Recently, some so called leaders of the Christian faith have begun to call for looking at the Bible through cultural eyes. Whether or not they realize this, this a lie and deception send forth from the enemy. While this message may seem appealing and progressive, it is dangerously wrong.

The Bible has never been meant to be looked at through the eyes of the current culture, but has always been a tool with which we are to look at and analyze the modern culture. In a moment we will look at a Biblical story that perfectly narates this truth, and then we will look at Jesus and how he handled the same concept.

Before we get to that point however, I would like to ask, why are we trying to analyze the Bible (which is the inerrant, inspired word of God) through culture, if it isn’t but to appease a culture which is doing everything in it’s power to avoid meeting God right where He is and always has been? And if that is the purpose of why we would look at it that way, then how can we call ourselves Christians if we won’t lead others to the God with love and outstretched arms?

From the begining it has always been those who were willing to stand apart from the crowd and serve the one true God who have been called. Throughout the Bible there are countless figures who want to include God in their pantheon of gods, but when the time comes to deny all others but Him, they shy away, but it is on the shoulders of those who do not waver, that the kingdom has always been built and advanced.

Culture will almost always seek to minimize God, and ridicule Him, and this is becuase of human nature. Human nature, at any point in time and history is best explained in this, we are selfish, we are self righteous, and we are all sinners who seek to justify ourselves. I don’t mean to type this to sound codemning, but to point out a hard truth, one that if we will acknowledge, we can move beyond our cultural ties that bind us.

Now, if we can accept the truth of our sinful nature, and the fact we have all done something unjust, then we can move on to the next, and main portion of this messsage, that being the way we view God, the Bible, and Christianity.

Now the Biblical story I would like to focus on is one we are all very familiar with, the story of three Jewish men living in captivity in Babylon. This story is recorded in the book of Daniel chapter 3.

King Nebuchadnezzar made an idol, and decreed that all would kneel and worship the statue. Certain Chaldeans came and brought accusations against certain of the Jews, specifically three men Shadrach Meshach, and Abednego by name.

These three men sat in positions of authority, but they also held to the worship of the God of Israel, and this left room for no other gods. They were brought before the king who questioned them about their refusal to worship his gods. They lived in a time when the king’s word was law. They lived in a culture of polytheism, but they had to hold to the true value of God’s Word and His will.

They were not given a free pass just because of the culture around them. They, like Lot, May have lived amidst a culture of sin and wickedness, but they were still expected to stick to Godliness. They were still expected to follow God’s Word and decree even over the decree of the king.

When confronted by the king, their reply was that the God whom they serve could deliver them from the fire if he desired to, but even if he did not, they would not serve the false gods of Nebuchadnezzar. They were bound and thrown into a fiery furnace, where the Lord came and freed them.

The thing to see here is not only in that they were saved from the fire, but that they were willing to choose truth over the culture. They knew who their God was, and that was of greater value than anything that the culture of the government could bring against them. They were willing to lose position and even face death in order to stand fast in their faith.

Even Jesus Christ himself had to stand against the culture of his day. Jesus’ very nature was counter to the culture of the day, from his forgiving sinners to his stance on money and even how he regarded the sabbath. That being said, the particular story I want to look at is in the book of Matthew chapter 21.

Jesus had come to Jerusalem, fulfilled many prophecies and was welcomed by an adoring crowd. Upon entering the city, Jesus went to the temple. At the time, the temple’s purpose had become corrupt. What was to be the house of God had become a place of business. It was common practice in those days for there to be moneychangers, those that sold doves and animals needed for the sacrifice.

It was normal, even accepted as it was convenient. Rather than traveling from wherever they lived and bringing their animals needed, they could just come right to the temple and exchange their money, buy the doves and be done. It made sense in the day, and it makes sense logically and logistically, but again this was not what God intended for the temple.

Jesus began to flip tables and the seats of those that sold the doves. He kicked all those people out who were defiling the temple. He emptied it of those who hearts were not on God, and he challenged the culture, saying that the temple was to be a house of prayer, not a den of thieves (see Matthew 21:13).

Once the temple was empty, the blind and the lame came to him and were healed. Then the leaders of the day were upset when they saw what he did and when they heard children praising the Lord. When God clashes with the culture, God will win, and those whose hearts are not set on a God will always be sore displeased.

To those religious leaders of our day who say we need to use a cultural lens, I urge you to reread your bible and to pray for discernment. To those whose pastors are sharing such teachings, I encourage you to put God first, and trust in him with faith and don’t be afraid to question the direction your leadership is taking you, for our God is not in this culture, and is not subject to our culture.

God be with you all. Amen.

The United States of America was founded on many important principles, one in particular is being challenged in our times (though many are being challenged, I am focusing here on one specific principle). This principle is the seperation of church and state. the argument is being made that Christians should not be holding positions of high office, particularly if they use their fatih to help guide them in their decisions.

Now, ignoring the many years in which America has been led by those who were relying on their faith and Christian principles to guide our nation, I think that if we are to fight this blatant attack on our culture and our nation, we should understand some history, and see if perhaps they are reversing the meaning of this idea.

You see I see many people talk about how this idea was based on the catholic church, and how it had obtained control over Europe, and exercised control over Europe through its religious power, and while this is a fair argument, I am not fully convinced this is what our founding fathers had in mind. Recall, the founding fathers were protestants, many of them from England.

England, had already broken away from the catholic church, and created the church of England, for the benefit of king Henry, so he could divorce his wives at will when they would not give him a male heir. Now both the catholic church and the church of England misused their positions for political ends that benefitted themselves.

The catholic church became and behaved more as a state (which in fact it was, the papal states), and less like the church of God. The behavior of the papal states, which was highly motivated in control and politics, and less in advancing the true kingdom, certainly did lead to many negatives that should not be emulated.

With that being said, this does not mean the church should not express it’s views to impact the government and society, we can see countless times throughout the Bible the significance of the spiritual leaders being needed to keep a state on track with the direction of God.

Added to this, we can see the importance of and the history of how Christian values have always impacted the governance of America. Christian values and principles always impacted how America was going to operate, and without those principles America would not be the place it is today.

The seperation the founders were referring to, I truly believe, was the seperation preventing the state from influencing the church and its administration. This really is not too hard of a conclusion to come too. What is the first amendment? Freedom of religion and free speech. The very wording of the first amendment made it clear that the government was to have no control over the church.

The church has and should continue to have an impact on governance, but the government should not be able to direct or control the church nor its function. In Canada we can see what happens when the government begins to overstep, prohibitng specific messages, which results in less than the full truth of the scripture being taught.

The church is answerable to God, and the church leaders are going to be held to account to Him, but the world leaders believe they are answerable to man or in many cases, to no one. Government, by its nature, desires only to have more control, and if the state is allowed to impact the church, it will only mean men with agendas will seek to gain control of God’s system. This is not the path America has ever been on, it is not the path the founders sought, and it is not the path we should now or ever take.

God be with you. Amen.

Mankind, from the start, has been called to one great service… to give ourselves over to prayer. The church as a whole, must pray, but each individual man and woman must also learn not only to pray themselves, but to pray well. Praying well, true Biblical praying has been left out by many in the church as a whole, and it is something we must strive to return to. While all are to pray, there is also what I call the call to prayer.

The call to prayer, or the call to be a prayer is something that God places on a soul when the kingdom needs it. All should prayer, this is an unrefutable truth placed on the entire church, but some individuals will feel a certain pull on themselves to pray and wrestle like Jacob with the angel of God. Some will feel a pull to dedicate hours in the prayer closet, a three to four hour prayer session becomes too short, for they will feel the tug on their heart so strongly that it becomes too hard not to pray.

This is the call to prayer. Nehemiah felt it, Abraham felt it, Moses and Jesus felt it, and look at what it had wrought. Jesus toiled the night away in prayer, while those closest to him slept. Not all feel the call, and not all will feel it at the same time or to the same intensity, but when it comes upon us, the miracles of heaven it will unleash can change kingdoms. Borders change, lines are easily crossed, and the kingdom is advanced.

I must urge all who stumble upon this simple reflection to pray daily, for our daily prayers and time spent in intimate closeness with our heavenly Father are to be counted among the greatest of treasures we can hope to obtain in our fleshly lives. To those who feel the call to prayer, I encourage you to make time, to find a way to preservere in prayer. This is not always the easiest, I myself have struggeld with finding the hours to labor in prayer amidst the business of work, family life, and the other myriad of hinderances that attempt to draw us away from this great calling.

We must fight against the will of the flesh when this comes. The best way to fight agaisnt the flesh, is to pray. As we pray, we will find our spirits desiring to pray more and more. It is the natural desire of our spirit to pray, for it is that connection with God that our spirit was made for, and it is the natural place for it, to abide in the shadow of the Most High. Much like it is natural for a wolf to seek a pack, or for a bird to build a nest, our spirit cannot but help to seek God once it has a taste of Him, and this is a truth for all, for it is how we are made.

Even for those who do not feel the pull to pray for hours on end, who do not feel the call to prayer, to them the more they pray, the more their spirit will desire God. I must urge all to seek God in prayer, to dedicate time each morning and night, and throughout the day, to find time to give to God and commune with Him, for it is His desire, and it is why we are made, to build an intimate relationship with God.

God be with you all. Amen.

We can either advance the kingdom or let it be taken. 

Matthew 11:12 (KJV)  And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. 

War is a violent thing. War is not pretty, not a glorious venture. With that being said, each and every Christian is apart of a war, we all enlisted the moment we took Jesus as our Savior..  

We are soldiers in His army, and we are all called to advance and build His kingdom. Our job, our primary duty, when not in worship, is to advance the kingdom.  

The kingdom, much like our personal relationship with God, only has two options, either we are moving forward and gaining ground, or we are giving ground.  

If we are not doing our part to move and spread the kingdom, then we are only allowing the enemy to claim ground, whether intentional or not, this is the reality of it.  

There is violence against the kingdom, and we can either be violent in return (not in flesh, but in Spirit)  or we can just give up and allow evil and wickedness to reign.  

We each must make a decision every day on what we will do that day, are we going to commit to advancing and building, or are we going to allow the enemy to take it? 

Will we stand in the way against evil, or will we continue to give way? The choice is up to each individual.  

Like Joshua I declare this  

“ Joshua 24:15 (KJV)  And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” 

There is a verse from a song we sang in church a few Sundays back, it says “I believe in You
You’re the God of miracles.”

This is a fact, one that the church must come back in to. God is still a God of miracles. He still heals, He still cares for us and still works supernatural wonders.

Recently there was a word from the Lord, if you dont beleive God still loves you enough to show you signs of His love, then you need a deeper understanding of God’s love toward you.

This message was not designed to ridiculue anybody, but to draw our attention to one simple fact, God still loves us.

If God loves us enough to send His Son to die for us on the cross, and save us while we were yet sinners, will he not show us much more now when we have been redeemed out of sin and put off the old man and seek God first?

God still hears us, He still anwers our prayers, and can still perform miraculous and wonderous healing and signs for each and every one of us.

I have seen the goodness and glory of God bring forth healing, and know for a fact that God seeks to heal those who call on His name.

God didn’t stop performing miracles after Noah, after Moses, after Elijah, after Jesus, after the apostles, or after we were born. God is still true to His nature, He is still a supernatural God, with a fierce passion and love for us all, and if we will seek Him, we will find that He is, the God of the miraculous.

Sometimes the only way to answer an extreme, is with an extreme answer.

This simple sentence seems lost on so many. A common response might be to choose not to engage in extremes, this is a poor response. I see where this mindset originated from, but it is a cowardly response lacking conviction.

There is a pervading thought that by engaging in extremes we cause an increase in tension, and that if people do not respond to an extreme then the original extremist’s fire will dwindle out.

This is just not the case. The reality is, when someone engages in an extreme, when they put their energy so heartedly into something, if they are not met or challenged, then they are going to eventually get their way right or wrong. If their is only one voice speaking, then only that thought process will be heard and accepted.

Let’s look at the two main topics that we see we are told not to argue or talk about, faith and politics. Why, you might ask? These are the two topics that are most likely to elicit an extreme response. Discussions can, but do not always have to, become heated and we are told to believe that nothing good will come of these.

The problem is, faith and political ideas are always being talked about, whether we realize it or not. Everyone of us has their formed ideas, and these are reflected in the way we respond to certain situations. Moreover, from my own experience, the ones who say not to discuss these topics, and to avoid going to extremes, usually do so in defense of someone who has shared just their own belief, generally that of a liberal mindset.

When this happens, what is really being said is not “don’t talk politics” but rather “we agree with the previous point and don’t want to hear your side.” This is the opposite of healthy discourse.

Healthy people can discuss differing viewpoints without getting into a fight, however this argument is meant to quell Christian faith from being shared, and from conservatives from sharing their own stances on political issues.

Now, while this so far as not talked about extremism, but rather how the left has attempted to silence opposition through the false appearance of taking a moral high ground, I do want to get to the topic of extremism.

I myself have both been able to have healthy friendly discussions of differing opinion on both faith and politics, and have also been told I was not allowed to share my stance while being subjected to the views of others. Again, when only one side is allowed to share their views, this is not only unhealthy but also dangerous.

This leads to narration control, manipulation, forced ideaology, and isolation. Moreover, it creates its own very dangerous form of extremism that can lead to aggression of any differing views.

We saw this over the last couple of years with the riots across America in which a number of people were murdered by the rioters simply for being in the way, and if they did voice a differing opinion they were met with dangerous deadly force.

During the lockdowns and subsequent vaccination campaign, those who had questions or took a different stance were heavily silenced, and and many ways persecuted.

When one side is this extreme in their behavior, there are only two options, lay down and give them their way, or become extreme in your response.

We would not give into a child mid tantrum, but rather as parents we stand our ground, for the well being of our child. so too, in this day and age of extremism, we must not allow only one side to have an extreme view. Now when I speak of an extreme response, I am not saying to answer violence with violence or hate with hate.

Rather, we must continue to speak our views, refusing to be bullied down. We must stand fast and strong, sticking to our values and becoming all the louder, coming together when able to spear our shared values and beliefs.

Our extremism must be both equally extreme, but also peaceful and full of love and compassion. We are to not backdown, but digging our heels in the mud and say this far and no farther.

Be blessed and stand strong.

“Open war is upon you, whether you would risk it or not.” Sure, this is a quote from a fantasy book/movie, but this quote applies to each and every one of us right now.

There is a war being waged, but it seems only one side knows this right now, the left has partnered itself with spiritual wickedness whether or not they are aware of it, and this spiritual wickedness is manifesting itself all across our world.

Some are starting to wake up to the fight and to pick up their swords and fight back, Australia is revolting, in America some parents are fighting against the wickedness in our schools.

But this is not enough, each of us are at war, we all have a stake in this conflict, and whether we want it or not, we are at war, and it is time for us to fight. We do not need to fear this fight, for we have the Lord of heaven’s hosts leading at the forefront of this war.

The time has come, a line has been drawn in the sand, and our enemy has fired the first shots, now we must pick up our swords, grab our banner and fight back.

This is not a fight with weapons of the flesh, this is a moral and spiritual conflict, one in which we must lift up our battle cry, and fight against immorality, tyranny, sin, and idolatry.

The time of the passive church is over, we now must fight, or we will die and we will lose, but our destiny is not to lose, but is victory. Fight, not for ourselves, but for our children, our grandchildren, and their children, and the countless unborn future generations, that they may have a better world than the one we will leave behind.

God be with you, grab your bible, and fight.

Amen.

I was rereading from exodus today, and the provision of manna. I was amazed about how the people could be fed the bread of heaven for 40 years (exodus 16:35) and still struggle with their faith and fully trusting the Lord.

Then it dawned on me, we, as Christians, are fed with the bread of life, and even we still struggle as the Israelites had struggled. Oh that we could grow in faith, that we had eyes to see our Lord and His mercies for us.

God meets us each day, and provides for us the needs for that day, we have but to reach out in faith, and receive what he is offering us.

I recently was talking with two brothers about how at times we are asking God to give us something, and he has already sent it, but we have to receive it.

Like wiring money, we call and ask of our Father, and as soon as we do, it is sent, but when we arrive at the teller, instead of saying, I am here to receive what my father sent, we stop and keep asking for the thing to be sent, but never receive it.

Jesus told us to not worry about tomorrow, for sufficient is the evil of each day, but God will give to us our needs each day, if we will receive it and rely on it. The Israelites tried to store up manna for future days, and it rotted and was filled with worms that same day, we must rely on and trust in God to provide at all times.

It is good to be proactive like Joseph, but we must also learn to rely on God to always meet our needs, but we must also have faith in Him, and be filled with Him.

We have been given the greater bread, even greater than the manna, but how much do we still struggle? Let us come to the Lord and before His face, and He will meet us.

Amen

Exodus 14: 20

“And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night.”
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God had set himself between the two camps, he had been leading his people, who followed where ever He had lead, and then when the enemy came, God had moved and placed himself between His people and the enemy.

God will always fight to protect his people, He places himself between us and our adversary, always striving to deliver us into His better promises.

I have heard a number of preachers lately all agreeing on a topic, how far God is willing to go for us, how he pulls us out of the fire, and they are correct.

He sent His son, to place himself on a cross, that we may look to him there, and be freed from whatever plagued us, he rolls up his sleeves, pulls us out of the fire if our situations, and places us beside His son.

The enemy always seeks to bring us down, and back into bondage, but if we look to God and follow Him, He will stand against our enemy, placing himself between us and them, that he may deliver us.

God is willing to do abundantly more than we ever think or realize, if it keeps us in His grace, and free from our enemy. His desire is to keep us and not to lose us, no matter the circumstance, God’s love is greater than we can know or see, but it is there.

Dearly beloved, there is much confusion within the church about many spiritual things, but one of the biggest is the gift of the baptism o the Holy Spirit, the spirit of the comforter, which seeks the heart of the Lord.

All Christians have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, for none can call Jesus Lord but by the Holy Spirit, however we are also offered the baptism of the Holy Ghost, our spirit being fully immersed in the Spirit of God. There is countless verses that express the gift of the Holy Spirit, and His role in the church even to today.

Jesus told the apostles they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they did, and it manifested in both gifts and miracles, but also in an even greater boldness and love for the Lord. Fishermen became powerful orators and preachers of the gospel. Miracles were wrought and the kingdom of God was advanced and grew.

We seek not the power of the Holy Spirit for our own glory, but for the glory of him who pours him out upon us, for the glory of God.

The Spirit searches the things of God, hears God and speaks to us, that we may better know the things of God. This is the indwelling spirit inside of us, but the baptism of the Holy Spirit takes us to new spiritual levels.

Saul received at least six things when prayed for by Ananias they are: acceptance into the church, forgiveness by the church, a new name, new vision, baptism of the Holy Spirit, and a new role. Paul always gave credit to his preaching as being in the power of the Holy Spirit, right in line with what Jesus told the church.

Peter said the gift of the Holy Spirit was for those who heard, to their children, all who were afar off, as many as the Lord will call. acts 2:38/39 in other words, the gift of the Holy Spirit is for all who believe, not for our own glory, but for the glory of the Lord, that the body may edify each other and itself. The Holy Spirit is for the edification of our own spirit, for the church, and as a sign to the nonbeliever

The best part of all of it, we have but to ask, doubting nothing, and receive from the lord with faith, and he will pour it out without measure.