The UPLOOK 7/2002

Invitation to

DIVINE INTIMACY

This is life eternal, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.

JOHN 17:3

The call to live in Christ, forever, is a call to intimacy with our Lord; by the blood, through the Spirit, and up into the Father's heart, where we may cuddle up and cry, "Abba, Father" (Daddy! - Rom. 8:15).

This intimacy—so awesome that Reformed translators dared not translate it into common English (but preferred printing in the original tongue by using English lettering)—may be seen as a divine focus of Christian history. Intimacy with God is what the ministry of the Holy Spirit is meant to bring about, as it undergirds the power of his love in action (Acts 1:8).

Such intimacy must first bridge a gap as wide as Heaven and Earth, or wider than the gulf separating the U.S. government and the Afgan Taliban. For, just as it is not appropriate to accept Afghan nationals for citizenship without clearing them of al Qaeda affiliations, so too, fellowship with God cannot be accomplished before first becoming his friend. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. (Gal. 5:17)—and to be friends with this world system, in all of its lust-filled cravings, is to be an enemy of God (James 4:4).

Bridging the gap between the sinner and God's heart is what God shed his heart's blood for (Acts 20:28) so that he might take us unto himself as his bride (Eph. 5:25-27). It was for this reason that Christ went to the bloody Cross—so that he might see the travail of his soul and be satisfied: bringing us back unto himself (Is. 53:11). Yes, this was greatly anticipated by him: something he saw on the other side of Calvary-our hearts reunited with his, in divine fellowship (Heb. 12:2). This joy, both the Father and Son anticipated:

That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

Eph. 2:7

It will be the consummation of Solomon's song, throughout all of eternity.—And it begins here, in the joy of the Holy Spirit (and at that, through trial –Acts 13:52, Rom. 5:3-5, I Thes. 1:6)!

When sin entered the picture, therefore, there was a breach formed between the heart of God and that of man. We had been unfaithful since the Fall—like a philandering spouse roving after our paramours. We had loved another, and allowed our feet to turn towards the one with cloven feet, rather than the ones that would be nail pierced.

Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

James 4:4

We thus became enemies of God. This then, is another way to see the redemption story, and church history (particularly as it relates to the Protestant movement). "Justification by faith" was designed to bring us back into right standing with God, as we escaped the dead ceremonies found in Roman Catholicism.

Ceremony(!) - it was a vestige of what was once . . . and intense love affair.

The Roman Church had turned "communion" into a pagan sacrifice: stating that the wafer is now actually Christ's body while backing the carnage up with stories of blood running from the flakes, and the like.

Christ was reduced to a wafer, while Mary is elevated to be the queen of heaven (Jer. 7:18). Of course, the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) is now perceived as so powerful, that even within the U.S., her errors are so often glossed over by the descendants of committed Protestants, that it is considered impolite to mention such "details."

We might lose favor, or power.

Indeed, everyone who is someone must now make a pilgrimage to kiss the pope's ring, or at least to see him in person: this includes Presidents as well as national evangelists. One need not wonder, therefore, at the loss of intimacy within those circles, as well. For, since bad company does corrupt good morals (especially when that company is chosen to be identified with) we may expect that temporal mindset to prevail (I Cor. 15:33).

"Temporal power," is what they call it, and itharks back to her "golden age" when she ruled the known (western) world with a rod of iron. None but the most committed survived her trampling of faith in the streets (like the Waldenses, forced into the hills).

Yet, sometimes such "trampling" reversed order, to attack the one that bit it. I speak, of course, of Mohammed and his quest to be spiritual. The paganized church which he saw, in the 8th century, led him to believe that its ceremonies were all there is. In his quest to produce (what he felt was) a purified religion, therefore, he founded one which emulated the spirit of the sepulchers he had observed: with a bland and slavish submission to ritual and form-without the living Christ, or any true understanding of the Cross, whatsoever. Further, where the RCC had failed (he thought) he would succeed and accomplish by force, by-passing the tedium of evangelism, while demanding that the unregenerate "believe" . . . in himself.

By the time of the Protestant Reformation, the Islamic Jihad had consumed North Africa, and much of the south, while making inroads into southern Europe. Halted at the Battle of Tours, in Spain, corollary damage later resulted when the RCC adopted a Jihad of its own, and launched the Crusades, after the turn of the millennium (1096 & 1270).

Intimacy with God was now largely lost, with the whole concept of truly knowing God largely reduced to a complete denial of the Cross (in northern Africa) —or a corruption thereof through jewels, relics, and perversion during the disgusting reigns of "infallible" popes. Thus it was that (what was perceived as) the foremost authority on the face of the earth had reduced Christianity to mere religion: rooted in slavish ritual, and pagan (Greco-Roman) philosophy.

Forgotten was the Miracle Worker of Galilee. Unreachable, were his glory and grace. The gospel would have been completely reduced to mere legend and myth, had not the Scriptures, themselves, been preserved by the hand of God—and a terribly drastic move had not been taken, to loosen the iron grip of the RCC upon the western world.

This required a terrible judgment, upon the western world. So that, soon, she who spoke of life and death in her wafer god, would have to contend with massive waves of death, within her local streets. First Mohammed, then the Crusades, and now . . . the black plague. For you see, the RCC with its rites and ceremonies had almost everyone convinced that it really did have the keys of life and death, heaven and hell. Yet, when the black death struck, towards the end of the 14th century and swept Europe like the plague of the first born, it became increasingly obvious just how powerless Rome's religious system was/is. It would take almost 600 years before the secret would be exposed to the world, at large—revealing that the power of the Man of Galilee was there, all along. . . for the asking (Matt. 7:7-11, Jn. 7:37-39).

So, the bubonic plague ("black death") left millions dead in its wake—1/3 of Europe, by some estimates, and yet, it also began to pry loose the iron grip of the RCC in the minds of the thinking populace. There had to be a real power over death. Playing religious games in the Dark simply would not do.

In Italy, within the circle about the Vatican, the rebellion took on a non-atheistic form of humanism: changing the terms of engagement, looking for serious answers, and reconsidering the classics. This spawned the Renaissance.

—But outside of Italy, further removed from the temporal power of the Pope, there was a more daring venture: an exit towards actual intimacy with the living God, through simple that was faith practiced in spirit and in truth (Jn. 4:24). This was the start of the Protestant Reformation.

It was out of this raging conflict, between the church of relics and the church that relished her Lord, that Europe was restructured and new worlds were colonized. Most notable of these was a nation founded, almost as a new Jerusalem, with a government of the people, by the people, and under Almighty God: the United States of America.

Seen in this light, the U.S. was much more than an economic, or political, experiment: Jamestown vanished, while Plymouth colony flourished—it was a beach head against the RCC, with its budding counter-reformation movement designed to seduce back to her skirts all of her "renegade children." America's US was also established for this reason: to allow anyone to follow the dictates of their conscience, and to allow everyone to know God for themselves without organizational hindrance or interloping, since There is one God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus (I Tim. 2:5)—not popes, nor cardinals, or even church altars: but Jesus Christ, alone.

So they built the wall: the wall between church and state, in what was (then) largely a Protestant nation, seeking to distance herself from the abuses of organized religion. For they knew the depravity of man, which had resulted from the Fall in the Garden (of Eden).

It was because of that Fall, that the Lord of glory had to sweat great drops of blood in another Garden (of Gethsemane) in order to bring man back into living fellowship with himself: not by a wafer's transubstantiation, but by His actual presence, as the Son of man on earth. Reformers used to shed their own blood, to support this belief (during the Inquisition). No more, today.

Today, the counter reformation has largely overtaken its opponent's ranks. The Lutheran Church, which God had used to launch a flaming banner of Reformation zeal (through Martin Luther) has now largely reconciled (or acquiesced) to her "mother church". Their recent "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification," signed on Reformation Day, in 1999, proclaims them to be friends instead of combatants, and united in basic world view and outlook regarding the salvation of men and women.

Yet, the Reformation did not really stop at Luther, and on the Protestant front our most "radical reformers" (if we may call them that) continued the journey back towards true intimacy: led by the Holy Spirit, and supported by the word of God (the Bible) until, by the time Israel had once more returned to her homeland and become a state, healing revivals from that simple faith in the words of the Bible, were visible for all to see within the Christian world (in the 1950's. This is not to say that the Charismatic experience was not in evidence, in earlier movements—among the earliest Moravians, Methodists, and Quakers, for example—but that it was not adopted, so well understood, or propagated as a major doctrinal stand, until this time.)

The quest for demonstrated victory over the Dark, Death, and Disease—so longed for at the close of the (gasp!) Dark Ages, was completed as the time of the gentiles drew to a close, with the Philadelphian door swung fully open . . . until, with our “little strength” it seemed to spring back into the ensuing unbelief, decay, and apathy of all but a remnant in the Laodicean era (Rev. 3:8, 15). Yet, lukewarm or not, events continue to heat up on the prophetic landscape. Indeed, this very event (of the Charismatic Renewal) taking place at the same time as the restoration of Jerusalem to natural Israel (in 1967), rings a loud bell in the prophetic chambers of our minds.

In other words, it is no coincidence that the Pentecostal flame has been restored at the same time as the rebirthing of the physical nation of Israel, since, Christ cannot return until the restoration of all things (Acts 3:21—including the church, to her original power!)

Today, in 2002, just two millennia after Christ’s first coming, Jerusalem is again inhabited in her own place (Zech. 12:4)—by the natural Jew. Those who parked at earlier revelation, or closer to their unfaithful "mother" (Rev. 17)—now insist that this simply cannot be. Israel is not Israel, and the Jews have no real claim to the land (vice Gen. 13:15?). Of course, this replacement theology, while demanding that the Jew conform to our expectations, makes little difference to the One orchestrating the return of Abraham's natural line—or to nations coming into line for the final battle!

Even after Antichrist arises, issues the Mark, and moves to make cashless transactions mandatory, I am certain that the “learned” among us, will tell us (as they do in college classrooms) that “common sense” does not apply in our situation.

We can't possibly be seeing the fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

Such is mere coincidence.

After all, it is only what our learned professors declare, that matters.

I beg to disagree.

You may ignore Israel's returning, if you dare. Miss out on personal intimacy with our wonderful Lord, if you so desire. You may even overlook impending the judgment descending upon the "mother church" (the harlot) as her priests and leaders are increasingly exposed, by the open media, to be a corrupt fellowship of homosexuals, and perverts.

Yes. It is true. He is lining up that institution for future judgment (Come out of her, my people –Rev. 18:1-8)!

And those who, today, refuse intimacy by failing to repent and return to a simple child like fellowship, and faith in the Man of Galilee will face another power.

The power of Christ's wrath.

And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. . .

And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: . . .

And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

Rev. 19:11,15,16

So, come to the intimate feast: for the Spirit and the bride say "Come!" and let him who is athirst, “Come!” and let her who longs for his sweetness, partake of the water of the Spirit, today,

and of the water of that City

forever (Rev. 22:17)!

Amen.

†

SACKCLOTH GLORY

And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

Revelation 11:3

Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

Matthew 5:4

The paradox of the fiery anointing of John’s two witnesses, is similar to that found in the introduction to the greatest sermon ever preached. In those beatitudes, blessing and discomfort ride piggy-back in an apparent array of conflicting declarations. Some, seeking to simplify the matter, imply that the whole difficulty may be solved by rendering the passage, “happy are those who mourn…” etc. —an obvious blunder.

Blessing connotes God’s favor.

Mourning denotes man’s displeasure and pain, while also implying a strong dose of the simple faith needed to access God’s kingdom. “Except a man be born again,” our Lord informed the official, “he cannot see the kingdom of God” (Jn. 3:3). The born again experience, now so glibly spoken by pundits as well as Christians, certainly brings to mind much more than mere acquiescence. It speaks of total commitment and soul searching, with a departure from one world, for entrance into another. Only those given the grace to see the darkness of the glittering lights about us, will take the time to peer into eternity, and venture forth.

As we march forth into the twenty-first century, and up to the final fulfillment of Bible prophecy therefore, Christians must quickly make a personal assessment of just what it is we believe, why, and how far we are willing to go to advance those beliefs. The western world’s focus has suddenly shifted into the religious realm—not because of an interest in eternity, but because of an interest in maintaining what we have in the here and now. The World Trade Center’s collapse brought down with it much more than steel and fiber board. It symbolized the collapse of a happy-go-lucky, “…for tomorrow we die,” mentality. Although “escapist” movies of the Tom Clancy variety may continue to be churned out by Hollywood, a new awareness of just how devastating those nuclear, and other fanciful weapons we speak about, are. The potential of massive destruction has certainly struck home with a new fervor.

Eternity, has not, however. Nor has the judgment of God, which was all but squelched in public discussion on the matter.

The Christian response, which was largely engrained in that same happy-go-lucky world, is loathe to awaken to such matters. The Charismatic world would prefer to preach about God’s desire to see us prosper, while the rest of the church would just like to be left alone in its pursuit of wealth, family, and retirement. Having crafted a generally escapist eschatology, in which we either neutralize the present environment by stating that we are already in the Great Tribulation (as per the Preterist, or some Reformed brethren)—or that we will escape that Tribulation altogether (as the Left Behind series proposes)—concern about impending judgment upon a fallen humanity, and rebellious world system in conflict with God, seems just too troublesome to consider, seriously.

Enter, the ministry of the sackcloth.

And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

Revelation 11:3

What is most interesting (or, disturbing, depending on your point of view) is the absolute consistency of Scripture on these matters. It is not as though John were suddenly discovering some new reality in the middle of his “Revelation.” It was there, all along. As he is given an amazingly concise view of the church age, its close, and the ensuing judgments, this sudden unveiling of the two witnesses—mentioned, previously, in only a spiritual sense in Zechariah’s prophecy (cf. Zech. 4)—bursts upon the scene: clothed with power, and in the sackcloth.

Being Charismatic, myself (or Pentecostal, depending on your perspective) I must admit that I have found John’s statement troubling, at times. Where is his mention of the usual miracles that we expect??? There are so few, and those which do appear have nothing to do with our usual concerns, as crafted in the modern (or post modern) world. That is . . . they seem irrelevant, from a pre 9/11 point of view. Within our present environment, however, where men’s (and women’s) hearts are beginning to tremble, these fellows are beginning to look more and more important, with each passing day.

Consider, for example, how the Evangelical world has focused largely on the apostle John’s account of the gospel: emphasizing the born again experience (as we must), and justification by faith. Yet, there is still more (Heb. 6:1ff) and as we back up a bit, and reexamine the actual words of our Lord, in other passages, we discover a message that is uncomfortably down to earth: demanding that we love our neighbor, for example (in the very popular parable of the Prodigal Son-Luke 15) while uncovering the very disturbing warnings of Christ’s description of the end of the age, in which he states in no uncertain terms that failure to show concern for our neighbor will have a bearing on our eternal condition (Matthew 25:31ff). These are areas largely left unchecked, or unexamined, in our “happy-go-lucky” (and blessed) environment of pre 9/11. Only missionaries need concern themselves with such things, we tell ourselves. We’re in the business of building our own worlds . . . right here.

Yet judgment is beginning at our doors, today.

This was brought home to me, powerfully, in an article carried in the N.Y. Post on an unusual event: Muslims aggressively supporting the American war on terrorism, in Bosnia and Albania.

“Every Albanian in Kosovo knows that without the help of the the United States we would have been devastated by Servian imperialism,” says Daut Dauti, a Kosovar journalist completing a fellowship in the United States. “Muslim Albanians are no less pro-American than others.. . .” (NY Post 5/15/02. p17.)

While reading this amazing article, a thought popped up in the back of my mind. I happen to be part of a very unusual fellowship (Time Square Church) which has contacts and missionaries operating in that part of the world. We have had extensive prayer meetings, and concerns, for that part of the world long before 9/11. Building bridges, over which the gospel may be conveyed, has born fruit. Is this not also a by-product of those efforts?

In other words, the “war on terrorism” can not (I repeat not) be won by bullets and secret agents alone (nor will it be). Can you not see the handwriting on the wall? Can we not see that genuine Christianity benefits us (or condemns us, by its neglect) in the twenty-first century, as well?

How much are we (evangelical Christians) willing to expend ourselves in the real war on terror (which damns men, and women’s, souls forever)?? Failure to pursue this matter aggressively is already knocking down our buildings.

And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

vss. 7,8

When I was a child, it was generally understood that a minister was a man who gave his life for the sheep. Great ministers were those of “missionary grade” like David Livingston, C.T. Studd, and Gladis Aylward, or ministers on the home front, like John Wesley, George Whitfield, and Billy Sunday—who were most noted for what they gave up rather than how many accolades they received in prizes and applause—especially within the present age. Not to disparage any of the excellent work being done around the world, today, my purpose is not to tear down (or even, to discover, and uproot tares in the field –Matt. 13:39,30) but to encourage a reexamination of basic Christianity, as we discover them in the beatitudes, for example.

Have you noticed? There is a definite progression, in that awesome sermon from the very lowest, to the most lofty heights of spirituality: starting at poverty of spirit, it ends with true martyrdom (wherein a person gives his life for another, not by taking another’s life, as Islam extremists would now have us believe).

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

Matthew 5:3-6

Where and how, is all of the above to be accomplished? In our heads? Is this psychological counseling? NO! That’s why these are blessed! They receive these benefits from God when they follow through! Christianity is a super natural religion! When we cast off our “self esteem” (vs 3) to realize just how far short we’ve fallen of God’s glory, we naturally mourn (vs. 4)—but are met by him who promises to honor his Word (the Lord Jesus Christ – Jn. 14:23). The result is a new gentleness (vs. 5) as we realize that we can afford to be vulnerable, for the earth is the Lord’s and its fullness—and we are his! So, it becomes addicting, and we just must have more of this Jesus (vs. 6), and so forth. Eventually, as the believer follows this natural path, in the footsteps of the Savior, we find ourselves getting in trouble with the world system.

Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

Matthew 5:11,12

It is in the very next verse, that our Lord makes the observation that such persons are the salt of the earth, but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. (vs. 13).

Again, we’re talking ground zero here: the glory of the sack cloth. We can’t go into battle without an exit strategy. We can’t face a foe, effectively, without counting the cost. If we can’t deal with the price of discipleship, our results are guaranteed to be wimpy, and bland. Salt, to be effective, must have a bite. It is distinctive, demanding either expulsion, or a quenching of the thirst. If our Christian witness only makes those around us feel comfortable with your stand (or lack thereof)—especially when they’re walking on the Dark side (as our society is doing increasingly, in regards to the occult), something is very, very, wrong. This is especially true of us in the speaking ministry.

Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.

But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,

Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.

And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also.

Luke 6:26-29

I can go no further, for enough has been laid out here for me to dress in my own hairy garment. I must go into my own closet, not for special clothing, but for prayer.

Remember me, also, in your own closet.

†

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