The Language of Slaves, Part 3

Again when confronted with the outrage of the offended Jesus declares, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick" (Matthew 9:12). Indeed He is the Great Physician. Isaiah's Messianic prophesy foresaw his healing nature by saying that it is by his wounds that we are healed and that he took up our infirmities.
Fantasy is when we allow our imagination to dwell outside of God's vision, on those things that aren't as though they were. Philippians 4:8 tells us to think upon whatever is true, whatever is noble, and whatever is pure. Undoubtedly fantasy replaces the sovereignty of God with the self determination of man. Jeremiah 17:9 states that mans' heart is deceitful above all things, meaning that its chief operating principle is distortion of the truth. Fantasy is the distortion of truth, the fraudulent cousin of faith.
Faith may seem similar to fantasy, but in the framework of Scripture we see that faith is the substance of things hoped for, but not seen. It is the hope of obtaining the promise(s) of God given to man. In this faith differentiates itself by originating from God and not from the darkened heart of man.
What do faith and obedience combine to produce? Their fruit is purity. Purity is the predecessor of power and power can only be obtained when we spend time in His presence.
How do we stay in His presence? Primarily, we must realize that every sin takes our hearts farther from the static fixture of Omnipotent God. Sin is rebellion against the LORD and why would the LORD dwell where He is not welcome? Rebellion is the opposite of obedience and so with obedience we are inviting God to work through us.
The whole earth is full of His glory, but the world has bought into a different system. Like Daniel we must tell the world we will not bow down and will not consume the same diet they do. The Bible says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end leads to death.” There is a world system, a way that the world does things that makes sense to them. And we know that to those who are perishing, the cross is foolishness. So God again proves that the (perceived) foolishness of God confounds the wise.
Benjamin Franklin said that two things are certain; death and taxes. To the natural man this is all that can be expected. But again the Bible supercedes earthly wisdom by declaring that the wages of sin is death. That means that if you are working and living, enveloped in the world system that worships mammon you are working to obtain death. You cannot serve both God and mammon. The alternative to this is to receive the gift of God that is eternal life. This will mystify man forever.
Our heroes are typified by toil and hardship overcome. They are usually resistant to the current or decree of culture. The same is true in the Bible. Daniel was thrown into a lion’s den, Meshach, Shadrach, and Abendigo were thrown into a furnace, and David overcame tremendous odds by slaying a giant.
How do we become heroes? We must follow the pattern. In each case, the world system pitted itself against God. Daniel and the three Hebrews refused to bow to an idol and David would not allow fear to overtake his faith in God. They recognized the temporal plane of existence is much less important than obeying God. Our obedience can cause pain to the natural man, but it is only for a short time. However, our disobedience can cause our natural life to be much easier, but it will end in disrepair.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a leader in the German Lutheran church. He watched as the Nazi’s demonic sway overtook his homeland. For awhile he left the country to minister to expatriates in London, but ended up back in Germany. Why? Because he realized that someone needed to stand up for righteousness. The rest of his life was devoted to restoring the sight of the church in Germany.
During the course of the war he went from being a pacifist to taking part in plots to assassinate Hitler. He realized that the only way to stop evil is by dealing with it. We cannot stand by and make excuses about why we are a certain way, we must not allow sin to reign in our mortal bodies.
Bonhoffer was later executed as a political prisoner just days before his camp was liberated by the Allies. His magnus opus is called The Cost of Discipleship. Appropriately, he counted the cost of following Jesus and that cost was his life. Like Boenhoffer we must take hold of the words Paul spoke.
“To live is Christ,
but to die is gain.”
In Him we live and move and have our being. If we abide in Christ, He will abide in us. How can a young man keep his way pure? By reading the Bible. Our Christian witness can be built on II Timothy 2:15. Study to show yourself approved, a workman that needs not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
From this we know that there is power in purity. Before a major move of God in the assembly of Israel they were commanded to purify themselves. However, it is not enough to be pure beforehand. In the story of AI the Israelites were commanded to not take any of the plunder, but one man took some items for himself.