April 27, 2006
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Sunday when Pastor Don taught he caused me to chuckle – His first comment was so funny, “The Last Supper (Passover) was not a termination supper.”
Pentecost was a great promise God offered us, CRAZY PROMISES, promises way beyond what we can comprehend. CRAZY – beyond our normal, “you can inherit the earth,” promises of God. Definition of CRAZY – departing from proportion or moderation, consumed by enthusiasm or excitement, burning fire for promises of God, excited, intensely involved or preoccupied to the point of not being sensible. God is looking for excited beyond normal proportions., to push the bonds of what is sensible, preoccupied wit God so no one can take your focus away from Him.
We then looked at a Bible passage that changed all of Bible theology for all time. Romans Chapter 4. (Heather’s note – Beth Moore in her study Believing God had us read this chapter out loud, her hope was that we would do it at least 28 times in 10 weeks, because the teachings in this were so important for us, and showed us what belief was like).
Romans 4:1-3 What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
When you obey God, God gives you grace, not works, but empowerment to do. Abraham was righteous, not for what he did but because he BELIEVED God.
While we try to obey God, there are times when we sin. Some in the church discard those who sin, forgetting that we are being perfected by faith, not works. Our behavior will come to line up with what we believe. (Heather’s note – this is not a license to sin, because as we seek relationship with God and love God, we will choose to obey Him.)
Remember Grace is not limited to unmerited favor (that is Mercy), grace comes with a power from God to succeed. Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Our job is to get people to Jesus, He will clean them up. (Heather’s note, near Montauk Point there is a church that is said to be the last church before the point, and there is a sign in front of the church, “Go fish, you catch them, God cleans them.”)
Pastor Don pointed out that he will keep on dreaming big dreams, not seemingly attainable dreams, but huge dreams that only God can fulfill. We tend to limit God to our own understanding, but God is so much bigger than our wildest, crazy imagination.
We need to stand on the promises of the Word of God, believe that God will keep those promises.
Romans 4: 4-8 “Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.”
David figured it out, David- a man after God’s own heart, realized that faith in God even though He sinned, made him covered by the mercy of God. Remember that David killed Uriah, had an adulterous relationship with Bathsheba, and when he went to God, he realized that He had sinned and humbly begged forgiveness, realizing that he had sinned against God.
We have to have the faith to believe that we can receive from God. Our flesh is shaky, and if we rely on what we perceive in our flesh, we will easily be deceived by our senses. We have to have the faith that if God said it, God will do it.
When the self-righteous judge, they have already sinned. They are assuming that by following a list of rules and regulations that they will be very pleasing to God. While God’s rules are meant for our good, and as we learn about God we will begin to shape ourselves with these rules, it isn’t wholly about following the rules to the minutest point, it is about the heart and following the rules from love of God. Following rules was able to be done by the Pharisees down to the tiniest seed count for the tithe, but following rules and giving from a heart of love is what pleases God.
Romans 4:9-10 “Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised.” Remember that the sign of circumcision was given to Abraham long after he obeyed God, he obeyed God, not knowing where he was going, just trusting God. He was righteous by obeying God.
Romans 4:11 “And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also, and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised.”
Before God gave the Law to Moses, before God told Abraham to be circumcised, he believed in God, and God counted that as righteousness. Don’t forget that there were no Israelites at this time, that Abraham was a gentile, just as we are gentiles. We as gentiles are grafted into God’s kingdom because of the righteousness of Jesus.
Faith sustained Abraham before he was a Jew, and sustains us as new testament sons and daughters of Abraham. Faith helps us to circumcise our hearts, cut away the flesh of the heart and believe God, it isn’t act right – it is have a believing heart (remembering that what we believe we will be acting on). We have blocked ourselves up to not believe the crazy promises of God. God is better than us. When He makes a promise, He keeps it. We are constantly grading God, implying that God can’t resolve a problem. We should be giving God and A+. Here are a few key verses, Isaiah 52 the promise of the Savior; Romans 4:13 he is the father of all who believe, Romans 4:16 “…Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is father of us all.”
Moses gave the Hebrews the law, but the law was meant to be a tutor, to show us our need for the savior. No one can live up to the law, not sinning once – no one but Jesus.
Romans 4:17-25 (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed – God who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; who contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “so shall your descendents be.” And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was able to perform. And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.”
Praise God, we too will be justified as we believe on Him who God sent. Remember that Sarah and Abraham were too old to give birth, yet God was able to quicken her womb, and she gave birth to a son – Isaac. He had to believe for a long time before that happened. (Heather’s note – Abram was given the name Abraham by God, and he had to go around calling himself Abraham – father of many nations. I am certain that when people asked him how many children he had and he said none for year after year after year quite a few eyebrows were raised – but Abram believed God in the face of seeming impossibility. That is why he is honored so).
Because of Abraham’s belief, we are able to receive the promises of Jesus, so many of them. Just read John 13 onward to see some of the many promises we will receive.
John 13: 19 if we receive Him, God receives us.
John 13:34 love of the brethren
John 14:3 Jesus has prepared a place for us in Heaven
John 14:6 Jesus is the way to come to the Father
John 14:12 When we believe in Jesus we will do greater works than Him.
John 14:16 The promise of the Helper (Comforter, Holy Spirit)
John 15 Grafted into the vine, love and joy perfected,
John 16:33 Comfort in tribulation because He has overcome the world
John 17 – Jesus prays for us
John 17:12 has not lost any
John 17:13 joy
And on and on and on, even into Acts
Pastor Don says, regarding God’s promises, “God said it, I believe it, that settles it” God is not done with us. Let your neighbors see these crazy promises in you, let the tests and trials not seem like terrible tests and trials but adventures that God will see you through. Serve the Lord with gladness, be the exception, not the rule. Listen and believe that He can do His will effortlessly. Get out of your mind, you’ve been in there long enough, start acting on His promises, not limiting His power.
The Psalm that Pastor Don shared with us was Psalm 145, oh how comforting that Psalm is, the verse that stood out to me was, verse 18 “The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.”
Pastor Don allows us to teach from the pulpit too, and Michael spoke about the Good Samaritan. I will share that tomorrow, I just love how we can look at the Word of God and find depth of wisdom in it, and new treasures are unearthed. God is such an awesome God.
Here’s hoping you have a blessed day!
Heather
Comments (15)
Very interesting information, sure glad God keeps His Word!!
Mike
I’m slowly learning to dream those big dreams.
Have a blessed day!
Michele
I read your post on someone else’s site about forgiveness and appreciated your thoughts. Thanks!
Wow, this is like the 3rd or 4th post that I’ve read since I posted my own similar thoughts yesterday about realizing your life is all about grace rather than the “dos” and “don’ts” of the law. We miss so much of the blessings of God by being all caught up in trying to earn His favor…like it was ever for sale for us to purchase… He already took care of that tab, PTL. And sadly, the lost only see who we are not instead of who we are. Thanks for the message today. Blessings ~Sherry
I like your Pastor Don. And you for how you post it! Thank God for His grace!
good thoughts
HI Heather..
Thanks for the comments.. sorry I wasn’t able to get back to you before now. Was such a busy day on Tuesday and Wed, but things have settled a bit more now. It seems like more and more people are in a “crisis state”… I truly believe we are getting closer and closer to that day when the Lord will say… “Children, Come home”. Have a blessed day in the Lord.. and appreciate your post as well.
Phil
Appreciate your writing! Let us all strive to advance God’s kingdom!
Kenneth
I came to what I believe by reading the Bible without reading the latest fad book and by asking a lot of questions. When I came to Christ, I believed in abortion, End Times as a Premillennial dispensationalist, and that Satan had a lot more influence than the Bible relates. I got more and more concerned and disgusted as I read Scripture, studied it, and began to place what I had been reading and hearing with what the Bible truly taught. I was surprised to learn that what it actually taught, was not what was being espoused by some. I found those, who like me, wanted to actually know more about the Bible and not what the latest author said about it. (They did not have to tell me they did, it was evident.) If the person had a certain proclivity to preach, like KJV only, you have to have the “second blessing” of the Holy Spirit, baptism to be saved, worship only on Saturdays, that we have to look for the “signs” for Jesus coming back in 1988, Y2k, or other such drivel, I usually left and did not look back. I began to read books on church history, the Reformation, the Catholic Church, and Baptist beginnings by many differing authors. I sat down and wrote out what I believed (theologically) according to what I found in the Bible and realized I was more of a Baptist than anything else! I was also blessed to be able to go to a theologically conservative seminary, Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, Northwest Extension, that encouraged a questioning Christian mind.
I have read the entire New Testament in the Greek several times, my Hebrew is awful. I read the Bible, especially the New Testament in a different translation or version at least once a year. (I just got done reading it in the CEV.)
Also, as a pastor, I feel it my responsibility to teach all that I learn within a biblical context. This is why I very rarely preach the same sermon twice. (Probably only three times in my whole ministry have I done this and usually it was a first-person drama.) If we say we teach the ultimate truth, then anything biblically that helps people to understand it better is my responsibility to teach. Also, I come from an occult/Catholic background where I literally tried out every religion out there before I was 22 years old – sometimes with the help of well… let’s say “outside” stimulation. Hinduism, Hare Krishna, Buddhism, New Age, Pentecostalism, Rosicrucianism, Latter Day Saints, Seventh Day Adventistism, Jehovah’s Witnesses and atheism. When I tell you that I investigate something, it is not by reading someone else’s book, I get involved, read their writings, talk to their people, and assimilate what they are teaching. Now, of course I process it through the Holy Spirit.
I was brought to Christ by a man named Willie Love. (Cool, huh?) He and I loved to work on computers. (This was way back during Commodore 64 days and before 286s. Those who know computers will know what I mean. It was when the Internet was just for us geeks and only text where your modems were 8K and 16k. A 28.8k was so fast!) Anyway, he asked me one night (I worked swing shift at a can plant, was a group lead, newly married, and full of myself) if I knew Jesus. I related that I had been brought up in a “Christian” (Catholic) home. He said that he meant a relationship and not a religion and he challenged me to read the Gospel of John. I lied and told him I owned a Bible, but to “prove” him wrong, I went out at lunch and bought a red-letter KJV Bible and read John’s Gospel. I could not put it down. I went home early and reread every verse again and again. I could not believe what I was reading. No one had ever told me that this is what the Bible said! The next evening, Willie asked me if I wanted to give my life to Jesus. I told him, “NO!” Then I went off by myself, made sure no one could see me, and prayed to ask Christ into my life. Later, as we were checking out to go home, Willie looked at me and said, “You accepted Jesus, didn’t you?” He knew! What had got all of this started was that Willie had given me a copy of “The Late Great Planet Earth,” by Hal Lindsey. Which, I later found out, had little biblical reality except at that time it had helped me to focus on Jesus.
The two books that since have had a huge impact on my life and that every Christian should be commanded to read, besides the Bible, are Hannah Whitall Smith’s, “A Christian’s Secret to A Happy Life,” and they should have to go through the discipleship study by Henry Blackaby called, “Experiencing God; Knowing and Doing the Will of God.” It would solve a lot of the problems churches and Christians face with trying to be like the world and catering to the lost instead of teaching the truth.
These books teach you to think and to know how and where God is working. You don’t do it by guessing, hoping, or wishing. If Christ has saved you, you have all there is. In fact, Blackaby’s Seven Realities of Knowing and Doing the Will of God, are not only biblical, but have changed the lives of those who have gone through the study. It has changed people’s lives, whole churches, and ministries. It is not a step-by-step program but a biblical discipline that shows you through Scripture to know how God is working in your life. We are doing it for our youth right now. We are in our second week and it has already challenged several of them to get serious about reading the Word and looking at their lives in more of a God-oriented way. (These are youth.) Every time we do this study, people see themselves called into ministry or into areas they never thought possible before.
To put it bluntly I do not worry about the end times, demons, or the world because if I am following the Lord, those things are not a part of my life. My life is lived for Jesus. As I follow Him I look to see where He is working and I join Him there. I do this for witnessing, winning the lost, and in my teaching as well. I have learned the biblical truth that it is not my job as a pastor to win all the people, disciple all the people, and to get all the people moving in one direction. It is God’s job as He works in the lives of His people in His church. Everyone is encouraged to win the lost and to disciple them. Yes, we have Sunday School and Discipleship classes as well, but we also encourage folks to find out where God is working in their lives and join Him there.
I have found that if the leader of a church focuses on certain areas, then that is as far as the people will grow. So, I am very careful to not get stuck in a mode too long. I have seen churches that get stuck teaching end times junk or working with alcoholics and it begins to be a detriment to their church. Everything begins to focus on that, and God may have been trying to get them into another area, but they have “this ministry” and do not want to move away from it. They become spiritually myopic. I have seen it with spiritual gifts, homeless ministries, clothes closets, inner city missions, and such. Go back and look in the Bible and tell me how many churches had these things? Churches in the New Testament were called first to help folks within the church, not outside of the church. So what does this mean? Do we neglect the world? No, we win the lost, bring them in, and minister to their needs within the context of the church. It makes stronger and more dynamic Christians that can go out, win more folks, bring them in, disciple them and such. Do we help start missions? Yes. Several Romanian churches, several Anglo churches, a contemporary work, Japanese, and Korean churches and ministry points. We help the Gideons, Crisis Pregnancy Centers, English as a second language, starting the ministry of Setting Addicts Free Eternally (SAFE) all over the NW, missions in Ecuador, and in other small churches in Nebraska, Idaho, and here locally. We are headed to San Francisco in August to work at an inner city church with a young man who was called out of our church to go to seminary there, who works at this church. Every year we go door-to-door in our church’s neighborhood prayer walking and handing out fliers and gospels of John.
And finally, I have a huge sense of humor because I have discovered that God does and so did Jesus! I know that God never gets upset with me when I ask the “tough” questions. He always helps me to see the answer He desires. Life is too short for me to worry about my past or to get caught up in the future. God has it all under control and He knows where my life will lead. I have the power of the universe living in me because of Jesus and nothing can harm me spiritually. Nothing, if I am walking in Him. I enjoy pushing people to think, even if it means they get frustrated with me, because God desires that we all grow in Him and sometimes it demands we get challenged. If we cannot support what we believe by systematically using Scriptures, without worldly rhetoric or pithy Christian slogans, we are not strong in Jesus or His Word and we open ourselves up to our emotions or worldly philosophies that seem right but are unbiblical. (Did I leave anything out?) I hope this helps.
By the way, I have been involved in exorcisms and your pastor sounds like a neat man of God.
Huge blessings in this post!
Thanks for sharing it with all of us.
Glenn
Dear Pastor Blastor,
Thank you for sharing your testimony. I too came to God by reading the Bible. I got a leading from the Spirit to “give God one last chance” and I read the Bible from cover to cover twice. (I have since read it many more times. I just finished a slow reading looking for Christ in the Old Testament, in places like the description of the tabernacle, and the stories shared, trying more to see God’s handprint, looking at prophesies fulfilled and unfulfilled as mentioned in Dake) I am not certain what you mean by the current fad books though. It is only this year that I have started reading a few books on apologetics, and some biographies of well-known Christians. My Revelation studies are ala Kay Arthur who compares scripture with scripture. While I cannot read Hebrew or Greek I do know how to use a concordance and look up the original meanings of the words and find much hidden gold in those meanings. I guess at some point Hebrew and Greek would be good to learn, and perhaps this old horse – 54 years old as of last Friday might try to learn that. It has only been four years since I have come to Christ, and two years before that were I was reading the Bible and asking tons of questions. Before that I pew sat with my husband and kids, resenting having to go to church. I too was very much into the occult and tried many of those cults that you mention – I do not consider Catholic a cult (although some of their teachings are not Biblical they do worship God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit). I also did not get involved with the Jehovah’s Witnesses. I at one point was a priestess of a coven of 150 witches in Chicago, and also had initiations in other occult practices such as santeria and macumba. I have read Hannah Whitehall Smith’s book and worked my way a few years ago through about 1/2 of Blackaby’s book – I can see you liking Blackaby as he seems to have a similar point of view to you - at the time I was doing the book I wanted to drop kick it across the room. I was still sorting out a tremendous anger against God – and Blackaby was not the book for me, perhaps one day I will get back to that book, but for me right now Beth Moore is easier for me to work with, but even that can be challenging.
Right now the discussion I had on my site had to do with a question someone posted on their blog and I wanted to answer it, and in a way that did not come across as dramatic. I too get disgusted with some of the farces on TBN, and some of the deliverance ministries that look for a demon in every person who walks through the door. Most of what people term demon or attacks by satan is really not working on one’s self or following God’s will. But I have seen real demon problems too, and Pastor Don used about 1/2 bottle of oil on my head in my first years of counseling, for I truly had spirits hanging around me. I didn’t recognize it, for I was a good witch, doing healings, and other occult things. I had opened myself up big time. For what it is worth, many of those claiming to be in the occult are also just playing around, not taking it seriously. The coven I was in was a teaching coven, which involved studies of the same depth that I now do with the Bible, and classes, exams, etc.
I actually finally saw a bit of your humor and it pleased me because before that I felt that sometimes you seemed rather overbearing to me and it kind of scared me. I grew up in a home with an overbearing father who frightened me, so I guess I respond more to gentleness and suggestion and humor. It took me a long time to get comfortable with Father God, Abba, for just that scared me. And I used to fear that God would be as harsh in judgement as my father was.
When I walked through the doors of Living Word Chapel, Pastor Don was teaching Bible study from the book of Romans, and he goes through the Bible chapter by chapter, verse by verse. Sometimes he goes into topics that people request, and for the past six months we have been doing discipleship, but Pastor Don believes in using the whole counsel of the Bible, not just particular topics that are pet topics. In fact he is fond of saying that you need to find more than one isolated example in the Bible, from different authors, before you can say something is a Biblical fact. And that you have to look at passages in context, asking who the person is talking to, and why, and what were the circumstances surrounding the teaching.
I guess one of the things that I do care about is making sure that people realize that God is still in the healing and miracle business. That shingle was not put up once the last disciple died, it did not die with the early church. People need to know that God is still more powerful than we limit him with our minds, and that He can still do miracles and touch lives in more ways than we can ever imagine. Salvation is vital and one of the most important miracles in a person’s life, but it is not the only miracle possible. I think we tend to box God in, and He does not like to be boxed in.
Thanks for sharing your testimony, it really helped me to see you in a different light. I do enjoy reading your posts, but sometimes wondered if there was a warm and caring person behind the posts. Now I can see that there is.
Heather
I (indirectly) came across Micah 6:8 today (in regards to following the Law/a set of rules): He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
I thought it was pretty cool – God requires not that we follow the Law, but to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with Him.
Hope you’re having a great week, and sorry I haven’t been around to comment much here lately. One of these days I’m going to “catch up” (I keep saying that! lol). 
RYC: yes, we have to reprogram our minds when we get saved. Hence the scripture–be transformed by the renewing of your minds….Our minds are corrupt to the core since the fall of Adam. This is why we have to forget everything we know and choose to have the mind of Christ. When you have an intimate relationship with God and truly know God it becomes easy to trust Him for you know in your heart that He will never leave you nor forsake you. When you intimately know God. you know that His plans for you are plans of good and not of evil to give you a hope and a future. When you don’t really know someone it is hard to trust them, but when you really know someone and know that they love you and their intentions for you are pure then you can trust them.
HEY HEY HEY I KNOW I DONT KNOW U BUT I WAS GIN TO GIV U MY XANGA NAME IN CASE U WANTED TO COMMENT ME ON THIS NAME WELL LIKE I G2G C/B LATA
~!MEAGAN!~
A very nice discussion,…and I agree, God CANNOT be boxed up and contained in our understanding,…
God Bless you all,
Robert