Words of Truth

What if you were deprived for many years of the possession of your Bible?  What if you were living in a land where all ownership of bibles were outlawed?  What if you were not allowed to mention the name of “Jesus” as your Lord and Savior publicly?  Your love for Jesus will either come to the surface, or you will realize that your attachment to Christ is only superficial.  Throughout the history of the Church, various hardships and persecutions have plagued God's people, even today many of our brothers and sisters around the world are facing the hardship of loneliness, isolation, harsh treatment, and death.

Unless you have tapped deeply into the person of Jesus Christ and have tasted the depths of His love, you will have a hard time surviving the persecution that is sure to come for God's people.  Only a very real intensely devoted love to the person of Christ will carry you and me through seasons of intense scrutiny sure to come.   Anything less then a fully devoted heart to Christ will fall short of pleasing our Father.  

Once ensnared by the enticements of the enemy, the Lord God will allow you and many others to captured by a strong delusion, just as a fish is ensnared by a net, this net and strong delusion is being sent to capture into a place of judgment reserved for all those who don't love the truth as Christ has set that truth forth in His Person and in His Word.  Should you perilously fall into this end-time delusion, you could be lost forever.  2 Thess.2:10-12, “and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.  And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

If you are just barely holding on to Christ, then grab harder.  As I share this word of warning today, I hope my weak effort to write these words will encourage  you to seek Him with all your heart.  To know His Love is to live!  To know that you are loved enough by Your heavenly Father that He allows you to slip and fall to the point where you find yourself alone and deprived of the joys of a physically comfortable life, is an amazing truth that most don't learn until the later stages of christian pilgrimage.  

When we are brought to these very tough low points in our walk before Him, the Lord, through the ministry of His Spirit, guides us to the only place where help can and will be found.  It is only at the throne of Jesus that we will be comforted, as we by faith, gaze upon His incredible worthiness and  glory.  When you and I have Jesus, we have all we need.  Then no matter what happens to us, we will not loving Him.  

All of us must take a long drink at this heavenly “well” that we must tap continuously in order for us to all make it through this hard journey.  I beseech you, drink deeply at the well of His glorious beauty.  As we continuously drink the invigorating life that springs from His awesome glory, we are filled up with His virtue and His grace flows freely in our lives.  Only at this point are we adequately equipped to meet head-on the struggles of standing against the lies of the enemy. 

By allowing our hearts to fall deeper and deeper in love with Jesus, as we make His Word our constant meditation, our hour of trial will be met with the fire of His love burning in your heart, our adversaries will not be able to resist this mighty work of grace.  You may even turn a few unbelieving tormentors to the Lord by our simple “living” and “loving” faith in Jesus!  

The purpose of this article will hopefully spur you on to prepare your heart for such times as this.  I have no doubt that many of us will face intense scrutiny from an antichrist system that is soon to step up its effort to destroy truth from the earth.  This system will come after all those who do not bow at the sound of their trumpet cries.   

We will be summoned by the King of kings, the One who sits majestically at the right hand of the Father, to speak openly of His Kingdom.  By not bowing to the Babylonian gods, we show our neighbors and leaders that there is only one King and Supreme that rules the universe.    By not bowing to the kings of men, we inspire hatred that comes from a heart of evil unbelief.  Many will reject our words and example, but we must be ready to stand strong as the Lord pours His grace into our hearts to do the impossible.  He grants us the power to face our accusers, just as He faithfully stood before Sanhedrin with a sure confidence in His Father's protection and love.

If I have identified you as a lover of Jesus, then what will you do in this time of uncertainty?  I offer to you today a simple word of preparation, “strengthen your sight of the beauty of Your King – Jesus.”  By gazing at the beautiful features of His countenance and studying the perfection of His ways.  And by your constant meditation on His Word.   You and I will gain a deep understanding of His Person so much so that you will be continually filled with His glory and His power.  

I believe that your fixed gaze upon Him will allow you, in the difficult days to come you, to do the exploits spoken of by the prophet Daniel found in his prophesy in Dan. 11:32b, “but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.” Today I seek to encourage and inspire all of you who have been called by His Name.  That you and I be encouraged to press on and finish the course that has been set before us.

In Psalm 45, our Lord is set before us as a warrior King who rides with perfect precision on a horse of magnificent power and triumph.  A beautiful phrase right out of this psalm is, “And in Your majesty ride prosperously.”  There is no rider like the Lord Jesus.  His white and very powerful horse responds perfectly to His words and the leaning of His glorified urgings.

Let us meditate together on some of beautiful portions of this psalm to gain a better sight of our warrior King.  The psalm starts with these words, “My heart is overflowing with a good theme; I recite my composition concerning the King; my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.” David's heart, his hands, and his tongue were overwhelmed by the beauty of Jesus as His Lord and his King.  How about you today my ministry friend?

The Psalm continues its composition with these words, “You are fairer that the sons of men; grace is poured upon Your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever!”  What did David see that we must see?  Don't you envy the view that David received of the Lord Jesus?  We see a King who is beautiful and who loves his truth so much that we lavishes it on to His people.  He is close to us, not far away!  Because He draws near the Father of us all has blessed Him forever!

If you are a song writer or a preacher of His message, you may get frustrated at times, just like David did as He saw the Lord speaking so powerfully but still so gracefully.  I can most ardently agree with David.  I am frustrated by my lack of skill to present so glorious a King.  Look at Him!  Just by the way The Lord's words roll over his sacred tongue we are filled in our hearts with His peace. In our activity of presenting a beautiful Christ, we can get so lost to the point where our very tawdry weak human emotions are being wrung out of us.  We must stay alert and work to stay at His Feet and keeping gazing upon Him.  

Look at verse 4 of this Psalm with me, “And in Your majesty ride prosperously because of truth, humility, and righteousness; and Your right hand shall teach you awesome things.” Jesus rides in power in such a way that no man can ever match.  The combination of His truth, humility, and righteousness, He stands in stark contrast to the typical way of any earthly king, no matter how great.  Our leaders walk in pride, error, and lies.  There way is marked with foolishness and pride because they can not execute their words.  They are bound to verdict of heaven.  So they use their speeches to deceive.  Oh how I love the righteous ways of Jesus, I can't wait for His kingdom to come and reign on the earth.

In verses 7 and 8, David again reminds us of why Jesus is worthy of our gaze, “You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more then Your companions.  All your garments are scented with myrrh and aloes and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, by which they have made You glad.”  Not only is our Jesus beautiful but he doesn't sweat in his work as Our Mighty Deliverer.  For Jesus, the fight is easy, His movements are perfectly smooth and flawless.  Jesus never makes an error in judgment, His arrows always hit the mark, He does not have any confused setbacks, but we do!  He doesn't suffer any losses!  Jesus knows when to advance and when to wait for daylight.  What wisdom, what glory, what honor is due His Name!

Only the highest and most lofty palace suits our Lord, His days of humiliation, as our suffering servant have been established on the earth.  He now sits at the right hand of the Father with absolute power and wields a powerful sword of exacting justice.  His eyes are a flame of fire.  Rev. 1:12b-17a, “And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven golden lampstands, One like the Son of Man, clothed in a garment down to his feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.  His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His Voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, and out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance was like the sun shining in its full strength.  And when I saw Him I fell to His feet as dead,”

When we look back at Ps 45 and verse 6 we hear David's ultimate declaration of faith, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.  A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.”  We must settle today that the battle is won, but ours is a fight to hold to the truth that heaven proclaims and knows so intimately.  We must advance His Truth with much boldness to carry out the victory of Christ over this entire earth realm.  

Our fathers sang, “A mighty fortress is Our God” in troublous times, so we, God's chosen vessels, will have to take a firm grip on the truth of this psalm.  May we all walk ever closer to the One who loves us and has purchased us forever by His righteous blood to be with Him forever in His heavenly and perfectly righteous kingdom.

Richest blessings,

Jonathan