Judy & Bill McPhail

To be diagnosed with aggressive lymphoma is hardly a “hallelujah” moment…but it is transformational!

The calendar becomes a place to insert doctor’s appointments, lab visits, and chemo infusion schedules. Even my hair started falling out…right on schedule…so I now am officially a “chrome dome.”  You learn quickly that you need to avoid crowds, not eat at buffets and refrain from shaking hands.  You also learn that someone has drilled holes in your energy bucket and that an hour of light activity creates a lot of perspiration and feels like a full days work.

But, the good news so far is that I have had absolutely no nausea, just a few blah days, and an amazing white blood cell count.  The average WBC for males ranges from 4.4 – 11.  Because aggressive lymphoma calls for aggressive treatment, when the CHOP chemo protocol I am on is administered every 21 days, the drugs that kill the cancer cells are non-discriminatory. Because chemo destroys good cells also, my white blood cell count is carefully monitored and scheduled chemo infusions depend on safe level of WBC’s.  It is not unusual for treatment to be delayed, sometimes for weeks awaiting a safe WBC count.  Amazingly, my WBC prior to my infusion on Tuesday was a whopping 12.4. We give God praise!

Two words come to the forefront when you are fighting aggressive lymphoma: Cure & Remission.

Before all the biopsies return, you live in that state of suspended animation while awaiting the reports of whether your cancer is Stage One, Two, Three or Four.  From a statistical perspective the larger the number, the less likely the cure.  For example, with stage four cancer, even with successful treatment physicians prefer to speak of it as being “in remission”.  By it’s very definition “remission” is considered “the state of absence of disease activity in patients with a chronic illness, with the possibility of return of disease activity.”   Because, I have been diagnosed with Stage 2 cancer, my oncologist assures me that there is an 80% cure rate, which again by definition means “a restoration of health; recovery from disease.”

That is, of course, what my wife Judy and I are trusting for, and are grateful for the outpouring of love and prayers that have been extended to us from literally around the world.

One of our great blessings, is the incredible network of friends, woven together by the Holy Spirit through 50 years of ministry, who know how to pray.  To be linked with people who have discernment as to how to intercede on your behalf is priceless. There is indeed, a significant distinction between people who pray and people who know how to pray!  Indeed, when missionary friends dropped in to see us this week, they lamented on how few people in churches where they have visited, really know how to pray.

We have discovered that surprises are a part of this journey, not the least of which are the responses of friends, neighbors and family.

About two weeks ago, when I arose in the morning, I went to the window to see the ground covered with snow. Normally, I get up and clean out my driveway immediately, even if there is only and inch or two of snow, for because our home faces north, in the winter only half of our driveway ever sees the sun…so without cleaning, once you drive over it, the surface becomes icy.  I remarked to my wife that I didn’t know what I was going to do as cleaning the driveway is on my Dr.’s do not do list. 
 I then walked to our front bedroom, looked out the window and saw a man shoveling our driveway. I couldn’t immediately see his face, but was overcome by gratitude. I didn’t know whether to laugh, cry or shout!
 We soon discovered it was our neighbor John Speicher.
 When I endeavored to thank him for being an answer to our prayers, he let me know that he felt that the Lord wanted him to care for our driveway this winter.

Ah, what a surprise!

Last week, when right on schedule my hair started falling out, we made a call to our hairdresser. On our way home from the extreme makeover session, my wife suggested she would need to make something to cover my head as I dealt with the adjustment.

We had just returned home from the Bristol O’Hair Port where my hair had taken flight, and Judy’s sister Sharon who lives just across the state line in Niles, Michigan not knowing where we had just been, called and asked if she could come down because she had just knitted an alpaca yarn chemo hat for me.  God is so previous!

Ah, what a surprise!

After five decades in ministry nothing should surprise us, but being part of being human is that it does.

Once word began to spread by via personal contact, email, snail-mail and other social media such as Facebook, I have been surprised both by whom I have heard from as well as those from whom I haven’t heard.  It has been an amazing delight to have received notes and expressions of love from friends and extended family, some of whom we have not had contact with for many years, who just want us to know we still have a place in their hearts and prayers. From some with whom our lives have been entwined by birth or ministry their silence knocks on the door of past memories and provides an opportunity to prayerfully ask the Lord to remove the impediments I may have sown that may now be contributing to their silence.

A couple of notes have broken the silence, one from many decades ago, that still reverberate with anger and I am reminded that there is no such thing as a perfect pastor!

Ah, what a s………………..ilent night, holy night,

Son of God, love’s pure light

Radiant beams from Thy holy face

With the dawn of redeeming grace

Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth

Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth.

May you have a Merry Christmas.

Is the motivation for adopting a way of life that embraces Bible-based principles a matter of complying with the requirements of a particular religious denomination? Is it practiced as a way of fitting in with people whose respect and friendship you desire? Could it be that your choice to live a Christian life regarded by most as “strict” a means to earn God’s grace? Such issues beg the question: “Would I yearn to live a holy life if it were not for the expectations of other people?”  Blake’s comment regarding the source of angelic holiness is the same from which the practice of holiness for human beings begins and continues. The primary reason for living by God’s revealed standards is not by comparison with other people but by taking our signals from the Almighty. Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy once said, “The great ideas are the simple ideas” and this is true of the ideal that God conveys to us. “Be ye holy even as I am holy”, a simple statement recorded in Leviticus 7:20 and repeated in I Peter 1:16, seems to be regarded as reason enough by the One who stated it for men and women to live holy lives. The expectation to reflect the character of God needs no further argument to legitimize it or qualify it than God’s own mandate. God’s character as revealed in the Bible is based on His flawless attributes, most of which can be said to flow out of holiness, His most distinguishing trait and most awesome feature. No wonder, then, that the Creator and Sustainer of the cosmos and the people who inhabit it should insist on anything less than compliance with His qualities. As a matter of fact, to expect anything less would be contradictory to His person and purpose.

The phrase used in Psalm 86 and Jeremiah 10 regarding God says it plainly and says it about as well as it can be said, “There is none like you.” The contexts of this statement clearly indicate that the uniqueness of the God who is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-present qualifies Him as not only the supreme determiner of what is right and wrong but also the matchless model from which we draw our inspiration to reflect His character. That’s what this thing called holiness is really all about. It lies at the heart of the “why” issue when it comes to getting a grip on statements such as, “ And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2 NASB).

Robert Morgan

Luke 2:8-14 tells about the angels appearing to the shepherds at Jesus’ birth.  Verses 13 and 14 say, “And suddenly there was with the angels a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

I have had the Bible read to me and I have read it since a child, but as I read it this Christmas season, something jumped out at me I have not seen in over eighty years.  The “multitude of the heavenly host” means army!  The heavenly army came to see Jesus born!  Joshua 5:13-15 says, “…when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?  And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come.  And Joshua fell on his face…and did worship…And the captain of the Lord’s host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoes from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy.  And Joshua did so.”  The Man Joshua met at the wall of Jericho is the “captain of the host of the Lord.”  The NIV translation says, “commander of the Lord’s army.”  The heavenly army came to rejoice at the birth of their Commander!

This is Jesus of the Old Testament because He accepted worship and no angel ever accepted worship from men.  I used to feel sorry for this Baby because it seemed He was at the mercy of the world, but now I see he was the safest Child on the face of the earth because the heavenly army was watching over Him!  Nothing could touch this Baby.  All during His earthly ministry that army was with Him.  I am thankful His army came to watch their Captain being born!

Luke 2:9 says, “And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them and they were sore afraid.”  What is glory?  It usually refers to divinity.  Often glory and God are used simultaneously.  His glory is something which can be seen.  It is interesting when Adam was created, the glory of God was seen on him because he was created in the image and likeness of God.  God deals in light; therefore, Adam was covered with light.  When the glory was on Adam, he did not know he was naked, but when he sinned, the light disappeared and he then knew he was naked.

At the beginning, God’s glory was on both Cain and Abel.  Because Abel offered a proper offering, God’s glory remained on him.  However, when Cain’s offering was not accepted by God, Genesis 4:5-6 says of Cain, “…and his countenance fell.  And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth?  And why is thy countenance fallen?”  In other words, the glory disappeared from Cain’s face.  God told Cain if he had offered a proper offering, it would have been accepted as Abel’s was.  Sin and disobedience remove God’s glory from our faces.

Moses said in Exodus 33:18,” …I beseech thee (God) shew me thy glory.”   When Moses came down from the mountain, after receiving the Ten Commandments, his face shown so brightly the people were afraid of him.  Because of this, Moses had to put a veil over his face when he talked to the people.  At Pentecost the glory was seen in the tongues of fire.  Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”  In Colossians 1:27 we read, “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of the mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”  Paul says in II Corinthians 3:18, “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

These scriptures tell us the glory of God that rests on Jesus should be on us!  Jesus’ glory will begin to appear on our faces if we will spend time with Him in prayer and the Word.  This is how we are changed into His image.  The more time we spend with Jesus, the more the glory of God will shine in our faces.  I Corinthians 11:7 says, “For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, for as much as he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man.”  While we see the glory in Jesus, He wants it seen in us.  We should be the most beautiful people in the world because of the glory of God shining in our faces.  When we get to heaven, everyone will be beautiful because of the glory of God resting upon all of us.  If the glory of God is resting upon us here, the world will know who we are because of what they see.  On the return of a tour group from the Holy Land, of which I was a part, we visited an art colony in Paris, France.  They wanted to paint portraits of the people because they said they had the faces of people who had come from prayer!

I Kings 8:10-11 says, “And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud:  for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord.”  The glory that filled the temple was so strong the priests could not stand it.  It is possible yet today.  It is possible for a cloud to be in our church!  It has happened in other places and it can happen here.  Israel experienced this glory when they were led by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.  God wants His glory seen on earth and it should be seen wherever His people are.  If we are close enough to Jesus, His glory will appear in our church.  That is what I am longing for.

Arthur Mouw, who was a missionary to Borneo, felt one time he should preach to the natives on divine healing, so he ask how many of the people were sick and they all stood up.  He felt they did not understand, so he said he meant if they were really sick and all of them stood up again.  He had someone anoint all of them with coconut oil and when he prayed for them all of them were healed!  There was a glory that stayed near the ceiling of the building for three days and everyone who came into the building was healed!

John 1:14 says, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”  This glory is on Jesus and He wants it on us.  It is something we need to have and will have if we spend time with Jesus in prayer and the Word.

Matthew 24:30 says, “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”  When Jesus comes again, He will not be riding a donkey but will be coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.  He wants His glory resting on us.  It is His glory but He wants it resting on us.  I am trusting His glory will rest on us individually and on His church as a whole!

Judy & Bill McPhail

Amazing how two words ~ aggressive lymphoma ~ can so dramatically change your life, especially when you learn that without treatment it can be fatal in just a month.

Once spoken, they are joined in quick succession by other words that until that moment were simply inconsequential residents of a medical glossary. Terms like: Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, needle biopsy, core needle bone marrow biopsy,  radioactive glucose and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan, hurriedly push other words aside.

Everything begins to move at warp speed…everything except biopsy and scan reports.  Alas, il più presto possibile  seems only available as adagio.

Today is day 16 since the diagnosis.  Four days ago my surgeon removed the two largest lymph nodes in my throat and we now await the pathology report that will help determine the most effective treatment protocol.

It’s been nearly four decades since  E. Stanley Jones, at the age of 87 wrote his book entitled “The Unshakable Kingdom and the Unchanging Person.”  Having had the privilege of having lunch with him a few years earlier, I have often returned to his writings for both insight and reflection.  Today, what he wrote when I was still a young man has particular relevance.

“The Kingdom of personal health is shakable.  The doctor gives you a checkup, shakes his head and says: ‘You’ve got cancer.’  Shakable. Everything is shakable, except one thing—the kingdom of God. There is one thing and only one thing that is unshakable and that one thing is the kingdom of God. To be able to say that and to be able to say it in a world of relativisms and to say it without fear of contradiction from any source, scientific or religious or philosophical is important—all important.”

While I was still a young boy I became part of God’s unshakeable kingdom.  Because of that, the core of who I am is not my health.

So,  I continue to do what I have been endeavoring to do  since I heard the voice of God call me to preach when I was barely four years of age: walk with God, endeavor to listen to His voice, deny self, and follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit.  That remains my daily regimen.

Footnote:  1)  As I was reflecting this week on the things that are important I believe that the Holy Spirit showed me that untreated carnality within the life of the church is more dangerous than the aggressive lymphoma is within my body.  Perhaps that is why Romans 8:7 tells us that “the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.”

2)  Tests results in the past few day indicate that the lymphoma is considered Stage 2 as it is currently contained in the upper torso: three on both sides of the neck; tw0 just above the right breast bone; and 0ne under my left arm pit. We are also thankful there is none in my bone marrow.

Nielsen ratings are measurement systems to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States. The ingenious method developed by Nielsen has since become the primary source of audience measurement information in the television industry around the world. Electronic “Set Meters” in homes throughout America self-record viewing or listening habits. By targeting various demographics, the assembled statistical models provide a rendering of the audiences of any given show, network, and programming hour. The technology-based home unit system is meant to allow market researchers to study television viewing habits on a minute to minute basis, seeing the exact moment viewers change channels or turn off their TV.

The most commonly cited Nielsen results are reported in two measurements: ratings points and share, usually reported as: “ratings points/share”. Currently there are an estimated 115.9 million television households in the United States. A single national ratings point represents one percent of the total number, or 1,159,000 households for the 2011–12 season.

Nielsen re-estimates the number of TV-equipped households each August for the upcoming television season. Then they process approximately 2 million diaries from households across the country for the months of November, February, May, and July—also known as the “sweeps” rating periods. Seven-day diaries are mailed to homes to keep a tally of what is watched on each television set and by whom. The life or death of any television program depends on the result of the Nielsen points and share. The highest ratings ever belong to the I Love Lucy sitcom which earned a 67.3 in 1952-53, far more than the figure of 19.1 for NCIS, today’s most watched program in a more widely competitive market, by the way, than Lucy and Desi faced in the Fifties.

(Stay with me, I’m getting to the spiritual part.)

The bottom line for the power of the ratings is dollar power. Shows that attract the most viewers generate the most cash. Sales execs who represent various companies which sell TV advertizing know that their most potent weapon for attracting and getting top dollar for commercial time is scoring a high number in the ratings. It’s nothing but the old share-of-the market thing. This being the case, what the producers give the viewers is what the largest number of viewers want and the programs consumers watch the least are dumped. The pros put it in terms of “audience demand.”

The ratings are what counts on the day of reckoning.

This leads to the proposal that all I’ve detailed above has a lot to do with the character of Christianity as those who claim to follow Christ navigate their way through the tossing waves in a veritable ocean of peer influence. The authentic message of the true Christian faith based on the Bible has done battle with the opposition of public opinion since day one—cite the very crucifixion of Christ and the immediate persecution of his disciples whose message went against the tide of public opinion. In fact, the only times in the history of the professing church when it seemed to control the “ratings” was when it was most prevalent in influence but prevailed only because of its use of forced coercion in the name of the faith; an infamous, obnoxious chapter in the annals of Christendom.

The stuff that it takes for a confessing Christian to stave off the seductive pressure of a self-gratifying society is indeed a kind of stuff that bears the trademark of “more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” Conforming to comfort in the form of “correctness” in the eyes of a secular populace is such a predictable probability for most church members that it reminds me of the lines by an unknown author,

“So they of the world and they of the church journeyed closely, hand and heart,

And none but Christ who knoweth all could tell the two apart.”

We who testify to being connected with the Christ of the Ages confront the strongest temptation that has ever come down the pike to finesse our faithfulness and come up with supposedly, pious-sounding excuses to compromise beyond the boundaries God has given us in his Word. When the Nielsen ratings are tabulated there is little difference in what professing Christians tune in to and what the non-believers watch. But more widely consequential is how Christians behave in general because we have failed to take, for instance, the Spirit-inspired challenge of the Apostle Paul seriously: “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity” (J.B. Phillips Translation). Tune in to that advice and you have a shot at persuading others to switch channels to God.

The “sweeps” tell it all—or at least what the marketers go by—and the results have their consequences. No points, no share, no show. The results of Christian compliance to the standards dictated by a secular populace also have their consequences. The influence of the only Person and the only message that can redeem a hell-bound, sin-sick, iniquity-smitten society gets misplaced in the ratings. No, God’s program will never be cancelled due to a low audience share but multiplied millions will not notice the difference between Christ and chaos if those of us who name his name are content to just move in the groove and glide with the tide.

Robert Morgan

We hear much today about rejoicing.  Some try it halfheartedly; others are not sure about it.  Some time ago I met an old man who was a rejoicing saint.  No matter what came his way he seemed to be able to rejoice.  He could rejoice as well in adversity as in prosperity.  This was an amazement to me until one day he explained his secret.  He said I used to pray, “Oh, God, give me this and give me that.”  Consequently, some days he was up and some days he was down.  He said one day he decided to change all of that.  When he arose in the morning instead of asking Jesus to do something for him he told Jesus if he would let him know what would make Him happy he would do it.  Do you know what happened?  God made him happy and he became a rejoicing saint.

A great deal of rejoicing is over things–answers to prayer, victories won, financial problems solved, marriages restored, etc.  All of these are good and we certainly should thank God for all He does.  But what about Paul telling us to, “Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice (Phil. 4:4)?”  What if there are none of these things to rejoice about?  If rejoicing depends on circumstances, then we will be Christians who are up one day and down the next.  In Phil. 4:10 it sounds like Paul is rejoicing over money sent to him by the Christians at Philippi, but if you examine the scripture more closely, you will find in Phil. 4:17 he is really rejoicing over the spiritual benefit they would receive for having given to his need.

Jesus gives us a clearer picture of the right kind of rejoicing in Luke 10:20.  The disciples were rejoicing because the devils were subject to them.  Jesus immediately corrected them by saying, “…rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.”  Jesus knew that circumstances would not always be such that they could rejoice but they could rejoice because their names were written in heaven.

We can always praise God that our names are written in heaven, for the Blood, for Jesus, the Cross, the Victory of Calvary, for God Himself, and His Kingdom, for the Holy Spirit, etc.  These things never change and no matter what the circumstances,   we can be a rejoicing saint.

Maintaining a balance in the manner in which we approach men and women about their relationship with Jesus Christ is a matter worthy of concern but care must be taken that the point of balance is calculated on a scale that agrees with the testimony of the Bible. It is clearly portrayed in the Gospels that Jesus did not force himself on anyone. He could have but He didn’t. He chose to make use of His divine authority in a way that was qualified by the willingness of men and women to respond to it positively. On the other hand he was assertive in His method of confronting people with His saving message. He took the initiative in approaching most of the individuals He evangelized. To those who came to Him on their own, such as Nicodemus or the rich young ruler, whatever their question, Jesus quickly turned the conversation to the subject of the condition of their souls. In what we read of The Apostles Peter and Paul their strategy was similar. They were bold to seize every opportunity to persuade others to commit their lives to Christ but it is also very apparent that they did not engage in arm twisting and high pressure tactics. They laid the message out there in no uncertain terms but they didn’t attempt to jam it down the throats of their audience in an inappropriate way.

When trying to come to grips with the issue of proper balance in evangelistic techniques, one thing is for sure: doing away with any evangelism at all is not the answer and slacking off in our efforts to impact our spiritually lost population through personal witnessing for the sake of “correctness” is not an acceptable choice. Taking the attitude that somehow, someway people are just going to come to Christ or that they are going to come to us so we can tell them how they can come to Christ has always been a wimpish cop-out and remains so today. As I once heard Jerry Vines put it this way, “Jesus Christ never told the world to go to church, He told the church to go to the world. People will not just come to church they must be brought. People will not just learn about Jesus they must be taught.” That is simply stated but profoundly on target.

The first poem many of learned was none other than “Little Bo Peep”. In the poem Bo Peep’s dilemma was a serious one and worth of deepest concern. Her sheep were lost and what’s more she had no idea of their whereabouts. There was no apparent way to get them back. She needed some good advice and counsel. The last line of the little rhyme gives her a suggestion, perhaps as an attempt to relieve her anxiety but, nevertheless, quite unrealistic in light of the nature of sheep and the use of logic. “Leave them alone and they will come home, wagging their tails behind them.” To accept that recommendation as a reasonable word of guidance fails to make good sense. Bo Peep’s sheep will, for all realistic purposes remain lost and probably wind up at the bottom of a cliff or in the jaws of a wolf or in a butcher shop. If it is Bo Peep herself who delivers the last line the attitude it expresses is even worse. Her realization that her sheep are truly lost is perceptive enough but her lack of concern is grossly irresponsible and certainly unloving.

In order to avoid “Bo Peep’s Blunder” the church had better ask at least a couple of necessary questions. How is it that we leave them alone? Why is it that they don’t come home, wagging anything? Those who qualify as spiritually lost are any and every man or woman who has never committed his life to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. If those of us who have made that commitment and profess to be Christians our personal responsibility, as well as the privilege, clearly stated by Jesus and the Apostles, is to lead the lost to a saving knowledge of Christ.

Rev. Robert L. Morgan November 26, 1915 – April 23, 2009.  Robert Morgan was a graduate of Anderson University. He served as a pastor, evangelist and missionary from the time he was 20 years old. His preaching style was greatly impacted by A.W. Tozer and L.E. Maxwell. He had a gift of saying more in a few minutes than most men could say in an hour.

Mark 15:15:22 records how Pilate released Barabbas and delivered Jesus to be crucified.  It tells how the soldiers led Him away, clothed Him in purple, put a crown of thorns on His head, smote him on the head, spit upon him and bowed to him saying “Hail King of the Jews!”  They then led him away to be crucified.  On the way they compelled Simon a Cyrenian to bear the cross.

Simon was from northern Africa, probably Libya.  It is not certain whether he had traveled to Jerusalem or was living in that area…Whatever the case, he was a Jewish proselyte and worshipped the Jewish God.  He came to worship and got a cross placed on him.  Did you ever have a cross placed on you when you came to worship?  I don’t think this is strange to most of us.  We are told Simon was compelled to bear the cross.  It was not anything he wanted but he could not help himself.  If a Roman soldier reached out and touched someone with their spear that person was compelled by law to help them out.  It is interesting out of the entire crowd Simon was selected to bear Jesus’ cross.  God was the one controlling it…just the same as when Peter preached on the day of Pentecost.  The councils of heaven were back of Peter…Peter was only the instrument.

I don’t know what Simon thought but he was compelled to go down a road he did not want to go.  Have you ever had to do that concerning health, finances, circumstances, etc.?  When God has a hand in our lives He will compel us to go down a road we don’t want to go.  There is a reason for it…Simon did not want to go but this road led him to Calvary and the Cross.  Even though you don’t want to go down the road God compels you to go, you will find what you want…. Simon had no choice…How many things come our way if we had our way we would flee from but God has something down that road for us?…Many times we wonder why we are in certain situations but God is leading us to something wonderful.

The cross is such an indefinite thing.  It is something different to every individual.  I wonder if the treasure the man had hid in the field could have been a cross (Matt. 13:44).  It will cost us everything to walk this way but it is always a treasure to find the cross.  Because Simon was compelled to go down this road he saw something about Jesus he would never have known otherwise.  When Jesus compels us to go down this road, we will also see and learn things about Him we never knew before.  It will be things we could not know any other way.  The preacher can only point the way.  It is up to each person to walk this road.  This is the only way we can receive what Jesus has for us.  Many times when we get into difficulties we think Jesus has forgotten us but His hand is in it all (Romans 8:28).

Simon saw Jesus’ reactions under fire and suffering and even the Roman soldier said, “Truly this was the Son of God.”  Scholars feel that Simon became one of the leaders of the church.  Going down this road got Simon to the very place where burdens are lifted.  If you will continue to carry your cross it will get you to the place where Jesus will lift your burdens.  How manytimes do our circumstances take us to Calvary where the burden is lifted?  God has mysterious ways of working.  The road we do not think is right is the one that gets us to where God wants us to be.  If you will bring your cross to Jesus, you will find He has an answer for you.  The cross you have picked up to carry is worth it to get you to Calvary.  I Cor. 1:23-24 says, “But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.”

The place you don’t want and would run from is where the power of God is and where the needs in your life can be met.  Probably all of God’s children are under something they would like to get out of but this is the thing that is compelling them to the cross.  Isn’t it wonderful we don’t have a choice?  Whatever circumstances you are under, God has a hand in it.  Don’t run,  because He is leading you to what you want.  The deep longings of our soul go beyond the things of this earth…but there isn’t anyone who would pick up a cross unless they were compelled to do it.  Be encouraged because God is in the compelling…and here the longings of your heart will be met.

It is my prayer that you will keep going.  God has control of all circumstances; He is Lord and Master of every situation we face and He will bring us through!  Amen!

FULL OR FALLIBLE?

The  perception that one needs “more” of the Spirit to get all of the Gospel is one of the distinguishing marks of what has come to be known as the Full Gospel movement. It treats justification as a conversion event or experience, while concentrating the post-conversion faith on a separate and distinct work of the Spirit in the Christian life. The belief that it is necessary to have an experience subsequent to justification in order to receive “all” or the “rest of” the Spirit is standard Full Gospel doctrine.  The password tenet is the conviction that there exists a difference between receiving the Spirit at conversion and fully receiving the Spirit after conversion. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is simply the full treatment.

Gordon Fee, a respected New Testament scholar raised in the Full Gospel tradition, lists the two primary distinctions:

(1) The doctrine of subsequence, i. e., that there is for Christians a baptism in the Spirit distinct from and subsequent to the experience of salvation …. and (2) the doctrine of tongues as the initial physical evidence of baptism in the Spirit.

(Gospel and Spirit: Issues in New Testament Hermeneutics, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Pub., 1991)

The receiving of the Spirit as an event that is “distinct from and subsequent to” the New Birth, is fundamental to Pentecostal faith. It assumes that one who is justified is not yet baptized in the Spirit. Full Gospel adherents reason that the Spirit has baptized every believer into Christ (conversion), but that Christ has not yet baptized every believer into the Spirit (Pentecost).

This addition to the Gospel of an essential experience subsequent to conversion opened the door for the potential of other supplements being included. Over time, even more was attached to the Full Gospel. As Donald Dayton explains in his study of Pentecostalism, there were five components which became generally received by Pentecostals to comprise the Full Gospel:

During the Reformation God used Martin Luther and others to restore to the world the doctrine of justification by faith. Rom. 5:1. Later on the Lord used the Wesleys and others in the great holiness movement to restore the gospel of sanctification by faith. Acts 26:18. Later still he used various ones to restore the gospel of Divine healing by faith (Jas. 5:15, 15), and the gospel of Jesus’s second coming. Acts 1:11. Now the Lord is using many witnesses in the great Pentecostal movement to restore the gospel of the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire (Luke 3:16; Acts 1:5) with signs following. Mark 16:17, 18; Acts 2:4; 10:44 – 46; 19:6; 1:1 – 28:31. Thank God, we now have preachers of the whole gospel.

(Donald W. Dayton, Theological Roots of Pentecostalism, Peabody, Mass: Hendrickson Publishers, 1987, p. 20, quoting from H. S. Maltby, The Reasonableness of Hell, (Santa Cruz, CA:, n.p., 1913) pp. 82-83.)

The addition of these elements of the Christian faith to justification proper, led many to create a more complex gospel than that which was embraced by the protestant movement. The gospel as basically preached and taught by the Apostles was the standard message of most evangelical churches up until the “first wave” of the Full Gospel phenomenon in 1901 at Bethel Bible College, Topeka, Kansas, when Agnes Ozman received what she called the baptism of the Spirit and spoke in “tongues”. Nationwide interest in this development was further augmented by the Azusa Street Pentecostal experience in Los Angeles, California in 1906.

Full Gospel advocates have waved the flag of what could be regarded as nothing less than a misunderstanding of justification.  Among Full Gospel believers there is often a lack of assurance as to whether they have enough of the Spirit. I believe this directly results in many of the bizarre and extreme excesses that have come through the years (soaking in the Spirit, filling of teeth, barking, uncontrollable laughing, unfulfilled prophecies, et. al.). Those who embrace the Full Gospel theology are driven to seek more and more of the Spirit because they want to be sure they are spiritual enough to be accepted by God. All too often the impulse behind the Full Gospel movement is created by an inadequate teaching of the reality and dynamics of justification by faith and its accompanying indwelling of the Spirit. This does not mean that those who promote the Full Gospel are not sincere, dedicated, and honest people. That is not what is under question. One could not find more intensely religious and committed people than in Full Gospel circles. The question is, how much greater would be their faith if they fully appreciated the meaning of Christ’s righteousness for them.

What makes the Full Gospel position a fallible position and causes it to be “another gospel” is not so much the characteristics of other errant gospels such as those which cancel or correct the original. The problem with the Full Gospel view is an “add to” of elements that the New Testament apostolic proclamation did not see fit to include.

Put Out and Prosper

 Just in case we are tempted to downplay the potential harmfulness of movements and messages that play a tune other than the true Gospel or relegate it to the second fiddle position we need to get a grip on the urgency of understanding what the Gospel really is and exercise an active defense against distortions. This is stressed in no uncertain terms by the Apostle Paul in Galatians 1:6-9:

(NIV) I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!

Besides the danger of putting the biblical gospel in jeopardy by exchanging it for the Social Gospel, as we addressed it in our last column, we also need to be wary of the Prosperity Gospel and wave a red flag when see or hear it take the platform.

The Prosperity Gospel usually comes packaged in terms of the “word of faith” or “faith-promise” theology developed early in the 20th century by preachers such as E. W. Kenyon who drew from the tradition of New Thought associated with movements such as Christian Science. In one sense, he attempted to bring elements extracted from positive thinking movements into his message, mixing New Thought with Christianity. Kenyon promoted his “new type of Christianity” and found a ready following, especially among those who were experiencing financial distress or poverty. Kenyon, who died in 1948, exerted a significant influence on prosperity preachers such as Kenneth Hagin, Oral Roberts, and Kenneth Copeland.

The Prosperity gospel is not new. It crops up from time to time in the secular media again and again. TIME magazine published a major cover story on prosperity theology, documenting its development and tracing its influence. As David Van Biema and Jeff Chu explained in the magazine, prosperity theology “is a peculiarly American theology but turbocharged.” This “turbocharged” theology offers a false hope, presents a failed message, and is a False Gospel.

The Prosperity Gospel is now preached by a wide assortment of televangelists and local figures who assure congregations that God promises to make them healthy and wealthy, (not necessarily wise) if only they will possess and demonstrate adequate faith by “sowing seed-money” into the bank account of the particular personality who is doing the plowing and plans to do the reaping.  The entire movement presents the Gospel as a message that is primarily about earthly rewards — a theology that turns God into a heavenly banker who is obligated to invest His people with material riches if they exercise adequate faith and claim these asset-column blessings for their own.

Sincere believers in Christ are found among both the impoverished and the wealthy, but the vast majority of Christian believers throughout the ages have experienced nothing that can be described as material wealth. Their hope was and is established in Christ, who bought and paid for their salvation from sin with his own life’s blood and secures their hopes for eternal life through His death and resurrection.

The Prosperity Gospel is a false gospel. Its message is unbiblical and its promises flop. God never assures his people by making a capital gains deal that guarantees a payoff in material abundance or physical health. Instead, Christians are promised the riches of Christ, the gift of eternal life, and the assurance of glory in the eternal presence of the living God; a much better deal, at that, if you insist on dealing in terms of value.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ offers salvation from sin, not a perk for earthly prosperity. In the end, besides relegating the true gospel to a place of secondary emphasis, the biggest problem with the Prosperity Gospel is not that it promises too much, but that it promises far too little.