Why Are They So Afraid?

Posted on October 28, 2019 by drgause@agause.com

Several defectors from North Korea have reported that Kim Jong-un and his regime are more afraid of Christians than a nuclear attack. This begs the question, “Why?” If it’s just another religion, as some assert, why fear it? Others argue that Christianity is worthless and irrelevant to contemporary culture. Secular humanist contend the Bible has been disproven by scientific theories and is therefore a useless document. So, why have fifty-two countries around the world banned this worthless, irrelevant, and useless document?

Before focusing on the ‘why’ and what it means to us, we must review the big picture. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Eph 6:12 NIV). What appears as conflicts between humans is actually Satan operating through men and women in various situations to carry out his work. Evil tyrants as well as sinful humans are merely instruments being controlled by the devil. Attacking people through methods of the flesh as name calling, insults, unfounded accusations, gossip, or even physical weapons accomplishes nothing. This only assaults the flesh and not the ultimate source. Even if you destroy a person, Satan will only get someone else. For though we live as human beings, we do not wage war according to human standards (2 Cor 10:3 NET).

So why does the devil and non-believers fear Christians and the Bible? Why is a ruthless tyrant with an arsenal of tanks, missiles, an army of soldiers, and nuclear weapons so fearful of Christians? Because the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses (2 Cor 10:4). These aren’t carnal or worldly weapons, but spiritual ones. Weapons of the flesh depend on the users’ skills, training, and the power of their instruments. In contrast, God empowers our weapons with His infinite abilities and they aren’t dependent on our skills, but the Holy Spirit abiding in us.

Paul explains how powerful our weapons are. With them we can bring about the destruction of fortresses (2Co 10:4). A fortress or stronghold is a place of security, protection, or a place dominated by a particular group. Jericho serves as a perfect example of a literal fortress. The walls began with a steep earthen rampart. Next a stone retaining wall stood 12 to 15 feet high. Above that the top wall was 6 feet thick, and 20 to 26 feet high. Together these barriers combined to create a fortification 32 to 41 feet high. In addition, on the top was a 28 foot high tower. Impenetrable by any human army. But, God gave Joshua His plan. Israel marched around the city in silence one time for six days. On the seventh day on their seventh trip around the priests blew their trumpets and the whole army gave a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse (Josh 6:5). Jericho was a literal stronghold of Israel’s enemy as well as it gives a picture of Satan’s spiritual strongholds.

Human efforts can’t tear them down. However, with our divinely powerful weapons we candestroy speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ  (2Co 10:4, 5).  Paul tells us what we destroy in v5: arguments, knowledge, and thoughts. The Message Bible interprets this, We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.

Paul doesn’t list here the weapons we use, but from other scriptures we can be confident they include, the Bible, the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword (Heb 4:12). Prayer, The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective (Jam 5:16 NIV). Stand or Resist: Resist the devil and he will flee from you (Jam 4:7), stand firm against the schemes of the devil (Eph 6:11, 13). For every stronghold, large or small, we must allow the Holy Spirit to lead us in His plan and wait for His time—don’t get ahead.  People assault believers with carnal weapons and attack our flesh; however, we must never respond with our flesh.

Kim Jong-un can’t ignore the expansion of Christians in China. Even now the government is desperately trying to suppress Christianity through arrest, persecution, and destruction of churches. In 1948 when China closed itself off from the world, 3 million Christians existed. In 2010 there were over 58 million Protestants in China. Church strategist believe at the current rate of growth that number will swell to 160 million by 2025 and by 2030 China’s total Christian population will exceed 247 million. This will make it the largest Christian populated country on earth. Why? Believers are using their divinely powerful weapons. We have no excuse to allow our nation to crumb and no reason to live defeated lives. Why? We have the same divinely powerful weapons.

Sustaining Word for the Week: Satan and his workers are afraid of Spirit-filled believers who know the weapons they possess and willing to use them. Don’t live a defeated life!

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Are You Weary?

Posted on October 21, 2019 by drgause@agause.com

Should it be called inspiration, rhema, or an epiphany, it really doesn’t matter. For me it was the moment the Holy Spirit ‘turned on the light’. After struggling with the remnants of legalism for decades, in an instance God flooded me with an understanding of His grace that washed away doubts, guilt, fear, condemnation, and self-motivated morality. I realized that God completely accepted me when I received Christ based on what He did and not by me keeping man-made rules and traditions. One of the first blessings was entering His spiritual rest. Any form of legalism no matter how insignificant, wears us out spiritually which also indirectly affects physical and emotional rest.

God knew the value of rest for man. He even modeled it after the six days of creation. He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done (Gen 2:2). The Lord gave Moses the ten commandments one in which God set aside an entire day of rest for man. For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a holy day, a sabbath of complete rest to the Lord (Ex 35:2). This pointed to the complete rest Israel could have in the Promised Land and the rest believers could receive in Christ. However, rest is not automatic. God delivered Israel out of slavery in Egypt and brought them to the borders of the Promised Land—their place of rest. But despite God’s promises, they refused to believe and enter because they were filled with fear.

The writer of Hebrews reminds Christians, So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God (Heb 4:9 NLT). Jesus offered rest. “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS (Mat 11:28, 29). What is spiritual rest? The word rest Jesus used and the reminder of rest in Hebrews are both from the same root word, but with different prefixes and express two facets of rest. Jesus’ offer is not for a cessation of activity but an inward tranquility and calm during necessary labor. The people Jesus addressed were weary and heavy-laden because of traditions and man-made rules the scribes and the Pharisees imposed on the people for which Jesus condemned. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger (Mat 23:4). In contrast Jesus added, “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (11:30). 

The word rest in Hebrews does mean the cessation of labor. The circumstances of the book clarify its application. Because of persecution and rejection from the Jews, the Hebrew Christian were considering renouncing their faith in Jesus the Messiah and returning to Judaism. The author in the strongest terms warned them of the consequences and reminds them even in the mist of their earthly troubles God’s rest was still available. They only needed to enter His rest by faith which they seem to have come short of it (Heb 4:1). Israel failed under Joshua to enter rest because of disbelief. David spoke of the rest that remained. Now the offer was made to the Hebrews and remains for all believers today.

Note several insights from these verses. Jesus didn’t say I’ll come to you. Rather He said, Come to Me. Hebrews even warns about not entering rest. If we aren’t resting, we are trying in our own effort. Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it (4:1 NIV). Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest (4:11 NIV). The word effort means endeavor, labour, or strive that seems like a contradiction—work hard to enter rest from work?” It does not mean the need to try harder or get busier doing more in order to earn rest. Spiritual rest comes by simply faith in the finished work of Christ. Rest is not doing nothing; it’s doing nothing God didn’t tell you to do and doing only what he told you to do. Abiding in rest is living in the present moment, not regretting the past or feeling anxious about the future with total trust He will care for you.

“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me.” Again, note it does not say, “I’ll put my yoke upon you.” We must Take His yoke. Yokes linked two oxen together to share a load. Farmers always put young ox with an older and experienced ox that took the major of the load. The young ox learned from the older ox. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” The word easy better translates wholesome, serviceable, kind, and light also refers to the feathers of a bird. We learn to function from a position of rest. We cease from laboring to receive God’s acceptance and rest in inward calm and tranquility as we work to express our love to Him for what He did for our acceptance.

Sustaining Word for the Week: Are you weary? God’s promise of entering His rest still stands.

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Kind of Homesick

Posted on October 14, 2019 by drgause@agause.com

Ok, life can be a struggle, but we must never lose sight we are here on a ‘Visa’ that will expire. The Book of Hebrews says we are strangers and exiles on the earth (11:13). Peter calls us aliens and strangers in the world (1Pe 2:11). The Message Bible reads, Friends, this world is not your home, so don’t make yourselves cozy in it.  So, what’s next? We go home. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ (Phil 3:20).

My wife and I served four years in Zambia on a Work Visa. That period was one of the most difficult and challenging times of our ministry. We endured food shortages, rampant crime, malaria, a volatile political situation under a dictator, and always faced the unknown, to name a few. Were we tempted to leave—more than once? However, the Holy Spirit would remind us that God had sent us to do a work for Him in this foreign country. When we were homesick, we kept going knowing our Visa would expire and we would return to all the amenities of America and knew what to expect.

Heaven is our eternal home so what is it like? What are we to expect? Heaven is actually beyond our imagination. “Things that no eye has seen, or ear heard, or mind imagined, are the things God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor 2:9 NET). The Apostle John in Revelation attempts to describe what he saw when a door standing open in heaven and a voice summoned him, Come up here (Rev 4:1). He used the word ‘like’ 65 times through the book—He who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance; before the throne there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal; one like a son of man, having a golden crown on His head; And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. John saw things he could only describe by comparing it to something like he had seen on earth. He used another simile, “as” 42 times—Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper; he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal. Heaven is beyond human description. Someone said, trying to describe it exhaust all the adjectives and descriptive language known to man. But we can rest assured, it is a beautiful place.

Without just providing a list, look at some general characteristics that are clear-cut. Heaven is a real place not a state of mind. We won’t sit on a cloud and strum a harp. The greatest aspect—God is there. Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. (Rev 21:3). The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face (Rev 22:3, 4 NIV). Since His ascension, Jesus has been preparing a dwelling place, abode, a mansion in heaven for us (Jn 14:2). Believers will collect the treasures they have stored up in heaven (Matt 6:20). I have moved 13 times in my life, but our move to heaven will be for eternity. Are you weary? We will have perfect rest. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on! “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so that they may rest from their labors. . . (Rev 14:13).

We learn a lot about heaven by what is not there.  Death will not exist any more—or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have ceased to exist (Rev 21:4 NET). If you like list here’s one with other things not there: no sin, no sorrow, no sickness, no poverty, no more curse, no temptation, no hunger, no thirst, etc.

Squire Parsons wrote and recorded the encouraging song, “Sweet Beulah Land” in 1979. He wrote, “I’m kind of homesick for a country to which I’ve never been before . . . There my home shall be eternal . . . I’m longing for you.” I’m sure others like myself sometimes say “I’m kind of homesick”. Jesus announcement to the Apostles that He was leaving, troubled them. He tells them He is departing to prepare a mansion for them (note above) and promises I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also (Jn 14: 2, 3). He wanted to draw their minds off an earthly kingdom and have them focus on their heavenly one. Later, He explains He is leaving them on earth for a time because they had a work to do—going into all the world and sharing the Gospel.

When life is difficult and we are struggling, remember we’re only here on a temporary Visa and soon we can go home. In our home in heaven, we will have new bodies, perfect joy, will sing new songs and will worship God with no worldly distractions. There is no comparison between the pain of this present time and the glory which we will see in the future (Rom 8:18 BBE).  Even creation waits in eager expectation (v19).

Sustaining Word for the Week: I’m kind of homesick for my eternal home. I’m longing for it. Until then I have a work to complete.

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The Ruse

Posted on October 7, 2019 by drgause@agause.com

If you asked someone to describe Satan in colloquial terms they might say, “he is one sneaky rascal.” That is certainly true in the simplest terms but only scratches the surface. “Just how evil is Satan?” Look at a few examples of what he did  through men in history. Genghis Khan was responsible for the deaths of as many as 40 million people, 10% of the world’s population. He once slaughtered 1,748,000 in one hour. Mao Zedong 20th century despot ruler of China until 1976, was responsible for up to 78 million deaths—not to mention Hitler, Stalin, and many others.

What can nauseate the strongest stomach is reading the details of the torture methods wicked people have employed. One that vividly illustrates the cruelty Satan can inflict through men came from Vlad III Dracula of Romania, known as Vlad the Impaler. It’s believed he impaled as many as 100,000 of his enemies. After the insertion of a pole or metal rod, he stood them upright leaving the victim slowly sliding down the pole thrust through them. For days and even weeks they suffered pain beyond description. He was known for holding elaborate feasts in the mist of the dying victims and rotting corpses. Disgusting, I know. Yet this example of Dracula is still not the worst. Take the sum of all the evil acts and torture done now and in history, it still doesn’t begin showing the depth of what Satan is capable of doing.  He is the enemy we face every second of the day.

Having taught this subject for years, I’ve come to realize believers can miss ways he attacks by focusing on the obvious and miss his deception. The Bible gives over 40 names and titles to describe Satan. Repeatedly, Christians are warned about his tactics as a deceiver. It began at creation. Eve said, the serpent deceived me (Gen 3:13). It continues to the end, the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world (Rev 12:9). A 6th century BC general and military strategist wrote a book still used by the military today. He said, “All warfare is based on deception.” It’s almost humorous to watch programs about the American Revolution where the British troops line up on one side of the battlefield and face the American troops lined up on the opposite side. They shoot at each other and make an open frontal attack. Satan doesn’t work this way.

Satan works by deception. Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf employed the 6th century BC principle on deception in the Gulf War 1990-1991. His strategy well illustrated the danger of Satan’s deceptive tactics. Schwarzkopf concocted an elaborate ruse. He deceived the Iraqis by making it appear U.S. Marines would mount an amphibious assault on Kuwait City. All the time, U.S. Army ground forces 150 miles away were preparing for the main assault from Saudi Arabia. This cut off the Republican Guard troops from supply lines and a way of retreat. Satan goes after believers in a similar fashion. He distracts on one front and sneaks in from the rear and can catch believers completely off-guard.

OK, that’s a lot of human examples, however, each one helps us better picture Satan’s unseen work. My prayer is this SW will jar complacent believers to realize we are living in perilous days and to see the intense battle in which we are engaged. Satan uses humans to accomplish his work, but our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Eph 6:12 NIV). What may appear as an endeavor of evil people is actually the work of Satan. We must battle the real enemy with the right weapons and not the people he uses.

Jesus promised, I will not leave you as orphans (Joh 14:18), because the Father would send the Holy Spirit as our Helper (v26). Through Him we possess divinely powerful weapons (2 Corin 10:5). He has given us the Armor of the Spirit (Eph 6:12). Plus, believers have the  promise that God limits what Satan can do, Jesus defeated him, and the Holy Spirit restrains him (2 Thess. 2:6, 7). Yet, this does no good until we accept the fact every believer, including us, are part of a war Satan is fighting against the Lord.

A subtle strategy of Satan that is easy to miss could be called the ‘perfect storm’. We know he battles against individual believers. But we may fail to recognize his deceptive tactics among groups—churches, marriages, families, and friends. Like the ‘perfect storm’ he brings all the right elements in place. It can be several people under stress, a marriage in which both partners are struggling with their individual problems, churches in which opinions, personalities, likes and dislike are misunderstood, etc. He can bring together little storms and create a huge storm that brings destruction, wounds, and broken relationships. Blame becomes rampant. Everyone misses the fact we’re in a battle against Satan who desires to steal and kill and destroy (Jn 10:10) all followers of Christ by any means.

Sustaining Word for the Week: We can not only survive but can win the battle, if we recognize and battle against the real enemy. Pray for the discernment of spirits  (1 Cor 12:19).

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