Guarding His Flock Ministries

What would it look like?

“Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.”   James 2:23, KJV

Common to all three of the world’s monotheistic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—are the respect, if not reverence, they hold for Abraham. Though differing on many points, all three faiths find a common contact in the person of Abraham (Jewish, Genesis 12-25; Christian, Romans 4:1-25; Muslim, Koran, Sura II. 124-140) For Christians, the faith of Abraham serves as a prototype. Abraham was justified by faith. Abraham “believed in the Lord; and He [the Lord] reckoned it to him [Abraham] as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6; See Romans 4:3, 20-22; Galatians 3:6; James 2:23.). And as Abraham was right with God by faith, so too is every true Christian believer. Genuine Christians believe God’s Gospel and are saved (See 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; Romans 10:8-11.).

But given the prominence of the patriarch among the three monotheistic religions, it should not surprise us that Abraham’s God was targeted for ridicule by at least one of “the new atheists.” In an obvious linking of Abraham to the cultic excesses of Jim Jones (“about which,” he says,” we raise a bit more than a skeptical eyebrow”), and the religious jihad of Osama bin Laden (whom he says “we may leave . . . alone until he turns out to be planning, in a nonphantasmal way, the joy of suicide bombing”), Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011) remarked:

But if these things can be preached under the protection of an established religion, we are expected to take them at face value. All three monotheisms . . . praise Abraham for being willing to hear voices and then to take his son Isaac for a long and rather mad and gloomy walk. And then the caprice by which his murderous hand is finally stayed is written down as divine mercy. [1]

There you have it: For reason of guilt by association with two modern day villains—Jones and bin Laden—who lived four-thousand years after Abraham, God does not exist. We might label Hitchens’ protest the “immoral argument against the existence of God.”
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Christians and the Encircling World of the Occult

And when they say to you, “Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter,” should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? The Prophet Isaiah, Isaiah 8:19

Introduction
Like many others in the world, our culture has become obsessed with the paranormal, the appetite for it being stimulated and fed by video games played, television programs and movies watched, books read, music listened to, art exhibits visited, spiritual activities engaged in, and more. Recently, a local arts center hosted an exhibit called “Encounter” that was “devoted to dragons, robots and other science fiction and fantasy themes.” [1] The same sectional front page also publicized “LARP-ing” (that is, live-action-role-playing) where participants gather together to act out “vampire-themed” scripts related to “those tabletop Dungeons and Dragons-style games that gained huge popularity in the 1980s and continue to draw a steady base of faithful players.” [2] In his coverage of the vampire-themed games, the reporter issued the following caveat: “They pretend to be vampires, but that doesn’t make them devil worshippers.” [3]

Souls under Siege
At first glance, “LARP-ing” might appear to be the activity of people belonging to one of society’s eccentric fringe groups (perhaps that’s why they consider themselves “nerds”), unless, of course, it is set against the backdrop of our overall culture, a culture fascinated not only by vampires, but also by werewolves, wizards, witches and warlocks (a la the popular Harry Potter novels and movies), Halloween, visits to and visitations from the netherworld (23 Minutes in Hell), near-death experiences (NDES), intergalactic soul travel, alien visitations (E.T., Cowboys and Aliens), spiritist séances, demon possessions (Rosemary’s Baby), Satanism (The Omen Trilogy), fortune telling, horoscopes, psychic readings, apparitions and poltergeists (The Apparition), horror films and TV programs (NBC’s Grimm), drug induced altered states of consciousness (experiencing the divine), extra-sensory perception (ESP), Sci-Fi, and on and on a listing can go. In fact, one can walk in any American shopping mall and see people, from adults to kids, wearing dark T-shirts and sporting tattooed bodies emblazoned with occult themes, grotesque human-like images, skulls and bones, and other occult symbols. The signs and stuff of the occult seem to be everywhere! [4]
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A Meditation on Galatians 4:1-7.

“And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” Galatians 4:6, KJV

God’s saving lies in His having sent. One of the great words in the New Testament is the word “apostle.” It comes from the verb “to send.” It describes the action of a superior to a subordinate. It implies authority and obedience to that authority. “Send” is an action verb that implies a mission, like the President sending an ambassador, or a special envoy, to try and help solve a crisis in a foreign country.

God sent the prophets. He sent Moses (Acts 7:35). In the Old Testament, he called those He sent to Israel, “My servants the prophets” (Jeremiah 7:25). God sent John. He was “a man sent from God” (John 1:6). The Father sent Jesus into the world and He in turn, sent the apostles. “As Thou didst send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world” (John 17:18, NASB; See John 20:21).  Being “sent,” the apostles possessed authority in the church which was not their own, but was based upon the authoriy of Jesus who delegated it to them and sent them (Matthew 28:16-20). God sends angels. “And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other” (Matthew 24:31).
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“Adjusted Living in a Maladjusted World.”

“This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.” Joshua 1:8, KJV

In his book Life with God, Richard Foster describes Spiritual Disciplines as activities Christians engage in so that they might become the athletae dei, the athletes of God. Foster pairs some of the disciplines to be, “fasting and prayers, study and service, submission and solitude, confession and worship, meditation and silence . . .”[1] Note the author’s association of “meditation” with “silence”—it’s as if the one equates to the other—and superficially, at least, the pair do seem to be associated. But biblically, are they?

To answer to the question, we must go to the Old Testament where, especially in the book of Psalms, meditation is portrayed as a path to quality living, both spiritual and material. For example, the first Psalm exclaims, “How blessed is the man who . . . [delights] in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night . . . And . . . whatever he does . . . prospers” (Psalm 1:1-3; See 119:15, 23, etc.). In that meditation appears to be such an important avenue to divine blessing, it would be well to understand from a biblical perspective what the activity is, and its relation, if any, to silence.

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A study of 1 Thessalonians 5:19.

“Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances.” 1 Thessalonians 5:19-20, NASB

In The Bible the work of the Holy Spirit is sometimes likened to fire (See Isaiah 4:4; Revelation 4:5.). On the Day of Pentecost when the Spirit came in His fullness upon the believers who waited, “there came a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house . . . And there appeared to them tongues as of fire . . .” (Acts 2:2-3).

Fire has many uses in life. It provides warmth in the winter. It allows for the preparation of food, or driving an automobile. In fact, fire is essential to life. Without the continual burning of the sun, earth, as we know it, would die a cold death. So when the “tongues as of fire” appeared on the believers that first Pentecost, that event indicated that the sovereign God was infusing into the church new life from above. But having received it from the Holy Spirit, maintenance of that life becomes the responsibility of individual believers and churches. So in his letter to the church at Thessalonica, the Apostle Paul commanded, “Do not quench the Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:19).

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A Study-Meditation on John 15:1-11.

Jesus told those who were and would become His future (That’s us!) learner-followers, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5, NASB). Apart from Him, Jesus said we can do nothing, and that means “no” thing. In contrast to many contemplative-mystics who believe that they can self-engender ”spirituality” by doing spiritual disciplines (Contra Galatians 3:3, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?“), abiding believers recognize that only in and by Christ can they produce anything of spiritual significance in their lives. That’s why Jesus admonishes His followers to abide or remain in Him, for it’s easy for our minds and hearts to be mystically “corrupted [i.e., distracted] from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3). But what does it mean to abide?
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Thanksgiving Living: A Meditation on 1 Thessalonians 5:18, "In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." (KJV)

At one point or another in our lives, all of us have lived beneath our circumstances. At times, the sheer weight of life can "get us down." I’ve felt that way, and I am sure you have too. The story is told of W.H. Griffith Thomas (1861-1924), a Bible teacher and theologian of a previous generation, who was walking down the street. Approaching a lady he asked her, "How are you faring today Madame?" to which question she replied, "Pretty well under the circumstances." Thomas then responded, "What, may I ask, are you doing under the circumstances?"

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A Meditation on John 5:44.

Deep within the human psyche, in many ways tainted, twisted and perverted by sin, lays a powerful need to be accepted by others. All of us want to feel connected to those who accept us for who we are. But "peer pressure" can have a downside. In her best-selling book, psychologist-author Harriet Braiker called it, The Disease to Please.[1] This disease can plague those in Christian ministry. By the way, that’s all of us! But the need for acceptance and approval from others raises an important issue every true believer must deal with, and it is this: Do we do what we do for acceptance, approval, adulation, and applause from peers, or do we do what we do by faith for the glory of God?

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A Study of Ephesians 4:30.

One church named itself, “Happy Church.” All of us, I think we can confess, desire to be happy–to experience feelings of contentment, delight, enjoyment, and satisfaction. I would venture to say that if I asked you, “How many of you desire to be happy?” all of you would nod your head, “Yes!” The opposite being happy is the experience of grief–of being unhappy, of feeling sorrowful, agitated, oppressed, depressed, or sad. In the very depths of our souls, these two emotions, happiness and sorrow, seem to be in constant competition with each other. Most of the time, we are either glad or sad. We feel either up or down.

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