Rest Offered to the Weary

by Mike Ratliff

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”(Matthew 5:3 ESV)

Part of being discerning is having to listen to or read certain preachers and teachers in order to compare what they are saying to what God’s Word clearly says. Some of my friends and fellow team members at CRN are exceptional at this. I, on the other hand, become weary of it very quickly. I know that we must do it, but it just wears me out especially since much of what I am hearing from these people is exactly what I was immersed in from the time I was a new Christian until God shoved me out of our old church when it went Purpose Driven back in 2006. Since then, it is as if shields have been removed from my eyes. I listened to Chris Rosebrough break down a sermon titled “How to hear the voice of God” over the last couple of days (it was a long show) of Jamey Stuart of Believers Church in Chesapeake, Va. Chris did a fine job, but Jamey wore me out. His sermon amounted to “make yourself uncomfortable, get busy, and then you can hear from God” as he misapplied his teaching from the book of Jonah. This is exactly the message I used to hear continually from a couple of the churches we used to belong to. It brought back a lot of bad memories. I even remembered the guilt trips the pastors used to try to get us “busy.” Chris is right when he called this pure Law, not Gospel. Our Lord has some good news for refuges from this sort of bondage. 

God’s Purpose in Divisions and Factions in the Church

by Mike Ratliff

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. (1 John 2:19 ESV)

I was listening this morning to Chris Rosebrough’s “Fighting For the Faith” on the Pirate Christian Radio podcast for 9/2/2010. The show seemed pretty long. I checked and it ran for over 2 hours and 38 minutes. In it Chris addressed the 25th Anniversary of the Jesus Seminar and some other things. At the 1:02:50 point in the broadcast he began what he calls The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly segment. It is where he reviews sermons. This one was a very long sorta’ sermon from Rob Bell’s Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan in which he had guest Peter Rollins speak. Chris did a fine job of breaking it up with his own input. If you aren’t familiar with Peter Rollins, he is a Post-Modern “thinker” from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He is very much at home in the Emergent camp. I know that there has been a campaign to try to make Rob Bell not appear Emergent, but he speaks in this “sermon” as well and his comments at the end seal it. All through Rollins rambling “sermon” he speaks quite a bit about religion and life, but, to him, real Christians are those who are proven to be so by their doubts, not their solid faith. Never once does he talk about Christ’s atoning work in the Cross as the propitiation for sinners. No, to him, real Christians are those who work to make the world a better place. Jesus was like a coach to him, no more. In any case, at the end of the broadcast, Rob Bell said that hearing all of that was like drinking from a cold stream of water. On the other hand, I felt exactly the opposite. I was in desperate need of Biblical truth to wash myself clean from the filth of heresy. 

An Example of Counterfeit Christian Spirituality

by Mike Ratliff

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3 ESV)

While I was working today I received an email from my friend Ken Silva pertaining to a recent Tweet by Rick Warren in which he quoted Henri Nouwen. He had written a post about it as well. A copy of the Tweet is below. As Ken makes very clear in his post, Henri Nouwen was a Catholic mystic who practiced what is called today “contemplative spirituality” in order to reach some higher spiritual level. This “hiddenness” that Nouwen was talking about in this quote is not the same thing at all that Paul was speaking of as the Christian’s being hidden with Christ in God as we read in Colossians 3:3 (above.). No, this “hiddenness” is what the mystics try to achieve by seeking to find the “inner self” through their “contemplative spirituality.” When I was in High School and College in the 1960’s, this was called transcendental meditation. It is in no way Christian. So how is it that Rick Warren, who is not alone in this by any means, can blatantly go after Eastern mysticism and still be considered a Christian?

Reverence

by Mike Ratliff

Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ (Matthew 21:37 ESV)

In the Old Testament the Hebrew word translated “reverence” is usually שׁחה or shâchâh. It is the same word used for worship as well because it speaks of assuming a humble posture before royalty for instance. However, in the New Testament we find a most remarkable word translated as respect or reverence or even shame. It is found in the passage above (Matthew 21:37). Here is the Greek, “ὕστερον δὲ ἀπέστειλε πρὸς αὐτοὺς τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ λέγων· ἐντραπήσονται τὸν υἱόν μου.” Here we have ἐντραπήσονται the plural, future tense, indicative mood, passive voice form of ἐντρέπω or entrepō, which literally means “to turn into oneself, to put self to shame, to feel respect or deference toward someone else.” If you are at all familiar with the parables of our Lord then I am sure you recoginze from where I drew the passage above. You may be asking yourself, what has this got to do with worship? Let’s see… 

Prophecy and Tongues

by Mike Ratliff

Now two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the Spirit rested on them. They were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” And Joshua the son of Nun, the assistant of Moses from his youth, said, “My lord Moses, stop them.” But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!” And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp. (Numbers 11:26-30 ESV)

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:8-13 ESV)

As I ended our study last week on the Biblical definition of being Spirit Filled, I became convinced that after that was complete I should compare that with some very aberrant things being presented as “Christian” by an internationally, well-known local “church” in the metro area in which I live. I gave some hints about that in the post “What is the Purpose of Being Filled With the Spirit?” even though I did not give the name of the “church.” I did that because I was still praying about whether God really wanted me to do this. On my recent trip to Oklahoma, several family members encountered me concentrating on this as I meditated on scripture and prayed for wisdom. They all attempted to startle me as if I they thought I was in some sort of sleep state or something. No, I was simply listening to the Spirit as I worked through the Word comparing God’s truth with what I know these people are saying and doing which is most certainly not. I was simply planning the outline of what you are about to read. With each interruption I was concerned that I would lose the trail and not be able to get back to where God had me, but as I sat down this evening with my Bibles, lexicons, and commentaries, I found that the trail is indeed very hot and I pray that God uses me in this battle for His truth for His glory alone.

The Intention Wherewith Christ Came into the World

by Mike Ratliff

And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:5-10 ESV)

Having just returned from a short vacation trip to Oklahoma for my Grandson’s 2nd birthday and a visit with my mother and family and being completely cutoff from the internet and email through it all, I find myself having finished reading for the third time the Biography of William Tyndale during that time. I finished it on Sunday evening and as I knew it would, God used that life of one of his martyrs to inspire me to continue in obedience regardless of the cost. After I finished it, I began reading again another book I had taken with me just in case I did in fact do that. The second book is The Death of Death in the Death of Christ by 17th Century Puritan Dr. John Owen. The following is an excerpt from the introductory essay for this book:

“The Death of Death in the Death of Christ is a polemical work, designed to show, among other things, that the doctrine of universal redemption is unscriptural and destructive of the gospel. There are many, therefore, to whom it is not likely to be of interest. Those who see no need for doctrinal exactness and have no time for theological debates which show up divisions between so-called Evangelicals may regret its reappearance.”

As I reread Book 1, over the last couple of days, I was actually amazed at how edifying it is for the Christian to read of the propitiatory work of Christ on the Cross specifically for his or her behalf, that is, to purchase them specifically by His blood.

What is the Purpose of Being Filled With the Spirit?

by Mike Ratliff

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:15-18 ESV)

There is a certain charismatic “church” in the metro area in which I live that advertises heavily on TV during the evening news hour. Some of their commercials are supposed to be humorous like the ones in which a fellow with an Australian accent supposedly stops random people on the street to ask them what their favorite “church” is. Of course, they all say that its the church they are advertising. All through the commercials they play the song from this video in the background and, of course, the dude with the cool Aussie accent looks so relevant… In any case, each commercial ends with the line where they give the name of the church then say, “Religion that works!” They have other commercials of course. Some show people running down the aisles of their auditorium or people falling on the floor. Nearly all those commercials say something like, “Come here, because this is where God is.” I noticed lately though that they have moved to a new level. They now have family groups who all stand around smiling and talk about the transforming power they have gone through by being there and finding God’s purpose for their lives as they were put to work serving in that “church.”