Discovering the Whole Truth

“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.”   John16:13

I’ve discovered there are many truths in the Bible that people have not handled correctly. That’s because they have not taken the time to look at that particular truth from a different side. By doing so, they in essence only have “half the truth”. There is often another side of the truth that God is trying to reveal. Let me give you just one example of many.

Let me give you just one example of many. Take the second half of 2 Corinthians 10:5:

“…we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

So what’s only half the truth you ask? Let me ask you a question. Every time you have heard this verse preached, taught or recited, has it been in reference to taking captive negative thoughts or positive thoughts? Negative, right!? Yes, generally “every thought” is presumed to be a negative or sinful thought when that verse is taught.

Let me suggest that understanding is only half of the truth Paul is making. Can you see a positive side? Another question, is every thought you have a bad one? Of course not, then why do we always see the negative side?

While I’m on a roll, let me ask one more question that might help us put this into the correct perspective. Is the cross where Jesus died a negative or positive place for both Him and us? If you view the cross as only a place of death then you would say the cross is negative, but that’s not how God saw it.

God our Father understood that the only way to beat death was to experience death and then conquer it through resurrection. No one had ever done that, but then there has never been nor ever will be One like Jesus Christ.

Back to my original thought. There are many of you who have had many great thoughts where the enemy has convinced you that you are nothing more than your own wishful thinking. God would never inspire anything that carnal. So, you’ve lost your dream and buried your talent on half of the truth.  

If you had negative thoughts that need to be taken captive (so that you will not live in disobedience) that’s one thing. But if you’ve had thoughts that have divine inspiration written all over them, that’s quite another. Are you going to live on limited insight or on the whole Truth?

What you do in your circle on our march to Easter is up to you and God. But please, don’t limit Him based on a half-truth. Play out whatever God has said to be sure you are living the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth!

I’ll meet you at the Throne, 

Pastor George 

Don't Confine God

I should read Revelation 1:9-18 often.  Every time I do, my God gets bigger to me.  Just listen…

“I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me.  And when I turned I saw among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest.  His head and hair were white like wool, as while as snow and his eyes were like blazing fire.  His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sounds of rushing waters.  His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.  I fell at his feet as through dead…”

History doesn’t record the circumference of Honi’s circle, but it really doesn’t matter.  All we know is that it was big enough for him to step into and to pray.  I’m really grateful Honi didn’t tell us what size to make the circle, or we would do what most people do with directives--we would start focusing on the size and shape and forget the purpose.

Honi’s circle was drawn by him as a specific place for him to go and pray with one sole purpose: to determine the size of his God. He didn’t need an acre or a football field--there was enough of God in Honi’s circle to reverse a life-threatening drought.

On Super Bowl Sunday in 1987 I found out how big my God was.  I pastored a church that was bankrupt when I arrived. Not because the people didn’t love God, but because of debt incurred by unwise decisions.  God still loved the church, but although I tried my best, I couldn’t turn things around.  So I prayed.  And I prayed some more.

Then God instructed me to tell the church we would build!  Yes, build--with no money!  I wish I had time to tell you the whole story, but let me tell you how BIG my God was and still is.  When I announced God’s plan that day, 114 people committed to give $400,000, and it all came in—in just 90 days.

Don’t tell me God is small!  And when I say my God is big, let me assure you I’m not speaking of the stature of my God. He isn’t confined to space.  There’s enough God on the end of a pinhead to heal your body, save your children, fix your marriage, answer your question, solve your dilemma, change this nation, protect Israel, meet your need, calm your fears, keep you from bankruptcy, give you 20/20 eye sight, feed the hungry…and anything else you can think of!

Don’t let the size of your circle determine the size of your God! Draw your circle,step in, and pray. There will always be enough of Him for whatever you face.

I’ll meet you at the Throne,

Pastor George   

Put Feet to Your Faith

We’re 34 days until Easter, but I want to take you to 40 days following Easter when Jesus was saying good-bye to his followers. Mark’s gospel captures Jesus’ words best when He said:

“And these signs will follow (accompany) those who believe…” (Mark 16:17)

There is something obvious I have missed that needs our immediate attention.  Notice what Jesus didn’t say; “These signs will PROCEED those who believe!”

Why is that important you ask?

Nothing happens with God unless faith is put into action.  We can pray for hours, but until we get off our knees and put faith into action, then and only then will we see the sick miraculous. 

Before many miracles occur, there is a moment when someone’s faith has taken action and God said: “There’s childlike faith; I will honor that!”

The very best day of my presidential life at Zion Bible College was unexpected. It wasn’t my inauguration or the day I received my Master’s Degree. In fact, it happened on an ordinary day, when my plate was full and I really didn’t have time for a visit from a student.

Peter, an international student, sat down nervously to say: “President Cope, I think I owe you and Zion an apology.” I quickly replied, “Let me decide that; you just tell me the story.”

He proceeded. “I went to the airport to buy a ticket to Long Island, NY to speak to a youth group.  I discovered I didn’t have enough money for the ticket.  Not knowing what to do I prayed and I felt the Holy Spirit tell me to go stand by an ATM machine.  I was prompted to wait and ask the next person who came up to use the ATM machine if I could borrow $20. I was to tell them I would pay them back. $20 is all I needed.”

Peter told me he did just what the Holy Spirit prompted him to do, knowing he could be arrested for doing that.

He then told me what happened next. Immediately a man walked up to use the ATM machine. Peter asked him for the $20, the man gave it to him, and then walked away. The man did not want to be paid back.

I was sitting behind my desk with tears running down my cheeks, feeling like I’m in a Bible story. Finding it hard to speak, I simply said, “Peter no apology is necessary!  Never apologize for FAITH.”

The Epistle of James gives us the moral to that story: “Faith without works is truly dead.” (James 2:17)

Go and do likewise!

I’ll meet you at the Throne,

Pastor George

Defcon Five Mode

My wife Cheryl is six years cancer-free.  I remember 9-11-06 just like it was yesterday. It was the day she was diagnosed with breast cancer and would later require a double mastectomy.

Those were desperate days!  I had not yet met my historical friend Honi the Circle Maker, but I know exactly the desperation he felt when praying to God in the face of a deadly drought.  He couldn’t stand the situation any longer, so he went into Defcon Five mode. He drew a circle from where he would launch his attack. 

As the old adage goes, “Desperate times call for desperate measures.”  Nowhere can one face desperate times more than they can face to face with God in prayer.  And every prayer is a calculated risk from which God sometimes calls us to up the ante, requiring audacious prayer.

“I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.”  Luke 11:8 (Today’s New International Version)

When you stand by the bedside of a wife, husband, child, parent, sibling or friend and see medical paraphernalia attached to and surrounding them, being anything less than shameless or audacious is no longer an option! You’re in the battle, and you’ll fight hell and all its henchmen if necessary to see victory.

Please remember the reason for our journey and our destination.  We’re 34 days from Easter, but in that many days we will stand at the empty tomb and be grateful Jesus was shamelessly audacious toward us by providing his body and blood for payment for our sins in order to secure our salvation.  If He would be that kind of man, why can’t I?

Stop pouting about unanswered prayers in your past (I mean it, do you hear me?!)  Get into your circle and stay there in shameless audacity until you see God move.  Then you will understand the truth that desperate times require shameless audacity in your circle of prayer.

I’ll meet you at the Throne,

Pastor George

Consistency is the Key

Today’s blog entry will be short!It’s Sunday and the priority of our day is to gather with people of like faith to share time and space with the divine.  You don’t need a blogger when you’ve got a pastor who has plenty to say.

Honi the Circle Maker is our guide on this journey to Easter.  The simplicity of his action to draw a circle and then get in isn’t beyond our reach in our own personal lives.  It dawned on me that I do that very thing each morning when I rise to spend the first hour of my day in my circle with God.

Consistency is a recognized attribute in the life of a sincere follower of the divine.  Jesus praised the actions of a woman who persistently pounded on the door of a godless judge.  Whatever he did for the woman isn’t nearly as important as the moral of Jesus to this story…

And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?  Will he keep putting them off?  I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.” (Luke 18:7-8)

Visit your circle daily, even on Sundays when the One whose eye is on both the sparrow and you is in your circle!

I’ll meet you at the Throne,

Pastor George   



Curveball

Don’t you hate it when people throw scriptures at you without any thought to your circumstances?  You may not, but I do, and I can’t tell you how many people have shoved Romans 8:28 in front of me, assuming that verse to make sense, calm, solve, support or to just shut me up!

The verse says: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (NLT)

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah…I know, but--what do you do when the verse doesn’t make sense to your circumstance?  When life has thrown you one of those deadly curves you didn’t see coming?  When the door to ministry closes or you lose someone special in your life?  When your brook dries up and there’s no meal in the jar?

Let me encourage you as you continue in your circle of prayer to remember that verse is only as good as the following verses:

 “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified” (Rom. 8:20-30).

It’s not about our comfort but about our being conformed, by any means necessary. I find myself so anxious at times to get out of my difficulties that I fail to grow through them.  God’s objective is not often about relieving my suffering or delivering me from serious situations, but using them to temper my soul, strengthen my spirit and humble my flesh.  

Mark Batterson put it like this in his “Circle Maker” book: 

“We’re so fixated on getting out of situations that we don’t get anything out of them.”

Does that shoe fit? Jesus preached humility, self-sacrifice and surrender and how interesting that at the end it was these three virtues that nailed Him to the tree.  One for each nail!

As you linger in your circle today, why not think more about God changing you than your circumstance?  Draw your circle and step into it. Then, just as the nails held Jesus to the cross, allow our Heavenly Father to ‘nail’ you there for a few minutes with the nails of humility, self-sacrifice and surrender.  I promise you will not bleed blood, but you might bleed brokenness.

Pilgrims who travel great distances to visit what they believe to be solemn and sacred sites will often pay homage with self-mutilating acts like walking on their knees or taking steps and then prostrating themselves. Gratefully, God isn’t interested in our self-mutilation, but He is interested in us surrendering ourselves in obedience.

Easter is just 37 days away, so let this day deal with you and remember-- sometimes God delivers us from our problems; sometimes God delivers us through our problems.

Enjoy your Sabbath tomorrow and we will pick right back up on Monday, Day 6.

I’ll meet you at the Throne,

Pastor George   

Consecrated

There are lots of words in the Bible that are unfamiliar to us because they are rarely used in mainstream society’s vocabulary.

The unfamiliar word I want us to consider today is ‘consecrate,’ which means “to set apart.”  Take Joshua 3:5, for example:

“Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.”

The context of Joshua 3 is Israel’s preparation for entering God’s Promised Land after their 40-year wilderness journey.  God commanded them to consecrate themselves, to surrender themselves to His lordship. This meant they had to give up everything for Him, in complete dedication to Him.  This positioned them for the miracle they needed.

I grew up in a consecrated family.  My sister and I knew we were set apart based on the call of God on our parents’ lives. We were just as much a part of their ministry as they were. I also grew up knowing I was personally consecrated to God and called to His service.  My mother specifically prayed for a son that would complete her ministry, and within days she discovered she was pregnant with me. This year marks 39 years that I have been I’ve been consecrated to my Savior and to full-time ministry service.

Staying on the inside of the circle I have drawn to seek after my God in prayer is an act of consecration, just as it was for Honi the Circle Maker.  In fact, prayer is as much about consecration as it is about receiving answers.  God couldn’t perform the miracle of parting the Jordan without first the people being in divine connection.  And you can’t connect with the divine unless you are willing to consecrate yourself, to set yourself apart from this culture and this world’s influences.

I’ve been learning this concept for a long time. My first memory occurred while I was in elementary school.  Each morning, before I would get out of bed, I would hear my mother in the living room praying, “O God, convict George of his sins today!”  She understood that sin and godliness couldn’t live together.  She wanted to see me consecrated, separated from anything that wasn’t honorable to God, i.e. sin.

When we think of prayer, we often revert to a misconception that it’s nothing more than asking (or in most cases, telling) God what we need from Him.  We must dismiss that idea and realize that inside our circle of prayer we must be willing to conform ourselves to Christ’s likeness. Miracles occur when we as His people are first consecrated to Him. And, like Honi, we must draw a circle, step in, and stay there until our prayers are answered.  

My personal declaration during this 40-day prayer journey to Easter is simple:

“God, my heart longs for Your holiness.  I choose You over this world.   I’m willing to live consecrated, ‘set apart’ in Your presence.”

That’s the cry of my heart, but I can’t make that declaration for you. Will that be the cry of your heart in your circle today? 

I’ll meet you at the Throne.

Pastor George