On This Day: The ‘Real and Personal’ of Being with Jesus

And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons. (Mark 3:13-15)

   I did not grow up knowing how real and personal a relationship with God should be. My mom was a quiet Christian who took us to church but never talked about it. My dad was an angry agnostic who made it dangerous to talk about anything I was learning. My youthful interactions with the church met my need for belonging, but never taught me how to know Jesus as “God with us”. And my Bible college years taught me to see “experience” as an enemy of the church! 

   All that to say I don’t really know when I realized that a relationship with Jesus Christ in today’s world is supposed to feel both “real and personal”. Yes, by EXPERIENCE!

   I know for sure when I “got it” that this was the case (1992). I am so thankful for how God has worked for a few decades making him and his work all the more real to me. And I praise him for the way knowing him has become increasingly personal as I learn to bare my heart to him in prayer, receive his word into my heart no matter what adjustments must be made, and then join him in his work as best I know to do. 

   When we consider how to apply things Jesus did with his apostles to our lives in the church it helps to remember that the apostles were the “foundation” of the church (see Ephesians 2), while Jesus’ disciples of today are the “living stones” that “are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (I Peter 2:5).

   So, the way we experience Jesus in the “real and personal way” taught in Scripture is by each believer fully living out their place in the body of Christ. We can learn from the example of the apostles that we also have an assignment (our spiritual gifts) and must fulfill our place in the church Jesus is building as surely as they fulfilled their place in laying the foundation. 

   This means that we all must be able to identify that our salvation is both “real and personal”. We also must strive to serve the body of Christ in real ways that are personal expressions of our love and spiritual gifts that people experience in real and personal ways related to building them up in the Lord. And we must make every effort to 

“do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life” (Philippians 2:14-16).

   And, if you do not know how to know Jesus Christ in the real and personal way we see in his word, just ask! Ask God to make this real to you in the most personal of ways. Pray with a genuine hunger and thirst for the righteousness of knowing Jesus Christ your Lord in the most real and personal of ways. Ask fellow believers how the things of God’s word are real and personal to them. Seek this together. Yes, even if you don’t know what it is supposed to feel like! 

   Jesus said that eternal life is “that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). I simply encourage you to not be satisfied with an experience of church life that is not an experience of knowing the Triune God in real and personal ways. 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com 

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: The Quest to Destroy Jesus

Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him. (Mark 3:1-6)

   It really impacted me today that the religious elite were narcissistic hypocrites.

   A narcissist is someone who cannot accept a healthy shame message. You can’t tell them they are doing anything wrong, even in the nicest and kindest of ways, because they will need to destroy you before you make them look bad.

   A hypocrite is someone who acts one way while being another. They create the roles by which they want to be known, and detest anyone who exposes the duplicity of their lives.

   A narcissistic hypocrite is someone who will not accept any criticism of their beliefs or behaviors because they cannot lose the perception that they are the person they pretend to be. They will destroy anyone who threatens their image.

   The Pharisees were the leaders of the synagogues. They had fabricated an image of what good religious people should look like, and had not imagined anyone taking that from them until… well… Jesus came along!

   In today’s account from Mark 3, these narcissistic hypocrites are blind to the glory of Jesus revealing himself to everyone as Messiah, and could only see how he was breaking their rules, rules they had used to support their roles. And we are called to take notice of the Pharisees’ need to find fault with Jesus so they could destroy him.  

   The first application is an invitation to use this scripture as a mirror. When you see how determined the religious elite were to destroy Jesus, do you see yourself in the scene? Does your mind work to destroy any evidence that Jesus Christ is our Creator, the only Savior of the world, and the King of kings and Lord of lords? Do you argue against Jesus to try to keep others from following him and making you look like you’re not? There are lots of ways we can be just like those narcissistic hypocrites as we seek to “steal, kill, and destroy” people’s faith in the Savior.

   As our second application, the hidden lesson in this is that if this is the way narcissistic hypocrites treated Jesus then, how could we expect anything different for ourselves if we are seeking to make him known to everyone in our lives? And knowing this, let us put on the whole armor of God, take our stand against the devil’s schemes, and proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the people living in darkness. They need people who aren't afraid of narcissistic hypocrites!

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: The Word That Silences Accusations

   One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”  (Mark 2:23-28)

 

   I look back on my decades of getting to know God through his word and marvel at how it has become increasingly personal over the years. That is why something will stand out in a distinctive way at a certain time in our lives. It might be because we are about to go through something and God is preparing us to face it. Or it could be that we have gone through something and God wants to settle into our hearts his perspective on the matter. Whatever the case, God’s word is “living and active”, so we must watch for how personal God gets in applying it to our lives.

   Part of the personal side of this is that almost half of this year of 2024 involved a journey through a book of false teachings entitled “A More Christlike Word”.[1] As I read the author’s claims, I was appalled at his blatant misrepresentation of what God had written in the Scriptures.

   However, what was such a blessing to me was to read those Scriptures in context, look up words from the original languages to have a better understanding of any nuances of meaning that applied, and feel the delight of Jesus as “the Word” using “the word of God” we have in the Scriptures to silence his critics and accusers. And that’s when I was so tickled (slang for “joyfully blessed”) that the English word “read” in the above Scripture clearly meant to read something out loud.

   Jesus’ accusers in this case were the very men who read aloud the Scriptures to the congregations who gathered in the synagogues to hear the word of the LORD (Yahweh). Jesus was asking the professional readers, if you will, if they had paid attention to what they themselves read to the people who gathered to worship God. And specifically, a scripture that was an example of how God’s care of his people allowed for a clear limitation to be graciously excused due to the level of need that was presented at a certain time.

   Because these “On This Day” sharings of mine are not to exhaust everything a passage of Scripture means, but to encourage us to hear what God is speaking to us about in his word each day, I leave you with one more example of how personally God speaks to us through his word, the Scriptures we now have in the Bible.

   And part of the blessing of this for me today is the simple delight of reading about Jesus “the Word” turning the professional readers of God’s word back to something they themselves had read from God’s word in an encounter that is now added to the word of God we have in the New Testament Scriptures!

   That is why I take it so seriously that we are to “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Colossians 3:16) because “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).

   My faith has been built up today. Does anyone need help with your faith because the accusations against God’s word you struggle with the most are the ones in your own mind? I would be happy to help you get to know God’s word as the word of life it truly is to all who receive it.

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

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[1] When I discovered some new friends were sharing things online that contradicted everything I had learned about God’s word, they asked me to read this book by Brad Jersak. I had already heard the man and concluded he was a false teacher. My journey through his book proved my suspicions were valid. You can read all about my journey in the posts I shared under the heading “Countering Counterfeits”.

 (Print version) A More Christlike Word © 2021 by Bradley Jersak Whitaker House 1030 Hunt Valley Circle • New Kensington, PA 15068 www.whitakerhouse.com (Kindle version) Jersak, Bradley. A More Christlike Word: Reading Scripture the Emmaus Way. Whitaker House. Kindle Edition.

On This Day: New Wineskins for Old Sinners

   And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
   No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.” (Mark 2:16-22)

 

   When I was a church-going child, and then a young Christian in my teens, and even a new pastor in my twenties, I had no idea how much of what was “the way we do it here” was not even found in the Bible. It was “that old-time religion” far more than “the new covenant in my blood” that Jesus provided.

   Even just yesterday I was watching a video (while editing photos for the daycare) where the presenter showed things we take for granted as central to church gatherings that are never even mentioned in the New Testament as characteristics of church meetings.

   Part of my journey into learning what it means to live in “new covenant” relationship with God in “the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code” (Romans 7:6) has included finding myself pastoring a home church over twenty-one years ago. In our early years, we had to grapple with what was actually taught in the New Testament about being part of the church Jesus is building. We weren’t on a quest to create some new movement, but to find the realities Jesus constantly spoke about regarding “the kingdom of God” or “the kingdom of heaven”.

   There is much to say about this! However, the personal aspect of meditating on this passage of Scripture this morning is to share how good it is (sometimes in a bittersweet kind of way) to narrow the spotlight onto what the Spirit is teaching us from the word and see what props we have put on the stage that don’t belong there at all. Then we can search the Scriptures to ascertain what things should be in our church’s walk with God that we have left out simply because the stage was already so full of our own good ideas!

   And one of the things many churches seem to neglect is that the new covenant requires TWO deaths, not just one. We needed Jesus’ death to create the new covenant in his blood, but we also need our death to enter that new covenant. As Peter said, Jesus died “that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (I Peter 2:24).

   In explaining baptism, Paul wrote, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4).

   And then Paul gave his own personal example, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

   What amazes me is that sinners were flocking to Jesus in his proclamation of “the good news of the kingdom” even before they understood anything of his crucifixion. Now we know that Jesus’ death for sinners requires sinners to die to sin and live in the righteousness of faith.

   Which direction are you being pulled right now, to cling to sin and religion, or to walk with Jesus in newness of life that requires you to deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow the Savior on the narrow way to paradise?

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: When Reason Goes in the Wrong Direction

And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!” (Mark 2:5-12)

 

   As I was meditating on the way Jesus’ opponents questioned what was going on, I could see some validity to the things they were wondering. Even the challenge, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” is not a bad question. The problem is the direction they headed in coming to a conclusion.

   Jesus could not visibly demonstrate that he was forgiving sins. Forgiveness is invisible, at least from our earthly standpoint. It was “easier to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’” than “to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’” because no one could prove Jesus didn’t forgive sins. However, everyone would know whether Jesus healed someone, so Jesus used a visible miracle to prove his spiritual authority to forgive sins.

   This made me think of many scenarios where people imagine that what is arguing around in their heads is so divine that it has authority over God and his word. I have heard about so many “conflicts” people present to deny the Bible is the word of God only to find those details are simply additional details on something that took place.

   The bottom line for me is that, even from childhood, things people have used to justify denying God’s word, or denying God, or especially denying Jesus Christ, look like they are affirming the credibility of God’s word, leading me to trust God all the more, and glorifying my Savior who healed people to assure me he could also forgive my sins.

   God has used this account of Jesus healing the paralyzed man to build up my tears-roofs-open-to-bring-people-to-Jesus faith, to reinforce how important it is to seek God together, and to always be ready to let God change my mind when what I thought his word said clashes with something I am reading in the Bible. Since we are “transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Romans 12:1-2), let us “present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship” so we can truly know and live by “the mind of Christ” for his church.

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: Seeking the THEYness of Faith

And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” (Mark 2:3-5)

 

   Same Scripture as yesterday, but how differently it is speaking to me today!

   Quite a number of years ago I was meditating my way through John 4 about Jesus’ interactions with the Samaritan woman. After a bit, I noticed that when Jesus said something to her, it was like a “higher” thought than she had ever heard. This was followed by what appeared to be a “deeper” awareness of something about herself. Each “higher” thought set the stage for the “deeper”, and each “deeper” thought prepared her heart for the next “higher”. I was fascinated.

   No, I’m not turning this into a doctrine, and neither am I claiming Jesus always works that way (though I keep seeing it in other places). It’s simply that there is something to be said for how Jesus did this, and I see him doing it in me all the time.

   Yesterday was an amazing “higher” for me. First, it was in my time with God in his word and prayer. Then it was out on my prayer walk where my praying about these things made me truly want a “tears-roofs-open” kind of faith, particularly in a prayer group. Although the biblical account of the paralyzed man was familiar, what God was doing with me through this Scripture was something new, at least in a going-into-the-next-grade kind of way.

   But last night and this morning I found myself in a “deeper” where so many heartaches and sorrows came together and left me longing for things that have been a world of attachment-pain for me. It almost felt like… well… you know… being PARALYZED!!!

   The short story of this is that I was reminded that all kinds of people came to Jesus in all kinds of ways and if I felt paralyzed and alone I could call out to Jesus myself in the faith that he will not only make me well, but also make me someone who unites with others to bring other broken people to Jesus.

   So another prayer walk for a paralyzed soul, another “deeper” that already wonders what the next “higher” will be, and more hoping that being honest in my journey gives someone else the hope and faith that anyone can come to Jesus from wherever they are and however they find themselves.

   Jesus is the constant, and every story (historical account) of Scripture invites us to Jesus no matter how uniquely that means we must come.

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: The Faith That Prays for Paralyzed Souls

And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” (Mark 2:3-5)

 

   Since God’s word is truth, our hearts must be honest. There is no value in a “trying to be good” meeting with God through his word. Longing to be good? Yes. But we don’t come to God trying to be someone or something, we come to God wanting what he would do with us if we were honest about how we are doing.

   With that in mind, when I read this familiar passage, the thing that stood out was the way four men united around a friend in need with the faith that if they could just get him to Jesus the paralyzed man would be made well.

   I would never advocate a prayer meeting where people ripped open someone’s roof hoping that would help their prayers reach the throne of grace. That’s definitely not the point!

   Instead, I would love to see prayer groups with this kind of faith. We do have the “problem” of not having physical access to Jesus. He isn’t here in the flesh as he was back in the day. He is “God with us” by his Spirit, but his Spirit hasn’t set up a physical residence where we can bring paralyzed souls to experience freedom in Christ.

   Which exposes the problem I need to pray about: that the church is now “a holy temple in the Lord”, and we “are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:21-22), so the faith-barrier every congregation is dealing with is attaching to the Holy Spirit in our churches. 

   God dwells in his church, his holy temple “in the Lord”, and Satan’s great work is to keep people from uniting to meet with him there, and to have the faith that we can meet with God by his Spirit the same way those men met with Jesus through a hole in the roof.

   I’m going for my prayer walk at my usual time so it will be dark, at least for most of my walk. It is fitting to know that we are dealing with “the people walking in darkness” today as much as in Jesus’ day. They need to see the “great light”, which is the church as “the light of the world” because we have “Christ in us, the hope of glory”. Our faith really should reflect that reality, and our praying in faith should seek this with all our hearts.

   My prayer focus this morning will be an honest attachment to God about anything paralyzed regarding my faith because I want my faith to encourage and build up the faith of others. I want to see other believers unite, first for our own healing, but then so we can join God for the healing of any paralyzed souls who want us to bring them to Jesus. 

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: To Delight in Jesus Speaking His Word

And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. (Mark 2:1-2)

   When God speaks through his word, the Bible, there are two contexts I always have in mind. The first is the context of the Scripture I am reading. No matter how personally God applies his word to me, I never want to take it out of context or manipulate it to say things it doesn’t say or mean things it doesn’t mean. Anything that would make it MY word instead of GOD’s word steals what God will do through his word, not mine.

   But the other context is my life. Reading the Bible as God’s word is personal. Every day I learn things that apply to anything I am going through. When I first clued in to this about 32 years ago, God used one of the most painful seasons of my life to prove this to me, that his word truly is as “living and active” as his word claims (Hebrews 4:12).

   So, when it stood out to me this morning that Jesus spoke “the word to them”, I immediately felt both desperation and delight. The delight was that whatever Jesus was teaching was “the word”. The desperation was to know the word Jesus taught because I truly want to live “by every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (Matthew 4:4). And when Jesus spoke, that WAS coming from the mouth of God because Jesus is “the Word”![1]

   Jesus’ reply to the devil in Matthew 4:4 is particularly fascinating because we have Jesus as “the Word” emphasizing “every word” that comes from the mouth of God by using a Scripture from “the word” we now call the Old Testament where God was urging his people to live by “every word” he spoke to them. Methinks this means that “the word” we have in the Scriptures, the Bible, is the only way to live!

   I often find myself revisiting the verse I quoted from Isaiah 66:2, “But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” This verse itself should cause us to tremble at the word of God. The Almighty God looks over the whole of our universe from his existence within the whole of eternity. And yet he wants us to know that he also looks on an individual who is humble and contrite in spirit before him. He knows when we tremble at his word like a child marvelling at the infinite wonders of the greatest treasure in the whole wide world. And this is the most mindbogglingly wonderful thought in the world!

   That is how I felt when the spotlight fell on Jesus speaking “the word” to people. His word is life. His word is what we have in the Bible. We can live by every word that came from the mouth of God then, and that comes from the mouth of God as the Spirit teaches and reminds us of what is written.

   This suddenly reminds me that God first made me aware that I was “one to whom I will look” in 1965ish when I was seven years old. I looked up to the eastern sky over Sandspit, BC, and knew God was looking down on me. From there I heard his word knowing it was his. I came to trust in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. 

   And my testimony of growing up in my Savior is that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17), so let us continue listening to Jesus preaching “the word” to our souls, and live by whatever he teaches us each day. Someone needs to see us doing this.

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.) 

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[1] When we read anything to do with Jesus preaching and teaching “the word”, we are invited to picture it like “the Word” is speaking “the word”. John began his gospel with, 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:1-5) 

Jesus himself is “the Word”, the “image of God” who makes the Father known, so when we read “the word” he taught, we are to live by it as much as the Israelites were to live by the words of Yahweh in the Old Testament. 

On This Day: To Grapple with Jesus About Healing

And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once, and said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter. (Mark 1:40-45)

 

   Since we are the children, there is nothing wrong with us not knowing something. As long as we are willing to wait on God to teach us, and not run off in the wrong direction doing our own thing while we are waiting, it is good to be like children who don’t know the answers right now, but want the Holy Spirit to teach us the truth in love.

   So, what happens when we read of a leper coming to Jesus and all he had to say was, “If you will, you can make me clean”? Can we admit to longing for that without knowing for sure what would happen if we did the same thing?

   And what about when Jesus responded so simply with, “I will; be clean”? Can we admit to longing to hear such words as that even while not knowing how such a thing would be possible?

   One of the very good things about admitting we don’t know something is that it means we are not jumping aboard false doctrines because we think we need to decide between two opinions.

   In fact, this is a good place to add my soapbox message that so many church folk get tricked into picking between two opinions when there are really three. Most of the time I hear real conflicts over doctrine it is one pendulum-extreme arguing against the other. Both sides are partly right and partly wrong and we are told to pick a side. The whole while there is a plumbline of truth between the two that is often hated by both sides because it doesn’t agree with the “distinctives” of either group!

   When we consider healing in the Bible, and we rule out the pendulum extreme that says God doesn’t heal today, or he doesn’t give the spiritual gift of healing today, and we rule out the other pendulum extreme that turns healing into a circus of deception, we can sit at the plumbline like little children and ask Father how in the world we are supposed to know how to see Jesus working in and through our churches to heal people today.

   And when we also consider that we are the body of Christ through which he wants to do his work in others… well… that just gives us little children a lot more thoughts to grapple with in our quest to know and do the will of God!

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

 

On This Day: Prayer, Preaching, and Deliverance

And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons. (Mark 1:35-39)

 

   Most church folk are comfortable with the claim that we should be praying and preaching the gospel today. The “casting out demons” part… not so much.

   I would condense my story to the conclusion that God did not allow me to escape the issue. Demons and church folk were mixed together in my ministry, so I had to seek God about his will about both.

   My first point of testimony is that Jesus wants his church to be as “devoted to prayer” (Acts 2:42) as he was while here in the flesh. He still wants “this gospel of the kingdom” to “be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations” (Matthew 24:14). And because, “whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning”, we are to tell everyone that “the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).

   My second point of testimony is that the majority of church folk have not wanted any of these three if they required their participation. They may agree with the first two (prayer and preaching the gospel) but don’t see the necessity of doing these things themselves let alone uniting with the church to do them. And even more people do not want to consider whether they or anyone else needs help being freed from demonic oppression.

   One of the primary ways God has led me to understand the necessity of helping people experience freedom from the devil’s work is through the warnings we are given in Scripture about what Satan and his demons are trying to do to us. Here’s a summary:

1.     When Paul told us to “be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,” the same sentence continued, “and give no opportunity to the devil” (Ephesians 4:26-27).

2.    Paul warned the Corinthians that if they did not quickly deal with forgiving a man who was under church discipline, “he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow” and the church would be “outwitted by Satan”. And then he said something that is not so true for church folk today, “for we are not ignorant of his designs” (II Corinthians 2:5-11).

3.    In Ephesians 6:10-20, Paul gives us that amazing description of “the whole armor of God”. When he says, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil” (vs 11), it also means that if a church does not put on the whole armor of God, we won’t be able to stand against the devil’s schemes!

4.    When Peter told us, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (I Peter 5:8), it is because if we do not be sober-minded and watchful we will find the devil devouring people in our churches, the very thing we see left, right, and center!

   My simple premise is that, if Satan and his demons could not do these things to church folk, the New Testament wouldn’t need to give us warnings about them! The reason we are warned is because the danger is real. Most churches have people who have already lost the battle with the powers of darkness and keep it all to themselves because some big-name preacher told everyone Satan and demons can’t do anything to believers.

   My response is that if Jesus spent so much focus on destroying the works of the devil, and the Apostles warned us about how Satan is still doing his work against the church, then we must proclaim freedom in Christ from any kind of demonic oppression and be willing to join God in his work when people want to be delivered as Jesus’ promised.

   As I’ve shared this, I have also been praying my way through it, proclaiming to you the good news of great joy that we have a Savior who came to destroy the works of the devil, and inviting you to experience freedom in Christ no matter what is holding you back. Each of us either needs all three of these shared with us for our own freedom in Christ, or we have these things and need to pray and share all the good news with others around us.

   My conclusion is, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17). Let’s make sure that is the way people in our churches are experiencing God.

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: Silencing the Demons That Knew Jesus

That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. And the whole city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. (Mark 1:32-34)

   When I come to a text like this, my first thought is what it tells me about my Savior. And today, the Scriptures want me to consider Jesus as both healer and deliverer.

   However, it was characteristic of Jesus’ ministry that “he would not permit the demons to speak”. Here it is clarified that it was “because they knew him”. Jesus did not want their testimony. Although they knew him, they hated him and were working against him.

   This text does not tell us anything about how it applies to us today. Does Jesus still “heal many who are sick with various diseases”? Does Jesus still “cast out many demons”?

   The answer is “YES”! What Jesus initially did himself, and then continued through his apostles, has now been distributed throughout the church Jesus is building so that the Holy Spirit gives “spiritual gifts” for whatever ministry is needed.

   Here is my assessment of why we do not see more ministry that looks the way Jesus and the apostles did things: because Satan has so much success at getting Christians to fight among themselves instead of uniting to fight against him!

   Yes, the way Jesus did his work through his human body was by every part of his human body immediately joining him in whatever he set out to do. Not one cell of Jesus’ human body resisted his will.

   On the other hand, when Jesus wants to do his work through his spiritual body, his church, it’s a totally different story! Everyone (in a generalized kind of way) thinks we have a right to do only what we want and only when we want to do it. People imagine that we are free to avoid scary topics like healing and deliverance just because they make us uncomfortable to talk about. Church folks put limits on what God is allowed to do in their lives, who he can unite us with to do his work, and all kinds of manmade and childish specifics that we think we have the right to impose on God’s work.

   I do not have all the answers when people ask whether Jesus wants to heal everyone, or how we discern the difference between a disease in one person and demonization in another. But I know that God wants us “to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:1-3) so he can do his work through his spiritual body as he did it through his physical body.

   For today, will you join me in asking our Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord, how he wants to work through our places in the body of Christ to continue his saving work in others? And if you read this far and realize you are the one who needs Jesus’ ministry, do you know where to find members of the body of Christ who will pray with you and join God’s work in your life?

   And for all of us, God warns us in his word, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons” (I Timothy 4:1). This is why we must not listen to demons!

   Instead, Jesus told us to live by every word that comes from the mouth of God, and this is what we now have in the Scriptures, the Bible. 

   So, seek God in his word and prayer and ask him for whatever you need, listen to what he says in his word, and join him in whatever he shows you he is doing. And when you see it, be sure to tell people about what Jesus has done for you because you can be sure that Satan is sending his demons throughout the world to tell them quite a different story!

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

 

On This Day: When God Destroys the Destroyers

"The nations raged,
    but your wrath came,
    and the time for the dead to be judged,
and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints,
    and those who fear your name,
    both small and great,
and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”
(Revelation 11:18)

   My recent journey down the garden path of a book filled with false teachings shocked me with how blatantly someone would deny such a strong theme of Scripture as God’s justice against sinners and for his servants. The two are inseparable.

   This is not suggesting that some people are good and some people are bad so God rewards the good and judges the evil. There are simply two groups of people.

   The “nations” means those people throughout the world who have never come to Christ for salvation. When Jesus spoke of his return he said, “and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30). The “tribes of the earth” is synonymous with “the nations”. They will mourn and rage because Jesus’ appearing proves him to be the Son of God and that his judgment against the nations is inescapable.

   The other group is described as “your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great”. These are the people of all ages who have trusted in Yahweh, the God revealed in the Bible, and in Jesus Christ his Son. It summarizes the people of faith. Not one of these people is in this group because of good works. It is how God sees those he has redeemed by the blood of the new covenant.

   This group is pictured earlier in Revelation like this,

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:9-10).

   Notice that this distinguishes the tribes and nations that will mourn with rage at Jesus’ second coming from those who are FROM the nations and tribes of the earth. Of these Paul wrote, “He has delivered us FROM the domain of darkness and transferred us TO the kingdom of his beloved Son, IN whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14). Their unanimous declaration is that they are there to celebrate the salvation that belongs to the Triune God. They could not stand before God’s throne apart from this salvation.

   Right after Jesus told Nicodemus, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”, he added, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:16-17). Jesus was telling people that his first coming was not to bring condemnation, but to secure salvation.

   However, he then immediately clarified, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (vs 18). He was not there to condemn the world in his first coming, but he made clear that the world was already condemned. And it is that world that will mourn with anger when he comes again to condemn the world and gather his elect to himself.

   The “good news of great joy that will be for all the people” is that we now have “a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). Have you repented and trusted in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? If you have, are you sharing the good news that there is still time for people to turn to Jesus Christ and be saved from the day of God’s wrath?

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: A Light Read for Dwellers in Darkness

Who among you fears the LORD
    and obeys the voice of his servant?
Let him who walks in darkness
    and has no light
trust in the name of the LORD
    and rely on his God.
Behold, all you who kindle a fire,
    who equip yourselves with burning torches!
Walk by the light of your fire,
    and by the torches that you have kindled!
This you have from my hand:
    you shall lie down in torment.
(Isaiah 50:10-11)

 

   Today’s Scripture stood out as a bittersweet contrast between the darkness dwellers who look to God as their light, and those who look to themselves. My focus turned to how this prophecy was fulfilled during Jesus’ ministry in the way people responded to him then, and to what Scripture says about the way we will see this in our world even now.

   Here are a few more Scriptures that encourage us to be sure that we come into God’s light through Jesus Christ and walk in that light no matter how dark the world gets.

   Psalm 18:28 encouraged God’s people to declare, “For it is you who light my lamp; the LORD my God lightens my darkness.” God’s children recognize that God our Father is the only source of light, and we strive to know him this way as our world grows increasingly dark all around us.

   Psalm 118:27 adds, “The LORD is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us.” This is why we trust in the Lord from our darkness. He is light, and he has made his light shine upon his people. This was true then, but it was expressed so gloriously when Jesus Christ came as “the light of the world”. God has truly made his light shine upon us!

   And here is a motivation that encourages us in the here-and-now because of what we will experience in the there-and-then of paradise, “And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Revelation 21:23). We will see with our own eyes everything the Scriptures teach about Jesus as the image of the invisible God, the radiance of his glory, and the exact imprint of his divine nature. Glorious!

   God’s people do not need to fabricate lights in the darkness. Instead, “we walk in the light, as he is in the light,” and while doing that “we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (I John 1:7).

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

On This Day: To Fear God is to Obey Jesus

“Who among you fears the LORD
    and obeys the voice of his servant?
Let him who walks in darkness
    and has no light
trust in the name of the LORD
    and rely on his God.”
(Isaiah 50:10)

 

   When I speak of God’s word “rhyming”, it is parallel to what we think of with rhyming sounds. In English poetry or song, rhyming words means they are not identical but they sound similar in a way that emphasizes them.

   In the same way, much of our Old Testament, particularly the Psalms, Proverbs, and Prophets, write sentences in two parts where one thought rhymes with the other. The expressions are sometimes synonymous, saying the same thing (there, I just rhymed the thoughts). Other times they are opposites, but still rhyming in thought. I won’t elaborate here, but I share this because when we hear the rhyming of thoughts in these Scriptures, it adds an emphasis in our minds that is parallel to the way we rhyme in English by using words that end with the same sounds.

   For the rest of this, let me share some Scriptures that show how Jesus affirmed the prophecy above by showing how we cannot have a relationship with God apart from an “obedience of faith” relationship with Jesus Christ our Lord.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” (John 5:24)

“For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:40)

They said to him therefore, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”  (John 8:19)

I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.” They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father. (John 8:27)

“If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” (John 10:37-38)

“If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:10-11)

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. (John 15:12)

“O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:25-26)

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

On This Day: The Case Where Everyone Was on Trial

 

    He who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
    Let us stand up together.
Who is my adversary?
    Let him come near to me.
Behold, the Lord GOD helps me;
    who will declare me guilty?
Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment;
    the moth will eat them up. (Isaiah 50:8-9)

 

   This prophecy helps me picture Jesus in his trial leading to his crucifixion. And it added a new dimension I hadn’t thought of before, that everyone in attendance as an accuser was on trial with him.

   It is fascinating to picture Jesus thinking these thoughts as he was silent before his accusers. And what a gift to have the Scriptures telling us the whole story, that his silence was a declaration of his challenge to them. He did not need to defend himself. He needed to fulfill he divine plan and let them bear their own guilt for what they did to him.

   When I consider how this is an example to me, I picture the Savior discipling me in how to trust in God while being falsely accused or unfairly treated.

   First, I am to trust in the Triune God who will vindicate me as their child, and who will help me through everything I face. I have been justified by the blood of Jesus Christ, and there is no one who can declare me guilty before God, not even the devil himself (although he tries every day!).

   Second, I can call any accuser to stand with me before God because God is perfect in his judgment. Anyone who accuses me of anything is just as much on trial with God as me. This is why I love to keep short accounts with God about my sins. Whenever I confess my sins to God, he is faithful and just to forgive me, and to purify me from the unrighteousness of my sin, so I can always come before his throne of grace with confidence knowing that my God will always help me in my time of need (I John 1:9; Hebrews 4:16).

   The two New Testament Scriptures that come to mind with this prophecy are these, and I will let them speak for themselves:

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31-39)

And,

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:8-11)

 

© 2024 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)