As we witness the chaotic world around us, it would be easy to become worried and weary. However, Scripture calls us to have a different outlook: a conviction and comfort that God’s eternal plan is on schedule and closer to completion with each passing day.  

The Bible refers to the helmet of salvation in both Ephesians 6:17 and 1 Thessalonians 5:18. In each case, Paul refers, beyond the acquisition of salvation, to the assurance that comes from the “confidence of our salvation.” Ray Stedman explains,

“Jesus Christ is coming back, and He will appear again, and He will establish His own reign in righteousness on the earth. That is the helmet of salvation, which will keep your thinking straight in the hour of man’s utter confusion and darkness.

If you can keep God’s eternal plan in view at all times, it will save you from enormous heartache and fear as you read the news daily. When you see the chaos in the world, you will know that even the disorder that Satan seeks to stir up in the world is being used to further God’s plan and bring His kingdom one day nearer.”

Thank you for your continued support for the EA team, as we work for Christ while it is still day, knowing that night is coming when our service on earth will be complete (John 9:4).

The Apostle Peter writes,

“Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear” (1 Peter 1:17).

Many of us here in the United States feel as though we woke up one day in a foreign country with the seemingly overnight transformation of our nation.

There is undoubtedly much to pray for in that regard societally; however, amidst the cultural chaos, there is a spiritual truth being reinforced.

Our temporary physical surroundings are serving to remind us of an eternal spiritual reality: at salvation we become citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven (Phil. 3:20), longing for our heavenly home (2 Cor. 5:2) and often, like Lot, distressed by the depraved conduct around us (2 Pet. 2:7).

Spurgeon’s comments are helpful in our efforts to live righteously as salt and light in the world (Luke 14:34-35; Matt. 5:14-16):

“You are only here for a while, you are sojourners, foreigners, pilgrims passing through a country where you have no abiding place; be therefore careful and even fearful lest you should become like the people among whom you dwell, have a holy dread of the contaminations of sin: ‘Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:’ Not in unbelieving fear, but in that holy carefulness which watches against sin of every kind lest in any way you should spoil your holy work for God.”

Carry on amidst the chaos…in holy carefulness, prayerful dependence, and heavenly expectancy!

PS: If you’re looking for further encouragement in your journey as a pilgrim, I highly recommend The New Pilgrim’s Progress, which features the late Warren Wiersbe’s study notes.

Ten years ago, prior to Empowering Action, a friend passed along to me a poem by missionary Amy Carmichael, which, in reference to Israel’s miraculous crossing of the Jordan River in Joshua 3, stated the following:

“You and I may be called again and again to walk right into our own ‘rivers,’ whatever they may be-to wet our feet in them. We may be called to do what nobody understands except those to whom the word of guidance is given-and with it, His promise too.”

The years of EA have been a testament to the principle that where God guides…He provides. His provision has included, not merely the continued financial generosity of our supporters, but also key leaders and ministry partners, which have enabled us to have a breadth of ministry beyond our greatest expectations.

Two of the countries in which we minister, Haiti and Cuba, are in the midst of chaos. As a result, we ask that you join us in praying for those brothers and sisters in Christ, mourning with those who mourn (Rom. 12:15), interceding on their behalf (1 Tim. 2:1) and petitioning for God’s provision of divine strength, amidst diversity, to “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Col. 1:10).

Pictured below are pastors of Haitian churches within the Dominican Republic, planning and praying earlier this week, alongside our staff, for EA’s efforts to serve Christ’s Church in their home country.

People often ask me, “How can I pray for the ministry?”

A small portion from a short New Testament epistle provides an answer:

The Apostle Paul may have spent as little as three weeks in the Greek city of Thessalonica on his second missionary journey, but the encouraging report he received from Timothy motivated him to pen the book of 1 Thessalonians.

Amidst expressing his joy over the spiritual transformation of the Thessalonian Christians, Paul also found it necessary to answer false charges from troublemakers regarding his character and message. It’s within that rebuttal we find two descriptions that can serve as a template in praying for the church leaders that EA has the privilege to serve:

• “…we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.” (2:7)
• “…like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.” (2:11-12)

Would you join us in praying that each of the leaders, involved in any of our four programs, would grow in their biblical acumen as well as the leadership ability to faithfully shepherd their flock, nurturing as a mother, and encouraging and exhorting as a father.

I had the privilege of preaching today at our church on The Triumphant Entry of Palm Sunday.

As I shared, Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem represented the following three things in the life of Christ:

1. A UNIQUE SITUATION: As it was the only occasion when Jesus accepted the public recognition of King. As an example, recall what occurred after the Feeding of the 5,000:

    

   “So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone.” (John 6:15)

2.  A DEFINING MOMENT: By riding into Jerusalem as he did, fulfilling the Old Testament prophesy of Zechariah 9:9, Jesus was unmistakably claiming to be the Messiah and King of Israel.

    

   Remember, previously, he had “warned the disciples that they should tell no one that He was the Christ” (Matt. 16:20) and “told his disciples and others around him, ‘My time has not yet come.’” (John 2:4; 7:6,8)

3. A POINT OF NO RETURN: As Andreas Köstenberger notes,

    

   “Up to this point in Jesus’ ministry, he could have still managed to live a long, happy, peaceful life, but his actions on Sunday set in motion a series of events that could result only in either his overthrow of Rome and religious establishment or his brutal death. He has crossed the point of no return; there would be no turning back. Caesar could allow no rival kings.”

As Christians, we are called to live all year in the shadow of the cross; however, let me encourage you to make a concerted effort this Passion Week to reflect upon the specifics of this paramount week in Jesus’ life and our salvation.

Click here for some great resources on the Ligonier website!

Paul warned the church in Colossae, and consequently the bride of Christ throughout history,

“See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.” (Col. 2:8)

Yet, sadly, and at a breakneck pace, worldly ideologies have infiltrated not only churches, but also previously doctrinally sound universities, seminaries and ministries.

The casualty list grows by the day.

The question must be asked, “How is this occurring?”

While Christ remains on His throne with His promise to build His Church intact, Satan is attacking the weak, unstable and immature in the faith, as they’re ““tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14).

We see this principle in both the old and new testaments.

The Lord instructed Saul to utterly destroy the Amalekites,

Thus says the LORD of hosts: “I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.” (1 Sam. 15:2-3)

What was it about the Amalekites that so provoked God’s wrath?

Deuteronomy 25:17-18 provides the details,

“Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt, how he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary; and he did not fear God.”

The Amalekites, not bold enough to confront the strong of Israel, assaulted the tail end of the traveling pack, where the slow, weak, elderly and infirmed trudged along.

This is what the false teaching of the Social Justice Movement has done within evangelical Christianity: assaulted and taken captive the weak and vulnerable in the faith.

Speaking of false teachers within the New Testament church, Peter stated,

“They entice unsteady souls.” (2 Peter 2:14)

The metaphor Peter is using is to entice fish with bait. And his use of the term “unsteady souls” references how false teachers do not capture those strong in the Word, but, rather, purposely prey on the weak, the unstable, and the young in the faith.

What, then, must we do?

As Jude 17-25 notes, be aware, in prayer, ever maturing in our faith, reaching out to those who have strayed, all while looking forward to the blessed appearing of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ:

But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.” These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.

 Now to Him who is able to protect you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory, blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen.

To post a blog, emphasizing RECEIVING on a day that secular society has set aside to foster charitable GIVING, seems both countercultural and potentially counterproductive for a ministry!

Guilty as charged! Empowering Action firmly believes, that after 8 years of God’s protection and provision, if we focus on ministry faithfulness the Lord will be supply sufficient finances.

With that promise in mind, and recognition of the unique emotional, physical and financial strain this pandemic has placed on many of us, let me offer you this word of spiritual encouragement on receiving the grace of God from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth.

“We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain.” (2 Cor. 6:1)

The great theologian H.A. Ironside wrote of this verse,

“Christians have been richly blessed; God has lavished His goodness upon us. What response are we making to the love of His heart? To receive His great goodness, to glory in salvation by grace, and yet to live carnal, worldly lives is indeed to ‘receive the grace of God in vain.’ Let there be on our part a constant response of loving devotion to Him who has so graciously accepted us in the Beloved.”

Paul later explains to Titus the effects the grace of God produce in salvation and sanctification,

“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age.” (Titus 2:11-12)

So this Giving Tuesday be reminded to GIVE loving devotion to the Lord, as a result of having RECEIVED His grace…

There was a time when Christians were accused of being atheists…and it was an unintentional compliment.

Despite paying their taxes, submitting to governing authorities, and even offering prayers for the emperor and the empire as a part of their worship, the early church was accused, amongst other things, of being subversive atheists.

Justin Martyr, a convert from paganism who went on to become the most prominent amongst the early Church apologists, argued that Christians, while unwilling to worship the emperor or other gods or participate in social events associated with pagan religion, factually were moral, upright, and law-abiding citizens who were the empire’s “best allies in securing good order.”

John MacArthur provides essential cultural context to comprehend this accusation:

“The Romans had a very broad and somewhat tolerant attitude toward religion. They allowed their subjects to worship whatever gods they wanted to worship, as long as they also worshiped the Roman gods. Their approach to religion was all-inclusive and what bothered them about Christianity was Christianity was exclusive. Christians preached an exclusive message that there is only one true God, one Savior, and one way of salvation. And they not only believed that, but they propagated that. They preached that. They were evangelistic, trying to win converts among the nations that were part of the Roman world.

This went against the prevailing, dominant role of religious pluralism. Christians therefore were denounced, strangely, as atheists because they rejected the Roman pantheon of gods, because they would not worship the emperor as God, and because they didn’t worship idols. And the Romans couldn’t disassociate a god from an idol. If you had no idol, you had no god. They were atheists. And so, here are these subversive atheists, assaulting the unity and the peace of Rome with their exclusive God and exclusive message.”

My fellow believing Americans, does this sound painfully familiar?

It should.

We, too, in 2020 live in an “inclusive” society, angered by Christianity’s exclusive message. Refusal, like the early Christians, to acknowledge any god other than society’s pluralistic false deity, will produce wrath, amidst society’s redefined definition of tolerance.

Additionally, I think it’s essential to note Satan’s malicious practice of leveraging cultural contexts in redefining words, then and now.

Darrow Miller in A Toxic New Religion how this tactic is at work, once again, 2,000 years later,

“You would think that the new religion by now would have created its own particular vocabulary—but no. For the last 50 years or so, it has simply redefined some of our culture’s most important words. For example, Eric Metaxas and Anne Morse note sardonically that the new religion’s abortion activists ‘like to use the same words we pro-lifers use, but they’re using an entirely different dictionary.’ Which words have been redefined across culture? Only words such as marriage, freedom, love, compassion, and justice—words that are the very foundation stones of Western culture. According to Os Guinness, ‘There has been a subtle shift in the meaning of many Western ideas, so that once-strong Jewish and Christian [words] are now used in different ways that decisively change their meaning.’

This matters because words matter. They have the power to convey truth and help us understand reality—or obscure it. Words and language are the basic building blocks of culture. Stripping words of their true meaning turns out to be incredibly destructive.”

Ultimately, I believe:

1. We, “Christian atheists,” should brace for a wave of intensified persecution.
2. God’s grace is sufficient.

And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Cor. 12:9–10)

3. Persecution, while painful, will ultimately purify the Church and glorify the Lord, as it purges false teachers, false gospels, and false professions of faith.