The Spirit's Authorship

Well I've been trying to keep it away from my blog but the truth is my family is under great attack. A great fiery trial that I was delivered from earlier this year has seemingly returned to try to take us down a second time. My employment is being attacked. Please be praying, for my faithfulness, and protection and provision for my family. I'm not going to get into details here. Although I admit it was wrong of me not to share that it was happening... seeing as this blog is supposed to be "On My Walk"....

As tough as this situation is the Lord did something that amazes me today. As I was sitting home at lunch feeling weak, wounded, even defeated in a lot of ways, an email came in with the title "Bless you Brother Kevin." What powerful words. The email it's self was short. It was a link to a beautiful picture of Brother Ricky's family and the simple question "How are things in Halifax?" Yes I cried and cried hard. Just this morning the Lord had been impressing on me how He is present. Now here was a Brother, and what's more an Evangelist (we are a singular crowd in case you don't know), asking such a simple question. It was like a touch from God Himself. If that sounds overly emotional, then you're in need of a touch from the Lord yourself.

Over a couple of emails, we exchanged phone numbers and decided to chat tonight. I've emailed Ricky a few times in the past but hadn't really gotten to know him. Turns out we not only have fellowship in Christ but our lives have many close links! I won't get into details because that would be to share my Brother's private thoughts but I was absolutely amazed at our conversation.

Isn't God good at giving you just exactly what you need at just the right moment?

Expelled on DVD today

Hey All, the movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed was released on DVD today. Go buy some copies! And if you're interested visit the TCC Radio Expelled series page to hear our four part radio show series on the movie.

Beyond moderation

How do you have a conversation, a real honest and open conversation with someone who disagrees with you at your blog? I have found that it can be a great challenge. The issue I see coming up at the blogs I frequent of brethren who I esteem highly and who I openly associate with is trying to find the line between conversational defense of a position and advertising promotion of that position.

I guess I'm evaluating this more and more. I want people who disagree with me to WANT to post here. But I also don't want this blog to be a place where error can freely be found. I doubt I will ever allow guests to link to content that could lead some astray. But, but, but.... I want people to be able to argue their point. Where is the line?

Christ's work for us, not His work in us, brings peace.

I was just looking up the biography of one of my heroes of the faith, CH Mackintosh, as part of a comment at another blog. This gave me opportunity to learn of the man's conversion. I'm kind of surprised I haven't read about his conversion before... but alas it is encouraging to read today none-the-less.

Here's what I just read. Oh what blessed assurance comes from Christ's work on the Cross.

He obtained peace with God through reading J. N. Darby's 'Operations of the Spirit', and learning that it is Christ's work for us, not his work in us, that gives peace.

You can find Operations Of The Spirit of God here, Part 1 and Part 2.

Now stop worrying and enjoy your life?

Imagine the hope a message on a buss can bring. Imagine the hope a message that there's probably no God could bring. Imagine the hope a message that tells us to stop worrying and enjoy our lives could bring. Just imagine it. Come on, I know ya wanna. The website for this bus-ad campaign says that "With your help, we can brighten people’s days on the way to work......" See their motives are right! They're trying to make people feel better. So go ahead, imagine the hope this message could bring.

For some of you it won't be hard at all. For others it will be impossible.

This message isn't about logic or evidence... it's about fear and emotion. If I were to respond in kind I'd likely be made out to be a fear monger. But you know... I don't mind really. That is one thing I'm not going to worry about. So enjoy! :)

You probably don't have Cancer. Now stop worrying, and enjoy your life.

You're probably not going to loose your job. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.

You're wife is probably not going to leave you. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.

You're probably not going to die if if you drive drunk. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.

They're probably not going to re-possess your home. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.

Your HIV test is probably not going to be positive. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.

Don't those messages make you happy? Don't they brighten your day?

Well the truth is, unless you're facing something I've mentioned there you won't feel the true impact of the statement. Until you're the one sitting in front of the Oncologist or taking an HIV test or not answering your phone because it might be the bank you likely won't understand the full weight that sits on the person who is facing that.

Would everyone who is reading this please form a line? OK. Now each of you, look at the person on your left, and the person on your right. In the next 130 years there is a 100% chance that these people are going to be dead. 10 out of 10 people die.

The Bible agrees with this fairly well tested and established fact. This is not an argument for the faith. It's just a little blog post that is exposing the failing of a bus-ad campaign that is not designed to give people hope or to make them enjoy their lives. It is designed to woo them to sleep so that when the do ultimately die they spend eternity in the Lake of Fire.

Want some real hope? Hope that can change your eternity so that the enjoyment you have is not based on ignoring something by avoiding the possibility of it's existence? Do you want security that matters?

I know ya wanna.

David and on-going sin

How often has David's history with Bathsheba recounted to show how the Lord Our God deals with sin? David slept with his friend's wife, got her pregnant, and sent her husband (his friend) off to the deadliest part of a war so that he would surely be killed, and actually was killed. Then David covered it up... and the Lord God sent Nathan to him and Nathan described a man to David who did all the things that David did and David condemned the man... only then did Nathan reveal that it was David himself that he was telling him about. And of course it's recounted that David is a "man after God's own heart." Verses like Ps 89:19-37 and Acts 13:22 are cited.

The incredible Ps 51 is this same man repenting and confessing before the Lord, and being restored!

This is all true. But I am writing today to say that this is probably not the best example of David's failing before God Almighty. I propose a reading of Deut 17:14-20, where God gives some explicit instruction on what a King must do.

Deu 17:14 "When you come to the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and possess it and dwell in it, and say, 'I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me,'
Deu 17:15 you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses; one from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.
Deu 17:16 But he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for the Lord has said to you, 'You shall not return that way again.'
Deu 17:17 Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself.
Deu 17:18 "Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites.
Deu 17:19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes,
Deu 17:20 that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.

Of course we know that David took many wives. There are at least 8 named in the Bible but I've been told (sorry I could not quickly prove) that he had as many as 300 wives and concubines.

The Lordship Salvation proponent will tell you, as readers of this blog have become well familiar with, that 1 John 3:9 means that a "True Convert" can not "continue" in sin.

1Jn 3:9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.

I think it's clear that David is a "True Convert" given God's statements in Ps 89 about him. It is also clear that David continued in sin. I would argue that 1 John shows the source of sin, and shows that our New Man, that created in the image of Christ for good works cannot sin - at all. Eph 2:10 But that the flesh, or our Old Man, though our spirit is alive in Christ is still dead in sin. Rom 8:10. I also argue that the we must abide in Christ, by walking in the Spirit in order to live holy lives and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Gal 5:16

I do not write these things to promote sin. In fact I hope that each of you will read 1st John closely without making excuses and without changing the meaning of the words to suit your idea of what the Epistle must mean. Just read it. There is the solution to sin found there. There is assurance and there is exhortation. I will close with Romans 6:1-15

Rom 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
Rom 6:2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
Rom 6:3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
Rom 6:4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Rom 6:5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
Rom 6:6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
Rom 6:7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.
Rom 6:8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
Rom 6:9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.
Rom 6:10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
Rom 6:11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Rom 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
Rom 6:13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
Rom 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
Rom 6:15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!

for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

Genesis is a book that many try to re-interpret. It's amazing to me that the enemy knows how important this book is but most Christians do not. Do we not to have the Mind of Christ my Brethren and so able to see even more than our cursed enemy? Is not all that is Scripture Breathed of God?

AiG has a short article about the Word of the Lord in Genesis 2:17

but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Many have asked why Adam did not die that day. The answer is in the language my friends, the answer is in the language, not the translation.

Read more at AiG.

Infidelity & Another Gospel, Is There A Difference?

Some time ago I learned that listening to the Bible is an incredible tool to force yourself to avoid Proof-Texting. When Paul sent letters to assemblies he ordered the people to read them out loud to all the brethren and to even go from assembly to assembly reading them. Of course if you want to get into deep study there is little better than a printed page you can pour yourself over. But we are very visual people and we can get caught up in a single verse or even word and fail to see what the Author was writing about. It's so very easy to find ourselves declaring things as though they come straight from Scripture that are absolutely false... because we people are so prone to proof-texting.

I'm writing today with a bit of a heavy heart. We must hold the Gospel in the highest esteem and proclaim it with the highest of fidelity. But we must also be careful how we use the term "another gospel" that the Apostle Paul makes use of in Galatians 1. When Paul uses this term he's speaking to people about them being brought into bondage that is counter to the Gospel. Not that some detail is left out or even incorrect. Likewise everywhere else that Paul challenges what people preach as being not in agreement with the Gospel he is speaking of the implications not the content.

No one can rightly deny that the Apostle clearly lays out what exactly is the Gospel in 1 Cor 15:1-11 and I hold that this is the one and only Gospel that saves. And I question the fidelity of any who say different. However, there is much more to the idea of preaching another Gospel than not speaking Paul's exact words.

I'm struggling with this little post. And I realize that most reading will have no idea why. The Truth is a very fine line. One little nudge left or right puts you squarely in error, outside of Truth. One can not simply eliminate portions of what the Apostle declared without affecting what the Gospel is saying. That is as plain to me as anything. But I can not bring myself to believe that one who is mistaken in this is preaching "another gospel."

I guess I need to explore this more.

But to get back to the listening part, if you listen to Galatians as one sermon especially without reading along you may just be amazed at the force of this letter. And you may see the Apostle's teaching clearly for the first time ever.

Because He Was Raised

Just a quick, but important I think, thought tonight. The Lord Jesus Christ was raised from death after He died for our sins. The Bible says He took on all the sins of the world. He willingly became guilty for every sin. The Bible says this propitiated, or appeased, God for all those sins.

Because the one who became guilty was raised we know something pretty amazing. The wages of sin is death, complete separation from God who is the Life by the way. But God was propitiated by the death of one who had no guilt of His own. Because He was sinless Himself He was able to pay for the guilt of others, He had no debt of His own to pay. And that God took Christ's payment and then raised Him back to life tells us that the payment was accepted in full.

The very fact that Christ was raised from death is our proof that God will forgive any and every sin if we put our faith in Christ. That Christ is alive shows us we have Eternal Security in Him and that salvation can truly be by faith alone. If any sin were not yet paid for in full, if there was anything that God would hold against the one who is in Christ then Christ Himself could not have been raised for He took on all the guilt of everything we have ever done. If we are in Him, as the Bible says those who have placed their faith in Him are, then we too will be raised to Life because He was.

The Gospel According to the Prophet Isaiah

Hello Guests, Brother xxx is at it again pointing out things that are beautiful to see! Today he's looking at the Gospel that was promised in the Prophets and that Paul has revealed to us.

In his salutation to the Christians in Rome the apostle Paul draws immediate attention to "the gospel" (Rom. 1:1). Paul states that the gospel of God was "promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures" (Rom. 1:1-2). After the first two chapters of the epistle (Rom. 1:1, 1:9, 1:16, 2:16), it is not until the tenth chapter that the apostle again references "the gospel" (Rom. 10:15). Here Paul quotes "the Prince of Prophets" as he enthusiastically exclaims, "As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!" (Rom. 10:15b, NKJV; cf. Isa. 52:7).

I have deleted the link to this disorderly Brother's blog.

The Cost Of Ministry

TCC has deviated from their previously statement of faith, and I have resigned from the organization. I DO NOT endorse this organization any more.

On Sunday last I was able to see a good old friend who have not been able to spend any time with for over a year.. though he lives only 30 minutes away from me. The Lord has blessed him with a beautiful new home for his family to live in. He's served the Lord for many years now and it's wonderful to see him enjoy the blessings he's been given.

Two years ago he and I were fellowshipping in the same church. I played with the band he led as music director of the Church off and on. We got to know each other fairly well, and I've come to trust the man and to be sure of his godly Christian love. When I was at his church I saw that he was exhausted. He was working his normal job and then also volunteering at the church all the time. Eventually he got hired on for 20 hours of work a week but was working 30-40 hours. I have to admit I thought he was being taken advantage of.

Well, this Sunday past I was standing on his deck. I'm a different man now. We were talking about how busy people can get and stuff. He's full time at the church now and so he doesn't have to hold down a job and his ministry at the same time. I was telling him that I had no idea how busy a person could be. I had a good laugh about how if I had known what I was asking for that I never would have asked God to put me in ministry. He giggled a bit, but he knew where the conversation was going.

I told him how I'm still at my full time employment and then talked about the hours that I work with The Cross Current (TCC). And then I told him about how I had been up until 2am writing an email to a woman who really needed to be ministered to. And I said "You know what? I was completely in my glory. As much as I needed sleep there was nothing on the planet I would have rather have been doing at 2am than ministering to that person." Looking up through my exhausted eyes, I could see my friend with just the hint of a knowing smile on his face. I never understood why he did what he did... but since he's been through it he knows why I'm doing it now.

That's half of what I wanted to blog about today. The other half is this. If you're in ministry and you're on the move the enemy IS going to attack you. Lately he's been bringing his "A-Game" against the members of TCC.

Ministry costs. And I don't just mean money. So, give wherever, whenever, and how much ever the Lord impresses you to give. Just do it. Ministries need it, and if you're being lead by the Spirit to give then just do it. If you're not being lead then focus on what He is leading you in. But the one thing you can choose to do without prompting is to pray. Pray for ministries, and the people in the ministries and their families. There is no greater thing you can do for any ministry than to honestly and earnestly pray for them. It costs to be in ministry and anyone who's ministering covets the covering of prayer from God's people.

I'll tell you straight up though. We're going to keep going even if you don't. But think of how easy it is for you to gain reward, to help, and be effective through the ministries you see are doing God's work. Just praying in faith for us is exercising your faith and gaining fruit. Giving when prompted is a great way to exercise both your faith AND to produce something at the same time.

I'm not trying to get people to give to TCC. Those obedient Christians whom the Spirit prompts will give. I'm asking you to get on God's side with the ministries you've been called to support or even be part of.

And if you are considering ministry. Yes it is THAT hard. Yes it is THAT rewarding. Yes it is absolutely amazing to watch God do the impossible for you week in and week out.