Mercy To All

It's Been A While

2007-11-12T16:46:00.000-08:00

Well, I lost my hard drive and along with it my password (all of my passwords) and the know how to get into the blog and it took so long to get everything back, all my enthusiasm went away for blogging anymore.

When I finally decided I needed to get back to a place to let the hot air out and tried to get back to blogging, they had changed the whole setup of how to access the site and so it took me another couple of weeks to sort that out. . . . .

So, I'm back. . . . .

Now what do I do? Hmm! I think I want to alert the world that the paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways , but narrower viewpoints. Racism and homophobia are rampant. Our society's appetite for waste is insatiable. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness. We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space, but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things. We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less. These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom.

Digging For Hidden Treasure

2006-06-22T18:33:00.000-07:00

Most of you, I’m sure, have heard the parable of the Emperor’s New Clothes. How everyone agreed with everything the tyrant said or did. The people were so afraid of him they didn’t dare disagree with him publicly. Then when he paraded his new suit, which supposedly only wise people could see and anyone who was stupid could not, one young boy had the nerve to shout out loud, "The Emperor is naked!" The bystanders repeated what he had said over and over again until everyone cried, "The boy is right! The Emperor is naked! It's true!"

I have been a Christian for over 50 years; receiving Christ as a child. I grew up going to a Bible church in Dallas, Texas. Bible churches are very close to Southern Baptist theology in their beliefs. They seem to be a sort of a Dallas phenomenon – closely aligned with the Dallas Theological Seminary. After 25 years, I was steeped in a conservative fundamental theological point of view and proudly claimed to be a “fundamentalist” before it came to have the negative connotations it has today.

Twice a week, each Tuesday and Wednesday evening, I teach Bible study for my church and also a sister church in Dallas. Recently I was trying to decide on a study topic. I was standing in line at the grocery store checkout and noticed on a kiosk a book that had been important to me in my formation years. The title of the book was Know What You Believe by Paul E. Little. I bought it because I thought I could use it to build a study-guide to teach some foundational doctrines to my people. When I got home, I eagerly opened it to begin writing my outline only to realize how very far I have moved since the “good-ole-days.” I simply don't believe the same things I believed when I was a young whipper-snapper - most of us don't. Our beliefs change with time and maturity.

Today I would describe my ministry, as I have come to understand it, as being directly linked to the ministry of Jesus Christ. Jesus explained His mission in Luke, chapter 4, starting in verse 16, reading from the New American Standard Version:

16 And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. 17 And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written, 18 "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD."

- Luke 4:16-19

Like Jesus, my job as a minister of the gospel is to set those who are oppressed free and to release the captive. I want to show light to those who cannot see. I am here to preach the real gospel – that is the good new about God’s free gift of grace.

Over the past 30 years, I have had to ask difficult questions. Like the boy who pointed out that the Emperor was naked, I have just been pointing out some of the obviously naked lies we have been told. Not all of my ministry partners have understood. But ever since I saw the Emperor going up the cathedral steps naked as a jay-bird, I’ve had difficulty in just taking the preacher’s word for it.

Not everything they told me was wrong: They told me about a Savior. His name was Jesus. God, His Father, had sent on my behalf to die at Calvary. They told me that salvation was mine by faith. They told me that I could have a personal relationship with God. They told me many other things that I have since verified in my heart through the testimony of the Holy Spirit.

But most recently they have been proclaiming a message that I do not recognize. Some of them are so busy proclaiming their prosperity, they don’t have time to minister to those stricken with AIDS. Some of them are blindly holding up their tradition, and are failing to give sight to the blind. Others are spending such an inordinate amount of time keeping people in bondage, they would never set them free. If you are like me – you are tired of this charade put on by the church.

The church does not exactly have a pristine record. It was the church that sent warriors to the Holy Land in the 12th century to kill for Christ; it was the church that instituted and sold indulgences to save the dead; it was the church that taught anti-Semitism and sponsored the Inquisition between the 15th and 16th centuries. The church has led the way in the extermination of “infidels.” Through their influence and in the name of Christ, people were condemned as witches and burned at the stake.

They have taught that blacks were inferior to whites, backed the institution of slavery and later the Jim Crow laws that kept segregation in the south for almost 100 years after the Civil War. They have opposed all kinds of scientific advance on the basis of Christian doctrine including astronomy, biology, archeology and medicine. They don’t like abortion for any reason; are not friendly toward women’s rights and are in opposition to the ordination of women. In the past, they took the lead opposing mixed race marriages and gender reassignments. They have most recently have made it clear that they are firmly entrenched against same-sex marriage, claiming that this somehow threatens to destroy the institution of marriage and the family.

Some today are calling for the Constitution of the United States to be re-interpreted and if need be amended to reflect the "Christian" values they say the founders intended from the beginning. This would include the death penalty for adulterers and homosexuals. These people really scare me. Just as Marx Brothers assessed in A Day At The Races, “They may be honest, but you gotta watch ‘em” which I feel sure is giving them too much credit.

Within myself, I struggled with my own sexuality for 38 years; believing that I had somehow at some point chosen the wrong sexual orientation. Because I followed the reasoning they had given me, I was asked to believe that I was an abomination before God. I knew that I somehow had to get my sexuality under control, but try as I might, I was simply unable to stop my attraction to those of my gender. But sex seemed like an addiction to me; its allure could be found everywhere I went. Was I really such an embarrassment to the Lord? It appeared that God had made a big mistake because my libido was enormous.

Then one evening in 1979 as I was teaching a Bible study from the book of Galatians, I read:

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

– Galatians 5:16

The group asked me to explain what Paul meant by “walking in the Spirit.” I had to admit I didn’t know, but from that day until now, I’ve been trying to find out. Its the answer to finally put to death the deeds of the flesh. Why didn’t those preachers all those years ago tell me what it was? When I asked them about it, they did a little shuffle. It was like they didn’t want me to know or they didn't know themselves. I suspect the latter. I would have to look into it for myself.

After all the years of hiding who I was, I finally came out in 1985. Those who knew about it told me that if I were really serious about the ministry, then I would have to change my lifestyle. Some even told me that I couldn’t possibly be a Christian and be gay – that I was on my way to hell, but the interesting thing was that my "walk by the Spirit" began to happen at about the same time - and the His testimony in my heart did not condemn me in any way for my sexual orientation. Hmm! Could it be that I had been lied to?

I don’t have much memory of living without the Lord in my life because I had received Christ at such an early age, and because of that, it was pretty difficult to swallow any suggestion that I was not saved, but the critique challenged me nonetheless because I was very biblically oriented. I needed to understand from a biblical stance how I fit into the Kingdom of God.

Clearly I was certainly not going to get any sympathy or affirmation from the my fundy church friends and pastors. Today the rhetoric has gotten so loud and the pressure so intense that no card carrying conservative fundamentalist could possibly take a stand in support of the gay issue. If I was going to get any answers; if I was going to get at the Truth, I was going to have to dig for it myself. So to start, I was led to the words of Jesus in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 6.

19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; 21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

– Matthew 6:19-21

How do you “store up treasure in heaven?” Jesus was speaking of a relationship between the treasure and the heart. What is the treasure, anyway?

One good Bible study method is to take a key word, like the word “treasure,” and look it up in a Bible reference book – a concordance. Find out how many other places in the Bible it is used and how it is used in the various contexts. It turns out that the word “treasure” in this case is the Greek word thesauros. And according to Thayer’s Greek Lexicon it means

1) the place in which good and precious things are collected, like a storehouse -or-

2) the things laid up in a treasury, collected treasures.

The word is the same in Latin and is the root of our English word thesaurus, which, according to Webster, is a book where you’ll find a collection of synonyms and antonyms stored. Its second meaning is the same as the Greek, a treasury or storehouse. This is the beginning of understanding of what Jesus meant when He spoke of treasure.

Here’s another passage where Jesus uses that same word:

44 The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field."

– Matthew 13:44

In this passage, Jesus explains that the treasure is so valuable that it is worth trading everything you own to obtain it. Now I have my suspicions about what this treasure is, but I turn to one last passage to help me understand. Jesus is speaking to the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 12.

33 "Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. 35 The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. 36 But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. 37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."

– Matthew 12:33-37

Notice again in this passage the relationship between the treasure and the heart. Jesus has added character descriptors to the treasure, which remember according to Webster, is a storage vault. It is described as either a good or evil treasury that can be identified by the good or bad fruit stored in it. But, “What is this treasure?” Verse 34 tells me that the storage location is the “heart” and releases the words that come out of people’s mouths. And the explanation given in verses 36 and 37 is that these words will either condemn or justify the person using them on the day of judgment. The treasure isn’t the words themselves, but the words reveal the character of the treasure – whether it is good or evil – and they apparently provide the evidence that forms the basis of a decision to be made concerning each individual on the day of judgment. Does this sound like something we should be concerned about?

As amazing as computers are for the storage of information, your brain, which is the personal computer you were born with, is even more amazing. It goes a step further than mechanical man-made computers by introducing intuitive and conceptual ideas. The brain classifies its information into ethical categories. Often religious teaching – not always based on factual information – is strongly ingrained at an early age in the root programs of our brain and errors in this data are truly difficult to correct.

But Jesus said, “The mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil.” This is nothing but a restatement of, “garbage in, garbage out!” The lesson here is that we must sift the data that we put into our brains. We’ve probably gone for many years unsifted, which allowed many impurities into our databanks; which means we’re going to have to root out the bad stuff and not let it in anymore.

Jesus goes on to say, “that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” This is serious business that apparently has eternal consequence.

Your world view is what you may refer to as “your truth” or reality and is constantly being shaped and reshaped by input. From it we issue our edicts and opinions, our critiques and criticisms. The composition of your reality determines the content of the output; thus the character of the output yields the character of your treasure. But how does your reality measure up to the Truth?

Is there an effective method for screening data before we save it to our hard drives? The right-wing conservatives’ answer is to destroy records, burn books and ignore opinions that do not measure up to a carefully measured standard filtered through narrow minded thinkers. This would probably work except the standard is completely inflexible and never allows for questions and virtually cannot be changed. It is so rigid that it causes more frustration than it fixes.

The left-wing liberals are not any better – except perhaps they have a special appreciation for diversity, which is extremely abhorrent to the right. But they are unwilling to venture very far into the realm of the subjective – which is where 90% of the things of faith reside. So they tend to not even consider anything but objective data. This leaves the miraculous basically out of the equation. The result is that liberal religion is largely bankrupt of any super natural power.

In John’s gospel, Jesus tells us that, “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.” (John 14:17) He tells us that if you are serious about finding the Truth, you must commune with the Spirit of Truth and obey His commands. In doing this you show your allegiance to God and He will come to you and reveal Himself to you. (John 14:21)

If this is correct, we simply have to learn how to walk by the Spirit. I will admit that this method of digging for the Truth can be a lonely venture because it is not the method prescribed by the major schools of thought. Most people seem to be more comfortable with one end of the spectrum or the other. My methodology lies between these two extremes.

1. To discover the Truth, one must first have a personal relationship with God. Paul also tells us that, “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” (Romans 8:9) The Spirit has been poured out on those who have been identified as believers and those that are led by Him are the true children of God. (Romans 8:14)

2. To discover the Truth, one must be allowed to ask questions. The only way to lay a foundation of knowledge that truly belongs to the individual is through asking questions and looking for the answers using the mind, will and emotions, but using the Spirit as the deciding factor for all input. Never assume anything. We must have the active input from God in order to know what His will is. (James 1:5)

3. To discover the Truth, one must have a predetermined disposition to obey whatever commands come across the spiritual connection through revelation by faith. There is no need to bother with this process if you do not intend to obey His commands; but if we do, we will enjoy His favor wherever we go and in all we do. (James 1:25)

Are you tired of those that continually assign you to hell – who blame you and your community with the responsibility for the events of 9-11 – who claim that meteors in space will be used by God to destroy American cities because of their acceptance of homosexuals – who blame the gay community for Katrina, for tornados – or believing that God is vindictive at all? I’m tired of these lies being lifted up by church leaders; fed to gullible ignorant church-goers being led to believe that some secret gay-agenda is going to destroy the American family. They are lying! I’m sick of it and believe it or not, there are some in our own community who perpetuate these myths by supporting the liars.

Christ died so that we could be set free – free to be ourselves – free to serve Him in love and free to minister in the name of Jesus. The only way out for us to be free is to know the Truth. We cannot figure out the Truth through the exercise of logic – the only way to know the Truth is to have an encounter with the Holy Spirit. The treasure of the Truth awaits all of us who by faith come to know it. “He who has ears, let him hear.”

Rev. Bob Ellis

www.MercyToAll.net

The Problem of Sin or The Frustration of Trying to Reform The Flesh

2006-05-20T17:46:00.000-07:00

Four preachers met for a friendly game of golf. As they teed up one preacher said, “You know our people come to us and pour out their hearts, confessing their sins and their needs. Confession is good for the soul. Let’s do the same.” They all agreed. So the first one admitted that he was prone to lose his temper from time to time. The second confessed that he liked to golf so much that he had faked being sick on occasion so he could play on weekends. The third, in a whisper, admitted that he had sneaked a peek at a pornographic magazine and liked it. When it was the fourth preacher’s turn, he wouldn’t confess – but the others pressed him. They said, “Come on now, we confessed – now it’s your turn – what’s your secret?” Finally he answered, “It’s gossiping and I can hardly wait to get back!”

I don’t like the word sin. It’s a difficult subject to talk about – especially in our community. There are some that think, especially in the gay community that all this talk about sin is just a scare tactic by right wing conservatives attempting to keep people in their place. But sin is a real issue and I want you to know that the real enemy wants us to focus our attention to those people who are waging their fingers and tongues so that we won’t look at the real problem of sin.

After attending church, President Calvin Coolidge (known as a man of few words) was asked by a friend what the minister spoke on – to which the president replied, “Sin!” The friend asked, “What’d he have to say about it?” President Coolidge told him, “He’s against it!”

It is said that the word “sin” comes from an archery term to describe an arrow shot towards a target, but falling short of the mark. This gives me a better understanding of Paul’s words in Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” From that verse we not only have the clarity of the analogy of the arrow falling short of its target, but also the realization that all of us are guilty. This is easily forgotten, but very important to remember.

Paul goes on to say that we “are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3:24-26)

All of this is to say that the eternal consequence of sin has been eradicated. Having been justified by faith, we need no longer be concerned about how it will all turn out in the end. Our worries are not about the sweet bye-and-bye ~ but about the toll that the activity of sin takes on the quality of our lives in the nasty now-and-now. It is to tackling this “problem” that much of the Old and New Testament is dedicated.

First, a couple of weeks back during the Wednesday night Bible study, the topic of the “unforgivable sin” came up. We spoke briefly about it, but I didn’t feel that we had covered it adequately. So I did some research in hopes that we might better understand this much misunderstood topic.

This issue comes up in a passage in Matthew chapter 12. Jesus heals a blind man who was also deaf. The people were amazed, but the Pharisees made the remark, “This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.” The text says that Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to them in verse 31-32, “I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.”

What exactly is “blasphemy against the Spirit?” Is it possible to accidentally commit this sin? I have gotten this question several times from people through the years who think they may have somehow committed this sin – this unforgivable sin.

There was a man, who after attending a revival meeting and hearing sermon about this sin, was convinced that he had somehow committed it. He lived in agony for a number of years until he realized that his turmoil was the result of being convicted by the Holy Spirit and he was being drawn to Christ – which would not be possible had he in fact committed this blasphemy.

The people who commit this sin do not care about the things of God. Billy Graham says that, “All other sins against the Spirit are committed by believers, but not so with blaspheming the Spirit. This sin is committed by unbelievers.” So what is the sin of unbelievers ~ unbelief. God’s grace covers all sins but unbelief. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is to draw everyone to Christ. According to Jesus, this is His job. (John 15:26) His purpose is to bring conviction to the world – convincing them about their need for the Savior. Those who are convicted are those who have put their faith in God.

Those, however, who do not believe do not see God as relevant, are not depending on Him and are not receiving His grace for anything and therefore cannot be saved. This is the unforgivable sin and is really the only thing that can despoil the benevolence of God. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the power to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.” (John 1:12) Conversely we could say, “as many as did not receive Him, He did not give them the power to be God’s children because they did not believe in His name.”

In Stephen’s dying breath he recounts the resistance to the Holy Spirit that the “uncircumcised hearts” always have. (Acts 7:51) Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit then becomes the conscious rejecting of the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. But a person striving with the Spirit has not committed this unforgivable sin.

For Christians the problem is not the struggle to gain eternal life, but the struggle to live eternal life; what we often refer to as the spirit-filled life. The sins we need to focus on are not listed somewhere in the book of Leviticus, but they are sins against the Spirit of life that will impede your progress. In Ephesians 4:30, we’re told, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”

Could this be the same thing as “blasphemy?” No. The word “grieve” describes an emotion felt by people bound in a love relationship and refers to the Spirit’s love for us. Though we talk about the Father’s love and Jesus’ love for us – the Holy Spirit loves us too. We’re in a love relationship with God through the Holy Spirit. If our behavior is the source of hurt or pain for those that love us, it causes them to grieve. We may hurt or anger someone who has no affection for us, but we can only grieve someone who loves us. Anger and hate are feelings we could cause or get from anyone, but grief comes over people we love or who love us.

So how do you grieve the Spirit? Paul seems to be saying (Ephesians 4:29-32) that whatever we do that is unlike Christ in conduct or speech grieves the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. (John 14:17) If we latch on to a lie and stand it up as the Truth – surely that would grieve the Spirit.

He is called the Spirit of Faith. (2 Corinthians 4:13) If doubt dominates our responses and we are driven by distrust, anxiety and worry – we are grieving the Spirit.

He is the Spirit of Grace. (Hebrews 10:29) To the extent that we allow bitterness, callousness, unforgiveness and unloving acts to command our behavior, we are grieving the Spirit.

In Romans, Paul says the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of holiness. (Romans 1:4) Holiness is to be purposed toward doing the will of God. So anytime we knowingly deviate from God’s will, we are grieving the Spirit.

All of these are examples of how we hurt (grieve) the Spirit.

If we say to those around us, “Unless you are good, I won’t love you!” we are grieving the Spirit. Parents who suggest to their children that their love is dependent upon good behavior are certainly grieving the Spirit. Jesus told us that whatsoever you have freely received freely give. Parents certainly have a right to ask their children for good behavior, but to hold them hostage by threatening loss of love. Surely we can see how wrong this is. This is wrong thinking as we can plainly see, then why do we do it?

Some of you believe that this is the way God treats you. In doing this you reveal the lack of love you have in your heart. Let me explain. If you believe that God’s love for you is contingent upon your performance – if you believe that God withdraws His love based on your bad behavior, then you are accusing God of doing the very thing that you see so clearly as wrong thinking. Let me remind you that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39) God’s love for you is unconditional. He will never leave you nor forsake you. (Hebrews 13:5)

We should desire to live a life that is pleasing to the Holy Spirit; striving not to bring Him grief. But therein lies the problem, “striving.” It seems the more I try, the more frustrating it all becomes. So there is also the issue of “quenching” the Spirit. (1 Thessalonians 5:19)

Could this be the same as blasphemy of the Spirit? No. It’s extinguishing a fire. To quench is to put out a fire – the fire of the Holy Spirit. Our intellect and reason can get in the way sometimes, of the enthusiasm generated by the indwelling Spirit. They can put a damper on the manifestation of His release. Yielding ourselves to be a conduit for the personality of the Holy Spirit, we begin to express the character and work of Jesus Christ – but sometimes we abandon the sweet abandoned expressions of the Holy Spirit in favor of more sensible behavior. In doing this, we quench the fire of the Spirit. This interferes with God's redemptive work. We should let God do what God wants.

There are two ways to put out a fire . . . . .

1: You remove the fuel source. The sources of fuel for the operation of the Spirit are prayer, an active witness, praise and worship, Bible study, and fellowship. If for any reason we begin to remove these fuel sources, we begin to quench the Spirit.

2: You cut off the oxygen supply by smothering it with water or dirt. We’re told that, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23) But, if we let negatives take over our conduct: criticism, impatience, discontent and unkindness. We are destroying the very thing we are trying to establish.

I was teaching a Bible study in 1978 in Lubbock, Texas. The passage was Galatians chapter 5. Verse sixteen says, “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” Someone that night asked me, “How do you walk by the Spirit?” I had to admit that I did not know. But I saw for the first time a pragmatically clear direction on how to defeat sin in my life. So from that day until this, I have been on a quest to understand what it means to “walk by the Spirit.” It is vital. If you want to experience the Victory in Jesus that was promised, you've got to find out how to walk by the Spirit. Walking on your own power is futile. Jesus gave me power to become a true child of God and He’s given that same power to you and everyone who by faith receives Him. The Spirit is real. It is through Him you live and move and have your being.

You say you have tried to do all the things I have suggested. You’ve tried and failed. The reason you find yourselves so frustrated in your attempts to defeat sin is that you are trying to reform the flesh. You cannot reform the flesh – you must stop trying to reform the flesh and seat Christ upon the throne of your heart and walk in righteousness (right standing in God). You must get a personal relationship with Christ.

There was a man years ago who used to travel from town to town appearing in carnivals and side shows around the country. He challenged people to try and make him smile and win $100. By paying a dollar the people were given the chance to do it. As far as I know he never smiled. He made a living and got into the Guinness Book of Records for doing nothing.

Unfortunately perhaps many of you have mastered the art of doing nothing. When the Spirit urges you, “Let go!”, you say, “I can’t!” When the Spirit says, “Speak!” You say, “I’m afraid.” The Holy Spirit is urging you toward your freedom – but you are resisting Him and will never find your freedom until you let go of your dignity and your false pride and release Him to do as He wishes. In order to save your life, you must first lose it!

God has given us a tremendous opportunity to serve Him in these last days. We have the power to make an impact on our community – to set them free from the bondage of the cycle of sin and death. But in order to set them free, we’ve got to be free ourselves.

You are in control. Your will determines your behavior. The quality of life that you enjoy now – whether you are rich or poor – is in your hands. There is no need to blame anyone for your problems. It is not your parent’s fault, though you may trace bad attitudes, hang-ups and bad habits to them, you are now in charge. And only with the help of the power of the Holy Spirit, can you be victorious over the sins in your life.

The reason I say sin is a non-issue is because it is only an issue, if we make it the issue. With God – it is history. Is the glass half empty or half full? If you look at your life as victorious, you find yourself doing victorious things. If you look at your life as problematic and damaged, all you’ll notice are the hurts, heartaches and disappointments. But “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.” (Philippians 4:8)

There is a way to get to a place where we can “rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:3-5)

Rev. Bob Ellis

www.MercyToAll.net

What's So Good About The Good News?

2006-04-18T21:51:00.000-07:00

The Gospel message is revolutionary. In Paul’s day it was considered to be heresy by the Jews and madness by the Gentiles. Their evaluation might have deterred a lesser man, but Paul was not swayed from teaching the simple truth.

Now, apart from the Law (of Moses) the righteousness of God has been made known to us, through the testimony of the Old Testament writers. According to them a relationship with God has been made available to us through faith in Jesus Christ and for all who believe. No one can claim any merit before God; for all have sinned and have fallen short of God’s perfect standard of acceptance, but each can now be justified as a bona fide gift by the grace of God through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. – Romans 3:21-24 (BRV)

The first thing you realize after doing the research on this subject is that the Gospel message is the most revolutionary revelation in the history of mankind. It truly is “Good News”, but it’s even better than most people think. It is definitely better than portrayed by the modern church. Theirs is a Gospel message telling of heavy duties and responsibilities; all owed to a God who stands ready to punish those who displease Him and doesn’t hesitate to do so through trials, tribulations, diseases and financial woes. Though grace is mentioned in the telling of this version of the Gospel, qualified performance is heavily emphasized, to the extent that unmerited favor seems to be trumped by good behavior, making grace virtually meaningless. In this understanding, true faith is always accompanied by certain specific acts that, as it is told; are demonstrative of a real conversion. This expected standard of morality amounts to nothing more than judgment pretending to be righteousness for without grace the Good News isn’t good at all. It’s nothing more than a New Testament continuation of Old Testament Law keeping, but listen to Romans 5:

For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. – Romans 5:6-11 (NASB)

What seems to be so difficult for many people to come to grips with is that God loved the world so much that He made a way for the guilty to go scot-free. The Good News is not that a few relatively good people could be saved because of their good deeds, but it is that through simple faith, all who approach the throne will be accepted. The Gospel is “the good news about God’s free gift of grace!” (This will be on the test) Let me repeat that. The Gospel is “the good news about God’s free gift of grace!” When asked, “You mean God is letting the guilty go free?” The answer is, “Yes!” No one will be turned away because of sin, because the consequence for the sin condition was eliminated by the selfless acts and spilt blood of Jesus at Calvary.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. – Romans 1:16 (NASB)

Some have somehow forgotten that the power of the Gospel is in its radical-ness. Our job as ministers of the Gospel is likened to priests who dispense the blessings of God to the people. It is not our job to judge them. Freely you have received, freely give. Grace in, grace out.

I needed to boldly remind you in writing about some important points concerning God’s grace granted to me, a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, like a priest, dispensing the gospel (the good news message about God’s free gift of grace), offering to God true believers (humbled by the impact of the simple message) certified by faith and sanctified by the Holy Spirit. – Romans 15:15-16 (BRV)

The enemy wants us to forget the true Gospel. He has been largely successful in getting many of God’s people off track and confused about the necessary day-to-day routine of receiving and dispensing of grace. It’s about grace, not judgment. We are not to judge (condemn) others or ourselves – but we must master the daily routine of putting on the shoes of the Gospel of Peace. Yes, this is the peace that passes understanding (Philippians 4:7). It is the peace given to us by the Lord Himself, unlike the peace the world gives (John 14:27). World peace is based on the circumstance of life, but the peace of Christ walks right through the difficulties of life with complete confidence and joy.

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. – Romans 5:1-5 (NASB)

This is all ours as we come to know the love of God in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. His love, received by faith, transforms us from mortal weaklings into supernatural giants.

Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. – Colossians 3:14-15 (NASB)

Rev. Bob Ellis

www.MercyToAll.net

Setting People Free

2006-02-17T05:39:00.000-08:00

When I was in elementary school, there was a man that caught the attention of the entire nation. Because of his raw courage, all of us have found new freedom. I dare say that we could not be meeting here today if it weren’t for this man’s vision. He set his mind on undoing the shackles of Jim Crow. The year was 1955. I was 8 years old. That man was Martin Luther King, Jr. At that time he was 26 years old, a member of the executive committee of the NAACP. He was an ordained Baptist minister who co-pastored the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia with his father. He lived at a critical time. Seeing the oppression of the African American community, he decided to do something. His vision for a free America was founded on the New Testament teachings of Jesus Christ and the apostles and his techniques were built on the principles of non-violence demonstrated by Mahatma Ghandi against the British rule in India in the forties.

In December of 1955 he led a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama that lasted 382 days and got over a major hurdle when on December 21, 1956, the Supreme Court of the United States declared the laws requiring segregation on buses to be unconstitutional. During the year of the boycott, Dr. King was arrested, his home was bombed, he was subjected to all kinds of physical personal abuse, but in the end he emerged as the pre-eminent leader of the civil rights movement in America. For eleven years Dr. King traveled over six million miles and gave over twenty-five hundred speeches. He appeared wherever there was injustice using the strategy of protest and civil disobedience; and found time to write five books as well as numerous articles.

I remember going to the Cotton Bowl in 1962 – observing the signs above the restrooms and the drinking fountains that said, “Whites Only.” Dr. King was a visionary who understood that the destiny of the white man was tied to the destiny of the black man. If one is in bondage, the other is also; and in his speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in the 1963 march on Washington, he revealed that he had a dream of little black boys and black girls would be able to join hands with little white boys and little white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. White people were scared of him even though his methods were clearly non-violent. Oppression and bigotry are always scared when truth and justice show up. When the light shines in darkness, and the darkness cannot comprehend it. Oppression and bigotry are built on lies and ignorance; they hide in shadows of fear – when the light of truth shows up – they have no where to hide.

In 1963 he directed a peaceful march on Washington, DC. 250,000 people listened to his "l Have a Dream" speech. He conferred with both President John F. Kennedy and President Lyndon B. Johnson and was largely responsible for the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Over the years he was arrested over twenty times and assaulted at least four times. He was awarded five honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963; and became not only the symbolic leader of African American but also a world figure. At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize.

While in the Air Force I was briefly stationed in Montgomery, Alabama in 1978 and took a special trip to drive the route that civil rights marchers had taken from Selma to Montgomery. I drove across the famous Edmond Pettus Bridge where marchers were beaten by police in 1965. Dr. King had not been there on that day – still recovering from his jail time experience in Birmingham.

Dr. King knew the danger he represented to those enthroned in bigotry; who without shame flaunted their racism in resistance to the changes being wrought by the movement. He remained strong, even when he had a clear premonition of that final evening of his life April 4, 1968. While standing on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated by sniper’s bullet. He was only 39 years old.

A couple of years ago the Fellowship 2000 conference was held in Atlanta, Georgia. While I was there I did some sightseeing. Atlanta is a great place to do that sort of thing. With Atlanta’s rail system, a pedestrian can easily move throughout the city, which in my free time I did in the three days I was there. On one of those occasions I decided to visit the Ebenezer Baptist Church, just southwest of downtown Atlanta. It is the church where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his father and grandfather before him had been the pastors – and Martin Luther King, Jr. was co-pastor of that church when he died in 1968.

The old church building is still owned by the Ebenezer Baptist Church – though Sunday services are now held in a beautiful modern structure across the street from the humble building that Dr. King preached in. I entered the brick church building and walked up a short staircase into the sanctuary and sat in the fourth row from the back. It was a small humble auditorium. I was all alone in the room, listening to a recorded message, delivered by Dr. King many years ago. As I sat there looking around the humble sanctuary, the sun was streaking through the stained glass windows. Behind me there was a small balcony area; I guessed the auditorium held around 300-400. The platform area was roped off. Two large throne chairs sat behind a simple pulpit and a round stained glass window of Jesus praying was situated above the baptistery and choir loft. I sat there listening to the familiar echo of Dr. King’s sermon and the christianeze rhetoric we all would recognize – it was as though I was reliving a church service – it was awesome. Tears welled up in my eyes as I thought of that great man, although slight of stature, shorter than six feet tall standing at the pulpit. In that moment I thought about, the awesome courage it took to start a revolution with the simple proclamation of freedom.

In Dr King’s time, the stereotypes of the African-American race ruled the reasoning of many white people – it is a fallacy of human nature that continues to crop up today from time to time – it is why prevention against discrimination based on race or skin color has got to be one of the most important basic human rights that we have in the USA. Occasionally, people need to be reminded. Can you imagine what it would be like in America if the consciousness of the nation forgot the importance of this principle? They would begin to put up the “Whites Only” signs again.

Last week at the during the one of the scenes from a play presented at the Heritage Celebration banquet, I heard one of the players say, “Everybody knows about Martin Luther King, we all know what he did.” My immediate response was, “No you don’t!” I don’t believe this generation fully appreciates just what Dr. King did. The generations since that troubled time, especially African Americans are the beneficiaries of Dr. King’s struggle – but I do not believe any of us fully appreciate the gift that he gave – not just to people of color, but to the whole human race. For you see, you are not the only ones he set free, we all got set free.

When I think of the hate and prejudice that Martin Luther King faced in 1963, it astounds my senses – the enormous odds against his success – the suspicion he endured from all government levels and even many of his own people whose militant ideas would surely have shipwrecked the movement. I found something in the dream Dr. King had. I realized that it was really a revelation. He saw that all of us were in bondage, not just African Americans, but us Swedish Americans too.

What was it that he saw in his dream that kept him going all the way even to death? He was on a mission and he knew exactly what it was. Dr. King knew that what he was doing was the right thing. Like Moses, he set the people free. That’s when the lights came on for me because I know what my purpose is. I’m here to set people free too. I know for sure that this is what I’m here to do. Our purpose is tied to his. We’re all here to set the captives free – starting with ourselves.

Galatians 5:1-6,13 (BRV)

1 Through His death and resurrection, Jesus liberated us from the tyranny of the legalism, but in order to remain free, you must stand firm in your liberty!
2 So I say to you, if you subject yourself to judgment under the Law, the finished work of Calvary is completely useless to you.
3 Legalistically submitting to God, believing that He accepts you on the basis of your performance; remember, you must adhere to the whole Law, not just the parts you pick and choose.
4 Grace cannot save you because you are not relying on it and as a result, you are cut off from Jesus.
5 Right standing before God has been granted to you through the witness of the Holy Spirit with your spirit on the basis of your faith,
6 whether you keep the letter of the Law or not. It makes no difference. All that matters is faith working through His precious love.
13 for through Christ you were granted liberty from the jurisprudence of the Law and as a result, now, you are free to share this new covenant message of God’s unconditional love with everyone.

Dr. King saw that he could set people free by demonstrating freedom and getting people to follow him. Our people need to be set free too. When I hear a news report talking about the gay community and what they are doing, being a part of the gay community, my ears perk up to find out what we are doing, but most of the time I feel I am being misrepresented. There may be some truth to what is being reported, but it’s like me and my point-of-view don’t exist. When Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson talk about the “gay agenda,” they are NOT describing me or my values. As a “gay-Christian” I seem to be invisible to them. I get really furious with the analysis that John Hagee and James Dobson present concerning our community based completely on the stereotyped gay community. They're always talking about the "gay agenda" like we had some meeting the other night and decided what we would do. That's certainly giving us too much credit. Would that we were that unified and organized, like the Civil Rights movement of the sixties. It upsets me to see my people being led to slaughter by believing the lies spread by these supposed Christians and others. They are spinning stereotypes about who we are and what we’re about - lies that seem monumental to overcome. I want to set our people free, but also set those like Falwell and Robertson, Hagee and Dobson free too - free from condemning and being condemned. The message of the gospel is a message of freedom, not bondage.

We can do it! It’s the right time! And it’s the right thing to do! We have the right message, and we have the opportunity! We can set them free! But how? We must practice freedom – practicing your faith means consistently hearing the words of Christ.

1. Jesus said, “I came that you might have life, and have it in abundance.” Abundant life is gained by receiving grace. Romans 5:17 says that those who practice receiving grace, reign in life. Don’t just believe this as a doctrine of “how you are saved,” but put it into practice. This is done daily, moment by moment, in reliance to the advice and consent of the Holy Spirit. It protects you from:

a. Fraud – the devil is a liar and the father of lies. Deception is his main tool to keep you off guard and cause you to stumble.
b. Fear – the steps of a person guided by the Holy Spirit are indeed ordered by the Lord. We are free from providing our own security force if we are relying on the Holy Spirit to guide our steps.
c. Fault – by receiving the grace of God we are declared righteous in His sight. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sins – past, present and/or future. We can and should ignore critique from everyone, except the Holy Spirit.

2. Jesus said, “Freely you have received, freely give.” Like the manna from heaven, God’s loving acceptance was not meant to be hoarded – it was meant to be shared. The nature of those who have received grace is to be full-of-grace, gracious toward others. Loving unlovely people is not easy, but if you are going to minister to those He has called, get used to broken people. It is never going to go smoothly. Perhaps if you are having trouble sharing, you are not receiving. Check yourself.

3. Stand firm. Stay focused on the revelation of God. Don’t lose track of what it is that God has told you to do and don’t let any under your charge lose their focus. Remain steady as your ship may heave to and fro under the influence of the wind and rain. Keep the compass pointed toward Jesus. Stand fast in the liberty!

We can have the impact in your life that Dr. King did. I am challenging you today to make a stand. We have the message that can set people free and an opportunity to tell them. Where else can people hear the words that bring everlasting life? (John 6:68) But first you’ve got to be set free yourself. You can’t set others free if you’re bound yourself. Next, you’ve got to focus on what God wants you to do. What you want to do has got to be secondary to what God wants you to do. And when you know what that is . . . . then you’ve got to do it – no matter what.

Rev. Bob Ellis

www.MercyToAll.net

The Standard of Holiness (Revised)

2006-01-06T02:29:00.000-08:00

This is a reprint and slight revision of a paper I did some years ago when asked to write about "holiness."

"Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, 'YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.' If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ." - 1 Peter 1:13-19 (NASB)

Holiness. A word greatly abused by a few and misunderstood by many. As with many teachings in the modern church, the doctrine of "holiness" has been intentionally mis-defined by some trying to maintain control over the behaviors of other members of the church. Whatever the real standard of holiness is, it cannot and should not change with the social morays of each generation. It is changeless and has to do with the things of God, for all that He is in relationship with is holy.

Most of the time in the modern church "holiness" is treated as a sort of "Code of Conduct". It is narrowly defined by those who need to dominate and held up as the standard that God has set over the head of each person. It is used to judge the spirituality of each person. The old Judaic Mosaic Law was understood to be inadequate to bring about real redemption. The early church began to realize that a new law had replaced it - the "Law of Grace" introduced by Jesus and expounded upon by Paul.

But almost immediately this "Law of Grace" was challenged for its short comings: its inability to control people's behavior. Though God has not changed His mind about grace, some have gone ahead anyway and replaced the "Law of Grace" with a new set of laws narrowly defined by the church elite. A law of "holiness." They carefully define the do's and don't's for their people and call it holiness. These standards may be okay for those associated within that group, but they often spill out on to others. When this happens, the church finds itself put into a position of condemnation and is perceived by onlookers as judgmental. This kind of "holiness" is not only unattractive, it drives people away. But is this what holiness really is? Can holiness be nothing but a new law defined by narrow-minded conservative beliefs?

In the Old Testament we are introduced to the God of Holiness, Whose Name is holy and in Whose presence one is compelled to remove their shoes because even the ground is holy. The Hebrew root word kawdash' carries the idea of being set apart for special purpose; appointed or ordained by God. While we usually feel this is a characteristic of the behavior of saints, holiness applies to all believers and everything else that has to do with God. The altar of sacrifice is holy and everything that touches the altar is holy. The priest himself is holy; all of his tools and his vestments are holy. From this standard given in the Old Testament law, we learn that holiness is a state of being proclaimed by God, and not attained through obedience to puritanical teaching and / or good behavior. The command for us to “be holy” can therefore only be understood as the practice of being holy because you have been ordained by God to be holy.

Peter no doubt quoting from Exodus 19:6 reminds his readers:

"But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY." - 1 Peter 2:9-10 (NASB)

We are holy – we just need to act holy. So many Christians do not know they are holy. They do not know they should be holy, but would if they knew they were supposed to and knew how. What is the key to acting holy and how do we do it? There are seven steps:

1. Recognize God. This is simple, but perhaps the most missed step. God’s character is the standard for holiness since He is the God of holiness; even His Name is holy. We’re told to "acknowledge Him in all our ways, and He will make our paths straight" (Proverbs 3:6). Looking for God everywhere and seeing God in everything is practicing the presence of God and trains us to see how He "causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28) "For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God." (Hebrews 3:4)

2. Recognize yourself. You are a sinner saved by grace; a servant whose Master is the King of the Universe, but a servant nonetheless. Too often when God empowers us for some task, a memory loss overtakes humility and pride rushes in to fill the gap. It is God who is working His will through you. Not you by yourself. So as you make your plan of attack in ministry, do so with reverent fear and humble piety. (See Philippians 2:12-13)

3. Worship Him. Stay on Him. The joy that a dog shows anticipating his master's return. The excitement he demonstrates as the sound of the front door lock is heard is our example. His loyalty is unquestionable and his dedication is certain. Be loyal to God in your relationship and give Him no cause for uncertainly about you. He is a jealous God. We should look forward to being in the Lord’s presence, close to His glory. Worship is a fancy way of saying, “I love you!” and we should take every opportunity to bring praise and honor and glory to His Name.

4. Let Him wash you. The Greek word hagios means holy: to be set apart unto the Lord. A derivative word, hagiazo is translated to the word "sanctification," which a word used to talk about the clean up brought about by God’s Spirit as we yield ourselves to His control. It is necessary; (John 13:8) even Jesus was sanctified in truth. Speaking of His followers, Jesus prayed these words on the night before His crucifixion:

"Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word." - John 17:17-20 (NASB)

Paul’s mission, given to Him by the Lord who commissioned him on the way to Damascus for a ministry to the Gentiles, "to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me." (Acts 26:18) Faith sanctifies.

5. Fix your mind upon Jesus. "Turn your eyes upon Jesus" as the hymn says. "Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace." I thank Peter, John and Paul for their observations and their contribution to the faith of all believers. But the power source for our faith as declared by Paul is Christ Himself. Many decisions we make are determined on the basis of clearly right or clearly wrong sets of circumstances. But most of life is lived in the gray zone where we need the mind of Christ in order to make godly decisions. With love leading the charge, humility and mercy bring up the rear as we tackle real life situations using the mind of Christ. (Philippians 2:1-8)

6. Turn away from sensuality. Most people think that this means sexual sin. But sensuality is more than that. It is the practice of validating truth by using the five senses: taste, smell, touch, sight, and hearing. I would also add intellect, which is the "figuring out" center receiving the input coming from the senses. Gathering information from the five senses and determining truth based on that data may seem spiritual to some, but it is not from the spirit. It is pure soul life. Truth can only be realized through a supernatural encounter with God.

"So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way." - Ephesians 4:17-20 (NASB)

As we learn to hear the voice of God, the Holy Spirit, we grow accustomed to His ways and we can leave our natural ways of thinking a doing in favor of hearing His voice and responding in obedience.

7. Operate under the power of the Holy Spirit. The scripture declares that in order to defeat the flesh, we must walk in the Spirit. (Galatians 5:16) And Paul instructs us, "as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him." (Colossians 2:6) How did we receive Him? By faith. So our walk, after receiving Him by faith, is also by faith. According to Jesus, the three-fold ministry of the Holy Spirit is conviction. (John 16:8-11) Like a lawyer addressing the jury, we listen to Him by faith we become convinced of sin or righteousness or judgment by faith. Unless we listen to Him by faith, we cannot rightly discern truth, for He is the Spirit of Truth, whose assignment is to reveal truth to you. In our spirits we hear the Holy Spirit by faith.

After mastering these steps, and indeed while in the process of doing so, we are declared holy. Why, because we belong to God and He belongs to us. Operating by faith, God is pleased. (Hebrews 11:6) Guided by the Holy Spirit, we are sanctified by truth: focused on both understanding and doing the will of God.

Rev. Bob Ellis

www.MercyToAll.net

Making The Most Of Our Time

2005-12-26T07:59:00.000-08:00

Be careful how you walk, using wisdom, making the most of your time, because each day has its distractions. – Ephesians 5:15-16 (BRV)

Each year at this time, many of us review what happened during the year. We recount the events in newsletters and diaries or just in discussions around the table. The centerpiece of the discussion is usually around those who are no longer with us – specifically those who were with us last year, but have since died.

Last year at this time, Eric’s Uncle Rodney after having discovered he had cancer and had begun the process of fighting a tumor in his brain by having it removed and nearly died in surgery. He bounced back and we did everything we could to make his Thanksgiving and Christmas a special time in 2004. Even though there was speculation about it, 2004 turned out to be his last Christmas – he died in October of this year on the cusp of the holiday season. How many Christmases do you have left?

Scientifically speaking – from the moment of your birth, your body begins to decay. In the early cycle of your years, growth occurs as the cells of your body die off and new ones take their place. It does not seem like death because cells are being made faster and in higher quantity than they are dying. But when the maturation process is completed at somewhere around thirty years, growth stops and a slow decline of powers begins its campaign to finally release the soul from bondage to the body. Diet and exercise can help the process take longer, but eventually death comes for all.

I read a story this week about a missionary name Jim Elliot. I actually learned about him when I was in college. His wife, Elisabeth, spoke at a missionary conference I attended in 1967 in Urbana, Illinois. Jim had a call on his life to be a missionary. The urgency he felt gripped his spirit and his zeal was apparent to everyone who knew him in those days. The Holy Spirit directed him toward South America and when the opportunity arose to join a mission team in Ecuador, he set sail in 1952 and stayed in Quito for six months mastering Spanish. He learned of the Auca Indian tribe – a group isolated in the jungles that had never been given the opportunity to hear the gospel. Jim’s response was, ‘why should he tell people who have heard the message two or more times, when he could be telling people who have never even heard it once?’ Trouble was that this tribe of Indians was unfriendly and dangerous. Every known white person that had come in contact with them was either missing or dead. Jim and his friends remained unchanged from their determination by this information.

In 1953 Jim set up camp in an abandoned oil rig station near where the Aucas lived and began a campaign to show them his friendship – for two years Jim and the other missionaries dropped food and provisions by air into the Auca camp including their pictures so that when they went in, the Aucas would know who they were. After several encounters with tribal members, Jim felt they were ready. They prayed together and ask for the Lord’s protection. After singing the hymn, “We Rest On Thee,” they radioed their wives they were going in and the five men went out to meet the Aucas in January of 1956. They were speared to death. Jim was 29 years old.

If you knew how long you had left, would you change anything in your life from what you are doing now? Would you live your life any differently? In Rodney’s case, the disease swept his ability to do much of anything different away from him. He could only focus on survival in his time left and he did not have much, if any, time to look at making changes to his lifestyle.

The Bible says that our days are numbered. There is a day appointed for each of us – a time to live and a time to die. We do not know when our last breath will be taken. Death can come slowly or quickly – but we are never certain which breath will be our last. We at least know that after this Christmas we’ll have one less Christmas to celebrate than we did before it passed. Christmas is a time of celebration – a time of worship. We should see it as an opportunity to show how much we love our Savior – and we only have so many Christmases left. Each Sunday services are held to worship with God’s people. It comes around each week, but we only have so many Sundays left in our lifetime. Each one is an opportunity that may not present itself again. How much do you need to know to change your course? Your days are numbered and the time is short.

At Christmastime seems like we are plagued with the telling and retelling of the Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol – how Ebeneezar Scrooge got reformed of his selfishness in one night after a visitation of ghosts. The ghosts opened his eyes to the error of his ways by showing him the past, present and future and how his behavior affected what was, is and will be. Ebeneezar repented and changed his ways. Instead of a crotchety old miser, he became a much loved, benevolent old gentleman and spread happiness wherever he was. Ebeneezar seized the moment of opportunity and became a better man.

One of Jim Elliot’s sayings was, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” After Jim’s death, Elisabeth Elliot, his wife, later went into the jungle and met up with the Auca tribe herself. The very individuals responsible for the death of her husband and the others heard the gospel message. They were converted and received Christ. She later published a book telling about these events named after a phrase in the hymn, “We Rest On Thee,” – The Gates Of Splendor.

A song that I have often signed is called “For Such A Time As This.” It begins with these words:

Now! All I have is now, to be faithful; to be holy; and to shine lighting up the darkness. Right now, I really have no choice, but to voice the truth to the nations.

The truth is – the only day we can be certain of is today – and it’s not over. As the scripture says: "TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS." Now is all any of us really has. You don’t have much time. Is your task finished? Have you completed your orders? Are you ready to crossover? What do you need to accomplish before the time comes? What are you doing to finish the course so that you might walk into the presence of the Lord and hear Him say, “Well done good and faithful servant!”

Rev. Bob Ellis

www.MercyToAll.net

Checking Up On Myself

2005-12-23T03:11:00.000-08:00

I have an acquaintance who is a pastor at a Baptist church here in Dallas. I only know him because we worked at the same place together and were even on the same team for a while. I was inwardly a little shocked when I found out he was a pastor. I would never have picked him out as even a church leader because he was not very outgoing - seemed kind of shy and a little bit withdrawn. I always thought pastors were friendly and people oriented; and showed interest in others. But he never did that - at least not with me. When this sort thing happens; and people are unfriendly toward me, I have always concluded that their unfriendliness was the result of some kind of discrimination - wrong hair color, skin color; wrong gender. Any of these might have been the issue that kept this pastor from being friendly toward me - I don't know what it was. I just found it odd that he was not at least curious about who I was and what I was about.

Then, I realized that he had gotten a dose of what I was about. Someone he had talked to, had told him things about me that had formed his initial impression of who I was and what I was like. And without his own firsthand examination - he had categorized me and put me into his files under the label he had prepared on the basis of what he had heard. My reaction to this treatment was a certain amount of hurt. Now no one gets used to being rejected, but you would think with as much experience as I have had with that emotion that I would be used to it - but to me it is like the first time every time it comes; and especially from God's people. It grieves me. I guess I expect more from them who, supposedly after "humbly" receiving grace (undeserved favor) from God, snub others. Shouldn't they turn around and give that same grace treatment to others? To protect my back I let judgment set in. I then categorize, label and file that person under "Pharisee" and go on.

Then I got to thinking - "How does that make me any different from him?" The answer of course is that it doesn't - it makes me just like him. I am no different than the Pharisees I so disdain.

When we walk with Jesus (if we truly walk with him) there is no time to create such a filing system. These kind of filing systems require extensive attention; filing is tedious work, the chests get heavier and heavier each day from the weight of the paper they contain. Lugging them around while walking with Jesus is not only against the character and work of our Lord, it's impractical. You might think the way to go is electronic. That way you don't have the hard copies to drag around - it's all in a database. But filing electronically while certainly more compact, is nearly as tedious. No, truthfully the business of walking with Jesus is incompatible with record keeping. Paul said it in 1 Corinthians 13:5, Love "does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered."

The ministry of Jesus was and is "love!" As ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we must love others. In order to love others, we must first love ourselves. But in order to love ourselves, we must first receive His love for us - without all of these steps - we are doomed to be Pharisees. All we have without love is selfishness - and the seed of selfishness breeds contempt in those it is sown. In Jesus we have the foremost example of selflessness, therefore those who would follow Him and certainly those who claim to represent Him here on this earth - who claim to have inherited His ministry must also walk in selflessness. Categorizing, labeling and filing must cease. We don't need it. For now there is "no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death." Now, the requirement of the Mosaic Law can be fulfilled in those, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (See Romans 8:1-2, 4) If God Himself does not keep records of the offenses against Him - who are we that we should keep accounts of wrongdoings against us?

Rev. Bob Ellis

www.MercyToAll.net

Examining The Roots Of My Faith

2005-12-09T00:24:00.000-08:00

I was raised in a "Christian home." My parents had been "born again" as adults. They had both been raised in a very liberal Methodism where apparently they had never heard or understood that it was not just church attendance that made you Christian, but it was personal acceptance of Christ that made one His true follower. After attending a home Bible study they had been invited to by friends, they both became convicted that they needed personal faith in Christ. A short time later they both had conversion experiences. After receiving Jesus into their hearts by faith, they were born again and were baptized in a swimming pool near Denton, Texas in 1950 something. I remember watching from the poolside as my parents were immersed by the pastor of our church, Alden Gannett.

This fresh newfound faith was the atmosphere into which I was raised. One evening at bedtime prayers my mother presented me with the option to receive Christ into my heart. So when I was only four years old and I did receive Him and He has been with me ever since - now 54 years. I was taught that the Bible was the infallible word of God and walked in that precept for many years - but then my faith took a turn when I began to see the fallacies and inconsistencies in the scriptures. Until then, my faith was based on the accuracy of the text, but something changed.

All along my faith has been experiential. God has not been with me all these years because I believe the right doctrines and always confess the right words. It is only because He is faithful and true and I know Him as a personal friend. His love has filled me with the joy in which I now stand. Nothing can ever remove the love we share. Recently an interview on the radio caught my attention - the interview was conducted by Diane Rehm with Bart Ehrman, who is a professor of Biblical studies at the University of North Carolina. I normally give little attention to intellectual discussions I see on TV or hear on the radio because they are not dealing with faith issues - they are only dealing in the intellect - scientific issues. This is why I see no conflict with Darwinian theory and my faith. To me, that whole debate is asinine. My faith has nothing to do with scientific discovery - but it also has nothing to do with whether the Bible is accurate or infallible.

Dr. Ehrman's credentials were impressive. What caught my attention was description of his own conversion experience - how through Campus Crusade for Christ he was introduced to the evangelical brand of Christianity and then he attended Wheaton College, a noted conservative fundamentalist evangelical Christian college in Illinois. He then proceeded to further educate himself at Princeton Theological Seminary where he received his doctorate. He explained on Diane's show that after studying and learning the scientific evidence behind the New Testament scriptures that he now described himself as a happy agnostic. This caught my attention. I recognized the lingo he used. He spoke "Christianeze" fluently. It was clear that he had had a "conversion" experience when he was college age. According to my belief system, if he truly accepted Christ into his heart back then, he remains a Christian now. But I think there are many so-called Christians that like Dr. Ehrman, who received a "papier-mâché faith" - and at the least little spark of controversy or critique or criticism, it bursts into flames and disappears into a puff of smoke.

My faith is an experience. It is about the God who is there - Jehovah Shammah (Ezekiel 48:35) Faith built on the externals such as people and things will ultimately crumble under the scrutiny of time or at the challenge by any other ism. But faith built on experience, an encounter with the God who is there can never be denied. Moses always remembered the burning bush. He knew, no matter who questioned it, that God spoke to him that day on Mount Horeb - even though he could not necessarily convince others, he knew. Originally I came to understand my faith based on the infallible word of God - but now I know that the scriptures only provided the road map to Mount Horeb where Jehovah Shammah introduced Himself to me 54 years ago. The accuracy or inaccuracy of those words cannot refute the experiential knowledge of the Holy that I have. For me the Word of God is not a book translated through the ages of time, but it is a living experience - God speaking to me each day in my heart.

Rev. Bob Ellis

www.MercyToAll.net

Hypocrisy, Bigotry, Rejection and Other Popular Christian Characteristics

2005-11-12T07:17:00.000-08:00

"I'll get you my pretty; and your little dog too!" These were the infamous words of the Wicked Witch of the West to Dorothy Gale as she sought to find a way out of the land of Oz. Some people think this is the way God is; and not without reason. Their belief is perpetuated by perhaps well-meaning but very self deceived so-called Christians. Basically, they believe that God is out to get you and me. It's as though He is staked out; watching for you to make some mistake; and when it happens, He siezes the opportunity and hits you over the head with His hammer! Then returning to His position, He is poised awaiting another slip-up.

This is not the God I know. It's some other god over in the next county. Evangelist Pat Robertson, responding to the voters of Dover, Pennsylvania recently, who voted out all eight pro-creationist school board members, who wanted their schools to promote the teaching of "intelligent design" (the belief that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by a higher power) as an alternative to the theory of evolution, said, "I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God. You just rejected him from your city."

This, of course, is completely silly, as is almost everything Mr. Robertson says. He in no way represents the God that I know - the God of compassion and forgiveness - the God of grace. The God I know loves with an everlasting love and His tolerance and patience with us is unfathomable - which explains why Mr. Robertson can still breathe. There are many other false teachers out there whose unfortunate influence through television has reached the masses. Many of these people have been subjugated by their legalistic views of Christian doctrine. The good news of God's totally free gift of unconditional love is all but completely lost. The lessons given to us by Jesus about forgiveness and tolerance are waived in favor of exclusion and condemnation for those that do not meet the acceptance standard of the TV evangelists. The woman caught in the very act of adultery (John 8:4) would have been stoned by this standard. The wayward prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32 would not have been welcomed home. Like the older son, they would have rejected him and sent him away if they had their way.

The homosexual community experiences this hate filled message of rejection posing as righteous indignation nearly everyday. This lie makes people believe they are actually doing God's will by excluding gay people and in general making their lives as miserable as possible by supporting anti-gay marriage initiatives, legalized discrimination against gay people and church policies that shun gays and the people who say anything positive about them. This is nothing less than homophobia gone rampant dressed up and called righteousness. They do this saying that they don't want to be seen supporting such a perverted lifestyle.

The church should be leading the way in promoting acceptance and understanding, regardless of whether or not they think homosexuality is a sin. But instead they are at the core of the hostility against homosexual men and women - people for whom Christ died. After all, they are just people, many of whom are dying without the Savior, because the people of His church will not come and preach the true gospel of grace. They have forgotten that they are sinners saved by grace too. The grace message is about acceptance in spite of sin - it's not about rejection because of it. The church continues to rattle on and on about the sin of homosexuality as though it is the primary reason for Jesus' mission. Truth is, Jesus did not even mention it in a society that was cultivated by the Greco-Roman world innundated with homosexual relationships. If it was so important, why did our Lord not say even one word. It is because Jesus was not about condemnation and rejection - He was not even about correction. He was about love, forgiveness and acceptance of those ex-communicated by men. He reached out to the down and out to those who were alienated and disenfranchised. This does not characterize the modern church. They have departed from the God whose love was so great, "that He gave His only begotten Son." (John 3:16) They have forgotten that God demonstrated "His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

For Paul, there may have been "no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1) But, in the church of the 21st century, there is plenty of condemnation to go around for homosexuals and just about anyone else who would speak out against the evangelical fundamentalist Christian point of view. Thank God, their rants and raves do not represent those of our Father in heaven, who sent His Son into the world, not to condemn it but to save it. (John 3:17)

Rev. Bob Ellis

www.MercyToAll.net

Blessed - Exchanging My Will For His

2005-10-18T10:15:00.000-07:00

What does it mean to be “blessed?” We all want God’s blessing – most of us anyway, but what is it? It is God’s favor. Do you want God’s favor? How bad do you want it?

Do you remember the TV game show, “Let’s Make A Deal?” Monte Hall would select contestants who had dressed in rather interesting and provocative ways to gain his attention; and as a result of gaining his favor, they were given opportunities to select prizes behind either door number one or door number two. Behind door number one was a toaster, a barbeque set and a lifetime supply of Windex. Behind door number two was a luxurious car, a boat and a cruise to the Bahamas. Which contestant was “blessed?”

To make it clearer, at the end of the show, Monte would go to the “big” winners and offer them one last deal. They could trade their prizes for something else – something unknown – hidden behind a curtain or in a box. What if the exchange was for either $10,000,000 or God’s favor? Which would you take? Be honest.

Looking around this room, we see those that have come here for this meeting – some of them may give us pause – we never expected to see them in a gathering like this, because we knew them in days past under much less sanctified circumstances. The point is that no one here is here against his or her will. God has made each one of us with the ability to choose. He has bestowed upon us freewill. Created in His image we were designed to be free agents with the power of choice just like our Creator. Whatever we as His created people decide, within certain constraints, is binding – and God, who we have proclaimed is not limited in His abilities; though He may be able technically to violate your will – has determined that whatever your desire is, He will honor it. But think on this - if He is able to violate the freewill He made you with whenever and however He wants to – then you never really had a “free” will in the first place. If we cannot really choose Him if we want to, our response to Him is nothing but a programmed response – our love for Him, technically speaking, means nothing – it is merely software, properly following the logic prescribed by the code writer. The strict adherence to this sort of intelligent fatalism is called Calvinism. Goodness, i.e., doing good things, is a program – but then so is badness also. Of necessity, we must attribute God with the creation of evil because we have proclaimed Him to be the creator of all things. Following this line, all are predestined to heaven or hell per the logic of the program. The outcome has been determined. But is the truth so simple? The real truth, it would seem, is deeper still.

If our choices are illusory, blessing is not God’s favor for those who have chosen Him – it is only God’s favor for those whom He has chosen. This is teaching is commonly called “predestination” and presents a doctrine describing a God who has made everything and prescribes the movements of all things. He is responsible for life and death and is the determinate cause of all things. While I see the necessity of ascribing the characteristic of “omnipotence” to the Almighty, I also see that, as presented, predestination is only half the truth. The biggest trouble with this doctrine is that it systematizes and theologizes what we know about God and makes it stiff, boring and impersonal. It abandons experience as a formulating factor in understanding truth and builds it purely to dogma. When you add personal experience I believe you find the real truth. Our relationship with God has certainly been established as a result of His choosing us, but perhaps even more importantly, our decision to accept His invitation and choose Him back. Without this freedom to choose, God cannot experience what the redemption of mankind was reaching for. God needs our choice to bring about glory for Himself. Robots cannot give Him glory. Our relationship with God is a love story not systematic theology. In choosing Him we bless Him and the blessing from Him is made complete. It’s the most precious deal of our lives. Those who choose Him may not get $10,000,000, but they will receive His favor and His promise to neither leave nor forsake them (Hebrews 13:5).

Something else happens when we receive God’s favor, something really cool – He causes us to suffer (Acts 9:16). Doesn’t that sound fun? Since God is our Father, His desire is that His children should receive the abundance of all things. While He has purposed to lavish us with His blessing, it is not without cost. Everything worthwhile provided by God for us can only be fully appreciated through suffering. In this way we will be able to share not only in the suffering of Christ, but also in His glory (Romans 8:17). God wants us to fully understand Him by gaining a perspective of His character incorporated into our character. This can only come about through suffering. This “suffering” is not punishment, but a privilege (Acts 5:41). The early church understood this. Upon actualizing on “what God has done,” the proper response can only be suffering. That word seems abhorrent. No one wants to suffer. But is this true? In a relationship with another person, in order for love to be actualized, suffering must happen. It is the yielding of the will in submission to the will of another that suffering is best understood. The freewill of each individual is not violated, but each is influenced to do something they would not have chosen to do otherwise. Selfish desire is set aside for the benefit of the other; a benefit that the other person did not necessarily earn. This unearned benefit is called “grace.” Suffering then is the fulfillment of what it means to be blessed because it allows grace to flow in both directions. Both parties are beneficiaries.

The initial encounter with God seems to be the most exciting. In his first encounter, Moses saw a burning bush on the slopes of Mount Horeb. The bush burned and yet was not consumed by the flames (Exodus 3:1-6). God spoke to him there for the first time. Moses had to set aside his agenda in favor of the plans that God had for him. Moses did it because he wanted to, not because he had to. The promise he had from God was that God would be with him (Exodus 3:12). And even though there would be many trials through the years, God would never leave him. This important truth has been compromised in our time. We have been taught that God does not go with us into a bar or into the arms of a prostitute. We have been lied to about the nature of the relationship we have with our Father God. To many it is unimaginable that God would be with us while visiting a pornographic theatre of having sex with a stranger in a dark alley. But this is exactly the kind of relationship we have with God. Though during these altered moments we may not be able to receive the full benefits promised – His attending presence with us is not predicated on the basis of our waywardness – He stays with us while we wander; patiently waiting for us to return to His blessing. His love is not only unmerited, it is unchangeable and unconditional. Our deviations are real and the consequences for our wanderings could be fatal, but nothing can ever separate us from His love (Romans 8:38-39). We can by an act of our freewill through faith at any moment return to His arms of blessing, and He will give us the comfort of His love. He is aware of our sins, but they do not separate us from Him any longer. At Calvary, conditional relationship was obliterated by the blood of Jesus and God’s wrath was finally appeased.

Rev. Bob Ellis
www.mercytoall.net

Returning To Earth

2005-10-11T04:56:00.000-07:00

I just got back home. What a weekend! I have not been to a Christian conference in a while and decided to go to Austin and be a part of the Eagles Nest School of Worship and the Arts (ENSoWatA). I admit that I went not really knowing exactly what to expect. I went to relax and I did. It was so great. I got to see old friends and rest in a very comfortable hotel; and the Lord was there too. That's always nice. But I got a double blessing. At first I was not going to minister, but just be ministered to. Then the Lord convicted me of this and so I decided to offer to do a couple of artistic sign expression presentations, which the organizers graciously allowed. So I got to both rest and minister.

God has called me to teach. I have known this for over twenty years, but to the group in Austin I am a sign interpreter. At my home church, they of course know that I do sign interpretation, but they call me Teacher Ellis. To them I am first and foremost a Bible teacher, not a sign interpreter - but to the group in Austin I am the master of artistic expression. I have tried to change this image and bring a more balanced view of my credentials, but have been unsuccessful so far in disueding them from this view of things. Perhaps I should stop trying to do this. Evidently the Lord wants me to wear two hats. My mission is "to reveal the truth." This is, of course, what I am doing in either role. "I just want to be used mightily for you, Lord!"

At any rate, I went back to work yesterday morning - what a drag! After that fantastic weekend high, going back to my job seemed like shear drudgery. But I am glad to be back on earth, and back to the work of serving the Savior. The weekend at ENSoWatA was wonderful and about as close to heaven as I'll get here on earth: seeing old friends and praising the Lord - and if you were there, you know what I'm saying is true.

Rev. Bob Ellis

Finding The Word of God

2005-10-05T00:55:00.000-07:00

I'm excited! Bible study lately have been so cool. It really makes a difference when the Lord Himself shows up. I teach two groups each week using the exact same materials, but the two groups could not be more unalike.

One group is composed of people who know each other well and at first they seem to be interested in understanding the scriptures. But there is a hint of "let's learn stuff, but not get too close" kind of attitude. They do want to be educated (i.e. head knowledge) but not for the purpose of really applying the truth pragmatically. Without practical application, discovering the Living Word seems fairly useless. There have been some issues with gossip and the people just don't seem to genuinely want to get serious about making Jesus Lord. They are a lot like the stony ground Jesus speaks of in the parable of the sower.

The other group generally is presented with the same material, but their response is like Jonah's message to Ninevah. They are quick to see the Word and are cut to the heart. They respond with repentance. Instead of trying to point the finger at others, they realize that it is them that needs changing. There is expectation of the presence of the Lord Himself and guess what, He is there. They seem a lot like the fertile ground in the parable of the sower.

I am amazed. The Truth I am getting from this situation is the realization that it is the combination of the message with the expectation of the people that brings about the true Word of God. I teach that the Word of God is our goal, but in the parable of the sower, it is represented in two parts. First there is a broadcasting of the word (represented by the seed). This is what is meant by the Greek word "logos" meaning Word of God. The seed is given to the soils, but only when it is able to get into the fertile soil is it able to germinate, sprout roots and grow. When it is received by the soil and begins to grow is what is meant by the Greek word "rhema" meaning Word of God. These two must come together for the true Word of God to be made known.

Clearly this is what is happening. Thank you Lord for letting me see!

Rev. Bob Ellis

Warning! Attack Imminent! Expect Many Losses!

2005-09-14T05:47:00.000-07:00

On August 29th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina stormed through Gulfport and Biloxi. The storm surge that it brought overstressed the levee system protecting the city of New Orleans. When two of the levees breached, it caused major flooding damage to over 80% of the city, most of which is below sea level. If you have ever been to New Orleans you know that in order to get there, an elevated Interstate 10 crossing over vast swamplands or the causeway bridge over Lake Ponchartrain are the only ways in or out of the city. Major storm damage to both of these roadways was sustained by the hurricane. This severed the city's supply line for food. The water supply, electrical systems and telephone services were all interrupted by the rising flood waters. Backup generators were eventually drowned out by the same. Those people who did not leave the city when they could or because they couldn't, faced a deluge that has claimed many lives and the body count is in progress even now. Thousands of pets had to be left at home and many perished. The entire city eventually had to be evacuated and thousands of people lost everything and are now living in the surrounding areas. Baton Rouge, the capital of Lousiana two hours northwest of New Orleans, doubled its population overnight. Displaced persons affected by the flood are scrounging for places to stay all across northern Lousiana and Texas.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) main responsibility is the oversight for such disasters. They are supposedly poised and ready to step in when the scale of a disaster cannot be adequately managed at the state level. They have contingency plans for just such a scenario as Katrina, but for some as yet unexplained reason, were not able to respond adequately to the victims of the floods in New Orleans and the surrounding areas. The focus for FEMA over the past few years has been to prepare for an attack by terrorists, but evidently while they were looking the other way, Katrina hit. The amount of devastation caused by the hurricane, while in the playbook, was not something the authorities were paying enough attention to.

We're told by Peter that our enemy is prowling around like a roaring lion seeking a victim. Someone whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8); someone looking the other way, not expecting an attack. If he were to appear to our physical eyes as a lion, I'm sure most of us would turn and head the other direction. But that, of course, is not his ploy. His subtlety does not usually employ someone scarey and/or unfamiliar to us. Sometimes Hollywood wants us to see the devil as pale children whose eyes glow or whose heads turn around backwards and then they vomit green goo all over the floor. This, of course, is fiction and perhaps even a further subtlety to pull the proverbial wool over our eyes. The real devil, in the meantime, slips out the door unnoticed after successfully reeking havoc. No, rather than strangers, his plan is to influence the hearts of friends and lovers. Or worse, he gets to our own heart and uses our mouth and our actions to carry out his perverse plans of hatred and division. He sets us against one another and before you know it, the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:3) has been shattered; replaced by division and violent vindictiveness.

How can this happen? How can those saved by grace and washed in the blood turn on each other with such ferocity? It is clear that the modern church is not the only place where such ironical behavior has occurred. The writings of the New Testament are filled with admonitions and warnings for the saints of the first century, exhorting them to watch out for this problem. Much blame is given to the devil and rightly so, but I think the issue is closer to home. The devil is to blame, but as believers we have been given the tools to defeat him. If he is successful in his divisiveness, it is because we let him do it. Human nature (aka the "Flesh") is very powerful and does not give up its control over us easily. But as powerful as it may be, the flesh is controlled by us, not the devil. Saying, "the devil made me do it!" is no excuse.

Peter's take on the problem in the 5th chapter of 1 Peter begins with "Be of sober spirit, be on the alert." (NASB) This word "sober" is the Greek word "nepho" and does mean to refrain from too much wine. But used metaphorically, the word appears six times in the New Testament. Each time it contrasts a mind of impared judgment affected by alchohol with a mind finely tuned and focused. Thayer says this word means "to be calm and collected in spirit or to be temperate, dispassionate and circumspect." It is coupled in the 1 Peter passage with the admonition "to be on the alert." This is the word "gregoreuo" meaning to stand watch as a guard.

For all Christian believers attack is imminent. The entire sixth chapter of Ephesians is dedicated to addressing this problem. Spiritual warfare is not an "if," it is a "when." Why some Christians remain unprepared is a mystery. When the attack comes, it is bad, but for those not ready, it is devastating. What can be done? Focus must be given to this issue. A plan must be devised and readiness practiced.

Scriptually speaking the first line of defense is the Word of God. By this I do not mean scripture memory. Studying the Bible is of the utmost importance, but without the enlightening living word of God delivered by the Holy Spirit, it is nothing but paper and ink. Unlike the movies, Satan is not threatened by "what is written." He speaks those "words" fluently. Scripture by itself is a matter of interpretation.

This is illustrated beautifully by Jesus' encounter with the devil in the wilderness. (Matthew 4:1-11) The devil quotes scripture and uses logic to make his points just as any scholar of the Bible would. However, the true Word of God is a message of life. It carries with it the joy and excitement and the virtue of the Creator. In describing it, the scripture says it is "living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword." (Hebrews 4:12) John confesses clearly in his gospel that Jesus is the Word. (John 1:1-14) To be used as an effective tool against the Prince of Darkness, the Word of God must be down in our hearts not just on the tip of our tongues. The enemy will only respect the Lord Himself and if He reigns in our hearts, He will be able to rebuke the attacks that occur there. This can only happen as we truly yield our will to His. He is Lord over the hearts of those who have made Him Lord. It does not automatically happen when we become Christians. That event is only the beginning of submission to His will and walking in His ways. Quoting scripture and $1.00 won't even buy a cup of coffee these days. But coupled with faith we're told we can move mountains in the name of Jesus.

Drinking Living Water – How It Changed My Life aka Meeting a Jewish Rabbi by the Well in Samaria and Getting Busted

2005-09-11T12:47:00.000-07:00

The Lord gave me a message that starts with the story of the Woman at the Well – John chapter 4.

5 So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; 6 and Jacob's well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour (around noon). 7 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink." 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." 11 She said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? 12 You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?" 13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life." 15 The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw." 16 He said to her, "Go, call your husband and come here." 17 The woman answered and said, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You have correctly answered, 'I have no husband'; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly." 19 The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." 21 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." 25 The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us." 26 Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He." 27 At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, "What do You seek?" or, "Why do You speak with her?" 28 So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and said to the men, 29 "Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?" – John 4:5-29

Before I elucidate on this passage I need to tell you how I got to where I am now and why I am here. I am on a mission. God has sent me. It has only recently become clear to me what my mission is. Recently being in the past five years. I am here to reveal the truth. I am not the only one. You too have this mission, but it has not dawned on you yet. Jesus told Pilate that the purpose for His coming into the world was to bear witness to the truth (John 18:37) – and He has passed this mission on to me along with many others. Sometimes truth can only be revealed by overturning something that was previously accepted to be the truth, but turned out to be a lie. The enemy is not happy with this developing ministry. He’s been messing with me. We need to pray.

As I unearth today’s truth, it may get a little smelly. Sometimes that happens. If it’s under a rock or something and it’s been there for sometime, things can get a little ripe when it’s down under stuff – you know what I mean. I would never label myself as a “preacher” – I don’t even like the sound of that word because it sounds too much like my mother, but the Holy Spirit told me to bring my soapbox because I would probably have to stand on it today. I had a pastor tell the congregation one time that if they had never been offended in church, just stick around. This may be one of those times, so brace yourself. This is not from me, it is from the Lord. I am your friend and sometimes we need friends who are not afraid to tell us when our fly is down – who won’t act like nothing’s wrong when the stench is a little too ripe.

Since I was little, the Lord has constantly made my paths right. (I don’t like that word “straight”) I was saved when I was four years old when my mother prayed with me one night at bedtime. Jesus came into my heart and from that day to this, He has walked by my side and guided me even to minister here today. Over the years I have been in the process of change. I am not what I used to be and I am not what I should be and I will be different in a little while. My life is dynamic and I praise the Lord for what I have been privileged to see and experience and the places I’ve been over the years. I could recount to you growing up in Bible church and going to vacation bible school; shooting rubber bands at the picture of Jesus on the wall at church; the exhilaration of singing Onward Christian Soldiers as we marched into the auditorium; experiences during college evangelistic outreaches; going to Israel and seeing the places where Jesus walked, slept and ate and died. As wonderful as these memories are, there are also painful memories – wounds that were opened years ago that need to be healed – rejection by friends and family and lovers. Painful experiences must also be added to my list when I talk, because they too have added to my perspective of truth. Once as a young boy I cut my foot when I jumped into the bushes playing. It was rather serious and I needed multiple stitches. I still have the scars from that gash that happened more than forty years ago.

When this happened, there was a lot of blood. My mother rushed me to the doctor. One of the first things they did was to pour large amounts of hydrogen peroxide on the cut. The pain it caused was horrific. I know now that it was for my own good, but at the time I wanted someone in the mafia to eliminate this doctor. Sometimes wounds of the heart we get can be healed. The process may start amidst a great deal of pain. Scars tell a story and are there to remind us that God heals, but not without pain.

The Bible tells us about two blind men who were tired of not being able to see and they followed Jesus one day trying to get His attention. They knew that because of their disenfranchised status that they would have to be very cagey in order to get Jesus’ attention and so they plotted their scheme by following the sound of the crowd that was following Him. As it passed they cried out in loud voices, “Have mercy on us Son of David!” (Matthew 9:27) They were healed that day and received their sight. Have you been there?

The questions of the hour today are, “How did we get here?” “Where are we going?” and “How do we get there?”

1. How did we get here? We all arrived here at the behest of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no doubt to me that we have come together today not by accident, but by the leading of the Holy Spirit – who is constantly guiding us to the truth. Today represents another opportunity to get on board with the program. Our Lord is constantly appealing to us to come to Him, all who are weary and are heavy laden. This is where we begin analyzing the story of the woman at the well.

She arrived at Jacob’s well near the town of Sychar to draw water. She probably went there everyday – but on this day, a Jewish Rabbi was sitting there and began to engage her in conversation. This seemed a little unusual to her for not only was she a Samaritan, she was a woman and women in those days were considered chattel and Jewish men simply had nothing to do with Samaritans let alone Samaritan women. Women were considered the property of their fathers or their husbands. In order to do anything, she had to have a man and evidently she had already had five husbands we’re told. Though we're not told the full story, undoubtedly she carried within her many wounds, but on this day she would meet Jesus at the well and He would give her Living Water to drink and it would make her whole.

He told her about the Living Water and she asked to have some of it. He instructed her to go and get her husband. That’s when He revealed to her that He knew about her past and her current living arrangement. She was amazed and realized that He was a prophet. She obviously had given theology some thought because after she perceived that Jesus was a prophet she began speaking to Him about where the proper place of worship was; evidently some controversy existed about this at the time. Jesus told her about true worship and when she spoke of the Messiah who would come, He revealed to her that He was Him! Just then the disciples arrived back from their trip into town to get food and were amazed because Jesus was speaking to this woman, but they evidently had learned by then not to question His weird behavior. The woman, in the meantime, was so excited that she left her waterpot and ran back to town to tell everyone about Jesus and how He had given her Living Water at the well.

Have you had a drink lately? What are you waiting for? It’s available to everyone who will go out to the well and sit by the Messiah and get a talking to. Yes, His council may be critique that will humble you – let’s hope so, but it will set you free as the truth always does. He’s waiting for you to come out there. You have to go out to Him and let Him talk to you. It is necessary so that you can go on to question number 2.

2. Where are we going? Right now, nowhere fast. By not receiving the healing we need, we cannot go out and heal others. Our community is starving for the truth so they too can be set free. They need someone to come out and tell them about God’s love for them. It’s time to do it. But if we’re as wounded as they are, what do we have to offer that they can’t find at the local taverns. Just one chapter before the story of the women at the well, Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus:

16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18 He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God." – John 3:16-21

Are you practicing the truth and coming to the Light? Can the people you come in contact with see the difference between you and the world or are you no different in the way you talk and walk and play? You can only do something if you are connected to the Vine (John 15), because without the sustenance of life provided by that Living Water, you can do absolutely nothing!

3. How can we get there? There is only one way to get there. The answer is found in Matthew 4:19. “Jesus said, ‘Follow me and I will make you fishers of men!’” It’s simple yet hard.

We’ve got to stop playing church and fill these empty seats with starving people. If you are getting fed, those starving people will want to know where you’re getting food. Coming here Sunday after Sunday with the same 23 people and singing a couple of songs is not what the Lord has in mind for our church.

The truth may hurt us at first, but it will in the end lead us to freedom. Drinking that Living Water may hurt us, but it won’t kill us – it will give us abundant life.

-Rev Bob Ellis

Katrina

2005-08-31T12:30:00.000-07:00

I spent a good portion of yesterday trying to get in touch with the many friends that I have in New Orleans and the surrounding areas. Today, I spoke with a couple who had moved to Austin last year and they told me they had spoken to many of the people I was concerned about as they called to tell them they were safe, but many they had not heard from. The stories that I'm hearing (and maybe you have heard some of them too) is that the situation in the New Orleans area around Lake Ponchartrain, southern Mississippi and Alabama is approaching desperate. When storms like Katrina roll in from the gulf and across the country, most times I say a prayer, maybe - but mostly I brush it off, feeling that there are people in place to help with the emergency.

This time the situation is much closer to my heart because quite a few people that I know and love are missing right now. Some may have perished; many of them I'm sure are safe in a motel somewhere. But when the water finally recedes, they will find they have no home to go back to - and probably no job. They are living on what they had time to put in their car and what little they have in the bank. All the rest is gone!

I wanna help somehow; maybe you would too. Please do. And if you don't have another way to do it, please join with me through auspices of Living Faith Covenant Church. We are collecting money for a truckload of drinking water and gas powered generators that can be used until the water and electric can be restored in the New Orleans area - and perhaps some other more basic needs as we become aware of them.

Please help. If you can donate online, goto: http://www.livingfaithdfw.org/contribution.asp.

Click on the "Donate" button under "Your Freewill Contribution"

If you cannot do it online, please make out a check or money order to Living Faith Covenant Church, and put "Katrina" in the for line; and send to:

Living Faith Covenant Church
Katrina Relief Fund
P.O. Box 192691
Dallas, Texas 75219-2691

All gifts are tax deductible and a record of your donation will be kept and accounted for, for tax purposes.

Thanks for any help you can provide during this crisis.

May God bless you.

Brother Robertson Has Spoken . . . Again!

2005-08-24T05:15:00.000-07:00

Well, I've never been an avid fan of evangelist Pat Robertson and the 700 Club anyway but now any credibility he may have had, as far as I'm concerned, is completely shot. You gotta forgive him for being ignorant; preaching "hate" out of fear; invoking the name of God because he simply doesn't understand.

A couple of years ago he said that God told him that a meteor would fall to earth and destroy the city of Orlando, Florida because they decided to hold an annual Gay-Day, honoring the GLBT community that descended each year in mass on the city. How dumb is that? I don't think he lost any market share for this stupidity. It didn't seem to stop his momentum in making even more ignorant remarks. And even though the event did not happen, his sheep continued to watch him and his audience probably increased. The people who listen to his ravings want to believe that the "bigotry" he preaches and "righteousness" are the same thing.

This time, calling for the assassination of the president of Venezuela. . . . wow! Now I've made some serious mistakes and done some bad things, even as a Christian, but I've never called for someone to be murdered and justified it as right before God, and on international television. As an evangelist for Jesus Christ, what could he have been thinking?

The clear message of faith we have from Jesus' teaching is "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. You have heard that it was said, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." This is the basic stuff of the gospel and what it means to be a Christian. Hate is not in the equation for the followers of Jesus.

Mr. Robertson is a strong advocate for the rights of the unborn, but I guess after those babes are born, taking them out is okay, if in his opinion they turned out to be a bad apple. This is a major problem for right-wing conservative fundamentalists Christians. The blatant hypocrisy of condemning lesbians and gays (or anyone else) because they do not fit the narrow interpretation of scripture they hold and then turn right around and call for murder, a clear violation of the principles of the Sermon on the Mount. How ludicrous can you get? Who does he think he is?

The President has so far not made any comment. I'll be surprised if he does. Pat Robertson is one of those who supported him the most. I'm sure his other sheepish followers will reject any appeal for sanity from the media or from people like me and will send him more money so that he can keep the message of hate alive. It's scarey. Where are we going with all this? Mixing politics and religion is a bad idea - one that has never worked historically, but here we go again.

Under Attack

2005-08-22T05:43:00.000-07:00

My writing lately has been very prolific. The Lord is very alive to me these days; speaking to my heart sometime at 90 mph. It's all I can do to get it down on paper. Being close to the Lord is wonderful. Knowing He's there and watching over my every move feels very good. But the devil apparently doesn't like what is happening - because I find myself being drawn in directions that I know are not what my Lord would have me do. Instead of stauch resistence, I put up a little fight, then give in, reasoning its only a little thing. The penalty for my lapse is lost intimacy with God. He does not punish me. It was and is me that stupidly walks away - doing things that He will not or cannot participate in because of holiness. Curious, I can choose unholiness, but He can't. Why is that?

Doing Your Job

2005-08-14T21:32:00.000-07:00

I preached today. I was a little nervous. I'm not a very good preacher. I do teaching and not everyone likes my style. I guess that could be said for any pulpit filler. I just feel more comfortable in the "Bible study" arena; where there is discussion and dialogue. But anyway, the pastor asked me to preach kind of last minute. I was hard pressed to get my research done and put together what I did. It is kind of interesting how it all came together.

When he told me that I would be preaching, he really didn't ask - I was informed. I try to accomodate and as a minister I am supposed to be really in season and out. It just was not convenient, but with God, sometimes good research and well rehearsed is a luxury - this was one of those occasions. I teach the people that I minister to to follow the Holy Spirit. I want my disciples to learn to follow after the Spirit - in order to do this they must practice so that they can recognize the voice of the Spirit and respond in obedience. Well what's good for the goose is good for the gander, so to speak. In other words, I should take my own advice.

So in preparation for this sermon I began by asking God to tell me what I should bring. He gave me some basics, inspired by Jesus' words from the Sermon on the Mount. So I wrote down what He told me and began to polish it up. I didn't have a lot of time and it wasn't coming together like I felt it should. So I got on the Internet and began to poke around looking for something that inspired me. I found an article about the church - it was some study about the real Church that Jesus built. It had some interesting points that I wanted to follow up on when I had more time. I had to work days and stuff was already planned for the evenings all the way until Sunday - how was I going to be able to get my act together. So when I looked through the new material, once again it just didn't seem to be coming together.

I prayed again and asked the Lord to show me. His response was that He already had, but I had rejected it. I repented. I threw out what I had found and went back to the original simplistic message that the Lord had given to me when I prayed the first time. I had wasted a lot of precious time working on my stuff instead of His stuff. The church service is in the afternoon on Sunday, so I had Sunday morning to work on the finishing touches to the sermon. Even so, I still did not feel comfortable with the end product. But, as I finished up, I came across a verse from Matthew that gave me hope. It said, "not to worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say." The context was not about delivering a sermon, but I felt embolded anyway.

Sure enough, though I was feeling a little uncertain all the way up to stepping up to the lecturn, the Lord came through with flying colors. I will try never to question Him again. The scripture that says if we trust Him with all our hearts, we will not be disappointed came true for me this afternoon. Praise the Lord. The message was succinct and apropos and well received. That is a very exilerating experience. I love being used by God like that.

Healing

2005-07-31T20:14:00.000-07:00

I went to see some old friends this weekend - some that I had not seen in about six years. I purposely drove a considerable distance to visit with them in hopes of finding a final resolution. We parted on not the best of terms back in 1999 and I have held a certain bitterness against them. When we ran into each other accidently at Easter time, I realized that I needed to talk with them and see if healing could finally come. The incident that caused this rift involved betrayal and rejection - not the characteristics of close friendship. When all this happened, I found myself at the second loneliest place I have ever experienced - second to the summer I got divorced and my mother died in the space of one month. Misery accompanied me both times. This time the grief lasted for a couple of years, then turned into another year. There was no one to talk to. I was forced to consult with the LORD only - a good thing, but I still needed to somehow make things right.

So I ventured forth on my trip, reasonably certain that after six years I was emotionally stable enough to deal with whatever might come, yet not certain how things would come out. But the visit was wonderful - we talked for six hours - one for each year of separation. The pain that I thought we would have to struggle through never materialized. It was as if we had never had any problem - only misunderstanding, and had only been separated for all those years when they moved out of state and we were finally able to visit again now that they moved back - a reunion! Wow! It was great. I was set free.

It was God. His mercy endures forever.

Excellent Movie

2005-06-24T02:00:00.000-07:00

We went to see Batman Begins last night. Wow, I was very impressed. This is Batman as it should have been made year ago - so much better than the Tim Burton versions and the "camp" of the TV series. The new Batman is Christian Bale (what a cutie). I think what I liked about the movie the most was the inner conflict of the "Bruce Wayne" character. Having learned his father's very high noble principles as a child, compassion and a sense of responsibility; he still struggled with bitterness and hate after both his parents were murdered right in front of him. He had to learn how to overcome a menacing fear by facing it. Revenge filled his heart and he wanted to see his father's blood avenged, but that need was eventually trumped by his father's love. At first he read this response as cowardice, but eventually found that loving compassion was the greatest quality he possessed. It is really a super movie. The more I think on it, the more I appreciate the simplicity and complicity of this movie. It is not just one special effect after the other. It is very well conceived and balanced and the plot makes a great story that kept me rivoted to the screen. My bladder was completely full to overflowing by the end of the 2-1/2 hours.

A New Nature

2005-06-06T05:30:00.000-07:00

The question posed to Dorothy was, "Are you a good witch or are you a bad witch?" To which she replied, "I'm not a witch at all . . . I'm Dorothy Gale, from Kansas."

I was saved as a child - age 4. Being brought up in a conservative fundamentalist Christian tradition, I was taught that the basic nature of humanity was sin. "We do not have to teach our children how to sin." they said. "By instinct they seem to know rebellion. It's their nature." As I grew up, I was certainly into rebellion and as I began to mature, my sin nature seemed to manifest itself in broader and broader strokes. Without the blood of Calvary, I was hopelessly lost. In college I read through the New Testament and discovered firsthand, the dilemma of my "duel natures" as recorded in Romans 7. There was a war going on, I was told. It was a battle for my soul being fought in the spirit. Would I submit to the good guys and walk in righteousness, or would I succumb to the vile enticements of the devil and walk in unrighteousness? I struggled in this dichotomy all the time. One day I yielded to the good spirit and the next the bad one. Was I a good witch or a bad one?

At first glance, this explanation seems to make sense in light of my own personal experience and the experiences of many people I know. But I have some questions. Surely the struggle that this daily duality causes cannot be the final "abundant life" promised to us by Christ. I thought sin had been dealth the death blow at Calvary. Must I continually defeat it again and again in this constant struggle every day? Most would answer, "Yes!" credentialed by experience and scripture. This idea is further enhanced by the necessity of confessing sin. I was taught that my sins were forgiven when I received Christ, but that daily sin must be confessed in order to be forgiven, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins . . . " We must "fess-up" so that we can "walk in the light as He is in the light" being exposed to the light and thereby maintaining our fellowship with Christ, since He cannot abide in sin. Those that were not "fessed-up" were backslidden carnal Christians who needed to have their fires rekindled. What they needed was to go to a revival or to summer camp where they could re-dedicate their lives and sort of be refreshed and become Christians again. But is this read correct?

Paul's statements in Romans 6:12-23 at first seem to corroborate the dual-nature concept. Here he speaks of a choice we make between these two; either becoming a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness. But if you look at it closely, he is really admonishing the new righteous nature - the one dead to sin - to come out. The old sin nature is dead and is only kept alive by our belief that it still has power over us. When we finally realize and come to believe that it does not have power over us, we are no longer subject to its tyranny.

This holds up against my struggle with homosexuality. I was taught that being gay was part of my old sin nature; my sinful flesh just trying to have its way in me. But after 38 years of struggle - trying to be straight according to all that I had been taught and going through two deliverances - I realized it was only the real me trying to come out. When I finally accepted and believed that it was the real me that God had created, struggling to be set free, I came out and the struggle was over. I thought at first I was merely yielding to sin, but much to my chagrin, I found liberation. Then I knew that the fear I had built up over the years to guard against letting go of the struggle was not of God. Only God can bring liberation. Jesus said that knowing the truth would set you free. It was God who was pulling me so that I could come into the fullness of the plan He had for my life. I was scared to let go of the struggle. I perceived it to be yielding to sin, but it was really yielding to God. The struggle itself was the problem.

Sin is the result of the choice that was made in Eden by Adam to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. But when I received Christ, I was allowed to eat fruit from the Tree of Life. My original nature was of sin, but was changed. I never had two natures. I just exchanged one for another. Now, I am no longer under the curse of Adam's race, but under the blessing of Christ's race. After having been saved by His grace through faith, must the rest of salvation, my sanctification, now be worked out in a struggle. Many say yes, but I say no. Paul says that in the same way we received salvation, we must now walk with Him. Were we saved through our effort - through works - or through His grace? Was it because we conquered through a struggle, or because we yielded in faith?

I am aware that many will disagree with these ideas - they seem vial and blasphemous to modern Pharisees who want to hold people captive to a doctrine of works. Remember the worst Catholic who ever lived, Martin Luther, was also considered a blasphemer. He nailed his 99 points of faith to a church door in protest to doctrines handed down from the church fathers. They had taught that people could be saved from hell-fire through the purchase of indulgences. The people were held in bondage to this false belief and were being charged a fee by the church for what was already theirs by faith. For his counter-teaching, Luther was ex-communicated and given a death sentence. As it turned out, his visionary ministry led many to grace by faith alone. So it is with me. I am not content to simply receive the traditions handed down to me as truth. The truth must be liberating to me or cannot be accepted as truth. The doctrines of men cause captivity and keep people bound up in order to receive God's acceptance, but I say that we already have God's acceptance and need do nothing to earn it. The struggle is the problem. In order to be liberated from the struggle, we need to cease struggling and accept God's love. Let Him sort out the details.

So am I a good witch or a bad witch? Well, like Dorothy Gale, I'm not a witch at all - but I am definitely good - not because of myself, but because I have the mind of Christ. Christ in me the hope of glory. His love controls me. The old me was crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but He lives through me - and the life I now live in my flesh, He lives through me by faith.

Rant and Rave

2005-05-28T04:22:00.000-07:00

Boy, I need to lose weight. When I was 30, I had a waist to match my age. Now at 57, the trend has continued - I'm not 57 around the waist - not yet anyway, ha! - but to look at me you might think I was trying real hard to get there. When I was 30 and thought about being 57, I only imagined being wiser and perhaps richer; clothed in grandchildren; house paid for. But now that I'm here, I can see that my imagination ran amuck. There is so much when you're there that you cannot see until you're here - guess that's the wisdom part - but I am certainly not richer and I rarely see my grandchildren - I suppose that's because they live 800 miles away - and "house paid for," I moved two years ago from the house I had lived in for 20 years. It was paid for, but falling down - so now I have a new, smaller house and am in debt up to my ears.

If this sounds like a complaint, it really isn't. Though I am very busy, Eric and I live a simplistic lifestyle that is, for the most part, fun filled and stress free. My job takes up a lot of time, of course, but in between I do a lot of church stuff. I mean a lot of church stuff! I serve on three boards for three different ministry organizations, teach Bible study on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Then, of course, there is Sunday where I support the administrative side of the church - doing the Power Point slides and order of service for the Minister of Music. Sometimes I do the bulletin and help count the offering and make the bank deposit. Even though this a "bunch of business" I'd rather be busy than not.

Eric and I love the movies and get to go almost every week - that is, if I'm not too poor and if there is something out there we just can't live without. I do not consider myself a picky movie-goer, but I am not above walking out of a lousy film either. We don't do horror or slasher films - we're more into comedy and action - James Bond is perfect and Spiderman was to die for. But the truth is we like to stay at home and grill, watch "Everybody Loves Raymond" or "The Golden Girls" or "King Of The Hill" or "Keeping Up Appearances."

I'm really into gay drama. I have a considerable collection of gay-themed movies and shorts. For the most part they are about "coming out" and the struggle of being gay in a homophobic society. Movies like "Maurice", "The Edge of Seventeen" and "Get Real" touch something in my soul. I really like "Queer As Folk!" I know it's not realistic - afterall it's TV - but it does portray many of the struggles we face. I didn't like it at first because of its portrayal of gay men as animalistic mindless sex machines always on the prowl - even unfriendly stories about gays do that, but as a late night soap opera, it does a pretty good job of keeping my interest. "Six Feet Under" is also a good one. Compared to what they show on TV, if the truth be known, in reality we're kinda drab. All the right wing conservative Christians can say about our "lifestyle" is that it is an "abomination to God!" But in reality, I'm just tired and need to get to sleep by 10:30 so I can get up and go to work the next day and pay my bills like everybody else.

Bible Study Last Night

2005-05-25T05:29:00.000-07:00

We looked at the story of Jericho last night in our Bible study starting off in the final verses of Joshua, chapter 5. This is where the "Commander of the Lord's Hosts" visits Joshua just before the battle of Jericho. This must have been an awesome moment for Joshua when he was told by the Lord to take off his shoes because the place on which he stood was holy. The next day, they began their seven day "seige" of the walls of Jericho. They were to march around the city once a day for six days and keep silent except for the rams horns. It must have been an awesome sight with the warriors, the horn blowers, the Ark of the Covenant followed by the entire population parading around the city. The real challenge for the people was to keep quiet as they marched. Someone said last night that the true miracle was not that the walls fell down, but the ability of the people just to stop talking. There was the constant blare of the rams horns which would have been unnerving; and the people of Jericho, waiting to be conquered, watching this parade and wondering what the Israelites were doing; perhaps feeling a little anxious, and perhaps overly secure behind their legendary walls.

It turns out that Jericho is the oldest city in the world with carbon datings of its ruins dating back as far as 7,000 BCE (that would be 9,000 years ago). This predates the pyramids. It is also the lowest city on earth at 825 feet below sea level. The most escavated city in Israel, with good archeological evidence to back up the story in Joshua about its defeat in the 13th century BC and how it all happened. Archeologists found a collapsed wall and pottery jars still filled with grain with obivious scorch marks from being burned. This is in complete concert with what the Israelites were told to do to the city and its inhabitants according to Joshua chapter 6.

On the seventh day of marching, Joshua instructed the people to march around the city seven times and when he told them to, the rams horns were to be played and the people were to all shout - at which point the walls of Jericho fell down and the warriors went right into the unprotected city and destroyed its inhabitants. It was clear that the battle of Jericho was God's victory. All of the booty of Jericho was devoted to Him and was under a ban. The precious metals (gold, silver, bronze and iron) were to be put into the treasury of Israel and everything else was to be destroyed by fire. Nothing was to be kept as spoil at the risk of a curse (Of course someone did keep some of the spoils, but that's next week's lesson).

The story of Joshua is a big analogy. The symbolism is on every page. The sudden appearance of the Commander just before the battle to Joshua is a parallel to the revelation of God to us through the Holy Spirit. He brings with Him the assurance that the battle is already won - "just follow my instructions," He says. I have such a hard time following instructions . . . . and what were those difficult instructions? They had to walk and be silent for six days. I have a very difficult time being silent. In fact this blog is all about letting out what is rushing around inside me trying to get out. But sometimes just being quiet is what I really need to do. Then there is the ban on the spoils. This is also difficult because with the battle finally won, it seems the victory makes it alright to relish in the success and perhaps foolishly spend money that was gained - or - I just think that since the victory has been won, that all is well and I needn't worry anymore - but I forget that the discipline that got me to the point of victory has to be maintained, or I'll end up losing all that I had gained.

God wants us to be victors, not victims; and He has promised that we are - but we have to follow His instructions to the letter or we open ourselves up to anything. He is jealous and the credit for what He has done must not be given to anyone or anything else.

The Other Day

2005-05-24T05:53:00.000-07:00

It was our anniversary - six years (yeah!). We decided to go on an exploration trip to a nearby town and walk around in the mall there. When we arrived, the parking lot at the mall was somewhat crowded - guess everyone was trying to get in out of the heat - but I found a parking place fairly close to the Barnes & Noble entrance door. In fact there were two open, side by side. Before I turned off the engine, I spotted yet another place even closer (another 30 feet). So I backed out and headed toward that spot only to find it was occupied by a motorcycle that I could not see until I got closer. No problem - "I'll just go back to the one I just was in."

I circled around to go back and when I arrived, one of the parking spots was taken, so I slipped into the other one and did not notice a woman waiting in another car. She apparently thought that place belonged to her. As I exited the car, still oblivious to my infraction, the woman in the car next to me, who had also just parked, began to chide me for sneaky unfairness in getting her friend's parking place. At the same time the lady in the car who I had apparently cut off pulled in behind me, rolled down her window and was shouting out, "Guilty! Guilty!" I was stunned by the sudden attention I was getting from these two irate ladies. Obviously neither one knew the whole truth about this situation. I attempted to explain, but the woman in the car next to me was almost shouting pointing out how her friend had been waiting for that spot and I had just cut her off and it was not right and "blah, blah, blah!" I could not get a word in edgewise. Through the noise of their ranting I shouted, "I DON'T CARE!" And we headed toward the store feeling a little uneasy about leaving the car with hostiles about.

We poked around for a few minutes in the store; I was still riled from the encounter - then we both decided that we could not leave the car with the possibility of harm - so our "mall-walking" adventure was curbed in favor of a drive through the countryside. So we left. Making our way along a country road, I began to reflect on what had just happened - I realized that I had blown an opportunity. Hadn't Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers?" The truth, I reasoned at first, was that that parking place was rightfully mine. Those women were in the wrong. But then I began to see that the real truth was that I was a stubborn ass and in the crunch of the moment, belligerence came easy. The real me came out because my focus was not on what Jesus would have done, but on the fact that "I was right and they were wrong." I blew the opportunity that I had been given to show compassionate mercy and love and instead demonstrated hateful indifference; and over something that did not matter in the least.

Oh God, I am such a sinner. Change my heart from callous uncaring to compassionate concern even in the small things of life. I felt so ashamed of my behavior. The words of the Psalmist came to mind, "Unto Thee O LORD, do I lift up my soul! O my God, I trust in Thee; let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me!" (Psalm 25:1-2)

What's Really Cool

2005-05-19T03:33:00.000-07:00

I've been a Christian since I was four years old. I received Jesus one night when my mother told me about Him during the bedtime prayers. That was 53 years ago; I am 57 now and can still remember that night when He came to live in my heart. Of course, I didn't understand what had happened completely at the time, but looking back over the years of my life, I can see the hand of God protecting me and His presence guiding me all the way.

The church I was raised in taught me the Bible. By the time I was in high school, I was well versed in both the Old and New Testaments. I knew all the stories of Moses and David and the Kings of Israel and the Prophets. I was familiar with Joshua, Ruth, Samson, Esther and Jeremiah. The teachings of Paul, Peter and John were all part of who I was - and at that time I believed everyone around me had the same knowledge. It was an era when everyone went to church, but I could not have been more wrong about the biblical education of others; in fact, by comparison, I've found that most people are ignorant of what the Bible is really all about. So my appreciation certainly goes out to the teachers who guided me in those days and gave me the biblical foundation I have today. For this I am indebted to the "Organized Church."

But it was the believers of the "Body of Christ" that were gifted to preach and teach who, in response to their calling, gave me the instruction that I received. They acted in the capacity of the offices they held at that time in the "Organized Church." So the "Organized Church" acted as a conduit, connecting those with nurturing gifts with those who needed the nurturing. And so it is today, the true "Body of Christ" ministers through the auspices of the "Organized Church" to reach those in need.

While this arrangement seems naturally accomodating - it does not always work smoothly. The "Organized Church" sometimes trys to over control and regulate what the ministry gifts of the "Body of Christ" are doing. What's really cool is that despite the efforts of the "Organized Church" to hinder the work of the Spirit - it will continue to manifest itself as needed to bring the nurturing ministry to those who need it. A good example of what I mean can be found in Nazi Germany when the "Organized Church" was coerced into bowing the knee to the dictates of Hitler; forced to vomit his propaganda of hate. The "Body of Christ," however, continued underground to minister redemption, freedom and the love of God.

Today, the same conflict exists. For myself, I find that I am constantly challenged to compromise my message to fit the political culture of the "Organized Church." The ministry that God has given me will not be heard by the "Organized Church" because the culture that exists right now is not that different from Nazi Germany - the predominant message coming forth from the "Organized Churches" is one of hate and intolerance, while my message is about unconditional love of God for every person.

Church Stuff

2005-05-15T20:06:00.000-07:00

I went to church this morning. Today was Pentecost Sunday - you know the birthday celebration of the church. It is on this day in probably 33 AD that the church came into being when God sent the Holy Spirit to the 120 believers that had gathered at Solomon's Portico, the outer court of the 2nd Temple in Jerusalem. The book of the Acts of the Apostles tells us that 3,000 people believed in Christ that day and since that day until now, God has related to the people who love Him through the indwelling Holy Spirit, which is given to those who place their faith in Him.

Since that day, how would you evaluate how well we have done? Of course we must make a distinction between the "Organized Church" as opposed by the actual body of Christ's believers, "The Body of Christ," which is what is referred to in the New Testament as The Church. They perhaps started out the same that day in the late spring of 33 AD, but somewhere along the way they each found their own path, and at times have gone in opposite directions.

Today, many confuse the two or perhaps don't even realize their are two - or when you refer to the two they think you are talking about Catholic and Protestant - oh please! Or they think there is a true church and a false church, the identification of each depends on who you are talking to. Then there are denominations - oh my God! While the historical information behind the formation of these groups is somewhat fascinating - the reasons given for their existence only confirms the insanity that followed the birth-day in 33 AD.

After the death of the last original disciple of Jesus (probably John Zebedee) in around 90 AD, the organized church began to distinguish itself from the simple body of Christ. But they seemed to hold on as long as they were persecuted. But when Constantine embraced Christianity in 312 AD as the state religion of the Roman Empire, the Organized Church seemed to emerge at last victorious over its "weaker" sibling. It was then that it became politically expedient to agree with the "church fathers" or find yourself on the outside looking in - or - perhaps in a jail cell or worse. The Organized Church "came out," but the Body of Christ remains hidden from that day 'til this.

Crusading

2005-05-11T09:53:00.000-07:00

A new movie is out, The Kingdom of Heaven. It stars Orlando Bloom. I haven't seen it yet, but will. It's subject: the Holy Crusades - a period of about 300 years (11th-13th century) when Christendom went completely mad and thought that possessing the Holy Land, which meant killing thousands, was their mission on earth. From the write-ups and radio spots I gather that in this movie, they try to make sense of it all and give heroic status to at least some of the Crusaders. No wonder the Islamic world sees Christianity as their enemy - in the Crusades, Jesus is pictured as a conquistador - slaughtering all who will not submit to Him.

Like I say, I haven't seen the movie and this is not about that - it is the irritation of being misrepresented. I am a Christian and have been for over fifty years. I know that the Crusades did not in any way represent the ministry of Christ on earth (many don't). I also know that today, those who claim to represent Christ on earth; speaking daily through sattelite transmissions on TV - do not necessarily represent Him either. What it seems to me that they are doing is waging their own modern Moral Crusade. Their strategy: to blot out anyone who disagrees with them. Their narrow interpretation of the Bible and their brand of Christianity is much like the feared fundamentalist factions of Isalm - its main tenant is intolerance. Any and all who disagree with them, must be crushed.

In the last few years, these right-wing fundamentalists have been able to win considerable influence in the government of the United States and now that they are in power, they hope to undo many of the freedoms of expression gained in the last century. They want to re-establish and legitimize discrimination and hate as a way to deal with the homeless, abortion, homosexuality and illegals aliens - and call it "morality" and do it in the name of Christ. They play on the uncertainty of those who are less judgmental - using fear to bring them up as supporters of their Crusade of "morality."

Liberals, for the most part seemed stunned by the exuburance and vitality of the right-wing fundies. Though they were evidently taken off guard, I hope they wake up soon before too much damage is done. It is my hope and belief that the American people, who generally believe in "live and let live," will finally grow weary of judgmentalism and will recall the Crusaders next opportunity.

Welcome to Mercy To All blog!

2005-05-07T06:51:00.000-07:00

We're just setting this up and trying to get everything ready for a conversation with those who would like to aire their Christian perspectives, but are really tired of the conservative right-wing crap posing as Christianity.