The End of Hope Deferred!

Hope deferred makes the heart sick,

But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.  

Proverbs 13:12

A wholesome tongue is a tree of life,

But perverseness in it breaks the spirit.

Proverbs 15:4

I am intrigued that both of these verses refer to something as being "a tree of life."  One is fulfilled desire and the other is a wholesome tongue.  Clearly there is a connection between desire fulfilled and a wholesome tongue.    They go hand in hand.  There is also a connection between sickness of heart and a broken spirit.  They too are inseparably linked.  

Many believers quote the initial line of Proverbs 13:12, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick," as if it were their life verse. There are many today who have gone through a season of disillusionment, especially when it relates to the church.

But their is a new day dawning and God is inviting us into a season when deferred hope becomes a thing of the past.  Frankly, this opportunity to live in the blessing of God now has been around since Christ was raised from the dead.  However, for most, the ability to remain in the faith necessary to sustain that kind of hope was insurmountable.  It wasn't that the promises were not real but that our hearts were not strong enough to seize the substance of the established promise.

But God adds more grace and more wisdom and insight as we continually grow and assimilate all that he is saying and doing.  We are not on a "limited income" as far as the kingdom is concerned.  Literally, the more one can take in and assimilate, the more one can receive.  In the kingdom, one's portion is determined by one's appetite.  And this is affected by the context that we choose to live in.  When we live in the context of eternity, we begin to live "in His countenance."  Psalm 89:15.  Taking it all in, awakening to the divine blessing, hearing the joyful sound, abounding in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit happens as we continually live in the light of His countenance.  God's countenance places all earthly experiences, good or bad, into the context of eternity.  And eternity is the great force in changing one's perspective.  

The time is fulfilled, Jesus said, the kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent and believe the good news.  

People of God, if we will live in His countenance, "hope deferred" will be a thing of the past.  We have been born again to a living hope.  It is here now and we can enjoy it now.  

Apostolic Christianity Part 2

Apostolic Christianity deals in reality.  At the core of the faith is a belief in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  But closely related to that belief is the insistence of ministry to the real world.  Apostolic Christianity seeks to bring Heavenly glory to a broken world, and that glory comes through simple acts of love.  The pattern of Jesus's ministry was the fact that he was in touch with real people and met them at their point of felt and genuine need.  Jesus was in touch with the real world.  But He spoke "from heaven," for that was His true home and even when He was on the earth, Heaven followed Him.  He brought more than sympathy, more than perspective.  He brought the very atmosphere of heaven into the earth.

He fulfilled and demonstrated His primary message, "The time is fulfilled.  The kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent and believe this good news."  His life was a continual demonstration of what the kingdom of God looks like when it touches the earth.  Indeed, the old promise of the presence of the kingdom of God was literally fulfilled with His coming.

Not only was the world different for Him and those whom He touched but also for all who believed in Him.  In His presence was life and His life was the light of men.  In the light of His presence one could discern the truth.  Those who spent time with Him began to see the world differently.  His resurrection from the dead was the final "proof" that what He declared to be truth was the truth indeed.

But alas, some experienced Him but did not believe in Him.  They saw His miracles and signs and wonders.  But faith is not as much a matter of seeing and believing as it is a matter of the will.  Some simply refused to believe in Him because they had too much invested in this world as it was.  They had too much to loose.  And for them, the world did not change but rather continued to spiral into death.  

To this very day, the distinction continues to exist.  Some believe and the result is healing, restoration and victory in many forms and degrees.  Others do not believe and the "law of sin and death" continues to be the dominant reality in their lives.  Even many so called Christians live under a spirit of unbelief in spite of all their creedal confessions to the contrary.

The issue of belief in the actual resurrection of Jesus is critical for people's experience of Christianity for upon this issue the whole "faith" hangs in the balance.  Authentic faith in the event of Christ's rising from the dead tips a person over the edge from dreary, lifeless religion into the realm of impossible becoming possible.  This is because Christ is the "Son of man".  What he did has implications for us all if we but trust in Him.

So again, I say, that Apostolic Christianity insists that the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is more than just a religious statement of a creed.  It is a reality that changes all reality.   Nothing is impossible for God and one's belief in the one event pulls that person into all the implications.  Resurrection implications are vast and comprehensive.  The resurrection of Jesus from the dead carries implications for every atom in the universe for it changed the very substance of everything that exists.  It is the premier catalytic event of all time and eternity.

The time is fulfilled.  The kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent and believe this good news.  Mark 1:15

Apostolic Christianity

I have started this blog in order to have a format for expressing some of my thoughts about Christianity.  I have specifically declared that my passion is to explore, experience and export Apostolic Christianity.  You might be wondering why I have felt a need to qualify my use of the word Christianity with the word Apostolic.  Well there is a very good reason.  It is because I believe that there is much that goes by the name of Christianity that scarcely resembles what Jesus had in mind when He initiated a movement that was destined to alter the course of history.

My main focus is to simply highlight what I feel is the Lord's desire and ultimate intention for His people.

Let me say from the beginning that I love the church and I do not believe that God has any other vehicle for changing the world other than His Spirit filled people living out the authentic intention of the Lord through daily expressions of His heart.

When I use the word "apostolic" to qualify what I mean by Christianity, I probably could have used the word "authentic" as a synonym.  Apostolic Christianity is nothing if it isn't authentic.  The Apostolic will always insist on reality for a plumb line.  In other words, if the Christian faith is simply understood as a person's "perceptions" as opposed to "what really is", then it isn't apostolic.  It may be many things but it is not apostolic.  There is no faking the truth.  It is either genuine or it isn't.  By this I am not referring to the fallibility or infallibility of someone claiming to be apostolic.  I am only saying that Apostolic Christianity insists on the reality of God and His actual past, present and future impact upon the world.  

There is no place where the authentic is more significant than in the apostolic testimony to Jesus Christ and His resurrection.  The early apostles boldly declared that Jesus rose from the dead in His actual body.  There was nothing fake or fabricated about it.  His death was indescribably horrific and His resurrection was indescribably glorious.  It was real.  It was genuine.  It was a bodily resurrection.  It was an honest to goodness miracle of life from the dead.  Not mere superstition.  Jesus did not merely rise "spiritually".  His bodily resurrection was confirmed to the apostles "with many infallible proofs."  The Apostle John goes to great lengths to describe the reality of a living Jesus- "That which was from the beginning which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled concerning the word of life- the life was manifested and we have seen, and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us- that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ." 

The apostle John is setting parameters as to what they were talking about when they were establishing the foundations of the faith.  The faith could not be reduced to a mere creed.  At the foundation of everything was a living, breathing person named Jesus who was raised from the dead, declared to be the son of God, sitting at the right hand of power, the judge of all mankind, the head of the Church,  the source of its life and the basis of its cohesion in fellowship.  If Christ be not raised, Paul cries, then you are still in your sins... and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised Christ up, whom He did not raise up if in fact the dead do not rise.   Notice how essential the reality of the resurrection was to Paul.  If Christ was not really raised then he says that he and the other apostles are "false witnesses of God."  That is no small accusation.   But it highlights how seriously the early church understood the apostolic testimony to Christ's resurrection.  Paul continues to list the horrible ramifications of a fabricated message of resurrection.  But then he concludes, But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.  1 Corinthians 15:15-20.

Here we see how intensely the early apostles contended for the message of the reality of Christ in his life, death and resurrection.  And it also reveals that mankind's future is contingent on the facts of Christ life actually having happened in real time.  It was not a mere myth.  It was not a fabricated tale of courage.  But it was an actual event that forever altered the very substance and the destiny of the entire cosmos.

And so when we talk about Apostolic Christianity we are not talking about mere myths.   We are rather insisting on the fact that God has broken into history, fundamentally altered its existence and has set it on a new course.  We are talking about a living God who has changed and continues to change real people and alter their lives through His grace and power.  Apostolic Christianity changes people at the core of their being because of the center of this faith is a resurrected man named Jesus who will never die.

The world is on a collision course with the God who still claims ownership of His creation.  He has already made provision for its complete restoration through His son who has been raised from the dead and is but the first fruits of many to follow.  Apostolic Christianity is a faith that produces genuine fruit in the life of its adherents   If it isn't real, it isn't apostolic. Apostolic Christianity is a force in the earth and when it manifests the world will not be able to ignore the sound of it.  Get ready for the real deal!

 more later.