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I realize that at one time the Church was stuck in a theological ditch believing that God would do nothing for His people during this life, that He was saving all their blessings for the next life. That was wrong. But we must pray fervently now for it seems that having been delivered from that ditch, we are in danger of digging an even deeper one on the other side of the road.

So much of our focus these days is upon how we can use the principles of God to make this tiny, temporal existence as comfortable and pleasant as possible.

We focus on our bank accounts being full. We focus on getting all our emotional needs met. We focus on being successful according to worldly standards. We focus on having a marriage that perfectly meets all our needs. We focus on feeling “fulfilled” in every area of our little lives. We are constantly using our faith to create our own personal, heaven on earth.

Actually, there’s nothing wrong with wanting heaven on earth. Deuteronomy 11:12 says we should have it. But there is only one way to get it—

  • By getting our hearts and minds so set on Jesus and so deeply in fellowship with Him that absolutely nothing on earth can disturb our peace.
  • By dying so completely to the world that nothing in it can hurt us.
  • By giving ourselves over so totally to the Lord Jesus that we can say, “…for me to live is Christ and to die is gain!”

Now that’s the New Testament Standard of heaven on earth.

“Yeah, but I can’t just live on relationship with God,” you might say. “As long as I’m on this earth, I need material stuff. I can’t be a blessing to anyone else if I’m broke myself.”

I know that and so does God. But He said, “Don’t worry about your own needs. Just seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you.”

No More “Blessing Bait”
Sometimes our modern, western minds have interpreted that verse to mean we should use God’s principles to get what we want. So we’ve set our hearts on having a great temporal life and then tried to get it by obeying God.

That’s not the New Testament way! That’s the way God dealt with His Old Covenant people. He had to work with them that way because they were not born again. They were totally incapable of keeping that first and greatest commandment, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” (Matt. 22:37).

God had to use “blessing bait,” to get them to obey Him. Even then, they couldn’t do it for long periods of time. The sin principle working in them ensnared them.

But in the New Covenant, we have new hearts. Because we’ve been born again through faith in Jesus, we can finally love God the way He deserves to be loved. We can finally obey Him not so we can get something from Him…but so that we can give something to Him!

That’s the attitude we find as we look back at the original Standard. It is the attitude we find in those first believers who followed it most closely. They considered it an honor and a joy not only to give up their personal possessions and desires for Jesus but to lay down their very lives for Him!

Carry the Torch High
Recently, I’ve been reading historical accounts of the first century Church and the original runners who first carried the heavenly torch of real Christianity. One of those who caught my attention was a first century disciple named Justin Martyr. A scholar and philosopher of his day, he was once a confirmed cynic who totally rejected the Christian faith. Believing the lies he was told about the Christians’ wickedness and cruelty, he had no interest in such barbaric people.

But those were the days when Christians were being fed to the lions. And as Justin sat in the Roman coliseums and watched them die his heart was changed. “…I found them fearless in the face of death and all that men think terrible,” he wrote. “It dawned on me that they could not possibly be living in wickedness and self-indulgence. For how could [such a person]…greet death with a smile, as if he wanted to be deprived of the things he loved most?”

No doubt, Justin eventually learned the answer to that question. He found out that in the life of a true Christian, that which he loves most lies not on this side of the eternal veil…but on the other.

Eventually, Justin too fell in love with the Master who had inspired in these heavenly-minded believers such unworldly devotion. He also followed in their footsteps—not only in life but in death.

Dear heavens! you may be thinking. I could never lay down my life like that. I just don’t have that kind of selfless devotion to God in my heart.

Yes, you do!

You have the same Spirit living in you that lived in those early believers. You are born of the same spiritual nature. You have access by faith to the same grace. The same selfless love that was shed abroad in their hearts has been shed abroad in yours and mine—and all who believe in Jesus. It’s just been obscured by the carnal weights and trappings of our worldly Christian culture.

Beneath the ash and soot of fleshly selfishness that’s not only been condoned but cultivated by much of the church in recent years, there smolders within us all the same spiritual fire that burned in the hearts of men like Paul, Peter, John…and Justin Martyr. May God help us clear away the debris and rekindle that eternal flame so we can carry it as honorably and as high as they did.

By God’s grace, may it shine as brightly in our hands and it did in theirs as we take up our cross daily and follow Jesus. May we set our hearts once again on Him alone…and rise to meet the Standard.

Copyright © Lynnes Ministries
All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Author Biography

Gina Lynnes
Web site: Lynnes Ministries
 
A writer by trade and a minister at heart, Gina Lynnes has been a Bible teacher and associate pastor since 1996, ministering especially on the subject of prayer in churches both in the United States and abroad.
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