Don't Stay Blind! Open Your Eyes!!

Paul's prayer for the Ephesians Ephesians 1:18  (message translation) I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength!  In watching a tv show the other day, one scene showed a dead man's inheritance being given to those whom he had left it too.  There were sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, his wife and some close friends who were expecting to be mentioned in his will. In this particular tv show some were elated and some were sadly disappointed as they found out their standing with the deceased man per their amount of the inheritance.  The dead man's inheritance was just that... a dead man's inheritance.

For those who know Jesus as their Savior we also have an inheritance, but ours is a living inheritance.  This inheritance is sometimes missed by those of us who know Him.  We actually are living in the amazing glow of the inheritance given to us by our Heavenly Father.  Our Living Heavenly Father.  The amount of that inheritance is the highest we can get and that is what we can share in, heaven for eternity.  We don't have to wait for the reading of the will after the author of that will dies because God is eternal and He won't die.  So our inheritance is actually realized the moment we ask Jesus to come into our heart by faith.  We receive the inheritance that only God can give us and He is present to help us realize the strength of that gift in each of us.  Verse 19 in the scripture above tells us of the benefits we receive with this inheritance.  The gift is extravagant (def) exceeding what is reasonable.  In other words, this gift is way more than we can understand right away because it is beyond our human reasoning.  Paul, in writing to the church at Ephesus, was wanting to encourage them through his prayer for their eyes to be opened to just what they did have in that relationship with God through Jesus.  Since we do have this inheritance, shouldn't we know all that we do have in that relationship with Jesus?  Of course!  Paul knows about scales falling off a person's eyes and he just wants that for those early believers and for you and me.  In other words, open your eyes to God's truth!  We have great power to live our lives and great understanding in how to follow God's will for direction in our life.  Why? Because our Heavenly Father is still alive and showing us how to spend those heavenly dividends to make our life complete and more like Him every day.

Back to the tv show.  The will stated conditions for some who received money or property to use what was given to them.  For example, one child received a hotel from the deceased and the deceased asked that the hotel be run in the traditional manner it had always been run.   The problem with that request is that the person asking is dead.  Our God is alive and His requests are current with what is happening in our life.   Micah 6:8 says "He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you?  But to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

God is right here with us and we need to open our eyes to see Him, follow Him, and serve Him!  Our life is made complete in following His instructions and learning His ways and that happens when our eyes are opened to His Word and His Way.   Paul's prayer for the Ephesians is a strong reminder for each of us to "open our eyes" and take the inheritance of our faith provided by Jesus and use that power and direction to base our life on.  Don't be blinded to the truth anymore.  Live with eyes wide open, looking for God and His direction, and live in the strength of that living inheritance.

The Pilgrimage continues....

David Warren

Christ is Better, Yes He Is!!

In Hebrews  1:1-3 the writer explains just who Jesus is and how much he is better than just a man.  Hebrews 1:1 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. 3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

In realizing the birth of Jesus and celebrating that gift at Christmas time we really try to humanize Jesus.  Of course, Jesus was God-Man and that is proven by his physical birth and the years He took in growing into a man.  There were at least 30 years of physical growth Jesus experienced and His life in the midst of man was an amazing thing, but....He was still God also.  Our desire to make Jesus more like us causes us at times to minimize who Jesus was....so we can get our head around the awesomeness of the Son of God.  We can never minimize the majesty and glory of who Jesus was and is because it can take away from our very attitude about Jesus.  When I pray to the Lord I know that Jesus understands and hears those prayers, as weak as they might seem. He can relate because He did live on this earth as a man, but He can relate much better because He is the loving, omnipotent God that knows and sees all things.  He doesn't have to relate to us from his being a man. He can relate perfectly to us as God, because He is God.  In verse 3 the scripture in Hebrews 1:3 says, "He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature and uphold all things by the word of His power."  That is Jesus!!  That is God!!

The ministry of Jesus began and those people who had seen Him grow up and knew about

Him and that He was Mary and Joseph's son had a hard time realizing that He was God come to earth.  In Luke 4:22 it says, 22 And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips; and they were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” God was working His plan through Jesus, His Son, and the earthly memories people had of who Jesus was caused them to miss the realization that He was God.  Hopefully, our thinking about who Jesus was as a baby will not cause us to miss the great power and glory of who Jesus is to us now.  He is God!  We read of the humanity of Jesus, as He was born of a virgin in a stable.  Never forget the deity of Jesus as the Son of God.  He is not just a good prophet come to bring hope.  Jesus is the Son of God Almighty and He deserves our highest praise as we live and follow Him.   Some might try to minimize Jesus as being a man like any other man, but He wasn't according to verse 3 in our Hebrews scripture. Here's what Paul wrote in Romans 14:11 For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shallgive praise to God.”  Who do you bow to?  Your boss at work?  Your spouse?  Your friends?  Your social group?  Only Jesus deserves our praise.  The next time you want to make Jesus just another one of your buddies, keep this in mind.  He is God!  In verse 4 of Hebrews 1 it says "having become  as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they."  

Down and out and feeling lonely?  Speak the name of Jesus.

Problems of life beating you into submission?  Speak the name of Jesus.

Family and friends don't have hope?  Speak the name of Jesus.

Christ is better.  yes He is!!

The pilgrimage continues...

David Warren

Pay Me Now, or Pay Me Later

Acts 14:21 After they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, 22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” 23 When they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

24 They passed through Pisidia and came into Pamphylia. 25 When they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia. 26 From there they sailed to Antioch, from which they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had [p]accomplished.27 When they had arrived and gathered the church together, they began to report all things that God had done with them and [q]how He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.28 And they spent [r]a long time with the disciples.

Did you get this?  Paul and his followers are going back to Lystra where he got stoned and was left for dead but miraculously lived.  There is an old commercial put out by Fram Oil Filters that is based on the premise that buying high quality oil filters will keep you from having to get a new oil filter much sooner than you wanted.  And also any other filter than a Fram may cause your engine to shut down.  So Fram would say, "Pay me now, or Pay me later!"  Paul was "stoned out" of Lystra and the ones who rose up against him thought they were rid of him.  Not so.  They did not know what Paul would come back and do at this later date.  He came and established leadership in the churches that would live in Lystra and continue to grow the work of those following Jesus.  They just had Paul and a few others to deal with before.  Now they were going to have to deal with the Holy Spirit working through the very people who lived in their community.  All they did in stoning Paul was set on fire his desire to establish a strong fellowship of believers and leave them there to continue the work.  They could have let Paul and his followers continue to do their ministry in peace, but no.....  Now the church at Lystra was going to be well established and growing and reaching people from the inside out.  Just imagine how inspired those believers in Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch were when Paul showed back up.  He inspired them even more in verse 22 by saying, "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God."  We can consider those words their "marching orders."   And march they did.  Paul and his companions passed through Pisidia, Pamphylia and then sailed to Antioch, their base of operations.   They shared with those believers all that God had done and continued to spend time with the disciples in serving the Lord there.  Ministry success is always judged by changed lives and the movement of God in circumstances.  Paul's ministry success meter was "pegging out" at the top level and God was using this missionary journey to not only reach new converts, but encourage the disciples to step up their game and reach as never before.

Today we believers are no different than any others as we have our tribulations and trials, but James encourages us in James 1:2-3 where he says, "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance."  Are you encountering trials?  Could be God is up to something in your life in a big way.  Could be He is preparing you for a great movement and a great journey of faith for Him.  Whatever may come your way, keep your eyes on the hills and your heart in Him and God will show up and show out through you.  Yes....YOU!

The Pilgrimage continues....

David Warren

You Can't Keep a Good Man Down!!

Jesus answered, "It is written: "Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only!!"

In Acts 14:8-20  Paul and Barnabas travel to Lystra where they meet a man who had been lame from birth, never walked before. The lame man was listening intently to Paul preach the message of the gospel and Paul fixed his gaze on the man and saw the man had faith to be healed.  So Paul looks at him and says loudly "Stand upright on your feet!" (verse 10) Guest what happened?  The man leaped up and began to walk.  He went from never walking before to Michael Jordan in one swoop.  The power of God was falling down every where Paul and Barnabas went and when the people saw this man leap they started calling Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes because he was the chief speaker.  So typical of earth dwellers to take something Almighty God did and explain it out to be something they can understand.  These people had many Gods and in their explanation of the power of God they thought that Paul and Barnabas were some of their God's come to life in men. Here is where Paul and Barnabas could have taken this moment to get these people to believe in them and not in God.  I am always amazed at what power and prestige can do to a man of God who is not aware of where his power comes from.  I have seen and heard of well known pastors who saw great growth in their churches and believe it is because they are better or different than others that their church flourished.  I have seen them take the credit for it when people started saying how great a pastor they are and how they have led their church to great heights.  This is very dangerous.  I know of a pastor who had made some good moves to get his church into a place of growth and his family was treated like royalty, all the way to his grandchildren.  When his grandchildren had a birthday the gifts given to them were way beyond reason for what should have been given.  Why?  Because he allowed it to happen.  Do you know what Paul and Barnabas did when the priest of Zeus brought oxen and garlands to offer sacrifices with the crowds?  Here is what Paul said in verse 15 "Men, why are you doing these things?  We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them."  Paul goes on to give them a history lesson in how God has provided from the beginning for every need and took it as an opportunity to lift up the Lord.  True humility, true worship of the Living God by a man on a mission.  Paul was a good man.

Guess what happened next?  Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won over the crowds and they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city because they thought he was dead.  Get the picture.  When someone dies they take them to a place where the bodies can decompose, outside the city.   They have dragged a supposedly dead Paul out of the city and the disciples are all standing around the body, and Paul stands up, alive!  So Paul gets Barnabas and they go away to the next city, Derbe.  Paul was a good man and a stoning could not keep him down.  Why?  Because God had more plans for him and his heart was right and so God helped him live, even after being stoned.  God's power was not only for Paul to use with people all along the way, but God's power enabled him to keep going after being stoned and thought dead.  You cannot keep a good man down when God says "get back up."  God defies all reasoning when he has a person on mission for him.   I heard a preacher say one time "God doesn't send you on mission and then desert you."  I believe that was a great statement and still believe it today.  We can't trust in the god's of our imagination, but we can trust in Almighty God.  He never fails.

Grass Doesn't Grow on a Rolling Stone

In Acts 14:1-7 Paul and Barnabas enter the synagogue in Iconium and preach the gospel, to which a large number of Jews and Greeks believe in Jesus and become followers.  Some of the Jews didn't believe and they stirred up the Gentiles against those who had believed.  Paul kept on preaching the word and God was so powerful that signs and wonders started happening.  These signs and wonders came at the hands of Paul and Barnabas and it was further proof that God was working in a powerful way among the people.  This was just too much for the disbelievers and they set a plot to mistreat Paul and Barnabas, and any followers of the way, and stone them.   Paul and Barnabas heard of the plot and fled that town and went about 20 miles away to the town of Lystra. Guess what happened?  Yep, they kept on preaching the gospel!!  Paul and Barnabas did not want to be on the cover of the rolling stone of that day, but the terrific things that were happening put them in the crosshairs of those unbelievers and stones were going to be thrown by the unbelievers to stop the message.  So they fled the town.

What would happen if someone actually stood up and said, "Jesus is the only way to life eternal and you must repent and accept Him for forgiveness.  There is no other way to do this except through Jesus Christ, the Son of God."  Right now in our world it would cause riots by those who "just don't know any better" and the person who was preaching that message would be threatened in just the same way that Paul and Barnabas were.  Franklin Graham has been very faithful to preach that message effectively throughout his life and there is no doubt he has been threatened by those who are unbelievers.  He, like Paul, shares the message where he is able to and lets the cards fall where they may.  I think the  need to pray for him is something each of us should commit to do.  We should also stand in our faith and proclaim the same message of hope in Christ to all we meet.  If Paul and Barnabas had not been committed to their calling and mission they would have quickly said, "Forget this."  In leaving Iconium, their next stop would have been back to the base at Syrian Antioch.  Mission over!!  But they didn't let the opposition stop them and the message of the gospel continued on in other towns where they had not heard of Jesus.  I thank God for their follow through in sharing the message wherever they went and also pray for the same kind of commitment they had in sharing that message.  As you can  easily see, the message of Jesus will be rejected by the antagonists of the day, but we still  need to "press on" in sharing that message and everything else will fall into place.  There may come a day when we are running for our very lives because we profess Christ, but that should not be unexpected.  Jesus said in Matthew 5:10 "Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."  

We may have stones rolling our way some day, but those stones will never stop the life-giving message of Jesus.  Continue to preach and share the word of Jesus and know that God will protect and propel you into areas of service you never thought possible.  Don't let the grass grow on you because of your inactivity.  Be moving forward constantly.

The Pilgrimage continues....

David Warren

The Lost Shall Be Saved...And Then Get Lost Again

We use the lost and saved words a lot as believers because they are used quite frequently in the Bible.  Today we either just exist in a world of non commitment or we set the tone for living a vibrant, I said VIBRANT, life of commitment that is the result of a saving faith in Jesus Christ.  There are a lot of saved Christians who are lost today.  How do I mean lost?  We can't find them!!  They totally resist and refuse to meet together in purpose and power in a church setting and show they are really LOST!!  HOW?

They are lost to the cause of Christ and the mission Jesus left for each of us.  They are lost to the power and presence of the Holy Spirit when two or more are gathered together in the name of Jesus.(Matthew 18:20 For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”  They are lost to the intimate relationship with Jesus through prayer and fasting.  They are lost to a life of purpose and meaning that is only found when serving Jesus.  They are lost to the glow of the light in their lives that is a reflection of the light of Jesus.  They are lost...  It would stand to reason that in their present condition they may be lost and separated from God, which means hell is their future location, and NOT heaven!!  If you want to freak out some Christian folk then tell them they may NOT be going to heaven when they die.  I'm not the judge here, but excuses and innuendos don't get you to heaven.  Only a person who has repented of their sins, given their life to Christ, and believed by faith and accepted Jesus will be going to heaven.  All others are going to HELL.  That's a tough call, but a call that was made long ago by our heavenly Father when He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for you and me.  

Here is the result of someone doing what I mentioned earlier when you come to Jesus for  salvation.   

1. You don't make excuses for not assembling together as believers.  You want to fellowship and serve with others of like faith for the Lord.  Why?  Because that's what Jesus wants and He is now in control.  

2. You will do everything you can to make reading God's Word a priority in your daily schedule.  And not just reading it, but studying it.  

3. You won't commit to some work for the Lord and then fall away from your commitment because it's tough on your time schedule.  You are a finisher!!!

4.  You won't hide your gifts and talents from God so He cannot use them for His glory.

5.  You won't sit around on the sideline waiting for someone else to take a stand for Jesus. You take the stand and never look back.

Famous line from a Batman movie.  When asked why he was taking stand against crime in their city Batman says, "It's what I do!"  When you take a stand for Christ... a REAL stand for Christ, people will look at  you and say, "Why are you so passionate about Jesus?"  To which you will say, "It's who I am!"  Notice the difference in the Batman statement and the Christian statement?  We don't serve Christ because it is "what I do."  We serve Christ because it is "who I am."

Well, here's the Jesus symbol being shined in the dark night sky.  We need our Savior to come and wake up His children and awaken the passionate hearts of His people to once again be "His people."  How does this look?  Those who accepted Jesus, but have put Him in  the background of their lives have lost their way and now it is time to come back to Jesus afresh and anew.   Time to throw off the things in life that have caused them to get lost and "find" themselves back in fellowship with God.  This is not about heaven and hell.  It is about EARTH and LIVING.  Whatever got you on the wrong track will need to be flushed out of your life and switch tracks.....NOW!!!   Come back to your Savior.  Come back to your Father.  JUST COME BACK!!!

The  Pilgrimage continues....

David Warren

Begging to Hear the Truth?

Up to this point in Paul's first missionary journey we have seen him chastised, rebuked,  and still share the message of hope with whoever might listen.  The power of the truth of God's message is best seen in the way it answers all of life's questions.  That power draws others to want to hear more of it and actually unnerves those searching at their core.  In Acts 13:42 and following, the truth of the Word is doing just that as people are begging Paul and Barnabas to share more of the truth with them.  So Paul and Barnabas go to the synagogue and begin teaching and preaching more, and then it happens!  The next Sabbath day the whole city assembled to hear the word of the Lord.  The whole city!  You want power in a message? Then share the word of God and see what happens.  The purity of the Word is so amazing it causes all who are searching to do anything they can to hear it.   Paul and Barnabas knew that the Word would do exactly what it did and so they stood their ground on the message of Christ and God's power was seen through the amounts of people who assembled just to get a little of the message.

Which brings to mind our present day world and the needs of it.  I believe we have bought into the lie that our modern day schools have great truth in the knowledge they share.  WRONG!  Our universities and colleges have actually become a breeding ground for a flawed philosophy about where pure knowledge and wisdom come from and that lie has enslaved our whole society with a perception about that truth.   The only truth is from the Word of God!!  Let that statement rock your world!  The slavery of the mind has warped into the slavery of the soul and it is progressing throughout our world and deceiving more and more who buy into the academia that is touted from those in high positions.  The very moment our universities, that were established as Christian schools, quit teaching the Bible as the pure source of knowledge and wisdom, God took his hand off of them.  We are reaping what we have sown and the crop is very worldly and lacking in purpose and direction.  Why are students fighting against the thought of Donald Trump or any kind of absolute thinking?  They don't know where our absolutes come from.  It is an exercise in idiocy and flawed judgment due to a lack of Biblical truth.  Really you say?  Should the Bible be our source of knowledge for everything in life?   YES!  God's Word and the study of it has been minimized to the point of making it look like a fairytale.  In Acts 13 the whole city turned out begging to hear God's Word and Paul shared it with them.  The Jewish church "leaders" and many of the academic persuasion saw the crowds and in verse 45 it says they became jealous and started trying to contradict what Paul was saying.  Paul said, "Since you reject the truth, we will take it to the Gentiles."  You know what the Gentiles did?  In verse 48 it says, "When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord."  Then scripture says the word of the Lord was spread throughout the whole  region. So the Jews got some devout women and leading men of the city to incite a riot against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their district.  Paul and Barnabas shook the dust off their feet and went to Iconium.  In verse 52 it says, "And the disciples were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit."  Wow!  God's word was powerful then and just as powerful today to help us live the life God wants us to live.

I think those street preachers who set up shop and start reading the word of God aloud may have a good idea about changing our world.  How will they hear unless someone preaches?   And how will they know unless we read it?  If we really trusted the Word of God like Paul and Barnabas we would do whatever we could to get it out to the masses and then they would realize the purity of it and be begging to hear more.  I hope we never get in our minds that the reading of God's word is just for those who are in churches.  It is for all people, everywhere and we need to lift up the Bible and let the message be heard.  Personally I have heard enough of men's impressions of what God's Word says and means.  Time to just hear the Word of God and turn it loose.  Time for real knowledge and real wisdom to take center stage in our world and set the Bible free from the restrictions of our society.  Time to lift up God's Word and let it hum like a well oiled engine and that will bring  our world back into order.  By the way.  That is our only hope of direction and change.

The Pilgrimage continues....

David Warren

Gilligan's Island

Gilligan's Island was a TV show from way back.  The show was based around a group of people on a charter fishing boat who get off course during a storm and end up on an island.  The first mate is named Gilligan, thus the name of the show, and it centers around the relationship between  him, the skipper, the millionaire and his wife, the professor, Ginger, and Mary Ann.  So many different backgrounds and stranded on an island together becomes a source of comedy and adventure.  Here are the lyrics to the show theme song:

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale

a tale of a fateful trip

that started from this tropic port,

aboard this tiny ship

The mate was a mighty sailing man, 

the Skipper brave and sure,

five passengers set sail that day

for a three hour tour,

a three hour tour.

In Acts 13:13 scripture says,  From Paphos, Paul and company put out to sea, sailing on to Perga in Pamphylia. That’s where John called it quits and went back to Jerusalem. From Perga the rest of them traveled on to Antioch in Pisidia.

They set sail for Perga to continue sharing the message of Christ on this first missionary journey.  The journey lost one of it's travelers though as John Mark called it quits and went back to Jerusalem.  For whatever reason, John Mark decided he did not want to keep the pace of  Paul and Barnabas and called it quits.  Maybe he thought the buy in was too much, or maybe he missed his family, or maybe he did not totally believe in the mission.  Whatever reason for his going back, he quit them....Just when they needed him the most.

Why?  Because Paul and Barnabas were about to rock the world of Pisidian Antioch with the awesome message of what Jesus did on the cross for those people.  They went to the synagogue and when they get there the leader of the meeting asks them "Do you have anything you want to say?  A word of encouragement perhaps?"  The leader did not realize what he was doing when asking Paul to speak about Jesus, so Paul gave him both barrels. In verses16-20 it says Paul took a deep breath and laid out the whole thing.  All the way from the old testament writings to present day Antioch.  He spoke about the delivery of the children of Israel from Pharaoh and the rise of King David, and the lineage all the way to Jesus.  Paul even spoke about John the Baptist preparing the way of the Lord and all the intricacies of God moving at that time.  He brought them right up to the time of Jesus and shared the Good News in a passionate way that astounded them.  He ended by saying "we are here to bring you this Good News!! " Wow.  What a message!!  Boy, John Mark missed the blessing of seeing these hearts opened to God. What an encouragement it could have been to him, but he missed it.  John Mark was stranded on his own island of non commitment.  It was John Mark's Island.  The poet John Donne wrote "No man Is An Island!"  But we can be an island if we choose to.  We can become stranded in the unexpected storms of life and lose our way and end up on an island of indifference.  By the way, there will be many different people on that same island, stranded, lifeless.  Paul was not going to be that kind of man though and his trip to the island of Perga was just a part of his missionary journey because there were more locations to travel to and more people to hear the message.

So, are you Paul and Barnabas or are you John Mark?  Are you in it for the long haul or are you turning back to a life of ease and weak commitment to the "easy life?"  It's time to make a decision who you are and what God is calling you to do and GO!!  In reality Gilligan became comfortable on the island and really didn't give much effort to get off the island because he didn't have anywhere pressing to go.  Paul had a mission to accomplish, so Perga was just a stop off.  We have a mission to accomplish, so get off your island of non activity and start serving the Lord again.  It is time and that time is now!

The Pilgrimage continues....

David Warren

Not Part of the Solution? Then You are part of the Problem!!

Revelation 3:15  "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot!"  A very well quoted scripture about being one thing or the other.  This scripture speaks to the church at Laodecia and that church was a precursor to the Christianity we see in our modern day world in America.  This is the Church of the Unholy Apathy! Apathy - (def) absence or suppression of passion, emotion, or excitement.  We live in an apathetic world.  Why is it that way?  Because we have made it that way.  Our lukewarm pursuit of the ways of God has allowed our personal lives, our churches, and our world to "slide" down a slippery slope to mediocrity and uselessness.  Our weak position on life in general is the very thing that keeps us in the ditch, to which we have fallen.  And yet, we don't even realize the problem that keeps us in the ditch because our perspective is totally off.  Years ago in a small town I grew up in there was a man who walked everywhere he went.  If you were out and traveling around town, you would see this man walking at a very quick pace.  When I saw him I thought he was lacking a little mentally and never gave him much consideration.  One time I was out on the bypass that circled that community and to my surprise there he was, walking around the bypass at a very quick pace.  I never saw him in a car or on a bike.   He was always walking, and he was good at it.  The town I lived in was about two hours away from a major city that we travelled to from time to time and there was a four lane interstate highway to get there.  It took two hours if you averaged around 70 miles per hour.  The story came back from someone who was traveling to that city that about 45 minutes into his trip he noticed someone walking on the shoulder beside the interstate.  To his surprise, it was the man I described earlier in my blog post.  He said the man was still making a very quick pace and he thought  he would stop and offer him a ride.  When he stopped, he had the man come over to the car and he said, "Hey, where are you going?"  The man stopped walking and came up to his car and said, "I am going to (name of city).  The man in the car said, "Can I give you a ride?"  The walking man turned away and took off walking and said, "No, I'm in a hurry!"  As hilarious as that sounds, it shows just how much a person with a passion for something doesn't let other things distract them from reaching their goal.  Are you on a journey with a passion that drives you and keeps you at a quick pace until you reach your destination or are you just kind of wandering around looking at the scenery?  If you aren't moving forward in your faith, and you are just going through the motions with no direction or commitment, you are lukewarm.

When you are lukewarm you are in the way of someone who is going somewhere and now you are part of the problem.  Another thing that happens when you are lukewarm is that your lifestyle is contagious in a bad way.  Other people catch your lukewarmness and then they become that way!!  Now you are making disciples of lukewarmness and that is causing more problems.  

Solution one- Repent!  Get a conviction about something.  It's easy for Christians to get a conviction because it is supposed to be our goal to reach the world for Christ.  Start on that one and it will keep you busy for a long time.

Solution two - Hang around "people of passion" and let them influence you in the right way and get active.

Solution three - Do not let apathetic, indifferent, weak people be your role models.  It is time to "cut the string" and change your friendship base to people of purpose and direction.  You will feed off of each other and you will become very strong and purpose driven as a group and make a bigger impact.

Solution four - Cull the things in life that drag you down and keep you from being effective in your life ministry.  Be more focused on Jesus and what He wants and let the Word of God be your energy shot.

In Revelation 3:17-19 the Word of God puts an emphatic exclamation mark on the whole thing by saying this, 17 Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.  

Open your  eyes and see that God is still in the business of changing lives and He wants to start with yours and then everyone you influence from there on.  Be a part of the solution by being actively involved with an active faith.

The Pilgrimage continues...

David Warren

The Barriers of Evil Intentions

Have you ever been going forward in your walk with God and you are serving and growing and reaching exactly as He has called you to do, and then you meet a barrier.  Someone gets right in the way of where God wants you to go and tries to stop what God wants you to do.  In Acts 13:5-11 Saul and Barnabas had to deal with a barrier right out of the gate. The scripture says it like this 5 When they reached Salamis, they began to proclaim the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews; and they also had John as their helper. 6 When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a magician, a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar-Jesus, 7 who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence. This man summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the magician (for so his name is translated) was opposing them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith.  The name of the barrier was Bar-Jesus, and he was a false prophet who was advising the proconsul for the area.  A proconsul was an appointed man of high Roman standing that could help command the military in the extended areas of Rome's influence.  When Rome acquired territories beyond Italy they would send these proconsul's as an extra military ranking presence called "consular imperium."  These proconsul's were very powerful men and the false prophet Bar-Jesus, which means son of Joshua, had a strong influence on the proconsul Sergio Paulus, and did not want anyone else to come in and weaken his influence.  But, Sergio Paulus was wanting an audience with Paul and Barnabas and the barrier was in place, and the barrier's name was Elymas, which means magician.  Elymas took it on himself to try and influence the proconsul to not listen to the message of Paul.

This brings in a very important point.  Are there people who have put themselves in your path as a barrier to you sharing the message of truth with those who are searching?   Believe or not, I have had some Elymas types of individuals throughout my ministry and they have tried to put up high barriers to keep the message of Christ down.  It could be that the modern day churches that are dying have many of the Elymas persuasion in control of what goes on in the church and the barriers they put up are slowing down and killing churches at a record rate.  How do you deal with these people?  Here's how Paul dealt with Elymas.  Scripture in Acts 13:9-11 says Paul looked him directly in the eye and said, "You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord?  Now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and  you will be blind and not see the sun for a time."  I guess that would throw the pc crowd into a feeding frenzy.  Blood in the water and here they come.  In today's world Paul's pc type of message would sound like this. "Now, I'm not saying you are doing anything wrong, but I wanted to bring it to your attention."  Paul would never say anything that needed to be said directly in a pc fashion, but that would be what we want to hear in today's world.  I honestly believe that this is why many Christians do not study God's Word, because they don't  want to hear the truth, or ala A Few Good Men, "you can't handle the truth!  By the way, after Paul told Elymas he would be blind, guess what?  Elymas was suddenly blind!!  I don't know about you, but that makes me an even more focused believer after reading that fact.  I am not alone, because the proconsul saw what happened and BELIEVED!  Paul's boldness and total belief in the message of Christ and the power of God was well warranted.  Don't get in the way of the Word of God!!  BARRIER BLOWN UP!!

I had a guy threaten my life one time and in the threat I felt fear, but didn't say a word.  I should have rebuked him and exposed him for who he was, Elymas.  I didn't though, and thought the "Christian" thing to do was to take it and let his way of thinking be mine.  MISTAKE!!  We live to share the message of Jesus Christ, not the message of some seemingly devil filled church goer.  There will always be people of influence, some good and some bad, but the influence that draws people away from accepting Jesus is EVIL.  Call it what it is and blow up the barrier.  Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:16 "Be redeeming the time because the day is evil."  Don' t give any time to those who would make themselves a barrier to the message of Christ and when they put themselves in the middle of your path call them out for what they are.  Ambassadors of the devil and then move on.  They have the barriers of evil intentions and it is a waste of time to listen to their evil words that only distract from the purpose of Christ.

The Pilgrimage continues....

David Warren

Journey to the Center of the Earth

In the movie Journey to the Center of the Earth, it depicts the Jules Verne science fiction novel and brings to light his impression of what might happen.  The story involves German professor Otto Lidenbrock who believes there are volcanic tubes going toward the center of the Earth.  He, his nephew Axel, and their guide Hans descend into the Icelandic volcano Sanaefellsjokull, and encounter many adventures in the unknown.  In the story it tells of them encountering prehistoric animals and many other natural hazards of "below the surface" exploring.  The whole story is science fiction, but it brings to light many different approaches in exploration that were never thought of before.  In other words, they were exploring new territory with new techniques.

In Acts 13: 1-3 the gospel is being shared everywhere and the explosion of Holy Spirit filled individuals giving their lives for the message of Christ is being felt in many areas.   A group of those early believers, some who were prophets and some who were teachers, including Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius and Manaen were worshipping the Lord and fasting.  While they were doing this the Holy Spirit told them to set aside some men for the work of taking the gospel to areas never before reached.  So they set apart Saul and Barnabas for the work to which God had called them.  After praying and fasting, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.  This was to be their Journey to the Center of the Earth!!  Oh, they stayed on the surface, but they were going to be taking a fresh new message of hope to a world they had not seen before and could only imagine.  In their imagination their thoughts of what they might experience started out as fiction, but soon became reality when they began moving one foot in front of the other.  In the next few blogs I will attempt to chronicle what scripture says about their travels and hopefully you will get on board with a realization of what kind of faith these men had in God.

Which brings to mind where we are today in our walk with the Lord.  Have you ever felt the Holy Spirit compelling you to do something you have never done before or attempt something you have never attempted before?  What is your Journey to the Center of the Earth and are you willing to step out and do something and go somewhere you haver never gone?  I love adventure and exploring new things, new people, and new cultures.  Years ago I went on a trip to Holland to lead worship at a camp just outside of Amsterdam and it opened my eyes to the realization that there is more to this earth than what I am seeing.  That trip set me on fire to see more and more and I am always looking for a chance to go to other countries and experience those people and share the gospel.   Not everyone in my family have that same desire, but we all have our Journey to the Center of the Earth thoughts and those thoughts don't have to be accompanied with world travel.  It may be a stretching of our lives to the point of sharing the gospel in a different area of town we aren't familiar with.  It could be getting involved in a local ministry that impacts a whole different group of people that we don't know much about. Whatever it is, be open enough to allow the Holy Spirit to instruct you in what to do and allow the fiction to become the reality and your adventures await you.  Another word for those adventures is the Christian Walk!!

In the upcoming days you will see the adventures of Saul and Barnabas and it will hopefully get your spirit of adventure perking.  Now is the time for each of us to step out to a whole new way of thinking and get involved in the Journey.  Not the  Journey to the Center of the Earth, but the Journey to the Center of God's Will.  You will find your adventure located right there and ready for you to take flight.

The Pilgrimage continues...

David Warren