Reading through the Gospels and the book of Acts a person cannot help but be astonished at the nature and volume of miracles that were performed by Jesus Christ and the Apostles. Some of the miracles were utilitarian in nature such as the incident where Jesus turned the water into wine at the wedding in Cana (John 2:1-11) or when the Apostles spoke at Pentecost and those attending could hear the words spoken in their own languages (Acts 2:1-12). Other miracles were merciful and kind as when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-44) or when Christ healed the demon possessed man who lived in the tombs of Gerasenes (Mark 5:1-20). No matter what the nature of the miracle, however, each was done with one purpose in mind, to bring glory to God the Father. The blind were made to see, the deaf to hear, the lepers were made clean and the lame could walk. The items on the list of miracles that Christ and the Apostles performed seem almost countless. Many of the people who witnessed these miracles came to believe that Jesus Christ was the Messiah and the Son of God. The miracles were proof of the divine nature of the Lord. Since the Ascension of Christ and the passing and martyrdom of the Apostles miracles seem to be less common. Also science has come along to make miracles seem less miraculous. There is, however, a miracle that happens daily and no one seems to mention it.

Not only is this miracle not mentioned but many do not see it for the miracle that it truly is. Some of the unregenerate even call it a delusion and a sign of ignorance. This miracle that I am referring to is the miracle of belief. It happens daily as new members are accepted into the Body of Christ and hardly a soul realizes the true power of this miracle. Christ understood this when after proving to Thomas that He was indeed the risen Lord, Jesus said “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). No believer today was there at the crucifixion and watched Christ’s redemptive blood seep from his hands and feet. Not a soul alive heard Jesus saying “It is finished” (John 19:30) as he relinquished his life on the cross. There are not witnesses still alive who can say that they saw the Lord being removed from the cross and laid to rest in his tomb. I dare say that no one, man or woman, who walks the Earth can claim to have seen the risen Lord immediately after his resurrection and release from the tomb. Not a person alive can say that they have seen any or all of these events but all believers have no doubt that they took place.

What a miracle we have here and hardly anyone acknowledges it as being the miraculous occurrence that it is. Is not this an amazing thing that mere moments before we come to know the Lord Jesus we are doubters and scoffers (to say the least) and in the precious moment that God’s grace descended upon us we understood perfectly the truth of Christ on the cross and we felt completely assured as to what He did for the sake of our souls. God blesses us with the miracle of belief as part of bestowing grace upon us. With the gift of grace comes not only belief but faith, forgiveness and the desire for repentance. It is belief, however, that is the key to unlocking the door to our salvation. Without the miracle of belief then of what use is faith to us? We would have nothing in which to have faith in if we never came to believe in the forgiveness and salvation that Christ offers us with his sacrifice upon the cross.

I have heard people say that they could easily believe in Jesus had they heard Him teach and witnessed the miracles he performed. But that option is not available to us. What we have instead is a gift from God to believe the stories that are written about Him and to accept the salvation that He offers us. They should pray to God that He grants them the grace to believe in these things and if He does their doubts will seem frivolous and they will wonder why it took them so long to come to this understanding. From my vantage point as one who has been blessed with faith and salvation I can see the miracle of belief. I can still remember a time when I did not believe and today I ask myself, with everything that I know how I could have been so ignorant and blind to the glory and majesty of God. As a believer I see it everywhere, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory” (Isaiah 6:3b). Nothing around me changed, God just blessed me with belief and then I changed. All these miracles are about glorifying God and we can glorify the Lord our God every time that we acknowledge the miracle of belief when it is given to a new believer.

We must never forget what a miracle belief really is. Just look around and see all the people who have heard the Word but have not believed. Generally they have heard the same message that believers have but they have rejected the possibility of Christ being God and of His dying upon the cross to pay the debt that humanity’s sins have incurred. They are no different than you or I for we were once unworthy sinners unable to believe in the mercy and forgiveness of God. For the most part we did not even realize that we where sinners and that we needed forgiveness. Then the miracle started and the Lord’s grace began working on us. First we were made aware of our sinful nature and given a desire to do something about it. Then we were shown the revelation of Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection. Finally the key to freedom was miraculously handed to us and we believed. At last we were truly free…

Another Pilgrim

I read where Martin Luther was once asked if he loved God. He is reported to have said “Love God? Sometimes I hate God!” Although I do not believe that I have ever hated God, recently I was very angry with Him. In prayer I told Him that I was angry but I also asked him to forgive me because I am human and prone to fits of insanity. How insane must a person be to kneel before God and tell Him that you are angry with him? Who am I to criticize God? “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord” (Isaiah 55:8)

To be honest, I do not feel like I was critiquing His abilities as God. I was just angry with the way a situation had worked out and I needed to vent that anger and frustration. I felt that I was being honest with Him. He already knew what I was feeling inside so letting go of those feelings and confessing them to my Creator seems like an appropriate course of action. I understand that all things are in the hands and control of God, but my mistake or rather my sin was anticipating the outcome of events that I now know to be contrary to the way God intended to work them out. My sin does not stem from being mad at God; my sin is derived from believing that the way I wanted things to turn out was the way it should turn out. In a nutshell I felt that I knew better than God. I exhibited the sin that is the root of all sins, pride.

C. S. Lewis wrote that pride is the worse of all sins. Pride gives birth to sin but it also will not tolerate competition with other sins. Pride rules the roost and all other sins but take a backseat and must be subservient to the authority of pride. Pride is biased. It has examined all other sins and found them lacking. Who can compete with pride? Pride fathers extreme ego and self-centeredness and also nurtures arrogance and vanity. Pride drives our lust for the opposite sex and material possessions. Pride sets delusions of grandeur before our self-esteem and causes us to act in ways contrary to the will of God but in concurrence with the desires of prince of this world.

Pride separates us from God in ways that no other sin can. Pride tells us that we are the most important thing in the universe and the all of creation revolves around us. If the prideful can even accept the existence of a god, then their god is an impersonal, distant entity who either cares little or not at all for the actions of man. In many cases pride breeds agnostics and atheists. How can a prideful person live out his days in peace knowing that he has to answer eventually to a God who will hold him accountable for his actions? It is easier to construct a god of his own understanding, who approves of his behavior or to discount the existence of God all together.

Pride and acceptance of a living personal God can not coexist and for this reason God expects all his people to be humble before Him and before other men. How can someone do the will of the Lord while his own will is begging for attention and release? Those filled with pride and arrogance can not do this. The self-absorbed hear the gospel and it abhors them. They wonder how someone can willingly subvert his will to the will of some invisible being that expects him to renounce all the fun things in life. The thought of being a slave and servant to our creator terrifies them. It is beyond their ability to understand why someone would willingly give up their freedom to serve God and the poor and down trodden for seemingly no personal gain.

What the prideful do not realize is that they are already slaves to the task masters that pride has given them. Some are slaves to their sexual desires; perverting and cheapening a God given desire to please our wife or husband. Some are slaves to money and live to acquire money and the material things money buys. When they have acquired enough money they desire to gain even more. Others are slaves to their ambition. They strive constantly to get a head in the business or sport of their choosing and any small failure gets magnified in their minds to the point of obsession.

Those who are enslaved to the task masters of pride can never have enough and never be enough. There is not amount of women, fun or money that will satisfy them. No personal position that they have obtained will every sate their desire for more. People like this are born wanting and no matter what they get out of life and how much they receive, it will never be enough. Pride makes them always want more and more, so that nothing they gain will ever make them happy for long. They have an awareness of something missing in their lives and they seek to find out what it is. They spend a life time searching from something that pride keeps them blind to and they die never knowing what it was they were seeking. “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before the fall.” (Proverbs 16:18)

What they are missing is the personal relationship with God that their pride bars them from. They long for something but have no idea what it is. They assume that what they are lacking in their lives is something associated with their personal desires, never realizing (because their pride will brook no rival and thus hides it from them) that what they need is peace and satisfaction of serving the Lord Jesus and making His will their will. We were all created with an innate desire for the eternity that exists beyond this life and our current temporal reality. They feel the longing for more but pride steps in to offer the false hopes of self-sufficiency and materialism. Once they way is chosen they will always remain separate from God unless He gifts them with his irresistible grace.

Only God can save someone from themselves and only through the belief in the Lord Jesus can someone know salvation and experience the justification that frees them from the slavery of sin. When the prideful escape the bounds of sin they come to see how they lived the illusion of freedom and in reality they were never really seeking what they truly desired. They find that instead they were chasing the phantoms that pride paraded in front of them. A fool infused with the wisdom of the Lord is a fool no more except in the eyes of those who are still suffering from the delusions of pride. Personally, I’d rather seem foolish with God’s wisdom than be thought wise with Satan’s illusions. “When pride comes then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.” (Proverbs 11:2)

Another Pilgrim

“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” 2 Corinthians 6:14

“Should I stay or should I go now. If I stay there will be trouble. An’ If I go it will be double” Should I Stay or Should I Go – The Clash.

“One thing, one thing leads to another” One Thing Leads to Another – The Fixx

With all the parishes and dioceses that are leaving and/or trying distance themselves from the heresies of the Episcopal Church, I thought I would look up 2 Corinthians 6:14 on the internet for possible enlightenment and commentary. It seems that this verse is applied mostly to potential marriages between Christians and unbelievers. It is used to discourage a Holy bond between two people whose spiritual views may be at odds with each other. This is good advice. Very few marriages seem to work when the couple’s worldviews are so far apart. But what is a believer to do when the person that they are married to has lost faith and fallen away from Christian belief and values? Both the Old and New Testaments tell us that the only reason for divorce of a married couple is adultery. So unless adultery has been committed then the implication is that the couple must stay together being unevenly yoked. That now begs a question concerning the Episcopal Church. Has it been unfaithful and adulterous or has it merely lost its faith?

I do not believe that there is any question that the Episcopal Church has lost its faith. It no longer recognizes the authority of Scripture. Church canons now seem to supersede the spoken word of Jesus Christ and the Apostles to whom Jesus gave authority. The canons themselves seem to be fluid and open to the interpretation of the Presiding Bishop. Prophecy is the new wisdom and the prophecy heard in the Episcopal Church is the false prophecy of an imagined voice of the Holy Spirit. To my knowledge the Holy Spirit has never led God’s people away from the will of God as He has made it known in Scripture. However, the Episcopal Church is telling its members that it is being directed by the Holy Spirit to have new priorities and new concepts of what is sinful and what is not.

The Great Commission that Christ assigned to all those who would follow Him has taken a back seat to the works that the Church can perform for other. Service seems to be the new priority, service to the Episcopal Church while Christ’s message is being neglected. Christ spoke harshly to the Pharisees and teachers when he said, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former” (Matthew 23:23). Are not the elders of the National Episcopal Church putting the works of their hands over the sharing of the Gospel? Are not they neglecting the more important work of bringing Christ’s message to those who have not heard it? Are they not now practicing one at the expense of the other? Has the leaders of the National Episcopal Church lost there faith and in turned voted faith out of the body. I say absolutely.

In the case of the second question, has the Episcopal Church been unfaithful? To this I say most assuredly it has. The Church been unfaithful to its members as well as it has been unfaithful to Christ and the traditional teachings of the New Testament. The moment that the Episcopal Church accepted unrepentant practicing homosexuals to be teachers, leaders and shepherds to the laity then the church became a mistress to the Adversary. The second that the leaders of the Episcopal Church decided to “weary the Lord by saying that all who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord and He is pleased with them” (Malachi 2:17) they slipped off the wedding band ran into the night to meet their lover. The church gave up the love Christ Jesus and exchanged it for the lies of the father of lies and teacher of harlots. Seduced by promises of money and power and the freedom to call any sin a virtue the Episcopal Church betrayed both Jesus our Savior and the members that made up the church body.

The Episcopal Church now wishes to preach a new gospel that is different than the one it received. Considering what Paul stated, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!” (Galatians 1:8), what hope is there for the Episcopal Church in America? To walk away from those who would teach us the lies that they are being taught by their new master is the path that some have chosen to follow. I also understand that there are those parishioners that have not bought in to the false teachings and heresies who want to stay. Like an estranged husband of a wayward wife, they wait in anticipation of the return of the woman they love even though she may be long gone in mind as well as body. They hope against hope that the person the fell in love with will come back and things will be as they once were. Is it a fool’s hope? Only the Lord our God knows for sure. Are those who wish to leave too quick to pull the trigger and turn their backs on what they once loved instead of waiting in thoughtful prayer for their beloved to realize what she is throwing away? Again, only the Lord knows. One must go where ever the Spirit of God may lead them.

Forgiveness might be one of the most difficult things that Christ Jesus tells us Christians that we must do. “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven” (Luke 6:37). That is a definitive statement from our Lord and Savior stating the necessity of forgiving others. In Matthew a further refining of this commandment is made as Jesus tells us of the consequences of unforgiveness. “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive you your sins” (Matthew 6:14-15). Unless we forgive then we will not be forgiven. He is not telling us that we must forgive Christians only or Christians and our neighbors, but we must forgive all men when they sin against us. The implications of this are very important to our Christian life. This statement tells us that forgiveness, like faith is a fruit of grace and if we are unable to forgive then we are not truly under the grace of God.

You maybe wondering why I feel that forgiveness must be a fruit of grace. In the Scripture verse above, Christ tells us that forgiveness is something that we must do and our salvation depends on it. Scripture tells us that salvation is through faith alone and not through works, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.” (Romans 3:28) Once we accept that concept then forgiveness isn’t something that we can strive to achieve. We can not work to obtain the ability to forgive because that would imply that some part of our salvation rests on something we can earn on our own. Paul speaks against this and tells us it can not happen, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Forgiveness is then on par with faith and is something that the Lord must give to us as we undergo the redemptive process established through the sacrifice of His Son upon the cross. When, because of grace, the Holy Spirit regenerates our hearts He will bestow the ability to forgive upon us like he does faith and belief. Before the gift of grace we were incapable of truly forgiving our enemies, but we now seek to do so because forgiveness has been made manifest in our spiritual nature.

Forgiveness now being a part of our spiritual nature, however, puts it at war with the flesh and our sinfulness,”So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.” (Romans 7:21-25). The flesh does not like to forgive unless it finds some personal gain in the action, so to freely forgive another who has done us wrong when we get no material advantage for doing so is abhorrent to the flesh. Spirit and flesh then face off in a battle for our very souls. Our desire to be righteous battles with our desire to hate and we become conflicted as sin uses this internal struggle to tempt us and to lure us away from the God who loves us. At this point if it were not for grace we would be lost. As humans we like to internalize our hatreds and nurture them because hatred feels good to our sinful nature. Hatred and anger can grow as they are fed by a false sense of justice denied. Eventually hatred can get so large and powerful that they take over and drive the spirit to demand retribution and vengeance. Sadly enough we do this in the name of justice and pretend to ourselves that our evil actions are good and the Lord is pleased with. As this makes clear, without forgiveness we run the risk of becoming slaves to our anger.

Like an addiction, the joy of hate will permeate the heart and soul and will drive a person on to new hatreds and new levels of vengeance. In the end it will consume a man and then Satan claims victory over another lost soul. However, because of grace and the strength that God has given us, the forgiveness in our hearts will eventually win out. Grace never loses nor does it take a back seat to our sinful nature. There are times in the lives of all Christians when the struggle against our sinful nature seems almost unendurable but as time goes by and we grow deeper in belief and faith the sanctification process that the Holy Spirit is performing within us allows us to become stronger and to stand firm against the evils and temptations that we encounter on a daily basis. However, the Devil never stops trying to take us from the hands of our Savior but the grip the Lord Jesus Christ has on us never weakens, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:27-28).

Still, even with the wisdom that the Holy Spirit has imbued us with, forgiveness can be a very hard ideal to live up to. No matter the depth of faith a person has it is sometimes easier to follow the path of least resistance and indulge in some petty disagreement or some perceived slight. These are the very dangerous for ourselves and to those around us. Like it has been stated above, anger likes to grow and fester. What starts off as a small spat can soon escalate in to all out hatred. Even though as Christians we will eventually recognize the mistake and attempt to correct it, feelings get hurt and outsiders looking in begin to question what Christianity is all about if we act no different than those in the world that surrounds us. How many people have been inoculated against God by watching Christians war with and mistreat each other? Most observers will not remember that in the end the parties involved made up and let bygones be bygones, they will mostly recall the angry words and childish behavior. This is what they will tell other non-believers about. The next time someone wonders why the world has such a misconception of Christianity that person must realize that the blame for this lies mostly with Christians and professed Christians. Satan knows the souls of the elect are invulnerable but that does not stop him from using them to further his goals.

Now, all this leads to the questions “what is forgiveness and how does a person forgive?” It can be agreed upon that it generally takes more than a simple “I forgive you” most of the time. If you think about it you’ll realize that quite often when a person says that they forgive they are only paying lip service to the concept. There is no true forgiveness at all and the words are uttered just to say what needs to said in order to smooth over what ever grievance exists. Perhaps we can even act like we have forgiven the person in question but at best we are only fooling the person we need to truly forgive. At worst we may even be lying to ourselves but even then there is no way that we are pulling the wool over God’s eyes. He knows our intentions better than we do. We must forgive with words, actions and heart to be sincere in our forgiveness. We must for give and do our best to truly feel love for those who have trespassed against us. It doesn’t matter if they feel love or forgiveness for us. What is at stake here is our relationship with God and we must do our best to maintain our covenant with Him. God forgives us through the sacrifice of His Son Christ Jesus and we should realize that Our Lord has taken the debt upon Himself that our sin has incurred and paid the price for it in full with the redemptive blood of Jesus.

True forgiveness then is for us to do the same. When someone trespasses against us we should accept the burden of the cost to repair the trespass and pay it ourselves. Our sinful nature will fight against this because why should be pay a debt that does not belong to us. Our righteous nature, however, tells us to make good on the debt because it is the right thing to do. Isn’t that what righteousness is, doing the right thing for the right reason? What reason could be better than because it pleases the Father. We live to serve the Lord so we should be more than willing to do what ever it takes to please Him, especially if the cost will be our pride. The Lord wants us to be humble before Him and the before men so what could be a more perfect form of currency for God than the spending of our pride?

To be the type of disciples that Christ Jesus wants us to be, we must learn to do what He has commanded of us without hesitation. The harder something is to do then the more important it probably is for us to do it. Forgiveness is a hard ideal to live up to but it is so necessary to our spiritual well being that we shouldn’t let our guards down even for a second to indulge some petty slight just because it might feel good to do so. We know that God is watching and Satan is certainly keeping his eyes on us but we can never be sure who else is looking at us. That person might need to see Christians in their best light not their worse. That person may need to see that our love of God is so great that we are willing to relinquish our pride if that is what it takes to maintain harmony with God, ourselves, our brothers and sisters in Christ as well as the world at large. It might make that person watching wonder about and then want what we have.

God speaks to unbelievers and calls them to salvation in unusual ways but much of the time he uses us and our actions to get the message across. The most effect witness is the witness that a Christian’s own life speaks to those who observe him. To watch a Christian forgive another must be a strange, unusual and fascinating thing to someone who lacks faith and understanding. If someone asks us about it we can then tell them about God’s grace and his boundless love for sinners who are willing to repent. God understands more than anyone that we are human and we make mistakes. This is why God has given us grace to save us from damnation and we Christians must take the old saying to heart, “to err is human to forgive divine” because for us it is the absolute truth.

Another Pilgrim