Who is ISIS?

Whoever they are, we know our United States President has finally admitted that our government underestimated them…

Today, as I sat in my church service… in my very comfortable chair… beside my sister-in-law while my youngest daughter practiced for the Christmas Program and my middle daughter sat on the other side of the church with the youth and we sang our songs within the confines of the safety of our building… I was reminded of the urgency of the message of the cross.

Jim Wilson came and shared today at our church. During his message he shared an email that he and his wife had very recently received. A friend of theirs, a missionary in Iraq sent word for prayer. His name is Sean Malone and he is with the Crisis Response International.

He sent word for prayer because in the area of Iraq that he is in, the UN sent word that they were leaving because ISIS was moving in. The UN recommended that all missionaries leave the area immediately. Sean and his team would not leave the Iraqi people, knowing they were called there by God and God had not released them to go. So they stayed.

ISIS moved in.

ISIS went through the area and pulled out all the children of the Christians… they lined them up in the street and brought the parents out to watch their children be beat and abused by this band of terrorist. The ISIS after beating these children then shouted at them to denounce Christ or be killed.

These children had been told of Christ. They knew the gospel. They knew the One in whom they believed. Their parents had been faithful to obey Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

These children’s parents had taught them the words of Christ in John 15:18-21

“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world,because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.

 These children knew the warning that Jesus gave as encouragement in John 16:2

…but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.

These children knew these things and they believed these things with all their heart and with all their mind and with all their strength… so when ISIS pulled them away from their parents arms and beat them and threatened to kill them if they did not denounce Christ… these kids refused.

These kids refused to denounce Christ. They refused to deny their Savior.

And right there… in the streets… with their parents watching it all… ISIS beheaded these precious ones.

Now I ask you…

Mom… Dad… is your child ready for ISIS?

Are you?

Is your relationship with Christ more than a cross ornament around your neck? Is it more than a Sunday fellowship? Is it more than mere churchianity?

When Jesus asks “do you love Me?”, what can you really say? Because beloved the time to play religion is drawing to a close. We are getting down to the nitty gritty… the rubber is hitting the road… and if your head had to roll… if you had to watch your child’s head roll before your eyes… would you still be able to praise the risen Christ?

As Jim Wilson shared this email with us… I sat with tears flooding my eyes as I thought of what these parents and these children endured. I thought of my own girls and in my mother’s panicked heart I had to ask…

Oh God would I be able to stand there, would my girls be able to stand there in stoic flint faced faith knowing that they were Yours and You would receive them into Your glory? Would they, would I, be able to look in the face of a demonically controlled soul and feel pity for this one while they beat me and took my head simply because I loved You?

This is reality.

These are questions we must search our hearts for… we MUST examine our hearts and see if we truly, beyond the shadow of a doubt, believe that HE IS.

As I study through the book of John and consider where we are today in our world I was reminded of a beautiful truth revealed in the Gospels… especially the Gospel of John.

We are warned by Christ Himself to be on the lookout for frauds…

For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.

Matthew 24:24

In the Greek the phrase false Christs is one word, pseudochristos, it means false Christ, pretend Messiah. The word false or pretend comes from the Greek word pseudés which means false, deceitful, lying, untrue.

I saw this word and my inner 80’s girl started singing this song…

Now here is a little background on the song:

• On a 1997 episode of VH1 Storytellers, Collins said: “This is one of those examples of improvising lyrics. You know, sometimes you can use the lyric, other times you’re in big trouble, because what you write doesn’t mean anything. So I set up this drum-machine pad, and I got some chords, and I started to sing into the microphone, and this word came out, which was “sus-sussudio.” It just literally came out, at the time… that was back when I could dance, so I kind of knew I had to find something else for that word, then I went back and tried to find another word that scanned as well as “sussudio,” and I couldn’t find one, so I went back to “sussudio.” Then I thought OK, let’s give it a meaning, what is it? The lyrics are based on this schoolboy crush on this girl at school. It’s happening with my daughter now, she’s 8 years old and she loves this boy, but she won’t tell him, like in the lyrics this boy loves her but they don’t talk about it… how do they know? ‘I know she likes me, I know she likes me, doesn’t know my name, doesn’t know I exist, but I know she likes me’… So that’s what the song is about, so “sussudio” became a name for this person, and since it’s become a name for a horse. My older daughter’s got a horse called Sussudio, and I’m sure there are children all over the world with the name Sussudio, so I apologize for that.”

How do we know a fraud?

There is no meaning or depth to them. They are there in the moment making stuff up as they go because they are feeding off their current crowd in order to gain their attention. In this song Phil Collins just spits a word out. The word has no meaning, yet he was able to convince the world that this word that was simply a figment of his own imagination was a real person. He used human emotions and relative circumstance to do it.

A pseudés Christ or a pseudés prophet works in a similar way. They will feed on your human emotions and they will always either point to you or demand you point to them. They are always seeking their own glory or trying to persuade you to seek your own glory. They usually are aiding you in the creation of a god in your own image.

When we read through the Scriptures, especially through the Gospels we see the heart of the authentic Christ. We see the working of the True Godhead. What we see is that not One Person of the Holy Trinity ever seeks to glorify Themselves.

The Father points to the Son:

Then a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My Son, My Chosen One; listen to Him!”

Luke 9:35

The Son points to the Spirit:

But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.

John 16:7

The Spirit points to the Son:

But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.

John 16:13-14

The Son points to the Father:

Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.

John 5:19

Each person of the Godhead seeks to glorify the other. They never seek their own glory. They each point to the other and create this beautiful circle of glory…

The amazing thing about this beautiful circle of glory is that they invite us to rest within it. We sit in the midst of this glory, having entered through rent flesh of the Son. If we are truly in this circle we can’t help but give glory to the Father, the Son, and the Spirit because we sit in midst of the whirlwind. We are kept safe in the eye of the hurricane of the grace of God… and as we sit there we cannot help but give glory to the Father, the Son, and the Spirit because we know how truly insignificant we are in the light of Their presence and only humility and a bowed face to the ground in absolute gratitude for His great mercy remains.

A false Christ, a false prophet, will not seek to glorify the Godhead… because there is no room in which to get glory of their own. They are pseu pseu pseu pseudés.

Jesus answered, “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God’; and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word.

John 8:54-55

My Father is glorified by this,

that you bear much fruit,

and so prove to be My disciples.

John 15:8

A true disciple of Christ is not a mindless follower. The word disciple in the Greek in this passage is “mathétés“. We get the word mathematics from this word. The word “math” in the Greek is the “mental effort needed to think something through“.

The word for disciple here in John 15:8 is someone who is “properly, a learner; a disciple, a follower of Christ who learns the doctrines of Scripture and the lifestyle they require; someone catechized with proper instruction from the Bible with its necessary follow-through (life-applications).”

This word for disciple comes from the word “manthanó” which means to learn. As you read through the gospels you will see our Lord using this word over and over as He teaches His disciples. Jesus repeatedly says,
“But go and learn (manthanó)…” (Matthew 9:13)
“Now learn what this…” (Mark 13:28)

A true disciple of Christ has not just randomly, haphazardly,viscerally believed, and then gone on about their business as usual. They have heard the gospel. They have heard the truth and their heart and mind have been opened by God and they have reasoned within themselves. His Spirit has testified to their spirit and they have surrendered to the truth of God.

There is a reason that Jesus came and fulfilled the Law and the Prophets. There is a reason that our Creator has recorded His Words and His Truth and maintained and protected it for thousands of years. There is a reason that He created us with the ability to think. There is a reason that the Savior came as a Teacher… not just a proclaimer.

Listen to the words of Christ repeated over and over… “go and learn”

Now learn…

Go and learn what this means…

From the beginning our Lord has called out to us to seek Him, to go and learn more about Him…

But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.

Deuteronomy 4:29

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As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.

1 Chronicles 28:9

No matter what is going on in your life, if you are a disciple of Christ you find yourself coming back to the Word… coming back to sit at the Master’s feet so that you can understand. Seeking to understand Him. seeking to understand circumstances. Seeking to learn so that you can grow in the knowledge of God, so that you can bear fruit in every season. 

Jesus taught by asking questions… He wanted His followers to use the brains that He had given them. He wanted them to be able to intelligently reason the Scriptures. He wanted them to be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, the empty philosophy of men, and the perversion of the Scriptures.

He gave us His Spirit so that we could be guided into the truth of the Word that the He had given us (John 16:13) and He gave us His mind (1 Corinthians 2:16) so that we could reason and think.

So today, beloved, as you step into your Sunday morning service, remember that if you are a disciple of Christ you are a learner and you have been given everything you need by God to understand the Scriptures. Don’t just blindly follow a person of mere flesh and blood when God has opened the way for you to sit at the Master’s feet.

Prove to be His disciple.

Prove to be a disciple of Christ.

A true disciple of Christ seeks to glorify God, not themselves. A true disciple of Christ seeks to elevate the Word of God. A true disciple of Christ knows that apart from Christ they can do nothing. A true disciple of Christ knows that they can never stop learning… because there is always more of God to know… He and His Word are inexhaustible.

John said to Him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to prevent him because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me. For he who is not against us is for us.
(Mark 9:38-40)

Last Wednesday night somehow our class discussion detoured to the recent comments of Victoria Osteen. Now I have my own issues with the preaching of Joel Osteen but the Lord convicted me with the above verse a few years back as well as some others.

Yes, there is great lack in the presentation of the Word of God by Joel Osteen, but as I shared with my class, I used to watch his father. He would come on television on Friday or Saturday nights around 11pm. I would sit in front of the televisions as a 12 year old girl with my Bible and my notebook and would try to learn from him. I sat in front of my television with my Bible held up and I recited that confession, “This is my Bible. I am what it says I am. I have what it says I have. I can do what it says I can do. Today I will be taught the Word of God. I boldly confess. My mind is alert. My heart is receptive. I will never be the same. I am about to receive the incorruptible, indestructible, ever-living, seed of the Word of God. I will never be the same. I will never be the same. Never never never will I ever be the same. In Jesus name. Amen”

Joel walks a thin line on a wide path… and he very much appears to be an ear tickling teacher, but personally I have not heard him say that Jesus is not the Christ. I have not heard him deny the Deity, death or resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ… and if God can use a donkey… He can use Joel and He can use Victoria… even though she appears to have stuck her foot in her mouth BIG time in front of millions.

I just thank God that all my misspoken words have not been broadcasted out before millions. I am sure I have said a plenty of stupid things in my frail, terrified, weak attempt to proclaim the Word of God and somehow encourage and convince others to love Him as much as I do.

Now, Joel Osteen is not going to be my recommendation to anyone who asks me for help in growing in the grace and knowledge of God. I will most definitely point them toward the David Jeremiah’s, Charles Stanley’s, Chuck Swindoll’s, Ravi Zacharais’, and Kay Arthur’s. Please don’t confuse my grace with propagating, it’s not.

With all the Osteen talk passing through my newsfeed, I just had to go back and listen to some old John Osteen…

There I am in my sunken den on my knees in the floor, in front of the television, using the bay window rise it sat on as a table for my Bible and notebook… it took God a while to bring that confession to fruition… but He did.

Who knows… maybe there is a 12 year old little girl sitting in front of her television watching Joel, reciting that beginning confession… what might God do within her in the next 12 years?

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