BEYOND REVOLUTION - Going Deeper

NOTE: Darren Smith runs a ministry to the homeless in Texas.

BEYOND REVOLUTION - Going Deeper
-by Darren Smith.

A while back I sent out a word called the Five Points of Revolution.
We have had a lot of responses and I feel its time to go a little
deeper in this word. I believe that we are all being called into this
deeper walk of faith and must be challenged to draw closer to the
Lord. I will be taking each of the five points and teaching more on
each one in this series. The first one we will look at, is the return
to the true faith, that I feel we have lost in the modern church.

1) Return to the true faith: When you look around at all the
teaching in the modern church, how much true faith can you find?
... Before we tackle being born again, we must go further back to
get clear on what was the reason for Christ going to the Cross,
which, I might add, is missing from most modern teaching. Why
did Christ have to die on the Cross? The most common answer
I get when I ask people is to "save us." That brings about the
question- What is He saving us from? When this question is
asked most people reply from hell or the devil, which is not true
at all! Jesus came to save us from the wrath of God!! But wait a
minute, isn't God loving and kind and full of grace and mercy?
Yes, that is why He sent Jesus to take the full cup of Gods' wrath
for man's sin. Without His blood covering you, God's wrath will
pour out on you!

It's simply not popular. We must not look for popularity, but hold
onto truth. One day we will stand before God and give an account
for our life and being popular will mean nothing on that day. I believe
that the reason most do not share their faith is that they are not
sure what their faith is! If all you know is to tell people to ask Jesus
into your heart and you will be saved, then you don't have the true
faith and can't share true salvation. There is nowhere in the Bible
that says to invite Christ into your heart and you will be saved. This
is a man-made doctrine that will not stand, a convenient message
designed to make men feel better about themselves.

There is a group that ministers alongside us every Saturday that
always tells the people in the street to ask Jesus into their heart
and they will be saved, and every Saturday the same people raise
their hand and invite Jesus into their heart. Minutes later they are
right back on the streets doing the same thing they were a few
minutes earlier, no change and worse off than they were. Why?
Because they are being misled by a false doctrine that requires
nothing other than raising their hand to invite Jesus in to their heart.

On the other hand, we preach that Jesus came to take their
punishment and to withstand the wrath of God for mans' sins and
that to be saved you must be born again. We spend a great deal
of time showing them that God loves them, but never compromise
the true Gospel. Which is easier for them to believe, that you
must believe, repent, confess and be baptized; or to raise your
hand and invite Jesus into your heart? Which is easier, teaching
that you must die to yourself to live for Christ, or that Jesus wants
to give you all your heart's desires?

So many become hardened after a while of inviting Jesus into their
heart and seeing no results that they kindle anger and disbelief
against God. I've had guys tell me that they had been saved many
times but nothing happened in their life and now they don't believe.
This is what false teaching does, it turns hearts cold to the truth.
We must return to the Gospel and not water it down to make it
more appealing to the flesh. The preaching of the Cross is the
Power of God and releases the supernatural in peoples' lives!

When you preach the Gospel, you see salvation and healing,
not man-made shows. It's the power of God unto Salvation, why
water it down? This world doesn't need to feel better about itself,
it needs to see the state it's truly in before the Holy God of the
Universe - and repent and bow down to the Lord of Lords and King
of Kings. We must teach the true faith which is loving God and
loving your neighbor which brings about Kingdom change in this
earth!

True Faith isn't going to a religious service a couple times a week
and singing a few songs and hearing a little preaching. True faith
is about being light in this fallen world. Light that shows men Christ,
the only hope of redemption. You won't find that in a meeting that
is all about having your best life now. You only find that by living
for Christ and not yourself.

Most churches today are by design self-serving instead of God-
serving, that's why they have no power. Where the Gospel is
absent, so is the power of God! Jesus not only preached the
Gospel but lived it as an example for us to follow. We must live
the Gospel as well. As the Church, we are to build relationships
with God and with each other. A selfless relationship always
looking to lift up the Lord and blessing others. Instead, most
relationships today are selfish and only look for how serving can
benefit them. Be not fooled brothers, God will judge this. His
eye is not missing how many people are in need and the modern
church pours into itself instead of helping.

The American gospel, which is no gospel at all, will be judged and
will be found guilty as well as all those who partake in it. We must
warn people of the wrath that is upon us for we have all been guilty.
This is why returning to the true Faith is so important. So what
must we do?

2 Corinthians 13:5 - "Examine yourself to see if you are in the
faith: test yourself." ...The first thing we should do is examine
ourselves, test ourselves to see if Christ is in us. Do I know the
true Gospel? Have I been born again? Can I see Christ in my life?
Do I really Love God? Do I really love my neighbor? All of these
are valid starting points to begin this journey. If you ask God to
show you, I promise that HE will.

I want to go on a little further, even though I will not be able to get
through this point with one email. This point is, am I willing to
forsake myself and follow Him? Luke 9 :57-62 - please read this
very closely - it's just one place where Jesus tells us to forsake and
follow. Jesus said if anyone comes after me, he must lay down his
life and pick up his cross and follow me. Have you laid down your
life or are you holding onto it trying to follow Jesus? Is Christ evident
in your life as a present reality or just a religious theory you kick
around from time to time? Does self consume your life or Christ?
Is love your lifestyle or pride? All these and much more must be
opened up to truly examine ourselves to see if we are truly in the
faith. I pray you will take this test with me and we will draw closer
to God.

Please comment on this article at the following website-

http://www.johnthebaptisttv.com/

-Visit Darren Smith's websites below-
www.streetscapeministries.com
www.revivalstreet.com
www.unitethefight.com

"BACKward CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS"

NOTE: An ironic poem (or hymn) is below. Quite thought-provoking.



-by George Verwer.

Backward Christian soldiers,
Fleeing from the fight,
With the cross of Jesus,
Nearly out of sight.
Christ our rightful master
Stands against the foe
Onward into battle, we
seem afraid to go.

Chorus:
Backward Christian soldiers,
Fleeing from the fight,
With the cross of Jesus,
Nearly out of sight.

Like a mighty tortoise
Moves the church of God.
Brothers we are treading,
Where we've often trod.
We are much divided,
Many bodies we,
Having different doctrines, but
Not much charity.

Crowns and thrones may perish,
Kingdoms rise and wane,
But the cross of Jesus
Hidden does remain.
Gates of hell should never
'gainst the Church prevail,
We have Christ's own promise, but
we think it might fail.

Sit here then ye people,
Join our sleeping throng.
Blend with ours, your voices
in a feeble song.
Blessings, ease and comfort
Ask from Christ the King,
But with our modern thinking,
We won't do a thing.

-Please comment on this poem at the website below-

http://www.johnthebaptisttv.com/

DREAM of the 2 BOATS

DREAM of the 2 BOATS
-Mario Alleckna.

Something that I take very serious is when children receive
something from the Lord. As it says in Acts and Joel, “in the last
days the children will prophesy…”.

About 6 weeks ago our daughter, who is 12 yrs old, woke up one
morning and told us about a dream she had that night. It was a
“strong” dream. One of those dreams that is so very real and vivid.
The kind that you remember clearly and in detail, and that leaves
a very strong impression. As it turns out, it was clearly a prophetic dream.

In her dream she saw two ships. But these ships were as though
they were flying through the air. The one ship, were she was on,
was a raggedy old ferry boat. Instead of seatbelts people were
strapped to their old seats with rope. There was a captain on the
ferry who was kind yet strong and firm. While telling everyone to
hang on tightly, and that the ride would be tough and not an easy
ride, he kept assuring them with a great confidence that he would
bring them safely to their destination.

The other ship was a fancy cruise ship. Both ships were going
side by side, but at a distance. She could see the people clearly
as she looked over to the cruise ship. Some of them were her
friends from church. They were not sitting in any seats or wearing
seatbelts. Instead they were dancing and laughing while on a
large party deck.

Once in a while both ships would come together, side by side,
while drifting through the air. Our daughter called over to her friends
on the cruise ship telling them that they must come over onto her
ferry boat because the party ship was the wrong ship.

But there was also a captain on the cruise ship. He had scary
eyes, and whenever our daughter would call her friends he would
look straight at her and his eyes were evil. He then would turn to
the people on his ship and say, “Don’t listen to them, they are
just jealous that you are having so much fun. You are on the right
ship where the fun is."

Then the two ships drifted apart again and she could only see the
cruise ship at a distance. When they came together again one of
her friends finally listened and jumped over onto her ferry boat.
After they had drifted apart once more, the captain told everyone
on the ferry to hold on, “it’s going to get rough.” Large meteor-like
rocks came flying toward them but the captain was able to safely
dodge each and everyone.

Suddenly and without warning, the cruise ship, which was at a
distance, dropped downward and completely disappeared.

-Is this a prophetic picture of the church? Discuss it now at the
website below-

http://www.johnthebaptisttv.com/

THE IDOL of SPORTS

THE IDOL of SPORTS
-extract by Chuck Baldwin.

Millions and millions of Americans (especially males) are literally
intoxicated with sports. Sports are no longer a great American
pastime; they are now a great American obsession.

Mind you, this writer has been a sports fan all of his life. I began
playing organized basketball in the fifth grade; I was on the high
school wrestling team; I played football in high school and college...

I am not talking about sports in general; I am talking about the way
many American men have allowed sports to control and dominate
their lives. With many, sports are not just a hobby; they are a
religion. I cannot count the number of conversations between men
that I overhear in restaurants, airplanes, boardrooms, and, yes,
even church houses, in which every man in the circle is literally
consumed with all sorts of sports facts, information, and opinions.
In many such discussions, these men will talk about nothing else.
To these men, there is absolutely nothing in the world more
important than the latest sports score, announcement, or trade.
NOTHING!

And there is also a very real psychological pitfall associated with
a man's intoxication with sports. I submit that an obsession with
sports gives men a false sense of masculinity and actually serves
to steal true manhood from them.

For example, it used to be when men stripped their shirts off and
painted their faces, they were heading to the battlefield to kill the
tyrant's troops. Now they are headed off to the sports coliseum
to watch a football game. A man's ego and machismo was once
used to protect his family and freedom; now it's used to tout batting
averages and box scores...

ARE You HOLDING ON... or LETTING GO?

ARE You HOLDING ON... or LETTING GO?
-by J. Lee Grady.

It's time to check your posture: Are your hands in the air? True
worship requires surrender.

Christians used to talk a lot about surrender. They called it the
consecrated life, and they sang about it in hymns such as "I
Surrender All," "Have Thine Own Way" or "Wherever He Leads,
I'll Go." These songs fueled the missionary movements of the
past.

Today? Not so much.

In many American churches, "altars" are a strange concept. They
are referred to as "stages," and they are used only for fog machines
or music performances. "Altar calls" no longer fit in the time
constraints of our trendy 80-minute services. Meanwhile, talk of
surrender has been replaced by messages about self-empowerment
and self-motivation.

The Good Life has replaced The God Life. The Path to Prosperity
has become more popular than The Calvary Road. We are more
interested in getting a breakthrough than brokenness.

Yet God is calling us back to consecration. Genuine worship,
according to Romans 12:1, involves a wholehearted abandonment
of self. Paul wrote: "Therefore I urge you, by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to
God, which is your spiritual service of worship" (NASB).

When priests were set apart for God's service in the Old Covenant,
they were "consecrated" in a solemn ceremony. The word for
consecration in Exodus 28:41 means "to fill the hand." The word
is a picture of an empty hand receiving God's blessings and then
giving them back to the Lord in unconditional surrender.

My question to you: Are your hands open and raised to God? Or
are you making a fist? Have you given back to the Lord what He
has given you? Or are your hands tightly clenched? It might be a
good idea to examine how you are holding every aspect of your
life:

Your time. Does God have your life 24/7? Does He have your
weekends? Have you made room in your life to spend time with
Him? Or has prayer been crowded out by your favorite TV shows,
time with friends or the demands of work?

Your talents. Are you using your natural and spiritual gifts to reach
others for Christ? Or did you hide your talents, like the unwise
steward in Jesus' parable? Have you assumed that, because others
seemed more gifted, you should be a spectator while they serve?

Your money. The only way to know if you are truly surrendered to
God's will is if your wallet is open. A lack of generosity toward God's
work reveals a much deeper problem.

Your future. Are you driving your career plans—or have you allowed
God to take the steering wheel? Ambition can take you a long way
— but it must be yielded to His will or it will lead to tragedy. You
must agree with what Jesus prayed at Gethsemane: "Not my will,
but Yours be done" (Luke 22:42).

Your relationships. Do you allow friends, or romantic relationships,
to lead you away from purity, integrity and spiritual faithfulness?
The Bible says friendship with the world is hostility toward God
(James 4:4). As painful as it may be, true surrender will involve
cutting some ties.

Your sexuality. Many Christians believe they can be faithful
believers while practicing immorality. Don't buy that lie. Living
the consecrated life means repenting of all known sin daily—and
fleeing from fornication, adultery, pornography and all forms of lust.

Your children. While we have been commanded to raise our kids
for God, we also must entrust them to His care. After all, they are
really His children, not ours. Once you've done your part, give them
back to Him.

This week my youngest daughter—our so-called "baby"—is
graduating from high school and headed to college in Georgia.
Meanwhile my third daughter is leaving this week to minister on
a foreign mission field for two months—in a place where women
are not exactly safe or respected. I've had to consciously put my
girls on the altar whenever I've doubted that God will take care of
them.

It's one thing to give your own life to Christ. It's another thing to
surrender those you love to His will and purpose. It requires a
whole new level of trust. But it is the path that Abraham, the father
of our faith, was required to walk when he put his son Isaac on the
altar.

True faith always involves gut-wrenching surrender. I urge you to
take the right posture: Get your hands open, lift them up to heaven
and say with all your heart: "Lord, I'm all yours."

-Comment on this issue of "Full Surrender" at the website below-

http://www.johnthebaptisttv.com/

Sleeping Through a Revolution

Sleeping Through a Revolution by James Ryle
“Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.” (Ephesians 5:14).

Epic change is in the air while many have dozed off, seemingly oblivious to God . Perhaps we may be like Peter, James and John when the Lord invited them to a private prayer meeting on top of a mountain.

By the time Peter, James and John made the climb, they were so tired that they fell asleep while Jesus was praying. And as they were sleeping, two other invited guests arrived – Moses, and the Prophet Elijah! Jesus was delighted to see them, and they began talking together about the Kingdom of God and the coming Age of Glory.

At that moment, Jesus began to shine brighter than the noon day sun – so bright, in fact, that it woke Peter up. The Bible then tells us, “Peter and the other two disciples had been sound asleep. All at once they woke up and saw how glorious Jesus was” (Luke 9:32, Century English Version).

Hmmm. “They woke up and saw how glorious Jesus was” — Don’t you think it’s time for that to happen again?

Do you remember reading the story of Rip Van Winkle when you were a kid? I do, but the funny thing is I can’t remember what was the point of the story. I mean, I know it’s about a guy who fell asleep for a really long time – but beyond that I couldn’t recall anything else. So I decided to read it again, and here’s what I discovered.

When Rip Van Winkle went to sleep, King George of England was the recognized monarch who ruled over the American colonies. Twenty years later when Rip woke up, George Washington was the President of the United States.

Rip Van Winkle had slept through a Revolution!

Peter, James and John were essentially doing the same thing on top that sacred mountain of transfiguration. And, as the evidence seems to suggest, much of the church today is in the exact same condition – sleeping through a revolution.

“Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

Over a hundred years ago Charles Spurgeon wrote, “A slumbering church compels Satan to make it his chief business to rock the cradle, hush all noise, and drive away even a fly lest it light upon the sleeper’s face. His great dread is that this church might rouse itself from her dreamy repose.”

Indeed.

We would do well in these lazy days to take heed to the words of the apostle Paul. “Make sure,” he wrote, “that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God” (Romans 13:11, The Message).

Odd, don’t you think, that on the one hand we can be so busy about this and that – that we completely doze off and miss the very presence and work of God happening all around us? We can be like Jacob who, waking from his sleep, said, “Ah, surely the Lord was in this place and I knew it not!” (see Gen.28:16).

A few years ago I was in Lincoln, Nebraska, and caught sight of a most unusual spectacle. An ambitious truck driver had attempted to move a large, historic church building along highway 103 with his woefully undersized rig. He possibly could have made it, but somewhere along the route he fell asleep at the wheel and ran off the road. When the rig listed to the right, the church slid off the truck and ended up stuck in the mud in the ditch.

The sight of this massive historic church building stuck in the mud in a ditch is disturbingly prophetic. Traffic was backed up for miles in both directions as gawkers came out in droves to see the strange sight. I can’t help but wonder how many churches in America are in just such a predicament today?

Somebody fell asleep at the wheel – and the church is stuck in the mud. And the watching World, far from being impressed with our theatrics and swollen words, merely drives by at a snail’s pace taking in the view and cracking a few worn out jokes.

We desperately need an Awakening – especially among those who serve as the leaders in Faith. For if they are indeed “asleep at the wheel” we are not only poised for ridicule – but quite possibly disaster. If the blind can lead the blind into a ditch, where will we end up if we follow sleeping leaders?

Awakening is a theme often repeated in scripture. “Awake! Awake! Put on your strength, O Zion!” Isaiah cried. “Awake to righteousness, and do not sin,” Paul said to the Corinthians. He put it this way when he wrote to the church in Ephesus – “Wake up from your sleep, Climb out of your coffins; Christ will show you the light!” (Ephesians 5:14, The Message).

A great example of this very thing is Lazarus, the friend of Jesus.

When the disciples heard the news that Lazarus had died, Jesus said, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up” (John 11:11). Arriving at the tomb, Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” Lazarus came out of the crypt fully alive, but was still wrapped up like a mummy. Jesus said to those standing by, “Loose him, and let him go.” (see John 11:43-44).

The story of Lazarus shows us three things Jesus does to awaken a sleeping Church, and rouse a slumbering giant.

* First, He gives us the ability to hear His voice — “Lazarus!” Just days before this miracle took place Jesus had said, “The hour is coming when those who are in the graves will hear the voice of the Son of God, and will live.” Lazarus heard His voice and came to life — so can you and I.

* Second, Jesus gives us the power to become what He has called us to be — “Come forth!” When Jesus called Lazarus by name, that awakened him; when He told Lazarus to come forth from the tomb, that empowered him. The Lord never commands us do something that He does not empower us to do. What has He commanded you to do?

* And third, Jesus gives us the help we need to be completely liberated from the effects and trappings of a failed life — “Loose him, and let him go!” Jesus spoke these words to those standing by, and He does the same for us.

There are key people – close friends and valued associates whom the Lord has put in our lives to help us get out of our grave clothes and into a new wardrobe. If we will cooperate with the process, our lives will truly be transformed. If we are willing for it to happen. That’s the key.