“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” Matthew 5:6
“For just as (when you were unsaved) you presented you members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, . . . so now (that you are saved) present your members as slaves to righteousness.” Romans 6:19

The person who is in Christ and who has been born again (born from above) has gone through a radical conversion that has utterly changed everything about the person. The one who is in Christ is a new creation or a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17). Paul either means that this person is part of an entirely new creation where the Second Adam, Jesus Christ, is King, or he means that this person is new and has completely been remade to have a new beginning and an entirely new life. Or maybe he means both, but the point is that all things are new. And with this new birth come new affections and new desires. The old lustful desires have been cut off from their life source and are in the process of dying, and the new affections and desires are growing in strength.

For the new believer there is a DESIRE FOR OBEDIENCE that was not there before. Where before there was a lust for all manner of rebellion and filthiness and sin, now there is a desire to know the will of God and a hunger to behave in a righteous manner. The believer has a strong DESIRE FOR OBEDIENCE that forces the believer to make behavioral and attitudinal changes. Oftentimes these changes are radical and significantly affect the course of life, but this is what the LORD DEMANDS OF HIS DISCIPLES. The Bible reveals to us what the Lord demands from us and tells us the requirements of true obedience and then the Holy Spirit convicts us of specific areas of sin in our life that need to be changed and gives us the power (Acts 1:8) to make those changes.

For example, I am commanded to be thankful. The Scripture is clear about this. Therefore, if there are things in my past or things in my personality; if there are behaviors or attitudes or habits; if there are prejudices or ideas that feed the enemies of thankfulness or that cause me to be unthankful, I must do what it takes by the power of the Spirit to change them. My desire for obedience and my desire to please the Lord compel me to change. (RMB 5/21/15)

Sometimes I think to myself, “What separates me from any unbeliever and makes me different and set apart? Yes, I am a follower of Jesus, but does anything in my life blare out that I am completely committed to the Lord Jesus?” In light of these sorts of musings, I wanted to continue a blog of a series of such questions to challenge me and my fellow believers to live radically for Jesus.

Challenge Questions 2: If you profess to be a Christian, how does being a Christian affect your daily life? How has being a follower of Jesus Christ changed or affected your life? In other words, are there major crossroads in your life that are marked by a decision to choose the Lord’s way and not man’s? What looks different about your life as a follower of Jesus than what your life would look like if you were not a follower of Jesus? If you were not a follower of Jesus, would there be anything different about your life, about what you did with your time or about how you made decisions or about how you viewed the future or how you viewed the world?

Think about these questions and try to give answers. I think these questions all have the common theme of begging the question, “What difference does Jesus make in your life and what difference has He made in your life?” How would you answer that question? What if an unbeliever to whom you were explaining the gospel asked you this question? What would you tell him / her? Surely our testimony should declare the excellencies of Christ and of how He has radically changed us. Consider how you can tell of the changes Jesus has made in your life as part of your salvation testimony.  (RMB 5/20/2015)

Sometimes I think to myself, “What separates me from any unbeliever? Yes, I am a follower of Jesus, but does anything in my life blare out that I am completely committed to the Lord Jesus?” In light of these sorts of musings, I wanted to blog a series of such questions to challenge me and my fellow believers to live radically for Jesus.

Challenge Questions 1: Would you risk being considered a fool for Jesus’ sake? That is, would you be willing for people to consider your actions odd or strange if it brought you into contact with unbelievers and opened a door for a conversation about Jesus? Would you risk being rejected and ridiculed if you could present the gospel to a lost person? Are you willing to tell the gospel to an unbeliever, knowing that, unless the Holy Spirit opens the person’s eyes and heart, the gospel is foolishness to them, because these ideas are spiritually appraised, and that you would sound like a fool to that unbeliever? Have you ever been a fool or felt like a fool in front of other people because you were bold for Jesus Christ?

Think about these questions. Of course, I am not talking here about intentionally acting like a fool or purposefully making a fool of yourself. That is the last thing that I personally would want to do. But are we willing to take the risk that we will be thought odd or fanatical or brainless or out of touch when we tell the world about Jesus? That is the question. Am I willing to experience discomfort and awkwardness and even ridicule or hostility because I speak out about Jesus?

RMB 5/19/2015

I noticed something in reading the accounts of Jesus’ life. After His temptation in the wilderness, He goes to Galilee and begins His earthly ministry. “Repent!” he declares and then He selects His first disciples. But what I observed was this: the very first thing that Jesus says to His very first disciples is, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4:19) Fishers of men: That means that he calls them to call others. Jesus calls them to be evangelists.

In Luke 5, Jesus is again by the Sea of Galilee teaching and He helps Peter bring in a huge catch of fish. Peter is astounded, realizing that this ordinary looking man is none other than the Messiah and the Son of God. This Jesus is God in human flesh and Simon Peter is overwhelmed as he falls down before Jesus in an act of worship. “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” But Jesus says, “Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men (Luke 5:11).” Catching men means Peter will be calling others to follow Jesus.

In Mark’s account, the same thing takes place, as Jesus calls His disciples and they leave everything to follow Him. “Follow Me and I will make you become fishers of men (Mark 1:17).” This is the first command He gives them, and fishers of men they become.

Observe that the first thing Jesus told His disciples was that they would become “fishers of men.” What does this mean except that they will be His witnesses and they will be evangelists for Him. They will be heralds of the gospel and will be casting out the gospel net to bring men and women into the Kingdom of God. It is key to notice that this is the very first thing that Jesus commands His disciples. From the very start, from the instant of their calling, it is clear that part of their calling included being a witness and an evangelist for the Lord Jesus. It was part of their responsibility as followers of Jesus to tell others about Him and to “proclaim His excellencies (1 Peter 2:9).” That’s just part of the calling. You will tell others about Jesus.

Now if the first thing that Jesus told His first disciples was that they would be fishers of men, what does that mean to us today? If the first thing Jesus told His first disciples was that they would be fishers of men, then the first thing that a new believer today should be taught is to fish for men. The new believer should be expected to share their faith with others so that they can be fishers of men. If the first thing that Jesus told His disciples was that they would become fishers of men, we should tell our new disciples that they are to be fishers of men.

SUMMARY: In the Bible, the Christian life is compared to that of a soldier: 2 Timothy 2:4 “No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.” The church needs to once again be filled with men and women willing to risk greatly so that the name of Jesus may be glorified. There need to be more soldiers. How do we become soldiers?

THE BODY OF THE BLOG: The challenge for the modern follower of Jesus Christ is that the church has largely lost its sense of mission and has lost track of the fact that we have been called by the Lord to a specific task that He has given us, namely to be His witnesses, and that we have been called to be fishers of men (Matthew 4:19; Luke 5:11) and ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20). This stance of passivity and inactivity by the church leads to confusion in the new believer or in the zealous convert. Why confusion? The new believer or the zealous Christian is frustrated and confused, because the overriding attitude in the church is that Christians are simply to go to church and be nice and do nothing more, but those who are new to the Holy Spirit’s fire or who are intoxicated by that fire long for godly adventures. Indeed, as we examine the New Testament and as we observe the lives of the apostles and of the early saints in the infant Church, we read words like diligence and perseverance and endurance and striving and labor and hardship and suffering. These radical labors and activities of the early saints are in stark contrast to the listless and innocuous lives and the timid efforts displayed by many, even most, professing believers today in the American church.

So in order to combat this trend I want to ask some questions and make some comments to spur us on to serious love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24). Since we are soldiers, it must mean that we are in a war. The Lord would not recruit soldiers if there were not a war to be fought. And if there is a war, there must also be an enemy. In fact, we know that we are in a war (2 Corinthians 10:3-4; Ephesians 6:10-17) and we know that we have an enemy, the devil (1 Peter 5:8; etc.), who also has a host of other demons which oppose us. Here then are some thoughts and questions for my fellow soldiers.

Is the enemy aware that you are his enemy? That is, does the devil even know for sure that you are his enemy and are vigorously opposed to his activity? Has the devil seen you damage his kingdom often enough to know that you are his adversary and are a serious threat or can he ignore you with impunity?

Are the forces of evil actively trying to take you down? When the demons get together to plan their battle strategy, does your name come up as a strategic target to eliminate?

Are you dangerous to the devil? The question is not, “Are you frightened of the devil?” The key question is, “Is the devil afraid of you?” Are you a soldier of the cross who strikes fear into the hearts of the demons?

Can you inflict damage on the devil’s dark kingdom with your spiritual weapons of our warfare? These are divinely powerful for the destruction of strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:4-5), but they must be wielded with skill by the believer to inflict damage. Does your prayer pull down strongholds? Does your proclamation of the truth rattle the gates of hell? Does your witness for Jesus dispel the darkness?

Does the enemy want to silence you or are you already silent? What good is a herald who will not proclaim the message he was sent to proclaim? What good is an ambassador who does not announce his King’s good news? What is the value of a witness who does not testify?

It is said of the idols that they have mouths but they cannot speak (Psalm 115:5; 135:16). Of course they cannot speak, because they are nothing but dead idols, the work of men’s hands. But let it never be said of the Christian that he has a mouth, but he will not speak. Let it never be said of the disciple of Jesus that he has a mouth, but he does not know his message. O brethren, we have mouths and we MUST speak! (2 Corinthians 4:13) The Lord has given us a message and woe to us if we do not proclaim the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:16). We must be Christians who are bold to tell of Jesus and who wield our spiritual weapons with skill and precision gained from years of diligent use and practice. Let us be soldiers who do damage to Satan’s kingdom and who cause fear among the ranks of the evil ones. (RMB 5/14/2015)
“I want to so live that Satan throws a party when he hears of my death.”

(This series of writings on the “Enemies of Thankfulness” was prompted by listening to an excellent sermon from Dr. John MacArthur entitled “Thanks, No Matter What” on 1 Thessalonians 5:18. The sermon was from 1995, I believe.)

“in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thess. 5:18

Before this series is over, I am hoping to write about five “Enemies of Thankfulness.” These five enemies are Doubt, Selfishness, Worldliness, having a Critical spirit and Impatience with God’s timing. Whenever any one of these five enemies begins to rear its ugly head and begins to choke out your thankfulness, the believer should intentionally and immediately begin to extol the mighty works of the Lord and thank Him for His gracious gifts. This should become a reflex for the believer: when thanklessness and coldness and a feeling of ingratitude appear, the believer should automatically begin to praise the Lord and to give Him thanks.
Thanking the Lord and praising the Lord always increases joy and hope and intensifies our light for Christ and heats up the Spirit’s flame, but falling victim to any one of these enemies of thankfulness always decreases joy, dims your light for Christ and dampens the Holy Spirit’s fire in your life.
So develop the habit of giving thanks and praise to the Lord whenever your joy begins to waver and experience how your spirit revives. “In everything, give thanks.”

SUMMARY: This blog seeks to give the believer in Jesus reminders about the sure hope that we have in Jesus Christ, that death is a defeated foe and that we will have eternal life with Christ when we die.

Death is a reality of this fallen world and all people, believers and unbelievers, live under that specter of death. When death comes to someone we love, grief and loss are universal responses, and all people who have lost someone they love experience this pain. How are we to deal with death? How are we to come to terms with the loss of the other person’s presence? More than that, how am I to come to terms with my own mortality and with the fact that I, too, one day will lie cold in the grave? In fact, man creates religions to try to ward off the terror and the grief of death. In the end, however, man-made religions have nothing to say about death. They have no answer and they provide no comfort. Despite the many rituals and duties of religion, the specter of death still threatens and the question, “Where is my loved one now?” remains. “What happens at my death?” “Is there anyone who has conquered death?” “Is there any reason that I should not be terrified of death?” For those who hold to man-made religions, there are no answers to these questions, only speculation and false hope. But the believer in Jesus Christ follows one who has conquered the grave and who lives forever and who will one day return to take His people home.

So as I was reflecting again on the sure hope that we have in Jesus and reminding myself that death has lost its sting, I wanted to also remind you, my brothers and sisters, about that sure hope and encourage you if you are going through the process of grieving. For those who know the Lord, death is a defeated foe and you will certainly see your loved one again and they are now rejoicing and worshipping their Savior in heaven. Here are some verses on which to meditate.

Hebrews 2:14-15 – “Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself (Jesus) likewise partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”
Before we knew Jesus, we were slaves of death, because we feared death and could not escape that fear. Death was our master, because it held the ultimate threat. But then Jesus Christ put on flesh and blood like an ordinary man, so that He could climb Calvary’s hill and die on the cross for your sins and my sins, and could then rise from the dead, defeating death for all who believe in Him. In so doing, Jesus has forever taken the tool of the threat of death away from the devil, because those who know Jesus as Savior will never die. Death and the devil have no power over us because they can pose no threat to us. Jesus has defeated both the devil and death and in Him we are more than conquerors.

John 11:25-26 – Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.”
The occasion for Jesus speaking these words was the death of Lazarus. Jesus’ friend Lazarus had died four days before, while Jesus had delayed in coming to his house. Mary and Martha are mourning their brother’s death and wondering why Jesus had not come sooner so that He could have made Lazarus well and kept him from dying. What neither Mary nor Martha has yet grasped is that disease and death are alike to Jesus. Both disease and death are under His sovereign control and He can remove or reverse them with a word from His lips.
But here is Martha by the tomb of her brother, feeling the aching sadness of her loss and hating the cruelty and the finality of death. Her brother is gone and all she can do is mourn at his grave and weep and feel the pain of the separation of death. “O, if Jesus had only been here then He could have prevented this from happening.”
Jesus then shatters all fear and all mourning by declaring that He is the resurrection and the life. He is the Lord of the resurrection and He is the one who guarantees that all His followers; all those who believe in Him will be raised up on the last day. No one who believes in Him will ever die, because they have eternal life, and the one who dies physically will continue to live, because that believer has been saved and is in Christ. Jesus guarantees our resurrection, because He is the Son of God. We will certainly live again, even if we die.

1 John 3:2. “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.”
Believers are beloved by God and are adopted children of God. While we are here on earth, we are being transformed into the same image as Jesus (2 Corinthians 3:18; Romans 8:29) a little at a time through sanctification, but there will come a day when the Lord Jesus comes from heaven with a shout and then we will be radically changed into glorified beings. That is “what we will be,” as John says. Jesus will come in blazing beauty and glory and we will also be glorified and will look like Him. This is the future that awaits every believer, that one day we will reign with Jesus and will look like Jesus. When we look like Jesus, then we shall see Him as He is in His full glory. This is what awaits us beyond the grave and in this we can rejoice.

Revelation 7:9-10. The Apostle John paints for us this scene in heaven when all the gathered saints will be before the throne of the Lamb. “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes and palm branches in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”
This is the future for all the saints, to be standing before the throne of the Lord and praising His glorious name. So while we grieve now because this is the time when one has fallen asleep before another, there will be an eternity when we will all be together as one huge family praising our Savior. This is the end of the story. This is the great end towards which we hope.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. Here is yet more Scripture to give us confidence in the sure hope that we have in Jesus. In this passage the Apostle Paul gives for us a picture of the return of Jesus Christ and of the resurrection of the righteous. He writes this passage to encourage the Thessalonian believers because some of their loved ones, who were also believers, have “fallen asleep” (died). He wants them to know that as believers, we are those who grieve in hope (4:13).
“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord (4:16-17).”
Even though now our loved ones have been taken from us for a short time, there will come a time not very long from now, when we shall all be glorified together and meet the Lord in the air. Soon that day will come, so we grieve in hope.

Philippians 3:20-21. These final verses declare to us that our citizenship is already in heaven and that we are just waiting the day when we shall all be with Christ in transformed bodies. “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we eagerly wait for a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.” Yes, Jesus is coming back, and when He does, He will change our bodies from these weak and broken bodies into beautiful, powerful, glorified bodies that are conformed to His glorified body. When Jesus comes back, we will all be glorified.

Thus the believer has every reason to rejoice when a loved one has died in Jesus. If they have died in Jesus, they are guaranteed heaven and we will see them again. Yes, this time of separation is painful, when they have gone on ahead and we remain behind to carry on and to continue pressing toward the goal for the prize. But we rejoice because Jesus Christ has already won the victory and has promised us a dwelling place in heaven, and He cannot fail to do what He has promised. Take these words from the Scriptures and meditate on them. We are more than conquerors in Christ, whether we are alive or have fallen asleep.

Have you ever wondered how it is that the guiltiest of people have no trouble maintaining their innocence, even in the face of overwhelming evidence of their guilt? “I am basically a good person, and I always tell the truth and always do the right things.” How can people tell such bold-faced lies? It is because we are at the core sinful people and are determined to continue in our sin.

In this light, I was again struck by the fascinating story of Joseph and his brothers when the ten brothers come down to Egypt to buy grain. We take up the story in Genesis 42. The brothers appear before Joseph, who is the prime minister of Egypt and is the one who has full authority to give out the grain. He is dressed as royalty and has no doubt taken on some of the features of the Egyptians, so he is unrecognizable to his brothers, but the brothers are immediately recognized by Joseph. “You are spies, and you have come to look at the undefended parts of our land (Genesis 42:9).” The response I want to highlight is what the brothers say next. “We are honest men . . .” This becomes the statement that controls the action for the rest of the chapter.

Consider the irony of this statement from Joseph’s ten brothers, “We are honest men,” because these men are certainly not honest men. They themselves know that they are not honest men; Joseph knows that they are not honest men; the readers of the Scriptures know that these are not honest men. These are men who have taken their own brother, Joseph, and thrown him into a pit to die and then sold him into slavery to passing Midianites. These same men then lied to their own father, telling him that Joseph had been killed by wild beasts. These men themselves know that they are not honest men, but are living a lie and have betrayed their own brother, and his blood is still on their hands. Yet they have the audacity to say, “We are honest men.” “O, Mr. Prime Minister, you can trust us not to be spies, because we declare to you that we are honest men.”

More than that, Joseph, before whom they stand, knows that they are not honest men. These are the men who threw him into a pit for no reason and who ignored his pleas for mercy and laughed when he begged them to do the right thing. These are the “honest men” who sold him into slavery into Egypt and stole from him the best years of his life. These are the “honest men” who exercised cruelty and hatred toward Joseph and now they stand before him and say, “We’re basically good guys.” They do not know that the one before whom they stand is the one who can testify that they are not honest men, but are unrighteous, deceitful, malicious and cruel.

So the question comes up: “How could men who were so guilty of sin insist on their innocence?” I think there are three basic reasons: They ignored their conscience; they think that there were no witnesses to their sins; and they think that there are no consequences to their sins.

First, the guilty brothers continued to insist on their innocence because they ignored their conscience. In this passage it is obvious that the consciences of the brothers are bothering them, but not enough to bring them to repentance. Feeling guilty that you did something wrong is not the same thing as repentance, and the brothers refuse to repent. So they insist on their innocence because they ignored their conscience.

Second, they insist on their innocence, because they think there were no witnesses to their sin. Oftentimes men are bold to declare their honesty when they think there is no one who can prove that they are liars. In the mind of the fallen man or woman, you are only guilty if you get caught. If there are no witnesses, then there is no crime. In this case there is at least one witness to their sin, and that is the man who is standing before them. Joseph is one who can declare the guilt of his brothers. But the second reason why a person will claim their innocence is if they believe there are no witnesses.

The third reason why people claim their innocence when they are certainly guilty is because they do not believe there are any consequences from their action. Men are much more prone to sin and to commit acts of unrighteousness if they believe there are going to be no consequences. Joseph’s brothers did not think there would be any consequences when they threw Joseph in the pit. If Joseph died in the pit or if he was carried off to Egypt and never seen again, no one would ever know, so what possible consequences could come from that sin? If there are no consequences, why not commit the crime?

But having examined the behavior of Joseph’s brothers from so long ago, here is a more pertinent question: “How is it that men and women today who are guilty of all manner of sin insist on their innocence?” You know the situation, when you are sharing Christ with someone whom you know to be unsaved and guilty of sin, and when the subject of sin comes up, he insist that he is a pretty good person, that he goes to church once in a while and that his grandmother was a pillar of the church when he was growing up. “I’m really not a bad guy and I occasionally give to the poor and I went to Catholic school when I was a kid.” So again, how can such people who are guilty of sin insist on their innocence? I think the same three reasons apply as applied to Joseph’s brothers.

First, they ignore their conscience. When their conscience tells them of their sin and brings feelings of guilt, they simply suppress the conscience. The inner voice of the Law of God, which is the very instrument given by God to convict of sin, is silenced so that it no longer bothers them.

Second, they insist on their own goodness because they believe there are no witnesses. In fact there are at least two witnesses to every sinful act. The one committing the act is a witness against themselves and they know that they committed the sin. But more importantly, God is a witness against them. God is a witness to every sin and He remembers every transgression. “There is no creature hidden from His sight and all things are open and laid bare before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do (Hebrews 4:13).” No sin is ever done in secret, because the Lord knows all sin and all sins.

Third, people can insist on their own innocence or acts of unrighteousness because they think there are no consequences. But the problem with this is that “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” “The soul that sins, it shall die.” “The wages of sin is death.” God sees all sin and every act of sin and each sin carries with it a death penalty. All sin has consequences, both in this life and in the life to come. All sin brings us into judgment and all sin requires punishment.

The keys, then, to sharing our faith are first to help the unbeliever feel the guilt of their sin that their conscience is bringing to their attention and not ignore it. Second, we should explain to the unbeliever that all their sins are known to God and nothing they have done has been done in secret. God knows all their sin. He is a witness to all their sin. Third, we need to tell the unbeliever that their sins have consequences and that, if they do not come to faith in Christ, their sins will doom them to eternal judgment and condemnation. But then fourth, we must tell them that, through faith in Jesus Christ, the guilt of all their sins done in secret or done in the open will be removed and they will have a clear conscience (Hebrews 9:14; 10:22); the condemnation due to them for their sins will be taken away (Romans 8:1); and reconciliation with the living God will be ushered in and they will have peace with God (Romans 5:1). Guilt and condemnation are removed in Christ. This is the good news. RMB 5/4/2015