"If you abide in My Word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free...So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed!" (John 8:31-32,36)

Listening To Jesus

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“If anyone hears My sayings, and does not keep them, I do not judge him;
for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. He who rejects
Me, and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke
is what will judge him at the last day.” (John 12:47-48)

“God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions
and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He
appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.” (Hebrews 1: 1-2)

Have you ever imagined what it would have been like to be sitting on the hillside where Jesus was teaching His “Sermon on the Mount?” Or what would it have been like to be the third person walking with Jesus on the road to Emmaus, hearing Him explain His mission to this world after He rose from the dead? I have. There is no greater source of information relating to Jesus Christ than the very words of Jesus Himself. If you want to know what Christianity is, go to it’s source: Jesus Christ, as recorded in the pages of Scripture.

As I look back over my life, I wish I could have known my mother’s father. Grandpa Clemens Thomas Diete was a graduate of both Berlin and Hanover Universities in Germany. He was a veterinarian surgeon, world traveler and, having joined Teddy Roosevelt’s “Rough Riders,” was a veteran of the Spanish-American War. He immigrated to America some time in the 1890s. Although he died two years before I was born, somehow I was bequeathed his medical bag and journal. It’s written in German. I don’t read German. And I never heard my grandfather speak. I hold his journal in my hands; but I cannot understand it.

The writer of the book of Hebrews tells us that God spoke to man in times past through His selected prophets; but in the Gospel age in which we live, God has spoken to us through His Son, Jesus Christ. But how am I to hear Him? Is His voice still audible? Can I count on Him to speak comfort, wisdom, guidance, and encouragement to me today? In over sixty-five years of following the Savior, I have found the answer to those questions a positive “Yes.” All I have to do was read with my eyes and hear with my spirit.

In their little volume “Jesus Said,” Ron Philpchalk and Phil Wiebe said, “No other individual has so affected the course of history. Yet He wrote no books, cut no records, produced no videos or music. The closest tangible link we have with Him is a few hundred words recounted by His close companions.”[1] Just what did Jesus say to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John that I can still hear and see with very own eyes? How does Jesus speak to me?

First of all we need to feast our eyes on every word He uttered recorded in sacred Scripture. It’s right there, if we would just take the time to read it. In His high priestly prayer, recorded in John chapter 17, Jesus prayed to the Father saying,

“I manifested Thy name to the men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world; Thine they were, and Thou gavest them to Me, and they have kept Thy Word. Now they have come to know that everything Thou hast given Me is from Thee; for the words which Thou gavest Me I have given to them.
(John 17: 6-8a)

Jesus said all that He needed to say. We have everything we need from His very voice to guide us in this world. The big question is, are we listening to Him?

Secondly, to go beyond the words of Jesus is simply to listen to Him speak through His apostles. Again, Jesus prayed to His Father,

“As Thou didst send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world….I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word.”(John 17:18,20)

Jesus continued to speak through His apostles. And His words flow right off the pages of Scripture, right there in front of us. If we neglect to read and study the Epistles, we do so at our own peril. Such riches await our looking, our listening, our devoted study.

Perhaps the greatest tragedy in the Church of Jesus Christ today is the apathy of professed believers who have never shared the words of Jesus with another individual. The vast majority of professing followers of Christ have never developed an effective witness for Jesus. Rather than courageously witnessing for Him, they would rather hide their witness, except when they gather with other believers. Alas, the world sleeps in the darkness, while the church sleeps in the light.

My mother had always wondered whether her father, a Roman Catholic, had ever come to personal faith in Jesus Christ. When I was home from college one summer, staying with my parents, my mother gave me permission to search through my grandfather’s large, leather travel trunk. It had carried his personal things to China, the Philippines, and other foreign places. In it I found an amazing piece of paper, a Gospel tract, printed by the Gospel Track Society in Oakland, California. It bore a clear message of salvation and provided a line at the end for someone to sign their name signifying that they has accepted Christ as their Savior. On that line, in a familiar hand, was the name Thomas Clemens Diete.

Today people are searching for truth in many places: nature, science, psychology, world religions, focus groups and personal gurus. My life is being continually transformed as I listen to Jesus as He speaks through His recorded words. How I wish others could come to know Him. I think the time could never be more opportune to know what He said and to share it with people who are in darkness and need His life giving words.

To Ponder:

 1.  Do you know what Jesus said?

2.  Do you perceive the value of the words of Jesus and His apostles?

3.  Do you have a desire to know and follow His precepts?

4.  Are you teaching your children what Jesus said?

5.  Are you desirous of sharing Jesus’ words with others?

To Pray:

Lord, speak to me, that I may speak
in living echoes of Thy tone;
as Thou hast sought, so let me seek
thy erring children lost and lone
O teach me, Lord, that I may teach
the precious things Thou dost impart;
and wing my words, that they may reach
the hidden depths of many a heart.
O fill me with Thy fullness, Lord,
until my very heart o’er-flow
in kindling thought and glowing word,
Thy love to tell, Thy praise to show.
O use me, Lord, use even me,
just as Thou wilt, and when, and where;
until Thy blessed face I see,
Thy rest, Thy joy, Thy glory share.[2]

[1] Philipchalk & Wiebe, Jesus Said (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1995), preface.

[2] “Lord Speak to Me,” by Frances R. Havergal

The Missing Element

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“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5)

The Old Testament is old. It was not written to us in the 21st Century. It is not relevant to our culture and time. The person who says that is ignorant of what the Old Testament Scriptures reveal about the depravity of man and the holiness and eternal purposes of the God of the Universe.

To say that the laws, principles, moral and spiritual standards God gave the Jewish people have no relevance to our time and culture is to exhibit gross ignorance of both Judaism and Christianity. It is an absurdity. God said to Jeremiah,

“Behold, I put my words in your mouth. See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant…You have seen well, for I am watching over My word to perform it.” (Jeremiah 1:9b-12)

Jeremiah, like other select individuals, was called by God to deliver His message to His people – both those of faith and those of unbelief. Enlightened by the Holy Spirit, they were rendered infallible in speaking and writing. Evangelicalism in America today appears to have lost its prophetic voice. The New Testament declares to the Church,

“Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy…one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation…One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church…therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy.” (I Corinthians 14:1, 3-4, 39)

Today, as never before, the Church needs those who have been called by God to prophesy to the Church. I’m not talking about professed biblical scholars who foolishly set dates for the rapture of the Invisible Church. The gift of prophecy, as Paul stated, is for the “edification, exhortation and consolation” of the Church – the body of Christ. It is not a ministry to unbelievers. Its focus should be to call the people of God back to God and away from its absorption of our pop culture in worship and practice.

The Old Testament Prophets didn’t simply speak God’s opinion on the nation of Israel. They spoke God’s revealed word of discernment and judgment. They boldly proclaimed,

“My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water…My people are foolish, they know Me not. They are stupid children. And they have no understanding. They are shrewd to do evil, but to do good they do not know.” (Jeremiah 2:13, 4:22)

How long do you think an emergent church leader would last if he preached like that? The Old Testament Prophets spoke God’s judgment upon His people, the Jews. And in doing so they condemned the heathen around them with whom they had compromised and made alliances. They even prophesied that God would use those pagan nations to punish His chosen people.

Ancient Israel and Judah had forsaken the authoritative rule of the God of their fathers. They had amalgamated themselves with the worship of pagan deities and had sunk to the immoral practices of their heathen neighbors. Today’s emergent church, in many ways, has been invaded by the American pop culture. Emergent churches sought “new measures” for attracting the unsaved and opened their arms to our culture’s ways of marketing. In making alliances with the practices and psychology of our pop culture, the Evangelical Church has become as popular as any social organization. In doing so the traditions, creeds, theology of our Protestant forbearers have been abandoned for a message suited to satisfy the “tickling ears” of the masses. Traditional forms of worship were cast aside for new, emergent forms of liturgy. What’s missing in our Starbuck generation of relationship-building evangelical churches? What’s conspicuously absent is intestinal fortitude for pastors to preach the whole counsel of God. The gift of prophecy both in the Old Testament and the New Testament Church was and is to boldly proclaim the valid implications and applications of authoritative Scripture, whether church attendees like it or not. Until we see that on a broad scale our nation will continue to devolve in ways never resembling the greater generations of our past.

The Old Testament scriptures contain vital history, theological wisdom, divine promises, and unchanging judgments of God upon the sin of His people and those who know Him not. To ignore its truthful teachings is to incur the judgments the Prophets proclaimed. They are as relevant and applicable today as when they were first spoken. Not written to us, they are for our generation and generations to come. And what’s more,

“When He ascended on high, he led captive a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men…He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:8-12)

Where do you hear the voice of God’s prophets for this era of doom and death?

God’s Relation To The Unregenerate World

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“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.”(Romans 1:18 NASV)

Where is God? He is where He has always been, creator of and ruler over His creation.

God’s wrath is an exercise of his justice and abhorrence of man’s rebellion. God’s wrath hangs like Cicero’s Sword of Damocles over every man and woman walking on the face of this earth. Our lives hang by less than horsehair. Indeed, the very breath of God suspends them.

But why is God so angry and wrathful, you ask. Was the Psalmist correct when he said, “God judges the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.” (Psalm 7:11)

 Romans chapter 1 gives us the reasons why God sits in wrathful judgment over mankind.

Mankind suppresses the knowledge God has given regarding Himself. “That which is known about God is evident with them for God made it evident to them.” (v. 19).

  1. Mankind has deliberately failed to honor God as the God of the universe. “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God.” (v. 21)
  2. Mankind fails to “give thanks to God” for who He is. (v. 21)
  3. Mankind has become “futile in their speculations; and their foolish heart was darkened.” (v. 21)
  4. Mankind professes to be wise, but “they became fools.” (v. 22)
  5. Mankind is idolatrous. “They exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.” (v. 23)
  6. Mankind is enslaved physiologically and psychologically by the lusts of their thoroughly depraved nature. (v. 24)
  7. Mankind has elevated the philosophy of humanism denying theism. (v. 25)
  8. Mankind has turned to the acceptance and practice of the LGBT lifestyle. (vs. 26-27)
  9. Mankind has been self-subjected to every form of evil, contrary to the laws and nature of the righteous, holy nature of the Creator. (vs. 28-31).
  10. Mankind practices and gives approval to the evil actions of other men. (v. 32)
  11. Mankind ridicules any idea of future judgment by God. (v. 32)

There are a dozen divinely revealed reasons why God’s relation to man puts man in danger of eternal damnation in hell. [Read more…]

Things That Go “Thump” in the Night – Part 2

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Continued from Part 1

6. Robbing God in a world of plenty:

We are told that less than 6 percent of today’s churchgoers tithe, that is, give at least one tenth of their gross income to the Church. We explain away God’s question and answer in Malachi:

Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.” (Malachi 3:8-9)

We no longer build beautiful churches in which to worship. We build what looks like a warehouse or a lecture hall. Why? It’s quite simple: our churches are filled with thieves – professing Christians who fail to give what belongs to God – His tithe. Our church attendees think they can tip God and get away with it. We allow ourselves to join our highly commercialized and pleasure seeking culture and get smothered in either things or debt. Then we convince ourselves that we cannot “afford” to tithe. And the “devourer” – Satan – laughs at our affluency, lust for things, and failure to please God by giving Him tithes and offerings. As a result, we miss the message of God through Malachi:

“I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of Hosts. Then all nations will call you blessed, for your will be a land of delight, says the Lord of Hosts.” (Malachi 3:11-12)

[Read more…]

Be Bold

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“Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask,
and you will receive, that your joy may be made full.”
(John 16:24)

When I was growing up in a Baptist church in Richmond, California, we always had a Bible study and prayer meeting on Wednesday night. When pastoring, I always had a Bible study and prayer time in the same manner. After feasting on the Word, I would name specific things we should pray for and also ask for prayer requests to be shared. We would split up into groups of two or three individuals throughout the sanctuary. That way visitors could be welcomed and everyone could share more personal requests and everyone could pray.

Today, in the vast majority of Protestant churches, prayer meetings have been abandoned. It appears that we are too busy, personally or corporately to take time to pray. What’s it like at your church? Are there good reasons why we should gather for prayer? Here are a few reasons why I think we should.

Jesus Christ has provided our access to God’s Throne of Grace. The writer of Hebrews put it this way:

“For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefor draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.”
(Hebrews 4:15-16)

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