Our Funeral

Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, 

and there remembered that thy brother hath 

ought against thee; leave there thy gift 

before the altar, and go thy way; first be 

reconciled to thy brother, and then come 

and offer thy gift.

Matthew 5:23-24 

     In previous blogs I wrote about the need to Authentic Christians and that by following and applying in our lives the principles of God. The contrast between Authentic Christians and cultural or liberal Christians is sometimes blurred due to similarities. Part of our nature is desire and that is not wrong, or sinful, only when desire is leading you into that which is contrary to the will of God. Authentic Christians are not called or intended to extinguish our personal dreams, rather the principles that guide our desires should bring those desires under control. How is this done? By being submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives. When our desires are leading us to pursue the admiration of other people our lives will pursue things that are not of God. If we put earthly wealth as our goal, and it is not wrong to gather money, to be successful in finances, but if that desire, that perspective on wealth is not submitted to God then we are outside of the will of God as how we are to have a true perspective of wealth, how we are to use that wealth. Many of us, myself as well, have not always used that principle that our need for financial security with the right perspective. What we have forgotten, until it is too late, that the wealth of this world will fade away, it will say, "bye, bye." God gives us true wealth that will never fade away, or say, 'bye, bye. 

     God has given to all those whom He has elected to have eternal life wealth that is unaccountable, there is no way to measure such wealth as it is eternal, and we have done nothing, other than to repent of our sins against a Holy God, believed upon the One Whom He has sent, Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and that gift received by the repentant can never be lost: God does not take that away! We do have a responsibility, and that responsibility is: "And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lust" (Galatians 5:24). This is then important: the natural life is not sinful! What must occurred in us is to be apostatize from sin, to have nothing to do with it in any shape or form. You are, as are all Authentic Christians, a child of God, an adopted child and you, and I, belong to heaven and to God. This then means, we are not a child of this world, therefore the lusts, the desires the principles of this world are not to be the principles of an Authentic Christian. The question is not our giving up sin, but to give up your right to yourself. You are not your own, you have been bought: "Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his won body. What: know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit which are God's" (1Corinthians 6:18-20). I would venture to say that most all men and women know right from wrong, they know what is evil and what is not evil. Most would not debate over that fact, but we do have a problem: we debate with the good. When we debate with the good we seek the best and as we seek the best, as we go higher up the scale in natural virtues, the more intense is our opposition to Jesus Christ. We lose the fact that our life is not ours to do as we desire, rather it is now the property of God, therefore we must do the will of God and not our own will. 

    There must be a funeral in our lives, no, not the funeral of our physical death, rather the funeral of the right to ourselves. Here is a warning: Beware to refuse this funeral, the funeral of your own independence. The natural life is not spiritual, and it can only be spiritual by our sacrifice to ourselves, to leave behind the things of the past and to press forward in the will of God. Until we do this sacrifice, to perform this funeral God cannot use us He desires to use us, yes, we can perform acts of righteousness but those acts are that we receive in some form or the other praise for ourselves. The road for Authentic Christians is narrow and few will follow it, and the cultural Christian, those liberal Christians when deciding to which road to follow, the narrow or wide road will pick the wide road, it is easier. 

     The choice is in your hands! God is the Supernatural One, not some other form of supernatualism that is taught by Schools of the Supernatural, a school that has become prominent in Redding, CA, and leads people to follow some sort of religiousity. Only God is Supernatuaral and only God can use us as the means to spread the Gospel, but we must choose, God, or some euphoric worship that makes us feel good, some work that makes us feel godly. God desires to use us, get off your knees as this is not a question of praying, and praying a major part of this sacrifice of ourselves, and now perform, do the things of God and not of self, not of man. The bottom line: Obedience!

Every one that is proud in heart

     is an abomination to the LORD:

though hand join in hand, he shall

     not go unpunished.

                      Proverbs 16:5

You lose nothing by obedience

Richard L. Crumb