:16: “Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and {that} the Spirit of God dwells in you?” “Temple” here refers to the Holy of Holies, where no evil can dwell. Faced with this theological problem, some Christians, still wanting to prove the point that we could have demons, restated “possession” to mean “oppression,” with yet a need for the casting out of demons in the body, though not the spirit. The result of this mindset is that Satan gets everyone’s attention and no one gets on with Christ; naturally, Satan would prefer that we busy ourselves casting him out instead of inviting Christ in.

I questioned a brother concerning this particular kind of “ministry.” If someone has a demon of lust that could be cast out, and then he finds himself lusting again, what is he to do? His response was, “Once the demon goes, he needs to abide; he is lusting again because he is not abiding in Christ.” I thought that rather interesting, for if in the end abiding in Christ keeps a fellow from lusting, why did he not just begin with abiding? Again, lesser truth always gives way to the greater.

In a meeting I was once asked a loaded question by a person who knew that several in the room were casting demons out of believers; what did I think of the practice? All I would say is, “There are a lot of waves that take us from shore.” He pressed me further, but I only repeated my answer, because indeed, this emphasis has been a wave that passes back and forth through congregations; if it were truth, it would become foundational, but it always seems to give way to the next wave, the next titillating catch phrase or notion to ripple through meetings. We are not disagreeing with the fact that there is activity from Satan; however, dealing judiciously with him merely involves lifting up Jesus! At the very same moment Christ is lifted up, Satan is renounced.

- Mike Wells

Does God Dwell In Every Human & Is He The Father of All Mortals?

Warning: If you don’t read this entire post, you’ll likely miss the point. It’s under 800 words, so take a quick break from YouTube or from binging your favorite TV show, and we’ll all be good.

For those who may not know the history, the concept of “The Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man” is a fairly recent idea that was spawned by liberal theologians in the early 1900s. According to this doctrine, God is the universal Father to every mortal, and He indwells in each human, including those who have outright rejected Jesus of Nazareth and His kingdom message.

The concept has made another wave today. Social media abounds with memes saying, “God is in you” and “God is your Father” – not addressed to Jesus-followers, but to every person who breathes oxygen.

While the idea sounds warm and nice, especially to those who are drawn to new-age inspired ideas, it flatly contradicts the teachings of Jesus and the apostles.

Jesus was almost stoned (I mean by rocks!) because He made the shocking statement that He was God’s Son (see John 8). He also made plain that God is NOT everyone’s Father when He said to Nicodemus, “You must be born again” (John 3:3-8). Birth is the impartation of life. New birth is the impartation of divine life.

If Nicodemus was already a child of God (possessing God’s indwelling life), Jesus’ words would have been meaningless.

One of the centerpieces of New Testament revelation is that those who repent and believe on Jesus are made “sons of God” (John 1:12). In other words, God’s life indwells them, and they are kin to divinity. (“Sons” in the New Testament includes women. Just saying.)

The genuine Christian possesses divine life. The triune God – Father, Son, and Spirit – indwells in him or her (see Romans 8).

Therefore, to assert that God dwells in every human is not only false, but it empties the gospel message of its power. The gospel isn’t just about the afterlife, it’s about the present life. And those who have entrusted their lives to Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, have the unique privilege of receiving the indwelling presence of God and being His child through regeneration.

The above realities are stated on just about every page of the New Testament, so I won’t bore you with a long list of Scriptures supporting the idea.

But I’m calling “bull” on all those memes and quotes that assert a fundamental untruth that has deceived many people and conned them into rejecting the message of Jesus Himself. After all, why bother with the claims of Jesus if God is already your Father and He indwells you?

While the New Testament is unshakably clear that not every human possesses the Holy Spirit (God dwelling in them), anyone can receive God’s life if they repent and entrust themselves to Christ.

And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. Romans 8:9

What we [the Christians in Corinth] have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God. 1 Corinthians 2:12

Now a word to those who have embraced a blue-blooded form of evangelical fundamentalism, who are or have been expressing hatred toward everyone who isn’t like them: Let me remind you that Jesus had the harshest things to say about such people. And as was the case with Warden Norton in Shawshank Redemption, the ability to quote the Bible and claim to be “born again” doesn’t make it so. Matthew 7:12 is the litmus test.

Do you treat everyone else the way you want to be treated? That’s the evidence of the new birth. So says John, anyway (see 1 John).