Hi all,
Barb
and I have wildly differing practices concerning bars of soap. Barb
uses soap until it is the size of a coin. Often several of these
tiny fragments will congregate around sinks and showers like a herd of
animals at a watering hole. One may have been a deodorant bar, another a
moisturizing bar, and still another a no-perfume bar. But they all end
up the size of a coin and gathered together at faucets just waiting for
someone to have mercy on them and end their lives by tossing them in the
trash.
That
person would be me. About the time a bar of soap is small enough I keep
dropping it or it breaks apart, I pull the shower curtain aside and
underhand toss it in a long sweeping arc into the waste basket sitting
next to the toilet. Have a nice flight, you're history little bar of
soap, you gave it all but now you are done!
Soap Christians, what fragrance are they?
Years
ago it was easy to know who was a Christian or not. Back in the
charismatic renewal days of the 1960's and '70's, the Christians were
the ones going to the home prayer meetings, Bible studies, got excited
that Charles & Francis Hunter were coming to town for healing
meetings, frequented Christian bookstores, and listened to this new
Christian 'rock' or young women singers with names like 'Honeytree' and
'Evie'.
If
you didn't do any of that, we were 90% sure you weren't born again. If
you had to ask if a guitar in a church service was ok with God, you
probably weren't born again. If you had to ask "What is an autoharp?"
you probably weren't. You certainly weren't Charismatic. But other than
that, it was easy to figure things out.
Then the
lines became blurred in the 1980's and '90's, like little soap bars you
squish together to form one larger bar and you aren't sure which
scent or what kind of soap you now have. People asked if you were
Evangelical or Charismatic, and if charismatic were you word of faith
or Pentecostal? Still later you started seeing more bars of soap, like
prophetic, apostolic, personal prophecy, a TACF, Brownsville or Lakeland
Christian, or maybe 'an intercessor' or 'prophetic worship' scent of Christian.
But
today, like so many bars of soap of every type, we have "Christians" of
every flavor, fragrance, and appearance. Some present themselves like
brand new 'look at me' bars and some are like little coin-size "I'm a
______ Christian." (Fill in the blank with some sexual orientation,
political affiliation, alternate culture name, or other identifier).
Whatever
happened to "I'm a Christian" with no modifiers to tell us what kind of
Christian you are?Sometimes I just want to toss them aside like a
coin-sized bar of soap and say 'Either grow up in Christ and stop
sinning, or stop calling yourself a Christian!'
Why does a believer in the New Testament look so different than many believers today?
In
the days the New Testament was being written, disciples of Jesus, not
just believers in Jesus, and yes there is a definite difference, met in
homes as most Christians do today world-wide, gathered together as
families, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and often a non-born again
person who was 'a person of peace' would join them.
The
gospels were just being written and many of the eye-witnesses of the
events in the gospels were still alive and would thrill households with
stories of their time with Jesus. By the end of Paul and Peter's life,
Peter considered Paul's letters to these home based gatherings of the
church to be scripture, for he said in his last letter in the closing
lines,
"And
remember the writings of our beloved brother Paul...some things are
hard to understand, which the unstable wrestle with, as they do also the
other scriptures..." (II Peter 3:15-16)
Their
excitement was all about the new birth and learning what this new life
was about. The fact God moved out of the temple and into man at
Pentecost amazed them and fill them with wonder. God living in man, who
would have thought it!
Culture of the day
There
were a total of 10 Roman Caesars who persecuted believers. These
Caesars wanted to be acknowledged as gods, setting disciples of Jesus in
direct conflict with a life or death decision to acknowledge Christ and
die, or recant Christ and live.
Besides
that, there was a common practice of sealing business contracts by
making an offering to a god in a temple, and then having sex with a
temple prostitute to seal the deal.
Thyatira
was the most famous city for this practice, for the guilds, ancient
types of labor unions, controlled all commerce in Thyatira. It may have
been a contributing factor as to why Lydia from Thyatira moved her
clothing material business from Thyatira to Philippi. The purple dye and
clothing from Thyatira was the highest quality and most fashionable in
that day. (Acts 16:14-40)
In the church at Thyatira, a woman nicknamed by the Lord, "Jezebel", in Revelation 2:20
told the people as a prophetic word, that you could still be a
Christian and have temple sex and make offerings to gods because God
wanted you to be able to earn a living...(I have a series on the real
Jezebel spirit if interested, but this gives you a good lead - it isn't a
woman stirring up trouble for some pastor)
Christians
were in a difficult place. How were they to earn a living other than a
low paying job, for to make business contracts or secure a supplier of
say, leather, or copper or even purple material for your dress shop that
'deal maker' had to offer a sacrifice to a god and have sex with a
temple prostitute?
Enter gnosticism
Somewhere
towards the end of Paul and Peter's lives around 66AD but before John
died roughly 40 years later, a belief called Gnosticism arose (Greek,
'learned'), probably in part due to the cultural pressures to be part of
society and business like in Thyatira. Christians wanted to be like the
world but still be Christian. They didn't want to die for their faith
if they didn't have to. Jezebel said it was ok to be a Christian and be
part of the culture, so people could 'know' God in their mind but didn't
have to separate themselves from culture.
The
essence of Gnosticism is the body is from the earth and will return to
dust, therefore it is inherently sinful and evil. But the spirit has
been born again, with Christ in you, so your spirit is holy and going to
heaven. Therefore because the body is of the earth anyway, you can live
how you like because inside you are a believer in Jesus and will go to
heaven. Over time this belief system meant people could be 'believers'
in Jesus without actually being 'disciples' of Jesus, or even know Him
in their heart.
Know the Holy Spirit but not born again
And
this is why we have so many 'soap fragrances' of "Christians" today.
They know God in their mind, they are Gnostics, agreeing that Jesus is
God, but living like the world. If they do know Him, shouldn't they be
leaving sin and progressing towards holiness? Consider this:
Jesus told the disciples in John 14:17 of the Holy Spirit: "You know Him, because He lives with you.
But He shall be in you." The disciples knew the Holy Spirit because
they were hanging around Jesus, saw Him do amazing miracles, and
they even healed people and cast out demons by the Spirit. So they knew
Him.
Remember, these disciples were not born again - yet they knew the Holy Spirit.
In our day, many people have genuine experiences with the Holy Spirit.
They hang around church, the altar call, and so forth. Some know Him by
virtue of the fact they have a relative in the same home who is a
disciple, or growing up they spent a lot of time in a Spirit-filled
church. But they don't have Him in them. And THAT is what makes a person a Christian.
Next week - more about 'Christians' who say they are believers in Jesus, but continue in sin. Stay tuned! Blessings,
John Fenn
cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com
New CD/MP3 Series
In
this series John records what the Father or the Lord has told him about
world events and the body of Christ starting in 1990 through current
(Summer 2014) events in the Middle East. This is the first time John has
sat down and just shared in one place at one time starting from 1990 to
now, one after the other, things he has been told and things seen
prophetically. You will gain insight, peace, and practical knowledge
about these days. (2 cd/MP3, $12/set or MP3 $10)
I
get a steady stream of emails asking for help with small group
ministries. I also find myself sitting down with small group pastors
and senior pastors when I’m at conferences (or when ministry teams stop
in to see me in Vegas).
If
it’s true that “your ministry is perfectly designed to produce the
results you are currently experiencing (Andy Stanley),” the corollary is
that if you don’t like the results you are currently experiencing, you
need to acknowledge that you have a bad design and change it. After
all, the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over
again and expecting different results (Albert Einstein).”
