Religious Mirage

Mirage: something illusory, without substance or reality.

"But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Galatians 6:14).

Crucified To The Religious World

It is interesting to notice the particular way in which the Apostle speaks of the world here. That term is a very comprehensive term and includes a very great deal. Here Paul gets right down to the spirit of the thing. You notice the context; it is well for us to take account of it:

"For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh" (Galatians 6:13).

What does the Apostle mean? They want to say, "See how many proselytes we are making! See how many followers and disciples we are getting! See how successful our movement is! See what a power we are becoming in the world! See all the marks of Divine blessing resting upon us!" The Apostle says that is worldliness in principle and spirit; that is the world. He sets over against this his own clear spiritual position. Do I seek glory of men? Do I seek to be well-pleasing to men? No! The world is crucified to me, and I to the world.

All that sort of thing does not weigh with me. What weighs with me is not whether my movement is successful, whether I am getting a lot of followers, whether there are all the manifestations outwardly of success; what weighs with me is the measure of Christ in those with whom I have to do: "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you" (Galatians 4:19). Christ formed in you — that is my concern, he says that is what weighs with me... not extensiveness, not bigness, not popularity, not keeping in with the world, so that it is said that this is a successful ministry and a successful movement. That is worldliness. I am dead to all that; I am crucified with Christ to all that. The thing that matters is Christ — the measure of Christ in you.

You see how the world can creep in... and how worldly we can become almost imperceptibly by taking account of things outwardly — of how men will think and talk, what they will say, the attitude they will take; of the measure of our popularity, the talk of our success. That is all the world, says the Apostle, the spirit of the world; that is how the world talks. Those are the values in the eyes of the world, but not in the eyes of the risen Christ. In the new creation, on the resurrection side of the Cross, one thing alone determines value... and that is the measure of Christ in everything. Nothing else is of value at all, however big the thing may be, however popular it may be, however men talk favorably of it; on the resurrection side that does not count a little bit. What counts is how much of Christ there is.

You and I in the Cross of the Lord Jesus must come to the place where we are crucified to all those other elements. Ah, you may be unpopular, and the work be very small; there may be no applause, and the world may despise; but in it all there may be something which is of Christ, and that is the thing upon which our hearts must be set. The Lord gives us grace for that crucifixion. There are few things more difficult to bear than being despised; but He was despised and rejected of men. What a thing is in God’s sight must be our standard. That is a resurrection standard. Now that is the victory of the Cross: "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world".

The above article was written by T. Austin-Sparks

Itching Ears

In many different places within the scriptures it speaks of Jesus speaking with authority, and that was witnessed by those very familiar with promised words void and empty of any true substance or authority.

So many crave a gospel that comfortably fits in well with their life style, just take a look around, that ‘met’ need is being offered on every street corner.
I love what Wayne Jacobsen says here from The Naked Church; “In a word, kingship leads to exploitation, even if those involved don’t intend to do so. It stifles the growth of hungry believers and it alienates the world from hearing the gospel.
Nothing has turned off this generation more than people who use Christianity to play political power games for the exaltation of their own ego and charge the poor for it.”

We who have believed that the role/office of the prophet was in tact have refused to let them face us with our own nakedness. “Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!” (Isaiah 30:10-11).

Doesn’t this ring a familiar bell in Paul’s warning to the church; “For the time is coming when [people] will not tolerate (endure) sound and wholesome instruction, but, having ears itching [for something pleasing and gratifying], they will gather to themselves one teacher after another to a considerable number, chosen to satisfy their own liking and to foster the errors they hold, And will turn aside from hearing the truth and wander off into myths and man-made fictions.”

“Humanity has never regarded truth itself that valuable-only an illusion of truth that leads to personal ease.”

As we the church are coming awake to His life in us, and learning that we can indeed live out of/from, every word that comes from the Father’s mouth, He is establishing in the earth words/lives of authority that are being heard through the voices of those once gagged and muted by the cheap tricks of the father of lies.

In sharing with my brother Dave this morning, I jumped for joy in hearing how Father met him and set him free. He was reading an email from a friend he has stayed in touch with over the years. The email was heavily laced in such oppressing and fear filled words. Dave said at first he was simply going to delete the email, but decided to respond. In speaking the truth to his friend, suddenly the Truth, Christ in Dave was unexpectedly speaking to him, and in hearing these words of authority, the lies that had been binding in his own life lost their death grip on him.
In following Him, we experience the truth, and the Truth makes/sets us FREE.

It’s not a seminar, it’s a revelation!

Rich