I am a Property of Jesus - Part 4 - Dr. Charles Mahlangu

Dr. Charles Mahlangu
Fake spectacular sights and visions of celestial beings
(who can repudiate your reports?)
Fake the presence of the Lord
(no one can fully explain the phenomenon
nor theologically refute it
Christians will love every moment of it)
Fake personal confrontations you have had
With God, Christ, the devil and demons
(You will be revered among the believers
As the spectacularly gifted one.
You will become an instant star based
on what you verbally claim!)
Dichotomy says make a distinction between what you
Say about the Word
With what you actually live routinely!
Dichotomy says even when reading the Word
Make an effort to state what it says
With what you do to respond to it truly, wholly obediently.
Dichotomy says make this Christianity
A phenomenal preoccupation with or about God
Not a personal adventure to become like Christ
In thought
In word
In deed
With forceful unquenchable unrelenting
Consistency!
Dichotomy cannot reconcile the tension
Between faith and works
Between hearing and doing
Between reading and applying
Or even the very idea of being concerned
About the demands of Christ's Lordship
In all of life all the time!


Dichotomizing insists
"Just because you are hearing the Word
Reading it for yourself dutifully
Doesn't make it incumbent on you
To implement an immediate plan of action
You have all the time in the world
To think about the demands of God.
Besides, they have been there for millennia.
Relax your zeal
Cool (down) your devotion
Don't be rash.


Diane is in love
She plans to marry this unbeliever
(a gorgeous man!)
She has not been walking with the Lord lately
Her passion for spirituality has been neutralized.
She now does everything or meets every demand
That the man makes on her
Physically, financially and emotionally
Diane fears she is pregnant!
"You have been a believer these ten years
Surely you are grown up enough to know
You are living out of fellowship with the Lord
With no chance of changing this man
To be a believer!"
I really feel in my spirit that the Lord
Is going to a do a new thing!
"You are violating Scripture with this relationship, Diane.
The longer you live in sin
The more accustomed to sin you are going to be."
I feel peace about my situation.
The Lord has given me his Word
That he will heal my marriage.
"Diane, you are specifically bound to an unbeliever
You are sleeping shamelessly with him
The scandalous behaviour is affecting the church
As well as unbelievers who know and respect you!"
I read the Word to seek the face of the Lord
As well as fast to intercede for my boy friend
To become a Christian!
"Are you conscious of the fact that you are backslidden?
Are you conscious of violating Scripture
In your life?"
I have such a wonderful time
with the Lord when I pray.
A friend of mine gave me `the word from the Lord'
To encourage me "persevere till the end"
Isn't that just like the Lord
To bless you when things are tough?
"Diane, you are living blatantly in sin
Violating the Word
Out of fellowship with God scripturally
You already have the word from the Lord
That you are violating by disobedience."


The Lord gave another word recently
As I was paging through the Bible
Looking desperately
For a soothing blessing:
"The battle is the Lord's!"
Diane will not be moved or dislodged
From her entrenched lifestyle of disobedience
Her mind is made up about her boyfriend!
She will not acknowledge living in sin!
She justifies her sins with popular religious jargon
That is not connected with reality
She is living parallel to the Scriptural directions
She sees no tension in her lifestyle of denial
Nor will she confess to deceit.
Her fornication is "no big deal" at all
For she "told the Lord about it!"
God himself (not the boring Bible)
Assured her that her boy friend will be saved
Hallelujah!
She read the Word of God regularly.
What happens to specific directives like:
"Flee sexual immorality . . ."?
Run away from youthful lust . . ."
"Mortify the members of your body
Count them dead to sin . . ."


Diane knows them all
Yet because of Dichotomy she reads about purity
While living in the sewer of depravity
Without any tensions created in her mind
That something is desperately wrong
With that kind of Christianity.
She is going through a spiritual slump
Without recognizing the causes
Nor caring about her contribution to personal problems
How does a believer go through a slump
Without caring one iota?
Or raising questions about her conditions?
How does she maintain her evangelical rituals
Without a sobering sense of inquisitiveness
About her backslidden condition?
Indeed, how does she retrogress without resistance
For this woman is plunging in sin fearlessly
While she maintains a cool external demeanour.
It is one thing to fall in sin when tempted
It is an entirely different thing to
Live in sin in broad day light
While carrying the biggest Bible around
Under one's armpit to attend a midweek service
Without shame, fear or embarrassment?
Dichotomy!




Ezekiel received quite a dosage of this
From the Lord
Quite a number of Old Testament prophets
Experienced this agony
Even before the Monarchs
Children of Israel who were geniuses of the Law
Having received it from their fore-fathers for generations
Had struggled with Dichotomizing truth.
Would they integrate known truth into their worldview
So that they could live the requirements of the Law
Or would they decide to live parallel to the Truth
Thus faking righteousness
Precipitating well expected harsh judgements
For gross insubordination?


Moses struggled to get them to stop faking
Joshua lived throughout his leadership
Urging them to choose to live in morality
Or totally consistent with known truth.
A classic example in Judges 24
Joshua urges Israel for the last time
(His goodbye message to them at age 120)
"Live for God 100 percent"
We will not forsake our LORD, no way!
"Then please live for him in totality"
Don't you know how we have come with God?
"Live for him in totality!"
There is no way that we will forsake God!

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 27, 2010 . You can leave a response and follow any responses to this entry through the Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom) .

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