Author Archives: Delight in Truth

Mar 18 2013

And Now, Father, Glorify Me…

We are quickly approaching the Passion Week which is the most important time period in Christendom, culminating with the en-bloc event of death and resurrection of Christ, the greatest event to grace the face of the universe.

Without the death of Christ there is no atonement, there is no substitution, there is no forgiveness of sin.  And without the resurrection of Christ there would not be any Christianity.

This Man left His mark on human history like none other.  Even secular folks will agree with that.

But this Man was infinitely more than just a mere man.  He was divine.  He was God Himself, the Son of God.

We know that Jesus spent long periods of time in prayer communicating with the Father, and in John 17 we are given a glimpse, a revelation, a majestic treat of  the content of one of His prayers.  This special prayer occurred Thursday night of Passion Week, before Jesus went into Gethsemane where His arrest happened, and one day before his death.

He started the prayer with the final motive and outcome of the entire chain of events which would take place, God’s glory: “Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.”  John 17:1

The culmination of God’s redemptive plan brings Him the most glory via a most unlikely path, the death of the Son of God followed by His resurrection.  Such a method is contrary to any human approach.  That is why God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, and God’s ways are not our ways…

Things that Jesus communicates to the Father in this prayer are incomprehensible for us.  Attesting to His divinity, Jesus says: “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” John 17:5

The same glory that will unfold in His death, resurrection, ascension, and return, the Son already had with the Father before the institution of time and the foundations of this world came to be!  This concept alone, under the revelation of the Holy Spirit, should make every Christian bow down in their spirit and worship God because He left that ultimate glory to come and die in our place!

But this is not the end of the story of glory…

Apostle Paul tells us that we will be glorified with Him, not because of us, but because He is in us: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Col 1:27

As we approach Passion Week, meditate on Christ’s unimaginable glory and the fact that He, by His grace will share it with us one day.

Mar 16 2013

Rick Warren and the New Pope

Super popular Saddleback mega church pastor Rick Warren has become a punching bag for mainstream evangelicals for the things he says in the TV media (which absolutely loves him) and social media.

Warren is famous for making controversial remarks on homosexuality and gay marriage which disappointed many conservative Christians.

In his prayer at the presidential inauguration in 2008 he showed his true syncretic colors when he called Jesus by the unbiblical and false name, the prophet “Isa,” which is the non-diety entity found in Islamic scripture.

Here is the latest puzzling tweet from the ecumenical pastor:

“Join me today in fasting and prayer for the 115 Cardinals seeking God’s Will in a new leader.”

This is coming from an evangelical leader.

Does that mean he thinks that the pope really is The Holy Father, God’s representative here on earth as sustained by Catholic doctrine?

Has Rick Warren asked himself how many of those 115 cardinals were perhaps involved in the sex abuse scandals which have been rocking the Catholic Church over the last couple of decades?

Does Rick Warren agree with the Catholic Church doctrines on salvation by works and by beatitudes, transubstantiation, purgatory (salvation after death), and many other heresies?

Does Rick Warren really think that the 115 cardinals are fulfilling God’s will in this process of electing a pope?

Is Rick Warren really an Evangelical?

Or is he a wolf in sheep’s clothing?

Mar 15 2013

The Adversary’s Message

Pablum From the Pit

Cootchie, cootchie, cootchie-coo,
God loves me and God loves you!
Smile sinner, don’t be sad;
God’s not angry; He’s not mad.
Even when you leave the path,
There’s no hell and there’s no wrath.
So don’t you fear, just do your best.
Judgment Day won’t be a test.
God sees your heart and that’s enough.
The Judgment Seat won’t be that tough.
For you can’t sin away His grace
Or take that smile from His face.
’Cause God is love and love is good:
He’ll treat you like you think He should!
Just trust me, sinner, to the end.
My name is Satan, I’m your friend.

poem by Dr Michael L. Brown, via Cornel Ilioi

2 Cor 11:14 “And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”

Mar 14 2013

I Found the Book of Life

Seriously.

I saw a beautiful monument in front of a hospital chapel today with a fancy book entitled “The Book of Life.”  Great was my curiosity to see what words of wisdom this book contains.

To my surprise it contained names.  Lots and lots of names.  Some of the names were written as “Anonymous” followed by initials.

Biblically speaking, why would one want to have only his/her initials in the Book of Life?

Any believer should want their name to be spelled in bold letters, including their address, phone number, email, etc… in the real Book of Life!

But it quickly became evident from reading the introduction that this particular Book of Life was a record of those patients who “gave the gift of life” to someone else via organ and tissue donation.

I stepped outside and there I saw another beautiful monument.  This one was entitled “The Tree of Life,” and it was made of a steel tree with the names of various organ donors on its leaves.

Organ and tissue donation is a noble thing in the appropriate circumstances, but I found it interesting that two key figures from the Bible (The Book of Life and the Tree of Life) were used in naming these monuments.

It is important for Christian believers to realize that God is the Author of life, and only He can give physical and more importantly spiritual life.

Organ harvesting and transplantation are means to prolong a patient’s life and increase their quality of life in the same way that medications or implantable devices prolong life.  No doctor or transplant team can give life; by the common grace given to us by God, they can save a life or prolong a life. This is a critical distinction that must be made when thinking of these situations.

One Legacy is a large organ donation referral and matching service operating in California, and their motto is “Donate Life.”  From a biblical point of view, we do not give life, and we do not donate life.  We merely apply the common grace found in modern technology.

The decision to sign up for future organ donation is a personal one.  I do not believe the Bible prohibits it, but many Christians may disagree, raising the issue of the resurrection body and its totality.  One thing is clear to me from 1 Corinthians 15 where Paul writes the doctrine about Resurrection: our glorified resurrection bodies will not be the same as the our decaying physical bodies.

The saints whose bodies were burned to ashes across the centuries and recently in Africa for their faith will have awesome and majestic glorified bodies, despite the fact that their physical bodies were turned to ash for their LORD.  The same is true with believers who were consumed by ferocious animals in the Roman arenas.

Our physical bodies with their tissues and organs are a mere temporary tent.  Our glorified spiritual bodies will last forever.

A name in a hospital Book of Life is a nice memory.

Our names in the Lamb’s Book of Life… now that is cause for celebration and total obedience to the Savior who wrote them there!

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Mar 13 2013

The Promise of Prayer

I will pray for you.

I will keep you in my prayers.

You are in my thoughts and prayers.

You are in my thoughts.

There is a spectrum of promises in the above statements from a very strong statement like “I will pray for you” to a much weaker declaration “you are in my thoughts.”

These statements have become clichés in our godless society and I have seen even secular people make them.  We have arrived at a point where such promises have lost their values because people may not follow through on these difficult to fulfill promises.

So we water them down.  We go from promising to dedicate time in prayer for someone to promising to think about someone.

I would like to warn Delight in Truth readers to guard your promises carefully, and not make the promise of prayer if you know you cannot keep it.  Prayer is not something to be taken lightly.  Prayer is antithetical to everything that makes up the carnal man, and that is why prayer is not easy.

When you promise to pray for someone, you promise to engage in a spiritual battle on their behalf, and it is a great thing when you follow through on it.  When you pray for someone you are interceding for them, and it literally means you are standing in the gap for them in prayer.  Paul confirms this in Ephesians 6:18 where he talks about  “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints…”

And when you do follow through on your promise to pray you must remember the all-powerful Intercessors you have on your side!

  1. Jesus Himself our LORD and savior is the ultimate intercessor, and the best thing you can do is to lift up your subject to Jesus.  As a man you cannot be an effective advocate in prayer without Jesus.  I love how Isaiah presents Christ as the final intercessor to the Father: “He [the LORD] saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede; then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him.  Isaiah 59:16
  2. The Holy Spirit is also your intercessor and ally in prayer and will sustain you as you pray for someone.  My favorite chapter in the Bible, Romans 8, provides amazing Scripture about the Holy Spirit helping us in prayer: “26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

Prayer is spiritual warfare and it is not easy, but when we have Jesus and the Holy Spirit as intercessors, we can become effective intercessors ourselves for the those who need us to pray for them.

We must take the promise of prayer for others very seriously and ground ourselves in the teaching of Scripture that Jesus and His Holy Spirit will intercede for our prayer subject!

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Mar 12 2013

Our Worship Joins the Worship in the Spiritual Realm

The book of Hebrews contains some of the deepest and most controversial passages in the Bible.

For example, Hebrews 6 offers a brutal and unanesthetized warning against apostasy stating that those who commit the sin of apostasy cannot be “renewed” to eternal life.  Also, Hebrews 11 is a beautiful commentary on faith, and how the saints of the Old Testament are saved through faith in the future Christ.

But Hebrews 12 may be one of the deepest passages on spiritual worship, and what it really means to present ourselves before the Consuming Fire in a correct worship attitude.

Unlike the Israelites who came to a physical mountain to witness God’s display, the writer says:

Hebrews 12:22-24 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

The believer must come to this amazing realization and shutter!

When we come before God in worship, whether at church, at home, at work, in your car (yes, while driving!), we must recognize the fact that we join a continuous worship taking place in the spiritual realm.

  1. We come into a spiritual sanctuary called Mount Zion, the “city of the living God,” and the “heavenly Jerusalem.”  This is not an earthly cathedral, a modern sanctuary with the latest media support and state of the art sound system, or a house meeting.  This is a spiritual place where worship happens in spirit and truth at any hour of the day.  As children of God, we always have access to this place when we enter in worship.
  2. We are not alone when we worship.  The ESV translation states that “innumerable angels” join our praise and worship in a special kind of gathering, a festive gathering, one of celebration and joy. Revelation 5:11 quotes such a high number of angels in worship, that we cannot discern it: “myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands!”  Mediate on that the next time you bow your head and pray!
  3. When we engage in authentic worship we also join in the “assembly of the firstborn,” who are in heaven.  The firstborn are those saints who have passed away and are now with the LORD.
  4. We also come together with the “spirits of the righteous made perfect…” that is we join other believers who have had righteousness imputed to them by the grace of God through their faith in Jesus.  We are  not alone!
  5. We come to the “sprinkled blood,” that is we are able to come before the “throne of grace” via the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus, via the shedding of His blood.  That is how humans are able to join this heavenly multitude in spiritual worship.
  6. But ultimately we joint to “God, the judge of all” and to “Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant.”  He is the reason for such a festive spiritual worship event, He is the One who creates the opportunity for such, and He is the  one who mediates our participation in such worship!

Next time you feel down due to the pressures of this world, remember to join the worship in the spiritual realm and “offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”  Heb 12:28-29

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Mar 11 2013

Hollywood, the Bible, and Weird Things

The Bible is the number one show on TV with 14.8 million viewers during the season premiere.  Given the large amount of professing Christians in the US, that is not a surprise.  The Passion of the Christ enjoyed this type of success for the same reason.

I admit it bothers me (slightly) that the most depraved industry in the world (other than the abortion industry) is taking advantage of the Word of God to make money.  Hollywood struck gold with biblical themes, and The Bible will be on display until Easter making the most of it.

Not only are they using the Word of God to make money, but Mark Burnett the producer of The Bible is now marketing to Christians who are not grounded in the Word of God.

Very ironic.

Burnett has borrowed on old technique previously used by the producers of The Passion to increase the shows audience.

He is marketing his perception that “weird things happened” during the filming of The Bible to invoke the work of the Holy Spirit in the making of the show.

From the Christian Post:

“Reportedly, when Jesus referenced the Holy Spirit as being like the wind, a huge gust of air blew across the entire crew for 20 seconds, which was filming the scene on a very still night in the Sahara desert.

In another incident, the set’s snake wrangler, who usually recovered one or two snakes per day on set to protect crew members, found 48 cobras and vipers hidden near the scene of the cross, where the crew was to film Jesus’ crucifixion.

The third incident, according to Burnett, happened when the crew was filming a baptism scene in a giant Sahara reservoir and part of Jesus’ detailed costume, which took months to create, floated away.

According to Burnett, a young boy from miles away returned the costume days later.”

Could Burnett possibly be trying to fool naive Christians into believing that God has given His stamp of approval to the show?

That the Holy Spirit really had a special presence there during the filming of the show?

That would sure make the audience grow… Naive Christians will be amazed by these incidents.  They would rather watch a show with special effects and beautiful actors, a show about the Bible, than read the Bible itself.

Ultimately, I hope the show will spark the interest of unbelievers to pick up a Bible or perhaps attend a church where they can hear the Gospel.

But for Burnett to imply the work of the Holy Spirit in this project is manipulative.

Mar 9 2013

The Church as a Model for Atheists

Scripture tells us that God placed eternity in the hearts of men, and the sentiment to seek God, to worship, and to have fellowship with a purpose beyond just a “get-together.”

Surprise, surprise… even those who are atheists provide evidence for this in their actions.

The Sunday Assembly in London is an atheist church, a godless church,  which has copied the practice of the Body of Christ.  They meet on Sundays, they sings songs, have some announcements, a reading, and a sermon from guest speaker.

The godless are copying the godly.

It might be a good thing.

They claim to be very open-minded and I hope they would eventually invite a Christian speaker to present to them a Christian worldview and the Gospel, which may give the Holy Spirit the opportunity to change some of them.  What an amazing testimony that would be!

On the other hand, this may turn into a larger movement, an alternative to the real Church which will deceive many towards perdition.

In a Christian Post article, Matt Slick, president and founder of Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry, says that a movement like this is dangerous. “The devil is working through them to replace the Christian church with the church of the devil.  Atheism is the ultimate denial of God,” Slick said. “This movement is a manifestation of the enemy of the Gospel trying to replace Christianity, corrupt it and weaken it.”

“It might be that they become united and become a stronger front against Christianity. That is my concern. This has potential to do a lot of damage to the Church”

If Satan has the capacity to disguise himself into an angel of light to attempt to deceive the masses, he surely can use a copycat church to do the same.

Our job is to show unbelievers that even atheists feel the deep longing for that Something, for the unknown God of Acts 17, for the need to gather with purpose.  Under the light of Scripture we know that purpose is to worship the One and true God.

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