What Do You Think About God – Part 2

Last Sunday at LWWC we started our new teaching series: “It Doesn’t Add Up!” It was birthed out of many conversations with people that say they believe in God, yet they live like He doesn’t exist. While preparing the messages, I started thinking about where this dichotomy comes from and I believe it is derived from the fact that many people want to be ’spiritual’, but few want to be ‘biblical.’ And we discovered that primarily the root of the problem is the fact that people don’t think rightly about God. In our last installment I asked the question: “What comes into your mind when you think about your God?” I firmly believe that having our minds renewed about how we think about our Creator, God is crucial to walking uprightly before a righteous and holy God. See, if we really dig deep into this, we’ll find that as Christ followers, all of our infractions, transgressions and overall moral and ethical failures are a result of us not having an accurate picture of God in our minds. We either see Him as our ‘buddy’ that is on our level and will let us get away with anything or we view Him as a divine tyrant that is just waiting to crack us on the head when we step out of line. Either are detrimental to our spiritual life. Furthermore, I suggest that the person that comes to a right belief and view of God will not be burdened down with temporal problems because they believe at once that these things at the very worst cannot concern them to the point of failure or fatigue because the overwhelming burden is their obligation to God!  A right mindset regarding God is how we engage the Holy Spirit’s power that enables us to live holy, pure lives, obey immediately and worship Him properly. The Lord will use the thoughts of a troubled man to bring beauty for ashes and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.  But this is impossible if you and I do not have God in His rightful place – high and lifted up.

So what is it that keeps our minds so distracted? Why are we not thinking rightly about God? Simply put: Idolatry. There’s something that is consuming our mind other than God. The biggest danger in having an idolatrous mind and heart is that we will conform God to the image that best fits our current trial or trouble instead of having the situation or circumstance conform to who God is, what He’s done and what He will do as a result of us claiming (and walking in) His promises. A god that is living in the shadow of a troubled mind will never, NEVER exist in the fullness of power that the One True God is eagerly desiring to exist in. Consider the words of Paul in Romans 1:21, “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” I don’t think we have to look any farther than the Children of Israel wondering around in the wilderness to see what wrong thinking of God will bring. But if that’s not enough evidence for us, I suggest we look at the modern day, westernized American Church of Jesus Christ. We’ve lowered the image and opinion of God so far that we have found ourselves in a moral decay in the Church for the last few decades. And where did this begin? When we changed our minds about God.

I believe that the clarion call for the Church of God is not, “Go and get the harvest,” nor is it, “Go and feed the hungry and clothe the naked.” Although these things are paramount, we cannot even begin to think about doing these things in a way that honor the Lord until we elevate our God concept in our minds to a level that is worthy of His great and holy name. This will be what equips us for the great works He has called us to do. So, let me ask you again….”What comes into your mind when you think about your God?”

Pastor Jeff Burke
pastorjeff@lwwconline.com

What Do You Think About God – Part 1

This Sunday will be the beginning of our new teaching series: “It Doesn’t Add Up!” It was birthed out of many conversations with people that say they believe in God, yet they live like He doesn’t exist. While preparing the messages, I started thinking about where this dichotomy comes from and I believe it is derived from the fact that many people want to be ’spiritual’, but few want to be ‘biblical.’ And yes…there’s a difference. But if we dig even deeper, the root of the problem is simple: People don’t think rightly about God. A Gallup Poll states that 94% of all adults believe in a ‘higher power’ or God, but they don’t ‘fear’ Him. In essence what they’re saying is, “I believe He exists, but I want to do whatever I want to do.” Or, “I want enough of Him to keep me out of hell and get me into heaven, but I don’t want so much of Him that it causes me to change my behavior, attitude or conduct.” Over the next few weeks I want to challenge you and encourage you to consider what you think about God. What comes into your mind when you think about your Creator? Is He nothing more than a divine Band-Aid that you ‘apply’ when you fall and scrape your knees? Or perhaps He’s an ancient, historical figure that looks like Father Time except the clock in His hand has been replaced with a lightening bolt. Or is your image of God Almighty the bronze-skinned, long-haired guy dressed in a bed sheet that goes around with a cheesy smile on His face with his eyes looking upward while all the while carrying a baby lamb as He stoops down to pat a small child on the head? Seriously, what comes into your mind when you think about God? You answering that question could be the most important thing you have to do all day. Why?  Because I believe that it is impossible for you to rise above your view and opinion of God.

Think about that last sentence. No…really think about it. See, your life, your ministry, your Kingdom accomplishments and even your worship will only go as far as your image of God is at this moment. For decades (perhaps centuries) the Church has based our chances of success (or failure) on what we do or say or don’t do or don’t say; but the fact is, the chances of our success in the Kingdom relies solely on what we conceive God to be like in the deepest part of our heart. I believe that if you were to answer the question, “What comes into your mind when you think about God?” honestly and openly, and even speak the answer audibly so as to be heard by the people that love you the most in your life, if you were to answer the question, we would be able to predict with some certainty your spiritual future. This is why I believe it is imperative for this generation to get a higher, more accurate view of God in their mind so we will live in such a way that the generation behind us will see our actions line up with our thoughts that He is forever the Great I Am! Friend, I believe the future of the American Church depends on you and I getting a right view of Elohim, the Powerful, Mighty God in our minds. Today. NOW. However, for many that will take the time to read this, you have a higher, more lofty view of your church’s constitution than you do of God. You pull your denomination’s creed out and refer to it in meetings to make sure things are lining up with it instead of pulling out God’s Word and ensuring your church is lining up with It! I suggest that our creedal statements and constitutions, our bylaws and denominational doctrines are of little consequence if our ideas and thoughts of God lie untouched and dusty beneath our layers of religiosity and tradition.

So let me ask you again: “What comes into your mind when you think about God?” Getting this wrong will skew your entire foundation. If your idea of God is inadequate or insufficient, what you’re trying desperately to build will one day fall to the ground in a pile of rubbish. Is what you’re saying ABOUT God lining up with how you’re living FOR God? If it isn’t, then I can assure you that the reason is all in your head. Change your view, opinion and thoughts about the One True God and your life will reflect it. You have His Word on it.

Pastor Jeff Burke
pastorjeff@lwwconline.com

A Prophet To Preach To The Preachers – Part 3

As we look at the final installment of Chapter 13 of Leonard Ravenhill’s classic book: “Why Revival Tarries,” I pray you’ve been challenged, convicted, inspired and encouraged by it. Mr. Ravenhill definitely speaks directly into the heart of some of the problems the Church faces, but also speaks directly into the solutions. And I believe that is why this book is so effective – the truths and principles of God’s Word and the prophetic utterances from God’s messengers are always timeless and relevant.

“Why Revival Tarries” – Chapter 13: “Wanted – A Prophet To Preach To Preachers.” Part Three”
Sin today is both glamorized and popularized, thrown into the ear by radio, thrown into the eye by television, and splashed on popular magazine covers. Churchgoers, sermon-sick and teaching-tired, leave the meeting as they entered it – visionless and passionless! Oh God, give this perishing generation ten thousand John the Baptists – to tear away the bandages put over our national and international sins by politicians and moralists! Just as Moses could not mistake the sight of the burning bush, so a nation could not mistake the sight of a burning man! God meets fire with fire. The more fire in the pulpit, the less burning in hell-fire. John the Baptist was a new man with a new message. As a man accused of murder hears the cry of the judge, “Guilty!” and pales at it, so the crowd heard John’s cry, “REPENT!” until it rang down the corridors of their minds, stirred memory, bowed the conscience and brought them terror-stricken to repentance and baptism! After Pentecost, the onslaught of Peter, fresh from his fiery baptism of the Spirit, shook the crowd until as one man they cried out: “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Imagine someone telling these sin-stricken men, “Just sign a card! Attend church regularly! Pay your tithes!” No! A thousand times NO!

Unctionized by the Spirit’s might, John cried, “REPENT!” And they did! Repentance is not a few hot tears at the penitent form. It is not emotion or remorse or reformation. Repentance is a change of mind about God, about sin and about hell! Nature’s two greatest forces are fire and wind, and these two were wedded together on the Day of Pentecost. Thus, just like wind and fire, that blessed “upper room” company were irresistible, uncontrollable, unpredictable – then their fire started missionary fires, quenched the violence of fire, lit the martyr fires and started revival fires! Two hundred years ago, Charles Wesley sang:”O that in me the sacred fire might now begin to glow, Burn up the dross of base desire and make the mountains flow!”

Holy Ghost fire both destroys, purifies, warms, attracts and empowers. Some Christians cannot say when they were saved. But I never knew a man yet who was baptized with the Holy Ghost and Fire and was unable to say when it happened. Such Spirit-filled men shake nations for God, like Wesley who was born of the Spirit, filled with the Spirit and lived and walked in the Spirit. An automobile will never move until it has ignition – fire; so some men are neither moved nor moving because they have everything except fire. Beloved brethren, there is to be a special judgment for preachers; they shall receive the greater condemnation (James 3:1). Can it be possible that as they stand condemned before the bar of God, men will turn on some and say, “Preacher, if you had had Holy Ghost fire, I should not now be going to hell-fire.” Like Wesley, I believe in the need for repentance in the believer. The promise of the Father is for YOU. Just now, on your knees in that lonely mission station, or by your chair in that comfortable home, or in the pastor’s study crushed and almost ready to give up, make this your prayer:
To make my weak heart strong and brave – send the fire.
To live a dying world to save – send the fire.
Oh, see me on Thy altar lay, my life, my all this very day;
To crown the offering now, I pray – send the fire.

We have a cold church in a cold world because the preachers are cold. Therefore, “Lord, send the Fire!”

Pastor Jeff
pastorjeff@lwwconline.com

A Prophet To Preach To The Preachers – Part 2

Today we look at “Part Two” of Chapter 13 of Leonard Ravenhill’s classic book: “Why Revival Tarries.” I have always been struck by the relevance of this masterpiece originally written in 1959. As I said last time, with the exception of the Bible, this book has been the heartbeat of my life and ministry and I have identified with every paragraph and knew that this was written for me and me alone. My prayer is that while reading this chapter you will 1) Be challenged, convicted, inspired and encouraged by the Holy Spirit in such a way that you desire to pursue holiness and follow Christ with reckless abandon; and 2) That you’ll gain a whole new love and appreciation for the person and ministry of John the Baptist. Now on to Part Two.

“Why Revival Tarries” – Chapter 13: “Wanted – A Prophet To Preach To Preachers.” Part Two”
This leathern-girdled prophet with a time-limit ministry so burned and shone that those who heard his hot-tongued, heart-burning message, went home to sleepless nights until their blistered souls were broken in repentance. Yet John the Baptist was STRANGE IN DOCTRINE – no sacrifice, ceremony or circumcision; STRANGE IN DIET – no winebibbing nor banqueting; STRANGE IN DRESS – no phylacteries nor Pharisaic garments. Yes, but John was great! Great eagles fly alone; great lions hunt alone; great souls walk alone – alone with God. Such loneliness is hard to endure and impossible to enjoy unless God-accompanied. Truly John made the grade in greatness. He was great in three ways: GREAT IN HIS FIDELITY to the Father – training long years, preaching short months; GREAT IN HIS SUBMISSION to the Spirit – he stepped and stopped as ordered; GREAT IN HIS STATEMENTS of the Son – declaring Jesus, whom he had never seen before, as the “the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.”

John was a “voice.” Most preachers are only echoes, for if you listen hard, you will be able to tell what latest book they have read and how little of THE Book they quote. To reach the masses we need a VOICE – a heaven-sent prophet to preach to preachers! It takes broken men to break men. Brethren, we have equipment but not enduement; commotion but not creation; action but not unction; rattle but not revival. We are dogmatic but not dynamic! Every epoch has been initiated by fire; every life, whether of preacher of prostitute, will end with fire – judgment fire for some, hell fire for others! Wesley sang, “Save poor souls out of the fire and quench their brands in Jesus’ blood.” Brethren, we have only ONE MISSION – to save souls; and yet they perish! Oh! Think of them! Millions, hundreds of millions, maybe even one thousand million eternal souls need Christ. Without Eternal Life they perish! Oh! The shame of it! The horror of it! The tragedy of it! ”Christ was not willing that ANY should perish.” Preachers, people go by the millions to hell-fire today because we have lost HOLY GHOST FIRE!

This generation of preachers is responsible for this generation of sinners. At the very doors of our churches are masses – unwon because they are unreached, unreached because they are unloved. Thank God for all that is being done for missions overseas. Yet it is strangely true that we can get more apparent concern for people across the world than for our perishing neighbors across the street! With all our mass-evangelism, souls are won only in hundreds. Let an atom bomb come and they will fall by thousands into hell. To say that the sin of today has no parallel is without foundation. Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.” We find a graphic picture of Noah’s time in Genesis 6:5, “God saw…the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination…of his heart was only evil continually.” So it was, evil without exception, EVERY imagination; evil without mixture, ONLY evil; evil without intermission, evil CONTINUOUSLY. As it was, so it is!

Pastor Jeff
pastorjeff@lwwconline.com

A Prophet To Preach To The Preachers – Part 1

Rarely (translated: Never) do I use this space afforded me here to record the thoughts of others. I highly value the opportunity to share what God has shown me week after week. But this time I’m yielding to a hero of mine. While reading Leonard Ravenhill’s book “Why Revival Tarries” for the 25th time this week, I was once again struck by the relevance of this masterpiece originally written in 1959. With the exception of the Holy Bible, this book has been the heartbeat of my life and ministry. I have hung on every word and wept after every chapter. I have identified with every paragraph and knew that this was written for me and me alone. I know millions have enjoyed it, but they are enjoying it from a distance for this book was penned to encourage me, teach me and rebuke me – many times all in the same sentence. While reading it again I was reminded of the impact of chapter 13 simply entitled: “Wanted – A Prophet To Preach To The Preachers.” I’d like to share this chapter with you. And even though I’m aware of the fact that it was written to ‘preachers,’ the message is for us all. I pray you’ll allow God to speak to you through it.

“Why Revival Tarries” – Chapter 13: “Wanted – A Prophet To Preach To Preachers.” Part One
To attempt to measure the sun with an inch tape could hardly be more difficult than attempting to measure John the Baptist by our modern standards of spirituality. At Jordan the anxious crowd asked concerning the newborn child, “What manner of child shall this be?” They were told, “He shall be GREAT in the sight of the Lord.” Today we are prodigal with the use of this word “Great,” for we mistake PROMINENCE with EMINENCE. In those days God was wanting not a priest nor a preacher, but men. There were plenty of men then, as now; but all were too small. God wanted a GREAT man for a GREAT task! John the Baptist probably had not one qualification for the priesthood, but he had every quality to become a prophet. Immediately before his coming there had been four hundred years of darkness without one ray of prophetic light – four hundred years of silence without a “Thus saith the Lord” – four hundred years of progressive deterioration in spiritual things. With a river of beasts’ blood for its atonement and with an overfed priesthood for its mediator, Israel, God’s favored nation, was lost in ceremony, sacrifice and circumcision. But what an army of priests could not do in four hundred years, one man “sent of God,” John the Baptist, God-fashioned, God-filled and God-fired, did in six months!

I share the view of E. M. Bounds that it takes God twenty years to make a preacher. John the Baptist’s training was in God’s University of Silence. God takes all His great men there. Though to Paul, the proud, law-keeping Pharisee of colossal intellect and boasted pedigree, Christ made a challenge on the Damascus Road, it needed his three years in Arabia for emptying and unlearning before he could say, “God revealed Himself in me.” God can fill in a moment what may take years to empty! Hallelujah!

God said, “Go ye!” but He also said, “Tarry until!” Let any man shut himself up for a week with only bread and water, with no books except the Bible, with no visitor except the Holy Ghost, and I guarantee, my preacher brethren, that that man will either break up OR break through and out. After that, like Paul, he will be known in hell! John the Baptist was in God’s School of Silence, the wilderness, until the day of his showing forth. Who was better fitted for the task of stirring a torpid nation from its sensual slumber than this sun-scorched, fire-baptized, desert-bred prophet – sent of God with a face like the judgment morning? In his eyes was the light of God, in his voice was the authority of God, and in his soul was the passion of God! Who, I ask, could be greater than John? Truly “he did no miracle,” that is, he never raised a dead man; but he did far more – he raised a dead nation!

Pastor Jeff
pastorjeff@lwwconline.com

“A Revolution Of Passion – Part Two”

As we continue our thoughts on the subject of ‘Passion’, let’s remind ourselves of the definition: ‘the emotions as distinguished from reason; intense, driving, or an overmastering feeling.’ Some synonyms for ‘passion’ are: ‘zeal’ and ‘fervor.’ I suggested last time that what the Church needs is a transformation of passion. We don’t need more passion because we already have it – unfortunately, it’s just misdirected towards temporal things. In fact, I’ll go one step further and suggest that we are all born with passion – the passion to live. It’s what makes a newborn baby scream and cry when they come out of the womb. They want to LIVE. It’s passion at its core. We were all created with this passion and psychologists say that when a human being loses their desire (or passion) to live, they have begun their first steps toward dying.  This is why you see some people living life to the fullest up to their last breath and others just exist in this world with no direction. I bring this into our conversation to point out that if you are not demonstrating a passion for life, you have turned the corner and have given in to the process of dying. I believe that it is when we fully embrace who we are in Christ and get a passion for living that out that we finally begin to walk in the freedom God wants us to dwell in. The antithesis of this is when you have misdirected passion and you find yourself living in bondage. Misdirected passion gives the illusion of life and freedom, but brings pain, trouble and ultimately death. Paul said in Galatians 5:1, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” Clearly Paul is repackaging the words of Christ Who said, “If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed” (John 8:36).  Of all the things that our Savior came to this earth to do, the #1 purpose He had was to set you and I free. And the vehicle He gave us to live out that freedom is our God-given passion for the Him and the things of heaven.

We see how to get it wrong over and over again in the story of the Children of Israel.  They were led into slavery then into freedom over and over again. Friend, God didn’t create you to waver or become apathetic. He created you with a vibrant passion to LIVE and then when you were saved, He placed inside of you a vibrant passion to LIVE for HIM! It is when we ask Him to revolutionize and transform the passion that He has already given us that we learn to celebrate the freedoms we’ve been given and live the abundant life.  And that passion for His Kingdom will always be demonstrated with a willingness to die to yourself so that He may be glorified. Earlier we reviewed the definition of ‘passion’ according to Webster. The other entry for the word ‘passion’ is the unusual definition that describes the suffering the Christ – also known as “The Passion.” See, the cross points to everything that Jesus is passionate about! Jesus passionately hates the way sin destroys you and your home. And He hates it so much that He was willing to die to beat it. Also, He loves you and I so much and wants to be in a relationship with us so deeply that He was willing to lay down His life to bring us into the family. Hmm…sounds like maybe we have a real-life passion indicator here…so let me ask you: “What are you willing to die for?” Because if we use Jesus as our example, then clearly what we can honestly say we’d be willing to die for is what holds our passions and zeal. When we can say that our lives exist for the Kingdom of God and we will passionately live out our lives to bring God glory through our lives, then we can join with David when he said in Psalm 119:32, “I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free!” Run. Not walk. Not sit. Not apathetically stroll. Run. It is through living a life of directed passion that freedom can be found. Isn’t it about time you laced up your running shoes?

Pastor Jeff
pastorjeff@lwwconline.com

A Revolution of Passion – Part 1

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the lack of passion I see in the Church today. Please note that I didn’t say there was a lack of activity, volume or dazzle, rather, I have noticed there is a lack of passion. But I guess to get this started on the right foot, we may need to define the word and then see how it used in the Scriptures. Passion: ‘the emotions as distinguished from reason; intense, driving, or an overmastering feeling.’ Some synonyms for ‘passion’ are: ‘zeal’ and ‘fervor’ which means: ‘energetic and unflagging pursuit of an aim or devotion to a cause.’ It seems like there is a spirit of apathy that has rested upon the Church today that has seemingly zapped Christ followers of their passion and fervency and left them to be an empty shell of a cultural Christian. And one of the most common reasons I’m given when speaking about this is the classic excuse of, “Well, that’s just not my personality.” And 100% of the time, these same people have demonstrated a passion for something else in their life that rivals most church-goers I know!  The truth is, the problem is a little more complicated than can be described by my blanket statement that there is a ‘lack of passion.’ more accurately, there’s not a lack of passion, there’s an abundance of misdirected passion. In the Bible we read verses like Mark 12:30(MSG): “So love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.” Or Romans 12:11(NIV): “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.” The word ‘fervor’ here literally means ‘to be extremely HOT; to boil.’ When referring to Apollos, the Bible describes this man as a person that is FERVENT IN SPIRIT (Acts 18:25). And at one point, Paul was commending the Church at Corinth and said he rejoiced when he heard of their “FERVENT MIND toward me…” (2Corinthians 7:7). So, I can safely say that we need passion, fervency, zeal and a fire that burns inside of us to such a degree that people will want to be around us just to see our energy, creativity and well….passion for the things of God as we live that out every day of our life. Ahh…but deep inside of this truth lies a problem that has crippled the remnant today. We think we appear more spiritual when we’re more reserved, unmoved and even-keeled. And the reason this is a characteristic of the Church is because the Church has taught it this way.

In Romans 7:5 we read, “For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death.” What Paul is saying here is that we do what we desire because it is our passion to do so. And when it comes to sin, we do it because we enjoy it.  The fuel of the destructive patterns in your life is passion. Period. You have a PASSION for the pleasure that sin brings you so you sin. This doesn’t mean that the passion is wrong, it means we need a revolution to take place in our hearts, souls and minds that transforms our passion to be in alignment with the things that God is passionate about!  Paul explains it in Galatians 5:24, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.” Simply put, our old passions must die. The problem is that this is where the majority of Christians stop – they’ve killed their passion. Murdered it. Eradicated it. Eliminated it. It’s gone. But did you realize that when you find yourself without passion, you are closer to being a Buddhist than you are a Christian! Buddhism teaches that the goal is to reach a place where you have eliminated all of your passion and desire. But this is clearly not God’s plan for His followers!

Friend, it’s not God’s desire that you live an apathetic life, rather He wants you to live a full, abundant, PASSIONATE life for Him! As we start this study on passion, I’ll ask you these questions: How excited do you get when you are talking about the things of God? What do you spend the majority of your time thinking about? At times do you find yourself unable to contain your excitement and fervency of spirit during worship and praise? Are you as interesting to talk to about Bible subjects, Jesus or other God-related things as you are sports, hunting, your job or your problems? Perhaps you need a revolution to take place as you receive a transformation of your passion!

Pastor Jeff Burke
pastorjeff@lwwconline.com