DO NOT FEAR THE WOLF'S whisper

 

 Is it really a fair fight? I mean, seriously? Jesus described our spiritual foe as a ravenous wolf, and His followers as a flock of sheep! Seriously, is it really a fair fight for the unwitting, unrelenting, ravenous, blood-thirsty, devious wolf who has already been defeated by ‘the Lamb of God’? Is it really a fair fight for the spiritual demonic wolves who now know they have been de-fanged and de-clawed by the Lamb who has now given His authority and power to His flock so that “these signs will accompany those who believe: in My Name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover” (Mark 16:17-18)? No. It is not a fair fight for the wolf, and the fight is only going to get worse for it. And this is why all members of the flock of Christ should never fear the wolf that Jesus warned us about or the wolf’s whisper!

He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd,
who does not own the sheep,
sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees,
and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.
John 10:12

THE WOLF’S DEVIOUS MISSION

The wolf’s mission is to undermine God’s will and plan by “snatching” and “scattering” Christ’s flock (Jn. 10:12). The wolf only has one strategy: deception. It uses this strategy in various forms, such as lying, stealing, killing, and destroying – “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (Jn. 10:10a) which all begins with a whisper into the minds of people.

The picture of a wolf was only one of the descriptions that Christ and His apostles used to describe the forces of evil. The members of this defeated force of evil are also described as beasts, bulls, serpents, and their defeated enraged former prince was referred to as “a great red dragon” (Rev. 12:3, 9). We should be under no illusion that while Christ has defeated the enemies of our souls, we are still engaged in a dangerous post-war series of battles where our enemy seeks to plant deceptive thoughts into the minds of people – even believers. This is why the New Testament presents the battle-plan for every believer:

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.
For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God,
and take every thought captive to obey Christ.
Second Corinthians 10:3-5

The wolves who seek to “snatch” sheep from Christ’s flock – the believer’s local church – also seek to “scatter” the flock of Christ through whispers of deception. We are in a cosmic battle that Christ expects we can win in His Name and strength because He has now sent His Spirit to aid us to to withstand these devious whispers of the evil ones!

What the closing book of the Bible reveals about this cosmic battle between the Champion of Good (depicted in Revelation as the ‘Arnion’ – translated into English as the [little] Lamb) and the villainous dragon, is that appearances can be misleading. (This was surely one of the main purposes of Christ giving this revelation to John to deliver to the beleaguered members of the seven churches of Asia Minor as they attempted to withstand the onslaught of Satan’s-puppet-Rome’s three-and-a-half-years of bloody persecution of Christians from AD64.) Despite appearances, the little Lamb who was brutalised then crucified on the cross of shame, would be ultimately be revealed as the all-conquering Victor over all evil, sin, death, wickedness, and especially the fallen-prince-turned-evil-dragon!

Saying with a loud voice,“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing!”
And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea,
and all that is in them, saying,“To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”
Revelation 5:12-13

 

OUR UNSEEN ENEMIES DO NOT WANT YOU TO KNOW 

The truth is, our unseen enemies have now been defeated and have only one weapon at their disposal: lies. And they do not want you to know this!

You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.
He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth,
because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character,
for he is a liar and the father of lies.
John 8:44

 These devilish wolves who whisper into our unseen ears with their subtle yet hideous lies, such as “God doesn’t really love you!” “You’re not really a Christian! If you were really a Christian you wouldn’t sin, or doubt, or worry!” “You can’t belong to church – church is only for true Christians who live holy lives – and you certainly don’t!” (Can you see through these lies? Can see that these invisible wolves are simply doing what Christ warned us they would try to do – snatch sheep from the fold, and, scatter the flock by isolating the sheep from each other through deceptions?)

Wolves love to hunt at night. Their howls are exaggerated by the darkness. The darkness also deceives their intended prey into thoughts of intimidation and unnecessary anxiety. Spiritual wolves are no different. Note how John’s Gospel often uses the word “night” to highlight deceptiveness of the evil ones (Jn. 9:4; 11:10:10; 13:30).

At the root of our worst fears is our greatest fear – the fear of the unknown. (I suspect that the popular support for the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill unfairly took advantage of this crippling fear!) The aged Dr. F.W. Boreham would write in his autobiography –

Like the medieval saint, we can testify that
we have had many and great troubles in our time,
but most of them never happened!
Dr. F. W. Boreham, “My Pilgrimage”, p.221

In support of this discovery about how we fear, we might paraphrase something that Mark Twain wrote as – 

“Our worst fears are the ones which never eventuate!”

 

“YOU SHEEP BEAR A STRANGE FAMILY RESEMBLANCE
TO THE AGNUS DEI!” When you gave your life to Christ, the Lamb of God, the apostle John tells us in his epistle that the Father did something profound to your soul. Not only was a dead soul made alive, not only were your blind eyes opened, not only was your indifferent and calloused heart taken out and a new healthy heart transplanted into you, but God placed the spiritually-genetic code with the likeness of His Son into your sou! Whether you realise or not, if you are a follower of Christ you are more than a follower of Christ! In the unseen realm you now have a striking resemblance to Christ!

No one born of God makes a practice of sinning,
for God’s seed [Greek word: ‘sperma’] abides in him;
and he cannot keep on sinning,
because he has been born of God.
First John 3:9

Thus, as the devilish wolves bear a resemblance to their defeated, evil, fallen, and former prince, we, the sheep of God’s pasture, bear an even more striking resemblance to the Lamb of God (in Latin: the Agnus dei). No wonder the forces of evil want to destroy you. You, we, because of our redeemed new natures, now bear a striking resemblance in the spiritual realm to the Lamb of God who defeated the dragon and his hordes of imbecilic and doomed beings! But what many redeemed sons and daughters of God may not be aware of is that we have all been gifted with armour and weaponry which makes us invincible to to schemes of the unseen wolf pack. Thus the apostle Paul could write:

If you forgive anyone for anything, I also forgive him—
for indeed what I have forgiven (if I have forgiven anything)
I did so for you in the presence of Christ,
so that we may not be exploited by Satan (for we are not ignorant of his schemes).
Second Corinthians 2:10-11

 

DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE WHISPERS OF WOLVES

 Let us never underestimate the ferocity of the unseen battle that we are in. Our invisible wolfish enemies are relentless in their efforts to deceive God’s people. The truth is that we far outnumber them. This is why they particularly target those they can manipulate to perpetuate their deceit. We have seen that it was the devil himself who continually encircled the original twelve disciples of Christ seeking the most the influential among them to do its bidding. We get a shocking picture of this revealed in Matthew 16 just after Jesus had asked His disciples who others said He was:

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah!
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 16:15-17

But within seconds it became apparent that Simon Peter had an unseen enemy whisper something false but appealing into his mind:

¶ From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem
and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed,
and on the third day be raised.  And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him,
saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to You.”
But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a hindrance to Me.
For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
Matthew 16:21-23

Jesus later revealed to Peter, after He had dismissed Judas and Satan (Jn. 13:27) from the upper room where Jesus was delivering His Farewell Discourse, that Satan had actually wanted Simon Peter as his agent of betrayal of Christ: 

¶ “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat,
but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again,
strengthen your brothers.”
Luke 22:31-32

It is difficult to miss then how susceptible we all are to the wicked scheming of the enemy—if even the leader of the apostles could have an undetected devilish whisper pass from his mind to his lips, then perhaps we could too. This is why Christ said that the devil would also seek to use Church leaders to also serve as his wolves (Matt. 7:15). However, Christ has ensured that we have an advantage that Simon Peter did not have at that time. After Christ ascended he not only led some of the most threatening fallen heavenly beings into permanent captivity (Eph. 4:8), He and the Father sent the Holy Spirit into the world to abide in each believer through the available baptism in the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4, 38-39). Thus, each believer, each sheep of the flock of God now has the authority and power to withstand the whispers of the devilish wolves! 

 

THWARTING THE WHISPERS OF WOLVES

The spiritually on-guard sheep within Christ’s fold know that these wolves which Christ described in John 10:12 scheme against Christ’s flock by attempting to whisper into the minds of vulnerable believers thoughts that would isolate them from the flock, and even seek to scatter their flock from their fold. Knowing all this, here are five ways that any believer can thwart the whispers of the devil’s unseen wolves, by fighting in the following ways:

1. Stay in the fold – resist the wolf’s whisper to separate from the fold (your local church).

2. Stay connected to your food source – resist the wolf’s whisper to neglect your daily feeding from your reading of God’s Word.

3. Stay in communication with the Lamb of God – withstand the wolf’s whisper to give up praying to God.

4. Stay behind the shield of God’s truth – detect and reject the lies of the wolf’s whispers compared to the truth of God’s Word.

5. Stay focused on the Lamb on the Throne – the wolf’s whispers seek to distract/divert/disillusion you from the One they hate, but the One you adore – who also adores you.  

For these reasons, you actually have no need to fear the whispers from a devilish wolf. But it is a constant, unrelenting battle that every believer is engaged in, which requires these five pieces of armour and weaponry. Our unseen enemies are more afraid of you when you in the fold of Christ, than you could ever be of them. This is why every time we baptise another redeemed soul we are taking “territory” from our invisible enemy. And this is why we need every battle-hardened senior follower of Christ to learn from what Jesus told Simon Peter who had also been targeted by the enemy, “Satan demanded to have you…but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail” (Luke 22:32a). That is, we need to pray for each other also that our faith in Christ may not fail. And I pray that your faith may not fail either!

Your Pastor,

Andrew

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HOW TO MAKE SENSE OF IT ALL

YOU ONLY HAVE TWO OPTIONS FOR MAKING SENSE OF THE WORLD

How do we answer the deep questions of life? This is a challenge at the best of times, but it is particularly a challenge when the world — or at least your world — is in turmoil. The deep questions of lie can be summed up into four words: Origins, Morality, Meaning, and Destiny. You really only have two options when it comes to being able to coherently answer these four deep questions of life. Either, there are no answers to these deep questions about life which means life has no order, meaning or purpose; or, there are answers to these deep questions and the world is ordered, purposeful, and has a Cause. I am going to appeal to reason and intuition to substantiate my claim that the second option is actually the only rational explanation for our world and our lives – and is especially necessary to grasp when it is difficult to make sense of it all when the world seems to be going mad.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
John 14:6

OPTION #1, NIHILISM 

The idea that life’s deep questions have no answer and therefore life has no cause, source, purpose, or destiny, is known as nihilism. In Dr. Vishal Mangalwadi’s book, The Book That Made Your World, he opens with the story of Kurt Cobain [pictured right], the former lead singer of the world’s highest selling rock band, Nirvana. “On April 8, 1994, an electrician accidentally discovered a dead body in Seattle, Washing ton. A shotgun had blown the victim’s head into unrecognizable bits. The police investigation concluded that the victim of this ghastly tragedy was the rock legend Kurt Cobain (b. 1967) and that he had committed suicide a few days earlier” (Mangalwadi 2011, 3). Mangalwadi goes on to describe how Cobain had increasingly accepted nihilism. His song lyrics included lines like I want to die and other more obscene expressions of despair. Since nihilism is the belief that life has no purpose, meaning or destiny, and therefore there is no right or wrong conduct (morality), there can be no true justice in this life. This can only lead to the type of despair that Cobain experienced. I think Option #1 is not a positive way of looking at the world and its effect on those who embrace it is nearly always destructive. 

There is a way that seems right to a man,
but its end is the way to death.
Proverbs 14:12

Kurt Cobain

It is very difficult to be a nihilist because it does not correspond to reality or what we all know intuitively. It’s like being in the deep end of a swimming pool and trying to push a large inflated beach ball under the surface of the water. No matter how hard we push, it just keeps forcing its way back to the surface. That’s similar to how it is for the nihilist. Reality and intuition just keeping pushing the truth back to the surface.

¶ Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation
Psalm 42:5

HOW THE ANCIENTS THOUGHT ABOUT THESE GREAT QUESTIONS

The ancients looked at our world marked by natural disasters, human despotism marked by wars and violence, as being directed by some intelligent power. The Greeks called this power, Logos “the reason.” The New Testament writers, particularly the apostle John, picked up on this term coined by the Greek philosophers, and used it to refer to Jesus in John 1:1, 14 —

In the beginning was the Word [the Logos],
and the Word [the Logos] was with God,
and the Word [the Logos] was God.
John 1:1

¶ And the Word [the Logos] became flesh and dwelt among us,
and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father,
full of grace and truth.
John 1:14

To the New Testament writers, Jesus provided the most coherent answers to mankind’s four greatest questions – origins (where did we come from and why are we here), morality (what are the rules of life that will enable me to live my best life), meaning (what is my purpose, potential and place in this life) and destiny (after this life is over what is my eternal destiny). The ancients knew there were answers to these universal questions and that the quest to coherently answer them was mankind’s deepest longing. 

To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles [non-Jews]
are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Colossians 1:27

 

OPTION #2 – JESUS CHRIST 

Jesus stated that all of mankind’s deepest longings could only be satisfied in coming to know Him! He was either a deranged lunatic with false visions of aggrandisement; or, He may have been telling the truth and thereby been true! There really is no third option.

And this is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
John 17:3

Jesus claimed to be the eternal One and thereby the Cause of all things (Col. 1:16-20). Jesus also claimed to be the highest moral authority and thereby the source of the Law of God for all mankind (Matt. 5:21-22; John 5:22, 27; 8:16). He summed up the ten commandments that He gave to Moses with just two commands that if a person lives by them “they would live forever” (Matt. 22:37-40; John 6:51). Jesus stated that the meaning of life was not a task – but a relationship. This was to be a loving relationship of the highest order and commitment involving devotion to, and worship of, the Source of all Love and Truth (Jn. 17:3; 1John 4:7). He also claimed to be the sole Judge with His Father of the eternal destinies of each person who has or will ever live (John 5:22). Consider Christ’s claims to deity in this unmistakable declaration of His supremacy over your destiny based on your acceptance or rejection of His Lordship-  

For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself. And He has given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
John 5:26-29

 

MAKING SENSE OF A SENSELESS WORLD

But how do these claims of Lordship by Christ help us to make sense of a world at a time when a powerful nation instigates a brutal invasion of its neighbour and wreaks massive loss of innocent life? The Word of God affirms God’s control over nations and history — despite despotic national leaders and dictators — with the assurance that all injustices will be brought to account.

The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;He utters His voice, the earth melts.
“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!”
Psalm 46:6, 10

¶ God reigns over the nations;
God sits on His holy throne.
Psalm 47:8
 

Making sense of this world, especially at a time like this, still requires answering the four deepest perpetual questions of mankind. But it also requires understanding our Creator’s unfolding story of redemption. This story has often been summarised as: Creation; Fall; Redemption; and, Restoration. It was the fall of the original mankind from innocence into rebellion that introduced evil into our world. It was at this moment that God the Creator was revealed as God the Redeemer because His plan of redemption was instigated with the announcement that the Redeemer would be sent into the world as a human to be born in the usual way (Gen. 3:15) but later declared by the prophet that He would be born from a virgin mother (Isa. 7:14; Mtt. 1:21-23). After Jesus fulfilled His role in His Father’s plan of redemption and was raised from the dead and then ascended back into the heavenly dimension of eternity, He had set in train the ultimate destruction of evil and its devilish promoter.

Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil,
for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.
The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
First John 3:8

But if Jesus Christ is the Logos, the One who enables us to understand our world’s origin, meaning, morality and destiny, who is the Central Character in the Story of Redemption, has conquered evil and the devil, then why is there still evil and devilishness in the world? Two things are important to understand in answering this question. Firstly, no matter what evil schemes and acts of wickedness any devilish dictator has wrought, history reveals that despite this — and despite the tragic losses of life — God has redeemed subsequent events toward the eventual culmination of His yet-to-be-concluded-plan-of-redemption. Secondly, God has decreed that an ultimate day of Judgment will come, but not yet! It is on this basis that I can say with some testable confidence that the present circumstances in eastern Europe will be redeemed by God, and that those not brought to justice in this life will face the full consequences of their actions on the last day (Jn. 12:48). To fully make sense of all this – and every other future act of devilish evil – we need to understand the most important truth of all: God is good and can only do good.

 

THE SOURCE AND STANDARD OF GOOD

The ancient Greeks raised a different  problem. Was God actually ‘good’? This was referred to as the Euthyphro Dilemma. Was something ‘good’ just because it was what commanded by God? or, Was something commanded by God because it was good? This dilemma is resolved by discovering the God is the Source and Standard of all that is good. Therefore, God only ever commands that which is good (it doesn’t become good because God commands it). 

One of the emotional/intellectual problems that people who accept that there must be a God that resembles closely or exactly the God described in the Bible have had over the years is the problem ow Why would an all good and all powerful God allow suffering, evil, and tragedy in His world? Either He is not really all good and doesn’t care — or He is not really all powerful and is unable to do anything about it. Theologians refer to this problem as Theodicy (the problem of evil). This problem is resolved by asking a greater question: Does God ever ordain or allow what we perceive to be “wrong” because He has a morally good reason for doing so? This greater question is answered when we reflect on Christ’s passion and crucifixion. By working through these questions we may be able to understand why God might allow or ordain natural evil (floods, fires, disastrous weather events) and committed evil (such as wars, violence, crimes against people, brutal oppression of others). Especially when we view the world from the perspective of there being an eternal Judge who redeems those who turn to Him, and holds to account those who don’t. This is why answering the question of mankind’s destiny is so important to making sense of life and the world we live in. And it is only in discovering that the questions relating to our (and our world’s) origins is found in the Logos of the Father who became one of us to show us the way back to His Father.

 

THEREFORE, THE FOUR ANSWERS

ORIGINS – of our world and our lives can only be explained by the existence of an uncreated eternal Creator who is the cause of this world and our lives.

MORALITY – we live in a world of rules and laws that govern physics, chemistry, biology, and astronomy. This is why we observe order in the cosmos from gigantic galaxies to the structure of the small cell. It is also why we intuitively know right from wrong which enabled us to conduct the Nuremberg Trials after World War Two. It is why we know that certain wrong conduct is wrong even when a government or court says that it is not (as happened in 1930s and 40s Germany).

MEANING – we are created to worship, to express thankfulness, and give due adoration to our Creator. We do this by praise, prayer, working, creating, playing, loving, helping, teaching, building, judging, nurturing, protecting, and being restored into the True Image of God (2Cor. 4:4-6) we were created to be. The meaning and purpose of life is not happiness, but holiness.

DESTINY – life does not stop at the grave. C. S. Lewis stated in Mere Christianity, “There is no such thing as a mere mortal. No person is a mere mortal because every person that God has created in His image has been created as an Immortal. We will all live forever. Our eternal destiny is determined by whether we yield to Christ as our Saviour from our sins and accept His lordship and live by the power of the Holy Spirit whom He has sent.

By seeing the world this way we will be able to make sense of it all.

Your pastor,

Andrew

Let me know what you think below in the comment section and feel free to share this someone who might benefit from this Pastor’s Desk.