Here is a list of the “persecutions” that I have personally suffered whilst street-preaching:
Been called an “idiot” to my face
Been mocked and ridiculed
Been leered at
Been outright laughed at
Been screamed at to “shut-up”
Been heckled
Rude gestures made at me
Blasphemies and curses screamed at me
Having the cord of the PA system pulled out while I preach
People taking photos of their friends standing next to me
People trying to rip the microphone out of my hand
Another PA system turned up loud to drown me out
Man putting his arm around me
BIG DEAL
Maybe it will get worse, I don’t know. Maybe if you went out you would be beat up or put in jail or worse, I don’t know that either.
But what I do know is that there is a whole generation out there going to hell. HELL.
(Do you really believe it?)
And why are they going to hell? Largely because of:
Our fear of man
Our excuses
Our feebleness in following Christ
Our “ministries” and church mindsets
Our busy lives
Why are we just letting Satan do whatever he pleases?
And that IS what he is doing. If you don’t believe me, go out there and see for yourself the kids on drugs, the alcoholics, the homeless people, the business people spending their lives coveting, the girls wearing hardly clothes for attention. Go to your nearest city and just sit and observe.
Open your eyes and open your heart.
That man with tattoos on his face, Jesus died for him.
That kid wandering aimlessly, Jesus died for him too.
That young woman with skinny legs and a hole on the inside of her elbow, Jesus shed His blood for her too.
“How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14)
You know, I’ve seen it with so many Christians, myself included. We are so nice and polite. We don’t want to offend people. “Best not to cause waves by shoving the gospel down people’s throats….”
And meanwhile the devil rubs his hands in glee and dances all over our craving to be accepted.
Jesus never told us to be gentle with the devil. He never told us to accommodate him in any way or let him walk all over us. No sir.
He did in fact say: “Behold I give you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy, nothing in any wise shall harm you.” Luke 10:19
One of the most powerful and effective forms of spiritual warfare is to preach the gospel. Go to the sinners, don’t preach to the converted. Get to where the sinners are and preach your heart out.
“Preaching is not a profession, it’s a passion” said Leonard Ravenhill.
Let’s get so full of the Holy Ghost fire that we are constrained by the love of Christ to take the good news of the Kingdom to the lost.
Let’s stop being cowardly, let’s stop being polite and comfortable, let’s meet the devil head on and give him something to worry about!
You can read more about what happened as I street-preached tonight here
Following on from my last post “Where’s Truth?” , where we looked at the effects of post-modernism on absolute truth, I would now like to take a look at how post-modernism is affecting the professing Christian church, in particular the Emergent, or Emerging Church.
My purpose in doing this series is not to attack individuals per se, although it would be impossible not to name some key players, but to bring to light the philosophy behind much of the Emergent Church, where it is leading and where it will ultimately end up. Whilst there are some aspects of the Emergent Church which are not all bad, I think it is important to understand what it is that is propelling this movement forward and its ultimate purpose.
I am in no way a philosopher as such, but I do think that it would be wise first to consider the astronomical effects with which philosophy has affected society, culture and humanity. One needs only to look to Plato or Aristotle to see how their social philosophies have affected human eugenics theory, leading to the immoral abortion crisis in the world today. Another example is German philosopher Karl Marx, whose social theories influenced politics such as Leninism, Stalinism, Trotskyism and Maoism, and history tells the culmination of these regimes.
Philosophy is, according to Wikipedia,: “the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with reality, existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument. In more casual speech, by extension, “philosophy” can refer to “the most basic beliefs, concepts, and attitudes of an individual or group.”
So when we talk of philosophy, it is not some “pie-in-the-sky” thoughts and theories that have no bearing on our world, it is the exact opposite. As I see it (for what it’s worth) various branches of philosophical thought are published, usually through universities and the world of academia, it filters through to the students, it enters the workplace and the media in all its forms and eventually takes hold in the political realm as human opinion shifts into a new paradigm of belief and value systems.
So to get back to the Emergent Church and how it fits in with all of this. The Emergent Church has recognized that we are now living in a Post-Modern world and that people think differently from how they used to think. Their position is that because society has changed, in this new world the old ways of doing “church” and Christianity no longer work. Therefore a movement has begun that seeks to transform Christianity into something new – something that appeals to this post-modern generation, something that is relevant.
And just like any other movement in society, this Emergent movement is underpinned by a system of Post-modernist philosophy. This system is called “de-constructionism”.
We live in a post-modern world where the existence of absolute truth is outright denied.
Have you ever heard (or said) this sort of statement:
“Your truth is good for you, but I have my own truth.”
This is post-modern relativism in a nut-shell.
But is that statement logical? Can it be possible for every person on the face of the planet to have their own “truth” and yet they are ALL simultaneously true?
Or is there an absolute Truth? And if so, what is it?
Firstly I would like to look at post-modernism and its effects on absolute truth.
To start the definition of “post-modernism” is:
“A relativistic system of observation and thought that denies absolutes and objectivity. Postmodernism has influenced theology, art, culture, architecture, society, film, technology, and economics. Traditional social, art, social, and cultural, constructs are discarded and reinterpreted in relativistic terms.” http://www.carm.org/dictionary/dic_p-r.htm (accessed September 16, 2008).
“Well that’s your truth, and that’s good for you, I have my own truth that works for me.”
In post-modernism, truth becomes relative and subjective. I can determine my truth, you can determine your truth etc. “Truth” becomes subject to each individual’s own desires, beliefs systems and world-views and an objective truth (something outside of us) is thrown away. The end result of this relativism is that right and wrong and good and evil also become subject to our own personal opinions because a static point-of-reference is denied.
Here’s an example of what I mean. I spoke to a man one day who denied the existence of both good and evil.
“It’s all relative,” he claimed.
So I asked him what would happen if someone stole his car or his wallet, would he consider that wrong?
“No”, he answered, “because I do not hold onto my possessions.”
I asked him what if it was his child that was stolen, what if his child was groomed by a pedophile and molested? Would that be evil?
“No”, he said, “There is no evil, there’s only what we as a society define as evil or good.”
“Do you have kids of your own?” I asked.
“No.”
I dare say that if he did, his answer would have been very different.
This is the logical conclusion of post-modernism – that there is no real truth, no good, no evil, not even gender distinction, just what we, as a society, label as such. All moral reference points are removed and we are left to flounder along as each determine. Dr Ravi Zacharias used the example of when you are stopped in your car at a traffic light and the next car is slightly rolling. It is difficult to determine whether it is your own car, or the one next to you that is moving until you find a static point-of-reference, such as a pole on the side of the road.
Biblical Christianity maintains that there exists ABSOLUTE TRUTH determined by a Sovereign, holy, moral God who created all things. It claims that this truth is objective, determined by something or someone other than us and that this Truth is the “pole”, or the point-of-reference for humankind.
I would like to seek to prove that ABSOLUTE TRUTH does exist. Take mathematics for example. Lately I have been teaching my daughter the multiplication tables. We have been learning that :
1 x 2 = 2
2 x 2 = 4
3 x 2 = 6
And so on.
The answers to these mathematical questions are fact, or truth. They are facts which neither you nor I can alter. They are facts on which buildings, bridges and airplanes have been created by humans.
I may decide that I don’t like the fact that 2×2=4, but my desire to change the truth of this equation does not in fact do anything to alter it. All I will succeed in doing is making my own life difficult, or building a bridge that falls down, because 2×2 does equal 4 and nothing I can do will change that established fact. I could try to fight for my rights to deny this truth, so I could say that 2×2 doesn’t equal 4, yet, in reality, the mathematical table remains unchanged and untouched by my own personal opinions and desires.
A Biblical example is the Ten Commandments. This is God’s moral law which declares that those who have broken His Law are sinners, law-breakers and transgressors. This Law is truth, it is outside of us and will never be subjected to humanity’s own desires or whims nor society’s changes.
“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them
“You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
“You shall not murder.
“You shall not commit adultery.
“You shall not steal.
“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
Whilst I may decide that murder, or sexual immorality is not actually wrong and that it’s ok to lie if it’s a little, white lie, this does not in fact change the truth that murder, sexual immorality and lying is wrong and sinning against God and other people. And to deny that truth and to live as if it didn’t exist or didn’t matter only will make life (and eternity) difficult for me.
So then logically what I’m trying to say is that: truth by its definition is exclusive.
To qualify that statement I will use an analogy. Suppose I had red hair. If I were to ask two different people what colour my hair is and one said “black” and the other said “red” – only one of these answers would be in fact TRUE. (Bad example, but I hope you see what I’m getting at.) By virtue of the fact that my hair IS red, the other statement is disqualified as UNTRUE. Only one statement can be true. Just as in maths, 1×2 cannot equal both 2 and 13 at the same time, so too is truth exclusive.
To say that we can all determine our own truth (“that your truth is fine and my truth is fine too”) is not logical. It denies the very premise of truth itself. And it very obviously renders the question back:
“Well if there is no absolute truth, then why should I believe the very statement that there is no absolute truth? Isn’t claiming that there is no truth actually making an assertion of truth?”
Relativism by nature undermines itself.
So what’s left?
TRUTH.
Jesus said “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
There is a God who created the universe. Just as behind every painting there is an artist and behind every building there is an architect, so too behind our delicately balanced eco-systems, our beautifully laid out solar systems and galaxies, behind our moral laws of right and wrong, there is The Artist of artists, the Architect of architects, the Judge and Law-Giver to whom we each must one day give an account of our lives.
Jesus said “I am the Way, the TRUTH and the Life. No man comes to the Father but by Me.”
You may choose to reject that statement as untrue, and that is your right.
But if you care about Truth the logical thing to do, if you were honest with yourself, would be to find out for yourself whether it is True or otherwise.
I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to comment below.
“What is the secret to great living? Entire separation to Christ and devotion to Him. Thus speaks every man and woman whose life has made more than a passing flicker in the spiritual realm. It is the life that has no time for trifling that counts.”
Thus begins a new series of “Quotations by Missionaries”; “Revival Quotations”; “Scary and Challenging Quotations” and whatever else God may put on my heart….
May you be blessed by what these men and women of God can share with us!
This week I have experienced my first 46 degree (Celsius) day. (I am in no hurry to experience another.)
On Thursday I was in Adelaide, and on Thursday Adelaide was officially the hottest city on earth. It was so hot that as soon as I stepped outside my skin felt like it was burning, even in the shade. The hotel we stayed in became uncomfortable as the air conditioning struggled to cope with four consecutive days of over 40 degrees.
Extreme heat and a thirsty land are, of course, a recipe for bush fire in Australia, and, as of this morning, 100 bush fires were burning across South Australia and Victoria. The smoke from the fires drifted over the beach where we were bathing, initiating many questions from our children. As my husband and I tried to downplay the severity of the fires to them, internally we were wondering whether we’d even be able to get home, as the main road into Victoria had been closed by the authorities.
With all this talk of fire it has got me to thinking about the Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost. In the Bible the Holy Ghost is both symbolized by fire, and also directly referred to as fire. In the Old Testament the pillar of fire which the Israelites followed in the wilderness was the Holy Ghost. In the New Testament John the Baptist said of Jesus:
“I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” Matthew 3:11
And then in Acts 2:2-4 :
“. . . suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one set upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance”
The thing about fire is that it is HOT. It is intense. All it takes is one little spark and a wild bushfire is ignited in a dry and thirsty land.
Leonard Ravenhill said : “Again, the symbol of the church is fire…..The cross is no symbol of Christianity. The symbol of Christianity is the tongue of fire that sat on the head of each of them….Our God is a consuming fire.”
Oh and we are in a dry and thirsty land here in Australia. Not just physically, but more so spiritually. As I sat on the balcony of our accommodation each night this week, I wept for the people, for my country. Yes, I could hear them drinking and laughing and singing drunken songs and I wept for them, for their state of barren-ness. It is oh so dry.
We went into the city of Adelaide last night and there were two old men there, handing out tracts and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. They’ve been there for 30 years. One of them preached, standing there shaking, in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease, and we helped them to hand out the tracts to passers-by, but hardly anyone took one. As he preached, warning that there is an eternal hell, I could tell his heart was broken for this people, these people walking past him laughing at him, smiling with the smile of those in the presence of a fool. Afterwards I commented on the hardness of people’s hearts and he answered sadly: “Oh aren’t they? They don’t understand that the consequences are eternal.”
How dry! How barren and hard is the landscape here in Australia!
But also how ripe and ready this land is for fire….. After all – the drier the land, the easier a fire is kindled. And a fire is powerful enough to change a landscape. Australia is a land of fire; but may we become a land of Holy Ghost fire!
All it takes is one spark. As followers of Jesus Christ, because He lives within us, we are to be that spark to a dry and barren world. But we cannot be that spark if we are not full of the fire of the Holy Ghost.
Paul says to: “…. be filled with the Spirit, speaking toyourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” Ephesians 5:18,19. We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit and fire. This verse in the original actually says: “Be being filled with the Spirit…” It is a continual process. Like in the Pilgrim’s Progress, there needs to be oil constantly poured onto the fire to keep it burning, because, just as surely, the devil is always seeking to put it out.
I love Leviticus 6:12: “The fire on the altar must be kept burning; it must not go out. Every morning the priest is to add firewood and arrange the burnt offering on the fire and burn the fat of the fellowship offerings on it.” (Emphasis mine). This verse is such a wonderful picture of what the life of the believer, of Christ’s church, should be. No, it’s what we need to be. We have a responsibility to this generation as the church of Jesus to carry this fire wherever we go. If we don’t, who will?
As priests we are to keep the fire burning. God sends the divine fire, but it is our responsibility to keep it burning. Just like a bushfire, once it has started it requires ongoing fuel.
I don’t know about you but I know when the fire is burning bright within me and I also know when it is burning low. When I am full of the Spirit I walk in the supernatural – amazing things happen. When the fire is low I find I am walking more in the flesh than the Spirit and the things of God become a struggle.
Wesley wrote a hymn, which goes like this:
See how a great a flame aspires, kindled by a spark of grace. Jesus love the nations fires; sets the kingdoms all ablaze.
To bring fire on earth He came, kindled in some hearts it is. Oh that all might catch the flame; all partake the glorious bliss.
When He first the work began, small and feeble was its flame. Now the word doeth swiftly run; now it wins its widening way.
More and more it spreads and grows, ever mighty to prevail. Sin’s strongholds it now o’throws and shakes the trembling gates of hell.
Sons of God, your Savior praise; He the door hath opened wide. He hath given the word of grace; Jesus’ word is glorified.
Saw you not the cloud arise, little as a human hand? Now it spreads along the skies, hangs o’er all the thirsty land.
May you be inspired to be the spark of Holy Ghost fire in your land in this dry and thirsty generation!
As you know my Blog is called “Grace and Truth”. The reason I called the blog this name is because God sovereignly told me to. He told me to start it, confirmed it with His Word (in Acts 5:20), and then told me what to call it – grace and truth.
“For the law was given through Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” John 1:17
I find it an interesting observation though that even though grace and truth came through Jesus Christ, we, as His followers, tend to run with either one extreme or the other – that is:
Extreme grace – leading to both “greasy grace”, (or lawlessness) and also a lack of discernment of truth; or
Extreme truth – leading to hard-heartedness and legalism
Both of these extremes are wrong. To run with a zealousness for truth, without love is just as wrong as disregarding truth for the sake of grace, mercy or love. But how easily we fall into one or the other!
CH Spurgeon said: “…It is very easy, brethren, unless God gives us understanding, to preach up one precept to the neglect of another. It is possible for a ministry and a teaching to be lopsided, and those who follow it may become rather the caricatures of Christianity than Christians harmoniously proportioned….Oh how easy it is to exaggerate a virtue until it becomes a vice.”
I have seen both of these extremes in Christians (and yes, that includes myself). I will give you an example of how I have seen both of these Christian virtues in fact become a vice.
Truth with no Grace: I am a street-preacher and love other street-preachers, but I have seen something that is a grievance to God. It is when a preacher brings forth the hard truths of the Word of God from a heart that has not been broken for the sins of the people. Preaching the truth about hell, sin, judgment and the Law will only be graced by the Spirit of God when the Holy Spirit has utterly broken that preacher’s heart with compassion and mercy for the people before whom he/she stands. You see, it comes down to responsibility. As a preacher, once you enter into intercession for the people, you are taking responsibility for them, for their souls. And it is impossible to stand before them without compassion and mercy once you have taken responsibility for their souls. God will only bless those with His authority whom are willing to take responsibility for others. Authority and responsibility always go together (see Isaiah 53:10-12). We must “speak the truth in love.” It is amazing that when we speak the truth in love, the real love of intercession, people will listen and respond to it. So we see that the truth needs to be graced by His Spirit.
Grace at the expense of Truth: I had been praying for a friend of mine whom was not a believer for two years. I had interceded for her regularly and asked God for an opportunity to share the Gospel with her, which praise God, He did. As soon as we began our conversation another Christian joined us and listened in. My friend and I had a wonderful, Spirit-led conversation where I was able to share the gospel with her. I was able to share everything with her, the Law, God’s judgment on sin, hell, and then of course the wonderful Gospel of grace of Jesus Christ who died on the cross to take the punishment for our sin, forgiveness, heaven and redemption. I was so thrilled that the truth had been shared and that she had responded well. However as soon as she had left, the other Christian reprimanded me for talking about sin, hell and judgment saying that all that I needed to talk about was the love of God. And…I guess I could have, God is love, but really, it wouldn’t have been the whole truth…. Unfortunately there are hard truths in the Bible and, if we are wanting to be truly honest before God, they are unavoidable. But the good news is, the hard truths are there for a reason… Paul says in Galations 3:24 that “the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith”. The Law is there to expose sin and so to bring us to the knowledge of our sin and of our need of a Saviour. It is by the truth of the Law and God’s judgment of sin that we are led to Grace and justification by faith.
Notice how John describes Jesus:
“For the law was given through Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” John 1:17
Jesus Christ, the perfect Son of God, through whom came grace and truth. The divine mystery of Jesus, the Word made flesh, God incarnate in human flesh, can be difficult for our human minds to comprehend. But, I think it’s important to remember that it doesn’t come down to some sort of a mathematical equation. A couple of points to note:
Jesus is both fully God and fully man at the same time, not 50% God and 50% man
By the same token, Jesus is also concurrently full of grace and full of truth.
Jesus is not half Law and half grace (and neither are we)
He came not to do away with the Law but to fulfill it. And it was because He fulfilled God’s law perfectly and never sinned, that He was full of grace and love. Yet it was also because He is full of grace that He could fulfill the Law perfectly. Why? because “Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” (Romans 13:10)
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14 (emphasis mine).
And so we see that our Lord is the perfectly balanced One. Just as the anointing oil of Exodus 30 was perfectly blended, mixed and mingled, with this much of myrrh and so much of cinnamon and that much of cassia etc, so it is with Jesus Christ. So perfect in truth and grace. Not leaning too much towards one or the other, never ceasing to be holy in order to be loving, always merciful and kind to sinners. Nowhere do we see this better demonstrated than in His cross.
In the cross, God maintained the truth of His holiness and righteous anger towards sin, when His wrath was poured out on His Son, because of His grace, because He so loved the world. Both truth and grace in the cross of our Lord and in His very person.
So why do we get it so wrong? And what can we do about it?
There is only one way. We need to remember that it is “Christ in you the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27):
Our only hope is to be so FULL of Him, of His Life, that He will simply live His life of grace and truth through us.
So:
We need to re-submit ourselves to God in a fresh consecration. To offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to Him.
We need to confess any un-confessed sins to Him
We need to ask Him to re-fill us with His Spirit.
We need to be led in obedience by the Spirit of God in our day-to-day lives, small and big things.
“There is a way about the precepts: there is a chime about them in which every bell gives out its note and makes up a tune. There is a mixture, so much of this and that and the other; and, if any ingredient were left out, the oil would have lost its perfect aroma.
So is there an anointing of the holy life in which there is precept upon precept skillfully mingled, delicately infused, gratefully blended, and grace given to keep each of these precepts.” (CH Spurgeon)
May God bless us all with an outpouring of His Life in this New Year!
Here is a list of the “persecutions” that I have personally suffered whilst street-preaching:
Grace and Truth 