The News #4

I wonder how many of you are familiar with the theology of revival? During a revival (sometimes called a awakening) God pours out His Spirit in a special way. Christians are transformed and sinners are saved. You can see cycles of revival and times of special blessing as you read through the Old Testament. You can see the same thing throughout church history.

I know I’ll sound like a old fogy to some of you when I use this illustration, but I think a good way to think about revival is to think about an old fashioned, wind up watch. They didn’t always come with batteries, you know. You used to have to wind the up. What you were doing was adding tension to a spring inside the watch. The spring moved the parts inside the watch so that it could function properly. You had to wind your watch every day. The best you could hope to get was about 32 hours out of a good winding, so it was best to wind the thing up every morning before you put it on. If you failed to wind the watch the watch wouldn’t come to a sudden stop. It would slowly loose power. The time between the sound of the ticking would increase. The watch would no longer keep proper time. Eventually it would come to a stop.

You could also illustrate this principle with a balloon. Balloons only hold their air for a limited amount of time. You have to blow them back up again because all balloons have slow leaks. You can’t see or hear the leaks, but you know they’re there because the balloon goes flat over time.

Basically the church in North America is like a watch that hasn’t been wound up recently. It’s slowing down. It’s loosing life and power. It’s like a balloon that needs to be re-inflated. When God adds power to the church, when He winds up the watch or blows up the balloon, we call that a revival. Revival is our only hope.

There is no political solution. There never has been and never will be. I’m not saying that the politics don’t matter, they do. But the politics can’t work right unless enough of the people get right so that they know what to vote for. We could have another Ronald Regan in the White House and all it would do is slow down the pace of the decline. The decline will continue until we have a revival. Every Christian should be praying for revival. You should end every newscast with a prayer for revival.

The News #3

If you find yourself worried, anxious, or tense when you watch the news, there are two simple ways to get out of this trap. The first is to reduce your exposure to the news. Way back in the day all we had was 30 minutes on the evening news. There was no cable TV or 24 hour news stations. There wasn’t anything like talk radio. If you wanted more than that 30 minutes a day you had to read newspapers or magazines. There was no internet. Somehow democracy managed to function on 30 minutes of news a day.

Let me ask you a pointed question. Do you spend more time with the news than you spend seeking God? This is a sure sign of a life out of balance (unless you are a professional news person). Give God more time than you give the news. This is vitally important.

The second secret is very simple. Every exposure to the news must include prayer. Pray over everything that makes your anxious. Say a prayer before the broadcast begins, pray during the broadcast, and say a prayer afterward. This will be good for your soul and will also do great good for your country.

The News #2

There is an evil I have observed under the sun and I feel that I must address it at this time. The demons have manipulated us into doing something absolutely crazy. Most of us are doing it over and over again, day after day. We are hard at work doing damage to our own souls and know it not. We are committing a sin and not even recognizing that it is a sinful thing to do. It’s hard to repent when you don’t even know you’ve sinned. This is another sign of moral insanity.

This is what the demons have taught us to do. Can you hear them laughing in the background? They have taught us to spend too much time absorbed with current events as opposed to eternal things. And they have taught us that the proper response to a news broadcast is worry when it should be prayer.

“Do not be anxious about anything.” NIV

“Don’t worry about anything.” NLT

“Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray.” The Message (Phil. 4:6)

I don’t want to overwhelm you with my very limited memory of my decades ago study of New Testament Greek, but in the original language the verb tense in the imperative. That means this is a command, not simply good advice. And to fail to obey a command is to sin. We’ve got to stop being anxious and fretting about current events.

The News #1

Have you ever wondered why most (but not all) Bible believing people are politically conservative and most theologically liberal/atheist types (but not all) are politically liberal? I would suggest three reasons why this might be so.

The Bible teaches personal responsibility. I can’t blame anyone else for my sins. I may have come from a very bad background but it doesn’t excuse me. And if I am held responsible for my moral life it just seems natural to assume that I am also responsible for the practical affairs of life. The Bible instructs us to be charitable, but if a brother is able to work and refuses, we are instructed not to feed him.

The Bible also teaches personal morality. While no political movement is a pure expression of the will of God it’s pretty clear that conservatives are more in tune with abstinence before marriage and sexual fidelity thereafter (even if all of the conservative politicians don’t manage to live up to that standard).

The Bible also teaches that all humanity is tainted by sin. This means that we must never allow the accumulation of too much power in any one place. No one can be trusted with too much power. A government that can do anything for you can also take anything from you. At the end of the age we will be facing a government who tells us who and what we have to worship and if we do not worship as they decree we shall be unable to buy or sell.

Last but not least, to a Bible believing Christian, while the universe can seem to be a scary place, there is a God in heaven who listens and cares. I had a dear friend, a long time, faithful member of a liberal church once share with me his conviction that there was absolutely no chance that God would overrule the natural laws of the universe in answer to prayer. Such people are feel totally unprotected in a universe that is cold, unfeeling ,and vastly bigger than they are. Human beings are naturally religious. If we don’t know the true God, then we must have an idol. We must have a higher power that we can appeal to in times of crises and disaster. And if we are too sophisticated to worship trees and rocks, then we will be more than happy to give more and more power to the state. The government will be there. The government will help us.

Please don’t misunderstand me. You don’t have to be a political conservative to be saved. If you have a genuine faith in Christ you are on the road to heaven. But because of the before mentioned reasons, most Bible believing people are more conservative then liberal. And that is why we are filled with anxiety when we listen to the news. The liberals are winning, and what they take they keep. All conservatives can do is to slow the growth of government, they can never actually roll it back. And so we worry. And this is sin.

Meanwhile the demons are perfectly happy with either political alignment. The liberals want to deify the state. The conservatives are filled with worry. Either way the powers of darkness are winning. But this need not be so.

3 X 5's Carried for frequent mediation

Freedom is when we embrace the God who is embracing us. Clinging tightly to each other we rise and begin to soar through the stratosphere of life. It all begins when we are entranced by the beauty of God’s perfect mind. How could we not trust Him? How could we fail to flow in perfect harmony with Him? His genius is unfathomable. His decisions are always exactly, perfectly right. We begin by loving and embracing. We progress as we soar into the ecstasy of perfect love – the perfect balance between pure, infinite reason and indescribable bliss.

3 X 5's Carried for frequent mediation

Sin is always about idolatry. Instead of thinking about the desire that I want to satisfy, I must think about the damage that Satan has done to my heart to bring me to the place where I even want this thing. I must attach the desire for the sin to the consequences until I grow to hate sin. At the same time I must detach whatever part of my heart that is connected to this thing and refocus that love on the most beautiful being of all, the Lord God Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

3 X 5's Carried for frequent mediation

All Satan wants me to think about is the relationship between the temptation and desire. As long as I limit my thoughts in this way, I will remain defeated. In the very moment of temptation I must always ask myself, what are the consequences of this action? Depression, the surrender of some measure of authority to evil powers, and a dimming of the light of my testimony are always consequences of sin. I will do well if I bring this to mind every time I am tempted along with all the specific consequences of any given sin.

3 X 5's -- Carried around for frequent mediation

Every sinful desire is either a direct attack of an evil spirit or a programmed response that an evil spirit has built into me. We are the victims of devious sadists who have thousands of years of practice in the manipulation and training of human beings. Their pure, venomous hatred of us is equaled only by the utter contempt with which they hold us. They treat us like dogs, holding a cookie in one hand an a rolled up newspaper in the other as they train us to do what they want. We will never have victory as long as we limit ourselves to thinking about what they want us to think about and feeling what they want us to feel.

3 X 5"s -- Carried on cards for frequent meditation

“You can be good the rest of the time, but in this one area you may take your pleasure and do as you please,” the demons purr in my ear. But when speaking to each other they say, “We will use this captured territory that this fool has just surrendered to us as a base from which we will launch relentless attacks as we seek to take over more and more of his soul. We will keep him from the peace and joy that are his birthright and keep him in a half-alive condition. If he let’s us, we will eventually bring him to the depths of despair where he will take his own life.”

3 X 5's -- carried on cards for frequent meditation

This isn’t an opportunity to be free. This is a sophisticated attempt to enslave me. Satan is not trying to help me move out of God’s house so that I can have my own apartment where I can do whatever I want. If I look closely enough I will see that this tempting morsel has a hook concealed inside of it. Satan longs for me to take the bait so that he can set the hook firmly in my jaw.

3 X 5's -- Carried on cards for frequent meditation

The temporary pleasure that I receive from this sin will not make me happy – it will leave me depressed. The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Every Christian who lacks this supernatural peace and joy is depressed whether they know it or not. If I commit this sin I will temporarily cut myself off from the flow of God life which is also the flow of love, joy, and peace into my dry and thirsty soul.

3 X 5's Carried for frequent mediation

For the most part we exist in a kind of balance of power with sin. We think, “I like to play with my sin toy, but that is as far as it goes. I am holding off the enemy in the other areas of my life. I will not allow myself to go completely out of control.” This is totally irrational. Your return to sanity begins with the chilling realization that sooner or later the enemy may break through and take more control over your life. Your beloved sin toy is a breach in your defenses. Vile madness reaches through the breach with slimy tentacles that seek to burrow ever deeper into your soul. A sane mind would find this to be a terrifying prospect and do whatever it took to seal up that breach in your defenses.

3 X 5's -- Thoughts Mark carries around on cards and reviews

The only real freedom I have ever had is to choose who will be my master. Something inside of me is designed to surrender to a higher power. With every decision I make I put my self more firmly under the control of either the light or the darkness. I am not going to surrender myself to morally crippled, fiendishly twisted fallen angels who hate me with a hatred that is just as pure as the love with which my heavenly Father loves me. I will not be a slave to sin; I am a servant of the Lord.

Tactics #4

How can I access the power of the Holy Spirit in my daily walk with God? How can I obtain His help as I reprogram my mind? Let me start by telling you what you don’t have to do.

You don’t have to speak in tongues. I’m not opposed to it, but you don’t have to be able to do that. You don’t have to come through some sort of a crises experience that dramatically, instantaneously transforms you.

Here is the secret that can transform your life. If you want to encounter the Holy Spirit, go someplace where you know you can find Him. I ride my bike when the weather is nice. We have a lovely bike path right on the Mississippi River. If you want to hang with me, wait around on the bike path. Sooner or later I’ll be by.

There area lot of metaphors in the Bible that describe the work of the Holy Spirit. You can be sealed by the Spirit, baptized in the Spirit, baptized by the Spirit (not the same thing), and be filled by the Spirit. But my favorite expression is from Galatians 5:16. “Walk by the Spirit.” (NASB) If you can find out where the Holy Spirit likes to walk, and then hang out on the path, you’ll encounter Him. As a matter of fact, if you hang out in the right neighborhood and know what to do, you won’t have to find Him. He’ll find you.

When you decide to respond to temptation by thinking the way God wants you to think the Holy Spirit will release His power within you. When you determine to see sin the way God sees it and try to live a holy life the Holy Spirit will be right there to help you. So this isn’t psychology or positive thinking; it isn’t something you can do in your own strength. When you are tempted and you dig into your wallet for that little card that reminds you of what you need to be thinking about to see this whole situation from God's point of view, the Spirit of God will graciously manifest Himself to you and you will be transformed by the renewing of your mind.