The Jesus Message

When Elijah first looked at it, the broken altar, it lay in a heap of scraps. Disjointed wood. Scattered rocks. Blood-soaked splinters. Sweat washed remains. It was chaos and madness, where the hyped-up heathen failed in desperation to get Baal’s visible answer. They were left with blank stares, empty enchantments, and a noisy human display with nothing divine in it. It had been a concert of futility. Some of them were so weary they looked like statues poured into a mold of shock. Faces gaunt. Sleepy eyes. Lifeless expressions. Their show was over. The clouds drew a momentary curtain over the sun. The stage was now empty, and one contestant of truth remained. The eclipse of Baal was removed, and true light was ready to shine, ready to burn.

Sometimes God lets the noisy deceivers have their say and stand on their stage. He lets them wiggle and waste away in their showmanship and powerless prayers. He lets the fake fall. He lets the imaginary play out. When all the tricks and treachery are done, then truth steps forward; there are some Elijah’s that are going to step forward in this hour.

He fit the pieces of the altar together, like a puzzle of prophecy, fitly formed, tightly mounded; order restored. Destiny reshaped. Revival ready. Prayer empowered. He rolled this stone that way and pulled the wood this way; he wiped away the futile blood of heathens that cut themselves. He blew away the dust of their frenzied dance. After he rolled in and accurately placed the last stone, Elijah stabbed the air with a prophetic finger and counted the twelve stones, Israel’s God-given number. He smiled in satisfaction. He glimpsed toward a heaven that would soon descend. He narrowed his gaze upon the surroundings and commanded barrels of water be poured. He wanted the altar to be soaked, baptized in water. The promise of fire seems to be connected to a baptism of water…there would be no sensual manufacturing, no magic trick or sleight of hand; he didn’t need illusion, he had Divine inspiration. Listen now…

There are many things we don’t understand about life. The Bible is full of secrets that reveal how we should live; who we should trust; where we should build our confidence. The light of God’s Presence brings hope to a confusing world. His desire to show us new things should encourage us to continue in grace seeking these truths. Knowing truth builds assurance. It supplies deeper trust in God. Listen now…

Washed. He cleaned me. The filth you once knew is gone. The dirt of mistakes is gone. The mud of sin and the grime of self-destruction is gone. There is no trace of the terror I used to be, just the truth of what HE has made me. The stains of blame are scrubbed away. The stains of rebellion seemingly irremovable, making me an object that was irredeemable, they are simply gone. Vanished beneath the blood. Disappeared in the deliverance detergent of grace. Erased by the mercies of the Lord that are new every morning. The evidence that was once against me, is now the testimony of a God who is for me. The marks of malice, the stains of stubbornness.

My soul is rinsed from regret. My heart is spotless because the blood of the lamb is the best spot remover. My hands are clean. My vision is clear. My attitude is adjusted from hate to love. My first step is not toward the darkness to do what I want in the world, but toward the light to let the world see what the Lord has done. 

Sanctified. He gave a cause.

Justified. He delivered me from condemnation.

Isa 1:18  Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Listen now…

God is not bound by chronology. He is not limited by hours of missed opportunities. He is barricaded by seconds of suffering. He works beyond the clock. He reaches beyond journals and calendars. He never sleeps nor slumbers. He always on time but is not pushing a time clock. His eternal power is always available. There is no particular time stamp for the supernatural when it comes to His church. He just needs hunger to match holiness. He just waits for the seeker to look beyond earthly boundaries and pray into the endless possibilities of His Word. Listen now…

Cleansing is important. But workers of iniquity stay filthy. If you don’t keep the filth out then stopping spiritual infection will fail. God’s word is daily source for the “washing of regeneration” (Titus 3:5). Jesus stated that his disciples would be “clean through the word (John 15:3).” Paul instructed the Corinthians that their past lives of sin and seduction should remind of the power of the Gospel because they were “washed”, made clean from their past. (I Corinthians 6:11) Paul also informed the disciples at Ephesus that Jesus gave himself for the church that he might “cleanse it with the washing of the water by the Word.” (Ephesians 5:26)

If you keep rubbing dirt in the wound how can it heal? If you keep giving your ear to gossip how your trust repair from past betrayal? If you let the mud of accusation be smeared on your injured faith how can it recover? Stay clean through the preaching of the Word. Stay disinfected from doubts and lingering failures by applying the ointment of truth, the balm of Gilead. You need some salve, not fifteen more minutes of the latest headline news that confuses and angers you. Take a break from social networks and the grime of gossip contaminating your spirit. Listen to His Word. Let the counsel of Scripture wash your mind from strife and needless stress.

I see bandaged people looking for complete healing, but their bandages are being removed by dirty hands, hateful people, and apostate teachers. They are not helping the wound. They are worsening the wound, infecting it with the touch of unclean doctrines. And you wonder why you become more suspicious of the church? And you question things that used to convict you. And you open channels of thought you would never have allowed yourself to tune into when you were clean through His Word. Listen now…

We live in the atmosphere of flesh, trying to rise to higher levels of faith. Just as the earth has higher atmospheres, and great distances between them, me must travel far beyond strife and stress in our age. We rise above hatred with love. We rise above pride with humility. We rise above fear with faith. We go to better atmospheres of God’s Presence when we lay aside the weights of sin and burdens of carnality. Listen now…

Righteous indignation burning on the altars of night. See The kindling of stars on ashen coals of space. Horizons explode with sunlight flames and sparks of dawn. Burgeoning candles of constellations and cascading colors of Aurora Borealis. Flashes and flames. Trailing comets and thundering cannons. Asteroids on the fingertips of the Almighty. Meteors racing like sprinters on the ebony galactic tracks. Astronomical flares and cosmic bursts.

Lightning storms chaotically amplified by endless drumbeats of thunder. Booms and radiant beams. Electricity and endless energy. Yes. God puts on fireworks show unlike any other! Listen now…

“The Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. ” Hebrews 4;12 God wants us to take the Word of God in deep. It’s sharp because it cuts deep. Shallow Christianity doesn’t want sharp. But for us to grow in grace and character, we need the Word to cut us to the core, change us in the depth of our being, and empower us to be what God wants us to be. Desiring the Word of God makes a difference. When you yearn for truth, you don’t settle for treachery. When you desire Biblical teaching, you won’t substitute it for some cheap sin-permissive doctrine. Let us love the Word of God more than ever…listen now.

Slap. Twist and pull. Ribbons of flesh torn away. And diseases bowed their knees to his suffering. Slap. Twist and pull, raining crimson and bits of flesh fall to the ground. And the earth sipped of the suffering savior’s antidote for every sickness. Slap. Twist and pull. The nine leather thongs of the sadistic flagellum were like demon tongues of a dragon, razor blades of darkness cutting and clinging to the skin of God; yet with every stripe the incurable was submitted to the power of the blood. My friend, you have healing through the shed blood of Jesus. You have deliverance because of the power in the blood. Its atoning nature brings the supernatural; it gives you the ability to resist the darkness. Listen now…

David was genetically chosen to be a King. He was generationally proven to be a man after God‘s own heart. He was grammatically gifted as a poet and a prophet. He was chronologically on time to meet the giant. He was chromatically different in that he was ruddy, of a reddish complexion. He didn’t have to be mythological and serving other gods. He didn’t have to be psychological and trying to intimidate his opponent. He was simply anointed and able. Battle ready and blessed. Calm in the chaos and confident for the conflict. He could dance a spiritual groove on his enemy’s grave. Make no mistake about this worshiper, he was also a warrior. Fearless and fierce. Groomed by a shepherding skills to be a giant killer. Listen now…