Eternal Intercession: Requires Faith

Behold what manner of love the Father

has bestowed on us, that we should be

called the children of God! Therefore the

world does not know us, because it did

not know Him. Beloved, now we are

children of “God; and it has not yet

been revealed what we shall be,

but we shall be like Him, for we

shall see Him as He is. And everyone

who has this hope in Him purifies himself,

just as He is pure.

1John 3:1–3

            Jesus Christ assumed flesh from the virgin Mary to free us from sin, to free the world from sin. It was sin that Satan thrust upon the world by making cause for both Eve and Adam to sin against their creator. God’s justice demands to be satisfied for He is Holy: Just. By Jesus assuming this fleshly body through the virgin Mary and eventually dying on the cross, and rising again in the new life. Immortal as according to His flesh, and rising by means of Himself for He is God, “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” (John 2:19), then ascending bodily into heaven to present to the Father the payment that God, the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit demanded. As Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God by means of His resurrection and ascension into heaven there too is where all of God’s children will be: “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God” (Colossians 3:1). All of God’s elected children are legally, now, in the present time, sitting at the right hand of God. That is, this right hand of God, which is to have the favor of God as this, is what it means to be on the right hand. Don’t we shake hands with our right hands? Yes! It is a sign of friendship, and favor towards that other person. Jesus Christ came, the Wisdom of God clothed in flesh to pay the debt and then to extend that payment to the sins of God’s chosen. Jesus fought and won the battle! It is done! Yet, we will not experience the fullness of this act by Jesus Christ because it has not been revealed,” yet all perversity and heresy has been accounted for, and sentence has been pronounced: death! The invisible Word became visible and became fully man and by this He met the payment, and was fully God, and by this He assured us that God was paying this debt and when completed: it was paid, final, not to be repeated. John the Apostle from the beginning of his book reveals to us this fact (John 1:1). Jesus is eternal, the Eternal One, not as Arius, Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, and Apostolic Churches believe and teach that He was only a created being. Furthermore, the Mormons would have this bodily presentation by Jesus of His body killed for man, to God the Father to be two gods, and that God has a body. This is not what Scripture teaches. Yes, this bodily death was presented to the Father and this body is not the old body it once was for now it is immortal, it is different, it is God presenting to Himself that work He did and accepts this work by means of its new life as the eternal propitiation for sin. It is not some fleshly body. We as Christians await such a body as God as prepared for us when He comes again to take back with Him His children, the bride of Christ. This is a mystery inasmuch as we cannot fully understand God and all His purposes for if He has not revealed to us His purpose(s). We await until He does reveal that which He reveals according to His purpose: “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29:31). Jesus Christ the Wisdom of God, forever God’s Wisdom and forever Man, the Word, the Word of God. It is by His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, that God reveals to us Himself and what He as done: SAVED US! The Wisdom of god is truly inexpressible understanding, unalterable truth, the eternal reason: “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8). It is right that the Wisdom of God be called the Word for He is the word of God, the rationality of God Who gave to us our rationality. We have the ability to form words, to speak from our minds. Does not the One who gave us this ability have this ability as well? Yes! We are to mature in Christ as we apply His Law in our lives, to become pure “Just as He is pure.” The Word of God is not framed by our words, is not shaped by our thoughts, for He is substantial in His own case. He is not of the air, lost in the ether, for He is God and He was the Creator, The Savior, and Intercessor for all of God’s children.

            These facts should drive us to strive in every way to be pure, pure in thought, pure in action. God is taking us into His purposes, therefore we should be in communication with Him. We are shaped by the Divinity and He shapes our ends therefore as a Christian it is not my purpose, for is so, our life in Him is destroyed, the simplicity which ought to characterize our lives. God is after us! We are to heed His call! That call is for us to live according to His law. Jesus Christ came to fulfill all that the law led too. Will you allow yourself to be led by the law of God?

I will stand my watch

            And set myself

On the rampart, and watch

            To see what He will

Say to me, and what I will

            Answer when I am

Corrected.

                        Habakkuk 2:1

God is Merciful: Live in that mercy

Richard L. Crumb

Living Our Testimony

He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly,

he who despises the gain of oppressions,

who gesture with his hands refusing bribes,

who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed,

and shuts his eyes from seeing evil;

he will dwell on high; his place of defense

will be the fortress of rocks; bread will be

given him, his water will be sure.

Isaiah 33:15–16

            God delights in the purity of the heart. By means of purity of the heart, one may then see the vision of God. How can one obtain purity of heart? God speaks to us from the Psalms: “Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things and revive me in Your ways” (Psalm 119:37). Keeping oneself free from this world and all its desires that would turn a person away from God, disabling his worship, and destroy his witness requires that we stay in communion with God. In this world, and even in much preaching in churches it is all about “feelings.” I attended a men’s Bible study where one evening one of the questions to be answered was: “how do you feel about this?” Not what does God’s word instructs us on this subject on this question? Many authors today in their books on Christianity deal more with a person’s feelings than being strong on what God has actually stated. God is not going to judge us by our feelings. God is going to judge us in regards to our living. Is it a life in communion with Him. What have you seen? God will judge us by what we have seen; entirely. Did not Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount give us instruction as to what we have seen and how we processed that sight? Yes! “But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). Did you notice? It is not looking at a woman that is the problem. It is looking lustfully at a woman, women, this is for you too if you look lustfully at a man. God is not going to judge by the fact that we live up to light of our conscience; we are judged by the Light: Jesus Christ: “That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world” (John 1:9). We speak of Jesus Christ. We say that we are Christian. Yet our lives are so often far from the truth of those statements. We really do not know Him. We know what some good sounding phrases and books, and some sermons teach, but we do not know Him. Why? Because we are not in communion with Him for we have not bothered ourselves about Him. Our prayers are more about receiving than just being in communion with Him. We do not take the time to read His world. OH! We do take time to go to such things that delight us: i.e., MMA bouts, the casino, boating on Sabbath days as though we have some right to enjoy life in this manner. Let me ask: I ask this of myself: Does it really matter whether Jesus Christ lived and died, or even did anything at all? Great stories! Right? Wonderful things, we are told, that Jesus did: i.e., healing, turning a few fishes and loaves of bread and feeding thousands with them. Here is a truth: Without there be a reality; there cannot be a fraud. Is Jesus Christ a fraud? Do you treat Him as though He is a fraud? Are those narratives in the Bible just that: stories albeit good sounding stories with good feelings that touch our hearts? We are going to be judged by Him (Read Revelation chapter 20). The Light has come into the world: “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him”(John 1:10). This is condemnation that this Light has come into the world and the world not know Him. To know Him is not to know just something about Him it is to know Him, to have a personal relationship with Him. How can we have this relationship with Him Who we cannot see? Prayer, reading, and studying, the Bible: How else? It is at times good to read the works of men who have written that which is of Scripture but are those words just stories or are they actually teaching on Scripture and not on this world’s idea of how we should live? God will not judge us by the light we have; no, He will judge us by the light we have refused to accept. God will hold us responsible for what we do not look at: what are you looking at? What holds priority in your life? Ask yourself this question: “What can I do to allow the Holy Spirit room to work in my subconscious?”

            When we are on the path to purity, we attain true wisdom. We see clearly as does the eagle who sees things afar, and dwell in the rocks, in fact we dwell in the Rock, our Rock of salvation, Jesus Christ, and we spy out the world and see it for what it is: evil and desiring to destroy God and His children. Are you looking for truth? Are you seeking out this pearl of great value: “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it” (Matthew 13:45–46. This Pearl of Great Price is no other than God, the true love of souls and John so clearly brings this fact out for us that if we believe on the One whom He sent, Jesus Christ. Then He, God, gives the right to become children of God: “but as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12).

            Oh! Delight in the purity of heart, be as the eagle as spy out that which is wrong by reading of God’s world and allowing the Holy Spirit to activate you so that you live as what you say you are: a Christian. You will be amazed at the sharpness of your mind and the splendor of our everlasting God and Savior, you will not have to seek out some vision of God, you will have the vision of God Himself.

Be strong, and of good courage,

            Do not fear not be afraid

Of them; for the LORD your God,

            He is the One who goes

With you. He will not leave you

            Nor forsake you.

                                    Deuteronomy 31:6

Love God by your obedience

Richard L. Crumb

Prayer: What Is It? God's Point Of View On Prayer

When He came to the place, He said to them,

“Pray that you may not enter into temptation.”

and He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s

throw, and He knelt down and prayed,

saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this

cup away from me; nevertheless not My will,

but Yours, be done,”

Luke 22:40–42

            A familiar scene and narrative, is it not? What a pearl! Jesus, God Himself as a man, the God/Man praying to His Father. How is it that Jesus would pray to the Father? Was He not God? Yes! And, He was fully man! Jesus was about to enter into that which He came to do: die! Not some simple death lying on a bed and not dying from some disease, nor a taking of His own life, rather to die a death that was reserved for the most vilest of criminals: crucifixion. As a man Jesus would feel all the pain, the agony that comes with being nailed to a piece of wood and then dropped into a hole with jarring of those hands and feet that had nails driven through them. There was not some feeling to eliminate the pain of those being crucified by the soldiers they then in some way slammed into a hole creating agony, no, the soldiers had a job to do and this they have done before; there was no remorse. Was this terrible: “And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44).Yes! Jesus was innocent of any crime, and was sentenced to this death by a governor who would not stand for truth and relinquished this man to death so that he would pacify the demands of those Hebrews that wanted Him dead so that he would not once again have trouble with the Caesar. Let us for the moment look away from this scene and remember what Jesus told the disciples to do: pray. Not just some pray, rather: “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.”(Luke 22:40b). John the apostle was present along with all the other ten (Judas had departed to sell the life of Jesus for thirty pieces of silver to the Pharisees who wanted Him dead) and as we study the book of John we must do the one thing that Jesus commanded His disciples: pray. All the filth, the carnal affection cleansed from our eyes, disposed of so that this one pearl, Jesus Christ will be formed in us so that we become the image of Him.

            Oh! How many books are written on this subject of prayer: some good; some not so good: and some horrible. Many tactics have been forward to get people to pray. Some pray because the fear retribution from God. Others, that which is more common today are that of the promises of God, great promises that they expect to receive if they just pray. Some pray, because there is a movement among many churches, their leaders and teachers call prayer “vital” as it is a blueprint for success. Some pray because they it is the prescription for “healing,” as this is what they are taught.  All these phrases or teachings try to motivate this and us to pray by appealing to our desire for the “good life.” Yet, this is not leading us to what prayer is for Christians and that which is leading Christians to the spiritual life. Oh! These tactics seem to work, and they have created a barrage of books, and writings, even sermons, but they have not created any improvement to the quality or the amount of praying we do. Have you read any of those books? They tell us what prayer is and what we can expect from prayer. They even tell us why we should pray, how we should pray, when we should pray, and where we should pray. I wrote in earlier blogs about idols, those things we venerate so that they are part, and parcel of our worship and this is true of us when we lack motivation to pray. We buy prayer rugs, prayer beads, or prayer calendars, we rub and caress crosses that hang around our necks, and as some teach, we empty our minds in some Buddha form of meditation, anything that will motivate us to pray an attempt to make prayer easier.

            All these things are available for us so that prayer is understood, and practiced, but is it? Yes! Prayer is to be practiced, a discipline of the Christian life. So why is it not so? Prayer is work! Those authors of prayer so often will not teach or write this fact: prayer is work. They instead use sentimental statements that reach our emotions, our hearts, even soft bribery by promoting blessings and promises, anything to get us to pray. Let us get this one thing straight: God does not make promise that He does not fulfill. Prayer is work; it is an act of the will, an act of obedience. It requires of us: boldness, childlikeness, communication, concentration, discipline, faith, honesty, intimacy, obedience, patience, power, purpose, silence, simplicity, wonder, worship.

            When was the last time you tried to see an issue from God’s perspective rather than ask Him to see it from yours? Let us come boldly: “Let us therefore, come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). Prayer teaches us the wonderful power that we have because we can talk to God, the Creator, and our Savior directly just as Jesus did that night on the mountain. And this we can do because of the atonement given to all of God’s children by the obedience of Jesus Christ the man who died for His bride. It is not our obedience or that our need is so great, or that we long for something that God hears us. No! God hears us because of Jesus Christ, His blood shed for your sins, for sin in total.

            As I write through the book of John I will continue to impress prayer for you and me, a work, an obedience just as that which Jesus Christ told His disciple to do: “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” Finally: “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance fo faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:19–22).

For yet a little while,

            And He who

Is coming will come

            And will not

Tarry. Now the just

            Shall live by

Faith; but if anyone

            Draws back,

My soul has no pleasure

            In him.

                        Hebrews 10:37–38

Take time to pray today

Richard L. Crumb