November 17, 2009

• Letter 27 on assurance and fighting for joy (I'm not laughing today, but Satan is)

  Continuing on in my series of letters on assurance and fighting for joy, but also on my last few posts about unity in the Body of Christ (here, here and here)...and my post ALL God's people singing, "He reigns" (Letter 28 on assurance & joy) written after this post.

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  Dear friend in Christ,

  You asked me how I am doing today. Not well. You know I've already been grieved by the ruins in the Church. I've written about that extensively (e.g.- here, here and here). However now I'm seeing I'd been so focused on false gospels and false teachers that I had pretty much neglected to see another ruin: the lack of love and divisiveness in our midst...and now I'm tripping all over the ruins...I can't help but see them and be grieved...

  

  When we don't love each other, we're not loving Christ.

  Isn't our Lord grieved today? Isn't our Savior mourning today? We were purchased with His precious blood and what are we doing? How are we treating each other?

  Remember the time Jesus was approaching Jerusalem and He saw the city and began to weep over it. He wept then and He's weeping today. Of course, I think the weeping is even greater for us today because we've known Him, they didn't know Him. And because we've known Him, we should know better...No, I will say it: we do know better. We have no excuse. We have Christ's Spirit in us. Jesus loves His brothers and sisters, yet how often do we fail at loving one another? We have His Holy Spirit dwelling in us to make us holy, yet how often do we act anything but holy toward those who have partaken of the same Spirit? We can't say we love God if we don't love our brothers and sisters...

  I will say I have hope, I have joy and peace in believing for I know without a doubt God's Church will continue, of that I am sure...I believe He will guard us and keep us, yet I'm sad and grieving today...

  I know you know the commandments about not grieving the Spirit and not giving the devil a foothold...Do you know where those are listed? At the end of Ephesians 4 in the context of our relationships in the Body of Christ ...

  Frankly, we've grieved the Spirit and we've allowed the devil to get a foothold. Instead of welcoming Christ into our midst, instead of welcoming our brothers and sisters in love, we've welcomed the devil. God help us! Lord, have mercy on us! We are wretched and vile. We are unworthy. So Satan, for the moment, is laughing. We know he won't have the last laugh, of course.

  As Solomon wrote to everything there is a season...Though I wrote the other day that I can laugh and rejoice at the days to come, I think at least this time, this season, it is a time of mourning for the Church. I can still rejoice in the Lord for I know He is still King of the earth and I know He is still King of His Church and I can rejoice that He has shown us our sin and He will discipline us for our good. He's certainly doing that work now, is He not? I can rejoice in the Lord for I know for sure He will set us straight again and get us back on the Rock once again. I know though the devil has got a foothold, yet I know our Lord is in the midst and He must win the battle. Yet right now it's a little tougher to laugh and rejoice at the days to come. I'm certainly not able to laugh or rejoice as I look at what we've done to one another and to our Lord Himself: whatever we do to the least of these, we do to Him. Are we not to love one another as He has loved us? This is a time for us to put on sackcloth and ashes, a time to rend our garments and confess and repent of our sins. No laughing or rejoicing right now. Is our Lord laughing or rejoicing at the sad display we've put on the past few days? Certainly not.

  We've been seeking revival...yet can we really expect the glory of God to come into our midst when there is division, disunity and dissension in the Church? How can we say "Our Father" when we are fighting with our brothers and sisters? I was recently reading the incident with Moses, Aaron and Miriam in Numbers 12. There's dissension there. What happens next?

  And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them, and he departed...the cloud removed from over the tent...

  This is frightening to me. We can grieve the Spirit, so He will depart from us in a sense...Yes, we know His Spirit will continue dwell with us, Jesus has promised us that, but we can still grieve Him and limit Him and quench Him...and our fellowship with the Father and one another will be broken.

  Another thing to consider is that anytime there's dissension or division, the whole body is affected. The apostle Paul tells us that if one member of the Body is hurting, the whole Body will hurt. How can we expect our own sin not to affect the entire Body of Christ? As a punishment for her sin, Miriam was afflicted with leprosy for seven days, but notice what else happened:

  Miriam was shut outside the camp seven days, and the people did not set out on the march till Miriam was brought in again.

  That's sobering: the entire congregation of Israel was affected...a million plus people were held up for a week – all because of one woman's sin...That ought to give each of us pause and get us on our knees and ask God to examine us, to search the thoughts and intents of our hearts.

  (Now, let's remember that as Christians all our sins are punished in Christ, yet there will be consequences for our behavior. However we can't continue in sin but let us go to God and confess and repent of our sin so we might receive forgiveness and cleansing so we might have His joy again.)

  Let's continue to remember the example of Miriam and never underestimate what our sin can do and how our sin might hinder the work of God in our midst.

  We've been praying for the Lord to come again with power from on high like He did on the Day of Pentecost and throughout the book of Acts.

  How can we say, "Father, send Your Spirit" when we continue in sin against our brothers and sisters who have been adopted into the same family, who have the same Father, share the same heavenly bloodline and share the same Spirit?

  How can we say, "Come, Lord Jesus" and expect the spotless Lamb to come among us when we are full of sin? How can we claim to welcome our Brother, the Lord Jesus Christ, yet not welcome our brothers and sisters for whom He died?

  How can we say, "Come, Holy Spirit" and expect the Spirit to come when we continue to harbor and nurture unholy attitudes towards others, when we are judgmental, resentful, bitter and unforgiving. How can we? We can't.

  I have a sure hope, yes, I have His joy and peace in believing, because He is our Hope, He has entered the veil, Jesus Christ is still seated on the right hand of majesty in glory, He has an unchangeable priesthood and is able to save us to the uttermost because He ever lives to make intercession for us. I am certain He who began a good work in us will complete it in us. And I do have a hope He will come again and revive us. I know He loves us. I know His desire for us is to be a praise in the earth and not a reproach to Him. But I'm not laughing or rejoicing right now, I'm mourning and weeping and confessing and repenting. There are times we must mourn and weep and confess and repent and this is one of those times.

  May He make us holy as He is holy for the sake of His holy and blessed and most wonderful Name,
  Karen

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