Suddenly, the afternoon sky turned ominous, and the rain came down in buckets.  The golfers rushed to a gazebo next to a chain link fence.  As the storm grew in intensity, a bolt of lightening hit the fence and lit it up like a neon sign.  Finally, when the "shock" subsided, one turned to the others and said, "You know that five I had on the first hole?  It was really a seven."  For so many today, this is about what it would take to get to the truth.  Our secular humanistic society, from the top on down, doesn't even have any regard for truth anymore—everything is relative.

     This is true in much of the professing church, as well.  A minister once asked an actor, "I just can’t understand it.  I expound divine truths, but with so little effect, while you so easily arouse the deepest emotions in your audience by the presentation of fiction and imagination."  "It's because, replied the actor, "I recite falsehood as if it were truth, while you deliver truths as if they were fiction." Take, for example, the seasons of the church year—truth or fiction?  We at Christ Our Rock Bible Church have chosen to use Lent and Easter to glorify the Lord alone by proclaiming His truth.  And yet, even with regard to these seasons, the truth has been twisted.  So many think that as long as they give up some food for Lent, that they are being spiritual.  Some were thrilled to get a special dispensation recently so that they could eat corned beef on St. Patrick's Day, which was a Friday.  Some march around sadly on Good Friday with a cross on their backs and get mad when others in the group praise God for what He has done.  And what are people thinking when they suppose that the immorality and evil of the Mardi Gras and Fat Tuesday are a good way to bring in the Lenten season?  Do people actually think that God is pleased when they work to get all their sinning in before Lent starts?  Are they somehow now more spiritual?  Of course not—it is a twisted and perverted understanding of what really should be happening.  The truth is that the Lord wants people to use this time of Lent, and all time, for that matter, to recognize whom they really are—sinners before a holy God, desperately in need of the cross and the empty tomb.

     You see, what has happened is that a new cross has been welcomed into the church, and it is diametrically opposed to the one in Biblical Christianity.  The old cross is a symbol of death, but the new one does not slay the sinner—it merely redirects him.  It leads him into a cleaner, happier way of life, and, at the same time, saves his self-respect.  A.W. Tozer put it this way: "The cross in many churches today is nothing but a new bright ornament upon the bosom of a self-assured and carnal Christianity.  The old cross slew men; the new cross entertains them with plays and pageants.  The old cross condemned sin; the new cross amuses.  The old cross destroyed confidence in the flesh; the new cross encourages it."  The problem comes in that, in our day, many insist on Jesus doing all of the dying, and all they want to hear is just another sermon about His death.  If this isn’t a twisted perversion of what is supposed to be, then why did Jesus say, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.  For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Matt. 16:24-26)  Paul said clearly that he died daily.  For many, the cross is a decoration, and its truth is all but lost.

     This is illustrated in the story of a young man who came to see an elderly Christian man—one who taught the deeper life, the crucified life—a life far deeper than spurious conversions at the saying of a "sinner's prayer."  "Sir," he asked, "what does it mean to be crucified?"  "Well, the old man answered, "to be crucified means three things.  First, the man who is crucified is facing in only one direction."  How true!  If he hears anything going on behind him, he can't turn around and look in that direction—he has stopped looking back.  The man on a true cross is looking in God's way—the way of Biblical revelation and walking with the fullness of the Holy Spirit.  The old man scratched his vanishing gray hair and said, "Another thing, son—the man on the cross is not going back."  You see, when you die to sin and self, you are turning your back on the old life—you can go in no other direction.  If the Church would preach more of this and quit trying to make the Christian life so easy and palatable, we would be seeing far more conversions that not only last, but also bear good ripe fruit.  When you really join Christ, you are saying that you are finished—dead and gone.  Paul said, "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." (Gal. 2:20a) The old man went on, "Another thing about the man on the cross, son; he has no further plans of his own."  What a beautiful thing it is to have Christ make your plans!.

     While the cross is indeed an instrument of death, the end result is also part of His plan—life, glorious life.  After three days and nights in a cold, dark tomb, the end result was Easter Sunday.  Oh, I know there has been much twisting of this, too—bunnies, chocolate eggs, and that infernal "easter grass."  The "church" has even secularized it with their Easter Egg Hunts and Easter Parades down the aisles of the church, showing off all the new Easter fineries.  Yes, it has been twisted, just like Lent, but what is the truth?  Some churches have chosen to throw out Lent and Easter because they are fed up with the perversions.  I believe they are making a tragic error. The need is greater than ever for the truth of the cross and the empty tomb to be proclaimed in order to combat the perversions, but be very careful that the battle is fought God's way.  For example, some have discarded the word "Easter," claiming it refers to the pagan spring goddess, "Eostre."  Don't be so hasty!  There are others who believe it is derived from an old German term meaning, "sunrise."  Could be, for that is when the glorious resurrection was discovered.  I, however, choose not to get all caught up in such side issues.  The fact remains—the word "Easter" is used in the Scriptures, which were inspired by the Holy Spirit.  It says in Acts 12:4, referring to the religious leader's arrest of Peter, that they were, "intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people."  The Greek word used for "Easter" in the KJV is "pascha," a transliteration of the Hebrew, "pesach," meaning to pass over or to spare.  It specifically refers to the Jewish Passover, when the blood of the lambs was applied to the homes of God's people and the angel of death "passed over."  The Scripture uses the word "Easter" to link this picture of the Lamb of God's death with His glorious Sunday morn resurrection.  Is it not to God's glory to correct the false under- standings, especially at the very same time the world and the false churches are creating them?

     One Easter Sunday morning, the whole Romanian town gathered and were gloriously praising the Lord.  "Jesus Christ is risen," was shouted out by one, and thousands answered back with joy, "He is risen indeed."  Suddenly, Communist troops invaded and the sub-machine guns were in plain view.  The lieutenant made it clear that if anyone said one word lifting up the name of Jesus, he or she would be shot on the spot.  After 45 minutes of ridiculing the Lord, he challenged anyone to say something.  The silence was deafening.  A young boy climbed the stage and the soldiers aimed their weapons.  He took the microphone in hand and shouted, "Jesus Christ is risen."  As the shots rang out that felled his body to the floor, the church screamed in united faith, "He is risen indeed!"  This is the truth of Easter!   If you are truly born-again, you will be targeted by the ungodly of the world, as well as the dead professing "church."  The Scripture says, "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." (2 Tim. 3:12)  You aren't?  Hmmm!  He died for you on that ominous dark afternoon, are you willing to "die" for Him today and everyday from here on out?  Only then will you have a truly Blessed Easter!!!

 

 

 

 

Throughout the year 2000, we will be providing you with Bible readings from Genesis to Revelation to help you stand on His redeeming truth.

April 1             1 Chron. 27-2 Chron. 1           16                    Nehemiah 12-Esther 2

2                      2 Chron. 2-5                            17                    Esther 3-6

3                      2 Chron. 6-9                            18                    Esther 7-10

4                      2 Chron. 10-13                        19                    Job 1-4

5                      2 Chron. 14-17                        20                    Job 5-8

6                      2 Chron. 18-21                        21                    Job 9-12

7                      2 Chron. 22-25                        22                    Job 13-16

8                      2 Chron. 26-29                        23                    Job 17-20

9                      2 Chron. 30-33                        24                    Job 21-24

10                    2 Chron. 34-Ezra 1                 25                    Job 25-28

11                    Ezra 2-5                                  26                    Job 29-32

12                    Ezra 6-9                                  27                    Job 33-36

13                    Ezra 10-Nehemiah 3              28                    Job 37-40

14                    Nehemiah 4-7                                                29                    Job 41-Psalm 2

15                    Nehemiah 8-11                      30                    Psalm 3-8

                                                                       

 

May 1             Psalm 9-15                             3                      Psalm 22-26

2                      Psalm 16-21                           4                      Psalm 26-32