Idolatry of the Heart

The more we discuss our sanctification, the more the topic of idols and idolatry keeps coming up. Idols are anyone or anything that keeps us from genuine worship of the Living God in spirit and in truth. The consequences of being enslaved to Idolatry of the Heart is what we are witnessing right now in the plague of false forms of Christianity that we see all around us. I wrote the following piece back in 2004 as part of my first book. Enjoy and be blessed. – Mike Ratliff

The Hidden Life

by Mike Ratliff

“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:1-3 KJV)

Our salvation is the start of our new life in Christ. We will never be more saved than we were at that moment. When God justifies one of His people by faith, that declaration is complete and eternal. (Romans 8:30) Also, each saved person receives the Holy Spirit. (Ephesians 1:13) That is all of the Holy Spirit each of them will ever have. However, God’s will for each of His children is their sanctification. (1 Thessalonians 4:3) This is a process through which God conforms them unto the image of the Son.

How Great Thou Art

O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

When through the woods, and forest glades I wander,
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.
When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur
And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

And when I think, that God, His Son not sparing;
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.
Then I shall bow, in humble adoration,
And then proclaim: “My God, how great Thou art!”

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

words & music by Carl G. Boberg and R.J. Hughes

I Exalt Thee

For Thou O Lord art high above all the earth
Thou art exalted far above all gods
For Thou O Lord art high above all the earth
Thou art exalted far above all gods

I exalt Thee, I exalt Thee I exalt Thee, O Lord
I exalt Thee, I exalt Thee I exalt Thee, O Lord

© 1977 Pete Sanchez Jr./Gabriel Music

The Consequences of Obedience

by Mike Ratliff

For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one origin. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.” (Hebrews 2:10-12 ESV)

The last few days have been pretty rough. However, as most of you are aware, prior to writing those posts on profanity and coarse language, I wrote several posts on humility and boldness. Part of being that humble believer who boldly stands in the gap, sword drawn, and fighting the good fight is taking the hits from fiery darts and blows to the shield, helmet and armor. I know that I am far from perfect. I know, unless I am Spirit-filled, I will be involved in fleshly pursuits that are sin.

I counsel each of you reading this to stay out of the battle unless you prepare first. The spiritual oppression and resulting deception that inhabit these battles is very real and can cause much doubt and heartache unless we remain on our knees and obedient. The enemy will tell you that the battle we were in these last few days was simply what words are okay to say what words aren’t okay for Christians. That was not what this battle was about at all. This battle was about the veracity of the Spirit-filled life as taught in scripture. What does it mean to be conformed to this world or not? What does it mean to be holy as God is holy? Are we regenerate and, therefore, a new creation as scripture teaches, or are we simply religious people who can live any way we want? Is Jesus Lord or not?

Holy, Holy , Holy

For the Lord’s Day I would like to change our focus a bit.

Some of the comments and emails pertaining to our last two discussions, Genuine Repentance and That Which Defiles, which I did not post or share were very interesting. The demands for tolerance of fleshly behavior and unity at all costs intermixed with sarcastic statements and demeaning comments brought much sorrow to this heart.

In any case, we must pray for these people that God would break through their blindness and draw them into the light. Also, that He would reveal to them that their concern for freedom is totally misguided and should be replaced with reverence and focus and devotion to His glory alone.

Below are the words to my favorite Hymn. I’m not sharing it for that reason though.The reason I am using it is that it directs our devotion to the proper person, off of self and onto our Most High God! Yes, worship Him, praise Him, and repent of all of your self-focus and demands that are only meant to bring self-gratification.

Holy, Holy, Holy

by Reginald Heber 1826

1. Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
   Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee;
   Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!
   God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!
2. Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore Thee,
   Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
   Cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee,
   Who was, and is, and evermore shall be.
3. Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide Thee,
   Though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see;
   Only Thou art holy; there is none beside Thee,
   Perfect in pow’r, in love, and purity.
4. Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
   All Thy works shall praise Thy Name, in earth, and sky, and sea;
   Holy, holy, holy; merciful and mighty!
   God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!

That Which Defiles

by Mike Ratliff

But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. (Matthew 15:18-19 ESV)

I never thought I would see the day when professing Christians and their pastors would be offended by a teaching that is a call to repentance from the use of profanity or coarse language. Their response is that we are being legalistic for teaching this because it is culture that defines what profanity or coarse language is. Since the Bible doesn’t list certain words as bad words to use then it is judgmental and hypocritical to teach that it is wrong to use that form of language by Christians, especially preachers in the pulpit.

However, the Bible most definitely teaches that Christians are called to be holy and pure. They are to deny themselves, take up their crosses and follow Jesus. They are to not be legalistic about following rules, but instead are to become Spirit-filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit. They are to not be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of their minds. They have freedom from legalism, but are challenged to not take lightly the shedding of Christ’s blood.

The Undeviating Test

I have been working some very strange hours lately and also have been helping my wife paint some rooms in our house to get ready for family this Thanksgiving. I sit here at 9:50pm on Wednesday night with paint spots all over my hands. I praise the Lord and thank Him from the depths of my heart that I have just finished rolling my last wall. I am very tired.

Right at this moment my wife is retouching with a small brush and mini roller the walls I just rolled. She is doing this over spots that don’t meet her very high standards. She is judging my work to not be perfect. Of course, I’m not a professional painter nor do I claim to be very good at it at all. Also, I don’t mind one bit that she is doing that for I want it to look good too.

If we apply this sort of “judging” in our relationships what will happen? I contend that if a believer becomes highly judgmental in his or her relationships it is the fruit of pride. The humble believer will not do this to the level of trying to force others to be “perfect.” In fact, I have found that when I find myself feeling resentment against how others behave I will usually find myself doing some self-examination. Then I discover that I am just a guilty of the same behavior. I believe that The Holy Spirit imparts that realization to me through my conscience. What is vital is that we repent of this ASAP. Why? The longer that we remain in this “judgmental” mode the longer we are not Spirit-filled.

Does God’s Sovereign Election of His People Make Us Mere Puppets on a String?

When I started writing about the Doctrines of Grace I noticed something that was common in all of those who have commented in opposition. That commonality is that everything they use as their evidence is predicated on preserving their Free Will. Some were gracious. Some were honestly attempting to understand the truth. However, the bulk of them were hostile and accusatory. These “battles” have left scars, but God also used them in my own sanctification and I hope He did as well for those who came along side me to help fight the good fight.

Also, I have become aware, because I have studied the history of this conflict in great detail, that this issue runs deep and is also vital to the health of the Church as well as the individual spiritual health of each believer. After all, we are battling over how Sovereign God is. The God whose glory Ezekiel saw in that magnificent vision from the first chapter of his prophetic book is not held to be high and lifted up by most of those whose theology is geared towards preserving Free Will. Instead, they demote Him and take Him casually even taking Him for granted like He is the old man upstairs. On the other hand, most of those who adhere to the Doctrines of Grace hold a high view of God who is completely Sovereign over creation.

2 Peter 2:1 and Universal Redemption

Last night I had a late start to getting my post written and placed on my blog and CRN. Therefore, I decided to write a short piece to intro a great article by John Piper that I had wanted to use for some time about the Sovereignty of God and Prayer. My focus was on the importance of praying for the lost. However, there were some who complained about the obvious links that John Piper made to the doctrines of Limited Atonement and Irresistible Grace.

The Sovereignty of God and Prayer

Several weeks ago at Bible Study on a Sunday morning, our teacher was teaching on election. While I agreed with what he was teaching I could also sense some resistance coming from some of the people in the class. There was some questions asked by a few of them, but they were bouncing all around the main point without really hitting it.

Since everything the teacher taught was directly from scripture, there was really no way for them to refute it, but they were bringing things up that bothered them such as what about lost loved ones or doesn’t this teaching lead to fatalism, etc. Fortunately, no one brought up the “robot” accusation. I took this in silence for about 15 minutes or so then I raised my hand. To my great surprise, the teacher called on me.

Dried-up Branches

by Mike Ratliff

Bill Hybels and his Willowcreek “organization” have recently made quite a confession. It started when they did a survey of the members of their congregation. The survey was an attempt to evaluate how effective their ministries were. From the beginning they have always used numbers to determine how effective they were. After all, that is how marketing is done. Right?

What have those of us outside of the seeker sensitive paradigm been saying from the beginning about what is wrong with it? Isn’t it that their Soteriology is flawed? They have a man-focused concept of how people are saved. They assume that salvation is simply a decision and, therefore, they try to be as friendly with the world as possible so they can ease huge numbers of people into their church.

Is Unity for Unity’s Sake Right or Wrong?

My last three posts have been about shining the light of truth into the darkness of the Word-Faith movement. When I began the research for that, I was convinced that I would receive multitudes of attacks from the WoF folks, but to my surprise, I heard absolutely nothing from them. Perhaps they don’t read anything posted here…

However, I did receive a few comments here and there from well meaning folks questioning the outcome of what I was I doing. Their point was that we should not shun those in error, but remain in unity with all professing Christians. That would be unity for unity’s sake, not obedience to any command from the Bible that I am aware of. All calls for unity we find in the Bible are not to cross the boundaries of error, apostasy or heresy. Instead, we are to be separate from those people mired in those errors, but always with the hope of restoration as we pray for God to bring them back into the light.