Rejoicing in Tribulation

Posted on August 22, 2019 by Stephen Nielsen

 

In this blog we will be talking about what we would call an extension of the last Beatitude (Matt. 5:10). It is a fuller description of the blessing God gives us when we are persecuted for the sake of righteousness.

Matthew 5:11-12

“Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of Me. 12 “Rejoice, and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Here are four questions we will discuss and try to answer.

 

Who is the one who will be blessed for righteousness and who will rejoice in persecution?

This is a Christian who is very different than the non-Christian. That is, he acts like Jesus. He is kind, gentle, peaceable, loving, and caring.

This is a Christian who is controlled and dominated by Jesus Christ. He lives for Jesus and no longer for himself.

This is a Christian who constantly has his mind on heavenly things. He makes it a point to set his mind on things above and not on earthly things (Col 3:2). In this way he is very different than a non-Christian who does not want to think of what is to come. For what is to come for him is the wrath of God (Jn. 3:36).

 

How should the Christian face persecution?

The persecuted Christian must not retaliate. He should be like Jesus when he was persecuted who did not speak. Instead of fighting back we should instead rejoice and think of heaven—and God will bless you.  

The persecuted Christian must not feel resentment. Though his is wrongfully persecuted, he should think of Jesus and the prophets who were also wrongly persecuted; and they were rewarded.

The persecuted Christian must not be depressed. No, instead set your mind to be glad and to rejoice. It is up to you to decide to do this. God will help you.

The persecuted Christian must rejoice. Why? (1) Because our persecution is proof to us and to others that we are a Christian; (2) because we also have proof that being a Christian we are going to heaven. Yes, persecution should make us feel more heaven bound and closer to heaven. And (3) because we have real joy to come in heaven.

 

Is it right to rejoice in heavenly rewards to come?

Yes, and here are four reasons why:

1 Jesus did. He endured the cross for the joy that was before Him (Heb. 12:2).

2 Paul teaches it in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 and 2 Corinthians 5:10-11.

3 Moses did. He chose to suffer affliction with the people of God because he had his eye upon the reward in the end.

4 We are to seek things above, where Christ is (Col. 3:1-2).

 

What is heaven like?

Heaven is to experience always the full love of God and Christ. And this, says Paul, is beyond our knowledge (Eph. 3:19). We can try to imagine what it will be like, but we will never be able to fully comprehend it.

 

 

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3 Reason Why There Will Never Be True Peace Between Israel and Muslim Nations

Posted on August 19, 2019 by Stephen Nielsen

Pray for peace in the middle east and pray for Jews and Muslim to find true peace in Jesus.

Stephen Nielsen's avatarPrayer for Trump and Country

 

There has been talk lately about peace initiatives between Israel and the Palestinians. But it will never work, and here is why:

1. All true Muslims reject Israel’s claim to their land promises by God. They say…

  • The original Bible (the word of God) was corrupted by devious Jews and Christians. Any parts that disagree with the Quran they say have been corrupted.
  • They say that the Arab nations through Ishmael are the rightful heirs to the promises made to Abraham.

2. According to Muslim law the Jewish occupation of Israel (gained in 1948) is illegitimate. Why? Because the land was once occupied by Muslims—Allah gave the land to them. And according to Islamic law, “Any territory that was at some time ‘opened’ by a legitimate Islamic authority cannot revert to a non-Islamic authority.” Therefore, they say that by that law of Allah the land cannot be allowed…

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Putrid water

Posted on August 17, 2019 by Stephen Nielsen

Stephen Nielsen's avatarSeeing God in Nature

Don’t let the old self corrupt and putrefy your inner being. Lay aside the old self and put on the new self–and feel the fresh water of His Spirit flow through you (from Eph. 4:22-24; Jn. 7:38).

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Blessed Are They Which Are Persecuted For Righteousness Sake

Posted on August 15, 2019 by Stephen Nielsen

 

This is the eighth and last beatitude, and the one that really caps off all of them. That is, it brings a result to all of them and helps us to face the world with strength and hope. Verse 10 (of Matthew 5) is the main part of beatitude, and then verses 11 and 12 seem to be an extension of it. We will focus on the main part in this blog. Here are four points.

 

What kind of persecution is the Christian blessed for?

The answer is plain. It must be a persecution for righteousness sake. He will be blessed by God for being righteous—like Jesus.

There are other reasons one may be persecuted, but none of them will be rewarded with a blessing by God. For instance, one may be persecuted for a lack of wisdom. Secondly, one may be over-zealous in his Christianity and he may be criticized for it—rightly. Or one may be persecuted for a political cause, or for a social cause. And some causes are very good. But if your cause is not for righteousness sake, the blessing here will not cover you.

 

Why Christians are persecuted

What I want to do here is to take a look at the nature of persecution so that we understand better why someone will persecute another. Here are two basic reasons.

  • Christians are persecuted because they are different. It is only natural for people to feel uncomfortable with people who are different than they are, especially if they appear to be better or happier than they are. So when they see this in others, they get jealous of them and feel put down by them. So they strike out at them.
  • More basically, it has to do with light and darkness. A true Christian is full of light because Jesus is light. Since light exposes the darkness (and sin), all who live in darkness hate the light (and those Christians who live in the light). Hence, a non-Christian naturally hates a Christian just as he, or she, hates Jesus.

 

Who are the persecutors?

You may be surprised by this, but not only non-Christians are the persecutors. Even Christians will sometimes persecute another Christian. Why? Because not all Christians are living in the light. If a Christian is holding on to certain sins, knowingly or unknowingly, this may be a great hindrance to fellowship, and therefore, bitterness and fighting may result.

 

What is the blessed results of persecution?

First of all, when we are persecuted, it will tend to unite us with Jesus and with other believers—especially with those who have also been persecuted.

Secondly, our persecution will become a sign that we are truly a Christian, thus it will give us great assurance that we are united with Christ and the body of Christ.

A third blessing is our great hope of future rewards in heaven. This is part of the subject of my next blog.

 

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Blessed Are The Peacemakers

Posted on August 10, 2019 by Stephen Nielsen

 

We who are Christians are all called by God to be peacemakers. Unfortunately, only some heed the call. Happily, those who do heed the call are truly blessed by God. Why? For one, because they are obedient to His call and He rewards them for it. But the main reason they are blessed, I would say, is in the next phrase: “…for they shall be called sons (or children) of God.” Hence, if we are obedient to our call as peacemaker, we will receive a real sense of being a child of God, so much so that we may sense Him calling us His child. What a bless that is!

 

What Kind of a Person is a Peacemaker?

First, a peacemaker must be a person who has a desire for peace and to bring peace to people.

Secondly, He sees the need for peace and sees how it will come to us. He sees that all people should be at peace—with God and with each other. Then, he understands that men cannot have peace without getting a new heart; for sin comes out of the heart and will destroy peace. Accordingly, the peacemaker understands that a heart conversion is the only way to obtain peace.  It cannot be obtained by manipulation of the personality. One can spend thousands of dollars on professional counselors to help change one’s personality, but that will not bring real, lasting peace. Likewise, leaders have tried to bring peace to the world through the League of Nations, and through the United Nations, and through other means, but no one can manipulate or force man into peace. Peace must come from a changed heart.

Thirdly, a peacemaker must himself have a pure heart and be selfless. He must be meek—selfless and totally dedicated to God.

 

How To Practice Peacemaking

Here are four tips:

  1. Learn not to speak. You must be absolutely selfless and a listener more than a talker.
  2. Bring the gospel to people. The only way to bring someone peace is by gospel conversion. He must be saved and have a new heart (Eph. 6:15).
  3. Go out of your way to bring peace. In your dealings with people show pity for them and pray for them.
  4. Be selfless, loving, and approachable.

 

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Trump’s 10 Impeachable Offenses: A Response

Posted on August 1, 2019 by Stephen Nielsen

Please pray over this and pray that people will see the weakness in these charges. And much of it is false accusations (lies) and mere opinions.

Stephen Nielsen's avatarPrayer for Trump and Country

Here are the famous 10 impeachable offenses. But I think they are all quite a joke and have no validity. My rebuttal is in bold red. And I’m sure there could be much more said. I didn’t comment on every point, but it seems that whoever wrote this worked really hard at finding offenses. Most of this is just someones opinion, nothing you can prove. It sounds like they got most of it from media sources (not reliable sources).

Source taken From: Need to Impeach

  1. Obstructing Justice
  • The trail of evidence starts with Trump’s attempt to get Comey to drop an investigation into National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn. I don’t think he attempted with any force; he just suggested it.
  • When he refused, Trump fired James Comey, the FBI director responsible for overseeing the investigation into Trump’s relationship with Russia during the 2016 election. There was many reasons why…

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Complete Holiness

Posted on July 26, 2019 by Stephen Nielsen

 

The nature of holiness is that it is not satisfied to be in just one area.  It wants to penetrate into all areas; it wants to purify the whole; as light it wants to brighten every corner and crack.  In this study of personal holiness, I want to discuss every possible area of holiness in our lives—complete holiness.  As I see it, there are generally two areas of personal holiness: outer holiness, or holiness in the body, and inner holiness, or holiness in the mind and the spirit.

 

HOLINESS IN MIND AND SPIRIT

 These areas of our inner being must be considered of primary importance when it comes to holiness; for without holiness in these areas, the outer body will neither be holy.

 The mind. The mind is that place from where we think and reason and imagine.  And though we believe that these things originate in the brain, which is part of our physical body, we believe also that the mind is part of our inner being—our soul and spirit.  Jerry Bridges said, “Holiness begins in our mind and works out to our actions.”5  Thus we ought to guard our mind so that we think only thoughts that are pure.  And to do that we must watch what we see, hear, and read.  We ought also to stay away from worldly things, and be attentive rather to heavenly things—to the reading of the Bible, good books, and good conversation.

The Spirit.  The spirit of man is his most inner being, that part of the self that is able to connect with God and relate to God—because God is spirit.  Thus, if we are not holy in spirit, we cannot have fellowship with God.

Some of the sins of the spirit are these: hatred, anger, envy, bitterness, unforgiveness, selfishness and pride. These things are naturally in us—because of our sinful flesh; however, if we do not immediately put them to death when they spring up in us, they will cause us trouble in our spirit (Heb. 12:15), and a collapse in our relationship with God.

 

HOLINESS IN THE BODY

 Our physical bodies are created by God to glorify Him and to provide for Him a beautiful temple (1 Cor. 3:16).  Here are seven parts of our body that we need to control for our holiness:

The eyes.  What we see with our eyes affects our whole body, mind, and spirit—for either good or evil.  For this reason, we need to keep our eyes fixed on only what is pure, and away from what is vile and worthless (Ps. 101:3, 119:37).

The ears.  Like our eyes, our ears affect our whole being deeply.  Let us consecrate our ears to God so that we listen to only what is good and pure, and to reject or tune out things that are untrue and impure.

The tongue.  The tongue is a very small member, but capable of great things.  Like fire, sinful words of the tongue can spread destruction and contamination rapidly.  But if controlled the tongue can bring great truth, encouragement and blessing (Ja. 3:1-12).

 The mouth.  The mouth is that area where we take in food and drink.  Let us be careful what we eat and drink so that we don’t consume what is bad for us, or even too much of what is good for us.  For what we eat and drink affect not only the health of the body but also of the mind and attitude.

The hands.  Learn to control your hands.  Keep busy doing good with your hands and not evil.

The feet.  A person with unholy feet will always go where he can get into trouble.  But holy feet go here and there to serve others and to spread the good new (Eph. 6:15).

 The sexual parts.  God created all the sexual parts of our body for our benefit and for His glory.  They allow us to enjoy our differences as male and female.  They also make it possible, with a marriage partner, to procreate and to give pleasure to each other.  Though we have only a few sexual organs, sexuality (between a husband and wife) is an expression of the whole person and it becomes a worship experience and a celebration of praise to God.

However, because a Christian’s body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, whenever there is sexual sin of any kind, it will involve and join Christ with a harlot (1 Cor. 6:15-16).  This unholy union is a terrible sin and it affects not only our relationship with God and others, but it is destructive to our own person (corrupting our body, mind and spirit).  Thus, it is important to keep our body free from sexual sin.

 

5 Jerry Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness (Colorado Springs, Colorado: NAVPRESS, 1978), p. 118.

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To Be Pure In heart

Posted on July 18, 2019 by Stephen Nielsen

 

I have been blogging through the book, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. In chapter ten on his book, he covers the Beatitude, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” In the beginning of the chapter he spent a good bit of time reviewing how all the beatitudes fit together. And they do. Interestingly, he sees the first seven Beatitudes as going up and down a mountain. He states, “In the first three [poor in spirit, mourning, and the meek] we are going up one side of the mountain, as it were. We reach the summit in the fourth [hungering and thirsting for righteousness], and then we come down on the other side [with the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers.]”

But then he shows an even “closer correspondence.” The first three Beatitudes, he says, correspond to the second three. So he sees it like this: “The merciful are those who realize their poverty of spirit.” Secondly, the pure in heart correspond to they that mourn. Then the peacemakers are those that are meek. And this seems to be true. Thus we may see it like this:

The poor in spirit ——-> the merciful

They that mourn——–> the pure in heart

The meek———–> the peacemakers

Now as for this sixth beatitude, “Blessed are the pure in heart,” it is imperative that we first understand what is meant by the heart. The meaning is the center of our personality, not so much the intellect. To develop the intellect will make us smarter as far as knowing facts, but it will not solve man’s deep problems—the problems that stem from sin and self. But if we can get a grasp on our heart, we can conquer our deep moral problems; for out of the heart comes evil.

What does it mean to have a pure heart? And how can we accomplish it? Purity of heart can mean two things: 1) without hypocrisy, or to be single minded; and 2) without defilement, or to be made holy and sinless. Both are important and both together will take us to the result—to see God.

So how can we be pure of heart? How can we be holy and without hypocrisy? Here are three ways:

1. By Prayer. Pray daily that He will create in you a clean heart. He alone can do it (Ps. 5 1).

2. Submit to God and draw near to Him (Ja. 4:7-10). And when you do, He will draw near to you and help you to be pure of heart. But you must also do your part. He tells us to purify our own hearts, to mourn over our sins, and to humble ourselves before Him.

3. Mortify your members (Rom. 8:13; Col. 3:5). Mortify means to put to death. We are to put to death the deeds of the body, or the deeds of our flesh—all impurity, immorality, evil desires. And the way we do that is by starving them to death. We cut off their food supply. That is, we stop thinking about those lustful things and stop looking at those things.

The result, or the blessing will be that God lets us see Him. We see Him not with our physical eyes—because He is pure spirit. But we will see Him with our spiritual eyes. We will feel His nearness in our spirit everywhere we go. We will sense His nearness in nature as we see His creation. We will see Him in people. They too are His creation. And we will feel Him close to us as we pray and read His word.

 

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To Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness

Posted on July 10, 2019 by Stephen Nielsen

 

The forth Beatitude is to hunger and thirst for righteousness. And if we do this we will be blessed by God and satisfied. So it seems, in the list, that we must begin by acknowledging our poverty of spirit (that we come to God with nothing). Then also we are to mourn over our sins. Then, thirdly, we are to be meek (or gentle) in our relations with others, being teachable and approachable. Now then, with this humble spirit, we are to seek God for every good thing we lack. We bring nothing good of ourselves, so we must seek it and desire it from God. Our own righteousness is of no value, so we must leave it, reject it. And we must then seek a pure righteousness from God. He will give it to us; but first He requires that we truly desire it. Thus we must be empty of self in order to be filled up with Him.

What is this hunger and thirst? What does it look like? Here are three descriptions all from the Psalms.

 

Psalms 42:1-2

As the deer pants for the water brooks,

So my soul pants for Thee, O God.

2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God;

When shall I come and appear before God?

 

Here the picture is of a very thirsty deer, panting for water, desperate for a drink from the water brook. The deer is in deep suffering and agony of thirst. This is how we are to thirst for God. It is not to be just a thirst of body but of soul. It is to be a deep soul-thirst that continues until it is satisfied with the living water of His Spirit.

 

Psalm 63:1

O God, Thou art my God;

I shall seek Thee earnestly;

My soul thirsts for Thee, my flesh yearns for Thee,

In a dry and weary land where there is no water.

 

The picture here is of one thirsting for water in a dry and weary land—in a desert. Again here is a desperate situation. We are to seek God, to thirst for Him, when it seems that He is not near. There may be other sources of water nearby, but only God can truly satisfy us. So, we are to seek only Him. And even though He seems not to be near, we are to seek Him earnestly until we  find Him and are satisfied.

 

Psalm 107:5-6

They were hungry and thirsty;

Their soul fainted within them.

6 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble;

He delivered them out of their distresses.

 

The picture here is of wanderers in the wilderness. They were so hungry and thirsty that they felt faint. Yet they continued on in their journey. And they cried out to the Lord until He delivered them. This is to be our attitude, to continue on even though we feel faint, and to believe that He will soon see our need and give us the water of His Sprit.

So this is the vivid picture of what it means to hunger and thirst for righteousness. The next question we have to ask and pursue is how to acquire this attitude. How can I be one who is so desirous of God?

 

How do I begin to hunger and thirst for righteousness?

1. Since sin always blocks and is against righteousness, we must work to be free of sin. But it is not enough to say I want to be free of sin; I must also work at being free from the power of sin and the desire of sin. This should be a constant effort and prayer. And in your prayers, when God points out any area of sin, we should make it our priority to be rid of it. Thus, in doing so, we will open the door for the holy desire of righteousness.

2. Along with sin we should also work and pray to be free of self and self-righteousness. Note that self-righteousness is not righteousness. True righteousness is holiness and godliness and a God-presence. But self-righteousness is nothing more than a building up of self—a false belief in self. It is what makes hypocrisy and self-deception. And if this wall of self-deception gets big enough, it will block out any light of the glory of God and thus prevent us from obtaining a holy desire for God.

3. Avoid all things that will take the edge off of our spiritual appetite. We can’t create a holy righteousness inside of us; only God can do that. But we can avoid things that will prevent us from obtaining it. What are these things? Sins, worldly activities, or maybe just being too busy with non-essentials that tend to steer us away from what God wants of us.

4. Work and pray to know God and what He desires of us.

5. Put ourselves in the way of righteousness by what we do. Here are four things we can do.

  • Put yourself around righteous people.
  • Read the bible regularly.
  • Pray regularly.
  • Read biographies of holy people.

Well, these are just a few ideas of how we can develop a taste for righteousness and to really desire to be righteous like God. And if we develop that desire, that hunger and thirst for Him, He Himself will satisfy us. He will give us the living water of His own Spirit. Oh what a thirst quencher!

 

John 7: 37b-38

If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, “From his innermost being will flow revers of living water.”

 

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Prayer Is God’s Idea

Posted on July 2, 2019 by Stephen Nielsen

 

I think it is natural to assume that prayer is God’s idea.  For true prayer is always according to the Word of God—according to His promises and according to how He has taught us to pray.

Some people, however,—those who don’t believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, that God is a personal God, and that He has given us personal promises—have arguments that prayer is not really God’s idea.  They believe prayer is their own idea. Of course, they don’t have a relationship with God and don’t know God. The bible tells us that since they are a natural man and not a spiritual man, they do not accept anything spiritual—it is all foolishness to them (1 Cor. 2: 14).

So what does the natural man think about prayer? I mean, if he prays, what are his prayers like? If he doesn’t believe in God how does he pray? Well, I don’t really know. But here are three ideas, or three arguments that they may use to say that prayer is not really God’s idea.

 1. Prayer is man’s own thought-up way of expressing his need to what he hopes is God. Here the argument is that God doesn’t tell man what to pray or draw him in any way to prayer; it is his own idea.  In this view, man is believed to be separate from God and not sustained by God.  Thus he believes that most of the time he doesn’t need God, only sometimes.  At those times he may pray to God for help, but his prayers are his own idea and in his own words.  Note also, in this argument that this person doesn’t have a real, solid belief in God.  He just hopes that something or somebody is out there bigger than himself that will offer him some help when he decides that he needs it.

2. Prayer is talking to yourself. Since some believe that they themselves are God (or god), prayer for them is simply talking to self.  And I suppose they would say that the more you talk to yourself the more you will be able to form the god within you and thus to see clearly (to be more convinced) that you really are God (or a god), and that you can do anything when you put your mind to it.  Thus, in this view, prayer is not the idea of communicating to God in Heaven; it is the idea of talking to the god within.

3. Prayer is man’s way of letting off steam. In this view God may exist, but man doesn’t really pray to Him.  Prayers are mainly man’s way of letting off steam, and a way to unburden self.  It is really like point two, a self-talk.  In this view, however, man doesn’t really think he is a god, he just talks to himself as a form of meditation.  I suppose in this view it is believed that the more effort is put into trying to help yourself, the more God will come along beside you and help you to feel good about yourself.  Here again, prayer is not God’s idea; it is man’s idea.

These arguments are not documented, compiled from any survey; I just made them up.  But since I thought of them, I’m sure someone else did too.  And so I’m convinced that these are some of the arguments that some people use, along with many others.

But we who are true Christians know, absolutely, that true prayer is most definitely God’s idea.  As a matter of fact, He chose us and appointed us as His fruit bearing servants with the unique privilege of being able to ask for whatever we want and to receive it (Jn. 15:16).  Prayer then is not only our privilege but also our appointed calling from the Lord.  Yes, prayer is definitely God’s idea.

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