Sadly, it seems that we forget so easily what we have and are in Christ. How quickly we are drawn away here as we live out our days in Babylon.  We are easily absorbed into the material world all around us without realizing how far we fall short of the confession of “Jesus as Lord” that once poured forth from our lips.  In Rom. 12:2 we are commanded to, “not be conformed to this world” but rather, we are to be daily transforming our minds by the renewing of our minds in God's word.

We must keep our plans very simple.  Even at the risk of being accused of being overly simplistic.  

We must recapture that same word of “repentance” and “salvation” that our apostolic forefathers faithfully preached on the day of Pentecost.  In Acts 4:12 we have their powerful message summarized with these simple words, “nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”  

These words spoken to the religious power brokers of the apostle's day, the keepers of the truth, the magistrates of justice and equity in the land of Palestine, were spoken by common men to an august and regal council of 70 very well educated and properly birthed men, known as the “Sanhedrin.”  The same council that sentenced Jesus to death as a common criminal.  Notice the peril of any religious community that loses its saltiness, it seeks to crucify the work of Christ's people.  There is no new thing under the sun!

All true believers who have embraced at face value the reality of our salvation, have been saved from certain destruction and impending doom.  But somehow we allow complacency to sneak in subtly in our attempt to make a distinct culture that is OK but not totally alive to God.  

It doesn't matter what denomination or non-denominational church you join, most, if not all are touched with a subtle sleepiness that allows for complacency to take over the mind and heart of the church.  The culture of “church” is designed by the angel of light, Satan, to put us to sleep so that we distance ourselves from our calling in Christ to be the light of the world and salt of the earth. 

Jesus didn't save us to become a distinct political entity and to protect a set of moral values in a particular nation.  Jesus is not a political party!  

Whenever the church becomes political, it loses power and it becomes dull, our sharp message of a crucified Savior is lost.  The mandate given to us by heaven that has commissioned us to present Jesus as “Lord” starts with the person, then the home, the community, the educational system, and all levels of government that make up our nation. 

Do you know that the Sanhedrin that sentenced our Lord to death as a “blasphemer” was a very powerful political entity within the life of times of pagan Rome?  They had their own police force, they had many political lobbyists, as a distinct political entity they had power to bless or curse Rome's choice of governor in their provinces.  They often received bribes to make things happen to please their political constituents.

The Roman government cared what the Jewish Sanhedrin thought about things because of their ability to sell Rome's political plans to the Jews.  This high level religious society was catered to because they were effective at keeping the empire intact and at peace.

While the Sanhedrin who ruled over their Jewish citizens, sought after, and kept intact, the favor they so much enjoyed from the Roman government.  These influential religious power brokers were able to maintain their “power” position with the Jews, simply by their ability to get things done in Jerusalem. 

Does this revelation reveal anything to you today?  Look at how our christian leaders have handled their position of authority in our nation.  They have used their political clout with presidents, senators, and congressmen to preserve what?  Is there position and their order within the life and times of our nation?  But where is authentic and vital christianity in our land?  

Both entities, the government and the religion leadership scratch each on the back and in turn, maintain their power base, so in the end it doesn't matter who is in charge, the rules of the game have been firmly established!  But we learn from the book of Acts, that no matter what these silly power brokers say and do, they can not stop God's spirit from moving them out of the way and by the glorious Power of God whole cities are transformed by the message of Jesus spoken by common men and women.  

All of our political concerns must be put aside, we are not on this planet to be involved in politics as a major part of our deliverance from trouble.  Where do we find Paul or Peter playing politics in the New Testament?  No where!  It is time for a grass roots movement of Christ's power that touches those communities where He is being presented as Christ and King of all men and cultures.  It is in these places that a holy revival of Jesus as Lord will drive the energy of real and lasting change.

When Peter, James, John, and Paul are brought before the political authorities they are not concerned about how they represented Jesus, they came and openly declared, under the power and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they unashamedly state, “Jesus, Lord of  the nations.”  

What do you think would happen if one of these “Jesus” preachers were to go before Congress today?  What if was called to meet with our politic leaders to discuss the matters of morality and political concern for christians in our country?  They would not care so much about the politics of the situation, No, I believe with great unction, they would declare Jesus as Lord through the words.

We have no other life or way but Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  In order to recover the ancient paths of our apostolic forefathers we must move and think like them.  No more soulish and man-centered manufacturing of political solutions that pander to the flesh!

We need none other then a “Jesus” owned and operated revival, a revival of true religion in the land.  The revival will not occur inside most churches!  They are saying resounding “no” to His invitation to join with Him and the heavenly throngs of angels to celebrate with Him and His Bride the marriage supper of the Lamb of God.  I believe this next major move of God will happen out in the streets and on the highways and byways of every day American life and culture.  Our God is a public God.  When He moves, He puts on a show! 

Our preaching must go to the streets, parks, marketplace, and schools that make up our town and cities in America.  Where men and women respond to this call, they will see salvation come and revival will set in, where the people of God are scared and reticent to move outside their comfort zone, there will be no move of God.  The Holy Spirit filled our forefathers with boldness to declare a resurrected Jesus to a world who thought Him dead, which by the way, was for them, political suicide.

When we by inspiration of the Holy Spirit declare “all men as sinners” condemned and without hope in this world, overwhelmingly estranged from the way of righteousness, positive change will visit our culture?  By taking this message to the streets, parks, city halls, and corporate settings that grant a most prominent public stage, will bring positive results and real change in our world.  Where in history and in the world today has real revival ever been private?

No more measured plans of self-centered and self-terminating concern.  We are at a point where nothing but the wild and unknowable execution of the raw spiritual power of God released to our hearts will bring true revival.  Do we want to see thousands of souls saved?  Then I exhort you to put out of your mind any political action, and put in its place an unvarnished devotion to preach Jesus in public places.  Let's create a stir that will put us in front of the bar of governmental leaders all over the land.

Your confession of Jesus as Lord launches you into the wildest adventure of your life, all bets for comfort and ease are off.  You belong to Christ, you have been purchased at a great price, not to sit and simply change your voting class and culture.  No, you have been saved to press the kingdom of God forward in the land.  You have been delivered to trust forever that your eternal salvation is real and accomplished in Christ, no matter what threats of doom come upon you.  

Salvation is salvation.  We are saved from a very real death.  We are already seated with Christ in heavenly places.  On this earth we are recognized as aliens and sojourners.  We own nothing, we do not allowed to possess anything here.  As Jesus told the rich young ruler, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come and follow Me.”

Our assignment is to follow our Lord as He guides our feet to do whatever His Spirit leads us to do in the context of the confession of our own lips, “Christ is my Lord.”  

Peter's bedrock confession and Jesus words that commended Peter's confession have not been altered since they were uttered in the Hebrew language two millennia ago.  In his confession, “You are the Christ, Son of the Living God!”  Peter set forth the core truth of the entire gospel message.  Peter's confession represents the truth that has and will always be the chief cornerstone of the foundation of Christ's church.  The Christ has power to raise up and put down.  The Christ has power to save an man, woman, or child from His eternal judgment.  The Christ is the powerful cornerstone that Jesus said would not be moved, “even if the gates of hell should mount all its power to prevail against her.”  

We are called to proclaim the message, the results of our public declaration are safely in God's care.  So let's determine today to do as our apostolic forefathers did 2000 years ago.  The Lord selected and trained twelve very ordinary and untrained men to do a very impossible job.  Can we agree with me that it is time for Messiah to come and do the same kind of work as He did back then?  Can He use your willingness to follow Him, to mold you into a faithful servant that responds exclusively to His Voice?  No matter your educational background, He is looking for men and women who will do what He says. Those who do not fear the faces of men.

No more listening to talking heads with Bible-speak on the lips.  No, we are here for no other purpose then to proclaim a crucified God to a needy and broken culture. To follow Jesus example, to become the servant leaders who do “gospel” work in the way of, and inline with, the real, vital and livingness of the first century apostles and saints of God. 

Many Blessings,

Jonathan

In my current excruciatingly difficult waiting process, I know in my heart of hearts this process has been eternally and carefully measured out by my Maker and Savior to arrange the perfect meeting of His grace to my desperate condition.  So His perfect timing and grace rendezvous with me at a place that forces my heart to gush out a “cry” that touches His ready heart and saves me from my difficult circumstances.  The prompting of a cry for healing at the only place where true help can be found -- the feet of Jesus.  

Over the course of my hard times, I have been learning that the “cry” that wells up from within me that inspires the release of these kind of simple of prayers, “Lord, show me Your way!” or, “where are you God!” or, “I need you now!”or another good one, “Save me!” 

 These kind of prayers seem to be the powerful and life-changing prayers that can be uttered from the mouth of a fallen creature in Adam. Even if they come out as a grunt or groan.  Rom.8:26 says, “the Spirit helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for uswith groanings which can not be uttered.”

Don't you think our Father in heaven wants us to get to this very simple “crying” point in our very fragile lives?  It is here that we say the right words and answer His questions in the most honest of ways.  It is here that our worldview is challenged.  Where we gain a better view of who we really are before His very holy throne.  Here we are honest and vulnerable.

Our stress-filled life weights show us the reality of eternal things; they press us to think soberly and eternally.  When temporal conundrums block our plans, we are left many times with a blank and very confused heart and mind.  It is here that the Father works new grace into our needy hearts to teach us “His way” in the world and in the universe.

When someone tells me, God is on His throne, I have to agree, but that wasn't the question?  No, the question is, “why doesn't He move when I pray?”  I mean, why is He taking so long?  Knowing that our Dad is our dad is not enough, I have to feel His love and His very much needed comfort.  This isn't abstract truth we are seeking.  No No!  We are seeking the triune Godhead and we need immediate attention, I mean, NOW!  

Let's be honest with ourselves for a just a moment.  What kind of prayers does God answer?  And does it matter how you pray?  Do fancy words move His heart?  Certain inflections in our vocal tones?  I don't think so. 

Well wouldn't you come and take a turn with me as we try to answer this very important question from the life of Jesus.  This following Jesus thing is a very crazy way.  We are shown in Heb. 5:7-9 how He prayed while He was on the earth, “who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.  And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.” 

We suppose so many times that following Jesus means doing the “christian” thing.  Being nice to people.  Paying our taxes, at least most of them.  Going to the “church” meetings.  “Hangin” with the right people who think like us and play “happy” like us and to not “hang” with the bad people.  In reality, following Jesus means to “be” like Jesus and to walk and “do” the stuff of Jesus!  After all, He is our Messiah and Immanuel.  “He is” our ever present help in time of need.

Yet in all our efforts to please ourselves when we pray, are we really touching the heart of our Father in heaven?  His Son knew that are very real death met His real walk to Jerusalem, this was no imaginary death.  It was as though He was 100% human and didn't know the outcome of His fate.  It was very real to Him, just like it should be to us!  We are humans not robots or computers who do what is expected of us or will not shake the feathers of others.  Jesus was naked and vulnerable before His Father in His holy prayers.  So should we then be honest and very sincere.

Before you walk away from this point, hold on for just one holy minute.  Does trusting in Jesus mean just letting Him do all the work in our deliverance from so great a death?   We call that anti-nomianism, and that “ism” doesn't bring revival.  It doesn't foster change.  No, it makes for some good christian fun and culture building, but it does nothing to build the church of Jesus Christ.  It does nothing to usher in the end of the age.  No, all it does it make for some extra shame at His appearing. 

Has not Jesus said, “if you inclined to come after me, then prepare yourself to leave behind your self-love and come along then and learn of Me and do what I do!”  In the common language of the day, His point was understood by his followers and those who heard the sound of His voice.  We think in our times that following Jesus is following the culture of christianity, if you don't mind a bold word of truth --- that is a bunch of BS.  If it was biblically true, then why prat-el, is this easy christianity not working to influence the rising generation of those that are truly hungry and thirsty for God?  If you think they are buying this BS, there not!!

We have had our fill preachers and ministries selling “easy” -- that it's really not as hard as those old-line hell and brimstone “John the Baptist” guys make it.  No we have found the better way to do our “American” Brand of Christianity.  If this new way is so great why then does our culture slide on toward Gomorrah?  It's time to deal a knockout punch to this mindset and the endless cascade of ministries that want to sell this man-centered brand of christianity.

So in order to “pray right” we have to be thinking right!  We need to turn back to the ancient wells from which our sacred “long lost” faith has been dug.  We have an incredible pedigree.  Not only in biblical times but even in our America.  Until we put the garbage we are selling now out to the curb we will not make any progress toward pleasing our Father in heaven and praying “prayers” that are sincere and will really move His heart to save us!  At the end of the day we all need to be saved from something really bad.

None of Jesus twelve disciples were confused by the seriousness of His claim over them and their lives, after all, Jesus of Nazareth was the long anticipated Messiah.  When He, Messiah that was to come, He would make bold claims.  For these honest Jewish guys it would be clear and very obvious to them that listening to Messiah and following Him would go hand-in-hand.  He was and is their long-awaited King.  They had prayed, even cried out, for many generations that He would come and deliver them from very real bondage.  You could say a certain urgency marked their attitude about Jesus the Messiah.  

Here would be a typical Jewish person's cry before the Messiah came to dwell on earth, “Oh Messiah, please come and lift the shackles of bondage from me, my family, and our needy nation!”  Fill your temple with your presence, just like you did back in Solomon's day.  Don't delay, hurry, for we are desperately in need of You and only You!  If you're gonna delay then please supply grace for me and my family to wait on You and Your time.  Please come quickly though.  Fulfill your promise to the seed of David!  Think of it, many millions of Jews around the world are still praying this prayer today in anticipation of their real Messiah.  We know that this prayer is going to be answered at the end of the age.

How hard is it to pray these prayers?  The words just kinda flow don't they?  Why is it that we have made prayer so perfunctory?  What kind of prayers then really move the Father's heart and change our circumstances.  What kind of “heart cries” will move our Lord to petition the Father on our behalf?  Jesus died to become our Melchizedek, the Great High Priest!

Do you remember that old blind man on the road to Jericho who simply cried, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” When the blind man was told to be quiet, he cried all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”  Why did he utter the words, “Son of David”?  Messiah was and is the Son of David!

The scripture says at this point (Lk.18:40) says that, “Jesus stood still, and commanded Him to be brought to Him.” Imagine that?  The Maker of the Universe, stood still?  What made Him stop and listen to the cry of a poor beggar?  Was it not the anguish and neediness of His heart?  Was it not is petition directed specifically to Messiah?  This man knew that Jesus was the Messiah, that was a big deal to Jesus. 

Jesus then, as Messiah, goes on to ask a very direct question of the blind man named Bartimaeus.  Jesus asked this very probing question, “What do you want Me to do for you?”  The blind man smartly gets right to the point and says, “Lord, that I might receive my sight!”  The scripture goes on to reveal that the man immediately received His sight!  What more did that blind beggar need?  With working eyes he could plainly see the Savior of the world, Jesus or Nazareth.  Could it be that this was all he really wanted in the first place?

After receiving his sight, the scripture plainly says, “and he followed Him”  Could it be that this blind, now-seeing, beggar followed Jesus all the way to Golgotha and then met him after the resurrection?  Was he there as a Jesus worshiper during the days of Pentecost?  We don't know for sure but we can imagine that he was, and it makes us happy!  

Are we not all in the same place today?  Are we not all “blind” to what is really going on in the world around us?  Some of us are so blind to what is really going on around us, that we are mistakenly planning on staying for an extended period of time just to grab a little more gusto and zest from this very fleeting and temporarily-blessed life in America.  

Yet over and over we have seen from our history and ancient history, that life is but a mere vapor.  Good kings rise to power and then bad ones come after them.  There is no utopian existence outside of knowing and living in God's presence.  We have been shown so clearly from the sacred writings of scripture that a normally blessed life consists of three score and ten years.  Yet so many of us want to suck a little bit more out more of the deal, just to live those extra years for some kind of temporary pleasure.

I frankly can't wait for Messiah to come.  Only then, will this crazy world make any sense to me.  Men today are doing what pleases them.  Their plans are what matter.  Many will pay lip service to the idea of doing God's will, but it's really not the “ache” of their desperate hearts.  A true follower of Christ, and a man of real prayer, sees the state of things and prays according to what they really see.  Our spiritual state in America is horrible, we are under a black cloud.  The only prayer that will change our calamitous situation is a heart felt cry directly to our Messiah, a simple “help” will do!  Only He can heal our diseases, both physical and spiritual! 

Our Maker and Sustainer holds the cards on our particular way and path.  He chooses the type of life we have here and that is conditioned by our behavior toward His Law and righteous ways.  The pure in heart will see God.  Those who follow Him with all their heart, seem to have a different attitude.  They will pray incessantly, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”   

Either God comes down to dwell with His people or we go up, either one is fine for a true christian man, women, or child.  We want to leave and be with the One that enraptures us.  Far better to be with the Lord then here on a planet of confusion and self-will.  We will stay only to serve Him and do what He wishes us to do to build His kingdom on the earth.  I believe that these kinds of uncontrived and simple faith-filled prayers move the heart of God.  These prayers flow out of a very serious heart commitment to do the mandate of heaven, when we pray this way, we will find access to the heart of God... this is all that matters in the end!

Many blessings,

Jonathan

We have come to a time and a place in human history where the word “change” has  been highjacked by the weakest of men and the most tired of institutions, so much so, that the word “change” means everything and anything but to inspire the real change we all need in our times.  Offering “change” doesn't always mean a turn toward the improvement of our quality of life, though portrayed as such in our time.

In a very strong effort to move people to so something different, the word ”change” as lost so much of its positive energy to the point of losing its zest to produce real change!  Just as the word “revival” has been highjacked by sensationalizing emotionally charged preachers, yet still, revival tarries.

If I hear another politician or institutionalized preacher talk about “change” as the answer to their failing efforts to do their job and fulfill their God-given assignment, I think I will lose my mind.  Their vain rhetoric is specifically designed to motivate the masses, when in reality, they are only trying to make our heads spin and feel good about their plans for change.  

The word “change” has so many useful motivations for the oligarchy maintaining control of world affairs, these power brokers of the world system cunningly devise schemes to titillate the population that real answers exist in the political arena.  When these attempts are nothing more then emotionalism cloaked in policies that are intended to increase governmental control.

Real, positive, and lasting change come only when leaders who call for “change” get off their butts and produce something that is really different.  Lasting and productive change will only come to those who are willing to get off their rear ends and “do” something politically risky that will inspire real change and persevere with that endeavor to the place where real “change” comes to pass. 

When God seeks to move a man and our a nation in a new direction, The Lord raises up men to speak of God's order and His will for His people and His nations.  These kind of men and women are wrapped up in the words of God, they have died to the status quo and have become a part of the “change” themselves, they live in a way that inspires real and lasting change for everyone who knows them.  

In the last week I have been writing about suffering for Christ for the cause of being a christian or “little” christs.  As Peter instructed us, let us not suffer as an evil doer like a murderer, thief, or busybody in other people's matters.  Let us rather, as today's born again believer, not suffer as a wild unmanageable insurrectionist as we see and feel a new rebellion taking over the land from christian circles.  

In our time, many “little” christs are going to suffer because they feel so strongly about the poor direction of our country, they will attempt to inspire millions to fight for change in militant fashion, but these shallow plans will fall short of their intended goal.  Theocratic christian nationalism has failed every time it has been attempted.  We don't ignore national problems but we keep a very sharp eye on our own hearts when attempting to move others forward in God's kingdom. 

The Lord is going to allow us to have “change” by allowing our population to live out their fleshy desires, those who lack spiritual discernment and divine wisdom are going to react out of the impulse of their evil nature.  Those who are the orchestrators of this mess will play on the tender emotions of men as these times become more uncertain.  They will use the negative energy in society to inspire change that will empower their desire to be lords over men. 

Godly change that causes the rise of “new life” in the world, will come as God's people recognize the times and the seasons we are facing.  As Dan.11:32 reveals, “those who do wickedly against the covenant he shall corrupt with flattery, but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.”

God's plan is to establish change inside of us on a personal level.  We must come to the place where we realize that our lives are owned by the Maker and Creator of the Universe, that our lives are under God's supreme control.  While I was yet lost and alienated from my God because of my sins, Christ died for me and saved me eternally.  Your way, no matter how uncertain, is wrapped up in the will of God.  Are you still stuck in the man-centered view that your decisions create a robotic chain of events that cause us to experience a life filled with either success or failure.  That Only the smartest, most privileged, and hardest working people make it?

The word of God reminds us that, “the meek shall inherit the earth.” The Darwinian model has been projected onto the church of our day.  Darwinism combined with modernism have subtlety crept into our thinking and created a false view of prosperity and in the social hierarchy of God's world.  God's heavenly blessings fall on the poor of spirit and of heart.  The lower we go in the estimation of men the higher we are in God's esteem.  

Personal change, revival of the soul, parallels change on a larger scale.  Our steps have to change direction and location.  Our butt has to get up off the couch and the preoccupation of sport and entertainment.  Our mind must turn toward a place of sobriety.  Change is coming to America, and most are not ready for it!  The external changes that are coming will create unease and uncertainty.  Change is coming whether it is prognosticated or not.  And our God is orchestrating this change, not our leaders.  What will you do in response to God's move to bring change before your eyes?

Ps. 55:19 reminds us, “God will hear, and afflict them, Even He who abides from of old. Selah. Because they do not change, Therefore they do not fear God.”

The God I serve, breaks into time quite frequently and performs miracles that defy nature and the plans of men, just to show off His power and might.  As God, He likes to intrude into our world to show that the history of man belongs to Him.  “Change” then is a product of His sovereign design.  My way and your way are in the hands of God, whether we acknowledge it or not.

Somehow our prayers and our faith are deeply imbedded in forming our way.  If you are a Bible believing christian, and you study your Bible carefully, we learn that the Bible doesn't record the works of mediocrity.  Yet mediocrity is on display everyday, even without reservation.  So a God-arranged change is coming to remind the masses that God is in control of world affairs and the changing of the seasons.

Change is necessary and change requires a new brand of leadership.  We must think different and we must act different toward our neighbors.  The days are coming when our lives will be much more fragile, not just economically, but real physical danger lurks just around the corner.  We need a higher level of discernment to know what is really going on, we should be asking, “what is God doing?” and be very aware of the sinister manipulations of men.

Let us realize that those who have prepared themselves for this season are going to be way ahead of those who have not awakened from their stupor to see the real social landscape of our times.  The American experiment is running out of steam.

Join with me today by seeking the Lord with all your heart.  If you seek Him with all your heart, change will come to your never dying soul and you will see real change  come into your life!

Many Blessings,

Jonathan

Adversity is God's remedy for a sin sick soul.  Adversity trains us in righteousness.  Adversity is God's weapon to chasten the natural man still trying to rest control of our spiritually fervent walk with His Son.  Adversity makes us look up and moves us to cry out to heaven for guidance.  Obedience to God's adversity illuminates His light within us.   Without adversity we will not become the soldiers that we must be in order to win the war we are guaranteed to win on this sin-cursed planet.  Without adversity we will not become men and women of faith.  Without adversity we will not learn the art of perseverance.  Without adversity we are not worth that much to the world we are called to serve.

To learn more of how to move through adversity under the Spirit's leadership, let us peer into the life of Paul and study how he handled the adversity of being shipwrecked as a prisoner of Rome.  When Paul carried his very long appeal process to the highest authority of the Roman empire, he did so under the government of God, Paul also accomplished this work publicly.  Paul responded to his calling so that could publicly testify as a true believer in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  

Dramatically ordained by Christ as a servant of His message, Paul was sanctioned by King Jesus to speak directly to the world power brokers, the glory of His everlasting kingdom and authority.  That He is the real King of the earth and He has risen from the grave, and in doing so, defeated soundly the power of death.  Paul testified of His Power to break his stoney and brittled religiously hard heart, that he had actually heard His voice in the Hebrew dialect AND saw His Glory outshine the brightness of the noonday sun.  

Even through this very hard season as a prisoner of Rome, Paul did exactly what had been predestined for him to accomplish to extend Christ's kingdom in the earth.  Paul's earlier missionary journeys, were full of preaching and discipling, miraculous signs and wonders, that manifested Christ's kingly authority.  These faithful acts of obedience established churches all over the known world.  In this current season, Paul's opportunities to preach were very limited, in this imprisonment season, Paul was still very much doing the will of God, but public preaching was limited, in their place was suffering in a jail cell, waiting for God's open door while scandal brewed all around his life.  Just simple endurance was his commission.  During this season we can only imagine Paul's desire to write and preach the message he was commissioned to preach.  I believe that Paul made the most of this season by using the most powerful weapon available to him, intercessory prayer.  

From Paul's life we learn that hiss chains were completely in accordance with God's plan for his life.  Paul's chains fell upon him by his emphatic desire to appeal to Caesar in order to gain freedom from the charge of insurrection to Roman supremacy falsely set forth by his old pharisee buddies.  As a Roman citizen Paul had rights, he used these rights to promote Christ's kingdom.  As a Roman citizen, Paul had the privilege to take his case to the emperor, Caesar.  Instead of shrinking back from this call and challenge, Paul pushed the issue to the absolute limit of his being.

In Paul's Roman gambit, he put his life in the hands of His God, he walked in the path set for him by Jesus, a path marked with suffering and human abandonment.  Why would a loving God who loves us so passionately put a man like Paul in a place of hardship?  If you read with interest Paul's appeal process, you will be astonished at the pain he suffered just because he pressed his case to the meet directly with the emperor of Rome.  This kind of effort would meet with several untimely and painful delays, political gamesmanship, and harrowing very narrow near death experiences at sea.

In order to obey the Great Commission of Jesus Christ and to move His kingdom message forward in the world, Paul moved into this kind of trouble without reservation, and so should we.  The Lord confirmed his word that Paul would make it alive to Rome.  Paul settled on Christ's word.  He trusted that God would meet him in time space history and keep him all the way through this incredibly scary journey to Rome, even spending the winter on the open seas and on a half deserted island.  At the core of his being Paul embraced his sonship in the Father and his position as an heir of the everlasting kingdom of heaven, and so must we, if we are to endure our days of adversity and hardship to promote Christ's kingdom in times of civil and religious opposition to Christ's message.

In this epic watery journey to Rome, Paul faced with his fellow prisoners and their captors, amazing adversity in the harbors and seas of the Roman empire.  By making his case in the manner Paul chose, he selected the path that brought the most exposure to his message, but also increased exponentially his trouble.  This kind of adversity was foretold by our Lord when He instructed his disciples to expect trouble and to prepare their hearts not to speak of the own accord, but rather to trust in the Holy Spirit to give them the words the Lord wanted his Spirit led leaders to say to the leaders of the earth realm.  

Luke 21:12-15, The Lord's gave us His plan to spread His Word to the leaders of the political and religious structures, “But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name's sake.  It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony.  So you will make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; for I will give you utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute.”

Have you ever had to put this promise to the test?  Or have you just glossed over this portion of scripture as irrelevant to you?  If we don't assimilate the holy Christ-like attitude of Paul and the other disciples, we will never bring the church of Jesus back to the ancient landmarks of our apostolic heritage.  Our sin sick culture and church will continue to languish in unbelief and carnality, and we will never see real sustainable forward movement in the American church.  

How did we conveniently let all the adventure associated with the apostolic way stay stuck in the Biblical narrative or church history?  Why do we so easily release our minds and hearts to assume that these kinds of adverse situations are for believers located in repressive Muslim nations or in totalitarian regimes? We don't realize that Rome is burning already whether the heat of the fire is seen or felt.  The day has come my friends and it is here for us to stand up and face the fact that many days of adversity are ahead, if real change is coming.

The Bible tells us in Prov. 24:10, “if you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.”  Rejection from your church culture.  The ravages of domestic unrest.  Separation of from friends and family.  Missed opportunities for advancement in your business because of your zealous and sincere faith.  Setbacks in your pursuit of temporal comfort just because your committed to the call of God on your life.  Strange discord rises up to sully your good reputation.  Attacks against your character that you are not able to defend.  Disowned by your denominational family.  All these types of adversity are forms of resistance designed to prepare us to handle the real adversity associated with being a christian in the days that lie ahead.  

In the end, you and I are going to die by some means, why don't we release our minds and bodies to do the will of God?  We should be preparing our minds for conflict as soldiers.  As soldiers of the cross we are releasing ourselves to do gospel work, no matter the cost, if we fail to prepare our hearts and minds, we will faint in the day of adversity as the text in Proverbs states.  Most of us have small strength, but this is not our Lord's desire for us.  We need much more strength to face the challenges ahead.

Until we, as American born again believers, get to the point where we put everything else aside and face the Lord in complete honesty and say to the Lord, “whatever it takes,”  just lead us to the paths that make the most impact on our needy culture.  So much is accomplished in these little offerings of our heartfelt love for God, more then we will ever know here on earth.  We are here to inspire a generation to say in the collective, “I will follow you wherever and whenever.”  Until this happens, we will not see any change in our culture and in the life of the body of Christ.

On a personal note, the reason I feel such an intimate connection with hardcore music is simple, the music is sincere and honest with our times.  The sound picture that these spirit-led artists paint is in-line with our real state.  Their heavy sounds are designed to call sinners to Christ with a loud alarm.   Our preaching has been dull and lifeless, a new sound is required to instigate the necessary awakening we so desperately need.  Most evangelical churches are dead!  So in light of this reality, a heavy and hard sound of war is required to wake the dead all around us.  The rising generation that dances and jumps for the cause of Christ in the earth are designed to inspire a generation to enter into battle, not sit on the sidelines.  Won't you come and join us?

We are not allowed the luxury of raising another consumer generation in the walls of our churches, no more pew sitting believers allowed!  We at LLI Fellowship resolve to teach the rising generation while we work with them to build the kingdom.  Outside of the walls of what we call church, we seek after those who are lost and broken.  We are determined to restore the ruins of the church we are part of in America.  

We note quite clearly the pathetic work we have done to recreate a gospel without cost and without adversity.  We declare it dead!  Shame on us for leading two generations of christians down the path of ease and a spiritual malaise of a false peace.  The enemy has reeked havoc while we slept.  We must recapture the warrior mentality that was deeply woven into the fabric of 1st century faith.  Most of us have to go and dig around the history of scripture to find those who we can say got the point about being a follower of Jesus.  Why do we remember so fondly people who have died for Jesus?  Because that is the gospel way!  You gain your eternal life by losing it!

We see this reality played out so evidently in the account of Paul's intense very long voyage to Rome as represented in Luke's account of the voyage in Acts 27:1 – 28:16.  Please take the time to read carefully through this account.  If you have experience at sailing it will read like a nautical nightmare.  So many hard decisions had to be made by experienced sea captains that turned out bad.  The account includes a massive northeaster that blew hurricane strength winds and buffeted a very large ship to the center of the Mediterranean Sea for weeks and weeks.  The “Master and Commander” movie could not hold a candle to ins and outs of this tale.  

We have much intricate detail that allows us entrance into the account written by the hand of Luke. It is this journey and it's ultimate purpose that have motivated me and my family to face more intently the struggles we are facing to stay in our house and keep our family in clothes and food.  The apostle Peter exhorted us in I Pet. 4:1, “Therefore since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.”

To summarize a very long account, our hero Paul was held in prison for two years as a political prisoner.  The the newly installed governor of the region, Festus sought to please the Jews in his province by keeping Paul bound and out of public eye.  The Jews used their political leverage on Festus to set Paul up for assassination.  The plot to kill Paul was uncovered so Festus went to Caesarea to see Paul personally.  His pompous arrival was arranged and Paul was released to speak directly to Festus.  In Paul's defense, he demanded to be heard by Caesar, Festus responded with these words, “You have appealed to Caesar, to Caesar you shall go.”  Acts 25:12.

If Paul did not appeal to Caesar, he would have never had to endure a very long and dangerous 1500 mile wild sea journey to Rome.  Jesus told his disciples that they would be led to speak before kings and governors for His Name's sake, Paul was led by the Spirit of Christ to speak to kings and governors Christ's words of Kingly authority.  Jesus wants all the kings of the earth to bow down now before He comes in power to take full control of all the nations and the entire universe in the age to come.  

The words Paul would say to King Agrippa and eventually to Caesar were more powerful then 1000 nuclear missiles.  More pervasive then a massive worldwide pandemic.  The words that Paul spoke were Holy Spirit words.  They still have deep impact on our world today.  They inspired the inauguration of the catholic church three centuries later.  Inspired the revolution we call The Reformation almost 1500 years later.  Led men and women to take major risk in maritime travel to foreign nations to live among savage natives just to spread Christ's message of love and grace to those who have never heard.  Paul's words of testimony were and are important to all of us, even to those who refused to believe them.

In all languages the words that were said to King Agrippa and eventually spoken to the ultimate authority of Paul's day, Caesar, literally changed all of history.  To Paul this was just a matter of course, all in the way of following the Lord's directive to take the gospel of kingdom to the uttermost parts of the earth.  As a servant of that message and as His apostle, Paul went where he was told, no pretense, just a simple obedience.  We must recapture this Pauline approach in our day or we will see more decay and idolatry pervade our church.

The journey went as God had arranged it.  Paul came out as the leader of this epic voyage to safety.  He began the journey as a simple political prisoner with no clout.  The pilot of the ship would have died had not Paul been aboard his ship.  The seas were so rough that the best ship and the best seamen could not make a way through the storms that fell upon them, but God, using His servant Paul, guided them to safe landing in Italy.  Only when things got real bad on the sea did they listen and do what Paul guided them to do to avoid a watery death. 

Paul's first words of advice were not heeded, Acts 27:12, they trusted in the experience of the sea captain.  As Paul captors faced rough seas and a very large hurricane, they decided it a better choice to listen to God's servant, even though he wasn't a great seaman, just a religious prisoner.  It didn't matter how Paul presented God's words to these experienced seamen, for them to listen to this smallish Jewish pharisee, they needed to know what His God was going to allow them to do next.  They were trapped in God's powerful grip.  Whether Paul spoke of angels or encounters with Jesus of Nazareth, there desperate condition made for an occasion to listen.  So it will be for us when circumstances dictate that a calm Spirit-led approach is the only way to safety in times of great uncertainty and danger.

After everyone of the 276 ship's passengers were saved at sea, making their safe landing by floating on pieces of the ship that had run aground a mile from the beaches of Malta, the encounter with danger was not finished.  You think surviving horrible storms and cold wintery nights was enough hardship for one voyager, but when our hero of faith was finally safe on the island of Malta, a poisonous viper releases a venomous attack on Paul's arm.  Paul shook the viper from his arm and suffers no injury.  The natives on this obscure island think him to be an awful criminal because their superstitions lead them to believe that only a criminal would be able to survive a shipwreck and still die on their shores by means of wild encounter with a snake.  Our foe, Satan, didn't stop badgering Paul even after so much torment at sea and for so long a time, the enemy of our souls kept coming at Paul, but Paul's God, and ours, continued to supply the answers to every effort of the evil one to destroy Paul and his powerful testimony of God's grace as a minister of the gospel.

We see from the life of Paul that every adversity we face in obedience to God's will, challenges our faith in God's sovereign control of the details of our life.  We must realize that in our adversity, the Lord will make an occasion to testify of the power of God's grace in us and declare His power over all other powers in the world.  When we see a world at war.  Another version of the Bubonic Plague.  The impending destruction of nuclear war.  Anarchy in our streets.  Economic devastation, we must know that our adversity is happening within the boundaries of God's supreme care and control over our lives and in the plan to promote the kingdom of His Son.

It is assured that in the way of obedience we will face much adversity.  But we face our adversities in God, and  with God.  The intent of our adversities is not to ruin us, but to raise us up with Him and present us spotless in that day when all men will face most preeminently the reality of Jesus Christ presence and power face-to-face.  What a day that will be.  Face the Lord today and give him your heart, no matter what happens, stay glued to Him.  As you endure by faith, you never know how powerful your simple public endurance in your day of adversity might reshape human history, Paul did not have a clue how impactful his appeal to Caesar would reshape the world he would soon leave behind.

Many Blessings,

Jonathan

Fellow christian, we will never die!  Those of us who have taken the Lord at His word and have “come to Him by faith” by doing so, have found refuge and rest for our weary and once-dead souls.  You are now ALIVE from the grave, never to return, once for all delivered from death!  We were, and many still are, very much in darkness, but now we are sons and daughters in the marvelous light of God's abiding kingdom.  We have been translated from the realm of death and eternal torment and have moved to the “firm status” of heirs of the everlasting kingdom of God's Son, Jesus the Christ!  Overwhelmingly Amazing.

Sadly, it seems that we forget that we were once dead and now have been made alive  in Christ.  I Pet.1:18-21 states, “knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb, without blemish and without spot.  He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”

We are easily absorbed into the material world all around us without realizing how far we fall short of the confession of “Jesus as Lord” that once poured forth from our lips.  In Rom. 12:2 we are commanded to, “not be conformed to this world” but rather, we are to be daily transforming our minds by the renewing of our minds in God's word.

When the circumstances of our lives as christians get dire and dark, only then do we actually see and comprehend the true nature of our condition.  We sense that without the His abiding presence, we are totally lost.  

We must recapture the attitude of raw appreciation for our deliverance from so great a death as our apostolic forefathers faithfully understood when the Lord launched them to be His ambassadors of His message on the day of Pentecost.  In Acts 4:12 we have their powerful message summarized with these simple words, “nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”  

These words spoken to the religious power brokers of the apostle's day, the keepers of the truth, the magistrates of justice and equity in the land of Palestine, were spoken by common men to an august and regal council of 70 well educated and properly birthed men of renown, known as the Sanhedrin.  The same council that sentenced Jesus to death as a common criminal.  Notice the peril of any religious community that loses its saltiness, it seeks to crucify the work of Christ's people.

All true believers who have embraced at face value the reality of our salvation, have been saved from a certain destruction and an impending doom that haunts all men.  But somehow we forget this awesome truth and allow complacency to sneak in subtly in our attempt to make a distinct culture that is friendly to us and that is OK, but not totally alive to God.  

It doesn't matter what denomination or non-denominational church you join, most, if not all are touched with a subtle sleepiness that allows for complacency to take over the mind and heart of the church.  The culture of “church” is designed by the angel of light, Satan, to put us to sleep so that we distance ourselves from our calling in Christ to be the light of the world and salt of the earth. 

By declaring “all men as sinners and under the wrath of God” without hope in this world, dead and lost in their sins, overwhelmingly estranged from the way of righteousness.  If we set our values on a most prominent public stage, I believe only then will we see positive results and real change.  In other words, let's get the message of a crucified Savior in the marketplace not to sell stuff but to be honest with folks about the cry of heaven.

In light of our dire situation today, the day has come for God to rise and for all of His enemies to scatter (Ps 66:1).  When God arises and raises His precious sheep from certain destruction, only then will we see the situation as God sees it.  Go through hard circumstances as a soldier of the cross and you will feel the resistance on every front of American life.

When Peter, James, John, and Paul are brought before the political authorities they are not concerned about how they represented themselves as the church of Jesus, they  were to present openly and unashamedly the Lordship of Jesus over the nations.  What do you think would happen if one of Jesus radical preachers were to go before Congress to discuss the matters of morality and political concern for christians in our country?  They would not present their qualifications, No, with great unction and Spirit-led skill, they would declare Jesus Lord through the words that Christ's Spirit brings to their heart to say.

Eph. 2:4-5 reminds us, “ But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.” This is our confession and our theme today, and it shall mark all our days on our journey to heaven's glory.  From the beginning to the end we carry this reality within our bodies and for the entire duration of our lives. We are and always will be dead men walking outside of Christ.  But Christ saved us through His resurrection power.  We have this power within our heart.  No matter what troubles assail us in these days we operate under the blessed assurance that have been saved from the wrath of God. 

We have no other life or way but Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  To speak life and salvation in no other Name but Jesus of Nazareth.  In places where men and women can respond to this public declaration. they must know of a salvation to come from His Powerful Throne as they receive the timeless message of true salvation, eventually revival will set in! 

The Holy Spirit filled our forefathers with boldness to declare a resurrected Jesus to a world who thought Him dead, which by the way, was for them, political suicide.  We are alive to do nothing but a wild and unknowable execution of the spiritual power of God to tell men there is life in no other name but Jesus Christ.  

These heart are hearts of hungry and desperate men and women who simply are charged with a mandate to revive a dead church.  Do we want to see thousands of souls saved?  Then I exhort you to put out of your mind any political action, and put in its place an unvarnished devotion to preach Jesus in public places.  Let's create a stir that will have us drug before governmental leaders all over the land.

These words from Rom. 10:9-10, “if you confess with your mouth that Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Mark the way for us.  The same God who raised Jesus from a very real grave, is the same Jesus who has raised us from a very real death.  There is much power in Christ's resurrection to fix any problem to you have, but your very real and serious problem with a very holy and powerful God. 

Your confession of Jesus as Lord launches you into the wildest adventure of your life, all bets for comfort and ease are off.  You belong to Christ, you have been purchased at a great price.  You have been saved to press the kingdom of God forward in the land.  You have been delivered from a real death to trust in His eternal salvation.  It is real and accomplished in Christ, no matter what threats of doom come upon you.  

Salvation is salvation.  We are saved from a very real death.  We are already seated with Christ in heavenly places.  On this earth we are recognized in the class of alien and sojourner.  We own nothing, we do not possess stuff here.  No, our assignment is to follow our Lord as He guides our feet to do whatever His Spirit leads us to do in the context of the confession of our own lips, “Christ my Lord.”  

Why should we walk this way? Because He is forever enthroned as our King, the captain of our salvation.  He holds the keys of the kingdom of heaven and He has given these keys to His church, to the extreme power position of whatever we bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever we loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.  Mt.16:18

Let's agree that it is God's time to rise and shine.  Let us awake from our sleep and live and do like we have never done before. By waiting for God and His power to come from His Throne together we will see something happen, I guarantee it!.  Until He comes, let's wait patiently and do whatever His Spirit guides us to do, in concert with His word and way.

Many Blessings,

Jonathan

A self-willed American person can not see the glories of heaven without the illumination of the Holy Spirit.  What will it take for us and them, as American persons, to see our very sick and vulnerable condition caused by our collective rebellion against God's holy law that now, places us under divine judgment?  What can we do to fix this very precarious and dangerous situation?  What does our God command us to do in these kind of desperate situations?  What do we say to our friends and neighbors that will move their heart to cry out for our God to touch them with His healing power?  What must happen in order for heaven's grace to  bring  “life” to their very critical mortal state? 

Without the quickening life-giving power of the Holy Spirit, no “real” change will happen in our county.  For “change” to happen in our America, we as Jesus-loving Americans, must seek to apply the only cure available to us and to them.  First we must place the oxygen mask on our mouth so we can breath before we can save them from a certain death.  

We must receive this cure found only in the accurate rendering and reception of the historical account of the life and sacrificial work of Jesus Christ.  A very real Jesus sits as King over our nation; He sits in a position of tremendous power and authority at the right hand of God by virtue of this once for all work of atonement.  Jesus Christ sits high above all our American economic problems, social dissent, potential killer pandemics, civil unrest, and threats of nuclear attack.  Today let us stop and ask the ultimate question, “Where is the real cure that will fix our mortally wounded American heart?”

Jesus said to His disciples in the gospel of John 14:1, “let not your heart be troubled, believe in God, believe also in Me.”  just a few verses later, Jesus declares, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”  Hello America, Jesus is coming back to judge the living and the dead, are you in His Way, His Truth, and in walking in His Life?  If not, you and this nation will perish. 

Jesus gained His ultimate authority by virtue of serving, suffering, and dying in obedience to the Father's will.  In light of this historical reality we must see the cross of Jesus clearly from the perspective of history and its relationship to our mortal problem which wages a continuous unrelenting war with our heart and soul.   I hope, by God's grace, to prove to your conscience that the only cure for our American disease is the public proclamation of Jesus Christ hanging immolated on a horrible form of Roman execution for our sins.  As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so we must lift Jesus and His cross up before you so you will see clearly His Healing virtue and by faith receive His touch of healing to your heart and to cure our very sick nation.

"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up," John 3:14

The cross of Jesus was alluded to in all of history by the prophets and now openly declared by His Son.  Heb.1:1-3 reveals,“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son...” And all of creation explodes with the revelation of Father's cure with, “who being the brightness of His glory and express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”  So all of His creation declares His eternal power and truth; we are to know and see the cross from eternity past to the eternity that awaits us all. 

As one who has been entrusted with this most amazing message, I believe that preachers and teachers of God's message have the only cure to America's greatest problem – sin and death!  Every time we preach Jesus and Him crucified in Spirit and in Power, sick souls are offered God's cure, the reality of heaven in the form of Christ's Holy Spirit is made available to enter into dead human souls and quicken them to new life. 1 Cr.2:2-4, “For I determined not to know anything among youexcept Jesus Christ and Him crucified... (v4) my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.”  We must raise up a generation of preachers that will unashamedly believe, live, and proclaim this amazing message!

How will the average postmodern American living in our pagan culture see Jesus as He is so clearly portrayed in the pages of scripture?  Simply by a Spirit-touched message of Jesus crucified.  We must preach under God's sovereign stewardship, as his ambassadors we entreat men to be reconciled back to fellowship with God.  We must preach the gospel message as it has been entrusted to us exactly as it has been rendered from God's mouth -- the very Word of God!  Anything less then the full account of God's dealings with men and angels will not fix our greatest malady – sin and death.

In our America, real sins (violations of the holy law of God) are committed continuously by those who name Jesus as Lord; these sins are committed many times in ignorance, God's people commit them without knowing they are offending a very Holy and Pure God.  Why?  I offer to you today this proposal:  We must set forth a righteousness of God as the only cure for our greatest ailment –our collective alienation from our Creator's favor!  Peace will come to our people only as theyrightly connect with their Righteous Law-giving Maker, in the way or means that our God has provided!

In America, our weak preaching of this righteousness of God combined with sloppy unholy living of this sacred message has made the average christian very insensitive to sin, sin is no longer sin.  Even though God measures our sins carefully on the perfect scales of His Justice.  One day soon He will deal with us and our sins in perfect justice.  Either we are under and inside the righteousness of God revealed in the person of Jesus or we are outside the canopy of this blessed estate, naked and vulnerable, totally unprepared to meet Him in the day of His appearing.

In Jonah's day, the city of Nineveh was so lost in idolatry and self-will that these poor Ninevites could not discern their left hand from the their right.  Jonah was given a simple proclamation for these lost people, “repent or perish!”  This same heavenly proclamation of “repent or perish” is over our America.  Only a thorough person by person heart wrenching work of repentance will we enjoy the abatement of the wrath of God's justice hanging precariously over our heads and His favor and justice being supplied to us through His Son Jesus Christ!

How do sinners come to this place of blessing we call repentance?  The word of God tells us that the Holy Spirit has been supplied to us for this purpose: to convict of sin, declare and reveal righteousness, and point us to judgment to come.  Once we know “how” we have violated God's law and repent thoroughly (turn away) from our sins, we will not see blessings fall on our America.  God cares so much about His righteousness that He will not let our prideful nation slide by His plan of real restoration.

Once we have confessed our sins and turned our hearts back to God, The next step is to reach out desperately for a righteousness completely and totally outside of our making, the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.  This reach of faith is met with an imputation of heaven's holiness flooding into your soul that moves you outside of our fears, this virtue tumbles down to the cry of your broken and repentant heart.   Your obedience to God's call of “repent of perish” moves us straight toward His door of righteousness and empowers you to walk into the path of light found in association with His Son.  Now as those who have received God's righteousness naturally become bearers of that righteousness to our depressed and unholy world.  

Our current economic problems are due to our lack of propriety in our every day decisions.  Our families are broken and carnally independent of other families.  Divorce is the most inefficient way to handle family finances.  One home = one utility bill, one car can be shared, one washer and dryer, one yard etc.  As a world superpower trying to manage world affairs, America has over stepped her bounds in the world, how can we be care takers of peace in the world while our families are broken and ravaged by divorce.  Our morality and intrinsic value as a nation is evaluated by the condition of our families.

Judgment must begin with God's people!

1 Pet.4:16-17, “but if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not feel ashamed, but in that name let him glorify God.  For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?”

 As christians living in America what is God saying to us?  Is He calling us to save America's economy?  Is He guiding us to deal with nuclear proliferation in Iran or any other place on the planet?  Those who live by the sword will certainly die by the sword.  Judgment must begin with us, why us christians?  Because we have been entrusted with the eternal words of God, those words that point us to gaze upon an eternal kingdom, a city who builder and maker is God!  We should know better!

What kind of message will fix our desperately broken moral situation here in our local and national Babylon?  The light of God's pleasure shines where at least two or three gather in His Name.  A remnant of believers who seek with their whole hearts the face of God.  His power and grace will enable them to endure the hardships of a totally broken economy and lawlessness should this be our portion in the days to come. 

Our message must have its core the clear requirement that all men must depend solely upon a righteousness outside of their understanding and ability to perform.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ has all the power and content we need to see spiritual change in America.  We must labor and strive to declare boldly the righteousness of God revealed in Jesus Christ.  In Rom.1:16-17, Paul tells us, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith."    

What is the power of God to save man?   It is nothing less then a righteousness of God which is clearly and historically revealed in Jesus Christ!  So in order for us to more effectively move God's agenda forward in our world, we must recognize the God-cure for our horrible sickness and then apply this cure to the curse that holds all of creation in derision .  If we do not understand God's revelation then we will not see the restoration of morality and common sense in our America.  

I am sensing another political move coming back to the church leaders I hear speaking these days about America's moral and economic problems.  If we pick up the sword of political action without the picking up the cross of Jesus, we will fail in our political pursuits.  Why do men run to quickly to political action?  Because politics sells.  Money flows to political action.  This being understood, our billions if not trillions of dollars have not solved the morality of America.  Politically-minded people will ask for more money with the promise that electing them will make a moral difference in government and our world.  

In our diverse and blended society one man's morality is another man's phobia.  More political action will drive more political action, live by politics, die by politics.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ!

In the gospel of Jesus Christ, a righteousness of God is revealed; this righteousness must be preached in the context of all of historical events, starting with the fall of man.  God the Creator is also God the Redeemer; He has ordered very carefully each change of season and epoch of time to funnel our understanding to the cross of Golgotha and to the empty grave.  Jesus Christ is sitting right how at the right hand of God.  Jesus Christ has defeated death – your greatest problem!  Death has lost its power over me and any other person who loves the gospel of Jesus Christ; death can no longer intimidate us!  A great depression, world war, pandemics, natural disasters, and terrorist attacks no longer cause us to fear!  

Solving our death sickness requires God's remedy of everlasting life.  Our mortal sickness must be rooted out at it's source, way down deep inside our natively stubborn hearts.  Our world must receive openly God's cure for our deadly sickness before we will see real heart change in our people.  We must accept the accurate historical rendering of Jesus Christ's redemptive work as it has been openly displayed in the entire history of man.   From Eden to the soon coming days of Armageddon, God has passionately entreated men to come back to intimate  and perfect fellowship with Him as intended for all men on the 6th day of creation.   

God has always sought to visually and verbally declare to all of mankind His remedy for our eventual mistake of heeding the voice of the serpent to be our own boss.  Adam and Eve have mortally cursed all their descendants by one simple decision to eat that which God commanded the not to eat -- the knowledge of good and -- EVIL.  

God's Holy Law 

What was the Garden of Eden like?  We know that Adam and God walked together loved each other exclusively.  Adam experienced a completely open heaven.  Adam walked with God in the cool of the day.  How can this beautiful experience be restored to you and me?  Our hearts and our minds must be enlightened to see, hear, and feel to know this work of restoration deep down at the heart level.  So how, Jonathan?  How does all this good come back into my broken and messed up life?

It starts with our position in God.  All men are born in a state of rebellion, but in Christ, God the Father has reconciled us, or restored, a people for Himself.  In fact, more then being brought to God without being destroyed or banished from His presence, we now have been declared “sons”of God by faith in Jesus Christ's work on the cross.  Gal.3:26 “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”

Our Maker is so passionate about restoring us back to the original state we held in the Garden of Eden that He released from His Holy heaven His only begotten Son.  His passion is so clearly represented in all of creation and clearly seen and witnessed in the lives of our faith-filled forefathers.  As you study each eternal promise of blessing to Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and the prophets you can not help but feel the fervency of God's heart for man's restoration.  In the incarnation of Jesus of Nazareth, His ignominious death, and most powerful bodily resurrection ,we are overwhelmed with so much heavenly love and passion, we are left speechless.  Undeniably men have have been given a clear witness of God's love, in every facet of history, we learn of God's sovereign plan to redeem (buy back) us from the death curse of Adam's sin.  We will never live forever with God without His pursuit of us with a remedy and a cure for our biggest sin – eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil!

Jesus our Perfect King and Law Giver

Only the government of Jesus is lasting and permanent.  Jesus was born to save and restore mankind.  When Jesus came to earth all the events of history leading up to that manger stall housing His lowly birth, all of history alluded to His meekness and His beautiful glory manifested in servant-like way.  Jesus shows us God's heart as Our God who shows us that He is worthy of our complete trust.  David was loved by God because he was God-lover more then a self-aggrandizing despotic king.  Jesus came to sit on David's throne forever.  Jesus came to serve and save that which was lost – mankind – to restore us, as our perfect and all-powerful King, back to the perfect fellowship intended by our Creator for us at creation!  

Through a careful inspection of the institution of His moral law, and in His detailed instruction of ceremonial and civil government, the Lord God established the life of the children of Israel to preserve them from their own foolishness and to point them to a vicarious Savior that one day would redeem them forever.  Jesus was there on the mountain  where God gave Moses His holy Law that eventually His Son came to earth to keep perfectly, in this work we see a wisdom and love far beyond our natural understanding.  

Only by heart obedience to God's clear instructions would the Israelites survive the wilderness journey to conquer the giants of the land of Canaan.  Joshua knew this intimately and demanded complete compliance with all of God's law before he took the 12 tribes over the river Jordan.  So too in our times, obedience is the only cure for our problems in America, obedience to God's righteousness will heal us and move us forward.  For Joshua and Moses, God delayed by 40 years the fulfillment of His promise to give Abraham's children the land of promise.  By letting an entire generation languish and die in the wilderness, God revealed His determination of have a people who hear and do what he commands.  Is this too much for God to ask?  Total obedience to God's holy and perfect law? For courageous Joshua, total obedience was a matter of life or death for his people. For us, total repentance and total surrender to God's righteousness is our survival!

You may think, Jonathan, “aren't you being overly simplistic?”  Yes and No, I challenge you to show me another way to solve our moral condition here in America, and then show me the historical success of that “other” way.  I will submit to “your way” if the facts support a historical long-term prosperity of that nation who followed “that way.”  Historically no nation maintained the blessing of God as those Joshua lead to inherit the land of Canaan.  Yet they failed to obey God's inflexible laws and lost their high position and their national status.  Think of it, the higher your position in God's economy, the farther you fall if you disobey God's law.  Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, Russia, India, China, and now European and American world domination have all failed to achieve their goal of universal happiness for themselves and those nations they conquered.  How much more evidence do we need to simply submit to God's righteous judgment and law?

As we start to understand our sonship in Christ as His lawkeepers, the more we submit to God's Sovereignty and rightful rule over our lives, the more we will hear and discern His Voice.  As sons of the Living God, we move back toward the Garden of Eden experience, yet in this new and living way we move back to Eden with Christ as our King and law giver.  By a whole-souled embraced of God's righteousness in the person of Jesus Christ; He will not fail to bring us into His everlasting kingdom.  In this path with Christ as our King and righteous Law giver, we are eternally blessed with no possibility of screwing it up! Rom.5:21, “that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

The text reveals that the righteousness that Jesus Christ offered is an unbreakable promise for all those who receive that righteousness as it has been offered in Christ.  Adam's creation mandate had conditions be fruitful and multiply and do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, “the day you eat of it you will surely die!”  Adam ate and lost it all for himself and his children, for believers in Jesus, our faith in Christ secures our eternal blessedness without certain repercussions, Jesus is our new Adam forever and ever!

So many times we get lost in this massive message of salvation in Christ.  We have our private issues and doctrinal concerns, but really what is salvation all about?  Many of us  choose to maintain our denominational way, or support with much tenacity our confession of faith, rather then simply presenting Jesus as our only way back to peace and harmony with our Maker.  To faithfully warn men to give earnest heed to heaven's mandate to be reconciled to God.  As preachers of this amazing message, our call is to first to preach a righteousness revealed in Christ alone, and then by an obvious walk of symmetry with this amazing offer of righteousness in Christ, we continue lead men and women by our walk as a son or daughter of the everlasting Kingdom of God!  Like the pied piper we lead men, women, and children all the way to heaven singing the songs of Zion all the way to the shores of Jordan.

Sound biblical doctrine and accurate confessions of faith are important but not absolutely necessary to inherit eternal life.   Remember, the apostles taught Jesus to a denomination-less world; these itinerant ministers focused on setting a jewish Jesus forth as crucified and as Lord and Christ of all the history of man and in the history of the nation of Israel.  Notice how Philip handled the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8:32-35, “Now the passage of Scripture he was reading was this: He was led as a sheep to slaughter; And as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so He opened not His mouth.... and beginning from this scripture he preached Jesus to him.”  

The sacrificial system revealed a righteousness outside of man.  Our effort to come back to God was bound to and prefigured in a righteous bloodshed.  Abraham offered up his only supernaturally born son to God, foreshadowing what the Father would do one day with His holy heavenly son - Jesus.  The law of God established in Moses points exclusively to completed work of Jesus Christ – a righteousness revealed!  When the Israelites wandered from heart worship of God and the pre-incarnate Jesus they were severely disciplined.  The temple Solomon built represented Jesus in every way.  The Shekinah glory that filled Solomon's temple was a future representation of the accurate presence of Jesus in the temple a millennia later.  God can not be represented wholly in buildings made by men's hands.

The Law of God is Good

God's law was good and still continues to be good.  The way of God is right.  Ps. 19:7, “The law of the LORD [is] perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the LORD [is] sure, making wise the simple...”  The slightest break in our hearts from His holy law is enough to ruin us for eternity.  No man can keep the law of God from the heart!  Gal:3:22 says, “But the scripture has shut up all men under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.”

The bible declares in  Gal.3:13, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law having become a curse for us --- for it is written, 'cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree!” 

In Dt.21:22-23 confirms that quote just made by Paul to the Galatian church when he said, “And if any man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall bury him on the same day (for he who is hanged is accursed of God), so that you do not defile your land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance.” 

When we break God's holy law means a curse comes upon us and our seed.  Not way around the curse, it is forever hanging over our head and the head of our seed.  To God, breaking His commandments is a big deal so much so that He had to punish a sinlessly perfect law-keeper in our place to satisfy His requirement for perfect justice.

To accurately understand God's righteousness as it is revealed in the scriptures, we must meditate on Paul's appeal to the Corinthian church 2 Cr.5:20-21, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.  He hath made who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

The Word of God reveals that He was “made sin” for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.  We are all born under the curse of the Creator's law – God told Adam and Eve, “do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”.  Adam did not heed God's command.  This free will choice of Adam has placed an eternal curse on all of humanity.  

In the last several decades preachers have tried to sell us that man still has a free will, as humans who sin by natural order in the way of our curse in Adam, how then is our will free?  We must have a work of grace move us to see and receive this righteousness as it has been revealed to us in the person and work of Jesus Christ.  Men can chose not to receive, but they are choosing death, isn't that insane?  A free will is able to think clearly and chose between to quality options, but a natural man under the curse of the law; his will is bound to the curse.  Only in Christ is our will freed up to choose the way of life!  Paul told the Athenians, “God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent.”  Acts.17:30  God is saying you have no choice but receive my righteousness or you will die in your sins... horrible decision!

If you are diagnosed with cancer and a doctor comes to you and tells you of a revolutionary cure for your disease, will you decide to die?  Especially if the cure makes you eternally healthy?  How is your will free if your cure is conditioned by your obedient and obvious response?  The only way to go is to take the cure!  Our constant emphasis on free will allows a man to think he has an excuse for his disobedience to God's creative law to not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.   God made us to know good and only good!  We should not have ever had the horrible sense of sin and distance from God but we do feel, see, hear, and know intimately sinful behavior on every level of living.  In light of this reality we must acknowledge our debt, our lostness, and our deadness to keep God's commands!

As the old writers say, “sin is exceedingly sinful”  In our day we have lost the horror of sin as it impacts our senses everyday in our local Sodom and Gomorrah.  We walk right into the atmosphere of sin every day and it hardly bothers us!  We allow sinful thoughts to take over our mind all the time without conviction outside of Christ's work inside of us!  Naturally, we are bad actors at righteousness, in reality we are sinful and we think sinfully.  Our callous attitude toward sin must change today!   

What does the word of God teach us that sin is?   As bible students we teach that sin is any violation of the law of God both in practice or in motivation (at the heart level).  Our hearts are soiled from birth by sin and wrong motives.  Our worship of the creator is imbued with wrong concepts of the Maker of the sun and the moon.  While every man knows in his heart that the sun didn't just appear in the sky all by itself, yet historically, man has continuously succumbed to the temptation to worship the sun instead of it's Maker.   

When Jesus came to earth, He came to destroy all manifestations of sin in man.  A pure form of worship had to be established in Jesus.  He came to “be” righteousness in every way.  He exalted the Father as Creator and Law Giver.  He showed us how to walk before the face of the creator.  Abraham was guided by Jesus before Jesus was incarnated as Jesus.  If you have studied Abraham's life you know he had several major God encounters starting with, “Go forth from your country...” and eventuated with, “Take your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah; and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountain of which I will tell you.”  

After this horrific command was given and executed by Abraham, the Angel of the Lord (pre-incarnate Jesus) cried out,“And Abraham called the name of that place, The Lord will Provide, as it is said to this day, in the mount of the Lord it will be provided”  Who and what is the provision spoken of in this text?  Nothing less then the Lamb of God - Jesus Christ of Nazareth!

The Lord Jesus was with Abraham as covenant maker and keeper.  The sign of obedience God gave to Abraham was the rite or practice of circumcision.  The cutting away of the foreskin of the man's seed giver pictured and foreshadowed a changed heart (faith-based) under the true and lasting Abrahamic covenant which we stand under today by faith!  Abraham's obedience to this rite led to the bearing of the lineage that would bear the Christ!  

The Gospel from Creation 

As creator of all the things, the Father used “the Word” of His mouth to inspire every aspect of the creative order, which is clearly seen in our creation's diversity and in-comprehensible beauty.  Notice with me the account of creation from the vantage point of the apostle John.

John 1:3-5 “All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.  In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.  And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”

Men love darkness from their mother's womb.  Our calling from our mother's womb as preachers and as born again believers does not whitewash away our native desire to sin.  David declared in Psalm 51:5 “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin did my mother conceived me”   

Isn't the reality of being “born in sin” a flesh withering and pride crushing thought?  If not, it should be!  The church of the modern day has advanced in knowledge to the point where we know so much “about” the Bible in the way of scholarship but we know so little of it “practically” in the way of godliness.  

2 Thess.1:7-9, “and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.  And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.”

We lack sober when we miss the work of Christ Jesus , we are so busy trying to survive in our naturalistic world that we forget the obvious.   Jesus lived sinlessly by being a servant to His creation.  Jesus kept the entire law of God because it was good to do so.  Clearly in history and in creation the Lord Jesus has been seen and witnessed as a perfect man and a perfect savior of men.  He made tons of food from a very little bit of food, He walked on water, He calmed a raging sea, and He defied death!  All in all Jesus came with an intense and very sobering mission --- to show us righteousness!

Nature and Creation reveal His Glory.  Paul unashamedly declared that creation reveals His eternal attributes, Rom1:19-20, “because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.  For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”

When we look up at the stars at night we know instinctively that they have a creator.  When we look at a sonogram of a pregnant women we know that the baby inside that dark and mysterious place has a creator.  When we see the sun rise over an ocean or experience the symphony of loud clashing of thunder and the light show of lightening accompanying it, we know that a God created the universe!

Ps. 19:1-2, “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day unto day pours forth speech and night to night reveals knowledge.”

The longer we live, our excuses to scorn God's righteousness become weaker and weaker, as more and more evidence pours in to proof God's existence and the grave approaches ever closer,and we must turn or never see His face in Glory!  

How can America and her churches come together?  God shows us so much mercy every day.  We hate our brothers and sisters without recognizing our precarious condition of being under the wrath of God with all men.  Outside of Christ's blood being applied to our account we have no righteousness.

As it pertains to civil conflict among men, several times the Lord reminds those of us who think we are great law keepers to “love our enemies” because the Father loves His enemies so much that He sends the rain on their fields as well as on the fields of the righteous.  Mt. 5:44-45, “But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

Who is righteous outside of God?  the simple answer -- no one.  Ps 53:1 says, “The fool has said in his heart, 'there is no God,'  They are corrupt, and have committed abominable injustice; there is no one who does good.”

The text goes on the declare in verse 3 “Every one of them has turned aside; together they have become corrupt, there is no one who does good, not even one.” 

We are all deserve to be banished forever from the presence of God, yet He extends even today His hands of love and mercy to you.  What will you do?  He was made sin so that you could become, by faith, His righteousness!

2 Cor. 5:21, “For He made Him who knew no sin [to be] sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Every Gospel preacher must learn this verse by heart!  In this verse we have the entire summation of the work of Christ in one sentence.  I have meditated on these verses over the course of my entire life and still barely comprehend their depth and significance.  If it be possible, let us tear down the words of this verse to smaller bite size nuggets so we can grasp some of the richness of these holy words.

Who has done this incomprehensible work?  “He” hath made Him who knew no sin that...   “He” is who?  The Father God made Jesus to be sin.  verse 19 of 2 Cr.5 says, “that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.”  How hard to wrap our minds around this statement?  But it is true, so we must proceed.

Who was “made sin”?  “For He hath made “Him” to be sin.”  In the context the “Him” could only refer to one person – Jesus!  Verse 20 says, “therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg youon behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” v21 “He made Him sin...”

What is the purpose of “making” Christ a sin sacrifice?  Why it is nothing less then reconciliation!  The word reconcile means: 1) to bring together those who are at variance. 2) return to favor with, be reconciled to one”

As we stated from the outset, let's stay focused on the major point of the incarnation of Jesus Christ.  The main point of man's problem is he can not find his way back to God.  Every earth dweller wanders in the dark looking for truth and meaning until they find the only passage way back to God.  This occurs by means of a powerful work on God's part.  We are deserted to His mercy and beneficence.  All men must be “Reconciled” back into the good graces of an incredibly holy God.  The work of the empire of Satan must to done away with.  Satan's control of man and the eternal sickness of spiritual death courses through our veins, we are ruined forever, Satan and his work in our flesh must be destroyed once and for all by making sin impotent and powerless. 

Think of a cancer victim in the final stage of succumbing to lung cancer.  The patient and their doctors have tried all the means at their disposal to stop the growth of the cancer, but to no avail, all their high tech means have failed.  In the last stage of the final work of cancer takes the patient into a state of complete destruction of the workings of their weaken lungs.  Eventually these cancer-ridden lungs can not function and the cancer victim dies from the inability to breath.  

All men are born with cancer of the soul.  The heart of man is desperately wicked and incurable sick.  Jer.17:9 “the heart is more deceitful than all else and desperately sick; who can understand it?”  We are born to die.  Sin has no remedy, no cure!  Let that thought just sink in for a moment.  Imagine a world without sun, flowers, waterfalls, children laughing, the hugs of friends and family, the glory of multi-vacated sounds of different birds putting forth their best at the dawn of a new day.  A tall shady tree on a hot day, a galloping horse, and the wonder of the setting sun against the backdrop of Blue ridge mountain range.  These wonderful enjoyments come at a great cost to God,  yet right now does it cost you and I anything to see and experience these delights in our area?  These delights cost us nothing.  Rich and poor can enjoy them all!

Are you seeing Him, the only Way?  Are you walking in the Truth?  Are you feeling the life of Christ in your mortal body?  If you are indifferent to Christ's claim over your life?  Then the word of  God declares you the fool that Ps. 53:1 speaks of, “The fool has said in His heart there is not God.”

From 2 Cr. 5:21 we see the incredible result of our God “making” Jesus sin for us – we become, by virtue of our faith in Jesus, the righteousness of God.  Jesus perfect life and perfect death become ours by imputation.  What do we mean by imputation?  That we might become the righteousness of Christ  Imputation is rendered “ginomai” in the Greek language, meaning - to come into existence, begin to be, receive being

Our sin debt in heaven has been wiped out by the imputation of the righteousness of Jesus.  His righteousness has come into existence in our literal and entire humanity - body, soul, and spirit!  Christ's righteousness is now ours forever!  In the court of heaven our sins have been expunged, we have no sin on our record, why?  Because He was made to be sin for us.

Your real sins in thought word and deed were laid on Him at the moment He drank the cup of God's wrath and then patiently endured a horrible beating and a gruesome death upon a very real Roman cross.  God the Father executed Him on behalf of those who have received Jesus as their exclusive refuge from the wrath of God.  The wrath of God is definite and sure.  Our God does not grade on a scale.  With God it is either perfection or eternal separation from His goodness.  Jesus our perfect One has become our 100% perfect A+ grade from the perspective of the all-seeing pure eyes of God.

Let us never forget this reality.  Let us always remember what it cost the Father to set you free from the penalty of your very real crimes against heaven.  Your heavenly Father gave His only begotten Son to us that we might believe in Him and so that by the virtue of our simple faith, we as faith-filled believers in His righteousness, become the righteousness of God in Him.  We cry out today – America, be reconciled to God!

Many Blessings,

Jonathan

What if you were deprived for many years of the possession of your Bible?  What if you were living in a land where all ownership of bibles were outlawed?  What if you were not allowed to mention the name of “Jesus” as your Lord and Savior publicly?  Your love for Jesus will either come to the surface, or you will realize that your attachment to Christ is only superficial.  Throughout the history of the Church, various hardships and persecutions have plagued God's people, even today many of our brothers and sisters around the world are facing the hardship of loneliness, isolation, harsh treatment, and death.

Unless you have tapped deeply into the person of Jesus Christ and have tasted the depths of His love, you will have a hard time surviving the persecution that is sure to come for God's people.  Only a very real intensely devoted love to the person of Christ will carry you and me through seasons of intense scrutiny sure to come.   Anything less then a fully devoted heart to Christ will fall short of pleasing our Father.  

Once ensnared by the enticements of the enemy, the Lord God will allow you and many others to captured by a strong delusion, just as a fish is ensnared by a net, this net and strong delusion is being sent to capture into a place of judgment reserved for all those who don't love the truth as Christ has set that truth forth in His Person and in His Word.  Should you perilously fall into this end-time delusion, you could be lost forever.  2 Thess.2:10-12, “and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.  And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

If you are just barely holding on to Christ, then grab harder.  As I share this word of warning today, I hope my weak effort to write these words will encourage  you to seek Him with all your heart.  To know His Love is to live!  To know that you are loved enough by Your heavenly Father that He allows you to slip and fall to the point where you find yourself alone and deprived of the joys of a physically comfortable life, is an amazing truth that most don't learn until the later stages of christian pilgrimage.  

When we are brought to these very tough low points in our walk before Him, the Lord, through the ministry of His Spirit, guides us to the only place where help can and will be found.  It is only at the throne of Jesus that we will be comforted, as we by faith, gaze upon His incredible worthiness and  glory.  When you and I have Jesus, we have all we need.  Then no matter what happens to us, we will not loving Him.  

All of us must take a long drink at this heavenly “well” that we must tap continuously in order for us to all make it through this hard journey.  I beseech you, drink deeply at the well of His glorious beauty.  As we continuously drink the invigorating life that springs from His awesome glory, we are filled up with His virtue and His grace flows freely in our lives.  Only at this point are we adequately equipped to meet head-on the struggles of standing against the lies of the enemy. 

By allowing our hearts to fall deeper and deeper in love with Jesus, as we make His Word our constant meditation, our hour of trial will be met with the fire of His love burning in your heart, our adversaries will not be able to resist this mighty work of grace.  You may even turn a few unbelieving tormentors to the Lord by our simple “living” and “loving” faith in Jesus!  

The purpose of this article will hopefully spur you on to prepare your heart for such times as this.  I have no doubt that many of us will face intense scrutiny from an antichrist system that is soon to step up its effort to destroy truth from the earth.  This system will come after all those who do not bow at the sound of their trumpet cries.   

We will be summoned by the King of kings, the One who sits majestically at the right hand of the Father, to speak openly of His Kingdom.  By not bowing to the Babylonian gods, we show our neighbors and leaders that there is only one King and Supreme that rules the universe.    By not bowing to the kings of men, we inspire hatred that comes from a heart of evil unbelief.  Many will reject our words and example, but we must be ready to stand strong as the Lord pours His grace into our hearts to do the impossible.  He grants us the power to face our accusers, just as He faithfully stood before Sanhedrin with a sure confidence in His Father's protection and love.

If I have identified you as a lover of Jesus, then what will you do in this time of uncertainty?  I offer to you today a simple word of preparation, “strengthen your sight of the beauty of Your King – Jesus.”  By gazing at the beautiful features of His countenance and studying the perfection of His ways.  And by your constant meditation on His Word.   You and I will gain a deep understanding of His Person so much so that you will be continually filled with His glory and His power.  

I believe that your fixed gaze upon Him will allow you, in the difficult days to come you, to do the exploits spoken of by the prophet Daniel found in his prophesy in Dan. 11:32b, “but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.”Today I seek to encourage and inspire all of you who have been called by His Name.  That you and I be encouraged to press on and finish the course that has been set before us.

In Psalm 45, our Lord is set before us as a warrior King who rides with perfect precision on a horse of magnificent power and triumph.  A beautiful phrase right out of this psalm is, “And in Your majesty ride prosperously.”  There is no rider like the Lord Jesus.  His white and very powerful horse responds perfectly to His words and the leaning of His glorified urgings.

Let us meditate together on some of beautiful portions of this psalm to gain a better sight of our warrior King.  The psalm starts with these words, “My heart is overflowing with a good theme; I recite my composition concerning the King; my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.” David's heart, his hands, and his tongue were overwhelmed by the beauty of Jesus as His Lord and his King.  How about you today my ministry friend?

The Psalm continues its composition with these words, “You are fairer that the sons of men; grace is poured upon Your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever!”  What did David see that we must see?  Don't you envy the view that David received of the Lord Jesus?  We see a King who is beautiful and who loves his truth so much that we lavishes it on to His people.  He is close to us, not far away!  Because He draws near the Father of us all has blessed Him forever!

If you are a song writer or a preacher of His message, you may get frustrated at times, just like David did as He saw the Lord speaking so powerfully but still so gracefully.  I can most ardently agree with David.  I am frustrated by my lack of skill to present so glorious a King.  Look at Him!  Just by the way The Lord's words roll over his sacred tongue we are filled in our hearts with His peace. In our activity of presenting a beautiful Christ, we can get so lost to the point where our very tawdry weak human emotions are being wrung out of us.  We must stay alert and work to stay at His Feet and keeping gazing upon Him.  

Look at verse 4 of this Psalm with me, “And in Your majesty ride prosperously because of truth, humility, and righteousness; and Your right hand shall teach you awesome things.” Jesus rides in power in such a way that no man can ever match.  The combination of His truth, humility, and righteousness, He stands in stark contrast to the typical way of any earthly king, no matter how great.  Our leaders walk in pride, error, and lies.  There way is marked with foolishness and pride because they can not execute their words.  They are bound to verdict of heaven.  So they use their speeches to deceive.  Oh how I love the righteous ways of Jesus, I can't wait for His kingdom to come and reign on the earth.

In verses 7 and 8, David again reminds us of why Jesus is worthy of our gaze, “You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more then Your companions.  All your garments are scented with myrrh and aloes and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, by which they have made You glad.”  Not only is our Jesus beautiful but he doesn't sweat in his work as Our Mighty Deliverer.  For Jesus, the fight is easy, His movements are perfectly smooth and flawless.  Jesus never makes an error in judgment, His arrows always hit the mark, He does not have any confused setbacks, but we do!  He doesn't suffer any losses!  Jesus knows when to advance and when to wait for daylight.  What wisdom, what glory, what honor is due His Name!

Only the highest and most lofty palace suits our Lord, His days of humiliation, as our suffering servant have been established on the earth.  He now sits at the right hand of the Father with absolute power and wields a powerful sword of exacting justice.  His eyes are a flame of fire.  Rev. 1:12b-17a, “And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven golden lampstands, One like the Son of Man, clothed in a garment down to his feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.  His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His Voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, and out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance was like the sun shining in its full strength.  And when I saw Him I fell to His feet as dead,”

When we look back at Ps 45 and verse 6 we hear David's ultimate declaration of faith, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.  A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.”  We must settle today that the battle is won, but ours is a fight to hold to the truth that heaven proclaims and knows so intimately.  We must advance His Truth with much boldness to carry out the victory of Christ over this entire earth realm.  

Our fathers sang, “A mighty fortress is Our God” in troublous times, so we, God's chosen vessels, will have to take a firm grip on the truth of this psalm.  May we all walk ever closer to the One who loves us and has purchased us forever by His righteous blood to be with Him forever in His heavenly and perfectly righteous kingdom.

Richest blessings,

Jonathan

Heb. 11:6 declares, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”

Compare this verse with James 2:23-26, “And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. And he was called, “the friend of God.”  You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only, likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”

Let these truths just sink into your heart, way down to the depths of who you really are.  Do you possess, in your heart of hearts, a “true” and “saving” faith in God and His Christ – Jesus of Nazareth? 

The word of God says to you today, “without faith it is impossible to please God.”  Faith is a nonnegotiable and absolutely necessary commodity that you must possess to enter the court of heaven.  To have freedom to appear before the bar of God's justice without recrimination.  We are pointing you to take an honest look at your never dying soul.  The Word of God is clear, you can not please God without “true” and a  “working” faith!  A faith that shows the world you love and trust God!

The book of James has been called a “book of straw” by Martin Luther, and still many other antinomian-leaning theologians do not teach the book of James as a works based gospel.  The apostle James was not a man who was stuck on a “works-based” salvation.  No, I believe that the apostle James was stuck on the glorious sight of a church launched by the death and resurrection of his brother Jesus.  The same Jesus who sent the power of His Spirit to deliver His people from their sins and very hopeless eternity.  To give His people a purpose and a blessed hope of a everlasting kingdom that that would most definitely inherit. 

We were and are forever emancipated from the stranglehold of eternal death!  That real power is actively working in those who believe in His Name, to the end that life-giving power eventually takes over all those who believe.  To the fulfillment of a glorified humanity to forever “do” the works of “true” faith.  Eph.2:10, “For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” 

For some of you to walk in “true” faith, it will mean breaking off an ungodly relationship, others are being called to put your career in total jeopardy by telling your superiors that they are operating their business dishonestly.  There is power in “true faith” animated by blood of Jesus to go through these kinds of trials.

Many more of you will be asked to “sell all” to show yourself and those who know you best, that you actually believe in a kingdom that will soon come and take over the earth.  That you're really not worshiping the stuff of this world.  Rather you live in obvious devotion to the Living God.  

For a few of you, the call will be to turn toward God and pray with the most sincerity you can muster.  To ask of Your Maker and Judge of the Universe to forgive you for your sins, the sins that you have been hiding from everyone.  The sins that only God knows about.  Sins like gazing at porn when you are all alone in your office.  Or the sin of the lust that burns in your heart for another women.   The sin of sexual perversion.  The sin of coveting your friend's gifts and their position in the kingdom of God.

Without faith it is impossible to please God.  Faith works, it puts itself out there.  Risk and faith go hand in hand.  Rahab would have not been given a high place in the “faith” hall of fame mentioned in Hebrews 11 if she did not “do” something for God.  Rahab put herself and her family at total risk when she by faith allowed Israel's army to pass through her apartment on the wall that protected the perimeter of her city.  What if her nation's army won the conquest against Israel?  Rahab would have been executed on the spot as a traitor.  Rahab believed with all her heart that the “true” God was with the armies of Israel, she had no doubt, so she put her life on the line for what she believed in. 

If Abraham did not march up Mt. Moriah to offer up his “real” supernaturally born son, Isaac, on a “real” alter, then Abraham would not be the father of our precious and supernatural faith.  If David did not venture out with his pouch of five stones and his trustworthy slingshot and actually face the giant Goliath, then Israel would not have an everlasting kingdom!  God could have raised up another prophet or leader, but David took the faith challenge directly from the hand of God.  David chose to trust God and His promises and was numbered in the hall of fame of faith.  David chose to walk in the same path as Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Joshua.  

The entire history of the nation of Israel is nothing more then accounts of men and women who rose up in faith and “did something” because they believed in the God of their forefathers.  They had faith in God's word and His promise to keep them in the call they were being summoned by God to perform, based on the promises of God's abiding comfort and help.  

Ps. 121 says, “I will lift up my eyes to the hills, from whence comes my help?  My help comes from the Lord the maker of heaven and earth.”  

How about you my friend?  Are you starting to get to the point where you are sick of feeling the way you do about your walk before the Lord?  Are you tired of sinning?  Could your constant battle with sin be directly connected to your lack of faith?  You must believe that God is in heaven watching your every step.  If you possessed a true and living faith today you would have power to not sin because you know the God whose eyes are on you right now.  When we stop sinning we show God that we, “believe that He is” as mentioned in Heb. 11:6.

Without faith it is impossible to please God and “true” faith works.  True and saving faith responds to God's word.  True faith will prove its existence in your life, not just for the sake of your eternal salvation, but in your real salvation, true faith bubbles up and shows itself off to the world you are called to walk and live.  How so?  Because the living Christ dwells in your mortal body.  His resurrection power works on the inside of you and moves you forward to do things you would never do if your were not saved by His Grace.  Every work wrought and accomplished in Christ is by faith!

If you have never come to see your absolute need of Christ, God's only answer for your “real” sin problem, then make Him your Lord and Savior today; let this be the day you cry out in true faith to ask a very real Jesus to forgive you of your sins.  His blood was shed to wash away your sins, do you believe it?  At your honest heart cry, our Lord Jesus will come and speak His peace over your life and wash away all your past, present, and future sins, regrets, and all that aggravating guilt.  Go to Christ today and grab hold of Him with all the energy you got, even if you are weak and frail, just a honest look to the Savior is enough to deliver your mortal soul from hell.

Take the words of the prophet Isaiah to heart; a prophet of the Lord who was killed by being sawed in two because he possessed true and saving faith in God alone.  Mediate on his words in Is. 45:22, “Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth!  For I am God and there is no other.”

The kingdom of God is made up of losers like us who realized that we did not have all the answers to life's problems.  All those who have been truly saved from their sins know they need Jesus to accomplish anything lasting in this life and to truly prepare themselves for the eternity we all have to endure either in total and complete bliss or in the eternal agonies of hell.  So obey His Word sent directly to you from His heart and turn to Him today and find your resting place in His Arms of Love.

I speak a final word to those of you who are being called to bring our nation back to the old and ancient paths of our faith-filled forefathers, the call of this hour, my dear christian comrade, is to walk in the same faith as our biblical heroes.  To follow after those who were unashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We must walk by faith or we will not make it through this hour of trial we are about to enter, let our faith be a faith that “works” even if it leads to an unfriendly appointment with an early grave!

Many Blessings,

Jonathan

Lest we ever forget, the power of any ministry is the glorious touch of Jesus Christ!  His amazing message animates all true gospel work wrought by His grace.  If we try to build our ministries on any other foundation but that which has already been laid by Christ and His apostolic leaders, then our work will not meet with true success and our preaching and our discipling of His sheep will not be touched by His power, to see real positive change in the shipwrecked lives that surround all of us.

I have found just in the recent time that when the Lord brings people into my life that He has sent directly to me has one major purpose - to share the message of Jesus and His suffering Cross. I am being taught that when I clearly set Him forth as He has been set forth in history and in the sacred scriptures, I am seeing in a new and fresh way, that Jesus Christ set forth as propitiation for our sins, is exactly what sinners like you and me need to hear at this time.   

This message of a “crucified Christ” is the power of God to the Jew first and then the Greek.  That the foolishness of His Cross preached has always been the method the Lord intended to use to save sinners from their sins today and for the last 2000 years.  Paul affirmed in I Cor.1:18  “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”  

To preach Jesus boldly to our decadent culture, is the answer for all that ails us, that simply by the virtue of our faith in a once horribly crucified and dead Prophet, and by a firm and steadfast and confident grasp in this Prophet's very real and bodily resurrection from a real grave in Palestine, is OUR message to our very broken world.   A message of a personal King who, right now and forever, sits on an eternal throne at the right hand of our heavenly Father.  That His blood shed in death perfected a righteousness that is applied to all those who trust that His bloodshed to wash them from all their sins and secures, with Christ, salvation from death and an eternal inheritance in heavenly places. That all the celestial and terrestrial forces of the universe will be placed at the feet of Jesus, who sits presently, in abject authority over all of creation until all His enemies are destroyed.  Soon HE will destroy the last great enemy – death -- itself. I Cor.15:20-28; Ps. 8:6; Ps. 110

Paul came to an even more decadent city then those cities that populate our country and preached the life-changing message of Christ's cross and realized amazing results in the city of Corinth.  In this city all passersby were enticed by temple prostitutes and also by homosexual and bisexual men who enticed visitors to their city to gather with them in their pleasure-filled bath parlors to enjoy the passing follies of sin.  These sex-crazed people did not hear a weak message that was a hyper-sensitive and sin-friendly, no, Paul did not reduce the claims of God's law and Christ's cross.  No, Paul called these sinners to “repent” and “believe” on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved from their real sins.  

In I Cor. 2:1-2, Paul clearly reveals that he did not alter his message for this very outwardly sinful audience, “And I brethren, when I came to you, I did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God.  For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”

In Rome, Paul preached the same message to the emperor's city. In Rom.3:23-26, Paul clearly and with much passion declares, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God passed over the sins that previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” 

Paul shared with all his hearers that he was a “fool” for the message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  In Phil. 3:7 Paul says to all, “for what things were gain to me I have counted loss (rubbish) for Christ.”   Paul was not naturally a fool, no, he was a man who was very learned in the holy traditions of the Jews, Paul sat at the feet Gamaliel as a young Jewish scholar.  Paul also studied the Epicurean and Stoic philosophies of the Romans and the Greeks.  But Paul became a “real fool” when he began to preach the power of a risen and once very dead Jewish teacher and prophet named Jesus Christ of Nazareth.  

For a well taught rabbinical scholar like Paul to go against the Sanhedrin was a very big deal, his decision to leave his peers cost him everything.  Paul gives us a look at his real life struggle in Phil. 3:8, “Yet indeed I count all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I might gain Christ.”   

We must glean from the pale of history that those big time Jewish leaders in the Sanhedrin were very much Paul's former political and spiritual comrades, to leave this group of religious elite and preach against their laws was career suicide.  There would be no turning back!  This is the same Sanhedrin that rendered the verdict of “no” to the Lord's messianic claims.  I believe that Paul was included in the number of these men who agreed together to turn Jesus over to the Roman government as a common criminal.  The Sanhedrin also agreed at the same time they had given up hope in Jesus as their revolutionary messianic leader.  They were unaware that in the first place the Messiah would have to suffer before He became the King of Israel and be officially installed on David's throne.

But many years later this same Jesus that Paul had sentenced to death by crucifixion, Paul preached this same Jesus and the message of His cross.  For Paul this was the entire substance of Paul's teaching to both the Jewish and Gentile audiences that he was sent by Jesus to preach the Kingdom of heaven.  Jesus launched Paul's ministry with these words, “For He is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My Name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel.”  Acts 9:15

Something very dramatic must have happened to Paul on the road to Damascus. How could such a person like the christian-killing and Jesus-hating hit-man named Saul of Tarsus change so radically?  

There is no rational reason why a hater of Jesus would turn and give his entire life to promoting  Jesus' message other then “power” and a “message” came from Jesus to change the hard heart of Saul. After his encounter with Jesus, Paul would not teach about the value of jewish law-keeping, morality, or any other philosophies of men.  Paul did not succumb to the use of fancy rhetoric to impress the Greeks minds of his day, or did he use emotional and hardline political speeches to inspire political action or governmental change to his Jewish brethren.  No, Paul stuck to the plan set forth by Jesus Christ, the same Jesus who had blinded his eyes on the road to Damascus.  

How about you today my fellow ministry friend?  Have you had an encounter with the risen Christ?  Have you beheld His glory?  Maybe that's why you are still so attached to this world and can't seem to break free?  Maybe this is why you shrink back from a complete emptying of yourself?  Maybe this is why you preach a weak message?  We all must see the amazing beauty of our Christ or we will not preach a true and accurate message in the spirit of our apostolic forefathers.  And we must suffer for Him to get His word deep down inside of us!  

I have at times been led into a trap by my own emotions that makes me feel afraid to stick with the “simplicity” that is found in Christ!  I try to be cool or hip to connect with our culture but we can not shrink back, no, in our very challenging times, we must determine with great resolve to stick to His message as we actively engage our world with His Truth.  The message and the messenger are intended to be similar in their appearance; we may look weak in the eyes of men but when we preach His message, His explosive power will touch us from His glorious throne.  By virtue of His Power in us, His life-changing power will overhaul the souls that so desperately need His power to lift them out of the horrible pits they are stuck. 

For most of my life I have only wanted one thing and that was, “to be real”, and to be “true” to the message that I have heard since the earliest days of my life.  It has been hard for me to find my way in Christ, like Paul, I had to fully walk in this way of “foolishness” and keep dying to all that I thought I knew about life, church, and our American “brand” of christianity.  I had to become a “fool” in ways that I did not comprehend to identify more completely with His cross and suffering  so I could better relate to His word and the power of His life in me!  And I will never go back to a “normal” life, in fact, I don't know how to go back, that “normal” way is lost to me.

Paul's words still ring true today, ”For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in much weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”  I Cor. 2:2-5

When we preach the message of a crucified King who still rules this world and her empires, we too speak as “true fools” especially in this time of advanced learning and high technology.  The one-worldism being sold by our high-priced actors will persuade many to follow the religion of “do good” and “togetherness” and for a “true one-world community”.  

In our time we will be tempted to become relevant. Just listen to the modern words of wisdom: let's work together, just be a good person, walk in peace, love your neighbor, love yourself, be kind, and serve your community, your country, and your fellow man. These words sound good but they do not mention a cross. They have value for this life, but they do nothing to prepare the world to meet Christ in all His Kingly Authority when He comes in Power & Glory. 

Let's resolve today to keep to the livingness of the message of Christ's incredible love shown so clearly at the foot of His gruesome cross.  Let's live and speak in the way of His suffering.  Let's not reduce the claim of His cross upon our life and those who listen to us.  We are called to simply “present” to our world the message that Jesus presented for all to see and hear.  Let us work as He worked, let us show forth a life of faith in the Father's love and care.  

Do you lack anything today?  He is willing and ready to send us His Spirit to teach you and me how to change our world by His powerful and beautiful Name.  May we see His kingdom come and His will done on earth as it is in heaven.

I leave you with these words from 2 Cor.11:3, “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”

Take heed to your message and your method!  Preach a pure Jesus message and let go of any remnant of the alloy of man-laced words, do not mingle the corrosiveness of our sinful pride and cowardice with the luster of His perfect and glorious Person and the purity of His truth-laden message.  The Lord is calling many of us back to the old paths and the ancient landmarks in the establishment of His Truth in our world.  Press on, preacher of the cross of Jesus Christ!

Many blessings,

Jonathan