LESS NOT MORE

I wonder why we think more is better for us? We strive to get more of things at great peril in our lives and to the shame of other things in our lives. Society tells us get all we can in life, get a better house, get a bigger house, get a newer bigger car, bigger is better less is bad more is good, well that is not the way God operates. In God less is better than more. I know that will raise some eyebrows with my name it and claim it friends and even anger from my word of faith friends, but that is okay with me; for the truth to be said is more important than friends who would wilfully walk in darkness and distort the word of God. If we critically look at the Bible we will find the progression is from big to little, large to small, more to less. This thinking more is better is very destructive to our walk with the LORD and our walk with our brothers and sisters in the LORD and friends and acquaintances. In God the way up is down, down is less. John the Baptist said, “I must decrease and He must increase.” The more we can become of a lowly, humble heart the more we can become like our precious savior Jesus Christ. Gain in God is not measured by how long we can speak in tongues, how long we can preach and teach, how much money we give to the church, or the numbers of good works we do for the LORD. Oh no, God measures our gain in Him not by what we gather (bind) to ourselves, but what we lose of our self. How much of our self can we allow God to empty us of? How much of this world will we allow God to empty us of? Did you know the only way to be full of God is to allow God to empty us. The condition to be full of God depends (not on God but us) on how much we have allowed God to empty us and at the same measure we allow God to empty us of the world, our desires, and our hopes (so He can fill us with His desires, hopes, and plans) at that measure we can be filled with God and His glory. Why do we think God comes and fills us with His glory and virtue and leaves the old carnal nature within us? Can God put new wine in an old wine skin? Of course not the old wine bottles would bust. Jesus told the disciples, “And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. ³⁸But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved. ³⁹No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.” (Luke 5:37-39) As the new wine is made it undergoes a very violent fermentation process for weeks until it is settled and brewed and if you put new wine in an old bottle the violent process of maturing will explode the old bottles. We allow God to empty us of our old ways and thinking when He gives us a new heart (Spiritually speaking) to hold the new wine of the Holy Spirit that He pours into our lives. This process of becoming something in God starts when we allow God to empty us of the old (wine) ways and thinking. We cannot empty ourselves oh no, this is a process of submitting to God’s dealings and judgments in our lives whereby He brings things (both sin and not sin) in our lives into judgment and then we can chose to separate or not separate them from our daily living. ll throughout the Bible we see this process of more to less in operation. One of the best examples is the story of Gideon’s victory over the Midianites. We read in Judges, “Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand. ⁴And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there: and it shall be, that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go. ⁵So he brought down the people unto the water: and the LORD said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink. ⁶And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men: but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water. ⁷And the LORD said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place.” (Judges 7:5-7) Gideon went from an army of 22,000 to 300. The progression in God is always downward not upward, less is more. Even Jesus never could do much with many people He always used a few to touch many. In Matthew we read how Jesus fed the multitudes not once, but twice, “And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full. ²¹And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children.” (Matthew 14:20-21) and in the 15^th Chapter we read, “And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks, and brake them, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. ³⁷And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets full. ³⁸And they that did eat were four thousand men, beside women and children.” (Matthew 15:36-38) yet after feeding 9,000 people (some could have been the same folks) when He spoke of Him being the bread of life and they had to eat of Him they had no stomach for His words. I have found in my travels the masses (the more) like to be fed with earthy (natural) food, but it is the few (the less) that like to be fed with the heavenly (Spiritual) food. This is why huge churches share in no real communion (all hearts one in the Spirit), but operate on a natural level, where small churches (for the most part) know each other more intimately and can share each other’s burdens. Again, big is not better in God. Always remember if people are running after something, someone, or flocking to a big church God is not. We even see this truth play out in the life of Paul. What an outstanding teacher and world traveler Paul was surely Paul would have millions of people following him, after all Paul wrote 2/3 of the New Testament and brought great correction to the Church, but we read in 2 Timothy, “This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes. ¹⁶The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain:” (2 Timothy 15:15-16) Now know when the Bible says “all” it means “all” not some or a few it means “all” every last one. Everyone in Asia turned their backs on Paul. The folks in the Churches at Antioch (where the term “Christian” was first used), Ephesus, Galatia, Troas (where Paul got his Macedonian call Act 16:6), “that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me” yet the Gospel message (the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ) marched on. On a massive scale we know when the children of Israel left Goshen they numbered over 2.5 million people yet only two Joshua and Caleb made it into the promised land. God had to pare down the people to see what was in their heart, “All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers. ²And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.” (Deuteronomy 8:1-2) We too must allow God to pare us down to see what is in our hearts. God must bring us way down by way of the wilderness in our lives so that He can humble and prove us for service. Salvation is free for us (not Jesus it cost Him His life), but everything else we get from God will cost us something of ourselves.

In God the direction is less not more, downward not upward. In God numbers, ability, and strength do not matter only obedience, commitment, and faithfulness matter. Our way with the LORD is a way of less not more. It is limitations and restriction (less) that bring us to fulfillment and completion. Today in the church I hear songs that say “we are free to run in God,” well that makes no Spiritual sense and is not supported by any Scripture. The only freedom we have in God is to choose whether or not to enter in to God’s restrictions and limitations for our lives and to walk in the way God chooses for us to go. Everything else is direct rebellion to God’s word. More my friend? Oh no, less my friend is God’s will for our lives. Written by David Stahl

PREACH THE WORD

One of the most disturbing trends (other than the spreading of the prosperity doctrine world-wide) in the church is the move NOT to have a Sunday night nor a mid-week service. If they do have something on a Wednesday night it is centered around eating or choir practice and not on the preaching of the word of God. I find it remarkable how in the Bible when Jesus got a bunch of people together and fed them they had no stomach for the things of God, but just wanted their bellies full. I guess there is nothing new under the sun. Most churches today in America have one service; a Sunday morning service where they go all out and some even preach a 15-30 minute sermon, but sadly most churches in America have substituted eating, fellowship, and other church activities for the preaching of the word of God. Now this trend has been going on for some time, but recently it has really become noticeable to those who can remember a time in the church when the Spirit of God moved among the people and lives were truly changed. I thought maybe this is why America has been going downhill for some time. When the preaching of the word of God in any home, church, country, or civilization stops the only way for the sociality to go is down away from God and His ways. On a recent ministry trip I asked the LORD why this trend is increasing and He told me. Believe it or not if you ask God something He will tell you if you have ears to hear what He has to say. But on the way back I was meditating on this thought and thinking about some churches where this is going on and the LORD told me, “these churches and others really do not believe in the power of the Gospels message so they have substituted other messages, activities, and functions into the church thinking they will bring people in to see what the church has to offer, but this my son will never work.” There is a spiritual principle here in operation; what you lead people with is what you have won them to. So if you lead people to church with eating, singing and dancing, showing a good Christian movie, or other things then you have won them not to Christ, but to those activities. Now if you lead people to church with the preaching of the word of God then you will win them to the word of God and to Christ. There is a Baptist association of around 15 or so churches in Jacksonville every Super Bowl they throw (no church that night if they are still have a Sunday night service) a huge Super Bowl party at their administrative building to watch the game and maybe at half time they say something about the LORD. Their thinking is people will not come to church, but they will come to a party and maybe someone will say or do something that will lead them to Christ, but sadly all they have done was to lead people to the Super Bowl. And they do this every year. They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing, but expecting to get different results. They keep having this Super Bowl party every year expecting to lead people to Christ when all they have done is lead people to the Super Bowl and here is why they really do it (like other denominations) they lead people to the Baptist denomination.

The Church does not seem to do well with eating, here a few examples. The communion table in the Gospels was always set in jealousy and confusion. Before the meal the Disciples were arguing among themselves who would be the greatest in the kingdom. The New Testament Church in the Book of Acts had problems when they mixed food and God. “And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. ²Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. ³Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. ⁴But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word. ⁵And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch:” (Acts 6:1-5) I guess the Disciples were serving the least and problems came as with most things in the church. Moses made the same mistake the Disciples made here. God told Moses to judge the people, but the Bible (Exodus 18:13-26) says, Moses (verse 24) “hearkened unto the voice of his father-in-law” and selected leaders that were “able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness;” to judge the people. They may have been God- fearing and up right men, but God told Moses to judge the people and out from that we now have the Ten Commandants which are good (and many people still follow, but did you know you can follow the Ten commandments to the letter, die, and go to hell? As I said before I truly believe it was not God’s idea to give us the Ten Commandants. God told Moses to judge the people because God knew Moses’ heart condition and it was his heart condition that was the basis and baseline for his judgment. But when Moses selected other leaders there needed to be a new basis and baseline of judgment for the people and because of Moses’ disobedience he had to use the Ten Commandants instead of the work God did in his life. Here in Acts the Disciples should have dealt with the issue, instead of adding another layer of human flesh into the church structure. When the “whole multitude” was pleased this should have been a sign to the Disciples not to do this. Anytime church leadership is lead by the people things that God has put into place are up rooted and disappear. Later in 1 Corinthians we see another contention around eating and church. “Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse. ¹⁸For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it. ¹⁹For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. ²⁰When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord’s supper. ²¹For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken. ²²What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not.” (1 Corinthians 11:17-22) What a telling statement about the spirituality of the Church at Corinth. Paul was saying they were better off not coming to church because when they did they depart worse off than for the better doing all of this eating and other activities. Sadly this is the same spiritual conditions we find today in many churches.

Now please do not misunderstand me here, I am not saying we should never eat, but we must never substitute the message of the Gospel for eating, singing and dancing, church activities and programs for the preaching and teaching of the word of God. I was shocked when God told me, “these churches and others really do not believe in the power of the Gospels message so they have substituted other messages, activities, and functions into the church thinking they will bring people in to see what the church has to offer, but this my son will never work” because God has established the message, format, and median to deliver His message to the world and this my friend does not change with the times nor with cultural shifts.

Let us be honest the culture in most of America has shifted away from a conservative home spun lifestyle to a more liberal contemporary lifestyle. And this my friend is not good for America. The more America goes after this liberal contemporary lifestyle the less of God will be in America. Sadly you can track it over the years and sadly you can see the ruination of the people and the country.

My friend God’s message does not change. God’s delivery method is still the same one on one. How can we make disciples if we never talk to people? How can we make disciples if we preach and teach over the internet? The Gospel message (the death, burial, and bodily resurrection) is still the basis for our salvation. But did you know many churches today in America do not believe in the bodily resurrection, burial, or even the death of Jesus. Paul said it true, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. ¹⁷For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:16-17) Many churches today in America and others parts of the world are “ashamed of the gospel” and it is the gospel that “is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” not eating, drinking, church programs and activities, Super Bowl parties, and the like. Sadly over the years many false preachers and teachers have crept in and weakened the foundation of many churches and turned their heads from the truth of the word of God so that they could establish church organizations, denominations, and institutions that will serve their agendas and pursuits. Paul also dealt with this with issue warning us this was going to happen and even gave us the answer when he was with the Church in Galatia, “Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. ⁸But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. ⁹As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:7-9) Not once but twice Paul admonished the Church, “If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” I do not know about you my friend, but if I attended church that spends more time eating, singing, and dancing then preaching the word of God I would get my family and run as fast as I could out the door. The facts are clear and indisputable, yet many Christians stay in churches that do not preach or teach the word of God and wonder why they are not growing spiritually in the LORD. And yes, my friends we are to “grow in the grace and knowledge of the LORD Jesus Christ.” God expects us to grow up and become mature men and women of God able to handle some responsibility in seeing the Gospel message shared with every man, woman, and child in the world, but this will not happen if we are always getting offended and falling out of the way God has for us to go. Jesus told us the way is narrow and straight, He meant that. To walk in God there is no wiggle room, our way is limited and restricted to the things God has established for us to do and say. In God we do not get say what we want, but are under restraints to our desires and wants by the Holy Spirit.

I am afraid in this age of contemporary “anything goes” world the preaching of the message of the cross has become out dated. Other messages have taken its place, but how is that working out? America and other so called Christian countries slip further and further into moral and ethical decay, sodomy, lesbians, and anything else that appeals to their imagination and evil heart condition. God’s message does not change and His message is the price upon the cross His Son died on. Paul again helps us, “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” (1 Corinthians 1:18-19) The wise and prudent of this world think God’s ways are out dated, “let’s have a Super Bowl party and say we are having a church service.” Well, God has a word for you, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” God will get the last word. Let us fear the LORD with all of our heart, mind, and spirit, and get back to His ways of preaching the word. Written by David Stahl