In whose name?

Revelation 3:12

He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.

Deuteronomy 12New King James Version (NKJV)

10 But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety, 11 then there will be the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to the Lord.12 And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion nor inheritance with you.

I was about thirty when I was shown what the mark of the beast is. About the same time I attended a PK rally. Promises Keepers is a men only annual day conference ministry that was big then. I resisted going for a few years   because I thought it was weird , maybe I was to feminized, anyway I went and it was mostly good however after I paid my $60 entry fee I was given a logo emblazened plastic wrist band to wear which is quite a common practice at such public events I would think. The only trouble is I hadn't even been inside to hear the message and they wanted to own me at the door. Well I was probably the only person have a problem with this that day or since but at the time I wouldn't wear it, I put it in my pocket and had to pull it out to show security every time we had to re-enter the event. If you had more money at your disposal than I had at the time it was possible to by the tee shirts coffee mugs and even PK bibles.  Some of the men from my church bought some of this merchandise and they would wear the tee shirts to church on Sunday's and encourage every man to attend the conferences. I really went on the strength of the recommendation of a particular man that  I looked up to. But I never went again. 

I worked on dairy farm at the time and I enjoyed  and learned a lot from working with the cows. I quickly realized though that the factory farming of the modern age is a long way from the cute little farms that I loved reading about in children's books. At an interview for a previous job the owners of the farm impressed strongly upon me that it theirs was business not a lifestyle.. The cows are property from the moment they are conceived and if you take your breeding seriously you ear mark the newborn females as soon as possible after birth so as to correctly identify the the mother with the right calf. I did my best to regard the lives of the animals but the fact remains that they are essentially milk slaves.

Well Christ set me free from slavery and I knew I now belonged to Him so I didn't want to be the property of anyone else or wear their mark.
Coming to an understanding of these things I went on a crusade at least as far as me an my house  to get rid of all brands. It was a legalistic pursuit  but I couldn't get rid of the idea of how perfect it would be to live in this world without a single brand in my house or person, so I removed the brand off my car and cut the tags out of my clothes and unpicked embroidered logos and if I could remove them I would color over them with a red  permanent marker so they would be under the blood. I only managed to keep it up for a short while before I ran out of energy mean while my wife and everyone else thought I was mad. Maybe they were right. 

The thing I have taken out of it though is that it is for freedom that Christ set us free and we ought to let no man or woman take us captive. I know who my Master is and I am happy to wear His mark . They fall into a trap who make merchandise of Christ because they have stolen the intellectual property that they are selling and they are selling it under another name. Nobody from promise keepers died for me to release me from the power of sin and death, therefore there remains only one name to be lifted up as Moses lifted up to brass serpent in the wilderness. As Jesus said if I be lifted up I will draw all men to myself.

The elephant in the room

I wanted take my wife out to eat the other night for our aniversary. We were going to go to the Thai restaurant. We like the food and have a discount voucher so everything should have been fine but alas I had some misgivings. I have been inside the restaurant to get takeaway so I know they have a massive in your face shrine in there the becomes the focus of the room. I was sort of planning how I could raise the issue of the Idol with the owners sensitively more with a purpose of finding out if they offer the food served to this false god than evangelizing them. This may have been selfish but I dont like making non christians feel ackward. Anyway as we where parking outside I noticed that they now have a image of their god outside as part of their advertising, well that was to much for me we got back in the car and went to an establishment that has invisible idols so we didnt have to be put off our dinner.
As WASP we mostly like to keep our idols to the invisible kind because its harder for anyone to level a charge of idolatry against us having not witnessed us bowing down to any actual statue. All the more so when very few people are willing to do this important work of calling a spade a spade.
I believe we all have personal  idols still though we may put them in the cupboard when we ask Jesus into our hearts but some times if we feel Jesus isnt doing enough to satisfy us we can go back to the idols to complain about Him. Santificaton is to me the process where we progessively open every secret corner and hideway of our selves to the Holy Spirit and smash every hidden idol we find with the hammer of Gods truth. This can be painful because we can have strong attachment to some of these idols.
Thats personal idols. That is difficult enough.

 When large groups of people get together and all bow down to the same idol and call it Christ it is even harder for anyone to point out the true nature of elephant in the room.

I wise man once said "I don't generally believe we should or can christianize a pagan holy day."

The same goes for any idea invention or system. If it came from pagan origins it will lead to a pagan desitinaton no matter how many Jesus stickers we try to stick on it along the way.l
As Christians we all have pagan origin but myst be totally transformed by rebirth and Santificaton to enter eternal life.
Education is not a pagan idea it was started by christians to reach out to children who were either without believing parents or whos parents were neglecting their duty to raise their children in the knowledge of God. This is just obedience to the great commission this is done in the authority of Jesus.
Somewhere along the line though education has been hajacked by secular humanists the state has assumed control of it by controlling the funding and teachers qualifications and the curriculum etc.
The authority to do all this has been usurped by the states it has not been given to them by God and christian teachers now walk a very fine line in terms of legitimate authority being empowered by a state which has stolen its authority.

If we want God to empower our ministry which we certainly do we must do it in His authority without requiring an unequal yolking with secular powers. Jesus is king all by Himself and won't share His glory with another. He doesn't need the government's help or money to make disciples.
If the good work we are doing turns out to be wood hay and stubble I pray that we are not so heavily invested in it that we can't step away when the consuming fire tests its worth.

Junk mail

Isn't wanted. After going to great lengths to try and reunite a misdelivered Crisco catalog with its rightful but apathetic owner. I paused to consider why this might be. After all the sender had taken the trouble to develop a product, print a catalog and send at their own cost a presentation of their offerings personally addressed. Why arent these sacrifices they have made valued?

Because ultimately the sender of junk mail doesn't know you or care about your life. They are really seeking to convert you into a unit of their own support either by honest trading or tricky and deceit. 

Many people in our world treat Gods message the same as junk mail.

Believers know its value but for outsiders their response to the Gospel is often the same as to any other unsolicited promotional material. They throw it in the trash and move on with their life.
God wants His people to deliver the Gospel to witness it in such a way as to convince those outside Christ that the Sender of this message does know them intimately and care about their life enough to sacrifice His most precious son. 

If course God openly wants to convert each new disiple into a glory bringer for Himself but in this humility lies our greatest forfillment. The common human failure to acknowledge first of all the existance but more the Greatness of God is the reason that the psalmist wrote.

Psalm 14King James Version (KJV)

14 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

Proverbs 9:10New International Version (NIV)

10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
    and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Even Jesus humbled Himself in this way..

John 14:28New International Version (NIV)

28 “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father,for the Father is greater than I.

Coming to a right perspective of who we are and who God is in comparison is the birth of wisdom for any soul. We are small and sinful and God is Great and Holy, anyone who seeks wisdom must allow themselves to be humbled by these truths. Its this neccesity for humility that makes the Gospel a stumbling stone for many. And we  can witness the Gospel in no better way than to practice it always.  

The message of the Gospel is one of Love and restored relationship offered to those who can humble themselves and give glory to God. The benefits of uptaking this offer are out of this world and unreachable outside of Christ since every reedemed believer owes Him our lives twice for which we couldn't pay once. It is very far away from junk mail. May we live to make them see this.