Below, a few Faith-Habits from our last GraceNotes.
Faith is our light switch.
‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went, and washed, and received my sight!!!”
“One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”
-boldly wearing his Faith-Habit for everyone to see, including the Pharisees.
Do we compromise God’s light with our own darkness?
-we have a schedule to meet, “while it is day!”
The light of the Pharisees was their darkness and the darkness of the blind man became his light.
Jesus has called us into His holy mission of spreading light into our darkness.
“For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.”
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it give light to all the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
“For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that overcomes the world … our Faith.”
The logos Word of God is given to our eyes to feed our soul with God’s absolute truth and righteousness. Our Spiritual person, created by our Lord Jesus, is at risk in this wicked world. In other words, by allowing sin in our life, our Jesus Light will dim, putting ourselves at risk in this apostate world. But, on the other hand, our Father God provides His indwelling Holy Spirit’s two edge Sword making us “overcomers” within this dark hostile, worldly planet.
We have a choice, exploiting God’s grace given into our soul thru His Word, or dimming His glorious provisions of Light while losing a glory with our name already on it!
Being an overcomer is simply walking in the light as He is in the Light because we have “hid” His Word in our heart. We have Jesus’ Light within us since we are created new in our resurrected Lord. Jesus is the Light of the world and has given us His light of life. The sword coming out of the mouth of Jesus is judgment giving us the discernment necessary to choose how bright our light will shine for Jesus.
Our two edged sword is the Holy Word of God! It is a sword in the hands of the Holy Spirit indwelling us! When we equip our soul with the active Word of God, the Holy Spirit within us gives what we need to experience overcoming. The Word within us, in the hands of the Holy Spirit, gives us a capacity to carry into our soul the things in heaven. If we have had a glimpse of heaven, we will certainly maintain a clean house on the inside! If your house is like mine, the dust never fails to fall. Some times we need to turn on the faith switch to see it. Jesus had to wash the feet of the His own disciples!
Jude tells us to build ourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keeping ourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accepting something as true is not enough, we are to be overcomers in doing what the Lord puts in our heart to do! We cannot build something up without getting out our hammer and driving home a nail or two! We have to be doers of the word, not just hearers only!
An overcomer is being able to deal with both seen and unseen forces at war in our soul. We are Satan’s target because we are redeemed and therefore, the personal possession of Jesus Christ Himself. This is the who and the what Satan is attacking! Anything glorifying God, and Jesus in particular, is an object of Satanic concern. That means you and me!
He is at war with God and targets those who are favored with Light by our Lord’s presence in us. Satan is focused on us, the Body of Jesus Christ! When we are raptured out of this world, Satan will re-focus his attack on the Jews and Israel, enter the tribulation. But we are still here and the clock is ticking. Our diligence is urgent because the pre-tribulation rapture draws near.
Satan does not always attack in the open. In fact, the opposite is more likely to occur. He is in the church working from the inside out.
The letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3 are a portrait of our church’s history from Pentecost until the rapture. There have been constant falling “aways” from churches just as in Ephesus. This drifting away is a painted pattern in most of these 7 letters, from Ephesus thru the last church at Laodicea.
We are in the Laodicean period of the Church’s history of the Lord’s body of believers. There are tares living with the wheat in today’s Laodicean church. These are people who confess a personal relationship with Jesus but present a new view or a better understanding. Some of these focus on behavior rather than submitting to internal house cleaning by the Holy Spirit, which we all need. We still live in flesh and need the refreshing cleaning of our Holy Spirit both within us and the lives we live. The problem often is behavior. Too often, who we display in behavior is not our actual identity in Christ Jesus!
Satan uses ploys and ruses to take our attention off subtle life issues that seem OK. Each of us must examine our own selves to understand where we are personally vulnerable. The Holy Spirit knows these spiritual things better than we do. Sharpening our two edged Sword of the Holy Spirit within us is our joy and calling. Let us literally put God’s word into the memory banks of our heart and mind. When we have accomplished this inward work, we are ready for frontal attacks. We are to be aggressive, our armor is not for our backside!
The letters to the seven churches illustrates these ploys. In the first church, Ephesus, the people tested false notions and separated these distractions out of the church. But they also left their passion by fading from their initial love and devotion to Jesus. Jesus is a jealous God desiring us not to leave our first love!
The second church located at Smyrna represents church persecution under the Roman Empire. Persecution resulted in the death of martyrs for Jesus. The blood of these martyrs become the seed of the church because of their precious endurance and example. But we too are called to suffer for His sake.
The third church located at Pergamum was in the seat of pagan ritual and teaching. In this setting they failed to discern and tolerate the teachings of Balaam. This reminds me of King Ahab and Elijah! All of Israel was following the ways of Baal.
The fourth church located at Thyatira who again tolerated the teaching of Jezebel seducing believers into sexual immorality and eating food sacrificed to idols. They too lost their first love!
Thyatira was also the period when the church became more powerful and itself became a source of wealth. Separation between the leadership and common believers cost our reliance on the Holy Spirit, so that, the church continues their wayward journey away from their first love. The church becomes more important than Jesus Himself!
The fifth church located at Sardis represents the period when the printing press was invented. It is the reformation church which hosted men like Martin Luther, John Knox, John Calvin, John and Charles Wesley and others.
Sardis was very active but not according to God’s plan and purpose. Denominations came out of this era but they were merely religious. This is not what God is looking for in the life of believers. “They were a dead church.” Jesus was not a light shining in their community.
The sixth church at Philadelphia speaks to being in Christ. Compare this to Sardis where it was being in the church. Barnhouse shares with us that “out of the living death of Sardis flow two streams -Philadelphia, in which there is nothing to rebuke, and Laodicea, in which there is nothing to praise.”
Even in Philadelphia, where we do not find a rebuke of the church, we do find a separation of tares in the church doing honor to the wheat. This church of the open door honors those who with little strength endure the church of Satan and are recognized for their faith.
The church of Laodicea is where we are today. Laodicea was on an elevated location and water flowed into the town from an outside source. The water was a little dirty and warm, a problem for the locals.
But it was also a center for finance, industry and an “eye” medicine. They were materially rich but spiritually poor. They maximized their physical resources becoming blind to the eternal things that really mattered! Like their water flowing into town, they were lukewarm and not interested in their first love who was from the beginning of creation. Our God is a Jealous God!
But just like the seven churches, apostacy naturally occurs because darkness is ruling our worldly system. Satan is alive; He is working to produce apostacy within both us and our Lord’s church.
Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. In order to cultivate the quiet Love mustering in our heart, we need to expose our heart to God’s truth and righteousness.
Jesus is the source for our Light. We are just like the seven churches who wander away into temporal concerns. Our covid environment prompts us to neglect fellowship with other believers. We ought not to neglect our First Love while contending with our harsh covid 19 circumstances. Instead, we need more resolve for constant fellowship in the Spirit, with our loving Father God and others.
Faith is the measure of grace we cultivate within our own self. It is the measure of our stewardship of the righteousness God creates in us when we accepted God’s gift of Jesus’ Life within us!
Our Source is within us! Jesus is the logos Word printed for us to read, yes, but also we are not only “in Him,” He is grace, absorbing into our soul’s hunger and need His love and “overcoming” Being. This is who we really are, overcomers! We are born again “in Christ Jesus.” We have within us His Life and His Light.