Streaming Audio or Download of Terri's story of progressive healing from trigeminal neuralgia and it's aftermath with some important applications for the Body of Christ.
The Healing Power of Love: delivered on 10/16/05 (at the bottom of the list of sermons)
http://www.metro-kc.org/resources-online-sermons.htm
Note: there are about 7 minutes of prelimaries before Terri begins her message. If you download it to your hardrive, (right click on the title of the message) you can quickly move past the beginnings right to her message
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Friday, January 12, 2007
An Article from 2003 About Michael's God-Story
"Busted" by God--by Sheila Battin
Life can be an interesting read. No two stories are the same. The plot thickens with its twists and turns. This time, it is the story of a "regular guy" and his spiritual journey through life thus far.
Michael Sullivant, the senior associate pastor at Metro Christian Fellowship in Kansas City knew very little about God prior giving his life to Him. In fact, he was the living the life of the typical American kid.
"I was raised in a happy, upper-middle class American family in the Detroit suburbs," he said. "I was the third of four kids but was the 'baby' for eight years. I was a well-adjusted, sports-minded, people loving and academically oriented little kid. However, our family knew very little about spirituality and simply had a superficial exposure to superficial Protestantism - that 's superficial to the second degree! My theology, which developed when I was six after looking up into the stars one night, was very simple. There is a God 'out there' who is bigger, smarter and more powerful than I am. He is a good, big person and I am a good, little person. One day, I'll be die and meet the One who created me. He will be so glad that I have arrived on His 'shores' and will welcome me into His heavenly kingdom (along with all the other fortunate and good Americans).
"By the time I reached high school, I had become a pseudo intellectual/hippie/jock .. an admittedly weird combination of forces. I spanned the cliques and was not fully integrated into any of them. I was in the process of rejecting the moral values with which my parents raised me because it seemed to me that they were only based on cultural traditions and the counter-culture was in high gear to challenge them. I thought that I was a basically good person with a few imperfections. I was enjoying my life, minding my own business and sadly ignorant of the accessibility of God and His kingdom to a person living on earth."
On a fateful day in 1971, Sullivant would come to experience what would be a defining moment in his spiritual journey.
"I didn't 'give my life' over to God until I was 18. But, I must backtrack to explain. When I was 16 in 1971, my older brother came home one night fully clothed and soaking wet. Amused, I looked up from my homework and asked him what had happened to him. He said that he had gotten baptized and accepted Jesus Christ as his 'personal savior.' This offended me, since I thought that he was saying that Jesus was his personal savior like wealthy people have personal chauffeurs. I wondered how he rated to have such a corner of Jesus. Anyway, I decided to attend this church with him to prove to him (and) myself that I could not be as easily manipulated by religious people as he had been," Sullivant said.
"Well, visiting this church was a real culture shock to me. These people actually seemed to enjoy being in church, for one thing. The other thing that I noticed was that they were acting like the Bible was relevant to the 20th century! Anyway, I had an experience with the Holy Spirit that day in which He made it very clear to me that I wasn't okay, as I had always thought. He revealed to me that there was literally evil inside of me and that I didn't deserve to go to heaven at all. This shocked and offended me, but I knew deep within that it was true. I went away from that church and attempted to run away from that awareness for two years."
On the outside, life continued to treat Sullivant well. However, on the inside, Sullivant says that he was less than happy. After "running away" from God for two years, he now was ready to make a move toward him.
"The summer after I graduated from high school and was preparing to leave Michigan to go to Miami University in Ohio, I was working as an appliance and furniture truck driver," he said. "Over the two years of 'running away' from God and his rightful claim on my life (after all, He has made us for His purposes), I had become quite unhappy within my own heart. Outwardly, things were still going very well for me, but I knew that I wasn't being true to myself and that I lacked the motivation and power to be the person that I knew I should have been. Actually, I was becoming a miserable hypocrite (no, they don't only attend churches!) For a period of about 10 days straight, I couldn't get the idea off of my mind that I needed to surrender my life to Jesus Christ. I had heard that he was the one who was the bridge between God and human beings.
"He was the one who died on the cross for our sins, guilt and shame and that He rose from the dead on Easter Sunday to prove that He was the real deal .. the son of God and God the Son. I actually 'believed' this but it hadn't brought any change in my life, because it was mental assent and not a personal heart commitment to the implications of its reality. But this idea scared me because I didn't know what I would become or what would be required of me if I surrendered my will over to God. This was the biggest decision that a human being could ever make in my estimation. I was very (certain) that if I accepted Jesus, then I would have to force myself to 'go straight' and live a boring, miserable life as I assumed that any Christians that I had ever met were doing. But, I was so unhappy as I was; I mustered the courage to pray a prayer from the bottom of my heart that I had never dared to pray," Sullivant said.
"I said to God and to Jesus, 'I give up, you got me!' I didn't know any 'proper' prayers to pray, but believe me, that one worked! I had an amazing, immediate experience that was beyond this world and I can recall every detail with specific clarity to this day. It can only be described, as 'supernatural' and it would seem incredible to many people if the details were to be told. But, it is actually quite credible, given that we're talking about the One who created all things without any apparent difficulty and even rose from the dead. Since then, I have met hundreds of people who have had the same types of experiences with the Holy Spirit, so it seems rather normal, although certainly extra-ordinary, to me now. Suffice it to say, it is no mere metaphor to say that I received Jesus Christ into my heart that day. He really came in and revolutionized my entire life and future since that day forward. One stunning thing that stands out is the experience that I had of the total forgiveness of all the guilt and shame of my sins and failures .. which had been many (and yes, I have sinned since then)."
Sullivant's life and way of life, he says, have changed dramatically, since handing his life over to God. This shift revolutionized every aspect of it.
"When I opened my heart to Jesus and welcomed Him to become the Master of my life, I experienced the deepest, love, joy and peace that I had ever known," he said. "These are what the Bible calls 'Fruit of the Spirit.' I encountered the puzzle piece that had been missing from the center of my being, all along. It was the person of Jesus .. not a religion or a list of rules to follow .. but a living person. I started to want to read the Bible and for the first time in my life, it made sense to me and I saw how truly relevant it is to people of any generation or nation (I'm still re-reading it again and again now for 30 years). Receiving Christ revolutionized my style of life (I no longer wanted to think about or do the things that hurt my new Friend) and every personal relationship I had in my life.
"It changed the way I made decisions, how I spent my money and time, what I read and what I dreamed about for the future. It informed every major decision of my life and I see His faithfulness and goodness in guiding me with His invisible hand. God not only gave me the desire to be His friend but he gave me the power to be actually be His friend. (Although I have disappointed Him and myself many times). But, I have always rebounded from my failures and given my heart afresh to Him because I cannot deny the reality of His presence in the universe or in my heart. I look back and realize that following Jesus is the greatest adventure on which a person on this earth can embark.
"I have had the honor of speaking about and for Him to thousands of people in many nations," Sullivant said. "He has blessed me with a wonderful wife, Terri, of 26 years and we have five children and a very cool daughter-in-law. We are a close-knit family and happy family that continually reaches out to others to share the goodness of God that we have enjoyed so much."
Life can be an interesting read. No two stories are the same. The plot thickens with its twists and turns. This time, it is the story of a "regular guy" and his spiritual journey through life thus far.
Michael Sullivant, the senior associate pastor at Metro Christian Fellowship in Kansas City knew very little about God prior giving his life to Him. In fact, he was the living the life of the typical American kid.
"I was raised in a happy, upper-middle class American family in the Detroit suburbs," he said. "I was the third of four kids but was the 'baby' for eight years. I was a well-adjusted, sports-minded, people loving and academically oriented little kid. However, our family knew very little about spirituality and simply had a superficial exposure to superficial Protestantism - that 's superficial to the second degree! My theology, which developed when I was six after looking up into the stars one night, was very simple. There is a God 'out there' who is bigger, smarter and more powerful than I am. He is a good, big person and I am a good, little person. One day, I'll be die and meet the One who created me. He will be so glad that I have arrived on His 'shores' and will welcome me into His heavenly kingdom (along with all the other fortunate and good Americans).
"By the time I reached high school, I had become a pseudo intellectual/hippie/jock .. an admittedly weird combination of forces. I spanned the cliques and was not fully integrated into any of them. I was in the process of rejecting the moral values with which my parents raised me because it seemed to me that they were only based on cultural traditions and the counter-culture was in high gear to challenge them. I thought that I was a basically good person with a few imperfections. I was enjoying my life, minding my own business and sadly ignorant of the accessibility of God and His kingdom to a person living on earth."
On a fateful day in 1971, Sullivant would come to experience what would be a defining moment in his spiritual journey.
"I didn't 'give my life' over to God until I was 18. But, I must backtrack to explain. When I was 16 in 1971, my older brother came home one night fully clothed and soaking wet. Amused, I looked up from my homework and asked him what had happened to him. He said that he had gotten baptized and accepted Jesus Christ as his 'personal savior.' This offended me, since I thought that he was saying that Jesus was his personal savior like wealthy people have personal chauffeurs. I wondered how he rated to have such a corner of Jesus. Anyway, I decided to attend this church with him to prove to him (and) myself that I could not be as easily manipulated by religious people as he had been," Sullivant said.
"Well, visiting this church was a real culture shock to me. These people actually seemed to enjoy being in church, for one thing. The other thing that I noticed was that they were acting like the Bible was relevant to the 20th century! Anyway, I had an experience with the Holy Spirit that day in which He made it very clear to me that I wasn't okay, as I had always thought. He revealed to me that there was literally evil inside of me and that I didn't deserve to go to heaven at all. This shocked and offended me, but I knew deep within that it was true. I went away from that church and attempted to run away from that awareness for two years."
On the outside, life continued to treat Sullivant well. However, on the inside, Sullivant says that he was less than happy. After "running away" from God for two years, he now was ready to make a move toward him.
"The summer after I graduated from high school and was preparing to leave Michigan to go to Miami University in Ohio, I was working as an appliance and furniture truck driver," he said. "Over the two years of 'running away' from God and his rightful claim on my life (after all, He has made us for His purposes), I had become quite unhappy within my own heart. Outwardly, things were still going very well for me, but I knew that I wasn't being true to myself and that I lacked the motivation and power to be the person that I knew I should have been. Actually, I was becoming a miserable hypocrite (no, they don't only attend churches!) For a period of about 10 days straight, I couldn't get the idea off of my mind that I needed to surrender my life to Jesus Christ. I had heard that he was the one who was the bridge between God and human beings.
"He was the one who died on the cross for our sins, guilt and shame and that He rose from the dead on Easter Sunday to prove that He was the real deal .. the son of God and God the Son. I actually 'believed' this but it hadn't brought any change in my life, because it was mental assent and not a personal heart commitment to the implications of its reality. But this idea scared me because I didn't know what I would become or what would be required of me if I surrendered my will over to God. This was the biggest decision that a human being could ever make in my estimation. I was very (certain) that if I accepted Jesus, then I would have to force myself to 'go straight' and live a boring, miserable life as I assumed that any Christians that I had ever met were doing. But, I was so unhappy as I was; I mustered the courage to pray a prayer from the bottom of my heart that I had never dared to pray," Sullivant said.
"I said to God and to Jesus, 'I give up, you got me!' I didn't know any 'proper' prayers to pray, but believe me, that one worked! I had an amazing, immediate experience that was beyond this world and I can recall every detail with specific clarity to this day. It can only be described, as 'supernatural' and it would seem incredible to many people if the details were to be told. But, it is actually quite credible, given that we're talking about the One who created all things without any apparent difficulty and even rose from the dead. Since then, I have met hundreds of people who have had the same types of experiences with the Holy Spirit, so it seems rather normal, although certainly extra-ordinary, to me now. Suffice it to say, it is no mere metaphor to say that I received Jesus Christ into my heart that day. He really came in and revolutionized my entire life and future since that day forward. One stunning thing that stands out is the experience that I had of the total forgiveness of all the guilt and shame of my sins and failures .. which had been many (and yes, I have sinned since then)."
Sullivant's life and way of life, he says, have changed dramatically, since handing his life over to God. This shift revolutionized every aspect of it.
"When I opened my heart to Jesus and welcomed Him to become the Master of my life, I experienced the deepest, love, joy and peace that I had ever known," he said. "These are what the Bible calls 'Fruit of the Spirit.' I encountered the puzzle piece that had been missing from the center of my being, all along. It was the person of Jesus .. not a religion or a list of rules to follow .. but a living person. I started to want to read the Bible and for the first time in my life, it made sense to me and I saw how truly relevant it is to people of any generation or nation (I'm still re-reading it again and again now for 30 years). Receiving Christ revolutionized my style of life (I no longer wanted to think about or do the things that hurt my new Friend) and every personal relationship I had in my life.
"It changed the way I made decisions, how I spent my money and time, what I read and what I dreamed about for the future. It informed every major decision of my life and I see His faithfulness and goodness in guiding me with His invisible hand. God not only gave me the desire to be His friend but he gave me the power to be actually be His friend. (Although I have disappointed Him and myself many times). But, I have always rebounded from my failures and given my heart afresh to Him because I cannot deny the reality of His presence in the universe or in my heart. I look back and realize that following Jesus is the greatest adventure on which a person on this earth can embark.
"I have had the honor of speaking about and for Him to thousands of people in many nations," Sullivant said. "He has blessed me with a wonderful wife, Terri, of 26 years and we have five children and a very cool daughter-in-law. We are a close-knit family and happy family that continually reaches out to others to share the goodness of God that we have enjoyed so much."
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
Quiet Reformation--a prophetic message
A "prophetic" sermon Michael gave at Metro Christian Fellowship on New Year's Eve day that is hopefully helping Metro recover her God-story. Given on the eve 0f '07--listen online or download
http://www.metro-kc.org/resources-online-sermons.htm
http://www.metro-kc.org/resources-online-sermons.htm
Friday, January 5, 2007
The Romance of Romans--Five
Chapter 3
Now I know that you're tempted to think: "If what he's saying is true, then there has been no meaning to all it has cost the Jews for being God's 'chosen people'. What's the advantage of being a Jew in the first place?" Actually, there are many privileges- especially that God gave them the stewardship over his message to humanity through the prophetic scriptures. So if some Jews have been unfaithful to their divine calling, does this negate the faithfulness of God himself? No way! God is, and will always be, true even if all people were to contradict him. The scripture says of him, "You are always right in all that you say and you always prove your critics wrong."
I will continue to anticipate arguments based on mere human reasoning. "If our being wrong magnifies the fact that God is right, he shouldn't have any complaints and he's unjust for judging us for our wrongs." Wrong again! God is bound by his nature to approve all that is right and to condemn all that is wrong. You might respond, "If God's truth is seen more clearly by its contrast to my falsehood and he receives more honor because of it, how can he be just if he still condemns me for being sinful?" Some have taken this reasoning to such an extreme that they recommend (and have actually claimed that we have taught!), "Let's do more and more evil, so that greater good may result." This kind of thinking is truly damnable and not even worth a rebuttal!
So are we Jews superior to the Gentiles? Again I say, "No way!" I have just made it clear that Jews and Gentiles are both "in the same boat"--in bondage to sin and in need of salvation. The scripture confirms this in the Psalms, "No one is righteous in himself, absolutely no one. No one possesses intrinsic spiritual understanding or intrinsic desire and power to seek after God. Everyone has gone his own way, and embraced vanity. No one is innately good; absolutely no one! Death and decay are within them; their words are manipulative and deceitful, like the poisonous venom of serpents. Their speech is full of cursing and bitterness. They are 'quick to the kill'. They leave destruction and misery in their wake and they are ignorant about healthy relationships. Nothing is sacred to them and they don't know the proper fear of God."
Now this wasn't just written about all those Gentile folks out there. It was specifically written about Jews, for it was written in the Jewish scriptures! So every person on the earth, Jew or Gentile, needs to just shut their mouths and acknowledge their guilt before God. Therefore, no one is made righteous in God's sight on the basis of trying to obey the Mosaic law, for it was primarily given to expose sin.
Comments:
As he anticipates sharing at length about the revelation of God's amazing plan of righteousness through faith in Jesus, Paul wants to reinforce that all people--Jews, like himself, and all other nations or people groups--are in the same predicament and, therefore, the same miraculous remedy applies to all. God doesn't play favorites when it comes to ethnicity. If He gives more opportunities to one person or group, then He will also hold them to a higher standard of accountability--which evens things out when the evaluations are meted out.
One other thought that comes to mind for me as I reread this, is that "self-righteousness" is not only the gross attitude that so many religiously committed people convey out of the context of the "advancements" that they have made in their systems of faith, but it is also our attempts to make ourselves into people who are "fit for God" by our own efforts apart from the grace and power of God's Spirit granted to us in Christ. The gospel requires us to confront this tendency in the religious side of our human nature and see it for the prideful thing that it is. Self-improvement, self-effort, self-concsiousness, self-importance, self-promotion and the like, are not the way of salvation in God's economy of things and we must come to a place to where we deeply and gladly agree with this from our hearts and then freely receive and wholly rely upon what He has done for us in Jesus. Then, and only then, will we find our true self--the self that Jesus came to save.
Now I know that you're tempted to think: "If what he's saying is true, then there has been no meaning to all it has cost the Jews for being God's 'chosen people'. What's the advantage of being a Jew in the first place?" Actually, there are many privileges- especially that God gave them the stewardship over his message to humanity through the prophetic scriptures. So if some Jews have been unfaithful to their divine calling, does this negate the faithfulness of God himself? No way! God is, and will always be, true even if all people were to contradict him. The scripture says of him, "You are always right in all that you say and you always prove your critics wrong."
I will continue to anticipate arguments based on mere human reasoning. "If our being wrong magnifies the fact that God is right, he shouldn't have any complaints and he's unjust for judging us for our wrongs." Wrong again! God is bound by his nature to approve all that is right and to condemn all that is wrong. You might respond, "If God's truth is seen more clearly by its contrast to my falsehood and he receives more honor because of it, how can he be just if he still condemns me for being sinful?" Some have taken this reasoning to such an extreme that they recommend (and have actually claimed that we have taught!), "Let's do more and more evil, so that greater good may result." This kind of thinking is truly damnable and not even worth a rebuttal!
So are we Jews superior to the Gentiles? Again I say, "No way!" I have just made it clear that Jews and Gentiles are both "in the same boat"--in bondage to sin and in need of salvation. The scripture confirms this in the Psalms, "No one is righteous in himself, absolutely no one. No one possesses intrinsic spiritual understanding or intrinsic desire and power to seek after God. Everyone has gone his own way, and embraced vanity. No one is innately good; absolutely no one! Death and decay are within them; their words are manipulative and deceitful, like the poisonous venom of serpents. Their speech is full of cursing and bitterness. They are 'quick to the kill'. They leave destruction and misery in their wake and they are ignorant about healthy relationships. Nothing is sacred to them and they don't know the proper fear of God."
Now this wasn't just written about all those Gentile folks out there. It was specifically written about Jews, for it was written in the Jewish scriptures! So every person on the earth, Jew or Gentile, needs to just shut their mouths and acknowledge their guilt before God. Therefore, no one is made righteous in God's sight on the basis of trying to obey the Mosaic law, for it was primarily given to expose sin.
Comments:
As he anticipates sharing at length about the revelation of God's amazing plan of righteousness through faith in Jesus, Paul wants to reinforce that all people--Jews, like himself, and all other nations or people groups--are in the same predicament and, therefore, the same miraculous remedy applies to all. God doesn't play favorites when it comes to ethnicity. If He gives more opportunities to one person or group, then He will also hold them to a higher standard of accountability--which evens things out when the evaluations are meted out.
One other thought that comes to mind for me as I reread this, is that "self-righteousness" is not only the gross attitude that so many religiously committed people convey out of the context of the "advancements" that they have made in their systems of faith, but it is also our attempts to make ourselves into people who are "fit for God" by our own efforts apart from the grace and power of God's Spirit granted to us in Christ. The gospel requires us to confront this tendency in the religious side of our human nature and see it for the prideful thing that it is. Self-improvement, self-effort, self-concsiousness, self-importance, self-promotion and the like, are not the way of salvation in God's economy of things and we must come to a place to where we deeply and gladly agree with this from our hearts and then freely receive and wholly rely upon what He has done for us in Jesus. Then, and only then, will we find our true self--the self that Jesus came to save.
Thursday, January 4, 2007
The Romance of Romans-Four
Chaper 3--cont'd
People who live in sin without being exposed to God's written law given through Moses, will be condemned without reference to it. However, those who live in sin having been exposed to the Mosaic law will be condemned on the basis of it. Possessing intellectual knowledge about the scriptures will never save anyone. Salvation is only found by personally embracing and submitting to whatever spiritual knowledge God has revealed to us. When Gentiles, who have never heard of the Mosaic law, live by the light of conscience within them, it proves that God has written his moral law on the hearts of all people. They instinctively know when they do right or wrong. God has specifically revealed to me that he has appointed a day when he will judge the secrets of men's hearts through the "grid" of who Jesus Christ is and what he has done. (Imagine some of the surprises we will have.) I assure you that after that day; no one will ever again point their finger at God and accuse him of being unjust!
Again I address you religious Jews. You claim that you have spiritual security by your knowledge of the Mosaic code, God is on your side, you know his will and you have a superior philosophy of life based on divine revelation. You are confident that you are the divinely chosen moral governors of the earth- guides to the spiritually blind, a light of truth in the midst of the world's dark deception, instructors to the foolish, teachers of the uninstructed and the ones entrusted with the scriptural blueprints of ultimate knowledge and truth.
You then who presume to instruct others, why don't you listen to your own words? You preach to others to not steal, but you are thieves yourselves. You condemn adultery in others, but you're guilty of it yourselves. You say you hate idolatry, but you put many things ahead of God himself. You claim to honor the commandments of scripture, but you dishonor their Author by violating them. Indeed, the Gentiles ridicule the precious name of the God of Israel because of you Israelites, just as the prophets of old have said.
Being Jewish has its advantages if you're not a religious hypocrite. Yet, if you are playing a religious game, do you think that God sees you as a true Jew? If a Gentile wholeheartedly embraces the truth God has revealed to him, isn't he more "Jewish" in God's sight than you, even though he hasn't embraced Jewish religious rites and customs? Indeed, such non-Jews, ethnically speaking, will end up judging you ethnic Jews who violate your own stated convictions. For true Jewishness is not a matter of ethnic origins, outward religious rites, or scriptural knowledge. True Jewishness is a matter of the heart..an inner "spiritual circumcision". It has to do with spiritual reality, not religious formality, and it causes a person to become a "God-pleaser" rather than a "man-pleaser".
Comments:
okay now! teaching doctrines like this out in the public square is what got paul into trouble with both gentiles and jews on a number of occasions. but, he truly lived out his last statement here about being a God-pleaser rather than a man-pleaser--as did all the apostles of the Christ. it takes some guts to be a real follower of Jesus.
Jesus came to reveal to us a faith that centers on the naked conditions of people's hearts in the eyes of God. i take a lot of comfort in this actually, although it does put the fear o' God into me at times. have you ever found people to be concerned about God's "fairness" in His ultimate judgement of people's souls? this passage helps me to relax my troubled mind about the justice of our Father in heaven--as though He really needed my help on this issue of His character!
this passage seems to open the door for the possibility that people can be "saved" in some rather mysterious ways. i have heard some remarkable stories told by missiologists about how the Almighty has sometimes gone ahead of His missionaries to unreached peoples and revealed His Son to them as the way of true salvation and...even showed them that the missionaries were on the way with His Book in hand to tell them more. indeed, there is no other Name on earth given to humanity whereby we can be saved. everyone who has and will be saved, has been saved by Jesus Christ--even Old Testament believers who could only anticipate His appearing. it's just that the Holy Spirit can and does sometimes circumvent the usual (and preferred) means of revealing the gospel through redeemed human ambassadors. the point is...we must make room in our theology of God's grace and mercy for the "cornelius"" out there whose prayers and almsgiving have risen to the Father as a memorial, the "wise men from the east" who are seeking the Christ and the "melchizedek's" hidden away in the earth who are "priests of God Most High" outside the context of the established faith. (people that are so postured only reveal the fact that the grace of God and the work of the Spirit has already been powerfully at work in their souls and...when they hear the story of Jesus, they gladly will receive it because the Spirit who has been at work in them will internally convince or "bear witness" to them of its reality.) i believe that these kinds of surprising accounts might have been in paul's mind when he stated that God will one day "judge the secrets of men's hearts through the "grid" of who Jesus Christ is and what he has done." i, and we all, can rest in that.
however, far from demotivating us from sharing the now "open revelation" of the good news of Jesus recorded in scripture, the reality of God's inscrutable justice should impel us all the more to pro-actively spread the message to the people of the world. the tragic fact is that most people aren't alright with God--they are trapped in their sins and spiritually lost and deceived--this is true of both the religious and the irreligious. apparently, most of the "secrets of men's hearts" are of the unholy type. (would you have wanted God to judge you on the basis of the secrets of your heart before you heard about and surrendered to the Person and Work of Jesus? not me!) however...we have the message entrusted to us that is the "very power of God" that can and does break through the powers of darkness that are blinding the minds and hearts of those who have not yet put their faith in Jesus the Christ. we owe them this opportunity.
People who live in sin without being exposed to God's written law given through Moses, will be condemned without reference to it. However, those who live in sin having been exposed to the Mosaic law will be condemned on the basis of it. Possessing intellectual knowledge about the scriptures will never save anyone. Salvation is only found by personally embracing and submitting to whatever spiritual knowledge God has revealed to us. When Gentiles, who have never heard of the Mosaic law, live by the light of conscience within them, it proves that God has written his moral law on the hearts of all people. They instinctively know when they do right or wrong. God has specifically revealed to me that he has appointed a day when he will judge the secrets of men's hearts through the "grid" of who Jesus Christ is and what he has done. (Imagine some of the surprises we will have.) I assure you that after that day; no one will ever again point their finger at God and accuse him of being unjust!
Again I address you religious Jews. You claim that you have spiritual security by your knowledge of the Mosaic code, God is on your side, you know his will and you have a superior philosophy of life based on divine revelation. You are confident that you are the divinely chosen moral governors of the earth- guides to the spiritually blind, a light of truth in the midst of the world's dark deception, instructors to the foolish, teachers of the uninstructed and the ones entrusted with the scriptural blueprints of ultimate knowledge and truth.
You then who presume to instruct others, why don't you listen to your own words? You preach to others to not steal, but you are thieves yourselves. You condemn adultery in others, but you're guilty of it yourselves. You say you hate idolatry, but you put many things ahead of God himself. You claim to honor the commandments of scripture, but you dishonor their Author by violating them. Indeed, the Gentiles ridicule the precious name of the God of Israel because of you Israelites, just as the prophets of old have said.
Being Jewish has its advantages if you're not a religious hypocrite. Yet, if you are playing a religious game, do you think that God sees you as a true Jew? If a Gentile wholeheartedly embraces the truth God has revealed to him, isn't he more "Jewish" in God's sight than you, even though he hasn't embraced Jewish religious rites and customs? Indeed, such non-Jews, ethnically speaking, will end up judging you ethnic Jews who violate your own stated convictions. For true Jewishness is not a matter of ethnic origins, outward religious rites, or scriptural knowledge. True Jewishness is a matter of the heart..an inner "spiritual circumcision". It has to do with spiritual reality, not religious formality, and it causes a person to become a "God-pleaser" rather than a "man-pleaser".
Comments:
okay now! teaching doctrines like this out in the public square is what got paul into trouble with both gentiles and jews on a number of occasions. but, he truly lived out his last statement here about being a God-pleaser rather than a man-pleaser--as did all the apostles of the Christ. it takes some guts to be a real follower of Jesus.
Jesus came to reveal to us a faith that centers on the naked conditions of people's hearts in the eyes of God. i take a lot of comfort in this actually, although it does put the fear o' God into me at times. have you ever found people to be concerned about God's "fairness" in His ultimate judgement of people's souls? this passage helps me to relax my troubled mind about the justice of our Father in heaven--as though He really needed my help on this issue of His character!
this passage seems to open the door for the possibility that people can be "saved" in some rather mysterious ways. i have heard some remarkable stories told by missiologists about how the Almighty has sometimes gone ahead of His missionaries to unreached peoples and revealed His Son to them as the way of true salvation and...even showed them that the missionaries were on the way with His Book in hand to tell them more. indeed, there is no other Name on earth given to humanity whereby we can be saved. everyone who has and will be saved, has been saved by Jesus Christ--even Old Testament believers who could only anticipate His appearing. it's just that the Holy Spirit can and does sometimes circumvent the usual (and preferred) means of revealing the gospel through redeemed human ambassadors. the point is...we must make room in our theology of God's grace and mercy for the "cornelius"" out there whose prayers and almsgiving have risen to the Father as a memorial, the "wise men from the east" who are seeking the Christ and the "melchizedek's" hidden away in the earth who are "priests of God Most High" outside the context of the established faith. (people that are so postured only reveal the fact that the grace of God and the work of the Spirit has already been powerfully at work in their souls and...when they hear the story of Jesus, they gladly will receive it because the Spirit who has been at work in them will internally convince or "bear witness" to them of its reality.) i believe that these kinds of surprising accounts might have been in paul's mind when he stated that God will one day "judge the secrets of men's hearts through the "grid" of who Jesus Christ is and what he has done." i, and we all, can rest in that.
however, far from demotivating us from sharing the now "open revelation" of the good news of Jesus recorded in scripture, the reality of God's inscrutable justice should impel us all the more to pro-actively spread the message to the people of the world. the tragic fact is that most people aren't alright with God--they are trapped in their sins and spiritually lost and deceived--this is true of both the religious and the irreligious. apparently, most of the "secrets of men's hearts" are of the unholy type. (would you have wanted God to judge you on the basis of the secrets of your heart before you heard about and surrendered to the Person and Work of Jesus? not me!) however...we have the message entrusted to us that is the "very power of God" that can and does break through the powers of darkness that are blinding the minds and hearts of those who have not yet put their faith in Jesus the Christ. we owe them this opportunity.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)