Brian and Cathy Gray Bible study, Tennessee

The Potter’s Wheel

So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 1 Peter 5:1-5

Peter begins chapter five with the subject of elders. He follows with how they should guide others. Not domineering over those in your charge, but being an example to the flock was highlighted in our last Acts 17:11 Bereans Bible study. 1 Timothy 3 also lists the qualifications for epískopos elders (overseers, bishops head pastors, etc.). Epískopos is the word from which supervisor is derived. He must be

above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive… 1 Tim 3:2-4

One thing seems certain. Left to ourselves and the ways that seem right to us Prov 14:12 we simply parent as we were parented and lead the way we were led.

What were the circumstances within which you came to know Jesus? How and by whom were you discipled? Consider that God is the potter. We are the clay. Isaiah 64:8 The circumstances He orchestrates or allows are the potter’s wheel upon which He conforms us. Rom 8:29

The wheel upon which The Potter has and is conforming me includes having been a delinquent teen, in active addiction, being a US Marine, and then a prison inmate. As a Christian, all of that translated to prison/addiction ministry and working with delinquent teens. Rom 8:28 I sometimes wonder how different I would be had I have been subjected to different circumstances. In a time when truth is qualified by its sweetness, Isaiah 30:9-10 I find myself increasingly prone to an abruptness that might be mistaken for apathy or even offense. Truth rooted in love may indeed be sweet. But so is deception. Hence the older I get the more I am convinced that sometimes truth spoken “in love” looks like an allegorical speed bump. Prov 27:5-6

Speed bumps are rough around the edges from years of being misunderstood and overrun. They aim to slow people down and take note of the car they nearly hit. Still, many are offended by speed bumps. Speed bumps have extensive knowledge of and experience with self-sacrifice. They save the lives of people who run them over, then curse them for disrupting their peace. Speed bumps are by nature brutally honest and politically incorrect. Still, they epitomize patience as they take hit after hit and never hit back. Curse them if you must. But speed bumps won’t budge. They are rooted in steel and cemented to rock.

The Diary of a Speed Bump

His name was Jeremy. He was 80 and had been a missionary in Honduras for over 40 years. He looked me up and down and asked, “So what do you do?” then cut me off before I could speak.  “You see all these people here? All they talk about is themselves and what they do! No one talks about the Bible!” he said in apparent disgust.

“I’m a speed bump,” he blurted.

I stared not knowing what to say.  “You know what? You’re a speed bump too,”

“I can see it in your eyes.”

I was in prison the last time I’d heard that.

It’s been over 25 years since I was arrested and sent to jail. It was the lowest point of my life. Yet it was God’s mercy. It ultimately became a testimony of God’s forgiveness, love, and transformative power. It is an ongoing well of empathy and wisdom in ministry to inmates and addicts. It is a point of connection and qualification with those who have experienced social death otherwise known as incarceration. It’s a source of discernment and authority to call a spade a spade.

The prison experience can be hard to describe to someone who has never been there. I liken it to a movie trailer for Eternity in Hell. As in the Eagle’s song Hotel California, people check out but the majority never really leave.  The only way out of the revolving door of recidivism is in the words of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn,

To resolve to “live not by lies.”  

Rump -Thump – Discordant Bump

No one likes a speed bump.

“Hey, you know – I was thinking?…”

began my three-hundred-pound Samoan bunkie named Paniani, “I wouldn’t wann-ahh…do or say anything that would make someone wanna kill me when I got out…” The implication was clear and made more poignant by the fact that on the previous day, we learned that another Christ-professing inmate friend was found dead, shot in the back of the head execution-style in the parking lot behind his church.  

He’d been out less than a week.

A day or two later, a guy who’d already done 20 years for murder stopped me in the passageway and said, “Hey Gray, You know what my favorite part about shooting people is?” “What’s that?” I replied. It’s sticking this finger in the bullet hole.” he pressed his forefinger hard into my chest and laughed. I stared blankly not knowing what to say.  “But don’t worry ain’t nobody body gonna mess with you…

…in here.” He grinned.

“I can see it in your eyes.”

But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. 1 Peter 4:15

While I went to jail because I was evil. My life was threatened in jail because I changed sides and became a genuine Christian. In a word, I refused to live by lies. That made me a target. I had to watch everyone and everything. That included anticipating when and how I might be set up or trapped into getting sent to maximum security where I’d be “suicided” – strung from the rafters and made to look like I’d hung myself. I learned to depend on Jesus quickly.

Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. 1 Pet 4:16

I was three years into a five-year sentence when I finally surrendered to the Way, Truth, and Life. John 14:6 More than anything, I was on fire for Truth. “Deny self, pick up your cross and follow me” meant exactly that. So did the last part of Rev 12:11 that many Christians redact. “…and they loved not their lives onto death” My motto became, “If you want me shut up then kill me.” In my view God gave his only begotten son to remove the body of death that hung around my neck. I’d had a clear view of how wretched I was and a revelation of the hell from which I’d been saved. Why should I fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul? Mat 10:28

Anything beyond the cross was ancillary.

I make no apologies for being a speed bump. That being said, there are times when I have confused a speed bump with a proverbial baseball bat. I must always be willing to consider where, when, and how my background might lead me to extremes in perception, belief, and the resulting behavior. One of my greatest challenges is that my intensity is often mistaken for anger or offense. In my zeal, I can appear domineering or overbearing. That is not my desire or intention and I’m working on that. I give permission to call me on it, and to question my attitude and approach. I need to remember that not everyone came to the Lord with such an intense revelation of their wretchedness and fast-approaching point of no return. That I needed to be hit in the head with a proverbial baseball bat (actually a shotgun blast) for truth to sink in does not mean that everyone does. In fact, the approach God used to save me might destroy another. I make no apologies for the truth that I have spoken. Yet if the tone in which it was or is ever communicated has resulted in anyone being offended then I apologize. I need to do a better job of learning and understanding the Potter’s wheels upon which others are being conformed. That said, I am not writing this out of a desire to gain the approval of man. I am doing so from a place of sincere fear of the Lord.

A great shaking is is upon us.

For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? 1 Pet 4:1

Mathew 18:6

But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. 1 Cor 11:31-32

See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Heb 12:25-27

Exposure is a first step in God’s judgment. God’s judgment is an aspect of His discipline that should lead to repentance. Its purpose is the preparation of a spotless bride. Eph 5:25-33

See that you do not refuse Him when shakes you.

Maranatha!

Brian and Cathy Gray Red Pill Diaries

Those Dern Zionists

Do you have friends and family who are confused about Israel and the events that have taken place since October 7, 2023? Are you confused yourself? Do you feel torn and conflicted at times and battle the temptation to take sides in the war? Do arguments that favor Palestine seem increasingly viable? Are you tempted to curse Israel or praise their success in the war? Does the spirit of vengeance rise up in you when you see and hear testimonies of the horrors that took place on October 7th? Or maybe you understand the truth in your spirit but struggle with answering those who parrot social media narratives. One thing is certain. There is a growing move by the enemy to justify the rejection of God and His people. In the words of Hamas. “We begin with the Saturday people, then the Sunday people.” Here are some 1 Peter 3:15-16 apologetic

Points to Ponder

As the war between Israel and Hamas continues, the vain babblings of the masses are getting louder. There are conspiratorial rumblings that the barbaric attack by Hamas on October 7 was a false flag. The assumption is that there is no way that the IDF could not have known about the attack beforehand. Hence they must have intentionally provoked it and or stood down while at least 1400 innocent people were killed in cold blood. It is all too easy to forget the human tendency toward complacency rooted in normalcy bias and pride. The very real possibility of a cyber attack that overrode motion sensors, alarms, and security cameras is lost in the imaginations of people programmed by YouTube and Netflix. That young millennial and Gen Z soldiers raised on social media might have been sleeping or perhaps more concened with selfies than security never enters the minds of armchair intelligence analysts.

Anyone who has served in a combat arms role knows the temptations that accompany the mind-numbing boredom of guard duty. Mindlessly staring at nothing in the desert distance for eight to twelve hours at a time plays all sorts of tricks on the mind. The potential for sheer boredom to produce hallucinations is usually dismissed until it happens to you. Complacency and normalcy bias are multiplied every time a hallucination is proven to be just another “nothing burger”. Not only that but it is common for enemy scouts and reconnaissance patrols to probe enemy positions by throwing things like pebbles in the dark. They taunt guards to shoot at nothing and expose their weakness. The result if no one ever attacks is further desensitization and complacency. Complacency may be amplified by heckling and laughter from fellow soldiers. Do I know for certain that this is what led to the Oct 7 attack? Certainly not. But I’d wager it’s a more viable argument than Jews killing Jews so they can kill Palestinians.

Turkish guard caught sleeping on duty. This happens with all armies all the time. Quite often, people die as a result.

I have repeatedly heard the claim that “Zionists” created and funded Hamas to one day justify Israel’s taking of all the Palestinian territories. Some supersessionists on the right surmise that Benjamin Netanyahu allowed the attack because it ultimately targeted leftist Jews who were sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and opposed his conservative government. In their minds, it explains why they moved the venue of the music festival. Once again, the supporting presupposition is that the IDF is so professionally infallible that the only explanation for bad decisions and failure is that they wanted fourteen hundred of their own people to be brutally tortured, raped, and murdered and hundreds more to be taken hostage.

Yeah…maybe not.

Many are attempting to reframe Zionism and differentiate Zionists from the rest of the Jews by claiming Zionism is exclusively secular. Reframing language is a textbook strategy employed by neo-Marxist Critical Theorists and post-modern deconstructionists. If that is confusing then consider the current reframed definitions of a man, woman, marriage, and the rainbow in America. Incidentally, many Critical Theorists were and are of Jewish descent. Reframing the definition of “Jew” is the current Neo-Marxist agenda. Every day we see a professing Christian minority misrepresented as the majority by the media in support of perversions like abortion, transgendersism, and gay marriage. The same strategy is being employed using anti-Zionist Jews represented as the only true Jews. Still, many contemporary Zionists are secular and therefore politically motivated. Yet as I will show, this is not the point. Especially for Christians. Other conspiracies claim that the alleged persecution of Palestinians by Israel is the handiwork of the Kazarian Mafia. Some Christians equate this with the synagogue of Satan mentioned in Revelation 2:9. Yet discerning Jews who are not Jews does not require us to unravel a Kazarian conspiracy. There are multitudes of professing secular Jews who reject the Torah and the God of Abraham while maintaining their Jewish ethnicity.

That being said, there were a group of Turks known as Khazars that converted to Judaism in the 8th or 9th Century B.C. Were some of them scammers and criminals? Of course. In fact they were some of the first identity thieves. But then, what people group was ever devoid of miscreants?

“According to one conspiracy theory, the so-called Khazar Jews practice the Talmudic “Babylonian” law and were able to penetrate European and American societies and assume almost ultimate power through the banking system, the media, academia, and the entertainment business. Another leitmotif of these theories is that Ashkenazi Jews are not authentic Jews and that only Sephardim are of “real Jewish stock.” –The Jerusalem Post–

There are secular Jews some of whom are proven criminals. Yet the correlation between Jewish ancestry and criminality is a false dichotomy and decidedly racist. The same faulty reasoning is employed in Arabic countries regarding Christians. America is a Christian nation represented by a clearly Satanic media and Holywood. Therefore Christians worship Satan.

What I find most terrifying is the fact that conspiracies like this were the basis for the book The Protocols of the Elders of Zion published in 1903 by “Author Unknown”. In addition to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, it became the philosophical underpinning of, and justification for the Jewish Holocaust, 1933-45.

Christians understand that everyone is a criminal apart from Christ Jesus.  Eph 2:1-10 Unfortunately the arguments that resulted in Christian collaboration with Nazis in the first Jewish Holocaust threaten to be repeated today.

The Origins of Palestine

The name Palestine is derived from Roman Emperor Hadrian changing the name of Judea to Syria-Palestinia following the 132-135 AD Bar Kokhba revolt. Simon Barcoba was a Jewish Zealot, a leader in a political movement that attempted to overthrow the Roman rule over Israel. Hadrian wanted to eliminate any trace of a Jewish presence in Judah. The geographical area known as Gaza Palestine today is the original home of the Philistines. The first mention of the Philistines is found in Genesis 20 in 1897 BC. Abimelech was king of Gerar in the plain of Philistia.

The first battle between the nation of Israel and the Philistines is mentioned in Judges 3:31 sometime between 1400 and 1000 BC. Joshua conquered Jerricho Judges 6 in 1405 BC and began taking the land that became the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel continued until 70 AD when the Roman Emperor Titus sacked Jerusalem. The Jewish people were dispersed around the globe until the nation of Israel was reborn in 1948 AD. In 457 BC God via a decree by Artaxerxes sent Nehemiah to restore Israel for the first time following the Babylonian Captivity. 1948 was the second time Israel was restored to the land as prophesied by Isaiah.

In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea. He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. Isaiah 11:1-12

The current geographical boundaries that included Israeli control of Jerusalem were established during the Six-Day War, June 5-10, 1967.

If you are Jewish or Christian then there is no disputing that the land of Israel belongs to the God’s chosen people the Jews into whom we Christians are grafted. Of course orthodox Jews and many Christians do not realize this…yet.

But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Romans 11:17-18

As for Hamas and the rest of the Palestinian Authority, they have never validated the existence of Israel and in their own words, they never will.

All Christians should carefully read and understand Romans chapter 11 regarding God’s plan for Israel and Israel’s relationship to the church. As I will show, it includes a dire warning concerning God’s judgment at the end of the age.

Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree. Romans 11:22-23

The assertion made by neo-Marxists in the West and Arab Nazis is that Zionism has nothing to do with Judaism. Recently more than a few have gone so far as to correlate Zionism with Nazism. I recently heard one woman on social media assert that Hitler’s Jewish Holocaust was facilitated by Zionists to generate support for the re-establishment of the nation of Israel. Her argument almost sounded reasonable had I been more ignorant of history. The people who call themselves Palestinians today are Nazis and are supported by those who have sought the eradication of the Jewish people since Hamon in the book of Esther Chapter 3.

We must destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God 2 Cor 10:5-6 We must take captive any thought that would dare turn anything in God’s word into a pejorative. Zion has everything to do with both Judaism and Christianity. Zion was first mentioned when David captured Mount Zion 2 Samuel 5:7 in the 10th century BC. Zion is the City of David from which Jews know their Messiah will rule. Christians already know that the Messiah is Jesus. Mount Zion is Mount Moriah where Abraham brought Issac. It is the site of the 1st-century Jewish Temple. It is the site of the Alasque mosque known as the Dome of the Rock today. It is the most contentious piece of real estate in the world over which and upon which the most significant end times events will play out.

Dome of the Rock 2018

Psalm 2 is a prophecy of Christ’s kingdom written in 1044 BC. If Zionists are those who rejoice that Jesus will eventually rule from Zion, then call me a Zionist.

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” I will tell of the decree… Psalm 2:1-7

Even so, as Christians, we do not rejoice in the suffering and death of anyone. That means Jews and Palestinians and all Arabic people in the region.

As the saying goes, “No Jews – No news.”

Pro-Palestinian protesters have been wreaking havoc on college campuses since I first published this post. Sides are being chosen in yet another Hegelian dialectical ruse. The Hegelian dialectic was a formative precursor to Marxist conflict theory. You can get the basic gist of it in Expose What.

That said, those recoiling over the alleged genocide of Palestinians have ignored the true genocide of Arabic people by other Arabic people for milliena. Their media-generated offense and argument against is Israel is a disingenuous strawman at best. But then strawman arguments are another hallmark of emotion-driven, cognitively deficient “useful idiot” reprobates.

All anti-Semitic propaganda aside, we pray that Jesus visits Hamas and the myriad arms of Islamic Jihad at least as much as we desire to provoke the Jews to jealousy. Rom 11:14 A lot of Christians struggle with the idea that all of this conflict is part of God’s ultimate plan to redeem Israel. Yet apart from a complete reversal on the battlefield, it looks like what Zephaniah prophesied in 620 BC is taking place in Gaza now.

For Gaza shall be deserted, and Ashkelon shall become a desolation; Ashdod’s people shall be driven out at noon, and Ekron shall be uprooted. Woe to you inhabitants of the seacoast, you nation of the Cherethites! The word of the Lord is against you, O Canaan, land of the Philistines; and I will destroy you until no inhabitant is left. Zeph 2:4-5

If that is the case then God-haters, neo-Marxists, and confused supersessionists can rejoice. Israel and other nations (people groups) who continue to reject Jesus as savior are not off the hook. If my interpretation of scripture is correct, God’s judgment falls on them next in Zephaniah 3:1-8.

Or should I say, “falls on you”?

“Therefore wait for me,” declares the Lord,
 “for the day when I rise up to seize the prey.
For my decision is to gather nations, to assemble kingdoms, to pour out upon them my indignation, all my burning anger;
for in the fire of my jealousy, all the earth shall be consumed.” Zeph 3:8

But don’t stop there. The true purpose of God’s plan to reconcile all the children of Abraham is spelled out in Zephania 3:9-20 and Isaiah 19:16-24. Does it make sense in the context of our limited human cognition? Probably not. Hence Isaiah 55:8-9. His thoughts and ways are higher than ours.

But don’t take my word for it. Be a Berean and search the scripture yourself to see if what I am saying is true. Please tell me if I am wrong.

As I said previously, Paul’s warning regarding the broken branches which is the Jewish people, is connected to a more dire warning concerning God’s judgment at the end of the age. As you may know, Mathew 24-25 also known as the Olivet Discourse contains an outline regarding events leading up to the end of the age and Jesus’ return. Verses 3-31 tell us in near bullet point form what we will see taking place and what may happen to us if we are alive. Verses 32-52 are allegorical descriptions of what those days will be like. Mathew 25 contains instructions on how believers should respond. Mat 25:31-46 is the final judgment marked by the all-familiar parable of the sheep and the goats. Verse 40 is the most oft-quoted verse.

And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

While Jesus loves the poor and downtrodden the least of His brothers is not the starving child in a third-world dump. In fact, He said these are the greatest. Mat 18:1-5. Consider that Jesus was a Jewish Messiah who came first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles. The least of Jesus’ brethren when He spoke were the Jews who rejected Him and were about to have him tortured and crucified. Given the legal right and opportunity, many of their descendants would persecute and kill His followers today. I expect that day will come. Hence Paul wrote,

As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
 Rom 11:28-29

Be careful. Arrogance toward the broken branches, a.k.a. the “Zionists” could result in hearing,

‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. May 25:41

Always remember, that good arguments can always be made for bad presuppositions. Hence the validity of an argument is determined by the validity of its underlying presupposition. The Christian presupposition is that Jesus is the only way. God’s word, the Bible is inerrant and infallible. There’s really no point in arguing with committed neo-Marxists and other God-denying reprobates because you are arguing from opposing world views. Believers must not be drawn into secular media narratives that twist God’s truth and demonize His chosen people on the global stage. Are atrocities taking place in Gaza? Most assuredly. Only the naive would ever believe that organized mass murder otherwise known as warfare has ever been or ever will be humane. Innocent civilians always make for the bulk of casualties in every war. That’s not a justification for razing Gaza or supporting Israel because they are good people. They are not. The truth is that apart from denying self, picking up our cross, and following Jesus, no one is righteous, not one. Romans 3:9-18 Now more than ever we must maintain an eschatological and prophetic perspective of events on earth and an eternal perspective of God’s ultimate purpose for the followers of Jesus. We support and bless Israel and pray for the peace of Jerusalem out of obedience to God alone, Num 24:9, Gen 49:9, Gen 12:3 not a natural preference for people.

So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. Acts 10:34-35

Righteousness will only be found in Jesus. A righteous government will not exist until He returns to rule from Mount Zion.

Don’t be poisoned by hype. Mat 24:4

Be sure you are viewing the world through a biblical lens.

Maranatha

Brian and Cathy Gray Bible study, Commentary

IRIS Core Value #4

We understand the value of suffering in the Christian life. Learning to love requires willingness to suffer for the sake of righteousness. Discipline and testing make saints out of us, and produce in us holiness, without which we will not see God’s face and share His glory. With Paul we rejoice in our weaknesses, for when we are weak we are strong.

-Roland and Heidi Baker-
Five Essential Core Values

What drove you to Jesus? Did you pray and accept Him into your heart? Or did you realize from the start that it was you who needed His acceptance, not the other way around? Were you raised in a Christian home and continued in it because it just worked and it was the only life you knew? Or did you come to Him broken and battered, desperate for relief and healing from the inevitable consequence of your sin? Was your sin even a consideration? Were you out of options and realized you were standing at the gates of hell? Was hell even a thought when you chose Jesus? Did you understand that surrendering to Jesus amounted to volunteering for war? Or did you believe you would be delivered from earthly suffering and step into a life of healing, prosperity, and personal significance according to your faith? What if you had been born in a militant Muslim nation like Yemen, Iran, Mozambique or Sudan, How about a poverty-stricken nation like Honduras where almost everyone affirms a belief in Jesus?

Some snippets from the mission field.

Have you ever considered the possibility that some of the prosperity, comfort, and ease we enjoy in the West, which while permitted by God, might not only be from God? Could it be that what WE CALL good gifts James 1:17 are not as good and perfect as we think? Isaiah 55:8-9 To paraphrase a former Iranian refugee who returned to Iran; could it be that we are being lulled to sleep by a Satanic lullaby?

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?  And “If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”
Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

1 Peter 4:12-19

Judgment is the noun kríma from krínō to damn or condemn. The verb form is krísis from which we get the English word Crisis. kríma is a condemnation of wrong, the decision (whether severe or mild) which one passes on the faults of others. Our take on Peter’s insertion of Judgment here is that we should carefully consider the reason(s) why we are suffering.

IRIS Global was born amidst a civil war and horrific poverty in Mozambique. The documented miracles, signs, and wonders that cessationists deny came at the cost of tremendous suffering and a willingness on the part of Hiedi and Rolland Baker to suffer with those they served. Suffering is the backdrop for IRIS core value #2 dependence on God and miracles. It seems rather unlikely that food would be divinely replicated on some restaurant row in America. In our experience miracles are more common in areas where the only choice is to

Depend on God or die.

“We think sometimes it is God’s will that we suffer according to His power and will, because it proves our faith, our perseverance, our love, the quality of our character, what we think of our God. We are not about to tell people that if they get into tough stuff that they are doing something wrong…The problem is, sometimes we make up our idea of what His way is. Of course, we want His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. But His purposes down here are what we want to know. And His purpose is for us to know, and learn by experience, what are the differences between good and evil; to develop His character and His quality, and to have something to celebrate…The Bible tells us that we will share Jesus’ glory to the extent that we share His suffering. And some people might teach that He suffered so that we won’t have to. But we in Iris don’t feel that way. We feel that He suffered so that He could save us from our sins and give us a heart like He has so that we can live the way He lived among evil opposition. And then we get our reward…”

-Roland and Heidi Baker-
Five Essential Core Values

As Roland and Heidi said, some believe Jesus suffered so that we don’t have to. This is true to the extent that we don’t have to suffer in hell for eternity. That is huge! But the Bible is clear. Suffering in this life which James calls a vapor James 4:14 is guaranteed for the disciples of Jesus. 2 Tim 2:10-12, 2 Tim 3:12, Rom 8:17, Luke 14:27, Phil 3:8-11, Rom 5:3-5, 1 Pet 2:19-21

If you’ve been following our 1 Peter study then you know we are continuing to arm ourselves with the same mind or resolve of Jesus. 1 Peter 4:1. Peter delves into other topics but he always comes back to suffering. As we stated in our previous post, he broaches the topic 12 times in 1 Peter alone. The topic of suffering occurs 96 times in the entire Bible 68 of which are in the New Testament. In contrast, Blessing occurs 76 times 21 of which are in the New Testament.

Typically, the American Bride of Christ does not appreciate posts like this. Through no direct, let alone intentional fault of her own, much of the American Bride is what Art Katz described as

a casual, conglomeration of saints, whose essential focus is on themselves, and whose spiritual egocentricity has never been broken. We can bring ego-centrism into the church as profoundly as we knew it in the world. All we have done is shift the object. In the world, it was carnal pleasure and delight and material things. In the church, it is still ego and self…

Apostolic Manifesto. (Apostolic Church In End Times)

He goes on to address the issue of suffering.

…That self-focus is an inveterate power that can only be broken when we ourselves are not the center of our own concern and preoccupation, but God and His purposes in the context that I am setting forth and calling apostolic. This is not a naïve body, because it knows that the church is a place of suffering before it is a place of glory. Suffering is intrinsic to this kind of relationship. It is not because we intend to molest each other or constitute a threat or an annoyance. It is the very nature of things, because the members of the body are in differing places of maturity and background. The thing that distinguishes the church I am describing is that it is willing for such a suffering. A body of this kind is eternity-conscious. Its conduct in this present moment is set in eternity, knowing that there is an issue of eternal judgment and eternal reward...

Apostolic Manifesto. (Apostolic Church In End Times)

In any case, I find it interesting, albeit disturbing that the problem of suffering causes so many Christians to stumble. Ironically the problem of suffering also underpins the worldview of a majority of atheists.

How could a loving God allow his children to suffer?

Such questions highlight the very egocentricity of which Art Katz speaks. We call it “I-denity” and find every possible rationalization to avoid the fact that our egocentrism stands in direct contradiction to Jesus’ command to deny self. Mat 16:24 Katz likens these believers to the Seven Sons of Sceva in Acts 19:11-20. 

“Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?”

Given the utter, ever-increasing depravity of mankind since the fall, the more correct question for any Biblically-minded Christian apologist is to ask atheists why there isn’t more suffering in the world?

Still, not everyone has their head in the sand. Katz points out,

If we make a determination of the kind we have been suggesting, then we will most likely experience a stripping of one kind or another. We come into a heavenly reality that knows the rewards that make our present losses momentary and light. God will allow us to be tested in the area of possessions, reputation, and other ways in which we can find ourselves stripped.

Apostolic Manifesto. (Apostolic Church In End Times)

Our problem is our propensity for mistaking God’s stripping for an attack from the devil.

And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. Gen 32:30

Preserved is natsal to snatch away, deliver, rescue, save, strip, plunder.

-Strongs Concordance-

A lot of us are wrestling with God in the name of improving and maintaining the quality of our lives. We live for the elusive American dream. The American dream means climbing a ladder of worldly success to achieve personal significance and material wealth. It means providing material comfort and entertainment for our children and ourselves. We preserve our comfort by monetizing at least a third of our God-given life on earth. We preserve the monetized result by purchasing insurance and compiling mamon in the hope of preserving our comfort in old age. Almost everything we do is in some way oriented to the avoidance of future suffering. Rarely do we consider that Satan comes as an angel of light. 2 Cor 11:14 Or that his plan might be to give us sweetness, comfort, and ease that produce physical, emotional, and spiritual atrophy. We assume we are wrestling with the devil. But could we actually be

wrestling with God?

“The problem is, sometimes we make up our idea of what His way is…” It’s been a collective human pattern since the fall. Jer 13:10, Isa 30:9-13, Rom 1:21-22

Chew on that.

Maranatha

Brian and Cathy Gray Bible study, Red Pill Diaries

Earnest Love

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. 1 Pet 4:8

Do I even know what that means?

Many if not most believers cite 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 when defining love.

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

Here is another rendition.

Love is large in being passionate about life and relentlessly patient in bearing the offenses and injuries of others with kindness. Love is completely content and strives for nothing. Love has no desire to make others feel inferior and has no need to sing its own praises. Love is predictable and does not behave out of character. Love is not ambitious. Love is not spiteful and gets no mileage out of another’s mistakes. Love sees no joy in injustice. Love’s delight is in everything that truth celebrates. Love is a fortress where everyone feels protected rather than exposed! Love’s persuasion is persistent! Love believes. Love never loses hope and always remains constant in contradiction. Love never loses its altitude!

The first version is from the ESV translated from the original Greek into contemporary English. The second is from the Mirror Bible also allegedly translated from the original Greek. The difference between the two is the added interpretation in the Mirror Bible.

For example, Love suffers long, (ESV) Love is large in being passionate about life. (Mirror Version) Let me ask you;

what do the words suffering and passionate mean to you?

A year or so into our Honduras Mission my definition of earnest love correlated with an old post, Que Rompe Tu Corazon – “What breaks your heart?” At that time the poverty, loneliness, and suffering we encountered broke my heart. In my mind, God did not desire that any of His children should suffer. Love meant being the hands and feet of Jesus. It meant giving from the overflow of abundance God had given me to do all I could to alleviate suffering. In a word, I gave people stuff along with money to buy stuff. Earnestness was the intensity of the emotion I felt that compelled me and propelled me forward. I labeled this

“Compassion”.

Cathy’s photo of children in a Honduran dump.

Maturity

It can be easy to stop at verse 10 in the above passage. Yet Paul goes on.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. 1 Cor 13:11-12

There are childish albeit still valid interpretations and expressions of love. Still, growth that results in maturity is the goal.

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather,speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Eph 4:11-16

We are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ… This includes but is not limited to, loving like Jesus did and does. When I was a child God’s love was defined by my experience of His comfort. As a young man earnest love became sacrificial obedience to a self-appointed mission to accomplish something for Jesus in my name. As well-intentioned as it was, it was nevertheless birthed from a self-centered interpretation of scriptures like Isaiah 6:8.

Here I am! Send Me!

One thing seems certain. My understanding and perception of love have evolved as I’ve aged. If the Bible is correct, I can expect between twelve and twenty-two more years of earthly life. Psalm 90:10 Perhaps the greater number of opportunities to suffer and endure by way of having walked longer upon the earth sets me apart from those half my age. Today earnest love looks like peace and simple faithfulness. Faithfulness to His Word, faithfulness to that which He calls me, be it preaching a sermon or cleaning a toilet. Faithfulness in the context of my relationships. It is accompanied by a clear understanding that faithfulness is not a synonym for success. Many of the most significant and successful people are also the most adulterous and idolatrous. Faithfulness means giving my time and resources because “God said” not because of any perceived benefits or a lack thereof. It has nothing to do with attaining some illusory “next level”. Earnest Love does not desire to offend but is willing to offend 1 Pet 2:8 because love rejoices in truth. Love and truth can not be separated.

Earnest Love is Compassion.

Interestingly the prefix “com“ means “with“. “Passion” means “suffering” as depicted by Jesus on the cross. Compassion is

“to suffer with”.

A lot of people, especially younger people, role their eyes at my ongoing emphasis on suffering instead of identity. All I can say is take it up with Peter. He broaches the topic 12 times in 1 Peter alone. The topic occurs 96 times in the entire Bible 68 of which are in the New Testament. In contrast, Blessing occurs 76 times 21 of which are in the New Testament.

The Gospels denote the compassion of Jesus twenty-three times. The implication for me as a missionary was that my compassion was evidence of my being conformed to the image of Jesus. Perhaps. But in my experience being conformed almost always begins with a Heb 12:27 shaking. The shaking removes some things and shakes other things into place. Suffice it to say that God shook me a lot in the course of six years. Immature grandiosity and delusions of significance were the first to go. What remained was a more mature and realistic appraisal of myself. As it turns out, what I had defined as compassion was in fact mere pity. Pity always compares my situation with that of another. Pity tempts one to embrace guilt, shame, and condemnation for having more than others. In the end, pity looks down from a proverbial pedestal and declares,

“Poor thing!”

Guilt, shame, shame, and condemnation were always temporarily relieved by giving. I mistook the illusion of personal empowerment and imagined significance in God’s kingdom as my payment for lending to Him. Prov 19-17

Pity is just altruistic pride in disguise.

While pity strives for the illusory “next level” allegedly to help more of those below it. Compassion identifies with a person in their situation. It purposely aims lower and enters the struggle of another alongside them in the dirt. Pity is underpinned by pride. Compassion is marked by humility.

And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Mat 8:20

If I ask for a contemporary definition of “earnest” I expect the answer to be framed in the context of an emotional response. Contemporary earnestness is always a measure of emotional intensity be it felt or outwardly expressed. Still, we must dig into what Paul meant at the time and compare it with our own linguistic interpretations lest we be guilty of preaching another gospel. Gal 1:8-9

In 1 Peter 4, “Earnest” or “Fervent” is ektenḗs– intent:–without ceasing, stretched out, assiduously.

Assiduous means with great care and perseverance.

Jesus gave us the purest example of Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13

Once again, Peter’s use of the term “earnest love” in 1 Peter 4 is in direct reference to the mind or resolve of Jesus with which he exhorts us to arm ourselves in verse 1.

Like it or not earnest love that covers a multitude of sins is inseparable from suffering. It would seem that earnest love is only produced by genuine compassion which is suffering in the flesh. Perhaps death to self Mat 16:24-25, Rev 12:11 produces a willingness to lay down one’s life for another thereby making earnest love that covers a multitude of sins possible. If so then it follows that those who have suffered in the flesh as a result of loving in this manner have ceased from sin. 1 Peter 4:2

Does arming ourselves in this way mean we aspire to grow up into this kind of love? Is it part of becoming perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect? Mat 5:48 Or do we simply trust Christ in us the hope of glory Col 1:27 to manifest in and through us when the moment of truth arrives and we are called to suffer and even die for sake the of the gospel?

Ironically, I had a conversation with a coworker last night who was trying to understand why our church “looks so crazy” during worship. All things considered, we are pretty mild for an IRIS Global church. I began explaining how the roots of our church were born out of a willingness to enter into suffering during a civil war in Mozambique. I told her about all the miracles I personally witnessed in the context of suffering in Mozambique and Honduras. The deaf ears opened the miraculous replication of food, etc. I talked about Surprise Sithole and the Voice in the Night. Much of the eccentricity we see here in the West looks crazy because people go directly from having an encounter with God to choosing a restaurant for lunch where they spend more than most Mozambiquans make in a year. Many people mistake eccentricity for Holy Spirit.

Most people are consumed with living their best life now in hopes that their children and grandchildren will do the same. Nothing I say is going to change their perspective. Today is January 1st, 2024. Many are being lulled to sleep by a prosperous satanic lullaby. But God will have His way. The next few years are not going to look like what I hear most self-proclaimed contemporary prophets describing. Still, I fully expect to see conditions emerge that produce a revival of

Earnest Love among a remnant of believers.

Meditate on that.

Maranatha