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The following
is a collection of three
different short messages
calling for repentance
and revival
1) "Broken Spirit" & "Christian" - Synonymous?
Characteristics of a
Broken Spirit
A Christian is one who has to have a broken spirit. If our
spirit hasn't been broken, how can we call ourselves Christians? It
violates the principal of death to self in Christ (Romans Ch. 6;
Galatians 2:20).
Is our spirit broken? Wouldn't a broken spirit detest
things in opposition to God? How can we listen to music with profanity
and immorality, and D.J.'s who joke about sexual immorality, if our
spirit has been broken? How? How can we joke about doing things that
involve iniquity? Shouldn't those things repel us? My spirit cries out
to keep those things far from my heart and mind. How can insults "in
jest" be from a broken spirit (Eph. 5:4)? How can a wife not honor and
obey her husband, if her spirit is broken? How can we seek to hurt
another? How can we boast of ourselves and our accomplishments with the
hope of showing ourselves better than the one we're boasting to? How
can we toy with non-Christian fellowships, dating or otherwise?
I fear the influence of my non-Christian contacts in life.
I pray that I not be corrupted, for I realize my vulnerability.
12 Wherefore let him that
thinketh he standeth take heed
lest he fall.
1 Corinthians 10:12
33 Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good
manners.
1 Corinthians 15:33
If we have such confidence in ourselves, we're not broken.
If we don't really care, we're obviously not broken either.
True Religion Must Have A
Broken Spirit
We talk about acts of love such as helping someone in need,
or doing something to make someone's day. Our
religion may seem fine and well, but what good is it without a broken
spirit? It's a work, but let us not dare call it the product of a
broken spirit. To call ourselves by that honorable title that bears His
name, "Christian" is indeed a misnomer without a broken spirit.
26 If any man among
you seem to be religious, and bridleth
not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is
vain. 27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this,
To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep
himself unspotted from the world.
James 1:26,27
Priorities To Be The
Kingdom of Heaven, Not the Kingdom of This World
How strange it is, when those who claim to bear His name
consider us with an air of disgust if we're ignorant of the current
news. Between working a job, spending time with our family, spending
time with God, and a number of other necessary things, it's difficult
to regularly watch T.V. and the news. I can't help but wonder if
contempt shouldn't be going the other way. A broken spirit sets the
first things as priorities. It seems peoples' ideas are, "Oh, you know
the Bible - impressive! but what, you don't know the news!?" Oh that it
were the other way around!
Abnormality? From Who's
Perspective?
In the Church, there's such confusion. The behavior pattern
of one with a broken spirit is now considered to be that of the
religious zealot. The person you take with a grain of salt, or worse -
avoid because their ideas become too judgmental against the life-styles
of church members.
This might be classified along with Lamentations. Jeremiah
felt pain and anger over the society of his day. How can we, in our
present society, feel otherwise? Is what we see in the life-styles of
those who call themselves Christians, the product of these many
churches we see around us? We have forgotten humility, we have
forgotten a broken spirit.
2) A Bright Future?
A Taste of the World
I overheard a TV program. This is the second prime-time
family oriented show I've seen (or heard) that dealt with the subject
of the teenager committing fornication. They espoused the philosophy
that it's all right if you really love the person and are mature
enough. Not once did they mention God (surprisingly not even in vain),
however they did swear. These producers and writers feel they can
ignore God and what He says about morality. The act before marriage
being fornication wasn't mentioned. The basis of ones "really" loving a
person ending, as an evidence of that love, in marriage wasn't
mentioned. Real love being willing to sacrifice in vows before God and
man wasn't mentioned. Even though I realize how our society believes
like these shows teach, I never fail to be shocked.
Fantasies of the Future
We feel we're zipping along into some futuristic superior
society where we've shaken ourselves free from archaic ways: "No more
superstitious belief in demons, no more hard-nosed rules of an
over-righteous community, no more lack of civilization by having the
death penalty for everything from rape to murder. Oh yes, we understand
psychological problems, treat these people medically."
We see wonderful panoramas like those one might see in Buck
Rogers or some Sci-Fi program. We stand gazing into the sunrise of
tomorrow, while from behind comes the storm clouds billowing overhead.
We can't hear the thundering wrath of God that's mounting over our
iniquities, not until the lightening strikes. Even then I have to
wonder and doubt that we'll realize the storm is because of God's
wrath. Judah didn't when they were carried away as exiles to Babylon
(see book of Jeremiah). (See the tract "The Coming Storm", on Psalm 50.)
But The Blood Is Still On
Our Hands
12 And
they went out, and preached that men should
repent.
Mark 6:12
This nation has had such opportunity and
has thrown so much
away. God's Word is freely available, yet we're so ignorant of it. We
don't remove the blood of murder victims from our hands by properly
executing the murderers. We forbid prayer in schools and teaching of
the ways of the Highest
Authority. We slaughter millions of unborn children. Were the
Philistines that burnt their children to idols any more barbaric and
worthy of condemnation than we are? We force employers to hire
homosexuals without discrimination. We might as well force them to hire
murderers. Give them a fair break, huh? We think we're the good guys
and China the bad guy. Isn't that what Judah thought of Babylon when
they carried them away (which was by God's appointment)? Our time of
whatever our judgment may be is nearing, and we have no one to blame
but ourselves.
3) Do You Care About God?
Questions of Eternal Worth
So many in our society think so little about God. About
those on fire for God, they think, "Why do they have to be so
religious?" I have to ask the following, and wonder that their own
conscience doesn't force them to this series of questions:
For the Unconverted
Is there a God? If so, is He the God told about in the
Bible? If you accept that He is, then knowing that you will someday
come face to face with Him (as the Bible tells us) don't you think,
"I'd better find out what He expects of me?" Knowing the Bible tells
the answer, don't you consider it worthwhile to examine it to find the
answer? If you don't, how do you think He'll respond to that answer? If
you don't put full weight upon the words you read in the Bible, then
you really don't believe they are authoritatively the Word of God. How
can you live knowing He tells you to do one thing and yet do another?
Surely you lightly esteem God.
Apathy and self-deism, these are the ruling factors that
determine our response, if we believe the Bible, yet haven't turned to
Him. Please, please ask yourself the questions and push through the
answers to their inevitable conclusion. Your soul is at stake and a
relationship which the world knows nothing of.
For the Converted
If you think you have responded to God's demands in the
Bible, yet you feel that if you say a prayer a day and read your Bible
you're going on in a wonderful walk with God, then ask yourself these
questions:
Do you desire to learn more about God? His ways and His
demands? Do you enjoy things oriented on God? Do you prefer things
oriented on God? Are you always thinking, "What would Jesus do or have
me to do?" Are you satisfied where you are in your walk with God or do
you want more? Are you seeking more? Do you love God, or just knowing
you're on the right side? Are you willing to work to get closer to Him
and learn more about Him? Must you be spoon-fed or will you seek more
nourishment?
Your answer to the spoon-fed question shows your desire for
God. How would others answer these questions about you? If you're on
fire for God, shouldn't it be obvious to others? We know what Jesus
said of the lukewarm. If your answers aren't as you know they should
be, repent, for that is what's called for. This sickened state is
actually called sin in the Bible - Revelation 3:14-22. God loves you,
don't throw Him away.
Word's Whose Message Can't
Be Denied
Let God's own words sink deep into your heart:
9 Only take heed to
thyself, and keep thy soul diligently
lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they
depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy
sons, and thy son's sons:
Deuteronomy 4:9
4 Hear, O Israel: the
LORD our God is one LORD. 5 And thou
shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy might. 6 And these words, which I command thee
this day, shall be in thine heart: 7 And thou shalt teach them
diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest
in thine house and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest
down, and when thou risest up. 8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign
upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. 9
And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy
gates.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
15 I know thy
works, that thou are neither cold nor hot: I
would thou wert cold or hot. 16 So then because thou are lukewarm, and
neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Revelation 3:15,16
Psalm 119:2,10,15,16,20,24,36,40,47,48,59,
60,92,97,103,131,140,143,147,148,164 look at the attitude towards God's
Word.
(For a study format of this last message, see "Christian Growth
Questions" available in tract form for classroom lessons, with a
Leader's Guide and a Response Sheet.)
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Free to Copy under Creative Commons BY-NC-ND3.0 License by Darrell Farkas