Strong Man Of God Blog

            Like the proverbial sweater that unravels from one loose thread, so, the disobedience of one pastor, group of elders, other church leaders and teachers unchecked leads to the disobedience of the many spreading eventually to other churches and beyond.  As it is written, “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?  Therefore, purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened,” (1 Corinthians 5:6-7, NKJV).  Yet, in these latter days first one then another among those serving as leaders and teachers in American churches have backed away from full obedience to the Word of God on some issue for any number of evil motives.

            These disobedient men (and now women in keeping with the rebellious times) continue to loudly profess their undying love for Jesus while they openly parade their disobedience; deridingly labeling those of us sent by God to cry out against their sin “Pharisees” and my personal favorite, “narrow minded.”  (Thank You, Jesus, my detractors confirm I have entered “by the narrow gate” as You have taught—Matthew 7:13-14, NKJV!)  On His side the Lord has given a definition and set the standard for the real demonstration of love for Him as I write about in this week’s blog.  You will note that this blog and the four that follow serve as my uncompromised stand for the family and men as God’s chosen leaders embodied in the cause of the strong man of God and building toward the pre-first release in June 2011 of The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics.

Originally Published February 2011

            One of the four distinctive characteristics of the strong man of God I have been led of Him to teach and write about in the forthcoming book is that he obeys God to the death.  As perfectly modeled by Jesus Christ--the Strong Man of God, steadfast obedience to God's Word is driven by a love motivated desire to please Him and do His will!  It is not about being overly strict or legalistic to obey what is plainly taught as God's will in His Word.  It is about truly knowing and loving Him.  Since He intimately knew and loved His Father, Jesus Christ set His heart to obey His Word and do His will in everything even to His death on the cross (John 3:35, 8:29, 48-58, 10:30, 14:30-31, 18:1-11).

            Every man that will follow Jesus Christ and be a strong man of God in His image displays the same characteristic of obedience to the Word of God unto death.  The motive for such obedience is the same as it was tor the Lord Jesus: love for God.  The Lord Jesus very directly and clearly taught those who would be His disciples, “If you love Me, keep My commandments,” (John 14:15, NKJV).  It is so simple and plain that even a little child can understand this.  Yet, in these near the end of this world system days, in and out of churches all over America are professing Christians that claim to love the Lord, but are willfully disobeying His Word.

            In no way is this disobedience more apparent than in what is going on in so many professing Christian homes and the churches where God's Word on male and female roles, marriage and family has been cast aside and discarded as outdated.  This is done to keep in step with the world and because God's Word is seen as an impediment to personal freedom, ambition and happiness.  The fact that this rejection of God's Word is causing devastating family and social ruin does not seem to bother the rebels taught as they are by demons (1 Timothy 4:1).  It is also laying the groundwork for the ultimate fulfillment of Psalm 2:1-3--a prophetic Word given by God millennia ago.

           Whoever is on the Lord’s side does not take their instruction from Him and demons too (1 Corinthians 10:21-22)!  Indeed, every aspiring strong man of God in the image of Christ and on His side faithfully honors and obeys His Word bound up in seven major pillars as it concerns human existence and social organization in this present age.

            1. Man the creature has been created by God with purpose--Genesis 1:26-28.

            2. Marriage has come from God as a gift to man and instrument for fulfilling His pur-

                poses in this present age--Genesis 2:18-25.

            3. Marriage is intended by God to be a lifelong commitment between a man and a

                woman.  Divorce is acceptable only on the grounds the Lord gives in His written

                Word--Matthew 19:3-9; 1 Corinthians 7:10-16.

            4. All sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman is sin before the Lord--

                1 Corinthians 6:9-7:9; 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8.

            5. God has permanently ordained in this age that a married man is the head of his

                wife and family--Genesis 2:7-8, 3:16b; 1 Corinthians 11:3, 8-9; Ephesians 5:22-24;

                1 Peter 3:1-7.

            6. In God's order, male headship is to be honored beyond the home and especially in

                the churches which belong to Him--Matthew 16:15-18;  1 Corinthians 14:33-40;

                1 Timothy 2:11-15.

            7. Children are a blessing from the Lord even when they come outside of the marital

                bond.  Their lives begin at conception and they are not to be murdered in or outside

                of the womb--Psalm 127:3-5, 139:13-18; Matthew 19:13-15.

            These seven pillars erected from God's Word are indisputably plain and straight forward.  Therefore, any man--president, apostle, prophet, bishop, pastor, preacher, priest or teacher--that teaches otherwise is not operating on the Lord's side no matter how much they profess to love Him.  For He has taught our love is shown by our obedience (John 14:15, 21-24).  The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"

            My mother used to steadfastly resist my beggarly appeals to go do what the other kids were doing with, “If all the kids go jump off a cliff, are you going to do it too?”  Of course, I said “no.”  However, for all of the sinful things I did do following after the crowd as a youth, I may as well have said yes.  Similarly, many pastors, elders, church leaders and professing Christians as members shamefully follow after each other’s breaks with God’s Word and worldly compromises in sin.  Like the carnal Corinthians of old, contemporary professing Christians have even divided themselves up with short hand labels (1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 3:1-4).

            The Lord’s call to take His side in these latter days has nothing to do with the carnal divisions and labels of sinful human invention--or is the Lord to be blamed for this evil as some would have us believe by the fanatical loyalties they display to their political, social and theological factions?  No, but it is the Lord Jesus who dogmatically declared, “…every city or house divided against itself will not stand,” (Matthew 12:25, NKJV).  Clearly, the many in the divided house of American churches have decided an apparently dead Jesus was wrong on this point though the evidence of collapse to the contrary is all around us.  In this blog, the Lord leads me to briefly talk about what His side looks like.

Originally Published January 2011

            In these days of tolerance and avoiding even the appearance of being divisive, calling for Christians to take the Lord's side sounds extreme.  However, those who think this act as if the Lord Jesus is dead.  Such persons show their willful disregard of Bible truth and the reality that if Christ is proclaimed as risen from the dead, He is in fact, alive right now!  This is exactly the truth and reality that is intended to be communicated in the post-resurrection and ascension descriptions of encounters the apostles had with the Lord (Acts 9:1-6, 10:9-16, 18:9-10, 23:11; Revelation 1:9-20).

            If the Lord Jesus is alive as Scripture testifies and every truly born again believer knows from personal experience, then He knows the contemporary condition of His churches.  If the Lord knows the contemporary condition of His churches, then He as Lord would speak to and deal with them in perfect consistency with the whole counsel of God found in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.  This is what He is shown to be doing in Revelation 2:1-3:22 among seven churches of Asia Minor.  As He did not speak to those churches in terms of worldly political labels such as conservative and liberal, so He does not speak to us this way either.

            The Lord has His own side that stands in judgment of our sin driven divisions in and among the churches.  Indeed, as the Strong Man of God, Jesus Christ perfectly models the divine heart plainly laid out in Scripture which those bent on corruption distort to their shame and destruction (2 Peter 3:14-16)!  He is neither politically conservative nor liberal.  He is however, biblically conservative in preserving God's Word as it is written and therefore, simultaneously liberal in love.  His biblical worldview colors every aspect of His dealings with this world.  He calls every aspiring strong man of God to embrace His example as those taking His side.

            The Lord made it clear to even the strictest of Pharisees shackled by legalism and manmade religion, He did not come to destroy the Law or the Prophets but to fulfill them (Matthew 5:17-20).  In preserving God’s will in His written Word for example, the Lord Jesus (our Creator in the flesh) is completely opposed to murder.  Human life is sacred and so it is written in the Ten Commandments, '''You shall not murder,'" (Exodus 20:13, NKJV).  By His design human life begins at conception (Psalm 139:13-16).  Therefore, to forcibly terminate a human life in the womb after conception is murder in the eyes of the Lord.  Professing Christians that support abortion for any reason are not on the Lord's side.

            The Lord Jesus taught and put the love of God on display through forgiveness, a myriad of healing works and His death on the cross for our sins.  Tragically, Satan has deceived many that call themselves liberal Christians into believing that the Lord's acts of love were done outside of the Law.  They were not.  The love displayed by the Lord Jesus was in concert with and fulfilled the Law as He had declared (Mark 12:28-34; Romans 13:8-10).  Consequently, those calling themselves conservative Christians that tell a man to get a job, but then with cold hearts block his way through racial discrimination are not on the Lord's side.¹

            The scribes and Pharisees of Israel were meticulous observers of the Law and yet, were called hypocrites by the Lord because they pursued minor elements such as tithing, but neglected the weightier provisions of justice, mercy and faith.  Jesus said they should have done both (Matthew 23:23).  Many conservative Christians in like manner fail to display God's love poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5) while upholding His Word.  Many liberals with fallen human love fail to uphold God's Word (1 Corinthians 13:4-6).  Sin is never downplayed in the Bible at the expense of being loving or socially concerned (Isaiah 1:16-17; John 8:2-12).  The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"

1 See my booklet, The Scourge Of Racism, (Portland, OR: Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc., Publishing Division, 2005), p 57.   Purchase the booklet on the
   Resources Page, www.fromslaverytovictory.org.