God is Faithful

Recently Colene set us to the task of cleaning out our attic. That’s twelve years of accumulation of STUFF from this house and STUFF carried over from 13 years in Ahwatukee. The next hour I spent crouched in the attic handing down countless boxes. Thirty one of the boxes were costumes from our KONOS Homeschool days. This represented 60% of the STUFF in the attic. However during this process I discovered a long lost box of Lewis relative family photos. These pictures go back over 80 years, included a number of pictures of my mother and myself as a young child. Wow what a find. I could hardly wait to pour over the photos and documents.

An hour into the photos and papers I came across one well worn 5 x 9 manila envelop. It turned out that this envelope was populated by my mother. It contained a number of items important to her. There were two letters: one from Aunt Stella, and one written by me a few years after my salvation in 1972. There was a 5th grade award for mom’s perfect attendance that year, and a junior high promotion certificate.

In addition, there was her marriage certificate, a romantic telegram from my father, newspaper clippings of my teen golf and bowling exploits, a curl cut from my head at the age of three and my discharge paper from the hospital after my birth. The name on the discharge paper was Boy Lewis. Mom told me stories that my dad wanted to initially name me Breck after the shampoo dad sold. This would have been a tough name to carry especially after Rush Limbaugh’s relentless parody of John Edwards as the “Breck Girl.”

But of all the items in the envelope, Aunt Stella’s letter would prove to be a god sent shedding light on a nagging fear about my mother.

Aunt Stella and her husband Raleigh were saved in the 30’s under the ministry of Amy Semple McPherson. Aunt Stella had the heart of an evangelist. Anyone who spent more than a minute with her would be warmly and tactfully introduced to the Savior.

Over the years after becoming a Christian I constantly shared with my family. I was deeply burdened for all of them. It wasn’t unusual for me to spend hours in fervent tearful prayers on their behalf. I led Grandma Lewis and my dad to the Lord. However, even though I was close to my mother she would prove to be the hardest to win.

I constantly witnessed to her, I took her to church, Gospel Echoes. I took her to Kathryn Kuhlman crusades. Mom was even miraculously healed of cancer while awaiting surgery. The hospital staff apologized to her when her pre surgery x-rays did not show the malignancy that had appeared just days before. After that point when I talked with her about the love of Jesus she would weep.

My mother’s would not be so fortunate with her next hospital stay several years later. While in the hospital with a liver condition she slipped and hit her head and lost consciousness. In her catatonic state I talked, shared and prayed with her. After several heroic surgeries by the best surgeons at St Joseph’s Hospital mom passed on. Adding to the grief of losing mom was the nagging doubt about her eternal state, a doubt that has plagued me these 24 years since her passing.

I don’t know why I began reading Stella’s letter to mom the other night. However while reading I came across this portion of text on page 2 that read “I was so happy that you accepted the Lord that morning when I was talking to you on the phone.” That night the day dawned on 24 years of questioning. Think about it, the answer was always close at hand, in the attic, right above the garage where I daily parked my car.

God is faithful. Doesn’t His Word say; it is a lamb for a household (Exodus 12:3) and Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household. (Acts 16:31)

Marvelous Justification

As marvelous, beautiful, life changing, essential, God exalting and foundational as justification by faith is, it is merely our introduction into the grace of God.

Romans 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, (2) through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.

Wow! No wonder Paul prays for the Ephesians “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him” (Eph 1:17).

Since justification is the introduction it behooves us to not stop at the foot of the cross but to press on into Romans 6, & 8 and sanctification and life in the Spirit.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones in his book The New Man (an Exposition of Romans chapter 6) states, “There is nothing, perhaps, in the whole range and realm of doctrine which, if properly understood, give greater assurance, greater comfort, and greater hope that this doctrine of our union with Christ. P30

OUT OF THE MOUTH OF INFANTS AND NURSING BABIES …… and Jack Nicklaus

On the subject of the age integration it is amazing that even the world of sports can get the drift before the church.

Jack Nicklaus had the following observation

“Sports today are not a pretty thing. There are problems more off the field than on the field week after week after week. I don't think we've had that [in golf, because] I think it's the nature of the sport and the way the kids grow up. Kids are forced to be involved with adults at an early age. To go play a golf course, you have to mix in with older people. You have to learn how to behave at an early age or they never get there.”

Timeless Thought from Martin Luther

I recently ran across a quote by Martin Luther. The first time I heard the citation was from an old friend, Kent Johnson, director of Legislative Affairs for Arizona Families for Home Education in the early 90s. It impacted me then and it impacts me now.

Kent was a seminarian and spokesperson/debater for the pro life movement. He used this quote in reference to those ministers who would not make a stand for the unborn child but simply stated their call was to “preach the Gospel.” I would add along with standing for the unborn, that today we need to stand for the definition of marriage.

"If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing him. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point."

Twenty-one Benefits of Speaking in Tongues

1. We glorify and exalt God
Acts 2:11 Cretans and Arabs -- we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the “mighty deeds of God." Acts 10:46 For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God.

2. We speak to God
1 Corinthians 14:2 For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God; for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries. What a privilege to have one on one with God.

3. It is another way to sing
1 Corinthians 14:15 …. I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also. “O for a thousand tongues to sing My great redeemer's praise,” Right on, John Wesley!

4. It is another way to pray
1 Corinthians 14:15 What is the outcome then? I will pray with the spirit … When you know not how to pray with your understanding pray with your spirit.

5. We enter into praying in the Holy Spirit
Praying in the spirit and with the Spirit can be one and the same faith building experience since Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:15, I will pray with the spirit and again in 1 Corinthians 6:17 he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. And finally we are instructed in Jude 1:20 to build ourselves up on our most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.

6. Its a way to bless
1Corinthians 14:16 Otherwise if you bless in the spirit only, how will the one who fills the place of the ungifted say the "Amen" at your giving of thanks, since he does not know what you are saying? Paul says one who speaks in tongues blesses. The issue in this verse is that the “ungifted” non interpreter doesn’t know when or why to say amen.

7. We give thanks well
1 Corinthians 14: 17 For you are giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not edified. Even though the ungifted is not edified by hearing uninterrupted tongues Paul points out that the gifted still gives thanks well.

8. It is one of several signs of a believer
Mark 16:17 These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues….

9. It assures the skeptical
Acts 10:45 All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. 46 For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Peter before the leaders of the Jerusalem Church - Acts 11:15 "And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as He did upon us at the beginning. 16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. The circumcised believers who accompanied Peter and the skeptical Jerusalem church were convinced of God’s acceptance of the gentiles in Cornelius’ home because they were baptized in the Holy Spirit as evidenced by their speaking in tongues. This is similar to the Pentecostal believers of the late 1960s accepting Catholics and main line protestant believers because they were being baptized in the Holy Spirit evidenced by their speaking in tongues.

10. It is part of an effective evangelistic package
Acts 2:11 Cretans and Arabs -- we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the “mighty deeds of God." Acts 2:41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. After gaining the Jewish Cretan and Arabs attention through the sign of tongues, Peter launched into his sermon and 3000 souls were saved.

11. It edifies and builds you up
1 Corinthians 14:4 One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself…. We all need to be edified and built up in our faith anything else is self-sufficiency.


12. It is God’s desire
1 Corinthians 14:1 Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts . Tongues is one of the gifts to be desired. 1 Corinthians 14:5 Now I wish that you all spoke in tongues…. God’s wish and desire is that we all speak in tongues.

13. We are one gift shy of being in position of edifying the church
1 Corinthians 14:12 So also you, since you are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek to abound for the edification of the church. 13 Therefore let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. Not only does God want us to speak in tongues but also to interpret so we can bless others in the church.

14. It opens the door to the gift of interpretation
1 Corinthians 14:13 Therefore let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. God wants those with the prerequisite gift of tongues to also interpret.

15. It assists God’s admonition of not forbidding speaking in tongues
1 Corinthians 14:39 Therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak in tongues.

16. It is one gift that the believer can turn on and off at will
1 Corinthians 14:15 I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also. In the same way that Paul determined when he would pray or sing with his understanding / mind he also determined when he would pray or sing (in tongues) with his spirit.

17. It is evidence of fulfillment of prophesy
Acts 2:14 But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them: "Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give heed to my words. 15 "For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day; 16 but this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel: 17 `AND IT SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS,´ God says, `THAT I WILL POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT ON ALL MANKIND; AND YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY, AND YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE VISIONS, AND YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS;

18. It is evidence and witness to the resurrection
Acts 2:32 This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. 33 Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear. Every time you pray and sing in tongues it is a reminder of the Lord’s resurrection. He is alive!

19. It yields to God our most unruly member
James 3:6 And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.

20. It is evidence of the baptism in the Holy Spirit
2 Tim 3:16 says all scripture is profitable for doctrine. Therefore theology informed by the Gospels, and the five accounts in Acts meets the requirements for doctrine on this subject. There are five occurrences in the Book of Acts; Act 2:1-4, Acts 8:5-7,12-21, Acts 9:17-20, Acts 10:44-48, Acts 19:1-6. In Acts2, 10 and 19 tongues was the clear first expression of receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 8, Simon saw or heard something that made him willing to buy from Peter the ability to impart the Holy Spirit. Peter’s rebuke Simon stating, You have no part or portion in this matter (utterance)- Acts8:21. In Acts 9 when Paul was Baptized in the Holy Spirit we are only told of his miraculous healing, however we do know that Paul spoke, in tongues more than you all (1 Cor 14:18). All occurrence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is followed by a supernatural manifestation visible to all.

21. It tends to be a first expression gateway gift to all the other gifts
Following the reasoning of items 14 and 20 above we must walk before we run. Tongues appears to be the norm in our first gifting.

Not bad for the so called “least” of the gifts!

Confession

The New Testament has much to say about the role of confession in the life of the believer. I did a simple search of the New American Standard version with my Bible software of every occurrence and variation of the word confess in the New Testament. I got 30 hits and 27 verses. This brings forth the questions; What are we to confess? What should be the emphasizes of our confession? What aspect of our confession should capture the affections of our mind, will and emotions.

An aggregate of the 30 occurrences broke down as follows. Five times it related to personal confession of sin. Four times it merely brought clarification. Three times it references Christ confessing us before the Father. Eighteen times it relate to some aspect of the believer confessing the Kingdom of God, Christ and / or the Gospel. The overwhelming emphases is God centered not man centered. It is more about Him and less about us.

Of the five occurrences of confession of sin, two are in the Gospels and are in preparation for the revealing of the Messiah. One is in Acts dealing with new believer’s initial commitment to Christ. One is in James in context of sin connected to physical healing. The final one in 1 John exhorts those inclined toward Gnosticism to confess, or rather to agree with God about acts in the flesh defined in scriptures as sin.

Also, I found it very interesting that no where in the writings of Paul does he ever state that we are to confess our sins. This should bring many questions to mind. What is the role of confession in forgiveness of the believer? How are we to progress in our sanctification? Is this an oversight on Paul’s part, or does Paul know and practice something we don’t understand.

Paul talks about knowing (we were crucified), reckoning (we are truly dead to sin) and presenting are bodies to God (through the Spirit’s power) for godly living. When accused of being soft on sin Paul recoils at the thought “How can dead men sin?” (my paraphrase). On the subject of sin the rest of his writing can be summed up “Stop Sinning!”

However what Paul does seem to stress in confession is that we acknowledge or confess all the benefit derived from being in Christ. Consider Philemon 6, “That the communication of your faith may be made effectual through the acknowledging of every good thing in you in the Lord.” Perhaps that type of confession should become a regular activity for us.

In Christ Confessions from Paul of The Benefits of The Gospel

Romans 5:1 we have peace with God
Romans 5:5 we have the Holy Spirit
Romans 5:9 we are saved from the God’s wrath
Romans 6:6 our sinful nature is immobilized
Romans 6:18 we are slave of righteousness.
Romans 7:6 we serve in newness of the Spirit
Romans 8:2 we are free from the law of sin and of death
Romans 8:37 we are overwhelmingly conquerors
Romans 8:9 we are in the Spirit
Romans 8:11 our bodies are quickened by the Spirit
Romans 8:16 we are children of God
Romans 8:28 for us all things to work together for good
Romans 10:11 we will not be disappointed
Romans 15:14 we are filled with all knowledge
1 Corinthians 1:5 we have enhanced speech and knowledge
1 Corinthians 1:7 we lack no spiritual gifts
1 Corinthians 1:8 we will be confirmed blameless
1 Corinthians 1:30 He is our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption
1 Corinthians 2:16 we have the mind of Christ
1 Corinthians 3:22 all things belong to us
1 Corinthians 6:2 we will judge the world
1 Corinthians 12:7 we have the manifestation of the Spirit
1 Corinthians 14:26 each has a psalm, teaching, revelation, tongue, or an interpretation
2 Corinthians 2:14 we always triumph
2 Corinthians 5:17 we are a new creation
2 Corinthians 5:21 we are the righteousness of God
Ephesians 1:3 we are blessed with every spiritual blessing
Ephesians 1:4 we were chosen before time to be holy and blameless
Ephesians 1:5 we are predestined for adoption
Ephesians 1:7 we have redemption, and forgiveness
Ephesians 1:11 we are predestined for an inheritance
Ephesians 1:13 we are sealed with the Holy Spirit
Ephesians 2:5 we are made alive to God
Ephesians 2:6 we are seated now in heaven
Ephesians 2:10 we are His workmanship
Ephesians 2:13 we have been brought near to God
Ephesians 2:19 we are citizens of God's household
Ephesians 3:20 His power performs for us far beyond our thinking
Philippians 4:13 we can do all things through Christ
Colossians 1:13 we have been translated from domain of darkness, and transferred to His kingdom
Colossians 1:15 on our behalf He disarmed the demonic rulers and authorities
2 Timothy 1:7 we have not a spirit of fear, but of power and love and sound mind
Titus 2:11 His grace empowers us to deny ungodliness, worldly desires and to live godly

The Passing of a Great Man of God

Recently Colene and I attended a memorial service for Pastor Charles McHatton . Dr. McHatton pastored the first church I attended after being saved. He also performed the marriage ceremony for Colene and me, and dedicated Heather, our oldest daughter. He had a profound impact on our lives.

During the service a number of pastors shared the impact he had on their lives. I remembered when most of these guys gave their hearts to Christ. Also I grew in grace and power with them through the church bible college we all attended.

Listening to them caused me to recount many of those early impact-full days. Some of those items that flooded my mind that evening were:

• No matter what he preached, people always went forward for salvation. It seemed always more than a dozen.
• Pastor McHatton was never soft on sin. His sayings such as “you can’t play fast and loose with God,” still ring in my heart and divert me from sin.
• He was considered the Pastor’s Pastor. He counseled many pastors in the Valley.
• At the downtown Phoenix 1st Baptist Church, which we rented for more than a year during construction of our building, I witnessed several occasions when people wondered in off the street moaning and pleading to be saved.
• I heard prophetic words of such detail that husbands were singled out for ignoring their honey by putting off fixing a broken kitchen screen door. Church was scary. We always confessed our sins or anything resembling sin before entering the church doors. If God remembered our sins no more surely the Spirit would honor the promise.
• I saw occult items brought and abandoned before the pastoral team. What a eerie, but liberating feeling we experienced as they were destroyed.
• I saw demon possessed people attack the pastor on several occasions.
• I saw demons cast out of people and their lives transformed.
• I participated in casting out demons. Observation… In the Gospels and the book of Acts casting out demons was a given. My question is, where have all the demons gone? How would we explain this to the seekers and those predisposed to predictability and outcome control. What would our fully reformed brothers think of us?
• The only supernatural things I did not personally experience my first three years as a Christian was raising the dead, and not succumbing to eating deadly things. Although surviving my diet as a young single man may cause me to reconsider that miracle.
• Weekly people were healed of diseases and many were verifiable like healing of blind eyes and deaf ears. McHatton would always tell us “healing is the children’s bread”
• Communion services not only brought historical understanding and enlightened remorse of sin but physical healing, prophetic direction and encouragement. It was a life changing experience for all.
• Men were set apart, sometimes the least likely, through the prophetic word and laying on of hands.
• I learned and experienced that spiritual gifts could be transferred / activated through the laying on of hands. Prophesy, word of knowledge and wisdom were activated in my life at that time through the hands of evangelist Ray Blumenfeld.
• I remember one evening a group of young people including myself were being prayed for by brother Ray. There was such a force present like a mighty wind that it slid the people around me back and many fell to the ground. Being in the middle of this I knew it was not emotionalism but the presence of the Holy Spirit made tangible.
• One evening while brother Ray was waxing eloquent he accidentally spit on a lady in the front roll. Without missing a beat he pulled his hanky wiped it off her and then, with great tongue in check, stated it was anointed.
• Pastor McHatton prophesied over Colene and I during our wedding ceremony. The gist was we would be a light to families helping them raise their children during dark days. Colene and I wondered where this was coming from and thought that McHatton surely missed the mark that time. During our pre-marriage counseling we told him that neither of us desired children. We wanted to be totally dedicated to the Lord’s work. Who would have thought that a decade later Colene and I would embark on ministry to the home schooling community. The rest is history.
• Water Baptism was done in church and was accompanied by prophesy, word of knowledge and wisdom and healings. A convert of mine from SRP was delivered from smoking while watching the water baptism of another.
• Within this dynamic environment I was first introduced to reformed teaching through young Pastor Gary Kinnaman under the approving eye of Pastor McHatton.
• Pastor McHatton and Gary Kinnaman were men of the word. They preached and taught systematically the great doctrines of the faith.
• While at the altar during the finale of an evening service God spoke to me and pointed out my future wife in the crowd of 700 people. Before that evening was over two different men approached me with prophetic words confirming mine. …. And God did not neglect to talk to her.
• During the revival heat of one evening meeting at the Baptist Church Brian Rudd, prison convert turned evangelist, singled me out of 700 people and asked if he knew me from prison. If that wasn’t embarrassing enough he further asked if I was “the guy who was in there for rape.” I assured him I was not that man. Without missing a beat he connected right back to his sermon. Wow, there went my courtship opportunities at that church. Good thing Colene was not present at that meeting. Anyway that night we all had a good laugh. Brian recognized he had many rough edges… he would explain it that it made it harder for him to slip out of God’s hand. I was never certain if that was a concession of weakness or an excuse for sin.
  
  

In those days Church was anything but “safe”. Although it was totally unpredictable, scary, and bombastic it was never dull. I would never think of missing a Sunday service. Even in its simple, unadulterated raw form it proved to be life changing and sustaining. This was evident at the memorial service which was full of grateful saints still involved in local churches, actively pursing Christ and impacting their world because of the ministry of Charles E. McHatton.

Although Colene and I have no desire to embrace that Pentecostal / charismatic culture of yesterday, we fondly remember and proudly acknowledge its positive impact on our lives and our children who we raised in its reflected glow. The church of today owes much to those pioneers of yesterday and would do well to remember that God is better felt than telt.” With today’s prosperous churches we may no longer need to say silver and gold have I none, but can we proclaim rise take up your bed and walk?