Ministering to Our World

I realize that my previous post seems very harsh and hard-core. That's not my desire. We all need God's help every day in the areas where we struggle. Each of us face different battles and victory often comes as a process.


"Whom will He teach knowledge? And whom will He make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts? For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little there a little." Isaiah 28:9-10


Maturity occurs through growth and God is so gracious and gentle with us. "I taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them. I drew them with gentle cords, with bands of love, and I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck. I stooped and fed them." (Hosea 11:3-4)


God's words are the nourishment we need to grow strong and healthy in Christ. Peter the Apostle says, "As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious." (I Peter 2:2-3)


The Holy Spirit comes alongside the written word, encouraging us and filling us with joy as we surrender our ways to Him. He never withholds Himself and is present with us, even in the midst of our sins and weaknesses. He isn't afraid to step into our messes and join us in our filth. He only asks that we allow Him to clean us and pull us out.


Graham Cooke writes in his book Coming Into Alignment: "I love the Holy Spirit. He is the happiest, most cheerful person I have ever encountered... He is cheerful, exuberant, and amazingly enthusiastic about us. He loves His role as Comforter, tutor, and come-alongside friend. He gets to talk about Jesus (whom He adores) and equip us to fellowship with the Father. He is an absolute genius at life, a brilliant mentor who knows everything. He has a wonderful sense of humor and is a powerful advocate and warrior. He is never fazed at circumstances but loves to life us up to see more from His perspective. He is a gorgeous, amazing paradox. He is recklessly cheerful and incredibly wise. He is full of majesty and yet astonishingly gentle. He is completely and radiantly Holy, yet comforts us in our struggles and lovingly teaches us the ways of righteousness. He is inspiration, generous, kind, gracious, and endlessly patient in redeeming us to live in Christ." (p68-69)


Francis MacNutt, founder of Christian Healing Ministries, tells us a story in his book Can Homosexuality Be Healed? about two lesbian women who began attending a Bible study. The leaders prayed with them and one received Christ but continued living with the other. As she received unconditional love and read the Word, the Holy Spirit spoke gently to her that she needed to leave her lifestyle. She asked for God's help because she didn't want to hurt her partner. Jesus then appeared to the partner and showed her that it was time to stop living as lesbians. They both "reconciled with God and parted from each other in peace." MacNutt shares, "The Holy Spirit works from inside us, rather than through an imposition of law from without." (p82)


God works within us, transforming us to align us with His very best for our lives. He simply desires us to be sensitive to His wisdom and guidance as we minister to hurting people around us.

Grace and Holiness in the Church

"When Your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. Let grace be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness." Isaiah 26:9-10


Holiness and grace are two sides to the same coin. Without grace, none of us can stand. Without holiness, love becomes tolerance and acceptance of every form of self-centered action humankind has every thought up. And self-centered equates with rebellion against God and His rules, which means our acceptance quickly evolves into embracing all kinds of gratuitous evil.


How horrible.


Grace and holiness must work together. Historically, we have gone through a holiness phase, followed sadly by a time when many people experienced abuse from self-righteous individuals. The Holy Spirit anointed the Church with powerful grace to minister to the hurting and broken, bringing them back to the fold. This movement, however, has dissolved into tolerance and now outright acceptance in numerous sins that we, the Church, have failed to confront.


In our church today, numerous believers engage in and justify sin, calling it something different. So now the Holy Spirit is calling us to radical restoration of the fullness of His beauty--grace, mercy, and holiness synchronized into pure hearts, righteousness living, and tender mercies for the broken repentant.


As God restores holiness to His church--discernible by the clarifying of Biblical boundaries--many church-goers scream accusations of judgment and unfairness. However, just because there has been and most likely still are some abusers of authority does not negate the clear warnings of Scripture that if we fall away from God's precepts, we have fall snare to the enemy of our souls who seeks only to steal, kill, and destroy.


God's proclaimers of righteousness cry out in grief and agony out of their deep compassion that mirrors the heart of God. Scripture shows clearly that not only church leaders but also believers have a responsibility to hold other believers accountable for ongoing, unrepentant sin. Paul states this concept clearly in I Corinthians 5:9-13: "I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner--not even to eat with such a person. For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore 'put away from yourselves the evil person.'"


Wow! This instruction runs smack into our current grace-centered theology. However, it is exactly the same issue going on in our churches today. Paul warns us then and now: "It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you...and you are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he who has done this deed might be taken away from you. For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore, purge out the old leaven." (I Corinthians 5:1-7)


Interestingly, the church of Corinth did as Paul directed and the sexually immoral man repented. Note that first the Church repented of their approval and tolerance of the man's sinful lifestyle. Then Paul wrote, "This punishment which was inflicted by the majority is sufficient for such a man, so that on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow. Therefore I urge you to reaffirm you love to him." (II Corinthians 2:6-8)


Are we, the American church, so afraid of hurting someone's feelings--especially a friend's--that we neglect to enforce Godly boundaries in our interactions that we have stifled and even prevented the convicting work of the Holy Spirit in their lives? Dear friends, I hate conflict. I pour out grace after grace and affirm the person's identity in Christ over and over, praying for their relationship with Jesus to be strengthened and their consciences sensitized to the boundaries and blessings He has for them as they surrender their vices and weaknesses to Him.


Yet, there also comes a point where sin has such a stronghold that the person rebels against gentle reminders and corrections. This rebellion is a demonic stronghold, as Scripture asserts, and no demon will bow the knee to Jesus or release its hold until the person must decide what side he/she is on and renounces the familiar spirit and the habitual sin (see II Corinthians 10:1-6, 12:19-21, 13:5).


As we seek to walk in accordance with holiness and grace, Scripture clearly states that God's grace is for the humble, broken, and repentant while dis-fellowship is for the proud, arrogant, and unrepentant. James states the matter clearly: "Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, 'The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously?' But He gives more grace. Therefore He says, 'God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.' Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up." (4:4-10)


How wonderful Redemption is! For both believer and unbeliever, God promises complete cleansing and restoration of fellowship simply upon our cry of repentance and need. As the Holy Spirit resensitizes His church to the full message of grace and holiness, we who have tolerated sin in ourselves and others need to repent and fully embrace Biblical standards as we extend the awesome promise of Christ's redeeming power.


"If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." I John 1:6, 8-9

Shifting Boundaries

"The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.” Psalm 19:7

Confusion increases within the church as our culture continues seeking to redefine the concepts of love, hate, grace, and even Christianity. Numerous voices call out amid the crowd, asserting that love cannot be limited, that disapproval is hate, and that Christians must never condemn. In fact, the Law of God lurks as an enemy to modern thinking and even to the modern church where Grace triumphs over all.

Yet, Christianity without Holiness founded on the Word and Sovereignty of God is simply man’s sugar-coated acceptance of all sorts of sin. In the church, we long to show mercy so we refrain from gentle correction. However, without the law of God bringing conviction for sin, mercy is unnecessary. Jesus didn’t die to save the righteous (or self-righteous), remember. “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” (Matthew 9:13) “He died to save sinners—of whom I am chief!” (I Timothy 1:15)

Yet, sin can only be recognized with the aid of a standard. “I would not have known sin except through the law…. Therefore, the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good.” (Romans 7:7, 12) Without the conviction of sin, repentance cannot occur for Godly repentance means recognizing that we have been headed the wrong way and choosing to turn and run in the opposite direction.  “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted.” (II Corinthians 7:10)

The Bible makes it clear, when read as a whole from cover to cover, that grace never contradicts or cancels true holiness. Mercy may remove the punishment for sin, but it never moves the BOUNDARY of right and wrong. If all God needed to do was change His standard to clear us of wrongdoing, Jesus would never have needed to suffer or die. Without a changeless boundary, the Cross means nothing. And Mercy cannot remove the punishment for sin unless that punishment has already been paid—the purpose of the Cross. “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.” (Hebrews 9:22)

Yet, in our modern church, we have an epidemic of ‘cheap grace’, even though a daily reading of Scripture would quickly bring conviction that we must not continue living in our sin just because we’ve said a prayer of salvation. “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” (Romans 6:1) “Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness?” (Romans 6:15-16)

In point of fact, the Bible makes it clear that a truly transformed heart will manifest through growth in holiness because the Holy Spirit is at work within us, causing us to become more and more like Christ Jesus. “We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (II Corinthians 3:18)

Some people assert, however, that Old Testament boundaries no longer apply to us. Certainly, they are correct up to a point. Upon his conversion, the Pharisee Paul experienced the amazing freedom that grace brings when the Holy Spirit transformed his heart and revealed to him that he no longer needed to keep all the external rituals of the Mosaic Law. However, he warns clearly, “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another…. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outburst of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like.” (Galatians 5:13,19-21).

Jesus said, “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.” (Mark 7:20-23) Therefore, He gives us His Spirit living within who produces holiness and righteousness pleasing to God. perfect but now“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…. Those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (Galatians 5:22-24)

Holiness begins in a transformed heart and manifests in a pure lifestyle--perhaps not perfect but able to meet God’s Standard far more often because of the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit. Notice, Scripture makes clear that the standard has not—and never will be—removed. “Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith…. The law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.” (I Timothy 1:5, 8-10)

Now we can better understand why some rules don’t apply anymore while other boundaries reflect the Eternal Nature and Unchanging Holiness of our Creator. When Jesus rose from the grave after paying for our sins, the Holy Spirit showed His church that grace frees us from external rituals to produce holy fruit flowing from a transformed heart. The Apostle Paul wrote at length about the difference between external holiness and inner holiness. The former is abolished while the latter radiates the active residence of the Holy Spirit within a person’s heart.

“For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well.” Acts 15:28-29 The Apostle Paul addressed this statement to Jewish believers who had memorized the numerous requirements of Mosaic Law from their youth.

As Paul began to preach to the Gentiles, however, the Holy Spirit propelled him to explain the most basic elements of true holiness because the Roman society worshipped dozens of gods and engaged in every form of sexuality imaginable. Paul wrote to the Romans, “God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also, the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which is due. Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting.”  Romans 1:24-28

Scripture directly addresses many behaviors that God defines as immoral, rebellious, and in direct opposition to His unchanging holiness. Today’s culture wants the church to question and reject God’s boundaries. Movies, music, art, and now our laws pressure us to accept sexual standards as archaic and embrace our “freedom” to participate in sexual encounters with anyone and in any way that we want.   But Biblical standards are based on God’s Eternal Nature. He created us. He knows best.

 “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Isaiah 8:20