Gods Way Is Still the Best Way

Marriage: God's Way Is Always the Best Way

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So I can praise God for those people too. Those who have opposed me have been mostly so-called "believers" who have not understood God's ways. I am giving you my testimony only to encourage you to believe that this can be your testimony too - always. Long ago, when God chose us in Christ, He also planned what we should do with our earthly lives.

Our duty now is to find out that plan - day by day - and to follow it. We can never make a better plan than God's. We must not imitate what others do, for God's plan for each of His children is different. God's plan for Joseph, for example, was for him to stay in the palace in Egypt and to live in great comfort for the last 80 years of his life. On the other hand, God's plan for Moses was for him to leave the palace in Egypt and to live in great discomfort for the last 80 years of his life - in the wilderness.

If Moses had followed Joseph's example, through the love of comfort and ease, he would have missed God's will for his own life. In exactly the same way today, God may want one brother to live all his life in comfort in the USA, and another brother to toil all his life in the heat and dust of North India. Each must be convinced about God's plan for his own life instead of comparing his lot with that of the other brother and being jealous of him and criticising him. I know that God called me to serve Him in India. But I have never demanded that anyone else should have my calling. We will, however, never be able to find God's will, if we are seeking our own honour or if we love money or comfort or the approval of men.

Today, God does not want us to know Him second-hand through others. He invites even the youngest believer to know Him personally Hebrews 8: Jesus defined eternal life as knowing God and Jesus Christ personally John This was the greatest passion of Paul's life and must be our greatest passion too Philippians 3: One who desires to know God intimately, will have to listen to Him always.

Jesus said that the only way man could keep himself spiritually alive was by listening to EVERY word that proceeded from God's mouth Matthew 4: He also said that to sit at His feet and listen to Him was the most important thing in the Christian life Luke We must develop the habit that Jesus had of listening to the Father from early morning every day Isaiah Knowing God will make us overcomers in all situations - because God has a solution for every problem that we face - and if we listen to Him, He will tell us what that solution is.

Many Christians do not know that there is a fundamental difference between the old and the new covenants Hebrews 8: The new covenant is as much superior to the old, as Jesus is to Moses. Whereas the old covenant could purify only a person's external life through the fear of judgment and the promise of reward, the new covenant changes us from within, not through threats and promises, but through the Holy Spirit giving us the nature of Christ - a nature that is totally pure and loving.

There is a vast difference between a pig being kept clean through being restrained by chains fear of punishment under the Law , and a cat that keeps itself clean because that is its inner nature. That example illustrates the difference between the two covenants. Jesus told His disciples that in the world they would face tribulation, John The apostles taught believers that only through much tribulation they could enter the kingdom of God Acts Jesus said that if people had called the Head of the house Beelzebul, the members of His household would be called by worse names Matthew It is thus that we know we are faithful members of His household.

Some of the names that I have been called, by other "believers", have been: It has been a great honour to be identified thereby as a part of Jesus' household. All who serve the Lord faithfully will experience this. Jesus also said that a true prophet would not be honoured by "his own relatives" Mark 6: Jesus Himself was not accepted by His family members. Every true prophet of God will be rejected and dishonoured by his own relatives, even today. In the same way, a true apostle will also be "slandered and treated as the scum of the world and the dregs of all things" 1 Corinthians 4: Suffering and rejection have always been the appointed lot of God's greatest servants.

The teaching that the church will be raptured before the "great tribulation" is a popular one with most believers because it comforts their flesh to hear it. But Jesus made it very clear in Matthew This doctrine was invented by man in England in the mids. God has raised up men at different times in different lands to restore a pure testimony for Him.

But after those men of God died, their followers have made their groups exclusive and cultistic. But the body of Christ is larger than any group. And we must never forget that. The bride of Christ is found in many, many groups today. So we must seek for fellowship with all whom the Lord has accepted, even though we may not be able to work together with many of them, because of differences in interpretation of the Word of God.

Any word or action that degrades a human being is never from God. It is always from Satan who forever seeks to demean and degrade people. We are commanded to speak "with gentleness and respect" 1 Peter 3: All men must be treated with dignity. For example, when giving a gift to a poorer brother, we must do so, without robbing him of his dignity as a human being.

We must be his brother and not his benefactor. Full-time Christian workers must trust God for all their financial needs and must reveal those needs only to Him. God will then prompt His children to supply their needs. They must not live "by faith in God and hints to other believers", as many live today. So those who serve the Lord full-time are permitted to receive gifts from other believers. But they must never receive a salary. There is a vast difference between gifts and a salary.

Gifts cannot be demanded, whereas a salary can be demanded. Here lies the cause for the backslidden condition of most Christian churches and institutions today. We must however, never receive any gifts for our personal or family use from people who are poorer than us. If such people give us gifts, we must either give the money away to someone poorer than them or put the money into the offering-box for the Lord's work. I hope these truths will not only encourage you, but liberate you as well.

If you are serious about your walk with the Lord and your ministry, you should take all these truths seriously in your daily life. A message given to evangelical Christian leaders at the All-India conference on the church's mission and leadership training - December 17, I'd like to turn to the Word of God in Revelation Chapter 4. As you know, many of those churches were in a very backslidden state. Then the Lord said to John in Chapter 4: What a lovely word that is!

When we see the state of things around us, and encounter problems for which we do not have a solution, it is good to hear the Lord saying to us, "Come up higher! Come and see things from My standpoint - and not from the low earthly level from which you have been looking at these things". Paul said, "One thing I do - forgetting what lies behind, and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus".

He had heard the call to come up higher and he was never satisfied, no matter how high he had reached. The danger in Christian leadership is that we stand so much in front of people. We even have media coverage now. We have titles before our names and degrees after our names!! What more do we need!

God did not create Adam because He needed a servant.

He did not create Adam because He wanted a scholar. And He did not create you and me because He needs servants or scholars. He already has enough servants in the millions of angels. He created Adam first of all that Adam might have fellowship with Him. That's why, for Adam, the law was NOT: That came through the Law of Moses later.

Adam was created on the sixth day. It was from that day of fellowship with God that Adam was to go out into the garden and serve God for the next six days. And when we forget that order - when we forget that fellowship with God must always take precedence over our going out into His vineyard to serve Him - then we've missed the primary purpose of our creation and of our redemption. We can be so taken up with the need around us - and especially in a country like India - that we have no time for fellowship with God.

We may feel that's a waste of time, when there is so much need around us. But what is the result of need-based work? Perhaps plenty of work - but the quality will be poor. You've probably heard the statement that there are three types of lies - black lies, white lies and statistics!! Everybody has statistics these days. But Jesus never bothered about statistics. There are times in my life when I have been through certain crises. One was very early in my life when I sought to serve the Lord and I found that although I knew the Word, I lacked power!

And so I sought God for the baptism in the Holy Spirit - to be endued with power from on high. Now, I know there are different views on this - and I am not trying to convert anybody. I am just saying that I was born again and baptized in water, but "rivers of living water" were not flowing out of my life. Yet I knew that Jesus had promised that everyone who believed in Him would have rivers of living water flowing out of their life - they'd never be dry.

But I found myself dry, many times. Even though I knew the Word, and even though I was preaching, I was dry. Very often my service for the Lord was like pumping a hand-pump. You know what that means - you pump and pump and a few trickles of water come out. It is certainly not like a river. Yet I saw the word of Jesus clearly: All I can say is that I sought God and He met with me. And that changed the direction of my life.

I didn't join the Pentecostal church. I do not consider myself to be a Pentecostal or a charismatic. But God met with me and filled me with His Holy Spirit. And then years later, I came to another crisis in my life. That was a crisis that dealt with the issue of reality - whether what I was preaching was actually true in my inner life, and whether the burden that I appeared to have when I spoke to people was something I really carried in my heart as well.

I presented a paper there. I was young then - just 30 years old. And you know how it is when we are young. I wanted to impress everyone. And my paper was impressive, because I had worked hard on it. My ministry continued with travelling to speak at deeper life conferences in Australia and Singapore etc. And everywhere, my aim was to impress people. Then the Lord spoke to me and asked me, "Do you want to impress people or do you want to help them? Then the Lord said, "Stop trying to impress them then". I came to a place then in my life, where I had to say, "Lord, my inner life does not correspond with what I am preaching".

Externally, I had a good testimony. But my thought-life and my attitudes - my attitude to money - were not Christlike. I was proclaiming Christ with my mouth but the Spirit of Christ was not ruling my thoughts. And I was honest about it with God. By then I was fairly well-known. I was writing books that had a wide circulation. I had a weekly radio programme. I was invited here and there.

One day the Lord spoke to my heart and said, "Are you willing to stand up in front of that congregation that respects you and tell them that you're not genuine, that you're not real". I said, "Yes, Lord! I don't care what people think of me. I want you to do something for me. I ask you only for one thing: That my inner life will correspond with what I preach".

That's what I asked the Lord for 23 years ago. God met with me again. He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. And the Lord said to me, "Come up higher". Fellowship with God has now become the most precious thing for me - during the last 22 years. It has changed my life and taken away discouragement and depression from my life altogether.

I have found the secret of walking with God. And that's made my service joyful! It is no longer dry! All your service depends on your personal walk with God. You remember when Jesus was in the house of Mary and Martha. He said to Martha, "You are worried and bothered about so many things". What was Martha worried about? There was a need there. And she was serving the Lord, unselfishly and sacrificially, sweating away in the kitchen - not cooking food for herself but for the Lord and His disciples. What greater service could she do than that?

It was totally unselfish! And she didn't do it for money or for a salary, as many Christian workers serve today. And yet the Lord told her, "You are bothered about so many things". She had thought that Mary was selfish, sitting there at the Lord's feet and not doing any work, but just listening.

And Jesus said, "That's the important thing. There is a beautiful paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 4: What am I to do when I see a needy world? Get all worked up with the need? There are plenty of manipulators in Christendom who are ready to work me up. But I say to the Lord, "I want to hear You". There are plenty of Marthas who will criticise me, saying, "Tell him not to waste his time listening, when there's a needy world perishing in sin. We must certainly look at the world's need.

Jesus said, "Lift up your eyes and look at the harvest". We must see the need and we must point out the need to others too. But the call must come from God - not from man. I have discovered that. Jesus sat in heaven for years while the world lay dying in need of a Saviour. Nobody could pressurise Him to leave heaven before the Father's time. But "in the fullness of time", He came. And when He came to earth, He sat making stools and benches for 30 years - while the world lay dying! He would not be moved by the need alone. But when the right time came, the Father said, "Go". The most important thing about a servant is NOT running around doing this, that and the other for God, but listening to Him.

It's difficult to listen. I used to be in an assembly in my younger days where we studied the Scriptures, and fasted and prayed regularly. Every morning we were taught to have a "Quiet Time" - a good habit that I would recommend to everyone. But in spite of all the hours apparently spent in the presence of God, people were still sour, bitter, hard-to-get-along-with, judgmental, critical and suspicious Something was wrong somewhere.

I have known times when I have spent just 10 or 15 minutes with a godly man, and I have been challenged and inspired. Can you imagine then what spending 10 or 15 minutes with God Himself can do? How is it then that all of us were not being changed? I was spending time with myself. I was just studying a book - whether the book in front of me was the Bible or a chemistry book didn't make a difference.

I wasn't spending time with God - listening to Him. I was just studying a book! Jesus said concerning Mary, "One thing is needful From that flows everything else. And that's a very efficient way of serving God because He can tell you what He wants you to do! The Father told Jesus what to do. Once Jesus was prompted by the Spirit to walk 50 miles from Galilee to Syrophoenicia, outside the borders of Israel. I don't know how many hours it took Him to get there - probably a whole day. There He met a Gentile woman, whose daughter was demon-possessed. He cast out that demon and pointed out to His disciples the great faith that woman had when she asked for just the crumbs that fell from the children's table.

Then He walked back to Galilee. That was how Jesus lived. He went all that way for just ONE soul. That wasn't impressive - statistically!! But it was in the will of God. Had he met all the need there was in the world - in India, in Africa? But He had finished the work the Father gave Him to do. And He did not desire to live on earth for a single day longer The apostle Paul too could say at the end of his life, "I have finished my course".

You have a different calling and I have a different calling in Christ's Body. But we must all understand what God wants us to do. The Pharisees could not hear what Jesus was saying because they were living a life of pretence. They gave others the impression that they were godly. They stood up there in front of the people as the leaders and scholars of their time. If you had met Peter or John, before they had met Jesus, and asked them, "Peter, John, could you tell me the name of some godly man whom you know?

Because that was their understanding - that people who studied the Scriptures, fasted, prayed, carried little boxes of Scripture-verses on their foreheads and looked so holy and pious, were truly godly people. Then you can imagine the shock they got when they heard Jesus lambasting those elders in the synagogue as a bunch of hypocrites who were candidates for hell. When Jesus selected His disciples, he did not select even one from any Bible-school. There was a Bible-school being run by Gamaliel in those days in Jerusalem. But Jesus didn't go there to select His disciples.

He picked them up from the lakeside in Galilee - uneducated men - and made them His apostles. And they wrote books, which Bible-seminaries now give to people to study, for a doctorate in theology!! I think Peter himself would not have been capable of getting a degree from any of our seminaries. Perhaps only one of the disciples would have been able to get such a degree - Judas, the cleverest and smartest of the lot. Why did Jesus pick such people? They were simple-hearted and willing to listen to Him.

What a stir there was when these simple men went to any synagogue and preached. They did not preach the routine messages that the people there had always heard. And people have never liked prophets. In the years of Israel's history, as Stephen said, "Which of the prophets did they not persecute? Those apostles were not diplomatic speakers.

2. God Delights in Honest People

And I believe that our country could do with a few prophets at this time, so that we could hear what God is saying. God doesn't care for that which is big and great in the eyes of men. I am not against meetings like this. But I stopped going to such meetings more than 20 years back. I turn down such invitations now. I know that such meetings can make you famous. You get media exposure. But I have discovered as I have travelled in the villages of our land - where most of my ministry is now - that the people who do the real work are not at a conference like this one. They are unknown and out there in those villages.

They can't speak English and they certainly don't know what it is to present a paper. But they are filled with the Spirit, they love the Lord and they go out and bring lost souls to Christ. Praise God for such people.

Others organise their missions and become known as mission-leaders and get the honour. But many who are first now will be last when Jesus comes back. So it is good for us to be humble. It is good for us to have low thoughts about ourselves. Perhaps we are not so great in God's eyes as other Christians think we are, because of our degrees and our titles. These may impress men, but not God. In fact they don't impress the devil either. The devil fears a holy man, a man who is genuine, a man who is the same inside as he is on the outside, and a man who never preaches what he does not practise.

People ask me, "Brother Zac, why don't you urge people to go to North India? I haven't lived in North India. So I cannot tell others to do it. I'm not saying that it should not be done. I'm only saying that I cannot preach what I haven't done. But then I'm not the whole body of Christ. I'm only one part of it. I am an imbalanced member of the body of Christ. I will always be imbalanced.

The only balanced man that ever walked on earth was Jesus Christ. You are imbalanced and so am I. Let's not think that any one of us is more than just one part. Every part is needed - the evangelist, the teacher, the shepherd, the prophet and the apostle - for people to be made members of the body of Christ and for that Body to be built.

What is our calling?

It is to make someone who is not a member of the Body of Christ a member of that Body. Isn't that our calling basically? I think we'll all agree on that. Since the Holy Spirit uses the word, "Body", let me use an illustration from the physical body. Let us say there is a plate here, with a potato representing an unbeliever , that has to become a member of my body. How does that happen? It happens first of all through evangelism - the hand reaching out and taking that potato.

Evangelism is always the first ministry in this task. That is why I never devalue evangelism. I value it very highly - and especially those who are engaged in this ministry in the heat and dust of North India. I am interested in reading their magazines - I get a number of them in my home - to read about the ministry of these dear brothers of mine who are labouring there. I have been up there now and then to meet some of them too.

Here then is my hand taking the potato from the plate. That potato will never become a part of my body if the "evangelist" my hand does not go out and do "evangelism" put the potato in my mouth. But is that all there is to it? If I just keep that potato in my mouth, will it become a part of my body? After a while it will get rotten in my mouth and I will spit it out. That is how some converts get rotten in some of our churches!

They are taken in and kept inside the mouth! But something more has to happen to that potato. It has to be chewed and crushed by my teeth. The potato can then imagine that everything is over. But all is not over! The potato goes down to my stomach, and there finds that acids are mercilessly poured on it. That is a picture of prophetic ministry in the church. You know it's not comfortable when acid is thrown on us. The gentle ministry of being picked up from the plate was so nice. But when acid is thrown on us, that is far from pleasant. The potato is now broken down completely and it no longer looks like a potato.

But in a few weeks, lo and behold, it has become blood and flesh and bones - a very part of my body! Now, whose job was the most important in this task.

[God's way is the best way, though I may not see]

What ministry do any of us have that we did not receive? If we are humble, we will confess that we are imbalanced. The hand is not more important than the stomach. They complement each other.

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Unfortunately in Christendom there is this perpetual competition between the members - the hand building its own kingdom, the stomach building its own kingdom, and the mouth building its own!! What do we have then? Not a body, but an "Anatomy Laboratory", with a mouth over here, a stomach over there, a hand here and a leg there. That's not a body! What do we need most of all? Yes, it is true we need instruction. But we need humility more than anything else. We need to recognise that we are all equally important - every member in Christ's body.

And the great mission leader is no more valuable in this ministry than the poor brother who can't speak English properly, but who goes out and brings souls to Christ. They are all part of the same body. What are the thoughts you think about yourself, when you are all by yourself?

Are they thoughts of humility, recognising that you yourself are nothing? There are times when I sit outside and look at the stars. I know there are millions of stars and that the whole earth is just a tiny speck in this universe. And I say, "O God, how great You are! How great this universe is! I am such a small little speck of dust on this speck called Earth.

And here I am claiming to represent You and preaching such great matters. Please help me to have a sober estimate about myself. God gives grace to the humble. Anybody can have knowledge. But only the humble can receive grace. We need grace far more than we need knowledge. I have thought of the young people who come to the Lord and who are persecuted by their families for their faith.

When such a person comes to one of our churches, what does he see? Does he see the spirit of Jesus Christ there? People around us have such a wrong impression of Christianity. I've long believed that the first principle of all effective ministry - whether evangelism or whatever - is found in Hebrews 2: How can I serve others? I have to be made like them in everything. I have to descend to their level. Why is it that I cannot communicate with a little ant crawling on the floor? Because I am too big. If I go to that ant in human form, it will be terrified.

The only way I can communicate with that ant is by my becoming like it first of all. The only way that God could communicate with us was by His becoming like us. We can all understand that. But let us remember that in our ministry to others too - whether in a local church or in an unreached area - the first principle is this - to be made like them in all things, "to sit where they sit", as Ezekiel said Ezekiel 3: That means, for example, that we don't want to exalt ourselves above others in any way.

This was why Jesus told His disciples never to take any titles like "Rabbi", "Father", or any other title. Because a title will exalt you above the people whom you serve. You will overawe them with your greatness, instead of being one like them. We think we can serve God better by adopting the methods of the world.

But that is just not true. In the Old Testament, we read that the Philistines captured the ark of God once. But they had a problem with it, and so they sent it back on a bullock cart. Years later when David was about to move the ark, he thought, "Hey, that's a good idea. The way that the Law taught, of the Levites carrying the ark on their shoulders, is all right for short distances. But for long distances, the Philistine method is certainly better. And you know what happened. The oxen stumbled and Uzzah stretched forth his hand to steady the ark.

God was angry and smote Uzzah dead on the spot, because he was not a Levite. God wouldn't change His methods. Then David was greatly disturbed. But where did it all begin? It began with David imitating the Philistines. And death came in.

Death always comes in when we imitate the ways of the world, when Christian churches are run the way business enterprises are run, and when money becomes the Number One factor in Christian work. A good question we could ask ourselves is whether the church or organisation that we are running will survive, if all money stops coming in. Or will the whole thing come crumbling down then?

A true work of God may use money but will never be dependent on money. It will be dependent only on the Holy Spirit. The Bible says that the Spirit is jealous James 4: It could be music. I'm not against music. I believe we should have the best possible music in our churches, without imitating the world. But we must not depend on music.

For example, at the end of a meeting, if we think that by getting the organ to play softly, we can move people to make a decision, what is that? It is psychological manipulation, not Holy-Spirit power. If the Word of God is preached in the power of the Spirit, like Jesus preached it and like Peter preached it, you won't need any organ playing softly at the end. You can have it if you like, but it's not going to help. But if you haven't got the power of the Holy Spirit, then you will have to manipulate people psychologically to make them take a decision.

But you will discover in the long run that such decisions are only emotional and superficial. The Holy Spirit is jealous for His rightful place in the church. You can't replace Him with theology. You can't replace Him with music. You can't replace Him with money. Thank God for all these things. So how can we be against it. It is written that Jesus sang a hymn. So when we praise God, we are only following our Leader. So how can we be against music. We are not against any of these things.

But it's a question of what we depend on. Jesus became a servant. Every Christian leader speaks about a servant life-style and being a servant and many books are written about it too. But what does it mean in practical terms? Let me ask you: How do you treat your co-workers? How do you treat your juniormost co-worker, who joined your group just yesterday? Is he really a brother to you or does he live in awe of you?

If so, then even if you preach about servanthood until doomsday, I'd say you haven't understood it. You haven't seen Jesus. Jesus was so simple. He never overawed people. He said, "I am a son of man" - and that means, "an ordinary man". He was the pure and holy Son of God Who had lived from all eternity with the Father.

But He came and lived on earth as an ordinary man. He became like His brothers in all things. For us to become like our brothers in all things, something in us has to die. It says about Jesus that "He humbled Himself to the point of death". When we die to Self, we prove our humility. The grain of wheat that falls into the ground and dies is guaranteed much fruit. That was one of the things that I discovered when I had this crisis of reality with the Lord 22 years ago.

I understood that the greatest work that I could do for the Lord in India was to fall into the ground and die - die to my will, to what people thought about me, to my ambitions, to my goals, to my love of money, to everything - and especially to my Self - so that thereafter Jesus alone would be everything to me, so that I could look up to Him every day and honestly say like the psalmist , "Whom have I in heaven but Thee and there is nothing and no-one I desire on earth beside Thee" Psalms There are times when I lie down on my bed and say to the Lord, "Lord, my ministry is not my god.

You alone are my God. Nobody will ever take Your place.

You are everything to me. You can take away my voice, paralyse me or do whatever you like with me. I will still love You with all my heart. It is from that fount alone that the rivers of living water can flow through us. Many, many years ago, when I was a young Christian, the Lord spoke to me from 2 Samuel What the Lord spoke to my heart that day was that when He came to earth, He had offered that which cost Him everything. And if I was going to serve Him, I would have to serve Him in that same spirit. Every service of mine must cost me something.

How is it with your service for the Lord? Has it cost you something? We have many people in Christian work in India today, who are earning five to ten times what they would have been earning if they had been in a secular job. I made a decision when I quit my job in the Indian Navy, 31 years ago, that I would never receive any money that would raise my monthly income to more than what I would have earned in my secular job.

That decision has preserved me for 31 years. We don't have to judge others. And I am not here to judge you. I don't know many of you and so it is easy for me to say this: Ask yourself what you would have been earning today if you had been in a secular job. John Wesley used to tell his co-workers, "Let it never be said that you have become rich by preaching the gospel.

Do you know where Christian work suffers the most? Right here, in this area. You cannot serve God and money. That's the issue that we need to deal with first of all.

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We can spend our time here talking about every other subject under the sun. But if we don't deal with this problem of the love of money, all our service will be useless. People relocate their residence from one place to another. There is nothing wrong with that. Jesus also relocated His residence from heaven to earth. And it was because He had a genuine concern for people here on earth. Did you relocate your residence, because you felt that from your new location you could serve the Lord more effectively in India - the land for which you SEEM to have such a great burden?

Do you have a genuine burden? Can we live in the comfort of South India and have a burden for the villages of North India? But I don't see how I can do that myself.

God's Way is Still the Best Way

Can you live in the United States of America and have a burden for India? Yes - but only on paper. On paper you can have a burden for anything! The devil is a great deceiver. He deceives us thoroughly. He makes us feel that we have a great burden for something when in actual fact we have nothing but hot air!! I'm not judging you, my brothers and sisters. God told me years ago, "If you judge others you will destroy yourself. I stand before God today and say that I'm not judging anyone.

My life is one of daily repentance - because I see unChristlikeness in many areas of my own life. I repent and say, "Lord, I didn't speak kindly to that person. I want to learn how to speak". The man who cannot control his tongue - his Christianity is worth zero, as James says James 1: Paul said something about his co-workers once.

When he was looking for someone to send to Philippi, he said he could find only Timothy, because all the rest who were with him then, were seeking their own!! Note that Paul did not say this about the heathen but about some of his coworkers. Getting on to Paul's team itself was an honour, for Paul was the type of person who would not permit even a John Mark to continue on his team, because he felt John Mark was not radical enough. Yet Paul felt that most of his coworkers were seeking their own. Today, many are preaching the gospel and appear to be burdened for souls, but they are really seeking their own gain and comfort.

They are promoting themselves. They are promoting their children and their family members - to take over their work when they retire!! Saul also wanted to promote Jonathan. But God said, "It's not Jonathan but David who has to take over as the next king. When we serve the Lord and speak the truth, we are not going to be popular. But if we seek to please men, we cannot be servants of Christ. I want to thank God for every brother and sister - and especially for those who labour in difficult situations, who have made sacrifices that we will not know about until Jesus comes again, who are not known in Christian circles, whose names are not heralded and who have no media coverage, but who are God-fearing, humble people, sacrificially spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ in our land.

I want to salute them. I praise God with all my heart for such people. I stand nowhere, when compared to any of them. Many of them are working in our churches and our organisations. Let us follow in their footsteps. Godly men are fast disappearing. Where in all the world can dependable men be found? Everyone deceives and flatters and lies. There is no sincerity left" Psalm The state of affairs described in the above verse is an apt description of Christendom today. We find nowadays that even believers who were once pursuing after godliness have started indulging in deception, flattery and lies - to serve their own ends.

Sincerity is what God seeks from all of us first of all. We may have a thousand and one faults and make an equal number of mistakes. But if we are sincere, God can do miracles with our lives. If we do not read the signs of the times in which we are living now, Jesus will have to rebuke us exactly as He did the Pharisees. When people know the Bible but don't know God Himself, they can easily be deceived - for every cult in the world uses the Bible as its textbook and have their proof texts to promote their peculiar doctrines. This is why so many cults have mushroomed around the world in this century and become fashionable and acceptable to many people.

Even believers are being led astray and are losing their salvation. Under the new covenant, God wants every child of His to know Him personally Hebrews 8: In fact, the new-covenant child of God can know God better and in a more personal way than the greatest prophet under the old covenant. Jesus said so, very specifically Matthew There are very few believers who have a passion to know God Himself. Most of them seem to be keen only on increasing in Bible-knowledge and on having spectacular emotional experiences. All this is an indication that we have come to the very last minutes of the last hour of the last days in which Paul said it would be "difficult to be a Christian" 2 Timothy 3: It will be difficult to be a Christian in the last days, not because of persecution or opposition, but because many people would "have a form of godliness without its inner power" 2 Timothy 3: In other words they would major on correctness of New Testament pattern and doctrine but would not be interested in personal devotion to Christ or in practical godliness.

Most of us who left dead denominations in the past, left them because we were searching for spiritual reality. We may have begun our search in earnest. But Satan is very smart to sidetrack believers into something cultistic, like the cult of the Pharisees in Jesus' time. The history of Israel has been given us at such length in the Old Testament to teach us some important lessons. A wise man will learn from that history the way men pleased God and the way many displeased Him. Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you on knowledge and understanding.

God brings one from a city and two from a family into His "Zion". And when we have come to this Zion - the church that the Lord is building - He promises to give us there "shepherds after His own heart", who will feed us on a knowledge of Himself and not just a knowledge of the Bible and on understanding of His ways and not just an understanding of doctrine. One primary identifying mark of the true church of God is this: I had hoped to meet with the couple together, but that scenario didn't work out that day.

Instead, my wife and I had an opportunity to sit and talk quietly with Ms. Now, allow me to be clear on this point. People are too precious to be handled roughly or abrasively even when we are giving them the truth. God's Word directs us to "speak the truth in love. And when it came to confronting Ms.

Rice, basically, what I said was, "Sister Rice, you come to church regularly and faithfully, you are very attentive, and you seem to have a genuine love for the Lord and the things of God. Yet, I want to graciously bring this issue before you to consider. Why not do things God's way and marry? To be honest I didn't know what reaction to expect, whether offense, anger or something else.

Rice sat graciously and quietly, saying nothing. She seemed to be thinking deeply about my words, and it was as though I could see her heart in her eyes, which were shining with the tears forming there. The first thing she said was, "How did you know? Afterward, an ongoing, three-way conversation developed between Ms. Rice, my wife, and me, during which I learned that Ms. Brown had lived together for more than 20 years, raising their children together and functioning as a family. Rice confessed one day. It was decided that my wife and I would talk with Mr. Brown about the matter soon -- first alone, then with him and Ms.

When the four of us met together, Mr. Brown too seemed open to getting married at last. I reminded the couple that it was their decision to make together, but I urged them that it would be wise to take this step and to take it fairly soon -- possibly within the next month or two. I felt certain that postponing the decision indefinitely or deciding but relegating the act itself to a vague "sometime" in the future would be neither helpful nor fruitful. The two of them decided that, yes, they would marry, and they selected a date, opting for a relatively short "engagement.

Her demeanor seemed to me more like that of a year-old virgin bride-to-be than of an unmarried matron who has already shared a home with the father of her children for more than two decades. The date arrived and the wedding was beautiful. Their three daughters were in the wedding party, and as I watched their proud procession, I could not help thinking what a positive message and life lesson this was to the three children from their parents. A number of other relatives were either in the wedding or present to witness the momentous occasion.

Rice's sisters said that she had been praying for that day for years. Of course, I personally felt privileged, not only to witness the wedding but also to perform the ceremony. I remember distinctly during those precious moments of the solemnization, seeing the tears of joy streaming down Ms.

I believe those were tears that flowed from a heart that was seeing a long-awaited dream fulfilled. Besides making a public affirmation of their lifelong commitment to one another, those unconventional newlyweds also sent a very powerful message out that day -- not only to their family but to the entire community: That marriage, as God ordained it, is more than a domestic arrangement, more than a "civil union," and far more than something two people just decide to do, or not do, depending on their emotional attachment or personal convenience.

Marriage, done according to the Word and will of God, is a blessed and "honorable estate.

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